NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2021 Week 1 Recap - Everything We Thought We Knew Was Wrong

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap every single game from a huge week one slate starting with the Chiefs comeback against the Cleveland Browns (3:34), The Steelers win over the Bills (12:59) and the Seahawks taking care of business against the Colts (19:52). Aaron Rodgers and the Packers lost hard to the Saints (24:35). Gregg and Ricky are very happy with how Mac Jones looked in the Patriots game against the Dolphins (1:01:37) and Nick Shook stops by to go over Herbert's big day and Joe Burrow and the Bengals overtime win (1:13:05). We close the show with a Sunday Night Football recap between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears (1:33:05). 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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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Time to shine. Indeed. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. week one edition that is flagship show.

My name is Dan Hansis, joined by a virtual room for at least one more week. Filled with some heroes, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal. And yes, we have seen the first Sunday of the regular season. And what does it do? And this is, I probably said the same thing last year. And if I didn't say it last year, I said it the year before, that first Sunday is a glorious thing because what it does is it upends all of the various offseason narratives, all the things that we all, and not just the three of us, everyone is so sure of so many things get upended totally based on one game of football. And as we go through the games today, Mark, that's what we're going to see. A lot of stories or a lot of ideas about teams that we thought we kind of had a beat on.

We do not have a beat. and that's one of the beauties of the actual playing of the games. You quietly want to get to week two because it is sort of an unmasking of the entire public that covers football. It's like, wait a minute, you've been talking for seven months about these rock-solid takes and life scenarios that you're sure are going to unfold on a football field, and you've been proven wrong most all of you,

and if not this week, next week. But I think also it's like week one, and I'll say this real quick, but like you come out of it maybe a couple teams today thought you know, we're not a very good team. You know, when today, you're feeling, it's kind of, you're playing with house money. If you come out with a loss, you're like, wait a minute, this is back in my life, this little amount of sports heartbreak that has been gone, not, you know, it hasn't been trenchant and it isn't stabbing you. I mean, it's not. It's like

those feelings come back. You're attached to these teams again. So, football is back. I'm talking about a lot of things today because as a group, we took a huge massive L in various territories. Oh, what a tough star for the pod. We got swept on our lock predictions. This really, again, builds back into the La Raville Magnifico of the entire experience. All of our favorite teams lost. The Patriots, the Jets, the Browns. Well, that's true. The Broncos won. So one of our. That's true. Congratulations on that. Even the Titans went down. The Grave Digger takes an L. Grave Digger was on a massive winning streak in life until now. Now it's all downhill. The Bengals won.

And maybe Wes, in our first season without the man, watched it somewhere. I like it. He has like a drink in his hand. He watched it. Maybe he's building a new dossier. Why I'm falling back in love with the Bengals. Who knows? But a good day for Cincinnati football fans.

Greg, we're going to dig into the games. Do you have anything you want to share before we get rolled? No. Just want to clarify. When you say, you know, for one more week, you said, you know, some heroes for one more week, we're all going to be here for one more week. We're going to be virtual for one. for one more week.

We'll be back in person. I'm just, you know, don't want anyone to be worried that one of us will not. Do I have to hit you with the Deb Hanzas? Don't spit in the sky. I hope we're all back together next week. All right, let's get into it. And Mark, we got to start where we got to start, and that is Arrowhead. In the game, pump faking is Mayfield.

Now we'll throw it to the left flat. It's going to be intercepted. Interceptive on the far side by Mike Hughes in his first national football league game with the Chiefs. The former Viking first round pick picks it off, and the Chiefs are going to pull this game out after trailing for 53 game minutes. Mitch Holtis with the call, WDAF, and welcome back. Sam Spence in the NFL. Most beautiful music of the 20th century.

Patrick Mahomes threw for 337 yards and three scores. And yes, Mike Hughes iced the game with an I-N-T of Baker-Mayfield in the final minute to lift the defending. AFC champions to a 33-29 win over the visiting Browns. Mark, it's just so damn hard to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. The margin of error is so small, especially in that building. Yeah, I mean, we were texting throughout, and I tried to not bug you guys too much about it. But you could, you know, I thought that Cleveland answered out of the gate many questions about who they could be this season. I mean, their first half, they were perfect. If, If they played every half of football, three straight touchdown drives that I thought marked them as their characteristics are aggressive.

They're going to go edgy. They're going to dump the whole playbook to beat who they need to beat. And the strategy clearly was, we know Kansas City, even though they were held to 10 points in the first half, they will score. And so we can never take our foot off the pedal. But if you're the Browns, you're not the chiefs. And you just cannot let the mistakes start to creep in. And I could feel the game getting away from them bit by bit. It was the uncharacteristic chub fumble with about two minutes into the third quarter.

Okay, you have the Tyreek Hill mystifying John Johnson on that 75-yard touchdown that made it 29, 27. Jamie Gillen, the Brown's very reliable punter a year ago, botching the long snap as Arrowhead was going absolutely nuts. I mean, the crowd was a huge factor. And then, you know, I thought there were little tiny moments like the shot to Anthony Schwartz, the rookie who played really well for the Browns, broken up by Juan Thorn Hill. It's just Cleveland started to not close drives. When Miles Garrett sacked Patrick Mahomes, though, they had a chance. There was a moment that just reminded you of last year.

And I know this game is not, I don't care about the Baker Mayfield interception, but it happened. And the drive ended that way. The game ended that way. I thought that Baker Mayfield, there might have been a little part of him that was trying to throw that ball out of bounds, but he got caught up. Dan Sorensen grabbed his foot a little bit. He can answer that question, but it wasn't some sort of dunderheaded, ill-equipped quarterback mistake, but it was his one poor throw of the entire day. I mean, he really was almost

perfect outside of a couple little miscues. And I thought that overall, you could look at the Browns and say, wait a minute, this team actually, for the first time in about 20 years, is picking up and building off where they were a year ago. But so were the chiefs. And Travis Kelsey and Tyreek Hill were completely unstoppable, especially Travis Kelsey. It reminded me very much of January's game in that sense, no matter who Cleveland added on defense. I think if you go best, who are the best combos of quarterback and receiver? And I know he's a tight end, but, you know, as a past catcher ever, at least in my lifetime, I think about Montana and Rice. And then you think about maybe Brady and Moss in that magical year of 2007. I got to put my homes and Kelsey.

Kelsey right there. And I'm watching the game, and I have a soft spot for the Browns because of Mark. So you're rooting for the Browns. But I'm thinking to myself, God, geez. I mean, imagine being a Browns fan and being this close to getting over the hump against a team like this. And every time he tried to get big spot, these guys are doing these outrageous plays. And I know Kelsey wasn't as flashy, but he got his big go-ahead touchdown. But the Mahomes, these plays that Mahomes makes, when he rolled to his right, and you mentioned the touchdown when Johnson got caught.

I guess snapping, but he gets flushed all the way to the right, falling out of bounds, 75-yard touchdown. That's just we've never seen that from a quarterback, and that's the type of play that no team could stop, not the Browns, not anybody. But I guess, Greg, for me, the thing with the Browns in terms of they did get the ball back. They got the big play from Miles Garrett, but just like last year at the AFC title game, when they couldn't put together that last drive, they couldn't put together the final drive. So it's like finishing.

That's maybe the last part of this for the Browns in terms of being a true. a Super Bowl contender. Right. You turn the ball over twice, and I don't even know if that includes them not being able to get the pun off. I think it does. That is a turnover. You're not going to win this game.

They had the recipe to do it. They did the whole short-in-the-game thing. The Chiefs got eight drives in this game. The Browns got nine, and I always say, well, that sounds good, but you have to, you know, don't shorten the time you're going to lose. The Browns are so efficient on offense, it makes more sense for them.

Like, when you can go touch. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Unfortunately, they didn't finish off that long drive in the end of the second quarter. Then that shortening the game thing works. You look at the score 33 to 29. Like you would never think that each team only had eight or nine possessions. It's crazy. And so then it comes down to one play.

Baker Mayfield is not going to make the crazy play like Mahomes did. And defensively, I know the chiefs weren't great, but ultimately you call the safety blitz. You get Daniel Sorenston to hit Baker Mayfield on that play. He was trying to throw it out of bounds. I mean, there was no question about that. Romo said that. Mayfield confirmed it after the game.

It looked pretty clear, so I have no reason to doubt, you know, Baker saying that. And that's your ball game. Like, it just, you're right about the margin for error because they essentially played their game. By the way, without Odo Beckham, they kind of, they had faked everyone pretty well there. I was wondering. They did. And then people sounded so kind of.

I was like, this guy isn't taking a game. hit or played full contact once in practice and everyone seems so confident he's playing and they had faked him why wasn't he playing though i don't i don't quite he's not ready to play which is which is a concern i mean he hasn't fully practiced like really practiced one time yet and i and they're being careful and he clearly isn't back to 100% week two is the big it's going to be the big thing to watch with odel because if he's not playing week two then you start to be like uh-oh is there a little hitch in this that we didn't know about and they've been keeping uh under under under wraps. I loved Baker in this game, Mark. I thought, yes, the last turnover aside,

he made so many big money throws. I thought Tony Romo, and by the way, I kind of, I see what you're talking about with Romo. Oh, my God. He's so, and I get it. Part of what makes Tony Romo experience so great is he's so infectious. His joy for the sport comes through, and who brings more joy to a football fan than Patrick Mahomes? So that makes sense. It checks out. It's not like anti-Browns, But when Patrick Mahomes is on the other side, it's going to slend. Like we're just starting out Michael Jordan's career playing football. So this is what people are going to react. But you can sense, though, it's not, it's really not a Romo thing because I thought Romo actually

did a ton of homework on Cleve one and couldn't have been more complimentary about aspects of the Browns, too. So I'm not trying to be some homer, but it's the two straight Browns games in a row. And these games turn out to be like three and a half hours now. So we're talking seven hours of Romo gushing over Mahomes. I just need a little bit of a different scenario. Next week. That's all. Patrick Mahomes in September in his career. And sometimes you could chop these stats up and it's like, all right, September. Well, that's the least important month of the year. If you want to look at it that way, whatever. This is the craziest stat I've ever heard in football history. Nine and no. Okay, whatever. 35 touchdowns. Whoa, that's a lot for a month that only has four months typically. Zero. Zero interceptions. This guy, we might be watching the best quarterback ever. It's in the conversation. I told you that after what season?

You did a nice job of that. You did a nice job of that. And you come out of this game, though, Mark, I'm sure you feel a lot of things. But you, Injoku, backed up what you heard in camp. Schwartz makes some plays. That's big. You didn't even have OBJ out there. I think probably the number one thing, you know, just not having watched it as close as you is,

ultimately the offense did get three cracks in the fourth quarter. So it's not just that he couldn't get the ball out of bounds. You are an offensive team. The offense played great overall today. But you got three cracks in a row that didn't go anywhere when it mattered. You're right. So that's the next step. It is. And we see this in sports all the time where Team A is trying to get over Team B.

And the Browns and Chiefs are not died in the will rivals. But of recent times they are, and Cleveland's not quite there yet. It was the one game I watched today that I watched closely where the crowd made a huge impact. And we kind of forgot about that obviously last year. but Baker Mayfield couldn't hear at times there were penalties driven, drummed up by that. So it was a huge factor as well. The hope here is that you are the late 80s, Bulls, and the chiefs are the Pistons. And you will get over that hump.

But every champion has to do. And that's what the Browns are trying to do. That's what the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills are trying to do. Get past the cheese. But first, they had to deal with each other. Fourth down and 12, punt formation. Good cheese. Four.

Picked up by the Steelers into the edge zone. That's a Pittsburgh touchdown on the block punt. Bill Hill Grove, WDVE, WDVE, with the call. The Steelers are still the mother flipping Steelers. Mike Tomlin's, the smothered Josh Allen and company. And Ulysses Gilbert, we need more Ulysses in the world. Gilbert returned a block punt nine yards per score. Pittsburgh rallied for a 2316 win

over the bills in Orchard Park and they got to do that thing. It's the best thing, it's the most rewarding thing as a fan when your team goes on the road, enemy territory, in a very hostile environment and you deliver a kick-ass performance

and the game's over with like three or four minutes left in the game and you see the comeback from commercial they're doing the subway ad graphic on top and then you just see all the people leaving the stadium because you've ended the not only did you defeat the whole team, you took away the will and the spirit of the fans and you sent them back to the parking

lots. But it didn't seem like it was headed that way because the Steelers were down 10 zip in this game. And it was a very slow start. The Pittsburgh offense had three first downs and 54 net yards on its first six possessions. It basically looked like, oh, here we go again. that collapse of the offense in the last season. Didn't matter that Matt Canada is now in the building, and you're ready to blame Canada, nailed it. But guess what? They get hot.

They score in each of their first four possessions in the second half. Ben Rothesburg makes a bunch of big time throws, big Ben-type throws, and your defense does the rest. And Greg, this is a Bill's offense. We talked about this on the Thursday preview podcast, a Bill's offense that shredded, top 10 units all last year

and they could not get anything going especially like big strike plays they couldn't get anything going against the Pittsburgh D and that bodes very well for the Steelers going forward. I mean, nine targets for Stefan Diggs, 69 yards, 12 targets for Beasley. Catches eight of them for 60, but you know,

so that's 17 throws to their best two players. None of those plays went over 13 yards. You know, no one can like look at the Steelers game plan of the last two times we played the bills and exactly copy it because they don't have the bones and they don't have the players and everything that the Steelers have. But the Steelers defense did a fantastic job against Buffalo in week 15 for about three quarters last year.

And the offense was so bad that they just eventually buckled. And then they do it again here. Josh Allen averaging 5.3 yards per temp. T.J. Watt comes off, you know, this contract that he signed since we last spoke, massive deal and immediately shows up with five QB hits. I mean, that is next level. That is, hey, I'm the best defensive player in the league type of stuff and getting a road win. I mean, that it does make you think a little differently about the Steelers right off the bat.

Well, and especially their defense, which I think we were noting that their defense was going to be a positive factor. But like Cam Hayward looked fantastic from some stuff I saw. You know, last year when they played each other, the Steelers were starting to become mired in their, in their woes. I mean, they still ran the ball today for what, like under three yards per kid. or something. I mean, the game, if there was the, usually the game would have been over at half time because the Steelers' offense was so bad, right? But they almost worked out of all the issues and problems that we had hampered them with

and mentioned almost in a microcosm way inside this one game. I mean, I look around the league. I'm not sure there's a more, if you're a Steelers fan, you could be as happy as any fan base in the entire league with what happened today because we were talking about the bills as a lock and load, AFC title team. Josh Allen did not play well today. And the Steelers defense controlled the game. To me, it leaves me with a little bit of concern about the bills in general.

You mentioned this, and it's, Dan, it's not like we want to, you know, grip onto this yet. But can you really expect them to be quite as perfect and flawless as they were a year ago? Because that just doesn't happen to offenses typically. And the bills had only done that for one season. And that is, and yeah, we're not going down that road and saying that teams have figured out the bills. But teams did have an entire offseason to study what works. for Brian Dable, and now they have more tape based on what happened in this game. Now, that said, I will say this, and the Steelers deserve all the credit in the world,

that defense of what they did today. But the bills had opportunities, too. I mean, there were plays left on the field in this game early on, especially, where this could be, if they execute the way they did when they were in top gear for most of the last season like they did last year, it's probably a different outcome. But that just is not the way it worked out. And I guess, Mark, you already answered the question, but Greg, I was, I'll ask you, this game, does it, is it strike you with something like it changes the way you feel about the Steelers more? Or on the other side of it, is the bills, do you now have more doubt?

Or is this just one week and we'll leave it here? It doesn't change how I feel about the bills at all. You outgained the Steelers by 120 yards. Your defense held the Steelers to 250 yards, which is, you know, next level. Ben Rathesberger is getting a lot of slings and arrows from most people watching this game. It's a great defense. It's one home L. I'm not worried about Buffalo at all,

but it does give you a frisky feeling if you're a Pittsburgh team that you're going to be able to maybe win some games in different types of ways and that people are digging their grave way. I mean, Damashek is tweeting up a storm. I've seen, I've been, I monitor Damashek's tweets because he targets certain things that I care about. And he seems to go off on those things in a very unmerciful fashion. but he was a happy boy today. So I'm happy for Shaq.

You know, I can be a nice friend. No, you're not. No, you're not. I'm fine. First of all, you knocked off a Bill's team that's going to be right there, too. This is one of those games where whoever loses, like, if you think of your own team as a contender, it's not a total loss. Right. But, like, you could say just, like, when you have your favorite team, there's always one other team that if you lost and then they won, it makes the day that much worse. They're extremely annoying.

They're extremely annoying to me. Well, still a lot of football left. In a lot of ways, Mark, you could look at this way. With the added game to the season, the season hasn't even started yet. That's how long the season is now. That does not help me at all emotionally. 18 weeks. All right, let us move.

By the way, shout out, kicker club, popping bottles. Chris Boswell was excellent in this game. Hit all three field goal attempts, including the game ceiling 45-yarder with 242 to play. Just a really solid, strong close to that game. It was Pittsburgh Steelers football. Let's head to Indy. Second down in 20. Russ steps up in the pocket and he's going to let fly deep down field.

Got a man open locket. Ten, five stumbles. He's in. Touchdown. Seahawks. Steve Rable. With the call. Russell Wilson threw four touchdown passes,

including that 69-yard hookup with Tyler Lockett. As the Seahawks coasted to a 2816 win over the Colts at Lucas Oils, Stadium. Greg, the new partnership between dangerous and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is off to a tremendous start. You almost are, you know, as a football fan, a little worried that this went too well for Seattle. I mean, this was Pete Carroll's like dream game. Russell Wilson barely throwing the ball at all while they win comfortably. He threw 23 passes for 254 yards. And that wasn't like, hey, we got a big lead and sat on it. That was where he was like halfway through the game he was like nine for 11 at half time and yeah that that works out okay when like you can

hit bombs one team's explosive one team's not tyler lock it you know four for a hundred but almost all of those are in two catches you know two long touchdown catches you know one of the most underrated receivers in the league he's he's been called that for so long i i'd like to think he's not still underrated properly rated now like i don't know though i think he's a top 10 type of receiver and he wasn't in the top 100 and it was pretty cake city like they they had the explosive players and I just don't see the explosive players on Indianapolis's offense right now yet they had to work really hard to move the ball up and down the field it didn't help that the Colts didn't have Xavier Rhodes out there who played well last year um they just weren't last year's defense which

was so reliably you know for stretches totally dominant I think it's a huge development for Seattle that Russell Wilson's you know happily employed in an offense where he can throw four touchdowns they didn't need him to do everything they look dominant I mean in there it sounded like from some of the stuff that like Seattle's own defensive front really handled the cults I just I mean Wentz though did he did he look to you spry did he look healthy he had a couple couple throws where he was on the run he looked good to me it was a surprisingly good performance from Carson Wentz I actually thought Wentz was the least of their problems so

So if you're looking for a bright side as a Colts fan, you just were reminded like, oh, yeah, Frank Reich's awesome. Like he put Wentz in positions to succeed with open receivers. The problem is that when it's third and long and you're always running screens or you're always throwing short of the sticks and you're kind of counting on the play call to get it done for you, like that's a hard way to beat good teams. But you're right. The Seattle defensive line, I think, is sneaky good.

They're very deep. They won their matchups against the Colts offensive line for the most part. I thought one's handled about as well as he could. But ultimately, like, they did not score for most of this game. They had a big drive early and a drive late when it didn't matter and ultimately couldn't score. Indy doesn't have big-time splash players. No.

Taylor needs to be Taylor. Yeah, I like Michael Pittman as a prospect. I know T.Y. Hilton, he'll come back eventually, but he's also, you know, up there now. Jonathan Taylor is their big playmaker and held down, obviously, here. He had 17 carries, never a big. bigger play than 12 yards, average three and a half yards of carry, Nahim Himes. He didn't do much either.

So if they can't get the running game going, you're in that situation where you're putting a lot on a passing attack that, you know, is obviously a work in progress right now. But that would be, I guess, a positive to take out of the game, Greg, if you're saying that Wenz did not look lost. I kind of thought they were going to come out of this game and he would have been limping around and playing poorly because he doesn't know the offense well enough because of a lack of reps but it looks like he wasn't the problem and you got to give credit to seattle's defense which they took care of business especially in the trenches 10 10 cuby hits and wentz had three sacks

you if you look at the stats and wensensens up with like a 26 kbr that looks like more of the same maybe it's the low expectations but it just didn't feel like he was their problem it their offensive line though could be a long-term problem you know eric fisher didn't play in this game but you know asking a guy to come off the achilles you know an achilles injury and save your season net left tackle, might not do it. So they got to play a lot better, but I'd feel very good if I'm Seattle. The NFC West looks preposterously good right now. Quentin Nelson make it through that game, by the way?

You had the bad back. Yeah, he played. All right. Let us now move to the NFC. And, yeah, this one was a stunner to me. Straight back in the pocket. He's looking for Deontay Harris. He's open.

And Deontay makes the catch. See you later by. Touchdown Saints. Mike Haas, you hauss, with the call, WWL. James Winston was Lasz-focused in his debut as the Saints QB1, throwing five touchdown passes and a glorious. I mean, I turn this game off at 383. Is that where it finished?

That is. 38 to 3. Romp over Aaron Rogers and the Packers at the Saints' temporary home in Jacksonville. Um, whoa, Mark and I locked up the pack and guess what? We're eating the poop on this one, buddy boy. Disaster. And, uh, and good. Good for the people of New Orleans dealing with the destruction of Hurricane Ida.

They get to sit down if they were able to watch this game and they're treated to it. Just a brilliant performance all around. And Winston, he was tremendous, but he was not alone. I thought their front seven, the secondary, the coaching staff. And even Sean Payton called out the operations department for the Saints after the game for everything they had done behind the scenes to make this process moving from New Orleans to Duval to get set up here. They obviously did brilliant work because the team looked comfortable and ready to play. And the Packers, quite frankly, Mark, they look stunned. It was a buzzsaw game, straight up.

Yeah, it's like I was tracking this. And I looked at, you know, minutes into the third quarter, they put a graphic up noting that New Orleans had 26 plays in Green Bay territory where the Packers in reverse it had two. And, you know, and they were back-to-back horrid picks by Aaron Rogers, who, you know, and Aaron Rogers, obviously, has had a rough off-season, a weird off-season. He looked a little just despondent to me when I noted him during the game. Does he have the Bruce Aryan's disease? I don't know because. I don't know because. It doesn't seem like I'm one that should be calling these things out

because I probably was totally wrong about Bruce Ariens. But he just, you know, seemed to obviously. Only giving it the probably after the Super Bowl championship. Right. Still holding out some hope that you were right and that Ariens has checked out. I pack into, I always will pack into that Ariens' is broadcasting stint where he seemed very bored to me. So that I am, I do think I got points in that right. To your point, like the fact that Aaron Rogers is now looking like a more fit version of the Big Lobowski.

Like, he just, he just looks like the dude with the long hair and the beard. Well, tell me about his game, because I did not watch this one closely. He had 69 yards at half. But by the way, Winston had 65 and became the first quarterback, like in the modern era, to throw five touchdowns, but less than 150 yards. So this was a weird one. Field position, baby. Because it's not like Alvin Kamara had a massive game either, right?

Is, is, did he, like, just play bad? Was the offensive line bad? I'm stunned when Aaron Rogers averages under five yards per attempt. You know, he went one for ten on third downs. They could not get anything going in this game. And you know, you're used to, like what we saw, for instance, with Baker and the Browns for most of that game, the mistakes notwithstanding, where they're just getting whenever they need a conversion and just going up and down the field.

That's all we saw from Aaron Rogers and the Packers for the majority of the last season. So to see them in third and longs and to see him. you know, have a miscommunication downfield leading to an interception to see Dave Adams not be able to get the big third down conversion. I mean, where's Randall Cobb, the security blanket that Rogers whined about to get him back in the building? Not playing much for much of that game that I noted. He was not on the field.

So it was just everything came very difficult for, and I think, and again, you don't want to make too much about week one, but I think things snowballed. I think it was one of those things where you got off to slow start and you're like, all right, we're down three. Huh, we're down 10. Whoa, we're down 17. It's like, oh, we get this score. It'll be back in the game.

Oh, I just threw an interception. Oh, and then they went down to score it again. Now it's over. It was like one of those type of games. So, yes, bad start for the Packers. And all the, I was thinking about all those fans, Green Bay fans, like, we, you know, I've always wanted to go with my boy to Lambo and we never can get the tickets. But we found a way.

We're going to Jacksonville. There's no Christmas this year, but we're going to Jacksonville. You're going home early in the parking lot. too, the old parking lot walk. But what was the crowd breakdown there? Because we asked that on last week, if we thought it would be, would they get, you know, 80? They said the Saints that Sean Payton actually went on to like Expedia to look for the most

impossible, most expensive locale for Packers fans to actually have to go see a game. So did that work? Was it more of Saints fans? I wish I could tell you. I wasn't plugged in too much on that. And again, it's hard to hear. You could hear their cheers, but there was a lot of Green Bay fans, but. Since they had nothing to cheer about, very quickly that became not even issue or anything anybody were talking about.

Didn't hear a peep from Packers fans after about four minutes in. But that last, the highlight you heard of the bomb touchdown, that was just the exclamation point for what was just, it just couldn't get better. You can't get any better for the Saints after what's been a really tough month for the team. I think that's a factor. I think it's a factor. I mean, you can never break this. down analytically but in a game like football like where it helps if you have something more to play for and you have a coach like Sean Payton who if you listen to these players especially

all weeks ever since the storm they they seem like a team they seem like they have a purpose I think that helps you and they got a quarterback who's got LASic surgery that helps you too the old James Winston you can make fun of uh you know the best shape of his life thing all you want, wasn't running six times for 37 yards in 2019. So that has nothing to do with the LASIC. That has to do with the body. And this team has a little bit of a higher purpose. Maybe that, along with like an amazing, amazing offensive line can carry you pretty far.

The Saints did not punt in the first half. Chris Hogan had a touchdown. It's all working. He's a lacrosse player. Right. I just want to read you like after all the Calloway excitement, he went one for 14. I mean, their leading receivers were Deonté Harris, Juwan Johnson. A converted, you know, tight end, Deonti Harris, Adam Troutman, Calloway, and Hogan.

I mean, they didn't need to throw the ball much the way they played. It was such a weird game, boys, that I don't really know what to make sense of it for anyone involved. But all I can know is that it was a really nice day for the Saints and their fans and a really crappy one back. The only downside is it was such a blowout. Sometimes you can kind of skip the fourth quarter of a game pass even when that happens. But I want to see Jordan Love's quarter. I want to see Jordan Love and see. how he looked sounded like and all those although i know in the condensed version you won't get to see it

as much but a lot of salty shots of the of the big lobowski part two on the sideline too well you know some the way they edit some of those game pass you know in 40 minutes in quotes um games you might see a ton of it oh man like i'm just i'm here for the aaron rogers like press conferences and whatnot like if this yeah if this is a rocky up and down season it's a little too early they also didn't they're another one of those teams that didn't play any snaps. I'm going to be selective because teams that played well when they didn't do that in the preseason. It's like there were plenty of two. Chargers played fine. But they did not play a snap in the preseason. They did not look ready here. There were also reports, one little thing, that the Broncos are interested

in trading for Aaron Rogers after this season and have talked to Green Bay about it. So maybe not after today, but I would assume they don't, it's not a knee-jerk reaction scenario inside the I like the idea. I saw it on Twitter somewhere that what if this is the ultimate endgame for Aaron Rogers is going to just totally destroy the Packers with a terrible season. Checkmate. Bandsch. Let's move on. What's up everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from Scouting Reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow.

We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin.

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now to learn more. Golf back. Golf time. Golf throws up. Ward left into the ground. Incomplete. No flags down. The 49ers.

Woo-hoo. Oh, my goodness. We'll get out of this with a victory. Greg Papa with the call and Tim Ryan with a, oh my goodness. KNBR. 49ers defense stepped up when it mattered most, forcing an incompletion by Jared Gothen, fourth down to secure a 41-33 win over the line. Lions at Ford Field.

San Francisco led 3810 early in the fourth quarter, but allowed Detroit to score 23 unanswered in three-plus minutes. What? Mark, as a diehard, Kyle Shanahan. As a man who believes the Niners are going to win all this year, how nervous were you at the end of this one? A weird game. Just a very strange game in the second half.

Answer the question, Sessler. I was not nervous on any level. like that's not something that's going to really it was more just like you know I'm watching two games at once I'm taking endless notes but suddenly you know like you're with the Packer's Saints game I kind of checked out of the Niners game a little bit right sure but then suddenly like they have a two point they get a touchdown and Jamal Williams touchdown get the two point conversion unfurl an onsides kick that deflects off of George Kittle it's still out of reach at that point you think well is a little bit of a mistake this is not an issue to deal with then suddenly Quinn's Seifis has a touchdown. He has a two-point conversion. They go for the onsides again, and they don't get it. It's 4133 with a minute six left. Then Debo Samuel loses the ball, and Jared Goff starts making a couple of incredible throws, and you're thinking this can happen. And, you know, one of the questions I had about the Lions was with how short staff they look as an offensive team in general. They can look like they can run the ball. And if their line holds up, you know,

Penae Sewell played pretty well today. That would be a note. But they seemed like a team that was sort of built to be, you know, within a score or leading the way that they are in their wide receiver group. But they kind of came up big today down the stretch. I still chalk it up as a strange game because, you know, outside of the Niners, you know, allowing them back in, they dominated early on. And we saw a little bit of Jalen Hertz. He came in and threw a five-yard touchdown pass. They didn't use him a ton. He had a run as well. But Jimmy G., this is the formula. It's sort of like when Jimmy G. is playing as well as he did today. He didn't make any killer mistakes, he's probably going to see more of the playtime until they get a couple weeks into

this season. It sounds like what they did in that one preseason game against the Raiders, where they both kind of had equal time may not be on the shelf yet. But you know what? Who knows? I believe that Trey Lance got in the game, not Jalen Hertz, right? Yes, that would be more of a story if suddenly Jalen Hertz were dressed in red and gold. It was Tray Lance, yes. How did it all like unfurlite? The box score tells me that Trey Lance threw one pass and it was a touchdown, but this was Jimmy G's offense for most of the way, it looks like. Yeah, they used them really early, and they didn't really use him much ever again. So he came in, now they pulled Jimmy G from, you know, five yards out.

And then there were a lot of comments about what a gentleman Jimmy G is and how such a good sport. We are going to hear that a lot. Well, he's hugging each other. He's a class act. One killer thing for the Niners, like late in this game when some people were maybe tuning out, Jason Verrett got hurt and it sounds serious. and that's a killer loss for them in the secondary.

Right. They just, you know, had given him, you know, a contract to come back. He was a great story for them. I think that's their thinnest position to begin with. And so that's a big downer. They lose Rahim Moster in this game. They surprised a lot of fantasy football owners by scratching Trace Ehrman. Their third round pick that a lot of people drafted pretty high,

I thought was going to step up. And in comes Elijah. Mitchell and he runs for 104 yards this is just like the 49ers you can put in anyone at running back and he's going to run for 104 yards so he will undoubtedly be everyone's first like fantasy waiver wire unless there's another obvious one that i'm not thinking about dbo samuel had a huge game we we've always liked debo around these parts and uh he went off uh 12 targeted 12 times more than double anybody else including george kiddle um i don't even see brandon i yuk in the in the box score mark well what was it's it's it really went it was all samuel and kiddle a samuel

at a hundred and eighty nine yards and like a 70 something yard touchdown uh looked great outside that fumble that you know had he not fumbled there that game would have been over created a little bit more drama but samuel's a real deal kiddle kiddle looked looked really good too as he normally does but there wasn't really much else out there sherfield i thought he's the one that had the traylans touchdown and looked pretty good in a smaller role they they barely used iuk they kind of decided to ease them back in from like a hamstring injury i really think they managed this game and who knows about most or like how serious it was because they were playing the lions you know that that was part of it iuk they just they decided not to risk iuk and figure

you can win without them this week and welcome back nick bosa coming back from the acl last year early last year he came back four tackles a sack three tackles for lost two qb hits keep keep panacea left tackle you know by all accounts played very well against Bosa for the most part, you know, held his own. He looked good. He looked good. It's like maybe they just got injured into making the right decision. Like don't put your name. So Decker comes back and you just kick him to the right?

Yeah. I mean, he's plus wouldn't, wouldn't like a veteran like him be more well suited to be able to change positions? Which player is is more tied to your future? Let's put Sewell where he feels at home and he looked much better than he did in the preseason. I do like the idea of every once in while this happens where there's a quarterback and a crappy team, and he just has a marvelous fantasy season. Jared Goff off to a great start,

three touchdowns, 338 yards. I can't you see him winning some fantasy leagues as his own team goes 4 and 12, 4 and 13? I could, but I would say this that, like, if the game had changed and been a little bit different, you'd also look at the killer interception that he made. He's going to give one of those to you every week. But that's what I mean. It's not really about like Jared God is actually good. Fantasy-wise, sure. Yes, he's putting up. some numbers especially as they try to kind of throw themselves back into games in the second half let us move on snap to murray quick throw over the middle hopkins has a catch of the ten turns to his left at the five and hits pater touchdown dandre hopkins

hmm dave bash with the call k d a r kuyler murray five touchdowns total oh i forgot i'm so mad at myself because i had written about it on the dumb website that he was my MVP sleeper. Why didn't I just write that in the predictions? I don't know. I'm upset. Linebacker Chandler Jones had a career high five sacks. What?

As the Cardinals chose the Titans is their subject for a nuclear bomb test in the desert. Final score, 3813. Greg, this was played in Arizona, correct? No, it was in Tennessee. It was a bomb test in the spot. They dropped the nuclear bomb on enemy. territory not their own city that makes even more so well you can't scrub it out of the show rickie

because it would have been so perfect if it was in arizona but anyway gregg jones also forced two fumbles that turned into 14 Arizona points it sounds like one of the most impactful defensive performances you'll ever see did it feel like that as you watched it it was insane i mean i've never seen a guy like taylor luan who's you know made some pro bowls and whatnot tweet after the game thanking Chandler Jones for humbling him and helping him to improve while also apologizing because you got Ryan Tanna Hill destroyed. Chandler Jones also had a sack on the other tackle, at least one of them. But it was insane.

In the first five plays, he had a tackle for loss. JJ Watt had a tackle for loss. And then Chandler Jones got the first of his two force fumbles. It was a bum rush. And I'm glad it didn't turn into one of those games. where Tennessee made it look more interesting because it wasn't just about the offense. It was the defense was just flying around and hitting people.

Like football comes down a matchup sometimes and Newk Hopkins was destroying Jack Rabbit Jenkins. Chandler Jones, we already mentioned how he was destroying. T.J. Watt was fine too. He made a couple plays. And then Kyler Murray, my God, the two touchdowns he had, one to nuke where he runs all around another third and long where you'll see on every highlight package where that's just all kiler murray and then a beautiful touchdown to christian

kirk where they call the right defense they get free rushers in on him but he sees it all before the snap and puts it beautiful touch opposite shoulder to kirk who makes a long touchdown guy it was just like it was amazing it was just amazing individual performances by their superstars and I think that's what you could get out of this Arizona Cardinals team. I think if you're a Cardinals fan, you are right up there in the top two or three of what we're talking about coming out of week one with your spirits lifted because they have been taking verbal jab after verbal jab all offseason. I think people have been down on the Cardinals.

I've been down on them. I saw them as like an eight, eight, and one type of team. And a lot of it maybe had to do with their finish last year. And Murray wasn't healthy, but there were questions about how Cliff Kingsbury ran the offense. And a lot of their off-season signings to me felt like too little too late. Like you're signing guys who would have been a hot actual prospect to have on your team three years ago. But look at it's working. At least it worked today.

I mean, to the point where Mike Vrable is coming out of this game saying, we'll find out now what our culture actually is. I mean, he's been there years. Did this rock the foundation of Tennessee that much? Greg, you know, mere days ago you were saying that, you know, the football world is too down on Tennessee. They looked like a dog today. I locked them up.

I locked them up, one of the, you know, the two of, the three of us made some of the worst locks in the history of this program. I didn't go with Teddy two clubs. I was all into, you know, what a terrible switch to go away from my beloved Broncos, and I deserve it. It was just, it was crazy. And I, and I would feel good if you're Arizona because of the players who did show up, Zaven Collins, Isaiah Simmons. Ron Dale Moore has got some juice, I'm telling you. He went four for 68. Some of that was on this phony play at the end of the first half.

But there was one other screen pass where they threw it short on 3rd and 10 and more had afterburners. And you're kind of looking for some other playmakers that we didn't know about in Arizona. And they've got one, I think, in Rondale Moore. By the way, on the subject of titanically lost lock weeks, the Wessling brothers are in the mix this year. And they locked up the Steelers to lose. Oh, do you mean the bills? The bills. They locked up the bills.

But might as well have the floor fall entirely out. That would have been, yeah, that was like the most logical one. Also, Julio Jones had kind of a nightmare game here. So I'm not going to push the panic button. What does that mean, nightmare? What do you mean by that? Drop that led to an interception, not a lot of separation, not on the same page with Tannahill in the end zone

where Tannahill threw a nice pass. It probably should have been a touchdown, you know, six targets for 29 yards. basically as bad a game as you would want like a superstar receiver to have as one game one game just one game

and Mike Bravel said after the game it's unfortunate it is disappointing there's no other way to put it it sucks when you lose especially like that when they're doing a nuclear bomb test in your own area of Nashville like not even in the desert

where it's safe and you don't have any homes or apartment buildings or parks or schools you're doing it straight up in the Nashville area. I mean, to your point, though. The crowds were going. The crowd was like stunned. They were booing.

They were so ready to enjoy this game. And they were just like, what is happening to us? Our faces are melting off. I mean, to your point, Dan, if you dropped a nuclear bomb on Nashville, it would resemble a desert in many ways. So we have two deserts now. Who had a worst week one, the Packers or the Titans? Oh, the Packers.

Come on, because it's so on Aaron Rod. It's so on Aaron Rogers. Yeah, the Titans feel like they mix in these games every now and then. Like, where you're just like, what the heck? And a lot of these plays, like, no one could have stopped these Kyler Murray plays. Like, they were just too good. Just one quick note. One last one.

Was that he's the second quarterback ever to, like, throw for 50 and rush for 16 in, like, X amount of games. Dante Culpeppers, the next one. And I don't know. He does remind me of Dante Culpepper in some weird way, even though he's like 150 pounds less as just like a joy to watch that there's, sometimes there's nothing you can do to stop Kyler Murray.

That was the case today. By the way, Money Badger, Michael Badgley got on the team when Sam Feikin was moved to injured reserve and he missed more kicks. I mean, the Titans, this is a game from hell. Missed an extra point in a field goal. Missed an extra point.

And I'll just say that Chandler Jones, we cannot give him enough love for this performance. Oh, my gosh. His five sacks are the third most by a player in a season opener. Derek Thomas had six to open the 98th season. Derek Thomas was unbelievable. I remember that day. Watch out Michael Strayhan.

Watch out here. You know, Chandler Jones got pretty close. Chandler Jones got pretty close. Chandler Jones should be going into Steve Kimes' office tonight and saying, give me my money. Give it to me now. You wanted to wait and see. I did show up.

I'm playing on time. How about you go make like Mickey Loomis over in New Orleans and give me the contract right now? gave Marshawn Lattimore a contract after the game. I don't know how that works out. Marshawn Lattimore got more guaranteed money than any defensive back in history, according to Ian Raffport after one, you know, solid week one. Go give Chandler Joneses. And they showed Chandler Jones, you know, on the sideline after he had had five sacks.

And he was just confidently strutting up and down with a smile on his face. He knows good things were about to happen. And I don't want to leave out Billy Gay, who had five and a half sacks for the Detroit lines to open the 93 season. Let's move on. Darnold fakes to McCaffrey, moves up in the pocket, throws long and middle. Anderson's there, caught 10, 5 touchdown. Robbie Anderson.

Now, Mick Mickson, WBT, with the call Robbie, you know, after he catches that, he puts up the jet side. He's like going through the end zone, which was his celebration when he was with the Jets. And Keith Hanses text means all fired up. He's like, ah, that fink doing that celebration. I said, Dad, wrote back, Dad. Jets quit on Robbie Anderson. They did not want to bring him back. He's sticking it to a team that didn't want him.

Fair play. I like the word fink coming back into the operation. Sam Darnel threw for 279 in a touchdown and ran for another score against his former team as the Panthers beat the Jets, 1914. And, yeah, this started very badly for the Jets and some really bad stuff came out of it. But it was a nice day for Sam Darnock. Donald. Even though they got shut down in the second half, they were held to three points. But Sam Donald played a big role in the win. He looked much more comfortable. It turns out having Christian

McCaffrey on your team makes you a lot better as both an offense and as a quarterback. And he avoided the type of mistakes. He did have a fumble, a lost fumble in the red zone. But when I think about the Sam Darnold mistakes that haunted his time in New York and they mounted as his confidence wane as the roster got worse and the coaching bottomed out late in his third season with the Jets. I think about all those interceptions and as a Jets fan now and it was even weirder than I anticipated when the game started because in a lot of ways it feels like and this also goes back to just how fast time goes now is you start to get older and you have kids and things like that. Like Sam Donald was, I blink and he was the Jets future and now he's on the other

sideline. We have Zach Wilson here. How many times he would kill the Jets with interceptions, and I'm rooting for that to happen now, and he just didn't do it. So good for Sam Darnold. I truly am happy for him that he had this moment. And on the jet side of the ball, total wipeout performance in the first half. There was some good to take out of the second half, how the defense fought hard. Robert Sala obviously has these guys passionate and caring about their job, which was not happening in New York under Adam Gase last year. And then Zach Wilson after a very quiet first half where he was running for his life

and looking like he was a little scatterbrained really turned it on and did some nice things in the second half. So there were some positives there but the Panthers get the win and a nice way to start the season for Sam Donald. I mean, Mackay Beckton, the injury there is a killer. There's so many of these around the league today that suddenly you look at certain position groups and you're like,

uh-oh, but I love Zach Wilson's comments after the game. what Robert Sala had to say about Zach Wilson. He's in a tough spot, and not every one of these rookie quarterbacks today was a huge example of that are going to be shining stars from the beginning. There's a lot to learn. And I love his mental makeup, though.

I know that's sort of a cliche thing to say about some of these quarterbacks, but everything I hear from Zach Wilson seems like a total team guy who is not going to shy away from some tough Sundays. I thought he's pretty beaten up today. Was it like 10 quarterback hits? I don't know if that's a Carolina defense thing

or if that's a Jets problem on offensive lines. line, it's both. But, you know, that's part of the job is not turning into what happened to Carson Wentz last year from the neck up when you're getting beaten up on these Sundays. 198, to what you're saying, 198, midway through the fourth quarter, the Jets are scrambling to try to get it back within a score. And they're knocking on the red zone of Carolina, and Wilson gets absolutely creamed. And it looks like, in the moment, it looks like a concussion. on the telecast they thought it might have been because he got slammed so hard

this is just with two minutes to play and he pops up, shakes it off, completes a pass two minute warning completes a touchdown pass and I'm like damn, okay, that's something that really showed me something and Christian McCaffrey, I just want to say this like he is it's almost like

Matt Rule has to really it's a test for Brady and Rule the OC to not use him too much because he's just so good that I feel like they could have put the Jets away in the second half if they just just started

feeding McCaffrey every time. He's so he's so elusive. He's so elusive. That's what I mean. It's like, but it's like if they would have given him an extra five, I think he would have broken one of those and gone because he's that good. He looks like a guy it's poised to challenge all those records when it comes to multi-purpose

in terms of total yards. Well, our guy rap sheet reported Beckton has a sprained MCL, so it could be worse, but could be better. you know, with the Patriots. That's actually great news. Yeah, that's good. I mean, you were thinking the knee was completely gone during the game.

He had, he blows out or it looked like he blew it out on that first touchdown pass by Wilson. And when he's leaving in the cart, whenever the player has had the look of anguish with a towel over the face, I usually take that to me in addition to him being pain and upset that he's been told they did a test and he has a tour. And that's what everyone kind of assumed. So if you're telling me he's going to be back at some point this season and he doesn't have, a year of rehab ahead of them, that's a huge win. Yeah, that's the early evaluation. Sometimes they do change a day later, but you're right, that that's good news.

But the kind of buzz that maybe the line that they're really putting there, that Joe Douglas is putting his kind of name behind is this line that they had a rough first month, just looking, you know, the box score. That's the crooked. I like looking at the ESPN box score. I have to admit, just for like the crooked numbers, the 10 QB Hicks hits six sacks and six tackles for loss. Like, I just like, that's just a quick snapshot.

are you making splash plays behind the line of scrimmage? And those are big numbers, 10-6 and 6. Good job. And it's not just on the Jets' offensive line. It's Brian Burns, Shaq Thompson, everywhere. They really, Carolina is interesting. Your team, buddy. Your team, Mark.

That's my wild card pick. And I don't think it would be that surprising if it happens, because I just think they're well-coached. I'd like to see them against the team other than the Jets, but they have some guys that can get after the quarterback. They have some playmakers in the secondary, of course, with Chin in the second year. And this offense will score points,

especially if Darnold plays like this. All right. Let's move forward. Pressure. Taylor throws underneath. Hits Amandola, takes it across. Rock and roll. Touchdown, Houston.

I guess. It's kind of a dad move. Rock and roll. I love rock and roll. That's the touchdown call. Is it like a reference to something more that where you don't know? I don't know. Or is that always the touchdown call?

Ricky, dig in on this. Mark Vandemir. Find out if he has any connection. Does he have a, does he hold a vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? I don't know. Some type of name play there. K-L-I-T. Ty God Taylor threw for 291 and two touchdowns filling in for Dishon Watson.

Leads the Texans to a third. 3721 win over Trevor Lawrence and a very sloppy Jaguars team in Urban Meyer's NFL debut. This is a fever dream for Rosenthal. Now, Greg, I have to, I have to doff my cap because you thought, A, the Texans had a legit chance to win this game, which I push back on. And B, that the Jaguars might be a bloody mess under Urban Meyer. And so far after one game, you nailed it. Yeah, I mean, I didn't nail it. What a glorious moment it would have been to lock up the Texans.

And, you know, instead you go for the lousy titans. Tygod and the coaching staff showed out, though. Tyler Taylor once was like the second best running quarterback in the league, like just in terms of pure running ability. So a little bit of that today. It was only one, like, 29-yard run, but you saw a little juice. And you saw a running game that, you know, just kept the ball the whole time. But the key moment was that Amandola touchdown.

I was watching this game late in the second half. They score a touchdown with under a minute or get a field go with under a minute to go. And Urban Meyer does the thing where they throw three passes. They're trying to be aggressive. Don't take any time off the clock. Punt it away. And I was like, David Kelly's going to tell me something here. Is he going to try to be aggressive with like 37 seconds and 70 yards to go with Tyrod Taylor?

Because like the move that you expect the Texans to do is like, no, there's not. But you know what he does? They go balls to the wall to get like another touchdown. Tyrod and the rest of those boys delivered, like, Pharaoh Brown's making plays, Amandola's making plays, Nico Collins, who's a record? Okay, he made like one play. He didn't make any plays. But I was just like, wow, that was, that was like an impressive moment.

That drive to me was impressive because it was Cully saying, like, we need to put up a lot of points. I know Tyrod Taylor's our quarterback, but like, let's be ultra aggressive with 38 seconds to go. And then they rewarded him with a touchdown drive. It's the old Lester Burnham, quote. I'm just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose. That's David Cully.

Why not? Why not just go for it? Everything's set up against you. Nobody really expects you or maybe even wants you to succeed. So do the old major league thing with a beat go full Berringer. Always go full Berringer. I mean, they've, you know, he talked about after the game that one of their biggest chores and to-dos was shutting out the intense negativity. There aren't that many teams that have been dumped on and for a lot of their own reasons.

I mean, they've created a lot of their own mess, obviously. But, you know, you're deactivating Deshawn Watson. You're starting Tyrod Taylor. Most of the nation thinks you're going to go one in 16. You drop a hammer on a Jaguars team that there were whispers today, even little stories already, that there are players in Jacksonville not adoring the Urban Meyer experience. Already, we're one game into the season. So I know that delights Greg as well.

But, you know, it just, it is, I think, for the Jaguars. That was my question. That was my question on our TV show. Show. Will the honeymoon end at 4 p.m.? I didn't think there was a honeymoon to begin with, but to your point, like something ended today. Whoever those guys that are giving these quotes of the press, you better trust your journal because if it gets back to Urban Meyer, he ain't one and done.

You will be one and done, especially, you know, as a young team, everyone's replaceable, except for the big guy, number one overall. What did you see in that game from Trevor Lerner, Lawrence, Greg. His interceptions were bad. Like, it was him on the run, plays you would think he could make, just didn't make it. I think he made a lot of positive throws, too, kind of like the, preseason. So I don't think it was on him. They were bum rush for the most part. But there was a couple surprising decisions. The Texans three interceptions tied their total from all of last year. Wow. Lovey Smith. How about Lovey Smith? We haven't given Lovey Smith. We haven't given

I got to say, Lovie Smith was not just a good defensive coach in the NFL. People think, like, the way he coached passed him by in terms of the scheme. It's a very safe, boring scheme. He was a great defensive coach. I'm just saying, and in this game, they didn't blitz, as far as I know, because I heard this that midway through the third, they didn't blitz one time. They dropped seven or eight every single play, made Lawrence have to, like, make decisions, and played very good team sort of defense.

and it worked. Somebody tweeted at me because, you know, the power rankings, a lot of eyeballs get on them, and then people take it personally and they save it and they get ready to attack me on Sunday as soon as something happens that I didn't predict in terms of with my rankings. And someone tweeted me,

you sticking by your ranking, the Texans last in the power rankings? That is probably going to burn you. Owned. And then another guy, another guy got preemptively mad at me, a Titans fan, who's obviously very upset and probably about six or seven beers. in at least he said if you put the Titans anywhere inside the top 20 you should be ashamed

of yourself like preemptively shaming me for something I didn't do in wait they want them inside or outside so if I if I don't drop them I think I have them oh he wants you to punish his own team and if I don't punish the Jaguars might be 32 I haven't really thought about it but yeah if you lose to the Texans by this much maybe you replace them but like I just thought it was funny, like, you should be ashamed of yourself for something that I hadn't even done. And that's how this works though. You're going to get tweets like that. You said six or

seven beers in was what you assumed based on how we wrote the tweet. That was K-I-L-T, by the way. Kind of transposed a letter or two that. I was going to ask, but I wasn't actually going to ask on this show, but I was going to ask after, but you've solved the mystery. It's been solved. Let's keep moving.

I mean, that would be an interesting radio station. other one. Yes, it would. Take it on that over the last. And he is hit. Balls out. Who's got it? Yeah, the Alper's got it.

Boy, I've been, but don't break. Wow. Jimmy Assepolo and Jason Taylor, the sackmaster. WQA.M. with the call. To a Tunga by Loa through a go-ahead touchdown pass to Jalen Waddle, rookie in the third quarter. And Zavian Howard recovered a Damian Harris Bumble with New England driving. to help the Dolphins hold on for a 17-16 win over the Patriots in Foxborough.

Greg, we entered the season viewing these teams, or at least I did, I think you did too, as very close in their division, and it didn't get any closer than 17-16 week one. No, it was an example of how the Dolphins have kind of become the new old Patriots, where you're like, how did they win that game? Where you leave the game being like, what just happened? Um, like, because I think they do a lot of smart things schematically, but the Patriots ultimately, you know, outgain them by 140 yards, something like that. Mack Jones looks like the better quarterback. And at the end of the day, they forced two really key fumbles by the Patriots running backs, including one, you know, that you heard inside the 10 late in the game where you really felt like the Patriots were going to go in for a touchdown of nothing else.

They were going to take the lead there. But the dolphins, like Xavier and Howard, like, they find a way to make plays. And I just think they are a smart, like, well-coached team that, again, is, like, greater than the sum of their parts. The out-patriated the Patriot. Your boy, Flores, I don't know whose boy it is, is three and two over his buddy-go. I think we all respect Ryan Flores. He is shown over the past few years that he knows what he's doing.

And that had to feel really good to be a Belchick disciple going up in that building to start to season and outpatricing the Patriots. I mean, that was their earmarked last year, I thought. They found ways to win games by dismantling quarterbacks and getting, you know, fringe no-namerers to do special things down the stretch. I mean, this game, you're right, was so bizarre to watch. But I did think that Mack Jones got more comfortable and made great throws as it went along.

I mean, if you're just wanting to say, look, where are we as a Patriots offense with this new quarterback? I saw Erica tweeting about him. She seems enamored to some degree. I don't know. I mean, because part of it was this was the two-a-verse Mac Jones, and I don't know. Mac Jones looked as good as two to me.

It looked better. Oh, no. You flip the quarterbacks and give Mac Jones to the dolphins. The dolphins win by 20. I was kind of flying after this game. I was surprised to hear how sad. I mean, I wasn't surprised, but a lot of, you know, my dad and a couple of Patriots friends in my life,

you know, are really down that they can't pull this out. Yeah, Ricky jumping, too. And I'm like, you got to look at the big picture. Mac Jones looked awesome in this game. I think beyond the stat lines, the next level things that he's already doing as a rookie, the touch on his throws, the way they're going like five wide and empty and crucial moments,

the offensive line for the Patriots, which is supposed to be great, play terrible. He was under more pressure than Tua. He handled it much better for the most part. And it's like, I feel like the Patriots have a quarterback, and that's the bigger story. I totally agree, Greg. Like, I think at the beginning, you know,

in the top of the show, you guys were talking about that feeling of like getting excited and when they were marching down the field to before that fumble happened like my heart's racing and I'm like oh my god like we're going to do this like I can't believe this is happening and that feeling when it when it you know it didn't go that way but yeah of course it was like wow this actually there was so many times where I was like if cam Newton was the quarterback right now I don't think we would have been even close in this conversation I hope I because I really like Damien Harris as a player and I hope this doesn't lead to him having to sleep outside for three months.

No, and he looked incredible other than that fumble. He looked so good. Yeah. He also got banged pretty hard by a helmet, and his helmet came off during one play. Greg, I don't know if you remember that. And I'm not saying that that had anything to do with it, but, like, he carried so many times and, like, just, like, the brute force of what he did for this team, like, helmets coming off. He had 100 yards on the ground.

Yeah, I just, he's awesome. I think, how annoyed was Belichick at the end of the end of the team? the game. I thought I saw a few looks from him where he seemed a little peaked. Or does he share your optimism too, Greg? No, he looked pretty flummox that like, what are we doing here? We just fumbled the ball inside the 10. You know, they lost the turnover battle. Like, they couldn't get, they had a chance to get a stop in the end and, you know, they couldn't. But I just think as a Patriots fan, you just look at the players that are on this team and they just look, they look a lot better. Like, Damien Harris looked great today.

There's a couple, you know, the passing game wasn't... The passing game wasn't perfect, but it's like when you're throwing the ball to Johnny Smith and Hunter Henry and Aguilar at the end, it's like a couple of them made plays on their own. It's like they just didn't have guys like that last year. So I think even though they lost, I felt a lot of positivity. Well, I think that's what's kind of tricky here with the Pats, that you spend 160 million in guaranteed money and free agency, which tells you we're looking to win now, but then you cut Cam and you say the rookie's starting, And then that puts you in a different place as a team, which is, well, it's not really always about wins.

It's about progress for the kid as well. It's almost like they're trying to live in two worlds. I'm not saying that can't work, but at least from a fan standpoint, maybe there's going to be some, it's going to be tough to focus for some people. I don't know if Cam would be, that that is just for progress. Mac Jones is the win now quarterback. Well, they told you everything that you need to know about what they think about Cam Newton. And there's another world where Mac Jones by week eight is playing in a universe. that we didn't expect and all these pieces fit together fine.

He did today. I know the numbers weren't crazy, but I think like what he's doing as a rookie, I'm trying not to get too carried away because I know I am a Patriots fan, but I swear I would be saying this if he was on another team, that the things he's doing now, maybe like he doesn't have the room to improve as much as some of these other quarterbacks, but the level he's at now is rare for a rookie.

What about TILA, by the way? How did he look? Tuel looked better than last year. I know that there was a lot of an all shut up. because no one wants to hear me talk about the dolphins. But I think there was a lot of stuff, you know, going in this off season. It's like, is Tua really the guy that, you know, the dolphins, you know, tank for two? I do think that, you know, there were some, you know, he had a rushing TD and he, I think he played better.

And Greg, correct me if I'm wrong, I think that there was an improvement from last season. Yeah, better. But a couple groaners. You don't need to take, you know, you asked the question and then left Erica. Like you were like, I'll hang up and listen. A couple groaners. I mean, a killer interception at the end where he's trying to throw the ball. He said he's trying to throw the ball out of bounds, but he didn't reach it,

which is kind of the thing with Tua. Like, we heard Mack Jones' arm wasn't great. Like, Mac Jones' arm looked fine. Tua's arm, I think it's a question of some of those deep balls hanging up. Had another groaner where he was lucky to get away with another interception, but had positive plays. Miles Gaskin looked awesome. And they looked pretty tough to defend with some of the read option and everything.

And they got Will Fuller coming off suspension next week. He is an underrated guy and a great deep threat to who can get it to him. Let's move on. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots from college football. prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a diehard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level,

we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin, and this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Back goes Hertz. He is looking. He is firing for Tvante Smith for a touchdown. The first touchdown of a touchdown of.

Devonte Smith's NFL career. Merrill Reese, the legend WIP with the call. Jalen Hertz threw three touchdown passes, the first of them to, yes, the Heisman trophy winner, Devante Smith and the Eagles. Made a winner of Nick Siriani, his head coach debut, 326. Rout of the Folly-filled Falcons. Put the bang thing on him. At Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

But me, arc, Nick Siriani sounded kind of nervous. service and his introductory press conference. How can this happen? Exactly. I don't appreciate the way you just addressed my name either, but I'm going to forge on. I would point to this one little chunk of the game where it turned from a positive Eagles experience to an incredibly hopeful one, and it was the end of the first half. Jalen Hertz and the two-minute offense, totally comfortable. Number one, he basically just went out there and said, I'm going to run against the Falcons when I need to. They had nobody that could stop him. He moved the team so confidently down the field, and Siriani is an aggressive coach, too, who I'll get into that in a second, but hurts on this

drive to help them go up 15 to 6, because what happened was they were up 7 to 6. He threw a great pass to Dallas Goddard, who really battled Dion Jones to make a great catch in the end zone. Then there was a penalty on the Falcons. So it's at that point 13 to 6, and Seriani dials up a two-point conversion that Miles Sanders got and suddenly it's 15 to 6 at halftime and the Falcons who came out of the gate explosive on offense. I mean moving the ball really well to the point where I thought the first quarter of this game was one of the better first quarters I'd seen in week one in a long time. They could not get out of their problems in the red zone. They had drives that finished at the three and the nine I believe of Philadelphia and then never got back there again. Arthur

Smith was visibly annoyed on the sideline. I think that everything that they planned to the announcers made comments that he wanted to say, look, we don't want to be predictable. And they got stuck into a predictable place because they got down. I think this Jalen Hertz offense works very well under Siriani. There's a lot of encouragement here if you're an Eagles fan. And after a bad offseason, he looked great. Let's hear from Arthur Smith, who was very unhappy with his team's performance

in his first game as head coach. I did a really poor job getting us ready to go. I feel awful for our fans. showed up today. We'll do a better job at games not going to define us. It's a long season to go, but I certainly didn't do a good job getting us ready to go today. Kyle Pitts, not much there in his debut after an offseason of breathless hype from the tight end, but that it's early. And in general, Greg, this is not the offense I think you saw either because I know you were pretty high on Matt Ryan entering the year. Yeah, I never like to hear

when the coach says we've got a long season to go after week one? Like, it's a little bit of a cell phone. It's like, this isn't going to define it. It's like, bro, no one said it was going to define you. It's like week one. He's feeling it. It's a tough gig. You know, the caveat, yeah, the caveat

supply that it's going against the Falcon's defense, which is probably the most talent, poor defense in league. But I do think there's a Lamar Jackson element to Jalen Hertz where he raises the rest of the running game to an incredibly efficient degree. You know, you think of the Eagles is all about analytics. So are the Ravens.

Like, teams, you know, teams are into running when it's incredibly efficient. So if you, if you run at 31 times for 173 yards, that's great, you know, like, and I think Jalen Hertz's running ability with this offensive line, at least has a chance to like raise the running floor really high for this Eagles team, where that can be something that's repeatable, even if you're not, you know, dropping 30 every week. Yeah, I mean, I think we just have to look back at some, these teams that turn into total disasters like last year's Eagles that the line went through multiple combinations was never healthy. Today, healthy line. And how about the defensive line that down the stretch when the Falcons were becoming predictable and Matt Ryan was stuck in pass-only

situations was completely and totally harassed. Javon Hargrave played great. The Falcons left guard, Gerald and Mayfield had his name mentioned for the wrong time way too often today because he got smoked a number of times. And so it was a bad matchup for Atlanta. But It's because the Falcons are completely legitimate up front, or the Eagles, I should say. Let's move on. St. Juice in coverage. That's where he's looking. That's where he's throwing.

Mike Williams caught touchdown. Mike Williams and the big body in St. Juice never had a chance. That's my power rankings, buddy, and the voice of God for the around the NFL podcast, Matt Money Smith of KYSR with the call. Justin Herbert wasn't perfect. But he led scoring drives of 75, 76, and 68 yards. go-ahead to Mike Williams, secures the bag,

2016 win over the Washington football team. Now, let's welcome in the pipe for another season on the flagship show. Nick Shook, Herbert continues to look special in Washington as concerned. I would be concerned if we don't clip Secures the Bag as a drop in the future. Because it really wasn't like a correct usage of it, right?

I mean... Right, exactly. You know, getting the W and get that money. It's all about money. Right, but he's not getting the money. When is he going to get the money? Like three years. I guess we'll just say that it still works.

I can't stay up with you hip kids. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, you try. That's showing that you're trying so far. Yeah, Justin Herbert, I'm telling you what. We saw what he did last year and the rookie of the year offensively and everything's great, but you always have that question going into year two. Is there going to be a sophomore slump?

Is he going to take, you know, he's going to continue moving forward? And all I saw out of him today was a calm and cool. and collected quarterback who looked wise beyond his years and basically served as the difference in a game that Chargers teams of years past would have lost. They would have found ways to lose it. There were moments where they, I'm sitting there watching it going, oh, that's the crushing penalty that gives Washington another chance. They go down and score.

They end up winning this game by three points or whatever. There was late in the game where they forced a fumble and the chargers get the ball in their own territory. It's third and long. And what does Justin Herbert do? He steps up in the pocket and rips one down the middle of the field for her first He did it on multiple occasions on that possession alone. And honestly, they probably would have won by more if his receivers would have figured out how to catch the ball in the first half.

So, you know, Chargers fans who have dealt with so much crushing heartbreak, especially in recent years, they got to be really excited after watching this knowing that they have a quarterback who, more often than not, if their defense plays adequately, is going to be able to throw them to close victories. Well, I know also, you know, Washington lost Ryan Fitzpatrick in this game. We can get into it. But, you know, first takeaway, small sample size, but of the Joe Lombardi offense, which we talks about on Thursday, does it look like a Saints-ish offense, or is there Shanahan elements like you mentioned? Did it stand out to you to have a certain vibe?

I would say, yeah, there are definitely some Saints-ish to it, but they throw the ball further down field than they did in the final years of Drew Breeze with the Saints. So I think that there's kind of an adjustment because you have a quarterback who's more capable at this stage in his career when he's younger. He's got a live arm than the Saints did down the stretch with Drew Breeze. But, I mean, you've got to be encouraged by what you saw. I know they only put up 20 points, but they had a lot of opportunities where they probably could have scored more, like I said, if these guys had just executed. There was even a moment, I think, in the second half where Keenan Allen had a catch and

run, and he just dropped the ball during the run. He was able to recover it, you know, averting a disaster. But it took them a solid two and a half quarters to kind of rediscover that they had hands and then put them to work. So I think if you kind of clean that stuff up, you get that in week one, you know, from time to time and continue to move forward. You're going to be in a situation where this offense is going to look a lot better than I think it has in past years.

because you know you have the weapons. It's just really been down to execution and being healthy. And they got, for the most part, they got all that to come together. So what happened with Fitzpatrick? He was tackled by Eichenuosu and suffered a hip injury. And it was really strange when it actually happened because you couldn't quite tell. It looked like a pretty normal sack, but he couldn't really get up and he needed help walking off and everything else.

And he was done after six attempts. So it was really early. But oddly enough, you know, you think, we think about all the excitement that Ryan Fitzpatrick has created over the years with his many staffs with different teams, and you're like, well, that's got to take a lot of juice out of them. But Taylor Heineke actually did the opposite. He injected some life into them. Their problem was that they couldn't close the deal.

They couldn't finish drives. And we do see that a lot again in week one as well. Teams that show potential, but they haven't quite figured out how to finish off drives by getting points. And that's ultimately what kind of did them in, especially fumbling down the stretch late. Right. The Chargers, you know, sneakily had almost a dominant offensive performance here. They only had eight drives.

They reached the red zone. six of them. So you're right, like there were those Charger moments. There was the, it was kind of a fluky fumble from Herbert where he was trying to throw the ball and they slapped it out as he's throwing it and, you know, it ends up being Washington ball and then there's an interception.

But to end the game on a 15 play, 82 yard drive, to me, that's like the best way to end any games and then you're just kneeling on it. They should give style points. I guess they covered anyway, so it doesn't matter, but they should, after the game, a judge should award them five, at least five extra style points for that drive.

There were a few throws in that drive where I actually like audibly yelped, like where he just connected with Mike Williams down the side. And I was like, oh, oh, wow. You know, he's firing me up. At one point, I think I might have tweeted. I know I wrote about it in the recap. I would trust Justin Herbert. If I had to diffuse a bomb, I would call in Justin Herbert to cut the proper cords and avoid blowing us all.

I mean, Dan, the Titans could use that. That's a nuclear bomb. I'm not sure you can stop that. properties, different mechanics to it. But when I didn't see a stitch, I didn't see a second of this game. But based on what people are saying about Herbert's performance,

which doesn't sync up with the box score, I'm really looking forward to it. The Chargers have a good one. And we'll see. This Ryan Fitzpatrick injury, I believe I'm seeing some reports out there. It's a multi-week situation. So Taylor Heineke's going to get his chance. Including Thursday night. Thursday night, the four days

against the Giants. Let's head, speaking of the Giants, to the Swamps of Jersey. Gordon off the right side of a big hole 40, 45, here we go Midfield, Gordon 45, 40 Pull it away, 35, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown, Denver! 70 yards for Melvin Gordon!

Oh, oh, bongotam. So you got to get in the groove of the bongas. I mean, if when she sends this on social, no one's looking at me. I can still like little ones do this. because you don't really have the flow. Bongo. I'm not the only one.

I've got the shirt for it, at least, when you say. You're looking good. K-O-A with the call. Melvin Gordon says, don't fade me yet, fantasy heads. Yeah. Give me the bag on my next contract negotiation. No, it was one run.

It was one run. Secure the bag for me. One run. 70-yard touchdown run. It was the clincher for the Broncos. Cruz to a 27 to 13 win over the Giants at MetLife Stadium shook. Teddy Bridgewater, two touchdowns in his Brockett's debut, and the Denver defense had all the answers against New York.

You know, watching Teddy Ridgewater play quarterback can be an adventure sometimes because every time that he does something that makes you think, like we did earlier in his career, that, oh, this guy can be a franchise quarterback. There are a few plays where he's slowed to decide to deliver the football or he makes a mistake or whatever it is. we were like, oh, that's what's always held him back. And I think it was perfectly captured, surprisingly, on a touchdown pass that was completely chaotic in the second half.

He rolled out to the right, and it looked like it was just going to end in complete disaster, and then he finds a tight end of Albert. Albert, oh, we're going to call him, because I don't want to try to pronounce his last name, and he sneaks into the end zone in the front right pylon, and it was another one of those things where you're sitting there going, oh, no, oh, no, all right, all right, they scored. But I do see why Vic Fangio picked him, because for, like the stat line says for the majority of the game

he was a very serviceable if not better quarterback and he kept their offense moving I mean some of the points they scored late were kind of just tacked on it was a close game until about late in the fourth midway or late in the fourth quarter but you got to be pretty excited because serviceable or better if you can get what you expect

out of the Broncos defense should make them somewhat of a contender it's going to be tough to battle with the chiefs but it should make them at least a competitive team instead of the team that they've been in recent seasons I mean, they put up a 420 yards offensively. 420, am I right to Denver? Hey, that's the right city for it.

It's like, what more do you want? If they put up 400 yards a week, they're going to go to the playoffs and I'm going to win my sandwiches. Now, winning on the road is, you know, impressive when you do it comfortably. But this Giants team seems like it has some problems, Shucky, that this week didn't, you know, make you feel any better about them, I'm sure. Yeah, and that's the perfect lead in, too, because while I said Teddy Bridgewater is an adventure. Daniel Jones is a damn roller coaster. And he's a roller coaster with an 88 degree drop on the first, second, and third hill. Because as soon as you get down, you go, all right, well, we survived.

Here we go. Here's the big hill. Oh, my God. We're dropping again. Daniel Jones with a textbook fumble at a bad time that kills a drive, making mistake. Change the game. And then making another mistake. And then ultimately digging themselves too much of a hole to get out of, you know,

not being able to convert on fourth down on the edge of the red zone. late in the game when you absolutely have to have it. I hate to say it, but as I watched it, I'm like, man, Giants fans just have to be absolutely exasperated with Daniel Jones because, again, it's just like it was last year and somewhat in the year before too. He shows flashes where you're like,

man, this guy can make a play. Wow, he's talented. He's athletic. He's got a good arm. But he can never really quite get out of his own way. That was really what did them. I saw a good tweet on Twitter from one I wish I didn't remember who it was. It was one of the guys who covers the Giants who wrote Daniel

Jones is good until he's not and that's the problem like just when you feel like okay he's in a groove we're in right direction maybe this is something to build off that fumble that fumble killed him and i'm not saying they're going to win that game because the broncos were just the better team uh but it's just it's all the air goes out of the balloon in that building after that fumble and i'd say like 10 years ago when we started doing all this like there were a dozen teams that had somewhat flaky quarterbacks and there were five or six that had terrible quarterbacks and there was a dearth of quarterbacks that's obviously changed in the last three or four and you can't have a quarterback that's being described and is living up to the description as a roller coaster it doesn't work

you also like need more from the running game in saquan barclay it's like i read so many articles how much of a difference it'll be with saquin barclay and he goes you know 10 for 26 their first round pick cadarius tony has two catches for negative two yards like Denver is going to present a lot of problems to a lot of offenses, I think, even without, you know, Bradley Chubb, I don't think played today, right? But it's still, I don't know. I just, you don't see a lot of answers. And they, suddenly that Thursday night game, it's like one of those teams is going to feel very dark at Owen, too. Yeah, there seems to be a lack of balance with this offense and, almost like they need Daniel Jones to prove it, but they're, it's not quite that they're putting

too much on his plate, but that in these, in these scenarios, you know, 37 passes is not a ton of passes, but they were never down by a margin that would necessarily say that you have to air it out until we got pretty late in that game. It's just they don't, you know, you have the glimpses. You have the touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard, but there's too much in between that just, it just leaves a lot to be desired. They also had, I think, maybe the worst summer of anyone on offense, I mean, outside of maybe one or two teams. And half of those guys that you mentioned, Greg, barely played all August. So it's going to take some time. Jerry Judy looked for all the world like he had a season-ending injury. They announced after the game that it was a high-ank

Sprain, Tom Pasaro reported that too. That's even more stunning and also great news than Mackay Beckton because, you know, we don't, you know, you don't want to be graphic about it, but that looked like one of those, you know, leg injuries where the leg is not attached the way it should be anymore. Good. That's great news too. Maybe in general we shouldn't be eyeballing injuries from like our living rooms. You know, we didn't do anything.

I'm not pointing at you specifically, just the general public when a player who's clothed goes on the ground, we may not know everything that's happening. happening with the person's body. That's all. I don't follow your take totally. Yeah, that one was gruesome. His, it looked like the bottom was sticking the wrong way. I'm saying the facts suggest that it's not, it looked like that to you, but the facts suggests that it's not quite as severe as you think.

So my point is you wait a little bit. Just let it, you know, settle. Can I move on with the show? Please do. We're on to Cincinnati. Burrow back to pass. Has time, throws it downfield for you Zama. He has it at the 30, the 25.

Hot about it's in the 20-yard line. What a gutsy call. And what a throw by Joe the magician. Oh, what a day. For the Bengals, Dan Ford. W.C.K.Y with the call. Dave Lapham there, too. Evan McPherson kicked a 33-yard field goal.

Time expired in OT to push the Bengals to a 27. 24 win over the Vikings. And shook. You know, we've talked about Zach Taylor on this show as a faceless entity entering this season, an important season for his career. And I thought he gained one with a gutsy-ass play call in that spot to set up the game-winning kick. Good job by Zach Taylor, good job. Joe Burrow, good job by the bench.

Yeah, and it wasn't the only time in that game where you saw a play call where you're like, wow, that was perfectly timed, that was genius. It felt like he was getting into a rhythm. You want to talk about a lack of balance with other teams. The one thing I thought the Bengals were really hurting with last year was dropping back Joe Burrow to pass 45, 50 times a game behind the offensive line, which is better now than it was then. It's still not great.

They only had 27 pass attempts today. Joe Mason ran the ball 29 times for 127 yards. That's the balance that you need to be effective and end up winning these close games. The only thing that really mattered to me that I didn't enjoy was the fact that there was this push in like tug-of-war of sorts as some. ambulances and cop cars dropped by. I'm sure you guys can hear that. Gritty City Life with Nick Shook. The Gritty, the downtown city life.

Rough night in Cleveland. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's every night. There is this tug of war of sorts where they were just, it's kind of like when you see a team spent a lot of time between the 20s, and that's where they were for a lot of the final quarter and then going into overtime, and it was like, all right, you guys need to break one. He had a great play call where they got to CJ Usama off a tight-end leak. They got him down into scoring territory that I was like, wow, that's a great play call.

But really, if they have this type of bad. balance. They can be competitive and they can win these close games. It's just that they have to commit to it. It helps, of course, when you can get a good day out of Joe Mixing. You know, I saw that throw to Uzama and I, like, the Burroughs response to it too. He was so fired up and you can tell his teammates love him and like talk about another guy that had a rough summer and they've showed so much faith in him and I love what he did today. Why, I don't like a game where Kirk Cousins is throwing the ball. What was it 49 times? Yeah. Did they just shut down. I mean, if you're the Vikings, you wanted to run the ball all day long and have cousins

throw the ball about 20 fewer times than that. Yeah, that's usually your formula of victory in Minnesota, but they were down by two touchdowns in the second half, so they kind of had to get things going. And I'll tell you what, if we give Zach Taylor credit, he also had a moment of faceless entity where he opened the door for them to come back. You know, he went for it in his own territory, didn't get it, sets the Vikings up for a quick score. They get the ball, they go down. At least it's being aggressive. At least it's being aggressive. But you're right. The whole ending sequence was weird. Like, Cousins was totally bailed out by his kicker after really, like, managing the two-minute situation in a way that you're just like, a veteran quarterback shouldn't be.

I guess I'm just, you're just used to like the Brady's of the world, like, knowing kind of what to do. But he got it close enough and Joseph then hits it. And then at Dalvin Cook fumbles it in overtime. Both offensive lines just looking at the stats in terms of QB hits, tackles for loss could be really bad all season. or at least at the beginning of the season, both defense is kind of... I have a Vikings fan, buddy, from back home, who is very salty and unhinged on text a lot about his team, and he thought that they got totally jobbed on the fumble of Dalvin Cook.

Was that something that could have went either way because it swung the game, if so? I mean, it was close, but if you're talking to somebody who was a Vikings fan, I would imagine that, you know, a little bit of the bias comes in, right? It could have gone either way. It didn't surprise me at all that they didn't overturn it. right uh it it looked bang bang and whatever what happened on the field was going to happen how about you mark jace by the way five for 101 talk about bad summers and it just goes again we the first sunday wipes it all away because everyone is saying this guy's not ready we're mocking

them about the comedy made about how the college football is different with the the the white mark around the edge on the ends of the ball all that mark all that's gone now because he He steps in and delivers a five for 101 in a touch in his first game, Shucky. Yeah, his first three targets were receptions. He gets the long one for the touchdown, looked a lot like Burrow to Chase in their LSU days. And we also might have learned that Jamar Chase is never going to be brutally honest with us in press sessions ever again.

Yeah, that's what you get. And it's just a bad loss for the Vikings. That's a bad way to open your season. I know maybe Cincinnati's going to be a frisky team this year. Maybe this isn't the first time they're going to surprise the team who's, thinks they have a W on their schedule, but you, you know, you open up that way. And I know how these scheduled makers work, by the way. I'm not, I'm looking at it in real time.

They'll give you a quote unquote cookie in week one, but then they put you in a tough spot right after that. And yeah, well, you know, it could be worse, but they have at Arizona, they might have to go to the desert and get the bomb dropped on them, you know, next week. And then home against Seattle, then home against the Browns. So you don't get that win against Cincinnati. and now you're in a tough situation here, and you're clawing for your life in September.

Yeah, and I don't know how much of the preseason that you managed to really, like, really tune into with them. But like Mike Zimmer had this halftime press conference. In week one, it was, you know, just a little like sideline thing, not a press conference, but a sideline thing, where he just like unloaded on his team. It was when they played Denver because they looked terrible. He was one of the most annoyed coaches around.

I mean, he's generally a little salty, but it seemed to be peaking. I witnessed some of that. Yeah. So that has essentially kind of carried into the regular season because they looked a lot like that team in the first half before they ended up making up the deficit. That does worry me about them going forward. All right, Shook, going forward, I hope you will continue to be with us because you are a weapon and a pipe. A pipe is a weapon. So again, the nickname is perfect.

And Greg's coming around on it, I could tell. Look at that. He's like, I get it. It makes sense now. It's the pipe's a weapon. I mean, I'd like to be a weapon instead of the opposite. D.R. Smith was six men of the year. He was all these connections.

Cleveland, Porton City for a lot of people in the Midwest. Anyway, Shook, thank you, buddy. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Now, on to Sunday night. Because the coast is just one thing left to stay. I can wait for them all day for Sunday night. Enough of that. to the highlight rolling left off to the fake he's going to air it out deep downfield has a man

open and it's caught at the 15 yard line by van jefferson and he gets up and rumbles to the end zone matthew stafford with a bomb it's got the great arm we know that and then jefferson makes the catch rolls over doesn't get touched and takes it in yes al michael's the legend with the call for nbc Matthew Stafford connected on three touchdown passes, including that wild catch-and-run by Van Jefferson. And a game that was a little closer than perhaps the final score indicated, but also that's about right. 34 to 14 over the Chicago Bears, the Rams triumphed in their first game in front of fans at SoFi Stadium. Mark, I feel like this is exactly. Exactly what the Rams had in mind.

If they could have drawn up their first game with Matthew Stafford in front of the home fans in the shiny new stadium in primetime, this was it. A clean, tidy 3414 victory. In every possible way, I mean... Oh, not a beat. She's back. It's an old trope. I mean, it would be, you know, if that were Erica's original gag, that would be even more effective. but if you want to pull gags from days ago, that's fine, years ago, I can take it.

Would you say that as a manufactured joke? Okay, go. Whose original gag was that? That's a Sydney. That was from the Sydney realms. I mean, Erica has many effective gags of her own, trust me. It's also a bit of a low blow because it's part of the show's history. It's not Erica's fault that that's a greatest hit.

And it still works. Right. But if I'm going to be attacked, I can attack back. That's how this works. That's fair, too. You know, I don't, I don't, it doesn't please me to attack Erica on that front, but you just had, she pressed the button. So that's how it works.

Do you want me to say anything or have I, is that enough for me? Another nuclear bomb goes off in the desert. No, go ahead. No, I mean, I just would say that, first of all, I think outside of the four of us, everyone else from our office went to this game, apparently in suits and ties and they're sitting up in the seats. So I'm very happy for them. I like everyone on Instagram that I know from our work

is like taking shots from SoFi Stadium. I mean, so incredible every single one of them. You could not design a more perfect opener on offense for the Rams because with the first shockwave of the off season was the we're upgrading at quarterback. We're moving on from Jared Gough. We're getting Matt Stafford.

Ricky Savage in week. No, but she's going to be annoyed because I, he's got a little bit of Greg and her. If you take a shot at Greg, the wheels are going to spin inside the mind for the next minute or two. I'm going to get this comment out very quickly because I'm not going to have this happen again. Last year, I mean, the Rams had two touchdown passes of over 40 yards. Stafford tonight did all of it in one evening. He was sensational.

And I might have been one of the people that thought, like, what are we sure we're getting in Matthew Stafford after all those lines years? Great quarterback, good arm, maybe great quarterback. I don't know. But tonight, he just looked like he completely mind melds and fits. with Sean McVeigh. And all that I needed to see was the smile on Stafford's face at the end of the game walking up and down the sideline. I mean, we have not seen Matthew Stafford smile like that ever.

I'm so happy you brought that up, Mark, because he was glowing as he was going up and down that sideline. No, I just think it was, you know, it was closer than perceived, but that doesn't really bug me at all because I think the Rams completely took their foot off the gas at the end. They are a deep strike, intriguing, passing offense. and after what they watched the rest of the NFC West do today, there was pressure on them to deliver, and they did just that. Ooh, that's a good point.

NFC West, undefeated, NFC North, winless. There's two different divisions. I wasn't on the gram. I'm more of, I'm like a football guy on Sunday, so I didn't see that. But I do know, I do know. I care about people and friends. Our friend, you know, our great friend, Lekeesha Wessling, I mean, she's not in a suit and tie, but she was in the crowd watching this game and enjoying this game and, you know, yelling for Cooper Cup.

So I think that's awesome that they got got her the victory. And you do almost get the feeling like that the bears were like served up. I mean, you don't want to be too conspiratorial. You know, they get good ratings to bears. But it was almost like it felt like they were served up on this night. And it's almost like everything we've been saying for the last four months about like, don't put Andy Dalton on Sunday night football. no one wants to see that in London's like here it comes and you kind of like see Matt Nagy's galaxy brain thinking of like why he would start Matt you know Dalton because

they're they're already short at tackle they lose Jason Peters then they lose their backup tackle the bears actually had six more first downs in this game like 19 more plays you know they they moved the ball up and down I think they went into Rams territory six straight times the first six times they had the ball but they kept coming up short on fourth downs. You know, there was that tip play by the Rams early. And so if you're Matt Nagy, you're like convincing yourself somehow that this is like a better thing to do to put the veteran in. But in the end, it's like, uh, you just threw the ball 38 times. Only one play went for more than 11 yards. You got Jared Gough. And the Rams now got this whole new

offense. It's like, hey, maybe we don't need to work so hard and go 14 plays every drive. We can just go 50 bombers here and there and, uh, be on our way. Go win. The Rams had like 33 plays. you know, into the fourth quarter. It's when you can cover 58 yards on one throw, it's less place. And that was a missing aspect of their offense last year, absolutely. And the idea was, now we have Deshawn Jackson, and that's going to take care of business there. Well, no, Van Jefferson said, I can do that stuff. Give it to me.

Cooper Cup, the Yakima monster. I can get a chunk plays if you give the ball to me in space. And, you know, color me a little bit suspicious when, you know, late in the telecast, you hear Collins start to say, Well, this is a problem with Justin Fields. Andy Dalton gets the ball to his receiver when he pops open, and Justin Fields is slow to go through his progressions or holds on to the ball for too long.

I mean, that felt like I could have been fed to him straight from Nagy and the brain trust in Chicago who are outthinking themselves here. And again, Andy Dalton, this is, you know, five and a half yards at attempt, 38 attempts, and now they go back to Chicago to play the Bengals, the Bengals team that might be better. who knows, but they look very good today anyway, and it's a tough spot. So whether Justin Fields is ready or not, he's coming soon. That's one thing I took out of this game.

And the other thing, the other thing I took out of it is, and I think I'm going to put them in the top five, maybe even the top three, the power rankings. I make it frisky here. I just love this Rams team. I like the mix on both sides of the ball. And this, this McVeigh-Staffer thing, assuming if Stafford can stay healthy, I think this is going to be a special season for the Rams, 12 or 13 wins. I mean, McVeys need to stop talking.

about Jared Goff though like every quote is like he's trying to make it sound good but it makes it sound worse when he's like well we really want to thank Jared Goff for making us the type of team that Matthew Stafford wants to go for that's not a compliment like slugs in his back and dumped him in the Pacific let's call it was he wanted he wanted a partner not a student well that we know that's not a compliment but that is not that is a tough one I want my other my other big takeaway was though this bear's defense has lost some players over the years and you know when they're going through all the the starting lineups and they do like the pff ranks at the bottom it's like half the bears starting lineup doesn't have pf ranks because they didn't play last year you know or they

didn't play enough or they're rookies or they're randoms like it's you've got a couple you've got a couple really good players but it's not a difference making defense anymore and if you don't have that I think you do have double digit losses I mean you know it's like our producer and friend Matthew Tanton was up in the stands, something like Section 228 or whatever, and he tweeted that he was closer to Kukper Cup than any Bears defender. So you're right.

I mean, you could trust the Bears in Matt Nagy's first year to score the defense alone to generate, you know, a touchdown, turnovers in great field position. It's not happening as easily right now. Think about how fun it must have been, like all our colleagues. They probably all got together. They probably all got together at the commissary.

and like they were wearing their little like outfits or their jerseys and maybe they had a couple pops or you know maybe they uh because we're so close to the stadium maybe there's a little place you could pop in and get a little loose before the game then they all went into there and they were enjoying the popping circumstance but then here we are grinding sitting in our little holes our caves yeah i just ordered i ordered takeout food that is um an hour late and all i can see on the app is that the car that is bringing it just stopped somewhere in like south ingleway. Yeah, it's at the bar with everybody from the Rams game. Well, that's probably exactly where he is. Everyone else is. If nothing else, they gave you a short game, Mark. I mean, this had to have been the shortest game of the week, less than three, like well less than three hours. So, you know, maybe he's warming up to these Rams if they get him out of work.

I give him a lot of credit for that. Yeah. 10 minutes into the recap of this game. All right. Good stuff. We're on to week two. We're on to week two. Good week one in the books.

coming up we'll have a podcast on Tuesday from the are we back together on Tuesday no Thursday is our hopeful day one in the studio so Tuesday is the next time you'll hear from us so enjoy this extra long edition the week one super flagship show the two hour around the NFL broadcast on Friday I implore you guys to check that out on NFL network that will also be we'll be back in the studio so this is now happening we are moving out of this remote world hopefully hopefully for good. And we thank you for sticking with us during this time. And I thank a special thank you as we get to the end of this yellow brick road,

hopefully to Erica, Ricky Hollywood herself, for doing such an awesome job this whole time getting us through this technological maze. But all right, any other thoughts on week one before we should? I also would thank Erica. That's my final thought. And there's a lot of appreciation. Mark with a C I also want to thank Erica

and I just want to thank the listeners because this is the last time I'm going to be able to say this all year. Football is back. I mean, and that's it. It's over. I can't with you guys. You're just so ridiculous.

All right. That's it. Dan Hedin signing off for Quiet Storm. And the old boss in Ricky Hollywood until Tuesday. Peace of course. Woo! We did it.

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