NFL LIVE | Bears quietly becoming a PROBLEM for league! Panthers are a legitimate contender for NFC

NFL LIVE | Bears quietly becoming a PROBLEM for league! Panthers are a legitimate contender for NFC

Incredible. We welcome you back here on NFL Live. Stu Scott, the best there is. All right, time to see what’s on trend around the league. Starting with Caleb Williams out in Chicago. Williams has avoided trouble this season. 12 scramles of at least 10 yards. Only Patrick Mahomes has more and two games this season without being sacked. That didn’t happen once last season. Dan, does that trend continue against the Steelers? Yeah, big time. So, I have called these in the past hidden yards by a quarterback McAfee. Pat McAfee has said that’s a special teams thing. I’m going to call him bonus yards. Okay, so this ball is going to get snapped from the 26 yd line. There’s a play action pass. He gets to the top. There’s that defender. More often than not, this is a sack. This sack would be an 8 yd loss. Instead, Caleb spins out of it, keeps his eyes down the field, takes off, and turns it into a 8- yard game. But it’s not just an 8- yard game. There’s the difference of 16 yd there. Right. Again, ball snapped on the 27 1/2 yd line. Caleb drops back to pass. There’s no one to set. He scrambles in the pocket right in this moment. This would be a 10 yardd loss. Okay. From the line of scrimmage. Somehow finds a six-yd gain. Not a six-yd gain. There’s another 16 yds there. There’s 32 bonus yards just in that play. This time ball is going to get snapped from that 33 yd line. There’s our play action fake. We get beat internally. Scrim mode. I’m all the way back eight yards behind the line of scrimmage. Most quarterbacks are going to go down here. Get sacked. Instead of it being an 8-yd loss, Caleb takes off and turns this this into a 14 1/2 yardd gain. 22 1/2 yards. There’s those bonus yards. Those three plays right there are 54 1/2 yards. He had 68 in that game. So, the bonus yards that he’s created because of the athleticism and just the creativity that gets yourself out of problems. It’s been tremendously impactful. And they don’t show up in box scores. Those things don’t show up. Last year, he wasn’t doing that. Last year, those were sacks. Of course. Did you do the math in your head as you were talking or before the show? Did you already determine these are the numbers guy? Dan Dan is pretty good at like arithmetic on the fly. Numbers guy. Can’t tell you what a bird is though. We know. All right. To San Francisco, the 49ers quarterback camp this season. We’ve seen a stark contrast in pressures and sacks. Uh Brock Pury getting pressured far more often, but sacked nearly half as much. Expect more of the same from Pertie this week against the Panthers on Monday Night Football. Uh Jac, what do you think? I do expect more of the same. I think what Brock Perie and what this offense does so well is the pre- snap indicators that they give. Christian McCaffrey motioning out of the backfield, Kyle Cheek moving all around before the formation. You’re going to see so many times Brock Perie is going to have movement. Then he’s going to hit his head and he’s going to check to a different play call and get them into something advantageous. Guys get in his face. He knows exactly where to go when the pressure gets there. That is his superpower, being able to determine before the snap exactly where to go. All right, how about their opponent on Monday night? Just a half game separates the Buccaneers and Panthers in the NFC South. However, our analytics team says Tampa Bay still has an 85% chance to win the division, saying they have the second easiest remaining schedule in the NFL. Pete, are you buying the analytics that Carolina is way behind Tampa at this point? Well, no offense to our analytics team. I don’t know if our analytics team had Carolina going into Lambo and winning two weeks ago. I don’t know if our analytics team had Carolina coming back from a double- digit deficit and beating the Falcons on the road last week. Now they go on the road to San Francisco. And the name that I want to highlight is right there, Tedoa McMillan. He’s second in the league as far as rookies go in yards per reception and third in touchdowns. The first half of the season was all about Acha Ibuka and we were talking about how this guy might be rookie of the year at the wide receiver position and he’s on a torid pace. Then we kind of started talking about Tyler Warren and Jackson Dart. Ted Rowan McMillan has been more unstoppable than any of these guys on offense the last few weeks. He has become the go-to guy for Bryce Young. And I think this is kind of a national coming out party for this team. Do they get out there and show that, hey, we are one of these teams and we can beat a fellow playoff contender on the road against San Francisco or do they show up and lose like they did to the Saints a couple weeks ago and you’re like just we wanted to give you guys a shot, you let us down. Yeah. Just so everybody knows, Carolina’s physical at the line of scrimmage. Okay. Like just don’t be surprised by that on Monday night. Um Dan Morgan, their general manager. The rookie class has been fantastic in some of the offseason additions. I think the McMillan thing is thing is interesting because for two years now or last year certainly I always felt like Bryce had this non-committ committed like feet. His feet would just kind of catch and hang. And I feel like this year the feet have become much more reliable, much more consistent. I think a huge part of it is McMillan. I finally have a guy I can trust. you’re going to be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there and that has allowed the because Bryce has always been a really good on time quarterback time that’s way more consistent now. I think that’s the impact for the receiver. I just talked to Tedaroa McMillan before our show getting ready for Monday night and he said I’m my own biggest supporter but also my own worst critic. He thinks there’s still a lot more that this team can do. We’ll see if it shows up on Monday. And you can catch Bryce and Tedaroa on Monday Night Football as they take on the 49ers. It’s 8 Eastern on ESPN. ESPN Deportes, the all new ESPN app, Payton and Eli on ESPN 2. Coverage kicks off with NFL Live at 3 Eastern. The Monday Night Countdown crew comes your way at 6. All right. Well, you know, I I like to I’m a sideline reporter, so I have to think about these things. No team has more fourth quarter points since week 10 than the Texans, who have two comeback wins over that span with Davis Mills. Their 5.6 6 yards per rush in the fourth quarter, ranks top 10 in the NFL since then, which could cost the Bills, who are allowing over five yards per rush for the entire season, 31st in the NFL. Peter, with Straoud missing his third straight game, what do you expect from this Houston offense tonight with Davis Mills at the helm? Yeah, Davis Mills comes in competent backup quarterback, but we also still don’t have Joe Mixon in the lineup, which has become one of the lingering questions of the league. When are we going to get him back? And the Houston Texans have given nobody anything on that return. So then you look at the running back position and it’s like all right we got Nick Chub this veteran but last week was a breakthrough game for Jacquavius Woody Marks Woody Marks can go now Woody Marks got 18 touches to Nick Chubb’s three touches and was in on basically every offensive play. Don’t be shocked if you hear Al Michaels tell the story of Woody Marks over the course of tonight’s game because I think he they’re going to rely on him. a rookie fourth round pick the Mississippi State then he was at USC shows up with the Texans has earned his keep and without CJ Strad and with Nico Collins getting the bulk of the attention from those defensive backs in Buffalo expect a big game out of Woody Marks javius Woody I love it by the way you guys I I just want to note this sources telling ESPN that Joe Mixon not expected to return this season so it’s going to be Woody Marks and Nick Chub the rest of the way and I love that you talked about Woody Marks cuz he’s a quick back a guy that jump cuts can get all over the field in a hurry. And you look at the Buffalo Bills defense these last two weeks going against Devon Aan in Miami, then going against Shawn Tucker, they’ve given up nearly 400 yards in the last two weeks and five touchdowns. So when you talk about this rushing defense, the injuries they’ve had, everything that they’ve gone through up front, losing guys, they also play with smaller linebackers. So for them to be able to win the game tonight, they’re going to have to stop the run. And you better believe the Houston Texans are going to pull some of these runs, the counters, the gap scheme, pulling guys, leading out, the misdirection, all of those different things and forced them to tackle in the open field. That is something that they have absolutely struggled with. So strengths to your point, I expect that to be a big motion and misdirection. Kill them. Tell them did you have Woody Marks being the biggest name in the NFL? I mean, this is what happens in Dan actually might, which is scary. But Dan, at some point though, Davis Mill is going to have to make a play. make something happen through the air. Where should he look to do that? He’s got 6’4 on the perimeter. Two of them. Nico Collins and the rookie receiver Jaden Higgins. I want to ask you like is it as simple as size? That’s their biggest I mean from a quarterback perspective. All you’re watching these guys make plays and all I see is the body the body the body being in between that defender and the ball. Is it is that the most challenging part? Is it as simple as that? It is. It is as simple as that. And especially depending upon who you’re matched up on. I think Christian Benford, who’s a bigger corner, who’s physical, I think he matches up better against bigger physical. Exactly. Different from a Maxwell Harrison on the other side. So, a lot of it has to do with that matchup and it does come down to being able to throw one up every now and then and see if a guy can go get it, especially a Nico Collins. you see it the past couple weeks and Davis Mills probably has a little bit more uh at least Higgins has come on over the past couple weeks with Davis so often the ball face mask or higher no matter the route no matter where they are on the field. Okay, it’s time to throw up our game picks in this one. I I’ll be totally honest. I made a midshow switch. You guys convinced me talking about this Texans defense. I am the only one going with the Texans here. The rest of you guys in the Bills, I had picked the Bills earlier in the day, but then also Dan, you tell me in the break, I’d forgotten this. Josh Allen has never beaten Houston. 0 and five. 0 and five said that this morning. Five straight games. Look at our scores though. The low scoring. I went back and forth on this one. I think it’s an ugly football game. Like a like a lowscoring grinder. Who do you think Carissa and the crew are talking to afterwards? Is Josh Allen wearing that cape? If Buffalo wins. Yes. If it’s not if if they lose, it wouldn’t be him. Will Anderson. Will Anderson? You got Thanks for the breaking news, man. Oh my goodness. All right. Sports Center right here on ESPN. Who is Laura? What’s the weather tonight? Yeah.

NFL LIVE | Bears quietly becoming a PROBLEM for league! Panthers are a legitimate contender for NFC