The Fumblerooski Podcast - Staring Into The Abyss -Ep 294 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

The first 2 weeks of the NFL season of come and gone and we got a lot of questions regarding the 2-0 and 0-2 teams, are these 2-0 teams contenders? Should these 0-2 teams start to panic? Falcons get the upset over the Eagles on MNF, and the Chiefs win in another controversial game. PI or no PI? And finally our Week 2 Top 3 Bottom 3, did your team perform well enough to make enough of an impression to make the Top 3? Or did your team perform terribly enough to make the Bottom 3? Chris Costich, CJ Medeiros, and Adam Wright talk all of this and more!

the Falcons get a last minute upset win over the Eagles last night, Monday night football, 22 to 21 and the chiefs squeaking out another one. And what was supposed to be burrowhead, but they reclaimed the name against the bangles. And then after that, we got pretenders versus contenders, which two teams are actually contenders and which 0-2 teams?

Is it time to panic? And of course, to round out the show, our week two top three, bottom three. You're listening to the Fulmer Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns.

Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. You're listening to the Fumble Rooster Podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Chris Kostich. With me today, CJ Medeiros and Adam Wright has got a good one lined up for you.

Obviously going to talk about the Monday night game that happened last night. Kirk Cousins finding himself again and getting the win over the Eagles. Controversy in Arrowhead Stadium. Chiefs getting a win over the Bengals. P.I. No P.I. We'll talk about that. And then our contenders for our 2-0 teams, which is a contender, which is a pretender. And our 0-2 teams.

It's a time to panic. We're looking at you, Cincy. And then week two, top three, bottom three. But the Monday night football game, what a kind of a slow first half, a slow burn. Neither team really was able to get anything going on offense to the point where philly was getting booed off the field after the first half and then they started to take over a little bit got themselves with the lead in the fourth quarter

and the big turning point of this game was the e Eagles technically second to last drive of the game third down and three and they decide to throw it with the Falcons having no timeouts try to get to Saquon in the flat and he ends up dropping it and what would have been a first down play if he had made the catch and that's kind of the risk that you run at that point defense has no timeouts remaining there's a minute 40 to go. If you just run the ball, then you kick a field goal and there's one minute left in the game. You'll leave the other team with a lot less time, 40 to 50 seconds less time at that point.

And Kirk Cousins and Falcons drive down the field and get the win on a Drake London receiving touchdown. And then Jalen Hurts with a interception to kind of seal the deal. But big win for the Falcons. That's for certain, especially the way that Kirk Cousins played in week one and the entire Falcons offense in general as well. But fellas, what are we thinking after this game? I just don't really think that the Eagles should really be thinking they're in trouble yet, but this is definitely, but if we're going to look on the positive side of things, things are looking really good for Atlanta now. Yeah, this looks like a game that was, it said a lot more about the Eagles than it did for the

Falcons. I think the Falcons, they have a new quarterback over there and they have a new head coach. So it makes sense that they would struggle a little bit right out of the gates. This Eagles team is mostly returners except a couple of pieces added to make the team better. And they had a chip on their shoulder going into this season considering they had a really bad ending to last year. From this season, from the first two weeks of the season in fact they've looked a lot like they did at the end of last year

this was very much a vintage 2023 eagles type of game where you're losing games that you have no business losing whatsoever and again they could figure it, but so far they have the exact same problems that they did last year. Their defense is performing, is underperforming a great deal. Their offense, if you're playing from behind, it's not nearly as effective as when they're ahead, which is very much indicative of a run-first team. And this is a problem that I had with the way they were built last year, is that they were so much leaning on that offense, on the running offense,

that whenever you were forced to throw, then you failed to do so effectively. And what I'm referring to is the fact that Jalen Hurts threw the ball 30 times, managed 183 yards for that. When you're playing in a back-and-forth game where you're trying to keep up with the opposition who is also scoring, you can't be throwing for just 183 yards on 30 throws, which is a little bit concerning for me. I get it.

They're a run first team. They're not meant to throw, to be throwing as their primary function, but I still look at it as a concern that they're not able to beat teams in multiple ways. The championship teams are usually able to beat you in a few different ways. This Eagles team has yet to prove that. CJ thoughts, Miss Eagle's team has yet to prove that. CJ, thoughts? You know, Philly, I just, I'm not really sold on them playing from behind, like Adam said. I'm just not. In fact, it seems like ever since last season, something happened to philly and they haven't been able to shake it correct me if i'm wrong but isn't jalen hurts like what two and nine

two and nine is last 11 yeah two and nine is last 11 that is bad and this is a man that you gave a ridiculous contract to i might add and you know you can blame Saquon Barkley, I know, supposedly cost them the game, yada, yada. But that doesn't explain giving up 11 points in the fourth quarter. You know, I just, I mean, not giving up, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter, coming back, and then still losing. And here's the thing. It has become blatantly obvious to me that they still haven't defeated their demons yet.

By demons, I mean past defense. Because even week one, right, in gangland Sao Paulo, Brazil, you saw what happened to philly i mean look did they win yes philly won good good for them you know we'll we'll pat them on the back there but there's between a win and a convincing win it was a one score game and packers quarterback jordan loves still put two touchdowns and 260 air yards on them as well and And not to mention a Jaden Reed running touchdown too. So Packers got theirs. You know what I mean? They put up 29 points.

So Phillies winning, but they're not winning convincingly. So yeah, cool. What's the matter of having at least a decent game when the other team is still dropping at least 20 on you? That is abysmal. And it actually gets worse because the corner who gave up, you know, the game winner was Darius Slay.

You know, the one sure thing that is on your back four. And look, we knew there was gonna be some learning curves and they got a bunch of youngsters back there like Quinnion Williams, or Quinnion Mitchell, sorry, and Cooper Dejean. youngsters back there like Quinnion Mitchell and Cooper DeGene. I get that. That is not lost on me.

But you drop this to the Falcons. And in the first half, the Falcons looked pretty much dead. I know it was a slow start for both sides, but this is something that we were talking about off screen. Michael Penix, the name, you know, the first rounder that they drafted were questionably was trending on Twitter or X or whatever the hell it's called. Now, I really don't care. People online were literally calling for it. And that is how you know that you have the game in your hand and you pissed it away. Now, obviously, it's just week two. You're not allowed to overreact too much.

But if this becomes a trend, then I don't know if I see Sirianni making it through the year. Because Philly, it could be a Super Bowl contender at max potential, but you also don't want the word potential to be written on your tombstone either. You know what I mean? This team had, they had issues on both sides of the ball on, on, on one end their defense. I mean, the Packers defense is not that good of a defense and they were able to score 29 on them, but that was only because you, you were facing not that good of a defense and they were able to score 29 on them, but that was only because you, you were facing not that good of a defense. Uh, the Falcons have a much better, have are much

more are much better in that sense. Um, so the fact that you were, I mean, in a run first offense, you're going to have some issues like this. And there are two different ways that you can beat, that you can beat teams with a pass first offense. You can win it in a shootout and you can win playing from behind. With run first offenses, there's only one way you can win. And that's by getting ahead and coasting. If you play from behind, or if you get in a shootout, you are automatically at a disadvantage because it's much less time effective, much less time efficient to be able to run like that.

You're not going to be able to score as quick. And on top of that, game script is going to work against you. So looking at the Eagles, this is just a team that they should be better than they are. And it's a little concerning that they look exactly like the team that they were at the end of last year. I think that we're also looking at the Eagles going up against two pretty good teams to begin with that they should be having pretty good games against because let's look at it this way this was a close game that we're talking about here where the eagles had 11 more minutes of possession time and if you have 11 more minutes of possession

time then you're going to win the game i don't i think that the game plan that they had was a good game plan it just came down to the fact that the defense just shat the bed in that last minute 40. They had Kirk Cousins in a bind for the majority of this game. They held the lead, held control of this game for the majority of the game. I think the problem that we see at this rate is the last two minutes. The Packers game, yeah. The Packers are a lot better team than what most people think.

And yeah, their defense isn't great, but their offense is still going to put up numbers on you. And the only reason why it didn't come down to a real last minute chance or last pass chance was because Jordan Love got hurt. So I think that we're talking about two teams that the Eagles just went up against that are a lot better than what people probably think at the end of the day. That's just my little take. That's just my little take on it. Because, I mean, yeah, the Eagles are in a very similar spot to how they ended the year last year. They're completely blowing it there.

Like, yeah, we can have the conversation that the Eagles should win these games, but that's also what comes down to any given Sunday. Sometimes you don't get these wins. Like the Patriots are bound. The Tom Brady Patriots were bound to lose to the patrick mahomes chiefs at one point or another steelers got one on the pats one or two times i think that

this is just comes with any given sunday sometime at some points but at the end of the day when you look at the eagle schedule coming up they got the, and then they got the Bucs, and then they got the bye week. Where are they going to be by the time the bye week comes around? Yeah, listen, we're not – I think you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to say. No one is trying to say that this Eagles team is bad. They're going to end up in the playoffs most likely.

So yeah, they're going, so games against these tough teams are going to be tough, but you have to beat good teams. Once you get to the playoffs, you have to beat good yet. You have to beat good teams to get into the playoffs. So are they going to make the playoffs at 11 and six, 12 and five? Probably. But if this is their performance against good teams, then they have a bit of a, they have a bit of a ceiling for them for how far that they're going to go. I mean, two weeks into the season, I am not loving the NFC East champ, the NFC East chances of having one of their teams come out of their conference in the super bowl no i i understand like your point but at the same time like you're also going

to get tight games where you're not going to beat every single team good team that there is but the fact that the eagles are even having close games to begin with are going to give them a better chance than others look and i get that i do but and i understand you know any given sunday we always say that all the time i mean hell look at the first two weeks of this year been a weird year so far but how many any given sundays is too many yeah yeah obviously like that's my point because we said last 11 games they're two and nine yeah i mean let that sink in okay like i said two and nine in their last 11 games and saying oh you know just any given Sunday I just think I'm not saying you are but I feel like the Philly locker room especially maybe Sirianni has that attitude of just oh you know any given Sunday it's like cool congratulations you just put a band-aid on where your arm was

chopped off that's essentially what that does and Adam also mentioned that they are struggling on the offensive side of the ball and you know defense like we said you know that's questionable but now if it matriculates to offense your struggles you know what no i'm not even going to be fancy about this this might actually just be coaching this is extremely concerning well how much offensive struggles are we are we just saying that they're struggling to throw the ball because running the ball they average five yards carry yes i think it's on the ball because yeah you you go no i was just saying yeah yes throwing the ball because i'm sorry i i understand that they're a ground and pound team, but it is getting to the point where they are becoming one dimensional. And I'm sorry,

this is 2024. When you got people like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and all these others just slinging it over the yard. And then you've got Philly who's playing like they're stuck in 1950. Yeah, I think that's a little concerning. But it's also 2024 and we're two weeks in and passing is at an all-time low through the first two weeks. Okay, that's cool. And last year was 2023 and look how that ended. I mean, I know I get identities. I really understand that, but there's such a thing as over-reliance. And just because you're forced to stray away from your

identity, there should be some games, a real any given Sunday game, where yeah, you might have to rely on passing, but just because you don't run the ball as much shouldn't equate to devastation. It should not equate to a loss. Yeah. I don't only blame coaching, but I also blame the way the team is built. Yeah. The coaching could be better and they could lean a lot more into their identity, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to end up winning. It doesn't necessarily mean they're going to end up winning a Super Bowl or making a deep playoff run. The fact of the matter is the NFL, as it stands now in 2024, is a pass-heavy league.

The pass-first offenses win Super Bowls. Last year, there were a few Pat. There were a few run first teams that were represented in the final four in the one pass heavy team actually ended up winning it all. So it's like, it's, this is always how it ends up. Also had a really good run game with really shitty receivers, but that's not what they were leaning on.

They had Travis Kelsey, you had Rasheed Rice, and you had a quarterback who was able to get the ball to the open man. So that's a pass-heavy team. You're not leaning on Isaiah Pacheco. Isaiah Pacheco is not the reason they're winning games. And Patrick Mahomes' rushing ability is not the reason they're winning games and patrick mahomes is rushing ability is not what is what makes him great it's his throwing ability i also do want to point out that part of the eagles passing game yesterday was um no aj brown and their number two target

was uh blanking on the guy's name right now. It was that guy. Oh, well, Dallas got it. But Brayton Covey was their second leading receiver in terms of catches. Yeah. All right. I want to get away from this game. We spent a little too much time talking about it, but we did have a really good conversation about what the Eagles could be.

We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about the Chiefs and Bengals game, P.I. or no P.I. This is going to be a good conversation because one of us doesn't think it's P.I., and one of them's talking right now. We'll be back after the break.

It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides.

You're listening to the Fumble Whiskey Podcast powered by Powerade18 Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. Chris Kostich, CJ Medeiros, and Adam Wright. Biggest talking point from Sunday, the Chiefs and the Bengals. Boy, what a doozy this sucker was, huh? It was the Bengals that, I mean, neither team really had a strong foothold on this game. We did have a interception of the year candidate, and this wasn't even Mahomes best game either.

I talked, I mentioned this briefly, but either way, Cam Taylor Britt interception of the year so far already. And the broadcast wanted to compare it to Odell, which CBS needs to shut the fuck up. Such a good catch, though. Oh, my God. It was an amazing catch, but still. Amazing catch. But this kind of goes back to my point that passing is down

from the last segment. Mahomes, 18 for 25, 151 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions. And all but two of his passes were passed or over 10 plus air yards. Like if you actually look at the passing chart, basically every single throw is like a check down. It was a little insane. Joe Burrow, 23 for 36 for 36 258 two touchdowns uh and the game really came down to uh two two plays um one being the joe burrow fumble which turned into a scoop and score um that one by uh who was it i'm like trying to find where it was.

Does anyone remember who recovered that fumble? Because I'm blanking on her now. You keep talking. I'll get it real quick. Thank you. But either way, Scoop and score for six. Chiefs take the lead. Since he comes...

Actually, three. Actually, now that I think about it, three. Second one in mind, bangles driving down the field they're about to have a third and five ish type of thing jamar chase thought that he was hit with a hip drop tackle which if you actually watch the replay it was definitely not a hip drop tackle and start to remount the ref ran his mouth a little too much 15 yard penalty took the bangles out of field goal position able to get themselves back into field goal position but it was on a fourth or a third

and 22 or whatever it was and they couldn't and all they had to do was get back into field goal position whereas they had a chance to score six so they end up with three chiefs have the ball to end the game and PI gets thrown, puts them in field goal position. Bucker comes up, nails the kick to win the game. Shamari Connor, Shamari Connor.

Thank you. Um, so Samara Connor with the scoop and score to give the chiefs the, uh, the lead before the bangles came back to kick the field goal to retake the lead. The rest is history. Now, before we get to the P.I., not P.I., obviously Bengals are 0-2. We can talk about this one during the time to panic part, but this is kind of just typical

Bengals style. They always suck at September and then start to figure it out, uh, towards the latter part of the season. Um, so I'm not necessarily worried about that. Uh, and the chiefs chiefs are inevitable.

Yeah, I was, I was looking at the Bengals in this game. I actually, I actually got, took a lot more from the Bengals than I did from the Chiefs. More in a positive way. I thought they looked absolutely brutal in their game

when they hosted the New England Patriots on their opening night. They actually looked a lot better. Joe Burrow looked like his usual self. I think it's very encouraging that the Bengals tend to play up to competition rather than play down. I think that's very important for this Bengals team. On the Chiefs side, I think a lot of the bad passing offense that we're seeing across the league speaks more to sloppy early season play. It almost turns, almost every year it turns into an extended preseason. And I think a lot of it has to do with that. You look at, I mean, the only guy who has really showed up in this passing offense is Rasheed Rice. Xavier Worthy

has been up and down. He had a very nice showing on week one but then the very next week two catches for 17 yards travis kelsey's been blocking the past two games so you have to believe that they're going to figure this out at some point and i think the bangles are as well so i think the best football is yet to come for both of these teams yeah and we kind of discussed it a little bit prior the entirety of last week was kind of predicated on joe burrow and his wrist um and didn't seem like that was a problem at all uh on sunday cj this game was just bizarre and i know everyone's like oh another classic whatever a controversial finish aside i feel like in a just world both of these teams would get an L because just floppy. Like we guys said, an extension of the preseason, which, by the way, I know injury risk and whatever.

But this is why, you know, you got to play our starters at least a quarter game in the preseason. That's just the rules. But I don't know. The Chiefs are winning, but these aren't convincing wins. You know what I mean? And look, I know being clutch is good, but if all your wins are these down-to-the-wire nail biters where you need a call to go your way to win or you need a guy getting a toe out of bounds to win that just says to me do better and yes i know you got the w but

but what are you going to do when you aren't you know when you don't control your own destiny, you know what I mean? What's going to happen when like the other team's driving and it's a team, you know, that actually has its stuff together, unlike Baltimore, more on that in a bit, because you, because we all know what's happened to Baltimore. So yeah, I don't know. But then again, you could just chalk it up to that you know it's early it's early but i i just on a side note what the hell's going on with jamar chase this man needs his head screwed on right fast because if i'm a bangles fan i'm livid at this guy he's more interested in fighting the ref than fighting for yardage and it's getting embarrassing especially since this man was this close to holding out with two years left on his deal because if jamar chase

is able to get his head out of his ass then i think since he probably wins that game that's a possibility it's i i forgot to to hit on that point it's that um i mean i i think that over time that this is all going to figure itself out throughout the season jamar chase falls in line with just trying to win games rather than being pissed off with his contract situation getting angry at the refs he just seems like an irritable guy lately. And you have to believe that winning is the best deodorant. I think this Bengals team starts to win some games. They have a favorable schedule coming up. They have the commanders next, and then they have the Panthers. Those are two games that should hopefully get them to two and two. They have a Ravens team that's been struggling

in their own rights as well. And then they have the giants. You have to think that Jamar Chase is eventually just because of the flow of the regular season is going to figure that out. If he doesn't, then this Bengals team is screwed because I mean, let's face it, these contract issues, they've been, they have prolonged it so long that they've pissed everybody off and it's becoming a distraction. So you better hope that they, they everybody off and it's becoming a distraction. So you better hope that they, they start winning and they start to forget about these issues until the end of the season.

Otherwise they're not making the playoffs. Yeah. I, I will agree with that with the schedule coming up. They're definitely going to this Monday night game against Washington. It's definitely going to be a get right game, especially because Washington absolutely blows on primetime. Well, looking at the Chiefs, it is.

It does not get easy for them until they get to November. Basically, they got the Falcons on Sunday night football for week three. Then they got the Chargers, Saints. You could say that the Niners game is probably going to be a little bit easier because Lord knows when CMC is coming back, Debo's hurt. Brandon and Iuk still hasn't gone back up to speed yet. So 49ers are beating up right now. So maybe you could say that late october is when they're gonna really

be able to kind of calm down a little bit but even then that's still a really good defense all right uh we got all the actual gameplay talk out of the way uh pi or no pi that's that's basically the big conversation right now um i'll just make my quick spiel on it because i know how you two are you two think it's not pi i already know it i don't think it's pi because obviously like you could have the discussion on if it's a catchable ball and i know that cj's take is you know he's playing the ball, but at the same time, you also can't, you also can't just, um, what's the word? I feel like when you're playing the ball, it's better if it's more of a bang, bang play rather than, um, something as egregious like that. Like the ball wasn't even there yet. And the Cincinnati defenders going up for it makes contact with them well

before the ball gets there. I think it more of a better comparison would be if a receiver were to run a curl route and the defender makes contact with them and then makes play on the ball. It's now, if you want to make discussion on if it's a catchable ball we can have that discussion i think that if people are going to be more angry about anything i think they should be more angry about the fact that there was a holding call on the chiefs on that play

which would offset um but i think this one in my opinion this one's just pi there's contact before the ball regardless you you just can't ram a guy before the ball gets there regardless if you're playing or not what do you smile about adam died was that a pause or something you tell me uh ram a guy yeah you can't you can't just ram a guy you can't that. I mean, you can say that again in a couple different contexts. But listen, I definitely think it was a PI. There was contact. But that being said, I think it was a soft call.

I think it's sort of one of those borderline calls where you can make the case that you were making a play for you were making a play for the ball but you also again you rammed into a guy so as you were going for the ball you hit him and therefore it was a pi i think it was a little soft because there's going to be some contact in football it's football there's going to be you're going to touch some people which is... Hey, I think Deshaun Watson said the same thing. You're going to make some contact. You can't just ram into a guy. You're going to touch people as you're trying to get the ball. So when you're going for the balls, you have to make sure. Jesus fucking Christ.

All right, here's the thing about football compared to other sports. It's way too hard pause to not have something ridiculous like that. And announcers do it all the time. Anyways, continue. Yeah. All right. Deep breath.

I think you need to do stuff, man. All right. Come breath. I think you need to take a breath, man. All right, come on, man. You've got to make sure that you keep the contact to a minimum when we're talking about you can't leave the game in the hands of the refs. This is a borderline call that went towards the refs calling it. So you have to make sure that you're careful in that sense. I'm not saying that I agree with the call. I'm saying by the rules, it technically is a PI.

Whether the intent is going for the ball or not, you still made contact with the pass catcher. So therefore, it is a PI. I just think it's a soft one. I have one more point to make, but I want to have CJ give his... No, no, no, no, no. I got to hear this. I wanted to wait for CJ to make the point. No, no, no no no i gotta hear this it i wanted to wait for cj to make the point no no no no okay i insist all right it i think that another thing is that like the chiefs get a lot of the

borderline calls to go and what makes a great team is how you capitalize on mistakes by the other team right and the chiefs in this generation are the best team in terms of capitalizing on mistakes by the other team whether it's um whether it gets handed to them on a silver platter or not especially these borderline calls such as this past interference um that a lot of people are more just they just see the chiefs getting all these calls and then being able to win off these calls that they just get mad over a call like this where it really could have gone either way it just happened to go towards the chiefs yeah yeah so the thing is i'm not even gonna deny that you could argue that it was it's just it's it's a very ticky tack call you know what i mean and i'm sorry penalties are and they were and they always will be. You see it. You call it. If there is any inkling that it's like ticky tack or if it's a toss up, the flag should stay in your pocket. That's that's always how it's been. That's always how it should be.

If it's murky, then why the hell did you throw the flag? Second of all, one of the things, right, about pass interference was that you have to hinder their ability to catch. And slow motion is one of those things where it's going to make it look worse. Because any old idiot with a pair of working eyes eyes look at it in slow motion and go, erm, yes, that is pass interference, like some other people that we know like to do. And Adam, you know who I'm making fun of here. I could tell by the tone of voice, by the impression, yes. But it's an inside joke, folks, don't worry.

But I just, something about it's off, because it actually was a bang bang play and when you look at the definition of the rule about how you have to hinder someone's ability to catch the ball i'm not entirely sure was it rashid rice i'm not entirely sure his ability was hindered because i when i look at it like i'm looking at it right now, that Bengals player literally is not in front of him, did not blindside him, didn't do anything like that. He was behind him. And the Chiefs position had better advantage of the ball. The Bengals player didn't grab him, didn't even shove him.

He went up for the ball too. And the reason why the definition of playing the man versus the ball is important is because once again, didn't grab him, didn't shove him, didn't elbow. He went up to the ball. And the rule book clearly says the defender has a right to the ball. I'm sorry. This is the pure definition of a 50-50 ball. And Kansas City, let's face it, got bailed out. And I would also extend to you here. If the roles were reversed, does that flag come out? Or if there's any other team, does that flag come out? You, all three of us both know that, or all three of us all know, that answer is a resounding no. This would not happen to any other team not named the Chiefs. However, however, despite all this, I will end right here. First and foremost, for those of you who don't

know, we ran a poll on our story. The people have made their verdict. 57% believe no, and 43% think it was legit. For reference, that's 150 yes votes that think it was a penalty, and 195 said no. So, but just the fact that it's this controversial shows that shouldn't have been called. However, I am concerned that this penalty gives the Bengals an easy out for losing. Does it suck? Yes. Were you screwed? Debatably. But the issue actually, I think, isn't whether or not they were screwed. The issue is, why were you in a scenario where a bad call can cost you the game. You put yourself in that scenario. And yes, yes, Bengals fans who are trying to kill me through the screen, I am fully aware that their tackle there,

remember that the Chiefs tackle, literally put your edge rusher in a headlock. And yes, I know your defensive tackle is getting held too. However, the Chiefs aren't going to get those calls. It's a fact of life. When their tackle, Jawan Taylor, is literally jumping before the ball is snapped on like 80% of plays, you just got to accept the fact that penalties against KC are going to be hard to come by. Now you could do two things. You can complain about it, or you could try to play cleaner. You clearly would rather choose the first one and it's just at the end of the day yeah the penalty was ticky-tack whether you think it's

legit whether you think it's not that's cool but you should never let yourself be in a position where the refs making a boneheaded mistake can cost you the game. Like this was just the nail in the coffin. You built the rest of it yourself. I think a good way to end this one, this segment is the 24 hour rule. You got 24 hours to sulk and be a bitch about it. And then after that leaves your mind, we come back from it.

I said, unless you benefit from it radio silence yeah full-on travis kelsey overtime rules style yeah all right uh we're gonna go to break while this bird tries to get in through my window through my air conditioner uh when we come back we're gonna have our pretenders and contenders list the two no teams are any of them actually contenders and the only two teams time to. Are any of them actually contenders? And the 0-2 teams. Time to panic.

We'll be back after the break. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that 6 or 7 spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. You're listening to the Fulmer Ruski Podcast.

Chris Gossage, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright by Power8018 Radio, Secret Weapon Consulting. As we get to our contenders, pretenders lists. Adam, I know how much of a hard-on you have for this. So I'll let you take the reins, but I'm assuming we want to start with the 2-0 teams on this. Really, Adam, I kind of want you to take this because you're the one that actually has the list to begin with. Please.

That's correct. Teams that start 2-0, a lot of this is goofy early season football. So it's good to weed out who is the, let's call it, imposter out of the bunch. And there will be multiple because it's early in the season. Some of these teams who start 2-0 don't even make the season. And some of these teams who start two and oh, don't even make the playoffs on the flip side. There are some teams that start Owen too, that have no business being Owen too. And they end up figuring it out.

That being said, when you start Owen too, you have a less than 10% chance of making the playoffs. And so if we believe that this team, that these teams are going to figure it out, then they better do it quick. Because when you start 0-3, it drops to 6%. If you start 0-4, it drops to virtually impossible.

There's one team that ever made the playoffs after starting 0-4. So that being said, we're looking at 2-0 teams on whether or not they are contenders or pretenders. We're going to start off with the New Orleans Saints. This Saints team has been a team that is very much, I mean, I know us on the show, we picked against them both times that they have played a game this season. They, um, they picked, uh, they beat the, uh, they beat the Panthers when they were hosting them and they beat the Cowboys and they absolutely blew the Cowboys out of the water. I'll say, what do you guys think? Contender or tender? I think the way

this offense has been working i mean you got clint kubiak the son of gary kubiak who was the head coach for both for the matt schaub and andre johnson era and that was a really good offense back in its heyday problem is that the texans are the texans and they just didn't have a really good defense during that time but you got clint kubiak as the OC. And I guess that's really the thing that's been missing, right? Because Dennis Allen is kind of just a meep. He's a meep.

He's just there. Like, no, everyone forgets that Dennis Allen is the head coach of the Saints. And everyone's just like, who? Who? Oh, yeah, that's right. He's been there for the last three years. That's right. And then Derek Carr is Derek Carr.

But it seems that with Clint Kubiak as the OC, that's kind of been the thing that's been missing because, I mean, the Saints do have talent on the team. You have Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, Rashid Shahid now. Shahid went off this past week. Derek Carr looks like his Raider self again. I think that this team could make a potential run if this offense can stay where it is right now.

I mean, they've just put up 40 points back-to-back weeks on, granted, one team, that's the Panthers, but now you put up 40 again against the cowboys team that actually should have a good defense so all right cj so yeah the saints they're probably the biggest grab bag of all the possible contenders that there are. Because look, let's be real, that roster and the way it's built is the definition of mid. They're coached by an NPC. That is just the truth.

However, getting rid of longtime offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, who was the offensive coordinator equivalent of last month's leftovers that's still rotting in your fridge that does wonders for you because the Kubiak versus Carmichael offense is night and day so just just through the principle of addition by subtraction I'm leaning towards contenders. Because the Falcons, I know they just won. They look iffy. The Panthers, that is all. And Tampa is probably really going to be your big stumbling block. But I think that, you know, the Saints, who have now dropped 40 in back-to-back weeks, I certainly think that they can contend. At least their ceiling is

probably wildcard. So I would say contend. If they play up to their potential, they are contenders. 91 points in the first two weeks. That is an absurd amount of points to be scoring. And they've allowed just 29 points in that same span are they going to be this way the rest of the year i just don't think so and derrick carr has only had the rest of the rest of their pass catchers i like their defense isn't bad i agree with all the changing on the changes on coaching it's just that derrick carr has only ever had one year where he truly looked like an MVP player, like a player who could actually take you to a Superbowl.

And that was, I mean, that was eight years ago. Now I just don't know if, if it's been one year over all of this time, I just don't think that Derek Carr is the guy to do it. Could they make a wild card? Sure. But I just don't see them as contenders in that sense.

I guess I'm more thinking that there'll be playoff hopefuls in general. I'm not saying that there'll be Super Bowl contenders, but there will be contenders to be in the playoffs. I guess I should have expanded on that a little bit more. I'm going to sell on them being this good, but I think they'll be a Super Bowl hopeful. I think they're a team that will probably finish eight and nine,

and they'll just be okay. But they have Derek Carr, they'll finish eight and nine and they'll just be okay. But I just, they have Derek Carr. And as long as they have Derek Carr, they're going to have a bit of a ceiling for them. A limited ceiling that is. And I don't, I don't even know if I like,

this is just two, this is just two games. So I don't even know if they, if they're even going to be... I mean, this is a small sample size. And it's, again, goofy early season football. Let's move on to the next team. We have the Pittsburgh Steelers.

So the teams that they beat in week one, it was the Atlanta Falcons, a team that is figuring things out. They're just starting to gel. And they also beat the Denverver broncos buying or selling on them i'm gonna sell but i think that they're very ahead of schedule in terms of the mike tomlin finishing uh at or above 500 for the millionth straight year in a row um i mean they're two and oh and it's really just because of their defense. Justin Fields, he's just doing enough to not screw up,

and it's more that they're hoping, like, it's the same game plan that the Packers had with Malik Willis, right? We're not going to have you do a lot, and we're just going to focus more on just positive plays, do stuff that you're comfortable with, nothing crazy and hope that, and just make the other team,

make all the mistakes, make the other quarterback, make all the mistakes. And that's basically what they're doing. They make Kirk cousins, make all the mistakes in week one. And of course you had Bo next week too. That's not that hard to make him do or make him make a ton of mistakes.

So I think that the Steelers will be in a playoff hunt scenario where they could get like a seven, maybe a six seed. I don't see him really making a huge run at it, if any. CJ? I feel about Justin Fields the way Adam feels about Derek Carr. If Fields is QB1, which I don't know how long it's going to be if he keeps this up, then they're going to have a ceiling. That's just the unavoidable truth of the matter.

And I just, it doesn't feel like Pittsburgh's winning their games. It felt like the Broncos lost. It felt like the Panthers lost. Because, does this feel like, huh? Oh, Falcons, that's it. Sorry, I was thinking. NFC South. NFC South, you know.

It just, I don't know about fields. Does it only have like one touchdown across the two weeks? If that. In general, if that. So my point is Pittsburgh's offense is literally being carried by their defense, and that is not sustainable. I cannot think of any team where that was sustainable. I mean, even if even with teams that had lackluster offenses, that offense could still go down the field and get you the game winning touchdown. team but in overtime brady and the gang could clutch up can justin fields do that no absolutely not pretenders and especially when they're in that awful just tough division i'm not holding out

hope for them and yeah yeah yeah mike tomlin's gonna get his you to get his above 500 record streak extended. Oh, boy. But until you get a trophy for that, I'm not impressed. Steelers currently top five. Yeah. They're in fifth in yards allowed per game and second in points allowed per game through two games. And then in terms of offensive stats, it's pretty dim.

They're 30th in passing yards. Granted, they're also in the upper half of the league in terms of rushing yards. The rushing attack is fine, but it's really, you know, you got Justin Fields throwing the ball. So that's why. Yeah. Give me the Steelers as pretenders. I just think they're deep. This is just another season for all the Steelers junkies to say,

see Mike Tomlin, the Steelers organization. This team is always winning games, pointing out the barely above 500 seasons the 500 seasons they're a mediocre franchise and that you can look at their their their franchise's all-time win percentage all you want but the fact of the matter is they've they're they haven't won a Super Bowl since 2008. And they've only won two Super Bowls since the 70s. So what does that tell you about this franchise overall? A lot of mediocrity, a couple of mini-dynasties here and there where they were actually winning Super Bowls.

And this Steelers team is nowhere close. I'm sorry. They have a lot of good pieces on the other in other parts where it really matters the defense is awesome they have some solid pass catchers but as long as you don't have that quarterback position figured out you're not going anywhere you need that quarterback that is the most important position to fill in and it's the hardest position to figure out so yeah you can say well all you need is the quarterback you just name the most important piece and the hardest piece to to find teams go generations without finding that quarterback and you're telling me oh well all they need is the

quarterback no shit um i think it should be i think it's quickly before we move on to the next time i think it's going to be interesting once Russ is actually back up and healthy again to see which direction they go after that. If they do go to Russ as the starter, see how he does, and then see if they want to go back to Justin Fields. Sure. That's a conversation for another time, though. All right.

Next team is the LA Chargers. This is an interesting team because, yes, they've beaten up on bad competition, but they also looked pretty solid doing it in the sense that they looked like a functioning franchise for once in their entire existence. It turns out when you have a coach, when you have the elite quarterback, when you have an offensive line that doesn't get your quarterback killed, then the pass catching doesn't matter all quite as much as it as you would think also so far so good with jk dobbins i know i've

sold his stock so far the torn achilles is still a little sketchy for me um two and oh it was against the raiders and the panthers and they held them to 13 combined points. But I think this is a team that's trending in the right direction. They may not even sniff the playoffs this year, but I think overall as a functioning organization, these are positive steps. What do you guys think? I think that they're going to be playoff contenders.

This is a team that, I mean, look, you can have a team that isn't going to be playoff contenders um this is a team that i mean look you can have a team that isn't going to be great i mean you look at the charges roster it's not the greatest thing in the world but when you got a coach like jim harbaugh that just brings up we said this prior on friday about the panthers and the chargers and obviously the chargers was an obvious shoe in for winning that game but never mind that you have one team that's up here in vibes and a team that was down here in vibes so the chargers are up here and when you got a team that is this high in vibes that is a dangerous dangerous team and this is a chargers team that is bought in on the Jim Harbaugh way. I'm thinking that this is going to be a very, like right now that they're

bottom five in the league and passing yards, and they're the second best rushing team in the league. But I think that the passing yards are going to start to come up again. Rushing yards might dwindle a little bit, but this is a team that's going to take a lot of pride in running the football. Quentin Johnston, he is now starting to actually catch the football now that he actually has a guy as head coach to be a positive influence on him. Not Brandon Staley, a guy that will actually instill confidence in him to catch the football

but yeah that's my spiel cj the chargers yeah just by coaching alone i'm gonna keep this brief jim harbaugh is the answer not Brandon Staley, the supposed defensive mastermind who took all of his defensive cues from a New York City turnstile. That's easy. Just with Harbaugh by himself, I would definitely say, why not? I'd buy on them. Also, on top of that, I know their roster isn't as sexy as it was last year, but come on.

I mean, anything's gotta be better than Staley. Not to mention, I don't see Denver or even the chargers doing much. I mean, or even the Raiders doing much of anything. So yeah. Yeah.

The chargers are obviously a better team than they were before. And I've, I i've like i said when opening with this team i credit them for a lot of things that they did over this offseason i think i think they are on the up and up that being said this season they're probably not going to make the playoffs i just when you don't have the targets to throw to then it's very it's still regardless of you have the quarterback or not you're still just not quite there also their defense still i we've yet to address still has some things to figure out um so maybe not quite but in years in upcoming years possibly they're starting to turn things around so i'm i'm happy about that point point but

um not just yet on the chargers i don't buy them as contenders they may not even make the playoffs in fact i would go as far as to say they probably won't um all right the minnesota vikings have pulled off some pretty impressive upsets. Not only did they beat the 49ers by a score, but they also, well, actually, never mind. I forgot what the other team was. They beat the Giants. They were supposed to beat that team,

but the 49ers were a good one. Back-to-back weeks of scoring 25 or more points. Rather, 23 or more points. This is... They have the roster around them. This is similar to the Steelers. A team that has everything else, just doesn't have it at the quarterback position,

which sucks because it looks like this. It was looking like JJ McCarthy was ahead of schedule. So we'll never know. We won't know until next year, potentially beyond if JJ McCarthy is actually the guy, but we've seen enough of Sam Darnold's and I, I pretty sure I, I know my answer on this one,

but what do you guys think? I've been loving the way Sam Darnold has been playing in the first two games. One of the league leaders in passing yards, league leaders in passing touchdowns. But I mean, you're also got a pretty good stretch coming up where you're going to be playing some pretty good defenses uh texans packers i mean packers wishy-washy uh jets lions uh so be interesting to see how they do against those teams. But I'm going to say borderline sell.

Borderline sell. The Vikings, I just, I feel like they can go far, but solely because the rest of their division is interesting. Packers are going to be without Jordan Love for a bit, and you would do well to capitalize on that. I don't know what's going on with the Bears. That's all I got there. And the Lions, let's just say they're very beatable,

especially with what just happened down in Tampa. But despite that, you just lost justin jefferson who knows for how long could be a week could be a month preferably not long because i haven't been fantasy but that's neither here nor there but but even if they did have Jefferson, the name Sam Darnold scares me. I'm selling on them. That's the thing. I don't view them as contenders. Yeah, keeping it short and sweet, the Vikings aren't close.

They weren't supposed to be that good this year. They brought in Sam Darnold. They brought in Sam Darnold to be a bridge quarterback, similar to what the Patriots are doing with Drake May over in New England. This team has some good pieces. They may make some noise as just a fun team who will be competitive and might pull off some upsets here and there in the regular season, but they won't see the postseason. All right. Our next team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that just pulled the upset over the Detroit Lions. A very competitive game, to say the least.

And they also scored quite a few points against the Washington Commanders. This Buccaneers team looks like a playoff team for me. They look like a team that is, they have some pieces, and they kind of stay the same as far as the roster goes. But what do you guys think? Contenders. They're contenders. Baker's playing out of his mind right now.

I mean, this is basically the same team that they had last year, and no one thought that they were even going to sniff a playoff spot last year. Baker's playing debatably way better than last year as well. Just like the thing with last year, the Bucs season was such a roller coaster of ups and downs that it's kind of hard to say if it's going to be very similar to this year. But I think just the way that they played in the last two weeks, I think that this is a team that won't have as consistent rollercoaster vibes. I think there's going to be a lot of straight lining for the Bucs where they're going to be very consistent and have a few weird ones,

weird games that they're going to end up losing. But I could see this team being an 11-6 team. Or, yeah, 11-6, 10-7. CJ? No questions, I think, contenders. Let Baker bake. Once again, I don't want to take too long on this one. But, once again, not completely sold on the rest of their division.

Maybe the Saints, maybe. That's a big maybe. And maybe Atlanta. completely sold on the rest of their division maybe the saints maybe that's a big maybe and maybe atlanta but there's no reason to believe they won't repeat yeah they're uh they're exactly what they look like right now um and i i would go they finished nine and eight last year i would go as far as to say that they'll finish even better this year 10 and 7 11 and 6 maybe 12 and 5 i mean5. They look good, and this is mostly returners here, so I think they're going to hit the ground running. This is a team that's mostly already gelled. They've already played together last year, and they're picking up right where they left off.

They look like they haven't missed a beat, which is something that's considerably rare around the league because most teams are a little shaky right now. Understandably so because preseason is dwindling and you just generally see stuff like this. But for the Buccaneers, they've had a pretty decent start. I think 12-5 is a good ceiling for them. I'd say that's a good ceiling. If they finish 12-5, that's a really good year. And I believe that's the best year Baker Mayfield would ever have,

record-wise, for a quarterback. He went 11-5 once with the Browns. All right, next team. It's our final one before we move on. We'll have to get through the 0-2s a little bit quicker. But the Seattle Seahawks. This is a team that I was considering taking out because I rooted, in case you guys haven't noticed,

I weeded out some of the obvious ones. Chiefs, Bills, Texans. Come on, man. We're not going over those guys. But the Seahawks, again, this is, this kind of reminds me of the Buccaneers, a team that's a lot of returners and a team that is looking to, this is a team that's looking to make the playoffs back to back nine and eight seasons. And Gino Smith looks pretty good again.

Geno Smith has found kind of a late career resurgence that I'm, it's hard to hate him right now. He's hard to dislike. It's hard. I'll rephrase it. It's hard not to like this kid. Yeah. I just,

the thing with me is like, originally I was going to say maybe if Kenneth Walker could stay healthy, but the way Zach Charbonneau played last week, I said this on Friday too. Zach Charbonneau is a really good number two back for the Seahawks if they want to take Kenneth Walker out. And they had to take him out because he was out for the game and he played really well so the injury bug in terms of the offensive side isn't necessarily a problem but um my concern really is just staying consistent um they were fighting for a playoff spot last year i could i see them fighting for a playoff spot this year are they going to make a deep run no i could see him being a 7 or 6 team um the Seahawks the only issue that I

the only question actually I'll hold off CJ I think that McDonald being their head coach is already making a world of difference and I know i've said this a lot for a lot of these other teams but coaching can literally make or break you and let me just say i really like what he's done because have you seen the way the defense has been playing

and yeah i know as long as you have geno smith you're not going to be world beaters. But still, you saw you threw for over 300 yards on a notoriously stingy Patriots defense. So honestly, when you combine all these factors and look at the division about how the Rams are falling apart, no more Puka Nakua, no more cooper cup the niners already no more cmc and no more debo at least for the foreseeable future and the cardinals being frankly a really big unknown i see no reason to say seattle isn't at least going to contend for a playoff spot yeah they'll they'll contend for a playoff spot problem is i just see more of a ceiling with this team um and like more of a limited ceiling that is um they haven't again this is a returning team but um their offensive line was much better back in 2022 than it was in 23 and it looks

more like 23 this year than it was than it did uh two years ago um and i think that's a concern and as much as i like geno smith again late career resurgence hard not to like right now i don't see him being a quarterback to win a super bowl for a team and he's in that sense i just don't see him as contenders they they may be exactly what you think they are they're not fool's gold but at the same time they're just they're not fool's gold in the sense that they're the exact same team that they were the last two seasons. Agreed. Do we want to go to break or do we just want to go right into 0-2? Let's hop right into it since we're already over the threshold of...

And we still need two more. Yeah, we still have two more segments. Again, let's whip right through these yeah just brief reasoning you know let's start off with the ravens they started oh and two um their most their most disappointing one was this past week where they lost in an upset uh to the to the raiders um they had a they held-score lead on two separate occasions, one of which was in the fourth quarter. Is it time to be concerned about this Ravens team?

They also have a lot of injuries, too, so I don't think it's time to necessarily be concerned yet. I think it's concerning that through the last however many years, John Harbaugh has been on the wrong end of a lot of blown leads. That's one thing that's concerning for me. But in totality, no, I'm not concerned.

CJ. Yeah, I'm, I'm mildly concerned with the Ravens. I mean, like Chris said, they've been on the wrong side as of late of a lot of blown leads. And I just, I know they have Derrick Henry, but the offense still needs work. It's been under construction for God knows how long, and there's no end in sight.

Until they get like an actual viable wide receiver one that's not names a flowers i'm not i'm not gonna be too high on them they'll make the playoffs but i don't call them super bowl contenders the biggest thing for me is that the o-line needs to not be um they need to be way more disciplined that's yeah i'm more worried about this ravens team to actually make the playoffs than to make it to be honest um and it's not even because of their skill position their skill player i i think their skill their position players on offense are pretty good um you have lamar jackson you um you have derrick henry who looked pretty good last uh this past week uh say flowers mark andrews my problem is the offensive line they lost a lot of pieces on that line and that is a massive concern you could get lamar jackson hurt lamar will also not have enough time to throw.

This is going to cause all kinds of problems, and they may find themselves back in a spot to fight for the playoffs, but I see there being an issue with them actually making it in. They're going to be competitive this year in the to make the playoffs but i feel like they're going to be a team that either barely makes it in or they're the odd team out in the wild card race um this offensive line is is no joke and i feel like people just constantly undersell its importance uh so i'm gonna go pretend i'm gonna go i'm a little concerned about the ravens right now as far as the bengals go another team that started oh and two

this is it's kind of the reverse for the bengals versus the ravens the ravens the first game was understandable it was against the defending champion chief, and it was on the last possible play, just a few inches in that game on the sideline, and by Isaiah Likely, and that game is tied up. But for the Bengals, it was an embarrassing loss for them to the Patriots, and then it was a loss to the Chiefs, again, at the last second. So where do we see this Bengals team?

This has happened the last three, four years for the Bengals. I don't see this being a problem. They've always sucked in September and then figured it out in October, and they've got a get-right game on Monday night night this week or next week three whatever you want to call it um they're fine that's i'm not panicking i am not concerned this always happens and joe burrows healthy he looked much better week two and i think it's he's only going to improve yeah this bengals team looks i am a lot more encouraged by this bengals team than with the ravens

just by the way they're built they continue to work on that offensive line and um they i mean joe burrow looked a lot more like himself in that game. A healthy Joe Burrow is going to take you to the playoffs, and he's going to be able to overcome a lot of your deficiencies on the offensive line. So, yeah, I think the Bengals are going to be fine. I think this is actually going to be a year they end up making the playoffs, but I don't know if they'll ever win a Super Bowl. I still think that they'll be a playoff contending team.

All right, the Indianapolis Colts, a couple of embarrassing, I mean, they lost in a shootout to the Texans, fine, but then you lost to the Packers with a quarterback who really can't throw. Like they, they had their backup quarterback. And on top of that, Anthony Richardson threw three picks. What are you guys thinking?

I think the Colts run game is terrible. Um, or Colts defensive run attack, excuse me, their, the run the run game i mean the offense rushing defense yeah the rushing defense is terrible um i think if you're the colts you are i don't know if you want to panic though because for the colts yeah you're thinking that you could make a playoff run but at the same time anthony richardson all he really has is a deep ball and other than that like everyone knows he's a pro he's a project and he's probably not gonna be good for

another two years he's only played in four games now four games in two years you see the promise that he has but he just has no accuracy to make it worth your while. Under 50% passing in week one. I don't really, I'm not even looking at what his completion percentage was in week two. I'll just give a quick one. But 50% right on the money in week two. His accuracy needs to get better. But I feel like this is one of those like panic, but you expected this to happen type of thing.

Well, every indie fan that I've seen is shocked this is happening, and I personally am not. Anthony Richardson, when he also has the lowest floor. Although, I don't know, maybe Bryce Young would like to have a word about the lowest floor part, but whatever. I am not sold on Indy, not until they develop Anthony Richardson. Because every so often he's going to break off the big run from the pocket or he's going to throw a 70-yard bomb but everything between those flashes has been a mess a pure unadulterated mess i'm selling yeah definitely uh definitely a team i'm concerned about um I don't think they're going anywhere. I guess I expected more from Anthony Richardson in year two. I get that he didn't play, but he was still getting face time with professional coaching and getting practice time.

So I, I guess I expected more, but I guess I was wrong and maybe we'll see him be better in, in upcoming seasons, 25, 26, or maybe never either way. This Colts team clearly is not anything we thought they would be going to the, going to the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team where I know I believed at around this time last year that the

Jaguars were going to be contenders in the AFC last year. And then they ended up missing the playoffs this year. They have started the opposite. They do not have a good start. They started 0-2 and they look about as bad as their record indicates. Guys, what are we thinking about this Jaguars team? I'm thinking it's time to panic. This team with Trevor Lawrence hasn't won a game since Thanksgiving. Enough said. Yeah, this is just a continuation of their big fall apart last year like remember they were literally one of the best teams in the afc only to bottom out it's clear that if you come if you factor in last year there they are still on that downward spiral so yeah no i'm panicking and i'm panicking hard press taylor not only should have been fired but i also am starting to wonder about

the personnel on that team particularly trevor lawrence how when has he ever proven on this in the in the nfl that he can be an elite quarterback in this league i think the closest you could really get to is year two when they made the huge comeback against the chargers uh in the playoffs that was probably the closest he really got and then a continuation into week or uh year three which was last year but other than that like it's really nothing i mean he's very okay but you don't want very okay from the first overall pick you know you after that second half of second half of the season surge in 2022 we expected that momentum to continue into 23 we did not see that not even during the time where they were good where they started eight and three

he did not look like the player that he was halfway through that 22 season. And you can blame the offensive coordinator position, but the problem is even if you're an elite quarterback, you're still going to be able to overcome that regardless. And I guess we'll never know for sure until they fire Press Taylor, which they should have done this offseason. But by then, if you get a better coordinator, and it turns out Trevor isn't the guy, we are now six years at that point. This would be six years in. And now you're suddenly figuring out after drafting this kid that he's not the right guy i get that he was the quarterback jesus of the of the 2021 nfl draft and one of the one of the highest ranking quarterback prospects in recent memory but at some point you have to figure it out if this is the guy or not he at the end of the day he is a he was a prospect and they don't always pan out and maybe he's okay, but okay. Doesn't win you Superbowls, especially at the quarterback position.

And that's, that's something I'm genuinely concerned about that. I mean, this is setting this Jaguars team back years. I mean, the other thing, sorry, one last point. I know we're short on time, but I mean, obviously there's been a lot of underperforming between coaches and just around Trevor Lawrence in general, but there, there does come a time where he needs to step up and he really has not stepped up. Coaching matters, but coaching isn't the end all be all. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. And coaching, coaching matters a lot in the NFL. I'm not underselling that in the slightest, but if you have your elite quarterback, if you have the guy, whether it's Tom Brady and Patrick

Mahomes, those guys could figure it out with anybody. Maybe they wouldn't win a Super Bowl with a bad coordinator, but they'd at least be a good team. And we don't get that with Trevor Lawrence. With Trevor Lawrence, it's like oh it's not lawrence's fault it's the offensive coordinator well sure but it's not the end all be all if you have if he's the guy you'll know um all right let's go to the go to yet another team in the in the afc south that is the tennessee titans another team that built up its roster around the quarterback and theirs is struggling significantly more than uh than trevor lawrence over there and arguably more than anthony richardson right now i think you're more panic the team in general you're not pan. I think you're more panic.

The team in general, you're not panicking. I think you're panicking more about Will Levis. This is supposed to be a big jump for him year two. I had him as a fancy sleeper as well, but he just keeps making bonehead plays. Like someone needs to tell him it's okay to take a sack. Like obviously sack sabermetrically is the last thing you want to take but in terms of football and common sense and common knowledge it's okay to take a sack rather than just try to make a throw while you're getting dragged down or try to flip the ball and when you're

freaking parallel with the ground so i think that will Levis just needs to stop being a dipshit and they'll be fine. All right, CJ. Well, Adam, you're the one that said, we're going to find out real fast if Will Levis can play or not. Well, we're in the middle of finding out and it's not looking good. And here's the thing. We know that it's really not even coaching because the plays are there. They're calling the right plays at the right times.

It's not personnel because everyone's getting where they're supposed to be at the right time. So it's got to be Levis. And until Will Levis is given the heave-ho, I don't see Tennessee doing a whole lot of anything. They are pretenders, and it's time to panic. Yeah, I'm panicking about not only Will Levis, but also this entire Titans team. And the reason for that is because this team was built to further the development of Will Levis.

It was built to not only further the development, but figure out if he's the guy. You brought in Calvin Ridley, you brought in Tyler Boyd, you brought in DeAndre Hopkins, and you worked on that offensive line a little bit more. And you brought in an offensive-minded coordinator in Brian Callahan as their head coach actually. Um, so the reason I, I mean, I'm, I'm panicking about this, this Titans team because the roster around him is kind of old and it was meant to kind of figure out if Levis is the guy, and then you could surround him with more younger guys. It was kind of a cheap way of building up that team and trying to figure out if will levis is really the quarterback that they believe he can be they're finding out fast that he's not so the

the silver lining here is they now know early they know in the beginning of year two maybe this guy isn't right so if you lose enough games maybe you get shader sanders and you can start over a lot quicker um because now you know it's not going to take you three years for them to say yeah you know what they did it quick so credit to them for that but they're still just... They took a chance on a kid who was overhyped as a prospect in general. And we found out really fast that he's not the guy. Alright. Last team.

We are now heading to the NFC. Now the problem with 0-2 teams in the NFC is most of them genuinely suck. So in case you guys, again, haven't noticed, I took out the Broncos. Broncos suck. Panthers. Panthers suck. Giants. They suck.

We're not discussing those teams. The Rams, however, that is a different story. And a team that you may be concerned about them, but for maybe reasons other than their capabilities when they're on the field healthy. Hint, hint. Chris, what are your thoughts? I think you just you just summed it up right there. It's they just can't stay healthy. This looks like the team from 22.

They just can't stay healthy. And that's going to be their demise. And it currently is their demise. CJ? Good Lord, the Rams are just... They literally just can't stay healthy. That's what it is. That's literally what it comes down to.

You do not have Cooper Cup anymore. And on top of what it comes down to you do not have cooper cup anymore and on top of that i mean you don't puka nuku and on top of that you just lost cooper cup and finally then there's aaron donald who you lost to retirement so yeah i'm not really afraid of the rams anymore like they're good, but without your big one, two punch on offense and without your defensive mainstay for all these many years, I just don't see much reason to be afraid. It's, it's time to panic and not just because the season's lost because there's a

full rebuild, at least a new QB that you're going to have to develop staring you in the face. Yeah. a new QB that you're going to have to develop staring you in the face. Yeah, the only reason that I was intrigued by this Rams team was their offensive firepower. You not only had Puka Nakua, but you also had a finally healthy Cooper Cup for a full season, and Kyron Williams, who looked like a solid running back in his own right.

Matthew Stafford was looking like his old self last season. The offensive line looked a lot better. Good coaching yet again by Sean McVay. That's all gone. I was not worried about, I, I, I was not intrigued by their defense going into this season. I thought maybe they could be just okay at best and they'll slink by with the offense they have all of their pass catchers are gone all of them puka nakua and cooper cup are gone they're hurt and they're owing too they're not a running team i can tell you that much you're not winning with just kyron williams and god knows how long that they're going to start leaning on him before he gets hurt because he's a running back and they age like milk so this rams team is screwed this is this is about as bad as it gets this is the worst possible scenario uh for this rams team it sucks because they were still they were finally starting to figure it out last year but that's it um yeah word uh quickly week two top three

bottom three uh right off the bat we're gonna go falcons uh really good win comeback win after uh looking really bad against the steelers they didn't still didn't really look great in the first half of this game but all of a sudden Kirk Cousins came alive and the, and that final drive and they made the Philly defense look like Swiss cheese. There was a lot of really good plays that the Falcons made in general throughout the game, mainly the second half, but they look a lot better than what they did in week one. Cardinals, they finally got the ball to Marvin Harrison and they got, and they

just completely beat up on a division rival. And especially at a loss against the bills where they were up 17 at one point, this is a good win for them to kind of get themselves back into the right, uh, right. Uh, state of mind. I think the Cardinals are going to be a fun team this year. Saints back-to-back weeks of 40 plus points. And geez, this is saints going to be a problem if they can keep up this

offense firepower quickly. You guys thoughts on the top three. Yeah, we discussed it before the game before the episode. So I would say i generally agree with pretty much all of it you hit the nail on the head yeah yeah pretty much that's pretty easy there for all intents purposes you know yeah um last week was a bit of a different scenario since we weren't tight on time since now we're kind of

doing a speed run uh bottom three panthers pretty easy uh they still suck i feel bad for adam theelin because he's actually a really good receiver uh and just yesterday they announced they're gonna bench bryce young uh it's debatable on if it's a bryce young problem or a team problem um but i mean you look at the way that the Panthers have been running the last three years, it's pretty freaking terrible. Cowboys go from beating up on the Browns and looking like world beaters. And then you go up against a Saints team that is inferior to you. And you're known for beating up on really bad teams. Never mind really bad teams. But you're known for beating up on really bad on bad teams never mind really bad teams but you're known for beating up on bad teams especially at home and you do the complete opposite uh philly

easy enough you're two jalen hurts two and nine in the last 11 games and you had a chance to put the game away and and on mond Night Football against the Falcons, you had full control of the game, and you didn't. 97.4% chance of winning on first down with a minute 50 left in the game, and they lost. Yeah. I mean, I agree. I agree.

It's just all jokes aside, kirk cousins reverse the falcons curse he might have but then again that might just say more about philly the fact that the panthers they changed things up they got bryce young some help and they look exactly the same that they did last year with new coaching too is a major red flag and I'm worried that the Panthers chose the wrong guy I mean if it wasn't blatantly obvious before at least I gave Bryce Young some time first it's like okay let's sit back and wait not every quarterback is like CJ Stroud where they light it up right away a lot of quarterbacks in fact most of them they need more time to be ready for the NFL. Turns out Bryce Young didn't need time. He just can't play. I think that the problem here is that

Bryce Young probably shouldn't have been starting last year. Should have been Andy Dolan and then Bryce Young probably starts this year because you look at Bryce Young's confidence and he has no confidence. This Panthers team is debatably worse than it was last year. Honestly, it's probably not even a debate. I think it's pretty straight up. They are worse than last year. But yeah, that's our week. The Fumble Rooski week two, top three, bottom three.

And that'll do it for us today. Long one, long one, a lot to get through. Um, and that usually happens when we got the contenders pretenders going on as well. Cause you know, that's hot topic for debate on who's actually gonna make a run at it. But thank you for listening to us tonight. New episode coming out on Friday at five, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. And we also have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple podcast, I heart radio, Google podcast, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram Fumble Ruski underscore podcast and our Tik TOK Fumble Ruski pod to keep up with our

podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise Chris Gostich, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright. We will see you on Friday over and out.