Week 8 lookahead: one thing to watch in EVERY game, Bills & Bears deep dive
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On this episode of Football 301, Charles McDonald joins me, Mr. Vertz joins me to preview week eight. We are going to do a little deep dive on two games, and then we do a deep slop watch as all the NFL teams are playing this week. And there's a whole lot of

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For the place you've put down roots, trust Amica Home Insurance. Amica. Empathy is our best policy. Hello and welcome back to Football 301. I am your host, Nate Tice. We are going to be previewing Week 8 on this show. It's Thursday. That's what we do on Thursday. Not getting the Thursday night game, which is really juicy. Vikings-Rams. Did that with Matt Harmon on our little fanfare.

Fantasy Film Room that we do on every Wednesday. Instead, we're going to be previewing a couple of the games that we thought were a little juicier than the others of this total slop fest that we have this weekend. So there's going to be a lot of sloppiness that we go over on the Sunday slate. But to help me do that, start with those two games, then get to the slop, is my guy, Charles McDonald. Mr. Forver, it's how you doing today, Chuck?

I'm doing good. I feel like I'm entering, you know, mid-season shape. I'm getting used to the grind. It kind of feels like second nature. So I'm doing good, you know, getting better by the week, better every single day. You skipped the preseason. You're on fat rest. Skipped the preseason, you know. I jumped right into week one. And like some of the quarterbacks this year, we had a little bit of a rough start. But I think we're all in a nice groove now. That's good.

That's so great. That's how I feel. I always feel overwhelmed the first two weeks. I'm like, how do I do this? And then bye weeks happen. I'm like, oh yeah, that's right. That helps a lot. Not this week though. We discovered that together that there are no bye weeks. There's, there's a full 16 games this weekend starting tonight, getting into Monday night. We're going to focus on all of those Sunday games. We're going to start with the bills and Seahawks. We're going to do bears and commanders, which is, you know,

has a little bullet point with Jay and Daniels' injuries. So, but we're still going to deep dive into those games. And then we're going to do a little sloppy Sunday, a little sloppy Sunday steaks for Charles and I. We're going to go game by game and just give one thing to check out on that slop fest and all the other games that are happening Sunday during the day, because there's a lot of them, even though some of the matchups are a little, eh, I'll say it's still football. It's still Sunday. It's still awesome. So like I said, starting with

with Bills at Seahawks, AFC, NFC Tilt in Seattle at Lumen Field. Plus three, the Seahawks are there underdogs at home. Charles, when you are watching this game, when you see the Bills have the ball against the Seahawks defense, what are you checking out? What are some of the things you're highlighting for this week? Will they get stopped? Ernest Jones isn't doing it for you? The Seahawks defense, man.

Not good. Not good. And even last week against the Falcons, like, you started digging into the numbers, basically how they performed on defense against the Falcons, even in the game where the game went 14 points. Success rate, the Falcons had almost a 60% clip in that game. It just kind of turned into...

It could have been worse. It could have been worse, but it just kind of turned into, you know, Falcons classic calamity towards the end of the game where they, they just can't hold up to the ball. Uh, but that game didn't really prove that the Seahawks defense had like taken a step forward. Uh, even though they only held up, even though they held Atlanta only 14 points. So when you start talking about quarterback who hasn't thrown an interception this year, uh,

The Bills don't really turn the ball over at all. They're first by far in turnovers per drive this year. In a world where Lamar Jackson doesn't exist, Josh Allen's probably the MVP frontrunner. He's playing spectacular football again. And I just don't really see how...

Seattle's defense has the horses to slow this down. I know they just made the trade for Ernest Jones, which is going to help out their linebacker room, but he just got here, so he's probably going to take a little bit of time to get acclimated. It's not like you added Ray Lewis to your defense. There's still probably going to be some hiccups along the road. I think Josh Allen plus seeing how many explosives James Cook starts hunting in the run game because his style can be a little bit boom or bust, but when you start

Talking about a defense that is 26 points per drive, 30th in opposing drives, ending a touchdown, 30th in EPA base success rate, 29th in EPA per play. I mean, he's going to find his spots to make some big plays. So, man, I just, I don't really see how Seattle gets off the field. But also, last time we said this about Buffalo, Josh Allen went 9 for 30 against the Texans. But I will say, Texans defense is a lot better than where the Seahawks are right now.

Yeah, I could actually do some things to make it a little hard on you. I thought you were going to drop an Aaron Curry reference for a second there. Remember that? That was one of the weirdest careers you'll ever see. Seriously. With Aaron Curry. It really is. I kind of had the same thoughts on this side of the ball. I was...

You know, the Bills offense I really like. And now they got Amari Cooper and how they use Amari was pretty, you know, kind of how I thought. And you could see kind of the trickle down effect of having Cooper on the field, having his speed really does. They did some of the invert stuff that I've been really excited to see from them. Don't kick aids on the outside. Amari Cooper's on the inside. You know, have Amari Cooper run the deep route, open up space. Don't kick a works underneath. So that was kind of cool to see from this Bill's offense.

That really does, you know, just always finds an answer. Sometimes it's a couple of frustrating drives, but like you said, they don't really make a ton of mistakes. You know, they had a couple of drops against the Texans and stuff, but then really now it's like, they just take care of business. They got a good run game. You mentioned James cook. They got Ray Davis who can really pound the rock in between the tackles too.

They use jumbo a good amount, which I think is going to be interesting here. They're easily first in rate and easily first in combined success rate and explosive play rate. So that's another thing. The Seahawks don't want to put their linebackers on the field. And

The Bills are going to go like, okay, let's see if you're right. We're going to try to outline minutes, tight ends, and probably a Mark Cooper, Khalil Shakir is our other guy. Right. See what you do. Yeah. This Bill's offense, I think, is good. See how his defense is just finding itself. Like, we kind of, we knew this. We knew McDonald would take a minute. You've talked about it several times, and I always thought it's a great point, talking about the Dolphins game with the Ravens a couple years ago.

It's a pretty complex defense in the sense that they run a lot and that he's so hyper-specific. It's going to just take time for these guys to gel. Ernest Jones is a nice fit. They needed an upgrade there. He's a good blitzer, so that would be good for them, too.

Having Byron Murphy back was huge. You know, talented player, their first-round pick from Texas defensive tackle. Did a little on-off stats, which I know the nerds love when you use on-off stats. So, Byron Murphy, when he's on the field, the Seahawks only allow 4.3 yards per play. When he's off the field, they allow over 5 yards per play. 5.2. That's a big difference when it's one yard of play. Yeah, it's massive.

Him being on the field and playing and healthy is huge for the Seahawks team. And, you know, he's a talented player and they need some juice on the interior there. Other thing I'd say, watch for some Josh Allen scrambling. Seahawks, a little iffy against QB scrambles. 25th in EPA allowed the QB scrambles because all the funkiness they do. Eyes are not at the QB. We saw what Brock Purdy did to him a little bit. And Josh Allen is a

Totally different beast than Brock Purdy. So I think the Bills, this is a good... They can get to a game plan that works when you're playing at Seattle, which is never easy. Don't get me wrong. But that is... I think they have the nice natural answers in their offense. And I think they're adding to it too. The other side of the ball is pretty interesting though. I will say that. So...

when you're watching seahawks offense against the bills defense what are you checking out no dk metcalf i believe right and you know we got a little jake bobo action good player so i don't know i'm curious about bobo but when you're watching this side of the ball charles what are you checking out man it it almost feels like a similar thing as like what josh allen's doing to a lesser degree um where it just feels like geno smith is just carrying a really big weight on this offense and

What I'm interested in this week is, okay, DK Metcalf is out. So look, DK is not the, he's not the perfect receiver, but that's a source of big plays down the field, right? That's, that's someone that you absolutely want to have in your offense at the end of the day. And you're probably going to feel it when he's out. And I think one thing that's interesting is,

Buffalo, they don't blitz, really. Their pressure rate also is not great this year either. But they do have, to me at least, if they're going to have Ed Oliver and Greg Rousseau for this game, those are one-on-one individual matchups that absolutely favor the Bills, even if their season-long numbers aren't great. So if you're in a spot where they're just going to sit back and let their front four go after it, you don't really have that explosive...

that source of explosive plays downfield because DK Metcalf's out. How are you going to work in this just congested ass middle of the field? And Geno's going to sit there. He's just going to drop back and take his licks and just try to chunk down the field. But this just seems like, right, with their current setup, like no explosive plays downfield or maybe not none because I think even Kenneth Walker can help with that. But it's going to be tougher to get explosive plays down the field. Paired with their offensive line struggles, like, man, this just seems like we're

We're trying to get like five yards at a time. And I'm not really sure that the Seahawks offense is built to play that way. Seems like a tough matchup for them without DK this week. The Bills are the actual cover two boogeyman that everyone was worried about the first couple of weeks. And how you beat that is you beat them over the top or you punch them in the face through the run game.

I don't know who's doing that in Seattle. Like you said, Kenneth Walker is probably going to create a couple of explosive plays. He'll have that, but you have to be consistent. And that's more and be more methodical, especially what's going to happen on the other side of the ball. Like you don't want to have quick drives and go three and out and then you just give it to the bills and then they're running, running, running up. There's a big play. Wow. We just got the ball back eight minutes later.

This is a true for the Seahawks. It's complimentary football, which I know is just such an old coach adage, but it's true in the NFL, especially in games like this. I will say...

And this is one of the coolest things, I think, that has gone on with the Seahawks and Ryan Grubb. Well, they do a bunch of empty stuff. That's letting Geno go to work. I'm sure you can see a ton of that. But they're one of the best teams at adjusting in the second half. One of the best units. They're 26 in offensive success rate in the first half. They're third in offensive success rate in the second half in overtime. Only behind the Rams and Chiefs and right above the 49ers. Who coached those teams? You got McVay, Andy Reid, and Kyle Shanahan.

Three really good coaches. And then all of a sudden there's this offense up there as well. The Bengals, I think, are fifth. And what's interesting, though, the Bills are the exact same on their defense. First half, 25th in success, right?

second half first in defensive success rate so you have two of the best adjusting teams in the nfl that's what the nfl is about making those adjustments i make fun of like bobby slowick uh and saying like oh once he gets off the first 15 plays he's screwed this is the opposite for both of these teams these teams adjust really well so really i think the second half is gonna be really interesting in this game and seeing kind of what they lean into if this game stays close so

Yeah, that's just one. It's a good, well-coached unit. Like I'm not like with Grubb, it's not as exciting as I was maybe going to hope, but also just like I can see the block, man. Yeah, you can't do anything if you can't block. It just doesn't matter how good your receivers are. That was the understated thing with the Washington team last year where Grubb came from.

was that the offensive line won the Joe Moore Award as the best offensive line in college. They had a first-round pick at left tackle, a second-round pick at right tackle, or third, Rosengarten, whatever you went, and a whole bunch of other good players. You can attack deep when you can block, and Geno does a lot to mitigate it, but

He only could do so much. So, yeah. So the Seahawks are plus three. You have any predictions for this game? Yeah. If I was still a sitting man, I would take the Bills. I just think this is just a terrible matchup for where the Seahawks defense is right now. Josh Allen is playing too good. And I would say basically any quarterback of this league

like wavelength like joshua lamar would just spell nightmare for where seattle is right now um and like you said i think the second half stuff for for buffalo is is going to be key because one thing i love about what sean mcdermott's done this year is we all know that this roster is still kind of going through a transition and you you get to see his value every week pretty much because i i

They are a really good defense in the second half. And like when you just combine them with the first half numbers, like they kind of turned out to be a pretty good defense over the course of the season. And that wasn't necessarily expected. And I think that all that shines through in this game. That Texans game stood out to me. I'm with you. I think it's the Bills to win. That Texans game in the second half, both sides of the ball, but especially the Bills defense.

And this is kind of talking on both sides of my mouth. A little bit of Bobby Sloan coming off the opening script, but also that Bill's defense kind of really adjusted. Their linebackers played well. They had a bunch of injuries. And it actually really impressed me. It was like how much they did in that second half. So, yeah, no, that's a good call. And with Bobby Babbage at defensive coordinator, which is still so funny for me. Now, moving on...

Actually, Bobby Babbage's dad used to be a coach with the Bears. There's a transition. We got what should have been a really, really, really cool rookie quarterback battle between the number one pick and the number two pick. Not sure if Jane Daniels is playing this week. He's got a rib injury. He has not practiced yet, but still got Caleb Williams. We still got a cool Bears team. We still got a Washington team that has done some really fun things on offense, even when Mariotta was in there.

Playing the Panthers helps a little bit, but the commanders are three-point underdogs at home, just like the Seahawks were. These are the two good games that we picked. So when you're watching, I'll say when the Bears have the ball against this commander's defense, what are you checking out, Charles? I expect Caleb Williams to kind of put on a show this week because...

we've, we've eclipsed a barrier for him where he's doing what he's like supposed to be doing on the field production wise, where, Hey, you have the Panthers defense. You have the Jaguars defense. You're the number one overall pick. We've been touting you up, go kill. And he did like, he was great in those games. Uh, and the Washington defense was like, not was like, they, they're kind of on the same wavelength this year. Uh, they're not very good. Uh,

It's kind of really that simple to me. I mean, they're not that good. One offense is going like this and one defense is going like this. Right. And you see what sucks about Jaden not being here is he's probably going to take some eyes off of the game. And I think that

it would have been nice for just everyone to come in and see like, dude, Caleb Williams is a better quarterback than he was in week one. And you're seeing like tangible results for that on the field. And this is a defense that,

that that he should take advantage of like i don't really see what the spot here would be like where where he could run into some trouble because this defense has kind of been cut up by everyone so um i i think he's gonna have another big game i'm looking forward to see if he can get a couple more scrambles off or uh just more tight window throws because honestly it's just fun to watch like that's what i'm here for i just want to see caleb williams do things against a bad defense

I wrote about Caleb this week on Yahoo, so make sure to check that out. But I felt bad for Joey Galeno, our editor, because I couldn't stop sharing clips in the article. Because I was just like, look at this. I was like, all right, I know I have to trim some fat, but I was like, you guys got to see what he's doing here. And it's not just the... I mean, the arm talent is ridiculous, and the creation is ridiculous, but his intelligence is so...

impressive. And I've talked about this for a few weeks. Now I wrote about it. It's, it's, uh, that's why I want to emphasize this. You do not see rookie quarterbacks with this handle of an NFL offense right away. Week one, week two, they gave him the full slate to call plays, do no huddle stuff. They use no huddle at the second highest rate in the NFL commanders are first. Uh, but

but that's not, it's different types. Commanders is tempo, tempo, tempo, tempo. Okay. We'll slow it down. Sometimes bears is the hanging huddle. Okay. We get to the line, fake the cadence. Matt Ryan used to do it a bunch in Atlanta.

pick the canes okay all right now we get everyone set we call the plays nothing from the headset though and the fact that they let Caleb have full license to do that tells me that he's doing it in practice and meetings because you don't get to do that in games unless you're can show you can do that and they did it week one or week two and then they kept they keep doing it

Yeah, that's a really good sign. I said at the end of the article, I go, this is a franchise QB. And I'm not saying what he can be. I'm saying like right now, what he's doing right now in weeks eight of his rookie year. This is, I call it done. Yeah, just a very impressive player. And like you said, I wanted more eyeballs on it because yeah, they play a weaker slate of defenses, but it's like,

he's doing it. That's, that's the whole point. You've got to make him look like a bad defense and he did. So I'm with you. They've trimmed some fat on that offense too. So that's been good. I was, I think, um, Caleb has shown this year, like kind of the, the positive side of going out there as a rookie, getting your ass kicked the first couple of weeks, um,

And you get to see the improvement. Because week one, man, there were a couple times where he's like 10, 15 yards deep in the backfield with his back turned to the defense. That's already gone for the most part. You don't really see him taking those...

you know, those kind of like explosive negative plays or, or, or even the risk for those. So, you know, sometimes you just got to throw him out there, let him sink or swim. And he's swimming. Like he's, he looks really good. Um, and I expect him to have another, another big day if, uh, if they can just kind of stay on schedule with the run game and, and,

I guess, you know, the Panthers got got by Dante Fowler. Hopefully you can you can stand tall. Maybe maybe the Bears offensive line struggles this, you know, Bears offensive line stands darn all right. Struggles again. But I think this would be a pretty good game for him. They've trimmed. Talk to Matt Harmon about this. And they like they just they've reworked the offense where they're now getting guys healthy. That helps, too. But like, all right, enough, Gerald Everett.

all right, DeAndre Swift, you do this. Okay, we're not going to give you too many touches that you run the wrong way on. But it does have an explosive play element there. So yeah, early down, they're moving the ball well. The offensive line has improved. They still have some moments where I'm like, but Caleb does a really good job of getting everyone sorted out. Again, it's just, it's really cool. I'm glad you brought up that negative play though. The, um,

Against the Rams, he had a funny play where he took a sack on it. But he's in the pocket. And I don't know if he was doing this out of spite or

or just this kind of like, it's just him being him. He literally did not move from the, like he finished his drop and they just stood and not like a, like, Oh, he's frozen. Like it drew blood. So, but no, like he was like, no, I'm going to progress. And I'm not moving one inch from here as I progressed. And then you could see it getting swallowed up. Like the pocket gets closer and he gets sacked. And, but it was just kind of like,

I think he was trying to go like, I could take the coaching point, like see, like see what I can do. But yeah. And Jerry, Jerry said, hello, like 10. I think that's exactly what I love. As you said, you watch the bears align and you see darn all right doing something cool. And then you see two guys on the ground. Yeah. That, that kind of feels. Yeah.

I guess in Texas it was. It definitely was. All right, the other side of the ball. I know Jayden Daniels isn't playing, so it loses some steam. You know, it's a great proving ground for them anyways, because the Bears' defense is really badass. They're number one defensive success rate right now. But they're vulnerable to big plays. You can get them, but they are very much like a bend-but-don't-break type of defense. But anything else that you're looking on this side of the ball, even with Jayden maybe not playing?

I guess I just want to see how real the Commanders' run game is because they've been one of the best units in the league. Even when you pull out scrambles, they've been one of the best Russian teams in the league. Austin Eckler's averaging 5.5, 6 yards an attempt. And that goes beyond the Panthers game from last week. I love that we have to give that caveat to anyone that plays the Panthers. We have to because Mariota's playing. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Mariota got the start. They put up 40. Jaden Daniels only played one drive. And man, like I was so like once it I think yes, it was yesterday once they announced Jaden

was missing practice on Wednesday. I was like, okay, this is possibly trending toward him not playing on Sunday. Just for fun, I just kind of threw on the Washington offense versus Panthers defense film. I was like, I don't even know what I'm watching here. Because there was one point in the second quarter where they were just basically spamming dive plays. Just Brian Robinson up the middle, eight yards, eight yards, eight yards. Then maybe he'll bounce it out for nine yards. I was like, this is not...

there's nothing you can take from this to move it forward. But if we're going to do the same thing with Caleb, like, hey, he's playing well against units that he should play well against. Yeah, if the commander's offense is real, they should dump 40 on a team that's like barely NFL quality right now. It's going to be a lot tougher this week. I don't really know what to expect from Mariota because he's such a damn wild card sometimes in terms of how he plays. But, you know, when he gets into these games, sometimes against tougher defenses, I feel like

he just kind of craps out a little bit and is prone to making just stupid plays. And that could probably hurt him. Like, I think it's definitely, it definitely matters that they don't have Jaden for this game. Like, don't just look at 40 points last week and say, oh, they can just run it back with Mariota and they'll be fine. They need Jaden in there. If he's not going to play, that's a really big, really big loss for them.

Yeah, Jaden's legs and his that is going to get a lot of hype and everything, but he's safe with the ball. Like, and that matters against a defense like this. And one, like, this defense wants to squeeze you. Like, they want you, hey, we're going to dare you to try and get an explosive play because we're going to make it hard on you down to down. I want to write about, I was originally going to write about Jaden and Caleb this week, and then when Jaden

show that he's probably when they said week to week I was like if they said day to day I'd think he's probably playing but week to week is usually means he's missing a week so I'm going to push that article a little bit back sorry commanders fans but I really just wanted to study the commanders offense a little bit because I kind of had a

I talked about Matt Harmon about this was that maybe some of the dirty work guys at skill positions that they have now, Brian Robinson, Luke, Luke McCaffrey, Zacchaeus, scary. Terry even does some dirty work stuff. Diamond Brown, when he's out there, it does some dirty work stuff. It was like cliff Kingsbury learned, like, I don't know.

I don't need a whole bunch of five, eight fast guys. Like he thinks like his Texas tech brain thinks that he needs like all this space. So we got to get speed, speed, speed. And then you realize, well, all these guys are fast. We can beat them with like play speed, like the tempo of the play and what the players, you know, do the burly work. And that creates better place because their receiver screens are,

Like most people get mad at them and they get five, 10 yards every time they do them. Like, even though, you know, they're coming so much better now than they were at the end of Arizona. Oh my God. Those were dead place. It's completely dead place. And I really, there's some theory to me that cliff has like, because there's a gap,

He like his offense actually works for what defenses are doing now. And the fact that he goes tempo. So you can't do a bunch of funky looks against them. They don't use a ton of motion, which actually I think has some benefits now because the defense is doing so much stuff that I know huddle stats insane. Like they are. They're no huddle like 57% of the time. Bears are number two at 28.

literally twice as much as the second most team. And I think there's some benefit to that from against most defenses bears though, who are very smart, run a lot of zone, have a lot of good players. That's where I'm like, okay, kind of prove it. But also great, great call with the commanders online. Like they, they've been one of the most pleasant surprises of this season. I thought they were going to be awful.

I did too. I was like, yeah, she's okay. But the rest, whatever. They're like a legitimately top half offensive line. Like run game in. It's not just all gimmicks. And they get some easier looks because of the tempo stuff. But man, they're sound. They protect well. The pressure rates are good. They run the ball well. So yeah.

The floor on this offense is a lot higher than I thought it would be coming into the season. Yep, I know. And I'm fine saying I want good offenses. I want good quarterback play. I don't want J. Daniels to suck. No, I don't either. You want good quarterbacks. You want me to watch the primetime games we get? We need them to be good. You're right. Oh, man. I know. Because there's nothing worse than when they trot those games out and you have to watch Daniel Jones again. Quick prediction for the Masters? Yeah, Chicago as well. I don't think the Commanders can score enough.

Yeah. Let's keep up with them. Yeah. I think there's going to be, it's going to be more interesting people think, but it's, yeah, I really wish Shane Deons was playing, but I'm with you on that one. Yeah. We're going to take a quick break and then we'll get back with our sloppy steak Sunday. Watch your job. Do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulley?

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Shop in-store or online today. All right, we are back and we are going to start this slop watch. We're going to get each give. We broke it down. We split these games in half.

And Charles is either going to give one thing he's looking at, he's interested in, a player, a stat, a joke, you know, something of a bit. And I'm going to do the same for the other half of the game. So we're going to alternate on this. We've got a Haas fight in there somewhere as well. But we're going to start off with, before the season seemed like an interesting game. Not so much now. Oh, well, James is playing. We've got the Ravens at Browns. Browns are eight and a half point underdogs at home. Another home dog, big home dog.

Charles, what's your one thing for this game? Start us off with the slop watch. Lamar, I want to see him keep this record. He's having one of the greatest seasons in NFL history, objectively. He's on pace to be the first 4K, 1K player in the league. And he would also have three of the five 1,000-yard rushing seasons for a quarterback. So that's what I'm rooting for. And on the other side, I guess...

can the Browns be competent enough with James where they are watchable? That's it. That's a four. Can you be a watchable NFL offense? That's it. That's it. Maybe some Cedric Tillman in there. Oh yeah. We've got Ken Dorsey calling plays, I guess. All right. So we'll see. Yeah. I'm with you. Yeah. Ravens one is a, or with Lamar. I love the thousand. Cause the other two guys were a thousand rushing yards or what? Vic. And is it vacant? And who else was just more feels a rental coming. Yeah.

was it oh fields yeah that's right that's right well and just think how vick and fields played like this is we still get to see fields play but lamar as a passer is just leagues better you know vick had talent but not not like this as an arm talent he had arm talent but i was playing my quarterback oh lamar's just on another level so i like that you brought that step man cutting him had the record but he didn't get over a thousand that's right and another guy they could

I mean, one 1998 season when he had Randy Moss, Chris Carter, Jake Reed and Robert Smith and three Pro Bowl offensive linemen. He was good throwing the ball, but most of his career could not throw the ball like this either. My next game or the one I'm going to take is Eagles at Bengals. Bengals are two and a half point favorites at home. My one thing is, do the Eagles keep the good times going on the ground? It seemed that.

They've learned to maybe not lean into some Jalen Hurts passing the ball and instead are just going to pound the rock with Saquon Barkley in the offensive line who's battled some injuries, but still is well coached and has some players. But I guess the Giants, they just pounded the freaking rock going against a Bengals run defense that

They are very bad defending the run. They turn every run game that they play into the best run game in the NFL. They've allowed over a 50% success rate. So they turn every run game into an elite run unit. And the Eagles have Barkley in this run unit. So I think we're going to see plenty of that. They might keep the...

the lid on you know some of those goal balls those cheapy ones to aj brown so who knows on that side but i that's really what i keep out on this eagles offense it's like hey this might be your formula do you stick to it when you should or do you kind of blink before you should uh i don't know i predict on that game though i'm wow the bangles might be four and four after this weekend yeah jeez luckily i was on record after they went one and three or whatever went four and i said they could still maybe make the playoffs because the afc was wide open so

Russell Wilson's here to stiff arm him, you know? Oh my God. I think Tom was that they might even go back. Oh God. That's just like, yeah, we'll see. Also the Bengals offense.

brutally efficient, which has been, you know, watching Joe Burrow turn into, I mean, truly like Philip Rivers. It's been pretty fun. All right, going on to the Hoss Fight of the Week. This is one of your games. We have the Titans at the Lions. The Lions are 11 and a half point favorites, and this is our Hoss Fight. All right, what are you checking out of this game? You know, the more I sat looking at

the Titans' defensive numbers for the season, I just felt so damn sad for them. Like... It's good. They're a good team. They're a good unit, I should say. They're a good defense. Yeah. They're a good defense. And, like, they're... I think even... Like, their EPF per play has dropped after that Bills game. But, like, I think success rate, they're still number two in the league. Yeah, they're around there. Which is...

Damn, you have done your job, Titans defense. They have lived up to their end of the bargain. And I almost think it's hard to be like one in six with the defense is good because for a while there, like the Titans numbers were comparable with the Broncos for like the first like four or five weeks of the season. And now the Broncos are four and three and the Titans are...

they're one to six, like their season's over. And the fact like that their defense could be this good and they're still 11 point underdogs. There's nothing here to watch for except like the explosions in the trans games when Detroit like does what they do and line up and run the ball because Tennessee does have like a damn good run defense overall or to go with their defense overall. So like,

that's where the intrigue is yeah i don't think there's nothing else really because you you don't you don't need like the lines might be short on edge rushes you don't need pass rushes to beat the titans offense right now no just bad no uh yeah i wish i had some more exciting i guess you know the other side pierce skronsky against elaine mcneil i guess you know something like that but

Yeah. I Lions offensive line lines run game against, you know, sweat Simmons, those guys that should be fun, but it's just kind of like, can they hang for four quarters or they just go, Oh my God, they have the ball again past midfield. Oh God, they're punting again. Like last week. Yes. It just wears on these teams, these units. It really just does. And like,

You see it sometimes and like that's why kind of some of the stats can get jaded on it because you're just like yeah I would give up to like the opposing team got the ball in midfield every time like every single time and we got three points or six points. Look at the Browns defense sometimes this year. You see him turn it up and crank it up for a quarter or two quarters and then they go. Oh yeah. We're dead. We're dead. Yeah. They got some good vibes at least with Nick Chubb back and everything like that was that was yeah maybe Jamison there. So

All right, going on to one of my games. Cardinals at Dolphins. Sneaky, interesting matchup. Two returns. For this game, though, I kind of had a set of fun, styles make fights type of game here. You got a burly Cardinals offense who are actually top 10 in all the success rate, explosive rate stuff I look at. So...

Get off my back about my Drew Petsing hype. He'll figure out Marvin Harrison Jr. He'll figure out. The offense is not the problem here. No, no, no, no. We'll get to the other side. This is more of a two things thing for me. But then the Dolphins, their defense is a sneaky, really good defense. If you watch them, and every time I'm like, oh, Dolphins, they're a nothing team. And then I watch whatever offense is going at some, I'm like,

I got Siler, Ramsey. Man, they make it a slog on you. So I want to watch it. Another low-key kind of Haas fight that we got going on that side. Then we got Tua back going against a funky Cardinals defense that...

You can get after a little bit. They're trying, man. They're trying their hardest. They do. That's what I appreciate. Watch the Chargers game was a little bit more like, oh, okay, you guys can do this a little bit. Their defensive shell stuff with Buda Baker, the three safety stuff that I was excited about the preseason, they're still doing it. This should be the type of offense that's good against.

with all the shanahan motions and all this stuff like it was decent against the 49ers they got lucky with some uh turnovers that's what they kind of have to be uh with the lack of personnel that they have so but i i do want to see two of back see at least if this offense could be functional it wasn't good when he was out there the first couple weeks i want everyone to remember that and then you got tyree kill not even looking for a football uh on one route last week so

They need a little bit of mouthwash. I want to see if the Cardinals are like, no, no, no. We're going to keep this momentum going for the rest of the season. Yeah. My one take on that game is if Tua's back, if they don't come back to life to a big degree, you got to hit the red alert button. Oh, yeah.

they should like personnel wise, like they should torch this defense. They should. And if it's a struggle or a slug and I get it's to his first game back, but he got paid. I, I, I, I drop excuses once you get paid. That's kind of what I thought, you know? And so I, you know, want to see him. It's not, and I want to see him in this offense again, because again, the offense has just been, Oh, okay. They can still run the ball. No, they can't like they that's been gone. That's went away the last few weeks, you know, there's been signs, but it's not, this goes back to last season too.

you know, starting like November ish. Yeah, I know. So it's, yeah, it's a continued thing. So I want to see if they adjust and see if, I mean, you still have a shot in the AFC still open. Like it's not dead. Like you just mentioned the bangles. Like that's why I want to see if these teams have some heart and yeah, it's a big proving ground. Cardinals got some good vibes. So yeah, kind of a little difference there. All right. Now we got, Ooh, one of yours. We got an NFC South battle. We got Falcons at box bucks or two and a half point underdogs at home.

Bucks are also wearing the creamsicles, which I think you have a take about. The current unis are better. I know that this is like straight blasphemy, but-

I kind of don't get it. I don't think that it's... I think they upgraded their uniform, quite frankly, with what they're wearing now. Now, what they were wearing when they drafted Jameis with the digit numbers. The alarm clock numbers. Yeah, the alarm clock numbers. And they tried to do basically a digitized version of that with a slim thing of creamsicles. That was terrible. Nothing is as bad as that. But I just find the shade to be a little bit...

And it's also, and this is honestly true. I said it earlier, but this is true for a lot of teams. But it's very true for the Buccaneers.

This is just associated with your worst self for the most part. They were terrible when they wore these jerseys. They made Steve Spurrier grumpy. That's why he was being so mean to everyone from 1995 to 2015 because he was getting his damn ass beat playing for Tampa Bay.

Oh, wait. No, no, no. No, that was Tampa Bay, right? Yeah. Yeah. Tampa Bay back in the day. And yeah, he just he's miserable now. And it's because of those cream circle jerseys. And I don't really understand, like, the love for them. They're different. But what they wear right now, that's great. Great uniform. Like the red with the white pants. Good stuff. And there's Super Bowl winning history with this two times. Come on.

Right. It's not. So the other, like, I think they call them faux backs now, you know, like throwback, fauxback, other teams that we see Broncos ones. Beautiful.

And also the Broncos won game. I know they, the first year that there was a while there in the nineties, every time a team switched their uniforms, they like won a Superbowl that year or like made it to the conference championship game or something. Broncos. I get, they finally won those Superbowls once they made the change, but their old uniforms, they still met the super, they were making Superbowls. They were still winning a lot of games and their Dan Reeves and others and early John Elway years and their uniforms. Those are just, I love them. And then you got your Falcons. We have the dirty birds.

You know, I wish we had the 98 Falcons that they won. I know it's a lot of crap before that. Right. I will say, specifically, the red helmet, black top look, associated with a whole lot of losing, man. A whole lot of losing. I know.

I know. I know. And that's why it's that one's hard for me because it's like I want it. It's such a good look. I know. And then the Seahawks have their throwback ones. I love and Seahawks won games in the 80s when my dad was playing with them. Actually, there's some good vibes there, too. Or Chuck Knox and all that. So like that, you know, they have some history, but I'm with you a little bit. I like the uniforms, but I also think of Trent Dilfer.

Yeah. And that's all I need to leave it at. You never want to think of Trent Dilfer. No, you don't. You definitely do not, especially if you're in Birmingham right now. But if we go to Roger Sherman had a nice article about today. All right. Going on to my last game before we take a break. We got Jets at Patriots. Patriots are seven point home underdogs. This one should be quick. Drake May.

That that's, that's why you watch this game. Drake may. Let's see what he's got. See if we got the speech giving jets versus the soft Patriots. And those are the storylines of the week. So which one, which one comes to a head here? Also Patriots receivers know what you are.

Why are you guys going one after another complaining? What are you talking about? What are you guys doing? I know. It's not like you guys are dominant players that should be throwing their hands up about stuff. Also, K-Strom links your window by like... You missed your window at college, dude. Yeah. He was the number one receiver on everyone's board and then he went late day three. He's got 10 catches in the NFL. Enough. Yeah.

Remember that? Was it the Florida State game they played? Like week one or whatever? And he just had some terrible moments in that game. It was like, yeah, I know. Yes, yes, yes. Because that was the game where Mason Smith tore his ACL celebrating. And K-Shaw was awful in that game. He stopped running routes and everything. So whose word am I going to take here?

You know, when I look at these guys, the guy that complaining. We got six round picks asking for more targets. Like, Drake, take control of your country. His quote last week about why England fans should be fans of Patriots.

He's the perfect level of smart, but still a golden retriever. And I love it. I'm honestly kind of rooting for them to win because wouldn't it be funny for the Jets to just add another piece? It's not a red X back and they just lose another game. And when people are writing articles about the speech. Yeah. Yeah. I still, yes. I would think that'd be very funny. I do. Yes. I would absolutely think that'd be very funny. Yeah. I just,

But these teams got to prove some stuff, something, you know, something. I still already went on a rant about Belichick earlier this week, you know, but at least prove something maybe to your old coach that wants to take pot shots every week. All right. We're going to take one last break, get back to the rest of Slopwatch and get to a mailbag question as well.

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Shop in-store or online today. Okay, going to one of your games. We got, sometimes it's just so funny when you see two teams paired up and you're like, huh, they're playing each other, huh? Saints and Chargers. Chargers are home. Chargers are a touchdown favorite at home. Seven points, seven point favorites at home in Los Angeles. When you are checking out this game, what's your one thing for the slop watch? How painful does Jim Harbaugh try to make this on the Saints defense?

Because they ain't tackling nobody, man. And I know the Chargers run game,

It's been kind of whatever this year. It's kind of what I expected. Yeah. I mean, the sound, it's gritty, but it's not great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they look like they're in year one of a rebuild. But I know Jim is watching that Saints tape and drooling all over his steak and milk. That's right in front of him. You know, he's got he's got steak, milk, and he's watching Sean Tucker break 12 tackles versus Saints defense in like just the fourth quarter alone. Yeah.

I feel like Jim is just going to say, we are going to run the ball 50 times and see what happens because those guys have

Quit. Capital Q quit. And they're hurt. And they're just not very good. It's just all of the pieces of a recipe for a defense that doesn't care and is terrible at the same time. It's not like an offense where I'm like, oh yeah, they run the ball decently. It's like literally the Chargers pride themselves and haven't shut up about how much they want to run the ball. That's all they do. And then you got Justin Herbert making hero throws. But...

this is what they want to do. This is like what they built their whole entire team around because it's a hardball team going against the Saints team. That's like, like you said, it's just a,

indifferent to playing defense right now. You got Javante Williams looking amazing against them. You got Bo Nix running down the sideline against them. Yeah, they're not playing very sound or very just good. You got Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker. They look like LeDane Thomas and Michael Turner out there. Oh, I know. Alante Taylor is missing. I know Tyron Manthew. This is what he did in Kansas City. This is why they went to Justin Reed. But like all of them,

all of them. It's just one of every guy just making a mistake on something. So yeah, like you said that this could be ugly. All right. That's why they're touchdown favorites. Pray for a rattler too. Yeah, I know. Cause this defense is pretty good. Even though they don't have a lot of pieces right now. I know that another Jesse Manor is doing an awesome job on that defense. Like, yeah, that I want to do a little study on them. So maybe we can do a deep dive on them pretty soon because yeah, it's been a very good unit. All right. Going on one of my games.

The Darnell Savage revenge game. We got Packers. Jaguars plus four. Jaguars are four point home on it. I'm guessing you saw what he said this week. Who? Darnell Savage. I saw what LaFleur said. What Savage said. You know what Darnell Savage said? No. No. Someone asked Darnell Savage who he was looking forward to seeing playing Packers again. He said no one.

The thing is with Savage, now he has to play on the back end. He's not at the slot. It's a mess. It's a mess on that defense. Thankfully, we didn't hype up that defense at all. I have Tyson Campbell back helps. I will say that. But they're going against a Packers team that

Doesn't matter what your scheme is. Doesn't matter your personnel. They're going to find it. They're going to find a weakness. They're going to poke at it. They're going to run the ball on you or Jordan loves going to throw some hero throws and make some big plays. So this game, I'm kind of Packers take care of business. They should really take this game. Also Packers fans travel. Well, we're going to Jacksonville.

jacks fans you know they they gotta win but they're still you know they're they're about this close to wearing clown outfits again to games so i you know i think we're gonna have a heavy packers crowd and so i think they can also like we said run it on them they have guys that can beat man coverage that's what the jacks are going to do a ton of they have tight ends that can get open against you know the poorest linebackers of the jacks like they just have all the answers so uh yeah that's kind of what just looking at in this game the other side of the ball like

Jaguars often showed some life. I will give him some credit there and they're cleaning up a lot of the mistakes and maybe that's because they don't have Travis Etienne touches, but they're cleaning up a lot of stuff and I will give him some credit. I still think some of their issues is more personnel. They're really some of the scheme stuff they're doing, even if it's more boom busty, but I will give credit to Doug Pearson, press Taylor a little bit on that offense. But Trent Balky, I know he's a great guy.

I know what you are. All right, going on. So what are your games? I gave you some fun ones. Panthers, Broncos. Broncos are 10-point home favorites. Bryce Young will start.

against the Broncos defense, who might be the best defense in football right now. So what are you checking out in this game? Oh, just, oh my God. How did this happen to Bryce Young? Because the dark...

humor in this is ever since the panthers like you had you basically had like what one game where andy dalton had a good offense maybe a game and a half uh and since then it has just all fallen apart totally they're they're just awful so people have been clamoring for bryce to get back into the lineup so you know andy dalton has this car accident which luckily very minor injury but you

Heard enough where he's going to miss at least a week. So the people who want to see Bryce, you get to see him against the Denver damn Broncos. That's awful. That's just awful because you're at best versus worst. Because the only other quarterback who was just in the realm of Bryce Young's stats was Deshaun Watson. So you're getting...

Bottom of the barrel quarterback play. I just want to see if he can get past like 125 yards passing. I wonder what his overrunner is now. Stone Key, look that up. I mean, there's no way. There's simply no way that it's high. Yeah. And Sertans, I think, is back. And they're just going to run press coverage on them the whole time. They're going to green dog them and blitz them every play.

It could be ugly. Yeah. At least they have a running back. Chuba Hubbard's having a nice season. He is. Yeah, credit to Chuba. I got a little lower on him in the draft process. I was kind of indifferent on him in the end, but he runs...

like tougher than I gave him credit for coming out of college. So yeah, no, yeah, good call there. And even though they invested, they try to pay another running back last year, Miles Sanders. And then they also drafted another guy, Jonathan Brooks in the second round this year. It's like, what do you, what do you guys think you need on that team? Which is a lot. They're a couple of years away on that, but yeah, I'm more excited to watch the Broncos defense and Broncos run game, which has been really interesting the last few weeks. It looks like a champagne run game. So that's been pretty fun.

But yeah, Panthers, I'm sorry. Now going on to it, AFC South battle. Actually more of a juicy game than you would first think. You know, Colts and Texans are kind of have a

This is almost like a loser leaves town. I would say loser leaves town. It's like an eliminator match. I guess would be a better way to put it. Texans are five point home favorites, but this really has some significance in this division. Colts get DeForest Buckner back. Jonathan Taylor back. Remember, though, this Colts run game got absolutely smacked by this Texans run game in week one. And where I was like, oh, Texans solved all their problems.

Turns out that might've been a little, a little blip, a little Joe Mixon blip. Uh, when he's not out there, it's not great. Uh,

But really, I'm just looking. Can Anthony Richardson continue like some positive play? Can you look like a guy? He needs to take these live reps. I want to see the Texans offense figure out their problems. Like this team looks more like the best of a bad bunch of that division as opposed to a true, true, true, true, true contender. Because just that offensive line, offensive line, bad offensive line sinks any contender. It's like it's it's something it's like proven.

So that's why I'm just so concerned right now. Hopefully Nico Collins comes back in a few weeks, but until they figure out these protection issues, I guess a refresh, maybe defense that,

you know, layout to lots who has done some nice things to Forrest Buckner. They can slot, make the run game a slog. Are we going to get back to CJ Stroud facing a whole bunch of third and tens and having to play like a hero? Also, whispers are starting about CJ Stroud and like going, people are going like, oh, now people are making excuses about his play car stuff. We're making, we're criticizing this offense last year too. So, and he was overcoming it. So just want to make sure that's on record. What's there to say about CJ Stroud right now? He's a hero. Because,

Because the most recent thing I've seen is 85 yards passing? That's it. Is that it? That's it. That's like his bad Northwestern game where he had 84 yards, and it was actually one of the most impressive games when you watched him. Stop saying the box scores.

I know. Yeah. Great point. And I know, I know the underlying stats aren't great with the stuff, but it's like, that's because he's doing everything he can. Like this offense just is, it doesn't have a lot of good footing right now. It's been relying on explosive plays from Stroud, the Nico Collins, and now a little bit of digs. And then it's like, all right, if that doesn't happen, who's stepping up? Like, and it just, yeah. I mean, even last week tank delegates, CJ Stroud breaks contain, it's take down the back, it's tank down the chest and,

It's like, all right, I know you don't have the biggest catching range. Can you at least catch it on your chest? And, you know, that just kind of feels like one guy after another letting him down. But their offensive line, though, is like the rules, the performance. Laramie Tunsell looks like a negative player. They have just been really outright bad. And it's just been one of the more surprising things because I thought they'd improve at least a little bit from last year. Texans also have a few injuries on defense still. Alshair, Jimmy Ward, Toto is limited with a concussion. So, yeah.

do the Colts just pound the rock. Yeah. It does a couple of things on that game. Cause it's a little bit more interesting than you would first think. Yeah. There, there's still, I just looked it up. There's still 30th and EPA based success rate on first and second down the Texans are. So yeah,

Luckily, you have CJ Stroud, so you don't like a total embarrassment. But this still is not a good offense. It's not. I know. And they haven't done anything where I'm like, oh, I like that. Again, I like the third down designs more than anything. And maybe that's just because Stroud looks so cool. He's on his own. I mean, he really is. All right. We'll get into another AFC battle here. We've got a couple more games here. We got this one of my games, actually. Chiefs at Raiders in

In Vegas, where I live, Raiders are nine and a half point underdogs at home. DeAndre Hopkins. That was it. I think we both also independently stumbled upon the Chiefs stats and their offensive stats and going like, why are people complaining? I wrote about last week. You're doing something on it, too. We're both like, they get five yards whenever they want. That's good. There's three goals to an offensive play.

An efficient play, a first down, or a touchdown. Hopefully you get all three. But mostly getting efficient play is good. That's a check. Good. We did good there. They don't need to bend over backwards. They can just get five yards a pop whenever they want. That's good. That's a good offense. You had their points per drive. Aren't they like 7th?

Yeah, I just pulled it up. They're eighth in points per drive. Eighth. They're ninth in EPA per play. They're fifth in EPA per rush. They're first in success rate. Sky's falling. Fourth in pass success rate. First in rush success rate. It's literally just turnovers in red zone. Like, if they can figure that out, they're back to being, like, an elite, elite offense. And those turnovers are, like, a rookie running back, Carson Steele, which has been hilarious, by the way, because now –

because he had those fumbles, he now all-stops it. And it's like, oh, man, you're really leaning into this fullback bit. So where he double-hands it and does that through the hole, he doesn't one-arm it anymore. So it's like, oh, I was trying to say you're a tailback man, and now you're truly running like a fullback. And then a couple of the interceptions that Mahomes will have, you're not going to have tip balls to a defensive lineman all the time. That's going to iron out if I can figure it out. And the defense is really good, too.

Right. They're 6-0. They're awesome. They're the best team in the league. It's like them and the Lions. And one thing that's just been so frustrating is just seeing people be like, man, what's wrong with Mahomes? There's nothing wrong with him. Nothing. You don't have a top... You need Mahomes to have a top 10 offense, right? Because with this supporting cast, yeah, they can run the ball, but...

they would still need a little bit of help from the quarterback to make it go. And he's still playing well. I know it was like six touchdowns, eight interceptions is not, you know, there's no dopamine fireworks falling out the skies anymore, but this, this offense is at its core doing what every coach would love to do. Every time we come out, we're getting five, six yards. Yes. That's great. That,

That's exactly what you're taught to do. I know. And then when my homes has to be my homes, he still can. It's not like he lost the trick shots. It's not like he's hurt or anything. Watch him against a 49ers just taken over. So yeah, I have no worries with them. Um,

Oh, that's why he's bad now. Yeah. But, you know, with the Hopkins thing, I talked about more with Matt earlier this week on fantasy on the fantasy forecast. And on that, though, it's he's the zone beating guy. He could play on ball, which is needed because Xavier Worthy literally can't operate if he has to play on the ball. He has to be off the ball. He has to be in motion. Travis Kelsey's best when he's off the ball. So.

This is just going to have a nice trickle-down effect on the rest of the team. This is not DeAndre Hopkins in his prime. This is 75% of them, 80% of them. Still a good player. Still a tangibly moves the needle just a little bit, but it helps everybody else out in this offense. So I really like that trade. I thought that made a ton sense. Him, that trade, and the Cooper trade to the Bills both made perfect sense for where the teams are at right now. Also, want to do it again, giving a shout-out to Travis Kelsey, the blocker.

He is a good blocker now. And I am, I love it. It's what he's like morphed into a true old man strength. Good blocker. Now this leader stuff to heart. He was, he was an outright bad blocker. Like, like bad, like they hit him. You cannot rely on them doing anything. And it's, it's kind of cool to see him going like, Hey, I got to help out the game. I help us win. That's the chiefs right now. They're boring, but efficient and embrace the bore. All right. Sunday night to wrap up slop watch.

Cowboys at 49ers. Another interesting game. Got the 49ers minus four. Kind of been the bogeyman, this defense, for this Cowboys offense. But when you're watching this game, Chuck, what's your one thing? Man, I mean, no matter how you slice it, Cowboys' rush defense is like one of the worst things that's ever contaminated a professional football field. They suck so badly. And I know that the 49ers, they've had their...

issues, you know, with... I love that analysis. They just suck. They just suck. There's no, there's no, Macy Smith sucks. No, it's like, yeah, no, I'm with you. Yeah, dude, Linvald Joseph, 100 years old. Jordan Phillips has never actually been that good. Like, I, I don't know. Like, they're just bad. So, even with, you know, some of, maybe, like, the injuries that the 49ers have had, I still expect them to just mow this defense down. Like, even, like, on the ground, like, I...

I just think the Cowboys are really that bad. Like, where you see, you know, some of the offensive struggles that they had last week against Kansas City. Like, I just don't think you'll see any of it. And I try to, like, lessen on narrative scouting in the middle of the season. But, dude, the 49ers own this team. Like, I don't know. I think they're just going to... I think they're going to steamroll them again. Maybe, like, Dak and CeeDee can finally get something going. But I think the Cowboys are just too depleted right now. They stink. That's it. It's the...

it's the obvious answers is that yes, all the foreigners receivers are out, but like it's still Kyle Shanahan and,

And how does Kyle Shanahan make a living running the freaking ball? And even if it's not the best unit, it's not the greatest thing. We don't have CMC. He might be coming back soon, but we might not have him. It's Jordan Mason instead. He's still going to find ways to attack this defense. I didn't look into Shanahan versus Zimmer stats, but I don't recall it ever being a thing for Shanahan where it's like, oh, this is an issue for him. Maybe the passing downs get there, but I don't think they're going to face a lot of third and long.

because I think it's just going to be a brutally efficient game for the 49ers. They haven't been explosive as a team, as we generally see them. That's losing Christian McCaffrey will do that. But they can still be efficient. They can still find ways. I brought up the second half adjustments. They're one of the top five offenses and adjustments. So they're going to find ways to move the ball and score the points. So,

yeah, I'm, and then the other side is just like, yeah, the foreigners defense is just had the Cowboys offenses number. It doesn't matter who the defense coordinator is just Fred Warner. And it's just been like, they're like, just limits everything they want to do when you run, run a lot of quick game against Fred Warner. Yeah. That's not, not, not a great formula. Hopefully we see some Malcolm Staffa too. That was a good call by us. Malcolm Staffa. He's playing exactly how I pictured him in the NFL, which is a lot of fun. So yeah,

All right. We're going to get to a mailbag question now. Again, you can send these in to football301mailbag at yahoosports.com or leave us a five-star review and you can jump the line and get a question there. But we're going to try and answer these once a week. You want to go with that?

good NFL role play? Yeah, it was just the first thing about just me being a s***head was the first thing that came to my mind was the question was what makes a good NFL role player and my first answer was going to be don't ask for more targets when you have 10 career catches. Yeah.

You're not lying, though. That's the starting point. Don't ask for the ball. If you're not asking for the ball, you're a good role player on offense. Yeah. Yeah. Sean D asked this question. What makes a good NFL role player? What is it worth to pay for one? What are some of your favorites? I'm partial to Chanel. Leo Chanel from the Chiefs. Go Badgers. And a player like Darnell Washington. Inline blocking tight end for the Steelers. Two of my favorites. So you guys already took away two of my answers. Yeah.

God, that's such a good answer, though. Like, know your role. I know it's a role player, but like truly know your role. Like we there's stars. There's 99 overall guys, but there's a whole lot of 75 to 84 overall guys in this NFL that

And the cool units are when these guys, when these role players are just hyper specific to that defense. Van Ginkle for the Vikings is a good example. Actually, a ton of Vikings defenders. Metellus. Yeah, like pick a Vikings defender. That's an epitome of that, which makes sense because Brian Flores is a Belichick guy. And he used to always have these kind of hyper specific guys. Yeah.

Yeah, there's a few more. Darn it, Washington's a great answer. I love that. Just a super blocker inline tight end. True wide tight end. Do you have any that come to mind? You know, I weirdly always enjoyed watching even though

Some of his success came at the expense of the Falcons. Mike Tolbert was always kind of a fun guy to watch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you never really had to overthink it with him. And there was another fullback kind of receiver guy that played for the Raiders whose name is Marcel. Oh, I know. Marcel?

Yes. Yes. Marcel Reese. Marcel Reese from Washington. Those kind of guys. I've always enjoyed like just the idea of just like, you know, the 250 pound guy that can catch. But, you know, come on. We're not going to give you the ball. We can split them out. Yeah, we can split them out. Whatever. You know, your job is to catch the ball on like a swing pass on the nine yard line and pull your way into the end zone. Yeah. And make a screen or something like that. Alec Engold.

is maybe a good example right now for the Dolphins. There's a reason those guys don't really get more than like 100 touches a season. But if you're even like a fullback and 100 touches, pretty good player. Good role player. I mean, Kyle Juszczyk is one of these guys. Just a super role player. So that's another good one. Yeah, I know. I'm trying to take some more defensive guys. You know, like...

A classic designated pass rusher is always good. Like Bryce Huff was one. And then now he has to play a full-time role. Like he was an awesome role player, but I wish I had a better answer than know your role is the best way to be a good role player. And, and the NFL where again, it's,

You got 11 players out there under a unit. Not all of them are going to be stars. Some of these guys just have to be good at what they do for the one specific thing. Jonathan Hankins, who's now with the Seahawks. It's a great one. Like a big burly nose tackle that just stuffs to run for 14 to 20 plays a game. Yeah, those guys. Mike Hilton. Mike Hilton. Nice one. Nice slot. Yeah, slot guys are another good one.

Yeah, any kind of rotational guys. I'm trying to think. I was trying to think of some power slots like Zach Pascal was one of mine. I used to always like because he would just always do the dirty work stuff. Robert Woods was one. Then he got too good. He kind of he got promoted from that to just good. Yeah, it's just a good player. Man, there's a lot of offensive linemen ones.

Yeah, but they're starters, you know? I guess the skipper for the Lions as the sixth offensive lineman. Slash wide receiver, depending on who you're playing. The Ben Johnson weird revenge game. Maybe that's what Ben Johnson was doing. He was like, I'm coming for that job. I'm getting Ben Johnson with Dak Prescott. The more I sat on it, I thought the Lions disdain towards Dallas specifically felt a little off.

like your problems with the referees yeah i was gonna say the anger is weird here and it's not like the cowboys like talk crap after it anyways like i don't know but hey everyone you gotta find that angle you gotta find out like how do we motivate our guys this week i know play people think athletes are psycho but it's like that's how you have to get them going a little bit you have to find oh this guy hates you look at the michael jordan hall of fame speech it's like this is how this one gets these guys going especially a team like the lions so i think maybe ben johnson was showing off a little bit going like

I could coach this team. I can coach the Cowboys. Yeah, I know you're right. Thank you. There'll be a nice article afterwards about how terrible he is. All right. We are closing it out today. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, exactly. Matt and I will be back on Tuesday. Thank you to Charles for joining me. I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. Where can they find you? I almost said it, but where can they find you, Charles?

I found me on Twitter at four verts. Uh, if you live in Brooklyn and you listen to this on Thursday, maybe you could spot the somewhere outside Barclays around like 1130 PM. Cause New York Liberty won the title. The parade was, no, the parade was this morning at like 1030. It was like, I,

I can't make that. But they're having big parties around Barclays, which is three stops from my apartment. So I will be out there. I haven't. I've gotten kind of spoiled. The two WNBA teams I've been into are the Minnesota Lynx and the Las Vegas Aces. And it kind of feels like cheating. It's like, oh, yeah, we got both of these teams. I know you're like the number one Liberty fan. I know. How many games did you go to?

This year? At least several. Five or six, probably. That's awesome. And you loved it, right? Oh, it's awesome. It's way more fun than Nets games. I know. I would say since over the last two years, I've probably been to like 12, 15 Liberty games and three Finals games. I've never seen them win a Finals game in person. You're the Jinx? Yeah, I'm the Jinx. Yeah. That's actually really funny.

That's how I feel sometimes with the Mariners. Every time I go to one of their games, someone gets hurt or something happens or the literal roof falls in. And the case when they played at the kingdom. Yeah, I know. I need to go to the Aces game. They play Mandaway Bay. I need to check that out soon.

All right. But anyways, there we're wrapping it up. That was fun. Subscribe to us. Follow us. Rate us. If you don't like us, just yell at me on Twitter. Don't do it in the reviews. Keep the reviews nice and positive, pretty please. I appreciate that. We appreciate that. You can also watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. You can follow Yahoo Sports as well on Snapchat if you're into that. Also, thanks to Brett Stoninati behind the scenes for making us look good.

Thank you all for listening. Enjoy your weekend of football. See you guys next week.

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