Week 14 preview: Seahawks D has arrived, Brock Bowers' rise, Bryce Young's biggest test
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On this episode of Football 301, Charles McDonald joins me to preview Week 14. And it's a sloppy slate, so we are going to look at every single one of the games. Not Thursday night. Sorry, Packers-Lions. That is a fun one, though. But all the rest of the games on Sunday and Monday night of Week 14. One thing that we're focusing on. One thing that we're keying in on. Super fun show. See you guys in a sec. This podcast is brought to you by Kleenex Lotion Tissues. You can't predict sick days.

But with Kleenex Lotion Tissues, you can be better prepared for them while helping keep your skin healthy. Kleenex Lotion Tissues moisturize to help prevent skin irritation while you're battling those unwanted cold and flu symptoms. It's extra care when you need it most. Keep relief within reach. Grab Kleenex Lotion Tissues to help avoid the added discomfort of irritated skin during cold and flu season. For whatever happens next, grab Kleenex. ♪

Hello and welcome to Football 301. I am your host, Nate Tice. We are going to be previewing week 14 on this episode. One thing for all of the games on Sunday and Monday, I believe we're going to get some Saturday games going and some other, I guess, midweek games once we get to Christmas time. There's going to be games every day of the week, apparently. But

We're going to have one thing, like I said, for the dozen games. I believe there are on Sunday and Monday night because we have our last week of bye weeks. It's a sloppy slate. So that's how we wanted to do this rather than really focus on one or two. There's a couple games that have a little bit more meaning for the playoffs, but a lot of some empty calories. Maybe not fantasy-wise or fun-wise, but some empty calories. So that's why we wanted to fill up those empty calories or maybe some nutrition to help me do that. Who said apparently, I don't want to throw him under the bus, maybe...

got off the nutritious bandwagon this last week but getting back into our discipline here today to preview week 14 is my guy mr verts charles mcdonald how you doing today chuck oh man i my insides had a really really rough week last week uh you know it was all due to my own fall i just could not stop consuming you know couldn't stop eating couldn't stop drinking

everything. I mean, it was, it was a good time. It was a good time, but I got back Friday. It was my own black Friday. Yeah. And I got back yesterday and I was like, Oh my God. Like sometimes you can just feel it when you've been sitting in a little bit. So I'm going to use this slop watch to just rinse myself off because I was definitely sloppier than these games that we're about to talk about. Yeah.

We're burning calories. That's what we're doing. Burning calories, that's right. Yeah, that's what we're doing. A little too much stuffing for myself. So that's why we're going to focus on games like, you know, Saints Giants. You know, things of that nature. To start us off, this one...

This one felt like it should have some more weight, maybe one team, maybe because before this season I thought this would be a nice slugfest, but as the season goes along, it kind of spreads apart. But it's still important. It's still a division game. Still team battling here. It doesn't matter. It's not for long in the NFL. It's any given Sunday, whatever idiom you want to throw out there. So we're going to start.

Off the bat with Browns at Steelers. And we usually, when we break down these slop watches or break down to like when we do a one thing on the rest of the slate of the games, we alternate who takes the lead on each game. I gave some Charles some stinky ones this weekend. So we kind of randomly split them, but give you some stinky ones. But this is one of your first ones here, Charles. The Steelers are six and a half point favorites when you're watching Brown Steelers, Chuck.

what are you focusing on what's your one thing oh man i i did you say the spread on this game what was it six and a half stealers oh yeah that feels too low it just feels too low uh because i i would put that as like the over under on how many points the browns score

in this one. Oh, really? I don't know. I know. You're not buying into the Jameis, Judy, high watermark that they were hitting on Monday? Please. I think if you play that game even nine more times, the Broncos defense never lets that happen again. I know they're banged up. They're banged up at this point in the season, but everyone is, so I don't want to give them too much. Throw that out.

Right. Yeah, I'm just throwing that out a little bit because, I mean, he still let Jameis go for what? Almost 500 yards with five touchdowns, three interceptions. All three could have been pick six. That last one at the end was one like two string tackle away. But this just seems like such a disaster zone for

Browns offense because you know even with these games where you're talking about Jamison yeah it's better than Deshaun Watson what he was doing but like they're still losing for the most part outside of that one game against the Ravens so you know would their fortunes really be that different if Jamison was their starting quarterback this season probably not and I think that that just is going to continue to manifest itself as the

the season goes along because he's capable of lighting up for 400 yards. As we saw, we saw, we saw he's obviously horrifically turnover prone. And that's why he has been able to load or to keep a starting job in the NFL. But the Steelers defense,

This is a defense that's, you know, I would say top five, probably even closer. It's maybe like top three, just based on everything that they can do. Nick Herbig had a great game last week. They just seem to just every time they draft someone on defense, it seems to work and they have one of the deepest defenses in the league. And you look at the Browns offense, Nick Chubb's been back, but

clearly not the same player that he was before. And I don't think it was, I don't think anyone was expecting him to be that anyways. James is a turnover machine. I mean, unless Jerry Judy gets loose, I don't really see how the Browns score all that many points. I think this could be like an actual statement game for this team's defense. And on the flip side, I guess Russ,

Let's do it again. Because I know he actually made it wasn't it wasn't just the Bengals defense being completely terrible last week. Like he did actually have some plays that look like vintage rust. But I can't remember the last time I saw him throw for 400 yards and all those touchdowns. So I just want to see him do it again, because if that's like something that's going to be real, then they're a Super Bowl contender. You know, they're not just a playoff team. Right. Yeah. The Bengals defense is not good. I think everyone knows that anyone's paid any attention to the NFL this year.

Watching Russ last week was like, if you just blacked out the Broncos ears and just pictured Russell Wilson aging and how he would play in like a positive way. Like if you obviously had an amazing game, drop accessory and all that stuff. Yards. I think it was the second most passing yards he ever had in the game.

but how he played his process was like, Oh, it's a guy that has aging traits in some ways, you know, his arm strength is still good, but maybe not all the way there. And now his creation is athleticism. It's, you know, taking a step back. I mean, we're,

Him and I are in our mid-30s now. He's older than me, I will say. But watching him just make just sound decisions. He was checking the ball a lot, checking the ball down a lot. And I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. The good checkdowns. The, hey, we're running four verts and the linebacker runs 20 yards deep. All right, check it down to Najee Harris, who goes and picks up a nice gain. And I thought he was just making a lot of good decisions. He's playing within himself.

Like when he does his little creation moments, he's not doing it too much. Like he's not doing, he's doing maybe one twirl and it's not two twirls before he gets rid of the ball, you know? So like, it's just him playing within himself and that's what all this team needs. So it was, it was good to see him play, not just,

I've thought about the Steelers offense being like, oh, it's run first, run second, and then maybe three, four good Russ throws. Really, Russ played within himself where it was like, oh, okay, now you can nickel and dime a little bit with the passing game, which is, that's something they haven't really been able to show throughout the season. Again, Bengals defense is some good mouthwash, but...

He could do it again against the Browns. I mean, there's chances to do it. It's a good defense. I mean, that isn't really playing to their fullest, but they can, he can have some opportunities there. So I like what you said there that if he keeps showing this, they're like, you change kind of how we feel about the Steelers. They go from like, oh, this is a solid playoff team to like, oh, they might win a game or two. If the things kind of kind of keep going this way, the defense is real and the run game is real. So yeah.

Yeah, yeah, still we're talking about them a little bit differently. They're just here all the time. But I will say this year feels a little different to me. Like it feels like they actually have a chance to win a playoff game this year compared to years past.

I agree. Yeah, yeah. It's not the loss in Kansas City that they lose by three scores, you know. No, I'm with you on that. So, yeah, the Browns game was entertaining. Winston Jameis is... Talking with, like, Matt Harmon a little bit about it, too. It's like Jameis is entertaining. I'm not saying it's good. Like, you know, it's more like there's more highlights happening in the game, but it's not like down to down. It's like, oh, all of a sudden everything is solved. So that must just be stated again. Moving on to my first game.

I don't know. Like, this is the pirate matchup. We got the Raiders at the Bucs. Bucs are also six and a half point favorites. This is my one thing for this. I have a couple things. First off, when you're watching the Raiders, just focus on Brock Bowers and just watch where he lines up, where he's going, what they're using him on. Even watching last week, you could see some North Turner influence in this offense, which is a good thing because that's what...

you know, you know, who caught a lot of balls in San Diego, Antonio Gates, you know, with North Turner as a calling place. And now you got Brock Bowers. I know this is probably just for a few months or another month, but at least this season, you get to really see him kind of like use his ability. He's, he's incredible.

I mean, he's his own thing, too. He's a slot receiver. He's a tight end. They use him every which way, running the ball. They use him, I mean, creating yards after the catch, downfield. He's just a phenomenal player. So that's at least one shining light with this Raiders team. I will say, a little scheme thing here, watching this game. Raiders run, cover zero. I mean, Raiders defense isn't bad, by the way. And they're pretty good against the run.

Raiders run cover zero more than anybody in the entire NFL. 11.7% according to NextGen stats. That's a pretty big number. Patrick Graham, man. Yeah. It's cover zero, cover two. League average is 4.8%. And Chiefs, you know, Graham's got a Patriots background too, so it makes sense. Chiefs,

or second at 9.2 percent so it's a it's a significant gap you know it's a couple more times a game than even the chiefs baker against cover zero dang good he's fifth in success rate uh on his area on those passes though is 2.9 yards per attempt i was literally about to ask you is it under three because that seems to be the name of the game in a few of these bucks games

Yes, it is. It's a lot of screens. It's just screens and flats and then an occasional go ball to Mike Evans when he's been out there. The Raiders. And so I'm like, I kind of started pulling out this thread. All right. So how are the Raiders? I mean, it's short passes. You know, they run a lot of covers here. Are they good at it? So Raiders have faced the seventh most pass attempts behind the line scrimmage screens, you know, things of that nature. 29th in success rate defending against them.

Baker has the second most pass attempts behind the line of scrimmage. He has the most passing yards on throws behind the line of scrimmage. 813 yards this season on throws at or behind the line of scrimmage. The league average is 362. He has more than double the league average on throws behind the line of scrimmage. Mahomes is second. He has the highest EPA per drop back on those. So it's a strength.

Baker throwing screens and goes, I guess, against a what's something the Raiders do a lot of. So maybe some firework plays, you know, tackling is going to be a big thing, you know, for this Raiders defense on that. So I did want to highlight that side of the ball. That was a little interesting scheme thing where it's not just a total pushover, I think, for the Bucks and Raiders defense. Yeah, I mean, I'm a Georgia homer, but I'm excited about Brock Bowers when he's done. That's something to watch for. He's leading catches right now.

Which is pretty insane. It's not fake. It's not the Wendell Robinson stuff. Yeah, he leads all tight ends in the receiving yards, targets, targets per outs. He's fourth in yards per out run, 10th in total EPA on targets, such as all the tight ends with over 40 targets this year. So I think it's pretty crazy when you think about the surroundings because it's not conducive towards any rookie having a good year there.

I mean, even flipping through Aiden O'Connell, Garden Minshew with a little sprinkle of Devin Ritter this season for a good chunk of the season. They had one of the worst run games, like literally in the history of the league. Demonte Adams bounced pretty early in the season, which just opens up a huge target vacuum. And he's just like, all right, well, I guess I'm going to work.

Going to work, giving us a chance to win against the Kansas City Chiefs until we just absolutely bungle it at the end. He's a crazy player. He's obviously going to hit 1,000 yards on pace to break Mike Dick's record for rookie tight end. So crazy, crazy season. Hopefully they can get him some help in the offseason.

Mike Ditka's record. Yeah, 1961. Yeah. Only two players ever have set 1,000 yards as rookie tight ends, Mike Ditka and Kyle Pitts. Yeah. Everybody loves Kyle Pitts. Yeah. That's actually kind of relevant to the last game. I think Kirk forgot he exists. Yeah. Oh, God, I can't wait to get to that game.

I was trying to look up yards per outrun for Bowers. He's 2.18. Yeah. He's tied for 16th. He's just below T. Higgins.

Yeah, 16 players fourth for tight ends pretty good That's pretty dang good. Yeah, just both CD lamb just above Drake London just above Mike Evans. Yeah, pretty good player Ricky tight end He's a freak man. It's just like how athletic he is to how you can run like I love breaking him down as a prospect cuz I was like this guy can't really guard Teams are showing out stuff and they can't guard him. All right getting on to my last game before the break and

This is the AFC East. All disappointing bull. That's why I'm going to kind of go with this one. We got the Jets at the Dolphins. Six and a half points again. It's the number of the week.

Yeah, this is one of your games. My fault. Oh, yeah. But I mean, if we want to, there's not there's not too much here. He's after last week. I've been with the Jets. What do you say after last week? They were up. We were talking about the other day. One of the craziest things about that game was you're up 21 to 7.

And there's a play where the Jets, I don't know if they're in the red zone or right outside the red zone, and Garrett Wilson, you know, they'll double move. He's wide open in the end zone, and Aaron Rodgers just sails it. You're up 21-7, and for some reason after that, Aaron just kind of quit on everything that was going on. Because I think a play or two later, that was the Leonard Williams pick six. And then after that, they were just, he was just going into like shell mode, where they were just doing really short passes, not really trying to get down the field much. And

And that was just kind of crazy to me. It did make me feel a little like, damn, bro, you used to be really good. The best player I've ever seen at his peak. I still think that that's a fair take for someone to have. But right now, they're just so lifeless. And I know that the Dolphins, they...

Losing that game last week really, really hurt their chances to make the playoffs, especially with the Broncos seem like they've grabbed that 17th. But at least you can say, if you're the Dolphins, look, you look at any offensive metric we've had since Tua got back,

We're one of the best offenses in the league. We know that the defense has a higher ceiling than maybe they've been playing at over the past couple weeks. Because kind of like once Tua got back, the defense fell off. And while Tua was gone, the defense was great. They just couldn't have the same thing at the same time. But you have to at least say, hey, next year, maybe we can compete for the AFC East crown. But as far as this season goes, I think you just got to keep...

Keep going. You know, Stack has made good performances as you can. And against a Jets defense that is like really, really undisciplined at times post-Sala, like this is an opportunity to score a lot of points and get back on track and at least move into the offseason with some momentum. Somebody posted like a...

EPA allowed weekend week, you know cumulative over a week and week out and you could see So the Jets are like climb climb climb, you know, hi hi hi hi and they could see the week Salah got fired It just falls off a cliff. I mean just straight nose dives down. It's like a direct right It was like the week after it happened. It was a boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

I like kind of how you're going about talking about the Dolphins. Matt and I did our little funeral episode, and it was just breaking them down and looking at their roster and everything. I'm like, this is it. So they got to kind of, you know, let's get a little pep in that step because this is what you guys have made. This is the roster, and you guys are committed to these. Like, I don't know what the additions that they could bring that could, like, rejuvenate it, you know, outside of, like, a drastic change. And it's like, are you going to do a drastic change? You just committed to, you know, I know...

Dolphins fans have qualms with McDaniel and stuff, but, like, I mean, still winning games and still can put together offenses and stuff. So I'm kind of with you. Like, do something. Like, just, like, push this week. Show what you... Or push the last month. Show what you got. Like, show... Like, build some new layers. Build some stuff. Use it as, like, preseason, except it's the end of the season. You know? Like, as far as, like, ideas and thoughts and good ideas. Like, let some of the young players go. So I'm kind of with you on that. You know, Jets are just... Jets, I mean, just...

I don't even know where they go here. The Jets. The Jets? After the season's over, what do you even do? Like, I said this to Matt. It was like, I know people are doing after like with the Joe Douglas kind of puff piece stuff. Like they're bringing up all the young talent they have. It was like, okay, yeah.

Still need a head coach, offensive play car, still need several linemen, still need a quarterback. You still need, there's going to be defensive pieces falling, you know, going away or regressing or getting older. Like, you know, sitting there, you know, like, just demand another trade. He's got another third best friend you can go find. He's going to be in New Orleans next year.

don't do it Devontae that was still the saddest thing he narrowed down his list where to get traded I was like oh I wonder where they are New York and New Orleans

It's like, come on, man. You could demand anybody. Come on. You already did the playing with one best friend thing. It didn't work out well at all. So why would you go jump to the other one and then you want to keep going? I don't know. Where's his high school coach or high school quarterback at? He's probably living a very bliss life. No, but the – and the Dolphins too, like getting back to them though, it's that –

I've kind of struggled just figuring them out. And then like that game against Green Bay, it was just so disappointing because I was starting to kind of maybe build a case that they could make a push. I was like, okay, they get this game. You know, the defense has had moments and, you know, with Tua back, it's been better and just like, just laid the egg in the cold. So now it's just like, all right, come on, let's get some good vibes there, back in there. But yeah,

We're going to get some more good vibes. We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back with our Haas fight and some more one things on the rest of the Sunday and Monday night sleep.

This podcast is brought to you by Kleenex Lotion Tissues. You can't predict sick days, but with Kleenex Lotion Tissues, you can be better prepared for them while helping keep your skin healthy. Kleenex Lotion Tissues moisturize to help prevent skin irritation while you're battling those unwanted cold and flu symptoms. It's extra care when you need it most. Keep relief within reach. Grab Kleenex Lotion Tissues to help avoid the added discomfort of irritated skin during cold and flu season. For whatever happens next, grab Kleenex.

We are back. NFC West tilt and our Haas fight of the week.

Yeah. There we go. There we go. This is our Hoss Fight of the Week. We've been doing this every week. Let's make it a segment. This week is a good one. At least, it feels like two teams that we've talked about enough. And I feel like they're worthy of the Hoss Fight of the Week. That is the Seahawks and the Cardinals with their second game in three weeks. Why not? Let's just round trip it. Let's just go back and forth between these two. Really, I wanted to focus on Falcons...

offense and Seahawks defense. And it's because the Seahawks, actually both defenses have really improved lately. But I first want to talk about the Seahawks defense. The first time these two teams played, the Seahawks defense held James Conner to eight yards on seven attempts, zero successful runs, two run stuffs. Trey Benson to four attempts, 18 yards, two successful runs and one run stuff. And this is a Cardinals run game that

their way against pretty much everybody in some way, shape or form. It could be explosive passing. And this is really the Seahawks have you have pointed this out multiple times. Mike McDonald, everybody coming from that Ravens tree. It's going to take some time to let this defense sink in and all the stuff that they do. The kaleidoscopic scheme, as I like to call it, everything they do is

It takes a moment for it to kind of sink in. Everyone kind of knows their roles, and they figure out their roles. But also going for Ernest Jones and getting him in the trade has basically saved the Seahawks' season. So some good old on-off splits. The Seahawks run splits and game splits and defensive splits with Ernest Jones versus without him after they made the trade a few weeks ago. And really you see his significance in the run game. And I saw that a lot in this Jets game that I just watched.

This past week, but really a couple weeks ago against the Cardinals as well. But they backed it up with some stats, which is always nice for these segments because sometimes it's just, trust me, bro, when I say this thing is good or bad, and it's nice to back this up. So with Ernest Jones, the Seahawks are 7th, tied for 7th in rushing success rate allowed. Without him, 27th.

They are tied with the Bills just above the Titans and the Chargers. We've talked plenty about the Titans and Chargers run defense. 27th with Adam. That's in between your Falcons and the Commanders.

Two run defenses you wouldn't want to be with. So that is just really where you feel Jones because he's just sound. Like he gets the right hole. He's a good, solid tackler and past defense. He's been solid. But really, it's just really it's just they want a stabilizing force with him. And he's kind of just making it. So, OK, we're going to run this coverage. OK, we're going to run this defensive slant up front or we're going to do this simulated look. He's just in the right spot.

And that matters like that. That's really literally the difference of Ernest Jones, who's, I would say he's playing above average to good, not saying like pro bowl. Oh my God, he's the best player out there, but just playing solid enough that going from poor below average to above average. Good is just such a bump bump that it's really kind of made the rest of the defense kind of just feel more solid. And, and you know, that jets game, they didn't give up the points like they give up the yardage. I should say like that was special team stuff. Um,

And, you know, the Cardinals game was another game, again, that they were really doing good against the run. So and then just the EPA per play was another stat looked at their tie for fifth and EPA per play with Ernest Jones. Without them, they're 13th. So it's kind of a middling defense that's pretty shaky against the run, turns into a good defense that's very good against the run. So that's kind of that's the difference. And that's why I'm really watching is because it's pretty fun. And I want to see what Drew Petsing and the Cardinals offense kind of does to solve

some of the issues that this defense gave him last time. But yeah, and the other side of the ball, the Cardinals defense, Seahawks offense, it's two improving units. This was kind of the last thing for this game for me is that

Carl's defense is ninth in DVOA right now. Since week seven, they're eighth in EPA per play. They're 13th combined success rate and explosive play rate. It's a solid to good defense right now with a good offense and sound special teams. But they've gone from 31st in pressure rate from weeks one to four. In the last four weeks, they're eighth in pressure rate. And it's not just all the blitzes and funkiness they're doing. They're actually just getting home fast.

So, yeah, it's a good defense. Zayvon Collins, I want to highlight him again. His versatility is really being highlighted in this defense. Pass rushing, coverage, all this stuff. Dante Stills is playing well. A lot of players playing well in this defense going against an improving offense, too. So really fun game, almost worthy of a deep dive.

breakdown, but just wanted to group it in here. But yeah, any thoughts on this one? Or did I just take up all the air on it? I mean, you had just about everything I was thinking about. I also just want to see if at any point, like

like the Seahawks scale back, like how much they throw the ball this year, just because it's, it's gotten crazy. And I was looking at Gino's, uh, just Gino's like basically pro football reference page. It's like 80% or something like that, right? It's gotta be. I mean, so last year Gino started 15 games. He threw the ball 499 times this year in 12 games. He's already thrown a 436, uh,

Like you are going to smash that in two games, basically at this rate. I don't know. It doesn't really seem sustainable to me. And I think it's interesting because they, it's not like their running back room sucks. Like they could absolutely be a team that leans on that a little bit more with Ken Walker and then Charbonnet when he's, when he's on the field. So,

maybe it's an offensive line thing. Maybe Grubb thinks he's still in the Pac-12. I don't know. It's a little baffling, but I feel like they have gone too far on like the, oh, you know,

neutral pass, you know, pass rate or first down pass rate. I don't know. I forget what it's called, but regardless, they throw them all the way to let Gino cook. It was the, the let Russ cook went all the way to let Gino cook. Um, no, it's the, the, the lines gotten better, which is helping, um, the, the center change or the, or the what team has been huge for him. Abe Lucas has been good once he's now he's back from injury. They went with a six round rookie at right guard. Uh,

LaMia, who had two of the worst botches I've ever seen in the first quarter and then was good after that against the Jets. So maybe that's going to help. So I'm with you. Like, I want to see A.J. Barner's kicking butt blocking at tight end. So, you know, he caught a touchdown too. So I don't know. I'm with you that maybe they just didn't trust it. The O-line coach has been leaving a little bit to be desired. The Seahawks O-line coach, if I'm being honest, with some of his rule stuff. So...

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe he's not pushing for more runs because he doesn't want to be highlighted. Like, eh, eh. Let Gino figure it out. But I don't know. They improved throughout the Jets game. I had a little thread on it on Twitter. A lot of duo runs. So, yeah, maybe they figured out something. But I'm with you. That formula is kind of just too tough. They're like a full-on Mike Leach, Air Raid team. All right. Going on to your next game. Your team.

versus the team I grew up with. Actually, I have terrible memories of these two teams playing. We got the Falcons at the Vikings. Vikings are five and a half point favorites in the Kirk Cousins revenge game. I don't know if it's a revenge game, if you're getting paid. All right.

what's your one thing for this one this is this is this is this is i i know you still got some anger from sunday so i well yeah what you got here i wanted to just rail against kirk today um and i mean i still can't but what i wanted to do was like oh my god like you have uh this guy who's

didn't play quarterback and he's just like, he's not moving out there. Like he's not doing anything that, that you would associate with modern quarterbacking. And I thought, man, like a defense, like,

the one that the Vikings have, it seems like I would just blitz him until he dies. Like, because, because he can't move, can't move back there. He's not going to move. Even in situations like where that's what makes it. That's what makes the defending Falcon so much easier recently, because even situations where like there's space for him to take off or punish the defense for playing man or playing zone, he just can't and won't do it. So I looked up his stats against the blitz and he's actually like,

Kind of fine against the blitz, you know about middle of the pack I but to me where you start looking at this game is We talked about it last week after a couple days ago after the charges game This offense is just getting easier and easier to game plan for because they don't really have they don't they don't have any plays that would like, you know break you as a defense and

They don't have controllers. Yes, yes. Controller plays. I was about to say constraint, and I was like, I don't think that's the right word. Same thing. Same thing. Yeah. Constraint plays, controller plays, change-ups I'll use sometimes. Yeah. Just don't let someone tee off on what your main things are. Yeah, yeah. Right. And I think that that's where, honestly, that's where some of Kirk's struggles in that Chargers game came, where it's just...

it's too easy. Like they're, they're, they're, I feel like the Falcons biggest easy button right now when they got to have something is like, they'll put Drake one in the slot or the motion him out from outside into a stack and lose a run of slant. Cause he's, and he's a big guy gets removed and he catches most of them. Okay. But that's like a C tier easy button, you know, like that's still not the hardest thing to defend. If you, if you know what's coming and you end up playing like this really crazy,

like, you know, like someone like Kurt Warner probably finds a Falcons offense really honorable because you're just sitting back and you're just firing, you know, you're like, you're not doing that much play action. No, no, no, no trickeration. You're just dropping back. All right. Oh, line block. And I'm going to fire. And it, it just, it's just, it's just not working. So I, I, I, well, I, well, I did find it interesting that like some of the numbers, like where you,

isolate like what the what the Vikings of defense is good at like Kirk actually performs kind of well in some of those stats but just like stylistically and trends wise I don't really see how they like consistently move the ball through the air unless they're just mowing them down on first down runs because it's gonna be pretty tough back there I think for Kirk

Again, I bring up the Cardinals again. I always like kind of watching the Cardinals kind of figure out their offense, I should say, kind of see how they solve problems. So I want them against the Vikings. It was kind of like, all right, I can carry over some of this, you know, now this next week, now that they play the Falcons.

And what they did with Kyler was a lot of boots, a lot of putting them on the move. You know what team boots the least? You know what team never uses any of that? It's the Falcons. And I was like, okay, all right. Oh, okay. I always bring this up on what types of runs you use against the Vikings. All right. So, oh, do duo. Okay. Maybe some counter stuff. You don't really want to pull guys. They went to a lot of counter gap scheme. Doesn't matter.

But why I'm saying all that is all the Falcons are on his zone.

And so it's some of the stuff that they want to do or don't want to do. It's this is Vikings defense is going to go like, all right, see how you do without it. Like, see how you like. So it's not like the Vikings or the Falcons have like no shot. Like, oh, I know it. Like they can. It's just they make it hard on themselves. Then that's it. Like you mentioned easy buttons. They just, oh, man, it's they can do the hard stuff. But it's like you don't always have to do a backflip. Sometimes you could just.

just dive into the water, you know, and it's just sometimes you can just go in and it's okay. For me, that's bootlegs. Maybe some screens, maybe some other stuff like that. So what this defense makes you do is be a big boy as a quarterback and push the ball and be right over and over. And Kirk, when he has to push the ball, it sometimes just comes unraveled this year. It kind of reminds me when –

when Kyle Shanahan got to Atlanta with Dan Quinn in 2015, wow, 10 years ago, basically. I know. It's crazy. Different lifetime for me. Same. I don't remember exactly who wrote the story, but there was, you know, when Shanahan got there, there was like a thing where Matt Ryan didn't really love the idea of running bootlegs. And Kyle was like,

Okay. And so what? That doesn't matter. I'm like getting out of bed in the morning every day, but I still got to do it. So go out there. Like, that's how I feel like they should kind of handle this. Just,

And I will say Matt was a better athlete than Kirk is right now. But still, you have to do it just to try. Because I feel like you're wasting. And even with the season it's having, wasting feels wrong. But there's still stuff that Bijon could accomplish on the field this year that's not getting accomplished too. Or you could squeeze more juice out of that run game because they have the chops to run the ball. But I feel like even running the ball is getting a little tougher for them because...

everything's, you know, static. It's about the same. Yes. No, I know. Yeah. They had that nice little stretch there for like four weeks, five weeks where it's like, okay, this offense is really feeling itself and really figuring it out. But that's the thing. They didn't take that next step. So it's kind of feel like they're stuck in third gear almost. All right. Going on the next one. This is another little fun game. This is bills at Rams. Rams are four and a half point underdogs. We got our first home dog for the sloppy slate. Uh,

Bills are rolling. Bills are very good on offense and defense. They have the MVP favorite right now, betting-wise, in my preseason selections. The only thing I think I'm going to get. I want to say Quan gets it. But this is a fun little scheme game for Rams offense versus that Bills defense because I'm writing about this, writing about the NFC West. Rams. Rams.

Really, really good against zone coverage. Not good against man coverage, which is something the Saints were taking advantage of. Kind of ran a lot of man coverage on all downs, a lot of one robber. And guys just, it's not their game. They don't have really that speed element. They don't have guys that can kind of pull away. They're big body guys, which makes a lot of sense why they're good against zone. Look at stats.

Not scared of Stafford scrambling, which is, again, to be expected. But Stafford has the fourth most dropbacks against man coverage. He's 28th in EPA per dropback against man, 24th in success rate. Against zone with Nakua and Kup on the field, he has 97 dropbacks. First in success rate, 52.6%.

Seventh in EPA per dropback, almost a 15% explosive pass rate against zone. Why that matters. The bills run zone at the fourth highest rate in the NFL. They want to do this. They want to run a ton of zone. They want to make it hard on you. They want quarterbacks to make a mistake. They want offenses to have to be patient.

We'll see. It's kind of a strength on strength, though. And I'm curious if the Bills blink, if they go, OK, well, all right, we look at the self-scouting, the opponent scouting. They're not that good against man. Do they run a little bit more man? They'll change up some of their looks on passing downs, especially. And then it's kind of a Rams kind of thing. Like, all right, we got to get better against that. All right, well, they're going to do something that we have answers against. All right, what do we lean in against that? Is the staffer just stays good? Do they lean into more of the run game?

Because the Rams' offensive line has been good in the run aspect, but pass protection, you don't really want to be dropping back a ton. So I think the second half of that Rams game against the Saints was pretty indicative of, okay, maybe they have to eat their Wheaties a little bit, eat their vegetables a little bit, and run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. Okay, be select with their passes as opposed to maybe being pass happy that they tried to be in the first half. Yeah.

Yeah, fun little scheme game here. Two good teams. I mean, the Bills are really good, and I think the Rams are pretty good, and they still have a chance at the playoffs. So it will be a fun one in L.A. Anything on this game? Or do you want to get to one of your soft ones next one? I mean, I'm kind of running out of things to say here about some of these games, but I feel like the Rams might find themselves in the same conundrum that we talked about after the Eagles game where –

I'm pretty sure they finished that game with a higher success rate than the Eagles offense did. But, you know, explosive plays, EPA per play, kind of that freestyle tip. I still like watching this offense, but, you know, it just feels... You can tell they're just a little incomplete, not...

exactly, you know, health-wise weren't where they want to be to start the season. Certainly found their footing a little bit, but it's just a little bit too late for them. But still, you know, they can give the Bills a headache, but I just think the Bills can generate too many big plays at the end of the day.

Yeah, the Rams want to be very efficient. They're not extremely explosive, but the Bills are kind of fine with that. And, you know, the Rams offense on the other side, like Josh Allen's playing really well. They got a good run game, and they got good answers against what the Rams want to do, even though the Rams defense is fun and young and stuff like that. So it's an interesting game. I actually...

Kind of would say that the Rams might cover being home and all that. They have some okay answers, but it will be tough. I wouldn't see. It's not like the Bills have poor answers against that. It's more the Rams have to prove a lot. All right, getting your fun one. Saints at Giants.

Giants are four and a half point home dogs. What do you got for this one, Charles? Drew Locke is starting this week again, which is good because he's... He's a better player than Drew Locke. Yeah, he's a better player than Tommy DeVito. I mean, hey, they scored 20 points last week against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, which is better than seven that they scored against the Bucs with DeVito. So...

I guess with this game... Transitive scouting. Right. I know. I know. I know. I guess with this game, I just kind of want to see... And this is just petty. I just want to see if the Giants front can just mess up Derek Carr and just see if you can get him into one of those games where he gets hit a couple times and he's panicking and throwing bad balls. Because, dude, I honestly think the Saints this year...

I don't think they've been quite as bad, especially recently, quite as bad as their record is. They have been tough out each week, and I would expect them to win this game, even though it sounds crazy that they would be

what, four-point road dogs or four-point road favorites. That's just where the Giants are right now. I just want to see if their front can mess them up a few times to the point where maybe Derek Hart does something funny because outside of that, these teams aren't playing for anything unless the Falcons and Bucs both just absolutely tank the rest of the season. So I don't know. Not too much here, but maybe some funny things can happen.

Yeah, the Saints were trying on Sunday. I'll say that. That Rams-Saints game was a little bit more fun to rewatch than I thought it would be. They haven't quit. They haven't quit at all. Alvin Kamara was running so hard. Yeah, no, they're trying. I thought...

Carr played a solid game. No, and the offensive line actually played pretty well. And I think Eric McCoy is coming back from injury. I'm not sure if this week. By the way, we're recording this on Wednesday evening as opposed to Thursday afternoon. So, yeah, the injury report stuff is a little shaky. Just after half of Wednesday practices are completed by the time we recorded this. But I also wanted to say is Drew Locke for a minute was having a great week.

Tom Herman got fired from FAU and then he ran in that touchdown and I was like,

It's coming up. The world's coming up for Drew Locke. And it kind of came unraveled. Michael Parsons came back alive. He kind of came unraveled after that. And overshown, got a nice little touchdown. But no, I will say that the Saints were doing some stuff. Their defense was trying really hard against the Rams. Like, Lonte Taylor was really trying to bring in tackling. He'd been poor at that throughout the season. So it was cool to see that. But yeah.

See what the effort is, I guess. Maybe something in that regard. I kind of have the same type of game in this next one. So I have Bears at 49ers. 49ers are four-point favorites at home. This one, like four weeks ago, would have been a really good one. You know, like maybe five weeks ago. But it's just been season hell of hell from both of these teams.

I kind of my bullet points on this one aren't as fun. I was like, what do you guys got in the game of Murphy's Law? Caleb Williams against Fred Warner and Fred Warner's like banged up to now. I've since the bye week. So when the Bears were feeling good, they just finished their game in London against the Jags looking great.

hit their bye week. Everything should be going, you know, off the roller coaster. Everything should be going great. Then they play that commander's game.

Then they lose on the Hail Mary. Since that Hail Mary, since that bye week, I should say, they are dead last in the NFL in combined success rate and explosive play rate. So that little stat I look at, the worst defense in the NFL. They have had injuries. Do not get me wrong. This defense, for a long stretch of the season, were a top five, top six defense. They truly have just went, nope.

on the here. And if you want to just look at effort level details, and I know they just fired their head coach, Matt Eberfuss, and this is a big reason because of that. But man, this is...

This is – I haven't seen a team just like quit this hard so quickly like the Bears did over the last six, seven weeks. Obviously, fire their head coach, fire their offensive coordinator. Thomas Brown is now the interim head coach. He said that he's lost like 20-something pounds since he's become a play caller. 22 pounds, man. That's what a calm place can do. I understand like losing some weight is stress, but 22 pounds in three weeks is –

Thomas, I say this as someone who loved watching you play in college with No John Marino. Get that checked out, my friend. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And Thomas was, he was drafted by the Falcons too. Yeah. He spent like seven months as Wisconsin's running back coach. Fast riser. He lost fast riser. Check that resume out. And then, yeah, 49ers is just kind of like,

What do you guys got to get to the end of the season? I know. Even writing about them is kind of just like, man, you know, and then they just kind of that snow game, which is probably no fun to kind of just be it. Yeah. Been a rough one for them. Womp womp. But we're going to be we're going to take our last break and then we are going to wrap up with the rest of our sloppy Sunday slate.

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Here we go. Another big spread here. Panthers at Eagles. Eagles are 12 and a half point favorites, nearly two touchdowns at home at the link. This is one of your games, Charles. What do you got for this one?

This is going to be the toughest test for Bryce Young on his recent string of competencies. This is really, really a tough matchup for him. And man, once I started, because the thing with Bryce is,

we are grading him on a curve right now, a massive curve, right? Because look, let's be real. There's a reason why he got benched for Andy Dalton. Like that was merited. It was 100% merited. And he's been better recently. But when you start actually like,

Placing what he's accomplished in the past five games that he's been playing compared to just the rest of the league, he's still below average. But now you're like 23-24 instead of like 40, right? Which is a big deal. Yes.

But here comes like the monsters on defense, right? Here's the real, but here's the real, but here comes the monsters. I know Kansas city's defense has been a little up and down, but I would still give him credit for what he did against the chief defense and scoring all his points and making some big time throws this week against the Buccaneers. Why rewatched it? It was like, ah, but,

it felt a little better in real time. He was, he was okay in that game. And that's a defense that is definitely worse than the chief defense. So, you know, probably just going through a little ebbs and flows, but this is really tough right here. But,

But if there is one glimmer of hope for Bryce Young against a face-eating defense with Jalen Carter, who's playing out of his mind, no rookie wall this year. He is absolutely slammed through that. The Panthers offensive line has a chance to hold up to what the Eagles can give you, which is not something that most teams can say. It's like the one...

clean good part of this uh of this team and they don't allow a whole lot of pressure they don't allow a whole lot of sacks i think that's kind of a fun big on big matchup with the eagles defensive line uh but once you get past that like man that's a pretty good secondary you're throwing into as well uh you know they've had some moments with leggett uh or league it excuse me league it and uh

And Jalen Coker, their first round receiver and their undrafted wide receiver. They've had some moments, but like Quinion Mitchell, Darius Slade's had a good year, Coop Dajin. I mean, it's just too much for them, I think. I understand why the point spread is big. And then obviously on the flip side,

I don't really need to break down Panthers defense versus Eagles offense, do I? That's an absolute boat race. Saquon should have another massive day. Like if the Eagles want to get Saquon Barkley an MVP or have people like really seriously consider it, spam him this game because the opportunities are going to be there.

Yeah, they absolutely should be. And yeah, even like like dealings come back from injury. But the thing is, is the Eagles are good against slot guys. They're good against stuff in the over the interior because of Cooper Dijon, because they rotate the safeties. Reblake and chip when he's healthy out there has been good as well.

No, this Eagles defense is legit, legit. It's numbers-wise, efficiency-wise, eye test versus the run, versus the pass, versus personnel groupings. It's just, yeah, they're a Fangio defense with some stars on it. Yeah, it's a great test. They make quarterbacks be patient, make quarterbacks make hard throws as well. That's what this kind of...

vice grip defense will do. Just make everything feel tight on you. Make tackle after the ball, you know, tackle after the catch. So it makes the quarterback have to be pristine. This is what Bryce Young should be good at. So he's not going to have to push the ball as much. He might once or twice or three times. It's not how he wants to play anyways, but this is a game where his strength should be to operate on time and should to be efficient. So this should be, he should have a path here and,

They don't have the horses and everything, but this defense is just so good that it's just like, I mean, in theory, it's like, oh, they have a style that works for this fight, but sometimes you are outclassed, and that's just how this one feels, even if they have some natural answers. So they might get them, or it might be one of those where the Panthers have an opening script drive, you know, where they score a touchdown, where I go, oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, like Bryce goes five for five and all that, and then he just goes...

just the whole air just gets sucked out as the rest of the game goes along. Cause that's kind of how I'm picturing this one. So yeah, I want to see it though. I won't see it. I will be interested in watching it, but I will too. Don't see it being a close game. Right.

And I just enjoy watching the Eagles defense, like, which is fun after how they played like the last year or two. So, uh, next one is one of my games got a AFC West brew. Ha ha. This is a Sunday night football game. Chargers at chiefs. Chiefs are four point favorites. They played early this year. Chiefs squeaked that one out. That's when I kind of the charge defense was like, Oh, you guys might be a little bit more real than I realized. Uh,

So for this one, first off, Chiefs offense, DJ Humphries might be playing left tackle. That's interesting. They need it. I've never seen Mahomes truly just...

I wouldn't say show up one of his teammates, but truly just go, hey, this isn't right. What was happening on Friday, on Black Friday against the Raiders, where the left tackle, whoever it was, was not even going to be able to do anything. Juanio Morris, Kingsley Suamata, it doesn't matter who's there. No one is blocking anybody at left tackle. Just a non-functioning position. And this Chiefs offense, because they're...

their passing game is so nickel-dimey and more just, you know, hyper-efficiency. They want to get everybody out into the pass route. So why I'm saying that is they don't want to give chip help. So they don't want to give the left tackle chip help because they want all five guys out into the route concept. That's how they want to operate. They want Mahomes to be perfect and find the right answer. And so that's kind of like, all right, it was limiting some of the things. Now they, I don't want to give this chip help when I tag and all that. So maybe DJ Humphreys,

who has had the, I haven't, you had some DJ Humphries thoughts where you're like, I wish I had his career made a bunch of money. No one has any thoughts on DJ Humphries and everyone's like, yeah, okay. First round pick played a bunch of years, got money. It was like, everyone's just like fine with it. No one's mad. No one's happy. It's just, yeah. Okay. That's a good life to have, man. You know, no one has any opinions on me and I'm well off. It could be my family. It's good.

And you were with one franchise long enough that you can go back there and show your face. You know, it's not bad. No, but I, and that's kind of just the one, that side. Cause yeah, Clomac rested today. I did see that right before we recorded Joey Bosa was practicing.

Two good players going against Humphreys. Interesting. Just have to check that out. And the other side of the ball, last thing I want to get into this. Chiefs defense since week seven. 23rd in passing success rate allowed since week seven. 15th overall since the beginning of the year in DVOA.

Might be a thing. Might be something to keep an eye on because I've been kind of waving away like the Chiefs defense. Oh, top 10. You know, they're top 10. They are still good against the run. Chargers can't really do much running the ball anyways. Now they try. Certainly try. Yeah, they will certainly try. They are going to poke at it as much as they can, but they got no J.K. Dobbins, who's now an IR. They got, you know, Gus Edwards back there and Vidal back there. But.

I just, you know, I'm curious how much they're going to be chucking the ball because also the Chiefs, this is the last thing, Chiefs poor defending slot receivers. I brought this up before, but Lama Conkey lines up there two thirds of the time. That matters. Chiefs have faced the second most targets to the slot this entire season. They're third most in yards allowed. They have the highest success rate allowed, nearly 60%.

of pass attempts, over 100 pass attempts too, are successful. When they get targeted the slot, they've allowed the most EPA.

happens when they blitz, but they're going to blitz. So yeah, check out for a big lad game, big lad McConkie game. I think they're going to, Herbert's going to be able to have some answers where it's going to be kind of boom bust against the blitz, but he doesn't take a lot of sacks. Generally he has this year because the offensive line did against the Falcons, but they're going to, I think going to be pushing the ball a little bit. I think throwing the ball might have a little slog in the run game. So look for some big plays for the chargers throwing the ball.

Yeah, that's a little bit. It'll be a fun Sunday night one. But then that's Sunday night. Sunday during the day, we got Slopwatch. And this is one of your games. So now's the time for Slopwatch. Warning, this is a Slopwatch.

I love that. It's like the purge about to happen. So I was going to break through my window with a damn shotgun. And that person is Will Levis because this is the Jacks Titans. Jaguars, Titans, Slopwatch. Have at it, Charles. Let's slop it up.

Yeah, I was about to say, Will Levis is, you know, in the classic Looney Tunes bit where Elmer Fudd... Yes, yes. Elmer Fudd, you know, he's in the forest with a shotgun, right? And he's chasing down Bugs Bunny. And all of a sudden, there'll be a moment in time where Bugs is in a tree. And Bugs...

digs a hole in the tree and then he'll dig a hole right up over the first hole and elmer fudd sticks the shotgun in the hole and it comes loose back around into you know into the second hole and he's

The gun's pointing at himself now. And that's exactly what it feels like watching Will Levis play football. Because there's good process here, right? There is good process at times. You know, we're hungry. We are going to go get some food and we're going to kill it and cook it with our own hands. Good. But you can't shoot yourself in the face.

Along the way, right? So that's kind of the only thing here with this Jags-Titans game. Because Trevor Lawrence, officially went on IR today. That's done. Mack Jones had a solid performance last week, but overall has been quite literally one of the worst quarterbacks I've ever seen this season. I don't know what happened to him because he wasn't always this bad, but he is...

really, really bad right now. But Will Levis, it's getting sacked on 13.4% of his dropbacks over the last month. It's close to 17%, which is just crazy. I mean, that doesn't make any sense. That's so much. Because the league average is probably closer to like, what, like 6%? Yeah, 6%. Maybe. But

13%, man, that means you're not even at one... It's not even a one for 10 where you're getting sacked. It's more than that. You just can't live with these amount of negative plays and obviously just the boneheaded decisions he'll make, whether it's with the ball in his hand, with the ball out of his hand. I don't know. He's kind of wild out there. But...

There's like just enough here where maybe you can squint and see, hey, if he can just not mess up enough or not take too many sacks, he could have a decent game against a Jaguars defense. That's really bad because there are some nice throws on the tape. Like he actually had a pretty nice game last week. But again, just way too many negative plays, just expose himself to way too much damage. But I guess he doesn't care. You know, when you're built like a bodybuilder, you can you can eat it.

Meathead quarterback. He's got mayo coating around his body. Yeah, no, he's good. No, that was, yeah, he nailed it. You know, what happened to Mac Jones, I think he just went home and he's just like, I'm good. Like, this is great. Probably just, he gets, you know, several mama cooked meals every week. Pizza rolls. That's pretty good. Yeah, pizza. Mac, you hungry? Go.

got pizza rolls in the microwave coming back from work as a starting NFL quarterback it's pretty funny it's pretty funny because there are a lot of people when he got traded there got traded back to Jacksonville everyone was like oh no like come on everyone was like no that's not good he's a little party boy you know sometimes he needs to stay away from home I still got your court set up in the basement

Me and Matt Jones both need to stay away from home. Which time? When you're playing Madden. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It was after I had lost a double overtime, not double overtime game. I did the nerdy go for two 14, down 14. And I missed both. So I got the worst outcome. And the two point conversion was the last play of the game. And I was playing against my best friend from college. So this was a very tightly contested talk and a bunch of s***.

And I was screaming. And when I walked into the kitchen after the game, I'm almost like, are you are you OK? Like, what what's happening to you? I was like, oh, I need to go home. I forgot. I forgot. People can hear me. People can hear me. I'm not sitting in my apartment by myself. Yeah, that's good. That's great. Yeah. I think of the pizza rolls, the pizza bagels. I just thought it was super bad.

Pizza bagels. All right. Last game. Monday night football here. One of mine. Bangles at Cowboys when they probably book this one. They're like, oh, heck yeah.

Week 14, Bengals, Cowboys. This is going to be a juicy one. Instead, Dak's not playing. Bengals season is just all that effort from Joe Burrows for not. It is the Simpsons game, by the way, which is I think one of our friends is involved in that. So I'm pretty excited to check out what she's up to on that one. But the Cowboys are five and a half point ahead.

Underdogs at home at Jerry World. Don't have to worry about the sun because it's a night game. We have to worry about it because it's a primetime game. But I do want to bring up, first off, Joe Burrow's been fantastic. Everyone's talked about what's going on with the Bengals offense. Oh, my God, the Bengals defense. Can't stop a nosebleed, all that stuff. Should have some better fare against Cooper Rush and the—

beat up Cowboys offensive line. I will say, since Micah Parsons has been back, Cowboys defense picked up a little bit. He's returned from injury in week 10. They've lead the NFL in sacks since he's returned with 16. They're eighth in EPA per play. They're third in EPA per dropback. 12th in success rate. Still meh against the run. They give up one of the most yards per run still. But they're going against Joe Burrow. He's been fantastic, like I said. The offense has some answers against this. They like to get rid of the ball quick. They like to get rid of the ball

Just wanted to check it out. Let's see what's going on with Mike Zimmer versus Joe Burrow. That's what I'm keying in on this. Zimmer's, they found a little bit of life. They're getting a little bit healthier in Dallas. Maybe the defense shows some effort. They're not totally out. I think they still have a 1% chance of the playoffs. So both these teams do, but...

Just want to maybe check out while this defense playing because Parsons is still playing really hard. And I think the rest of the defense has since his return has kind of got sparked back and maybe these guys are returning to. So that'll spark them up as well. Going against still a very good offense that.

statistically, I test everything with a quarterback playing very well as well. So that actually is a little bit more interesting. I feel bad for Joe Burrow a little bit because when he got hurt, I guess last season, there was a long stretch where he was just playing awful football, awful football. And now he's

I think he's playing the best football of his career right now. I agree. Defense is so bad. Dude, after week one this year, I thought I was like, dude, what's wrong with this guy? Yeah. My recent memories, I mean, we talked, we joked about it, but I was just kind of like, is he cooked? And it's been...

How he chooses when to be aggressive, how that offense is because of the looks they get in the receivers, but how consistently accurate he is, how smart he is, control of the offense. Is that at another level? He's scrambling well as well. Like, will you forget how good of an athlete he is? Like, yeah. I mean, I've really enjoyed watching him this year. He's been probably one of my more favorite quarterbacks slash players just to watch overall. It's been...

It doesn't matter who the receivers are. They just figure it out. So, yeah. I know you do feel bad for him because it's just like...

They do what they can. Hey, this was the strength of the team. Let's keep it the strength. So, yeah, we did the funeral show earlier this week. Bengals was an interesting discussion because it's like, all right, well, they need to find defense. All right, how they do it. Bengals fans think they're going for Mason Graham is their guy, the guy defense tackle for Michigan. And then Milton Williams, the deal I'm in from the Eagles, who's having a great year. That's that's everybody who needs a defense alignment. That's like they're that's their.

Pet guy is Milton Williams. So yeah, that's the hero everybody wants. All right. Mailbag question to wrap this show up. Reminder, you can send in mailbag questions to our email football301mailbag at yahoosports.com or submit a review on Apple Podcasts to jump the line, get that fast pass for football 301 land, we'll call it. So this question, which was an Apple review question, it's from he74829 says,

My buddies and I had an argument about if a nickel corner is a corner. Could you tell us what the difference between a traditional corner and a nickel corner is? Charles?

Thoughts? What? Yeah, Nick McCormick is a cornerback for sure. And I mean, I guess it could technically be a safety too, depending on. It is now, yes. Yeah, but I don't know. You're still a defensive back. You're not a linebacker. I would still consider it a cornerback just because, especially now in the NFL, 11 personnel is king. We've known that for a long time now. You're just going to end up guarding receivers in that spot.

Way way more than you did in the distant past. So yeah, you need a corner out there and I will say someone In college when I played defensive end and I dropped every once in a while not a cornerback not a cornerback I promise you I'm not a cornerback. So yes, that's a space player not not a space player, you know because you end up like sometimes you'll end up where where a slot corner was on a blitz and you're you're Next thing, you know, you're the hook player or you're the flat player. I

And I'm wearing number 96 and just not, I'm the mark. I'm the mark. Yeah. I don't want to. Yeah. I was going to say, I don't want to carry a single digit number vertically. Yeah. That was always, that was like in the big 10. It was always, Oh, is that a 52 in the slot? Okay. Yeah. Just look at the numbers. That's, that's how you figure out. No, it was traditionally slot corner was the third corner back.

And usually it was a, the, the archetype was a smaller guy, you know, five, nine, one 80, one 85. And they're quicker and they could keep up with the slot receiver because that was the third receiver, the guy in the slot, because they can just move around. They're quicker. That was the short routes that they had to run on. It's evolved. Like all positions have. So it's like slot is its own thing. Now it's even on all protein now. So it's like, it's hard. It's hard to say because nickel corner is,

It is the thing, but it's the slot, which is his own thing. And so I like a traditional corner, a stereotypical one, like, or a prototypical one, I should say is Patrick Sertan, six to 200 pounds, 190 something pounds, long arms. Like that is an outside corner. Sertan's a freak can line up anywhere. Derek Stingley also prototypical build for maybe those outside corners.

While a slot guy is usually five, nine, five, 10. I guess Mike Hilton would be maybe nowadays the modern stereotypical what was traditional slot corners. Now we get more of a hybrid roles. Now we get Brian Branch. Not so much this year, but traditionally.

who's a safety by trade that will play in the slot. Kyle Hamilton, kind of a hybrid guy. And that's just because defenses want to do a lot more. They want to tackle. They want to blitz. They want to, you know, the guy, like you just mentioned, 11 personnel is the king here.

If we have to be in nickel all the time, well, that guy has to be part of the run game. So the body types got bigger because of that. And just like receivers got bigger at slot as well. So it's just as things become more hybrid. So it's slot corners become its own thing as maybe to post the nickel and nickel means five DBs. And now that's just standard. And then now there's dime, which means six for some reason, but it does. But yeah, yeah, it's, I've always, I've been fascinated how teams play.

like will shy away from those body types or encourage them. Like some teams are like, no, I want no small corners. And some teams are like, or whatever, you know, feisty is feisty. So it's fun to see what body types. I used to always think it was interesting that,

that the slot corners, I don't think they're quite as small as they used to be, but I always thought it was interesting that they would be so small because I would just be like, run his ass off the field, you know? Right. Because that used to be the thing. It was like, all right, get him in the nickel and run at him. Like, that used to be the common offensive answer. The year that... No.

The year that comes back to my mind is when Jalen Ramsey had the insane year with Brandon Staley and Aaron Donald was blacking out. And that's when I was like, really, I was like, holy crap. If you can put someone like Jalen Ramsey in a slot, you can blow up, like you can blow up modern offenses. But, you know, it's really, really difficult to find players like Jalen Ramsey. And those defenses too, being so much too high, you know, Fangio right now, Cooper Dejean.

is you would rather have a better player in the slot than outside because they are more creative with how they use those guys because they will use the simulated stuff and blitz them and get them up in the run. So that's why Ramsey there, it's like, hell yeah, use them everywhere. Use them because then you can rotate back. You can do all these things with them. Outside corner, it's like it's...

It's still traditional, like what you want, like an AJ Terrell or something like that. But it is when you have someone dynamic like that in the slot, modern defenses are so much better at using them than they used to be. As opposed to, it used to just be like Rondé Barber was like the only guy like that was like, you're really like, oh man, that guy's dynamo in the slot. And then now half the teams have a Rondé Barber, Devin Witherspoon, you know, for the Seahawks. Like there's a whole bunch of these guys now. It's been a fun kind of like evolution. Yeah.

The last thing I have for this show is a quick story. The nickel and dime bit reminded me of the year I spent coaching high school football, which was also about 10 years ago at this point, which is crazy. Yeah, time flies. But on the first day, we weren't a very good team, right? There weren't a lot of guys who actually knew that much about football. So we were going through basic terminology,

And, you know, our coach, he was like, you know, the head coach, he was like, all right, so nickel is five defensive backs, right? So if you're in our dime package, that is how many? And someone said 10. He's like, intuitively correct, but...

wrong as hell. It's six. And he was like, if you ever suggest that we put 10 defensive backs on the field, you will run until you cannot breathe. And that was, that always stuck in my head. Cause I sat there and thought, why is it dime? I mean, I understand progressionally nickel dime, but it's,

times 10 you know i know it's weird it is it's just one you can't call it a half dozen i guess and a quarter quarters yeah and then there's dollar well then it's funny you said we're not gonna put 10 dbs i was like bill belichick might the cardinals might uh no that's yeah well then there's the famous far story like he had no idea what nickel was

Like that. That's all. Yeah. X is on the chalkboard, man. That's some of these guys. What coverage is this? I don't know. Too high. Throw it in there. Just make the throw. Sometimes I even break down games. Is this power or counter? I don't know. Gap. Whatever. Just move on. Or don't figure it out. Or don't. Just score touchdowns. Go Hall of Fame. It's easy. All right. We're closing it out today.

Charles and I will be back on Sunday afternoon with our instant takeaways with the fifth quarter of Football 301. We like our numbers here. I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice on Twitter. You can find me at Nate Tice.

on Blue Sky. Charles, where can they find you? What are you working on this week? You can find me on Twitter. I argue with Miami fans. You can find me on Blue Sky doing just about everything else. Yeah, four words on both websites. And this week I did four words column. Wrote about Brock Powers. Really remember what else I did on Sunday and Monday. It's been a long week.

But yeah, if you like Brock Bowers, you want to laugh at Matt Epifluce and the Bears, check out my four verse column from this week.

Perfect. I know you're, you're ready to rock with the Brower stats. So I appreciate that. So yeah, I appreciate everyone listening as well. Subscribe to us, follow us, rate us five stars or watch us on YouTube or, and watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo sports YouTube channel. Thanks to Brett and Stone for behind the scenes, do everything that they do. Thank you to everyone for listening. Enjoy your weekend. We'll see you guys on Sunday.

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