NFL Week 9 Preview: Which defense is scarier, Broncos or Texans? | The Domonique Foxworth Show

NFL Week 9 Preview: Which defense is scarier, Broncos or Texans? | The Domonique Foxworth Show

off top. Mana, we got a surprise for you. Welcome back, by the way, but we got a ruling. Yeah, we got to let you head on. Okay, play music. This is the Dominique Foxworth Show. [Music] Welcome to the Dominique Foxworth Show. We’re in three separate places. Mina is in the land of spicy water, Los Angeles. Charlie’s in his bedroom. I only said that so that I could say I miss my uncle Charles y’all because I just realized that Charlie is a Uncle Charles. You got a nephew. Shout out James and Will. Two nephews. Shout out to the I You only got one nephew as far as I’m concerned. Oh, no. They both One has a a Magic City bucket and other Magic City buckets. One was just not allowed to wear it to kindergarten. Charlie is a cool uncle. They live in ATL. But anyway, Charlie, no further ado. I’ll let you know or I’ll let you take it away and let Mina in on this secret. Mina, we know that there’s a rule in football. The best ability is availability. Okay. And the number one thing you can’t do is not show up for your team. Right. Right. And uh Dominique and I have been here on the Dominique Fox show every Thursday making picks. Making them. And we we talked about it. We were like, should we DQ Mina from the Survivor League because like you can’t quit on your team because we didn’t want to do that. We’re not going to We were logical about it and so we are just giving you three losses for not showing up last week. It is now the reason going into the back of the season. I just have one I just have one question. I’m uh I’d like to appeal this decision to arbit it to the arbitrator. Um why was I not there on Thursday? Can you can you explain why I wasn’t on Thursday’s show? The you got you got text message. You could have text your pics in. You chose not to text your pics in because I I had to change the time of the show cuz I had a doctor’s appointment. I’m sorry. There was there was extenduating circumstances. Show up to your game. That’s all. So, you could not beat me in Survivor for like eight straight weeks. So, you changed the entire doctor’s appointment. You changed the entire taping of the show and then you didn’t ask me for No one asked me for a pick. I I thought about asking but then I I forgot. There you go. But like that’s the thing it’s not on me. I’m proactive, not reactive. All right. Well, we we I’ll I’ll send your appeal to the right places. We’ll see. Well, um, depends on how things go this week for us and you. Yeah, we’ll get we’ll get a visit. We’ll get a visit from Big Dom, who will then text a beat reporter about it as a as the fixer for the Survivor Pool. No Dom’s no Dom’s welcome on this show. No Dom’s welcome. So, we’re going to do our regular thing. We’re previewing the NFL slate this Sunday and we’re going to start with their good good games and we’re our good bad games. And uh I might have a sicko game to mix in, but Mina, what’s your good good game? Colt Steelers. Um, so this is I the Colts are juggernaut. We can talk about that. The offense is like putting up historic numbers right now. Uh but this is I feel like this is a massive game for Indianapolis or pardon me for Pittsburgh because if Baltimore wins and by the time you’re listening to this uh and moves to three and five and the Steelers will start they’re decline or they’ve been declining with the losses there’s going to be so much pressure on them down the stretch because the Ravens schedule is so easy. It feels like like they got to stop the bleeding right now. The problem is that defense matches up so poorly with the Colts offense. Um I do I do not think this game though is unwinable for Pittsburgh because we we focus this on my show more on the other side of the ball because I felt like the defense it was just kind of moot. But I do think the Steelers offense can move the ball in Indianapolis. I do think they can try to shorten the game and limit their possessions. I do think that they can use their typical kind of death by a thousand paper cuts approach for this team. So, I’m not putting it outside the realm possibility this game is closer than people think. Yeah. I mean, the I guess Lou ano back in the division is interesting thing to see like going back to see how um he would approach the Steelers when he was the Bengals defensive coordinator and they would I mean it’s divisional games, divisional games, so they it’s hard to kind of always get glean a lot of information about a team, but you do know that they always feel comfortable with each other. So, it be interesting to see how he approaches that because Lou is one of those coordinators, I think, that has so many things that they try to do uh that it’s all it’s sometimes hard to anticipate how they’ll approach this game. And uh putting the ball in Aaron Rogers hands is obviously never been a good recipe for success. But I actually don’t think it’s a terrible idea is just to try to make him uh be Aaron Rogers of old and make him hold on to the ball and scramble and try to buy time and make decisions. So, uh absolutely the right approach. You want him to hold on to the football. That’s when all the numbers drop off the cliff, right? I I agree and I that’s what I’m trying to I guess mix in my mind like how he would go at that previous Steelers attack was about stopping I mean the run wasn’t was never really a strong suit of them but it was always the way they approached the game and it seems like they should and have been moving a little bit away from that. So I would expect that Lou would would react in kind but he might just revert back to his old Steelers uh game plan. But we’ll see. I don’t know. I think the it’s hard. Of course they can win. Everyone can win. But if the Colts offense shows up, and there’s no reason why they won’t show up the way that they’ve been showing up, like they’re on the road, but they’ve done it on the road also. They show up and score early the way that they’ve been scoring scoring early all season long. Like I don’t imagine that the Steelers are going to be able to keep pace the whole game because Aaron Rogers is not the um is not allergic to interceptable balls in the way that he used to be. Yeah, I think um that’s the problem with the Steelers, right? This the offense is like fine and they’re undoubtedly better than they were last year and they’re more consistent. They’re also like sneakily very good at running the football right now, which yeah, um you know, if you told me before the season, yeah, this this offense is like a top seven rushing attack in football right now, I’d be like, okay, cool. That probably means the offense is, you know, Arthur Smith is doing exactly what he wants, getting defenses to sell out against the run. There’s some play action mixed in coupled with quick game. All of that is great. The problem is what you just said, which is you gotta you can’t just kick be kicking field goals against teams like Green Bay, the Damn Breaks, Indianapolis, the Damn. It’s very hard to live that way, right, in the NFL. So, um I they would also I’ I’d have to say need to be very aggressive on fourth down. Um, which yeah is does like do you think Mike Tomlin is I mean I know he knows that he has a bad defense but do you think he will coach like he has a bad defense is the question. That’s that’s not exactly Mike Tomlin’s strong season. Yeah, I was about to say we have no evidence to suggest. Well, I guess maybe he believed that his defense was better all season long which is why he hasn’t been as a aggressive as you would want him to be. Uh, but I would guess that he’s going to keep doing the things that he’s always done and punt it away. I like I know the Steelers are an interest side of this, but like I also I’m pretty interested just just to see if the Colts offense, which is finally getting like the media love it probably deserves or it’s after just after the 2007 Pats for points per drive and like above the greatest Shan Turf Rams. We still have a lot of institutional respect for the Steelers defense even though they have been considerably worse this season like aged out of their window as they were in that hunt for a quarterback for the last seven years. But I do wonder if we’re like looking at headlines and we come off of this and it’s like another two plus touchdown game for Jonathan Taylor. Their explosive play rate is still crazy high that we’re Yeah. But like like we’re going to look and be like, “Oh no, this Colts team is actually just right there with the Chiefs, right there with the Lions or Rams or Eagles or whomever at the top of the league.” To me, that’s like the most likely head headline coming out of this game. The kind of team that I think can go toe-to-toe with the Colts, um, like the Rams, honestly, it would be a team that’s explosive on has at least explosivity baked into the offense, and that’s just not the way I again, Pittsburgh, I think, is very efficient on offense, but they’re not explosive in the way I think you need to be. Um, there are teams in the NFL. I think they have the Chiefs coming up, right? Am I wrong? Uh, right before Thanksgiving. All right. So, we will learn more about this team. Then they got the Seahawks. That’ll be a good game, too. Um, especially with that defense. I’m be really fascinating to see how Mike McDonald approaches playing this defense. I do not think the Steelers are one of those teams. So, I think that that what I’m I guess to kind of go back to like, well, why is this a good game then? It’s very important for Pittsburgh, but I just think there’s so much there’s like the onus to me is on because I I don’t think like the Colts defense is interesting. They are getable. They’re very getable. They have a lot of injuries. There’s, you know, so I just think Arthur Smith and Aaron Rodgers can make this close. Are they a team where if you’re the Colts, are they a team that you’d go and get a pass rusher at the deadline if you can? I know that’s like so much easier said than done in the NFL where like it’s actually but like I don’t know uh uh like a Jaylen Phillips Bradley Chub type guy. I I assume that the Trey Hendrickson’s and Garretts are off the board. Although Trey Hendrickson obviously has been in Lu Anarumu system. It would be like perfect for that. The answer is obviously yes. I mean that’s the thing about that question is like are they a team that should get a pass rusher? The following question is are they looking to win a championship? That’s the thing is do you actually if you’re looking at this and you have Daniel Jones as your quarterback which is like still we still have cognitive dissonance on like do you actually just go for it and think like we can win this this year. It’s so it’s so open at the top of the AFC. Of course they do. And I mean I guess the point I was making is that that’s the answer is yes for every team that thinks that they’re close to winning a championship. Even if you have a pass rusher, getting another one is probably uh a smart thing to do if they’re available. But you said it off the top. I don’t know how easy this is to pull off because the Bengals aren’t going to give him my guess. I assume the Bengals wouldn’t give up Trey Hendrickson and any other team that’s in competition. I know the Miles Garrett thing is super unlikely because of the dead money. And did you see uh did you see Graciano’s Yeah, I was sitting across from him on the desk when he said it when he said that the cap he said dead cap of 40 million is doable because of like Russell Williams Russell Wilson’s 80 million. And like he’s right uh lots of teams do do that, but I don’t know. I mean, I have a hard time imagining that the the uh Browns are going to do it now when they weren’t interested in doing it in the off season. Hendrickson makes sense actually though that one Max Crosby also makes sense but he doesn’t want to leave either, right? Hard to know. Yeah, Crosby made he made he made the statement he wants to be a Raider for life. Um but which I mean people lie. M Garrett said he wanted to play for a playoff team. Um no no Graziano wrote about it too. Uh so that was interesting. And one of the things that that was shocking was he actually mentioned he didn’t mention the Colts for for Miles Garrett. Um he mentioned the Rams and the Cowboys and he mentioned that because of the time in the season and where the Browns are, they could potentially do it for two first round picks and he mentioned those two teams because they have two first round picks in the upcoming draft and that would put the Browns in like an unprecedented position of having four first round picks next year after they executed the Travis Hunter trade and they would have like enough draft capital to have all of these cost controlled guys and get wherever they wanted in the draft. It’s not a great quarterback draft, but if they liked a a Mendoza, Dante Moore, a Tai Simpson, they could move up and get whoever they wanted. I thought it was an interesting thought exercise. It’s very unlikely, but it just seemed like that’s like that’s like playing Madden or NFL or NBA 2K. Like that’s like the strategy I would have done. I mean, it’s not a bad strategy. It’s it’s probably it’s a strategy that’s more likely to lead to a Super Bowl than the strategy that they’re currently um exists under, but I mean, it’s a it’s a hard thing to pull off. And um yeah, we’ll see. Moving on from Miles Garrett, I know that uh another thing that he might have brought up in that piece, but he and I talked about it was like getting the funding to build a stadium was important for them and having Miles Garrett help them do that. And then they got it. Now it’s like, “All right, now now we can be honest with ourselves about where we are in this situation. We don’t need to pretend that we have uh a chance that we don’t really have.” But right anyway, I’m up. So, I got to go with I mean I feel like people might be surprised that we didn’t start with Bills Chiefs, but I’m still not going Bill’s Chiefs. Going with the About to say you taking my game. I give you hours to pick. No, I’m going I’m going with the defensive showdown uh between the the Texans and the Broncos. is just the two most fun defenses and fast aggressive defenses in football right now are going to be going well. I mean, the Broncos offense is not nearly as um the Broncos offense isn’t as good as top offenses in the league, but they look functional more regularly than the Texans offense. And so the Texans offense is their offensive line’s really bad. they they don’t have uh as many weapons as you’d like on outside for a quarterback uh as promising as CJ Stout and as good as CJ Stroud. I I’m still a CJ Stout believer. I imagine you guys are also despite the struggles of the last two seasons. But I was looking at like how I would approach any game that if I had a bad O line and I’m going against the best pass rush in football or the second best pass rush in football um and the Broncos depending on whether you would put the Texans ahead of them or not. And first thing comes to my mind is screens and draws. And the for whatever reason, the Houston Texans, somebody should call them and tell them to run more screen passes because I just looked and they’re first in the league in yards per attempt with screen passes. They are 28th in the league for actual screen pass attempts. Like you have a bad offensive line. So the opposing Dline is they are pinning their they don’t have to wait till the end of the game to pin their ears back. They are coming in off the first play and I mean it just doesn’t make sense. They are um I think the Dolphins lead the league with 30 and they also like they have an offensive line that they don’t trust and they’re going to throw it a lot more often and I think the Texans have only thrown eight screen passes so far this season. So, I would expect last week they did a lot of like sprint outs um and those sorts of things. Move the pocket. They did a lot of play action quick game which is kind of like it’s just it’s just tough to pull off uh consistently. But you can tell that they’re aware that they’re not going to be able to block no matter who they’re playing against. But it’ll be interesting to see how they try to create offense and they got the win last week. So, we’ll see if they approach this game the same way. How do you think, speaking of approaches though, because everything you said I think makes a lot of sense and also screens. So, the Broncos weakness has been passes to running backs now for like two years, right? I thought the linebackers played well last week, but that is where you want to attack them. How do you think Vince Joseph approaches this one? No, Patrick Certan. Um obviously they some of it was kind of game script related but they were able to stop you know Dak threw a couple picks but when Certan went out of the game the Cowboys were able to go after I mean they Riley Mus was the focal point early on but then immediately shifted to uh Chris Abrams drain who came in for Certan. Okay so the Broncos defense loves to play man coverage. They love to blitz but they are kind of unpredictable with some of their blitzing patterns. So no certain the Texans like they have the receivers now who can win. The question of course is whether or not CJ will have any time or whether or not all the little things you can do to try to buy him time will work. If if you’re to go back to if you’re Vance Joseph, do you play more zone? You lean on the fourman rush to win? Like what would be your approach with no certain in this game? Yeah, I I mean I’d still play man. I wouldn’t I mean they they played more zone this year than they have in the past. And I guess um Nico is back and playing like he’s coming back this week. Yeah. And then it seems like they figured out some of the young receivers. Higgins looks really good. Iowa State, right? Aren’t they all from Yeah. They’re both from I don’t know why it took them forever to play them, but whatever. Right. Yeah. So, um with C with uh Nico back, maybe you’d be a little scared to go man coverage, but I think in general with that pass rush, I’d like to go man. And I guess if they’re they’re not going to like I would anticipate man for the screens also or uh blitz with peels and like that would be my main concern to your point. It’s like what are we going to do about running backs because I I would be less concerned about the deep shots from Nico. Understandably you don’t have Certan out there um to to lock down. But like this their O line is not only a tough uh pass blocking unit but they aren’t a great run blocking unit. They can’t run the ball at all. Right. So that’s what you would want to do, but they’re totally incapable of doing it. And so when when CJ boots, no one cares about the run. Like you’re going to play the quarterback super aggressively. I like your point about the quick hitting play action because I think that’s what you have to do against this team. That’s what I mean. That’s why I’d like to play a lot more like aggressive man press and it’s like I’m going to make you consistently because you’re going to have to turn around quickly off your play action quick game because they had some success against zone with that play action quick game. But it’s really hard with somebody hip to hip to put the ball exactly where you want it in quick game or hold on to the ball and take advantage of this man coverage which is I mean you you still can do that or you can run bunch concepts and crossing things but those take a little bit more time to pan out. So and also like the to my point about the screen maybe they’ll figure out that they should be running more screens. The man coverage will be better to that for the screen stuff. like hug to the man rather than sitting back in zone and letting them get that set up. Well, it’s a good you’re kind of illustrating too why Strads and Collins have always been zone killers, right? Like there this offense even when they were better his rookie season they were just annihilating zone coverage. Um N you’d think like okay man coverage Nico Collins he’s big, he’s fast, he can beat guys. He can, but it to to your point, it’s it’s about what it takes to set that up versus, you know, yeah, I it’s an I think it’s I I agree with you, but I’m also like these corners, you know? So, I think he’s going to have to make some I think he’ll probably play it’ll be an interesting mix of both, right? Is the is probably how he’ll approach it. I think the what you’re what you’re what you’re thinking of and I think like um as as a as a couple ball knowers like me and you don’t have to say it explicitly but I think that to be more explicit what I would be concerned about when you’re saying is like yak like that’s the thing about man is you have to tackle it’s like we know how we talk about um when we’re in man coverage the quarterback scramble is a problem because everyone’s back is turned. It’s the same thing I if you throw the ball to someone. If your man catches the ball, you have to be the one to tackle them because everyone else is running with their back to the play except for the free safety and no one is there to help you whereas you’re in zone. So I think that’s a little bit more high risk because I I’m thinking that I guess in my mind it’s like all right, force them to complete these quick games. They’re not going to have enough time to do intermediate. Maybe they can do some fades off the line, but I didn’t take into account the idea that you are rolling the dice a little bit that you can always attack that you can always successfully tackle Nico Collins every single time you uh throw him a short route. But that’s the risk because if you you miss that tackling man, there aren’t a bunch of people with their eyes on the play that are going to rally to it. Charlie, you’re ball number two. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you know, you should have said a few. You said a couple. It kind of hurt. Yeah, I know. I did. I felt bad because I honestly what was going through my mind when I said that I was going to ask you about Jade Baron how he’ll see how he’ll play moving to the outside. Now you’re just you’re just saying names now like anybody can read a Are they playing him outside? Have they said they’re going to play him outside? No. No. I’m just excited to see if his role changes a little bit in you mean new. You try to sneak that in. He was one of the most versatile corners coming into the draft. They like his He hasn’t played much. Yeah. and what he’s played. They played him more in the box and like as like a like joker type than he has as a you know. I was all I was gonna say was as I was about to use my balln knower line I know that you like to make fun of balln knowowers even though you are a balln knower so I was like should I consider Charlie a balln knower. Yeah. Now you called yourself a luminary last time with just Saturday. You did you called yourself a football luminary which is absurd. Which Hey, let’s let’s let’s kind of make this a little less nerdy. Which defense would you rather have if was healthy? No. No, I think it’s a I think it’s a fascinating No, it’s a great question. This is a test. This is like Oh, no. Sorry. This is a MyersBriggs test for the record of which defense you’d rather which is less This is less nerdy. Less nerdy. But like I think you could have a great debate about this. I know the answer. Satan is healthy in this scenario. Yeah. Give Give me the Houston Texans. I know what it says. I know what it says about me. I’m not proud of what it says about me, but there’s nothing wrong with liking elite fourman rush. quarterback. It’s not that. It’s the me like I might I think the Broncos are probably a better defense. You have teams down their leg about playing against the violence of the violence and speed of the Houston Texans defense and that’s what I want on my from my unit. The speed of the Broncos pass rush is crazy. It’s true. I would take Anderson Jr. and Hunter over Will Anderson Jun so good at football. It’s unbelievable. I guess he’s such a mature pass rusher, too. What’s the deciding factor for you? Because I think that Charlie nailed it for me. It’s that there’s a playing on the edgginess about the Texans that is kind of fun, but the Texans do like major in a lot more zone, which like the there’s a lot more confidence in what the Broncos do. I think Okay, so I’m putting myself in the minds of like uh Shawn McVey or or let’s say I have an elite quarterback. So I have, let’s say I have Mafo Holmes. I would rather play Denver because there’s ways to attack them. Houston just wins straight up more. You know what I mean? Like they’re and they’re I think that they have more game breaker game-breaking talent um both on the front end and the back end. There’s ways to attack Houston. We haven’t even talked about the other side of the ball. I think you can run on them. I think Nick scrambling is gonna be a big deal in this one, but like they it’s like a meme, but they play such honorable football. Like they just they have an elite fourman rush. They tackle really well. They rally to the ball. They have ball hawking DBs. They’re really sticky in cover. They can play man and zone even they’re more of a zone defense. They’re just so fundamentally sound. But Denver is amazing, too. I don’t want to be like Denver. I mean, Certan might be, you know, so defend ran defensive play of the year. And and to your point, Mina, like Bon Knicks, like the stats show he doesn’t get sacked very much. Um, and they actually they produce a lot of explosive plays. So, that’ll be interesting. With all of that said, Dominique and I are both fans of the movie The Program and the Houston Texans is that defense like this like like legitimately Alsha. Could you not see him in the huddle being Vonte Mack and saying, “Kill them all. Let the paramedics sort it out.” I want to talk about him. Notice I didn’t mention his name while I talk about how much I love the Dixie defense. Speaking of the program, did you guys see that quote from Tucker Craft placed on the table? Did he say that? He he headbutted someone on the sideline without his helmet on and he was asked about it and they were like, “Where did you why’d you do that?” He’s like, “I learned it from the program.” I appreciate that young fella. Like pure uncut football right there. I got to stop saying that. You’re using that adjective by the way. What adjective? Pure uncut. Uncut. All of it. Okay. Keep it moving. We just brought out the meatthead and Mina just I love them so much. Yeah, it’s it’s so fun. Uh, all right. Chiefs of Bills. That’s my good good game. I mean, that’s this is the obvious one. This is the lowhanging fruit. It’s been like I don’t know the premier rivalry, one of the two premier rivalries in the AFC for the last five years, ever since the 13-second game. I don’t want to leave the Ravens out of that because they’ve had rivalry games both those teams as well. Um, and I’m not going to go nerdy with this. I think that this is a measuring stick game if the Chiefs beat the Bills but not vice versa because the Bills seem to always beat the Chiefs in the regular season and um and then it comes to you know playoff football and things flip immensely but this Chiefs team has such an emerging offense is been so much fun to watch and they’re in um making Rashid Rice more and more of a feature of the passing game that if this Chiefs team comes out and rolls the Bills which I’m not saying they will, but if they do, then I will think there is just such a massive gap between these two teams where if it if if that happens the other way, I will not think that going into Are you saying they need it more? I I actually feel the other way from you, Charlie. It’s like I mean I think it’s not likely that the Chiefs are going to like get blown out or anything because they have this offense that seems to be able to light it up and they’ve done it for enough weeks, enough years, I guess, that I can now see it happen and trust it. But I feel like the Bills feel like they’re teetering to me a little bit. I know they’re coming off of a massive win last week, but with the way that their schedule was coming off of last season, um we thought in the way they had that comeback win against the Ravens at the beginning of the season, we were like, “Hey, this team is serious. They’re going to be the one seed and run through the conference and we’ll see what’s up in the playoffs.” They got huge question marks and it’s not just the defense. Like those were expected question marks that they’ve answered in the past with turnovers that aren’t quite coming now and they’re more and more injured. Even they’re having some guys come back and then losing at Oliver for the rest of the season. Like they to me it feels like need to reaffirm to themselves and to everyone else that they are a real contender in the AFC. And I think that if they lose in this game, it’s one thing. If they lose competitive, it’s one thing. there’s a chance that they could get that kicked and I could and I feel like that that’s more concerning like there’s higher stakes on their side to me than it is for you the way you’re saying but I guess you’re just saying that that win that the Chiefs are Nah a little bit different a little different I well they’re queuing us to the same point okay nope nope nope it’s different you don’t get it I don’t I’m I’m find myself agreeing with Dominique here because I feel like with both of us then if the Chiefs All If the Chiefs no penalty for last week, Mina. Okay. No, let me put it this way. Like if let’s say that it’s close and the Bills win, which is definitely let’s say it’s a shootout. Totally could play out that way. I’m not panicking about Kansas City. Okay. Yeah. If however, and I don’t think the Bills will blow them out. I’ I’d throw that one out there. I don’t think it’s going to happen. If that happens, then sure. But I don’t I think this could go either two ways. It’s a shootout or Kansas City rolls them. And if Kansas City rolls them offensively, then I’m really worried about Buffalo moving forward because I don’t know where the path for improvement is on defense. Like the Bills offense has had problems and but I I you know like I can see that I I I a lot more faith in their ability to figure things out on that side of the ball. The other thing about like if the Bills the Chiefs offense rolls this defense, you know, there’s no way I’m going to pick against them again if they meet down the road. So, I I just point it’s it’s Yeah, don’t don’t give don’t be a sassy pants because you are I’m just glad we’re all on the same page. I just feel I just feel take off your sassy pants. What I’m thinking about this game and what I’m watching for, the number one thing that comes into my mind is can the Bills defense look competent? Mhm. Yeah. Offensively, um I know we keep saying like shorten possessions, limit the game. Just run the damn ball, Buffalo. Run the ball. Run it between the tackles. Play action them off of it. Get those backers working back. The offense to me, like if they try to make the Chiefs tackle and it’s all the perimeter stuff, that’s not going to be effective. You are a more physical team than Kansas City. Act like it. We offense versus defense. Yeah. and in between the tackles specifically coming off the coming off the buy last week. They obviously it keeps narrowing. Well, I just want to be clear. I think that the the Chiefs have really good corn tackling DBs and stuff. So, I think the the um interesting thing about this uh this Bill’s roster right now is Brandon being rightfully like snapped in the preseason about how their offense was still productive despite having a true number one. But it does feel like the reason like yeah you can make it work without that but it does really feel like it would be awesome. And I know that they expected um Coleman to turn into that like they didn’t build a roster not expecting to have a true number one but they things could really change if they had that out there especially combined with this incredible uh rushing attack. But something always slips. It’s just it it’s so rare that you’re able to have all the things that you want. And I feel like um maybe the the Eagles last year was one of the rare times where it’s like, hey, kind kind of got it all, but they don’t have the same um threat. Like Shakir had a really nice explosive play last week, but it just doesn’t have the same um feeling when you’re approaching this game like we got to make sure we take care of this particular pass catch. It could be a tight end, receiver, anybody. It’s like Cooks and and Allen. Yeah. Did you see um Steve Smith’s quote about Ken Coleman on his podcast? It’s kind of mean, but I’m I’ll read it. Uh because it was also kind of funny. It’s kind of mean. Was it mean? I mean, he ain’t that guy. Can’t get separation. Can’t get off the jam. Doesn’t have it. I don’t know, dude. That’s kind of mean. But second part about it. Uh second part escalating. You can’t teach a dog how to bark. You either got it or you don’t. Okay. No, that was that was kind of mean. I mean, that’s just how that’s how people talk. Can you teach dogs? I feel like you can. I feel like that’s something I’ve read about with like um like dogs who are abused or whatever and they don’t know how to bark because they’ve been like it’s been beaten out of them and then their new owners. Let me I’m going to Google this. I feel like I’ve seen videos of people teaching their dogs how to dog. I don’t know. I But the can you teach a receiver how to get off press is probably more relevant and it seems like you you can’t. I don’t know. This is um I like Keon Coleman. He’s fun. Uh and hilarious guy. I know. And and I mean he he had he obviously has some value, but I think this is one of the the draft preparation things that Charlie and I talk about a lot. And I’ve been wrong on a number of players, but like that it’s just not the style of receiver that I would want. The kind of like ball winner. I want somebody that’s going to create separation. Like what DK Mechaf has been able to do with his career is like I’d rather have Yeah. someone else who’s going to create the separation and make it clear that he’s open who’s smaller and whatever rather than have someone that I’m expecting to like out physical or out jump people when we need that play. I think that’s actually an we can get into this. This can be a whole offseason episode, but this is what a possession receiver has become in the NFL has totally changed as offenses have changed. Like dur this was 15 years ago. We saw a lot more Kian Colemans as the traditional possession guys who were in that 6’4 220 mold who were just box out guys and now I mean you mentioned one of them in this game like Khalil Shakir is is a new prototype of all of these slot receivers who understand the soft spots of zones who understand how to create separation and can be an extension of your running game. Um but it’s a it’s a different different conversation for different time. Mina, what’s your good bad game? You can’t teach a dog how to bark by the way while you guys were talking about Ken Coleman. just want to um my good bad game is Raiders Jags. So, the Raiders have been awful dead wrong about Gino Smith have owned it. Brock Bowers is finally back though, right? Like, okay, never mind. That’s way more fun. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to see with Brock Bowers back, can this offense approach functionality at all? Right. for for Las Vegas. Um, and then on the Jag side, this Raiders defense is super predictable, super easy to attack. We’ve seen offenses do it a number of different ways. Can we get some consistency from this Jags passing attack? Because they’re one of my least least favorite teams to like predict week to week because there’s just like I did by Ben and I talked about this game and he was like, “Oh, this cover three Liam Cohen’s going to know how to attack.” And I’m like, but will they? Can they? Um, they’re starting to use Travis Hunter more like a normal wide receiver as the year has gone on. So, that’s something I’m also interested in monitoring. But, um, and then the run game has kind of fallen off after looking really good the beginning of the season. Uh, yeah, I think like just both sides of the ball, I just want to see like can either of these offenses show some consistency and competence. Um, because if not now, when? Yeah, next year. I Yeah, I think that that’s kind of um the Jags slogan is like next year. It feels like there’s always like enough promise in the previous season for people to get excited about them in the following season. But like this was supposed to be the year like this. I don’t know. It’s I don’t have high expectations for the Jags, especially in a conference that the Colts are or division that the Colts are running away with. It would be nice to see them be able to take this get right game and and give uh Travis Hunter some opportunity to be and to be awesome and uh maybe the same for Trevor Lawrence. But yeah, I I don’t know. I don’t got much on this one. I this is this is going to be definitely a rewatch on Tuesday or not a rewatch. It’s going to be a first watch on Tuesday. I will not have this on one of the screens. I think the Hunter thing is probably the interesting thing. I mean, obviously Bower is the one time he was actually healthy this year before he had that PCL injury. They did beat the Patriots, everyone’s darling Patriots, and he was I even, you know, sharing more targets than he probably should have in that game. He had what, like close to 150 yards. I can’t remember the exact number off the top of my head. But, uh, yeah, coming out of the buy, the Hunter stuff is is interesting. Like, he put up stats in the last time we saw him, but a lot of it was when they went when they were down 28 to zero. And there’s starting to be noise about what he is as a player because, you know, you trade up for someone who’s two guys and no one wants to write him off after eight games. But we also want to see flashes of explosive plays actually like affect winning even on a game-to-ame basis. And if they’re going to treat him as their wide receiver one with Brian Thomas being out of favor with the team and potentially even being on the trade block, I I’m like seeing some fun explosive plays, a more complete route tree. Um I think that’d be that’d be the fun thing that you would you’d look at this game for. Lions and Vikings. This is the best bet. Good bad game. This is my I mean it feels like somehow when we were entering this season, I think it was like a consensus that the quarterback under the most pressure was JJ McCarthy. Somehow it feels like he’s under even more pressure right now where he’s suddenly healthy after Carson Wentz goes down. and we’re watching and I I guess the reason why he’s under more pressure now is because the two quarterbacks that they could have had they are playing well elsewhere and he hasn’t played well so far this season with the exception of one quarter. Kristen Derishaw is is back but not completely healthy. I think that their right tackle though is out for this week. So the the protection is not going to be there. He still has Justin Jefferson, which will be nice, but it’s just going to be so much, for me at least, attention and pressure just to be able to show some competence at the quarterback spot or like because it wasn’t even that he was like he was mediocre or he was close to what they got last year like with exception at one quarter. It was like, hey, yeah, yeah, this guy’s not playable with nobody behind him. That’s what I want to see. Yeah. I mean, the you know, he’s got to throw faster. It’s just simple as that. He’s got to get used to NFL game speed. Both the the pressure the pass rushers he seems to like he was not kind of you could sense that he wasn’t prepared for the athleticism and speed and then the windows are closing too fast for him. I was thinking about Dominique this I was thinking about the Vikings infrastructure and I had a thought about this is kind of separate from the game although it’s going to be I think exposed during this game in part because the Lions defense is really fun really well coached. Um, you know, we looked at the the Vikings this off season and the thought was like this is an amazing place for JJ McCarthy to walk into. Look at the pass catchers, look at the play caller, but what’s been exposed and a lot of this is due to injuries and it’s out of their control. The offensive line and the running game are still not good, right? Again, injuries. And I kind of think like we we always make the joke about the Burrow thing with Sill and Chase or whatever. I don’t think there’s a hard and fast rule for what you need to support a young quarterback. I think that there are some young quarterbacks that could absolutely be thriving in Minnesota, but I think what we’ve seen is this young quarterback coming from a program where all they did was run the football and he played behind, you know, that that run game, that offensive line, they play action off of it. This might have actually been the wrong spot in some ways. Um, you know what I mean? Like because when I watch them and I watch him, I’m like, they really need to run the football better and they just can’t. And it it it it feels like right this current assist setup for him is not good. But I mean this is also like and the the defense isn’t quite as good as it was last year particularly against the the run which makes the the opportunities fewer for their offense. Um but and I KC deserves a lot of credit for the things that he’s been able to accomplish. But this is kind of the reason why we love him, right? Like this the reason why we celebrate him because it’s not that JJ McCarthy doesn’t do anything well. He does something well. Like finding a way to make like there are like quarterbacks who haven’t had a ton of success in a bunch of places managed to play their best football in this system. And for um Kevin Okonnell not to be able to figure out some way I don’t know if it’s more of an indictment on I mean I guess it’s clearly more of an indictment on McCarthy or but it’s a test for Okonnell like you look at McVey with um golf and I of course golf is playing well but we’re like hey find something you can do well enough that it works and I guess they had a a huge running attack then so that’s not fair but I I don’t know just finding a way to and I guess all the quarterbacks that he had success with they had They still have with Wentz, but that No, but that’s what they did with the Pastronaut when he when he came in and was like reasonably successful there. They early last year with Darnold getting him in the rhythm like they were really effective with the quick game. And like I think that like if you have a quarterback who quite frankly was in a loaded on a loaded Michigan team and basically handed the ball off and was a non-factor in their offense, make it easy for him. Well, he there were things he was good at. He was good at play action. He was good at throwing over the middle of the field. He’s good at throwing on the move. And those are things that they obviously want to lean into. Like KC wants to cut the field in half. He wants to boot him out. He wants him to throw crossers and all of that. Um I think and I think personally that’s I think also why there was kind of weirdness with the ankle, right? Because I think he knows that athleticism has to be a big part of this offense. So they weren’t going to rush him. This is not a timing based quarterback who’s going to win always from the pocket. Um, I think just from a game plan perspective though, like you got to come into this Detroit is going to do play all that super aggressively. They’re going to come after the play action. They’re going to the the ends are going to play him, you know. So, can you punish that? Can you God, I keep going back. I really wish they could run the ball because I do think you need to really be able to run the ball to run that kind of offense. No one hands it off better since he’s he’s a pro. It’s just it’s just this is a really tough spot. That’s what I’ll come back to here, too. like if I this is a really really good defense and they’re really well coached and I think they’re going to be really prepared for the kind of stuff you’re I suspect they’re going to run with JJ. So I got a question this is and this I I’ll have my good bad game after this but this is with the sicko game that I was going to do was going to be uh uh Bears versus um Bengals. Who’s under more pressure this weekend, Caleb Williams or JJ McCarthy? The B the Bears are playing the Bengals. I mean, yes, Caleb. Like, in intellectually it’s Caleb. Like, if you look like craving against the Bengals, that’s kind of unforgivable. He’s been rough. I think that’s the right answer. But I also think that Caleb has more time and no and also more support. Like they they’ve been able to play better around him. They’ve won a number of games that he didn’t play well in. So, like I I think you’re going to need more from U. McCarthy, which puts the pressure on him more. And the push back I wanted to give to you, Charlie, about the quick game is it’s kind of asking him to do something that he doesn’t do all that well and you’re asking him to do it often and a lot. And that’s the thing like what I I think what uh Shawn Payeyton has shown is something that I also believe in is like if your guy isn’t a dice him up uh type of passer, then we’re going to limit the intermediate and short throws. like I want when we throw it, get me a chunk. It’s not going to be something you have to read. It’s not going to be something you have to think about. We’re going to boot you out and do a deep crosser. And it’s like this is the read against cover two. This is the guy. Against cover three, this is the guy. And I that’s what if you had a better running game, I guess maybe they feel more comfortable doing it. But like I I think that’s what I would want to do. Especially if you have Justin Jefferson, you know, he’s going to draw a bunch of attention. I just run a out of play action speedo to Jordan Addison with Justin Jefferson running right to the middle of the field getting all the attention. Get him out on the sideline. Easy throw, obvious throw. You can rip it. You don’t have to try to squeeze it in a tight window on double slant 10 times in a row. Like, no, we are taking shots. But I’m not a coward. So, yeah, that’s what I do. I uh I’ll I’ll believe that when I see it. Taking a lot of shots with them. Um All right. My good bad game is Falcons Patriots. Um obviously like it was super disappointing um to see the Falcons play with Cousins just the way that they played and like there’s still some things that you really like about that game presumably Pennix and Drake May are playing and this is strength on strength in a lot of in a lot of parts of this matchup with the Falcons wanting to run the ball and the Patriots having good run defense. the Patriots wanting to create explosive plays on offense through the passing game and the Falcons actually limiting those whether it’s because of the pass rush to the back end of the defense. And I just think that Drake May is one of the most exciting and fun players to watch in the league. Like you talk about guys, you you’ll watch Jaguars Raiders on on Tuesday morning. Like the Patriots are almost a mustwatch in multiv- view at this point because it seems like they’re four or five plays a game that Drake Bay either makes on the run or just really deep balls that actually he’s gotten so many comps to whether it was pre-injjury Carson Wentz or like a smaller Josh Allen. He’s got a lot of like the Aaron Roger uh Aaron Rogers like like flick of the wrist throws where he just drops in the bucket. He’s like it I know the statistics have showed that he’s having like the best deep passing season of all time and um it’s just fun to watch. That’s my reason for it being a good bad game. I got a look from you, Mina, about the about the comparison. I just don’t like the Carson Wentz one. Who? I don’t like that one. He was good pre-injury. He was an MVP favorite. Yeah, the loaded team won the Super Bowl. Nick Foss. I know. Well, I just think Drake is a lot better at playing on time and personally. Um, yeah, I Atlanta because yeah, Drake we all we he’s amazing and what they’re doing is really cool. Atlanta, that offense is one of the most frustrating to me in football. And I just think if they continue to do what they do and not mix it up at all, it’s going to be easy for this Patriots defense. Not easy, but like as you said, Charlie, they’re really really good against the run. They’ve got corners who can handle, you know, outside the numbers, which is all they do. There’s Dominique like I I just feel like I every week there are certain teams where like you know the Rams I’m like oh what are they going to bring out this week? How are they going to attack their weaknesses? And I don’t feel that way right now. Like I don’t feel like Atlanta is capable of going after the weaknesses of opposing defenses. They’re just a we do what we do and if it’s a good matchup cool. If it’s a bad matchup it’s going to be bad. And it’s so frustrating because they have enough players that they should be able to find the right matchup and be able to exploit it. but they just can’t consistently. And it’s been they’ve been one of these teams that it’s always like, hey, if they could just get it right and then they’ll give you a week of getting it right and then you get all excited and then they get it wrong again. Um, their defense obviously was playing better, but then watching what the what the Dolphins did to them and was really kind of scary, man. like they did a lot of like because the Dolphins also have a pretty weak offensive line and so you could see that as tough as people have been on McDaniel is that he’s still got a good mind for how to to isolate and attack people. That’s a better example than the Rams because like that I’m like okay you know what they might figure something out this week. Yeah. Sorry. And they did they did a bunch of like attacking their two linebackers and they did uh the Dolphins attacked the Falcons linebackers through the pass game a number of different ways. They did these like misdirection passes where they get all flow going one way but it’s still quick to get it out on on the other side and then they would the linebackers were so sensitive in zone coverage. both of their linebackers were so sensitive to Tua his eyes which like I get it but like he would bring him down and they would fly just opening the middle of the field up and so it’s just it it feels like they can be attacked. They lost to the Dolphins and Panthers by a combined score of 64 to 10. That’s as tough of a scene as as a scene can be. But it’s a great example of like and then they beat the Bills because the Bills were a good matchup for their offense. And it’s just like I don’t want you to only be beat the teams that are good matchups for your offense. I want you to change your offense week to week to attack teams where they’re weak. And that’s what I’ve not been seeing from Atlanta. It does feel like they’re like um are in like a lower grade like they’re like like middle school kind of. It was like and some of these teams are like college and and uh graduate school level sophistication and they’re still like, “Hey, this is what we got. This what we’re going to do. Our guys are better than your guys, but they just aren’t all the time. We got to pick our survivor pool.” Mina, do you want to make your pick first? I know you you’re coming off three straight losses, so we’ll let you make you you can make the first pick. The Because Mina agreed with me earlier, we’ll take it down to two losses. All right. Uh, so do I. Okay, then you’re up by a game, I guess. Okay, so I’m up by one game. The field has never teams that she’s uh Yeah. Who have I Who’s left for me? Mina has picked the Steelers, Rams, Bucks, Texans, Lions, Broncos, Patriots. Steelers, Texas. I’ve picked the Patriots. Mhm. Okay. Have I picked the Bears? No. Okay. So, I’ll take the Bears over the Bengals. Okay. All right. Take the Lions. We have not taken the Lions. Give us the Lions over the Vikings. All right. Thanks, Mina. You’re the best. Love you guys. Bye. Thank you, Charlie. Thanks, all great producers. Probably love you out. This is the Dominique Foxworth Show. [Music]

Today on The Domonique Foxworth Show…

0:00 Welcome to the Domonique Foxworth Show
3:09 Colts vs. Steelers
12:52 Broncos vs. Texans
24:50 Chiefs vs. Bills
32:50 Jaguars vs. Raiders
36:09 Vikings vs. Lions
41:36 Who’s under more pressure this week: J.J. McCarthy or Caleb Williams?
43:48 Falcons vs. Patriots
48:37 Week 9 survivor picks

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