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Week two of the NFL report is here.

I'm Steve White with my guy James Palmer,

rocking the terracotta right there as he is back in Denver after a long flight back from Cincinnati this week.

JP, we got a lot going on because usually week two is a much more truth teller than week one.

We can kind of read the tea leaves, and I think we can see what some teams like Cincinnati and Miami might be.

Teams like Dallas, do we really know their 2-0 how good they are? We have still a ton of unanswered questions. Yeah, Steve, how about this? If we're telling the truth, what's your take on Skyline chili in Cincinnati? Skyline chili is good. I'm also, but I'm probably a bigger gold star fan myself, but I don't want to insult anybody in our audience. You know, there's a lot of touchy feelings about that. Do you like chili on spaghetti, JP? No, I skip halftime meal in the press box when I'm there at Paycourt Stadium. I'm not going to lie. I double up pregame. Pregame was good. I double up pregame. Get a little something extra. There was sticky buns up there this time. Even though I told that's a Philly thing when you say sticky bun too often cinnamon roll whatever you want to call it i call them all sticky buns but i had an extra one of those so i wouldn't do the the skyline stuff at half time i'll be on and everybody watching and listening are like oh these sports writers they get fed they don't i don't want to hear them complain about anything well you know that's part of the issue, I'm sure you want to complain about the fact that we also get to watch football for a living.

JP. anything. Well, you know, that's part of the issue. I'm sure you want to complain about the fact that we also get to watch football for a living.

JP, we saw a fantastic display of what this Ravens offense could look like when they went and they beat Cincinnati.

I mean, this was a huge game. You heard John Harbaugh talk about it. It's a big game. Players talking about how sweet it was to send the Bengals to an 0-2 start. You were there and you were texting me during the game like, man, Lamar looks really good. This offense is serious stuff. Tell us a little about what you saw, man.

Yeah, pregame, Steve, and I think I was on with you pregame also. And I was talking to the members of the coaching staff, and they're like, listen, Lamar is not comfortable in this offense yet. We're not sure how long it's going to take. We're going to see how the process goes. But obviously, this is very different. He didn't play in the preseason. So week one was really our first opportunity to see him go out there and operate in it. We didn't see him run at all. I thought it was really interesting. When I talked to Zay Flowers, the rookie wide receiver, he was like, no, no, no, that was the plan for Lamar not to run. The plan was for him to sit back there, get comfortable, Steve, get a feel for this offense sitting in the pocket because why? He knows he can run, right? He knows he can find ways to go out there and create and make plays. He wanted to sit back there and feel it. What did we see in week two? We saw him go out there and have an extremely balanced attack. I think that's the difference. When I talked to Mark Andrews after the game, he was like, now that we have these receivers on the outside, Life's easier for him in the middle. You have explosive players on the outside. You saw after the interception, bang, right to a 52-yard reception, Fais, Flowers, to go deep. Lamar Jackson was accurate. He was comfortable. If they're wondering how long it's going to take him to get comfortable with his offense, I don't know, week three, now they're so balanced because at the back end of this game, what did they do? They just kept the bangles off the field. Lamar ran the football. They ran the football, even when Cincinnati knew they were going to run the football. I think this is a really fun, interesting offense to watch now because of the balance it has. And what's interesting about that is they were down to starting offensive lineman, right?

Their center, Tyler Linderbaum and left Sackle Ronnie Stanley. Yeah, I mean, this was, this was, we were wondering before the game, you were on a pregame show with me, JP. We were like, well, Lamar is going to be on his horse all day because these Bengals rushers are going to be all over him. He was on his horse on scaled and runs him because that's what may have opened up because this offensive line held up well. That is a positive sign because we know left tackle Ronnie Stanley has had injury issues to his legs for years. So if they can have somebody come in and fill in capably, that's fantastic. But the balance, that's when the Ravens work, right?

When they have to rely, you know, one-dimensional, running too much or throwing too much, that's not them. But also, and I want to get this back to you, Zay Flowers. You saw O'Dell Beckham go out with an ankle injury. We don't know how significant that is. but the rookie wide receiver out of Boston College seems to open up this offense,

open up this offense,

open up the field for Mark Andrews across the middle. What impact can he make because they have not

had not only a deep threat like him, but a route runner like him, maybe in Lamar's tenure.

That's the thing. And there's already such a, it looks like chemistry and connection between him and Lamar Jacksonies, nine catches in the first week. Like from a rookie wide receiver, the interesting part about Zay real quick is that he already can line up in every single receiver spot they have. He can play the X, he can play the Y, he can be a different member of a trips group, you know, the number two, the three. He can line up in the backfield. His versatility in that sense, an understanding of the offense and being able to do that is extremely important and really impressive this early. But what they're impressed with Steve is how strong he is for his size. For a little guy, yeah. I was joking with the coaching staff. They were like, you know what he can do? He can't get tackled. And that's pretty important this league is he's hard to tackle. And I looked like he's going to be that explosive player to add into making this a layered offense with Mark Andrews as well. And when we talk about offenses, talk about explosive plays, that's usually what we talk about with the Cincinnati

Bengals. But we have not seen that very much. We saw them get better offensively in the second

half. But what we also saw in the second half was Joe Burrow re-aggravating that calf injury.

I was in the press room to hear him say this post game.

Well, when your quarterback misses camp, it's tough to, it's tough to start fast.

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