At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulley? Well, if you're installing a new conveyor belt system, dealing with the different components can sound like you're speaking a foreign language. Luckily, you've got a team ready to help. Granger's technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance, repair, and operations. So whenever you want to talk shop, just reach out. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. (upbeat music) - What's up, everybody? Welcome back for week two of the PFF NFL show here in the NFL regular season. Today, it's another episode of the Grades release show where we're gonna be going through every single game that you saw on the Sunday slate. Go through the most impressive, the most disappointing. We'll give you the top five from every team. And of course, a PFF stat that told the story of the result that we saw in those games. Trevor's sick. I'm like Dalton Wasserman back here with you, Dalton. Jet's got the big dub this week. - Got a big W, one of the few favorites that actually took care of business this week. I mean, it was still a tight game, but man, it was a week for underdog. - And I'm gonna say this. I watched the game with Dalton. - Oh boy. - You couldn't, I mean, you would not have been able to tell that the Jets were even winning the game. You thought they were down by 45 the entire time. But I feel like that might be just Jet's fandom. - Yeah, that's just kind of how it works. It's, there's times where it's more of a mental illness than a fandom, honestly. I think Jet fans can relate to that everywhere. But no, it was tight. Look, they struggled early again and their defense doesn't look quite what we thought it would be so far. We'll get into that, but thankful. We have Aaron Rodgers, that's for sure. - I was gonna say, come on, man. You just gotta celebrate the wins in this game. - You could do a lot worse, even with a 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers than that. - We will get into that. Like you said, we got the Jets a little bit later in the show. Let's start off, I feel like we should start with Sunday Night Football's game. I don't know if we'll do that every time on this show, but certainly we got one that was kind of coming down to the wire. Obviously it's a team that is in heavy ascension with the Houston Texans now 2-0 on the season. Obviously Kayla Williams as well, the number one overall picks. There's a lot of things to talk about and breakdown in this game. First, I wanna get to the top fives though, 'cause that's what we'll do to intro every single game. If you guys are new here on the show, that's what we're gonna do. It's a great release show as much as a review show. So, let's get into some of these top fives, and let's do Houston's top five first, because holy cow, man, this is an impressive group. DeMico Ryan's defensive guy, and you got so many defensive players, literally in the top five from what we saw in Sunday Night Football last night. Number one, graded player last night for the Houston Texans was their edge rusher to no hunter. What we talked about is one of the top free agency ads of any team this offseason. He's number one on the list. Rookie Kamari last year. Look at that, got himself an interception, got his hands on the ball last night. 90.0 overall grade, the second highest graded player. Free agent, another free agent edition. Aziz Al Shire, the linebacker reuniting with DeMico Ryan's. We felt like that was gonna be a good connection. 87.6 grade there. Wide receiver Nico Collins continues to prove that last year was not a fluke for him. He comes in at number 4, 87.3, and then cornerback/safety. It's just overall defensive back. Jalen Petrie at a 78.1, C.J. Stroud, their quarterback. Got a 75.2, Chicago's top five. We'll get into them before we kind of break down the stats that told the story. Save to Jekyllon Brisker, 80.5. That was the top graded player for the group. Defensive tackle Andrew Billings, tying him with an 80.5 as well. Number three, cornerback Tyler Gordon, 75.1. Four, Tremaine Edmonds, their linebacker, 73.7, and then edge rusher Montes sweat with a 73.1, Caleb Williams. It's just a 45.1 grade there last night. I'm gonna start with you, Dalton, because we both kind of have a stat to tell the story, which has to do with Caleb Williams. You know, if you notice, if you just kind of listen to what I said, all defensive players there in the top five for Chicago. Now, we figured that this team was gonna be led by their defense, but we're hoping to sprinkle in a couple of offensive players there with some top performers. So, what did you think about this game? Obviously, the Texans coming away victorious in this one. What was the stat that told the story here? It was all the way around. It was a struggle for the Bears to handle pressure, and the Texans are known to be one of the teams with one of the lowest blitz rates in the leagues. Well, they blitzed a ton in this game, and neither the offensive line nor Caleb Williams handled it. Well, I'll go with the angle on Williams. 31.1 passing grade against the blitz. Just four for 11 with 14 yards. The interception, the last sitter that you mentioned. And another interception to last sitter that got called back on the defensive penalty from somebody else. So, two turnover-worthy plays for Caleb against the blitz. That was the difference in the game. And again, D'Amico Rides, he comes from that San Francisco system, Robert Sala, and it's kind of just zone heavy and rushed for, and that's what they're famous for, but they blitzed a lot more in this game than they normally do. They broke the tendencies, and once they found it worked, especially late in the game, they stayed on the gas. And Caleb, again, I think the biggest adjustment for him in the NFL is speeding up the process, right? You don't have 3.6 seconds on average, like you did in college, to just wait around and be the best athlete on the field. These guys are just as good athletes as you are, especially when they're sending DBs and linebackers and guys from all over the place, and then stunts within the blitzes that were just, I mean, they drew up everything this week in Houston, but Caleb has to speed up the process, struggled against the blitz, and could see more of it going forward. - Yeah, you know, for my staff that told the story, it also has to do with sort of Caleb Williams, and it's a little bit of a piggyback off of what you're saying. I think people looked at last night, and they looked at the Bears' offensive line as the main culprit. Like, when I'm looking at social media during the game, you know, as much as I'm watching, and a lot of people who are just killing the Bears' offensive line, and, you know, I was upstairs talking to those, to some of the guys that were upstairs, and, you know, the Bears' offensive line, admittedly, they were struggling with some of the stunts and twists and the different types of pressures that the Texans were bringing, and, you know, hats off to them, they were doing a good job, and I think the offensive line definitely needs to be better. But I do think that it is more of a collective failure than just saying, oh, you know, the Bears didn't focus on their offensive line the way that they needed to this offseason, now it's coming back to bite them. I still think a lot of what we're looking at is growing pains with them, particularly when you look at how the offense is set up for Caleb Williams to run it right now, and particularly I want to look at this. When you look at Caleb Williams and the Bears, they are fourth in the NFL right now in passing plays out of empty with no tight end attached to the line of scrimmage. So we're talking about a true five wide. There's no running back, standing next to him for extra protection to be able to pick up a blitz. There's no extra tight end attached to the line of scrimmage, you know, to be able to help on the edge or anything like that. We're talking about a true, empty five wide set. And I think people look at Shane Waldron, the offensive coordinator, because at times last year with Seattle, he also sort of did not help his offensive line or made things very difficult with them in how he was setting up protections. And people kind of look at that struggle with the Bears and they say, oh, this is kind of a Shane Waldron problem as well, it might be a little bit, but I don't want to put it all on Shane Waldron because where you look at those sets and you go, he's not given that offensive line or Caleb Williams, any help. That's kind of what Caleb is used to, right? You go back to last year, USC was 15th of all of the SBS schools in that same category, empty sets, no tight end on the line of scrimmage. He's giving Caleb what he is used to. The difference is he's playing against an NFL defense and where he could retreat in the pocket and run around and have those Superman plays from empty at USC, you don't really get to do that at the NFL level. And instead, when you play empty, you've got to be very confident and key down to what your hot reads are. And I don't think Caleb Williams is there quite yet. So yes, the offensive line can play better. Yes, Shane Waldron can maybe do a little bit better job of setting up the protection to help him a little bit here. But Caleb also has to be better. I just think it is a collective growing pain issue that they are going through of what kind of offense they really want to be. And if you want to be heavy out of empty, very spread out in the formation, Caleb's just got to be better at getting to whatever his hot read is. And I just don't think that he is there yet as a player. Yeah, and you know what? On all of that, I'm going to jump ahead here, actually, with my most disappointing part of this game and I'm going to stay on the bear side. And look, there's two ways that you beat really good pass rushes and teams run all those blitzes. And when you're having issues up front, look, you have to play with tempo. And I think towards the end of the game, when they start to run to a more tempo and they were in that two-minute setting, it was better. But you have to run the ball. And Bear's running backs had 17 carries for 27 yards and no missed tackles and no explosive plays. They will not win if the running backs have 27 yards. I don't care how big Caleb ends up. If they have no balance whatsoever, I don't care how good Caleb is in his rookie year. They won't win any games like that. Their lack of a running game allowed them, at first it got them in bad situations and then allowed the Texans to get into all those blitz packages that honestly, we didn't even really know they had 'cause they don't use them a lot. But when you're constantly third and eight, third and nine because you can't run the football, they just, they looked incapable of running the football last night. And Caleb was their leader in rushing yards because of scrambles and what he does. But he won't carry them in year one. He just won't. I know the expectations are there. And I know there's Bears fans out there who have playoff expectations and think, oh, we could win 12 games. Caleb's Superman, he's our quarterback. You can't make him do that. You can't make, 'cause you could see already one, he was getting hit a lot. You could see by the end of the game, he was slowing down getting hit and two. Little bit demoralized at times. It looked like in the fourth quarter, he's like, man, they're just teeing off on me. - Right. - And there's just not, there wasn't a whole lot of help for him. So no, Caleb wasn't great last night. It's not all on him, but they need to find a way to run the ball. You signed the Andre Swift. - For sure. - He has to have three good backs. And the offensive line has to put it together. As an offense, they have a lot to fix. It's not just Caleb Williams, but if they don't, if they're running backs only have 27 yards, if they only have one and a half yards to carry, they're going nowhere. - Yeah, I'll get into kind of my most impressive in this one and I want to flip sides for it. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's Houston, Texas, Ed Druscher at Daniel Hunter. - Yeah, and I talked about him as a major signing for them this offseason. I think people looked at it and John Grenard had a great year for them as well. You know, he actually flips over to the Minnesota Vikings and the Vikings let Hunter go. And I think you brought this up when we were talking about it. It might have been in the preview show. It might have been as, as a result of, of week one, but you talked about how Flores specifically, and I can't wait to get to Flores. We'll, we'll get to breaking down his defense later on the show, but what he wants to do is just stay as a versatile as possible. And Grenard is more of that outside linebacker type that allows you to drop him back as much as Rush. Hunter is more of just, hey, I'm more of a defensive end pass rusher type of an edge player. - That's exactly what the doctor ordered for the Houston Techs. - They, they both went to a better fit. It seems weird, like why would they just swap guys, but they're two different players and, and Hunter and Anderson, that's just a nasty duo is two classic defensive ends. - And I think that is the point is a lot of people looked at this offseason and went, oh, okay. So the Vikings lose Hunter, game Grenard, and the Texans lose Hunter and, and game, wait, other way around. They lose, they lose Grenard and gain Hunter. And they said, oh, it's just a wash. It's not a wash. Both of these teams got better by both of these players moving to these spots. And so obviously he's seen a leap, a PFF grade. He's a top graded player for the Houston Texans. And, you know, he had three tackles, one and a half sacks. One of those sacks was late in the fourth quarter. It was that clutch sack where he just, you know, he won very quickly off of the edge against, against Darnell, right? And just, I mean, put his shoulder straight into Caleb Williams. - I was worried about Caleb Williams. - I was worried too, and he popped up, and I'm very thankful for it. But it was, that was, I think, second down is when he got hit hard on that play. And it was the drive where, hey, you basically needed to score a touchdown here. And even though Caleb got up, no time outs. And you, and you could tell Caleb was like-- - And it took them, all right. - You mentioned it, it took them like 20 seconds to get back into the next play. - Like I said, just try to figure out where he is. - Or you needed the tempo, and he took it. That was nowhere near the first body blow. He took all night. You could tell he was hurting. I mean, he probably needed the extra long ice bath after that game. - But it was just a section in pressure performance by the no-hundred, but you're most impressive in this. What do you got? - Standing on the Texans defense, Kamari Lasseter, had an interception, should have had a second one. There was a penalty called on somebody else in coverage. I mean, just, could you imagine him and Stingley? Did we think Lasseter would be this good, this quick? - No, not this good, this quick. - Is there something to that? - A 90.3 coverage grade. Gave up three catches for 20 yards. And honestly, you look snap to snap. He was shutting down Roma Dunezay all night. Lasseter won the battle against, he saw Dunezay the most, and he was winning the battle. And honestly, the interception that actually counted, what a spectacular play that was, with Caleb rolling to his right, clearly a weapon. And he knew when Caleb rolled to his right, he was looking, Lasseter was kind of in this spot where he could have got high load, and Williams could have made the right throw under, but he knew he was just like, oh, he's gonna take a shot here. And he sinks back from where he's at, and he just makes an incredible play on this interception. If Camari Lasseter is gonna play like that, this might be the best pair of cornerbacks in the league. - I mean, there's some good ones. We've got D sossen Reed with the Jets, and Latimore and Adebo are really good with the Saints, there's a couple others, but that version of Lasseter, with Stingley getting an interception also on just a fantastic play, that's, they were looking for a number two corner this offseason, and they may have drafted one. I feel like we're spending a ton of time in this game, but there's just so many great things to point out. Stingley's interception was unbelievably impressive to me because if you watch the play, and they showed the end zone, a version of what would be like the end zone angle from that play, he's got inside leverage on DJ Moore, and Moore kind of, he veers a little bit to the outside to attack that inside leverage, and gets Stingley to basically open up, right? Kind of give away his leverage, get even with him, gets a little bit towards the sideline, and what looks like a diamond release from him, and then boom, he gets right back inside, right across the face from Derek Stingley, and you just notice zero panic in Derek Sting, no, zero. In fact, it was like it was business as usual. He got into trail, he immediately caught up, and his head was around almost as the ball was getting released, because he knew he played that perfectly. He knew that it was almost like it with the inside leverage was bait for him. That's how confidently he played that, and just if Stingley was playing at that level and last year's playing at that level, you mentioned it's awesome. My most disappointing is just Tank Dell, simply because he got 11 targets, only four catches on the year. That chemistry, those two, him and Stroud, were really connecting last year, and it's just not on point right now. So, we talked about sort of the offense for the Bears, kind of being the most disappointing, but if I sort of had a nitpick for Houston, I imagine what this offense is gonna be like when the Tank Dell and CJ Stroud connection is like it was last year. So, that being off to a slow starts a little disappointing this year. - Yeah, I agree. I mean, you just, you're talking about, but they've been focused on Niko Collins, right? Niko Collins has been getting the match up, and I don't have any issue with that. We were curious how all the targets would be shared on that Texans team. Diggs is obviously making some third-down grabs, or getting Dell working back from the injury, but right now it's Collins leading the way. So, I think Dell is gonna improve in the coming weeks, and we even saw a place from Dalton Schulz and plenty from Joe Mixin, hopefully he's healthy going forward. But Collins is the number one guy right now, and everyone's gonna have to fall in line behind that. - Did you give your most disappointing for this one? - I did, yeah, it was, it was, where did it go? - Oh, the run game. - Yeah, the run game. Definitely, definitely needs to be better there. Let's give, let's make Walt Happy here in the chat. We'll go with Raiders Ravens next, 26 to 23 here. - This was a weird one. - Las Vegas Raiders. - This was a weird game. - It was kind of strange because the Raiders come out on top, and I think that, you know, obviously not a lot of people were predicting that the Raiders would come out on top, but you look at the statistics of this game, and it's not like the Ravens played really poorly. They just, it was just a close football game, and they didn't come away with the win at the end. What is your, what's your stat that told the story here with how the Raiders ended up? - Oh, do you want to go to the top five first actually, or do you want to go right? - We should go at the top five first. You are correct. - We'll stay on schedule. - We just saved my ass there, I appreciate it. Let's start with Las Vegas, okay? And the reason why I want to start with them is because of rookies at the very top. Brock Bowers, wow. - Love him. - He's a good football player. It was good for every single year that he was at the University of Georgia, winning national championships, and look at that. He's good in the NFL. 83.1 overall grade. Devontae Adams is next on the list. 77.1 Max Crosby, 76.4. Divine Diablo coming in at number four, it is 70.8. And then Jack Jones at number five with a 68.4. Gardner Minshew would have been in that top five with a 73.1. We'll talk about him more in a second. On Baltimore side of things, Ed Druscher Oda Feohe was top on the list with 87.8. Travis Jones, showing up here early on in this season. 83.0 as a number two guy on that list. Ronnie Stanley coming in at number 381.6. Kyle Van Noether, Ed Druscher, 78.7. And then Derek Henry, a 74.7, to be at number five. Lamar Jackson would have been just outside of that here as the QB that we give recognition to. Lamar had a 73.2 overall grade in this one. So now that we have talked about the top fives, what's the stat that told the story? - I'm gonna stay with Minshew in the passing game and really just a better effort in the second half from the Raiders than the first half, obviously. The first half, EPA per pass for the Raiders, was minus 0.637, which is pretty much just stagnant. There's nothing, they're doing nothing. There's no efficiency. There was also no run game, obviously, early on. There was just nothing going for the Raiders. And then they found their groove in the second half, a plus 0.225, which is a really good number, EPA per pass in the second half. You could just feel it. You could just, you know what? Let's just abandon the run game. Let's just get Gevanthe Adams and Brock Bowers and all these weapons going. And that's just what's gonna work today. We're not gonna win, run in the football. We're already behind Minshew found a rhythm. He found a rhythm with his best weapons. And honestly, that's just what you saw from the Ravens. It's just they got ahead and they just couldn't cover their best players and couldn't hold the lead. And eventually, they just found a way to break him down kind of slowly. That's all, that's why it felt weird. 'Cause it didn't feel like, I know the Gevanthe Adams, like the Toe Drag catch was just spectacular, but it didn't feel like there was one specific moment where the Raiders took this game over. They just kind of, they just kind of slowly won first down at a time. Just kind of clawed back into it. And we've talked about it for a bit. This Raider defense can get hot. There's a lot of talent on this defense and credit to them for keeping them in this game too. But the main reason they won this game for me was just Minshew and the entire passing game finding the rhythm in the second half. - No, I think you're completely right. And my stat that told the story is just a specific Minshew stat. And that was that he had two big time throws in this game and Lamar had none. And in fact, Minshew to go along with your point about EPA per play and EPA per path for them being better in the second half, both of Minshew's big time throws were in the second half. Both of them led to points. One led you with touchdown drive and the other one was to do a field goal. That ended up getting them close in this game, getting them tied and then allowing them to win. So when you look at Guard to Minshew, the two big time throws in the second half led to points like I mentioned. Sixth in passing grade, an elite 90.2 on throws of 10 yards or more this season. So I think that is something that's absolutely worth recognizing because in a year where we're seeing passing down across the board, a lot of these elite passers under 200 yards over the first two weeks, not a lot of big time throws. Minshew's out here dicing him. Minshew's fearless. He's letting the ball fly and he's connecting. So he is right now a top eight passer in the league. I get it, it's only two weeks. I'm not saying that he's overtaking some of these other guys when it comes to overall talent, but you got to give him credit where it's due. The rest of the league is kind of skittish right now when it comes to attacking a lot of these, you know, quarter quarter half coverages, these two high coverages like, and Minshew's like at, I'm letting it fly. - Oh yeah. - I don't care. I'm letting it fly. - There's not a single bone in his body that has any fear in it. I think we've seen that for a long time with multiple teams, he's a gamer. If nothing else, he's gonna go out there and he is just a gamer, he's gonna compete. - He's also got the- - He's gonna be as hard as we can. - The second most completions of 10 or more yards in the NFL right now. So that's the story here for the Raiders is that they have a fearless, confident Minshew throwing the football, and that's what's giving them a chance to punch above their weight class, if you will, when you look at their roster head up against the team. So he's my most impressive as well. So I mean, he kind of has to be, what about you? Who's your most impressive? - I'm going with that rookie weapon. You just mentioned Brock Bauer. So nine catches, 98 yards, five first downs and 84.6 receiving grade. And I think for me, he made three catches in a row on their last drive that scored the touchdown and Adams just before three catches in a row that were all really big catches. And look, it's funny because nobody would argue that Devontae Adams is the best player, right? But I think the hardest piece of this offense to game plan for is Brock Bowers. He just lines up all over the place. He could be at tight end. He could be in the slot. He could be out wide. He could be in the backfield just anywhere. Brock Bowers, when you flip it on, is actually the biggest problem when you go, okay, how do we solve this? Because with Adams, you go, okay, we either have a like a lockdown corner or something like that. Throw out on, let's say, a saucer, a Jair Alexander, something like that. Or you have to bracket and do the usual things with the number one receiver. With Bowers, it's like a Rubik's Cube, man. Wherever he lines up, you don't know any given play pre-snap, and I would have to really, really dig in on what the tendencies are right now to have enough time considering we're doing 15 games this morning, but the-- - What did you sleep last night? - I imagine, not much, but it's just-- - It's over a minute, you're fired. - It's football season, come on up. - It's just with Bowers, so I think his alignments and finding him pre-snap in that 10 to 15 second window you have to find him, I think that's the hardest part of defending this Raider team right now, even though you have a Devontae Adams and Jacobi Myers a really good weapon and Trait Tucker is a speed guy and Michael Mayors, they do have a lot of weapons in the passing game, but Bowers versatility is the hardest part to defend, I think. - Look, nine targets, nine catches, man. I mean-- - That'll do. - The chemistry, the confidence, whatever you want to call it, between Gardner Minshew and the rookie Brock Bowers is already there. My most disappointing from this game is the Raiders run game. No matter how Minshew is playing, it's just gotta be way better than certainly it was against the Baltimore Ravens. 40.6, the lowest team rushing grade that we have so far through two weeks in the NFL. Second lowest yards before contact, total. They only have 11 total rushing yards before contact through two games, that's it. The only tune that's lower is the Jets, but I won't bring that up because I'm, you know-- - We're working on it. - We're friends. I'm not gonna bring that up. - No. - Why would I bring that up? - I don't bring up the Florida Gators, either, it's fun. - Yeah. - And you just did, and I was having a good time, and now I'm not. - You know, it's always a yin and yang to the-- - Colton Miller and Dylan Parham, they were the only serviceable run blocking grades that we had in this game. You know, Jackson Powers Johnson needs to get in this lineup, I think, because for as much as okay, maybe he won't be able to bully people in the NFL exactly the way he did in Oregon. He's got some nastiness to him, and he can really help out in the run game specifically, so they need to get him in this lineup. Who's the most disappointed for you? - For me, I learned something about this Ravens defense, and I know he was out with, I believe, a neck injury suffered from a cocktail. He was in a car accident last week, Nate Wiggins. During the week, he was in a car accident, and had some sort of, they listed him with a neck injury, but he missed this game. Nate Wiggins needs to start when he gets back, I think. The Ravens' corner is especially Marvin Humphrey, and Brandon Stevens gave up 12 catches for 140 yards, and a touchdown in this game. And through two weeks, have not looked incredibly impressive, and were used to the Ravens getting good play in their secondary, but on the outside, they need some help. I think it's why they drafted Wiggins. When he gets back healthy, I think he needs to see a lot more playing time saw. I think it was 17 or 18 snaps in their first game against Kansas City. I don't, and from what we saw in the preseason, he was really good. He was really good when he was on the field in week one, and if they want to play as much, if they want to play more man coverage and do the things one on one, what they can do, and send blitzes, and I happily see, have Kyle Hamilton roving all over the place. I think this Ravens' corner back room needs to get better, so when Wiggins is healthy, I think more playing time is in order here. - All right, next game, talk about the Carolina Panthers. So putting the hazmat suits, we're digging in. Chargers at Panthers in this one, did not look competitive basically at any point in time, other than when the score was 0-0 when the game was starting. 26-3 was the final score, and the Chargers take this one there victorious. We'll start with the Chargers, 'cause we'll start with the positive here when it comes to the top five. Safety Elijah Molden, elite 92.5. Overall, great, he loves to see that. I was a big fan of Molden coming out during his draft class, so I'd love to see him at the top of that list. Diane Henley, their second year linebacker, 90.5, cornerback Christian Fulton, 87.9. Joe Alt, still in the top five this week, 87.2. Actually, I think the team was so good last week, if I remember correctly. Joe Alt wasn't even in the top five, now he gets in there, so two good weeks back to back for the rookie, and then guard Zion Johnson with an 85.8. Man, just some really high scores for the Los Angeles Chargers over the last two weeks. Justin Herbert, not his best game, 54.8 overall grade, and then when we flip sides to Carolina, it's not as pretty. The guy who is number one for Carolina wouldn't even be on the list for the Chargers if that puts that into perspective for you. Guard Robert Hunt, tops the list at 74.1. Safety Jordan Fuller with a matching 74.1 at number two. cornerback J.C. Horn, 69.5 at number three, Taylor Moten at number four, 67.1, and then cornerback Mike Jackson, 65.7, Bryce Young, would not have made the top five. He comes in with a 38.8 overall grade in this one. Don, tell us the staff that told the story. What do you think about this one? - I'll start on the positive side. - Okay, please do. - This Chargers offensive lines, you saw Alt and Johnson on that top five right there. This is a real story, so their front five together and this game had an 88.5 overall grade. Trevor, that's the best I could find in a Charger game since 2008. - Wow. - The best Chargers offensive line performance in 16 years. - Wow. - Only three pressures allowed all day. Four of the five guys graded over a 79, so not just those two. Everybody but the center, Bradley Bozeman, graded over a 79 and he was somewhere in the mid-high 60s. - Harbaugh, baby. - This is a real story. This is a real story, and I know it's the Panthers, but they played really well last week. You mentioned Joe Alt last week. Honestly, I thought he was the safest pick in the draft and Jim Harbaugh clearly felt so too, because this offensive line is doing everything that they envisioned. They're running the ball, they got JK Dobbins rolling, you're gonna get into that, but Joe Alt, Rashawn Slater, Zion Johnson, these guys, they have stars up front. The amount of talent on their offensive line tells you they should probably be a top five or six unit and they've played like it through two weeks and they were just this, again, one of the best O-line performances for the Chargers in PFF history. Those five guys and what Jim Harbaugh has in Greg Roman, I should say too, have them doing up front. Wait 'til Justin Herbert gets it going, because if they're gonna protect like this and they're gonna run the ball like this, they're just figuring it out with all the young weapons in the passing game. Quentin Johnston with two touchdowns yesterday, I mean. - He's not bad. - That's as big a turnaround as you could find on football. If they get him going, McConnell is really good, but Jim Harbaugh, they made a statement in the draft when they took Joe Alt that, look, we're gonna have a really talented offensive line. We're gonna block the hell out of people, like Greg Roman and I always do, and we're getting after. We're changing the culture of this Chargers team and they're doing it up front. - That's why we talked about Jim Harbaugh as the best coaching hire of the cycle, because he's just a good football coach. He understands this kid's game, if you will, better than a lot of other coaches out there. And so we figured that the turnaround for the Chargers was gonna be a lot more swift than it was for some of these other teams. Champion with the Super Chat that we have on the show right now said, my Cardinals put the NFC on notice yesterday. Marvin Harrison Jr. out here looking like a young Randy Moss. - We're getting there. - Champion, we're gonna get to the Arizona Cardinals. I promise you're gonna enjoy the breakdown because it wasn't just Marvin Harrison Jr. Trey McBride and Kyla Murray. We, I can't wait to get to his performance because it was damn near historic what he was able to do this week. But my staff told the story here for the Chargers at the Panthers. It's a Bryce young one, and I hate being super negative, but I did think about this with Bryce because over the last week, I was getting sad thinking about what he was at Alabama versus what he has been in the NFL. So I went back and I watched some old Alabama tape with Bryce. And specifically, part of his game at Alabama that made me feel like, hey, he could still do this at the NFL level was, I think we talk a lot about the middle of the field stuff when it comes to the shorter quarterbacks. Like, can they see over the offensive line? Are they gonna be comfortable pushing the ball over the middle of the field? And that's definitely a talking point. But for young now, what he was able to do at Alabama was, he was also able to hit deep down the sideline with a lot of confidence and not just a confidence, but anticipation, I guess that goes hand in hand. But when I watched a couple of games of him from last night, last year, his last year at Alabama, the way he's able to attack the sideline was poetic. It was so smooth. The anticipation was so phenomenal. It was part of what allowed everyone to think, man, what he is between the ears and how he sees the game, how slow the game comes to him, it's at a rare level, such a level that you would pick him as a size outlier for this position. And when I look at him now, that outside the number stuff doesn't exist. - It's like he's afraid to throw it. - He's afraid to throw it. And, you know, defenders at the NFL level, they're a lot faster, they're a lot bigger. You've got to just kind of trust your guys there. He's not trusting his guys. When you look at Bryce Young, you can see the numbers on the screen right now. 19th in the NFL and attempts outside the numbers beyond a five-yard. So, bottom half of the league in terms of starters, 20th in completion percentage outside of the numbers, third lowest passing grade outside of the numbers. You know, when you look at the pressures, I think a lot of people are like, man, the offensive line's not good, it's not helping them out. Right now for a reasonable expectation, under three seconds, right? That you're holding the guy in front of you for under three seconds before he gets to the quarterback. 'Cause the league average is, I think, right under 2.8. So, I'm even taking that all the way to three seconds. They're 14th in the NFL. They're right around the middle of the pack. And it's not like they're catastrophically bad. Bryce, just the stat to me is that it's not, we like to focus on the middle of the field with short quarterbacks. It's not just the middle of the field. His bread and butter at Alabama was the anticipation throws to the sideline and he won't do it. And I think that that's kind of a wide receiver problem, but at this point, it's also a lack of confidence and Bryce Young doesn't trust himself to hit those throws. Yeah, and this is, I'll stick with Young as my most disappointing part of this game. It's, last year, I could make the excuses. Look, Adam Thielens, they're only receiver and there's no interior protection. I think that's the second straight week that we've had Robert Hunt as their best player. Right, yeah. They're protecting, well, I mean, to the point, they're offensive. Well, enough. I mean, Bryce Young was only pressured 13.8% in this game, which is an elite number and the problem is now a 46, in this game, a 46.6 clean pocket passing grade, which just can't, you just can't have it. So it's an only one positive, Trevor, you only had one positively graded throw all day and it was a slam on fourth and two. Damn, I didn't round that. It's tough. When you isolate it and you go, yeah, the Panthers, it's good enough. And in this game, look, you're only getting pressured one out of seven times, you should tee off. I mean, imagine burrow or a sprout or somebody with that type of protection. This now, through two weeks, looks like a more isolated issue with Bryce Young. Last year, I could blame the entire offense. I could blame the coaching mess, the interior offensive line, but this now, if they're protecting him, and again, we'd have to evaluate the receivers and different things like that, but you're right. It looks like even in a clean pocket, he's afraid to throw the football. Yep. And again, I don't want to have the same conversation about the Panthers every single week. I really don't. But this was also why hiring Dave Kinales' off-season was like, okay, he better be the guy. 'Cause he doesn't have the, he does not have the resume. I think we would have said that of anybody though. Yeah, but. They weren't getting Harbaugh. No, no, no. And obviously, but like, if you get Harbaugh, it's a different story. But like, that's kind of what I'm saying, is that I don't know if they made the wrong decision here, but because, because again, I don't know if they would have really been able to get probably the guy that they wanted in Harbaugh. If Harbaugh is there though, that's sort of what I'm saying is that you can deal with the struggles, but Harbaugh has the track record to, like you know what he's capable of. You know that he has done it with multiple quarterbacks before at every level of the game. So, that's where Canalis learning this head coaching thing for the first time is difficult. And I think that they felt like they avoided that problem with Frank Reich, and then that turned out to be a disaster. So, I do feel bad for Carolina, just their situation overall. But, Bryce is just mental confidence at this point. It's literally the number one thing. It's the number one thing. Who's the most impressive for you? I'm going to the Chargers defensive side real quick, and it got you picked for your breakout player for this team. And I'm actually gonna go with two, but I'll start with Diane Handley and linebacker. And also Denzel Perriman. Junior Coulson got hurt in this game. They'd kind of been rotating all three of them, but he got hurt early in this game, but Handley and Perriman were just spectacular. And Handley, maybe this is the start of the breakout that you were looking for. A 90.5 overall grade allowed three catches for just 13 yards in coverage. Both of them were fantastic in coverage. Perriman only allowed one catch for one yard with a 90.8 coverage grade, two stops. They had problems like the Chargers. There's several problems Jim Harbaugh's fixing right now. The offensive line was one of them. Running back situation was one of them. You're getting there. Blind backer was another one. And yeah, front seven overall, but the previous regime, especially kind of whiffing on Kenneth Murray, who's now in Tennessee, that was a first round pick. Diane Handley, Denzel Perriman. And when he's been in there, Junior Coulson's been good too. He got hurt in this game, but these two linebackers I was really impressed with. They were really, especially the way they played together, kind of in lockstep. They always kind of, they know where each other is at all times and they're fitting the right gaps and they're doing everything right in the run in. Perriman struggled a little bit more in the run game. That was more of Handley's thing, but both great in coverage and both playing really well overall. - Man, just, and my most impressive, another fantastic week for J.K. Dobbins. I just want to give him his flowers because you know, you go through as many injuries as he's been through in his career. For him to do something that has not been done with the Chargers franchise since the Great Ladanian Tomlinson and that is rushed for back to back 130 yard performance. - Jet legend, Ladanian Tomlinson. - Jet legend, Ladanian Tomlinson. Yes, yes, I will give it to you. You know, what he did in week two, it wasn't quite as individually impressive when it comes to Miss Tackles Force per attempt or yards after contact, but it was still damn good. And I think that that's what I want to recognize here for J.K. Dobbins, so I feel like they got a really good one. My most disappointing, real quick, Panther's defensive line, even outside of the offense. Not one defensive lineman on the team had a run defense grade above 60. Now, of course, when you give up 130 yards to one rusher, you figured that's gonna be the case, but we talked about how tough this might be for them without Derrick Brown. It is proving in the short term to be very tough, not a single defensive player in the front seven. Having a, or I think it's just the defensive line, having a run defense grade above 60, it starts there. It has to 100% start there, or you're not gonna have success anywhere else. - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that Derrick Brown injury is devastating. - Yep. - It's just that's, you could argue easily that that's their best defensive player, and you lose a guy like that in the middle when you're so dependent on them. It's a problem. They have multiple problems on their team right now that it's hard to see how they get fixed without either, without significant improvement from the guys who are there. - Yeah, from one trench is to the other, one that we're kind of talking about in a bad way, and we're gonna flip sides to one that we're talking about in a good way. The New Orleans Saints, man. So I don't mean this as any insult. The surprise team of the season so far two weeks in for what they have been able to do in these back-to-back two weeks. First week, they played Carolina Panthers at home. You know, they give them a good shellacking, and you go, okay, well, it's kind of the Panthers. But then they bring the Dallas Cowboys on to it. Well, actually they traveled to Dallas. There's a road game for them. 44 to 19. They put a monument in this game. So when you look at some of the top five for the Saints, I mentioned how the trenches for the Panthers was bad and the New Orleans is gonna be good. We're talking about elite. Look at these top two guys for the New Orleans Saints. Guard Lucas Patrick, 97.2. Eric McCoy, 92.2. That's beautiful stuff right there. DiMario Davis coming in at number three with a 91.4, Crystal Lavey, a 91.0. Edge rusher Carl Granerson, 85.6. And then Derek Carr adding another elite score to the list at a 91.0. Again, one of the pleasant surprise stories that we have had in the NFL two weeks into the season when you flip to the other side for the Dallas Cowboys. Michael Parsons at the top of this list, 86.2. Titan Luke Shoemaker with a 76.5 at number two. Guard Zach Marlin with a 74.9 at Chauncey-Goulson, 72.1. Coming in at number four and then Tyler Smith, a 68.8 Dak Prescott, 53.3 over all grade here. I'll start with this one, Dalton, 'cause I think it's the right transition here talking about the offensive line. My stats I told the story has to be how well the Saints offensive line is playing. Because when I looked at this team going into this season, I looked at a lot of question marks that they had. I figured that Eric McCoy was gonna continue to be good. But what were you gonna have at basically all of the other four spots? And two games into the season, one against a bad defensive line in the Panthers. But then another against one of the best defensive lines in the NFL, in the Dallas Cowboys, you've got two games with a high level of success. Trevor Penning was the only offensive lineman below a 65 passing grade. It's impressive. It's really good for that unit. 89.7 run blocking grade as a team. This past week, and then like we mentioned, Lucas Patrick and Eric McCoy, having elite run blocking grades, that to me is the stat that told the story. You know, Derek Carr, you know, his numbers are fantastic, extremely successful. Believe us all, a stat that every single time that the Saints offense has been on the field so far this season, they have scored points. But to me, it is the story of the offensive line for them. And the massive turnaround that has been that is allowing this offense to truly hit a ceiling that we thought could be possible for them last season and what made last season so disappointing for them. Now we're seeing a come to fruition in New Orleans. - To see their biggest concern become this much of a strength is incredible. And you look through it, if you go through and you filter in for offensive linemen, which are, I should say offensive lines and which team leads the NFL in overall grade, they're offensive line, it's the Saints. You see all the usual suspects, Philly and Minnesota and San Fran and Detroit and all the other good ones, the Saints are number one, they're offensive line in overall grade in the NFL right now. This not even through two weeks, what I have guessed that that's happening. But I think there's also a piece of this where one, I think they do, it is a line that leans towards run blocking a bit. Pennings about a run blocker, then he is a pass blocker, McCoy, the same thing. Maybe Caesar Ruiz, the same thing. But look, the combination of what's going on there. And then again, we mentioned it last week. Clint Kubiak with this play action game. Man, oh man. Derek Cookin, Derek Carr in this game. I got him seven of 11 for 205 yards and two touchdowns and a 90.9 play action passing grade. This is just, you can see what they're doing right now is, so last year they were a big 11 personnel team, right? They still had Michael Thomas, they were trying to force them out there even though they had the injury problems and all the money and everything going on with that. He goes, and you pretty much, you have now a group of tight ends and you have Chris Olabe and you have Rashid Shahid. And that's, they're running a lot more 12 personnel. They're running these tight ends. You got three versatile tight ends with Joanne Johnson and Foster Moreau and the king of versatility, Taysom Hill, so whatever you want to call, he's listed as a tight end, but whatever you want to call him, you can call him. But those are the players that they're using right now. Those are the personnel sets and what they're creating in play action, in 12 personnel with two tight ends on the field, it's lethal right now, especially if they're going to run block like that. So Clint Kubiak right now is in his wheelhouse and is in the wheelhouse of every Shanahan coach that's in the league or has been in the league, his dad Gary, I mean, which just spectacular did the same thing for all those years, especially Baltimore. They're the masters of using tight ends and using play action and doing all those things and cars responding in the biggest way. And I'm going to skip to my most impressive here real quick as it goes with the passing game. How about Rashid Shahid? Second straight game with a 50 plus yard touchdown, four catches, 96 and a touchdown. And I think that speed threat, you have that guy because Olabe is one of the best intermediate receivers in the league and one of like the two or three best. Eddie, you do it all, but yes, to your point. Yes. This is just what the numbers have shown us through the first two years is in that intermediate range, he's like one of the two or three bests. Like very, he's like up there with Brandon, Iuke is up there. Justin Jefferson, well, he's up there on every board. That's Chris Godwin up there too. Godwin's, we'll get there. Don't you worry with Chris Godwin, but Shahid, he takes the top off and he started to do it last year. Look, the last two years he's tied for the league lead in deep receiving grade, perfect 99.9. And I would guarantee, I haven't looked at that, but I guarantee he's doing it again after the first two weeks. And you were playing around with a graphic yesterday that I think had him side by side with Deshawn Jackson. Deshawn Jackson, baby. That's high praise. It is. But that's what he's doing for this offense right now for him to take the top off. If you go single eye and you want to load the box, I don't know if there's many corners in the league that could run with Rashida Heat. Right. If any, he's like, he's blazing fast and car is letting it rip when he's getting down the field one on one. This is a guy who really balances their offense and I'm super impressed through two weeks. Wow, he has been, he has been awesome. My most impressive, I'll go with Alvin Kamara. I didn't know how much juicy he had left in the tank. And look, when you're running behind an offensive line like that, it gets a little bit easier to do. But Kamara, what do you have four touchdowns last on Sunday? I believe so, yeah. 65 receiving yards, 115 rushing yards. I mean, it's just, again, it's not a, it's not like he, his PFF grades aren't like world beating. Obviously, we didn't see him in the top five there. It's because the offensive line's doing a lot of the work for him. But still, now you have a veteran aware back. Who knows how to capitalize when the offensive line is playing well. And so when that is the case, then obviously you're getting that. I did want to just go back to your Kubiak point really quickly when we were going through our division previews. We were talking about the New Orleans Saints. I remember looking up this number specifically. The Saints last year, they ran Play Action, one of the least amounts in the NFL. They just did not do it very often. The 49ers, with Clint Kubiak as their pass game coordinator, they didn't run Play Action a ton, but they were the number one graded team in the NFL in terms of EPA per pass and PFF passing grade when coming off of Play Action, when using Play Action. This year, guess who the number one PFF passing grade team is off of Play Action? It's the New Orleans Saints. So what we talked about for a team preview for them is coming to fruition immediately. They're running more Play Action, but it's not just more Play Action, better Play Action. And that is what Kubiak is very good at. So you got to give him his props here. Most disappointing this game before we move on. Cowboys run defense. We know that this unit can really get after the passer. They got a lot of guys who didn't get after the passer, obviously, highlighted by Michael Parsons. But through the first two weeks, run defense is not there for Tech. 45.3 run defense grade in week one. Sorry, 34.3 run defense grade in week two. So it was even worse. Also, DigiZua, Mazi Smith, Marcus Lawrence, Eric Kendricks, all of them. Not good run defense grades. These are guys got to be able to show up for you, especially some of those interior guys there. Agreed. Mazi's the one for me, because I watched all his tape last year, and he struggled through last year. Struggled to get on the field when he was on the field. That's a guy they drafted in the first round for that exact problem, because this has been a problem for a couple of years for them. Mazi's a guy they need to find a way to turn it around with him. Lawrence is going to bounce back to Marcus Lawrence, one of the best run defenders in the league. Eric Kendricks has had a long history of being good and run defense. But Mazi Smith is a young guy. They really, really need to emerge in year two, right? Because that's exactly why they drafted him. The year before, last year, they were like, OK, we need to run defender. Let's take this really athletic guy from Michigan, Mazi Smith, and it didn't quite work last year. And it was just bad enough that he couldn't find his way onto the field in a starting role, even though there's not a ton in front of him. But Mazi's the one that would concern me the most. If you can't defend run, you're not going to get on the field. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Especially for this team. It's already a problem. I mean, it's been a problem for a couple of years. For me, I have the Dallas secondary, too. I know Doron Bland is out, but I expect it better than this. They had a 20. Combine their secondary, they had a 28.6 coverage grade. And I know, again, Doron Bland is a superstar. I set the record for pick six, is all that. But I still have Trayvon Diggs. It should be better than that. It should be better. The floor should be higher than that. There is a part of it too, Trev, that looks like Dan Quinn and Mike Zimmer run very, very different defenses. And there is a part of it, too, that looks like they are struggling to adjust to a new defense. Sure. Dan Quinn was very single high, relatively simple, a lot of one in three. Zimmer likes to mix it up more and change up looks and throw safeties around different places. And it looks like a secondary that is both struggling and struggling to adjust to a new system. So they have time to get it back together. But they need to be better than they were in this game, for sure. Yeah, I agree with you. [MUSIC PLAYING] This episode brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, hoping it all works out? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can get a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill, too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help find you options within your budget. Try it today at Progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Price and coverage match, limited by state law. Not available in all states. You mentioned that we get to Chris Goblin. We can get to Chris Goblin now. Tim Bay Buccaneers at the Detroit Lions, the Buccaneers coming up with a huge win in Detroit, where their season ended a year ago in the playoffs, getting a little bit of revenge there. 20 to 16, really close game all the way around. When you look at this team, let's look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first. And it is Chris Goblin, whose name is at the very top of this list for their top five and graded players, a 90.0 grade for Chris Godwin, defensive tackle, Vida Veda, who has a grade two MCL sprains. He's going to miss a couple of weeks there. He's at number two on the list, 79.5. So he played enough in this game to get recorded in the top five. But it's going to be questionable for him how much time he misses moving forward. Bucks are already down a couple of defenses started, so it is worth monitoring. Number three, cornerback Syam McColland coming up in a big way, getting an interception, 78.6 grade at number three there. Safety Jordan Whitehead had a really great game. himself, no Antoine Winfield Jr. next to him, so he had to kind of pick up the responsibility there. 74.4 grade linebacker, KJ Britt with a 72.4 in the Baker Mayfield, a 56.5. But honestly, it was kind of the Baker Mayfield experience, where it was a lot of good, a lot of bad. But man, those highest for Baker Mayfield were big time moments for this. You come out of there with a win. It's a high, I don't care. I mean, again, that's obviously a mediocre grade, but getting out of there, and he's gritty. I mean, is there a grittier player, at least quarterback? But is there a grittier player in the NFL right now than Baker Mayfield? No, he's gritty as a guest. Just competing every single thing we just talked about with Minshew, but Mayfield, he just gives you everything he has, win or lose. It's incredible to watch. And the way they're synced up with this offense right now, I mean, they look like they can contend for a division title again. This is through two weeks. Is this better than they looked at any point last year? No, they look-- I mean, they look even more confident this year, even with some starters down. But OK, so for Detroit now, getting to their top fives. Ed Druscher, Aidan Hutchison, he's at the top of the list, a 90.9 grade. Now, people might be wondering why this isn't a 99.9, because he had 4 and 1/2 sacks in this game. Well, the Bucks didn't have Luke Geddicki in this game. So the tackle competition that he was up against was not exactly-- It was dominant. It makes no mistake, it's hard to get a perfect grade. But Hutchison said he tried to will him to-- He really did. It felt like almost by himself at times. He is. He certainly stats stuffed his defensive player the year candidacy here in this past game. Brian Branch, their safety with an 86.1 overall grade in this game at number two. Number three, Kevin Zeitler, their offensive guard, 78.8. Number four, Amman Ross, St. Brown, with a 76.3. Ended up leaving the game on that final drive, but it looks like he's going to be OK long term. Offens a tackle, Taylor Decker, 75.3 overall grade, and then Jared Goff, just a 49.0 grade. I know that we're going to talk about him in a little bit. I'm going to start with my staff that told the story. And it has a little bit to do with Jared Goff. I think some of our talking points here are going to be a little bit of golf here and there, just to get to kind of what we're talking about. But Buck's defense versus the deep passes here for the Detroit Lions. To me, that's what I was really worried about with this team, because no Antoine Winfield Junior, you got a rookie playing in the slot in Taiki Smith, or Christian Izzian. But Christian Izzian also has to play safety now, because you didn't have Antoine Winfield Junior. Zion McCollum, he was in and out with concussion-like symptoms. So we didn't even know if he was going to play. He got Jamel Dean on the other side, which I feel good about. But Zion McCollum did not play well last year in coverage. And then telling him that he's going to start this year, I guess, I should say, earning that starting role, there were some questions as whether or not that that was going to stick in the NFL regular season. And they played really well, man. Buck's defense on passes of 10 or more yards down the field. They didn't give up anything. Two interceptions, five forced in completions. But they even had another drop the interception. Only seven completions on the 20 attempts that were 10 or more yards down the field. Coverage grade was top 10 this week, with no Antoine Winfield Junior in this category. That, to me, is the staff that told the story. Because I thought that was Winfield out of here. How Jameson Williams was playing, how San Laporta can play, how Jameer Gibbs can even play out of the backfield, what on Mount Ross St. Brown can do over the middle of the field in between the 10 and 20 range in particular. I thought this was going to be a tough week for Tampa to really get together and cover these dudes. And they did it beautifully. And I think that, to me, is the staff that told the story of how well they played in that area without Winfield Junior. - I'm with you, going into the game. Again, it was a matchup of two good teams. But if you're down Winfield, you could argue Winfield's the best player on their entire team. He's at least in the argument. That was the biggest concern I had too. And the Lions look, you had every bit, you had every right to be worried. Going into this, especially without Winfield, right? But the Lions, look, the one for me is it didn't finish drives. Only one touch, seven trips to the Red Zone, only one touchdown. And I am sure Dan Campbell just absolutely prides himself on finishing drives. You know how that Lions team is. That just can't happen. I mean, look, you get into Red Zone and their team offense grade was a 52 on plays that they ran inside, inside the plus 20. They just, you have to finish drives. The Lions had every single opportunity, every single opportunity to win this game. Your best pass rusher had four and a half sacks. They only gave up 20 points. They were driving down the field. It seemed at will at times. They didn't get the deep shots, but they were methodically getting there. They were getting to the Red Zone. And then it would just stall for various reasons. So look, the Lions, they're going to come out of this one kicking themselves, especially at some point down the line if this were to cost them playoff seating. This was a huge win for the Bucks, but the Lions have to feel like one got away from them here. Just you cannot go, you're not going to win a whole lot when you go one for seven in the Red Zone. You have to, the difference, especially in the NFL, of winning and losing games is finishing drives. Yeah, and for the sake of conversation, I'll just, I'll get to my most disappointed right now when it is Jared Goff and not just him, but also like Ben Johnson as well. To your point, sort of how they were not able to finish drives, I think that's more of a Ben Johnson issue here, but, you know, I'm watching Jared Goff throughout that game. There's, there's plays where something's off. He's just, he's not willing to give his guys the ball and, and just give them a chance to go make a play. Like there was, there was, there was one screenplay. I think it was while they were in the Red Zone where the Bucks sort of read it well. And he spiked it up. And he immediately just throws it in the ground and it's like, dude, you could have gotten that to Gibbs and at least given him a chance to be the playmaker. And yesterday, we've talked about how poorly golf can sometimes play under pressure, right? How much the passing grade really drops when he is under pressure. To me, yesterday almost made it look like, like Ben Johnson and Jared Goff have this, this understanding that like, if there is anything that is not perfect at all, just throw it away, just throw it in the dirt. We'll go live the fight another day. Don't put it at the ball in a harm's way. And I can sort of understand that philosophy because you don't want to give the ball to the other teams, certainly. You don't want to have a turnover where you play there. But at the same time, this the NFL. If you never give your guys the opportunity to go make a play, you're not going to win enough football games against the best teams to go up and win a Super Bowl. So the mentality was off yesterday. I mean, look at that last throw, for example. The games on the line, I mean, did they have a chance? Yes, the chance was slim. It looked like they might have been setting up like a hook and ladder. Goff didn't even get it to the receiver. He threw it three yards short. Dude, you got to give your, you got to give your guy a chance. How many times did we see that yesterday where he just, he did not give his guys a chance to go make a play? - A lot. - It's not like this is always who Jared Goff is, but this is what worries me about him as a quarterback, is that when things aren't perfect for him, it's not that he doesn't have the ability to hang tough, but it's almost like a mentality where he just goes, nope, nope, we're killing this play. We're killing this play immediately. And it's like, ah, there's just not enough perfect plays that exist in the NFL, especially for an offensive coordinator that's in his third year in one spot, because this league figures you out. You know, that's what worried me about Ben Johnson is I think everybody went into this year. Look, I have the lions winning a Super Bowl. So I don't want it. I don't really like all this dude to hate her. I had them winning the Super Bowl. But something that really worried me about this was, it's year three of Ben Johnson in the same spot with basically the same weapons. It's not to say that he can't have success, but I think defense is the longer you are in a certain spot, they're going to figure you out. And they're going to start to throw things at you that you weren't ready for. And it just felt like Todd Bowles down four defensive starters, three defensive starters in this game, made Ben Johnson and Jared Goff uncomfortable. And I think that's worrisome, moving forward, not a panic button in any way, shape or form, but worrisome and why it was disappointing for me. - And Todd Bowles is a guy who can manufacture production out of his defense too, with all the looks and all the blitzes and things like that. And I think to your point, I'll go with a quick, most disappointing, 'cause I think you hit it all with the Lions offense, but Sam Laporta too, we need to get this guy to ball. He had two catches for 13 yards, both of them career lows. He didn't have a game like that last year. I think last year, the low might have been 14, but either way, we can have Sam Laporta out here is setting career lows and yardage. And through two games, he's got four catches. Four catches in two games for Sam Laporta. - That's gotta be more. - Who, honestly, is he not a top five tight end in football? I mean, and I know they have a ton of weapons and Jamison's been hot, but Laporta's the guy who can take an easy completion and work either after the catch or work to the chains and do all those things. It's a little confusing to me why he's not more involved so far. - Yeah. Most impressive. - Oh, it's Chris Godwin. - Okay. - I gotta go with him. I gotta go with him two weeks in a row. - Go on. - To be honest, it's the same thing as I mentioned before with like Devontae Adams and Brock Bowers, where you know who Mike Evans is, you know what he does. He's six, five, and one on one, they're gonna throw him the football. The hardest part of this offense, the same thing to defend, is Chris Godwin and even Jalen McMillan going in motion and creating weird matchups that you don't want, pre-snap, and I'm talking like right as the snap is happening, essentially. There's exit motions, there's stuff coming across, there's stuff where it's bunched, but Chris Godwin right now is the biggest beneficiary and he's making plays. The combination of Liam Cohen finding ways to get him open and then his natural ability taking over, he was really the only consistent threat for the Bucks in this game. Seven catches for 117 yards and 87.6 receiving grade. This is a very difficult offense right now to defend with Godwin playing like this. And Jalen McMillan is going to find more targets in future weeks because those two guys are very much involved in all of the motion and all of the pre-snap, the window dressing. And then you just have times when look, they know, they know when the adjustments are made and all of a sudden press man is coming, well then they'll just ISO Mike Evans and they'll just let it rip. But right now Liam Cohen's in his bag right now, honestly. And Godwin by the numbers has been the biggest beneficiary, but they are finding ways to utilize all their weapons. If he keeps playing like this, this is a really dangerous offense. - My most impressive player, I'll go to the other side for the Buccaneers, there's a corner max, I am a column. Again, we talked about how much he needed to step up this year, he stepped up in a big way. You saw that he was in the top five graded players that we had on this team. I mean, he's a freak right athletically, there's no doubt about it. Over six foot two, 200 pounds, 98th percentile, 40 yard dash, 95th percentile vertical jump, 97th percentile broad jump. But then you get into the agility stuff too, 99th percentile three cone, 98th percentile 20 yard shuttle. And let me tell you that stuff showed up on tape against the Detroit Lions. It's the reason why he got a pick and it's why he made so many other plays on the ball as well because he might not have the experience yet to be as in the hip pocket of receivers as he could be. But oh baby, when he sees it, he fires down field. He stops on a dime and he gets his long arms in there for forcing completions. And this dude could be an absolute gem for them. And I think we got a really good taste of that this past weekend against a good passing team in the Detroit Lions. So Zion McCollum is getting my shout out here. We got some breaking news that we're going to get to, even though we already talked about the Carolina Panthers. Yes, I see you in the chat. Yes, I see it on Twitter. We're going to get to it in a second. But you guys got to hang on because we got a word from our friends over at DraftKings. Whether it's a touchdown, a TD, a Tuddy, taking it to the house in for six, whatever you want to call it. One thing's for sure. 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Now, obviously this is no guarantee that Andy Dalton is going to be the starter for the rest of the season. But Dalton certainly opens the door and we talked about what kind of a head coach Dave Canales is going to be. And as a first time head coach, was he going to feel like he had the authority to really do what he needed to do to make the best moves for this team? And it's very clear that he does. Now, let's be very clear about this. He does not do this unless he talks to David Tepper himself and Tepper signs off on it. Or even Tepper's the one who suggests it 'cause he's tired of losing 'cause we know that he does not enjoy those things. What owner does? But what's your immediate thoughts here? Bryce is on the bench. It has looked very bad over the two years or sorry, one year and two games that he has played. What do you think happens here for Bryce? - In the immediate and why this is happening now, again, I was a fan of the School of Thought where it's like last year, leave it behind because they had so many issues. The problem now is through two weeks, it's exactly what I just mentioned in a clean pocket. He was only pressured 14% in this game and he still didn't make the throws. If you have a guy in a good environment, it's almost why Trevor, it's almost why PFF passing grade exists. Is to try to isolate, okay, just what type of throws and decisions are quarterbacks making in a somewhat independent variable sort of sense, right? 'Cause obviously everything's dependent in football. It's 22 dependent variables moving all at the same time on a football field. But if you're in a clean pocket and if you have something of an open receiver, somebody, you as a quarterback become a whole lot more independent and your own performance becomes a stable thing we can predict. Right now, with their offensive line playing better, and again, I'd have to go and check every single snap of the receivers to see it. I mean, I can't imagine with a better group with Deontay Johnson and with Adam Thelin and with Xavier Laguette and some decent type, I can't imagine everyone's blanketed on every single play. And to me, it doesn't look like it. I'm with you, it looks like he lacks for confidence. And if you lack for confidence, even when you're protected, it's a problem. If they give this protection that they gave yesterday to Andy Dalton, which was solid at the very least, right? And if he's only pressured 14% of the time, he's gonna be living. Right. Andy Dalton will play well. I know. 'Cause he's confident, he's a veteran, he's done it for, what, he's seen this 14th season now, I think it is? He's at 14th season. I think it's, when it's 2011, the kid? Well, he's had a couple of opportunities for multiple teams where he's been able to come in and play well. Yeah, one start last year, he was very good. Right. Andy Dalton will not go in there and lack for confidence. He never has. No. He's gonna go in there. No. And if they protect him like that, it's going to be, it feels like in these first two games, it's a more isolated Bryce Young problem now. Yeah, and, you know, Andy Dalton was never gonna sell tickets. Andy Dalton was never gonna sell a jersey sport. Guys named Dalton don't sell tickets. Okay, that's not where I was going. That's not where I was going. What are you making me out to be the bad guy out here? I've just had to throw it in. No. It's like the only Dalton. He's not selling season tickets. He's not selling jerseys. Bryce Young is the Heisman Trophy winner is the former Alabama quarterback is that sort of how you look at it from a face of the franchise perspective and how all this with quarterbacks gets very tricky because if you ask me, has Bryce Young ever been the best quarterback on the Carolina Panthers since he has been there? No, he hasn't because they've had Dalton the whole time. So at least I think they've had him the whole time. Last year. Yeah. Yeah, he was a whole time. I think he started in week two or three years. Okay. Yeah, he was a game that young missed. Yeah. So Bryce Young's never been the best quarterback on that roster at any point in time. Now you get a little bit dangerous because you're in the Zach Wilson thing like the Jets where we're going to bench him and then we bring him back and bench him and it's we're trying to place my college and I don't know and obviously like I don't want to be a hyperbolic prisoner of the moment because Dave Canales I think is going to be very open minded about this. Andy Dalton keep Andy on plays well and gives him a chance to win games. They're going to continue to go to him. If he does not, I don't think they're going to be afraid to go back to Bryce Young. But at that point are you in a Zach Wilson situation where you have already chosen a quarterback over him, Aaron Rodgers with Zach Wilson, and then Aaron Rodgers gets hurt and you got to throw Zach Wilson out there and it's so far gone. It feels like the most likely conclusion here is that Bryce is done in Carolina. I don't I again I don't want to be too prisoner of the moment. We very rarely see guys who get benched come back and then they're great usually usually it's something more like say Geno Smith or Sam Darnold or Baker where they go to another team elsewhere. Yes. So and it's it's no you're right. It's it's unfortunate that we have to sit here and ask long term questions about the Panthers in week two but that's where we're at because it's it's it's now an isolated variable with young. Protection's been fine they went and got weapons right and and Bryce like you said it looks like it's it's everything you said in in your stat it's he looks like he's afraid to throw the football right now. Yeah I just like it and if you're afraid if you're afraid to make a mistake look you have a Bryce Young and what number one overall and you mentioned Gardner Minchu before who was a six round pick and he's just not afraid of anything and that's pretty much his best trait. That's big that quarterback especially you got to be a brave soul to play that position and if you're not willing to at least take some sort of risk that's what it looked like this week just every ball went three yards and he just was unwilling to take the gamble of making any sort of mistake at all. You just can't have it. I feel bad man. Well I do too. I mean he's he's super talented. Everything we saw at Bama is in there somewhere but if you don't have the confidence that you don't think you can do it then you're probably not gonna quarterbacks at lack confidence don't get far. Yeah and you just got to clone Kyle Shanahan and just have like the six Kyle Shanahan's around league you know what I'm saying. There are. No but you know like you have a Kyle Shanahan and still like you know like he's still the king of his D Kyle you know he's the Kyle Shanahan. Although Kevin O'Connell whoo Kevin O'Connell I'm gonna tell you something about the next one. The next disciple we have in this game. What a beautiful transition that is here. Colts Packers we're going the same game. Absolutely. Okay all right. We'll talk plenty about Bryce Young obviously I think that as that situation goes on we'll dig into it a lot more but you guys are in the chat. Let us know do you think Bryce Young plays for the Carolina Panthers again or I think the way I should say it is is Bryce Young on the Carolina Panthers roster to start next season. That's what I want to know. Let me know in the chat. Green Bay Packers take the dub against the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 16 to 10 top five graded players on the Green Bay Packers as they were hosting this game Jovan Bowert up at the top of the list. Look at that rookie. I love to see it. 78.3. Running back Josh Jacobs next on the list 77.2 Romeo Dobb 74.4 at number 3 Dontavian Wicks at number 4 helping on my fantasy team. Thank you Mr. Wicks for showing up this season 73.9 at number 5 cornerback Jaylen or Jair Alexander excuse me 70.7 and then Malik Willa 69.6 did enough. We did enough Dalton flipping to the other side got the Indianapolis Colts will fries once again the top graded player. Now it wasn't the 93 overall grade that it was last week but 75.7 number two Grover Stewart at 73.6. Why receiver Alec Pierce is 72.8. Senator Ryan Kelly at a 72.7 and then Die oh oh day. Oh my gosh. Ode-ingbo. That's how you say it. There you go. Trapped. You paid to do this. 71.3 quarterback Anthony Richardson. Not great. 43.6. There's a gator. No okay. There he is. Look you got the first one early in the show. You didn't have to do that. What's your stat to tell the story. Alright so I know what I have in the sheet here is the time of possession of 40 minutes and 11 seconds. Pack or sat. I'm doing a mini switcheroo in you. Please do because my most impressive is pack or time of possession so I'll get to that. I have another one that I found that I like even more. Okay let's hear it. So you know you know we we watch games we're upstairs watching games I'm watching the jets we got red zone on we got eight million different things going and this game was like never on red zone because no one was ever in the red zone. It was just like hard after like the first quarter I all the sudden the packer game had like three minutes left and I was like oh I guess it's over okay and the packers won. Okay cool. This was the most fun tape watch I had this week. Went back going back watching it sequentially okay and I'm watching it and I'm watching it and I I was like what is this offense who is coaching this right because it didn't look like a Shanahan decide I thought Trevor for reference I was watching this and I was like I thought I was watching a Kansas State game from last Friday again and for reference here's where I'm going with this Kansas State and college runs more gap scheme runs than any team in the country. All of a sudden I'm looking at this I'm like why does this look like this Matt will floor the packers Shanahan thing they're a zone team. Last year they ran 36% of their run plays where gap runs all right not a particular high rate they're a zone team. In this game 58% Malik Willis went in there and they they changed their entire offense in a week and they're pulling guards and they're running counters and they're and they're influencing linebackers and they're running options with Willis like it's like in a week they built the perfect offense for Malik Willis and and then even the passing was just like listen dude we're we're gonna I saw up like one guy and you're gonna throw it to that guy okay we're not we're not making you do any full field nothing just just take a step and throw the football where we tell you to okay but this run game all of a sudden was a whole different it was a whole different thing than usual like we saw them in the game they play off against the Cowboys last year and it's just that same thing outside zone outside zone like Kyle Shanahan right right done forever what all 12 Shanahan coaches in the league do all the time right they changed the whole program they messed with everything the Colts thought was coming on defense and yes there is an element to it where physically they battered them obviously Josh Jacobs was spectacular 32 carries 151 yards six missed tackles just he was great the team at 261 rushing yards Malik Willis had a little bit of that but the scheme change and breaking tendency when I tell you Trevor they created like an entire new run playbook just for this game just for Malik Willis to get in there and run this I don't know if if LaFlore knows like a Chris Klimann the head coach at Kansas State or the some other college teams that I don't know if he knows these guys but it looked like he just went he went to school for a for like two or three days and learned every gap scheme triple option look and run that he could and they just battered the Colts with it all day and I could not believe what I was what this was for LaFlore I'm going to stick in the most impressive thing I'm just going to take both windows real quick LaFlore and I'm going to Jeff Halfley to new defensive coordinator big variable this year yep mixing up looks on defense and look over the last over his last four years at Boston College highest rate of single high defenses in the country okay big adjustment there he's more balanced with the Packers I was curious how he was if he was going to stay like that like he was in college the NFL is a different game and certainly different game than the ACC yep much more balanced it's much more even when it comes to single high and to high looks and it was a lot early in the game no matter what look they were in they knew long as we don't give up home runs Anthony Richardson we're just going to play this complimentary game right right we're going to manufacture what we can yeah we're going to make them manufacture what they can underneath the combination of this was the best coach game I've seen so far this year out of anybody it was spectacular yeah and I think that I mean that's that's the fantastic points the time and possession is what I wanted to point out because it's egregious it's like 41 minutes for the Packers and 40 to 20 yeah and 19 for the Colts yeah basically like 40 to 20 which is crazy I mean that that just means you are running the ball at will and I think my most disappointing what we can go all around here because it's just a couple of points I want to make my most disappointing was the Colts run defense because they missed 10 tackles this past week so they weren't helping themselves out in that regard but the Packers were also like you said kind of giving them a run flavor they weren't used to and I think that that's really really important in shows you got a good coach in that regard who is willing to do something like that and has the ability and the acumen to be able to adjust that also shows that you have the right roster in place for guys that are able to be flexible like that but so those are my most impressive my most disappointing kind of like went hand in hand with sort of what you were saying there. Status told the story though, Anthony Richardson's completion percentage to me 62.5 completion percentage in week two adjusted completion percentage so it takes drops into account and then just a 50% completion percentage last week when everybody was like oh I ended a Richardson you know it was just a 50% adjusted completion percentage last year the league average was 75% he's not even close he's not even close to it and the problem is is that I think Richardson's supremely talented he makes throws that very few quarterbacks can make but the league and defenses are trending in a direction that is very anti Anthony Richardson they're trending the much much more towards those quarter quarter half defenses that can defend deep really well the two or at least you know those two high deep safety looks that can defend that can defend those deep passes really well and they dare you to be patient enough to do something underneath and not only do I feel like Anthony Richardson doesn't see those throws as well he does not complete those throws well in order to beat these defenses in the way that Indianapolis would need to beat them you either need to run the ball at an incredibly high clip to start getting the defense to rotate safeties down and really be able to attack them over the top or you've got to be nickel and diamond them up the field so efficiently that they have to adjust somewhere and then you hit them over the top Richardson's game right now is not conducive to being able to do that and I'm really worried about the Colts because for as much as Richardson might give us some throws that are going to be some of the best throws that we have seen this year I don't know how much it's actually going to contribute to them winning football games because of where defenses and where the league is right now and what they are asking quarterbacks to do I completely agree look I think with Richardson it's it's a delicate balance between his talent and and being able to just complete passes like you and they ran the ball well considering they had the ball for less than 20 minutes they did well yes Jonathan Taylor but Jeff Halfley in the packers they didn't care we're going to keep go ahead handed off every play don't care right and the here's so here's here's the thing I like to do actually when evaluating college quarterbacks is the college game is so screen heavy and all that stuff I like to filter out completion percentage and take the screens out of it right because those are so you hit ninety nine to a hundred percent of them right now Richardson's completing only 46 percent of his non-screen passes alright and any time I found a quarterback that is hitting under 50 it's a huge problem okay and and just not being able to complete enough passes just to move the chains because you know you mentioned the time of possession we've talked about the packers run game the Colts four drives in the first half were three punts and a fun ball they they just don't keep the chains moving and the weird part is is I'm starting to think about this now the other thing to all get to his accuracy real quick 31.4 percent of his passes this year have been charted by PFF is uncatchable the second highest rate behind Bryce Young so you have a Bryce Young level of accuracy but obviously he's a way better athlete with a better arm who can stretch the field that's certainly Richardson's not fearless but in a game like this you have to move the chains the packers have chosen the pace that they want to play this game at you have to move the chains and keep them sustained drives and you can't have five turnover worthy plays so Richardson the part I'm struggling with is the most the highest bit of optimism for me is he has Shane Steichen great play caller right but a big one a huge part of Steichen's offense with the RPO's and the way it works is just getting first downs we saw that with Gardner Minshew last year the grades weren't particularly high but we're like okay why are they breaking the code and the grades being low but they're winning games they just get just enough for first downs Richardson doesn't have that in him right now to just be content to just take take not throw 105 mile an hour fastball yeah and just take just sustained drives there's so much of Steichen's offense that's just about sustaining drives and they don't do that so the time of possession thing works both ways for me in this game it's it's a legitimate question right now how they can sustain offense if he's only going to complete that that low a number of passes we've got we've already got some some Niners Vikings people in the chat we're getting to that next not immediately next we have a game on the on the on the sheet that we have to get to first but I'm just letting you know it's coming up so don't don't leave the Cleveland Browns at the Jacksonville Jaguars that's the one that we have next on the sheet Cleveland coming away victorious 18 to 3 another sort of stinker of an offense performance here for the Jags which I know we will get to on Cleveland side of things wide receiver Jerry Judy was the highest grade a player in 80.8 offense attack with the one Jones earned a 76.0 safety Ronnie Hickman with the 75.4 and then his running may rod him and Cleo the other safety 71.9 cam Mitchell with a 71.5 to round things out the Sean Watson 72.2 so a better week there for just Sean Watson on the flip side of things the Jacksonville Jaguars is Ed Druscher Joshua Heinz Allen elite 92.1 linebacker Devin Lloyd a 86.2 and then we start to drop off a little bit running back Travis GTN 74.8 at number three cornerback Ronald Darby at a 73.6 for you say a lewicone with their Ed Druscher 70.5 and then quarterback Trevor Lawrence with a 67.5 in this game. I think our stat that tells the story as I'm looking at the sheet now it's going to kind of go into one another but I'll start with you what is your stat that told the story here with this one being a Cleveland Browns low scoring victory in Trevor Bank Stadium Trevor Bank Stadium that's right and I think this offense I know they have Gabe Davis and they have Brian Thomas and they have Trevor Lawrence's huge arm but this is another one very much like the Colts we got to manufacture things sometimes and we know they struggle to run block and we know it's very inconsistent running the ball but this is a team right now not creating a whole lot after the catch not creating a whole lot themselves to move the chains look at and Trevor Lawrence he hit four deep balls four deep balls yesterday which is good but the highest average depth of target in his career at 13.4 yards and right now same thing as a cult if you're getting too home run dependent and you're playing a team like the Browns who are one of the better teams in the league at preventing explosive plays you have to manufacture it I think Trev Evan Ingram being called out of this game about an hour before the game that really hurt him because they need and I'm gonna roll this real quick into my most disappointing with it you have Davis and Thomas as the vertical threats right but a big big part of this offense along with ETN doing what he does in the backfield is Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram moving the chains on third down just those two creating the easy throws and there's not enough easy throws Christian Kirk had three targets with one catch for minus one yard and through two weeks he's got a 52 receiving grade they they can't win if they're just trying to swing for the fences all of the time they need Christian Kirk obviously I know Brenton Strange had a good game but he doesn't I think that was like a career game for him they the whole point of this is that you have Davis and Thomas deep and Kirk and Ingram underneath and right now with Ingram heart Kirk has to pick up that load and they're just as a team saying it's the same thing as the Colts to me they are just not creating enough first downs I get the big shots but you don't get big shots constantly especially on a defense like this Trevor Lawrence from one to 19 yards was six for 16 you just can't you have to you have to find ways to move the chains especially you've been mentioning it the way the defenses are sitting back getting first downs has to be a primary goal you don't need an 80 yards touchdown every play you know the frustrating thing I think for the Jags and look I'll put on my P I'll put on my coaching hat I'll put down my you know analytics hat and I'll pick up my coaching hat and I'll put it on just I'll say it because I think that this is true in this instance they just got to play better they've actually they have to execute better yeah do they have the perfect team on paper no and I think that there are things that you could point to and there's players that you could point to and say like oh this this person's got to play better and there's no doubt about it but the the frustrating thing for the Jags is that they have enough to win we saw them go on winning streaks even with last year but John Shipley pointed this out on Twitter they're one in seven in their last eight games going back to last year in those games they have scored 21 points only three times they just can't score and the problem is is that if it's not one thing it's the other if it's not the run game it's the passing game if it's not the blocking it's the receivers if it's not the receivers it's the run game if it's not the if it's not the blocking it's the quarterback the problem is is that it is always something which acts it's it's a theory I've had actually with the on the college show the Clemson Tigers where they have this this this problem where ten guys do their job and one doesn't and that's the one guy that that ruins the play and and the Jags you're right and here's here's my other thing too are they lacking I know it's a word that's used a lot are they lacking in identity like what what are the Jags they want to pass deep I want to be a vertical passing offensive team but you can't do that every play this isn't college like their teams in college I can do that every place better athletes what are they great at like I love Trevor Lawrence I do I think he's a top ten quarterback maybe even top eight he's as talented as any guy in the league but what what are we great at and like you mentioned what do we execute better than like like take the saints like okay we're great at play action and we're gonna we're gonna run it down your throat we're gonna get to play action and that's how we're gonna beat you like teams have an identity like you can point with most of them and go that's what they're great at I don't know if I was to say you'd be like what's the best thing about the Jags I'd be like okay I mean like Heinz Allen's really good and Lawrence is sometimes really good right but there's not like a full team thing I can't even think of the word for it that like an aspect of their team where you go that's what I'm afraid of is there an identity no no no and it's felt like that and look I looked up some of these things and and the more I looked up about the Jags offense the more frustrating I got because it's pretty even all across the board the offensive line has given up nine pressures this year that's 16th in the NFL okay it's dead even in the middle 127 rushing yards a 17th in the NFL passing grade is look it's a 60.8 which you might look at and be like okay that's really bad but passing grades around the NFL are really down so that's only 18th that's right around the middle their third down conversion right now 33% that's a little bit lower than the middle of the pack because I think the middle was 38% last year but it's like you have things there it's just that something goes wrong every time the Jags are either a team that is is immensely hot for six to eight games or they're terrible for six to eight games it it sort of feels like and it wasn't exactly to this extent but like you remember the New York Giants when they were going on their Super Bowl runs they were the poster child for this you don't have to be good the whole year just get hot in December that's all you need but you can't dig yourself too big a hole right now of course of course but that's the frustrating thing for Jacksonville is that they're capable of getting hot but they're just an extremely hot and cold team right now under Doug Peterson impressed Taylor is the offensive coordinator yeah it's just it again if it is not one thing it's another I see so many great people who do a good job covering this team on the Twitter timeline somebody will point out Anton Harrison struggling somebody will point out Trevor Lawrence struggling struggling somebody will point out Christian Kirk struggling somebody will point out Evan Ingram struggling somebody will point out Anton Harrison struggling and or Cameron Robinson struggling and it's the problem is that it's something different every single time there is there's just not continuity on this team and it makes you want to rip your hair out because that's so frustrating that something goes wrong every because we've seen the highs most impressive for me he didn't play a ton of snaps think you'll play eleven snaps in this game dealing with that shoulder injury is Denzel Ward but Denzel Ward's this is more of a nod to how well he has been playing all season when I say all season I guess I mean five quarters but he's been playing really really well you see this it's only eleven snaps he said he was sort of on a pitch count anyways ninety point four overall grade one pass breakup one reception allowed but like last week he had a really good week as well he's got an 82.4 coverage grade in the time that he has played already this season so he's my most impressive and my most disappointing I kind of got to it already it's just Doug Peterson impressed Taylor not being able to get the most out of this team but who's your most impressive here I actually went with the Browns quarterback to Sean Watson it was better it was at least better it wasn't it wasn't perfect they didn't work it down the field vertically very much but it was better and I was impressed at least with his ability under pressure to not make any big mistakes and understanding what type of game this is this is the type of game the Browns are going to need to win it's it's 18 to 13 we got a safety at the end where pressure and Lawrence our defense is winning the game but Watson under pressure 10 to 15 for a hundred four yards and a big time throw that that was the part because there were moments in this game where he could have caved and he hung in there is it great yet absolutely not but it's certainly better than we've seen in the last several games from Watson better than last week for sure he at least you know what if they have to win run on the ball and defense and playing games like this and being the same type of game manager say that I don't know what Justin Fields is for Pittsburgh right now then so be it I think again we've talked about the days of superstar to Sean Watson are probably gone but if we can play like this he at least gives him a chance they keep running empty protection like he's a superstar because they run more empty protection than any team in the NFL that's why it was under pressure so much and they don't have the most stable offense it's actually safe they gotta they gotta figure that part out the 49ers at the Minnesota Vikings Vikings getting a huge home dub in this one 23 to 17 hell of a start this season for the Minnesota Vikings we'll start with them address your Patrick Jones a second my man I liked him coming out of the draft 88.6 on the day center Gary Bradbury and 84.4 Blake Cashman their linebacker at an 80.9 Justin Jefferson is 79.8 Christian Darrasaw rounding it out at number five with a 78.1 Sam darling 69.5 pretty nice there for him San Francisco 49ers their linebacker Fred Warner had one of the best games you'll see from a linebacker he he was honestly the the sole reason this game this game could have been a blowout dude he he looked like Derek Brooks out there yeah if without Fred Warner I think Minnesota wins this game by 17 he was insane 95.8 overall grade in this game just unbelievable best linebacker in the NFL and he proved it again this past weekend cornerback the Amador Lenore 81.8 offensive tackle Trent Williams with an 80.5 and number three Nick Bosett number 4 78.5 Titan George Kittle with a 78.3 at number five and then Brock Purdy a 61.2 on the day thought what is your staff that told the story here from this one it's about Brian Flores blitzing Brock Purdy and do you see the pretty clip afterwards uh no what a party literally goes up to it while they're doing you know the handshakes and everything midfield or whatever and he goes up to Flores and he like pats him on the shoulder and he goes your scheme is crazy man and it's just it's just it was blowing up because I thought that that was just very genuine from Brock Purdy because he's like his team lost so he's obviously bummed but like he's smiling and laughing because he could not believe what he was seeing and it's Brian Flores defense at its best how the Vikings won this game last year too right and Brian Flores not only is it crazy it's crazy and not consistent week to week and and you don't know what you're going to get so first of all Brock Purdy versus the blitz I got him at a 48.4 passing grade with two turnover worthy plays okay that that's that's where this game was won is as the game went on late in the game especially Brian Flores just kept sending just kept sending him because that's what he does he's a pressure type of defensive coordinator but it was a little bit different than in the game last year last year and last year's Vikings team they were in a ton of zero I mean they sent seven guys all six and seven guys all of the time I mean you don't know which seven you could have the entire defense line up on the line of scrimmage and you don't know which ones are coming and not this was a little bit different it was blitz heavy but it was like light blitz heavy I don't think is that like light heavyweight like in boxing anyway you're making up terms and letting you roll it making up terms right now but this year he went more of like zone blitz and five man rush and just making the Niners block one-on-one and it wasn't awful upfront but there were enough moments where Purdy could feel it right it was really more I don't think the Niners O line was terrible in this game by any means I think they had a decent game weren't as dominant as last week for sure but um Brock Purdy could feel it he could feel that heat but I also don't know that he read so well that it wasn't just constant zero blitz like last year where you just had seven guys coming and four in man coverage and that's that's easy to see this was much more zone blitz dropping six kind of mixing it up rotating some pry and floraz even though because on the surface well yeah he's gonna blitz a lot but the way he blitzed in this game was a hell of a lot different than it was in last year's game because he knew you already know if you come out against Kyle Shanahan and even Brock Purdy with the same looks twice in a row they're gonna kill you they're gonna find a way right and floraz mixed up the looks and it was really the difference in the game for this Viking defense yeah and my most disappointing was um just to piggyback off that it was Purdy in this game but it was you know you talk about the blitz and the pressure that that Brock Purdy had to deal with Purdy wasn't even seeing the feel correctly when there wasn't any pressure he had three turner worthy plays in this game which was the second most in the league for this week none of them were when he was pressured yeah none it was none of his three turner worthy plays it was just him like if you watch him like some there were plays in the pocket like those where he's in the pocket and it's it's almost the oh ironically the old Sam Darnell seeing ghost thing like it's like he felt like he could like he had to rush but they weren't actually right like floraz just made him feel like he had to move fast now one of them it's incredible to be fair to Purdy like one of his turner worthy plays he threw the ball and it like slipped out of his hand and oh yeah yeah like technically that has to count as a turner worthy play because it ended up being a turner worthy play um but even the other two I watched him this morning and he just there's not really pressure around him not that they're not that the pocket is perfect but it's not legit pressure and he just throws it into danger both times because he wasn't expecting the defenders to be there so that is there uh most impressive for me is Fred Warner through two games 95.8 defensive grade to lead all defensive players in the NFL just an absolute monster and my staff that told the story in this one Vikings offensive lineman they are we thought that this was a good group going into the season they are proving to be one of the best offensive lines in the season 80.4 overall grade this year which is fourth highest in the NFL ninth in the league in terms of pressures yielded before three seconds so you know like understandable once you get the reason why we do that is because once you get past three seconds it's like okay if you give up a pressure after three seconds quarterback kind of has to get rid of the ball at that point like you just it's sort of a broken play it's not exactly how you drew it up as they say so that Vikings offensive line I think is the stat that tells the story because every week including against a really good 49ers defensive line they were up to the task and as long as that offensive line is playing the way they are in run blocking and past blocking very clearly they can compete with anybody. I'm gonna match up with that with my most disappointing then I'll go back to impressive the 49ers run defense and I mentioned to you in our 49ers preview that since uh Tallanoa Hufanga got hurt last year this run defense has not been the same and in the interior if you're gonna attack this of this 49er defense anywhere it's in the interior had a 52.9 team run defense grade this week and their defensive tackles combined for a 38.1. I love Jovan Hargrave and some of the guys they have in their Malik Collins but they're they're they lean towards the past rush they do if if you want to hit this niner defense you run right down the pipe on them it showed in the second half of last year after Hufanga was out it showed even against the lions in the NFC title game it was a part of that second half against the lions where for some reason they stopped running the ball you want to beat the Niners you go right at them in the run game preferably away from both seconds he's obviously really good and Warner's great on the second level but those guys mask what what is has been a weakness lately for this niner team in the middle and then but my most impressive honestly it won't show in that overall grade that we showed there for Sam Donald yeah baby it's playing fantastic football it is let me tell you his greatest drag down a bit by a couple of plays two fumbles one where there was like a broken run play actually where the motion was mistimed and and he tried to like toss it back to I think it was Aaron Jones and it ended up a fumble and it that kind of goes another one where he was scrambling and he fumbled like literally a foot before the sideline and it went down as a fumble out of bounds those two plays are dragging the grade down if I'd say when I take those two out his grades actually an 83.3 which against this defense and the way they play really damn good after the game he had last week Sam Donald you mentioned Kevin O'Connell he is so comfortable right now between the past protection O'Connell's play calling I kind of compare this to like it's almost like O'Connell's the point guard and he's setting up he's setting up a great shooter with open shots he's given Donald a lot of open shots right now and he's and he's hitting it all his first reads or off the charts they're hitting down field this isn't just Sam Donald coming out here throwing screens so far a 91.2 passing grade on 10 plus yard throws through two games extremely impressive fourth in the NFL yeah extremely they're throwing downfield but the everything is in sync I can't I've never especially in New York I've never seen Sam Donald with this level of comfort and this level of just knowing okay get to the top of my drop here's my read here's my high low or here's my matchup or yeah or just sometimes just throw it to Jefferson because that's what we do and just do it and just go he's doing everything with conviction if you take out those two fumbles he played a spectacular football game again and honestly it feels early like we were dead wrong on the Vikings being being so sure of the Vikings being in last place because of the way he's playing and O'Connell O'Connell is probably one of the five best play callers in the league no he's one of the best I coached in the NFL and I think he's proving that this year certainly but doing more with less it felt like but I it feels even you know bad to say that because the roster is still talented and they're just maximizing it to be honest with you appreciate everybody listening to part one of the show make sure you click on part two wherever you are listening to this podcast this is a mini meditation guided by bombous repeat after me I'm comfy comfy I'm cozy cozy I have zero blisters on my toes listers and that's because I wear bombous the softest socks underwear and t-shirts that give back one purchased equals one donated now go to bombous.com/listen and use code listen for 20% off your first purchase that's b o m b a s dot com slash listen and use code listen at checkout
