The Ringer NFL Show - ‘GM Street’ — Week 2 Rapid Reactions (Ep. 142)

Episode Date: September 18, 2017

The Ringer's Mike Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the Raiders obliterating the Jets (02:00), Pittsburgh's domination over Minnesota (07:00), a classic Patriot win (12:30), Jason Garrett's comments on Dak Prescott (24:00), and a big win for the Falcons over Green Bay (29:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I want to tell you about the ringers gambling podcast. It is called Against All Odds with Cousin' Sal. And you're not going to believe of this, but it's hosted by Cousin Sal. The biggest degenerate gambler that I know. He's such a degenerate. He has three other degenerates that he calls the degenerate trifecta. And they break down every conceivable gambling thing you would ever want to gamble on. They even take it to Captain Morgan's Make Belief Casino where Sal makes up props on all kinds of things.

Sports, pop culture, you name it. you are going to want to get your game of advice from these guys. Cousin Sal, he's been a staple on the BS podcast for the last 10 years. So good that we gave him his own podcast. Check it out against all odds with Cousin Sal. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Tate Frazier and On the Line in Oakland.

Mike Lombardi, Lombardi, how you doing? I'm great. I'm at the Pat Nolan Studios. They didn't shoot. They didn't record. rumors at this studio at Northern California, but it's really a nice studio. Pat Nolan has a set up here. I'm doing good. What are you recording the night besides GM Street? You got an album coming out soon? I might happen. You know, I'm on ballers today, so God knows the world's the

limit. Who knows what I could accomplish? Your HBO talent now, Lombardi. I don't even know if I belong in a podcast with you. I know, and I've been instructed, Tate Phrase. I'm going to start since you call me Lombardi, I'm calling you Tate Phrase. I'm giving you a complete full name now. I kind of like it. You're royalty. I think it's right. Tate Frazier. All right, good.

That's perfect. There's no hyphen in it. There's no hyphen in it either. It's not like Tate Pause, Fraser. It's going through. Let's talk some football, Tate Frazier.

Let's do it. Let's do it. First of all, let's talk about the game that you were at today. You were at the Raiders Jets game. You were supporting your son with the Jets, obviously. But you were there and you got to witness Marshawn Lynch dancing on the big screen for everyone in Oakland.

And it looked like the crowd was very happy, very content with the team they have up there in Oakland. You know, the last time I was in that stadium was under the Arch Shell administration, and I try to refrigate it. And then being back, you know, I remember the good times when we were good there, and when we had some good teams, and Mount Davis used to be full, they put the canvas all over Mount Davis now. But, I mean, the Trader fans were just incredibly into their team. And they've got a good team. I think the Raiders showed to knock out bad teams. Like, they're not going to play every to the level of their comp.

They took the jet game over, the fumble at the end of the half on the punt. really separated the game. It's 14 to 10. The Jets are moving the ball effectively on them. You know, Dinkin and Duncan spread them out. But then that fumble made a 21 to 4, 21 to 10. Jets got the ball back. They just didn't have enough. I mean, look, for the Jets to be good this year, for the Jets to be good, for the Jets to be decent this year, never going to be good. That's quite a statement. You know, and for the first two weeks of the season, they haven't had any defense. And that's really hurt them. And so everybody focuses on their offense and focuses on their quarterback

and focuses on what they can't do on offense, when really, when you boil it down, their defensive line has not play well for the first two weeks, and the Raiders pushed them around today, and they did pretty much anything they wanted to do when they needed to do it. So it was good to be back, and it was good to be back and interesting to see Raider fans again. And I think the Raiders are a team,

they're going to be around until the end. I mean, it's going to be hard to knock them out because I think they can play some stocks and made that easy doing. I just want to point out Michael Crabtree with the Hatrick today, three touchdowns. That was a very impressive performance. He was great. He was great.

I mean, look, you didn't even think Amari Cooper was playing. I mean, Crabtree, Cook, made some plays. I mean, those two running backs that go along, Washington and Rashard, you know, those guys come in and make really big plays. They kind of give them a little bit of diversity within their offense. And I thought cars play within himself. He hasn't tried to force anything. Their offensive lines good. Look, defensively, they're going to have some problems when they play against certain style of teams.

But when they play the Kansas City, they'll have some trouble. next week against Washington. But, you know, they can play a pace of a game that's hard to beat. I like the Raiders. I like their complete team this year. And this Patterson guy, I've always liked Patterson. He doesn't have a position because he can't really learn a position, you know, but he's a playmaker. And they put him in the backfield and he took off and made a play.

You just get him the football. It's hard, too, but he really did a nice job. I mean, he's a great addition for him. Yeah, he's a nice change of pace. I mean, even when he got that handoff, he was in the slot and he came over in the backfield and got the handoff for that touchdown run, You know, if you saw him from behind, you might think it was Marshawn Lynch, but when he hit that burst, it was like, this is a different guy.

This is a different kind of speed. Yeah, I can't run an offense, Tate. I mean, I interviewed him. I mean, in the interview room, he couldn't remember any of the Tennessee plays. He struggles to really retain a lot of things in terms from week to week. He's a national anthem player, meaning that every day is a new day. But the reality of it is when he gets the ball on his hands, he's a playmaker. He just got to get the ball in his hands, and he responds.

And he seems to be really playing and enjoying the expanded role in Oakland. He didn't have it in Minnesota. Minnesota really plays. Here they're kind of running and put the ball in the stands. Treat them like a runnerback. I mean, he's a new version of Thai Montgomery. I like him. I think he's good.

I agree 100% on that. He's a guy that you actually marked earlier in the year for a guy to watch out, and he proved you right once again. Let's run through just the gamut of games. I mean, we had 15 games that went on the day. Let's do it. We'll call this our first 15, our script. This would be like Andy Reed script or Doug Peterson script,

all the West Coast offense script. Beautiful. Let's do it. The first 15. Let's start out with the Buffalo. Bill's at the Carolina Panthers. Nine to three of the Panthers get a nice win. A very ugly win, the first home game

of the season. Joey's Peppers makes his return to Carolina. It was not the most beautiful, eloquent game, but it was effective, I guess. The remarkable thing about this game is LaShawn McPoy had negative yards rush. I mean, he was like nine carries eight yards in the game. The leading rusher was Tyrod Taylor.

And they're throwing the ball. I mean, I didn't know who the receiver was, but they're actually throwing the ball towards the goal line. And if the kid makes the catch, and he gets into the end zone, Buffalo is going to win a game, 10-9. I mean, it's closer. It was 4th and 17 on Cam Newton. Here's what I think.

I think the team's how to attack Carolina. And I think it'll be interesting next week when you watch them play and you see how they handle. New Orleans plays them next week. It'll take some of Sean McDermott's ideas and expand upon them. Because you get six sacks on Cam and you're the Buffalo bills. You're doing pretty good. I mean, Buffalo's are going to be a hard team to play.

I promise it. Buffalo is not going to go away easy. And when you look at that Panthers game also, Greg Olson goes out with a broken foot. He was seen on crutches on the sideline. He said he was probably going to miss a lot of games, possibly the season. So with that injury, that obviously takes away KM security blanket too. So it'll be interesting because it's either the Saints go 0 and 3 or the Panthers go 3 and O next week.

So that'll be fun to watch. They're both, you know, backs against the wall a little bit. Let's go to the Bears and the Buccaneers. Mike Lennon, tough day for Mike Lennon, two picks, also a pick six. and Jordan Howard also had the same thing as LaShaul McCoy more attempts than actual yards on the ground and he actually left the game in a sling as well so the Chicago Bears got beaten up by the Buccaneers today to say the least

No I mean look the bears I don't want to hear this nonsense though they lost Kevin White they lost the receiver even when they had Kevin White they didn't have a receiver I mean the bears are just one-dimensional they can't really do things I don't know why they just don't put Chubisky in the game they didn't even have them in the game at the end of the game I mean let them have some reps I mean get some time to play because the bears aren't going to be able to win the way they're set up right now. They don't have enough skill players. They try to get everybody knows. Cohen's the guy they want to get the ball to. I'm

impressed with Tampa Bay. They play really good defense. They did the things they had to do. They took over a team that's, you know, they're coming out rusty for the first week. I thought Tampa did a nice job. And moving on from there, we got the Minnesota Vikings playing at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sam Bradford sits out this game with the, they say he does not have a torn ACL. The ACL is still intact, but he did not start this game. Case Keenham started. And the Steelers pretty much, you know, dominated this one pretty easily. You know, if I was going to be Jim Feist and give you a pick of the week every week, I would have said before the injury, right, I would have said Minnesota,

I would have thought Pittsburgh was going to beat Minnesota Sound like. I thought that they would have been my pick of the week, not to step on South's toes here, but that would have been my pick. And then, you know, and then Bradford, just when I'm feeling like I'm going to love Bradford, you know, he gets hurt again. And, but I thought Minnesota, look, Pittsburgh's really not in really, them. The other than the other than offense.

They had four field goals. I think they were not very good in the red zone. They really couldn't consistently move the ball as well as you would have thought they would. Minnesota is a good team. But Pittsburgh did exactly what I thought they would do. They took this game over. Even if Bradford would have played, I think Pittsburgh wins the game. And I think Pittsburgh, you know, right now they've played two games and they haven't played

their best football the season. There's a lot ahead of them. Now also in this game, T.J. Watt got hurt. So that could really affect him. He's got a groin injury. So we'll see how that plays out next week when they go to Chicago. another tough opponent for them. Let me ask you one thing about the Vikings.

That was a joke fake razor. That was a joke tape razor playing in Chicago. Come on, man. I know it's late. That's going to be tough. Yeah, that'll be a hard game in Soldier Field. But can I ask you one thing just from a GM perspective with a guy like Bradford? Obviously, he is your quarterback, but you're dealing with sort of the same things,

a lingering issue with the knee that you know he's had problems with. I mean, as a GM, are you already trying to think of, you know, ways to get guys in there that maybe can help this team win this season, maybe a season veteran to come in, maybe just in case, like a case of emergency type situation? I think that's what they got Case Keenham for. I mean, I don't think they thought this was going to happen. I'd like to know the play he got hurt on last Monday night. I didn't see it.

You know, he finished the game. So, and then this week he came out and, you know, everybody told me during the week he wasn't going to go because he didn't take any reps in practice. And whenever a team brings up a cuts of player creates a rostered string quarterback, they're not doing that because they think Bradford might go or they think he's going to go. The reality of it is, is once.

they do that, they know Bradford's not going. That's a clear dead giveaway sign that they're going to dress. They're not bringing that guy up to activate them. They're bringing them up to dress them. And we knew when Bradford went out and pregame and he didn't do very much, and he went right back in. I mean, it was a give me putt. You know, if we just said on Thursday, he wasn't going to play, because that's kind of what I was told. But you're not going to say it because, you know, some guys sometimes have him turn around

and then you say, oh, you're just spreading rumors. I think this Bradford thing is going to be a problem all year because when they go on the road, and this is what I thought would happen to Pittsburgh, when they went on on the road with their offensive line as well as it played at home against New Orleans. It was going to be a different game in Pittsburgh. And I think it's going to be interested to see Bradford when he's healthy, when he comes back, can he hold up? Let's move to Indianapolis.

The Cardinals play the Colts in Indy today. That was probably one of the tough. That's probably the eyesore of the weekend. I would say that would be my superlative. St. Fraser, if Al Davis was alive, Chuck Pagano would have been fired tonight. I mean, Chuck Pagano did exactly what you can't do in a game. he's got third and seven. They have one time out the Arizona Cardinals,

and he drops back to throw. Like, he's backed up in his own end zone. He's lucky he didn't lose the game then. So here's what happened. He's backed up, right? And Berset comes out, he throws the ball in the dirt, and now they give back the timeout to the Arizona Cardinals, okay? They punt, they catch it,

and now they're kicking a field goal to win the game in regulation. Fortunately, the guy misses the field goal in regulation, but he should have made it in regulation, and they should have lost the game. It was just horrendous. It's like, what game are you watching, Chuck? Your opponent wasn't the Cardinals at that time. Your opponent was take their time out, run the football,

work the clock so we can get this game at overtime. I mean, it just drove me insane. I was going nuts. Do you think he was trying to do a favor to Bruce Ariens? You know, they have a great relationship. Maybe he was just trying to help him out. I don't know, take praise. I mean, I don't understand it.

It was like the most unbelievable thing. ever seen. I'm sitting there watching the game. I'm saying, you've got to run in here, Chuck, and all of a sudden he drops back to pass. Like, that's not. You can't do that. You're cheating your team. And then, of course, naturally, they lose an overtime. And, oh, by the way, I did these videos on Friday about Carson Palmer. If I were the GM, what would I think? On that plane right home, if I'm Steve Kine, we don't have a quarterback. I mean, you can say we we do. His name's Carson Palmer, but we're not going to beat anybody. When we're winning 16 to 13 over the Indianapolis coast, we're not very good.

That is very true. Let's talk about a quarterback that is really good, and that's Tom Brady. He comes back with three touchdowns in the first quarter. That's the first time he's done that in his career, Michael Lombardi. Can you believe that? Three touchdowns in the first quarter? I think it's amazing that they came out and they just – and what was amazing about the first couple drives,

they were converting on third down. They weren't like making chunk plays right away, and Brady stood in the pocket, and they took the game away from the Saints. They had to settle for a field goal. They made it six to three because they missed the opening kick. They missed the field goal on the first touchdown. And then the Patriots just kept moving the ball making plays. I mean, look, this was a classic Patriot when Dietrich Wise played really well.

They probably got a defensive end that could play. I thought their defense played better. Alannon Roberts showed them a little bit more team speed. Look, Breece had a great day, but they played better in the red zone. They didn't give up a big, and they scored in the Rican City. They did really well against the Wallace. And let's talk about the big guy, Gronkowski. There was a lot of talk after week one.

He doesn't look like the same Gronk that we've always seen. He comes out today has a 53-yard, you know, boy touchdown does the whole gronk spike, but then he leaves the game with a growing injury after he gets yanked down on his back. I honestly thought it was a back injury when I first saw it, but then they reported it as a growing injury. He said he was good after the game. But I mean, does it still cause for concern even though he did have that big play that, you know, he still goes out with the injury in this game? I mean, every time he's such a big guy, every time he falls down, it seems like he gets hurt. But, I mean, I'm told he's not that bad. He should be okay

by the end of the week. Look, look, if you're going to try to cover him with Kenny Vicaro, which they did earlier in the game, and then they try to cover him with a, with a linebacker, Alec, I forget his last name, 47. They try to cover it. I mean, that ain't going to work. I mean, that's not going to work. So they need to figure something out, you know. And so, Gronk is back.

He looked better this week than he did last week. And that makes their all the difference in the world for the Patriot offense. Because now they can control the middle of the field and they can attack. Dorset got hurt in the game. I don't know how badly he is. But, you know, that's another receiver. That's the one thing the Patriots can't do is lose any more receivers. Well, they got Rex Burkhead.

They got him going. Finally. And then he got hurt. And then he got hurt with ribs. And then they got, you know, so now, but they've got, Gillespie really came in and ramwell. They got enough backs. I think that's the one thing they can do.

If a guy misses, I think he's going to be okay there. But look, Brady was back to being Tom Brady. And the NFL, even though he's over 40, he shut me up. He shut everybody else up because he played really well for it. All right, Lombardi, let's move on to Bill Belichick's old team. And in your old franchise of Cleveland Browns, they go down 24 to 10 at Baltimore Ravens today. A tough game with Deshaun Kaiser going out with the migraine. I mean, that was probably the first time I've seen that on an injury report, right?

Before, and Dordogany had a migraine, and they put Kevin Hogan in the game. Look, actually, again, if I'm Jim Feist or if I'm Cousin Sal, I thought the Browns had a chance to win this game, and here's why. I thought that Baltimore wouldn't really be able to throw the ball that effectively. I didn't think Baltimore would run the ball. They ended up proving me wrong there. They ran the ball. And I thought the game would be a low-scoring game, a game that Cleveland could kind of win, 17, 13, 16, 13, something like that. And Baltimore did a few more things.

I think Baltimore's getting some confidence on offense. Blacko threw the ball better this week than he did last. Had more passing attempts than he did. He probably complained enough to get it done. But look, I mean, Cleveland can't really do much. I mean, they don't have enough explosive players on offense. And then defensively, everybody said, oh, they're going to be better on defense. I mean, at the end of the day, they can't really be better on defense

because they don't have enough. They're on the field too long and they can't make enough play. And you look at that offense, Corey Coleman, a guy they want to be explosive. Obviously, at the broken hand last year, it's reported now that he probably has another broken hand so it could be back-to-back seasons with dealing with that injury with him and he's a guy that could actually help out their offense

so that's not good news obviously for the Browns. No, I mean, that's hard for him. Look, I mean, and then Kenny Britt hasn't been the player they hoped he would be. I mean, they traded Terrell Pryor in for Kenny Britt and hasn't worked out. So look, Hughes won one game in Cleveland. He's what, he's won in 17 now. I mean, the Brown's kind of start showing

that they're making progress towards winning. right now I haven't seen it. And poor Joe Thomas, 10,000 consecutive snaps. Can someone win a game for the man? Eventually. He needs a quarterback. He needs a quarterback. Plus, you can play better on defense.

I mean, they got to get some stops. I mean, they were like 2 of 11 on third down. They couldn't convert a third down. When you look at the statutes, say, oh, look, they did a really good job in the game. Yeah, but they had the ball 26 minutes because they couldn't convert on third down. So the plays that matter, they couldn't make. Yep, absolutely. And let's move to Kansas City.

the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Eagles, Andy Reid, taking his protege on head-to-head this week. They win 27 to 20. Even though it was a very valiant effort from your boy, Doug Peterson. He did a good job. He tried to bring him back late. Carson Wentz had two more fumbles. Carson Wentz had two more fumbles.

You know, everybody's talking about it. Look, I just think the Eagles, they don't even run the ball. I mean, Blunt. Where's Blunt? He's missing an action. Is he in the witness protection program? Did they send him somewhere? I don't know.

I mean, you know, if you're going to go on the road and you're going to try to throw the ball on the road in Kansas City, if you want to make it a 50-pass game or 40-pass game, you're going to lose. They sack them six times. You can't ever get control of the line of scrimmage, you know, and so you have to have a way to play in Kansas City. You just can't go out there and think you're going to throw it. You've got to control the clock. Now, you know, I'm talking, you're talking to a guy who believes in throwing the ball to run the ball, but you've got to run it and reduce the game to keep them off balance.

And I think this chief team, they're making plays down the field, they're more exploits. The Eagles' corner situation showed up today, especially in the fourth quarter, when their defensive front got tired. Can we just talk about Kareem Hunt? I mean, a lot of people thought that week one might have been a fluke, but he backed it up today. He had the 53-yard touchdown. He took a little nap in the end zone after scoring the touchdown.

They had another touchdown to boot. I mean, he just looks like the real deal right now. I mean, I think it's back-to-back weeks he's led running backs and fantasy points, too. So I just, I can't believe he's the rookie guy. These rookie running backs are good. Cook's good. I mean, we'll get to four net here in a minute. but these rookie running backs are really good.

I mean, that's the only thing about rookies. Running back, the rookie running back class, it's been impressive. And let's get to that game right now. The Titans go into Jacksonville, and they win this one 37 to 16. Blake Bortles looked like the Blake Bortals that we know and love. Two interceptions, one fumble. Yeah, it was just a tough week for the Jaguars. He got all his yards in the fourth quarter.

I mean, that's what he did. He was like, I think he had like 80-some yards going into the fourth quarter, and then all of a sudden he put this to have these. What he always does. Look, we talked about it on the podcast. podcast. Jackfield's not going to win any games just trying to run the ball. They're going to have to have him involved in the game. They don't want to get him involved in the game. It's just going to be the same. And Tennessee, the one thing I will say about Tennessee, I was wrong about

Derek Henry. I thought his foot quickness was going to be hard to hand. I didn't think it would be a problem for teams to tackle him. He's better than I thought he was. He's a really good runner. He runs with great power. He's better than I thought he was. And he really was a difference in the game. I mean, DeMarcomer wasn't the guy. It was Henry. And a lot of people forget that Derek Henry is such, you know, he's this big lottery pick, basically, that they got to come in and be the running back. And then they get Murray, you know, so he's not getting the carries. And, you know, you never really knew how much talent was back there. You expected him to be a guy. And then today he looked like the top five pick that he should have been. You know what I mean? I mean, he was living up to all the hype. Yeah, but he got college. I thought he was a point of entry back that he had to get into the whole clean. But he gets to the corner a lot better than I gave him credit for his speed to the outside. And Sabin kept saying to us that his speed was more deceptive. He kept talent, and I just couldn't find it on the tape. And sometimes, you know, with some of those Alabama backs,

especially since, you know, you watch Trent Richardson run. But I think Henry's a way better player that I gave him credit for. And he was the difference in the game today. I mean, look, whenever you play, the way Tennessee plays, the way Jacksonville plays, all you have to do is if you stop the run, you're going to beat them. I've got the Ravens this week. The Ravens will stop the run, so Bortles is going to have to play in the game. And let's keep it rolling here.

We're going to talk about the Los Angeles Chargers, their first game in Los Angeles. It looked like there was some promise late. Jay Cutler comes in, gets his first win as a starter with the Miami Dolphins. They had a late field goal. Young Wicu misses the field goal late. They shoot off the cannon. They fired the cannons. They won the game.

And I guess because there was so many Miami Dolphins fans there cheering that they thought that that was a win. But it was just a tough loss. It was the classic Chargers loss. I just feel bad for Phil Rivers. He does all that work. It was. But here's why it was a bad loss. Here's what tribe is because one of my pet peeves in football.

here's what they did. Philip Berbers has got the ball. He's driving down the field. He's moving the ball effectively, right? And when they get in field goal range, you back it off. Okay? Anthony Lynn backs it off,

and then they waste a place centering the ball in the middle of the line. And then, fortunately, the dolphins call timeout, which really helped them because they were going to have to spike it, okay? But here's the problem. Here's where I have the biggest problem with Anthony Lynn and the San Diego Chargers this week,

is you don't go into that final drive with the opportunity you want to attempt the field goal. You want to make the field goal. The guy missed a 44-yarder earlier. So you've got to be saying to yourself, look, we've got to get this thing inside the 20. We don't want this guy kicking anything in the other 40 because he's already proven he's missed one. Plus, he missed one last week. I don't want to put that pressure on him.

And so instead, what do they do? They stop, right when they get to a 44-yard-old, well, he should make it. Well, no, he didn't make it. You know, and Miami walks away with the win that they really shouldn't have had. I mean, Miami walks away with the win that they shouldn't have because I think they should have able to get the ball close to the end zone, especially when they were going, mismanagement at the time. I thought it was a really bad coaching loss for Los Angeles. And so what happened was the kicking team comes on on third down. You know, they run onto

the field after, you know, they try to center it. Philip Rivers runs over and tries to center it. Then the kicking team runs on the field. And if Adam Gase doesn't call that inadvertent timeout, I don't know if it was inadvertent or not, but for whatever reason he calls a timeout, but the clock could have easily ran out. And then they just would have been sitting there looking dumb. They would have 12 guys on the field. They would have 12 guys on the field. They had 12 guys on the field. So they, they, they, he called time out, which helped them get the guys off the field, because their field goal team, they were so disorganized. Their field goal team came running in, which leads me to believe situational football, they didn't practice it, because that

situation is we are not attempting the field goal. We're going to move the ball to where we can make the field goal. There's a distinction, and it really pissed me off. That was horrible. I hate when two teams do that. Like, don't do it. Throw the ball to me. You had one time out. They waste timeouts just to get lined up, spike the ball. You know, it's like when you take a check down in a two-minute drill and get three yards. People say, well, we've got three yards, okay. No, forget the three yards. You wasted eight seconds. You'd have been better with an incomplete pass.

You know, like get the ball to this area. You could make the field ball. It was really tough to watch. I felt bad for all those Chargers fans that came out. It looked like it was a fun game to be at, but, of course. It did. It did. It did not end well for Phil Rivers, unfortunately.

Let's talk about some more situational football. Let's go to the Dallas Cowboys who were playing at the Denver Broncos today. They get pretty much routed at 42 to 17. Jason Garrett after the game comes out and pretty blatantly blames it on his quarterback, Dak Prescott. I mean, the Broncos basically forced him to be a guy that was going to make passes today, and he did not live up to it. He had two interceptions, you know, threw the ball 50 times, which is pretty wild.

But what do you think about Garrett coming out and just basically saying, you know, this falls on our quarterback, deck Prescott? Garrett's the guy punted with four. He had a fourth and three with 11 minutes to go in the game. He's down. What was he down? He was down by 18 points. Yep.

And he goes ahead and punt. Like that's what. he should do? I mean, are you kidding me? Like, Jason, what's he talking about? And then, you know, his best player on the team, guys played over $15 million a year, was targeted 16 times. He had seven catchers, 59 yards. That's Des Bryant. I mean, one thing about the Cowboys after two weeks, they don't have an explosive player on offense. They just don't. So you can blame Dak Prescott all you want. It leaves Zeke Elliott's explosive. He's an explosive runner, but it's hard to run on the road in Denver. Everybody knew it was going to be hard to run on the road

endeavor. And at what point does Jason Garrett take responsibility for setting up a game plan that's going to take into account. Denver was a great third down team. We talked about it all with Denver's a third down. Stay out of third down. Play Canadian football. Run the ball in situations where they think you're going to throw it. But if you go in there trying to establish the run, you're going to have too many third downs and you're not going to win the game. Exactly what happened. And then they didn't play any good on defense. I mean, does that play defense? Yes, I know he gave up an interception to lead. To me, this is just Garrett, like trying to pass the blame around. I mean, Troy Aikman had no problem with them. You're putting the ball on fourth and third. Like, Troy,

you kidding me? There's 11 minutes to go on the game. You're down by, you're down by three scores. You've got to have the ball back. You've got to go toward on fourth and free. Tonight, McCarthy went for it. He went for it with more time than that when he was down because he had to. I just think to me, you know, when Garrett starts blaming other people, he should look at himself. And he even had the moment when they could have cut it to a two possession game when they had the fourth and goal and they tried to go for the touchdown rather than just kick the field goal, get the points and live another day. Just stuff like that, it didn't really connect.

And after that, the game was basically over at that point. Rather than getting the points and being able to try and see what could happen, it seemed like they had already thrown up the white flag, which is very strange. I mean, look, the first round pick of Denver goes out in the game, and then they got to move guys around and put backup linemen in there, and you still can't get pressure on Trevor Sumian. Now you give him time, he looks like he's a player, but we talked about this before. Can he maintain it?

I don't know, but today he puts 42 on the Cowboys. You've got to be worried if Dallas. And Trevor Simi and himself put up more points than the 49ers and the Seahawks today. That was a pretty tough and brutal game to watch for anyone that tuned into that. The Seahawks win 12 to 9. That looks like four field goals, but it was actually a touchdown to Paul Richardson and then a missed extra point, which is always a fun one. But just looking at that game, I mean, that was just a brutal game to watch. I mean, the Seahawks offense looks like it's completely stalled out.

I mean, the offensive line really is a problem. I think the longest pass was 22 yards. Oh, but by the way, the 49ers longest past play was 14 yards. I mean, I didn't think the 49ers were going there and throw the ball, run the ball effectively. They ran it better than I did. They just couldn't throw it at all. And I mean, look, the 49ers played good enough on defense to win.

You just give up 12 points or 13 had they gone for the extra point you win. But Seattle won this game with defense. Seattle's got to fix this offensive line. San Francisco's got to find that receiver that's dependable that can catch the ball and make some plays, and they've got to get a pet of production of Brian Horner. But to me, it was a game that I was really, really impressed with San Francisco for hanging so close in this game. Next week, they play the Chargers at home. I mean, they play the Rams at home. So, you know, it'll be interesting to

see how they handle that. I think they'll beat the Rams, but I think they're this 40-d-old team. If they can get some play out of the receivers and how their quarterback, they'd have a chance right now they're not getting it. And let's talk about those Rams. They played the Redskins here in Los Angeles today. Jared Goff finally had the chance. They talked about last year he loses, you know, his first seven starts. He comes in. They get a huge win in week one. They blow out the Colts. and this was his first time to have a two-minute drive to go down. They're down 27 to 20. And before they could even set up the scenario and the situation,

the stakes of the game, he throws interception and the game's over. So that was tough for Jared Gough fans. I mean, they couldn't stop the run. I mean, look, they couldn't stop the run. And, I mean, the ramps are not very good. Their offensive line breaks down and it helps a good receiver. I mean, when golf has time to throw the ball, that's going to be fine. But when he's in two minutes and he's got to speed up his game,

I just don't see it. I think the ball comes off his hand, kind of freaky, and it doesn't always look smooth when he throws it. But look, the Rams are going to keep convincing himself, and he's going to be better and better. And next week, plays San Francisco. We'll see how he does. But I think once teams see him and start heating him up,

I think it's going to be a problem. And we've got to say this. Aaron Donald comes back, his first game back. They take the loss. I mean, is Aaron Donald, is he now a Ewing theory? He's a Ewing theory candidate at this point, right? We've gotten to that point. I mean, a Tuesday player.

You've got to protect him. I mean, when Kyle Shanahan gets back to San Francisco tonight, first thing he's going to do when he gets in his office and he's preparing for the ramps he's going to figure out wherever Donald is we've got to block we're going to double. We'll slide the protection. You pay those players. You pay those players. Absolutely. And let's get to the final game

of the night that just wrapped up. The Packers in Atlanta, in Atlanta's new stadium with the big halo with all the screens. It was a very beautiful setup, Atlanta. I'm very proud of the Falcons. It looked like a Super Bowl contender. This stadium has way better. This stadium has way better lighting tape fraser than the other one did. It really did.

It way better light. It looks great. It's really like, it did. It looked great. And I mean, look, the Falcons, I've been thinking they can't duplicate what they did last year on offense, but they did it. And this is the part of the game I think everybody needs to really kind of nail down about Atlanta that was impressed. And it's about Green Bay is too. There's always a point in the game where the offense or the defense knows you have to do something.

And if you can do it, you're a good team. So like tonight, when Atlanta had a throw the wall and Green Bay had to play man to man, Green Bay couldn't do it and Atlanta could. that to me is real. That's when you know you got a really good team. When the other team knows you have to throw it and you can throw it, you're good. And I think that's where Atlanta proof tonight they are. And they're better on defense. They got good speed.

They hit the heck out of Aaron Rogers all night long. You know, they put the game away early with their turnovers and their speed. You know, Atlanta, it's going to be, that South is going to be interested to see how they beat up on each other. But to me, if Matt Ryan continues to play the way he played and these receivers keep making plays like they do, they're a tough out. I will say that we did not give enough credit. when we did the blue chip pod to Vic Beasley, who had a great game. He actually went out injured in the third quarter, but he was playing great.

Oh, and Aaron Rogers in the back field the whole time. And Desmond Truffant, what a game he had. Had the fumble recovery for a touchdown and a great interception off his back shoulder that Rogers threw at the end of the half. That Atlanta defense looked legit tonight. I don't know if it'll last, but tonight they look pretty scary. And they had no problem playing man to man against. That's the one thing.

They had no problem. And Green Bay's injury list is enormous. Thank God they're playing the Bengals this week because their injury was enormous, Randall Cobb went out. And then Atlanta had no problem playing man and man against them. Like Atlanta has no problem playing man and man against Green Bay. It's remarkable. And they think their speed can cover up for Rogers.

Absolutely. Absolutely. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back. We're going to do some big picture topics. Do the good, bad, the ugly of the week. And then we'll wrap this thing up, Lombardi. All right. Hey, it's Bill Simmons.

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But listen, check this out. Subscribe right now to have some cards wherever you get your podcast. All right, Lombardi, we're back. We're just going to hand out some superatists for the week. We're going to do good, bad, ugly. Let's start with the good, good things come first. And the good is obviously the Denver Broncos. I mean, they pretty much showed themselves today as a contender.

They come out and they blow out the Cowboys at home. you look at them, what was good, and are the Broncos a legit team right now? I just play, man, man. If you don't have receivers, they can get away, and you don't have a scheme that can help separate the receivers, but they're really tough to play. Their pass rush was good. You know, this is in Denver. They ran the ball effectively. C.J. Anderson, they threw the ball with Trevor Simeon. I mean, they were good today. They were completely, they played three phases of football really well. They lost the left tackle, which could hurt them. I thought Dallas, really, this is the wake-up call for Dallas, because Dallas is better

figure out besides Zeeke Elliott who is the big time player do they have a skill guy that can go make a play because when you

feature, when you throw the ball 16 times that does Brian he has seven catches for 59 yards that ain't big time numbers.

That would be like, you know, you're shooting, you know, 30 times to get 30 points. It just don't happen, right? AKA the Kobe Bryant.

AKA the Kobe. You know, you're always good with that, Dave Fraser. Go ahead. Just wanted to say that.

Just throw a little dig in there. Let's talk about the bad and that's the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. Obviously, the 10 sacks against Tom Savage looked great last week. A lot of people thought that they had maybe one of the best defenses in football. This week,

not so much against Marcus Mariotto. They only had one takedown and two quarterback hits against him. He's obviously a more elusive guy, but pretty bad for the Jaguars, right, in week two? Yeah, I think it's bad, only for the sense that they have to play too much defense. I mean, they're not going to be able to play effectively some points. If the offense doesn't become more explosive, I think

that's what makes them bad. And I think really, for the other guy could be bad as Chuck Bragano. I mean, Chuck was really bad because, I mean, Chuck not being able to handle the, you know, the end of the game, he's got the lead, managing it. And really, Jacoby Bressett gave him a chance to win that game. And you got to wonder, you know, like, really, was it that hard to put Jacoby Bressett in there instead of Scott Colesie?

I don't think that was hard. So I'm going to each give one of those bads to Jacksonville and the Chuck Bragona. And then we're going to wrap this thing up with the ugly when you're looking at who was the ugly of this week. I mean, there's someone that jumps out to you. It's got to be the Chargers, Dave Fraser. It's got to be the Chargers. They could be 2-0.

They got a rookie field goal kicker. They're sitting there, and they can't win close games. It's ugly. They can't win close games, and yet they keep trying to play close games. I mean, do you remember last year with Mike McCoy on the sideline

when the game was close, how he was like in pain? And now they're right back at it again. You know, they had a chance to drive the ball down the field. It was ugly to watch. It was poor game management. Remember this.

We're not trying to attempt the field goal. We want to make the field goal. To me, that deserves the ugly. What do you do as a GM when you have a situation with a kicker like this? One for four, first two games. He's obviously a young guy, rookie guy. He's had the opportunities there. I mean, he got unlucky being iced

in the first week, obviously. But, I mean, do you start thinking of other options? Or you still try to write it out because he's a young guy? I think you start thinking of other options. I mean, look, the Raiders sign as the Italian kid for Sebastian Janakowski, Georgio. And, you know, he's come in and done a nice job for him.

So, look, you can't be stuck with just a kicker. You've got to make some changes when you think you have to do it. And this kid, the pressure was on them, and I think it was bothered them, and I think it's going to keep bother them. First of all, the team of that confidence in them. You've just lost two games. You've lost two weeks in a row because you're a kicker. That's hard to do.

That's very, very hard to do. So there'll be a tough, ugly week for the charges to try to bounce back going down O&2, but you can never count out to bolot tie, so you never know, Lombardi. They may be able to bring it back. There we go. There we go. All right.

This has been another episode of G. GM Street, Lombardi. I hope you enjoy Northern California. I'm sure they're happy to have you back in Oakland. I'll be back tomorrow. Perfect. I'll be back tomorrow. We want to thank, we want to thank McMillian Studios for helping us here tonight. And we'll appreciate it. I look forward to seeing on Tuesday, take Frazier. That's it for GM Street. Part of the Ringer Podcast Network. We'll be back Tuesday.