NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 1 review

Episode Date: September 14, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler – recap all the games from the first Sunday of the regular season including the Rams upset victory over the Seahawks. Plus, each hero shares their big takeaway from the first week of the 2015 season.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast would be a good fit for Chip Kelly's offense. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm George. joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosethal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. Nice point system with the hands with that. That's regular season four.

Special because this is a special podcast. It is. Our first Sunday night show after a exciting, wild, enlightening slate of Sunday games in the NFL. I mean, I hate to say it to everyone who listened to all of our off-season shows and our pre-season shows, but that was all a preamble. We weren't even, this is going to be much better than all of those put together. Plus, we were wrong about 500 things. I don't even know if all of us. We're also right about a lot of things. I don't even know if all of us were sober

for most of the preseason shows. But right now, you could bring a police officer in here 0-0-B-A-C. Are you sure? Pretty sure. Totally sober. Pretty sure. This is our Sunday recap show. We will be doing this every Sunday and you could watch

it on YouTube at YouTube.com. You could watch it at NFL now. And, of course, you could listen to it, our loyal audience of the Around the NFL podcast, three shows a week. Our Sunday night show will focus exclusively, and this makes sense, on the action at hand on Sunday. And we will start this show, and we will start every show this season with what we call. We were kicking around some ideas, like, you know how on football shows, it's always like, yeah, fourth and goal, zone read, attack. And it's really just four opinions. Hurry up offense.

Hurry up offense. With jaws and speedo. It's like, no, this will be... Red zone. Oh, wait. Speedo's underrated. This will be four big takeaways. A nice bit of synergy, Greg, of course.

I thought it's weird that Mark's going to get two and Dan's not getting any. Wait, what? I'm out of here, especially in light of other events today. But listen. Listen, I wasn't invited on Damestrich's couch show in NFL now. Not happy about it? I think you don't realize that we would happily allow you to do that. I'm just saying the old Zusser who lives life with a chip on his shoulders,

as big as Steve Smith, it got bigger. But it's not about me. This is about the NFL and around the NFL podcast. And we're going to start with four big takeaways from Sunday before digging into each game. So let's start off with Mark, your big takeaway. I mean, my big takeaway watching the Ravens lose to the Broncos, that's nice that you're want to know, Denver, but your quarterback, I don't know what's going on here with Peyton Manning. He's the guy that we saw in the preseason.

That's confirmed after one week of the regular season. Cannot throw deep, and the Ravens, they put out a blueprint for other teams to follow. Close off the short side of the field, make Manning, connect with passes, deep down the field because he can't. A little graphic here says Peyton Manning doesn't look like Peyton Manning. He actually does look like the Peyton Man and we saw in December of January. That's the problem. Yes, write him off. Wes, you're up.

Marcus Marriota. Look, if you watch this guy, you can say the Bucks have a bad defense, you can say all that. But if you can't recognize that he has special traits, I don't know what to tell you. He's got Joe Montana-like footwork. He's got a Damrino-like quick release, lightning quick release, and he's running some Oregon elements.

He's running some Chip Kelly elements. He could have like an RG3 type of dynamic rookie season. When's the last time the Titans dropped a 45-point bomb on someone? It's been a long time. I mean, we didn't even respect this team a year ago in any level. How much can change? Before Eddie George was a master thespian.

So ages ago. My big takeaway, after a summer of hype, the Amir Abdul hype, is real. Watching this Lions game, this guy almost 100 total yards. Would have had more, but the Lions' offense went in the tank. As the defense did, I don't know what's going on with the Lions, at least after one week. but Abdul look great. He had a great touchdown run where he made Eric Weddell look silly.

He turned a busted screen pass play into a 50-yard game. He had a kickoff return that put the lines in great field position. This guy's going to be making plays all year long. He's a stud. He reminds me of Eric Metcalf.

He got compared to Barry Sanders by Todd Bulls, and you mentioned during the game that you saw some of that too. You can't deny the guy who looks special. Special traits, Wes. Special traits.

My takeaway is that these Rams that I've been talking about for a while, they look pretty good. They took it after the defending champs. I'm not saying they're going to win the NFC West or something, but the Seahawks have to go to Green Bay next week, and I think St. Louis showed some things in this game without their top two running backs,

without their starting wide receiver, that they can score some points on offense. Nick Foles had a nice game, and the defense is just beautiful. Aaron Donald, best player on the field. Are you saying the Rams are going to win the NFC West? No, I'm sticking with them as my wild card team. I only said that because you said that directly that you did not.

You do seem sold that play caller Frank Segnetti is a major upgrade on Brian. He had a good game. They lost three fumbos. We'll get into it later. Four big takeaways. No discourse. But why don't we use that as a nice transition point to jump into the games? And why not start in St. Louis where Marshawn Lynch was stuffed on a fourth and one carry in overtime,

the result of which a walk-off win for the Rams, 34, 31, and what might be the Rams' final home opener in St. Louis, Greg. I know emotional game for you, of course. But Greg, I will say this, and I will give you credit. Listen, you're a very controversial guy right now. You killed the hero picks. I do not kill you. Everyone on Twitter that's reached out to Greg, I understand your feeling. But

let's push that aside. You called this about the Rams. You knew they were going to take care of business against the back-to-back defending conference champs. The crazy thing is how many things in the game went against them. They lost three fumbles. They were up 11 points, and then Seahawks came back. Isaiah Pee,

lost a keyfumble. At that point, I thought they're going to blow it. They fall down seven points. Nick Foles gets the ball with under five minutes to go. He marches him down the field. It was a nightmare day for Pete Carroll and John Schneider. Not only did they give up the late touchdown, they're going to get questioned because they gave the ball to Marshawn Lynch this time on fourth and one. He gets stuffed. The guy that replaced Cam Chancellor in the starting lineup, Dionne Bailey, free safety, he's the one that gives up the long touchdown to tie the game at the end of regulation. So that's, you know, Cam Chancellor's agent. out there just saying, we're making money, baby.

How about a little bit of irony, the last two Seattle games, Carol gets killed for not running with Marshawn Lynch with the game on the line. One game layer, albeit months and months after that, they lose because they give it to Marshawn Lynch. How about don't get into a fourth and one situation if you're Seattle? Right, you're down three points at that point. How gutsy would it have been if Darrell Bevel called us slant to Ricardo Lockett? That would have been unbelievable.

What if Malcolm Butler intercepted it? That would have been even cooler. Who would have thought that a team with Nick Foll's, Benny Cunningham, And your leading receiver, Stedman Bailey, would take down the Seahawks. Stetto. Well, you got a star like Tavon Austin. And I saw Roto World actually was forced to acknowledge him. I think they will now.

He had a nice rushing touchdown. Foles also missed him for what could have been a long score. I blame this a little bit on Russell Wilson, and he had terrible protection throughout the game. He was hit like crazy, especially early. But sometimes he gets a little frantic and wants to run early. And a game in a play no one's going to talk about is on third and three, right before the fourth and one. He goes back in the pocket.

He doesn't really face any pressure. He makes the decision to run. He only gets two yards to set up that fourth down. And that was one of those plays where he trusts his instincts to run the ball instead of just waiting for someone to get open and throwing it and it backfire. And I think that happened a few times. Hot take coming off of this loss.

I think the Seahawks are actually stronger than they were last year. Cam Chancer will be back. Tyler Lockett is a legitimate weapon. Jimmy Graham is the Red Zone guy they needed. Frank Clark, their second. round pick as a playmaker, I feel like their roster is tangibly stronger. And a bunch of those guys weren't on the team a year ago, so it's going to take a few weeks. What about Jimmy Graham? What did you see from him? Well, the second they got in the red zone, the first thing they did was just throw

it to Jimmy Graham three times. Didn't work right away, and then he did catch a touchdown. He didn't have a huge game, 52 yards. They did a good job. I mean, I just, the reason I like the Rams is nothing to do. We've talked a lot about their offense. It's just that Aaron Donald could be the defensive player of the year. I mean, if he was that good as a rookie, I mean, he had one of the most dominant defensive J.J. Watt type of games that you'll ever see today. Three tackles for loss, a couple sacks,

eight tackles. He did everything. And then you have Robert Quinn right next to him. I mean, that's as good a twosome as there is in the NFL. How about Fred Jackson? Did he have a huge role in the game plan, like Pete Carroll said? Yeah, I don't know why Pete Carroll said that because it didn't at all. Thomas Rawls had more carries, I think, than Fred Jackson. So you don't, you know, does this change your opinion on either team?

No, I like this. You predicted this. Playoff type of team. This is the third time. time in four years, they beat him at home, so they got to do more than just that. Good for Jeff Fisher, who, let's be honest, is really just biting his time until he gets to L.A. and can, you know, move full time back into his Venice cottage right near West's place. To maybe go to the playoffs and have a winning season, that would be...

Fish and I would be hanging out. We'll be at the whaler. This is the game of the day, though. I mean, you got punt returns for touchdowns from both teams, Austin and Lockett. You got a little bit of everything. You got 18 points and eight minutes at one point from Seattle in the fourth quarter. These two games is a sneaky good rivalry. Even though the Rams aren't very good, they always play pretty good games. All right, so let's now turn our attention to the team the Seahawks beat a couple years ago in the Super Bowl. The Denver Broncos, who, you know, we talked about Peyton Manning and what will we see from Peyton Manning after a year in which he crumbled down the stretch? Well, he looked very vulnerable on Sunday.

He threw for just 175 yards, took four sacks. But in Akeep Tilly, pick six was the difference in a 1913 win over the Ravens. Mark, yes, Broncos win. Is it too soon to consider Manning a life? liability in Denver. Well, I understand this other sub-faction that says, no, Manning's still the greatest quarterback around. When you say sub-faction, are you referring to me? Just Dan. Yes, let's just call it out. But we, at this point, Dan and Solomon Wilcott. Sure. Salih. There was an injury down the stretch that buried Manning's play to some degree, right?

Yes. But it continued on through the entire preseason, and it played out today in week one. He played a very good defense, but they're basically- I don't like that. Sometimes we selectively choose what matters in the preseason, but go ahead. I get you this arm didn't look great. But it's not look great in about eight to nine games at this point. Okay. Traits. Trates. That's what matters in the preaches. It's not who Manning was five years ago. He cannot throw the ball. And when they're forcing him to get guys open deep, this is a yards after the catch type offense with your receivers. But he's missing guys short. He's throwing worm burners. He was throwing at people's feet.

There's something going on with Peyton Manning. They didn't score an offensive touchdown. I mean, that is. Neither did the Ravens. They didn't get to the Red Zone until late in the game. This is Peyton Manning, who routinely puts up monsters. stats just two years ago put up seven touchdowns in the... 460 yards and seven touchdowns. It's not the same guy.

Speaking of Barry and Greg buried Sally Wilcoats in that argument. What are you talking about? Oh, you're referring to the television debate. debut of Greg Rosenthal. Payton Manning looks like the December, January, Peyton Manning. It looks like the same guy. And honestly, behind that offensive line,

he looked like he couldn't escape pressure at all. And the problem is they want to run the ball. They ran for 2.8 yards per carry today. No one looks special. As a running back. And that's a scheme where you think you plug someone in, they're going to have a thousand yard season. It didn't happen. All the C.J. Anderson fantasy fans are like,

no, this can't be happening. I went against my better judgment. And now I'm getting banged. Yeah. I mean, Ronnie Hillman got more yards than Anderson even in this game. When it came all in the fine, that long 17 play drive. You mentioned the run after catch. That's how their offensive set up. Damaris Thomas isn't going to

have that grade of a year. If, like the Ravens are stacking the box on him. What you said about the line, though, and that he can't escape protection. I think hits on the big problem. You know, he was sacked four times in this game. That's more than he ever was in any game last year. They also said that in the last preseason game he played, where he was sacked three times, which was more than any game last year. So they can't really protect him. It's a new offensive line, and they're not, you know, run blocking well either. You know, that's a lot of problems heaped on him. Now the offensive

line's not helping him out. Couple things on the Raven side. First of all, huge news. Terrell Suggs out for the year. He tore his Achilles tendon in the second half. He had a partially torn an Achilles tendon a couple years ago that he came back from him. This is on the other leg, and this time he's done. So that is a crushing blow to a defense. He's really the backbone of their defense at this stage. They also don't have Holodinada anymore. So this is a different Baltimore defense.

Yeah, I mean, they look sensational today, honestly, the Ravens. It seems like every year we want to source out, maybe this defense is not what we expect from Baltimore. But they absolutely control the line of scrimmage, beat up Denver. But you lose sucks. He had 12 sacks last year. He's had double-digit sacks in three of the past four seasons. I know he's 32 and he's not getting any younger, but that's a big loss for that team.

Oh, that's massive. You said in your write-up that Brandon Williams basically wrecked the Broncos offensive line. John Harbaugh said this offseason that Brandon Williams is the best nose tackle in football. Part of that, though, is because Suggs is drawing attention and Dumerville and Upshaw. But really, I mean, they have the parts, though, but to lose Suggs takes a off team. They got Jimmy Smith back, which is a huge addition, and he had a pick six in the game too. But Suggs, it's not a guy you can replace. there every down that's a great run stopper that's a very difficult i think the bigger concern even

than losing sogs is that their offense doesn't have playmakers yep what about steve smith you boy he's old he should have caught that by the line he should not have caught that after the game that was slightly tipped let me just say steve smith said after the game it was not tipped and then he had it was he said himself it wasn't tipped he said i'm a number one receiver and that's a number one play, and I've got to make that. Ultimately, the way I feel is that it's on me. That falls in my hands, I have to be better. Steve says, I'll take his word for it.

Right in front of him, he could have stole that game, and he didn't. But the problem is that it is all on Steve Smith, and they don't have anyone else around. And when Crocket Gilmore is making your biggest plays, you lack talent in their running game. I blame Flacco a little bit for the throw on the next play that was intercepted to end the game. I mean, they had a chance to win that game. If Flacco lays that out there a little bit more, I think the Ravens win that game. It's amazing.

What year was this game played in, 173 total yards to 219? Everyone that says that football was so great in the 1970s. You could have 16 weeks worth of this. The final note is that Denver's defense is supreme. I mean, it looks fantastic. Very well. All right, moving on. Okay, speaking in fantastic defense, let's go to Western New York,

where Rex Ryan came up with an aggressive, effective game plan to Rain and Andrew Luck and the Colts offense, 2714, Bill's win in Orchard Park. And West, it wasn't even that close. the Bills could not have asked for a better start to the Rex era. It was a convincing victory and not surprising to me because that's how the Bills' defense plays in that stadium. They swarmed to the ball. And if you watched Andrew Luck today for the first time ever,

you would not have thought he was a good quarterback. Wow. It was a very, I mean... How did they do it? What did he do? Inaccurate or was it all the team? I wasn't impressed with his arm today. It wasn't...

And his receivers weren't really fighting for balls. They didn't do anything after the catch. Rex Ryan was dialing up blitzes that had the cool. confused. Anytime luck started to move the offense, an offensive lineman would commit a holding penalty and set them back. It was just a behind the eight ball all day today. We should stop the show right now. I mean, this is big news. Chris Wesleying says something negative about Andrew Luck. I've never heard that. It was not a good, it was not a good performance. What about with Frank Gore, though, because I know he left with cramps or whatever it was late in the game, but 31 yards.

Andre Johnson's giving you 24 yards through the air. Well, Frank Gore, that, you know, they get behind, so they're not going to run it as much. And then, like you said, calf cramps, he missed series in the third and fourth quarters with that and spent most of the fourth quarter and a jacket on the sideline. It wouldn't surprise me if they bring up my Bradshaw back because Josh Robinson, the rookie backup, didn't look good.

And they're playing former Yale star, Tyler Varga, on passing down. Tyler Varga, first time he's been mentioned on the podcast. And what about on the other side, Tyra Taylor, for real? You know, if you saw him today, you would say, you know what he did in the preemptive? preseason was what we should expect going forward. He had the, I believe, the fifth best QBR by a Bill's quarterback in the last decade. So if you were watching this game, obviously Tyrod Taylor is the quarterback, but just watching

the defense. Could you tell the difference between, okay, this is Rex Ryan's defense, between that and the defense they had last year and Jim Schwartz? No, I thought Jim Schwartz brought more pressure. Rex had well-timed blitzes, but they looked more swarming to me under Schwartz. By the way, get excited, Bill's fans, because if you want to get excited about Tyrod Taylor, now you've seen it happen in the regular season after you saw it for a month in the preseason, if he plays well, they're a playoff team probably.

The team I saw today has to be considered a contender. And Tyrod Taylor, it's not just that he's athletic and can escape pressure. He was accurate. He was poised. He was in command. He had a play late in the game where it would have been a pick six because the ball was tipped, and he went and batted the ball down, like a guy who has a high football IQ would do. It was a really impressive all-around performance.

Taylor had 41 yards rushing and so did Lashon McCoy. And Carlos Williams had 55. What is Lashon McCoy? Did he let's slow? Well, he's coming off the hamstring, and he appeared to stumble a few times while he was running. He didn't look at full strength to me. You know, and yet I miss Kyle Orton. I still miss him.

Well, you're a Jets fan. Of course you would. That would be a great time. I miss him in my life. Actually, I think Kyle O'Rton carved up the Jets last. year, but a lot of teams carved up. By the way, Colts, you know, you can chalk it up to one game. It was a buzz saw.

We knew it was a bad matchup. But Frank Gord comes off the field and it shows a lack of depth at running back. Andre Johnson looked old. He looked slow, couldn't separate, didn't do anything into the catch. And Philip Dorset fumbled both of his punt opportunities and didn't get on the field on offense until Ty, Ty Hilton left with a knee injury. Watch out. Watch out for the team of ATL.

potential, Tennessee Titans. Maybe they'll take that division. You say that it's possible. That's a tease. Nice tease. You've got a lot of issues between the head coach and the front office with this team, too, which could be like a harbaw effect. Colts have gotten bombed in a few games, though. It's been their characteristic undergris. We got Bill's Pats next week in Buffalo. That's a nice little week two game. All right. Let's move to Green Bay, where the defending MVP of the league, Aaron Rogers,

threw three touchdowns, two to an old friend, James Jones, and the Packers held up, you know, a slightly frisky Bears team, 31-23 win at Soldier Field. This was a game, guys, where, you know, the Bears hung around, but then Jay Cutler, as Kevin Patcher wrote in his write-up, Cutler going to Cutler through an interception to Clay Matthews that basically sealed the contest in the fourth quarter. So I think a lot of people expected another one of those Aaron Rogers,

five touchdowns, 41 to 10, low outs. I think I said 61 to nothing. 61-0. A little bit off. You threw out there. But the Bears put up a fight and the Packers still recovering with Jordy Nelson out. You know, they take care of business.

I mean, I guess no one would be surprised that they won this game, but their defense gave up almost 400 yards. I think we're at the point, though, with the Bears. Okay, you hung tight with a team in your division at home, but you only lost by eight. And so that's good news. I mean, that's kind of like where you are. If all you can do is compete in a division game, that that's good news. That's not a good sign.

You know those old NFL films where every team got like a half-hour video and it would be on it like 4 a.m. on a... The annual yearbook, I believe. And it always had a title, it would be the 2015 Chicago Bears, disturbing promise. And for all... We tried. You know, you can...

You could say the Bears hung tight. The quarterback had a QBR under 30. And everyone keeps saying, don't write Jay Cutler off, give him a chance. He's still Jay Cutler. They did outgame the Packers, though. I mean, you would have never guessed that they would have 400 yards. That the Packers, I'm shocked that the Packers' offense had any trouble with the Bears' defense, and they did. Well, Dick Vonjillo is a great coordinator.

I mean, maybe that's, he can make chicken feed out of chicken whatever. So you get this John Fox outfit. Chicken feed out of seven years. That's how it goes. You know who has a great life out of nowhere now? James Jones. Yeah. He goes from football purgatory to now, let's be honest, he stays healthy. He's almost now a lock now for 10 to 12 touchdowns. Clearly shows he can still play and has chemistry. Welcome back to relevance, James Jones.

Lots of Patriots move. Bring back your former players that can't make it anywhere else. They come plug back in. They have a great season. They make a ton of money. Well, the Giants are cool. You know, they have Dwayne Harris and what is their other? Jeremy Davis, Preston Parker. Who would need James Jones? All right. Let's get, let's get Wes is hard to flutter now. and talk about Marcus Marriota, who threw four touchdown passes in just three incompletions. What am I reading that right, Greg?

That's correct. Okay, easily upstaging number one overall pick, James Winston, and the Titans' 42-14 win over the bucks in Tampa. Greg, we'll get to you, US. Your heart is a flutter. That's a fair statement. You're a boy on prom night, night of proms. I didn't go to prom.

You're going to prom with someone named Marcus. Yes, Greg. You think the Bucks are having some draft remorse right now, aren't, don't you? A little bit of draft is remorse. Well, I said anyone in the crowd there has to be having it. Because here's week one. Let's go watch our face of the franchise, new number one pick, throw a pick six in his first NFL past.

That's, you know, not exactly the start you're looking for. And then on the other side of the ball, let's look at the number two pick, put up four touchdowns in 35 points in the first half. They're not going to come to any games the rest of the season. season. Seriously, that is a team that struggles to sell tickets. That is, if you try to create the most deflating situation possible for week one,

that's it right now. Barring an injury, this was absolute rock bottom where your guy stinks it up. The other guy plays like evolutionary Joe Montana and Wes who is sitting across from me, giggling like a schoolgirl, he was so excited. I do think he is

a little bit. I'm not saying he's got the fourth quarter mojo in the game winning drives of Joe Montana. Who knows if that's happen. But in the preseason, his footwork reminded me of Joe Montana. And he had a much quicker release today than I expected, lightning quick release on a lot of these run option plays that they ran at Oregon and that Chip Kelly runs. I'm excited for this team. There was a point I kind of felt like the football gods were really against Winston and for Marriota in this game. Because, you know, Marriota threw one pass right into a defensive lineman's belly that could

have maybe been a pick six, you know, fell on the ground. He fumbled the ball at the one yard line and it was recovered by the other team, but they decided that the play was dead, which was a very questionable call. Whereas Winston, he throws a pick six on his first pass. It was a terrible decision. And he throws another interception where a defensive lineman makes an amazing leaping catch.

I actually saw a couple good things out of Winston, but the score was 287 before you blinked. And I just thought, it doesn't even matter how well James Winston plays. The offensive line is so bad, and the Buck's defense is even worse that, like, he's going to be in a lot of these games. Question for you. Let's say you put Marcus Marriota behind that line in Tampa Bay with Lovey Smith, who doesn't develop quarterbacks as your head coach. I wonder if it's a different situation.

Of course. But Winston is going to throw those interceptions. He did it in college too. Mark, by the way, brings up Lovey Smith, who is coached, what, 17 games now for the bucks and lost 15 of them. And his defense, which is what he's known for, looks terrible. It's getting worse. I mean, that was my big take. That's his butt. Shocking that they would get worse after he brings in Major Wright, Chris Conte, and Tim Jennings from his old Bears team. Well, that's the problem. I can't stand coaches that get wedded to certain average players because they know your system. How about go get smart young players that can learn your system? Because what is the plan? A bad team that's showing no markings of growth. What is Lovie Smith's plan? It's impossible to know. They've been bomb dropped like seven times in the last season. Bomb drop. Your boy Terrence West. This game was such a laffer. It was like Oregon. I mean, with the score, Marietta didn't have to play in the fourth quarter. They took out Bishop Sanky in the third quarter. They put in your guy,

Now Terence West. Now Terence West on a potential playoff team. Bishop Sanky had a career high in yards. Did you get? We know that Bishop Sangey's career high was only like 63. Well, we know this from what we've seen. Yes, Dan, you're smelling something? What is that? That's Lovie Smith's hot butt.

He's on the hot seat. He's got a hot butt. It stinks. Wait a minute. Go ahead, Wes. His butt's getting hot. Well, he is, you know, I don't know. That's a patient organization, but please. Well, you've seen this factor going back to Michael Vic with the Falcons. When you have a mobile quarterback who's a threat to run, it helps the running back.

And I think that's one of the reasons why Bishop Sanky's doing better now. Well, they definitely added some Oregon elements to this. They did some hurry up. There was a lot of like packaged plays. I think they showed us that they're trying to build this offense. You mentioned RG3 to Marioita's strengths. And that's what you want to see out of a coaching staff. We've got to give Ken Wisenon.

What do you know? Ken Wisenon isn't the most boring coach in the NFL. I do think he has potential. He has potential for an RG3 like rookie season where he gets everyone excited around the league and in Nashville especially, but he is going to make some rookie mistakes against good defenses especially. But, you know, like I say, Dan, the traits are there. They're all there. It's all about traits. TD, is my mic okay?

Because I did that bit where I was doing the smelling. I don't know what you were doing there, but your mic's okay. You I'm not so sure about. That's love of Smith's hot butt. All right, moving on, Alex Smith. threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, too, to draft Travis. And there's a couple of competing nicknames right now with Travis Kelsey. You're hearing baby gronk.

I don't know if that's more creation than here. You're also hearing Zeus, which I have some issues with intellectual property there. Anyway, Travis Kelsey had two first quarter touchdowns. All added up to a 2720 win for the Chiefs over the Houston Texans. And Mark, Brian Hoyer, your boy, old former Cleveland Springs. You guys want to make a lot of people my boy. None of these guys are my boy. Once upon a time, he was.

If we were making a list, Brian Hoyer is near the top of the boy all thing. He was in the- Totally inaccurate. He was in a stable. You asked to cover the Chiefs Texans early last week as if there was going to be, you know, I was going to get a lot of texts from Wes and Dan. Hey, hey, can you put me on it? Mark's like, I better get in here early.

I'm a team guy. It wasn't because of the Chiefs. You always make fun of the Chiefs. Let me just get, Hoyer struggled. He was awful because he stinks. And, you know, and Ryan Mallett took over with six minutes to play, led Houston on a couple scoring drives, made it, you know, respectable. But there you go, Mark.

We talked about it last week. The quickest quarterback controversy in football comes out of Houston. Yeah, I mean, Hoyer, two inexcusable turnovers that absolutely changed this game. His first pass was a pick six. I mean, this is, Hoyer played some bad games down the stretch last season. But the point here was he knows Bill O'Brien's offense. He's comfortable. He's confident.

And, you know, none of that looked to be the case. And he said it after the game. He did a disservice to the organization with the way he played. It was not a good game. It's an insult to call Brian Hoyer a game manager in the same vein as Alex Smith. It's an insult to Alex Smith, who's a much better player. And Brian Hoyer is not a game manager. He turns the ball over way too much.

They are not anywhere close to the same quarterback. And the biggest takeaway for me was, I know the Chiefs bored us to tears last year, but they looked interesting today. I think there's something else going on. You got Kelsey, having Macklin in there changes what they can do. He tested defenders down to the field, and Alex Smith looks supremely confident. I feel like he's a smart quarterback who just seems so much more comfortable this season in an offense that is growing some weapons finally.

They've got triplets, and you can even exclude the quarterback, Jamal Charles, Jeremy Macklin, and Travis Kelsey, and they're a good team right now, but Greg in his preview got trashed by Chiefs fan, but it's a good point. If they lose Jamal Charles or Jeremy Macklin, they're not a good team. Well, they don't have depth. They don't have depth on this roster. You know, another team that I think is lousy is the Texans. I mean, maybe this is just more about the opponent.

First of all, the Texans outgained them. I didn't watch the game, and I know a lot of it was late drives. Yeah. But, you know, the Texans out gained them by 60 yards. And I still, I know they have JJ Watt, but there's just nothing about this Texan team that's special at all. There's nothing to think that it would be surprising if they win five or six games. J.J. Watt had six tackles for. for loss.

Yeah, but the problem is the whole one had seven, though. We've come to expect that from JJ Watt, but it's football where one player, especially a defensive player, is only going to make that much of a difference. And the one thing, yes, J.J. Watt was disruptive as always, but then go watch what Kelsey did to this secondary and how much space there was between him and defenders. They just ate Houston up. I mean, Houston had no solution. Who starts for the Texans at quarterback next week?

I think Malik came in, and it was a little bit of a strange situation, but 10 points and two drives. I think both guys are going to continue to rotate over and over. You've got to go with Mallet next week. It's crazy. You do that whole training camp thing. You decide on it. It is crazy.

Maybe it's only six or eight games that he says, but then it happens. That's the first indication that you don't have a quarterback, though, when you're going snap for snap. Hold on. Bill O'Brien told us all, told reporters, he told his own coaches, that the rest of the league and every critic

is just wrong about his quarterbacks. They're both quality, quality players. It's good television. It's not true. On Hard Knocks, yeah. Let this always be a reminder. If you like that show, when the coach is talking up the quarterbacks too much, that means they usually stink. And it did remind me of how this season started.

It was with O'Brien in a private meeting. Remember he's yelling at his own coaches? It was a little weird. That I found strange. This was his quote. Nobody talks about the Texans because nobody thinks we're going to win. And the disrespect that they show our quarterbacks, I'm tired of that too, because both those kids, can play. They need a chance and one of them is going to get it. Enough is enough.

They're both going to get the chance. They can play. Can they play well? That's a different story. Aaron Foster might be back next week. It is just week one. I do remember the Titans absolutely dominating a road game in week one last year and they only won one more game the rest of the season. See, you know, you never know. Mark, are you ready to talk about the pain bowl? What's that? Well, it is the New York Jets, the number two team on the old Zusser's pain rankings against the Cleveland Browns. It says pain bowl right here on his little... Sure, bring it on.

And by the way, Mark, you could... Real happy for you there. You can pretend you're not a Browns fan, but they exist. You can't pretend like you don't even know who the Browns are. Like I said, I will watch their game, probably Wednesday, Thursday when I get around to it. They're not at the top of my list. And I was getting a lot of tweets about this.

I was getting a lot of tweets about this. No, Mark did not... It doesn't appear that Mark watched this game that we're about to talk about. Even when Johnny Manzell came in and made a... a really nice play. Mark wasn't like peeking around. He was clearly I was looking at Mark's face though. I could read the body language and the face language. He was punishing yourself essentially because I know you wanted to check in but you didn't. I don't wish them ill will. I felt bad for any team

that loses their starting quarterback eight minutes into the season. I mean where do you go from there? Let's get into it. Yes. The Jets got two touchdown passes from Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chris Ivory ran for two scores and the New York football Jets with fireman Ed, back at the Meadowlands, Greg. Get excited. Took care of business. 3110 win over the Browns. Josh McCown, in one of the brownsiest moments ever,

attempts to scramble for a touchdown at the end of a long drive, gets clobbered on a John Elway helicopter-copter-type scenario, fumbles the ball, loses the fumble, and loses his marbles, gets concussed on the play out of the game. Oh, my gosh. In comes Johnny Mansell. That's like the anti-John Elway moment. Oh, my God.

That was unbelievable. Mansell comes in, starts off promising, throws a long touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin, the first touchdown of his career. But then he's betrayed. And we've got to cut Johnny a little slack. Any young guy coming in cold like that might struggle, but he was pretty reckless with the football.

Three turnovers, lost two fumbles when he wasn't protecting the football well, and then one interception. Jets took advantage of that, 21 points off five Brown's turnovers. And I will also say this, Mark. Like I'm, much like Andrew said on our last show, I am, and I don't, you know, whether you care or not, I'm disappointed that you're doing this. I thought it was a bit. Now I'm starting to see you're going to run with it. It leaves me as the only real, like, fan in terms of rooting for a team in this room.

What does that even mean? Greg pretty much checked out on the Patriots. Oh, wow. Oh, I like football too much that I like all the teams. Relax. I like the people. I love the Patriots. It's not a movement.

And you're in a scenario now where Wes is patting you on the back, thanking you for, or congratulations. Thank you, why do you see me as evil, though? Oh, I am not. I'm just saying, you know, you have now put yourself in a position where you and Wes are conspiring about quitting your boyhood teams. You have effectively made this about you. No, it's very much about you. It really is just about wanting to take a little bit of a break from the roller coaster.

And I think that's fair. I've been following for 30 years. Again, I don't wish them ill. Well, let's... I wouldn't think you would... Let's be honest, he picked a perfect week to skip. The quarterback getting knocked out in week one on a spinning play. where he would have scored a touchdown,

that's about the most depressing thing that we can possibly come up with. Yeah, the point I was trying to make was, in spite of my issues with you doing this, because it feels real now, you're picking a good year. If this is going to be a one-year sabbatical, they are going to, the Browns stink.

Because I don't think, you know, I know I say I think the Jets have a chance to be a playoff contender, but the Jets, they made the Jets look great over the last three quarters of this game. And I don't know, I can't imagine the Browns being able to get out of

their own way this season. This could be a very long season. It is early, but you don't have a quarterback. You gave up 150 yards on the ground. That was meant to be the big thing. You're meant to be able to run the ball. You can't run the ball. Listen, you take away Mansell's rushing yardage and they did absolutely nothing. So what was the point? What are you at this point? So I challenge them to go turn it around. Well, I'll say this. We don't know if Josh McCown will even be ready for week two, but like Mike Patton also has a job to try to keep it. What is the point of playing Josh McCown. This is at best probably a five-win team.

Why pay the 38-year-old? Well, that means Mansell will play. Play the first round pick and see what happens. What do you have to lose? He will play. But they're going to be three and eight at some point. Mansell will play. Austin Davis will play. Probably they'll sign Thad Lewis again. He'll play. You know, Dan Hansis might get in there for a couple

snaps. It's a bad sign when your two leading rushers are Johnny Manzell and Josh McCown, the guy who has knocked out on the first drive of the game or whatever. Well, where was this offensive line? One positive, though. Josh McCown, the only starting quarterback today to finish with a perfect QBR. I really don't understand QBR. How did he get a QBR if he was six yards per attempt and he fumbled the ball? What am I missing? The Jets is a good question. The Jets did not

play well early in this game and if the Browns could get out of their own way, they could have been going into the halftime up two touchdowns. Right. Is it? That's what bad teams do. Could we just be overreacting to the score here? Did the Browns and the Jets looked like even teams for most this game and they had even total yards like they were you know what i mean the browns with two minutes of play were up 10-7 and the final score is 31 10 so they just got badly outplayed and out-coach in the second half we can't turn the ball over five times if you're a browns fan don't you want to see this play let's roll it td here's a nice breakdown of johnny mansell's touchdown to travis benjamin i think browns fan want to see more of this well it's it's a nice and really

it was carmardi got toasted on the play and speaking of antonio cromarty he suffered a nine contact left knee injury carted off did the dreaded towel over the head which i've never seen a guy put the towel over his head not to make light of it but put the towel over his head and not be a serious injury just seems like that's when they know so i don't know if we're going to see antonio cromarty again this year so that was really the worst part of the day for the jets but the other thing i would do one more thing about the jess before we move on brandon marshall looked like a difference maker in this game they haven't had a guy like this since keishon johnson he beat Joe Hayden on a goal line one-yard pass where he just was a big boy and made a play.

He had the key play of the game, which was after Fitzpatrick, through his only interception, Marshall stripped the ball and got the ball back, and it led to a jet's touchdown. So Brandon Marshall, making things happen, a guy they haven't had in a while. What do you know, a team that needs a wide receiver could have gotten him for a fifth rounder? That's too bad because all it does. It's kind of like in Cleveland, you're saying, why bother waste time with Josh McCown? Now this is just another week wasting time with Ryan Fitzpatrick when you've got Gino. Smith behind him ready to really take

them over the top. The jawbreaker. My fantasy team is the jawbreakers with our logo as the image when Gino mean mugged the Instagram photo. One of the more ridiculous moments in my franchise's rich history. Let's move forward. Let's talk about the Arizona Cardinals, another team of

around the NFL candidate and Carson Palmer's return from ACL surgery was a big success. The veteran QB threw three touchdown passes. 3119 win over your boys, Greg, the Saints. Uh, you liked, Greg. Those are my boys?

Well, you're, uh, I'm a native son of New Orleans. I'm great. You were a Saints fan to Sondland. Uh, but you liked Bruce Ariens' as aggressive, uh, game plan, isn't you? Yeah, that's what I like is teams that have a little bit of guts instead of Sean Payton. Right at the end of the game, I just thought it was a nice dichotomy. Fourth and six, granted it was on the seven yard line, the shadow of his own goal line, under two minutes to go. Drew Brees has the ball.

And Sean Payton decides to punt the ball. fourth and six. Oh, come on, Shawnee. Just get six yards. Yes, if you don't get it, you're going to lose the game. Hey, if you punt the ball, you're going to lose the game too. And you know what? The football gods were watching, and they told Bruce, hey, let's stick it to Sean Payton right here.

He didn't just run the ball into line three straight plays. He threw the ball with a screen pass. He thought it was a very safe pass on second down to David Johnson. David Johnson's first NFL touch. He takes it to the house 55 yards. And Sean Payton never even gave it a chance to try to win that game. Sean Payton has his reputation as a second. aggressive risk taker because of the onside kick in the Super Bowl.

He did a lot of this lame stuff last year where they were punning in very odd situations. It's just weird to give you, first of all, you're putting that much faith in your defense, which wasn't getting a lot of stops. They basically prevented damage by giving up field goals, but it's not like the Saints defense look good all day. And the best case scenario is you get the ball back with under a minute to go and no timeouts and you have to get a touchdown. So it made no sense at all.

And I thought Arizona, which was aggressive in their play calling all day, they were rewarded. I mean, Saints fans, this is a defense that stunk up the joint last year. You give up well over 400 yards today. And this was going to be a run-heavy Saints team, 2.7 yards for carry. What the heck? That front seven that Greg's been trashing in Arizona. The Saints offensive line, I know among big-time Saints fans is a huge, huge concern. And judging by the play calling and the stats and everything I saw today,

that is warranted because they didn't try to drop back. Everything was a dump off. When they ran the ball, Ingram and Kyrie Robinson were both absolutely stuff. I mean, Mark Ingram had eight catches for 98 yards. They were doing all the damage on screen passes and through the air. They were kind of figuring out a way to move the ball, but nothing down field. That new look, Saints offense, Drew Brees on pace for 768 pass attempts this season. Yeah.

Let me ask you this. Is Honey Badger going all pro this year? Honey Badger was all over the field. That's our Making the Leap boy. Eight tackles. That Making the Leap is looking good. Tyrone Crawford's looking good so far. Maybe we're going to hit us.

He's going to get in there. He's going to bring him to the playoffs for a good end of the season run. Yeah, Matthew looked great. Making the elite candidate Sammy Watkins, zero catches today. Vante Davis blanketed him. Ooh. Vante Davis is good, but that's a little bit foreboding. I think they only attempted 19 passes.

It was amazing to me to be watching a week. I never expected Chris Johnson to be getting. big-time carries in a week-one game. He was really getting the ball ahead of David Johnson. How did he look? He looked fine. Clock killer, Chris Johnson. He was okay.

The only reason he was in there, though, is because Andre Ellington hurt his knee. It's a PCL injury, Bruce Ariens said. So Chris Johnson could be starting at running back for them next week. All right, moving on. Let's go to San Diego, where Phil Rivers threw for over 400 yards, and the charges reeled up 30 unanswered points in a 33-28 win. over the Lions. This is a Lions team.

It was a tale of two games. The Lions jumped out to a 21-3 lead in the first half. Then the offense just disappeared. And, you know, afterwards, as you're watching the game, there's some speculation brewing that Matthew Stafford got hurt. He got hit by Melvin Ingram in this game. He took a shot to his shoulder arm area. In the second half, he shows up and he's wearing an arm sleeve on his throwing arm,

and he noticeably lacking zip and accuracy after that point. So it's something to keep an eye on. That Stafford might be dealing with something. On the other side of the ball, Phil Rivers, after thrown two picks in the first half, including a killer in the end zone on a badly underthrown ball, is basically perfect in the second half.

Just unbelievable performance. Keenan Allen, and he had a softball, excuse me, sophomore slump last year, 15 catches in this game. 17 targets. 165 yards, I believe. So Keenan Allen was a beast. Ladarius Green, a former making the leaf guy. had a touchdown, so the Chargers

come roaring back, a very nice win. How often do you see a quarterback go 35 for 42? That's a good point. That's a lot of attempts, only a 9-7 in completion. He's going to be moving on up, Greg's quarterback index. Well, it doesn't take much for me with Philip River. He'll be looking for any excuse. He will forget that he's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

And I often forget this until I watch Chargers games, but he has easily now taking the torch from Brett Farb from the guy that gets announcers to go, oh, this guy, he plays like a kid. He loves football. He's like, oh, he's just a kid on a playground. That's the Phil River stuff. But he does. He plays well and he seems to enjoy doing it. He needs a playground. He has like seven kids. Yeah, it's true. The Lions, we know this is their first game with that in Domican Zoo. And they gave up, I believe, over 450 yards of total offense in this game. And I don't know, I don't put a ton of stock into Tony Saragusa

sideline reports for Fox. I don't think Fox does either because they downgraded them. It's like the third or fourth team this season. But Saragusa noted that as everything was crumbling in the second half,

the lion's sideline was dead. And there was nobody there to say, you know, let's get going. It was basically a team that was gassed and ready to go home. And that's what they did with a loss. Well, when you come into Qualcomm, you know, you don't come out the same.

I was in San Diego last night. It's unseasonably hot there. right now. Maybe that was part of it. Look at West's Humblebragg. Where are you doing near the border there? Not even a Humblebrack? I was gallivanting down the coast, as you would say. Well, you can't spend every Sunday in 72 degrees perfect temperature dome. I want a question for you. Melvin Gordon. That's a horrible stadium, by the way. No wonder they won out. I went to a Brett Farve Jets game

in 2008, and it is a dump. That's nearly a decade later, so it can't be any better. No, it can't be. Melvin Gordon, though, not a good preseason. I'm seeing, he had 3.6 yards for carry. How do he looked? He looked okay. He actually, there was one play that he scored a touchdown, and then they ruled that his elbow was down, which was a good ruling,

but he showed a nice bit of athleticism to stay on his feet. There were a couple times where he maybe pitter-pattered a little bit, but there were a couple times also where he got just buried in the backfield where he had no shot, which will affect that yards per carry. So there's nothing really get too worried about. On the other side of Amir Abdullah looks like a stud. I mean, he had a play on Eric Weddle where he jukeed Eric Weddell out of the stadium almost

turned, like I said, he turned that screen pass into a big play. He doesn't have breakaway speed but his cutting ability is insane. He's so quick. Wes and I were talking about it. It's almost like he accelerates off a cut. Like he gets momentum somehow off.

He just don't see people do. O'Dell Beckham does that and Abdullah does it. We expected him to have more help around him today. that he was going to be an extra piece to like a suddenly deeper lion's offense. But it was the Chargers offense, which they have to feel so good about their team after this game. It's the exact opposite of last year where they blew a big week one lead to Arizona. To come back from 21 to 3, you get Stevie Johnson really involved as a nice pickup as a quality starter. And you get our guy from a year ago, Laderius Green having a big game.

Suddenly when you get Gates back, I mean, that's a lot of different pieces. Well, you have Danny Woodhead back too. He had 12 rushes. Big red zone weather than Danny Woodhead. If Kevin Patcher wasn't passed out face down on a mattress without any sheets right now, I would love to talk to him about the Lions because they are his team. And the thing about the Lions as I watch this game, and there is, I believe they're number four on the pain rankings, Mark,

is there there is that DNA that ties the years together. It felt like a very much like a Lions loss. And I know we talked very positively about this team, and who knows they could go back to Ford Field and kick someone's ass and then everyone's excited again. But this was very Lions, and it made you think, is this team ever going to make the leap? Well, they could definitely still go 11 and 5 and week into the playoffs.

But Patch was the first person because he's been bit hard. He's the first person that will tell you that there are weaknesses with Matthew Stafford's inconsistency and they're all going to go as far as him. And Calvin Johnson, by the way, two catches today. And way too soon to say, oh, is that a sign that he's on the other side? And who knows what's Stafford? But he was not a part of this attack. I mean, they were trying to come back in the game.

And at one point, Stafford tried to force a pass. in and he was covered well on the play and they just couldn't get him the ball. I'd like to see who was covered him. Well, I guess that whole secondary is pretty good, but you got flowers, you got ferret. I read somewhere it was bracket coverage. Maybe this team of ATL buzz for Detroit

taking a big hit from last year's forgotten team of ATL. Who you can't forget about any more, the Chargers. Oh no, they're forgotten. By the way, we all love Phil Rivers. Why do we s on them as being the team of ATL? That was a nice little team.

They were boring to watch last year, which goes against Team of ATL. They're more fun to watch this year. Maybe they'll be more fun this year. All right, let's move on now. Listen, they're not all gems. They're not all gems. There are a lot of good games to watch. Greg will argue that they're all special flowers.

In their own way. Delicate. Going into that, yes. A gentle sprinkle of water, and they'll bloom into beauties. But it makes sense of this Panthers' game. A 29 Panthers win over the Jags in a game where, of course, Cam Newton wasn't going to light it up. I don't think we're going to see him light it up much at all this year.

And Blake Bordels, meanwhile, lived in the Gabbard zone, which whenever you're talking about a Jaguars quarterback, you do not want to be in the Gabbard zone. That's under six yards per attempt, by the way. Five is really deep into the Gabbardt. Oh, I thought it was five. We moved it up. I think it's under six.

In the five to six range is Gabbard's down. I think he was four and a half. And so was Cam Newton. Yeah, so is Peyton Manning. So I will, let's talk because we were, again, we were in love with Chris Wessling with Blake Bortle's potential last preseason. We, again, we thought, you know, he's making some strides potentially. Too soon to worry that he's again in a horrible situation, and it could be setting back his career. Well, I think it's, you have valid reasons for concern.

I, you know, I didn't see this game, but I can see that he made mistakes, some big mistakes. He had a pick six. And I believe he's had the most pick six in the NFL since he entered the league. Alan Robinson also had a huge drop. There were a lot of drops in this game from both teams. I mean, Cam Newton, you know, as you mentioned, he had pretty bad stats. I mean, the Panthers' offense didn't make anyone think that they're going to be okay based on this performance. But it's a really, to me it's a very disappointing moment for the Jaguars to end up losing by two scores at home on a day when, you know, the Panthers couldn't really run the ball.

Luke Keekly got concussed. Right. A lot of things were in their favor to get a win to start the season, and they weren't. wildly competitive. The shared DNA that would trouble me is Blake Bortle's five sacks. That's one reason last year. You can blame it all on Blake Bortles, but when you're getting your butt kicked

game after game, you're getting hit nonstop. You cannot progress and become the quarterback they want you to be. It looked like the running game was improved, but it's like this feels very much like a Jaguar's score three years into the Gus Bradley project. You didn't give up 54 points, you gave up 20, but you're scoring nine. All right.

Does anybody else have anything to say about this game? No. Sorry. Sorry. Panthers fans. We know you're one to know. Enjoy the top of the AFC South for this half a day or whatever it is. Maybe a week. Be careful what you say, Greg, about the Panthers. You know, when you're in trouble here. Oh, that's true. That's true. I'm just saying, you know, it's one week. Mark almost achieved his dream of succeeding Greg on the depth chart around the NFL this past week. That's all I'll say in regards to a certain Charlotte-based NFL team criticism from the fearless boss. Let's move. Let's move.

on to the Cincinnati Bengals, who went to the black hole on Sunday and, you know, we're thinking, oh, this might be the year. The Raiders are frisky. Let's get excited. Well, at least in week one, it does not look like the Raiders are going to be frisky. The Bengals had it easy dominating in all phases in a 33-14 win. Andy Dalton and Tyler Eifert, keep an eye, Tyler Eifert, by the way, connected for two touchdowns.

And Derek Carr left the game with a hand injury. This is a game that was 33-0 at one point. so Matt McLean was playing big-time snap. So very dark times, very sad crowd shots in Oakland of a fan base that, you know, they could be a little bit rowdy. And sometimes you think they're kind of, you know, a punk-type fan base. They deserve better than this. Time to put the optimism back in the shelf in Oakland, Wes.

Yeah, I liked my analysis better when I was trashing the Raiders. I don't know why I picked them to win this game. It was a bad idea. That was totally anti-Bangle sentiment. You even admitted as much. It was tricky for you to pick between your two raging biases. You had to go with the rage. You're raging blind spots.

I'm excited. You know, I do expect Andy Dalton to have a career year, and I think the Bengals' offense is loaded. I just didn't think that they were this complete of a team to go on the road and absolutely demolish another thing. I like my bold prediction of Andy Dalton throwing more touchdowns than Peyton Manning. I just wrote that in some sort of early morning fever dream, one of the million bold prediction pieces.

It's one of the few that's going to look good. That's not looking bad. I mean, Dalton, what, is it? 28 touchdown guy on average. You know, one of my props was Manning throws 30, I think 30. That's a pretty good one. That's good. I think you're in trouble.

There is something particularly deflating about a week one loss like this at home, especially after, you know, to a bad team, like the Raiders, like to their fan base, all of that like moderate preseason buzz means a lot. Like, oh, wow, these guys got, you know, now people really think we're more of an NFL team. and, like, you really convince yourself into that. We're no longer the worst team in the league. We've got a lot of young pieces. And then you're down 33-0 at home.

Oh, wait, nothing has changed it. Not to mention you lose your starting quarterback. Well, that's true, too. They said they didn't think it was going to be a long-term issue. It was swelling in his hand. He couldn't get a ball. Passing hand? Yes.

That could be a multi-week absence. He completed seven passes for 61 yards before leaving the game. Never downplay. I know McLeon, if you give McLeon a week to prepare, never count them out. I don't hate McGloin as a backup. 2014 preseason MVP, Matt McGloin. There are Raiders fans who believe that

McGloin is a better quarterback than Derek Carr. I kind of like McGloid. Two problems I see for the Raiders. Can't run the ball. Just two? Well, Primaries one. Number one, I thought that with Khalil Mack and some other players of this defense,

we said they were watchable. Zero sacks. 90 QBR for Dalton. It's a really rough start. Del Rio, the coach, talked about, I'm a Raiders fan. We're changing the culture. everything's changing, and you're going to have to keep waiting for that.

Alden Smith had one tackle that was it for him, and Dalton look great. Obviously, it's September, so he's probably going to look better in September the January, but he really did play well. And I'll say it again, and this is not going to be news to anyone that's a fantasy owner, but if Tyler Eifford is on your wire and you have to bid, let's say, X amount of dollars, don't be afraid to throw it out there because he, and when you guys watch this game, he looked awesome. If he's on the wire, what kind of league are you in?

He had a lot of preseason buzz He had some buzz, but there are a lot of tight ends, it depends what kind of league you're in But he looked great Four team league with infants Yeah, not a team league with infants Yeah, not in great. Who's ahead of Eifford in a tight end in fantasy?

Don't ask me a sense of question. You know where By the way, our fantasy team, Mila Vayntrob, the AT&T girl named after. Wes was the draft consultant. Mark is an 18% shareholder. I am the majority owner. Greg is the boss but has no affiliation with our fantasy team.

Big win in week one. Big win. Travis Kelsey came up big. And you also have David Ely downstairs. Isn't he a kicker consultant or something? He's a kicker consultant. He is an emerging role in the front office. A mockery, you've somehow made a mockery of fantasy football.

That's a one-man job. It's called being subversive, Greg. Look into it. Anyway, so Tyler Eifford is awesome. If he's on your fantasy team, you're going to win it all, baby. Looking to being subversive. Keenan Allen is really, if you lost today in a, a PPR league and Keenan Allen was on your team, you should just fire yourself and hire Mark

or something like that. I want nothing to do with it. Hire Wes. Hire Mark who's... I'm out after the draft. Co-owner of a successful fantasy football team. Don't even know what the team's name is. Let me just take stock in this. So you quit being a Browns fan. You've removed yourself from the fantasy side of things. Are you just disappearing from society? I am slowly, slowly, bit by bit, removing the bricks, each little brick. And Dan, you can say it's Bit, but, you know, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing this for Dan. I'm doing this for Mark. For you. For me. I like this. You're slowly, you're slowly morphing into my lifestyle. Mark, now the second person to ever go third person on this podcast following in Dan's footsteps. Listen, one day, Mark, you could be like Wes, too. Yes. That would be noble. West is a wonderful fellow. All right. Moving on, the Miami Dolphins, much hyped offense. Didn't it look very, very swimming. Does that make sense? Well, it didn't go swimming. I think it didn't go swimmingly on Sunday, but a punt return score from Jarvis Landry was enough to secure a 1710 win over the Redskins in D.C. West, what did you see from the QB positions on both sides?

Ryan Daniel missed some throws, quite a few throws. He didn't play as well as his stat line would show. Like you said, they basically won because Jarvis Landry had a great punt return. Kirk Cousins moved the ball a little bit. He had a couple of interceptions. I don't think that the Redskins are thinking about a quarterback change. It hurt that they lost Deshawn Jackson to a hamstring injury early. I think on the first drive, Deshawn Jackson left out. A bad one, or what are they thinking about it? About what?

D. Jackson's injury. He was immediately rolled out, so I would imagine he might miss a week or two. How about the fact that the dolphins won a game, they only had 256 yards of total offense. I'm surprised by the performance. Almost half of it to Jordan Cameron. I'm surprised about the performance of the Redskins defense. They were pretty good.

Who, get rid of Jim Hazlitt. Maybe they're going to be better. Yeah, I think they went out and rebuilt their defensive front and shut down Lamar Miller totally in the first half. Mark, you get on the phone with your boy, your friend Bill Laser. It's like, hey, pick it up, buddy. You're supposed to be a studly offense this year. Hey, Laser, pick it up.

I'm not sure that's the exact transcript of the conversation that's ahead of us, but I would say that, you know, Wes and I vehemently said more teams need to go to run this Eagles offense. Maybe it's not that easy to suddenly become the Eagles. Maybe Ryan Tainanhill just missed too many throws.

Maybe RG3 didn't do a good enough job as the scout team's safety for the weekend. TD, I know you're busy back there, but is it too much to get some damn laser sound effects? Oh, lasers for Bill Laser. I am pretty busy back here, Dan. How are you doing?

A damn laser drop Is that asking too much? PD is a little bit too busy back here, but for your sake. That'll do. That's good. Thank you, bud. I appreciate you. Anything else from this game was?

How about the, oh, I was going to say, how about the fact that the AFC East, all undefeated and looking good? The Dolphins probably had the worst performance of the four, but just an entire division. I don't know. I call this a moderately troubling Dolphins performance, just based on what I'm looking at here, is that the offense didn't look great, defense looked fine, defense looked fine against the ball. You hire Mike Tannenbaum and you're undefeated. Didn't the Dolphins whack the Patriots last year in the opener early on in the season?

Yes. What did that mean? I mean, week one couldn't be more overrated for its results. I would say... Counts in the standings the same. The one other takeaway from this game, if you followed our fantasy advice and drafted either Jordan Reed or Jordan Cameron,

pat yourself on the back. Good. If these guys, they're injury risks, but if they stay healthy, they're both going to have huge years. Jordan Reed will play at least four more games this season. Between that... He looked fantastic. He had a lot of plays where he fought for extra yards and got first down. Between that and the Dionne Lewis call

by Wes, which was genius-like. Amir Abdullah. A lot of patting on the back and it's deserved. Barry Harowitz's over here. Oh, don't forget about Tavon Austin. Tavon Austin. Nice little start for Chris Wesley in 2020. Who now exists. Let's now move to the big Sunday night showdown. Between the Cowboys and New York Giants at AT&T Stadium, which is the name of the facility where the Cowboys play home games, Chris Wessling, and a game that the Giants had in hand,

a 2620 lead late. However, Tony Romo, the much maligned Tony Romo, Greg Rosenthal, lead the Cowboys. Not by me. Down the field in the last minute of the game after a questionable play call by Tom Coughlin and an even more questionable decision by Eli Manning allows the Cowboys

to come back from the dead. 11-yard touchdown pass. Jason Witten. from Tony Romo, seven seconds to play. They convert the extra point on a day where Des Bryant breaks his foot and is going to miss some time. The Cowboys steal one from the Giants 27, 26. Mark Sessler, this is one of the worst Giants' losses in recent memory

and a great win for the Cowboys. Absolutely. A lot of people being blamed in New York already. Eli Manning's taken the blame. Coughlin's taken the blame. But in this room, when this game was happening before that final drive, I heard certain unnamed people. saying good riddance to the Cowboys. We're tired of them. Hit the road. There was a lot of

blame going in Dallas, but we were counting out Tony Romo a little bit too soon, I think. Tony Romo, I mean, one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the NFL. We've known that for years. The numbers back it up. He's got 24 fourth quarter comeback since he became the starter in 2006, three more than any other quarterback in the league. I thought, by the way, Mark, you were referring to, you know, we were sitting here watching the end of the game, and Greg Rosenthal was simultaneously rooting against Spaggs, Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnola, who he despises on a personal level

because of what happened with the Patriots, and also rooting against the Cowboys, and I was in the same boat there. That's exactly what I was pointing to. I like upsets. I like surprises. It was a wacky game. And I also like, you know,

blaming people when they make a big mistake. And we didn't wait to see Dallas go drive down the field with ease before blaming Tom Coughlin. I said at the second he made the call, you throw the ball there. I know Eli managed to have taken the sack and all that, but it's more on Coughlin for not running the ball. It's a higher percentage play to run the ball anyways.

Score touchdown, it's over. The worst case scenario is that there's less than a minute under the clock and you have to go, you know, get a touchdown. Instead, now you had 40 more seconds. I mean, it just was an insane, for a guy who's usually, so conservative to call a pass there was crazy. Well, wait, even more inexcusable is the way that, as Coughlin

called it, knife through butter, Dallas just rolled down the field against that defense. Two straight drives I texted with some friends back east. I have a lot of friends that are Giants fans, and I said, this feels inevitable at this point, everyone was like, yep, they're done,

they're done, and sure enough, I think it was like eight plays, 80 yards, and that was it, it was done. They had no chance to stop them, and this was without, again, Des Bryant in the locker room. Or any timeouts. I mean, that's part of the equation of calling the run there. The fact there's no timeouts at all makes it really difficult to get a touchdown drive.

You know, over the summer, I did a post on Gary Kubiak has an analytics guy in his headset. Isn't this exactly the situation where you need that guy? And he's got to be able to tell you within 10 seconds whether to run or pass in that situation. Tom Coughlin doesn't seem like an analytics type of guy. You know what I mean? These are really unforgivable evidence. What men are men. Because if you're sitting here and you're able to say it in real time and Tom Coughlin's not, that's an unforgivable error.

I mean, they got lucky a few spots there. There was a defensive holding call on the Cowboys that actually saved them a ton of time. The Giants really botched that entire four-minute drive. A lot of their snaps, if you notice, happened with a ton of time left on the play clock. At a time when they're trying to get the clock down, Eli Manning's snapping the ball with 15 seconds left. This is not what you expect to see out of a veteran quarterback like Eli Manning, who made an unbelievable throw to Odo Beckham that we thought was the game winner. We thought the game is over right there.

Eli came up with the best throw of the night. Doesn't matter. I mean, in this game, too, Eli Manning. By the way, look how excited Greg is. Greg loves an Eli and the Giants have to eat it. Because on some level, it gives him a sense of closure about what happened in 42 and then again in 46. Oh, he's gotten another Super Bowl. Can you make up your mind what you're mocking me for being happy?

You were just saying I was happy about the, you know, Giants. Yeah, but I know the true stories. You were throwing blame all over the place, but six players had more receiving yards than Odell Beckham. He was targeted less in this game than he has since, I think, week three of last season. Come on, Eli Manning. It's your best player. Well, they also might have been concussed on the first catch of the game.

He came right back out. And I think he saw what kind of coverage, I heard them talking about it after the game, you know, that he was getting hit at the line of scrimmage a lot in this game, and they're putting bracket coverage. they're going to make other Giants beat them. I'll tell you what, I, you know, grew up in New York. The Giants have had a lot of success over the years. Five Super Bowl trips since 86, four wins.

But I will say this about the Giants. They, when they lose a game, they have a real way about heartbreaking losses. And this one is right near the top. You know, you had that January 03 playoff loss of the Niners sticks out, the Miracle of the Meadowlands with Deshaun. Put this one right in that. They know how to lose a high performance. profile game.

Well said. I can't just say I didn't think I was ending the segment. You know, we can't top that. You're a New York guy with all this New York knowledge. I'll tell you what, the Jets are 1 and 0 and the Giants O and 1 in the world is good. I mean, they went, like you said, knife through butter without Des Bryant on the field. That's what Codlin said. And they're not going to have them for four to six more weeks.

So there were some concerning signs for the Cowboys in this game that they were even in this position because they really looked like the better team, but the turnovers and the penalties all against Dallas. Des is crazy, by the way. We saw a raw feed inside this building of him greeting Cowboys players as they're coming off the field. He's only wearing what looks like

some type of boxer briefs, and he's like slapping people hard and like shouting at them. And then finally like a Cowboys team official approaches him gingerly and is like leads him back to the locker room. Now we've got to put a boot on your leg now. By the way, you have a broken bone and you literally need surgery. Calm down

Des for once. One of the reasons this room didn't believe in the Cowboys was because if anything happened to Des Bryant, we thought this wasn't that good of a team. Not a lot of depth in that room. Now we'll see. Because the matchups are going to get a lot harder than the Giants defense,

which might be about the easiest matchup you can have. Do you believe in Terrence Williams? To the Giants defense credit, though, they came up with three or four huge plays in this game. That's right. It's fair. A little Cole Beasley. And all of it's washed away.

Oh, WFAN tomorrow. Wait, a little fantasy advice? Wow. Terrence Williams available in 80% of NFL.com leagues. Read that from someone else. Look at you. Should we pick them up for our fantasy team? Is that what you're saying?

That's good job. I don't even believe that's true. The outsider's inside. Well, it was tweeted by Michael Fabiano, so go talk to him. I'm going to check out that tweet. Sure. Well, it's probably not true now. It's not true now.

Everyone in their mother's picked up Terrence. Is it bad, you know, TV for me, check my phone. And see if Fabiano really said that. Not if you watch NFL now. What is Greg doing? What is Greg doing all the time? Why not? Like a little loose and fancy free.

Can we find out if it's true? What are we trying to find out? Sessler's right? He's available 83% of the leaks. That seems wacky to me. It is a little. Pick him up. Have a ball.

By the time this podcast comes out, it'll be down to like 40%. It's probably already is. Correction, guys. This podcast is already out as we're taping right now with NFL now. Wow. Wow. It's like weird, man. Time is a flat circle, TV.

So that's a good start to Sunday night football, by the way. And a good start. To another regular season, week one. Nice work. Mark, your sixth opening season with the NFL. Congratulations. Well, same to you. Okay.

So that was a nice move for me to throw it right back. Nice job, Dan. And to Wes and Greg for other things. We're celebrating. You know, these guys have been covering football. We were back working in bizarre corporations, and you were like an ad guy in, like, New Jersey. So how about the experiences?

Mark is getting those wild eyes, so that means it's time to go. So this is Dan Hansa signing off. We'll be back on Tuesday with another show and then our Thursday night show. So this season's on now. So get excited. Everybody, there he is. The quiet storm. He's getting loud.

The mailman, the boss, TD and everybody behind the glass till Tuesday. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 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 Sundays. Don't miss it.

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