The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street' — Initial Impressions From Week 1 (Ep. 140)

Episode Date: September 13, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier huddle up to discuss whether or not Trevor Siemian can save the Broncos (02:30), a new-look Raiders defense (05:00), a victorious yet unhappy Joe Flacco (13:30), and the top draft prospects in college football (19:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So what are you waiting for? Get in on these killer last minute deals and download the hotel tonight app now. Let's get into GM Street. Welcome to GM Street. I'm Tate Frazier and sitting across from me in the beautiful Ringer studio here. We're here on the Ringer Podcast Network. Mr. Mike Lombardi, Lombardi, how you doing? It's good.

You know, I like being in the studio. Patriot hat, Pam Greer. I mean, it's kind of nice. A lot of sco. We got Rod Jeremy over there. That's always good. That was the most ridiculous sentence. If you string that all together, those three things really don't make sense.

We got great books. We got the book of basketball. We got Ron Jeremy. We got a bunch of stuff here. It's really an interesting. It's really very... It's eclectic. It's very Art Deco.

Yeah, but in a good way. It is. Oh, it's awesome. I love it. It's a great man cave. Absolutely. We got Will Smith and Carlton in the back, a little Fresh Pents of Bell Air action.

You can't beat it. Yeah. And speaking of that, it's the season, Lombardi. We're going to change the format, just like in Fresh Pents of Bel Air, when they changed, you know, Will's aunt in the middle of their whole run. It's going to be just like that. We're going to do the same thing. We're going to add a format. We're going to run through this.

We're going to be doing this every single week, heading down from week one to week 17. You're using that North Carolina education. I like it. Let's do it. We're figuring it out. So first things first. Bill Walsh always said, if we are all thinking alike, no one is thinking. Correct.

He loved that saying. Yes. And we all can't think alike. And a lot of people in the NFL world after week one, they're all thinking alike. Right. Oh, there's no doubt. Everybody thinks like everybody thinks the teams that one think they're going to the Super Bowl and the teams that lost think they're going to have the first pick in the draft. Yeah, and we're looking at you, Los Angeles Rams. You're not going to the Super Bowl just yet. Maybe one day. So the first thing that's going to come to mind that a lot of people were saying after week one, did Denver Simeon? Because a lot of people seem to think that after week one. And not so fast, Tate. I mean, look, Trevor Simeon's a lovely story. Seventh round pick Northwestern. He's got a great education. Doesn't have an NFL body. But he took four sacks in that game. I don't see Trevor Simeon. Simeon being the answer for Denver as the season wears on and the pounding that he's going to take.

I think Trevor Simeon's a great story. I think he's a great backup in the National Football League. But for me, to honestly believe when a game has to be made, plays have to make that Trevor Simeon's going to be able to make it through the entire season. The NFL takes a toll on your body. I mean, it really does. I mean, and everybody plays their best opening day because why? They're fresh.

Fresh. Like Fresh Prince of Bella. They're fresh, right? I just don't see Simeon being able to. take the, and he took one last night now, he took one last night. And then the mistakes start creeping in. I don't think Denver is going to be good enough for him not to. Yeah. And when you look at that game last night, I mean, it seemed like a defense special teams. Cody Latimer had a great great game with special teams. But that's the way they're going to win those games. Right. For the people

that could stay awake on the East Coast, because I can't imagine they had an East Coast audience, right? No, absolutely. Thank God for Rex Ryan. They're not having East Coast audience. I mean, my wife looked to me at like 930 and said, do you think anybody in New York's watching this game? And I'm like, no only who. have money on it. I mean, there would be the only ones who would be watching, right? I just don't see, like, to me, Denver and Denver has to win a certain way.

You know, they have to play a certain style. And anytime you can see a team that has to play a certain style, there's always a style out there that can beat them. And you can't be good if you can't play all the styles. I think Trevor Simeon limits them. I think Denver, if I'm John Elway today, I think Denver needs to figure

out who's going to be our long-range quarterback plan. because Elway can't really believe that it's going to be Trevor Simeon. But I did see that. You know what I did see last night? Yes, that's what I wanted to hear the good news. We're going to spin it back good for a little bit. I saw the heist on the sideline back in his uniform.

I was like so happy to see it. It was like it was during the National Anthem. And I didn't want to tweet something inappropriate during that moment, especially on 9-11. But it was so good to see the heist back in Orange. And he's got to be jealous of Trevor Simeon because he knows he can get there. Why would he be jealous of anybody, Tate? Because he knows he can do that. He's got $22 billion in a bag.

He can fund the whole revolution. He's got so much money. I mean, come on. He's so happy. He's probably rented the penthouse at some luxury hotel in downtown Denver. Do you think he ever sold his house in Denver? I mean, I hope not. He probably made 200% of the sale of his house.

He's that lucky. You know what I mean? He's one of those guys that just falls into money because he just has fallen into money. Just like Vance Joseph was going to say last night, he fell into money. He called that. He is the kicker and somehow pays off. Now he's the greatest coach. That was my greatest overreaction.

Everyone last night was Vance Joseph. He's a real head coach in the NFL. It's like, you called a timeout. He iced a guy. It's a college. You know, that's what college coach doesn't. Yeah, I mean, everybody doesn't. I don't know.

But I think for the conversation for me is Trevor Simeon. Is he a legitimate starter? Everybody thinks he is. I don't. Another topic that came up after week one. If we're all thinking alike, no one is thinking, the Raiders defense, they seem to be, you know, the crux of this team in some capacity. And now people are saying the Raiders defense, very effective after what they did with the Titans. Right.

What do you see differently from that? I think the Raiders defense has you, the mentality has shifted. I think hiring John Pagano, higher and change in defensively. They played more zone defense against the Tennessee Titans than I'd seen them play all of last year, and they played it effectively. And if they can play some zone defense, then it takes away all those option routes

that team want to run against their big corners. I was really impressed with the Raiders defense on Sunday. I thought they did a good job of taking their offseason and studying what they couldn't do and then work it in the things that they had to do and improve on. And I think it makes them a legitimate, complete team now, something I didn't see last year. Last year they were too easy to play.

You go out and you change direction routes, they can't cover you. I thought the Raiders really utilize the offseason that are full advantage. And when we did the Blue Chips podcast, we talked about the Raiders a little bit. And your big concern on defense was they're going to rely on Kalil Mack to create a pass rush independently. That doesn't seem to be the case with this zone scheme they're running.

Right. So now what happens is if you're playing zone, everybody's eyes are on the quarterback, they can rally to the ball, and if they miss a tackle, it's not as destructive as if they, you know, if they're his own, everybody's on. And now it allows your rush to get there. Plus, you can push the pocket. Look, the best team in the historical of the NFL was Lawrence Taylor and the New York Giants.

They played cover two the whole time. Why? Because the ball had to come out so fast. With Mack, you can do that. And I think it was really smart. They got some good blitzes. I think Pagano came in there. He designed some blitzes.

I think it's helped their defense. I think the Raiders played more complimentary football on Sunday than I'd seen them all last year. They got Marshawn Lynch back. They're playing better defensively. I think the Raiders made a statement this offseason. They studied their team. I liked it. I think the reaction here for me is the Raiders sold me on week one.

Absolutely. And speaking of Marshawn, I mean, he had some great bits after the game. Derek Carr obviously came out and said he apologized for missing Marchon on the flat on a pass and that he took the blame for it. And he talked about them ribbing back and forth in practice. And he said the main thing that Marshall makes fun of me is, you know, he jokes that I'm white all the time. Which is amazing back and forth. So it's great to hear these guys. I tell you what, every time I watch Marshawn Lynch, I think when he was playing at Oakland Tech and he ran over this poor kid in high school.

And it looks the same. I mean, like, this guy's been away from football and nothing's changed. I mean, that's a huge off-season acquisition for the Raiders. But he's got to stay healthy for it to come all the way to fruition. But I think that was great. But I think the thing that impressed me the most was the Raiders' ability to really control the game with their defense. And look, everybody's talking about the Titans being this great team, this great offense. They got this.

Hey, the Titans couldn't really make the plays down the field. They couldn't make an explosive play when they needed to. I think it's because they played so much more zone. And that's kudos to the Rout Raiders. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back. And we are going to get into some more football topics heading into week two. I want to point out that over 20 years, DirecTV has been the exclusive home for NFL Sunday ticket. The only way to get every live NFL game every Sunday.

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Stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team no matter where you are live. Use promo code ringer at checkout to say 15%. Again, that's NFL sunday.combe promo code ringer. And I also want to tell you about draft kings. Week 1 is in the books, Lombardi, but it's not too late to get closer to the game you love with Draft Kings one week fantasy football. This Sunday, Draft Kings is hosting a $100,000 pickum contest that is totally free to enter. Pickham is the newest way to play one week fantasy football.

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why wouldn't you try draft kings the game inside the game eligibility restrictions apply see GraphKings.com for details. All right, Lombardi. You know, we try to keep it positive here on G-HRE as much as we can, but we're going to throw it to a little Goodfellas moment that you really appreciate. Love this scene. We're going to do a little insulting a little bit,

and then we're going to get into some of the guys that need a little bit of insulting in this first week. No, no, no, no, no. You insulted him a little out of all of yourself. I didn't insult him. I didn't insult them a little bit. All right, Lombardi. First up, on the list. Who gets in soul.

Who gets in soul? He'll get a sham box. Look, I love watching Monday night football. And AP going back to Minnesota was a great story. But the AP that we remember, there's a saying in scouting, then is then, now is now. Then AP was good. Now AP's not as good. And I think what we were doing last night was we were having this walk down memory lane or Monday night.

We're having this walk down memory lane about how good AP was. AP's not the same player. And the Saints found that out. They can't. When he's in the game, they're too predictable in terms of what they're going to do running the football. And it's hard to run the ball consistently inside the tackle. So to me, I think AP needs to back off a little bit. Let us coach call the game and be a good role player.

There's no need for you to stand on the sideline and take out. Be a good role player. Help the team win because you can't carry a team anymore. Do you realize last year, he averaged under two yards of carry and the backs that took his place that came in after him behind that bad Minnesota line that none of us could have run behind, averaged over three yards of carry. So something's missing an AP, and everybody knows it. And that shouting match that he had with Sean Payton.

I mean, that was all over Twitter. Yeah, it's been popular. Yeah, of course, everyone's like, what is he saying? What is he shouting back? But when you really think about it, full circle on, you know, his career, AD's career. In 2009, Brett Farve's a quarterback, that's when he was the AP that everyone still thinks he is. So when they were trying to go to a Super Bowl playing Sean Peyton's Saints.

And the joke back then was if AD was on the Saints, Sean Payton still wouldn't run with Adrian Peterson. So now it's full circle. 2017 and he still doesn't want to run him. Right. And I think the Saints are now, everybody's going to look at the Saints and say, you know what, if AP's in the game, here's what their offense is, if Camaro's in the game, here's what their offense is, if Ingram's in the game, here's where they're going to match it up to it. Forget about what the other formations are. The back is going to tell the tail. And I think you're going to see less and less

of AP because one thing you know for sure, when you lose both tackles like they have, they're not going to be running the ball against teams. They're going to be trying to throw the ball as effectively as they can because they can't really run block and control the line of scrimmage, especially if Cody Fleeners are tight end. I mean, he's not blocking anybody. So how is AP going to be effective? To me, I hate to insult you AP, but I just did. And as soon as I heard that Alvin Kamara,

they wanted to pronounce it, Camara, that means that we're going to have a lot of time with him on the field because, you know, AD's not going to be there. Yeah, and like, people react like he's some surprise. Do you realize Tate that he went to the university, he signed at Alabama coming out of high school? I mean, this is the most highly recruited kid in the country.

Went to Alabama, had to go to junior college and ended up at Tennessee. I mean, when you, you know, this is like a really talented player. It's like the Isaiah Crowell thing. He goes to Georgia, has the one great year. And he ends up having to go to the Jukau route. And he goes to Alabama and everybody says, wow, they got this young player from Alabama. No, no, this is a five-star recruit.

It's a five-star recruit. Yeah, he just got detoured. Next up, another guy that needs to get insulted. Mr. Joe Flacco, he comes out after the game and said he was bummed. He only got to throw the ball 17 times. I mean, cheese, oh, man, Joe, first of all, you missed the whole offseason with your back. They're actually going to put you in the game, and they're going to make you play. You threw it 17 times.

You threw a pick. You almost let them back in the game. And oh, by the way, do you realize they've only won four road games in the last two years? Like this was a huge win for them. Like this is the moment where Joe Flacco could have said, hey, man, this is a great Raven win. This is the perfect time for us to build this team. Our defense is really good. We managed the game.

We came out of here. We ran the football like we wanted to. This is a great moment. Instead, he's got to start crying. Well, you know what, Joe, if we didn't let you throw the ball enough. Well, you know what, Joe, if we don't let you throw the ball, that might have been the bagels chance to score. Because the only way we're going to lose that game is if you turned it over and you start. to do it. So like, stop, enough. Like, that to me was the most selfish statement I heard all week.

Do you think he was jealous of Andy Dalton getting the ball so much and turning it over? How could he be, Andy Dalton was couldn't wait to throw it to the other team. Like, if you're watching the game, you're sitting there saying, the only way we lose is if we give the game back to them. Like Andy's giving it to us. Why don't we just take it and go home? We've won four road games in the last two years. Four, okay? In the last two years, like, this is a road win. We should be having a parade down the middle of Baltimore. I mean, we should bring the whole cast of the wire out and celebrate this because we won a road game. Like, I just thought it was selfish. I mean, it's so like you're one of the highest paid players.

Like, take one for the team. You know, why do you has to be about you? Yeah, congrats to C.J. Mosley or whoever made a play. Yeah, just come out and say that for the defense. I mean, I thought it was bad. But, you know, and then to me, the other insult that stays right with that game tape at the Bengals' defense. Like, what are they doing? Like, okay, they know it's a run game. All right? So what happens during the game? They go to empty formation, okay? And Anytime you go to empty formation against the Cincinnati Bengals and they're in their double mug look, which is they put two guys in the A gap, right? The Bengals have a check in their defense.

Okay, this is what really football is all about. And I thought that this is how they got it. So the Raven coaches were really smart. They went to empty, but they extended the tight end out. They didn't keep them in the formation. They knew that the Bengals checked to that was zero coverage. Okay? So they knew every time they put the back, they put the tight end outside of the formation,

they were going to get zero coverage. Everybody knows that that's what the Bengals run. Bengals didn't make their checks. They made their check, but they didn't have another check. So they throw the touchdown past McLean because they pick them and people say, oh, what's a great call? That was a great scheme play and the Bengals never adjusted to it. And I think that's really, to me, they deserve to be insulted this week

because they didn't make an adjustment to the call. And I thought it was horrible. And now every team's going to come out and empty. And if the tight ends extended, they know they're in zero coverage, they'll have to change it. What happens when Burfitt comes back to those? being of defense. I mean, do they look more like the team we've seen? I mean, it seems like for whatever reason,

regardless, they have the same guys that are in the same spots that can somehow get them back on track, but they're also losing guys every year. Obviously, when Zimmer leaves, everything kind of falls down that. Yeah, they're not as good as they were when Zimmer's there. They're not as tough as they they were. They have a lot of good players on the defense. Carlos Dunlap. Yeah, they do it. I mean, Gino Atkins is really good.

But I think what happens to them is they don't play from in front enough. They're not in the lead so they can't play from in front, and they can't utilize their skill. Where they make their living is on third down, and they get that double mug look, which they have those guys up there, and they create all sorts of havoc for you. But people have played them enough. So now, you know, it's a little bit like you're too young, but we don't have Peter Frampton's album here in this museum, but you got to put a new album out. Like, you can't

rely on the same songs. Like, nobody wants to see, you know, nobody wants to see the Rolling Stones play the same songs. They want to see different songs. I think that's what the Bengals do, especially with their double mug stuff. And let's talk about another team that looked porous would probably be a proper term for how they looked, the Indianapolis Colts. I mean, they deserve. Don't you think they deserve to be insulted a little bit? They deserve maybe a little bit more than a little bit. I mean, like, they watched Scott Tolzeen play this whole time, and they really thought that he was going to be a quarterback. And in fairness to the Colts, look, the Colts coaches could easily come out and said, look, we can't play with this guy.

There's no chance. Now they're talking about Jacoby Brissette this week. What do you mean? They have to play Jacoby Brissette. I mean, you're telling your team, we have no chance to win if Scott Tolzine's our quarterback. You can't do that. To me, they are insulting because, like, how bad, how much. more did they need to watch of Scott Tolzine this summer to know he can't do it. I mean, I'm

asking you. Like, how much more? I don't know. The guy's 30 years old. I mean, they've seen him for a long time, right? It's enough. It's enough tape on Tolzeon. And so to me, they have to change. They deserve to be insulted. And they deserve, as Bill Belichick would always say, we deserve what the hell we got. They deserve what they got. You know what we deserve Lombardi after that? Drinks on the house? On the house. Trinks on the house. Trinks on a house. All right, Lombardi, let's take one more quick break. Every throw, every catch, every two minute drill, every fourth and inches. If it's NFL football and it happened, NFL game pass has got it.

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All right, Lombardi, we got the negative stuff out there. We let people, you know. We insult them. Yeah, some criticism. It's fair. It's always fair. And it's always, you know, it's needed at times. It'll boost you back, maybe get you a little positive.

But now we're going to do some positive stuff. We're going to talk about some young guys in college. We're going to do a little college lottery watch. We're going to do this every week where we just, you know, target five guys that we feel like could be lottery picks in the NFL, the teams, GMs who want to tank, not even tank, but just want to get down to those early picks to draft these guys. Who's the first guy on your list? Well, I mean, obviously Sam Darnels, you know, and I think this is going to be another big week. He plays well last week against Stanford. That's a level of competition.

It's got a big game against Texas this week. I think everything about college football is the level of comp. I think you see it with as it rises. He didn't play as well against Western Michigan, but as the competition changes, not that Texas is a great team. But I think that we'll see him rise. And I think he keeps proven week in and week out

that he has the most fundamentally sound game for the pro game in terms of what he can do. He's pretty easy to be a lottery pick. This segment really isn't about what the Heismans are going to do. This is about who the lottery picks are. Yeah, these are projections to the NFL, not who is the best in college football at the moment. Like when you watch him, I think he really is.

I think Josh Rosen, when you watch him, I thought that the first week, when the game was going against A&M and the speed of the game was moving fast, he didn't play particularly well. But the longer the game went on, I thought he played better. Another guy that I had in mind, just looking at this list of guys that I've been watching for quite some time, Sequin Barkley with Penn State.

I mean, I look at that Colts team. We were just talking about them earlier, and they've needed a running back for how long. I mean, Frank Gore, as much as he tries out there and works hard, he's not the guy of the future. Sequin seems like a guy you could put it in to be a franchise back. You know, it's one of those guys where you watch him play and you think, you know, he reminds me of a back Pittsburgh head named Barry Foster.

He's more talented than Barry. But he's hard to get his, he's like got that Coke machine body where you can't get your arms around him. He's hard to tackle. And then this week he makes plays in the passing game. I just really think to me he's a guy that has such a complete game to him. And we see what Elliot's done for the Dallas Cowboys. We've seen the impact he's made on their team when they need it. He's got the speed to get to the.

corner. I mean, he really is a unique player and uniqueness is what's going to take to be a top five player in the draft, especially at running back. And he has that uniqueness. Is there another guy on your list that really sticks out with that unique ability? To me, when I watch games, you know, I don't know what you do on Saturday when you're watching the games, but I always have my computer next to me because there's always a kid that I'm like, I didn't really study that kid enough. But there's a kid at Mike Juleski, I think his name is, from Penn State, the tight end. I never, you know, he catches a touch. down pass this week. I thought he was like really, he's a senior. He's going to come out. He's

from New Jersey. Not in Tate, that doesn't matter. It's not like he has to be from Jersey, but, you know, he's from Lakewood Jersey. But he's one of those kids that I have to go look up in the media guy. Like when I see a player on the field, like, wait a minute, I got to stop and go look this guy up. I thought he was really good. He's six, seven, volleyball player, you know, basketball player. He's got a pro-style body that I think could be really effective. He's not maybe a devastating blocker at this point but that Penn State team now people think that because of all the things

that happened under the Sandusky era and how the program got taken down there's a lot of talented kids on there. Barclay's one of them. This kid's another one. He's not going to be a lottery pick but he's going to be a top 15 pick. He kind of looks like Tyler Eifer when he's out there a little bit. Like a Nicolary. He runs really well. Bigger than Nick O'Leary.

Nick O'Leary was a shorter guy. This guy runs really well. I think he's going to be impressive. I think he's going to be a really good guy. And then the other guy I think we should talk about is my man Lamar Jackson. Like, here's the guy who wins the Heisman, right? And everybody, like, nobody wants to talk about him at all. Like, nobody wants to talk about him. And all he does is going to North Carolina. You saw it, right? I watched the whole game. I watched it. And he's improved his passing. Every year that I've watched Lamar Jackson, he's gotten improved, he's improved in his passing,

his mechanics, his timing, his ability to read it, his ability to anticipate throws. I think everybody He has Josh Allen ranked higher than him. I think when you break down the quarterbacks, I think at the end of the day, Lamar's going to prove that he has so much unique skill that he may not be the prototypical quarterback in terms of his accuracy, but he does things that very few can do. He's got Michael Vick style of play. He reminds me of Mansell a lot in college, too. Yeah, but just the way that he played. Yeah, yeah, no, he's bigger than Mansell. But just his arm and like the decisions that he makes, it seems like everything is going to collapse.

And then he's just the quick last second to get out and makes an amazing play. I mean, the guy he's playing for is a hard quarterback coach. I mean, this guy, he coaches him hard now. I mean, he got Mallet to play better than Mallet's played in pro football. So he coaches him hard. This kid's got unbelievable skills. And, you know, is he accurate all the time? No, this would be a great test this week, Clemson.

I mean, I know everybody's going to be in Louisville this week watching that game. But he had Louisville. He had Clemson last year. He throws the ball to quick over the sideline. I don't think what people realize about college football is in pro football, there's always two sideline markers. So there's always the first down markers are on both. So the players can see where they have to go to get the first down.

Yeah, the chains are only on one side in college. In college, the chains are only on one side. So therefore, when Quick went over there, he didn't realize he needed to break it back in. They might have beaten Clemson. Were they a better team than Clemson? No. But again, like Darnold playing against Texas this week, Lamar Jackson playing this week against the level of comp of Clemson's defense,

which maybe has two or three first round picks on defense. easily is going to be a really interesting game to watch him play. And I have one more name I just want to throw out there to see what you think. Virginia, Andrew Brown. Virginia has always done a good job creating a bunch of D&D tackle guys. Andrew Brown reminds me a lot of Aaron Donald. He looks a lot like him in college, like how Aaron looked at when he was at Pittsburgh. You know, and I think that's going to be, I think when everybody talks about this draft,

I think there's a lot of, there's more defensive players in it than you might. There's offensive linemen in this draft. I think, you know, we'll go over it week to week. Every week we'll have this college segment. but I think when you break it down, there's a lot more guys in it, and I think that they'll be, dependent on that the juniors come out.

I mean, Arden Key from LSU, he got suspended. I think he's a guy that's kind of got the body that fits pro football. He seems like he's top five on most mock drafts. Everybody seems to think so. Now he's got to prove it. He's got to prove that he can play with power

against big tackles. That's going to be the challenge. But he looks so far like he can do that. And let's push it forward. We're going to go to Word on the street. A segment that we've been doing for some time now, it used to take a lot of news story, that I throw out at you.

But today I want to talk about one guy, a former quarterback, a man that played 14 years of professional football, Mr. Tony Romo, his first day in the booth with Jim Nance, it was quite a joy. He was predicting coverages. He was calling out checkdowns. He was calling out audibles. It was a lot of fun. Did you enjoy watching him?

You know, I did. I watched that game. I thought he was really good. I think Tony brings a uniqueness to the game from the quarterback position where he's been able to play for so long. So he's watching Dick LeBoe's defense. is something he's played against a lot of times. And so I thought he had a great line to Nance.

Jim asked him, he said, how did you know that was coming? And he said, well, it's over 14 years playing in the NFL. And that's true. What happens is what doesn't really resonate all the time is his ability to break down the coverage, I thought was really good. You know, it's something I bitch about on Saturday when I'm watching college games are we're making these assessments of the coverages when we're really not correct with the assessments.

I thought Tony really knew coverages. he understood it. He understood what the checks were, because what we were talking about earlier about Baltimore's offensive attacking, the key to football is attacking the adjustments in the defense, not just attacking the defense. That's what Baltimore did to Cincinnati.

They attacked the adjustment. I thought Romo gave us a perspective of what those adjustments were and how to attack them. I thought it was really refreshing. You learned something. That's what we needed. And even without the calls and stuff

that he was calling out, the checkdowns, the audibles, all that stuff. The decision, Marshawn runs on third down. when they're third and three and they're within the 10 and they get it down to fourth and one. And Jim Nance is, you know, the classic, well, what do you do you do here? Do you kick it or do you go for it? And he's like, well, if you run on third and three, you're going to go on fourth and one.

Of course they go with Marchion and they get it. Right. And I think that what is really clear about a play caller, which is most important about really good play callers is they're like pool players. They're never shouldn't be worried about the shot they're going to make. They should be worried about where they're going to put the cue ball back to. Okay. So I think that's most important.

And I think what Romo was saying there was when they called on third three the run, they knew they were going to go for it on fourth down. And that's where a really good play caller, with the help from a head coach, he gets a chance to come in there and say, you know, look, you've got two downs to make a first down. Here's what we're going to do. And I think that that's why you call plays better. I mean, like last night or Monday night against San Diego, Denver, I mean, they didn't really do that. They weren't setting things up.

They were reacting to down and distance. I didn't think San Diego had a really good game. playing in that game. They could have easily made the insulting segment. They probably should have because they didn't really execute. I thought that's what happened to them. They were reacting to downs as opposed to setting things up. I just want to see how many games this season.

The Chargers will be down 24 to 7, 28 to 10, whatever it is, and they come all the way back and they just don't finish. I feel like that's every Philip Rivers game. I feel bad for Phillip Rivers because I feel like every single game is this. Well, they don't let them play in the game. I mean, so first of all, if you're playing Denver, we go to play Denver, the first thing

we want to do, the first note we're going to make on the Blackboard is we don't want to be in third down. Okay, so if you don't want to be in third down, then make every second down third down. So instead of play Canadian football, get first downs and two downs. That's when you really are effective. Sam Bradford on Monday night, when he took the ball down the field, they played Canadian football. Try to get first downs and two downs.

The thing that drives me crazy more than anything in football is I just want to get the third and manageable. Why? Like third and manageable. How many times if you watch third and manageable, third and four, you don't make the first down, right? That drives me crazy. Like, why not go get a first down?

But I even feel like that speak that that current philosophy that a lot of people have, we want to get third and manageable is an option outlook. It's a Paul Johnson outlook where, of course I want to be third in five or third and four, because then I can run what I want to run in this triple option. But if I'm in a pro style, I mean, that doesn't really change anything. It almost put you in this weird no man's land of a pass or a run. Okay. So if you're not good on third down, why would you want to be in third in anything? If you stink in third down, third and manageable doesn't do you any good.

If you're Blake Borwell's and you're three for 12 on third down, you don't want to be in third down. You don't want to be in third down. You want to limit as many third downs you possibly can. So get them on first down. And the other thing is, is like, why were they trying to run the ball on first down? Denver was in their base defense. Throw the ball on a base. You know, make them defend what I call drive starters.

That's the most important play in football is the drive starter. So what play starts the drive? And when you start a drive with a first down or a big chunk play, you're going to score a touchdown. Oftentimes, I think it's 70%. And that to me is where I thought that that wasn't really effective. It's a long way to go on Tony Romo. But I'll tell you an Al Davis story. He used to complain all the time.

Al Davis never liked the West Coast offense. Two things Al Davis hated. He hated the West Coast offense for this reason because he would always say we motioned this guy here to there and we did all that and all we got with four yards. Why would we do that for four freaking yards? Why? And then the other thing he hated more than anything. is play action pass fakes on third and 10 or more.

Like, who's going to react to the fake? Yeah, who's going to run on third? Who's, why are we wasting time faking it when we could just throw the thing down the field? And he was right, you know, and so I think to me, you know, sometimes when I watch that, I can hear his voice inside my hell. Why are we doing that?

And he's right. Sometimes we get so preoccupied with a four-yard gain when we need eight or 12 or 14, we should just take the yardage. That was a beautiful impression of Al Davis I could do it pretty good thanks a lot and he would tell you

Tate do great young man Yeah that makes me happy I feel like Al Davis just spoke to me right today Oh too great young man All right Lombardi That's that'll do it for us This has been a great edition of GM Street

I'm Tate Frazier Michael Lombardi Any parting words for the people Before we head out Do great looking forward to we too Absolutely thank you for listening GM Street on the Ringer Podcast Network We'll be back soon

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