The Closest Sunday in 20 Years?! | Week 3 NFL Reactions

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Are you not entertained? Spectacular! It's been 20 years since 11 games have finished within one score. Talladega Knights was in theaters, Trev. That is how close of a Sunday we have had. My God, that was good.

I think we got to start with Ravens and the Cowboys because one, this was tied for the third highest scoring international game ever.

Is this the best international game ever? Ooh, hard to argue against it, man.

The folks at NGS got us all the numbers of, you know, the scores and everything from the previous game. The game in which 67 points were scored because it was 65 with the Ravens and the Cowboys. The game in which 67, which was the second highest scoring game ever, international game ever, was 2012. It was Bill Seahawks.

The score was 50 to 17. Oh my God, dude. At all? At all. But it was the second highest. International score game. Anyways, we're glad that this one was a little bit closer.

And I do want to give the Ravens their credit right off the bat because they obviously come in, they win this game. And man, when the stars are out there for the Ravens, this is a good football team. I think that week one, they looked really good. Why? Because Lamar's out there, because Zay Flowers is out there, and because Derrick Henry's out there. When you have the big three on offense, I think this offensive group looks really, really good. And there's so many different things that they could do. Week two, Zay Flowers wasn't out there, and it totally changed things on offense. But I just felt as though Lamar looked so much more poised in this game.

Not to say it was perfect. You know, he had the overthrow to Andrews at the beginning of the game. But as things went on, I felt like Lamar really settled in. They used him on design runs. He got more than half of his rushing yards on design runs. I believe it was a QB draw on one of them and an RPO look on another and they were very very effective because of how confident he was doing that the time to throw was higher in this game but he was also efficient with it so to me that shows again poise from Lamar where when you have that time he's not panicking he's not bailing he's staying he's scanning he's holding on to the ball a little bit longer And he's delivering it for guys to be able to make plays down the field. So I just

felt as though this is a really nice bounce back game from Lamar. Perfect should never be the bar for a quarterback. Improvement always should be. I felt like week one they came out of the gate hot. Week two they stumbled a little bit. And week three they got back on track. That's without mentioning how great Derrick Henry is in this game. Dude, how graceful is Derrick Henry aging?

I mean.

Oh, my God, dude. I watched him at Alabama.

And, you know, the early years with him with the Titans and everything as well. And I went, man, this dude's racking up the yards. But when we get to the later parts of his career, it might be ugly with him. We're at the later parts of his career.

He's better now. It's insane.

I can't believe that a running back with that much power can move with that much grace at this age.

He's the man. No edge, no chance. You have to have an edge on the defense. Otherwise, Derrick Henry is going to outrun you. And talk about putting pelts on the wall. For Ja'Sean Barham, in his third career game, to get a goal line TFL on Derrick Henry? Mm-hmm. I mean, there's... Very few higher honors a linebacker can have, let alone a rookie linebacker who just got the green dot due to injury, came back on the next drive, got another TFL on Henry, going through a lead blocker on third and one. Jason Barham is like the main reason the Cowboys were even able to come back into this game because he was unbelievable. And I just felt bad for not just Cowboys defense, but just Cowboys fans in general. Because they kept getting banged up over the

course of these last three weeks in the secondary to the point where that last catch that set up the field goal, it's like corner five and safety five on the field. They were just running out of DBs. You have a post safety just covering nothing. He's just covering green grass down there. you could literally see on the tape, he just turns and runs because in his mind, he's like, well, don't give up a touchdown. They didn't need a touchdown.

They needed a field goal. And so typically when you have the DB carrying that route from outside leverage, he's expecting inside help from a safety nailing down on it. While there was no safety there, he was 40 yards deep. And so it's just, it's mental mistakes by young backup DBs that typically would not have been on the field in that situation and not to mention situational awareness with seven seconds left. You really just want to keep it to one play. So even if you give up a catch, don't tackle him down immediately. Hold him up. Make sure the clock is running out so they can't get a timeout off. Instead of making an immediate hit, if they held him up until the clock hit zero, we're moving on.

So it's just young DBs making mental mistakes, man, and I feel bad. I feel bad for Cowboys fans that the game ended that way, but I'm also thrilled for Ravens fans that for once they were on the good side of one of those because it's happened to Baltimore so many times. And this time it was Lamar making the clutch throw. He was making the exact play that his team needed to win a game that statistically they weren't supposed to win with seven seconds left. I've just seen Baltimore be on the other end of that so many times. I'm happy for them that they finally got one.

Now, I wanted to make sure that I Praise the Ravens at the top. They did win the game. I'm not trying to take anything away from them.

I actually felt like the Cowboys played better in this game.

And the Cowboys absolutely played well enough to win this game.

Got over 400 yards of offense. Javante Williams was awesome.

In this game, over five yards per carry. Dak, the completion percentage was a little bit lower for Dak, but you look at the stars, man. CeeDee Lamb over 100 yards. George Pickens, 82 yards. I mean, it just felt like when they needed a big play, these stars were there.

I felt as though the Cowboys.

Actually made more big plays on the offensive side in this game, and I thought they made, you mentioned, you know, making that one of the goal line he had one what was that that was later in the game a little bit later it was on the next drive that's that third and short where he absolutely blows up the fullback as the lead blocker and basically it's just a one-man wrecking crew in the backfield these guys made a ton of plays on both sides of the ball and Even though the Ravens came away with the victory, again, I'm not trying to take anything away from them because I don't want to do that. There's a reason why the Cowboys were in a position to, hey, touchdown and we win, essentially.

They end up not scoring on the goal line.

They end up kicking the field goal and then the breakdown in coverage that you mentioned on the Ravens' drive to get into.

Field goal range.

But again, you go back to that opportunity when you've got these two teams that are very evenly matched and they're going back and forth and they're scoring a lot of points. You want to be that team who, at the end, you dictate your fate. You have the ability to score the touchdown, and if you do, you are winning that game. And I think that's a good sign of a team that's done a job well done all game long, or at least to get themselves in a position to have that honor. And the Cowboys did. And look, I know the Cowboys are now sitting here at 1-2.

I actually feel pretty good about the Cowboys moving forward.

And maybe I'm shooting myself in the foot there.

I know this is a team that you and I liked a lot going into the season.

So maybe there's some, you know, preconceived notions that are there.

But I feel pretty good about this Cowboys team coming off of this game, albeit.

From a loss. I really do feel like they've gotten better with each passing week, right? There was the game against the Giants where, you know, they made, again, severe mental mistakes on defense. And they got got by a team that on paper we all thought they were going to beat. And then week two, they had eight drives to put up 37 points. It's hard to be more efficient than that. And in this game, very easily could have, some would argue should have won it, but Baltimore just made really key plays in high leverage moments, at least more than Dallas did to win. Not that losses are good, but if you're looking at how they've lost these two games, it's not something that I have massive concerns about. Compare

that to the Texans where I have actual real concerns that make me audibly shout, what the are you guys doing? I never have those moments with the Cowboys. I understand what they're trying to be and they're very close to being that. And I know Shadi's trying to fall on his sword and say, oh, I give myself an F for play calling. You put up 400 yards, dude. You're a good team. To Ferguson for the touchdown. He had two last week. Now he's got one in Rio.

Let's move on and talk about the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Neither of us took the Steelers in this game. I don't think there were a lot of people out there that were taking the Steelers in this game. And yet, divisional win, man. The AFC North, it's a funny place. Things happen that you don't expect, especially with the Steelers team.

So Aaron Rodgers, shout out to Ben Solak for putting me on to this. So his 3.19% Second time to throw today was the second longest that he's had as a stealer If you're looking on drop backs than two and a half seconds, he was 11 of 21 for 213 yards. That's 10.1 yards per attempt, folks. Three touchdowns and a pick. He had 15 attempts of at least 10 yards down the field, most as a stealer. They're actually pushing the ball down the field, which is what we've been begging them to do since... I don't know, 12 months ago at this point. And shocker, they put up a bunch of points and win the game. Yeah.

I'd like to see them do this more.

Well, very clearly, Aaron Rodgers is comfortable doing it against the Bengals because you mentioned that this was the second highest time to throw average that Aaron Rodgers has had during his time with the Steelers. The longer time to throw that he had was against the Bengals last year.

So yes, a very, very.

Comfortable passing against this team. We've spent a lot of the better part of the last, I'll say, month and a half talking very highly of the Bengals. And I still think they're a very good football team. I don't think that today changes that. But where I do believe they've gotten a lot better on the offensive and defensive trenches, their secondary and giving up big plays has sort of been an issue to start this season. They gave up 10 explosive plays against the Steelers this week. a 16.9% explosive play rate. They've given up 28 explosive plays this season, which is one of the higher marks in the NFL. Now, an interesting part of this is the coverage that they decided to play here against Aaron Rodgers. They played single

high coverage, so cover three or cover one, on two-thirds of their plays today. And Aaron Rodgers was very clearly comfortable attacking that because all three of Aaron Rodgers' touchdowns came against those single high defenses. He was very comfortable assessing the defense. We saw some vintage Aaron Rodgers throws in this game, and we've been waiting for these types of plays and these types of attempts, and it just hasn't felt as though Aaron Rodgers has wanted to attempt them.

One of the touchdowns was maybe my favorite touchdown that I saw this week, and it was the Ben Skorodnik touchdown. So you can just see how that play went, how just confident everybody was in what they were doing, but it also goes into how well the Steelers' offensive line played in this game. I know that Aaron Rodgers, in his older years, doesn't want.

To take hits. Who does, right, from NFL defenders?

But Rodgers specifically, during his time with the Jets and his time with the Steelers, that time to throw number has been so low because he just wants to get the ball out of his hands because I feel like he's been playing a kind of offensive line that he doesn't trust. The offensive line was pretty dang good in this game, not just in pass blocking, but also in run blocking as well. They were, I don't want to say imposing their will, because I don't know if it was quite like that, but they were having a pretty dang good day. One of those players that was having a good day was rookie Max Yonager, who started at right tackle in this game.

This was his first start.

He had 36 pass blocking reps, three pressures allowed, but just an 8.3% pressure percentage, which was the lowest on the team, I will add.

And he was also.

One-on-one, Brett, 75% of the game. So he was on an island as an offensive tackle, three-fourths of this game and three-fourths of his pass-blocking reps. I just thought it was a great day all around for the Steelers. Mike McCarthy was in his bag. Aaron Rodgers playing confident. Jalen Warren looked great. The offensive line was playing fearless. And because of that, you got a version of the Steelers offense that I think a lot of people have been saying, Where has this been for the longest time since Aaron Rodgers.

Has been on the team? Not to get too deep into draft talk, but watching Ihanator work out close up with my own eyes. I was like 15 feet away from him doing drills. It looked exactly like Membu the year before. Both of them freak athletes. But just the build, the explosion. He was still relatively new to football, even as a first round prospect. He's not even really fully developed yet, but he is just so physically gifted watching him work out. Took my breath away, man. I think the whole fiasco with Mekhi Lemon, to me, and I even said it at the time, I think they kind of lucked into a better pick for what the Steelers needed, which was a true right tackle because of the Broderick Jones thing. His future was still uncertain at the time.

You got Fogton, who was the other tackle. I feel like Ihanator was a harder thing to find than a wide receiver two, wide receiver three, which is what you know, Makai would have been on this team this year. Ihanator is just the more rare commodity. And the fact that they got him, I don't want to say on accident, but just due to fate, I feel like that was the better thing for them. And that played out in this game. I think Ihanator being rock solid on that right side was one of the big reasons why they won against a very good Bengals defensive line. I don't know what Makai Lemon could have done for them that they didn't already have in this game. So the Steelers nailed it. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But beyond that,

beyond just the Steelers offense popping off, you know, Derek Harmon, first round pick from last year, you know, making that game ceiling sack fumble. Beyond that, I want to shout out Callie on the NGS team, by the way. She always keeps us honest when it comes to special team stats. Cincinnati lost this game, arguably, or maybe inarguably, if you ask a Bengals fan, on special teams. They have now lost 6.4 EPA on special teams this season, second most in the entire league. They had two absolutely horrific special teams errors. They had a muff as well as a roughing the kicker penalty on the Steelers that then brought the Steelers offense back on the field. They scored on that.

You could argue Cincinnati special teams cost them 10 points in this game or rather gave the Steelers an opportunity to get 10 extra points in this game. So the third phase matters, and when the Steelers' offense is playing better and the Steelers' defense has that really, really voracious pass rush when they're at their best, plus a good special teams outing, it's a hard team to beat. And the Bengals, who we think are going to be there towards the end of the year in the AFC, they found that lesson out the hard way.

By the way, just to wrap this up, do you see T.

Higgins' touchdown this week? Yeah, do it.

He just saw Jamar's touchdown the week before, and he was.

Just like, no, no, no, okay, now I've got to have my own.

So I'm looking forward to next week because now Jamar is going to have to be like, oh, okay, well, now I've got to do something even better. I've got to do something absolutely crazy. I've got to catch it behind my back or something like that.

They'll cook up something.

But I am enjoying that competition of who can make crazier catches.

And somehow ends up in the hands of Tee Higgins. Spectacular.

All right, Chargers and Buffalo Bills. I mean, speaking of crazy, man, how in the world did the Buffalo Bills win this game?

Because they were playing against the Chargers, and the Chargers always lose games like this.

I mean, what's the stat? Do you have the stat in front of you? How often teams who had five turnovers end up winning games? Because the number is so, so, so, so few in league history.

Since 2013, teams with five-plus turnovers and a negative-four turnover margin were 2, 81, and 1. And the Bills got the win today. They made it three. So going from last week's Charger game where they fumbled six times to this week's Charger game where they forced five turnovers and still lost, it's very much, well, I don't want to say the norm because it's not the norm. But for Chargers fans, it just feels like another chapter in a long history of losing games in the most improbably Charger-ish kind of way. I'm beside myself, right? Watching the tape, you and I were kind of going back and forth on this. Justin Herbert just doesn't look like Justin Herbert.

And even the people that are Herbert detractors, I would say, posting the If Man memes and everything like that, I would say looking at that pic that he threw today, even those of us that have defended Herbert can't defend that. And even the ones that have gone after Herbert in the past, even you guys got to admit, This is a new low. Like, these first three weeks of the season is a new low for Justin Herbert. I have never seen him play like this in a three-game stretch ever. Like, truly ever. And he's been in the league, I don't know, six years at this point? Seven years at this point?

I don't know what's going on. Because on paper, you bring in Mike McDaniel. It's not like Mike McDaniel has historically called bad offenses. You've got Amarion Hampton. You've got two tackles who we think are really talented. I don't know what the problem is, but there is clearly a problem. He is not seeing the field well. He's just making YOLO decisions down the field and throwing picks that a rookie wouldn't even throw. I can't explain. That's not Justin Herbert.

I mean, it is, but it's not. And they're losing games because of him.

The vibes are pretty low right now for the Chargers. And I think a big reason why is sort of what you're talking about with Herbert. because they win the time of possession in this game. They obviously win the turnover battle by a lot. They had less penalties in this game and they lose. And it's just, it's, it's finding ways to lose in new fashion. It feels like every week and every year with this team, I am worried about Justin Herbert here, because when you look at his stats, three games into the season, now three games is a smaller sample size compared to yearly statistics, right?

Where you have a 17 or going back far enough, 16 game sample size. But, When you look at Herbert this year, lowest completion percentage over expected of his career, negative 3.8%.

I don't think he's ever had a negative. And if he has, it's very few.

Lowest completion percentage overall of his career, 59.1%, which would be his first season below.

65, so we're not even close.

We're 6% lower than what his lowest year was prior to this. It's his lowest success rate of his career overall, 39.4%. It's the first season where he's averaging a negative EPA per dropback, negative 26.9% completion percentage over expected, and negative 1.16 EPA per dropback on throws of 20 or more yards this season is not even close the lowest numbers of his career. And Brett, that's what worries me the most.

Because if you want to sit here and talk about all the talent that Justin Herbert has, and I do. I've had Justin Herbert as a top 10 quarterback in the league despite some of the results and despite winning the big games and the playoffs and things like that. I think he's a top 10 quarterback because he's talented enough to be a top 10 quarterback. But when you have the arm talent that Justin Herbert does, and you've put out some of the interceptions that we've seen through the first three weeks, buddy, I don't know how much more defending of you I can do here. Because when you look at some of these interceptions and some of these poor throws of 20 or more yards down the field, Brett, it's like there's zero urgency. He's so nonchalant. I think

it was in this game. I'm pretty sure it was this interception from this game specifically.

Where he's looking at the receiver. He sees it. And he almost like hops like an extra time. Just... For fun.

Like he's just walking in the park on a Sunday afternoon, not playing an NFL game. And then he goes, all right, I'm going to throw this now.

Now it's too late.

And in fact, on top of that, he's not putting the heat on it like I.

Know he can.

So all of these numbers just sort of encapsulate that it looks very off with him. There's just not a lot of urgency in which he is passing the football.

And when you contrast it with Josh Allen, who just plays the game like every snap is his last.

Yes.

Like every individual play is the most important of his life. It just looks different, man. It just looks different. And I don't know what's going on. You know, there's been some sound coming out of Charger Land from other players that make it sound like the vibes are just kind of off inside the building. Yeah. Even the coaching staff at the very top, and I love Jim Harbaugh, I really do. I have to criticize Jim Harbaugh as well.

His macro game management is just bad, and I feel like the players kind of sense that. It almost feels like the players are playing as if they feel like the coaches are not putting them in the best chance to win the game. Next-gen stats, they actually do track whether or not coaches are making the optimal decision whether punt kick situations or kick versus go for it situations.

Last season, even, the Chargers elected to go for it on fourth down on just 50% of recommended situations tied for the second lowest rate in the league. And in 2026, they have not gone for it when recommended on any fourth down opportunity. And that happened in this game. Fourth and three from Buffalo's 27th. had an opportunity to go for it, were recommended to go for it, didn't go for it, tried a field goal, missed the field goal.

And I feel like that just saps these players' energy, so to speak, right? Where they feel like they just want to be put into a position where they can make plays that win the game and they're not being allowed to do so. And it just looks like they don't care. This team is playing like they don't care.

And I'm not used to that for a Jim Harbaugh coached team that always just plays with fire and passion. I think back to those early 2010s Niners teams. I think back to that Michigan Natty team. The energy is just not there. It's sad. It is.

And now I want to talk a little bit about Buffalo because they did have the win in this game.

The team that won.

So we got these numbers from NGS. James Cook ran for 154 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, recording five explosive runs for the second time in a game already this season. Four of his five explosive runs came on man-rushing concepts behind a power offensive line, tied for the second most in the game since 2018. Had 108 rushing yards on man-blocking concepts in this game. He now has more yards on man-blocking concepts, 198, this season than any other player in the league. Josh Allen obviously had some forgettable plays to start this one and why you get the turnovers. I thought it was very interesting that Two of his interceptions came against cover four.

It was a little less blitzing. It was more of, hey, we're just.

Going to drop a lot of these players and we're going to kind of force Allen to scan the field a little bit here and make him attempt those Superman throws when he sees it with more guys in coverage.

And it did seem to work for them.

And I think that for most days where he throws those interceptions and you get those turnovers, it works out for you.

But that's not what happened in this game. And to put a button on all of this, Brett, remember the stat that you read?

That was since 2013, teams with 5-plus turnovers and a minus-4 turnover margin were just 2-81-1. The other two times that the team has lost were both the Chargers. In 2015 against the Denver Broncos, and in 2022 against.

The Jacksonville Jaguars. Like I said, Chargers fans are used to this. They're used to this. That is.

I almost didn't want to read that on the show.

When the NGS people got us that. I almost was like, we can't do this to these people. We can't let them know this. As somebody who's done a lot of work with the Chargers, they will be more mad if you didn't mention it. They want their trauma validated. And on NFL Pro, we will validate your trauma.

Which is a good transition into the next game that we're talking about here because I think the turnovers also were the main factor of the result of the Seattle Seahawks getting their first loss of the year against the Washington Commanders. In a game that I would explain like this, Brett, the Seattle team lost this game for the same reasons that your boomer uncle explains why every football.

Team loses every game.

And that is, oh, the turnover and run of the football. If you lose a turnover battle and you can't run the football, you're not going to win football games. I think this was the big, oh, we don't have Kenneth Walker anymore type of game.

And I think that's how we got to the result here. If you're looking at like from a down to down basis, Seattle wasn't like the best rushing team last year. I mean, they got better as the season went on, but the explosives that Walker could just create out of nothing, it really did provide balance to the Seahawks offense last year because it wasn't just, okay, we're getting all of our chunk plays with Darnold and JSN, especially as the season went on and teams started clamping more down on JSN, you know, his yards per catch was really, really high in the first half of the season. I mean, still high in the second half of the season, but not like astronomical, right? But they were still able to get

explosives out of K-Walk in the second half of last year. And in this game, maybe it's because Price fumbled early on and then didn't see as much usage. But you saw the toll that that lack of explosiveness in the run game took, where it felt like if they were going to get a big play, it had to come from Darnold. It had to go to JSN. And if you make a team one-dimensional, even one as dominant as Seattle, you can get got. Now, could you criticize the Seahawks coaching staff for going away from Price after the fumble and not letting him just kind of work through it and still get his touches? Because we know what Price can do with the ball in his hands, as evidenced in the first couple weeks where he was good. Like, yeah,

I could criticize the staff for that and maybe being a little gun-shy about giving him more opportunities after that. But at the same time, it did kind of lay bare... That when this team is just the Darnold and JSN show, it can be a little bit problematic and they do have to make a concerted effort to be more balanced.

And I think that is something to monitor as the season goes on. Like, hey, even if you do have an early turnover in the run game, like you got to stick with it like you really do, because it. Those compounding body blows is what led to Kenneth eventually being able to break off an explosive. And if you don't have early success with the run game, let's say you have a few carries and doesn't work and then you stop doing it. Well, then you just have a bad run game. But if you have a few carries that don't work early on, but you stick with it, you give your running back an opportunity to get into the flow of the game and to create success. even if you're getting three yards, three yards, two yards, three yards,

if you're getting a 20-yarder out of that, your yards per carry looks good, but it's really that one explosive that can turn a nothing drive into a scoring drive, and that makes all the difference. So I really do think that we're seeing the opposite ends of the coin here in terms of the Chiefs really hammering with Kenneth Walker and allowing him to be himself and how good their offense is versus Seattle kind of going away from the run game in this one not allowing their young back to kind of work through that fumble, really putting everything on Darnold and JSN's plate. You end up with a pick six late in the game. and uh-oh you're down by nine with only a few minutes left and now we can't dig out of that hole so I

think it's a lesson learned for the Seahawks staff.

Yeah I was gonna I was gonna ask like do we think the Seahawks have a JSN or nothing problem and I don't think that they do I mean, let's also be real about sort of what this game was. It's not like the commanders were really taking control here. I think Marcus Mariota did a great job coming in because he's one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league.

We've seen that over the last couple of years.

So you knew he was going to give them a chance to potentially win this game if what happens happens. If they win the turnover battle and if the Seahawks sort of abandon the run game and get one-dimensional and look what happened.

They won 33-31.

Seattle had three turnovers in this game. The Commanders scored a touchdown off of all three turnovers. So, I mean, that's sort of the difference right there. It's not like they were blowing anybody out of the way. It's not like the Commanders were really running the ball super well. I mean, Kroski Merritt had a 1.9 yards per carry average. Now, Rashad White had a 4.4, so obviously that's a lot better.

But still, I mean, you're looking at 71 total rushing yards with this team between those two backs there.

But they committed to it. No, for sure. It's a difference of if you're looking at run percentage, 49.2% to 28.1%. Even if it doesn't work, you just kind of got to do it anyway, which to go back to everybody's boomer uncle, even if they don't know why it's correct, they know it's correct. I agree with it. You just got to do it.

But I mean, I think it was interesting that I'm looking at the NGS numbers right now. Even When they were still down three on the scoreboard with four minutes and 30 seconds left in the game, there was a point when Darnold hit JSN for a 26-yard gain and it went to the other side of the field. It flipped to the other side of the 50. Seattle had a 55% chance to win this game. So, I mean, like all of what we talked about there, you know, do they have a JSN problem? Like it's just, it's JSN or nothing. The turnover issue is not being able to run the ball. They still had a more than 50% chance to win this game with 4 minutes and 30 seconds left down on the scoreboard. I think that speaks to just the type of team that this is and

how I wouldn't totally just take this loss and run with it and say, boy, the Seahawks got exposed in this game.

It's JSN or bust.

They don't have anything else that can't work. They still scored a lot of points. They still moved the ball decently well. I think it just comes down to... sometimes you can't overcome the turnovers and they lost by two in this game. And I think that that's just, that's the.

Story of what it was. It's not just the turnovers. It's when the turnovers happen, right? You get a backbreaking pick six late in the fourth quarter. Yeah. You know, they did come back and again, it was JSN, JSN, JSN. They scored, but you're up against the clock at that point. If it's a 70 minute game, yes, Seattle could probably win it. It's not, it's a 60 minute game. So if that pick six happens, late, and you're in a close fight, that's how it goes against you. So I think it's just a learning opportunity all around for Seattle.

It's a very similar lesson that I think they learned last year, which was a big reason why they did the Shaheed trade in the first place. They kind of sensed, okay, we need to get another guy here. And I think I would rather learn that lesson now in week three than learn it in the playoffs. So it's a great coaching staff. It's a great team. They'll make adjustments. I'm not worried about Seattle whatsoever. I do want to give Washington their flowers, especially Marcus Mariota. First time that Mariota and Jameis Winston have won a game on the same day in seven years, by the way. So shout out to the 2015 draft class. I think it's 2015 off the top of my head. It was the 2015 draft class. Oh, that's right. Yeah, because Tampa picked first overall. Yeah, I'm

very familiar. Very familiar. Still doing it.

Very familiar.

Still going. Still going. But great win for Washington. They needed this one.

Does it count as a draft win? Does it count as a draft win? Both guys are still in the league 11 years later.

Yeah, if you're a quarterback that plays in the NFL for over 10 years and you're still starting, no, we won't. we won't talk about how you're getting to that starting position, but you're still starting games over a decade in. That's good. So great win overall by Washington. I do not want to discount that whatsoever. Like they desperately needed this one and they got it. They played well against, you know, one of the inarguably four best teams in the NFL.

This is the kind of game that can really set the tone for the rest of the year. And it keeps them in the fight to the point where, okay, if we can get Jaden back, In insert X number of weeks, as long as Mariota can keep them in the fight, they're okay. They're still in the hunt for the NFC, so good win for them. Excellent Sonny Styles game as well. I just want to point that out.

Excellent Sonny Styles game.

Thought he was a bust after the preseason. I thought he was never going to be good after the preseason. Everybody told me, no, no, he's horrible. He'll never get better.

Yeah, and Jamar Chase has a drop problem. Yeah, yeah, we've been here before. I do have to transition to Houston versus Indianapolis. Brother, I'm... Okay, I have rarely been this enraged watching football, and the unfortunate part is most of the time it's while I'm watching the Houston Texans because this team, perhaps only equaled by the Los Angeles Chargers, has a talent for losing games they should win. They won the turnover battle Three to nothing in this game.

Still lost. In fact, there is a curated list. This comes from a Texans commenter. D'Amico Ryans might have the craziest list of bad losses by any NFL coach in just over three seasons. That includes this one. It also includes, remember when Jared Goff threw five interceptions? They lost that game. Boy, do I ever. Yes, I do. The Titans once allowed eight sacks in a game and beat the Texans. The Packers were minus three in turnovers. beat the Texans. These are all recent, by the way, like within the last three years. CJ Stroud once threw for 353 yards. The defense got five sacks, still lost by 14. And oh, by the way, the playoff game in January of 2025, the Texans were the first team to out-game their opponent

by 100 yards, not turn the ball over, and lose a postseason game. Previous teams were 49-0 in the playoffs at that point. So this is in the last... Three seasons, the resume the Texans have put together in terms of losing games that statistically are almost impossible to lose. They have an unbelievable talent for doing so. And a lot of it comes down to not just micro, but really macro, right?

Clock management, go versus punt decisions, go versus kick decisions. And the clock management in particular, like I had to compose myself. So let me weave a tale for you. It's inside the two-minute warning. The Texans have a lead. This is in the game that just happened. They have a lead. They opt to kick a touchback after scoring.

So they're giving Indianapolis the ball on their own 35. rather than the average kick return goes out to the 30. They're giving them five extra yards. By the way, they only need a field goal to win, guys. Maybe let's not give them five extra yards in the era of kickers having a week to prep balls before games, so ranges are higher than ever. And earlier in this game, the Colts kicked a field goal that I believe was 57 yards. So the range is pretty big, right? So you're starting them at the 35th. They get a 20-yard gain to Laquan Treadwell, who's just back now doing that every week, 11 years into his career. And so they get a 20-yard gain to Treadwell. Remember, they just need a field goal to win. The Texans have three timeouts,

and they don't use them. So the Colts just get up to the line and milk it. Gets to like 111 on the clock. Get another five yards down to the Texans' 40. You're in field goal range at that point. Again, no timeout, no timeout. You're just sitting there with three of them in your pocket. Let it go all the way down to like 26 seconds. The Colts were bewildered.

They're like, what are you guys doing? You're just letting us win this game. And of course. you know, they kick the field goal. By the time the Texans get the ball back, they have no timeouts left because they didn't start using them until it was inside of 30 seconds.

There are a lot of coaches that just, they think that just because they have a lead that like the clock is their friend and like the other team's.

Like, not going to know. We pulled the fast one on him.

Like, ha ha, I reached zero and you totally forgot. Like, that's just, it's not a viable strategy, I don't think.

But because he did that, when the Texans got the ball back, they didn't have any timeouts left. And they had 16 seconds on the clock.

Right.

So they did it to themselves.

It was pretty much the worst way that you could possibly use the timeouts.

You're a multi-billion dollar organization. You can pay an elite Madden player to just sit there on the sideline and tell you when to take timeouts. And he just won't do it. As a Texans fan. The reason I'm so mad is because this is like the seventh time I've seen this happen and they're not getting better at it.

And they just sit there after the game and they say, well, we're going to look at it and we're going to see if we can execute this better. Yeah, I mean, when I look at it, if I can make a better decision, I'll look at that and try to see where I can make a better decision. I am losing my mind. Like, I love D'Amico as a coach. He's great.

Except at like the one thing that a head coach has to be really good at, which is game management, and they can't get it together. It's bulls * * t. I'm tired of it. Like, I'm just so tired of this. I do want to shout out the Colts, who obviously won this game.

Daniel Jones specifically, there was an area of his game that I thought he was very, very good at, and that was stuff over the middle of the field and in between the numbers. In breaking route stuff, he was 12 for 15, 150 yards, one touchdown, and a 130.6 quarterback rating with an average of 10 yards per attempt.

Not bad, Mr. Jones. Other than the one shrimp po' boy he threw up into the end zone. But other than that, other than that. I just, one time, I want to see the Texans not start 0-3. Just one time. It would be great. Yeah, better luck next year.

I can say that because my team currently, if you look at the draft order, they have the number one overall pick.

So I can say that. I'm allowed to say that. A team that has no idea. We ironically said we were racing to Jeremiah Smith. Now I think we actually are racing to Jeremiah Smith. Actually, I just realized this.

The Bucs are picking number one. If the draft were to be this weekend, the Bucs are picking one. The Texans are picking two.

Look at us.

That's why you watch NFL Pro, folks, because not only are we going to give you the NFL analysis during the season, you know we're paying attention to the draft.

You know we are, because we have to. We're going to be the first show that does our first mock draft in like week five. I'll do it tomorrow.

A team that has no idea what we're talking about is the Las Vegas Raiders, who, yes, the Las Vegas Raiders, folks... Do not adjust your dial. You heard me crystal clear. 3-0 on the season. 35-27 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Hate to sound like a broken record, but truly, turnovers told the story here. And mainly the fact that the New Orleans Saints had four turnovers in the fourth quarter.

That's pretty crazy. I didn't think that was possible, dude.

Now, a big factor in two of those turnovers, Brad, is that two of them came while the Saints were within scoring distance. So field goal distance at least, but, you know, you're kind of marching. And I think that part of it makes a big deal. We talk about, hey, where's the turnover and where's the field position and everything. Now, a lot of times we talk about it for the team that just, you know, either picked up the fumble or intercepted the football.

They got the football.

Okay, where are they starting? But also I tend to think about it for the team that just turned the ball over as well. Where were you in the drive? Like, were you really expected to add some points there or not? Because that all of a sudden vanishes when you do that. The Saints had an 85% chance to win the game when.

The fourth quarter started. Are you serious?

85% chance to win the game. And then they had the four turnovers. I think something that the Saints did in this game is the blitz rate was 15.9%. from the Las Vegas Raiders in this game and I think that they watched NFL Pro and heard us talk about the fact that Tyler Shuck has the most passing yards under pressure going into week three of any quarterback and they said all right fine we're just gonna sit back we're gonna rush three or we're gonna rush four no more we're gonna sit back in coverage and we're gonna wait for you to potentially make a mistake.

And Shuck didn't make all the mistakes.

It's not like all four turnovers were interceptions for him, but it became more difficult for them to move the ball. So I think that that's a hat tip to what the Raiders did in their coaching staff. But I also want to hat tip Clint Kubiak in the offensive side of the ball. Because, look, is Kirk Cousins the most spry, young, talented, hot shot, big arm quarterback in the NFL right now?

No, he is not.

But he is exactly what I think the Raiders want for their football team right now. And there's a reason why Fernando Mendoza is on the bench. Not only for his own development, but also because Kirk can orchestrate this offense the way they want him to. When it comes to the fourth quarter, he was 4-4-4 for 45 yards and two touchdowns and a perfect quarterback rating. The offensive line, they gave up three sacks before their five offensive linemen had a pressure percentage below 10%. The outside zone rush game, which is a staple for Clint Kubiak, was cooking. in the fourth quarter of this game. They were able to combine that with quick passes, play action passes, getting the ball out of Kirk's hand, and also letting him scan

the field with a tight end heavy offense that I think really lends itself to Kirk being able to attack over the middle of the field and dissect zone coverages, something that he was just masterful of in this game. So are the Raiders the most explosive offense in the NFL? No, I don't think that that's the case. But when this young, confident defense can get you a couple of turnovers, Kirk Cousins and this offense is able to orchestrate and sustain drives to put up points to legitimately win football games.

And we're seeing that with them being 3-0. And I think that it is an awesome identification of where this team is. what they do well, what they might not do well, and getting much more out of the former rather than the latter. It can just sometimes be night and day when you get the right coach in there, even right away.

You know, earlier this season, which is like a week ago at this point, you know, we were talking about how the Raiders offense was like really inefficient, right? 13 possessions, only three got to the red zone last week. Two of those were because of turnovers. We're like, man, this offense just isn't really efficient. The defense is playing really well, but they need some balance offensively. Well, you get Brock Bowers back. Somehow you get offensive balance just like that when you get a superstar, not even tight end, just superstar weapon. Kirk had 22 completions in this game. 10 of them went to Bowers. He was an immediate difference maker for this team. Once again, Ashton Gentry under three

yards per carry again this week, but it didn't matter as much because he still got 19 attempts. So they were keeping defenses honest. Like you, even if he's not succeeding with those attempts, the fact that they're still keeping the run rate high means the defense has to play those run past percentages, which means the play action game is going to be better. And it means you're more likely to get, you know, advantageous matchups with Brock Bowers.

And he was abusing everybody. Even corners couldn't handle Bowers today. 10 catches for a buck 16 in a touchdown. Didn't matter who was guarding him. He was incredible. And this is the first time this Clint Kubiak offense has looked like the Kubiak offense in Seattle, where we're committing to the run. Even if we're not necessarily efficient from carry to carry, we'll get a couple explosives here and there.

And as long as we have our one superstar weapon, JSN in Seattle, Bowers in Vegas, as long as we have that one guy we can build the plane out of, we're going to be effective. And they put up 35 points and won the game. They're 3-0. So this Raiders team is scrappy. Are they perfect? No, they're not even close.

But they're good enough to keep Mendoza on the bench, which I think is excellent for the 2027 and 2028 Raiders, in addition to being great for the 2026 Raiders.

I feel like week three is always an indicator of maybe how the rest of the season is going to go. We know that week one, like we talked about, can be a liar sometimes. So many different things sort of show up in week two. You get some stinkers. You get some teams that kind of come out of nowhere. But then in week three, are the teams that are really good, do they just start blowing everybody out and we kind of know what the season's going to be?

We had so many close games in week three that I think that that tells you the parody is going to be wild the entire season. We didn't even get to all of them in this show, but man. If week three is any indicator, like I think that it is, we are in for a hell of a 2026 season. Shout out to everybody at NGS working super hard to get us all of these numbers for us to do this show right away.

Shout out to the producers making it happen.

For Brett Coleman, I'm Trevor Sikma saying thank you guys so much for watching this reaction show episode of week three.

We'll see you later on. See you guys.

Thanks for listening to our week three reaction podcast. Listen to NFL Pro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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