NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - TNF Recap: Texans At Chiefs

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

A full room of heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap the first game of the 2020 season between the Super Bowl Champs (Chiefs- for those living under a rock) and the Houston Texans. With no preseason and an unconventional offseason, Thursday Night Football delivered a kicking start to the 2020 season.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. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Handoff, Johnson, right side 15, breaking a tackle, 10, to the 5, to the pylon. He's in. Touchdown, David Johnson. Welcome to the Texans. Kelsey in motion again right to left.

Four man rush. Mahomes fires for the end zone. Kelsey, touchdown. Kansas City, shielding his shoulder just inside the linebacker, and the Chiefs cap off a spectacular drive. The zone block it to the right, cutback left run. It goes to Edward Tillare 15. 10, fire.

Touchdown. Kansas City. C-E-H with TD One. What a night for the rookie clad Edwards Hill. Lear, a great cutback run. The 2020 NFL season is officially underway, and the team that won the last game of the previous season wins the first game of the new one. It is the Kansas City Chiefs, who win 34 to 20 over the Houston Texans in front of

almost 19,000 people at Arrowhead Stadium. Yes, and the rookie Clyde Edwards Aller was the star on offense for the Chiefs running for 138 yards and to score. Dan Hans is here along with the rest of the heroes. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, and Chris Wessling. And Wes, this was not the type of game that you come to expect from Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs where they're just wowing you with big play after big play. But at the end of the game, you look up, they have 34 points and they're cruising past

another team that simply had no answers. And that's not counting the best throw of the night, which Patrick Mahomes put on DeMarcus Robinson's hands in the back of the end zone and he couldn't come down with it could have been a 40-point game and you're talking about not hitting their stride quite yet and relying more on on the rookie running back than the passing game. So as Greg said at one point late in the game, I'm here rooting for the chiefs like Wes used to root for the Patriots just out of pure excellence in football. Right. I mean, you should be able to appreciate excellence, greatness. I think this is what Mahomes is and what this team's going to be. And it reminded

to be so much of the playoff game against the Texans in that, okay, you can show a lot of different things defensively early, and Chris Collinsworth is going crazy, and Dan is really getting excited about Dream Weaver, the attractive new defensive coordinator for the Texans, Anthony Weaver. And it's like, wow, they're really-photogenic. They're mixing them up. And it's like, okay, that's great for like two or three drives. And then Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes kind of figures out what you're doing, and tonight what they needed to do to win was just to slowly move the ball up and down the field. So it's like, okay, we'll do that. And we'll have 31 points with 11 minutes left in the game. And oh, by the way, when you were doing well early, it was like

one punt and a drop touchdown in the end zone. You really didn't do them. It just, they make it look so easy. It's wild. I'd point to their drive that was a 16-play, 91-yard drive that made it 14-7. And you get down 14-7 to the Chiefs, it feels like a lot different than it does to other teams that ate nine plus minutes off the clock i just there there's another thing that stuck out to me we spent months saying that you know week one if it ever even happened would be sloppy it would be a hot mess that even you know veteran laden teams would be figuring themselves out one penalty by the chiefs for five yards and in greg spent part of our preview show on our youtube live session talking about how Andy Reid historically with the Chiefs has come out and drop bombs on teams in week one.

And there were a lot of issues for everyone this time around. But I thought they got cleaner as the game went along. And they just simply, look, they had to win a little bit of a different way today. But I see a team with Edwards Eilayer, who gives them a totally new dynamic in the backfield. And they get an interception by Legerius Sneed, their fourth round cornerback. They have younger players adding to a team that seemed invincible a year. ago, I'd be a little bit terrified if I were in the AFC West or parts beyond. I mean, I wouldn't hand out lollipops just yet.

Let's see the rest of the week one schedule because the chiefs have continuity on their side and they have Patrick Mahomes and an offense that's pretty much constructed as it was last year. But listen, this is a great, great team. And by the way, yeah, I don't know what the scientists were saying, but yes, oh, yeah, You should be able to truly appreciate greatness. All right. But when it happens to 20 straight years,

and that team's from the division that your favorite teams, and maybe it's not so beautiful. It's not some ballet on the gridiron. But, you know, whatever. For now, though, I agree with you because I'm not a Chiefs fan. I don't have skin in the game. But it is fun to watch this team that's now a juggernaut. It's a defending Super Bowl champion that it feels like we're just getting to know this team,

that this is going to be a team that's in the mix and is going to be a high-level power in the NFL for potentially years to come. And, you know, on the Texan side of the ball, I thought, you know, a lot of the same issues. DeAndre Hopkins isn't there. And I know Will Fuller statistically, when you look at the box score, it's like, oh, look, he stepped right into Hopkins shoes. But that's really not what happened here. Kurt Warner, I was listening to a little bit of the game on Westwood One. We went to Wesleyan Manor with Wes and Lakeisha and Young Link.

and Wes's mother-in-law, and we were watching the game. And once it got out of hand in the fourth quarter, drove back, and Kurt Warner made a good point. He was kind of getting on the roster construction of Bill O'Brien's team a little bit, which is, listen, when you have this many number two, established number two receivers, it's a little tricky to, like, ask somebody to become the number one guy. And what was happening too much in this game is what tends to happen when the Texans' defense gets bogged down,

which is plays aren't opening up, And all of a sudden, you see Deshaun Watson dancing around, trying to make something happen desperately, and that only goes so far. And we saw that again, and you hope that's not a sign of things to come for the Texans this season, but it was today. It was today. They struggled to protect him, and they couldn't get anything open deep. Titus Howard in particular struggled in past protection. That was a problem. And I think that point by Kurt Warner is fair.

but also Deshaun Watson is so used to looking at the Andre Hopkins and throwing to him in key situations whether he's covered or uncovered and it's going to take him time to get used to these new guys. I thought it was interesting that Randall Cobb and Will Fuller played twice as many snaps as Kenny Stills and Brandon Cooks. Well, Cooks has had an injury so that partly explains that, but you wouldn't have known Cobb played that many snaps. I mean, I think he had a couple catches for 23,

yards. It's a lot to ask their offense. I was impressed, though, by the Chief's defense. I mean, this is a reminder when Frank Clark and Chris Jones are together and healthy, which they really weren't for most of the last year until the very end when their defense played the best they played all year, that that's a really strong tandem. And Jones stopped a couple drives on his own as West mentioned. Clark was eaten up Titus Howard, the Texans.

And, oh, by the way, your boy, Hansis, Laramie Tunsell. He did get a false start very quickly. So he's staying right on pace for that, you know, one penalty per game. That's, that's Tunsell's lane. I want one little aesthetic note. I came home from Wes's and watched the game with- Laramie Tonsal. Go ahead.

I watched the game with Simone and the kids. And like, she was very annoyed by this one Chiefs player that had these bright yellow gloves because, you know, when he was dancing around, like, chasing a receiver, and it looks like a flag. And I think at the end, they actually, the announcers thought that there was a flag. cannot be wearing yellow gloves, uh, anyone in the NFL. I understand it's part of your color palette, but, um, could not agree more. Could not agree more with Simone on this issue. Just, wait, let's dig it deeper on this. Let's keep going. I think I've, I think I've drawn it

out as far as I can, but I just, but Edward Delaire, Wes, we talked about it. I, I think, because he has the same number. I was like, wow, he has a little bit of a little Sean McCoy vibe to him. Uh, but he is smaller than that. But even on a run near the end, of the game. And like I said, 138 yards in their last drive that ended up with a field goal that Al Michaels beautifully let the audience know with a wink, wink, nudge, that it affected a lot of things in the desert. He dropped his shoulder, stayed on his feet, got an extra seven yards. If you are a Chiefs fan, if you are Andy Reid, if you're a fantasy fan who took this guy in the first round, you are feeling bullish right now after what Clyde Edwards-Zalier did

in his debut. Yeah, I thought he ran really decisively, looked great in the middle of the field. And if you're the chief, she might worry a little bit that he got stuff so easily at the goal line so many times. I mean, I think that was the one downside.

His strength, though, is also, I mean, he set LSU's past catching record is for running backs. I mean, they haven't really even tapped into that in this game. And I can't, you know, and Andy Reid is sort of a master at, you know, creating the screen game advantages.

So I think we're just starting to see the beginning, but it reminds, like, you know, throwing them into the middle of the defense over and over, like on third and fourth and short and stuff, that didn't seem to be something that he had mastered at this point. Well, he's going to be a great player for them, but it's like, flow down on just like giving all the credit to all the air. Like, he's going to be great for them. I heard them say some stat. It's like, it's the most yards of our first round pick in his debut or this or that. And I'm thinking, didn't Kareem Hunt go up and down the field and drop a bomb on the Patriots in his first game ever. It's like, well, he wasn't a first roundback. But he put up about

200 yards in the same offense with the same coach. It was the same quarterback back then, right? That might have even been Alex Smith. They put a 40 burger out. I mean, that kind of makes my point for me that you can put anyone in there. You can put Damien Williams and he might be a Super Bowl MVP. There's just so many other things to worry about, like you're going to let Aller beat you. I mean, it's going to take a special defense to give them problems. And I think we know the Texans have a long way to go to be a special defense this year. I mean, apparently he's a borderline XFL player based on your commentary. I'm saying he's like a very good player.

But any first round running back in there, they're going to do well. I know what you're saying. But he did a few things today, even though it wasn't a perfect game. And you know they're working on it this week over the next 10 days to get better in goal line situations. because it wasn't pretty, but he flashed enough that made you think, oh, God, if this actually does play out the way a lot of people thought it could, that this guy is special, you can't, you literally can't stop the Chief. Right, he'll be Kareem Hunt without the problems, really.

Because even without, even if you had Damien Williams or whomever back there, they have so many people that Patrick Gahombs can go to on this offense, and they talked about it on the telecast as well, that pick your poison, but with someone as good as Mahomes behind center, He's going to find the guy, and they're just going to score points every single game. And then it just becomes about, can you score against the defense? And we mentioned this in our YouTube preview. Over the last six games of the regular season last year, they averaged 11.5 points allowed on defense, Kansas City,

then go win three games in the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. So the defenses should not be overlooked here. This is a special team potentially. And they spent less money on defense last year than any team in the league and won the Super Bowl with it. So I just, you know, they're, I couldn't be more impressed with the team building effort in Kansas City. I will ask you guys one question

because, you know, Greg and I were sitting, we were socially distanced, but we were in the corner of the, of West Manor, you know, having a little bit of a discussion back and forth. Did the players at all look a little hesitant on defense when it came to tackling or a little bit off their feet and maybe a little bit tired towards the

end of the first half? And I think that's something that would carry over to Sunday. I mean, it was, it was a little sloppy and then it almost like they course corrected by the end of the game. It's tough to tell. Like I think the Chief's offense was a little sloppier than normal. It's one of those things that's like they're still going to be NFL players. But yeah, I think the tackling and the defense for the most part is going to be hard.

Then again, you look at like the numbers and they, you know, you keep Patrick Mahomes under seven yards per attempt. I know you mentioned before for the show, Dan. And it's like, I guess that's a good job. You know, at least keeping the big plays off the board relatively. I just was thinking, though, we were in West Manor. This was West's first game he ever watched as a father and with his son right there, too. First game for Link. How you feeling?

It felt great. He was in his little football outfit, thanks to our friend Haleya. Send him that personalized it with Wesleyan on the back. So nice to have him there in his football uniform. It was a great time. I thought the most explosive play of the night was, the poop that he unleashed late in the second quarter. Ministers, Lakeisha, had changed his diaper.

He came out and said, he snuck one in there. Almost knocked out of the couch. It was that powerful. And I guess my final thought is, if you're looking for positives out of Houston, yeah, you didn't get embarrassed, so that's pretty good. But you're not looking to not be embarrassed. You fasten yourself an AFC contender. David Johnson did look good, especially early on when this game was, you know,

in doubt, and he played well and had that great little jump cut for the touchdown on the 19-yard run. So that's a positive. And you get the feeling, especially now, who knows, we're going to find out the injury status of Duke Johnson who left with a leg injury. Johnson might become a workhorse for them. I don't know about using the word embarrassed, but that wasn't a close game and the Chiefs Cruz. No. My final thought would be, you know, the old Alec Baldwin quote, for Chiefs, fans right now, life is just a boulevard

of unbroken green lights. You walk into every game thinking you're going to win when you have Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. It's true and you have green lights facing you for the next 10, 15 years. It really is a unique and have to be

a great feeling for this fan base. I would like to see Billy O'Brien be just a little more aggressive on fourth down early. Don't punt it away. Go in there knowing that you got to score 40. Know what kind of a game it's going to be, I don't know what they would have done schematic-wise to make it a bombs away type of game, but man, they never threw the ball down the field at all.

They weren't ready. That was the only way you're going to win this game and kind of know the situation you're going to be and go for it on fourth, go deep, go past crazy, don't, you know, don't be balanced. So, Dan, they weren't ready for this game and they weren't ready for the first three quarters of the playoff game against the bills. They only just started getting ready for these games with all this time to prepare. And you want to hear the worst news? Next week, they welcome the Ravens into their building.

Their schedule is brutal to start the year. It has to be the toughest schedule of the league. My goodness. So you have to go to Arrowhead on the opening night, which is basically a lamb being led to slaughter. You have the Ravens come to your building. Then you go to Pittsburgh and then you host the Vikings. And then things soften up a little bit with the Jaguars. But then you have the Titans and Packers after that.

So they are entering a situation now. It's one of those things, and it's why the NFL schedule is so much different than other sports, you lose that first game. All of a sudden, it starts to get a little hot under the collar. So good luck for the tech. It's a double playoff schedule right there. You know, I bring this team up a lot, and Wes probably tires of it. I think I even compared one of your softball teams, one of the Shield teams, to the 89-49ers.

And when I came home and Luke was saying, I'm rooting for the Texans because the Chiefs beat the Niners in the Super Bowl. I've come around to your way of thinking that team I think they ended up going 14 and 2 but they were closer to like 1 or 16 and 0 juggernaut they were one of the best teams ever Right and the thing was every week If you want to be someone that's out there thinking I'm rooting against the Chiefs

I'm waiting for something bad to happen You are rolling uphill Because it's just it just has a look of a team That is going to just find new ways to win Become more powerful by the week and, you know, we all know a few Chiefs fans, and they kind of struggled and suffered for a long time with teams that came close.

Now you have a team that got there, and it's just a question of how many more they can win at this point. And I don't like to jump too far ahead because these things don't happen that often, but this is a very different situation than some of the other one-off Super Bowl winners we've seen before. I'm with you. We'd be remiss that to mention, you know,

some of the pregame stuff that the Texans stayed, you know, in the locker room. like it used to be back for the first, you know, 70, 80 years of the NFL. They were never outside of the locker room for the national anthem until the last two decades. And, you know, their safety, Justin Reed said they considered delaying the game that they had talked about, you know, whether they would come out late, you know, and have the game start late as a way to raise awareness. They decided not to do that they stayed in the locker room. you know the teams locked arms at midfield and the chief's crowd that was there booed them pretty

hardcore at that moment which was interesting we won't see that like in in other stadiums but it it is still just a sea change to see that the league itself kind of embracing that with the messages on the on the players helmet it's a it's a lot different than it was when Colin Capron and most and most stadiums are going to be empty on Sunday but it was interesting the vibe it felt like week four of the preseason in terms of the crowd where you have about 15, 20,000 people in there. People are cheering, but because it's such a big space and it's open air, it just doesn't have the same energy,

but it's going to be better than other games that we watch on Sunday. I think it's going to be super odd. It's going to be super odd this week. I think it can be two things, which is it will be odd. Of course, that is true. But I also think it's a TV sport. And like if the quality of play is good and the replays, I don't know.

It still just felt like NFL football to me. I think we're also getting a little bit used to it. I mean, we're not, football will be a whole different world than baseball and basketball, but how long did it really take you to get used to watching baseball without fans? I'm not saying it's better or worse, but I mean, it's not that jarring that I can't functionally deal with it as a human. I mean, it's a weird year. Hopefully it doesn't stay this way, but I don't know.

I mean, as a big baseball fan, I've hated the experience with no fans. I feel like it takes away a lot of the, like, energy. And for football, you could turn that up and multiply by 10. Arrowhead should have been going bonkers tonight, and that would have added more excitement to it. But that's just, yeah, that's the cards we've been dealt as a world right now. And it is what it is. Well, there's also the player that might not care.

And then there's the other player that talked about how they fuel off the fans. I think football, you know, all the sports, but there are certain football players that might turn in a different performance with 80,000 people cheering them. booing them. All right. That's it for the recap of Thursday night football. A reminder, you could check out the preview of all the week one games that have not been

played yet on your, wherever you listen to your podcast. It was an episode we released earlier on Thursday, so make sure you check that out. And then come back, of course, Sunday night, our flagship program of the Round the NFL podcast, where we recap every game played on Sunday. Until then, Dan Hansa signing off for The Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the old boss, and Rick Hollywood behind the glass. Till Sunday night. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

On Move the 6, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies. to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Lev Florio, and together we hope. host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet,

we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.