The Ringer NFL Show - Week 1 Recap: Dolphins Win a Thriller, Eagles Hang On Against the Pats, and the Giants Get Shut Out | The Ringer NFL Recap Show

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Nora and Steven recap Week 1, starting with the Dolphins' exciting road win over the Chargers. They discuss the Tua Tagovailoa-Tyreek Hill connection, the overall lack of defense, and the Chargers' passing game (2:00). Then, they assign winners and losers to the rest of the Week 1 slate (15:08). Lastly, they wrap up with a Week 1 take purge(1:19:00). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Eduardo Ocampo and Kiera Givens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everyone, it's Ariel Hawani, and I wanted to let you know that each and every week, I'm part of a great program called The Ringer MMA Show. I hosted alongside two absolutely brilliant minds. Their names, Chuck Mindenhall and Pizzie Carroll, and every Thursday, a new episode drops where we preview the weekend in mixed martial arts and react to all the biggest news. Plus, after every UFC pay-per-view, we give you a post-fight show. So this is what you have to do. Just follow the Ringer M-M-M-A show on your Spotify app.

So you don't miss an episode. We'll talk to you then. Sunday edition of the Ringer NFL recap show. Week 1 is in the books, except for Monday night football. I'm Nora Prince-Iotti, and I am here with Stephen Ruiz. We're going to break down all of Sunday's week one games. How are you feeling after one full day of football, Stephen? I'm feeling good.

It was a sloppy day of football, but like in a endearing way. And then I feel like Dolphins Chargers really saved the day. Without Dolphins Chargers, I might have done. been a little more down on what we just watched. But I feel like after watching that, that was enough. It made up for the rest of the games. But the rest of the games were kind of rough to watch. Did you hear on all of the broadcasts that the weather on the East Coast these days is a little meh?

I feel like we heard a lot about the rain, a lot about the slop, a lot about the field conditions, a lot about mist. Brown's Bengals, it was all about mist. But, yeah, Dolphins Chargers is where we're going to start tonight. they really held down the fort, gave us something to get excited about. A game with seven lead changes, I think the dolphins behind two of Tagovaloa's

466-yard performance, three touchdowns, one interception through 45 passes. They win at 36 to 34. This was a really, really exciting game. Stephen, what was your top takeaway? That these offenses are just never going to stop scoring, apparently.

That the fan, Staley revolution that was supposed to take over the league. The defensive revolution isn't a thing anymore, I guess, because these defenses just couldn't stop anybody. And I thought, if you're both fan bases, I think you're encouraged by what you saw. Of course, the Chargers fans aren't going to want to hear that because this is another heartbreaking loss,

and they've seen enough of them over the years. But you saw what you wanted out of the offense, at least. Maybe Herbert not pushing the ball down the field enough, but they had a run game. And them having a run game is new for them. been like two years since they've had one, but they can just rely on getting four yards per carry on first and second down. And they were getting even more than that.

And on the other side, like the dolphins were back to what we saw, like at the middle part of the year last year where the middle of the field is just wide open for them, to which could just throw in there whenever he wanted, Tyree Kill, Jalen Waddle. Tyree Kill, I guess he's just going to be fast forever? Is he just going to be the fastest man in the NFL for the rest of his life? probably not but he's fast right now yeah it's insane he was just unstoppable whenever he got single coverage on the outside toua went to him and he he won on the route and it just came down to whether toa could get the wall to him or not yeah i mean the funny thing is it for the chargers

defensive backs it seemed like it came down to either pass interference but you actually it's hard to get past interference if you're not caught up to the guy so either just like streaking down the field with five yards of separation or the best we can do is draw a penalty here let's Let's stay on the Chargers offense for a second, though, because you mentioned they had 234 rushing yards. Austin Ackler had a great, great game. You seem to think that if you're a Chargers fan, this was this was really good news overall for the offense.

But I'm curious what you saw from Justin Herbert in the passing game. Because to me, it was not that it was bad by any means. It just looked really chargersy. And we have famously swapped in Kellyn Moore for Joel and Barty and we're still throwing six yards downfield. one at a time a pop, which some of that is situational, some of that is the defense that they were going up against.

I don't think that it's necessarily concerning, but it was just interesting to see how in the passing game, major differences from last year's offense were not obvious to me. What did you see? Well, I think that's by design. Maybe that's not the right way. Like it's a trap? No, you're just facing,

a Fangio defense and like that's what Vic Fangio does. He doesn't let you throw the ball downfield. And I thought it was a good sign because they put up, what was it, 34 points. They scored, I think, three points a drive. Yeah. I mean, they moved the ball. They put points on the board. That's what an offense is supposed to do. If, if the dolphins were taking away that short stuff and the Chargers still weren't pushing the ball downfield, then I would have had some concerns. But the fact that it worked, I think, is a good sign. And against that defense, the lack of explosives isn't a surprise. That makes sense to me.

And they looked especially good, I thought, when they were working with a lot of tempo, which was nice to see. Yeah. It just is a reminder that sometimes the things that we spend all offseason talking about how massive their implications are going to be, then you turn on the game on Sunday. It's the same thing. There was a moment on the final drive where the Chargers didn't end up scoring. And it was one of the, it was one of, I think it was the third down where Fangio did end up blitzing and they got to Herbert.

But it was like Herbert in a three and 14 or something. And I was just like, oh, I've seen this game like 15 times before where it's just third down and Justin Herbert pulls something out of his ass. Except then it didn't work, which was an interesting wrinkle that the Dolphins defense pulled out at the end of the game, I thought, just because they had not been blitzing. But then on the final drive, they got to Herbert twice, which was after they'd forced an intentional grounding. Did you see, did you think that was just situational? Or what did you think of Vick's debut in Miami other than the eight million rushing yards his defense gave up? I mean, I thought the defensive line at times, like when it needed to looked good. Like, at the end, the Chargers just couldn't block them.

And part of that was pressure. Part of that was, I think it might have been a lack of Kellynne Moore not being able to adjust that quickly. Like, they didn't have too much time to adjust. And before that, I guess it was third down, or no, fourth down, the last play of the game, basically for the Chargers. I mean, the Dolphins had blitzed the play before that, and they had taken a timeout. They had time to think about the play.

They had time to work on a protection that was going to protect them in case they did send another blitz. And it just didn't happen. They had an instant pressure, no chance for Herbert to throw it downfield. So I thought that was a little bit of a red flag, but the rest of the game I thought was fine. But it's hard to say because I thought both offenses just executed so well. Like you could say whatever you want about like the Chargers defense. And I think like J.C. Jackson getting burnt all day is a bad sign.

But I don't think any defense was slowing down with that passing game today. Yeah. And the Chargers like kind of made it difficult at times. they made two with throw into tight windows and there were times when they could have gotten their hand on the ball and they didn't. But like, I don't know how you stop that. How do you stop Tyree Kill from doing that? I have absolutely no idea. This is not important or related, but I need to get it off my chest, even though I'm not really going to be able to articulate this. The powder blues with the gold pants feel wrong for defenders to me. Everyone looks like they play offense

in those uniforms. This is like a borderline, like, old school football guy take right now. Are you saying, like, their uniforms are too soft? I don't know. They just look like they look like they should play offense. I know this doesn't make any sense. What are you suggesting? But, like, looking at J.C. Jackson wearing that, that color combination.

Like, it is too, it just looks like a high school. football. They're good uniforms. I like the uniforms. There's something about them that is like, like, offenses are kind of corny and defenses are cool. And those uniforms are good looking, but they're sort of corny. And they don't, they don't have like the slickness and the cool factor for a lockdown cornerback. I just, I don't like no one, no one is is doing Rivas Island Island in those those uniforms. I like the take. I don't know if I agree with it, but I like weird minds at? To be clear, I think it's wrong.

Like, this makes objectively no sense. I just know that I feel it in my heart. Like, I was watching J.C. Jackson and just going, this looks wrong. Like, this doesn't make any sense to me, and I don't like it. So I think they should go back to their Navy blue jerseys. They used to have those, like, 20 years ago. Go back to those. Fix the defense.

Save Justin Herbert. Profit. Love it. Okay. Credit words do. Save the charges. Credit words. do.

Even in, Jersey colors aside, the Chargers do kind of suddenly look like they might have a run defense. Now, Miami wasn't really trying to run the ball that much, which, you know,

if I could throw to Tyree Kill at 20 yards of pop, I probably wouldn't either. But 70 yards, three and a half per carry, that is a huge improvement off of what they were doing

the last time. We saw our fine friends on the Chargers' defensive line. So there's something to build on there, certainly. But I agree with you. This Miami offense, I just don't, I don't know what you do. I mean, when we saw them play last year, the answer was essentially to just like constantly be changing the look. Right.

That two is getting pre-snap, post-snap. I wonder if it's just a little bit more experience under his belt in this system, a little bit more time getting up to speed with these receivers. where that just doesn't work as well, but it did not seem like the chargers were able to do anything that disrupted their timing, which is really the only way to beat these guys because you are not going to outrun them. Right, yeah.

I think it's, we had this conversation a couple of weeks ago on the pod where we talked about how Jonathan Taylor meant a lot to the Colts because of how their offense was set up. Like, the Dolphins don't need a run game that creates explosives. They had 17 explosive passplace today. 17, that's insane. They don't need that. They just need three yards to carry.

They just need to avoid second and 10. They need to avoid third and 10. Right. And three yards does that for you. And I think if they have that, it's going to be harder for defenses to do things to take away those middle of the field throws that they like thrive on. But they had the blueprint last year.

And it didn't work this year. So I think that's a good sign going forward that the dolphins weren't found out. And I think that was a big question mark about their offense towards the end of last year when we saw those bad games, including the one in LA. Right. I mean, credit where it's due. Tua's got some help. He's got a pretty, you know, that's a good situation he's got going on down there. But he was great.

Even after, you know, he had the one pick, but he came back the following drive, led the offense down the field, touchdown to Tyreek. I thought he looked really good. What did you think of two as performance? No, he did. And he threw on the move. He threw downfield. There were some like questionable passes, some like fluttering balls. He let some hang up there. But I thought he was good. I mean, he threw for 466 yards. Like, no, no, I mean, yeah, of course he did. I know. I know. I know they're very fast. But at a certain point, we got to just, it happened. We are. That's what I'm saying. He was very good. And he was like this last year. He was throwing for 400 yards in the middle of the middle of the. the year last year, but I thought it looked different this year. I thought he, he was, the charges got some pressure on him. And he was a little bit smoother, a little bit cooler

in those situations. Yeah, I mean, he just, he just looks more comfortable, I think. You've got to figure that more time, the way that his career started, obviously, in all the uncertainty of, of whether or not they were actually committed to him. Also, just going into year two with Mike McDaniel after everything that happened last year. It seems like, and you know, we'll see. It's, as I'm sure we'll say, 18 different times throughout this pod.

It's only week one. But they just look, if they're going to keep doing this, I do not know how you scheme things up to defend it. So it comes down to health and, you know, no huge self-inflicted errors.

And the defense. I want to see Jalen Ramsey in this defense. I think that changes a lot of things, especially for a FANGO defense. The ceiling's high. I'll say that. It's really high. All right.

Anything else from this game or should we get to winners and losers? Let's do winners and losers. Let's take a quick break first. And then we will come back and talk about the rest of the slate. Get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from Fandul, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 and bonus bets guaranteed. Plus, all customers who bet $5,

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We are back and it's time for winners and losers. Because it's week one, because we missed all these teams so dearly, Stephen and I are going to do our best to make it through every single game on the slate, except for Thursday night and Monday night, obviously, because that hasn't happened yet. But we're going to touch on everything. So, Stephen, start us off with your first winner of the 2023 NFL season. It feels kind of weird to call them a winner just because of the injury bug bit him again. But the Baltimore Ravens, they win 25 to 9.

They win in Todd Munkin's first game as offensive coordinator. The post Greg Roman error kind of gets off to a good start. It was kind of shaky. There were some flashes. But this team didn't play any first team reps in the preseason. Like that's going to matter. And Lamar, I think, tweeted after that he was rusty. And he looked rusty.

But the run game worked. Odell made some plays. Zay Flowers looked amazing. The defense looked really good at times, especially the pressures that Mike McDonald had. It was a good game for Baltimore, but not the dominant game you wanted to see out of Munkin's offense to start out.

Say Flowers did look really, really good. Mark Andrews was inactive, but it seemed like he was at least for today in the wide receiver one role. And I thought it was interesting that they got him involved in the running game, too. He got two carries. What else did you notice about

the early returns on the Munkin offense. I think there's just more space for Lamar to kind of operate. He got outside the pocket more than he usually does. I think that's an overrated part of his game. People tend to think he's a scrambler, but I think he likes to stay in the pocket and be a thrower. I think just the timing was off.

And you saw that, especially in the first half, they were very disjointed. The pass protection wasn't very good. Second half, they get in a rhythm. They have a couple of drives. Some penalties kind of took away their momentum. But it was a decent. showing. I want to see better, but I thought Damico Ryan's like had a great game plan. Texan defense played fast, played hard. That's what you want to see out of them. But they made it

hard for Baltimore. Yeah, it seemed like especially early Lamar was getting a lot of pressure. Did they make any specific adjustments for the second half or did it seem like he just settled in? I think he's just settled in. Like he hasn't played in 10 months. He looked like a quarterback that hadn't played in 10 months. We might find ourselves saying that in a couple of cases. is here. But yeah, that makes sense. I think there were a lot of, it seems like there were a lot of sort of rust concerns. You know, we'll talk about the Bengals and stuff like that. But there were a few teams where I feel like today more than in past years, it felt like the players and the teams that just didn't get a lot of work in August did come out slow or sloppy or just

looking like they needed to get their feet under them. But yeah, I think the story here is injuries again with Baltimore always is jk. Dobbins. It's so sad. Ronnie Stanley, Winderbaum, Marcus Williams. It's never going to end. I just want to see this team healthy once for one year and just never happens. Yeah. It's the the Dobbins one is just such a Achilles is a brutal injury and it's just such a bummer because it's always a bummer with this team. I don't know if it's, I wonder if they have started to sort of think about things that have to do with health and player maintenance and all of that. But it just seems like a lot of it is just freak stuff. And it is crazy that they are this unlucky.

I don't know what else to say about it other than that. This is one of the smart franchises. Like, you assume they're doing that work, that research and trying to prevent this. And it's just not helping. I don't know. I think he's just rotten luck at this point. Ugh. All right.

That was supposed to be a winner. I feel depressed. I know. CJ Shrod was good. Yeah. What did you think of him? I got to get that in. I thought he was poised early on.

It looked a little rough. But then third down, he got used to the pressure that Baltimore was sending. And it's what you wanted to see. I think for Houston. And then Will Anderson, I thought, may have been the best player on the field. Oh, wow. Okay. Starting building something.

Yeah. All right. My first. My first is also kind of like, oh, well, they won the game. It's the Philadelphia Eagles. Super Bowl participants trying to get back there, beginning their campaign with a 2520 win against the Patriots in New England on Tom Brady Day, where he went back and said lots of nice things and hung out and wore a jersey.

and everyone was very happy. But it was an interesting game. The Eagles got out to a 16-0 lead early after the Patriots turned the ball over twice. And it seemed like the Bill O'Brien era of the Patriots offense was going to get off to a horrible start. And then they kind of settled down and it started to look pretty good. And some of the guys like Kendrick Bourne, Hunter Henry started to get in. involved in the ways that I think people are hoping they will be for this Patriots offense. And then the Patriots defense was really, really strong.

And you saw the Eagles really struggle against them and really have to work for it. But they still ended up with a win. Still got to, you know, start the season 1 and 0. This game was probably more interesting from a Patriots perspective, just because their defense really does look legitimate. And they've won so many games last year against teams with backup quarterbacks or weird injury stuff or weird weather stuff. But this is a really, really good opponent. And they held him to one touchdown. Hertz was 22 of 33 for 170. Always got them in third down situations and were really, really good situationally. The

Eagles were four of 13 on third down. And that was basically, that was the game, was just that they were able to consistently keep them in third and long. And it just seemed like it was very tough sledding against the Patriots defensive front. And then also Christian Gonzalez looks super legit. He made a couple big plays and looks like he'll be a significant piece of this defense. Did you see much of this game, Stephen? A little bit. I feel like with both of our games, the losing team almost feels better than the winning team.

Yeah. I feel good about New England's defense after this one. And it felt like Philly kind of slept walk through this game whenever I saw it. I don't know. Did you get that sense? Yeah. But I don't think I think they just, I think they're just good. Right.

And I think the game plan was good too. I mean, it's in some ways the Eagles, I think other than just from a pure talent perspective, they're a good matchup for the Patriots because they're a good matchup for Belichick because they just sort of do what they do. and that's especially at the beginning of the year when he gets to think about exactly how he wants to attack that. They seemed like they had a great plan to keep them in check. Hertz was pressured 19 times. They just funneled him into the pocket as much as possible. And then if he did try to escape, often they would get him there.

But it also just seemed like it was an uncomfortable situation for him to be in most of the time. Would you say that was Belichick or like the rain? Or do you think it was a combination of both? Because I feel like if any coach is going to take advantage of the elements or think about that, it's going to be Belichick. Like he probably had that planned out. It didn't seem like it was raining that hard. Matt looked pretty good. Yeah.

Mac threw the ball like 54 times or something like that. Downfield too. Mac played a Joe Burrow game. It was very odd. started the game with a pick six and then Ezekiel Elliott fumbled on the next drive. And then they were like, yeah, let's throw the ball 54 times in the rain. But it worked out kind of well. Like they outgained the Eagles overall and other than that beginning stretch,

New England kind of did look like the better team, even though I would stop short of saying that they are. So yeah, the weather was probably part of it. But I think they had a good game plan. and like Matthew Judon played a great game. The secondary was really, really good. Like, I have been more skeptical of this Patriots defense, I think, than then you have because of the quality of competition that they were so good against last season. To me, even whether aside watching them do this in in this situation against the Eagles gave me a lot of confidence for them. Yeah, and not giving up the deep ball, I thought was a big deal for them.

Yeah. Because that's like the thing that powers the Eagles offense. And the run game kind of feeds off of that. And they didn't get that. And I thought that's how New England kind of stayed with them in this game. When on paper, this was a mismatch. Right. They were just, they were never in early downs were tough.

So they were always in third and long. Eliminate some of the stuff that they like to do. It just, it seemed like a lot of things went. right and I wonder if they had hit a few of those explosives early, then things might have sort of gone in a slightly different way. You get a little bit of confidence in those parts of the offense, but it just seemed like they had them kind of locked down. And again, they won the game. So clearly something was going right. But I did not expect this to be anywhere near as competitive as it was, even in New England, even, you know, Bill Belichick with an entire offseason.

to prepare. But the combination of how well the defense played. And then after they, after they ceased to be just like a comedy of errors, I did, I thought the offense looked not, not amazing, but pretty good. They have offensive line problems. Cole Strange and Michael Unwenu didn't play in this game. And that's not fun against the Philly defense. They definitely felt that the first half especially.

I mean, everything was so, so, so short. But the quick game sucks is something that we heard Mac, or I guess we didn't hear Mac Jones say last year. We watched Mac Jones mouth last year. And the quick game doesn't really suck anymore. So we're making progress. Yeah, it's better when it's not a defensive coordinator calling it. By the way, employed by the Eagles, Matt Patricia.

So maybe that's what happened. Maybe that's a revenge game. That's a revenge game. That's a win. That's a W for Patricia. Yeah, he's our first winner. How do you feel about New England sealing after this game? Has it changed for you?

No. Just because here's the problem is it's not that like I've never thought that they were going to be bad. I do think they're a little bit better. I'm just not. I trust the defense more, which definitionally means that I think that they are a better team than I did 10 hours ago or whatever. Also, we just talked about the Miami Dolphins. Right.

The Bills and the Jets are going to play tomorrow night. So who knows? Like maybe they're just not beating these teams. Right. So the dolphins are just going to melt their faces off if they play like that. Well, they're playing. Are they playing next week, I think? That's going to be an interesting one.

That's in particular. The Miami run defense thing. is going to be, we're going to learn a lot about that side and also a lot about what this Patriots offense wants to be. I think in that situation, I imagine, after having watched what the Chargers just did, they would want to lean on their run game a lot more than they did today. I think it was just, you know, regardless of the conditions against Philly, that's just hard. Remandre was much more effective as a pass catcher than in the running game. Especially with no guards.

When you don't have guards, you care. That's a fair point. From what little I saw, I saw like a couple of perimeter screens, the running backs where it was almost like they were trying to replicate the run game, but do it outside of the numbers rather than try to run. Yeah. Can we just do a run play out there instead? Yeah. It was not great. If there's something, Mac Jones, Matt, Matt, Patricia, Bill O'Brien, whatever, the real, like, is this offense going to be okay this year?

is just how hurt is their offensive line? Are they going to get these guys back? What is it going to be a revolving door? Because that does look not unconcerning. But still, so far so good. Kendrick Bourne remains good at football. Would have been nice to have that guy last year. Oh, wait, they did.

You want to hit us with a first loser? Yeah, the Seahawks. 30 to 13. I did not see this one coming. This was the weirdest. This was the weirdest result of the day. Can we name 20 Rams combined me and you? I don't know if we can.

But they beat up on the Seahawks. They wrote off Matthew Stafford and he did not write back. 334 yards. Looked sharp, looks skinny. He scrambled for a first down. He was doing no look passes. Sidearm passes. Like it looked like the old Matthew Stafford.

Here's my issue. I'm going to throw some cold water on the ramps. I don't know. I'm not going to call it hype because I don't know what people are talking about them. But early downs, it was bad. They can't run the ball. The offensive line still isn't that good. This was just Stafford Magic on third down, and I don't know how sustainable that is going forward.

And that's my concern. But like for now, 2-2-at, well, 119 yards? He only weighs like 180 pounds. That's more yards than pounds. Oh, my God. Do you think that's – has that ever been done before? That's got to be an NFL first. we didn't know because no because people have gone for like 250 yards in a game oh that's true that's true

too much uh new england passing game you've been watching yeah that's true that's true um tyrie hill probably did that today right whatever never mind look the rams aren't going to be good no but i do like i went to a rams training camp practice last month and i I kind of had to sell it as like, no, this is a weird roster. I just want to get a look at it because it was like, well, why do you want to go see the ramps? And these are the types of things that are too embarrassing to get caught up in during training camp.

But I was kind of like, they just seem really happy. Like for all of the angst around that franchise, all of those, there's just like a bunch of 19 year olds running around. And Sean McVeigh is like, ah, I can teach you about the fundamentals. And it seemed like they kind of liked what was going on. And I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's going to work.

What happened to the Seahogs? The same stuff that happened to them last year in the second half. This was almost like a perfect microcosm of their season last year where it started off well. Like they were good in the first half, falls apart. In the second half, they lose both their tackles. They could run the ball, which is a good sign, but they just, no time in the pocket for Gino. Nobody could get open against man coverage. It was a rough look for the offense in ways.

that we saw last year, which is a big concern for me. Because we thought, like, the offseason fix their problems. So far through one game, it has not. Defensively, too, absolutely no pressure on Stafford. Especially on third down. Stafford was like, I think he averaged like 0.6 EPA on third down, which is double Mahomes last year,

essentially, and a 60% success rate. Seems pretty good. But, like, the one thing, if you're a Seahawks fan, like you look at the early down success. They totally shut the Rams down on first and second down. But then on like third and long and second and long, like second down passing downs, he was lights out. So it might be a coverage thing, which is a concern because that's supposed to be the strength.

But the defense doesn't look fixed. I'll say that. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. So I'm going to watch. All right. Next loser from me, the Bengals. and the $275 million man, Joe Burrow, very bad game.

The Browns beat the Bengals 24 to 3. You just said that Matt Stafford averaged 0.6 EPA per play on third downs. Is that right? Yes. So Joe Burrow, negative 0.65 EPA per play on all of the downs, just in general. not amazing, not a good day. A lot of career lows, 82 yards. Jake Browning went into this game with six minutes left,

which is just not what you want to see. I would not ring a ton of alarm bells out of this. The Bengals seem to always start slow. They started 0 and 2 last year. They were 3 and 2 to start the season the year before. Obviously, Burrow was out for a lot of training camp at the preseason with the calf injury. I did think it looked like it was affecting him. The Brown's pass rush looked great. Jim Schwartz with that front seven, I think is going to be super, super feisty. They blitzed him a ton.

And so some of that is just credit where it's due to Cleveland, but it did, it looked to me like when he, you know, when the pocket was sort of cinching in on him, he wasn't, he didn't really want to move and he didn't look super comfortable. As referenced, it was misting. So. Missed tough. They made a movie about that. There's a movie called The Miss. It's a horror movie. How do you rank the mist,

the recovery from the cavernjury, the good defense, the stopping your excuses. This was a disaster. The Orlando Brown versus Miles Garrett of it all on the like, how do all of these add all of that together? What does it equal out to in terms of Bengals' concern for you?

I think it's the CAF. Like you look at the play calling, 98% shotgun rate. And that tells me they didn't want him dropping back from under center. Right. 98's almost funnier than 100 because it's like they did one. Why didn't you do it that one time? Why did you do it the one time? Was it a kneel down?

I don't know. I have to go back and look. But it was only, it was only, it wasn't. It's only like one. Yeah, me too. I hope it was the first play of the game. They're like, oh, I screw this. Oh, God.

Yeah, this is a bad idea. But, but yeah, he didn't, like you said, he almost went out sad at times. Like, it was like he, these are times when we see Burrow usually make a play and he didn't even try. He was throwing underneath a bunch. It didn't look like Joe Burrow. It's not like he failed in the ways that he usually succeeds. So that's why I'm not very concerned. And I'm kind of concerned about the mist having such a big effect on him because he does have the smaller hands and it tends to rain in football games.

I just think it's funny that... Especially in the AFC North. The funniest part is that all of the AFC North quarterbacks can't hold on to the football. Like, Deshawn Watson is terrible and bad weather. Joe Burrow can't throw in the rain. Kenny Pickett has to wear gloves at all times, even in perfect weather. Lamar Jackson fumbles all the time. He had a couple fumbles today.

What happened to the AFC North? Okay, I mean, but this is not historically been a Joe Burrow issue. I also just... Do you have rain stats? MIST can't be that big of a deal. It looked like a big deal today.

Those throws look bad. Like, Joe Burrow doesn't miss. He's the most accurate quarterback in the NFL. He does not miss this fat. I think it was the missed. I rank CAF above the top. a mist. I'm ranking Rust, calf

mist. Mist, like, definitionally, it just hangs there in the air. It doesn't do anything. Like, it affects your grip on the ball. He has small hands. Are you here to tell me? Are you here to tell me that, okay, downpour

versus mist? Downpour has to be worse, right? Yes. One would think, I don't know, there's more water. But as would I. I'm not a scientist. So just if it was a little Like the way they were describing this was like It was high humidity out there or something

The weather was bad. I'm mostly just kidding. I'm not that worried about Joe Burrow But this was ugly. Yeah, I mean I'm worried about the cat though But I think like the different explanations apply to different reasons why they were bad They were bad for a lot of reasons today So I don't think it was just like the off target throws for Burrow

Because of the miss. I don't think it was the fact that he couldn't move Because of the calf. I think it was like a lot of things. things that explain certain facets of their poor performance. Well, and the weather thing, I think, is important in the sense that they just don't have the balance offensively for games like this, especially against a really good defense. I mean, for all of the trouble that Burrow was having, for all of the 82 yards of it all,

he still threw the ball 31 times, just not that high for him, but also there just weren't that many offensive plays in this game. They ran the ball 17 times. So just the way that they operate, things kind of need to be going well. And when they're going well, they're going super well. The thing that is sort of true, I wouldn't say it's a concern just because we've seen the Bengals

be a really, really good offense with this being true now going on years. is just that they execute high degree of difficulty things to make their offense go. And they just have done it consistently enough that we're like, okay, yeah, you're going to throw a lot of one-on-one balls and win them. But when it gets disjointed like this,

they don't have, they don't have much, they still don't have much of a run game to fall back on. They don't have, they just don't have that balance. And I think in the weather it comes out more, when burrows off his game, it comes out more when the injury is a factor, it comes out more. And then again, when you're playing a good defense with a coordinator who shows up and, and I think senses the weakness with Burrow not wanting to move around a ton,

blitzed him on over half of his dropbacks. It was the highest rate. Burroughs ever been blitzed in his career. And it's just all a bad formula. So I think this is more just about today. But there are some things where this is never going to be the type of game that the Bengals are designed to be awesome in. And some of that eventually they will either have to fix or it'll be a recurring problem. Yeah.

And I think if it's the calf, like you're not worried long term, although calf injuries tend to linger a little bit. But I think like eventually by the time you get to January, which is when Cincinnati is trying to get to, I think he'll be fine. Me too. All right. What's up next? All right. My next winner are the Packers. The team that I picked to win the NFC board.

The Jordan Love Hype Train. 245 yards, three touchdowns, 15 to 27. I think this looked like the Packers team we expected to see last year, like the formula. The defense looked great. The pass rush looked great going up against the Bears, granted. The offense, it wasn't quarterback-centric. Like, it was more Aaron Jones-centric. It was more run-game-centric, making things easier for the quarterback

rather than just putting everything on his plate, like it was in the past with Aaron Rogers, because that's how he wanted the offense set up. Everything you wanted to see out of the Packers in week one, if you're a Packers fan, you got. I thought you saw a defensive improvement. I think you saw a stouter front. I thought you saw better play calling.

And I think the quarterback helps having a quarterback who isn't as picky as Aaron Rogers, although it works because, like, if you have Aaron Rogers, like, yeah, placate him. but I just think it makes this offense better because you don't have when you don't have Devante Adams it's harder to do the things that Aaron Rogers like to do and I think this is more of a team effort they're running the bootlegs

they were in a 51 yard screen they were saying I think of the broadcast right they were saying on the broadcast that Brian Goudicundt was like going crazy in the box and that he was just like so into it It does seem like they're excited to be having the success, excited to show the creativity and the play designs that they can run with Jordan Love.

I'm sure it's all, you know, the Aaron Rogers of it all is a piece of the puzzle. But I mean, 38 points coming out there. The Packers, you know, the Packers love to beat up on the Bears getting off on that foot as they transition. into this new era with Jordan Love, having those young defenders look really, really good. And feisty after that defense underperformed so much last season.

Like, that's a good day in Green Bay. I don't know how it gets all that much better than that. Other than Aaron Jones looking amazing and then hurting his hamstring. And it's against Chicago, and Chicago did not look good. This was a team that I think people thought was on the rise or that was the thinking of,

or that was the thinking, at least they, this was supposed to be a new season, a new offense, and it looked a lot like last year. It looked a lot like Justin Fields, please do something fun and bail us out. Because this offense has, like, nothing to offer beyond that at this point. It's Fields' legs, and that's it. Even the things that they've done to try to make it better,

I mean, DJ Moore and Chase Claypool were not factors offensively. So the things that they'd, it looked identical to what it had been, right? Like the things that they'd in theory even done were not showing up in terms of how they were playing. And exactly like you said, it was just sort of just, Justin, do something, save us. And the offensive line wasn't there, a lot of pressure. And I thought, like, Fields didn't get any help whatsoever. And it was just him on his own.

But at the same time, like, help yourself out. Like, play. He needs to get rid of the ball. His time is just still off. And then I just feel. like every game when there's a play that can win the game for them or not lose the game for them. He makes the worst play possible. And you saw it again with the late fumble. It's tough to talk yourself into him at this point. We're in year three. I feel like in the NFL right now

in today's NFL, you know by now. And the bears don't know, which is a red flag. And they haven't and they are complicit and not helping them out enough. But I agree with you. But it's just the time is now. All right. You know who else's time is now? Calvin Ridley's time is now. The Jaguars are my next winner. He's extremely back.

686 days absent from the NFL. Like he hadn't even missed a moment. 31, 21, win against the Colts. Colts actually did some good things in this. Anthony Richardson was not perfect. But I thought played a really encouraging game. Um, but I think Calvin Ridley is going to have a million receiving yards in this offense.

And it just looked like his connection with Trevor Lawrence was great. Uh, this was the first game with Press Taylor now calling plays in Jacksonville, which Ian Rapport had the exclusive on before the game started this afternoon. That seemed a little suss for a while. Um, they were playing well. but the offense just seemed a little, they were really struggling with the Colts defensive line, and it didn't always seem to me like he remembered

that Trevor Lawrence is a great athlete and that he can move around and try to mitigate some of that for himself. But later on in the game, he's rolling out a little bit more, just getting on the move a little bit more, using that athleticism. Overall, you know, they put up 31 points. And again, I do think that that Colts defensive line was pretty impressive. DeForest Buckner in particular was really, really good.

But the Ridley factor is just exciting if we're looking to see if the Jaguars can really take another leap here, which I know, Stephen, you are tuned to see if that happens. What did you think of this game? I thought the fact that Calvin Ridley has earned Trevor's trust this quickly. And like there were some throws where it takes a lot of trust to make them. There was that one throw on the run where Trevor Lawrence fitted into a window that didn't exist. And somehow it got to Ridley somehow still.

The audacity of that pass. That was it was like arrogant in all of the best ways. But clearly as you said, he felt he felt good about making it. And to make that pass in your first real game with the guy, I just thought was unreal. we were talking before the show that this was a game that the Jaguars used to lose a bunch. But then in the fourth quarter, it wasn't even close. And I think that's new. That's different for them.

Right. And I think that's a great sign for them, learning how to win. Colts, nothing to be ashamed of here. I thought, you know, they really, like, Richardson really struggled situationally. They were one for five on fourth down tries, one touchdown on three tries in the red zone. So some of that stuff, I mean, it's his first game. But I think you got a clear picture of what Stuyken wants to do with him. You saw him do some of the Jalen Hart stuff.

They actually even ran the tush push. The push sneak. It didn't work, but it was cool to see them try. You should have Richardson be the one that pushes. He's so big. Yeah, that would be better. That would be a better idea. But it was just, you can, you know, it's satisfying, I think, in the early days of the season,

see the things that we talk about and think about sort of come together and you can see the blueprint for how that offense will work. That offense, I think, will work much better with Jonathan Taylor, who is replacement Dion Jackson lost two fumbles and rushed for 14 yards on 13 carries. So not so far, so good. And maybe they might want to get that fixed because it seems like there might be some good elements of this offense. And your star running back would be a help. And there was space in the run game to take advantage of. And the only explosive I can think of was really the Pittman screen pass that went for the touchdown.

Yeah. This offense needs Jonathan Taylor so badly and it's so obvious. And there's such an obvious solution to the problem. You don't want to build the whole plane out of second and 28 screens to Michael Pittman. I do not. It was a great play. It worked out. It just, yeah, I think that's sound decision-making.

Anything else on Anthony Richardson? I thought he looked good, and I thought the offense looked viable with him back there. I thought they're going to be able to run the ball, at least. And when they get to the red zone, he's going to be a weapon. He looked like the best rookie quarterback to me, out of all three of them. I thought CJ Stroud showed me enough. I guess we could just skip ahead to my next L because my next L is the Panthers. Yeah, let's do it.

It's the first game. Let me say this. It's the first game. It's Bryce Young's first game. So let's pump the brakes a little bit. I'm saying that to myself. But there's no way you can watch that game and feel good about what you saw if you're a Panthers fan. Especially if you watch C.J. Stroud and Richardson play.

He looked bad. He looked bad in the ways that you worried he'd look bad. He looked very small. that was my concern with him and 146 yards two interceptions and they were the same interception to Jesse Bates

both over the middle of the field do I mean do you think it was a height thing because it was such a big question with him but it also was something that in college was not that wasn't on his film that wasn't a big it hadn't it hadn't burned him in the past right I don't think it was

I think it was just a lack of field vision. Like it was a side to side thing. It wasn't like I can't see what's in front of me. He just didn't see Jesse Bates both times. And I don't think he took the time to look him off. I mean, Jesse Bates too. It was concerning that he made that,

that he made the same play twice, that he threw the same pick twice. It was a good play by Bates too. I mean, for two interceptions and a force fumble, the biggest off season signing for the Falcons, they've got to be super happy that he was out there making plays. it's not great that it happened twice for, but like there are worse interceptions in the world that he could have made.

Yeah. Yeah. And here's my concern though. Like you watch Richardson and he did the things you expect, like the running stuff. You watch Stroud and he did the things you expect, like the passing stuff, like passing over the middle of the field being a pocket passer. You watch a young and you've got none of the playmaking stuff that you expected, none of it. And then none of the pocket stuff.

So it's like, I don't know. It's hard. we can't say that his game has translated yet. And that's a big question mark with him. It's just week one, but not, not starting off on the right foot. Bejohn Robinson, a lot of wigsler. Oh. Oh.

That was a good pick. But, uh, yeah. Great pick. We talk about this offense and what they're doing to fantasy guys everywhere. At one point, Drake London. It's the funniest. It's the funniest name of the world. The Falcons are the funniest team in the NFL.

Arthur Smith has a bandetta against fantasy, and he's just going to, he's got an axe to grind. They had zero touches at one point in the game, like late in the first half. Drake London and Tile Pitts, your two best weapons on the offense, and he's just not using them. I don't know if it's a Ritter thing,

a trust in Desmond Ritter, because that was not an NFL passing game. I think it's just fun for him. I think he's just fun for him. just likes doing this. I think he would like, I think Arthur Smith would like nothing more than for them to win a game this year where Desmond Ritter throws no more than eight passes. Maybe no more than five. Like I cannot wait. I hope we are back here at the end of the season and we take the time to go revisit what the Falcons win with the fewest passing attempts was. And then we will go

back. We will rewind the tape. And Arthur Smith will never have smiled so wide and so happily and with so much more emotional truth than on that sideline in that circumstance. He's just a sicko. This is just like this is his thing.

I guess that makes sense. I mean, the other thing is like the offensive line couldn't really protect, Ritter. But you have to throw the ball down, feel that at some reasons. No, you don't. I don't. he would beg to differ.

At one, wait, wait, at one point in the game, Desmond Ritter was four for four for zero yards and one touchdown. These people are disturbed. It's a disturbed organization that is just like, it's just performance art. But it's not that bad. It's also like, what they're doing as an offense is secondary to be clear. again, like the Falcons only make sense if you understand them as just like a long, elaborate bit. But it happens to kind of work.

I mean, it worked this week. I don't know how it's going to work next week. But you have to be able to pass the ball and the fact that, I mean, if they don't trust Ritter that much, that's like an indictment of their own planning for the season because they don't have a backup. Yeah. But I just don't think that it's like, I don't think that it's a trust. They don't care. They just don't care. They don't care about the passing game.

The passing game is completely irrelevant to them. They think it's stupid. They think it's passe. What do they play the chiefs or the dolphins? What are they going to do? I don't know, but it'll be funny. Okay. The Falcons are not the best team in the NFL, but they are the funniest.

And you know what? The funniest team in the league is what to know. So. All right. Well, we had a tough out for the preseason. The preseason champion Pittsburgh Steelers lost 30 to 7 to the 49ers. The biggest margin of defeat at home for the Steelers during the Mike Tomlin era. The Pittsburgh ones had five offensive drives together during the preseason.

All of them were touchdown drives. Unfortunately, the preseason has ended. and with five minutes left in the first half, they had one single yard of total offense. It was a great yard. Against the 49ers. It was an incredible yard. It was great.

I don't remember what yard it was. Do you remember what the actual yard was? No, I don't. I don't. It was a good yard. I mean, they had to cherish it. This was bad. Pickett did not look good.

He was missing all over the place. A lot of high throws. 49ers look great. But beyond, And T.J. Watt looking very good against Colton McKivitz, who had a rough outing for the 49ers. So I think right tackle is definitely going to be a concern there. Just not a lot to write home about in the positive column for the Steelers who had felt like sort of a preseason darling. So that was a surprise to me because they had looked really good.

And San Francisco is a tough opponent. But the performance coupled with the fact that Cam Hayward, Friamuth, Deonti Johnson, all left the game of various points with injuries. This was not what she wanted to see in week one. And you can't have, I feel like you can't have this type of season with Pickett, like the up and down season. And this first week, it's going to be hard to overcome this first week. But what I mean is I think he has to show you each and every week that he's the guy for

them to invest in him going forward. Because like you're going into a draft with a lot of good quarterback prospects. Like even beyond Drake May and Caleb Williams, if you watch these guys on Saturday, there were at least like four legit first round prospects in this draft. So I feel like you have to have a high bar if you're Pittsburgh. And so far, like this first one, like I agree with you. Like he looked frank. He looked all over the place.

Like I don't know. He didn't look confident like he did in the preseason. And I thought that was the good sign from August was Pickett looked different from last year. last year he looked like he was never he didn't have the timing down right and in preseason he did but then it was it was more of the same it's it's rough and i i think it's hard to if you're mike tomlin it's it's tough to get this team back after after that

bat of a game one these these are the the franticness is what you need him to not do because he He's not like he doesn't have. Right. Amazing, amazing, amazing tools to fall back on. It's you're hoping that he's going to develop and that he's going to make good decisions. And I mean, I don't know that it was.

I think accuracy was the bigger issue than not making good choices and not being able to process. But he just looked freaked out. And for all the, you know, okay, here's the guy who. just had to walk across the street to a new building on the same block, you know, coming from college to the pros, feel like the thing that they've always sold him as is just sort of like, he knows what he's doing. And a lot of that is silly, but this is not that. Pittsburgh was not favored to win this game. So it's not, you know, that's, it's no huge upset. but it was it it just destroyed a lot of positive momentum, I think.

Yeah. I think that's what's tough to come back from. Right. The high of the preseason and then the low of this back to back. The preseason crows were suffocated at altitude and fell down onto the streets of Pittsburgh. We have our first casualty, unfortunately. San Francisco looks great. Brock Party looks healthy.

congratulations to the 49ers for for their deep NFC playoff run um see see you there right 152 yards for McCaffrey I have nothing to say like they just Brandon Ayuk was incredibly open um Brock had to point and shoot and that was fine and it's helpful that he's got a little bit of mobility and these players are incredible and the defense is really good and this offense runs itself this is what they look like before Brock hurt his elbow like they didn't they didn't lose a game after getting Macfrey it just looks exactly the same so cool um next winner from you Raiders, Jimmy G. 17 to 16 over the Broncos in Denver, in September.

That's more impressive than it. Like, no one wins in Denver in September. That's an impressive win. Jimmy G. was fourth in scramble rate this week. 10% of his dropbacks ended in a scramble, including the game clinching play when the Broncos had no timeouts under two minutes. Jimmy wheels. And he was good.

Like, don't let the 17 to 16 score fool you. This was a decent offensive. of showing for both sides. It was just a short game, only six possessions, I think, for both sides. But Jimmy averaged like 0.4 EPA per play. That's Shanahan had numbers. He looked exactly the same as he did it with the 49ers, which is a good sign for Josh McDaniels.

It's a good sign for Jimmy. I don't know. Maybe Kyle wasn't the guy that was propping him up. Who are you? What have you done with Stephen Ruiz? It's one game. It's one game. They scored 17 points.

But he did look good. the same as he did in San Francisco, which is a good side. Yeah. He just doesn't like there is something with all of the fourth quarter comebacks. You know, he goes on that drive. He's four for five for 60 yards. I had the great connection with Jacobi Myers. Like, Jimmy is not a perfect quarterback.

And sometimes this can be frustrating because when he messes up, it's like he seems so chill about it. but he was a really, really unflappable human being. And it's not the worst quality in the world for a quarterback. Myers seems like that's working out really well so far to start. And then, you know, it's nice to have Devante Adams on your team. Those two were the bulk of the past catching targets. Yeah.

Myers did leave with a head injury late in the game. It was like, see, this is the problem with Jimmy G is he just throws over the middle. blindly and he did throw Myers into a huge hit and that was kind of scary. But like I said, like there were Jimmy mistakes. He threw a pick in the end zone that was tipped up. But if you're getting 90% of San Francisco Jimmy G, that's a good deal for the Raiders. What did you think of Russ? I thought he looked better.

He looked a little faster. But I mean, he's still Russ from last year for the most part, just in a better. offense, just with a better coach. I think it's going to take time for Champaign to figure out like what buttons he has to push every week because there were flashes of good things two minute before the half. They drive down to get some points. Russ got outside the pocket on both touchdown throws. That looked like throwback for us.

But there were a couple times when he got caught from behind by pass rushers. So jury's still out on him. still on a watch watch, but look better. I'll be curious to see how they try to layer in some explosives because it is, you know, he's always on any given day, Russell Wilson is choosing a different version of Drew Breeze to be and you never know which one it's going to be. And a lot of this was the Dink and Dunk version, which seemed like it was probably for the best in terms of efficiency and, you know, they didn't put up a lot of points, but they had some

solid drives. And it was a lot more functional than it was at a lot of times last year. But they just, you know, it didn't, it didn't seem like there was anything particularly explosive going on there. And I'll be curious to see if and when they try to incorporate that. Also seemed like they were having big problems with Max Crosby, which I think a lot of teams are going to have this year. Yeah, not a surprise.

And Wilson only had one scramble and it went for one yard. no real deep balls. So I think those are the two things that are missing from this game. Outside of him looking good throwing on the run, we didn't see the scrambles, we didn't see the deep balls. And that's where the big plays come from for him. Right. All right.

My next loser. Yikes. The Giants lost 40 to nothing to the Cowboys on Sunday night football in an unmitigated disaster of a football game. I am not overreacting to this result in terms of what it says about these teams. I think the primary thing that this result says about these teams is that the Cowboys have Micah Parsons, who is insanely good. Just speaking about what transpired this evening, wow, this was incredibly ugly and bad. It was over in like five minutes.

In like five minutes. The Giants Twitter account tweeted out like game time. And it was like a, I don't know, like a hype tweet. And then the next tweet was like the final score. No in game tweets. Life comes at you fast. So sad. They didn't even get off like a like a first down in the first quarter tweet.

Eli Manning had to go out there at half time wearing a jersey and like hold up a prop check for some lovely philanthropic effort. and it was just like, I mean, Daniel Jones got sacked seven times, but that, I mean, most of those were in the first half. Like, at a certain point,

it was just like, mercy. Right. I haven't watched a football game go this badly since the Sam Darnold's seeing ghosts game, I think.

And maybe, maybe not even that. This, I just, the Giants can't possibly be this bad. I do think the Cowboys are really good, but, who it was like the cowboys didn't even start.

I mean, in the second half, did they try? No. Except for like sometimes they were, this was the problem. Was that it would be like, okay, they're just, everyone's just chilling here. It's fine.

Like we're all going to go home in an hour or so. But then Micah Parsons was sometimes definitely still trying. Yeah, he never stops. He's unbelievable. But like, like, Dak, Dak threw for 143 yards, but it's like not a problem just because they didn't have to throw the ball.

They didn't have to do it. Like Mike McCarthy barely had to call plays. I think Chris Collinsworth said, like the game was over before he even called plays. It honestly would have been rude if he'd thrown the ball a lot. Right. I think this has a lot about Dallas's defense.

I don't know what it says about the offense. I think, like, we don't really know what to, to make up the offense, but that defense, if they stay healthy, I think, and I think Michael Parsons might get 25 sacks this year. He is so scary.

Like, it was just an unbelievably dominant. And he only had, like, it's not on the stat sheet. He had one sack, but he was impacting every single play. And just driving people into each other.

They're going to be really, really, really good. Yeah, it's just about health. But they are my best defense in the NFL. I think I'm I'm good with that. Okay, that's fair. I have nothing else on this game.

It was just such a disaster. It was over in 10 minutes. Like, I don't take too much away from it. Even for New York, I just think everything that could go wrong went wrong in weird ways. I think you just burn the tape and move on. Yeah. If you're Brian Dayball, you do one of those, like, gimmicks that coaches do where they, like, literally burn the tape or bury it. So he started the night wearing the, like, FDNY hat, and he took it off.

And I think, I'm sure he just wanted to take his hat off. But I was like, does Brian Daibald feel like he's disrespecting the fire department? That's, like, let's. That is what happened. That's canon. Let's leave them out of it. They don't need to be so. with this.

Honestly, again, it is the right choice. It's a good man. Next loser? The Vikings. I think it was an 11-game win streak in one possession games finally comes to an end. They lose to Baker-Mayfield at home. I mean, if you were worried about regression with this team, this is the game you were worried about.

Like, another team, everything that could go wrong with... Turnovers. 57-yard field goal. Weird turnovers, too. And weird third-down stats. It's just like every, every regression thing came back to bite them. Yeah, they averaged 30 yards per drive. Tampa Bay averaged 16 yards per drive and won the game.

Like, these are the games that the Vikings won last year. Now they know how it feels to be on the other side of it. We had to divvy up. Like, we divvy up which games were going to talk. about before we do the show. And this was the one we were going, we were like going through all of them. And it was just very clear that this one was left. And I was like, Stephen, we're playing hot potato with Kirk and Baker.

And Stephen just slacks me, I will take the potato. It wasn't that bad of a potato. I have to say that. Like Baker looked okay. He looked like Baker. Kirk looked fine for the most part. Justin Jefferson looked amazing. I think the one good thing you can take from this

if you're a Vikings fan that you feel better about this team than you did last year is the fact that the defense looked okay. Yeah. Especially on third down. Brian Flores, the blitz stuff he did, I thought, really worked, especially early on. So that's encouraging. I don't know about the rest.

I don't know about the offense. Like the run game really wasn't there. Kirk was under pressure at times. But he may throws down field, and I thought, I thought it was. just a weird game for them and I just thought it was bad luck. So I mean, as lucky as they were last year, that's how unlucky they were on Sunday. Garrett Bradbury went out with a back injury for the Vikings, which is a little bit of a

concern just because that's an injury that he's struggled with before and dealt with last year. So that's not, not amazing. It's going to be funny when the when the Baker-Mayfield Buccaneers win the NFC's out. That's all. It's just going to be funny. That's okay. Things are funny sometimes. All right. My last loser is the Tennessee Titans.

They lose to the Saints. 16 to 15. Ryan Tannahill just stunk. That's why the Titans are a loser. Their defense was actually pretty good. But Tanna Hill completed under half of his passes. He threw three interceptions. He was pretty heavily pressured,

which definitely affected him. but he was just forcing the most telegraphed throws to DeAndre Hopkins. That's what led to two of the interceptions. I mean, my, my takeaway from this game is that we might see Malik Willis play for the Titans again, which is funny because I didn't think that I would ever see that. He was the backup with Will Levis inactive today, which confirmed, I think we already had a sense that he was,

he was the backup there, but they made that pretty official by doing that. And Tana Hill just can't put in that many more games like this before they have to do something because he looks really, really rough. Derek Carr looks like Derek Carr. He took a lot of pressure. Trevor Penning in particular really struggled for New Orleans. And, you know, Carr did the same sort of skittish when he feels like the pockets collapsing stuff that he looks like Derek Carr. but both of these defenses, I thought, looked like they had something. Carr was better than Tana Hill, but that's just not saying very much at all.

I didn't see any of this game, and I'm happy I didn't now that I saw the final score. I do think the Saints defense was a little underrated going into the season. And I think that's the one thing. They looked good. I think that's the one thing in this division that you can bank on outside of the Falcons running the ball 60% of the time every game. I want to see more out of the time. It works every time.

And they have the pieces on offense to have something there. But I think you need to see more out of Derek Carr as a playmaker. And that's always been the question mark with him. Every time I looked at this game on Red Zone and the Saints were in the Red Zone, and the Saints were in the Red Zone. It was just Derek Carr kind of just running around aimlessly. Yeah. He looked like Raiders, Derek Carr.

Like, he just looked like Derek Carr, which, I mean, I don't know what else you thought you're going to see. Not you, but, you know, the general you. I do think that the Saints had multiple turnovers. They were hit, like, they weren't fluky. There was one right before halftime where. Amani Hooker just sort of sat on his own and Carr kind of underthrew a ball. And it was just an incredibly easy pick because he didn't get it over the first level of defense. But so it's not that it's, it's not that it wasn't on him.

But I did get a little bit of the feeling from this game that if you take away the turnovers, the Saints would have been pretty clearly the more balanced team. that had a little bit more going on and we might have slightly different takeaways here. Now, that's just because, like, the quarterbacking for Tennessee was really in a bad way. But they're okay. They look like they will be competitive in that division to me.

There were eight field goals in this game. It's a lot of field goals. It's a lot of field goals. I mean, the Tana Hill thing, I do think it's a conversation we have to have. especially with the state of the franchise, this was kind of a, I don't know,

the roster just was turned over. This is a weird year for this team. I don't want to give. He's got to sit at some point. Like, I mean, either he will, either he completely turns this around,

which doesn't seem particularly likely. I mean, we'll see, you know, it's week one. But if he's going to play like this, there's no, there's no reason for,

him to be starting these games. Right. Because like development or just losing is ultimately going to put them in a better spot. So yeah, to me it seemed like, okay, the clock starts now. And if he doesn't turn it around quickly, then we will see Willis. Yeah. I mean, and with Levis not being the number two, and I know he got injured in preseason, but he's being outplayed before then. And based on reports, he's being outplayed in camp also. Like, you almost want to, you know, You don't want to bring up the tank word with them. But you do wonder if their long-term vision takes precedent over their short-term vision,

if it gets bad in a hurry. If they're like 0-3, I do wonder if that's when. The Titans are, this is always the thing with them, is that it is every time you think that they are making a decision for the long-term, then the next day they do something reflexive that seems like it's all about the short-term. and vice versa. So, yeah. And we'll see, I guess. They haven't won a game since Thanksgiving.

I think that's worth pointing out. So it seems like it would be the time to think about the long term, but I just, I don't know. They are, they are one of the stickiest teams in league, I think when it comes to that where it just, they will convince themselves that they are still in it. Or when you think, that that's what they always do, then they will

offload a bunch of veteran talent like they did in a lot of ways this off-seats. Conflicting impulses from Tennessee. All right, let's take one more break and then we have just one final game to get to before we get out of here. All right, we're back. Stephen, I think it is your turn to close us out with commanders cardinals. I didn't watch this game. I just ignored it.

I don't want to know who won. Falls in the forest. Do you know who won? No, I'm joking. The commanders won 20 to 16. It wasn't the game you wanted to see from Sam Howell. Like, it felt like we were watching the commanders team that we've watched for the last three years where the defense is good. The defense is tough.

But the quarterback can't help himself when it's like time to make a play. and he thinks he's Superman. And like, he had a couple of instances where he tried to do too much. He ended up fumbling, giving the Cardinals a touchdown. He did come back. He did make some plays. I think he, I mean, he threw for a touchdown off of a little scramble drill. But, like, the timing isn't there.

The offense, he doesn't look like a quarterback who's operating the offense as it's supposed to be operated. And I think until you see that, it's hard to buy into this commander's team being more than what they've been over the last couple years. But the defense, the defensive line, it's still. there. It's still good. I think you could still pencil in this team for seven wins, competitive, around 500. By the time we get to December, they're going to be in the wildcard race. And then Arizona was a team quarterback by Josh Dobbs. I don't know. We know who's the starter.

We know the week one starter in Arizona now. Congratulations to Josh Dobbs. Whoopsies. Yeah. Well, they're own one. step in the right direction. One down. Congratulations to Jonathan Cannon. Yeah, exactly. 15 more games till Caleb. Have they come up with their like,

have they come up with the name yet for the tank? There isn't one. It doesn't work with Caleb. Caleb. Crash for Caleb. That's the rhyme, right? Flalib. I like Flaylub.

Okay, I'm going with that. One more thing before we get out of here. That is all the games from today, by the way. We're going to do a take purge. Something we just want to get off our chest at the end of the episode. Would you like to go first, Ben? Ben. Oh!

Wow. I'm canceled. I'm sorry. That was harsh. I'm sorry, Stephen. No, it's fine. You know what it is? It's that I'm looking at our rundown and I see the promo.

for extra point taken. So I was looking at the word, Ben, and I saw your beautiful face, Stephen, and I just, I just flubbed it. It's a compliment. It's a compliment. Just kidding. I love Ben.

It was closely related to what we were talking about earlier. And I kind of tiptoed around it. I didn't want to bring it up. I didn't want to spoil my take. Mike Frable, first coach fired. Oh. Wow. They have, like I said, they haven't won a game since Thanksgiving.

He kind of wrestled the power away from John Robinson last offseason. He's taking over the decision making. It's not working out and it's not looking good for the future. And the quarterback, they just drafted it to be the quarterback of the future. It can't even beat out Malik Willis who they started Josh Dobbs over and a must win game. So, I mean, if they get to 0 and 8, do you, do you, do you, keep this going? First of all, Josh Jobs is the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals.

So put some respect on his name. Yeah. I think you do. Because I think his reputation as a coach, which is deserved, will, will carry him through this. But the, it's just weird. It's the stuff that's happened with their front office, I always, when they fired John Robinson. I felt like we would have a

Seth Wickersham like expose by now where it would be like and I don't mean that he'd done something wrong but like just that there was more to the story that they were warning that somebody had done like whatever it was. And it's just never happened. It's just sort of been like

well maybe we disagreed about AJ Brown. And there does seem to be like a missing what exactly is the plan here and who is holding the reins and the vibes there are always weird. But I do think that Mike Rable is a coach who generally speaking gets more with less. More so on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side of the ball. But I have to think about who I think the first coach fired would be.

But I think he'll keep his, I think he's safe. I think he can weather this. I do think it's a good take though. It's good for the take purge. Right, right. I do think he's a good coach. I do think he gets like a lot out of his players. It's a vision thing for me.

Like, is he the coach for the modern NFL? Are you going to win with that style of play, that approach, that type of philosophy? I don't know. I mean, you know who is his best friend in the coaching ranks is. Belich? It's just Starther Smith. It's just those two hanging out being like. They should just play each other every Sunday.

It would be electric. No, it wouldn't. It would be like 10 to 7. Yeah, but it would somehow be electric. They should succeed. Just the Titans and the Falcons. It would be incredible. They would play each other 16 times, just back to back to back to back to back.

And whoever wins more games, they don't have to have a postseason. Somebody, the winner, the losing team. team gives the winning team a trophy that just doesn't have whoever's on the trophy cannot be throwing a pass. It'll be magical. All right. Yours was like actually football related. So now I feel weird about mine. But here's my take perch. Giant screens are sick. The Patriots did like, because they were doing their whole Tom Brady ceremony and because it was it was week one, They were unveiling their massive TV screen, like digital screen that's new at the stadium. Every time a team does one of these things, you know, there's, you know, the first one was

the Cowboys, the one at SoFi Stadium is really, really massive. Teams always, like, get really into their big screen and talk about it a bunch. And it seems super corny. And then when I look at the screen, I'm kind of like, yeah, that's a cool screen. It's huge. You can see all the stuff on it. Good job. There's nothing like a big TV.

I'm like a giant TV. Just being able to see it all. It spans the width of the stadium. Nothing. Giant screens are sick. That's my take. If I'm shopping for a TV, I'm always like, I could go higher. And even if it's like, and you do the math where it's like your eyes can't really see

if the space between the TV and where you're sitting is not a bit. just sort of like, yeah, but it would be so cool. I'm totally with you. Giant screens are sick. That's what I got. Put one in Lambo. Put one everywhere. Put one in every stadium.

Every stadium should have a giant screen. I have a bonus take after today's sloppy football and what we saw in in Los Angeles, the Dolphins and the Chargers. Football should only be played indoors. No, I hate this one, but I know you love it. Look, a compelling case for your side of the argument was made today. You guys just like the idea of bad weather football. In practice, it's terrible to watch.

You did not like to watch what you saw tonight with the Giants. I like watching the snow flakes come down in the winter. I like watching. I like the absurdity of it. I like that we're all talking about whether there was too much. much missed in in Bengals, Browns today? Like, no. Okay, that's why I'm not doing this.

For a bad game, sure. Cardinals, commanders, all the elements. Snow, rain, sleet, all that. Not like Patriots, Eagles, not like Browns, Bengals could have been a good game. Just ruined by the elements. Keeps you strong. I would be in favor, though, of, I would be in favor, though, of a, I mean, this is, it's impossible to enforce because there's two teams in a game.

But if there were some way where like, if you're, if you're bad enough, if your record dips below a certain point or something, maybe it's like the other team's assistant coaches get to like take a garden hose and spray water at you from the sidelines or something. Throw, throw water balloons. There was a game, I think it was four years ago. It was like one of Bruce Ariens last years in Arizona. They played in Miami. And like after the game, Ariens was like, it's curious how it only rained when we had the ball. And it was like he was accusing.

He was accusing, I don't know, someone conspiracy. They're conspiring against the cardinals. weather. But he did have a point. It was only raining whenever the card. And it was like pouring down rain. And they fumbled like every time. I wonder how he feels about the UFO that Aaron Rogers saw.

All right. On that note, I think it's time to end the podcast. Week one, we did it. So many games. So much football. It's very exciting. Hopefully better weather next week. I want that for you, Stephen.

Thank you. This has been the Sunday edition of the Ringer NFL recap show. on the feed, Sheal and Ben will have extra point taken, their deep dive of week one. Thank you to Kiara Givens and Eduardo Ocampo for their work on socials, and to Isaiah Blakely for producing this episode with additional production supervision by Arjuna Rambehall. Must be 21 plus in president in select states. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC gambling problem.

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