NFL 2025 Week 1 Recap

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Mark, they say that week one can't be trusted, that she's lying to us, that she just wants to hurt us.

But that doesn't mean we can't have a good time with her.

Oh, we can.

And we will.

Every week one game recap starting right now.

Flagship show.

Hey yo,

look at this.

Welcome to Heed the Call.

Flagship program, week one.

More like week fun, am I right, Connor?

Because if this is what week one looks like, oh, we are in for a whole treat.

Can we pub the...

This is awesome, and I hate to be that guy.

I love this thing from Connor because we kind of know what it is, but just go do it.

Go do it.

Go ahead.

We teed you up.

Dan here, Mark, Connor, Justin, other ones and two.

Go ahead, Connor.

Get it off your chest before we get into this.

All right.

I'm just reading, like, this sport deserves all the attention it gets.

If this is week one, we're in for buckle up.

And it's just like, by week 16, we're going to need to do like cocaine just to feel something.

We're going to be so bored with this.

And yes, this was fun, but we don't have to do this every time.

Just appreciate it for what it is and then we move on.

All right.

Listen.

It's okay to be excited, though.

This was a hell of a Sunday.

That was awesome.

Yeah.

Right.

And we're going to get into all the games, all 14 games.

I don't know why we're waiting till week 16 to dip into bags of cocaine, but

if that's your plan, that's situational.

It was at 13 games today.

We're going to get to the Friday night game.

We got everything covered.

We already hit you up with Thursday.

We're going to get you Monday night tomorrow.

But let's get right into it.

Let's not waste any time.

And let's go into one of the greatest Sunday night football games of all time.

Yeah, I said it.

Scoregami.

You're a terrorist.

Don't know I did.

It is.

The Baltimore Ravens

had it in their back pocket.

Derrick Henry having the game of games 46 yards down the sideline untouched to put Baltimore up 40 to 25

in the second half and yet

the Bills didn't quit.

After the two sides trade punts, the Bills go 10 for 80 touchdown 40-32.

Then Derrick Henry fumbles the ball away.

Bills take over.

Four plays later they're in again 40-38.

Two-point conversion fails.

Then I mentioned a Tyler Loop PAT failed earlier after that second Henry touchdown run.

Then after the Ravens go three and out and the head coach maybe shows a little bit of a lack of onions, the Bills take over one more time.

Nine for 66 setting up the Matt Prater field goal as time expires.

Yes, 41-40.

The Bills shocked the Ravens, crushed the Ravens in a game that pitted two of the AFC's favorites against each other.

And

Mark,

let's just call it like it is.

That is some games you don't know where to start.

Was that an amazing win for the Bills?

Was that an absolute stomach punch lost for the ages by the Ravens?

Yes, it was both.

And it all happened in the space of about three and a half hours in front of Chris Collinsworth, Mike Tarico, and the world.

Exactly.

And it's a snapshot of today's sport and today's AFC,

despite Connor's overt cynicism to the entire operation.

I mean, it it is what the AFC is right now.

Because like 48 minutes ago, the story of the game to me was you get Lamar Jackson.

Any other quarterback would have been ripped to shreds deep in the pocket.

He escapes for a 19-yard run.

We convert, and then that Henry run happens after it.

Game over.

Right, and my thinking is, look, none of these guys even played in the preseason.

This team is completely prepared to go on the road.

And in the biggest moment, right out of the gate, they've got to go face another Super Bowl contender.

And

we're seeing the Baltimore Ravens appear to be at the height of their power.

And it's almost like it's working.

Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry have a way

when they are unified to wear down a defense.

And the Bills to me look defeated and broken.

But the other side of the story is that every time I feel like I watch Josh Allen, no matter what corner he's been backed into, he's going to find a way out of it.

And you got guys like Keon Coleman, but they just made plays.

And it's like, this was a wild game with 40 narratives.

We've all to write about these games before, cover them.

And suddenly it becomes a story with 7,000 subplots.

And this one to me was like, I'm watching Lamar Jackson at the end of this game wearing his little head thing.

And I'm like, I can see his frustration because both of these teams have been here before.

They've both been here before.

And it's like...

We've seen that Lamar Jackson face.

We've seen that John Harbaugh face.

We usually don't see it in the regular season because they usually seem to find a way.

But just to underline again, how hopeless it had seemed for the Bills in this, the opening of their final season at Old Rich Stadium, Connor, after that Henry touchdown run, after the Lamar scramble, Henry touchdown run.

The Bills, their next possession is also an empty one.

Like I said, they punted.

So when they punt the ball back to the Ravens, there's just over nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

They're down 15 points, and the Bills defense has no idea how to stop this Baltimore roaring attack.

The fact that that went, and I don't care, I'm so sick.

I hate win probability models.

I guarantee you it was a 99.9 for the Ravens at that moment.

And that just goes to show you you can not ever just assume anything, especially when Josh Allen is involved.

Yeah.

And I would say, too, I mean, as spectacular as Josh Allen was, all of a sudden, this Ravens offense that was unbeatable just became so pedestrian.

And I didn't understand what the plan of attack was.

After the Bills score and they failed to get the two-point conversion,

they're down by two points.

Baltimore gets the ball back with 158 to go in the fourth quarter.

You run Derrick Henry after the fumble, gets a yard, and then there's a timeout.

And then you do this weird jet sweep to Zay Flowers, which gets snuffed out, and then a timeout.

And then Lamar Jackson just goes over and says something to DeAndre Hopkins

and then just throws him the ball three yards shy of the sticks.

And then you punt.

Lamar Jackson, just like a possession before that, I think ran 93 total yards into the backfield and around all the defense to gain like 16 yards, whatever it was.

It was spectacular.

Just let him do that.

Like, why are we overcomplicating this shit?

Why move away from it?

The ball should have never gone back to the Bills.

We're going to, as this episode unfolds, there's going to be a couple of moments where I thought coaches showed a lack of onions in big spots.

But when you're John Harbaugh, that's got to be an easy one.

That's got to be like I have, and I, and with all due respect to Josh Allen, who's the reigning MVP, but I also watched Lamar Jackson in this game look like just the best player in the world and just be a complete impossible.

What he's done with his game, even over the last year, from being the terror that he's always been with his legs, but to be the precision passer and the

great decision maker he's become, he's impossible to stop.

Like, how how do you choose your defense in that spot

to get the Bills, keep the Bills from kicking a field goal over Lamar, get me three yards?

And I understand it's fourth and three at the 38-yard line, your own 38.

And if Lamar doesn't get it, you're going to get asked a lot of questions.

But guess what?

John Harbaugh, right now, as we talk about this game, is getting a lot of questions this way, too.

So when in doubt, I feel like sometimes it's much easier for us to say it now, sitting in our home studios, but sometimes just like the game's on the line.

I need to let my best player win it for me.

And John Harbaugh didn't do that.

And that's something I think he's going to struggle with when he tries to go to sleep tonight.

And the entire locker room.

And it's, and this is a coach that the players, he's beloved by the players, but it's literally, we were thinking at the time I texted you.

I'm looking like, why are you punting this back?

to Josh Allen for an obvious ending.

Did anyone think that the Ravens defense is going to get a stop at that point?

No one's stopping anyone.

So let's punt it back to the most dangerous quarterback in his home stadium.

And all they need is not a touchdown, but a field goal.

And by the way, we signed our field goal kicker 14 hours ago, and we're still going to do it to you.

Can we get that shot of Matt Prater stomping up the sideline, contemplating where he's going to get his next Winston?

Is this William Burroughs at age 42?

What is happening here?

This looks like

a British actor in an 80s BBC Sunday afternoon film.

Like,

what is going on with Matt?

Did you call him Jeremy Irons?

He's a Jeremy Irons light type individual.

This threw me.

I literally had to ask what I was watching on television when I saw this.

I did wonder if he was going to miss the kick when I saw this little flock of seagulls, like weed thing in the back.

I don't know what's happening.

But anyway, that's sports, man.

He did get up on the field and it was a chip shot, but he made it.

He made 52 new teammates today.

Yeah, it's like, calm down.

All right, everybody, relax.

But there it is.

That is an unbelievable win for the Bills.

It's an unbelievable win when I look at my over-unders.

I took the Bills to go over 11.5.

That's a win I needed, and I got that.

And the Buffalo Bills now have a very important thing,

Connor.

They have the tiebreaker with the Baltimore Ravens.

In the event that they finished with the same record this season, they would win the tiebreaker, and I think that could come into play as well.

So a massive, massive victory and a total collapse by the Ravens.

Oh, that's a stinger.

It is.

And we talked about last year, the Ravens losing that game by the toe when Isaiah likely missed it against the Kansas City Chiefs in the opener and how long it takes you to.

I mean, they went through a little bit of a slump after that, right?

And I feel like this is one of those games that has deflating possibilities to it.

This was my number one team in the NFL.

This was a team that I thought you could airmail to the conference championship game, but Baltimore always makes it more difficult on themselves than they need to.

All right.

If you want one more cliche, Connor, before we take a break and get to the rest of the games?

Yeah, I'll sign up for a rematch later on this season.

Yeah.

Hopefully, you know, they'll see each other again.

I want to make it very clear.

But I agree.

Again, clichés are sometimes cool.

And that one checks out as well.

I'd love to see this rematch, rematch in the last January, or last Sunday in January.

I love football.

I want to make that clear.

I dislike

certain people.

That's it.

Never change, buddy.

All right, we're just getting started here.

Crazy week one.

Take a break and when we get back, we dive into the rest of the Sunday slate.

You know, Dan, we had a softball team for years and I touted myself as the manager and it's because I couldn't see anything.

Yeah.

So it's like, who wants to put me at the plate?

So it's like time, it's like I'm an adult.

It's time to get glasses.

And I walked by Warby Parker here in L.A.

and like

got a great pair of glasses.

And I look up at trees now.

I can see the leaves.

I couldn't see anything before.

Warby Parker changed all that.

Mark, I get it.

And we would have loved to bat you clean up and had you at center field for that softball team.

Maybe if we find a time machine.

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All right, we're back.

Okay, Sunday night football in the rear view.

Let's now pour into the rest of week one Sunday with a little Friday night surprise a little bit later in the show.

But we must start

with the game that we all had our eye on.

In fact, when we did our He draft, it was the first overall pick,

and with good reason, the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.

Justin hit it.

Curse of Mark Zessler.

Stick it up your Kirby Lambeau.

The Curly Lambo?

Stick it up your Curly Lambeau.

Kirby Lambo, even better.

The Packers welcomed the big, bad Detroit Lions into their home and soundly trounced the defending division champs, overwhelming Dan Campbell's team on both sides of the ball.

In one of the most lopsided contests of Sunday, Jordan Love threw two touchdown passes and Michael Parsons netted a sack in his Green Bay debut.

It was a perfect day of Cheesehead football.

Final score 27, Lions 13.

And most importantly, a perfect day for Mark because this matters a lot to our friend.

And right now, your Super Bowl prediction, where we stand on September 7th, is beautiful.

Well, it's like, this is what we love about not just week one, but the new season in general.

Like, there is transformation because the Lions, and I have nothing but affinity for the Lions and their fans in general, but like they've been the darlings, right?

And like suddenly out of nowhere, a Green Bay Packers team that struggled immensely against the NFC North a year ago and it seemed to be the closed door in front of them, one and five, come out and drop a complete hammer.

And the one thing I felt about them, just, and this is weird, but you're just like watching their...

who they were all summer, that they feel completely inside, comfortable in their own skin now.

And Micah Parsons did have that late sack.

But this wasn't just because of Micah Parsons.

The entire team to me felt completely plugged in, dialed in, and it was important to drop a hammer on the one team in your division that has claimed its stake.

And it is an incredible start for the Green Bay Packers.

I thought their defensive tackles, you've just traded away your best one, were dominant.

against the line of the Lions.

The Lions, who have made their way by getting leads and then dominating you with with physical power running could not run the ball but even the packers had 11 yards rushing at half and found other ways back into this game and to dominate from start to finish like it was just interesting to me to see the complete division transform change and i really do want people to know i'm not out here trying to curse teams dan I believe in them.

I want to believe in them.

I want to see something happen in the NFL that matters.

And that is how I felt about what I saw today with the Green Bay Packers.

They have arrived and they are going to be a problematic element for the rest of this conference, a conference that has changed.

All right, talk your talk and you deserve it because it was a big game.

It was one week.

It's just one game.

I think it's so important because if there's a theme to week one, it is that week one is a liar.

It's a lying harlot.

And

some of these teams that we're really impressed by today are absolutely going to crap their pants by the end of this season.

That said, Connor, I don't think the Packers are one of them.

And the fact that they were able to make this statement against the Lions, I think it does, it's one of those week one results that do carry more weight to me because I think it's.

It is very much a statement win.

It's the Packers saying that last year is over, the whole 15-2 Lions, everybody's favorite team.

No, listen, they failed.

The Lions couldn't get back to the Super Bowl last year, and now they got to start over again.

And guess what?

We're better.

And we just got one of the best defensive players in the the game.

And he barely had an impact in this game.

And we still kicked your butt.

It was a big, big performance by Green Bay.

I read it a lot as sort of a victory in management.

And yes, I mean, what, 29 snaps for Micah Parsons and three pressures in a sack doesn't seem like a lot, but schematically, he did cause a lot of issues for Detroit and got the Packers into some really good situations.

But I view it as a victory of getting the Packers to the starting line and feeling faith from the people who are assembling the team.

And it's no different than when Howie Roseman goes out and gets Saquon Barkley last year after they crapped their pants at the end of the season and lose, go on that massive losing streak.

And this is management saying, no, no, no, I think you guys are really good.

Here's the best running back in the NFL.

Now go figure it out.

This is no different than what the Packers did, where they had a rough, you know, playoff stretch and they looked like they couldn't measure up against the Eagles.

But what does management say?

We're not just going to go 9-8.

Here's freaking Micah Parsons.

There you go.

Let's check out some sound.

We'll start with Jordan Love, uh, quarterback of the Packers.

He was uh on target in this game.

Here's what Love had to say: No, it's amazing.

Um, obviously, I think the big goal for us was to be able to come in here and uh start the season off fast and start seasoning on the right note.

So, to come in here week one at home and get a dominant win like that

is amazing and exactly what we've been working for.

So, uh, feels great.

All right.

And how about a disappointed Dan Campbell on the other side?

You know, you hate starting the season out with a loss.

And as bad as that is,

it's not what it appears to be.

So it's like I told them, let's clean up the tape.

You know, we made some critical errors at the worst times possible.

And you don't do those.

You know, you take those out of the equation, and

it looks different.

One note here, Mark.

So, and again, just one game, but the Lions led the league over 33 points a game last year.

And there was a brain drain from that coaching staff.

We all know that.

Any concerns about this offense?

They didn't get a touchdown until the last minute.

Beautiful catch by the Tesla kid.

That was unbelievable, that catch.

But otherwise, just nothing to write home about.

Did you get any nervous vibes about it or just a bad day at the office for Dean?

Well, I think you're right.

That, like, we've got, we are, we are minutes into the season.

So, nervous, no, but like Jameer Gibbs, Amon Ross St.

Brown, Jameson Williams, hushed, hushed afternoons.

And we didn't see moments of incredible innovation.

I think we've got these coordinator questions.

And instead, the coordinator we're talking about is Jeff Hafley, who is creating a complete dominant performance in Green Bay in year two of this stint for him.

So I'm not nervous because I think we just heard from Dan Campbell, who is an incredible manager.

And this is a resilient team that will find their way out of this.

But the conference has changed.

If anything, I would say this.

I thought Green Bay's offensive line was the more powerful offensive line.

Is the loss of Frank Ragnow like a critical, critical loss?

Like, so we need to see more.

Like, you can't just, you can't be this team next week.

It's not going to get any easier.

The Lions schedule is rough, rough and tumble.

So not nervous yet, but I will say it's like the first hint that everything has changed.

And I really say, I mean, I think like Jordan Love is like a fringe MVP candidate.

I know there's some people out there thinking he could be that, but like he looked the part today.

And Tony Romo said it.

This was incredible team football.

I know that sounds kind of part and parcel and pretty of a pat comment, but it was a really clean team performance.

And as Connor said, well managed from coach, roster, player, individual, person, all the way from top to bottom.

So a promising start.

Like if you're a Packers fan, you are hammered right now.

They're known to do that.

Before we move on,

did you guys see Romo today?

You mentioned this.

What was your thought?

Well, Connor and I.

Connor and I had the same exact realization because as I was clocking it when they kind of kicked it up to the booth for

Tony and GM,

as I was having that realization, Connor fired off a text in our chat, group chat.

I don't know.

My theory, do you have that, Justin?

My theory is that we might,

there might be one of those things where it's a fake Tony Romo in the booth now.

And whoever the original Tony Romo, like, he's either missing or dead.

I hope not.

And whoever this is kind of looks like Tony Romo, but clearly is not the same Tony Romo.

And I guess you could also say Connor, maybe he's just had some work done and, you know, he's in television and he's aging, but and we're all trying to keep it together.

But something just to look a little different with Tony Romo.

It's like an episode of Heat and Light, Connor.

What are What's going on here?

I didn't think you were going to go Glass Onion Paul McCartney with it.

Yeah, I just think that's what I think.

Well, that's what I mean by glasses.

What do you think?

Yeah, is it?

Maybe he's just had some cosmetic work done, but I was thinking maybe what if it goes deeper than that?

This is an obscure reference, but he looks like

the actor J.O.

Sanders in Angels in the Outfield.

He's the voice of the angels.

You reference that movie way more than

most people.

But there's like, but there's like, I do.

I own it on DVD.

He's got kind of a big chin and then there's just like like the foreheads just popping out a little bit more It looks like we did some decking up there and so I don't know maybe just a caution he's wearing a Tony Romo mask.

I don't know

That happens guys faces though.

Doesn't everything just get bigger?

It just like um on the that's not exactly what's happened here.

Okay.

I don't know everybody check it out for yourself.

I'm not trying to be cruel or anything.

I'm just I'm not even saying he looks worse.

Maybe he looks better.

It's just that he he or whoever that is looks different.

All right.

I don't know.

AI.

All right.

Let's move to the Meadowlands.

All right, let's see here.

So

Aaron Glenn fired Aaron Rodgers in a way that embarrassed the egomaniacal legend.

And then the NFL scheduling wizards promptly lined up Steelers versus Jets at the Meadowlands in week one.

Hmm, I wonder how this could possibly turn out.

Yes, chew to script.

Aaron Rodgers went off, throwing for four touchdown passes and looking sharp throughout and a compelling start to his 21st NFL season.

Thing is, Justin Fields, Rodgers' replacement in New York, was every bit as impressive, accounting for three touchdowns and several big plays.

With his legs and arm as the Jets scored at will on Pittsburgh.

In the end, though, people needed to drive home angry in northern New Jersey.

And so it was.

DK Metcalf made a circus catch on a ball that bounced off about 14 different players.

Chris Boswell drills a 60-yard field goal that would have been good from about 93.

And then Jalen Ramsey had a wonderful stick of Garrett Wilson to knock the fourth-down ball loose.

Steelers 34.

Jets 32.

That is a good ass game, boys, even if it went down like a bottle of Drano for yours truly.

God, I mean.

There's so many directions you could take this game, but I'll start with the quarterback position because I think this is a game where both the Steelers and the Jets have to be feeling great.

Rodgers was, when you saw good Rodgers last year with the Jets, it was the same guy.

He was accurate with his throws.

He was obviously reading the defense as well.

He had a lot of trickery with the ball, like play action and rollouts and just wide open receivers.

I don't know.

Aaron Glenn's got a lot of work to do with that defense.

And

he can't move.

That's going to be the thing with him.

And my concern about, if I'm a Steelers fan, is Rodgers getting rolled up on in a muddy pocket and lower body injuries.

And just keep an eye on this: knee, ankle, foot, whatever.

That's going to be the thing that I think is going to be the biggest concern.

But as a passer of the football, if you protect him, which they did mostly in this game, I think he'll have more games like this.

So that's arrow up for the Jets.

Justin Fields played, this is the best version of

Justin Fields that I think we've ever seen in the NFL.

Not only did he make the

requisite plays with his feet, which he's always done, including a beautiful naked bootleg on a key fourth down for a touchdown, he was very accurate as a passer.

So that's a great sign for the Jets and their offense in general looking functional for the first time in so long.

But at the end of the day, we credit the Steelers for taking advantage of bad Jets mistakes.

Quincy

Williams with a terrible late hit out of bounds that got a go-ahead drive for Pittsburgh Pittsburgh going in the second half.

The ensuing kickoff after a Rodgers touchdown, Gibson fumbles the ball away.

Steelers recover, and then Rodgers throws another pass right after that.

14 points, right when the Jets looked like they were about to take over, the Steelers make big plays, and the quarterback helps capitalize quickly.

And then the end of the game, it was just back and forth, back and forth.

And I just think that you have to look at what the Pittsburgh Steelers did here, Connor, in the offseason.

They bring in Rodgers.

They bring in DK Metcalf.

They bring in Jalen Ramsey.

And all three of those guys played a key role in a very exciting and important win for Pittsburgh.

DK, especially, I mean, and this goes back to, I thought the one thing, and this is what surprised me the most.

If you asked me what ailed the Jets last year and would be immediately cleared up by Aaron Glenn, it's tackling issues in the secondary.

And I thought that even someone with the size and the heft of DK Metcalf wasn't going to be able to get as many yards after the catch as he did.

But he looked spry and he was getting away from really good.

I mean, just tremendous.

And I thought what this offense did really well, and it was, it was scaronic, it was all these guys, was get your best players the ball with just a little bit of room to run.

It's the old Kyle Shanahan philosophy.

And Rogers wasn't complicating it.

He wasn't doing too much.

And when you do that, you're gambling on the other team just not being willing or able to make those stops time and time again.

And I was just honestly surprised at how easy Pittsburgh made it look in that regard.

You said it perfectly, Dan, that both teams can come away feeling new new

and

positive and optimistic about what occurred because it's been a long time for the Jets on offense, but they imposed their will on the Steelers.

They ran for 182 yards and

we don't know what the ceiling is for Justin Fields.

We just don't know.

He's been thrown around the league and it's like this was a clean, confident, well-used version of Justin Fields in an offense that was balanced.

Garrett Wilson made huge plays.

It kind of just leaves you like, if you're the Jets, what do we want to see?

We want to see growth.

We want to see a team that's organized and doesn't look like they've taken 14 tabs of LSD.

And like

they did that today against a very good Pittsburgh defensive front.

They were the more powerful team on the ground.

And they stopped the Steelers on the ground.

I was kind of openly rooting for them.

I know we were texting during it.

And yes, they lost, but it's like, I come away from it with optimism for the New York Jets.

That's where I am overall.

And there were a lot of people in my mentions Jets fans that are always going to skew hyper-negative.

And I don't like to feed into that pessimism around the Jets because there's just too much of it and it can overwhelm being a fan of the team.

But you also have to be real about it.

As all the good things that happen, in addition to everything you just said, Mark, which was all accurate, that running game, yeah, Brees Hall, he had that wiggle back.

He had that juice back.

Justin Fields, in addition to the accuracy, yeah, he was making plays happen with his legs.

And

the offense looked sustainable.

We'll see.

Again, week one is a liar.

She's a harlot, but we shall see.

But all that looked great.

Women do not lie.

The problem is, some do, some don't.

The problem is, at the end of the day, this, and this is exactly what I said in the previous show, this was a big game for the Jets.

This was their chance to beat Aaron Rodgers and start the Aaron Glenn era in a beautiful way.

And you blew two fourth quarter leads in this game and you could not get it done.

So, I'm going to be optimistic and focus on the positives, but you have to understand, like, it still sucks.

That's the bottle of Drano that went down.

That this is a game you got to win.

You got to finish this game off.

And the fact that they couldn't do it and lost it in a painful way, and it allows Aaron Rodgers.

And you think I'm going to be mad at Rodgers or give him crap about this clip we're about to play?

I'm not, because when you play like that, you could talk your shit.

Uh, and this is what Rogers said after the game.

You spoke about

the meeting with Aaron Glenn on Matt Afe a few months ago.

Beating him, is there significance in that since he basically told you to your face that he didn't think you were right for that team?

Yes, that's what he did.

So there's significance in beating him for you?

I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets.

Yeah, so listen, he gets to do that.

He gets to say that, Connor.

Well, let me just ask you this, Dan.

And

so I remember covering when the Jets scored 48 points, and I think it was Tony Sperano's first game.

And Stephen Hill had two touchdowns against the Bills in the season opener, right?

But

so you take that for a grain of salt.

But when is the last time that you've been this excited individually about a Jets offensive coordinator in specific, right?

Because there's been a long history of retreads and, oh, it's not going well.

Let's go get Chan Caley or Chan Gailey or Marty Morningwig or any of these guys.

And that seemed to be the theme for so long.

This is the first time in a long time that I remember you having an upward trajectory, young, future possible head coach, OC in the building.

And maybe you could say LeFleur was like that, and he's flourishing, obviously, in Los Angeles.

But I mean, when is the last time you felt this way about an OC after one week?

Yeah, it's been a long time.

And I hope it's not Fool's Gold.

We'll see.

But Tanner Engstrand, who was the senior offensive assistant under Ben Johnson, talking about that brain drain in Detroit, they lost both those guys.

And it certainly looked like the right guy.

Let's give also, give a little props here to Chris Boswell via Mike Tomlin because again, I don't know if I've ever seen, we've seen 60 yarders now.

They happen.

60 is the new 50 almost at this point.

But piping it, the way he did, here's what Tomlin said after the game.

And I can't say enough about Boz.

Man, our kicker is a serial killer, man.

He got a low pulse rate.

He can't wait to deliver.

And lastly, before we move on, Mike Kicker is a serial killer.

Before we move on, we have an American flag incident, Mark.

It's been a while since Brandon Whedon's famous incident.

Yeah.

All those years ago.

This poor guy gets trapped on top of the American flag, the giant 100-yard flag they unfurled before the opener, and he's crawling on his hands and knees.

This is a guy that might have kids.

Like, how do you go home to your wife after this?

You don't.

You got to put the Tony Romo mask on.

You got to go into hiding.

You moved to like North Texas and live in a small, one,

like a small apartment for one month.

Maybe that's the real Tony Romo trying to escape.

That's like a a cat.

How is he not sinking the flag?

It's a huge-ass flag.

If you're listening to this, I urge you to take a look at the YouTube copy of this show because this is insane.

And one more thing.

This is J.J.

Watts' debut in the booth with Iron Eagle.

He was very good, I thought.

A very promising start.

Was he good?

And coming off an offseason where there was, you know, a lot of unfortunate storylines around kickers and their habits off the field and undermining Hall of Fame careers.

Thought this was an interesting choice of words by Eagle on a Nick Folk 51-yarder.

The kick from Folk,

and he massages it through.

Massages it a little bit, but

don't eat it.

That's good.

Let's keep that in our back pocket.

The bird and the beak.

There's Brandon Weed.

Well, this is sad.

Isn't this ultimately a little depressing that this happened to him?

I mean, it's funny, always.

A little.

Also depressing.

I locked the Jets.

I knew that was a bad idea.

Of course, I knew it was a bad idea, but I locked with my heart, and I'm a little rusty in the game.

It won't happen again.

I'm going to start doing the Sessler move.

I'm going to lock against the Jets and just dominate this year.

Whedon went on to throw four interceptions over the next two hours, I believe, in that debut.

All right.

Let's move to Seattle.

Division Showdown.

In case of emergency, Break Tungus, 49ers third string tight end, Jake Tongas emerged as an unlikely hero.

Seattle in Seattle on Sunday, hauling in a reckless end zone throw from Brock Purdy for a touchdown with a minute 34 to play.

It was the difference in the 49ers 17-3, 13 win over the Seahawks.

And this is the same Tungus, not Paul Tsangus.

If you remember Paul Zangas, politics heads of the 90s out there.

Not Paul Zongas.

This is Tungus.

Jake Tongas, that is.

Entered the game, having never caught an NFL pass, but he had three catches in relief of George Kittle, who went out with a hamstring after scoring a touchdown early in this game.

And this was a 50-50 ball that Rick Woolen really should have had an interception.

I don't know about, I'm going to get into the Brock Purdy of it all, but like,

they're down three points and they're in the red zone, and this is not a desperation situation.

He just floats this thing and Woolen misplays the ball.

This came minutes after Woolen misplayed a deep ball to Ricky Pearsall

that set up this go-ahead touchdown.

So, a tough one for Woolen overall, but

it was a happy ending for a Niners offense that never really found its footing despite a successful return to Belcow status for Christian McCaffrey.

Yeah, boys, this is

what the

Niners' offense is interesting because McCaffrey touched the ball a ton, which you expected, but you wondered how he would look because he popped up on the injury report after tweaking his calf on Thursday.

Full go, he had 22 carries for 69 yards.

Obviously, that's no great shakes, but also nine catches for 73 yards.

So somebody else can do the math.

But

that's a lot of workload for him.

And right now, he has to be that way because this offense with Kittle out of the lineup, with Juwan Jennings banged up, with Brandon Ayuk on the pup list, with Debo Samuel in Washington, Pierce Hall Mark lived up to the summer hype with a really big 100-yard performance, and he looked every bit a stud.

But Brock Purdy, who is someone that I've never been totally sold on, and I understand why people are, and I understand why the 49ers paid him, but he's a guy that takes a lot of chances.

And sometimes with the arm strength that he has, it leads to a lot of opportunities for the defense.

And I feel like they got pretty fortunate with some of the decision-making by the quarterback, but Seattle just couldn't generate enough offense to take care of their

opponent this week.

Right.

Like, I think that the

fact that Ricky Parasol

landed

as advertised is a big development for them because this is a quarterback and Brock Purdy that does not have Debo Samuel at his heights as he were a couple years ago, does not have Brandon Ayuk.

And then George Kittle

seems as if he would like to play about 10 games a year.

And so there's less around him right now.

And you're leaning, like it always felt like a team that was leaning so hard on Christian McCaffrey and on certain players to such a degree.

And we've ticketed them for

12 wins or something.

Like I didn't, from what I've observed of this game, I didn't see that kind of team.

And I don't know if Brock Purdy alone, and I am more pro Purdy than you are in general, but he needs pieces around him.

And he's always had

luxurious pieces around him.

And if that changes, who is this quarterback?

Like, I feel like that's what we're going to learn over the next couple months, especially if injuries mount.

Yeah, I don't want to skew too negative because he did get the job done,

even if it wasn't the prettiest touchdown throw.

But he threw another interception where he kind of forced it into Pierce Hall he and he threw it.

It was probably four Seattle defenders around him, and it was like one of those throws, like, dude, what are you even trying?

And then he had Pierce Hall for what would have been a touchdown on like an out route, and he just didn't have enough arm to zip it in there.

And it had a little bit of a hump on it, and it got knocked away.

But ultimately, Seattle wasn't able to capitalize.

And also, their offense, you know, this is the debut of the Seattle offense, new offensive coordinator, Connor, and new quarterback, obviously.

And Darnold was sitting on 99 yards with with 328 to play in this game.

And Zach Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker both ran the ball a lot, as we expected them to.

Charbonnet had more success than Walker did.

But, you know, just not enough offense.

And I'm going to keep my eyes on what changes they might make in week two as a result.

You guys make a good point that week one is a liar, but it's also sometimes showing you what's going to be the ultimate truth sans the context of 17 games or however many the games they play now.

But it's one of those things where I think both of these teams will wind up as top five defenses and we'll look back at this more as kind of an artful slutfest.

If you look back at some of the like the secondary blitzes that Sala and that Mike McDonald were throwing in this one, like the backfield looked like the beginning of saving Private Ryan.

There was just bodies flying everywhere.

It was wild.

And so

that was my takeaway from this game was like, holy shit, both of these coordinators were in their bag and the 49ers will get by.

They'll figure out how to score some points.

But I think both Sala and McDonald are going to wind up with top five, top 10 defenses.

Yeah, Connor, I was going to ask you, because you've been a Mike McDonald guy, like that was one of my takeaways.

I just wrote on my notes, like, the Mike McDonald vision has arrived.

I mean, we're getting close where it's like, I think this is a really quality head coach.

Do you want to hear something that I didn't like at all on Sunday from your boy, Mike McDonald?

Well, it's not my boy, but I'm saying he could become one of those people.

Seattle sends up their kicker on fourth and less than a yard

late in this game when they could have, if they get a first down, they could take the clock down and win the game.

I hated that.

If you're a team, you're grounded pound, you believe in your dogs up front in your running game, go get that yard and win the game.

And it put them in a situation to get beat in this game, like straight up.

They go up.

It feels a little unmodern.

And sure enough, San Francisco goes right down the field and beats them.

And Nick Bosa is the one who ends the game with a red zone strip sack.

And we got a return of the excited Bob Sala sideline reaction.

I was happy for that.

I'm happy for Rob Sala.

He kind of got

a raw deal, obviously.

Everybody does with the Jets.

So a successful start for him as well.

So, yeah, this is a pound, grinded out division battle.

And I think, Connor, you hit on it there that instead of getting on these offenses after one game, it's like maybe these are just two really good defenses and the defenses are ahead of the offense anyway right now.

So

there was, to your point, though, on McDonald, there was a pandemic of no cojones this week.

And so I don't think that was just him.

I think that was a lot of teams kicking from the one-yard line.

One more thing before we move on this and take a break.

Kyle Shanahan, now he had a nice offseason.

Again, I'm not saying Tony Romo had a bad offseason.

I don't know where Tony Romo is.

There's just a different Tony Romo potentially in the booth.

Kyle Shanhan looks refreshed.

He looks like a guy that he's shaved that.

Remember, he had the grizzly beard.

It was the grizzled.

He had the white in it.

He just looked older.

Now he's clean-shaven.

He's probably been living clean, probably been on a juice cleanser three.

But that's all going to go out the window very quickly if Jake Moody can't make a field goal.

And the special teams unit is 0 for 2.

Here's both reactions.

First to the Jake Moody chip shot miss.

And this is a close game.

This is a division game where every point counts and he knows it.

And then after a block on another short kick

late in the third quarter, it's like, let's keep Kyle Shanahan looking and feeling healthy mentally and physically.

Okay.

It's a good move to go clean.

I've had a facial hair since COVID, or as I call it, Corona.

I don't know why that suddenly you can't call it that.

It's a smart movie.

It's not like you can't call it Corona.

Well, I don't know why it had too many.

You're like the bad boy of 2020 memories because you call it Corona.

Okay, call it Corona.

But it's smart to go.

You go clean-shaven and then you wear the hat that goes deep over the eyes.

So I don't really know what's going on with him looks-wise in terms of age, but he does look refreshed.

Who knows?

I wonder if Jake Moody survives.

The second field goal, the block, wasn't his fault.

I didn't think it wasn't one of those low trajectory kicks when a kicker's got the yips.

It was more like the entire offensive blocking structure collapsed around the kicker, but they're going to have to clean that up.

And they're not the only team that had kicking issues in week one.

All right, let's take a break and we'll check out what happened on Friday night in Sao Paulo.

United Healthcare nurse Crystal checked in on a patient.

We do a routine call after surgery and I could tell in her voice that she was struggling.

Crystal knew she needed help.

And I knew that this is very serious.

This is like septic.

This is life-threatening.

And she knew just what to do.

And I called the hospital and and said, She's coming in, here are her labs.

And got her the help she needed.

I see my role at United Health Care as a life-saving role.

Hear more stories like crystals at UHC.com.

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All right, we're back.

Let's dive into it.

Now let's go back in time to Friday night

because it was deemed necessary to play football on Friday as well in week one.

Not going to complain about it.

Just going to say it's something that happened.

And it, thankfully, because of the rules of America,

who knows if those rules are going to exist or if America is going to exist.

But like, you can't do this anymore.

You can't do it after this because college and high school gets Friday nights.

But there was one game they were able to squeeze in before the rules came in.

It was the Chiefs and the Chargers.

And why the hell not?

Let's go to Brazil.

We spend most summers around these parts wondering if this will be the year someone in the AFC West finally stands up to the Chiefs.

On Friday in Sao Paulo, the Chargers made a compelling case why they could be up for the the challenge.

Justin Herbert finished off the defending conference champions in punishing fashion with a long scramble for a first down near the sideline to clinch a 27 to 21 win.

Herbert was awesome.

318 yards, three touchdowns.

This was Chargers' first win over the Chiefs in September 2021, right around the time of Corona, Mark.

Snapping a seven-game skid against the team that has dominated the AFC forever now.

Connor, we try not to make too much out of week one, of course.

It lies, as we know, theme alert.

But the Chargers looked confident and capable while the Chiefs still look like a team with an offense that lacks an extra gear.

So here's what my thought was on this, and especially on the Chargers end.

You have Amarion Hampton.

You're trying to break in a rookie running back, and it's not going well.

They vacated the run game, and this is Greg Roman, the guy who wouldn't let Lamar Jackson pass, right?

And that's significant that down the stretch on two critical drives, they just kept letting Justin Herbert drop back and get into a rhythm and throw.

He threw, through, through.

I think it was five straight throws in one of the go-ahead touchdown drive.

And then at the end of the game, when he seals it with a run, there was only one run bookended by a bunch of throws.

They're letting him drop back, even when they know that there's going to be pressure.

Just handle it, get out of it.

And we started to see that like 2021 Justin Herbert, which was awesome.

That's the guy that we just left by the side of the bus

at the end of breaking bad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jim Harbo, as we know, said over the offseason to Rich Eisen, who called this game also,

that his goal is to put Justin Herbert into the Hall of Fame.

And here's what the

interesting head coach said after this game about the win.

It's monumental.

You know, it's monumental.

It's,

you know,

September 5th, I'll go down and some Charger lore.

In my opinion,

it was a big win.

9-5, never forget.

I mean, he's hyperbolic, and that's part of why we love him and also are a little suspicious

always of some things.

But

I really agree that the biggest part of this, because they're kind of like my AFC Packers in a way, where it's like they had a victory over a gigantic

football operation that has seemed invincible in that division.

And it's third and 14, and Justin Herbert has that 19-yard run.

And that doesn't happen in that situation.

Number one, you're not planning for that to be the case.

But

the aggressive nature of a Harbaugh-Greg Roman team through the air is a surprise.

Like, we've been talking for two years that this team wants to run the ball 46 times and they're just not that team.

Like, he really is leaning on Justin Herbert and trying to make him into the player that we've waited for.

And I thought that was like a huge development.

You took down Patrick Mahomes.

And Mahomes also on the other side is like, Mahomes doesn't have a lot of people to lean on.

But in this game, Quentin Johnston shows up out of nowhere, right?

Like some of these guys that we've kind of sold down the river, like are starting to show up.

And if that's the case, and again, you're right.

We've just got lies all around us, but that is a statement win against a foe that has taken you down time and again.

Like huge development.

Didn't happen in our country.

Happened in South America.

Cool.

Yes, Connor.

Mark nailed it, right?

This is what happens when Quentin Johnson catches the ball.

And this is probably what would have happened last year if Quentin Johnson would have caught the ball with any regularity.

But you kind of brought up a little breadcrumb that I wanted to just mention.

I would say that if you considered all factors, this was probably one of Patrick Mahomes' 10 best games that he's ever played.

Wow.

He was phenomenal.

He's on an island by the way.

I mean, this is an all-time, Connor.

This is an all-time quarterback.

I understand that, but there was nothing around him.

Absolutely nothing.

And he was running with reckless abandon.

He was shouldering dudes.

He was,

I mean, Travis Kelsey not.

Did he try to buy a penalty on the sidelines?

No, but that was the thing.

He wasn't kitschy.

He wasn't like Tom Brady Weasley.

He was just a badass in this game, falling down and flipping the ball to guys.

And like Kelsey scored, but wasn't awesome by any stretch of the imagination and knocked out one of their best players.

And so it's one of these things, but I think if you put all those factors into some stupid Google Gemini, they would tell you that this was one of Mahomes' best games.

If you buy into regression, because the Chiefs obviously had incredible success in close games last year, this could be the start of a pattern where the Chiefs come back to earth and the AFC West opens up.

Entering this game, they had won 17 straight one-score games, including the playoffs.

It's just unsustainable.

I don't care who you are or what you are.

Sometimes the regression can hit and it could hit you hard.

So keep an eye on that this season.

And also want to say that the Xavier Worthy injury is a big injury for the Chiefs.

It is.

They need him in his second year to build on the positives of his first year, which was up and down, but he certainly flashed the former first-round pick.

You have Rashi Rice that's out for five more weeks, and you have Travis Kelsey in his state.

You have Jalen Royals, another rookie.

He's battling a knee issue.

And now you have Worthy who goes out with a shoulder injury.

He's going to try to play in a protective.

Whenever I hear, he's going to try to play.

He's going to be wearing a sling.

This is fing football.

You can't play football with a bad shoulder.

That has some type of, it's going to, every time.

You can't leave your apartment.

Yes, every time you get hit, it's going to be unimaginable pain and suffering.

Like, I'm sorry, I'm not.

Who's that, Jared?

Ryan Clark going after

our old buddy Schrager on the air last week.

Well, you know, you sound like a a non-player.

F you, first of all, Clark.

Second of all, the playing with a bad shoulder.

You don't have to play to know that that's going to really limit his abilities.

So Rashi Rice can't get back soon enough, and Hollywood Brown is just going to have to ball out at a high level.

Or I think they're going to continue to have issues scoring.

And one quick thing to Connor's point about what we can learn from week one: I think we knew there was evidence from training camp that this was the Chiefs' team that was going to get back to vertical downfield shots.

And Worthy, with 4.21 speed, was the centerpiece of that.

And now that changes what they can do because they didn't run the ball well either.

So it's then what is this Chiefs team right now?

We'll see.

I wish I voiced this in the summer because I was thinking it.

I just never said it.

That Mikai Beckton is like the last guy I would ever give a big contract to.

Hearing stories about how his NFL career started with the Jets and some of his conditioning habits and certain decision-making of his.

He looked like a a guy that was halfway dead in this game.

He was getting oxygen the whole game.

He missed a ton of snaps.

He's an important part of that Chargers' line.

They invested a lot of money in him.

And it's like,

you got to be on the field, buddy.

Did you train this summer?

Like, where are we at?

He was in the hospital the day before.

Because did you see what he posted on Twitter about he ate the beans and rice and he literally had to go to the hospital with like a digestive issue?

Oh, that reminds me.

Oh, that's not fun.

NFL in Brazil, baby.

That was,

that's a fair point.

I wasn't aware that he was in.

A Brazilian hospital dance.

Yeah, Brazilian hospital dance.

I'll get back to the past.

But still, my eyes on Makai Bechten living out

this full contract.

But that reminds me of Jay Glazer.

had an amazing dispatch on the Fox Pregame show this morning where he's like, they did like, all right, now let's throw it to Jay with updates on health.

He's like, oh, Kyler Murray woke up with

some, what was it?

He said GI issue or something.

GI issues.

And then that made me think to myself, okay, like the way it works is an insider like laser, someone's shooting him a text in the morning or the night before.

And it was probably like, hey, Jay, what's up?

Kyler's shitting his brains out right now.

I've seen his feet in the stall for six straight hours.

Shit, constantly.

Like, that's the tweet he got.

He cleans it up with GI issues.

So good broadcasting in a big spot.

That's great.

Good job.

Yeah.

Makai Beckton get Will soon I'm sorry for assassinating your character in the biggest of all spots

all right

by the way real quick this see this b-roll of

Marshawn Lynch who's a latest guy he's like a he's like a housewife in 2003 now he's a cameraman right he's a photographer

and he's going up to Quentin Johnson or Omarian Hampton a fellow running back and giving him pointers they shouldn't be allowed right no We can't have this unless he's going to the other sideline and he's giving Isaiah Pacheco like beast mode tips.

We can't have the guy media credentialed.

Imagine Sessler doing that at a Super Bowl.

Like, no.

You can't.

Both sides, baby.

Yeah, well, we've all been credentialed on the sideline here and there.

And it's like, the number one rule is don't get near anyone of importance.

Like,

stay in the background, Brad.

This gets me as mad as Connor gets Tom Brady.

Thank you.

Or Tom Brady gets Connor mad.

It's like,

we can't have it.

Just take your photos.

This really touches in on the Tom Brady kind of universe of just athletes trying to do other things when they should just kind of stay out of the sunshine in our universe.

But I think about it the opposite way where I would almost want Marshawn Lynch to spend as much time as humanly possible on another sideline.

Half of what he's saying probably makes no damn sense.

And this is a rookie running back that's trying to get his head straight in Brazil.

And you have him filling his head with all sorts of copies.

Where are the photos being produced?

Yeah.

Is he a stringer for a legitimate news agency?

I'm sure he's in close contact with head of photography, Ben Liebenberg, our old buddy.

All right, let's move on.

Let's head to a division showdown in the NFC South.

Hey, speaking of summer hype bunnies, Ameka Abuka, big start.

Two touchdown passes received by the young wideout including a go-ahead 25 yard worth 59 seconds to play and the tampa bay bucks with the help of a young way coup blowing another field goal i feel like that's happened somewhat often the last couple years a miss in the final seconds allows the bucks to escape 23 to 20 over the Falcons in what was, you know, a very, I feel like a kind of a, speaking of, I talk about it was a big game for the Jets.

I feel like this is a big game for the Falcons to get off on the right right foot, and yet they come up short, and the Bucs start their division title defense with a W.

Your thoughts on this one, Justin?

I know you had drives.

Yeah, my thoughts are: I feel bad for Michael Pennix.

That's like my first takeaway thought.

Michael Pennix has started four games in his career.

In three of those games, he has led what should have been a potential game-winning drive or at least a game-tying drive.

And his defense has blown it on the next possession.

The first two last year, he lost them in overtime.

This one, Baker Mayfield was able to engineer that drive.

The late, late drive with the touchdown pass to Abuka that you mentioned, who was awesome, by the way.

I mean, he only had four catches, but they were, he was just, he was making plays.

He was awesome.

But then Michael Pennix, so Michael Penix goes down after giving his team a late lead.

He then has another chance with less than a minute to go.

He drives him back down into field goal range.

A 44-yard field goal.

Dan, you were just talking about 50 yards if 60 yards is the new 50 44 is a gimme in 2025 it's a chip shot indoor 34 indoors 44 was the field goal and he pushes it like a 34 that's it that's that is a make you gotta make that kick young way it's unbelievable that michael pennix has engineered all these potential should-be game winning drives and keeps coming up short um but i did think the falcons looked better than i expected them to is particularly on defense in this game like they they were a they were playing very tough.

Bucky Irving was pretty much held in check.

He did break off a few big runs here and there, but no like major breakaways.

I thought they pressured Baker Mayfield pretty well.

I didn't particularly notice either of the rookies, Jalen Walker or James Pierce Jr.

So somebody in the comments can correct me if I missed that.

But just as a team pass rush, I felt like they were getting pressure on Baker.

The Bucks, though, showed why they are the favorites to win this division when, you know, the chips were all on the table.

Baker Mayfield leads the touchdown drive.

Mike Evans came up with some huge catches.

Sterling Shepard came up with some huge catches.

And yeah, Ameka Igbuka, what more can you say about the rookie?

He got all the hype in training camp and it was deserved.

Well, I think he's like now almost widely seen as offensive rookie of the year material, taken 19th, and it's like, what were the other 18 teams doing in this situation?

I am with you, Justin, watching this from afar, because I am a Bakerite.

I don't know if that's how you'd say it.

They made life tough on the Bucs out of the gate.

They really did.

And like, this was Baker's 13th game-winning drive of his career.

And that says something because that's sort of the character and the nature of this player on this team, especially.

But I think the Falcons, like, if their defense, if the floor of their defense can just be where it's not been the last couple of years, they aren't a seven-win team.

They're a 10-win team.

And so I come away from this saying the defense is better.

We've got our fourth star from Michael Penix, and I believe in this quarterback.

I'm at least there right now.

We don't know the future and what will happen, but I believe in what I saw from Michael Pennix.

This guy just sort of has it.

He just kind of has it.

We've been watching this game for 40 years.

Like, he's kind of got it.

Sort of a redemption game for Kyle Pitts, too.

I thought, like, he looked pretty good.

He caught seven of eight targets.

He was like palming dudes on the face,

stiff-arming people.

I was like, hey, that's the guy I thought they were drafting.

If you're out on a limb once again after your fantasy draft, buying in on Kyle Pitts, maybe this is the year it happens.

Yeah, Baker only averaged a touch over five yards per attempt, which is the dreaded Gabbard zone, but three touchdowns, no picks.

And the Bucs, they seem to find a way more often than not.

All right, moving on, let's head to Mile High Stadium.

Oh, by the way, good news for you also, Justin.

You have our first successful lock of the season.

Oh, right.

Right.

Here I am reminding you of your lock.

They made me sweat it out, but Buccaneers got it done.

All right.

Tomile High.

Ah, this is the stuff that the executives at 2B dreamed about.

2B?

2B.

Titans down eight.

And after a fourth down stop by the defense, here comes rookie sensation Cam Moore jogging onto the field.

This is why fast channels exist, baby.

Unfortunately, the drama quickly dissipated.

In completion, drop, drop, sack fumble, game over, Broncos 20, Titans 12.

I warned the hype bunny Broncos not to trip on their dongs at Mile High on Sunday, and they did not, but they kind of stumbled over it.

They grazed over it.

I would say they did trip over to the Dongs.

They won.

That's what I mean.

They made the best effort I've ever seen a team make to hand a game over?

The trip over to Dong.

Yeah, including.

I want to see what that trophy looks like.

I think it's broad.

I think you've got a different type of talent, but sure.

First of all, Dan, the Cam Ward, the zero star of the Cam Ward story, the supposed Tobi documentary on Cam Ward.

I can't find any information about this.

Oh, no.

He said it was supposed to premiere on Labor Day.

All you jackals out there that came down on me for getting after Cam Ward, choosing Tubai as the distributing partner, And here's the biggest Titans fan that literally exists in America.

It's like, I can't find evidence that this thing exists.

It's like a Ponzi scheme.

Like, the IMDb page says it was supposed to have aired already.

There's no, like, episodes.

It was originally pitched as, what, a 5-6 episode series or something?

Oh, no.

It's your generation Star Wars, Justin.

Yeah, I don't know what's going on.

No,

it's like that Jerry Lewis film, The Day the Clown Cried, about the clown at the camp during World War II.

Like, it's like that thing, like people,

they have private watch parties

if you're able to find it.

And it's like nobody could talk about it, but some people have seen it.

It exists out there somewhere, this two-byte documentary.

But you have to be like connected in some way to be able to find it and watch it.

That's the way I look at this.

It looks like a snuff film of some sort.

Yeah, so no idea what's going on with that.

The game, though.

So the Broncos, they turned it over four times.

Bo Nix

threw two interceptions, was also strip-sacked.

He did not look sharp

very, like, maybe beyond the first drive of the game.

He did not look very good.

He was throwing late.

He was under pressure a lot, which I did not expect to see from the Titans' pass rush, which doesn't have any edge rushers that anyone here could probably name.

And they just tried to hand the game away.

And Brian Callahan was like, No, we don't want it.

We don't want the game.

You can have it.

You're down on Callahan, aren't you?

Gravy.

Titans are down on Callahan, huh?

I would say if I had to choose fire him or keep him right now, which thankfully I don't, it would be fire him.

I think he is in over his head

as a head coach.

I know it's only week one, but it was a continuation of all the problems we saw last year.

The Titans had 133 total yards of offense in this game, and they had 131 penalty yards.

It's atrocious.

There were so many snaps where Cam Word took the ball and tried to throw a quick screen or fake a a handoff or something.

And on one of the

screen plays, all three receivers on that side of the field are running downfield blocking.

It's like, okay, one of you guys is supposed to catch this pass.

There's the fake handoff, the running back's running the other direction.

There's multiple times where like before a play is set, people are looking at Cam Ward like, where am I supposed to go?

Where am I supposed to go?

And he's like emphatically yelling at people.

There's receivers not breaking their routes off correctly.

And Cam Ward screaming at them after the play, like, you need to break that in.

It was a very, very frustrating watch as a Titans fan.

And as a Broncos fan, like, I wouldn't feel great about this.

This was a stolen win.

They did not earn this win at all.

The Titans just

knew worse than they did.

A win is a win.

But

to that point, I will say it's week one.

You're shaking off the rust.

I still have a lot of faith in the Broncos team.

Their defense was very good.

It's going to be very good.

Bo Nicks was not sharp in this game, but I don't necessarily think that's indictment on him as a player.

It was just, it's a week one.

Weird things happen in week one.

That's the stuff that I'm not worried about coming out of this, right?

But the Titans end with five punts in a fumble.

Calvin Ridley had one of the worst drops of the entire

time.

You got to make that.

What is this guy's deal?

I mean, you got to make that catch.

You got to help you.

This rookie quarterback's in a tough spot.

It's like

these guys have to make those plays.

I was referring, yeah, for the setup, it was the final drive.

They take over.

I thought it was a strange play call by Sean Payton on fourth down.

And what was it, about eight?

They decide to

eschew a 51-yard field goal or a punt

and instead throw this kind of, of, he drops back Nicks and throws this rainbow towards the far right pylon.

And maybe if it throws online or it's a better throw, it works, but he overthrew his receiver.

So it's a turnover that sets you up.

And then on second down, I mean, this kid, Cam Ward, he's been sacked six times.

He's having trouble,

you know, moving the chains and he doesn't have a ton of completions.

He's well under 50% passing.

He puts one right on the hands of one of your highest paid players and it just clanks off him.

And it's like, if this is what, then I'm totally cool about Callahan if you want to get on him and we can have fun about Cam Ward and whether or not he's truly a viable or true number one type talent.

But if you're not going to give that kid a catch in that spot,

we're talking about a team that's going to struggle, struggle mightily to win games this year.

I know we don't want to spend a lot of time on this game because it wasn't particularly exciting, but two things that I have to mention on Callahan.

Number one, he had what was potentially going to be the worst sequence management time clockwise that we will see this season.

It was inexcusably bad.

Right before halftime, they get the ball inside their own 10-yard line.

They got to go 90 plus yards with like 45 seconds.

And they come out, instead of just running the ball being conservative, they're leading six to three.

Yes, Denver has two timeouts, but you can run the clock out and take a 6-3 lead into halftime.

Instead, Callahan calls three straight drop backs.

One of them was that screenplay that I mentioned where nobody's actually there to catch the screen.

On the third down, Ward gets sacked at the one line.

It's a miracle that he's able to get the ball out of the end zone and it's not a safety.

Then the Titans have to punt it from backed up inside their own inch line, and Denver scores a touchdown three plays later.

It's like, why not just take a 6-3 lead into half?

Now you're down 10-6, 10-3.

And luckily, the Titans had a kickoff return after the touchdown.

You want to try to calm down our previous situation?

This is when Cherry Mo goes to CVS for three hours, or she claims that's where she's at.

She just had dinner at my parents' house while we were doing the podcast.

It's probably a good idea.

And then the other thing is, after the game, he says...

Can we?

Justin.

Okay, go ahead.

This is like

a coach.

You literally have a breakout podcast about this too.

Yeah, I think what you're saying.

The bone next thing is something to keep an eye on.

There is something to keep an eye on there because I know there was a little bit of discourse out there in the offseason that if he broke down the game tape last year, that maybe he wasn't quite the breakout rookie that he was made out to be.

He was protected a little bit and a very sloppy game.

I'd like to watch this one before I make any opinions, but just something to keep an eye on.

All right.

You're okay, Justin.

It's okay.

Let's just find that Tubai doc.

Let's find that.

Let's make that the number one goal of this Titan season to locate this web series, whatever the f ⁇ it is.

Tubai.

All right.

Cam Word is good.

That's the good news.

Okay.

I don't care about the rest.

All right.

I don't know, man.

Let's see.

Is that what this whole season is is going to be?

I've done this myself, by the way.

I did this with Sam Darnold for like four years.

It's a very dark place to just keep saying the quarterback is good and everything else sucks.

I hope that's not what this is going to be.

Not a great start in Nashville.

All right, here we go.

Two Lucas Oil Field Stadium?

Lucas Oil.

Something.

The Danny Dimes redemption tour is underway.

Daniel Jones was locked in in his debut as the Colts QB1, accounting for four total touchdowns in a 33-8 rout of the flop-finned Miami Dolphins.

Those poor things that were stuck at SeaWorld and the fin flops over.

That's the reference there.

The Colts are 1-0 for the first time since Wait for It, 2013,

seven years before Corona.

Mark.

Connor, what surprised you more about this game?

Dimes and the Colts attack or the Dolphins non-competitive start to their season?

Well, we talked about it going in that the Dolphins had some injury issues, but what I didn't expect was how off page Tyreek Hill and even his best receivers were.

And the first pick was just a blatant overthrow of Tyreek Hill.

Tyreek Hill was upset on the sideline, and Tua described it on the podium after the game as like my body was telling me to go through my progressions, but like my brain just kind of let it rip.

And you're in year three of an offense with a really good play caller who once was someone who was once was a great play caller and you look worse than ever uh zach wilson came in and at least i think completed like five of eight passes in garbage time at the end of the game but two had just snowballed from the beginning and and really looked lost from beginning to end on this one this was the most disappointing although not unexpected because we've kind of been talking about the dolphins as a combustible um potential disaster but you're playing the colts who we also were speaking about that way

A total, complete destruction.

And it takes the shine off of what we thought Mike McDaniel could do well.

And you don't believe in the quarterback.

The wide receiver looks physically annoyed on the sideline.

Everyone's assuming he's going to be traded by October.

It's a terrible start.

It's a terrible start.

And I kind of don't know where you go.

from a vision standpoint

if you're the dolphins from here.

I mean, it's going to need to be a big turnaround and you're going to need to change our minds because I think we all kind of feel the same way about this team.

And it was even overly confirmed in this absolute apocalyptic week one loss.

Yeah, it was, it was, they were one of those teams.

And a lot of the, a lot of the times, and it's good because it makes following football and sports not predictable, but these teams that we have kind of a groupthink opinion on end up

outperforming expectations.

But in this case, the general vibes around people outside the Dolphins world is like, they don't, the energy feels off.

The Mike McDaniel thing doesn't feel like it's in a good spot.

Tyreek Hill, keep an eye on that thing.

Tua, we all, we understand his skills, but is he a true QB1?

Can he stay healthy?

All this stuff.

And then this game happens, and it kind of underlines all the concerns and all the things we've talked about in the offseason, right down to Tyreek Hill looking pissed on the sideline.

And then

after the game, Mike McDaniel, you know, I thought this was interesting and quite telling that Jason Garrett

on the NBC Sunday Night Football pregame show, when Jason Garrett, of all people is saying, like, I thought it was an uninspired

presence.

Yeah, I thought it was kind of a lifeless, uninspired effort.

And then it was a pretty lifeless press conference.

I'm paraphrasing a little bit.

It was like Jason Garrett's getting after somebody's charisma level.

But anyway, Mike McDaniel seems a little bit

off in his own universe as well right now.

Let's listen to this.

There was a lot of

preparation for week one, and I don't think it looked it.

What does that mean?

That means that guys let week one

and the bells and whistles of the season starting get the best of them.

My job is to prevent that.

You know,

I did my best, not good enough.

Otomay Brown, you handle this analysis.

That's all I have to say about it.

Let's talk about real quick, Connor.

Let's talk a little.

Daniel Jones.

Did this feel sustainable?

Obviously, this is a good story.

And I know you were higher, I think, on Jones than I was and a lot of the people.

And certainly to have, he threw a touchdown and he, what, he ran for a couple more, was it?

I mean, that's enough.

He threw for a touchdown, ran for two.

Tyler Warren with seven catches for 78 yards.

And that, to me, was the difference maker where when they need something, and I'm not going to excuse what Anthony Richardson did last year.

Clearly, Daniel Jones is the better quarterback.

There were a lot of drops, too.

And maybe it's because the balls weren't coming when the players were expecting it to or whatever.

But Tyler Warren's clutch.

I mean, he caught a bunch of passes moved a bunch moved a bunch of first downs ran for a first down which was like my favorite part of the whole like whole weekend i was like up and stomping and screaming because i love tyler warren um but the the colts scored on all seven of their offensive possessions that has not happened since 1978 in a game how about that it's completely wild daniel jones wow good for him i'm happy for him you know and here's the thing dolphins last thing here

you get trounced on the road against a team that everybody kind of thought was going to be terrible this year in the Colts.

Now you go home and you get the Patriots.

If you can't find a way to beat the Patriots, who, by the way, need the game after losing their opener as well, then you go on the road on a short week to play the Bills.

And this is how coaches get fired.

0-3 starts, those type of situations.

So this is all of a sudden very quickly reaching a crisis point for the Dolphins.

It can happen that quick when you're a quarterback, when you're a head coach that that is potentially in hot water with ownership.

Okay.

Let's see.

By the way,

was Ursae's daughter featured in this telecast, Connor?

Oh, yeah.

She is a fiery individual.

Let me see this.

I haven't seen this.

I heard about it.

She kind of cracks me up.

I find her to be undertaken.

What?

Whoa.

Look at the pen and the pad.

Look at the pen in the pad.

She's dressed like Cam Newton, modern-day Cam.

Yeah,

this person is not messing around with with society.

Taking notes.

Dude, when she got the notes and the pen out,

she's kind of dressed like

almost like a female priest in the future or something.

I'm trying to lock down what's happening here.

I mean, I'm sure it's a very expensive, stylish outfit.

I've just never seen anything like that.

I do like the sunglasses.

Priest in the future.

I don't know what's happening.

All right.

Let's keep moving.

That's going to be a fun subplot.

collie kelly

yeah all right gordon excuse me all right uh to sofi stadium

fully revitalized by the amoral chamber parked under an underpass of the 110 matthew stafford set aside a summer of health concerns with a strong performance throwing for 245 yards and a touchdown that put him over 60 000 career yards by the way there's only nine other guys that have ever done that how about that uh but it was the defense that closed this one out.

Brandon Fisk recovered a fumble force by Nate Landman with 130, 143 to play, and the Rams escape with a 14-9 win over the Texans at SoFi.

Back to Gravy on this one.

Justin, the Rams won rugged, and the Texans' offense remains in the mist.

At least that's what it felt like from a distance.

Tell us about this one.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

This was a, I don't want to say a boring game because good defense doesn't have to be boring, but it was a low-scoring, grinded-out kind of game.

And Connor, you made the point earlier that you think the Seahawks and the Niners could both be top 10 defenses this year.

I think the same is true in this game.

The Texans and the Rams are both stacked, loaded with talent.

The Texans are especially just loaded all throughout the defense.

And the Rams have found some guys that I don't know if they were necessarily expecting to find, but that front four is just tremendous.

And they were on C.J.

Stroud all day.

pressuring him, forcing him into bad throws, bad decisions.

And I just felt like it did kind of feel like the Texans were driving down to win the game there until the ball was knocked out.

But that came as a result of the Rams tight end get having the ball knocked out of his hands after it was a catch and complete.

And then they looked at it.

It's like, no, it's actually a fumble.

But just like a really physical, tough game.

The Rams lost like three players in the first quarter.

They all returned to the game, I think.

But yeah,

it was one of those like, this is football kind of games.

I saw someone call it a rock fight.

And at one point, you got Puka Nakua bleeding from above his eye.

And it's kind of like, okay, that's what this game was to me.

And it wasn't boring, but I know what you mean because it seemed like from a different decade or a different time.

And the defenses were punishing.

And that's a great sign for the, I thought the Rams played with incredible enthusiasm on their defense.

They seem just to be so well run.

That's not a surprise to anyone, but it's like, go win a game like this.

It doesn't need to be shiny and bright in 2025.

It was from 1975.

Nick Chubb was the lead dog in the backfield.

He had some runs later in the game that pumped up his average above four yards of carry.

What about the offensive line in general?

How do they look in front of Stroud?

Because, you know, Stroud, this is a big year for him.

Disappointment last year.

A lot of that was blamed on the line.

How did it hold up against the Rams overall?

Obviously, the game-ending play essentially was a breakdown of line play, but what did you think overall there?

Yeah, there was, he took three sacks for 37 lost yards, which is a lot of lost yards on three sacks, but it could have been more.

I felt like he was under pressure, under constant pressure in this game.

The run game for Houston was like better than I expected it to be.

I thought they, especially later as the game wore on, they were making some holes open up, but the pass protection, I think, is going to be an issue all season.

It's tough to judge off of one week because the Rams have such a good pass rush, and it was like different guys.

I think the three sacks might have all been from three different guys.

I'd I'd have to double-check that.

But

yes, they were.

Three sacks, all from three different guys.

But

I think it's going to be, they're going to have to do something with this offense.

And they were doing it in this game.

Like Dalton Schultz underneath was CJ Stroud's favorite attempt in this favorite target in this game.

Was like, we got to get the ball out of Stroud's hands right away, or else he is going to be under pressure.

And that's how it felt the whole game.

All right.

So let's take a break here.

When we get back, we'll hit the rest of the Sunday slate.

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All right, we're back.

Let's hit the rest of the Sunday slate.

Let's head to Cleveland.

The dog pound.

All right.

I love this one.

The Cleveland Browns defense came to play on Sunday,

holding Joe Burrow and the

high-powered Bengals offense in check for most of the day.

But

the Cincinnati defense also came to play.

And they got a little fortunate due to some special teams issues for the Cleveland Browns.

What else is new?

Final score, 17-16.

Bengals over Browns.

Mark, as I understand it based on your texting during the game, very frustrating.

This is a game where Joe Burrow throws for 113 yards, and there's some insane stats.

Can you fly the stat up, Justin?

One of the craziest stats you could see, but it's a very just like there's only the Jets, there's only the Browns.

This is from Daniel oe fusui oe fusui fussy i'm sorry if i get that wrong from espn research the browns held the bengals to seven yards in the second half it's the fewest yards in the second half by a winning team in the last 25 years cleveland outgained cincinnati 327 to 141 and doubled up on first downs 22 to 11 and yet the browns lose by the point a point how the hell mark how the hell well you mentioned that there were a number of games where um kicking people decided, I want to be a pro kicker, but today I don't.

Andre Schmidt, this Browns kicker, like missed an absolute gimme.

And you know what?

Here's, and I'm like, look at

the Browns have done this to the Bengals over and over.

If you want to pick one team outside of a superpower type operation that has had, weirdly had the Bengals number and Joe Burroughs number, it has been the Cleveland Browns.

And it's been in openers.

It's been in weird spots where it's like, that shouldn't happen.

And today today we're talking about the what we think is the worst team in football.

It's like, this shouldn't have happened.

But they have a lot of young players.

I thought they fought really hard, but you could see it coming.

And when it happened and they missed that kick, I am walking around my apartment thinking, why do I not spend Sundays?

Reading like 300-page novels and change as a person.

Why am I doing this?

Like even my relatives are laughing at me at this point for following this trash bag that floats around inside a league of professional teams.

And I have to observe this.

I genuinely wanted to punch a window out of my apartment tonight.

I was so angry.

And

I think that's good to still feel that passion, but they made me feel something and then they cut me all over again.

Yeah, that's got to be frustrating to have that effort.

Miles Garrett is doing his Miles Garrett things.

And here's Joe Burrow and the Bengals and all this talk in the summer about how the Bengals are going to get it off to a hot start.

You do everything but find a way to score enough points.

How did Flacco look in this game?

He looked like Flacco.

He was totally, Flacco can still throw the ball.

Like physically, nothing's different about him.

And they have a couple guys.

I'm going to just say this because I'm not going to overrate them.

They'll win four games, but there are players on this team that I think they are quietly, I kind of get it.

They're quietly building something.

Like Cedric Tillman played well at wide receiver.

They've got Harold Fannin Jr., their rookie tight end.

This guy can play.

And this is a Bengals team that we've talked about non-stop.

And their defense under Jim Schwartz still just goes and does what they do under Jim Schwartz.

And they seem to, I like that they show up against a divisional opponent like this.

And so I'm not trying to be overly negative, but it did get, it did, it, it sent me into a bit of a wormhole mentally, right in the middle of like, you know, you're trying to do the rest of everything else.

It's like, I don't need you in my life.

I think it shows the professionalism of both you and I, the nature of the Jets and Browns losses on this Sunday, and yet here we are delivering the goods.

Connor, do you have any takes?

I was just, Joe Burrow was not great in this game, but there were some throws that he delivered, and he got the, there was one great quarterback cam view of him getting the absolute shit knocked out of him and putting a ball completely on the money.

And there was a couple of those in this game where even in a total gross, just slobber fest, he can come out and he can do that two or three times in a game and be a difference maker.

And I mean, I think this is just a very erratic lights-out moment for this offense.

I think they're going to be fine.

And for a team that lost, you know, so many games last year, 38, 35 and 41, 37.

And as maddening as that was to win a rock fight here and kind of steal one, as it were, I'm sure they probably think they're owed a few of those.

So

that's that.

Do we have Burrow on this?

Let's hear from Joe Burrow.

Just for my niece, Lily.

Yeah, we'll take it.

We'll take it.

Anytime you can win like this, you kind of steal one.

So we stole one today, and we're going to have to do better.

Ah,

that's right, Mark.

Congratulations.

The Browns lost.

Well, everything's gone well now.

Yeah, everything's back to normal.

All right, let's move on.

Let's go to the Super Dome.

Man, these synths are really going off in this one.

Trying to find my notes.

So just turn this up, Justin, while I find my notes.

Just sit back and enjoy it.

Dot dot dot dot deep dot dude.

Still looking.

We had a crash situation.

Here we go.

It's got a little personality to it.

All right, Kyler Murray.

Through for 163 yards.

That ain't no great shakes, but he did hit Marvin Harrison Jr.

5 for 71 and a TD.

Murray also ran for 38 yards and a touchdown and had one of those little cute shovel passes that you get credited for a touchdown throw to James Conner.

It was enough to secure a 20-13 win over the New Orleans Saints.

As I said, Mark,

obviously, maybe you want to beat up a team like the Saints a little bit more than this, but a team like the Cardinals, you want to get off on the right foot, and

they did their job.

Well, that's exactly what happened.

I mean, it's kind of, it kind of reminds me of the Rams Texans game that Justin described, where it's like, I don't come out of here with major life-altering takes, but a couple things.

I mean, this game came within two plays of going to overtime because Spencer Rattler

threw a ball into the end zone that if you're not Buda Baker back there, like, would have been caught and you're going to overtime.

And that was third and 10 from the Arizona 18.

Then it was fourth and 10, incomplete, game over.

But it kind of came down to that.

And it's like, I don't leave.

Um, I am a pro Cardinals person.

I get that, but I leave with some of the same questions.

But I will say, Marvin Harrison,

like a beautiful fight, 45-yard catch.

I saw a little bit more chemistry between Kyler Murray and Harrison.

McBride showed up.

Just like the, it feels a lot like last year's team that's grown up a little bit.

and the defense is a changed unit.

Um, you're playing the Saints, though, so a lot more evidence to come, a lot more evidence to come.

But the Saints also were not a

there's a world where the Saints are a massive disaster, and I thought they kind of

showed up.

They showed up today, and I don't hate Spencer Rattler.

They did have them, they had Spencer Rattler throw the ball 46 times.

Now, I know you lost the game by a touchdown.

That's a lot

to mismanagement on the part of Kellen Moore, like not using any of his timeouts in the first half and

not, you know,

you're going to have your early blues there as a coach in terms of game management.

But Mark's right.

I mean, I think this team, I went in thinking, okay, either the Saints are going to have the number one pick or they're going to be one of those teams like the like the late era Mike Vrabel Titans that are still kind of bad, but they're going to beat some good teams throughout the course of the year.

And I think this is a four or five win team, but like a feisty four or five win team.

Alvin Kamara Kamara looked good.

Like these guys looked all right.

All right.

I'd like to see how both these teams look in week two.

The Cardinals get the Panthers at home and the Saints draw the 49ers in their building.

All right, let's keep on moving.

Let's head to Foxborough.

Oh, Jaunty Geno Smith made his Raiders debut, and you know what?

It was a success.

He led the team team on a touchdown drive on his first possession, and then with the game on the line in the second half, he sealed it, throwing a 36-yard completion to Dante Thornton that allowed the Raiders to run out the clock on a 20-13 win over the Pats in Mike Frabel's debut.

Said Geno after the game, those situations, game on the line.

I love the ball in my hands.

That's what I live for.

And yes, I've come around on this

Geno late career.

He's not a perfect quarterback, and he's always going to make mistakes within a game, but he's got guts.

He's got guts, and

he does not shy away from the moment.

And I think, you know, the combination, the things that we talked about in the summer, having a confident veteran QB like Geno and having a head coach like Pete Carroll, they're going to win a lot of the close games that they've lost in recent years.

So arrow up on that.

Even on a day when Ash and Genti and his debut rushed for under three yards per carry, so he didn't have his best start.

The Patriots did a nice job bottling him up.

And in general, I thought New England's defense was pretty good in this game.

After giving up the initial touchdown, they really shut down and flustered.

I thought Gino for a couple of quarters.

But at the end of the day, the Patriots just didn't get enough offense.

And I guess that would be my big takeaway from this one, guys, is that I think the Raiders are going to be a competitive, feisty team this year.

Maybe not a playoff team.

It's still a very hard division that they're in, but don't sleep on the Raiders.

The Patriots, I want to know what their identity is on offense because there's been so much talk about this Drake May arrival, and I'm not going to make too much of judgment on one week, but I still see a team that doesn't quite know who they are, what their angle is.

So kind of I'm going to hold on this, the Patriots evolution from also ran to a team on the rise after one week.

What happened with Brock Bowers?

Injured?

Is he okay?

Because I see he, I thought there was a knee injury that occurred for him in this game.

He said after the game, I think it was to Pellicero or somebody, that he's fine and there won't be any problems moving forward.

Yeah, Bowers was Bowers, which is excellent.

He went over 100 yards in this game.

And yeah, they're going to

do a lot of damage together.

I think that's going to be maybe the most productive tight end in the league.

But yeah, the other, just to go back to May for a second, he was missing high with a lot of throws.

So there's some mechanic stuff to work on.

And the running game, at least in week one, you know, Stevenson and the rookie both got their chances, but they just couldn't really get anything going.

So, you know, that is what I'm more focused on in this game.

It's good that everyone you've mentioned outside of Bowers, I have picked up on fantasy teams, and they've all underperformed

as you would.

Well, if it makes you feel better, he ended up throwing 46 passes, and he picked up some yardage and garbage time that put a little lipstick on this pig.

I did have a big issue with, I know everybody loves Rabel because he's incredible and all that, but you know, this guy, they're down 20 to 10 with 453 remaining, fourth and 10 at their own 44.

You got to go for it there.

And he does the thing, again, drives me crazy.

He punts the ball away down 10.

And sure enough, they do get the ball back.

But by the time they put points on the board to get it down to a one-score game, it's too late.

It's an on-site kick and game over.

Here's what Rabel said after the game about that decision.

I made a decision on fourth and 10 with

close to five minutes to punt and would like a better punt.

And we

had them stopped and that was the plan and that didn't work.

And then they hit one and we just didn't have enough time there at the end to do anything.

That was the decision that I thought was best for us at the time.

Don't put this on the punter because, yes, Bryce Barringer had a 21-yard punt that didn't help matters.

But the bigger decision was you taking the ball out of your offense's hands and your young rising star quarterback when you needed two scores with less than five minutes to play.

Justin, does any of this ring a bell to you as a Titans fan?

Oh, yeah.

Titans fans will remember Mike Vrabel was a routinely, what was the cowardly punt?

There's like a cowardly punt scale or something out there.

Somebody does on Twitter.

This is his.

Surrender index.

Surrender index.

Thank you.

Great name.

I like cowardly punt scale, but yeah, surrender index, definitely better.

No, Mike Grable did this in a playoff game when the Titans played the Ravens in the playoffs, and it was like fourth and I want to say fourth and four from like the Ravens 40 or something with five minutes left in the game.

I think they were only down by one score, but still go for it.

What are you doing?

Yeah.

One more note on this.

Max Crosby never was right last year.

Never was fully healthy.

He was healthy in this game and he was a menace.

So I don't think he qualifies for comeback player of the year.

I don't know how any of that works, but I know that he has a chance to be a massive presence on this defense in a way he wasn't quite last year.

So keep an eye on Crosby, fully healthy game record version.

All right.

You want anything to put a bow on that one, Connor, before we move on?

I mean, why are we not talking about Chip Kelly?

He was fucking awesome in this game.

Did you see the Chip Kelly cam?

I sent you a link.

After one score, they like cut the chip and man, he was like, oh, I got to get this to Connor.

Average yards per stick, average yards to the sticks.

Geno Smith was like throwing beyond the first down marker on average for every throw.

Like, hell yeah.

This is like the 2009 Big 12.

I love this.

The Raiders are going to be an annoying team.

Let's go.

For a lot of contenders this year.

That is my prediction.

All right.

Let's move to the nation's capital.

We're close to it.

You know how it is.

Yes, the Washington Commanders, you know, they put themselves on the map with their superstar young quarterback Jaden Daniels last year on the way to the NFC title game.

But it was their defense that was the real star in week one, shutting down Russell Wilson and the New York Giants in a 21-6

victory.

The Commanders held New York to three points total on two trips inside the five-yard line.

Debo Samuels scores in his Washington debut.

And yes, even on a fairly quiet day from Jaden Daniels, the Commanders take care of their business.

Connor, I don't know where you want to start on this.

Russell Wilson, there's a lot of whispers and talk in New York after an uninspiring start for their offense, but Washington gets off on the right foot.

Your friend, Russell Wilson.

Best friend.

Park friend.

He's my park friend, Russell Wilson.

If you could distill, I think, this game and the Giants' woes down to one thing, it was in the beginning of the second quarter.

They had an illegal hands-to-face while they were driving to the end zone.

And so they got a fresh set of downs first and goal at the one-yard line.

And the first play that they call is a tackle eligible to their fifth-round pick out of Purdue, who, by the way, is not good enough to play on one of the worst offensive lines in football.

Surprise, he can't get off the line.

He, you know, the commanders point it out and they cover it.

On the second play, they leave him in as a bonus blocker, and they finally hand the ball to Cam Scatabo, which everyone was waiting for them to do.

And then this fifth-round pick out of Purdue gets beat so bad that he gets knocked backwards into Cam Scatabo, and then they lose a yard.

And then the third play, classic Russell Wilson, there's kind of a flood play design to the right, but then Darius Slayton is on a loop over to the left, doesn't even look at him.

Like he's wide open, doesn't even turn his head over to see where he is.

And then that was like the critical juncture where the Giants' defense actually played well.

I thought in spots their pass rush was really disciplined, and that's what led Jaden Daniels to look just meh, right?

I mean, it just wasn't awesome.

He was kind kind of doing what he would do.

He still had over 400 yards of offense.

Right.

I mean, I feel like it was like at pace where there wasn't anything that blew you away, but they picked up a bunch of first downs.

They did what they needed to do.

But I thought that the Giants were hanging on long enough that they should have been in this game, but

it was not.

Yeah, not to be.

Just one game, again.

But, you know, that's one thing I was saying

in the summer, kind of like, this is a very tough schedule for the Giants.

And how many like 300 total yard Russell Wilson type games can Brian Dable handle?

And in this case, they had 231, which is pitiful.

And that's like the pressure is only going to mount.

Here's Dable, who is

naturally and expectedly besieged by reporters asking about, oh, the first-round pick quarterback that's just sitting on the bench right now.

Will you consider starting Jackson next week?

Yeah, look, we're going to get home.

Pat, we're going to look at our game.

Collectively, we all got to do better.

So, two more.

Two more.

Is it safe to say that Russell is still your starter?

Yes.

I mean we're we're just right here after the game.

I got confidence.

We got to do better around overall coaches, players around everybody.

So

you know we'll get focused and ready to go on Dallas.

In fairness you're not answering this.

Sounds like you're not answering this.

Well it's that we're talking about after every game.

I got confidence in Russia.

So we're going to go back.

We'll evaluate the tape.

This game isn't on Russell Wilson.

It's not on Russell Wilson.

I want to make that clear.

So I have confidence in Russ.

We got to do a better job all the way around.

I'm a little confused.

My coach translator was kind of

skitzing out on me a little bit because at one point I was like, oh, that sounds like he's starting Dart in week two.

But then he made some comments like, oh, no, that means he's going to keep Russell Wilson.

It's probably more likely that he's going to keep Wilson, but it might just be, it might come down to everything's on the line for Wilson in week two.

I think it's like like the,

I saw someone write,

I believe it was the athletic, that

Dable

wants to play Dart

in general.

Like, let's grow a young quarterback and bring a new chapter to this team because what is sort of the purpose of Russell Wilson?

But he wants them to be prepared.

And you're like, to the point that their schedule is a nightmare, I think their offensive line is without Andrew Thompson, it's like very problematic.

Like it's going to be a really rough and rugged ride for a rookie.

So you're trying to manage

the personality and fame and lineage of Russell Wilson with the idea of like, can we just move on from this and get the rookie in here at some point?

But when?

It's going to swallow up Dable as long as this season goes on.

That's the other part of it, right, Connor?

Like Dable, he's a human, Dable, right?

And he knows like this is all

these assholes are going to be asking me after every loss.

For me, like from a human standpoint, I'd be like, I might just throw my hands up or go one of two ways.

Throw my hands up and just say, you know what?

I'm starting this kid because this is so annoying.

Or you dig your feet in a little bit and you'd be like, no, just because you want me to start him, I won't do it.

You could go that move too.

That's all I get fire, though.

Knowing him

that press conference, he probably felt the way that all of us feel like if you're, if you have to go get a glass of water in the middle of the night and your kids, you've asked him a million times to put the Legos away and you just f ⁇ ing step on one of those things and you're about to just punch a hole in the wall.

Like that's where he was at temperature-wise, I'm guessing.

Yeah, tough start for the G-Men.

Yeah, my New York friends,

that thread, a lot of that summer optimism has now been tempered.

But again, just one week.

Just one week.

All right, one more game.

Let us head to the big chlorine tank.

Ah,

a new era in Jacksonville.

Liam Cohen.

New head coach, and he gets a game ball from Shad Khan, Jacksonville Jaguars owner.

After a 26-10 win over the Carolina Panthers, Trevor Lawrence threw a touchdown pass.

Travis Atien had a big run and went for 143.

And Jacksonville takes care of business.

A nice start.

A nice start for the Jaguars.

And that's nice, Connor, because this is a team that, one of those teams that really could use a fast start, and they got it here.

They could use a fast start.

I'm not sure that they could use Travis Hunter.

I think that they needed, you know, I don't want to bring that up again, but I think that Liam Cohen did what he needed to do.

He came in and he fixed the run game.

He made sense of this offense.

He got them into situations where he was getting the playmakers with ball, with the ball in their hands and room to run.

Travis Hunter,

that whole situation felt a little forced to me.

And even Brian Thomas, when he wasn't getting the ball, at least you were getting involved in the running game.

And I just thought everything about this was

good and just made me question

the Travis Hunter snap count and like all this kind of stuff like is this necessary or could you have gotten something else with the fifth overall pick that might have helped you a little bit more in this game but I don't know I'm gonna let go of it after this this yeah 39 snaps on offense six for 33

and then he played just six snaps on defense I guess the positive way to look at this right is

good this is kind of uncharted territory right and and liam cohen's tasked with kind of figuring out how to use this guy that not only is he very talented, but

he's a two-way player and he knows management is on, is kind of locked in on this.

So you're dealing with that pressure from internally.

If they can win games while they figure out how to work this fantastically talented kid into both sides of the ball, like that will work.

Now, if they would have laid an egg today and you would have had those snap count numbers and the lack of an impact from Hunter, then you're going to be like, oh,

what's going on here?

But they could do it this way.

They have time.

I will say this.

He is a fabulous kid.

Like when Brian Thomas scored, he was jumping around the sidelines like a kid at a candy store.

He was electric.

And I guess my only question is, and I could see both sides of it.

Why isn't he in the game?

especially on defense at the end when you know that Caroline is going to throw their way out of this situation, right?

You're down, whatever it is, 16 points, and you have a quarterback.

You have Dave Canalis.

You know that he knows how to throw the the ball and dial up passing plays.

Why wouldn't you want conceivably your third best cornerback in the game?

And if you're preserving him because you're worried he's going to get hurt, then I feel like that's a different, you know, wouldn't you be feeling that way throughout the entirety of the season?

I don't know.

That was my one rub with it all.

Well, I would say we're like, we've gone through all these games and there is a dotting of like five or six future star rookie players who underperform today.

Like, I'm willing to let it be what it is today.

I get what you're saying.

I will say the most positive thing that I take from this is that what did Liam Cohen do for Tampa Bay before he departed?

A, fixed the quarterback or continued to

maximize the quarterback in Baker Mayfield, but also corrected and turned the run game from pretty neutered to pretty powerful.

And to see them run for 200 yards today and beat up Carolina's defense the way they did on the ground, like that's how you last.

That's how you grow.

And that's great for even for Trevor Lawrence, who we need to be a star.

And I get that.

But like, that's how a quarterback becomes put into a balanced offense that you're ahead late in games and you're pounding people.

Like, to see them do that and have Travis Etienne have that performance, like, that's a development to me.

I'll wait on the Hunter thing just because it's the thing.

We all will.

Especially with big time play, you know, big playmakers.

Sometimes you have to watch the game to see certain things.

Like, he came this close to a potentially long touchdown where Trevor Lawrence, he had a step.

Trevor Lawrence just underthrew him, and JC Horn made a beautiful one-handed interception.

If he catches that ball and goes down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown, we're having a totally different conversation

today.

So, yeah, the sample size is very small, and I think it's just kind of a fun subplot to watch.

And to Jaguars fans out there, congratulations on your week one victory.

All right, that's it.

Week one in the books.

We have a Monday night game tomorrow night to tackle between the Vikings and Bears, and we'll be back in about 24 hours with that recap and then any of the news around the league.

But until then, have a great evening, day, and do what you must.

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