Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Herbert’s Ascendance, Rodgers’ Big Win, and the Chiefs Hit the Panic Button

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

Geoff and Gabe open with a deep dive into Kansas City’s loss to the LA Chargers this Sunday, starting with all the issues facing the Chiefs, what to expect from Josh Gordon, what this win means for Herbert and (Gabe’s new favorite team) the Chargers. They also break down what could’ve been a NFC semifinal preview this weekend, Rams vs. Bucs and Packers vs. Niners. The Rams look like world beaters with a locked-in Stafford under center, Rodgers pulled off a very un-Rodgers-like win that should be a huge boost to Green Bay’s confidence, and Brady and the Bucs learn the hard way that the NFC is a lot deeper than it was last year.Geoff and Gabe struggle to find rhyme or reason in the AFC North, but one thing is clear: Roethlisberger is washed. On Moving the Line, Geoff shares whether he thinks the Bills are now the team to beat in the AFC, what’s up with the Ole Miss-Bama line, and Gabe finally explains why he hates kickers.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday september 28th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz smarter than you powered by the varsity podcast network wow what a weekend of nfl action it is already three weeks down it's a little longer this year of 18 regular season weeks we had the extra game uh but long enough to maybe make some judgments about teams game so uh welcome to the podcast how was your weekend minus Minus being a Jets fan. No, not a Jets fan anymore. Pay attention, Jeff. I'm done with the Jets. Yeah, you're a Chargers fan now. Yes, I get it. I'm a Chargers fan. And since I'm a bandwagon guy, what the hell? Let me be on two bandwagons

at once. I'm an LA football guy. I'm done with the Trojans. I'm in on the Rams. I'm in on the Chargers. This podcast is powered by Los Angeles professional football. Give it to me, Jeff. I mean, just about five years ago, Rams came to LA, I believe, right? In 16 or 17. And it was not looking very good. They got Sean McVay. Things picked up a little bit.

Now the Chargers are making a roaring entrance into the LA market with Justin Herbert. SoFi Stadium looks outstanding. It's going to be Monday Night Football this week. Raiders, Chargers in LA. So lots happening in Los Angeles. We're going to start with a game that happened in Kansas City though. It happened in Kansas City, but my Chargers beat your Chiefs. The Chiefs are below 500 for the first time since 2015. So Pat is in unfamiliar territory. They turned the ball over four times. It felt like Bosa was just next to Pat Mahomes in every critical spot.

Their defense sucks. I don't know any other more intelligent way to say it, Jeff. You'll explain. Jeff, every time we talk about the Chiefs since I've known you, you say, don't panic. They're okay. Don't overreact. There's no other way to read this. since I've known you. You say, don't panic. They're okay. Don't overreact. There's no other way to read this.

You and your boy Nick Wright are the only two people in the whole world being homers for the Chiefs right now. It is panic time. Panic. Everybody, our pets' heads are falling off. Freak out. Panic. Let's all panic.

No. Look, not ideal, obviously, right? They've had 11 possessions over the last game, Chargers game, and the last one with the Ravens. they turn the ball over five times not good right it's just not good um yesterday though they had 33 first downs and 437 yards like their offense moved the ball fine when they didn't turn the ball over and so i think it's as simple as hey let's be smarter with the football right pat mahomes tried on the first. It was not a no-look pass. Guys, he looks at who he's throwing to.

Like, come on. He knows where he's throwing the ball. And, you know, it was a little hot off the wide receiver's hands. Tipped up. Great diving catch. Clyde Edwards-Hilaire fumbled another time. Pat kind of threw an arm punt later in the game as well. It just wasn't a very crisp game from the Chiefs.

That being said, right, they easily could have beat the Ravens two games ago, and they could beat the Chargers. It wasn't like the Chargers won this game easily, right? They won at the very end of this game. Hold on, hold on. They easily could have lost the Super Bowl they won. You don't get credit for easily could have. Sure, but my idea is that the season's not over.

There was no reason to panic on the Chiefs, right? And because of those reasons. Here's where the Chiefs need to get better. A couple things. One, they have to realize their margin of error is smaller now, okay? A couple things, right? One, you're getting every team's best game. Every team's best game.

Because you are the Kansas City Chiefs, especially in that division. And what you've done the last three seasons has been three straight championship games and two Super Bowls. You get everyone's best shot. The margin for error is smaller because your team is just not as good. It's not as talented, right? Especially on the defense side of the ball. And we'll get to some problems on offense in a second.

On the defense side of the ball, Frank Clark might have the worst contract to all sports. Okay? He's like the fourth highest paid player in all the NFL right now, Gabe. And he does not contribute to them at all. He did not play this past weekend and he when he's on the field, he's almost non-existent. They have no pass rush, right? They have Chris Jones, who's playing well, but he's now playing defensive end

to make up for the issues at depth, at the defensive end position. Linebackers, they're young. Secondary, they're okay. I thought they played much better this week than they had against the Browns or the Ravens, but they're just not as good as they were when they were in the Super Bowl. Offensively, five new offensive linemen.

Interesting. The three teams with five new guys, I believe, are the Bears, Steelers, and Chiefs. Not covering the spread very well, right? It's been a little tough early on. But the inside three, I think, are playing pretty well. I've been asked a bunch. I got to watch the game from yesterday with Chiefs and Char. I'vebon asked a lot about the offense a lot I don't have the film yet everyone's asking me my general sense is this inside three Joe Tooney Creed Humphries Trey

Smith are fine the the tackles are not Eric Fisher my brother it's that simple right they're just not as good right now and I think they're gonna get there I'm not so worried about the offensive line Tony Romo talked about this yesterday Travis Kelsey Kelsey, obviously elite Hall of Famer, Tyreek Hill, elite player. They kind of need just one more guy, just someone that can be reliable. I'm not saying it has to be another Hall of Fame wide receiver, but just another option, just someone where if you double Hill, you double Kelsey, it just kind of is open seven times a game maybe. If you're getting single coverage as a wide receiver the entire game, you got to get more open than the Chiefs guys are getting so it's not a panic in my opinion not panic mode now but that's what I see from Kansas City but I will

say if you're a Chargers fan man you should feel pretty happy about where you're at right now well I am long time yeah long time Charger fan look you had Joey Bosa playing this game with a bum ankle. You obviously had some issues with injuries in the offensive line as well. Again, some curious decision-making, even though I'll back up Staley on what happened at the end of the game. I think that was the right thing to do to score a touchdown. It's so funny, man. The way we talk about this, like people are upset they scored too many points and gave Mahomes the opportunity to, you know,

to have a Hail Mary in this situation. Like, to me, as an offensive player, I'll tell you from my personal experience, when you're in a two-minute drill, slowing down sometimes makes it worse, right? The defense is on their heels, and now you give them time to rest, time to snap count,

kind of think about what's about to happen. And so sometimes you just snap the ball and play. You know, the guy over and you just get ready to go and you hope your defense can cannot allow Aaron Rodgers to go you know 100 yards in 37 seconds for a field goal like sometimes it's your defense to make a play so nonetheless I just I think that everyone says hey just just take your time chargers just just kick a field goal or just do this and that like it's I would like there to be some way for them to be in that moment and them to experience kind of what we're going through as players and coaches in that moment yeah it's very easy to prepare for it when we're talking me and

you or when we're watching film or during the week but it's just like it's that pressure of the game and the stress of the game and figuring out what's happening i like what the chargers did they went for the juggernaut they got it and they won the game you gotta feel good right the charge if i think i've had three or four touchdowns called back because the penalties as well like they're playing better than i think their numbers even indicate and so i would imagine that you're feeling pretty good right now um if you're a chargers fan yeah of course i mean herbert looks like the best quarterback in the league right now. And Keenan Allen and Mike Williams are the best receiving combo in the league. I get it, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey. But I mean, they look damn good. And when they get a

little healthier on defense, you know, the star players on that defense have not been 100% yet. Derwin James also coming out on off the field. Like they've got a few guys who've sort of become guys who look like they could be real players in the NFL, but I, yeah, I think they're on the way up. Not this is, they feel a little bit Jetsy to me. I'll be honest because they do these really insanely stupid things and they make every game more, way more stressful than it needs to be. I mean, what, what's with the offensive line, like in the shifting and a lot of weird penalties being called in chargers games. They're doing less of charger things than they had in the past yeah but still a lot of just like oh of course the chargers did this yeah it's it feels charger-ish

but it's it's less chargery so the coach are we blaming the coach for like illegal shifts and sort of process errors that they're making in key spots? The thing about it is people were upset because, you know, they basically gave the Chiefs too much time by trying to score a touchdown and not just kicking a field goal. But if you saw, their kicker immediately missed the extra point. Oh, yeah, yeah. And supposedly Justin Herbert changed the play. He just decided that he wanted to throw the ball

and not pass in that situation and not run in that situation too. He just did that on his own. So I don't know how you blame the coaches for herbert assigned to do that on his own no i was you're right i mean the fourth and nine and the throw to williams right at the goal line are you know those are gutsy calls and staley gets some credit herbert gets some credit it worked out i'm talking about the the mistakes they're making with the illegal shifts and oh yeah that's a little bit of coaching right i mean that's part of as well um the mistakes they're making with illegal shifts and lots of offensive line penalties. That's a little bit of coaching, right? I mean, that's part of it as well.

So look, it's a new coach, right? Like it's his first time being a head coach. And he's a young coach too, right? He isn't coached very much in the NFL. And I would imagine he gets better as the year goes on with some of those things. So the Chargers lose that heartbreaker with the Cowboys, but otherwise are off to a pretty nice start. Yes.

So we got to take them seriously. But I want to go back to the Chiefs for a minute because you said a lot of things that I feel like need a little bit of follow-up. Okay. So first of all, their defense does suck, okay? You can say that you see some things you like but it was better than it was previously I mean I mean it was that bad previously so what I see is receivers are always open or they're committing pass interference on the receivers who are not open their cornerbacks

don't look like they can cover anyone and if Mahomes is going to put up 30 something every week you better believe good teams are also going to throw the ball a ton. And that's going to put a lot of pressure on those cornerbacks. So how do they get better out on the outside? They looked totally lost in key spots yesterday. I don't know. Hope that coaching kicks in and you kind of get some cohesiveness. I know Chiefs fans have wanted to play Juan Thornhill a little bit more.

But part of that is a pass rush, right? I mean, part of the way to help a secondary is to rush the passer. Chiefs don't have that right now, and that's a big part of what they're missing. So maybe bringing pressure is the way to go, but finding ways to get home the quarterback will be the first way, I think, to help.

Yeah, okay. And then, Pat, you made it very clear you're not yet concerned. But I have to ask, like, are the two guys on the edges, are they contributing to why he's running around and throwing the ball into stupid spots? Like, the pivotal pick that he throws, it looks like he's bombing it to Kelsey into, like, triple coverage. But he had Bosa in his face.

Is that because people aren't blocking correctly or he passed just suddenly getting a little too loose with the ball? Dude, like I said, man, I don't know. I actually have the film that I'm trying to download while we're doing this. I can watch it afterwards. I don't know.

I need to watch this game on film to really know what is – if the offensive line is – you're like the fourth person asking this, man. Like everyone's asking about the offensive line. I need to watch this game to really give you a good answer. And I know it sounds kind of silly to say that, but I had eight games going at once at 1 o'clock, and so I wasn't like dialed in completely to the Chiefs offensive line

like I have been in the past mitch obviously is not there anymore so it's hard to tell you right now who's at fault what's at fault and why it's not happening as people thought it would well you played a line in the nfl and know this team exceptionally well i am the guy on the podcast who tees you up but i'm gonna give you a you a little hint here. It's Pat's fault. It's not the line. He's running around like a crazy person. And I have mentioned that Pat's pocket presence at times is not as good as we'd like it to be.

So that's not anything new, right? But again, when you have a quarterback who just kind of at times has made a lot of plays outside the pocket, that sometimes is bread and butter when things aren't going well. And I think when guys are not open, and I think at times, again, they were doubled, Kelsey and Hill were doubled, you just tend to take off and run and try to make plays outside the pocket. I think generally speaking, though, Pat has done a much better job

of staying in the pocket than he had last year. He's trying to stay in the pocket. He's not hurting his offensive tackles leaving the pocket very often. I'll put it like that. So, again, I need to watch this game more closely to give you a great answer. But the Chiefs' schedule was Browns, Ravens, Chargers. They go to Philly now, so that loosens up a little bit for them. So you got to hope they get back on track this week.

They still have to play the Raiders twice, the Broncos twice, the Chargers again. They have Washington on their schedule, Tennessee, the Bills, the Giants. They don't have guaranteed wins a lot on the schedule. Bengals still, Steelers. So they're going to be fine. They're going to win 12 or 13 games like usual. And by the end of the year, we're going to be in the same spot we are. The Chiefs are the favorites.

What's wild is right now, the Chiefs are still the favorites to win the AFC game. After all this, one and two, they're still the betting favorites. I get it. They're playing an extra game in the playoffs. There's no way. They're probably not the home seed.

That's correct. There's only that one team now, and we'll get to this in our over-under when we talk about the Bills, but not being the one seed matters a hell of a lot more than ever before in the NFL, and we know this now. And I think the Chiefs are going to really be hurting because I think they're going to limp their way

into the postseason. You just rattled off some of the teams on their schedule. Even the wins are going to be painful. The Steelers might not beat them, but they're going to beat them up. It's going to be a hard season for the Chiefs. This is panic time. All right, Jeff. So earlier, you know, part of the blame in KC is at least according to guys like you, maybe they don't have a wide receiver too. You know, you've been hard on that position and it looks like according to Adam Schefter, as of, you know, really just while we're recording, uh looks like according to adam schefter as of you know really just while we're recording it looks like they're going to sign josh gordon now he's had a bit of a weird

past but he's been reinstated by the nfl quickly signs in kc he could be with the team soon what do we think about that signing you you kind of predicted this the other day yeah he just tweeted out that uh he is in fact signing with the chiefs uh this is a low risk and high reward for the chiefs if he can um obviously stay off the suspension list um and be ready to play soon the the speed that he has just being able to or had i think he's still i don't think you get like, he's that much slower now. I don't know, man. I'm listen,

I'm, I'm all for this and I'm sure every fantasy league is all waiver. Wires are all going to be Josh Gordon this week, but. Well, he's not going to, I don't think he'll play for a couple of weeks, but if he has anything, if he has anything left,

the idea of him just running straight down the field and pulling defenders away to hit Kelsey and Hill in the middle of the field is huge for the Chiefs. The Chiefs don't have that guy right now. They can just run down the middle of the field and pulling defenders away to hit Kelsey and Hill in the middle of the field is huge for the Chiefs. The Chiefs don't have that guy right now. They can just run down the middle of the field, run down the edge of the field, and pull defenders away to take deep shots. They have Tyreek Hill, obviously. Outside of Tyreek Hill, they don't have a second guy that can do that right now. Isn't Nicole Hardman pretty fast? He hasn't done it, though. Remember, I'm his banner on Instagram. I'm the motivational speaker for him. He hasn't done it though he's not he's not that remember I'm I'm his banner on Instagram I'm the motivational speaker for him he hasn't done that yet they haven't found that reliable number two yet well okay so this Josh Gordon news is big news the

take makers will be weighing in on this one he's had some issues in the past some of them you know are serious some of them less so I guess my my concern is he's been away from football for a while and he was undoubtedly a brilliant talent but he never really put it together for more than a year or two in a row so that culture in kansas city can probably sustain a guy like him and you know they've had some other projects and some players uh that turned out to be you know a lot better when they were under andy so maybe that'll be the case. I just, I don't know. I feel like they got bigger problems than wide receiver two.

But you're saying that's a big issue. No, they have other problems. But as I laid out, right? Defense, young offensive line. But I think that this will help alleviate some of their offensive problems. All right, fair enough. Well, so then let's just move to the other conference where i think there are a lot of teams that could beat the chiefs but one of them the one you love is not number one any longer it's a happy

day because tom brady lost do you remember when tom brady lost the saints twice last year and then beat him in the playoffs yeah i think I think so. Yeah, okay. I would never bet against Brady. So if anyone wants to do it, be my guest. But it's week three, and yes, the Rams looked really good. I found a lot of guys open where Tampa didn't have the same success. Tampa didn't block terribly well. But if you remember last year too, remember that Tampa played the Bears in week four or five,

six, somewhere around there, and Brady got crushed. And everyone's like, oh, the Bucs O-line sucks. Can't protect anyone. And the rest of the season, they were the tits. They were lights out. So, like, I just, I think we look at this game. Obviously, Rams, you know, Stafford 27 of 38, 343. Deshaun Jackson, three receptions for 120 yards.

I mean, they were hitting some deep shots. Guys are wide open. I'm not concerned about the Bucs. The rushing game was a little bit upsetting, a little bit disturbing in that game. But I'm more impressed with the Rams, what they did, what the Packers did, than kind of worried about what the Bucs are doing right now. Okay. So I'm not going to try to push your panic levels to the same place as we just did with the Chiefs on the Bucs. I also have learned through 20 miserable years not to bet against Tom Brady based off of one game. Basically, don't ever bet against Brady. But it's hard to determine which side of the ball we like better in LA, the offense or the defense. Both look terrific. And the Bucs had both sides of the ball by the end of last year, but neither side looks terrific to me.

Gronk looks a little hurt. You know, they can't. There's that shot to his ribs look like. Yeah, big hit. They can't run it. You mentioned that. I mean, they were giving it up. Their line did not look the same.

I don't know, man. Like, hold on to this belief that Brady can do no wrong, but at some point it has to crack. Maybe it's now. It does have to crack at some point. And you have to maybe think it happens with his age sooner or later. But again, I didn't see this being a game where it looked like Brady was old and he was cracking.

It looked like they ran into a buzzsaw of a Rams team that is playing well on defense. But you talk about offensively, they just play with more confidence in my opinion, right? When you have a player like Matt Stafford, who you believe in more than Jared Goff and the ability of what Stafford can do, you always play with more confidence

because guess what? If you make a mistake, he'll make you right, right? If you make a couple mistakes, it's what the Chiefs do with Mahomes. There's a confidence level this offense plays with. With Stafford, they did not do this with Goff. And I think that's what's impressive to me about the Rams. Look, they were good on defense last year.

I think people thought they would regress a little bit. By the end of the year, we'll see how they were compared to last year. But really, for for me it's offensively i believe they're number one right now through three weeks and uh and epa expected points at it so they're the most efficient offense in the nfl at the moment they're getting it done again the the uh the confidence level is just so high with matt stafford yeah i mean and they already have jalen ramsey locking up your best guy and Aaron Donald eating up six linemen.

Yeah. I mean, they're tough. And we know the coach can hang in a Super Bowl. I mean, it wasn't great, but he can get you there. Yeah, but this is why they got Stafford, right? Because in that game, you would think that he would play better than Koff. You would have to hope so.

So, okay, so then let's look at the other team I'm saying could be the one of the two teams who now seems like they absolutely could beat the Bucs unless the defense isn't there. So talk to me about the Packers. They get a Rodgers miracle to win late on Sunday night. The Niners seem fine, but not good enough. So how important will that one seed be when we're talking about very different home field advantages?

If it's Tampa taking us down there in the hot weather, if it's Green Bay going up to Lambeau or SoFi Stadium, what matters most in the NFC with that one seed? Well, I think the rest and the buy. Now, last year, though, we saw that the Bucs were the road team and went through the whole conference. That's unique. That has not happened in a long time. I wouldn't expect that to happen again, by the way. I wouldn't expect then to be the five-seater and win it all, especially with a conference that looks much tougher this year.

So obviously, for Green Bay to have the home field advantage of being in the cold weather, Rams are in a dome, just having your fans there, right? It's important, I think, to have... We didn't of being in the cold weather rams are in a dome just having your fans there right like it's important i think to have we didn't have that last year right there were no there weren't a lot of fans in the stands for a lot of these games so the ones he gets rest one less game will be home the entire time we'll feel good about it so all these wins here are pretty important the packers now have the tiebreaker over the niners the rams have it over the bucks and so you have to finish now you really have two games behind them right the bucks have to So all these wins here are pretty important. The Packers now have the tiebreaker over the Niners. The Rams have it over the Bucs. And so you have to finish now. You really have two games behind them, right?

The Bucs have to not only tie the Rams, they have to be ahead of the Rams now to have that one seed. So these games that are between powers of conferences are hugely important for that reason. And the Packers, look, man, people are upset the Niners scored too quickly, right? They wasted 12 seconds before they – they sent the ball – well, 12 seconds left on the clock and threw it to Juice,

who was a five-yard pass. He broke two tackles. Like, they weren't trying to score on that play. They were just trying to move the ball down the field. And then Rodgers did Rodgers things. Like, that throw to Devontae Adams, the first one, Gabe, was unbelievable. Unreal. He threw that ball like seven yards before Adams was there,

and it went over Warner's like perfectly. And everyone's blaming, you know, Shanahan's clock. one game was unbelievable unreal he threw that ball like seven yards before Adams was there and it went over Warner's like perfectly and everyone's blaming you know Shanahan's clock and not the defense who allowed a bazillion yards on the final two plays of the game like come on defense pick it up you let Adams run untouched through your defense to lead to a Crosby game when he field goal so um pretty resilient win for the Packers they have not won a lot of those games game where they're playing a team who's just as talented or better and rogers is not good from behind that's not what he's done in his career and um even from behind or even tied like in the situation like he did just it's not what he's done well and in that situation he did it yeah and and he gets very grumpy and you know finger pointery and passive

aggressive when somebody on the team lets him down or the coach lets him down that's that's been his mo you know he's great all year and then something goes wrong and then they they collapse basically but if he gets that game if he has that mental image of you know wow a few other guys are going to make some plays for me the kicker's going to make the kick the coach is going to let me do my thing. The receiver's going to go make a play. The defense will be good enough. Like, that's got to make him feel better than he has felt in a couple years.

100%. And we saw his reaction, obviously, after the game, just kind of like how excited he was for that win. I mean, that meant a lot to him, right? He's a Bay Area kid. Like, it just meant a lot to come back at the end. I mean, look meant a lot to him, right? He's a Bay Area kid. It just meant a lot to come back at the end. I mean, look, I think that most everyone on the team thought there was no chance they were winning this game.

None. I'm not even sure Rodgers thought he'd win this game. And they put that play in, he said, during the week, and it executed perfectly. And when you do things like that, man, this is why I think he's not going anywhere this offseason. Like, his best chance to win a championship is in green bay it's that simple and um this showed again it was it was their best regular season win in a long time in a long time and uh you have to be happy for packers fan yeah

and they're in a division that does not look especially good and we'll get to a few of the other teams that they get to play twice. But I'm buying Packers stock. I was buying it last year and it didn't get me all the way there. I'm buying it this year. I think it's Rams-Packers. I don't think it's Bucs. But we'll see. We've got a few weeks to figure it out. You have been a Tom Brady hater for 20 years now,

and you still have not learned to never count him out. That's wild to me. I'm devoted to that more than I am the Jets. But now that you're a Chargers fan and a rams fan yeah um you don't have to hate brady anymore yeah but it's kind of in my bloodstream now like i can't really get rid of it uh i just hate him and and bill belichick and everything related to that era of life that so who so who are you rooting for this weekend in new england it's a very good question um well those who don't know it's it's tampa i'm assuming it's it's uh tampa going to new england

yeah i think what i'm rooting for is like uh you know that that gif that you can find where it's like the two boxers who punch each other at the same time they both fall down knocked out like if there's somehow a way for that to happen like where they just like knock each other out of the whole season somehow i'm not rooting for like major injuries but like i don't know how could we make it so that they both are irrelevant the rest of the year i guess that the patriots would have to win but then also you know not win another game the rest of the year that's my dream tom brady's gonna break the passing record in new england too the yardage record yeah he would.

I mean, whatever. There's going to be more Brady jerseys in the stadium than there ever were before, because every one of those people has a chip on the shoulder, lunatic. Thousand percent. Yeah. All right, let's stay in the AFC and move divisions here. So, I'm going to try one of these analogies out on you, Jeff.

I have no idea if you've seen the show. I'd probably bet about every dollar I have you've not. The AFC North is basically that show Nine Perfect Strangers on Hulu. OK, I don't really understand it. Every week it confuses me more. It has some great stuff in it, but I'm also pretty sure it's not really actually any good. And yet I keep watching it and we all keep acting like it's great TV. So you have to make sense of these teams for me.

Ravens first. Justin Tucker bails them out on a record-setting field goal to beat the Lions. Are the Ravens lucky or good? I don't know how to take them seriously or not. They are a feisty Lions team. I'll tell you that, man. They're very feisty. The Ravens are dealing with injuries and I think just a revamped offensive line.

I think it was Hollywood Brown dropped two touchdown passes on the same drive, I think it was. They dropped three touchdown passes in general. I actually thought Lamar played really well yesterday. But they're just in a... I think kind of just the talent depletion from injury is going to hurt them in a lot of games this year. But they are what I thought they'd be. And they're going to still win 10, 11, 12 games. They beat the Chiefs, obviously.

That was important for them. And I think they kind of just are what they are. Okay, but now they're on a little bit of a streak here. And, you know, they're not doing it pretty, but they're getting it done. So I... Okay, we'll just getting it done. So I, okay. We'll just say that that's a time saver. The Ravens are still what they've been for three years to you.

They are what they are. They're going to Denver this weekend. Good test for that team against that defense. But I think the Ravens are what we thought they were. Lamar can do it when the offense is humming. He passed the ball better than I thought yesterday. Guys were open, but so were the Lions, of course. Let's give them another couple of weeks before we determine.

Again, the injuries and the COVID stuff has been tough for them. It's just tough when you lose a bunch of guys, man. Yeah. By the way, you mentioned the Denver game. The number on that game is really bizarre, and I don't know what to make of that. I saw an early line between those two teams. Denver favored by one, yeah.

Yeah, that didn't seem right to me at all, but I guess people are not amazed by what the Ravens have done to get these wins. Well, isn't that more of they're not amazed with what the Broncos have done? Because the Ravens are on the road in this game. I mean, a typical road line is the home team favorite by three all right well then i'm beyond my depth talk about that on thursday with matt i was surprised to see that the ravens were not favored in that game oh i'm not surprised okay fair enough so this again to my point nine perfect strangers what the hell is this show i don't know what i'm watching most

weeks i don't know what the browns are what the hell are they so cleveland is i think again I hate to go back to this but but they are what I thought they would be right defensively they have some really good pieces Miles Garrett had four and a half sacks yesterday the defense had nine sacks against a really inept Bears game plan it was it was atrocious you know they ran the ball well yesterday but when they excuse me they ran the ball well in the second half yesterday, but when they're not running the ball as efficiently in the first half, the offense just isn't as good. It's kind of sputters because Mayfield's just not that dude. And this is what their team is, right? They're going to run the ball. They're going to play good defense, try to hit the quarterback a little bit. And they're, again, I'm high on them too, but they're not good

enough to win the Super Bowl. I mean, they are a good AFC team right now, but, you know, Baker Mayfield was with 9 of 31 for 246, and a lot of those yardage were on screen passes. He got sacked five times as well. You know, he's just okay. It's okay. All right. This is what it is.

So we didn't learn as much about the Browns. I'm not in this game, no. So, but then, so now I'm confused about Chicago and Fields. So I could say, well, Miles Garrett and the Browns defense are really tough and they're going to get after a lot of quarterbacks. I could say that the Bears offensive line sucks, or I could say that the rookie isn't very good because there were, what, nine sacks in that game?

But you're the guy who tells me how the sacks work with the offensive line versus the quarterback whose fault was nine sacks it's everyone's fault there were times when the offensive line got beat but I'll say this um Matt Nagy for some reason has been looked at as a offensive or like an offensive wizard or like an offensive juggernaut or just someone who knows what he's doing. This is his fourth year as the offensive coordinator in Chicago, play caller, head coach, offensive coordinator. His offenses have ranked 20th in DVOA, 25th and 25th. That's an efficiency number, DVOA.

They have not been good. And now you enter Justin Fields. And you think to yourself, you know what? Kid can move, right? He can throw on the run. So they're going to get him out. They're going to bootleg. They're going to hard-plax your pass, move the pocket, screens, reverses.

No, we're doing none of that. We're going to line up empty protection and just make Fields throw the ball empty protection. And Daniel Lofsky said this pretty well in ESPN. He said it's either negligence, like willful negligence, or basically he just doesn't know how to design a game plan. Like either he's willfully just trying to suck because then he can play Dalton again,

or he just is a terrible coach. Either or is not good. And their offense just looks dysfunctional. They didn't do anything to help out Justin Fields in this game. Nothing. And it just did not look in sync. It clearly wasn't. And, I mean, the Browns ended up, I think,

if you count the sacks in there and everything, with like one total yard for the game, which is just completely wild. One yard passing. They had one yard passing when you include the sacks. Yeah. It was brutal. So fine. We didn't learn a lot about the Browns because we're theoretically

talking about the AFC North. The Browns go to Minnesota this weekend. That's an interesting game. I'm kind of looking forward to the Browns. The Vikings can score. And if the Browns get in a high-scoring game, I'm curious, you know, against a good team, how they can handle that, especially at the end. So that'll be fun to watch.

Yeah, the Browns this year feel like the Vikings of the last few years. And you've compared Baker and Cousins. Like, okay, yeah, you know, you probably get in the playoffs, and then, I don't know, maybe you win a game probably get in the playoffs and then i don't know you know maybe you win a game but then you're done we don't have to worry about you so them playing each other is just spider-man yeah for me yeah all right bengals i'm confused

now so two and one huh jamar chase is good i don't i don't get it i mean no one said he wasn't gonna be good he just he just wasn't catching passes in the regular season now obviously he's catching uh i think he doesn't have like four catches this year? He has four touchdowns for sure, but he doesn't have a lot. He's a fantasy god. I don't know what his actual numbers are, but the catches are meaningful when they happen, at least to some people. So he has

11 receptions for four touchdowns. Yeah, that's nice. He has 16 targets all season. It's wild. 16 targets, four touchdowns. Well, they have like five young receivers on that team so you never know which guy is going to blow up they're going to throw it a lot burrow's going to hit them you just don't i that's what i'm saying i don't know what they are i i got excited week one burrow seems like he has it then they dump one now they're back but with the team they beat i don't

know like i i just well the bagels are gonna be three in one they're gonna be jacksonville on thursday and then it's green bay detroit baltimore so you will know a lot more after they play I just... Well, the Bengals are going to be 3-1. They're going to be Jacksonville on Thursday. And then it's Green Bay, Detroit, Baltimore. So we'll know a lot more after they play Green Bay and Baltimore. 3-3, 4-3, that seems like about where they're going to be. Yeah. And then it's Cleveland, Vegas, Pittsburgh again, Chargers, Niners, Broncos, Ravens, Chiefs, Browns.

So they better get their wins in now. We got it then. You just answered that. They're going to go at best 6-11. I feel like this is a team where after they play the Jets on the 31st of October, they could be 5-3. And they're going to have – their playoff odds are going to be much better.

And you just fade them immediately. So the question – and I think they're progressing along the right path, right? Joe Burrow looks like he's improving each week. The defense looks like it's improving. The young players they brought in are playing well. But the real thing to talk about here is the Steelers, okay? So coming into Sunday, there was a report, Gabe, that the Steelers front office is fearful that Big Ben is old now,

plays old. Yeah, did you guys watch film last year? Was it not available for you guys last season? He was awful last year. It's why we faded the Steelers. I was fourth and 10, I believe, at the end of the game. And everyone said, oh, do you see Big Ben throw that screen pass to the running back for negative two yards?

No, it was just a regular pass. Fourth and 10, he threw the ball for negative two air yards to the running back. Like, their offense is painful. It's a mess. They have a young offensive line. They're still working through issues of being a young offensive line. A quarterback who cannot move.

There's another video of Big Ben just rolling out to his right and falling down. Falling straight down. Their offensive system makes no sense for Ben. Just doesn't work. Defensively, they're going to be fine. They're out a bunch of starters right there. They're out Watt, and they were out Hightower, and they were out Tewitt, I believe. But just offensively, Gabe, they're done.

I've tried to tell you everyone this. Big Ben is done. And Mason Rudolph's not the answer either. They have to just start over after this season, which is hard to do. But they have to find themselves a new quarterback. It's that simple. I got an idea.

Yes. I'm going to bring it up because you said it earlier. There is no place where Aaron Rodgers can go that makes more sense than where he is, except Pittsburgh. Give me Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh. That team wins at Super Bowl. I feel like Denver could as well, though,

with their weapons. All right, sure. And possibly that defense as well. weapons like all right sure and possibly that defense as well um so yeah look i i um i've just been out on the steelers for a while now and nothing nothing changed that over three weeks seems like the steelers are just going to be a spoiler they're just going to screw up a few people's seasons like if you like if you played buffalo pittsburgh this weekend how much would buffalo wouldn't buy i would i would think that they'd be favored by a couple scores right now and they lost them week one and it's why we just sometimes can't look at those week one results and that's

what i mean yeah so when when some of these teams find pittsburgh week 10 11 12 13 whatever week of the season it's like oh well we're saying that's a w for them but i don't know i think they're going to win a few of those games they They'll win a few 13-10s. Weather gets colder. It's just going to be an annoying team. I mean, and maybe they want to spoil the Browns. Week 17. Browns come there a little bit.

We'll see. Yep. All right. We got a few more of these teams to talk about in our over-under game, moving the line. Going to touch on a little college ball, too. A couple big games this weekend in college football. Real fun ones. Weird lines in those too. So let's take a quick break.

We'll come right back and then we'll move the line. All right, Jeff, we're back on Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you. Part of the Varsity Podcast Network. Jeff, it's time to play our little over under game moving the line. We're going to start with some college ball. There's not an obvious NFL tie-in to this, but there are maybe some follow-ups about the NFL. So, points Bama beats Ole Miss by

over-under 14.5. That happens to be the current line in that game, which is absurd. Well, we know that Lane Kiffin can dial up an offense. And just defensively, man, they can't do what Florida did to them up front. But 14 and a half is a lot. A lot.

A lot of points. A lot. But I will tell you this. I don't have the number. It's very early in the week. Let me see if I can find a little bit of numbers here. My guess is that Alabama's gonna be like the sharp play in this game because everyone's gonna bet on this okay well i'm not a sharp so i will very easily

take the other side of this and say i think see previous episodes where i brought this conspiracy theory up yeah yeah i'm right all the money's on mississippi that's i you're oh boy i'm taking i will tell you right now that i will bet Alabama in this game just for that reason. All right. You can get into that on Thursday with Matt. Here's what I would say. I think you're overlooking something. Lane Kiffin, known for many things, Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss coach, has a ranked team in Ole Miss now,

but his whole career was, like many guys guys revived or started by nick saban and i don't think nick saban wants to embarrass or beat up his former protégés or or reclamation projects so i think alabama wins and it's never really all that scary but 14 and particularly that 14 and a half makes me want to take home this yeah but this opened up at 17, so you're getting a terrible number now. Hey, sometimes you just got to get in. Well, if you want to hear more about this, I'll let you know. We'll talk a lot about this Thursday, right, on this Thursday episode. But I would early take Bama now.

I don't think Lane Kiffin – I don't think Nick Saban cares to run up the score. I think they just do it because they're so good. I don't think he's, like, purposely going to say, ah, I'm not going to score on Lane Kiffin. Lane Kiffin showboats all the time. He's like on the field celebrating before the ball's up, you know, even been caught. Like, I don't think he's thinking like,

I got to take it easy on Lane. Yeah, that's true. He did also like verbally slap him around a lot on national TV when he was there. So I guess probably Nick doesn't really care about embarrassing Lane Kiffin. Lane Kiffin, USC coach? I saw some ridiculous rumor about that.

He'd already had a chance. Is there any chance he comes back home? Probably not. No. Okay, good. Moving on. Justin Tucker, Hall of Fame odds over under 99%. I don't know how many kickers are in the Hall of Fame. If any go in, he's the one. Over. 100% chance, right? Yeah. Why do you hate kickers so much? Okay. So listen, we have a little text thread for this show and everyone else is celebrating Justin Tucker hitting a 66 yarder to bail out the Ravens. We talked about it earlier. You know, I said kickers should have no place in the game of football. That game should not be decided by a glorified soccer player bombing the ball off a cross, you know, crossbar.

That's silly. That's a dumb way to end a football game. And by the way, the whole strategy and game plan of kicking in general is annoying it'd be more fun to watch guys go for it so I said all of that and then you all freaked out on the text thread and started coming at me like what I was saying was crazy this is not an original take from me plenty of people agree with me kicking sucks and it isn't a fun way to decide football games what's wrong with that take I thought it was a pretty fun way to decide the game I What's wrong with that take? I thought it was a pretty fun way to decide the game. I mean, otherwise you have a Hail Mary. I mean, that was an amazing kick.

I saw a videotape from a Lions fan that was behind the field goal. The field goal. And like you just the doink and you hear the Raven celebrate. And I mean, that was incredible, incredible kick. I had Justin Tucker at Fantasy too. So thank you, Justin Tucker. See, that's your bias. But I don't have kickers in my Fantasy League for this reason i don't want it's totally arbitrary

there's like three guys who are good at it and the rest who knows they all rotate teams no one ever knows which kicker is going to get the chances and now thank god coaches like staley you know and others around the league are going you know what fourth and field goal range screw it i'm going for it anyway i don't want to see a kicker out here ruining the game for me. Well, they're doing that because they're playing the Chiefs and have to score a bunch of points. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to see kickers be less important in football.

I know you are. How do you feel about Justin Tucker being auto-drafted to my team too? See, auto-draft should also be eradicated. There should be no kickers and there should be no auto-draft. You can't make be no auto draft. You can't make it to the draft. Get the F out of the league. Some of us don't have time to just sit around and do fantasy football all day.

Don't have time? What else could be more relevant to you? I'm not going to brag on this on social media because I don't talk to my fans on social media, but I will brag here. I dropped the Washington defense and picked up the Saints defense this week. And that, that was like a 30 point swing for me.

Nobody, nobody cares about your fantasy team, Jeff. That's what they, except, except big cat and PFT. So that's, they care about my fantasy team.

They don't care about your fantasy team. And I don't understand how you are in a league with people who respect you, who let you be on auto draft. How is that possible? Well, I did, I like did, I did like half the draft and then sometimes i forgot like i was i just i did some of the draft and then other turns i just skipped and i just went to bed it was like later at night it was everyone i'm playing with is on the west coast and it was like a 9 9 30 10 o'clock p.m draft okay i this offends me more than kickers so we're just gonna have to leave it here i i just

want to say to the audience out there for those of you listening uh get in jeff's mentions if you are opposed to auto drafting fantasy teams because i think i didn't auto draft all the players i did any round of any draft you get thrown out of my league if you try that we had a guy he had a very important thing going on in his life. I'm not going to put him on blast, but he had some stuff going on. And he said, guys, I think I need to sit the draft out. I don't think I can be there. And we were like, well, then you're not in the league any longer.

And you know what? Really? He put those plans on ice, and he showed up, and he partook. And then he got to the more important life stuff a few days later. Everything worked out. Got to have priorities speaking about about this we talked about your marathon yesterday i thought about this the other day too something about priorities did you ever win city council or whatever you were running for

neighborhood council no i lost the neighborhood council race my uh my dogs on leashes campaign was not popular people really yeah that was a big part of my platform was get your dogs back on leashes that was an unpopular take how do you know how much you lost by i'd say i got smoked um oh wow yeah i did better let's put it this way i did better in a triathlon i came in 24 out of 141 in my triathlon in malibu over the weekend i came in i think uh about 19 out of 41 in uh in my triathlon in Malibu over the weekend. I came in, I think, about 19 out of 41 in my neighborhood council election. So I'm better at triathlons than local elections. I got it.

All right. Here's a couple guys who might not win their next competitions or have their jobs for long. We sort of touched on these earlier. What happens sooner? Matt Nagy's fired or Ben Roethlisberger just quits and says goodbye football? Oh, Beto, the Steelers are going to have to, at some point...

Pry the ball from his cold, dead hands? It sounds like they're going to have to put him down at some point. I don't know when that is and if they have the guts to do that. But it has to happen. But the problem is there's no young quarterback who is waiting to take over. And that's the problem, right? Like, okay, Mason Rudolph's going to play, Dwayne Haskins.

Sure, but why are we going to bench Ben for that? Oh, we got some young'uns joining the show here. Jeff, I can't quite see which of his children is in the studio with him. But there's... Oh, it's listening. It tastes yucky? him, but there's... Let's listen in. It tastes yucky? Okay, we'll get you some new milk in a second.

Is mommy home with Alex? It's a familiar, familiar mother. Go ask your mom. Oh, mom went back to work? No, yeah. Okay, I'm in the middle of doing something. Can I have candy? No.

Can I have a gummy? No candy. I'll be done in 10 minutes. Emmy, I'll get you other milk. I'm in the middle of doing something. We can't, can we? No. We can't, we're coming. No can. I'll be done in 10 minutes. Emmy, I'll get you other milk. I'm in the middle of working. Close the door. So let me just recap this in case the audience couldn't hear. So Jeff's adorable daughter comes in and asks for milk.

No, she said the milk she has in her hand doesn't taste good. It's yucky milk. So yucky milk. So yucky milk. So Jeff said, go tell mommy. And they said, mommy's not here, which means nobody's watching the kids. Well, Jeff's in here crapping all over Ben Roethlisberger. Oh, that happens all the time, though. I'm not worried.

My kids are fine downstairs. No, my wife picked up Alex from school. Normally takes the bus home, but she picked him up. And so I thought she was still here. No, the kids play downstairs when I'm recording all the time. I'm not worried about that. It's just that she just walked in. It was like the milk tastes yucky.

I go, what do I do about it right now? Like, just be downstairs in 10 minutes. Well, the milk tastes yucky in Chicago. So you say Matt Nagy is fired before Ben Roethlisberger quits, one way or the other. Yes. All right, fair enough. We'll get back to Chicago in a second.

We talked about the Bills earlier. They deserve a little bit more love here after that performance josh allen back into the mvp race over under updated for me 11 and a half wins for the bills seems like they got a win at every matchup in their division and then a few more 11 and a half bills yeah what was their total set before the year do you remember remember? No, I don't. I think it was like 10 and a half. I think they look pretty good. They have the Texans. They're 17-point favorites.

At the Chiefs, I think over. I think they're playing some good football now. I'll go over. Over. Okay. So then they get that one seed. I think they're the one seed in the AFC at this point because they have so many easy games.

And I don't know that that means they win the one seed in the afc at this point because they're just they have so many easy games and i don't know that that means they win the afc but man that could be a really helpful week for them that would scare me another reason to be scared for you back to the beginning of the show with the chiefs the probably one seed and making you go to buffalo in january but until but until i see the chiefs lose one of those games i'm'm going to roll with the Chiefs. Okay. Fair enough. You're just sticking with Brady and the Chiefs forever. I do the same thing with Tom Brady, too. Yeah. You're just there. Okay, fine. Every year is the two of them until the end. Yeah. Until proven otherwise. Sure. All right. Jeff, you

were in Chicago for Notre Dame, Wisconsin. Yes. Seemed like you had some fun at a tailgate show. We talked about it a little bit already. I want to know, be honest, how many pieces of Chicago style pizza? You know, little bit already i want to know be honest um how many pieces of chicago style pizza you know i don't even want to call it pizza if you mean lasagna lasagna yeah how much of that did you eat over under five and a half pieces in quotes uh i had none none no um well i mean friday night went to a really good italian place for dinner but the fun

the most fun i had was i went to wrigley Field for the first time. Oh, really? Super fun. Yeah. It's like my 14th field, I want to say. Hmm. So that's – I'm trying to make all the ballparks in my life. And that was – it was a lot of fun to be there. It was pretty cool. And the Cardinals have won like 16 straight games in a row.

I was there for one of them. And it was really cool to be up there and just see Wrigley. It's the second oldest stadium in baseball I've been to a couple Cubs games including a day-night doubleheader bunch of years ago and saw Sosa smash a home run and it just went the place went absolutely nuts it was a ton of fun Wrigleyville is great I'm surprised 14 I would have guessed you'd hit more stadiums by now because you've been in a lot of pro sports towns. That's like the five in California.

I've been to Arizona before, Kansas City, Minnesota, both New Yorks, Baltimore, both Chicago's. That's 13 now. Well, are you saying both New Yorks or are you getting credit for four in New York? You're getting credit for two in New York. Well, I know, but if you'd been to Old Yankee. I've only been to both new parks. Oh, got it. Okay. No, I haven't been.

And then maybe it's just 13. But yeah, I mean, I've been to, I always forget when I do these stadium counts, but I like going to visit these different parks. So yeah, it's a lot of fun. I had the over on that, Jeff. And I've got – I must have over 20 because I made a trip back when I was a younger man. Friends and I did a road trip specifically to see a bunch of parks.

And whenever we can, we go to the park in whatever town we're in. Yeah, that's what I did. I'm missing a few. I'm missing St. Louis. I'm missing Arizona. I'm actually missing Oakland. I've never, for some reason, never been up there. Yeah, there's nothing to see there.

Yeah, I've been to both the Stick and AT&T or whatever it's called now. But I haven't been to the Coliseum over there. I got a few more to complete. I've never been to the old or new stadium in Dallas or Fort Worth or wherever it is. I'm missing a few in the middle of the country. It's a great idea. I wish I was able to do more of it. All right.

Maybe we take this show on the road in future seasons. That'd be awesome. We'll hit up some ballparks. You have a show to do on Thursday. We've mentioned with Matt making some picks in college and NFL games. Time to bounce back, buddy. Last week was hard. No, no.

Two weeks ago. No, we were 3-2 this week. Excuse me. I thought our standard were 3-2 this week. Oh, excuse me. I thought our standard was 4-1 or better. We've gone 3-2, 0-5, 3-2. Okay, let's see. I think it's harder to go 0-5 than it is like 3-2. Yeah, it's pretty difficult.

It's harder to go 0-5. It shouldn't happen. It should not happen. So we're on the right track here. We'll have some college picks for you as well. Big weekend. You mentioned Ole Miss, Alabama. We have Arkansas and Georgia.

So a big, heavy SEC week. Wisconsin, Michigan also will probably be discussed, probably taking all the unders in that game across the board. So plenty to discuss. This has been the Jeff Schwartz Smart on You podcast, powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We'll be back on Thursday. Have a great couple of days, guys.

Talk to you then.