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October 15, 2025 10 mins
Shawn Syed's Stats and Scheme Newsletter is terrific. He joined us to break down Joe Flacco's Bengals debut and discuss whether the QB change has offered a glimmer of hope.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our friend Sean Saya joins us every Tuesday, one of
the authors of these Stats and Schemes newsletter, and you
know sumer sports dot com. We have used their folks
now for a while. If you haven't tried out sumer Brain,
Sean kind of walks you through it and he'll tell
us more about it here in just a few minutes. First, Sean,
what's going on? How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
No? Nothing much?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, just always enjoying talking about our bangles. Second place
in the AFC, nor I maybe consider consider hanging the
batter now. Yeah, I would say let's let's go ahead.
Let's go ahead and do that. But doing well, it's
fun to watch, little bit.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Joe Blacko, you were right. You said that Blaco was
going to start.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I thought you were being silly, but you certainly know
better than I do.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I am usually not right about anything, but that that
seemed to me like the most likely outcome. I looked
at that game on Sunday, and I've talked about it
here in the last two days. I looked at that
game on Sunday as a preseason game, like, yeah, it'd
be cool if they win, but they're fourteen and a
half point dogs. They have all sorts of defensive issues.
Show me something as the game moves forward that makes

(01:03):
me feel like this Joe Flacco thing can work to
an agree And I feel like, as much as a
lot of folks don't want to hear it, mission accomplished.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, I don't want to. You know, we actually don't
have to hang in the banner. But I was going
in very much ready to look at the film and say, man,
like Flacco is, he has absolutely nothing, there's nothing that
can come of this offense, And I was a little
bit surprised there was definitely some positive there where.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Look, Flacco certainly.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Doesn't have the entire play sheet and like the whole
entire playbook yet, so as weeks go on, you can
probably expand it just a little bit. Obviously hopefully he's
able to stay healthy, but he is able to keep
the trains moving on top. You know, I think you
can probably leave that game feeling decent about it, where
you just look more competent than you did when you
had Jake Browning in that spot. So I'm curious, you know,

(01:51):
how much is that able to continue overall? Like, are
you able to you know, tie him together with a
run game that is actually able to threaten defenses just
a little bit because he can definitely throw the ball
deep down the field.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Off play action.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
And you know, I think Jamar Chase is probably pretty
happy about how that one turned out as well.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, no question. They were running a lot of tosses too,
which is not something we typically see here.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
I think against defenses that are really up the field,
like you, you're gonna have defenders really trying to attack you,
you can try and like have someone just kind of
hin down on the outside, defender get that ball on
the outside. Of course, you feel comfortable with Chase Brown
running in space. I think it's a it's got to
be a game the game approach.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Just in terms of the running game.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
It's not it was going to be hey, under center,
we're gonna run straight at you at your middle linebacker
up the middle. I think if you can combine sort
of spread elements of the offense and you know, stretch
the defense in different directions, that can usually be a
pretty positive thing. All right.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So if you're if you're Zach Taylor and Dan Pitcher
and you have what Joe Flacco did on Sunday, and
now you want to build upon it against the Steelers,
Admittedly with a short week that makes it slightly more difficult.
Where do you begin.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think it's got to be a quick passing game overall.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
I think you've probably be a little bit scared just
about the Steelers pass rush overall. You know, it could
be a situation where you're really spreading things out, like
you're getting into some of those empty sets where you're
gonna be able to see. Okay, Fitzburg's probably not blitzing here,
but the way they play zone coverage, there's gonna be
this open gap I can just take kind of quick
throw underneath. I'm gonna be curious, you know, as defenses

(03:27):
they're seeing more.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Of Flacco like it's probably gonna do.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
It's like a threes and layups kind of approach those
quick throws underneath some of those.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Deep shots over the top.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
So you still want to find ways to get those
one on one isolation throws because you're gonna just win
thowse flat out kind of often with Jamar Chase. But
I'm curious just how creative can you be in terms
of ways to get the ball out of Flacco's hands
as quick as possible.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
If he's going to be decisive.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
You know, he's not gonna want to hang out in
the pocket for four seconds. He's not gonna want to
run around there. He doesn't have to because if he's
able to get rid of the ball quick, then I
think you can get some of those consistent drives against
the Steelers team, who Yeah, I don't love.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Their offense or do you have the thing is certainly
a positive unit overall.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, I want to ask you about them here in
just the second, Sean sayed sumer sports dot com. The
Stats and Scheme newsletter is an absolute must shows up
in your inbox multiple times per week. I thought, and
this is I guess more just about personnel. I thought
in the second half of that game there was a
level of proficiency from the offensive line that if that continues,

(04:29):
and you're being reasonable if you assume it won't, but
if that continues, could sort of, I don't know, at
the very least gives Joe Flacco a chance because we've
talked about as immobility for so long.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, I mean kind of surprising, right when you think
about this game. As you mentioned, the Packers were a
huge favorite. I think the overall pressure percentage was only
around like twenty five percent, which on the grand scale,
that is not like a super super high percentage. And
sometimes that even happened where Flaco did hold on the
ball just maybe a little bit further. You're trying to
develop something as well, So if you can build on

(05:02):
a positive performance, that that could be good, because you know,
the Packers as a team are funky because at some
point they look like literally guaranteed Super Bowl champions, and
at some point they look like a team that doesn't
deserve to even be in the playoffs, like they really
do run hot and cold. But I think from this
game you can take some of those positives where Mo
it feels like that we haven't been able to do

(05:23):
that all the time this year, so maybe it's a
little bit of rose colored glasses. But taking a low
pressure number overall and moving that forward, you know, that
can be something that you can certainly build around for
the rest of the year.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
You said you don't love Pittsburgh's offense. Why not?

Speaker 3 (05:37):
You know, I think for Aaron Rodgers at this point
in his career, he's going to be a low time
to throw a quarterback, so he's gonna get rid of
the ball pretty quickly. You're gonna see a lot of
underneath throws. Overall, it feels like they're winning some of
these games based on I mean welle and obviously like
plays on their defense or like big yards after catch
plays from DK Metcalf or these things that feel just

(06:01):
not as repeatable. And I know this just could be
like how well like my personal peace in offense is
and kind of how I like, look at what is
sustainable overall. I mean, it's a Thursday night, so obviously
that's tough. The Steelers should be favorites in that game,
but there was like a little bit of a fund
from the Bengals defense, just like a little bit you
get that interception of course against Jordan Love as well.

(06:23):
When I look back to the Steelers game, Okay, the
Jets in Week one, you know, I think we're all
seeing where the Jets are at now. You're able to
beat the Patriots in the game where the Patriots have
five turnovers.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
You're beating the Vikings and the Browns with their backup quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
So you know, I guess maybe the Steelers superpower this
year is they consistently are able to face backup quarterbacks.
So I would love for this to be the upset
week for the Bengals. It feels like, you know, you
can get that offense a little bit stuck in the mud,
maybe create something there.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
You know, this is Pittsburgh's threatening to run away and hide.
I think if they win this game on Thursday, you
almost assume they do. If not, it's feels like, all right,
the division is more wide open. Maybe the Bengals aren't
gonna be a factor. Should fans in Baltimore give up
on them being a factor with the one and.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Five record, that is tough, right, It's good that for
Baltimore that you have that extra wildcard spawn now. Of course,
like you, that's what your eyes are on. I don't
think you're looking at the division win. But then you
look at the schedule the rest of the way. Bengals twice,
the Jets, the Browns, you know, Vikings backup quarterback Dolphins

(07:29):
that are falling apart a little bit there, and then
you're still gonna get the Steelers twice as well. So
the Ravens have to pretty much win eight games like
in a row with Lamar Jackson, and that's possible, it is, right,
So I can't say Hey, look, we're gonna ignore this,
just like last year when we were talking about the
Bengals and say, look, you can just you can still

(07:49):
get to the playoffs with Joe Burrow, like we're really
close at the end, and like you're able to win
a bunch of games in important spots. But the way
that the defense played, I thought, actually for the Ravens
against the where now they have Kyle Holliinson been playing
closer to the line of scrimmage, not all the way
back at safety, play that sort of slot corner type role,
I think gonna help the physicality of the defense overall.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I personally am.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Not, you know, betting my future on the Ravens making
the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
But I'm also not gonna like just like nail the
final nail in that puffin yet.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Awesome stuff as always. Uh, let's first talk about the
Stats and Scheme newsletter. For folks who haven't subscribed yet,
what shows up in the rambox.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Appreciate that it's all the advanced data you need.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
We built it that if you became head coach of
a team tomorrow, what is all the information that you
would need to see in terms of a matchup?

Speaker 2 (08:37):
So it's been fun to write them up.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's been fun to build a little bit of a
different data you can, you know, if you don't understand
all the data, we have a glossary if you do.
We also have this nice color coding you can see, Okay,
well this team is green in this spot and the
defense is red in that spot.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's been really fun to work on. We've gotten some.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Good feedback and I think it's pretty helpful, so I
would definitely recommend using it.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
All rightsoomer sports dot com the Suomer I was watching
you walk people through it.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
What is it? So it's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
It's basically our whole entire database that you can just
pull in a second. So I used to have to
go to like five different sites if I was trying
to pull a specific number, but we have it set
so you can get really really specific advanced charting day
you can look up what is the bangles most common
pass coverage on third downs in the second quarter, and
it's gonna spit out in a few seconds.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
This is exactly what happens. I really enjoyed it. I
think it's a better way to get more people, more
data at a higher level.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's still an open beta, so we're certainly going to
have some issues that kind of pop up here and there.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
But it's been fun for me to work on.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
It's been fun for me to check things and watch
some plays and say, well, why does the model think
it's this coverage, but I think it's Zach Carverdge.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
It's been cool.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
I would recommend giving it a spin see what should
come out. Maybe you'll also find what are the numbers
that are going to help the Bangals win this week.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Sumersports dot com Sumer always love having you. We'll talk
next week.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Thanks so much, Thanks so much. I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's our guys. Sean say had subscribe to the Stats
and Schemes newslettersoomer sports dot com and take advantage of
Sumer Brain while.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
You're at it.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
We're at Oakley Greens. It's five point thirty on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station

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