NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 2 Recap

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap every game from Week 2 starting with the remarkable comeback from the Cowboys (4:45), the Chiefs overtime win against Justin Herbert's first NFL start (13:15) and the Steelers defense getting better and better (30:45). The Jets had a tough showing against the Niners and Dan is at a loss for words, so he leaves it up to his dad to describe how he's feeling (1:17:15). Nick Shook stops by to recap Tom Brady's first win ( 1:26:12) and the Rams playing better without Todd Gurley (1:31:35). Finally, the heroes recap how the Sunday night Football matchup between the Seahawks and Patriots was a ultimate classic (1:37:30).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Just put up new wallpaper in their bunkers. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hans. just come to you from a virtual room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. Week two, the flagship show.

And you know what? I feel like it happens. Every year, there's always one week where it feels like the football gods were especially cruel and reminding us of mankind's mortality and that we are. fragile ultimately, no matter how much the greatest of us builds up the body into a temple. Nick Bosa, Salman Thomas, Jimmy Garoppolo, Rahim Mostert. That was just one game that I covered today. Saquan Barclay, Drew Locke, Paris Campbell, Malik Hooker, Christian McCaffrey, Anthony Barr.

If I'm missing any, shout him out. But that is a lot of big-time talent, and many of those injuries are of the serious nature. It sucks, but that's football. Yeah, I think we expected that going into this COVID year, just like that there was, for whatever reason, there's going to be a lot of injuries or a lot of, like, which team is, you know, going to actually keep, have the roster that they expected to. Then there was all those opt-outs. And then there really, it's been normal since then.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact there's no training camp. Who knows? But it was, it was aggressive. I mean, seasons changed. I mean, you're right. Like the Falcons, for instance, lost three starters today, too. Even like big time names that maybe, you know, didn't make the headlines. It felt like every game there was three or four starters going out.

I agree with Dan. I would point to the football gods. I think they were the ones that are behind this along with, you know, a lot of other nuisance generating actions, lever pulls from the gods. But imagine a week ago, if this all happened in week one, the hot takes coming out about, you know, shortened, no preseason truncated training camps. Let's never do it again. Let's go back to the norm.

Well, if there's one good thing, you can't tie it directly to that at all. It's just freaky nature. A lot of great games, though, today. A lot of great games. You enjoyed it. Yeah, one of the reasons we appreciate sports is because we all understand that ultimately our bodies are going to betray us. But for three hours, you watch other humans gain mastery over these bodies, and they lost that battle today. Why would the God smite us, Wes?

You're a man that you know things, you're a philosophical type. Tell us why. Did they smite us? That's the deal we're given, you know, at birth. You don't have mastery over your body. It has mastery over you. And you answer to it. And we get too haughty, and so they must remind us to not be so haughty.

Thus the smiting. All right. Greg does point out, and it shouldn't be lost, and it won't be lost because we're just about to go through every game from Sunday of week two that there was some fun football. It wasn't all about injuries and your fantasy team being ruined.

Get off your own high horse. Get out of your own world. It's not just about your fantasy team. Oh, sorry, you had Sequin Barclay. Man. Come on. That's a human being, bro. I thought like 10 or 12 years ago

we all kind of reached a point where we realized nobody else cared about our fantasy teams, but this year, it came back with a vengeance. Like, I have had to hear about so many different people's fantasy teams, even though we all know nobody cares about it. I mean, how knowing has Erica been? I just pop back in to tell you because Jets sitting on the couch right now

and my speakers are on and she's like, oh, Dan's just mad about fantasy because she's kicking your ass this weekend. So she just wanted me to let you know. No, that's good. All of a sudden, now you're mad, but you're losing pretty bad. Now it's like, now let's not care. It's cool to not care about our team. Well

You gotta find that happy, that balance, you know Don't get me started on our in-house league It's not being run with a steady hand I'll just leave it at that Uh-oh All right So let's get into it What's that?

Who could see that coming a couple weeks ago Let's get into it A lot of good football to talk about So let's dive right in And start with an excellent game that went down to the final second. 46 for the win. No timeouts.

Good snap. Good hold. 46 yards. Yes, sir. Kiss that pig. This game, Brad, and this comeback deserved to have 100,000 people in this building. Brad Sham, the sham god. And I think that was Babe Laothenburg reflecting on

pandemic life at the end there Greg Zerline kicked a 46-yard field goals time expired and the Cowboys somehow overcome four fumbles a 20-point deficit in the first quarter. They beat the Falcons. I mean, come on, Falcons.

40 to 39. Greg, an absolutely wild finish. As thrilling for the Cowboys as it was devastating for the Falcons and Arthur Blank who was cut over to Arthur Blake on the sidelines again with two minutes to play. What a pot of possibly go wrong.

Oh my gosh. This is one of the worst losses I've ever seen. I mean, I know the Falcons gave their fans the worst loss that people have ever seen in terms of blowing a lead. It's not just that it's 20 to nothing or 29 to 10 or the fact that the Cowboys had to score three times to catch up from 15 down with 15 minutes left because they missed the two-point conversion where you really figured it was the end. it was the execution on this onside kick.

And the Falcons did not approach the ball. You could see the mentally freezing, thinking, well, if it doesn't go 10 yards, we don't need to touch it. And then nothing happens. And they just multiple guys freezing at the same moment. And the second they made that mistake and the Cowboys fall on it, you know Greg the leg is going to capitalize because the Cowboys are going up and down the field. And that gets me to my larger point that, you know what, Falcons, you didn't deserve to win

this game anyways. This isn't like a game where, hey, you're the better team. There's no rule you have to give up four touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The only reason they're ahead in this game is because they forced and recovered three fumbles in the first quarter. But at no point watching this game did I think, hey, the Falcons are a better team than the Cowboys. They looked very similar, which is exactly what I expected going into it, two teams whose defenses have not shown up for the start of the season. and two teams who, despite Cowboys missing all their offensive linemen, had no problems passing the ball and moving the ball up and down the field. So they're very similar teams, and I don't want to hear how you're unlucky,

because your defense is so lousy. It's not like they deserved a win, especially. There was this incredible number put out after the game, and it shouldn't be that surprising that it's lopsided in one direction. But the Falcons had 39 points and zero turnovers. and entering today since 1933, teams are 440 and 0 when they have 39 points in zero turnovers. 440 and oh. That record now falls to 440 and 1.

Wow. Only the Falcons. It's insane. Well, that's the thing. Like, if you watch this game as a Falcons, I know what they were thinking throughout it was they should have way more than 39. I know it's hard to put it on the offense. Mattie Ice has played as. well as you can possibly play to be 0-and-2.

Calvin Ridley is making the leap. I mean, he is a true number one receiver. They at one point scored six straight positions. Then again, they picked up those fumbles in the first quarter in field goal range and didn't get touchdowns. Julio Jones had a ball hit him right in the hands that would have been a 50-yard touchdown. One of the best passes of the day, and it was from Falcons wide receiver Russell Gage

on a trick play that Jones dropped. They never got those points. That was actually the only punt they wound up having in the second half. There was a bad call of 12 men on the field that presented them from even going for a fourth down. So it felt like they could have had even more, but I still go back to Dan Quinn as a defensive coach whose defense just can't get any stop. So it's like, how much can you complain? Maybe they didn't cash in the way they could have early on.

Maybe Julio Jones should make that catch, which you definitely should have. But they still put up 39 points. Take that game home. My goodness. that is absolutely terrible. And yeah, this is the 100th, I don't know, I thought last year was the 100th anniversary of football, but apparently this year is.

They keep popping up with new 100 years. Maybe next year is, I have no idea. But this is also a historic game, the first time in NFL history, that a quarterback passed for over 400 yards and ran for three touchdowns, which is what Dak Prescott did. And, Wes, it looked like when you're watching this game

for most of it, that it was just going to be, speaking of fantasy, a hollow monster fantasy game, But it all came back to be very important, just continuing to put points up on the board. Yeah, credit, Bones Fossil. They hire him to be special teams coordinator, and he lures Greg the leg, Zerline over. That was one of the best on-side kicks ever seen the way he had put the English on that ball and had it spinning. And then the Cowboys got out in that little turkey buzzard prayer circle to psych out the Falcons and you're not even allowed to touch the ball before 10 yards.

They had him convinced that that was a rule. Stand around and watch the ball. I was thinking about that, how Bones, who's one of the best coordinators in the game, he got out of L.A., came to Dallas. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe you guys know who the special team coordinator of the Falcons is, but either those guys didn't execute in the moment or they were not, they were not properly coached. That's crushing. I was just rampaging on Thursday nights, the Thursday night football recap about onside kicks and how ineffective they are.

They still are, by the way, but that's how you got to do it. It has to be a perfectly placed kick, and then you need something zany to happen, which is how that played out. I mean, what a wild finish. Don't you feel like we're, like, I mean, one or two plays away from a full helping, a week's full helping of Mike McCarthy hot takes had the Cowboys lost this? I mean, it's just interesting how one or two little plays. I think you might have been involved with a few of them, Sessler, if they didn't pull this game out.

I don't actually, I think, I think, I think, like Mike McCarthy's lower on my radar than then on some. I mean, the early season is wacky. You come out of this one-and-one. You know, the Rams game, I don't put on, I don't have a big problem with that. I don't love the play calling in the Rams game at the end for Mike McCarthy. But, I mean, he just avoided all the heat that is landing on Dan Quinn. Right, exactly. Dan Quinn's going to get it now. That's why, first of all, I always think people, when they get on guys for racking up in garbage time, I usually don't buy that it's actually garbage time, because it is always possible in this offensive league, especially this season where they're not calling any penalties.

They kept putting pressure on the Falcons to keep responding. And for the most part, they did. Dak Prescott does deserve credit because, and so does Kellan Moore, and to a degree, Mike McCarthy, because he's an offensive coach, because they didn't have three of their offensive linemen. Tyron Smith was out. They adjusted their game plan. They threw shorter passes.

It was some rollouts. You know, you had Dak running, obviously, near the goal line. Zeke looked really good again. Cedie Lambade plays late. And so I think they did a good job adjusting. They just didn't hold on to the ball in the first quarter. Otherwise, you know, they would have put up 45 or 50. And for the Falcons, you know, Dan Quinn's in trouble.

And this is brutal. And they lost their right tackle. Caleb McGarry looked fairly serious. And they lost tack McKinley early in this game. Keanu Allen, or Ricardo Allen, rather, was in and out. I'm not sure if you even finished. So they cannot get stops right now. And both of these teams can't.

I'm amazed how bad the Cowboys' defensive line has looked through two weeks. I mean, they were a disaster today, too. All their pass rushers, really. It might be time on Tuesday show to roll out the 2020 version of the hot butt rankings to see where some of these coaches are. After a couple of weeks, that's a conversation to take offline. For now, we move on to another game. Oh, what a lock for the zooser.

That was ridiculous. That was ridiculous. Until my mention started popping off about it. I mean, sometimes the football gods, they're smiting some. and kissing others. And I got one right on the forehead from the football gods in that lock. So two and no. I wouldn't get too comfortable with the football gods, Dan.

They seem to think about you in various ways. Not all the lessons. Yeah, right. Later in the show. There's a team. I take my forehead kisses from the football gods where I could get them. All right. Here's another game that ended on the last play.

A 58-yard attempt. He's had plenty of leg on the first two attempts. Buckers kick us up. He lines it up. The kick is low. long enough. It is good. Harrison Butker, money, money, money, penalty. Try to freeze him. He thaws the chargers with a 23 to 20 walkoff, 58-yard field goal, tying a Chief's record, his own record that he tied earlier in the game. At two minutes to go in the overtime, the Chiefs go to

two and O and continue their dominance over the AFC West. Oh, yeah, open bar and the kicker Club tonight. For Harrison, Butker, and his entire entourage, he drilled a 53-yarder, blown dead, due to a false start. Backed up, hit a 58-yarder, blown dead after Anthony Lynn attempted ice out. Nice try, Tony. But Harry Butker would not be denied. His third attempt also split the uprights from 58, this time it counted, and the Chiefs

escape Englewood with a 2320 win over the Chargers. A fun game. Remember, I gave that pep-tron. talk to the kickers closed door meeting i mean bucker did bucker didn't need it buckers you know if it wasn't for justin tucker bucker would be the best kicker in the league right now but but west you know how it is with sports teams like the manager the coach he gives the speech and then he needs his leaders to step up and kind of make that message really land that's what harry bucker did for me um anyway that's why he's buck kicker that's why he is it was a fun game included a biance

like surprise album drop of the justin herbert era gregg that defense for the charges full it's butker off. Yeah, I mean, this was a classic. Maybe I was, I'm jazzed up about this day because I got three classics, I realized. What a job I did on draft day. Herbert comes out there for the first snap. It's very mysterious. Tyra Ad Taylor's on the bench.

We find out now, Tyra Taylor, as we are taping, you know, Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, Tyra Taylor's in the hospital. So it was a legitimate injury. He had a chest injury through the week that apparently he made worse. He was on the injury report that he made worse during pregame warmups. He was clearly in some pain on the sidelines. And Herbert comes in there, and I don't think he's going to come out of there. To me, even though, and we'll get to what the Chiefs did and all the details of this game,

but to me, the takeaway was this Chargers team is frisky. I really like what we're seeing out of their defense. They played an outstanding game today. They deserve to win. and Herbert showed a lot, was fun to watch. Their backfield of Echler and Joshua Kelly is awesome. I mean, Kelly, I wish we had mentioned him last week because he played so well last week too,

and he did it again. They racked up, I think, over 260 yards between them today. And they lost this game, and I know we're not supposed to give out lollipops, and there's some things you can fought with Anthony Lynn at the end. But I'm going to go ahead and give them a lollipop. It took some highlight-level, God-level plays from Patrick Mahomes for the chiefs to win this game.

One lollipop for all of them to lick with their tongues. I mean, here's the thing I would say. After their COVID tests. Right. It's a rough loss. And I'm not ever a huge fan of a team like the Chargers, handing the ball back to someone like Patrick Mahomes in overtime. There weren't a lot of other options there,

but I don't know, maybe you're kind of sealing your fate at that point. Well, there was one. Run the ball and see. You had been running at great August. game. I would just say anyone would say we get why Anthony Lynn did that if they for if they didn't convert you'd why you'd why you did it and now you just you don't even try but I I don't know if you guys were with you. I was just really down on Justin Herbert coming out of hard knocks for no other reason than it was sort of the overall Justin Herbert experience seemed a little mousy a little bit in

the distance not really an alpha male type guy. He was a rookie he really gave off that vibe he did I mean not and not every rookie quarterback gives it off to such a degree but I mean to watch him play today. My issue with Tyrod Taylor and I wish him the best we all do, but is that he think he's a very limiting quarterback and he limits what you can do. And like I just was very suspicious of the whole Chargers operation. This whole let's win games 12 to 10. That's cool in 1971, 30 something years ago. But now with Justin Herbert, if he can, this is a template of what he can provide. Wow. I mean, they have somehow backed into an interesting young quarterback who changes the course of their season the same way the last couple times

Tyrod Taylor went out and was replaced by a young high pedigree upstart. Yeah, if he wasn't passing so well, I'm not sure if he even makes that mistake of the game when he clearly had the easy first down running and decided to throw late across the middle against the grain and it was intercepted. And Tony Rono pointed out those are mistakes you have to make so you learn never to do them again. But without that play, it was legitimately one of the most impressive starting debuts I remember. I mean, it was, he changes the nature of that offense. And you pointed out Joshua Kelly, Greg, I thought they didn't win last week's game without Joshua Kelly. He gave them their

offense in the fourth quarter. And Romo said at some point in this game, Echler and Joshua Kelly are one of the best backfields in the NFL already. Right. Romo's praise of Herbert, I think helped cement it for me. You know, it's just how many next level plays he was making in terms of, like, looking off the cornerback on his touchdown throw and then just throwing a dart. Look, that interception changed the game. He also missed a couple throws on third down that he would like to have back

that were pretty makeable throws. So it wasn't perfect. But he's just a better version of tie rod. That was a thing where I thought Romo was a little off base, you know, wondering how much they got to change the offense. Do they have the old river stuff? it's like, no. Herber, if anything, is a taller version of a very athletic quarterback that, you know, might miss some gimmies here and there that was known to be a little too safe here and there. Certainly wasn't in this game. But on some level, that him and Tyrod made sense as a pair, and he's just going to start the rest of the season, barring an injury now. I just can't imagine they go back to Tyrod. Well, and also, I mean, quickly, like the debut didn't come after a full week of practice taking starting reps. Finds out minutes before.

for kickoff that he's jumping into this against the Chiefs? I like these surprise album drops for a quarterback. Obviously, I don't like the circumstances behind it. But more teams should do it because the quarterback who has very little experience, no experience in the case of a Justin Herbert, you know, he doesn't have to deal with answering questions all week and dwelling on the media focusing on him. Then bang, he's out on the field.

In fact, do we have that, Ricky? This is so unusual for a team. to be a situation where they thought he they thought tyrod teller is playing right up to the right up to the coin flip um and then even the play by play guys the great matt money smith and uh move the sticks were surprised to be looking down on a field that did not have the starting quarterback that they anticipated let's listen to that and how about this justin herbert is out to take the first snap in a pistol formation fakes the handoff actually no he does in fact hand it off to Austin Echler, who pushes past the 25, all the way up near the 30.

That's going to be a gain of nine. He's staying out there. Justin Herbert starting this game, no inclination that that was going to be the case at all. We talked to Tom Telesco. We talked to Anthony Lynn. And what a secret as Justin Herbert makes his NFL debut with a handoff to Austin Echler that goes for nine. Now under center, the number six overall pick. Very odd.

And I just, I know you handed out the lollipop ready and everybody's looking at. And it's filled with saliva of many men. Delicious. Delicious. But come on, Anthony Lynn. We talked about this last week. One thing that holds him back as a coach is how conservative he can be. You cannot punt that ball back in overtime.

I don't care if you're on your own 34-yard line. You need one yard. The offense has had a pretty solid day, all things considered. Very solid. Almost 500 yards. Right. And if you punt the ball away, all Patrick Mahomes needs to do with the second best kicker in the league, by the way, Justin Tucker's still the best,

is getting to field goal range. You can't do that. I mean, I think Anthony Lynn really, really let down his team today with that decision. I agree, but I do want to point out he went for fourth down twice in the first half, which I thought was, you know, was on the other side of the field, but I thought that was a good sign. It was like, oh, maybe it doesn't take as much onions in that spot. No, I get it.

But it was on the side of the onions. You got to have a feel of your team. And the way they were running the ball, I thought there's so many different plays you could do there, whether it's throwing it to your running back or actually running the ball. You're right. You got to keep it away from him. In his defense, I think he had so much, he had a lot of faith in his defense. And you saw it. You saw that they only got to kick the 58 yarder. You saw that the chiefs were in tough third-down situations. When Mahomes got the ball with two minutes left, everyone included me said, okay, Mahomes going to go score a touchdown. But you know what? He didn't.

They punted five of their first six possessions. The charges really dominated the game. It really took Mahomes' throw to Tyreek Hill, which is one of the best throws you will ever see, and an unbelievable catch too by Hill, followed up by one of the best two-point conversion throws that just looked absolutely inhuman you'll ever see. So that's sort of what it took. And on the rest of the drives of the game, they either punted or kicked field goals or the one really clean drive they had was kind of like last week where they had to go 15 plays and everything. So, man, they made the Chiefs work, and it was still a terrible decision by Lynn.

I criticized it at the time, but I do at least understand the faith he had because his defense was playing so well. Can I just say one little beef that I have, and it's not the Chief's fault at all, and it's certainly not Patrick Mahomes's fault. But, you know, Twitter Middle School is really struggling when Patrick Mahomes does the new greatest thing he's ever done. No one knows how to describe what he does in words in any interesting way. It's just simply, Mahomes is just so amazing. I'm like, thank you. Thank you, Sportsbride. Twitter so much, yeah.

Well, it's a little hard on Sunday, but I just like, you know, people struggling to describe the physical feats of Patrick Mahomes is troubling to me. I'm sorry, Mark. Sorry that you have to deal with that. It's not hard on Sunday. It's the perfect day. That's the day. I send out the tweets.

I don't read anything. All right. Let's keep on moving. Let's talk about another superpower of the AFC. Lamar Jackson splits out wide to the left. It'll be a direct snap to Mark Ingram running off left tackle. He's got a huge hole. Oh, wow.

20, 15, 10, 5, touchdown, Ravens! What a play call by Greg Roman. He went direct snap to Mark Ingram, split Lamar Jackson out wide to the left. They needed a yard. They got 21 of them and a touchdown. Are you paying attention, the Adam Cases of the world? That's how you have to run in offense.

You've got to keep teams off balance. You've got to give them different looks. We've got to keep everybody on their team. toes. Mark Ingram takes the direct snap on fourth and one and then takes it to the house. And it was the dagger for the Ravens who coast to a 3316 win over the Texans in Houston. These just feel like two teams on different levels. And as cruel as the NFL was to the Houston Texans for giving them at the Chiefs in the kickoff game. And then the Ravens in week two, well, at the same time, Bill O'Brien's team has to show

up and this they have not come ready to play. Deshaun Watson again feels like he's he's got the world on his shoulders and you could see that strain that nothing is coming free and easy in this offense. You remember the whole Will Fuller thing? Will Fuller will become the number one guy. Maybe he is, but today he was shut out. He had, let's see, did he ever have a catch? No. No, he never had a catch. He wasn't even targeted, in fact. He had one carry for zero yards. Thanks for playing Will Fuller. So the Texans offense is trying to figure out itself at average three yards of carry,

and the Ravens, they've just picked up where they left off. I mean, the January playoff exit was ugly, but through two regular season games, we are now coming on, if you combine these two regular season games with how they finished and really performed the entire regular season last year, this is one of the great dominant runs

September through December that I can remember any team having. no argument there i i saw some something today that it's like wow the ravens have gone taking what they did last year and they've like gone another three steps it's like all right let's slow down that's one of the greatest regular season teams i've ever seen like you're not going three steps further but continuing it and adding new elements to it and playing a little more consistent defense from week one on which they were not last year um is going to make them so hard to beat and they play the chiefs next week a little too early in the season for my taste but it should be fun I mean, I think the one issue is Lamar Jackson, like, if there were, if you wanted to point to little elements of his game that needed help, he shored them up.

I mean, he's gotten distinctively better over two off seasons. And, you know, around halftime, and I was kind of tracking this one off on the side, I was thinking, looking at their box score, thinking they're not really running, like, it doesn't seem like they're dominating. They didn't have, like, a hundred yards, 150 yards rushing in the first half. It was like a little bit off. And then at the end of the game, they have 230 plus yards on the ground. I mean, they really can... They just come so easy with this team. They can do everything they did a year ago.

They just, you throw in J.K. Dobbins, you throw in a couple other guys. It's like they simply have more weapons. So I think last year's, last week's game against Cleveland was absolutely authentic. Today's game is absolutely authentic. This is who they are. There's probably one or two teams in the league that could touch him right now. They're so good that they psych out other teams. They psyched out Bill O'Brien.

Early in the game, he went for fourth and one on his own 34-yard line. And I just don't think Bill O'Brien does that against other teams, maybe the Chiefs. And it's been a tough measuring stick for the Houston Texans these first two weeks when you have traded your way into going all in and you find out you're not nearly good enough. They're definitely right now they seem a step below. But it is interesting when this, it is one of the toughest starts to a season any team could have. And I still have some faith in that building. and with that quarterback and what the coaches achieved there

in terms of fielding, winning teams that they'll get back on the horse, as it were, and they'll be competitive, and they'll be in the mix. But right now they're just, I think even if they had a more favorable schedule, we'd be talking about right now that the Texans don't have their stuff figured out. They just seem to be a step behind right now. I think you're right. And the problem is, like, we've seen, what was it, two seasons ago

where the Texans won like seven or eight straight to go. go into the playoffs, and they became a different team. And so maybe there's that ahead for them. But this schedule is what would be at the end of your season two if you want to be one of these playoff teams. And they're just not there with the higher upper echelon AFC teams. And I don't think there's any six-game winning streak coming because teams like the Titans and Colts in their division

are so much better than they were a couple years ago. Yeah, the Ravens, too. It sounds like they lost Tavon Young, who was a starter for them, potentially for the season at torn ACL. Feel bad for him. He missed, I think, a year and a half with a neck injury only to come back and tear your ACL. But J.K. Dobbins is the first thing you think of,

like them adding elements on offense, but on defense, man, Callias Campbell seems to be making a big time difference. Two weeks in a row. That really makes a difference for them. And at least, Dan, you know, you watch this closely. It looks like the old JJ Watt is back. If there's a positive for the Texans, maybe that's it. Yep.

He had a couple sacks today, and he's healthy and still looks like that guy. So that's a positive. But they just, they need more. And that, yeah, I think the Fuller, and credit goes to Marcus Peters, who's obviously very good. But Will Fuller getting shut out and not even targeted and just disappearing. That's putting Deshaun Watson in an impossible situation. Like, I don't know what you do in that situation. Like, if you need him to become that guy.

And at least in week one, he kind of picked up stats in garbage time. Week two, he doesn't exist. Luckily, Randall Cobb at least showed up in this game, and they got some other places. But this offense has a lot of work to do. And they get to go to Pittsburgh next week. You thought the schedule makers were rough to start? They get the three best AFC teams right off the bat. That's a, I mean, that to me, those are the three superpowers of the AFC.

to me right now. With all due respect to the people up in Western New York, you can make a case that that's another big time team up there. But that, I don't know if I can remember another team that had it that tough out of the gate. All right. Speaking of superpowers, Rathlisberger, back, looks out to his left, lost one along the sideline, going for Chase Claypool, who catches it in stride. Claypool stays inbound, crosses the 20, the 50 and the 10. The rookie Chase Claypool in for his first NFL. Touchdown 84 yards, Rathlisberger to Claypool. While Ben threw that long and Chase Claypool ran under it and that's what Chase Claypool does.

We're already two years, two games in his career at the, that's what Chase Claypool does. That was Rob King of WDVE and Tunch Ilkin. The Steelers are looking good through two weeks. Big Ben hit Chase Claypole for that long score, and the Pittsburgh defense held off a stubborn Broncos attack, led by backup Jeff Driscoll. 2621, the final. West James Connor had a big day as well.

It seems like Pittsburgh has playmakers coming out of their ears right now. Well, the James Connor numbers are skewed because he got loose for a very rumbling, slow 50-yard run right at the end of the end of the game. the game. So it's not like he was hammering out five, six yards at a time throughout the game. But the Claypool, adding him to that offense and then Deontay Johnson kind of making the leap to as a run after catch guy, you watch his team play and they've had some stops and starts. They've had some fits. And maybe they could have run away with this game. But I look at this team and they've got dimensions that you didn't think they had with Claypool.

I thought about my oncologist after that touchdown. He is a diehard, obsessive Steelers fans, and you know the type that they're not casual in their fandom. And he's going to be, I'm going to see him on Tuesday. He's going to be talking Super Bowl because, you know, with all due respect to the Ravens and Chiefs, this Steelers team had the number one defense in the NFL in my book last year. They look even better this year.

Everything you could have possibly envisioned for T.J. Watt and Bud DePree when you drafted them, They played to that level last year and wreaking more havoc this year. I think Wad had two and a half sacks today. Dupree, his pressure led Locke into Dupree, and that's what caused the fumble and the injury that sent Drew Locke out of the game. That injury, I mean, they say two to six weeks at this point, sprained AC joint.

I just, I don't know. For me, I was really excited about, I need, like, other teams to rise up and capture my fancy during the course of a year and the Broncos became one of those teams on Monday night and it's a whole lot of different with Jeff Driscoll under center. I feel like my excitement will be shelled for a month or so. Although, I mean, you said you talked about that. You said your oncologist will be all excited.

How excited should he be about a five point win over Driscoll? I mean, I'm looking at the stats look pretty decent for Driscoll in this game. Well, Driscoll is what he is. He's going to make his defense's job really hard. because he moves the sticks inconsistently, and he forces a lot of mistakes while doing that. He's just not a very good passer, and to his credit, he did move the sticks a little bit today. If I'm a Steelers fan, I'm excited because the Broncos have pride, and they're not untalented. Credit them for losing their starting quarterback and still coming at the Steelers.

But for me, when I look at the Steelers, as a fan, I would think we've got everything we expected to have with this team and even more. We've answered questions about Ben's arm, we've answered questions with the receiving core, we've answered questions with the offensive line, and our defenses lights out, seven more sacks today. They come at quarterbacks like it's the 1980s. Your first job is to survive four quarters and stay in the game. John Elway, though, your boy, Dan. I mean, this isn't second-guessing.

We killed, it was like the thing I feel like we talked about more on our podcast this offseason than anything else. Why is John Elway so afraid to sign a backup quarterback? Like in a year when backup quarterbacks are all over the place. You know, Andy Dalton's outside of Walmart, you know, holding up signs looking for jobs. James Winston. You know, there's a million. And Elway really said like he didn't want to threaten.

I don't know. That's what it was. He kind of staked his claim that Drew Locke's guy, and he didn't want Cam Newton in that building. He didn't want James Winston. Somebody that would potentially undermine Locke's confidence. or cause internal questioning over who the guy really is, and he got what he wanted because there was no question coming out of training camp that Drew Locke was their quarterback.

But yeah, when you fly when you're on the trapeze without a safety net, Jeff Driscoll sometimes happens. So good luck with that. Could be a season breaker for them. If he's out a month, month and a half, they're already 0.2. Right. It might be too late by the time. We don't even know, not to belabor this point,

we don't even know if Drewlock can really play. And he might come back. in a situation where they have to win, you know, seven of eight games to make the playoffs, depending on how this goes over the next few. It's a bad situation that could have potentially been avoided. I agree. I think we tend to think of when quarterback injuries happen,

hey, he's out for the year and you have no chance anyway. They weren't on offense. But sometimes it's just two to three weeks. And if you can get by and stay in the race, you need a backup good enough to do that. And I question whether Driscoll is good enough to do that. Well, in a year ago, we're coming off, you know, Vic Fangio saying that,

drew lock isn't even prepared to play in the NFL last summer so it's like things happen fast and if you just go in with one quarterback I think that you know the bears had a little bit of some of that action too where it's like we're we're protecting our starter to such a degree and that's fine except your starter is not in eighth grade running at a middle school pop Warner team with a fragile psychology if he is he shouldn't be an NFL starter to begin with bringing the best possible backup isn't the whole drew lock experience partly like oh he's got so much confidence he's got great flow when he's wrapping on the sidelines and he's got moxie well then if he doesn't sound like he's a flower right but that also that also just isn't drew lock's fault that's john elway's issue which i think

we agree on it's not drew lock's fault that he sprained his ac joint either i mean i think he has been promising so i think the evaluation is fair on drew lock but the environment is what's questionable okay by the way west you mentioned use the term move the sticks a couple times i like that as a football term. I feel like that'd be like a good name for a podcast. Anyway, let's move on. Somebody should adopt that as an online persona.

Just a thought. Unclaimed IP. Takes a long look downfield going deep. He's got a man wide open. John Brown. He makes a catch. Touchdown. Touchdown Buffalo.

John Brown from Josh Allen. Touchdown bills with 309 to go. They're up by 10. A 46-yard touchdown pass. What a play. Dagger What's this? 1920s?

Swingers? Where's the flappers at, Ricky? WGR. With the call, John Murphy, Steve Tasker, Josh Allen threw for 417 yards. Oh, Rosie. Four touchdowns. Rosie.

Both career highs and the bills wiped out a fourth quarter deficit. But knocking off the Dolphins, 31 to 28. Mark, there was endless talk about Josh Allen and the need for him to take the next step in his third season. I imagine, just based on this box score and where they're at right now, that Bill's fans are feeling pretty good about their guy right now. Yeah, I mean, if it's a roller coaster ride, this is the part of the ride where you're up on the top.

You can see all of Los Angeles or in this case all of Western New York unfolding before you. and it's a beautiful early September day. Even Niagara Falls is beneath you. Sure, you're above the falls. So everything is great. For me, I think it has a lot to do with Brian Daiball, who we've mentioned before a bunch. And, you know, he has been all over the places in O.C.

But I think he helped Alan down the stretch last year. I think it continues to do that. Alan, and I really don't care about passing totals. It just seems like a lot of it can be wacky stuff. But these are coming in wins. This isn't garbage time. And he's the first Bill's quarterback to throw for 300 yards and back-to-back games since Drew Bledso in 2002. I think that just tells you how low functioning some of their passing attacks have been since.

But this to me, the game, I looked at the dolphins about three quarters. And Greg's talking about he got a great draft. I probably had one of the worst weekly drafts you could conjure up for games. Because when this thing sunk into a weather delay, about an hour and 40 minutes into it, I thought, my heavens, what have I, what's going on here? The Dolphins, to me, looked identity-free, just like a team with really nothing special to offer at all three-quarters through. And maybe that special element is when Tua gets on the field at some point.

Not terrible. I mean, they're not last year's team, but they're kind of last year's team. And Buffalo, you know, basically just plotted and moved their way to a win here. This is a game where I think Buffalo is not going to win the same way that Kansas City wins or really even Pittsburgh. I just think that they are who they are. It all rides on Allen, not to be totally cliche about it, but it does. Stefan Diggs is working out. I would say that. The Diggs connection, the whole signing, there's another sliding doors world where Diggs is upset already and he's annoyed at Josh Allen who's thrown in his eight interceptions off to a really good

start. I'll happen eventually. The what? Eventually. I'm just trying to keep it positive here. I mean, Devin Singletary and Zach Moss are an interesting backfield combo. They just had, you know, you look at where they were two years ago on offense and where they are today and how quickly they built around their quarterback. For some of these quarterbacks that are non-functional, that's part of it. And Alan doesn't have the excuse, but nor does he need to make them. I mean, these are two of his better weeks around. I think the Dallas game last year was a high watermark for Allen, and he's heading into that territory right now.

And so far so good for a team that should win the division, if the Buffalo, or if the New England Patriots stumble. The Stefan Diggs move right now looks like a masterstroke. And I will say it wasn't as obvious now as it seemed then because when they pulled the trigger on that trade and gave a first round pick to the Vikings, there were a lot of people saying, why would they give up a first round pick for Stefan Diggs

when the greatest wide receiver class in 20 years is coming up and you can get somebody cheaper and perhaps even better than Stefan Diggs? well then real football starts and he realized that oh it's good to have a 27 year old Stefan Diggs and his prime immediately hitting your roster and playing at a high level and that's what this team needed that guy to step in and we're going to get to the Vikings in a little bit a team that seems totally lost on offense without Stefan Diggs their quarterback doesn't know what to do or who to trust through two weeks he's been an monster upgrade for them he's really good you know how Bruce Harians has that

post-game routine where he waits for all the fans to leave and then he takes a few people out to the old pickup truck and he does the real tailgate actually on Sunday nights I think if you're a bill's front office operative you got to hit Lake Erie and Terry Pagoolah's yacht for for a post-game drink after this one I mean look at you drafted a very polarizing quarterback who had as many physical gifts as any any quarterback to enter the league probably and this is against two bad teams but so far it's working out like your investment is paying off and what you did to surround him with smoky brown and cool beasley and now stephan digs it's really working out and josh allen seems to be improving by the week the key is having a plan for it i mean look it it has

been against the jets and the dolphins and i'm looking forward to watching this game because i saw that the sideline throw to digs on on their key drive at the end of the And that was an unbelievable touch throw by Josh Allen. And if he can keep doing those things, you know, the sky is the limit. But to me, it's a schemed up offense. And I always say to me, he's the poor man's Cam Newton. And when I'm saying that, I'm talking about a young Cam Newton, you know, one of the great college prospects that ever come out

and one of the most physically imposing players I've ever seen. I'm talking about the young Cam Newton. And Cam Newton is ultimately kind of a scheme-based quarterback that you've got to have the right system around him. or else it's going to be up and down. And right now they got the right system around Al. I mean, Newton had that MVP season. It hasn't been a top 10 quarterback since because different things have happened.

And right now, it seems like with the talent around Allen, that they can beat up on below average defenses. And if you look at their schedule coming up, that's all I see for a while. I mean, you've got the Patriots, I guess, in a month, and we'll see how good their defenses. And the Rams are fine next week. But for the most part, they're an offensive team. And that's one of the reasons why I wasn't quite as trusting of the bills, in addition to my skepticism about Allen being consistent.

If they can be an offensive team, then the sky is the limit for them. And they clearly have been an offensive team through two weeks. One like five second note on the Dolphins, Mike Kosicki, 130 yards. We've been waiting for this guy to kind of do it. He looked good today. All right. speaking of Stefan Diggs's former team Let's see how they fared after the ugly week

When showing against the Packers Spoiler alert They sucked Cousins Three receivers stacked to the left side Empty Sepp again in his own In zone to throw And the Colts have him for a moment

And they have them now in the end zone And somehow gets out of it And he's physically now he's past the end zone At the two yard line But taking a look at the officials down below They have their arms up to signal a safety It's going to be Justin Houston and DeForest Buckner combining on the sack for the Colts. Matt Taylor, WFNI with the call.

Yeah, that was Kirk Cousin's Day in a nutshell. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. Failure ensues. The Indianapolis Colts become the second team in as many weeks to bully the Vikings. Jonathan Taylor went over 100 yards with a touchdown. and the indie defense smothered Kirk Cousins in a 28 to 11

win for the Vikings it was just another ugly day Cousins, how about this? I know you guys hate passer rating or whatever. Opinions very, yes. I think it's a fine stat.

It's not perfect, but nothing is. Kirk Cousin said a 0.0 passer rating late into the third quarter. There were some drops in there, but in general, the offense just cannot get in a game flow. Same thing happened last week when the defense couldn't get off the field with Aaron Rogers. This time, Dalvin Cook, again, who should be the centerpiece of this offense, but

they keep on falling behind and throws off their game script and they end up in these situations where they need cousins to make things happen. And the problem right now is that he trusts Adam Thielen. And I don't know if he trusts anyone else because he just doesn't feel like he's confident going through his progressions and trying to move the offense, which has been really had a standstill now for two weeks. And the defense, it wasn't as embarrassing as it was last week against the Packers, but still not a great job. They got a bunch of stops that led to field goals that kept it from getting completely out of hand here.

But, you know, Indianapolis had almost 17 minutes advantage in time of possession. And they let, you know, Mo Allie Cox go wild on them for five catches for one 11. The cults ran 40 times for 151 yards. The Vikings are a team in transition right now where their offense is trying to figure out what their identity is in a digsless world. And the defense is a bunch of young guys and they don't know what they're doing yet. And when you combine those two things against two quality opponents, that's how 0 and 2 happens. And it's not looking good right now. In transition sounds like a very kind way to put it. I mean, that's what you hope if you're Mike Zimmer, that they're going to figure it out. And I still think they will.

But, I mean, right now they're just not ready for prime time. They're going to establish the run team. And when you try to establish the run, but you don't go anywhere, keeps putting the quarterback in awful situations, especially when you want to be a play action team. That's their identity. Last year at this time, we're talking about how great Dalvin Cook's looking and they're running over everybody with Madison playing behind him. Right. I mean, cousins went back to pass 30 times and they have 95 yards passing. So you can you can make up a bunch of other reasons in terms of the game script or the running game and their defense and that those are all true too, but that stinks. I mean, that's that's pathetic. That's, you know, the worst passing attack in the

league. Justin Jefferson. Get him, Greg. I mean, I'm just saying right now, they looked, I actually thought they looked good offensively last week. I thought it was almost unfair to criticize the offense at all. It was such a strange, strange game. That was kind of like to me, yeah, I really did. They didn't do anything for three quarters last week. They moved the ball. There were some things that happened in that game, obviously, that they fell behind. But I don't think it was a disastrous offensive performance. This clearly was, and Cousins after the game, to me, was disastrous.

Because they asked him how disappointed it is to be 0 and 2. And he answered it. And I, like, well, of course, you know, if you set out to win each game that you played. But then he immediately pivoted to, I really wanted to focus this season on, you know, improvving a little bit more, you know, making plays off script, making plays with my feet. And I think I've done a good job of that through two weeks. I'm like, are you kidding me? Because I keep hearing this on these Vikings tell. That's all Kirk Cousins has talked about. It's like, well, we want to improve, you know, you can't really make plays off script anymore. It's like great. You ran for seven yards once last week and you made like one throw on the run this week or whatever happened. It's like, what are you talking about Kirk Cousins? He's the only guy in the world who thinks he can plan to off script. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Didn't he, that's funny. Didn't he have a quote before the season that he wasn't afraid to die or something? Maybe just take a microphone away from the guy. Yeah, maybe the, like, the streaming Kirk Cousins' tweets aren't the first thing the Vikings' Twitter feed needs to be offering us. I want to ask you, though, Jonathan Taylor, we've been excited about this guy. How did he look for the cults? Stan. He wasn't, I wouldn't call it an electrifying game where he was jumping off the page, but he was absolutely like the guy. He was their guy and obviously the numbers back it up that

he was a part of moving. They moved the ball pretty well, the Colts. They weren't great punching into the end zone, but Phil Rivers threw one pick, but he was fine. I thought the offense overall was solid. They did get bad news in the second quarter, Paris Campbell, a guy who just cannot catch a break. He had a seven-yard rushing attempt near the right sideline, went down, grabbing his knee, doing the whole thing that you never like to see pounding the turf and then looking distraught as he's being carted off. It's not clear as of right now how serious it is, but it didn't look good.

Malique Hooker, their safety, former first round pick. There's an update on, there's an update on Paris Campbell. After the game, they say they believe it's not an ACL. Okay, well, that's good because it certainly looked like a season-ending injury at the time. And then Malik Hooker, he had an Achilles injury. I don't know how serious that is, but this comes one week after, of course, Marlon Mack was lost to the air to have blown Achilles. But Campbell's injury story is crazy now.

He played just seven games last year. He was a big-time player at Ohio State. But he had a hamstring injury, an abdominal injury, a broken hand, a broken foot, and now a knee injury. It's just sometimes these guys, certain guys just cannot catch a break. He's been, like, getting great reviews from that. them all summer, too, and looked good last week. And they did say, though, that this was sort of the DeForest Buckner game you could point

to where he was absolutely wreaking chaos on the Vikings' offense. I mean, Rivers has got to stop throwing picks inside the five. This was a team that kind of defined itself for much of last year as a great red zone team, and they've been pretty bad in the red zone through two weeks. So he's got to clean that up. All right, let's keep moving. Rogers alone of the shotgun. now Aaron Jones joins him in the offensive backfield.

Devonte to the right, single receiver left, Lassard. Give is to Jones. He's off to the races. Yes, it's going to be secretary at the Belmont. No one will catch him to the end of him. Touchdown. Aaron Jones, 75 yards. I mean, it's so weird without 70,000 screaming cheeseheads there.

But still, an inspired. fired call by Wayne Larravee of WTMJ. Aaron Jones went off for a career high, 168 yards, scored three touchdowns, including that's 75-yard surge, you just heard. Packers rallied back from an early deficit to beat the Lions, 42 to 21. West Jones also led Green Bay with 68 receiving yards on four catches. The Packers have started this season looking legit. It's funny, Aaron Rogers has, with a first-round pick at his,

position has one of the best games he's ever had in week one, and then Aaron Jones with a second round pick at his position has possibly his best career game in week two. And a reminder that, oh yeah, this isn't just an Aaron Rogers team. They've got a running back who scored 20 touchdowns last year. And in this game went wild. The 230 total yards, 238, three touchdowns had an awesome catch, backward twisting, leaping catch with a cornerback and man-to-man coverage downfield had a really impressive blitz pickup on Valdez Scantling's 41-yard

touchdown or a 41-yard catch. It was a really impressive Aaron Jones performance. And to me, a grown-up game for the Packers where we questioned how much of last year was sort of sneaking up on a people taking advantage of the schedule and how much of it

was staying power. And to me, if you've watched this matchup in the previous couple years, you know that Matt Patricia's lines defense. defense really takes away what the Packers want to do, takes away their big plays. And Aaron Rogers' style, to me, has always been kind of like a Matador.

He wants everyone in the stadium to have the attention on him because he's out there putting on a performance. He had to kind of like play it mature, play it close to the vest, take what the defense gives him, and settle for that, letting the running back have the spotlight. Look like a very grown-up performance

after the Lions jumped out to a big lead. I love you. marrying him to a matador. I think that's a perfect comp for Aaron Rogers. Oh, come on. You know he wants to be out there with a rose between his teeth? Absolutely. I think it's perfect. 488 yards on offense. I mean, I would imagine if you dig into Matt LaFleur's brain, he would rather it look a little bit more like this than Aaron Rogers having to save the day or do it all on his own. He wants to be run happy. I think that we saw that last year, and this seems like the perfect marriage of the two. Right. I mean, this is the best case scenario for the Packer.

I think they've had one of the most meaningful first two weeks of the season. So, you know, we say you can only take so much. Well, they're two games ahead of the Vikings and the Lions. Two teams, you know, various members. I thought the Vikings would be very frisky and oh, Dan did too. Mark liked the line. They're already two games ahead with wins in hand. And they're showing some signs, I think, to Wes's point, that, okay, yeah, they got lucky to go 13 and 3 on some level

because they won so many close games. but there is another route towards how you, you know, repeat. It's like the luck that you are supposed to lose doesn't matter if you just get better. Like if they're a significantly better team, and they were a fairly young team on defense, and they certainly had some areas on offense where they have big time talent. Like, they can just be a better team. And if the division is shaping up early how it looks, like they have to feel very good about where they sit in mid-September.

And you can get better from. From your own guys developing, Fox's Jen Hale, sideline reporter, who listens to our show and sent me a very nice message about my cancer battle, reported a half-time that the... Yeah, Jen. Jenny Hale. They got a pretty stern tongue-lashing. Packers' defense got a pretty stern tongue-lashing at halftime. But Roshan Gary, their first round pick, had the game of his career so far.

One and a half sacks, in addition to the pressure that contributed to a pick six for Chan and Sullivan. So they're getting some improvement on a day when they didn't have Kenny Clark out there from a guy they drafted early last year. If you're looking for one potential negative to take out of game two for the Packers, it's Devante Adams. Sounds like he got beat up, an ankle issue when he got rolled up on early, and then there was some type of hamstring issue later in the game targeted only three times. So hopefully that's not too serious, West, because as much as everyone made a big deal about Lazard and MVS making plays in week one

is still remains a wide receiver group that very much needs Devante Adams at the forefront. The hamstrings are notoriously tricky, but my sense just from watching the game was that if they needed him, he could have gone back out there. We'll see how it shapes up, but he didn't seem to be like distraught

or anything about the injury. You know what annoys me about the lions? And it's so easy, just point to Matt Patricia. Bob Quinn, General Manager, I want to put them in a room. I want you to tell me what it is you perceive to be the makings of a team, progress. Wait, but hang on a second, Mark. Hang on.

You and many other national pundits were high on the lions by saying that it was a roster that was ready to make a move. So now you can't come after Quinn after two losses and say, what have you done? How about I finish my statement? Like, first of all, you get into hot water and sign Adrian Peterson. And suddenly your offense, like when we were crowing about the lions, it was the idea of these parts working together. and D'Andre Swift, being someone I thought would make a big difference. He has a key drop in the first week. He's part of a committee backfield.

There are committee backfields that work, and there are committee backfields that are there because the team just seems directionless. This seems the latter. And me and Mina Kimes and fill in the blank, jumping on the lions in mid-August feels like one of the dumber developments of the last year. So I'm not arguing for myself,

but I would say that whether or not they were frisky this year, Bob Quinn acts like he's going to sit in this chair for 25 years. Make it happen or put someone in there who will. But I still don't know, and I'm not trying to cause an issue or a riff between you and me, Mark. But I'm trying to make sense of your logic right now that you were high on them as a team that really had the ability to surprise people. And the Adrian Peterson signing was done at a necessity because of injuries. And he was pretty effective in week one. I mean, I don't want to, it's reductive to put it all on the head coach.

either. But that, I mean, it just feels like this is a team that has talent that isn't coached well. And here we are again, oh and two, staring down the barrel another double digit loss season. Well, from another angle, like, you know, Kenny Galladay is not on the field. All right. Your backfield's not gone the way it's meant to. And you were flamed last week and this week largely because your secondary is in total tatters. And your number one draft pick isn't on the field. So that I can't put on Bob Quinn. But in general, the overall Bob Quinn experience is slightly questionable. And what, this is the third year of Matt Patricia's defense,

they've really invested in the defensive front. And where's the pass rush? I mean, it's not Roger's best statistical performance, but I think he might have got sacked once. He had all day to throw for most of the afternoon. They just have no identity on this defense. Well, their identity is a three-man rush. I mean, no one loves a three-man rush like Matt Patricia.

No one loves a three-man rush and an 11-yard completion for the opposing offenses for a first down more than Patricia. That's his identity. Let's check in with another NFC North squad. Plenty of time of the play clock, hard count. They rush three, drop eight, Mitch in the pocket now, darting around, thinking about what to do, re-settles, now flips it into the end zone, left side, up in the air, making the touch.

Touchdown Bears, darn Al-Money. Oh, this is a good. Oh, I love when that instrument comes down. I don't even know what it is. This is a masculine song. Yes, it is. Dan Horde. WC-K-Y with the call.

The Chicago Bears are 2-0. How about that? Mitch Trubisky threw a pair of touchdowns in the first half, and the Chicago defense held off. The late Giants' comeback attempt in what sounds like an utterly thrilling 1714 final at Soldier Field. Unfortunately, the biggest story out of this game was an apparently serious knee injury suffered by Saquan Barclay. What happened, Mark?

Well, it's, if you're a Giants fan, you know, and we both know a bunch of them, you got to ask yourself if it's curtains to some degree. I mean, Saquan Barcl, torn ACL, Sterling Shepard. Is that confirmed? Is it an ACL tear for Barclay? That's what I read. It's believed. It's one of those where they say that's the new. way to do it is we, they believe it to be, and the MRI will confirm it, which it does 99 times.

That's a killer. And they actually, I mean, Wayne Galman was a healthy scratch. So they, they were in hot water the minute that happened and happened early. Sterling Shepard hobbled off. You know, it's this like... A torn ACL for Saquan Barkley. Right. One of the most supremely talented running backs we've seen in a long time. And now you're going to blow out his knee after you, the knee, the ankle ligament issue last year, that is, that is not fair. That makes football less fun. Yeah. And it made, it made Daniel Jones a whole lot less fun, too, who, you know, and I came out of the Monday night game. We all know, he's going to turn the ball over. He's going to make things a little too interesting at times. But I find him exciting, and I love the Daniel

Jones experience. But today you got the killer interception. You got another loss fumble. It was the Giants just put themselves in a hole. The injuries mounted. And the Bears, you know, look, credit for, it was kind of the reverse of last week's game where the bears were pretty good out of the gate. Mitch Trubisky made a couple darts, and I'm really reluctant to get on the Mitch Trubisky bandwagon if there is such a vehicle roaming around, but it doesn't exist. I don't know if it exists. Doesn't exist, and there's no way you would jump on it. No, I definitely would not.

Wait, what is the bandwagon? I missed that. I said just if there was, you know, he's 2 and O if there's people forming a Mitch Trubisky bandwagon. The Joe Judge Vanwagon? No, Chibisky. Oh, the Mitch, no, that does not exist. It does not exist. But he made a beautiful, a beautiful touchdown toss to Darnel Mooney, the rookie. He did some good things.

And then in the second half, you know, it just, it wasn't the same. I don't want to call them a soft 2-0 because you can't blame who you're playing. You beat a banged-up Lions team last week. You took care of a very banged-up Giants team. I mean, it doesn't get much softer than Swift dropping the ball in the end zone. No, but it's not. It's just that I think the Bears are probably a competent nine and seven type team and they've gotten off to a fast start. I'm not going to kill him, but they just, you know, you look at how

it's played out so far. I mean, there was. I'll say this. Yeah. I'll say this, Mark. He's going to start week three for the Bears. And I'm surprised that he's made it this far. And maybe he'll bomb out week three and we'll see Nick Foles after that. But if you're a Bears fan, you're probably feeling like, obviously you feel good about 2-0, but it's like, wow, everyone probably had this in the back of their mind, this idea that they were going to crater and then they were going to turn to falls to try to save the season. But instead, you're in, like, very good shape as you hit late September.

I mean, the team is. I would say, like, I mean, unless you're like a Bears fan with blinders on, why, what are you rude? I think you're probably confused as to what you're rooting for to happen at quarterback, right? Well, he has the best possible, he has the best possible opponent next week. They get the Falcons.

Ooh. I mean, that's the thing. You don't have to give those wins back. And, you know, there's no asterisk that, you know, Shepard and Barclay got hurt here. But this is, it just reminds you of the Giants last year. I am really disappointed to hear this because of the watchability factor. Dionne Lewis, after Barclay goes out, Barclay was 4 for 28. Dionne Lewis goes 10 for 20.

Right. That was a weird signing, I thought, as their backup. He just doesn't look like the same guy. And then you're one-dimensional. And I thought it was, I mean, it was such a telling stat that this was the first game in Daniel Jones' career. First game where he took a single snap with Shepard, Tate, Ingram, and who am I forgetting? And Barclay, all on the field at the same time with Slayton, who's been good. Like, this was it.

This was the first time that one of those guys wasn't hurt, and Barclay tears his ACL and Shepard gets hurt. It lasted near minutes. And I mean, it's, you know, like, I like. I like the way that this team is built, but availability is everything, and they have been the opposite. Can someone clarify this to me? It's a modern athlete thing that pops up every few weeks when a player is usually surrounding a contract squabble. But in this case, Sequin Barclay suffers a devastating injury today. He's obviously frustrated and upset. that he, according to an article in the New York Post,

went onto his Instagram that has more than 2.2 million followers and scrubbed every giant's reference photo from his Instagram. So I don't know what that's about. But this in general, like this idea of scrubbing your team from your social media is one of the weirder ways to send messages through the greater media. This is our age. This is our age showing.

Alan Robinson on the other side of the field did it just this week. Wait, no, tell me how that shows our age. Like, what is that? Like, tell me why that is something that happens. Like, I don't understand it. You're allowed to be very passive, aggressive in today's age where when we were growing up, you weren't. It's almost so painful for you to be, well, here's why it shows our age, because we don't understand it. But I think if you're under 30, it's some, it makes more sense.

All right. Well, we have, luckily, we have someone under 30 connected to this podcast. Let's bring in Erica Tamposi, who's going to explain to me the old man why it is an effective way to express yourself rather than post something on the players' tribune or speak to a beat reporter you trust or not say anything at all to delete all references to the team you play for from your social media. Help me. Well, we're talking about it, aren't we? Well, that's good. I think it's also, it's mysterious. We don't know why he did it, especially from Seguan's angle, it's completely... Why do you want to be talked about when you just...

or your ACL. He left one post. It might not have anything to do with the Giants. The post was like Kobe Bryant. And so maybe that's his thing is like now he's, he's getting, he's getting into the Mamba mentality. Whatever it is. I don't know. I think when you delete it's nothing to do with the thing. When you delete the photos, it's showing his distaste in potentially the Giants organization. And maybe they, he feels that it's their fault that he was in the same way. But he deleted everything that's personal on his page too, like that had nothing to do with the Giants. And in Allen Robinson, case, it's kind of like just, I don't know, apparently the relationship was so painful. It's like you just have to forget about your ex-girlfriend.

And now they're talking. Come on. Right. Robinson's like strategy worked. Yes. He's fast-tracked. You know what sends a statement? An actual statement. That's, I guess, what I was trying to argue that, are we trying to argue that passive aggressiveness is an attractive human-cropes? No, but what do you want him to do? Send a, like a carrier pigeon, West?

Like, it's 20-20. It's not having some kind of an racer thing like you're in junior high-speaking. any bird addressed? Communicate. He has. He has. He is. He's got 2.2 million followers. We're talking about it. Yes, it is. He's pissed at the giants. And we all know it. He doesn't want to be there. You can appreciate passive aggressiveness. No. I could see a 25-year-old Dan. Like, he had a really bad day at work. And it's like,

we're just not sure what we're doing with you at this network. And Dan, like, scrubs all NFL network content from his Instagram feed and, like, drives home 86 miles an hour. The 25-year-old, from a different world, not the day of today on this show. His world just collapsed, and he just deleted everything on his social because his world is very black today. I think it's a little bit of a jump to say it has anything to do with the Giants. He deleted everything. He's focused on rehab.

That's what he's telling us. Everything else is out. That changes the story. Right. Wes, you've read every relevant sports book there's ever been. And I feel like, you know, players spoke their mind a little bit more. back in the day, if they were upset, perhaps. Maybe this is another example of guys don't want other people to, you know,

repurpose their quote into a different narrative. I don't know. I guess I am too old to figure out. I think that's a big part of it. It's also that there's so much money at stake now that they don't want to say anything that could come back on them. So doing this is a way of passive aggressively saying something. Well, we better wrap this up because I hear Seyquan Barkley's going to the town square

and he's going to, you know, make a large statement to the group. So we've got there. He's like a floutist with him and a little guitar player to make a big impact with song. Thank you. Thank you as always to our teen correspondent, Erica Tamposi. Let's keep moving. 55 seconds remaining. Menshoot, pops, throws, ball batting in the end.

Interceptive. Interceptive. Yes. Harold Landry. The man who batted it. Big Jeff. The man who caught it. Harold Landry.

And the MNCHU show ends as the curtain goes down with 47 seconds to go. Okay. Great team. Mike Keith and Dave McGinnis of WGFX with the call. Yeah, the Titans got a 49-yard field goal from Stephen Giskowski. How about that with a minute 36 to play? And then Harold Landry snatched that fluttering Gartar Mienchu pass out of the air in the final minute to seal a 33 to 30 victory for the Titans over the Jaguars.

Greg, good teams figure out a way to win close games. The Titans have done it twice in six days. Yeah, they have, and the ghost was a key part of it. I mean, he hit a long field goal over 50 yards to end the first half that came off of a special team's miscue by the Jaguars. The Jaguars have to be kicking themselves in this one because their offense played so well. I was so impressed by Gardner Minshu.

You look at the box score and you see two interceptions, and you know what happened at the end. It was a tip pass at the line of scrimmage. He tried to fit it in, and he is a little shorter, so I don't know if you want to put that on him at all, but it was bad luck. The rest of the snaps he took were awesome. I've been so impressed by their young players in general, Minchu being the key one. He sees where the blitz is coming. He's been very accurate. He's had some great touch passes.

He did connect one down the field. I know they lost this game. But I watched this team with James Robinson really running well today. We talked about C.J. Henderson last week. They just got some young players that I think that they can be excited about. And kind of in an opposite situation, Leviska-Schanal, it's another guy I wanted to mention. It was just, wow, when he has the ball on his hand, he just moves a little different. He played a lot of running back today in addition to receiver and played great.

Unlike last week, they were the team that outgained, and I thought outplayed the opponent, and they found a way to lose, which was kind of the opposite of what happened against the Colts. But I think if you're a Jaguars fan, the defense is at least a year away. But you're thinking that this offense with Jay Gruden and these young players, there's something there for this year that's going to be fun to watch and for the future, because it's a really young group. You almost wonder if Jay Gruden would be given another chance at a head coach role at some point, depending on how this goes.

It's early for that. It's early for that. I know it's early. I'm just saying like it's, you know, he's, he has transformed the attack a little bit. I'm looking at this drive chart outside of one punt here. They had a stretch where it was touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. I mean, this doesn't sound like a fluky offense at all.

I mean, to me, I guess the Titans deserve credit for pulling out two close games, but the Jaguars, you know, talked about 14 days ago as a confirmed tank job. I feel like the complete opposite of that. The Titans do deserve credit. And there was a lot of skepticism of Ryan Tannahill after the Titans won in the playoffs last year without him having to pass much. But they paid him like a franchise quarterback. And what tells me he's a franchise quarterback is he doesn't really have bad games anymore. He almost always has a good game.

And now with Derek Henry bottled up two straight weeks, with A.J. Brown contributing nothing. He still looks good. He still moves this offense. You're right. They were a good offensive team, and I thought this was similar to last year in the way that he only had, he only had like a handful of throws that he had to make, but he made him. And that was what the Titans did so well last year. Tana Hills go-ahead touchdown was, to me, as good a throw as Mahomes is. I mean, that was as great a touchdown under pressure getting absolutely hammered, put it up in the air, and in a third. third and long situation. Who was it that caught it now? It was Adam Humphreys in the third

quarter. And he got up and he immediately like yelled out and won. And to me that was such like an awesome like reaction by Ryan Tannel because it was a badass play. He only had to make a couple of them in this game. They protected him really well for the most part. So that that play was a little different. The Jaguars have no pass rush right now. But man, Tannahill, he can he can spend some pretty ones when he gets a chance. All right. Let's keep moving. Shotgun snap to Murray, steps up and takes off, far side of the 20, got room at the 10, cuts right to the five, jukes, the defender, and scores. Touchdown, Kyler Murray, a 22-yard run, his second rushing touchdown of the game.

That defender is in multiple pieces at the five-yard line. Dave Pass. You know, Ron Wolfley always gets the glory for K-T-A-R, but passed with a nice call to big out there. Yeah, Kyler Murray, right on schedule in his making the leave season. His dual threat skills off the charts right now, 30 to 15 win over Washington. He threw for 286 yards and a score, but ran for two, 14 and 21 yards. So he's doing it all right now, Mark. And Washington, which looks so dominant, getting after Carson Wentz, a different bit of a different task for them this week, and it did not go well. Yeah, they followed their little,

game script, which is let's fall down 17-0, and then see what happens. And last week, it created a really likable story this time around. No, and I don't think it's the last time they'll be down 17-0-0. I think it's hard to evaluate someone like Dwayne Haskins right now with the environment that he's in. I mean, Terry McLaurin's awesome. There's not a lot else happening on that offense. And when you get down 17-0, it's against this team, especially, it felt like curtains. This game felt like it went on for four and a half hours. I will make that personal observation. But Kyler Murray to me is such an, I enjoy Kyler Murray because it's one of the kind of rare scenarios where you hype someone up all offseason. And he may be doing more than in some

ways than people expected. Just consistently, he's throwing, he threw for 68% completion percentage today. I mean, he just is, he doesn't make mistakes, not a lot of them. He, he, he keeps a defense like Washington's completely off on their toes the entire game because he can do everything and this offense like functions around him really well. The thing I look at a little bit with them is just that they don't have like some of these other teams. I don't think they have like a dominant ground game except it kind of compiles by the end and Drake ended up with 86 yards. But part of it is that Murray is such an integral part of that ground attack that like he fits right in and you don't worry about the back so much.

I just look at this team as a playoff team. I just do. I don't think that this is... Tough division. Really? No, it's a tough division, and it's also like it probably comes down to health and injury luck. And we're about to get to the 49ers, not to jump in, Mark,

but we're about to get to the Niners, a team that absolutely got bombed out by injuries today. That changes the course of their entire season and potentially opens the door for a team like the Cardinals to step in. Right. Like, I'm not saying that they're the, you know, clear-cut second or third-best team in the NFC, but with the way things are going and if they stay healthy,

they're going to be there in week 17, if not like having sealed something. And I, you know, the defense, which people had a lot of questions about, I mean, it's tough to tell against Washington, but they're fine. I just think this is an interesting team really well-coached and fun to watch. All right. Speaking of the 49ers.

Rahim Mostard, Kendrick Boyd goes in motion, and he gets the right edge and gets down the sideline, and he's gone. Rahim Mostert is gone down the sideline. First play of the game is a toss sweep and a touchdown. San Fran Cisco. That feels great, baby. At the time, it did feel great for the 49ers.

Greg Papa and Tim Ryan with the call for KNBR. When is a win really a loss? The 49ers had no problem with a putre jets team at the Meadowlands, but a 31-13 victory tempered by a host of major injuries that could doom Sanford. Francisco. Nick Bosa hurts his knee as he's being carted to the locker room with what Kyle Shanahan would tell reporters later as a likely ACL tear. Solomon Thomas goes down the number three overall pick in 2017 with a likely ACL tear. They go down within about five minutes of one another decimating one of the strengths of that team, the defensive line. Jimmy Garoppolo

couldn't even move. He was a sitting duck behind the line of scrimmage. in the first half with a bad ankle, and even though he had no problem picking the Jets apart because the Jets stink, he came out of the game at halftime. Rahe Moster, who you heard, go untouched around the right end for 80 yards on the first play from scrimmage. He also has a ankle issue that he needs an MRI on. I believe it's a sprain at this time. This was a 49ers team already missing a host of impact players, including George Kittle,

Debo Samuel. and it's hard to be optimistic about the defending conference champions right now. 31.13's nice, but what do you do from here and where do you go? Well, speaking about how old we are, I tweeted Mark that this was reminding me of Tecmo Super Bowl back when you would play on season mode and they would conspire against you. It would be a string of injuries, fumbles, interceptions in the first few games. And you just say, okay, I'm going to reset this thing. Right out of here.

This season's lost. Yeah, it's after seat this season. I know. It's like everything's conspiring against them right now. D. Ford was out of this game. Richard Sherman is on IR. D. Ford hasn't been healthy basically since he got there and they're going to need him now. I watched them pretty closely last week and he didn't not look right.

Now he has a neck injury, which has been recurring. Yeah, it's one of the big developments of the season, especially Jimmy G's injury. I wonder, like, we'll see, we'll see where they go on quarterback. Are they really worse off, are they that much worse off with Nick Mullins? I mean, who knows? I like Nick Mullins' stats would tell you that he is a average to above average starting quarterback. I don't know if I'm there yet, but that's what his stats would tell.

I mean, Shanahan coached him up a couple years ago. That's what I mean. I was going to say, I remember Nick Bowens, Nick Mullins had a minute on football Twitter with like the Greggs of the world where everybody was getting excited about him. So this could be the time where it happens again. He was a rookie young draft. What it hates when we get fascinated with young quarterbacks, I guess it is? I don't know.

You seem to be very annoyed by that. I'm certainly, I'm head over heels for Kyler Murray, for instance. That's a young quarterback. It's funny. Go ahead. No, Nick Mullins is a guy who could be in action because he, Garapo was really compromised. There was a play in the first quarter where he went to plant on the bad ankle and it just kind of went on him. I think he got tripped up a little bit from behind by Quinn and Williams,

but he just went down and I was like, uh-oh, did he just suffer a serious injury? It seemed like the type of injury that probably could use some time to get right. But unless they really, you know, feel highly that Nick Mullins can step in and make plays, they need Jimmy G to be in there and try to carry this team right now. It's a very bad situation.

It's not good when Jordan Reed and his, you know, a couple of touchdowns in his, presence is so crucial to this team. He's turned into a nice signing for them. He especially the first touchdown showed, and Greg, you had talked him up a little bit before the season, that he still can move and he still has athleticism. It just becomes an issue will his body allow him to do it week after week. Nobody outside of San Francisco seems to believe in Jimmy G. anymore, but it is worth noting they've played about as many games with him and without him in the Kyle Shanahan era. And their winning percentage is over

80 with him and it's under 30 without him that's that's fair that's fair and the Jets um dan uh i thought they had a chance to maybe be the worst team the league going into the year and uh wow that you have to be a little disappointed though i know that i know you weren't expecting to be good but a little this is embarrassing i actually think this is i honestly think this is the worst Jets team in my lifetime i think this is and gase might be as bad as co-tight was wow and i don't even want to waste any more time on the Jets because I'm going to let my old man share thoughts on the Jets today. But

it is an embarrassment and if Adam Gase is not fired by Thanksgiving the team is out of its mind because we don't need to see anything else they have the wrong guy leading the ship and it's bringing everything down. Keith take it away. His name is Keith

his dad's dad. No doubt about it. He's a big Jets fan. What is he? going to say about the game today what is he going to say about the game today dan rated the jets dead last in the power rankings last week this is not going to change the 31 13 defeat today was a disgrace the 49ers with three injured players in the first quarter still destroyed the jets the jet offense was anemic no throws down feet

and where are these calls from Gase that we're supposed to be waiting for? Three and out is the way, is the Jets' current way of operating on offense. The play of the day, in my opinion, was the third and 31 for the 49ers, and they get a 55-yard run. You can't make this up. The Jets have been a disgrace. Dan. Next game, please.

Dan, Dan, whatever we're paying your dad to do, to do this, we need to be doubling it because the Jets correspondent role, which he thrives at, is concerning.

What about me, all right? You can hear the gravitas and Keith's voice. That's my Walter Cronkite right there. speaking with purpose today. Fire a side chat. All right, next game. Thanks. Handoff.

Run the ball. Four net. Slashes their way to the 40 to the 30 to the 30, 30 to the 35 to the 30. Don't think I'm going to win that sandwich spot that they're going to be in the playoffs. Wow, what a blast up the gut, found daylight. Get out, ran everybody. Fire the cannons.

Get them going. All right. Now the handoff happens. Oh, but first, everybody. dance jaunty jaunty con friend of natives

or enemy hey Chris Wesley is going to jump off and jumping in the great Nick Shook so out one handsome ball man in another

thank you Wes too con thank you all right Take it away, Shook. Tom Brady got his first win with the Buccaneers, and Leonard Furnett went over 100 yards with two touchdowns. 3117 win over the Panthers. Shook!

What a great ally we have in Nick Shook, who knows his stuff, and watched two games for us today. Tom Brady threw for 270 yards, touchdown, and a pick. How did this offense look in the second week together? So from the start, it was really encouraging, Because last week, and especially in the second half in New Orleans, you know, the Buccaneers, I almost said the Patriots, but the Buccaneers, they just didn't have enough to keep pace with their NFC South rival. So then they face another NFC South rival day and come out of the gate firing. They score two quick touchdowns. Tom Brady connects with Mike Evans over the middle for a long play that sets up the first touchdown, which is a Ronald Jones run. He finds Mike Evans for a score later. They get to halftime. They're up 21 to nothing. They're rolling and I'm expecting an absolute blowout. And then they just got a little complacent. They just hit a long. and slowly the Panthers built their way back into the game and came within a touchdown before, well, they realized they were the Panthers and ended up falling behind by two

scores and ultimately losing. But it was a step in the right direction for the Buccaneers offense, but I still think they have a ways to go in a number of areas. And of course, they were without Chris Godwin, who wasn't available to play. So that definitely played a role. But a step forward, they still need to be better. But I mean, I read that Brady was like super, super zoned in all week, not surprising. like it's like the only thing he does in his life is practice for, you know, prepare football,

but that it was like he was agitated by the narrative and what happened last week. Did you see a cleaner version of Brady? Is the chemistry improved? And maybe they just lack like the killer instinct that a Bill Belichick wanting to wipe out civilization has in Tampa Bay at the moment? Yeah, I think the chemistry with Mike Evans has improved. I think everybody else is a little bit of maybe a step behind. Rob Grancowski still looks like he's old and didn't really factor in it all. They had one target, no catches, was a non-factor.

And, you know, again, they were without Godwin. So that's- He'll be partying again this time next year on islands. Oh, yeah. This is not going to happen much longer. We'll have Gronk Beach version two next year, I'm sure. Yeah, for sure. There was a path to one of their backups. I can't remember last name's Grayson, that the ball went off of his helmet.

And Brady was just in disgust, like, you've got to be. He said some things that I can't repeat here, but you could definitely read his lips. Yes. And, but ultimately, yeah, you know, they still need to take those steps forward. One thing that I was encouraged by was Leonard Fournett caught a pass beyond the line of scrimmage. And he actually set himself up for a rushing touchdown, which was nice. And then Fournett served as the closer in the end, which was interesting. But I'm still not super impressed.

You know, I know Wes just left, but I would agree with Wes's summary of Fournett the last time he saw him play in the notes that he had tweeted out, which is, you know, when he gets the ball for the most part, he's unremarkable, except for when he rips off a game ceiling 46-yard touchdown. So it's like you want to be like this guy's just. Yeah, you want to say he's just average and then he rips something off like that? You know, all right, I guess I have to continue to believe in him. But it was a better game than last week. Again, they were playing a lesser opponent. This Brady version is really fascinating to me because, you know, PFF had him as having five big time throws, which is, you know, a way that they measure things.

And from what I've seen, and I thought this was the case last week, actually, the last two weeks, he's made a lot of flashy, really impressive throws, which I'm not surprised by. I think he was capable and did some of that last year. But the team's sloppy, and, like, the offense doesn't have a lot of continuity. I have a friend who sort of jump to the bucks a little bit, and it's like they're frustrated by the coaching there. Like, it's a lot of penalties. It's a lot of sloppiness. I guess you can expect that a little early, but at least Brady's showing something that they're making some flashy plays.

It's sort of the opposite of the 2019 Patriots, which were quietly efficient, just terribly ugly to watch. Yeah, kind of on that subject, there was a play where they ran a screen to Lashon McCoy, and it went for a pretty decent game that got called back because the lineman went downfield and just blocked a guy in the back. I mean, didn't need to touch the guy at all and blocked him in the back. It's that type of discipline that they're still lacking. The one thing that kind of stuck out with me with Brady 2 and Greg, I think you'll be able to offer more on this than I will, it seemed like a lot of his short passes that he was trying

to fit to guys who weren't even really in that tight of windows. They all had like a nose dive on him. And I don't know if he was trying to throw passes low or not, but there were multiple times where his guys had to get down on the ground to catch passes, where they literally came out of his hand at a downward angle. That was a little concerning. Yeah, pretty much. Well, he's a tall man, so, you know, it naturally goes down, but I don't think that's the plan. I don't think you want that. You want the downward. That was the analysis that you were looking for, Shuck. Yeah, I don't think Yonis Ante Coupo is back there at the pocket. He's like six five. How about this tail end of

career? I can throw that out there as a show. Christian McCaffrey held in check three point three yards per carry, held under a hundred total yards. It was like never happened last year. And then he went down with an injury. What are you hearing about that? What have you read? So he was questionable to return. And then with a minute and a half left in the game out of hand, he was ruled out.

And what's the point of that? He had left to get his ankle retaped and just never showed up again. Interestingly enough, they got down in the red zone again late. And it was fourth and five. They're down 10. And Matt Rule elects to kick a field goal with less than three timeouts around two minutes left as if he thinks he's going to get that close to the end zone again. And, of course, they didn't get the onside kick and then four-knit touchdown run ended

everything. I thought that was a little interesting, a peculiar strategy, I think, for a coach who's definitely operating with less than his opponent. Conspiracy theorists might suggest he had, you know, some action on the game or something. But even that didn't work out. Like, why are you trying to cut the lead to seven? That is an interesting accusation. I don't believe in that.

I don't believe in that. I don't believe in that. coach, but emanating out of Rosenthal headquarters, no less. All right, let's move on. Goff fakes the handoff, rolls out to his right, sets his feet, throws back left, over the top,

to the end zone. Caught by Tyler Higby. It's a three touchdown day for Higgs. There he is, J.B. Long, our boy for KSPN with the call, Tyler Higby. Three touchdown passes received from Jared Gopheff. including that 28-yard hookup in the fourth quarter. 37-19.

The Rams spanked the Eagles in Philadelphia. Gough completed his first 13 passes, including a pair of TDs to Higbee. Rams jumped out to a 21-3 lead in the first half shook. Sounds like the Rams are just on a different level than the Eagles right. This is two straight weeks where the Rams have gotten off to a hot start, and their offense has been fun to watch again, which we haven't said that about them since they made the Super Bowl. It felt last year like they were stuck in quicksand or mud for much.

of the season. And now that they don't have Todd Gurley, it seems like Sean McVey again feels like he has the freedom to call what he wants. One of their touchdowns was an end around or a reverse to Robert Woods for a rushing touchdown. Cooper Cup was a big part of the offense as usual, but the variety was back. And it really made it interesting and exciting to watch. And it, and it contrasted very well with the Eagles who kind of just don't have an identity offensively right now, especially when they put the ball in Carson Wentz's hands. This is two straight weeks where he just hasn't looked comfortable. He hasn't made smart plays. He hasn't really made it. a lot of big time throws.

And I think in a battle where he's facing the guy who went right ahead of him in the draft, he definitely came out on the short run of the stick there. That surprised me about Wentz because I was so impressed with what he did last year when they had all the injuries. And yet he kept on slinging it and kept on piling up yards

and got on the page with Miles Sanders or were they able to kind of will that team to the playoffs. And now with some better health, and I know they're not all the way there health-wise, He seems to be kind of really stumbling, especially in the second halves of these games when they need him to make plays. You know, I think that some of his offensive lines struggles have affected him, especially last week. He got to the point where he had been sacks so many times against Washington, and he was stepping into sacks when he was trying to get rid of the football.

And I think it kind of affected his rhythm again this week. And they just, again, they haven't really established much of an offensive rhythm. And he just doesn't look like he's in the flow of the game. Like he's trying to do too much. And they were operating, you know, trying to come from behind early in this game. And I think that got him out of his flow a little bit, too. And it just hasn't been a very pretty two weeks for the Eagles, really since they got off to a nice start in Washington last week. Now, on the flip side, we talk about Jared Goff and how he started 13 for 13.

I'll make another video game comparison since Wested that recently with the TechMobile thing. In Madden, among people who play Madden, there's a thing called RoboCube, where a computer-controlled quarterback cannot miss. He'll go perfect or near perfect for a game. Jared Goff was Robo-Cuby for almost the entire first half, which was really fun to watch. That's him at his best. And that's why, you know, yes, things have to be right around him in certain ways. He doesn't deal, you know, he's not going to create plays. But when he's playing well, it's pretty.

I mean, you can see why he was taking one and why McVeigh believes in him. And you're seeing the mid-range game. Now you're seeing a lot of those 20-yard passes in this game. It was a little shorter in week one, but four different receivers with plays over 20. I mentioned the Packers having a meaningful two weeks. I mean, this was a meaningful two weeks for the Rams. I think the way that these NFC West teams, because it's going to be a bloodbath to try to win this division, how they manage this lousy NFC East is going to be key. And here the Rams start with the win over, you know, presumably the two better teams, Cowboys and Eagles right off the bat, they're in nice shape to go four and no against the NFC East.

I think that's what it might take from the Seahawks and the Cardinals and, you know, the other NFC West team. It's like you're going to have to roll up wins to get into that NFC wildcard to possibly win this. division. And that's a great, great start to the season for the Rams. Yeah, another encouraging thing for the Rams going forward is their committee backfield seems be working. They didn't have Cam Acres today, but the other two running backs combined for 128 yards and a touchdown. They looked effective. No matter who was back there, they still move the ball on the ground effectively. And of course, like you said, those short to intermediate throws, Cooper Cup thrives there. And today was Tyler Higby's day, thriving there. And I think

anytime you can get the tight end involved with that type of production, it unlocks your offense and allows you to reach greater heights. And I think right now they're trending toward that direction. It just seems like McVeigh has a lot of, you know, the whole weight of having Gurley in his contract a year ago, so much more flexibility with a committee backfield and using guys. I mean, I see that like eight people had rushing attempts today. So he's using people all over the place and the emergence of the tight end position and a guy like Jefferson, the rookie wide receiver. There's just a lot of new parts. And I give McVe credit for essentially relaunching Rams 2.0 here on offense. Yeah, Van Jefferson's really exciting to watch. He made a nice catch early in that game

down the sideline on one of their first drives that set up a touchdown. And really, if you kind of just consider this offense entirely and how they operate, when you get out of this game afterward, Sean McFay has got to be really excited to not have to answer questions about why Todd really didn't get enough carries. I mean, he's got to get done with the game and be like, I'm going to, we won. I don't have questions about this. I can go hang out of my L.A. Mansion. This is great. Meanwhile, Eagles fans would have been happy enough if the Cowboys hadn't made that comeback, but now that the Cowboys made that comeback, this is dark in Philadelphia these days. Dark and stormy. Yeah, you know, it's, they pump crowd noise in. I'm pretty sure

they were pumping booze in today in Philadelphia. I noticed that actually. After the last Wentz turnover, there was hardy booze coming from. Not in the stadium. Look, I got to give an award to the person in charge of that because that takes some guts to do that at home. You know, you're really going for realism there. So we appreciate the authentic experience. Yeah. That's a real, that's antique Philadelphia right there. And let us now move to Sunday night football. Oh, Sunday night. There we go.

Cam is going to take it himself and he doesn't get in. And the Seahawks are going to win the game. Line up with a power formation and you've got L.J. Collier and L.J. Hill are the two guys who are there. The Seahawks defense bends. but it does not break when it matters most. Al Michaels with the call for NBC. Cam Newton at the goal line with a chance to win it on the final play of the game

gets stuffed. Seattle Seahawks, 35, New England Patriots 30. And another instant classic between these two teams. I don't know if they are capable of playing a boring game. It certainly wasn't tonight. This was an awesome game. where both teams look like, we'll see them deep into January, potentially, because they have a lot of things going for them, even if only one team won today. Nick Shook, start with you here.

You are a master of the offensive line study game, Shook. What were your thoughts on that last play call? Cam has obviously feasted near the goal line this season and had that great little fake for the touchdown toss earlier in the second half. but it did not work there. I mean, as an offensive lineman, as a blocker, the number one thing you love to do is run block. I mean, nobody likes to pass block, but they love to line it up and go man on man

and try to outwill your opponent and move that guy. And all you got to do is move them three feet there to create enough space for the ball carrier to get into the end zone. But unfortunately, Chris Collinsworth, you know, called it prior. I mean, we all knew what was coming. And especially if you really think about it

with the stakes of this, I don't know if you would call it a rivalry, but the history that has been there in the past. and the Seahawks throwing the ball in the goal line in the Super Bowl and everything else that happened there. You knew the Patriots weren't going to make that mistake. They were going to give it to Cam and try to let him do what he did. But great job by Seattle, blowing it up,

not allowing the fullback to kind of create the edge there, seal it off and allow Cam to try to get over the goal line. Yeah, I like how everyone's immediate reaction is like, well, what would have them to spread it out and then run it into like a thinner box? It's like, well, what do you know? What are you talking about? First of all, they ran those plays.

a million times in this game and it worked. And their offensive line, this is what I want as a fan or what I'm watching other games. Go with your strength. Their offensive line and the guys who failed on that play were awesome all night. The only thing you could say that made it tougher is you know, you're coming off a two straight timeout. So, you know, the defense did get a chance to kind of get their breath there, get their energy up. But the Seahawks won that play. It makes that that comeback so tantalizing because for most of the second half you had to think the Patriots, well, you just got to hand it to them because Russell Wilson, the touchdowns that he throw were just so ridiculous that it almost felt like what a great moral victory for the Patriots that

they found this quarterback, Cam Newton, who is dragging a pretty lifeless group of skill position players up and down the field. I mean, has a worst group of skill position players ever put up 30 points in whatever the yards that they put up, then Cam Newton and this crew in this game, like, I don't know, but once you got that close, the ball goes through Edelman's hand where they tried to not take the time out, and then you get one or two yards short on a Kiel Harry catch. It almost was an unreal comeback victory by Cam Newton. Well, I just feel like we're lucky to watch. The first two Sunday night games have been two of the cleanest, most interesting games of this young season. We,

That doesn't always happen on prime time. So it was just like a thrill to sit back on the couch and watch this thing. Man, it felt like a clinic of awesome team preparation. One play that stuck out to me was when they hid Tyler Locke at the Seahawks in the backfield behind Russell Wilson and behind the offensive line. Johnheimer. Yeah, as an extra wide receiver that, you know, and it was, and the Patriots are so well prepared that there were guys pointing that out before the snap.

I love, and this is going to annoy. a lot of people, but the Patriots are so fun to watch right now. They've shaken off some of the old stale Cobb-Webby vibes that felt to me just like the same team all the time. I feel like this team is heading into, they are a playoff team in my book, they are so well coached. And the whole idea that you could just take these players and put them under a different regime, Bill Belichick is such a difference maker.

And Cam Newton had a string of throws tonight that told me his arm is all the way back. I mean, I'm not, I don't know, I'm not talking MVP. P year necessarily, but Cam Newton made some incredible throws. And Julian Edelman, who put up career totals tonight, they're in sync. It's just very patriots-esque, but they fought to the final, final second. And I would never count this team out. The way they're constructed, the way that they operate week to week, they're just beginning to find out who they are, and Cam Newton fits.

Cam looked great. He really did. He looked like 2015, Cam. in this game. He did. I mean, he should have thrown a pick six. That almost happened. He had the one other interception. So he wasn't perfect. But he made so many big time throws in this game that, again, you can see it. If his body holds up, if he can do it, and he had 11 more carries today,

they are going to be a tough out. They're going to give the bills a run for the AFC's title, and they will not be an easy out in the playoffs. And, And it is interesting to me, like, because the Seahawks have a great coach, too. It's so, especially if you root for a team that has bad coaching. Like, you see it, you see how different football is. When you have a team that is disciplined and understands their assignments and knows what they need to do and you see them play for each other, these are just two organizations that are two of the best organizations in the NFL. for years and years now,

and that's why they play these great games, and that's why they'll both be playing in January. So, yeah, while I'm fine with the Patriots losing, that's never a problem for me. You can't be too down if you're a Patriots fan today. You just can't, because you know that your team's there again, and this has all the earmarks, again, if you keep your health of a 10-to-12-win team, potentially.

Of a fun team, and you see the progress from Cam throwing the ball. But, man, their weakness is, They're pretty weak. So, you know, you guys are putting them in January, and coaching-wise, you definitely figure that they'll figure things out as they go, but they have absolutely no pass rush. I mean, Wilson could do what he want. And the throws that they forced them to make, I guess maybe that they would defend that, that the David Moore catch was one of the most improbable catches you'll ever see.

The D.K. Metcalfe throw and catch for the touchdown was ridiculous. Really, all three, even the locket one, like all three of the, their first touchdowns were great plays by Wilson, so you hand it to him. But they have no pass rush. And I'm not kidding. Edelman, look, he wore Jamal Adams out a little bit in coverage. But, I mean, their best outside receiver is Demir Bird. Nikiel Harry cannot move. Their running backs went 14 for 20 tonight. I mean, I've seen Cam Newton carry a team before, and they have a good offensive line. But it's really interesting that their weaknesses are so weak. And at a certain point, that that'll probably be a bigger problem.

I think Seac's roster overall looks a lot better. Yeah, you know, I think he made a good point about how they have no pass rush. So the anytime they ever really got to Russell Wilson is when they brought guys down into the box who wouldn't typically be rushing. And they brought him off the edge and forced him into some situations where he realizes that's not a defensive end that he could outrunner, a defensive tackle, but a defensive back. But on the flip side, I think that Seattle's surprisingly, I know they gave up 30 points. I think they put together a fairly decent blueprint on how to, fluster Cam Newton or fluster this offense a little bit and kind of short-circuited at times. I mean, there was more than a handful of times where Cam dropped back and had pressure in his face

or he had to get rid of the football and it was kind of an ugly result that usually didn't go for many yards, if any at all. And I think going forward, you know, not including the final play because we kind of knew how that went, but going forward, I think some teams could look at that tape and think, oh, well, maybe this is a few ways we could kind of defend them. But ultimately, like you said, you know, when you're relying on Julian Edelman to catch eight balls for 179 yards is the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, that's the deep blood of your offense. I mean, although, you can't, you got to have more than one option. And they're so slow in the middle. Like Joanne Bentley, they're inside lineback.

It's just I'm not used to seeing such subpar starters from the Patriots. So that's something that they're going to work on. I'm with you. But to Dan's point, when you're accustomed to watching half-baked coaches, and I literally mean half-bake sometimes running, you know, middling teams, you can point out all the weaknesses you want. And you know what? Seattle doesn't have a pass rush either.

Right. These are still two teams that I trust just to be there in the end. and counteract and find the antidote to teams that do have pass rushes. The Seattle, though, I don't know if you're going to confuse Cam Newton and cause some of the issues you have if you don't have Jamal Adams. I mean, and it's, Dan, it's ponderous for you to have to hear Jamal Adams siloquely, so I'll keep it short. But I mean...

You don't have to say that every time you bring up Jamal Adams. Well, that's why I know it's annoying to you, but it's just like... It's annoying that you keep bringing that up. Just talk about Jamal Adams. It's fine. Well, I think he's incredible. And like, I think for Seattle to be plugged into the right scheme, he's worth whatever they gave for him. It wouldn't have been worth it if you went to some other operation for two high picks like that.

But Seattle, who, you know, it was like, oh, he'll be bored there. It didn't look bored to me. He looked completely on fire. And he changes that defense entirely. They'd be in hot water without him, I mean, distinctively. Two other points on the Seahawks that jumped out to me. You mentioned Metcalf, D.K. Metcalfe holding his own and then some against the reigning defensive player of the year, Stefan Gilmore. He's, uh, Metcalf is a special talent and he is the perfect quarterback to maximize his skill set.

And speaking of that quarterback, Ricky, Hollywood is a little annoyed before we started rolling here that the telecast is giving so much shine to Russell Wilson as a potential MVP guy. The reason that's the case is that he's essentially a perfect quarterback. Russell Wilson is a perfect quarterback. Even his one mistake today, uh, was a pick six that was on the tight end, not on Russell. Russell Wilson. I think he might be the most under-celebrated great quarterback of my lifetime. I think he's just a first ballot hallfamer smack in the middle of his prime. I think he's mastered the position. And what we saw today was just another clinic. But he's better now than he's ever been. I think that's the key. I don't think he's underrated. Everyone knows Russell Wilson. I don't know.

He's been a top three quarter. It's kind of like the MVP vote thing. He should have never got an MVP vote. Tell me the year where he was the MVP. You only vote for one person. Right now, the last two weeks, he's playing it at a higher level than anyone can possibly play. I totally agree with him. He's been a great quarterback for years, but there's something right now watching him, he's masterful. And I think that you cannot count Seattle out when you have someone that has mastered that position, and they're right at the peak of their powers. Well, and their offense has changed. They are, they're real so far about letting him, you know, to the point it almost cost them the game. They let him throw the ball in third and one deep and they went for it okay so i don't problem with that i mean they're like

i don't have a problem with russell you made every other throw tonight that's like you're given the benefit of the doubt like all right he tried to win it there what are you going to do i'm not sorry i'm sorry but this like there is this thing on the minute they the minute the broadcast made the MVP comment how he's never gotten a vote there it's so twitter but it was like well he never deserved an MVP vote sorry like i'd have no problem with someone over one of these years saying russell wilson is He's an MVP-level quarterback every year. I get that there are people in his way, like last year? It's like then you ask the person what year would have you voted for him, and there isn't a year.

Well, I'll go back and I'll go back and find a year. I just don't think it's sad to give Russell Wilson an MVP vote. It'd be over a team. Judge whether a quarterback is truly one of the all-time grades by some dopey MVP tropes. Like, that's not really what it's about. Shook, you get the last word. Well, I can't kill them for throwing that on third one, because that's the same play that they ran to beat Philly in the playoffs last year.

It just didn't work out this time. But you know what? Russell Wilson might not be underrated, but you know what he is? Unlimited. Very well. That's how you put a cap on it. Great week two recap and shook. I know it's late where you are.

It's right around midnight. But some characters like you, this is when you get your pumping, right? This is a good time to get a little yoked and it tells the body, never rest. Never take it easy. Yeah, I mean, the gym's not open right now, but if it was open, yeah, I'd be there. I've had a key and been in, I've had a key to a gym and been there overnight. Making those noises. Yeah.

Please, those noises. Yeah. Especially that last one. Oh, yeah, that. Like, have you passed your bowels on the gym before? That's what we need to discover next. Is it worth it? All right.

That's, uh, thank you, Nick Shook for helping us out. And, uh, reminder that we'll be back on Tuesday, uh, with, I believe Colleen Wolf will be sitting in the Chris Wessling chair as the plan. So I look forward to that as we turn our attention to week three. We'll also be, of course, on Tuesday recapping Monday night football, the matchup between? Well, it's the Saints and the Raiders. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. From the Death Star, this is Dan Hansa, signing off for Nick Shook, the mailman, an absentia. The old boss, Quiet Storm, and Ricky Hollywood. from West Hollywood until Tuesday night. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies

to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season?

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