The Ringer NFL Show - Lombardi's Week 1 Reactions | GM Street (Ep. 298)

Episode Date: September 11, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier highlight five standout performances from the opening weekend, discuss and debunk Week 1 narratives, and give out awards for who stole the show to start the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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If you have a real argument, let me hear it. Until then, stick with Miller Light. Miller Light hold true and now GM Street. Welcome to GM Street part of the Winger podcast network. It is Tuesday. It is September 11th. And as always on this day, we would like to say,

never forget and remember. And we are here and we're here to talk about week one football. And I am joined right now by Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how is it going? You know, today's always a somber day. You know,

I can remember walking into my office and seeing the TV. And I thought initially, wow, like a little commuter plane must have hit the building or something like what's going on here, you know, and then the whole magnitude of it. And then we were getting ready to play the Jets that weekend. I was at the Raiders, and we knew that I knew it instantly that there was no chance we could play. So, and then all the stories you hear about the people that gave up their lives and the people that exited the building. To me, this is a day like you talked about. We'll never forget and just say a prayer for the country.

And we will say sports played a big role in that. And I do remember, I think a lot of people always will remember game three when President Bush came out and threw that strike in New York City wearing a bulletproof vest on the mound in front of everybody in Yankee Stadium. And that's when I think everybody was like, we can move on and we're strong and we know who we are as a country. So we'll always remember that. And we should say on this day, a special day for you as well, Mr. Michael Lombardi, your book, Great Iron Genius is now out to the world. We are very excited about this book. Bill Belichick, of course, we're at the forward for this. We've got pictures of John Bon Jovi reading the book.

We got pictures of John Calapari. in the book, Eric Musselman, even Bill Simmons is tweeting about it. What a big day for you. I'm excited for you. Yeah, it's really great. I mean, it's, I appreciate everybody who pre-ordered the book. It's just been humbling and a great experience to do this. And I'm just thrilled to death. I mean, this is just the, you know, I've always wanted to write a book. And, you know, it's kind of surreal that it actually has come out. I mean, it's been building up for some time. So I appreciate everybody. I really do. It's been a great, great day so far. For all the people out there in the world, just note that Michael Lombardi spent quite a bit of time

writing this book. I was here and witness it all and he's a man of his word and I hope you enjoy his words. But let's get down to the nitty gritty of this whole thing. We're going to talk about NFL week one. Last night was Monday night football, the back-to-back showcase that the world wanted to see. It was time to see Matt Patricia show himself to the world.

It was also time for Sam Darnold to show that he is the new young gunner with the New York Jets. It didn't start out quite well for Sam. His first pass the night was a pick six. A lot of people remember Brett Farb did this as well. James Winston was the last person to do this in 2015. But he comes out throws a pick six.

The collective jet contingency in the crowd seemed to tighten up a little bit. You know, they were very shook. At the moment, but Josh McCown pulled him the signs that Sam keep throwing that football. We're not going to get away from what we're doing. And for the rest of the night, the New York Jax was a team to continue with, right? Yeah, you know, they took the ball down the field, the next drive. And Sam looked very comfortable in the pocket. His eye level never came down.

Ziggy Ansu not playing, really, I think, not to this game. It took a while for the broadcast to let us know that. But when Ziggyanzo went out, it defends. Can't the broadcast tell us that players aren't playing? I mean, especially significant players? I mean, it would be nice to know, especially since you have a sideline reporter. I mean, I'm not blaming Laura Rutledge or whomever was, you know, like it's like I'm sure they just don't have time. They're so busy talking about, you know, other things that have nothing to do with football.

But the reality here was, I mean, Detroit has not looked like they've been ready to play all summer. Detroit did not look like they were ready to play last night. You know, Matt Patricia is trying to install a culture and a belief into Detroit. and it's really going to be hard. Because I've been around it enough to know. When Belichick first came to Cleveland, he tried to do that it takes time. It's going to take a process to get through that. And, you know, when Detroit had Jim Caldwell, they like Jim Carwell, the players like him.

The players coach, yeah. They like Jim. And so you know you're coming into that situation, and you're going to be so radically different. It's going to be a challenge. And now when you lose as badly as you lost, and they didn't lose like this ever before, you're going to have to try to build a coalition. I mean, you can't develop a culture in just an hour or just by screaming at people. Or just by hugging people before the game. Or just by hugging people before the game. So, look, I think Matt's got his work cut out. And like I've said to you before,

you can't be Sinatra in a leisure shoot, right? You just can't do that. You have to have your own personality. Belichick's personality was different than Parcell's. You know, Parcell's's's personality was different than anybody he worked for. You have to be your own man and come in. And to build a culture, you're going to have to bring everybody together. And Detroit, you know, they go to San Francisco this week, and that's not going to be an easy game because Kyle Shanahan has always given Matt Patricia's type's defense trouble, right? And so this is going to be a hard one. So they start off 0 and 2. They start off with things going down. And all of a sudden, you know, that all those people that are saying it's not going well become louder and louder and louder. And I think it's going

to be important that they kind of get this fixed. And he's going to have to change how he's doing it. Because one thing I think it's pretty clear when you lose that bad, the message you're giving to the players isn't going through. And you've got to look at 10 years in the NFL right now. Matthew Stafford, a stat I honestly cannot believe when they said that. Highland Park's finest, a guy that has been in the league since 2008. A lot of people were expecting to see Matthew Stafford to be what we saw last year, which I think put up the stats, get some wins, maybe get Detroit back in playoff contention.

I personally have a lot of faith in what I believe I've seen in the NFC North, especially after the first touchdown for the Lions. It kind of bought into the hype of that. And then from there, it looked like Matthew Stafford fell off the face of the earth. It was turnover central, that Jets defense. For all the talk about losing Muhammad Wilkerson, losing Sheldon Richardson, losing all these big-name guys that were big-time picks. You look at Leonard Williams and the rest of those guys on that team.

They have a legitimate defense. And last night they showed Matthew Stafford what they really had to show. Yeah, they played like a team. And I think today when you read the paper, all the Jet players are talking about, well, we knew what they were going to do. And I think they did. I mean, they clearly, by the line splits, by the receiver splits, by where Matthew Stafford wanted to throw the ball, I mean, they had a really good handle. The Jets were really well coached on defense last time.

And Jim Bob just ran it back, it seemed like. You know what I mean? They were doing more of the same from last year. So they had that tape. They're doing more of the same from every time. And I think that's the key component here. If you don't change and modify what you're doing and you have all that time to get ready, you know, the worst thing the Lions can do is try to establish a running game. Because they can't block anybody up front.

I mean, you could just see whenever Blunt was in the game, the Jets were blitz and the football. formation, you know, and so they knew it was going to, the ball was going to go to blunt. And so you've got to modify, you've got to have to change what you're doing. And you have to see that. That's the job of the head coach. Hey, look, I'm a defense coordinator. I see how you're running stuff. You're too predictable here. We need to change that. That's what a head coach is. I think Matt's got his work cut out for you. But Sam Darnold, I thought Sam Darnold looked like he was poised. He was very comfortable in the pocket. His eye level was great. His demeanor was tremendous. If you just compare him to

Drubisky, and I'm not picking on Trubisky, because I think Trubisky's a great athlete. I don't think Trubisky's a great quarterback yet. And I think when you compare those two guys, clearly Sam can process much quicker. Sam knows where to go with the football. Sam can check at the line of him. Sam's already playing the cat and mouse game. When he did that

little shoulder pump move to get that deep ball the first touchdown that he threw, that 101, I mean, that's a veteran quarterback move to get a guy looking off. Right. He's got instincts to play the position. I don't see instincts in Trubisky to play the position. I think Matt Nagy has to coordinate everything so perfectly for Tribisky to make the throw. And I think that's why you'll see it.

I think this weekend, Tate Frazier, was very clear that once the game plans ran out, once people's game plans weren't able to extend into the second half. And the defensive coordinators got a handle. Like last night, Wade Phillips saw what Gruden was going to do. Gruden had him on his heels in the first half. Couldn't score touchdowns because we know this. When you're trying to run the ball, you're not going to score. If you can't make explosive plays in the past game, you're not going to score a touchdowns.

I don't care what you do. So that being said, once Wade got in halftime and he could figure it out, they had nothing left to go to. There was no adjustments to make. And I think you saw that all through the league in the NFL. I think you saw it. I mean, the Giants saw what Blake Bortles was going to do what his game plan was. And all of a sudden in the second half, Blake, who I now will nickname the Great Equalizer, because Blake truly is the thing that's keeping the other teams in the NFL to stay.

close to the Jaguars. The Blake Bortles is the equalizer. There's no doubt in my mind, Tate Fraser. He, because without him there, if they had somebody else there, Teddy Bridgewater, if they had somebody else there, they would be so far above everybody else. I mean, Miles Jack is one of the best players in football. He can play on all level. Their defense, the Giants couldn't block any one of their front guys. They couldn't block any one of them. And so that was a problem. And they dominated the game. I mean, look, they win 20 to 15. It's a close game. And they can't quite get it going. I mean, they, they should blow out the giants, but Blake can't make a, can't really make enough plays and they don't trust Blake. Yeah, and some of the best moments that Blake has had in

his career, honestly, is running that speed option where he just kind of has people off on his heel and they don't expect him to keep the ball. And you talked about, you know, someone making a he heady play. We can't give Blake credit for that. He does know how to do that. He does seem to understand his limitations at least. And Doug Marone and then that defense, they are the offense of the Jaguars, you know what I mean? They're the ones that are set in the tone. They feel like they have to go out and get points for their team. And I mean, I think OBJ had a great game in that game. But what Rams and those other guys did to keep him in front of them,

even though he's 11 catches 11 yards, they made sure that OBJ didn't make a big play. That was an explosive play that makes it 22 to 20 instead of 20 to 50. You know, it's remarkable. Nobody talks about it after the game. Eli couldn't make a play. I mean, now I know he was under pressure, but everybody's under pressure in the NFL.

I mean, Aaron Rogers is under pressure with a bad leg. You've got to make throws. You're making that kind of money. You're supposed to be the best player on the team. team, you've got to make plays. When you don't, and they talk about all the skill the giants have on offense. Well, if you got so much skill, you've got to be able to make enough plays. Barkley makes one run of 68 yards.

Which is what Sequin does. Which is a great run. Which is a great run. On the other 17 carries, he averaged over two yards of carry. Okay, look, I think Barclay is going to be a really good player. I'm not disputing that. But if you're sitting in New York, and this is Eli, your quarterback, and you watch Sam Darnel the other night, you passed up a chance to have a blue chip quarterback for the

rest for the next 10 years. You better hope you're right with Eli. Every indication I see with Eli, you're not right. Like he can't score any points. He can't, and he gave points to the other team. I mean, just think about it. As bad as the Giants were and couldn't block them. If Eli doesn't throw the pick six, they might win the game. But we don't talk about that because the narrative isn't to criticize Eli, because Eli's still really good. And I don't have a, I don't have a hard on for Eli. I'm just saying, we as we as evaluators and watching the league have to be objective. We can't be fanatical and believe this, you know, this call, Eli, it just isn't there. And I think each week it's going to get harder and harder for the Giants to move the ball because

as they declare who they are on offense and where they are, I mean, everybody's going to put their best rusher of Erick Flowers. I mean, Nate Solder just made a ton of money, but Nate Soler is not even a top five left tackle in the national football league. We saw that the other day. So I just think to me, you know, Bortles is the equalizer. And Eli is just, I mean, the giant have been bad the last five years. They went to the playoffs one time. Even though you know you're going down the wrong road and you keep going, you're going to keep making mistakes.

And so, you know, like, look, I thought the Redskins offense the other night. I thought I was not high on the Redskins based on their preseason. But with Chris Thompson back and with Jordan Reed back, they are really good. And, you know, Bill Callahan, I've always believed does a great job with their offensive line. And their defense, if they stay healthy, their defense can put pressure on. I mean, they dominated that Arizona game. I thought they were really good in that game. I thought it was an impressive performance by them

because they were able to get the ball to the playmakers. And Alex Smith executed the game exactly how they have to do it. And we should say one of the biggest knocks on Washington in general in the J. Gruden era has been they kind of shoot themselves on the foot. They get themselves in a position to win football games, but whether it be penalties, whether it be a costly turnover, whatever it was, it seems like they had something end up ruining whatever was going well for Washington. But it seemed like with Alex Smith,

there was a certain kind of composure and calmness. in the pocket with that team. And we always talk about the Eagles and the RPO's, but Washington, I mean, they're running run-pass options. They have 182 yards of rushing. Alex Smith is obviously a threat to run the football teams, know that. And it seemed like as if this Washington team was already cohesive and already a unit. And that's interesting for a new guy coming in and being a quarterback.

No, he did. I mean, look, I think he had like the fourth best QBR rating. You know, Donald had the third best QBR rating in the league this weekend. So, you know, he played really well. Their defense is hard to block. Arizona's offensive line struggled. And then Sam Bradford was back to being Sam, check it down, Sam. And then once they got behind the game, Sam wasn't going to stay in there, hold on to the football.

So that became a real problem. And I just think to me, you know, that's always going to be Arizona's issue. Well, Bradford stay here and throw it. But the game of the week really was when I watched the tape was, I still can't believe Ryan Fitzpatrick. I mean, Ryan Fitzpatrick made plays in that game. I mean, he had plays that were just unbelievable. I mean, he had remarkable down-the-field throws that you would think, oh, there's no way he can make those throws. He had a 58-yard or a 50.

He had a 36-yard or a 35, another 35, a 34, 21-a-20. I mean, you know, at some point, the Saints had to stop playing mad to man. Mike Evans was a beast. They couldn't cover Mike Evans. Lattimore couldn't cover him. It couldn't get any pressure on the pass. The Sean Jackson looked like the Deshaun Jackson we saw in Philadelphia. I mean, and for as bad as the Saints defense was, Drew Breedman.

was unbelievable. I mean, he was unbelievable. He was perfect. Michael Thomas, the end of the, the end result of the game was the turnovers. I mean, Camaro drops a pat, tomorrow fumbles for a touchdown, and then, you know, Michael Thomas has a fumble. I mean, if it's not for that, I mean, Drew Breeze was unbelievable in that game. In Tampa, they was just picking like crazy on that, but Fitzpatrick did something I never thought he could ever do. He was amazing in that game. It'll be interesting to see how he does with Philly this week when Philly can put some pressure on him. I mean, the Saints really never got Fitzpatrick to play fast. Give it to Tampa.

They did it. They did a great job. I still thought they should have get Teddy Bridgewater. Obviously, he had the game of his life. And Dirk Cutter came out after the game, and he said, that's Fitzmagic, baby. You understand. He's back. He throws a 417 yards, four touchdowns and also has a rushing touchdown.

So five touchdowns in total. The Bucks defense, for as good as the Bucks offense was, the Bucs defense still got shredded by Drew Brees. Like you said, at 475 yards for Breeze and the Saints. Michael Thomas and Camero looked just as scary as we thought they would heading into the never punt it in the game. I actually think that if you give them Breeze four downs to get 10 yards, he'd have got it every time. Yeah, I don't think I don't think it's ever concerned to him. Even Sean

Payton probably would buy into that. I think if Sean would have thought his defense was going to play that bad, he probably would have never punted. I mean, like seriously, I mean, it was, it was magical to watch. The throws, the accuracy, the timing. It was really impressive. But again, you know, the Saints, they got Cleveland coming in. Now speaking to Cleveland, I'll transition right into Cleveland.

I mean, how do you possibly lose a game when you're plus five in the turnover takeaway. How do you possibly do that? Or tie a game. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was a tie. It was a tie. It was the best start at the season for the Cleveland Brown since 2003. We should say that. Everyone is very excited. 2004. I'm sorry, 2004. So, you know, we're all excited to see Hugh and those guys put it all together. I really thought they're going to take first. When they got the interception, I think collectively as an NFL group of people that are all watching this game, we all kind of patted ourselves on the back because the Steelers didn't deserve to win the game the way that they played out the second half. So, I mean, it felt like finally the Browns had some good

They're getting down in field goal range. They're showing shots at the sideline. We got Hugh there. He looks excited. Miles Garrett's excited. It seems like it's all going to finally happen. And it's gone. Yeah.

I mean, it's unbelievable. I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, I thought if there was a game the Browns are going to win, that was going to be the game. And I think they should have won it. I know they just tied it, but it's an ugly tie. I mean, you can't, you know, Tyra Taylor Taylor's like 18 for 40. You know, doesn't really make any. he plays in the passing game again. It leads me to wonder, like, and he throws an interception,

like, why isn't Baker Mayfield playing? I mean, if this is, if the reason you're playing a veteran quarterback is because he's going to help your passing game, he's going to, then this is not the answer. Look, I think the kid's a great kid and all that, but, wow, but Mayfield must be really far behind because when you watch Sam Darnold play, he doesn't look like a rookie, right? You watch Patrick Mahomes play. He doesn't look like a second year player. Right. So at some point, you've got to put him in the game. But I get why they didn't play Patrick Mahomes. Alex Smith was playing really good. But when your guy's not playing good,

and you haven't won a game in over two years? I mean, come on. Yeah, we're not really sure what the leash is there. And we should say the Browns, they force six turnovers. They've done that 45 times in their history. In those times, they've gone 43 and two. So this is the second tie when they've had six turnovers. So it is possible.

It has happened before. I should point out that James Connor also in this game, 192 total yards in lay down Bell's absence. But Big Ben was, I mean, we said this on the Friday, on the Friday sit down. I mean, we were four for five on Friday. We said Big Ben wasn't going to play well. This is Big Ben's history in September. He doesn't play well. He kind of takes a little while to get going last year. He struggled. I mean, so, and he'll get it going eventually. I'm sure he will, but that typically that's not what he does, you know, and I think what you saw

the first week in the NFL from every quarterback, including Tom Brady. I mean, Deshawn Watson was terrible. Jimmy Garoppolo didn't play well. These guys, because they don't play enough Matt Ryan didn't play well. Matt Ryan was horrible. I mean, Brady played good for most quarterbacks in the league. Brady just didn't play a Brady's type game. I mean, I'm not, Brady was better than all these. He was way better than DeShon. He's way better than these other guys. And we should say Ben Rathesberger there. I mean, he did come out and he said after the game. It's just frustrating that you can't make plays on the stretch. And that's sort of, you know, the tail of the tape for a lot of these guys that we're talking about. I mean,

and you just brought up Jared Gough and the Rams. So the thing that is beautiful about this Rams offense, I think that we both appreciate, I think, is it is so micromanaged. to perfection to make sure that Jared Goff is never going to put him or the team in a situation where they're going to get behind the eight ball. The way that Shaw McVeigh and the way that this offense is designed to make sure that he has options on every single play and the fact that Todd Gurley is the centerpiece of every single play is interesting with this Rams team. I mean, I think it's really clear. Look, Gurley stirs the drink. It's all about Gurley because everything's just play action. All eyes are on Gurley. Yeah, because the safeties come up.

They get the ball down the field, you know, and golf is able to execute exactly how McVeigh has programmed it, it's got to practice, because when you execute play action passes, it separates the defense. So there's spaces and there's windows in the defense because of the play action. And if you have no play action game like Detroit doesn't, then you can't do that. That doesn't make easy throws. And what happens with this offense is because he's able to have such an effective way of drawing the defense in because of Gurley, these windows are huge for him to throw the

ball to. So now you're forced. Do you play zone? Do you play, man? If you blitz them, they've got all the pick plays they can run. I think McVeigh's done a remarkable job. And I think the Rams are going to be hard unless you can put pressure with four down guys from inside. The Raiders couldn't do it last night. Obviously, not having Mack was a problem.

Mac would have probably made a difference in the game a little bit, I'm sure, but the Raiders have a long-term thought process here. Look, I think the Raiders' biggest concern after last night. We know their defense wasn't going to be great. But you've got to think that the guy you're paying all the money to Derek Carr was going to make enough plays. you know, car throws the bad interception or in the red zone. He underthrows Jared Cook. I mean, there's no way you underthrow that ball.

You got a 6-7 guy, 6-6-6 guy going against the court going against the state. You got to put it up there in the back of the end zone. And then the throw he makes at the end in the fourth quarter when you got a chance to come back in the game. I mean, that was like that looked as bad as anything I ever saw. They looked like something, like it slipped out of his hand almost, right? I mean, it looked like he looked, thought he was going to have

someone there and his arm was already in motion, so he just kind of lost it. I mean, sometimes you do that like in the backyard or something, but you don't do it in the NFL. You know, I mean, you've got to be concerned. And then all that money they paid, you know, the Rams said, well, they didn't Aaron Donald and get a sack. Yeah, well, they had so many holding calls. They'd like sacks.

So, you know, I mean, I think the Raiders, you know, everybody talks about the rebuilding thing. I don't really quite understand. You don't rebuild any NFL. You got to repair it. Nobody gives you enough time. I know he's got 10-year contract and all that. But they do have enough time.

I would be concerned. Where was Amari Cooper? Where was Jordy Nelson? Like, these guys can't get open against anybody. I mean, where are those guys? I mean, Jared Cook was a legitimate player. But you got some other guys. Where is the guys to win the one-on-on-one matchups?

I would be worried. I mean, you know, Gruden's a good offensive coach. I'm sure he's going to come back with a plan. But look, I'll just say this again and again and again. If you think you're going to run the ball and score a lot of points in the NFL, it ain't just going to happen. It's just not. I mean, you know, you can have all the backs you want. You've got to have a guy that can make explosive plays in the passing game down the field.

That's the most critical thing. And if you have an offense like McVeigh has where you can do all those play actions, you know, that's what you got to do. Yeah, that's definitely the way to win. Obviously, we saw the whole, like, Groot and McVeigh, their whole relationship, you know, how McVeigh went and got his dry cleaning when he was down in Tampa Bay and now we look at the other side of this. But I thought the interesting. A little keynote here, I want to tell you. So when I left the Rader, when I left the 49ers in 87 to go to the Browns, John McVey was the GM of the 49ers at the time. And he was always so good to me.

And that John McVey is Sean McVey's grandfather. The guy who was at the game last night. It was at the game last night. And the guy who replaced me at the 49ers was John Gruden's dad, Jay. So it's kind of like ironic because when I was seeing that, I was like, oh, my God, this is like interesting. But, you know, these two families go back a long, long way. But McVeigh, to me, has got a uniqueness with his offense that makes the quarterback position easy to play. And I think it makes the quarterback look better than he actually really is.

And I think he's done a great job with golf. And I will give one little tidbit. that I had a linebacker in the NFL. I won't say his name specifically, but I asked him why Gurley was so good, why he was such a headache. He said, because he sells every single play

like he's going to get the ball. He's like a lot of guys we can tell just the way body language, whatever it may be, you know, like Terrell Owens, one of those guys. Like you saw him run out of the huddle. If he sprinted out,

he was going to get the football. He wasn't going to get the football. He said, Gurley every single time, you're sold that he's going to get the ball. And he was like he's almost, he's playing with you the way he looks off things. And it's a cat and mouse game at all times,

like a quarterback. Right. And that's a great point. I think the detail in the Rams offense, you can't lose sight of the detail. On the Cooper Cup's first touchdown pass, the way he delayed and he counted, he was patient, and then he burst. I mean, the details in the coaching, I think the receivers that are coached at the Rams, they work hard, they run.

I mean, those receivers run hard. Robert Woods is diving for every deep ball. They run hard. I mean, they're in shape and they run hard. I mean, and their offensive line, Aaron Cromer's done a really good job with that offensive line. I mean, Whitworth has been a really good player for him at 36 years old, but they've done a really good job with that offensive line. But the details in their coaching offensively is really what makes it happen.

And, you know, again, you know, my favorite quote by Marcus Aurelius, you know, the secret to all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious. The Rams offense looks like everybody else can do it. But the reason not everybody can do it is they can't coach the details as well as the Rams do. The Rams really have those details well down. It's all misdirection and they do a great job of putting it out to the world every single time. We're going to get a quick break here and then we're going to come back and we are going to play one of our favorite games. Used to be called guest to narratives. Now we're going to just talk to narratives, but we'll be right back.

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Again, that's promo code Ringer at checkout to save 15%. And we are also brought to you by Fandul. Football season is underway and I already have major regrets about my season-long fantasy teams. That is very true. I'm sure most of you fantasy players feel the same way. you spend all of the off-season researching and getting excited for your draft. And then comes the pain.

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I don't fan duel. Come play with me at fanduil.com slash the ringer. That's fandul.com slash the ringer. All right, and we are back. This is, for those that don't know, we did this last year on Sunday nights. And so we did five performances that jumped out to Lombardi. That's what you just heard on the first half of this podcast before break.

And now we're back. And we used to play a game called Guest the Narratives. The narratives are already out in the world at this point because it is Tuesday already. And we're already on the way to week too. But just speaking in narratives and speaking about conversations, points that have come out. One of the biggest games has been discussed by many people just because of the gravity and the way that it switched so quickly. It was a tale of two halves, as John Gruden would say, the Bears and the Packers game. We start out with Matt Nagy comes out with this revamped Bears'

offense led by Mitchell Tribusky. He's throwing balls 15-yard outs. We got Tariq Cohen lining up in these weird formations. We got offensive linemen lined up as wide receivers at one point. And people are losing their minds because the Bears look like a legit. legitimate offense, a team that really had figured it out. Nagy looks like an inventive guy. People were going crazy. Aaron Rogers is getting wrecked by Khalil Mack and this whole, you know, new front floor for the Bears. And all things are pointing to, uh, to, to 85 in the Super Bowl shuffle at this point for all

the Chicago Bears fans. Um, and then, of course, there is a second half and Aaron Rogers comes back, uh, like Jesus Christ himself throwing a football and once again pulls out a ridiculous win. But I just want to talk about the narrative of this, like, what can we take away here? Because a lot of people are now going to say the Packers are great and they're who. we thought they were and a lot of people think the bears are not who we thought they were and choked it away but i think there's somewhere in the middle between both teams yeah i think the key narrative here is don't overreact to week one i mean maybe if you're in detroit you're going

to overreact that should be the mantra of our podcast don't overreact a week one yeah because you first of all you can't compare well we beat this team and we must be so much but like like like a lot of it was game playing a lot of it was scheme i you know when i was growing up uh you know monday night football came out in 1970 so i was a here huge Redskins fan growing up. And so I would always want to watch Monday night football. But my mother would only let me stay awake till halftime. And so, you know, you have to go to bed. It was like 10.30. You know, I'm 12 years old, 11 years old, whatever it is. And so when you wake up in the morning, whatever, whatever you went to bed at halftime, whoever was winning, like, the game was

completely different in the second half. Because Monday night football back during there was a period when there was, they were all the good games. Yes. Before you were born. They were really the best games of the week. It was unbelievable. They're still playing off that nostalgia to this day. They were unbelievable. Now they're not so unbelievable. But so this was a classic old Monday night kind of game where if you went to bed and you woke up, but you're like, what? What the hell just happened? And I think people blame Nagy because he got conservative because he got conservative in the playoff game against Tennessee. Look, I think what Nagy's trying to do is the same thing

that Sean McVeigh is trying to do in Los Angeles. He's managing his quarterback. He knows the limitations. He understands it. Look, let's face it. Mitchell Tribusky is not a progression reader. He has to be a play action pass, separate the defense quarterback. Put him on the move. He doesn't really feel it. He was, what, nine for 10 in the first quarter. And by the fourth quarter, he averaged 2.2 yards per attempt. I mean, that was in the comeback drive, in the two-minute drive. It just wasn't there for. I mean, so this is going to be a work in progress. I mean, if you're a Bears fan, you've got to hope Nagy can get Tribisky better and better as it goes along. I'm a little less optimistic about that, but they have a really good running game. And I think the call of the

the week was when Nagy decided to throw that pass on third down down the red zone. I think if he had that call again, he just runs it against the first down, probably wins the game. But look, Aaron Rogers is remarkable. What's remarkable is why the Packers just don't put them in spread and gun and let them just thing it all around. Mixing a couple runs and go that way because he's so good with the ball and he's able to get people open with his feet. His movement, slightly in the pocket creates these little lanes that he can pinpoint the ball in, the throw to Allison, you know, the throw to Cobb that he throws him open for the touchdown pass. I mean, it's just really remarkable. And when they play in Green Bay, it's hard because the Green Bay field, like we talked

about, it's hard. The surface, there's a lot of people slip on that turf up there for whatever reason. And so, look, I think it'll be a challenge this week for Green Bay against Minnesota. Minnesota's defensive fronts a lot better than their back end. Their defense is good. They'll be able to put pressure on them. And I think their offense is better than the Bears' offense because their quarterback is better than the Bears. quarterback. And we should say with Rogers and this, you talked about that Randall Cobb, the the game winning touchdown pass, that is completely playground football. I mean, that is that is Aaron Rogers rolling and bouncing to his left, just trying to create more time. Randall Cobb sticking

his foot in the ground, them having enough of rapport with each other for him to know that he's going to switch and go back the other way and go deep as he's fading up. I mean, you know, that that is just, it is hard to have that sort of awareness and such a big moment too, not only just from Cobb, but from Rogers to see that expected and then throw him. him to a spot. I mean, he wasn't throwing it to random cop. He was throwing him up the field to lead him to the end zone. Right. That's what great quarterbacks do. They throw the ball

to an area where they're taking you away from the tackler. And they throw it. I talk about it in the book, I mean, it's like why they, you know, Brady's able to throw a guy to an area. If Brady throws the ball to you on your left, on your left shoulder, you better turn left because the defender's coming from your right. You know what I'm saying? He's telling you, even though you can't see it. Same thing with Rogers. Those good

quarterbacks they can do that. I mean, look, it was remarkable to come back. I think when you go up 20 to nothing and you have a really good pass rushing unit like the Bears have, you should win that game, right? Then it's 20 to 3. But you can't stop scoring when you're playing Aaron Rogers. You can't stop scoring. You've got to keep scoring. You got to keep putting pressure on. Like last night, the Jets game against Detroit, even though Detroit played like crap, Matthew Stafford operates typically normally when he gets behind. And then he doesn't have to to worry about calling any runs anymore and he can just keep throwing the ball down the field. And so you're, it's all hurry up. It's all hurry up. And all of a sudden, next thing you know,

so you got to keep scoring. You got to keep, you got to keep the pressure on. You can't say, okay, we got a 14 point lead now. Everything saw it in the Buccaneers with the Saints. Right. The Saints started making that comeback. The Bucks had that big lead. They're still trying to score. But when you're like Nagy and you're managing your quarterback and you ran out of plays by the second half and look, let's face it. I mean, Mike Petton has adjusted this game plan. He saw what the game plan was and he came out and he said, okay. Now next week, when they play Seattle, Seattle's going to put the pressure on, on Trubisky to have to execute and make throws into tight windows.

I mean, anybody can make a throw when the window's wide open. I thought the greatest stat last night was last year, Jared Goff threw the ball into windows only into tight windows only 10% of the time. That's coaching. That's scheme. That's scheme. And I think that's what Nagy is going to have to try to do with Trubisky. And I have to ask you about Nagy.

So he opens up this game and what they had scripted out for Mitchell. I mean, I don't want to, I mean, but the guy looks like a star quarterback when he has these plays scripted out. I saw your tweets. I'm like, I was almost going to come back to you and say like, slow down, take place. I've never, I've never, you know, I've watched Mitchell quite a bit. He has all the skills in the world. He has an arm. I mean, the guy has very deceptive speed.

He is a true athlete, but when he plays fast, he loses the, he sprays the ball. Anybody who calls him an accurate quarterback is wrong. He sprays the ball. He can be accurate. That was the touchdown pass that he missed to Alan Robinson. That was the perfect example of, he was on a roll. He was on a roll. Robinson gets open in the back corner. The throw is there. But he gets excited because he sees that the throw is there. And then he rushes it. He doesn't play it like the game's not moving slow to him. It's always moving fast. He's not an instinctive player. And what Nagy has to do is create situations that he takes instinct away from the position. That's hard to do. You got to script practice that way. You got to make it so that he knows, hey, we're banging the ball here. We're doing this. And in the first month of the season, nobody's playing coverages. based on what you think they're going to do because there's no evidence to say what they're going to do.

So it's hard. Is it hopeless for Trubisky? No, but they're going to have to manage him. Is he just a guy that can play? Is Donald better than him? I know there were different draft classes, but clearly he has to. I mean, look, Watson last year started out against Cincinnati. He was horrible.

He was as bad as he was against the Patriots. This week, we'll see what he does. He's got to be better. Speaking of see what he does. Take Frazier, I'm telling you, this Marcus Mariotta thing now, it's got to worry you. I mean, when is this guy played good? Tell me when.

I know last year the playoffs, I mean, I guess a couple of those touchdown passes of of Corey Davis are the stuff that people were still pointing out, losing Delaney Walker. I mean, just watching that game. This was the longest games since the 1970 merger for people that did not know this. This is the 2720 win for the Dolphins in Tennessee. We had a lot of lightning delays. One of them, one hour, the other one, two hours. But all in all, I mean, when you look at Cory Davis,

And I mean, there were open targets, too, right? I think the problem with the Marriota stuff was, obviously he goes down with the injury, says he's hoping to be back. But he missed Corey Davis when he's open. I mean, there were just, there were a couple times in this game where you thought Marcus could make a pass that could really help the Tennessee Titan team,

and it didn't quite work out. You know, in 16, he had a much better season than he did. Like last year, he throws 13 interceptions. He throws 15 interceptions and just 13 touchdowns. And people were blaming, you know, the offense was bad and all. And then this week, he just throws two of the worst interceptions you can have. And I'm just wondering, can he stay healthy? Is he going to be able to be durable?

Can he make throws? Like, you've got to be concerned if you're a Titan fan. I mean, look, he did not play well. And maybe it's because, again, no overreaction here. But the first week of the preseason, this, because preseason has been nothing, you can't overreact to quarterbacks. I'm not overreacting to Watson. I'm not overre.

But I'm worried about Mario, but I'm worried about him, this durability, his ability to stay on the field. his ability to make throws when he has to make them. You've got to be concerned a little bit here. And it was in the first quarter that he had Davis and Delaney for what looked like could be would be touchdowns on that same drive. They both obviously did not connect. And then from there, the dolphins seem to work it out.

But Ryan Taney Hill, we should say first real action in 637 days. He's back on the field. And I mean, the dolphins look like a team that sort of had an identity at least, right? Right. They, you know, look, I just, I'm not in love with Tennessee. football team. I don't think their personnel is that good. I really don't. I don't. I think that their offensive line is average. I know people think they're great and all that. I think when they play against good teams, I think that they struggle. And I know they were a playoff

team last year. Dionne Lewis was really good running the ball. Henry wasn't as good. I thought he would be able to run the ball with more power against the smaller team. But look, that game was kind of hard to understand the way it went back and forth with all the with all the thunderstorms and all that. But for me, that wasn't disappointing. How about, before we go off on anything, thoughts on the clapper? That's what I was going to take our conversation to,

because Jason Garrett was back in full form in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jerry Jones is there eating bow jangles in the box. They seem set and ready to make some noise in this game. But the Carolina Panthers, I mean, the defense up front hit him in the mouth early. They got to Dak Prescott. We saw Dak have a few throws that were just left a lot to be desired.

Connor Williams can't handle power. And you can't handle power at guard. You know, you're going to get pushed back. He couldn't handle it all summer in the preseason. He got pushed back. I mean, look. But that goes back to what we're talking about the Clapper. What adjustments can you make?

Well, the Clapper makes, I mean, they just run their offense. I mean, this is what they do. Whether you want to blame Lenehan. Now, the Clapper's got this reputation because he went to Princeton because you know he's smart. He's smart, yeah. You know, just like Matt Patricia's an engineer, you know, because he's smart. Right.

Okay. So, you know, the reality here is, is that their offense is, just very generic and they don't even try it. Look, their best weapon is Zeke Elliott. Like, why aren't they doing everything that the Rams did with Zeke Elliott? Like, why aren't they doing the same things? Why aren't they built in tight formation bunches? A lot of play action passes to make it easy on DAC. They're going to have to help their line. Their line's not the same as it once was. They don't have great skill players. I've said it all summer long. The Cowboys are slow. They're really slow. They have no

explosive players on offense. And even if they signed Des Bryant back, they'd still be, They were slow with Witten and Des. And so for me, like, this is no mystery that the Cowboys can't move the ball in offense. I mean, I've seen it all summer. Oh, by the way, Tavern was, Austin was supposed to be their savior, right? Of course, he can't play. Because Tavon's the perfect workout player. He's the perfect, you know, preseason go-to-practice player.

But when the game starts and it's all live, you can't find them. He can't make a play. And you realize it's all specialty packages. So when teams see that they're drawing up a package for a guy, they know he's going to get the ball. So that's a thing that hurts with Tavon. Like to me, and. And I'm just disappointed that I didn't trademark the Clapper because now I see I'm getting people tweeting out that he's got a pitcher with Nike and everybody calls him the Clapper. I'm pissed off. I didn't trademark that.

Yeah, you got a clap on, clap off. We should say this. The Cowboys did not score more than 20 points in their passport contest. Dak Prescott has not thrown for over 200 yards in seven of his past nine games. And Prescott's four career starts are going to play the Giants this weekend. He's averaging 18 points per game against the Giants. So it looks like more of the same could be coming up for the Cowboys. The offense looks stagnant.

offense looked lost. Zeke gets 15 touches at most. I mean, they got a great player in Zeke. Like, and he can catch the ball. He's a weapon. Like, he can do everything Gurley can do. Like, utilize them. Like, make him the focal point.

But who's the guy that goes down to Lenehan or Garrett or even goes down to Zeke and says, I mean, is it even after Zeke? You know, we've seen guys be loud before. This shouldn't be done in week two of the season. This should have been like, okay, everybody's off on vacation. We come back in February. Okay, here's what I want. Jason Garrett, he's the head coach of the team.

Scott, here's what I want. I want to run. I want to be 90% play action. I want to be able to feature Zika. I want I want Zika in the passing game. I want them to catch 70 passes. I want them to average over 10 yards. I want to do it this way. I want to build an offense this way. I want to make it. This is what we're going to do. I want to do different formations. I want a bunch. This is what the offseason is about. What they did and what Detroit did, apparently, according to the Jet Players, is they just ran their same stuff that they ran before. So, like, what's the big deal. Yeah, they're running what they ran when Zeeke and Dak were rookies, basically. exactly same offense. But I got to ask you, I mean, as a, you know, if you're Jerry Jones,

who obviously does a lot with the personnel of this team, do you ever right now look at your guy, Dak, and say, have we mis-evaluated what we have here in this position? Or is it one of those things where we have to figure out how to make these guys look like they look, you know, two years ago? Well, I think if you're Jerry, you got to sit there and say, is it players, coaches, or scheme? And for me, watching the Cowboys, I see a lot of coaching and scheme is a problem, especially on offense. So I think Dak's really good. Because we've seen Dag make these throws. All right, let me ask you this question.

Put Sean McVeigh on the Cowboys. Have him fly in and have him coach the Cowboys offense. What do you think you're going to get? You're going to get because they've got, they don't have great players on offense. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they've got great skill. But they have enough things there, especially when you have a major guy. Cole Beasley can be a Cooper Cup.

Exactly. You've got guys in the slot. And if you can scheme enough around and have attention to detail, you got a chance. But, you know, this has been a problem going on. I mean, you just cited the history of where they are offensively. I mean, look, you're ignoring it. Again, the sunk cost fallacy here. You know it's wrong.

You keep going down the same path. Whose fault is it? And I do want to put out a little bit of a positive if you are a Dallas Cowboys fan. You do have to look at that defense and what they were able to do in this game to keep them in the game. Right. In the first place, I mean, the Carolina Panthers, if all things were considered, they probably could have been up 30 points in this game, just the way that everything is playing out. I think the Cowboys are good on defense. I think they got much better speed.

Jaylen Smith's better. I think they're good on defense. I think they'll give the job. Sean Leaves those from shines. I think they, they're defensive. They don't even have David Irving out there, and I think they're good. I mean, you know, they're going to make some plays. I think they're good.

But, again, you know, they've got to control the pace of the game with their offense. And, you know, they're running their offense that DAC ran two years ago. People know it. They can call it. And they're not going to change it. I mean, this comes to, this comes from the head coach. It's got to be able to say in the offseason, here's what I want to do. And here's why I want to do it.

And we're going to spend all of February, all of March, in here six days a week. And we're going to nail this thing now. We're going to recreate the playbook and we're going to teach it with the finest details. That's not happening in Dallas. And we should say, I think it did happen in Carolina because North Turner and this offense with Cam Newton. They seem like they all really bought in. Christian McAfrey looks like a different player from his rookie season. He's running physical.

He's running between the tackles. I don't know how Carolina is going to do it because here's what I will say this. And I will talk about this on Friday, but this is a golden Lombardi rule. Bad offensive lines don't travel. Yeah. Okay. Darrell Williams also went down in this game. This is a bad offensive line.

Yes. Okay. Thank God they have Superman back there with the Cape who can escape 17,000 tackles. Imagine if he was behind the Cowboys line. Oh, my God. If Matthew is, yeah, bad, like Minnesota's going into Green Bay. Bad lines don't travel well. I'll just say that.

And we should say that's something to keep an eye on. The Panthers did well in the road last year. But Cam Newton can't always save you as much as he is Superman. Luke Keekely looked great in that game, 13 tackles. I want to go to the Broncos. and the Seahawks. I feel like this game got a little bit lost in the shuffle as far as big time talk about what's going around the league. Case Keenom gets his debut win with the Broncos, obviously.

Had a really, you know, they trod by four points in that fourth quarter, had a great, you know, 70-yard touchdown, 75-yard touchdown drive us four or four passing. And they ended up closing the deal there. Demeris Thomas said, you know, this is the Broncos team that bounces back. We saw Von Miller. I mean, Kalil Mack was the story on defense, but Von Miller, for people that saw this game, saw a man on a mission. and a man that knew exactly what Russell Wilson was up to.

Russell Wilson is the king of the counterpoint rollout back, where he actually is going to roll one way and then tries to roll back out. Von Miller did not let that happen. The Broncos' defense looked like a defense that could really contend. Yeah, no, they did. They gave him a – I mean, look, Vaughn Miller was good. I mean, they exposed Chubb a little bit in coverage, but, I mean, look, this is a good defense.

And Seattle, their whole mantra under Pete Carroll is win the ball, right? And they didn't win the ball. They turned the ball over too much. They were able to create some turnovers. Von Miller twice, just ripping the ball out. Just ripping the ball out. So, you know, when you can't do that and you're, look, this Seattle is the memory of the, of the team that we know in Seattle that won Super Bowl, that won a Super Bowl and almost one another, I think that's a memory. I think this is teams trying to rebuild themselves and get their defensive line back up because they're nowhere near where they need to be at this point. And Russell, they got to manage him. I mean, one thing Russell does, he gets himself, when he spins and goes the other way, you know, how many more times are you going to do that and he's going to get killed when he does it? So I thought Denver was much better. offensively, even though case through three interceptions, I thought they were better offensively.

And I thought Emmanuel Sanders and I thought DeMario Thomas, both those guys, older players that played well in September, which I thought was key. But remember, last year, Tate Brazier, the Broncos went three and one in September. They always seem to have. The league always gives them three home games in September, for whatever reason, always gets them off to a good start. It's going to be interested to see how this team plays on the road. They got the Raiders coming in again this weekend.

We'll see how that goes. Absolutely. And I do want to point out Earl Thomas, you talked about that. defense with the Seahawks. Earl Thomas comes back, has an interception right off the bat. Bradley McDougold, who's one of the other safetys on the team, said Earl's going to be Earl, and he showed it today. It was important for the Seahawks to see him back out there, and it seemed like the defense, for the most part, fed off having Earl Thomas back. Yeah, no doubt. And I mean, look, Earl's a good player, but they need defensive line that can rush. I mean, that's going to be the key to their season.

I mean, that's the key to the defense. Earl's a really good player. And, you know, look, he did, he's got 15 more games in Seattle, and we'll see when he'll get his paycheck. And we should say The Seahawks offensive line, they can only be saved by the magic of Russell Wilson. The Panthers' offensive line can only be saved by the magic of Camden. Bad lines don't travel well. And that's not the recipe for success in the world. You know, we left one game out. You know, we didn't give Patrick Mahomes enough love.

Like that can't, I said this all summer to you that Kansas City was sitting on an offense. And I think Andy Reid is really a good offensive coordinator, good quarterback coach. He's a good head coach. You know, I still believe he should outsource his final two-minute game management to India. I think he would be much better with that. However, that being said, I mean, this team understands he's very good against the Chargers. He understands how to play them. And look, I don't know how good they're really going to be on defense this year.

It'll be interesting to see how they advance. But I thought Mahomes was sensational. I thought he was great. I think we all know how to beat the Chargers. Just wait for them to make a mistake on their own, right? Especially in special teams. It seems like for whatever reason, the Los Angeles Chargers, the San Diego Chargers, whatever charger you have in your house,

they seem to be marred by mistakes on special teams and 14 points they give up to the chiefs in this game. Tyree Kill, the first two times he touches the ball in this game. We talk about breakaway speed. That guy, it seems like he gets faster with every single step. And sometimes I don't even know how he slows down when he hits the end zone. I mean, it's unbelievable. He's like a rocket.

He's hitting 26 miles per hour. I mean, it's like a rocket. You know, the guy's incredible. And look, they play better on defense than I thought. I mean, look, let's face it. I mean, the Chargers have to prove to us that they're a good team without us keep saying they're a good team. They got a lot of talent. They have the pieces.

Yeah. But they got to play like a good team. And yet they go into Buffalo this week. If they don't dominate a bad Buffalo team, then something's wrong here. You know, I know they're up by, they're favored by eight, but they can't, they got to go in there and play that game to where they can play it and show people. Because they have to build confidence within themselves. Right now, they don't have enough confidence. I mean, Sturgis misses a field goal that could have cut the game down.

48-yard or, you know, I mean, so, I mean, to me, there's just. there's a lack of belief in the Chargers. And when you watch the game and the stands are filled with our opponents, I mean, they don't even have a home field advantage and they're playing in Los Angeles. What do you think Marty Schenheimer's doing when he's watching this Chargers team thinking about all the times that he won 14 games and still ended up getting kicked out? Marty's formula still works today. Marty's formula is the same formula that all good coaches have is we have to avoid losing before we can win. That's the number one thing we are.

How do we avoid losing? What do we have to do to avoid losing? You know, if you're playing, to avoid losing, how do we do that? If you're playing Denver, we got to make sure we block Von Miller. We're going to double Von Miller on every single play. That's how you avoid losing. It isn't like, okay, yeah, Lombardi, that's easy to say. No, there's a plan to how you want to avoid losing.

And the chargers, to me, never take that plan into account. They never avoid losing. They always just play the game as if it's going to go. They're play calling so conservative. They got one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. They got explosive players. They should come out, throw in the football, to win the game to get ahead of the game, but they don't.

And, you know, to me, that's why it's a problem. And you talk about Shaw McVeigh. I mean, imagine if Shaw McVeigh had the play action with Philip Rivers. You put Philip Rivers on the Browns. Oh, my God. With, you know, Mike Williams, a guy who came out in his second year that showed real, you know, signs of being able to be a great number two guy on this team next to Keenan Allen. I mean, there's so many good things for this Chargers offense that you see. And yet again, it comes down to special teams.

It comes down to focus. The details. It comes down to what. Marcus Aurelia says it's the secret to all victory. And this is what people miss. And unfortunately, because the announcers don't talk about it at the game, we don't understand the details that are in the coaching that make the difference in winning and losing. And how to avoid losing?

That's an easy thing to say, Lombardi. Yeah, well, I mean, when you're sitting there like last night against Detroit, Ziggy Ansu almost takes off in the Sam Donald's head. I mean, unless the Jets, now he got hurt in the game, but to avoid losing, you had to have to double team on Anso. That's the key thing to do. He's not going to beat us. We're not going to let him beat us, right?

We're not going to let O'Dell Beckham catch the ball over our head. That's how you avoid losing. There's things you can do and you set up your game plan that way. That's why I have trouble with Dallas. And I know I call him the clapper. I kid them. I never see Dallas ever take that approach. I never see Jason Garrett sit there and say,

okay, here are the five things I got to do as a head coach this week to win the game for my team. Like at some point, you're making $8 million a year. Show that you're worthy to make that kind of money. It seems like they're just going to continue to run it back in Dallas and hope that all things. things go well and then they're able to get some wins just doing what they do. But final thing for the Charger, sorry, for the Rams, and I wanted to point this out before we move on to awards for the week.

Brandon Cooks, we got to come up with a nickname for guys that they don't actually catch the ball, but they get you all this yardage with pass interference. I want to call Magnum PIs. They're just people that we have in these games, like Sammy Walkin type. You know what I mean? People that we just send them deep. And all they're really trying to do is not really catch the football, basically just act like they're going to try to catch football, bump into the defense.

I mean, I feel bad for the corners. I don't know what they're supposed to do. We had Richard Melvin in New England. We signed him. He played against us in the 2014 playoff game against Baltimore. Lafell beat him for a touchdown. He's a much better player than when we had him and cut him. Great kid, one of the great kids of all time.

But, you know, he don't play the ball in the air. I mean, that's part of, you know, in the book. I mean, it's another shill for the book. But one of the things Belichick does every single week is play the long ball. If you don't turn around and play the long ball, especially if you're playing Eli Manning, who underthroes, who underthroes, every pass. If you don't turn around and play the long ball and you don't coach it every single day, you're going to get pass interference penalties. You've got to turn around and play the ball.

And if you can't do that, you can't play. Because this is just, we're just giving them yards. We're just giving them yards. Make them complete the play. But turn around and look for the ball. And if you can't do it, you shouldn't be on the field. It's really, look, I think Cook's been traded from two really good coaches. I think McBae knows what he has in him. If you press him, it's a problem. I don't think he's great with the ball on his hands. Both Peyton and Belichick would echo those statements. However, that being said, he fits to what they want to do because he's going to get play action passes down the field. He can use his speed to make place. I think the best way to describe Cooks is what you talked about with Brady, where if I throw it to your left shoulder, you turn

left upfield. He'll hit Cook's in his left shoulder and Cook will turn right. You know what I mean? Like that, that's just sort of, Brandon Cooks has all the skills in the world, but it's little finite things like that that are the difference. But he's fit, but here's where I think McVeigh is also very good. He understands what he needs in his offense. It's not one for all. He knows he needs somebody to, like I didn't think Robert Woods was a great signing for him either, but he's got Robert Woods playing at a much higher level.

He gets those receivers to play at a really, really high level. And because they're really well coached and they're coached on the details, and I think that's a lost start in the NFL. I think you see too many sloppy route running. The Rams route running is really good. And I will say this. I thought one cool thing about what McVeigh was

doing. We talked about misdirection and all this sort of stuff. They were sending Woods on those deep balls and Goff on second down was throwing it to him to keep them honest. So they had to worry about Robert Woods. His play calling was great. Look, look, I've always believed this. When you call a screen, you come back to a screen. No defensive lineman in their right mind thinks you're calling two screens in a row. There's no way. They're too dumb. There's no way. They're too dumb. Because they're because they're conditioned to what is expected. They're conditioned to, like, I'm getting after the quarterback. I'm getting after the quarterback. And so when you run a screen and you come back and run the

screen again, there's no way they're going to sit there. Now, if they're tired, they'll play the screen because they won't get off the field. But if they're fresh, they're going to go off there. So his play calling, he plays Canadian football as well as anybody. Take shots on second down. He takes shots. He gets calls. He's not afraid to be in third down because he thinks he can convert third down.

And he'll run play action on third down. And you've got to respect early. So look, I think he's been, I think it's outstanding. Absolutely. We're going to take one more break and we're going to come back and do our awards for the week. One more quick break to talk about Sikh. Buying tickets can be complicated and confusing. But there is a simpler way to buy with Seekkeek, seek geek.

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We have quite a few of our own inventive awards by the great mind of Michael Lombardi. First up, we have our award. It's called Time to Go on the Lamb. And if you understand this, that means that you need to get out of town and get out of Dodge because some things might be coming your way. Lombardi, time to go on the Lamb. Who is it, Week 1? I think there's no doubt this is an easy one. I mean, you could easily give it to Buffalo, but I think Detroit's, you know, Detroit has to go on the lamb here.

I think Detroit's in trouble. I really do, Tate Frazier. I think they're in trouble. They had no really good body language. I mean, they get the play of the game. They open the game up 7-0. And I think they better figure out. They better figure this out in a hurry.

And it was all downhill from there. It was really, it was a steep downhill too. It was like really downhill. I got an argument about that phrase this weekend because some people say it's all uphill because things are going to be going well. But it takes more time to go uphill. And then if it's going to go downhill, it's actually easier to go downhill. It's quite a conundrum in the world.

But also time to go to Lamb, I will say Nate Peterman. It might be time for Nate Peterman to. We've seen enough for Nate as a starter. Unfortunately, Nate should play as a backup role and go from there. He has made three starts in his career. He hasn't finished a game yet. He's been hurt in one game. He's been benched into.

Nate Peterman, time to go on the land for sure. Next up, we have the Fred Palermo Award. This is all about the game plan, best game plan of the week. Bambardi, who is it? I like Kansas City's game plan. I thought there was a lot of good game plans this week, but I thought Kansas City, I thought that Andy Reid was sitting on a really good game plan.

He came in, played on the road out in Los Angeles, and rookie quarterback Mahomes didn't compete a play last year. You know, he did a great job of attacking him, kept the foot on the pedal the whole game. And to me that was great. I thought the Rams game plan in the second half last night was effective. But I really thought Kansas City was outstanding in what they did. And Pat Mahomes is, you know, we talk about yards per attempt.

I think he's at 14.8 after this week one game. And that's pretty good folks. We could have given it to Dirk Cotter and Ryan Fitzpatrick because they had a great game plan. I mean, they won. I mean, so to me, but I'm talking about, you know, this was a really, to me, with a young quarterback like that. I mean, Fitzpatrick played really well and above. and Mike Evans was sensational, but that both of them could share that award. Fred would be proud to give them to both of them. Yeah, so we'll have a co-fred Palermo Awards for week one.

Next up, we have the KGB Award. This is a team that got duped in week one. My pick for this has got to be the Saints defense. You mentioned Ryan Fitzpatrick. I think they were very, very surprised by that, Marshawn Latimore, especially by what Fitzpatrick could do, but who's your pick this week? I agree with you. I think the Saints are because I think they're still playing, I mean, they're playing defense like the last play of the Minnesota game. I mean, they didn't tackle worth a darn. I thought that, you know, they didn't make plays. They couldn't cover anybody. They can't play man to man. They were trying to blitz. They didn't get any pressure on the quarterback. I think it was really difficult for them to.

It looked like a Saints defense from a couple years ago where they had no pass rush, which is I know Sean Payton has talked about. They're trying to address that pass rush. They have tools on the back end with Latimore and those guys that are younger and look good. But it looked like an old Saints defense from the past few years where they didn't quite live up to expectations. Yeah, no doubt. I don't think they did very good at that. And, you know, they got to fix this pretty quickly because if you can't play man-in-man and you can't lock them down, look, you're not going to face Mike Evans every week. You're going to face good receivers every week. And when you blow a performance that Drew Breez had and you give up that many points, you know, you got duped.

Yep, you got dude. And we should say the Saints defense, they did struggle heavily in the first two weeks last season. Right. And then they had an eight-game winning streak that we all remember. And then people really turned the tide on them. The next up, we have our Can't Tell My Courage from my Desperation Award. Who do we got here? I'm giving it to the bucks here because I think they were incredible. I think it was a great, I don't know if it's really who they are. Yes. But I thought they were incredible. I like a flash in the pen every once in a while, especially if it's led by the great Harvard Hammer himself, Ryan Fitzpatrick. If Ryan Fitzpatrick comes back in week two and does it and again, then God bless him.

He's put, you know, he's got, he's got Philly in there this week. The Super Bowl champs come down to town. I think it'll be interesting to see how he handles that, how they handle success. Remember, week one's all about, you know, it's all new. Week two, there's a little bit more tape. And how do you handle success? How do you, you know, don't take the cheese, you know, don't think, hey, we're really that good. And now all of a sudden people play a little bit differently. And there's going to be a larger conversation to come. If Ryan Fitzpatrick continues to be this magical, the Buccaneers faithful and Dirk Cutter and everyone in that building is going to have to decide where they stand with James Winston, right? Is that going to happen? No chance.

You're telling me the Harvard Hammer is going to get bench? Look, I'm the, I think James Winston has got some issues, but I think he can beat out the Harvard Hammer. That's why I was rooting for Teddy Bridgewater to go down there because I think he would have given him a dimension too, but I don't think that one's close, Dave Frazier. I don't know. I got to see James throw four touchdowns in New Orleans before I give him back the starting job. We'll just say that. Every week's a new week, take from you.

Absolutely. Finally, our last award of week one, if you don't know, now you know, Lombardi, what do we know? Baltimore's a good team. I think Baltimore's defense is really good. I think Flacco played better. I don't think he's great. He played great, but I mean, I know Buffalo wasn't a great team. Baltimore's a really good defensive team.

In September, their age doesn't show up as much. They're physical. They're hard to play. They've got the greatest field goal kicker. The guy doesn't, I mean, he splits the uprights on every kick. I think Baltimore's a legitimate team this year. It looked like it this summer, and it continued in a week one. It would be interesting to see them Thursday night against Cincinnati, who we didn't talk about.

But I thought Cincinnati would beat Indianapolis, and they did. They made a couple plays with their defense. I thought they would put more pressure on Andrew Luck than they actually did in the game. But I think Joe Mixing is really a good player. I mean, you know, and I mean, Tyree kill, Joe Mixon, both have had off-the-field issues that are implorable to talk about. But both of them play football really well. And Mixon is a huge factor. He can make people miss.

He runs with power. He's explosive. And then you get Bernard to come in off the bench. They got a really good. And Andy Dalton played better. I know we threw a pick early in the game. But they play much better. I mean, John Ross, this skill player for Cincinnati's, Cincinnati are very good.

I like Cincinnati's team. I do. I like Baltimore's team. And I think if Pittsburgh don't pick it up this week, they had a huge game against Kansas City. If they don't pick it up, I think Sincere and Baltimore are going to give them a threat. Yeah, it's interesting to watch what's going on in the NFC North. And Cincinnati, the Bengals team has been, you know, talked about over the years as not being a team that has been defiant and been able to come back from a deficit. In that game, they scored three times in the final 19 minutes to overcome a 23 to 10 deficit in Indianapolis with Andrew Luck and the crowd behind him. So that is a good sign.

If you were a Bingles fan, that is for sure. And I want to mention, one more thing about Joe Flacco, and I thought this was interesting. Of his three free agent wide receivers that he brought in, he threw each one, a touchdown, John Brown, Michael Crabtree, all Willie Sneed, all those guys scored touchdown in this game. So that shows that Flacco has really gotten in with those new guys. I think the pressure of Lamar's made Flacko a better player. I think he's got pressure on him. Sometimes you need a kick in the ass in life.

Here does the work of recent tape, Frazier. Absolutely. I want to give one more shout out before we get out of here. Mike Hughes, rookie, for the Minnesota Vikings, a guy that I watched and covered when he was at North Carolina before he went. to the national champions down in Central Florida last year. But the guy has skills, he has ball skills, he has instincts, he has it all. And in week one, he looked amazing.

He really did. I mean, he played so well. I mean, the Minnesota defense is resilient. Jimmy Garoppolo didn't play well, had a lot of drops in the game. I thought San Francisco would play much better than they ended up doing. It was a closer game than the score ended up indicating. But, you know, San Francisco, they got to find a way to play with more consistency. And it starts with Jimmy.

Jimmy's got to play better. He didn't play very well. that game. And I think that Minnesota is a hard team to play. Now, Minnesota, when they travel on the road to Green Bay with that line, I don't know. It's going to be hard. It'll be interesting to see of Jimmy G. Deshaun Watson, some of those guys that we're really excited to see in week one bounce back in week two and show us what we know that they

can do. Before we head out of here, we should mention that we will be back on Friday. We'll be previewing all the week two games. Last week, Lombardi himself went four for five, which was pretty impressive, at least from my end. And this week, we'll get back to it. And please go check out. The Great Iron Genius by Michael Lombardi. Please go buy that.

Buy it for your friends. Read it, share it. Do whatever you got to do. All proceeds go to my grandchildren. So do whatever you like to do. Yes, all to the grandchildren of the Lombardi family. We appreciate everyone listening to us. We're very excited about this season.

We're very excited about week one and all we saw. And we will be back on Friday. Thanks, tape. Thanks again, to Fandole. You know how it goes. You spend all of your offseason getting excited for the draft. Then comes the pain. Early season injuries are never fun to deal with.

and I will say Delaney Walker going down this week did hurt my feelings personally. Thankfully, though, over at Fandul, it's a new season every week so you can research and build your team regardless of the outcome. They have something for everyone and there are more ways to win than ever now. And now, new users can get $20 bonus when they make their first deposit on Fandul. Come play with me at fandul.com slash the ringer. Thanks for listening to GM Street.