The Ringer NFL Show - Lombardi's Week 6 Reactions | GM Street (Ep. 324)

Episode Date: October 16, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the biggest games from Week 6 and then give out their weekly awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Liz Kelly, and I want to tell you about the second annual Ringer NBA Palozo on Tuesday, October 16. We'll be streaming a live marathon countdown to tip off with Bill Simmons and the Ringer MBA crew, featuring live podcasts, special guests, ringer original shorts, and culminating in a Sixers Celtics watch party. You can check it out live on Tuesday across all of our social media platforms. And don't forget to check out our brand new NBA Paloosa merch on the ringer.com slash shop. Welcome to GM3 part of the Ringer Podcast Network. is Monday night. It is October 15th. And on the phone right now, I am joined by Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I'm good, Tate Fraser. Got another high-scoring first quarter here in the 49th game.

I apologize for recording this Monday, but the book brings me out of town tomorrow for the next couple days. So I appreciate you working your schedule around for me this week. Absolutely. It's not a problem at all. I can always work around for you, Lombardy. We should say, just off the top, like you just mentioned, Monday Night Football is going on right now. So we're not able to look into the future and figure out what actually happens in this game. But a lot of injuries in this game, obviously the Packers are trying to bounce back and find their footing. Aaron Rogers struggling with a lot of guys out that are his receivers. Geronimo is obviously out of this game.

Cobb, another guy out of this game. And even Devante is also a guy that's going through an injury right now. And we can talk about the 49ers defense and all those struggles. But Lombardi, I think we should just open up at the top here. This was news that was just reported. not too long ago. An unfortunate news, obviously, the Microsoft co-founder and the owner of the Seattle Seahawks and also the Portland Trailblazers, Paul Allen, died today from complications of non-Hodgkin's

lymphoma, 65 years old. And we just wanted to send a note out to the Allen family and to all those affected by this because he was such an influential figure in the NFL and, obviously, in the NBA as well. And sports in general, you know, I mean, this is a man that gave back. He truly was a philanthropist. And, you know, he was heavy in the music scene. He felt it was a civic duty to buy the Seahawks. And even though I would say he was not as much he loved basketball more than football,

he was a ball about Seattle. And I think that's really, he put his money where his mouth is, and he gave back to a lot of company that he started there, issued a release today. And I just, you know, these are tar. It's way too young for somebody. Our condolences with the entire Seattle organization and with everybody at the time, Portland Trailblazers as we begin the NBA season this week. And we should say, I mean, there's already been an overflow of thoughts and prayers that have been sent out.

We saw Matt Hasselback on Monday Night Football, you know, gave his thoughts. Obviously, it was 10 years there in Seattle as the quarterback for the Seahawks and Bill Gates. Just a bunch of names already coming out. Lombardi, we've got to talk about the five performances like we do every single week that jumped out to you. It was week six. There was a lot of weird things. The heist came back. Brock Osweiler showed back up, so we're very excited about that.

I've got to set the scene for you. So let me, not, I will get to the five. So I started doing on Saturdays and Sundays, Vegas Stats and Information Network has a studio where we do a show, a TV show from the Oceans Casino. And when the news leaked out, at the height, I have never seen a sports book as busy as I've seen the Atlantic City, the oceans. It couldn't believe. I thought they were giving away free saltwater tapy down there. You're saying everyone's betting on Brock at this point. They believe in Brock.

It's unbelievable. In fact, it was so unbelievable that William Hill, who runs the book there, 80% of the action was all on the bears. The Bears, yes. And you know that I, and I took, that I wanted Miami. And trust me, I was a coward. I was running off Miami as soon as I heard the heist news, you know. I told scorekeeper was like, no, no, no, you can't take it back this week.

You can't take it back. Brian said, no, no, you can't take it back on Twitter. It's like, well, everybody said, LaBardi said this. He said, no, no, you can't take it back. So obviously I couldn't take it back and help me before and one on the week. No, big picture was incredible. You have to come back. And even if you just don't even place a bet just to sit there and listen to the Jerseyites,

it's almost the most amazing thing ever. It's all inspiring. I can only imagine what it's like. It was great. The guys, four guys behind me were like, why don't you just run the ball? Jesus Christ, you get 12 yards every time you run it. It's so good. It was hilarious.

And Millie's sitting next to me like a cheese elbow and me. Don't start with these people. You know, like, don't start with them. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is too good. I mean, it was priceless. You sound like a man that's back in his element all the way. Yeah, yeah, all the way. Yeah.

I'm very happy. It's so good. I go to Wawa-W-W-W-W-A every day. You don't even know what Wawa. No, I don't. Lava is a local, local, it's like 7-Eleven that's around here, you know? There's one on every corner. It's the greatest.

I'm just so happy for you. I want to know that. Anybody who's in the area, they want to come watch football on Sunday with me, please feel free. It's the new Tony P's for me. It's incredible. They've got some screens and you can listen to the cover. Well, we know Tony P. Definitely is missing you this season, but I'm happy all things are working out on the East Coast.

Let's get to these five performances that jumped out to you this week. The first is probably the biggest storyline and something that we talked about as soon as it happened, obviously it is the $100 million man, that's John Gruden. And they go over to London for the first time. They pretty much, you know, no show there, and the Seahawks get the big win. Bruce Irvin, after the game said he was just happy to go home to his wife, when to make some babies. John Gruden seemed to be very frustrated with Derek Carr at times,

something that we have continued to see this season, a theme at this point. Amari Cooper was rumored to be on the trade block, apparently for a first round pick. All this is swirling in Oakland, and John Gruden after the game said they would not lay down. That's not what they're going to do in Oakland. But right now they're one in five. Their one win was an overtime win over the Cleveland Browns, we remember.

And it looks like a lot of people are pointing, or the Raiders are just going to go through a rebuild at this point and just build from the ground up knowing that Gruden's going to be there for the long haul? Well, I think here's the fundamental issue, Tate Fraser. So Gruden can say all that he wants to say about rebuild and all that. But when you have a franchise quarterback, you're never in rebuild mode. You're in repair mode. I mean, look, Aaron Rogers, he's a franchise quarterback.

And the Packers' talent around them, I would say, is not very good, especially at the receiver position. And we see him do things that makes things stand out. Their talent level is not very good at all in Green Bay. So the fundamental issue here is, is the problem is simply this. Is Gruden saying with all those words that he's saying and not saying is the fact that he doesn't have a franchise quarterback? And, you know, Derek Carr has this mythology attached to him that he's a Darrell Lomanka throw the ball down the field guy. He's never averaged over seven yards per attempt ever in his career after a season. Now, there's times in the games he's done it, but as a whole, he's never done it after the season through the whole season.

So he's never been a bad bomber. And you can just see John Gruden on the sidelines so frustrated. You can see how disappointed he is because I really believe Gruden thought when he took this job, he had a franchise quarterback. Today, he realizes he doesn't have one. So what is that next situation? What is that next scenario if you are, John Gruden? If he, in his mind, has identified the fact that Derek Carr is not his franchise quarterback.

He is not the quarterback that he thought he was when he took this job. Does that mean that Derek Carr is a guy that is on the trading block? And maybe there is a ripple effect where a team like, say, the Jacksonville Jaguars or the New York Giants or insert any of these. Jacksonville doesn't need a quarterback. We know this. already know this. Jacksonville does not need a quarterback. I do. I do remember that Blake Portles is there. I'm sorry. Let's slip my mind for a second.

Yeah, but do we get to that point? Because obviously, the Cooper rumor comes out. We've obviously seen Khalil Mack as a guy that came in the same draft as Derek Carr. He was shipped out to Chicago. That was a big storyline in the season. And then you see some of the young guys on their team like an Arden Key have a few big plays, but for the most part, they've struggled with the pass rush. Carr, like you said, has not been able to get the ball down the field. Cooper has not been able to be a star that they hoped he would be at one

point. Just overall, you know, I mean, what is the next step for the Raiders? They just accept that this is a lost year at this point and they try to do something in the draft, or do they try to make a drastic change? I think this is a really critical moment in John Gruden's career because he's got he's the general manager of the team. We know Reggie McKenzie has the title, but he's the general manager of the team. And now, this job is way harder than he thought it was. It's really way harder. When you don't have a quarterback, being a general manager in the National Football League is probably the hardest job, because you've got to figure out a way to get a quarterback. And then when you're flying home from London and you're sitting on the airplane

and you're watching Patrick Mahomes, who you have to beat twice a year, just to even get into the dance. If you don't have somebody that can match with him, how are you going to be able to compete? Has never been, look, there's a lot of things we all have to understand. The strengths that we all possess and the weaknesses we possess, we have to know them. It's the key leadership. You know, you bring people in to surround yourself that can do things that you're not good at. John is not a great talent evaluator. Just with his talent, a reactionary talent evaluator. John falls in and out of love with players on a continual basis. I'm not saying this as a hypothesis or around John. I know John probably as well as any human being. I wrote about him in my

book. I know how John motivates himself. I know how John behaves because I was with him for a long time. and his strength isn't in personnel. That's not his area of expertise. He better find himself somebody that can come in and deal with not Reggie McKenzie, all the bad drafts, which he's not even start. Pick, he's on another team. I mean, so this is not about bashing Reggie McKenzie,

nor trying to say John Gruden's right. This is about what's going to happen moving forward, and they don't have enough talent right now. And we've gotten to the point. I mean, the Raiders now are pretty much going nowhere fast very quickly at this point. I mean, you just think about the fact two years ago at this time. Raiders were, you know, six and two, on their way to 12 and

four, Derek Carr, you know, people were clamoring for him to be the MVP at that point. You know, things have just changed very rapidly if you are a fan of the Raiders at this point, or if you kept up with this team. And for the most part, you know, we can tell that that Gruden is making all these decisions. And, you know, there's always been problems with that. We've seen it in basketball when Doc Rivers is coaching. But the conflict between being a personnel and making personnel decisions and also being a football coach or a coach of a basketball team or coach of any team, you're at odds with yourself a lot of the times

and you have to make a lot of tough decisions. And we're seeing that Gruden's having to do that in year one, which he probably didn't think was going to be the case, having Carr and some of those other guys in tow when he got there. Yeah, look, he's starting two rookie tackles. And both those rookies aren't playing very well. Colton Miller, the left tackle might be a good player down the line. I mean, Tom Cable probably thinks he's going to be a good player

because he's athletic, can't handle any power. I mean, the right tackle, they drafted this year. He's not playing very well, which is understandable. Rookie tackles don't play well. So the offensive line, they got all this money tied up in the centers and guards. You know, Amari Cooper, I don't think they think Amari Cooper has got great passion for the sport. I don't think they think he loves football. I think that's what I'm hearing coming out of that building.

I think they're worried about his contract moving forward. It doesn't sound like they're any interested into giving him that kind of deal. And that's no problem. But the problem is when you tear down, you don't have a quarterback going. And you know, you and I have talked about this so often. You need to have, it takes talent to evaluate talent. This is not about just getting a high draft pick. This is not just that you got to find.

And I think that's going to be the hardest challenge. They got to find somebody that they can come in there that's compatible with John that'll tell John no, right? You've got to tell John no. Is an intimidating guy. And you've got to be able to stand up and say, no, John, that ain't right, Matt. We can't do that. Well, it's hard to do that when he smacks you with a water.

of cash, right? No, I'm kidding. Well, yeah. I mean, if you're just going to have people around you that tells you what you want to hear, you're not going to get anywhere. I mean, John is the general manager is going to get John the head coach in a lot of trouble. And he's got to separate church and state here. And if he doesn't do it, it's not going to work out for him. And he's got to take the approach. Look, take the long lens. You're going to have to find a quarterback in the rounds, in the middle rounds. I mean, I think the same thing's happening with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. Their defense is atrocious. Their personnel on defense is atrocious. Now, people say, always got John Lynch there. John Lynch has never been a general

manager in the National Football League before. John Lynch never went on the road scouting before. John Lynch is learning on the job. That isn't like he's going to walk in a Kyle's office and say, look, you know, when I worked for ex-this guy, we did that. No, no, no, no, no. That ain't happening. I like John Lynch. John's a great guy. I hope he has great success. I'm not bashing him. Just saying he ain't telling Kyle what to do. Kyle's telling John what to do. And their team reflects that, and that's the problem. And, you know, we get in a lot of sticky situations with that stuff. Obviously, you know, a lot of focus on the bay here. Well, you know, it's funny.

You see it in basketball, too. Look at Tibinoe at Minnesota. Yep, of course. He's got all the power, and he trades for Jimmy Butler. People know Jimmy Butler's got a bad knee. People know Jimmy Butler's not really a kind of guy that people want to endear themselves to. And so, you know, but yet he trades for him. And now they're going to dump him in a fire cell.

Well, and it's also, I mean, Tibbs, the coach loves Jimmy, and Tibbs, the personnel guy knows that Jimmy wants out. So it's always a conflict of interest when you get to that level. And we're seeing it in Oakland right now. Let's get to the next game, probably the game that we were most excited to watch this weekend in a game that people are really keeping an eye on just to see if Pat Mahomes, you talk about identifying talent and having a lens for the future.

That's exactly what the Kansas City Chiefs did with Andy Reid. They identified Pat Mahomes. They brought him in. They made him their quarterback. And then we get to the point just a year later after, you know, Alex Smith was so great last year to open the season against the Patriots. Now they have Mahomes. Mahomes is staring.

down Tom Brady. And it was a complete shootout. And it never felt like the chiefs are really out of this game, despite being down 15 points at the half. Even Bill Belichick at halftime said that they needed to score more points because he knew the chiefs were going to come back in the second half. And just looking at this game, Lombardy, it looked like two teams that were the class of the AFC going at each other.

Yeah. And, you know, even though the Patriots won, you almost felt like, look, they gained 500 yards of offense, right? So they have 500 yards. they don't have a penalty in the game. Right? They have one turnover. They never punt.

And it takes a last second field goal to beat the chief. They got a 24 to 9 lead at the half. And their game plan, I came into the game and said, look, we're going to jam Kelsey, wherever he goes. You know, now, Hightower made some plays in that game, but I think you could see some of the deficiencies in Hightow are trying to run around, trying to make plays. He played well. He got the two, got the interception and forced the other one. But I think you could see his limitations in terms of his ability to run. run and cover. And the Chiefs had them on that one wheel, on the one seam route down the field.

But the game plan I thought was perfect in the first half. Hold, play good in the red zone, make Mahal before we can get his feet set. And then, you know, we're going to do good in the red air. We're going to run the ball, but all went to hell on the 67-yard touchdown pass to Kareem Hunt, who they just dropped the coverage. And they started blowing coverages and they start letting free access guys. And to me, you know, the Patriots really tough, but you knew whoever had the ball last that game was going to win. And that's pretty much what it came down to it. mentioned the Dante High Tower interception. I thought that was an interesting play to kind of highlight what the Patriots were doing in the first half. And, you know, we talked about McVeigh and how on an offense he's attacking a defense. We saw Belichick do, you know, the opposite of that, but with

defense and attacking Pat Mahomes where they were, you know, crowding the line. They were giving him different looks at the line. And then that High Tower pick was High Tower coming up looking like he's going to come on a blitz. And then he drops back into coverage and gets that interception. So we saw that earlier in the game and Belichick seemed to attack Mahomes. But in the second half, whatever reason, maybe some of those things just didn't quite work as well. But Mahomes seemed to find a rhythm and really just kind of got it together and looked like a season vet against that Pat's defense down the stretch. But he won the game with the blitz. I mean, one thing they did do, and I tweeted this out in the third quarter, I said, whoever

punts of the fourth quarter loses. And the three and out in the fourth quarter by the chiefs. Now, the chiefs only had the ball ten minutes in the entire half, Tate Fraser. They only had the ball ten minutes in the entire half. They scored 31 points. Do you know how hard that is to score 31 points in 10 minutes? It's pretty hard. It's impossible. Yeah. I mean, and yet they did it.

And so, but they had a three and out in the game. They had a three and out. And that cost them. And that blitz, where Tyree kills running down the field, that blitz forced Mahomes to throw the ball off. And that essentially, that call won the game. What happened? That call kind of won the game. And the fact that they gave up so many big plays, they got the ball back.

The fourth quarter, the Patriots had the ball 11 minutes in the first quarter. fourth quarter. And so they were able to, you know, they couldn't stop the big plays. If they were to control the clock without the big plays, they could have added to that 24-9 lead. But for me, watching a game, I think the military defense. I don't think there's any chance they're going to be able to ever get good enough on defense to slow it down. They got to win with their offense. And we talked about this about a month ago, and now they are winning with their offense.

And we saw, I mean, the Grankowski came back in this game. I mean, in the fourth quarter, Grancowski had the 40-yard catch, the 42-yard catch. And it seem like when they needed to focus and hone in on who they were as a team and find their identity, they still have Grancowski there. And Tom Brady still has, you know, the safety blanket of Grancowski. He tried to involve Josh Gordon a lot in this game, and there were some times where they were completely off base. But it is good and encouraging if you were a fan of Josh Gordon with the Patriots because Tom Brady seems fixated on getting him involved in the offense. So those are some positive signs, you know, if you are Patriots. I mean, they do. They got him in there. You can see

what they're going to run with him. He's going to be the slant runner, catch the inside slants. the vertical routes down the field. I'm sure next week he'll catch some dig, inside dig routes. I'm sure he'll do that, and he'll be able to do that. But I talked about this on Twitter, and I think people don't understand it because Chris Collinsworth, you know, has never been really inside the Patriots office, offices to understand really what Brady does with the line of scrimmage. Last night on TV, Collinsworth was talking about, well, he just extends the receiver out there. So whenever he puts James White outside, see, that's called an indicator.

All he's trying to do is collect information. So Brady extends James White outside past the formation. If the linebacker goes out with him, Brady believes with probably 90-degree certainty it's going to be a man coverage. When he comes back inside, he resets them and starts again. And then he starts working on what he wants to run based on the game plan that they put together, Josh McDaniels and him. Does he want to change from a run to a pass? Play that he calls with Gronk, when Gronk's in their block and they fake the toss to the right and Trent Brown blocks the guy who's supposed to cover Gronk

and Gronk guns down the field to get the first down. Huge call. The fact that they can execute that so quickly just off the sideline is remarkable. But Brady, he recognizes the front. He reppoints the Mike call. He then changes the play. It's the defense that he's already been prepared for. It's just really remarkable.

And he does it by collecting information with motion. Looking at the – looking at the Mike linebacker's eyes, he can tell who's coming, who's not, and who's going to block him. and he was on his game last night. He was really intellectually on his game. And he fooled Breeland Speaks last night, too. That was another storyline that came out of this and brought it all back to the roughing the passer situation.

Yeah, but you know, Tad Frazier, I mean, people make it a big deal out of this fucking thing. I mean, like the reality of it is, is it was, it would have been first and go with the one. So Brady would have got in the end zone. They had three more place to get it in. There was a penalty on the call. There was a defense of holding call.

say speaks would have just would have tackled them, right? It was a fucking defensive holding call. And it first to go with the one. What that would have done is either another 30 seconds off the clock. And then Brady just would have jumped up and put the ball. Yeah, and broke the plane and it would have been a touchdown right after that. Yeah, you're right. I mean, it just became, you know, as always, Lombardi,

there's always a flag or a talking point to point to when it comes to the Patriots. It doesn't stop. Like, there's a lot of good shit going on in that game, especially what the Chiefs are doing with their offense. I mean, the Chiefs, clearly, their game plan was to go after Hightower. Their game plan was to get their running. And then their game plan was, look, the Patriots game plan was we're going to take Kelsey away, we're going to stop the big play, and they adjust it.

No, the Patriots aren't going to win there. I don't think that's going to happen. It's going to be really hard to win there. The Chiefs just have to get some form of complementary defense better. They were doing it earlier in the year. Last night they weren't. And it is something to keep an eye on as we move forward just to see how this Chiefs team continues to build

off that loss. It was in the best way that you can put it in an inspiring loss if you were a Chiefs fan as crazy as that is. There's no doubt. Look, they played a tough game the week before against Jacksonville. They dominated Jacksonville. The week before that, they played a tough game in Denver. Had it come back. Now they're back on the road.

Hey, what the Chiefs are doing here, even though through a loss, we went to Green Bay in 2014 a loss, even though we lost it, season. These are going to build you up, and Mahomes is going to learn from it. That's a great teaching tape for Andy Reed. defensive lineman jersey they were standing up the offensive line couldn't do it nobody really talked about the chiefs were playing their sixth and seven lineman Mitch morris gets hurt the the Canadian kid tired of he's already on irs so they had two new starters

Jordan devie was a former former patriot player that got cut traded he got traded to san francisco pressure on that and i think the patrons did a great job of keeping them in the pocket which was a huge issue and that's why mahomes was able to make plays so it's a it's a it's a to me it's a teaching tape you're going to teach off that. The Patriot and Kansas offense, and of course the Kansas defense. The other thing I think that's today is they on special teams. No teams spends as much time on special teams that the

Patriots do. And to give up that play was the long kick return that didn't rescore. It's just too hard. That's always tough. But in the words of Rashid Wallace, both teams played hard. And everyone's a winner in this one. Once they look at the tape, we can all learn some lessons. That was not the only shootout

in the AFC this weekend. We had the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers a team that looks to be bouncing back at this point. And after the game, Big Ben even said and hinted at the fact that that would be James Conner's last game with a season as the starter because Levyon Bell would be back. He is still not reported to camp in Pittsburgh. So for right now, that's all fodder, but that was the big storyline coming out of there. But this game was a really, really good game, back and forth game.

Andy Dalton came down, let a nice drive for a touchdown and Joe Mixing scores. And Bingles fans are celebrating. It's 21-20, 118 on the clock. But Lombardi, as we've said plenty of times on this program, they just left too much time. And Big Ben comes back, throws it to Antonio Brown, gets the touchdown to win the game, ripped the heart out of the Bengals fans.

And yet again, the Bengals weren't able to close out a game. And now the Steelers are closing in on the AFC North and they have a real chance to make a run for this thing. I mean, they're getting better, right? The Steelers are definitely getting better on defense. There's no doubt about that. But I think, look, when you see this thing, you know, they're snapping the ball when they were.

down 20 to 14 first and then. They're snapping the ball with like 17 seconds left on the play clock. I mean, you know, you've got to be managing the game. I mean, this is clearly really on, you have to, when you're in that situation, we've talked about this way too many times on GM Street, is you've got to be in that situation. You've got to be smart about scoring, but you also got to be smart about not giving them too much time.

And, you know, Cincinnati just kept snap. I mean, it's one thing, like when you watch that drive at the end of the Patriot game, Did you ever get the sense that the Patriots were in a rush? No, yeah, exactly. You can just tell just in the two-minute offense in general. I mean, just watch, look at the difference between the Buccaneers and how James was handling the two-minute and then watch the Patriots. You know what I mean?

You can just see the distinct difference. And it's a calm, cool composure, even though we're moving with speed, we're not rushing ourselves versus completely just rushing and running all over the place. The Patriots went into the huddle. They were in the huddle. They were actually, they wanted the clock to go. they wanted that clock to get they got a first down before that they got the you know after the two minute warning they got the first down and they kept going meanwhile you know everybody's in a rush

everybody's panicked and you know to me this is cincinnati's fault i mean as soon as they scored to make a 20 to 14 you knew you knew right that there was a good chance that they were going to come back you just knew it i mean especially considering that the trend there in cincinnati is that the pittsburgh usually wins big ben is very good playing in his home state always always good in Ohio, and I mean, we should say that four of the past five games in that series has been decided by one score. So if it felt like deja vu in a sense, it really was, because that's how it's been. It's been back and forth with the Bengals and the Steelers across the board. Tyler Boyd is a guy we should give a shout out in that game. He was great.

He's been good all year. I mean, that Cincinnati offense, you know, has been really good all season. I think Mixen gives them a dimension. Their offensive line has played better at times. I mean, look, the reality of it is is they can't cover. And anybody that wants to argue that it was a pick play on the touchdown was really wrong. And that was really on Cincinnati more than it was on legal play. You can't blame that play. I mean, that really was. They play zero coverage and the corner and the two corners didn't get it right.

So, you know, the problem, again, here's the issue. The issue was how they managed to clock at the end, not the call. I do have to say this just to ask you a question about, you talked about it, you know, it's a teaching moment for Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs to lose that game to the Patriots. But this Bingles team, for whatever reason, they're almost in a similar vein to the Chargers. They seem to always have something go wrong. Whatever could go wrong does go wrong at some point. And how are you able to bounce back continually if you're the Bengals?

Is this something that's a defeating loss? Obviously, it's not an inspiring loss. But can they move forward and continue playing the way that they have so far this season? Or is this something that will set them back and bring back those old demons almost? Well, you know, that's a good question with comes to Cincinnati, because every time it gets to a close to a game, there seems like the details just don't get ironed out. And they just never go away.

They come back and haunt you every single time. And those details are the difference between winning. You got to correct them. I mean, that's freaking rare. You know, those details are so important. That's how you win. The third ones, so important. That's how you win games.

And when you don't do it, that's how you lose games. I think that's look horrendous on the details. I mean, Houston's trying to give the game away to Buffalo. They're trying like hell. Now, Buffalo puts in Peterman. Peterman, and of course, they can't wait to give the game away. He throws a touchdown pass, but they can't wait to give the game away. Well, he threw a couple touchdown passes, unfortunately, to the wrong end zone the second time.

But our boy, Peterman, he just comes in and always delivers. They can't put Peterman back at a game. There's no way tapeers you can put Peterman back at a game. Nobody's going to have, but poor kid, nobody's going to have any confidence. Yeah, I think he's got the yips. He's got the, like what Shob got, the lone guy, once you throw that one-pick-six on that out-rout, it seems like every single time you'd throw it, there's a corner of a, that's trying to bait it and read it, and it happened again to Nathan Peterman, unfortunately.

And you've got to know not to throw it, right? I mean, you've got to know, like, let's not throw the ball on the outside part of the field because it get picked off, right? You've got to be smart about it, right? You got to know, you've got to know who you're dealing with. Yeah, or have the arm straight to get it there. You know, that's really what it comes down to at some level, too. So, unfortunately, for Nathan Peterman and to not go well. We've got to talk about a guy that we have to give our due credit here because, you know,

we do like to make jokes here on GM Street at times. but the Clapper and the Cowboys, they are back, Michael Lombardi. Do you know this? Did you hear this? They are back. They did it. I did.

I heard it. You know, I was impressed with that game. I was impressed watching that game. I thought that Dallas finally actually took some Mississippi State concepts that Back Prescott ran and utilized them. Let them use his feet. I mean, look, I don't think Dallas has great skill, which many times on GM Street.

But they've got enough skill that they should be better than what they are. And at least by letting him move with his feet. And Dag Prescott in this game He rushes for 11 carries 82 yards and a touchdown Also 17 to 27, 183 yards And two touchdowns Zeke Elliott was great in this game as well

24 carries 106 yards and a touchdown It just seemed like They were actually the Rams offense, right? We finally saw like what Jerry said Actually they did They looked a little bit like When you put 40 on anybody You look like the Rams offense

The play action You know Elliot's going to get your yards I think there's no doubt about that And you know what What happened in that game Jacksonville lost its will. I think Jacksonville is having the, not the Super Bowl hangover. I think they're having a word good hangover. Like Jacksonville's lost their will. And if you watch the beginning of the game, Jacksonville's defense was playing,

started to go. And as my man started to show his colors and he couldn't get a first down on third and two, got a ball batted down, I just think their defense loses its will and says, fuck it, we can't do it. This is it. We just can't do it. Well, it's not very inspiring when you can see that you're all. I mean, there were some shots at the bench with the Jaguars and, you know, people throwing their hands up, you know, reacting to some of the passes from Blake Bortles, which is always tough to see.

I do want to mention one more thing for the Cowboys. Cole Beasley in this game, it was great, nine reception, 100, 1 yards, two touchdowns. He was great. They never covered them. I mean, AJ, but we couldn't cover. They never doubled them. They never took them away. They never, like, game plans that away, but we got, like, knock down

on this. It's like, it's like Tennessee. Like, they never figured out that Joe Flacco is 64% quarterback rating when he faces the Blitz. on third down, and yet you don't put pressure on him, and he's converting third downs at, like, a record pace. I mean, at some point, you're watching the same game. I mean, you've got to make an adjustment.

Like, we've got to take Beasley out of this freaking game, right? We've got to take Beasley away, and they never did that. And so, you know, they got what they deserved? You know, it would be a fascinating, you know, Josina Anderson gets the interview with Odell Beckham, right? And, I mean, that thing's been, that thing's still going on. Can you imagine if somebody gets an interview with Jalen Ramsey and says, okay, nothing about the NFL.

Talk to what would that interview be like, Dave Fraser? Well, he'd probably say what he said in the press conference after the game, which was nothing. He just said, I don't know. He just said, I don't know. He just seemed defeated. He just kept saying, I don't know. And then he said, we'll see. So he seemed, you said that the defense seemed to quit.

He did seem very deflated after this game. And as a guy who was known for talking a bit, you know, similar to how people turned on cam when things didn't go well. And, you know, that just happens comes to the territory. So a lot of people were going at Jalen Ramsey in that secondary. and a bunch of those guys on that defense. The only good play I can remember is, I think one time Dak Prescott turned back the other way and Ngokwe had a big sack on him,

but that was about the only play that really stood out of that Jacksonville defense. They didn't play with any of intensity. I mean, I love Miles Stack. I could watch Miles Jack play all the time. There was nothing there. They were defeated. I mean, and this is coming off an embarrassing loss in Kansas City. I just think at this point, I think they're going to,

and they don't catch any shit. They catch no heat, bitching if they should have picked. Could you imagine if they had Watson on that team? It'd be nice. You know? I think he could run. Could you imagine if they had Mahomes? Now, look, I'll give my man the great equalizer some slack here.

That offensive line play like crap. I mean, the Cowboys' defensive front got after them. They played like crap. But that being said, I mean, they still need a quarterback. And we saw Randy Gregory get a sack. Van der Elish was a guy that, Van der Elish was a guy that had a good game. Jalen Smith, your favorite player, had another. another good performance for the Cowboys.

I just didn't think we need to make a complete I didn't think we need to do a documentary of 30-30 during the game on Jaylon Smith. I just, that's what I just think. It's all narratives. That's how it always goes. It's all narrative. It's hilarious and they don't change.

It's like NBC goes into the game with a narrative. Now look, I thought that the Patriots were jamming the shit out of Travis Kelsey. But the reality of it is, I mean, you know, they were like at some point, don't you think we should have been entitled to see the game plan? Like, okay, here's what they're doing,

here's where the Chiefs are doing. They weren't getting called for it. I was just saying that that was the game plan that the Chief were using. Yeah. And we like to see the tape. We like to see it explain sometimes here on GM Street. So that is always nice. One other rumor before we're going to take a quick break and we're going to get narratives.

But one of the rumor that came up that I saw, you know, some of the radio stations, TV stations, all that sort of stuff. Jacksonville, considering the idea of maybe possibly trading for Eli Manning to get a quarterback down there in Jacksonville? Well, they still wouldn't have one if they traded for. That's what I was... Lombardi, you always deliver. That's what I was hoping for. That was the perfect setup.

You know, that's the problem with free agency. When you sign a guy and you still need a guy, that means you didn't sign the right guy. It's the same thing. I mean, look, they can sign it. You think Eli's not going to throw checkdowns? I mean, they got Blake go throw checkdowns. Blake will also run a little bit.

Blake can run. I mean, if Eli plays behind that bad line in Jacksonville, he's going to think the line in New York's really good. Yeah, I don't think... It would be interested to see if Tom Coughlin were to do something like that. But just one thing, food for thought. We're going to take a quick break here. And then we're going to come back.

We're going to do narratives that have been going around the NFL. And then we're also going to do awards for week six. Guys, you've heard me talk about this for weeks. Yet some of you are still watching football from the sidelines. Whether you're an expert or a rookie, you should be betting at my bookie. If you're the kind of guy that likes to bet a little and win a lot, my bookie gives you the chance to create a big parlay. Pick three teams to win.

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This is what we used to do it on Sunday nights and try to guess the narratives for the week. But now we just react to some of the bigger narratives. But first off, the Monday night football game is going on right now. We're recording while it's happening. And Lombardi, you have some thoughts on the Green Bay defense. Well, look, I mean, Green Bay's defense is battleship football at its finest. I mean, they just dial stuff up and hope they hit.

They just hit on a play. I mean, it's, you know, this is Mike, Petton and his office coordinator. And clearly, you know, I mean, they're just, Green Bay, there's no way Green Bay can win, just on defense as well. They play battleship football, defense, too. I mean, this is two battleship games.

We should have, like, two eight-year-olds playing battleship against each other, kind of off the side. Down there where, down there where bugger is, you know, they should be playing battleship down there because both coordinators, that's the way they call the game. We call it Nerf football at that point. That would probably be the best way to do it.

I do want to say one more thing about Green Bay, Aaron Rogers, you know, there's been a lot of back-and-for. about him losing guys and having young receivers not be able to get open because, you know, the Aaron Rogers special is he creates more time and then you get open and he throws you the ball deep and it's magical when it all happens. But between him and McCarthy, I mean, will those fingers start the point if we continue to see this bad of a defense and this team struggle with, like you said, of having a franchise quarterback like Aaron Rogers. As much as Derek Carr, we're not sure if he

is a franchise guy. We all know Aaron Rogers, obviously, is a franchise guy. I think Aaron gets frustrated watching, I think he gets frustrated watching Patrick Mahomes and what Andy Reid's doing. I think he gets frustrated watching Josh McDaniels and what he does in New England. He's like, why can't I get that? Like, why aren't I getting that? You know, some naked, some bootlegs. Now, they run out of plays about midway through the first quarter.

You know, they had these two huge drives, and they're making plays, and all of a sudden, now they ran out, and I'll see what they can come up with the second half. But to me, like, I've said this to you a thousand times. I don't understand why they just don't leave Aaron Jones on the field and play him every snap. He's their best running back. You know, and I know he missed

the pass and maybe he misses a protection. the defense of favor. It does seem like they're trying to do a little bit of a copycat with the Patriots with the running back by committee and, you know, never know, keep it on the toes. It's almost like McCarthy has the other running backs in his fantasy league. Like it's really like seriously. I don't know. Let's check it. We'll figure it out.

Let's ask some people. Next, next narrative we have coming up, the NFL is not expected to suspend Vantes Berfic. He had a big hit on Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown gets up, walks off the field, goes through concussion protocol, comes back in the game, ends up winning the game. for the Steelers as fitting as that is, but Vantes Burfect, a guy,

to say he's a repeat offender would be a light statement at this point, but he has this other moment, the NFL is not going to do anything about it. People are, you know, back and forth, up and arms about it, but once again, we're dealing with more Vantes Burfect,

fallout. There's always going to be the case, because anytime he has a hit, people are waiting to see what the league's going to do. Yep. You know, it just, that's, that's the never-ending story, and that's, you know,

obviously he's earned it. by his reputation. Yep, and that's what we know. The narrative that we haven't talked about, I like to bring it up. Like at some point, when's the narrative, what are they going to do in Denver?

Now, look, I know John Elway, the player is the legend in Denver. There's, they've got statutes, the guy's the greatest player, one of the greatest players of all. And John,

John Elway is the general manager, if that would have been Michael Lombardi, the general manager of Denver, I'd be fired. Let's be real honest. I mean, that Super Bowl,

that dust would have been on that Super Bowl. If you would be the GM or Lewis Riddick's the GM, you know, at some point you've got to separate. And they have no quarterback. The defense is worse. The scheme's horrendous. I mean, they got a chance to win. I mean, Case Keenham at 18 million to the NFL. And like you said when we were talking about the Jaguars, you made a decision in free agency to sign Case Keenum.

He didn't go after a guy like Kirk Cousin, someone that people thought they may have a chance to go after. And now you're at a point where you just kind of have to, you have to lay in the bed that you made. for yourself at this point. I mean, you sign Case Keenum. He is not living up to the expectation that you would hope he would be as a franchise quarterback. That defense was just on the ground. I mean, Todd Gurley obviously dominated those guys. His career high in rushing, first time over 200 yards, 208 yards. Ironically enough, the exact career high that he had at Georgia, which was very, you know, weird that all works out like that. But just overall in Denver, just to see that defense get exposed like it did and to see that they have no answer on offense,

it does seem like there will be a reckoning at some point soon in Denver. I don't know where the ownership situation is. I mean, Bradley Chub looked like the Bradley Chubb we saw at North Carolina State because finally he's not playing linebacker. He's not dropping into coverage. He started to rush, had three sacks. But, you know, the problem is they played nickel. And so you play nickel against Sean McBay's going to run the ball up your ass.

You know, you've got to find a way to play nickel that's really a base front so you don't get Gurley. You know, the way you die against the Rams quickly is by just letting Gurley run for 200 yards. Now, the score, they don't get it to 30, but you're not going to win the game. You know, they're going to control the damn game. So to me, Denver, like I keep saying this, and this is an Al Davis system. This is we got to beat Mahomes, or we got to beat this player. And when you got a gun, you know, Bonnie and Clyde, they had a V8 engine, so the cops could never catch them

because the cops were driving these small engines. And so the 20s people had to buy, the cops had to buy their own guns. and the crime guys had machine guns and they had fast cars and they could get away. So eventually, you know, you can't win that fight, right? It's the same thing that's going on in Denver. You're not going to win this fight with this quarterback. We're not going into Kansas City and beating this guy with that. There's no fucking chance, right?

Yeah, there is no chance. And the most ironic part of the whole thing is that the greatest quarterback in Denver Broncos history he can't get the quarterback right. He's the one trying to find the quarterback. He can't get it right. Nobody wants to say it. It's against the, it's like it's bad mouth and Eli Manning. you're not allowed to say it, you know?

But it's like he can't get it right. Like there's nothing wrong with not, I mean, we all make mistakes in scouting. We do. We all make, I mean, he hasn't got a free agency right. Like, he hasn't gotten free agency right. And all those offensive linemen, whether it's Ron Leary, who goes out with an Achilles this week, Melanick Watson, I mean, Jared Valdere. I mean, they haven't got that right yet either. It isn't just that.

And it's, you know, in the draft, it comes down to sometimes it's a crapshoot in the draft, things don't work out, whatever, whatever. But, you know, in free agency, you have the. tape, you know who the player is for the most part. We know who they are when you sign a guy. So there's not as much leeway and there's not as many people that are willing to obviously give you a pass with that sort of stuff.

Yeah, and I mean, look, he recruited the greatest quarterback and one of the greatest quarterbacks in Peyton Manning. And even though Manning was done when they won the Super Bowl will help them do that, and they won it with their defense, and they had enough plays, and Kubiak could at least call and put together a game plan, which was effective. But the reality of it is, this teams going over. They're going to fire the coach. I mean, two things we know for sure, right?

You know, it's going to get cold in Jersey. They're going to fire Van Gogh. They're going to fire Dirk Cotter. She makes no sense at all, Tate Frazier, considering that they're coming off the buy week, right? Yeah. You know, if you're going to fire the guy, fire the guy off the buy week. It just seemed like a reactionary thing at this point, too, right? Just to save face. That's going to be wide open down. And that is, I call those teams the unmade beds. They're so disorganized and so sloppy. Like, that's not the NFL. Like, that's not the NFL. Now, they get the Browns

coming into town today this weekend. You know, could they beat the Browns? You know, every team can beat anybody, but it's consistency that separates everybody else, and the bucks are never going to have that. Let's get to awards for the week for week six. This is obviously one of our favorite segments that we do. The first one

that we have is time to go to land someone that needs to get out of Dodge at the moment, because all eyes are pointing at them, and things aren't going too well. and I think we have an easy answer for this one, right, Lombardi? John Gruden? Yeah, I mean, you know, John was complaining about the airplane ride. He was complaining about the flights and, you know, and all that over there.

I mean, you know, I don't know if John can go on the lamb. I mean, it's going to be hard to keep him away. I mean, he's got this phobia about flying. I didn't realize he had it. I mean, I've flown with him before. I didn't realize it was this bad telling him. John has to have a serious conversation with himself. And he's going to say, hey, look, I know I'm a great coach,

but I may not be a great GM. I got to find somebody that I trust, completely trust. I can't do it alone. And the good news is if you're John Gruden, you have a 10-year contract, so you have plenty of time to figure those things out, and we'll see what happens. Next time we have the Fred Palermo Awarded team that was prepared and ready for this week, and we have to give it to our guy, right?

Jason Garrett, he did it. I thought he did a great job. I think they did a great job of game planning them. I mean, they played well at home. I mean, they kicked the shit out of them. And I liked what they did with Dak. I mean, they finally got Dak involved. Let Dak run a little bit.

Let Dak use his athleticism. And so you've got to give it to them. You know, Fred would be proud of Jason. I'm very proud of Jason. I'm happy for the Clapper. I like the – I like when we're giving me positive for the Dallas Cowboys every once in a while. So this is very nice for us. The league needs Dallas to be good.

I want Dallas to be good. Look, there's nothing like the Cowboy Redskin game this week. You know, I wish it was played in RFK Stadium, but they're going to play the FedEx Field. I mean, that's what the NFL is about. You need good things. You need those two teams to be good. Right now they're not. That's why the NFC East isn't what it always is.

But when the NFC East is great, the league's even better. Even though the league's great right now, I told you this summer, now people are finally starting to say it. There's a lot of great young quarterbacks in the NFL. You know, once the NFC East gets a couple more great quarterbacks, it'll be even better. And people, you know, that are young and born in the 21st century and all that sort of stuff, probably have no idea what that rivalry really used to be back in the day

between the Cowboys and the Redskins. Oh, no. I mean, look, my Thanksgiving was ruined when Clint Longley came in off the bench and threw the bomb that Drew Pearson and, you know, beat the Redskins after when Roger Stalback got hurt. You know, it's like, oh, my God, how'd this happen? You know, like that game is, that game goes back. So, Giants, Cowboys, Giants, Redskins, I mean, when those teams are dominant, the leagues really at its highest level. Next up, we have the KGB Award, the team that snuck up and surprised. You mentioned, you know, all the people putting the bets in once it was announced Brock was going to play. quarterback for the Dolphins this week. Take pressure on the line.

I should take it a picture of incentive. I never seen a line this long. I think, I thought it was, I thought they were giving food away. It was like when scouts know there's a free buffet, the line gets big. It's unbelievable. And you got to give Miami credit. I mean, and I got to say this, I watch that tape today. It's way better than I thought he was, way better than I thought he was.

He made plays with his feet. And the bears were exhausted. I mean, the bears were dead. The reason I like Miami earlier in the week is I thought the heat and humidity would get them, would get Chicago down there. I thought they're going to wear the blue jerseys. They wore the orange ones instead. But I thought the heat and humidity would get to them.

You watched that tape today. Khalil Mack was exhausted. The heat just, and it just, once it zaps you, you're done. Yeah, Mac had two tackles in that game. It was a lot of guys looking for oxygen at certain points in this one. Also, there was a bunch of weird tape that came out after this game with the dolphins, with a bunch of safeties running off the line. And it led to a bunch of wide open, you know,

led to actually the leading touchdown late in the game for the Bears, where Mitchell Dribisky just threw it to a wide open guy for a touchdown. Mitchell tried to throw an interception on the play before. Yes, yes, he did. He tried. I mean, everybody thinks Mitchell play well. I mean, okay. Three touchdowns.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. He didn't play well on the first half. I can tell you that. I, you know, we know the limitations at this point, but I thought the Bears, I thought the Bears really had this one and a chance to pull it out. It did seem like at one point. It was just a never really going to be a tie.

Well, they were up 21 to 10 with like three minutes to. go in the third quarter, right? Yep. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, all those, all those people down in the casino were, I mean, the champagne was starting to come out at that point. Yeah, people were loving life. They didn't think Brock could come back, but Brock proved us wrong. Congratulations to the Heist. This is a week of redemption. We get the Clapper comes back, the Heist comes back. Next week, I'm sure Blake Bortals. I was so happy with the heist. I'm sure Blake Bortals will come back next week, which comes to our final award of the week. If you don't know, now you know, Lombardi, what do we know?

We know that Jacksonville, you know, I call Blake the Great Equalizer, and I'm not going to apologize because he is the great equalizer, because they would be so much better if they had a quarterback. But I'm not sure that defense is playing to a level. I think we know right now, when you give up 40 points one week and you give up 30 the week before, you give up 70 points in two games, you're not a great defense. It's a little bit like in baseball. You know, when a great baseball teams never get shut out. Rarely do they get shut out. You know, but they get at least a run. sack bun, just good base running, something like that.

Yeah, I mean, they get, great teams, oh, great teams never give up 40 points. You say, well, Lombardi, your Patriots gave up 40, yeah. They're not a great defense by any means. Trust me. You give up 31 points in 10 minutes. You can't be called great in anything. You can't.

That's just facts. This has been another edition of GM Street, part of the Ringer podcast Network. We really enjoyed week six. We're excited for week seven. We will be back on Friday. Lombardi, enjoy your travels on the road. I will, Tafras.

Now, come back, I was four and one last week, Tate Frazier. Even with the Miami, I'm on a roll now. 27, 16, and 2, according to Brian. Well, you're there on the ground. I mean, you're there. You're in Jersey. You're back home. I mean, you're comfortable.

59 win percent. It's better than Billy Walters. Look, I'm impressed. As Jim Nance would always say, only bet as much as you want to win. Perfectly put. Perfectly put. I appreciate everyone listening to GM Street.

We are excited to be back on Friday. We're excited to keep talking football. And we hope that you guys all have a great day.