The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street' — Week 1 Rapid Reactions (Ep. 138)

Episode Date: September 11, 2017

Mike Lombardi and Tate Frazier react to the Sunday slate of Week 1 games. Topics include: Cowboys-Giants (1:26), Andy Dalton's donut (14:33), Le'Veon's lackluster return (23:15), and the Rams' rout (26:35). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Tate Frazier, and sitting across from me on this beautiful Sunday night, a day after the first week of football games, the first Sunday of the season. Mike Lombardi, how you doing? I am great, Tate. Football back. What a day, huh? I know. I see you in your Ram jersey honoring the great Ram win. I enjoyed that. Honoring Jason Brown, former St. Louis Ram, not the Los Angeles Rams, but they did have a great day.

We're going to get into all the games that happened. We're going to run through the gamut. But first, we just watched together the Sunday night football game with Cowboys and the Giants, Ben McAdoo, Tough Night for the Giants. Yeah. I mean, a tough night for Eli, tough night for the Giants. Giants defense played a doubleheader in the first half. You know, what can you say?

Brandon Marshall, I thought he was in the witness. I tweeted out that he was either big puss from the Sopranos. He's either in Puerto Rico. He's in the witness protection program. I'm not sure. He obviously doesn't know the offense. He couldn't get lined up numerous times. I think the thing about the Giants that's going to be interesting going forward is

wherever they line Ingram up, if he's on the line or if he's off the line, I think it's going to be a giveaway of what they're trying to do because Ingram can't block anybody and he's a receiver. and the fact the Giants' offensive line is still bad. And how many points they scored 90? 3? Yeah, just 3 points. So they've maintained that streak of being under 20, so the guru isn't ruin anymore in McAdoo, right?

Yeah, not quite. Not quite the offensive guru we expected. Last year, they averaged 19.4 points per game, so that was also under 20 points per game. But they were on that bad streak at the end of the year. They can't score any points. I will say this, though. If I am Odell Beckham's agent,

I would call the Giants tomorrow and say, look, I mean, let's face it. Make me the highest pay player in football because that ain't going to work. And so he does have a case. Look, the Giants defense was great, but you can't play that many, too many pitches. You can't face that many pitches. So great win for the Cowboys. I mean, they had Elliott back in there.

They were going to need them. I mean, for them to win the game, they did. They held their defense played great. Elliot was a difference in the game, really. And I thought that Lennahan made some great calls at the right time. So it's fun to watch the game with you. And when you look at the backfield of the Giants, I mean, there's still the questions out of there. I mean, we've heard Perkins.

I mean, people thought maybe the rookie ones. when Gallman could play out of Clemson. No, it's only going to get worse because once people figure out where Ellison lines up to where Ingram lines up, which was we started to do it at during the game. If Ingram's on the line, that means he's free releasing out. If Ingram's in the backfield, that means he's motioning. That means Ellison's blocking. I think people get a pretty good read.

The one thing about opening weekend that really becomes hard to understand is the fact that there's no tendencies and everything's new. So you can't kind of game playing around it. So you can get away with a lot of stuff here. some bad teams can look better than they really are because they get away with it, I think a three or four tapes come in, it won't matter. And I think that's what's going to happen. Absolutely. And we're going to go through the gamut of the games today.

But first, we want to talk about that Thursday night game. We haven't had a chance to discuss that. The New England Patriots, I mean, a tough night for them. They've obviously always had some problems with the Chiefs. Sort of a weird relationship. It's almost like a sister school to them in a certain sense. And they came out a little flat-footed. Well, not even flat-footed.

I mean, look, the point of emphasis for the game, they had to win first down defensively. They couldn't do that. They were horrendous on first down defensively. They couldn't give up big plays. They had to stop the run. They couldn't stop the run. They had a double Tyree kill.

They didn't double Tyree kill. I mean, they got beat every way imaginable. And I think the most concerning of you're a Patriot fan is the fact that your offense, even though Brady had time to throw the ball before the fourth quarter happened, you really weren't getting open. And for me, everybody focused on Edelman not being there. But I know Eric Berry did a nice job on Rob Gruncowski, but Gronk didn't look like Gronk. Yeah.

I mean, he did not look like the gronk. gronk that I'm used to seeing. He was a little lethargic coming in and out of his cuts. He didn't have that explosive power. You know, it's one thing to be big. It's another thing to be explosively with power. And sometimes you can't see it. And I thought that when you watch the tape of the game, the chief started out doubling gronk at the line of scrimmage. They were going to jam them before he released. And I think at some point during the game, Barry just told him, man, you don't need to do that. I got them. Okay. And I think that's something that, remember, Granc had back surgery.

So it's going to take him some time to get going through. And we've said this on this podcast before. September is still part of preseason, so let's not over judge it. And we've seen Grankowski, I mean, obviously come back from injuries. He actually had a whole profile this summer in men's health talking about how he's learned to recover now. He knows he needs to eat better. He's not cheating. He's doing the Tom Brady.

I'm eating vegan food. So he's trying to take it seriously. And then that happens and he comes out like that. And then people start going after him again and all that sort of stuff. But he's 28 years old. I mean, this is a time when a tied-in is either an Antonio Gates or a Tony Gonzalez that makes the career last in their 30s or they don't. I mean, it's that peak point. He's going to have to show that he's got some juice left in his legs.

And I mean, and I think, you know, he took that hit on that touchdown pass that got called back. I don't know if that shook him up in the game, but he's going to have to prove that he's got some juice left that he can separate and burst away and not always win jump balls. You know, that's what he can't always, you know, he's going to win jump balls because of his size. But he's going to have to separate or else Brady won't be able to throw him the ball because Brady and he needs. you to see you open before he's going to throw it to you. Absolutely. And we should put out. Grancowski came out quickly on Facebook and he said he wanted to remind people of the Patriots the last three times that they've lost the season opener.

2001, 2003, 2014. They've ended up winning the Super Bowl. It's a long year. It's a long year. Don't overreact. Yeah. All right. So let's run through the games from this Sunday again past the Thursday night game. Right.

We're just going to do a little good, bad, ugly. You're going to tell me what you thought about each game, whether it was good, bad, or ugly. We're going to start with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. You had a nice little tidbit about Ben Rothensberger with this. win today. He's the winning as quarterback in Cleveland Stadium. Can you imagine? He's won more games than any other Browns quarterback at home. That is remarkable, right? They've had a lot of quarterbacks there, I guess, but still,

that's unbelievable. It means nobody's really carried over from one season to the next season, and Ben's had more wins than everybody. But look, I think if you're a Browns fan, you've got to feel good. Your defense played really well. Without Miles Garrett. Without Miles Garrett, kept you in the game, put some pressure on them. I mean, but, you know, you didn't take away the best player. I always look at the game books and say, you do what you had to do. They didn't take away the best player, Antonio Brown. He had a huge day.

But offensively, the Browns, you know, they gave up a lot of sacks. I think Kaiser held on to the ball. But for the most part, I mean, it was a competitive game. They had it down the stretch. You know, I thought it was a good game for Brown fans, something to build on. Now they got to come back next week and play really good again because the Steelers did what they had to do.

If you're a Steeler fan, one of the things you wanted to talk about was being able to rush the pastor and getting seven sacks against a really good offensive line. That's a good thing. The problem is most of those sacksers was because Kaiser held the ball, not because you were getting great pressure all the time. Yeah, and Kaiser took some big hits today, too. I mean, he did the, he learned a lot about being a rookie quarterback.

He came back inside instead of going out one time, and Ryan Chazier laid him out, it was right to the head. Oh, I saw that hit. Wow. Yeah, he got a penalty on that one, but that was wow. Absolutely. So they're going to figure that out. That's good for Kaiser and the fans of the rookie quarterback.

Moving on Arizona Cardinals and the Matt Stafford Lions, the Lions just somehow find a way to come back in all these games. They went ugly. They went ugly. I mean, but look, we talked about this before. We did the video about the Cardinals. The Cardinals quarterback. Carson Palmer's his back to the norm.

I mean, he throws three interceptions. He's 48 attempts, 27 completions. I mean, he never was in the game. I mean, it really, the offense isn't explosive anymore, and they can't make the, if they don't make plays down the field, they're not going to be a great offense. And for me, if I'm a Cardinal fan, this is a really disappointing loss, going in there playing Detroit, and you get beat soundly.

And Detroit really, you know, they spot him a touchdown. I mean, Stafford throws the interception in the red zone for seven. They take it back the other way. You know, this is one of those games. If you're Arizona, you just got to wonder, like, you know, what is going on with our quarterback? We need a quarterback. Carson Palmer didn't play good. That's a fact.

And they have a running back, David Johnson, who is. Couldn't run the ball. Yeah, absolutely. And now it goes out with a wrist injury, so we don't know how long Kobe out. So we're going to get MRA tomorrow. I mean, at first quarter, everybody thought Jim Carwell was going to get fired, right? And the Lions just went ugly. They kept bouncing back.

They played hard. They played good defense, even though they didn't have all their, you know, even though they had Anzu back, so they got him back, which helps their defense. But for me, you know, looking at them this summer, you were wondering if they didn't look like they were going to be able to bounce back. I thought they were destined to not make the playoffs. Is this a good win for them? I think it's a September win. I'm still going to judge the Lions a little bit down the road.

I'm not sure how good they are. I worry about the Cardinals. Yeah, the Cardinals definitely another team that you would expect. Larry Fitzgerald had a couple of moments in that game. but other than that, pretty disappointing start to the season for those guys and for Carson Palmer. Moving on to a team that did not. This is my ball. It's my team right here.

This is my team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. First time we have been over 500 since in six years. Do you realize that? That's unbelievable. First time we've been over 500. And, you know, look, hey, they took Blake and basically told him he're not playing today, right? Yeah, he's a game manager today. Just going to manage the game.

And he played from in front. This is very few times they get a chance to play from. They got their 10th road win since 2012. Give them credit. Good win for Jacksonville. They put pressure. Their defensive front won the game. I thought Houston's offensive line this summer was atrocious, especially the tackles.

Dwayne Brown, if you're holding out, right, you just said to yourself, you know what, we're going to make a lot more money. They got to get Duane Brown in camp or else it's going to get the uglier to go ugly to uglier. And talk about a guy that got a lot of money. Callias Campbell comes over, gets $60 million, comes in, has four sacks, the franchise record for the Jaguars. Dante Fowler has a huge touchdown return. Tellman Smith played great. Absolutely. Just across the board, they just look like an imposing defense.

They dominated the game. The disappointing thing about this game for me is Houston's defense couldn't stop Fournette. They couldn't really handle it. They never got control of the game. I mean, you win a game when you're two for – I think what were they? Two for Ten on third down or two for nine. Let's see. They're three for 12.

Jackson was three for 12 on third down. Vintage Bortles. Vintage Bortals. But they win the game. Give them credit. Look, their defense won the game. And this is how – if you're a Jaguar fan, this is how you've got to win the game. This is how you've got to play.

You're going to have to manage him. don't turn the ball over and play really good situational football. And they did, give them credit. Yeah, they started calling themselves Saxonville, the Saxonville Jaguars for their 10 Saxon. I saw that. They changed their Twitter handle, didn't I? I don't know if that's going to last.

Next up, another team that a lot of people were a little wary of coming into the south. Heading to Tennessee, the Oakland Raiders, a team that did well last year. A lot of people were trying to see if they're going to be to repeat and come back to that. But yeah, they did well. 26-16, handle business. Derek Carr looks good. Amari Cooper looks great. The Raiders seemed like they're rolling.

You know, good teams have to win on the road. And if you're a good team, you win this game, I think the Raiders prove they're a good team. I mean, they go in there, they dominate the game, they have control of the game, their defense played really well. Everybody's all hot about Tennessee's team. Everybody thinks they're the sleeper team. I've never seen it. Like, I don't think they're explosive on offense. What was their biggest play of the day was 24 yards to Ricardo Matthews?

I mean, there's no explosive. And if Eric Decker had three catches for 10 yards. Heck, they kept him into Chip. in one situation, Delaney Walker was going out running the route. I just think Tennessee has to find some way to become more explosive. I don't see it with them. I think it's a great win by the Raiders.

I think the Raiders said, hey, this is a statement game for us. Opening day, we go in there. Everybody thinks we're going to re-ridenhow, the great season we had last year. I think it's a great win for the Raiders. And let's face it, Marshaun Lynch was Beasmoe. He was good. Absolutely. He was really good. He was really like the Marshall Lynch Bowl. He was running over people. Yeah, that's scary.

I mean, I ain't getting in front of that. No chance. The wrecking crew himself, Marshaun Lynch, back in the game. Philadelphia Eagles. Oh, here we are, Tate. The Washington professional football team. I don't know if I can ever go back to Philly again. It's going to be hard. I have to put my summer house up for sale.

Doug Peterson, a wetter in week one. You want to buy a beach house? Yeah, I'll try to find someone for you. Maybe Doug Peterson when he gets out of cash on his contract ascension. Oh, man, I'm going to tell you what, what a game. That was really, I thought Carson Wentz made some Brett Farr plays in that game, scrambling around. The first touchdown pass that he makes to Aguilar was,

He should have been tackled. I thought the tackling today and all the games was bad, particularly in the Washington game. And this was really a team lost by Washington. Give Philly credit. Philly's defense, we talked about it. Phillies defense is why they won. Philly's defense played really well.

They made critical plays when they had to. But Washington, you know, Terrell Pryor had too many drops. Cousins made a mistake. He's got a short-fired touchdown if he just throws the ball to the guy, put the team in the lead. But the Eagles held on on defense. I don't know about the call at the end of the game. I thought it was a forward fast.

They ruled it a fumble on the field and upheld it, even though the two guys at Fox, Mike Pereira and Dean Blondino, said that they thought it could go the other way. I don't know. Great win for Philadelphia to get that win on the road. I don't know. I haven't liked the Redskins all summer. The Redskins were one of those teams that went to training camp to stay healthy,

and they didn't look like they were ready to play, and their offensive line was bad, which typically is not always the case. Yeah, and they're a little uncharacteristic guys like James and Crowder having a fumble. Yeah, I mean, it was not a good. I mean, they did not look really well coached today. I mean, they didn't look really like they had it in any area, and I thought the Eagles defensive front play well. Now, you know, the Eagles lose their starting corner in Ronald Darby.

I think that's going to hurt them. Absolutely. And as the season goes on, but hey, it's a good win. I thought Wince, to me, as the season goes on, people are going to defend Wince. Keep them in the pocket because where he's really effective, those loose plays. He goes out there, wow, it's unbelievable. And you've got to tackle this guy. He's hard to tackle.

He's one of those quarterback. He's one of the top guys, hardest guys to tackle. He's got that Ben Rathesburg thing going. Yeah, he looks just like Big Ben. Even the Aguilar pass, and he threw a guy off of him. Yeah. No, I mean, that really helps because their offensive line wasn't exactly protected. Mm-hmm.

And moving on, we got the Baltimore Ravens 20 to 0. Andy Dalton falls flat on his face in the opener for the Cincinnati Bengals. 2020? Yeah. Four turnovers. I mean, you know the thing that bothers me about this game for Andy Dalton is he's played the Baltimore Ravens how many times? So many times. They haven't changed their style. haven't changed their style of defense ever, right?

Like, you play a defense enough, you know everything they're going to do. I mean, if we were to go play McAdo's offense, the pick on Ben McAdo here, we would call every one of his plays because we could sit here and watch it, right? It's the same thing. When you watch Baltimore's defense, if you play it enough, you should know it. And yet Andy just pisses down his leg every time he plays four turnovers. They get shut out on opening day. The offense is supposed to be ahead of the defense.

They couldn't block up front. Brandon Williams was a force inside. If I'm the Bengals, I mean, this is one of those where you go home and you say, yeah, he wins games for us. Yeah, we've gone to the playoffs, but man, he's just not good enough. Flacco makes the return, makes him at least respectable offensively. I think Baltimore's a sleeper team. Their defense is really good. They're fast.

Absolutely. The defense really showed out today. Look at old Baltimore Ravens defense. Moving on, we got the Atlanta Falcons and the Chicago Bears. It's a good game. Yeah, Chicago Bears gave a great effort today. A lot of people didn't expect them to be a team that could compete against the team that made at the Super Bowl last year. but the Falcons battled out get a win for Matt, Ryan.

Yeah, I mean, they got fortunate. I mean, the Bears dropped the coverage and the tight end went down the field for an 88-yard touchdown pass. But, I mean, the Bears had a chance at the end of the game. They got four throws in the end zone down there. They could have been a holding call on one of the place, probably should have been. And then Howard drops the pass on the one-yard line. I mean, they had their chances to win the game. They just couldn't do it.

I thought it was a good effort by the Bears. Falcons, a little better on defense than I anticipate. Like I told you, I thought they were going to be better on defense, and they were. And Matt Ryan picked up where he left off last year. They didn't run the ball effectively, but he threw the ball down to field well. Absolutely.

And then we're going to go to the New York Jets. Your New York Jets versus the Buffalo Bills. My poor man, Mick. My poor man, Mick, my son there. You know, look, the Jets don't have a lot of weapons. They didn't dress curly today. It's going to be hard. They couldn't make any explosive plays.

And I think Buffalo, I think Sean McDermann. I think Sean McCoy made a great comment about him. He said he's our leader. I've liked McDermott all summer. I thought their team, they're changing the culture in Buffalo. Do I think Buffalo is a great team? No, by no means. But I think they're buying into this guy's program.

I like what I see out of Shaw McDermott. And I think that they made a statement today. They won with their running game and they won with their ability to defensively. And they put pressure on when it counted on Josh McCallon. I thought it was a good win for Buffalo, good home opener for him. But again, I'm impressed with him. I think he's going to be a really good head coach. And Tyra Taylor deserves some credit.

He's really holding his own. Everyone wants to find a new quarterback in Buffalo. He's a guy right now. He's the only one. At least he can do something. Absolutely. and an absolute blowout. And probably the stunner of the day, really, the Los Angeles Rams.

How was it a stunner? Have you watched the Colts that all in the preseason? They're horrendous. I had faith in Scott Tolzina. I had seen him one time in college. I don't know. I just believed maybe Tolzee can bring it back. But the Rams went 46 to 9.

Just a blowout. I think the Rams should have saved some points for some other games. I mean, this game was over at halftime. Like I tweeted out at halftime. I said, you know, just so we're aware, the clocks the Rams opponent, not the Colts at halftime. They could have run three and part. every time and giving the ball back to Tolzeat.

Like, why? At what point didn't they pull Tolzean in the game? Yeah. It waited the fourth quarter. Like, why? Like, he's going to run the place? And look, Jared, I thought Sean McVeigh did a really good job. Jared Goff. He gives him reeds that are simple and easy to do, and he makes it a seven-on-seven game for

golf. And that's when golf's going to be effective. When the game speeds up, yet to be determined. But, you know, look, give the Rams credit. They haven't scored this many points in five games last year. Okay? So take the win, enjoy it. I think the Colts, really, to be honest with you, if I'm luck, I'm not coming back until you're 100% healthy.

I think the Colts could be the sleeper team to A, tank, and B, end up. Could you imagine if the Colts end up with the first pick in the draft next year in a quarterback draft? Yep. They'll get a boatload. You trade Darnold for like 15 picks or whatever. Oh, they'll get a boatload. They'll save their franchise. Don't think they're not doing it.

The conspiracy theory. You're right there. You're right in their corner. Moving over to the Seahawks and the Packers. Russell Wilson, a lot of people are excited for him to possibly even an MVP candidate this year. obviously Aaron Rogers is Aaron Rogers. It was not an offensive game at all. No, but the Packer defense dominated the game.

Packers' defense dominated the game. I mean, the Packers' defense controlled the front. I think that Mike Daniels was really good over the guards of Seattle. Luke Jockel, he got his ass kicked. I mean, Glakowski, I think it was. He got beat up in there. I mean, Daniels took names and numbers on everybody. And then as the longer the game went, Aaron Rogers became Aaron Rogers.

but I thought Seattle's defense was really strong there early in the game. That call on the interception to me was a weird call. They disqualified Jeremy Lane. I don't know if that was the right call. But, look, Green Bay was the better team on this day, the longer the game went. And I think Seattle will come back from it. But this offensive line, I don't know how, I just don't know how Russell Wilson's going to stay healthy for 16 games. I just don't know how it's going to happen because he really is going to have to run around and he got the crap beat out of him.

Yeah, and he had a couple of times today where Russell Wilson, is usually the guy where he can make the right decision to get out and not take a big hit, and he had a couple of times today where he took the big hit. Trust me today. On that plane, he's flying home right now. He's sore. Yeah. He's sore right now.

Absolutely. And then final game that we're going to talk about from the Sunday slate today. The Carolina Panthers go to the San Francisco 49ers and win one. 23 to 3. It was a pretty standard game. Kyle Shanahan had some problems with time management at times during the game. First time head coach. You'd expect that stuff.

But pretty easy game for the Panthers. You know, I was disappointed in San Francisco. I thought they'd be better offensively. I thought this was kind of like sneakily. I thought this was the right defense for them to play. It wasn't going to be too complicated. They couldn't run the football, which for Kyle, if he can't run the ball, he's got 15 rushing attempts for 51 yards. If he can't run the ball, he can't, then everything else just doesn't fall in line.

And I thought, you know, they couldn't really pass, protect. Zane Beatles was really bad at guard. I mean, they need to get him out of there. They need a better left guard because he couldn't block anybody today. He'd have been better off asking them to count the five Mississippi. So for me, the 49ers were disappointing in that sense. And look, Cam kind of got by with not playing his best game, but got used to game footing and got used to game speed.

That's a great win for Carolina in terms of they got their team back. They look better defensively and offensively with the way they're doing things. I think this was a great game. It was like an extra preseason game for him because they had control of the game and they got their team ready. Yeah, and the 49ers defense looked really well with Ruben Foster out there. But he went down with an injury. Yeah.

So it sounded like it's a high. ankle and it's going to be a while. Yep. Well, that's the whole slate for the games. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and talk about some of the major storylines from this first Sunday of football. Quick break to get a word from our sponsor, Seekek. Buying tickets to sports and concerts can be complicated and confusing, but there's a better option and simpler way to buy with Seek. With their seamless mobile experience, you can buy and sell tickets in just two taps, there's nothing quite like seeing your favorite team or musician in person, and Seekek will get you closer to the action for a great value.

you. Seekkeek saves you time and money by searching multiple ticket sites to compare prices and find you amazing deals. Seekeek also has plenty of concert, comedy, and theater tickets available too. Best of all, my listeners get a $20 rebate off their first Seekek purchase to get your $20 rebate on tickets. Download the Seekek app. Go to the settings tab and click add a promo code. Enter the promo code Ringer NFL and Seat Geek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Download the Seatgeek app and enter promo code Ringer NFL. today. All right, Lombardi, we're back talking football, week one stuff.

We're going to do a little like segments, some superlatives for guys as we run through each week. We'll probably swap these out as we go through the season. But the first one is put on Front Street. We're going to take a guy that we're a little disappointed in this week. Is there someone that you have on your mind to put on Front Street? I would put the whole Houston Texan defense on Front Street. I mean, look, I thought that this defense should be able, when a team's one-dimensional,

which Jacksonville was, right? And for them to come in and to get beat by the running game, which is the way you had to handle it. Take your hat off to Doug Marone and Nathaniel Hackett. They did a great job preparing their team. They truly define how not to lose a game in order to win a game first. They really were really good. They managed the game perfectly.

But I was disappointed in Houston's defense not playing at the level that I thought they would be able to dominate this game in terms of not letting Jacksonville run the football on them. So for me, Houston's defense was really bad. Credit Jacksonville for doing what they had to do. Absolutely. The guy I had in mind was Levi-on-Bell. I thought Levi-on-Bell.

I mean, obviously we had to deal with the hold. What did Mike Tomlin say about him after the game? He said you can write whatever story you want to write about him. It doesn't matter. It was all about the penalties. It was the fact they were behind the chains. It had nothing to do with Levion missing out or the holdout. So if we're going to write it or talk about it, we're wrong.

Mike Tomlin's ahead of the current. You know, I think he is right about this. I think so much is made about the obvious Leveon missed training camp. But when you're first in 15 or you have penalties and, you know, when you can't really... I think it was 13 penalties for 144 yards. Yeah, 13 for 144. it's hard to get going on offensively. And you've got to factor that in.

Now, Cleveland looks like they played great defense in the game, but you factor 144 yards of penalties. That's a lot of ground you've got to make up in order to get first down. So I think Mike might be right. Levion probably missed some time. His legs probably, he took a couple big hits in the game. Absolutely.

But, you know, I mean, look, everybody was getting used to the speed of the game as it went along. But I was disappointed in Houston. You're disappointed in Levian Bell. All right, and we're going to move on to another thing. It's no-name, big game, just some guys. that are under the radar a little bit that had big games. The first guy that comes in mind when you hear that,

a no neighbor that plays like a star this week. My guy's Kenny Galladay from the Detroit Lions. He's a fourth round pit. What is the third round pick? Yeah, 96 pick, yeah. Overall. And I mean, he guys got, so Peterson's going to take Tate out of the game, right? So he's keeping him.

They're forcing the ball to go to this kid. And he made four catches, two touchdowns. I mean, exactly what the Cardinals wanted to have happen. They wanted the ball to go to somebody. other than Golden Tate, it did, and the kid made great plays. So as a rookie coming in there and playing, later round draft pick playing, I think to me that was a surprise. Yeah, congrats to Northern Illinois for having that guy.

The Huskies. Yeah, absolutely. A name I had at the top of my mind was Tariq Cohen running back for the Bears. I love Tariqa. I mean, they list him at 175, 180, something like that, but he plays so much stronger than that. To me, he looks like he's got a lot of, you're too young to remember this guy. Dave Meggitt played at the Giants.

It was a great punt returner, a great third down back for the Giants. He reminds me a lot of Dave Meggitt. A little bit. Meggitt was stronger and bigger, more physical, but this kid, to me, was really impressive. Yeah, Cohen, they call him the human joystick back in North Carolina. Now I know why you like him.

You picked a guy from a game of loss, but you like him. Now it's pretty clear to me why it would happen. No, he's really good. I enjoyed watching Tarik. I was happy for him. Good for NT A&T. Let's talk about another rookie that had an amazing day, and that's T.J. Watt. Comes out.

First rookie in three decades to record two sacks and one interception in his NFL debut. And obviously, younger brother of JJ Watt. Yeah, and then the best part of the game was he got a penalty for rough in the pass or illegal no, personal foul. And Tomlin went off on the assistant during the game. He went crazy. And then the next play, Kaiser threw it right to him.

And T.J. made the play. Yeah, look, if you're a Steeler fan, this is what you need. I mean, you didn't get it from Jarvis Jones. You haven't been able to get it from Bud Dupree consistently because he's been hurt and all this. Your best pass rusher has been James Harrison. So now you get another guy to come in there. This is huge for them. TJ Watt, great day for them.

You can build off against a good offensive line. It isn't like he was going against a giant offensive line. He went against a good offensive line. So it was great for the Y'i family. I mean, I can't believe they have another one in the NFL. And he looks like JJ out there. He looks like a young JJ. It's kind of crazy.

He really does. And then we have this whole segment. It's called Weeking, we saw it. We kicked ass that people have seen Ghostbusters. You remember that line for Bill Murray. And the team that did that was the Los Angeles Rams this week. So congrats to them. Yeah, take it.

I mean, look, they did it. Shawman McVey, Coach of the Week. I mean, without a doubt, I mean, look, they came out there. Their team was ready to play. The Colts, see, the problem with the Colts is, is here's the way. You know, their head coach, Chuck Pagano, say, well, we don't have Andrew Locke. We don't have Andrew Luck. Well, and everybody buys that.

Look, it's hard to do. It's hard to win games without starting quarterback. But you get paid to figure out a way to do it, right? So you have to manage the game. The first two plays of the game, they run the ball. So now they're in third and eight, and, oh, Tolzin throws an interception for seven. Now you're down 10-0. Yep.

I mean, you're giving yourself no chance to win. You come out and run the ball two plays. First of all, playing Tolzeen. Like, they watched four weeks of Tolzeen and they went with them. Like, really, at some point, did you come off the practice field and say, I don't think this guy can do it, right? I mean, they had to. That sounds like a different type of torture where you make a guy watch four weeks of Scott Tolzean tape. I mean, there has to be somebody better.

I mean, Bill Walsh used to say all the time, if I have a pair of twos, I'm going to discard them because I know I can't win the hand. If you have Scott Tolzine, you don't have a quarterback. So you might as go get somebody. And if Brissette doesn't know what to do, who cares. at least he's better than Tolzin because Tolzeen can't play quarterback in the NFL. I mean, it was really kind of painful. But that's the excuse why you're not winning, but you don't get paid for excuses. And I think this is going to be a problem for Indianapolis all season long.

That defense was Putra too. They didn't play hard at all. And with Tolzine out there, you're going to think you have no chance. And let's talk about the Colts and general or just that situation. We obviously mentioned the idea of them tanking. But, I mean, after the game today, head coach Chuck Bagano said credit to the 49ers. Yeah, where's he coming up with that? Yeah, they did not play the 49ers today.

for people that did not know that. Yeah, no. I mean, it's like you didn't play the 49ers. I mean, that's embarrassing. You don't know who you're playing? I mean, you wish you would have played the 49ers. They only scored about seven, three points. Yeah. They might have a chance.

They won 193. They played the 49ers. So he'd be celebrating. Look, I think there's two things you shouldn't do all the time is after a game. Don't talk to an owner who lost. And sometimes the coaches are so mesmerized by what happened. They can't remember anything. But to me, Chuck's sitting on a gold mine because everybody wants to come coach Andrew

Luck. I did in one of those videos, I think John Gruden or any top coach, wants this job, I think the pressure Chuck's going to feel is going to manifest itself week in and week out, and I don't think it's going to get turned around anytime soon. I don't think Andrew Luck's going to play anytime soon in the next two or three weeks. To me personally, I don't see how that – why would you? Yeah. Why would you put him out there?

Do you think you can put Tolzine back in if you're the GM? No, you have to go to percent. Okay. I mean, to me, you should cut Tolzeen bring Stephen Morris back. I mean, you know, because right now the team knows you have no chance when he goes in the huddle, the team knows you have no chance. It isn't like, oh, okay, we're going to be okay. No, you're not going to be okay.

I thought Frank Gore, to me, ran like he was a rookie who's never played before. I loved watching him. He was unbelievable. He had enthusiasm. He was excited. But that wears off. But this is about the Rams, so credit the Rams for their great game. And next week they play Washington.

We'll see if they can do it again. And the Rams will have the Redskins next week, obviously. So that'll be a good test for two teams that are trying to figure out who their identity is. And week two, everything changes, of course. I mean, this is a huge game. Redskins starts slow last year. and they can't go in two this year because I think the Cowboys are going to win

the Eagles are going to win. The East is too loaded to fall too far behind. So I know week two is not must win, but the Redskins have to make a giant step forward if they're going to get better as a football team. And really that's the emphasis right now is just try to get better. Of course. We're going to take one more break and we're going to come back

on to wrap this GM street up. Okay. Quick break to give you more words about my bookie. Ever since I started this podcast with Mike Lombardi, people have been asking us for advice. Usually it's what team to bet on this week. You got Patriots of Steelers, Chicago or Detroit. Well, let me tell you where you're betting at is just as important as who you're

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Join now, and MyBooky will match your deposit with up to 100% bonus. Just visit MyBooky, MyB-O-O-K-I-G and use the promo code Ringer NFL to activate the offer. You play, you win, you get paid. We are also brought to you by DirecTV, and I want to point out that for over 20 years, Direct TV has been the exclusive home to NFL Sunday ticket, the only way to get every live game every Sunday. Good news, NFL fans, DirecTV has expanded the service if you live in an apartment or are an enrolled college student.

Now you can get the NFL Sunday ticket without a satellite. To see if you're eligible, go online to NFL Sundayticket.tv and stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team no matter where you live. Use promo code ringer at checkout to save 15%. Again, that's NFL Sunday Ticket. TV promo code ringer. All right, Lombardi, we're back. We're going to do something that we've been doing all summer leading into the season,

just word on the street, some of the storylines that are going around the league, some of the things that happened today. One of the main things that I saw coming out of Baltimore, Danny Woodhead goes down with an injury, had a great start to the game. He goes out, and it's just a tough thing for him. I don't think Danny can stay healthy. I think that's the problem. He had a hamstring.

He pulled it today. And they need some explosive players. I thought Macklin made a great catch on a slant on a blitz. He got them in zero coverage. and Flacco made the throw. Actually, I thought Flacco looked kind of rusty, but I was expecting worse from Flacco today. I like Baltimore's team, though.

I think Baltimore's good in the kicking game. I think they can play in the kicking game. I think Baltimore's defense is much faster, and I know they played Cincinnati, but Cincinnati should be better. Cincinnati's plays Houston next week. That's the battle of too bad offensive line. Cincinnati's offensive line wasn't very good. And this is one, I think, to me,

from talking to people around the league, I think Joe Mixon is eventually going to become the starter. He's really a big-time player. I think he had eight carries for nine yards today, so nobody's going to think, oh, God, why would you want to put him in there? Well, they couldn't block Brandon Williams or a lot of the other guys on Baltimore's front.

But I think Mixon's a guy that gives him some dimension. I think that's got to change. And I think Mixon will start to play. And we saw Bernard have a couple moments today where he showed some flashes. He's going to get better as he or goes on because he's coming off the ACL. But, I mean, look, for the first week,

it wasn't very pretty. And like we talked about earlier in the podcast, usually the defense is ahead of the defense. usually we have high-scoring games. It's kind of weird to see it the other way around today. But I think that tells you about how much training camp hasn't really, teams haven't figured out the timing and the execution of training camp. They're so worried about getting guys hurt.

They're so worried about making sure they have their team healthy to get to the season. And it's a problem. I mean, look, Washington had no rhythm offensively. Terrell Pryor had drops. Cousins didn't look very good. There's a lot of offenses. San Francisco's offense didn't look good. A lot of offenses just didn't look in time and rhythm

because you can't simulate the speed of that in practice. I even would say the Falcons. I mean, I know that they had a tough game with the Bears, but they were out of rhythm sometimes. Yeah, they were. When they can't run the ball, they're out of rhythm, and they make that 88-yard-yard player, whatever the hell it was, it was a huge play,

because they blow the coverage. And, you know, you see that all the time. I mean, look, to me, Kansas City execution, their game plan design was really good, you know, whereas New England's execution was horrendous, and they blew coverages. So they look like they need to go back to training camp, and get going again, whereas as Kansas City looked pretty good.

Yeah, Alex Smith now can throw the ball down the field. Yeah, well, he can throw the ball down the field when there's nobody covering. He didn't have no pressure on you at all. I mean, they had no pressure on them whatsoever. And I think that's got to be a concern if you're a Patriot fan. You've got to figure out a way to get some kind of pressure from the edge. Alan Branch did not play well. They didn't control the middle of the field.

Their defensive line didn't really dominate. Everybody says, well, High Tower got hurt. Now, High Tower wasn't playing good when he was in there. They got to move High Tower back to the linebacker. He's not a defensive end. And so I think there's a lot of work to be done in New England, but a lot of teams can have a lot of work to do. I think all the teams in the league, even the teams that won and the Rams blew away,

the quality of football is going to get better as we get going because preseason, I don't know what we're doing. Really, teams aren't getting ready for the season. Yeah, it's not preparing them. The preseason is not doing. He's trying to stay healthy. Yeah. He's trying to stay healthy.

That's all you're trying to do. Talking about guys that are no longer healthy. And fortunately, wide receiver, Alan Robinson, goes down for the Jaguars. And the Jacks were going to franchise him. I mean, it's in a contract. year. Yeah, they were playing on, they're not losing him, they were planning on a franchise in him, and there's an unfortunate injury. Guy goes and

tears his ACL, and, you know, Jacksonville loves him, so I'm sure they're going to sign him. He's just not going to make to the degree that he thought he was going to make. But that hurts them as a football team. But look, injuries happen. I mean, we see Eric Barry get hurt. You know, he terraces his kill he's out. He was playing great against Gronk. You have to overcome this.

This isn't about what you do in September. Remember last year, the 49ers shut out the Rams 28 to nothing. Okay, and I think they won two games. They won another game. One more game the rest of the season. Opening day, don't evaluate a team. Just keep watching it and see how it goes. And we're going to wrap this thing up. Is there

anything looking forward to week two? Is there anything that we should be keeping our eye on during the week? Maybe some slight changes. Maybe a team's trying to trade for someone to get some pieces. No, I think we're at a point in the NFL season where you have to make your players better. And I think the one thing now is for fans and everyone, is

teams have showed who they are where they play people. Like I was talking about the Giants, how they utilize Evan Ingram, how the Cowboys utilize their personnel. That's all been declared now so defense coordinators can get a handle on what's going on and offensive coordinators can get a handle on what's going on. I think you're going to see a more matchup conscious game moving forward because no one shows anything in a preseason. After the first week, you do have some tendencies. You do have declare what you're going to do. I think it'll get better. The quality of football will get better because of that.

All right, Lombardi. This has been great. We'll be back Tuesday, right? Yeah, we'll be back Tuesday. Well, actually, we'll be back Wednesday. What we're going to record on Tuesday It'll be up Wednesday for the people This has been fun Week 1's here We did it, we talked through it

And we'll be back soon Great. Credit to the 49ers. Yeah, thanks.