Dissecting 3-0 teams: why the Bills, Seahawks, Steelers, Vikings and Chiefs are undefeated
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On this episode of Football 301, Charles McDonald joins me to recap week three. We go over all the 3-0 teams. We start with the Monday night football games, the two-pack that we all watched, maybe a game and a half that we all watched last night. And on top of that, we finish it with some week three subplots. Fun show. See you guys in a sec.

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Hello, welcome to Football 301. We have our week three recap episode of the NFL today, our typical Tuesday fair. No gimmicks needed on this episode, just a straight recap episode.

Why? Is because I got Mr. Straight Shooter himself. I don't know if I've ever called you that before. I've called anyone a straight shooter in my entire life. So maybe when you turn 35 and you start hosting a podcast, you just become extremely boomer. But anyways, to help me recap, week three is Mr. Ford Vertz himself, Charles McDonald. How you doing today, Chuck?

I'm doing good. A lot of people do call me a straight shooter, even though I don't really think of myself as one all the time. But I will take it. It depends what the subject matter is, I guess. Right. You're a straight shooter that can pull off a trick shot. Yeah. I know I can just reference. I just referenced Flashdance before we started recording and you didn't get that. I could reference Buster Scruggs, but you're like Buster Scruggs. And the people that have seen that movie will know what I'm talking about. I'll look it up in like a week or so.

It's a Coen Brothers movie. It's good. I enjoy it. But anyways, like I said, we had a pretty eventful week three. Two Monday night games that actually became interesting to talk about, good and bad ways for a lot of the teams. We had always kicking off with a Thursday fair. We saw some life out of that Jets offense. And then we have our typical Sunday, which had a lot of fun games. I think really every single game.

Morning slate, afternoon slate, night slate, every single thing. So we're going to check in today. We're going to first talk about the Monday night games, and then we're going to go into dissecting the 3-0 teams right now. So we have the Commanders and the Bengals last night, the Jaguars and the Bills. Bills are one of those 3-0 teams, but then we're going to talk about Steelers, the Vikings, the Seahawks, the Chiefs.

All the teams everyone expected to be 3-0 to start this year, but we're going to go one by one. Before we do that, remember, send in your mailbag questions to football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. We'll be starting to look at those questions now that we're really churning this season over. Emails are great. Videos and voice notes are even better. All right. 3-0 teams, Monday Night Football teams. We're going to start off with Monday Night Football, the double package, which I actually, I tweeted this out.

It's good to have two games when one of them is turning into a blowout. One of them is turning into an embarrassing fair. And everyone was complaining. I got two games. I was like, what? Why are we complaining about this? Split screen it. Multi-view it. Yeah, it turned out to be great because the other game picked up the Bengals and the Commanders game, which is the one we were going to start with.

Charles, you watched that game. You saw how it finished up. You saw all the points scored. What are your takeaways about the commanders and the bangles is the commander's offense that good or the bank is the bangles defense that bad vice versa, yada, yada. What are your takeaways from that game that everyone seems to have a big takeaway coming away from that game?

It was funny because my brain was primed to talk Jack's bills at first. When you said you saw the end of the game, I was going to say, no, I did not. Most certainly did not see the end of that. I was teetering whether to start with the schlock or start with the more fun one. Let's start with the more fun one. Let's start with the more fun one. But my consumption of that game ended up being just the score updates that they were showing in the Commander's Bengals game where I looked up and was like, 46 to 10? Holy.

whoa but the the the commanders game i feel like a lot of this and i don't like i don't want to poo on jayden daniels parade because like he did play well yesterday um he did what he was asked to do and i think you should never really like there's no reason to crap on a rookie quarterback for putting up the numbers that he did yesterday what like going for like 21 for 23 um really efficient scored on the ground i thought like even his toughness between the tackles was something that

wasn't really going to translate to the NFL, but last night you showed that it did. And I say all that to say is, God damn, Bengals. Like, you let a rookie quarterback go 21 for 23 on you. Like, that to me is the story of the game. And, you know, Commanders fans, maybe they'll take that as a negative, but I really don't think it is because

You took advantage of a defense you're supposed to take advantage of because the Bengals defense is really, really, really bad right now. And I would just say like for an NFL defense of any caliber, you should never find yourself in a situation where you are getting absolutely cut up by an offense that is, you know, starting a rookie quarterback, you know,

shaky offensive line, the running back situation isn't good. No one really thinks like high of Cliff Kingsbury right now. And you just let them march up and down the field on you. That to me is like, we really got to change some things, whether it's a defensive coordinator change, just bringing in all new personnel. But that is a terrible sign for where the Bengals are and where they're trying to build for the future, I thought.

They never took it to them. You know, like I know the Bengals defense is weak this year and how weak is something to get to in a second. But I thought, you know, you still have Lou Anarumo who can come up some good game plans. It's week three. It's not the middle of the season. So you still kind of have some carryover, which was this summer.

and have some ideas going into it. You got some film already. You got two weeks of film. Kind of felt like, okay, if you have the vet defense coordinator with some vets on the defense, like this is the game, you take it to a rookie quarterback. And they look like they're grasping at straws. Like they couldn't handle tempo. They couldn't handle a lot of things that the commanders kind of built their attack off of. I would say kind of the Daniels thing is, like you said, it's like you want to see it. Like I don't want to ding in and say like, okay, some of the –

It wasn't a lot of extremely hard throws. You know, the goal balls are goal balls. Like, goal balls against pressure, like, that's kind of your day one. Please, you have to complete those. Like, yes. But I don't think we should extrapolate too much from it. But the thing was, it's good to see a rookie quarterback get it done. And he was calm. He was poised. It really stood out to me. And this is anecdotal stuff, but...

I kind of am a believer in this. It was, they showed him on the first third down. It was early in the game. It was the first drive and they showed just him zoomed up and he just looked chill, man. Like he was just, it looked like a practice thing. And I could never have been like that as a QB. So I really admire the guys that are, Oh yeah. It's his third game as a professional quarterback against like, he probably heard about Anna Rumo's defense, maybe a little bit. Oh, they might be funky. And he's just,

And calmly looking around, I was like, oh, this is probably a handoff. And he actually threw the ball. And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. All right. That's just your demeanor, which I had heard anecdotally through people at the combine itself that interviewed him, that he's just a cool customer. And shoot, even Terry McCorn was saying that. I thought the throw that stood out to me and I tweeted this was.

It's something that for Jane Daniels to hit succeed and have a long career He has to throw on the move more when he get he's gonna be guy always that's gonna he's gonna look to work off his launch point He's gonna find number one. If not, he's gonna try and create something in college It was he ran and he is freaking fast and I totally get why why he runs I've been surprised by some of his body control and be able to bounce off some talk tackle some contact bounce stuff and

And he had a throw to Noah Brown that went to the one yard line that I actually, he bails a little bit from a clean pocket, but it's the red zone. I'm on more understandable with those because you have to create a little bit and he throws right away. He looks, his eyes are downfield and he's looking to throw.

That is more positive than I think the go balls. I knew he could throw go balls. So we watch his college highlights. He threw slot fade after slot fade. That throw right there is more positive than any other stuff I thought. So that speaks to me about how his sustainability in the long term. I wasn't overly impressed with a ton of the throws, but he's dropping a couple more and more each week, especially the Giants at the end of the last week. He had one, I think to Noah Brown again, but it was a backside dig.

I was like, again, okay, those are good. But again, having said that,

These defenses. Whoa. Yeah, I don't know which one side I want to start on, but like, okay, the Bengals allowed 6.2 yards per play. The commanders allowed 7.3 yards per play. The Bengals allowed a 56% success rate. The commanders allowed a 58% success rate, which is the second highest the Bengals have ever achieved since 2021. Okay.

These two defenses will have allowed two of the three single highest success rates in a single game this year. The only other one was the Bills last week against the Dolphins. I mean, shoot. And the Bengals only I mean, the Bengals defense barely allowed six explosive plays, only five, which is. That's awful. I know. Every single play. I didn't realize how that sounded as it came out of my mouth.

They allowed .45 EPA per play. So .2 EPA per dropback for a quarterback is MVP level. They allowed .45 EPA per play just overall. Highest by any team in a single game this season. That's...

Yeah, that's where this defense is. That's what this Bengals defense is. They're bad. This is a very bad defense that can't stop the run. It's what they show in the preseason. And the commander's defense isn't that much better, which is also something. The Bengals defense is like you've ever seen some of these defenses where it's just they're relying on like one guy to save them.

And sometimes that guy's like for two years with Chris Jones. Right. Sometimes that guy's Chris Jones. Sometimes that guy's Micah Parsons. Sometimes that guy is Trey Hendrickson. And that's where the, that's where the Bengals are. They're trying to, the whole thing. That's a good point. Trey, can you, can you save us please? Last week against the chiefs, it like almost worked, but this week,

No, just didn't have enough. And I don't think that you should be in a spot where you're saying we don't have enough to slow down the commander's defense. And this is, you know, I don't always find like the team building stuff to be interesting in season, but I think that this is just a direct example

correlation to like you didn't pay Jesse Bates. You've let all of this talent just kind of trickle down and get old or go out the door over the past couple of years. And you tried to replace them with draft picks that hasn't quite turned into anything yet. And this is the situation you find yourself in. And like, if you're, if you're Lou, Adam Rue or, you know, the Bengals coaching staff looking at what, what's the fix? Like what, what can we do schematically to get this moving back in the right direction? And,

Probably nothing. This is just what it is. Yeah. You know, Mount Washington's not walking through that door. You know, I know, you know, a lonely nada. It's not walking through that door. Right. I don't know these guys. Pecco. I'm trying to think of a Bengals. DJ Reader. Gino. Left that door. Gino Atkins. Yeah. That and that's really it is.

This Bengals offense, and I don't think they're all the way there, eye test wise, but statistically and efficiency wise, they're there. This is actually a pretty damn good offensive performance by the Bengals last night, and they never felt like they were in the game. Yes, it ended up being like a one score stuff, but it felt like the commanders controlled that whole game, even if it all wasn't perfect. But I mean, the commanders allowed 13 explosive plays to the Bengals offense last night.

And this is a Bengals offense that had five in the first two weeks. They more than doubled it, and it never felt like they were really in it. That's not good. The Bengals, to me, answered questions. Burrow pushed the ball a couple times. Their run game's hyper-efficient. The pass game can still click, and it just still wasn't there. So they're in a weird spot. The second that game ended, I was like 38-33. Did not feel like that.

And I mean, they were like, it was 38 to 26. That's what's funny. It's a one score game for the fourth quarter. But it just didn't feel that way. I know. It didn't feel like that. And like the Bengals offense, you certainly did enough to win the game. Like you absolutely did enough. Like Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase was coming back. Like I pegged this game for my dynasty team, which I really needed dubbed.

Didn't get a dub this weekend. I scored 160 points and I still lost 0-3. 0-3 facing a traveling knife salesman punishment. But we'll get to that later. Hopefully not, actually. Actually, no. But Jamar Chase, I was like, this is probably the breakout game for him because the commander's defense is so bad. And you got it. And you still lost...

Like, no, there's no 0-2 magic. We make the playoffs, like, maybe the past couple years, 0-2, we're back in it. No, you drop from 0-2 to 0-3 because your defenses deteriorate to a point where they can't even support an offense that scored 33 against the goddamn Commanders. Yeah, I know. It's not a team you want to be saying, I got in a shootout with.

Like that's the thing. Okay. So the commanders ran single high five times last night. Burrow went five for five for 93 yards and two touchdowns. Defenses literally cannot run coverages against this offense. And you, and you're still losing. That's I know. Yeah. I know the offense finally answered some questions for me and Burrow looked better. I'm not saying all the way there, but better. And it's still just like, they leave me wanting more. So this is kind of one of those. There's a couple more. I'm sure we'll get to, but there's these,

This is the week three features from week on week matchups. And I thought that this was kind of kind of one of them. Ravens O'Live is Cowboys D line. That was kind of another one. Yeah, that's it's not even an undercard battle. It's like, yeah, it's a prelim show. It's even before it's the one that's got to win. No, it's the one on YouTube. It's not even on the pay-per-view undercard. Moving on to the other Monday night game, Jaguars and Bills, which you just said last

It was bad on bad. This was just the opposite. This was just the very good versus the walking wounded right now. I would say walking wounded. Thousand-yard stare Jaguars, whatever you want to call them right now, they're not there. That was a team that's checked out in week three, which is unbelievable to say, as this team should be crescendoing in their third year of the regime. They should be adding layers to this offense. I was going to...

use this segment. I was going to kick it over to you. I was going to be very positive about the bills, which I'm going to be in a second, but like shape up Jaguars fire everybody. I usually would never say that, but these coaches don't want to be there, especially on offense. These guys do not want to be there. They're blaming the quarterback. And I know Trevor is not great. He missed that pick or miss that throw and turn into a pick, but he had been good the first two weeks. And they, this, they have yet to build anything around them, anything sustainable, fragile offense, fragile offensive line that busts

All the time. Mitch Morse is a head case. Like as far as kind of like he can get a little splotchy on stuff. Like as far as identifying stuff. Yeah, that's how he looks like in Jacksonville right now. Like just everything is just a domino effect of one guy messing up. Everything else coming undone. This is supposed to be the strength of the team that should be building up and has invested first round picks. Should be having all these auxiliary guys stepping up and like really feeling it. Like, ooh, wow, this is that annoying guy that gets the first downs on third down. They got none of that.

They got none of that. This is such a dead team. I was mad at them this offseason. I came around for about two weeks, and now I'm just even more mad that I let myself come around for two weeks because Brian Thomas looked good. So anyways, how did you think about this game, Charles? I'm just so over the Jaguars. I'm so over talking about them.

They don't care, so watch it out. There's nothing to say about them. Don't get Doug Peterson's press conferences, man. Matt's talked about it, too. That's a head coach that hates his quarterback and hates his team. It's the opposite of leadership. It's just such terrible leadership. He doesn't care at all, so I have nothing to say about the Jaguars. But the Bills. Bills, though. Love the Bills. If you're playing against a team that is zombie-walking –

Zombie walking in week three of a year where they have playoff, you know, aspirations. Not playoff, like, playoff run aspirations. If you play a team that has zombie, is in zombie land like that, and you have Josh Allen, who's probably playing the best, who's been, like, the best quarterback for the first three weeks of the season, you should absolutely steamroll that team. And they did. But, you know, they scored a touchdown with their first five possessions of the game.

That was over by halftime. So no, I mean, I didn't watch the second half of that. That was not worth my time. Yeah. Emery revealed on film probably later this week. But when if you want to say like, oh, the Jaguars can now come up with excuses about how they don't have stuff, you know,

We got Sha Khan okayed a documentary talking about the Jaguars and saying this is the best team that the Jaguars have ever assembled. So how do you think they were feeling about their team in building? This is not just us going, well, what happened here? It's like, no, they were pretty full of themselves. I thought the defense would be able to carry it a little bit when you lose some guys, Tyson Campbell and stuff like that. But man, they were outmatched. It was really bad. Yeah, the Bills.

I mean, the Bills offense is freaking clicking. The run game's great. Shoot, Josh Allen looks like late career Drew Brees accuracy-wise, plus being able to do all the Josh Allen dragon stuff. He's so good right now. He's so good. Unbelievable. We got to remember, Joe Brady has some Sean Payton DNA, and there's some influences in this offense. I can really see it. But...

They stay ahead of the sticks all the time, either run game or the quick game stuff. Then when they get behind the sticks, they have Josh Allen. All right, stop that. Like the run game's exquisite. They use fun personnel groupings. Like they use jumbo. They use different variations of receivers and tight ends. If you notice that...

still haven't been able to separate that bubbles are not Pat drop back passes, but we'll get there. I'm going to just keep tweeting it out every single week. But the, if you watch the bills, they throw a decent amount of bubbles, you know, and why those work so well is you have to honor the run game. So eyes are inside the box, the receivers and something we've talked about are damn good blockers and, and, and they're willing to do all the dirty work and scrap and do all that stuff. And Josh Allen has a rocket and he's accurate. So the ball gets on the receiver real quick.

So that's why if you watch these bills, it's like, wow, we throw all those bubble screens. They go for one yard. This is what it's supposed to look like. This is ideal. You have good blockers and a quarterback that puts it on the money every single time. That's what it looks like. Kirk was throwing some bubble screens in that Chiefs game where it's like Mooney's picking that off the ground. Going backwards, picking off the ground. It's an underage skill. No, it is. You got to put it right on them so they can just keep running.

Keep running. It's the one thing I can say I was better than Russell Wilson at. I can throw a bubble screen better than Russ. There you go. It's the one thing I can say I was better than him at. It was the weirdest kryptonite he had in college. Positive EPA, negative ADOT, my friend. Oh, I was a check down Charlie all the way. It's probably why I like the guys that are opposite of me. The guys that create and throw bombs because they're the opposite of how I played. But...

The Bills recorded a game this year with the highest success rate, and they recorded a game with the second highest EPA per play. Their top 10 are rushing success rate. Their number one passing success rate. Josh Allen, through three weeks, is fourth in dropback success rate among all quarterbacks since 2016. So that's just pure efficiency. And if you look at the quarterbacks that he's grouped with,

2018 Drew Brees, 2019 Dak when he was on fire before he got hurt, and 2023 Tua last year when they had the frickin' nickname offense going on through the first month of the season. He's first in EPA per dropback through three weeks since 2016. He's at .59. Only quarterbacks above .5 are 23 Tua, 18 Mahomes, 19 Mahomes, and 21 Stafford.

He's the MVP through three weeks. I know it's three weeks, but this is sustainable. This is just the crescendo of his mental side catching up with his physical side. It's something that he's shown the last couple of years, his handle on the offense and protections. He's freaking awesome. He's really, really, really playing really well. And this whole offense is playing really well.

Yeah, I don't think there's much left to say about that game. That's for the Jags. The Jags are quitters and the Bills are super good. The Bills look really good and the Jags do not. They look really not good. All right, so that was Monday night doubleheader that we're getting again next week too. Maybe like one and a half.

Yeah, one and a half games. Yeah, one and a quarter. That's all we're getting out of that. One and a quarter. Because even calling the Bills-Jaggers game a full half of good football is even a stretch. It's going to be fun to review the Bills offense and like, that's it. Because that's all I'm going to rewatch on that game. Spencer Brown looking like a goddamn Orlando Pace out there. Oh my God. And that's another thing, though. It's just smart ball. Like, Deion Dawkins is so funny. Watch Deion Dawkins' splits.

So he this is kind of not like coaches really do this anymore. This is so old school teaching like where defenses would be really strict, you know, as a former defensive lineman. I'm in a three tech. I have to be on the outside shoulder of the guard. I'm in a four. I have to be on the inside shoulder of the tackle. So what Dan Dawkins and the Bills offensive lineman do is he'll just wind up like five yards away from the left guard. It looks like the air rate splits and everybody else is tight.

Because the defensive guy goes, well, what do I do? I got to be on his inside shoulder, right? That's what coach said. All right. And it works. Yeah, this is one of the quirks of this offense. But yeah. Because what I'm not about to do is freelance out here. No, you don't be a better. Unless you're a 99 overall and you get paid $25 million, $30 million a year. You're not allowed to do that. That's how it typically goes.

All right. But we are going to take a quick break and we'll come back with some more of the 3-0 teams.

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with being 3-0 so far. Not me. Not you. And that is the Fighting Mike Tomlins, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 3-0. I'll just pick them to win every game from the end of time until it's the playoffs time, you know? Right. Right. That's how they play, like classy teams. Right. Yeah. The 3-0 start is obviously partially due to who they played so far. Like, I think the Falcons...

are probably a better team than they showed week one, but you caught them at a bad time, played the Broncos, played the Chargers. I've said a million times before that Chargers team is still rebuilding. Like this is kind of what happens when, you know, you run into some of these growing pains. Joe Alt has had a great rookie season. TJ Watt, that's different beast than some of what you saw before. He faced TJ Watt and he faced the Chargers injury bug. He got the one-two in one game. Yeah.

Dude, I think that this team is like, they're still doing some of the voodoo magic stuff, but I will say, I think they've just been flat out better than some of the teams, than the teams that they played so far. And the defense is real. Like the defense is absolutely real. Uh,

Like TJ Watt is off to maybe his best start that he's had. He's still doing some like the snap jumping stuff, but whatever. Like you're this far into your career. You're still this good at it. That's fine. And like that gives them a chance to like legitimately close games, which is important because just about every game they play is going to be close because the offense is still a work in progress. Although I thought Justin Fields had his best game of the season on Sunday.

Still a lot of room to improve there. It seems clearly they just want to ride that out for the rest of the season. I just, when I look at this 3-0, when I look at the Steelers 3-0, this is not the same as what the Bills have done to get to 3-0, where they're just absolutely decimating teams, but

You have proof of concept that the defense is real. You have Justin Fields is at least taking over in a way where they have some source of big plays and he was a little more consistent. You know, some of the more on-time standard scheme stuff, passing the ball on Sunday. You know, they're just limited, but they could still finish 10-7 and lose like 35-13 in the wildcard round again. At Kansas City. At Kansas City or at Buffalo, yeah. Yeah.

I I'm enjoying watching the Steelers right now, even if, and I, even the offense is not sexy. There's a lot of mistakes, George Pickens. I'm onto you. Like how,

I'm on to you. There's a lot of weird routes with George Pickens involved, and I'm starting to kind of figure that out. That might be a Pickens thing. But there's going to be frustrating moments with Fields. He is going to be always limited as a passer, and I've grown to accept it as someone that feels a lot as a prospect.

is that long release, that baseball release is going to limit the menu. It's going to limit what you can and cannot get done with them. They're figuring that out. I can tell they're figuring that out and going, okay, out route's good.

inside route, quick time. All right, we'll get a little, okay, we got away with that one. All right, all right, just twice a game. We will just call it on third and long, not short, you know, first and 10. We'll just run the ball again. He stares stuff down a little too long, but the thing is the fourth quarter, he had two throws or the second half. He had two throws back on the same drive. He had three plays. I should say.

He had a throw to Pickens, I believe it was, on a bender. That was great. And it was 1-2-3. His back foot finishes his drop, and he lets that ball go with confidence. Tough throw, wrapping around a second-level defender. Great. Next pass, I think it's like a quick game spacing concept, which you have to kind of go 1-2-3-4-5 on that. And he, you can tell his...

his heart wants to tell him scramble. Cause he starts kind of looking and then you see his brain. Yeah. His brain and training kicks in and he like freezes. Like he gets in kind of like a squat stance. Cause you can see everything freezing out. I'm going like, I should check this down. And then he like throws like a little thing to Najee Harris goes for like three yards.

That's improvement for Justin Fields because even in week one against the Falcons, they were burning clock. His whole sideline is yelling at him to go down and he's trying to make a play. But you can tell they're trying to get through to him. You don't have to be the hero. For once in your life, you don't have to be the best player on the field. You can just be a caretaker that does some stuff every once in a while.

And I think it's finally getting through to him. He, and then he has the last touchdown to Calvin Austin that finishes that drive that he hits a high low hits the high route on a high, uh, over the middle with timing. And, uh,

Those are good. He's not going to be a guy that dices you up and throws it 35 times and is perfect every time, but he can be kind of a variation of a younger Russell Wilson where it's you run the play action. He creates some stuff. He's going to have some frustrating moments, but he creates enough that if you play good D, have a good run game, boom, you're a solid team. I think the offensive line is really coming together. Zach Frazier, I know Fontenot got hurt, but Braxton Jones, Braxton Jones, oh my gosh, Broderick Jones,

Broderick Jones, God, another Georgia offensive lineman, another Georgia player. Braxton Jones is not a Georgia offensive lineman, but I'm just saying all these guys are starting to get mixed up for me. Much better run blocker than pass blocker, which is helping a lot. He's still coming along. He looked okay. But they're figuring out what they want to run. They ran 11 snaps of jumbo personnel last week. They had 16 snaps of pony personnel, which is two –

That's why you saw so much Cordell Patterson. Yeah. And if anyone's wondering why there's so much Cordell Patterson, 16 snaps where they went two running backs. Technically, Cordell's running back now. And he... So they have two of those guys on the field, Najee and Cordell, or Jalen Waddell and Cordell. And on those 16 plays, 133 yards, 8 yards per pop, 44% success rate. This is Artie Smith just...

I don't know why I started calling him Artie, but Artie Smith's like way. Yeah. He'll get Arthur when he's a head coach. When they score 30, I'll call him Arthur. But it's his way of finding a personnel mismatch. I like the run game. The defense is a bunch of ass kickers. Like you can see other offenses respecting Cam Hayward, Keanu Benton and Larry Ogunjobi. Like they're just saying outside.

we'll do everything on the outside. So it's not a great team, but they're a, they're a tough out and they're like in this division, I feel as good as them as a lot of the other teams in a weirdest, in the weirdest way. They're good enough to beat the bad teams, which is a bad team. And now the, guess what? They have a two game lead of the AFC North. The

Tomlin things are happening again. And they play the Colts this week, who actually had a good defensive performance, but I got to review that game. Then they play the Cowboys, so we're going to have the Steelers run game against the Cowboys run defense, which we'll get to in a sec. Then they got the Raiders, and then they got the Jets, so it's kind of a fun little... Dude, this is a... They can...

they have a chance to win any one of those games no they're in all those I would say the toughest mismatch is the Jets with them which is crazy how we've talked about the Cowboys or how we think of the Cowboys too it's like that they match up okay against them one of my best friends from college is a diehard Steelers fan and he will just text me during the season he was like I listen to you guys and I

Thank you guys. I'll do good work. But I hear you guys talking about how crap my team is to win 10 games every year. Like, look, I'm done trying to. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. This is just trying to explain the invisible hand in econ. Shout out our friend Nick. He'll get that joke. But moving on to another.

I would say totally surprising 3-0 team, but maybe given their schedule, it's a little surprising. That is the Vikings, who I have really enjoyed watching, but as I'm sure everyone could guess, but not because of my past. I disowned the Vikings in 2005. So that's why everyone's going like, oh, of course, Tice likes the Vikings. It's like, I disowned that team so long ago. So I'm so neutral on them. But anyways, Charles, watching the Vikings, watching them really take it to the Texans this weekend. How are you feeling about them at 3-0?

Oh, if you're a Vikings fan, this is like best case scenario. All things through and through. Because you get to sell yourself on the now and the future. Like you saw just enough J.J. McCarthy in the preseason to say, oh, I got something there. You're seeing things from Sam Darnold now. They're saying, hey, maybe we can make the playoffs. But the thing that's the driving force to me is, dude, this defense is playing out of its damn mind right now. Because back-to-back weeks...

Like what you said, who you're beating is important. You shut down, for the most part, 49ers offense and then absolutely just blank the Texans, you know, 34 to 7. And that is like that's a lot different than what the Steelers doing where they're playing, you know, Justin Herbert and broken Chargers offense, you

and you get Bo Nix the week before, these are two of what's supposed to be the best offenses in the league, and you have absolutely throttled them to the point where Brock Purdy is looking at Brian Flores and saying, wow, that was amazing. I've never really seen something like that before. So that would be the part that really gets me excited. The fact that you can get these games at home is whatever. I don't think that's as big as a deal. I've seen some people say that. They're getting these guys at home, so maybe that's a letdown. It don't even top me.

I was like, this is the NFL. This isn't going to like, oh, we're playing in the swamp or we're playing at Death Valley. I can't hear my coach on the sideline. These are freaking professionals, man. It does help, but it's not how it used to be. It's not 34-7 help, you know? No, no, no. That to me is exciting, like the defense performance. Because honestly, like the Vikings defense, I don't know if I'm just like off on this. This is a unit where I look at,

the pieces. I'm like, eh, this is not like blowing me away, but the performance is blowing me away on the field. I mean, anytime you can hold that Texans offense and what they've accomplished so far this year to seven points, that to me, it's like championship level defense. And that's, that's a scary thing to feel if you're a Vikings fans expectations. Cause yeah,

That is not, they're not comfortable with that. Cause that means a field goal is going on either side of the upright. Uh, the, something that really stuck out with me in that 49ers game. And I mentioned this was, uh, on our previous show was, uh,

a lot of those third downs when Flores is cooking and throwing his stuff at you is a lot of these defenders are returning guys there. It's not their first year in the system. Even their quote unquote new faces is like Van Ginkle who has played in this defense before in his previous stop. So that really helps where now they can add these complexities and these layers or, or,

really perceived complexities. Like, it just looks complex, but like, when you really break it down, it's like they're running three things, but they get to it in so many different ways. And as a quarterback, I'm saying this now as I can review it and rewind it 15 times. As a quarterback, it would suck if it has offensive line, it would stink. This is not what you want to go against. But the defense, yeah, it's going to...

always be an equalizer. You can run on it. Don't get me wrong, but you have to stay in a good game script. You can't go down two scores. You can't have Joe mixing out. You can't be giving touches to Cam Akers, who's...

slow and blind at this point in time. Those are wasted reps against this type of defense. You always have to stay ahead of the sticks. I thought the Texans could maybe do that passing game-wise, but the Vikings had good answers there. Even one of my favorite throws CJ Stroud had, because he had some doozies, it's just that all of them got called back, is he hits one on third down,

He's on this look. The Vikings are they call it four week in protection terms. It's four away from the slide. It's to the running back side. If you're in a three by one formation, three receivers, one side, one receiver, the other side. It's a protection breaker. Of course, Flores has it.

So this was a great I know what you know what I know what you know what I know moment. So Stroud signals a tank down. Hey, if these two come run this route, he gives like the little signal for the glance route or whatever they have. Harrison Smith is down about the blitz and he kind of does a little signal to his guys.

The Vikings look like they're bringing the four-week pressure. One of the guys drops to where that route is going to be. The glance is like an extended slant route. Drops right into it. And the corner plays inside to jump it. So the Texans...

Had the counter to Stroud's counter. And then Stroud just backdoors the throw. He third windows the glance throw behind two blitzers, which was just insane. That's like a throw. I'm going to keep her my like retweeting every once in a while, because I don't think people understand how insane that throw is. But it was Stroud beating Stroud.

The answer to beat his answer, which is that's how he is as a player. But that's what this Vikings defense does. They already have countermeasures to your countermeasure. Switching over to the Vikings offense, even without Sam Darnold and some of his high throws is this run game is so freaking good.

It's a really good game a really sound plan Aaron Jones is explosive But I've actually maybe underrated even Aaron Jones's vision in the past and you get to see it really highlight in this offense They do a lot of toss plays to him like the Packers used to he's the best on those because He can wind stuff back and cut back on stuff because he's so fast and his vision is so good. So

And that's what they just kept taking advantage. And they're doing that every week. And now they're adding kind of even different runs that they can get to. I have some other stuff I want to talk about with the Texas defense. But when you're watching the Vikings offense, anything else stand out to you? It's really, it's mostly just Aaron Jones. Because to me, it's like a continuation of the theme where

maybe maybe we were a little off on like when you should just dead a running back and cut them loose forever because you've got guys who are still playing well in like their late 20s and early 30s um even derrick henry had a pretty good game this weekend no christian mcafree news hurts this rant a little bit but b john b john's playing well um saquon saquon josh jacobs josh jacobs like hey

The talent hasn't completely died from these guys. Second contract running backs and second contract linebackers. It's a little money ball right now. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to throw that out there. Sam, and I think that ultimately this is the kind of game that Vikings would prefer to play, all things considered. Sam doesn't have to do all that much.

You still get four passing touchdowns, but six yards an attempt. So, you know, you're not really risking all that much. You can run the ball. And then on the other side, like you're just killing them on defense. You're making life hard for some of the best quarterbacks that we've seen this season. So I'm really finding myself trying not to get too hard.

I was curious which heart you're going to refer to here. Trying not to get ahead of myself is what I meant to say. Maybe the former goes too because the defense, it's exciting. It's really exciting. I was wondering what that thud was. Dude, dude.

Okay, Vikings defense, Super Bowl caliber. That's what I'm trying to say at the end of this. That's what I'm trying to say throughout this. It all comes down to game plans once you hit the playoffs. And we've seen Flores can do this. So, okay. I like that. I'm with it. And then this is a Super Bowl caliber run game. I'm not going to say anything big about Sam Darnold yet. I still want to see some more stuff. Yeah, do it again, Sam. That's all I'm doing. Just keep doing it. Just do it again. Do it again. Because he's not getting punished yet.

too badly for his stuff. A lot of bounces are going his way right now. He still is playing what he has to do, though. The touchdown to Jefferson in the red zone, he's extending the play, but then he's executing the great designs by O'Connell. O'Connell's red zone stuff is some of the best in the league. It's nothing revolutionary, but he just knows the right plays to call at the right time. I know that's like, oh, wow, great analysis, Nate, but he does. The touchdown to Aaron Jones in the red zone,

There's this great design where it's just a mesh concept, which is two crossers. But what they do is they break the hole really quick. Justin Jefferson's in the backfield, which defenses are going to go, like, oh, freak out about that. Aaron Jones is one of the receivers lined outside. The Texans actually do an okay job of sorting it out. Like 10 of the guys get aligned correctly. But when you go quick, all it takes is one guy to mess up. And that's what happens there. Henry Toto. Yeah.

You have a spotlight on you every single play, and that's what the Vikings did every play. The magnifying glass. I mean, dude, they attack so much of the middle. I had a stat on this. Okay. The Texans have allowed 0.42 EPA per drop back on throws between the numbers. Fourth worst in the NFL. They've allowed 10 yards per pass attempt.

on throws over the middle on 43 attempts, 430 yards on 43 pass attempts on throws over the middle. And that's a lot because of the linebacker stuff. That's why they won't get into base defense. They stay in nickel. The Vikings had 19 snaps of 12 personnel trying to get them into base. Texans went, nope, we're matching a nickel.

Vikings said, okay, we'll average six yards per play. 50% success rate. Done. They matched one snap with base. One snap. And it's hilarious which snap it was. So the Vikings trout 21 personnel, which is CJ Hamm, fullback, running back.

The Texans match with base is late in the game. They allow a 39 yard run to Aaron Jones. So it was like, and then they never did it again. Yeah. And we don't want our linebackers on the field and just getting, I know we're hyping up the Vikings and I think they're going to be able to keep winning against most of these teams, but I do have worries about the Texan spine and what teams can run on them. And, but the thing was, if you look at their schedule, um,

It's a little scary. They have the Jags. Probably won't do much there. That's a get-right game. But then they have the Bills, who pound it. The Patriots, who pound it. The Packers, who pound it. The Colts, who pound it. The Jets, who pound it. All-out pro personnel looks. So...

Just kind of keeping an eye on that because that could be a pretty, an Achilles heel for this Texans team. That is pretty fun so far. It is fun. I thought, you know, I think one thing, if you're a Texas fan trying to pull any positives out of that, you're like, okay, well, they decided we're, we're going to go 12 personnel and nickel and run it down their throats.

Still got four sacks, all things considered. Still got some pressure on the court. Like they can really, really get after the passer. Or even in like a run heavy script, like you are still getting after Sam Darnold. Like that's, that is at least...

feel good because i find it hard to believe that even if like the these teams were to match to begin tomorrow like you're not going to hold cj throughout the seven points again that that's that's tough but hey happens every quarterback even the best in the league yes and it happens uh laramie tonsil false starting three times in a row like that it happens sometimes that's a great point about getting after the pasture though it's i mean shoot watch the bears game

Like they on third down and that's always the equalizer. Can you get after the passer? Preferably stop the run, but you need a good offense. You need a good game script for it. That's, that's, that's what happens. You watch a game like that and you understand like why all your old football coaches would be like, no, you can go rush a passer after you stop the run because it doesn't really matter. We're down by 30. You can throw a haymaker after you throw a jab. You can throw an uppercut after you throw a jab. You still have to throw the jab.

All right, getting on, moving on to staying in the NFC, a team that always feels connected to me because of my dad's old teams and where I lived. But that's the Seattle Seahawks. And also just like the Nate Burleson, Steve Hutchinson thing. That's a shout out to poison pill contracts. But we both had the same two notes on this game.

Can you share what those notes were? Gino Smith is really good and Scott Thompson is really bad. Yes, that's it. That's it. I know. There's more I got, but is there anything more that you got? I mean, the only thing else that I had on this game was

I thought, like, if you go back and look at, you know, depending on where you get your EPA numbers from, Geno, like, didn't have a great day by, like, EPA standards. But, you know, because I think, like, Ben Baldwin said he was, like, negative for the day. But then you watch the game, you're like, ah, just throw it out. Like, he was awesome. Pinpoint. And another thing I have with the Seahawks is, like, I just wish their offensive line was a little better. That's it. Like, dude, Charles Cross, he shouldn't be getting tossed by Zach Siler. Like, Siler's a good player at this point, but...

But cross if you're what I think you could be, you're not doing that. You're not losing like that. No, no. He's had good two weeks, but yeah. Yeah, the interior offensive line is scary. Their center, Connor Williams, is exactly. He is who I thought he was. Even if everyone wants to yell at me,

We both got that. The Connor Williams stuff from Dolphins fans. I called him average. I called him like the 16th best center. And oh my God, you would have thought I just killed somebody. That was ridiculous. That's what Dolphins fans were feeling themselves though. So I understand. I'll accept your apologies. But they, but no, Gino rocks. The Charbonnet.

They need Kenneth Walker to add a little more juice to add in there. Sharpen is not bad. He's just, God, he's such a jolty runner. I don't know how else to describe it. It's like, just hit the hole. Stop cutting. Just hit it. Yeah, it's weird. I don't know. It's like, I don't know what run scheme. Because in college, I liked him with pullers from UCLA. And I don't know. I just still can't figure out what he's good at. I like him still, but I don't know. I wanted to talk about Ryan Grubb, their office coordinator, looks like.

our preseason kind of expectations of him being interesting are 100% true. Again, even not, he doesn't run anything revolutionary. This is all, he runs a lot of staple NFL concepts. It helps to have a quarterback that stands in there and rips that throw every single time. But it's just sound stuff. But he'll do some fun twists. Like he'll motion the guy here. He'll start, he likes to do a lot of

We start one formation, we shift everybody to another formation rather than just one guy shifting. And you can really tell...

Which coaches have a good handle on that is when they change formation families, which changes defensive rules. Defenses will have rules. If you're in a two by two set, we do this coverage. If you're in a three by one set, we do this coverage. And you can see Grubb shifting guys to change formation strength and get you to manipulate the defense, which I think is encouraging. But the touchdown to DK Metcalf, the long one.

That's the one I kind of was like, oh, you're setting stuff up and you're throwing haymakers off those jabs that you set up. Second boxing reference. But it was a digging up.

Geno Smith likes to operate out of empty. Ryan Grubb goes, cool. I like to operate out of empty. Let's go, buddy. So on that play, they motion Charbonnet and they create an empty formation. Empty is usually a three-man concept to one side and a two-man concept to the other side. And how you read it out as a quarterback is usually you pick a side based on coverage shell. If it's man, I go this side. If it's too high, I go this side. For...

two, three years. Gino's favorite concept of empty is to run stick to the field, which is a common quick game, but then to run a high low called wrap on the backside, which is a hitch route, which is five, six yards, and then a dig behind it. And

On that touchdown and how defenses are playing is the quarter safety will really close on the dig. So that dig's become really hard in the modern NFL to hit unless you've got a dude at quarterback or you manipulate in some ways. So they hit it a couple times. They've hit that a couple times in the last year, this year with the new regime. Oh, it's second and long. It's first and long. Geno likes to run that play out of empty.

They set it up. Here's the dig from DK Metcalf. Oh, here it goes. Here's the Dolphins safety screaming down to blow it up. Boop. Just run it up. Digging up. You have to protect.

To get the ball off, but I just thought that was a cool little changeup that was like, oh, okay cool You already have the changeups ready to throw out there and you score a touchdown off of it So that that was pretty cool to see after after a couple weeks of them setting it up because defense is trying to close on it a little bit how long do we have to like Like how long is it people catch up and just say Gino's like flat-out one of the best quarterbacks in the league right now It won't happen people still want same house will start right cuz like do like what what to me?

And I don't mean to slight either guy, but what's the big difference between him and Dak Prescott right now? Oh, nothing. Right. You know? They're both operating the offense, too. Geno's changing protections. He's doing everything Dak does mentally, too. He's the most underpaid player in the league, I think, right now. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. You see with some of these other dudes I got paid. Yeah.

I always feel like Goff is the good bar for like, he's the step above replacement level for me. And then it's just like, well, I'll take Gino over Goff right now. Without saying, without even batting an eye. I mean, Stafford looked awesome on Sunday. So he might be one of the better players at once, but shoot, Gino's playing just as good as anybody because he just stands in there and rips it. And that's what you have to do right now. Like, that's how you win. If you're not going to run everywhere, that's how you have to win. And

I don't know. There's only like a half dozen guys doing that right now. So I'm with you. Oh, okay. Going to another guy, one of those half dozen guys that will get there, but he's kind of feeling like a side character of some of these games. Got the Chiefs. Yeah. Aren't they? Defending back-to-back Super Bowl champions. Travis Kelsey, what's happening to him? Is he partying too much? Oh, my God. Every subplot I see, every tweet I see, the Chiefs have to be 0-3, right? 1-2? Yeah.

Two and one? Oh, they're three and oh. They're three and oh. And they're defending Super Bowl champions. And they have a productive offense and a good defense. Oh, okay. I don't know what... How bored are we with this team? The what is happening to Travis Kelsey stuff? Like, what do you mean? It's like 30 sticks. Of course. Like...

What did you expect? Did you just watch last year too? Like they waited until December. He's got a, he's got a hundred thousand miles on his body and he's dating the most famous pop star in America. I think he was at a concert in South America on Saturday. What are you surprised about here? And, and you know what? You know, it still works. The run game's good. And Rasheed Rice is a star. Yes. A star. Like this guy is top 10 potential.

He is how he moves. Watch. He breaks a tackle every time he touches the ball. Like he's on that Jamar chase level where it's every time. And also they're giving for she rice, the Travis Kelsey routes. Yes. The literal routes there. There's a sales, like a corner route. They do that sales stop.

I always thought that was just a Kelsey ad-lib route. And there's Rasheed Rice running it just like for a 14-yard gain. And there's, oh, okay. So that's how they trust you. His touchdown. The first one, that's a Travis Kelsey. That's a Travis Kelsey route. The motion inside and they go into the jet stream and run a little out route. That's a Travis Kelsey route. So.

He was the only guy I was scared of, like really scared of in that game on Sunday. As a Falcons fan, yeah. Yeah, when I was watching that game because over time as that game went on I was like, okay, like,

I can say the Falcons are a little more competent on defense than I thought they would be. They are. But whenever I saw Mahomes rip back in number four, it comes on screen. I'm like, oh, God damn it. Pulling away from somebody. That's the one guy that has become like the equalizer for this offense. And they only need one.

They only need one. If Kelsey's not going to be that guy in the regular season and Rasheed Rice can step up, that's totally fine because you still got Mahomes. Like you said, I think the run game looks a little better this year. The defense is still fine. Like, this is...

kind of the start that you would expect them to get off to if you were a Chiefs fan. And we know that they still have super, like, super nuclear offensive potential at any point in any game because Mahomes is still there. I think Xavier Worthy is probably getting off to the start that we thought that he would get off to. I've seen, you know, maybe some people be a little upset that he hasn't been, you know, a 100-yard game

100-yard guy right off the bat. But, you know, he's small, still getting used to it. And in the meantime, they'll just throw it to Richie Rice 15 times a game and that'll be totally fine. I know. Richie Rice is the guy, actually, the primary and all that. Some Chiefs fan quote tweeted me. It was like, you know, it's all fine and good that Rice is replacing the Kelsey routes, but I really want to see his offense attack on the outside for once. Have you ever watched an Andy Reid offense since 2011?

Everything is to the backs, the tight ends and the slot. That is the offense. This is as old school West Coast as it gets. This is not Shanahan. This is true West Coast that they run. Slots, tight ends and backs. That's who get the catches in this offense.

Eagles fans for years were frustrated about this. The Chiefs didn't have a receiver catch a touchdown one year when Andy Reid came in. And Alex Smith was there. Yeah. That's what this offense is. And so Bryce is now the next one that's going to get all these catches. So it's not Carson Steele. I did have one little stat about the run game, though. They're averaging 4.3 yards per carry on running back runs on first and second down. 15th in the NFL. Okay.

Their success rate is at 58.5%. Easily first. It's the second best rushing success rate through three weeks by an NFL offense since 2016. So yeah, it's been pretty efficient. It's four yards, five yards when they need it. The league average is 40% just for perspective.

Can I say something about Carson Steele just for two seconds? Yeah. I'm so tired of every time I see him referenced on the internet, he's called a fullback. Words have to mean things. He's a running back. He's a tellback. He's just flat out a running back. Just watch the game. I know. He got 17 carries. Fullbacks don't get 17 carries. Nope. I'm wearing number 42 and named Carson Steele. I know why it's happening. He's not a fullback. He weighs like 220 pounds. He's not even big. Even in college, he wasn't a fullback.

He was a running back. He was the guy in the Mac at Ball State. And then he was part of Chip Kelly, likes to run two backs and do all the stuff out there. And he was a running back, like a tailback. It's so lazy. Holy crap, guys. Stop calling him a fullback.

And he's explosive. He actually has a couple good runs, too. But no, that run game is good, though. The Trey Smith is back up there. The interior is pretty good. Jawan Taylor has been good in the run game, which is a pleasant surprise. And then they have an NPC at left tackle, either Wanya Morris, who was better than Kingsley Sumatia. So, yeah, with the Chiefs, man. All right. So that is the 3-0 teams. Fun little batch of group there. Batch of group. Group of batch.

Fun little group. Fun little batch of teams there. I'm Ron Burgundy. I am Ron Burgundy. But we are going to take one last break, and then we're going to come back and wrap up a couple more week three subplots.

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Learn more at klaviyo.com slash BFCM. All right, we are back to wrap this up. Let's just, let's just, what are we feeling about the Cowboys? Cowboys and Ravens had a, we need to show up bowl. One team showed up, I thought, more than the other, and that was the Ravens. But how are we feeling about the Cowboys? Because I'm kind of, I'm feeling a little, my mouth's a little dry with them right now. They have an unfixable problem, I think, in the defensive defense. This is...

Like, dude, you should, no offense to our Ravens fans, friends that have grown to love, hate the show, but I'm sorry, you shouldn't be getting steamrolled by this offensive line.

You got Andrew Voorhees out here looking like prime, like Evan Mapp is back when he was just killing guys for the Eagles. Like that was crazy. Mozzie Smith looks like a total dud as a pick. And we talked about this, you know, last week or the week before. But, you know, like, you know, a team feels like they're in trouble when they're out here signing like Linval Joseph making trades for Jordan Phillips in a division rival, like in division, make a trade for Jordan Phillips. Right.

So I don't really know if that's something that they can stop. But what we learned about the Cowboys is like their defense structurally, personnel-wise, it's the same problem as last year. You can only play with the lead. And if you're going to get against a team like Baltimore, where you let Baltimore get up two scores on you, or in this case, like three or four scores on you, you have no shot because you're just neutralized entirely on what you want to do. You know, I know it's probably been said ad nauseum this time,

this much throughout the week, but the Ravens ran 45 times to 15 throws. That is the worst case scenario for a defense built like the Cowboys. Well, 75% run rate. Yeah, take that, nerds.

How many are bubbles? It might be even more. Yeah. And Lamar still throws like 12 yards an attempt on the back end of it. Like that is the ideal way for the Ravens to play offense. Yeah, it is. That's how they should be built. But it's,

Yeah.

The run defense sucks, just straight up. And they have no linebackers that can fill the run. So teams are just trotting out heavier personnels and going, fit the run. Oh, you can't. All right, well, there's Derek Henry getting seven yards. Like, you have to be so gap sound in the NFL. We just made the joke about only the best players can kind of go rogue on it. Micah can go rogue. And it used to work out a little bit better before because they could just tee off and do some things differently.

if anyone goes rogue or if a linebacker just goes underneath a block, boom, eight yards, boom, nine yards, boom, five yards. It's not even, they can't create the explosives on the defense to offset that. That's what the Cowboys defense did in the past. Oh, we'll let you give a 12 yard run, a 15 yard run. We're going to get a sack and a pick or a forced fumble or strip sack. And that'll offset all of that. It's a boom bust defense, but I mean, they, their own. And the other thing too, was the weakness of this team, which we thought in the preseason, but it's been only solidified now.

Running backs are nothing. They're a non-factor. Their own run game is bad because, again, they have terrible bad running backs and a reconfigured offensive line that might get there long term. But now when you're trying to compete, that's tough sledding pass game wise.

deck's been a little off the Jake Ferguson's banged up or was banged up too. And that you can actually feel that more in the past game than you would think because it's CD and what else you got, you know, Brandon cooks isn't going to win contested catches. He's a run guy, you know, or run in space kind of guy. This offense doesn't have a lot of run space options because he can't protect that well for it. So it's,

Just a lot of issues that we thought maybe preseason, but they're really, really, really glaring right now. And teams are already picking at it. And once you put it on film, it's just hard to stop until you get to a bye week. And then you just kind of go and take a deep breath. But right now it just feels like they're swimming and they got a short week. They play the Giants and just, you know, maybe a get right game. But it's not like the Giants defense is total pushovers, especially for their offense. So, yeah, there might be might be a little interesting match up there.

Going on to a different NFC team going, well, really, I see quarterback Caleb Williams, rookie quarterback, number one pick for the Bears. We already have, oh, my God, the Bears took the wrong guy. Discussions going on. Week three. Shut up. Hey, if things happen, remember, the only games that matter

are night games and island games. Those are the only games that matter. But- - 'Cause none of y'all are watching as much football as you claim to watch. We're just gonna keep it real. You might just, you might let Scott Hanson- - Yeah, go. I want you to say it. I want you to say it. - You might let Scott Hanson lazy rear for you every Sunday from one to 7:00 PM, which is your right as an American citizen. - Yes. - But don't get on the internet acting like, you know, Jaden Daniels, like, you're watching Monday night football in red zone, okay? You're not actually watching these games.

Hey, you probably got a couple of beers and your buddy's over and you're trying to give takes and say like no one knows what they're talking about. You're not watching enough to know what you're talking about. So it's fine. It's fine. It's a hobby for you. It is. It is.

That's why you come here. Because we watch two games as opposed to one. No. No. But the takeaways are strong. And also, I've talked to us before. I had a psychology class in college, which was part of my marketing degree. So put that in.

What you guys do on that for a minute. But they were talking about men getting they're talking about how people only remember things to happen at the start of the event and the end of the event.

And they're talking about men getting colonoscopies. It was the way to do it. But holy crap, when I watch night games with online with everybody on the timeline with everybody, that's what I've realized is so true. It's the last five minutes since the first opening drive. There's so much minutia in the middle that gets lost. Those plays count, too. I promise they do. And you can. Did I get it? That's how I watch the NBA.

Yeah. Until playoffs. Yeah. Until playoffs. Like, dude, I am just. That's how I watch NBA. Yeah. I'm just here. I'm here for the moments, really. But I'm not paying attention to every single dribble and execution and, you know, fast break and how we're trapping down on this motion and action. No. Here's T. LeBron dump the ball. And that's how most of you guys. But I'm not going around telling people that I know more about basketball than them. No. And that's a difference between me and these other cretins.

Get this back to Caleb Williams. Get this back to Caleb Williams. He was good yesterday. And people will not say that because they'll look at two picks and, you know, whatever, how many yards per attempt. When you go back, you watch the game. He's the only reason they had a chance to even get back into it at the end. This offense is so sloppy. They're...

And I know this is how these arguments can sound because I see stuff get thrown back at me on social media where everyone's like, well, here you go defending that quarterback again. Well, both things can be true. Quarterbacks can transcend their environment and good ones do that. But also every single quarterback is susceptible to what their environment and every variable that happens around them. They are going to be affected by that. You think Josh Allen's having the best start of his career because the Bills run game sucks?

Do we not think that's correlated? Yeah, yeah, it's correlated. Oh, Chiefs offense, even if the pass game isn't great, feels a lot better. Oh, yeah, because the run game's better. Yeah, that's how it kind of works. Watching this offense, run game stinks, which is supposed to be the strength of this offense. Any tiered offensive line still struggles to pass stuff off. That matters because you're getting a ton of third and longs.

They're not creating any explosive plays. Some that could be, you say it's on the quarterback, but the run game has to help too. And so where's that coming in? I think Caleb though, mentally does not appear overwhelmed at all. If anything, he appears extremely advanced and that's why I'm encouraged with Caleb Williams. Yeah. He'll, he'll,

Like most young guys, we'll turn down a couple of throws. I just watched Kyler Murray turn down a wide open Marvin Harrison, but guys do that happens, but he can create and get out of that. And he gets to the right read, like,

almost every time like there's not many times mentally i'm like watching him going like why'd your eyes go there or man you missed that protection or he's in his third game i think he already has an advanced grasp of protections which is like i i know that sounds like just such football guy like oh i know more that is such a good sign that is so good even if everything else is chaotic the fact that they're he's doing it and succeeding is so good and he's accurate and

Some of his best throws are getting waved off because of penalties or stuff that's happening. I'm not concerned whatsoever. I think all the signs are there that this guy's got it. Like, way got it, mentally and physically. And I think that stuff is important, him being able to...

just get people right before the snap starts because like you want to, because one thing that makes Zach Frazier in Pittsburgh so impressive is you can hear him before the play starts. It's not Justin Fields. It's Zach Frazier who was calling out. He's squatting on the ball. Right. Old school center, you know? Yes. Because he's not on field snapping. He was like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

let me get this set up we're gonna keep this moving but with caleb like the more that he can do and i think it's important for a team like the bears and where their offense is the less that they have to think about up front and the less that those guys have to think about is going to let them play faster and they desperately need to play faster up front so the fact that he's able to take that load now i think it matters it matters a big deal um

And look, I know it's not always the cleanest, but like, dude, we're three games into this. I want people just to calm down. You don't have to live throw by throw, clutching your pearls, like having a heart attack over every bad play that happens for a rookie quarterback. Breathe. Let's keep it moving. Especially in a night game. That's the other thing, too. I know that happening in the day, but even the night games. The other side, the other quarterback on that team, Anthony Richardson.

I will say stop missing. Stop missing. It's when he has to hitch and throw outside. I've kind of already narrowed it down. A lot of quarterbacks, a lot of taller guys, when they throw left and they hitch into it, their feet get all out of whack. And so if you watch him, he'll hitch outside.

and his left foot gets extended and his shoulder rises. And what's annoying to me is he hasn't fixed it. And it happens on the easiest throws. It's not the hard ones that he misses those on. And so that's why I'm just still kind of going, all right, he needs more reps. He needs more time. There's still positives with this game. That dude can get five first downs with one throw. I still think he reads the game well. Me too. He really sees the game well. That's what's so...

I was configuration with him. I described like Andy Richardson, Richardson to me right now is like when you draft a new quarterback or your Madden franchise, he's got all the physical traits and like you as the user are controlling him. Right. And you're sitting back in the pocket and you're reading like you read it out. Right. And then the ball just sails out of bounds because it's not quite there yet. That's where Andy Richardson is to me, because even like I don't remember who he was throwing to. All I remember is this dude was wide open.

And he reads the play out right. And then the ball sails like 20 yards out of bounds. Josh Downs on a flyer out. Yeah, Josh Downs on the flyer. I'm like, come on. It wasn't even a close miss. It wasn't even close. I thought he threw it away at first. Me too. I was like, why are you throwing it away? Because that thing was way over the head.

You've seen Varsity Blues. It was when he clocked. He hits the guy on the horse with the ball. That's what that throw was. Man, it was... I know. I'm still a TBD on him. I think that's how the season's going to go with him. I think the run game for the Colts is freaking awesome. But I think they're a second-half team as far as offense. But I wish their bye was earlier.

But I think they have a later buy. I think it's like a week 12 buy, give or take. So it's one of those where I'm going to be watching more in the second half. I'm still not all the way out on them because I do think there's some really good science happening there. It's just an offense that I could tell it's young, especially the skill guys. They're young. And yeah, they'll just have to work on it.

All right, last one, and this will wrap it up. Kind of a disappointing thing, and maybe one that we thought might be a little disappointing this year, but I think it's just even more glaring, and that is the 49ers defense. The Rams took it to this 49ers defense. The Rams with some...

No receivers. No line. You have Sean McVay, Mr. 11 personnel going 12 personnel. They haven't run a single snap of two tight ends this whole year. They ran 24 snaps of it on Sunday because that's what they need. They had bodies.

And they took it to them. They really did. They're pounding the rocks. Stafford was on freaking fire. What do you feel about this 49ers defense, though? Because it's definitely a problem. That was not an encouraging game. Because if there's any team that can get got from a we just have more talent than you perspective, it's the Rams offense. I mean, they've been decimated because it's not just the receiver injuries. It's the offensive line stuff, too. So, yeah.

You would think with the amount of resources they've at least, you know, put into that defensive line of paper that you should be able to kind of just, that should be a game where you should take that over every single time. And the fact that you didn't and you kind of, especially in the second half, like you let them just kind of

Get back in that game. Kyron Williams, it wasn't like a big rush every time, but it was just enough to kind of keep them in a good space offensively where they have access to whatever they want to run. And then when you're in a spot towards the end of the game, this is what you pay for.

guys like Nick Bosa and Javon Hargrave for and all those guys to close the game out. End it. Like, you're up by multiple scores. That's why you're here. This game needs to end now. And the fact that they couldn't do it, right now, it just feels like,

Like Fred Warner is just running around with a bucket of water trying to put out fires wherever he can. And ultimately, that's just not enough for the NFL. Like he's, Fred may be having the best start to a season that he's had, honestly. And they look worse. And they look worse. Because he has to do so much right now that it's too much even for him. But hey, some of these guys just have to step up at some point. It's making me appreciate Dre Greenlaw.

Even more. I like it, but I'm like, man, you might be better than I gave you credit for because their linebacker play outside of Fred is awful. And that's what teams are attacking. They're just attacking your linebackers and really some of the safety play too. So I think they're going to look to go more nickel and dime, like even in this game where the Rams started going, okay, we're going to go 12 personnel.

The Niners are first. Okay, we'll go base. Shred, shred, shred. Okay, we're going nickel. Never mind. Yeah, we're not keeping three linebackers on the field. Lenore getting the slot there. So I think they might go more DBs to get Malik Mustafa, who actually they really like. They might go more dime. They've already hinted at that a little bit, but they need it because right now they just...

The D-line's not ass-kicky enough. They're more to get after the passer, and they don't have the linebackers to kind of shore that up. Kind of the secret sauce before was their guys would shoot all the gaps and create so much penetration, that could be boom-busty, but then you have Fred Warner and Drake Greenlaw, and then before they had also Aziz Alshier, who hasn't been there in a couple years, but they had these linebackers that could just clean it up because they're so fast and smart. So...

It's more of a hole. I knew there was going to be a drop off, but man, this is like they're really getting attacked right now. And also Matthew Stafford's really good, too. So that also that helps, too, for an offense. But closing it out today, that was fun. Charles will be back on Thursday as we preview week four.

Zoom in. Zoom in. Almost through September. This is great. That's crazy. Quarter seasons. I know. That's why I need to get back to, like, I wouldn't mind eight games because then I could just, like, I don't know, like just a week or 18 games. Just break it off a little bit. I like even numbers a little bit better. But closing out, we'll preview week four in a couple of days. Thank you all for checking this out. I'm Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. Charles, where can they find you?

You can find me on Twitter at four verts. You know, we're writing where you and me work. We're all over the place in terms of like, you know, just anywhere you can find us, just find our Twitter speed and we will be talking ball somewhere. It's usually on this podcast might be somewhere else. It might be writing on the site, but we are inundated with this stuff. So check, check out for us. Yeah. My, my theme for my article this week is three no teams. Yeah.

How about that? But make sure to subscribe to us. Like Charles said, also check us out on Yahoo, our writings, all of our whole team writings. We've got a lot of good stuff on there, but subscribe to this podcast, football 301, follow us, rate us. Let's get that quantity up. Pretty please. Also check us out on YouTube on the Yahoo sports YouTube channel. If you want to just.

see us chat as long as well as hear us. You can also follow Yahoo Sports on Snapchat as well. Thanks to Brett Stone and Adi behind the scenes. Thank you all for listening. See you guys next time.