NFL 2025 Week 3 Preview + TNF Recap

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You know, it was a play we saw on tape.

Uh, you know, my linebacker coach Al Holcomb, he played it a couple times and he said, if I didn't get it, uh, it was going to be, it's going to be something to pay.

So, um, you know, just thanks to God, man.

It was, it was a fun night.

A great game between two good teams.

I'm glad we came out with a win.

Some teams are good and they're not particularly interesting, Al Michaels said on Thursday night.

The Buffalo Bills have really become a great team to watch.

I'm not sure why Al is bringing up the Eagles in this game, but that's beside the point.

The point is that the Bills are indeed rarely boring.

And on Thursday night, they had the good manners to allow the Miami Dolphins to hang around for the better part of three hours, at least until a pair of killer.

Fish mistakes.

I'm going to get killed.

A roughing to punter and a two-int

paved the the way for a 31-21 win for the Heroes of Western New York.

The Bills, 3-0 with a fairly soft schedule ahead.

The Dolphins fight hard, but fall to 0-3.

Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

It's the Thursday night football recap slash week three preview, and let's dive right into the game.

Mark, I know you weren't overly impressed by the Buffalo Bills.

You said so in a text tonight, but at the same time, sometimes you just got to grind out a W.

And they did.

They took care of their business once again.

Division game, they did.

And these games come down to...

A couple of plays, and you nailed it.

It was the interception that Connor on text was asking for to get to bed earlier than normal because he's on the East Coast, and I get that.

And you got it.

You texted that about four minutes before it happened.

But

the Zach Seeler blowing up Cameron Johnston, the Bills punter, and opening up the drive that allowed the Bills to continue on and kind of end what I thought was

not the last stanza of Mike McDaniel because it sounds like he's going to stick around, but a desperate Dolphins team.

I thought that played with fight and fire as much as they can muster.

And it's not enough.

That's the problem with the Dolphins.

I thought we got the best effort out of them, and it's not enough against the team and the division that you've got to knock out.

And the Bills, Bills to me feel like in games like this,

the effort is there and they are real and their talent is real and their talent is like overflowing, but they're kind of like foot on brakes a little bit.

Like, we're going to get this done.

It'll just take a couple plays and we're there.

And this is like the Bills at like two-thirds of their power.

I mean, it's encouraging that the fact that they've seen this to a play.

And McDaniel got caught a couple times running repeat concepts throughout this game, I thought, where it worked, it worked, and then all of a sudden he ran it a third time, right?

And you'd lose three or four yards.

But the big pick at the end of this game, as Terrell Bernard alluded to, right, that was a concept that they'd seen on film and Tua decided to look off another defender, but never looked off the guy in front of him.

Never saw him.

Yeah, and the fact that by now, right, so it's two parts to this.

It's a play that they've run before.

And by now, even though they've run it a couple times, he's either never run into the scenario where you have to look off that other guy or even think about that other guy.

That's what's more troubling to me when you're supposed to be this high-octane offense by now.

Yeah, that that

the Tua

game was a bit of an odd one.

Uh, Warren Sharp had this step step.

The Tua averaged only 6.0 air yards per attempt for the game, but recorded a negative 4.8% completion percentage over expectation.

His first down performance, though, this is what is really crazy: only three and a half air yards per attempt on first down, seven of 13 completion, a negative EPA.

Just everything was short and in front of you.

And it was just, it was putting them kind of in these tough down and distance setups.

It took a long time for him to get to 100 yards.

And, you know, read that.

I think you mentioned it, Mark, on a show recently.

Mike Silver, our old colleague, wrote a good piece on the athletic about Mike McDaniel and

the grave danger he's in.

And he writes at the beginning of the piece, he's talking about how great things started, obviously, in the Mike McDaniel era.

And then he mentions the 70-point game against the Broncos, which obviously

feels so far away now.

I mean, it just feels like, and Connor, like, you're so good at studying the trends of the game and how the game, the zigs and the zags of it all.

Like, has the NFL essentially figured out a Mike McDaniel offense?

Is that a part of what the problem has been with this team?

I think so to some degree, but I think what Mike McDaniel tried to put his own spin on what he had in San Francisco.

And I think there was a lot more of a speed focus to it, whereas Kyle Shanahan viewed more physicality in his wide receivers.

And I think that's where you saw these two kind of places diverge, where year after year, the Dolphins are trying to restock this idea of this sort of NASCAR version of the Shanahan offense, but you're never bringing in power.

You're never bringing in, you know, these thick interior defenders.

You're getting good edge rushers, okay, maybe, but it's not really helping you.

And it's Tyreek Hill and it's Jalen Waddell and it's A-Chan.

And there were never guys, I think, that could help you in the intermediate to just play power football, to grind out games and to grind out wins.

And it's obviously,

you know, it's a trope at this point to say that they shut down in November and December, but there's a reason why they shut down in November and December.

He never had those those core Shanahan players, I think, to make this thing work that well.

And the hook of that article

is

frustration around communication between plays, that you had people shuttling on and off the field, and you've got Tua trying to communicate with coaches in the huddle, and guys are showing up late or this or that.

A Shanahan, like a Kyle's Shanahan offense does not offer those ills.

Like, that's what's happening here.

And there's been reports that, you know, McDaniel wants to, like, really get a grip on some of the problems during the offensive drives.

And I think tonight it seemed like they were more in touch with that.

But that was the hook of that article.

It's like, we're here in year like three, right?

Or whatever it is.

And like things are devolving, not evolving.

I think it's also interesting on the on the Bills side of things.

It wasn't like the Bills were some explosive team on offense in terms of how they attacked their opponent.

A lot of stuff was kept in front of Allen, a lot of short passing and getting into positive setups with crossers.

And I didn't see a lot of downfield passing from Allen, and you didn't see it last week against the Jets either.

But when they needed it and they needed to turn on the Jets in the comeback in week one against the Ravens, absolutely they were able to do that and make the big plays.

So

yeah, Thursday nights are weird.

Division games are weird.

A desperate Dolphins team.

And to Miami's credit, to McDaniel's credit, to the whole team's credit, they didn't just roll over and die in this game.

And the Bills were able to fight off a team.

It's just a sign from the Bills' perspective, even though it wasn't their best effort.

I think you said, Mark, it was like their three-quarter effort.

Still good enough to get a 10-point win.

And just they're going to stack wins and they're going to continue to stack wins.

If you look at their upcoming schedule, there's a very good chance I think they're going to be, they could be 7-0 by the time they meet the Chiefs near mid-season.

And on the subject of the

Josh McDaniel or Mike McDaniel

job security, after the game, I heard the Amazon crew, all 14 of them, say, oh, yeah, no,

this proved that this team has not quit.

Mike McDaniel is, we're not going to be hearing about his job security.

Okay.

But he could be fired a week from Monday if they lose to the Jets at home.

So, yeah, maybe it buys him a few days, but he probably was going to be safe anyway going into the Jets game.

I think the Jets game continues to be ground zero, not just for McDaniel's job security, but all the talk and the smoke around Tyreek Hill and the Kansas City Chiefs.

It's a big game on a couple different levels.

The Dolphins feel like a memory of a team to me because I think we thought we were getting there and then we floated away from whatever the vision was.

And that's never good for a coaching staff and players that probably want to be out of it.

They just feel like something from a year ago or two years ago, but not this year.

Let's give them credit, though.

This is a 21-21 game, right?

The uh

roughing the kicker penalty 1020 to play in the fourth quarter they get off that was a little that was a little messed up too like i don't know about roughing the kicker but like how does he stop his body from doing what he is it's a it's a fair thing but it's also not a and the rules analyst for amazon backed it up and i get it why they called it bills punter cameron johnson uh gets ready to punt the ball he pins the dolphins back but there's a flag and zach sealer feel bad for this guy he's a he came from, he's been in the league for eight years.

Good for him, getting that full pension out of Ferris State, a

D2 school, 6'6, 300 pounds.

And you get penalized, Connor.

And this is just

the cruel breaks of sports, really.

He runs over the center.

He bulls him.

And

he's within, I don't know, what, six, 10 inches of getting a block that could potentially save the Dolphins season, but he misses it.

And because he was so close, now there's no way 6'6'300 can stop.

He rolls into the punter, and you knew it.

You absolutely knew it as soon as that happened, what the Bills were going to do with that opportunity.

First down at midfield.

And sure enough, bing, bang, boom, they're in the end zone.

Dolphins get the ball back.

And then Tua, as we talked about, throws the interception to Bernard.

And that was all she wrote.

Yeah, for the people that are trying to connect this somehow to a lack of discipline, there's nobody who ever rushes a kicker and is like, I'm just going to destroy this motherfucker.

You're trying to block the punt.

And then in a situation like that, you just hope that when the punter falls, it doesn't look like his leg gets caught in like a grain harvester like this bun, like the Bills punter did today.

But I just have a warning to Dolphins people, Dolphins players, I guess, because I call it the ping-pong table principle, where you have a fun head coach.

And once you lose that fun head coach, you get a total militant dick bag.

And you're about to lose the funnest head coach in the NFL.

So you might want to win a couple of these W's or else that ping-pong table is going to get yanked right out of your facility.

You're going to have Jerry Philbin back on the sidelines telling everybody they can't shoot gum.

You know what I mean?

Jerry Philbin.

All right,

before we take a break and get into the full week three slate, I just want a fun little Amazon moment.

I know, well, in the current state of the country, I have no idea what...

what you can say and not say, but I know in Amazon, it's not like on broadcast television.

So I guess you can get away with certain things that you wouldn't be able to get away with on, say, NBC on Sunday Night Football post-game show.

Anyway, roll the tape.

Greer, the general manager himself, they bought themselves a couple extra games to go up there and turn the season around.

These fans are excited.

They're already chanting if you can't hear.

Take it off.

Take it off.

That sign is back.

We're back, Fitz.

Now show them your tits.

Okay, okay.

With a Z with a Z.

All right, time now to go to to Kaylee Harvey.

Okay, with a Z.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Okay, okay.

Justin does not approve of that clip, by the way.

He told me that privately.

Oh, so inappropriate.

I mean, there's probably children watching or something.

I don't know.

The context there is that Ryan Fitzpatrick a few years ago took off his shirt and celebrated as a former Bill, the Amish rifle himself.

All right.

Let's take a break as we all celebrate, by the way, Zumwalt's 50th birthday today.

Happy birthday, Jason, Zumwalt.

Let's make this incredible show for Zummy, the hero that he is.

Let's take a break and dive into all of the week three preview.

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Welcome back.

Heat in the Call.

Week three is underway Thursday night.

But now we're going to get into all of the Sunday and Monday games and we're going to have fun doing it.

Before we get into it, I'm going to pose a couple of

questions.

First, the mark.

Mark,

of all of the 0-2 teams, and there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 of them.

Which one, your life on the line,

will make the playoffs?

Caveat, you can't pick the Chiefs.

Life on the Line.

Life on the Line.

I don't don't love the setup for my life, but

one stands out to me is

off to a slow start on offense, but nasty defense, and they play in a bad division, the Houston Texans, 0-2.

Okay.

All right.

You did pick the Jets as a playoff team.

This is your chance to stay on board.

Come on.

Come on, Sese.

I cannot faithfully give the listener that answer because it would be a little senseless.

It's a weird way to open the preview part of our show.

Yes, it would undermine so much credibility.

All right, now let's flip to the other side: the 2-0 teams, Connor Orr.

Let's see.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Do I have that right?

10 2-0 teams.

Seems like a lot.

2-0 0-2s.

Maybe not.

I don't care.

All right, here we go.

Connor, if you had to pick one 2-0 team with your life on the line to miss the playoffs, caveat, you can't pick the Cincinnati Bengals.

Who would you pick?

Damn it.

Connor just going in for that layup and he got sweet.

He was ready.

He was ready to do a little finger roll.

Let's go Cardinals.

I think that's just

the one, right?

That division is so good.

San Francisco's 2-0 and the Rams are 2-0.

So something has to give there.

And even if they finish the season at 9-8, it might not be good enough to reach the postseason.

So I'm going to go Cardinals.

All right.

Yeah, that checks out.

Right?

I mean, I don't know.

Maybe.

I mean, part of me is like, I want to see where we are with the Colts in a month, but I don't think the Cardinals are a bad choice there.

I didn't think the Colts would get the...

To me, they are the most logical choice, but I understand that there's a lot to be excited about with the Colts.

And to the point where I'm taking myself back to before the season started, I actually don't remember who I picked to win the AFC South, but I really wanted to not pick the Texans, and I just couldn't find who that team was going to be.

I couldn't talk myself into

the Colts or anybody else in that division.

But now there's a path.

Let's see if the Texans get off the map.

But the thing about the Texans, we're going to get to it.

But, God, it seems like the problems that they have this year are identical to last year, which is very

upsetting.

All right, let's get into it.

Let us get into it.

Yes, Justin.

You picked the Jags to win the division.

I did.

Okay, so I did.

And I didn't, it's not that I was like buying in on the Jags.

I was like, I just don't want to pick the Texans.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You know what I mean with the Texans?

I'm just going to be there with you.

Yeah.

All right.

Jags are.

That goes completely against my answer to the first part of the quiz, but

fairly well.

All right.

Let's get into it.

We're going to go early games, then late games.

And as per our

formatting, we will open up the quad box.

So our goal is to give you, the viewer/slash/listener,

the best strategic

setup for your television watching.

If you have access to four screens or something similar to that, Mark, why don't you get us going?

Give the people what they need.

Find a way to pound this thing in there.

Put on your socks and tune in your box.

He's oozing sex.

It's easy.

It's a bit of a strange early slate due to some injuries that have derailed what would be exciting contests.

But Rams at Eagles, 2-0 versus 2-0, Joe Davis, Greg Olson,

on Fox.

Absolutely.

We would be psychotics not to.

This, to me, is an incredible matchup.

Now, it starts for me right here because I think the Eagles wind up throwing the ball less than maybe any team in the league with the way that they've been, the way what they want to be.

Last year, these two teams played twice.

Saquon on Sunday night football earlier in the year was part of a rushing attack that ran for 314 yards on the Rams.

Then you go to the playoffs and Saquon crosses 200 yards for a rushing attack that runs for 285 yards on the Rams.

I love this Rams defense, and I don't think you can ask Saquon in the Eagles rushing attack to just keep doing that over and over.

That's the matchup for me because I think the Eagles just want to be that.

They want to be that.

They want to dominate.

They want to be not simplistic, but just brute force on the ground.

And the Rams, matchup-wise, in the last two times we've seen them face off against each other,

they couldn't get it done.

So that's the question.

This young Rams defense, I like a lot of the players up front.

They're tackling well.

I think they're fast and ferocious.

They're well coached.

But this is, this is, it starts right here for me.

Like, Like Saquon can't shift into what he's been against this team in recent times.

You know what's interesting about this game?

I confirmed it because it came from the dark corners of the internet.

So the stat that was making its rounds that Jalen Hurts, I think, had attempted more tush pushes than 10 or 20 yard throws downfield.

But what was interesting about this game in particular is that after all the false start penalties and the conversation around the tush push and the league taking the the videos down, the NFL assigned a referee for this game on Sunday that has not had the Eagles since, and I double-checked this, December 18th of 2022, has not had an Eagles game since 2022 before the advent of the Tush Push.

And so

do you think that this is one of those like things where it's like, okay, well, if I don't get it past this Supreme Court justice, I try this Supreme Court justice and I try to reword it and reword it, where all of a sudden we get some sort of a penalty called on this that has not been called on it before because this guy has never legislated the tush push.

Could that be possible?

Well, I don't know.

I like it as a theory.

The counter is he's less experienced legislating it and unable to see some of that.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I like that as a theory.

I think if there is one way for them to try to make this less of a story is just tossing the flag over and over again.

But that sounds even worse.

Somebody that doesn't like the touch press.

The last thing I want now is for the NFL to try to legislate it out in real time by just tossing the flag every time.

That sounds even worse.

I don't know, man.

Like, can we talk real quick?

You called it one of the most boring plays in modern football today.

So if it's the most boring play and we're tagging flags onto it,

we're in double trouble territory.

Right.

It's, yeah, if, yeah, from the broken play stand.

But you know what?

All right.

Here's something real football related to this.

Okay.

Yeah, go ahead.

Jalen Hurts.

Can I let me just let me okay.

Let me throw out a Jalen Hurts note, and I want you to come off this, Connor.

He's thrown the ball just 45 times in two games, no touchdown passes.

This from Rotopat, averaging 5.6 yards per attempt.

Is this just going to be what this team is?

And I know all the fantasy owners are freaking out about A.J.

Brown and Devonta Smith.

And you, I think you have a right to be because as long as this works, I don't think it'll be this extreme, but do you think this is just the way the Eagles are going to be operating the season?

So, the converse of that is on those pass attempts, he's like the third or fourth most pressured quarterback in the NFL.

His pressure rate is 40%.

So, almost half of the times that he's dropping back, he is A, holding on to the ball for a long time, and B, has a guy in his face.

So, what does that tell you?

Either he's not seeing what he needs to see downfield, or some of that monolith offensive line isn't really as good as it's being built up to be this year.

And I think that's a matter of what you tend to see on film.

But I thought, especially in that Cowboys game, there were some interesting wrinkles that were being put into that passing game.

I brought it up a few weeks ago with Jahan Dotson.

They're trying to explore these other things and maybe make it more of a, hey, let's get a couple singles.

We'll compile a couple singles together.

And then when we need the home run, we'll take it.

But it's a risky play.

And the reason that Jalen Hurts became, I think, a more effective quarterback is they've continued to minimize the risk and the negative outcomes.

And so I don't really see a problem with it.

Great, great playoff game last year between these two teams.

Saquon going for 205, a 78-yard touchdown run late in the game.

I love it.

This

could be an NFC title game preview.

It has that type of juice to it.

And Sean McVay is going to be limping around.

He tore his plantar fascia while coaching in week two.

That doesn't sound pleasant.

My dad, I don't know if it was a tear, but he has a similar injury, and

it completely changes your mobility.

Now you're a coach, not a player, so it's a maybe.

Remember, Don Shula going around in the.

Yeah, he had an Achilles, I believe.

Yeah, yeah.

It does make you feel like.

It kind of lowers your Q rating a little bit.

It does.

It does.

It makes him seem less like a leader when you have the leg back like that.

All right, quad box two, Connor.

All right.

Thanks, Dan, for the opportunity to do this.

So

I'm going to go Colts and Titans, and that's so I can raise awareness for a new charity that I'm starting.

It's called

It's to benefit Carly Gordon or say the Colts, and it's called Carly's Angels.

And the reason that we're doing this, guys, is because there are some owners in the NFL who wear a headset, but don't get the same opportunities as other owners in the NFL.

And so what Carly's Angels is meant to do is we're set out to help other owners in the NFL request interviews for other teams' players or get all access sideline passes to games in which their teams aren't playing or to be able to interview prospective future free agents like other owners can.

And we just have,

if you don't mind,

I got some Carly's Angels branded gear here.

If you flip up the top of the cap there, it's a gorgeous cap.

As well.

And then, Justin, if you can just pull that bong out of your mouth and fly up this website here.

Carly'sangels.whitehouse.gov forward slash integrity till day Tom Brady's suspicions.

That's our website.

So anything that we could

do.

And that merch, that is, that's official merch that you designed yourself, I could tell.

Yeah.

It's, you know, a lot of times we're asked to do charity, you know, in the dark.

You don't, you don't tell everyone about it.

I think it's important to get the word out on this one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So am I to take this to mean that the Colts at Titans are in the quad box?

I mean, I still think until the Colts punt the damn ball, they need to be in the quad box.

Like they have not punted the football.

But yes, I do think that

it's an important combination of both awareness raising.

Again, because one owner gets to interview players from other teams and to be on the field for games and stuff like that.

And other owners don't.

And so I think that's important to note, but also the fact that the Colts are awesome.

And Justin's team's playing.

So that's fun, you know?

Yeah, that's this one.

I'm still trying to get there with you on it for the quad box, though.

I'm still trying to get there.

If you look at the other games.

I know.

That's what I'm saying.

This is the perfect weekend.

This is 95% quarterbacks.

Yeah.

Like, do you want to watch the Bengals, Jake Browning versus Carson Wentz?

I mean, there's some tough.

It's an injury-shattered lineup, and there is a lot of 2-0 versus 0-2

here as well.

Here's my problem here, because I am, like many other people, very interested in the Colts.

But what's a little disappointing is like the matchup this week, I don't know how much I'm going to learn if they play well against the Colts.

Now, the one thing I guess to take from it against the Titans, the one thing to take from it would be they're on the road now.

So they started with two games at home, and now if they go on the road and they again play at a high level and they're outside of the dome, it's like, okay, okay.

I'm talking myself into it now, Connor.

And then I think in week four, they actually have a little bit of a hot potato, and then it becomes the real Colts test about

is this going to be the AFC South champion?

But I'm very excited to see this offense, no matter who the opponent is, in now a different setting.

And I just want to give a shout out because Daniel Jones speaks for itself.

He's played awesome.

He's playing within the offense.

Steichen, you could tell, has got a weight lifted off his shoulders.

But Jonathan Taylor, like looking like.

you know, one of the best players in football again.

I know he had a bounce back season last year, but this year he looks on a higher level.

And it reminds me of the guy that won the rushing title and nearly an MVP a few years back.

So there's a lot to be excited about with the, with the Colts, not to mention the young tight end who is immediately fit in here.

I think Tyler warren is an offensive rookie of the year candidate i mean he's he's come out and there's a lot of other rookies on offense struggling that's part of it but the way that steichen is using him right away in so many different formations and i think that's where jonathan taylor is thriving because the passing game is functional it's creative and taylor is healthy like he had injuries for years and it's like this guy is in the perfect they all seem to be in the perfect position right now and we'll see if it lasts he started a play in the backfield last week when he he was lined up at the running back position and snuck out between the center and the guard.

And there was no one within 13 yards of him.

And how do you get the best offensive weapon on your team that wide open?

It's tremendous.

And I think this is just the start.

And just to sell it a little bit more, Dan, I'm going to say this.

Because they have the hot potato coming up, and because we're starting to consider this as a mature team, can they curb stomp the less, the inferior Titans and can they avoid the trap game, right?

Good call.

Because the hallmark, right, of actual good teams is you fight it out with the fellow good/slash great teams, and you win, hopefully, more than you lose.

And then, if you're really a good team, you kick the shit out of the teams that suck, like the Bills did to the Jets or the Ravens did to the Browns last week, those type of games.

So, yes, I'm in.

I'm all the way in.

Just Carly.

Next week.

Yep.

Yep.

Carly.

Check it out.

Make sure you

he paid for that URL.

So make sure you

take advantage of it.

And yes, the Titans,

if your Colts stay hot, Connor, and they're 3-0 and the buzz of the league, they go to LA to play the Rams in week four, and that's a hot potato.

Yeah.

All right.

Next up in the quad box, Gravy, you're going for it.

All right.

Well, as I was just saying, this is not a super easy choice for me, but I think I'm going to go with Falcons at Panthers.

Like, I'm interested enough in the division aspect of it.

I know the Panthers are number 32 in our power rankings.

Falcons only number 16.

But divisional games can get weird.

Fun stuff has happened in Falcons-Panthers matchups through the years.

I think of like Julio Jones versus Luke Keekly and just all kinds of crazy shit.

Anyway, Falcons-Panthers gets weird.

So I'm picking it for that reason.

I want to see if the Falcons defense can continue to look legit.

I want to see if Michael Pennix Jr.

can continue to ascend and if Bijan Robinson can continue to be, as Raheem Morris called him, the best player in football.

And then on the Panthers side, super excited about Tet McMillan.

Over 100 yards last week, looks like a true alpha, number one wide receiver.

Can Bryce Young continue to get him the ball?

And let's see if this Panthers offense can get going.

Because in a big divisional game, this is one you got to win if you don't want this season to slip away.

I worry about the balance on this offense outside of Ted McMillan, who is a burning bright spot.

Like your right guard, Rob Hunt, has torn his biceps.

Austin Corbett at center has a torn MCL, went to IR.

Like Jechuba Hubbard, this already was not a good offensive line.

And so it just puts pressure on everyone.

And Bryce Young, like, I thought played really well at the end of that game last week.

They had three straight touchdown drives, but he's also like throwing for 5.4 yards per pass and has five turnovers.

So this is just an out-of-sync franchise right now on both sides of the ball.

Here's what I'm curious about with the Panthers, and I'll leave it as a benefit of the doubt to, to say that they're interesting to me.

So they went Tet McMillan in the first round when I think a lot of people there maybe wanted an edge rusher.

And I think that I'm not saying that the room was split or anything, but I think that there are certainly some people on that staff who think, hey, we could have used a first round edge rusher.

But what they did was they went edge in rounds two and three.

And Nick Scorton and Princely both increased their snap totals week over week from week one to week two.

And I think Princely had maybe the Panthers only sack or one of their only sacks in the second week.

And so if Edgiro Evero is going to get anything going, because this defense is so threadbare, if maybe we can see these rookie edge rushers continue to build, continue to build.

Look what the Falcons did a week ago against the Vikings, where it was all rookies, and they were able to take over that game defensively.

Maybe Carolina gets the same boost there.

Yeah,

I'm interested to see, obviously, this Atlanta offense is going to go through Bijan, Bajan,

Brujon, Robinson, as it should.

One of the best players in football, the best player in football, according to his head coach.

If you checked out the end around this week,

I do kind of want to see a game where Panix has to turn it loose and maybe the game script turns in a way that puts us in that position.

I want to talk myself into the Panthers not just being a sad downtrout in team for four months again,

but those interior line injuries, that's tough.

That's tough.

And then you have Bryce Young, an undersized quarterback, a collapsing of

the interior line, the pass rush.

None of it feels sustainable for a team that's trying to stack a season of growth here.

So that's on my radar.

Also, I want to see

an addition on the Atlanta side to seeing maybe Pennex air it out and see that side of his game.

I want to see if this pass rush is for real

because obviously we all talked about that on the Sunday night game, how well they played and got after the quarterback in week two, which was kind of the breaking of a curse in Atlanta.

Do it again and let us know that this is actually a team strength.

Because if you do have a pass rush and you do have a young quarterback that can protect the football and you have a Saquon level game-changing running back, I can start to see it a little bit.

I can see the Falcons as a team

that will give people trouble.

It's one of those games where it's like, I'm not sure what evidence we would pull from it if all those things happened for the Falcons.

I'm with you, you want to see it again, but Bijan against Israel Averero's defense last year carved them up two times.

And so, what's changed?

And what's changed is Bijan Robinson has become even better and more powerful.

All right.

And on the Falcons' offense side, like, if we want to see this team be a true, like, really compete for the division with the Bucs, who are dealing with a lot of injuries, can they get Drake London going?

Drake London's like 13th in the NFL in targets, 47th in receiving yards.

A ton of fantasy football players right now listening to this are like, yes, please, can Drake London get going?

He's killing my teams.

Like, what's going on with the Drake London thing?

I want to see this get on track against what has been a pretty weak defense for the Panthers.

Yeah, there are different spots.

Just talked about the Eagles before, where, especially if you're a fantasy head, you're freaking out.

But we still have such a small sample size that game script goes off kilter for a week or two, and it doesn't tell you necessarily what this offense is going to look like.

But you know this is going to be a run-oriented offense.

I mean, Connor is turning to be aware.

Yes, Connor.

Yes, Connor.

I don't know if you guys saw Brian Kelly, the LSU head coach, and they beat Florida this past weekend.

And the first question was, I think, about the lack of the downfield passing game.

And he just lost his damn mind.

And he's like, what do you people want?

And that's

sort of how I feel about week two, where if you're Kevin Petulo, for example, you guys beat the Cowboys and then you beat, you know, the Chiefs in two weeks.

And it's like, well, Kevin, you're not throwing the ball downfield.

And it's like, who gives a shit?

And the Falcons, you're one and one, and Drake London's not getting the ball.

And it's like, B.

John Robinson had a hundred-yard receiving game.

Like, damn it.

Like, don't you think that was pretty cool?

And so, I think that's what is tough for me about this time of year.

And when I actually tend to side with some of the coaches on this a little bit,

yeah, yeah.

The game script will dictate Drake London being force-fed the ball down soon, and it will happen.

So, just

hanging there.

I'm just saying, there's people asking questions.

Clearly, you have Drake London on your fantasy team.

There are civilians that are upset.

Just trade billions

at 50 cents on the dollar.

Wait, you you traded for Kenneth Walker?

It's pretty good, right?

Straight up.

Yeah, not bad.

I don't know, man.

I mean, he just, he's playing like 35% of the snaps.

40% of the snaps are Seattle.

It's a one-running back league, and my only other running back was Trayvion Henderson.

And I have Malik Neighborhood.

We're too deep in the weeds on this.

Good at receiver.

All right, good, great.

Happy to hear it.

All right, last game in the quad box, and we've already talked about that a little bit

due in part to all these quarterback injuries.

Not a lot of of places to go at this point.

So why don't I go with a division favorite who's a wounded animal at 0-2,

needs a W, playing a division game, Texans, Jaguars.

You know, a couple things, a couple things about the Jags.

And I want to get into the Travis Hunter thing,

Connor.

I know you were checking out some all 22.

And

we have Brian Baldinger

joining us a little bit later today.

And we're going to ask him about

Hunter as well.

But that obviously hasn't gone off yet.

Brian Thomas Jr., I want to know, like, is he hurt or like, why is this guy not looking like a number one wide receiver?

Because he looked like an absolute stud as a rookie so far this year.

Again, just two games, hasn't looked that way.

And then you have Trevor Lawrence, who still seems to be the same guy.

And I think it's settling into this place now.

It's not just two weeks of Trevor Lawrence.

It's like five years of this where it's like, oh, okay, he's going to, they can move the ball.

He's a great physical talent, but he just has a propensity for throwing the ball up for grabs, making killer turnovers, turnovers in the red zone, stuff like that.

They just have to live with.

I feel like the Houston Texans in this spot, D'Amiko Ryans, I could see them really stepping up defensively and carrying the day.

And they might have to, Mark, because as we know, we talked about a Monday night, this offense doesn't seem like it's not only playing well, but maybe not close to playing well.

So this might be a game where you have to say, hey, Houston defense, find a way here and force the Jaguars into the type of mistakes that they're known for.

Yeah, well, you've got a rookie play caller in Nick Cayley.

They have, they rank last.

in the league in points per game, and that's with the Cleveland Browns existing.

But they've also had the fewest plays.

So I think it's like not, it's not been a good environment to kind of stretch your legs.

And

he has been injured, I believe.

I mean, I think there was an injury there.

And so you got to get him healthy.

But Liam Cohen did say of Thomas Lake, and he made a very pointed remark, I thought, Connor, in the press conference after the game where these questions were asked.

It's like, oh, no, like he's the centerpiece of our passing attack.

And he kind of put it on Trevor Lawrence.

And I think that's fair.

I think he's pressing Trevor Lawrence hard.

I know there was

the video of him like, you know, on Lawrence on the sideline and Lawrence swats him aside.

That stuff happens.

I'm not worried about that.

But I think that he is verbally out there pressing Lawrence to grow and evolve.

And we have not seen it yet.

And this offense has been a rough watch.

I want to see,

I agree with you.

And I don't want to see Anthony Campanali, who's their defensive coordinator, get after Stroud a little bit too, because I went back and I watched that game.

And it's incredible to me that, you know, the Jaguars have all these athletic rushers, guys you can get after the quarterback.

And you had Stroud against the Bucks by the time he got to the guy who was open, he was on the ground.

But it takes him a while to get there, and it has been taking him a while to get there.

And so, I'm wondering if, even though the Texans clearly have an advantage here, and I think if they just go after Lawrence and force him into those gut check situations, they're probably going to win this game.

But I'd love to see the Jaguars come out with a little teeth on defense, too, and say, hey, we're seeing some stuff on your quarterback, too, that just doesn't look very promising.

And it doesn't look like, you know, hey, there's that guy open over there.

That's your fourth read, but you're still stuck on the first one.

So that to me is kind of something that the game could go in a different direction.

All right.

There you go.

Quad box completed.

Let's take a break and then we'll spin over to the late games on Sunday and see what's cooking over there.

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All right, we are back.

Late window.

All right, so let's start.

I'm going to start just straight up.

There's two 2-0 teams facing off.

So let's start here.

The number 21 Cardinals in our power rankings at the number 11 49ers.

And this is 425 on Fox with Adam Amin and Mark Sanchez.

Brock Purdy, limited practice participant Wednesday.

He could return this week, they say, but it's still unclear.

Okay.

However, we know that Mac Jones played.

I thought he was fine.

I'm watching him.

It was like, okay, this is at least for a backup quarterback.

The offense is still functional.

What else can you ask for?

But to me, this is a good, it's for me, a little bit less about the 49ers, but Mark, more about your Cardinals.

And

here they are now on the road in a big division game.

Let's see.

Let's see what you got in this spot, Kyler Murray and the whole gang.

I agree.

I think week three dishes up contests like this.

We've mentioned a couple teams where it's like, show me once again what you can do because I'm not ready to completely buy in.

And it's not easy to sell the Cardinals to a lot of people.

It feels like,

yes, the Niners are injury depleted.

Yes, you've got a backup quarterback in there.

There's no George Kittle.

It's a young defense.

That said, you have to go on the road into San Francisco.

The Niners certainly looked functional a week ago, so it's not a shattered offense at all.

And this is a good Cardinals defense.

I think it's a good test to go against Shanahan and see how a lot of these added players and drafted players mesh here.

I think on offense, I want to say one thing about the Cardinals.

There's a little bit of a scuttle butt where I think it's fantasy driven and it's reporter driven.

Like Marvin Harrison has not, again, kind of blown up early.

And they're asking him in the locker room at this point, like, are you upset about the fact that you aren't getting enough targets here and there?

And it's like, it's two weeks in.

And Marvin Harrison even said, this is silly.

Like, we're out here to function as a whole.

So to me, I just want to see what happens with that.

I think it's always a development with a Kyler Murray offense where it's like, are people going to start to get a little upset here?

James Conner and Trey Benson are like in a timeshare.

Like, how do you keep everyone

happy and healthy?

And can Kyler Murray go in?

and lead the team and force his will upon the Niners team on the road.

This is a big game for the Cardinals because you'd expect them to go two and one here, and then they always slide late in the season.

So I'm rambling because my radar is up on this team for the Cardinals.

Can I just point this out?

I think Marvin Harrison is smart to not make it a bigger story.

I do too.

But he's also, he should be pissed.

I mean,

this has now been going on.

Last year, they didn't show any chemistry, and now he's been targeted 11 times in the first two weeks.

That's 63rd in football.

Okay, now he's also drawn two PIs that don't count towards that total.

But at the same time, this is a guy that was a fourth overall pick that was specifically brought to the desert, Connor, to be the wide receiver one that Kyler never had.

Why aren't these guys

there?

Should be double-digit targets every single week.

I would expect it for two reasons.

One, because it will make their team better because

he's a great wide receiver, potentially a special one.

And two, when you do have an alpha dog wide receiver and you're low on the targets for a week or two, they will put that in the game plan to ensure that that guy gets his touches and gets his opportunities.

So

I would expect a spike week for this wide receiver.

And if they don't connect, I think it's going to be a very long day for the Cardinals.

I don't know.

I mean, Marvin Harrison Jr.

was targeted more his rookie season than Julio Jones was in the Matt Ryan offense during his rookie season.

I think he's gotten plenty of opportunity.

I think think it was pretty widely agreed, though, that they didn't go off like gangbusters in year one together.

Not necessarily about the targets in year one, but just in terms of chemistry and their ability, like people weren't talking about, wow, what a great duo those two were in year one.

But like to me, when has the solution ever been to just pacify a star receiver for the sake of your offense?

Like we're seeing the Jaguars kind of do it, you know, where a lot of the Travis Hunter balls are just shortened at the line of scrimmage.

And is that really helping the development of the offense?

I don't know.

You know, maybe someone else can answer that question.

But I think Marvin Harrison, he's this big-bodied wide receiver that can do damage downfield.

And so, yeah, you want him there for that element and to stretch the field.

But like you also want him to set up situations where way easier completions for other receivers are open.

And it's like the Eagles where, okay, tough shit.

If you're not getting the balls earlier in the season, you're winning games and your quarterback is getting easier completions.

Like that's the whole point of this anyway.

And just to have a show piece that's like, oh, cool.

Look at the fact that we threw to Marvin Harrison's son 16 times.

Like that's awesome.

It doesn't make any sense if he's not open.

I get it.

And I'm not saying it's actually good for the offense for that to happen, but I feel like it does happen when there are certain players.

Now, maybe Harrison is being a

good soldier in public and privately, it's a little bit of a different conversation.

But also like using the Eagles as the example, like the reason why that passing game and those receivers sometimes fade out is because they have like an almost historically great offensive line running game combination.

And Jalen Hurts is a brilliant running quarterback.

Like I know Kyler has the ability to be that, a great running quarterback, but I just feel like this, the best version of this team does have that balance with the WR1.

That's all.

They did last year when I was high on them.

There were a couple games where you saw that physicality on offense, and it was led by James Conner, but they hammered people with balance.

My only thing about Marvin Harrison, it's like, it's the name.

It's the fact that we thought he'd be, you know, living in Canton, Ohio from rookie season on.

And he actually, numbers-wise, if you took his name off it, he had pretty good numbers last year.

It's just that it's Marvin Harrison Jr.

And his draft status also.

I mean, a top five pick of wireless.

Absolutely.

I mean, it's, it's, you know, other, other highly drafted players,

high pedigree, get to slow starts, and they're not talked about the same way.

But that's, that's what comes with being

the son of a Hall of Famer.

How about Josh Sweat and Callias Campbell, who have really gotten after it this season, going up against the San Francisco offensive line that's done a great job so far past blocking?

And that, I guess, Connor, that was if you want to see sustained good play from Mac Jones or Brock Purdy for that matter, if we see him, keeping that up and keeping those two guys out of the backfield will help quite a bit.

Jonathan Gannon was hired to be the head coach for this team to find a way to stop Kyle Shanahan and find a way to stop Sean McVay.

And both them and the Seahawks pivoted instead of trying to find offensive coaches that were smart enough to keep pace with them to find the best defensive coaches that could somehow slow them down.

You've had three years, now you've had a free agency specifically devoted to and a draft to building a defense that can shut down this offense in particular.

So let's see what happens, right?

This is the time we take the test.

All right.

Let's swing over to the AFC West, where the number 13 Denver Broncos at 1-1 coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Colts, where a leverage penalty on a field goal gave Indianapolis second life, and they drill it to drop the Broncos to 1-1.

Now they travel to play the Chargers.

405 on CBS, Harlan and Green.

Mark, this is like...

I feel like I don't want to see the Chargers right now, even though Khalil Mack is out of this game, but not out for the year.

They got good news on that.

He's just going to miss several weeks with that dislocated elbow.

The Chargers just feel like they're playing with a lot of confidence right now.

And not that SoFi Stadium is any great home field advantage for this organization.

There's going to be a lot, a lot, a lot of Denver fans in that building.

Still, I feel good about the Chargers and where they are at a headspace through two weeks.

I love the way they're built.

I think one of the bigger developments is to lose Rashawn Slater and have Joe Alt come over to the other side of the line and play as well as he's played.

That is a huge piece of why Justin Herbert looks like the Justin Herbert we've waited for.

This is a dominant offensive line.

They're huge all over the place.

And I just see them as a team that very quickly formed an identity.

They felt their identity for as long as we've done podcasting together has been: what are they going to do in the final couple of minutes to crumble?

What dramatic missed kick or boink off the

like some sort of doinkt kick or like someone fumbles left and right.

Like it's the Chargers have been the snake-bitten team, and they don't feel that way under Harbaugh at all and Greg Roman.

And I think they're a more creative offense than we thought they'd be.

And you're facing a Broncos team that we just said this defense will do everything and guide them.

And they were just absolutely shredded by a Shane Seichen-led Daniel Jones team.

So I'm more like, who are the Broncos right now, Connor?

Yeah, you put it out there, Mark, on the Monday pod, and I thought that that was super smart.

You said Jesse Minter is going to be a head coach next year, and I totally agree with that.

The way that they're moving Derwin James around and the way that he's just been able to completely upend plays before they started, it's not just the Chiefs.

It's been the entirety of the season so far that he's kind of had his paws all over.

And even with Khalil Mack out, and they signed a couple edge rushers, I think, to their practice school.

Well, in the fairs.

Yeah.

They're going to try to rotate some of those guys through and see if anything sticks.

But even if it doesn't, I think the strength of this is it's almost a back-to-front defense that, like the Vikings last year, is winning the game and winning the play before the ball is even snapped.

And so this is such a huge test for Bo Nix, who, again, has been fine and has thrown a lot of touchdowns, but I think has looked more uncomfortable than he has over the average of last season.

Yeah, that's another, like, yeah, their defense obviously took a step back in week two.

I expected them to play a lot better, but, and, you know, Nick's played a lot better in week two than he did week one, but that really bad interception.

And I just wonder

with Peyton,

how many those turnovers before he really puts the handcuffs on

the quarterback, which would not be part of the plan.

Like when famously our buddy Jimmy Palmer met

Peyton on the practice field.

He said, I love this team.

The idea was that Nick's was going to take the next step as a quarterback.

Is he?

Is he going to take the next step?

We shall see.

One thing I wondered is:

is this the big Omarion Hampton breakout game, especially with the past?

The Broncos linebackers seem to have struggled covering backs out of the backfield a little bit this year or just kind of giving up some explosives to backs this year.

So who knows?

I don't know.

I hope so.

All right.

How about this?

How about this one, Connor?

The number 15 Dallas Cowboys

coming off that shootout win over the Giants at home.

Now go to Soldier Field.

Number 25 Bears, wounded animal game.

The Bears to start 0-3,

even as football fans, we've become accustomed to the Bears getting overhyped and the idea of like this being the year.

For this season also to turn into something like an 0-3 start would be a big, big setback.

So against a Cowboys team that obviously the defense through two weeks, especially coming off the Giants game, that you could score on this team.

Okay.

And the Bears made some gains, at least on the offensive side of the ball in week two.

You got to win this game.

Ben Johnson, you got to find a way for your team to win this game.

But Dak Prescott's playing like an MVP right now, and the Bears can't cover anybody.

So I don't feel great about it.

And this is as much on Ben Johnson as I think it is on Caleb Williams because what the stat that I saw the other day that blew my mind was it's something like on the first drive of a game, the Bears are like one of the best offensive teams in the NFL.

And then the remaining, whatever it is, eight or nine are one of the worst.

And so what's the difference?

The first drive is the one where every single play is planned out in advance and scripted and rehearsed and given to him by the head coach.

And you know exactly where you're going to be.

You know exactly where the ball is going to go.

You have a feel for it.

And then once that falls off a cliff, a lot of that's where the Caleb takes over, right?

And now I'm going to start scrambling.

Now I'm going to start throwing the ball into double coverage.

Now I'm going to put our team into bad situations.

Now I'm going to start rolling my eyes, putting my head up more shoulders.

And so all that kind of stuff where I think he needs a big game as much as Ben does.

Ben doesn't care.

I mean, not that Ben doesn't care.

Ben got a really big long contract that's going to outlast the quarterback.

The GM got a contract that's going to get him to the next quarterback.

I think the quarterback's got to make sure that he's the next quarterback.

I'd love to see guys like Luther Burden and Colston Loveland be more involved in this offense creatively.

Like, it seems like these were guys we were thinking, you draft them in fantasy, they're going to be a weapons-rich attack, and they got Ben Johnson, and we're going to get a growth from Caleb Williams.

It's not happening.

I mean, I also, for me, like coming out of that last week with the Bears, when you give up 52 points,

what happens in the locker room?

You also lose Jalen Johnson.

Like, I just wonder,

I read an interesting

opener on The Athletic that said, it just shouldn't feel this heavy and dark in September.

And it was like a month ago.

We're talking about the Bears as like a fringe playoff team because of all these new factors and the rebuilt line.

What they have effectively done two weeks in a row is birth the NFC player of the week with J.J.

McCarthy and then Jared Goff.

Like, that's what they've done most effectively.

So now you got Dak Prescott coming your way.

So you got to put the clamps down on that.

Yeah,

this was not the plan.

This was not the idea because the offense has been after terrible week one, at least after the first half against the Vikings.

Week two, it's stabilized a little bit and you saw some things in Roman Dunes.

I like that.

I like what we're seeing there.

And the quarterback was a little bit better, but the defense, if the defense is going to be this bad,

they just, they can't, like, that could throw for 400 yards if this is how they covered deep cover teams.

Like, they can't cover anybody.

And now they don't have Jalen Johnson on top of it.

So

it's just, it's getting worse.

And I'm rooting for the Bears, but I don't feel great about it.

That's all.

Anything else on this game, boys?

Are we concerned at all that the fact that the person who's calling the game is the minority owner of the team who's playing the Bears the following week?

Or no?

All right.

So we

purposely on Wednesday

tabled this, Connor.

So we're gonna move out of the way and we're gonna give you the floor because we know your passion on this.

Take it away.

Okay.

I wrote about 5,000 words about this on SI.com this week.

Check it out.

Go read about it there.

And the feedback that I've gotten mostly from people is like, who cares?

You suck.

And let me tell you why I care and why this is important.

And why you don't suck.

Well,

that's up to everybody.

But I talked to a bunch of teams about this, right?

And posing the question is like, do you give a shit about this?

And while the responses ran the gamut,

there are some teams that were like, no, not really.

Some teams that were like, well, we thought it might be a big deal, but now we actually don't think it's going to be a big deal because Fox does all their stuff over Zoom.

And really, how intimate can you get over Zoom?

And then there are some teams, and I don't want to over

important

those teams, but some of those teams are like,

yeah, this is a big deal.

Like, you know, we're playing this guy and he's zooming with our players.

And it's interesting.

I talked to the sense amongst some of the coaches that I talked to is like, okay, and Ben Johnson actually said it out loud: is, you know, okay, I'm going to put my least interesting guys out there.

We're just going to go completely coach speak when we talk to the broadcasting crew.

Then, who does that service at all?

Who does that help?

And in an effort to get really dark with this, I transcribed nearly all of Tom Brady's first two broadcasts.

Okay.

And I went through everything that he had said in these first two games.

And this is going to be a fucking maniac and I love you, Connor Ork.

This is going to sound like, this is going to sound,

this is going to sound like I'm making fun of him, but I'm not.

Go.

Okay.

Nothing that he got.

from those conversations added anything to the broadcast that he wouldn't have been able to see himself and say by just with authority saying, This is something that I saw on film.

And so, you know, there were some magical moments in these broadcasts, and I'm not kidding, where Tom Brady would say, look at how long it's taking Russell Wilson to call that play.

I bet they're not running this because this is a shorter play call.

Holy shit, what an amazing thing to notice, right?

Or in the Commander's game later on, right?

They call a timeout with 29 seconds before the half, and he goes, I always like to hold on to my last timeout because you actually want to save it just for the field goal.

And they ended up blowing it and not kicking the field goal.

Tom Brady does not need to be in interviews with these players to be able to do this.

And so the flip side of it is, you know, he talked to Jaden Daniels before the Commanders game on Zoom.

And Jaden Daniels is telling him, you know, I had some problems with my mid-range passing game this year.

And here's how I'm going to read the defenders.

Oh, great.

You don't think Patrick Graham just got that pipelined into his cell phone?

You know, like that just doesn't come up organically organically in a conversation.

Or when he's doing the Chiefs game and Kevin Burkhart goes, hey, it's fourth and one.

Do you like this call?

And Tom Brady's like, I don't know, maybe, maybe not.

Well, yeah, you're not saying it because you play in the Chiefs twice this year.

And so, again, it's like...

Just either pick one lane.

And I know that's a tired take because I'm asking a guy to give up $40 million a year.

And who's going to do that?

No one's going to do it.

But at least just yank them out of these Zoom interviews so that the team stop freaking out and it doesn't keep impacting like Kevin Burkhart and Aaron Andrews and Tom Rinaldi, who are probably getting worse answers and having to work harder at doing their own jobs that they're already very good at.

Like just the common sense solution here is to pull his ass out of the Zoom interviews.

He probably doesn't want to do them either, unless he wants to do them.

And then we have to ask the question, why do you want to do them so badly?

The end.

I'm sorry.

This is all.

Good job.

I love it.

This is all the fault of Tom Brady for getting snookered into that crypto investment where he lost $30 million.

It all goes back to crypto.

I'm going to red string this bitch.

I think it boils down to who he speaks to because you're right.

And I read your piece, Connor, and

it was detailed and it made me think a little differently about things.

I think one problem is that if it comes, the onus is on the teams to decide what information they're going to give.

Like Bruce Arians was on McAfee and he was great.

He basically talked about the fact that, like, look, these meetings are bullshit.

He's like, I've never given anyone anything good in these meetings.

They're a formality.

They're a get to know you.

It's a good thing.

I would challenge that from Bruce, by the way, who I think is trying to sound real cool to stay on TV, but go ahead.

That's fine, but I do think that the onus, though, is if you don't want to give anyone anything, that's okay.

But if you do, like, his presence there confuses things because don't tell me that, and we love Burkhart, but like the rest of the crew and the Fox people in there are not going to share information with their broadcast partner to make that the best.

If you're someone like Jason Light and you don't want your Super Bowl, former Super Bowl winning quarterback to be part of an interview when you're racing towards the playoffs,

it's hard for people to say no to Tom Brady.

I think it's just hard because he's Tom Brady.

It's not someone else.

It's like it's hard to say no to Tom Brady and it's the teams that have to try to shield information or not have the conversation they might have if he weren't there.

Let's give the final word to Ben Johnson on the Brady situation, who,

you know, is connected to this by week for virtue.

What?

Like I said, I'm really not worried about it.

I mean, we change week to week in terms of what we do.

Schematically, he's going to be able to turn on the tape and see what everyone else in the world is seeing right now.

Personnel-wise, really the same thing.

It's not like I'm going to sit down with him and tell, hey, don't do this to Caleb Williams or you might get it.

Like, I'm not going to, there's not going to be any trade secrets that are going to be exchanged, but

I just, I really don't think it's that big of a deal, to be honest with you.

All right.

Put a bow on it, Connor.

I think that the funny thing.

Fighting the fight, Connor.

The funniest thing to do and the thing that the Bears should do is, and I know that they did Zoom with Tom Brady this week.

And I mean, I think everybody's just going to continue to do it.

But you put like Scott Daly, your long snapper, and be like, okay, he's the one that's going to be available.

And he's going to talk for 45 minutes about long snapping.

And that's what the broadcast crew is going to get every single week until you take him off these calls.

All right, let's

take a break.

And when we get back, Baldy.

Baldy, Baldy, Baldy time.

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All right, now it's time.

We're joined by Odyssey NFL insider Brian Baldinger.

Baldy, host of the Best Football Show podcast.

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What's up, Baldi?

Well, it's, you know, we start week three here tonight.

I mean, we're all in our schedule.

We're all in our routines.

And, you know, these days are just cruising.

So

it's a perfect, I'm getting ready to

call the Rams and Eagles on Sunday.

Should be, you know, a hearty rematch from a year ago in the playoffs.

So,

and it's sunny outside.

So it's great.

It's great to be alive here in South Jersey.

But you go outside?

again I just feel like you're in this room and

the only you maybe see like a custodian here and there but I just feel like you're just in this big empty building

custodians by name at night I do I have a good good relationship with all of them any goodwill hunting situation going on any geniuses on the chalkboard like drawing up the next great like uh kyle shanahan type offense

They've got a few in here.

They've got a few that are pretty, you know, they're, you know, but they're AI people.

You you know, they got AI doing all the work for them.

I don't know if they know what they're looking at, but they can give you some information, though.

Don't get us started on that, Baldy.

All right, let's dig in.

Let's dig in.

Let's start with a figure of intrigue, obviously, entering the season.

Travis Hunter, the two-way player for the Jaguars.

We got Texans at Jaguars,

1 p.m.

Eastern on CBS.

And, you know, I think one of the early storylines, Baldy, is that Hunter has not popped, at least to the layman.

How about to the Baldy?

I would agree.

You know, I mean, every single, I mean, I think he has like nine catches or something, but, you know, none of them have been big.

They've all been pretty much the same.

I mean, they're just like these little bubble screens and, you know, just getting the ball in his hands and see if he can bust one, and he hasn't been able to do it.

It's been pretty pedestrian on offense thus far.

Maybe after the week that, you know,

I don't know, some of those receivers had in Jackschool, maybe he'll get a bigger role because it was not good for Brian Thomas or Daomi Brown, as you know.

And then defensively, I mean, he's played actually 50 snaps, close to 50 snaps.

And, you know,

he's got a couple penalties.

He's defended a pass, hadn't done much on that side of the ball, hadn't really challenged any quarterbacks.

Nobody looks like, you know, that they're looking at Patrick Peterson out there right now.

So,

you know, I think that it's, you know, it's, it's a slow build, I would say, at this point for Jacksonville and Jyvis Hunter.

How much of it is,

you know, if you're Liam Cohen, it's a challenge with this type of player to figure out how to almost market him to the fans on both sides of the ball.

But how much of it is coaching and deciding, like, we're going to move him along slowly?

Because I think he's the kind of guy that got drafted high in fantasy because people thought he was going to just blow up, kind of like a Marvin Harrison last year, where there's like this sense of disappointment.

Is it the team?

Is it the player?

Do we just need to be patient?

We're two weeks into the season?

I don't know.

I mean,

you know, he looks to be a gadget player at this point.

I mean, you're not running number one routes the way Brian Thomas has, although he's been off to a real slow start.

But,

you know, you don't see him as a featured guy.

I mean, you just don't see him down the field and, you know, running some of these, you know, routes that you see from, you know, the great ones, you know, whether it's Jamar Chase or Justin or Puka.

I mean, you just don't see that type of routes.

from him.

Now, maybe that's coming, but you don't see that right now.

And then defensively, I mean, he's just, you know, he's just, he looks like he's a rotational corner that we thought he was going to be with a chance to, you know, play a lot more snaps.

I, I saw him try to make a tackle the other day, and, you know, he's getting up kind of slow from the ground.

You know, like, these are things that happen when you go up against, you know, some of these receivers and tight ends that are, you know, that can run you over.

Like, you know, it's, he's not the biggest guy.

And so

you kind of can, I, I, I've always been a little bit concerned about just how he's built for being a two-way player.

Yeah,

when you check out the all-22 in terms of technique, I guess especially on the defensive side of the ball, do you see a guy that looks comfortable, looks like a pro cornerback, or does it feel like at this point this is just an just a supreme athlete that they're kind of trying things out this early in the season?

I don't know.

You look around the league and you look at a guy like Denzel Burke, you know, in Arizona in the week that he just had and you go, man,

I would have taken that guy in the fifth round, you know, and

he looked like he's ready for prime time.

Now it's one game, you know, he stepped in, but

he doesn't look like a guy that's going to just,

you know, lock down the side of the field the way we saw Keyshawn Nixon last Thursday night.

He doesn't look like that type of player right now where he could just lock somebody up.

It just, you know, it's early, but that's not what he looks like right now.

All right, let's move to a different topic, Baldy.

How about

Drake May?

Week one was disappointing for, you know, the whole of the Patriots, the home loss to the Raiders, but against the Dolphins team, which is, I feel like you're getting the Dolphins at the right time.

Maybe the whole season will be the right time for the Dolphins, but May just seemed like a much more comfortable, precise quarterback and exactly the kind of guy that you hope he's going to be if you're a Patriots fan.

What did you see from Drake on the tape?

I saw a big jump from week one, but he was also much better protected.

I thought Will Campbell was outstanding and he saw a bunch of, you know,

highly drafted and highly paid players, you know, whether it was, you know, Bradley Chubb or Chop Robinson.

Like, he saw just about everybody in the rotation over there.

He was fine.

The other rookie inside Wilson, I mean, it's a rookie left side.

And, you know, that's the strength of this Dolphins team.

We know defensively they've got issues on the back end.

You could look at this, you know, at the depth chart and go, they've got issues.

And they do.

But, you know, you thought the front would be, you know, that could win.

And you just didn't see it.

You didn't see it from Zach Seeler.

You didn't see it from Bradley Chubb.

I thought the guys played really well up front.

And,

you know, I thought all three backs, you know, really helped balance things out a little bit.

But Drake stayed in there.

He made, you know,

he's got a very good arm.

He's got, you know, everything that you're looking for.

And the ball came out really well.

You put up 31 points on the road, you know, and that heat down there in Miami.

That's a good afternoon for just about any quarterback.

You are the guru of offensive line play.

Will Campbell has come out of the gate playing really well.

What do you see in his performance so far?

Well, he's very consistent.

He's got good power in the run game, but you always kind of evaluate these guys' pass protection first.

And so you're just looking at a consistency of sets.

You're looking for that.

And then the other thing is you're going up against

arguably better athletes

on every single play, but he's never on the ground.

I like to see my tackles stay on their feet, especially if they're turning the corner and these guys can run with them around the corner.

Like, he's, he stays on his feet.

He's got good balance, he's got good feet.

Uh, there's a reason that that 40-yard dash, it's a little overrated to some degree, but there is a carryover to being able to run with these guys on the backside of cutoffs, you know, to be able to run these guys around the horn so the quarterback can step up and stay attached to guys.

And so he looked like he was having a good time out there.

And he does, like, you know, there's an old thing for these, for tackles.

Joe Thomas told me this years ago.

You know, if you're blocking a combo block with the guard,

if you hit the tackle's hip, you're going to move the body.

But you've got to get low to hit the hip.

And when he hits the hip, he moves people.

So he had a couple good combo blocks with Wilson next to him.

And they kind of, Trayvion and Ramondre, they hit it right behind him.

And it was a good point of entry.

I'm going to go with my best friend Cesar here.

All right, we're here with Baldy.

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All right, Baldy, last one,

the Steelers defense while we're here.

Seems pretty well set up for Drake May to get some momentum because Pittsburgh defense, I mean, back-to-back 30-point games.

And then for me, as a Jets fan who was flying high on week one from the offensive side of things, and then to see what the Bills did to the Jets of week two, it made me even think, are the Steelers even worse on defense than we realized to make the Jets look that good?

What is wrong with this defense, Baldi?

Well, they're getting pushed around.

I mean, number one, just pushed around.

I mean, you know, I'm not sure the Pittsburgh Steelers

or Lowery or some of these guys are out there on the field when you've got YA Black and, you know, some of these guys you've drafted, but they're out there.

They're getting pushed around.

Cam Hayward hasn't made a play yet.

TJ really hasn't made a play.

The thing that was really disturbing, though, is we know that this, to some degree, is a copycat league.

So you watch the Jets' first game, and Garrett Wilson runs a deep crossing route and he scores on, you know, opening touchdown of the year for the Jets.

You know, Justin saw it and laid it out there.

It was perfect.

Well, you know, it's from a double wing formation with cut splits.

And dang, if Seattle didn't run the exact same play and get the exact same result to Torrey Horton.

And you just go, and, you know, and Jalen's turning, Ramsey's turning around going, you know, I thought the same, like they're.

There's some communication breakdown there.

But Seattle saw it.

They put the play in and they scored a touchdown to the rookie, rookie, you know, wide receiver.

That's a little alarming to me that you would think that, okay, everybody runs these speedo routes, two receivers, some combination.

It could be a cross, it could be a post dig.

I mean, there's some combination out of that speedo look.

And

to make that mistake two weeks in a row,

that's a little bit alarming to me.

But

Seattle blocked them up.

I mean, they just,

you know, Robbie Oots, you know, knocked both linebackers down in one play.

It was like bowling for dollars, you know and so uh you know they got pushed around two weeks in a row and that's that's on tape and so

uh i thought that they were going to be just the nasty boys out there and they haven't outside of a couple tackles here and there they haven't played like it they have given up 28 points per game dating back for the last 10 outings so it's not like it just started now um

it's just unusual for all of us because if you can count on anything coming out of the gate on fire right away it's usually pittsburgh's defense and it earns them wins early.

But I'd ask you about TJ Watt because obviously one of the Defensive Player of the Year candidates every year.

He turns 31 next month.

He hasn't had a sack in six games.

Do you see anything different from him or are teams finding a way to solve him differently this year?

I mean, I saw Armand Menmu, you know, line up and go toe-to-toe with him.

He didn't have much trouble.

You know, they chipped him on some plays.

Not all the time.

He was one-on-one with Armand, but that's a rookie out there.

And you would think that, you you know, he'd like some of that rookie meet.

He didn't beat him.

And then, you know, last week, Big Abe is out there in Seattle.

Like,

he didn't look like the defensive player of the year,

you know, in these two games right now.

Like, he just don't, he's just not, I mean, the effort, I think, is still there.

He's still going to make plays on the other side of the field.

He's still going to throw his body in there, but you just don't see the splash plays that we're used to seeing him make.

on any given week.

You know, you just haven't seen that from him.

We've seen it from other guys that play that position.

We've seen it from, you know, Bosa, and we've seen it from Max, and we've seen it, you know, from,

you know, that beast up there in Cleveland.

I mean, we've seen it from the guys that we're usually talking about, but we haven't seen it from TJ yet at all.

TJ Watt turned 30.

It's his age 30 season.

He's dealt with a lot of injuries, not counting him out yet, but definitely a slow start.

And Hayward, we mentioned Hayward, who's been just.

you know, a stalwart for them for years.

He's 36 now.

So you wonder if there's maybe a little age attrition too.

All things that people will be watching very closely.

That was Odyssey NFL Insider Brian Baldinger, host of the best football show podcast.

Insider Calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.

Nationwide is on your side.

Last question, Baldy.

I see them behind you.

I saw them last week.

Are you wearing shoes right now?

Actually, for some unknown reason, I am.

I have no idea.

Like, I always think that every day that you're not wearing shoes is a great day.

And usually I've got my flip-flops on, and I don't know why I've got a pair of Nikes on right now.

I can't explain it at all, but they're on.

A little disappointment.

I've got to correct that.

Yeah.

Yes.

All right, maybe next week.

Baldi, thank you very much, sir.

You got it, guys.

You got it.

There he goes.

Connor's back.

Who knows what he did while he was gone?

Probably something to do with his website that he's launched.

Sure.

If it was a sandwich, I cannot wait to battle on that.

Oh, yeah, the sandwich.

A lot of people are like,

let Connor cook or eat or something.

Make a sandwich.

So on patreon.com slash heed the call, Connor is going to make his favorite sandwich for you,

the hedonist.

That's coming up.

That's content that's coming.

Shirts optional.

Hey,

all right, let's get into the prime time games.

Starting with Sunday Night Football, the

O-2 Chiefs, still hanging in the top 10 of the Heed the Call power rankings, travel to the Metal Lands to face the number 26 Giants, Tarico and Collinsworth, of course, on the

call.

And

I mean, it's got to have it, right?

The Chiefs got to have this game.

It's been a

frustrating start to the season.

People that, because I know I check in on the other power rankings, we're the power rankings of record for a reason, and most people have them out of the top 10.

Us keeping them in the top 10 was a sign that we have faith in this team straighting out.

We know who they played in week one and two we know the circumstances of the travel as well in week one but for all this to make sense for us to keep the the chiefs in the top 10 means that they got to take care of business against the g-men mark i don't care how impressive the g-men were on offense in week two

it's yeah it's one of those where we were trained not to call anything a must-win game because it's immediately laughed at and i'm not going there because even an owen three chiefs team

could I would trust them as much as any O and three team to somehow get their way back into things considering their injuries but like it's going to raise flags all over the place and the discourse is going to be to the point where I think it affects the team I did hear like

Mahomes had an interview where he basically like shot everything down and said like this is an incredible opportunity to tell a story of the of the chiefs season that people are ready to give up on.

Like, I think inside the building, because that matters most, right?

Like, where are they headspace-wise?

And we talked to Pete Sweeney that it probably is affecting them, but they still believe in themselves.

Look, look, you lost to the Chargers in South America, which is a Fugazi way to start your season, by six points.

Very good team.

We were learning the Chargers are a very good team.

They lose to the Eagles by three.

And it was at home, but you lost by three.

You're not getting wiped out by people here.

It doesn't exist.

It's not a matter of time.

I think if you look at these.

elemental chart, it's not real.

It's hard to compete with Matthew McConaughey on a local plan.

Right, we might want to trim that drop down by about five seconds, Justin.

Go ahead, Mark.

You got a good headache.

I just would say that I look at the Om 2 Chiefs, and they are in my top 10 still.

They're an outlier too for the record.

But

Mark's the one who said Fugazi.

So as soon as I hear that word, I have to play that.

No, we got to see.

Fugazi is me attempting to finish a point on the

other side.

No, like, what we're trying to say is.

You guys want to continue to?

McConaughey, I'm trying to help you, Mark.

What we're trying to say here is you could do the Fagazi thing, but let's just take that and cut that in half.

We got like half the movie in the drop right now.

Copy the movie.

Go ahead, Mark.

I just would say last, I would take the O-2 Chiefs over a bunch of 2-0 teams right now.

and see where we are in late December.

They've got problems, but they're not unfixable problems.

Okay, on the other side, Connor, your boy, Russell Wilson, made you look very smart in week two.

He absolutely balled out.

And that's awesome.

And that was a lot of fun to watch.

I believe this is a much different beast, obviously.

Steve Spagnola.

Hear me out from this angle.

Steve Spagnola just got the game tape that he got week two was the Giants, like, this is our version.

This is the best version of who we are.

And now Spaggs actually can study that and be like, okay, let me, what can I do to take away all the things that made Russ thrive in this game?

I would think not to simple, oversimplify it,

but Malik Neighbors just running free and open down the field would probably be a big start of it.

So if they are able, this defense, Kansas City defense, can somehow negate or control neighbors, who might be at a level where that can't happen.

But if they can, then where does Russ go?

And then how does this offense function?

Spags versus revitalize week two Russ is a fun little subplot of this game for me.

It is, but what horrifies me as someone who has picked this Giants upset, I picked it two months ago.

I'm hanging on to it because it's just, you know, something that's kind of near and dear to my heart at this point.

But the Chiefs defense has not forced a single turnover this year.

And I know it's a platitude, but these things come in bunches.

And what if this is the game that the floodgates finally open?

And a lot of the stuff that the Giants didn't get caught on last week against Dallas finally comes through the pipeline here, and the Chiefs just absolutely demolish them.

I don't know, defensively, right?

Yeah.

On the offensive side of the ball, Andrew Thomas,

who's missed the first two weeks, the left tackle of the Giants,

he could make it back in this game, and that would be another lift for the Giants.

But, you know, the other kind of thing that jumps out to me about this matchup, Mark, is

Mahomes leading all quarterbacks in rushing through two weeks is cool because it's like, oh, yeah, he has that element of his game, but it's also to me a little bit of like a red alarm, like Mahomes being like, I have to pull out all the stops.

Let's try to get move the team and move the football.

And there's something, I said it, I think, on Sunday, but this Type Pon Thornton, there's something about, in general, like a tall number 80 wide receiver is out of vogue.

Like the visual of it, like now you're the wide receivers that you like, you want to throw to a one or a three or a five.

Like something about throwing to this big body, like former washout of the Patriots, like number 80 speaks so much to what has gone wrong in terms of the team building of this squad.

And I know injuries are part of it, but Mahomes running and running a lot is both helping them, but also obviously puts them in more danger of him getting hurt.

And if he gets hurt,

the whole thing goes up in flames.

Well, yeah, the bow breaks at that point, or even with a few more injuries in general.

I think the reason I'm willing to just see what happens with the Chiefs is that they've had to go into practice two weeks in a row with major pieces missing.

We don't really know what this team,

it's not what they wanted to be.

There was all this hype and talk about them wanting to reincorporate the deep ball.

I still think this team trades for Tyreek Hill.

I think that's going to happen at some point here.

And

things start to look the way that we wanted.

I'm with you on the Mahomes running thing because he's really added that to his arsenal.

I think over the last two plus years or so, where that became this thing where he's magical on the ground.

And so they need him because their ground game is pretty inept, which I didn't expect to this degree because of the way that they were able to run the ball in recent years without some of those Tyreek Hill offenses.

But him running too much is just like, you know, he's very injury averse.

He doesn't, he gets injured, but then he's healed like two minutes later.

But you take a shot that way when you're running, that could end everything.

And so I'm with you that like less and less, more balance, other people need to step up.

Yeah, all right.

And it might just take a few weeks for that to happen because they just need to get those guys back.

All right, Monday night football.

It's the game of the week, I think.

Detroit Lions, Baltimore Ravens,

two teams that suffered, you know, tough week one losses and then obliterated their week two opponent, get right games for both.

And now they're, now they're squaring off.

I absolutely love this game, Connor.

What about this game?

Are you kind of focused on in terms of how this could swing one way or the other?

I think two things.

How Baltimore secondary is going to match up with all these guys since Isaac Tesla has made like two of the best catches in the NFL in critical moments over the first two games of this season.

And you have Jamison Williams and you have, you know, Amon Ross St.

Brown.

You have all these other targets established.

Baltimore is probably the team that's best suited to put body on body.

And I know that they gave up a lot of points in week one and they didn't look good representatively, but I still think that they can put body on body here.

And I'm just dying to see what they decide to do because this Lions offense presents so many problems just in the passing game alone.

And who do you want to put on who?

Where do you want to put your safeties?

All that kind of stuff.

I'm dying to see that.

And just broader, right?

The week one was such an aberration for both of these teams.

And then week two, they were playing such inferior opponents.

This is where we really see the leveling out, I I think, of both of these teams, which is critical.

I'm willing to think that the Lions simply did not and don't match up well with the Green Bay Packers.

And that had a lot to do with that game.

I will say that when you, like, things were pretty dark and it's like, are the Lions not the Lions anymore?

And then you go drop 52 points on the Bears.

They set a franchise record, 8.8 yards per play in that game.

And if you're John Morton, who's getting talked about for all the wrong reasons a week ago at this time, it kind of just settles everything.

But then you've got this is a rough and tumble opponent, and you're going to have to, I think, win a shootout.

I just feel like this is going to be one of those games where it's like 34 to 34 in the final couple minutes.

And you're going to need to get Jared Goff and the people from last week.

And the good news is we saw it.

So it's not like we're waiting to see it with the Chiefs.

We saw it a week ago.

Yeah,

a shootout involving the Lions.

I feel better about their chances when they're at home and in the dome.

I know we're not at the period where the weather turns because that would be a big difference maker for me.

I don't know what the weather looks like in Baltimore for this weekend.

But

yeah,

if I had to choose, I would say I like the Ravens in that situation.

But at the same time, damn, they look good again.

It was so, I mean, and the Bears, again, were so,

the sample size is so small that it's hard to make too much sense out of anything.

But Amon Ross St.

Brown to single out one player, I don't think that guy gets enough credit for how great he is.

An absolute dominating performance

against,

obviously, overmatched Chicago secondary.

But this guy is like, he's like the one thing that week in and week out, you could bank on that guy delivering a big game and helping keep the offense functional.

So, you know, a game where Goff and Amaras St.

Brown, you know, connect and go off together, and then you have Lamar, who really doesn't, you know,

pick your teammate of Lamar, and they're going to produce.

I'm with you.

I like this as a shootout.

If it gets there,

I see the Ravens maybe forcing a couple of Jared Goff mistakes and being the victor in this game, but sign me up for that.

Isaiah likely also going to play, and that changes Baltimore's offense significantly with a real tight end, too.

They're going to run a lot of different formations there, too.

And Mark Andrews has not been Mark Andrews so far this season.

Yes.

All right.

There you go.

Prime time in the window.

Now, time for the other ones.

These are the games that, the teams that we did not get to yet.

And don't get mad at us because the other ones,

you can move out of the other ones by playing at a higher level or maybe just playing a better opponent.

It's one of those things, Mark.

It's a good barometer for the idea of life.

Sometimes life isn't fair.

And maybe that's the case with your team this week.

Just deal with it.

Right.

We're realists.

We understand that there's unjust and just alike in each of our live-long day.

Very nice.

Very nice.

All right.

Let's get into it.

90 seconds on each game.

Let's start with the number four Packers 2-0 at the number 30 Browns.

0-2.

Mark, I don't know what else needs to be said.

Your favorite team of your youth

and present day against

your pick, your darling, the Packers.

Don't feel too good about this one.

I don't feel good about it.

I mean, I think here's the thing.

It's such one of the sadder elements to the Browns this season is that you have like a historically fierce defense right now.

And in a game like last week against the Ravens, they hung in there for a while, but then it just all crumbles.

You can't do it alone.

And outside of Quinshawn Judkins playing and looking pretty good, which is a nice development for the Browns,

I don't see how they don't at some point put in Dylan Gabriel because it's just a non-functional offense at this point.

And it feels like the goal is to find out what you got.

I do wonder if we'll see a less moving moving around micah parsons and you save the exotic stuff for games that are really going to matter and just let him statically rudge rush off the left or rush off the right and see if he can just create chaos in that way and and you know put some other stuff on tape for this defense and maybe again save micah for when you actually need him Yeah, to Mark's point, the Browns actually have the highest PFF grade for overall defense in the league after two weeks.

And that's with the Ravens doing their Ravens thing where they just piled on at the end of last week.

So maybe, maybe a little bit of a challenge.

But Jordan Love, like healthy Jordan Love

looks so much different than the guy that didn't quite meet expectations last season.

And that's a major part of this early Packers success as well.

He looks like love.

All right, number 18, Cincinnati Bengals at number 17, Minnesota Vikings.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jake Browning versus Carson Wentz.

This is not what we signed up for, Connor.

You know what's cool is I think watching Bill Belichick the last couple weeks has cured me of this fallacy that there are such things as like true genius head coaches.

Like, I think there are good play callers and they're not good play callers.

The people who are sitting here and singing, I can't wait to see what Kevin O'Connell does with Carson Wentz.

It's like probably not a lot because a lot of coaches have not done a lot with Carson Wentz, and this game's going to be like 19 to 16.

And we're all just going to sit there wanting to slam our heads between a phone book.

And so that's my thought on this game, but I could be completely wrong.

You are, there has been a lot of bizarre Carson Wentz dialogue out there.

I've noticed it too.

And it's like, this guy's starting for the sixth team in six years.

There's a reason for that.

I like Jake Browning to some degree.

I kind of feel like we saw it in the past.

Like, you still have all your weapons around you.

Like, are the Bengals cooked?

Yes, but can Jake Browning run an offense?

He's got more experience than a lot of other backups in the league.

And he's kind kind of an aggressive, like you said it, Dan, a gunslinging type QB.

That's true.

Yeah.

The one thing we know about Jake Browning, Mark, is that he's going to be able to get it to Chase and Higgins.

And as long as they can do that, they'll probably keep scoring points.

It's just the turnovers, you know.

Justin, you got something?

Flex announcers.

This is Nancy Romo.

What?

Yeah, that's a tough one.

That's a bad beat.

All right, the number 23 Raiders, one and one at the number nine Commanders.

Jaden Daniels did not practice Wednesday.

I'm not sure what his status is Thursday as we tape this, but it seems to be trending towards him not playing, which would bring Marcus Mariota.

Speaking of quarterbacks on their ninth lives, Marcus Mariota would be on the field in this game.

This is what I want to see in this game, Connor.

How about this?

Color me insane.

How about the Las Vegas Raiders run an offense that runs through this running back that they just invested a number one pick in?

This guy's not even seeing a lot of snaps in week two.

They're giving the ball to his backup in a two-minute drill.

Give the kid the rock and block for him and see what he can do.

Enough.

Geno Smith throwing the ball over the field.

We predicted this before the draft damn.

There was a lot of teams that thought we're going to get heavy, we're going to get big, and we're going to run the ball just like the Philadelphia Eagles, but they didn't have the infrastructure to do it.

And through two weeks, we're seeing some of these running backs struggle to run behind offensive lines that don't give them nearly the advantage that they had in college.

But I am.

How about a formation change?

Let's load this up.

Let's get some tight ends in the mix.

Let's see.

The problem is, he can't give him a proper chance here.

It's the pass blocking.

Like, they have to pull him off the field.

They had to pull him off the field because he can't protect the quarterback.

I will say this, though.

You guys were dead on about the Gino Consigliary in this game, but you know what?

The Mariota Consigliari is here.

This guy's going to run no huddle down the Raiders' throats this weekend.

Just watch.

All right.

I like that.

You're another.

Okay.

Cool.

The number 27, New York Jets, 0-2, travel to Tampa to face the number eight Bucs, 2-0.

Kenny Albert and Vilma.

As if my life couldn't get worse as an NFL fan.

I get Tarad Taylor and Jonathan Vilma.

Cool.

The Bucs offensive line is a little gacked right now.

Cody Mock is out for the season.

Tristan Wurfs is still out the left tackle.

The right tackle is banged up.

So maybe the Jets do have some, obviously, dogs up front.

Maybe they could make life hard.

Also, Baker's banged up, playing on a short week.

I'm talking myself into it now.

And yet, how could any Jet fan have confidence in the offense after the no-show against an admittedly superior Bills team?

I mean, Tyrod Taylor is another backup that you trust to at least keep things to Rod, like keep things functional.

You're the Bucs.

You've gone through this adventure so far on the road.

You come home, you do not lose your home opener to the Jets.

I think suddenly you're going to find out with Aaron Glenn.

With Aaron Glenn, like it's it's getting, you know, Justin, just do what you want.

Do whatever you want.

Aaron Glenn had a famous quote, and it was this one.

We're the freaking New York Jets, so we're built for this shit.

Back to you, Mike.

Nice.

Wow.

Built to lose.

Brought it right back to you.

Bill Toulouse to get crushed in week two.

I just don't know where we go from here.

It's going to be a test off.

All right.

Take it easy.

Two seconds left.

Antoine Winfield is seeing the field better than any safety in football right now.

Very nice.

Number 28, Saints.

Led by their owner.

Now you're going to get Mark.

Ellen Moore.

Now you're late with it.

Ellen Moore.

Trying to start the timer and do the drop at the same time.

It's difficult.

Ellen Moore.

What if we just did Ellen Moore for 90 seconds?

Ellen Moore.

Ellen Moore.

Ellen Moore.

Number 28 Saints 02 at number 14 Seahawks.

I love it.

How about this?

How about that?

I haven't heard any of it yet.

Not that, you know, Darnold was amazing in week two or anything, but like...

I guess you can't just pick up some bum off the street and put him at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.

It might be that Sam Darnold actually, you know, had a, had a role in Minnesota thriving last year, and then he stuck it.

He stuck it to the Steelers in week two.

Let's see if they can build on that against the stinky Saints.

Yeah, the Hive is back.

I don't know.

I think like this Michael Schumann.

I don't know.

I do.

I think the Seahawks defense is going to be a huge factor all year.

Like Byron Murphy is starting to to play

outrageous football.

Like, Leonard Williams, Deron Reed, you can't run on this team, and they're starting to rush the passer better.

So, it's like Mike McDonald's vision is starting to form.

You know, see, you're part of the problem.

I try to tee up a little Sam Darnold juice.

He's like, let me move to the defensive line as quickly as possible.

Whatever, Mark.

Next, Connor, what do you got?

I'll do what I want.

Everyone does what they want with me.

I will say this.

I don't know if it's going to be an unpopular take, but of the five best throws that I've seen so far this season, two of of them have been made by Spencer Rattler, and the Saints are going to lose this game, but he's starting to sneak onto my quad box every week because he makes a fantastic throw.

Wow, I like that.

Someone's sneaking onto your quad box.

Hello, sounds disgusting.

By the way, Darnold is third amongst all quarterbacks.

Put on your socks and tune in your box

pfff has him as the third ranked quarterback and a nfl best 3.3 percent negatively graded throw rate he's got a couple turnovers but he's played very well he might actually be good

jerks

all right

celebrate you got i feel like you you deserve the floor say anything you want right now anything you want talk about anything Robert Redford?

It isn't.

Well, I would ask you each what your favorite.

Justin, have you heard of Robert Redford?

Yeah.

I'm insulted by the question.

I went to film school.

Thank you.

I love this

ongoing tete tet between Graver and Sessler.

What is your favorite Redford movie?

I had a really tough time.

Boiling this down.

I go all the President's Men because it was just done absolutely perfectly, but there's so many other other answers there.

Let's see.

Let's see.

I'm taking a look at it right now.

He did so many films, Mark.

So many.

The natural would be my choice as a baseball fan.

But, you know, he's one of those guys that so many of his best films, I didn't go to film school.

Okay.

So there's a lot of movies that, like, for instance, The Sting.

I never saw The Sting.

Like,

sometimes, and this sucks.

Same thing happens with bands and musicians when they pass away.

I'll revisit their catalog and be like, damn, this person was so talented or this band was so great.

I'm going to do that with Redford, but I'll throw one out there just like as a 90s kid that I just liked it.

And I know you liked it, Mark, because it was just a virtuoso Brad Pitt is hot performance.

A river runs through it.

Great coming of age, 20th century, early 20th century America saga.

It was, I consider it like a prequel to Legends of the Fall because everyone was realizing this guy can act and he's wicked hot.

But that's an example of Redford becoming a very good director.

He directed like nine or ten films, too.

All right, Connor, you want to throw something?

Avengers end game.

He has sort of a cameo.

Guy went to film school.

Indecent proposal.

Come on.

Oh, good answer.

Oh, man.

I have a whole boatload of takes on that film, but I'll save that for maybe the Patreon.

All right.

Demi Moore.

Out of control in that film.

Out of control.

Yes.

Peak.

Peak.

All right.

Blind locks.

Okay.

I want to tell you guys something

before we make our blind lock picks, which means, if you don't know, first, yeah, let's check out the standings because everybody's off to, I'm off to whatever, one and one, but everyone else is 2-0.

So

even with my middling score through two weeks,

7-1.

So, far, so good.

But it also tells me perhaps the heroes need to ramp up the challenge.

So with that said, I call

rule change.

Effective

right now,

right now, effective right now.

The mirror test, which means if you pick a team that goes over six and a half, you have to, not only your team has to win, but they have to cover.

So if it's seven, it's 14.

I'm lowering that.

If you take a team that's five or over, it doubles.

So be careful about the favorites you go hunting after,

lest you

suffer the fate of them not winning by double digits, because then you'll lose, even with a victory.

So with that said, rule change.

It goes from seven points to five points.

And with that,

stick that in your pipe and smoke it all.

Rule change.

You're up first.

Okay.

So.

I could tell that flustered you.

You were like,

I was going to pick a team that was a 6.99.4.

We're not supposed to know.

I don't know.

I don't look these things up.

I know.

I'm saying

you're hunting for that, but now you're like, oh, no.

He changed the rules.

Just when I thought I had all the answers, he changed all the questions.

No.

So this one, again, I alluded to it earlier in the show.

I predicted this as an upset months ago, and I just, I felt something for the first time watching football in probably like a year when I was watching that Giants game in the Cowboys game last week I think I may be a fan of this team and so I am locking the mother giants over the Kansas City Chiefs what a hero Sunday night football it's gonna be a beautiful 68 degrees in East Rutherford it's everyone's gonna be cooking in the parking lot and it's just gonna be this classic New Jersey day to send the Chiefs to ON3 did you say everybody's gonna be cucking in the parking lot?

Maybe.

Last week, everybody was gooning.

Now we're cucking.

By the way,

what was that whole thing?

Does that mean something gross?

Gooning?

Yes.

What?

Gooning?

I got a lot of tweets like, oh, you're

gooning, haha.

And I was like, that means being silly.

But then they're like, no, in England, it doesn't.

And it's like, well, you guys don't.

Yeah, you don't.

No, that's a thing.

You're going to want an urban dictionary, that one, buddy.

I'm good.

You could find out very quickly if you just plugged it into any sort of search engine.

Not interested.

All right.

This is going to be the first win of the season.

We're going to do a lockoff.

I feel, obviously, very strongly about the Chiefs, and I don't know.

I'm guessing this is going to be outside of the mirror zone.

And yet I'm going to do something that no one has done yet, which is I will lean into that and feel confident that this will be a double-digit win for the Chiefs, who just are not going to get beat in the spot.

They need the win.

So Connor and I in a lockoff, Giants, Chiefs, but I respect the hell out of you, Connor, for that pick.

Hell yeah.

Mark.

It's our first lockoff.

It is first lockoff of the season.

I like the rule change because I think it, like, there, it's the six-point rule change.

You kind of effed me up, though, and so I'm looking at the list over here.

Rule change.

I'm taking, um, I'm assuming this is a tight spread, but I'm taking Baltimore over Detroit.

Ah,

Baltimore over Detroit.

Let's guess this line just for fun.

Baltimore, Detroit, Baltimore.

I'm going to say Baltimore.

Would you take Detroit?

I took Baltimore.

Oh, you took Baltimore.

I think they're probably losing, I would guess, one point one and a half.

Yeah, one and a half.

I think they're going to be laying one and a half.

Maybe three.

I'm going to say one and a half.

Baltimore is

laying the wood on that one.

What do you guys think?

I will refrain.

You know.

Dustin.

I'm waiting one and a half, so Connor.

Connor, what do you think on that one?

That's a tight one.

It could be three.

It could be minus three, Baltimore.

God, if that was, maybe even I'd gamble on this game.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, let's take a look.

Let's see what the spreads are.

Let's see if I have to double up my lock first of all.

Well, let me get my lock first.

I'm taking

the Cowboys in Chicago.

Wow.

Interesting.

Nothing.

Not a shoddy guy since the preseason.

You know this.

Give me the Cowboys, baby.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, you were on the Cowboys train.

I picked them for the playoffs, too, but you were early on the shoddy train, I think.

The Bear has fallen to 0-3 at home.

Ooh, on a late game.

That would be tough.

All right, let's see.

Let's check out the spreads on this one.

Let's see.

Okay, the minus six.

There it is.

And look, the rule change, Kansas City minus six, the rule change immediately affects Zuzzer in a big spot because previously I would just had to get a win, but because it moved to minus five, and now that I need the Chiefs to win and win by 10 plus so there we go Baltimore is favorite by four and a half okay

well I got lucky there whoa now Justin get up

don't you need the chiefs to win by 12 doesn't it double from six to twelve oh excuse me I'm sorry about that uh wait am I getting penalized he's like rule change

never mind yes they no you're right it has to I'm trying to think if that actually makes sense logically because if it was five.

It makes sense logically.

If it was minus five,

then.

The bigger the spread, the bigger you get banged.

Yeah, that works.

Yeah, you're right.

Perfect.

Okay,

I got to win by 12.

I still feel good about it, but I'm properly dinged.

An amazing rule change by Tugboat in the biggest of all spots.

And then anywhere, what was the other game?

Cowboys.

Cowboys by one and a half.

Okay.

Good stuff.

All right.

Good, good, good.

All right.

Thank you, everybody, for checking checking

today's show.

Ellen Moore, for checking out today's show.

And remember, we'll be back Sunday recapping all the games we just previewed.

So make sure you're there for that as well.

Patreon.com slash heed the call.

If you haven't subscribed on YouTube, please do it as we continue to make our march as we're heading towards 30K subscribers on the YouTube.

Not bad at all.

All right.

Have a great, safe weekend.

Till next time, do what you must.

Heat the call.

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