A HISTORIC Sunday for Ground Games | NFL Week 7 recap

0:00 Welcome to the NFL Pro Week 7 Reaction Show. Thank you for listening on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow and subscribe to the show.

0:21 They called it a passing league. They're dead wrong.

0:26 62-yard touchdown run!

0:33 This was a run-game-dominated week in the NFL. The league-wide called run rate, meaning the percentage of plays that were run plays across the NFL, highest for a single regular season week since 2018, 42.9%. which doesn't sound like a big number. That is a big number when it comes to how often you run the ball. And everybody, well, most everybody, was very successful at it. Unfortunately, one of the teams that was not successful at it was the Chiefs, who were one of the best rushing teams in the NFL.

1:11 The team that you probably thought would have been the most successful at it, although against the Seahawks, right? We talked about this in the preview show. Kenneth Walker going up against his former team. The Seahawks know how to bottom them up pretty well. And very clearly, their front had things prepared very well for this run game for the Kansas City Chiefs, and yet they were able to limit the Chiefs' crossers as well. You talked about that as like, hey, if you're going to allocate resources to stopping Kenneth Walker, which we feel like they were going to, which they did, you're probably going to give up something in the crossers game. Mike McDonald was awesome. on it, man.

1:46 I mean, this was just an incredible game for them to really bounce back, not only defend home turf, but get a big win, a much-needed win against a premium opponent in the Kansas City Chiefs. This is a huge win for the Seattle Seahawks.

1:59 And to stop a running back that was on a tear like Kenneth Walker was, when your defense was in split safety looks almost 70% of the time.

2:09 I mean, that is just defensive line dominance, man.

2:13 They massacred them up front. There is no other way to describe it. If you're in split safety that much, and in particular, they were in cover six 36% of the time, which they were already the heaviest team in terms of cover six usage in the entire NFL. For those of you that don't know, by the way, cover six means you're playing cover two on one side of the field and you're playing quarters on the other side of the field. So you have two safeties well off the line of scrimmage. They were in zone coverage over 90% of the time in this game. And so even when they had safeties way off line of scrimmage, their defensive line was dominating so much.

2:46 You shouldn't be able to do both. You should not be able to do both. And yet in this game, Kenneth Walker, 36 rushing yards, season low, negative 15 rushing yards, over-expected. First game this season with a negative rush yards, over-expected. Zero explosive runs from Kenneth Walker and a season low 28.6% success rate. Again, when you're playing all that split safeties when you're playing all that cover six, you should not be able to do that. And yet the Seahawks, I think reminded everybody, Hey, around the league, we got a lot of really great rushing attacks, but here we took on the best running back in the NFL. And we said, we're still the Superbowl champions. Dang it. And until somebody takes the crown off of our head, we're going to

3:27 show that we're still capable of being one of the best teams in the NFL.

3:31 And on the passing game side of things for the chiefs. I mean, you know, if you take away the run game, you take away the crossing routes. what's the third punch for Kansas City? They haven't needed one so far this year.

3:42 That's the point, yes.

3:43 This time they needed one, and they didn't have anything. Mahomes, 19 of 33, 165 and a pick. 58.3 quarterback rating because they took away the jab and the hook. They don't have anything else. This is not me saying the Chiefs are doomed or anything like that. No. There's very few teams that are equipped to handle them like this.

4:00 Seattle is one of them.

4:02 Absolutely. And let's talk about the offense really quick for Seattle, because this game, it felt like could not have gone better for Seattle. I know Seattle fans would be like, well, if it was 70 to nothing, it probably would have been better for us. But in the reality of what you knew that this game was going to be, I mean, we talked about how they defended Kenneth Walker better than anybody has. We talked about how they defended crossers well as well, given what they were able to do in coverage.

4:24 And then against Jackson Smith and Jigba, we talked in the preview show about, man, okay, what's wrong with Sam Darnold? There was a lot of things, but that was bleeding into JSN a little bit because teams were playing him more in man this year because they were basically saying like, okay, sure, if you beat us in man coverage a little bit, that's fine. We just don't want you to tear us up versus zone like he has for the last couple of seasons, especially like he did in 2025. But the touchdown specifically to JSN, That was press man coverage, and he was able to beat it, and that was one of the biggest plays of the game.

4:53 Not only was it press man, it was zero.

4:56 As aggressive as it gets?

4:58 Yeah. We're talking about blitz zero. We are covering with four and rushing seven.

5:03 With Mansour Delane on him. This is every single talking point that we had of this game that the Seahawks went, nope, we're just going to have an advantage.

5:12 In all of the areas. We have JSN and you don't. Yeah, correct. And Mansour's been great. So far. Yes. And even great players can get got by legendary players. And that's what JSN is looking to be. I also want to shout out the Seahawks protection for how they sorted out the zero look. I mean, you know, you're bringing seven on the rush and they kind of use a couple tricks of the trade to block it up. You have the center.

5:42 kind of fanning out and getting his hands out there, getting a two for one.

5:46 Very pro O-line in how you're explaining this right now.

5:49 It's only a hold if they call it.

5:50 Oh, it's a fan out technique.

5:53 It's just starfishing out there. You can't get around me. George Alani's throwing his body in there. I love the chip with the tight end off the edge, which really is the tight end getting a two for one, because if you're chipping the edge, it means the edge really doesn't have time to get there before the ball is out because it's a vertical route. So it's going to be a quick throw. And then you're occupying the safety with him because at zero, the safety has to cover the tight end. So not only is he kind of taking away a rusher, he's also taking away a coverage player.

6:22 And so if you block up a blitz zero like this and you have JSN one-on-one, I almost don't care what corner you have out there. Right. That's a touchdown. And that was the early difference in the game.

6:34 So we told the people that this was going to be a show about the run game. And we talked about a run game that wasn't so great to start things out with the Kansas City Chiefs. A run game that was fantastic was what the New York Giants did this week.

6:48 Speaking of not being able to stop duo, Giants had 188 rushing yards in this game, 63 rushing yards over expected. Texans allowed 106 yards after missed tackles. Absolutely horrible, atrocious, any synonym you want to choose. But to me, the lead story of this game.

7:07 Mm-hmm.

7:08 J.J.

7:08 McCarthy, 18.

7:09 What the hell?

7:11 Because I know a lot of people are going to be talking about J.J. McCarthy coming off of this week. And he was a big point of conversation last week when he threw for over 200 yards when he came in the game.

7:19 Buried the lead. 200 yards in a quarter.

7:22 Okay, but here's the thing. You've got to set that up correctly. They're down 24. So he comes into the game. Who cares if he throws three picks? It doesn't matter. You're down 24. So the fact that he threw for over 200 yards with absolutely nothing to lose... does not impress me, especially for the fact that he did not play well under pressure when he was pressured during that fourth quarter. The key to this week was going to be, can he take that freedom, that confidence in which he just let it rip the previous week? Can you build upon that? Can you at least show me some consistency there?

7:55 He didn't just show consistency. That was the whole game. That was the whole day for JJ McCarthy. So yes, where a week ago, I'm not really impressed with the garbage time stats that you rack up. This week, against this defense, specifically, dude, I don't know if you saw these numbers, against single high, right? So the Texans, they have Kalen Bullock, they have a player in their secondary at the safety level who is capable of playing single high coverage, so they'll play cover three, they'll play cover one a lot. Every single time that they put these receivers in one-on-one situations, especially when they're pressed, McCarthy was ready to let it rip. on it, which you love to see. That's kind of like the Drake May thing, right?

8:32 Anytime you play May in press man coverage, he goes, okay, and he puts the ball exactly where his receiver can go get it. McCarthy in this game versus single high, 16 for 18, 164 passing yards, and a 104.6 quarterback rating. He was also 7 for 12 for 196 passing yards on passes of more than 10 air yards. That's confidence.

8:54 That's playing free. That's letting it rip. So where, again, I wasn't really impressed with him last week, Very impressed with J.J. McCarthy this week.

9:02 He looks entirely different mentally, and I don't know him personally. I can't say if this is true, but just the sense that I get as an outsider. I thought you were the best man at his wedding. That wasn't you? Yeah, we go way back. Okay. We go way back. There is a certain piece that comes from failure. Totally. It can't get worse. You already failed. No doubt. Yeah. Right.

9:24 Right.

9:24 What are you going to do? Fail more? Right. Yeah. I traded for a fifth round pick after being a super high draft pick. you're only a few years into your career, you failed hard. One of the worst failures, I guess you could say, for a highly drafted quarterback in recent memory. It can't get worse. So you go out there and you rip it. He had two 40-plus yard throws in the first quarter. That's the first time it's happened since 2011. That was Eli. That was 15 years ago. He was a child. Just to emphasize how young he is, by the way. He is still young.

9:54 He is still learning to failure learning to fail and deal.

9:57 With failure but to your point like before this week how good Bryce was playing how good Bryce was playing when he came back from being benched you were the number one overall pick that your team went up and traded all these assets for for you to go be the franchise saver you were not that player for the majority of the start of your career you get benched and he comes back and almost has this attitude where just like you said it's almost like I've already been benched, man.

10:20 I'm playing with house money. And now Bryce is, I know, again, not a good week to exactly point this out, but letting it rip. And I think there's something to what you said where you just say to yourself, hey, man, it went as bad as it could go. Why not just have fun? Anytime you've got Malik Nabors one-on-one, you're going to give him a chance. An excellent ball location by J.J.

10:41 McCarthy. There's so many quarterbacks. I mean, C.J. Stroud had a bad 2025 and a horrific playoff run. Couldn't get worse. So he's just been out here ripping it, playing really well this season. You look at Sam Darnold. He was a first-round failure, went to a few different teams. Baker, I think, is another one. Geno Smith is another one.

11:03 These young guys, when they get in the NFL, and they have never failed before, and then they do. And there's so much pressure. Yeah, so much pressure, especially after what Sam did to follow that. And, man, I just respect the hell out of him for this bounce back. I think that shows a lot.

11:21 So speaking of bounce back, I mean, was there a more predictable redemption story than Cam Scadaboo bouncing back this week? Oh, you knew he was going to get a single carry. I mean, okay, he doesn't get a single carry the week before, and John Harbaugh's like, oh, that's not on purpose, and Cam Scadaboo's in the locker room, and he's like, hey, man, I get it. I take my lumps. I fumble the football.

11:40 If I didn't get a carry, it's because I failed. And you go, dude. That's the guy that you give redemption carries to. In this game, 17 attempts, 124 rushing yards. Obviously, a lot of them in that overtime period for them to win this game. But, man, you go back to the Texans as well. Texans, 50% rush success rate. If you take that rush success rate aloud and pair it against what the league average is for these teams, that.

12:07 Would be number one.

12:08 And by number one, I mean the worst. So this Texans team, where they win two in a row– Now sitting here at 2-5.

12:16 They have no margin for error the rest of the season. Zero.

12:19 Zero.

12:19 You could say it's already over, but the fact they started 0-3 last year and ripped off 9 straight, it's not entirely over.

12:27 Right, but they can't lose again the rest of the year. Yeah, and there is not a lot, unfortunately, about this defense for all the great talent that they have that tells me it's just going to flip a switch for the next three months and it'd be okay now. Because they've got real problems up front.

12:45 Shockingly, they do. I don't know how.

12:49 I don't either.

12:50 But, like, they're getting pushed around in the ground game.

12:52 It's one of the great mysteries, I think, of this season that, obviously, I think that we'll dive into a little bit more here on this channel. But, man, it's just another day where I'm just so shocked at how poor it was.

13:01 Now, as far as other shocking things related to this game, so we came into this season. A lot of people picked the Eagles to win the division. A lot of people picked the Cowboys to win the division. You and I among them. Some people even got frisky, chose the Commanders. Mm-hmm. The Giants were like the tongue-in-cheek, trendy pick, but not to win the division, more so to be a wildcard team, a plucky wildcard team that might get there, but then lose.

13:25 But it's a feel-good season, stepping stone. I think they might actually be the best team in the NFC East.

13:32 Well, there's so much unknown, like you said, with those other teams. JJ plays like this even every other week. With them sitting here at 4-2-1, you go. The thing is, they already have.

13:44 Such a lead built in here. Okay.

13:47 My big takeaway here from this game is that the Giants are a much more formidable foe than I thought that they were going to be going into this season, albeit in ways that I didn't really expect, certainly with J.J. McCarthy being one of them. McCarthy plays like this? Yeah, you've got a chance to beat teams in this league, 100%.

14:04 They're already two games up, depending on what happens on Monday Night Football. So my takeaway from this is Giants got a for-real chance to be One of the top teams is not the top team coming out of this division.

14:14 And here comes Singletary. The former Houston Texan wins the game for the Giants.

14:21 Yeah, why not?

14:23 Why not? Speaking of two and five ball clubs.

14:25 You want some numbers? I got some numbers for you here. I have no idea how this happened.

14:32 We watched it live and we didn't know how it happened.

14:34 And after listening to Dave Canales afterwards, I think he also has no idea how this happened.

14:40 Because.

14:41 Here's some numbers from this game. You talk about run game dominance. Bucs, 258 rushing yards on 49 design carries. 49 design carries in 2026, year of our Lord, anyways, is wild.

14:55 That's two games for some teams.

14:57 Panthers had a 13% missed tackle rate. That would have been bottom 12 versus NFL averages. The time of possession in this game was Tampa had 35-24 to the Carolina Panthers. Brett, the Buccaneers... had five passes in this game that went beyond the line of scrimmage. Five. What camera am I looking at? I'll look at both, so in case you get the screenshot here.

15:22 Five.

15:22 Five passes.

15:23 Don't do that, Jayden's going to sue you.

15:25 Sorry.

15:25 Hand down. Sorry. Let's cut that.

15:28 They had five passes that crossed the line of scrimmage. And Mayfield's thumb, everybody's like, oh, you know, what kind of a player is he going to be with the thumb injuries? You know, he's wearing the glove to sort of protect the thumb coming off injury and everything like that.

15:39 They didn't have to.

15:40 They didn't have to do anything. And everything that the players kept saying in this game afterwards as I was sort of reading the quotes from them in the locker room, and again, like reading David Canales' quotes, is they got their ass whooped in this game. They got punched in the mouth, and they were very shell-shocked about it. I think the Panthers walked into this game, understandably so, thinking, we are the better team. We're at the top of this division. We're feeling good. We're rolling. Bryce is great.

16:04 The defense is playing great. And somehow, all of a sudden, I think they just blinked. And this game was like, what was the score at one point? 33-6 or something? I think they just blinked, and it was like that. And all of a sudden, the game's not even close to the script that you even wanted it to be. So, shout out to Tampa for obviously having it– a hell of a day on the ground. 79.3% called run rate, by the way. Second highest in a single game since 2018, trailing only that New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills game where the wind was 40 miles an hour.

16:38 And they just never threw the football, either team. I mean, you say never threw the football. He's only slightly exaggerating. Mac Jones had three passes.

16:46 Three passes. Three passes.

16:48 So if we look at normal weather games, this was the run heaviest game in almost a decade. Yeah. That's insane. Yeah. 258 rushing yards, second most allowed by a team this season, behind only the Panthers in week one to the Bears. And fun fact, as a trivia for those of you at home, entering this season, the Panthers have been around for 31 years. They only had three home games total where they allowed more than 40 points in 31 years.

17:18 We are seven weeks into 2026, and they have done it twice. So... I don't know how you fix this because this was just getting pushed around. This wasn't a scheme thing. This was just flat out getting dominated.

17:33 This is a burn the tape game. If you're the Panthers, you have to, this is a, this is a, Hey, you go into the locker room. If you're Dave Canales and you go, we all feel it. We all have the feeling. We all know what happened. We're all pissed off about it because they have to move on immediately. They played Thursday night football this upcoming week.

17:49 Oh God, they do.

17:50 So they have to move on immediately from this. You want to hear an update of the NFC South rank standings? Carolina is still number one at 3-3. Right behind them is the Atlanta Falcons at 3-4. Right behind them, still in it, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 2-5. And then it's the Saints also at 2-5.

18:09 This division is going to give me an aneurysm. We do this every year. Every year. Somebody pulls away early and it's like, oh, it's a runaway. And then they just end up in this. Middle destruction derby. That's like, it's entertaining for everybody else. It's horrible for NFC South fans that have to deal with this every year. Cause you know, you know, it's going to look like this. They're going to be separated by like a game and a half in week 18. Yeah.

18:36 Every fan base is just going to want it to be over.

18:39 So Bucks had 22 points off turnovers in this game. Obviously that doesn't help on the fact that, you know, Carolina couldn't stop the run at all. Also, because you and I have dubbed this the year of special teams, wanted to shout this out because Callie, our researcher at NGS, made sure to let us know. 6.4 EPA earned by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers off of special teams in this game, more than double of any other team this week.

19:04 Special teams matters. Third phase matters.

19:06 The third phase matters. I'm going to start calling special teams the second phase.

19:12 So what's the third one? Apparently run defense. Yeah.

19:16 Defense kind of bad. Defense kind of bad this year. So you know what? Special teams, you've been elevated to the second phase. Offense is the first phase. Then it's special teams. Then it's defense. And we'll reevaluate next week. We'll update the power rankings next week.

19:30 What's that? What's that video? You have been promoted. You are now my second favorite employee. Can you tell it's really late at night when we're doing this?

19:41 I think I think people are well aware, my friend. I think people are well aware.

19:46 Shall we talk about the chaos that was Lions?

19:52 Speaking of special teams.

19:55 Dude. Florida legend, by the way. Trace Mack. He missed one from 35. And then what was the other one?

20:03 I think like 27.

20:04 Like 28.

20:04 Dude. Something like that.

20:08 You can't rationalize that.

20:11 How far was the Blair Walsh miss?

20:13 In the playoffs? Yeah. Where Paul Allen was like apoplectic? Yeah, yeah.

20:17 I mean, we were all Paul Allen in that moment. He's like screaming, the season can't end this way!

20:23 And it is! No good! He missed it! Are you kidding me? The season can't end like that! He missed it left! And the Seattle Seahawks are off to Charlotte. Blair Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal. And the Minnesota Vikings are going to lose 10-9.

20:40 That's probably how you feel as a Green Bay fan right here. Because you lost this game by a field goal. You had two that were gimmies, chip shots, have to make, not even thinking about what might happen if you miss this field goal type of feeling. And I think that Packers fans are gutted because you're on the road, had a...

21:01 very realistic chance to win this game, and you didn't do it. And I think that I want to start with Jameer Gibbs' Herculean effort before we talk about everything else, because that's the theme of the day, is establishing it and running the football. This is from NGS. Jameer Gibbs recorded a 48.3% success rate despite having a career-low negative 24 rushing yards before contact in this game. Of the 19 other games, where a running back had negative 20 or fewer rushing yards before contact since 2018, the average success rate was 21.7. Less than half.

21:42 He's underpaid already for what he gives them. He kind of is.

21:49 He kind of is.

21:49 I mean, if you're looking at the best backs in the league, what would the Falcons be without the stabilizing presence of Bijan? What would the Lions be without Jameer? And for a typical... top 10 running back contract to be seven, seven and a half percent of the cap. I'm pretty sure the Lions are happy with giving 7% of their cap to that guy. What else are you going to spend it on?

22:16 That had some venom in it. What else are you going to spend it on? I think that this offense obviously is cooking as a whole. Jared Goff's playing fantastic this season. Amon Ross St. Brown is is a constant. I know there's the drama with Sam Laporta's contract and everything, but Laporta's balling.

22:32 Great answer, by the way. I don't know if you heard when media asked him about it. Today? No, it was a couple days ago, and Laporta, we'll pull the sound, we'll play it for you through the magic of editing here. I want to play for this team. I give everything I have. My teammates do as well. They all love me, respect me, and support me, and they want to see me be happy and compensated, I guess. He sounded... extremely reasonable.

22:54 Like he still wants to be in Detroit and explain himself. And I thought it was, I thought it was the best way to handle contract drama, just like laying it out there. Hey, I'm a person. I have a limited amount of time in my life to make generational wealth. I really like it here. I had my kid here. I'm a good football player. Let's get this thing done. Right.

23:10 You don't, you don't often see this conversation now, but you do see it plenty of times, like in the off season, right? Like Baker Mayfield did the same thing with the Buccaneers. You know, he got up at the podium and he talked about basically those same things. You just don't normally see it during the season, but, anyways, like Laporta was great. Jamison Williams has big plays in this game, but this offense to think of what it would be without Jameer Gibbs, or even just like a replacement player, right? You go down to league average. What is this team? And it's, For as much as Detroit has struggled in other areas this year, this season's a lot more grim if you don't have that player. Jameer

23:43 signed the deal second, right? So he technically set the market.

23:47 Yeah, they were right next to each other.

23:48 I think Bijan signed first. So technically, Jameer Gibbs is the highest paid running back in the NFL. And I'd agree with you, man. It feels like he is already underpaid, even for resetting the market.

24:00 I also want to talk about Jared Goff. Because going into this game, we highlighted Jonathan Gannon's defense and how tricky he is in terms of really leaning into starting in one high pre-snap and then getting into two high post-snap. Whereas most defensive coaches start two high pre-snap and get into one high post-snap. He does it the hard way.

24:20 And what they do is they try to bait out. throwing the ball by presenting one high and then they get into two high surprise it's quarters and you try to throw into it that's why they're really good at stopping intermediate throws over the middle if you're looking at the green bay defense versus in breakers going into this game 5.6 yards per attempt allowed on in breakers that was best in the league negative 0.11 epa allowed on in breakers third best in the league 3.8 yards after catch per reception allowed on in breakers Second best in the league. So they stopped the throw, and even if you caught it, they were really good at getting you on the ground. Jared Goff, in this game, on in-breaking routes,

25:02 10 of 15, 199. Touchdown, passer rating 131.9. Yards per attempt, 13.3. Over double what Green Bay had allowed so far this season on in-breaking routes. He demolished them.

25:19 Is there anybody better right now?

25:21 Over the middle?

25:22 Boy, probably not.

25:24 Lawrence, I think, has been really good at it. He's been off. As far as consistent.

25:28 Lawrence is a good call.

25:29 Right, right. And for the volume that he does it.

25:32 I know.

25:32 Like 15 throws.

25:34 You know how difficult that is to do? How many quarterbacks do we highlight every single week where we look at their passing chart.

25:40 And we just go.

25:41 What's going on right here?

25:42 We just draw the box. Dude, editors, please put up Kyler Murray's passing chart right now. Well, hold on. No, no, no. Don't do it yet.

25:48 We're going to get to Kyler Murray's passing chart.

25:50 Dude.

25:51 You got to get people to continue to watch the video. We need the watch time up, Brad.

25:55 It's crazy that these two guys technically play the same sport.

26:00 I don't know if they do. We might have to call two different sports. We might have to say they're playing something different. Because, yeah, I mean, that's obviously... when you can attack the middle of the field the way that Jared Goff can, that's when everything else opens up, right? When you and I talk about quarterbacks as draft prospects, and we talk about these guys in college that just don't really want to throw over the middle of the field, either maybe because they're not built that way. Like they don't sometimes have the height for it. Like Kyler Murray obviously is a smaller quarterback. So it's tougher for him to see over the middle, tougher for him to regularly attack over the middle. But I know we'll talk about

26:33 Brock Purdy a little bit as well. One of Brock Purdy's interceptions this week was, it was on a, mugged look where the linebacker was coming up to the line of scrimmage and then he retreated and Purdy was looking that way, but he couldn't see him because he couldn't see him over the line of scrimmage. You have to have certain physical things, but also it's mental as well.

26:52 A lot of times in college, these quarterbacks don't want to throw over the middle of the field.

26:56 Why?

26:57 Because they throw the interceptions and it makes their stats look bad and things like that where they don't really want to do it. When you get to the NFL, you have to. Because if you can't attack over the middle of the field, you give the defense free reign to be so aggressive in so many other areas. Cap coverage to the guys on the outside, outside the numbers.

27:15 Having an extra player in the box. Handling motion pretty appropriately because you could just rotate your safeties in and out because you don't have to worry too much about, you know, which guy's better over the middle of the field in that robber role or whatever. And it just, to me, it's so, so, so valuable the way that Jared Goff plays the game. And I think he deserves a shout out for that because, yeah, he's been fantastic this year. And I think this game really shows that.

27:38 14 touchdowns, still no picks, and we're almost halfway through the year. So, shitty on people's MVP ballots.

27:45 I agree.

27:45 I have a vote. I agree. All right, let's talk about the Paris game. All right. A battle between two former French territories. Well, cities in a French territory. In New France, back in the 18th century. Fun fact. Pittsburgh, yes, also used to be, technically, kind of, sort of, in France, just like New Orleans.

28:04 Is that why they put French fries on burgers? Sure.

28:07 Sure. That's probably the right answer.

28:11 Come on!

28:13 And coleslaw for some reason?

28:14 Oh, yeah, it's the coleslaw thing. You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right.

28:17 I'm not a fan of that. But in general, Pittsburgh... French fries or coleslaw? On a burger. Oh, coleslaw. Are you just not a coleslaw guy? I'm not a coleslaw guy. Oh, I like coleslaw. You're a barbecue guy, so anything tangentially barbecue related.

28:29 Yeah, anything in a barbecue establishment I'm pretty much good with.

28:32 Anyway, Steelers Saints.

28:36 This was.

28:38 This was something as far as the difference between a great run game and a bad run game. And I don't want people's eyes to glaze over because I know this is going to be kind of like complicated analytics. But in general, we have one rule when we're looking at how good a team is analytically. Big number good, small number bad. Steelers, design run success rate, 48.1%.

29:02 Pretty good.

29:04 Big number. Big number. States. Big number good. Designed run success rate, 13.3%. Small number. Very bad.

29:10 Small number bad.

29:11 Small number very, very bad.

29:12 Yeah.

29:13 They got nothing on the ground. And this has been a trend that's developed throughout this season where they, you know, they've taken some offensive line injuries. I get it. But the running backs aren't creating on their own. You're leaving Tyler Shuck out to dry. He's got extremely long average yards to go on third down in particular. The Steelers' average yards to go on third down in this game was 5.5. 5.8 because they ran the ball so well. Yep.

29:42 The Saints' average yards to go on third down was 8.6. So that's a difference of 3.2 yards on average on third down. League-wide, if you're looking at the average conversion rate in certain distances on third down, If you're in third and seven plus, your average conversion rate is just under 25%. Not great. Third and medium, it jumps up to just over 45%. So you get about 25%, maybe a little bit more than 25%.

30:13 It's huge.

30:13 20%.

30:13 20%.

30:13 I'm a film major. I'm not good at math. And so they put me on a math-focused show for some reason. Anyway, we'll address that later.

30:19 We've got editors for that. We'll get a stunt double in here. They'll do the math, and then.

30:24 You'll... Bring in Craig Rosenthal.

30:28 You'll come in for the lines.

30:30 Where's Jordan Rodriguez?

30:32 We do need a hard edit one week where it's just you saying something and then Jordan Rodriguez just shows up in the chair and then it hard edits with her out and then you're back in.

30:41 Like the big short. You're just bringing on Anthony Bourdain to explain economics concepts.

30:46 Exactly.

30:47 Bring on Jordan to talk stats.

30:48 You get it. You get it.

30:50 Anyway, big number good, small number bad. When you're that... bad on second down yeah right they had a 0.4 yards per carry on second down that's horrible they had four tackles for loss taken on second down that's how you end up in third and forever you can't move the chains because you're in third and forever and you just get slowly ground down and i i you know i've had knits to pick with tyler shuck this year but if you're looking If you're looking at the environment that he's being asked to produce in, it's not sustainable.

31:27 You can't do it by yourself. There's very few quarterbacks that I think could do it. Patrick Mahomes barely could.

31:34 Right.

31:35 Kind of. Yeah.

31:36 You look at this on paper with the Saints, and I think that's a reason why a lot of people took them to win the division. They said, okay, the trenches are eating your vegetables. They ate their vegetables here. The trenches are supposed to be good. Now we get to talk about Tyler Shuck and Jordan Tyson and how good Chris Olave is and Devon Vele and signing Travis A.

31:56 Chan and all of that. Those things don't matter when you don't have the trenches right. And right now, over the last three to four weeks, the Saints absolutely do not have the trenches right. They cannot stop the run. We talked about how good the Pittsburgh Steelers were on the ground game. Now, Jalen Warren's been doing it to basically everybody. But still, they didn't stop the run at all.

32:14 They were terrible at it again in this game. But then specifically, I want to talk about the offensive line here. You said that they got nothing on the ground. 18 yards on 17 carries. That's horrible. You're talking about on second down, running the football, four tackles for loss? All right, here's the stat that really blew me away here for how bad it is for the Saints on the offensive line.

32:35 The highest stuff rate in the NFL, which stuff rate means that you get to the line of scrimmage and that is it. You don't get anything past the line of scrimmage. You have been stuffed at the line of scrimmage. The highest stuff rate in the NFL by a team going into this week, was the Philadelphia Eagles. They were at 23.9%. Shocker. Has not been good for the Philadelphia Eagles.

32:54 We've talked about that many times. The Saints in this game had a run stuff rate of 35.3. The highest in the NFL was to 23.9 as an average. They had 35.3. You can't win football games like that.

33:10 It's not possible. You cannot. Like the fact that this game was even close.

33:15 Right. And so this is a miracle. This is now something that Kellen Moore's got to get fixed real quick. Because if it continues to look this bad in both the trenches for the Saints, we're going to start talking about his seat being real hot.

33:31 I mean. Real hot. I mean, when you have the owner, this was, what, two weeks ago, putting out a statement of, like, get it together.

33:39 It's time.

33:40 Yeah. Right. I mean, that seat's already hot. Yeah.

33:42 Yeah. That's a good point. But I went back and watched the tape on this one, which, by the way, I do want to shout out. The Steelers defense is playing great. Cam Hayward played great. Keanu Benton's been playing great this season. The edge rushers are doing their thing as they have in Pittsburgh for a long time. And I will say, really great game from both Patrick Queen and Peyton Wilson from what I saw in this one.

34:04 They were attack dogs in this game. So I don't want to take anything away from the Steelers front seven playing at a very high level over the last couple of weeks. I want to give them their credit here. But ultimately, if you're the Saints, there was nothing that these running backs could do You could have Barry Sanders back there, and I don't know how much he's doing.

34:24 He's doing more than 17 yards. But that just goes to show or to say and emphasize this offensive line is bad. The Saints ain't going anywhere until they get that fixed. And obviously the Steelers, for as much as we can sit here and go, do the Steelers have the highest ceiling on offense of any team in the NFL?

34:41 Obviously not.

34:42 But the floor is.

34:43 But they're making it work. They're making it work. And Aaron Rodgers, you watch him in this game.

34:47 He looked. He looked.

34:49 He looked younger than he has in years. And so, yeah, I think you've got to feel pretty good about that if you're a Steelers fan.

34:54 And the offensive line, that young Steelers offensive line, I know we've praised it, but, like, Frazier is a top-three center, and I'm not sure he's three.

35:02 Mm-hmm.

35:02 Right? They obviously hit on Maxi Honachor. Yeah. Like, really, five across, this is a great young offensive line. Like, Jalen Warren averaged 6.5 yards per carry inside the tackles. They're just beating these guys up. How about we get to quarterback runs? Bo Nix.

35:18 Mm-hmm.

35:18 Had a massive touchdown run today against Arizona. A little bit of sigh of relief for Broncos fans, but I want to talk about that long bow Knicks touchdown where he took off And there was just nobody around. We were watching in the newsroom. Bill Smith was like, where is everybody? Nobody in the frame. One of the benefits of this show is that we get access to every single camera. So we immediately went back and we looked through all the angles. We're like, how how did this happen?

35:59 And we found a particular angle. I want you guys to pay attention to Adam Troutman, who Broncos fans have mixed opinions of. But hopefully this helps. So Adam was running a route. And when he broke in, you can see on camera, he saw that Bo Nix was taking off. And rather than turning around and trying to block, because it was man coverage and he knew all he had to do was just keep the defender turned away from Bowe and he's going to run right by him. When Bowe was like 20 yards down the field, Adam Troutman's running a fake juke route out of nowhere where he like pivots inside and then breaks back inside again, shows his hands like he's going to catch a pass like he's being thrown to. And the defender's all over. He's like, oh,

36:37 I'm going to get a PBU here. Meanwhile, Bo Nix is just running behind him for like an 80-yard touchdown. So that might have been the block of the day, and it wasn't even a block. That was just Adam Troutman making a heads-up play. That was the block of the day. You know what?

36:50 I'm calling it the block of the day.

36:52 You're right. It was great. It was a great heads-up play. Yeah.

36:54 No, that was so much fun to watch, and it was like, It was like the final evolution of, you know, how quarterbacks will pump fake, even though they're past the Josh Allen special. That's that was that's like the final evolution of that. The tight end or a wide receiver fooling the defensive back like that on the Cardinals side of things. Look, I know the Cardinals have gotten some exciting wins this season, specifically in SoFi against the Chargers and the Rams. But ultimately, their offensive line is just not good enough to be consistent. A trench is obviously a theme on here and what we're talking about. And any time the theme of the overall day is running the football, you got to talk about the trenches. Unfortunately,

37:28 in this one, with parents Johnson Jr. out of this lineup at left tackle, they're forced to play Jaden Williams, who is a seventh round offensive tackle rookie this year. He gave up 15 pressures in this game, a 28.3% pressure percentage, which was the... Highest in a single game since 2022 when Greg Little gave up 19 in one game, which that would be the most in the NGS era.

37:54 But also like for Jaden, 10 quick pressures, which led all offensive tackles this week, as you might expect. And that's the most in a single game that we have so far this season. And a quick pressure is any pressure that happens before two and a half seconds. But you look at their entire offensive line. Isaac Suomelo, 9.4% pressure percentage. Elijah Wilkinson, the other tackle, 13.2%. Yalda Froholt, 7.5%.

38:18 Hayden Conner, 13.2%.

38:20 You're just.

38:22 You're not going to... You can't win this way.

38:25 You know what would fix it? Drafting a running back third overall.

38:28 Well, look. Team builder.

38:32 That was a low blow. I'm sorry, Cardinals fans.

38:34 Team builder in me, not the biggest fan of that. However, if you have... Chase Besantis and Paris Johnson Jr.

38:43 No, I acknowledge. On paper.

38:45 In this lineup, it does look better.

38:47 Yes. On paper, when they went into the draft, the left side was fine. The right side was not fine. Right. And so they're like, okay, let's take the transcendent player and then we think we can get a guard on day two. And they were correct. They got a guard on day two. And then they lost their best player and they lost the guard and the preseason. Like, I get it. It fell apart. But that, I think, is an illustration of....

39:10 You know, Jeremiah Love's injured, but even if he was out there, he's not doing anything. What would he do? I mean, it's the Ashton Gentry thing right now.

39:17 We talked about Gibbs, you know, making do with negative 24 yards before contact. You know how many running backs are doing that? Two. Maybe. Maybe.

39:29 Maybe.

39:30 We know one. We know one. We know one. Maybe two. And, like, we hope Jeremiah Love is that. Right. But, you know, Ashley Gentry had similar hype coming out, and he faced a similar situation. He's still facing a similar situation, by the way.

39:42 Yeah. I mean, you want to just talk about that game?

39:45 Might as well.

39:45 I mean.

39:48 You spend a lot of money to bring in a center who's played well, but their guard situation is so bad that they're still one of the worst, if not the worst. I'd have to double-check the stats after this week. I can't imagine it got better. In terms of yards before contact per attempt, if you're looking at rushing success rate, they're awful this year. And teams know that they're so bad at running the ball that they face the highest rate of too high safeties of any team this week.

40:18 It's just like Kansas City last year, where teams were like, we don't care. You're not going to run, even if we're in too high. And the interesting thing is, they only ran against those too high looks 28% of the time, which was the 7th lowest rate of running against too high, because they know it's not going to work. Ashton Genting, 8 attempts, 15 yards, their total backfield, 17 carries for 48 yards. This season... 0.2 yards for contact per carry.

40:50 That's worse than it was two weeks ago.

40:52 Man.

40:53 Like, it didn't matter that they drafted a running back high. They haven't been able to build a full offensive line in two off seasons. Not that they haven't tried. Yeah. It just hasn't worked. They brought in a center, but their guard situation might be the worst in the league. Yeah.

41:08 And I think it's Fernando Mendoza time.

41:10 I do.

41:11 And the reason why is because you talked about the deficiencies on the offensive line really hampering things in the run game. It's also hampering things in the pass game. And I think Kirk Cousins has been everything that you have wanted him to be when you signed him to want to start the season. I mean, he has he has really kickstarted things for the Raiders and given them hope.

41:30 And it's OK. It's not just another, you know, sorry year with a first year head coach. And, oh, you know, we're building kind of a thing like they came out of the gate hot. And Kirk Cousins, a big reason why. I think the book is out on Kirk Cousins right now, and that he can be smart under pressure, but how good can he be under pressure, right? He's not terrible with turnovers and things like that, but when you look at under pressure in this game, 8 for 17, 94 yards, and when you talk about the blitz as well, 7 for 14 for 65 yards against the blitz. So Cousins is just... if you can get after him, if you can rattle him, and if you can make a move around the pocket, he just doesn't have that mobility to

42:16 make things happen outside of structure. Mendoza does. And so I am very much a firm believer in the right time to start a young quarterback, a rookie quarterback, is when you feel as though they can go into a game, fail, but learn lessons, not lose confidence in who they are.

42:40 And I don't worry about him losing confidence or being okay with failure.

42:44 I don't either. And I feel as though seven weeks feels pretty appropriate of a runway for the number one overall pick in Fernando Mendoza. Of course, the Rams win this game, right? I think that we got to talk about the Rams side of things as well. Obviously huge for them. I think their season was over if they lose this game. They dropped the two and five. Their season's completely over. Stafford goes 23 for 29, 195 yards, has three touchdowns, one interception. Puka Nakua did play in this game, ran the most routes by far of any receiver, eight receptions on 10 targets, 68 receiving yards and a touchdown.

43:19 But I liked that they got the tight ends more involved because going into this week, I felt like everything that the Rams were doing was way too Puka Nakua focused. Not that you don't want to lean on your good players, but it was like Nakua or nothing. And it just felt as though that was part of the problem of making the offense look really, really difficult is everybody on defense knew that as well. So obviously a huge game for the Rams. Needed to get this one for sure.

43:46 But still need to continue to diversify the offense. But I do think that this is a step in the right direction.

43:51 I want to talk about Niners Falcons. I want to preface this. The Niners are a great team. Arguably the best team in the league going into this week. You can be the best team in the league and still lose if you turn it over four times in one game, and somehow they've missed four extra points in six weeks. Sloppy, sloppy football. I know they're banged up, but just to walk you through how in control they were of this game, even while being banged up, you look at four and a half minutes, I think it was 4.20 left in the first half. They're driving. They're inside the Atlanta 30-yard line.

44:35 They fumbled. Atlanta then mounts a 14-play drive for the rest of the half, kick a field goal going into halftime. They receive the kickoff after halftime. They then mount another 10-play touchdown drive for reasons we'll get into in a second because the Niners' pass rush was not great in this game. Yeah. Six plays later, Brock throws a pick.

44:54 Then they have another 11-play touchdown drive for Atlanta in total from four minutes left in the second quarter to the top of the fourth quarter. The play count 49ers, 6. Falcons, 35. You can't win with that. Mighty difficult to. Doesn't matter how good you are in terms of EPA per play, success rate, explosive rate. You get 6 plays. They get 35?

45:23 You almost went full old man at the cloud with that one. You can do whatever you want with your EPA per play.

45:32 Your fancy numbers. I'm with you, though.

45:35 No, you set a stat, though, that really sticks out to me, and that is the fact that the 49ers only had 17.1% of a pressure rate on Michael Penix. The book is out on Michael Penix right now. Pressure him. Pressure him, and that is when he plays his worst. They blitzed on 34.3% of their defensive plays in this game, and they still only got 17.1% pressure. Now, I know that Nick Bosa's been out, and he's been out for a little bit, but, man, we had the same conversations about the Niners' defensive line last year.

46:03 Yep.

46:04 They can't get after the quarterback. They cannot do it. And they drafted some guys who you have promised to get after the quarterback, right? Yeah, like Romello Height and Grayson Halden and those guys, obviously. But they're young. They're only going to give you that in flashes. They're not going to be consistent. So that's something to worry about with this Niners team. I think that that is a tangible takeaway here.

46:24 If I'm the Niners, I am calling the Colts right now and saying, what do I got to do to get to Forrest Buckner? Oh, yeah. Bring him home.

46:34 Bring him home.

46:34 They need something. Anything. Yeah. It's a good poll. Literally anything. Good poll. Speaking of the Colts. Speaking of the Colts. Oh, man. Brian Flores.

46:44 You don't want to talk about a team that can get pressure.

46:46 You psychopath. 85.2% blitz rate. Highest in the NGS era. He's just working his way up to 100%. We're going to get there. He is. Yeah.

46:58 Somebody's going to dare him that one time. This is going to happen, whether it's this season or maybe next season or something like maybe he'll be out with some buddies at the combine, you know, you know, like after one event today, you're just having a good time. So he's like, what are you scared for? Why? Why haven't you had 100 percent game? And he just goes home that night and he just goes.

47:14 Just scribbling in his notebook. I'll show them.

47:18 I mean, 85.2 is truly unbelievable. And again, you talk about. what's the book on somebody? Pressure Daniel Jones and go, we're going to blitz the crap out of you the entire game. And if you beat us, hat tip to you. But you're going to run through fire to get there. And I think that no one has been able to handle the heat that Flores has thrown at them with this fire.

47:46 Fun fact for the audience at home. The number of dropbacks in this game that Daniel Jones had that were not against a blitz, was four. Four dropbacks the entire game that weren't blitzed. He went two of four for seven yards. I think because he was in shock. Yeah, yeah.

48:06 Probably didn't know what to do.

48:07 It's 1.8 yards per attempt. He actually had 5.6 yards per attempt against the blitz, 1.8 not, because I think he was just confused why there were bodies down the field.

48:16 Right, yeah.

48:16 They weren't in his face. Yeah. I've run out of superlatives for Brian Flores. Nobody else is doing it like him.

48:24 No.

48:24 The average blitz rate is less than half of what he did in this game. That's nuts.

48:31 That's a great way to quantify it.

48:34 Hell, it's less than half of his average for the season. I'm not kidding. That's a real stat. We'll throw it up on screen. His average blitz rate is like 70-something percent.

48:43 Yeah.

48:43 And the average blitz rate across the NFL is in the low 30s. Yeah, yeah. There is nobody else like him. And, you know, when Kyler, like... Now we could throw up the Kyler passing map, by the way.

48:54 Yeah, because that's my takeaway here, just to touch on the Vikings. Obviously, they're having a fantastic start to the season. I don't want to take anything away from them, but it still looks tough on offense. And Kyler just has not been good enough. In this game, 58.3% completion percentage. When Kyler was not blitzed in this game, he was 9 for 16 for 90 yards and a negative 18.3% completion percentage. over expected you see the passing chart that we threw up on the screen there is nothing over the middle of the field I mean there is there is one pass close to where the hash marks is and that is absolutely it so the tangible takeaways here for me obviously the Colts their season is done I think that we already we already know that but for

49:38 the Vikings it's Yeah, the record looks nice. You pop open the hood and you go.

49:45 I think you pop open the hood and Brian Flores punches you in the face. I guess. I guess that's what it is.

49:49 I guess that's just going to, if they're going to have success, that's going to be what it is. You want to talk about the Titans and the Browns?

49:54 Thriller. We knew it was going to happen eventually. Casey Concepcion. 4.6 yards per route run in this game. I didn't even know that. Crazy.

50:06 You're saying that to me for the first time.

50:07 Absolutely disgusting. Had 69 yards just on crossing routes and slants. He was eating over the middle. He's great after the catch. He's great on screens. Gave him a couple carries. Got 23 yards on rushes in this game. This was the KC Concepcion game. A lot of people have been talking about Denzel Boston, as they should. It's been great.

50:25 Right.

50:26 But they did draft KC first, and I think this game showed what they were envisioning. Yeah.

50:30 No, he was great in this game. Needed him to obviously... win this one. For the Titans, man, when I watch Cam Warden, especially in this game, it makes me feel as though the game plan, the game script, they just don't trust him. And I know that they're not going to say that, but when you look at Ward in this game, they go up 14-0 early in this contest. Cam, 11 for 18 for just 87 passing yards in the first three quarters of this game. I mean, low average at the target stuff. I mean, it's just they're not putting their foot on the gas pedal at all. And to me, it was a major reason why they let up the 14 point lead that they had early on.

51:08 And they don't win this game. He goes nine for 13 in the fourth quarter. So he has 18 dropbacks and 11 completions in the first three quarters. He had nine completions in the fourth quarter. So it's like, oh, shoot, we got to really play now. you should have been playing the first three quarters. And I get it. Like they're up, they're trying to conserve things. You're trying to run the football. Like I understand it, but to me, it's just, it's too inconsistent with him. 62.5% completion percentage, negative 2.3% completion percentage over expected. And that's with no blitz. Again, you've got to be able to perform better than that, especially when a team spots you 14 points in a game that you knew was going to be a tight contest. Anyways,

51:47 anytime you can get two touchdowns, man, I just, It parked the bus.

51:50 Yeah.

51:51 And I just hate that strategy, especially when you have a gunslinger quarterback like Cam Ward. You've got to let him let it fly. And if he isn't able to do that, then, man, I think that we got bigger worries.

52:00 At least we will find out if he can't.

52:03 Right. Yeah. Right.

52:04 That's the goal for the season. Find out what you got. Yeah. Miami and the Jets, two other teams, just trying to find out what they got.

52:12 Dolphins dub.

52:13 They ran the ball really well.

52:14 They did.

52:15 Yeah. I think their run rate was 60-something percent in this game, off the top of my head.

52:21 Jets had an 18.2% missed tackle percentage that would be the worst in the NFL compared to league averages.

52:28 Yikes.

52:28 Not good. And it was another week where Aaron Glenn was kind of talking about end-of-game situations and using his timeout and getting a stop. His explanation didn't make sense. Like he was talking about like, well, we didn't want to use our timeouts because of this, whatever. And it was like, no, no, no. You needed to use those to get the ball back. And he kind of just didn't understand that there. And so I think that Aaron Glenn, I mean, you go back to his time when he was a defensive coordinator at Alliance, man, they were shutting people down. It was one of the best defenses in the NFL. And I just feel as though a lot of those head coaching decisions in the moment, he's not making the correct decisions. And it's, It's hard.

53:06 It's bang, bang stuff. I get it.

53:07 It's so much easier to criticize here on this side of things. I get it. I'm not trying to be overly harsh about this, but you are the head coach. You've got to be able to get it right. You've got to win in the margins, and in the margins for being a head coach or making the right decisions with timeouts, with game management, with things like that. And it was just another week where I felt like Aaron Glenn fell short. Or you need somebody on your staff whose only job is to do that. Right.

53:30 Maybe they have somebody.

53:32 It's not working, whatever it is.

53:33 Also want to shout out the Dolphins. I mentioned earlier the Raiders 28% run rate against too high. They knew they couldn't. Dolphins, 51.7% run rate against too high in this game because they knew it was their only shot.

53:47 Right.

53:47 And they were really good at doing it. Ollie Gordon, over 100 yards in this game.

53:51 Yeah.

53:52 Workhorse in this game.

53:53 Yeah.

53:54 You know, that was really the only way I thought they were going to do is that they played keep away. Yeah. And they did. They won time of possession. They ran the ball a ton.

54:03 Yeah.

54:03 And they played the only brand of football that I think they can to win this year.

54:10 And they did. Nothing against Malik, by the way. No, but it hasn't been good enough before this point.

54:17 And maybe this is more of an off-season thing. I don't know how much of that is because... Of the supporting cast and how young it is versus how much of that is because of Malik.

54:25 Almost half their starters are rookies. Yeah. Like, I don't want to be a learning year anyways.

54:30 Sure. I'm with you. The only way a young team that has a talent deficiency is going to win is by just not giving you the ball. Yes. Yes. And they did that. Right. And they won, and they're not going to be winless this year. Yeah. And I think for Dolphins fans, that's a relief.

54:42 That's a good thing.

54:44 Last game here. Bengals and Ravens. Yep. Pay Lamar whatever he wants. Yeah. Don't care. Don't care whatever the number is. I don't care how many zeros. Yeah.

54:56 And I don't even think Huntley plays poorly.

54:58 No, but the difference is so.

55:00 Very clearly, there's a major difference here, especially for, what was it, 13-0 at half? And then the final score of the game is 35-13? I mean, that's one quarterback that has the ability to just absolutely turn it on in Joe Burrow in the second half, and he was unbelievable. Burrow, in that first half, he's 6-for-12, 47 passing yards. 58.7 quarterback rating, excuse me. Second half, he goes 16 for 18, 249, four touchdowns, and a perfect 158.3 rating in the second half.

55:30 He carved up single high. He carved up cover three. But specifically, I love the way that they were running things out of 12 personnel in the second half. If you look at the first half of this game, five passing yards went in 12 personnel in the first half. Second half, 122 passing yards with three touchdowns coming from that alignment.

55:53 Wow.

55:53 So leaning into having more tight ends on the field, using that to your advantage, it was a really nice, like, hey, this didn't really work in the first half, but we feel like we see this advantage here, especially in the red zone. And boy, did they ever. I thought it was a really great adjustment from them when they started to get hot to keep feeding into that in this game.

56:09 And they were a really good 12 personnel team last year, too.

56:12 Mm-hmm.

56:13 Right. Drew Sample is their other tight end. He was also somebody that lined up at the backfield a lot. Yep. Blocker for them. Yep. That was kind of their comfort food last year. Yeah.

56:22 Makes sense.

56:23 You know, when I talk about Tyler Huntley and Lamar, there's concerns about, okay, is Lamar going to be able to move like Lamar should be able to move? Right. Like, are you used to seeing Lamar move?

56:33 Right.

56:33 To me, that's secondary to the fact that Lamar just attacks down the field.

56:38 Mm-hmm.

56:38 Like, we can get something other than just Zay Flowers, please save us after the catch. Zay had nine of his 11 targets under 10 air yards. He had 103 yards after the catch, including plus 63 yards after the catch.

56:51 What a player, man.

56:53 Those were career highs.

56:55 Yeah, I mean.

56:56 This is the most work he's ever done after the catch, and he's done a lot of work after the catch in his career so far.

57:00 Right.

57:01 But it's because Tyler Huntley, his air yards per attempt... is 6.1. That'd be 32 out of 33 qualifying quarterbacks. Meanwhile, Lamar is 10.2. That's first. He attacks down the field. And yeah, he uses Zay and his after-the-catch ability as well. I saw that in the Colts game in the first week, but he also throws the ball down the field. He threatens every blade of grass. Whether he can be hyper-mobile or not, People forget how gifted of a passer he is, especially as a deep ball thrower. They don't have that.

57:35 They're a completely one-dimensional offense. This is also, side note, this is the first year where Derrick Henry doesn't look the same.

57:42 No, it looks like he's slowing down a little bit.

57:46 I didn't think it was possible. A little bit. It took a while.

57:48 Now, I think the last couple of games he's been keyed in on, right, because they don't have Lamar, but. I think it ultimately just comes down to I can't judge what this Ravens team is going to be this year until Lamar gets out there. And it felt like he was going to play this week, so I got to feel like he's pretty confident to play in future weeks.

58:03 Final thoughts on Week 7?

58:04 So now that the Bengals won this game, their playoff probability is really high, and I wonder if they're going to snoop around Jonathan Taylor. Now that they can really hit the gas pedal and go for it.

58:16 That's what I'm saying.

58:17 Bring in another super weapon. You got Joe. You got Jamar. You got T. You got Taylor. Why not?

58:24 I like it. If I had to take away on week seven, it's, you know, every time you've ever heard somebody say, like, oh, well, when they rush, you know, 25 times, they're 10-0. Well, obviously, that was correct. No context needed.

58:36 Big number good.

58:37 Yeah, just hand the ball off 25 times for the first, you know, 25 plays of the game, and then you'll win, and then it doesn't really matter what you do after that. Establish the run. It still matters. Yeah. uh obviously this is a it's been a fun season all around we've talked about the run game mattering both when it's good for you and when it's bad we talked about special teams and uh that means it's just going to be an aerial onslaught for the second half of the season that we're going to get into so appreciate everybody watching the show appreciate everybody uh tuning in to uh hear our thoughts on all the games from sunday and make sure you tune into the friday show we're going to preview everything that we see from week eight. See you

59:12 guys then.

59:13 Thank you for listening to our week seven reaction show. Listen to NFL pro on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.