🎙️ ‘The Boxing Match’ – Josh Downs Reaction + Chiefs vs. Falcons Preview | Defending The Kingdom

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Okay, this is the way our life works. Now, we’re not complaining.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: No, no, certainly not.

00:00:05
Speaker 1: But we did an hour podcast, and you’re going to see it and hear it here in just a little bit. But within literally minutes, maybe, of us completing the podcast, the Chiefs trade for Josh Downs. We didn’t know the trade was going to happen. I got a pretty good inkling it might.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: I had a good feeling.

00:00:23
Speaker 1: Good feeling about it. But we didn’t have it enough to say it on the podcast. So here we are. This is your appetizer. for the podcast to get you ready for the Atlanta game. It’s really cool. We’re going to have George Karloff this on. Of course, we’ll have Wolf on the West. We’ll break down and look at the Jets game. And then, gosh, around the world and a really cool mailbag from all of you. But we need to talk about Josh Downs right now and why you and I are both excited about this. Josh Downs, to me, fills a void. There’s two words that I think about in explaining this, and that is a reliability… and rejuvenation. The reliability here and the stat that jumps up is 61% of his catches this year with the Colts, it’s not exactly been a fun ride, have been for first downs. 71% of those 61% have been for first downs on third down. This gives Pat, in my opinion, a reliable option when he needs it the most, where for nine years it’s been Kelsey. For sure.

00:01:28
Speaker 2: It’s really exciting. I think he adds a new dynamic to our offense that we didn’t really have, a different skill set, particularly at the wide receiver position, because his calling card is he can separate and beat man coverage, which has been an area the Chiefs just, if we’re being honest, have struggled over the years. If it’s third down, third and seven, he finds a way to separate and get open and move the chains. That’s what we needed with our offense because he’s going to open things up for our other players. He’s going to open things up for Rasheed and for Kelsey and for Xavier Worthy. Hopefully Taequann Thornton comes back later this year. He can open things up for him as well. There’s some fun data on this. So according to Pro Football Focus, Downs has been targeted 19 times against man coverage this year. That is the seventh most of any wide receiver in the NFL. And on those, he caught 11 passes for 126 yards in nine first downs while tallying 63 yards after the catch. Here’s some advanced metric data. This is from Fantasy Points Data, which I think it’s kind of funny. Fantasy football is so big now that there’s entire data groups that devote studies to this just to help people with their fantasy teams, but it’s helping us with real life football here today because according to them.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: And do exercise discretion in looking at this data because you do have to relate it to reality football. Some of it’s really good. Some of it is like, well, it’s not It’s not Madden. Yeah.

00:02:50
Speaker 2: I knew you’d raise your eyebrows at this.

00:02:51
Speaker 1: It’s a Surgeon General’s warning.

00:02:53
Speaker 2: I know.

00:02:53
Speaker 1: It’s true. It’s good.

00:02:54
Speaker 2: But this is good data here. So fantasy points data, they say that Downs has the third best separation score of any wide receiver in the NFL this season, which means essentially he is creating space between himself and the defender and allowing the quarterback a window to throw to. The two guys ahead of him on that list were Garrett Wilson and Zay Flowers. That’s the company that he’s in in terms of his ability to separate. So he can run a variety of routes. He can do a bunch of different things in the offense. My guess is he’s primarily a slot guy here in Kansas City, but he’s done more than just that. But the bottom line is he can separate against man coverage without being schemed into it and move the chains on third down.

00:03:31
Speaker 1: And let’s look what it means just from a football nerd standpoint and the fact that Andy Reid has done such a great job with trips. He’s done such a great– he made Tyreek Hill’s career, in my opinion, If I could walk you back through when Tyreek started to make the transition from being just the returner to receiver, and that was putting him inside in trips. So either the number two, counting one on the outside, two, three, either the two or the three in the trips formation. The other thing with Josh Downs that I’m so excited about and in looking and applying this data is he is in many ways a perfect complement to what the Chiefs have. We know what Rushy Rice is. He is this blend of a running back, tight end, wide receiver who is lethal on tunnel screens. He can be lethal in one-on-one plays because his ability to break tackles. Kelsey’s involved in this conversation, of course, because he and Patrick have been Velcroed at the hip for years and years and years. Then you see an Xavier Worthy. It even helps potentially when you look at a Jalen Royals, um, or, or looking all the way through the receiving core, um, in the fact that now all of a sudden you have this person and nobody’s really been able to, uh, to do this. And so that opens up all the other things and all it’s, it’s like a basketball team. You’ve added a shooting guard to go with a good defensive team that has the physical ability to post up. You’re really not replicating anything. You’re actually enhancing it. Yeah. I’m with you.

00:05:08
Speaker 2: Um, You know I love Dane Brugler, the draft analyst for The Athletic. He creates The Beast every year, which is a 800-page draft guide that we always use. I love when we sign new players or trade for players to go back to his draft guides and to see what he wrote about those players. Well, here’s what he said about Josh Downs, and it’s pretty applicable to what he’s done in the league since then and what hopefully he can do for us. He said, Downs is a dynamic athlete with above-average agility. He’s masterful at controlling his acceleration to tease defensive backs, and he’s a shifty route runner. with the footwork to shake coverage early or at the break point. Downs is instinctive and finds the blind spots of defenders. Plus, he does a great job of finding holes in the defense, especially on scramble plays. You think Patrick Mahomes would like a guy like that? And he’s done that in his career. So reading that got me fired up.

00:05:54
Speaker 1: Nobody’s happier than you and me except Patrick Mahomes. He’s got to be fired up. This is Patrick’s kind of guy. And the fact that now all of a sudden, as a defensive coordinator– you’re thinking, okay, I’ve got a deal with K-9. Do I put extra guys in the box? If I put extra guys in the box, that usually means what? Man coverage. So now, ooh, I’m going to play zone coverage. I guess I’m going to play like a cover two man under or maybe even cover four. Well, all of a sudden now you open things up for the Rashi Rises of the world. So this gives a countermeasure to Eric Bien-Aimé, to Coach Reed, and to Patrick Mahomes. But I think the rejuvenation, that’s where I think This is a surge. This is a shot of adrenaline to the Chiefs’ heart this week at this point of the season because of what Josh Downs can mean for all the things we’ve mentioned. So reliability, he’s proven it. He’s had three drops this year, but only four all of last year. His drop percentage is just 4.5%, which is very good in the amount of targets that he’s had. But reliability, third down receiver, but then a rejuvenating feeling.

00:07:04
Speaker 2: And the last time he was at Arrowhead? He caught seven passes for 73 yards against us. Go back and watch.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: And six of those seven were for first downs.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. Go back and watch that game. And he’s the guy that over and over again, I’m hitting a table like, God, this Josh Downs guy just keeps finding ways to get open. Now he’s on our team.

00:07:19
Speaker 1: And he was in the slot. Uh-huh. And they were playing man. We were playing man. And he got open.

00:07:24
Speaker 2: Over and over again.

00:07:25
Speaker 1: Over and over again. Like we need number two on our team. He’s on our team right now. Okay. That’s our life. We had to pivot. We had to get out of the firehouse, get the Dalmatian and go fight the fire. Now, all of a sudden, by the way, big shout out to all of our firefighters. Now, we can enjoy the rest of the podcast. Matt, do you ever get into boxing? Boxing? What’s your favorite boxing matchup?

00:07:50
Speaker 2: Boxing matchup. Well, I’m a very casual boxing fan. I’ve watched old Muhammad Ali cut-ups. When Pacquiao and Mayweather had their fight 10 years ago, I watched that. But otherwise, not really now.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: Good one. When I was a little kid, I remember- This was old school. I had to go to bed early, right? But I’m listening to the Ollie Frazier fight on the radio, snuck under my pillow. Are you serious? Oh, yeah. No, it was the greatest because I was wanting Frazier to beat Ollie. Okay. And that’s the night he did. And I just remember how, I could still take you to that point in my room at the farm where I’m listening to the fight on the radio. It was awesome.

00:08:26
Speaker 2: You listened to that fight live on the radio?

00:08:29
Speaker 1: On the radio. That’s pretty cool.

00:08:30
Speaker 3: At night.

00:08:30
Speaker 2: That’s pretty cool.

00:08:31
Speaker 1: With the radio tucked under my pillow. and with an earpiece so my parents would not know. The reason I say that is what an interesting week. And it’s not like a fight, but what if you had a fight of Ken Walker III and Bajon Robinson in the ring at the same time just going at each other? Oh my gosh, it would feel like Mayweather Pacquiao.

00:08:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we can go over the numbers a bit later. they’re really the same player right now in terms of their production. And there’s a couple ways of looking at it. If you don’t watch the Falcons a whole lot, well, Bijan is basically what Ken has been for us this year. But if you have watched the Falcons over the years, and we have, like when they’re in prime time or whatever it may be over the last couple years, and I always remember thinking, man, I wish we had a guy like that. And now we do.

00:09:18
Speaker 1: It’s pretty cool.

00:09:19
Speaker 2: We sure do. And his name is Ken Walker. There’s lots of numbers we can talk about later, but one is the most obvious one is… The two players that lead the NFL in rushing right now are Bijan Robinson and Ken Walker. Ken is just barely behind Bijan, and he’s played one fewer game. Let’s change that now on Sunday.

00:09:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, we’ll get into that and how they’re really multipurpose and can attack. And we’re wearing our salute to service gear again. We wore it on Sunday for our salute to service game. This will be Atlanta’s salute to service game. But Matt, much as I did during the broadcast on Sunday, and people heard it, a lot of you heard it that are tuning into DTK, And I did it again for the Chiefs Kingdom shirt. at Hy-Vee that we had with Nick Bolton, who was fabulous. But I do want to mention installations that are within a 300 mile kilometer radius of Arrowhead Stadium, because it’s really fascinating. Some of the most important in the world are here. And I’ll just start with Whiteman Air Force Base. home of the B-2 bomber, Knob Noster, Missouri, but the 509th Bomb Wing, we know about them. Another one is Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, home of the Command General Staff College, the Combined Arms Command. If you’re going to be a Fulberg colonel or a general in any of the branches, basically, you’re going to go to Leavenworth and have additional studies. Even if you went to Annapolis or you went to Colorado Springs or you went to West Point, you’re going to go to Leavenworth if you’re going to make that jump. So shout out to them. And then I want to also give a shout out to the U.S. Coast Guard Pay Center. I love the U.S. Coast Guard Pay and Personnel Center is in Topeka, Kansas. So, yes, we have Coast Guard Semper Paratus guarding, I don’t know, the banks of the Kansas River.

00:11:01
Speaker 2: So one of the funny things about being a chief’s employee and in our roles is it’s so much more than just football and game day. You end up doing so many things and going to so many places and meeting so many people. you wouldn’t have otherwise because of the platform the Chiefs provide. So when my career here first began, I was primarily like a community reporter.

00:11:21
Speaker 1: So I’d go to.

00:11:21
Speaker 2: Schools and hospitals and military bases when players did. And I’ve had a chance to go to Whiteman several times, go to Leavenworth several times. I’ve been to Fort Riley a couple of times. It’s always just amazing to go to those places. I got to sit in the cockpit of a B-2 at Whiteman, which was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Obviously, you can’t take pictures in there, but just sitting in there and thinking about it was pretty cool. But what’s always awesome is to see, you know, the people at these installations are so excited. The chiefs are there. But every time we go, you can tell how excited we are and particularly the players are to meet our servicemen and service women. So it’s just an amazing opportunity and privilege to share the fun football stuff with all of them. And I’ll add one more thing. This isn’t in… the kingdom at all. It’s global. Um, when I went over to Germany before our game against the dolphins, a handful of years ago, I went out there for like a free, uh, game trip. And, we got to spend time at Ramstein airbase, which is one of the most important airbases in the entire world. Uh, also went to the army garrison at Wiesbaden, which is nearby Frankfurt. Um, and what was so cool is we know this, the chiefs are a global brand. Uh, there were chiefs fans at both of these places. Uh, we were with Dante hall, uh, And Dante was doing an autograph signing at one of the markets at Ramstein. And there’s a line out the door, right? People just want to meet Dante Hall. And there were so many Chiefs fans that either were from Kansas City or weren’t from Kansas City, but had spent time at Leavenworth. And like, you know, when you’re around this area for a matter of years, you just become a Chiefs fan. It just becomes part of your core. I met so many people that were like, I’m from such and such, but I spent four or five years at Leavenworth. And I’m a Chiefs fan for life now. I just loved everything about it. And some kingdom defenders out there too. So whether they’re inside the kingdom, like our radius, or they’re around the world, we thank everybody that defends our country, defends our freedom, and lets us talk about football for a living.

00:13:21
Speaker 1: I’m going to be reading these throughout the entire podcast. There’s others. But to your point, it triggered the thought. So many then, when they retire from different branches of the service, if they’ve trained here at, let’s say, Leavenworth and trying to become a major officer, they’ll come back here to retire. Yeah. They go, ooh, this is a really cool place to live. And our guy, the brigade commander of the Irish Brigade, who was with the 5th Engineer Battalion at Fort Leonard, Missouri, we know Chris McGowan, that family is that way. So now their kids are involved. Luke is in the Air Force, went to the Air Force Academy, and Sean just went to West Point, graduated from West Point in the class of 26, and he’s now active duty.

00:14:01
Speaker 2: Well, one more thing on that. For those that don’t know, Mitch and I, before the Giants game last year, Mitch organized all this. Because of your friend, Chris, we got to go out to New York a little bit early and went to an Army game at West Point and had the whole tour because we were there for a couple of days. It was like the coolest weekend ever. So I will never forget that.

00:14:21
Speaker 1: Well, and to be on post at West Point was pretty cool. Getting 4,400 cadets in like 40 minutes is also a logistical feat. Another logistical feat was the Chiefs in a 21 to nothing second half performance against the Jets. It was great to see it. because it was offense and defense working together. Special teams, a little bit, but you saw complementary football. And we kind of started this with what this week presents with Atlanta and their incredible running back, Bajon Robinson, but then with Ken Walker III and what he’s done to transform the Chiefs. But Ken Walker in this game, three touchdowns, career-high, two receiving touchdowns. The screen pass, which I can’t keep my eyes off of, should be in the Nelson Atkins Art Museum.

00:15:05
Speaker 4: It’s beautiful.

00:15:06
Speaker 1: Because it is, if you want to show any team in the world how to run a screen, that was perfect.

00:15:13
Speaker 2: That’s one of those plays where if you’re having a bad day and just want to feel something, watch that screen. Like how Ken is fired out of a cannon, but also the blocking by Trey and by Kingsley to see them moving like they were. That screen was a thing of beauty.

00:15:28
Speaker 1: And the nuance of Pat. Pat sets it all up because he never gives it away until like the last second. Yeah. He sold that play. It was awesome.

00:15:35
Speaker 2: It was so good. I have some Ken stats for you. Should I rattle these off?

00:15:39
Speaker 1: Sure.

00:15:39
Speaker 2: Okay, so they’re so much fun. Ken is the first Chief to top 1,000 scrimmage yards. He’s already done that. He’s topped 1,000 scrimmage yards. He’s the first Chief to top 1,000 scrimmage yards since Isaiah Pacheco back in 2023. He did it in eight games.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: Crazy.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: The last time a Chief had more than 1,000 scrimmage yards through just eight games was Kareem Hunt back in 2017. It’s been a while. He’s also tied for the NFL lead with 11 scrimmage touchdowns now. He’s tied with Jameer Gibbs, who has 26 more touches, by the way. He also now has five games this season with multiple touchdowns. He’s the first player to do that through just eight games since Terrell Davis back in 1998. Here’s the full list of players to do that since the merger. There’s only five of them. It’s Ken, Terrell Davis, Emmitt Smith, Eric Dickerson, and Marcus Allen.

00:16:26
Speaker 1: What a list! The two I like as well, and I’ll give credit to our Chiefs PR department, It’s the best eight weeks of a Chiefs running back to start his Chiefs career in Chiefs history. And then Andy Reid, who has been coaching the game for 28 seasons as a head coach, it is the best first eight weeks for a running back in Andy Reid’s career. He took out Shady McCoy for that one. But it just gives you an idea of what Ken Walker III has done.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, he’s been unbelievable. He’s everything we could have hoped for. The Chiefs have topped 150 rushing yards in five of their eight games so far this season. It’s everything we talked about in the offseason. If we can just add an explosive element to our running game, if defenses have to respect the fact that we are going to run the ball until you prove that you can stop it, that our play-action passing game can take the top off the defense because you have to respect that running game, if we can just find that guy, his offense is going to be a lot of fun. We found that guy in Ken Walker. He’s been everything we could have hoped for and even more.

00:17:28
Speaker 1: Matt, what excites you about the Chiefs defense this year?

00:17:32
Speaker 2: I think it’s the blend of veteran players, like guys like Chris Jones, George Karloftis, with our rookies that we’re really excited about.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of a new school, old school approach. And we need defense. And in the kingdom, we know that championship success starts with defense. Think of 2023, right? Our defense carried us to a Super Bowl title or helped us carry this to that. Anyway, 10x. ai is the AI security operations provider. Protecting organizations from cybersecurity attacks at machine speed, but with human analysts on the loop 24-7. Experience cybersecurity that’s AI-native and human-led, united against every threat. Visit 10x. ai for details. Sounds to me like what you want from the Chiefs defense.

00:18:15
Speaker 2: I love that idea.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: Let’s roll. But it was also defense, and great to see what the defense did in this game. Don’t take for granted the five dig-ins. with five possessions, including one at the five. That’s two possessions now that got to the five-yard line. And Broncos week one and the Jets in this week had to settle for field goals. And then the sacks. But you and I talk about this all the time. Fans get into sacks because they play fantasy football with sacks. If you really have a really good fantasy football league, you do sacks and the sack yardage and the strategic moments that they happen. We’re going to have George Karloftis on later in this episode of Defending the Kingdom. And we’re going to talk to him about this. But five sacks for negative 41 yards. But it was what happened with those sacks that dictated the deluge, especially the stops in the first half, but then the deluge in the second half. So strategic. Not all sacks are the same, but the Chiefs had awesome sacks. And to see Chris Jones… Yet two, and now a second all-time in Chiefs history, along to the late Derek Thomas, was awesome to see. But to have both of those things working together, especially in the last 30 minutes, was something you hope carries over this week in Atlanta.

00:19:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. A couple of things there. Think about the first quarter of the game against the Jets. Not good. The vibes weren’t good overall. They had the ball for 8-13. Half the quarter, yeah. And we were struggling in all three phases, right? So you think about how could that game go poorly for the Chiefs? Well, it’s a Jets team that has a pretty good offense. They scored 50. points over their previous three games going into that one. They come in there. They ambush us. We struggle offensively. We turn the ball over. And before you know it, we’re in a situation where we’re trailing the Jets late in the game. And this is a Jets team that has nothing to lose and a bunch of talent. You worry about that when the game starts like it did. The beauty of it is our defense both times when the Jets had those two red zone drives dug in and held New York to field goals. If it’s 14-0 to begin the game, I think we still find a way to win it, but it’s a much different game. For it to be 6-0, despite everything going well for the Jets to begin the game, that is demoralizing for the Jets. That feels like a loss for the Jets. We had the ball at the five to open the game. We go 14 plays over 60 yards. All we come away with is a field goal. And then we get the fumble and plus territory. All we get is a field goal. And I think it was a three and out there after the fumble. So huge by our defense to dig in in some not great situations and find a way to hold New York to field goals. Super demoralizing. And yeah, the sacks. I mean, here’s a next-gen stat metric on this. So we measured or we generated a pressure rate of 50% on Geno Smith in that game. But here’s the difference. We finished those with sacks from weeks one through eight. We had a league low 9.8 pressure to sack ratio. Not very good. It was 26.3 on Sunday. Let’s keep that trending in the right direction. We know we can do it. We have the players to do it. George has been so close on so many sacks this year. It was great to see Chris get going, see Ashton Gelati get going a little bit. Let’s keep that going. Super encouraging from our defense. And really throughout that game, after that first drive, they were awesome. I think they allowed like 160 yards after that first drive of the rest of the game, particularly in the second half. They were incredible. Our second home game in a row, we’ve not allowed a touchdown.

00:21:35
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, it’s awesome. But five possessions, and one’s a missed field goal, four field goals. If any one of those is a touchdown, you’re trailing at half. And after missing the 56 and then missing the 51, if you’re down 16-14, even though you get the ball to start the second half, there’s even a different vibe because the Chiefs get a touchdown and go up nine. Now, it totally changes the game. That’s the second half two-possession lead. Always talk about it on the air, the coveted second half two-possession lead. So it just gives you, it’s just easy to take all of that for granted and be fun to talk about it with George. Now, what are you still thinking about from the Jets game?

00:22:16
Speaker 2: Can I give you two things?

00:22:17
Speaker 1: Sure.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: Is that fair? Okay, the first thing, and this was what I originally was going to talk about, the first thing is Travis Kelsey has made so many big plays in his career with the Chiefs, so many big plays. And when you look at the highlights of the game against the Jets, a play that will not probably make the highlight reel is his 17-yard catch early in the game. But it shouldn’t be forgotten because sometimes you need like a drive starter, a game starter. We got that with that play because we talked about how everything was going poorly for the Chiefs to begin that game. The Jets have five first downs, six points, over 60 yards of offense. We have yet to move the chains once, and we’re facing a third and 10 deep in our own territory. It doesn’t look very good. We’re off to a poor start. Well, Mahomes rolls to his right, finds Kels for a 17-yard gain. We got a bunch of chunk plays after that. We score on that drive. And from then on out, we outscore the Jets 35 to six. Again, sometimes all you need is a game starting kind of play. And I mean, Kelsey and Mahomes are the greatest duo in NFL history, or one of them, at least. I think it’s the greatest duo ever. And for those guys to connect for that play in that moment was a big deal. So that’s one thing I’m still thinking about. So fortunate to have those guys. Also, Patrick Mahomes. So the ultimate warrior in every single way. That elbow injury was scary, right? Really scary. And for him to be on the sideline immediately afterward, throwing, to come back in the game, and not just to be in the game and handing the ball off, but to be dropping back, scrambling, engaging tacklers. He’s the ultimate gamer, the ultimate warrior, and is going to do everything it takes to help this team win. And I just think about him, you know, playing on the surgically repaired knee, his elbows sprained, and he’s out there still finding a way to honestly light up the jets defense in the second half. It was awesome. Uh, has me also thinking about perspective. You can’t tell my voice is struggling right now. I woke up on Sunday morning and I was like, my voice is starting to go away. That’s great.

00:24:18
Speaker 1: It was really great.

00:24:18
Speaker 2: You know, when you have multiple, uh, live programming to do throughout the day, it was really bad on Sunday night when I got home, I couldn’t even speak. Uh, it’s a little bit better now. If you think it’s bad now, you should have heard me on Sunday night. But if Patrick Mahomes can play with a surgically repaired knee and a strained elbow and everything else going on and find a way to have a great game, I can do a podcast with half.

00:24:39
Speaker 1: Of a voice, don’t you think? We’ll get into that sometime. Try doing play-by-play.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: I can’t even imagine.

00:24:44
Speaker 1: Three hours doing it. I’ve got some stories for you on that one. That’s another episode, though, maybe in the offseason. Yeah. The things I’m still thinking about the game, you mentioned Kels and those two big plays and tying Rob Gronkowski for the most 25-plus yard catches by a tight end NFL history. But when I review early Monday morning, I try to review the tape. His blocks, because what I’m still thinking about are canines, double-digit runs to start the third quarter. Remember, it’s 14-12. People are booing, grousing, mad. They’ve gone to the bathroom. They’re still not back in their seats, nor do they want to go back to their seats because they’re just mad. And then all of a sudden, 11-yard run, 12-yard run, 14-yard run. Kelsey was so good blocking on those plays, and I couldn’t appreciate it. until I reviewed the video. The second one I’m thinking about is, now, you didn’t have a big brother, but I did. Dude’s bullying me on the playground. Big brother shows up like, you got a problem here? Can you imagine the DBs for the Jets standing 10 yards from the linemen bearing down on you, which is Trey and Creed and Kingsley Suomati going, this isn’t good. You’re standing at the 10, and here they come. with a full head of steam, and they want to drive you into the earth on that screen pass. You’re right. In July, if I’m having a bad day, I’m going to go find that and check that. So that’s stuff we’re still thinking about.

00:26:07
Speaker 2: You know, and we talked in the offseason about how our offensive line is so athletic. And if we can find ways to get them out in space to engage defenders like that, we’re going to have a lot of success. And Ken, we saw it in a training camp, a screen game. We’re like, oh, that’s going to be effective. And to see it in practice this year, and especially on Sunday, is just.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: A lot of fun. One of the more fascinating guys on this entire football team is George Karloff. And he’s really playing some good football. In fact, you could argue, with Nick Bolton, he’s the most consistent defender the Chiefs have had all year long. And right now, he’s leading a stat, one of my favorite defensive stats. But the other part of George is, he’s not even the best athlete in his house. So… A great time to talk to George Karloftis getting ready to go to Atlanta. He’s having a phenomenal year, and he’s joining us here on Defending the Kingdom, George Karloftis. Now, Matt knows where I’m going to start on this. It’s my favorite defensive play that no one talks about are passes deflected at the line of scrimmage because I pause the tape and see what was going to happen. You’re the king of this, George. How do you get so good at it?

00:27:16
Speaker 3: Hey, I mean, it’s not. It’s really something that we don’t work on. I don’t work on.

00:27:22
Speaker 2: I don’t know anything.

00:27:23
Speaker 3: Defensive lineman or defensive line coach that really emphasizes it or works on it there’s no drill really for it especially for defensive lineman i mean db is a different conversation that’s kind of their job but um you know spags and coach colin and coach brayden you know emphasize you know whenever you’re maybe not going to get the quarterback or you know are the quarterbacks about to release the ball get your hands up try to block the pass gonna help us all out so uh always try to do that get my hands up uh maybe maybe it helps maybe it doesn’t you know but I’ve been fortunate enough to fall into a lot of those this year and try to help the team out. I had a pass and water polo, so I don’t know as a goalie whether that helps or not, but just instinctively try to get in those passing lanes and make it a little harder for the quarterback and hoping to make a big play.

00:28:11
Speaker 2: You know, we led the NFL in that category in 2022 and 2023. Oh, really? It’s a correlation there. You know, end up winning the Super Bowl.

00:28:18
Speaker 3: Hey, I’ll take it.

00:28:18
Speaker 2: We should lead again. Yeah, that’s the idea. What’s the mentality like when it’s second down, you knock one of those down, now it’s third and 10? I mean, it’s not a sack, but I mean, it’s kind of close.

00:28:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it’s, you know, I think Spag spoke about this. You know, it’s a negative play for the offense, whichever way you spin it. You know, it’s the same thing. result is an incomplete pass. Maybe it’s not a negative play necessarily, but a lot of the time, like you said, Mitch, it’s like, what could have happened? You know, maybe a lot of the time there’s maybe a receiver open down the field or something like this, you know, because if there wasn’t, then the quarterback’s clutching the ball and that’s an opportunity.

00:28:57
Speaker 1: For a sack.

00:28:57
Speaker 3: So, you know, just trying to make an impact, you know, as a defensive player in any way you can and, you know, as a defensive lineman, if you’re not going to get there, you know, Usually it’s about three seconds at internal natural clock. That’s when the quarterback’s about going to get rid of it, give or take a couple tenths. Three seconds are a lot of times pass, and you’re kind of feeling it, and you get your hands up.

00:29:22
Speaker 1: How excited are you, though? You guys have been great on third down now two weeks in a row. The second half, you get a shutout. What about stacking them up here in complementary defensive football, especially playing the falcon yeah.

00:29:35
Speaker 3: I mean our our coach joe cullen he mentioned it going into last week and it’s november’s where you know where you get remembered november and then carrying that on to december so um going into last week we were uh six and two right uh five and two or five and two five now we’re six and two and um You have an opportunity to do something special. You got to win one game at a time. And the whole season is really in front of us. You know, now it’s crunch time right now. And the urgency is at the utmost of importance. You know, I remember when November rolled around when I was a rookie, it’s like, all right, you’re not a rookie anymore.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: It’s out. It’s out.

00:30:20
Speaker 3: So this is one of the most important times of the year.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: I do remember your rookie year around this time. You had a sack in like every game to close out the year, so you’re right about that. And sacks seem to come in bunches. You guys get five of them last week against the Jets. You’ve been pressuring the quarterback all year. Haven’t always had the sacks, but we saw it against New York. How can you keep that going now here against the Falcons?

00:30:43
Speaker 3: Really, whenever a team gets a sack, it’s as much, it’s great, right?

00:30:49
Speaker 1: It’s great.

00:30:50
Speaker 3: It’s as much on the D-line as it is on the back half. On the back half, and the D-line are working together, that’s when a big plays happen. A lot of the time when you see an interception happen, there’s some kind of pressure in the quarterback’s face. But when a sack happens, it’s because those DBs are covering their tails off. So it’s all about working together, front end, back half, defensive line, linebackers, DBs, everybody playing off of each other. Ultimately, that’s how you’re successful as a defense, and that’s how you’re successful as a team, in my opinion.

00:31:22
Speaker 1: Atlanta-specific question. Because you’ve always been so good at holding the edge. You take pride in it. People get caught up in sacks and all that. But here comes Bajon Robinson. Yes. And a second question would be Michael Penix Jr. ‘s left-handed. How much of that now the sun comes up in the West when you play a left-handed quarterback?

00:31:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, no question. I mean, so I’ll start with the running back question. It’s going to be critical. I mean, every week you’ve got to stop the run and that’s your primary goal. If you don’t stop the run, they’re just going to keep running the ball.

00:31:53
Speaker 4: So.

00:31:53
Speaker 3: uh for us it’s it’s and as a defensive lineman really your mindset is you got to earn the right to rush the passer you know stop them on first down if they run it again on second down stop them then you got a third and third down and that’s what you know that’s that’s where you know that’s where you leave your mark and that’s where you’re you know third down is the most critical down obviously but you got to earn that from first and second down um why am i forgetting your second.

00:32:19
Speaker 1: Left-handed quarterback left-handed quarterback.

00:32:21
Speaker 3: Left-handed quarterback sun sun comes in the west So it’s the same thing, just flipped everything. So his blind side, where usually it’s against the left tackle, his blind side is the right tackle, who we have a lot of experience, obviously, with Jawan and a lot of respect for Jawan, and that’s going to be Penix’s blind side. So there’s some differences. It’s kind of the same thing, just flipped. And it just is like, okay, I just have to be aware of this this week. It’s a little different. And, you know, obviously he’s a great quarterback. He can make all those throws. He’s super athletic, and we’re going to have a lot of respect for him. It just changes up a little bit. It changes up a few things.

00:32:59
Speaker 2: George, when you joined this team back in 2022, you were part of just an incredible draft class, particularly on defense. Guys like you and Leo and Trent, Brian Cook, Jalen Watson. You’re the old guy now, which is hard to believe. Yeah, I know. What’s it like being that veteran now, tutoring players like R. Mason who are coming in here and trying to make an impact as a rookie?

00:33:19
Speaker 3: It changes a lot. For me, I went from from having a bunch of guys, I had Chris, I had Mike Dana, I had Charles, I had all the guys that I’ve been with for all these years, and all of a sudden, oh shoot, I’m the second eldest statesman in the room after Chris. So I had to, this off season, whenever I saw those moves being made, I had to slowly start shifting my mindset, my approach and my attitude in everything, in the way I approach, from coming into the building, in my preparation because the leadership that I feel like I responded to the best was when somebody asked me to do something. For example, if Frank asked me, hey, you need to do this, this, and that, I’m like, all right, this is how Frank does it. This is what Frank does, and that’s how I respond to it. So I view leadership as if I’m on my P’s and Q’s, if I’m doing everything right, then I could ask people that maybe aren’t. You know what I’m saying? So it just started from coming– For me, it started with doing everything right and doing the little things, making sure the rookies see that, making that extra effort, showing them that I care. And, you know, with our Mason, with Peter, with all those young guys, you know, showing A, that you care about them as a person, which to me is really important. And then you’re going to hold them accountable, which was always really important and is really important with rookies, you know. And it’s also about that continuous growth. You know, those guys are going to grow so much. And I talked to them about it this season. And they’re also going to have a lot of voices coming.

00:34:59
Speaker 1: Do this, do that.

00:35:01
Speaker 3: Media, coaches, vets, all that stuff. So it’s really about shrinking your world and figuring out what’s really important. And, you know, we had those conversations before the season, during the season, and we’re going to continue having those conversations so those guys can develop into the best pros they can be. You know, because when I was a rookie, I had Frank, I had Carlos, I had Chris, and they wanted me to succeed and be the best version of myself. So that’s what I want for those guys.

00:35:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the most fascinating guys to ever wear this uniform. Are you not even the best athlete in your house?

00:35:33
Speaker 2: I don’t think I am. I really don’t.

00:35:36
Speaker 1: You said it, but his wife is remarkable. George Karloff. Phenomenal, remarkable story. Incredible athlete, but his life in getting to the National Football League in Purdue and now the Chiefs is… is really one of a kind. There’s nothing to compare it.

00:35:53
Speaker 2: George is a super interesting guy, a super friendly guy, and just a monster on the field. Yeah, he is, and just a monster on the field. I mean, his ability to bull rush, to never give up on a rep is special, and the pressure numbers have been there all season. It was great to see him get those sacks that he is much deserving of on Sunday.

00:36:12
Speaker 1: So mature. Again, he had to grow up fast, losing his dad in a tragic situation, but he had to be the head of the household in Greek, culture, whatever, at eighth grade. But the Chiefs are going to need him against the Atlanta Falcons because this is a Falcon team.

00:36:26
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.

00:36:28
Speaker 1: This is like your high cap stock that you’re taking the risk to buy. And you’re like, hey, this looks really good. And you’re like, oh my gosh, what happened to my 401k? Because you’ve invested it in this stock that goes up and down and up and down. I don’t even, if I have a word, Mercurial’s not even enough to talk about the Falcons. What are the Falcons that you want? The one that blew out the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. They’re the only loss San Francisco has who looks right now like the best team in the NFL. I’ll give the Niners credit for that. Are they the team that lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay did not complete a pass? I’m not making it up. The Bucs did not complete a pass, but they did run for 327 yards in that game, did Tampa Bay, to win 16 to nothing. The Falcons have literally been all over the board. You just do not know what you’re going to get. But What makes the Falcons get your attention is their high highs are like that stock, which looks like the highest performing stock. You do not want to catch the Falcons on the wrong day.

00:37:29
Speaker 2: Those 300 yards they allowed, I had to double check that. Could you believe that when you first read it?

00:37:33
Speaker 1: That’s like a college or high school number. Yeah. That’s 300 yards in rushing yards allowed. It’s just absolutely nuts. And if you’re Tampa Bay, why would you pass? You’re just like, here’s 15 yards, I’ll So, yeah, you see that in high school or college, not in the pros.

00:37:47
Speaker 2: Just outrageous. And to your point, it’s crazy to see a team that beat San Francisco, that beat the Packers like they did in Lambeau, where they just dominated the game. It was never really a game against the Packers in primetime. Then to lose like that to the Bucs. They’re 3-4 in Michael Penix’s starts.

00:38:06
Speaker 1: So.

00:38:07
Speaker 2: It’s strange. Like at times you see the magic with Penix. You see the player that he was at Washington who was so much fun to watch, who led that team to the college football playoff. You see it sometimes. And then other times it’s just not quite there. And, you know, one area that he’s really struggled this year is when under pressure. I have some ESPN research stats on this. So according to ESPN research, He’s completed a league low 18% of his passes when pressured this year against the Bengals last week in Spain. He completed just one of nine passes for negative three yards and an interception under pressure. It’s back to our conversation with George and what we did last week against the Jets. We have to find a way to pressure him, make him uncomfortable, force him into some inopportune situations. And the obvious note is we can’t let Bijan run wild against us. Bijan is right up there with Ken as the best running backs in all of football. Let’s try to contain Bijan. He’s going to get a big run here or there. Let’s contain him, though. Don’t let Penix have time to throw in the pocket. And let’s protect Patrick Mahomes. And don’t turn the football over. If you’re wondering why the Niners lost that game earlier this year, they turned the ball over four times. Don’t turn the ball over against these guys. They’ll make you pay for it.

00:39:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, Michael Penix Jr. more there. His quarterback rating in that 49er game, he had three touchdown passes, was 118. Against the Tampa Buccaneers, he threw four picks. Just the opposite of the San Francisco game. He throws four picks. His passer rating was 12. Now, you wake up in the morning, you have a 20, okay? He had a 12. That is my ACT score, a 12. SAT scores are usually a higher, bigger number. I had a 12 on my SAT as well. I tried to get into schools. Can’t get into schools with a 12. 118 to 12? Like, it just doesn’t make any sense. Now, let’s jump into Bajon Robinson. He makes sense. Right now, he’s not even 25 years old yet. It feels like he’s been in the league for five years, right? He has a chance. He doesn’t turn 25 until January the 30th. He has a chance to have the most scrimmage yards of any player in NFL history in before the age of 25. The guy, we talk about the Greek background of George Karloftis. Now, he looks like the fictional Greek god, right? He and Canine have the same body. Like, Did you take anatomy and physiology, or at least you took biology, right?

00:40:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you have to.

00:40:31
Speaker 1: You’re looking at the body, right? The human body and every fiber of muscle. That’s what you see in Bajon Robinson. He’s got the most impressive look. But he is so dynamic as a runner and explosive runs, but he’s also dynamic as a receiver. He’s actually edging up there again this year. But last year, he had 850 receiving yards as a running back. So Bajon Robinson is.

00:40:57
Speaker 1: He’s right there with K-9 in the elite players. Now, one thing that hurts them is not having Brian Robinson Jr. Big time. When they had the tag team going between the Robinsons, and it’s the old movie, The Graduate, it’s a Robinson affair. Like, oh my gosh, but to take him out of there, and Bajon Robinson’s enough, but when you got a guy kind of like him, it’s a lot to overcome.

00:41:20
Speaker 2: It’s like what they used to have with Tyler Algier when we saw him a couple years ago, where They take Bijan out and it’s like, OK, great. We have a break now. Now it’s still Tyler Algier. In that case, Brian Robinson Jr. Yeah, not having Robinson is a big deal. When Bijan is in there, like I said earlier, it really is a copy and paste with what Ken has done for us this year. Here’s some more numbers. So there’s four players across the NFL that have a thousand scrimmage yards already this year. We’re going to see two of them in this game in Ken and in Bijan. Robinson’s number two in the NFL right now in scrimmage yards. Ken is number four. I mentioned earlier, Bijan leads the NFL in rushing yards. Ken is number two. Walker leads the NFL in rushing yards per game. Bijan is number four. And last week, Bijan recorded his 35th career game with 100 scrimmage yards that tied Emmitt Smith to the fourth most by a player before turning 25 in NFL history. And this isn’t a surprise. In two of their three wins under Penix this year, they’ve rushed for 220 or more yards. You just can’t let that happen. Bijan’s going to have a 15-yard run, a 10-yard run here or there. Don’t let him go crazy for 150 yards. Contain his production, and you’ll find a way, hopefully, to win this game.

00:42:27
Speaker 1: Also, also, also, we talked about how Penix Jr. is totally different when he gets pressured, that you cannot lose contain. He had 50 yards scrambling in the game in Spain against Cincinnati. Just to keep a drive alive or make an explosive scramble run, to put that with Bajon Robinson makes it really tough to overcome. Now, Drake London also gets your attention. When he was at USC, we looked at him coming out and loved him. But a bigger receiver who can attack you different ways, numbers to boundary. In that win over Green Bay when they were so impressive in Lambeau, he had 194 yards receiving in that game. When they’re spiking high, Drake London’s usually over a hundo.

00:43:08
Speaker 2: He reminds me a lot of prime AJ Brown, where six foot four, 220 pounds. He’s a matchup nightmare. I mean, if you’re a corner, how do you begin to defend that guy? Because he’s built like a tight end, but runs and plays like a wide receiver. So just really impressive. He’s accounted for 39%. of the Falcons receiving yards this year. Whenever Penix drops back, he’s looking for Drake London. He’s averaging, I think, almost 16 yards per catch this year. We talk about not letting Bijan have a big day. You can’t let Drake London have a big day either. You got to find ways to force them to beat you with other receivers. And they do have other receivers who can make plays. But at the end of the day, if I’m looking at the box score and Bijan has held the like 80 rushing yards, and Drake London has four catches for 60 yards. I can live with that. What you can’t live with is either of those guys going off for like $ 1. 50, $ 200, because that’s where you lose the game.

00:43:59
Speaker 1: Or Kyle Pitts Jr. gets involved in this game, and he’s got four touchdown receiving. He doesn’t have the high volume of yards, but he’s a red zone monster, and you have to account for Kyle Pitts Jr. Quickly, just to touch on the Falcons’ defense, they look smaller and quicker, but again, they gave up over three bills last in the game against Tampa Bay. But when they can pressure, they’re sixth in the league in pressure rate. And last year, they were second in the NFL with 57 sacks, only behind the Denver Broncos. And a big piece of that last year is what they have back now in James Pierce Jr. He was suspended eight games by the National Football League for the violation of the league’s conduct policy. But now he’s back. So Again, if you’ve got to run the ball and get chunk run plays, you don’t want to get behind the chains against these guys because of their fast and quickness and speed in the rushing the quarterback.

00:44:51
Speaker 2: And what catches my attention is they don’t have a ton of sacks. They have 20 sacks this year. It’s middle of the pack.

00:44:56
Speaker 1: But they didn’t have Pierce sooner.

00:44:57
Speaker 2: They didn’t have Pierce, and they’re still getting pressure, and they’re not blitzing a whole lot. Near the bottom of the league in terms of blitz rate, but they are pressuring the quarterback a lot. They have four different players this year with at least 20 pressures, and that doesn’t even include Pierce.

00:45:10
Speaker 4: So.

00:45:10
Speaker 2: Got to find a way to protect against these guys. They don’t have Jesse Bates now, which I should say right now, we’re filming this on Tuesday of the trade deadline. We have no idea if the Chiefs are going to or if they have made a trade. So if they made a trade, we don’t know about it. But Jesse Bates has been traded to the Jags. He’s a big part of the back end of that defense. That’s a big loss for these guys for sure.

00:45:31
Speaker 1: We do have a stove, though, behind the camera you can’t see that’s bubbling over. Maybe something’s happening. But I’ll say this. It’s my minute with Mitch last week. If the Chiefs don’t get a trade done, that doesn’t mean wailing and gnashing of teeth that they did not try.

00:45:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:45:45
Speaker 1: Red Beach is always trying. I do want to mention some other military installations. I started earlier in the Defending the Kingdom episode, but I want to mention Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, one of the most famous locations on the earth right now, often involved with the 55th Air Wing Warhawk mission. Also the Marines. They’ve got to have a Marine effort this week. Are the Marines in the Chiefs’ kingdom? Heck yeah.

00:46:09
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:46:09
Speaker 1: They have a combat logistics regiment’s headquarter in Kansas City. People don’t realize that. And Fort Riley, you mentioned Fort Riley, home of the Big Red One, the first infantry division, the Big Red One. That is their HQ at Fort Riley, Kansas. And Fort Leonard Wood, outside Waynesville, Missouri, they do so many things there. Chemical training, military police, engineers, sappers. Fort Leonard Wood is very, very important. And people go, Gosh, is the Navy involved in the Chiefs Kingdom around the area? Yeah. There are U.S. Navy Reserve Centers in, get it, Granger, Iowa, Wichita, Kansas, St. Louis, here in Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. Just a shout out to all of the women and men who serve, have served, and encouraging to serve because it’s so necessary. We went through that. It’s also necessary, and every now Defending the Kingdom episode, to check in with our wolf in the West who is howling on the coast.

00:47:06
Speaker 5: Gentlemen, great to see you. Excited to talk Chiefs football with you. And guys, last week I was talking about how it was hard for me to recover from the heartbreaking loss at Denver. This week I’m still kind of recovering from Mahomes getting hurt. It was pretty scary, though, for a minute. It seems like he’s just got some soreness in his arm, but wow, that had my heart rate going really fast, and boy, is that guy a warrior.

00:47:29
Speaker 4: All right, so here’s what we do here.

00:47:31
Speaker 5: We talk AFC West, and let’s get you caught up on what happened last week. Let’s start with the Broncos, who are atop the AFC West at 7-2, heading into their bye week. They go to Carolina, and it was a typical Broncos game. They got a couple of key breaks. And in the end, they find a way to win in the fourth quarter, 26-21. There was a play in the third quarter that got lots of attention. It ended up being ruled an interception, but Sean Payton was able to challenge a play after a whole other play had been run. So by protocol alone, I don’t think that the play should have been reviewed. It was a complete momentum changer in the game. It was still a tight battle late. Bryce Young was leading them down the field potentially for the go-ahead score. Nick Benito comes up with a strip sack and a fumble recovery. But wow, Denver wins again. Is this sustainable, Mitch? Can they keep winning like this? Because this is 16 straight one-score games that they’ve come out on top.

00:48:25
Speaker 4: That seems like a streak that can’t last forever.

00:48:28
Speaker 1: Well, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s talk about the 24 Chiefs because that can’t last forever. And you’re lucky and you get all the calls. You saw me this week on social. I couldn’t help it, Matt. I had to put it on there because the Broncos are second in the league in scoring drives that have been aided by defensive penalties resulting in first downs on that drive.

00:48:53
Speaker 4: 17-36.

00:48:53
Speaker 1: The Chiefs have 7-36. Can you keep it going? Oh, I don’t know. You talk about some key breaks that happen in the game. How many weeks can you have key breaks? Not just that. There was the fumble recovery, and give Coleman credit, but if the Panthers get that fumble recovery, they probably won the game. And then the play in the end zone, which is pretty crazy. So can you keep it up? The odds would say no, but we’re not. on a year and a half voyage by the Broncos and doing what the Chiefs did in 24, but they were lucky the Broncos are gritty. And then Sean Payton, if they do a remake of A Few Good Men, they may have Sean Payton on in the Tom Cruise role, just because he did it in our game too. The game stopped. He’s got the red challenge flag in his hand because of a poor spot by Cleet Blakeman’s crew, the seventh of the night, I think. But you can’t challenge it. It’s inside of two minutes. But we stopped the game just so that we could talk about it because he had the challenge flag in his hand.

00:49:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ari, you know, we’ve lived this life before. Like Mitch said, we know what it’s like to win all these close games. But here’s the thing. There’s times where you are influencing things and that’s why you win those close games. So like even the blocked field goal against the Broncos years ago, that comes from tape study and Leo Chanel being in the right place at the right time. There’s some skill to that. But we also had a win that year against the Raiders where the Raiders are driving for a potential game winning field goal and they just mess up the snap and they lose on that because we recovered the fumbled snap. Like that wasn’t forced by us at all. We’re starting to see it with the Broncos where just like the universe just throws them a bone and they don’t influence it. Like with that interception rolling off of the forearm of the Carolina receiver and Devin Keyes just right there to grab it. Not a lot of skill involved there. I guess it’s good awareness by key, but they’re just getting all the breaks, right? And like I said, we’ve lived this life. I also watched the 2025 Chiefs, and I know these things happen to even out. So no, it’s not sustainable, and eventually it will regress, and I would prefer it happen sooner than later.

00:51:01
Speaker 1: But Ari, you have a good point. Once we’re changing the rules, whereas, oh, we’re going to go back and redo it. Wait a minute, there was a play here. No, that’s okay. We’re going to jump over it. Well, what’s the rule?

00:51:10
Speaker 5: Oh, no, okay.

00:51:11
Speaker 1: So- It’s just the way it is right now in 26.

00:51:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, hopefully it is not sustainable.

00:51:17
Speaker 5: All right, let’s go to something that is sustainable.

00:51:19
Speaker 4: That’s the Chargers losing football games.

00:51:21
Speaker 5: They managed to do it each and every week. This week, it was the Texans. They give up 44 points. Good news for Chargers fans. They scored an offensive touchdown for the first time in three weeks.

00:51:34
Speaker 4: You got to be happy for the little things in life. C.J.

00:51:37
Speaker 5: Shroud played, from my understanding, he was sick. They’re referring to it as the Michael Jordan flu game from the 1997 NBA Finals. Bulls against the Jazz. I think that’s a bit of a stretch. And just so everyone is clear, if you haven’t watched the last dance, it was not the flu. It was food poisoning for Michael Jordan. So whatever C.J. Stroud did, it was different than Michael Jordan or nearly as significant. It wasn’t in the finals or in a Super Bowl.

00:52:02
Speaker 4: All right.

00:52:03
Speaker 5: So Herbert was sacked eight times. The Chargers don’t seem to be getting any better. Is this going to be what we’re going to see for the season? Do you guys expect any changes in the staff? Where are you right now on the Los Angeles Chargers and the remaining of the 2026 season?

00:52:18
Speaker 4: Matt, let’s start with you.

00:52:20
Speaker 2: Well, we can’t call it his Jordan flu game. He’s playing the 0-7 Chargers. Okay. Right. He did play very well, though. You know, the Chargers pulled Herbert with seven minutes to go in this game. And the game was well over, but still. for Harbaugh to pull Herbert with so much time left in the game just because they know it’s over, to me was a certain point that we haven’t seen from the Chargers this year where they’re kind of acknowledging that the season is truly a disaster. And to be 0-8 after you had expectations coming in is really just unfathomable. It’s nuts. I mean, they were down 38 to nine at one point in this game. We’re talking about it every week. They’re just not competitive. It’s different than the Chiefs last year, where the Chiefs last year end up with a bad record and we lose a bunch of games, but we were in every single game till the very end. And you can see the positive things you can pull out of it. The Chargers right now, I have a hard time finding positives with them because they’re just not competitive on either side of the ball. we’ve said this a few times in the pod already, Ari, that we’re shooting this on Tuesday. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the trade deadline. By the time this posts, the trade deadline will be well over. But with the Chargers, I wonder if it’s time for them to sell off some pieces. I think that would be the smart thing to do for them to readjust for next year because clearly the current structure of their team, the makeup of their roster, their whole scheme is a lot has to change going into next season. And, uh, I don’t expect any kind of turnaround this year. I think right now they go into evaluation mode, but they’re young players and figure out what they have going forward. But man, what a disaster in every way.

00:54:02
Speaker 1: I’m trying to understand RA because several weeks now you’ve referenced something called charger fans. And I’m trying to get a grasp on that. Um, Honestly. How about friends and family?

00:54:16
Speaker 4: Friends and family, they’re the fans, right?

00:54:18
Speaker 1: Or Radio Rick with his audio console board at SoFi. He’s got the fader buttons with the fake noise. You can get this little bit of Matt’s point. If you are a Charger fan, you’re concerned because you can get beaten down so much that you aren’t really able to bounce back right away the next year. Because we have heard from some folks in the Charger camp Oh, get a top pick in the draft. We’ll get the 1-1 and we’re right back there. Maybe, but NFL history will show you that if you get pushed down this far, it takes you a while to get the recoil coming back. And now, to the point you both have made, they’re non-competitive. Now, this might be the week the great American nightmare ends because they play the Ravens. And I was stunned when I saw the promo for for the game of next week’s game. It’s the Ravens and the Chargers. Like, America waits. They wait for that game right now.

00:55:20
Speaker 2: He texted me that. America waits.

00:55:22
Speaker 1: I texted Matt right away. I’m like, they’re promoing this game? Like, it might be something else. Anyway, I’ve already said it. I said it last week. It’s never happened in NFL history. A team that had 11-plus wins the year before to start this poorly the next year. Never happened. Again, going back to 1921.

00:55:41
Speaker 4: It’s been ugly for him.

00:55:42
Speaker 5: All right, now to the Las Vegas Raiders, who made a trip to go visit their friends, the San Francisco 49ers. It did not go well. It sort of went as expected. 38-17, the 49ers win. But it really got ugly for the Raiders in the second half. Five second-half turnovers. Kirk Cousins, who we talked last week, has been one of the top free agent signings.

00:56:03
Speaker 4: He laid an egg.

00:56:04
Speaker 5: He had three interceptions in the second half, two lost fumbles. You know, I really was singing Kirk Cousins, you know, I was like, what a free agent.

00:56:13
Speaker 4: Signing he’s been.

00:56:14
Speaker 5: They really came back down to earth in this one. They’re now four and five with a pretty brutal schedule coming up. Mitch, let’s start this with you. If you’re a Raiders fan, where are you right now? Are you ready to just start evaluating the young guys on the roster? Do you want to see Mendoza play four or five games at the end of this year? If you’re a Raiders fan, what does the forecast look like to you?

00:56:34
Speaker 1: I think I predicted about a month ago, and we did this segment, that it would be Thanksgiving. and that’s looking like it is now. But if you’re a Raider fan, you’ve been kind of fighting your way on an off-road vehicle, working through rock slides and mud pits, and then you just fall off the cliff. Because what they had not been doing, Ari, was turning the football over. Kirk Cousins was actually trying to hold his own, right? And it stayed away from the massive turnover game. Well, that ended with this one. And it just was an avalanche of turnovers. Now, all that being said… Why is there a Viking plane circling around Las Vegas right now? Because the Vikes are going, we’ll take Kirk Cousins back. We’ll even reshow the quarterback episode. But they had not been turning it over, at least at ghastly proportions like they did a year ago. And Gino threw 17 picks as a Raider quarterback. But it started to happen. And when that starts, it’s tough to get it stopped.

00:57:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ari, if I’m the Raiders, I’m trading Kirk to the Vikings yesterday. and getting some assets for him. And then at this point, seeing what Mendoza can do. One other thing that I think the Raiders need to evaluate is what they have in their running game. Because I think when we see Jenty, we say, hey, he’s a top five pick in the draft. He was a beast at Boise State. Their running game is going to be good. It really hasn’t materialized. We see it with their passing game. We see it, obviously, with Mayer and with Bowers and even with guys like Trey Tucker. They’ve found a way to utilize some receivers that don’t have big names and made them good players. Their running game really hasn’t gotten going all year long. And I think the rest of the season, they need to figure out what they have in Jenty. Because having that acumen as a high draft pick only gets you so much goodwill. I think we need to start to see it if you’re a Raiders fan from Jenty. So yeah, I trade Cousins to the Vikings. I get some assets. I let Mendoza go out there and cut it loose, and I see what I got in this running game if I’m the Raiders.

00:58:29
Speaker 1: Maybe they turn to Dylan Lauby, the New Hampshire Wildcat, who had the 95-yard kickoff return against the Jets. Love it.

00:58:38
Speaker 5: Okay, let’s move on to our beloved Kansas City Chiefs, who took care of the New York Jets. 35-12, the final score. They shut them out in the second half. I thought the defense was exceptional. They really got to the quarterback. Great to see Chris Jones, George Karloftis get multiple sacks in the game.

00:58:55
Speaker 4: That’s been an.

00:58:56
Speaker 5: Area of concern during the season is the pass rush. The pass rush was there. On the offensive side of the ball, good balance again. K-9 goes for three scores, two through the air, one on the ground goes over 100 yards. The biggest story, though, to me was the Mahomes injury because it was just so scary. You know, that unknown when you see your franchise quarterback in the face, not just of the franchise, but frankly, the entire National Football League, wondering if his right arm is OK. Boy, that guy’s a warrior. He seemed to immediately address it. You know, he got the helmet on, started taking some throws because I think he wanted to know how badly he was hurt. So look, I thought the team, it was a great win. It was a solid win. All phases played pretty well. I know special teams fans want to see some improvement there. But wow, Patrick Mahomes seemed to survive a really scary moment. I know that Andy Reid said he was glad they weren’t practicing yesterday on Monday because they wanted to give more time for the Stornis to leave the arm.

00:59:50
Speaker 4: Let’s start with.

00:59:51
Speaker 5: You here, Mitch. What was your takeaway from the win against the Jets? Because the way they played in the second half seemed like a great formula for success moving forward.

00:59:59
Speaker 1: Well, we talk about sacks, but we actually talked about it on this episode of Defending the Kingdom. When you get sacks that are so strategic and it’s minus 41 yards in sacks, that basically equals three points in a game. But for the defense to dig in where the game could have been drastically different, it was awesome to see. But then it became complementary football because you started to get some opportunities for the offense to Um, and, uh, in getting a takeaway there and getting a short field touchdown for the offense. So it’s, um, uh, there was good things to see. Now you just want to see it carry over to the Atlanta game this week. Yeah.

01:00:40
Speaker 2: Ari, I’m proud of our guys for hanging together because it’s one thing to play a team like the Jets who aren’t having a very good year and you go out there and you just beat them up and you led the whole game and it was no problem. And, uh, that’s one thing. for the chiefs to struggle really in all three phases in the first quarter for the jets to go out there. And I mean, that jets team has nothing to lose and a ton of talent and for them to really bring it to us for a full quarter and to give us a scare a bit, but for our guys to hang in there for the defense, to get those stops in the red zone and for the offense to figure it out after a tough opening series with the fumble says a lot about the character of our team. So I think to me, Yeah, that’s a game the Chiefs are supposed to win. They’re supposed to win it by a bunch, and you don’t get a lot of credit for being the Jets at home. I understand that, but I think it said a lot about the character of our team, and that’s a good thing moving forward.

01:01:32
Speaker 5: And just keep stacking those wins. Six wins is better than five. Just keep it going. All right, so that’s a review of what happened in the AFC West in Week 9. Now let’s fast forward to what’s coming up in Week 10 for the AFC West. Let’s begin. The Raiders host the Seahawks. Interesting, they’re only separated by a game. The Seahawks are just five and four. The Raiders are four and five.

01:01:52
Speaker 4: It will be a reunion.

01:01:53
Speaker 5: Clint Kubiak, the head coach for the Raiders, did an outstanding job as the offense coordinator for Seattle, helping lead Sam Darnold to the Super Bowl last year in a pretty convincing Super Bowl win. And you look at Seattle now, the offense not functioning nearly at the kind of rate that it was last year. There’s no canine there. So let’s talk a little bit about The Raiders at home against the Seahawks. This seems to me like a game that’s going to be all Seahawks. This is a game where I think they get right.

01:02:19
Speaker 4: I think that they will be able to get after the quarterback.

01:02:22
Speaker 5: I just think that this is a game where the Seahawks really start building towards getting their record right. Because right now they’re on the outside of the playoffs looking in. It has almost a must-win feel for them. Whereas the Raiders, I think we’ve acknowledged this may be looking more towards 2027. Matt, let’s start with you. What is your take looking at this matchup between the Seahawks and the Raiders?

01:02:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you mentioned how the Seahawks, their record is not what they expected it to be. Both the Seahawks and especially the Rams remind me so much of the Chiefs last year, where the record is just really never where you think it should be. And you keep saying, hey, they’re the Seahawks. They’re the Rams. They’re the Chiefs. They’re going to figure it out. And unfortunately, last year, the Chiefs couldn’t figure it out. I think the Seahawks are kind of figuring it out, but they’re inconsistent, right? I mean, they were so good against us a few weeks ago. But since then, just not quite what you expect from a team that has a lot of these pieces. It doesn’t sound like Sam Darnold is going to play in this game against the Raiders, but honestly, they’ve been better with Drew Locke for the most part. So you think about this Raiders defense, they’ve allowed 30 or more points in six straight games. I mean, we’re bordering on historic territory here with that. I think this is a get-right game for the Seahawks offense just because the Raiders defense hasn’t been able to stop anybody and While the Raiders offense at times this year has found a lot of success, not so much last week against the Niners. And I do not expect them to find success against the Seahawks defense because despite the Seahawks overall struggles at times this year, I still think that’s the best defense in football.

01:03:49
Speaker 1: Drew Locke, to me, is a bit of a story here. The fact that he’s been so resilient. You know, he lost his dad in the offseason. We love him here. He’s a Mizzou Tiger for Matt’s alma mater, but at least some at high school. and was a phenom here as a high school player, but he has been very resilient. He took some shots in that game. It’s not like he’s 100% because he’s got some rib contusions or something, but get a little bit of running game, and that defense will always travel. Now, there’s some urgency here with the Seahawks and with the Niners doing what they’re doing. Who knows what’s going on with the Rams, but the Seahawks need to get busy, or they will be on the outside looking in, but that defense will always give them a chance.

01:04:33
Speaker 5: All right, well, you mentioned the next game I’m going to discuss. It’s the one that America can’t wait to watch. You’ve got the Baltimore Ravens hosting the Los Angeles Chargers.

01:04:42
Speaker 4: Must-see TV.

01:04:44
Speaker 5: Mitch, you are the most tenured NFL person. Can you make a call? Why isn’t this game flexed? I don’t even know what the flexing rules are, but how do we end up with a Monday night game this late in the season with a team that hasn’t won a game taking on a team that’s playing their third string quarterback? Well, I had to look up how to pronounce his last name. Joe Vignano is their quarterback. Last week, the Ravens basically, they ran a lot of wildcat. They basically only threw short passes. Their offense looked nothing like they wanted it to look like with Lamar Jackson. Besides the fact that it’s a nightmare game, it is on Monday Night Football. So those of us that are football junkies will end up watching the game. But does America want to see this game? And Mitch, can you make a call so in the future we can flex our way out of disastrous matchups this late in the season?

01:05:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s the old reverse flex. We can show reruns of, I don’t know, the World Cup or something. Right. But, you know, we’re captivated by sporting events in this country where we’re just glued to some of the biggest ones. And I just can’t imagine there’s no one that would want to miss this game. And then Jesse Minter gets out, you know, he gets out of the Chargers and goes to the Ravens thinking, hey, let’s go. Wait a minute, he’s going back and it’s this whole team and they’re 0-8. And, you know, if there’s a corner kick header that goes in to win this one, go for it and stay away from a red card in front of the net.

01:06:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mitch texted me when we saw the promo because we were watching, you know, the game on a Sunday night at the same time. We saw the promo. He texted me like, uh, this is basically like Belgium versus Tunisia group L, you know? Um, what I was thinking about Ari is, um, They always have to promo.

01:06:24
Speaker 1: If America saw our text. I know.

01:06:27
Speaker 2: I know.

01:06:28
Speaker 1: I know.

01:06:29
Speaker 2: They always have to promo these games for the casual fan no matter what.

01:06:32
Speaker 1: Right.

01:06:32
Speaker 2: So you’ll be watching just ESPN this week and they’ll be like the promo will go something like Harbaugh and Herbert are rolling into Baltimore. But Derrick Henry has other ideas. You know, it’s like you’re not going to fool me on this one. OK, I don’t know. Is the Jacoby Brissett era going to begin or is it the other guy?

01:06:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think Jacoby Brissett, I think if he’s ready, he’ll probably be the quarterback because they didn’t trust this guy to do anything last week.

01:06:58
Speaker 4: I’ve never seen such a limited offense.

01:07:00
Speaker 5: I thought I was watching Joe Paterno playing high school quarterback in 1935. I just couldn’t believe what I was watching.

01:07:08
Speaker 1: I didn’t know he was on Goodfellas, the old Goodfellas in 1990 that brought him back.

01:07:15
Speaker 4: Wow. But I will say this. This is probably as good a chance for the Chargers to win a game, right? I mean, they’re 0-8.

01:07:21
Speaker 5: They must be thinking, hey, we’ve got an actual chance to go to Baltimore and win.

01:07:25
Speaker 1: It’s November 10th.

01:07:26
Speaker 4: No chance.

01:07:27
Speaker 2: It is November 10th, and I cannot believe those words are coming out of your mouth. This is unbelievable.

01:07:31
Speaker 1: The great American nightmare could come to an end.

01:07:35
Speaker 4: All right.

01:07:35
Speaker 5: Now the Chiefs play at Atlanta against the Falcons. The Falcons are just 3-6, but because we’ve got to be concerned about every opponent Yeah, they’re 3-6, but they’re the only team that beat the 49ers this year, and they beat them pretty handily. Since they beat the 49ers, though they’ve been shut out by the Buccaneers 16-0, and then in Madrid this past weekend, they lose to the Bengals 34-17. Joe Burrow played great. The Bengals look good. Michael Penick’s only 162 yards passing. So when we break down this matchup, the Chiefs offense versus the Falcons defense. The Falcons defense has not been very good. 22 in total defense. And now no Jesse Bates, who got traded. So one of their best guys on the back end is no longer there. He’s in Jacksonville. When you look at the Chiefs and their balanced offense against this Falcons defense, Matt, let’s.

01:08:26
Speaker 4: Start with you.

01:08:27
Speaker 5: What concerns you the most for the Chiefs offense against this defense?

01:08:31
Speaker 2: Well, what would concern me is if we got one-dimensional against these guys. So if you look at their overall sack numbers, they’re not crazy. They have 20 sacks this year. That’s middle of the pack in the NFL. But they have a lot of players who can get after the passer. They have four different players this year that have 20 or more pressures. And they just got James Pierce back, who had double-digit sacks last year. So they have players who can get after the passer. And particularly with Mahomes dealing with the elbow injury, I don’t want him on his back a lot in this game. So let’s run the football situation. ahead of the sticks and don’t become one dimensional with the passing game. And the good news is the Falcons defense has struggled against the run this year. So they’ve allowed 95 or more rushing yards in five straight weeks and 120 or more rushing yards in four of their last five. We talked a little bit earlier about the crazy game where the Buccaneers rushed for 300 plus yards. on these guys. You know, we’ve rushed for over 150 yards in five of our eight games this year. This is an opportunity to go out there like we did against New York. Let’s run the football effectively. Let’s stay ahead of the sticks and don’t be in like third and 10, third and 12 against the Falcons pass rush that I think is pretty underrated.

01:09:37
Speaker 1: What concerns you is Atlanta’s ability to rush the quarterback. This is a smaller, faster defense. It’s one of the smaller defenses in the NFL, but they are fast. Remember, they were second in the league last year with 57 sacks. Only Denver had more than the Atlanta Falcons. And getting Pierce Jr. back off the commissioner’s suspended list, he’s had one game back. But he can wreck things up. Tampa Bay beat these guys and did not complete a pass. That has not happened since, I don’t know, the Decatur Staley’s against the Acme Packers. Like, they did not complete a pass and won 16 to nothing. but they ran the ball for 327 yards. That’s just like a college mismatch, one of those SEC November games where Georgia plays Wofford, right? So if K-9 doesn’t go nuts in this game, or in Emmitt Johnson, and that’s what you utilize, but you’ve got to stay ahead of the chains, don’t get behind the sticks, it’s all the cliches, because Atlanta’s defense can be fast. The Bates, Jesse Bates’ trade, though, is interesting, because what do you tell your team? What do you tell your defensive team when you’re going to pull him out of your lineup?

01:10:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, a veteran guy making a lot of plays back there. All right, now let’s focus on the Falcons’ offense versus the Chiefs’ defense. The Chiefs’ defense has been very good, right? They’ve only given up 12 touchdowns. Penix is not a particularly mobile quarterback, so I think there are going to be opportunities to get to him. One thing I think Atlanta does have is good skill position players. Like Robinson, the running back, is very good. They’ve got some good receivers. They have the good tight end. It’s been a very mixed bag for Michael Penix. When he’s been good, he’s been very good. And again, they do have guys who create plays that they can get them into some space. So we’ll start with you here, Matt. What is it that you’re most concerned about with Penix in this Falcons offense as the Chiefs defense and defense coordinator Steve Spagnuolo gets everybody ready for Sunday?

01:11:33
Speaker 2: Well, with Penix, it’s pretty clear that when he has time to throw, he can be the guy that was a top 10 draft pick. And that was a stud at the University of Washington. When he doesn’t have time to throw, he has really, really struggled this year. Like he’s been arguably the worst quarterback in the NFL when under pressure this season. So for me coming into this game, we need to replicate what we did against the jets offensive line and against Chino Smith, where we generated a 50% pressure rate and sacked him five times. You need to find a way to do that again here in this game, because, uh, Pennix is not the same player when he’s under pressure. Now he’s not super mobile. He ran around a lot last week. I have to keep that in mind, but generally speaking, he wants to stand there and deliver the football and, Don’t let him get comfortable in the pocket. And on top of that, we’ve got to find a way to at least contain Bijan. Bijan’s going to get some big plays. He’s going to get some numbers. He’s among the best players in all of football. We all know that. You can’t let him take over this game like he has at times this year, like against the Packers earlier this season. You can’t let him rush for 175 yards. And, you know, one thing that Mitch and I have talked about is Bijan and what he does for this Falcons offense. It’s essentially like a copy and paste with what Ken Walker has done for us this year.

01:12:46
Speaker 4: Yep.

01:12:47
Speaker 2: As crucial as Ken has been to all of our success. That’s what Bijan is to these guys. Don’t let him go crazy. Force Pennix to drop back and throw and create pressure on Pennix. The Chiefs can do all those things. I like their chances.

01:13:00
Speaker 1: I just want to talk about Olamide Zaccheaus because it’s just cool to say his name. It seems like every week we’re playing some guy with a biblical name. Did you take anatomy and physiology at Wisconsin Stout?

01:13:14
Speaker 5: I didn’t go there, but I’m a little bit familiar, but I’m not sure where this is training, so I’m a little scared.

01:13:20
Speaker 4: More like Madison, but you know, I was in the state.

01:13:24
Speaker 1: You remember, though, they have the big, they’d have the poster up in there in your study of the human body. That’s actually Bajon Robinson, because you’re seeing every bit of fiber of muscle. And if it’s not him, it’s canine, right? These two guys walk in the room and you’re like, oh my gosh. That’s what the human body is supposed to look like. But John Robinson is incredible and dangerous as a receiver. I keep bringing it up. He had almost 900 yards last year receiving. And he’s got a chance to set an NFL record. He’s not even 25 years old yet. What hurts them, though, is losing Brian Robinson Jr. to the injured reserve list. Because when those two guys were going together, now you had the K-9 Emmett Johnson tradeoff. But they don’t have that right now. And so it’s kind of about Bajon Robinson Jr. But when you look at other guys, Drake London can be an issue. He had 194 yards receiving against your old team, the Packers, in Lambeau in that blowout where it got everybody’s attention. Ooh, the Falcons might be the team. And Kyle Pitts Jr. is still a factor, especially when he gets near the goal line.

01:14:33
Speaker 4: Yep, they’ve got some real weapons.

01:14:34
Speaker 5: All right, guys, it’s time for parting thoughts, and let’s begin with me.

01:14:40
Speaker 1: I would say Duval. The Jacksonville Jaguars have taken all the chips. They’ve went to the safe deposit box and checked all their accounts and pushed it all in the end of the table. Here’s why I think they’ve done it. And I texted this to Matt as well. Every team has warts in this league. Every team. There’s not one team you could sit down and go, ooh, man, they look like the Los Angeles Rams of July who are never going to lose a game ever again. Or the Chargers, who are going to win the AFC West hands down. What? But Jacksonville’s going, wait a minute. We have an athletic team. Yeah, we got some warts, but maybe our warts don’t look as bad as others. So we’re all in. We’re going to go get all your best players and trade away the picks. We won’t have a stadium for a couple years, so let’s go right now.

01:15:27
Speaker 2: Ari, I’ll say that I try to stay bipartisan on this show and in my role in terms of my college football fandom. But I did go to Mizzou. I watched the Mizzou Tigers. And Mizzou is playing the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens on Saturday.

01:15:43
Speaker 1: Okay? Okay.

01:15:44
Speaker 2: And this was an opportunity, because we’re going to be in Atlanta, obviously, to go to the game. Now, it has to be a night game for me to be able to go. So I’m watching the game last weekend against Texas, saying if Mizzou wins this game against Texas… It’s going to be a night game in Athens. And I’m going to have a chance to go to this game in Georgia. And my guy Gabe Henderson behind the camera right now, we were going to go together. I couldn’t wait. Well, Mizzou is leading Texas. I’m saying, oh my God, it’s going to happen. I’m going to get to go to this game at Georgia. And then, you know, everything falls apart. Mizzou loses. The game is at 3.30 Eastern time. I can’t go in Athens. Football will break your heart, Ari. That’s where I’m at right now. So hopefully the Chiefs can save the weekend for me.

01:16:24
Speaker 1: But he’s going to go to the Georgia military junior college game just to boost up Jalen Royals old school. So he’s still going to hit a game.

01:16:31
Speaker 2: Let’s go.

01:16:33
Speaker 1: I like it. All right.

01:16:34
Speaker 5: Well, Mitch, you may have some traditions as a, as a play by play announcer. And I certainly have one that I want to share with you guys. So every time I go to a stadium or arena for the first time, I like to kind of go, whether it’s the middle of the field or if it’s a basketball court, the middle court and kind of look around.

01:16:49
Speaker 4: And think, wow, this is really cool.

01:16:51
Speaker 5: Like what a life to get, to be able to call games and, Different incredible venues.

01:16:56
Speaker 4: Around the country. Well, this past Saturday, I had a bucket list moment.

01:17:00
Speaker 5: I called my first game at the Kennel at the home of Gonzaga University. Gonzaga, it was their home opener, their first game playing in the Pac-12. I got there early.

01:17:09
Speaker 4: I watched the way the fans came in.

01:17:12
Speaker 5: Those students, the freshmen, have to go to orientation so they know the dances and the different cheers they do for the games for the other upperclassmen to allow the freshmen to come.

01:17:20
Speaker 4: They literally have to pass a test. So I watch as they all file in. I’m taking videos. I’m having the time of my life.

01:17:26
Speaker 5: The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. But it’s just a reminder to Mitch, to Matt, myself, how lucky we are to get to work in sports and have magical moments. And I’ll never forget the first time I walked into Arrowhead and I was calling a Chiefs preseason game with Trent Green and.

01:17:40
Speaker 4: I thought, How good is this?

01:17:42
Speaker 5: Well, I felt not quite that great, but it felt pretty great to be at Gonzaga this past weekend for the basketball.

01:17:47
Speaker 4: Game and to just be a part of sports because there’s nothing better in American culture than some great American sports. All right, that’s going to do it for Out West. I love Mitch. I love Matt. I love the Chiefs.

01:17:57
Speaker 5: Let’s have a great win this weekend against Atlanta.

01:18:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ari’s all over it. I do want to mention, though, some other military installations since it’s salute to service time around the NFL and in the Chiefs kingdom and Atlanta salute to service game this week. I want to mention McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, home of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing and the 184th Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard, the 190th Air Refueling Wing in Topeka, Kansas, the Kansas Coyotes, been involved with them. In fact, I had a high school team that we had recruited from that area. We were called the Kansas Coyotes to honor them. Also, the 155th Air Refueling Wing of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the units of the Air National Guard in Sioux City, Iowa, and Des Moines, Iowa, among others. So we appreciate the women and men who serve our country in any branch of the armed services. All right. Ari got into the AFC, AFC West. But the AFC is interesting. It looks like Jacksonville has pushed all the chips to the middle of the table.

01:18:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, they’re that team this year that’s going all for it. The trade for Jordan Davis was interesting. That’s a big haul for Jordan Davis. But I respect that they’re going all in. One of those things that they’ll worry about the draft compensation later. Once again, we’re shooting this on Tuesday, Tuesday, actually at 1230 central time. We have no idea if the chiefs are going to make a move. If they have made a move, we don’t know. We’re going to find out with bated breath.

01:19:21
Speaker 1: We are.

01:19:22
Speaker 2: We truly are at around three o’clock central. I will be refreshing my Twitter page to see if we have done anything, but we don’t know as of now. So if you’re listening to this on Thursday, any of your thoughts on the chiefs moves or lack thereof at the trade deadline, we have no idea what’s going to happen. But again, Interesting to see Jacksonville kind of go all in right now. They’re having a heck of a year. They’re trying to take advantage of it. It’s fascinating how the trade deadline has changed over time because years ago, nothing happened at the trade deadline. And now, I mean, every year it seems like there is a big move or two. Curious to see what the Vikings are going to do, if anything, because watching the Monday night game, it seems like a quarterback change is needed. And I’m just curious if they’re going to pull the trigger on a quarterback. It’s hard to trade for a quarterback midseason, but That’s one team that I’m watching outside of the Chiefs, obviously.

01:20:08
Speaker 1: I just don’t want the NFL to be like the NBA and you get all these weird trades and then it’s like, oh, no, no, we didn’t mean to do it. Or a sign and trade or just goofy stuff. The NFL’s kind of avoided that for the most part. But yeah, we’re leaning toward more trades. What do you have in the mail, Bob? room this week.

01:20:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, the mailbag. So there was a bunch of questions. I had about 10 seconds to write these down. I might have to go back and we’ll backfill on some of the questions I didn’t get to next week, but I do have two for you. So Melanie Russell 8898 wants to know what our work weeks are like. Walk us through your work week, Mitch.

01:20:43
Speaker 5: Wow.

01:20:44
Speaker 1: These are 60 hour weeks. And I actually have three jobs. because not only with 65TPT and working for the team, but also work for the Chiefs Radio Network and Holtus Enterprises, LLC. So shows like this, I do 25 a week. Wow. Yeah. And so it keeps everything going. Every night is occupied. Every morning, afternoon, and night is occupied, except Friday night. I’ll usually watch a high school football game, usually Smith Center on YouTube. We play Sterling this week in the Elite Eight in 1A in the state of Kansas. But Nighttime, and you and I work a lot, we’ll text each other, but those are typically Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night are research nights. Now, I do have events sometimes, usually on a Wednesday or Thursday night, but Monday night’s Cheese Kingdom show, and then prepping for this, but then also Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are dig right in. Might fix Tammy some dinner, or she might fix me, but they’re research nights, so just kind of beware of dog.

01:21:47
Speaker 2: You mentioned all the shows that you’re on. I remember one time in particular that you picked me up and I hopped in the car and I hear the radio. I think you’re just listening to the radio. So I start talking and then Mitch starts talking to the person on the radio and he is on with like Wichita or something. And I’m like, we’re on the air right now. And he’s like, hey, say hi to Matt. I’m like, what? So anyway, yeah, I know that life that you live.

01:22:08
Speaker 1: Your work week.

01:22:09
Speaker 2: Oh, so my work week, luckily I’m here at Arrowhead for the most part. Here’s how I would describe it. I think the off season is actually busier for me than the season is because the season I’m very routine oriented. So I do a whole bunch of stuff, right? I try to really epitomize multimedia. So I write articles for our website. I do this with you. I do all the on-camera stuff with you prep for our live shows. And then also I make social videos. So I make the inside scoop. I make six stats to know for those of you that watch those. So every day I kind of know what I’m doing. So Tuesday, I do the same stuff every Tuesday during the season. Every Wednesday is the exact same during the season. What gets tricky is in the off season, we have so many tentpole events. So the draft, for example, or getting ready for OTA coverage, all that stuff, training camp, where you really can’t get into much of a rhythm because as soon as you find kind of a consistent routine, that event is now over. So the season, while it’s very busy, to me, it actually feels less busy because I get into a flow and a routine. And by the time we get to like week nine or 10, it’s like second nature, right? Where when we get to like March and April, it’s almost more stressful because things are constantly changing, events are happening and all that. So uh my week is extremely uh routine based and i prefer the season for many reasons because i like football but i prefer the season in terms of my workflow because i know what i’m doing every day and i like that.

01:23:35
Speaker 1: We’re blessed too to have great spouses yeah we have to understand uh because time is always always accounted for but both of our spouses are involved in very active jobs and so the whole Support thing is a two-way conduct.

01:23:48
Speaker 2: I’ll tell you what. I am very lucky I met my wife while working in sports So we both met while we were interns for the Minnesota Twins baseball team, which I am a Royals fan I was wearing my Royals gear every time the Royals and twins played but I was a intern with the twins. She was an intern with the twins That’s how we met and she met me while I was in the sports world and kind of knew what she was signing up for Which was a good thing because many spouses cannot do this. I’ll tell you that much and.

01:24:13
Speaker 1: My wife was a Division one athlete and she was a coach and Uh, so she also gets it. She’s just got a real active job right now, but love them.

01:24:20
Speaker 3: All right.

01:24:21
Speaker 1: There you go with the work week. Yep. No dull moments.

01:24:24
Speaker 2: And yeah, the real answer to that question would be like a two hour long discussion.

01:24:27
Speaker 1: Which is why I can’t binge watch land man during the season. Okay. Unless I’m on the plane to just save that. I’m like, well, I’ll get you a fair amount of fly. I got it. It’s gotta be an off season deal.

01:24:37
Speaker 2: Another reason that my wife is amazing and how they take care of us, uh, because I’m trying to get my voice back. Uh, Ellie, knowing that we were doing all our shows today has had just like you know, all these different kinds of tea, saltwater rinses, all this stuff ready to go for me. Meanwhile, I would have no idea what to do. So anyway.

01:24:53
Speaker 1: You want to see, I’ve got the secret, uh, lecture for you.

01:24:57
Speaker 2: Please tell me.

01:24:58
Speaker 1: Well, can’t do it on podcast. Okay.

01:25:00
Speaker 2: Well, I told you everything you need to know.

01:25:02
Speaker 1: We want to be, you know, the FDA, we don’t want them. Okay. Yeah.

01:25:05
Speaker 2: I don’t want you to get in trouble.

01:25:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:25:06
Speaker 2: I’d be lost without you.

01:25:08
Speaker 1: Okay.

01:25:08
Speaker 2: Uh, one more question for you. Um, so this is interesting. These questions come in generally before the games, right? And I’m sure Jim, who asked this question, was happy with the outcome on Sunday because he wants to know if the defense can’t consistently find ways to get sacks, what can be done to help the front four? Well, the good news, Jim, is we got five sacks on Sunday against the Jets. I believe in our defensive front. I believe in our talent. I know that this group can get it done. And the pressure rates tell me that I know. People don’t want to hear about, hey, pressures, pressures, pressures without the sacks. But at least with the pressure rates, it tells you that the defense is collapsing the pocket and getting close. If you don’t have a pressure rate, I’d be a lot more concerned. So we had good pressure rates really this entire season. Didn’t have the sacks to show it. It was great to see the sacks come on Sunday. They tend to come in bunches. I’m hopeful they’ll continue to come. But if there are issues with the pass rush as the year goes on, Steve Spagnuolo is one of the best designers of blitzes there is. Think about the slot position in nickel, how he made Legereus Sneed and Trent McDuffie two of the best nickel corners in terms of blitzers in really recent NFL history. He’s going to find ways to get after the quarterback, particularly as the year goes on. So it was great to see our front four get a lot of pressure and get the sacks on Sunday. But there’s going to be situations later this year where they don’t get pressure. Spags will dial something up. I have no doubt about that. What do you think?

01:26:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we’ve seen Christian Wallace be really good. Sure. Look at the Miami game on blob blitzing. And maybe Jaden Kennedy, who’s getting more and more time. I think this episode helped answer your question. Who was it, Jim?

01:26:43
Speaker 3: Jim.

01:26:44
Speaker 1: Bobber. I got Jim. Jeff, Jimmy, Johnny. This episode helps answer your question because George Karloftis, whenever he deflects a pass or disrupts a pass, freeze it. If you get the all 22, just freeze it at that moment and watch what would have happened. It’s why I stress this all the time. Because when I watch tape and I see a pass batted down, it’s exactly what I do. And I go, oh, that was going to be a 25-yard completion. Yeah. We get into sacks. We love sacks. One, look at what the sacks do, which is why… The Jets game is exhibit A of that. And then two, what George does with regularity in that if he’s not knocking down the pass, he’s affecting the aerodynamics or physics of the pass. That’s how you get off the field. That’s how you can affect the game defensively, even if you don’t lead the league in sacks.

01:27:32
Speaker 2: And to your point, just about, I don’t know, 95% of the time when those passes are knocked down, there is a wide open player in the flat. And they’re going to run for at least 10 yards because there’s nobody around them.

01:27:44
Speaker 1: Freeze the video. Just look at it. Yeah. Take Matt and I’s word for it.

01:27:47
Speaker 2: It’s not a loss of yardage, but it’s a loss of yardage they would have gained.

01:27:52
Speaker 1: Yep. You don’t see it on the stat sheet.

01:27:53
Speaker 2: It goes from maybe third and two to third and 10. It’s a big deal.

01:27:58
Speaker 1: You got it.

01:27:58
Speaker 2: All right.

01:27:59
Speaker 1: We’ll close out this Defending the Kingdom episode with our Around the World. We’ll get into our Chiefs Kingdom episode. spaceship and spin around the earth. And I’ve got a good one this week. What do you got?

01:28:09
Speaker 2: I got three for you.

01:28:10
Speaker 5: Oh, nice.

01:28:10
Speaker 2: So I met Michael and Melody on Sunday at the game. It’s always fun when we finish field pass and there’s people in the stands that say, hey, hey, I’m a kingdom defender. I want to say hi. So met Michael and Melody that way. They’re from Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was Melody’s first Chiefs game. I’m glad you saw a win, Melody. It was like the perfect day too, like a fall day where it’s like 60 degrees.

01:28:29
Speaker 1: We had our bracelets, right? That’s how I got it.

01:28:31
Speaker 2: Well, so was that from Michael and Melody? I think so.

01:28:33
Speaker 1: I don’t know. Or is that from the.

01:28:35
Speaker 2: Lehman family, who I’m going to mention here in a minute?

01:28:37
Speaker 1: There we go. Maybe the Lehman family.

01:28:39
Speaker 2: And I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. The Lehman family is incredible. So they have three girls, right?

01:28:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, they’re awesome.

01:28:45
Speaker 2: Is that who you’re thinking about?

01:28:46
Speaker 1: Yep, yep. Here’s the bracelet they made us.

01:28:47
Speaker 2: So Annabelle, Brynn, and Caitlin. We see them a couple times every year. They’ll always come down in the front row and say hi after field pass. They are amazing. Incredible parents, incredible family. And they make us friendship bracelets that I think are lucky and give us power throughout the entire season.

01:29:02
Speaker 1: So this one, did you know this? Look, George, I’m sorry. Chris will get two sacks in this game and be second on the Chiefs all time. That’s fascinating. I love it.

01:29:14
Speaker 2: That’s great. I was hoping that you saw him, too, because I saw him after field pass. OK, that’s great. It’s great to meet you all. Love seeing you every single year. Your family is the best. I also met John and Will from Kentucky and Florida after the game. Shout out to you guys. This is fun. So my mom came with Ellie and our good friend Sierra to the game on Sunday. And Sierra lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So when the game was in hand in the fourth quarter.

01:29:40
Speaker 1: But she’s from Dallas.

01:29:41
Speaker 2: She’s from Dallas, South Dakota.

01:29:43
Speaker 1: Dallas, South Dakota.

01:29:44
Speaker 2: Dallas, South Dakota. And Mitch gravitates toward people that are from small towns. So him and Sierra, they’re like this. But it was my mom, Sierra, and Ellie at the game. And when the game was well in hand in the fourth quarter because Sierra had to drive back to Sioux Falls, they left with like eight minutes left in the game. My mom stayed, though. My mom is the reason I am the way that I am in terms of sports. My mom is never going to leave early, even if it’s 50 to nothing, never going to leave. And my mom loves it. So anyway, she stays. I text her, I’ll just drive you home. So after the game, I walk out of the press box area, the tower gate on the concourse outside the stadium. And my mom was just sitting there in her Emmett Johnson tune out the noise hoodie, just sitting there watching Chiefs Rewind. And I walk up to her and we sit down. She’s like, I want to finish Chiefs Rewind. So we watch it together because our part had concluded. And then that’s when these two guys, Will and John, walked up and said hi. So shout out to you both. Glad you got to meet my mom as well.

01:30:41
Speaker 1: All right. I had one. You know, it’s become a little bit of a phenomenon with these people either going into the stadium or We’ve had international people like, hey, or coming out of the stadium. So now I’m coming out of the stadium well after the game’s over, right? All the postgame stuff is done. Greg Obrey from Lewiston, Idaho. Have you been to Lewiston, Idaho?

01:31:02
Speaker 2: I don’t think I’ve been to Lewiston. I’ve been to Idaho, though. Beautiful place.

01:31:05
Speaker 1: Gorgeous. And Lewiston is beautiful. Okay. So I told Greg, they’re kingdom defenders in Lewiston, Idaho. I speak across the country sometimes in the offseason. I’m hired to go to Lewiston, Idaho to speak to the NAIA National Baseball Championships.

01:31:21
Speaker 4: Wow.

01:31:22
Speaker 1: I fly into Spokane. I drive down the Palouse, which was incredible.

01:31:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I’ve been on that drive.

01:31:26
Speaker 1: So many times I’ve stopped. And then I can see Lewiston, Idaho, which is 25 minutes below me because it’s down on the river. But I’m going the circle route, like going down the mountain, down the mountain, down the mountain to get to Lewiston, Idaho. Beautiful. It’s great. So anyway, Greg Obrey, but his son Bridger- who goes to Sacagawea Middle School, right? And I love that, like honoring the great scout of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

01:31:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:31:53
Speaker 1: And he was, Greg, was the trainer for Jared Allen at Idaho State. What? Yeah, for the fighting Bengals.

01:31:59
Speaker 2: When he was a long snapper?

01:32:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, at Idaho State, right? So, and then it was also with him, another kingdom defender. was, I want to get this right, was Blake Nelson from Boise. So he’s from Boise. Okay. So downstate from Lewiston, which is up But anyway, they have claimed the entire state of Idaho from the smokestack, Coeur d’Alene, all the way down to Pocatello, which is the home of the Idaho State Bengals. Okay. So which is near where Napoleon Dynamite was from. Okay. Right. And Uncle Rico. So all of the Chiefs Kingdom is now claimed. Idaho is all of the Chiefs Kingdom. So thanks to the O’Briens.

01:32:39
Speaker 2: Idaho is an underrated place to visit.

01:32:41
Speaker 1: Oh, my. Sun Valley?

01:32:42
Speaker 2: When Ellie and I went to the Tetons a couple years ago, the Tetons are on the border of Wyoming and Idaho, and everyone stays in Jackson Hole. Well, you can save about a million dollars and stay just on the other side of Teton Pass in Victor, Idaho. You would love it. It’s like a one-stop light town, and they have this place called the Victor Emporium, which is like a little soda fountain, and you get milkshakes there. We would just walk there from our Airbnb every day after spending time in Jackson Hole and the Tetons. I love Idaho. So shout out to Idaho, Chiefs Kingdom. Let’s go.

01:33:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I’ve been asked to speak to it, Sun Valley. Oh yeah, I won’t turn that one down. That is an incredible place. And Boise is a pretty cool place as well. Anyway, shout out to the O’Brays claiming Idaho for the Chiefs Kingdom. We claim this week for a Chiefs victory. Headed to Atlanta, thanks to George Karloftis. And this episode of Defending the Kingdom.