00:00Michael Panix did talk about after the game on getting Kyle Pitts more involved in the game last night.
00:06Yeah, I mean, yeah, man.
00:08I always said it, man.
00:09The ball is going to get to him.
00:11You know, we're going to find ways to scheme him up to get him open.
00:14And, you know, he did a great job today.
00:17I think Kyle's having, to me, his most complete season.
00:20I know people are just, like, getting irritated with that.
00:22Like, he's not helping my fantasy team.
00:24Or, you know, he's only got one touchdown.
00:26But I just think of all the ways he's contributing to this team and the offensive unit.
00:32And, boy, that throw to him last night in the end zone.
00:36I don't know if it went through Hooper's hands or it was supposed to.
00:43But you can tell Kyle saw it last second because it got on him and it got to his right
00:51shoulder.
00:52And that was the back shoulder, right?
00:54The back line shoulder.
00:55And he just pinned it.
00:56Like, it got there quick.
00:58That was an absolute fastball.
01:00Yeah, it was a missile.
01:02You know, here's the thing.
01:04At this point, and this is how I kind of wrap my mind around Kyle Pitts.
01:08At this point, if he's put in a situation and it doesn't go well, I'm putting more blame on the
01:15coaches than I ever have.
01:17Because I think that last year or the last couple of years, I've looked at Kyle and the willingness wasn't
01:21there.
01:21To me, the effort in the run game and the blocking, things like that, I just didn't see it.
01:26Like, he looked very laissez-faire.
01:28Like, yeah, it just kind of is what it is.
01:31I don't think he's been perfect as a blocker by any means.
01:33Matter of fact, he was the reason that Michael Penix got hit in the ribs last night.
01:37I mean, it was a bad block.
01:39But he's also in pass pro.
01:42And, you know, it's not really his strong suit.
01:46And so you're kind of asking him to do something that maybe you would want to have back at a
01:50certain point.
01:52There's no absolutes to me about Kyle Pitts right now.
01:55He's had ups.
01:56He's had downs.
01:56I do love him seeing a bigger part of the game plan.
01:59And I do love the fact that he caught a screen that allowed him to get going downhill.
02:06And too many times last year, it was like these tight little screens close to the line of scrimmage.
02:10You couldn't get anybody out in front of him.
02:11He couldn't accelerate.
02:12You saw a screen last night.
02:14He's able to pick up chunky artage.
02:15And I think that that's just exciting when you look at the possibilities for a guy and an athlete like
02:19that.
02:19That's an improvement for this team.
02:21So far through five games.
02:22They are infinitely a better screen team than we have seen the last, I don't know, probably since 18 or
02:2919.
02:30It made me want to pull my hair out last year because you look at what they should be as
02:34an offense.
02:34And you're like, Chris Lindstrom is one of the most athletic linemen in the NFL.
02:37How are we not able to get out front on screen plays and make blocks with these guys?
02:42And, yeah, they've shown a nice ability to do it thus far.
02:45After the game, Kevin Stefanski did talk with Dave Archer.
02:48And he got into the team's struggles to get the run game going.
02:51Yeah, I mean, of course, you've got to give them credit with some of the things they did schematically.
02:55But bottom line is we trust our guys.
02:58We've got to find a way to make yards.
03:02They, well, first of all, they loaded the box.
03:05And that's, there's some plays that that matters on, and others it doesn't matter as much.
03:12But the schemes in which we were using, and I don't know, Bo, you'd have to correct me.
03:15I didn't see a lot of gaps game last night.
03:17I don't remember watching pullers.
03:20You know, I don't think I saw Lindstrom on a power play or anything like that.
03:24They were kind of forcing your hands in terms of what you were, they were allowing you to do, which
03:29is frustrating.
03:29I saw one or two.
03:30It was one in particular, if I'm not mistaken, where an archie, I talked about, like, even Lindstrom tried to
03:36get out there.
03:37He was pulling, and he couldn't get to that side quick enough.
03:41There was some penetration.
03:44There, I got, we talked about this in pregame.
03:47We talked about it last week.
03:48They're pretty big up front.
03:50And, you know, we talked about Javon Dex.
03:52I thought Javon Dex had a really good game on our defensive front.
03:58Tavius Robinson, easy for me to say, played his butt off last night.
04:02Like, dude was all over the place for them.
04:06He had a really good game.
04:08And you got to give credit to Matt Abouke.
04:10He made some plays as well, as long as Travis Jones and our old buddy, Calais Campbell.
04:15Their front played pretty good at times.
04:17Was it Matabouke, or was it Robinson that hit Penix off the pits block?
04:21It was one of the two.
04:22I can't remember if it was 92 or 95.
04:23I think it was Matabouke, if I remember.
04:25It was Robinson.
04:26Are you sure?
04:27Yeah, I'm sure.
04:27Me too.
04:28I was going to say, it's one of the two.
04:30I knew it was.
04:32But, yeah, I mean, look, in the nature of the beast, this is a conversation for down the road,
04:36but you talk about bigger linemen against smaller linemen, and, you know, schematically kind of what that means.
04:42Well, styles make fights.
04:43And you look at the division they play in, they're going to have, just because of the division they play
04:47in,
04:48a bigger football team.
04:49It's a division full of bigger football teams.
04:53Executives never want to admit this, but a lot of times the way you craft your football team
04:57is designed because of the other football teams around you.
05:00And they will draft and have certain styles of defenses or offenses based on what they feel like they need
05:06to accomplish
05:07because of the other teams which you play six times a year.
05:09And a lot of times it's the biggest, and what I've seen is the biggest concentration is who's the king
05:17of the division at the time, right?
05:19Yep.
05:20Oh, is it Tampa?
05:22Well, you know, a couple years ago, what did they have?
05:24Yeah, they had just drafted Igbuka.
05:27They have Mike Evans, Godwin, you know, like the versatile backs.
05:33So you go and, you know, you've kind of focused on the secondary or the pass rush.
05:39But you're absolutely right.
05:40And that's the thing, that's what I was thinking last night.
05:42Like these teams in the AFC North, you know, Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati's probably the one
05:51that you wouldn't think is built defense first.
05:55But the other are defensive units.
05:57I know they got good offense, but think about the stars at every level of the two defenses so far
06:03from the AFC North you faced.
06:04Everyone has either a guy that could be projected to the hall right now or already in it.
06:12Like Calais Campbell, he's already in it.
06:14Roquan is, you know, a guy that could project to it, just like Kyle Hamilton if they continue their careers
06:19on this trajectory.
06:21And the loss, I think, really hurt and put a stamp on everything last night just because it slipped away
06:26slowly as the game went on.
06:28Would you guys say, though, because we're seeing a lot of feedback after last night's game that's kind of like
06:33throw the baby out with the bathwater,
06:35would you say there's a lot more right than wrong last night, though?
06:39I think that's, it depends on your outlook, I guess.
06:43You know, I think that, I don't know if I'd say that.
06:50I don't know if I'd say that.
06:51I think that there was a lot of plays left to be made that you didn't make.
06:54And I think that there's still some tinkering that if you pressed Ian Cunningham, there's still some pieces I think
07:00they'd like to have.
07:02This almost gets looked at, overlooked in terms of the roster.
07:05If they could find a just situational nose guard, I think that they would want that.
07:12And I mean, like, not this person, but this style like Eddie Goldman.
07:17Where you could run in on third and short.
07:19Where you could run in on some of the short yard and stuff.
07:21You can play an A-gap.
07:22You don't have to worry about a quarterback sneak going for 15 yards the way it did last night.
07:26That type of thing.
07:27I still think that there is certain pieces.
07:30I'm not so sure they wouldn't love to have a fullback, to be honest.
07:34I think that, and I thought Charlie Warner played well last night.
07:37But there are certain short yardage situations where I'm looking at and go, yeah, you could use a Brahma bull
07:43to put in there and just get ahead of steam.
07:46So, I think that there are just situations last night, Allie, where I look at it and I'm like, man,
07:51you were really close.
07:52But I can't just, you know, the extra mile is not a gimme putt.
07:57And they've got to find ways to come up and make plays in those situations.
08:03I felt the gasp from the crowd.
08:05I'm curious if Bo did as well when Michael Penix took off running the first couple times.
08:09It was like, oh, you know, like, oh, God.
08:13And there were some awkward collisions at the end.
08:16First one being, I think, with Kyle Hamilton out there in the right flat.
08:19So, I wouldn't say there's more good than bad.
08:21I would say it's just about even, though, in the way I take away from this game.
08:25And credit to Baltimore with a backup quarterback.
08:27They came in and made some incredible plays at the end of the game.
08:30Yeah, it was, to me, I didn't hear the gasp because I was hearing the opposing fans chant defense extremely
08:38loudly.
08:38During that game, which was frustrating.
08:41But, yeah, I thought that it was a game where they won the first and fourth quarter in the overtime.
08:47And you won the second and third.
08:49And, honestly, we're not even having this conversation.
08:51If you could convert one of those late, those long drives that either stalled out just outside the 20.
08:59Or a couple that went inside the red area and you couldn't score touchdowns.
09:03To me, last night was a game of not being able to put a team away.
09:10And I think Kevin said this in his interview with Arch.
09:15You've got to figure out how to make those plays, those winning plays, to secure games, to win games, to
09:21finish games.
09:22And you couldn't do that last night.
09:24And your two wins have been walk-away wins.
09:28They haven't been walk-off.
09:29You've walked away in the fourth quarter.
09:31You know, walked up 18 and did the hat, the little tip of the hat to the crowd.
09:37You weren't, the game against Baltimore, you weren't able to do that and you lost.
09:43And the game against Pittsburgh, which was, honestly, a completely different team because of the quarterback situation.
09:47But you weren't able to make a play late to do what, to Pittsburgh, what Baltimore did to you last
09:54night.
09:56As far as the game last night, what would you take away from that and get to work on this
10:03week to get ready for the Bears?
10:04I know there's a lot of week to go, but what's the first thing you think should be number one
10:08priority outside of making sure Michael Penix Jr. is okay?
10:12Well, I'm curious to know what the rep split is at the quarterback spot, to be real.
10:19I think that if there is a questionable tag to Michael Penix, and I'm assuming there is, you've got to
10:25get to a ton of reps.
10:26And I know that we spend a lot of time talking about Michael Penix is not playing, but he's taking
10:30half the first-team snaps with Cooper Rush.
10:32I wouldn't do that this week.
10:34But, look, it's just hard to say.
10:36I think in a lot of different ways, you've got to get back to the drawing board on your defensive
10:40front where you were averaging giving up 50 yards a game in the run game to them getting over 200
10:45on you.
10:46And you knowing they were going to run it and not be able to do anything about it.
10:49That's one of the things I would take a hard look at and say, okay, is this personnel?
10:53Is this a scheme?
10:54Is this something we can change right now?
10:56Or is this something we have to look at?
10:57Maybe just the matchup with them was something that did not play into our favor.
11:00Yeah, the good thing is the style of running that they wanted to do last night, you won't see necessarily
11:05next week or maybe the week after because Derrick Henry is a different animal.
11:09But, no, you've got to figure out how to not have your style used against you because they did that
11:15last night, and that's a blueprint now.
11:18And the league will adjust, and now you adjust to the adjustment.
