NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Week 2 Recap

Episode Date: September 16, 2013

A room full of heroes, Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling breakdown everything you need to know about all of the Week 2 action. Get caught up on all the analysis and key takeaways from each game. Join the conversation on Twitter: @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the League podcast runs the cover for defense. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. Dan Hansis, and I'm joined by a room full of heroes. Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. Happy Sunday, fellas.

Hey, Dan. How are you? Covered from the beating you took yesterday? The beating I took? Oh, on the cornhole field. Is that what they called a field? Pitch, maybe? Yeah, in the pitch.

I'm just glad you guys all made it into work today, even if Wesleying pulled a Josh Freeman. Yeah, we took our ATL team photo, and Wes was nowhere to be seen. We'll have to, you know. Work up in Sessler's dungeon. Wow. We should just leave it open like that. Let's move to the games. So cryptic.

All right. So this is our second Sunday night podcast. It's very exciting. We're going to go through all the Sunday games. We, on Friday, we talked about how exciting this week was going to be, and it has been exciting, but a little bit of a bummer that a lot of injuries this week. That seems to be the big plot line right now, right, Greg? Yeah, it's amazing just the names that were injured. Ray Rice, Andre Johnson.

help me out. Stephen Jackson. Reggie Bush. Brandon Whedon, you got to throw in there. You got to throw it. When we talk big names. Andre Johnson is another one. And just on and on, it went. And so hopefully a lot of these don't seem like they're too, too serious. But we'll have to find out during the week.

Yeah, so that will be a big point of this week of seeing some of these key guys how long they'll be out if they're out at all. But I guess we'll do what we did last week. through every week we get assigned to two or three games each which we follow closely so we'll go around the room here and we'll talk about the games that we watched and we'll cover every game today and why don't we start in Atlanta where the Falcons beat the Rams 3124 Chris Wessling was watching that game once he got here from Sessler's dungeon so the game wasn't nearly as close as the box score might show Falcons jumped out to a big lead

basically ran away and hid for a while. Julio Jones was the story of the game. He was unstoppable. Matt Ryan threw for the second most yards of his career. And only got sacked twice, but he still took a beating from the Rams defensive front. So I think the offensive line's an issue there. And the Falcons had trouble running the ball.

It was their fewest yards in a win in franchise history. Stephen Jackson left after only three carries. The team did not update his injury after the game. Croy Bierman also got hurt. are you concerned about this running game, you know, moving forward? I am. I didn't think that Stephen Jackson looked all that great in week one. He had that 150-yard run where it was a huge gaping hole

to kind of hole that Michael Turner used to run through. But outside of that 150-yard run, Falcons running backs of average 1.86 yards of carry this year. Let me ask you a quick question because I looked quickly at the box score, saw that Tavon Austin had two touchdowns. but I haven't really seen a lot of him this season. What are your takeaways of... He wasn't involved until the game got out of hand

and the Rams started playing catch-up and passing it all over the place. I think they're probably... He probably doesn't know the offense quite well enough yet to the point that they can unleash him. It might take a few more weeks before they're ready to do that. 55 passes for Bradford trying to come back. That was one of those games that was just kind of over before it started.

Yeah, and both those teams are now one-in-one, and so they're both in okay shape heading into week three. Okay, let's move on. Let's move to Baltimore. The Ravens beat up on, well, they didn't beat up on the Browns, but they beat them 14-6. Mark Sessler, poor Mark Sessler, who predicted 4-12, then hedged his bet,

came back, read an official statement saying 8-8 and 8. Let's start a little bit like we could have a 4-12. Is that fair to say? Well, I think it's a little early to go that dire. No, let's go. You were pretty dire in the newsroom. It got dark. It got dark.

In the last week or two, I've seen the Jets and Greg's team and the dolphins have all these glorious victories. Today it happened for one of our friends that's a Bills fan. Cleveland's just been left out in the dark. But I do look at this game objectively and I see something hopeful for Cleveland, which is a defense that at halftime was up. They were up six nothing. They completely shut down Baltimore. But they don't seem to have the confidence as a team to hold on to that kind of situation. Their defense has a lot of talent.

They seem completely differently coached than the offense that wandering. No game plan. The Browns continually seem to drive once or twice, and then they lose whatever foothold they had, they wander from it entirely. There's no game plan on offense. Here's my question, because I know Josh Gordon up being there is a big deal, but what happened to all the talk before the season began about North Turner

and Chud and how they were going to bring a real offense? It's from what we're seeing in the box score, at least this team is not doing anything offensively. I think it really, you know, it's funny there was that day a couple weeks ago when I wrote a post about two guards for Cleveland being injured. And what was a deep offensive line suddenly is thin. They've given up 11 sacks in two games. They give up five today. They gave up six last week. Last week was not an anomaly.

They have real issues and they can't sustain a passing game. Whedon was running for his life. He left with a thumb injury at the end of the game. And until they fix that, I'm not sure what the answer is. And he might not start next week. I doubt he would, frankly. What's up? Is this all Whedon with the five sacks?

And what's up with Trent Richardson? Are we, is the expectation is going to be lowered for him at some point, or we think it's just the team around him? You know, it's funny. There was a point a little bit after halftime where every single time that Whedon lined up under center, it was a run. I think their offense is blatantly predictable right now.

That it's easy for teams to see Richardson's getting the ball here. And he bottled up behind the line of scrimmage half the time. And what about... What about on the Ravens side? What did you see from there? You know, I think that the Ravens... I liked, by the way, you told me that Joe Flacco's wife had a baby shortly before the game, and it was your assertion that if Flacco played well, it would mean that he was not a good family man. I like that feeling. Well, yeah, that's tilting my message to some degree. I thought that either was going to play with him in a negative or a positive way. You know, he's ice, he's ice cold. Water's running

through the flack of veins. He just went out and he produced. But the Ravens, I think, you know, what we saw against the Broncos, there was some carryover where they still don't quite have an answer in the passing game across from Tori Smith. But Marlon Brown, who we've talked about a bunch, Wes had brought his name up a lot over the summer. You know, I saw something from me. He's two touchdowns and two games. He gives them a better option than anyone else, I think, on the other side. And Tori Smith cannot do it alone. That's my one takeaway from watching two Ravens games. has to be the best late off-season edition I can think

of, I mean, he's been fantastic. Yeah, their defense was very solid. How good was Jordan Cameron? Cameron, I mean, that is another bright spot. You know, with Gordon coming back, they actually, I think Cameron is the most productive target on this team. He's got something

14 catches, 203 yards, and a touchdown in two games. Offseason hype, actually in our, you know, we had a making the lead candidate with Cameron. He's paid off. Sessler and Dan are trying to say this season is over. Dan predicted the Browns would win nine games. Browns fans, come tweet at Mark and Dan and say it's only 0 and 2.

Well, hold on some hope. They'll be lucky to win four games. I brought a few positive points up. That's true. There's issues here. Yeah, the Browns, for my prediction to be accurate, they would have to go 9 and 5 from this point onwards. And beyond that, forget about that one. The branded weed in 4,000 yards, 30 touchdowns prediction.

That one's looking really grim. Mark, you also did the Buffalo Bills thrilling. 24-23 win over the Carolina Panthers in Orchard Park. My hero pick, hero right here. You tell me about that game. Congrats, Dan, number one. You've bounced back this week on the picks. Ow!

You have. For me, this was actually a very weird, ugly game up until E.J. Manuel went on a torrid nine-play, 80-yard march with inside the two-minute warning with no timeouts left. You know, I look at the bills, and it reminds me a little bit of what the Seahawks did with Russell Wilson very early last season where he was real hemmed in. They didn't dump the whole

playbook. Manuel also, I think, has been given a simplified offense to work with. I think they're ready to open that up a little bit. I saw him actually not play very well in the first half of this game. His throws were off him and Cam Newton both really struggled early. But in a big

moment, it's hard not to be happy for Buffalo's fan base because that stadium utterly melted when Manuel did. They haven't seen a good quarterback in two decades. And, you know, it's a little bit of hope and they have someone, I think, that they believe they can build the offense around. That's a positive. Good defense by the Panthers, though. Give me a Cam Newton update at least. I mean, this is tough, I think, their offensive performance. I know they picked it up later in the game.

What I saw, because last week, obviously, that offensive performance was a dire mess. And I think that Newton threw only three passes more than 10 yards. They definitely went downfield more. And for me, it seems at one point that when Mike Shula just let Newton play, and they got into like a two-minute drill at the end of the first half, Newton just went to instincts, and he threw the ball, and he did a nice job just pegging targets down field. That's when it looked like the Panthers' offense of the last few years. But then they reverted back to this what is an overly conservative attack,

and I have real concerns for Panthers fans on the offensive side of the ball. I'm really bad at picking games. I'll say that up top. But the reason why I took the bills is because I thought it would be close, and I know that Carolina cannot close games. And it's been something that's been going on since Newton's been there, and I guess that's what happened again, right? Six games since the start of last season,

they've led in the fourth quarter and ended up losing. Well, expect the Ron Rivera talk to really pick up this week. And, you know, I'm usually not in favor of saying close losses are anything more than, you know, sometimes it's just bad luck. But Ron Rivera has shown over and over close in game situations that his team's not well coached, they're not prepared, and they lose these heartbreakers again and again. And they play more close games because they get conservative when they have a lead.

Moving on, I covered the game, Chicago Bears. 3,130 win over the Vikings. This is a tough loss for the Vikings. Martels Bennett had a 16-yard reception with 10 seconds to play, basically salvaging a game in which the Bears did not play very well in wet, sloppy conditions at Soldier Field. Minnesota forced four turnovers and lost in a game they really needed because now they're O&2 and it's not a good situation for them.

But credit to the Bears for a second week in a row basically stole a win and they're in a good position right now. Suddenly, Jay Cutler's clutch. You know, that's a funny thing about clutch. It's like people want to say, oh, this guy's not clutch. Suddenly they're making all the big plays at the end. They got some mojo there. Yeah, he didn't play great.

He had three turnovers himself, including a lost fumble on one of those classic Jay Cutler doesn't protect the ball well where he got stripped and got picked up and run in. But to his credit, you know, he led them down the field at the end and his pass to Bennett, who by the way, Bennett, I think the only thing stopping him from a pro bowl season and a thousand yards and something close to it is an injury. I think he's a great fit in that offense and it's clear Cutler trusts him because a year ago he would have just been forcing the ball to Brandon Marshall over and over again in that spot. this time he looked elsewhere, and, you know, they got the win for it. Well, they get Cordero Patterson starting out that game with a kickoff return touchdown. Last week they got an Adrian Peterson return touchdown. Their defense, you know, turned the ball over, and yet they still can't get a win. It's a rough one to start.

And Peterson, I know I think he opened the season with a 76-yard run or something about there for a touchdown. He ran for 100 yards exactly, 26 for 100, but it didn't make any huge image. impact plays. So he's been bottled up pretty well. I think he's close to 200 yards after two games, but if he really thinks he's going to run for 2,500 yards, he's going to have to have more dynamic plays than he's had for the most part. Matt Forte has to be loving the Mark Trussman effect.

He's already one-third of the way to his reception total from last year. That's true. Tulane's own, 160 yards from scrimmage today, 11 catches. The Vikings have to win with defense and running, and their defense is not playing well. One little nugget from that game in my reading of the games after. Yes, Mark. Did a lot of reading.

Jared Allen was actually on one of the last teams to start O&2 and go to the playoffs with that 2008 Vikings team. And he was walking around the locker room after reminding everyone of that. I don't see that happening. And, yeah, two other facts. Cutler was sacked once, so it's just been once in two games, which obviously is a big upgrade from last season, although that was a little deceiving because he did face a lot of pressure. And then Christian Ponder, you know, I said on Friday I thought if he had a bad game, you'd start hearing Buzz that he could be in trouble.

I don't think that's going to happen because he did lead the team on three field goal drives in the second half that should have put the game away, but ultimately didn't. So he played poorly in the first half through a pick six, but played, I think, well enough in the second half where you're not going to see him on the bench, at least in the immediate future. Well, there was a report before the game that he's on a shorter least than anyone imagines, and that was from Jay Glazer. so that means they're going to have to start winning. You're probably right that he played well, and so that'll stave it off, but they're going to have to start winning at some point. All right, let's move on.

Let's go to Lambeau where the Redskins ran into a buzzsaw, didn't they, Chris Wessling? They did, and they're not helping themselves with that mockery of a defense they're running out there. The Packers had four offensive players with career highs and yards today. Wes, by the way, just to interject, you sound like the voice of a man that slept in a dungeon. Well, it's a guest house.

By the way, yeah, it's a back house that's furnished with electricity. I'm like the Cato Caelin of Sessler's neighborhood. Oh, that is not a good place to be in life. All right, go ahead, sorry. So anyway, yeah, so four players, Starks, James Jones, Randall Cobb, and Aaron Rogers had career days today for yards. And this comes after LaShawn McCoy had one yard off a career day in the opener. Redskins defense is allowing 342 passing yards per game and 201 rushing yards per game.

they're terrible the other big takeaway for me was RG3 looked pretty much like he did in the opener he can't he can't move the offense until the game's out of hand and the defense slacks off a little bit

he's taken over from Carson Palmer as the garbage time king in the NFL Wow you don't want to be compared to Carson Palmer for Robert Griffin the third race And he's moving about as well as Carson Palmer right now too So you're saying Brandon Maryweather was not the savior for the Redskins defense

Why did we hear that so much in the last week? It's bizarre. He's one of the worst coverage safeties in the NFL, and we just heard all around the newsroom and in the media, Brandon Meriweather is going to be this key to the Redskins defense. Well, there's a reason he doesn't stay on the field. He goes after Eddie Lacey knocks him out with a concussion on a very questionable helmet-to-helmet hit.

Think he'll get fine for that. And then he knocks himself out on a similar play with James Starks, and Meriwether goes out. I have two quarterback questions for you, West, or maybe just statements that maybe you could add to. Number one, Aaron Rogers is clearly the best quarterback in the planet Earth, right? Yes. First became the first quarterback since Y.A. Tiddle in 1962 to throw for four touchdowns,

480 yards, and no interceptions. That's not bad. And then my other question is a follow-up with RG-3. When you say he's not moving well, is it because he's not healthy or he doesn't maybe trust himself? Like, what kind of level of not moving well are we talking about? Well, I would say he ran like a 4-3-840 before the knee injury. he's probably running about a 4-940 now.

He's just not fast. With RG3 last week, it was throwing off the front foot. He just looked completely off. Were you seeing that same thing again today? I wouldn't say to the extent he did last week, but he's not getting as much on the... He doesn't have the easy gas that he had last year. I'm just happy that the Packers performed well enough

to prevent Mark from frothing at the mouth at them again. They're convinced you they could be good. I have them going nine and seven. They're one-in-one. They're right on target. your little pep talk really got them you lit a fire under and by the way he threw for 480 yards Aaron Rogers but only tied Matt Flynn correct that's disturbing I heard McCarthy actually

usually you know they put up you know quotes around the locker room of people to fire they actually played our podcast in the locker room to get the Packers fired up that was a weird move but it worked good job by you and by the way Aaron Rogers is on team Allison Bree Mark and I's NFL Desk League team good job Aaron we're really proud of Championship. Yeah. All right, moving on, I was in charge of watching the Houston Texans, Tennessee Titans

match of a very good game. Texans, once again, they're almost like the anti-bucks where they are snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. They won 30, 24 in overtime. Andre Johnson got hurt, and that's something to keep an eye on. A big takeaway from me, though, was DeAndre Hopkins, who looks like the real deal. He played well on Monday night against the Chargers, and then today he had, He was basically the best receiver on the field.

He had seven catches, 117 yards, and a great game-ending catch in overtime in the end zone. So they might have finally found that second guy compliment a wide receiver, and it changes their offense a lot. Minor footnote, that was my offensive rookie of the year pick. How about the Tate Foster dynamic in this one? It's funny. It was almost identical. I believe Foster had 19 carries in Tate 9.

This was after a Monday night when Foster had 18 carries in Tate 9. So the workload is evenly distributed again on some, well, it's not even, but it's the same type of breakdown, which we were told that's how it was going to play out. But again, Tate ran better. I mean, he ran for 90 yards on nine carries. Much of that was on a 60-yard early in the game. But I thought Foster looked better, and I think Tate's just a really good runner who's going to get some money next year.

Now, the Titans were really close in this game to being the surprise team in the NFL so far this season. Even the fact that they were close to me is a surprise after winning last week. Greg Williams has to be one of the early season stories, right? It's funny, by the way, that you say that because I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Everyone says Greg Williams, but Jerry Gray is the defensive coordinator. So, like, what is the dynamic inside that building? And do you think Jerry Gray is like why people keep on saying Greg Williams when I'm the D.C.? Well, nothing else changed about the defense, but suddenly they're doing crazy things and, you know, suddenly they're much better.

Yeah. He still has that kind of evil Greg Williams look on the sideline. Maybe that's just adding some intimidation that's taking them to the next level. I don't know, but they really did look good. They look very good on defense. It's going to get swept under because of the loss, and they gave up 30 points ultimately. But they made some really nice plays. One other takeaway I had on the Texan side was their kicker Randy Bullock. He's now one for five on the season, and he missed a 47-yarder that would end of the game. So he's probably, talking about short leashes he could be on one as well we don't talk about kickers around here you guys want to hear this you guys want to hear this gregg williams text that mark sent to a girl i've been talking to yeah wait one what an intro this was yeah this is last night this is brilliant lay it up real quick because he allows me to send text to this woman friend of his yes i mark was that doesn't help mark was at the controls of my phone for a they think it's coming from you wesley right that's the point and this was last night before the dungeon this text was sent last night before the dungeon while we were in a bar.

Okay, nice setup. All right, go. Okay, I'm going to give you the Clif's Nose version. They're playing in the basement where 20 to 30 teens are nestled up to 40 ounces of Papsed American beer and pot cigarettes. They are smoking multiple pot cigarettes while I ponder the defensive front of the Tennessee Titans, which is so obviously being orchestrated by Greg Williams. It bothers me to no end that people still cling to the half-truth that Jerry Gray is running Tennessee's Titans. Tennessee's defense.

The Titans' defense was not multiple, but it was attacking, and bared the marks of Williams to the core. I believe in the defensive Rocky Top. I believe in the far corners of society. I know that the red car of Rockland drives with a fury into the forest of North Sweden. What was her response?

I hope she has a good text plan. Two question marks. Only two. I'm almost surprised there weren't multiple and then a police phone call. Sorry, Wes. I don't think you'll be hearing from her again. I feel like I know too much now about everyone involved.

I know. All right. Yeah, we should just move on after that. Mark, what's going on in your brain? I don't know. That was 12 hours ago. All right, let's move to Indianapolis where the Miami Dolphins, a nice win there. Now 2-0 24-20 over the cults.

Greg, you watch that one. Yeah, and Ryan Tannahill and Andrew Luck both played well, I thought. It was kind of the duel I expected. Defense has played better at the end. And I'm just wondering how many more of these types of games we're going to need to get Tannahill in that discussion with the rest of his 2012 class because he was sensational. You know, people say Andrew Luck carries the Colts. You know, he doesn't have as much to work with. Well, Tannehill had worse protection today than

luck did. He was under duress more. I think T.Y. Hilton made the play of the game. You know, Luck has Reggie Wayne. Tannahill is working with, you know, an okay wide receiver group, and he had a number of throws, especially to heartline, that were very difficult to make. I thought he played well, and ultimately Brent Grimes and the Dolphins defense was the key to kind of pull it out in the fourth quarter. Let me ask you a quick one, because I always am suspect of

teams that go on these massive free agency binges, and a lot of times it just completely implodes. I mean, in all sports, but it looks like Miami's is actually, and especially they had Dustin Keller, it's sort of working out early on. Oh, absolutely is. Brent Grimes has to

be one of the best free agent signings of the offseason overall, considering the money he's getting paid. He locked up Wayne today, did a very nice job. I thought made the play of the game on an interception in the end zone where luck basically threw it up for grabs, thinking, you know, not too crazy that Wayne would be the one to make the play. Instead, it was Grimes, made a fantastic play. You know, you mentioned the linebackers earlier today when we were talking. They had a pretty solid game. I think you have to be very happy with the free agent pickups. Mike Wallace bounced back too with over 100 yards. They made sure to get him involved.

like what the coaching staff is doing there. And credit to Jeff Ireland because everyone knew Brent Grimes was an excellent corner in Atlanta. And okay, you blow out your Achilles, that's a bad injury. But all you heard was positive reports about his health. And it didn't seem like any teams really grasped at that opportunity to get a potential lockdown corner. I think he's 30 years old, so he wasn't that young. But still, that was a nice move to get him.

That changes their secondary. Lerby, Wheeler, and Grimes made the most plays on their defense. And Wallace, obviously, the big free agent pick up, you know, they got them involved with screens and stuff over the middle. What isn't a ton of big plays, but then got a big play in the second half. So it was good. It was a very evenly played game. I think the refs took four points off the board for the Colts at one point.

So I think it could have gone either way. But they're 2 and 0 on the road for Miami, which is pretty impressive. It's worth noting that the one free agent sinee who was injured has been capable replaced by Charles Clay. Yeah. Clay is a big part of that often. Not only is he a tight end making some plays, but he was actually their goal line back today and got a touchdown. So you don't see that too often. Greg, if I offered you, okay, you're the GM of the Colts, and I offered you Ryan Tannahill and a first round pick in 2014 and a second round pick in 2015 for Andrew Luck. Would you pull the trigger?

No, I don't think you mess around with a top-shelf quarterback, like luck, that I think luck can be. I mean, we've talked about seeing luck as a potential MVP Canada, top five quarterback. I believe in Ryan Tannahill, and I think he has everything you could want in a quarterback, but he's not Andrew Luck, so no. Andrew Luck is off the table. But to your original point, but aren't these other young quarterbacks, all guys that people have high hopes that they can have Hall of Fame level careers?

Do you think Ryan Tannahill has a Hall of Fame level career in him? No, not necessarily. Take him up the board. It wouldn't be that shocking to me. Put it this way. I won't be surprised if he has a better career than Russell Wilson, and I think he can be right there with Robert Griffin III. Who really knows?

It wouldn't surprise me if he has a better career than one or two of those guys. That's what I'm saying. Okay, let's go. Greg, you again, you also did the Casey Dallas game, Kansas City, 17-16 win over the Cowboys. Tell us about that game. defensive game, again, very evenly played. I don't think Cowboys fans should be freaking out.

I thought for much of the day, Tony Romo played very well, got protected well. The Chief's defense stopped the run completely. Des Bryant made a number of big plays. But ultimately, Andy Reid's kind of showing. He can win with defense and runny. It was a really weird game. I mean, Alex Smith led the Chiefs in rushing.

The Chiefs didn't move the ball, but they were very effective. In the two times, they did move the ball. They scored touchdowns, and they're 2-0. I mean, the Chiefs have already matched their win total from a year ago. It seems like I heard you say on four separate occasions during that game that Des Bryant just made the play of the day. Well, that was all in the first half an hour.

You're right. Des Bryant put together a first quarter and really a first half that just has to be seen to believe. He just kept stacking incredible play after incredible play. Had 100 yards in the first quarter, I believe. But the Chiefs, you got to give them credit. it right now, I think their defense has shown that they're not a fluke. It was a really... Don Terry Poe. Don Terry Poe had

another couple of sacks today, I believe. I know I said that the Cowboys protected Romo well overall, but they didn't do as well in the fourth quarter, and Romo, who played a really good game, had a bad fourth quarter. And I think all that clutch stuff is overrated, but you had a bad fourth quarter. So another

Tony Romo microcosm type game? I don't believe in that whole narrative. If someone wanted to kill Romo for not playing well in the clutch, today would be a good way to do it. Elliot Harrison will tell you that Tony Romo has the best fourth quarter rating in the... Elliot Harrison will tell you that Tony Romo could walk on water. You know what is the most disturbing takeaway from this game for me

is that I discovered after the game that the Chiefs wore red tops and red pants, which you've never seen them do. It's like a complete uniform change, galvanized the team, obviously propelled them to this win. I asked Greg, Greg, give me your take on the... Red top, red bottoms. Greg doesn't even remember seeing it. I'm not a uniform guy. This is the guy that we've assigned to the game.

He's no damage to have to notice that. I don't play. I don't pay attention to the room uniforms. I'm not big on the jersey numbers necessarily. Who cares about the uniform? It disturbs me. I watched, yeah, I did the Titans again, and immediately I noticed they had these grizzly blue-on-blue this attire.

I'm not the Damashek uniform monitor, but some things you notice immediately. I'm not, look, I'm not a fashion expert here. I was too busy getting excited about Alex Smith, Everyone kills him. He can't go down the field. The play of the game was him getting out of the way of a would-be sacker, throwing at about 30 yards up the field on a third and long, and they score a touchdown on that drive.

Is this a playoff team? We picked them to go 9 and 7. I think that's the perfect pick for them, 9 and 7. Our next game, Philadelphia Eagles, you know, they had the great start on Monday night. Now they had their home opener against the San Diego Chargers. Everything was set up for, you know, another blowout win. everyone who's going to get excited.

Instead, the Chargers beat him, 3330. Kevin Patcher, our Chicago ATL correspondent, our colleague, actually based in Detroit right now, but we have him on the phone, and he's going to tell us all about the game that he watched. Patra! Yeah. What's up? Everybody.

Eagles did not start as hot as they did last Monday night. You know, the interesting thing to me about watching the game is we talked a lot about how Michael Vic, how they would protect him, how many hits he would take, really didn't run the ball much, only six carries and one with the touchdown in the fourth quarter that wasn't designed. They didn't really run a whole lot of read option.

McCoy only had 11 carries. They threw the ball a tonne, just all over the field. Vic had 428 yards passing. I really thought, I mean, they took shots. We know Chip Kelly, the fun thing about him is going to take some shots down the field, and that's what they did all day.

Deshawn Jack had one long touchdown. He should have had two other ones. Vic let him out of bounds on one, and then the other one. He, it was a stupid penalty to brought it back. And that was happening with the Eagles. They just kind of shut themselves in the foot. A whole bunch. Defense did not play well.

Let the charter pick him apart all day. Hey, what's up with the resurrection of Philip Rivers? Yeah, I mean, you look at it at him. He just ran that McCoy offense just beautifully. I mean, he was getting the ball out of his hands very quickly. I mean, you saw it on any row of three touchdown. They were quick-packed and a couple broken tackled. Eagles couldn't tackle him all day, and he was in the end zone.

Wait, back up a second. You just said Eddie Royals three touchdowns, just kind of sliding that in there. That was like that was an everyday occurrence, Eddie Royals three dozen. He had two last week, isn't it? I'm expecting to at least two a week now, right? He looks good. He gave Bryce McCain fits in the first week. I wrote something a few weeks ago that I remember five or six years ago,

I thought Eddie Royal was the next West Welker. I mean, that was a long time ago. It seems like he's been gone. It's finally healthy again. Yeah, I mean, they're not giving him routes where he's got his way to develop. They're getting it in their hands quickly, and he's made some plays. There's no doubt about that. Tell me, this has to be a talking point coming up.

I'm not a time of possession guy. Neither is Chip Kelly, but it was 40 minutes to 19 minutes for the Eagles. And the Chargers had 79 plays in the game. So it wasn't like the Eagles were racking up plays. They actually had 20 fewer plays. Yeah, they only had 58 plays this week. I mean, they had 53 in the first half last week. And that speaks to the Chargers game plan.

and they was just, you know, pick them apart. I mean, they had a drive where I think they had 18 plays, and they ended up settling for a field goal. But it was just, you know, quick plays. And Rivers was getting them to the line. It wasn't like they were huddling, taking their time. Get them to the line, keeping that defense on the field, and then, you know, making this call from the line.

And then waiting until there was five or ten seconds on the clock, and then they were like the ball. And they, you know, gained five or six yards, and they'd do it all over again. And they just were picking apart, you know, a very suspect defense that just wore down as the game wore on. Chargers had their most yards since 1985. Philip Ir was 419 yards and three touchdowns.

No interceptions. That's pretty impressive. He looked very, very good. And he obviously, this is offensive, that he works well with his skill set. And we've had career high in passing yards, too. Yeah, 420. Like I said, yeah. And Vic looked good in the pocket.

I mean, he wasn't struggling. They should have had more. Frankly, he probably should have thrown for over 500 yards. They missed some big plays, and they kept going back to him. which is fun to see from a viewer's point of view. One more real quick point. The Chip Kelly effect, the Eagles are the first team in NFL history

to have a wide receiver with 250 receiving yards and a running back with 350 scrimmage yards through two weeks. Right. Well, I wonder how much more help they're going to get because, like you said, last week, at the end of the last week, how many hits are, is McCoy going to take? He looked as great in the past.

game you only had 53 yards rushing they didn't really rush the ball a lot i mean so they're really relying on sean jack and lashon boy to be their game makers all right patrick so you are a detroit lion's fan as we know i don't know for the listeners know also a sue defender which you know speaks to your character perhaps but i don't know if i'm a defender i think he's a great player that it needs to get some things right you know you like you defend the guy you like dirty players got it um whatever but since but since you're on the phone and you're a lines fan west actually was the man who covered our Lions matchup today against the Arizona Cardinals.

But why don't you stay on the line? West, tell us a little bit about the game, a 25-21 Lions win. My biggest, excuse me, 25-21 Cardinals win. My biggest takeaway from watching this game was that the better team did not win. The Lions self-destructed. They had eight penalties for 101 yards. The offense went in the tank after Reggie Bush's knee injury, and they basically gave the game away.

Could this, you know, interpretation be colored by the fact that you were the only man to choose the Lions. Chris Wesseling. It could be. Failed hero. That is a conclusion that can be reached, but I'm saying honestly, the lions were the better team, and they just shot themselves in the foot. Well, hold on. How are they the better team when we see Detroit doing this kind of thing? I would think they had eight penalties for over 100 yards today. They come across to me as a little bit undisciplined. And when Bush went out, I think they had 90 yards in the second half of offense. What makes you say that they're, you know, automatically the better team here.

Because I watch the game. Well, just more talented, though. I mean, but they did whenever they wanted until Bush got hurt. Patra, what did you see? Yeah, I mean, it was exactly right. And I picked against the Lions because they usually go out west and lay an egg. And that's definitely a gutless pick. You're a Lions fan and you picked against them in Arizona.

Okay, come on. You know, Hansen's got to pick the Jets every week. I saw this coming. It's not a surprise to me. As the game unfolded, I said, I was telling my brother, we're not going to win this game. There's absolutely no way we win this game. It just was unfolding that way. They couldn't move the ball in offense.

It felt like the Cardinals had the ball the entire second half. They couldn't do anything. Once the Cardinals could bracket, Calvin Johnson, if they couldn't, there's no other playmakers on that offense. When Joyce Bell is your next best playmaker, they're a problem. Patrick, what are the chances that you are in a restroom in a Detroit dive bar locking the door speaking to us right now? I wish. I'm actually in an empty room where I'm set up. It's very echole, though.

I thought you might have been, you know, the guy at the sports bar, and they have like a one-in-one-out restroom, and the guy just locks the door and just disappears for 10 minutes. Not everyone does that, Dan. Sometimes it happens. I'll consider that for next week. There are a couple around here that I said. It would easily work for that.

All right, Kevin. Well, thank you for checking in with us. We should make this a weekly thing, because we love hearing your voice, because it's kind of soothing on some level, I have to say. be bi-weekly. We'll do, guys. All right, Kevin, thank you.

Have a good one. All right, moving right along to the late games. I watched the Saints beat the Bucks 1614. Oh, my God, the Bucks. Oh, my God. The Bucks, they had the first two weeks of the season, they took a lead into the final minute of regulation, lost both games, and lost in just grisly fashion both times,

more penalties today, which killed them, including one of the worst penalties you can imagine. A 75-yard Vincent Jackson touchdown was wiped away by an illegal formation with the right tackle not lining up on this line of scrimmage. This is the type of stuff we're talking about. There's no discipline here. And then you have just execution. Ryan Lindley could have essentially maybe not ice the game,

but put them in a great position late in the fourth quarter of field goal. He misses it. Three Drew Brees completions, spike the ball. Field goal game over 16, 14 in the bus. have to be wondering if they're ever going to win. With Josh Freeman, all the nonsense surrounding him of the last week, how did he do today? He didn't play very well.

I mean, the numbers speak to it. Like I said, that things would have looked a lot different if he complete that that pass stands to Jackson. But ultimately, the stats aren't there and the offense isn't moving very well. They played really well on defense. They actually played great on defense, which makes us even more frustrating.

but yeah, you know, this is a team where things could fall off the rails right now because these are two devastating losses to start a season. Freeman went 9 for 22. I do want to point out he made that throw to Jackson, which was a crazy penalty, so his numbers would have looked a lot different. And he had a great drive to set up that field goal. He made a number of really difficult throws. So if Ryan Lindell kicks that field goal and they win the game,

I think the story is partly that Freeman after this crazy week, made a couple great throws to win the game. Doesn't mean he had a great game, but I think it's worth noting. And by the way, they would have been saying the same thing last week because he led them on the go-ahead field goal against the Jets, set that up, and then Levanti David pushes Gino-Smith out of bounds, and that gets forgotten too. So Freeman doesn't look great.

He's not playing necessarily great, but at the same time, their problems are more about discipline, and it's killing them. Well, I want to get to one of my favorite weekly recurring segments, which is when I ask Chris Wesleyan, whether he believes in bad Santa and the Saints defense yet. Come on. I didn't see that game today, but I would say it's probably not hard to play great defense against Josh Freeman. Oh, still not.

Ouch. Giving any credit. Come on. Ouch. All right, moving on, we're going to hit, oh, this was a grim one in New York, the Denver Broncos beating up of the Giants, 43. Greg Rosenthal had that game, Greg. Well, it was just uncanny how it was so similar to the Broncos game last week where it was tight at It was 10-9 Broncos.

You're wondering when are they going to break out? And then it ends up being a laffer. And my big takeaway is they've won these two games in blowouts, and they can get so much better. I mean, the Broncos just won by 18 in New York. Wes Welker dropped every other pass that was thrown to him today. Demarius Thomas had a bad game. Monty Ball fumbled on the goal line and was pretty much a disaster.

12 carries for 16 yards. And yet here they are racking up 40 points. By the way, Champaley's out, and Von Miller's out, and the defense is playing well. I think Jack Del Rio and John Fox deserve a lot of credit. The 2007 Patriots watch, I have a few stats for you guys. Yes. Peyton Manning joins Drew Brees. It's only a second quarterback in history to throw for nine touchdowns in the first two games of the season.

The Green Bay Packers have 66 points second in the NFL. The Broncos have 66 points in the second half without even including the first halves of games. And they are the seventh team in NFL history to rack up 40 points in the first two games, each of the first two games of the season. Well, and that's, you know, in both weeks, we've seen them, like you said, it looks tight. It looks like the opponent has some semblance of a chance. And then the Broncos just unleashed this waterfall of points. And you're right.

Last week, it was Decker, right, who dropped a ton of passes. It's like you don't need every key player to show up. Two weeks in a row, someone's going to fill in the gap when someone's not playing well. Yeah, Trindon Holiday gets a kickoff return, or punt return rather, so that helps. No Sean Moreno had, I timed it, the slowest 25-yard rushing touchdown in NFL history. Watching him versus the Giants linebackers, you could have timed it with like an hourglass or whatever down the sideline. But it didn't matter. Everything's going well for this team.

I want to be the first guy to get on the, can the Broncos go 16 and O bandwagon? I figure in week two, I'm in a good spot because no one would be stupid enough to do that, but I will be. And I'll look at their upcoming schedule just to get to the bye week. Home to Raiders, home to Eagles, at Cowboys, Home to Jags, at Colts, home to Redskins. I feel pretty good at 8-0 at the break there. Then they get Von Miller back. And then they get Von Miller back.

So mark it down. I was the stupid one who talked undefeated season in week two. All right. Up next we have the Oakland Raiders, 199 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's only fitting that Wes watch this one because Wes has now picked the Jaguars to win two weeks in a row and has been turned away. You're not going to pick them next week at Seattle. By the way, I have a one-time offer for everyone. The hero pick committee had an emergency meeting today, and if you pick the Jaguars to win in Seattle,

and you're right, you get three hero picks for that selection, if you're right. Not doing it after I saw this game, I'm not doing it. It's fitting that their first touchdown of the season, came in garbage time, and it was by a player. They claimed off waivers two weeks ago, Clay Harbor. They were without, for this game, most of the game, they were without Maurice Jones Drew. They were without their leading receiver from last year, Justin Blackman, and they were without

Mercedes-Lewis, their tight-in, and it showed. They couldn't move the ball. Let me ask you an Oakland question, because I think we all would have agreed in August. This roster is a shambles. There's a lot of issues all over the place. But, listen, they played the cults much tighter than people thought, especially on defense. I find them intriguing. And they go out today and take care of business. What is it that we were wrong about in August? Nothing. They're still not a good team. Wesleyan is not worried about his

softball pants. No, I think... Will Wes eat his softball pants? The one thing we're wrong about is probably their defense has a little bit more backbone than we thought. Right. I'm not convinced they've played a great offense yet. I mean, the Colts scored at will early in the game. And then to me, I thought, kind of got too conservative. But I think offensively, Terrell Pryor, he helps McFaddenay had 150-something yards today because of the threat of Terrell-Priar running so I think they can do some things on offense

that we didn't think they could do don't you think the defense deserves a little more I thought the defense played well against the Colts they have more of a backbone than we hooked they're one-in-one that's on pace that's on pace they allow a touchdown to the Jaguars how good can they be

are you marinating those softball pants are they? No not yet I'm not really worried yet if they get two, three wins by mid-season, I'll be worried. You know, the Jaguards fans get a lot of grief for their support sometimes, and definitely too much, and they're very sensitive. But you've got to feel for them right now. Any support they're given is probably more than this team, you know, deserves.

This is rough. Very bad. And that takes us to the final game of Sunday, the Sunday night game, much anticipated the Seahawks at home against the Niners. Wes, you said on Friday that you thought at this stage that Seattle was unbeatable at home, you might be right because they made the Niners look very pedestrian today. It reminds me a little bit of last year's game in Seattle, not quite the blowout from the offensive's point of view,

but the fact that Kaepernick is having his worst game of the year or the worst game he's had since that game. So I think that's, it just shows how hard it is to win up there. I think it's worth noting that, and I said this downstairs to Greg, that now Kaepernick this was not his best game obviously the entire team didn't play well when they went to Seattle last December

you know Seattle's got to be feeling good if they get a home game looking ahead to the playoffs I know we shouldn't be looking ahead at this point that's pretty far ahead but we all believe these two teams I know San Francisco didn't play well tonight but these two teams are both

you know very good teams going forward but Seattle has to be feeling good now that they might be even in San Francisco's head a little bit with you better beat us for this division title or it could be welcome back to Questfield and trouble again. Well, could I just point out that this game was a little bit of a disappointment that the Manning Bowl and the 49ers Seahawks was the two games we were, you know, heard most about all week, and it was a great football Sunday, but these two games weren't great.

I'm looking forward to, you know, seeing back on, you know, tape what the two defenses did, but you're struggling if you're the 49ers, if you hold Russell Wilson to whatever he was in the first half, you know, he had like a baseball line at one point, one for nine, he was 0 for 5 to start the game, and yet they go in the half-time up 5-0, and then they end up, you know, coasting the second half. And as much as we credited Anquan Bolden last week, and he deserved it, I think we can see tonight while he's not a number one receiver. Richard Sherman just shut him down, quite a performance.

It's not the first cornerback to shut Anquan Bolton down. And Sherman basically, you know, the game icing interception there, he dance with the cheerleaders, and, you know, he has a personal vendetta against Jim Harbaugh. He thinks that he didn't take care of him during his college days when people came to visit with Stanford and asked about him. So that had to be feeling good. So, yeah, I agree, though, Greg. This was a disappointing game.

Hopefully when they meet up again, we'll get something better. So that's it for Sunday. We went around the league. We have one more game tomorrow night, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, which should be a good one. We will be back on Wednesday. We will recap the Monday night game and all the news that's going on.

Also, huge Wednesday. Don't forget, we're playing Win West's Toaster. Are you ready for that, Wes? I am. I don't know if I'm feeling confident. You need to pick it up, I think, around here. I'm feeling confident this time. You told me you're not going to do like the stats from last season type of stuff.

We're going to do more trivia. I'm going to change the questions a little bit blatantly to try to make you a little more of a dominant force because that's like the key to this game working. Wes is going to get some, you know, needs to get some rest in the meantime. I feel like if you want to be. You ought to take Wes's Toaster, take him out for some drinks and cornhole the night before. Why don't we just give him a couple days off, Greg, and just bring him back into the game. And, of course, besides that, I'm excited for Win West's Toaster, of course, but I'm even more excited for the K. Rich listening party of her theme music, hashtag bonkers sacks.

So get ready for that because that's going to be a lot of fun. But until then, enjoy the Monday night game, and we will be back on Wednesday. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front opposites construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find

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