Week 2 preview: 5 most interesting matchups
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On this episode of Football 301, Charles McDonald joins me for the week two preview of the NFL season. We look at five games, a little extended breakdown with two little snack pack breakdowns at the end of the show. Really fun episode. Football is here. See you guys in a sec.

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Hello and welcome back to Football 301. I am Nate Tice. We have our week two preview in store for you. Charles McDonald is going to join me in about 10 seconds to preview five of these games, plus a one little quick little glimpse, a little one shot from each of us at the end of the show. So about seven games of this series.

weekend slate, no Friday games this week. So Thursday and Sunday, Monday slate back to the usual weekend of football back into the rhythm of everything. And from here on out every Thursday to help preview every weekend's games of the NFL and maybe some college. That is the great Charles McDonald. Mr. Forberts, how you doing today, Chuck? Doing all right. I got stuck behind a like dead subway train on my way into the office today. I

which is part of the reason why I was there, why it took me so long to get here. But I was underground for like an hour with barely any AC and it's about 85 degrees today in New York. So I've had better mornings, but I think this will get me moving back in the right direction. It's 85 here in Vegas right now. Same weather. Yeah, we're over the hump.

I thought we were done with this in New York. So yeah, that's what I felt like in Vegas. I hit like 102, 104 last week. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. But on my computer on the bottom, I could see weather and then, you know, like cloudy, all that stuff. It says 85 degrees and smoke.

because we got the California fires that have come over here. Some cool sunrises. We're in the pump fake time of the year. There's two pump fake times, like right out of the winter going into spring and out of summer going into fall where it's like, oh, relief from whatever the extreme was and then you're right back in there for a couple more weeks. It's the tease. It's the tease, yeah. It's the weather blue balls that Mother Nature likes to give you. Isn't there some issues with New Jersey transit and stuff too? Oh, there was this summer, big time.

Yeah. Because it was getting so hot that forest fires were starting-- or bushfires were starting next to the tracks, and things would get delayed for days at a time.

There's fires on both coasts. It's great. Nothing to see here. Nothing to see here. Yeah. God dang, that's not what I want to hear. Bushfires starting in the city. Greatest city in the world. That's right. No, but like I said before, we're going to be previewing a half dozen, half dozen plus one of these games. A little bit more of a deep dive on five of them. Charles and I will talk about when both teams have the ball in these matchups, and then we'll

preview how a team can win or cover if you're in that kind of thing, but how to make it close at the very least. So to start us off, I believe this is going in chronological order. We're going to have the Seattle Seahawks at the New England Patriots. The Patriots are three and a half point underdogs. Charles, when the Seahawks have the ball, what's something that you are keeping an eye on or something that

It's of note when you're watching this game. I think Grubbs going against a defense that has full talent, not just kind of like one guy. Not to say that the Broncos' defense are filled with bumps. We've said on this podcast, they looked okay. But I think the Patriots' defense in terms of personnel, especially what we saw last week against Cincinnati, that's probably a step up from what they saw against Denver. So I think that that'll be...

interesting just to see how that plays out. And to me, that's probably the key to the game because I think when you look back at what happened to the Patriots week one, I would imagine most of their games are probably going to look like that. You know, 16-10, 17-16, 20-17 range. They're not going to be scoring a whole lot of points. So if you can just find a way to score...

It's called three touchdowns versus defense. Probably stay away from Christian Gonzalez because I thought he looked really good last weekend. That's probably going to be your key to win. Don't need to score too much, but it's also pretty difficult to score on this defense. It's a race to 20 type game. That's what it feels like. Yeah. I always just say like, you know, live bullets or bullets start flying or weapons or anything like that. The Patriots are truly represented with the muskets.

Like on offense. It's not a machine gun. It's not a pistol. It's a musket. That is their offense. Muskets and cannons. It's old school as it gets. Gerard's already said Jacoby is the slowest black quarterback in the league. So muskets, muskets and cannons. I love that.

That's that offense. That's really the defense, too. This is like you said, but this is how they're going to win games. It's going to be a lot of run first. What they're hoping and what you're starting to see is that then they can drop in Drake May somewhere in this season when they kind of feel good about the offensive infrastructure. Pretty good start. But when I watch this defense, this is a classic Patriots defense. Big, burly, smart. They're doing a lot of checks to mess with Burrow. So like Burrow would check.

then the Patriots would recheck. And then you could see Burrow a lot going like, oh, shoot. Like, kind of gone. Like, because he didn't know whether I should I get back to the original play? Like, you could tell it's like, okay, I'm just going to go with the play. And you do a lot of bailout options. That's why I felt a lot really tight. Kind of traditional quarterback teaching is if you feel –

Like your feet are late or you get moved off your spot. It's just check it down or throw underneath. Like Phillip Rivers is the epitome of it. The king of it. Burrow is kind of an extreme version of it right now. Good and bad, but you could really see it. They were making them feel uncomfortable and making them feel tight. So he's just looking underneath. But I watched this. I'm curious about the Seahawks interior. They're they're offensive line. It's very.

Charles Cross looks great. I will say that at left tackle, he had a great week one, but Kenneth Walker's banged up. He can be so boom bust. He did have a nice week one, but with Charbonnet starting, he's better at staying on schedule, but it's just such a different ask against the Patriots defense because they're just so big.

and and they just push you and push you and push you so yeah it's an interesting matchup you you mentioned grub uh his offensive line coach is a college guy as well a little different i know they went against vance joseph but this isn't going to be another difference like welcome to the nfl this kind of defense just not only size but some of the scheme stuff on the back end uh do the patriots double team anyone i know i said one thing but this is kind of like this became more of a

interesting scheme battle that I originally thought it was going to be once I started kind of picking at it. So, yeah, do the Patriots double team anyone? Like, that's always a curious thing, who they think is your biggest threat. I would guess it would be DK, but do they just put Gonzalez on DK and then double somebody else? Lockett, who's been banged up, but JSN or somebody like that. So, it's really, really interesting game as far as design, scheme, and players-wise. So, when the other side has the ball, Charles, the Patriots...

What are you checking out? What are you focusing on? Red zone. What? I didn't just say that. I just said how much the Patriots run it. How much they run the ball. I know it's not sexy, but that's it. They're rock fights. These are these games. Yeah, and I think, and it just sounds so football cliche, but I think when you're talking with this offense, it's right. Just avoiding negative plays because you're not, you don't want to be

With this offense and where they are right now? Right. You don't want to be behind the sticks with this group of players that you have right now. And especially going against someone like Michael McDonald, who I know last week was not...

Really representative of a real NFL passing game. But first week, Seattle Seahawks defense, like you got to check, looks better than it did last year. The personnel and defensive line is quality. I think that that might be an avenue where it's tough for the Patriots to run the ball. But also, I think the Patriots offensive line is a little undersold in terms of their run blocking ability.

Rondae Stevenson just had 120 yards. I know the Bengals interior, we talked about it all preseason. It's not the toughest unit in the world. But, you know, we're talking about doom and gloom. You can't even think about putting Drake May in because he might die and end up in the hospital if you play him. It looked okay for week one, you know. They look better than the Seahawks a lot. They look better than the Seahawks. They might be the best offensive line in this unit. And they need to play well because if they start giving up sacks and TFLs, they might not score a point.

Right. It was, they dared the Bengals corners to tackle and the Patriots won the bet every single time. And that's, but that's going to be their game plan. They're going to just pound it, pound it, pound it, pound it. And it's not sexy runs. It's not, it's not the dolphins run game. A lot of pitches and side to side. It is truly duo and stuff. That's just, I mean, there is no hiding what they're doing, but the thing is,

When you get into games like this, maybe against a Seahawks defense that likes to get funky and likes to have guys running every which way, likes to use their DBs a ton. Okay, maybe you can catch them. Maybe you kind of just punch them in the mouth. That's one way, even last year with the Ravens defense, which was better personnel. But that was one way you kind of caught them a little bit. It was like, hey, I'm just going to run it and just screw it. Like, you guys can do everything you want, but this is my clean answer. Patriots have to do it by default. Mike McDonald is a very good coach and very...

astute on what other teams want to do. So I will say it's a sneaky Haas fight. Like Patriots all line versus Seahawks defensive line is like, it's a nice little Haas fight going on down there. So I'm, I'm excited to watch that, I guess. So that's all you're really going to watch. I don't think the past game will be too sexy. Or you could just listen to the soothing sounds of Scott Hanson.

Right. Right. But what this always happens is this, the game gets caught as the other ones go to commercial. Right. It's like, ah, sorry. I know we have eight games on seven are commercial. All right. So let's go into Patriots. Have the ball backed up again against the Seahawks. It is. Oh, it's three to two. We're entering the end of the first half. Yeah, that's I can already picture it right now. All right. Actually, I like the Seahawks. The offense a little better than that. I'm sorry. You guys score more than that. All right. How can the Seahawks win?

What do you, what do you, what do you picture in? They are, they are favored. Yeah. And they should be favored. They're, they're the better team. I mean, as, as impressive to me as that Patriots team was on Sunday, um, against the Bengals team that still has Superbowl aspirations. Like they, they did just have the number three pick in the draft. It's going to take some time. Uh,

I don't really see an area where if you're a Seahawks fan or even a Seahawks coach and you're looking at...

our defensive personnel versus particularly at like DB versus wide receiver, we feel like we should win that pretty comfortably. And then versus the run, Tyrell Dodson this weekend, he is so funny because all he wants to do is just trigger downhill versus a run. And he missed some stuff behind him, like on some play action stuff. But if he's able to just kind of get going downhill and they can kind of eliminate that run game, then you're talking about like,

some of the weakest wide receivers in the league going against one of the better defensive coordinators in Devon Witherspoon. That just seems like a tough battle. So I just think if you can stop the run, you'll probably win the battle for Tristan by the end of the game.

I actually used the word I used war of attrition in my write up. I said, Patriots don't have the horses on offense and can't throw the ball and they lose the war of attrition that it's a field position game. Ugly law, you know, ugly watch like a 1710 loss, something of that sort. No, great shout out with Dotson. And this is a game for him.

Hopefully he just doesn't get caught coming up so hard. Julian Loft looked fantastic in this defense too. I know some people scoffed at his extension or signing, re-signing, but looks much better in this defense. It's

They're very well game plan. He's able to play fast and he's game plan. But that's how I kind of picture that if the Seahawks win is just that they take care of business kind of thing. Don't make mistakes, actually have some decent drives. It's not gonna be easy on offense, but they have a couple drives, get some good field position, kind of just win it out in the end. How did the Patriots win?

If they almost do the reverse, like they flip the war of attrition onto the Seahawks, like just pummel the absolute shit out of them. You know, we're not letting you run the ball. Kenneth Walker, like we're in every gap. You're not going to be able to bounce stuff. And now you're looking at like one-on-ones on the outside against Christian Gonzalez. It's a pretty quality secondary, I think. I think that's where

the Patriots can win, but it's just going to happen. The way that they can win is one of the hardest ways to win in the modern NFL. Just a defensive takeover. Just go beat the crap out of them. I don't know if they can do that, but that's the avenue if they want to get it done. That's it. That's why you want the better players because they just make a lot of things more right. This is like you have to just everything has to go perfect. Just like last week did for them. I mean, really, I mean, even the they forced a fumble at the one and ball just bounced perfectly to them.

That's how you win. They have to win that way. So, yeah, I think it's pretty obvious like building a Patriots win here is basically last week. Limit them on offense, get really good field position and just run, run, run, run, run, run and make no mistakes in the passing game. So I do. Yeah, I'm just I'm just curious who they take away. Like if they did more zone last week. So I'm curious if they go back to the one double stuff and or even zero double, which I call it, but doubling two guys. I'm curious if they do that, make it even harder. Yeah.

All right, moving on to the next game. We got the Browns at the Jags.

This is a weird matchup where I remember multiple of these games. One last year, I remember when my dad was with the Jags in like 2010. They played there and the Browns had that returner, number 16. Josh Cribs. Josh Cribs. Yeah. And I think he had a big, I think it was like a breakout game or a big game against him. But anyways, Browns at Jags. Jags are favored by three at home. When the Browns have the ball, Charles, what are you watching? Boom.

With my heart or my mind? With my mind. Let's start with your mind. With my heart, I want to see what happened last week. But with my mind, I think, how can they win this game? I stared at this for so long yesterday. And I don't really know.

Because if this is your quarterback reality, you can't win this game, I don't think. Not if the Jaguars' defense is what they were last week against Miami, where you feel good about how you played outside of the two chunk plays by Tyreek and Jalen Waddle, which is like charge it to the game kind of stuff because they're that caliber of player. But, you know, Tua is way better than Deshaun Watson is right now. And they helped that offense out.

to one of like the toughest outputs in terms of just getting the ball down the field, moving the ball that they've had since Mike McDaniel got there. So now you're going against... Third worst game by drop X success rate. Yeah. That two has had. And it felt like that too, watching it. So I don't...

I don't really know what the Browns can do. I'm not really sure where Conklin and Wills are in terms of their health, but if they're back in the same situation as last week with the backup tackle duo, plus you have this quarterback who can't really seem to make the plays that he used to, plays that looked easy for him four years ago, he just can't make them now. I don't really know.

if that's something that they can overcome right now. Now, like it does help obviously be able to lean on Myles Garrett and that secondary on the backend. Cause you know, one of the tough parts, like when your team like this is,

When you get to the end of the game, I thought that the Browns defense for the whole game played all right. But you're just getting nothing, right? And you just keep getting nothing, getting bad field position, sacks, turnovers. You just keep getting put in a bad spot. And that's how a good defense can end up giving up, you know, 30 points on the day. And I can see that happen again, but I can see it happening every week. And until Watson shows some signs of life, right?

I struggled to even find a spot where they can really win this game. And that's really because the Jaguars defense looks so tough this week. There's no, there's no universe right now where this team can like consistently play well against one of the best defense in the league. It's he's become a safe, but at the same play time, negative player, as far as taking sacks and turning the ball over, but he's become such a safe player that,

that this is Sean Watson talking about that he doesn't offset all those negatives remember he sacks he took his rookie year and really early in his career that was the big thing he still plays like that but he is the same guy they're running his favorite RPO that the Dolphins stole that they literally call Watson because they took it from the Texans and Deshaun Watson look at that Bill O'Brien take a bow but they they ran it again in this game I want to say the first drive

And this use, it's a, uh, with this play I'm talking about, you'll see the dolphins running like every other, every other play, but it is a zone relook like split zone where the Titan works across. He bluffs the D end runs to the flat. And then they run like cross verticals or switch verticals by the other guys. Usually you hit the flat or you just hand the ball off, but usually you're hitting the flats, a big gain to us. Sometimes we'll hit the, like the inner seam. Sometimes he's, he's gotten decent X, they run 500 times. So they run it.

Deshaun doesn't even break the pocket. So they fake it and he just takes a step and then tries to throw it. I think it gets sawed off right away. I know this is just a one play extrapolating, but I'm giving an example. This is a difference between Deshaun Watson of yesteryear and right now.

That play is not a naked bootleg movement throw anymore. It's one step and throw. There's no one he's threatening with his athleticism. He doesn't have that twitch anymore. He doesn't have that bounciness, that ability to make guys miss, bounce off tackles, and then make the big play. So he's become a safe quarterback who didn't throw the ball once past the sticks on third and long.

He had 10 dropbacks. He went all five of his passes were short of the sticks. He scrambled three times and he took two sacks. So you can't win that way. This offense doesn't have Nick Chubb right now. I like Jerome Ford, but Jerome Ford to me is like a solid back. You don't build the offense around Jerome Ford. He's just a nice back to have if you have a good passing game. Would have liked him with the Chiefs or somebody like that. But the fact with this is that when I'm watching this, that this offense you can tell should have Nick Chubb because

because of how they run, how they build everything. And Nick, Nick Chubb hasn't walked through that door right now. So this is how this offense is going to be until they make a change of quarterback, because I, I have enough sample size. It's not just one game. This is from last year too. And this is exactly how he played last year. So what makes me think this is different after you had a whole off season to work at it? And I know he was banged up, but he got healthy and everything. So,

I, yeah, they have to make everything a rock fight, especially against this Jags defense that even without Tyson Campbell was really tough. I think one of the most concerning things that you can from last week's game that you can kind of spin forward is, okay, what year is this on drafted? 2017. So this is, this is season eight. There's a lot of free runners in that Dallas game, just coming straight through the offensive line. And to me, if your offensive line is going to be hurt,

and you've been an NFL quarterback, you know, for almost a decade, you should be able to mitigate some of that before the, the, the, the boss, uh, the, before the, before the play starts. So now you,

You have someone who's clearly diminished. They're not giving you any, you know, mental upside where you're helping your backup offensive line. Hey, hey, you know, we got someone about to blitz through. Let's change this picture real quick. They're not doing any of that. No. Just free runners. Like, dude, you're letting Micah Parsons sometimes walk through your offensive line. Or if he's not, then someone's looping right back behind him and they're just all a mess. And...

that's kind of how like the few times the Falcons were able to get home last year was when Nielsen blitzed. Like that's one of his strengths. Like,

You get Zimmer and Nielsen back-to-back for the backup offensive line and a quarterback right helping you that yeah I know the Cowboys defense is the worst defense to go against if you have quarterback issues that Much easier though. No That's the thing you want Campbell out. I'm like, all right who's gonna threaten out there, you know Cooper and they have nice Kind of pieces but it's not a threatening passing game and that's a big difference and I

I'll give another example about kind of how this team feels and how white flag everything feels with this passing game. They had a third long. I sent this to you. They got to empty and they ran a flat route with two blockers on one side and a flat route with one blocker on the other side or a bubble with a blocker on the other side. Third, I think it was third and eight or third and nine that they ran that play.

I've seen that play sometimes run where guys check into it against a cover zero where they catch them. They call this from the huddle that this was the play call no matter what the look was. That is a white flag safe play because also the quarterback just has to pick a side and throw a flat route. You're saying negative yards on the play on a third one, third and two. The Bengals have done this before, but third one, third and two, not third, ninth or eight. That...

Why do you give this guy money? All this guaranteed money. That's why you pay these guys or they draft them highs to win on third and long at least once or twice. It doesn't have to be every time, but yeah. All right, let's go to the other side. Enough misery. Jags defense now. Check them out. Even without Tyson Campbell, check out the Jags defense. All right, but when the Jags offense has the ball against this Browns defense...

What are you checking out, Charles? Which wide receivers are winning one-on-ones? That's, to me, that's the big thing here. It's so tough because they were moving the ball last week against Miami. And then the second half, it turned to hell. Like outside of the 94-yard drive they had, they ended in a fumble on the one-yard line. I think they had 10 yards the rest of the half on like 17 plays. So that's...

I mean, obviously, that's just ridiculously bad. Can't have that. Can't have that. Like, there's nothing to say besides that's just, like, so bad it's stupid almost. So, like, you just got to find a way to not, like, not only get explosives, but just move the ball. And I think if you're going to be in a spot where that Browns defensive line still should be tough to run against, so you might have to rely on the pass game more.

That would worry me a little bit just because I still think really high of the Browns' DB room. And I'm still trying to figure out where I am on the Jags' wide receiver room because the first half, they looked pretty good. And when they were kind of driving on the 94-yard drive, they looked pretty good. But outside of that, you didn't really get anything from the Jaguars' offense. Some of those guys are just going to have to win just straight up, beat Denzel Ward,

Pete Martin Emerson. It's a lot tougher than it sounds because it's not like we've been too high on the Jaguars wide receiver unit, but I think that's where the Jaguars need to win because, dude, if you start getting these guys locked up,

and the Miles Garrett's breathing down your neck. This game also has big rock fight potential, I think. It does. Well, and the weather. There's a hurricane in the area. So it's pouring all week, I think, and now it looks like it's raining all weekend in Jacksonville, too. My issues, as much as I like my guy Trevor Lawrence, he's not a mutter by trade. He has had some issues with fumbles in the rain in the past. I'll go back to the Eagles game.

that they played two years ago. And that one, I think he had four fumbles in that game. But that is one thing I'd be curious about. But also it's just that the Browns entire team is built in the trenches, especially their defensive line and their pass rush.

and really just their ability to blow up runs too. This Jags run game is very boom bust. They actually look nice though. I will give them, commend them until the fourth quarter. That run game had some nice moments. The Jaguars in week one is the dolphins run defense. Crazy good. I don't know. Actually, I thought I actually thought they looked okay too, but,

Going against this, totally different task. And that's where I think it's, again, it's going to be very boom bust because that's what the Browns want you to do. That's what Jim Schwartz wants to do. He wants to create TFLs and chaos and slant guys and move guys around and blitz corners, do all the funky stuff. So,

You got to catch him once. That would be the key for the Jaguars offense. You don't have to do it every time. This isn't going to be as high success rate game. You want to create two explosives in the run game and you did your job there. It was bad. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it was weird last week. Kind of

Pumped this guy up. And of course, I gave him the heat-seeking jinx. Anton Harrison was kind of like the worst lineman for the Jacks last week. Jalen Phillips, I want to give him his flowers. He was, you know, put him in the torture chamber a little bit. But that still expect a bounce back game there. This is a quite a game to try and bounce back for bounce back to. I thought Trevor had a real nice game. He missed. Yeah, he missed two throws. He missed including the first one.

And he had four or five brilliant throws, including the touchdown, but even leading up to the touchdown on some nice throws on a drive. But to your point, that's what the Jaguars feel like. It's a stretch of brilliance where you're like, wow, this is a good offense. And then three drives where you're like, wow, this is a bad offense can probably feel more like that in this game. So yeah.

How can the Browns win this game, Charles? I think it's pretty self-explanatory after we've laid this out. You've got to go 85 bears on them. Yeah. That's basically it. Create explosives on defense. That's what it is. There's no reason to trust his offense the way it looks right now. It's just not serious. And if, like, the...

Brown's offensive plan, of course, is going to have to run the ball. They have to catch him once. Like, that's their goal. Like, just catch him once in a blitz and hopefully you get a touchdown. Like, that's how you have to do it. But the white flag offensive players are a little concerning, especially against this defense. How can the Jags win? I think the Jaguars can win by kicking a field goal.

You're saying embrace the double digits? I think you're just, I think Brian Thomas is going to have to have a big day. Yeah. Because someone's going to have to, I would just imagine that both teams have such a tough time moving the ball that someone's going to need to make an explosive for the Jags. Brian Thomas is your best bet.

I don't know if this is just me being a hot-ticky football fan, but Travis Etienne in the rain sounds a little scary to me. It's very scary. The same guy that threw the ball through the end zone with a wide-open touchdown. That's not an irregular thing with him. That's every couple weeks with him since college. This is him all the way.

Seems like a great guy. Very frustrating football player, I feel like, when I watch him. Yeah, but the run game has to have life. It really does. And they got to catch him with a shot play. They're trying. I will commend whoever's calling plays in Jacksonville that they are trying to get Luke Farrell out there, the tight end. The problem with the Jags is that it's all a smattering of ideas. They actually had some cool two tight end looks. They put Ingram as a fullback, and they did a play action off of it. And I was like, hey, all right.

Creativity. There we go. And then that's why they fall apart in the second half. That means they're not adjusting. They run out of good ideas. Like that's literally the thing. They're a little scared to repeat plays. It looks like, which is like, you know, call it till you stop it again. That's what Shane Steichen does so well. I think more than anybody. So yeah.

That's really what it is. Take care of business. I feel like that's what they have to do on offense. Don't be the Jaguars on offense and shoot themselves in the foot. Anything but that. Why are you the way you are? All right. We are going to take a quick break and then come back with a couple more games.

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Stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology-based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. All right, we are back with a NFC tilt. Pretty good one. Two division favorites, I would say, after week one. We have the Bucs visiting the Detroit Lions, a former NFC Central matchup.

A division after my own heart. The Lions are more than a touchdown favorites. Seven and a half point favorites at home. Charles. That just seems so crazy to me. It's a lot. There's a lot of big spreads. A lot of big spreads. Yeah.

That's all I can say about it. But keep going. I don't know. I think the lines are better than the Bucs, but seven and a half points after last week? Look, because I guess what Vegas is saying, and I think it's fair to feel that way, or whoever's making these lines is saying, yeah, that Commander's game was not real. That was just not real. Right. It said more about the Commanders than it did the Bucs. Right, than it did the Bucs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a real thing. I think it's a real thing. Excuse me, that's NFL Rookie of the Week, Jane Daniels. That's right. Yeah, definitely very real. Not just the worst of a bad bunch. Tragedy for Joe Alt. Or Devondre Sweat, who I will give a shout out to as well. Yeah, he had a great game. But with Tampa Bay, I guess I'll start with Tampa Bay and where they can win.

I mean, I really think it's going to come down to... Because Baker can run this system well enough where I don't know if I trust him to ever overcome, but he's as good as the pieces around him are, kind of. And I kind of like this Bucks offense. So I guess the key for me is when you guys have...

like your big matchups versus their big matchups. And I would say that's like Mike Evans versus Carlton Davis, or even Graham Barton versus some of the guys that have in the interior, Tristan Wirth, Aiden Hutchinson matchups. Like, are your star players playing like star players? Because the problem is they have, I think, or not that I think I know they have a lot more depth than the Bucks do right now. So like you are a plus players have got to win. Um,

And I think that's going to be a little bit tougher than advertised because like Terry and Arnold, I thought he had a great week last week to start off. You got the DPIs, but he's handsy and he's a rookie. So they're going to call it. It's just like NBA rookies, guys. Like translate the exact same thing to the NFL. You get no hero calls.

As a rookie, you get no late hits. If you're the quarterback, you get 20 holding calls. If you're an offensive lineman, you get no defensive PIs. If you're the receiver, you get all the DPIs and offensive defensive holdings. If you're a DB, it's just how it goes. It's just, I, sorry, but I had to say that because he did have a good game.

We don't know you, my guy. That's just how it goes. Yeah, because I think the key is just going to be the Bucs superstars playing like superstars and winning. Because on the outside, like I said, Terry and Arnold had a great first game. I think there's points where the Lions, maybe their pass of death could be a little overwhelming. But still, the Bucs, it kind of reminds me of one of these teams that we've talked about over the summer, like

a better version of where like the Vikings and the giants were last year, where it's like, we are held together kind of by like our top players, but they have a little more depth underneath. And some of the teams we saw just get bounced in the first round. But to me, like that's kind of like their archetype. Um, and they need to go, this guy's play well, because I think Detroit just has, they, they just have, they have too much depth. Um,

That's... But, you know, we'll get to the other side of the ball, but I am pumped for the other side of the ball, dude. Pumped. Yeah, that's a juicier matchup. This one...

I would say my one liner about both sides of the ball, actually, and they just put a pin on the other side is I'm watching third down on both sides. And that's, that's kind of, I'm working on going in reverse with this because the, how the bucks perform on there, I think they're going to get to a lot of third downs because I think that lines run defense is going to kind of,

take it to their interior a little bit to the guards. You got Luke Gettyke at right tackle against Aiden Hutchinson. That'll be a fun little T-Rex battle on the outside. Then you got...

Tristan Wurst, who looks phenomenal, which is going to be great, too. Grant Barton looks good, too, at center. But I do think the Lions have the advantage there. Just their front seven's more complete than that offensive line in that run game. So I think they'll get to third downs. I still think if they ran a bunch of man coverage against the Rams, they're going to run a bunch of man coverage against the Bucs. Rams?

Rams is even harder because I know it's similar to offenses, but all the bunch sets and motions and when Puka's healthy and Cooper's healthy, I mean, they're just a bunch of guys out there motion them out there. That's so tough. Liam Cohen was pretty cool. A couple of people tweet this, but Liam Cohen was doing some Ram stuff with his, the third down designs, which was that again, it's like a stack that have a receiver on the outside motion him inside and have them like release through the stack and

And what it does is just changes the release points for guys and makes it hard if you're a man coverage because, all right, emotion that, you know, it's not just straight up man to man. Sometimes when offenses get into bunches and stacks, defenses will have checks so they don't get picked. They don't get, you know, and offenses go, all right, how do we pick them? That's just the cat and mouse game on the outside. So this is a way to really mess with those rules. And Cone looks like he was like, yeah, that works for us in L.A.,

We have Mike Evans and Godwin and this guy, Jalen McMillan. You know, let's just keep the good times rolling. So I think you're going to just see more of that. So look for like bunch stacks, little motions there on third down. How they hold up will be so interesting. And I just think, yeah, the Lions have the advantage in the run game. So that's – I think it's going to be interesting. But –

The other side of the ball is even more interesting, players and scheme-wise, I think. When you are watching the Lions have the ball against this Bucs defense, Ben Johnson versus Todd Bowles, Jared Goff versus the Bucs defense. Antoine Winfield might be out. Antoine Winfield's out. Who's my guy?

Levante David isn't him anymore, so I didn't want to say that. No, he is not. No, he is not. I was trying to think of somebody else, and Whitfield's out, and McCollum's got a concussion. Oh, God. All right, but when the Lions have the ball, Chuck, what are you checking out? I'm cutting everything out, and I'm just watching Frank Ragnow versus Vita Vance.

every great i said fantastic hoss fight first note here great every single play is going to sound like an earthquake when especially versus run because those are two of like the roughest toughest guys in the nfl biggest guys their position biggest guys freak athlete you know so that that's something i'm really looking for and you know vita there i i love him because he's kind of like

He's kind of like the perfect mix between like old school nose tackles and the guys who can play on the move a little bit because he is, you know, 350 pounds. But for everyone who remembers during the draft process, just an incredible athlete for that size.

And it translates, too. So he ends up becoming this super important linchpin for the entire defense because, to me, his presence is kind of what makes the entire front seven work. You have a Vita Veya. I know Canty's been banged up, but having Vita Veya allows...

Elijah Canty to go be a gap shooter and be aggressive in spots where you shouldn't be. You know, it allows you to develop some of these guys, allows you to play Levante David maybe a little longer than you should be playing him. It's... He looked better last year, too. Yeah, he did look better last year. Then I watched him try to cover some drags against Washington, and I was like, oh, boy. Oh, boy. I played against Levante in college. That's how, like, that's...

Good for him, man. Oh, great career. Great career. Buck Slifer, Ring of Honor guy. But we don't want another Bobby. No, no. Let's not do that again. That's the tackle leader, all pro, Pro Bowl linebacker. It was fun seeing the Commanders fans in real time go, hey, what the hell? Actually see them go like, what is this? Someone I signed up for? That's it.

I know. I'm sorry, guys. Sorry. Yeah, but... Yeah, I think this is the key for the Bucs defense. Because I do think that this defensive personnel, especially for where the Lions are, that secondary is gettable, especially if Winfield's out. To me, that's a pretty...

yeah pretty almost like stark advantage in terms of like skill talent to skill talent lines versus bucks so like they're gonna need their front seven just whoop absolute ass up front um and make life difficult for jared golf because we've seen you know if you can get jared golf off rhythm and can't just rely on the play action turn your back throw sam laporta on an over route where no one's within 20 yards that can get a little tough uh for him but it's

It's going to be tough for the Buccaneers defense because, you know, they are at a talent disadvantage in this game. It's just hard because, I mean, this Lions team already showed last year, too, that they can find answers. So, like, last year they played in the regular season. This was a game that the Lions were playing Craig Reynolds and Devine Ozigbo at running back. Who's Devine Ozigbo?

Don't need to know. He's a free agent right now. But they averaged fewer than two yards a pop. I think David Montgomery was banged up and he went out early. That game, though, was very impressive from Ben Johnson and the offensive line coach Hank Fraley. They went 9-16 on third down. They went bombs away on it, too. It wasn't just like get past the sticks. There was a little bit of that, but they hit Jameson Williams on a deep

ball. They had some really fun stuff to counter Todd Bowles' scheme. Just protection, good answers, but they also were doing cadence stuff like cheat account. What a cheat account is, is as soon as the center grabs... So there's no ready hot, ready go, anything like that. As soon as the center grabs the ball, he snaps it. And why you do that is so the defense is

They hear the cadence, too, and they start getting ready. So this is a way for them to just go like, oh, shoot. Oh, OK. You know, jump the gun on them. And they got that and hit Jameson Williams on a touchdown on third and long against that. So that, yeah, it's how they protect Jared Goff against Todd Bowles' blitz. It's how it is against every Bucs. Every time someone goes against the Bucs defense, what does third down look like? How do you protect it?

Goff isn't great against pressure, but if you block it up for him, which the Lions can, he can gash you. And Jamison Williams, they have a good plan for him right now. I'd feel better about the Bucs defense if Winfield was for sure, and I don't think he is, and McCollum is for sure, and I don't think he is. He has a concussion. So...

That is why I'm a little antsy with this. And also when the Lions were healthy running the ball in the playoff game, that was Jameer Gibbs was just gashing them. So what did they end up with? Jameer Gibbs went nine for 74 with a long of 31. David Montgomery 10 for 33, 3.3, but I think he was efficient on that. So now that they have some backs, the run game, that's a good way to get after Bulls, like you said.

It's up to the front seven to make a lot of third and longs. Really, it's the same game plan on both sides of the ball. It's like win on first and second down. I know that sounds, again, we're going with basic football takes, but this game, it's very pertinent because this is a very NFL matchup.

like the Lions offense versus the Bucs defense. It feels very NFL to me. Run game on first and second down, third down blocks versus blitzes. Like, yeah, like protection. We're going to be under center verse five too. Yeah, this is real ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great call. But it is with a 350 pound nose right in the middle. So yeah, I mean, it all feels right. I love that. But yeah, how could the Bucs win and you're creating a win for them or victory for them? I don't know why I said that.

I'm not sure. This is another one that was tough for me because it's just not going to be as easy as it was versus the Commanders. You're not going to have guys just streaking open once a drive down the field. One of the funny things last week was...

like you said, Commander's fans come to the realization like, oh, wait, hold on. That's not the bodyguard I knew. I thought this defense was supposed to be a little better structured than that. This is what it is. Like, you better go get the fearsome foursome plus another fearsome foursome up front and then you can have a good defense. But, like, it's just so player-led that, you know, that's just going to be a mess all season. But, so for this one, I just kind of want to see

what the buccaneers can do for lack of a better term when they have to think on offense like when they have to be like okay like we have right when they have to operate like an offense like you're not just running mad in plays like all right let's just let's just drop back and throw crossers and throw four touchdowns and six hit completions like no like you might actually have to like think things out and sequence them to actually catch guys off guard because this is a much more talented defense it's a much more well-structured defense so i think we're going to learn more about like

basically what is this offense going to try to look like for the rest of the season when they start playing against their peers, like other playoff teams, other teams with aspirations of going on a run. I think this is going to be a game we learn a lot about. So I just want to see kind of like their sequencing and how they decide to attack a line defense that

overall might be a smidge more talented than them. Right. One where they actually are not beaten up on the FC South. Like, yeah, this actually feels more like a playoff game, but you should. And, you know, Mike Evans is, if you run all that man coverage, Mike Evans is a tall order. He, that's a hard guy to play against for four quarters, you know, and it's catch him every single time. And I bigger is going to try them. So really he's,

It's a Mike Evans game. It's a Baker game. It's a blocking, protecting game for the Bucs. I already can kind of picture the other side of the ball because I've seen it twice last year, and I kind of feel like the Lions have a good game plan for that. So it's going to come down to really how many plays they can make on offense, and I think that's going to be the passing game. I think it's going to be passing downs. So really, if they hit a couple, that's the high variance plays that they need. That's what you need when you're 7.5 point under talks, even if you're the division favorite. For me, the Lions win. I'll just...

Do what you do. Pound the rock. Win on third down. That's it for them. They have the same O-line coach, the same OC, golf. They have the same center. They just need one or two firework plays on third down. Pound the rock.

Let the receivers, Elmond Ross St. Brown, Laporta, Jameson Williams, let them do the work. Kalief Raymond, the immortal Kalief Raymond, let them do work. And that's kind of just how you build that win. Do you have anything to add there? No, I think that covers it. Covered it? Yeah, like you said, it's just a...

very standard NFL matchup, you know? Yeah. I like it. It feels like very old school in a way, like how they're going to present this and go at each other. I like when I can recognize everything as a guy. Even with bowls, it's like, yeah, they're crazy, but it's kind of traditional crazy. Right, traditional crazy. Yeah, it's like, oh, take a look.

Oh, I remember that. Like, yeah. So this is more that it kind of feels more at home, this type of game and all the run game stuff, everything. So yeah, I'm actually, I'm kind of actually excited to watch this game. That's why we highlighted it. All right. Next up, moving to Sunday night football. We have two of the off season, sexy teams to the fun teams to the one, the off season. I think on both sides, the AFC and the NFC, we have the bears at the Texans in Houston, uh,

Six and a half point favorites. The Texans are Chuck. When you're watching this game, the bears have the ball. What are you keeping an eye on? Can they complete a pass? Well, I'm not joking. I'm joking, but like, I'm not joking. Don't worry about the bond. You're sweat. But honestly, the way I feel about the bears, I, I would imagine that's probably the worst or offense looks.

Maybe like the entire Caleb Williams era, because there's, there's like, when you talk about extremes, like as hard as it is to be that good, like it's also hard to be consistently, you know, that bad, as bad as they were throwing the ball on Sunday. And like, if you're a bears fan, the cope is, Hey,

At least we got a defensive special teams touchdown to kind of buoy us while we move through this. But you also know you're almost never going to score a defensive touchdown and a special teams touchdown in the same game. You're also very unlikely to score a defensive touchdown or a special teams touchdown in any game. So that was not a sustainable plan for winning. I guess the one thing that I'm looking for is the same thing that everything's looking for. Like,

what, what, what needs to go in place like for this passing game to be operational? Like, is this a situation where their interior lines, it's like way worse than we thought it would be because boy, Tavondre Sweat and Jeffrey Simmons were running those boys over like they weren't even there on some plays. Um,

That gets a lot easier this week because you don't have those guys in the middle. The Texas don't have anyone like that. We saw last week Texas defense is susceptible to getting scored on. Now, Eddie Richardson was playing like an absolute video game character last week. But you can say that Caleb Williams has some of the same traits like as a thrower. Maybe it's not like quite, you know,

Josh Allen plus arm where you're slipping on turf and still throwing the 65 yard dime off your back. Great stuff. He can create stuff. So I just want to see operational passing game, get back to like looking like an NFL offense, because I just, I really can't imagine that they, they ever played that poorly again. Now it's just like, will it be enough to outscore CJ Stroud? I don't know, but luckily your defense is in the slot. Took a show in the second half last week.

Yeah, Shane Waldron's on fraud watch for me a little bit. A little bit. Just a little bit. I've liked his stuff in the past, but it's always felt siloed, where it's like, it's a lot of good ideas, but not cohesive. And it's just kind of, I'm just watching, just making sure. Like, there's even a couple design examples, like they converted on a fourth down, and they had a

uh roman dunze motion across they had him block the linebacker and then the tight end block the safety so you always want to block like bodies so tie down a linebacker receiver on safety and that was kind of interesting to me like that's also just got you know i look for these things as canary in the coal mines because then it's like all right what how much detail to design do you have and it's like little things like that that fits what gets me a little antsy uh a little too much keenan allen a little too much yeah

A little too much. I think we got to realize what Keenan Allen is these days. He's an auxiliary target. He's a supplemental guy. He is not a primary target. He's not a guy who designed stuff for maybe third and five or less or low red zone where he can just win a quick one-on-one, get the first down, get over.

But he is not a guy you have double digit targets for. I don't remember Duse's battling stuff right now, but you have this other guy named DJ Moore, who's really good. Yeah, that focus needs to go to him. So that's where it was just too much. Keenan Allen is just not getting open. He had the drop in the red zone as well. It's just that's what he kind of is. That's how he was last year. It was the...

as Stephen Ruiz said, Sharif Abdul Rahim point scoring at receiver last year, which I always thought was just perfect. But I think this game going against the Texas defense is they're not as brilliantly up the middle, like we mentioned Sweat and Jeffrey Simmons. But

But they still have a good pass rush. So they need to run the ball better. Last week, they had to bounce everything to the outside because they could literally get nothing up the middle because of those guys. So this might be a get-right game for interior running. But then their running backs are DeAndre Swift, who is allergic to running between the tackles. So it's just a lot of like, this is actually a little dicier. And I was a little more apprehensive about this offense than others. I'm still excited about Caleb and some other parts of it. But it's just that

Might be some up and down this, like you said, but I think the worst was last week. This is a good chance for them to get right with running the ball and also just Caleb not having some of those uncharacteristic, feel more comfortable having not some of those uncharacteristic misses that he had last week. He still had some.

Some absolutely brilliant throws. He's so... I know the creation stuff is so cool. The in-the-pocket stuff is so awesome. And I think this week against a heavy zone team, hopefully they don't break too many blitzes at him. They can block up Daniil, block up Will Anderson. You can maybe see a little bit more of that on Sunday night. Yeah. Maybe a Cole Komet game, too. Working over the middle. That's still the weakness of this defense. The one thing I came back to with Caleb after the game is...

and I'm trying to figure out how to frame this, but we know at times he's been a guy that can kind of ride the emotional roller coaster, to say. So when I thought about basically, especially the misthrow to Keenan Allen and some of the other plays, I'm like, buddy, get it. First NFL game, freaking out a little bit. Just calm down. Everyone has it. You belong here. This is where you're supposed to be. Trust me. But I want to see in game two if like,

If that was first game jitters, holy s**t, I achieved my dream. I'm where I wanted to be at first pick of the draft. I made it. I cashed in every dream I had. Now you just got to settle in and actually just play the game.

I just don't want any bad habits to keep building because they were starting to build at USC and I was willing to, not say overlook them, I just was willing to see that he was trying to do the right thing a lot, but that ecosystem was bad for it. And so now I'm like, don't do this more. Like let him get settled a little bit before we kind of get into this mode. So yeah,

We'll hopefully have a game where he feels a little bit better there. All right, but now we got the Texans, or when the Texans have the ball against the Sparrow's defense, a strength-on-strength matchup, which should be very fun. Charles, what's one thing that you are checking out on this side of the ball? I'm fascinated to see

Honestly, like how the how Tremaine Edmonds handles everything that this offense throws at you, because, man, he has some crazy plays last week. And I remember when when he got signed by Chicago, I was like, hmm.

I don't know about that one. Like he was, he was real up and down in, in, uh, in Buffalo, but it kind of seems like all the memes about him, like, Oh, he's just a boy. He's only 19 years old. Yeah. Right. Like maybe some of that stuff was like kind of true. Right. Because if I was 20 and

If I turned 20 a couple weeks after getting drafted, functionally, I'm 19. When my name gets called on draft day, yeah, I might have a little bit of a steeper slope towards just being ready for everything that being a professional football player entails because I think he just looks flat out good right now. And now you have...

You know, Joe Mixon is coming. He had a good game last week. Dalton Schultz is still there. CJ is not afraid to throw for the middle at all. I think that this will be a big time game for Tremaine Edmonds. And in the same way that like Vita Vea is kind of a linchpin for what the Bucs want to do on defense in the game versus the Lions. I think that Tremaine Edmonds is going to have a huge role in how this game plays out for the Bears defense, because like you kind of have this.

linebacker who athletically can cover all this ground in the middle of the field versus a quarterback in a run game that wants to be in the middle of the field. I think that's a fun matchup. Yeah. Edmonds, Edmonds and Edwards in the middle there, the, the safeties to, uh, Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Bayard. Um, I, I'm focused on them too, because, um,

like the Texans ran all over the Colts and they just ran zone, zone, zone, zone, zone. 19 of their 33 running backgrounds were successful, which is insane. Joe Mixon's great in zone. So they're going to run a lot of zone.

uh the bears who start run a lot of zone coverage quarters rotate the three things like that that's kind of their standard that's a lot on the safeties and the linebackers to make it all right because they're not going to throw extra bodies that they're not going to slant do crazy stuff so those guys have to come downhill and not get beat over the top too so yeah those line i'm glad you brought edmunds edmunds edwards brisker bayard like those four

They're the game. Those four in the little square in the middle, they are the game for the Bears defense. Luckily, I think they're good, but I just think that Texans offense is extremely good and can attack that area. These receivers against the DBs, more strength on strength. Johnson, Stevenson, Gordon, Collins, Diggs, Dell. It's a lot of good players versus a lot of good players. I'm excited to watch this one. Stroud versus all the zone coverages, so you'll get to see him

really going to work as a quarterback, probably progressing. This is why you get multiple receivers is to beat coverages like this. It's going to be good. It's going to be a really fun one. All right, Charles, watching this game, how do you think the Bears can pull off a win? I think they can pull off a win by playing like...

the rookie quarterback protection plan game book, like, Hey, they're, they're, they're D line. It's not sweat and Simmons. Like we should have a lot more success running the ball. Hopefully you have a lot more success like versus quick pressures in the a gap and B gap, because that was, that was a big problem for them. Um,

If week one was a gut check and you kind of failed in terms of like, we're going to be tough. We're going to be a stout physical football team. This is a week where you can at least start to feel good about yourself because the Texans are not really a stout physical football team in the middle. Now, what I want to see is,

What I'm also watching for here is the rookie quarterback limit test of how many times can I get away with throwing at Derek Stingley. That would be really interesting because I wouldn't imagine that that's something that Caleb inherently fears, but he might learn that that's going to be a bit of a challenge

as the game goes on. It's a little different. They get better in the NFL, too. But he should still try, though, just to see what he can get away with. That's why you want him to play. You want to see what their limits are. Yeah, clean up the mistakes they had. It's a rookie quarterback back there. New OC for everybody else that's been there. Got plenty of new faces. Some of the operational stuff was just still kind of lacking for me. Now they're going on the road, so that's always just a thing. Yeah, rookie quarterback on his first game on the road against the Houston crowd that

I'm sure really loves their team right now. So this is going to be some good exposure for them as well. So now that's just tough. But like you said, I think it's the rookie quarterback game plan, which is running, which is why that's important. I think anyone going against the Texans has to do this. You don't want the ball in CJ Stroud's hands anyway. So control it.

has a couple of your good plays, get to a lot of third manageables, a lot of stuff that Caleb can just drop back and just play calm. He doesn't have to create something crazy. That's ideally how this game goes. And just

You're not going to score them and hold them to zero or seven or 10 points. This is too good of an offense, but just limiting this offense. Make them kick field goals. I think the Bears defense can do that. I do think that's going to be just a really fun matchup on that side of the ball. How the Texans win, I think it's just you overwhelm the offensive line. You overwhelm that Bears offensive line with your pass rush.

that's it. I think Darnell Wright's a good player, but you can get after the other guys. Braxton Jones is solid, but you can get after all the other guys. And yeah, that's it. And be what you are on offense. And kind of the same thing for that Bears defense, Texas offense. Kind of the same thing. Do what you do and do it well. I want to see how the Bears, like they've

They've kind of spammed young picks on the defensive line, and this is also kind of a good test for them this week because I think the interior of the Texans line, they're way improved. If week one's anything over last year. So I kind of want to see how they handle this gut check this week. Like, okay, here comes Tunsell and Scruggs and Kenyon Green looks better.

Most important player in the league, Genyon Green. Seriously. I'll say that. I'll go on record saying that. Holy crap. He looked fantastic. He looked like a bust like a year ago. So on NFL Pro, like the new app for –

you know, they have, the NFL has where you can watch like all the film. I already have like saved playlists of all like the rookie defensive linemen I want to watch this year and like some of the second year guys. So I have like a place that's going to populate with like Javon Dexter plays. So I watched them from last week. I was like, eh, there's a little room for improvement there. I see the vision, but like this is going to be, okay, where am I actually in terms of like actually being a good NFL player?

Andrew Billings is their bestie tackle right now. But it's like, I know. I like the young guys. It's just not all the way there. Not all the way there yet. It's the other spots that are pretty damn good. All right. We are going to take our last break. Then we're going to get to the Monday night game, which is just going to be so fun to talk with you, Charles. And then a couple of bonus hitters after that. See you guys in a sec.

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Learn more at klaviyo.com slash BFCM. Okay, we are back with some Monday Night Football. We have a bird matchup. We have the Falcons going to the link, going to Philadelphia to play the Eagles. Eagles are six and a half point favorites. Again, it is Monday night. Charles, when the Falcons have the football matchup,

What are you keeping your eye on when you watch your favorite football team in the world? I'm going to have binoculars on and I'm going to be looking for number nine on the sideline and watching if he ever decides to put his helmet on. That's where we are. Week one, it's over. The season's shot. It's done. Good thing you got those preseason reps, you know? Yeah.

Or maybe they knew Kirk wasn't healthy, so they were like, we got to protect someone here, right? That's where it's starting to make more sense. Right. It's starting to make more sense. Because the funny thing was, even during the summer, Taylor Heineke, who was a backup quarterback last year, before they played a preseason game, he was like, yeah, I see the writing on the wall here. I know this is, I'm not going to be here long. He said that in a press conference. And then comes out and plays basically all the preseason snaps. Like, what are we doing here? Yeah.

Now I know what we're doing here. I watched the Steelers game. Now I understand what we're doing here. Kirk can't move. He can't move at all. And it sucks because, like, I watched Bijan, like, and I'm like, yo, because I kind of forgot, like, what his stat line was. And then I watched the film. It's like, damn. Like,

that was a good game for him. Like, he looked elusive, he looked physical, he looked explosive. Now look at the box score, he's 18 carries for 68 yards. Like, dude, this is just... This is not... It felt like 150, right? Dude, it felt like 150, right? Yeah. And it's not tenable. It's not tenable at all. And it's not just like...

Kirk's a statue in the pocket. He's always been slow. No, like there's a difference between like being a statue and I can't drop out of under center because my Achilles hurts or my Achilles to where I don't have to reach to motion. You know, I have to, if we want to run the ball, we have to get in pistols so I can just turn my back and hand the ball instead of, you know, you know, getting back there. We can't run play action because I can't do a run fake right now. So you're talking about like this stagnant,

nothing burger offense in terms of what they can actually run that's going to make life easier for the offense. So, like, if you go back in the second half of that Steelers game on Sunday, you just see, like, the Steelers defensive line go, they can't move. Like, we're teeing off. They're just teeing off. Right. And usually,

If your team starts teeing off on you like that, oh, maybe we'll run a bootleg, we'll run a draw, something like that. But we can't do any of that. So it just turns into Caleb McGarry and Kyle Pitts fighting for their life against TJ Watt. And we all know how that ends. In like a million sacks, a couple penalties. But honestly, I felt like they should have given the one where he was offside because he's going to get home regardless. So, dude...

A ball don't lie.

unbelievable. I couldn't believe people were having them rank number two, rank number five, rank the top 10. It's like, what are you watching? What are you guys watching? I kept going like, they're fine. They're fine. But they were also mostly bad last year. Yes, they were. So like the fact that they struggled. Everyone watch every Falcons game. We know that. Yeah. The fact that they struggled on Sunday, that was not surprising to me, but there were people who were caught off guard by that based on the narrative. So now

All right, we're going, we got a game against Philly. It's not like it's getting much easier. They're like, I know that they've been like, oh, you know, we're trying to figure out this pass rush situation. But like their fourth pass rush is still Bryce Huff.

That's more than enough to beat where the Falcons are right now. Because they're built like a contender. Yes. Like an actual contender. Not a team that says they're going to be a contender, and that's why they take quarterbacks early. Dude, it's crazy that a team that finished with a top 10 pick is still not actually that good. Still looks like they could use some defensive pieces?

Yeah, or literally, how about any rookie playing? Oh, that's right. They didn't have a single one, right? No, not a single rookie played for them because Penix is sitting. No, sorry, excuse me. J.D. Bertrand got like one or two snaps. Because Aurora was inactive. Tries his out for the season. Tries his out. Dorlis was inactive. Casey Washington was inactive. Penix is on the bench. This is your entire class. So this is what I was so concerned about.

During the offseason, because I was telling people that guys like all they did was add Kirk Cousins to a team that picked top 10. They got Darnell Mooney, though.

No, no. Actually, we got Ray McLeod because apparently he's going to be the leading receiver on the team this year. Fire Arthur Smith, right? Hey, we're going to drink one and finish with. Two catches. Fire Arthur Smith. But this is such a nasty mindset to be in after one game. This is your favorite team. That's what's the best part. I know. I know. I know. It's my favorite team. And I'm so sick of them. Because you could just see. You could see all of this happening so long ago because...

Because honestly, when the free agency sign happens to get Kirk, I'm like, cool. That's way better than what she had. If he's healthy, if he's healthy, that's fine. Okay, cool. You can add pieces around it. And they go out and say, get Mooney. What else? What else? Ray McLeod. You got Rondell Moore. Yeah, he broke. He broke. I mean, Ray McLeod, Rondell Moore. It's like the same thing, basically. He broke his leg, so he's not playing. And then you start thinking, oh, damn.

So all they did was add Kirk and Darnell Mooney, their first-round picks on the bench, and every single other pick is inactive or on IR except for your fifth-round linebacker who's a specials teamer. Like, this is malpractice. And now the hard part is— Division favorite, by the way. Right, division favorite, which is— I was saying, like, I think the Bucs might be better. And the Bucs are definitely better. But now, like, for functionally just for this season, you blew the game versus Pittsburgh. Now you have games against the Eagles and Chiefs coming up.

So if you're 0-3 coming off of the first three, your season's done. You're not making the playoffs. In fact, I did the research on this. Oh, yeah, that's right. Once you're looking up all the 0-3 teams to make the playoffs, there have been five in the history of the NFL.

Or since the NFL won 16 games, there have been five teams to make the playoffs after starting 0-3. And only one team to win a game. The 1992 San Diego Chargers. The last 0-3 team to make the playoffs was the Texans in 2018. So...

And they're crappy. Yeah. Right. So you're talking about a miracle. And I think the Bucks have established themselves as competent enough where you don't have to worry about that. This season's over, dude. It's week two. And I have my Falcons buddies like text me during the week. They're like, wait, hold on. Like our season's done. I'm like, yeah.

It is. Maybe we can get to like seven and ten after this next stretch, but that'll be heroic because if you start with oh and three, it's probably unlikely you go seven and seven the rest of the way. I just think it's more just because it's like this is way more realistic than I think we all... No, actually, I think we did expect. And I'm looking last week.

And you're going against that offense, the Steelers offense, which could run a little bit, but it's just still like so sloppy and doing all this stuff. And it just felt like the Steelers were controlling the game the whole time because the Falcons offense, which some people were optimistic about and because they dropped Kirk Cousins in.

He can't move. You mentioned the bootleg thing. TJ Watt, who already kind of does this anyways and runs down the line and is overaggressive, he had nothing to worry about. You can see him go, oh, Kirk Cousins isn't bootlegging. So he just ran Bijan down like three times. I got the green light. Let's go. He really did because it wasn't even – it turned into like what they call better bees. You better be right. It turned into, no, you're right.

He can't bootleg. You have nothing to worry about. So just run. So it's just that hinders the whole offense. No draws. Like you said, the screens were telegraphed screens at a couple of moments. But yeah, I mean, they need to get London involved in this game because that's the area to attack for him. The middle of the field.

Are you running any bootleg stuff? Are you going to help this out? Last week, they were terrified of TJ Watt, so they kept running away from Caleb McGarry. So they kept running the Jake Matthews aside. This week, the Eagles have Bryce Hopp and Nolan Smith. So...

are you running outside more like you're gonna that even if you can't win this game i don't think you can at all like even if mcgary's mid like that's better than that uh yeah it's not even that like on the flip side like cool like you you gave up some drives to a pretty crappy sloppy offense and here comes one with oh i don't know saquon barkley who just scored three touchdowns in his first game with the eagles aj brown devonta smith like you're about to see a huge increase and i i mean i think they just blown out whatever

I know because I was gonna say when the Eagles had the ball I'm watching Matt Judon drop into coverage I'm watching Darnell Washington block Matt Judon one-on-one and pass protection with no help he did he did yeah Bates is Bates and yeah I know so I think too is that

Like I'm just watching as I know what the Eagles offense is, even if I have questions on it, I don't think this Falcons defense is the defense equipped to challenge it. Like the Steelers are running all over them. The Eagles have a better run game with Saquon Barkley, everything. It's whoever AJ Terrell isn't guarding, but they might just get into slot formations, put Jude on space or get a Vontae Maddox out there and just go to work.

The Falcons could do so much like they try to do so much with moving their guys around, but you can attack the middle of the field still. There's nobody there at the linebacker position that you're truly worried about. So, man, I don't know. I think Kellen Moore is going to just have Devontae Smith. I'll let him have a field day. If someone else is guarding A.J. Brown, attack him. Yeah, it might not be it.

And then you got Raheem Morris and Jimmy Lakin. They're going to do blitzes and stimulateds because I know how they're going to think and go like, well, we have to get after Jalen Hurts. I just think it's going to get gashed. So,

Do we even have to say how they have to win? Because I think we both think the Eagles are going to win. Yeah, the Falcons, they have to pound the rock over and over and over. Eagles run defense isn't great, but that's what they have to do. And they have to do two snaps of play action. And they have to create some turnovers. That's the other thing. Give them some, you know, whatever y'all got back there, just throw it out to the crowd. And tell them that he's going to have to just tough it out and put some ice on it after the game. Kitchen sink game. Kitchen sink it. Which is, that's why...

Week two, kitchen sink game. 30 in kitchen sink game in week two. Yeah, Eagles, just do your thing. That's kind of how I think they win it. Just completely overwhelm them on offense. Even if the defense, the Falcons offense does okay, I think just the Eagles offense has such an advantage, especially at home. All right. We got one thing real quick. Literally one sentence.

try to be we each kind of had a game we overlapped on all the other games we each had one game that we were like I kind of had a little something here yours is a little funnier than mine I think so we're going to go with the Chargers and the Panthers because you want it usually I'm all about the schlock like I love a good schlocky football game because there's little tiny things I want to watch but even I didn't rope this one in so

Why are you saying that you're keeping an eye on Chargers Panthers? Your literal one-sentence thing about why you're watching this freaking game. I'll do a couple short sentences. Derek Brown's out. Jim Harbaugh's here, and he smells blood in the water. They just gave up 47 points to the Saints. Jim's going to try to run for 300. I think we should all just maybe not watch it, but just check in on the box score every once in a while. Is that what we're putting?

Yeah. Should we say they break 200 rushing yards? Yes. Yeah, I think we can. You say it's easy. Yes, yeah. They got stampeded with Derek Brown on the field. I know. This is an expansion defense without him. And they're not going to get great field position. And so it's just... And Herbert looked great. Yeah. I unironically think the Panthers should trade Clowney.

And just get some picks. And just like something. Even if it's like a fifth, just get something. Yeah. Herbert has five got throws interior. It was rough in protection. So we'll just see it from there. I have 49ers and Vikings, the Sam Darnold bull. But really it's just, I want to see the 49ers defense against a, what I consider a step up

offense from what i saw from the jets uh with rogers who also couldn't move in a run game that was kind of limited because of that so donald isn't aaron rogers but he can move a little better and i think this vikings pass uh offense has a little bit more teeth so that is even with jordan ads and maybe not out there if this might be the jalen nailer game uh but aaron jones run game against this 49ers defense that i still have some questions on so that's it's like

Kind of optimistic run game for the Vikings and kind of pessimistic run defense for the 49ers. That's what I'm keying in on when I watch this game. All right. Seven games. First normal-ish preview episode.

Here on football 301, but we are closing it out right now me and Charles. We will be back on Tuesday previewing week three This is gonna be the routine from here on out. I am Nate Tice You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. You can find my football 301 playbook on Yahoo right now Charles McDonald, where can they find you? And what have you been working on this week? You can find me on Twitter at four birds You know wrote a couple columns this week. I

just getting back in the swing of things you know that's it that's all i've really done is we just wrote some columns on some radio hits about it at least a wetter turn for me not so much for you i'm getting that so it really feels like football season for me but subscribe to us follow us rate us please five stars wherever you get your podcasts at also watch us on youtube on the yahoo sports youtube channel this all

all the fancy stuff that we have. We've got plenty of great content out there. Follow Yahoo Sports on Snapchat as well. If you're into that, also send your mailbag questions to football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. We're going to start checking those out pretty soon. And also thanks to Brett Stone and Adi behind the scenes. Thank you so much for listening. Enjoy week two. See you guys next time.

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