NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 1 Recap Includes a Sunday Night Classic!

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Jourdan Rodrigue, Nick Shook, and Patrick Claybon to recap the Week 1 action across the NFL. The crew starts things off with the Lions at the Packers (01:28) followed by Steelers at Jets (11:00), Bengals at Browns (20:10), Buccaneers at Falcons (27:37), 49ers at Seahawks (34:45), Raiders at Patriots (42:45), Dolphins at Colts (51:45), Titans at Broncos (59:00), Panthers at Jaguars (01:05:44), Cardinals at Saints (01:14:17), Giants at Commanders (01:21:30), Texans at Rams (01:28:10), and wraps things up with a classic Sunday Night Football game between the Ravens and Bills (01:37:20). Join Gregg and Nick for their YouTube Live reaction of the Vikings taking on the Bears on Monday Night Football.  Note: time codes approximate. NFL 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.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're trying not to be overwhelmed in the best way possible by the week one explosion of football. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio joined by my friend Patrick Claibon and from across the country in Cleveland it is the man the Nick shook.

Yes, we wait over 200 days for football and then we get one game on Thursday and we get one game on Friday and then suddenly there were just eight games happening at the same time in the early window. It almost feels like too much but it's not too much Patrick. No, it's not too much when you're a shark. do is swim and eat and that's what we do and shook it was time to do both on sunday today and i loved

i didn't even need caffeine this morning swim eat use your gills to process oxygen in the water yeah we did it all and and uh i guess in this case to just monitor all the wrong assumptions you made throughout the off season and definitely uh with your week one pick so this show uh if you listened last year it's our it's our favorite one of the week it's our big show and it's got to include jordan Rodrigue every week. She was over at the Rams game show. She's going to join us for the third segment of the show to talk Rams and more games then.

But for now, we're talking the biggest game of the day. Maybe not the best game of the day, but the most decisive to Lambo. Now, Love motions Jacobs to his left. Tight end, Tucker Kraft, left side of the line. Anzolone, chewing blitz off the left edge. Here's the snap to love, throws right side of the end. So touchdown.

Jane and Reed, right corner of the end zone. They beat Terry. And Arnold again and a Rambo leap to the North End Zone stands for Jaden Reed. It's 16 to 3 Green Bay. That was Wayne Larra V on WRNW. Man, it feels good to be back here on a Sunday evening hearing Larry McCarran just screaming out for a touchdown. That's what we love. A full two seconds before Reed catches the ball.

He's celebrating the touchdown. That's how locked in Jordan Love was. And how locked in Larry was. I think that was typical because early portions of this game, there are wide open receivers schemed up, great job by Matt Lafleur, and just absolutely perfect passes by Jordan Love, often on third down, shook, where you kind of knew they were going to win that play as the ball was in the air. On that touchdown drive, they actually had three third down connections. And it just was one of those games where it was so

one-sided on both sides of the ball early for the Lions to lose this game after a late score, you know, in Garbage Time, Packers win going away, they were up 27 to 6. I hate to say a statement win in week one, but as a week one game goes, we led with this one, shook,

because it did feel like the most meaningful result we saw all day. Yeah, meaningful result between two teams that are expected to contend for the NFC North title. And it's also, you know, we had a big question marks with the Lions coming into the season. You lose both of your coordinators, What's your offense going to look like? What's your defense going to look like?

Well, there's a bit of benefit in retaining your staff from year to year and getting off to a hot start. And the Packers did exactly that throwing 10 points on the board in the first quarter and kind of running away with it. So, yeah, I mean, look, we're going to look back at this two months from now and maybe not think about it that significantly. But today, it makes a huge impact on how both teams are perceived after just one week. Well, it's a division game between the two favorites and the division.

And now the Lions have a very important rematch where it, if you get swept in the division, that's a major problem. And we thought about leading with a better show, Jets Steelers, I mean, a better game. Jets, Steelers, they're next. But ultimately, like,

we've been doing this a while. I mean, I've been covering the NFL now over 20 years. The Michael Parsons trade is the biggest, craziest, and I think most impactful trade I've ever seen of a player in his prime. And to look at what he did today, which to me was a perfect example of how Micah Parsons is more than just his numbers.

They only used him situationally, Patrick, and in the box score, I was shocked. I think he only ends up with three or four pressures, depending on how you're measuring it. He does get a sack on golf late in the game, and yet his first snap of the game, we're going to talk about omens throughout the show. Michael Parsons' very first snap as a Packer, he beats Penaiseul, an all-pro, the inside flushes out Jared Goff. When Goff moves off his spot, he struggles. That was the case all day. And that happened again and again and again where Micah Parsons either move the play or he helped out a teammate. One of DeVante Wyatt's sacks in this game was directly a result of, you know,

the protection going to Michael Parsons and him pushing the pile. Yeah. And Dan Campbell did everything he could to sell us up to the, up to the game, including telling the broadcast. You know, You know, we were more worried about Kenny Clark than this Micah Parsons. Yeah, come on. Come on. I appreciate the effort from Dan. But even though you mentioned, Greg, not a lot of production, he still was second on the team in pressure percentage. Right.

Open things up because Rishon Gary had one and a half sacks. I would make the case that you could credit one of those to Michael Parsons getting through earlier. He rushed on the inside there. Devante Wyatt's sack, as you mentioned. Lucas Van Ness got a half of a sack on a play where Michael Parsons also caved everything in. And Parsons being as explosive as he is, sped up the clock, where if you're, if you just look at the scoreboard, we talked about folks that just do the box score watching and you say, oh, Jared Goff was 31 or 39. I wonder, I wonder what was going on for the lines. The time was just not there today for Goff to get back and get set up.

And so that resulted in very little opportunity for James and Williams to get free deep. And all of this, I think, yeah, it, Michael Parsons had a significant impact. fact on the game, despite the fact he only played 29 snaps. Those are 29 very, very valuable snaps. Okay, we've talked to, Micah, let's hear that sack call. I know the crowd who gave such

a good pop when Parsons first got introduced was love in this moment. Golf takes the shot gun snap, rolls right out of the pocket, chased from behind by Parsons. Yeah, and a sack. Micah Parsons registers the sack. Back at the 31-yard line.

And the Parsons project is underway in Green Bay. Oh, at that point, it's 27 to 6 and it's third and long. Has Larry, Michael Parsons is so fast that Larry has become pre-cognitive. He is making calls before they happen. He's celebrating things before they happen. He is now a future seat. Well, yeah, because that was like, I was at the San Diego Safari Park the other day,

and that is like seeing a wild animal hunting its prey. And like, you already know how it's going to end. Michael Parsons running after Jared Goff. Man, what a memorable debut for him. And to me, the key stat was just how they won at the line of scrimmage. Nine quarterback hits for the Packers defense. It had been a blah, you know, pass rush the last few years, four sacks. Whereas the Lions, Nick, two quarterback hits, no sacks.

And the Packers' offense didn't really run the ball very well. They didn't even need to do that much in the second half, although they had a couple field goals. This was actually a game where they shortened the game with their passing attack, and there weren't that many possessions. They were efficient, and they protected Jordan Love really well. So ultimately, there was a pregame conversation like, what's more important?

Getting Aidan Hutchinson back or Michael Parsons? Ultimately, it was the multiplier effect, and it felt like Hutchinson didn't have enough help around him to have a big impact in this game. Yeah, which has been one of my big concerns about the Lions just going into this entire season, but it's obviously only one week, so I'm not going to overblow that. But what I am going to say is, how do you beat the Lions? What have we learned in the past? There's one of two ways to beat them.

You force turnovers or you limit their time with the football and don't allow them to get on a roll. Because once that offense gets in a role, at least last year, it was really hard to keep up with it. So what do they do? They put points on the board early. They get ahead early. They limit the Lions ability to get on a role. And then you close it with a play like Parsons when you're already up multiple scores, which then kind of completes the whole trifecta of the buildup,

which was the trade and the big opponent week one he delivers and it makes for a just spectacular day and a great way to start the season at Lambo.

I was so wrong about this game. I made this one of my picks with Cynthia just so off in terms of thinking that the lines would be ready to go.

I'm not that worried long term. I am worried that Terry and Arnold, their cornerback got hurt, groin injury. You never like to hear that.

He's been banged up quite a bit. They're a little thin in the secondary and so he was ruled out. at one point. I am a little worried about their interior offensive line. They got hit in the backfield, according to the broadcast, more than any game in the Dan Campbell era. So there were concerning signs, but it is a long season. They have a lot of talent

and a lot of intelligent people there. And oh, by the way, they have a rookie receiver who somehow managed to get into this show despite catching a touchdown with less than a minute to go in a 27 to 6 game. If you're watching on YouTube, we appreciate y'all, like, subscribe, do the things. You know, we're showing highlights during these Sunday night games

and you can watch what I believe was the best catch of the day by Isaac to Slaw. And I know it didn't matter, but I love ball enough, Patrick, that you can appreciate incredible individual achievements even if it didn't affect 2-1 and lost this game. This was the most ridiculous catch I've ever seen.

It matters, Greg. It matters because this is why we watch football to see players make plays like this. Initially, the stripes say it was incomplete, but Amon Ross St. Brown lobbies. And the call eventually goes to review, and we see that Tisla's back foot somehow comes in. His right hand is fully out of bounds.

In fact, the top half of his body is out of bounds, and he makes this catch parallel to the ground. Just go ahead. Whatever award we can give Isaac Tisla, let's give him the ball. I mean, are we sure? Like, Odell's catch is that much better than that? Well, to have to get the, okay, really? To have to get the toe tap after the full extension, just absolutely outrageous.

And yeah, Jared Goff, the numbers looked okay. But I drilled down, you know, he's not beaten the play action merchant, you know, allegations nine for 10, 90 yards when it was play action, only 4.65 yards per attempt when he was kind of in clear passing situations. The Packers got after it. so did both offenses in MetLife Stadium, which is the most surprising thing I might say all day. Ball at the 37-yard line, 25 seconds remain here for the Jets. Fields gets a snap, back to pass, looking, steps up in the pocket, has some room, throws to his left, and the ball is dislodged.

Jalen Ramsey, wallops, Garrett Wilson. It is incomplete, and Ramsey makes the play that seals a victory for the Pittsburgh Steelers. somebody get the license plate of that train it was a j train coming straight down the tracks oh great job there by max starks and rob king on the play-by-play called wd v e yes jalen ramsie one of many off-season pickups in this game that had a huge impact breaking up a pass by justin field with the Jets trying to drive in a back-in-forth game, 34 to 32. The Steelers win it. Patrick, Justin Fields looked like he had a chance to scramble and pick up that first down. It's tough to knock him on a day where ultimately both offenses did much better than we ever could have expected.

And it shows just how much things can change and how much one particular circumstance. because I think back to the opener for the Jets and Xavier Gibson has the walk-off return for a touchdown and you fast forward a couple of seasons and it's a fumble that's ultimately what puts the Steelers in position to get the go-ahead score because they had no opportunity to stop Justin Fields in this offense the entire game

essentially until that very last play where I would make the case the sidelines determine that because Justin Fields had a chance to run it but Jalen Ramsey is basically on the Steelers' sidelines. So all he sees over there is a bunch of people in Steelers' jerseys, and he sees a wide open Garrett Wilson. He ends up getting him blasted by Jalen Ramsey and what's the play that seals the deal. But Breece Hall averages 5.6 yards per carry in this game.

I think it was a real factor that you've got a quarterback that's a threat to run the ball. And Justin Fields was today. He had 48 yards on the ground. It's a significant difference and now a fully healthy Breece Hall. But the connection with Garrett Wilson was there. They were effective all up until that very. very last moment in a game where we've celebrated both of these defenses and their

potential. They did essentially nothing today. Right. Mike Toblin said they were going to be historic and you mentioned the fumble. So that was a key sequence, if not the key sequence in the game. The Steelers are playing catch up. They score a touchdown. There's a fumble on

the kickoff by Kenny Gainwell, right? Didn't he even forced it. Not only did he scuronic recovers it. And Ben Scoronic, you know, starts off the scoring here in terms of the first touchdown score in this game. While, you know, Gainwell is surprising getting most of the snaps early. It ended up being more Jalen Warren. But in Aaron Rogers, his defense, if you're comparing him and Justin Fields, he ends up with four touchdowns in this game, very efficient, over eight

yards per attempt, 24 yards. And they made that fumble count just a few seconds later on a throw to Calvin Austin. Rogers under center. Play action pass. Rolling to his right, fires off the back foot Calvin Austin. Touchdown. Pittsburgh Steelers. The play action pass, he gets Austin in the right portion of the end zone for the touchdown pass, fourth of the day for Aaron Rogers. We're just going highlights heavy here. I just thought that was important because you're right. Ultimately, the Jets are going to really kick themselves for losing this game. Patrick had the closest sides on it, so I'm focusing on how he was looking at this game.

They end up with 120 more yards overall. they run for 182 yards but the Jets still got more done I mean the Steelers got more done I thought offensively like what did they do well

other than employ Chris Boswell well yeah employing Chris Boswell was the key there as he hits a career long that's ultimately the game winner there but on third down Aaron Rogers was five of seven there were a couple of situations where the Steelers

would get backed up where Quinn and Williams would get a sack they get pressure they get Johnson and back, he's healthy, and the Steelers kept making plays. And to his credit, the Arthur Smith, Aaron Rogers experiment, looked good so far. There was one of those key Arthur Smith forcing the ball to Jono Smith in the red zone situations that worked on a push pass where the tight end's coming in motion. And he goes through. It was everything working as well as D.K. Metcalf getting a lot of run after catch in this game, including a couple of very big plays, where you've just wondered, and that was my concern, like how is all of this going to work? Because we hadn't seen

either the Jets' defense is bad or the Steelers' offense is starting out really hot. Yeah, Johnny Smith had six targets and only 15 yards, five catches. But he did have a touchdown. And D.K., you mentioned it. There wasn't a lot of yak when he was with the Seahawks and he ends up with four for 83. Aaron Rogers was quick to point out with CBS, how everyone, you know, said him and Arthur Smith weren't going to get along and they're getting along just fine. and he was quick to also point out

that this game had a little extra before the game, oh no, it doesn't matter at all, after the game. You spoke about the meeting with Aaron Glenn on McAfee a few months ago. Beating him, is there significance in that since he basically told you to your face that he didn't think you were right for that team?

Yes, that's what he did. So there was significance in beating him for you? I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets. Not too bad. I mean, they were like almost goading him into that. You got to enjoy it. He came back.

He got it done, Shook. Should I feel better or worse about my jets to the playoffs prediction that I forgot I even made on NFL. com? I think you should feel good about it because this is an offense that looked a lot better than I anticipated them to look. And I thought they were really creative with their play calling. They used their weapons really well. They used Justin Fields' ability to run really well.

They put up a ton of points. It's just that things went back. for them at the worst possible time, and that's how you lose a close game. But this is a way more encouraging debut for this team under Aaron Glenn than I anticipated. And that alone should inspire a lot of confidence in them. And I'm also glad that we played that Rogers touchdown pass to Calvin Austin, by the way, because that's classic Rogers. And I don't think we saw a lot of that over the last couple years,

that off the one foot, flick of the wrist, move into his right. I saw that throw, and I was like, oh, buddy. Oh, buddy. If he's going to do that this season with Arthur Smith, his coordinator. And look at him, he gives a little fist bump, too. If you're watching this on YouTube, that's classic Aaron Rogers right there. People might want to watch out. Yeah, I got the take from Steelers Superfan by my friend Anthony Jesselnik afterwards.

God, what an effing game. I'm all in Super Bowl. The Steelers, the Steelers fans are feeling great. And since you spent about 45 minutes, Patrick, talking in the newsroom and researching Chris Boswell for your take, I have to give you the floor. He had a 60-yarder after Aaron Rodgers couldn't get them any closer with about a minute to go. He had a 60-yarder to take the lead. Yeah, a 60-yarder where the Jets were trailing the entire game.

His career long was 59. And I thought about it. And it's been true for a while that Chris Boswell is the kicker that everybody talked about Justin Tucker being. And I went back to try to find a game. The Pittsburgh Steelers have lost by three or three. or fewer points where Chris Boswell missed a kick. I'm in 2018. Greg was goading me the whole time. I still

haven't found it. No, I thought like you, we got a lot of games to talk about. You're just going through game logs for Chris Boswell back to 2018. Yeah, because you're like, you might have to defend that take. I have not been rooting for this guy. I have rooted for the other teams in the division, significantly the one that plays for purple. And I feel like there has been

like no situation where I've wanted Chris Boswell to miss a kick. He's always put that thing. He put it almost in the net from 60 today. You make a fantastic point. Who has been more reliable in big situations? Because Tucker, I think statistically, and just eye test has been better, maybe the best kicker of all time until it all went sideways. And it's great that he's out of league considering what he did, but just talking about his kicking. But Boswell's hit more big kicks. It just feels like they're always

in these sort of games. And Mike Tomlin enjoys the hell out of having a guy like that. Just acknowledging that NFL football is tough. There's going to be ebb and flow. You're going to be up against it. You're going to be tested individually and collectively. And how you respond to that oftentimes defines you. And I can't say enough about boss. And our kicker is a serial killer.

Man, he's he got a low pulse rate. He can't wait to deliver. When you get the natural laugh there from Shook, you know, it's a great quote. Let's go to a game that I hope Shook, can laugh about, you know, through the pain. Oh, yeah. 43-yard line. Flacco, looking to throw his pass.

It is intercepted. It went off the fingertips of Tillman. DJ Turner comes up with a football. And that is Coffin Nails. Bam, bam, bam, bam. How about Turner? Division game, a matchup that's been tough for Joe Burrow, and Zach Taylor over the years

that Kevin Stefansky Browns did it again in terms of outplaying the Cincinnati Bengals for 60 minutes. But it's all for not. They lose 17 to 16. That was Dan Horde, Dave Lapham on WCKY, a late interception. The second one for Joe Flacco,

just part of a series of disappointing moments shook in a game that the Browns outgained Cincinnati, a 327 to 141. What do you think was the most important reason they couldn't get it done? I have a trifective takes on this. I'm going to start with your kicker because you cut Dustin Hopkins to bring in this rookie thinking that he would be the guy that wouldn't miss PAT's and then he misses a game tying PAT and then he misses a field goal that would have put you ahead by at least two. And if you'd made the PAT, it would have put you ahead by three. And instead, you get no points out of an opportunity for four points. I also have another take in this, which is that

we should still have earned and unearned interceptions because both of Joe Flacko's interceptions hit his receivers in the hands. And yet that is what Cleveland Browns football has been for a long time and certainly was on Sunday. You know, I'm fielding texts from emotional Browns fans after the fact for hours. I'm watching games. My phone

keeps lighting up. I'm ignoring it. I take a moment to scroll through it and see they are so deep in their feelings over so many things. And then you go look at the stats and my response is the same to all of them. The Brown statistically outperform them in every category. And this is not a good football team. And the reason they're not a good football team is because they outperform

them statistically in every category and put 16 points on the board and lost a game like that. They lost over 93% of win probability in three plays. Two of them were the interceptions. The other one was the missed field goal. Bad teams don't take care of the details. That's the Cleveland Browns. And the last point in my trifecta, the Bengals are going to be hooting and hollering about how good they feel about their defense. And those were two very athletic, acrobatic interceptions. I give them credit for that. But you let the Cleveland Browns. led by Joe Flacco rack up 327 yards. Dylan Samson in his first NFL game

went for almost 100 scrimmage yards. Don't puff your chests out that much because a team that can actually take care of the details is going to make you pay in future weeks. Yeah, I was getting texts from our friend Nick Wesseling. That was just the Bengals defense is the same. The Bengals' secondary cannot tackle. So a lot of complaining,

but ultimately they at least bowed up and forced field goal attempts sometimes. And unfortunately, some missed field goal attempts. yeah the missed field goal attempts the uh the missed extra point loomed pretty large as well on top of that but going back to what shook was pointing out with this bengles defense joe flacco joe flacco on the run today was three or five for 47 yards there was go there were several plays where joe flacco is glacially moving away from bengal's pass rushers and they couldn't get to him he making moves in the pocket making great throws i'm with shook the browns absolutely sold a very very solid

Joe Flacko game where they had any number of chances to be successful here and a great game from the defense as well and this whole like, oh, the Bengals are playing in the preseason. They're going to try extra hard. You have to go back to October of 2014 for a game where the Cincinnati Bengals

had fewer total offense yardage. Like 2014. It was Andy Dalton. Wait, really? Los Anu was the leading receiver. It was a long time ago and the second worst was a couple of years ago in 2023 against this Browns team where they had one more yard than they had today.

And that was in a rainstorm and that was week one and Burrow was coming off an injury. I remember that well. It is funny because it's not like we thought they were going to try extra hard early. They were just trying to change their process. Tackle more in training camp. Approach it a different way. Play more in the preseason. And then Chuck, tell me what went on when the Bengals were on offense because I got to admit I didn't have eyes on this one too often.

And when I looked afterwards and saw that the Bengals had. had under 100 yards net passing today, Joe Burrow ends up with 113. Chase Brown goes 21 for 43 on the ground. Jamar Chase has two catches in five targets for 26 yards. Like, man, this Brown's defense must have balled out, did they? Yeah, they did. They didn't in the first quarter and a half. So this game starts with a very methodical, very long bengal scoring drive. And then the Browns respond with a similar drive that's actually longer. And I'm thinking, God, we're going to end up with four total possessions for each team by the time this game's over. Just the pace of the way that the game was going.

Eventually, though, in the second half, the Browns defense came together and completely denied anything that the Bengals wanted to do through the air for the most part. Greg Newsom had a couple of great pass breakups on Jamar Chase after getting flag for a pass interference in the first half. They just got all together. And then they got after Joe Burrow. Miles Garrett had two sacks. They had this sequence in the fourth quarter where they really needed to stop. They were down by a point. And three plays in a row, Joe Burrough is just under complete duress.

Miles Garrett gets a couple of sacks. They have a combination of players sack him. He barely avoids a safety, which, by the way, would have changed the outcome of the game potentially. So the defense was fantastic. And that points, again, to the fact that they wasted this opportunity. So, you know, the theory going into the season for the Browns was we know their offense is not going to be very good.

They're going to have to lean their defense. Their defense passed every test today. I don't know how that's going to be on a week-by-week basis because they seem to have the Bengals number. But, yeah, that high-powered Bengals offense that we see often in other places, once again, did not show up in Cleveland. They still won, though. season is going to be about development.

And, you know, Swessinger ends up having a nice game with a quarterback kid, a tackle for loss, like eight, eight tackles. Harold Fanon, who in theory is the backup to David Njoku, catches seven passes for 63 yards. Like, he is such an interesting player. You mentioned Dylan Sampson. So you're getting

production out of the rookies. You also got good news that Quinchon Junkins is expected to be back with the team this week. He has signed his contract. At this point, we're not expected. any league punishment, as far as we know. And I think there's a loose expectation.

He will be back with the team. We'll handle all these little news items that have popped up. This happens a lot before week one. Like, Jameson Williams got a contract. Like, Zedaria Smith is on the Eagles now. Like, we'll hit all that in another show, probably Monday night with you, Shuck. You're working hard all season.

Hopefully, this augurs well for an improved brown season. But ultimately, if you're a Bengals fan, yeah, it doesn't feel great. You were losing games like this a year ago, and it's very important to get that win, and it's heartbreaking for the Browns to not, because their schedule coming up is absolutely brutal. Let's take a break. We are just getting started on the very first recap show of the season. Jordan's waiting in the wings.

One more segment to go. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that?

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Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Coos, field goal and tip will be from 44 yards, far side to hash. He is a right-footed kicker. A little different angle, perhaps. The holder, Bradley Pinyon, the snap of good one. The spot is down. The kick is airborne, and it is.

My goodness. No good. No good. He missed it wide to the right. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will prevail in Atlanta. Two seconds remained. Earlier in the game, you remember he hit the right upright and it went in. This one, it was far enough back that it missed outside to the right.

He pushed it. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23. Two seconds left. We lead three. That was Young Way Koo, finding a number. new and painful way for the Falcons to lose a game. 23 to 20 Buccaneers on top. Get the road win.

Get revenge on those Kirk Cousins Falcons from a year ago who swept them. So much went on in the fourth quarter of this game. One of the many reasons, Shook, why I always say the NFC South is underrated. Like maybe they're not going to win the Super Bowl every year, although the Buccaneers pop up. But man, they're just something about these division. games that always end up awesome and this was sneaky one of the best games if not the best game of the day like how did it all happen uh well it's a bit of a war of attrition early uh the buccaneers offense under a new offensive coordinator again didn't exactly answer all the questions that

oh could they just transition and be the same explosive office they were before and no granted they don't have chris goblin out there and i give them that and they don't have jellman millin out there either they have mike evans and they have amecha abuka who stepped up in a big way to catch a touchdown pass. But it was a lot of the Buccaneers are near midfield. The Buccaneers drive has stalled. And they just kind of repeated it. Credit goes to the Falcons defense. They got a lot more pressure than we saw from them for most of last year. But it was just kind of a back and forth game like that. And then the Buccaneers take the lead. And then the Falcons move into scoring range. And then it seems like they spend an hour in a goal to go situation. I just counted the plays.

I think it was a total of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8 plays from in goal to go before they finally scored, it involved a replay review that was basically inconclusive. It involved Michael Pennick scrambling and reaching out and getting across the goal line for a touchdown. Everything finally going the Falcons way. They've finally broken through. And then that is what Baker Mayfield needed to wake up

the entire offense, to go right down the field and hit who else, but Emeka, Buka again, for a touchdown pass. So it was very weak one. It was very NFC South, and it was a reminder that the Falcons, for as much as they feel like they've improved in certain areas, they're still the little brother to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Yes. Let's put a disclaimer on all these games. There were so many where I thought, man, the last 20, 25 minutes of the game was just so sloppy. You could tell everyone is just tired. And so sometimes it's dangerous to draw big conclusions. And yet, Mecca Agbuka looking amazing and catching big time touchdowns. I think that's a thing that's here to stay. 25-yard line, empty backfield, Baker Mayfield. He's got Bucky Irving, got a slot receiver to his left, takes a belt high snap, looks, looks, looks. knows the ball toward the end zone. It's a caught ball. Touchdown, Tampa Bay, a Macca, a Bucca, with a defender all over him. He makes the grab in the end zone. The Bucks take the lead. A game, Patrick, where, you know,

Bucky Irving's held to 2.6 yards per carry, the Buccaneers get out gained pretty significantly. They're under 300 yards. It did not look like the offense from a year ago. You thought Baker maybe didn't, like, look his best. Well, no, especially early. It was, as you've always pointed out, Baker Mayfield can be a little bit streaky.

The Falcons defense did cause some problems. The ground game wasn't going. In fact, anything that Baker Mayfield or Michael Pennix Jr. did today was with it during extended periods, zero run game, especially on behalf of the Falcons where Tyler Alger and Bijan both had 24 yards on the ground. They were close to having Michael Pennix Jr. be the leading rusher in this game. In that sequence where the Chook was referencing, where it was two scrambles from Michael Pennix Jr. that almost eclips the entire run total of the elite.

Atlanta Falcons today. Vita Vea was a huge factor in this game. So I wouldn't, you know, sell all your Falcons run game shares. But the bucks continue to be explosive. And the risk taking and playmaking of Baker Mayfield gives them that puncher's chance. And we saw it today. And Emekaabuka is going to change a whole lot in that because these were no doubters. He looks strong at the catch point, just explosive. I don't know who tapped him as the safe pick as the guy who is right he's just he's he's he's workman like no this cat is explosive

like they undersold a buca coming out Ohio State which is a crime to me it's crazy uh he yeah he had a 30 yard touchdown catch that and then that you heard the 25 yard touchdown catch that was longer than any of the Falcons wide receivers had on any of the plays like 15 targets for

Drake London shook what did you see because you know John Robinson gets that 50 yard you know catch and run on a reception, ends up with 100 yards as a receiver. So his fantasy owners are happy early, and you think, oh, man, they're going to, they're going to be rolling. I mean, Pennix had a great, that highlight touchdown that he had.

But what did you see out of this Falcons team, especially offensively, that didn't quite get it done? It was a disjointed offense, and they made some strange decisions situationally when it came to play calling. Even that goal-to-go situation, they had, I think it was Bijan, try to go wide from, like, the one, as if they were going to catch them by surprise. It did not work.

It felt like, you know, this is not a new staff that does or doesn't understand their personnel. They know what they have. It just felt like a team that Pennix was under duress a decent amount. He was out of structure a lot. He was trying to make plays. He was throwing balls that weren't necessarily on the right shoulder in certain situations. It just felt like a week one offense for this team. And, you know, fortunately for them, their defense played so well that it kept them in the game.

But it took them, God, I mean, other than that big play early, it took them most of the game to figure out how to get the ball into scoring position again. And ultimately, you know, young Haku, his kick, you know, takes off to the right side and it results in a defeat. And shout out to Baker-Bayfield, too. Like, even in a game if he doesn't start well, like he's earning that reputation where if you need to touch down late in the game, he goes and he gets it. And I know we're not supposed to box score, you know, scout or whatever. But I went and I did check the pressures in this game just to kind of, you know, see how this new fangled. That's not a box scour scouter. You know, this new fangled Falcons pass rush.

And we got like four from Rookororo, which I think I said correctly for the first time in my life. And then, you know, they were blitzing Devon Diablo quite a bit who got in there. James Pierce did have four pressures. Jalen Walker didn't have any on his 13 pass rushers. But the thing that stuck out to me was by far the leader in pressures for the game was Hassan Reddick of the Buccaneers with seven and led the game also with three quick pressures. So that signing is already starting to pay off. And man, the Buccaneers needed a player like that. Close division game there.

We got another fun division one, this time in the late window out west. And it's second down in five. That's the 49ers 9. Again, shotgun. Again, Darnold. The ball came out and Bosa falls on it. Was that a pass or isn't a fumble? Might have been an empty hand.

And the ruling is 49ers football. Bosa time. What did we say? Bosa time. Holy smoke. What a play by Nick Bosa. Nick Bosa pushes the newly minted Million Dollar Man, Abe Lucas.

Yes, the right tackle of the Seahawks who was given a big long-term contract over the weekend, ultimately pushed back into Sam Darnold, who never gets that playoff. They were in the red zone with a chance to score a game-winning touchdown. Instead, it's the 49ers who get the.

win, 17 to 13, Patrick. You are living and dying by a kind of wild back and forth performance here by Brock Purdy in this 49ers team. Yeah, things start off and you're thinking, well, the 49ers get Christian McCaffrey. There was the calf scare on Friday. He wound up getting a lot of action, 31 touches in this game, 22 carries, nine catches, and they would need it. Because after a five-yarder to George Kittle in the first half, he comes up limping. He would leave the game with a hamstring injury. Later, Joanne Jennings would leave the game with a shoulder injury. So it was pretty much exclusively Ricky Pearsall and CMC in the past game. And that would ultimately be enough because Robert Salas' defense made a ton of plays where the Seahawks would get

chunk plays and then nothing would happen. There was, they even attempted to have JSN throw a lateral late in the game to try to get something going. And the boom and bust nature of it was kind of emblematic in a final drive after Brock Purdy hits a miracle touchdown to Jake Tungis, who I had to Google, try to figure out who this guy is. He had no career catches going into today. And he makes a great

play, but the Seahawks come right back. There's a huge play from Darnold to J.S.N. down the sideline, they're inside the five. And then Bosa makes the play that ultimately seals the deal for the 49ers in a game that could have been even more in their favor, but Jake Moody got a little wiggly kicking

the ball. Oh, man. But he hit He hit the ones that they ultimately needed once he'd missed them and the 49ers. And by ones, you're, you're including like an extra point. Let's not go too crazy here. It counts. He hit one 32-yard field goal and missed two other short ones. One was blocked, but it looked like it was a low kick. You mentioned that Tonga's catch, which was one of the moments, I believe, of the entire day just to set the scene.

Yeah, the Seahawks take a 13 to 10 lead with under four minutes remaining. I thought Greg Olson was so good. It's why he's the best in the business. Explaining that situation. It's a tie game. It's a short-yard situation. It's fourth and one. And they decide to take the field goal, you know, to take the lead.

And he really thought they should strongly consider going for it there. Because the clock is so important at that stage, you know, about three and a half minutes to go in the game. And taking a three-point lead there is probably just not going to, be enough. Like, it's going to encourage the opponent almost to go for seven. That's exactly what happens and they end up chasing those points

that they get with the Tonjus catch. Let's listen to it. 144 to go. Fourth quarter. Shotgun. Purdy. Looking, looking. Bump from behind. Now he rolls out. Still has time. Still looking. Now he rolls to his right. He's pursued and he throws it.

Cut! Todd just got it. And the $40 take the lead. Ton just plucked that out of danger's way for his first career touchdown. Boy, did he ever. That was Guy Haberman and Tim Ryan on KSFO.

Purdy through two interceptions, which, you know, he throws a very catchable ball. So it's like a, it's a very catchable ball for both teams. For real. It's just like floating there and it's real nice because they were incredible plays.

Julian Love, that was a great interception. The Ernest Jones, that was a great interception. reception. If you guys go back if you're looking for a game pass game, I think this is high on the list because I just thought there was a lot of really exciting individual plays. The blocked kick from Julian Love was fantastic. Like just a lot of good moments and it was a lot on the defensive side shook. But what do you what do you take from the fact that Christian McCaffrey after, you know,

hearing that he's all, you know, banged up all week, winds up with 31 touches in over 140 yards in this game and had to be an even bigger factor than he normally would have, I think, because of the injuries around him. Yeah, I mean, we knew that was going to be the case because of all the injuries they've dealt with and then the injuries that they dealt with during the game. Like, that's been the story of the Niners for years and especially during this preseason. But what do I think about it? I think that I got completely played by the 49ers over the span of two days because I'm

sitting here thinking, oh God, Christian McCaffrey's on the injury report with the calf issue. It's deja vu from last year and then start to write it up on Friday. And then McCaffrey takes the podium as I'm about done. And he's like, no, it's just precautionary. I know I've been there before. I just wanted to take myself out. Oh, by the way, I'm going to go touch the ball 31 times on Sunday and exit completely healthy. And we're going to win the football game.

But that is, I think that's 49ers football in 2025 in a nutshell. Because for as great of a play that was made by Brock Purdy in the closing moments, you know, in a key situation there, he also, you know, you talk about the Julian Love interception being a fantastic play. As he threw the ball, I'm wondering, why are you throwing that? And on that touchdown pass to Tonjas, as the ball's in the air, I'm thinking, why are you throwing that? going to get picked. And then it somehow doesn't get picked. Great description on the call plucked it out of the air. By the way, Rick Woolen is going to want to burn the tape from this game, and especially that last drive because he misplayed a couple of balls. Yeah. He had to

positive play too. He did. He did save a touchdown that was destined for Ricky Pearsall. Got it and used that full six three wingspan to get to that one. Somehow the ball skills available on that play just went away. Because I think I think Rick couldn't see Tanges at all. Or he's like, this is Jake Tanges. He's not going to catch this ball. And ultimately, Jake Tonja's game saves the day. He was hot today. He's almost as hot as the microphones in the booth.

I love I mean, I love it when the right team gets rewarded and I was watching this game just thinking the whole time like how are the Seahawks winning this game? How are they tied in this game? They were pretty thoroughly outplayed. You do got to worry about the preseason sometimes.

I mean, I know we learn this every time, but we were so excited about how the Seahawks run game looked. Kenneth Walker runs for two yards per carry in this game. Charbonnet was a little better, 12 for 47. And I do think you have to be worried about the depth of the options that

Darnold's throwing to. 124 yards for Smith and Jigba and the next closest receiver is Cooper Cup, who had 15 yards and also stumbled and dropped a third down to kill a drive in the second half. Arroyo gets

seven yards. Like that's it for their office. And I don't know if it's that many Seahawks fans out there. But my friend Jackson, who hosts cigar thoughts out there, had the tweet, I think, like, really glad that we saved $5 million at quarterback. I don't know. Seems a little early. I don't know. Was it even that bad at Darno game? I don't think it was that bad at Darnel game.

Again, he had an opportunity. They turned it over in the Red Zone weight. We saw Gino do that plenty of times. I do think the scoreboard, you would feel a little bit. more comfortable with Gino that they would have had the points necessary to win this game. I think that's fair to say. What a transition because it is time for the Sunday drive presented by Toyota. Let's go places. And one of those places is Gillette Stadium. Bowers motions right to left. Snap. Handoff Gentie trying to pick his way forward. He's pushed.

He gets out of the pile. Touchdown Raiders. Ashton Gentie's first career score. And the Raiders capitalize on the pick. They go down for six and take a 13-10 lead in the third. That was Jason Horowitz on KRLV. Did I put Gino Smith and Sam Darnold in the rundown back-to-back on purpose? I did not. Sometimes these magical football, I know you don't believe me, but I did not. There's only so many games.

It had a chance. I lost so many picks today. The football gods were trying to repay me for just enjoying the day. Gino Smith sets a record, if you can call it that, for the most yards in a game by a debut Raiders quarterback. Up and down the field, 362 yards in a 20 to 13 victory over the New England Patriots. He was clearly the best quarterback on the field. I think they were the best coach team, certainly, the Raiders,

and I talked about omens a little earlier. I'm big into first plays. I'm big into omens. We talked about the Parsons one. We had a couple of omens here. Omen number one. First play from scrimmage, Gino to Brock Bowers, just wide open down the field.

Bowers, people were worried, oh, they're going to take them off the field a little bit more. Like, they're not sure about it's blocking. Yeah, five catches, 103 yards. Eight targets dominated the Snapshare as well. He is that dude, a one of one. That first drive after the Bowers catch, Trey Tucker, who I thought had some really good routes.

I know he only went two for 54, but there were about four different routes in this game where I just thought he looked really great. He ends up with a 26-yard touchdown catch on that drive to cap it. It was a great way for them to start. It made me feel like Chip Kelly was back. They definitely had a portion basically after that drive till the third quarter where they got quiet

but they figured some things out and it really does feel like on offense where I thought their offensive line did a good enough job past protecting for Gino Smith that they have enough right now even without Amari Cooper who's retired. Yeah, really the big mark,

the only mark on the game for Gino was just a weird decision to force the ball to Brock Bowers with four people on him that ultimately got picked off and Ashton Genti really didn't get a lot going. The only averaged two yards of carry. He had a touchdown. They missed this celebration because the camera cut to Chip Kelly for some reason, because we never saw enough Chip Kelly. So we missed your celebration, Ashton.

But this was a sustained effort from an offense where Jacoby Myers was a couple targets away from a big game. We were concerned that when Michael Mayer caught a ball in the middle of the second half, no Brock Bowers there as a knee injury. Coach Carroll said he just bumped knees with somebody. He wanted to go back in the game. Ultimately, they didn't need him as the offense was consistent. and the defense made the plays that it needed to to get Drake May and company off the fight. Glad he brought that up.

And yes, a revenge game for Jacobi Myers, who was close to a bigger day, but still went eight for 97. You think old Bill Belichick should have given him three for $39 million a few years ago. I'm still salty about that. Yeah, you should be.

Okay. Let the Patriots go to the games. The other omen, if you'll forgive me here, Shuck, is first drive for Drake May, first down, has a wide open checkdown, doesn't see it. you know, like after he goes through his reeds, uh, holds on to it, tries to scramble. It's a bad idea.

And then completely sails his third down. He had open receivers. You know, Kishon Booty goes six for 103. I think Hunter Henry is the most important player on this offense. That's not a great sign. And they move the ball. If you look at the box score, it was 287 yards, a touchdown interception for Drake May.

It's like not that bad, though he had to throw it 46 times. But he did not look comfortable, even on a lot of completions. don't think he was that accurate. And that disjointed start, I think continued, because in the middle portion of this game, there were opportunities for them, short-yard situations where they got stuffed, open receivers that Drake May missed while their defense was playing better. And I thought they were creative getting a lot of pressure on Geno Smith. And they ultimately didn't take advantage. And it ends up being kind of a snoozer of a game shook where they tack on a field goal, you know, really late to make it 20 to 13.

But it was kind of a game where the Raiders just choked the life out of the Patriots in the second half. Yeah. And it felt like a game that was defined by just a lot of new for both teams. But one team handled all the newness better than the other. And that was the Raiders with Pete Carroll. And because of experience, to be honest with you, like, you have the experienced coach and Pete Carroll. You have the experienced quarterback in Gino Smith. You have an experienced coach of Mike Vrable, but you still have a very young quarterback in Drake, May.

You have a ton of new pieces on both sides of the ball there. And I'm glad you brought up Hunter Henry being a big part and a key part of this offense, maybe the biggest part of it, because how do you get a young quarterback comfortable? You feed the tight end. That's your safety blanket in any offense. So that is a great point. But also, this has been prevalent throughout the games that we've cut, most of the games we've covered today, say for the Jets, nobody's running the football well.

How are you going to balance out an offense and take a little bit of pressure off your quarterback in his second year and his first year and under a new offensive coordinator with a bunch of new guys? If you don't run the football well, that explains a lot of it. You talk about, well, they couldn't, you know, they got stuffed in a number of situations and it was a close game until it wasn't when the Raiders made it a two-score game in the second half. That could all be solved if you have a little bit more balance, but balance is an aspiration. It's very much more difficult to achieve in the NFL.

Yeah, Ramandre Stevenson ends up doubling Travion Henderson and snaps, but ends up with 15 yards on seven carries. There was no push. I mean, they were running on third in a foot and losing a yard. And that's been on my Raider all week. Well, maybe we'll talk about it later in the week. Like we talked about, oh, the run game is back. It's all about the run this year. And game after game, you are really seeing it's like the defensive coordinators knew it was coming and they were ready for it. You're seeing the run game stymied all around the league.

It's only one game and I'm not going to panic too much, but there was one sequence I do want to get to. I mean, we talked a lot about Will Campbell in the off season. And I actually think for most of this game, he looked pretty good. I bet his PFF score or whatever is not going to be that bad. But it was a brutal. sequence that really decided the game late. He ended up with two penalties in the game total, but there was a sequence late where he gives up a strip sack, Malcolm Kuntz and Max Krosby combining on that. And Kuntz looked good in this game. So did Krosby. He gives up a strip

sack. He falls on the on the ball. So they keep the ball. They end up in a fourth and five. And then he tries to get off the ball early after getting a little spooked out from that strip sack. And they call a penalty on him for a false start. It was his second fall start of the day. Then they're at 4th and 10 at midfield or so, a little before that with what? You know, five, six seconds, you know, five, six minutes left in the game.

And Mike Rabel, with one of the most gutless puns you'll ever want to see. I hate a gutless punt. Your defense isn't even playing that well. You're down 10 freaking points with five and a half minutes to go. And you know what happens when you punt the ball over to Gino Smith?

He makes you pay. Very good. 325 to go. See if they put this in the air. Gino Smith is going to throw. He rolls to his right. He heaves. Wet ball for Thornton.

One for one comes back. Slides and makes the grab at the Patriots 39-yard line. Oh my goodness. The wet football was like a dying duck. But he picks up 36 into Patriots territory to the Milwaukee. I should point out this game was a little sloppier because of light rain happening throughout the game. It definitely had an impact. Great call there by Jason Horowitz.

terrible job by Carlton Davis, who bites on a slant on third and 20 when, you know, just he, he was overaggressive. You got the full Carlton Davis experience today. He gave up some big plays. He made some big plays. But you, you told me, and I thought about you, Patrick, like, you won't know until it's the fourth quarter. And you see Gino Smith, like, make a nice throw, like, how you really feel in your heart. And the heart, like, can hold many truths at once. Oh. Ultimately, like, I was Like, that's why you, you don't punt it back to Gino Smith. You deserve what you get. It was beautiful.

I was happy to watch him play so well. And yet I still was ultimately disappointed by a dispiriting effort by the Patriots. That was the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota. Let's go places. Let's go to Lucas Oil Stadium. Second and 20 for the Colts. First play of the second quarter. Daniel Jones flies it right side.

It's caught at the goal line. Touchdown for the Colts. And it's Michael Pittman, Jr. A 27-yard beautifully placed pass by Daniel Jones to Michael Pittman, Jr. Touchdown, I-D-Y for the Colts. Ooh, Matt Taylor on WFN-N-I. Danny Dimes is back. 33 to 8 against the Dolphins.

The biggest beatdown of the entire day was the Indianapolis Colts over the Miami Dolphins. What happened, Patrick? Well, what happened was we get a generational dimes game. And I remember starting the 2024 season and seeing Sequin Barclay in Philadelphia and the Eagles score 30 points and thinking, wow, that only happened a couple of times during the Dimes in Seekwant era. His first opportunity here against the Miami Dolphins defense, you would think by looking at numbers that straight up the dolphins got enough pressure to bother Danny Dimes, of course, famously had 18 turnovers his rookie year, significant amount of fumbles. no, they were there. There were 12 total pressures by the Dolphins on Daniel Jones

consistently. These two new additions on the offensive line for the Colts paid off. Dimes navigated the pocket. He got balls to Tyler Warren who almost finishes a tight end one. The rookie made a whole bunch of plays on the outside. Michael Pippin Jr. was involved. There was a crucial third down conversion to Josh

Downs where the Miami Dolphins turned the ball over two out of the first three drives that they had the ball. and the Colts consistently scored every single time where there was just no spot for hope the dolphins got a late touchdown but this was nasty it was 30 to nothing at one point Greg

the dolphins were never in this game I picked them as a survivor me and Zach Taylor both start the seasons traditionally bad except the Bengals got a winning week one and I lost again and I'm out of the survivor waiting for you guys that is absolutely outrageous it's on my radar that both Patrick and Jordan you know, didn't take this survivor responsibility seriously enough.

And you're just throwing out willy-nilly, one and a half point favorites in a survivor pool. Although I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth because I absolutely thought the dolphins were going to win this game. Yeah. And it was clear early on that they had no chance to win this game. They were thoroughly outplayed to an extent where like Tua airmailed Tyree Kill on the first interception were preseason.

thing in Cam Bynum, well, hey, you know, he had all those celebrations and don't turnovers in Minnesota with Brian Flores' defense. No, Lou Anorumo has come in. This Colts defense made plays. Liatu Latu had an interception as well, where he dropped off into coverage. A great interception for a defensive end,

like one of the best defensive interceptions of the decade. I'll say that. Yeah, so Lou Anarumo gets scapegoated and since he comes to Indianapolis, and it is a new day in Indy. The Anarumosance is on. Yeah, at one point. I think it was half time, actually. The Colts had run 43 plays to 15.

They had 255 yards to 43. Tyree Kill was honking and wildly gesticulating, not happy on the bench, like in the first half of the game. At least somebody was. The vibes are bad. Let's listen to Mike McDaniel after the game. I think it's definitely not all on him.

There's just throws that I know he makes nine, times out of ten and he didn't make him today. But that being said, it's hard to play quarterback when you have surprise pressures, meaning that they're blitzing, but you think it's accounted for and then somebody doesn't pick it up or, you know, you have people coming out the huddle the wrong way when they had been nailing it for a week on a week plus, really. Mike McDaniel has a bad habit like me of just like the sentences to just trail off at some point

you're not really sure where they end I'm that guy as well yeah to a Tung of Iloa ends up 3.9 yards per play you're passing the ball you're just not used to seeing that and I think the focus is going to be so much on the dysfunction there

and everyone that's been whispering that it's not a good situation there in Miami is going to be spiking the football and and celebrating, and the Colts people are going to be that say, hey, Daniel Jones look pretty good. Like, they're going to be saying, I told you. So I do want to just more focus on the credit to the Colts.

Chook just that tight, Tyler Warren going seven for 76 in his first game as a pro. Michael Pittman, who was just falling to the nether regions of fantasy drafts. I saw late. Like, I saw him like the 11th or 12th round. Like, this is, you know, go 6 for 80 and a touchdown. This Colts team, if they can get decent quarterback play, They obviously got better than that.

Today, Shook, does have some talented players. And Shane Steichen, you know, has coached up some pretty, you know, shaky quarterbacks here over the last few years to a decent amount of wins. Yeah, you know, in that McDaniel response, the one thing that I took away was, it sounds like the operation is dysfunctional. It's just disorganized. You need to work on that. Which is the exact term that Shane Steichen used when describing why he took Daniel Jones

over Anthony Richardson in their quarterback battle. And obviously he was on to something because, of course, According to this, the operation was fantastic in Indianapolis. I can understand why people didn't want to draft Michael Pittman in their fantasy drafts because you have no confidence in Daniel Jones. And it is only one week. I caution against overreacting because let's remember what the Saints did in the first two weeks last year. They looked like, you know, a wagon.

They were an incredibly explosive offense that fell off a cliff later. But this is kind of a shock to me. Not that the Dolphins struggle, but that the Colts were able to produce at this level. So we'll stay sticking, you know, giving credit where credit is due. And that's the winners in this game. and I just said that teams aren't running the football well. Jonathan Taylor and DJ Giddens combined for over 110 yards. That's pretty good.

It sounds like everything, you know, I mean, for my view of the game, everything went pretty well for the colds, a lot better than most people expected. They did. Even in run defense where you wonder, you look at over the course of the game, of course the dolphins were trailing for a significant amount, but we know they can be explosive in the run game. Devon A. A. Chan had nine yards of carry in this game. But they just didn't go to the run.

Of course, the turnover is a big, part of that, where everything was disjointed. I really think it would be easy, Greg, to listen to do vibe watch and say that this is a rap. This was a especially bad game for the Dolphins to where I'm willing to throw this one and count some of it to week one. They're not good, but they're not, you know, 26 points worse than the Colts. They just have a monster week, too.

They're at home against the Patriots, you know, two teams that are going to be 0 and 1. And you can fix everything for a couple weeks with just getting a win. But if they can't win that game, like the Voltors will be circling. Rough performance. There are three turnovers for two, only 12 first downs for the Dolphins offense. Let's go to Denver, where the offenses were struggling as well. Straight eye formation, double tight, inset, wing right, one wide receiver. The handoff, this is J.K. Dobbins.

Nice patient run there. Dobbins first through to the 10, the five, high steps into the end zone. Touchdown. Denver. J.K. Dobbins, his first touchdown as a Bronco. It's a run of 19 yards. That was Dave Logan on K-O-A. Broncos win, 20 to 12, against the Tennessee Titans.

A very interesting game. I do think this would be a fun rewatch, even though it was ugly. Shook is giving me the eyes, but the Titans had so many wild things happen. I know they only ended up with seven first downs, but man, they were like in an entertaining seven. Sean Payton is just calling Gopher broke fourth and eights late in the game. The Broncos are trailing against the Titans for a good chunk of it. As bad games go, I think this was a good bad game.

I'll stand for that. I gave you the eyes because this game made my eyes bleed. It was terrible. I mean, not terrible in terms of watchability, but terrible if you like football that's executed at a solid level. The Broncos played with their food this entire game. Now, their defense is as good as we expected them to be. And I think that factor into why the Titans couldn't do anything with the four turnovers they forced.

But that speaks to the Broncos being sloppy. They were, Bo Nix comes out and he's just letting it rip. You know, he throws a 50-50 ball to Cortland Sutton that gets picked off. Great play by Roger McCreary. He's under pressure and steps up as if he's going to escape the pocket and then throws a pass into traffic. He didn't see the defender, you know, adrifting underneath to pick that one off. So he's got two picks in his ledger. He fumbles when he's trying to escape the pocket.

That's the third one. Then they fumble. They muff a punt. The Titans did nothing with basically any of that. They finished with 12 points. They're all on field goals. The Broncos could have won this game in their sleep. And that's why they go for it on fourth and eight and just chuck a ball down the field

because they don't care that they're giving up field position in the final minute and a half of the game. They just got two stops in the fourth quarter because Cam Board is surrounded by spare parts. Titans fans, you have your quarterback. He has a strong arm. He looks the part. He put a number of good passes on receivers in this. game that dropped. They were dropped. They failed him. It was just an example of a team that made the

playoffs last year and is looking to continue to build, but it's week one, so they're shaking off the rust, and it's a Titans team that's still two years away from, you know, thinking about the playoffs. Well, he had chances on that last drive. And so I think his accuracy and his timing is not there 100% yet. You wouldn't expect the timing to be there with this receiver group. Like Tyler Lockett did not have a catch today. I heard some concerning whispers about how he looked in training camp and just in the practices that, you know, like, is he going to be a guy who really helps? I mean, he was signed for four million dollars. There was a reason for that. So he, word, I thought, had a chance there late. But,

man, I thought that was one of the biggest look at me calls of all time by Sean Payton to go for it at fourth and eight and call that. And Bo Nix had a wide open Cortland Sutton, I believe, that would have made Sean Payton look like a genius, but he did not see it. Yeah, they had the crossers and Bo went with the one that the defenders actually went with if you go back, if you want to watch Sky Canvue or

on next gen stats, if you want to look at the dots, no matter how you look at it, Cortland Sutton is all alone and heading towards the end zone on that play. It was just either Knicks didn't see them. The pressure was there. But in Payton's defense, the call was there. Yeah. And in the Titans defense, they

had several opportunities. The Shick pointed out to ultimately win this game. There was a huge play that could have led to another possession where Jeffrey Simmons for some reason is pushing, I believe, R.J. Harvey down like a full second after the whistle was blown that extended a drive where I coming into this game, obviously like you made it your survivor picking. Congratulations, Greg, to surviving in this one. But there were several like Cam Ward throwing seam balls firing them in there with confidence that just had a lot of heat on them. Maybe there'll be adjustments, as you said,

the unfamiliar targets on the outside. But there was a lot of positives to take away from Cam Ward going on the road against a good Broncos defense to me. I know it's week one. And yeah. I mean, the average 2.4 yards for play and they had 132 yards. And this was not one of those games.

Like we talked about the Packers and Lions where it like shortened because there's only seven or eight drives. Each of these teams had 14 drives today. Shook, actually, from what I saw, it was one of the worst games of Bo Nix's career. Do you disagree with me? Not entirely, because he had a stretch late in last season where he started to turn the ball over a lot.

They really won this game because they decided to turn to the run, RJ Harvey ripped off a 50-yarder and then Dobbins scored that touchdown that we just played. Like when I said that they played with their food, you could see that the potential was there. It's just like everything wasn't sharp, at least not until the second half.

And I think a little bit it was Bo Nix coming to the game with a lot of confidence from last year and just letting it rip and kind of paying the price a little bit. Like a better team makes them pay for this and they lose this game, which is okay in week one when you're playing the Titans, which would kind of justify your claim. But I wouldn't be like overly concerned because I feel like they were kind of testing some things out. And they knew at one point in the game, they're like, look, our defense is not going to give up a score. Like unless something miraculous happens, they're not going to give up a score. So we can get a little aggressive and kind of tinker a little bit.

It felt like a big tinker game for the Broncos once they got ahead by eight points. If we didn't make it clear, the Titans did not score a touchdown in this game. It was four Joey Sly field goals. And, yeah, Bo Nix ends up with three turnovers. He lost the fumble. He was intercepted twice. He threw the ball 40 times and averaged under five yards per attempt, under four and a half. So I'm calling that one of the worst games of his career.

It was a survivor pick that I survived, and it felt like just barely surviving. Nick Shook, you've done more than survive. Oh, yeah, we got the music. You've done a fantastic job. What we're going to do now is we're going to say goodbye to you for a little bit. We're going to welcome in Jordan Roderick for a segment. And then we're going to see you to recap Sunday night football. So see you in a little bit, little buddy.

We'll be back in a break. Yes, I just called Nick Shook, Little Buddy. What is wrong with me? Where did that come from? My brain. I've been up since 3.30 a.m. I'm not lying. Hey, this is Matt Jones.

I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining.

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Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Trevor Lawrence under center. Play fake. Trevor rolls to the right, looks, fires for the end of those. Cut! Touchdown, Jacksonville. Hunter Long, the tight end from six yards away,

and the Jags are in the end zone for the first time today. That was Frank Frangy of WJXL. Trevor Lawrence to Hunter for a touchdown. Not the one we expected, but the former Rams. They're finding Rams in Jacksonville, your old friend James Gladstone. Yes, Jordan Rodriguez is joining us. for this next four-pack of games. The Jaguars win 26 to 10.

I watched this game closely, Jordan, and I have another omen. Very first series of this game, Jaguars start with the ball, fourth and one on their own 37. Literally the fourth play of their season. Does Liam Cohen say, oh, let's punt it away.

We're on our own 37-yard line. Or does he say, I've got the chutzpah to go for it right off the bat, the belief in my offensive line, in my offense. Yeah, he goes for fourth and one on his own 37 right off the bat to Diami Brown, and he picks it up easily on a kind of end around type of play. And it was part of a day where they just dominated on the ground. The 2025 Carolina Panthers run defense looked a lot like the 2004 Carolina Panthers run defense. giving up 200 yards to the drag Jaguars.

Travis E.T.N. with 143. This game felt pretty over by halftime. There was a long lightning delay that I had to wait about an hour, I think, in 15 minutes for it, that broke up some of the scoring. But basically, Jacksonville did whatever they wanted. And then we were just killing time after that. It's a huge problem because this is the part of Carolina's defense that they at least expected to look better,

especially right of the gate. Derek Brown is back. Bobby Brown is lining up next to him. This is a group where, yes, there's been, you want me to say my prerogative so bad right now.

That's his prerogative. That's his prerogative. You got to close the bit, you know. Got it, nailed it. Ran over here from the stadium. But yeah,

they've had questions about their secondary, their safety, injuries on and off over the last couple years. This was supposed to be the get back that they got back.

Derek Brown was supposed to be that factor. And it's one game, it's week one. But man, the two former Tampa Bay Buccaneers, offensive coordinators, dueling it out against each other, Liam Cohen Squad obviously looked a lot more polished. Right. And Liam Cohen Squad last year with Tampa put it on Carolina for about 500 yards per game when he was with Tampa.

And honestly, they looked kind of like the bucks in the first half. I was so impressed. And in the end, Trevor Lawrence's numbers don't look that amazing, 178. The game slowed down in the second half. They just had a couple of field goals. drives, but what I saw was that there was a lot of cohesion in the running game specifically. And this is not an offensive line that you think of as having been particularly cohesive in the past. And they're blowing open holes. I thought that 71-yard run by ETN was one of the best

runs of his careers because he showed a lot of patience. I think Trevor was really on time and on target for those first four drives or so. They put up 20 points in their first four drives. And then like I said, it just got quiet, but I was impressed. I think if you're a Jaguars fan and you look at Brian Thomas ends up with 11 yards, Travis Hunter doesn't do that much as a receiver

and yet you won like going away without much from those two guys, it's pretty impressive. Yeah, and I can make another Gladstone Rams reference where the play to Diami Brown on fourth down reminded me of Cooper Cup in the Super Bowl. Oh my God. I saw two of those today by

McVeatree people. Like, That's awesome. Yes, it's the play that we'll never die ever. It works. Yeah, it works consistently.

The new acquisition gets used there. Brian Thomas Jr., again, you mentioned it, not very involved in the passing game, but he gets in the end zone. You see the commitment to the run game by these Jags on a carry.

And yeah, the answer to the great Jags backfield trivia question ultimately was Travis E. Yes. Getting way more opportunity than tank. Basically, Basial Tutin comes in in relief of ETN because honestly,

at 8.9, yards of carry, Travis was tiring himself out. Oh yeah, he's only tired because that was after the 71 yard drive. And I got to say, Bachel Tutin's first run, man, I love that. Yeah. It was an eight yard run where he had the jump stop and I was like, oh, that's my favorite run I've seen all day. So I think we will hear from Bachel Tutton, but that is stuff to him. Yes, you absolutely nailed it with some Bachel Tutton honking in the preseason. I'm shooting my own horn there, Greg. She's coming in. She's hitting home runs right off the bat. So I took this game myself because I wanted to see Travis Hunter. It was a quiet day. Six catches, 33 yards. A lot of them weren't really in the flow of the offense. They were

kind of manufactured touches. He played six snaps on defense. He was in zone coverage on a play where he gave up a first down to Ted McMillan. I'm pretty sure it was. Nothing remarkable really on either side of the ball, but the fact that the Brenton Strange hype from the preseason and offseason capitalized, he was a really important part of their offense. I think that was a good sign. flip side, the Panthers were a total mess. Like the run defense was a disaster. The defense couldn't get any stops early. They stabilized in the second half, but Bryce Young had one of the worst games since he was benched. Maybe the worst game since he was benched after two games last year. At one point, he was

eight for 17 for 56 yards with a couple turnovers. He added another turnover late on what ultimately was a drop, but he also had a pick six that was on a totally, ghastly decision that was taken back by a penalty. So it was about as bad as it looked. I actually feel bad about doing this, but we were talking about you wanting to make the worst throw of the

year like a thing, Patrick. And so I do have a clip of Bryce Young making a toss here. It's fourth in a yard and an empty backfield. Young drops, drops. Look, he's going to have to throw it in toward the endos.

That's complete. He threw it out of the back of the end zone. That's an incomplete pass and the ball's going to go over on down. What worked by that Jaguar's defense. Wow. I can't believe that Bryce Young threw it out of the back of the end zone to throw it away. You got to give your guys the chances for now. I love it. I love how he complimented the Jack's defense. Did nothing on that. I love Bryce. It's a long season. There is only one choice for with Todi leader in the clubhouse and it's Bryce Young putting it in the stands on four and one inside the 10 yard

well the crazy thing is when you watch the replay he had an open receiver he actually I think some color flashed in front of him to use some football jargon and he clearly didn't see I think it was Jetavian Sanders flashing open right in front of him

but he had two options as he was scrambling he must have lost track of what down it was and he throws it away so our early worst throw the year candidate. It was bad. I caught the condensed, very fast version of this. And there were center timing snap issues. There were center exchange issues the entire game. I was talking with my colleague Joe Person. And Joe wrote in his column postgame, it just seemed like Dave Canales did not have this group prepared. They just, and in juxtaposition to, I guess,

the pleasant surprise of first year head coach Liam Cohen and those guys and how they were ready to roll. It was very stark for someone who was there watching it. And it was a big factor that Iki Aquanu was out for this game, and they played Yosh Nijman, I believe, who used to be with the Packers, and Josh Hines-Allen was the most dominant player in this game, and a lot of it was on Nyman. He had six quick pressures,

which I'm sure will be the most of any player in the entire NFL all week. So that injury played a big factor. Good job by the Jaguars, getting to 1 and 0. Let's go to the Superdome, in a game that looked like two pretty even teams. Four seconds left.

Final play of the game. Fourth down. Ball on the 18 of the Cardinals. Rattler back to pass. Looking, throws left side, and it's thrown out of bounds. Incomplete. And the game is over. The Cardinals win week one in New Orleans, 20 to 13.

Oh, photographer catches a big stray there in the end zone. Yes. An unfortunate fourth down, throwing the ball out of bounds. We give you Spencer Rattler. on what was, I believe, a fourth in goal, chance to tie the game, 20 to 13, the Saints go down in a game where if you look at the stats, and this was really true throughout the day, it wasn't them catching up at the end, there was very little separating these two teams. It looked pretty even, and the Saints ultimately just couldn't finish drives.

They put a lot on Spencer Rattler's plate. He threw the ball 46 times. Patrick. And the Cardinals wasn't perfect. It's week one. It's just survive in advance, especially for these teams that have high aspirations in games that they should win. No style points. It's fine. You got out of there with a win. Move on. Yeah. And my expectations were completely wrong in this game in the way that the new head coach. You know, they come over does Kellynne Moore from the Super Bowl champions in 2000 yard rusher. I thought Spencer Rattler still looking for his first career win. They're going to lean. on Alvin Camara and the big guys up front, no, it was airing it out with Spencer Rattler for the

duration of the game. Alvin Camara did have a touchdown run where he looked like vintage, AK, kind of smoothly gliding into the end zone and making those adjustments with the ball in his hands. But it was a lot of Rattler throws, a lot of Joanne Johnson involved in this game, especially down the seam, where the Cardinals couldn't pull away. There was the first completion to Marvin Harrison Jr. of the season was a bomb from. Tyler Murray, they eventually pay that off with a crosser where Wilson comes up and sets a little bit of a screen that doesn't get called. We were favoring offense today on Game Day Live with Steve Smith Sr. saying there was no penalties on the offense today. But a little bit of a concerning win for the Cardinals over a team that we thought might be in position to take the number one overall pick come next year, where the Saints really held in onto this game and had a lot of.

chances to win. Yeah, yards for play, you know, overall yards. The Saints were a little better. You mentioned Juan Johnson, who goes eight for 76 NFL Daily guest was a delight. I think the biggest play of the game was ultimately the third down where Rattler makes a nice throw and hits Juan Johnson in the hands. It would have tied it up, assuming they hit the extra point. That was the play before the one we listened to. It was tough to see on replay if it was jostled out, he definitely was hit, but or whether, you know, Buda Baker actually even got his hands on the ball. But the coolest play of the day was our guy, Buda Baker, you know, knocking that play out essentially and then doing a kickflip off the Superdome turf, like basically for what was

a game winning play. He is one of the coolest players in the NFL, honestly. Yeah, the Cardinals let the Saints hang around a little too long. I think part of it's the Saints know there's nothing to lose literally this season. They have to go out and play every single game. Like, it's the biggest game of their season. Other teams are kind of looking at week one. I'm not saying they counted them out at all, but other teams are just not quite cohesive yet in week one. The Cardinals kind of just took their foot off the gas a little bit. It seemed like I want to shout out Will Johnson. You said the coolest play of the game. I mean, Will Johnson, I went back and I watched the quick clips while I was sitting in the wings listening to you. You made good time coming from the Rams

locker. You were earlier than we expected. I'm so shiny right now too. I ran so fast. It was so hot outside. But I was watching like the quick clips and the cutups of Will Johnson, the corner, the rookie corner. He's targeted seven times, defended three passes, allowed just 32 yards on four catches. And the best play of the game, in my opinion, of the limited viewing that I had was him crashing down and reading a Chris Olave motion on a second and long. And Chris Olave was supposed to be an outlet, a little outlet for Spencer Rattler on the play. And he hit Chris Olave so hard out a pure read and knowledge understanding this play and what was supposed to happen. He hit him so hard that Krizo Lavi, like, had a hard time catching his breath afterward, catching

his wind. If he keeps playing like this, he is on a really, really, really interesting track as a rookie. I love it when two of my favorite football minds come together on an opinion because I asked our friend Adam from the Saints Block Party podcast, any thoughts from this game. And he thought the cornerbacks for the Cardinals were just all over the Saints receivers, that there just were not open receivers throughout the day, which matched a lot of what you heard in Saints practice, too. You weren't seeing a lot of open receivers.

So Kellyn's struggling to scheme them open or the receiver's struggling to get open, but that's a good sign for a really good young secondary yet. And it was surprising because their success rate on their runs was quite high. It was 45%, which is really good. And it was close to the whole game, and they just didn't run the ball much. And so Kellan Moore had one really big moment

that I thought he was in over his head, where at the end of the first half, the Cardinals are running the clock down. Ultimately, they score a touchdown with 28 seconds to go and they're inside the 10. And the Saints just let them do it. With all three timeouts, Kellyn just, you know, on first and second down,

the Cardinals kind of went out of their way to drain the clock before scoring the touchdown. Now, it could have ended up a field goal, but either way, and he just let it happen and then kneeled on the ball. I'm like, bro, you got to, like, this is the NFL. You got to use those timeouts. Like, a Madden player knows how to do that.

So I think he was showing a little bit of a rookie head coach there. It's possible you forget sometimes. You're supposed to be the one who's doing that in the headset? You're on the wrong channel maybe? Like I just, you're like, oh, I was like someone should be telling him to take these timeouts. The broadcast was, I think it was Ross Tucker who was hammering about it. It's a good job by our friend, Rob.

You're like, oh, shoot, that's me. I'm supposed to be doing that, actually. Maybe an adjustment to the process. He's on the sideline with Brandon Saly. Maybe he's looking over her. Staley, saying that he's, he's in that situation. This guy's really intense. As they were, you know, when they were with the Chargers.

But there was another, a quarterback sneak by Spencer Rattler where the Saints Offutt's Offutt offensive lineman lined up improperly. One of them actually lined up off sides. And you think about all the shove success that Kellan Moore called in Philadelphia, trying to get used to things to process. I feel better about the Saints after this game than I did before coming into it. Absolutely. The fact that they outgain another competitive team by 40 yards, absolutely.

And if you're the Cardinals, you're a little concerned about the target depth. Harrison and McBride both have really good games. No one else has over 10 yards. So you're going to have to develop more options there. All right. Let's get to the Jordan Rodriguez special games. She was focusing in on a couple of them, including one in Washington. Wheels around.

Takes a hand off spins, back to the left, has a wall in front of him with the 15, breaks a tackle and's head to the five, leads to the end zone. Touchdown! Touchdown, Washington! Devo Samuel! That was one to perfection. Oh, it was so great

having Bram Weinstein back in our life. London Fletcher also in the booth. Didn't hear him there, but love that guy. 21 to 6, the Washington commanders win in a game that looked like the score.

Just one-sided, not too flashy, but pretty cool to see Debo Samuel there with a rushing touchdown also led them in receiving with 77 yards and seven catches. Yeah, and was all over the field. Like some people were saying after being a training camp, I mean, tooting my own horn again. All over it.

Bachel toot in my own horn again. But that play was the backbreaking moment and kind of this game was kind of ugly through most of it. They'd been playing with their food a little. There's a little sloppiness. in the whole operation offensively. Jane Daniels overthrew a couple sure touchdowns. He was trying to get a connection going early on in the game.

There was a bad mental mistake to a clock runoff out of a grounding penalty that they just weren't, they were a little loose at times. But other than that, there were all these flashes that this was the Jade and Daniels commanders. He was so calm the entire time. They were running him on these really cool design runs where they would intentionally align to spread out that giant's fearsome front. And then he just goes zoop right up the middle and have these huge gains. So that was really impressive.

But this was really, for the most part, they look like the commanders we expect out of, you know, some of the looseness that comes with week one. Giants quarterback Russell Wilson out of that touchdown. He made a few nice throws. The pressure got to him on the third and fourth down. And then he was picked. He was bailed out by a roughing the passer call. Bobby Wagner, like accidentally like palm slapped him on the helmet.

and then got bailed out by the call. And then they got all the way down to the Washington three and they kept throwing it because they could not run and then they had another batted ball by Bobby Wagner and two in completions. And that was the story of the game for the Giants offense who overall ran 11 plays inside the 10 and came away with just three points

including a turnover on downs late. It was awful. Right. You're talking about the design runs and Russell Wilson had a couple scrambles but Tyrone Tracy goes 10 for 24. Kim Skadabu gets a couple carries, ends up with negative yardage and Devon Singletary 3 for 9.

And yes, they struggled in the red zone, but they struggled everywhere. Yeah. You know, this was a game where they got basically doubled up in yardage. I thought, Trey Amos made a nice play

on a deep throw to Malik neighbors. A couple of plays. I saw the young, you know, Washington cornerback show up in a way that they have to be excited about. But it was bad enough offensively that Brian Dable got the questions we kind of expected after the game. Will you consider starting Jackson next week? Yeah, look, we're going to get home, Pat.

We're going to look at our game. Collectively, we all got to do better. There are a couple things on this that I was really trying to pay close attention to, whether I was like sort of scouring the Beatriders posts on various social media platforms and then also like looking on the broadcast. One of the things that was super interesting to me was Brian Dable walking out onto the field for pregame warmups with Jackson DART.

And then, you know, week one of the Russell Wilson experience and this was already coming into it, reading reports about there's a package of plays for Jackson DART just in case and the commanders are preparing for this certain package of plays. And Russell Wilson just looked so uncomfortable and out of sync the entire time. He was pressured at a 50%

rate by the end of the game, which is insane. And it was coming from everywhere. The interior of this rebuilt commander's line, defensive line, was getting some good push and disrupting his pocket on the insides. And then the edge guys were containing and making some plays where they had them. Obviously, the linebackers are a factor here too. He just could not get any sort of rhythm going. I mean, this was, I knew, I knew that this is probably happening soon. Like, this has got to happen soon because when the Giants offense got to the Washington 10 yard line, that was a Malik neighbors 25-yard pickup out of a blitz pickup by Cam Scataboo, which I texted you, Greg. I was like, Cam Scataboo just killed a guy. They ran seven plays from that position

after that explosive gain. And then they settled for a field goal from the two-yard line. Because after they got a fresh set of downs, Brian Dable got to, you know, third and two again and was like, I can't watch this anymore. I got to kick a field goal. I'm afraid I won't get points. I think this is happening soon. Oh, it's happening. Like my immediate. reaction from that clip is he's gone. That's it. It's this week. It's the most tried and true rule of where,

of which I've just put out and I should do it now. Like year after year, if they don't answer the question of who is the quarterback, then they're making the change. If folks want to listen to it again, the first thing he says is yeah. Like he's like, yeah, we're like, and I'm not saying that was confirmation that he's saying,

he's going to start Jackson Dart because the package of plays being discussed so vigorously, and as Jordan pointed out, drive after drive coming up short, Daibald's having a heated argument with Malik neighbors coming off the sideline. It's like, oh, Jackson Dart at any point, Jackson Dart is the future of the Giants franchise. He's also a job-saving mechanism for Brian Dayball. And so you can't throw him in in this situation against an opponent that's very familiar with your offense. Dan Quinn and company have seen a whole lot of Brian Daibald's offense and how it's going to work. Of course not with Jackson Dart. Yeah, but they didn't stop it last year. It was two.

of their worst games of the year was actually against Daniel Jones. I mean, Daniel Jones is two best games of the year. It's essentially against Washington. So I think it will stick in Brian Dable's head that like a year ago, our offense with Daniel Jones was way better than this. And Russell Wilson, not helped by Andrew Thomas not being available. There's a lot of pressure. Russell Wilson also invites a lot of pressure by holding on to the ball. Ugly, wouldn't be surprised if we find out Monday or Tuesday. They have a new quarterback. And then finally just shout out to Bill Krosky Merritt. It was quiet early in the game, was getting a little worried, but he came through for you a 42-yard run, 10-for-82 on the ground, and a touchdown. Let's now go across the street

where Jordan was in-person watching the Los Angeles Rams win a defensive struggle. One timeout remaining for the Texas. Open up right. Playfick, flip to the flat, cut by Nekua at the 30. He's got a first down at the 40. Pooka Nakua staying in bounds across midfield and tackled on his sideline. Nakua for the win from Matthew Stafford. 24 to clinch it. That was J.B. Long on KSPN, Puka Nakua on a great play call. By Sean McVeigh.

Felt like there were a lot of those today, despite the final score being so low. 14 to 9, the Rams win it in a game where neither team had 300 yards from scrimmage, continued the trend throughout the league of not great running, not great offense in general. And yet, I think there were a lot of positive signs like that last play by the Rams. Yeah. And Puka Nakua, by the way, who had to leave the game at one point to go get stitches in his face because he was bleeding profusely from above his eyebrow after taking a huge hit.

And then the second he's all stitched up and bandaged up and comes back into the game, He runs a 19-yard dig, and it's like, you know, it's like he, he welcome, which is a contact play because those defenders are crashing into you in the middle of the field once you get there. He was welcoming the contact because you needed to in this game, because this game was a freaking rock fight, you guys. Like from that very first play, the third and two, the Devante Adams converts and gets bent literally in half, you know, by a double hit and Stingley, Derek Stingley Jr. is on the back side of that and actually takes some incidental contact,

bangs his shoulder up, comes back in. This game was so, it's like drunk uncles trying to punch each other. It was seriously, but there was, but I don't think, and I posit, this was not your typical, like, oh, it's an ugly win

or it's an ugly loss or whatever. There was some real toughness here. There was some really nice ideas here. This wasn't two teams just like slap fighting each other. This was actual like, hey, we are two of the tougher teams and we want to show that in the NFL. And that's what I thought out of this game.

Both teams, including Houston. Yeah, two of the best pass rushes. Yeah. In the NFL. And in terms of the talent on the Texans defense, it leaps off the screen, but also Matthew Stafford, fully upright, fully operational, making throws off his back foot. There was a timing ball that was just perfect. There were so many moments where it's like, that's it.

Yeah. That's number nine. Had I, I would have never picked the Texans if I don't know nine was going to be moving like that against a very good passers. So there were some dangerous moments where there was a high snap that got away from Matt. And he was flat on his back, and I, oh. And Will Anderson Jr. is clit, like 10 times out of 10. Got to get there before Matt Stafford does, but Stafford's able to get on top of it.

So it's not 10 out of 10. And there was a moment in this fourth quarter where I'm thinking, this is a classic Sean McVe constrictor to drive circumstance where they are going to have timely screen calls. They're going to get the ball out of Stafford's hand. We're going to be passing in run situations and running in past situations. And it was enough to keep Demico's defense. off of what they were looking for and drain the clock out with the puka catch as with the ever-expanding bandage where he kept going into the blue tent. And I was glad to see him with

his helmet off after the game because I was concerned the forehead was gone. Well, I talked to someone with the team. The stitches kept coming out. So you're getting, you're not only getting stitched in game. He was in the locker room, but then also they kept coming out because he's taking so much contact throughout the rest of the game. You mentioned Matthew Stafford, some of the like unconscious throws that he made. I would say it might have been a cooler catch than throw, but maybe this is a candidate. We'll go back to it where we visit

the film at the end of this here. There was a throw that he made to Devante Adams, who had a quietly really great game. He was being shadowed most of the time by Derek Stingley Jr. And he had a he basically flipped his hips to turn a back shoulder ball into a front shoulder ball.

And Matthew Stafford read it right before the ball came out of his hand. And he placed it so perfectly because Derek Stingley, Jr. had the backside leverage. And it was down the sideline. It was right in front of Sean McVeigh. I thought Sean McVeigh was going to pass out. And I will say, like, that is this team. That's what this team wants to be, the combination of toughness and finesse.

On the converse, that's what the Houston Texans want to be. And they keep losing linemen, Greg. You were talking about omens. Cam Robinson holding penalty on the very first snap, their left tackle that they brought in, holding penalty on the very first offensive snap. and then Cam Robinson left with an injury and then he came back in. Jake Andrews, the center left

and then he never came back in. He was carted off. This was a brutal fight of a game. Yeah, and I think it's a great thing that the Rams can win games like this, that the defense is coming around where you think of them as a tough defense. And Devante Adams ends up with 4 for 51,

but it felt like at least two of those catches that I can remember are just like catches no one else is making. And yeah, he's so, up now, Derek Stingley, while Puka gets 10 for 130. So he's proving his value there. I also think Sean McVey who found a fourth down religion because he read an article by Jordan Roderick. I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Helped win the game by going for fourth down in the first half. And Kyron Williams scores a touchdown on that and a key sequence in the first half. Let's hear about another key sequence. And this is before... This is the game got drunk. Right. This is when the game got drunk. Before Puka iced the game, the Texans were driving for what they were hoping would be a game-winning touchdown. Stroud. And he's got him underneath. It's called by Gumbullo-Low. He fumbles the ball. It's loose. And it's recovered by the Rams. Big hit by Landman. Oh, calamity.

What a play by Landman. Who better than to put the ball on the ground than a guy named Nate Landman. Am I right? That punchout, classic moment right there. Who better to call it, but then Kevin Harlan. And then who better to hear the word Landman from than Trent Green? Somehow it all came together. Braden Fisk recovered it.

He's quite, you know, he put together a runner-up season for defensive rookie of the year last year and it's already starting out really well. They were rushing him out as a wide nine a little. This game, and part of, you're going to see a little bit more of that. I want to use this to talk about C.J. Stroud a little bit more because I want to be fair to him, I think that with what he had and what the types of pressure they were bringing,

I think he did pretty well for the most part. Him himself, obviously, there were still some protection issues. When he had his starting offensive line, they allowed 13 pressures per next gen, which is not great. Then obviously that starts losing, losing, guys in the third quarter and then I'm not really calculating it from there. But I thought with what they were bringing, they were widening and condensing their fronts like crazy. And they were really trying to go against the straight tackle Ariante Ursari, who Rams players were

complimenting post game for how he handled all the stuff they were overloading on his side. They were sending safety blitzes. They were doing all of this stuff. And the goal they were telling me was to overload CJ Stroud pre-snap because they weren't sure how much help he would be getting from his offensive line. So this was a problem last year. I think there are more answers this year. CJ Stroud baited the rush a couple of times really well. And he also baited the Rams to overrush. That's a little Nick Cayley, who was with the Rams last year, watching Jared Verse and Byron Young rush around the cup of the quarterback, essentially, so the quarterback can run up through that space. And that is, that's really smart. That's

smart football. That's CJ Stroud navigating the game, navigating the pressure really, really well. So while the stats don't really show what he was actually able to do. I do have optimism about how they're going to handle some of this pressure that they'll see moving forward. certainly it won't be at this caliber all year. Yeah, it was a little bit of a surprise. They okedoked us by putting ursery at right tackle to start this game. Everyone thought he'd be on the left side. And Cam Robinson did start.

They didn't have a ton of plays. Neither team really did. 57 snaps overall. Nico Collins held to 25 yards. No receiver for the Texans. And they didn't have Christian Kirk available for this game. Had 32 yards. But you talked about answers and some things looking a little better.

Nick Chub, I thought ran pretty well, had 4.6 yards per carry. They actually had a decent, you know, success rate. they tried to run the ball, at least with Nick Chubb. And so there were some positives, but the Texans start out with a road loss against a tough opponent. Jordan, you're going to be with us on these Sunday shows. I'm looking forward to it all.

Patrick's had a long day here, cranking out highlights on NFL network. No longer, Greg. So we thank you both, and we are going to take one more break, and we will be moving on the Sunday night football. First recap show there. Jordan.

Did I do it? Let's go. You did it. I blacked out. Did I do it? You did the damn thing, expertly. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin.

And this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertainment. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get.

Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from Scouting Reports and player development to team-building, philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find

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this will be a 32-yard attempt from the left hash for what could be the victory they're going to run the clock down so it is down to three seconds here's the snap hold is down kick on the way and it is good and matt praeter in his first game as a buffalo bill has won the ball game here in week one the bills were down by 15 In the fourth quarter, they come all the way back to win the game at the gun. Chris Brown of WGR caps what was the game of the day, might be the game of the year. It's one of the best games in the history of the Ralph. I'll say it. Certainly one of the best Sunday night football games of all time, the best comeback of Josh Allen's career, 41 to 40. Buffalo Bills score 16 points in the final four minutes to rip a sure victory away from

the Baltimore Ravens on a night where the Ravens put up a 40 burger in 50 minutes. It wasn't good enough, Shookie. There were so many ways that the Ravens could have finished this game out, but they didn't. But we got to just start, just giving some love to Josh Allen and this offense. 151 passing yards for Josh Allen. No, not for the game, Shook. In the fourth quarter alone, what

a moment there in Buffalo. Yeah. Look, fans started leaving the stadium when they were down 15 and frankly in my heart, my heart left the game as well with, I don't know, less than more than four minutes to go when the bills turned it over on downs in the fourth quarter down 15

and I understood why they left. But these are the same fans who are from a generation prior that once saw them come back from down even more in the AFC Wildcard game way back in I think it was 1992 and they witnessed a magical night and no better way to close out Sunday a week one than with an incredible improbable thrilling comeback like this. It's an all-time gut punch of a regular season loss for the Ravens. I mean, just an absolute all-timer considering the opponent, considering the situation.

Leaving the stadium was a crime against sports fandom. they shouldn't be allowed back in the stadium ever again. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's playing the Ravens. Josh Allen is your quarterback and you'll live with it for the rest of their lives. I mean, that's the punishment is that they know who they are. We could talk big picture, but what I want to do, Shook, is go through how that game ended. You mentioned the turnover on downs that the bill, had. You could say

that the comeback started in a way with the Ravens three and out with about nine minutes to go because they had been rolling so much, averaging about 10 yards per play until that point. Literally 10 yards per play until that point. They go three and out and they give the bills the ball back.

That's when the scoring really starts. That drive ends on a fourth down play and it is the moment in this comeback that beyond any other was really, really lucky and set up the

collapse to follow. So big play here, down 15. It's a fourth and two situation. Alan going to work from the shotgun here. Here's the snap. Alan has time. Now pressure coming from Van Neuil. It's high, and it's caught in zone by Keon Coleman.

It may have been intended for Dawson Knox, but Coleman's the one that ends up with it. Agent Zero. with a touchdown. Okay, football is a lot about luck sometimes. Everything that you hear about Josh Allen and how this team came back and the mistakes that we're about to talk about

that the Ravens made, they can all be true and that can also be Josh Allen's worst pass of the night that I can remember. He just sailed it. He missed it. And because he missed it by so much,

it went all the way to Keon Coleman, who deserves credit for making a great play there. Do you see the body language, though, after they've scored? or did you hear the tone of the call? Did you hear the background noise? The bills probably didn't believe that they were going to come back at that point.

No! Oh, nice, cool. A deflection went our way. When I saw that, I just started laughing because it was like, oh, of course. Of course they're going to stay in the game off of a weird deflected touchdown pass. Like, okay, that's fine.

Yeah, I'm sure you're going to, now you have to go put eight on the board again. Good luck. I didn't believe at that point either. But it was a great play by Keon Coleman, who made a number of great plays, who was a great athlete and was thinking on his toes there,

able to react in time to catch it. Yeah, I was watching the game in our film room, you know, a little studio kind of thing. And Maurice Jones Drew and Chris Rose are there getting ready to do NFL Network post game. And they were getting up to leave to go to the set when that happens and it gets tipped. And Maurice just immediately is just like, that's youth football. I quit. I give up. That should not count. That should not count as a play. Well, I'll tell you what, It counted, and the Bill's defense helped really make it count and really ratchet up the insanity the second that the Ravens gave Derek Henry the ball

on the ensuing possession. High formation here from Baltimore, Jackson under center, and I hand it off to Henry, and he's bottled up. The ball is out. It's loose. Who's got the football? It's Buffalo Ball! At the Baltimore, 30 yards.

line, Terrell Bernard. Wow. He did it in the playoff game. He's done it again. Mr. Fourth Quarter. They show some Bill's fans in the crowd hugging each other. Like they just, you know, had a newborn child happen to, you know, it was just absolutely outrageous.

At that point of the game, they're down eight. But it just felt like, oh my gosh, for something that insane to happen, Derek Henry, who having one of the best games of his entire career. The first game where he's ever had 3.30-yard-plus carries, rushes, 169 yards and two touchdowns on the game, loses the ball to Terrell Bernard, and it's on first down. It's like before the bills even have to use a time-out. It's before the Ravens potentially drain more clock,

and it set up the bills to take advantage. And the thing that you've got to give them credit for, Shook, is that when they got the ball this time and on the ensuing drive, they didn't really waste any time. At that point, it kind of felt like, oh, they're going to go cash it in. Yeah, they move with urgency. But for further context, like, Derek Henry is in the process of detonating the bills almost single-handedly.

Like, he was dominating them. And the last touchdown that the Raven scored was him around the left end, just cruising past the defense, cruising past Taylor Rap into the end zone for a touchdown. It was such a frustrating night for Bill's fans that somebody threw a water bottle in the end zone toward him as he scored. And then this is the guy who fumbles. And who is the guy who forces the fumble? None other than defensive tackle Ed Oliver,

who had a phenomenal knight who stuffed Henriana Carey earlier. He finished with the five-run tackles on 18 runs snaps, according to next gen, two run stuffs. That's one of them. And it's the biggest one because he happens to pop the football out and the bills are right there to recover. And that was the moment. You saw on that picture where people are hugging?

That's when everybody started to believe myself included to the point where I went, oh, God, you got to be kidding me. I mean, I felt sick. for all the Ravens fans, for Patrick, for myself who picked the Ravens, but also just watching this team who played such brilliant football for most of the game, just find a way to lose. But, you know what was in my head in a lot of my notes, going back to watch the first half, and I'm watching the second half,

a lot of my notes were like, the Bill's offense is actually playing really well. Josh Allen, despite not having the big numbers, is playing really well. had 25 points in nine drives, I believe it was before this crazy comeback happened. So 25 points in nine drives is a league leading pace of points per drive against a good Ravens defense. They were playing efficient. They were just stuck with the Bill's defense that couldn't get any stops and was getting run over. And I'm glad you pointed out at Oliver, who just had a star making night. He also had a great sack on Lamar Jackson. So the Ravens cash in. that touchdown pretty soon thereafter, but they go for two. And they do it with under two minutes

remaining to try to tie the game. And the two-point attempt fails. Could have maybe called the pass interference on that play, I thought. It was close on the Ravens. But either way, it fails. The Ravens still had the lead. Get the ball back. And here's where I don't want to kill them for running the ball twice in a row there. but there's two MVPs in this game. And Derek Henry's just fumbled. You just went three and out with a relatively conservative series

before that Derek Henry fumble. And they give the ball to Henry. He gets stuffed for one yard. Then you give the ball to Zay Flowers trying to get really cute. That doesn't work either. It sets up a third and long situation for the Ravens and Lamar Jackson

and he hits DeAndre Hopkins over the middle for six yards. It's fourth and three at that point, and the bills are forced to take their third time out with 133 to go. Did you want them to take a chance and go for it there on fourth down, Nick? And why is your answer yes? And why is it wrong if it's not yes? Well, in terms of field position, you would say no, but given the fact that the bills had no timeouts left, and you, look, I know Claibon is very anti-momentum in sports, and I don't want the claymates coming after me right now. The claymates are all taking a dirt nap tonight.

Sorry. I know, but I'm not trying to rile them up, especially in his time of pain. I'm not trying to cause some sort of rift here. But momentum is very real, and it was very obvious in this game. So how do you stop momentum? You take the life out of them by going forward on fourth and three and end the game right there, and they didn't.

Okay. I don't, anyone want to get into momentum. forget the momentum because here's where the momentum and then I agree in a sense but here's where the momentum and the numbers all agree that was one of the hardest

like go for it analytical decisions that you would ever want to see it would I think you know the systems say that would have helped their chance of winning like 8% and it's very simple to understand if you go for it there

you need to get three yards with the Ravens offense which has been awesome all night and if you get those three yards, you win the game. If you don't get those three yards, you have another chance to win the game. You have three timeouts. So you get either one chance to win the game

by getting the three yards or stopping them, or you get two chances to win the game by either going for it or trying to stop them. And you can tell me, oh, field position and all that and they don't have timeouts.

Well, they were right back ahead of where they would have kicked that field goal in about five or six plays and less than a minute with more than enough time to set up what could have been a long Matt Prater field goal but then they didn't need to

because they were more than in position to set up a chip shot Matt Prater field goal. So the Ravens who are one of the most analytically like driven teams out there I think John Harbaugh was just emotional in the moment. It's possible it was because Lamar Jackson got a little shaken up

I thought on that play. He got hit pretty hard. But the Buffalo Bills took a time out in that situation and gave them a chance to reset and go for it. And so the numbers will say it's a bad decision

and I think it's just logical because everyone says, well, those number systems shook like they don't provide context, right? Like they're not, you know, looking at the game. Okay, well, here's the game. You have an MVP on your team

in Lamar Jackson, and you're punting it away to another MVP who's thrown for like 200 yards in the fourth quarter. So I thought that decision was terrible. And it doesn't take away the beauty of that 32-yard throw to Josh Palmer from Josh Allen that set up the game winning field goal. Because that was just a layered throw past Geyer Alexander that I thought was just awesome. And Josh Allen made a lot of really smart decisions tonight. You made a lot of accurate throws, and that was the best one, followed it up with a seam to Kian Coleman that set up the game winner. So you don't want to take anything away from there, but I don't think the Ravens coaching staff ultimately leaned into their strengths. They leaned into what was a weakness there on

the defense. Yeah, the numbers, at least the next gen stats model, said it was a toss up by 1.7%. So at that point, you go with your gut and you go with being aggressive, given the fact that things are going Buffalo's way. Let's end this right now. And they didn't. And they'll learn from that. And, you know, traditionally, people would punt there. You go back 10, 20 years, everybody's punting there. But he should have taken a pay. You had one more opportunity to make up as Todd Munkin's offensive coordinating decisions kind of put them in that situation. You had one more play to make up for not going to your best player on first, second, and third down.

Well, you did on third down, but it was a short pass. And you had fourth down to do it. You should have taken a page out of your old offensive coordinator, Greg Roman's playbook. What did the Chargers do in a similar situation on Friday night? They threw the ball. They put it in Justin Herbert's hands. why did you do it with Lamar Jackson's one thing they're going to regret it looks so easy all night when they called a run for Lamar Jackson he ended up with six for 70 on the ground how efficient is

that every time they essentially called a run pass option and he pulled it and kept the ball he ended up with a big run it was incredibly efficient Derek Henry like I mentioned 169 on the ground. You know, early in the fourth quarter, they had 16 plays over 10 yards, eight over 20. And that was only at about like 40 something plays. It was an incredibly impressive performance by the Ravens offense until it wasn't. And you mentioned the next gen stats model, only giving it like a small go situation. You know, we have a dork off because, you know, the ESPN model run by Brian Burke had it at that strong like plus 8%. So, you know, different models.

Love a good dork off. See things differently. I'm a dork so that I can say that it's only week one. It really is only week one. I mean, I think that will sting. We'll remember that game all season.

It doesn't change how I felt about these two teams really going into the game. But I know it's going to make our Bill's fan producer, Eric Roberts, feel differently. as he's driving home tonight. I mean, he had to suffer through Yamamoto, you know, losing the no-hitter

and then four straight runs on Saturday night with two outs in the ninth, and he gets it all back and then some with the bills. I'm not going to say I would have left the stadium, but I did give up on this game several points throughout the night. You know, I was going to be my question. Would you have left the stadium? Because I'm feeling this is that 1.7% toss-up right now.

No, I'm definitely not a early lever, even if a team is getting waxed. I mean, my glory, my Bill's fandom moment is I sat through the Nathan Peterman five interception game from kickoff to the whole game was there in that soccer state and watching that game. But yes, I gave up several times and I definitely, you know, deep down the Bill's fan inside of me, they set up for that field goal and I'm like, he's going to miss it. I've seen them, I've seen them miss it in this situation. It's a new era. I know they haven't gotten over the top. And this was actually their first win coming back from 15 plus in the fourth quarter since 1967.

which is just outrageous. But it is a new era with these Buffalo Bills. And the game was never quite over. Even though there were multiple times, I'm with Shook, I'm with you, Eric. There was always two scores with some time left. And when they got that three and out, it started a process of a game

we're going to be talking about really for the rest of the season. What a day, what a game to finish it up, Shook. I got one more note for you. NFL research, teams with 40 plus points and 235 or more rushing yards in a game were 277 and 0, including the playoffs entering today. They're now 277 and 1.

That's why the models all had the Ravens with a 99.1% chance to win at various points. There was one at six minutes, one at two minutes, and that's why they play the game. What a beautiful game it is that we get to cover. I am so excited to do

17 more weeks. of this. Unreal. We won't be long gone, uh, Shook. We will be back talking Monday night football in just 24 hours. I said I wasn't going to say it again, but when the bills make a historic comeback and send us all home in like ecstasy,

football's back. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On move to six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies coaching trends and how front 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 sundance

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 F. 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. This is an IHeart podcast.