The Ringer NFL Show - Lombardi's Week 4 Reactions | GM Street (Ep. 314)

Episode Date: October 2, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the Chiefs' comeback and the Broncos' collapse on 'Monday Night Football' and Week 4 standouts. Then they give out some weekly awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, it's Liz Kelly, here to tell you that we have a brand new podcast called Halloween Unmasked, premiering Monday, October 1st. Here's a sneak peek. There's trouble in the suburbs. A teenage girl named Lori Strode crosses a quiet street toward an ordinary house to find her friends. But Lori doesn't know that her friends are dead, and she doesn't know that she's walking right toward the masked killer of Michael Myers. The movie is Halloween. And Halloween just, it was like a... It was a breath of fresh putrid air.

He's a pure unknowable evil. I'm film critic Amy Nicholson, and this is Halloween on Mast, a podcast series from The Ringar celebrating the remarkable and terrifying rise of America's most revolutionary horror film. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast to Halloween on Mast and watch her back. I think the scariest part was that he doesn't die at the end. So when you're 10, it's like, that guy's still out there. We got to get him. Welcome to GM Street part of the Linger Podcast Network.

It is Tuesday. It is October 2nd. Week 4 is in the books. And I'm joined by Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I'm good, take phrase. You know, the beginning of October and the September is always one of the greatest times in my life. I mean, my son Matthew turns 28 on the 30th.

Nice. And then Nick turns 30 on the first. Wow. So, you know, it's the greatest thing ever. Birthday season. It's prime time. Well, it's birthday season. But for me, you know, it was like, okay, Millie, you know, of course, Millie's going

organized birthday party, but God forbid if we had to do like two of them, you know, like one in April and one in, you know, in September or, you know, like that, I mean, that would have been a disaster. I might have committed suicide on that. But one, at one time, I mean, it was piece of cake. Yeah, a seasonal celebration. That's all that was. Yeah, we put it all together. So happy birthday to both. Happy birthday to both. To all the Lombardies out in the world, but especially those two guys, who were great for us. And I'm going to be a grandfather for the third time. How about that? This is, this is a beautiful day. This is great news. This is truly the great season. reason. It really is. Well, unfortunately, for

Vance Joseph and the Denver Broncos, they are not as excited as the Lombardi family is right now with all that good news. Last night we saw him in a night football that the Denver Broncos were in a position to do what we thought they could, which is exposed a little bit to the Chief's offense and maybe put some pressure on them, especially up front with those five pass rushers,

especially with Vaughn Miller. But unfortunately last night, Von Miller had to put up the tired signal a few too many times and Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs, you know, they brought them down and get a win 27, 23, and it looked like one of those situations where the Denver Broncos They were upset after the game about a delay of game penalty. We're going to get in that a second.

But just first off from there, the Chiefs get over this, you know, get over the hump in the AFC West and get a nice win on Monday night. Yeah, I mean, look, Mahomes did everything. I thought the Denver game plan initially was really what it was supposed to be. First of all, Dave Fraser, I don't know about you, but Monday Night Football, I've now muted it officially. I can't. I mean, Boogers on the, all down there talking.

I mean, and then Witton's talking. Like, I can't, like, Booger was supposed to be down there on, like, being a sideline. Like, I thought he was going to be down there to show, like, okay, the coaches are designing stuff and this is what the adjustments are going to be like give us insight i think the fans missed this so badly the insight from the sideline and not that least the salters isn't giving us information it's just like what's going on down there what are the adjustments are they trying to get into what are they going to do but he's over there commenting on the game why don't they just

put his ass back up in the box you know and like let him sit up there because it doesn't flow and now he's at a he's at a desk anyway down there right so we'll just get him up to the booth we need booger in the booth we've been saying that i also find an interesting guy had a friend of mine who works sidelines of now the ESPN, I won't say the name specifically, but she was saying there was such a hard time being on the sideline now because these teams are so aware where they are they're trying to withhold information from them. So if you know that going into it, why don't we just figure out some other solution because this isn't going to, you know, the old former is not working at this point. I love that. I love that thing on, you'll see it on NFL films when the big

tuna Parcells was up in New England and he says, you get that camera the hell out of here when the guy comes over there. I love that. But anyway, I thought Denver's game plan was exactly how people are going to play the Chiefs from now on. Okay, look, I know they never talked about it on the broadcast, but Denver went into the game saying, Kareem Hunt, you run the ball as much as you can. We only lose this game if we give up explosive plays. We only lose this game if the ball gets thrown over our head

and the game gets away from us where we become behind by 10. I thought Denver set it up so that, look, they moved the ball down the field, they forced a bunch of third downs as much as they could, and they played it. But then in the fourth quarter, you know, this is a classic example, Tate Fraser, A classic example of what Al Davis taught me years ago was this is what happens after a game.

The focus is going to be on the delay of the game penalty. The focus is going to be on this. When in reality, the Broncos lost the game because they couldn't stop them on third down in the fourth quarter. The Kansas City was four or five in the third quarter. Of course, they had a third, nobody mentions the second and 30 that they eventually converted, right? Nobody mentions that, right? Why would you? If you're a dominant defense, Tate Frazier, and you're in second and 30, aren't you getting off the field?

You would think so. You're definitely not playing prevent defense at that point. No, and then, I mean, nobody talked about this. I mean, at the key moments of the game, the best pass rushers coming off the field. I mean, like, how can Bond Miller come off the field in the final drive? How can he do that? Where's the conditioning of the Denver defense? Like, if you're John Elway sitting up in the box, like, he can't come off the field. Like, this is where we're paying him. He's our quarterback. We're paying him $19 million to make this play right here. This is why we're paying him. And now he's off to the sideline.

And so to me, this is a classic again. Al Davis, they think they lost because of this, when in reality they haven't even looked at the tape enough. They never controlled the quarterback in the pocket. They let Mahomes get out of the pocket all game. It wasn't just once or twice. Because let me tell you this, it's hard to keep great quarterbacks in the pocket. You've got to really work at it and be disciplined.

But what the F? I mean, Jesus Christ, I mean, they sit in there thinking, well, we've got to delay the game code. It should have been third and 12. How quick you think it would have been before they converted to third and 12? Yeah, pretty quickly, especially because the play that they run is a Shaq Barrett 35-yard game at this point. So you're bringing up the play. We're saying it's a penalty, but obviously it was a non-pennessee.

It was third and seven. The Broncos were on their 46. As you just mentioned, it was second and 30. You know, the Chiefs were on the Broncos 46. It was second and 30. Mahomes is a 23-yard pass. Now we're third and seven. The clock hits zero.

Barrett, after the game says that, he was like it was 100% at zero. But that, you know, that had nothing to do with why I didn't stick with my person, just got to do better. So at least there was some ownership there. Vince Joseph after the game, you know, does, once again, reiterates. He asked the referee. He said he looked up. It was zero and the ball was gone.

He said he disagrees with that. The interesting part and the reason why this is a talking point is, you know, this is one of those situations where we cannot challenge if it's a delay a game. Granted, you know, who's to say that third 12 changed anything from third seven again? It was a 35-yard gain at this point. But, I mean, is that something worth looking into? Should we be able to challenge this? Or is it, does it even?

matter because it seems like after the game the Broncos wanted to continue to bring this up. I mean, it doesn't matter because, look, Broncos were 0 for four on third down in the fourth quarter. You're paying Case Keenum, $18 million. Okay. You know, it's the classic example tape phrase. You're not married, right? No. And whenever you do, you're going to go to the store and you're going to buy something together as a couple, right?

And, you know, your wife's going to say, well, you know, I really want this dining room table and it costs, you know, let's say it costs a thousand dollars. and you really can't afford it. So you settle for the $500 dining room table that you hate, right? Like, instead of, like, figuring out a way to make it, to get the one you want. It's a stopgap. Right. That's exactly what they did with Case Keenum. Like, they're paying him $18 million, and they're not happy.

They can't be happy. I mean, if you're John Elway after the game, you go down the locker room, you've hired Vance Joseph. You've signed Case Keenom, okay? And you've got to sit there and say, like, are these two decisions, the best decisions I've made for the Denver? Broncos. Are they? Now, I know I've signed, I got lucky with Brock Osweiler. He didn't take the coin. He's now down in Miami. He made an appearance, by the way. Okay. The heist. The heist. I drafted Peyton Paxton Lynch. Okay. He hasn't done any, you know, he's been, he's out of the league. He didn't done anything, right? Like, at some point, when do you sit there and say, like,

this team isn't very good? I mean, last year, they were horrible on the road. They only won at home because early in the season, like we talk about, they usually win at home. Now they got to go on the road. I don't know. I mean, I think they went the cheap route with the quarterback, and this is what they got. And the thing is, it wasn't even that cheap of a route. I mean, $18 million is still a great opinion. He's making more than the Great Blake Bortles. Exactly. And we're also in this situation where we talked about in the offseason, plenty of times when it was the quarterback carousel that was going on. We talked about, does cousins fit the, you know, the pedigree of what Elway is looking for? And it sort of seemed, he sat back and waited to see how it was going to play out,

and then we're going to take the guy that's available, you know what I mean? As if they were already set and ready to go is if this defense is going to carry this team. I'd say Von Miller's not one of those superstar talents. But like you said, if Von Miller's not on the field, then that is who you are. If that's your identity, then you have to lean into that 100%. And if not, then you really have to readjust. Right. I mean, I know guys get tired, right? But it was the beginning of the drive. It's a two-minute warning. There's no time to get tired at that point, right? So, like, I need them on the field. Or if you go, you know, if you're Elway and you're sitting in the box like you're saying, after the game, you maybe go down to Van Shost and say,

how do we, how do we, you know, stagger this out where Vaughn is there and in the quarter, right. I mean, like, okay, I'll tell you, for example, JJ Watt, J.J. Watt in the first half, you watched the first half of the tape against the Colts and the Texans. J.J. Watt was really good. But as the game wore on, J.J. Watt got tired. Like, if you're Houston, right, you know J.J. Watts getting older in age, still a dominant player, can take over games, right? But you've got to preserve them for the fourth quarter when it really matters. If you wear his ass out in the first half, and he's done by the fourth quarter because of exhaustion, which you really can't prevent. You got to see that and adapt to it. Same thing in Denver.

But to me, John Elway, when he drove Homeland, night. He had a thing to himself. And this is, this is really, as a GM, this is really when you know things are fucked up, okay? That you just drove home last night and you have the fourth worst quarterback in the division that you just signed to a contract. You just watch your competitor's draft, probably the next great quarterback in the NFL. How am I going to close this gap? How am I going to do it? Like, you know, it's like you're sitting there and you know that Aaron Rogers is on the other team and you're the Vikings. How do I – like, that's a hard gap to close.

Like, it isn't just, okay, I'm going to sign this player and I close the gap. No, when you're playing against – when you've got – when you've been trying to draft quarterbacks and the other team who had a quarterback goes and gets a better one and an even better one, you're driving home that night. Like, you're like, we're fucked. We're fucked. Like everybody that – when the coach drafted Andrew Luck, everybody in the league at that time was like, we're all fucked because he's going to win.

He's too good. They're going to win. And he's in that division. He's going to AFC South. But they didn't realize that Ryan Grigson was the great equalizer, and he was going to screw up enough drafts and beat up luck that the kind of equal. He's like, I need more Taven Austin types to put it around. Exactly.

Instead of, you know, like give a guy who has no idea how to, give a guy who has no idea how to build a team, let him have all the power in the world, even let them tell the coaches who they have to play and all that, really smart. And let him be Al Davis. That was brilliant. But anyway, so he equalized. So the reality of it is like, if you're Elway, you're like, we're fucked. We're fucked.

Like, I fucked this up bad. Like, I would be saying that too. I mean, you have to be honest with yourself. You can't make excuse, well, it was it delay a game penalty and we didn't do this. No, no, asshole. The reality of this, Mahomes is going to keep kicking your ass year after year until you get it right. And you had the formula to beat Mahomes. Like, you played the game that we thought that they would play.

Exactly. Like, you did everything to stop that and falter that Chief's offense and we still lost, which is even more of an alarming thing. My question really is, you're saying, you know, Elway's going to have this reflective period. But does he need to have it? He needs to have it, but does he act on it? I mean, is he fine to say, again, we won a Super Bowl not too long ago, and we have this defense with Von Miller.

I mean, we are still, I mean, has he, has he, does he have enough time on his hands to sort of write it? Maybe not this season, but in the off season, or is it, you know, it is what it is at this point. You know, I, you know, obviously I'm leaving Los Angeles today, Tay Frazier. It's very disappointing. Today's a very sentimental day that I'm moving back to New Jersey. And I can't wait. You're like my Los Angeles family. Yeah, I'm excited to see the Lombardy's Gil.

But I'm packed up the office today. I love this office. I wrote the book here and I love this office. But when I was packing up the office, I came across the book that applies to the NFL so greatly. Ryan Holiday is a very close friend. He wrote, Obstacle is the Way. And I thought that book was really summed up Bill Belichick perfectly, Marcus Aurelius. But the book that sums up the NFL that I was going through yesterday when I packed the office was ego is the enemy.

And so to answer your question, Ego is the enemy when you come down and make these decisions. You let your ego get in the way of this. And if you're not willing to admit you made a mistake and say, look, I screwed up. I mean, Vance Joseph, he's a head coach in the NFL. I mean, that's remarkable in itself, right? Case Keenham's making $18 million. That's remarkable in itself.

Only in America cannot happen, right? Case Keenham looked like a backup quarterback last night. Everybody in my house in is like, when's the starter coming in? Where's our starter? When's he coming in? You have the fourth worst quarterback. One thing you have to do when you run a team, and this is another Al Davisism, is you have to put up, Al was huge about evaluating every player on your team based on the other four teams in your division.

And then you total those points up. Where's our free safety rank compared to the four free safeties in the division? Where does our quarterback rank compared to the other four? If you're Denver and you've got the fourth worst quarterback and they've got the best quarterback who happens to be the youngest quarterback, shit ain't good. Yeah, you have a problem at that point. And after the game,

we should say, Van Joseph said this is a learning, learning for this team, and they will know how to close out games moving forward. This is a game they feel like they left on the table and they hope that they can move forward and close it out. I mean, all coach speak at this point,

we did see them do it against the Raiders. You know, they did close out of close game. Yeah, I mean, but look, they easily could have win that game. If Keenham hits the, they play cover two, if Keenham hits the dead spot and two,

the guy walks into the end zone for a touchdown, right? But he overthrows it by, to Marius Thomas, he overthrows it by five yards. In Case Keenum, we should say, is probably the most valuable backup quarterback in the NFL, but he happens to be getting paid $18 million to be a starter. So that's where we're at at this point. Yeah, I mean, and to me, you got no quarterback. Your defense is, Von Miller's not going to be Von Miller forever. Yeah, and you're putting a lot of pressure on him to shoulder and carry this team.

And they didn't get an, I mean, they didn't control Mahomes in the pocket. And Mahomes is like, this is truly what it is. They played, you know, Mahomes, when you let Mahomes play a five Mississippi game, instead of a three Mississippi game, you're in trouble. And those extra two seconds that he gets when he moves out of the pocket, you can't cover Terry Kill all across the field. And I thought Denver did a good job covering him last night. But you can't, once the play extends, you can't cover them out there. And that was the game winning play. The third and seven that we talked about with the no call.

With the left hand. He rolls out to his right and ends up being a 35-yard game because the five guys that are coming up field, guess what? he gets outside of them because he's a talented player and he can use his feet. And that's what Pat Mahomes have been doing all season. So that was Monday night football for us. Of course, we do this every single week. We do the five performances that jumped out to you, Lombardi. First up, we're going to talk about the Falcons and the Bengals.

Another shootout back-to-back weeks for Matt Ryan, unfortunately, for him and for all those Falcons fans in the world. Once they go down, the defense doesn't step up for the Falcons. And Cincinnati Bengals get away with the win. Nice win for the Bengals, of course. Probably the biggest note of this game for people that didn't see it. Tyler Eifford goes down with a gruesome leg injury, which hurts that Bingles team, especially as far as possession receivers that they need. But just overall, looking at this Bingles and Falcons team, you know, what's the main

takeaway here other than, my goodness, the Falcons needs some help on defense. Yeah, you know, I think they've lost too many guys. I think that's the problem with the Falcons. You can't overcome those losses. I mean, they've given up, they've lost two home games in a row. They've given up over 30 points since the opening game against Philadelphia, even though they've won one of those games. They went one and two on this three-game road trip.

And for me, don't teams that lose at home is not a good sign. It's really not a good sign. And so, you know, I think that's a real issue. And Matt Ryan can't carry the team. They're going to have to figure out a way to where, I mean, this week they play Pittsburgh, I believe. They go up to Pittsburgh. And, you know, again, that'll be a shootout because Pittsburgh can't play any defense whatsoever. There's some really bad defenses in the NFL.

I mean, when you, I mean, Cannes City can't tackle. Pittsburgh can't tackle. We know the bucks can't. I mean, there's some really bad tackling teams. But anyway, I mean, if you're Atlanta, you just got to figure out. right away. Atlanta is so, Atlanta only wants to add players to the roster that they draft.

They're very Ted Thompson issues. And if they draft them, they stay on the team. They don't steal guys off the park. It's a very Atlanta professional organization thing to do, by the way. Like in baseball, the Braves are very that way. You know, they just stay within the system. Were you a Braves fan growing up?

I wasn't a Braves fan, but I mean, we went to like spring training down in Florida. When you grow up in Carolina, what baseball team do you root for? It's actually interesting. It's basically you have three choices. you have the Orioles if you want to be like mid-Atlantic if that's a team like for me i'm close to the virginian borders or there's a lot of orio's fans my great-uncle played on the orioes so there was a little bit of that there cow ripin junior of course people love brady anderson bjurhoff played a carolina

diana is probably like if you were like a southern boy you probably like the braves and then there's a lot of people that were you know i had family in new york came down to north carolina yanks i love the new york angies yeah that's sort of what my family yeah the yankies are you know the yankees are like they are everywhere i mean you know when you grew up in new jersey you know there's a lot of Yankee fans at Philly fans and all that. But, you know, it's interesting how the area creates that. But going back to Atlanta, I mean, Atlanta is so vanilla in what they do in personnel. They don't, they don't, they make no, very few trades.

They don't steal anybody off somebody's practice squad. They don't waver claim guys. I mean, they're very vanilla. In fact, when every year you do the, you do the breakdowns of waiver transactions by teams, you know, in Seattle and New England are at the top of the little. and people say, well, Thomas Dimitrov, you know, he learned in New England. So he's the New England way. No, no, no, no, no, no.

He's the opposite of the New England way. It's all about the draft for Thomas. Thomas's pro is not about, it's all about the draft. So when you don't have any way where you're trying to get other players and you're really working the bottom half of your roster, you're kind of stuck with what you got. And so they're kind of trapped where they're not going to get. And they're got to carry it. I mean, Calvin Ridley's been great.

Yes. Calvin Ridley's been exceptional. I'm glad you brought that up because we were harsh on him in the first week. We talked about the fact that, you know, maybe we had over-essing. made to what he could do. And now, as it stands currently, he is a, not only a viable option, but definitely the best rookie rival. He's seen the light. I mean, he has seen the light, right? So he's kind of, he's got it going. And then, you know, and their offense is good. I mean, you know, they can move the ball on anybody. The problem is they can't stop anybody. And they're

like the Chargers in this sense, okay? So the Chargers and the Falcons run Seattle's scheme. Okay. And they run it just they basically, they ripped out the playbook and they run. it just exactly the same way. And what happens is if you're not, if you don't diversify and modify it, you just become too vanilla. The charges people, I mean, C.J. Bethard moved the ball against them, which we said that on Friday podcast they were going to. We knew that was the lock of the week that the 49ers were going to cover the 10 points, right? So, you know, there's not enough diversity within the scheme to help the players out because that's the way the scheme is. And so they're trying to, but I think more than the scheme in Atlanta, I think the issue is really

that they don't expand their talent base and try to find now look, it's hard to find great players in this time being. Losing Dion Jones is going to be hard. They lost both safeties. That's hard. So, you know, they lose Neal. And so that's going to be hard. But to me, they're not. But let's go back to Cincinnati.

I mean, Cincinnati is really good on offense. And the injury to Tyler effort, that's going to be a problem. But they're really good. They didn't have Joe Mixing and won the game. Yeah. And I want to say, I do want to point this out. This is from a guy Scott Katsmer that tweeted this at me.

Since 1940, teams scoring 30. six or more points at home with zero turnover, where zero turnovers are astounding, 402 and 4 overall. The Atlanta Falcons are 0 and 2, also doing that last week. So, I mean, that is... That's a great step.

That is insane. Scott, that's an unbelievable stat. And the Falcons 11 for 15 on third downs, turn the ball over zero times, only punted once, and somehow still managed to lose this game. That's an incredible stop. I admire great stats because every week I spend all this time trying to... I thought you would like that one.

I go over the notes, and I mean, I make notes on every single game, And that's a really, that's a, that's a winter-winner chicken dinner right there. Absolutely. And so that's what we're dealing with as far as the Falcons. Obviously, it's got to be frustrating. But you got to see, like, it's like when I was in Oakland and Kerry Collins had a hundred. If I saw Kerry Collins on the sideline of the Penn State game, a high state game, what a great game.

Great Panthers quarterback. I mean, and Kerry, the year Kerry was with us in Oakland, he had like 105 quarterback rating. And he was playing his best and we were one in three. And I thought we're fucked because he can't play any better, right? And we still can't win, right? You know? What are we going to get to Carrie Collins's, you know, quarterback story? like a football life.

You know what, I don't know. We need Gary Neal to play him. He looks just like him. He does. He really does. I mean, what a great guy. Kerry's probably got, I think he has a cattle ranch

down there in Carolina somewhere. Of course he does. I bet he's out there herding cattle. He could probably use Bella. She's barked enough in the last 10 days. Anyone that knows what Carrie Collins is, please reach out to him and let him know the GM Street. We need to have him on here.

I love Kerry. He's one of my favorites. Absolutely. But anyway, so, you know, at some point when you can't, when you, when you play that perfectly and you still don't win, this shit's going to hit the fan big time.

And you talked about the ego check. We talked about the thing with Elway. I mean, is there, did Dimitrov, you know, look at himself in the mirror a little bit here and go, hey, Tom, what's going on? We got to figure out if we can get some guys in here or some better as to help the defense. I think, to me, the only way you can get better in the NFL is to use every avenue you can possibly use to talent. It's absolutely necessary.

And if you don't, if you're only going to use the draft and you're only going to keep guys you draft on the team, you're going to be subject to it. And there's going to be those highs and the lows. That's why you see Atlanta. high and low sometimes. And Matt Ryan, you know, he's played three games in the dome and he's played really well. But we know what Matt Ryan looked like when he went outside the dome, when they could only score

14, whatever they scored against Philly in the opener. I mean, so they struggled. And what they did in the playoffs is the same for a deal. So, you know, now your quarterback who's best at home has to go on the road and you've lost one of the two straight, I mean, Atlanta's sitting there looking at their schedule and saying, okay, we've got a tough opening game in Philly. Then we get three straight home games. Hey, the worst we're going to be is three and one out of this thing, right?

Now they're one and three. Yep. And if you're Matt Ryan, you go down to that defensive room at some point, you say, hey, guys, can you help me out a little bit? You see this stat? I'm putting up 36 points every single week. I need to know. And I'm not turning the ball over. It's not on me. We got to figure this out. Let's go to the next game that we have here. The Philadelphia Eagles, the defending champions, taking on the Tennessee Titans. We had once again, overtime games and a lot of chances for ties. And this is one of those games. The Eagles, I mean, for the media, for all that they've been, you know, we've talked about the struggles with that first team offense. They struggled in the red zone again. The offensive line had, uh, a slew of problems protecting Carson and Wins got killed. So let's talk about that. The Titans have a nice drive at the end of the game. We'll get down the specifics. But first of all, talking about that Eagles front line and what's going on with Wins and those guys.

I think the Eagles are realizing how hard it is to repeat. I mean, look, I thought this is the lock of the week. And they're up 17 to 3 in the middle of the third quarter. I mean, that's usually a game the Eagles put away, right? Especially with Marcus Mariotta, who doesn't quite have his arm 100%. But I think this game proves to everybody, you know, and I know this is going to be a tough pill to swallow them filled off. The Eagles can't cover anybody.

I mean, they just can't cover any. Corey Davis had a career. He got his first touchdown in the NFL. He's a fifth pick overall in the draft. He had a career day against the Eagles secondary. Like at some point, if the Eagles don't win with their front, they can't win. And that's the reality of it is. And what's happened now on third down, they're not as effective on third down.

Wince is getting hit. Wence doesn't really run as well because coming off the knee, it's going to take him some time to get his full speed back. I mean, I think Wince is fabulous. I think Wynce is doing good. Alshon Jeffrey, they needed him back. He made some plays on the outside. which they desperately needed. Nelson Aguilar's back to dropping the ball again. That's a problem. They didn't really have their running backs. Clement was hurt. Smallwood played in the game.

But to me, when you're up 17 to 3, even though you're on the road, you've got to close that game out. Even when they score to make it 17 to 10, you've got to close it out. But the Eagles couldn't do it in Tampa Bay. A bad team in Tampa Bay, right? Especially after we're going to talk about a little bit later with Fitzmagic. Now we know Tampa's defense is really bad. And, you know, Tennessee, and I've got to give Mike Rable, credit. Mike Rable, he's three and one. I don't think they're a pretty team, but they're an effective team. They've won three games with, and Mariotta to me was the star of the week because he wasn't 100%, but he moved the ball with his feet. He made plays. They didn't run the ball in this game for any success, really. Mariotta was the leading groundkeeper, ground gainer in the game, but they made enough plays, keep eagles off balance. Mariotta could scramble around the pocket. I mean, this was a huge, huge win. And I thought this was the lock of the week for Philly. I really did. And for not to win this game. It's going to be disheartening. And you could hear the rumbles in Philadelphia now. Yeah, people are starting to roll their eyes a little bit and we know how the

Philadelphia faithful are. They really want to see those guys really live up to expectations. But I did want to point out, you talked about, you know, what you're seeing from Braybill. It kind of remind me of what we've seen from the Dolphins, obviously, until this week. But they're not losing games, right? I mean, and that comes down to good coaching at a certain level. And you brought it up, Marcus Marriota. Not only have they not losing games, Marcus Marriota won this game for them. I mean, he goes into overtime. They have two fourth down conversions. He ends throwing that 10-yard touchdown to Corey Davis, who ended up going nine catches 161 yards, and obviously the game winning touchdown.

So Marriota comes in and you have your quarterback who, you know, we've been, the past few weeks we've talked about, I mean, is Marcus their guy? We've seen them. We've seen highs. We've seen lows. You see a performance like this. This has to give you a little bit of a... Yeah, and this is the opposite of the Vance shows a factor where Vance has said, we're going

to start winning games like this? No, Vance, you have to win those games. That's how you create more momentum to win the next one. You don't lose a game to create momentum to win. You win games to create momentum to win. And that's what Tennessee has been able to do. I mean, they steal a win against the Texans, right? They make the 66-yard pass on fake field goal.

And Blaine Gabbard has the drive of the game. When they absolutely needed the most, they come down the field, they win that game. They go into Jacksonville, and how they do it, I still have no clue. They score nine points and win. Right? They score nine points and win that game. They don't do anything on offense. And it was the one game where Blake Bortles has looked, you know, like the joke, you know, the Blake Bortle's joke, the Blake Bortle's Twitter account, all that sort of stuff.

Like that was the Blake that we make fun of, you know, not the Blake that showed up in other games and been good. I mean, Blake's had two games this year where he's been great and he said, you know, the one game where he was bad and one game he's average. That is not false duality. That is just Blake. That's my man, Blake. That's my man, Blake. I love Blake. I mean, God love him. He's the great equalizer if there ever was one.

But the reality here is, I mean, Tennessee finds ways to win games. And you've got to give a credit for that. And for a young coach like Mike Brabel, I do. I think Dean Peace has done a good job with their defense. I mean, they blitz the shit out of Philadelphia. Philly was having a hard time picking it up. And you saw the frustration. I mean, wins a couple of times or he had free rushers coming out of him.

He's going straight down, getting hit hard. And you could see him getting up and was like, guys, come on. You got to give me something. I can't run away from this every time. But like, people don't realize last year he got the shit kicked out of him too. He just was really good. He just was Superman. He had a cape on, you know?

I mean, and so, you know, so I mean, to me, I think Mariotta really showed something in terms of its intestinal fortitude. The mental toughness of Tennessee really has me to where I think that they've won. I mean, I don't know. I think they could beat anybody at any time the way they play, but I know they could lose to anybody at any time because I don't know how good they really are, but the Eagles just couldn't make the plays when it counted. One more note before we move on from this game. Yeah, one more note I want to say on that. Go ahead.

I just want to ask you about Schwartz. So you talk about that defense and obviously we know about the pass rush, that front seven, what it did for that team, it basically set the tone and helped them win a Super Bowl. If you're Schwartz and you're looking at this pass rush, obviously we've lost some guys, we lost some talent, but we're still trying to get back to that point. We talked about the 26 to the 26 to the 20s, how long they're on the feet. field. Is there anything that Jim is doing this week with these guys where he's like, we got to, we got to step this up because we are, we are our offense at a certain level.

Right. I think Jim's looking at his counter like, when is Jernigan coming back? Yeah. Hey, Timmy. How you feeling? Yeah. When is he coming back? I need Jernigan back really quickly. I think Jernigan back. Because Nata and Michael Bennett are not the same players. I mean, you know, they've signed those two guys to replace Vinie Curry. Good names, but not necessarily good production at this point. But they're not, they need to play less plays and not as effective. So he needs journeying him back. And I think, I mean, when you're Schwartz, the one thing about his defense that's pretty clear, the problems you can solve are the problems come down to one thing. We got to win with our front. We don't win with our back end. We got to win with our front. And the point I was going to

make before was, I got to give Braybill credit for his game management. I mean, he's sitting there. He's got a fourth and four. And he got a chance to kick a 50-yard field goal to tie the game and extend it because the Eagles took the opening kick and went down and kicked the field goal. Todd Bowlers would have kicked it, though, right? I mean, Bowls probably would have kicked it. God knows, Vance Joseph would have kicked it. Anthony Lynn would have kicked it. I mean, our man, the Clapper would have kicked it.

Yeah, Garrett would have kicked it for sure. I mean, so like, and he sits there and says, you know what, if I miss this kick, A, I lose the game. But B, there's a 50-50 proposition I'm going to make the kick anyway, right? And so, you know, he goes for it on fourth and four and he gets it. I mean, the Eagles had more chances to win on. They have fourth and 15 they can hurt. Yeah, that's not what I'm going to say. I mean, fourth and four, at least, you know, in some.

world, that makes sense, but have a fourth and 15 and let those guys get. And it converted? And you got a great pass rush? I mean, so I think, you know, to me, Vrable understands that a misfield goal is a turnover. Whereas John Gruden, you know, John Gruden's sitting there in his game against Huey in the news. And he's got a chance in the same situation, off the dirt, right? And I could see Rich Basacci as special teams come over to him and kind of try to talk John into doing it. And Basachi, I could sense it. I don't know if this is true, but it's just from my observation. It looked like he talked John into, like, we can make this kick, right? And even if you make it, Cleveland gets the ball back anyway, right? I don't think the game was at that point.

It wasn't going to win the game for him. I think Cleveland had to get the ball back. So they miss it. Now we're in good field position. Now Cleveland's a good field position. And hearing the news, he got a chance to win the game right there. And of course, they couldn't do it. But to me, once you understand that a missed field goal is a turnover, you don't even contemplate it. Like, let's see, I think it was fourth and 10, so he couldn't go for it. He was in that gray area. You know, it's like you're right in that area. You know, the other thing that's really clear. Or you just do the June Jones punt from back in the day.

People that know June Jones is basically like, we're running four verts on fourth and ten and we're throwing it up and hopefully you're dumb enough to catch it. You know, to pad your stats. You know, Trey Boston, pick it off. Thank you. Now you're on the setting up. He's on the card. He's not on the chart.

I apologize. I apologize. I made that mistake. Somebody pointed out to me. I appreciate all the help I get on Twitter. I need it. I just trust me, I need it badly. You know, the thing that is clear is that, you know, you have, you have a, you

have to be aware of it. You just can't turn that thing in and say, okay, we're going to make this kick. And then, of course, they miss it. And then Cleveland comes down and they're not able to convert on it and make the play. But to me, I think that I've got to give Mike Brayball a ton of praise for that. Let's talk about the other. That was the other overtime game. We were just knocked out this whole Titans game.

We've got to talk about the Browns and the Raiders. This was a game on Friday for people that listened. I think we both brought up just, you know, there's going to be a lot of eyeballs here because if John Gruden is what we see now, if he is defeated at this point and has not won a game, there will be a lot of talking heads in Oakland. You know, we might even see. Britt Musburger on the Oakland Raiders Radio may have some thoughts on what's going on up there. He's probably going to be upset.

How great is Brett Musburger? And his voice is incredible? Oh, yes. I mean, I do a radio show with him every week. I put it up just to listen to it just because I wanted to see what he's up to. And he sounds great. I do a radio show with him every week for the Visa Network. In fact, I'm going to do some stuff back in Atlantic City at the Oceans Casino.

for Vison and a little plug there. But talking college on Saturday, talking pro on Sunday. But anyway, I mean, it's amazing. The guy's voice is still incredible. He sees the game. I mean, he can see the game. It's not like he's missing stuff from the field. Like some guys can not really see it.

And there's a passion point behind it, too. That's what we've always enjoyed Musburger. But back to the Raiders and the Browns in this game. I mean, Cleveland showed up. They had, you know, for whatever we're talking about Baker Mayfield, there's just moxie that comes with what this Browns teams look like with him under center. and they go into Oakland.

This is a game that if you're the Raiders, this is a nice layup for us, you would think. We're going to get things together. We're going to really show who we are as a team. And as it goes, we have a shootout in Cleveland. At certain times, this game, look like a more professional football team. As crazy as that is to say,

I mean, congratulations, you. You're doing it. But that was where we're at in this Raiders. The Raiders, you know, luckily pull it out for them, 45, 42. But just overall. I mean, they get fortunate because, I mean, the Browns have the eight-point lead late in the game.

They don't get the call on fourth and inches. I didn't think it was, Look, to me, when they spotted the ball originally, I didn't think it was a first down. So I know that Dean Blandino thought it was, and then they reversed the call. It didn't look to me like it, but who knows? I mean, those, look, everybody's hung up on the call. And the reality of it is, is the Brown's defense had ample opportunity to stop not only the touchdown, but the two-point play and they win the game. Right?

So you've got two chances to get up. And we should say, third quarter, six minutes left. What's the score, 2814 Browns? I mean, they're winning this game. Dominating the game. I mean, you know, the Raiders defense was struggling to get off the field. I mean, Mayfield had a couple drops, the key drops. And the pick six really hurt him.

Yeah. Going in half, but I mean. I mean, so, you know, look, I think Mayfield certainly is, you know, I think last week was a react was, now this week playing Baltimore will be a bigger challenge even though he gets to play them at home. But Baltimore gets Jimmy Smith back, which they desperately need. So, you know, look, I think Oakland, I mean, to me, Oakland's really sitting there saying to themselves, how good is there a car? Like there's some things Carr does in games that look really good, but the ball, he wants the ball out of his hands so fast. It's got to be driving Gruden crazy.

Can we call him a two Mississippi quarterback? He's two steps back and he's out of his hand. Hey, man, I'm throwing this bitch. I'm getting this thing out of my hand. I mean, it's Eli Manningish. It's Eli Manningish. You know, did you see, by the way, not to change the subject here, did you see where Odell might be frustrated with the giant offense?

Not really. Did we not talk about this on GM Street? Like, seriously? Like, this is a revelation? I mean, come on. Yeah, I mean, but that's Ferris, you know. But Ferris should be pissed off. I mean, you got Shepherd, you got Ferris, you got Barclay, you can't get the,

people are saying, why can't they get the ball to him? Anyway. Once again, Ferris is pointing. He's like, that guy right there. That's supposed to throw it to me. Not allowed to say it. No, there's a memo going around. You're not allowed to bad talking about Eli.

You cannot do that. You get a memo from Archie Manning. There's a memo going around there'll be no bad talking. Eli is going to play for the next 47 years in the national football. You just get Super Bowl highlights. So they send him to you. It's a YouTube clip. Remember this, Mario Manningham.

I mean, but look, the Raiders are, I think the Raiders that were very fortunate, I think they do some really good things offensively. I thought Marshawn Lynch. I saw Marshawn Lynch play at Oakland Tech, okay, in high school, okay? And Marshawn Lynch and Oakland Tech in high school looks like Marshaun Lynch today. He ran over guys in high school like he's running over guys today. Like, I don't know what he's taken. Like, I got to get me some of that crap.

Because Skittles. It's got to be. It just Skittles. Because he's unbelievable. Yes. I mean, he's unbelievable. I mean, and people, they're much maligned when, you know, when Gruden came in and he basically came out and was like Marshawn is our guy. We need him in the locker room.

A lot of people were like, he may be past his prime, but in this game, 130 yards on 20 carries and it looked like himself. Beat the shit out of people. I mean, just beat the living dog out of people. I mean, like, he was great. Yeah, it was like the Buffalo Marshawn where it was like, I just don't want to tackle this guy. Yeah. I just let him run. And when he gets, and when he gets colder and they play in cold weather, nobody wants to tackle.

Cold weather, nobody wants to tackle. That's playoff, December football. Who knows if they're going to be in the conversation of that. I don't see that defense is so bad. They can't cover anybody. They can't generate any pressure. Their linebackers might be bad. But anyway, that's a great win for Oakland.

I mean, they had to win that one. I mean, that was one. A lot of games, they were outscored 37 to three in the fourth quarter, and they scored 21 points in the fourth quarter this week. So at least they're making some progress. And you have to be excited if you're a Browns fan. Obviously, there was some mistakes from Baker-Madefield. But just overall, as far as enjoying a football,

game, at least the Browns are entertaining, right? I mean, they're putting a product on the field that's fun to watch me. Obviously, it's not all working out. They've had a bunch of overtime games. If you've only watched Browns football games, if you're an HBO hard-knock guy and you're just like, I'm going to support the Browns, you've been sufficiently entertained at this point. No doubt, no doubt. And I think that, look, I don't understand why teams just don't double Landry on every

point. Force the ball to somebody else. Like make Richard Higgins beat me. Make Callaway beat me. Like, make, you know, make those other guys beat me. Like, and, you know, Chubb was great. I mean, Chubb, I thought Chubb was really good. I mean, they've got some good pieces there.

And, you know, they look good. This week will be a big challenge playing Baltimore. I think we'll know where they are. And I just wanted to point this out. I saw this picture go up this week with those three running backs at Georgia. I mean, it is R.B.U. We do know that. But when you think about the fact that we had Sony Michelle, Nick Chubb, and Todd Gurley,

all in a backfield at one university, that just seems unfair. Yeah, I mean, I remember when Maddie was at Louisville and Chub was like a freshman. And he just ran up. I mean, Keith Marshall was also there, guy, in the Reds. And he was the most highly recruited kid of all. One, you know, playing in the country out of Milburg High School. Yeah. And so, I mean, I remember when Maddie was at Louisville,

when they were playing in the Belk Bowl, which I didn't, you know, and I mean, what's his face? I think he didn't play and what's it. And Chubb came in and it looked like they didn't miss a beat. So, yeah, it's remarkable. Down in Charlotte, North Carolina, great bowl game. I've been there plenty of times Lombardi, as you know. Next game we have up is something that I have been itching to talk about,

and you know this. Itching for Mitchell, itching for Mitching for Mitch. It's a huge, huge win for the Bears. It is also the end of the Fitzman. Magic era, the redemption tour for Ryan Fitzpatrick finally comes to a funeral for this. I don't even know if it should be a funeral. It should be, you know, like when you celebrate life and everyone comes and we sing like uplifting music, I think we need that for Fitzmagic because it was already a shock to the system to see the man do what he was doing. So we need to

celebrate more than we need to mourn because I don't think he's mourning any of this. I think he's just happy that it all worked out. But I say all this to say that the Tapey Buccaneers, it looks like James Winston is now their quarterback. No, and I wrote for the athletic on Friday. And I said to all Bears fans, including you, Mitchell Trubisky fan number one, I said that if, if Mitchell doesn't play well today, then it's really time to start worrying. So like, I'll give Mitchell Mitchell as due. Like, okay, yeah, six touchdowns. I mean, tape razor, you could have thrown a few of them. They were so wide open. Okay. I'm not, I'm not jumping that Mitch, they got the buy week this week. Mitchell will be perfect again this week. So he can beat the buy. And then we'll go forward with the

next week. We'll see what happens after that. But to me, this is a, at least if you're a bear's fan, you breathe a huge sigh of relief saying, oh, thank God, he played good. If you're a Bucks fan, you got no defense. I mean, you pay Jason Pierre Paul this money. You can't get any rush. You can't cover anybody. You know, Mike Smith's given up, they've given up 47 this last week and gave up 40 to the Saints. They've given up 87 points in two road games. 88, 48 this week. Oh, they gave it 48. Okay, 88. I'm sorry. No, no, you're right. I mean, yeah, I mean, my math is horrendous. But anyway, so you know, I mean, so you can't stop anybody. You can't, you can't cover.

You don't rush well enough. And then, I mean, we can all talk about Fitzma, Fitzmagic and how it's not happening for him. And, you know, he can tell those seven kids of his that, you know, daddy was great the beginning of the 2018 season. Yeah, since on week one tape. He's like, you want to watch a quarterback play. Week one against the same. But, I mean, we all knew he was coming back to reality. He did.

He even said that. He was like, I get hot and I know I get cold. I'm just going to enjoy the hot street. You know, if he's at the table in Vegas and he's rolling, stay with them. But at some point, you got to say like, okay, I got to go home. He's the type of guy to roll 10 straight sevens. And then all of a sudden, you know, he's done for the night. But you got to think, look, I got to think that, you know, the glazers have fired Tony Dungey who they put on their wall of fame.

Okay. They fired John Gruden who they put on their wall of fame. If you're Dirk Cotter, you got to be sitting there saying, well, these guys, they're crazy. Well, if you're Rahim Morris, you're like, why did I get it put in the hall fame? Exactly. I won 10 games that time. You remember that? I mean, this team looks so bad.

Thank God they have a buy this week. They look so bad. James is coming back, but where are they going to get better on defense? And now OJ. Howard's out for two to four weeks. That hurts them. Yes. You eliminate the big play and their offensive line is bad. So when they go on the road, bad lines don't travel well, though they won't be as good on offense.

I don't see it very good down in Tampa. And it comes down to turnovers at this point with that Tampa Bay team. When Fitzmajic is, oh, you know, doing what he does and throwing touchdown passes, everything. looks great and he has those weapons on the outside. It's all fun in games. And then when that line starts to not show up and he starts turning the ball over, I mean, we see what really the bottom of the barrel is for these guys. I do want to talk about the bears. But I want to say this about Trubisky. I think here's the perfect storm so fans understand this. The bucks are a zone team and they're a predictable zone team. Mike Smith has always been a zone. He's going to make you work the

ball down the field. He's going to try to do this now. When they play man, they're not very good. So it was a really in fairness to give Mitchell his props because he executed. But in terms of game plan strategy and game plan design, this is going to be the easiest test of the season for Mitchell Trebisky, by far the easiest one. There's no complication. There was no exotic pressures. There's nothing that the bucks do to create problems that you can't see on the tape. I mean, it was like the other day when Brady threw his first interception, Brady had

this comment. I don't know if people really noticed it, but Brady said, I haven't seen Miami run that defense in 10 years. Okay. That's how you get Tom Brady. You do something that's different. The Bucks never do anything different. Show him something that he thinks he saw on tape and then do something different. That's how he got picked off in the Atlanta Super Bowl. He thought they were playing the one trap. And it goes back to the McVeigh thing we talked about on Friday, which is, I know your defense, so therefore I am going to attack your defense. And everybody knows the Buc's defense. It's so easy. Like every offensive coach, it's day one install of defense so they can go down there. And so Mitchell had to play good.

And again, give them props. The Bears needed that. Their defense is great. They needed a break. And they've got some good skill players. I mean, Cohen and Howard, those guys are good. Don't get me wrong. And they made those plays.

And I should say this. Nagy did say going after the game, actually, he said, all we're trying to do is to make Mitch feel comfortable. We're not dumbing down anything. I still had a lot of stuff on our playbook that we were going to run for Mitchell. that we didn't even have to run this week. He said that he's very obsessive. And he's like every single week, he's getting more and more obsessive about learning these plays,

understanding the calls and trying to execute them, which is, I mean, those are all good things if you're a Bears fan to see a guy that he has not necessarily been, you know, amazing at all times, but he is taking it and understands that.

And I think Nagy's been frustrated because a lot of people are asking if he's dumbed down the plays for Mitchell because that's become like a talking point. We obviously talk about narratives here. But it does seem like Nagy is just, he's being honest and up front. And he is also the often. is getting more built around Mitchell, which is the whole point.

Right. But here's the thing. And so here's the reality of it is, is the way they practiced those plays on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday was exactly how the Bucks ran their defenses in the game. And I'll give you a step further. You know who was the corner on the other team, a guy that Mitchell threw to practice every single day, M.J. Stewart. Yeah. So he knows his tendencies. He knows that.

You know, he wasn't scared of them. There was a little bit of things that were out there where there's a lot that played into Mitchell having this great game. I do understand that. No, I give him his props, but I think for Mitchell, practice execution has to become game reality. Okay, that's how it's going to have to be. And practice execution when you're playing the bucks is always game reality. They do nothing to really create any problems for you. That's the story.

I'll end on that note, congratulations, the Mitchell Trippesky Club fan club. I'm very excited for Mitchell. We know he's doing well. We're going to take a quick break here. We're going to come back and talk about some of the narratives in the league. and then we're also going to give you our awards for the week. All right, before we move on Lombardi, we're going to give quick break to get a word from our sponsor.

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Back to GM Street. Okay, and we're back. This is what we do each week, especially after a week like this where there's plenty of storylines. Obviously, there's a lot of stuff that would be talked about all over the NFL landscape. One of the biggest stories is something that has lingered from the offseason. a guy that we all know and is the face of the Legion of Boom in most respects. And that's Earl Thomas.

He goes down. He broke his leg. He is, of course, the 75th highest paid player in the league. He's already had three interceptions this season. And he was a man on a mission to prove a point that he is worth a big time contract. And he was, you know, obviously a little bit jaded and frustrated about the fact that the Seahawks were not giving him that. He goes down with a broken leg. Now he is going to be a free agent coming off an injury, which is all.

always tough to do in contract negotiations. He flipped the bird to the Seahawks sideline on his way out, and a lot of people are reading into that. But just talking about Earl Thomas in the situation and just as players and all this stuff, people get upset about contracts and trying to find your value. But then you see something like this. And now you kind of get where they're coming from, right? Yeah.

Well, I mean, look, it's football's a dangerous game. And everybody who enters their last year of their contract is always concerned. That's why you have career-ending life insurance. That's why guys pay so much money to have, you know, when you're going to enter. That's why you also have guys that have career years. next year, you know, the Albert Haynesworth of the world. Exactly. You go in there or Kirk Cousins, you know, you go and have a great year. And I mean, it was a freak thing. I mean, the injury happened. It was kind of a weird thing. And you don't want anybody to get hurt.

But look, girl Thomas is, I mean, look, if you're an executive in the league and a guy breaks his leg, that's like not worrying you at all in terms of, you know, it's going to heal. Most bones always become stronger after they heal. You know, they come together. If they had to put a plate or a screw in there, okay, he's going to get back and run. It's not going to affect his marketability. And now actually he won't play any more games. And so he'll sit there and he'll make his value. He'll make it. And I thought Pete Carroll did it. You know, Pete Carroll said, don't judge what he did. You know, Pete Carroll's trying to take the polite way down the road. And obviously, this thing has gotten so bitter that you wonder why this couldn't just like, you don't want it to ever get this point

where they get the bitter. And Earl's very demonstrative in what he said. And, you know, you just hope Earl, the next team Earl goes to, you know, whatever. And obviously it'll be the Cowboys, which will make them happy, he's going to become a free agent. You know Dallas is going to sign him and Dallas going to pay him. So, like, he's going to end up getting what he wants and I don't want any player to get hurt. But I just don't think from a injury standpoint that a broken leg is going to deter or deval his market value his market. Because people understand what the injury is. It's nothing that's, you know, it's not like Achilles or something like that. Or Achilles was, you know, a killer or the Mark or Carson Wentz where he's got the ACL plus the MCL. How bad is that? Is it nine months away? I mean, this guy will probably be out up and running.

I don't think there'll be any issue with it, and he'll come back and play. And look, I don't want anybody to get hurt in the NFL. I'm not wishing an injury on anyone, but this is one of those where it's, but it's really the cost of doing business in the league that is a violent sport and guys get hurt, and I don't think it's going to hurt his market value. And we should point out on September 5th, you know, people probably all saw this, but Earl put out a post on, I think it was Instagram, where he said, I've never let my teammates, city or fans down as long as I've lived and don't plan on starting this weekend.

with that being said, the disrespect has been well noted and will not be forgotten. I just, the irony of it all to me is, you know, people that maybe don't remember this. When Pete Carroll first goes to the Seahawks, he had a safety on his team at USC by the name of Taylor Mays. And everyone expected him to draft Taylor Mays, you know, kind of this is a guy he's coach, he knows him, he needs a safety, he's going to bring him in. And Pete, Taylor Mays was upset, obviously, but Pete knew that Earl Thomas was the best safety, went out on a limb for him, drafted the guy. and said this is the guy that's going to lead our defense. He is the quarterback of our defense and really, you know, set the tone for what that defense was going to be with Earl. So it is sad to see that, you know, full circle we've gotten to this point where not to say

that him, he and Pete aren't on good terms, but just to say we're here is a- This is where free agency becomes so dangerous. And this is why, you know, when you have certain guys, like when the Patriots sign a player, they may give Edelman a raise or they'll give Chung a raise or they, you have to be aware of your whole locker room. I mean, it's one thing to go out and sign player Y and give him huge deal or player X and give me you got to be aware of your locker room and I think Seattle I think this is a powerful lesson for the Seattle is like maybe they could never make Earl happy maybe they never could and I don't know the details of what was going on behind the scenes but to me if you are involved in free agency what the Seattle Calks are you can't

give guys money without taking care of your own that's just reality because the locker room free agency these guys all talk to each other they all read the news they all see this sort of stuff. I mean, I think it used to, and we've talked about this for it, it used to fly, I mean, even 10, 15 years ago just because those are all private discussions that were sort of, I mean, I guess you could figure it out if you read between the lines or ask certain people or maybe it's in the newspaper randomly. But nowadays, every single contract negotiation is getting leaked by Ian Rappaport or by Schefter or all these guys, all that stuff's out there. Like, let's just take, for example, okay, the chief signed Sammy Watkins, who got hurt again

last night, to a 16 million a year deal, right? So what do you think Tyree Kill's going to want to get? probably 20, right? He's going to base about that. He's going to want more, right? He's going to want more. And the chiefs have to figure out a way now that they know Mahomes is really good of signing this nucleus. And that Wachan's contract is going to be a pillar for other people that want to get paid. How they deal with it, that's up to the chiefs.

But I think that's the reality of whoever you sign from outside your locker room and bring them in, that becomes the standard that the players want and even more. And I think that you have to be concerned about it. as you're building your team, you can't just be naive to think that. Now, the Rams are getting away with it because they have a young quarterback and they got a bunch of guys. They paid Donald more than Sue. So they got that in check. And they've paid some guys.

We'll see how it goes. But the chemistry of the locker room and the culture of the locker room is always a challenge. Absolutely. And we get to that point with the Seahawks team now where Earl Thomas goes down. Obviously, a lot of, it all flips back to Russell Wilson yet again. I mean, it is funny how, you know, during those times and, you know, the 2012, 2014 run. And the whole talking point was this team going to win at Super Bowl. Let's see if they're young quarterback can get them there and not make mistakes.

And now we sit here five years later. He's the sole survivor. He's a sole survivor. He's a sole survivor. He's the only guy that can do it. And they need to rebuild their team. I mean, they're trying. I mean, look, they fought.

They played Arizona, played hard. They won the game. I mean, Dawson missed his two field goals. I mean, I thought Josh Rosen played as good as a young quarterback can play. I mean, Arizona is not very good scheme wise on offense. They're not very diversified in what they do. And then defensively, I think Arizona, you know, I mean, Arizona doesn't have a win. Steve Wilkes hasn't had a win so far. I think Arizona's a classic

example of a team that way over-evaluated how good they really are. They way over-evaluated how good they really are. And they've always done that. They play in a dome. They play at home, but they've lost home games now. I think this is going to be a challenge for them to move the ball consistently. But Seattle's going to have to get better at their draft in and get better and find players because at Seattle, they're going to have to have that magical draft where they turn this thing around. Meet Sonos Beam, the smart compact soundbar for your TV and newest addition to the easy-to-use home sound system. I have a beam in my house. It has changed our entire entertainment system and probably our entire house.

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Just order from sonos.com and select up and running at checkout if you qualify. Let's get to awards for the week. We do this every single week. First up, we have time to go on the lamb and Lombardi. Don't tell me it's Ryan Fitzpatrick. Oh, no, he's been on the lamb. I mean, the Bucks defense, Mike Smith better go on the lamb here in a hurry because, you know, look, you know, this is a week where they have the buy.

So now they've played four games. So what most teams do in the NFL after four games or what you should do in the NFL after four games is run all your stats. Just kind of sit there and say, okay, let's just take Monday and really, if you're playing. You have enough of a sample size at this point to see who we are as a team right now. Let's reevaluate. Here's what we've got to figure out. It's being able to be proactive during the season. Most teams wait until the end of the year to do it, which is too late. Like you got to do it.

Like spend Monday of this week of like observing where you are. Like you're the Jets. Okay, here's what Sam Darnold does really good. Here's what he's not been able to do. We need to modify the game. Who's calling that meeting and who's in that room? Is that a GM decision where you're... I think it's got to be the head coach.

This is the problem. Most of the coaches aren't doing this. They're just too busy worried looking at their play sheet. But like if you're Mike Smith, you got to sit there. Okay, here's where we are. There's where we got to get better. I thought the Saints did that last week. The Saints played the Giants.

And the Saints defensively have always been battleship football. Like they'll call... And last week the Saints decided, you know what? Eli ain't throwing this thing down the field. He ain't going to beat us thinking in Duncan. and we're going to play Tampa too, we're going to keep the ball in front of us, and we'll eventually score, and they played sound football, fundamentally sound football and want.

They did that in season, and this is what has to happen. And so if you're Mike Smith, you're at a crossword, you're going to lose your job, and you don't want anybody to lose their job, but you've got to sit there and figure out, like, how can I get the Bucks defense better? What pieces, here's who I am. And if I keep doing what I'm doing, they're going to keep putting 40 on me. So I got to change. And I think that's why they need to go on the lamb and take their toothbrushes.

Yep, they're going to take their toothbrushes. take their backs, take their luggage, do everything. For I answered Patrick, he's already at his gate right now. He's waiting for a coffee at this point. I mean, you know how it is. So next up, we had the Fred Palermo Award, which goes to the team that was most prepared this week. Who do you got, Lombardy?

Well, I thought the best game plan, obviously, was the Titans. I thought, but, you know, because they won the game. But I'm going to give it to the Cowboys, because I've been on their ass. I've been on the Clapper's ass all year. Like, at some point, can we get the best, one of the best players in football is a man by the name Ezekiel Elliott, and he's on your team.

Okay. Somehow people think he may still be suspended at this point. Yeah, like I'm not sure the Clapper thinks he's suspended or not. But like get him the ball in the passing game. Like do something with him. Extend him out. Put him in situations and be proactive. And so they did.

And it won the game. That was a close game. I mean, it was I thought Detroit moved the ball better against Dallas defense than I anticipated. I thought Dallas would win the game. They won on the last second field goal, which was great. I think that you saw in this game that it isn't Dak Prescott. It's really given him some chances to make some easier. pros. They ran some screens. They threw the fade when he lined up away. So give them credit.

I mean, at least they weren't playing like some people play for, what's that, Fortnite? Fortnite. At least they weren't playing that. People were very upset. I didn't tell you that last week, you know, that you were mentioning a game that all the kids are playing. Yeah. They're like, you're supposed to be the young guy that knows this. I do not play Fortnite. Nor do I care. But Fortnite, yes. Four night. At least, at least I know they weren't playing four night. I got to play four night. Yeah. Well, is it hard? I have no idea. That's the thing. I have no idea. But I was pointed out, Zigo Elliott, right? Touched the ball 29 times, 240 yards in total. First player in the NFL

season, over 200 yards of scrimmage. There it goes. Dak Prescott throws a 255 yards, two touchdowns also has the game winning drive to get a field goal to win the game. So we talked about it. They said they weren't going to change the offense. Nothing was going to change. They were going to run the... They lied. They lie. They lie. The clapper

not only claps, but he also lies. Yes. They made the changes. They decided we had to get Zeke the ball 25 times. Could you imagine what you could do with Zeke? I mean, some of these guys that play mad at home, could you imagine if you take Zik and put them in the slot or make them the number three receiver away. Like McCaffrey, like we're going to put him in the slide and put another back in the back field or take the running back and take the receiver and put him in the

back field. You want to cause problems? Just like like simple stuff. Anyway, but that that's who I give that award to. So the Clapper, congratulations. Congratulations to the Clapper and all the Cowboys fans out there. And especially to Jerry Jones who was very upset this past week. People kept asked him about the offense and he was shutting down the conversation. How about that comment he he made? He said, we're just like the Rams. I mean, is he like at some point, Jerry, you're going have to have to get your glasses clean. It's all PR, you got to get your glasses clean. You got to get your glasses clean. Like there's no way you can come up with that lie. Like there's nothing similar between the cowl. Someone wrote that for him. That's a good line. He used to save that one. Next time we have

the KGB Award, the team that, you know, basically was shook and shocked about what they saw. Who do we have on this list with the KGB Award? You know, I think obviously the Eagles got duped and shocked because I never anticipated that the Titans were going to be able to move the ball as well as they did in that game. They may have gotten the KGB Award, you know, during that game. You know, they had it all set and ready to go. I mean, they had no really business. Like, for me, when I'm watching that game, I'm like, there's no way they could, how are they going to score points? Mariotta can't really throw the ball.

But there was guys wide-ass open in that game, and we talked about it earlier, so I'm going to give them the award. Well, congratulations of the Titans. Big week for Mike Vrable and the Titans. Everyone's very excited there. And we're happy for Mariotta, because like we said, we brought this up earlier. He's a great kid. He's a great guy. We always have enjoyed watching him play, especially since college.

It's been frustrating for him to see all the injuries, but it was good to see him bounce back. Next up we got, I can't tell him. my courage for my desperation. Best Steelers are they just, I mean, I have no idea what they're doing on defense. Like, I have no idea what they're trying to accomplish. Like, they can't stop anybody, you know, and they, and Flacco, let me give Flacco some credit here now. Flacco wins on the road, which is something he's not been able to do very much. He throws for, you know, they have 400 yards moving, you know, they incorporate a little bit of Lamar in the game, so they did some of that. And, you know, I think that, you know, that Pittsburgh, they have no team speed. I mean,

look, they're talking about Bostick being Ryan Shazir. We had Bostick and New England. He ain't Ryan Shazir, okay? Like, let's be real out. The reason he's on about four teams is because he's got liabilities himself. No disrespect to John, but he's not Ryan Shashir. They have no speed. Well, you're just saying that's disrespect to Shazir, who we know is an absolute star. Exactly. Like, that's not even close. So, you know, and then their front, their defensive front can't rush the pass. I mean, when you block them, their corner situation, like, you know, if you're Mike Tomlin, you've got to get back to some kind of basics. I mean, I know they're trying to do a little bit of everything, but they can't rush, they can't. And then offensively, and this is what's

amazing. Because they get behind so quickly early, they can't ever get control of the game. So they never can incorporate their run game involved. So they never can slow the game down to where their defense can play less time. And some of this is because they don't have Levi-on-Bels in there. But more of it is because they get behind so quickly in the game. And so when you get behind, and look, Baltimore made the adjustments in the second half. They figured out what Pittsburgh's doing. I mean, going into the game, Antonio Brown was averaging less the nine yards of catch him to go into that game. I mean, people are taking him out of the game.

They're forcing a ball to somebody else, making Ben hold on to it. And this is what they get. So, I mean, I think Pittsburgh either saw it. When Pittsburgh Steelers in the Steel City, when they lose two home games, shit's bad. Yeah, we have some questions at this point.

We're far removed from the Dick Lobo defense. It is funny to me. Every time they're in a, their own Sunday night football, we still talk about the Steelers defense, like it's the Steelers defense, like it's the Steel Curt. Yeah, every single time, just because they have that identity,

it'd be like if, you know, we have the Bears game when we started talking about 85 bears every time they play it. It's very interesting. Dick LeBow is not there. This defense has no real idea at this point. They have nobody on any level of the defense that can dominate the game. I mean, Cam Hayward's a good player.

Don't get me wrong. And, you know, they have Stefan Truitt's a good player. They have good players. They just don't have a dominant. T.J. Watts is a good player. But they don't, but they're not doing enough. They have no fundamentals or technique and they make too many mistakes. And, you know, on the switch read.

I mean, they don't cover the guy on the vertical on the switch. I mean, that's a day one install power. pass play. Like that's a day one install pass play and they don't get it right. Like that's way bad. And I want to point out one thing too just about this Ravens team. Ozzie in the offseason signing these receivers. Willie Sneen these guys. I mean, we talked about making your team better, you know, having a base and just trying to add actual assets. I mean, some of those signings, I mean, all those receivers, he's really brought in for Flacco. I've really been a plus. Hey, the best thing that Ozzie did this offseason, fuck the receivers. The best thing that

Ozzie did this off season was when he turned that card in and it said Lamar Jackson. That was the best thing he did because that fire that lived, that lives. under Joe Flacco's ass. That was the first time. Fear does the work of reason. If he doesn't draft Lamar Jackson, all those receivers he signs are going to be just like the graveyard of all the ones, the Jeremy Macklins, the Mike Wallace's, all the ones that he signed in the past. This time, Flacco was aware. Flacco now has to be the guy. And, you know, now they actually have a full team. I mean, look, one thing about the Ravens, I mean, I was watching the game and I'm like, Tell him Millie, like, they won't miss the, Tucker won't, like,

he won't miss the kick outside the upright, you know, the middle upright. Like he won't be six or seven inches left or right of that, you know? I mean, if he goes even close to the uprights, it's like, oh, my God, he really must have missed hit that, you know? So you know that anytime they move the ball a little bit, they're going to get three points, right? And so they're going to get three. So they got ways to do it. Their defense is playing really good.

They're rushing the pass. And they're doing this without Jimmy Smith, their best corner. So look, I think that Flacco had to wake up. And I think turning that card in and woke him up. The other point I wanted to make, I think this never gets talked about on television tape Fraser. And it drives me fucking crazy. It just drives me fucking nuts.

Is there certain points of the field that a quarterback can't take a sack, okay? And we never talk about it on television. Like, we never talk about it on TV. Like, when you have the ball at your own 35, you're going into score and you have the ball and your opponent's 35-yard line, you're in field goal range. You can't take a sack, okay? So there's an area between the 40s. in the 40s, you can't take a sack, right? Because that's field position. If you're backed up

and you're on your own 20 or something like that, you take a sack, okay, you can live with it. You're going to lose five, six yards maybe. But you can't. There's certain places on the field, quarterbacks can't take a sack. Like, it's not the line that should get blamed for the sack. It's the fucking quarterback. Like, when you go in the play, you can't take the sack. There's no way we can take a sack here. So you got to get rid of the ball. I don't give a shave your throat too early. We're not taking a sack. We're not losing yards because we're going to kick the field goal. And we never talk about it. Like the field is broken. up in areas for the quarterback.

It should be in every quarterback's room, a giant pitcher of the field, and then shaded areas, you can't take a sack here. Like, you just can't. It's impossible. Parcells used to be fucking bitching about it all the time. Like, you can't take a sack there. Like, that's called stupid football. And we see it happen every week and guys take sacks down there in the red zone.

Like, are you kidding me? And if you ever want to watch a player and understand, you know, what you're talking right now, if you watch Russell Wilson, I mean, that guy will be, and he knows exactly where he is at all times. And if he's in a position where he's going to get sack, magically, he will somehow get back to the line of scrimmage. Whether he runs around 30 guys and dives to the line of scrimm, he knows

never to take that set. It's aware of it. It's aware. Like, you can't, like, and you shouldn't have to... It's a football knowledge. You shouldn't have to tell the quarterback. Like, you know, like, and I'll scream at the TV. You can't take the sack there. Like, get rid of the ball. You know, but they do it. Yeah. And that's a very Joe Flacco thing. But, you know, we were saying nice stuff before, so we'll leave that at Flacko. Final one,

final award of the week. This is one of our favorites. If you don't know, now you know, Lombardi, what do we know? I think the Saints are really good. And I'm in love. I am absolutely in love with Taysam Hill. Like, I'm in love. Like, okay. And I'm, I'm in love with what Sean Payton does.

Like, I can watch Sean Payton's offense for hours. Just watch it. Like, the execution is precise. This offensive line for New Orleans, I mean, they run power. They run. They do everything you got to do to cause problems. If you try to take away the outside stretch, they run power. They run gap schemes.

They run zone. And they run them all effectively. But this Taysam Hill, now in one of the chapters of Grid Iron Genius, I talked about the future of football. And the future of football, actually on Saturday when I was watching the Penn State, Ohio State game, Penn State was in full single wing mode. I mean, they were in full single wing mode. They were, you know, the quarterback for Penn State is just running the ball. Why he didn't carry the ball on fourth and forth. And I have no freaking idea why.

Like, you know. I just saw the highlights. But yeah, I mean, there's no excuse in the world. But so anyway, they're running single wing. And so what the Saints are doing with Taysam Hill, they line them up as a, he's the personal protector on the field on the punt team, which is also, so fans know,

the personal protector on the punt team is usually your best athlete who can tackle, who's tough, who's smart. They line them up, they hang him the ball, he throws a hitch for a first out. So now every punt from now on that the Saints face, every time they punt the ball,

every team's going to be in punt safe the whole time, which is like great. Okay, like you're just backing off. We're in pun safe. We're not coming after you. So you got that. Then he's, He's a red zone player down there.

They put him in the red zone. He's fast as shit. I mean, we saw the QB scrambles. I mean, like, this is the future of football. Like, if you're the Jets and you have Terrell Pryor and you're watching St. tape, if you're Mike McCagin, okay, you're watching St. tape, you're like, why aren't we doing some of this stuff here with Terrell Pryor? Like take some of the burden off.

Bring him in here. Bring him in here. Like it, like it will extend Sam out there. We'll start, you know, like, shouldn't we have like a little package of this, like doing some things? Same with Lamar, right? I mean. Same with Lamar. Like, make Lamar like the, like have a single-wing concept.

You know, what if you had a Joe Webb on your team? I mean, Joe Webb can do that. Same thing with Joe Webb. I mean, you got Joe Webb's down in Houston. You can do the same thing. Like, what cracks me up about this is we all say, we all think it's amazingly creative when Andy Reid takes the receiver and brings them in the back field and makes them input back there, really creative.

And we never worry about the receiver getting hit or tackled and get hurt, right, tackled. We never worry about it. But if we put Lamar Jackson back there, well, you got to watch that he doesn't get hurt. But Lamar Jackson's not going to get hurt on those running. He knows how to run the ball. He might hurt their feelings. I mean, Taysome Hill the other day. He's got scars on his arms.

I mean, you know, he's not getting hurt. I mean, he's going to run the ball. He's going to protect himself, right? They know how to run. They're like receivers that know how to run that just happen to throw the ball from here to the beach, right? Like, to me, I love the kid. I love what they're doing with them. I think the package is going to get expanded even more.

And I love that Breeze is just like takes it. And, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up throwing Breeze a hitch out there. Yeah. Well, let me tell you this. This is my madden move that I used to do back in the day. This is when I was a little kid, you know, seventh, eighth grade. I'd always start a game. I'd go straight to the depth chart.

I'd change my punter to the third string quarterback. So every single time I was punting in the game, there was a chance that I would just, you know, run a fake and throw it with my third string quarterback. See, that right there, you just define, I know you're a valvictorian of your school, but you define the difference between creative and divergent thinking. Creative thinking is trying to change things. Divergent is taking an existing problem, making better. What are they talking about entrepreneurs? entrepreneurs don't come up with new ideas. They take existing ideas and make them better.

That's what the divergent thinking is. That's what you just did. See, and that's what I'm after. That's what I think the NFL lacks divergent thinking. But we've seen it. Luckily for us, we are seeing the Andy Reid ripple effect that has come down a lot of these offenses. And we're lucky enough to have a guy like Sean Payton,

who is a absolute mastermind of football, a guy that, you know, we talked about Teddy Bridgewater, and we were talking about smart teams that will go after that guy. Sean does it. You know, I mean, we talked about Sean McVeigh. I mean, another guy that he's going to take these chances. Those are the types of things that are happening football that are good to see. Because like you're saying, those guys are, they understand what it is.

They understand the formula that is set in front of us. But I want to tweak it. I want to make it my own. I'm going to do something different here. And here's, and we know it's hard to score in the red zone. We know that some teams rush three. And so there's so. And we know fades aren't going to work unless you have the megatron.

The worst call in football. Like it's just like take it off the hook. Like we're going to throw a fade. I mean, the Raiders ran the fade for the two-point play. And Jordan Nelson just made – Jordan Nelson made a great play. But to me, it's lazy thinking. Like, if that's what you've got to come up with for your two-point play,

you're really not thinking. Yeah. Okay. Or you're all thinking alike. Or you're all thinking alike. Thank you very much, Dave Frazier. But anyway, so I think that the way the Saints are doing it, I think it's amazing.

I think it's truly, to me, it's not wildcat. It's an offense that's creative and moving. Because the kid can do so many things, how valuable is this player? Like how valuable is Taysam Hill? Like he's so freaking valuable. He does so many, and he affects the game. Effected the punt.

affected the offense. Get him in the red zone. Now you've got to play option. You got to play Reed. Then all of a sudden, Camaro runs the ball from the eight yard line in because they run the read option. And he's got, you know,

because people, the defense is now worried about it. And talk about, I mean, going into a week against the Saints team, if you were a defensive coordinator and you have to watch tape. Now I have to watch a whole separate other tape about another weapon that they have.

When Tason Hill comes in a game. So I'm going to hear about Michael Thomas, arguably one of the best receivers in the game. I have to worry about Camara, who's one of the best running backs of the game. I have to worry about Drew Brees, who's one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Oh, yeah, they have this other special package where now I have to worry about offense with their own special teams. That's a headache. No, they're good. I mean, they're good. The Rams are good. I think it's just going to be a lot of fun. But that's my, that's my, that's my honor, Tate Fraser. We do know that the Santer team to watch out for.

We've learned a lot in the first quarter of the season at this point. Again, as we've said, you know, September is over. September football is done. We're moving into October. We're going to see these teams actually, you know, find their identities and become who and what we thought they were or what we didn't think they were. We will see how it all plays out. This has been another edition of GM Street part of the Ringer Podcast Network. We will be back on Friday for Lombardi to give us picks for week five. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Meet Sonos Beam, the smart compact soundbar for your TV. Beam lets you play anything you love from music and radio to movies, TV, podcasts, and more, all with rich sound that fills the room. It's super simple to set up, but even

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