NFL Pro Reacts to EVERY Sunday Week 8 Game

0:00 Welcome to NFL Pros Week 8 Reaction Show. Thank you for listening on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow and subscribe to the show.

0:09 Week 8, people.

0:11 We had shootouts. We've got new division leaders. And we had a team win a game by double digits without completing a pass. And that may be enough to open things up for Bucky Irving.

0:27 Man. I love this sport so much. This weekend had everything. It had upsets. It had stuff that would make service academies blush. It had defensive performances, offensive performances, everything. Everything. Special teams blunders and special teams heroics. I can't complain at all. Me neither.

0:48 We've got to start with Broncos and Chiefs. Simply, if nothing else, but for the winning of the division probability that existed in this game. Brett, if the Broncos would have lost this game, they would have gone down to just a 24% chance to win this division. But with the win over the Chiefs, they're at 64%. A 40% swing?!

1:13 That is nuts. That's insane. I mean, that is back in it. That's more back in it than any team maybe has ever been back in it.

1:21 Man, I get it. The Chiefs defense is a little bit banged up. And then, you know, there was whatever happened with Kingsley Suamata and the benching for the second time, I guess. We still don't really know what was going on with that. But to me, it comes down to second and one. from the one-yard line, so second and goal from the one, with an opportunity to win the game.

1:44 And for whatever reason, this team, this coach, refuses to sneak the ball. I understand Mahomes got hurt on it, you know, was it seven years ago now, when he dislocated his kneecap? And I'm not saying you have to sneak it with Mahomes, but this is such a high success rate play, you could do it twice in a row, almost guarantee yourself a touchdown. Even if he's not the one doing it. Bring in Justin Fields to sneak the ball.

2:12 Bring in anybody.

2:13 Dude, Kelsey can do it. Kelsey can do it. Didn't Kelsey play a little quarterback in high school, right? It's not like he hasn't done it before.

2:20 Just somebody, right? Instead, second and goal from the one, they're in the gun running a variation of that corndog play. They ran in the Super Bowl a couple different times. And I get it. It's been successful for them. But you know what's more successful overall? Just sneaking the ball. Like, you have an opportunity to win the game. I don't understand why they refuse to just take the path of least resistance to points. It's been an issue with the Chiefs forever. They always get cute in the low red zone because they just, I mean, in some years they couldn't punch it in, but you're from the one. If you can't get a yard, how can I take you seriously? Like, what are we doing?

3:04 Yeah. I mean, I'm 100% with you. If you can't get a yard, you kind of don't deserve to win it. And the Chiefs could not get a yard, didn't deserve to win the game in a handful of ways. You talked about, okay, the defensive lines kind of beat up for this team. They're not as successful as they were at the beginning part of the season. Chris Jones, 29 pass rush reps in this game, one quarterback pressure. You don't see that a lot. But honestly, I'd rather talk about the Broncos in this game than necessarily some of the Chiefs failures. And I know it's a little bit of like all of this goes into it, but Man, the way that the Broncos play defense and set up their defense, I feel like it's just been a nightmare

3:41 back-to-back weeks for the Chiefs because you have two teams that are either talent-wise or structurally, or actually probably both for both of these teams, able to really slow down what was a running back in Kenneth Walker, which it felt like no one was going to slow down on the planet, let alone in this season. of the NFL.

4:03 The way that the Broncos and their odd front defense with three down defensive linemen, yet two outside linebackers that are basically right on the line of scrimmage, they just don't happen to have their hand down. They play this 5-2 front that still allows them to play technically in nickel, and it also technically allows them to play too high whenever they want. So you have this structural setup with the Broncos where You have the bodies on the line of scrimmage to defend the run and to defend Kenneth Walker in ways that we saw from the Seattle Seahawks the week before. And yet you also have that too high look. that's best when taking out the Chiefs crossing routes, which they love to go to. Now they still had

4:45 success on some of them. And, you know, there was a lot of like yards after catch that did end up happening in this game. Shout out to Emmitt Johnson for that, man. He is absolutely having a breakout through this first half of this season, especially in this game. But when I look at the Broncos and how they play defense, it is set up to stop this Chiefs team.

5:04 And they really did look at that tape from week one, totally burned it. Totally said, that is not us, that's not our identity, we're going to be better next time around, and they were. To me, it's a shout-out to how this defense played, really being able to slow down everything that I felt like the Chiefs wanted to be able to do.

5:19 You know, the key theme from that first matchup was missed tackles, right? They had a nearly 30% missed tackle rate, they had 28 missed tackles overall. They still didn't tackle amazing in this game, but 16 missed tackles and an almost 19% missed tackle rate, while not great... It's a lot better than historically bad. And he's bottled up early in this one. And also in the first matchup, you know, the Chiefs got a 45% pressure rate. They cut that down to 30%. Still roughly the same blitz percentage, but they were better at picking up those blitzes. They were better at handling the Chiefs pass rush. It's just the little stuff in the margins that really helped this team grow.

6:00 you know, kind of get over that hump. This team wasn't that far away from being a legitimate AFC West and AFC contender. They just needed to, you know, play Broncos football, which is what we've seen them do the last month or so. They just didn't do it in week one. You know, it's amazing to see what happens when they actually tackle semi, sort of, kind of, almost average.

6:21 You mean it's amazing what happens when you tackle in not a historically bad rate? Yeah, I think that that's one way that you could put it for them. By the way, shout out Jonah Coleman. Jonah Coleman breakout game here. Led the team in both rushing and receiving. Had 41 rushing yards and a touchdown. 63 receiving yards. 15.8 average there.

6:39 A lot of that coming on one singular play. But still, you know, we count it. We count it here.

6:43 And we knew it was coming, too. I mean, how many times did we talk about the first month of the season? They didn't have a running game. They didn't have anybody that could break a tackle. R.J. Harbaugh was really more of a receiver than a runner. Like, we were waiting for Jonah Coleman to take over this backfield.

6:56 And it's finally happened.

6:57 I think they were too. It just felt as though all of their struggles with how they wanted to operate on offense, because it felt like if they put too much on Bo Nix's plate, it felt like it didn't really work super well, but they really wanted to be a lot more balanced, and I think that they were forced to be at the beginning of the season. That's why you saw some of those frustrations with what we've talked about with Nix, but it always kind of felt like it was building towards this running back that they drafted this past April that they felt as though it could be a three down back for them. And even the way that they talked about Jonah Coleman, it felt like that. So I do believe that the identity of

7:32 this team changes with him now in the lineup. Now, I know it wasn't like the greatest statistical game that you've ever seen, but I think that this could really be a jumping off point for this offense. Again, being a lot more balanced than I felt as though they were afforded to be at the beginning of the season.

7:49 So it's a really, really interesting game here. for the Broncos specifically, because you can really look at this game and Jonah Coleman being out there in the lineup and all of that and say to yourself and convince yourself that this is really where it begins to turn around for the Broncos. What a difference 30 seconds makes. The Chiefs moving the ball down the field, moving the ball.

8:12 Down the field, missed the field goal, and on the very first play, Spag sends a whole bunch of heat and Bo Nix finds Coleman to get behind him.

8:21 The Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions are our next game here. Lions, big division win here. Before we get into what felt like a big-time chess match between these two coaching staffs, just want to say prayers, love, thoughts, everything to Jack Campbell. Him, his family, his teammates, everybody in that situation. Obviously, we all love this game, but this is something that's very serious that's going on with him and what we saw during that game. And so just wanted to make sure that we said that right off the top that breaking down this game, obviously something that we love to do and that's important, but That is much, much more important. So we wanted to make sure that we send our thoughts, love, prayers, everything out

8:56 to that situation. But Detroit does get a huge win in the division here. And man, Brett, it felt like Drew Petzing, the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, was absolutely in his bag to try to counter whatever Brian Flores is going to throw at him. And my goodness, Brian Flores did indeed throw the kitchen sink at him.

9:14 But the Lions were up to the challenge and they ended up coming out victorious in this game. Where do you want to start with this one? More of a Detroit angle or more of a Minnesota Vikings angle now that they are no longer an undefeated team?

9:26 Kind of both. You know, Brian Flores' blitz rate in this game was 89.7%, and you and I had talked recently of, yeah, he's working his way up to 100. We're going to get there at some point this season. But you and I had talked, like, okay, is his blitz rate correlated with what he thinks of the opposing quarterback?

9:44 Because in recent history, he had actually blitzed Goff less. because Jared Goff is very good against the Blitz and maybe he wanted to just kind of play more coverage rather than pressure. And he just put the pedal to the metal. And I think we've kind of dispelled the rumor or the theory that his blitz rate is tied to what he thinks of the quarterback because we know he respects Jared Goff a lot and he just wanted to test him over and over and over in this really test the entire offense and test Drew Petzing and just see how they would react see if they could produce against this kind of pressure And I think what I find most impressive is with defenses like this, you kind of play the run on the way to the quarterback.

10:28 That's kind of been their mantra this year. We're going to blitz on early downs, get TFLs. We're going to blitz on late downs, get sacks. And the fact that Detroit still ran the ball this effectively into a damn near 90% blitz rate, that to me, hats off to Drew Patzing. Obviously the players are executing, but if you can scheme your way into effective runs When you're throwing six, seven bodies in the backfield, that's a hell of a coaching job by him.

10:55 I wonder if there were more blitzes in this game against Goff in particular because Flores maybe looked at the offensive line for Detroit and said, okay, they're starting a rookie at right tackle in Blake Miller. Cade Mays missed a lot of the start of the season due to a wrist injury, and now he was back out of center, and he actually left this game due to an ankle injury, which I want to get to two scrugs actually in a second, but I wonder if Flores was just like, hey, I'm going to be hyper-aggressive in this one because I feel like the offensive line that the Lions are currently throwing out there is worth challenging. Now, I think that Petzing just did an unbelievable job going blow for blow

11:40 with Flores. You know, there's a lot of times when with Flores, he just stacks the line of scrimmage and you just, you never know where the blitz is truly coming from. And I was watching Ben Solak break this down. I think it was last week or the week before that was really great when you have those double mugged looks and you have both of these linebackers, like they'll both start the play by blitzing. And then whichever one the center takes is they'll back up into coverage, and the one that the center doesn't take obviously will continue his way towards the quarterback. And so you look at those situations, and I think that that's just all of this fear that Brian Flores has, but Petsing did such

12:18 a great job. just fighting that sort of fear and unknown by being aggressive straight at it. Because there were these times, Brett, where they'd play with multiple tight ends, but it wouldn't be just traditionally, okay, the tight ends, you know, attach the line of scrimmage and then the other one's a wing back or even like the other one's a fullback. Sometimes you'd have both of the tight ends just in the backfield and they would run these plays where it almost looks like a like a trap block or a wham block.

12:45 Where that second and 10 run that, that went for 12. I know the exact one you're talking about. It was a weird formation and it was, it was like kind of like an insert.

12:55 That's the thing. It's like, it's like it was these insert type of blocks where all of a sudden the defensive line of Flores were the ones who had to go, wait a second. where's the gap? Like, where's my gap? Where's the A-gap here? Because I thought it was here, but now it's over here, and now this guy's coming this way, so is the gap actually over here? And it was one of the first times that I truly watched an offensive coordinator just stare at Brian Flores straight in the eyes and said, I'm going to be even more aggressive than you. And you normally don't think that you can do that from a blocking concept because of how crazy creative Flores is, but Shout out to the Lions.

13:37 Shout out to Petzing. Because I felt like they matched that chaos and creativity with the chaos and creativity of their own. And it was very fruitful for them in this game.

13:46 It's the flip side of the coin of what we talked about early this season, right? Going back to week one, when we were looking at what Shanahan was doing with how they were moving around their fullbacks in the backfield on the fly. Yes. And creating these new gaps on the fly. And then we saw defenses responding with run blitzes.

14:03 Because if you're going to try to create a new gap on the fly, well, we're going to throw bodies in the backfield and make you have to adjust at a faster pace than what you've practiced that run hitting. Well, now Petzing is flipping that around. Okay, I know you're blitzing. I have a pretty good idea of what the rush path is going to be. So we're going to use two guys that can create inserts on the fly and And you're going to have to adjust off us now.

14:26 And it's just matching aggression with aggression, but the other way around. And it's awesome.

14:30 Lions, 230 rushing yards. Just the fourth time that a team has rushed for over 200 yards against Brian Flores' Vikings defense. Lions also had a 25.6 explosive run rate versus the Vikings. Highest mark of the season, plus the highest versus the Vikings in the Brian Flores era. And then Juice Scruggs, I wanted to mention Juice Scruggs. So Cade Mays didn't play a ton in this game because he had that ankle injury when he went out in the second quarter. But my goodness, when Juice Scruggs came back in the game, and Juice Scruggs has been good so far this season, he comes back in the game, the success rate went from 23.8% to 57.4%. In the rush game, it went from 22.2 to 56.7. And the total EPA went from negative 9.6 to positive 6.6. So,

15:17 Juice Scruggs' on-off splits were incredible once he came back into the game. And he's been rolling, I feel like, through the first part of this season. So, man, I think that he deserved a shout-out right there. Really quickly, what did you think of the Amon Ross-St. Brown CFL look and play? What did you think of that? Because I...

15:37 I actually think, you know what, it works to perfection, and I kind of give a hat tip to that, but my goodness, if the throw is not perfect, it's risky. That play stinks, and to Goff's credit, man, it was perfect, but a lot of risk in that play.

15:56 I think the ingenuity of it is, you know, it's technically a run because the throw is backwards, but it functions as a screen, and Normally, whether it's a swing screen, something like that, the ball carrier isn't at that kind of speed when they're catching the ball. And so it changes up. kind of the usual cadence of what a defense is used to, right, when they're stacking on a block, peaking, shedding.

16:22 If it's hitting faster because Amon Ra is running at full speed rather than running at kind of half speed and then taking off, it's a really interesting wrinkle. It worked, kind of. I mean, it did work, but maybe not. It did work, right. Not to the degree that they hoped, but still kind of sort of worked. I'm interested to see if they iterate on it even more because the idea itself is really cool. Look at this formation. They've got Amarat St. Brown 20 yards back of the line of scrimmage. They're going to throw it to him and running starts like arena football and it's going to work.

16:55 What a play.

16:56 First down for the Lions.

16:58 Thoughts on Kyler, not just in this game, but just overall this season because it's another game where he has a below 60% completion percentage, which is The second time, it's been below 60, and they had to get another game where it was right at 60. Third down, conversion percentage was 30%. Run success rate for this team was 38.7.

17:16 It just continues to feel very inconsistent, and you never feel super confident about it. Your thoughts overall about Kyler in this game?

17:28 The Vikings have scored 16 or fewer points in four of their last six games, and in the other two, they only scored 23. Well, only scored 23. It's not like terrible, but it's not amazing either. But if your high points in the last month and a half of football are 23 points and 66% of your games in the last month and a half, you're scoring 16 or less.

17:50 That's not good. And the only reason they were getting away with it is because their defense was allowing 10.4 points per game in the five games leading up to this one. All of a sudden you allow 19 points and you just can't win. If you're looking at how Kyler has performed this year, it hasn't been good enough.

18:06 I think he would acknowledge that. KOC kind of seemed to acknowledge that post-game in his sound as well. I'm just waiting for the Kyler of five years ago to show up, and it's just not happening. And at this point, I'm wondering if it ever will.

18:24 Yeah, I'm with you. His numbers aren't Because I kind of tried to look up design rollouts, play action things. His numbers aren't bad when he's doing these things. It's just not as confident as we've seen Kyler be in the past. And I think that just leads to a lot of the inconsistencies. And until they get better play from the offense overall, but obviously it runs through Kyler, it's going to be hard to really believe in this team for as elite as the defense is. The Arizona Cardinals took down the Dallas Cowboys because they always do.

18:57 They are 5-0 now in AT & T Stadium. So good on them for keeping that perfect record. And good on them for upsetting the Cowboys as my 10 confidence pick once again in our Week 8 Pick'Em. Unbelievable. I just cannot believe that I continue to go for the Cowboys as my 10 confidence game.

19:17 It's your own fault, man.

19:19 It is my own fault, but you know what? You know what, Brett? You know what? The Cardinals had a 2% chance to win the game with 4 minutes and 13 seconds left in the game.

19:29 2% is not 2% against the Cowboys.

19:32 I'm going to go to bed tonight. I'm going to tuck myself in, and I'm just going to go, the process was right. As I think about losing another 10 points when we get to the week 9 pick-em in a couple of days.

19:44 Process over results on your way to Cancun in January.

19:47 Yeah. I'll take another Mai Tai please okay where do you want to where do you want to start this game here with the Cardinals overtime win over the Dallas Cowboys.

19:58 I mean I like Christian Parker well liked Christian Parker everybody always spoke very highly of him as Vic Fangio's top lieutenant it's not working It's not working. And you can say it's a talent issue, right? And they have some deficiencies at key positions. Like, I get that. But there are teams around the NFL that I think have less talent than them. They just play better sound defense than them. And at some point, that's on the coaches.

20:30 It hasn't worked all year. We are halfway through the season now. It hasn't really gotten better. I don't think it will get better at this point. Like, maybe... they can make a splash trade to get more talent, but is that really going to fix their underlying issues? I'm not sure it will. At this point, I'm not sure if he's going to be the DC in 2027. I think mediocrity would be acceptable in the first year of a new DC. This isn't even that. This is just objectively horrible.

21:02 They just got too conservative once they got up on the scoreboard. And I feel like so many teams get burned with this all the time. But if you look at the first and second quarter splits, which, you know, that, that, or sorry, the first and second half splits, excuse me, that first half is obviously Jacoby Bursette. And then there's some of Jacoby Bursette in the third quarter as well before Gardner Minshew comes in and basically is just like, you know, he's basically sunshine and remember the Titans. Where he's just like, he's just strapping up the helmet and he's like, nah, it doesn't matter. We're letting it fly.

21:31 But in the first half, when you look at the Cowboys defense, Brett, they played so much more aggressive. They played 50% cover one in the first two quarters. 54.2% man coverage rate. They had less than three average separation runs. When the ball was getting to the target of the receivers and they had a 5.3 average cushion before the snap, you get to quarter three and four. Okay, now all of a sudden they went from 54.2% man coverage rate to 20% man coverage rate. They played 70% cover four, cover six, cover three, but it was mostly quarters, cover four stuff. Again, you're up on the scoreboard, so you're playing further back. Their average separation when the ball got to its target, when in zone in the second half,

22:14 was 5.6. So it went from below 3.0 to 5.6, and the average cushion went from 5.3 to 5.7.

22:21 It's too much space.

22:22 It's too much space. It's too conservative. Now, I know you're up on the scoreboard and you're just trying to not prevent big plays, but guess what? Then they got big plays. You invited the big plays, and all of that invited the Michael Wilson legacy drive. And I love Michael Wilson pre-draft. I mean, he just... He wants to win every single rep, man. He plays so physical. He's so technically sound. And there are just so many different ways where he can win. And I mentioned all those different types of zone coverages that he faced in the second half. On that last drive, he picked apart three different types of defenses, types of coverages for 61 yards.

22:59 And what should have been the go-ahead touchdown ended up being the forced overtime type of a touchdown. All respect to the Arizona Cardinals and letting it loose there in the second half. It's not good enough for the Cowboys. And unfortunately, there have been many, many weeks already, eight weeks through the season, where it has not been good enough for the Cowboys. This season, to this point, Brett, massive disappointment for Dallas. And I don't think there's any other way to say it.

23:25 Two notes. Michael Wilson did all that with broken ribs, by the way. Yeah. Which is incredible. And he said, hey, they're paying me a lot of money. They're going to get their money's worth. Absolute dog. I love him so much. He's a culture builder through and through. Second note, Dallas had never lost a home game in Cowboys history. It's a long time with a 14 plus point lead in the fourth quarter. They were 202-0-1, including playoffs, before this week.

24:00 First time they've ever done it. That in itself. I don't know if that's individually a fireable offense, but it does get added to all of the other noise that's already been happening this season of, hey, this was supposed to be a championship type year. It was a bunch of hype. Go win the division. NFC East is super winnable this year. And they've just fallen flat on their face. And now a lot of people have added to that chorus of, is everybody gone after 2026? Because this is just kind of embarrassing at this point. You have Gardner Minshew coming in. Which actually, now that I mention it, Gardner Minshew in games where he's not the starter but he does play might be a top five quarterback of all time. Our research team really, when I

24:47 say that, it's Cali. Cali pulled these numbers for us. Since 2019, in games where the quarterback does not start but does play, Gardner Minshew, 125 completions, most in the NFL. Over 1,300 yards just in those games where he's coming in mid-game in relief. Most in the NFL. Eight passing touchdowns, second most in the NFL. 65 passing first downs, second most.

25:13 Weirdly second to Mitch Trubisky in both categories. And 16 completions of 20-plus yards, most in the NFL. When he gets in the game, if it's just him coming in as a backup and he has... No pressure, no care in the world. He's just slinging it. That's the best version of Gardner Minshew. And unfortunately, when your defense is already bad and facing that version of Gardner Minshew, you are liable to lose in historic Cowboys fashion.

25:41 Michael Fuller's got to be pumped about this game specifically, not just because it's a win, but because this is a culture win. You look at two guys who you leaned on very heavily in this game. It's Tyler Algier and it's Michael Wilson. and obviously like Trey McBride is in there as well. I mean, you talk about guys who put their body on the line, will get you every yard physically possible every single time they touch the ball.

26:05 I mean, this is a culture type of win.

26:09 It's on the way and it is good.

26:12 Redemption for Ryland. Comeback for the Cardinals.

26:16 A shocking win in Dallas.

26:20 The Cincinnati Bengals out-dueled, and I do mean out-dueled, the Tennessee Titans in their overtime victory, 43-36. Brett, in a game that contained over 750 passing yards between the two quarterbacks of Joe Burrow and Cam Ward. Thoughts on this game? The entertaining, thrilling game that it was, and where do you want to start.

26:46 With this one? I mean, one of the most impressive Burrow games we've seen in a while, even with three interceptions, just the ability for him to keep firing and keep firing at that kind of level. I mean, you know, darn near 80% completions. Like they get six total touchdowns in this game. Almost half a thousand yards in one game.

27:05 Like he is, he is truly unbelievable. He is the kind of quarterback that comes around a franchise maybe once. in the history of a franchise. And the Bengals have had some good quarterbacks, by the way, but Burrow is just, he's beyond rare. And at the same time, on the other side, you know, Cam Ward, who you and I have, I think, justifiably criticized this season, I think that might have been the best game of his career as well.

27:37 And him keeping up with, you know, Burrow at the height of his powers playing like that, like, yes, obviously three interceptions, but The amount of points that Burrow put on the board, the amount of throws deep down the field into tight windows, he was just firing and firing and firing. And for Ward to keep up with him, especially in the second half, that to me was the most encouraging performance of his young career, even though they lost.

27:59 That to me is secondary. Cam Ward kept up with Joe Burrow. That's the headline. If you're just looking at third quarter and fourth quarter, Well, headline for Titans, I should say. For the Bengals fans, yes, you won. You're the headline. But for everybody else, Cam Ward! Second half, 11-15, 132, two touchdowns, 139.4 passer rating, 8.8 yards per attempt. He was brilliant in the second half. In particular, if you're looking at man coverage and mid-range, like he was an assassin in mid-range in this game, and when the Bengals played man coverage, he was just sensational. 11-17, For $ 1. 58, two of those touchdowns, one of those on a slot fade in the red zone that was just perfectly thrown, one 33.9 passer rating against Mann, and a whopping 9.3

28:48 yards per attempt. That was what we've been waiting for, is the decisiveness. Him using his arm strength. And really, he is a gifted thrower. We saw that at Miami. It's just he felt afraid to make a mistake. for the first part of this season. And I think once they traded Jeff Simmons and, you know, we were kind of in, okay, the season's not going the way that we want mode here, fire sale mode, if you want to call it that. I feel like this pressure kind of lifted off his shoulders and he's like, what do I have to lose? We're already a bad team. Let's just let it rip. And he finally played like Miami Cam Ward that let it rip and didn't worry about making mistakes. And Shocker, it was the best game of

29:33 his career, in my opinion.

29:34 And Brett, I think I agree with you completely. And I think there's a reason for this type of Cam Ward. game, even beyond just him maybe feeling as though a weight is sort of off of his shoulders. They also played no huddle quite a bit in this game. 41.4% no huddle in this game, 29 total plays. That's the highest of any team so far this season. They also had an 8.5 yards per play average when going no huddle, and the NFL average is 5.3. And I think that goes into a little bit of sort of what you talked about with college version of Cam Ward, which was a lot more free. And, and when you're, when you're playing no huddle, obviously there are, there are still things that you have to decipher and read and you're reading

30:21 the defenses and, and you're seeing things pre-snap as post-snap, like all that stuff exists, but everything is so much more sped up that you almost, you don't have time to overthink. You don't give yourself, you can't. So you're just playing off of vibes and instincts. And if you are asking me who are some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL at playing off of vibe and instincts, Cam for all of his struggles would probably be one of the first names that I give you and I think that script manifested here now the danger of doing that all the time because people would be like well why don't we just do that all the time well the danger is if you're going no huddle all the time like a lot of college teams sort of run

31:02 into this some of the fastest college teams around the country if you want to play fast but you're bad.

31:09 You're just speed running to three and out you're just.

31:11 Speed running three and outs and your defense is gas to the entire game so you have to be able to sustain it that's why you you look at a lot of these teams that just feel like it's just like an avalanche that you just cannot handle because they're just moving the ball so quickly and they're getting up to the line they're snapping the ball and there's nothing defenses could do when it when it works great it's an onslaught and it's amazing to watch. But when it doesn't, that really puts your defense in a bind. And a lot of NFL coaches, especially defensive head coaches, do not want that. So there's a reason why, with Robert Sala as the head coach, why he would be sort of slow to accept that. But the reason why Cam Ward

31:54 was afforded that game plan is because Burrow's on the other side.

32:00 And you know.

32:03 that basically every single week, whether it's a race to 30, whether it's a race to 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, whatever it is, Joe Burrow's gonna be up to the task. So there is no foot on the gas pedal that is too fast, because he will be able to match you no matter what you do. And that sort of gets me back to a little bit of a philosophical question here. When I look at the Bengals, I think that a major threat out of the backfield sort of feels like the last, I don't know, like missing explosive piece of this offense. So like I've talked about like Jonathan Taylor maybe being a landing spot here in Cincinnati.

32:47 But in reality, Brett, the more I think about it, the more I'm just like, does it really matter? Because isn't the ball better in Joe Burrow's hand 80% of the game anyways? So who cares who you have at running back? Now, of course, the games where you don't run it well and they lose, it's an easy thing to point to and say, man, I wish they had a better run game. But I kind of look at the Bengals this year, and they're very much living by the sword, dying by the sword, and just saying, we're going to put the ball in Joe Burrow's hand as much as we possibly can. Like, it was 72.9% in this game, and it's been close to 80% in other games as well. Is that just the best strategy for them?

33:24 In years past, I would have said they have to run the ball more. But because of how good the Bengals' offensive line has played this year, I mean, really, they've been good both in the run game and the pass game. I just think that Chase Brown has been kind of disappointing as far as capitalizing on the room that this offensive line has given him. But focusing on them as a pass protection unit, Amarius Mims is playing arguably the best right tackle in football this year. He's got a bunch of big-time pelts on the wall so far. And, you know, if this offensive line is playing like that as a pass protection unit, you can kind of get away with throwing that much just because Joe is not going to get hit as much behind this line as

34:05 he would have in years past with former Bengals lines that were just awful, right? So I think they finally built the offensive infrastructure that really can maximize what Joe always wanted to be. which is somebody that is throwing 35 plus times in a game, not because they have to, but because they want to. And it's like the analytics dream scenario of like, hey, pass game, go Burr. It's higher EPA every time you drop back. Let's just do it all the time. And every reason why you wouldn't want to do that. might not really apply to the Bengals because they have the quarterback and they have the receivers and they have the offensive line. Like they are what the analytics models thinks that the modern offense should

34:48 be as far as early down pass rate and overall run pass splits and everything like that. And while you and I say, yeah, but you do want to run the ball and have more balance and take hits off the quarterback and all that kind of stuff. If you're built exactly like the Bengals are, you can kind of do what every analytics nerd says you should do and throw this much. And it's for a good reason. Not a bad reason. Six touchdown of the day for Joe Burrow.

35:14 And the Bengals strike first in overtime. Buffalo and Baltimore, the next game that we want to hit here. Look, Lamar plays the full game. I think this is a different story. It's one of the games of the week. But Lamar gets hurt in the first pass. Now he's on IR. Snoop Huntley gets hurt. I mean, it's just a nightmare season for the Ravens, it feels like, to start the year. Shout out to Josh Allen, who passed Jim Kelly for the most touchdowns in Bills history in this game. Bills completes eight different receivers, which I think is a worthwhile talking point here, because I think a lot of people have, at points, complained about the Bills not having a superstar go-to wide receiver one, but when

35:56 you have an offense that is Josh Allen and friends, it feels like, I think maybe it's better, the more diverse you are, certainly when it looks like it did this week. So obviously everything's rolling for the, uh, the Buffalo bills played very, very well in this game. Ravens, no Lamar stuff.

36:16 I mean, to me, my, my Ravens takeaway here, which is different than my bills takeaway. My bills takeaway is like, yeah, they're, they're still great. My Ravens takeaway is this solidified Venga. You want it for rookie of the year.

36:29 One game my man my man like three quarterbacks.

36:36 This is what happens when he doesn't play Trevor disaster absolute disaster hey Vegas an incredible player Lamar's injuries I know are very frustrating for Ravens fans certainly this year with him missing time and now I mean he might be out for the year so It's hard to really have a solidified Ravens take of what they're going to be moving forward just because the team is not really built to win without Lamar. And we highlighted that even when it was Tyler Huntley.

37:03 When it was Tyler Huntley versus Lamar, how Huntley has one of the lowest air yards per attempt averages in the NFL. Lamar has... one of the highest. And so it's just a completely different offense. So it's just really unfortunate what could have been for this Raven season that it's not going to be anymore. But the Buffalo Bills, we mentioned how good they have looked this season, how good they looked in this game. Bills blitzed on 64.5% of the dropbacks, their highest blitz rate since 2021. So Jim Leonard's out here in his bag. 11 pressures and a season high, seven quick pressures in this game as well.

37:34 And 11 different Bills players generated at least one pressure with eight of them getting at least two pressures. You'll love to see it. Diversity on offense, diversity on defense. Bills feel like a wagon, feel like a wagon. Anything else in this game before we move on?

37:51 I mean, you mentioned Tyler Huntley, low air yards per attempt. He might be out with a toe as well. This could be the Joe Fagnano show for a while. So, I mean, at least we'll see what he's got, I guess.

38:04 That's not what the Ravens fans wanted this season. There's no scenario where those are the words that they wanted to hear in Week 8 of this season. Injuries, worst part of the game. Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets. A shootout, as everyone, of course, predicted. An absolute barn burner here in this game. Where do you want to start? Do you want to start with the Raiders or the Jets?

38:26 Dude, Geno Smith had a... Speaking of air yards per attempt, his air yards per attempt in this game was over 16 yards. He was just throwing it way down the field. Every opportunity he got.

38:39 Speaking of A.D.

38:40 Mitchell, A.D.

38:41 Mitchell. A.D.

38:41 Mitchell. Never wrong. Just early.

38:43 Just early, baby. Just early. Very early.

38:49 Yeah, that sauce trade where they gave up A.D. Mitchell for nothing as like a side throw in for the sauce trade is turning out to be a nightmare for the Colts.

38:59 Because A.D.

38:59 Mitchell, when he's been on the field, has been impactful for the Jets. Yeah. But back to Geno Smith, again, average air yards per attempt over 16 yards is utterly insane. And to still have a CPOE north of 7 plus percent on the day, 62.5% raw completion doesn't seem that crazy. But when you factor in the air yards per attempt, like every single ball was a trick shot down the field.

39:23 Just an outrageous stat line by Geno. Kind of vintage Geno, I would say. Yeah. Braylon Allen was beating them up early. He had 121 rushing yards and 6.7 yards per carry just in the first half. All of this sounds pro-Jets, even though they lost the game. I'm trying to set the stage for the onslaught that Vegas weathered here to then come back in this game. And the interesting part about it was they did it without Ashton Genting. On purpose, by the way.

39:57 Yeah, on purpose.

39:58 He said he was not going to get carries. He said that he was told he was not going to get carries before this game. I'm assuming as some sort of disciplinary action for him, kind of trash-talking publicly about the Jets, saying that they didn't want to tackle. And I think Clint Kubiak was like, hey man, let's not give bulletin board material to the other team. So we're going to give Mike Washington... 25 touches in this game and you get five. And I think message received to Ashton Genting.

40:28 Yeah, specifically first and second down. Mike Washington had 24 carries on first and second down. Ashton Genting had one. Even if there's a reason for it, that could be a very short-term thing. I just don't love that. That's a thing that we're doing with Ash and Chenty here. That's not ideal. Speaking of the Raiders, though, in this game, they played with two or more tight ends 81.7% of the time. And they're also the only team who, if you combine 11 and 10 personnel, like a lot of teams are basing out of 11 personnel. So if you combine 11 personnel and 10 personnel, basically taking tight ends off the field, they're the only team that hasn't recorded at least.

41:06 100 snaps in 11 or 10 personnel.

41:10 Brett, they're also the only team that hasn't recorded at least 75 snaps. So, like, they're not even close. They're basically just.

41:18 Halfway through the year.

41:19 They're just in heavy personnel, which I love because they're looking at this roster and they're saying, this is who we are. We're not going to conform to, you know, some league trends of, like, going more wide and having three wide receivers. We don't have three wide receivers. We don't have three wide receivers we trust. But we have two tight ends. So guess what we're going to do?

41:40 We're going to play to our strengths.

41:42 Love to see it.

41:43 I just love to see it from them. Aaron Glenn, man, not looking good, man. I mean, it just, unfortunately, it always seems like something. Aaron Glenn, four and nine in one score games now over the last two years as the Jets head coach. And if it's a shootout, the defense lets him down. If neither team scores more than 20 and they lose, obviously the offense lets him down.

42:04 It's just, it's always something.

42:08 Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

42:12 The Cleveland Browns to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Steelers picking up another dub here. Where do you want to start with this preview, Brad?

42:19 Eight sacks. It's just incredible. This Steelers pass rush was all over Cleveland today. The last time they had this many sacks in a game, January 3rd, 2022. So the playoffs of the 2021 season. So five seasons ago they had nine sacks also against the Browns and I want to be very clear here because I think in in some ways pressure can be an offensive line stat but sacks can be a quarterback stat you know the offensive line will get blamed for the Steelers you know giving up or getting eight sacks in this game but I went back and I watched all of those sacks that was really more on Deshaun Watson than the offensive line he was awful Like, just truly awful. Leaving his offensive line out to dry. There were throws, like easily makeable throws,

43:09 that a quarterback making a quarter billion dollars should be able to make. And we're talking like a boundary hole shot against cover two. Not a far hash hole shot. Like, to the closer side of your field, a hole shot against cover two that is wide open. But Deshaun, for whatever reason, and this might be something that the Steelers have picked up on, when he has a zone defender looking at him, Like just looking at him, he freezes.

43:32 He just won't throw the ball because he doesn't want to throw a pick. But even if that zone defender is not in position to make a play on the ball, he will just freeze. And beyond that, I mean, his footwork was just terrible in this game. There was another sack he had where for whatever reason, so he's in the gun, he does a one-step drop. And so it's like a quick game drop, but the routes haven't actually developed down the field. You're supposed to sink your feet to the actual route concept. like your footwork and the route concept are supposed to be synced up to the point where you hit the top of your drop and then you deliver the ball. But if you're doing quick game footwork, but the routes are developing as if it's

44:08 going to be three step or five step, the routes aren't there. So you're just sitting still in the pocket. And when he sits still in the pocket, because he's out of rhythm, because he's not throwing off of rhythm, well, then he just freezes again. And I want to be careful of the words that I choose here. To me, The Browns are probably a playoff team that doesn't have a playoff quarterback, and I don't know exactly what they're going to do this offseason because they've won enough games where they might be incentivized to try to run this back again. After watching today's film and how much damage he single-handedly did to this team, I'm questioning if he should even be the starter going forward. Because, like, say

44:52 what you want about Shudra Sanders, he's not just going to stare at a zone defender and freeze and take eight sacks in a game. He's at least going to try to do something. He's going to try to throw the ball down the field. He's going to try to escape. He's not going to be a deer in a headlight for four straight quarters like Deshaun was in this game. Like, that was awful. It was unplayable. It was untenable. You cannot be making a quarter billion dollars and look like that.

45:17 You just can't. So I understand the temptation to try to run this back and keep it going. That was bad football. They cannot do this again.

45:26 On the Steelers' side of things, that defensive line feels like it's playing as good as any defensive line in the NFL, to be honest with you. 30% blitz rate and you had a 42% pressure rate. Only 5.4% missed tackle percentage. 33% run stuff rate at the line of scrimmage. I mean, run defense, pass rush. I think that this is becoming one of the better front sevens in the NFL.

45:47 And I think that they're really cooking and it compliments the offense really well. We talk about complimentary football all the time. I actually think that the Steelers are playing some really, really good complimentary football. Cause even when it's not perfect, like Aaron Rogers said after the game, they can still end up winning football games because it's complimentary there.

46:03 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Atlanta Falcons, the Buccaneers, first team since 1974 to complete zero, count them, zero, passes in a football game and still get a win. Brett, this is very therapeutic for me because when I was at the University of Florida, they lost a game to Georgia Southern at Florida in which Georgia Southern, shout out Jared McKinnon, completed zero passes. And now, the team that I grew up rooting for gets a win in the NFL by completing zero passes. Full circle moment for me, but this one was obviously played in not ideal weather conditions.

46:51 We saw that everywhere, but did you have a main takeaway in the rain here from this game?

46:57 I mean, we thought last week and the run rate they had last week was going to be their magnum opus this year. Little did we know. It was an appetizer. It was an appetizer.

47:07 That's what it was.

47:08 I don't think it would have been possible to play a game like this, even in the weather that existed. And again, you're a Florida guy. You know when the rain comes down. You can't function when the rain is coming down that heavy. They were mopping the field. in the middle of the game, right? It was that kind of weather. And yet, they still would not have been able to win a game in that style. Not completing a single pass, running as well as they did. You have two running backs with 25-plus carries in this game.

47:37 They would not have been able to win that way if Michael Penix did not throw four interceptions, right? Baker Mayfield didn't have a completion and still had a better passer rating. That's the kind of performance we're talking about.

47:50 Which is always very funny, but yes.

47:52 Hilarious stat. Might be the stat of the week to me. And I know the easy way to hand wave it away is, well, yeah, weather. Of course he threw four picks. No, no, no, no, no, no. If you go back and you watch those picks, those were not weather related. Like maybe one of them. Yes.

48:09 But a couple of them were bad.

48:11 A couple of them were really bad. Like the Anzalone one, he just got got. His back was turned on.

48:15 Which one?

48:16 Which one?

48:17 You got to be more specific.

48:18 The first one. The first one. All right. That one, he just got got. Kind of unfortunate. There was like an arm punt on a fourth down, which... In a better weather game, it would have been a field goal anyway, but they went for it because of the weather and it was, okay, whatever, fine. The last one, I want to highlight that one. It's switch verts. You're throwing the rail.

48:39 The DB is staring at you like he is capped over the top of the route, staring at you, daring you to throw it. Meanwhile, you have a receiver on the divide route wide open for a touchdown and you don't just turn your head 15 degrees to the left. That's on Michael Penix. The rain didn't make him throw that ball. He threw that ball and threw a really, really bad interception. So it's not just weather. It's also Penix making bad decisions. And I don't know what he is.

49:07 We're halfway through the year and we just get these massive swings week to week with him.

49:12 Yeah. And I just think it's more NFC South shenanigans, to be honest with you, because for a couple of weeks, the Falcons looked by far the best team in the division. And then, yeah, the rain was an issue, but the Falcons had seven or more defenders in the box, 90.3% of the time, 47 out of 52 carries when Irving or Gainwell was getting the ball, yet they still had 10 explosive runs of 10 yards or more. They had negative 0.4 yards before contact per carry and yet 347 yards after contact in this game and 119 yards after missed tackles. I mean, this is just a bad performance for Atlanta all around. Basically, outside of the Jesse Bates superhuman fumble at the goal line with Bucky Irving, there was nothing else that went well for the Atlanta Falcons

49:54 in this game. And I was also selling the Buccaneers win short when it came to the history books because The 2026 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the first team to win a game by double digits without completing a pass since the 1945 Steelers that beat the Chicago Cardinals by a score of 23-0 in Week 8 of 1945. Everybody remembers that game. Everybody remembers where they were when that game happened. And you're going to remember this one too.

50:19 The Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars. About as competitive as you figured that it would be. between one team that's unbelievably on a roll with Super Bowl aspirations and might be in the driver's seat, to be honest with you, as the number one team in the NFL, versus a team that could not be in more of a free fall here with the Indianapolis Colts, who have already made what seems to be wholesale changes on their roster. And Brett, after this game, I have to think that some more is coming. What's the big takeaway here? Is it more of a Colts takeaway or a Jags takeaway?

50:54 I could do Muay Thai against a gorilla and it would be more competitive than this game. Like, good God, this was bad.

51:01 Incredible.

51:01 It was bad from the start. I mean, it was 21-0 and then they got a pick six. It's just horrible. And I'm not saying anything that Colts fans haven't already expressed in way more colorful language than I have. But this team has given up. They've flat out given up. The fire sale started happening. The GM has been fired.

51:23 They know where the season's going. I think even the coaching staff kind of sees where this is going. And everybody just gave up. And the Jags are already a great team to begin with. But if you are going into the game seemingly as dejected as the Colts were, as an organization against arguably a juggernaut in Jacksonville, it's going to look like that. Also, side note, I do have a Jags note for this beyond just, wow, they're a good team. Those rivalry uniforms.

51:55 Oh, so sick.

51:57 We need to talk about those becoming like a mainstay.

52:00 Dude, the Jags old school, the Jags like creative uniforms and then throwback uniforms are just.

52:08 A thing of beauty. Yes. Yes.

52:12 It's beautiful. Beautiful stuff. Trevor Lawrence is also incredible in this game. I mean, Three touchdowns, 210 yards, 153.3 pass rating on just 10 completions. I mean, it's one thing to be efficient. It's another thing to be explosive and efficient. Trevor Lawrence is absolutely dealing right now. This is the best version of him that we have ever seen. And that includes going back to his best when we saw him in college football at Clemson. The Colts season is completely over. We know that. Shane Steichen not putting Anthony Richardson in the game sooner basically shows me that he knows that he is probably not going to be here very much longer. And he's like, nope, I'm going down to my sword. I don't care. I picked Daniel Jones.

52:58 He's my starting quarterback. We're going to do it. And I know they put in Richardson at the very end of the game. But there was ample runway for Richardson to get into this game at a reasonable time. If you were thinking anywhere towards developing what might be a next option for you, a quarterback. And he just doesn't seem to be concerned with it because he continues to throw Jones out there and it continues to not look good.

53:21 I mean, Jones had a 2.59 time to throw in this game and yet the success rate was still a 32.4. You're getting rid of the ball almost as quick as you possibly can in a failing effort and you are not changing what you're doing. So it just, it just feels like the whole Colts' operation right now is dead men walking. The Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams.

53:53 Yeah, they're doing so much better over there.

53:55 You kind of have the same conversation, yeah, with the Chargers, who, I mean, it's another win for the Rams here.

54:00 Herbert is the only quarterback in the NFL that's thrown a pick in every single one of his team's games this year. Seven games.

54:07 Damn.

54:10 I remain flabbergasted. at what we are seeing here with Justin Herbert. And there have been absolutely valid criticisms of him in the past. He has never looked like this before. This offense has never looked like this before. They had their worst offensive performance this week coming off a bye. And their second worst offensive performance, at least if we're looking at EPA per play, was before the bye. So they're just deteriorating even more as the season goes on.

54:37 They've gone 27 straight possessions without scoring a touchdown. October 11th, if you want to go by the calendar, is the last time they scored a touchdown. The only thing they've gotten since that date is field goals. They are 0-4 in the red zone, by the way. They have at least one turnover in every single game this season, 17 total.

54:58 Mind you, they've had their bye week, and we're in week 8, so there's 7 games with 17 turnovers, so they're averaging over 2 per game. It's just untenable, and I understand, speaking of going down with the ship, that Harbaugh's like, yeah, you know, Mike's going to keep calling plays this year, but are either of them going to be there in 2027? At this point, I feel like the answer is no.

55:22 Yeah, really quickly, the design run game is more of an issue, I think, than Justin Herbert even. 18.2% success rate in the run game for the Chargers in this game. They started the game, Brett, with six straight passes. You know what happened?

55:35 It was 2-3 and outs.

55:37 They don't trust the run game. They have no answers. They have no game plan for it. And it's just, it's hard to think that it's going to get better. Sunday Night Football, Commanders got the big dub over the Philadelphia Eagles. 27-10 was the final score in this one. Brett, more than two-thirds of Jaden Daniels' 217 passing yards came against man coverage in this game. Went 8-13. Career high, 148 passing yards and a touchdown against man coverage. Man, if you would have thought that something would have held up for the Eagles this season, it would have been their coverage, right? I mean, you got Quinn Young-Mitchell, you got Cooper DeGene.

56:13 I mean, you would have thought that... Look how talented they are.

56:15 Right, right. And yet that can't even go right for Philadelphia in what feels like a nightmare season for them. And when the Commanders fans and the Commanders just overall just really needed. Thoughts on this game?

56:29 So first of all, good for the Commanders. They absolutely needed this one. Really, everybody in the building needed this one. My second thought is, because I don't necessarily think the Commanders are a powerhouse in their own right, and they still dominated the Eagles in this game, how many teams in the NFC could the Eagles beat right now? Is it less than three? I think it might be. Are they the worst team in the conference? I think by.

57:00 Default, it's four minimum because you can always lose Or you can always beat any NFC South team at any given week.

57:11 Sometimes you don't even have to complete passes.

57:13 No matter what. Tanner McKee, you too could not.

57:19 Complete a pass and beat the Atlanta Falcons.

57:22 I think it's four at a minimum, but I don't think it's much more than four. Oh, man.

57:28 Would they win the NFC South?

57:32 Brother, does anybody really win....

57:36 The NFC salad?

57:39 You survive. Yeah, you just survive to next season is really what happens. So really quickly, I feel like I get the vibe that the Eagles are in no way going to be sellers at the trade deadline. Do you feel like that's a good idea for them?

57:53 I would have to double check their contracts, but because they love void years so much, I'm not sure if they can.

58:00 Yeah, great point. Great point.

58:02 Who can they trade... Without costing themselves– I'm not sure if that– I'd have to double-check. But of all their big contracts, I don't think any of them are really movable.

58:12 That's a great point. That's a good point.

58:14 And as a tangent, like as a side note, the reason why they structure– for the people that haven't followed along for what the Eagles do, the reason why they structure their contracts that way, by the way, is because all of them are essentially hitting in like 2029, 2030. And– They expect there to be a very large jump in the cap by them. In the cap space, right. For business reasons I won't even get into now. But they were planning on this core being together and competing. For a long time. This was not what they thought was going to happen.

58:44 Yeah, and unfortunately, haven't scored over 21 points during their six-game losing streak. Not ideal. Last game that we're talking about here is the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. Closer on the scoreboard than, to be honest with you, I... 24-19 was the final score here in this game, but Brett, I really was never worried at any time that the Patriots weren't going to win this game. Drake May is so good right now, and all of the demons that he had at the beginning of the year to start the year. Remember, we talked about when he holds onto the ball for over two and a half seconds or three seconds, he's in his head, he's panicking, and then he's turning it over. That does not exist for him anymore.

59:27 And we've got multiple weeks where he has stacked that on top of each other. He was 11 for 15 on passes of more than two and a half of a time to throw average. I feel like the defensive and offensive lines are playing really well for the Patriots in this game. May longest streak with three plus total TDs in Patriots history. He's got five. Tom Brady's obviously got the lead with 10, but those 10 came on Tom Brady's MVP season in 2007. So Drake May is halfway there and it is currently active for him. I just, I have so much faith in Drake May right now.

1:00:02 He is just playing the quarterback position at such a high level. And I don't think the score appropriately reflects how in control he he was in this game, because I thought he was fantastic.

1:00:12 Hell, halfway through the game, they were down 13-3, and I still felt like, yeah, they're probably fine. I'm with you. I'm with you. And that was correct, by the way, because it ended 24-19, again, starting out 13-3, ended 24-19 in favor of the Patriots, and that was with the Dolphins scoring a touchdown in the closing minutes. It was a great ball, by the way, and a great route by Coleman, but was kind of immaterial to the actual result of the game. In fact, if we're looking at the live win probabilities, it was 98% Patriots before that play. And, you know, it was 99% Patriots after that because it was just an onside kick. But they were not really threatened in this game, even while being down 10 points,

1:00:57 just because of the talent advantage that New England had in this game, the quarterback advantage that New England had in this game. And while I do think Miami's future is very bright, they have a lot of young talent, like a lot of young, young talent. And they're just a year away from being a year away. And it kind of is what it is. I think Dolphins fans knew what this season was going to be going into it, and they are trusting the process.

1:01:24 All right, there we go. Almost all of week eight in the book, still got Monday Night Football, but man, almost halfway through the 2026 season. It's been quite the ride. And we know that the second half of the season coming up is going to be even better down the stretch. For all the NGS people who got us the great stats for this show, for all the production people putting it on, for Brett Coleman, I'm Trevor Sycamore saying thank you so much for watching. We'll see you guys on the next episode on Friday. See you then.

1:01:46 Thank you for listening to our Week 8 Reaction Show. Listen to NFL Pro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.