NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2022 Week 1 Recap

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, and Gregg Rosenthal recap all the action from the first Sunday of the season, starting with the Chiefs-Cardinals match (1:16). Next, we hit Raiders-Chargers (8:55) and Giants-Titans (15:03). Nick Shook joins to recap Steelers-Bengals (25:10) and Panthers-Browns (32:58). Then, we cover Packers-Vikings (43:40), Eagles-Lions (54:43), 49ers-Bears (1:02:27), Patriots-Dolphins (1:07:48), Ravens-Jets (1:15:41), Saints-Falcons (1:22:17), Colts-Texans (1:29:27), and Jaguars-Commanders (1:35:53). Finally, we wrap things up with Sunday Night Football as the Bucs take on the Cowboys (1:41:46). Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast has been waiting all day for Sunday night. From the Chris Wesleying podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I am Dan Hansis and I have heroes. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler. It is, yes, hard to believe. The 10th season for the Around the NFL podcast. podcast covering our league and it all starts right here in a lot of ways with the week one

flagship show mark pinch yourself baby i have been pinching myself all day which is was weird i thought well just just saw these sounds of like ooh oh mark i like him from the corner it was a lot i enjoy it the way i want to i was studying mark very closely today gregg as you know uh this is the first sunday of football where mark's not a browns fan or so we're being supposed so we're going to get into that. We're going to get into the drama of week one. A lot of great finishes and nice start to the 2022 regular season. But before we get to that, let's get to what I thought was maybe the big statement of week one. Let us head to the desert. Hardman and Edwards Allaire in the backfield at the same time. They shovel it inside. Edwards Aller. Touchdown.

Kansas City. Two drives. Two touchdowns. A play they love to run to Kelsey. They go to Clyde, Edwards Allaire, and the Chiefs are on fire in this first quarter of the season. Well said by Mitch Holtis. All our friends are coming back. They're back in the house. Mitch Holtz is back with us, W, D-A-F. No Tyreek Hill? No problem for Patrick Mahomes, who threw for 360 and five touchdowns in the Chief's 44-21 win over the Cardinals in Arizona.

Mark, we all felt confident in Andy Reid's ability. to move forward without Hill. One of the best playmakers ever, by the way. But it was surprising how immediate and insanely successful they were right out of the shoot. I mean, you can look at this game, I think, in two ways. One, the Chiefs are, I think, way better than we would have even expected. And their new offense looks dashing. Or the Cardinals are a hot, gigantic, roaming, dissolving mess.

I am giving the credit here to the Chiefs because... Was that the first role? doming, dissolving mess of the season? Let me mark it down? Yeah. All right, go on. Check the box. I just thought Patrick Mahomes, I mean, and it's almost a tiresome exercise to try to describe

Patrick Mahomes when he is playing this way. But the offense, which had gone through a transition, it was this whole business, like, can they possibly mask the loss of Tyreek Hill? They look better to me. And I know they were playing a terrible defense that's compromised a cornerback, but he played a nearly perfect first half. I mean, they could have put up way more points than they did, a few. few little things hadn't happened to them. They lost Harrison Butker, their kicker, for part of the

game. He looked like he was severely injured. And then he came back, too. So they dodged that bullet. But I think if you watch this offense, they're using a lot of two tight, three tight end sets. Their running game to me looks much more vibrant. I think that's been maybe one thing in the last couple of seasons where the run game, they didn't really have a classic lead guy and sometimes didn't seem to come together. I did today. I think Clyde Edward Saler looked as good as I've seen him Look, the wide receiver situation, they're fine. They're fine. I just think this is, Andy Reid, one game in, you have to say they completely succeeded so far.

I'll tee you up like this because we went into Sunday saying, you know, Mahomes and Rogers, two of the greats are entering this season with new supporting cast with big changes with a Hall Fame receiver leaving the building. And Mahomes, and he's your MVP pick. So I know you're feeling good about this. Did not miss a beat. And that's a credit of course to him, but also Andy Reid. Yeah, you were saying, you know, Andy Reid doesn't get the credit. And, you know, that he's the one cooking up all those new plays. He's a mad scientist, not just the nice grandfather.

Right. He's the one who's doing the Belichick, what we think Bo Belichick should be doing in the off-season. Not that he's not doing it, too, but he's not doing it on offense. I don't know what he's doing. Like this. And it's not just, okay, we're going to come up with these crazy passing plays. It's the running plays where I think they get the most creative

and they're using the athleticism of their offensive linemen. The big run game type of dorks, and I'm saying this fondly, a guy I think of Chris Brown on Twitter who does smart football, is noticing how they're doing these like power shovel plays at the goal line with their fullbacks, which is like taking it all the way back to like Newt Rockney, Clark Shaughnessy, like old style football before you even knew what the passing game was. And if you can mix a little bit of that and the passing game and the brilliance of Patrick Mahomes feeling like, okay, you guys are sleeping on me a little bit, this is what you get. 33 first downs in 66 plays. I know this is the first game,

but we will not have a better stat in this entire show than that. That is outrageous. I've never heard such a thing. Yeah, and Clyde Edwards O'Leary is a guy that, I know fantasy owners have been frustrated because as a former first round pick, he was supposed to be an unstoppable chess piece when they brought him into the team two years ago

and he kind of faded out of the game plan by the end of last season. But the way he was being deployed here, yes, Juju Smith-Schuster hits the ground running, productive. Travis Kelsey, as dominant as ever. So yes, the Chiefs are humming. The Chiefs are going to be okay

and a reminder that they should be seen as the favorite in the AFC West. On the other side of the ball here, Sessie, you know, there's some lipstick on the pig here with Kyler Murray's numbers, but it was ugly. It was ugly all the way around. The offense, all right,

Maybe they got put in a bad spot, but the defense wasn't even competitive. Well, the defense looks awful. I mean, they go watch how wide open chiefs targets are. I mean, there's multiple plays where there's no one around them. And they got, they're already bad at cornerback. They lost a cornerback in early on the game, Byron Murphy. I don't even know if he came back, but it didn't matter. Trayvon Mullen didn't play at all, who they had traded for.

And I, on offense, it's like, first of all, I don't want to overreact to this one week, but I think they have some real issues. You don't have DeAndre Hopkins. We get that. You lost Ron Dale Moore days ago. They don't really have... They just look discombobulated to me. And with Kyler Murray, I mean, when he's good, he's good.

But I thought he missed a bunch of wide-open guys today. And something that's going on with Kyler Murray, I think he just sometimes maybe doesn't see the field. He was also under duress a bunch. I mean, it was just a messy, messy outing. And after this whole journey where we've re-signed the coach, we've re-signed the GM, we extended the quarterback thinking this is the vision. This is the offense that you want to say, you know, it's the NFC version where Andy Regan go cook it up,

but so can Cliff Kingsbury. That was the whole concept here. And they just, to me, looked like they picked up where they left off, which was not a good place. What did you say in the newsroom? They should just surprise everyone and give another extension. Yeah, that's a good way to change the narrative. Just keep on handing out extensions because you're in deep now. The bidwills and the entire Cardinals organization, they were so.

convinced of being right about this QB, this coach, and this GM, that they were handed out money like it was nothing. It's week one. It's week one. It was, but it's also like all the concerns that we had about the Cardinals, how last year ended. Also, you know how no defenses throughout Patrick Mahomes' career has blitzed them at all because it's like poison. Today, they decided to try to flip the script in Arizona. They were the first team in Patrick Mahomes' career to blitz them more than half of the snaps that did not work out well. It did not fare well for them. How many of all three of us?

How many it's week ones are we going to hear it today? Okay, okay. But it's fair. It's fair. Everything needs to be kept in that mindset because the preseason's, you know, what it is now. It's going to take time for these teams, but the Cardinals clearly were not ready. Shout out to Justin Reed, by the way. He replaced Harrison Butker as placed kicker for the chiefs in the first half and went one of two on Piotis and blasted a kickoff out of the end zone. Yeah, no, I think he's –

That's remarkable. It's not the first person you'd think. of a safety as your backup kicker, but that first PAT, he nailed it. He could be a kickoff specialist. The Colts could have used them today. That was the greatest show of athleticism I've seen so far this season. All right.

So, Chiefs rolling, cards hurting. Let's check in. Oh, I also lock this up, by the way. When you lock it up, you don't even want to sweat it. You just want to see it. That's a nice one. You want to see it. We all did.

We all did very nice for the most part. Not yes. Not everyone. So the Chiefs already set up for a huge TNF matchup. with an AFC West rival this week, and that rival was playing the Raiders. Let's get into that game. Shotgun snap, looking right.

Carr climbs a pocket, hit, grab, and he has dropped. The ball is out, and the Chargers have it. The Chargers have it. Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack. It was a Khalil Mack strip sack. You heard it there. Matt Money Smith, Daniel Jeremiah, KYSR,

Khalil Mack, sack fumble of Derrick Carr, and fourth down near midfield was the difference for the the Chargers who jumped out to a fast start, then held on to defeat the Raiders 2419 at SoFi Stadium. Listen, did I think that the Chargers were gonna charger that thing up at the end? Yeah, I had some serious doubts about Los Angeles' ability to close that game out.

And yet, Derek Carr just wasn't gonna let it happen because this is one of those games with Carr where you start to think, geez, all the criticisms that he gets and there will be pushed back from Raider fans or people in the family or whatever it is. But he put the ball on the ground. He threw three interceptions. And I think if they get better quarterback play in this game, they do steal it from the Chargers who were vulnerable by the end of this game. Wow.

I mean, it's not really his thing to make mistakes like that. What were they about? Were they mental errors? Were the past rushes getting to him? because Cleo Mac had a day, maybe he just started getting a little frantic. It was. I think maybe he seemed a little scattered in this game and it wasn't, you know, it wasn't terrible. He did, for instance, connect with Devante Adams repeatedly. Adams had 10 catches for 140 yards and a touchdown on 17 targets.

So, you know, I think this is, again, the week one side of this that's going to take some time to calibrate this thing and find ways to keep Darren Waller involved, to have Hunter Renfro involved. Remember how important Renfro was. Three for 21 today. Waller had a good game, four for 79 after a new contract over the weekend, by the way. I think with Carr, you kind of saw that perhaps maybe he's trying to figure out how he wants to do this. But yeah, I think he got mixed up a little bit this game. I think he got putting a blender and he made mistakes that they cost in this game.

I mean, the two fumbles that he had also, they were lucky and fortunate not to lose them. But one of them, when we were watching this together, it was the classic just holding the ball too long and allowing the pressure to find him. I mean, he was getting, he was running around back there. I think this, one note, beyond the fact that the Chargers, we were wondering, and almost gave this game away, the defensive parts, like, Khalil Mack looked like, he looked great today. And that's big. I didn't really know what we were going to get from Khalil Mack necessarily.

Over the course of the season, we'll see. Three sacks, four QB hits. Right. He fits in this defense. Brandon Stilly went and got him because he knows who he is. And right away, he was the difference in this game. And Keenan Allen went out of this game with the hamstring early. And that was.

you know, we'll keep an eye on that because Alan is such an important part of what the Chargers do. But you had a guy like D'Andre Carter who stepped in and he scores a touchdown. He has another big conversion. He goes three for 64. Gerald Everett carries in a Raiders defender backing into the end zone for another touchdown. That was a crazy play. Yeah. And I think Herbert played a Herbert game.

He starts out his season very well, mistake free football and in front of a lot of Raiders fans. The game was played across the street from us. the Chargers, and we've talked about this with the Rams too. You could tell. They figured out how we play in our own building now. It's different than most stadiums. It's different than most teams have to deal with, but they took care of business.

This is a nice way for the Chargers to start the season because we've seen it too often where they find a game like this and it goes away, goes the wrong way. And then when they miss the playoffs by a game, you're like, oh, what about that week one tank job we had? They've got the Chiefs next week. You could not let this one slip away and go in, deal with Kansas City at O&1.

Right. And you think about the difference in that Kansas City game, for instance, they're probably going to be without Keenan Allen. And so now you can afford maybe to do that because Herbert's at the point where he's making guys better. But I'm a little worried about a situation. No one had more than four targets on this team where it's like DeAndre Carter, Trey McKitty had three catches. Zander Horvath had a touchdown. I mean, I feel like I'm just making up names here. Whereas Josh Palmer and Mike Williams, the guys you expected didn't do much of anything. On the flip side of Mac was. the Raiders big acquisition, Chandler Jones, who from at least what I read, I got to watch this closely, Rayshan Slater shut down pretty well throughout the game. Their past rush barely showed up in this. I like this Trey McKitty. I think that's a, I don't know if that's a real name, but I like that's a Sessler name. Xander Horveth also felt like a Sessor name. There is, there is a tendency for, you know, to get on the quarterback too much and then not bring up the offensive line. And I think that was a issue in this game as well. He was sacked six times car and Vegas was shifting around their unit.

I used three different combinations in their offensive line, trying to find that stability. So, yeah, I think this is a, they're a work in progress. They have the Cardinals next week. So that's a team, depending how you look at it, you know, you're either getting the Cardinals at a good time or the worst time. But that becomes an important game for the Raiders because you know the Chiefs are going to be off and running this season.

One quick question, like Josh McDaniels, did you notice Josh McDaniels? Did you notice Josh McDaniels-esque elements to the offense? Was it just a lot of focus on Devante Adams? Because the ground game did not numbers-wise look at. I can't give you a real take on the Josh McDaniels-esque flair to the offense. All I could tell you is that it didn't do much. That it didn't do enough. How about the sideline shots?

Did he seem as agitated and or fired up as he was at points of his Broncos career? You know what? I'm going to have to go back and watch the Josh McDaniels sideline shots as well. We didn't. We're putting a lot of heat on you. We didn't help you out there with those last two questions. All right, let's now, so those are two, like, games that are interesting. So you have the Chiefs making a huge statement, the Cardinals laying an egg,

the Chargers refusing to Charger, and the Raiders after a lot of hype, stumbling out of the gates. But now let's get to something fun. Let's get to a crazy ending. Sorry, Grave-Digger. Let's go to Nashville. Jones takes the snap, rolls right, shovel pass for Berkeley. Berkeley in for the two-point conversion.

Oh, a little shot. Shevel pass to Sequin, and then he did the rest, taking on defenders, and the Giants have the lead. 2120 with 106 to go. That's playing to win there, Bob. Yes, it is. Bob Papa and Carl Banks with the call WFAN. Hey, you know that? Hey, this is Carl and Regal Park.

I'll tell you what. The difference between Daible and Joe Judge. One guy plays to win. One guy doesn't play at all. I'll hang up and listen. He's also not wrong that caller. Daniel Jones on a one-yard touchdown past Chris Miark, and it was followed by that gutsy two-point conversion by,

I don't care if it's my arc. It's My-Rick. My-Rick. It's me-Arc to me. I understand you're taking editorial, you know, freebies with that, but I don't approve. A gutsy two-point conversion by Sequin Barclay there. And then setting up Big Bone Randy to push a 47-yarder,

which, or pull a 47-yard of which Gregi, I predicted in the newsroom live, even pointed to the exact spot on the screen. It was amazing. Where Bullock's ball was going to go. Dan literally, like, traced the arc of where the ball was going to go in front of a stunned newsroom, and then the ball went exactly where that arc was. I was impressive. I don't know how that happened either, but after the Jets play, I could use a W, and I got one.

Anyway, it all added up to a stunning 2120 Giants win over the Titans. Let's spring in. A devastated grave digger who, you know, this is his maiden flagship program as our main producer. And, you know, we asked him to be our voice on this one, to follow this game, to cover it, and then help us dissect it. And this is a tough way to get thrown into the fire. How you doing, buddy? You know, it's all good. It's just football.

It's not like in my life or anything. I mean, you seemed like a sad puppy dog about half an hour ago. You recover your better now. It's definitely disappointing way to open the season, obviously, but week ones are like this all around the league right now. Packers losing, Rams losing. You know, you can never predict how week ones can go. Take us through it a little bit, Grave-Digger.

Because this is a game that Tennessee was in control of. Where did things start to kind of spin out for him? Yeah, the Titans looked like the dominant team in the first half, winning in all phases, explosive punt return, forcing three in outs. They were getting after Daniel Jones had like four or five sacks in the first half, think. And then in the second half, they gave up big plays. It was like, the Giants weren't moving the ball effectively on Tennessee, but they had a huge shot to Sterling Shepard for a touchdown, an explosive Saquan Barkley, 68-yard run, another 33-yard run. And with nine minutes left,

the Giants were poised to tie the game, 20 to 13, and Daniel Jones made a horrible decision, really the only bad decision he made all day, looking in the end zone and just stared down a receiver. Amani Hooker was all over it. from the beginning and broke on it and intercepted it in the end zone. It was like, all right, Titans can close this out now with the ball nine minutes to go at their own 20-yard line.

Titans go three and out quickly, punt it away. The Giants get a huge run from Sequin Barclay, a 33-yard run. And then even, yeah. He looks great today. The Sequin Barkley did look great. And I understand that Seekwon is on a New York giant team that even today's result, notwithstanding,

is a work in progress and a team that's rebuilding. But that makes them interesting in the NFC East. If he is going to have 164 total yards, or excuse me, 194 total yards. He had the two-point conversion, the longest run from play from scrimmage for the Giants since Daniel Jones's 80-yard stumble run on prime time a couple of years ago. That was huge. That helped turn in this game as well. Yeah, Sequin Barclay was borderline on Saba. I mean, even when it felt like the Titans were bottling him up, he was muscling forward for extra yards. And the difference in the game, I think, was the explosive plays. I mean, the Giants had big explosive plays that set them up for scores. The Titans had a couple big

explosives in the passing game, but not enough to sustain success on offense and, like, keep the Giants' offense off the field at the end of the game when they had to close it out. And I thought Tannahill looked pretty good. He had a couple misses in there, but overall, pretty good game for Tanna Hill. Derek Henry, I will say, looks a step slower than, he does when he's at his peak and that could just be early season. Derek Henry, he usually takes a few weeks to really get going or it could be

a 28-year-old running back coming off a major foot injury that doesn't have the same juice he used to have but I do think if you're a Giants fan you have to be encouraged by the way they stuck with it because at halftime it felt like this was going to end in a blowout for Tennessee and the Giants came out in the second half

and made all the plays. Hey, Brian Neville teams don't give up. But you know what? I know I get that that's a joke but, like, I do think that this was a big day for Brian Dable because a couple things. I think we showed it during our highlight package, too. He got in the face of Daniel Jones after that one mistake and was just jawing him out. I like that. I think it's like he's checked.

So this is your one year to figure out what you are, Daniel Jones, or you're out of here. And the coaching decision at the end to get two point instead of tying it up, how many, like compare that to what Lovie Smith did in Houston today, which we'll get to later. I mean, compared to the last head coach who did a third down. Play calling and everything else, right. A third down, kneel and their own goal line. Well, compared to virtually any coach in the league, because they're down a point there. The analytics would actually say, I don't know this for a fact, but I'm guessing,

would be much more down on going for the two there because there's still a minute left that you give the other team a chance to go win. That's more traditionally a place you just take the points because there's a minute left. The other team can get set up to win, which the Titans did, by the way. So you're taking all that risk without the payoff. But I love that it's trusting your best player. Sequin Barkley, and I'm so glad I got to see that highlight as we're talking. If you're watching us on YouTube, it's also going up there

for all our audio listeners. His lateral quickness on that play is what got it done. I mean, the Titans linebacker is in position to make that play. Two linebackers are defensive linemen and a linebacker. And he can just scoot. And you could see that in a little bit of practice footage and the preseason that we saw of Barclay that like, wow, that lateral explosion is absolutely back. Another preseason star, Kyle Phillips, who we kept talking up, was the leading receiver. How was Traylon Burks, by the way?

Because his numbers looked like he maybe stopped finally, you know, indulging in edibles before practicing games. Traylon Berks looked pretty good. I mean, he had a few big catches. He was targeted on another one that didn't come down with. But he looked pretty good. Kyle Phillips was pretty good. But Kyle Phillips had a almost killer muffed punt, which is what set up the Amani Hooker intersection. I get it.

But he ran a perfect route. He did. perfect catch to set up the game-winning play. And that was a timing type of throw that you have to trust. He's going to be exactly where it was. And that gets me to one thing that drives me crazy in the NFL. How badly botched that end-of-game sequence was by Vrable. The head coach of the year did not play that very well.

They used a timeout to prevent a delay of game. Ryan Tannenhill had to snap off, but they had already called the timeout to prevent the delay game. I would have rather taken five yards at that point than I wouldn't waste the time. time out. So you used your time out. You had two or three plays left there. Instead, they back up three or four yards to make Big Bone Randy. Yeah.

Hit it right to Dan's arc. Don't ever. I don't know why coaches do this. Don't ever settle for a 45 to 48 yard bill. With 18 seconds left, it's exhausting. Running a quick out, get five, 10 more yards. You have to factor in the moment as well. This is not the guys just stroking it in practice.

You need to give them more latitude there. And you put your kicker in a bad spot and he failed you. And that's the way it is. Happens all the time. And by the way, he also looked like he knew he was going to miss that kick. The look on his face.

I just... Well, that's... Some look on his face now. Well, I like that. The Titans now, they do this for a reason, the schedule makers. They give you the cookie

to start the season at home against the G-Men. And they say, we're giving you the cookie because we're sending you to Buffalo next week. And guess what? Monday night,

they have to now play the Bills, the Titans, and the Giants get the Panthers. So they're potentially set up for a nice start to their season. We're just getting started here let's take a break and then we're going to welcome in an old friend all right welcome back here we are i told you a friend was joining us there he is a man ready to be married now

nick shook oh welcome back to the flagship program it's another season together and congratulations on your upcoming nuptial sir oh thank you so much you know i hate to kill the the running podcast bit but it had been long enough. I had to get the job done, you know. How much credit do you give Dan and this show? It's good question. Hopefully a lot. I would imagine for getting it done because it's been putting pressure on you for a long time.

I would give it 50% to get the ball rolling. Oh, wow. You know, the other 50% was me. I mean, it's a lot, right? No, I'm just kidding. You guys gave me a little nudge, but it was going to happen regardless. I was actually waiting to make it real special in L.A. and then I got tired of waiting and just said,

well, there's a nice beach on Lake Erie in the sun setting. And I woke up that morning. It was just said, I'm doing it today. Did you put the ring on a credit card or do you have that cash stored away, like a wise investor? Funny that you asked that, interestingly enough. When I first met her, I didn't have a savings account. And that was my inspiration to actually start a savings account.

It was because one day I thought, you know, I think she might be the one. Who said romance is dead. Look at Chuck. He started a savings account for that woman. All right, congratulations, Shook. Let's dig in on some AFC North Heat starting with a trip to Cincinnati, checking in with the defending American Football Conference champions. Straightaway kick, good snap down. Kick is on its way.

That kick is long enough, high enough. And it is good. The kick is good. The Steelers survive in Cincinnati. How it happened. It'll take you an hour. Me an hour to tell you. Bill Hill Grove with the call, WDVE, that might have been Craig Wolfley yelling in the background.

Chris Boswell kicked at 53-yard field goals, time expired in overtime, and the Steelers overcome T.J. Watts injury late in the fourth quarter to beat the Bengals, 2320. It was sloppy for both sides, but at the end, shook. Pittsburgh's win here felt like a near miracle. You had the Bengals failing to convert a P.A.T. at the end, end of regulation that would have won the game. Then they have a short field goal blocked.

I think the snapper was involved in both miscues here. And that opened the door for Trubisky and then Boswell to get it done. And we'll get to, we'll get to TJ Watt in a second. But first, let's focus on what was a gutty win for Pittsburgh. A gutty win powered by their defense. I mean, we, I think Greg would attest to this too. The Steelers defense has a reputation for being good, but it wasn't as good as maybe we thought last year.

They reversed that narrative today. I mean, they came out like gangbusters. Mika Fitzpatrick picks off Joe Burroughs first pass of the season for a pick six. T.J. Watt jumps up and gets a pick. There's a forced fumble. They're all over him all day. That revamped offensive line struggled specifically at left guard. And the Steelers took advantage of that.

They put them on short fields. Trubisky didn't have to do too much offensively because two of their four scoring drives started in Cincinnati territory. It wasn't until they actually kicked the game winner that they went close to the length of the field to get in position for that. And that wasn't even close really to the length of the field. They started on their own 20s. all the credit in the world goes to their defense, their offense still has some steps to take forward. But man, this is a group that made some additions in the off season,

and all of those additions really paid off. Cam Sutton had a nice up and down performance where he made some big plays, had also some big errors, but redeemed himself. If you're a Steelers fan, you've got to feel excited, not because of what you saw necessarily from Mitch Trubisky, but the fact that that defense is, looks like it's back to where you expect it to be.

And if it can be like this all year, then you're going to be in every game you play. Yeah, but is it going to be like that without TJ Wyatt? He left for the pectoral injury. The report is that, you know, they're fearing it's a torn pectoral injury. He was almost seen mouthing. I tore my peck. So that's what they think.

And that'll usually keep you out for much of the season. And they're thin there. And yes, I hear what you're saying. I'm looking forward to watching it. But it's pretty rare that you win a game or a game needs to go to overtime. When you win the turnover battle 5-0, it's like a little bit of a double-edged sword there. where you lost the first down battle, 32 to 13. And it's great that they ended up getting the win there,

but you would almost expect them to win by more in that kind of situation. Yeah, they didn't sustain the offense that you wanted. You know, Trubisky hit some passes that you were like, oh, okay, look, he looks pretty decent. Pat Friermouth down the sideline, find a couple different guys down the sideline. But if you look at it statistically, very average, 21 to 38, a passer rating below 80. And they lost the time of possession battle in a big way. that like you mentioned with the first down difference. They didn't sustain drives for most of the day.

Naja Harris was, his rushing yards over expected were in the negative. So they didn't block well enough for him to really get him in the ground. He left the game for a big chunk of it. Yeah, he left with a foot injury. And he had a list Frank injury in camp too. So that's concerning. Keep an eye on that.

It's the same foot. Yeah, the Bengals had the ball for 43 minutes and 43 seconds in this game. It did go through overtime to the very end. But yeah, that would be my concern. And I'm looking forward to watching this game because, yes, it's a gutty win, maybe a miracle win, but 231 yards of total offense

and maybe Najee Harris down now and now you take out T.J. Watt for maybe the season, maybe deep into the second half, and you feel like, Mark, that maybe the Steelers, even with the win today, there's reason to be concerned. Well, I think there's, their offensive line is a major concern.

They're lucky that they have Ms. Chubisky. What the assets that you bring is mobility is escapability. I don't think they're going to be able to work themselves out of jams week after week this this kind of was the weirdest game i was watching this from wire to wire and it's one of the weirdest performances i have to ask you this though nick because you look at joe burrow and i the bengals all off season i feel like they were being disrespected a little bit and thinking people they might tail off a little bit but joe burrow was the reason that you had faith they get back to where they were did you come out of this with genuine concern for joe burrow was

it just an off day i felt more like an off day some rusts some lack of reps i mean he did miss a good portion of training camp with that appendix removal. So it felt like he was kind of shaking off the rust. And he made some bad decisions. He was also pressured into some bad decisions. Like I said, the left guard was a huge problem for me watching their offensive line play because that's supposed to be the one weakness that they improved in the offseason. And it just didn't stand up today. It didn't hold up against the test of the Steelers front. And he give Pittsburgh some credit. But, you know, he still made place. He still got them in situations to be able to score and led them back. But I mean, they're in the red zone on multiple

occasions and struggling to get three yards, struggling to get into the end zone when they're on the doorstep of the goal line. They need fourth down to be able to score the game tying touchdown. They leave points on the board just before halftime because again, they're right on the doorstep of the end zone and they don't convert. So their strength with Burrow is downfield. But when the field gets shortened, I am a little concerned about their ability to move the football there. They're not going to face a defense like this every week. But so I mean, to answer your question in kind of a rambling way, it was more rust than anything. I still have confidence in him. He still made the plays. I think you just got to get his feet

underneath him. The, uh, this was a really fun game to watch. By the end of it, it was almost exhausting because those late games were starting and you were like, all right, guys, let's wrap this up. It's a little sloppy. My favorite call, and I think Greg and I both reacted in real time to it was Ian Eagle. Boswell won the game with the long kick, but he nearly won it earlier and overtime with a kick at the last moment knuckled and drilled the upright at like 87 miles per hour. let's listen in to Ion Eagle with the call from 55 yards away boswell no good what is happening here grave dougar we might want to trim what is happening here for our own show going forward all right shook so that's the situation with the Steelers that's the situation of the Bengals who by the way go to

Dallas to get the Cowboys next week at 0 and 1 now what a come down there for yeah and you know the I know I know One last thing on that, because it's so important. They had the game won on the late Jamar Chase touchdown as time expired. And they get the PAT block by who else, Mika Fitzpatrick. And then there was an issue on the snap as well on the short field goal kick. What was the background there with the snapper and what happened with the Bengals? The background was that was not their starting long snapper. That was a replacement who was kind of thrown in there.

And obviously they had some issues there. underrated, like, plot line in football, whether it's the long snapper or the kicker, there's nobody behind him you could trust. So those guys go out. That day at work, for sure. There is nothing worse, though, like for a Bengal season that was just riding as high as possible until the very end last year to lose to the Steelers at home missing these two types of kicks. That's as bad as it gets.

All right. And let's now move to, listen, we don't know where Mark's journey is as a fan, but I know shookie he's born and bred he's ohio and the browns had a game today against the carolina panthers and it ended well 13 seconds remaining he lines it up for horkes with his knee on the ground at the 48 gulet over the ball back he's into it line drive end over end the kick is up and it is and it is good and york had the field go from 58 yards out with eight seconds left to go with a ball game. Great call by Jim Donovan, WK, RK.

Here's the quote from Mark Adam Sessler immediately to my left. Not my middle name. Oh God, Cleveland just won. What does it mean? We're going to get into that later. What was the inflection all about? What was in his heart and his head?

Rookie Cade York kicked a go-ahead. A goal with eight seconds to play. Cream Hunt scored two. times and the brown said baker you're not going to have anybody up vengeance denied 26 24 win over the panthers for the browns in charlotte chucky the browns had a messy off season to say the least but a dramatic win in the season opener is how they wanted to turn the page yeah and part of the off season transition included a replacement of color commentator in the booth the person you hear screaming and almost voice cracking is nathan zagra the senior broadcaster for the team

He's made his commentary debut. Shout out to him and understanding that he couldn't control his emotions in that situation. He's an enthusiastic individual. Yeah, he certainly is. So, I mean, this is a game that result-wise surprised me. I had picked the Panthers and got all the heat from the Browns fans this week, understandably so. And mainly because I didn't think the Browns could actually put up this many points. Not that 26 is a lot of points, but if you watch their offense in this game,

they can't move the ball very consistently unless it's on the ground. They ran the crap out of the football on the ground. had over 200 rushing yards as a team. I think the finish with 2.17 on the ground. Obviously, Nick Chubb carrying the way with 141 on 22 carries, but Kareem Hunt was really the X factor offensively. He had a touchdown reception, lined up as a fullback in the eye formation on the goal line,

which is a dead giveaway, fullback flat, hello, they're going to throw it to hunt in the flat. Look out for that. The Panthers did not. But he also ripped off a nice touchdown run. That regime. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Not prepared in the situation with the personnel. But that and then Donovan People's Jones made a handful of really close. catch is throughout the game. That's a guy that the Browns are really going to need to step up offensively. So the story of the game is controlled the clock, controlled possession on the ground, and did enough defensively to help yourself field position-wise, get in situations where you can maybe put some points in the board. They left a lot of points out there on the field, however, which is concerning and goes

back to why I'd pick them to lose this game. Shooki, the, and as much as we can deride Carolina's coaching staff, the idea that anyone thinks that Jacoby Reset with that surrounding cast of playmakers, is going to put up big points. Nobody thinks that. So was Carolina stack in the box? We have eight and nine facing these two running backs because that feels like how everyone should be playing the Browns

and they shouldn't be able to move the ball at all. Not on a per down basis. There were times where I only saw six guys in the box and you got to credit the Browns offensive line. The one thing they've been able to do under Kevin Stefanski is block well on outside runs. They were able to do that very effectively today and give Nick Chub just enough room to hit that one cut

and burst up the field and rip off some nice runs. I think I saw a graphic late in the game where it was average down and distance on third down. The Panthers were something like 10 plus and the Browns are at 6.6. And that all goes back to the fact that you can stay on schedule on first and second down to running the football. Even late when they had to get in position to kick that game winning field goal, they were still going to the run because they knew it was their best way to move the football. So they're built to be able to win games like this if they can get defensive stops. They played a really good half defensively until the final possession for the Panthers.

they had some blown coverages and then the avalanche came because again they blew some coverages it looked like baker mayfield was going to lead a comeback win but ultimately the brown's got something that they never get in this situation which is a clutch kick usually they're on the losing end of this situation i'm sitting there watching it bridget's here my you know now my fiancee bridge no chance he makes this that he's he's not making this field goal they're losing this game and he drilled it so it's turn of events for the brown when the last time they won an opener which i mean i mentioned this 400 times on the broadcast was the first year I moved to LA, which is 2004. That is an absurd anti-streak right there. So this was

big for the Browns. It sure was. Shooky, any other thoughts about Mayfield? Did you think that he played well in this game? I know it started off extremely slowly, but he really came on and almost stole it. He was pewter in the first half. A lot of the familiar things for Baker. Passes knocked down to line of scrimmage, really ugly interception thrown, offense looking out of sync. But when guys were open he did find them and he really hit his stride in the second half especially in the fourth quarter it looked like a textbook mayfield combat game but this time he did not end up on the winning end this was a tough spot i wanted both of these teams to lose and not that i was a huge baker fan before the last couple of weeks but he's completely lost me so i was rooting against him

and then of course rooting against the browns sort of semi permanently so it was like there was no way to win this game what was up with the uh christia mcalfre usage here only 14 touches is this go back to them now just being so paranoid about him getting hurt that they're really trying to ease him out of the offense a little bit. Well, they tried to get him the ball early and the Browns did a really good job of bottling him up. It wasn't until the second half that he really made a difference. He had a nice run on third and seven where he broke four tackles to move the chains on one of their key scoring drives.

But yeah, just not a big enough of a focal part of the offense. And the big reason was is they just had no rhythm offensively. They had no opportunity to kind of continuously feed him the football because they were constantly behind schedule, third and long. And the Browns knew that the screens were coming and it just didn't give him a lot of opportunities. Now, he did score touchdown going airborne, which I was like, oh, man, don't get hurt just because of how he's gotten hurt in the past. I would anticipate that they work him in more because that's their best chance. No matter who they have it, receiver and tight end, he's still their best chance to go win games.

So they have to be feeding him more than they did on Sunday. All right. So now let's talk. Greg, I'll start with you in this, just me. Where did you see Cessler? How was Cessie in the newsroom to you? And we've known him for a decade. Yeah.

No one loves the Browns more than Mark Sessler. And it shook. Shook, you know, in the distant rear view. I'm sorry, Nick. Like, this was the mark that we knew was in love. And I thought some of the comments he was making maybe spoke to that was still inside him, which was my curiosity entering Sunday's action. Right.

I mean, really, you can even go back to Wednesday or so on our text. thread when he found out that this was shook's game and he was like what that shook's game that that right there was the early tell that was an early tell but it was like okay you can even recall that exchange you can still watch it well that's kind of the point right and then you you mentioned that quote that he said oh god the brown's one and i'll let you talk about the tone of that quote yeah but one thing i've noticed there was one more i haven't marked by the way at uh 354 p.m eastern when uh apparently the quarterback for Cleveland did something. Jacoby Resett making a play.

Right, right. I do remember that. It was a rare sight. But if you kind of just make that a different game, is he saying, Kurt Cousins making a play in that situation? I don't hear that. So one thing I've noticed over the years with Mark, though, is post-Browns game.

So I'm going to take it until the game's over. We'll get to you, Mark. Just hang on a second. Post-Browns game, following a victory, he'll be really excited for the early parts of the next game. He'll be super into it. He'll be, like, really fired up about what's happening to Kyler Murray and Patrick Mahomes in certain things. If they win.

If they lose, sometimes it's a little bit more of a quieter Mark. You know what I mean? And he had a special sort of zeal even post-biltz. Yeah, exactly. Everything had a little more light to it. So I just, this is your impression. Shook, do you have any take on this? Anything you've been watching from a distance with Mark?

I think it's Greg summed up best in a text. He asked me what my games were for this weekend. And, of course, I listed the Browns and the Panthers. And he texted me back, you will make it easier for Mark to give up the Browns. And I said, I will bear his cross. Oh, that's nice of you. All right. Do you have anything to add about?

Did you feel anything, you know, flicker inside you during that stirring comeback there at the end? I'm trying to explain this to you probably twice, three times a week. I'm comfortable with my decision. And I actually was enjoying football. more in general today because I wasn't emotionally attached to one team. What was it because the Browns won? Like, again, that did not really, I know what we're attempting to do here. Greg, I think I was probably commenting on eight or nine games today.

Sure, but now we have to read into that he's going to try to camouflage it in a way that he knows we're going to do conversations like this. But the thing that gets me more than anything is him repeating insistently, I feel nothing. It's no different than any other game. So how could that even be possible? How could you feel nothing? Even if you're somehow landing in the middle, you still have all this history. You have Baker Mayfield, was the guy. You have Deshawn Watson in that idea which turned you off so much.

You have all your years with the problem. And yet that lands on I feel nothing. That doesn't all add up. Even if it's confusing, you surely feel something. That's your psychology. And this is not, I don't want you to see this is ganging up on you, Mark. It's really, it's an important. in terms of the podcast and a character study of someone that we work with very closely

to get to the bottom of this. And the investigation will continue as the season continues. I will say one thing for Nick and for other people. I am like I have nothing against people that are sticking with the Browns that are long time, lifelong Browns fans. I'm happy for them when they win. It's just I have removed myself from the situation. He's built in a bridge back.

I'm happy for you, Nick. I have absolutely excited about what's occurring. I'll say this. As somebody who had many huddle up conversations with Cessler in the newsroom back in the day after the Brown suffered yet another excruciating loss, I find it hard to believe that he will be able to separate so easily for the course of this season. We'll leave it at that.

Nick Shook from Cleveland checking in. We'll see you next week, buddy. Thanks, guys. All right. Shuck you with some Corkers there. Yeah, big time. Let's take a break and we'll be right back. All right, we say goodbye to Shook.

Let us head to the NFC North. Wild stuff going on here. Well, that's strong. Maybe over so. He'll throw right. Look at that. Jefferson uncovered 2015. Tens.

Dances to the right to the five. Dats for the end zone. Touchdown! And JJ is killing him again. It's a 36-yard touchdown and Minnesota elite. great call there by Paul Allen KFA. And you know, we're old enough to have seen Randy Moss at his apex with the Vikings. And I didn't think I'd ever see anybody that could approach Moss and probably won't. But the fact that the Vikings have another absolute monster stud

in his early 20s with Justin Jefferson, that's nice. That's, that's riches. Justin Jefferson went off for 184 and two touchdowns leading the Vikings with Kirk Cousins, of course, to a 23-7 win over the Packers and Kevin O'Connell's debut. And this one is a tough way, Greg, for the Packers to begin their defense of the NFC North title. No, looking so hapless on both sides of the ball was shocking to me. And maybe I shouldn't be as shocked. Justin Jefferson, as you mentioned, is a big-time player. Dalvin Cook is a big-time player.

Daniel Hunter and now Zadaria Smith, who had great games, both of them, are big-time players. And there's this idea that the Vikings are just blah. They're boring. They're the same team every year. And maybe that's where they'll land this year. But they do have awesome players at the heart of it if they don't get in their own way. And most of the second half was spent with Hansis, who had a lot of correct predictions. mid-game predictions that went well for him today.

But what didn't go well was him saying, oh, the Vikings are going to Viking here. And this one's going to keep getting closer, keep getting closer. And you know what? It didn't because their defense stood up. They did. Their offense held the ball enough in the second half, even if they really only got a couple field goals there.

And most importantly, as you mentioned, Justin Jefferson is just outrageous. You mentioned he's not going to be another Moss. Well, Randy Moss is the only player in NFL history to have as many 150-yard games this young in this stage of his career as Justin Jefferson. Yeah, I mean, it was a fascination to watch him. And I think the flip side of this was that this was not last year's Packers on offense

or the year before or the year before because the Devante Adams free Packers, unlike the Chiefs missing Tyreek Hill, did not have an answer. And I thought that Aaron Rogers, you know that in the first half especially, they had one drive out of seven that went for more than 13 yards. They looked confused to me. There were big mistakes. We talked about this too as a group. that Christian Watson dropped what would have been a home run touchdown.

That set the tone for the whole game for Greenback. That was literally the first pass of the season would have been a 75-yard touchdown. Is that a harbinger of Doom for Greenback? They dialed it up in a way, I think to send a, I don't know if they dialed up to send a message, but they dialed it up knowing like, okay, here's the first play of the season. Can we get Watson for 75? Perfect throw by Rogers. And yeah, it goes right through his hands.

They had AJ Dillon stuffed on the goal line in a possession that would have changed this game like. Because I know what you're saying, Dan. because the Vikings were hot and then they cooled down significantly for such a long stretch of time that you could see the Packers with a wide open door to get back into the game but Aaron Rogers looked as frustrated

as I've seen him in a long time and he looked a little banged up at stretches for me too he was getting hit hard and this to me was a very harbinger of doom for the Packers although I think how, remember how they started last year too. I'll use it again. It's just week one so we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves

but you're right. It's not a great star for them and I'll tell you exactly the moment where I was like, okay, I know the Vikings. We all know the Vikings. We know what the Packers have done, especially in the regular season under LaFleur with Rogers winning back-to-back MVPs. They got it.

They were down 20-0 in the second quarter. They get the touchdown. They finally get on the board, seven place 75 yards. Then they get a punt. So now they have the ball back in the third quarter down 27. And I'm thinking myself, they're going to go down the field. They're going to make it 2014. And then that Minnesota offense, which,

under the prior regime with Kirk Cousins there can go to sleep. They could be on fire for stretches and then they can go into deep funks where they go into a three-and-out binge. And I thought it was going to be a situation where Rogers has the ball down six late in the game. And yet, credit to Minnesota's defense

because of the fact that Minnesota, despite all this great fireworks from Jefferson, they only finished with 23 points in this game, but they made it stand up because the Vikings defense did not let Aaron Rogers get things rolling. and you definitely felt it, Greg. I mean, I know Devante Adams did well

with Derrick Carr statistically today, but you felt there were moments in the game where it's like, oh, this is where DeVante would give him a big pick-me-up. And it's going to take time, you think, for the Packers to find that in this offense. No, I mean, AJ Dylan was their leading receiver. And then beyond that, it was nice to see Robert Tunyon back in the mix.

He looks good. Beyond that, their two leading wideouts were Dubbs and Watson, two rookies. And so I think it'll come eventually. you know, Sammy Watkins was in this game and didn't make a big difference. Alan Lazzard hopefully returns. They were missing a lot of players. So David Bactiari and Elton Jenkins, Elkton Jenkins, like, it's a very hard name to see.

Elkton, you're just not used to it. Possibly a misspelling on the birth certificate. Both players were cautiously expected to play in this game, and so you went, and then neither one of them did, and they also lost Runyon, their starting guard during the game. So suddenly you're down three offensive line, man. So if you're trying to make this receiver salad kind of work, you at least need to have that really strong offensive line. The combination of the two made it look like their last game that they played,

which was against the 49ers in the playoffs. If you're not protecting them and you don't have those guys out wide, you're just going to be a total mess. And the Vikings were extremely physical. Like Zedaria Smith, DJ Wanam, Hunter, they all look fresh. and I give their coaching staff some credit here because it's a new coaching staff. Ed Donna tells their defensive coordinator.

He had a play at the goal line that really mixed up Rogers. I think Greg Olson, who did a great job in his first game officially as the number one guy, like really explained it and he confused Aaron Rogers. And they have a new coaching staff on both sides.

It was a very common composed game where I think Kirk Cousins played with a lot of clarity. So if we want to give the coaches some credit, we'd give it to them. Maybe it's just the players. Either way, it was like a very strong, opening salvo by O'Connell. If you're O'Connell, I mean, you're having to deal with the Packers in week one.

And, like, it kind of tells you everything that this journey could be for them. And so I love the win. I mean, I get concerned for Aaron Rogers. There was a play where three Vikings defenders essentially just descended on him and destroyed him. And it resulted in a fumble. And it's like we, Aaron Rogers has not built like Josh Allen. You always just worry about the Aaron Rogers collarbone situation, things like that.

He looks like his neck a lot. He looked uncomfortable. And it's just like, he. He also is the kind of guy that if you're going to get him agitated and frustrated early on, you're going to hear about it. And I cannot wait to see what his comments are. The Packers get the Bears at home Sunday night football next week. The Vikings get the Eagles on Monday night football next week. That's going to be a great early.

Ooh. Who missed their lock? Only one person missed their lock this week. Oh, who was it? Well, couldn't. Not the Titans fan. Hopefully not. No, yeah, no.

Great week one. You know, week ones are hard to read. I'm not even going to worry about it. Digging his own. Grave. I mean, Graver was flying high. He introduced Yessica for the first time really meaningfully to us in a social situation. Yes, we met her briefly at the holiday party. But that was kind of at the point in the relationship where Graver was, you know, trying to show what to make it at that point. Trying to keep it on the down low a little bit. That was slightly suspicious. And that was wonderful. And he left us feeling,

I think, great about everything. He's part of the team and his great woman. It was like, well, we, at the holiday party, they were in the shadows. And I felt like when we got together on the eve of the season, it was stepping into the light. And it was a wonderful time. So think about that. Think about your relationship and all the good things you have in your life. That's what I would say. This is what I would, if I were to sing a little song for Grave Dicker, I'd be like,

His team lost. He lost his lock. When it rains, it pours. But he still has Jessica. That was beautiful. You know, we don't get that song with the Browns lost. Jessica. Right.

Right. No, that's not, this is my, I care about his well-being. He was, like, he sang that song in the back, too. He was really like full-throated. It was beautiful. And speaking of the Vikings, yes, they have the Eagles on Monday night, but they also have a game in London against the Saints. And we'll be there. And we're going to be doing our live show from London,

the Thursday, September. 29th, I want to say? Let's make sure we get that right. And we, tickets are on sale on Ticketmaster. That's right. And we have made some adjustments. We have. Well, it's like the Packers' offense.

They're going to be need to making some adjustments. Let's not compare ourselves to them, please. No, we're not, we're not at that level. We, I really want to say thank you to all the, like, listeners who have bought tickets. We've had an amazing response, and they're going quickly. But we also heard from a lot of listeners. that thought the price point was like a little high. A little high.

And I get it. We're not like super involved in all that decision. I don't pass the buck Rosenthal. I'm just saying we're learning as we go. Well, that's true. And our relationship with the listeners is paramount to us. And so we're learning as we go as we're trying out these new things. And we did.

So tickets are free. We know. We did work it out with Ticketmaster with Live Nation that we have 25 pound tickets now will be available on ticket. master as of Monday morning. And if you want us to lower it further, we're going to be paying to do that venue. We're not looking to box anyone out financially. Like we were, you know, this was, we're just like, okay, tell us what to do. We're going to do it.

And so because we want as many people as possible to come see it and we heard from a lot of you and we want to listen to the seats in the balcony or we've opened up some seats in the balcony. That'll be 25 pounds. Go check them out. And Mark, we'll personally meet and greet with each of you in the balcony. All right. Let us now, well, that's not technically true, but maybe.

It's news to me. We'll see. All right. Don't put that out there because then we're going to encounter more agitation. Ticketmaster.com search around the NFL, London. Here we go. Let's move on to the highest scoring game of week one. It went down at Ford Field.

Get the grid out. Kurtz takes the snap. He's pumping. He is going deep. And it is caught down the fourth sideline by age. Jay Brown, he lurches forward across the five, down to the four. He was covered. That was a great pass and a great kick.

Oh, no, Gravedigger. Oh, he brings out the bongos. That's a pro. Give me the bongos. Give me the bongos. He's still got Jessica. He still got Y.C., even though E.J. Brown went off today in his first game in a Eagles uniform. That is Merrill Reese. WIP with the call.

Jalen Hertz, 333 total yards and a touchdown. A.J. Brown, a career high tying 155 yards in his debut. With the Eagles and Philly holds on 3835 over the Lions at Ford Field. The Eagles scored 24 points in the second quarter. They were up 17 in the 4th. And then Jared Goff in Detroit, they put some lipstick on that piggy, Gregie. but the Eagles are going to be a problem for defenses, aren't they? AJ Brown's going to be a problem.

I'm digging the grave of that trade. It was a bad idea. You could have found the money to keep them if they really wanted. That's enough. You're taking it too far. Okay. I agree with Greg. Should have found the money.

They could have figured it out. Of course they could have, but we don't need to relitigate that. Let Justin die in peace. You sure hope Justin doesn't go home and then suddenly Jessica's annoyed with him about something off the cup. He does not need it today. It's a totally fair point. Here's the thing, though, AJ Brown was.

the difference in this game. I believe if AJ Brown was not on this team, if the Eagles had not made this trade, they actually lose this game. Because while some parts of this matchup were similar to a year ago, ultimately Philadelphia ran the ball when they needed to. It was not just lipstick on a pig. I mean, at the very end of the game, the Eagles needed to get multiple first downs to salt this game away, and they were able to buy running. And they took a very gutsy fourth in one call where Jalen Hertz barely got it or else they would have turned the ball back over to the Lions who might have just won this game the way their offense was going. But A.J. Brown's ability to make contested catches in tight traffic and then make a couple

plays after he made those tough catches made Jalen Hertz look better because I think those were the same throws he threw last year and they just went incomplete or they were like a seven-yard game. I mean, it's the guy that the Eagles have been. looking for for years to be that type of guy that makes the quarterback better and that's what they have in play here right now. So Devante Smith though, I'm looking at his line zero yards, zero catches. That was weird. Four targets. Brown definitely had most of the attention. I think Smith had a drop in there. I wouldn't be concerned about that just because their offense was

extremely efficient. This was not a game with a ton of possessions considering how many points were scored, I believe, including the last drive, which was very effective, they won the game on it. They only had 10 drives, and you put up 38 points. That wasn't a problem. Jalen Hertz's legs also, which I still think are weirdly overlooked, were the other difference, too, because early in the game, they did not really play well on offense. He was getting confused by blitzes, and yet the lions were blitzing and getting to Jalen Hertz, and he was making them pay with his legs. He ends up with 90 yards on the ground. Very few of those were called runs.

He had a couple effective called runs, but most of them were scrambles where it's like, this drive's going to end unless Jalen Hertz goes and picks up 14 yards here. Let's go pick up 14 yards. I feel very close to Dan Campbell after covering the hard-knock season with Colleen Wolfe. I do want to hear from Coach Gritt himself

after the loss. Let's see how Campbell was doing. This is game one, and we got a long season here. And I said the good news is that we didn't play very well and we lost by three. That's what you can take away from this. Now, if we just take this whole approach where every week it's like, well, we play, you know,

we lost by three, well, we lost by three, we lost by three, then what are we doing? So we've got to clean this up. And we've got to be better. We've got to be a lot better in all areas. He's right, because they have now graduated from it being good enough to be competitive. That was last year, and that's why everybody liked them

because they were very easy to root for. But I'm not saying you needed to win this game, but this can't be the story of the Lions again or else it's not really working. I mean, if we look at week one and say the outcomes are far more variable and bizarre than you're going to get over the course of other weeks typically, they lost to Philadelphia 44 to 6 a year ago.

And that was in the middle of the season. And by that point, the Eagles had figured out what they wanted to be a run-heavy juggernaut. But I look at this game for the Lions and say, number one, they started off with a great drive out of the gate and they looked like they kind of did in the preseason to me. I know they gave up a ton of points. but I think this is a tough team on both sides of the line.

They only got one sack on Hertz today. I mean, he was really well protected by that line in general, but this is not a disaster for Detroit on any level. No, DeAndre Swift looks great. Yes, but I think you're playing one of the more dangerous offenses around. No, I mean, the Lions are one of the worst defenses in the league last year. I think their secondary has potential to be one of the worst in the league. I think at moments they played fairly well.

But Campbell was like, we've got to improve in all phases. No, your defense is lousy. You need to improve your defense. And I know Goff struggled late in the second quarter. He had like 13 yards. And so they started slow offensively. But they still put up 35. And Swift had the best game of his career.

They were missing two offensive linemen at guard. And they ran really well. So I don't know. It just seems like a defensive problem to me. Yeah. 17 rushes for Hertz is that? That seems a little high. I don't know.

You okay with that? I'm running the ball that much. It was a lot. One off his career high. It was not. Most of them were not called. So you mentioned, like, there was only one sack. They got free rushers, and they blitzed and confused him quite a bit,

and then he would just beat the free rushers. Right. Okay, well, that's different. But it also, I think, speaks to how teams will attack the Eagles, because they didn't really have a lot of answers passing-wise early for that, but his legs were the answer. All right, so let us, oh, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, yes, Marky.

You and I. You and I both. That's a good way to start. We should pick the same team every week. Well, that doesn't sound as fun, but... No, because can I tell you what... Well, let's not fight it. Can I tell you why?

Because it was agitating, Greg. Well, no, it wasn't that... It was the Eagles. That was what was Adjade. We put Greg into a psychological jar and... Rooted my Eagles. We twisted him into like an emotional pretzel, and that was fun. It distressed him.

If you could upset Greg physically or emotionally, then it's like, all right. Then your Sunday has a little bit of that. of any friend. Not that that's what I try to do. That's not, I don't want to do that, Greg. But just knowing it happens occasionally, it's like, oh, Greg's human.

He feels things. Yes. And I can connect with him in a way. Mentally and physically, I'm struggling on this Sunday. It added a nice element to, you know, we spend nine, 10 hours together on Sundays.

It added a nice element to that. Yes, Greg's gutting through some. He's not feeling great. So we appreciate you putting forth. Well, it's not feeling well. And I asked, is it possible that you're going to be giving us what you have.

And I'm sitting two feet away from Greg and I didn't get a clear answer on that. Yeah. Then we're going to be locking up something together. We're going to be headlock in Rosenthal from the infirmary. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. Let's roll on. 10th play of the drive for the Bears.

I formation under center. Fields takes and fakes with time. Loss to an open. Epilegia, St. Crowd to the end zone. Touchdown. Touchdown Bears. He feathered it in there beautifully. Equanimius grabbed it in the end zone.

Jeff Joniak with a call, WBBM. I like that move. That equanimous St. Brown, where you catch the touchdown or you cross into the end zone, then you fire the ball into the wall. It's almost better when it's the, you're in someone else's building, and it's their logo, and you hit their logo with the ball. But in this case, he fired into the Chicago Bears logo. And that's fine, because everything's fine around the Bears right now, because the Iber Fluse Revolution is upon us. Justin Fields through two second half touchdowns, including that go-ahead score to Equan St. Brown.

Eddie Jackson set up a TD within interception. And yes, the Bears beat the Niners, 1910 on a rainy day in Chicago. A. Mark Sessler, weather is the ultimate equalizer. Am I right? Well, you're dead right. And I'm not surprised that you are. But the rain in this game, at times it became manageable, but there were moments of intense downpour.

I mean, it's certainly, it's almost hard to evaluate the quarterback play in this one. That was going to be my follow-up question, which is how much do you put in this game because of the other? How much did that play a role or should be given Chicago a lot of credit for what happened here? I did give them credit just because the Niners, if anything, you believe in their defense entirely. And when Justin Fields, who had 19 yards in the first half and really was not a factor, he found holes in the Niners' second. to make some big plays. He had a 51-yard touchdown strike. He had that one to a neck with me as to St. Brown. I mean, where he had two guys open on that. I thought he saw the field well there. So he made the most of it. Both teams ran the ball 37 times, but I think

the Niners probably came into the game wanting to do that to begin with. Trey Lance was not going to the air very early on because of the weather, but Trey Lance to me, and it's going to be a real week-to-week journey with Trey Lance because he will always do things in a game that make you believe but there were times when he looked really lost to me and he generated three points in the second half they couldn't get out of their own way. It just

quarterback looks like it will be a liability at times but I again because of the natural environment. Was that because of the weather with Lance or because of where he was at? She's been all over the map all summer and I think it's just it's a lot like they really broke down the fact that like this

Niners offense while it's quarterback friendly and it's well coached the term The whole mental process of taking on what they're asking a quarterback to do takes time. It's not easy. And this is someone that has not played a lot of football in the past couple of years, and he's got the gifts. I mean, I thought there were a couple times when Trey Lance stood up in the pocket and made a throw. When he could have in a different place, if he were a little bit lower on his maturity at this point on the field, he would have taken off to scramble. I mean, he tried to make plays, but this was not their day. and I really thought that some of defensive breakdowns led to

Tray later, led to Justin Fields, saving it for the Bears. This is a big win. I mean, this is a Super Bowl-type team, the Niners, and people were looking at the Bears as a bottom-five operations are clearly rebuilding. I don't think anyone expected this to happen. It's a nice moment for Chicago. Right.

They only had 204 total yards. They were outgained by 127 yards. So it's not a traditional win, but who cares? Right. Who cares to the Chicago Bears? And the 49ers in terms of bad weather, it's like that's how they got to the NFC championship as they found a way to win a bad weather game.

Losing Elijah Mitchell so early in the game. What's his situation? It did not sound like a good injury. Jeff Wilson came in. But I mean, I don't know, to be honest, like it wasn't helpful at all. But isn't it every season that the Niners are losing running backs like early on and often?

But I feel like Elijah Mitchell was so easily the number one most talented guy on that team. They could have used George Kittle today also. Now that most are it's not there. And one thing to watch really for the rest of the season, and I will when I watch this game, is that they have four new offensive line starters. None of them with pedigree.

Almost none of them with any playing experience. Almost none of them, you know, being drafted in the first five rounds. On most teams, that's all anyone would talk about. But because it's the 49ers and they will get McGlinchie back who's hurt, people are just like, well, Shanahan always figures. it out but it's something to watch it is and you know 99 yards and penalties just a sloppy

starts of the season i'm going to watch this game i want to figure out what's going on i have already bears fans getting on me in the mentions because i had the bears at 32 in the power rankings like well we beat your team at number three well yeah that's that's that's fair it's a nice win that's a nice win for them but i do want to see both of these teams on a dry track and see where things are a week from now But taking nothing away from Chicago, that's a big win. And again, a city that's starving for anything of interest to beat the Niners who came within a fourth quarter meltdown of going to the Super Bowl last year. Very nice.

Yeah, my crowd was going nuts. Very nice start. All right. Let us keep moving on. Let's head to Miami. Miami. The Froblitz coming. They got him.

The ball is out. Touchdown Miami. Ingram picked it up on the bounce. Yes, that Melvin Ingram. No gloves on. Doesn't wear the gloves. I always like that. No taped wrists. That's how I played.

Jimmy Cephalo, WQA, M with the call. Safety Brandon Jones screamed off the corner. Wallops Mack Jones. The ensuing fumble scooped up and run in for a score by Ingram. The signature play for the Dolphins in a 20 to 7 win over the Patriots and Mike McDaniel's debut as head coach of the Dolphins. Tua Tunga Viloa threw for 270 and a touchdown. Flash some chemistry with Tyreek Hill, who was involved early and often.

But this was about the defense. And they were the star in this game. And the Patriots managed a single scoring drive on a day that ended with Mack Jones dipping into an x-ray room. You get his back looked at. They canceled his subsequent press availability because of that. So as we record this, we don't know if that's a serious issue or what. But here we are, Greg.

This is where we're at right now. I thought the Patriots, the score tells, you know, you score once in all these drives, not a good day for the offense. The fact that Mac Jones could be hurt. That could be a disaster for this offense. But I think the second quarter... It could be night night if he misses multiple games,

Brian Hoyer. It was the second quarter where they let the game go away. The second quarter, when you watch this game, you'll say, oh, that's the Patriots offense that we heard about all summer. The rest of the game, they found, they moved the ball at times. on the ground especially. So it wasn't an out-and-out disaster that you might expect, but at the same time, results are results.

And this is a relatively easy win from Miami, despite the fact that it looks like it was somewhat close. Right. I mean, trying to take some sort of moral victory. And I've seen, you're not the only one positioning it this way. I've seen it sort in some Patriot circles. Like, well, actually, the running game looked pretty professional for most of it. They just had to go away from it.

And they move the bonds. It's like if you're trying to spin positives out of a seven-point performance where you lose by 13 against a Dolphins team that's, you know, it's not the 72 dolphins here, that just shows you where the bar is right now. And it's at a different level than I think I can remember in the last 20 years. It's concerning. They did lose the turnover battle three to nothing.

There's no way they're going to be able to survive that way. That's been their most consistent aspect to the Bill Belichick regime as turnover margin. Even with Mack Jones last year, it's one of the ways they ended up being in the top ten in scoring as they had all these short fields.

And that's the way they're going to have to win this year and it was the opposite today. The athletic wrote it this way. The scheme was bad. The receivers couldn't get open. The line struggled, a bad day all around for the offense.

And I guess what I'm concerned about a little bit is because I think we were contemplating a reality where like the regular season begins, a switch is flipped, and all this summertime issues, problems, concerns over the offense go away. And it seems to me to be... I don't know. I mean, I've been more optimistic

as others. I didn't even think that would happen. I think this is going to take time. Yeah. But I don't think it's a good... It's not a good start. You can't say it's a good start. I want to know, like, who are the playmakers on this team? Kendrick Bourne led the team in receiving last year. Didn't even play till the fourth quarter. He's been in the dog house. I don't know what he did.

I don't know what happened. Can they afford to have anyone be in a dog house right now? And this is maybe is getting to like a more broad insight on the Patriots or an attempted insight that you could get away with that stuff when Tom Brady was the quarterback. If Bourne is a guy that can make plays, get him on the field, figure whatever it is, get it worked out or get them out of the building and find someone else that can make those plays. So I wasn't overly won over by Tua and the offense yet. I know it was, again, a nice win. You beat New England again, which is becoming a regular thing for the Dolphins lately. But I still need to see more from their offense. It will be interesting how they do against

Baltimore in Baltimore. The Ravens played very well against the Jets on defense today. But the Patriots, we're going to see, Gregi, especially if Mack Jones is injured. That's a major problem. Yeah, their schedule early is not easy as well. I do think that you can look at certain situations with Tua and in this game. You know, first of getting the ball that much to Tyreek Hill and letting him make some plays after the catch early. But that 42-yard touchdown to Jalen Waddle with 18 seconds left in the first half, you know, probably the key play of the game along with that fumble return for the touchdown. That's on a fourth and seven in an awkward part of the field that with that much time left, there's 24 seconds left to start the play that if it's an incompletion there, you know,

the Patriots have 20 seconds to go get a field goal. But Mike McDaniel, I think showing some stones, showing some confidence in his young quarterback. You could call them stones. Yeah, we can call them stones. We've learned what we can talk about. You can talk stones. that's adequate that you know that's showing something that's that's not a short fourth down to go for and for him to reward that confidence with a nice strike that that jalen waddle does the work that's great

i'm trying to think who's on the call for uh cbs in this game maybe was dan fouts fouts is still there right is fouts gone i can't remember whoever it was was saying oh they should not be doing this they should not be going for this fourth down near midfield for the reasons gregg said and then jalen waddle catches ball in stride and he's gone so that was kind of a turning point in this game. I do, Tyree Kill did speak. It was Adam Archiletta along with Greg Gumbull. Dan bounces he completely out of the picture.

He is, I believe. It was Archiletta who's doubting it. And then Archeletta said, you know what? I take that back. Anyway, Tyree Kill, he was wearing his, the viper, what are they called, pit vipers, whatever those glasses are. It's not going to age well, guys. Dan keeps asking us unanswerable questions.

The pit, pit vipers, is that what it is, graver? You're young. I got thumbs up from people. he's wearing the pit vipers and the pit vipers I just want to let everybody know that lived through the early 90s as a teen when stuff like this

was popular it's going to look really stupid in like 10, 12 years I see what you're looking at now yeah that's a hideous choice for he was wearing his pit vipers in the locker room and talking up Mike McDaniels who has stones for days

oh man I said this outside man like hey McDaniels he's gonna need a wheelbarrow man for his to care of man, because you got a lot of you know what I'm saying? So, gussy called by him. We had two ways to describe men's testicles

that were bleeped out there. But just know that's what he was referring to. The man's got gumption. He also called him McDaniels. I would maybe at some point, because, you know, I think a lot of writers and others did the same out of the gate, but your head coach's last name is McDaniel.

I'm just going to let you know. I didn't even realize I was stealing Tyreek Hill's bit there. Oh, really? I mean, I took his point. I said that he had stones. I thought you were just building to that. I thought it was a reference to it because we were disgusting. It was more like some people that we've worked over the years.

I'm thinking of one in particular who no longer is at our company, but we used to do a show with him. If you would say something in a pre-show meeting, he would always steal whatever your point is and then use it on the show. That was kind of what I did to Tyree Kill right there. Well, I think he'll get over it. And by the way, there was a at Hard Rock Stadium. There was a stadium fire.

someone left on their grill, and then it blew up a bunch of cars. Oh, no. I shouldn't laugh. That doesn't sound funny. You can connect that to the Patriots and their offense however you want, but it was an implosion of some kind for New England, and let's see how they get back on track. If they can, let's move on to another AFC East team

that once again is trying to get back on track. The Jets hosted the Ravens at the Meadowlands. Lamar winding up, going deep for Bateman. He's got him. Touchdown. Third touchdown today for Lamar Jackson, and that was a strike from deep 55 yards. How long, how long must we sing this song?

How long, how long? Jerry Sandusky with the call, W-B-A-L, Lamar Jackson threw three touchdown passes, including two to Devin-Durne. Doverne? I mean, what are we doing here? I like Duvernay Ah, he's fine

I think he's more than a returns Hook him, baby Oh, whatever The Ravens roll past the Jets 24-9 on a rainy Sunday So much singing in this show by the way Yeah, very talented group Jackson

went 17 of 30 for 213 yards Touchdown to Rashad Bateman He threw one pick This came after ESPN reported that Jackson had turned down a five-year extension worth more than $250 million. So he's doing the Iron Judge move.

He's betting on himself. And he says, I'm going to be the highest paid player in the world after I finished this season. So starting off well for Jackson, didn't run much in this game. In fact, the Ravens didn't do much in this game on offense initially. The Jets defense came out flying around. But the Ravens defense was better because, and part of that is Jets don't have Lamar Jackson. The Jets have Joe Flacco. and Joe Flacko in front of a line that can't really block well right now

with George Fent struggling specifically after moving back to left tackle after being at right tackle after being at left tackle. Snip, snap, snip, snip. And then they lost their right tackle, right? They had a rookie, they put in a rookie. I might have missed that. I don't know if he went out with injury. But anyway, the point is that Jets could not move the ball.

The Ravens made enough plays. And then in the third quarter hit on a couple big ones. and this game was over. So very disappointing if you're a Jets fan, if you're a Ravens fan, it's a big turn the page after last year's frustrations and you move on with the W in your back pocket you were expecting to get.

Are you concerned? I know that you said the defense came out playing well for the Jets. Are you concerned about the coaching overall, the offensive coaching, or is just the Joe Flacco can't do it anymore? Yeah, I think with Jets fans, we're just sick of it. It's just like, come on now. I don't want to hear any excuses.

I think Robert Sala and Joe Douglas. and you could say, yeah, sure, Joe Flacco was in there, so whatever. But at the same time, we've heard some not-so-great things about Zach Wilson's development behind the scenes, and he's coming off a bad rookie year. So the idea now, we're going to switch. You're going to ask Jets fans now to switch from, oh, let's get behind Joe Flacco. Maybe he'll keep the job to, oh, man, if we could just get Zach Wilson back. Plus, they've talked up Joe Flacco more than any people outside the Flacco family.

Absolutely. So when we're being told by Robert Sala, what a great player. Joe Flacco still is. And then this is the performance by the offense. Yeah, it's disappointing. And it was a sloppy performance overall by the Jets who dropped touchdown passes, fumbled the ball, just didn't play well. And, you know, on the Raven side, just did a great job by their defense,

which obviously had a nice assignment in week one, but they just took care of business. And they were able on offense to get by, we didn't have Ronnie Stanley in this game, the left tackle. But then Joanne James, who the poor guy just can't stay healthy. He goes out again and gets carded. So they finish the game with their third string left tackle, but they're still moving the ball

and scoring points when they need to in this game. So they're just two franchises in different places. And if you're a Jets fan, it is not too soon to panic because this is not supposed to be the way this game played out. My dad, Keith Hansis, who was supposed to give us a dispatch today, he went to the Meadowlands with some family friends,

did the whole tailgating, and went there and got rained on and watched a team no show. And it's just like, enough! Let's go! Let's go! Let's start doing something and giving the fans something to at least root for. Because, again, the calendar changes, nothing seems to change for the Jets. Good job by you, Ravens. Oh, it sure is. I think the Ravens, who are still short, some key players, J.K. Dobbins was out. You know, we know Gus Edwards is out. So Kenyon Drake was their leading rusher.

and well if you want to call it that right they didn't have a running game so that's a little that's a little bit of a concern but I think they have to feel good granted it's against the Jets but they have their secondary back and they're like a back to front type of defense make the other quarterback hold the ball so that the pressure can get there

and I went into this game you know really thinking if there is a weakness on this entire team it's their pass rush they did get 11 quarterback hits I know it's against Joe Flacco throwing the ball 59 times 50 nine times. Joe Flacko threw it 59 times. I know it was, you know, that's because of this. Game script got messed up.

It was like an opener against Peyton Manning, like a 2013. He looked really old. And we know that Joe Flatt, even in the best of times, was never a mobile guy. But when you really have these statues behind an offensive line, it does remind you, especially in the modern game as fast as it is now, when you have a guy that can't make any yardage up, it can't evade the pressure and turn negatives into positive plays

and scramble and get yards. It just puts you in an even tougher box in terms of your offense. So very poor start. No excuses for Sala or Douglas or anyone else. It's enough of this. Like you need to figure out a way to be competitive in your building to start a season. You got 75,000 Jets fans who put up with BS for a decade straight. And that's how you started this season.

They sat in the rain and waited for three and a half hours for something to cheer for. And you gave them nothing. This is no longer acceptable. been acceptable for half a decade now. We're not going to take it. Jets fans are going to boo, boo lustily, and heads will roll if this happens again.

We shall see. You're going to Cleveland next week. We'll see how that goes. I don't, my guards up about this season after a performance like that. Should we take a break? I think for your sake, yes. Oh, man.

Unbelievable. Let's take a break and continue on. All right, we're back. Let's get to a great rivalry game. New Orleans and Atlanta, they hate each other. Let's see what happened in Georgia. 23 seconds left. Will Lutz.

Kick is down. And the kick is good. Will Lutz puts the Saints on top with 19 seconds to play. Mike Hoss with the call. W.W.L. Lutz. They missed Lutz last year. Now they got him back.

He had the core injury. He kicked a 51-yard field goal 19 seconds to play after James Winston led a pair of late touchdown drives. And the Saints steal a 27 to 26 victory away from the Falcons and Dennis Allen's coaching debut.

Mark, the Saints struggled to get into a groove offensively, but they did just in time. This game was insane. I think, you know, with 12 minutes, to go in the final quarter the Saints were down 26 to 10

and I imagine myself coming on this show to talk with you about what I had witnessed and it was all Falcons who put the heat on James Winston early on. And they have to pivot. I have to pivot but I want to talk about them to start because

that's another team that I think people just said bottom three material, no skill position players all sorts of issues on defense. Dean Peas came out in this defensive coordinator going after Winston, going after that line, and they were winning the battle. And then at some point, in that fourth quarter, James Winston turned magical. And, you know, we know he can do this kind of thing, but he, over the course of these two

touchdown drives, went 11 for 12 for 157 yards and hit a money two-point conversion as well. I think that they're receiving cord. They got Will Lutz back, but Jarvis Landry had 114 yards and a couple big plays in this. That's a big signing for various. little. For very little, Chris Alavi got going. Michael Thomas, they were not connecting early on, and James Winston had some throws that were a little bit behind Michael Thomas. First time they were played together in a real game. They got hot towards the end, and you could just see the

chemistry, and it kind of for me with New Orleans, because they're a weird team. They told us all offseason that Taysam Hill was going to be a tight end. We just should never have believed him, but he was taking direct snaps out of the backfield and making all sorts of big plays, too. And so The Saints, not surprisingly, are a fun watch, but I was real concerned about him through three plus quarters until they turn it around. And if you're the Falcons, number one, this Cordero Patterson thing, which a year ago I thought was just going to be maybe a one year kind of flash in the pan, 120 yards of 22 carries, had some big plays in this and was taking it to the Saints defense as well. Marcus Marriota, he's not perfect, but I also think that the way

the Arthur Smith uses these guys, like the Falcons were fun to watch. I did not. expect that. They gagged. This is the worst loss of week one. It's not even close. They totally gagged and it is a bad loss. But I just think... Cincinnati had a pretty bad loss, too. Expectations-wise, though, if we're going to look at them as a mid-range team, I mean, they can do some things. It is a disappointing loss because you cannot crumble that way. They had the Saints in Week 1 at home. The fact that it's the Saints. I mean, I choked before the game. The fact that I didn't

draft this game, it's my own fault. I've said it so many times on this show. You guys are sick of it. This is the best rival. in the NFL because the fans hate each other, I think more than any two fan bases hate each other and the games always deliver. You might have that number eight Fox team on the call, but who cares? This was the best game of the day.

Just for the insanity that you score 17 points in the last 11 minutes and then you have the Saints players dunking on the Falcons like in their press conference, like waving Falcons flags. Like it's a real rivalry. And to lose it at home in front of your stunned fans.

All right, Greg. I'm just saying, we know who you're rooting for here. It's as bad of a loss as you could have. And for Winston, I mean, you mentioned it. In those three drives, he had one in completion

and 213 yards at the fourth quarter. He totally caught fire. He was like peak Joe Montana for one quarter of his life. That's amazing. I mean, they're a very solid team. They have a good defense and they have a nice running game. And these receivers now,

if this is Landry, and Lendry's got to stay healthy, of course, It's been an issue. Michael Thomas, of course, has to stay healthy. But you add those guys on the field. And if Alave is a guy that's going to continue to develop, yeah. And Kamara's a...

Thomas was literally foaming at the mouth at one point. Did you see that, Mark? I think it was maybe after the two-point conversion. That's a little concerning. I think he might need to get a rabies shot. Right. He was just so fired up after scoring. He had two touchdowns that and he was just like...

He bit a guy? Was bit by something? He was just trash talking on the sideline. I'm not sure to who, and then spit was all over his own face. He's rabid. I think you've now laid out everything that could possibly be. I was like they missed that intensity, though. Like he, one thing I remember from that run, and he was so young in it back in what,

2017 when they probably should have won the Super Bowl, he was like their team leader as a rookie in a second year player. And so if he's healthy, I think he adds like something special even beyond his production. I'll ask you this, Mark. So I think it's great the Cordell Patterson has a chance. to, you know, put together another really productive season here. It certainly started out well. Mariotas numbers don't look terrible, not overwhelming.

Drake London was involved in his first game. But how is Kyle Pitts only have two catches for 19 yards? I mean, that has to be, for this Marriota thing to work, he's got to have that chemistry with Pitts, who is supposed to be a guy that's putting up big numbers every week now as he enters year two. He struggled to get, I wonder if that's more of a Saints matchup thing because I want to give that more time.

But, you know, this is a... He's supposed to be matchup proof. I don't know, maybe, you know, credit to Dennis Allen and company there. They took him out. I mean, he had seven targets in two catches. So it wasn't as if Marriota totally ignored him, just it was not a productive day. I thought Drake London made a couple big plays in this, too. I mean, I'm just saying, I get what you're saying, Greg, that it's the worst loss,

but the expectations for the Falcons were like a bottom five team. I just mean if you're there and you're a fan or you're a player. Yes, it would suck. But the high that you were at with 12 minutes left to losing that game is. I thought it was promising that the pass rush that we thought didn't even exist in Atlanta. All right, so. Ooh, who pulled that one out?

Oh, my gosh. The Cincinnati Zoo? They get a lock out of that game? They should have to give it back. Give it back. It's a good harbinger for them, though. If they can pull this out of it, who knows? A big Chris Olavet game, too.

And he didn't have one for 40. You know what, let's not give it to him then. He made a key catcher. revoke the block. Try next week. Chris Olavay did not have a big game. I think he did help set up, you know, that one of those marks. It's like Mark's elaborate sandwich props.

You got to nail all of it to get credit. You can't leave. This is not horseshoes. This is not hand grenades. You hush up. All right. Let's move on to Houston. You smell an upset?

Sort of. 42-yard attempt for blanket ship to try to win the game for the Indianapolis Colts. Hawk is the holder. Snap is down. The kick is up. And it's no good. The Texans got the bullet. Blankenship misses.

That's the sound of that kick, Bearing Wright. Ready? Rodrigo Blakenship. Blank and yanked it. Lego Man. Pushed it. Matt Ryan rallied Indianapolis in the fourth quarter to force overtime against the Texans in his cult's debut,

but neither team could score in overtime. and both blanked in their two possessions in the extra period. Blankenship, blank and yanked it, 2020 final. Houston, sometimes a tie is a loss. Sometimes a tie feels like a win. If you're the Texans and Lovie Smith, you're up 20 to three entering the fourth quarter. But how about let's talk, Gregie.

Let's talk Houston punting the ball at midfield in overtime and playing for a tie. Because, I mean, if you want, Listen, you hire Lovie Smith, you're going to get Lovie Smith things. And we like Lovie Smith, but I didn't like, who plays for a tie in anything? Really weird. Lovie Smith plays for a tie. What was the down and distance? It wasn't like 4th and 36.

No, it was 4th and 3 from the 49-yard line with 26 seconds left. What are we doing? Fourth and 3 from midfield? Here was Lovie Smith's explanation for it. Explain yourself, sir. Mr. Whitebeard. These are the announcers talking about it. Okay, let's hear it.

I mean, if you have nothing to lose, if you're Lovie here, no, they're going to punt. I mean, this is playing for the tie. But nothing. A tie is better than a lost. What also, beyond all of it. But you know what else is better than a tie? A win.

What are you telling your locker room? What message are you saying? You know what it's saying? Hey, man, nobody thought we were going to win. And, you know, we almost won, but we didn't lose. So we're actually cool with a tie. Fourth and 12, fourth and 15. Okay, I get it.

Fourth and three, you're one completion away from being in field goal range and scoring one of the biggest upsets of week one. That would stick to my ribs as a fan of that team. Yeah, and he basically said, like, a tie is better than a loss. He said, I thought a tie was better than a potential loss. And he said we, it's not like, he also said, and kind of throwing his own team under the bus, it's not like we were playing our best defense at the time. We were drained.

I would have said in Lovie's defense, they weren't playing the best offense at the time. They did not look like a team that was equally good to the Colts. They were outgained by more than 200 yards. There were many lucky moments for the Texans in this game. They made a, you know, Jerry Hughes made a great interception on a screenplay. But that was a little fluky. Like Alec Pierce of the Colts dropped a wide open touchdown that they ended up getting no points off of the Colts in the first half.

The Colts Rodriguez Blankenship not only missed that kick, but kick two kickoffs out of bounds, I believe in a row, or at least two out of three in the second half. Come on now. And you know what the Texans did with those kicks out of bounds? Absolutely nothing. These were the Texans offense at the end of the game. And I think this is what Lovie might have been thinking.

and he just didn't want to say it. He's saying our defense might be tired. Here was Davis Mills in the second half. Punt, fumble, punt, punt, punt, punt. And Davis Mills's numbers were fine, 23 to 37, 240 for two. This was an ultimate you got to watch the game performance because in key moments, he was inaccurate. He made some bad decisions.

And I know they just didn't all come back to haunt him, but he just, he wasn't right. And especially down the stretch of that game, they were like hanging on for dear life. I guess they sort of did. I just added up all those second half drives you mentioned. They had 73 total yards in the second half. Right.

I am not, I don't agree with the decision at all, but I mean, I can understand a defensive-minded Lovie Smith not really trusting this offense today. He was foreseen as... Dan, I'm not saying you got to go for it. He was seeing a situation where the worst, you know, a terrible game, and he knew what that loss felt like for a second because he was expecting Blike and Chips Kick to go in.

They had blown the game. and Frank Reich did the Mike Brable thing. He kind of set up for a long blankmanship kick instead of keeping the pedal on the gas there. It sounds like a real coaching exhibition here. I think, you know, what you're explaining, and I'm going to watch us tomorrow, like what Levy Smith can't say is what he feels in that situation.

And he didn't coach his team last year. He's new. His feeling is my team's not good enough. So I'm going to take a tie as a win for us because we're lucky to even be in this position. But it's just weird when it's that close and it's 20 to 3 entering the fourth quarter. It's the gutless move of the week.

And maybe the season. It's also like that little time left. Like there would be under 20 seconds to go for you to stop them from getting into field goal range. Let's have a little confidence. Before moving on quickly, though, I have to give Reich some credit and Jonathan Taylor even more. The Colts are the only team in the NFL

who falls down three scores and catches up with the running game. They stayed very run heavy. In fact, I thought they kind of went away from the run a little too much in the third quarter. And as they were making that comeback, it was almost all running. They were down three scores. They took a field goal early in that process to make it 14 points. And I was like, oh, you're taking the field goal to make it 14.

And they just kept handing the ball off to Jonathan Taylor, who had 31 carries for 161 yards, and it worked. Even down three scores, he was the key to the comeback. He's the man. Matt Ryan also threw 50 passes. Is Matt Ryan well protected behind this line? I kept reading that, like, this is a big problem here. Especially, he was under a lot of the race.

I don't like that for Matt Ryan. I thought he played okay in this game. He was not bad. The first half, he was under a lot of pressure. All right, let's head toward our nation's capital. Well, near it. Near it. Close by.

Snap to Went on a third and eight. Jacksonville Bridge six. He throws a fade towards Dodson and fights for him. He fights forward. It makes a catch. Unbelievable! Catched by Dodson! Touchdown! Touchdown, Washington! Holy cow! Talk about the rookie.

They say he has some of the best hands there are. London. We are seeing that in action today. Ram Weinstein, Julie Donaldson, WBIG, with the call. I'd tell you this. If you are a fantasy person, go to your waiver wire. Just make sure Jahan Dotson's not, you know, accounted for it. If he's not get him on your roster, because that guy's going to be an instant contributor.

Good nugget. That was one of my nugs, one of my takeaways from a 2822 win for the commanders who took command in week one, beat the Jaguars, and Carson Wentz, I'll tell you what, not a perfect game,

not by any stretch. He threw interceptions on consecutive plays. And at that point, the Jaguars took the lead as a result of his mistakes. But he rebounded. and he had his first four touchdown game since a fateful day in his career, a faithful day in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles,

the day he tore his ACL on his left knee while on that scramble in December of 2017. So does that mean like this is the Wentz that's here now, the guy that was going to win MVP that year before he blew out his knee? No, he still looks like Carson Wentz to me, the good and the bad. But it was a reminder of Wentz, who was a punching bag, really for years. now, but especially this summer and it was kind of seen as a joke that Washington could even think it could work with him, that when Wentz is feeling it and he can get going and he can make plays and he can move in offense, and that's what he did because this was a game mark where

the Jaguars looked like they were going to take command. Like they had taken the punches. They had said, thank you, Carson Wentz, for these gifts. And now we're going to have a huge win and we're going to show that we're not the same old Jags. No, Wentz recovered and so did Washington. they're one or no. As we all know, excited to really go ahead and start to take the man. Well, I mean, and, you know, Wentz had his mistakes. And that's my thing with Wentz is he's going to be productive, but you're waiting for that killer scenario, that killer action that's not a perfect quarterback at all. But Trevor Lawrence, who, you know, we all project to have a big season for the environment around him that's so much better at this point, he had a terrible interception at the end of this

game. He did. He did. It was a, I want to think what the down of distance was. But it wasn't a situation where he needed to make the throw he did. He kind of threw it up for grabs and under threw it. And that was essentially the end of the game. And this was a team that was last in turnover margin last year, minus 20. But they were able to force three turnovers in this game, two interceptions and a fumble recovery. The two picks set up 10 points. So they, you know, Trayvon Walker had a interception on a screen pass attempt by Wentz.

He had a sack as well. so that was a very good sign but now we need Lawrence to clean it up a little bit he was flagged twice for intentional grounding he had the interception that Mark is alluding to so they didn't show their ability even with Doug Peterson there to find a way to win a game but they were right there they're just losing is such a habit for this team

that all these players that have been around for a few years I know there's a new players I mean they've done more losing than any team in the NFL and like that's it the DNA. They're going to have to change it at some point soon. But they did get a lot of production out of Christian Kirk and Zay Jones. Their free agent pickups and ETN had a decent game. In Walker had a decent game. ATN did have a decent game, but he also dropped a fourth in goal swing pass wide open. It was a little high, but he should have had it and that was seven points. Right. And there was another one where he was open for a touchdown and Lawrence missed him. So it's those little things that are

actually big things. And if you're a Washington fan, I mean, this is sort of what you drew up on paper, especially a year ago, but now, like, Curtis Samuel, like, Curtis Samuel. Like, he caught eight passes. Looks like Curtis Samuel. Jahan Dotson is in the mix, caught a couple touchdowns. McCoran had one big play.

Antonio Gibson is now the main dude again and puts up 132 yards. Like, they have players around Wentz. It's just, like, against better teams, are those interceptions going to hurt more? I mean, Graver came down, and I know, Justin, you were watching this game, and it's like, he was like,

oh, I thought Wentz played pretty well, except for those two terrible interception. I just was thinking, like, how many times has that been said about Wentz in his career? That's sort of the experience. I will say this. I read this somewhere after the game,

and I thought it was interesting because it was, well, let me say what it is. So Carson Wentz goes to the sideline after throwing the second interception on consecutive plays, goes there, and he looks at Ron Rivera on the sideline, head coach. And Rivera says to him,

hey, you're going to have to win this. Wentz responded, I will before walking away. It's dramatic. It's a nice lead. But you know what else it is? It's the opposite of Carson Wentz's Indianapolis experience where Frank Reich had no confidence in him, especially as the season went along. And you could see, I'm thinking of that Saturday, December game against the Patriots or like trying to hold on for dear life and wouldn't even let him make a throw. Like if Rivera is a little outside the box and gives Carson once a chance, maybe he gets some mojo cooking and Washington surprises people.

We'll see one game in. It's a nice day for the commanders who took command. We got the Carson Wentz experience and we're going to get it again. I mean, that's fair, but it's also a great example saying I will and then doing it of taking command. Kind of. Yeah, he's like getting ready to, you know, kind of, I will. He was alluding to this day. It was all building to this moment. All right, we got one more game Sunday night football.

We sent Greg home not feeling well, but we got some business to get to from Jarrow World. a bad night at Jarrow World for the home team. Oh, Sunday night. First to go for the five, Brady, Evans. Did he catch it? Yes, sir. Touchdown. Tom Brady to Mike Evans, like old times. It was the only touchdown of the game,

but throwing a few more field goals, and it was more than enough for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who begin their season on a winning note, 19 to 3 over the Cowboys. And if you're the Cowboys or Cowboys fan, this could not have been worse. Dak Prescott, 14 to 29, 134 yards, no touchdowns, an interception,

bangs his hand during a pass rush by the Bucks late in the game, X-rays, and the worst news the Cowboys could get. He needs surgery for an injury in the joint above the thumb of his right hand. Jerry Jones, the team owner, tells reporters shortly after the game. He's going to be out several weeks. So, Mark, not only, and we'll get to the bucks, but I think the Cowboys are the story coming out of this game.

Not only do you no-show in your opener at home, you now lose your quarterback. And when you combine those two things, it paints a very ominous picture of the Cowboys' near and potentially long-term future this season. Well, even before this happened, the energy around this team tonight, their performance on offense,

what was lacking, what was missing, what we thought would be missing, which was wide receiver strength, depth, and it was. They cannot win on the outside. And even before Dak Prescott was injured, this was not the Dak Prescott we're used to seeing. This might have been one of his worst games that I can recall. And there were moments where he just was out of sync. We're talking about guys like C.D. Lamonied to step up.

It's just not the case tonight. And so the offense looked lacking in what is even more concerning, because I don't know how long he'll be gone, obviously. but they've got the Bengals, then the Giants who look a little spicy right now, then Washington, and then if it goes on beyond that, the Rams and Eagles. And I think what we've seen from Cooper Rush tells you, Cooper Rush is not adequate to come in and win games. I mean, he was a big mess tonight.

Yeah, we need to know more about how long DAC's going to be out, but it sounds like this is not going to be something, it might be October, who knows. But it's a situation that this season is in deep trouble immediately for the Cowboys. I don't think that's an overreaction, and you're right. Dak Prescott, before he went out, was not having a good game. And C.D. Lamb, he had a bad game. And these are two very good players that need to be great for the Cowboys to win this division and get back to the playoffs.

And one night only, neither played well. And now one's on the shelf. And it's the most important guy to the team. And so you have to keep an eye on how the Cowboys handle this. Because, yeah, Cooper Rush is not one of the better backups in foot. football. And this could be, this could be the recipe, let's be honest, for one of those 0 and 3, 1 and 5 type starts. And all of a sudden, it's all over for Dallas. So that's a devastating setback for the team, both from a game and from a long-term perspective with

DAC out on the buck side. You know, I thought even though the scoreboard doesn't tell the story of an exciting game 19 to 3, they only had one touchdown, but they also didn't punt until late in the third quarter. They controlled the flow. Leonard Fordet looked great. running for 127 yards on six yards of carry. Mike Evans did Mike Evans things. Julio Jones, I know the thing with him is you can't just view him as, oh, this is who he's going to be because he can't say healthy anymore. But this version of Julio Jones still looks explosive and could be a big time guy for the bucks.

Yeah, I mean, they had a Tom Brady best throw of the night was that 48-yard shot to Julio Jones. Great catch. Great catch. Great throw. There's chemistry. They're using him. He had two sweeps as well. So I like the Julio Jones fit in this. They did lose Donovan Smith, their tackle. Chris Godwin came in and then left the game as well with a hamstring injury. And it was elbow for Donovan Smith, and we'll know more about that. So both of these teams cannot lose anyone else along the offensive line. And the Cowboys also lost Connor McGovern and Terrence.

Steele operates as a penalty machine. So I just see concern all over the place for the Cowboys. When it comes to Tampa Bay, you know, they looked more powerful, obviously. It was not the most watchable game on the planet. it, but I'm not leaving with much concern. I think there's still the bucks, the same bucks we're used to. Yeah, and I think, and obviously Bruce Ariens is upstairs. Now he's so I'm in literally wearing like a Hawaiian shirt while he's technically working.

He's acknowledging on the telecast in interviews. Oh, yeah, I golf two or three times a week. This is a very nice job for Bruce Ariens. And it's a nice job for Todd Bowles because this team, you could see the way the defense swarmed. And that's another issue with Dallas, the offensive line, which we talked about during the summer, did not look good. but they were overmatched in this game.

So the Tampa Bay defense looked excellent in this game. And Brady is going to have bigger statistical days, but I didn't see anything to be concerned about him. It's been kind of a funky, weird offseason for him. I think it's all systems go for the bucks to, you know, and you know what it's about with Tampa Bay at this point. Stay healthy enough. And then win your 10, 11, 12, 13 games,

and see what happens in January with Tom Brady, a quarterback. They're on the right track. The Cowboys, the opposite of that. Absolutely. And the Saints will tangle with the Bucks next week. And after what happened last season, I can't wait to see that one. Very fun. All right.

So we'll have more on Dak Prescott and where he's at on our Tuesday show when we're all back together. And Greg will be hopefully feeling better by then. Speaking of Greg, our next ATN show of any kind will be tomorrow night. The Monday night football recap of the final game of week one, Seahawks versus Broncos, Russ Bowl 1. So keep, stay tuned. Stephen Ruiz joining us for that one. Oh, very nice.

We love Stephen Ruiz. He is great. So that will be great conversation. So be there for that. Again, go to Ticketmaster around the NFL live show from London. We mark down some of the prices for the balcony seats. So we want to make sure you guys are at that show. So we call Celebrate Football Together in London.

And that's it. I think we're all done. Great show, Mark. Wrap it up. Season 10 of ATN, season 13 for us here with the company. Let's make this one the best one yet, buddy. I plan to. Great.

He the call, everybody. This is an I-heart podcast.