[FULL EPISODE] Rams NEED a Trade? Puka Hobbled, Giant Problems & Packers Offense Needs a Jolt

James Koh (0:01)

We've got our Taycan is loaded and ready.

Matt Harmon (0:03)

Absolutely dominant on deep routes, absolutely dominant on short routes.

James Koh (0:07)

The boys are backbanging.

Matt Harmon (0:08)

Excellent separation against ManCovery. This is Reception, Reception, The Show.

James Koh (0:15)

Yo, what's cracking everybody? James Koh and Matt Harmon here with you. You're listening to Reception Perception, The Show. All right, Matt, we are fast approaching week number three here. When you listen to us, hey, maybe you're watching Thursday Night Football. I don't know.

Speaking of Thursday Night Football, there's a lot of injuries going around. In that Green Bay game in particular, we got Michael Pennex potentially coming back here. Tua is healthy now to be the quarterback too. There's a big conspiracy theory online that he does not want to start, that he just wants to be collecting that backup check, which I don't know, maybe there's something to it. I don't know. That's an interesting conspiracy theory though.

Matt Harmon (0:56)

Listen, I'm not going to sit here and speculate on whether Tua does or does not want to play football, but it is a little odd. Timing is a little odd with the back spasms situation.

James Koh (1:07)

I don't know.

Matt Harmon (1:08)

Cooper Rush was dealing with the back spasms too.

Here's the thing. Normally, I say it can't get worse, and that is dangerous. It's dangerous to say it can't get worse.

James Koh (1:22)

Because it can always get worse.

Matt Harmon (1:24)

It would be really difficult to get worse than what we've seen from the Atlanta Falcons through the first two weeks of the NFL season. They have been, by basically any offensive metrics, my offensive efficiency score, where I combined a bunch of the different metrics I like, they have been dead last in the NFL.

Yeah, so listen, it can definitely, it's going to be hard for it to get worse for guys like Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Super Bowl champion, Jahan Dotson and the gang. It would be very difficult to get worse.

James Koh (1:55)

A lot of injuries to work through. I'm going to get to interesting matchups, both good and bad for the weight that really stood out to me and want to get Matt's take on that. But starting in Indianapolis, man, Alec Pierce was just announced today on Wednesday for recording that he's going to be placed on IR. He's got that heel injury, obviously had that off season ankle injury, where, look, man, it's, I mean, look, I know you got to go get your bag, you know, but it definitely, if you're Indianapolis is definitely weird, you know, that you give him the bag, he goes on and go gets his ankle surgery. And now he's got that heel injury and he's being placed on IR. But this is all a precursor just for me to say that Darius Slayton is back. Let's go, Darius Slayton.

It's an interesting offense right now for Indianapolis, to put it quite nicely. They have the fourth best EPA per rush and the sixth worst EPA per pass. So it is a very one-sided offensive affair. It's Jonathan Taylor and not much else. How does Indianapolis navigate through the Alec Pierce injury, Matt Harmon?

Matt Harmon (3:04)

Well, how dare you exclude Josh Downs from the mix here. Where us Downs bros are getting the role change that we wanted for him. I'll come back to that in just a second. Josh Downs season is definitely on. On the Darius Slayton part of it, I mean, yeah, the X is back to being sacrificed in the Indianapolis Colts offense. And I mean, they really need it. Well, okay, listen, am I wrong? Darius Slayton is probably one of the original sacrificial Xs when I started coming up, even before I named it sacrificial X. Like just talking about a player that was that guy, he is certainly that role player. That's no, I mean, no shade to Darius Slayton.

You need that player. You need that player, especially when the rest of your guys on the offense are slot flanker, short area type receivers. I mean, Tyler Warren can't even buy a downfield target at this point, like they, which is crazy. I actually like, let's get him some vertical passes up the seam or something. I mean, it's kind of crazy right now. I do think Daniel Jones is processing well, getting the ball out quickly. They just really don't have a vertical dimension in the offense at this point, which is what they're going to hope to Darius Lane to be. Yeah. On the pierce stuff, in my opinion, I think the Colts giving him this contract while, I think, knowing that the ankle surgery was going to be a problem. I think that is questionable but defensible. But what's not defensible to me is rushing him back onto the football field in week one.