Halford & Brough in the Morning - That NFL Season Opener Was Nothing To Spit At

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they talk last night's Thursday Night Football action with NFL.com's Nick Shook (28:09). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Number 98, defense and new actions has disqualified him from the game. Whoa, did he spit? Did he spit on him? Spit on this for me, Smithers? One huck-hacker coming up, sir. You're one of the richest men in America. They con me.

I need an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up and up, and they conned me. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is brought in SportsNet 650. We are coming here live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford inbrough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, Footwear, and Orthotics, working together with you and Step. We got a big show ahead on a Friday. We get to look back on one NFL game. We get to look forward to another one. And that's going to begin today with our guest list at 630. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join. the program. Football is back, baby. So is spitting. The Eagles beat the Cowboys 24 to 20 last night in the first game of their title defense. And boy, it was in an eventful game. We'll get into

all of that with Nick and about a half hour's time. We will also preview tonight's game, Friday night football, the NFL version. Chargers, Chiefs from Brazil. Lots to get into with Nick Shook at 6.30 this morning from NFL.com. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza on these Broadway is going to join the program live from New York. York going to join us from the Big Apple, where he's taking into U.S. Open and Lattie the start of the Jay's Yankee series this weekend. Oh, he's going to see the part where the Jays really start to separate from the Yankees. Very nice. Very nice. He's going to be in the house for it.

Also, a reminder, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. A $100 gift card to A.J.'s pizza on East Broadway goes to the best. Ask us anything. Start getting those in now. Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650, 650. Hashtag at AUA and put a pizza. emoji into your text to be entered into the contest. 7.30, it's

the Moge. Yes, it's the Moge. BC Lions, Play-by-Playman, is going to join the program. The BC Lions are in action tonight in Ottawa. 4.30 start our time for more Friday night football. This is the Canadian variety against the Red Blacks. The Lions are 3.5 point road

favorites in this one, which does make sense because Ottawa has the worst road record in the entire CFL. We'll talk to Moge at 7.30 this morning about all that. And finally, 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. Intrepid Canucks reporter. Now, he doesn't get back to work until Monday,

but I guess he thought he'd get a head start by doing a hit with Halford & Brough on Friday. What does Dolly have in store for us? We're going to have a Noah Juleson update. Nice. Is he still in Philadelphia? We're actually going to talk to Dolly about the second line center spot. Sherwood changing agents,

which Dolly Wall was very excited about. We were decidedly less excited. Even though we haven't mentioned it until now. And you know how Dolly's really into like who makes the Olympic teams? Yes. Like with all the American players, he's going to talk about Besser and Demko not making the USA Olympic camp. Oh, all right. Well, Dolly Well is going to join us at 8 o'clock this morning.

Moge is going to join us at 7.30. AJ at 7, Nick Shook at 630. It's a big show ahead, a big program ahead. But without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We begin with the National Football League and the Philadelphia Eagles title defense. kicked off last night a 24 to 20 win over the Dallas Cowboys that had a lot of storylines and a lot of narratives emanating from it in the aftermath. The game itself, pretty entertaining one, despite the fact that there was a very lengthy weather delay in this one, Jason, which kept the teams off the field for about 40 minutes in the second half. It really kind of altered the course of the game.

It didn't finish until awfully late back east. 12.18 a.m. that game ended local time in Philadelphia. But again, the on-field stuff and the box score stuff, which we're kind of parsing through because we need to get to the big story of the night. Eagles win a lot closer game than a lot expected. As a matter of fact, I think the line ended up closing it at eight and a half in favor of the Eagles. But the Cowboys played reasonably well, especially on the defensive side of the football. The Cowboys had a chance to win that game if C.D. Lam could catch the ball. Old CD. You know what C.D stands for? Continual drops.

Ha! Nice. It was a good opening night. I think the weather, the game really stunk after the weather delay. Yeah, yeah. There was no punts prior to it. There was five punts after it. I think it really threw both teams off. But whatever the case, it was a fairly decent opening salvo on the field when it came to the actual football.

Now, the big story from last night, of course, is the Jalen Carter incident. And when it happened in the moment, I knew it was going to be a big story, but I didn't realize that that was going to mushroom cloud and become the talking point. If you watched any postgame coverage of this game, yesterday, everything was focused on the spitting incident. So in case you missed it, a grand total of six seconds into the game yesterday, Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle, Jalen Carter was tossed, ejected from the game for spitting on Dack Prescott. Now, in the immediacy, when it happened, he was dead to rights, clear as day.

They got it on camera. The ref was right there. Right there. And it was, it wasn't a sprayer. Nope. That was a luggy. It was a luggy. Yeah, yeah.

He was like, we got a loogie. We got a loogie. And Prescott immediately signaled towards the referee to one of those like, did you just see that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the referee was like I did. Flag goes up. Carter's gone.

Now, we've got a whole bunch of our audio that I want to parse through here. Let's start with Jalen Carter after the game. This is a guy, incredibly talented player. Remember the Seahawks were thudged to him in the draft during his draft here. Also an incredibly checkered history. A little undisciplined back at, was it Georgia? Yes.

Yeah. And now that discipline, seemingly still a problem. Jalen Carter, very tight-lipped after the game, so there's not a ton here. For once. Hello. I set them up, you knock them down.

Here's Jalen Carter after getting ejected from the 24 to 20 loss to, or sorry, the 24-20 win for him over the Dallas Cowboys last night. Jaylin, what happened, did you realize that you were going to get tossed in the game? I heard the rest talking, and then I heard him say, this is a tossing ball offense,

something like I am. That's what I know. Did you have a conversation with Nick? And if so, what kind of message did he relate to you? I didn't have a conversation yet. I never going to have that conversation. They had to focus on the game still. I don't want to distract them from the game.

I came in, I talked to the D-line, told him what I was seeing while I was watching the game. And so that's all. What was it like watching the rest of the game? It was intense for me. I wanted to be out there with the guys so bad and just the support and help, even just standing on the sideline,

but, you know, things went how I went, you know, we just got to move on. I've made a promise to the boys. It won't happen again. So what was missing from that audio was a real definitive explanation as to why, and Carter wasn't going there. He basically said, like, I'm not,

you know, I'm not talking, I'm not answering those kind of questions. He was talking about the aftermath and how badly he felt and how he won't do it again, hopefully not because spitting is pretty gross. Dak Prescott was far more detailed in his explanation,

and he kind of needed to be. Yes, because ESPN, or sorry, NBC put on a bit of an investigation at halftime. They went through a bunch of videos, and I guess they suggested that DAC might have been part of it. He was the first spitter. The first spitter, but not at, like not on Jalen Carter, but maybe spat in his direction. The vicinity? Is that fair? The vicinity? Like it was a symbolic spit.

was like, that's you. Right. And it didn't hit the individual. And he wasn't that close to Carter. Yeah, it wasn't that. I wouldn't call it almost like a taunting or a trolling spit, if you will. It's very hard to describe, but if you've seen the video, there's clearly something that leads up to Carter spitting on Prescott. Now, this doesn't take the onus off of Jalen Carter.

What he did was brutal and everything else. I like that, a taunting spit. Yeah, a troll spit. That's what Dak called it. Exactly. I said it was trolling. Sponting. Or don't do it the other way.

Don't do it the other way. Don't do it the other way. I thought about it in my mind grapes. Don't do it. Because of the level of skill required for the spit, though. Shouldn't he be rewarded for that because of how much work was involved? Who? The spitter.

You should be encouraged, but like, we were really, this was a level of athleticism we've never seen before. Have you seen it? Do you see it? He was like, he was like nine inches away from him. He just, it wasn't like accurate. No. You know how athletes, you watch them sometimes. you're like, I could do that.

I could have done that. I could have spout on Dak Prescott, with a good Lugie, too. I wouldn't have because he'd kill me. In terms of handling the questions afterwards, I think Dak did a really good job, and we'll play the audio here, because he acknowledges his part in what happened.

And when you hear him explain it, you don't really blame Prescott, and you're still pointing all the fingers of Jalen Carter. I did anyway. Let's hear what you have to think in listener land. Here is Dak Prescott following the game in which he was the spiter. Spitty? Spitter, what are you at that point?

Spittee. You're the Spittee? That's bad on. The spittee, Dak Prescott, following the loss to the Eagles last night. I probably spit a thousand times throughout the game. I mean, especially game day, maybe even in general, and something I guess I'm not proud of. But in that case, he was trolling, I guess you can say, trying to mess with Tyler Booker. I was just looking at him.

I was right here by the two linemen, and I guess I needed to spit, and I wasn't going to spin on my linemen, and I'd just spit ahead. But I would say he was back there where Jory was in that sense. or he goes, you're trying to spin on me? And at that point, I mean, I felt like, like, he was insulting me. Like, I wouldn't spin on somebody. I'm damn sure not trying to spin on you. Like, we're about to play a game.

I'm wondering why you're trying to mess with the rookie. So when I stepped through, I actually say the words, like, what the hell would I, excuse me, but I'm probably even more colorful. What would I need to spin on you for? And he just spit on me in that moment. And it was more of a surprise than anything. Refes obviously saw it through the flag. I was like, hell yeah, we get 15 yards to start the game off.

I love how. Should have been like, I had a bug in my mouth. I love how we, you know, get really excited for NFL season. And these players are getting paid millions and millions of dollars. And they're all incredible athletes. And the NFL puts on this big spectacle. And they're, you know, almost 100,000 fans at these stadiums and so much money invested. And then after the game, we're like, do you see that guy spit on them?

That was the main, that was the main talking. See the Loogie last night? That was the main talking point from all those millions of dollars and all that emotional investment into this game. One guy sped on the other guy and we're going to talk about it. That's what I'm saying. After the game, there was lots to talk about in the actual game yesterday. This isn't me being naive thinking that the only thing they were going to talk about was spitting. I knew it was going to be prominent.

But if you watched any postgame show, any of the major, like that's all it. Spitting's gross, man. And it happened like so blatantly. Well, there's another ironic wrinkled all of this. Can we play the audio that the, this is the audio that the NFL rules committee sent out to all 32 teams prior to the start of the season. If you weren't aware of this, one of the initiatives from the NFL this season is to emphasize sportsmanship and crack down on violent and sexually suggestive gestures this season. So violent means they don't want guys doing like the shooting guns celebrate. Like, yaha, that one.

And I don't think they want any more like, cry. They're trying to eliminate... The rich Texan is just furious about that. They're trying to eliminate all this stuff. Like the DMX thing you mean? They can't do the DMX? No, no, no, no, DX. Oh, DX.

Wait, that's the rapper. Yes, that's right. Rest in peace. Anyway. What? This is hilarious. Listen to the audio here. This is what the NFL sent out

prior to the first game of the season. And what they got in the first game of the season was Chef's gift. Perfect. Here's the NFL rules committee prior to the start of the season. The things that we've seen, there's just no place in the game for it. There's no place in the game to be standing over your opponent. There's no place in the game to have violent gestures. That's not the game of football.

We just have to play by the rules, respect your opponent, respect your teammates, and play the game in between the whistles. The best part of all of that is that they didn't mention spitting specifically and I like to think that Jalen Carter saw right through their video. He's like, well, you didn't mention this at all. Well, do you think in the video

they were like, should we put something in and spitting? No, no one's going to spit, man. That's like so gross. We don't have a spitting problem here. I think they're going to suspend them a game. I think so too. Here, I've got an ask us anything. Yeah.

First, ask us anything. Let's go. of the dead don't say that we're not we're not doing a whole season of that this one's coming from me okay what is worse spitting or biting great question this is this is in a sports context and i was thinking about this last night my head my brain limited brain says biting is worse because it's both gross i mean it's like a very close up spit with teeth And it hurts and could cause physical harm. Yep.

My heart says spitting because it's just so damn disrespectful. Yep. To just spit on someone. I mean, what a statement you're making with that. And I guess at the end of the day, if I'm putting myself in the victim's shoes and you might want to clip this, A dog, I think I'd rather someone bites me than spit. on me. Okay. Okay.

Brian, spit on me. Oh, that's nice. Now tell me I'm scum. I mean, yeah, in that context, it's different. I was like a cool you off. Now, okay, I thought about this a lot last night. I think the biting would be easier to deal with if it was a dry bite. Like, if there wasn't a lot of saliva involved in the bite,

and the guy was respectfully clearing his throat first and made sure his mouse was nice and clean, then maybe with the fact that you got. Why are you getting bitten in such a sterile environment? Well, I'm just saying, like, if you have your jersey on and stuff, you got some padding in between you, that is probably not so bad. But I mean, spit is a spit. That's gross. Okay. Now, if it's a really, like, wet bite, that's a bit different.

I didn't know that the moisture was going to come into the conversation, but it has moisture and it's more of the disrespect that I'm talking about. As opposed to the respectful bite. Well, yeah. Aren't they both kind of disrespect? Honestly, sometimes, if it comes to biting, sometimes you're just in a fight and one guy resorts to a fight. Now we're getting to the crux of the argument right here. Okay, let's pause for a sec here. Like, no one comes up to you with their, like, mouth open and they're like,

this guy's going to bite me, right? Not today, anyway. Okay. Are you wearing fangs? Let's put it this way. There may be, maybe a certain situation. I don't want to use the word acceptable, but there may be a situation where you could understand why a bite would take place.

Let's say, like you were suggesting a fight. Let's say someone is gouging your mouth with their fingers. This is all going to get clipped. but yeah yeah anyway and let's say it's Patrice Bergeron sure and let's say it's a very important moment like the 2011 Stanley Cup final you spill barbecue sauce all over you maybe some salt and parmesan let's just focus on the let's say someone inserts their fingers into your mouth without you inviting them in right let's say they force what are we talking about here biting you know no I know but you're saying the bite would only occur if somebody was sticking their finger

I thought you meant like the guy would just like chomping you no I don't I don't think you're listening one there's different levels of bite right we're suggesting you stop talking please stop talking it's it's time to mute your microphone what we're suggesting is there may be some instances where biting isn't acceptable but it happens and you understand it let's say someone you're in a fight and someone puts their fingers in your mouth and you bite them yeah you're allowed to do that is there ever ever a similar parallel for spitting where you're like well it was not great but i could understand why you did it i couldn't think of one maybe if you got spat on first.

If somebody, that's retaliatory. If somebody sticks their finger in your mouth, you could do whatever you want. Okay, thank you. Now you're adding something useful to the conversation. In that, I think there's a clear device there. Some of you are overthinking it, like Mike the urologist, a doctor, texting in. If there's a bite and no skin puncture, maybe, but if there's skin puncture, then biting is definitely worse.

You can't do that. No, no, no, you can do that, but you're overthinking it. You're like, well, I could get some sort of, you know, well, I can get rape. or whatever. You don't say you can't do what Mike did. There has to be a divide between, is it okay or not? There can't be levels to it. If you know what I'm saying.

Like one bites okay and one bites not. I just think like I, why I said my brain says it's biting because like I'm going through all these reasons. But at the end of the day, like to be spat on is just like so disrespectful. Yes. and to have that happen in a game where yeah like you know like say respect your opponent but like there might be some trash talking or whatever to have that it's like it's like it's a showstopper do you know what I mean like it's just an absolute showstopper for someone to do that and it is such a statement of disrespect that my heart says that spitting is worse than biting at least with biting or like well he's a bad battler you know like he'll go to any length but spitting is just like cowardly and disrespectful okay if you want to get your what we learns in and ask us anything's in dunbar number text line is

650 650 hashtag at a ua put a pizza emoji into the text best ask us anything will be announced at 830 the winner gets a 100 dollar gift card to a j's pizza on east broadway uh we do need to pivot to the second consecutive day of connect's news and notes from their informal skates out at the university of British Columbia. Yesterday, things got ramped up a level because there was an informal scrimmage out at UBC. And one of the key takeaways was that Jake DeBrusk was in the house and in attendance

and had already linked up with Elias Pedersen. The two skated together and were seen addition and diving to one another throughout the course of the scrimmage. The interesting thing here off our conversation yesterday is we were trying to figure out early days, of course, because it's only September 5th, and these are informal skates.

but who's going to play with who and who's going to be linked up with who yesterday it was we're thinking Besser Pedersen to try and find that center for Besser that he's been looking for since J.T. Miller was traded away. Yeah, and then we weren't really sure on Kane or DeBrusk for the other winger on that line. But I think we definitely kind of had Besser and Pedersen together because is Besser potentially their best goal score? Right now it would be Besser DeBrusk, right? What about Cain? I don't see it. Not at his advanced age.

He was a 30-goal guy early in his career. I mean, put it this way. Right now, if Cain gets to 20 this year, feels like a bit of a win. I know some people have some expectations that he might get back to 30. He's in a contract year. I get that, but he's also a little bit longer in the tooth. And I think every time I talk to someone about,

they ask me, like, what do you think about? I'm like, I'm not sure because it is extremely difficult. to do what he did last year. I know he came back in the playoffs. And I know there were fits and starts in the playoffs where he looked very good and very effective. But by the end, he looked like a guy that had missed the entirety of the regular season.

Like it looked like things caught up to him, which is fair. Yeah, yeah. You can't miss an 82 game regular season, jump back into the postseason and expect to have that early energy and all the momentum that comes with it carry throughout. Like you're going to hit a lull.

And I think that's what happened. Not including last year. He's a pretty consistent 20 goal score. I think 20 is a reasonable total. Other than one season, he always hits 20. His last 30-goal season was 2018-19, though. I think a big wild card is how much he gets used on P-P-1 and how effective he is on P-P-P-1

because he didn't really play prime power-play minutes in Edmonton. And part of that was because he's never, save for, I think, one season, been much of a power-play scorer. But also, I mean, Edmonton just has so much offensive talent. Like, it's not, it's not like the biggest shame to be cut off BP1 in Edmonton. But, you know, so much of this is going to depend on chemistry first for so many of these guys. You know, like we're talking about can Pedersen and Besser rekindle some of the chemistry that they had? But then you say, well, a lot of the chemistry they had was when the lotto line was together.

And J.T. Miller was part of that. So, you know, when those guys were together at times last season, it didn't look quite as good. But a lot of stuff happened last season. So this is the fresh start this year. You know, Cain potentially have chemistry with Pedersen. And then there are other guys, right? Like, who's going to be the ideal linemate for Heidel? I have no idea.

I'm hoping a guy like Garland. I'm intrigued by Kane and Garland being the wingers on the second line and then Besser and DeBrest being the wingers on the first line. I think that's maybe how it'll go and I think Kane will end up being the guy that gets moved around to bring that presence.

Although you can say the same thing about Garland because he was that guy last year, right? Anytime you wanted to get a line going, throw Garley out. Well, kind of like I said yesterday, though, I don't know if you can have Garland and Pedersen together because who's going to drive the line that they're not on.

It's fair. Fair question. I mean, someone might step up, hopefully. That would be nice if someone stepped up. But man, wildcard team. There's just so many question marks that we don't know about. And we'll talk to Dolly about, I mean, he wants to talk about the second line center.

So maybe he's got some intel on a player that the Canucks could be chasing or what they plan to do about it. You know, there's a lot of wildcards. Maybe Atu Rachi show. goes up and he's looking really good and he can play second line center. Like, having watched Heidel, I wonder if he's better as a winger, to be perfectly honest with you. Like he has more of a, he has a more of a winger, like, what are you good at? Sure.

You're like, that's a winger, for sure. Well, I just said, maybe if Atu, Ratu or something. Yeah. Or, you know, like I, listen, that's a lot. It is. Well, so is Heidel being the 2C, right? you know the other wild card that people might talk about is coots right people might they're listening and these guys are like you're grasping at straws guys yeah yeah that i mean look at their center

depth it was a problem last season after they traded j t and then they lost pew suitor who was probably their most consistent center uh last season so yeah of course we're going to be grasping at a few straws when we talk about this position okay we got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. We got another game tonight in the National Football League. It's the Chiefs and it's the Chargers from Corinthians Arena in Brazil. We'll preview that with Nick.

We will also get into everything that's going on Sunday. Full slate of games, including that massive and tantalizing Sunday nighter between the Ravens and the Bills. A reminder, it is Ask Us Anything Friday. Get your AUAs in. Hashtag him AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text, the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket is $6.50, $6.50. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. Let's say someone inserts their fingers into your mouth without you inviting them in, right?

Runs to the 10 on the numbers, angles to the far side, the five, to the pilot, the dive. Touchdown, Philadelphia, hurts on the fly. 632 on a Friday Oh yeah, it's Fiesta Friday Mui Caliente this morning You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650 Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates BC's first and trusted choice for dead help with over 3,000 5 star reviews

visit them online at sands dash trustee.com We did spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the spitting incident from last night's Eagles Cowboys game No, we didn't spend enough time. In the first half hour of the program. Folks, that's by design. I will reiterate this. After the game last night,

I consumed a lot of post-game content. Wanting to know about CD lambs, controversial drops in this game. Wanted to know about what impact the weather delay had. There was lightning rolling through the Philadelphia area. Get to the spinning. Everyone wanted to talk about the spitting. Everybody.

And I get it. Spitting's hot right now. You need to ask every guest. Bruff's ask us anything, by the way, because I especially want to know Dolly's answer. Actually, I kind of want to know Moja's answer. And NICS, of course. Yes.

Also, I do want to point out before we get to Nick Shook from NFL.com, I said, spitting is hot right now. Because Luis Suarez, the Inter-Miamy striker, who, they- Well, he has a spitting and abiding history. Right. We should ask him. He's the best in the game.

No one, they kept writing it and framing it as alleged spitting in Swetting in Swart. his case, I'm like, it's not alleged. Like, it's clear his day that he spat on a guy. He and Enter Miami, four days after the match, finally addressed what happened. They both sent out public statements yesterday. And I feel like that's because the hammer is about to be dropped on possibly both of them. And Suarez was like, sorry about that.

Yeah. What else is he going to say? I'd say, it'd be amazing if he was like, don't regret a thing. Really happy I did that. Or came up with an excuse. Like, I had a cough. He did kind of come up with an excuse. What did you say?

He said he was hot. He was running hot after the. the match. Well, that's just the way he is. He's a battler. He said it's no excuse yet. He used it as an excuse, which is very entertaining. Let's go to the phone lines now. Nick shook from NFL.com joins us, courtesy the Power West Industries hotline. Good morning, Nick. How are you?

I'm great, and I'm so glad that you explained your statement that spitting is hot because I was completely lost. It's the thing to do, apparently, across all sports right now. We've framed this in about eight different ways. One of them was we played the Please Be Sportsman, video that the NFL rules committee

sent to all 32 teams right before the start of the season and then we joke like they didn't cover spitting in there so maybe that was why but my question for you not our ask us anything was what's worse bidding or spiting or spitting or biting clip that

feel free to answer that if you want also do you think Jalen Carter is going to get suspended for spitting on Dak Prescott I think it is possible I thought it was a guarantee until NBC used that weather delay, that hour-long weather delay, to unearth the footage, find their own Zapruder film of the moments that led up to Jalen Carter spitting at Dak Prescott,

which is that when he and Dak were jawing, Dak kind of spit at the ground roughly five feet away or so from Jalen Carter, and that may, you know, make the NFL take a little bit lighter of an approach in disciplining him. But I think the fact that it's driven this much conversation, to say that the, I guess the online conversation or, you know, whatever, wherever it might be drives reactionary decision-making. But I think the fact that this was the kickoff game and it was right at the start and it's still all that a lot of people are talking about afterward, which was a good, it was a good football game outside of that. But this had a direct impact

on it. I do think that because under the microscope so much that there's a pretty high chance that he does get suspended. Were the Cowboys better than you thought they'd be? offensively yes I don't know I was a little bit surprised because I didn't like their backfield on paper Giovante Williams looked better than I thought he would they also just had a really balanced offense

that's DAC you know the way he played last night was that's DAC near his best if not at his best it's just that his teammates around him didn't really pick him up but Javante Williams was better than I thought it would be Brian Schopenheimer's play calling and just his offense in general the balance and the selective aggression was really impressive to me. This is a Cowboys team that I think is going to be able to put up a lot of points.

You can obviously see the value of adding George Pickens to the offense, even though he got hit with that unnecessary roughness penalty, which didn't really end up hurting them. He'll make a bonehead to play once or twice a game. That's just what he does, but you can see the value of adding him to that offense and the offensive line strong. So this is going to be an offensive team, and I wasn't surprised, I guess, by the defense.

I was just surprised that neither team could play defense for a whole first half. Is it fair or unfair to hang some of that on C.D. Lamb last night? I know that he's paid to make catches, but some of those were difficult to be fair. Yeah, the last one was difficult. The last one was a tough ask of any receiver. It obviously bums all of us out, right, that it was in such a key moment where it would have been an spectacular play. But, yeah, there were some other situations in which he had the drops.

and back was putting incredible passes on on guys last night, especially in the second half when they're desperate to move the football. I mean, there's throw after throw

in that one series that ends up stalling with the fourth down incompletion intended for C.D. Lam, where he just puts it on his tight end. He puts it on CD way down the seam.

I mean, just threading passes with accuracy that you just don't see from the average quarterback and arm strength and the fact that he was under pressure a good amount in the second half.

He'd be pressures for enough for both teams and especially Dak would be. when he was trying to lead them back. Yeah, that does fall on CD. Look, football's difficult. There were a couple of instances

of which you've got to make that grab. That's what his reputation is, since he played college football at Oklahoma, he's been the guy who makes the spectacular, very difficult catches that most receivers don't make, and he just didn't last night. In the first half, especially Jalen Hertz, was running all over the Cowboys.

Does he get his due respect around the league? Jalen Hertz? Yeah, it's funny. It wasn't a good time for me to rank Jalen Hertz outside of the top 10 in the QBN to start the season and draw all the anger from Eagles fans that I was getting that anger from them after the Super Bowl when I did my season end, year-end rankings, and I'm sorting it all out and everything. And I'm like, oh, no, Jalen Hurts is going to end up outside of the top 10 based on the way I'm looking at it right now and they're going to get after me.

And they got after me a little bit, so it was a bad time for that. but he absolutely deserves a ton of credit for that game. He carried that offense. In that explosive first half for both teams, he absolutely carried that offense. He scrambled more than we've seen him in a long time. He had more scrambling touchdowns in that game last night than he had in all of 2024.

This is a great example, I think, how offenses will evolve, you know, from year to year and how no two teams are ever exactly the same, even if one's a Super Bowl winner and you come back to next year and expect them to, quote, unquote, defend their title. Things change. changes. Your offensive line

changes even the slightest. You lose your right guard in free agency. Your start goes down at halftime. Even the minor changes like that will elicit some adjustments and I have to give Jaylen Hertz all the credit in the world for accepting the challenge and putting the team on his back

and knowing exactly what to do in the biggest moments throughout that game, including that final conversion that allowed them to kill the rest of the clock. We're speaking to Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I'm on NFL.com right now, and lookie here. It's Nick Shook's NFL QB rankings index.

Week 1. You want to go through the 10 that he put ahead of Jalen Hertz? Let's do it. Nick called the people of the website. He's like, can we take that down now? Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is one, and that's great. And we'll talk about Mahomes and the Chiefs

because they're playing tonight against the Chargers. Lamar Jackson, yep, that tracks Josh Allen. Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels. I don't have a problem with those five. This is a good article so far, Nick. I like this a lot. Let's go to the next guest. All right. Justin Herbert. okay

he's playing tonight Matt Stafford I got questions about him we'll ask both them later Baker Mayfield C.J. Stroud Jared Gough and then coming in

at number 11 is Jalen Hertz I can see why the old fans are disrespected I feel disrespected I can see it I'm not disagreeing per se with it like I can get why you could find

10 guys a matter of I guess someone do this exercise with Justin Herbert the other day trying to name 10 guys and they were able to do it and make arguments for the 10, I guess, does last night really change anything?

Because that was sort of a Jalen Hertz-esque performance. Like, that's how he plays football. Yeah, but there were some, a few examples in that game where he was more decisive and his contributions were more significant to the outcome of the game than, you know, other instances last year. And I will add this caveat to this entire ranking, which is that this is not just based off last year. This is where I view them, you know, just their reputation in general as we start a new season.

It's not just about what they did in 2024. So it is the way he plays football. You are right. They didn't really throw the ball quite as much as you would expect them. Like did AJ Brown play last night? Like, I was right. I think he was targeted once. Yeah, he was essentially not targeted until the final drive in the fourth quarter.

And that's fine because they still won the football game and all that had to do with Jaylon Hertz. He's going to climb this week. He's undoubtedly going to climb into the top ten, so everybody can celebrate for a week. But, yeah, I mean, it's tough. There is a lot of talent in the league right now, and he's certainly proven himself as one of them. What are your storylines to watch for in tonight's game in Brazil

between the Chargers and the Chiefs? I'm always curious when Deans hit the road for these out-of-the-country showcase games, how the field's going to be, just because once you get outside of the traditional, NFL stadiums that have you know years if you know months if not years to prepare their field and they know how to go about it uh some of these facilities in other nations that you know usually have soccer fields and and stuff like that uh i'm just curious to see what the playing surface it's going to be like but when it comes to the rest of the action that's actually going to take

place on the field i mean look this is an afc west battle right out of the gate okay this is chiefs chargers this is the the big dog versus the team that wants to unseat the big dog in the AFC, and they happen to know them quite well. I've got to see what this upgraded running back room looks like for the Chargers. You know, Najee Harris, he's going to play. He's expected to play. They have Amarian Hampton, who we barely saw in the preseason. And when I did see him in the Hall of Fame game, he looks apart.

And that's what Jim Harvost team wants to do. They want to run the football. But I am very curious to see if their defense is going to be able to hold up against the Chiefs' offense, which has been at a lower statistic. output over the last few years, and that's why everybody, when you know, going back to the QB rankings, they never wanted to rank Mahomes as highly as I usually did, because

oh, he doesn't have the numbers. I think you're going to have the numbers this year. Something tells me this offense is going to be more explosive than it's been in recent years. And I think this is a good test for them, because the charges were a rugged opponent that got to the playoffs last year by being a tough team that leaned on its defense. And

it's a contrast in styles, I think, that is going to give us another little peek into a window and how these two teams seasons may unfold. Since we're talking about the AFC West, what do you think of the other teams in the division? Denver

finished 10 and 7 last season, Bo Nicks at quarterback, and then the Raiders made all sorts of changes this off season, bringing in a couple people that people in our area of the woods are familiar with in Gino Smith and Pete Carroll.

Do you guys remember, I want to say, I think it's four years ago by now, when the Chargers and the Broncos and, you know, you obviously knew who the Chiefs were and the Raiders all made big headline moves in the offseason and everybody went to that season going, oh man, the AFC West is the toughest division in football by far and ended up being a flop and the Chiefs largely dominated. I don't think that's going to be the case this year.

I actually think there's legitimacy behind, wow, this is a really difficult division because you had three playoff teams, first off. You had the Chiefs, the Chargers hit the Broncos out at the playoffs. The Raiders were the afterthought in the division. the Raiders, I think, got significantly better solely by acquiring Gino Smith. They add Pete Carolyn in the mix. These are two guys that are very familiar with each other. You get Ash and Jenty in that back field.

Their biggest weakness is receiver, and I think their defense took a step back in terms of personnel. All of that, you know, kind of put into this big cauldron here, this is going to be a fascinating division to watch because if the Chiefs take even a minor step back, that door is going to open for the Broncos who are looking to build on what was a very, promising turnaround season last year, the Chargers who, like I said, want to take the next step and unseat them. And the Raiders are going to be in the mix as maybe a bit of a spoiler who are probably going to be better than most people think because they got Dome Gino playing in his home games,

and we all know about Dome Gino over the course of his career. And they got Pete Carroll, you know, guiding a ship that has been listless, if not completely lost over the last half decade. So I think this is going to be one of the tougher divisions of football outside of the NFC North. And it's going to be really fun to watch on a week-by-week basis. The Seahawks hosts the 49ers on Sunday at 1. I'm curious what this 49ers team is going to look like this season. And I guess there's more concern around Christian McCaffrey. What do you don't know about his injury?

Could this be a repeat of last season? Yeah, you know, we almost got there. We almost got to game time for them, which, I mean, if you think about last year, we did get to game time and we still didn't know. without any bad news about Christian McAfrey. And yet, you know, we had to get some bad news on Thursday with regarding his health. It's not the best news. It's not, it's not the worst news.

It's not, you know, devastating. It's not even as bad as he's out. He was just limited, you know, in practice. And the problem is it's a calf issue. And the calf issue was the issue last year. And he's had a documented history of issues, you know, in the lower leg injury department. knee injury is what actually ended his season prematurely, but it did prevent it prevented him for being on the field for quite some time.

So I hate to say you have to take this kind of thing more seriously with a player like him because of his documented history of having these issues. And they have a thin running back room. They are really depending on him a lot more than they were even last year because they don't have the likes of Brandon Ayuk. They've had a ton of receivers get injured during the free season during camp. They went and signed Brian Robinson because they had. admitted they just didn't like their running back depth

enough to not go get him or acquired him. It's not looking good for them offensively. I think this is a team that most people are going to expect to bounce back stronger than they actually will. And I'm concerned about that. And a lot of that is dependent on whether McAfrey can play the majority of

this season. This is not feeling good going into week one. It does sound a little hyperbogged, but I'm just, I am concerned. I think the Seahawks with Mike McDonald's defense, I think that they could cause some real issues for the 49ers on the road early in this game and potentially get the Niners off to a rough start and go with a victory. If they don't have the offensive weapons that they've had in the past, is this where Brock Purdy really gets tested?

Yeah, I think I kind of alluded to it in that quarterback ranking QB Index, which is when... What you just disrespect to him to? Yeah, I think. I think I did a little bit. I probably did. Niners fans have been alleging that for a while, but when he doesn't, when things aren't really okay around him, he struggles, whether it's the injuries that they dealt with, which could be true for any quarterback, right? But it's more pronounced with him because when things are right around him, he's very good. But he's just a guy that struggles to lift the Niners past the adversity

that they face. And they are facing some already with the lack of, you know, healthy weapons around him. If he doesn't have McCaffrey in the equation, it's going to be much more difficult for them. So, yeah, I think this will definitely be a season in which he's tested. That's not to knock the kids' moxie or, you know, his, you know, intelligence or anything like that. It's just that football is very hard at the NFL level. When you don't have some of your, you know, most talented weapons around you, it's going to be increasingly difficult. He just tends to not be the guy who pushes them past that as much as some other, quote, unquote, star quarterbacks too. Brock Brady is number 14 in the aforementioned rankings. Number seven in those rankings

is the 17-year vet, Matthew Stafford. The Rams play Sunday afternoon. So, right, that's going to be a big NFC West showcase for us up here. You got the Seahawks and the Niners, and then you got the Rams playing as well. So three of the four teams in the division. My question about Stafford is, does anyone have a true handle on how healthy or not healthy he is?

I don't think he knows. I think it was as recent as last week that he said he's just doing everything under the sun to get right and feel as good as possible. in order to be able to play on Sunday. Now, he did say this week that he's not thinking about the back as he goes out there and plays that he's ready for it, that he's prepared for whatever an NFL game brings him.

And if there's anybody that knows, it's a 37-year-old quarterback who's had a number of different injuries and also has played a physical brand of football throughout the course of his career. But, yeah, I don't think anybody really knows. And it's going to be, I don't know, there's part of me that you just think as a football player, you really, really don't know your own physical standing until. that first hit in the first game. Yeah. And I mean,

I even saw last night, you know, Landon Dickerson gets one shot to his lower back, which has been ailing him in the lead up to week one, and you see him exit that game, you know, the offensive line for the Eagles. So, you hope that Stafford doesn't face a similar fate

against the Texans. Texans defense is very good. And that's the strength of their team. We could talk about CJ Stroud and everything else, the strength of Houston Texans, is their defense. The identity form behind their Coach Dimeco Ryan is a former linebacker. And they're going to challenge Stafford. So you hope that the Rams keep him up, right,

and that they limit to hits on him. But if I was D'Amico, I would be game playing, get after him and hit him as much as possible. So we'll find out how healthy that back is on Sunday, I think. Friday night football on the horizon from Brazil. I love it. It's a brave new world. It's the Chiefs and it's the Chargers tonight.

And then, of course, we got a full slate on Sunday. Nick, you're the best, man. Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this today. great recrat, great, I can't talk this morning, great recap, great preview, great look ahead. We'll do this again next Friday. Thanks, bud. Hey, I can't talk this morning either. That's what happens when you get stuck in a weather delay for an hour.

Thanks for having me, guys. See you, buddy, thanks. Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. That Seahawks line is moved. Yeah. Now down to a one and a half point dog at home. I wonder if that was due to bets on the Seahawks or the McCaffrey News. I never understood why it was such a decisive.

large line in favor of the 49ers going into it. Just on, if you take away everything else, it's a rivalry game and the Niners got to go on the road in the opening week. Yeah. Traditionally, that's a tough spot to go and get a win or get a result. Never mind the fact that there's a lot of question marks around this 49ers team, even when McCaffrey's healthy. I think it just shows where Seattle is.

Sure. And granted, we talked about this with Brady. yesterday, Lumen's not a tough place to play right now. I get that. But I do think there's something different about it being week one home opener, season opener. There's a real energy in the building and I'm like I really like Seattle in that one. I cannot begin

to tell you how excited I am for Sunday. Like the games, the afternoon slate is great. It's awesome. Right? So you got you got Seahawks and 49ers. That one's going to be front and center viewing for a lot of people that are listening to the show right now. Lions Packers is great. Like not only do you have a classic divisional rivalry there. You also get Micah Parsons debut for the Packers. I'm going to be curious to see that Rams game.

The Texans are a very good team going on the road to L.A., and you always pay attention to the rest of the games they're going on in the division. I think Arizona's got New Orleans. That's a 10 in the morning, though. That's in New Orleans. No, I know. And Arizona is a, who is not a great team last year, very average, six and a half point favorites on the road.

I think New Orleans is going to be the worst team in football this year. There will be some contenders. Make no mistake, but I think they're going to be the worst. Okay, we're going to have a quick chat with AJ. and then we've got an entire segment if you want to send in some ask us anythings and of course there's a $100

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There's all sorts of things happening in the wide world of sports. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I do need to remind you all that all of our NFL coverage and our NFL previews here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650 are brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens

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