The Ringer NFL Show - ‘GM Street’ — Saturday Sit-Down Week 6 (Ep. 160)

Episode Date: October 14, 2017

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier recap last week’s games (0:40) and preview the five big matchups to watch this weekend: Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings (5:10), Detroit Lions at New Orleans Saints (6:15), Los Angeles Rams at Jacksonville Jaguars (7:20), Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs (9:20), and Los Angeles Chargers at Oakland Raiders (12:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to GM Street. I am Tate Frazier, and we're on the Ringer Podcast Network, and I'm sitting across from Mike Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? Tate Frazier, I'm good. I do think, though, I saw that really graphic video of a Panther fan punched an eagle fan at the game, which was really bad. I hope you know that dude. I do not know that. A lot of people thought it was me. It did have a little resemblance to you. Contrary a popular opinion, I was not at the game last night. You don't have a contemporary Panther jersey, so I knew it was eliminated you immediately from it. So, I mean, I profiled right away.

You're right. If I had a he hate-me jersey on, then that would have been a different thing. Then I would have said, I think he's in a fake nose and glasses. But anyway, that was bad. That was really bad. That's not a good representation. I felt like Carolina fans, they were doing well on TV last night. They were cheering really hard.

But things went awry pretty quickly. And the Eagles, I mean, they looked amazing on defense. Yeah, I thought the Eagles defensive front controlled the game the entire way. You know, look, Cam has. Fletcher Cox. I just, I've never seen anything like it. It's amazing, though. This is what they didn't talk about on the broadcast.

which I thought was interesting, is Trey Turner, okay, the right guard. When Dave Gettleman got fired because he wouldn't give the players all the money, all right? The first guy they signed was Trey Turner to a huge deal as a guard. He couldn't block Fletcher Cox. Like when you leave the field that why did I pay Trey Turner all that money if he can't block Fletcher Cox? Like at some point you're like saying to this, Fletcher was amazing. Jernigan, I thought was a great pickup for the Eagles, and he's been proven to be that. This defensive front controlled the game.

And look, Wenz played better than Cam did in the game. But Cam still at the end of the game had two chances to win the game for the Panthers and couldn't do either of them. And can we just talk about before we get to the end of the game? Let's talk about the end of the first half. So we're at a 10-10 game. We have a 58-yard field goal attempt, the Carolina Panthers do. Why they didn't even go for it with a beautiful day?

I don't know. And then why didn't CBS go to Jay Feely? They got a kicking expert right there on the – Why didn't they go to him? I don't know. And then the thing was Graham Ganoe, apparently when they came out from halftime, he went to the spot on the field and kicked the 58-yard field goal, made it, and pointed to Rivera, and it's like, hey, you know, I can't make that kick.

I just want to let you know. So it was just really weird game management. Like, why wouldn't even try it, though? Like the Eagles won a game because they tried a 61-yarder. Nobody in the stadium thought that kid was going to make a 61-yard. And when they kicked it, they thought the game was going to overtime. I think they were worried just because of how much they were dominating the trenches, that they were actually going to be able to push it back and maybe have a chance to block the kick.

So that just shows how ridiculously deep that de-lined is for the Eagles. They were good. I mean, look, they were good, and Carson Wentz was great. I mean, he was great again on third down. I mean, the Eagles did a great job in the game. It's the first game all season that the Eagles didn't control the time of possession, but yet they still won. I think their defense won this game.

And if you're Carolina, you're going to have to try to fight away. How many, were you just like enough of this first and 10 run for losing three yards? Yeah, it's ridiculous. I mean, that is Carolina Panthers' offense. I mean, you have to get ahead of the sticks, and it has to be Jonathan's toward or Christian McCabry. But right now they don't have a guy. And when Fosie got hurt, Fosie Whitaker, a guy that's actually helped them a lot. They basically had no run game other than Cam.

Cam's the best running back on the team. Yeah, he was by far the best runner back on the team. But it was a great win for Philly. I mean, Philly won a game on the road down there. I mean, it was a great win for them. I'm getting a ton of shit for Doug Peterson. And, you know, I did, you know. Can we just say the fact that Doug Peterson left the Panthers with no timeouts?

Nobody's going to say that. Nobody's going to bring that up. The Eagles won. You didn't grow up in Philly. A win is a deodorant for everything. Yeah. You have to understand that. It's a win's a deodorant for everything.

So nobody will notice that. But, I mean, like, Rivera had a chance. The Panthers really, I mean, they got the ball back with 203 to go in the game. 15-yard past the Benjamin. Then it hits a two-minute warning. You're at the 45. You got a chance. Yeah, you got to win that game.

And then they got a third and one. They can't convert, and they lose the game because they can't convert a first down, which to me is just, I don't know. The Panthers going to look back on that game, even though the Eagles dominated, they had a chance to win the game. And the Eagles now, they look like they could be the class of the NFC, especially in the NFC East. And then the Panther side of that is without Luke Keekely, who we're not sure where he's at right now. It's not good for Luke Keele. Yeah, he came out of the game. Concussion-like symptoms.

I mean, remember, that injury had, that concussion he had last year. And now he has another one. We've only played five games. He got it early in this game. The Carolina defense isn't quite the same. And he took a shot on that block. I mean, that's one of those plays where if the players are taking care of each other and you're watching for each other, you maybe don't, if you're 275 pounds, you don't shoot yourself at a bullet at his head when he's coming around the court. corner. Well, he tried to wrong arm it, so what he tried to do is get the ball to bounce outside.

I mean, he played it like he's taught, but unfortunately he got, he got dinged. And look, that's a tough, tough, tough in, that's tough for the Panthers because this is a great player. I like what Romo said about him. His Romo said he calls the plays out and I'm like, almost thinking, should I change the play? He was like, I got a play going to the A gap and he's telling me that he was like, should I go to the C gap? It was like, what could I do? That was great. I thought it was awesome.

That was so good. All right, well, folks, this is the Saturday Sit Down. That's where we run through five games at Lombardi. I want you to check out this weekend. And first up, we have the Green Bay Packers going to the Minnesota Vikings. I think Green Bay is a different team. And this Aaron Jones kid has made them so much different. He averages five yards of rush.

The next best back on the Packers team is Montgomery at 3-3. Williams is at 3-3. I think it makes them different. Now, Minnesota, for whatever reason, plays better in Green Bay than they do against Aaron Rogers at home. I don't know why that is. I have no idea. Rogers seems to have a really good time of playing them up there. But I think this is why I think the Packers will win the game because they can.

Case Keenham has not thrown interception all season, which is remarkable. This is a new Case Keenum. When you look at his numbers compared to last year, but for some reason, I just think in this game, I think the Packers will be able to control the pace of the game, and then Aaron Rogers always makes two or three plays that will win the game. I like the Packers in this one. Aaron Rogers just seems like the perfect guy for a dome quarterback.

You know, he can just really, he can sling the ball on a dome for sure. Next up, we have the Detroit Lions at the New Orleans Saints. I will say this about the Saints. No turnovers this season. So they can be one of the first teams through week six with no turnovers if they go scat-free this weekend. You know, the Lions have been really teetering on being able to make plays because they're so good in the red zone on third down. They're so good at being able to make you kick field goals. I don't know if they can do this.

Matthew Stafford's beat up. I mean, he's going down there as an injured puppy. It's going to be difficult for him to do those things. I mean, they can't get a running game going. And the Lions, as good as they play, they still have given up over 72 plays over 10 yards this year on defense. I just don't know if the Lions have enough in this game to be able to match it with the Saints. The Lions defense, Red Zone is what they live for and turnovers. And if the Saints protect the ball like you talk about and the Saints move the ball, they've had the week off to prepare.

This is a big game for the Saints. I mean, the Saints see that Carolina loses. This is a chance for them. They've beaten Carolina in Carolina. I think this is an emotional game. And the one thing I will always remind people, bad offensive lines don't travel well, and the Lions have a bad line. Let's keep it going. We have the Los Angeles Rams that they're going to take on the Jacksonville.

Jaguars, we're going to see which new young team that people used to crap on is now for real. I think everybody's falling in love with Jacksonville because of the way they played last week against Pittsburgh. But I think they forgot about the way they played against the Jets where the Jets put over 400 yards on them. This is an interesting game because the Rams need a running game to get going. You look at Jared Goff's stats the last two weeks. He's trending down. He averages now. He was at one time averaging 12 yards per yard per attempt on a pass play.

Now he's down to 6'5. People have kind of figured out how to handle him. So it really behooves the Rams to get Todd Gurley going. And Jacksonville's defense doesn't play well against the run. This is why I think Sean McBay will do a nice job. Now, remember, Sean McBay is going to play a team that basically he's going to play a team again. So he played Seattle last week. Now he's playing Jacksonville runs the same defensive scheme.

So he's got some good ideas and he can build off of it. I just don't see how Jacksonville can score enough points in the game to match the Rams. I just think this game gets into the 20s. I think the Rams can get it in the 20s. I don't think golf has to be a factor. I think Gurley has to be the factor. And the only way the Rams lose, in my opinion, is if they make mistakes and turn the ball over.

And I thought the Rams have done a good job of protecting the football. I think this will be a hard game for Jacksonville because they're going to have to throw the ball against the Rams. Wade Phillips isn't going to just let them run the ball on them, and they have to throw it. The thing that's fascinating about this Jacksonville team is Four Nett gets better in the fourth quarter

than most other backs do. So the Jags have a style they have to play. I just don't know if that's, style is going to work this week. Plus, I think the Rams will move the ball and score points. Could we see a day for Goff where obviously Big Ben last week had five picks against his team? Is this a day where you just tell Jared Goff going to the game, hey, the biggest deal today is to protect the football? I think that's all they're going to do. I think, look, last week at Big Ben didn't play in the game, if they would have put Joshua Dobbs in there, or if they would have put anybody else in the game, they would have beaten the Jaguars, because Jaguars had less than 100 yards of offense passing. So my point here is, look, as long as Goff doesn't make the big mistake, and they've done a good job of him,

checked in the football. I think he doesn't have to have those big game. He just has to control. Gurley has to have a big game. And you can against Jacksonville's defense, even though it's really good. Jacksonville is good against the pass. And the only way they lose the game to me, the Rams, is if they turn the ball over. All right, let's keep it pushing. Speaking of the Steelers, they're going to take on the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs this weekend on the road, so that'll be a tough game for the Pittsburgh Steelers for sure. You know, it's funny. I did a lot of work on Big Ben this week. And Ben's numbers are just trending in a really, really in a bad way. I mean, And it's really kind of ironic over the last 22 games, you know, bends down to 7-3 per yards

per attempt. His yards per attempt is trending really badly. It went 8-4, it's seven. Now it's in the low – now it's in the high sixes. And where he's really alarming is in 2015, when he was playing really well, he threw the ball down the field. He threw – he was 13 for 36 on passes over 20 yards. He had three touchdowns.

He was average 11-9-2. This year, he's 2 of 9 on passes. is over 20 yards. He's not throwing a ball down the field. Okay, so you know this. If you're the Steelers, you've got to manage Ben now. I mean, Ben's proven to you, he's not the same as he was in 15. You're going to have to run the football. You're going to have to protect the ball. You're going to have to get Antonio Brown some touches, but you're going to have to lean on Levi-on-Bel to win the game. And you're going to have to keep Alex Smith off the field because this team can move the football in a lot of different ways. Tyreek Hill might be hurt with the

hamstring. The Steelers have one way to win this game. I think they've got to run the ball, control the clock, and keep Alex Smith off the field. I think it'll be a challenge. And Tomlin has three individual agendas that he has to deal with. He has to deal with Antonio Brown wants to get his touches and protect his own brand. He's got Ben that wants to basically show that this is his last ride and he's going to make sure that he's going to do his thing. And then you have Levion who's worried about getting paid. So you have your three stars, they're all separated and fragmented. They've all been talking about each other at some different level. Tomlin said he wants to bring everyone together. And this seems like potentially a good

weekend for them to do it against the best team in football. And they're going to have to play better in the Red Zone because the Steelers have been really bad this year, DeReds them defensively. And I think one thing that people have overlooked a little bit about what Kansas City is, Alex Smith is running the ball more effectively this year than he did last year. He's already run it 23 times for 108 yards. He's 30% of the time he converts first downs. Last year, he ran it 48 times for the entire season. So he's being more active with his feet, and that foot movement creates problems, and then he's throwing the ball down the field better. Yeah, this is going to be a tough game for the Steelers. The Steelers, when they're back

through the wall, they always seem to play a little bit better. Yeah, that's why I feel like this is a little bit of a trap game. Yep. And finally, our fifth game of the weekend, we had the Los Angeles Chargers going to the Oakland Raiders. Derek Carr, I mean, there's been mixed reports. I mean, his back is obviously a little bit banged up, and he wants to play. He said he wanted to play last week. He's expected to play right now, but Chargers'Raters should be a fun game in the AFC.

Yeah, and it's always close. I mean, last year, both games, the Raiders won, but they won by three points. I mean, and look, let's face it, the Raiders are not playing good. They're not playing good on offense, and they're not playing good on defense. And how do we know that? Well, forget, by just visually looking at it, the rushes and rushes and completions on offense is the worst in the national football league. They're at 40. And the rushes in completion on defense, they allow too many. Okay, so their execution has really

been bad. And if Carr plays, he played last year and they beat them twice by three points. I think if Carr plays, it's going to be difficult. Car better be worried because of Melvin Ingram, who's got seven and a half sacks this year, he's a dangerous threat. He's keeping them in the game. And for some reason, without practicing, and again, this week, the Raiders because of these horrible fires and up in northern California, they had to miss a day of practice. I think that's going to affect them because they're not

really fundamentally, they're not well right now. And I think the Chargers, they should be a lot better than they are. I mean, I know your record says what it is, but the Chargers easily could make the case that they could be three and two. I think the Chargers are playing better football right now than the Raiders.

And if the Chargers do steal this game and they sort of flip this thing around, they get wins and back-to-back weeks, then we start talking about, you know, the Chargers being a threat as a wildcar team and maybe making a run in the AFC West. Well, I think the charges can rebuild their season. Look, we know this about the Raiders.

The Raiders are going to overlook some things, and they got the Thursday night game against Kansas City coming up. So you know their kind of their mind is. And I don't care, if Carr plays in the game, I don't care who play. Carr's got to be careful because with Marshall Newhouse at Wright tackle, and they try to throw the ball,

I mean, Amari Cooper is like, he must be living in West Cape May because he's in a witness protection program. We can't find them. The guy averages under 10 yards of catch. They can't get the ball down the field. The running game isn't what it needs to be. And that was when Carr was playing.

So I don't think the Raiders, I think the Raiders, they're masking this as cars been hurt. That's why we're not playing good. The Raiders haven't been playing good all year. Yeah, it's not been fun for the Raiders who thought that this might be a year where they take over the AFC completely. I just want to say the Sunday night football game, we have the New York Giants, the Denver Broncos. Oh, we're going to watch that together, Kate Frazier. That is going to be a fun game. We are going to have a Ben McAdoo special.

We can talk about Ben McAdoo the entire night. We'll tweet and talk about Big Ben, how he's handling things. Now I just learned somebody tweeted out that, then had Jesse Armstead tell the team why he suspended Rogers Camardi. That's usually how you really get in front of things in leadership. That really makes you feel good. Yeah, you just have a mouthpiece come in and say, why not? Makes sense to me. It's perfect.

Get Jason Garrett to clap while you talk and then you have a three trifecta. The clapers in trouble. The clapers in trouble. I can only tell you that. The clapper may have a buy this week, but the clapper's in trouble because with Zeke going down for six and looking at that schedule coming up, ain't pretty. They're going to be four and seven. I told you they were going to be two and three when the season started. They're going to be four and seven when the club.

Flapper gets Z-back. Yeah. Well, this has been a great Saturday sit-down. We're excited for the games tomorrow. We'll be back Sunday night, and thanks for listening, guys. Thank you.