NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Seahawks 17, Broncos 16: Geno's not writing back! (MNF Recap)

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by The Ringer's Steven Ruiz to recap the Geno Smith bowl! The Seahawks defeat the Broncos 17-16 in Russell Wilson's return to Seattle, and the co-presidents of the Geno Smith Fan Club can't get enough. The hosts recap the wild ending with the Broncos trying a 64-yard field goal, Geno's success, the Broncos struggles, and close the show with some off-topic tidbits from Sunday night and Monday film study.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Flits, Homer picked it up briefly, and sniffed, right open caught. Diss Lee, touchdown, what a start. Wilson floats it. There's Judy. Has caught. Judy's still going. Down inside the 20.

And touchdown, Denver Broncos. From 64, McManus. Missed it. A lot of people were wondering if Gino Smith could hold his own here against his Hall of Fame predecessor coming back to town, and I'd say he did that and more. Yeah, I would agree with that. A lot of people were wondering, that's right, Joe Buck,

but I wasn't, and neither was my guest tonight, Stephen Ruiz, my co-president, I would say, in Gino Nation over the years. It's happened. The Seattle Seahawks won 17. 16 on Monday night football in the return of Russell Wilson. There is so much to get to in this game. But Stephen, for people that don't know, a writer at the ring who does great stuff,

we can get into all that later. But most importantly, has always believed, like me, not just as a bit, but in his heart that Gino Smith was better than people gave him credit for, it now is here. He just won this actual game. It's an actual thing that happened in the year 2022. I don't care if they go 1 and 16.

They can never take this night away from us. How are you feeling? Never, never. It was a long time coming, man. It was a long time coming. There's been a lot of starts and stops to the Geno Nation agenda. But we're rolling, baby. Seriously, though, did you ever think this day would come?

Because I kept thinking during the game and we will go through it all and really give a real breakdown. And there's obviously more to talk about other than Gino, Smith. But his performance, which was fantastic, is certainly a big story. There were moments throughout the game where I was just like, I kind of can't believe this because I didn't think he'd ever really get a chance as a week one starter, much less as a week one starter on the team that he just understudied for Russell Wilson in this moment, and that the crowd would be chanting G, no, G, G, no. Like, throughout the game, early, often, and then to finish it, like, I It just, I don't know.

Storybook stuff. I was going to say I'm speechless, but all I am doing is honking too much. Let's get into the game of it all, Stephen. I think let's start at the end and move our way backwards. Because as amazing as Gino was in the first half of this game, in the Ciox only had three possessions in the second half, the story at the game at the end of the game was obviously that last possession, with Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett.

And I do kind of want to go over that first because that was the most bizarre four-minute drive to end the game that I can remember with Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson, both simultaneously sort of freezing up and them ending up going for that, yeah, that long mid-6-yard field goal

for Brandon McManus. Just casually, just asking your kicker to break an NFL record. The second longest kick in NFL history, just casually. you had plenty of time. But like I felt like we spent so much time during the off season discussing whether like Russell Wilson will work in this offense

and how he left Seattle. And I feel like Nathaniel Hackett being a first year coach and a guy that's kind of, it feels like he's out of his depth already. And he hasn't had like a great, he hasn't had multiple years. Like as a good offensive coordinator, he had the years with Green Bay, but that was obviously Matt LaFleure was calling the plays. this was as rough as a first game as you can come up with. It was not even just the field goal.

Going back the drive before that, the fourth down, I think it was from the nine-yard line. You have Russell Wilson. You're paying him a quarter billion dollars. You got to go for it there. The field goal just cuts the, you had a one possession, you cut it to another one possession. And then you end up with a 64-yard field goal, just a horror show for Nathaniel Hackett. Yeah, so I'm like the worst podcast host here. This is why we have Dan Hansis usually do it.

He sets up the game, he puts it all in order. He would probably let the guests speak a little more than like 10 seconds in the first three minutes of the show. But I'm just sort of losing my mind. But to set the table, Russell Wilson and the Broncos were down, as you mentioned, 1713 heading into the fourth quarter. There had been no scoring in the third quarter at all. The Broncos had moved the ball incredibly well, I would say, throughout the night. They ended up with 433 yards, which is. a lot when you only had seven real possessions or eight real possessions in that game.

They were moving the ball at will. They're winning physically. And in the fourth court, it felt like they were getting anything they want, but they kept getting stopped inside the 10-yard line. And you mentioned one of them, not where they lost the fumble, but where they end up kicking that field goal. They get a quick three-and-out from Gino. It was the first three-and-out of the game by either side.

And then they get the ball back with four minutes and two seconds left in all three-time-outs. And the thought there is, in a perfect world, we have all the time in the world, we are kind of getting what we want for the most part. We have crazy mismatches on the outside. Our running game, for the most part, has been great. And Russell Wilson's effect of getting the ball out quickly, kind of in the flath to his tight ends. And he should be able to move the ball down the field slowly, try to burn all the clock and go win the ball game on a field goal. They've gotten into field goal range literally every possession that's,

they had the whole game, let's do that. And that was apparently what they were trying to do early in the drive. They weren't taking any rush with the ball. They're letting the playcock go down. Seattle actually ends up using a timeout trying to challenge a call that didn't work. It ends up being a first down for Denver. And they're taking their time. And I'm actually thinking, this is really smart.

At some point, like, when did you realize that they actually had no idea what they were doing? They were wasting their time. and they wouldn't even use those timeouts in the end. It was that last snap. Like, and their pre-snap operation was bad all game. Like, it felt like Russell Wilson was fighting the play clock all game long. And I thought Russ was going to call height there. And all of a sudden he calls timeout and then the kicking unit comes on.

And then the funny thing is Nathaniel Hackett starts to use his timeouts after the Seahawks get the ball back with like six seconds left. Then he uses the timeouts to stop the kneeling at six seconds. And just I'm astounded. I'm astounded. You would think, like, when you become a head coach, that's the first thing you kind of study and you lock down. And then just to have that happen in the first game, I mean,

I'm not going to write him off after one game, but it's got to be hard to have confidence in him going forward, at least for this season. Right. I put a little bit of it on Russell Wilson. I guess it should be on the coach. But like, if Tom Brady is running that team, like there's no way any of that happens.

Like, couldn't he have overridden what was going on at some point to play? like a little faster. So they get their last first down of the game with coming out of the two-minute warning. It was that nine-yard pass to Javante Williams. He does not go out of bounds. And again, I think like, okay, that's bad situational. Football by Broncos, they should go out of bounds.

Then again, like, they actually shouldn't mind milking the clock a little bit. There's still two minutes. I can almost hear Tony Romo in my head, hey, you have plenty of time. You got all three timeouts. Don't be in a hurry. That said they don't take the next step

to 124 left on the clock. That snap goes totally bonkers. Cody Barton makes a great play in the backfield. Again, it seemed to be some sort of snap operation where it was confusing at the last second. There was a problem for Russell Wilson all night. Barton gets injured on the play, so it ends up being a Seahawks timeout. And after that, there's incompletion, a short pass, an incompletion, a short pass again

to Giovante Williams, who breaks the tackle. And that was it. That was the end of the game. Then they kicked the field goal. At that point, it was fourth and five. Do you think there was any thought of, like, we don't totally trust where our offense is right now out of Russell Wilson to get those five yards

and we'd rather have Brandon McManus kick it? I don't know. There's no reason to think that, though. Like you said, they were moving the ball. And especially the last couple drives, it seemed like Seattle had backed off. They were playing a lot of soft zone coverage. And if you just wanted to dump a pass off to Javante Williams

for like five yards, they could have had it. and they had the timeouts to stop the clock. It was just a bizarre, bizarre decision. Right, because when Giovante Williams got tackled there, there was more than 50 seconds left in the game. And they had all three timeouts. Like, what would even be the, I guess, if they don't pick up the first step, but you're losing.

At that point, you're under a minute left and you're losing the game. It makes no sense whatsoever, obviously. Yeah, it's not good. And I know we've said that the offense was really moving the ball, but I think like the things we feared about what this offense would become with Russ is that like every offense in Seattle became the Russ offense where you're just living out of structure. You're throwing it deep.

And I think we saw that. And although they put up points and they moved the ball, at least they didn't score, they didn't finish hop drives. It never felt like they got in a rhythm as an offense until the fourth quarter when they started going up tempo and they started going hurry up. Before that, I felt like. there was a lack of synergy

between their under center stuff, which I think they really leaned on early and their shotgun stuff. Right. And for this offense to work, it's the Shanahan McVeigh type of offense where everything is kind of interconnected and you need to set up the play action passes

with the run game. And the run game was working. The deep passing game was working when Russ was in the gun and kind of doing stuff out of structure. But the play action passing from under center Russ's ADOP tonight was 3.2 yards.

It was all flats. It was like all throws to the flat off play action. A lot of boots. They didn't have that mid-range game. And that's always what drives this type of offense. Like you think about like even the Jared golf days in Los Angeles. It was always those deep overs. Jimmy G. in San Francisco, the same thing.

Aaron Rogers in Green Bay. But we didn't get that with Russ. So, you know, you look at the stats. You see that Russ was average almost like 10 yards per attempt. He ends up with 340 yards. Judy goes over 100 and Sutton goes over 72. But you don't think they really. was a good feel. I'm with you.

No, no. I think it's going to be hard to sustain. There was no completions over the middle, like over 10 yards, 10 to 20 yards. And that's like an area of the field. You really have to attack in this offense in particular, and they just were unable to do it. And I think, I mean, you have to go back and watch the film. But I'm pretty sure Aikman said that Jerry Judy was running wide open over the middle on the play, I think it was the last play before the field goal when he checked it down to John.

They said, said, was running wide open over the middle. That's where Russell kind of misses throws. He kind of motioned, like how come the ball didn't come my way? He ends up going to Devante Williams, who does break a tackle. It could have been like fourth and ten. And it actually would have saved Nathaniel Hackett from this nightmare because I doubt he would have lined up McManus for a 68-yarder or a 70-yarder. They probably would have just gone for the fourth and ten.

But Russell didn't see that. And that's why I don't want to be like too critical on Russell Wilson when, like I said, they only had eight possessions. They moved the ball that well. But people smarter than me are watching this game. Sean King, my favorite two-lane quarterback of all time, and just saying, like, Russell is so off tonight. There were those two throws into the end zone,

one of which should have been picked off by quandary digs, it went through his hands, where he throw inside on the, I think it was like a go route, essentially, and then he threw inside on another vertical route that should have gone to the outside later. And I wouldn't say that Russell Wilson was so off in this game, But it almost felt like the situation, not to get inside the head of it, like everyone was amped up in this game. And he didn't seem to be seeing the field too well.

Jamal Adams also had his, you know, annual or almost gamely, every game he has a ball go off his helmet at some point early in the game. Unfortunately, he went down with an injury. And it just felt like, yeah, Russell Wilson's been in the league a long time, but Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hockey have not been in the league. a long time together, and especially the two-minute operation, which you saw at the end, which Russell Wilson's usually good at, and then just getting the snap off and having everything set before the step was a nightmare. They had three delay of games, and the fumble on the goal line, one of the fumbles on the goal line, I have to point out, because there was more than one inside the 10, was partly because Russell Wilson did not get the ball snapped until the very last

second and it was another frantic operation where the defensive lineman on that play think it was out woods i wish i knew off the top of my head you know could see that it's going from one to zero and it's just flying off the ball and the offensive line really wasn't ready for it and he ends up causing a fumble on that play so their operation just was very weak one which we've seen around the league uh but but is a concern yeah and there was such like a big thing made about russell wilson really taking ownership of this offense so i do think like it's fair to criticize him for even the last snap where they let the clock run down.

So I'm going to take every opportunity to put it on Russell Wilson. Wow. That's it. Yeah, I'm trying to hype up my man, Gino. Okay, let's get to the good stuff here. I mean, people are listening to this thinking, like, I can't believe you just spend like eight minutes or 10 minutes talking about the end of the game

and Russell Wilson before getting to Gino. I don't think I've ever had my mentions be as active in a single NFL game in my entire life. I don't know about you, Stephen. What about you? No, no. It was every, every second I was getting a notification on my phone. Like, what is it?

What does it say about us? So, like, in theory, it would be great. You know, I would love it if Mark and Dan were here on this podcast, too, with me. We're trying something different on Monday nights. We're going to have a guest every week. And they'll have their say on Tuesday, too. I know that they'd be giving me grief right now, Stephen, they'd be hating life. They were absolutely rooting for the Broncos because they knew I'd be so insufferable for the rest

of the week because of this, but this is not the fair and balanced podcast. We're going to bury Russell Wilson and we're going to praise Gino Smith. And he gave us so much to praise. Was it even better? And I know they didn't score in the second half and the final score is 17, 16. But in terms of Gino's performance, was it even a little better than you dare dreamed, Stephen Ruiz? Oh, yeah.

I was telling people, I'm going to be unbearable when he goes 17 for 31 for like 200 yards and one touchdown. But he did much better than that. He did much better than that. 23 for 28 for 195 and 2. Nice. No turnovers. Yeah, no picks.

I know he made that one throw, the cross field throw, but that was a dime. I didn't expect him to be that good. And I think he made some plays that were unsustainable. He's not going to be able to move up in the pocket and throw those little floaters over his own coverage that he did. It felt like he did like four times in the first half.

But this Gino Nation thing started with one idea. Okay. And the idea was that Gino can play. That's all we were arguing. No, we weren't saying he was a top 20 quarterback. We weren't saying the Jets should build around him. All we were saying was the guy can play. Although you do a quarterback rankings at the ringer.

People should check that out, along with our great quarterback index by Mark. I think they're great companion pieces. You had Gino pretty high. You had him above Tua. I remember how high was he going into the season? 22. I mean, that would definitely, if I was still doing QBNX, I don't know if I would have had the stones to put.

him there. But the thought is, and I think Dan thinks this is a bit, and to the point that I've carried this torch forever, I guess it sort of is. But I always thought he showed it early in his New York career enough that he was like a professional quarterback. Yes. And that he literally never got the chance to. And because it was New York, he became a punchline.

And people have this idea that, like, Gino went through this, like, horrible string of games where he struggled. No, he finished off that 2014 season well. That's the four-game stretch they make fun of me on the show. And he's had like a handful of starts the rest of his career, literally five more over the last seven years. He never got the second chance after the I had K and Impali punch. And that's what he's been working on all over these years. And I think tonight actually gave some hope that, look, he's improved.

He's a 32-year-old quarterback now. He could be better. And I agree with you, the way he moved up in the pocket was really good. And when he's impressing Troy Akeman, Stephen, with his command at the line of scrimmage and all the changes that he's making and the checks and how he's setting the offensive line. Like, if he's impressing Troy, it's like Sam Darnold's not impressing Troy out there. Troy's burying Sam Darno. He's not burying Gino. No, he's not. And you can't.

Like, this is all over Gino's film, too. I'm telling you, man, I've been banging the drum all over preseason film. He was calling out protections. He was changing the plays. It was something that Drew Locke wasn't doing. It was very clear who was going to win this battle. I know, like, the media in Seattle was making a thing about it because you got to. You got to get attention on the QB battle, but it was clear all summer who was out in front and what Pete Carroll valued.

And we saw it today. He was, like, the perfect quarterback for Pete Carroll. And I think the one thing that people get wrong about Gino is they don't realize, like, how tough he is in the pocket. Like, that's his main thing is, like, he's a pocket passer. And I don't think people give him that credit. He's like an air raid quarterback. He was thrown for, like, 500 yards every game at West Virginia. but this dude can run a pro-style offense.

And honestly, he can run an offense, run the offense that the Seahawks want to run, a lot better than Russell Wilson can do it. Oh, speak on that. Why do you think that? Because when I was watching it tonight, I definitely thought this is what Pete Carroll wants to do. Now, I don't think he got the running game going nearly as much.

I'm kind of shocked that Gino threw the ball 22 times or 28 times, and they only ran it 13 times. If you don't count Gino's scrambles, they obviously didn't have that many plays in general. It was just one of those types of games. But they kind of went past heavy for the most part early, or at least balanced. Like it was almost him being like, as Troy said during the game, yeah, all right, we're going to let Gino cook a little bit. Show you we can win that way, Russ.

I mean, it's going to sound crazy to say. And it's only sickos like us that think about the game like this and think about Gino Smith like this. But obviously, obviously. Russell Wilson is a far better quarterback than Gino Smith, and it's not even close. But the thing about Russell Wilson is he needs this particular style of offense. And we don't like to talk about his height being a factor, but it matters like we've covered. He doesn't see the field over the middle.

It's tough for him because he's like 5-10. Offensive linemen are huge. It's tough to see over the middle of the field. And another thing he doesn't like to do is play from under center. And when you run this like outside zone, the Shanahan McVeigh stuff, you have to run that from under center because that's like just the timing of the runs, the outside zone play is hard to run from the gun. So like I mentioned earlier,

there's this lack of synergy between what Russ wants to do in the past game, what Nathaniel Hackett wants to do in the run game, what Shane Waldron wanted to do in the run game last year. And if you listen to like Seattle players, they were talking about like Rashad Penny during the off season was like, oh yeah, I really like running from under center and we're doing it a lot more now. He didn't say because Russell Wilson is gone.

But that's the quiet part is that it's because Russell Wilson is gone. So I think while they're losing a lot of talent at the quarterback position, the gap is kind of smaller because they can run the scheme they actually want to run. So you're making so many amazing points. And every once in a while I'm just like laughing. And it's not because you said anything funny. It's because I'm just like basking in this moment that this is the most indulgent podcast I will ever do at NFL media. We've been doing, this is our 10th season. And it's all been leading to this.

This could be like kind of the top, and it's almost a sign that I've gone over the Rubicon. Like, we're going to spend 20 minutes on Gino tonight because this was the Gino Super Bowl. I really don't care what happens the rest of the season. Of course, I care. I want it to go well. I've said all along, I think this is a 9-and-8 type of Seahawks season that Pete Carroll, like, enjoys more than virtually any season he's ever coached. And I can still see that all happening. But to win tonight and to have the MVP, MVP chance of Gino at one point,

which was just hilarious. And to hear everything you're saying, which to me makes a lot of sense. And I think it's absolutely true. I think Pete Carroll at a certain point just wanted someone that would do what he said. And like, maybe that's not how the boss should feel. I was kind of on the hook saying,

like, ownership should absolutely choose Russell Wilson over Pete Carroll. But it became a choice at some point. They clearly didn't get along ultimately or didn't agree on how this organization should be run. And I did find it interesting. James Palmer, our NFL network reporter at the scene, said, you know, Gino and Russell, great conversation.

They've always gotten along really well. Russell's dapping up everyone before the game. He's talking to everyone. He's on the field forever. Pete Carroll's out there. And Russell says hi to just about everyone. And those two men are like 20 feet apart for much of the pregame. And they didn't say a word.

They didn't say word. That's the real heat. Everyone tried to make the Belize. check Brady heat. This is the real heat. It ends this way. I think with Pete Carroll winning the type of ugly, weird game that they shouldn't win. And yet it is the type of game that they have won a lot of times with Russell Wilson. Gino though did come through on third longs. I thought that was like a really key part of the game. He went six of ten on third downs overall and they they were averaging I think eight yards on those third downs. And to go six to ten when you're

averaging, you know, eight yards to go is really good. And he was making good decisions, and you said it. He was feeling himself when he threw that cross-body pass. That's when I knew it was just like Gino was having an out-of-body experience. And then they called the like the quarterback sweep on third and short. Gino design run game. Gino Lamar Jackson, a little, he could do it all. He could do it all.

He was running a little too much. He ran actually the play before that as well on a scramble and he didn't get down and took a big hit. And I was just like, Gino's a little faster than you think. but he is not a good runner. You know, he's like Daniel Jones is really fast and not a good runner. Gino's not fast and not particularly a good runner. It's like James.

Right, but he's still like a little faster than you think. He picked up some key yards with his legs, but he was getting a little too full of himself. Maybe he was just letting the emotion overtake him. I mean, he was doing the fist pumps on the sideline. He was dancing early in the game. And then after the game, Gino with just the most beautiful quote to the sideline reporter on Monday Night Football.

They wrote me off. I ain't right back, though. That's the problem. I ain't right back. Let's go. I don't even know what that means, but I like it. My man. We didn't write you off, Gino.

Don't you forget that. No. Does he follow you on Twitter? Stephen, not to get too weird about this, but. No, but he's liked a couple of my tweets. Okay. Very proud moment for me. Yeah, same.

And at some point, he did follow me in the last. year or two when I I don't know so I had said something or written something incredibly generous to him and at that moment he followed me it was a big moment he he hears what's going out here I wish they could just I wish someone could just send him this podcast and he could listen to it on you know on and his driving to work this week I had I had a banger that he ended up retweeting and then he deleted the retweet but I like it was right after Jimmy G had signed his deal in San Francisco that made him like the highest paid player ever and I compared, like, Jimmy G's last seven starts, or his only seven starts for the 49ers, to Gino's last five.

And Gino was better. He was way better, statistically. Yeah, do it. Here's the thing. I actually think the defense for the Seahawks was more concerning than I expected in this game, which sounds strange. But they lost Jamal Adams. And this is part of the reason why the Broncos should have won this game. The Broncos were getting pretty good push in the running game.

they end up with 19 carries for over five yards per carry. I mean, when you're running for six, seven, eight yards in the first, second, third quarter, like you expect, that's a huge advantage for you. It should set up the passing game. And then the Seahawks lose Jamal Adams during the game. Who else did they lose there? Tariq Wollin, I believe, went out during the game who was starting at quarterback. They bench their other rookie cornerback, Kobe Bryant.

I mean, the Seahawks are playing two. mid to late round rookies, and then replacing them with, like, journeymen like Sidney Jones, Cody Barton got hurt at the very end. But, like, this is a defense that wasn't getting nearly as much push as I guess I expected up front. And that's part of the reason why I'm being a little hard on Russell Wilson is most of those yards that he got were after he had a lot of time in the pocket.

He was protected better, and I think that's a good sign for the Broncos, ultimately, than he was for most of his Seahawks career. Yeah, that stood out. The Seahawks pass protection stood out. But I agree with you with this defense. The young secondary is really concerning because they brought in a lot of new assistant coaches. They're trying to change the philosophy. Pete Carroll is known for his cover three defense.

They brought in Sean Desai. They brought in Carl Scott. These are guys that run these more modern defensive coverages. And part of it is that they like to, you need communication because they're matching up. They're passing off routes. And when you have a young secondary, that's going to be hard. And you saw it today. There was a lot of air in the cup.

There is a lot of open receivers over the middle of the field, and then you add in the running game. If you can't stop the Nathaniel Hackett version of this offense, and you're going up against the Kyle Shanahan version with Tray Lance and going up against Sean McVeigh. All right. Let's not, let's not bring it down. Let's just enjoy this moment, you know. That's true. That's true. This was special.

I mean, like I said, we've been talking about Gino Smith for a long time on this show. And I was so confident, Stephen, on this show, this reference will have no meaning to you whatsoever. But leading into this weekend, I actually broke out something. I only do it in a rare case. Let's play it here, Graver. That's right.

The Rainmaker came through. I was just taking Seattle plus six and a half, but I did predict an 18 to 17 Seahawks victory. So you got them straight up. You got them covering. and then some, like, it all happened. It all happened on Monday night. Never a doubt.

Never a doubt. We had confidence in our guy and he came through. I feel like I had one more, like, important thing I wanted to get to, and I'm just blanking on it right now. How about the Seahawks defense holding the Broncos at the one-yard line on two different possessions and then another goal line stand to force a field goal? You talk about the Seahawks defense not playing too well, but those were huge stops. That's absolutely fair.

I mean, the Seahawks defense over the year has always been Ben Don't Break. They've always been great at situational football. They've always been making big plays in the key moment. You do wonder when you look through this defense, like, which guys are going to be able to step up? Do they have enough playmakers? Jordan Brooks, maybe, not that he had a great game. Nuoso had a couple moments in this game when he came in on some stunts. You're absolutely right, Graver.

They made some big plays in the big moments. Yeah, I think they're like a year away from being good. like Woolen is I think he's very talented he still has some some rough parts of his game but like in a year or two I think they're going to be good especially when they get this new philosophy really installed and the young guys grow up and I will say this going up against Russell Wilson it just makes for a weird game so maybe maybe I'm too quick to write off the Seattle defense this was a week one game like this it was crazy how loud the booze were were you a little surprised about the aggressiveness of this Seahawks crowd like hating on Russell Wilson I know because I think I think things got a little strange

over the off season like back in March or whenever the trade happened I would not have expected those booze but like over the last couple of months there's there's been all these like stories and exposés that have come out

so I think it makes a little more sense I think there's like a little bit of bitterness from Seattle fans now all right so every Monday night on this recap thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you to the viewers who stayed up with me on Channel 5 in the UK,

which is a new gig. I got to enjoy this game live on that coverage. And thank you to everyone listening in. The plan for these Monday night shows, Stephen, is we're going to go through the Monday night game. And I'm not going to spend this much time on the Monday night game every week, but it was just too much not to. And then we would fire through a couple little thoughts or some takeaways from our Monday film watching. Now, we went so long here on Gino, I'm going to do like a speed round with you because you are truly one of the best football minds out there. Like we're having fun here with Gino Smith, but people should check out all of Stephen Ruiz's coverage over at the Ringer and everything he's doing

on the Ringer podcast and everything. I'm just wondering while you were breaking down some tape on Monday, Sunday night, you seem like a Sunday night type of guy even. You're on the East Coast. You're staying up late with us, aren't you? Yeah, I didn't go to sleep last night. First Monday of the season. I had a race Monday morning. I mean, at no point? No. And you're up with us now? I'm going.

I am loving. Geno adrenaline. Oh, my God. I love the energy and I apologize for making you work extra. Just give me two quick things that stuck out from you on your film watching today. Bengals' offense was the most interesting thing to me. And people are going to talk about the seven sacks, but that's not what I'm interested in. The thing that really surprised me and stood out is the lack of perimeter deep throws that Joe Burrow made.

Like the Steelers were able to take that away. And I think the Bengals are going to see a different type of coverage, a different type of coverage this year. They saw a lot of like cover one, a lot of like one-on-one matchups on the outside, a lot of man coverage. Teams have learned their lesson over the offseason. And Joe Burrow talked about it during the off season. He said like, we're going to have to sustain drives more. You can't rely on explosive plays. and the Steelers really forced Joe Burrow

to take those mid-range buckets and he was unable to make them and like he threw into coverage a lot and the interceptions happened. But I think Joe Burrow is going to be better going forward. I think the offensive line was actually better than the stats make it look. But that's going to be a subplot to watch

over the first month of the season. We could have a little like Chiefs Bill situation from last year where they were having a lot of trouble getting those downfield throws. I think the Bengals are this year's version of that. That's a tasty nugget. And that makes sense. I think that Mike Tomlin is like a bad coach for a division opponent to face in week one.

I was thinking about that, too, as the Patriots were playing the Dolphins. I was just thinking how Brian Flores is the worst coach for them to play. And not Brian Flores, rather Josh Boyer is now the defensive coordinator there. And now Brian Flores is going to be helping the defense they play next week in Pittsburgh. But I was thinking Josh Boyer and the Dolphins were the worst defense for them to play because they knew exactly what to do in terms of heat. up Mac Jones with all these blitzes in week one. Not that other places couldn't have figured that out,

but when you see it week one and you see how it works so well, it's like, okay, everyone's going to copy that. Everyone's going to see what they did and try to replicate that. And I think in the same way, Mike Tomlin and Brian Flores would be among the two defensive minds in Pittsburgh that I would not want to face in week one, because right off the bat, I think you're going to see some dangerous stuff. One thing I saw watching on tape today, and we'll leave it with this.

because let's face it. This is all just like an afterthought to Gino. Was how different the Saints looked entirely. Like all of their strengths looked like weaknesses suddenly and all their weaknesses now look like strengths. Like it used to be able to really have faith in this offensive line and I don't know. Like they got some serious problems there with James Hurst that left tackle

and just the lack of synchronicity. And their run defense has been so good year after year. they really got run over and their defensive tackle situation looks bad. Then again, they're great at wide receiver right now. And if they get in a situation where they trail and if they can sort of figure out the balance of letting James be James and be in shotgun a little more and throw the ball down the field, like suddenly that could be a very dangerous part of their team. So they just look like maybe it's just week one, but they just look like such a different team than they've been the last couple of years.

I'm going to give them a bit of a pass because of that week's one weirdness thing. like the falcons i think are one of the most unique schematic teams in the league this year they were basically running like a college offense with mariotta and it was it was a lot of option runs and that's what the saints were having trouble with and they're not going to see that going forward so i'll wait on the run defense i still think they have good pieces on the defensive line and then on the other side of the ball going up against dean peas who's like the most creative pressure designer in the league he was given them them fits so i'll i'll i'll wait to to be worried about the

Falcons are like playing App State early in the college football season or it's some like under- The triple option team It's like an underfunded under-talented team with like a crazy

and innovative coaching staff except they're an NFL team so that's not really what you want but I do think their coaching staff is kind of ahead of where their personnel talent is nothing's getting ahead of tonight though this is it. Stephen we enjoy

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed having you on. Like, they can't take this away from us. Like, they said it was a bit. They never believed it. Let's hear it from Gino again, Graver. I mean, what is it? They wrote me off.

I ain't right back, though. That's the problem. I ain't right back. Let's go. They wrote us off. We ain't writing back, Stephen Ruiz. We ain't writing back. That's a lie.

I'm going to write back all night long. I'm going to be replying to tweets. All night long. I'm not going to sleep. I like, Stephen. Again, check them out at the podcast, at the Ringer and all of his coverage there for Stephen Ruiz. I'm Greg Rosenthal.

We will be back on Tuesday with Colleen Wolf. It's coming up soon. Until then, heed the call.