Apex Josh Allen, the Goofy NFC North, Week 2 Picks, and Bill’s Breakup Letter to the Clippers | With Tom Pelissero and Joe House

The Bill Simmons Podcast

Bill Simmons discusses the Bills' dominant Week 2 win over the Lions with Tom Pelissero, praising Josh Allen's historic performance and offe

Key takeaways

Josh Allen is having a historically dominant season, leading all players in fantasy points through two weeks and showcasing unmatched dual-threat ability.
The Bills' offensive strategy under Joe Brady emphasizes high-scoring, pass-heavy play, capitalizing on Allen's unique talents even when defenses are compromised.

Main topics

Josh Allen's historic Week 2 performance
Bills vs. Lions game analysis

Notable quotes

"He's the only offensive player who you could say as a one man show."

Conclusion

Josh Allen's dominance, the Bills' offensive firepower, and Bill Simmons'

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) The Bill Simmons Podcast is presented by FanDuel. The NFL is here and it's the most rewarding season ever on FanDuel with the all-time FanDuel Rewards Club. Every eligible bet can earn you points. Win or lose, you still get points. The more points, the bigger the rewards you can unlock. Head to FanDuel.com slash BS to Speaker 2 (0:27) start earning with FanDuel Rewards Club. Speaker 3 (0:30) 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Speaker 3 (1:07) Bill Simmons podcast. We are live on Netflix Thursday night on the tail end of Lions Bills. Tom Palacero is here. He joined the Ringer very recently. He's back in the United States. He launched a new newsletter called The Sweep, and you can find him on Ringer NFL show as well. So Thursday night, impossible schedule spot for the Lions. They're coming off an overtime game against New Orleans. 70 minutes, basically. Then they have to go here. They have to open the Buffalo stadium. They have secondary injuries and everybody who follows shit like this is like, this game's going over. This game's going over the overs climbing. The over goes low fifties. We're in the mid fifties. By the time the game starts, we end up 41 31. I wish it was always this easy with gambling, Tom, I guess would be my starter here. I wish we could just look at these games and go, this is definitely what's going to happen. But what was your big takeaway watching this one tonight? Speaker 1 (2:05) Man, I think I texted you before the game, Bills score 40 plus. It's one of those games. You Speaker 3 (2:09) nailed it. Speaker 1 (2:10) It's one of those games that you just looked at it. They're totally decimated in the secondary. Branch and Joseph are on pop. DJ Reed's banged up. Obviously, Terry on Arnold's long gone. I thought it was going to be DJ Moore. running circles around those guys. He gets hurt and they still put up 41 points just throwing the ball to Dalton Kincaid and running with James Cook. They look like an absolute force right out of the gate here. Speaker 3 (2:35) I'm going to start with Josh Allen. You might have heard of him. Speaker 3 (2:39) Realize this. I mean, he's, so he had another, I talked about this. I did a mailbag this week. Somebody sent in a question about people who have had two running touchdowns and two throwing touchdowns in the same game. And this tonight was his 10th. And the next guy in the list had like four. So he's like, can we just, yeah. Can we name this after Josh Allen and just call it? Oh, he got a Josh Allen and he's done it in both games. He is the most fantasy points scored in the first two weeks of a season since 2000. He's over 80. He's halfway to Emmitt Smith's career rushing touchdowns record. He's, I think, at 83. Emmitt at 164. He's only 30 years old. And looks like he's on a mission. And the thing that might take away watching him Sunday and then today, and I've always felt like, I felt like he was the best quarterback in the league. I feel like he's clearly the best player in the league now. And do you think that's like, if there's an argument against that, who is the argument that it's somebody else? Because it just feels like he's peaking even for him. And I don't know who's in his class anymore. I mean, there's some unique athletes, but nobody plays the game like Speaker 1 (3:48) Josh Allen. And nobody does it consistently as productive as Josh Allen. Like, I mean, Lamar's won two MVPs. And in those seasons, he's done like totally ridiculous stuff, both running and passing the football. I'm just always struck watching Josh play because there's no other quarterback who you're just that afraid is going to run you over and also then can pull the ball and throw what he, it was early in the game and he's scrambling. I think it was on a third down tonight and he gives like the really hard pump fake while running to his right. And you see the linebackers DBs just stop. And then they're like, oh crap. Now we got to try to chase the guy. We have no prayer. He just, he can hurt you in so many different ways. There's a lot of good quarterbacks right now, but like if you see Joe Burrow barreling down on you inside the five yard line, like you like your chances. Yeah. Again, Joe Burrow with Josh Allen. It's like, do I even bother trying to get in his way or should I just become shrapnel here? Speaker 3 (4:43) Yeah. Cause he's the only offensive player who you could say as a one man show. So then if you're comparing the defensive players, Garrett would have been the one people would have. compared him to until this year. Like, oh, Garrett's like that on defense. Like, you need two guys to block him and all that. But Garrett's hurt right now. He's got a, you know, he might have a bum knee for all we know. So when I look at him compared to all the other guys we just watch week to week, it just feels like everything is lined up for him. And I was thinking last week, you know, Houston drops the game-winning interception in that game, right? Near the end. Second down, he just throws a pick. Lassiter drops it. Next play, touchdown. But maybe it's just, that's the kind of stuff that happens when it's your year. You know, these things start lining up. Then you catch Detroit in week two, coming off an overtime game with the Ravens. And you just like these things start adding up and it just, that's how it becomes your year. The schedule is Speaker 1 (5:40) still tough upcoming to the Bills if you look at it. But I was sitting there watching that game and they've scored 77 points through two games. They put 36 on the Texans, who if you polled people about who's the number one defense, would have gotten a lot of votes, and they were the number one defense last year. First play of the game tonight, and the Lions again, like, I mean, Kelvin Shepard's in a really tough spot because he's trying to scheme up. I got no DBs. I've got one pass rusher. Like, how in the world am I doing this? First play of the game, what do they do? They have the corner blitz. Josh boots right into it. 90 % of quarterbacks like that gets batted down. Josh just sits there and like changes his arm angle and throws it underneath him for a quick completion. It's just all the different ways that he can beat you with, with Joe Brady taking over. And you heard Al and Kirk talking about it on the broadcast extensively tonight. Is it, you know, it's like when Tony Dungy was, you know, building in Tampa and then John Gruden came in and won. Is it just that there was, I think it's more, I think it's simpler than that. I think it's Joe Brady. being an offensive guy. Sean McDermott's a really, really good football coach, and he'll be coaching somewhere in 2027. But maybe Joe, just from his standpoint, it feels like their answer to, gosh, will our defense hold up, is fuck it. Don't let the defense on the field. We're going to keep throwing it late in the game. We're going to keep scoring points on you. We're going to do whatever it takes just to win this game ourselves, which when you have maybe the best player on the planet, it's probably the way you should play. Speaker 3 (7:09) Yeah, they gave up 31 points in 26 first downs last week. This week, they gave up 31 points, 24 first downs. Maybe that's just... what they're going to be. It's not like Houston is a lights out offense. So they'll just try to outscore everybody. I don't know. I think if you're talking about AFC favorites, I need to see a lot more of Kansas City. And I didn't think my homes played that well last week. And I just have questions. But they certainly are a little, a little more interesting than maybe I thought they would be a week ago. Baltimore already has had two pretty major wide receiver injuries. One is going to last longer than the other one, but it was basically the, two guys they were counting on to be explosive. I'm not sold on the Bengals yet. The Patriots 0-1 with a suddenly weirdly big game against Pittsburgh this weekend. So you'd probably feel the best about Buffalo if you, you know, it's two weeks, but if you were betting on anyone, you'd bet on them. Speaker 1 (8:06) Well, I mean, it's hard based on what we just saw the past two weeks. I mean, these are two teams that you talk about as, you know, their least playoff contenders, if not Super Bowl contenders. And you put it on them at least offensively. I Speaker 3 (8:16) mean, Speaker 1 (8:16) I give Detroit credit for not just completely folding when they're down three touchdowns right away and the crowd's going nuts. They're a good team and they got Dan Campbell's personality and they're going to fight back and be physical. It was just that three and out they had after they cut it and they got the ball back that took like 12 seconds. It was like, okay, that was your one window to try to get after these guys. To the point about the AFC, I thought going into the season, the AFC was just wide open. More so than it has been in past years. Just because you didn't have that one team that you're like, they're totally complete. Like the Chiefs were, you know, for a good stretch there where they went to three straight Super Bowls. I don't know if what Kansas City did last week is replicable over a 17-game season plus playoffs. Kenneth Walker in his career has never been that high volume of a guy. And they didn't pass the ball well. They didn't get the ball to Rasheed Rice. I think Travis Kelsey didn't have a target until the second quarter. We'll see what they end up being. The Bengals got off to a good start, but they weren't perfect in that game. Jamar Chase didn't play well last week. Now they're going down to Houston. Joe Burrow's got a little bit of a back issue, but I fully anticipate him playing. I still feel like it's open, but the Bills made a statement two times in five days, and they looked virtually unstoppable offensively. Speaker 3 (9:29) Plus 380 on Fandle. They're the favorite. Baltimore's plus 430. Chiefs plus 650 third. Speaker 3 (9:37) Texans and Bengals nine to one. The Texans to me seem to be the, that's the overreaction in the wrong direction. Because I feel like they have to be, people got a little freaked out by Sunday and them giving up all the points they gave up. But it's week one. The people you talk to in the league, what are they saying about this whole, how we don't have a preseason anymore and we're not allowed to hit anymore. And it's just seems like a crap shoot for who's going to have their shit together or not in week one. Tomlin talked about it on the Sunday night halftime. And that was the first time I really started thinking like, yeah, it's impossible to figure out who's going to be ready and who's not. Like you look, the chiefs looked like they'd been practicing for three months, Denver and the, and the chargers looked like they had just put on pads for the first time. So what do people in the league say about this? Because it seems like a bigger deal than maybe we realize. Speaker 1 (10:30) Well, Tom was a great example of it. You can go back through his history and his record October through December was way better than it was in September. Belichick, same thing. Mike McCarthy, same thing. It's just been exacerbated by the lack of those preseason reps. And so, yeah, when you talk to coaches and front office people, what everybody says is the first month of the season, you're just trying to figure out who you are. You're trying to figure out what's the identity. of the team. I mean, the Texans did it last year. Like, they went 0-3, and then Tobiko handed over play-calling duties to Matt Burke on defense. The offense kind of found their way, and all of Speaker 2 (11:04) a Speaker 1 (11:04) sudden, you know, they made a run to the playoffs. You don't want to live there. Houston losing two games to the Bills and the Bengals both at home to start the season is not Speaker 2 (11:13) the start you want Speaker 1 (11:15) to get off to when the question is, can you compete with the big dogs? But that's, you know, the good coaches are going to get better. They're going to experiment with different things, try to figure it out. And then, you know, once you get into October, that's when you start to really understand who you are as a football team and you hope you can build on it. Speaker 3 (11:31) Yeah. Buffalo knows who they are as a football team because they have Josh Allen. So that's going to, that's what's going to happen. The Rams are still favored in the NFC, which I thought was crazy. McDermott versus Joe Brady. So you, I mean, people thought McDermott was an above average to good coach. I don't think people would ever put him in like the top five, but I think most people thought he was good coach. You said he gets hired next year. I watch what's happening with Buffalo now and I'm like, would this be happening if he was still the coach? Again, I think it's hard. Or is it time for a change? Speaker 1 (12:11) I think that there's something to be said for change for the sake of change. The only two positions in the organization you can make a sea change are quarterback and head coach. Well, they're not firing Josh Allen. So you fire Sean McDermott and give everybody that vibe. The story of Terry Padula... So you think it was Speaker 3 (12:27) time for him though? Speaker 1 (12:28) The story Terry Pagula told after the playoff game in Denver, which ended, you know, the weird catch non-catch thing. And he said that he saw Josh like with his head in his hands, totally dejected and decided it's time. In Terry's mind, that was just, we've gone as far as we can with Sean. We got to do something different. And they ran a real search. I know everybody thinks the fix was in for Joe Brady. Like they really did. you know, want to look around. But Joe's grown a lot. Like, I met Joe when he was in Carolina. And, like, he's matured Speaker 2 (12:58) a Speaker 1 (12:58) lot. He's got a lot of swag to him now that he really didn't have in those days. Sean, you have to just remember what he built it from. They hadn't made the playoffs since, I think, 1999 when he takes over in 2017 and immediately gets into the playoffs. Then 2018, they ate all the dead cap and were not good. But then 2019 on, they get the right quarterback in Josh. And they're rolling. Like, he played a big role in that. Cycled through different offensive coordinators. Had replaced guys when they left. Did a good job of that. I mean, we're in the playoffs. We're in it every year. They didn't deliver at the end, but there's plenty of coaches who have had a lot of success in terms of winning games. I mean, Andy Reid, who Sean trained under, that's a great example of it. Andy was the guy who always got close and never could do it in Philly. And now he's got an entire trunk full of rings in Kansas City. Speaker 3 (13:48) Yeah, your best case scenario is it's the Mark Jackson, Steve Kerr scenario with the Warriors and the NBA where somebody took you as far as they could go. And then here comes the next guy to push you over the top. The biggest thing I've noticed with them, other than it just feels like sometimes you just feel it when somebody is going to have the best year of their career. And it just feels like this is lining up for Josh. But this Deani Walker. You know, I was looking when I do my prep and I rank the rosters and the players and I have this whole dumb system. And one of the things that was holding me back with the Bills was, I don't know if they have any blue chippers on defense. I don't know if they have a difference maker, but Walker has really stood out in these games. And maybe that's who that's going to be. I don't know. Speaker 1 (14:32) What's he listed at? Like 6'7", 360 or something? Speaker 3 (14:37) He's like a small forward. Like Speaker 1 (14:40) a thick small forward. When I was doing sideline for the senior bowl, he was in it a couple of years ago. And it was like a site gag where the producers were in my ear going, hey, stand behind Deontay Walker. We just want to get this shot. And all you could see in the background was like the shot on me. And then like back here, you saw like the middle of the numbers Speaker 2 (15:00) on his jersey were behind my head. Like he is just an Speaker 1 (15:02) utterly enormous dude. But they play with that without Ed Oliver. He hurt his hip in pregame warm-ups tonight. Speaker 2 (15:09) So Speaker 1 (15:10) Walker probably played more also in part because of that. So that's one of their best players, which probably helps explain some of the issues they had when Gibbs was running between the tackles. But yeah, I mean, they do have dudes on defense. They just, you know, they're still an offensive football team. It's where a lot of their resources went in the offseason, other than bringing in Bradley Chubb, who was a difference maker again tonight. we'll see if they achieve a little bit more balance because you don't want to live in a world where you're, you know, knowing you're going to give up 30 plus every week, but they've done it twice so far. Speaker 3 (15:41) And Kincaid so far has been a good one too. So a couple of Detroit storylines. Gibbs, 34 touches last week. He had 20, I think 21, unless he had a couple more since I looked at this tonight. Let me look at this really quick to make sure I got it right. 16, 22. So in the span of five days, he had 56 touches. Yeah. So he's on pace for, I don't know, 450, whatever, whatever. Like, I just don't see him holding up. And I thought, especially when they went down 21-0 today, I kind of would have been like, I think we're good with Gibbs. Maybe let's, let's, uh. Let's check out the backups. Can you name Speaker 1 (16:23) the Speaker 3 (16:24) backup Speaker 1 (16:25) running back on the Lions? It's Speaker 3 (16:27) Pacheco, who's at the hospital. Right. Speaker 1 (16:29) Sione Vaki is the number two running back who has three carries total over two games. I don't know this for sure, but I would give you an educated guess, Bill, that by the time the Lions are back on the practice field Monday, they'll have another veteran back on the roster. They had Kareem Hunt in for a visit recently. Who's available? John Dorsey, who drafted him in Kansas City, is now in Detroit. That would be a logical guy that would fit in. There's some other veteran running backs out there. I would be willing to bet you they know as well as anybody that's not sustainable. I mean, 17-game season, average 30 touches a game. That's hard to do, which is also why, like Speaker 2 (17:11) I Speaker 1 (17:11) said, Kenneth Walker, I don't know that you want to do that, especially early in the season at quite that clip. I'm positive you don't. I looked up Speaker 3 (17:19) his first four years. I don't think he'd ever had more than like 255 touches, something like that. The other storyline, I have some Lions fans in my life, weirdly. The Ben Johnson keeping Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson leaving, which by the way, what are they going to do? Fire Dan Campbell after they went like 14 and Speaker 2 (17:40) three to give like this, nobody would ever Speaker 3 (17:42) do that in a million years. So it's a, it's fundamentally a stupid argument, but I do think there's a real shadow with Ben Johnson where you have, you had this guy who was like, clearly like a really special, special, special coach, you know, and offensively. It's just completely different. And, you know, I think the Lions fans that I know are like, we're going to end up like we'll fire Campbell in a year from now. And Ben Johnson's basically going to be the new McVay. And we just got stuck with the wrong guy. I don't know if that's fair, but have you, have you heard that in the circles at all? Like, ah, they, they backed the wrong dude here. Speaker 1 (18:19) Well. not back the wrong dude because Dan Campbell has a lot of respect within the league and everybody knows, you know, the Ford family loves Dan Campbell. Sheila came out midway through his second year during the buy when they were like four and 25 or something at that point was like, Dan's our guy. Like we're not backing off this. Just, just put it all in bed. Dan's our guy. Like she, she believed in the culture so much and it proved to be correct with Ben. I can tell you they would have much rather he not be in the division. Right. That would have been nice if he had just left. But the Bears job was the one job that he wanted. So listen, they've got a capable offensive coordinator there in Drew Petzing. And this is Dan Campbell's offense. Ben is the play caller. Ben did a lot of the design. And in terms of like all those little things, like he was a driving force because you see him doing it in Chicago. But it's still at its core. It's the offense that Dan, along with Ben. put in when they relieved Anthony Lynn of his play calling duties back in Dan's first year. So like the bones of it hasn't changed. Yeah. There's probably some, some rhythm that goes into it that you need to find. You know, Jameson Williams didn't have a good game in week one. That doesn't help you. Again, you're relying a ton on Gibbs. You're relying on Laporta. You're relying on Amon Ross, St. Brown. Speaker 3 (19:36) And the Speaker 1 (19:38) offensive line, by the way, lest we forget was down two starters tonight. And it looked like for the whole first half. Yeah, I mean, there's always going to be a piece of that. There's no doubt about it. And if Ben Johnson wins the Super Bowl before Dan Campbell does, you're going to have those questions. But there was never a thought, I guarantee you that, of like, what if we just hold on to Ben? They felt fortunate to Ben two years in a row before that turned down head coaching jobs to come back. Like, they had their Speaker 3 (20:04) run. Speaker 1 (20:04) Yeah, Speaker 3 (20:04) what Speaker 1 (20:04) was the one he Speaker 3 (20:05) turned down the year before? Was it Washington? Speaker 1 (20:07) He turned down Carolina two years before he went to Chicago. They had the plane, essentially. I mean this metaphorically, but I think it's literally true. They had the plane waiting for him, and he didn't get on the plane. The year after, the commander's people were flying into Detroit, and he was trying, frankly, to call them and text them while they're on the plane to say, don't come. They're already up there. They don't have Starlink or whatever. And so they land, and it's like, he's not coming. So, yeah, he had two different jobs, went back to Detroit twice, took the swing. They got knocked out in the playoffs in that last year. And he was on to Chicago within two days. Speaker 3 (20:48) These NFC North defenses. So we have Detroit, which looks like they're going to be in trouble for at least until their, their two D backs come back. We have Chicago. They gave up 37 points last week to Bryce Young. And it actually probably could have been worse. And then you have green Bay who got lit up by Carson Wentz and themselves on a, on Sunday. I don't know what to make of them. I'm not, I don't, who knows what they're going to do with the jets. And then, Then you have Minnesota who's just doing, they're just going to blitz the living hell out of everybody. And some teams will be able to handle it. Some teams won't. I can't tell who the best NFC North team is, is my point. My instinct is maybe Chicago's offense is better than anybody else's anything in that division. But for the most part, like could nine and eight win the NFC North? Speaker 1 (21:41) I don't think so. Like 10 Speaker 3 (21:42) and seven? What's the floor for first place wins in this division? Speaker 1 (21:47) They're going to beat each other up. There's no doubt about it. But, you know, the Vikings have a case. I mean, the best, most intriguing matchup in terms of X's nose this week is Ben Johnson versus Brian Flores at Soldier Field. Like, that's fun. Like, does Flo keep just blitzing the hell out of him? Does he all of a sudden just play coverage for the day? And, you know, what's the back and forth like there? Green Bay's waiting for Michael Parsons to get back. If you go back to like this string of everyone keeps saying the string of losses, it's literally since the game where Micah tore his ACL in Denver. And ever since then, like they have leads in all these games and they can't close it because they don't have the guy to get after the passer. Plus they traded with Sean Gary in the off season too. And Speaker 3 (22:26) the Jacobs thing is no small thing either. Cause I don't, I just don't think the running backs are good right now. Speaker 1 (22:31) You know, I don't think Speaker 3 (22:33) they're gonna be able to run the ball with what they have. Speaker 1 (22:35) Fourth and one last week in Minnesota. I know everybody, you know, breaking down the floor. pulling the field goal off the board and going for it on fourth and one. Mathematically, correct decision to make based on all the game management people I talked to this week. But also, if you have Josh Jacobs, it's probably a run to Josh Jacobs and not... Jordan Love trying to move the pile. They got Chris Brooks and Marshawn Lloyd and Caleb Johnson as a committee behind an offensive line that never practiced together in camp because everybody was hurt. They've got their challenges. I don't know that there's a clear favorite. I guess you'd say the Bears until proven otherwise, but they also, you know, while scoring 59 points, they also made Bryce Young look like he might be headed to Canton in that game last week, too. And Jalen Coker. Speaker 3 (23:18) The lions were better favorites now in Fando. They're basically the bears and lions are pretty even. And who knows what the bears. All right. Couple put your reporter hat on. Stuart. Anyone on the hot seat yet? Speaker 3 (23:37) I know it's not even week two. Is the Speaker 1 (23:40) seat warming Speaker 3 (23:41) up for anybody? Are Speaker 1 (23:42) we feeling it yet? Not yet, but I would say this. I've had this conversation a bunch today. When teams fall to 0-2, that's when panic mode takes over. At that point, just within the building, it starts to be, we're either screwed or we got to trade for a guy and shake things up. That's when you start to really feel it. I think that some of the... You know, some of the coaches that probably came into this year feeling like they had a lot on the line got wins, you know, in week one. You saw, I mean, the Jets came out and got a win. Let's see what happens when the Packers go out there this week. It's a big week. They haven't started 2-0 in forever in New York. You know, I thought the most disappointing game last week, the most disappointing team was the Chargers. And I'm not saying Jim Harbaugh is on the hot seat. Why not? I've made this point before. You don't pay a guy that much money. And bring them in with that much fanfare to expect to go one and done in the playoffs every year. Like, you're bringing them in because you think you're winning a Super Bowl. They just look flat against a Cardinals team. I think we talked about this, Bill, the first appearance. It's like, name the teams that might have the number one pick. Like, the Cardinals are on the short list of, like, five teams. They came out last week and looked totally competent on both sides of the football. And the Chargers just looked... dead. That's what I'm watching. Not because I think Jim Harbaugh gets fired, but more so like we all want to believe Mike McDaniel and like, you know, the unique personality and he's a genius and he is and Jim, but like those two in terms of how they see football, much less their personalities, like they don't exactly mesh on paper. So let's see what they do this week. You know, what, what is it actually going to look like? Is it going to be Mike McDaniel's offense? Is it going to be elements of, of Jim's offense? And, and, oh yeah, they're probably doing it without lab McConkie too. Speaker 3 (25:24) House and I talk about that game because they're playing the Raiders, right? And it's in LA. Seems like a good spot to get back and maybe they blow out the Raiders. We're like, ah, the Chargers are fine. There was only four games in the late window. And so I really was carefully watching everything. It wasn't just that they look flat. I thought they looked legitimately slow. I didn't feel like they were that athletic. And I don't... Maybe they were so flat it made them look slow, but I just thought they didn't have speed on defense at all. The middle of their line, the two tackles are great. The middle of the line, it was just collapsing. Herbert was a mess. They lost McConkie in the game because they threw him a hospital ball. And... You know, I watched that game thinking, like, I think Arizona is, like, right there. I think they have more talent. Arizona had, like, six long drives on them. It wasn't like, you know, like when they, what was the game when the Steelers beat the Pats last year and the Pats had, like, five turnovers. It was like your classic stupid September game. This Speaker 2 (26:28) was like Arizona kind Speaker 3 (26:30) of kicked the Chargers' ass. And the stuff Harbaugh said after the game about, like, maybe we should have taken preseason more seriously. I thought it was alarming. That was the team I had in the playoffs. And that would be my one do-over from what I saw in week one. I don't think that's a playoff team. Speaker 1 (26:46) There's this strange thing happening, too, with the Chargers. And it's gone on the entire time Jim Harbaugh has been there, but it accelerated with the whole Justin Herbert will go down as the greatest quarterback to ever play the game quote. Yeah. Jim is brought in, in part, to turn Justin Herbert into that player. And yet... Here we are. Justin Herbert's a really, really good football player, but you're entering year seven, I believe, for Herbert. You have no playoff wins. They just looked not good around him. It wasn't all Herbert, but like the whole offense just looked bad in that game. And I don't know. Jim's a unique guy.