The Ringer NFL Show - ‘GM Street’ — Saturday Sit-down Week 9 (Ep. 175)

Episode Date: November 4, 2017

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier lament the Deshaun Watson injury (0:58), then predict five big matchups of the weekend: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints (2:23), Los Angeles Rams at New York Giants (4:05), Denver Broncos at Philadelphia Eagles (5:50), Baltimore Ravens at Tennessee Titans (7:52), and Kansas City Chiefs at Dallas Cowboys (9:05). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Tate Frazier and sitting across with me on this lovely Saturday morning, Mr. Mike Lombardi. Saturday, sit down, Tate Frazier. Hey, this is unlike any other day. You're verified, you got the shout out by Steph. I mean, how many people get shout out by Steph Curry? I mean, really, seriously. Like, I've spent my whole life trying to meet Bruce Springsteen.

I mean, that's been the one thing. And you get Steph Curry shout out. Like, it's remarkable. It's one step away from the guy. That's a Springsteen song too, right there. One step away. See, that was right on top of it. I would say this.

Michael Jordan is my Springsteen. Steph Curry, I believe, is the Michael Jordan of my young cousins and stuff. So everyone was excited, but like I said, you're nobody until Twitter says you're somebody. You are somebody now. You're verified. I mean, there is only one of you now in the world. They can't, you know, to know when you're really going to be good is when you get a fake Tate Fraser account up there, which is going to happen soon. I predict. I predict. I got that crystal ball. A lot of North Carolina thoughts and takes out there from those fake accounts. Can I tell you how sad I am, Tate Frazier?

Why you're so sad? You should be happy. The Jets are back. The Jets won. Congratulations. Mick. Nice weekend. My little, he gets to spend two days with my grandson, Dominoch. He can get to hang out. All right. But what I'm really upset about is Deshaun Watson. I killed me.

That broke my heart. I have alerts on my phone for certain players and certain teams. And it's specific people. Yeah, it's a select group. My phone, when it buzzed, I was like, what was that about? And as soon as I read it, I just, my heart sunk. I mean, I broke my heart. I think, I hope we didn't jinx him by being so excited about him and talking about him so much.

But everybody was. But everyone. Yeah. We were just earlier. We were just earlier. We were just earlier. We were just earlier. society, not just earlier. We just did it a lot earlier than everybody else. But I just, it's sad,

although I will say this, life goes on, he'll be back. He played a game with a torn ACL. I mean, remember that in the game? But I don't know how the Texans players get ready to play. I know they're playing the Colts this week. And that line was at 13, not that we know anything about lines, but Sal told me that line was at 13. I listen to Cousin Sal and Bill. But if the Colts are ever going to win one on the road, now's the time to do it. And this also opens up the division for Jacksonville. A lot of people were, you know, thought the Jaguars. We're a darker team in the AFC South and now looks like a... But who knows, you know?

At one point, Bill O'Brien thought Tom Savage was better than Deshawn Watson, so... And how'd that work out for him? Not so great. Not so great. What's that commercial on Spectrum? They talk about with all the people and the guy says, and now we know there's nothing. Yep.

He knows. Yep. We got five games, Tate Frazier. Let's hit them. Let's run them through. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers is this game number one of the week. Buccaneers are going to take on the New Orleans Saints NFC South battle and it should be a fun one. You know, I think everybody thinks, well, the Saints five-game win-stree.

they're playing really better on defense. Time out. They're not really playing great on defense. Okay, there's a lot of areas where they match up as bad as the Bucks. They've been fortunate in some games. I think if the Bucks can play their style, they can win this game. I think it'll be a really close game. I think they've all been three-point games.

They've split two and two the last times they've played. Each game has been seven points or under when they play. The matchup favors the Bucks here. I know it doesn't sound like it should, but when you look at it, the Saints, they allow you to, run the football on them. They've been lucky. They've give up more big plays. I think James Winston's going to have his day.

I think this is the coming out party. I really like the Bucks. And if they don't win here, that season's over with for them, I like the Bucks here. I know it's a hard place to play in the Dome, but I like the Bucs. I was going to say, just offhand when you watch these NFC South games, for whatever reason, it feels like this week, going to this week, just in my head, I was like, I think the Bucks will probably beat the Saints. The Saints have been on this run.

Eventually, it's going to turn the other way. And it's going to be Tampa Bay usually when it happens to When you do the numbers, I mean, these are the two worst third down teams in football. The Bucks are actually worse than the Saints. Both teams can't rush the passer. Both teams are not very good going down in the red area. So I just think to me, when you look at it, most total yards in 2017, New Orleans is the second best team at 390. The Bucs are 376. They're fourth. So it's a closer game than people think. And I think when you look at it and when you really examine it, this is the one time, I think the Bucks, this is their last

moment. If they don't win this one, they can pack it in for sure. Yeah, they don't. not going to be in a hard knocks next season. Next up, we had the Los Angeles Rams going to the New York Giants. The undefeated Rams on the road, okay? And what's the formula for the Rams to win? Everybody says, well, you know, Jared Goff's playing so much better. Jared Goff in the last four weeks, they're three in one. Jared Goff averages 6.4 yards per attempt. He's thrown four touchdowns, three interceptions. What the Rams have done, and Sean McBae, brilliant coach what he's done offensively. My hat's off to him. What they've done is they run the football. This is why they win. They've been able to run the football. And when they run it more than 25 times, they win them out of where they

play. I think the Giants played their best run defense of the year before the by week when they went out to Denver and they played well. They got war down against Seattle, didn't play as well. I think this is the Giants statement game. The Rams are not going to go undefeated on the road. I think the giants have enough in them. Now, whether they can block the front, I don't know, they'll move the ball effectively on the Rams. But I think this is the giant statement game. They can get off the field. They'll create some problems. Now, remember this. Shaw McVeigh was the offense for the Redskins last year. So he's competed against Spagnola's scheme.

They both know each other. There's familiarity within the scheme. I think that'll favor the Giants here. Absolutely. That'll be a fun one. I just will say this. Todd Gurley, he's a fun MVP pick. He's been the man.

I mean, he's really been the man. I mean, look, they've done a great job of running him. They've been work him in. They've been Jacksonville without announcing that they're just going to give the ball of the run of that. Yeah, 127 yards per game as a team. I mean, they've done a great job with that. McVeigh does a great job with formations.

And look, golf hasn't played. Like everyone said, well, what's Goff's numbers? If you look at his numbers the last four weeks, they're three and one. But he hasn't turned the ball. He hasn't lost games. They've managed him perfectly. I'll just say this. Eli Manning has thrown more touchdowns than Jared Goff.

So for everyone that's saying that, you know, we're going to coordinate him this year and say that he's on. I mean, he's still managing the game. He's a game manager. There you go, Tate Fraser. Next up, we got the Denver Broncos taken on the Philadelphia Eagles. The number one team in the NFL? The number one team in the NFL versus the number one run defense. These are two of the best run defenses in football.

And I know the heist is playing. I understand that. And look, I've named him the heist, and I have my trepidations about him being there. But these are the two teams that, to me, this is the Broncos last stand. This is their season right here. They've got to play well. And they match up well against the Eagles, at least from this standpoint. They can play man-to-man against the Eagles offense, and they can rush the passer.

And they're right tackle. Their right end can rush, whether they put Bob Miller over there or they put Barrett over there, or they put the other kid who just came back, Shane Ray, over. over there. I mean, they can rush the passer and they can cover. I think they can create some turnovers. Carson Wins is loose with the ball in the pocket. They're going to need their defense to win this game. I think that

the line, whatever, 7. I think it's going to be a really close game. I don't think the Eagles are going to blow anybody out. This is Denver's last song. They get Emmanuel Sanders back. Denver is going to play them as hard as anybody. And look, when you're 7 and 1 and the other team is desperate, I'm always going to pick the desperate team. Absolutely.

And then Shane Ray last week, for people that didn't see, he had a little bit of rust. He had a couple offside penalties. And once they get those two guys, him and Miller on the ends, I mean, that's a scary defense. And the other thing is, too, the Eagles, look, the Eagles are the seventh team in the National Football League in terms of calling penalties against them. They're not as disciplined as people think. They make mistakes. They've just been able to overcome on third down, and that's what plays into the strength of the Broncos. The Broncos are a great third down defense. They can get off the field because they can rush, and they are athletic enough to tackle. The key thing is

tackling wins. And when we have those third and longs against them, that left side of the line without Peters and you got Ray coming up to field. Wince, if he can't break those tackles and get away and make big plays down the field, then we're going to see them. That's where I see it. And I think, look, the key challenge is Philly's the number one team in time possession in the league, but Denver's the fourth team in time possession. So I think Denver's got to do a good job of trying to manage the heist.

It'll be fascinated to see. I'm going to be rooting for the height. No, I'm not. I can't. I'm pulling for you, Brock. Next up, we had the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Tennessee Titans. I can't believe this game is on your list. I don't know if I want to watch it.

I think this could be a wild. This is a wild card implication game. Okay, this game's going to come down to, if the Titans don't win the division and Jacksonville does, this game's going to come down to who gets the wild card. So this game has a lot of meaning in it in terms of, it's not playoff implications. Thank you for filling in. Remember, I went to Hofstra, so I'm a little slower. So it's funny, the Ravens are a unique defense. They've been blown out by Jacksonville, but they've shut out two opponents.

They've shut out Miami. They've shut out Cincinnati. They've played better on the road this year than they ever had. Their run defense can play good when they have to. And they have to stop Marcus Mariotta from running the ball and second down. That's when he really runs the football. And their offense, to me, as the Ravens face to Titans off, it's too vanilla. Like there's no speed on the outside.

They don't make any big explosive plays. And the way to beat the Ravens is they can't tackle in space. They struggle with that. I think it's a great matchup for Baltimore. Baltimore limits the run game, puts the pressure on Mario to try to throw it. They can handle that. And then Baltimore makes plays down the field against them. I like Baltimore in this game.

I think Baltimore has the field goal kicker. It'll be a close game. And I favor their field goal kicker. Could you imagine that you favoring a field goal kick? I love it. Justin Tucker. He's an all-star. And finally, we did it.

We're game five now. We're going to take the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, and Zeke's back. How lucky is the Clapper? At the end of the season, we need to do a clap count and a suspension count. How many times are we going to decide that Zika'L is not going to play and then we decide he can? It's unbelievable. Do you ever watch my cousin Vinny?

Yes. It's a great movie. That's a great movie, right? Yes. I'm convinced the Clapper must have my man Joe Pesci, who is Gallo. Remember it's, no, it's Jerry Calo and he smells it out. I think he must have him as his attorney. Right?

Just keeps coming in. Just keeps coming in with a different suit and keeps getting Elliot like off the hook. It's too good, right? Staying up all night, making phone calls. Right. But in all seriousness, this is the perfect matchup for the Dallas Cowboys. Why? They're a zone team.

Kansas City struggles when they play zone defenses. They keep all eyes on the quarterback. Kansas City defensively is the untold secret. They're not very good. They turn the ball over. You can move the ball up and down the field on them. and they give away running game. It's a bin but don't break,

and then Marcus Peters with the strip. We'll strip the ball. They make a play, and Dallas can protect the football. Dallas can run the ball against them. Dallas matches up against the defensive front. I think Dallas can dominate the game, and I think as long as they don't give up the big play down the field

and make Kansas City have to matriculate it, as Hank Stram once said, down the field, I think this is a good matchup for the Dallas Cowboys. I think it'll be hard. Andy Reid's a good coach. I think we'll have some wrinkles. But once we get in the second half, I think the Cowboys' Offensive line takes over

the game and DAC can make some plays. I like Dallas a lot here. I do too. And when you look at, I mean, with Ezekiel Elliott on that, on the field for them, I mean, they're just a totally different team. Thanks to Jerry Callow. Yeah. Imagine they had made a trade for DeMarco Murray, which was rumored. And then Zieg still gets to play this week.

Could you imagine? That's a great point. I would have been the one who'd been an idiot to make that because I was all for making the trade for Murray. But, you know, they keep get a stay of execution. They keep moving forward. I'm going to have to hire. You think Calo will represent me as my agent and my next contract

negotiation. We need him. Guy is brilliant. Guy is brilliant. Not for the ringer though, because then they'd have a lot of money to owe you at that point. There you go.

All right. So that's all we got for this week. Saturday Sit down. This has been another rousing edition of GM Street. Thank you, Mr. Michael Lombardi. Yeah, we'll look forward to it. I'll be at Tony P's.

We'll see you there. Yep, and we'll see you Sunday night. Thank you.