Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - NFL Week 1 Overreactions and “Moral Victories” for Baker and Dak

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

Geoff and Gabe open with breaking down what the Browns loss to the Chiefs means for their Super Bowl chances, plus how scary the Chiefs can be if they can smooth out the few issues they have left. Geoff and Gabe also piece through some of the more polarizing narratives that came out of Week 1 to decide what’s real (Rams, Saints) and what’s not (Titans, Packers).This week on Moving the Line, Gabe reveals that he’s a Burrow believer, but Geoff isn’t convinced. They both agree that Justin Herbert’s performance was super impressive and Taylor Lewan’s tweet was super embarrassing, and Geoff guesses how many tweets he sent during the Oregon/Ohio State game.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 14th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz with Smiley. We have a full NFL Sunday to recap, including going back to Thursday with Tom Brady. Aaron Rodgers looks like Blake Bortles. Jalen Hurts looked great. But first, we start with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cleveland Browns. Gabe Goodwin, how are you, my friend? It was a wonderful weekend of football, including a full day of NFL. It was a really fun day because we finally had some football back. Blake Bortles taking a needless shot there at the top of the show. We don't need to spend time on that, but that feels like a cheap shot for Mr. Bortles. And Jeff, I just have a question for you before we get started here. Is there such a thing as a moral victory in the NFL? Because I feel like a lot of teams scored themselves moral victories, but I don't think that's how we count wins and losses in this league.

I think victories sound better than moral victories. And I know one of the teams we're getting to that you think had a moral victory, I'd actually argue against that point, but feel free to make it. Well, two of the biggest games of the week featured losers who somehow have been described as winners by all the take makers on TV. I don't quite get it. Let's get right in. In the Chiefs-Browns game, Vegas always knows best, right? Or at least Pat Mahomes knew how to get the job done because the Chiefs come back and win, but conveniently win by just a

little less than expected. Both teams look pretty good. I would say great. Mostly neither team looked like an AFC champ for sure. Here's the consensus take. Baker can't get it done when it counts, but don't worry. The Browns are still great somehow. What the hell are people talking about? All right, let's start this take. All right, here we go. So Chiefs are down 22-10 at halftime and it looked bad. I'm not going to lie.

I thought the Chiefs were going to lose. They couldn't stop the Browns on offense and Stefanski, the play caller for the Browns, was on it, man. Like, he was, they looked good, right? Everything was schemed up right. Baker was making throws he's never made in his career before. Like, he looked great.

Everything's working well. End of the first half, Tony Romo mentioned this. I think it's what changed the game a little bit defensively for the Chiefs. They want more man coverage. They're playing a bunch of soft zone, wasn't working. You know, all those play action passes kind of fooled the defenders.

They want a bunch of man coverage and it helped. The second half, the Chiefs outscored the Browns 23-7. The Browns had three turnovers, right? They've had a fumble, a botched punt, which doesn't count as a turnover, but it's a turnover.

And then Baker threw the game-losing pick. And we saw one team that had been there before that was a championship-caliber team in the Chiefs. By the way, down Frank Clark, down Honey Badger, down another linebacker. They had a bunch of injuries on defense. Breaking in a brand-new offensive line, playing the best defensive line they're probably going to face the entire season.

And the Chiefs still won that game because their championship team they know how to win that game if you're the Browns this is not a moral victory I'll tell you why you did everything right in this game right you had an aggressive head coach who went for it on fourth down early in the game that led to points Andy Reid by the way did not do that it's still a bad call even the Chiefs won did not do that you went for two at the appropriate time, right? The ball got moved up to the one yard line after a neutral zone infraction. Your defense played pretty well in the first half, right? You limited Pat Mahomes. You limited the Chiefs to two out of four in the red zone, I believe, for touchdowns, especially early in the game. You did everything right. Everything right. But in the end, you didn't win. And that's the problem, right? Because the Chiefs

are only gonna get better their offensive line is gonna get better the offensive line was i think so so i've watched a few minutes kind of so so in in my opinion okay you know the defense again was missing multiple starters they're gonna be better next time you play them and you gave them their best shot and you still lost and come back to this game i've said this for for two years now about baker mayfield and this proved my point again. And Browns fans hate this, but guys, you know deep down.

You know the truth, right? My high school football coach said, don't lie to yourself. It's the best advice I've ever gotten, Gabe. Browns fans, don't lie to yourself. Okay? That extra 5% that you need to win these games,

Baker doesn't have for you. Doesn't have it. He's now 0-2 and game-winning drives to Arrowhead Stadium. I don't think he was throwing the ball away. Do you? I think he made a bad decision and got hit from behind.

I don't think he was throwing the ball. This narrative he was throwing the ball away, I don't believe that for a second, guys. There's many other ways to throw the ball away except throwing it to the defender. Throw it on the ground. Throw it 1,000 feet in the air over him. Throw it to anyone else.

He panicked, turned to a wide receiver, threw the ball, got hit, and the ball fluttered in the air. End of story did anyone else. He panicked, turned to a wide receiver, threw the ball, got hit, and the ball fluttered in the air. End of story. It's a bad decision. And that's the difference between winning a Super Bowl

and not winning a Super Bowl. It's the 5%. The 5%. That's it. When things are schemed up, by schemed up I mean play action pass, move the pocket, right?

One, two reads maybe. Baker is fantastic. And that's why I think the Browns win a lot of football games this year. But in that game, in that moment, if Mahomes is down four with two minutes left game, what are you thinking? Oh, they're going to win for sure. Done. With Baker, you're like, eh. Because the biggest point of that drive was a screen pass to Hunt

to like 30 yards down the field. It wasn of that drive was a screen pass to Hunt. Took like 30 yards down the field. It wasn't like Baker bars him down the field. And that's all I've been saying about Baker. I feel vindicated in week one. This Chiefs win is a tiebreaker, essentially, right? It's basically a two-game lead on the Browns now. Because if the Chiefs and Browns tie at the top spot,

the Chiefs have the tiebreaker now. So it's essentially a two-game lead now. And again, I love the Browns coaching staff. I like what they've done with the roster. But that extra little 5% of play, those one or two throws a game, they make a difference. We talk about this with Jimmy Garoppolo, right? In the Super Bowl, go back to that game, right? He missed two throws.

Those two throws are the reasons why Trey Lance is on the roster now. And so the Browns have not paid Baker. Everyone talks about why that is. This is why. This is why. Exactly why. Now, the Browns are going to have to pay him eventually because they don't have a choice.

They're not going to draft someone else. Most likely not. But these moments are when you need your quarterback to step up big. And Mahomes did. Mahomes had a 70-yard touchdown pass. He looked great, even under pressure for some of the game so I look again I think I think my my takes on the Browns were pretty validated after that game I would agree with you um you know be careful or you might end up in Baker's next hype video

the ones he cuts I was I was sad I wasn't on there yeah that that didn't feel fair because you've really been crapping on the guy consistently for two years. I felt like you earned a spot there. Here's the thing though. While there's a few of you who've been critical of Baker and look very smart today, there are quite a number of other people who go on TV and talk about football who are, I was joking, but who are kind of scoring this like a mental win

somehow for the Browns. Like they showed something here. I think the Browns played again, the something here. I think it's the opposite. The Browns played again. The best game they could play and still lost. The Chiefs have plenty of room for improvement. When you look at this game, let's say this is a rematch later in the season,

in the playoffs. What can the Browns do better? Not fumble the ball? Okay. Not throw the ball away? Not botch a punt? I guess. But the Chiefs are going to score off the punt anyway, they just scored sooner off the punt they weren't stopped I don't think

they had they put it once I think didn't turn the ball over like they weren't stopped at all same problem in the playoff game the Chiefs issue is their red zone offense right now it's kind of atrocious still is because their offensive line still jelly you have to run the ball the reds I'll talk about this on the college show on Monday you have to run the ball the red zone and the Chiefs are getting there. And Andy, we got, so he threw a shovel pass to an offensive lineman, Mike Remmers. They ran that, they came on that, in that wishbone thing and had a false start because Tyreek Hill and Pat Mahomes were running an option. They went to, like, Andy gets too cute sometimes down there,

which he can afford to do. They still won the game in the end. So, look, either the Chiefs are right where they're supposed to be. Browns are where they're supposed to be after this game. And it kind of worked out where I thought each team would be. Yeah, and Vegas was pretty much dead on with the number as well.

So let me ask you about a few things you just touched on. First of all, I'm going to just throw a crazy idea at you. Should the Browns maybe have tried to draft a quarterback this year? Might they think about that next year? Like if you're saying he's got 95%,

but he's missing that 5%, don't they need to find the guy with that extra 5% while they still got a roster this good? I have said that, I've said this now for a long time that, you know, not a long time, I guess it's like October, November, that if the Browns were to be bold,

they would do that. But, oh man, this is the best quarterback they've had now in 30 years. Yeah, I mean, I can't remember anyone as good as him. They can't move off of him because of that. There's no way. Yeah, but I mean, like, look, we would have said that about Jared Goff and the Rams,

and they just, they had the guts to just do it and say, screw it, Matthew Stafford has that extra 5% in their view. We'll talk about them soon, but one week in, it looks like, man, that was a crazy thing to do, but they've gotten better somehow. And now they look like they might be the best team in the NFC because they weren't happy being the second or third or fourth best team in the NFC.

If the Browns just said, screw it, and made their move for that level guy, could they win a Superbowl? Yes. But those level of guys are hard to come by. And I'm not really sure where, where they get it in this draft class. Yeah.

All right. Well, the answer is if Deshaun Watson gets cleared of everything in Houston to go get Deshaun Watson. Wow. Like, okay. Like, that'd be the, I mean, that, right? That would be kind of, that'd be the best answer. He's cost a lot.

You get that. But would you rather pay Deshaun Watson or cleared of charges or Baker Mayfield? Yeah, and actually, I mean, now that we're into make-believe, like, if you could work out some kind of a trade there, I don't think Houston hates the idea of getting Baker. He'd be pretty popular down there. baker mayfield to me is is kirk cousins like he's good enough to get to the playoffs you win a playoff game every now and then which you

did last year but he's not when you're not winning super bowl with with uh with baker not not in the afc with my homes you have every year you have to be myomes. Every year you have to beat Mahomes. Same as when you have to beat Brady every year, right? You have to be extra to do that. Or your team has to be that good. And the Browns are that good, but you've got to be extra. And that's not what the Browns are with Mayfield. All right, let me ask you a few more questions about the Chiefs,

who we love to talk about and who do look like the best team in football. Still, um, we saw some new stuff, right? So slightly different personnel. So we saw CEH was out there getting basically all the running back touches. We saw Hardman officially there as, you know, wide receiver two, after they move on from a few other guys, we saw two tight ends more often than usual. Like Andy was doing some stuff and I notice it because of fantasy, but you must notice it because you're smart.

Did we learn anything about the way that they changed their offense? I don't think so. The one noticeable thing was, I mean, Travis Kelsey is really good, and Tyreek Hill is really good. The noticeable thing that I saw was, obviously, a little emphasis on more power running. They didn't run a lot of screens, because I think the Browns play a ton of zone,

so it's hard to run screens against zone. But Mahomes tried to stay in the pocket more, which we had talked about, right? Of him trying just to not drift out the back of the pocket. And he tried to stay in the pocket and throw the ball quicker. I think the pass game felt almost more in rhythm than it had the end of last season like just felt like you know it's more like all right blue anybody's a hut get the ball step up boom find your guy step up boom find your guy and i felt like that was more that to me was noticeable

that pat had said i'm gonna work on this he worked on it and it looked better. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they put up 30 something against a Browns D that we've all been saying could be the best in the conference. And they just, most of it was the second half, but they just, they could score. You know, I've heard people like you tell me that, you know, great coaches make great adjustments and, you know, you can really tell the coach's impact coming out of halftime. That seemed like it was the case in this game. Does Andy get credit for changing stuff around?

You mentioned Romo spotted some stuff. Did Andy spot it as well? No, I just think that they just became a little more efficient, right? I mean, look, you can't coach Mahomes, roll to your right, throw it 30 yards, 50 yards, whatever, 50 yards in the air to Tyreek Hill, catch the ball and run 20 yards for touchdown. That's not a play you have in your offense. That's just Mahomes making a play. But I think defensively is where they, A, they went more man coverage, like I said.

B, I thought they were more physical on defense. And C, they forced turnovers, which is important, right? And again, the mentality of being a champion, of having been in those moments before, is very important. which is important, right? And again, the mentality of being a champion, of having been in those moments before, is very important. And there's no panic on the Chiefs' sidelines. Never panic, right?

It's also week one. Like, if you lose the game, it sucks, but it's week one. Like, no panic. I mean, you have to give me a second reason, you know, in the locker room. Everyone's just like, another day at the office, right? Oh, we won another football game.

Like, we're supposed to win, right? So, no panic, relaxed. I didn't really see an offense adjustment in the second half. I think it we won another football game. Like, we're supposed to win, right? So no panic, relaxed. I didn't really see an offense adjustment in the second half. I think it just got more in rhythm. Defensively, look, they allowed seven points in the second half. They allowed 22 in the first half. All right. Let's look at the other conference here.

The team that almost everyone was saying would be the best competition to the Chiefs and maybe beat them in the Super Bowl. I guess we'll take the Bucs out of the equation. The only other real contender I kept seeing was the Packers. Well, that wasn't the case. So let me set it up this way. I'll take regret for 500, Alex. This future Hall of Famer must be feeling some after he and his team appeared to quit against the Saints.

Who is Aaron Rodgers, Jeff? What a choke that was. And listen, I think I'm not alone most of the internet seems to agree probably his worst game ever and maybe the dude has sort of lost it maybe he's sort of quit maybe he doesn't really want to be there or more importantly maybe his teammates don't really want to be there with him that seems like the problem um well Gabe I will congratulate you the only person who made a jeopardy joke today so congratulations the only one no one can't possibly be true no one of course

it's not true everyone made that joke today that same joke that same bad joke delivered poorly everyone did that pft did it oh yes shocking right shocking that everyone made a jeopardy joke um uh all right so it So it was bad. And they look lackluster. They look like they didn't care. It looked like when they were in Tampa early last season, right? Just kind of like outside, hot, kind of didn't want to be there. It did, right? Just like me at a kid's birthday party, not a football game.

Outside, hot. We thought about me at the beach, right? Just like don't want to be there. It just looked like they didn't want to be there. It just looked like they didn't want to be there. Their offensive line has some injuries and wasn't as good

as they had been in the past. But I think this was a story about the Saints. Like, the Saints put on them and we've talked a lot about their defense

in the past. Their defense is good. But they got a quarterback now that can push the ball down the field a little bit. And that changes what they can do in offense. And they put the pressure on the Packers to keep up scoring, and they couldn't keep up.

And the Jameis man, he took over, dude. Dude, I'm going to buy the Jameis hype week one. I'm going to do it. You're in on the Jameis hype. I am, yeah. He didn't really throw many completions to have many yards. He just kept throwing it into the end zone. And he threw two touchdowns to a former Duck, too, and Jawan Johnson.

So he was only there for a year, but I'll claim him anyways. It's just an efficient game from the Saints. I know that the inclination is to say the Packers quit. And look, at the end of the game, it's possible they did, right? I mean, again, it's hot outside, and who knows how much they quit or didn't quit but but the question though remains and i think it's a very valid question is we talk about distractions right offseason distractions distractions each week i had to imagine that played a role in this right i mean they look like shit it looked bad and i also wonder and i was trying i'm trying to track this in my head

like which coaches which coaches didn't play their starters in the preseason at all, right? Like McVay didn't, but they look great. The Chargers didn't. They look good. The Browns didn't. For the most part, they look good. But the Packers look like shit. A couple of teams that didn't play their guys early on look terrible.

It's just interesting how we talk about that this preseason. But I wonder if the kind of lack of playing in games this preseason hurt this offense. They just weren't in rhythm. They didn't look with it. Plus the distractions. Also, worth pointing out, the Packers were probably right to draft a quarterback after 2019.

How they did it and who they did it is the question. But maybe Rodgers last year was kind of like his last great year of being a great quarterback. And that physical decline, But maybe Rodgers last year was kind of like his last great year of being a great quarterback. And that physical decline, who was a little bit in 2019, is going to happen in 2021 now. Well, I'll give you a stat on that. So Aaron Rodgers was held to a 36.8 passer rating on Sunday. That is the lowest passer rating in history by a reigning NFL MVP in his first game of the next season. That's from NFL research.

So it's hard to see a guy go from MVP to terrible and not wonder about all these other things you brought up. I need to come back to this one thing, though. Heat, you brought it up a few times. So what if it's hot? Like, do people honestly feel like I can't keep playing? It's too hot out. It's, it's an NFL football game.

No, no, no, no. I think that there definitely is something when you're in a cold weather team going to play in the heat, it's, it's hard.

It like, you just, it's difficult. It's, it's, it's not, I'm probably putting it like it's too hard, but when things start going poorly,

it does kind of zap your energy a little bit. You're like, it's hot and things aren't going well. It's not that you don't play hard anymore, but it's similar to cold, right? When it's cold outside and your team's playing like shit, you're like, it's just cold, man. So, yeah, I think it's more about that. It's not that it's that they're not trying hard.

I just think that once you kind of, one thing starts snowballing, it doesn't help if it's super hot or super cold. All right. I mean, the game was played in Jacksonville, which is a swamp, as opposed to, I guess, New Orleans, which is also a bit of a swamp.

But inside. But inside, it would have been a little different. All right. Let me throw the silliest take I saw about aaron rogers out there and it'll set up a few other things that you are or are not buying after one week so somebody probably jokingly said you know maybe aaron rogers just came back in order in order to sabotage the packers and stick it up their ass like he's basically tanking the season. I don't know why on earth he would ever bother to do that. He could have just hosted jeopardy, but, uh,

that's not the dumbest thing that people have thought so far. So here's another one. Uh, the saints D is going to be top five and Jamis is going to be an MVP. You buying any of that? Um, saints defense, maybe, but a lot of more just got hurt, I think. And Davenport got hurt. So that feels like a pretty rough go of it. But Jameis is not probably the MVP conversation. But, you know, look, if you're ranking MVPs after week one, it's what? It's Mahomes, Stafford, Brady. Yeah, those around there.

I mean, those three are certainly going to be in it. I think your boy will get to him later. Justin Herbert's probably on that short list as well. Herbert, I love it. Yeah. Yeah, we'll come up with a few. Here's one who was in the MVP race all last year, who after week one is just done, obviously.

We can't have him anymore. Derek Henry, bust, over, done. So the Titans are pretty interesting because we talked about this this offseason. It's Arthur Smith left, who was our offensive coordinator, who was the coach of the Falcons. And their offense got markedly better when two things happened. Arthur Smith became the main play caller.

Really, Derek Henry's career, I should say, got better with two things. When Arthur Smith became the play caller and Ryan Tannehill became the quarterback, right? And with Arthur Smith became the play caller and Ryan Tannehill became the quarterback, right? And with Arthur Smith gone, their offense did not look like it should. The play action pass wasn't there. The blocking wasn't there. And obviously Chandler Jones had five sacks, which is incredible. Good for him.

And it just did not look like the same offense at all. And that loss of Arthur Smith, I think think is playing a big role in this offense and yeah I'm not sure Derek Henry's washed but I think that the teams aren't as afraid of the offense now without Arthur Smith there yeah I mean that that could obviously be a part of it also the guy ran for like 100 million carries the last couple of years and you know and oh by and oh, by the way, it's only been one week. So we'll see what he has. Let's move to the last topic I want to hit before we take a quick break. And this goes back to last week. So Tom Brady was the star because, of course, he was.

Dak, another moral victory. Dak Prescott threw the ball about 100,000 times and was declared by many to be the big winner of the game, even though he lost. You know, that's two quarterbacks who everyone wanted to hand a victory, even though they take the L. But the thing that really jumped out to me, Jeff, that I want your comments on was

people seem to be more in love with the Bucs defense than their offense. The Bucs D is, especially Vita Vea. Oh, he was so good. Oh, see, here it comes. The nerds like you, oh my God, Vita Vea, what an impact he has in the game. I can't find a single stat on the guy.

I didn't even know he was out there. He had no sacks, yeah. That's why you follow me on Twitter, at Jeff Schwartz, guys. Is the Bucs D even better than the Bucs offense? Vida Vella was a house the other day. I mean, he dominated that game from inside. It was unbelievable to watch.

He's like 375 pounds. No gloves, no tape. I mean, crazy people do that um so um yeah the bucks defense is really good i mean they what makes them this year even better so there was a clip there was a i'm gonna kind of play this out there was a play where they were rushing the passer and they had jpp right number 90 over the center okay both their linebackers in the a gap so right next to the center in between the, over the center, okay? Both are linebackers in the A-gap, so right next to the center, in between the guard and the center.

Then they had, basically, Joe Tryon, who's the number one, the first-round draft pick, standing up over the left guard. Shaq Barrett standing up over the right guard. And then Adonik and Sue and Vita Vea with their hands down on the ends, okay? That is an offensive lineman. When you have seven guys you can rush in that formation,

it makes your life a living hell because the big guys in the end have to be blocked. You can't not block Sue and Vita Vea. And that's what makes, in my opinion, the Bucs defense so dangerous, Gabe, is you don't know where the rush is coming from. And this is what makes the Patri where the rush is coming from. And this is what makes the Patriots good for so many years.

They had interchangeable parts on defense, which I think they're back to having now. And so if you're an offensive lineman, you're a quarterback. You're a running back trying to figure out your hots. You're a wide receiver who knows, okay, I've got to come off one hot. But is that a defensive end? Is that a linebacker? Am I hot off that guy?

Who am I hot off of? That's the problem with Tampa's defense. It's just so hard to figure out where they're coming from it makes them really good yeah well i guess then also everyone in the league taking a discount to play with tom brady to try to ring chase can't hurt i would do that hey tampa if you want something you can pay me like a million dollars i'll do it by the way i will give uh some marketers credit you know i don't love seeing Tom Brady in ads, but that T-Mobile ad with Gronk,

the ma, where are my football pants? That's a pretty good ad. That made me laugh. Okay, so everyone wanted to pretend like the Cowboys won the game, even though they obviously lost. And it could have been, you could spin it as like,

what a heartbreaking loss and their season is a wash. And like, they clearly don't have it, but no one in the national media wanted to tell that story so what did you see from the Cowboys that might give you some good feelings because I see a team that can put up a ton of fantasy points but not actually win yeah same problem they had last year right um look you you have to hope defensively they continue just to kind of get better as the younger players start playing a little bit more.

But offensively, I think Dak looked good, which is the question mark. Now, it wasn't that Dak's arm strength was terribly great, which it really wasn't. And he wasn't moving as well, but I think he was very efficient. People wrongly looked at the totals of throws Dak had. I think 58 throws in like 12 rushes. Oh, he's throwing too much. Guys, it was by design. I think I saw today they called over 20 runs in the game,

but Dak threw the ball in the RPR, run pass option. Because if you're looking to attack Tampa's defense, what you're not trying to do without Zach Martin in the lineup, the right guard, is run the ball down the middle of the Tampa's defense. Throwing the ball to the edge counts as a run most often. So the Cowboys offense, I think, looked okay, like they should. of the Tampa's defense. Throwing the ball to the edge counts as a run most often. And I thought the, so the Cowboys offense, I think looked okay,

like they should. Defensively, again, they just, they gotta be better game. They just gotta be better. So I still like them in the NFC East. The Giants didn't look terribly good. Washington's out fits now for a while.

Eagles surprisingly look pretty good, but we'll find out more than the Niners this weekend. But I think the Cowboys are still winning that division. Interesting. Okay. Well, that division. Interesting. Okay. Well, that division is kind of a hard one to predict

and a bit of crap, frankly. But I wouldn't be betting anything on the Cowboys right now. A nice story, but they lost a heartbreaker and for some reason are getting some kind of credit for that. Let's take a quick break. We'll move the line on the other end. A bunch of things I want to get your take on, including some college ball. So stick around. We'll move the line on the other end. A bunch of things I want to get your take on, including some college ball.

So stick around. We'll be right back. All right, Jeff, we're back. It's time to move the line a little over-under game. I want to know over-under 59.5 tweets from Jeff during Oregon's win on Saturday versus Ohio State. Be honest, Jeff, over-under, Saturday versus Ohio State. Be honest, Jeff. Over or under? What do you think?

Probably over, dude. I was – it was – what a weekend. I scared my kids a couple times yelling and screaming. I specifically got a nanny essentially just to watch the game because my wife was out of town. I just wanted to like not have to be bothered with kids. Yeah. I was pacing up and down.

I was texting our boy, Dan Rubenstein, um, back and forth. And I just, I didn't even eat. I was so like, and then I just,

the worst part or the best part, either one is the game ended at three 59 and 30 seconds. Eastern. I know the exact time. Cause I was on the radio at 4 PM.59 and 30 seconds Eastern. I don't know the exact time because I was on the radio at 4 p.m. Eastern. National Fox Sports Radio. My co-host Steve Hartman was great about it. He's a true professional.

But I'm like, I couldn't even breathe. I just couldn't even breathe. He's like, welcome to Fox Sports Radio. Steve Hartman, Jeff Schwartz here. And I'm like, oh, my God, Steve, we just won the game. Oh, my God. Like, I just couldn't. And then I watched every highlight imaginable.

Like, I, oh, who's the best, man? We finally won a game like this. I'm so excited for us. I'm so excited for the coaching staff and the validation of what they're trying to build. Look, man, if you're a high-level recruit, why would you not want to come to Oregon? Don't want to go to USC, Washington. Why would you want to do that? Come to Oregon.

Okay. Well, yeah, if you're listening to this show and you're a five-star guy. Don't throw your brow at me. I was a three-star. Okay, fine. You get three stars or more, you're listening to this show,

you heard Jeff go to Oregon. The answer, by the way, was over. I think you tweeted 70 times during the game. I did? Something like that. It was some insane number of tweets. Did Hank count? Hank, our producer, did some counting, and you hit the over there.

No way. Yeah, you went big, buddy. And by the way, I like that your idea of a good time. Your wife's out of town, so what do you do? Hire a nanny, FaceTime with Dan Rubenstein, and not eat. Whoa, what a killer weekend i i facetimed him after during the one of my radio breaks and i she was there to help me with the radio obviously my my son by the way so my son had a baseball game i went to the baseball game um before organ played and uh kids seven he's playing coach he's playing machine pitch last year he was the youngest on his

team by far like there was a nine-year-old on his team. He didn't hit the ball at all off the machine. He tried his darndest, could never do it. He was six last year. He's seven now. He had two hits on Saturday. I was like,

it was the best weekend ever. He had two hits. He hit the ball the first time and was so surprised he even run to first. He's like, I'm like, run, run, run, run. Ran to first base.

He was out by a mile. I'm about to call him safe. That was awesome. He was out, gave out by like, like Angel Hernandez could even call that one correctly. And the second time

we got an actual base hit, like through the hole, through the pitcher's mound, I was so happy for him. And then we came home, watched the game. Like I said, my wife was out of town,

had a good cigar. And after the game, turned the hot tub lights to green to celebrate. Watch Washington get smashed by Michigan. And then went to bed around 10 o'clock. Yeah, and missed USC losing the game to Stanford. So the only guy who had a better weekend than you, Jeff,

maybe in the whole world, was Matt Stafford. Because he's finally in a new home. He's done with Detroit. He looked great with the Rams. Their defense is good, obviously. Here's the question I have for you. Rings Matt Stafford would have if he hadn't been stuck in Detroit his whole career over under 0.5. Could he have won a ring somewhere else, anywhere else? Um, I, it's, it's one game. Like let's not, let's not overreact. No, I want to overreact.

It's first month at first. Yes, yes won't overreact. First month. First. Yes, yes, yes. Stafford won eight championships. They've been somewhere else. The one thing I want to say, though, is Bill Barnwell tweeted this out. It's kind of preposterous to say that he didn't play with anyone in Detroit. He had Calvin Johnson. Yeah.

Like, maybe the organization wasn't great, but we act like he was thrown to bums out there. He had a Hall of Fame wide receiver his entire career in Detroit. Yeah. But, you know, he didn't have Sean Mccveigh so a great great week one win they look good um they're on the road this week in indianapolis we'll see how that looks in week two but good start for stafford my brother like my brother told me before the season to bet on stafford with mvp he likes stafford a lot uh i like that bet too and i currently have them as my prediction for winning the NFC so who do you like better

their offense or their defense and can they contend with Brady and the Bucs I like their offense better the defense is going to regress a little bit the defense wasn't great against Chicago but I'm still going with Tampa until otherwise give me a month to watch the Rams

let's see what happens in a month. By the way, the Rams painted end zone at SoFi last night. A lot of people were there that I knew. They said it was awesome. Yeah, it's a beautiful place. I can't wait to get out there. I'm going to the Chargers game this coming week. I'm going to be Chargers Cowboys.

I'll be there. Oh, nice. I'll give you a full report. Sweet. Yeah. We'll be Chargers Cowboys. I'll be there. Oh, nice. I'll give you a full report. Sweet. Yeah. We'll talk Chargers in a second. Let's talk about the team that the Rams beat. I want to know, over under field snaps week two

versus Lance snaps week two. Who's going to have more? Probably Lance still because Maggie is just not refusing to play Justin Fields. I mean, you had him in a goal line package. Probably three snaps, four snaps. Okay, but you saw it. I mean, the broadcast was about it. People seem to realize he's better.

I mean, he's ready enough to get out there and take the speed of it all. You really think it's still going to be Lance? So I think he had three plays yesterday, right? He had one carry. He ran it in the end zone out of completion. And two passes. I think he maybe played more than three because he could have handed the ball off

one time. Yeah, I mean, he was out there a little bit. So Trey Lance, but obviously Lance that was a weird game for the Niners. So he played more than probably he would have. Yeah, I don't know, man. I think I'm still going to go with Lance here. Okay.

Let's talk about the Chargers. Adjusted win total after week one win. They weren't supposed to beat the Washington team. They do. I want to know over under ten and a half total wins for the Chargers this year. I would say oh, wins for the Chargers this year? I would say, oh, man. The Chargers had the most impressive win.

I think no one paid attention to. Now's your chance. Tell us about it. So, Herbert was fantastic. He was like 13 of 16 on third down. The offensive line, Rashawn Slater, man, unbelievable. The offensive line was unbelievable in this game against a good washington defense um but this is a game the chargers have always lost game on the road yeah 10 and pacific kick uh they had a fumble

in the red zone like they were going they were going in to to go up two scores fumbled they went on a six minute drive to end the game yeah like this is a game they had lost for the years now they said they won herbert's not playing the preseason. His first game on the road with fans. You know, we both bet Washington heavily. At least Matt and I did. They looked really good. I think they're going over.

I think they're going to win a lot of games this year. Well, I'm glad to hear it as a fake Chargers fan, raising his kids to be Chargers fans. And just to follow on that, you know, last year was they couldn't close something wonky would always happen the little things would derail them and on Sunday they they're doing victory formation you know they like managed the game perfectly like you said Herbert looked good on third down he didn't even have his best game I mean statistically threw for a lot of yards but he had a pick he had that crazy fumble.

I mean, that was a ridiculous interpretation of the rule on that fumble. I didn't get how it was fumbled still. It has been an inkling pass for my entire life. Yeah, it was crazy. It's not even worth trying to describe on a podcast. Bottom line I'm making here is, like, no matter what, they'd find a way to lose last year. They were Falcons-esque in the way that they could figure out to lose.

And yesterday, none of that stuff went wrong and the things, the turnovers and mistakes didn't bite them in the ass. So they just look like a different team to me. Also, they made a big bet on this guy, Rashawn Slater, who you love. How'd he look? Dude, he was really good. I have a video on my Twitter at Jeff Schwartz. I mean, he stoned Chase Young the entire game.

Chase Young started over him, moved to the right tackle, and then he just stoned Montez Sweat the whole game. But I will say, as good as he played, PFF-graded Panay Sewell, my guy from Oregon, the highest-graded rookie offensive lineman. He played 92 snaps against the Niners. He went from right tackle

to left tackle this week. He's never given that job up now even when Decker comes back. So look, we got some great rookie tackles. Slater looked good. Panay looked good. Good for those teams

finding their left tackles. All right. And one team that could have had either of those guys and opted not to, the Bengals. But probably the most exciting game of the week. And the Bengals pull out a win.

Joe Burrow back. Looks good. You know, audibling, making plays down in overtime. Like beats a team that a lot of people think is a playoff team in the Vikings. Like, are they another turnaround team? I suddenly like the Bengals to sneak in. I'll say it. They're not going to playoffs.

Come on. They beat a bad Vikings team. And it's just a loss that game because that fumble was not a fumble at the end. I mean, the Vikings should have just been able to get out of there. But Zach Taylor almost cost them the game. He went for it on fourth and two from like his own 30 yard line. They're up two scores. Like, what are you doing, coach?

I don't like their game management. yeah burrow look good uh chase caught touchdown pass he dropped every pass in the preseason but he caught it when it mattered um you know they won by three against i think a bad vikings team but they're they're maybe better than we think but that division ran with the steelers and the ravens and the brothers to finish fourth that division okay i. I have them finishing second. I think the Ravens probably win the division. I feel like Joe Burrow. I don't know what it is, dude. I think Joe Burrow just has it.

And I didn't think that coming out of college. I was super critical. I just think he's got it. Their roster is nowhere near close to the Steelers or the Browns. So that matters. Okay. So a little magic in Joe Burrow. Speaking of magic and expectations.

Over under 5% odds, this year's Cardinals team are what everyone thought they were going to be in the first half of last year. All right, so I'm going to pull up this little stats information here. We got fooled by these guys last year. We all started falling in love with them. I saved the tweet earlier about how they're really good. Where did this tweet go? They're really

good in the early in the season, but suck as the season goes on. Now I can't find the tweet, of course. We'll be able to find it. Oh, here we go. So in his career as a head coach, in 2014, he lost four of his last five, 15, four of his last six,

16, six of his last eight, then 16 of his last eight and 17, lost his last five. 15, four of his last six. 16, six of his last eight. Then 16 of his last eight and 17. Lost his last five and 18. Lost seven of nine and 19. Lost six of nine last season. And one of those wins was by Hail Mary. Like, he doesn't close. Like, this is what they do.

They start fast and finish. Cliff Kingsbury. That's who you're coming after. Yeah. So I'm not buying them. I want to address one thing, though, because this is in the rundown. That's who you're coming after. Kingsbury, yeah. So I'm not buying them. I want to address one thing, though, because this is in the rundown. It's important. I've been avoiding this on Twitter to talk about, but I'm going to do it here.

So Chandler Jones had five sacks, the defensive end for the Cardinals. He had three against Taylor LeJuan coming off injury. Taylor LeJuan went to Twitter and tweeted out, Got my ass kicked today. No way around that. Left the team and the fans down. Thank you, Chandler Jones, for exposing me. It only forced me to get better.

I text about five former players and they're in agreement with me that's an embarrassing freaking tweet. Like, don't go on Twitter and asking for forgiveness for this shit. You played bad. We all had bad games.

I played bad too. I'm not saying I never played bad, but don't go on Twitter and grovel to your fans about this. Like just go get better next week. No one cares about apologizing. Your job is to block Chandler Jones. Block him. Don't go on Twitter and like,

and say, Oh, congratulations. You played better than me, dude. Like just be better at football. Like I, the one interesting part about this too, him don't go on twitter and and like and say oh congratulations you played better than me dude like just be better at football like i i the one interesting part about this too is go look at the replies no player has tweeted him about this like no one's been like good job like your job is to is to play football if you're bad at it you're bad at it just be like

okay get better next week i don't need to apologize for for what do you think game i think it's a ridiculous tweet i don't feel as strongly as you do but it seemed like an inauthentic attempt to look authentic it seemed yes it seemed like look at me i'm saying the thing no one else will ever say but like to your point just don't even bother saying it just block the guy that's it it's all we're asking for and we all we all know you played that we watched it happen ourselves you know you played bad just play better next week yeah i don't know anything really about uh taylor lawan i just seem he gives me the impression of he's a guy who's like i don't want the attention man but look at me i don't want i don't want the attention, man, but look at me. I don't want the attention, man,

but see this thing that I'm doing? Like, he gives off that vibe. So that seems like what this tweet was. Or I could take the other side of it and say, you got your ass kicked and you owned it. And if you do play better, then this will age well. But we all know he owned it because that's what our job is.

Like, you play poorly. We've all played bad, man. I've had games just as bad as his. And, like, you just suck it up and you play better next week. All right, fair enough. Well, I have a feeling that he's going to be in our industry at some point. He already is. He's got a big podcast already.

Yeah, he'll have shows and he'll be an analyst and he'll get to say what he wants because people perceive him as being a brutally honest guy. All right, we got here talking to Kyler Murray, though, who immediately is now everyone's MVP favorite. So let me throw another name at you. Jalen Hurts. Kind of surprised some people. Looked pretty damn good.

So the Eagles' offense looked pretty good. I watched that game because I had been in the Falcons, unfortunately, as I always seem to do. The offense looked good. I will caution that they did a lot of college-esque type stuff, a lot of kind of tricky eye violation stuff. That didn't last long in the NFL. So they're playing the honors this week.

They play real defense. So I'm curious to see when we get kind of like the rest of the offense if that makes sense yeah i i do understand uh so we have kyler murray and jalen hurts and baker for most of the game was pretty good lincoln riley quarterbacks it's starting to work who's the next guy everything can we spend spencer rantler yeah i i feel like all these little dudes who play in a college system get doubted when they come into the league and so far all the guys who he's worked with are playing pretty

damn well it feels like it's not a coincidence no he's a good coach let's see if he's coaching at the high level next couple of years I think that Hank put this in here just to troll me or maybe you. So over under December 25th, Urban Meyer is the coach at USC.

I can't say that without laughing. I've thought about this before. I don't look at the over under stuff because you try to surprise me with this. But I thought about this this morning, actually. It's a good chance it happens, I think. All right. I think he would jump back to college in a heartbeat if he had an opportunity.

I'm not sure USC wants to pay him or give him the support, but I think he would leave in a heartbeat. I agree with the leaving part. I don't think USC is the right home. Interesting stat, by the way. Trevor Lawrence has never lost a game ever in regular season football, high school or college. Never lost a regular season game until yesterday.

So over under 11 and a half more times he feels that feeling this year. Over. Over. They're bad. They're bad, yeah. They're real bad. And I think the Texans took offense to how bad everyone expected them to be. And they're going to blow up their plans of tanking the whole way through the season.

I would not bet against the Texans. They're going to lose a lot of games, but I would take them to cover more often than not. Correct. Yeah. All right, last one, and we can get out of here. Hours Jeff spent locked in his office watching football this weekend over under 19.5.

I heard about the nanny. We know about the baseball game. That's a break. That was an hour or two. I probably watched more. More. You think. Not locked in my office, but yeah.

You watched more than 20 hours of football this weekend. Yeah. All right. And predict for me moving into NFL week two and college week three over under 19.5. It was weird weekend last weekend because that Oregon game started early. So you really had to watch all that. So this weekend, my wife and kids are both out of town on Saturday.

Unfortunately, there's no great UCLA games at night. That's going to keep you up. No, I'll go to sleep. I don't play that game anymore. I'll watch a lot during the day on Saturday, but probably not crazy amounts on Saturday. I might go to the gym and play some, some hoops Saturday,

Saturday afternoon before, uh, there's no game. I don't, there's any game on like at noon. I really like want to watch. Um, so I'll get,

I'll get, I'll get some hoops, some hoops going maybe Saturday. Um, yeah, I mean, look, we got Nebraska,

Oklahoma's at noon, Cincinnati, Indiana. This is noon Eastern, by the way. I mean, Alabama four is up until 3.30. That's not a lot of good games this week. You could probably roll into the,

watch the second halves of the noon games. Auburn, Penn State's not bad. That's at 7.30. But all the Pac-12 games this week, I want to watch are at night. That's why they could be long days. So it sounds like you have to skip the first half. You see Corso put the headgear on,

go to the gym, come back, see the end of the 12 o'clocks, then lock in for the Bama game. Then you're on heads all night long until the end of Pac-12 play. So that's going to be about 10 hours. Here's the problem about staying up late like that is that I actually have to work Sunday night. I got to write Sunday night. So Saturday night, I just try not to stay up late.

I just try not to because I know for sure I'm up late Sunday night. And then today, I have to write Sunday night. So I don't, Saturday night, just try not to stay up late. Like I just try not to, because I know for sure I'm up late Sunday night. And then like today, like I have to nap. I wake up, take my kids to school, work out, come back and go to sleep. I don't want to hear about any dad on earth getting to take naps.

That angers me too much. I have to end this. We didn't say the word jets this whole show. And that makes me so freaking happy. J E T S jets, jets jets jets yeah brutal mckay beckton out four to six weeks the quarterback ain't it i already said that that was the that was a game they might have actually been able to win theoretically it's a lot of losses moving forward the jet season is lost already already done already done all right guys that's that's 37 seconds too much of jet stock we're back on thursday with our gambling is moving forward. The Jets season is lost already. Already done. Already done. All right, guys,

that's 37 seconds too much of Jets talk. We'll be back on Thursday with our gambling episode. We were 3-2 last week, guys. And if you want to count the under in Miami and New England,

which I love, 4-2. So good start. Good start. We'll be back on Thursday, guys. Have a great one.