I’m gonna start with Houston v.
Jacksonville, 9:30 a.m. Wembley Stadium in London.
Let’s go, baby.
The international slate, it’s a fever.
You gotta catch it.
Um, it’s like every week for the next like seven weeks or something.
I know it’s just like it went from like a novelty to like now it’s every week because they’re trying to build a broadcast.
They’re trying to build another package they can sell.
I know, and it’s, you know, what I, I.
I, I am, uh, I, I know very well Henry Hodgson, who is the head of NFL ops and has really been the main person responsible for growing the game in England.
He’s done a phenomenal job.
Uh, that is a former colleague of ours, former colleague of ours.
That is the cleanest operation out of all of the international games by a wide margin, you know, it feels like you’re watching.
American football, but a very beautiful stadium, like everything looks the way that it should.
I would say Berlin’s probably 2nd and then very distant 3rd and 4th being Australia.
Yeah, I mean, the games in Munich to me have a great feel, like the ones in, I, I actually think of the German venues, Munich feels to me like the best one, but It’s, uh, it’s I think they’re back there this year.
I think Lions Patriots is there this year.
Oh, gotta get, uh, um, you gotta get Dan Campbell with a, uh, giant stein of, uh, of beer, but I’m, I’m kicking it off with Jags Texans, Albert, because I don’t know what Marvin Harrison’s gonna play on Sunday.
I don’t know what Marvin Harrison’s gonna do.
You, you obviously probably build in a pretty small package, although these things are so strange in the NFL where they say that, and in your mind, it’s probably hard to imagine this guy playing any more than 10 snaps, and then he’s probably gonna go out and play like 65 snaps on Sunday.
I feel like that happens all the time now.
It does, yeah, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
It’s just, and I don’t know how much of that is the coaches playing coy.
In some situations, the coach is realizing like, oh God, this guy just acquired, can really play, and we need him today.
And obviously, Houston’s not in any, Uh, and Houston is not in any position right now to slow play anything, right?
Like, so if something’s working out there, it’s not like the guy is not in football shape, it’s not like the guy is like coming off of an injury or hasn’t been playing the last few weeks, he’s been playing.
So, like, just from a, a conditioning standpoint, he should be ready to roll.
The question is how much of it you can give him.
I, Uh, here’s the , the, the interesting thing about Houston to me now is.
I think there’s one piece to who they want to become that’s not there yet.
And if they can get it, like I think they could be a real wagon, and if they can win this game, now all of a sudden the schedule sets up where it’s not hard to see them getting back to 500 quickly, you know.
Um , that’s the run game.
I think CJ has been really good.
You know, CJ has been really good .
And so you have CJ, you have Migo Collins, Jalen Noel has started to come on as a slot receiver, um, Kayshaw Booty’s got a role there.
You’re adding Marvin Harrison.
So the passing game, I think is pretty healthy right now.
The defense, again, like it was against the Titans , but I think it was a big step in playing the way that they did on Sunday.
Um, and so now, like, can they run the ball, you know, like, to me, like that’s gonna be the real, I think that’s the, the differentiator on whether they can dig out of the hole or not, um, because like running the ball is gonna allow them to protect their offensive line and passing situations better.
I’m really glad the offensive line is the question, huh?
Yeah, I’m really glad you brought that up because I, I’ve been saying it all year just casually, and it’s one of those times that I’m gonna give myself a little pat on the back.
This is not a slight at anybody, but David Montgomery just didn’t look like he had any juice, and every time that Woody Marks went into the game, the tenor of the game changed.
Uh, he just has explosion, and Woody Marks buried someone in past pro last week against the, the Titans, and He scored a long touchdown run that got that got called back by like a really bogus holding call.
So, in my mind, I think that the Texans are starting to, you know, they have been figuring it out, but it’s like putting all these pieces together and you’re gonna get more help coming back on the offensive line soon.
I’m like I’ve remained bought in on this team because I’m just too damn talented to, to get it, to get you’re right, and the health of the offensive line will help, but I don’t think.
The ceiling for that offensive line is above average, right?
I think it’s, I think if they’re, I, I think if they have, if everything works out like they’re average, right, like in the offensive line, and what’s the worst position you can put that sort of offensive line in, it’s an obvious passing situations, you know what I mean?
Like you just can’t do that.
And that’s where the running game really protects you.
You have to stay on schedule.
You have to be well managed.
Like that’s how you manage an offensive line issue.
And so, like, I think for them, like that’s gonna be the big thing is like, can you run the ball effectively now?
So over the last four weeks they rushed for 124 in the opener.
The last four weeks, 60, 70, 62, 79, not good enough, right?
I mean they rushed for 62 yards on a day against Dallas when they scored 30 points.
Um, and that’s not a great Dallas defense, as we all know.
So, like, can the Texans, Find a way to generate a run game over the next 2 weeks, and then you get to the buy, and if you’re them, you can reset a little bit.
If they can get to the buy at 3 and 4, like all of a sudden now, we’re talking about.
I mean, a team in a really good spot.
And it’s not like they lost to bad teams, you know what I mean?
Like, every one of the teams they lost to could be in the playoffs, and they beat the hell out of the Texans or the Titans, which they should have, right?
And I think that that to me is kind of that watermark, like, are you blowing out in games that you’re winning?
And remember, we’ve said this on the show a bunch of times before, they were by far the unluckiest team in terms of down to down circumstance over the 1st 4 weeks of the season.
I want to pivot to the Jaguars because, um, I wanna say this really quick, my buddy, Jordan Rodrigue did an awesome job of detailing the, all the special teams things that went incredibly right for Jacksonville to come back and to save that win against um against the Eagles last week in London.
And at a time when we’re talking about Breakdowns of, of needless kinds.
And we talked about the Rams special teams breakdowns uh on Monday Night Football.
We’re talking about the Eagles special team breakdown because I don’t think it’s a decision thing.
I think it was just bad kick coverage At the end of the day.
That was a special teams breakdown.
We’re talking about clock management issues, all that kind of stuff.
Liam Cohen had some bad play calls last week, but for the, for the totality of it, for a second-year head coach, incredibly buttoned up , that operation is tight.
Young players are playing incredibly well.
I, I still am not backing off the fact that I think that this is a, this is a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
I mean, I, I’m not either, and that’s why, like, this is such an important game, like, that’s why, I mean, weirdly, like the, maybe the two, like the, the two, to me, well, the 3, I would say, the 3 games this week, like that are real kind of like.
harbingers of what could become and what what could be to come, or the Thursday night game, the Sunday morning game, the Sunday night game, like those three, I think like have like sort of like bigger picture implications on like which way one team or another is going.
And I think Jacksonville is that sort of test for Houston, which is really, I think, a great marker of how far they’ve come.
Like, can you imagine saying, A year and a half ago, oh yeah , like the Jaguars are gonna be that, like that’s gonna be, you know, a game where we’re gonna find out who Houston is.
You wouldn’t have believed that Liam Cohen could have gotten the program to where he has that fast, but here they are, and you’re right, like, even like the kickoff return, like I, being able to pull that off with 7 seconds left, right?
Like having like a special teams operation, like that’s pure special teams.
That’s a quick return.
And a field goal.
That’s it.
Like there is no, there’s no Josh Allen Hines out there or Josh Hines Allen out there.
There is no Eric Armstead out there.
There is no Trayvon Walker out there.
There is no Travis Hunter out there.
Like that is, there’s no Trevor Lawrence.
I like that is special teams and that no Parker Washington, that is special teams and that is.
And that is, and, and, and, and, and special teams alone.
And so, again, like I think that’s just a sign of like a well-run operation is that you have every part of the game is tied up and every part of the game is capable of winning the game.
I want to spotlight Anthony Campanale for a second here.
If this guy’s not a head coach next year, I don’t know what we’re doing.
This is the Jacksonville Jaguars are the first team since the NFL merger to not allow a 40-yard rusher through the 1st 5 games of the season.
4-0.
I mean, that’s insane, and in addition to that.
If that wasn’t bonkers enough, um, The Any, so this is from Pro Football Talk, any player gained in the uh the most rushing yards gained by any player in a game against the Jaguars last year was 74.
The last two weeks combined they’ve allowed 45 yards rushing.
It’s been like 23 weeks since someone’s gained more than 74 yards on them.
And what did they do this offseason, Albert?
They let people go.
They, they let Devin Lloyd go like, and we’re all sitting here thinking they’re gonna be dead.
The water, I mean, you know, uh, whatever.
You can say that this year has been the central season to double down on the value of the offensive play caller slash head coach, and you can point out the struggles of defensive coordinators and constantly trying to cycle through or non-play calling head coaches trying to cycle through offensive coordinators.
It’s a very real problem.
But if you’re not trying to get that guy in your building to see if he can fix your defense, I don’t know what you’re doing.
I mean, he has been lights out.
So there you go, Jaguars, friends.
There’s people talking about your team.
I think you could go to the Super Bowl.
I think you have quite possibly the 3rd or 4th best defensive coordinator, um, in the NFL.
And, and it’s different, right?
Anthony Campanale is not allowed to do.
And, and probably doesn’t have the right players to do what Brian Flores is doing.
And so we look at what Brian Flores is doing and we talk about how impressive it is, but Brian Flores also has full autonomous control over the defense and a group of players that he’s been with for 4 years that allow you to do something like that.
Not everybody can have that kind of defense.
And so I think, pound for pound, what Campanale is doing in Jacksonville is also really impressive, uh, and, uh, and he deserves a lot of credit for that.
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