NFL Week 2 Recap!!

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On with the show.

The Heed the Call podcast.

Doesn't think week one's a liar?

You are.

Hey,

welcome to the week two flagship show, Heed the Call.

Dan Hands us with Mark Sessler, but it is the Sunday show, so it is not just Dan Hands us and Mark Sessler.

Really, it never is.

We do this together as a group.

Justin Graeber, we need Justin every day, but especially on Sunday.

And of course, Connor or are you kidding me?

Week two already, Connor.

Can you believe it, buddy?

What is up, guys?

How's everybody doing?

Doing good.

Shout out of a cannon right now.

I've got a theme for the season.

What is it?

Running back renaissance.

What's going on?

Teams are committing to the run now.

I love it.

I thought you were going to go with like Will Levis super hilarious blooper every Sunday.

That's a good thing.

I did too.

I do.

There is a weekly meme of Will Levis coming out, and I'm excited to see what comes next week, baby.

Yes, Justin's favorite team and my favorite team did battle.

We're going to get to that.

We're going to get to all the games.

That's how the flagship show works.

Mark, how you doing, buddy?

I'm doing great.

I got to tell you, I love this life of covering these games from the comfort of my home.

I can turn the air condition on and off.

I can eat the food I want.

YouTube TV has been a glorious entry point into Sunday Ticket.

It works really well.

That's compared to some of the chaos of the last few years.

So, Dan, spirits are up, and it was a great week two of football.

Oh, I love it.

I think, you know what?

I feel like we're in a good place to dominate right now.

So, let's get to it.

Let's start where we must.

It was in the late window.

Absurd, absurd management of game times today by the NFL.

10 early games, I believe.

Three late games.

One of those three happens to be the great rivalry of the AFC right now, the Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs from Arrowhead, or is it Burrowhead?

Let's get to it.

Week two starts right now with Connor Orr.

Hit it, baby.

A conspiracy theory-inducing pass interference call on Daijon Anthony lifted the Chiefs over the Bengals on Sunday 26-25, breaking up what was for the previous two hours an epic battle between a pair of 55-plus white males not seen since the 2023 Glendale Country Club Pickleball Championship.

Steve Spagnolo and Lou Anarumo traded brilliant coverages and well-timed blitzes, underlining an interweaving of countless wild subplots.

Joe Burrow regained his cool save for a costly fumble in the fourth quarter that was returned for a touchdown and gave the Chiefs the lead.

Rashi Rice scored a 44-yard touchdown.

Wanya Morris, a 23-year-old American professional football team,

scored a touchdown.

I would say this game was bananas, but I'll be honest, Dan and Mark, it felt a little bit more like suspiciously bad cocaine.

Oh, interesting.

Got a hold of the bad stuff.

Well, let's start.

Let's start with that fumble because I'm still confused by it.

And either Nance and Romo blew the call, or the officials never signaled touchdown, or New York, it was something nefarious going on.

So, Burrow, in a key juncture of this game, they're beating the Chiefs, the Bengals.

This is a huge moment.

Burrow taken down.

It is very, very Connor, close, right on the, I mean, right on the edge of whether we're talking a fumble or not.

And I still never really saw a clear indication.

I think it was a fumble, but it wasn't totally clear what the hell happened on that play.

And even when Nance comes back from break, the fact that he came back to it and was like, I, you know, we wish we had a little more clarity on how that went down.

This is the Chiefs and the Bengals with, you know, 100 million people watching the game.

And for that to be so unclear to me, and maybe it wasn't clear, maybe on the field, the officials very clearly made it known that that was a recovery and a touchdown.

And I have no problem with

letting the play play out because how many times have we seen fumbles and plays like that get wiped away because they blew the play dead?

But man, there's got to be more clarity in a spot that big.

You can't have a game that includes that play and then have the game effectively end on another kind of interpretive officiating call, right?

And I think that, you know, we were all through the New England Patriots dynasty, right?

There were all these moments where, you know, and you could say whether they were fan over reactions or not, but these moments where it's like, okay, not only are they good, but all the calls are going their way, everything's rolling their way.

That is now the vibe that everybody has with Kansas City where, you know, these things just kind of keep happening in big spots.

And Dan, I think you remember as a Jets fan, the Monday night, dating back to the Monday night football game last year with Sauce Gardner and the Phantom Passive Insurance Call there.

I mean, it seems like week after week now, we have more of these moments where even though officiating gets better and we have the replay assist and we have all these tools, we're still left with this like mind-numbing, like Kennedy assassination-type situation in, again, the biggest spot of the weekend.

And, Mark, before you take the next line, I want to just make it clear what we're referring to.

Fourth and 16,

this was after a killer penalty on Wanya Morris, illegal hands to the face on Trey Hendrickson, who is a menace all game for Cincinnati, pushes the Chiefs from fourth and six to fourth and 16.

Mahomes scrambles around, does the thing that he does, unheaves a pass towards Rashi Rice.

And it was Anthony who gets called with a pass interference.

Mark, I thought he did get there.

I have less problem with that call.

I think it's extremely fortunate for Kansas City because it was fourth and 16, obviously.

But I thought he did get there early.

What did you see, Mark?

What did you think?

I agree with that.

I mean, I think that was the one where the replay showed that if you want to look at the boundary of the rule and the way they'd call it, that he got there early, and that's part of what you call it.

i think the other one to me is what baffles me because it's like it's 2024 um we have photography that you can literally do like the revolving stadium photography that shows every single person at the game and crystal clear technology i mean that's they've got that just in case they need it or you know at the super bowl they put it out there as an image but we can't get like the clearest possible image on that fumble like and it to the point where like i don't know if if you could have asked nance to or roma to do a lot more with it, because we didn't have a great view, but then they bemoaned it, and then it just sort of moves on.

And I believe

they brought in the officiating guy to talk about, like, yeah, I think New York probably felt good about it.

It's like, look, I mean, that was just, that turned the entire game.

And so I just find it interesting that we don't have like four more camera angles that would make that absolutely clear to the viewer because it's most important that it's clear to the fan and the viewer.

And that's not what happened in that situation.

And I thought the shame of it is you actually see the shot on the sideline of Burrow, and this just shows, this is sports, man, sports comma, man.

Like how the razor thin the line is between euphoria and everything's better in Cincinnati land to absolute, like the lowest of the low, a crushing last second loss.

And by the way, let's give a little credit on a day when Justin Tucker missed another one from 50 plus.

Harrison Bucker, I think that would have been good from 90.

I mean, these guys are pounding the top of the screen from 55 out now.

So never a doubt to end the game.

But I thought, Connor, it really jumped out to me how well Joe Burrow played moments in this game.

I sensed an urgency from the Bengals while they didn't play a perfect game.

They played tough, and it felt like a playoff game, which is saying something for week two.

So to have it ripped away in such a painful manner, where basically those two giant plays, the turnover, fumble, recovery, touchdown, and then the PI, and then to get spiked on a 50-plus-yard field goal.

That is as brutal a week two loss as you could suffer.

We had everything that we wanted to see from him, right?

Deep ball touch, and I think most importantly,

that ability to climb the pocket, right?

Like, you know, a lot of the experts in the field say that really he's sort of the Tom Brady plus in the way that he is able to evade pressure without having to give himself up and leave the pocket and run.

But to your point, too, to just put a bow in the fumble thing, I think what was so wild about it was even the best possible view that we had, which is Sky Cam almost looking down into his stomach, like where the ball was was obscured by like the meatiness of like a thigh, like and you couldn't see it, really was like really well obscured for some reason.

So, I mean, it adds to the intrigue, I think, of everything.

And the one thing I did think Romo did it, Romo is obviously a former quarterback.

Uh, he made the point, which I think is valid, that Burrow reacted as if he had fumbled the ball.

And not that that means it's right or wrong, but that does tell you something.

And it's a shame, yeah, because like I said, I love watching Burrow, and I thought it was a kind of a gutsy effort by him.

And I think, Justin, he outplayed Patrick Mahomes in this game.

And I would even say, Justin, that I got some.

After a really encouraging week one Thursday night opener where Xavier Worthy was making plays and they're going up and down the field, this felt a little bit too close for my liking to the 2023 Chiefs offense, where it's a little bit of a slog.

They struggled in short situations.

They struggled near the goal line.

Once again, Travis Kelsey is very quiet in this game,

and this did not look like the exciting, fun Chiefs we were promised after week one.

Yeah, I agree.

I want to go back to Burrow, though, because I think you mentioned it.

He outplayed Patrick Mahomes in this one, but it wasn't just that.

It was that he, to me, put to bed all the concerns and all the whatever conspiracies about his wrist and everything that we've been talking about all week and that I brought up on the last week in the middle of the week show.

How dare you?

I mean, we were just reacting to a very small sample size and I think we see why people always say week one's a liar.

Still a little mystified about the Jamar Chase lack of major involvement, but I think we can chuck that up to missing all of training camp.

Joe Burrow, though, I mean, he had a pass in this game that was completed for 51.3 air yards, according to next-gen stats.

And like last week, it was all the dink and dunk stuff.

So seeing him able to air out the ball again made me feel good chiefs offense though i think there it's fair to be concerned about what we saw today but at the same time lou and arumo it feels like he always has a great game plan for going up against the chiefs so i don't want to put too much stock into it either like in a way in a way don't each of these chiefs and bengals mahomes burrow clashes have kind of a similar energy and feel to them they kind of each feel like the chapter of the same book versus being all over the map they just sort of play out the same way and like the bengals needed to find a new way to move the ball today because I don't love the run game at the moment.

They used their tight ends to a massive extent.

That was important.

But this is from a global thing.

Like, panic could have been induced twice as much from a week ago.

And it's like, I'm feeling far better about Cincinnati, Dan.

Well, they're still 0-2, though.

I mean, but they're 0-2 like the eighth year in a row.

It's like

they can climb out of it, but there's different ways to get it.

It's hard to feel good about Cincinnati after that.

That was a stomach punch loss.

But I understand what you're saying.

And

the burrow being able to throw the ball, and we're not going to be talking about him shaking his

wrist or an inability to pick up a Gatorade bottle.

These are positive steps in Cincy, but that's it.

What else is positive is they have Washington next on the schedule, followed by Carolina.

So I'll be pretty surprised if they are two and two in a couple weeks.

Get right.

All right, let us move on.

We go from Kansas City to Big D,

where hmm, things got

weird.

Warning, warning, fan confidence meter overheating due to excessive offensive excellence by Derek Carr and his friends.

Alvin Kamara Touchdown.

Fan Confidence Meter has suffered critical malfunction due to unforeseen human circumstances that betray genius of Twitter Echo Chamber.

Alvin Kamara Touchdown.

Mike Zimmer's old man anger enabling fan confidence meter to become sentient.

Alvin Kamara Touchdown.

Fan Confidence Meter agrees Glint Kubiak was a great hire, but don't overlook who hired him.

Alvin Kamara Touchdown.

Saints 44, Cowboys 19.

What is love?

I mean, my God, guys.

My God.

Can you.

Man,

First of all, shout out to Saints fans because you guys were down.

Number 32 in the fan confidence rankings in the athletic two weeks ago.

And then you score, what was it, 15 straight scoring drives they got up to from week one through week two until you know they put it into neutral.

They docked the

boat in neutral up about a thousand points in this game.

Alvin Kamara, as you heard from a voice from Beyond, scored four touchdowns.

And the Saints just absolutely trounce the Dallas Cowboys.

It is every bit as bad as the score looks, and Mark, it is also every bet as troubling as the last time we saw the Cowboys play at Jerry World when they absolutely got embarrassed at home in the playoffs.

This time it's not Dan Quinn's fault.

I guess it's Mike Zimmer's fault, but ultimately, and I love Zaddie, man, this Mike McCarthy Cowboys team, they look bad.

Bad, bad, bad.

Zaddie's got a butt.

A hot one, potentially.

Yes, he does.

Yeah, I mean, when you're, it's week two, and a week ago it was, you know, Dak Prescott signs this massive deal minutes before absolutely turning the Cleveland Browns into a cracked egg.

And it looks like the Cowboys, once again, in all phases, are going to be a special team.

This happens, and you've got Carr and CeeDee Lamb kind of jawing at each other by the end of it.

And the Saints, to me, I do think I said before the year that there would be one of these and i put the bucks cover from like 1979 from si up on where it was like unbeaten like untested and undefeated like there's like they're just this surprise team that came out of nowhere it's like all right the saints to me qualify as a surprise team because i think that most of their fans feel a little mystified because they wanted dennis allen out of here by like october instead they look like um a college power that when you look up on early saturdays in the autumn are winning like 62 to 10 and you kind of get that but you don't get that at the NFL level.

And like, Derek Carr, I mean, the Clinton Kubiak thing is like, they had the same type of offense post-Sean Payton that they had forever, and you're trying to fit people into it.

This is an offense being fit around, like, Rashid Shaheed, who's been explosive two weeks in a row.

Derek Carr looks comfortable, and I even love the little things about this game, because like when Derek Carr did throw an interception, it's like Honey Badger that comes out the next play and picks off Dak Prescott.

Like, they kept, they never let Dallas back into this game.

And I think the one thing you feel about Dallas is when someone someone gets in their head early, like in something like this unfurls and it's at home and you got Jerry Jones freaking out up in the booth.

You can see he's upset.

Like things just start to spiral for the Dallas Cowboys.

And we're here and it's only September 15th, Justin.

This team is fro-yo soft and

the Saints took advantage of that.

The Saints have 91 points in their first two games

and that's the second

most in NFL history.

And it's just, it's kind of crazy.

I think it's one of the biggest storylines of the early season so far.

And the fact that they did it on the road here, that really is eye-opening.

And, you know, we mentioned, you mentioned Carr, Mark.

I think Alvin Kamara, that really jumps out to me the way he's looked, because I really, you know, me and a lot of other people watched Kamara last year, and it just seemed like he didn't have that juice anymore.

And everything's cooking,

including Kamara, who's running through big holes, finding the end zone like the good old days.

And yeah, it's been a huge, huge success, this Kubiak offense so far.

I would say, too, that like look at this for a second from a 30,000-foot perspective.

And yes, it was the Panthers and then it was the Cowboys who our perception of them might be different because they walloped like a tackleless Browns team in the first game and Deshaun Watson just looked completely short-circuited, you know, whatever, whatever.

But go back now on the Derek Carr timeline and start to wonder if he was always a pretty good quarterback, but had a historically bad string of coaches, right?

So we go back from Pete Carmichael, who was like a 20-year offensive coordinator of the Saints, who had, I believe, no good seasons without Drew Brees.

And then before that, you have Josh McDaniels, who without Tom Brady is one of the worst coaches,

head coaches in NFL history, one of the worst play callers in NFL history.

And then before that, John Gruden, who I looked this up, had 17 seasons as a head coach or a play caller, only eight of them with a top 10 passing offense.

And then before that, you know, and you just keep going earlier and earlier and earlier.

There was a time when he was excellent.

And I wonder if now all of a sudden that he's paired with a Shanahan coach, this is a Ryan Tannehill-like career revival.

And I'm wondering if maybe he was never all that bad to begin with.

And the Saints now have this really good, capable quarterback.

That's kind of what I've been saying for years on the show.

But I also, it's not like I'm right now because Carr is going to have bad weeks too.

Like this is the nice portion and he's going to go through his peaks and valleys and he's going to be, he's going to be right there and kind of in the middle of the pack.

But right now,

they're on a heater.

But if you're the Cowboys, you're like, all right, it's one thing if you got lit up here by the Chiefs or whatever.

But through three quarters, the Saints averaged nearly 10 yards of play in this game.

They surrendered 35 points in the first half.

That is the most given up through two quarters in team history.

Mark, like, if that is, these are major warning signs.

And I saw Micah Parsons speaking with Mike Zimmer on the sideline at the game.

He's like, Parsons is supposed to be like a one-of-one historic type player.

Like, how is this happening?

What happened to the Cowboys today?

Everyone's entitled to a bad week, but weeks this bad really make you think.

I mean, I wonder if it's the kind of thing where, yeah, I was caught off guard like the rest of Earth by like the 1999 Rams.

And it's like, what if the Saints are just one of these strange teams that everything's kind of working and they come out of the gate like this and we don't believe it?

And then we have to start to believe it because it's October and then like we more and more realize that it's our new reality in the NFC South because it's November or maybe it all washes away in two weeks because I'm not over, I'm not, you know, I don't, I'm willing to not trust almost anything in the first two weeks, but there's a lot to look at and like and trust.

There really is.

It's like this team, I never thought, they just seem to like not have the pieces together in the past couple of years.

And an unlikable head coach, frankly, on baseline all reports, well, he doesn't need anyone to like him when you do this.

No, and it's funny if you think about just perception versus reality.

We did our hot butt rankings the week before the season started.

And, you know,

I had

Dennis Allen in the bottom tier.

And I remember James Palmer saying, I, or the second to last tier, and I remember James saying, I would probably put him in the last, like, which was the one where there's no hope.

Well, now look where we are.

It's just, this is a hard league to figure out.

And nobody saw this coming from the Saints.

And frankly, nobody saw Dallas looking this bad in week two.

Let us move to Detroit with Mark Sessler, where the Lions were looking to continue their good vibes.

Did they do any better than the Cowboys?

As Jared Goff's final prayer fell to earth, the Lions were left asking themselves, what happened here, guys?

I mean, our walking revelation on defense, Aiden Hutchinson, finishes the day with four and a half sacks.

The Bucs lost Vita Vea.

No Kalija Cancy, no Antoine Winfield, no Luke Gadecki.

Tampa's leading rusher was their quarterback.

What gives?

But that's the thing.

Nobody on the field played with more fire than new father Baker Mayfield, who lit up Detroit with back-to-back, rumbling, punishing, elusive scampers.

The second for a touchdown to put the Bucs up for good.

This was a Todd Bowles erotic dream.

A bunch of unheralded names ended the game with a pick and two fourth-down stops.

Dan Campbell, he took accountability for a disastrous sequence that prevented the Lions to kick a field goal before the half.

Also for a defense that allowed Chris Godwin to catch Mayfield's first seven completions for 117 yards and a touchdown.

The undefeated Bucks went an absolute thriller 20 to 16.

It's a loss the Lions will painfully unpack.

So many little moments that added up to their first loss.

Here is a little bit from Dan Campbell.

Mark, before we play this, what exactly happened at the end of the first half?

Because Campbell is pretty down about it.

Yeah, time running out.

They were doing Lions things where they were in position to kick a field goal.

There was enough time to do it.

They basically lined up quickly after one play to spike the ball because the clock was ticking.

But the field goal, half of the field goal team came out onto the field too.

And so it caused

obviously too many men on the field, way too many men on the field.

And so there's a 10-second runoff in the half ends.

All right, let's listen to Dan Campbell.

You know, I asked for improvement from last week, was the story.

And we did improve.

We did improve.

and uh

their coach cost them

their head coach cost them this one so um

critical error into half um

and uh 100 on me we improved there's areas we got to continue to improve on but um it's not okay four and a half sacks for hutchinson you said baker

Just by the stats, had less than 200 yards passing and a touchdown.

Baker was also the leading rusher in the game for the Bucs with just 34 yards.

Mark, how did they find a way here?

How did they do it?

You know,

so many people were not on the field for them.

They had these unknown, not unknown, but like lesser, lower, younger guys like Zion McCallan, like on defense, played as...

played lights out with no with your half your secondary is out.

They coaxed Goff into early mistakes.

And I think that when you get, we've gotten such a wonderful version of Goff that it's almost like surprising to see this happen early on.

And he got Amon Ross St.

Brown involved, but then St.

Brown was clearly banged up and playing through injury.

And they just weren't themselves.

It's almost like when they went to their running game in overtime a week ago and you just saw how powerful and mighty they could be, they weren't able to...

They weren't able to throw the Bucs around this way today.

And I really do.

I know I'm a baker.

I'm pro-Baker.

But he has added something in the last two years on this Bucs team, and

it's what he does on the ground.

And he really, like, elusively and punishingly and with all all his might, found a way to score that one touchdown.

And then the Lions, look, they had two chances to come back and do it.

But there was a turnover and two drives that ended on downs to end the game.

And it's just like this Lions team has had more come from behind wins in the last two seasons than anyone but the Seahawks.

And it's not going to always work.

And it didn't work today, Justin.

I just have a question because so I caught the highlights of this game on red zone.

I'll re-watch it this week, but I didn't see most of it.

Jared Goff threw 55 times amonron st brown had 19 targets and you mentioned that the what gravy yeah i see that also look they had 27 rushes and then i look at the i look at the team plays they had 83 total plays to 47 for the bucks 463 yards to 216 yards gravy how did how does the other team win they dominated the the box score in this game but even even if you like they had 24 running back carries jamison williams had one and goff scrambled twice.

But 24 running back carries compared to 55 or 57 drop backs if you count the two scrambles.

And Jameer Gibbs, 6.5 yards per carry.

It's not, I mean, did they just go away from the run as opposed to not being able to run?

Like, what happened there, Mark?

They did go away from it.

I mean, they needed to get out of a lot of third and longs.

They didn't dominate early on, you know, which would help the run game get going.

Their early mistakes gave the Bucs, like that first interception by Goff gave the Bucs like great field position to go in and score.

And so it was kind of accumulation things.

But as the game was happening, like none of this makes sense.

Like I kind of said in the intro, like eight key people are not in there.

Like Aiden Hutchinson should have destroyed Baker Mayfield by halftime.

He had three sacks in the first quarter, and yet all this unfurled the way it did.

I think the Lions, unlike other better Lions drives, could not close drives.

They had too many drives that came out without points.

Their fourth quarter was a punt, an interception, and those two drives that melted away without points.

And so that's just not the, had any of that been different, the Lions would have tied it, won it.

It would have been a different story.

Let us move to Minneapolis,

where the 49ers were looking to get off to a 2-0 start.

But so too were the Vikes.

Let's do it.

The quarterback.

Picture this, guys.

The quarterback takes the snap in the shadow of his own goalpost.

Eyes up.

As the pass rush crashes into the end zone, the quarterback feels the pressure and steps up into the safe haven of a clean pocket.

The eyes, they're still up.

The quarterback spots a streak, a brilliant streak of purple, and he cuts loose, a gorgeous arching spiral, 55, 56 yards in the air.

A pinpoint toss that floats almost by celestial guidance.

into the open hands of the great purple blur.

97 yards later, the celebration was on, and Hope was bouncing across the 10,000 lakes.

Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson are a thing, and the Vikings may be a player in the NFC after a 23-17 win over the 49ers.

A great, great team win, I thought, here for the Vikings who not only got that huge, massive play from Darnold to Jefferson, and we'll get to Jefferson in a second because he didn't make it to the end of this game, and that's important.

But their ability to, in addition to making the big plays on offense, to slow down that San Francisco attack that bullied and frankly embarrassed the Jets the week before.

And it wasn't perfect

because

Jordan Mason ran for 100 yards in this game.

Purdy had some moments, but at the end of the day,

the Vikings were able to, with the game kind of in the balance, Connor, they march down the field.

They get the big field goal to make it a two-score game and essentially take the air out of the tires for the 49ers.

And Kevin O'Connell, once again is looking at across the field and he sees Kyle Shannon and I think he could say I got you buddy so quite an eye-opening victory for the Vikings with their new quarterback what's surprising too is that the fact that it looked like the 49ers had what they wanted to do early I mean they had the early throwback to kittle they had stopped the Vikings on the first drive and normally that's sort of the indication of you're in the tiger's mouth at that point and once San Francisco kind of has you and they're able to run the game plan that they want to run, there are very few teams in the NFL that can get out of that and evade that.

And that's something that Kevin O'Connell is just, it's so impressive.

And the fact that they're just so resilient with this team.

And Sam Darnold is giving me sort of like Gardner Minshew plus plus vibes from last year with the Colts where it's like teams were, I think, Sam Darnold.

More scared of facing a Vikings team with Darnold than they were with the ceiling of someone like J.J.

McCarthy.

McCarthy played really well this year.

Yeah, and let's talk about Jefferson because he leaves the game in the second half with a quad injury.

It does not sound at this point to be a serious injury, but obviously you're going to hold your breath there.

Minnesota, of course, lost Jefferson for a long stretch of last season with a lower body injury.

That was a hamstring.

Let's listen to Kevin O'Connell about his great wide receiver.

So it was a quad contusion.

You know, I think Fred Warner might have went flying in to make a play like he does a lot.

And Justin was, I think, working in the run game on the backside and

just kind of got a, you know, not a intentional, but just kind of got a little leg-to-leg combat or, you know, contact on that.

So it's pretty sore, but he's already up and moving.

And we'll just treat that thing.

And hopefully he'll be day-to-day and we'll see how his

status looks for next week.

Here's a great stat.

And that sounds promising, I think.

But Jefferson ran this according to Next Gen Stats, which I believe started in 2016.

Jefferson ran a total of 127.5 yards on that touchdown reception, the most by a ball carrier on an offensive touchdown since 2016.

Unbelievable.

And by the way, watch the replay again and watch the game official.

Absolutely marvelous what this game official does.

He's the back judge.

He's sprinting to see the play near midfield and then has to spin to get out of the way and then runs across the far end of the field.

But then Jefferson starts heading his way.

So he has to double back again, pivots and spins at the goal line, and then throws up the two hands to signal touchdown.

I saw it, and I think a lot of other people did too.

Shout out to you, and shout out, Mark Sessler, to Brian Flores, who

the DC of the Vikings absolutely is off to a great start this season.

Brock Purdy was through for 300 yards in this game, but he was also pressured on 13 drop backs.

He was sacked six times,

both the most that Purdy has ever dealt with in a game.

So the Vikings also had two turnovers on defense.

So while the focus and people in the Darnold Hive are going to focus on the quarterback or Justin Jefferson's magic or even Aaron Jones, who also seemed banged up at the end of this game, by the way, Flores and his defense, this is a team effort and a great 2-0 start by the 53.

Yeah, I think we kind of could see this chess match coming, and it was sort of a week-long talking point.

I think two years in a row, Flores has been a real difference maker.

He did do it last year with an underman defense that were missing a lot of parts and he still kind of maximized them.

And it happened today.

You don't see a lot of games where the Niners in this era come out with like two of 10 on third down and multiple turnovers.

And when Purdy hit that little low stretch a year ago, it had to do with no Trent Williams and missing a weapon or two, but also pressure and dealing with pressure.

You know, that system has to,

you get the ball out so quick that you're not dealing with like what Sam Darnold dealt with in his past, honestly.

I just look at the Niners.

I think it's fair to say I'm not shocked that Brandon Ayuka is off to a slow start.

I'm not shocked that even though Jordan Mason is a good running back and going to produce, like, that offense channels through the beating heart of Christian McCaffrey.

And I think it's just they've tried to explain to the viewer how much less they can do when he's not on the field.

And so this is a rough sitch for them to try to get through.

And I think Minnesota is a well-coached, good team that maybe got lucky that Darnold is here versus rookie.

It's kind of just working out.

And, you know, O'Connell's had to put up with a lot of injuries the past couple seasons.

and he's shown he can work his way out of it.

And this is a pretty dangerous team right now.

Yeah, Jordan Addison

not playing in this game.

Of course, you got the tight end.

Hawkinson's still on pup.

But the injury before we move on with Christian McCaffrey, it's starting to sound a little ominous, quite frankly, since we were last on with you.

He was moved to injured reserve.

Kyle Shannon said, I believe on Friday, that actually when he attempted to practice, it was kind of the worst it had been.

They're talking about it's a calf issue.

it's an Achilles issue, it's a tendinitis issue.

Here's Shanahan on CMC status.

There's also reporting out there that he could be out maybe closer to mid-season.

So let's see.

Lost my pet.

Nobody knows.

You know, we're dealing with tendinitis, so there's

not one person knows.

He doesn't know.

We don't know.

I'm going to take it day by day.

You know, if I put him on IR, it's at least four weeks.

So that'll give him some time to rest and kind of protect him from himself, us too.

No matter how he's feeling, it's four at the minimum.

Uh, yes, I don't like hearing that.

What are you laughing at, Connor, that I dropped my pen?

That was

when I fumbled the pen.

No, that he was also the guy that was just like, you know, we could all die one day, so who gives a shit?

You know, and it's like it's so funny because now it's like that.

Literally, the North Star of your offense is injured, and he's just like, I don't know, man, like, could be gangrene, you know, could be scurvy.

I mean, if he's dead, he's dead, you know, you got to move up.

Uh, before we move on, Justin, you had something about the Niners date.

Yeah, I want to add something.

This is an interesting trend to watch for the Niners' defense this year.

The second straight game that the Niners have blitzed on fewer than 10% of the opposing team's drop backs.

And in this one, they only blitzed Sam Darnold on three drop backs.

On those three dropbacks, Darnold was three for three for 126 yards and a touchdown, including a 97-yarder to Jefferson.

But it's interesting that they're not blitzing as much as they ever have.

I mean, the fewest, this is the first time under Shanahan, they've had two weeks in a row under 10% blitz rate.

And they're terrible when they are blitzing.

So, some new things to figure out here with the 49ers defense.

Obviously, new defensive coordinator this year.

Not blitzing Rodgers in particular and Sam Darnold, who are probably going to be two of the least mobile quarterbacks on your schedule, you know.

And also the current New York Jets quarterback and next year's New York Jets quarterback.

So just a lot of things to unpack there.

So let's see.

The San Francisco 49ers struggle, they go down.

The Detroit Lions,

they struggle, they go down.

The Dallas Cowboys, they get embarrassed,

especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Things went better for the Rams, right, Mark?

Things must have been better for the Rams.

Well,

the banged up L.A.

squad flew to Arizona with high hopes.

The trip home, we've all been there, feels like a good old-fashioned walk of shame.

No Puka Nakua.

Cooper Cup lost midway to another cruel punch from the football gods.

Before any of it mattered, though, LA's young, overwhelmed secondary rolled out a thick red carpet for Marvin Harrison Jr.

Harrison caught pretty touchdown passes of 23 and 60 yards on the first two drives.

He made special plays.

He looked dangerous.

His 130 yards in the first quarter alone are more yards than his father had in a game as a rookie.

Kyler Murray dialed up a perfect QB rating and was magical on the move.

James Conner beat up La La Land and Drew Petzing called the game as if he's fluent in 13 languages.

Without his top two targets, cup left and a walking boot, Matthew Stafford took a beating from Dennis Gardek, Buda Baker, who looked like an all-pro.

And guess what, Sally?

These Cardinals are for real.

Oh,

well,

interesting.

Certainly incredible performance today.

They absolutely blew the doors off the Rams.

Rams are pretty beat up, but I get it.

How can anybody be anything else but bullish after this game?

Mike, what about

the game really jumped out to you?

For me, Mark, it's seeing Kyler Murray truly look like the pre-ACL Murray and kind of like giving off, I could be an MVP if things break the right way vibes in this game.

That's something that really jumped out to me.

Mark Sanchez made a good point that

he's in his sixth year, so he's learned how to be smarter and we're post all that nonsense about like playbook time and watching film like instead of playing

Call of Duty.

Like I think beyond that and but yet he's still as athletic and young and dangerous as he was back then and he looked he just looks great I mean one thing about him is his his vision because he's one of the shorter so it's like oh well can he not like he just had incredible vision on when to take off when to extend plays and all of a sudden like Marvin Harrison being out there and doing what he was doing it's like if you're the defensive coordinator and the Rams are down a ton of people so it's like you are playing almost like a preseason version of some of these position groups groups.

And I get that.

And so that's baked into it.

But if you're a defensive corner, you have to deal with Marvin Harrison doing that.

Plus, you've got other talent on that offense catching the ball.

And James Conner, who also looks about as good as you have two seasons in a row,

it's just too much of a headache.

The Rams had nowhere to go.

And the game was like...

basically over in about 10 about 15 minutes about a quarter and a half because the Rams had no way back into it and I also think like by the way cup he left in a walking boot I mentioned but Stafford did not look great health-wise at the end of this I'm waiting to see if there's anything there.

It's just kind of a team that's imploding from a health perspective.

Also, like, it's

stunning to me that we have

just the books that we get on players when they come out of the draft and basically us believing that he could only function in this Cliff Kingsbury offense because it was basically the only offense that he's ever run in his entire life.

He ran it in high school, he ran it in college, and then they adapted it for him in the NFL.

And really, all it takes is someone else.

And, you know, the parallels for Derek Carr here, where it's like, let's just reimagine what he does at his best and just add that into the fold.

And now he's playing like a completely different player.

I would argue a little bit freer than his time with Cliff Kingsbury, where I did still feel like he was a little bit robotic at times.

Murray had, by the way, a perfect passer rating in this game.

That, in particular, the play that I'll remember from this game, it was 14-0.

It was kind of the play that felt like it put the game away.

13-29 in the second quarter.

Murray just uses unbelievable unbelievable levels of athleticism and agility and keeping his eyes up and finding a receiver where he spins out.

He's scrambling around.

I'm calling this in real time as I'm re-watching.

He finds a little gap.

He resets his feet and throws a dart into the end zone to put him up 21-0.

And it's like that guy can do damage in the NFL and an NFC that feels, especially after today, like it could be very wide open.

And as for Marvin Harrison, Gravedigger, we talked about it on Wednesday's show

that

we didn't know, it was one game, so you couldn't really say, oh, no, we have a Marvin Harrison problem, but there was so many,

the stats were so terrible and the pop the hood analytics about his sprint speed in that in that game and in general his performance, which was one catch for four yards and a drop and then some kind of weird cryptic statements from Kyler Murray about like it's not his responsibility to get the rookie the ball.

Well, this is exactly the game he needed to kind of put all of that to bed, and it shows you what an explosive talent Marvin Harrison Jr.

is.

And to be honest, it wasn't totally unexpected for him to bounce back in this way.

I also, I watched Josh and Hayden's, you know, the underdog football show this week, and they were talking about the stats versus film.

And the film for Marvin Harrison was concerning.

But also, like I said last week when we were talking about this, it was his first NFL game.

And his speed, the speed thing, it's like if you don't know exactly what you're doing on the field, you're going to play slower.

And it looked like like maybe they simplified some stuff for him, at least in this game, which allowed him to play faster.

He reached over 20 miles per hour on his long touchdown.

So there you go with the speed thing.

We can put that stupid thing to bed.

He only had four catches in this game on eight targets.

So it's like, there's all happened in the first quarter movement.

I kind of think like they, if anything, they kind of widely right.

They didn't need to keep pointed on, but like his

long touchdown catch was, they were both, they show special traits.

And like the first one was just beautiful, and it's like, I don't know, he looks dominant to me right away, which is kind of hilarious because we all thought that.

Then he suddenly had that game, and we're like, maybe we don't need to talk about these players after they're, before they, like, well, we, now we, yes, we can.

And that, uh, the cup injury looms very large.

We don't have a clear picture of what it is, but he's on, uh,

he's in a walking boot after the game, and we're already missing Nakua, and Matthew Stafford is, he needs those guys, and that's going to be a major problem if that's what his, if he's going to have a long-term injury here.

So, bad news there.

Great news for the Cardinals with Marvin Harrison Jr.

By the way, four incompletions for Kyler Murray, all incompletions where Marvin Harrison Jr.

was the targeted receiver.

So, I still think there's a major problem in the desert.

All right, let's take a break.

That was a joke.

Zamalt, don't kill me.

Also, Marvin Harrison Sr.

Mark didn't mean anything by what he said about him never having a day like that in his career.

So don't get mad at Mark Sessler either.

We'll be right back after this.

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audience only.

All right, we are back.

Let's keep moving.

Uh-oh, it's the gravy Zuss Bowl in Nashville to Tennessee.

Take it away, Justin.

Is there such a thing as a must-win game in week two?

Well, for the Jets, this is probably as close as it gets.

And it was not pretty, but the Jets found a way with the help of a pair of Braylon Allen touchdowns and a pair of major Titans miscues.

The Titans were once again undone by a blocked punt and a mind-boggling Will Levis fumble.

For the second straight week, Tennessee loses by a score of 24 to 17.

But I think the Jets are the story coming out of this game, Dan.

Yeah, the Jets needed that win, you're right.

And they get the win, and they needed, It went down to the very end.

It was a fourth down in the red zone for Will Levis and the Titans.

A pass that is thrown short of the end zone, is bobbled and dropped to seal the win.

The play before, Will McDonald had a big sack, which was, I believe, his third of the game.

Will McDonald, who is a very important player to the Jets, the 2024 or 2023 first-round pick, especially now that Jermaine Johnson, who's one of my favorite players on the Jets and one of the more exciting talents on the defensive side of the ball for them, he goes out with what appears to be a torn Achilles, which is just a brutal blow for a guy that was an ascendant talent and for a Jets team with defensive line issues and depth concerns.

Terrible.

And it gets me a little bit annoyed that Hassan Reddick, who doesn't deserve a dime extra money for the way he's handled his holdout, is the biggest winner of Jermaine Johnson's career changing in an instant.

But that's beside the point.

We're going to see Hassan Reddick on the Jets very soon, I think, now after Johnson goes out.

But

for me, yes.

Yeah, go ahead.

There's something on the pass rush.

The Jets' pass rush in this game, according to next-gen stats, generated pressure on 60% of Will Levis' dropbacks.

That is the highest pressure percentage by a defense since week 13 of last year.

So a lot of football has been played since that.

The Jets got after Levis today with no Reddick and with Jermaine Johnson getting hurt.

That's a good point.

It was a muddy pocket at all times for Levis.

And the guys, guys being Connor and Mark, the play that, I don't know if you guys saw it, but the Levis turnover that he threw an interception, but

that happens.

It was a deep shot, and it was a nice play by the Jets backup corner.

But the

turnover, it's 7-0 Titans.

The Jets are in a stupor on offense.

Nathaniel Hackett's calling a terrible game to that point.

The Titans already have one touchdown and they're going in for, you know, at least three to make it a 10-point game early.

And the Jets, at that point, the noose is, you know, tightening around them and the pressure of, you know, everything around them.

Or they're going in for a touchdown and 17-0

or 14-0, and who knows what happens then?

Instead, Levis, instead of just going down as he's tripping, he tries to kind of levitate like Tom Cruise in the first Mission Impossible movie when he's going down the shaft.

Remember the elevator shaft thing?

And then while he's levitating,

I guess in his mind, he's going to stall and defy gravity so he can shovel a pass.

That doesn't work.

It goes straight down.

It's a backward pass.

We're covered by the Jets.

And I just wondered, you know, Brian Callahan, their coach, Connor, I liked it.

And I think we might have a look at this,

Gravedigger, if you're watching on YouTube.

But

they come back from commercial and Callahan meets Levis before he can even get to the sideline and says, What the f are you doing?

Which to me, maybe I'm showing my age.

Like, I grew up as a Parcells guy, and it's like, I think it's not the worst thing for a coach to get on a young quarterback and maybe put a little bit of fear of God in him.

You got to stop doing dumb shit because you're killing us, bro.

So, Levis made some plays in this game, also.

I don't want to say it was all bad, but those type of mistakes are going to get his ass planted on the bench with Mason Rudolph in the building.

What the f are you doing is arguably one of the funniest things you can say to someone in a situation where like bullets are flying.

And you talk about Parcells, and you know, Parcells or even up to Sean Payton, right?

They had this classic way of bothering their quarterbacks, and they'd say, Oh, this is terrible throw.

You should have looked there.

But this is, it's like, it's a different level.

It's like how you would talk to like your 11-year-old son after he like accidentally

went into the family car and backed over like a vase or something.

It's just like, that is the look.

And just like the complete disbelief in his eyes when he said, what the fuck are you doing?

And Callahan was asked about this after the game, which I think it's hilarious because everyone knows what he said.

It's clear as day on the telecast.

Hey, what the f are you doing?

And yet, one of the first questions in the press conference after the game was, what did you say to Will on the sideline after the fumble?

Here is Callahan's answer to that question.

What did you say to Will on the fumble?

I know you looked very upset on the sideline.

I think the camera caught it pretty clear.

Oh, he's dumb.

And that is what it is.

He's a grown-up and he knows better.

And so, you know, I was really irritated that he cost us three points in a game that we probably needed it.

We tried to come back and rally.

I mean, those things happen in football games.

Good things, bad things.

I'll get mad at him.

You know, he'll get mad at me, whatever.

It's the way it goes.

But yeah, just just was really kind of an inexcusable mistake.

That is a head coach.

You talk about a dog.

It's just like, just an idiot.

Like, I hate when he does this.

Like, he always gets out when we open the door and barks at the neighbors.

He's a dumb dog.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That is a Mondo-pissed head coach.

So the Titans obviously now owing to that, they have the Packers coming up on Sunday, which they, you know, they catch a break in that you don't have, well, you might, you might have Jordan Love.

We'll see.

We'll find out.

But at the same time, they now absolutely need, need, need to find a way to win.

And

the one other thing I'll say here, Mark, is that as a Jets fan, it's been so many, many years of bad quarterback play.

And I'm not going to say that Aaron Rodgers has been vintage Aaron Rodgers through two weeks, but I think he's been a good quarterback.

And I was texting with my dad

about eight minutes in the fourth quarter, the Jets get a stop on defense.

Shaky start for the Jets.

Good finish overall for them.

They get a stop.

Jets take over.

Games tied at 17.

And I texted my dad, this is what the Jets got Rodgers for.

Now they have an adult playing quarterback that is playing against a team that they should be able to manufacture and do something.

And Rodgers goes five for five on a 74-yard touchdown drive, makes a big, big, beautiful, beautiful touchdown completion to Garrett Wilson, who is pretty quiet in this game.

Really good job by Legerius Sneed against Wilson in this game, but a beautiful third and one touch pass over the shoulder, and then Mike Williams has his first catches at Jets wide out and one-on-one coverage, his specialty.

He wins a one-on-one, and then Braylon Allen, their 20-year-old running back,

has the game-winning score.

So just Mark seeing that, and I know you could appreciate this too, is like, okay, like it feels like there's an adult in the room that can do some things for you and win a game, and that's what happened in the fourth quarter.

Yeah, it settles not around Rodgers, but maybe slight panic around the whole team last week, no showing against a high-quality opponent.

I'm with you, Graveseger.

Like, this was about as close as it comes to a psychological must-win, like, not mathematical, but it's like from coaching, GM, quarterback on down to the fan base.

You needed to see it.

And I just want to compliment the two of you because, you know, Sunday unfolds, and your teams are playing each other.

You're very intense fans.

And I was privy, but I felt kind of like I didn't need to be there, but privy to the text going back and forth all day.

And Connor, they were professionals.

There was an aplomb.

There was a grace to how they handled each other.

And it went very poorly for one of the two because he also came to realize

with the solidity of cement that his quarterback is not the quarterback of the future.

While the other is at least the quarterback of today's future.

So well done by you both, professionals.

Thanks.

Dig in there too on Justin.

I like that.

I don't know if it's cemented.

I mean, he had a really nice throw to Ridley.

He was a little bit more.

Let's see where we are in a couple days.

I said this on the Music City Audible podcast earlier today, but to me, it's like the whole season.

You better ding yourself, baby.

It's hard to talk and play the sounds at the same time.

If you're going to be plugging your vanity podcast on our show, on our flagship program, you better be ready with the ding.

Yes, on the Music City Audible, I said that

this whole season for the Titans is about finding out if Will Lovis is the guy.

And right now, the answer would be maybe,

but leaning towards no.

Wait, that's good.

So he's got to figure that out.

I'm not piling on here, buddy.

But I would say through two games, maybe feels very generous.

Well, if the decision had to be made after two games, it's no, but it's like maybe he'll get better as the season goes on.

Yeah.

All right.

And the Jets now have this very funky start to their season.

Now they're on a short week playing New England in their home opener on Thursday night football.

Let us move forward, heading next to,

ooh, speaking of the Packers, Green Bay, where they had the Colts without Jordan Love.

Curtains for the Packers as a result, sest dog.

Matt LaFleur, you've done it.

You little psycho.

You scientists/slash mastercraftsman.

On Thursday's preview show, we implored you to go old school.

1971 lunch pail game, ultra violence.

With Jordan Love in street clothes, take notes, Russell Wilson.

LaFleur leaned on Josh Jacobs and everyone he had to pound the Colts with for 261 yards on on the ground.

The Colts have allowed 474 yards rushing in two weeks.

Oofa.

The pack set the vibe early with 16 runs for 135 yards, 8.4 yards for carry before Raw Malik Willis threw his second pass of the game.

A sneaky little touchdown strike to Dantavian Wicks to leave the confused Colts in a blender.

The Packers went into the half up 262 yards to 80.

Jacobs was the star, but something else happened.

Willis wound up 12 for 14.

Clean, smart, safe decisions, and one beautiful 39-yard bomb to Romeo Dobbs.

The defense smothered Richardson until the final frame, remembering that he's got a lot of work to do.

I don't know if the Packers can keep winning games in this manner, but LaFleur proved once again he's one of the game's most versatile minds.

He did it today.

Yeah, Connor,

that is the first thing.

I look forward to watching this game just to see how LeFleur handled it.

But Connor, this feels like this is when coaching matters the most because when you lose the quarterback and your backup quarterback is obviously someone who's not battle tested or someone that's probably ready for prime time as a passer and you still find a way against a team that knows what you want to do,

you got to give credit to the whole Green Bay staff.

It was really interesting to just watch them open the game.

I mean, it was like combos of like pistol full house formations.

I mean, there was all these sort of different kind of dizzying motions.

And it reminded me a lot of when Drew Brees first got hurt with the saints and sean payton had to do that that weird taysom hill teddy bridgewater game where and and it was just all window dressing window dressing forcing the defense to react but then buried underneath that really easy reads for your quarterback but i i want to give props to uh to malik too here because

that touchdown throw You could see the Colts cornerback sitting on that and in any other circumstance with another similarly inexperienced quarterback.

That's a pick six.

And he saw that and he put a little bit of extra touch on it, got it over the top into the end zone.

There were coaches, I remember doing a story on him when he was coming out of Liberty, and people were saying, like, there are throws that he makes, and you're just like, my God, like, what is he doing?

And there are throws that he makes that

nobody else in the world can make.

And he does have that little special little stuff inside of him.

And Matt LaFleur found that today.

Yeah, Matt LaFleur, by the way.

This is not his first time having to come up with a major game plan to overcome a deficiency at the quarterback position.

In 2018, I don't know who remembers this.

Marcus Mariota had the weird elbow thing in week one against the Dolphins.

Heading into week two, they had Blaine Gabbard as the quarterback, and Matt LaFleur was the offensive coordinator of the Titans at the time, came up with a game plan to completely mitigate that quarterback deficiency.

They beat the Texans in that game.

It did involve like a fake punt touchdown, 70-yard play from Kevin Bayard to Dane Crickshank.

But still, like Matt LaFlore has been in this position before.

The Titans ran the ball 34 times that day.

Now, that's not nearly as many as they ran it today against the Colts, but it's not the first time LaFleur has had to, like, have one week to figure out what do you do with a quarterback that, I mean, who's barely even been in the building.

Mark, I don't know if you're aware, but we actually rebranded over the weekend.

We're now a 2018 Tennessee Titans podcast.

It's Matt Lafleur related.

It's organic.

It's happening organically.

It's a great nug, Justin.

And this is no shot against your team's old head coach, Mike Vrabel, but like the fact that Malik Wills, and I, again, I didn't watch it, so I don't want to say too much, but the fact that he did make a touchdown pass, he didn't throw this game away, having good coaching and being in that building in Green Bay is going to give Willis a chance where I would think that

he would be hopeless without him.

Now, the question, I guess, becomes: when do you see Jordan and Love again?

But this was to get a win in this spot and to get 237 rushing yards

in the first half.

Is that right?

Yeah,

It was dominant.

No, it was completely dominant.

Like I said, they ran the ball like 17 times before Willis threw his second pass, which was

that touchdown pass.

That's why I think

you're not going to surprise anyone with that a week from now.

So it's like, how do you keep it going?

But Willis

also could have done Will Levis things, to be honest.

And he didn't.

He kind of kept his head on straight.

And a big part of it was that Anthony Richardson was not doing what he did last week.

He wasn't even able to.

He made a a mistake.

There were early mistakes.

There were a couple bad picks.

There was a fumble on an RPO mesh point that I put on Richardson.

And, you know, it's like, to me, it's like what his ceiling is, is so exciting.

And that's why a week ago, everyone was frothing at the mouth.

But you come away looking at, like, even he's got good coaching around him, too.

It's like, there's a lot to work on.

But give Green Bay's defense some credit here because they really kept the Colts, you know, like,

unease, in a state of unease until the end.

Richardson had a chance at the end to throw a bomb to put the game in, but it did they couldn't do it.

They couldn't do it.

But it's like, that's my concern about Greenbag if they missed love for multiple weeks.

It's like this still came so close.

You were so dominant in so many ways, and it still came down to the final throw.

One sound up here.

This is one of the craziest.

By the way, the Colts have given up 405 yards on the ground in two weeks.

That is how your season gets destroyed.

You got to stop the run.

Matt LaFleur,

crazy moment this game.

It was a designed pass.

Well, the play call was a pass, but the center,

was it the center?

Who vomited on the phone?

The center,

it's right before the snap, and it was like a projectile.

It wasn't like the biggest

volume.

Yeah, we can watch it, but like it is a concerning amount of vomit that comes out of his mouth onto the ball.

So, yeah.

Yes, and it led to the change of the play call.

No longer could it be a pass because of the vomit.

Right.

Yeah, I asked Malik why he didn't throw the ball on that third down, and he told me that Josh threw up on the ball.

I was like,

that's the first time I've ever heard that.

Matter of fact,

the official came over to me, Sean came over to me and said, you know, we saw your center throwing up on the ball.

Do you want us to take him out next time?

I said, absolutely.

Please do that because, I mean, you're talking about a critical situation.

And it's third down, and I've never had a throw with vomit on a football.

So I don't know.

I don't think Malik probably didn't appreciate that.

Could it be, you know, on the subject of vomit, it depends what kind of vomit it is.

Now, if it's, if it's the watery, you know, that we see with these guys when they're exhausted and pushed beyond their physical limits, vomit, where it's just shooting out pure liquid.

No, that's not good for a pass.

If it's like, I had a long night out, I drank, you know, seven whiskeys, and then I had a burrito from the taco truck at 2 a.m., there's going to be some grit to it, Connor, and probably might even help throw the ball.

If you just really want to look at it, it it could be tacky in a positive way.

Yes or no?

Wet food

is my one thing that I can't do.

So food that is not supposed to be wet, whether it's vomited back up or water is applied to it, I can't,

it just sends like chills down my spine.

So that would be an absolute nightmare scenario for me if I was Malik Wilson.

I would probably call it timeout.

All right, let's move on to Jacksonville where the Browns are looking to get it going after a disastrous week one.

Did Did they do it, Connor?

Take it away.

All right.

Soaked by rain and urine alike, the Feral fan base of Jacksonville was treated to a comedic interpretation of football on Sunday amid the presentation of a play called Follies in Coaching.

The hour-long romp told the story of how one Douglas Peterson could facilitate the spiraling of his golden long-haired quarterback through various zany decisions, including something that I've never seen before, which is an post-safety punt-on-side kick.

The Jaguars were punchless in the red zone, and Cleveland did just enough to eke out a narrow victory.

Deshaun Watson was 22 of 34 for 186 yards, extended a few plays with a handful of that vintage Deshaun Watson style.

Still, really nothing like the quarterback that the Browns thought they were going to trade for.

Jacksonville now departs for Earth for a section of their schedule, located in a black hole galaxy known as Hell Plus.

All right, so, wait, take me through this punt on-side kick again.

I didn't even know that was allowed.

What happened?

So,

Devin McCordy or Jason or Devin, whoever was on the call for, was like, I think they're going to, Jason,

they're going to on-side kick this here.

And I was like, they can't.

It's a safety.

You have to.

punt the ball.

And then it went to break.

And I was like, surely he's going to come back and admit his mistake.

But no, like everyone was standing around me like, yeah,

they're going to punt on side kick it.

And it looked ridiculous because what happened was they sently just punted the ball like 10 yards straight into the air.

And then the Browns guy just fair caught it.

And then everyone was like, okay.

And here's the crazy part.

So

you were down by five points.

And if you kicked it deep, you still had two timeouts left.

And what the Browns actually did on that following drive was they ran the ball twice.

They got stopped.

And

Kevin Stefansky called a passing play, and Deshaun Watson got hit and threw the ball away.

And so you would have had a chance for Trevor Lawrence to get the ball back with a minute and a half, probably closer to midfield.

Instead, that drive starts at your own 10-yard line and is dead on arrival.

But that was the first in a long,

long line of absolutely atrocious coaching mistakes by the Jaguars today.

I'm looking at some of the things on the Jags side.

And first of all, Evan Ingram Ingram hurts his hamstring in pregame warm-ups.

My goodness, what a mess.

And then you have Brian Thomas Jr., who's shown some things.

He had a touchdown last week, but he's been targeted just seven times in two games so far.

The Jags offense, we're waiting for it to go, truly go in the Trevor Lawrence era.

But it seems like we're off to kind of another, you know, meager start here, and I'd be very nervous.

And by the way,

what did you call it?

They're going to hell?

Yeah, you're right.

They have road games at Buffalo and Houston the next two weeks.

Yeah.

And so the safety itself, when that happened, right?

And, you know,

it'll sound like picking on them.

And we haven't watched the All 22 yet, right?

We haven't grinded the tape.

But when Trevor Lawrence is backed up against his own one-yard line after one of the greatest punts that I've ever seen in my life, by the way,

he goes to like a three-step drop towards the back of the end zone, which, why are we calling that play?

And once he, his back foot hits on the third step, only one receiver is turned towards the ball and looking.

So what?

Like we're calling these

kind of extravagant plays for a quarterback who's backed up against his own end zone.

I just think, I mean, I said it on one of the podcasts last week.

This has very last-year Chargers vibes to it where a lot of coaches want this job.

A lot of people want to coach Trevor Lawrence.

I bet a lot of people are in the cons ears being like, look at all these mistakes.

And Doug Peterson is coaching like a coach with his back against the wall.

He's making uncharacteristic.

Sestog, this is a good win for the Browns.

Very beat up, obviously, missing both their tackles, their running back, all the drama around Watson and the legal stuff now swirling around him to go on the road and get a win.

And now you've got the Giants next week.

They can right themselves here.

Yeah, I mean,

you've got to feel fortunate when you're a team that escapes

like a terrible weather game like this, and going two for 14 on third down.

And it's starting to become commonplace.

It's not just a Deshaun Watson thing.

186 yards.

I feel like across the board in the NFL, it's like quarterbacks are throwing for like 161 yards, 151.

And so, you know, look at there's like, this is a good win because they won, but I have a lot of concerns about the state of the offense in general.

It is a promising to see them go on the road as a defense and dominate in the way that they did, especially when Trevor Lawrence renamed the stadium Trevor Bank Field.

I think that was probably a bulletin board material for the Browns on some level.

It feels a little bit out there for a team that has no real history of big wins at home to begin with.

You don't think of them that way.

So

that was mishandled.

But you know, last year down the stretch, their defense and road home game splits.

It's like they were completely two different units.

And so to go and play the way they did, I think their secondary two weeks in a row has been really effective.

And

that's what they're going to need to do because I don't see a real road pre-Nick Chubb returning and being the old Nick Chubb where this offense suddenly starts to scare anyone.

It is very plotting and methodical.

It was good enough on Sunday.

Let's move to Baltimore where the Ravens, I mean, and all the survivor pools out there, I mean, you could not have a more, you know, check-the-box win with the Raiders coming to town.

But, Gravy,

something crazy happened on the way to putting all that hay in the barn.

Something,

excuse me,

something crazy indeed.

I was gonna cut that out, but now everyone laughed, so I have to leave it in.

All right, here we go.

The Ravens.

Let it be stated, by the way.

Let it be stated that I was laying out so you could take it out, but then it was too funny, so now it has to stay in forever.

Okay, let me catch my breath.

The Ravens were the biggest favorites of week two.

Favored by nine points on Sunday against the Raiders, and that didn't matter at all.

The first half, it was a slog, but in the second half, Devontae Adams and Brock Bowers came alive.

I imagine this is what the Raiders envisioned when they drafted Bowers in the first round.

And the two of them, along with Gardner Minshew, led a come-from-behind victory on a day where the team rushed for just 27 total yards.

The Raiders.

The Ravens choked away a 10-point fourth quarter lead for the 11th time in the last three seasons.

Yes.

Falling 26-23 to Las Vegas.

So the Raiders maybe are the story of the day because they beat, they had the biggest upside of the day, but I want to focus on Baltimore really quick.

Baltimore is now 0-2.

They have a lot of question marks on this roster right now, especially along the offensive line, a defense that could not contain Adams and Bowers in the second half today.

Baltimore's next three games at Dallas, home against Buffalo.

at Cincinnati.

Dallas coming off their own stomping.

You know they're going to, nobody gets beat that bad two weeks in a row.

Against Buffalo at Cincinnati, who looked a lot better today.

If Baltimore doesn't write the ship pretty soon, what looked like a, oh, week one lost to the Chiefs, it's no big deal.

It's just week one against one of the best teams.

Now you could be staring down one and four, 0-5 before too long, and things could really start to get away from them.

I mean, they're 0-2 for the first time since 2015, and we just sort of assume that the Ravens, when they go through their annual off-season losing of a coach here and there, losing of players, that John Harbaugh finds a way to figure it out.

There's got to be a tipping point to some of this stuff.

I point to a team that had 11 penalties for 109 yards today.

That's not raven-esque.

You got Justin Tucker now missing field goals that would have been money a couple years ago.

And they lost Mike McDonald, who was an absolute game changer on defense for them a year ago.

They also lost Anthony Weaver.

The Dolphins new D.C., they lost Denard Wilson, Titans, the Titans, D.C.

And it's like, at some point, this starts to add up.

Because even though a week ago against the Chiefs, I thought, arrow up on Lamar Jackson, arrow up on kind of this whole experience.

They kind of gave me a different vibe.

This is like just a rather inexcusable loss.

You know, the thing is, they lost to Gardner Minshew on the Colts a year ago, too.

That was one of their lowest moments was maybe Gardner Minshew just knows how to handle Baltimore.

Maybe that's what's happening here.

Yeah, and there's...

There's something to it, obviously.

This is the fourth time they've lost a game in the fourth quarter when they were up by double digits since 22.

And it's like,

why is that happening?

Like, Lamar Jackson is a two-time MVP, a guy who's as dangerous with his legs as he is with his arm.

Now you have Derrick Henry there.

That's a guy that Graver knows better than anyone.

That guy's a closer.

That's part of the reason you got him to pick up those first downs and those third and shorts and keep churning and the clock just ticking away, bleeding away.

And it's just not happening.

And Mark, you mentioned Tucker.

It's on my radar.

Kickers are absolutely better than ever.

I mentioned Butker.

He would have been good from 97 on his game winner.

And, you know, when you miss wide left from 56, it's in the old days or even four years ago, it's not a big deal.

But guys just routinely bang from 50 now.

And Tucker is now one for seven from 50 yards out over the past two seasons.

So it's just like something to keep an eye on.

He is Connor Sneaky, 34 now.

He's been around forever.

And

I say this in all seriousness, you know, as the owner of the kicker club, but like his ability to be just money in the bank has always been a secret weapon of theirs.

So when you're losing these close games, and in this case, it's a three-point loss, and Tucker's not doing what Tucker used to do automatically, that is something to be concerned about as well.

Pure, it's psychological, right?

And it's one of those things where you pray for these kickers in these moments where they're able to just get their head around it.

And it's something that's unlike anything in sports.

But can I say one thing?

Because we have to correct the record for Antonio Pierce after we just demolished him last week.

Do it.

In the third quarter, goes for it on fourth and two, down 10 points.

And when I saw this live, I actually started laughing.

Fourth and two against the Ravens, critical spot where you need to score.

You're down 10 points.

Gardner Mitchell just drops back and just slings it into like 25 yards into the end zone.

And it landed incomplete, but I was like, you know what?

Hell yeah.

Like, that's what we're supposed to be doing.

Adams should have caught that.

I mean, it was well defended.

It was well defended.

It was low.

It was inside, but he got his inside hand

on the ball.

He should have caught it.

But I love that Pierce went for that.

You know the crazy thing about Devontae Adams in this game?

Devontae Adams in the first half had four catches for 22 yards.

In the second half, five catches for 88 yards and a touchdown, including what I would say is the catch of the year so far.

Maybe the like the importance of it in the moment adds to why it was the catch of the year, but it's a 30-yard play where Adams somehow keeps both of his toes in bounds as if they are glued right at the sideline.

His entire body is extended as much as he can extend, and he is laying out at like a 30-degree angle off the ground and somehow keeps his feet down and brings the ball in and just like lands on it.

And you know that's got a hurt on the chest the way he came down, but didn't lose the the control of the ball.

It was an incredible catch.

And that came one drive before, or one drive before another incredible catch down the sideline where there's like zero room margin for error.

And Gardner Minshew drops it right in the bucket.

They were getting Brock Bowers involved a lot, like I mentioned.

And really, it was those two guys plus Max Crosby on the defense.

And there was a really cool moment in this game.

Gardner Minshew, with about five minutes left in the first half, threw a really bizarre interception.

It was like, what are you even looking at?

He threw the ball right to the defender.

And as he's coming off the field, like offense, defense are switching.

Max Crosby stops him.

And he sort of like pats him on the shoulder a couple times.

And you can see Crosby mouthing to Gardner, I got you.

I got you.

And then they sort of dap up and Crosby takes the field.

Crosby finished with two sacks in this game, including a crucial sack on one of the Ravens' last-ditch efforts to go try and tie the game.

And it was really weird because the first half, 9-6 Baltimore, but it felt like Baltimore is going to run away with this eventually.

And then they go up 16-6, and you're like, okay, here we go.

They can't close.

They don't close.

The players just kept coming back.

Yeah.

And it's a thing.

And this is also a team that routinely gags in January.

So.

All right, let's move up next.

We head to Denver, where the Steelers and Broncos did battle.

Count Markula.

Count Marcula?

Are you there?

Yes.

Rejoice, for I have found the cure to your chronic insomnia.

Hark, it is Bo Nix and the ghost of Sean Payton attempting to move the football with regularity against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And don't worry, Count Markula.

Okay.

I said, don't worry, Count Markula.

I will not worry.

For the Justin Fields-led Steelers attack also presents very little risk of coffin distress.

This is your safe space.

Anyway, Bo Nicks threw two interceptions, including a killer end zone interception in the third quarter that took all the air at a mile high.

Neither team can cross the 300-yard marker in total yards, but it is the Steelers who find a way and enter week three undefeated with two road wins under their belt.

Final score, Pittsburgh, 13, Denver, six.

Man, I don't,

you know, the Knicks thing, it's a tough start,

two very tough opponents.

So I think he is someone that deserves a little bit more runway before we formulate any

real conclusions about his chances.

But as a rookie, these have been tough weeks.

And

the interception that I referred to,

it's a 10-0 game, I believe, at that point.

And Nicks just stares down the receiver and just fires it to the back of the end zone.

You know, it went right in the hands of the Pittsburgh defender.

And it's just like these are the mistakes that a Denver offense that doesn't have a very big margin of error to work with, they just can't live with it.

They can't live with it.

But they will because that's what they've chosen.

And I just, I'm watching Sean Payton on that sideline in these games, and it was a pretty sloppy game overall by Denver.

There were drops and miscues and penalties, and it was just like, man, this guy has his work cut out for him.

And I wonder how he's feeling about it right now um on the other side of it boys the steelers two road wins to start like i said and justin fields it's going to be interesting connor the justin fields pittsburgh steelers situation because you would think they just roll with him now at this point because they've won the first two games but fields is not a difference maker and he hasn't been in the first two games so i'm interested to see where tomlon goes with that He's not a difference maker, but what's kind of been interesting to me is that it's not really a fluid offense befitting of Justin Fields yet, right?

Like we looked at his best games as a bear and literally every single one of his snaps.

There was something that was tied into a run fake.

There was a potential for him to take off.

And he's like under center in this offense.

Like he's just the single quarterback and like a five wide.

They're forcing him to beat other teams with his arm, tried to beat other teams with his arm.

And I wonder if we're going to get kind of the Art Smith special as this goes on and we're going to get a more mobile Justin Fields down the line later on in the season.

I mean, maybe it takes time to install something like this, but I would almost be happy if I was Pittsburgh that I'm still winning games like this when Justin Fields is kind of attacking my opponents like this right now.

I mean, he has been, you know, dating back to his work in the preseason, just very inconsistent.

There have been ball security issues.

I, you know, I'm looking at a team that punted, what, six times in their last seven possessions.

It's a work in progress.

That said, from a more holistic angle, some of the teams are in a rough spot tonight.

And the Steelers, two weeks in a row, kind of used a lot of the same stuff to sneak out of this visiting stadium with a win.

And I think you're kind of cheating life when you start 2-0 with some of the lack.

There's aspects to the Steelers that you just don't trust long term.

And it starts at quarterback, and it's other stuff as well.

But like...

This to me is a Mike Tomlins special.

And I am looking across the field at like, and I kind of was eyeing this Bo Knicks performance while watching my late game.

And

I don't know what's special about this offense at all.

You're hamstrung with this quarterback that can't run the ball to.

Right.

That's what's special about this offense right now.

And this will be Sean Payton's great challenge this year is molding Knicks.

And once he can get past this early slate, where

let's see what they got next week.

So they're at Tampa next week.

That's no treat.

That's no treat.

And we'll see if Vita Vea will be out there.

That will certainly help Knicks if Vea's not playing in that game.

But yeah, I mean,

it's going to be a long season, I think, in Denver.

That's kind of my vibe through two weeks.

And if Tomlin goes with Fields, I think that will be the most obvious route because you can give now what that 2-0 start gives you is a little bit of cushion, too, where you can, if he really does think Wilson is this QB1, and he did because he named him the QB1 before he got hurt, give him this extra time now to get right to get the Chargers at home on Sunday, and we'll see what happens.

So inconsistent Steelers offense, better in the first half.

Fields was 10 of 12 in the first half.

They did a nice job converting on third downs, and they got out to the double-digit lead.

And that just felt like a much bigger lead because Denver is struggling so much right now.

Let's keep moving, boys, to a break.

In fact, let's take a break.

And when we come back, we will finish the rest of the week two Sunday schedule.

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audience only.

All right, we're back.

We got two more games and Sunday Night Football.

Let's head to Landover where the Commanders and Giants did battle Connor.

Spiking his headset as if the shattered contents contained a key to a more capable roster, head coach Brian Dable endured his second straight loss, this time to the Commanders on Sunday, 21 to 18.

All 21 Commanders' points came from field goals.

Much happened in this outcome, but it can be best described by the following statistic.

The Giants became the first team in NFL history to lose a game in which three or more touchdowns were scored and the opponent did not score a touchdown.

The Giants obviously lost their kicker before the game, which was highly consequential.

Daniel Jones, somewhat resurgent here.

Worth noting, two touchdown passes.

Malik Neighbors was targeted 18 times, bought 10 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown.

Jaden Daniels had a throw of the season so far for him.

Noah Brown setting up the big seventh Austin Seibert field goal.

This game was absolutely ridiculous.

I guess I got to put Austin Seibert in the kicker club tonight.

This one kind of snuck by me.

Let him in there.

I mean, did he go seven for seven for 21?

God damn.

No one's ever done that for Washington.

Ever.

That is outrageous.

And

yeah, Austin, come on in, bro.

You bring all the girls.

Wow, you brought a lot.

Austin Seibert.

You surprised me.

Yeah, lady, Come on in.

Yep.

Yes.

No, you, no, you stay outside.

Everyone else comes in.

That was Mark trying to get in, also.

It's literally, I'm not allowed into the club attached to our show.

It's Austin Seibert and like a circus of babes.

And then Mark just trying to sneak in with a trench coat over his head.

No, you're always.

You're always welcome, Mark.

Anyway,

where was I?

Oh, what I was saying was I texted, I was, you know, my New York friends, most of them Giants fans, were, you know, rightfully frustrated by this one.

And I saw Dable slam down his headset, I guess, right after Cybert's seventh field goal.

And because I didn't, I wasn't watching, I was like, did something happen that just led to that?

Or is it just, is that what a head coach does when you lose a game where you score three touchdowns and the other team doesn't score a touchdown and you still lose?

And that's what it was.

Yeah, I don't know if you guys have gone through this, but as a dad, you have to kind of plan your emotional reactions, and things are building up over time.

And I usually try to unleash when I'm near like Fisher Price stuff because it's big and plastic, and you can't break it when you kick it really hard.

And so, I think that was kind of his thing.

Like, he kind of found himself alone and had the radius to spike the headset.

And so, that's when you kind of

let it rip.

I want to ask you about Jaden Daniels because I kept kind of tracking what his numbers were.

And, like, here's a game where where two years, two weeks into his career, he's running really well.

He had, I think, almost 80% completion percentage, like 79 percentage, and leads a game-winning drive.

I know it's not touchdowns, like the next step is convert some of those into touchdowns, but we're watching all these quarterbacks, veterans, one or two, three years in, like, looking completely lost in new offenses.

And he's had to learn a lot.

And, like, you know, I think Cliff Kingsbury has been an easy target ever since, flaming out in Arizona.

It's like he's earned that big target.

Well, he did, but they're kind of, it seems like it's kind of working for Jaden Daniels so far, Connor.

Like,

would you agree with that after what you saw today?

Yeah, I mean, dating back all the way to, I remember watching him during training camp, right?

And it's not as pretty as Caleb Williams, but he has a more difficult circumstance.

His weapon set isn't as good.

His offensive line isn't as good.

And so I think he's throwing people open, which is really impressive as a rookie, and just has still that like canon quick release.

He has all the makings of it.

And I would say through two weeks, I don't think it's controversial to say that he's by far the best rookie quarterback in the NFL right now.

One more note: if you want to second guess, you can second guess Brian Dable because he

had

knowledge that Graham Ganneau was unhealthy or not at full health going into the game.

And he

played him anyway without any backup plan.

And he pulled a hamstring on the first play

of the game.

So that is the breaks.

And that's why you slam your headset down.

Let us move now

to

Charlotte Gravy.

What's going on on Charlotte?

Alrighty.

Jaunte.

The Chargers arrived in Charlotte looking to go 2-0 for the first time since 2012.

I don't like this version of Justin.

It's not, it doesn't feel natural.

It's a little bit, I don't know, unnerving, to be honest with you.

I I don't know.

I think the music inspired that voice.

It was a dominant win all-around for the fight and Jim Harbaughs.

They outgained the Panthers by nearly 200 yards, held Carolina to one for 12 on third downs.

Justin Herbert didn't have to do much.

J.K.

Dobbins and Gus Edwards, that is a fun running back tandem to watch.

They combined for 190 rushing yards, 5.4 yards per carry, and J.K.

Dobbins became the first Chargers player since LaDane and Tomlinson to run for 130-plus yards in back-to-back games.

Chargers win 26-3.

And I predicted that one of my games would be over by halftime when we did the draft show on the Patreon.

He didcall.com slash Patreon.

You mean the draft show when you took the Panthers with your first overall pick?

This game.

The worst game of that show.

That show.

And you know what?

I took this game with my first overall pick.

It was over by halftime.

I mean, I paid a few more.

You're looking for that day.

Were you looking for that?

Does that make your day easier?

No, I was looking to watch J.K.

Dobbins go crazy, and that is exactly what I got.

So that felt really good on a lot of people.

The point is,

you could have gotten that in the third round of the draft.

I guess that's all that anybody was trying to get through to you on that.

But hey, listen, you ended up getting your chargers that you're excited about.

J.K.

Dobbins, hey, bud, you've had 700 injuries.

How about we don't do the forward somersault into the end zone?

Don't need it, but otherwise, nice job by you.

And the only thing, Gravy, it's like, man, the Bryce Young thing, again, I, you know, we'll watch this game this week on Game Game Pass, but Twitter was kind of up in flames a little bit about how terrible Bryce Young looked in the game.

Let's listen to Young asked about, you know, how is his confidence level at or is his confidence level in a bad place now that he's two bad weeks into his second season after a pretty miserable first season while C.J.

Stroud sets rookie records and all that.

Let's send it to Bryce Young.

Confident.

I draw my confidence from the Lord.

So

I'm very blessed.

And

I'm grateful for this challenge.

Not ideal start, but God is everything for a reason.

So I have a faith in that.

Hey, man, I got no issues with people leaning on faith in times of trouble.

But, God,

the Panthers need God's help right now, Connor, because

this looks, this is kind of a worst case scenario start after obviously everything that went wrong last year.

I think this is an all-time ruining of a quarterback.

Like, I think when we look back at the NFL 300 years after it finishes, we will point to Bryce Young and say, this was a guy who could have been a really, really good NFL quarterback if he was drafted by anyone but David Tepper.

Like, he has no time.

He's flushed from the pocket immediately, and he has developed these Carson Wencian habits at this point that they need time.

They need time to be fixed.

And there's just, there's nothing they can do about it right now.

Yeah, like Joseph Person of the Athletic noted, he had an interesting comment that he's, you know, watching him live, that he's jumping on a lot of his throws and that he looks defeated on the sideline.

And

I respect what he said there, too, for his own personal life, but he doesn't sound like someone that isn't in a terrible situation, right?

You can feel that just as a human.

He's a young person.

And we are in a league where we're talking about Sam Darnold, we're talking about Baker Mayfield, we're talking about people left and right who have have like nine lives as a quarterback.

But this life has been about as tough as you could ever imagine or author for someone.

And I'm just like,

when do you put Andy Dalton in just for kind of everyone to hit pause, restart, and not put this person through this for another week or two?

They did it last year in week three.

I don't know.

It's a different situation because it kind of is a bookend, but it's about as bleak as it can get, Justin.

Yeah, I mean, he threw a terrible interception in this game, and on the next drive, J.K.

Domins exploded for a 43-yard touchdown, so his interception led directly to points for the other team.

He only threw three of his 26 pass attempts further than 10 yards down the field in this game.

And I think a lot of that was by design.

They were trying to help him out with like quick game stuff, but Carolina was just so hopelessly inept that even the quick game stuff is like gaining two yards and then leaving him in third and long.

And now you're putting, you know, serving him up on a platter for Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack to just eat his lunch every snap.

It was terrible.

He's swimming in it right now, and and Tepper be undermining.

All right, let's

go to Foxborough.

Is that redundant?

Tepper be talking soon.

Oh, this is me.

We are a long way from Super Bowl 49, but hey, the Seahawks and Patriots are opponents once more.

This time it was the Seattle Seahawks' turn to dole out the heartbreak in the final seconds.

Jason Myers hits a 31-yarder in overtime.

Seahawks 23, Patriots 20.

Somewhere, a sentient power raid bottle and sunglasses sheds Mountain Berry Blast tears.

I don't know, guys.

This is our orphan game, so we could be pretty quick on this one.

But

this was a game that the Patriots had a chance to get out to a 2-0 start.

They win the coin toss in overtime.

They go three and out, though, a third and one stop, and they have to punt it away.

And then the defense cannot hold.

So tough game for the Patriots and the Seahawks are off to a 2-0 start and they are feeling very good about their chances right now.

This was one of the better games of the day and we left it for the orphans.

It's kind of sad.

Well, we don't know if it's going to be a great game.

Like if we knew Justin it was going to be a great game, then it wouldn't have been an orphan.

Also

nice to give things to an orphan.

Like it's not the worst thing you could do.

It's a good thing.

It's a good thing.

It's like when the orphan, the movie, when the orphan gets all the Christmas gifts, Father Christmas comes after all, you know, like Father Christmas came for football fans, apparently, according to Justin.

Your thoughts on this?

I think the most surprising thing about this game to me, and I think this is going to be a thing, this is going to be a theme for the year, the Patriots can run the ball.

Now, they are not good in pass protection, and they probably won't be good in pass protection, but Jacoby Brissette, man, I don't know, he's got a good feel for the pocket awareness, like when to get out of there, when to make something happen with his legs.

He and Hunter Henry have a real connection.

Like the, after the play breaks down, off-script stuff, Brissette rolling out, finding Hunter Henry.

Hunter Henry had a huge game today, by the way.

And they can run the ball.

And it's kind of a shame for the New England side that they weren't able to come away with this win because it was right there for them.

And they just couldn't make a drive happen in overtime.

So I'm impressed with the Patriots so far.

Like, I thought they were going to be one of the worst teams in the league, but they look well coached, which was something we were questioning as early as, you know, as recently as right before week one.

Are they going to be well coached?

They look well coached and they can run the ball.

They do.

I mean, I think like the one area would be like, I don't see, I wouldn't imagine a Belichick team getting fried by two Seahawks wide receivers to the extent that Jackson Smith and Jigba and DK Metcalf put this game into a completely different place.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that running game was led by Ramondre Stevenson, who had another good game.

He went for 81 yards and a touchdown, and also Antonio Gibson, who rushed for 96 yards in this game.

I think think they are a

like my Jets are playing them on Thursday.

They seem to have an identity.

And they, so the Patriots aren't going to be a team that's going to wow you, but they're going to put in a focused effort.

And the Seahawks side, yeah, you mentioned Jackson Smith and Jigba, 12 for 117.

DK Metcalf, 10 for 129.

How did Geno look in this game?

It seems like he's getting his guys involved and he threw for over 300.

I thought he looked pretty good.

There was a lot of really short stuff.

Like they were running JSN on these like short spot routes like five yards stop and Gino was just hitting him even shorter than that.

But JSN was also being used down the field too.

It's nice to see him being used as more than just like a short route drag route merchant like he was under Shane Waldron last year.

And he was a huge part of the offense.

DK Metcalf had a bomb where he was wide open.

I'm not even sure.

I'm not sure what happened if Christian Gonzalez fell down or if he just...

got burned or if it was a coverage bust or what happened.

But there was like nobody within 40 yards of DK Metcalf when he caught the ball in that long touchdown.

I thought Gino was good.

Honestly, he wasn't great.

He forced a couple throws into tight windows that he couldn't complete.

But the Seahawks are going to be a well-coached team, too.

And I think that it just came down to executing

down the stretch and having more playmakers, which the Seahawks have a lot more playmakers than the Patriots do.

And the Seahawks get the Dolphins at home without Tua in all likelihood.

So they are set up very well for a 3-0 start.

All right, let's head to Sunday night football.

All right, Connor Orr got pulled into some,

I don't know, unclear journalistic

scoopage, and we just have to wait to see what happens over on Sports Illustrated, Mark.

That's the job he does.

And he's,

you know, there aren't that many people that can occupy this space the way that Connor does.

Absolutely.

Also, the job of the Bears' offensive line is to protect the number one overall pick quarterback, Caleb Williams.

They could not do that on Sunday night football.

An absolute, I haven't seen a beating like this since Drago versus Creed in 85.

I could not believe

how badly the Houston Texans defense got after Caleb Williams.

And then I did a little cursory searching.

36 pressures in this game.

Daniil Hunter and Will Anderson combined for 17, according to next-gen stats.

And that was the story of Sunday night football.

Final score, Texans 19, Bears 13.

Sess Dog, this was a weird,

kind of a weird Sunday night game.

Rotopat, our buddy, put it really well

that it was like the Texans kept on

offering to

the Bears, hey, you sure you don't want to win this game?

And the Bears had no interest in winning this game or no ability to even wrap their heads around an idea that would make this game interesting interesting in the final two quarters because they couldn't get anything going because they couldn't protect the quarterback.

Yeah, there was like a blood sport element and vibe to this.

I kind of, I know we talked before doing this, that it was weird or we didn't like it.

Like something about it felt

pulled from another time in terms of like the violent nature of the defense because even like that Daniil Hunter final sack that basically ended the whole thing, like that felt like one of those like NFL's greatest hits

clips you'd see where it was like he just completely swallowed up and dominated Caleb Williams.

And I felt like there were like six or there were seven sacks in this.

There were nine tackles for loss.

And I want to talk about like one little sequence that I thought kind of exemplified what D'Amico Ryans and the Texans were tonight.

There was the fourth quarter.

It's 1910, which it felt like it was 1910 for about four years.

But DeAndre Swift of the Bears takes the ball and Jalen Petrie comes out of nowhere and just like nuclear bombs them into the next planet.

And then on the next play, Caleb is nearly sacked by Daniel Hunter, but he escapes and his like jersey is ripped and he's about to do something really special, but instead he's thrown into the blender, throws a deep shot.

It's picked by Cammy Lasseter, who, you know, had a pick earlier that was taken away by penalty.

There were two on the night, and it's just kind of the chaos that Caleb Williams was put into.

And you can just sort of see it.

I want to give him as much time as possible because there's a lot of special stuff happening, but not tonight and not with this offensive line and not against a Texans defense.

I believe they showed it early on in the third quarter that it was the highest pressure blitz rate, blitz rate that D'Amico Ryans has ever unleashed in a game, and it paid off tonight.

I mean, absolutely, I thought it's like you're watching a rookie quarterback learn how quickly life will become different in the NFL, and it was it was a force on that side because all people talk about is CJ Strabo.

It's like, this is D'Amico Ryan's team, his vision, and the defense tonight, I thought, absolutely put on a punishing show.

Yeah, I mean, in addition to the offensive line's struggles to protect the quarterback, DeAndre Swift, 14 carries for 18 yards in this game.

So just a total non-competitive effort.

And I didn't enjoy watching the game nearly as much as you, Mark.

I do know what you're saying, like the...

the old school, because that old school has been essentially rulebooked out of the league where the flag is going to come out typically for crushing shots.

But this was open season on Caleb Williams, and these were hits that were legal hits for the most part that he was just getting pounded over and over.

And you could see his gait slowly devolve as we got deeper into the fourth quarter.

He's going to be very sore when he wakes up.

But even when Caleb Williams did create opportunities, and I thought he did have a brave gate, it was a brave performance for Caleb Williams because he never quit clearly,

but he could not make a play.

Like that play you're talking about where the Texans grab the piece of the jersey, gets away.

Yeah, he throws the interception there into triple coverage.

The penultimate drive, you have, and I thought Collinsworth, even though, Jesus Christ, that Collinsworth Walmart commercial.

So we got the Collinsworth Walmart commercial we got to deal with.

We also got to deal with the Kathy Bates Matlock reboot where there's some, and listen, Kathy Bates, incredible actress and

Oscar winner and everything.

But do we need like Kathy Bates and then an old Britney song where it's I'm not that innocent?

Do we do we put those two things together in the ad campaign?

They're telling 1999 Britney Spears and 2024 Kathy Bates are now just didn't work for them.

They're saying the answer is yes, that they are going to put those things together.

I struggle.

I would think you'd struggle to locate people that would say that's a great idea right now.

I don't know what's happening in these meetings.

So, so Collinsworth, though, in the game did a good job with,

you know, DJ Moore runs a beautiful route and even

gives his rookie quarterback a nice five-yard cushion to the sideline to back shoulder it for a big gain, but he sails it out of bounds.

And Moore is so upset that he's on the turf.

He takes his helmet off.

You can tell he's just pissed.

And then on the last drive, I know they're up against it with the clock and everything.

You have Roma Dunze, who,

same situation.

If you could put the back shoulder throw on him, they're cooking.

They have a chance to steal that game, but

they couldn't make a play.

And

so they didn't win.

And now you're going to ask questions about Matt Ebreflus, who there's still plenty of evidence, glow up or not, that he stinks in terms of being a head coach, and Shane Waldron, who's always had kind of mixed reviews.

This has not been a good start to the Bears offense in 2024.

And it did tell me everybody's saying week one lies.

We heard

Zumalt at the top said that you lie.

I mean,

that's up for interpretation as well.

But you know what else lies?

Hard knocks lies.

It made me think of Caleb Williams when everything was beautiful on that show.

And he has like a conversation with the punter.

And I don't know if it was the punter that said it to Caleb or Caleb said it to the punter, but it was like, hey, man, you're a great punter.

You know, too bad we're not going to need you much this year because everything feels so much easier in the summer.

And then real football starts, and Caleb Williams is getting a very violent, very jarring introduction to the world of professional football.

So give Houston's defense and Demiko Ryan's game plan, his blitzing game plan was brilliant in this affair.

Not so brilliant.

The Texans, the Cam Makers fumble when they could have sealed the game in the second half.

The inability, they had another chance to ice the game and kneel on it if C.J.

Stroud's first down run holds up and an illegal hands to the face wiped that out.

They also had 12 penalties, Mark, for 115 yards.

So you could go home, Mark, and you could watch the all f ⁇ ing 22 of this game and enjoy it.

But I didn't.

Well, all right.

From that, that isn't the thing I'd point to.

Like, hey, everyone, pack the tent and watch this on the big screen.

But it did open up some of their offensive problems.

A chance for Kaimi Fairbairn just to shine.

Just another kicker just pegging 50-plus yarders

with his eyes with a blindfold on.

I mean, he has 650-yarders in two weeks.

The position has been revolutionized to the point

where everyone's drilling from the mid-50s now.

On the reg.

He hits from 59 in this game.

And then the kicker for the Bears, Cairo Santos, when he hits his from 54, like he even catches a little S from Collinsworth.

He's like, ooh, he had to use the foreiron on that one because it wasn't high enough.

Like now we're grading on a curve on these mid-50s field goals.

Well, I gotta ask you.

I gotta ask you.

The pressure club is going off in 24.

Right, but is it a club if suddenly a club, like the main concept of a club is that it's exclusive, but it's like

there used to be like six or seven kickers that really belonged in there, like, you know, in the right part of the, of the, of

the club itself, like with all the champagne bottles and the Vixen's.

Well, Cairo Santos' harem is like tearing the place apart right now.

Yeah.

Snow liquor off the wall.

They're all getting the clubs.

So I think you probably need more help.

If you need an assistant, you've got two of them right here.

We could help you.

Just saying.

I will take that under advisement.

I think I got it under control, but it is, to your point, it's getting a little crowded for sure.

But the kicking, you know, some of the stats right now in the NFL through two weeks, the passing is down.

In general, offense seems to be trying to figure some things out because, you know, the, and that's just the way it's always been, Marks, dating back to when we started working at the NFL.

The league just goes, offense innovates, then defense innovates back, offense innovates.

It feels like this could be turning into a season where defense is a big story, and

we're going to see, but that's going to make the kickers even more important.

Justin Graver, the gravedigger.

Running back renaissance, baby, it's happening this year.

Can we shout out Nico Collins?

That dude is a stud.

He is a superstar.

All the talk this offseason was like, well, I don't know if Nico Collins should be drafted so high.

They brought in Stephon Diggs and Tank Dell's coming back from injury.

Nonsense.

He's real good.

He's a stud.

That catch he had on the sideline, the one-handed catch, was outrageous.

And I think it's actually a nice setup.

As long as

Stefan Diggs can deal with it, I guess he is a man with a healthy ego.

Him is a second banana with Tank Dell in the mix.

Tank Dell, who did nothing in this game, actually one catch for minus three yards.

I mean, he's had almost no season so far.

Yeah.

That was that incredible play in the backfield by Kyler Gordon, who just like snuffed out the reverse, but it was a forward pitch, so it counted as a catch for three yards, kind of nonsensical.

And then Joe Mixon got taken down on the

dreaded hip-drop tackle, and good for him that he got back in this game.

But yeah, it was Akers who got carries in the red zone leading to that big fumble.

So anyway, not a perfect performance by the Texans, but they'll take it because they are now 2-0.

And the Bears, man, the Bears are very fortunate that they found a way to beat the Titans in week one.

Found a way?

We're given here.

I'm Will Lovis here.

It's okay.

to win.

I get it, Justin.

I understand.

I feel the same way.

But they did win that game, but they didn't win it on their offense.

The offense is a mess, and they got to get it fixed and quickly because you know what's going to happen next, Mark.

This kid's going to get hurt.

If you take a beating like this and you survive, okay, but it happens again,

he's not going to last at this rate.

So they got to figure something out quickly.

Coming up for the Bears at Colts next week, that's a Colts team.

That's in a desperate spot at home.

That is not good.

We might have to do our little

wounded animal week,

guys, where we kind of break down all the 0-2 teams and see where things stand with these teams because

the Bears are not included in that, but the teams that have to face a wounded animal or a cornered animal, that could go poorly as well, because those teams know that 0-3 is the death knell in many cases in the NFL.

All right.

Anything else on this game, Mark?

No.

Oh, I mean, to get to the wounded animal game, game, we've got there real quick.

I would say one thing.

Like,

the game, like, the tone of the game also, we didn't even talk about it, but when Caleb Williams was smashed out of bounds, and then there's punches thrown on a fight, it's like, that's what this kind of game was, and you can't have them all be that way, but I like my little special violent game.

So

I will watch it on all 22.

I understand, Mark, that you loved the game and it was violent, and there were elements of it that I agree with you.

The punch to the face was probably the most senseless act of violence in the game.

You don't punch a guy in the face, mask.

You don't win.

And it's incredible that we have all this eye in the sky.

Oh, cameras in New York, and this and that.

If you don't throw a flag, like you can't penalize a guy, even if all the cameras and everyone in the world sees it, like where is the, I mean,

what's the next thing?

Is a guy going to take a morning star to a game?

If he can get away with it, he doesn't get kicked out.

As long as there's no flag thrown,

that's just Jack Ruby waltzing through the Dallas Police Department at will.

That's all that is at that point.

Remember, in the 80s, the old wrestling manager, Mr.

Fuji,

he would throw that salt in your eyes.

Why not bring some salt?

If they don't see it, the flag is going to come out, and the league can't do anything about it.

Right, refs not leaving.

Someone gets hit with a folding chair, and then the folding chair gets thrown out of the ring, and everyone's innocent.

Yeah, and it just so happens

that the referee is unconscious in the middle of of the ring whenever this stuff happens.

What a joke that wrestling is.

All right, anyway.

Connor Orr had a big scoop to get to.

So we'll find out what that's about.

We'll see Connor again on Wednesday.

You'll see us again tomorrow night, Monday night football.

What's the game, Mark?

The game is Atlanta at Philadelphia.

And the turn of Kirk Cousins one week later.

More pressure, more pressure.

And don't forget, you find us now, youtube.com/slash at heed the call pod.

That is where all of our YouTube content now lives.

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That's going to be an every Friday occurrence.

So check that out.

Anything else, Gravedigger?

Yeah, I just wanted to to give a quick shout out to the amazing listener base of this show.

On Thursday night recap, I asked for a quick push to a thousand subscribers.

We're clear 3,300 a few days later.

You guys rock.

Bang, let's double that.

Let's get nuts.

Yes, please.

Let's go quickly.

The next push is 10,000.

Like, come on, we can get 10,000 subscribers by next weekend, right?

Guys, right?

That challenge.

The challenge is there.

And if you do, Mark will give you the listener something very special.

I'll leave it there.

Each of you individually.

I will.

If it requires sending out 11,000 to 12,000 items through the mail.

I will.

All right.

Week two flagship show in the books.

Till next time, heed the call.