NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Sunday Recap & Thank You London!

Episode Date: September 10, 2018

In a complex filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler & Chris Wesseling – react to their last podcast from London (1:15). Afterwards, the heroes break down all of the NFL’s opening weekend match ups, including – Pittsburgh’s and Cleveland’s stunning conclusion (4:00), Fitz Magic LIVES (15:40), the Ravens steamroll the Bills (31:30), Tyreek Hill’s monster day and Patrick Mahomes first regular season start (46:33), plus Nick Shook and Jeremy Bergman analyze Aaron Rodgers’s willful comeback against the Bears (1:02:30). Lastly, the heroes share their sincere appreciation with the folks of London and those who helped them get there (1:08:15).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. All right, Mark Cecil here. We're in a crowded hotel lobby about to leave London. And a note from our sponsors just lost to the guy who auto-drafted, screaming at the television again because someone who can't hear you dropped an open pass, just dropped your RB1 for a kicker, Erica? I did. Of course you did.

Thought your fantasy draft was a good first-date idea, please. You were probably just blindsided by hunger. Luckily, Snickers is here to pick up your sorry, off the turf. Get back on your game with NFL hunger bars from Snickers. All right, people, today's episode is supported by Kronos. No one complements you when their paycheck is correct, obviously. But make one mistake and you risk alienating your entire workforce.

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Dan Hanzas, and I am joined in a complex filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wesley, and Greg, Brooklyn. What is that for? Hey, Dan. What complex? Sky Sports Mega Corp. A corp that even dwarfs our corp. If there was a corp off, I think Sky and Rupert take down Rog in the NFL.

I don't know if this place is filled with heroes. It's probably seven or eight floors, thousands of square feet, and there's only about eight people that are still up and working at it. If anybody were here. If anyone remembers the general plot details of Gremlins 2, the new batch, that's kind of what this place makes me feel like. I'm in the middle of the 1989 forgotten sequel. Yeah, I mean, to a T, we've just come off of doing roughly 13 or 14 straight hours of live television.

And listen, fresh as a daisy. and that's because we have been pounding Red Bull Wes and I for the last seven hours which I've never drank before till tonight yeah we had never this was a week in London that's been amazing filled with so many new experiences and the week is coming to a close

we're on it we're on an airplane in like 12 hours and doing we went on to see we did I believe seven hours of live television and it was really great.

Basically the entire Dolphins game. Yes, basically. Neil Reynolds and Solomon Wilcox and our boy Rob Ryan, who we're going to get Rob on the show, our show, sooner or rather than later, because he is so funny. So, yeah, that was our Sunday,

and right now it is 155 a.m. local time. This is Super Bowl late. Not quite that late, but here we are wrapping things up, the loose cannon. She's just waiting for this show be over. She's like, get to the games, you we need to get

to the games. Literally as a shadowy league figure and Erica both write down. Dan said at two minutes. Greg said it. Greg said it. But yeah, Erica's here and Todd Metcalf on the cameras and

Mark Brady's here and we are digging into week one of the NFL season for the sixth year. We begin our flagship program, the Sunday night show so exciting and yes could we have greg said oh listen it's you know doing the all that sky sports live stuff and we got the flight maybe this is the year we don't do a a week one show no gregg never an option you know they don't call us heroes for nothing we're true legends yeah we don't

operate that way it's more like super bowl week hold my beer am i right exactly nice wait that that feels like a phrase that you would maybe ban a week from now yeah i don't know listen it just Two in the morning. I have no idea what anything will come out of my mouth between now and the next hour. It's not two in the morning. It's grind 30. Bingo. Every phrase that Mark Bands becomes a way bigger part of our lives, so please don't do it.

So, yes, we're going to get into all the games from Sunday. There was, okay, and there was one game Thursday. Two games on Monday, that means there are 12 games to talk about. Oh, I'm sharp, baby. I had a lot of Red Bull, too. Johnny Chuckles made it to London. Oh, boy. Here we go.

All right. This newsroom, by the way, the four or five editors here are literally horrified by the last five minutes of audio from the show. Don't care. Let's get to it. We got so much to dig into. So we will start with Mark Sessler's favorite football team, McClovel and Bruins. We're going to try and win it with 13 seconds left to go. Here comes the field goal team.

and listen to this stadium. It's funny. Places going nuts. Bonkers. Seeing Gonzalez is ready to go. He's out on the field. This is right where Mark peed a little bit. Gonzalez will have Colpick put it down.

It looks like it's going to be in between 33 and 44 yards. It's going to be a 43-yard field goal that beat the Steelers in overtime. And Gonzales is ready. Cullid will snap. Snap is back. Fall down. Kick on the way. It got blocked.

The Steelers blocked the kick. And it never had a prayer. Boy, it looked like they were off sides a little bit. Nine seconds to go. Wishful thinking. Sorry, buddy. And each team has missed a field goal in overtime. Jim Donovan and Doug Deacon with the call for WKRR.

Zane Gonzalez is 43. yard field goal tip with nine seconds to play in overtime blocked by t j wad who's all over the place a crushing ending uh for a cleveland brown's team that seemed primed to end a 17 game losing streak have you heard about that they had to settle for a 21 21 21 tie against the pittsburg steelers who probably aren't feeling too good about themselves tonight mark sessler we rode the roller coaster with you from scott the sky sports set today where you at buddy you know i really wanted to see this win because obviously the you come in after an oh and 16 season but the browns are at their core a very strange team and this was one of these strangest games i've witnessed from the

browns in a long time i think a tie against the steelers it's not it's an odd result it's not preferable but it this game looks so lost even 15 minutes earlier that the way that they climb back in and I think their defense, if you go back and watch us, their defense was a turnover operation, just made life tough on Big Ben from start to finish. And to climb back in the way they did, this is a lot of new parts on this team and a lot of young players and it might take a little bit for them to gel. This could have been a lot worse. You felt good enough about your team to start trash talking Dan and say, why don't the Jets go out and try to tie the Steelers? That was sad. Well, that made me sad for Mark. Listen, I'm in a psychologically damaged

place that's I'm pulling from it what I can't it was you were surprisingly happy with the tie although it took a lot of luck in terms of in overtime just a few minutes before the field goal attempt that we just listened to the Steelers had a 42 yarder and that's the moment where usually the Browns lose and you got a little bit of luck there I mean the one thing is you look at this game and it just did not play to what the Brown said they wanted to be coming into the season because you have Tyrod Taylor completing 15 of 40 passes Josh Gordon barely got involved until the second half. I mean, the run game never really got on track, and they just could not get out of their way. Now, the weather was a major element for both teams. Big Ben with three picks, two of those were weather-related in my book. I mean, it was just a lot of weird stuff happening for both teams.

Yeah, at the end there, we're watching it as the Browns go down for the field goal. They're in great field position, and they decide to sit on the ball. As Dan said, they looked tentative like it was a page out of Herm Edwards book. And Greg was saying, I don't like this. I don't like this. And I'm thinking it reminds me of like when rookies say the game's too fast for me. I'm out there thinking too much. The game didn't slow down for Hugh Jackson because the Browns are kind of rookies at winning. So they have to learn how it's a new experience for them. And you compare that to something like the game seemed to slow down for Bill Belichick

and that Malcolm Butler playing the Super Bowl where it seemed like he was able to see things coming and react to him in real time. And Hughes had seemed like it was spin. And maybe that's just me. Look at where the Browns are. I mean, they've lost so many games in a row that. But the idea that the winds right in front of them, Cameron Sutton picks off that pass, the pass rush gets the Big Ben,

and they get hit with the block in the back, which takes them out of chip shot territory. They run the ball and then clock it. And then you do not set up for a 43-yard field goal in that spot. They were a little scared of their shadow. It was such a big stage. And we should talk about the Steelers as well because James Connor definitely filled in.

He got Lev Bell-type touches over there. 30 touches in this game. He went over 100 yards. He was a difference maker, but this is a bitter result for the Steelers. One of the best performances, though, you'll find all day long came from T.J. Watt, and it revealed a massive Achilles heel for Cleveland. I don't think they have a single offensive tackle who can play right now, and that's going to make you think hard about putting Baker Mayfield in there sooner than later. I mean, these were bad conditions, but Watt absolutely dominated Cleveland's front five. I mean, the Steelers were the better team. They outgained him by a 150 yards. James Connor had 192 yards from scrimmage in that game.

So that's an outrageous performance by him and should, you know, that's the least of their problems. The reality is if you're the Browns and you get six turnovers, like that's great, but you better win a game, you get six turnovers and you win the turnover battle by five. The fact that you didn't win a game where your defense made that many plays, it's pretty hard to do. Here's what Hugh had to say after the game. The guy's fault, disappointed for our fans, didn't want to.

them to go home without a victory. I didn't want our players going on without a victory. So we wasn't able to get it done, didn't finish it. But obviously a tie, you know, a tie. All right, let's move on. Garoppolo on second and ten, passes over the middle. Intercepted by Harrison Smith. He just dagger the Niners. Harrison Smith for the far side of the field down at the 15 and the Minnesota Vikings, the Kings of the North, have not only put Jimmy Garoppolo on the first loss of his career. They start 2018, 1-0. Kurt Cousins passed for two touchdowns, and the Vikings forced four turnovers. A 24-16 win over the Niners on Sunday. That's Jimmy Garoppolo's first loss in eight games as a starter. And yes, Harrison Smith sealed that game with 1.35 to play.

recovered a fumble by Alfred Morris at the two yard line Garapolo finished 15 for 33, 261 yards, and a touchdown but he was not able to get it done so the Minnesota Vikings moved to 1-1-0 and look every bit

like a team that is going to give a lot of teams trouble and Jimmy G Greg is just the first quarterback that I think will struggle against this defense this year. Yeah, Sheldon Richardson really stuck out, I thought, in this game, partly because he's the new guy on that front four. Everson Griffin and DeNeil Hunter had awesome games too, but just seeing another true pass rusher in the middle.

They have Lynn Valjoseph, who's a great run stopper. To see Richardson, who's probably having one-on-one matchups the whole day, which maybe he doesn't normally see, really dominate, if you're a Vikings fan, has to get you excited because this team just kind of went out and did exactly what you expected. They looked like last season never ended, except now they have a quarterback who can make a few more plays. One of the most fun parts of our day was hearing Rob Ryan and Solomon Wilcots sort of unplugged in real time their reaction to what was going on.

And Rob chose the Vikings as his big winner for the day that they had a great all-around game against a tough opponent. Guys like Brenton Buckner and this rookie, the 49ers have Fred Warner. Both have big games. This is a better defense maybe than we thought it was going to be. A little Brenton Buckner shout out. the old Carolina Panthers. Mark, what do we think about Jimmy Garoppolo?

Oh, DeForest Buckner. Jimmy G. I mean, I think you said it, that this is not the last quarterback, top 10 quarterback that's going to get beaten around a little bit by this defense. Such a consistent carryover from last year. I thought Harrison Smith gave Jimmy G. A lot of problems today.

But I'm not concerned about Jimmy Garoppolo at all. He still made a couple incredible throws in this game. And I think the thing is that the talent base for the Niners' offense is not as, We can't just call them a great team. They're not going to be what they did over the last five weeks of last season. It's going to take,

this is a team that still has some growing to do. I mean, this is as tough an assignment as any team had offensively, but you're asking Kyle Shanahan to cook up wins every week with Dante Pettis and Kyle Eustech. Markis Goodwin went out in this game. Hopefully that injury is not serious,

but that's their number one receiver. You know, Trent Taylor, it's just, you're hoping Matt Bredas, you're running back. To me, it's just you're counting on coaching to create open plays. And that happened in this game a decent amount, but it's asking a lot of Shanahan. A lot of narratives get blown up immediately in week one.

There are a couple cases I could think of today where that was not the case. And the 49ers are one of them. A lot of people in the football cognizanti were ready to say that the 49ers were going to contend in the NFC West, that they could be the next big superpower. But maybe they're not all the way there yet.

And this was maybe a wake-up call against a true superpower that this team needs to grow both internally and get help as the years go along. I will say if you offer another pregnant pause like that, a couple of us might just drop off into deep sleep. Pregnant pause of the year. I really think the 49ers have nothing to hang their heads about in this game. I thought they played tough against a Super Bowl contender.

And if that George Kittle drop, if that had been a catch, we might be talking about a team that upset Minnesota. That changed things in this game. And they might have found something in Fred Warner there. When they get Ruben Foster back from suspension, that could be a quick time. I feel like we were a little running low on Freds. So to get another. Yeah, you need another Fred in the mix.

And you brought up the kiddle play. I also add that they left four points on the field when Garapolo missed an open kiddle in the back of the end zone. So I don't think Garapolo should be let totally off the hook. It was a very tough assignment to be on the road. But I think maybe a little bit humbling. And we talked about it, Greg, in August. Like this was the perfect time for any quarterback really ever. He was so sparkling his resume, his paycheck, his dating habits.

Well, maybe not sparkling. Sparkling? Interesting. Okay. And now there's a little blemish. And what I, my thought is, look out Detroit Lions because I think Shanahan and Jimmy G are going to do some damage in week two. And by the way, that was Paul Allen, KFAN with the call.

Let's move on. It is first down. One running back, Peyton Barber, at the 42-yard line moving right, trailing 7-0. Play-action fake dropping is Fitzpatrick. Those are deep ball. Nowfield got a wide-over run. receiver in daylight the 20 yard light to sound jackson 10 five three to one touchdown Tampa Bay Buccaneers Buccaneers with a long ball of the beard beats the secondary

nice call yeah you know why because it's from jean decker hub he's back WT AE with the call Ryan Fitzpatrick yes that Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 417 yards four touchdowns he added a rushing the touchdown for good measure and again teammate Mike Evans would call one of the most complete efforts we have seen at the position. What? The Saints were transfixed by Fitzmagic and the Bucks rumbled to a 4840 win at the Superdome. Mark, this was the biggest surprise of week one. I think a story of the day because it's also, I love week one when it goes in, and a lot of times week two operates as an equalizer that adjusts some of the big storylines from week one, but everything we talked about all offseason, Saints is one of

the most complete teams in the NFC with this defense that can finally operate with a strong offense and the bucks potentially this two and 14 go ship that's going to get the coach fired by by Halloween instead they go out and score 48 points and one of the more pristine offensive performances we've seen in years Fitzpatrick left for dead uh that great season of the jets in 2015 bad in 2016 forgettable didn't play much in 2017 and now has a game that if you're a fantasy head. He probably wasn't in your starting lineup unless you were clairvoyant. But it will be tough for any quarterback to have a game

like that. It was stunning. Here's what Dirk Cutter had to say after the game. I'm happy to announce that Fitzmagic is alive and well. Quite a start, huh? Wes, listen to Dirk Cutter who ought to be extremely maybe one of the happiest days of his coaching

career. That effort and getting a stick-it to Sean Payton, even with a handshake in a good game after Peyton tried a tough guy in last year. I think Dirk Cutter's walking on air right now. And, you know, one of the guys downstairs, I think Rob Ryan pointed out, this is a different offense with Todd Monkin calling the plays instead of Dirk Cutter. Get a little Monk and love in here for that performance.

Give me some of that Monk. And maybe the Bucks have the best wide receiver quartet in the entire NFL with Evans, Deshawn Jackson, who went wild in this game, Chris Godwin, and don't forget Humphrey. I mean, this is a good quartet. And now you have O.J. Howard, who is a factor. Like today was to be a perfect example of what he can be like two catches, 54 yards. A guy who can make big plays, he's not going to get that many targets, but you can go up the seam. And it's a wake-up call for this young saint secondary, who they thought was one of the best ones in the league.

And I'm worried about this front seven. Can they get enough pressure? They certainly didn't today. And it's a season changer for the bucks because we talked about how tough their schedule was to start the season. They now stole one with Fitzpatrick. they have to feel like they got a chance to beat the Eagles coming up this week. But even if for some reason they go one and two with Fitzpatrick, I think it just shows the talent that's around them.

You do not want 16 games at Fitzpatrick. I don't want to hear that you don't go back to James Winston. Unless he's doing this. Let him have his day, though. Right, no, I know. But I'm just saying you don't want that for the whole season. To me, it shows that there's a team around the quarterback that's going to give them a chance to win a lot of games.

I would be concerned, though. You're the Bucks. You were the worst passing defense in the league last year. You gave up nearly 450 yards and three touchdowns to Drew Breeze, which happens to teams against Drew Breeze. But you gave up 40 points. I mean, you can't be asked Fitzpatrick to go do this week after week. For every good games he gives you,

he's going to give you one where some wild stuff happens that kind of blows the whole game script up. You hit on it a little bit, Greg, and perhaps it's my brain from lack of sleep and the fact that it's like encased by a thin film of Tito's Vaca in like room service sludge. but like some of that room service mac and cheese what happened with the saints defense how could it be this bad after being so dominant for large stretches of last year that's a good question to me it's what changed i have no idea what changed it's so disconcerting because this is a super bowl or bus team

that basically pushed all their money to the middle of the table and said we're all in this year and what do they have hiding in their hand like a susceptible defense they have not been an organization that has handled success that well. Like they have not been a team that stacks great season after great season. They almost get a little full of themselves. And they were not that dominant a defense. I think they've got a little more credit for how important they were. They were a much better defense. They were like a good defense, but they can't, they don't have enough talent really in the secondary to have no pass. I maybe do chalk some of this up to week one feeling more than ever like a

fifth preseason game for these teams. I mean just that are we going to see this from the Saints week after week? I think there's going to be some correction. I'll never forget that opener will Drew Bledsoe traded to the bills they bombed the Patriots in week one you thought oh look at this dude changed such a cop out though like some teams get to say oh it's a preseason game right fitzpatrick he's like that wasn't my preseason game no i'm just saying i trust the saints to course correct some of this saint i mean saints just have to look back to last year they got blasted by the vikings in week one and blasted by the patriots in week two which were two good teams but the defense got much better after that right fitzpatrick man that is one of the more

stunning week one moments into my time in NFL media. No doubt. For him to deliver that performance on the road against a very good team. Wow. I'm Nick Shook, occasional guest to the Around of the NFL podcast, and ever made pastrami at home? How about smoked salmon? Slab bacon, duck confit?

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Luck back to throw. His pass, caught by Doyle. He loses the ball. It's scooped up by Fegulam. He's running it back to the 40. Come on, Clay chasing him. Can't tackle him. Fidgillum.

to the 20th, the 10, the 5. Touchdown. Bengals. How about that? Jack Doyle coughed up the football. Clayton Fidgillam scoops it up and runs it back more than 80 yards for a Bengals clenching touchdown. Ooh, we might have our first nominee for calls of the year. It's from WC.K.Y, Dan Hord and Dan Lapham on the call.

Dave Lapham. Dave Lapham, Bengals' backup safety, Clayton. Fidgillam, jarred the ball loose. Jack Doyle couldn't hold on. 35 seconds to go. Fedlum scooped it up. And as you heard, took it all the way to the house. And there went Andrew Lux's thoughts that he could have a heroic comeback in his first game,

back an 83-yard touchdown. And the Bengals, persevere and win. 34 to 23. A fun game, a wild ending, and almost a perfect. start for Andrew Luck. What did you see from number 12 in this game, Wes? I think realistic Colts fans have to be okay with how today's game went and maybe even a little buoyant after this game because I saw Andrew Luck who looked exactly like the Andrew Luck we've always seen. He did not look like a guy who was saying any kind of arm injury in the past.

He played like the sort of 2015 version of Andrew Luck who was a little bit underrated and I think led the NFL in touchdowns. But he moved the ball. They had a chance to win and as you mentioned, and Jack Doyle couldn't hold on to the ball inside the red zone with the game on the line. It's a big win for the Bengals because we're watching this game, and I think it was 20 to 10 at halftime. The Colts are in control. The Colts look like the better team in the first half. And this is a team in the Bengals that a few of us picked to the playoffs,

and these are kind of the types of wins you need to get to go in the playoffs. You need to find a way to try to get to 500 on the road, and you do that by beating the Colts. The Fedgillum play and then Carlos Dunlop, The Bengals D really stiffened in the second half. They deserve credit for that. Is this how we want an Andrew Luck performance to go every week, 53 pass attempts? No, I don't think so, but I think it's what you're going to get because of that defense.

He should be up there in the league leaders in pass attempts. And unless they fix that offensive line, that could be an issue. That's great to hear, though, Wes. I didn't get a good look at this game, but if luck is luck, the Colts are going to be fun to watch. Maybe not victorious on a weekly basis. or maybe a lot of games will kind of come down to the wire and go against them, but that's great news for them. What did you see on the Bangle side of the ball?

Like I said, their defense, especially Carlos Dunlap, came up big with the game on the line. Joe Mixon ran better than last year. Their offensive line looked a little better, and they got John Ross involved, too. He got a touchdown. So those second year guys, Mixin and Ross are a big part of their offense. I will say Ross, though, one, there are three catches, sorry, one catch for three yards. The touchdown catch alone, we need to see a little more of them mixed in a little bit more than this.

He was only targeted two times, but he's not the number two receiver. He's the three. Tyler Bored starts opposite green. I think the most depressing week one results are the ones that look exactly like the team was in the past, like the same weaknesses. And the fact that the two tackles were struggling and hurt. I know Anthony Costanzo is out, the fact that the Colts don't really have a running game.

It just looks like the cold. So hopefully they can get out of that. That is a fair criticism. Let us move out. Backs up. In trouble. And fumble. Sack and fumbled.

Big scramble for it. If the Panthers fall on it, it's your football game. I think they do. I think they got it. They got a ball. Mick Mixon, Eugene Robinson, and Jim Zoki with the call for WBT. And the Carolina Panthers smother, the Dallas Cowboys, in a 16-8 win in the season opener for both teams on Sunday.

Newton ran for – Cam Newton ran for 58 yards at a touchdown. A dominating performance by Carolina's defense, led by Luke Keekley, who had 13 sacks. He went down with a scary knee injury that looked pretty bad at first, but then he believed he returned to the game. So Keekley leads the way, as always, six sacks in the game. Cowboys just 232 yards. Dallas was able to turn it on a little bit in the second half. In the first half, it was borderline pathetic.

Cowboys had 60 yards total and four first downs as Carolina went into the tunnel with a 10-0-0 lead. And one thing that happened near the end of the half that really got on my radar and I was annoyed, the man formerly known as Riverboat Ron. He gave him a formerly known. Yeah, played for three points when they were inside the 10-yard line with, I believe, about 30 seconds to go. he ran it once and then clocked the ball and took three. But that to me, I hated the way he played that. I thought it was too conservative.

But also it showed, Mark, how at that point, there was no fear of the Cowboys offense. And the mindset was get ahead two scores and let our defense take it home. And that's what they did. I mean, you come out of this game if you're a Cowboys fan, looking at this as a worst case scenario for week one, because all the pronouncements from Dallas

that we are going to find a receiver with this young group, But we got rid of Des Bryant. We've lost players. We're going to find a way to pass the ball. There were zero explosive plays down field for the most part. Their offensive line absolutely misses Travis Frederick. This is not the line that we've been talking about for the past couple years. Ezekiel Elliott held to 69 yards.

This is a bad look for Dallas because you wonder how they're going to climb out of this in the next couple months. Yeah. If your concern was about Travis Frederick and the offensive line, this game did not help matters. they have a formula that is similar to the Jaguars. They're built to play with a lead. You have to pass the ball to come from behind in the NFL, and you have to wonder if this team can do it. At one point, Solomon Wilcoz used the word Ept,

which I didn't even know was a word. Don't think it is. Well, it's not, but. We knew what he meant. He said the Cowboys don't appear to be Epped at anything, and that's what it looked like on offense. Correct statement. Yeah, the opposite of inept, or the synonym?

I don't even know. It is the opposite of inept. I know that Connor Williams is their second round. guard that they took and if you're going to take a guard that high and put him in your starting lineup right away it's got it kind of has to work and it clearly didn't in training camp he didn't look great in the preseason and he was dominated by kwan short today and on the other side if you're ron river this is you're like this is the ultimate perfect game for the panthers this is how he wants to play you're dominating in front you're running the ball you're controlling the pace but they keep

losing key players every time they step on the field i mean they lose darrell williams today their right tackle who probably returned from an injury too early you lose Greg Olson to another foot injury those are two key starters almost of any team they've lost key guys whether it's the preseason keakley returned to the game so it looks like that injury we were watching that looked serious at first you can never really tell but he was back in there like the next next series but also you have to look at considering his foot issues and you have to think I don't know when he's going to be back is he going to be back is at his last game it's the guy that was ponder during retirement going to this year.

If he bangs up that same foot, I mean, at what point is it over? That's a big loss, but it's not like if they would have lost Keekley is a season-ending loss, I think, for the team. You're not going to win the playoffs without Keakley, but you can survive without Olson, I think. I think one of Damashak's staples is the Djanga piece. I mean, Cam Newton is probably the janga piece, but Keakley is right there, 1A and 1B. Cam's leading them in rushing, though, with 13 rushing attempts.

I don't know if you want to do this week after week. I know that's always the thing with Camp Newton. Forget this like what's developed Cam is a pocket passer. He has to be this because this is the most effective Cam Newton. They look dangerous. Yeah. Their defense looks absolutely legit. And the new owner, Teper was up in the box and he seemed to be like flying at the end of the game.

As you imagine, he might. A little interesting little nug about the stadium with the old owner Jerry Richardson now gone. They take out the NFL shield logo at the 50 and put in the Panthers logo. it had always been the NFL shield interesting good move those like old school owner things how did that nugget get on your because i track everything because i've been drinking a lot of red bull yeah okay panthers fans have been annoyed about that for years so they're very excited i am super super if i'm a cowboys fan worried right now i'm i'm so worried i might be oh is des brines still have the same cell phone number which they should not call des brine but like greg said

When the game's on the line, and he's going on, Dak Prescott is targeting Deante Thompson. With the game on the line, hell no, that's not going to work, and it's not good enough. Let's move on. Flacco takes the snap. He wants to throw. Looking left, lobs it to the end zone, looking for Crabtree,

Crabtree, makes the catch. Does he get his feet in bounds? The officials confer touchdown Ravens. Michael Crabtree on an amazing throw from Joe Flacco. W-B-B-A-L's Jerry Sandusky with the call. Ooh, jaunty. Joe Flacco, not dead. Wacko Flacco, went 25 for 34, 236 yards,

was eventually replaced by Lamar Jackson, but not for any of the reasons Steve Smith or anybody else predicted back in May. It's because the Ravens were up 40 to nil. They dominated the Buffalo Bills and Nathan Peterman, who looked utterly overwhelmed. They had 33 yards and no first downs at halftime. Final score 473. Western New York will remember this is the bloodbath in Buffalo.

Wes, are the bills as bad as the final score here indicated? No, they will. I know it because I've been drinking red bill. Oh, bra. Here we go. There was a reason why this game was banned from the lockup series this week. Because it was like, you understand, right? Oh, well, yeah, I'm so perfectly content that I took the Browns instead.

You said your lock, yeah, how to go. So, I mean, it's a tie. I think that's half a lock. I get half a lock. No. Sorry, bro. That's not how it works. Erica.

Well, up for contention still. I'm not, I don't agree with that ruling. Well, there is a precedent. Wes, once upon a time, locked up a tie game. And because a lock is predicting a win, but you'll fight this. I don't care at all about the precedent. That Philly special malarkey. Precedent has nothing to do with this.

It never seems to. Remember that complete undressing that the Rams gave the Seahawks last December where the game was like 40-something to nothing at halftime? This was the same DNA as that game. The Ravens absolutely controlled every part of this game. Both quarterbacks are out. Both starting quarterbacks are removed from the game with like five minutes to go or five minutes gone in the third quarter. This was, I mean, in every way possible, the Ravens just took it to the bills. Yes, the bills have a big quarterback.

issue what a come down for bills fans it's funny to think of the celebrations with the playoffs i mean you know they essentially made like andy dalton the mayor just because it helped them push them into as one of the worst playoff teams of the last year that started to get a little weird after a while right it it stayed weird it's like that was a nice moment but what does it really matter because here we are week one the next season you have nathan peterman starting another game and you're on the other side of a 47 to three score and you look at the roster and it looks like they're one of the worst teams in moment is the perfect word because what did that mean ultimately they went out quietly in the wild card round the next week and now they are at their lowest point again and josh allen playing in this game he really probably shouldn't be playing in this game but that's when you have to wonder the decision making of this front office i mean uh you give up a draft pick for corey coleman and you end up burning hit burning a lot of money by cutting him you trade a j mccarran and i know a j mccarran's not a good quarterback but when you you leave nathan peterman a guy who's only other notable uh playing experience was throwing five

interceptions in one half as the only other guy protecting you from forcing you to play the very raw rookie that tells me it's a lack of foresight so i'd be very nervous about the people uh pulling the levers and you shipped away tyrod taylor and you didn't do enough to fix an offensive line that is this is another one of these front fives that gave up six plus sacks today and now you're trying to tell me that you're going to put josh allen in there starting next week with an inept offense. Well, we'll see if they do. You never know.

If they don't, you also have to ask what on earth they're doing with Nathan Peterman. How do that's in the locker? Right. I mean, he has played himself out of a job. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Nathan Peterman have fewer yards than Joe Flacco had completions today, and it wasn't all Peterman's fault. They have built an offense that is going to expose Peterman as not good enough

and probably get Josh Allen hurt or sacked quite a bit if he plays. In fairness, they're playing a really good defense. in Baltimore, and I don't think you can just chalk this up to that the bills are bad. The 2017 Ravens weren't winning any games 47 to 3. So this is a different Ravens team, and I think it's a significant week-one result because we've said it on this podcast a lot, but you know what good teams are by the teams that get blowouts. Ravens are feeling itself tonight.

The Ravens are off to a great start. They are different because each one of the wide receivers that they acquired, Willie Sneed, Michael Crabtree, and John Brown, each of them found the end zone in this game. This is as promising a start for any team in the league. Well, since I count the preseason, they are now 6 and 0 this season. Look at that.

In the first week of September, or the second week of September. So that's pretty good. We're in the Ravens Nest right now, baby. Let's move on. Third down and 12 now for the Patriots after the fumble by Houston. Here are the early minutes of the first.

Grady takes the snap. He throws it left for Gwack. takes to catch over two defenders and steps across the pylon for touchdown Patriots. Bob Sochi WBZ with the call. No Zolak in week one. I think Zolok got replaced by that Colts guy. He wasn't in the booth or he just wasn't in the call? No, we didn't hear him there.

He wasn't the guy in Indianapolis going absolutely nuts for the Colts. Well, that guy's not around no more. Well, I'm talking about the Homer that was shouting as the guy was going down the field. Oh, that guy. I thought he took out the other guy. I don't know. I have no idea who I am right now. Tom Brady here on the throne of sleeves through for 277 yards and three touchdowns hitting gronk for 123 yards and a touchdown the defending a fc champions 2720 win over the houston texans uh gronk was a beast brady looked like brady and the texans and their young hot shot quarterback to sean watson look very rusty Greg you've been saying we should expect a different pat's team this year is that what you saw on sunday

Other than Brady and Grunkowski, which were the two best players on the Patriots, yes, it was different. You have Philip Dorset as the leading wide receiver catching seven targets. You had Trent Brown, a 6-8 left tackle, doing a solid job against Jedevi and Clownie and J.J.Watt. You have Lawrence Guy and Jawan Bentley and Malcolm Brown and a group up front, including Trey Flowers, who's been there a while, that really dominated this game. And if I'm a Texans fan, I'd be worried about. about how much pass rush heat you gave up to the Patriots,

because this is not going to be the best pass rush team. You play all year, and Deshaun Watson, who I thought really showed something in the second half by getting them back into this game is not going to be able to survive week after week with that much pressure. Let's hear from Deshaun Watson, who was very critical of his performance. For me personally, I think it was terrible on my part.

So you can just, I just feel like you can pit the hell on me because I'll be way much better than then what I showed. today just my energy was low and just overthinking a little thing no man that's just that's just me i'm the i'm the leader of the team leader of this offense so uh as i go the offense go and it was just you know just kind of not enough energy not enough pace on our on our part and uh you know i just take the blame i take all the all the heat for that and just kind of continue to move forward and you know just get ready for net sweep at this behind us and learn from you know Watson last season had more time than any other quarterback on deep passes.

And he created that with his feet. But you can't ask him to just do that and make magic when you have this line playing the way it is. And this did not look anything like last year's Texan's number one passing offense that was literally like shredding teams, taking teams apart and looking like the one team that could potentially challenge the Patriots in the AFC. I would be concerned because this is another. incomplete line.

14 and 2, Patriots. Come on. That's the other side of this. They still roll this division, and they will. One thing that's on my radar for the Patriots, Chris Hogan is some fantasy stud. Come on, one catch for 11 yards. You've been mad about this.

You're loving this. You're spiking the football right now. It could come back to haunt me. Maybe he'll go for 175 and two touchdowns like he did against the Steelers in the playoffs. But the idea that Chris Hogan is a fantasy stud always seemed weird to me. too. Wasn't he a monster in that game too? I wouldn't write him off yet. He'll have three or four monster games throughout the year. That's what he does, but he's

not like some fantasy stuff. It's a deeper Patriots team defensively, and I think that means they're not going to have to score as many points, and they're just not capable of it. This also just looked like a week one game. If you remember Deshawn Watson last year, took a few games to get going. The Patriots, for much of the

game offensively, couldn't really find open receivers. It just, a lot of these games you're watching today, and you're thinking both of these teams are going to be better two or three weeks from now. Is there any other Patriots team, Greg, in your long history of watching this New England franchise succeed week after week that it reminds you of? More of the early 2000s where it's going to be balanced, where you're going to not necessarily

rely on the wide receivers, and I think where the front seven makes a difference. It's so crazy that maybe the difference is that Tom Brady's better now than he was early in his career, like at age 27. And I did miss, I have to say, I did miss. sometimes I forget and then a new season comes Greg's Friday or Thursday hand-wringing about how tough

his matchup will be against whatever Haminegger team on Sunday and then of course victory the vanquished foe and Bill O'Brien falls to 0 and 5 against his old boss. This is pretty routine I have to admit it was not as close as the score. I'm around the NFL writer Nick Shook

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Job and a throw his man. He balls tipped up into the air. It has picked off. It is picked off by Miles Jack. 10 to the 5 into the end zone touchdown miles jack on a pick six and jacksieville has extended the lead here at medley stadium frank frangine jeff langman w o kv with the call yes linebacker miles jack scored on a 32 yard pick six off a deflection earlier in the fourth quarter and that was pretty much it and pretty much it jaguars beat the new york giants room pat shirmer's debut

in the Meadowlands, a 2015 win for Jacksonville. And this was a game that saw the debut of Saquan Barclay, who did not disappoint. Actually bottled up for most of the game, but did break a 68-yard touchdown run that got the Giants back in the game. And that might be a lot of what the season is about. Eli Manning was not able to make plays

against a stellar Jaguars defense. and the offense in Jacksonville did just enough. This is the recipe, Chris Wessling, the Jags, similar to last year. Let the defense carry the day and hope the offense does just enough. Yeah, I really like Miles Jack, and I picked him at one point in one of our segments to be a star this year with that pick six. I think he's going to be a big, like maybe a Pro Bowl type of player, just another one this defense is chocked full of them. And that was a risky draft pick at the time with Jack. injury history one thing with Barclay so he has this marvelous 68 yard touchdown run and we saw

him do that against Cleveland in the preseason two we know he can break them and we can know can get that done but the rest of his day was 40 yards off 17 attempts it's I mean this is just I look at the same way as what Jimmy G and the 49ers had a deal of Jacksonville is just yeah a badass defense and yeah I'm pounded the table that Eli is going to be okay to to good this year, and this was not a promising start. But again, I mean, if we're going to not kill Jimmy G, we shouldn't kill Eli because the Jaguars are loaded or are making plays and they're going to do it all year.

That's all fair. I totally agree. But one concern I think that Giants fans should have with Eli is that he's developed this habit in the last couple of years of he's a little scared and he lets go with the ball a little quickly because he doesn't trust his offensive line. And I think we saw that today. I saw that a few times. The pressure got to him.

It's kind of like a fling and the helmet kind of goes to the left. And hopefully it's an incomplete pass. That's almost the best case scenario. That's almost like a rookie habit that a 14th year quarterback or whatever he is at this point should have. But that's life with Eli. It's also the Jaguars defense. Yeah. Odell Beckham also came back, went over 100 yards, was Odell Beckham.

But they just couldn't get anything going. It was a very quiet day. If you're a giant fan, not a lot to get excited about in this game. The Jags just looked like the better team. I will say this reminds me a lot of many patches. Shermer games when he was the Browns head coach, but we'll see what happens. The only downside here for the Jags is Leonard Fournett went out with a hamstring injury early, and it's early in his career, but these hamstring injuries keep happening to them.

And the more that they keep happening to them, the Jaguars just aren't going to be able to run the type of office they want to run. At a certain point, you've got to start to worry that Fortinette is just one of those guys. One of my favorite elements of doing the live hits downstairs with a large production team that we had really never worked with before was them probably. listening to Dan on the mic do his throughout the day and then anointing other teams

like the Redskins doing well. The R men and all this are. I mean, they probably just thought we were psychotics. Yeah, and keep an eye on the Jags. The defense was key. Absolutely. Keep an eye on that offense. They got to do more though. They gained 310 yards in total offense. Didn't even score until the second half. And they also committed 11 penalties for 119

yards. So not a perfect effort by the Jaguars, but one side of the team is so damn good that it can carry the day. How about Tom Coughlin's revenge? Stick it, Giants. Revenge? For what? I don't know. For firing him. I'm right. You're the one that wants revenge on Tom Coughlin. I don't know. Let's move up. Back deep is Tyreek Hill for Kansas City. Back pedals. Takes it at his own 10 and once a left return. Gets two blocks. Gets up to the 15. Attacks at left 20. He's at the 30. The Cheetah's loose. 40. And midfield, there goes the Cheetah. 30, 20, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown.

Kansas City. That didn't take long for the Cheetah to unleash. I love Mitch Holtis of KCFX with the call. Tyreek Hill. My goodness, the human joystick scored three touchdowns. And Patrick Mahomes was a monster in his debut as the chief starter. Four scores of his own. The Chiefs, a 38, 28, 28.

win over Greg Rosenthal's Los Angeles Chargers Hill 91-yard punt return for a TD a 50-yard touchdown catch added a little one-year a one-yard score just for a cherry on top and Mr. Rosenthal the Chiefs were impressive in a season opening win over the Pats last September this was every bit as impressive but with a new man a QB1 it just goes to show you don't want to face Andy Reid coming off a bye or in week one doesn't matter who his offensive coordinator is Now it's Eric Biennamy. He'll probably be a head coach in a year or two. He's just going to cook up plays that make your head explode.

And that's what happened. There were so many open receivers in this game. But there were also so many box office plays by Patrick Mahomes and Tyree Kill. I don't know if there's been a player ever like Tyree Kill. He's a really just unique talent. And if I was running Sky Sports, I'd be putting the Chiefs on week after week because I just think they're going to be fun to watch. When you ask, why would the Redskins trade in?

MVP or why would the chief trade an MVP candidate like Alex Smith the answer isn't just because of Patrick Mahomes it's because the real MVP candidate is Tyreek Hill this guy I think is one of the top 10 or 12 players in the entire NFL and he'll be in the MVP discussion all year long when Sammy Watkins and Travis Kelsey combined for 27 yards and you score 38 points it's like what are we doing here no I mean the chiefs need the Super Bowl to be held in week one because their issue was January and they'd be fine. They would just roll away with multiple titles. But this

offense runs through Hill and I think we'll see much more of Kelsey and other games. But after an offseason of kind of wondering what you're going to get from Patrick Mahomes because along with the big plays the explosive passing plays you also thought because it's been his sort of nature that you get mistakes

as well. Not today. He was perfect. Greg, come on with the chargers in this game. the special teams again and just not getting the job done on defense i'll handle this yeah thank you west i'm going into the corner and just gonna yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna leave mark and dan out of this yes please do gregg and i owe the kansas city chiefs an apology we really do and this podcast has been down on them for a few years but they own the chargers this is nine straight wins and i will never pick the Chargers over the Chiefs again until they win a game.

That's fair, dog. It made no sense that the Chargers were somewhat heavy favorites in this game. It was such a Charger game, though. I mean, they had a punt returner that fumbled two punts. They gave up a punt return touchdown. They managed to have 541 yards. I mean, they outgained the Chiefs by 180 yards, and they still lost. They had Philip Rivers, who for the most part played great, 4244.

yards, three touchdowns. It could have been about 500 yards if a couple of his receivers didn't drop long passes that were beautiful. But the key moment in this game in the second half to me was a third and four where Philip Rivers needed to eat the ball and they could kick a field goal and they were still in the game, but he did the thing where he forced it into double coverage, it gets picked off and that was basically the moment. Well, and they had a killer miss field goal when they had a chance to climb back into

this, making it essentially every Chargers game ever. Bolt's going to bolt. And just a little bit of housekeeping before we move to our next game, I did get behind the G-Men with disastrous results. So that's 0.2 unlocks for the heroes. Thus far, Sunday. Let's move up.

High formation, a yard away. Handoff Peterson. It's a Redskins touchdown. Peterson's 100th career touchdown. And the Redskins scored. Larry Michael Cooley. Is that a guy or is it Chris Cooley? I think that was like the sun and home improvement.

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like a human name, not sure who the human is. Sonny Jurgensen, also WTM with the call. Alex Smith carved up the Cardinals 255 and two touchdowns. Adrian Peterson looked like Adrian Peterson, 96 yards and a touchdown. Redskins beat up on the Cardinals 24-6 win on Sunday in a game that really wasn't even. even that close. Mark, Washington, utterly dominant on the road in week one. Pretty damn impressive. This is the Redskins team that we fell in love with for various weeks in the

past where you saw them get in and dominate and we can put to bed. Finally, last year Sam Bradford week one performance that everyone crowed about for 4,000 months. He had 11 yards passing and a negative one yard rushing at halftime today. They couldn't get on track at all. But I am, And Wes, you've been talking about Adrian Peterson, all offseason. You're almost, you're essentially his agent at this point. Please talk. Thank you, Dan, because I was going to introduce this by saying permission to take a victory. Take the lap.

You've earned it. 166 yards in a touchdown. And this was our big takeaway on the Sky Sports Show, or my big takeaway, that if you're a general manager, you have to ask yourself if you succumbed to the quicksand of NFL group think. and it happens every offseason. This guy's on the open market for six months, can't even get a whisper of interest in his game film last year

showed an overwhelmed offensive line, no respect for the passing game, and Adrian Peterson running with the same fury, similar explosion, similar speed to previous years. The guy can still play, and when you see him in a Redskins jersey, it conjures up visions of John Riggins, a guy who made the Hall of Fame

because he was the best old running back in NFL history. And he's perfectly paired with Chris Thompson. Yes, absolutely. And I never thought that Peterson would be bad. My thing is, will he stay healthy? And if he stays healthy, what Wes is right about is he still has the goods. And the Cardinals, that was not inspiring, that effort. At home, it makes you very nervous that this team, first of all, we're going to see Josh Rosen sooner than we expected.

And this team is not going to hang around in a playoff picture if they keep playing like this. Well, Peterson already earned the salary. He could get hurt next week, and he was worth it. The fact that Chris Thompson and him combined for almost 300 yards, Chris Thompson's coming back from a serious injury. We didn't see him at all on preseason, so we didn't know what we were going to get out of him. Jay Gruden has to be love and life.

Chris Thompson had 133 total yards in addition to Peterson's huge game. So they had 300 between the two? Almost 300. I think a little shy, but my brain is going to explode right now. Jay Gruden at one point in his Redskins' offense had 20, six first downs and the Cardinals had three. I mean, that is a smackdown and you didn't even really need to use Jordan Reader, James and Crowder, and Paul Richardson because you just had Alex Smith just dropping off these

little five-yard passes, and I think this Redskins team is dangerous, and I think they're going to be in the mix in the NFC. And as much as Kirk Cousins is a fit for the Vikings, Alex Smith, it's okay, you can go somewhere else, and he's in Washington, he's perfect for the Redskins right now. It doesn't surprise me at all. He is just a guy you can count on, and Larry Michael Cooley, wasn't he one of the kids and family matters well you went home and proved yeah i think he was a jober in 80s wrestling let's move up keanum design role looks right run on the run throws a ball it's

intercepted but is he out of bounds he's out of bat did he catch the ball we got that that's d t with the catch so to marius thomas has the football but is he going to get the touchdown i think it's going to stand dave and i certain him not going to be on our top 10 calls. Okay. That was like us calling the game. And Rick Lewis with the call there for K-O-A. Wolf.

Von Miller was the star. DeMaris Thomas had to go ahead touchdown there. But Von Miller was the star for the Broncos. He sacked Russell William Wilson three times, forced two fumbles, recovered another. And Case Keenham wins his Broncos debut Sunday, 27, 24 win over the Seahawks. Wes, you were confident. The Broncos would get off on the right foot

against the Seattle team in transition. Wait, how confident were you, Wes? Confident enough that it locked it up. Bang, that's exactly what happened. Your thoughts. Von Miller was the best player on the field. He tipped the field. Vance Joseph handled the end of the game

as if he trusted the Broncos defense just because he knew Von Miller was wrecking shop all day long. I have been so excited by this rookie class that you've jokingly referred to them as the team of West T.L. And no way, shape, or form am I bailing on the Bears? But this Broncos team gets me excited as much as anyone. And for all the hype that goes to Cortland Sutton and Royce Freeman and Bradley Chubb, undrafted Philip Lindsay, a rookie who really jumped off the screen in preseason action,

is a big factor for this team. About 100 yards and a touchdown on over 15 touches. This guy's going to be involved all year, I think. I like the formula here. the Broncos last year were not fun to watch. They were depressing. I felt completely different about this game. And they're not perfect, but you got what you got from Emmanuel Sanders.

We talked all offseason about what's going to happen with the backfield. Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman, both had 15 rushes for 71 yards, 4.7 per carry. That works. And this defense is doing exactly what they thought. I just think this is a team in this division where you, in a weird AFC, who knows what can happen. You said, Wes, that Vance Joseph was confident in the defense because Von Miller was there. Maybe it was because Pac-Man Jones was there. I mean, Pac-Man Jones, how about closing out a game in his 14th season?

He just got called off the waiver wire, and he's still closing out games, Pac-Man Jones. I love it. If you're Hugh Jackson and you had to do something other than lose today, don't we feel the same way about Vance Joseph? He had a rough, rough season last year. He had a terrible first year as a head coach. And John Elway did not want to pull the trigger too soon. But you could easily cut ties with Vance Joseph. That's how bad last year was.

So sticking it with him and getting the win in Case Keenum, like, listen, if this is how much Case Keenum is going to be in terms of volume usage, I don't think the Broncos are going to have a very good season. I think the way he was used in Minnesota was the perfect way to use them, which is playing to his strengths. Don't let him get too cowboyish. and I think they're going to lose more games than they win if he throws this many passes. But today it worked against the Seattle defense, said frankly, I don't think it's very good right now, Earl Thomas or no. Wes, what did you think about kind of this totally reformed Seahawks defense?

Did it look like the Seahawks? No, it didn't look like the Seahawks. You had the interceptions, which, you know, as Dan said, Case Keenham, he sort of plays like a younger Ryan Fitzpatrick. He's a gunslinger. You're going to have those 50-50 balls he's going to throw. up so that will happen but this team was i mean the broncos must have 500 yards of offense this was not a seahawks legion of boom type of team Doug baldwin went out with an injury in this game after

battling an mcel spraying throughout the preseason he had one target this team's just short on possibilities on offense i mean there's just when you who is disley the tight end was their leading receiver and they're just counting on brandon marshal to make a play down the field which he did but it just They're just a little short. Strange roster. It looked a lot like last year's Seattle offense with Russell Wilson doing most of the work. They need Baldwin. I mean, Baldwin is such a jenga piece for that team.

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Grant will have a chance to return her from two yards beat. Brakes to his right, got a crease. Cutsback at the 30, the 35, the 40, the 45 to 50. He's at the 40. He's at the 30. The key, Fred, will go. One hundred. All right.

Just like openly celebrating. Nobody's even calling it. It's like somebody's living room. WQA.M. Jimmy Sepulow. Where's the follow? I still haven't gotten that one. Cepalo.

Cepalo, Bob Greasy and Joe Rose with a call. Jakee Grant answered the Titans touchdown with a 102-yard kickoff return. Ryan Tannahill connected on two TD passes to Kenny Stills in the quarterback's return to action. And the Dolphins knocked off the Titans 27 to 20. And a game delayed twice by lightning storms. Took over seven hours to complete. which is the longest NFL game ever in terms of just start to finish. So really, you know, at least the Dolphins fans that were there that stuck around got a W out of it.

Greg, a nice start for Miami and a brutal night for Tennessee and it goes beyond the final score. Yeah, I think the Titans had the worst Sunday of any team. I mean, the Bills fans clearly don't feel too good about themselves, but the Titans had more hope going into it and more devastation today. Marcus Moriota had an elbow injury where he lost feeling in his hand. He came back from the injury and threw an interception, which came after that second really long lightning delay. Then you lose Delaney Walker late in the game to what appeared to be a really serious injury.

That's seven hours after the game has started, and it just doesn't seem right. And early in the game, you also lost left tackle, Taylor Luan. So you think of the Titans, those are three of the players, maybe the first three players that you think of, and they all went out. We don't know how serious Marioada's injury is, but he didn't look great before or after the injury. So just probably a real lost week for the Titans, especially with the Jaguars looking so good. This feels like one of those games that NFL films will profile because it was so wacky and so unusual.

And it's going to, it seems like it's also going to double as like the video that is like a backbreaking, season stabbing, worst-case scenario kind of game for the Titans. I just think for anyone in a football team, players, coaches, front office, when you get stuck with this kind of situation where we saw what happened at the Super Bowl between the Ravens and Niners, when the lights went out, how it changed that tenor of that game for both teams. Look what happened today. I just think you have to ask if you're the NFL or whatever, how do you handle this kind

of thing? I do think the football gods might be smiling because there's a lot of chaos already with Mother Nature with my sandwich prop about one of these games. some point being moved. They should have just taken this thing and moved it to a high school stadium tomorrow night. If you ever were curious what happens after six and a half hours and a huge delay, here's what happened. Tons of scoring and tons of points. It was 10 to 3 entering the fourth quarter and then the game ended 27 to 20. Here's what happened. A 102 yard kickoff return followed by a 75 yard touchdown pass followed by a 94 yard kickoff return. That's just a bunch of tired players

and the Dolphins were the better team today and they deserve to win, partly because their running game looks good. Kenyon Drake and Frank Gore were a really good one-two punch, and that was kind of the difference in a blog game. It's great to come out with a win. The only fans that stuck around to the end

were people that lost their car keys in the storm. I mean, I don't know how else you're still there. Speaking of tired players, we're tired. So we will throw it the Sunday night game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers back to the Culver Studio where our good buddies and satellite heroes, Nick Shook and Jeremy Bergman will handle the call to you, boys.

2.29 to go. Roger shotgun, three receivers, right, one to the left. Snap to Aeron. Rush is on. Has time. Looking. Those middle. Got us there. Breaking screen to the 50. He may go all the way to the 20 down the right side. Randall Cobb to the bottom, to the touchdown. Oh, my goodness. Randall Cobb to the lead score. What an amazing finish to the first Sunday of the football season. This is Jeremy Bergen with Nick Shook.

Back in L.A., the Packers, down and out. Aaron Rogers down and out, down 20 to nothing at halftime. Come back and win, 24, 23. At Lambo against the Bears, there's no higher drama in the league than this type of comeback. This music fits perfectly because what a stunning finish. And it's one that we shouldn't really be that surprised by seeing that it was Aaron Rogers, but it was Aaron Rogers on one leg. That's right.

The first touchdown that he threw when he came back from the injury, which we'll get to, he threw on one leg 39 yards on a dime to the back corner of the end zone. We've seen Rogers throw Hell Marys. We've seen him, you know, will them back from the dead. of defeat, and he did it today, coming back from a collarbone injury that ended his season last year. And, I mean, it was really a tale of two halves, too, because if you think about it, the first half, we had the Khalil Mack show, and he was dominating an offense that had been just

dumbstruck by the loss of Aaron Rogers. You know, Chris Collinsworth said it on the broadcast night. We were giving a eulogy as he was carted off to the locker room. This is it. Week one, Green Bay season is over. What's going to happen? The Lambo crowd was dead silent. here a pin drop, and then they bring in, it's not Brett Hull anymore, remember, it's

Deshawn Kaiser who they traded for. Deshawn Kaiser comes in and promptly gets strip-sacked by Killeleel Mack in the red zone, and then on the next drive, throws a pick six. And you're like, this game is over. If you went to bed, I don't blame you. I hope you did. Everybody thought Aaron Rogers was either done for the season or at least done for the game, and then the second half. Our esteemed editor, David Ely made the, I think, the appropriate connection to Willis Reed. Willis Rogers coming out of the locker room in the second half and turning things around coming back from that 20 to nothing deficit

and doing it in thrilling fashion on a play that when he threw it over the middle to Randall Cobb you thought okay they're going to get a first down oh wait there's there's nobody there was everybody might go he is going to go all the way I mean you heard the shock in the voice of those on the call and yeah I mean it kept what you know like we said before it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise but I mean you sat back you're all behind the bears here they're going to hold on to it

They're going to finish this. They were playing so well. And the confidence that I had in the Bears during the whole game wasn't just because of the way Khalil Mack was playing, the way Roquan Smith was playing, Akeem Hicks. The defense was playing great, shutting down Rogers, even before he got hurt. The confidence came from the fact that Matt Nagy's offense

with Mitchell Trubisky under center, with all the new pieces around him, they were moving the ball. Jordan Howard, Toree Cohen, Alan Robinson was a great connection with Trabisky. They were moving the ball. Trey Burton, you know, it looked like they were going to run away with it, even if Rogers and the offense got back on track, something happened in the second half.

But this offense looked a lot like the Chief's offense from years past. But there was a problem because it also looked like the Chief's offense in that playoff game last year that they lost to the Titans. And, you know, what Matt Nagy failed to do, or Nagy, we went over the premonciations. We haven't just figured out what the actual pronunciation is. But what he did failed to do last year was ice the game. And again, tonight, for a good portion of the second half,

that creativity that the Bears' offense show that was so exciting in the first half, you multiple formations. They're doing all kinds of crazy different things. A lot of what the Chiefs did earlier today, by the way. And then it just went vanilla in the second half. They couldn't move the ball and every stop the Packers got the momentum built. And before you knew it, they're right back in the game and then you've got the ball in Roger's hand and he's down, you know, a score and the magic happens. The Bears were up 17 to nothing at halftime. Rogers was down for the count after taking a hit from, it looked like Khalil Mack, but somebody else on the Bears D line. Back in the wild card game, the Chiefs were down 20, were up 21 to 3 at halftime over Marcus Marriota and the Titans.

Similar type of situation here. And, you know, you don't want to blow this thing out of proportion, but this is two straight games that Matt Nagy has coached as an offensive coordinator or a head coach. And these are two blown leads. There's a lot of promise in Chicago, but you start to think maybe when, you know, his teams can't hold a lead. It's a teaching moment for him in his first game as a head coach. And I think he'll learn just from the many phases of a game in the NFL season. I mean, every game, there's four quarters, it's a long time to play football. And I think he'll learn from this.

But the big question now, Aaron Rogers, kind of answered this question on the broadcast. But really, is he going to play in week two? Because that's going to dominate the headlines this week. He said he's going to play. He told Michelle Defoy he's going to play. We'll see. I'm sure this is going to draw out over the week. There's definitely a lot to be excited about in Chicago, though, without a doubt.

I have a hot take, Shook. This was the game of the year. Oh. This is the first Sunday football game of the year And it was already the game of the year You will not see a game with higher drama You're chasing this high all all off season And you get it right now

I mean I hope not because it's week one But there were a lot of layers to this as you'd mentioned And you could be right I hope we get a lot more of this though In the prime time slate especially We're looking forward to it It's going to be a long, great season Now back to the guys

Across the Pond All right, thank you guys And we can't wait to get back and see all our friends at Culver City as we get on the airplane tomorrow. This brings our amazing London trip to a close before we go. We have so many people to thank because this was really the trip of a lifetime, and it doesn't happen without a lot of people kind of coming and stepping up to the plate for us. So thank you to Sky Sports today, Alex Mason, Patrick Crowley.

Mason's still here waiting for us because he has to take us out of the building. He's like, don't thank me. It's three in the morning. Shut up, but we don't need your thanks. Just stop talking. Patrick Crawley, Neil Reynolds, he's a mensch. The NFL UK office, Jamie King, Alstar Kirkwood, Nick Pike, Henry Hodgson back home. NFL UK Hank.

A major supporter of our show and, you know, a good friend personally. But he has been a great ambassador for this podcast. Yes, we love you, Handsome Hank. Mark Brady here has been a major supporter of the show. Eric Tamposi and Todd Metcalf, you guys busted ass this week with us. And we all. And you are really fun. We all need.

Yeah, we all need. We're never going to London without you. It's part of our new country. We also need Jetlag Jackson to come back. She was awesome. Also, Sarah Parsons, John Marvel. Thank you back in Culver. And especially thank you to the UK fans.

This was, could not have been any better for us. You guys, we expected this to be a fun. and it was even better than we could have imagined. I'll be 95 years old if I live that long, and I'll remember this week for the rest of my life, and I'm legitimately moving here very soon, if I can have anything to do with it. And I will say the seven of us on this journey

from our little NFL group, we've had an incredible time, and we've promised with Lakeisha with eight to have a reunion. I've said three times a week all season long we're going to meet. You had sort of a Michael Jordan at Barcelona week, where he's famous for playing 18 holes of golf, every day going out and beating a bunch of chumps on the basketball court, staying up until 5 in the morning playing cards and doing it every day over again.

That was sort of what you did in London. I felt like for a little bit a while at the end of the week, I thought we were going to lose Cessler. You have lost me. I am moving here. Dark Cessler came out a couple of nights, but he came all the way back around, and he's with us. Also, Ryan Bartland and Camelina back in Culvers have given us a lot of support.

My one takeaway from this whole week is I wasn't part of last year's season open. podcast it was a long year for me and this this trip sort of feels like validation for what we started five or six years ago and that we trusted our instincts that in that building people want your show to be interviewing players interviewing coaches talking to beat writers and instead our vision was four idiots taking the piss out of each other as they say here and it's just a really good sensibility match for the british listeners and i think that's why why we're here i mean we were literally sneaking around our bosses to try to tape this podcast and this was a week where we love our jobs we love football and we love all the listeners not just the UK listeners but all the

listeners are the ones that helped get us here and mark mark brady the shadowy league figure who was along with us said he was getting chills when they put our warm-up songs on on Tuesday night our introductory songs and it felt like you know five years kind of coming to that moment and just I have chills just thinking about it and we we appreciate everyone that help us get us here it was fine all right let's go stand hansis signing off for the quiet storm the mailman the old boss and the loose cannon on the ones and twos oh london you treat it as well time to go home till wednesday This is an eye heart

podcast.