Grant and Danny

Bengals CB Sounds Off on Commanders Offense; Kingsbury Takes Blame for McLaurin's Production; NFL Week 3 Headlines

9.20.24 Full Show (Short Show Due to Nats @ Cubs)

1:00- Bengals Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt had some interesting things to say about the Commanders offense when speaking to the media this week. Grant & Danny breakdown what his comments mean, and hear Kliff Kingsbury's reaction to it.

20:00- Commanders OC Kliff Kingsbury spoke to the media on Friday and took blame for the lack of production for WR Terry McLaurin through 2 games. Can Kingsbury scheme up more targets for their #1 wideout?

43:00- Grant & Danny close out the week by predicting the headlines from every Week 3 matchup in the NFL.

Broadcast on:: 21 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

This summer, get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted at the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Get the hottest deals of the season on many of our award-winning Hyundai models, which all come with America's best warranty. But get going, because these deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Now for a limited time, get 1.99% APR for 60 months on the Hyundai Tucson or Elantra. Hurry into the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Offers end September 3rd. Call 562-314-4603 for details. Good Friday afternoon and welcome into Grant and Danny on a football Friday for this next hour and a half on the fan. We will be giving away tickets to the HF Festival tomorrow at Nationals Park right at six o'clock. And we've got tickets to the caps 50 fest. We'll give those away when we say goodbye just before six 30. Danny, how are you? We're good. We're doing well, my friend. We're going to pack four and a half hours worth of stuff in about 90 minutes. We'll do our best. Some stuff might not make the cut, but we'll do our garden this year. We'll endeavor to persevere. We're like starting pitchers who normally get five or six minutes and a hundred innings, I should say, and a hundred pitches. And we're going to jam it into one frame and just throw gas. We're going to rest our game style 98 miles an hour with nasty slide pieces. We're going to try to make it work on Grant and Danny. Nothing but spicy takes for me for the next five minutes. Like a whole show's worth now. Why don't we start with Cameron Taylor Britt of the Cincinnati Bengals. He's becoming a bit of a heel. This is a young defensive back. He's very talented, but Cameron Taylor Britt, who had a monster interception this past week against the Chiefs. I'm sure you've seen the highlight of the play. It was a one-handed grab along the sideline. Last week, he was going up against rookie receiver Xavier Worthy and he was asked about him going into the game and he said, well, he could just run straight. He's fast. He doesn't run routes. I'm not particularly impressed. I was like, you don't really need to say that. But okay, I guess if you want to challenge him after he's coming off two touchdowns. And in the game, Xavier Worthy had two catches for sub 30 yards and Cameron Taylor Britt had an interception. So he backed up the check that his mouth wrote, so to speak. I guess he wanted to make it two straight weeks because yesterday in the locker room, when addressing the commanders, he said they run a college offense, said he's not particularly scared of Jaden Daniels going down the field. Here's more of what Cameron Taylor Britt had to say about the Washington commanders. The cliff notes of what he just said there, because it's loud in the locker room. These are direct quotes. They don't make him do a lot. They keep it really simple for him. They run a college offense. He reiterates. They keep it really simple. I heard he had a high pass percentage, but it's just short, quick throws. Now, nothing that he said in and of itself statistically can be argued necessarily, but it's still, I would say that there is a pejorative when you say that the NFL team is running a college offense, which we talk about this on the show. The offenses on Saturday and Sunday are blending together. It used to be years ago that you didn't see teams running spread 11 personnel and empty and throwing the ball at the line of scrimmage a ton. But what you see all weekend on Saturday in the college game is now becoming more and more prevalent in the NFL game. And there's some truth to. Yeah, it's a very sideways passing offense because the quarterbacks running and they're doing some RPO type stuff. It is collegey, gimmicky. If you want to call it that, I don't think people should take offense because it isn't really a pejorative. I know it's, it's like game manager. Oh, you're saying I manage the game? Well, you jerk. How dare you say that? That's kind of what this is to me. They are running an offense. So it was 2012 and Washington was number one in yards per play, by the way, that you see more on Saturdays than Sunday so far. And to that, I say good, smart, Cliff Kingsbury is getting his young quarterback comfortable in a way that's allowing them to protect the football and they get off to a decent start. Maybe the bear should take a page out of his book. You know, maybe the Broncos should do more of the things that Cliff Kingsbury is doing because those two young guys making the transition haven't done so as smoothly with their more pro style offense, if you will. Yeah, I remember speaking of 2012. I remember I think it was Rex Ryan's twin brother Rob who said talking about facing Washington. Yeah, we did a good job against some of the college stuff and then we went on. Yeah, and everyone kind of went, what? Oh my God. And I said, yeah, that's, that's where it's based. They implemented stuff that was being done in college at the program. There is, I think you said it very well. There's a condescension that people either think is implied or inferred when someone says college stuff, right, where like, I remember, you know, if you're playing in college, you go, yeah, that's high school, that's high school type stuff. And you look down on, you look down on the level that's below you. And maybe that maybe that's how we met it. Maybe that's how we met. Hey, this is kind of gimmicky. My response is pretty much what else. Let's see what happens on Monday. I do think he was being condescending. I do too. And here's, here's what reminds me of, you know, like, if I need to lose a little bit of weight, fine, if I say that. But when someone that I that I'm not friends with or not close to is like, dude, you're fat. It's like, whoa, you don't get to say that. We'll say that. We're, we're here. We're in town. We're going, Hey, here's what they're doing. It's a smart plan. They're spoon feeding. They're running some stuff to make him comfortable. They're getting them easy completions. They're letting him use his athleticism to threaten the defense. We haven't gone down the field yet. Maybe that's coming. That's paraphrasing what he just said. Like we get to do it and feels like when the opponent does, and we're like, Oh my God, I didn't, it was really bothered by your sisters always late to everything. Okay, constantly never shows up on time. And the joke in the family is, well, you know, she'll be here an hour after it starts. And then for the first time, like your girlfriend makes the joke or, you know, one of the, the in-laws, so to speak, then the silverware drops is like, and you're like, no, no, no, that's Arthur. Yeah, you don't get to, it seems different when you say, but yeah, I do think, especially because this is the heel that the guy trying to play villain on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the locker room, when he meets with the media, who went in on Xavier Worthy last week. But I think because he played the way that he did, shut him down, played a big game, and he had the interception of the year. Did you see the pick? Yeah, it was a one-handed grab. Stupid play. Looked like an Odell Beckham-like snag, basically reaching across his body, outstretched, bringing the ball in with just the one hand. It was a beautiful play. He was the talk of the game. So I think he feels maybe empowered a little bit. But I got to tell you, I've seen a lot of commanders fans taking issue with his comments or taking offense. And I would say find something else to be offended by, like find another thing that someone's saying about Washington to waste your time on. Because so what if it's a college offense? If it's effective, who cares? And through two games, in terms of EPA and just moving the football and getting into the red zone and having chances to go get points, it has been very effective. Yeah, the offense is that they're the largest underdog of the weekend. The offense is that nationally, and everybody's power rankings, they're in the upper 20s. You know, like this, this is, and by the way, I think that's probably accurate. You know what I mean, you want to be up, but heard about something that this one that didn't raise to that. I just also think even in the times where he wasn't trying to be condescending, some of the things he said are correct. Like, I was listening to the junkies this morning, and somebody had called in and was like, Jay Daniels has completed 75% of his passes. When's the last time we've had a quarterback complete 75% of his passes? And the junkies were like, yeah, it's been a while. There wasn't an acknowledgement though that he is throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage at a rate that far exceeds that of any quarterback here too, which is why they're completing 75% of their passes, which is again, not a knock. It seems to have worked to an extent so far, and it's what's happening all over the league with how defenses are playing. But that doesn't mean it's not a factor. And that's what Cameron Taylor Britt was saying. The quote was, he's got a high passing percentage, but it's all short, quick throws. Okay. Kingsbury was asked about this in his press conference today. This is what he had to say about the Taylor Britt comments on his offense. A Bengals corner said that the offense here looked simplistic, like a college offense. I wonder if you heard that and if you have any thoughts on that? I did not, but yeah, I mean, he's entitled his opinion. I kind of like that answer. Me too. Because you didn't take the bait, first of all, and I don't mean from Sam of the Post as much as from Taylor Britt himself, where you start saying, Oh, this isn't a college offense. Here's why it's a pro offense. There's, there's no time for that. You're a grown up. Someone can say something they want to say that's in your opinion, if it is disrespectful. But what I would have said, if I was Cliff Kingsbury, and that answer was perfect is a lot of college concepts in this offense. We just drafted a guy with the greatest college season of all time. Heisman Trophy winner with 50 touchdowns and four picks. And we think a lot of the things he did last year are going to work in the national football league. Oh, by the way, my job right now is to make him comfortable, get him off to a fast start. And we've done that better than anybody else with a young quarterback. So we feel pretty good about some of the college stuff that we're running white right now. And we'll see how the Bengals deal with it. But his answer was also perfect because you could hear, just grab his answer, Daris, without the question for me, if you would, you could hear his disdain and his annoyance for the critique from Taylor Britt, even for the question to an extent. And it was kind of that, I'm above this. I don't care about that question. And it's the right way to do it. Yeah, keep your petty nonsense to yourself. You could say whatever you'd like to say. You could call me names. That's fine. The pressure isn't on because Cam said so. I mean, the pressure isn't on because Cam Taylor Britt opened his mouth about the team. It's the NFL. There's plenty of pressure on Cliff Kingsbury wants to be a head coach again, wants everyone to know that his offense works. Oh, no, the quarterback of my week three opponent to criticize my offense or said something condescending about it. I'm sure every opponent every week is going to do something similar, whether privately or publicly, I got, I got plenty of pressure. I don't need that. This was Kingsbury's answer again. Um, I did not, but, um, yeah, I mean, that's he's entitled his opinion. Dismissive. Yeah. Right. What do you do it? Don't have the time for him. I love that. Now, I don't believe for one second that he didn't hear the comment because even if he hadn't, as of getting ready for that press conference today, the PR staff would have 100% in preparing him for the press conference said, Hey, one of the questions you're going to get is about this comment from Cameron Taylor Britt who said that you're running a college offense and they don't ask Jaden Daniels to do much and they're going to ask you about that. And so they game plan. How do we want to answer that? And maybe it was as simple as Cliff saying, I'm not getting involved in that. I mean, you could have, you could have answered, well, man, that's, that's tough to hear. We'll still play the game on Monday. Anyway, we'll still be there to try to try to beat them. Taylor Britt, by the way, might be strategically making this comment too. Talking about as he would go on, like the lack of shots down the field and some of the ease of the throws and how safe everything is underneath, he's probably wanting to force Washington to prove him wrong in a way. There's a little bit to me of a, like a boxer in a, the build up to a fight. Interesting. Trying to get into their heads a little bit. Knowing you're saying this to all the cameras, it's going to be a story. It's going to be something that's talked about in both markets. So what's the best way forward for you, if you're Taylor Britt, is probably to set the trap, put the cheese out there to try to beat us down the field, which so far has not been these straight. I would love for you guys to drop back of this offer. Yeah, and do that. Maybe he gets hit. You know, maybe you get some sacks. It gets them out of what they've been pretty good at offensively, which is getting the ball out of Daniels hand and protecting him. But also, we don't know who's going to be the guy to get open down the field. McClure is the one guy that's run free a couple of times, but I think the Bengals would probably rather you take those shots to generate the takeaways that Daniels has avoided. Daniels is zero interceptions to this point is based mostly on not forcing the football. And if you want to go out there to prove him wrong and go throw for 300 yards and light it up down the field a little bit, everything looks different this week, especially the chances they'll have to get their hands on the ball. This is a guy coming off of an interception who's pretty opportunistic on the back end. So I don't know if I'm giving him too much credit for playing chess here, but I think some of it might be if you're going into a fight and you know that their style is like just staying inside and jabbing, jabbing, jabbing. Like if I'm going to fight Floyd Mayweather, be like, you know what he can't do is hit me with a haymaker. He can't wind up and leave himself open and knock me out. You just call him out for what it is, which I think is what he did. He basically was like, yeah, he's going to run around the ring. I'm never going to land a punch. He's going to never land anything that's impactful against me, but it'll win on points. That's his game. And if he really wants to get into a real fight, let me know. We could do that kind of thing. And so what Floyd Mayweather was the best ever at not taking the bait. You know, he's just like, yeah, he's right actually. I'm going to do that and win on the cards and everything's going to be fine. Every time for a long time, if you're Jayden Daniels, do you listen? Do you let it get in your head? Do you try to prove them wrong? Or do you just go out and play the much more boring passing game that has gotten you to the point where you're doing better than bonyx and Caleb Williams so far? Game script dependent, right? I mean, they love to just play their game, I think. Is that available to you? That that means the defense got a couple stops. It means since that his offense didn't get rolling with tee Higgins looking like he's going to be back in the fold. And Jamal Chase now with a couple of games and some practices under his belt. If they could stop since that his offense ever and keep this within a score or two, you get the full menu, I think. But if you've got to drop back and spin it a little bit, I don't think it votes. Well, I'm hoping that there's at least some modicum of improvement on that side of the football for them just so we can see some of these things on the offense. Because I am not interested in the game right now where they drop back and throw it 40 times and everybody knows I don't really know still what the Bengals defense is because they played an awful Patriots offense. And we saw them last night against the Jets score three points and just look ugly start to finish. But they also played, you would think a good Chiefs offense. The problem with that is that Kansas City does not really look that great yet. They basically are what they were last year where Travis Kelsey's done nothing through two games. They lost Isaiah Pacheco in that game against Cincinnati with a pretty serious injury. So now they're going back to the well and kind of figuring out how do we move the football with somebody other than Rishi rice catching. And so I don't know how much the Bengals have been tested, but for what it's worth so far defensively through two games, they are the number eight defense and yards per play in the NFL. They're number six against the pass. They're number 16 against the run, which is where I think Washington might be able to stay in the game and do some damage. That's Jaden Daniels with his feet, but it's also Brian Robinson coming off a career high 133. That's Austin Echler who's averaging almost five yards per carry. The Bengals have also been willing to take some chances on the back end. And while they've given up a few plays like a 45 yard touchdown to rice, they have the seventh highest interception rate in the league. So this will be the first time Daniels is really going up against one of these all or nothing type secondaries, but they've picked off about 4% of passes to this point. They haven't been great at getting to the quarterback. They're 23rd and sacks per pass attempt, but they've been much better at generating takeaways. So I'm intrigued to see how that goes. Yeah, I don't have a great field for what this defense is just yet. Two years ago, in 22, when everybody was healthy and good, they were nasty. Top five, six in the league and in some of the categories, some advanced ones, etc. Last year fell off quite a big deal. I don't know how much of that is chasing games, no, Joe burrow, you know, a lot of three and outs, you know, who knows exactly what it was for them. But early on, as you said, a horrible Patriots offense, they didn't lose that first game because their defense was bad. And you know, then kind of Kansas City in a bit of a rock fight. I think that defense is good enough to disrupt Washington at times because I don't think this is a while old machine just yet. I don't think it's as good as it's going to be in a month or two months and said, I'm talking about Washington's offense. So to me, you know, obviously I'm looking at Trey Hendrickson, who's got two sacks and is a force, you know, they're going to probably move him around a little bit and find some of those vulnerable spots in the old line if there are some to harass and harangue. But you know, listen, if you can have a similar recipe to what you did this past week, I don't think you get 230 rushing guards again, come on. But thump a little bit, get the ball early to Austin Echler in some space, get a couple of first downs, move the chains. Even if you don't score, just have something where you're moving the football a little bit, and you're in the game. I think the longer that happens, the better for them. He's Danny. I'm Grant. This is the fan on a football Friday getting on the air late today because of the matinee for the Nationals as they lost at Wrigley Field. Although it was good to see Trevor Williams back on the mound as he finishes out his two year contract and hits free agency in the off season. He was very good again. Five solid innings with seven strikeouts and that 420 foot home run from James Wood was a thing of beauty. When he lifts the ball, pull side, look out in the bleacher stays hit. It's coming in hot and that was a gorgeous swing for James Wood at Wrigley Field on a day where the wind was coming in and nobody lifting the ball was getting it into the seats in right field until he did all of our baseball coverage. And there was plenty of it today on the fan presented by T-Mobile, switch to T-Mobile, and you can get tons of benefits and still save on every play against AT&T and Verizon. Use their savings calculator to find out how at T-Mobile dot com slash switch. Speaking of Cliff Kingsbury, you heard from him already on the show. He was asked today about usage for Terry McClellan and he blamed himself from McClellan's lack of production at this point. I want to get into that next right here on the fan. Plug in a Hyundai EV and the extraordinary happens. It's not just the ultra fast charging capability in long range in the Ionic 5 and Ionic 6 or the adventure seeking spirit of the Kona Electric or the groundbreaking 601 horsepower Ionic 5N. And it's not just the comfort in knowing that every Hyundai EV is backed by a 10 year, 100,000 mile limited electric battery warranty. Hyundai's EVs transform a low hum into a loud adventure. 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As we're going just into our second you know full lap together there'll be more ops for him than we need them to be. What you don't want to do is force the ones that aren't there and make sure even though in a certain route he may be the primary read but if that one's taken away that you don't force that one and go to somewhere else I really respect that about Jaden of making good processing decisions. Sometimes you have a play design that's you know going to go to one place and it's not there so the worst thing you could do is try to force something in that's not there and so I'm pleased that we're not doing that. Do we want to get them involved man you bet in the biggest way and so the catch and run opportunities I thought we had you know one or two chances that we didn't go as way when we had a penalty on that I thought on a trap pass I think Nick might have been down the field on a slant that was going to be a big place that one doesn't count as one of the targets to go. Dan Quinn with the media yesterday we're granting Danny welcome back with a rookie quarterback leading the way the local football team has a bright future. It's time for you to plan your future as well. The exclusive sponsor of our show the law firm Condoria and Murad can help update your last will and testament set up a trust for you and your family schedule a free consultation with our estate planning attorneys today visit kmloyers.com tell them we sent you to get a discount that's kmloyers.com gnd live all over the fan DC and Richmond in the DMV and in the capital of Virginia we're also streaming live on video on the one oh six seven the fan youtube page so Cliff Kingsbury today was talking Terry McClellan as well because there's no mistaking the fact that while there was progress going from four targets to eight targets weeks one to two catches jumped from two to six he went from 17 yards to 22 yards he averaged 3.7 yards per catch. It's unbelievable. I'm serious I don't think I've ever seen a legitimate stud NFL receiver go six for 22. I mean that's what like Lorenzo Neil in the mid 90s would do like a 280 pound fullback just to show that you were gonna throw it in a bad game yeah he probably wouldn't get six looks only average in 3.7 a pop but I get the point in fact I was joking about this in the break but I'm I'm actually dead serious I would rather not catch a pass then go six for 22 because if it didn't get you pass it just means you didn't throw it to me six for 22 that's just an embarrassing kind of yards per catch and I'm not blaming McClellan I mean it's a situational complete system wide failure but Kingsbury was asked about McClellan's slow start here's what the offensive coordinator had to say today yeah I mean defense corners are smart they're gonna try to take him away there's no doubt and you know that's that's my job to find ways to answer that and so far I haven't done a great job of it and you know as a staff and me we got to be better moving forward so first and foremost I appreciate him blaming himself and the candor of saying I've got to be better we're just gonna say that I love that so much I love that it's comfortable in his own I love that was been a head coach before like I thought that answer was actually pretty awesome for agreed 100% because now who knows I'm not ascribing anything here but he could absolutely be thinking yeah that dude ain't that good and it's not worth me bending and breaking every rule of my offense just trying to force me the guy the ball is not explosive anymore he could be thinking that he could also be thinking exactly what he said or anything in between but what you do the sign of leadership is you go I need to do a better job that's my job and I haven't done a good job just yet I love that you a more realistic one than him thinking maybe he's not that good he could easily say guys he was wide open on a plate yeah there you go out of half time we drew it up on the whiteboard in the locker room at halftime in Tampa we came out we got the look we wanted everything played out beautifully Terry dusted a guy and we missed him he didn't do that that would have been a 70 yard touchdown how much different would his numbers look right now if in week one it was three four eighty seven with a touchdown and then last week was last week you know he'd still be in the top 15 or so in the NFL and receiving yards just based on that one catch but he didn't mention that he didn't mention yeah I had him behind everyone on a post against Tampa where he was wide open when jadon scrambled don't do that there's no reason to you don't have to call out the quarterback or the decision making or anything else it's just wear it I got to do better I thought that was awesome but what I will say is the first part of that answer when you tell me defensive coordinators are trying to take him away this is the one that I never love when chase young's dad called into the radio show that day people still bring this up to me all the time he called in and his point was basically chase is getting double teamed all the time chase is getting chipped all the time which statistically was not accurate anyway and I'm not trying to knock his pops who's seemed like a really nice guy and had a very respectable conversation and stayed on the line and was very very cool but he was defending his son I got a son I would have done the same thing my point is just number one that wasn't accurate like he didn't get doubled a lot but in a world where he did the rebuttal to that would be you don't think tj watt gets doubled you don't think picture my scare he's on the scouting report has to fight the chip and the double and the extra attention if you're really really good that doesn't matter that much into the terry mcclorn's getting attention from coordinator's point to get more attention than tyree kill who found a way for go over 1800 yards last year cd lamb 1750 imamara saint brown 1500 pukonakua as a rookie 1485 I'll bet you when teams played the eagles they said aj brown's their most dynamic play we should focus on trying to stop him 106 for 1456 the bears last year at dj more and me and you running around at receiver 96 for 1364 and eight touchdowns single-handedly beat washington when they knew all week long he was the guy they had the defend so my point is while yes i'm sure he's getting some extra attention one of two things is an easy response to that ai i'm sorry about that yep now what like figure that out which he's saying we got to do second is then somebody else needs to be feasting who is it who's it going to be and if the answer is now that noah brown's here we got a guy that can actually do that you saw in the second half the game great that i'm looking forward to big numbers from noah brown but if he's getting so much attention which when i watch the games i don't necessarily see it that way it's not like he's being doubled constantly he's actually opened down the field from time to time but let's just hypothetically say that's true then there's really no good excuse why the ami brown can't give you something why you haven't been able to get luke mccaffery going why you haven't been able pre noah brown in the second half to really throw the ball to a wide receiver to do anything unless it's it's not designed to go to those guys and what i mean is if the if the point if what they're we don't know what's being coached we don't know what's being told to j.n. specifically hey here zacker it's hey here austin ecker hey here it's brian robinson they're gonna clear some space out where's the easiest throw for you let's let's not go broke taking a profit um or it could be hey man we're gonna start let's start to see these things let's start to see luke mccaffery we've got to open on seven of eight routes with some good separation this past week hey let's see terra mccorn when he's breaking down the field as you said a couple times having beaten some folks so to me this is this is one of those it's still incomplete i'm worried i'll say that i'm concerned that our run of thousand art seasons from bacorn to start his career here in washington might be coming to an end i'm worried that we may not have the same star who was toiling with uh you know the beyond bad quarterback play and mediocre coordinating for all these years i'm worried we don't have the same thing but i'm not slamming the gavel to shout i'm not declaring it over i am concerned though so i'm asking questions i think it's fair to have a conversation as we grow in this offense we like i'm having something to do with it as daniels and and everybody else because you're a welcome meeting so you and cliff and terry and jadon are going out to dinner tonight yeah you know where it's like we're wrong you guys got the dc prime yeah i don't be like you know what we should do is get the ball to us and echo more thanks guys i'll i'll you guys pay for the check you make more than me but you know like what this offense is now if everything goes according to plan and nothing ever does it sports but if we progress at all it's not going to look the same in six weeks it shouldn't right so if if we're still doing this three weeks from now we're going yeah mcclaurin had seven targets for 30 yards you're going oh my god like something is a miss so where i'm nervous about mcclaurin is is less about himself or or usage like how they're deploying him and it's more about the trend of the offense is that they're not throwing to receivers down the field now it's a very very small sample so i am leaving open the possibility that it's been two games and we don't know anything yet i'm actually hoping that's the case but the league on average targets wide receivers behind the line of scrimmage 11 percent of the time that's rpo's screens bubbles smokes the easy layup stuff jadon daniels is targeting receivers behind the line of scrimmage 38 percent of the time so i don't think this is a cliff kingsberry thing in the sense of i'm not getting him involved you can't get him much more involved than it did last week the first play of the game they threw a screen to him they might as well have walked it over and handed to him they lost a couple yards they did it early in the second half as well he got eight targets six catches neither of those things is bad by the way six catches 17 times in a season is a 100 catch year eight targets 17 times in a season you know it's basically how much he was targeted last year when they threw the ball every down almost 140 targets the problem is the yards and the yards we have not seen him catch just the traditional terry mcclaurin staples very often he caught that slant but he got draped on his back that's what he does he had one targeted dig where he kind of got hit really awkwardly i thought they actually could have thrown a flag for you know one of those crunch hits and with you and it was one of the only contested throws frankly that we've seen daniels kind of make and one of the only middle of the field throws we've seen them make they didn't convert it actually loved the idea i love to throw giving terry a chance a lot of people look at it and go oh that was dangerous i look at it and go oh let's do this more of this please this is what the nfl is but it's been mostly just behind the line of scrimmage around the line of scrimmage stuff so if you turn that into seven or eight by making a guy miss that's still kind of the ceiling that's how you get to a 4.9 yards per reception average they just got to hit on one or two of the deep downfield things and it balances everything out and they haven't yet right yeah and hopefully it's a yet as you said like you're hoping that that one shot that they took didn't hinder them and say well we can't be more or but shouldn't that that shot they took honestly should have been why aren't we doing more yeah just let us know it's available and you got one of the better deep ball throwers in america from a year ago was going to hit on those way more often than he's going to miss him yeah and you know you think to last year it's at certain points where we're watching bienemy stubbornly at times going nope this is what we're calling even a sam how's getting his brains bashed in you know where you go he should be able to do this you should be able to get rid of the ball well he's not he's holding on to it he's getting killed stop it do something else do something else so you hope we're not getting to that point right where in two weeks or three weeks they are dropping back looking to go deep and maybe this offensive line can't hold up maybe Coleman's not quite ready or maybe Cornelius Lucas has lost a step that maybe he never really had and Andrew Wiley's not particularly good or teams kind of figure stuff out right now this is a lower reward lower risk offense you know what i mean and i'm fine with that i'm fine with that isn't it isn't it is though as a 100 level course eventually we got to start getting into our major though but in Baltimore just as an example with the Ravens offense where you've got a lot of the plays that go to quarterback run in the football where you involve the tight end in the running backs in the passing game similar to what we are going to see here in Washington they have been talking about a lack of production at receiver forever and it's always they don't have good enough receivers or they got to go get this guy or that you know this coordinator whoever it is now it's monkey just doesn't use the receivers enough or well enough i think that it's just not what they're going to major in Zaflowers is pretty damn good he's not going to go for 1400 yards in that offense and i think what we're seeing maybe is that number one based on the receiver talent Zach Art show Austin Echler and Brian Robinson show they're going to operate inside out not outside in okay no problem and i think while Jaden Daniels likes throwing outside the numbers that's where your stretch shots are going to be the middle of the field receiver stuff which has been nearly non-existent through two games is just not going to be the focal point of this offense and that's something Cliff Kingsbury will answer to every week but it's not him it's not like he's saying don't throw this don't look for this speaking of wide receivers who love the middle of the field T Higgins is going to play it sounds like thank goodness on Monday night isn't that nice so if you were worried about the Bengals offense which hasn't quite clicked completely yet not having enough weapons to worry about for Washington's banged up secondary t Higgins is going to be back to make his season debut let's get into what that means for this game and the injury report on the commander side but there were a couple of surprises today that's next on grant and danny here on the fan this summer get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted at the Hyundai getaway sales event get the hottest deals of the season on many of our award-winning Hyundai models which all come with America's best warranty but get going because these deals won't last add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai getaway sales event now for a limited time get 1.99 per cent APR for 60 months on the Hyundai Tucson or Elantra hurry into the Hyundai getaway sales event offers end September 3rd call 562-314-460-3 for details G&D on the fan we're giving away those tickets to the hf festival and that's parked tomorrow in 15 minutes make sure you're listening we've also got tickets to the caps 50 festival on us we'll do that at the end of the show right about 630 on gnd taking a look at the injury report we'll start with t Higgins being expected to play for the Cincinnati Bengals I said this yesterday that feels and sounds like a big problem for washington because they've got one of the great receivers in the league Jamar Chase who's their vertical deep threat he can do everything turn bubbles into touchdowns he's just explosive think Malik neighbors with more experience and resume okay on the other side you have your more of a Z like your middle intermediate assassin boxing people out using his body working the underneath stuff difficult to defend a toe tapping along the sideline kind of in that 10 to 20 range he feasts in t Higgins it's a excellent tandem but then he was holding out almost all off season he's been uninvolved with the Bengals not practicing not doing anything I think that getting him back after just a couple of practices when he hasn't been 100% healthy until the last couple days could actually not be a terrible thing as they haven't gotten on the same page yet you feel like maybe in game three chases getting closer burrow started to light it up with mike kaseki maybe now you throw another wrinkle into the equation here and it keeps them from really hitting their stride as they try to add something else into a flawed offense I know that's a commander's friendly look at this thing but I don't think it's just gonna be hitting the ground sprinting with Higgins after he decided to basically shut it down since last fall yeah a few points here number one I I if I have a choice between I get this face Higgins first game back or his fifth I'll take his first right I think that's intuitive that's obvious we've seen that with you know guys all around the league their first game back it's maybe not what we thought etc now the other side there's no better landing spot there's no better week to get yourself healthy for t Higgins if it's grabbing you a little bit you could wait one more week going up against Kansas City who last year's defense was outstanding make sure you're right for that Monday night tilt get yourself an extra day rest up ice up get yourself on the field against Washington he's also going into this is a contract year he's been tagged he's playing on that he's trying to get paid he's likely to leave this off season and the whole country's watching in prime time so if you come back against a bad secondary with poor corner play and you can find a way to seven for a hundred and the Bengals offense is humming on this Monday night then it looks like maybe you were the missing piece it could be the best thing for your negotiation that your agent is beginning behind the scenes and if it's not a big game for you it's yeah it's first game back it's it's lower stakes there to kind of to your point but again this I'd be looking my chops as a six four you know big bodied receiver who's you said can win win in traffic it's great hands pretty good route runner you know you want to jump ball or two red zone style or even middle of the field or whatever all of a sudden people go oh yeah that's right we could use a t Higgins football Friday on gnd big problem is who covers these guys Washington doesn't have a corner that they really trust although I think Benjamin saint used was outstanding this past week had three PB use had the peanut punch fumble that he caused that changed the game in the second half he was limited in practice again today with a groin so he missed some of yesterday's practice and he missed some of today's practice now worth noting Friday for a Monday night is kind of like a normal Thursday so typically if you look at a Friday and you see a guy's limited it means they're going to be super questionable maybe a game time decision it's very possible that he and some of these other guys that were limited today could be full go on Saturday normally on Saturday you just do a walk through they're actually going to have a real practice tomorrow almost like you would traditionally have a Friday morning practice but saint juice being banged up is not good because he's the one corner that has shown anything really I would think Noah Igbonogany is going to start opposite him on the boundary outside because last week Michael Davis was the first man up with Ben with a manual forbs out and Davis got benched and really really struggled so I would think Igbonogany is the guy and then you keep Sandra still inside in the nickel but still I mean the Bengals run so much 11 personnel and they have the best one two-punch at receiver that you're going to face early this season and maybe in the league I mean Godwin and Evans are close but I would take Jason Higgins over those yeah if those guys are right I'd take Jason Higgins I mean different obviously you know Evans that physical presence Godwin that's luck underneath these are two outside guys although they line people up all over the place they move folks around which is a novel concept especially around these parts anyway but yeah I mean they Chase is that explosive turbo can do everything on the field and Higgins is that kind of classic Mike Williams style big bodied win anywhere kind of a dude as well so both you know both have had wool over a thousand-yard seasons and both have been formidable again that's the end that's the question every week right now who who was going to cover these guys how is it going to happen because it hasn't yet you know well interestingly is on the injury report so Clue and Farrell's got a knee problem didn't practice yesterday was limited today our manual forbs was limited but we know he's not going to be playing for a few weeks Johnny Newton didn't practice yesterday they listed his foot in rest basically limited today so I would think he's still in line to play a limited number of steps this weekend but here's the one that caught my eye Doran Armstrong with a chest problem I don't know if that's a pack or what that is but he has not been full go this week we'll see what happens tomorrow I mentioned him just to bring up Doran's Armstrong because this was the biggest move they made other than Frankie Louvoo defensively Dan Quinn was the coordinator in Dallas when he was a rotational end for the Cowboys he wasn't a starter really at any point last year he only started one game he played in all their games he had seven and a half sacks the last two years he averaged eight sacks per season without starting and their thought was more reps more snaps yeah this is a potential 10 sack guy on the edge who's going to be impactful I would say he has been almost not noticeable there's been a couple plays when you go back and rewatch the game that are nice but it's that line to this point he's got three tackles he's at the quarterback three times I just think he's been very very quiet for someone they paid it's double digit millions of dollars a year to he was the big addition on the edge if you get very little out of clue and feral whatever that's a flyer uh they same kind of deal they took that flyer on um Fowler don't say Fowler but yeah if you're if those guys don't hit whatever they need Doran's Armstrong to be pretty good based on what they paid him agreed so that's one of those the kind of signing that I like on paper which is Guy on a Good Team has a part-time or semi-prominent role you're not paying him for that you're paying him for what you think he's going to do they've hit on guys like that Pierre Garsohn comes to mind right the third option in the in Annapolis is just fine as our number one here please and thank you there's your third down war daddy the guy's awesome Armstrong on paper to me made a lot of sense you already touched on it obviously you know different surrounding uh cast different uh you know teammates etc but a guy that was pretty efficient in rushing the passer is a third down pass rush specialist or you know only passing downs playing part-time he's a guy that profiled you give him a chance you may lose something in the run game with him set in the edge or you know there may be some things he doesn't do tremendously well all the time but as a pass rusher you give him a chance to say you're not coming off the field unless you want to unless you're tired you could look at a double digit sack season for him hasn't really hit the ground running just yet nobody really has in that pass rush game honestly so you know now would be a great time to start but yeah that's the guy you're right they're counting on week three got underway last night the Jets dominated the Patriots just manhandled him in New York 24 to 3 final the Jets improved the two and one Aaron Rodgers was sharp his attack let's look at the rest of week three getting started with the one o'clock window on Sunday next we'll go game by game and predict some Monday headlines also as soon as we return in just a few minutes on the fan your chance to win tickets for the final time this week to hf festival at nats park the event is all day tomorrow we're granting Danny congrats to caller 10 at 800 636 1067 you're winning two tickets to hf festival at nats park tomorrow september 21st nationals park features all kinds of great bands postal service death cab for cutie incubus bush garbage jimmy world girl talk violent femmes tonic filter lit for tickets and more event information go to the fan DC dot com slash events courtesy of imp will be given away tickets to end the show today to the caps 50 fest starring third i blinds make sure you're listening in about 20 plus minutes if you want those right here on grant and danny favorite nfl game of the weekend i think there's a couple of really really good ones danny i got it whittled down to two texan's viking someone gets to three and oh sam darnold kevin o'connell a chance to prove minnesota's legit houston we already know is excellent they're on the road tough place to go play indoors in minneapolis the other game though that i think could be fire after the wake chyler murray and the cardinals played last oh yes against the rams and they were sneaky just a pain in the ass to play all last year mm-hmm i made a lot of jokes about jonathan gannon and i think a lot of people did it seems like he can coach eagles have missed him since he walked out the door the cardinals are just not fun to deal with lion's cardinals could be telling in the four o'clock window on sunday which of those two games do you like better lion's cardinals i think you're going to see points galore uh both teams are are one-in-one lions kicking themselves after they almost doubled up tampa in terms of yardage first downs and almost every other metric that you'd say would lead you to win the football game and they didn't so they need this and they could very easily going on the road here end up at one and two through three weeks which is not what we thought we thought this was the team that was going to challenge san francisco who was walking wounded and they'd be you know under 500 through uh through you know throw a fifth of the season or whatever the stuff plenty of time to recover they'll be fine but uh that would be an inauspicious beginning so i i'm fascinated by that one all right let's do this let's go through the games on this football friday right now on grant and danny and predict the headlines for monday so let's predict how this is going to play out starting with at one o'clock in cleveland the giants and the browns we just saw the giants they may have beaten washington at grand gano state healthy but he didn't hurt his hamstring on the opening kickoff so they need to keep their kicker healthy i get that cleveland was really bad in week one against dallas they were much better in week two though ended up getting an impressive win to shawn watson at a bounce back game my headline come week three is malik neighbors the truth i think neighbors goes for over a hundred in a close football game gross is my headline cleveland is two on one but do we really care this is one of those i think games that sets football back a little bit i think this is going to be a sloppy penalty filled turnover fast everything short of it being in the mud this is not one of those pleasant the aesthetically pleasing football games that you can count on i don't think either team is particularly good i think cleveland knows just a slightly better version of new york bares colts at one o'clock kaleb williams has really struggled through two weeks indian appleis with antony richardson trying to uh find some comfort in their own to yeah uh need to get a win because they are over the season to this point but richardson with three picks last week they'll make the highlight play everybody talks about but the layups are missed almost constantly i actually think chicago wins this football game and gets to two and one i think their defense is awesome and well i don't trust williams right now or shane waldrino i've been utterly unimpressed by their oc as far as i could throw them i do think their defense will give richards and big problems he's not playing well enough for me to trust him headline here is danny ruea is an idiot i picked the colts preseason to win that division and they're going to be on three i'm with you i actually think chicago takes this one via four mentioned awesome matchup between the houston texans two and oh on the road minnesota vikings also two and oh the vikings will be without their lead mike line back or i even pace in this game jordan attison is also not playing for minnesota they ruled three starters out today houston hits the road looking to get to three and oh behind cj shroud i think they get there brian floraz is going to be able to do some things to take away some of the vertical passing game for houston the vikings are blitzing more than anybody but i do think the texans will be able to run the ball enough joe mixon's banged up not sure if he's gonna play or not looks like kamakers may get the nod there even that can makers by the way in minnesota recently i mean that's a revenge game for him oh by the way but i think there's enough defense and pass rush for houston they'll be able to turn sam darnold over a couple of times and win the football game this will be a legitimizer for minnesota should they do it if they win they're the truth they have had a tough opening to the season and they're two and oh uh be pretty damned impressive if they're able to to get through that beginning part of the gauntlet and it'll validate the way that they're going about it right with errand jones and company and obviously you know where they're passing him goes through uh some kind of justin justin or come to me but for houston win loser draw they're for real eagles saints one o'clock kick on sunday new orleans has been the most impressive team in the national football league they have scored on every single drive they're under center more than any other team 70 percent they run more play action shots than any other team they're the best offense in football led by darrick car as we all assumed what happened i saw that come in the season they're two and oh trying to get to three and oh meanwhile trouble and paradise for filly they won a game where they could have felt good about it couple of terrible turnovers from jail and hurts in week one i thought hurts was actually awesome in their loss in week two against atlanta they had that win they had the game in their hands and literally in the case of saquon bark we let it slip through their fingertips so they're now one in one i like the eagles to go on the road and beat the saints this is one of those games where i kind of sometimes will pick games based on can i see new orleans being three and oh you also look at the betting line you see the odds makers it's not like new orleans is a six point favorite or five point favorite at home or something they're also seeing a little bit of a comeback to her so i'm gonna roll with filly i think two and oh makes sense for about what they should be through three games and i just have a hard time believing that the saints aren't going to run into a wall at some point again they have not punted they've scored on every possession they've been incredible and they deserve credit for what's going on through two games to your point so don't you probably should be two and oh uh i know that there was you know a kind of gross that friday night game that they ended up winning against green bay but if they made reasonable decisions there in the fourth quarter we're talking about a two and oh team facing another two and oh team philadelphia's been a lot less dominant though in that regard i think no aj brown once again this week for them i think that's going to be a huge factor i like new orleans but it's not one of those games that i i feel comfortable betting on you know like i think not having brown limits them a little bit just enough where that easy button is gone so i give me new orleans in that one at home but i don't feel great about it this is a really fun game in pittsburgh again one o'clock kick on sunday for the chargers and the steelers both of these teams are trying to stay undefeated someone's going to be three no now joston herbert's banged up he's got a high ankle and he is questionable has not been able to get on the practice field in full at any point this week which is why i'm going to roll with pittsburgh tj watt can move him off the spot make him uh if he plays you know show some mobility and maybe you know you hit him a couple times and he's just not going to be the same if he doesn't play then i think the steel is when the game going away because easton stick is not going to keep the chargers in this game but the formula for the chargers danny yep has been her ball ball yeah stay ahead of the game script man have a lead pound the football jk dobbins has gone for 100 plus yards with ease twice has ripped off some huge runs some explosives for them but i'm going to stick with pittsburgh which would be a really impressive three and oh for mike tomlin and his guys russell wilson was named their starter hasn't played yet isn't playing this weekend just in fields though protecting the football you haven't seen those really bad sack fumbles from his time in uh chicago he's getting rid of the ball faster haven't seen him throwing a lot of interceptions they've basically been a ground and pound defensive old school stealers team and if that's what they want to be i got to tell you man field is going to be harder to defend than russell wilson even though fields is not going to do a whole lot for you in the passing game at least his threat to run gives you a plus trait i don't think wilson does that at this point of his career but that'll be something they got to figure out later on a big big chance though for fields to get his boys to three and oh the biggest and most impactful jk in this game will not be dobbins will be jk scott the punter he will kick five times at least and i think it's korla's weightman in pittsburgh he'll kick five times at least this will be a punt fest give me the under all day on this i think it's going to be a push in contest i think the chargers eat it out because i think they're better at that right now maybe than then pittsburgh is but yeah i think this is going to be if you love good defensive football tune in lopsided match up on paper we'll see if that ends up meaning anything the biggest underdog in football won out right in both weeks one and two but the denver broncos o and two travel to raman james stadium in tampa florida the box will play home for the second time of course they walloped washington in week one they are to another coming back with a win from there on the road impressive and have survival against detroit so they got a chance to get to three and oh and really should honestly baker mayfield didn't play all that well rushed for a touchdown was a gamer they beat the lions thanks to a strong defense of performance tot bowls is mixing some potions mike evans didn't really do anything and they still beat detroit last week so i kind of think they got one of those wins where you play that game ten times the same way you get out game pretty substantially you lose a bunch and when you win it just feels like you're playing with house money a little bit like jared goth through two picks that two picks dropped he was not good in that game i think they roll denver on sunday and they'll be a three and oh team everyone starts to look at in a mediocre division that looks like a playoff team so this is mirroring what denver did last year remember they got off to that horrendous start everyone left them for dead and then they were mildly frisky coming down the stretch not not overly similar but they were okay because their offense will get better nix will get more comfortable paten will figure something out yeah i think right now is a great time to play denver i think everybody who doesn't have on their schedules kind of going damn it i wish we could make that trip or have them come out to see us so i like camp in this game as well i don't know that six and a half gets gets covered i bet on that i would say but uh yeah i i don't trust them we're doing much of anything right now they're not going on either side of the ball let's go to nashville the packers are playing the titans on sunday it's a potential revenge game for malik willis one o'clock kick off east time i say potential because jordan love says he wants to play and he's doing everything he can to play i don't think he will especially after they won without him last week there's a little less desperation if you're on to maybe you could tell me you're gonna rush him back a little bit because on three in that conference puts you big time behind the eight ball but worst case scenario you're one in two and he comes back next week which i think's what's gonna happen by the way malik willis was drafted developed by the titans helped the packers get a win last week yeah and it was the mona lisa coaching performance for matt la floor running what is and i'm not joking about this high school football single wing like de-completely redesigned what they do just a bunch of gadget end around jet sweep stuff bunch of misdirection like cross buck wishbone backfield looks he was in his bag dude and he was on the sideline high-fiving people and like slamming his headset down excited after certain moments because i hope this isn't overly disrespectful but like when you do that with malik willis like you're doing something i don't know that he's got two of those in him here's my surprise pick of the week the titans beat the packers at home i think you you can do the we tricked you with malik willis thing once and without love playing if he plays then i would bet on the packers but without him i say the titans get their first win they play a good defensive game and will levis avoids a back-breaking turnover he's had one in each game well that's the key and the titans are favored at home by the way so yeah so everybody kind of thinks along the lines that you i think it's sharp but tennessee's been in both games they've lost it's been the thing you just mentioned two and a half on fandall okay so you get to so basically they're half point favorite on a neutral site mm-hmm i think they're kind of thinking the same thing i am like you just used all your tricks didn't you know there's there's no special secret here so tennessee i'm not saying they should have they probably should have won in week one against chicago but they're they've been in these games that it's been this oh my god what are you doing will levis moment that has undone them quite frankly they're through both of their losses they're due to have just one break in their correct direction you know whether it's a drop the interception or some other kind of screw up or maybe they don't even throw something crazy or fumble some uh something crazy so tennessee a winnable game for them to get off the snot the panthers play the raiders in vegas at four oh five the first of the four o'clock window carolina has benched Bryce young Andy Dalton gets his first start he made one start last year and he threw for 300 yards in the outing i think the panther's offense will look a lot better this is a dead cat bounce spot maybe for carolina what's the line in this game six and a half i kind of like a carolina cover i think vegas wins the game they'll just be physical and kind of eventually wear them down and get to two and one but i think the panthers will look way way more respectable this week with a veteran quarterback getting the ball out and involving some of their playmates 100% agree it's gonna look night and day and i hate that about what's going on there uh i feel terrible for Bryce young but i think that's the case a boring competent veteran Andy Dalton we'll just do what he's supposed to do just distribute the rock a little bit uh the guys will have a little more pep in their step knowing that they're not running their outs just for cardio shout out to her mccorn uh i like the raiders to win the game i don't know that they cover though with uh brock powers as good as he's been uh devante adams and cemera white that's a you know kind of a rough and tumble group that could easily be off to a three and oh start here the dolphins are at seattle speaking of three and oh starts the seahawks under their new head coach mike mcdonald who washen and interviewed for its head coaching job before hiring dan quinn a chance to get to three and oh and actually if i could go back to my old mike chanahan axum it's not who you play it's when you play them mhm Seattle should be three and oh when this weekend ends because skylar Thompson is starting for tuatunga violoa and even though i'm not a huge tuat guy i think most of his success is scheme and playmakers around him related he was taken in the top five and he still paid fifty plus million dollars because of his accuracy because he plays point guard he does a lot of things well they don't really have a decent backup like they were going to any dulton this week let's say or jacobie brissette i actually think they could still operate their offense and go have some success i just don't know that skylar Thompson is that guy so give me seattle to be three and oh and the dolphins unfortunately lose a second straight i just hope that we still get to see some of the explosiveness from Tyree kill and Devin han because it would be a bummer for not only fantasy owners listening right now but just frankly football fans this is a fun offense i hope they still have some of those big dynamic plays yeah they're one of the fun watches of the league when it's all humming and going right i'm a big mike mcdonald fan that was the guy if we couldn't get somebody that's a brilliant offensive mind this was the dude that i coveted and wanted and he's off to a good start now they haven't beaten the world's most difficult schedule just yet dangerous in the bronchos you got denver new angle in your resume so i'm not we're not crowning anyone just yet but i think that dude is a is a coaching star in waiting it'll kind of be a fraudulent three and oh i will say there's a software you know uh here's where i'm going to give them a lot of credit shane waldren left their new offensive coordinator is ryan grubber are you familiar with him at all the name is familiar he was the guy who helped one washington's offense with penics last year and so when oh right the boar went to at alabama he hopped up to the nfl and took the c just right down the street honestly offices yeah he's been awesome gino smith looks very good but that offense getting receivers open i've been immensely impressed a lot of stuff middle of the field in breakers uh digs and stuff that they weren't running previously uh decay met cap seems to be feasting so i like what i'm seeing from seattle for sure all right let's talk let's talk who's here the lions and the cardinals in arizona Detroit's one-in-one cardinals are one-in-one we both said this is maybe one of the best games of the week i think for detroit if you lose your one until you get back on track you're really good fine but this is a show me game last week one of the up-and-coming teams in the nfc that we feel like might be better than we thought now tampa bay beat you in your place mmm now you're going to the cardinals who just whooped the rams chylor Murray looks good marvin harrisons getting going if you lose to arizona will be the second time in a week where a team that feels like they can hang in the conference just bullied a team that supposedly outside of san francisco supposed to be one of the best of the nfc i don't really want to be oh and two in those games in the conference to start the early part of the season so i just think it's a show me game for the lions and if you're jared gough got paid a lot of money you got to play better than you did last week a hundred percent and for arizona when i looked at i didn't like them this year i like them being frisky and and tough to play against right and paying the butt and colin mary to have a nice renaissance year bouncing back from injury and you know people to think differently about them i looked at their schedule and i go you know i don't see them being a playoff team well the seas have parted to a degree right who knows i'm assuming jordan love is back when they travel to green bay but maybe not look at if there's no tool when they have to go to miami chicago is maybe not as good as we thought all of a sudden so now all of a sudden you're looking at this schedule and what i thought was going to be a little bit too arduous for them to have a winning record i can absolutely see if they play the way that they've played through a couple of games where they were toe to toe with buffalo probably should have won the game to be honest with you if josh alan didn't put a superman cape on and beaten up breaks off of the rams i could see this group being a threat in the nfc to go to the post-season in a what we thought was gonna be a pretty crowded division but now that the rams have fallen off of a cliff while in coyote style the door is open for them four twenty five kick nationally televised in the second window the ravens and the cowboys baltimore is oh and two too early for a must win but this is a gotta close that was cowboys are one in one they got beat up on by the saints last week uh they don't want to lose too straight at home obviously uh in the case of baltimore can the city in week one you can kind of dismiss you're there it's the banner raising whatever that was a really bad loss to the raiders yes they led by double digits in the fourth quarter and the game slipped away this is a tough matchup they're not playing very well defensively assignment sound on the back end now you got deck Prescott and cd lamb to deal with the cowboys i think are going to be able to rush the quarterback consistently because the ravens offensive line's been a disaster so far humica parsons i don't love the matchup for them i'm picking dallas even though and this is one of those games my head tells me there's no way the ravens are going to be 0 and 3 and that's coming from someone who's set all off-season you know they were going to come back to the pack this year and i didn't love them i thought they might miss the playoffs they're better than 0 and 3 though right yeah i did love them and that's even baked in a loss on the road at kansas city to start the season that's that yeah but if you had them at two and one in their own three i mean that is a massively burst one hundred percent especially who's coming up they've got like the bills and something else buffalo and sincinatti sincinatti right before washington and that tamper which all of a sudden looks a little bit different than it did before the season again so 0 and 3 could be a death sentence it is yeah i think now that division may not be as strong top to bottom as we thought especially because cleveland's kind of looking pretty middling at best and you know with tbd on some of the rest of it but you can't be an own three hole and be one of the team one of the classes of the afc maybe you do something miraculous but it just hasn't clicked just yet they weren't commanded that raters game and let and let their foot off the gas or whatever you want to call it it's not something you characterize you you think of of uh of uh john harba coach team to give it away like that but they did they're that they had a couple horrendous losses last year too as the best team of the regular season they lost a game to pittsburgh that they shouldn't have but this is an important one for them they need to kind of get on the right foot here and for dallas after getting their you know depanced in public they need to get right too on the topic of pretty good teams that are about to start 0 and 3 and could be cooked the rams host the 49ers at 425 sand friends one in one the rams are 0 and 2 and they're without cooper cup puka nikua and that's just the beginning of the list for them i mean they have all kinds of injuries i don't know how you couldn't like san francisco in this spot what's the betting line six and a half for san friend yeah i have a hard time seeing the rams winning and matt staford throwing to who exactly tyler johnson it's to marcus robinson it's more that than you want not for me yeah i know it's no macafry no debo sam and i get that plenty of injuries for san fran as well no kittle they have more to in no george kittle but they have more to fall back on right they've got brand that i uk jordan masons averaging 100 yards per game i think it'll be a lower scoring game because of all the weapons missing but i do like san francisco 20 to 13 maybe 23 14 something like that that's how it feels to me now you know this matchup has been great over the years right when everyone's at full compliment and it has one of those cliches of the records don't matter throw the records out with these two teams play although i do feel like the 49ers almost always beat them that's how it feels to me too but they've had some great games some great back and forth you know here and there everywhere and this one feels to me like you caught the rams at the exact right time it doesn't matter who you are if you see the rams on the schedule this is the week to get them week number one they were pretty good uh playing detroit that was one of the games of the year so far now as the walking wounded that you alluded to san francisco has a huge advantage even though they're missing a bunch of guys i think they have more than enough to win this game i believe shanahan versus mcveigh the 49ers are nine and two with an overtime win in there how about it but now it is most recently the rams beat the 49ers 21 20 in the final weekend of the season last year i don't know if you count that one because san francisco was resting some players i'd imagine before that eight and one i mean they have dominated as you said there have been some really close one possession games but they've certainly had their number and that's when the rams have more talent available to them sunday night football could be interesting the chiefs are two and oh trying to stay undefeated the falcons may have gotten some things together in their second game of the year against filly that was the miracle comeback kirk cousins leading atlanta down the field in the final minute of the game for a come from behind victory the chiefs do a really good job with that cover to defense that they use that they were the first team you know because they saw everyone doing it with my homes to really go how we do more of those you do that cousins has struggled he hasn't had a lot of looks against teams that do that but he's been the least efficient quarterback throwing the football against that deep cover to look this year so i think that's a potential mad dog issue i will say that bijon robinson run in the football theoretically should have a decent day the chiefs haven't been able to do anything with travis kelsey they just don't quite look right yet can the city should beat atlanta but if the falcons win what a different story will will be singing for them with then cousins Achilles after they were all in one and everyone going they might be screwed after one game then they will have beaten filly in kansas city and they're two in one now it's a whole different story shows you how razor than this league is right if philadelphia just for the sake of argument runs the ball twice with less than a minute fifty to go you're probably talking about knowing to atlanta team and cousins isn't right yet or maybe will be what's happening is this coach on the hot seat or is their decision to do this that the other now they got a chance to as you said they're only three point dogs at home against kansas city and this is a winnable game for them for two reasons one i think they got some talent two how much better did kirk cousins look physically because remember week what week one it was like you have to be in shotgun you're not really planting a drive in the football he looked very good early uh against philadelphia but then eventually was under center dropping back and looked like himself to a degree maybe not 100% closer to it that's a major development for them if you watch that netflix show quarterback they showed that with kevin o'connell who he'd worked with before in washington and like the third game of the season when when he went out and had a bad game and the vikings got beat he was being interviewed he was talking about how uncomfortable he is in the offense still he's like i am i got to know everything to a tee and i'm a perfectionist in this way i think you're seeing some of that with atlanta he does not he's not the kind of guy that's just gonna like oh we'll figure it out as we go he wants all the answers right away and you see they they miss some things down the field one of them a receiver stopped but i just think he's not quite completely comfortable in that offense yet so we'll be very curious to see what happens that match up with kansas city if they can run it they'll have a decent shot uh then you've got monday night football two games will be very quick here the jaguars and the buffalo bills in game one jacks and bills oh and two they got a treve lorance problem he just has not played well to this point the bills are off to about as good a start as you could ask for and the fact that i hate to say it this way the dolphins lost to is an even bigger deal for them uh the jacks are two in one and erin roger's looks like the truth and he's healthy so it's not like it's going to be a cakewalk in their division we didn't think it would be but nice landing spot for buffalo in a home prime time game to get to three and no potential yeah i think buffalo will be much better november than they are right now and they're already two and l because josh alan was superman especially week number one and jacksville just doesn't quite look right i mean it looks a little bit broken you mentioned peter lorance is this their third year together like that's pretty inexcusable to me i think it's their third year yeah he completed less than 50% of his passes this past week their passing offense was completely out of sync that just it looked like they hadn't met each other or weren't familiar with uh with where everybody was supposed to be lining up and where they're going and i've been beating the stroke for a little while like how sure we the trevor lorance is great tough landing spot being going to here commanders bangles we will be insinceanaty no need to make our predictions yet we've got all of monday to break that game down although i will say danny i'm looking forward to seeing your smiling face sitting in an nfl stadium during a night game all of your favorite things just a late start man they're doing the double dip monday night thing i why can't we be the early game it only be the difference of like a half hour oh but such a good half hour so nice what do they call him plenty of fun rue i think it is is that your nickname yeah plenty of fun rue i think circle of correctness rue is the full legal name caller number 10 at 800-636-1067 congrats you're winning tickets to caps 50 fest two tickets to join the capital celebrating 50 years of hockey in dc third-eyed blinds performing they're celebrating the caps with past and current players on the roster photo ops entertainment concert just a really fun day tickets are on sale for 19.74 to commemorate 50 years for more event information go to the fan dc.com slash events big thanks to darris for working hard behind the scenes today for a very short grant and danny truncated lennell has over time coming your way next if you are playing in coaching in heading to high school football around the area tonight enjoy yourselves kicking off a football weekend till tomorrow vargus ladies and gentlemen the weekend this summer get away in the hunday you've always wanted at the hunday getaway sales event get the hottest deals of the season on many of our 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