Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Bills Ravens Delivers Again Caleb Williams Rocky Season 2 Debut And The Chiefs Put The L In Brazil

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

NFL football is back, and so is Geoff Schwartz reacting to the internet's overreations! Week 1 hysteria is a yearly ritual, tune in to learn what you should take away from the Ravens blowing another big lead to Josh Allen and the Bills, JJ McCarthy outplaying Caleb Williams on Monday Night Football, and the Chiefs starting their revenge tour with a loss to the Chargers. Could a Tyreek Hill reunion be in the works? Plus, Geoff gives one-word reactions to everything trending in the NFL landscape: Jalen Hurts, Travis Hunter, the Green Bay Packers, and yes, green ******. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I have a Matt Prater joke I have to share with you via text message because I play with him for very short time of Detroit. He said one of the funniest things I've ever, anyone's ever said to me on a football field. I can't repeat it, but it made me cry, laugh, laughter on the field in a preseason game. So continue. No, I'd like to stay here for a minute. You're saying that Matt Prater said something so NSFW that you can't say it on this podcast. I don't know if it's, we got kids listening. It's not a kid's joke.

It was, I could, I guess I, who cares? Do you care if I say it? Hello, welcome to Jeff Schwartz to Smarter. The Jeff Schwartz is presented by Draft Kings. The Crown is yours today. It's September 9th. I am Jeff Schwartz. That is Gabe Goodwin.

We have a full weekend of NFL action to break down. Every team played Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday. The last two games of the weekend were wonderful. We'll also hit on some college football topics as well as Gabe and I both enjoy ourselves some college football on Saturdays. Gabe, how we doing, buddy? Good. I have good and breaking news. Tony and Mike of PTI fame got a three-year contract extension. Good news for them, which means I assume America's second favorite sports duo. Jeff and Gabe, we're up for contract negotiations. Let's go. I didn't know where I was going. That is wonderful. I did see that. Those guys, that show is obviously one that I watched. I'm sure you did a ton of as a kid. And, you know, you come on from school.

it was on. They did a thing the other day where they were upset about basically college football media being too hyperbolic after week one. That's what college football media is. It's what college football is. It's wild compared to the NFL because of the way that the season is, the pressure of every single game. Now the playoffs sort of lessens that pressure, right?

You can lose a game or two and so like the postseason. But for so many years, one loss, right? Texas losing to Ohio State was the end of a season. It's why there's so much overreaction. you spend months and months and months hyping these guys up. It's different in the NFL where a lot of the hype is earned, right? Where, you know, Josh Allen, Lamar, Mahomes, Burrow, like these guys, Jane Daniels, they're good. And then we just say they're good, right?

We know that. And there's some hype about Caleb Williams. We'll talk about him a second and McCarthy, these guys. But in college football, it's a lot of K. Clubnik. You know, we played a little bit, but he's going to be much better. Archmanning, sellers, all these guys. Like, we just hiked these guys up that really sometimes haven't played at all or played a lot. and then they fall fly on their face

and we make these huge proclamations about them after week one. I think that was a bad take of theirs game. Oh, well, you know what? It's a perfect segue, because here we are to help sift through the bad takes. I try to read the internet. Hank behind the scenes is helping.

And then you make us a little smarter about the stupid stuff that we see. Sometimes the stupid stuff comes from me. So look, we're going to start, instead of a Monday night game, which is a pretty good one, plenty to talk about. We're going to start on Sunday night

because it might have been the best we've ever seen. Absolutely crazy at finish to the game. Bill's obviously end up winning that one. There was a bunch of different ways we could take this. Instead, I'm going to let you in behind the scenes. This is a real text exchange between me and Hank. I said, let's use the garbage choke stat for 1A. And then I explain a little bit more about what I'm thinking.

And he says, is this the Harbaugh Auto correct? And in fact, yes, my phone had changed Harbaugh to garbage. And it knew. It just knew. AI's catching up, Jeff. I did not mean to call Harbaugh garbage,

but clearly, statistically speaking, in these late game two score situations, he kind of is garbage, which is weird because he's a great coach. Does this stat mean anything, Jeff? Should we really read into this? I don't know,

I don't know how to read into it correctly, but I can tell you what I think happens in these games, right, Gabe? So when you get to the level of, I'm going to put a couple teams in this category, the Ravens, the Bills, the Chiefs, and the Eagles. Those four teams, maybe you want to throw in the lions right now, but I don't think they're not having this type of season.

You basically get judged on small moments of the most important games because your end goal is a Super Bowl, right? And with Kansas City forever, this is Philly last season, is the Chiefs always win those big moments. It's why actually they're lost on Friday. The Chargers actually won more those big moments. But the Chiefs for years have won those big moments, that seem maybe small an entire season,

but they win those big moments. And in the game on Sunday night, and the thing, what Baltimore fails at a lot is those big moments. Again, it's one, two, three plays in a game that seem to be the most high-leverage plays or drives or sort of around that, you know, the same situation game.

They fail, right? They fail where other teams rise up. Go back to the AFC championship game against Kansas City, right? They fumble going in the end zone. High-leverged situation, can't hold on the ball. third down. They allow that big catcher MVS to end the game. In this game, okay?

So they go up 40-25, okay? Bill's get the ball back. Five plays, nine yards punt. Baltimore gets the ball back with 9-18 left. And they had run the ball really well all game. They run for three yards minus one, five-yard penalty. Third down, punt the ball. So three plays six yards.

Again, the big moment in the game, right? then Buffalo comes down and scores a touchdown. Now it's 40-32. What happens next? Derek Henry Fumble, the drive lasts 50 seconds, and the ball's back to Buffalo. Buffalo scores again. Missed a two-point conversion.

Now it's 40-38. Now it's the third time, essentially, for Baltimore to put Buffalo away. Three-play, seven yards, punt. Buffalo comes down and kicks the game winning field goal. Even go back to the end of the first half, where Buffalo got the ball back with, I think about 30 seconds left.

couple timeouts, maybe not even a couple timeouts. They went down the field and got a field goal range. You kick the field goal to end the first half. That's three points that you just can't give up. And Buffalo won those little moments, man. And that's what's holding Baltimore back, in my opinion, for closing out games and getting the Super Bowls. They don't win those special moments in a game that we judge you on.

I don't care what you do in the first quarter if you're Baltimore. We know you can run the football. We know Lamar Jackson's excellent and one of the best to do it. We know your defense is good. but in those big moments, why are those things not showing up? Well, you're asking that question rhetorically, I think, because I don't have the answer for you. You're the smart one on this show.

Well, I mean, the answer is they just fail in those moments. I'm not sure that Harbaugh is doing anything wrong to prepare them, but sometimes you have to maybe look with, I'm on those meetings game. I don't know what they prepare for, but they perpetually lose those moments in games where other teams that are of their caliber win those moments. Yes.

That said, the one that we're talking about involved some fluky things that just we've never seen, right? So Derek Henry coughing the football up. That's just like so unexpected that I think every player on the team is just like, all right, shit. Well, that's just going to happen once a lifetime. The tip ball for a touchdown to Keon Coleman, like a few things just don't quite line up and make this look exceptionally bad. But that's the outlier. Let's look at some actual stats here. So the YouTube viewers take a peek at this stat.

Thanks, Hank, for calling this up. So among teams with 20 plus games since 2022, when they led by 9 to 16 points in the fourth quarter, the Ravens have six losses in those situations. The chiefs have zero. So, you know, something to be said for coaching here. If the best coach is never losing in these situations, and a guy who now I have to ask,

is he one of the best coaches, is doing it kind of. of repeatedly. Like, there isn't really anyone to blame him but coach, right? I think you have to put the blame on him a little bit. The thing that's so interesting about the Ravens specifically is that they have a running system

with Lamar and Derek Henry and whoever else is in there. They should very easily be able to seal games. You know, quarterback runs are very hard to defend. We saw last night as we get to that game in a few minutes, McCarthy scores late. but like they're they're super hard to defend. Why do they not work? Are you having counters off that?

Look, Kansas City, they don't run the ball terribly well. In those big moments, they find ways to score, and a lot of it is not score, but to end games. A lot of it is they use Mahomes. Like they throw the ball. They stay a little bit aggressive in those moments, knowing that they're not able to run the football quite like Baltimore. So Baltimore's offensive line has gotten kind of steadily worse over the years. They have injuries in young players. Maybe that's part of it.

They don't have a go-to wide receiver that is, I would say, like, a go-catch-the-ball type of guy, which you might need in those situations. Hey, man, it's one-on-one, go make a play. They have good wide receivers, of course, but like the big dog to make those plays. They don't have that type of guy. Whatever reason, man, they just can't close these games out. You would think a team that runs the football as well as they do. Derek Henry had, what, 130 yards in the first quarter of this game,

and they couldn't run when they had to in those business. moments and Buffalo's defense stiffened up a little bit. Buffalo's defense was not good for a large period of that game. Some of that is obviously Lamar's crazy athletic and makes crazy plays. But Buffalo, man, look, I think they're going to the Super Bowl this year and not that's solidified

my thought. I thought that that would not fall in for what? No, you're doing, I know you're doing the thing. You do this. I picked him last year too. Skip used to do this. I'm not doing it. You're doing the reverse jinx commentator thing. I know what you're up to.

No, I think the chiefs are in charge. for one reason. No, no, no, no. You've said this before and then they won Super Bowls. You're doing, I know what you're doing. I almost text someone who we talk about the Chiefs often like this. We're just like, we think it's doom and gloom, and then we always joke that it's never doom and gloom.

And I'm not sure it's doom and gloom now, but there are some glaring deficiencies on the Chiefs that are not probably getting much better now. Maybe, depending on the season, but right now, they have some problems that aren't going to get much better. Well, do you want to stick with the Chiefs, or should we go back to the Monday night game? Let's go Monday night first.

All right. So JJ McCarthy makes his debut, not a rookie technically, but makes his debut, puts up some real numbers, wins the game late. Obviously impresses a lot of people. I'm going to have to admit to you, because I've made fun of him on this show. I've certainly made fun of him in group chats with Michigan friends. I did not see this coming. The whole meditation thing was like getting a little tiresome for me. He seemed like a game manager who they were reaching for.

I thought it was a lot of like pre-draft PR. was working in his favor. And at least for a night, I looked wrong. So here's my question. Yeah. Is this guy actually good? Or is this handsome ringer writer of a head coach in Minnesota actually just good at making garbage look like playable stuff?

Okay. So the tweets and comments of the first half of mine about the Vikings' offense aged very terribly. Yeah, bad. Look, the first half of that game, to me, it looked like a coach, and McCarthy calling a game plan worried about his quarterback and worried about his ability to make plays and be the offense, which I don't think you can call an offense,

a conservative offense in the NFL and think you're going to win a game like that. And the very end of the first half game, McCarthy had to throw the ball to get in field goal, right? He made a great throw. It's a great throw. And I think that kind of sparked a different offense the second half, where they let him throw the football a little bit.

They trust him. Look, he did a pick six, absolutely. I mean, that sucks. But he came back. the next drive, obviously. And I think it was Naylor for a big first down. They got a field goal range. All the good things happened on that one throw.

And the second half, they said, all right, buddy, like, throw the football. It was much, much better. He got a rhythm. Very clearly felt more comfortable. The Vikings' offensive line did a great job. They started opening up holes in the second half, too. So the Bears had to focus along stopping the run. And McCarthy had a really controlled second half.

It was good throws. He didn't, you know, he didn't make that late throw down the sideline that was the pick six. He didn't have any of those, and he looked really good. And look, the Vikings have good personnel. When Derisaw comes back and left tackle, it's a top offensive line. They got top weapons, special assets in his back, got good defense. So McCartner didn't have to do much, but I thought the first half, Gabe, was a completely scared and timid game plan.

And the second half, they came out and let McCarthy be a quarterback, and it showed a big difference. Okay. We had a long debate, longer than I would have liked, to be honest, Hank and I, before we got on the mics here. and it hinged around his belief that, you know, Caleb Williams is overrated and J.J. McCarthy is somehow, you know, special. I don't even want to get into the details of that because it sounds crazy to me. But it did beg this important question. If you were redrafting last year's draft,

the Caleb draft, how many spots change? Because I know most people listening are like, well, Jaden's number one, then. I don't actually think that. But I don't. I don't. I don't know where we would put all the other quarterbacks in that draft now that we've seen a bit of tape. Jayden is very much number one. I don't think it's even a question. I think you just said that to piss off all the commanders' friends in your life. But no, Jane Daniels is number one. Think about Caleb Williams that was a little bit disappointing yesterday.

And I sort of talked about this, I think, in week one with college football, is that a lot of teams started fast. And then they kind of peered out. And that's really, to me, a coaching thing, right? It's a coaching thing early and a quarterback thing late, where the opening part of a game is scripted, right? There's 15 plays often. And then your first third down play, your first third and long, it's all scripted out.

And a lot of teams start fast in those scripted plays. And then when the defense either adjust in sort of the, when you're off the scripted plays, or you just don't have your quote better plays up because you've used them already, quarterback struggles. That's what we saw last night. The Bears came out and immediately scored, right?

Touchdown, field, excuse me, it was a touchdown, punt, downs. And I think they should take the field goal there, but touchdown, punt, downs, punt, field goal. And the second half was punt, punt, punt, missed field goal, punt, punt, late touchdown, you know, down 10. But the offense very clearly started really well and then sort of took a dive after the script. And Kenneth Williams missed a lot of throws, man. Like, there were throws to be had. He missed more up the scene, really kind of a slot fade one time. He missed more.

Second on forked down. It was not, the longer the game went, Gabe, the worst Caleb Williams got. And McCarthy got better throughout the game. So, look, a redraft is silly. Jay Nails would go one. But I didn't like what I saw after that first drive from Williams. It is fair, by the way, to say that he could get better after week one. It's just week one, new offense, and all those things are new.

His running was good. His decision making thought was much better. He didn't hold the ball very long. He got rid of it when he had to. He didn't really make any dumb throws, but he missed on enough open guys where it's a little concerning. Yeah, that seems to be the narrative

that Broadcast wants to point out. Towards the end of the first half, he missed his first incompletion was over the middle to DJ Moore. And they acted like he'd missed a guy with no one near him. Like he threw the ball a bit away from him, but he only had a half a step on the defender.

Like, it wasn't the perfect throw, but it had to be a perfect throw to be a completion. And they're acting like he just missed by a mile. We're getting a little ahead of ourselves on the he's not accurate thing. Well, I think, look, you obviously want a quarterback to throw accurate pass as much as possible. I think Aikman's point on that throw was that that was a throw that a lot of quarterbacks would at least put on the wide receiver. It wasn't a hard throw to make. And I think he said, like, look, man, you got to put it on him.

And he might miss the catch. Look, the ball might be jarred loose. You're right. The defender, they made it seem like he was wide open. He wasn't. The defender was right behind him. But it's a catch that, or throw in catch, and you probably should complete on fourth down on a high functioning offense.

Let's just say the guy I got used to seeing the Heisman season at USC completes that every time. And we're never even talking about it. And he didn't last night, which is why we had to mention it. So here's the question then. This is the so-called Ben Johnson offense. This is what's supposed to save Caleb. I don't know about that, but let's look at this Jared, or Jared Goff stat. Okay, the segue here is obvious.

Jared Goff without McVey and Ben Johnson just isn't that good, right? So our buddies at Draft Kings posted this. The stats are here, we can read them off for the visual or the listeners. Jared Goff's record and starts without either Sean McVey or Ben Johnson as his play caller, 3, 17, and 1. So is the one guy calling play? is that much of a difference maker to a professional quarterback? Is that real?

I mean, it does feel that way because we have seen the results when he's not had Ben Johnson and not had the ability to run that offense. And offense is, look, I thought, again, there were guys open yesterday. It wasn't like there were guys just, Ben Johnson got guys open in the offense and Caleb Williams missed them. Jared Goughf, it's interesting about the Lions. They did not look good. you know, we gave out that

that four-team parlay where we put the records of the deal. I think we went Packers and then we went, I forget who we put next. We had the Vikings, I think, four, the Lions third, maybe the Bears second there. I ended up being that way, but the Lions did not, did not look good.

And maybe that's, I did see one funny, one person I trust is something like, maybe the Bears, I should bet on the Bears because we saw Ben Johnson's effect on the, line's offense and therefore the Bears offense is going to be good now. I thought that was kind of a fool. We don't know what Benjohn's going to be as the Bears O.C. We know the obviously is very missed in Detroit. Yeah, a couple things there. One, I don't know what was happening, but look, I don't take

Ferris Bueller references lightly. I feel like that's sacred territory, and they were just throwing them around with some weird graphics on ESPN last night. They doubled it up. They had it in pregame and then they had it in the game and they had ben jonson as ferris bueller doing the float scene and first of all like you didn't clear the music the music is the most important part of that scene second of all ben jonson doesn't look like ferris bueller third of all there's no similarities or comps here other than the fact that we're in chicago i don't know what we're going for there what was that i think you just said i think you just laid out what they were going for would you if you were producing this would you have would you just been like nope not doing that bit

Yeah, when Hank comes over to me, and it's like, boss, I need a ton of money to go animate Coach Ben Johnson as Ferris Bueller in the classic scene from the movie, but we don't have the Beatles music. Can I still do it all to put up a graphic that shows how good he of a coordinator he is? I'd be like, no, man, just show the graphic. How much, how much would 30 seconds of Beatles music have cost ESPN last night? let's just say the amount that it would have cost they've given to one or two guys

and they don't have any left and it ain't Mike and Tony who I'm talking about it's the other two. It would cost a Stephen A yearly salary to get the Beatles for 30 seconds. That's about right. Probably close, yeah. Yeah, wow, yeah.

All right, let's talk about the chiefs. We waited this long. So boy, that was surprising. And I think, truthfully, I'm not just saying this as a obvious lifelong Chargers fan. I think the story really was the Chargers looked quite good. The Chiefs were just kind of whatever. But you tell me, what is Pat going to do without all the receivers? Let's do Chargers first quickly.

I think you should talk about the winners first, right, in games. That's important. Very gracious of you, please. I thought that would have been one of the better Greg Roman game plans we've seen. We know he knows how to design a run game but the past game was fantastic. Herbert was incredible. And Gabe, this is a game and you're now a new Charger fan.

You're not a long-time Charger fan. This is a game that Chargers would have lost many years previously, right? You know, the first half you pretty much dominate, but it's 136, right? You know, and really, you're lucky to have 13. The Chiefs were off sides on defense on a third down. Didn't affect the play at all.

That would have been a field goal. It would have been nice. to six at halftime. So 13-6, the chiefs then come out of half-time late. Did you see that as well? The chiefs, like, weren't on the field. I don't know what that was if there was a little extra fiery half-time speech or something. They took a little bit longer again on the field.

I think Brazilian Shakira's show probably threw them off. Well, the charges were on the field already. The charges were, like, ready to play. But Andy, like, held them in the tunnel and then ran them out like it was the beginning in a national championship game. I did notice. I actually thought that the broadcast had gone back to the beginning. I thought it might my stream like,

it looked like the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. They were like, oh, Mr. Beast isn't in on his mark. Restart the game

until we can get Mr. Beast ready. Okay. Side note. That broadcast is not for me and you, obviously. The beginning of the broadcast, my daughter knew every single person

on the YouTube intro. Oh, was it Skibbidi? Was it Skibbidi, or whatever? They were like, they were like, the YouTube intro was sort

like half NFL personalities and half YouTube personalities. They did like an intro together. She yelled out every person. She knew everyone. Everyone in the intro. They went down to like the guy on the field. He's like, man, the NFL players are big. Back to you, Rich.

It's like great, great update. Thank you for the update. I like Rich and Kurt Warner. So they were fine to me. But that broadcast gave a lot for a lot of us, not for me and you. Nonetheless. Maybe a little bit for me, but not for you. What are you in a YouTube?

I'm very hit. I'm very hit. I fully understood what the bills posted yesterday as their game recap. I get what the youngs are up to. I did not get that. I know you said that to us and you blamed Hank's generation. I didn't get that. I just saw that for three seconds.

I'm not watching this video. I just, as for the audience, please go check out the bills on social media and watch the one minute clip they posted after the biggest, like, win in their, you know, team's history, basically.

And tell me if you, understand a single second of it. And I just do like, and I go on TikTok, I see the trends. My daughter does the TikTok dance. I know what's up with some of that, but nonetheless, okay. The Chiefs come down and score, make a 13, 12. The missed PAT was a huge, I think, like, emotional blow for the Chiefs. It doesn't matter.

He missed the PAT. And the Chargers scored touchdown immediately afterwards. How many years, Gabe, have we seen, would the charges have blown that next drive? She just get the ball back. They score a touchdown. Now it's 2013. and the charges are totally defeated. It said the Chargers went touchdown and touchdown

and then ran the clock out to end the game. That's not what they've done in previous years' game. So the Chargers felt like they matured and they're able to close out a game in a proper fashion. Not the Chiefs. Obviously, Xavier Ward the Out for a little bit, Rishi writes it already out. They're back to like square one with wide receivers.

There's rumors that Tyree Kill might be traded back to them because he's obviously having a terrible time in Miami. My biggest concern for the, the Chiefs is actually their pass rush and lack their lack there of game we spent so much time after the Super Bowl talking about their offense and what the Eagles did to their offense and and Kelsey and all this stuff and and what Jalen Hertz did and whatnot the chiefs did not touch Jalen Hertz the entire game if they can't get home with four which is four pass rushers right and then seven in you know playing defense behind them in zone or main coverage they do not hit

the quarterback and we saw the charge offensive line play fantastic if you can't hit the quarterback, eventually your secondary is going to fail. And the chiefs can hit the quarterback. If they bring extra defenders, they blitz. We know Spags or D.C. loves to blitz. But then the problem obviously is you leave a lot of your secondary pieces and one-on-one coverage. If you don't get home in time, the quarterback will make you pay.

And Justin Herbert's final touchdown to Jefferson, 35 to 1, by the way, to score two touchdowns, was just they blocked up a pressure, man coverage. He ran away from the corner or the safety, whoever it was, and touched. So that's my biggest concern. They'll get Xavier Worthy and Rishi Rice back. Like they'll figure that out. There's no getting anyone back on defense. You have a couple of young guys that they were drafted.

They hope have to develop. And so that's why maybe by week 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, that pass rush has developed. But right now if Chris Jones doesn't win immediately, they have no way to affect the quarterback. And that's the biggest problem. Do you think that that's what was going on between him and tranquil? Was he basically saying that to Jones?

Like, dude, what do you want from me? Get your ass at the quarterback. No, no, no. So when you rush the pass, there actually is a plan of attack. And so if you're going to go inside like Jones did, there needs to be someone who is outside of you. And there was not a defender outside of Jones. They were playing man coverage, I think, I think two man. And so you can't rush inside and let Herbert get out.

You're the contain guy. You're, now you can squeeze the pocket from outside in, and maybe if Herbert steps up, then you go inside and take it. But you can't win inside immediately because no one's on the outside. And I think you were saying, just do your freaking job, dude. Like, you have a contain rush, keep your outside shoulder free. You can rush the passers as hard as you want, but you've got to make sure Herbert stays in the pocket.

And that's what happened there. And I think, look, with guys like Chris Jones, you do give them the option to basically do what they want if they get home. and he didn't. He didn't get home. Now, if he goes inside and Sacks Herbert or flushes him out and he doesn't get a first down,

we're going to applaud Chris Jones for that rush. But that's not what happened. He got Herbert broken Tane. I think a lot of us felt this way. If the chiefs stop Herbert there, I don't know about you. I thought they were going to win the game.

They're absolutely going to drive down the field and win the game. And it didn't happen. So give the charges credit, man. Herbert was fantastic. And we've been waiting from take sort that next little leap up. and it felt like he did that in this game.

Yeah, well, settling down with well-known Madison Beer must have done him a lot of good. Of course, those of us who pay attention to Madison Beer's career were not surprised to see that she had a great effect on him. You said, tweeted, I rather, that Joe Alt will never move back to the right side after one game.

And I'd just like to know why you think that. Oh, I thought this would have happened. tweet this out at the time. Yeah, why did you, oh, sorry. Okay, well, so. Did it confirm anything week one? Well, yeah, he was unbelievable. So Harbaugh drafted Joe Alt, and that's Harbaugh's guy.

And I think when you draft a guy like Alt and he ends up being your left tackle, and Harbaugh's an old school coach, left tackle, still considered right the premium of the offense line positions. And when he plays that well, he's just never leaving that position. Like he is, he's 6, 8, 3, 15. He's going to be an all pro at that position. He's going to be fantastic. And Slater's coming off injury.

You're just going to move Slater back to right tackle probably, where he played in college a decent amount after the injury and leave all left tackle. I just don't think he's going back. If Harbaugh had drafted Slater and had this connection to him, maybe Slater keeps left tackle. But Joe Al was Harbaugh's first pick, man. And he's built in a freaking factory in a lab for offensive lineman. So I do think that this is all its job forever now.

All right. Well, we can check the tape again in a year or two whenever we need to. We're supposed to talk Jets Steelers. I got to be honest with you, man. I just don't want to do that. Yeah, we're just skip it. You know, there's storylines there. There's fields.

There's Rogers. The Jets jett's, right? Like, whatever. Let's talk about Iron Rogers for the full hour if we need to in a week or two, if they keep winning. They got the Seahawks. Then they're, at the Pats and the Vikings.

Interesting stretch. But we agree, Aaron Rogers. He's not on the band list, but he's like temporarily, not until we see more. It's also just week one. That game with high scoring was, I think, a surprise of the weekend. I mean, 66 points, right? 34, 32. Good win for them.

Jets should have won. But look, good for me. I have Jets under and then the Steelers to me. Good opportunity at some point to bet they're under midway through the season when the schedule gets tougher. All right, Gabe. So how about this? Video viewers, don't go anywhere. If you're listening, we'll be back in a second.

All right, we're back. The rundown, which in previous years, I wasn't supposed to read on Tuesdays with us, Gabe. I've been reading the rundown. I'm sorry, I've been cheating a little bit. Not everything. I know they're so surprised as my... I've not read what game we're playing now.

I think I have an idea of what we're doing, but you have a game for me, so let's do it. Yes, I would like one-word answers. The show has your name on it. You can break the rule. as much as you like. But my preference would be you give one word, gut reaction to the following things that I say.

All right? And then if we need to expand, we will. Here we go. One word, please. Your response to seeing Jalen Hertz. Underrated. Underrated, still? Yeah, I don't think people don't give him the credit he deserves still.

He's just a professional football player who does his job at a high level, and I don't think he gets enough credit. So I don't think he's the best throw. of the football. But man, dude just makes all the plays he's supposed to make, Gabe. By the way,

what Lamar did not figure out a way to do to ice that game, Jalen. He always does. He always does. He always makes the right play. By the way,

I think Caleb Williams is Jalen Hertz with a better arm, but we'll have many weeks to debate. When you let, when you let Caleb Williams just run for the three yards you need, he gets it he finds a way he's untackable when he's just trying to get you three if he

yeah i am curious if i'm curious if ben jonson does a little more rpo stuff that's obviously not what he did in detroit with with but you starts using him design run more like they do with her to jane daniels and some of those other quarterbacks it's just not fair with it with a guy like like u s c did yeah yeah like u sc did where it's like what are you supposed to do the guy's a monster he's almost as big as cam newton and he's just running full spreeks speed and all he needs to do is dive for three yards. Like you're not stopping them. Correct.

All right. Next up. Green Bay Packers. Division winners. Two words. I'll give it to you. Do you want to go further than division winner? Not yet.

I think the Packers were very impressive. Maybe impressive is the right word. Impressive in their lines performance. They have the feel of a team that knows they're really good, Gabe, which is an important, um, important to, to know that, you know, that to feel that. I think it seems to pose that confidence, um, it's good to have that swagger. I'm going to sneak this in here. Matt Lafleur suggesting that, you know, Green Bay fans selling their tickets to Lions fans, the fans did something wrong. Josh Allen sort of jokingly referred to the fans who left early and sort of implied the

fans should just stay in their seats until it's over. Guys, we're the fan, we paid. We can do whatever we want with our seats, okay? I do think, I do think selling them is a little bit, I mean, it's fine, I guess. I don't owe them anything. Well, I get it. It's week one, though. You're selling your tickets in week one? I don't know.

I feel like week one is like. It's not my high school team and my town, the community I have to support. I paid a lot of money. If I can get more value selling it, I got things to do. I'm going to do that. I don't need to hear coach shame me for wanting to sell my tickets. Leaving early is something I got used to have. to go from the Rose Bowl back to the west side.

So I get the leaving early part of it. And we, Sunday night. It's like midnight. You got to get home. I don't disagree that one. People drive from another freaking country to get to the Bills games. What are we talking about here?

I agree with some of that, not all of it. All right, I'll take it. Nerd boy. Underwhelming, man. Fired, fire.

Fireball. That's Mike McDaniel, obviously. Dolphins are, ooh, buddy. They are bad. They are uncompetitively bad. Under-prepared.

He's getting fired immediately. Very soon. I don't know when it's going to happen, but he's just not fit for that job anymore. Rex Ryan was on ESPN and said, McGenius guy or whatever the hell he is, nerd boy, their team has no respect for their coach.

They play like that. They're soft, every part of their football team. Now, I personally think Mike McDaniel is destined for what Rex is trying to do, which is to be the most interesting person on a set with six guys talking football. Mike McDaniel will be a perfect ESPN morning analyst. But yeah, man, is there some truth to this soft idea? Does he coach a soft team? Yeah, it's how you practice honestly, Gabe.

Look, I think sometimes offensive coaches, their practice style is a little bit softer than defensive coaches. Defense coaches want to hit a little bit more. Sometimes your style of offense can lead to a little bit of softness. It's just, it's a small degree. Look, I've said this forever about USC, not to bring USC into this, but I think like they don't practice the way they should to be champions. I've said that forever.

I just think that that's not the way USC is. And I'll talk about my school. Like Oregon practices a certain way, man. Georgia, like the Ohio State, like these do, they practice a certain way. Nick Saban for so many years, right? I mean, look, the knock on Nick Sabin players, was that they were too beat up coming out of college

to be good in the NFL. That was a knock. It was too physical Alabama to be ready to play in the NFL. A lot of guys got hurt in the NFL because of that. And so there's a certain way you have to practice to win. I mean, Andy Reid is a rare offensive coach who everyone who's ever played for Andy Reid.

I did as well. My brother, Travis Kel talks about it. Mahomes all I was going to talk about it. It's a tough ass training camp, man. It's hitting, it's physicality, it's practice. So, yes, you can set the tone. by the way you practice. And some coaches, especially offensive coaches,

tend to favor getting offensive working in practice. That means sometimes you just don't hit as much. All right. For this next one, please observe the one word rule so we can just keep moving. Russell Wilson. Predictable. All right. Travis Hunter.

What's a one word? It's not a one word. Interesting. I'm interested to see what they do. He didn't play that much defense. I thought was going to be the case. But when he got the ball in his hand, man, it was some flash offensively. Yeah, there was also a long stoppage over an hour in that game.

I wondered if that might impact how they chose to use him. That's a long time in sticky weather, right, to just like not be playing. Yes. Yeah, that seemed like they had to be careful. Week two will be fun for him. Cam Ward. Intrigued. Really intrigued?

He made some really good throws. His receivers didn't catch him. I thought he played much better than he would. on the road against a really good defense. Okay. By the way, family members of professional athletes, chill, you're not the story. Pete Carroll.

I didn't watch a second end of this game. I just, it was not interesting to me. I had zero wagers on it. But I will say that I'm not surprised that a Pete Carroll team was ready to play football on NFL Sunday. Like they were, they looked ready, they were prepared,

they played better than New England like I've seen the highlights of course but like they just look like a Pete Carroll team I'm not surprised Were you at all worried for Brock Bowers? They said it I think I saw David Chow said it's a

ankle not an ACO I think So that's fine Good better Who is like Bill Belichick Gabe I think you've won I do not care Do not care at all about Belichick anymore I just don't care.

I think the way to say that in one word for the Gen Z audience would be unsurious. I do use that word a lot. Unsurious. I just don't care. I mean, like, I just,

at least when Dion came to college football, there was like a personality and a flare and bravado. And I know they're trying to compare those two situations. And like Bill Boucher is just like, there's nothing to gain from, he didn't say anything ever.

But he banned the Patriots kickers. Oh, okay. Like, not kickers. That's putting the rundown. He banned the Patriots from attending practice. Like that's a story of the week

for Bill Belichick. I don't care. Yeah, he banned them because he was banned from the Patriots. Correct. Yeah, okay. You said kickers. So not just kickers,

but kickers and their new soft balls. What did I miss? Did I miss a story here? They got new balls. They're not as hard anymore? I don't even know. They have sports. special new K balls. The kickers get to use special balls, yet they can't kick anything straight.

Larry David was, this was such an annoying week of kickers. Larry David was right. Cancel kicking, right? Good. Time saver. We're going to have to say it every week here. They're going on the band list soon. But man, brutal. The Atlanta game, the Cleveland game, a bunch of different over-unders affected by idiotic kickers who can't make kicks. Also, 41, Matt Prater, 41, that's not relax everyone uh i have a mad i have a matt prater joke i have to share with you via text message because i play with him for very short time of the short he said one of the funniest things i've ever anyone's ever said to me on a football field i can't repeat it um but it made me cry laugh laughter on the field in a preseason game so continue no i'd like to stay here for a minute you're

saying that matt praeter the guy i've i've seen what matt praeter looks like matt prater said something so NSFW that you can't say it on this podcast. That's very surprising. I don't know if it's... We got kids listening. It's not a kid's joke. Many kids are listening. I don't know. In the car with your parents. It was, it was, it was, I could, I guess I care.

So do you care if I say it? He basically came out to me and he said, oh, we're going to skip it. I'll text it to you. It's okay. All right. You know who, you know, a kid and his parent who probably are listening right now? shout out to Trond Grizzle and his mom. So his mom followed me.

I know. I don't, do we try to get him on? Did it work out? We're trying to make contact with Trond Grizzle, yes. Okay. All right, good. Trond Grizzle could be coming soon.

By the way, the day to watch Trond Grizzle is Saturdays, but the NFL, apparently, is thinking about taking Saturdays of Labor Day and making it their day four days straight of NFL football. Guys, nobody needs this.

We don't need this. Jeff, one word for this. No. ridiculous. I needed, unwanted. Right. Like, why, what is this? This is like adding, you know, more toppings on your 16 handles yogurt.

Like, just take the three or four. You don't need a hundred. Correct. Okay, good. I'm glad we're in agreement because you love football more than anyone I know. But I thought this is just insane. I'll do college. I'll stick with college on Labor Day.

It's a great, it's a great college football weekend. All right. Last couple, let's round it out here. I'm going to go a little out order. Saints, jerseys speaking of college. Gross. Gross. College like.

Even my son said, why is a college team playing on Sunday? He saw that and I guess he thought it was Vanderbilt or something. Gross. Hideous. All right. Last one. Green dildos. Do you remember when the dildo thing was happening in the WMBA and their players were like,

please protect us, we're going to get hurt? and they made a huge scene out of it. And I just said at the time, I think, on this show, like, why? Just laugh, LOL, like a green devil stone on your field. Like that, I didn't even know this happened because NFL fans and players just don't even care. They're like, whatever, man. Let's watch a football game. And I thought WMBA, their players made a strategic error in making, like, this a big scene.

Like, either embrace it, but don't complain about player safety and, like, how dare they do this to us? Like, just it is what it is. I mean, it's dumb. I think it's dumb. And just ignore it and move it along. Yeah. I agree. However, it's being thrown from just a few feet away and you have no, you know,

pads on on a basketball court. And here it was like hurled from God knows where and like, you know, landed near a ref. Do you think the official was like, hey, hon, or the wife was like, hey, how was your day goes? I had to take a green dill don't throw it off the field. If he didn't tell her and she's watching, now she knows that was what his job assignment was the other day. All right. Last one, I just want to tell you briefly that my son, I had to sit him down and explain a bad beat to him on Sunday night. I thought it was a nice parenting moment that you would have appreciated.

You were on the Ravens? We had, well, so he's, you know, he's seven. And so he's in a fantasy league against his friends. Okay. It's fun. Me and a bunch of dads, we help the kids pick their teams. And so I asked him to go to bed. I said, don't worry, we're winning.

It's fine. It was down to the only two players left were Lamar Jackson on our team and Jared Allen. Oh, no. Yeah. And I told him to go to bed. I said, it's fine. We're going to win. And he kept like yelling down.

He said, dad, is it over? and so when the fumble happened, I was like, oh God. Like he's going to get six more and it's going to be out of reach. But I thought there was still a chance for Lamar to like throw a few completions and end up winning. And so he came down at about 9 p.m. West Coast when the game was officially over. And I sat him on the couch. I was like, I have to explain what a bad beat is to you.

And I walked him through it. And I was like, buddy, this is the first bad beat of your life. It won't be the last. It won't be the last. I was on the bill, so I appreciate that. I went to bed. I'm not going to lie. I went to bed, and I woke up to the bills winning, which was wonderful.

So how about this? We'll take a quick break. If your video audience, stay here. Audio wants, we're back a second, and then we'll, we've got to find a way to wrap this up quickly, Gabe. I know you got to run, I got to run. We have some things to get to. We can maybe save the ban list for another time.

We'll debate that next. Stay tuned. All right, Gabe, we're back. Do you want to do, I'm like, dealer's choice here, college football or a band list? What do you want to get to? What do you think? I would like to put a couple of college football topics on the band list

so we can combine it all. You ready? Okay, let's go. Texas is banned unless you think there's something wrong with Archmanning's arm. There was this whole thing about him. I noticed that when I was watching the game, like he was squinting as he was throwing. And maybe it's one of those tennis things.

Like you grunt when you hit, you know, like when you hit the tennis ball. So like when you throw, maybe it's like a grunting thing. You know some some pitchers, right? As they throw, they make a grunt sometimes. Maybe that's his grunt as he throws the ball. It's rare for football. I don't know, but Texas offense was,

I'm okay with the Texas offense. Like I, it's, buddy, it's not good right now. They didn't play Will Wagon and San Jose State. They scored because San Jose State turned the ball over a bunch of times. All right. Florida. Band list. I'm sorry, guys.

You have to have two relevant seasons. in a row for us to talk about you again. Yeah, I'm okay. I think I warn people, not on this show possibly, because we were off a little bit in the summer months. But I warn people in Florida, man. I just, lagway, I think it's good, but just wasn't healthy.

And obviously, they can't lose these games, man, if you're Florida, and you want to build the way Napier wants to build. Okay. Last one. Definitely not on the band list. Something had you super fired up about your Oregon Ducks. A lot to like.

there. Why are you so excited about the Ducks two weeks in? We're just really good, Gabe. I don't know if we're winning a championship this year. I think that's probably a little bit aggressive for where our roster is at the moment. But, you know, there's a, there's a level of domination. I know it's Montana at Oklahoma State, but, you know, 69 to 3 is like not, it's a powerful team we're playing. And the starting defense hasn't allowed a touchdown yet. The backups didn't allow a touchdown against Oklahoma State. Dante Moore, it's just a very good team, man.

The offense is kicking ass. They got, you know, our two deep and our secondary. So basically five guys, or if you include the nickel, so the five secondary players, I think eight of those guys are in their first year playing, whether they're true freshman, redshirt freshman, or J.C. transfers. I mean, like, it's a young team playing really well. look, we have Northwestern Oregon State and then we go to Penn State.

So week five will be the big test for us. I'll be in this weekend in Chicago for the Oregon games. It'll be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing that Temp Stadium in Northwestern, 15,000 seats, game, and a temp stadium in Northwestern. Will you be sitting next to our buddy, Dan Rubinstein? I am. We're going together.

Dan and I are going together. So I'm going to his house Friday night for pizza. I cannot wait. And then I am going to sit with him for the game. It's a big new kickoff is there too. It's 11th Central kickoff. Like get up, drink your coffee, have a breakfast burrito, and go. go watch football.

Pretty great day. Okay, so to recap here, we've got our band list. I've jokingly, I didn't actually add Texas. We got to talk with them. Florida, I think, is on it. A couple other submissions here.

There's the current band list. I want to just quickly throw three possibilities at you. Okay. Do we need to add the dolphins to the band list? Yeah, they're going to, unless I fade them, unless I'm, I mean,

we will talk about them on Thursdays because I'll fade them, but they're just interesting. The Tuesday band list. Yeah, I think the, the dolphins are going to, finished with two or three wins. There are no reason to talk about them. So I'm good with that.

Okay, they're going on there, Hank. I don't want to put these guys here, but I guess there's a consensus. We need to consider Kyler Murray and the Cardinals going on the band list. Why? I think we're a little harsh on that maybe, but they're just kind of boring. Like, what is there, every year, what are we,

they're going to win like seven or eight games. And they're just the same team every year. No. You're not focusing on fantasy football enough if you find them boring. are pivotal in a lot of leagues for a lot of reasons. Well, I won my fantasy league by a point last night because Jordan Mason had a bunch of yards. I appreciate Jordan Mason.

Thank you. Okay. Well, I'm not prepared as a 50-50 vote on the ban list for Tuesdays. We're not putting them on yet. This last one I strongly object to putting on the band list, but I feel like you're going to try to convince me my boy, Kurt Benkirt. Why's

he going on the band list? So I don't follow him. He doesn't follow me. But whenever I have a take about football, okay? Uh-huh. And I read my replies. The people that disagree with me tag a tweet of his. And it's exact, every time I have a take, he is the exact opposite take,

which I think puts me right where I want to be with how I feel about football. So I'm very proud of that, that we have very opposite takes on everything. But I just don't rage bait. Like, I don't rage bait tweets, and his tweets are just rage baiting. So I don't, I'm not going to block him on social media. I just don't want to see his tweets ever. I don't want to see them. I don't want people to tag me in his tweets.

I don't need to see them ever. There's nothing that they have said. But again, I get tagged. They send them to me. I don't see them. They get sent to me. And they're just the most ludicrous stuff ever. Like enforce all the rules.

And I was like, well, what rules do you want to enforce? It was like, no, this only wants this one thing enforced. Well, then you don't say enforce all the rules. Like stuff like that, right? Where it's like, it's just rage baiting people to reply. I get sucked in, Gabe. I get sucked in. I'm sorry.

Well, it's causing rage. for you. For me, tweets like this one we have on screen are pretty good point. NFL coaches need to play more Madden. The Bears should be getting the ball back with 50 seconds left, but instead they're getting it back with 10. Simple clock management, but they aren't as dialed in as you think. I think that's a great point. What does Madden have to do with clock management? His point is that like, he loves Madden, he plays a lot of men. His point is that there are things you can learn in like simulations about clock management that would do a real life coach some actual good because too many of them screw up this kind of stuff. Maybe if they played more Madden, I'll put that in

air quotes, they would actually know these situations better. So the situation we're talking about is the bears should have kicked the ball either out of bounds or actually if the ball does not reach the landing zone, it's a penalty, it's dead ball. I didn't know that. JJ Jensen, thank you. Penthouse Longsapper for tweeting me last night about this. Instead he kicked the ball in the end Arizona was returned out and they lost essentially the game because of it. What does playing Madden have to do with knowing that? Like, is that a thing that happens in Madden very often? There's a minute left and two minutes left and you kick the ball out of bounds.

You should know that because you're NFL head coach who should go over every situation and know what the plan is in every situation. I don't know why playing video games would matter there. Hey, Jeff, you're going to take a flight to Chicago, right? Yes. Would you like your pilot in his? downtime to be like just going to the gym and screwing around, maybe going to the bar or whatever, or would you like his downtime to be spent in a flight simulator?

What do you think coaches do? Do you think their downtime is spent? They spend 14 hours a day at the facility. What are you talking about? Every second of your life to be about getting things right on the football field, if you're making millions as my head coach. They're there from 6 o'clock in the morning to like 2 a.m. every day. That's what they're doing.

That's a four-hour window where we can be playing. I'm just saying squeeze a couple games and get online find some tough competition. I play a bunch of college football when I have time. And CFP 26, zero times. Have I ever been like, you know what? We kick the ball out of bounds here. And then this is going to help me if I'm ever a head coach. I'm just, it's enough.

Enough for the rage bait tweets. Okay. He's not in a band list. I guess not. Hey, congrats, Kurt. You're not on the band list. You, you, because of you. You and him are, you saved them from the band list.

The tweets are ridiculous. Like, you can't say, I don't, just end on with this. I got to get out of here too. I just, Gabe, I don't get the people that watch sports and want there to be more penalties. You know, like, I just don't get, I don't get those people. That was my pushback on a lot of this, right? Like, when you say enforce the rules as written. that's not really the way society is for the most part, right?

They're like, right? But also too, like in the NFL, rules are enforced, obviously all the determination of the official for the most part, unless like a false start, things like that. But they're discretionary of the official. And of course, there are times when the NFL has told officials, hey, like, we're not going to call this. And very clearly on a tush push,

they're not calling the players for being in the neutral zone because they're not, okay? And it's not a thing. That's not a penalty they call very often. And when we say enforce all neutral zone and fractions, well, then does that count wide receivers? Because they're often in neutral zone when they line up. Does that count field goal? When players are in a neutral zone as they line up, does that count goal line plays?

Like, what is it? And it turns out that people just don't like the tush push. They only want to enforce them. And if you say that, fine. We should enforce it on the tush push. I don't like this play. It's too easy. Okay, fine.

But when the people say enforce all the rules as written, Gabe, you don't actually want that. No one wants 85 penalty flags in a game. And this has been officiated the same way now for like five seasons. And people still complain about it. It's just to get attention on the Internet. Like that's what it's about. And so I just push back on the idea of enforce all rules because no one actually wants that game.

It's fun to stay on the Internet, but you actually don't want all the rules enforced. Personally, when I'm playing Madden, I love it when there's more flags. I think it's great for the game. How much Madden, how much Maddie do you play in the last calendar year? I haven't played since Genesis. Jeff, I think we got to. got to go. The rule I'm enforcing is we've gone almost an hour. We've talked about green dildos and Ferris Bueller and God knows what else. I think we're done.

We're done. Talk to you guys on Thursday with Matt. We'll preview all the games. We did with three and two last week. Good start to the NFL season. We'll be back with Gabe on Tuesday. Take care, everyone. Have a good couple of days.