Speaker 1: That's right. We've got some breaking news for all of
Speaker 1: our listeners in the UK London, or if you can
Speaker 1: just get to London on October seven, that's in only
Speaker 1: two weeks. We are going to have a live show
Speaker 1: at the Top Secret Comedy Club. Erica tun Posty is
Speaker 1: with me tonight, so is Danny Kelly. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: Texans and Panthers. But Erica, I know you're thrilled. The
Speaker 1: show Uh starts at seven thirty pm, it ends at
Speaker 1: nine and you can find details again at the Top
Speaker 1: Secret Comedy Club. We're gonna put it on all our socials.
Speaker 1: It should be fun. Yeah, make sure you check us
Speaker 1: out on social media. We'll we'll be posting it and um,
Speaker 1: you know, London fans, We're sorry, but there is a
Speaker 1: limited amount, so you better jump on that quick. And
Speaker 1: trust me, Greg has been talking all day about how
Speaker 1: excited he is to hang out with every single one
Speaker 1: of you after the show and grab a pint. That
Speaker 1: is true. I mean, we we don't have anything else
Speaker 1: to do. Why not. Um, it ends around nine pm.
Speaker 1: But it should be really fun. We've done this a
Speaker 1: couple of times. And if you're saying, like, why are
Speaker 1: you putting us on the Texans UH Panthers t NF recap.
Speaker 1: You know what, if you listen to this podcast, you
Speaker 1: are our kind of fan and we want to see
Speaker 1: you live because you know this isn't maybe the NFL's
Speaker 1: best game in the world again seven thirty pm octobern
Speaker 1: that's this year in London's Top Secret comedy Club. We
Speaker 1: look forward to seeing you there and now onto the show.
Speaker 1: Darnald's gonna keep and get it into the end zone
Speaker 1: for the touchdown. All eyes to McCaffrey and Sam. Donald
Speaker 1: takes it in his second rushing touchdown of the year.
Speaker 1: Donald's throw cast call touchdown Miller Christian dol handoff here
Speaker 1: for the touchdown to tell me troumble. Darnald takes it
Speaker 1: is in to the touchdown. Oh yeah. The snow patrol
Speaker 1: hits Houston, a blizzard's coming. Nine quarterback sacks on Davis
Speaker 1: Mills as the Panthers win. I'm Greg ros down with
Speaker 1: Danny Kelly. I'm just trying to add a little uh
Speaker 1: fun and excitement to u a Thursday night football game
Speaker 1: that we thought would go a certain type of way. Danny.
Speaker 1: Of course, you can catch Danny over at The Ringer
Speaker 1: The Ringers Fantasy Football Show. Uh, and it went that way,
Speaker 1: it didn't go there. For about a half we thought,
Speaker 1: maybe Davis Mills will make this a little frisk gier
Speaker 1: than we thought. But you can, you can put a
Speaker 1: dome over your head, you can go to Houston, but
Speaker 1: you can't. You can't escape the Snow Patrol. Phil Snow's
Speaker 1: Panthers defense is coming for you. And ultimately they keep
Speaker 1: the Texans and single digits and it probably wasn't even
Speaker 1: as close as the score indicates. Yeah, I mean, it
Speaker 1: is really fun to watch that pass rush though, I
Speaker 1: mean I know that I recognize that it's a rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback again, his first star, third round rookie um, and
Speaker 1: so you should definitely temper your expectations. But man, this
Speaker 1: the Panther's pass rush was definitely, you know, as advertised,
Speaker 1: and it was good to see them do it again
Speaker 1: because aren't they the number one defense? I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean how could they not be if you look
Speaker 1: at their first two weeks. You know, they give up
Speaker 1: fourteen points to the Jets. Uh, they have the most
Speaker 1: dominant defensive performance possible against the Saints, one of the
Speaker 1: most like single game performance, best single game performances against uh,
Speaker 1: you know, New Orleans, and then they get Davis Mills
Speaker 1: in this third game. So I'm excited to have the
Speaker 1: Panthers at three and oh and part of this NFL
Speaker 1: season in a fun, meaningful way. I don't think you
Speaker 1: can say just because of the way that the matchups
Speaker 1: have shaken out, and and that Saints team was missing
Speaker 1: so much, it was a weird week for them that
Speaker 1: like we know everything about them, but that's okay, Like,
Speaker 1: let's let's start with the positive because we will get
Speaker 1: to the injuries, which are are very concerning with Carolina.
Speaker 1: But let's let's talk Sam Donald through three games and
Speaker 1: then especially you know, looking at tonight, what what is
Speaker 1: your feeling about the Sam Donald and Carolina experienced, Danny,
Speaker 1: I think overall you have to be encouraged. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, you just you just a question like how
Speaker 1: it's going. So that's concerning for him, No, I mean
Speaker 1: I think I've been moderately impressed. Obviously, it matters who
Speaker 1: they've played so far, and the fact that he's only
Speaker 1: he has literally not played a snap yet, playing from behind,
Speaker 1: like they've had a lead or it's been tied every
Speaker 1: time he's taken snap this year, so like the game
Speaker 1: scripts have been beneficial for him. They haven't been having
Speaker 1: to like get him out and throw a bunch and
Speaker 1: really sort of come back and come back mode or
Speaker 1: anything like that, So that that definitely matters, because you know,
Speaker 1: in the highly schemed, sort of conservative offense, I think
Speaker 1: that that Joe Brady has put together for him, it's
Speaker 1: like well defined. Everything seems pretty open and pretty clear,
Speaker 1: like they've in the first half dj More it was
Speaker 1: just wide open everywhere, like it seemed like every snap
Speaker 1: and so, um, you know, he's hitting the throws they
Speaker 1: need to make. I think he's still a little bit
Speaker 1: skittish when pressure gets around him and a little bit unaware.
Speaker 1: It's got kind of like the Danny Dimes thing where
Speaker 1: isn't quite aware where pressure is coming from. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, not every quarterback. Very few quarterbacks are just
Speaker 1: like really really good in the pocket, like when in
Speaker 1: a muddy pocket. So I don't know if I was
Speaker 1: expecting a miracle or anything like that. So it's still
Speaker 1: a little bit of donald. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, honestly, I've been pretty impressed and he's definitely
Speaker 1: going in the right direction, So maybe there is something
Speaker 1: to this out of the case. Definitely is something to
Speaker 1: like the gaze um, you know, glow up when you
Speaker 1: when you leave him. It's just sort of like what
Speaker 1: level Kim Donald get to. I think tonight I saw
Speaker 1: a couple of things that I wanted to see more of,
Speaker 1: and I still want to see more of. But those
Speaker 1: were plays that he made on his own. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a ton but when pressure did come that he escaped
Speaker 1: the pocket, um that he or he navigated the pocket,
Speaker 1: and he he made a play under pressure. More importantly,
Speaker 1: there was a couple where he went to his second
Speaker 1: and third read. I think through three weeks where it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear like if Donald is protected in this offense
Speaker 1: and he's going to his first read, he's pretty money.
Speaker 1: He can do that. I think they need to start.
Speaker 1: They're gonna need to add more elements to this offense
Speaker 1: as they go. But that's not a criticism. He's he's
Speaker 1: just starting out there three and oh while doing it.
Speaker 1: But it's a lot of just d J. Moore is
Speaker 1: awesome and wide open and guys are are wide open
Speaker 1: for him in general. But that was true for Teddy
Speaker 1: last year, and Teddy moved the ball and Sam Donald
Speaker 1: had a pretty good, you know, track record through three games.
Speaker 1: Finishing these games, they're not scoring a ton of points.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. They haven't had to. He's fumbled four times,
Speaker 1: which leads the NFL. So that is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a concern, like whether he's gonna just lock on
Speaker 1: his guy and Freese up a little. But I did
Speaker 1: see a couple plays tonight. I just think you're gonna
Speaker 1: need to get Robby Anderson and Terence Marshall involved at
Speaker 1: some point, and they really have not been this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, Robby Anderson sitting on about a hundred yards
Speaker 1: for the season and Terrace Marshall's under that, and so
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep having to add elements. They play the
Speaker 1: Bucks twice and the Bills in their last four games.
Speaker 1: That's three of their last four. But the schedules pretty
Speaker 1: reasonable until then you get the Cowboys Eagles next week
Speaker 1: and stuff. So they they're going to add elements. It's
Speaker 1: just gonna be harder without Christian McCaffrey. So we'll we'll
Speaker 1: mention the injuries here. McCaffrey leaves with a hamstring injury.
Speaker 1: Early in this game, and so Darnald kind of did
Speaker 1: have to carry them a little more. They ran less
Speaker 1: I think than they than they probably would have with
Speaker 1: Chubba Hubbard back there, and then J. C. Horne, their
Speaker 1: first round cornerback break breaks his foot. According to our
Speaker 1: guy Ian Rappaport, it's expected to be a broken foot.
Speaker 1: Maybe not season ending, but very disappointing injuries, and especially
Speaker 1: without McCaffrey. You're the fantasy guy, Like, what what do
Speaker 1: you think about Hubbard? What do you think about the Panthers,
Speaker 1: you know, and their offense moving forward without McCaffrey, Because
Speaker 1: it's a little bit different game planning for Donald if
Speaker 1: he's not there, right, I mean, man, we and we
Speaker 1: could see it so in the early part of the game,
Speaker 1: Like McCaffrey is just so good in the way that
Speaker 1: he changes what they can do on offense, the way
Speaker 1: he can take just a simple little dump off fast
Speaker 1: and create explosive plays like they're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to recreate that. They're not gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: that from Cuba Hubard. But I think Hubbard, you know,
Speaker 1: he does Cuba. It's not Cuba. Yeah, it's Cuba. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, he he's good. He had like a two
Speaker 1: thousand yards season to see two seasons ago, so it's
Speaker 1: not like he's just some Joe Schmo. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, he's definitely not McCaffrey and he doesn't give
Speaker 1: them what what McCaffrey breaks, like tackle breaking all that stuff.
Speaker 1: He's he's an explosive play creator. If he has space.
Speaker 1: Um I bet they'll get Royce Freeman involved a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, but at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: just not gonna be as good. So they're gonna figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, I think you're right. They're gonna figure out
Speaker 1: ways to get Marshall more evolved. They're gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure out ways to get Robbert. You honestly had two
Speaker 1: targets in this game, which is just bizarre because he
Speaker 1: had like a thousand yards last year. So, UM, I
Speaker 1: do like the fact that they've sort of swapped the
Speaker 1: roles that they had last year, because last year was
Speaker 1: like d J. Moore running these clear out routes for
Speaker 1: the love of the game, and then Robbie Anderson was
Speaker 1: getting everything underneath, and um now more is the guy.
Speaker 1: He is a one, He's a true one. He gets
Speaker 1: open every every snap. And I think if you watch
Speaker 1: the Panthers last December and this, you know, obviously still
Speaker 1: with Teddy More start kind of started digging over and
Speaker 1: I wonder if Rule kind of realized at that point, like, oh,
Speaker 1: Robbie's great, We're going to give him his contract, and
Speaker 1: we need him and they need him to do more
Speaker 1: than this. But More is the guy there. I love
Speaker 1: me some DJ More. Yeah, he's so good. He's really
Speaker 1: really good. And I think Marshall has a chance to
Speaker 1: be really good to I mean, he probably would have
Speaker 1: been a first rounder if he hadn't. There's a there's
Speaker 1: a lot, there's a lot to like. I mean there
Speaker 1: there's a lot of The defense can survive the absence
Speaker 1: of J. C. Horne, although it's a pretty big loss
Speaker 1: because you you don't love the depth in the secondary.
Speaker 1: They're gonna get a J. Boyer back next week supposedly,
Speaker 1: but he hasn't been great. Uh Like Dante Jackson, who's
Speaker 1: their corner, is a much better too. He is he
Speaker 1: is perfect for this defense. Phil snow that's the name
Speaker 1: of the defensive coordinator. He looks like a like a
Speaker 1: character in The Sopranos or something. He very He has
Speaker 1: a very everything about him is very surprising, and he
Speaker 1: runs kind of a college defense which relies on like
Speaker 1: a lot of energy, a lot of blitzes, and it's working.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's gonna keep working. Are you
Speaker 1: annoyed at all about how they used McCaffrey in the
Speaker 1: first two weeks because he had fifty nine touches and
Speaker 1: like some Panthers, Twitter is coming at me being like,
Speaker 1: how come you didn't tweet up before the game. It's like, hey, bro,
Speaker 1: I wrote it down in my notebook. Maybe I don't
Speaker 1: tweet everything, but I did write it down in my notebook.
Speaker 1: Fifty nine touches in two weeks coming off a major injury,
Speaker 1: and these teams like get so worked up about, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't use them anyone in the preseason, but then
Speaker 1: this season starts and use them fifty nine times in
Speaker 1: two weeks, and they were giving him carry after carry
Speaker 1: up three scores against the Saints. That's where it bothers
Speaker 1: me more. When you know you have a Thursday night game,
Speaker 1: why are you giving them tons of inside carries up
Speaker 1: to seven against the Saints. Bad job, Matt rule, right,
Speaker 1: I think that contractually as a fantasy guy. I have
Speaker 1: to say, I love coaches who give their not if
Speaker 1: it gets them hurt four days later. No, I'm just kidding,
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Um it is weird though it
Speaker 1: it's a kind of bizarre because like nobody else really
Speaker 1: does that anymore. I mean, Henry's coming off. There have
Speaker 1: been like stats, you know, Jason listed this, um that
Speaker 1: the whole like curse of three seventy carries maybe isn't
Speaker 1: so much a thing, but that the plus thirty or
Speaker 1: around thirty in one game is a thing in terms
Speaker 1: of causing injuries in the in the week or two
Speaker 1: after and then you recover. But that's exactly what they
Speaker 1: did with McCaffrey. And it does bother me this whole.
Speaker 1: Like everyone's in bubble rapping the preseason. I even get
Speaker 1: annoyed by people on Twitter. They're like, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I can't believe you know, you put
Speaker 1: them out there for five snaps in the preseason or
Speaker 1: if someone gets hurt in the preseason, it's a tragedy. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: half of the NFL is on i R right now
Speaker 1: from the last two weeks, and it's like, oh, that's fine,
Speaker 1: that's just football. There's some sort of like cognizant cognitive
Speaker 1: dissonance there. I'm just ranting. This is how these shows go. Danny,
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about Dan Davis? What do
Speaker 1: you what do you want to talk about David S? Mills?
Speaker 1: When did you first see the next picture? And do
Speaker 1: you think it was photoshopped? Oh? My gosh, I don't
Speaker 1: think it was photoshop because, you know, checking the tape,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of other pictures of him. You just
Speaker 1: watching it all night tonight, and it was it was
Speaker 1: pretty long. It's an advantage though, kind of like I
Speaker 1: told my son just started baseball, and I told them,
Speaker 1: like being short, you know, there's like less of a
Speaker 1: strike zone so that if you crouch a little like
Speaker 1: that's actually kind of an advantage in some ways. It's
Speaker 1: like the Alto v advantage. Now, Davis Mills's neck is
Speaker 1: like a disc is an advantage too, because you can
Speaker 1: get a lot of penalties to the head and neck area,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's a bigger sweet spot
Speaker 1: for them to hit so you can get more. That's wow.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think of that. That's really brilliant they did.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter in this game because they just teed
Speaker 1: off on him, and because he's a rookie, I guess
Speaker 1: because no one knows he is right, they should have
Speaker 1: called one or two of those. One of them they
Speaker 1: did hit him in the neck seriously, and they should
Speaker 1: have called it. But yeah, Um, overall, though, like I
Speaker 1: was somewhat not impressed is not the right word. It
Speaker 1: wasn't gross. It wasn't a terrible, terrible job by him.
Speaker 1: I think that the the Texans game plan was just
Speaker 1: so so conservative, insanely conservative. Is like run run, you know,
Speaker 1: dump off, run, run screen, and it wasn't even like
Speaker 1: run run past where you were actually going past the six.
Speaker 1: Is just like doing everything they could to make him
Speaker 1: a complete non factor. He looked pretty good in the
Speaker 1: two minute drill before the half. Um, you know, he
Speaker 1: looked good at times in the second half when they
Speaker 1: were having to pass, and I think, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're a Texans fan, you'd have to come away somewhat
Speaker 1: I guess encouraged that he's just not a complete train wreck.
Speaker 1: He's he's not like a Nathan Peterman type performance here
Speaker 1: where you're just like you want to gouge your eyeballs
Speaker 1: out so um, I wouldn't say it was super impressive,
Speaker 1: but for a third round rookie, you know, obviously there's
Speaker 1: so much background we have to We're also obliged to
Speaker 1: mention that he was like the top overall high school.
Speaker 1: So you can't say his name without I am. I
Speaker 1: am a little bit like the Jimmy Graham played. React
Speaker 1: to the reactions, but you know there was a lot
Speaker 1: of that on Twitter and by Troy Aikman. It's like
Speaker 1: he served himself well. It's like, yeah, I mean, you're right.
Speaker 1: The game plan kind of kept him down and they
Speaker 1: were maybe too conservative early. Ultimately, though, the Texans gained
Speaker 1: a hundred and ninety three yards. Yeah, and and the
Speaker 1: score was twenty four to nine, And like, you're going
Speaker 1: be the worst offense in the league. If that continues,
Speaker 1: You're you're gonna need the running game to be better.
Speaker 1: Like Lindsay and Ingram have been pretty good this season,
Speaker 1: so I think we thought they would get more out
Speaker 1: of them. But it was exactly the game I expected.
Speaker 1: There was barely any drives. And I've watched a lot
Speaker 1: of Davis Mills this year. Let me tell you, I
Speaker 1: watched every I think I watched all of his preseason snaps.
Speaker 1: I watched last week, I watched this week, and like
Speaker 1: every every game is the same, which is, if he
Speaker 1: is protected, he he will spin it and it looks
Speaker 1: it looks good. You're right, I mean it looks good,
Speaker 1: but like that's just not how the NFL works, and
Speaker 1: he's really not good when he's not protected. And that
Speaker 1: hopefully gets better. But I've been burned so many times
Speaker 1: by this exact type of quarterback, Mike Glennon Zach Mettenberger. Um,
Speaker 1: even even I think something like that, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because his arm is he's got great arm. I guess
Speaker 1: Shop Shop could throw it a little bit back in
Speaker 1: the day, but Mill Mills can spin it. And I
Speaker 1: don't know, like if if you he can't move too well,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he reacts to pressure well right now,
Speaker 1: that's fine, he's a rookie. But I'm just annoyed because
Speaker 1: we I thought that this Panthers Texans game could have
Speaker 1: been a lot of fun on TNF with Tyrod. Tyrod
Speaker 1: was playing so well, it would have been like a
Speaker 1: it would have been like a fun weird Hey, they
Speaker 1: give the NFL network um like the teams that only
Speaker 1: get into prime time once for the year, get it
Speaker 1: on the NFL Network early Thursday Slate. But this would
Speaker 1: have been a fun version of that with Tyrod the
Speaker 1: way he was playing. And I think the Texans might
Speaker 1: very well have won that game. You know, if you
Speaker 1: put Tyrod in this game, I think they win. But
Speaker 1: we didn't get that game. We got the Davis Mills game.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry that that had to be your first
Speaker 1: you know, around the NFL experience. That's all right, that's right.
Speaker 1: I agree with you though, because the Panthers, as impressive
Speaker 1: as they as they have been so far, they let
Speaker 1: the Jets hang around for a while, they let the
Speaker 1: Texans hang around. Clearly, they just demolished the Saints. So
Speaker 1: that was definitely a really good game. But um, it
Speaker 1: seems like they're sort of playing with fire a little
Speaker 1: bit and you know, kind of letting these games you know,
Speaker 1: lasts a little bit too long, I think. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: they're definitely gonna have to play better if they want
Speaker 1: to continue to be a legitimate contender and for people
Speaker 1: to consider them like real, you know, because three and
Speaker 1: I was great, but um, we need to see them
Speaker 1: playing from behind. We need to see them like what
Speaker 1: Sam Donald looks like when you know there's some uh,
Speaker 1: you know, trouble and he's actually like they did only wives.
Speaker 1: It's pretty sweet. He's just got to play a little faster.
Speaker 1: Every everything needs that. That's kind of the story of
Speaker 1: Donald's career. It's still to me the story, but he's
Speaker 1: obviously when he gets the ball out on time, it's nice.
Speaker 1: He just gives me a stress level because like they
Speaker 1: take the clock down to zero almost every time. You
Speaker 1: see zero every time, and that's just like everything, everything
Speaker 1: is just a little bit slow. It will get better,
Speaker 1: and it's it's nice when you know you can get
Speaker 1: better at three and not. I I don't think you
Speaker 1: can get any better. Danny Um the Fantas the Football
Speaker 1: Show multiple times a week over at the Ringer Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: That's right, right, what night, what days? It was just
Speaker 1: dropping now we are recording, so the Ringer Fantasy Football Show.
Speaker 1: I remember a regrettable name. I think you guys did
Speaker 1: the right thing and change it now I'm kidding. The
Speaker 1: the s EO turns out when you type in dantasy
Speaker 1: it just shows up as fantasy Football, which you're not
Speaker 1: gonna find a lot of stuff that way. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then we
Speaker 1: also yeah for a week, and then we also do
Speaker 1: a green room on Sunday's a couple of green rooms
Speaker 1: on Sunday. So that's like, people should check that out.
Speaker 1: Danny's great. Check out his writing fantasy or not. He
Speaker 1: u he does it all. Draft season, He's great. He
Speaker 1: does it all. He's a renaissance man. He he joined us.
Speaker 1: He talked Panthers Texans. Um, the Texans Fun, whole idea
Speaker 1: of the Texans Fun season is over. They play the
Speaker 1: Bells next, and then the Patriots, and I just I
Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna go out with Davids Mills, but
Speaker 1: that that's fine. They don't deserve it. Karma y sorry
Speaker 1: Texans fan. Um, that's just that's how it goes. If
Speaker 1: you made it to the end of this podcast, that
Speaker 1: we love you because you're a true die hard. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Danny and Erica of course behind the glass until Sunday.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll say it this time to eat the
Speaker 1: col