Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast. He's now on Peter's radar, Like,
Speaker 1: welcome to another district the Around the NFL Podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Dan Hans is coming to you from a
Speaker 1: virtual room build with heroes, Mark Sessler, Erica Tempols. Greg
Speaker 1: was the thalt. What's up people, We're we're animal lovers?
Speaker 1: What is that? What is that fit? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Micky's the only one with the with an actual pet,
Speaker 1: but maybe that's maybe that's kind to animals because I
Speaker 1: think it's when we're dark gunning. We've we've been we've
Speaker 1: been virtually shooting tigers with tranquilizer darts. So I guess
Speaker 1: if you especially yeah, especially with Ricky who really as
Speaker 1: um fired way more trunks into the furry creatures that necessary.
Speaker 1: I get why maybe somebody would be hot on our tail. Now, Well,
Speaker 1: it's dangerous. The tranquilizers in the Bengals layer. Another one
Speaker 1: got loose on Sunday hit Randy Bullock like right before
Speaker 1: he was going to kick Yeah, Randy, that's thank you
Speaker 1: for bringing that up, Greg, because Randy Bullock knows this
Speaker 1: already because we send him the facts. Uh what do
Speaker 1: they call those? What do they call in the old
Speaker 1: days when you get sent something like a telegram, bullock
Speaker 1: out a telegram that he was effective Sunday afternoon, banned
Speaker 1: from the Kicker Club for life. Because it's one thing
Speaker 1: to miss a kick, but to phantom grab at your calf,
Speaker 1: uh and then find out the next day that you
Speaker 1: know he's fine. That is the one thing you can't
Speaker 1: do as a kicker. You just can't. You can't fake
Speaker 1: an injury. You just gotta wear it. And it's we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into It was kind of a woeful week
Speaker 1: for kicking. And I have that sandwich prop hanging out
Speaker 1: there about Kai Warbath. I needed to get on a
Speaker 1: team and then kick a big field goal at the
Speaker 1: end of game. If Kai does not find his way
Speaker 1: onto a roster this year after what we saw in
Speaker 1: Week one, it's just knock gonna happen. Stephen Gaskowski, My goodness,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into that. Yeah, we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: Monday night football. We're gonna preview Thursday night the Browns
Speaker 1: and Bengals buckle up, Sizzler and also coming off the
Speaker 1: action in week one, we're gonna play a game called
Speaker 1: panic or Chill Chill bra based on we've won subplots. Mark,
Speaker 1: what were you gonna say? No? Nothing? At this point,
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a meatia show. Let's proceed alright, Marks,
Speaker 1: all business with that haircut here? Either that or easy now.
Speaker 1: I tried to sneak in a haircut at you know,
Speaker 1: right before the show started, and it was not my
Speaker 1: greatest moment of time management. Of all times. That haircut
Speaker 1: occurred like twenty miles from here. So I noticed things.
Speaker 1: I feel like in another life I could I could
Speaker 1: have worked in law enforce and as a detective of
Speaker 1: some kind. Because most people don't realize that Mark has
Speaker 1: got a little different look going on. I think he
Speaker 1: told his barber that he's fond of uh to give
Speaker 1: me a little bit of a fade on the sides.
Speaker 1: That's new. Usually it's a little more full on the sides.
Speaker 1: You know, you're asking for the fade, to do it
Speaker 1: like the kids do. And good for you, bro. You
Speaker 1: know what I can I be really honest and I'll
Speaker 1: keep this under twenty seconds. The price of the hair cut.
Speaker 1: I'm very loyal to the wonderful person that cuts my hair,
Speaker 1: but the price has raised. Um, you know, during Corona Times,
Speaker 1: and I understand this significantly, so I didn't suggest anything,
Speaker 1: but I think there's something subconscious going on where she
Speaker 1: is cutting people's hair. Guy's hairs, um, a little tighter
Speaker 1: to the to the head, so that you don't have
Speaker 1: to come back, you know, you get next for a
Speaker 1: week on that. On that, I think give you a
Speaker 1: little more style, as you know, at least giving your
Speaker 1: money's worth. Mark. I haven't asked for anything different, so
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not you know, explicit enough about what I
Speaker 1: should be asking. So you sit down and you're just
Speaker 1: like the regular jazz. Yeah, I mean she's cut my
Speaker 1: hair like she's coming with times. Well, you know, when
Speaker 1: you find a good one. Here's the thing, ad one
Speaker 1: Apparently it was not good enough, not a not a
Speaker 1: cutting hair not that I know of. But I mean,
Speaker 1: if you suddenly got a bad hair cut, you're like,
Speaker 1: I don't need to go to the same person. And
Speaker 1: then like this wild card does a hack job, you're
Speaker 1: stuck with with it for three weeks. I got I
Speaker 1: got hacked, um three days before my senior prom total
Speaker 1: hatchet job by this very very severe, tall Russian woman
Speaker 1: that looked like Brigette Nelson. From Rocky four. And I
Speaker 1: should have seen it coming, because you know, she looked
Speaker 1: like Brigitte Nielsen from Rocky four. Didn't paid the price.
Speaker 1: That's the only reason I had a bad time, my
Speaker 1: senior problem, my hair. There could be no other reason why.
Speaker 1: All right, we got much. We got a lot to
Speaker 1: get to. But let us start with some Monday night football.
Speaker 1: In the early game, up first Steelers, Giants from the
Speaker 1: meadow Lands check it in three, fake the hand off
Speaker 1: Jones looping to the left, Jones, the ball is fluttered
Speaker 1: in the air and it's intercepted. Daniel Jones did not
Speaker 1: have anything on it. Cameron Hayward with the pick and
Speaker 1: the Giants drive dies and so did the Giants chances
Speaker 1: of winning their opener. Iron Eagle with a call for
Speaker 1: Westwood one nineteen play drive by the Giants in the
Speaker 1: third quarter, I drive that if they got over the
Speaker 1: goal line, would have put them in the league. Instead,
Speaker 1: Steelers take over. They take it home, final score to
Speaker 1: sixteen and Big Ben's return to the starting lineup and
Speaker 1: the successful return. It was uh Mark. We have wondered,
Speaker 1: or we wondered often last year what that Steelers team
Speaker 1: could be like with a top shelf defense and a
Speaker 1: convenant quarterback. What looks like we're about to find out.
Speaker 1: I think we're looking at, you know, barring utter chaos,
Speaker 1: a playoff team, and that's what the Steelers in most
Speaker 1: seasons have been when big bends around, and last year
Speaker 1: was a complete aberration. That team still crept to eight
Speaker 1: and five before the wheels fell off. What I saw
Speaker 1: last night, and you know, greg Um, you mentioned this
Speaker 1: that the Steelers treat training camp like a brutal exercise
Speaker 1: where you get into shape and you get ready for
Speaker 1: football through physical contact. And there are a bunch of
Speaker 1: teams out there that engage in studies that say, no,
Speaker 1: we don't want to do contact. We're gonna go in
Speaker 1: the opposite direction. I love their approach. The defense looked
Speaker 1: like it was ready to fine tune for Week ten,
Speaker 1: and it was you know, when it's not Bud Duprie,
Speaker 1: it's t J Watt. I mean, the pressure that they
Speaker 1: put on the Giants was incredible. I really like Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones and things that I see, But you don't like
Speaker 1: any quarterback dealing with some of the pressure the need
Speaker 1: to deal with and your built your offense is built
Speaker 1: also around se Kwon Barkley, who had I mean, this
Speaker 1: is I don't know if this will happen again. It's
Speaker 1: a little si quanti um, but he had fifteen fifteen
Speaker 1: attempts for six yards. The Giants were held to twenty
Speaker 1: four yards on the ground. This defense goes in and
Speaker 1: just wipes teams away, and when you have the offense
Speaker 1: making the plays it was with Big Ben in a
Speaker 1: whole cast. Of course, the Steelers have to find two
Speaker 1: new viable wide receivers a year or they're not. The
Speaker 1: front office has been asleep. Um, it's a It's a
Speaker 1: big problem for other teams in the a f C
Speaker 1: and the NFC East this season. Yeah, I agree with
Speaker 1: everything you said, and I think this was one of
Speaker 1: the most fascinating games of Week one because I do
Speaker 1: think it told us somethings and in the biggest thing
Speaker 1: it told us is that Roethlisberger, as long as he's healthy,
Speaker 1: is going to be fine. And I am someone that
Speaker 1: wanted to see it. I don't think it took him
Speaker 1: the whole first half to warm up, which kept being
Speaker 1: like the talking point after the game on ESPN, and
Speaker 1: I saw it elsewhere It's like, well it took him
Speaker 1: a little while the war. It's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe the announcer said that, and then everyone started copying.
Speaker 1: On the second drive of the game, you know, they
Speaker 1: went three and out. First drive, run run, and uh
Speaker 1: they got some pressure. Second drive of the game. On
Speaker 1: third down, he's getting crunched, go into his third read
Speaker 1: Juju Smith Schuster and delivers a beautiful ball, hitting Juju
Speaker 1: and stride on third down. I mean, that's one of
Speaker 1: the best third and longs I saw. A week to
Speaker 1: three plays later, he hit Chase Claypool thirty yards up
Speaker 1: the field to the opposite uh hash Mark in and
Speaker 1: uh Mark, I know you tweeted out. It's just like, well,
Speaker 1: here comes another one of those Steelers wide receiver draft
Speaker 1: picks off the assembly line, and on and on. I thought,
Speaker 1: if you put together like the best seven throws, let's say,
Speaker 1: from Ben's night, I think it's up there with any
Speaker 1: quarterback that played this week not named Darren Rodgers and
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson and and maybe Russell Wilson. I thought he
Speaker 1: looked really good. Let's be honest. People now are just
Speaker 1: gonna roll with it and be like, oh, he's the
Speaker 1: same guy, and that's the end of the conversation. But
Speaker 1: there was a fair amount of handwringing, uh, and not
Speaker 1: not without good reason after he tore up his elbow
Speaker 1: and after the surgery and then through the off season
Speaker 1: or all the drama about his appearance and everything. Uh,
Speaker 1: that he came back and looks basically exactly the same.
Speaker 1: I think maybe he missed on a couple of throws
Speaker 1: Greg Earle, touch passes, things that weren't deal breakers by
Speaker 1: any stretch, and that allowed that to build as a
Speaker 1: narrative that he wasn't sharp early on. But yeah, by
Speaker 1: the by the time he was in the flow of
Speaker 1: the game and we were, you know, heading towards halftime,
Speaker 1: and that last drive before the half, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: big Ben's back, and it's like, I don't know, Mark,
Speaker 1: you said that they looked like a playoff team. They
Speaker 1: look like a super Bowl team. To me, No, I
Speaker 1: think they do, except you got the same conference. That's
Speaker 1: all I mean. It's form is that I think they
Speaker 1: have the ability to hang in that conversation with those
Speaker 1: guys right now if you take the defense at the
Speaker 1: level it's at and then you put in not just
Speaker 1: like I talked about before the game, if he's Big Ben,
Speaker 1: the Steelers are still gonna be way off. What if
Speaker 1: he's Big Ben still And I think that's a team
Speaker 1: that could go all the way to the final game
Speaker 1: of the season. I think that's their ceiling here now.
Speaker 1: I mean the only their only d A aspect that
Speaker 1: would concern you about Pittsburgh is that there were times
Speaker 1: when the the defense has been very good for a
Speaker 1: long time now. The secondary has had issues up and down.
Speaker 1: But I mean, this nasty pass rush has been around
Speaker 1: and kind of ignored. And you know, there was a
Speaker 1: time when Big Ben had Levi on Bell the way
Speaker 1: that we know him and Antonio Brown and they just
Speaker 1: couldn't get past teams. Now those were the Patriots. I
Speaker 1: wasn't the same then though they had the talent and
Speaker 1: they had a lot of the same players, but they
Speaker 1: didn't perform. And I think it is the secondary. The
Speaker 1: defense last year was as good as it was, you know,
Speaker 1: since since they made the Super Bowls, you know, a
Speaker 1: decade ago. I just I don't. I just think the
Speaker 1: Steelers are still under Mike Tomlin, a team that's gonna
Speaker 1: disappoint you a couple of weeks out of the season.
Speaker 1: Two there's a lot of that still going on. But
Speaker 1: but everybody disappoints though, right, I mean not everybody has
Speaker 1: it turned on. I guess the Steelers have a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a history of getting to January and
Speaker 1: and and not getting the job done. And but are
Speaker 1: they a super Bowl team? Yeah, if they can get
Speaker 1: past the Ravens in chief on the giant side of
Speaker 1: the ball. Yeah. The the Jones turnovers were tough, and
Speaker 1: I understand the frustration there. It's but it's against the
Speaker 1: great defense. I I look at him, and I was
Speaker 1: looking how he moved and and how comfortable he looked.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking, how he looks more comfortable in
Speaker 1: an NFL offense in a second year than Sam Donald
Speaker 1: did on Sunday in his third. So, even though things
Speaker 1: went sidewise a little bit, and uh, you know, ten
Speaker 1: point loss, I'm feeling pretty good about Daniel Jones. And
Speaker 1: we'll see how this remade offensive line comes together. You
Speaker 1: can't really judge an offensive line that's being rebuilt off
Speaker 1: one week. Uh. And that's why I can't get too
Speaker 1: crazy about the Barkley game either. Although it was historically bad, Uh,
Speaker 1: it was also against the great defense in week one
Speaker 1: without a preseason, you know the whole she field right now,
Speaker 1: that maybe they deserve a little more benefit of doubt
Speaker 1: before we start panicking about that offense, and the defense
Speaker 1: looked a little more competent. They were so bad that
Speaker 1: they just looked. Okay. I love Danny Dimes. I love
Speaker 1: watching him play. I thought he had so many tough,
Speaker 1: creative plays against pressure. He's gonna need it. They were
Speaker 1: he was pressured to the to your point about the
Speaker 1: Steelers defense, mark just he was pressured more on a
Speaker 1: higher percentage of plays than any quarterback in the league
Speaker 1: in Week one, and he made so many good plays
Speaker 1: against it. And it is the Daniel Jones experience that
Speaker 1: will have one or two plays that kill you, uh
Speaker 1: and hopefully he gets rid of those. But I think overall,
Speaker 1: when you look at last night, I looked at the
Speaker 1: p f F F rankins right as we started, it doesn't
Speaker 1: surprise me that he was in the top ten for
Speaker 1: the week because I think he made so many high
Speaker 1: quality plays a lot of times in tough situations. Because
Speaker 1: they do not have a right tackle. That's the problem
Speaker 1: they have Cam Fleming playing at right tackle. Sometimes you're
Speaker 1: only as good as your worst offensive alignment. And right
Speaker 1: now he's a stinker, but he makes the Giants so
Speaker 1: much more intriguing than they've been. And we all went
Speaker 1: through that sane period of denying the fate of Eli
Speaker 1: Manning and somehow Dave Gettelman, Um, you know, for taking
Speaker 1: entire year where you didn't take Sam Donald, you didn't
Speaker 1: take quarterback X might have come out with the perfect
Speaker 1: guy for the Giants. I mean, it is a roller
Speaker 1: coaster ride. I tweeted out like two videos of one
Speaker 1: the touchdown throw and an incredible job by him on
Speaker 1: another throw, and in both times within three minutes he
Speaker 1: had created a turnover after and people were like, dude,
Speaker 1: this guy's all over, Like Lions, Giants stopped putting that
Speaker 1: stink out there. So I love what's going on. Regular
Speaker 1: that's my job, you know, Are you connecting with people
Speaker 1: behind the scenes and and making video requests and then
Speaker 1: sending them out on social media? No, that's far too tedious.
Speaker 1: I have my own methods, my own channels. One more
Speaker 1: note before we moved to the late game, uh sae
Speaker 1: Quon Barkley's six rushing yards, this per NFL Media research
Speaker 1: tied for the second fewest by a player with fifteen
Speaker 1: plus carries in a game since the start of the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl era. The only, but the only other player
Speaker 1: had a worst day five yards and fifteen carries Kareem
Speaker 1: Abdul Abdul Kareem al Jabar for the Broncos in Week
Speaker 1: first Miami. Al Right, I do want to make one
Speaker 1: quick point, is that James Conner's injury I think is
Speaker 1: gonna end up helping um the Steelers because Benny Snell
Speaker 1: just looks like a better player. It's like they found
Speaker 1: they keep finding these young guys. Chase Claypool is going
Speaker 1: to be a guy in Benny snow I think is
Speaker 1: gonna be a guy Everyone in fantasy that took Snell
Speaker 1: is going to be doing back. Well how many How
Speaker 1: about the fantasy heads that took Connor that are freaking
Speaker 1: out right? You just seeing that one coming. He's been
Speaker 1: banged up a couple of years now. Um. We'll talk
Speaker 1: more about the Steelers in our preview episode later this week,
Speaker 1: but now let's move on to the late game. And
Speaker 1: it was a weird one. Now Here comes Goskowski. It's
Speaker 1: a twenty five yard troup. He is old for three
Speaker 1: tonight on field goals. He has missed an extra point
Speaker 1: this for the lead. With twenty seconds to go, Tennessee
Speaker 1: down by one. No wind, calm Night off the grass
Speaker 1: yard field well, the snap the kickers off and the
Speaker 1: Kidgen's guard. Gaskowski trills it from twenty five yards away
Speaker 1: and the Titans are taking a lead of sixteen fourteen
Speaker 1: with seven team checkings to go on. Gaskowski literally looking
Speaker 1: to the heavens, closing his eyes saying thank you to
Speaker 1: the kicking gods. Harlan for West would won with the call. Yes,
Speaker 1: credit for Stephen Gaskowski for not keeping his shoes off
Speaker 1: and walking home in the third quarter, But credit the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans offense, which could have went in the tank
Speaker 1: after getting you know, turned down by the kicker time
Speaker 1: and time again. But they had one more big drive
Speaker 1: in him and it took him all the way down
Speaker 1: to the goal line and put Gaskowski on a nightmare
Speaker 1: that day where he missed three field goal attempts. One
Speaker 1: of them was tipped at an extra point and clearly
Speaker 1: was just completely zonked out and had no ability they
Speaker 1: get the ball to a point where even Gaskowski couldn't
Speaker 1: miss that kick. So good for the Titans offense fourteen
Speaker 1: win over the Denver Broncos at Mile High. Oh, Mark,
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you make of this game? What
Speaker 1: do you take out of it? And how were you
Speaker 1: as stressed out as I was and everyone else on
Speaker 1: football Twitter just watching things unfold as the Titans rolled
Speaker 1: into Denver territory, knowing that the kicker was gonna have
Speaker 1: to walk out on the field again. Yeah, there's probably
Speaker 1: um a subset of Twitter middle school that enjoys seeing
Speaker 1: these players suffer. Um, it just brought me anxiety to
Speaker 1: think that. I think people forget that. Like Gustkowski is,
Speaker 1: you know, months removed from recovering from like a pretty
Speaker 1: dangerous hips surgery, so to even come back in all
Speaker 1: five years away from entering the Hall of Fame. So
Speaker 1: we're in this weird right. I Mean there's got to
Speaker 1: be time. There might be moments in life when you think,
Speaker 1: why did I do this? Um, he gets he got
Speaker 1: he got half a million dollars guaranteed, so there is
Speaker 1: a reason to do it. But um, watching it unfold
Speaker 1: on television, UM, I was so happy he made that
Speaker 1: final kick because it doesn't erase everything that came before.
Speaker 1: But it kind of does with kickers, you kind of
Speaker 1: just remember the last thing. But I'm not sure it
Speaker 1: might not erase his employment situation with another bad day
Speaker 1: or even sooner, right, I uh, look, I was I
Speaker 1: really wanted him to make that kick, but I was
Speaker 1: loving the chaos and Gustosky. To me, it was just
Speaker 1: part of it. But I live for this sort of
Speaker 1: It was so ugly. It was perfect as the second
Speaker 1: prime time game on Monday Night. It was made for that.
Speaker 1: I expected a lot more games in Week one to
Speaker 1: look like this, which was totally sloppy on both sides,
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't say it was fun all the time,
Speaker 1: but it just kept giving you enough storylines and crazy
Speaker 1: Drew Lock plays and Ryan Tannehill looking like he's gonna
Speaker 1: get decapitated every other quarter. That like, I didn't mind
Speaker 1: how ugly it was because it was entertaining and all
Speaker 1: I could think was, like, man, the Titans were sloppy
Speaker 1: every everything, like I expect the Broncos to be sloppy
Speaker 1: a little bit, and they were missing Boyer, their best cornerback.
Speaker 1: So they're starting two rookies, neither one of them sums
Speaker 1: drafted highly. One of them was undrafted a guy Bryce
Speaker 1: Callahan who didn't play all of last year at cornerback.
Speaker 1: He can't take advantage of that. There's no Von Miller,
Speaker 1: there's no Courtland Sutton, who's your best offensive player. There's
Speaker 1: no Philip Lindsay, there's no kJ Hamdler, the guy you're
Speaker 1: all excited about. And still it's like, if Jerry Judy
Speaker 1: didn't drop a couple of passes, the Broncos would have
Speaker 1: stolen this game away. And yeah, Guskowski was part of it,
Speaker 1: but there was almost nothing about the Titans to me.
Speaker 1: If you're a Titans fan that made you feel good
Speaker 1: other than it's Week one and you escape, you with
Speaker 1: a road quote on quote victory and you're on your way.
Speaker 1: You're playing the late Monday night game. You're going to
Speaker 1: Denver and again there's like five people in the crowd,
Speaker 1: so it's a different type of road assignment. But still
Speaker 1: you lose Rashaun Evans to that objection. Uh, and he's
Speaker 1: such an important part of their defense. I I thought
Speaker 1: the Titans were fine. I thought it was a sloppy
Speaker 1: Week one game in a weird year, and the fact
Speaker 1: that they I was more impressed with their metal to
Speaker 1: get out of there with the win, because it seemed
Speaker 1: like it was doomed. Once Gaskowski missed the second extra
Speaker 1: point it was, or the his extra point, it was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you know what's gonna happen. Sure enough,
Speaker 1: the Broncos go right down the field and take the lead,
Speaker 1: and you think that's that. So I give him credit
Speaker 1: for that. And you know, Derrick Henry has thirties six
Speaker 1: touches in this game, so they even when the run
Speaker 1: game wasn't necessarily working, they just stayed true to their
Speaker 1: ways and just kept on pounding the ball to him.
Speaker 1: I thought this was kind of like one of those
Speaker 1: March Madness games where it's survived in advance and then
Speaker 1: try to work. If you have a question for Greg,
Speaker 1: because Greg, I mean I think that you know, your
Speaker 1: wheelhouse became the story of the game. I think over
Speaker 1: the final couple of minutes. One quick note, first, though,
Speaker 1: I and Dan I think the jury was out on
Speaker 1: Drew luck. Um. I really love what I see. I
Speaker 1: love this guy, and Jerry Judy had the drops. But
Speaker 1: I gotta say that Jerry Judy to me with the
Speaker 1: next time around when he catches those, this is a
Speaker 1: star in the making. I mean you can just see
Speaker 1: from the slot he is getting open over and over,
Speaker 1: and I get that, you know, you don't have like
Speaker 1: it's week one, it's sloppy, But this guy, to me
Speaker 1: has star wide receiver written all over. And this whole offense,
Speaker 1: when they get healthy and they get these guys back,
Speaker 1: is going to be a late season monster that just
Speaker 1: dropped some upsets and bombs on people and maybe sneaks
Speaker 1: in the playoffs spot. But Vic Fonio overseeing the whole
Speaker 1: thing Greg the final three minutes. Um. People are all
Speaker 1: over it today, and I think there's different schools of
Speaker 1: thoughts on how you can time well you're I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I've here. I've heard people say, you know, Belichick likes
Speaker 1: to slow to play a team that's having issues and
Speaker 1: let them creep down the field and make their own mistakes.
Speaker 1: In this case, I think Fongio did not handle this well, um,
Speaker 1: because he didn't give his offense and you saw Locks
Speaker 1: shaking his head with winning about eight six and second
Speaker 1: kill out there at the end, saying give me a
Speaker 1: break here, let's hear. Let's hear from Fongio before we
Speaker 1: hear from Greg. When Henry got thirteen yards down to
Speaker 1: our sixty and I should have called time out there.
Speaker 1: That was the one I missed. He wore it. He
Speaker 1: knows he messed up, because they should have gotten the
Speaker 1: ball back with at least like a minute to play,
Speaker 1: right Greg and and maybe a time out, and then
Speaker 1: you have and you have a great kicker and Brendon
Speaker 1: McManus who just got a contract extension and he can
Speaker 1: kick in Denver, and you basically kicked away that opportunity.
Speaker 1: He was like a common sense error, which is unsettling, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, they he he owned it, but he owned it,
Speaker 1: you know the next day, he didn't exactly own it
Speaker 1: after the fact because he didn't even understand at that
Speaker 1: point what he had done wrong, which is the problem.
Speaker 1: And he said, you know on Tuesday day that he
Speaker 1: didn't make the right call because he was too busy
Speaker 1: thinking about calling the next defensive play. And I always
Speaker 1: say this, I don't like these defensive play callers um
Speaker 1: being the head coach, because I think you really need
Speaker 1: to have your p's and q's and know what's going
Speaker 1: on in terms of game management situation. And Fonio was
Speaker 1: terrible at it last year too, Like these coaches. They
Speaker 1: they they're all about, Oh, we worked so hard, we
Speaker 1: were a hundred hours. We prepare for every scenario. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you're like worse at at that scenario, which is
Speaker 1: so important than a guy playing Madden. And I know
Speaker 1: it's a there's more pressure and it's a lot, but
Speaker 1: that's why you should be preparing that. Like, are you
Speaker 1: spending two hours on that during the week. I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Not only did he blow that situation, but
Speaker 1: the thing I thought, it's crazy no one really paid
Speaker 1: any attention to. They used forty seconds on the drive
Speaker 1: before that they got the ball, the game, that team
Speaker 1: was over. When they got the ball back over midfield,
Speaker 1: Judy drops a pass that would have ended the game.
Speaker 1: And I'm with you, Judy looks like an unbelievable time.
Speaker 1: Who's gonna be jumped off the screen. He's he's unreal.
Speaker 1: He reminds me of I don't know, Antonio Brown, I
Speaker 1: guess would be the closest thing to it. And then
Speaker 1: they go on third to night, they go they go
Speaker 1: hero ball and they decide to go for a touchdown
Speaker 1: throw over the top, and you know, it was a
Speaker 1: pretty good call. Block Adom wide open and they would
Speaker 1: have been dancing in the Denver streets that they went
Speaker 1: for a forty yard touchdown with three minutes to go.
Speaker 1: But Lock throws it into the first you know, into
Speaker 1: the first part of the space. It wasn't even close.
Speaker 1: He was fine, he does. I think he's I'm still
Speaker 1: in the same kind of holding pattern with him, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right if he forget about even winning the game
Speaker 1: with that deep pass which he missed, You're right, though
Speaker 1: Judy doesn't have that second drop. We're probably talking about
Speaker 1: a totally different situation here. But that's football. But I
Speaker 1: do I did like what I saw from him, and
Speaker 1: I think I agree with you that if you get
Speaker 1: Courtland Sutton back and Judy continues to develop, because he
Speaker 1: really did jump off the screen, like the way he
Speaker 1: came out of those breaks and just it reminded me
Speaker 1: actually of like a young Odell Beckham, where when he
Speaker 1: had the ball in his hands, was like, oh, watch out,
Speaker 1: because this guy is just doing things that other guys
Speaker 1: in the field can't see it. I mean, like, like
Speaker 1: I think, you know, like a twelve year old could
Speaker 1: look at that and say, what is happening with this player?
Speaker 1: Versus other wide receivers. I mean he's that special to
Speaker 1: the eyes. I wrote about Locking Daniel Jones though, and
Speaker 1: I I here's the thing where I like them sorts.
Speaker 1: They're fun to watch. I did a feature on them
Speaker 1: because it's to me like they're making two teams that
Speaker 1: were pretty tough to watch. His quarterbacks a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So I think lock if it'll be a roller coaster ride,
Speaker 1: but he's gonna give you some stuff. And Mike Rabel
Speaker 1: said Tuesday, the Titans have a quote lot of faith
Speaker 1: in Stephen Gaskowski after the kickers rough debut. I I
Speaker 1: meant that I tweeted this that in that exact moment,
Speaker 1: and don't get on me with oh, but what about
Speaker 1: the suffering in in this part of the world, Calm down.
Speaker 1: In that exact moment, there was no one I would
Speaker 1: I would rather be anyone else in the world than
Speaker 1: Guskowski when he saw every camera on the sideline trained
Speaker 1: on him, none of his teammates talking to him, knowing
Speaker 1: that he was the story of the night. It was
Speaker 1: week one prime time, and then you you can't go
Speaker 1: in a hole and hide. And then the when they
Speaker 1: showed him on the bench taking his cleats off like
Speaker 1: it did. It was bad enough that across my mind,
Speaker 1: I wonder if he's just walking out like it was.
Speaker 1: It was at that level that the human uh feeling. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, that's it for Monday night football discussion. Let
Speaker 1: us let's let's have some fun. Let's do this, all right.
Speaker 1: So a lot of good things happened in week one,
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons for teams to be excited. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then there's the flip side of the teams that things
Speaker 1: didn't work out how they had hoped in week one.
Speaker 1: And what we're you gonna try to do here, in
Speaker 1: a segment we call panic or chill bro is figure
Speaker 1: out which one of the negative outcomes of week one
Speaker 1: is a harbinger of doom and which one should be
Speaker 1: more of Like, Okay, let's let things breathe a little bit.
Speaker 1: Most likely it won't be as bad as it looks.
Speaker 1: So we'll go around the horn here. Um, I'll get
Speaker 1: it going, and I will present it to both you boys,
Speaker 1: and then I'll chime in with my thoughts as well.
Speaker 1: But I'll start right here because it was a conversation
Speaker 1: on the UM podcast on Sunday night, Phil Rivers and
Speaker 1: the interceptions that killed the Colts against the Jaguars and
Speaker 1: the big upset of the week. I watched the game
Speaker 1: uh yesterday as part of my Power Rankings duties, and
Speaker 1: it did it was exactly what I what I kind
Speaker 1: of imagine it was based on the way it was
Speaker 1: being described. It was Rivers try and force things and
Speaker 1: make things happen. And it kind of stood out in
Speaker 1: contrast with the other quarterback Gardner me and Show, who
Speaker 1: took what the defense gave him and just executed well. Uh,
Speaker 1: so Rivers even stood out more. Is this to you,
Speaker 1: guys a sign that the Colts are in serious trouble
Speaker 1: because Rivers is gonna just be this flawed guy that
Speaker 1: cost them multiple games this year? Mark to go first,
Speaker 1: because I feel like my answer is to uh to obvious.
Speaker 1: You know where I'm going with. Um, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I think you kind of know what you're getting in
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers and the Good with the Bad, and you
Speaker 1: know this is not the greatest version of Philip Rivers.
Speaker 1: And I would imagine, Um, the Colts excel itself scouting
Speaker 1: uh and they know that, Um, you're gonna get I
Speaker 1: like that you said that, Minshew kind of gave what
Speaker 1: the defense. Um took what the defense gave him. Where
Speaker 1: I think Philip Rivers is just gonna He's gonna give
Speaker 1: things to the offense and the defense. That's just who
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers sort of is. I'm not in the panic
Speaker 1: mode because I'm kind of used to this, this version
Speaker 1: of Philip Rivers, and I think it's going to help
Speaker 1: them to unleash Jonathan Taylor of Jonathan Taylor's what we
Speaker 1: think they are. Their offense has a lot of young pieces.
Speaker 1: Um t Y Hilton can still play. I think he
Speaker 1: he looked good. So I'm not they have a great
Speaker 1: offensive line. I just I want to see this thing
Speaker 1: kind of carry out for a month. Um. But I'll
Speaker 1: tell you this, I'm not like, hey, no matter what happens,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to panic all year. I think this
Speaker 1: is a this is a one year um, a one
Speaker 1: year scenario for Philip Rivers, and and then I think
Speaker 1: they move on after this and barring something really special,
Speaker 1: I just I just do. And so you know, to me,
Speaker 1: I'm chilling because the other options you put in Jacoby
Speaker 1: Brisett like, no, no, you could just panic and not
Speaker 1: expected to go well and I'm not panicking here, all right,
Speaker 1: you know, you know where I'm going. I'm chilling. I'm hey,
Speaker 1: I mean, chill is probably the wrong word, because I'm
Speaker 1: just enjoying. I'm I'm ready for the roller coaster ride.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, I am a little concerned that those
Speaker 1: interceptions were totally on Rivers and I went back to
Speaker 1: watch it too, kind of hoping that there's gonna be
Speaker 1: some you know, secondary reasons for him, but especially the
Speaker 1: way that they happened. When they happened, they turned the
Speaker 1: momentum um of the game, and otherwise they would have
Speaker 1: won it. I am chilling though, because man, the offense
Speaker 1: looks so good. Otherwise. Yeah, the matchup was good and
Speaker 1: he was protected well. I think he's gonna be protected
Speaker 1: well each week. And West has gotten on Rivers his
Speaker 1: arm strength and to me, he's at his best throwing
Speaker 1: intermediate and deep down the field at least he has,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout his career. And he had a twenty
Speaker 1: seven thirty yard rope to the opposite hash Mark early
Speaker 1: in that game on a dime to t Y Hilton
Speaker 1: that made me not worried about his arm strength at all.
Speaker 1: He had another I mean that is the hardest throw
Speaker 1: for quarterbacks to make. I'm not saying he's Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: but he looked in sync. He showed anticipation, the arm
Speaker 1: looked good. I think he you look. You could tell
Speaker 1: he's been in this offense before, and I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a very dangerous offense. He can't keep doing that.
Speaker 1: So if you're if we're having this conversation um in October,
Speaker 1: that that I'll start that I'll be panicking, But I am.
Speaker 1: I am giving him a one week like, Okay, he's
Speaker 1: gonna have these games. But throwing fifteen interceptions and having
Speaker 1: this kind of season, that's okay for me throwing three,
Speaker 1: it's it's a big difference, and and it was. He
Speaker 1: was a big part of the reason they lost. It
Speaker 1: was a killer. I'm gonna hold my panic for another
Speaker 1: week or so, but it certainly is a bit foreboding.
Speaker 1: So I'm chilled, But I'm also like, I'm not. I
Speaker 1: just don't let the public drink. And that's the way
Speaker 1: cults feels, cults fans probably feel right now, Greg, you're up,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna go with the Saints offense. And
Speaker 1: Drew Brees and and This has been something West has
Speaker 1: talked about, certainly when it comes to Drew Brees arm strength.
Speaker 1: But you know, since we last uh you know, talked
Speaker 1: with our listeners, Michael Thomas, it's been revealed has a
Speaker 1: high ankle sprain. He's supposedly gonna play through it, try to.
Speaker 1: That doesn't sound like a good idea. Let's let's get
Speaker 1: this guy healthy. Um. But I'm wondering if you guys
Speaker 1: are panicking or chilling about a Saint's offense, especially the
Speaker 1: passing attack where everything seems pretty close to the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage and the defense at least on Sunday knew it.
Speaker 1: Damn panic or chill chill. I'm a hard chill on
Speaker 1: this one. And it's not because I don't uh see,
Speaker 1: that's how I feel inside. It's not because I don't
Speaker 1: respect the punditry of someone like a Chris Wessling, who
Speaker 1: I think is making sense when he says that Drew
Speaker 1: Brees arm strength is is becoming an increasingly big issue.
Speaker 1: And it does make me think when Sean Payton is
Speaker 1: so going out of his way after the game to
Speaker 1: put the blame on him and say it was the
Speaker 1: worst game plan I've ever had. It makes me think
Speaker 1: that maybe he's covering for his boy because he knows
Speaker 1: that's important, especially this time of year. That said, um
Speaker 1: breathe to me is ill guy in an offense that
Speaker 1: he's super comfortable with that's gonna be in in positive
Speaker 1: game situations because of the defense. And if anybody is
Speaker 1: gonna say they're shocked if he throws three or four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: uh in his next game, you're lying because it's it's
Speaker 1: too simple to be like, oh, yeah, they had two
Speaker 1: seventy total yards. Now it's locked in. He's Peyton Manning
Speaker 1: in that final Broncos year. He stinks. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's there yet. And maybe he is, But right now
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say i'd be more I'd be it would
Speaker 1: be more likely to me that he has a big
Speaker 1: game in Week two and all these narratives go out
Speaker 1: the door for the time being. Yeah, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: chilling because if I'm panicking over this, I'm probably panicking about, um,
Speaker 1: how to pour myself a cup of water in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's look like this is the Saints, this
Speaker 1: is I really think that Sean payton Um is the
Speaker 1: best schemer offensively in the league, and I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you really get into a pinch, you
Speaker 1: can come in and use packages with Jamis Winston, you
Speaker 1: can use their use. No, I'm just saying if you
Speaker 1: get into a real pinch down the stretch. I'm not
Speaker 1: panicking over Drew Brees though, because I think this isn't
Speaker 1: that different of a version of Drew Brees than we
Speaker 1: had a year ago. I just I don't And if
Speaker 1: you haven't healthy Alvin Kamara, he'll be used as well
Speaker 1: as he would in any offense in the league. So
Speaker 1: you know, I do I think that they're gonna be
Speaker 1: the best offense. Um, you know, just book it right now. No.
Speaker 1: But I but I'm not panicking. There's a panic situation.
Speaker 1: I can look at twelve other offenses to panic around.
Speaker 1: Are you guys worried about anything? I mean, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and panic because there's been too much chilling. Ah,
Speaker 1: that's what I say. Let's panics in the street. I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing with the Sames offense. I'm panicking to
Speaker 1: the point is of like, is the old Saints offense
Speaker 1: gonna be back? And do I believe that it's gonna
Speaker 1: stay that way. They've had these stretches over the last
Speaker 1: two years, especially last year, where they didn't look great,
Speaker 1: and then at the end of last year man they
Speaker 1: were scoring a ton of points and it was going great.
Speaker 1: But I think the way the Rosters constructed their interior
Speaker 1: line really struggled against Tampa. Maybe that was a matchup thing,
Speaker 1: but if you if you can't protect Drew Brees up
Speaker 1: the middle, then he starts looking ordinary and there's there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of deep speed here. Emmanuel Sanders played
Speaker 1: less in that game than trade Juan Smith. I think
Speaker 1: they can win games because they've got such a good
Speaker 1: defense and special team. But in terms of like high
Speaker 1: flying old Saints, let's just have some good old fun
Speaker 1: Week one over reaction panic, I don't believe it. I
Speaker 1: think you're just trying to add I have real concerns
Speaker 1: that they're not gonna be like a top five type
Speaker 1: of offense or even you know, necessarily top ten. I do,
Speaker 1: I do. Uh. I am maybe overreacting, but I really
Speaker 1: do believe that. Okay, so I guess it all kind
Speaker 1: of depends on perspective. If the days of the top
Speaker 1: five Drew Brees offense are over. I could buy that
Speaker 1: top ten even okay, I being the worst Saints offense
Speaker 1: under Drew Brees and Shot pay. But you know what,
Speaker 1: that wouldn't be time to panic. It's if they end
Speaker 1: up being in the twenties or something and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, offense is an actual liability. And I feel
Speaker 1: like we're still gonna be far off from that. But
Speaker 1: we'll find out that Michael Thomas injury is a problem
Speaker 1: because sprain is something I could linger and it could
Speaker 1: mess up a whole season. All right, Mark, You're up next. Alright,
Speaker 1: San Francisco. We know they have their issues, but I
Speaker 1: want to focus on Jimmy G. Did you go back
Speaker 1: and look at that game. He's lucky that he didn't
Speaker 1: have an interception on a on a basically it was
Speaker 1: wiped out by penalty. Was a terrible pick while he
Speaker 1: was on the move. Um. Not a great look for
Speaker 1: Jimmy G. He had the fourth and fourth and five
Speaker 1: meltdown at the end of the game where they had
Speaker 1: a chance to win and he just threw a terrible
Speaker 1: pass and to the point where you know, the the
Speaker 1: play by play guy and the color guy basically said,
Speaker 1: that's just on Jimmy G. And you know, I could
Speaker 1: throw in other examples, and we've seen little things from
Speaker 1: Jimmy G here and there, and that five games sample
Speaker 1: that started his career in San Francisco feels about twenty
Speaker 1: five years ago. Are we panicking or are we chilling
Speaker 1: on Jimmy G as the the guy in Sam Francisco.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to panic on this one. This might be
Speaker 1: that this um I was definitely taken aback by his
Speaker 1: performance on Sunday. And I know that the wide receiver
Speaker 1: situation is bad there right now, so you gotta factor
Speaker 1: that in. I think the wide receiver's accounted for forty
Speaker 1: one yards total against the Cardinals, and the Cardinals are
Speaker 1: not anyone's definition of a you know, top secondary in
Speaker 1: the league. But there are three the three throws that
Speaker 1: kind of stuck with me. One is the one that
Speaker 1: injured George Kittle, which was a throw into the flat
Speaker 1: that was high that his star tight end had to
Speaker 1: go up to get and he came down and now
Speaker 1: he's got to spring knee and we'll see how he
Speaker 1: recovers from that. Too. Was the miss to Kendrick Bourne
Speaker 1: that would have given the Niners a win. He undershot
Speaker 1: the throw and allowed the defense under to get back
Speaker 1: into the play. Patrick Peterson knocked the ball away that
Speaker 1: should have been a gimmey touchdown. And three the fourth
Speaker 1: and four with the game on the line, where you
Speaker 1: threw it late and behind his receiver, And maybe it's
Speaker 1: just a bad game, but it does feel like he's
Speaker 1: just a hot and cold guy. And we talked about
Speaker 1: it on this pot a lot, that he has a
Speaker 1: genius offensive coordinator on his side. Maybe I'm expecting a
Speaker 1: little bit more progress, even with a a offense that
Speaker 1: is compromised by injury. So I don't think it's too
Speaker 1: soon to panic that you might just have like a
Speaker 1: guy at quarterback and not the guy. Yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sprinkle like a mild amount of panic. I've just been
Speaker 1: at this this slow, steady panic when it comes to
Speaker 1: Jimmy g for a while. And Week one, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of confirmed my priors, which is that he's just
Speaker 1: always like a step late, a beat late, you know,
Speaker 1: in the it's a timing offense. And you can hear
Speaker 1: it in Kyle Shane Ann's voice, and that's that's partly
Speaker 1: why I've got the mild bit of panic because it
Speaker 1: feels like Kyle Shanahan has a mild bit of panic.
Speaker 1: And that's that's I don't I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: a conspiracy theory, you know, you hear whispers um, but
Speaker 1: I buy into them that there's just like a little
Speaker 1: bit of a disconnect them. I do you know what, Greg,
Speaker 1: I think you're right, and that's why that's why I
Speaker 1: kind of brought it up. The panic for me comes
Speaker 1: from the fact that I think that the Shanahan's um
Speaker 1: have been good head coaches because they are a tad
Speaker 1: cutthroat and you've got to make the right decision. And
Speaker 1: this is Kyle Shanahan's Super Bowl window in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you can make a change right now,
Speaker 1: but I do agree with the sprinkling of panic that
Speaker 1: this is not the guy we thought we had when
Speaker 1: we signed him after a small sample size to a
Speaker 1: massive extension and now go ahead, Sorry, no, I just
Speaker 1: I think that we can look at the most recent game.
Speaker 1: I pointed a few things out, You point a few
Speaker 1: things out. Gregg points a few things out. It seems
Speaker 1: to happen from game to game, and then he'll have
Speaker 1: a stretch where he is awesome and it's like it
Speaker 1: it kind of lays all the fears and everybody comes
Speaker 1: down and then a game like this pops up again.
Speaker 1: So Kenny iron that consistency inconsistency out of his game, Ricky,
Speaker 1: why don't you give us one? I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: maybe Belichick can see the future? Um okay, so um,
Speaker 1: how do you guys feel about DeShawn Watson Without DeAndre Hopkins?
Speaker 1: Dating back to last season, Watson now has four consecutive
Speaker 1: games with a sub hundred passer rating, the longest such
Speaker 1: streak of his career. Panic or chill, I couldn't be
Speaker 1: chilling anymore. I mean qubcubulating garbage that hundreds pretty high,
Speaker 1: So I didn't even know what that means. Billy, Billy O'Brien.
Speaker 1: If he does one thing well, he'll scheme up a
Speaker 1: little more offense in a passing game than you think before.
Speaker 1: Deshohn Watson post DeShawn Watson, I'm worried about him this
Speaker 1: week against that Ravens front, and I'm worried about Texans
Speaker 1: O line. But Watson will find a way. No Panic,
Speaker 1: I'm chilling because I just think to Shaun Watson, um
Speaker 1: is going to probably be the guy that can lift
Speaker 1: an offense no matter what's around him. But I would
Speaker 1: say for all the people that kind of rode off
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hopkins in Arizona thinking he's just gonna be like
Speaker 1: a guy that puts up a five forty four row
Speaker 1: line weekend, I think people were called on him on
Speaker 1: Fantasy not saying that he's not a good player, but
Speaker 1: he was gonna be de emphasized in a four woman
Speaker 1: silva just say the name. You know, Sylva's not alone.
Speaker 1: I mean I think he was like his value went
Speaker 1: down and the logic was there, but then you watched
Speaker 1: the game DeAndre Hopkins, DeAndre Hopkins. So ultimately what the
Speaker 1: Texans did was they removed a complete, raging star wide
Speaker 1: receiver from their offense. So I'd be more panicked about
Speaker 1: some of the decision making. And then with there's the
Speaker 1: back lash where it's like, now let's praise Bill O'Brien
Speaker 1: and he got went and got David Johnson. Well thanks,
Speaker 1: I know which player I'd rather have right now. And
Speaker 1: so I don't like that around Deshaun Watson at all.
Speaker 1: But like David Johnson looked way better than he did
Speaker 1: last year. He was not deliberate this trade. Again, no
Speaker 1: we don't, but but we were on Thursday night and
Speaker 1: everyone else was. It's liked hops Well. I guess that's
Speaker 1: the point of trying to make like, can we all
Speaker 1: as a people agree? And I think we have terrible trade.
Speaker 1: But now the season started and this man's on this
Speaker 1: team and this man's on that team. And I thought
Speaker 1: David Johnson did look really good h and I think
Speaker 1: Will Fuller so many stays healthy, is going to end
Speaker 1: up with numbers that could even rival what Hoppins did
Speaker 1: last year Houston. So I'm gonna say, Chill, I think
Speaker 1: there are a worse team, and that doesn't take a
Speaker 1: brilliant analyst to point that out. But I still think
Speaker 1: with Deshaun Watson, he's so special that I think the
Speaker 1: offense is going to figure it out. It's such a
Speaker 1: it's borderline unfair. When you send these teams on the
Speaker 1: road to the defending champions in their season opener on
Speaker 1: a third day night, it feels like nine times out
Speaker 1: of ten they don't have any chance. And that's how
Speaker 1: it fell for Houston. I can't wait to see them
Speaker 1: in a more normalized and Baltimore this week. What did
Speaker 1: O'Brien do to get the schedule makers match reason Bill
Speaker 1: has done a lot. I'm worried about the Texans just
Speaker 1: because of their schedule and why Jimmy g even though
Speaker 1: I don't believe in him, It's like their schedule is
Speaker 1: is very uh forgiving the next couple of weeks, just
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out and MetLife Stadium and playing the
Speaker 1: Dolphins soon. You know, it's pretty it's pretty easy, pretty nice,
Speaker 1: pretty nice. All right, let's go around the horn one
Speaker 1: more time quickly. I hope you guys had a chance
Speaker 1: to watch this game. I imagine you did. The Packers
Speaker 1: Vikings week one. We all know what Aaron Rodgers did
Speaker 1: and what a fun thing that was to watch him
Speaker 1: turn into Aaron Rodgers again. But I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the Vikings apocalypse. I'm not gonna get two worked
Speaker 1: up about the offensive side of the ball because it
Speaker 1: was a weird game where the defense was couldn't get
Speaker 1: off the field and then by the time Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: and this Stefan Digs free offense went to work the
Speaker 1: game script that kind of flipped it. Just as a
Speaker 1: little wonky, but the defense wasn't competitive in this game.
Speaker 1: And maybe it gets better with the Neil Hunter when
Speaker 1: he comes back, but for one week at least, this
Speaker 1: was non competitive, both in the trenches and in the secondary.
Speaker 1: Greg is a time to panic or chill about the
Speaker 1: Vikings as a legit contender, But well, the way you
Speaker 1: phrase that is tricky. I'm gonna chill because of Mike
Speaker 1: Zimmer's track record coaching up defense for decades, really and
Speaker 1: especially the secondary, I think has enough talent. The linebackers
Speaker 1: are good. The defensive line is a big time concern
Speaker 1: because even when Hunter gets back, it was it was
Speaker 1: their interior that was just blown off the ball and
Speaker 1: are a bunch of you know, rotation guys in the
Speaker 1: past or new players and don't look that talented. And
Speaker 1: yeah you got Angaqui and Hunter, but like that does
Speaker 1: not make you know, an entire defensive line. So that
Speaker 1: that's a problem. But I think they'll be able to
Speaker 1: scheme their way into it and coach coach their way
Speaker 1: up as the season goes along. Well, I'm panicking. I'm
Speaker 1: a Vikings fan. I'm panicking panicking about the Vikings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think the ceiling that team of eight and
Speaker 1: all these years later. No, No, I'm just looking at
Speaker 1: the team I watched on Sunday and the team that
Speaker 1: I watched, um there the floor version of the team
Speaker 1: that I watched last year, and and to be the
Speaker 1: Vikings teams that really had a chance. I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of it just started with it started with your defense.
Speaker 1: And there's too much happening there right now. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you played a great opponent, but not a lot of
Speaker 1: people expected Aaron Rodgers to do that in Week one.
Speaker 1: That's why it's a raging story that Aaron Rodgers came
Speaker 1: out and looked like he had been shotgunned out of
Speaker 1: like a two thousand and twelve cannon. So I mean,
Speaker 1: if I'm Minnesota, I'm freaking because you're probably like a
Speaker 1: nine and seven team and it's the same old story,
Speaker 1: or you're eight and eight, or you're you're one and done,
Speaker 1: and I mean I think finally, if you're if you're
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, you have to say the ceiling needs to
Speaker 1: be higher, and there's re HEAs into panic if the
Speaker 1: organization is going to float along being one of the
Speaker 1: you know, fourth or fifth or six or seventh best
Speaker 1: teams in their conference. I'm I'm on the opposite side
Speaker 1: of the spectrum on this. I'm in a total chill scenario.
Speaker 1: Bad game, they got caught with their pants down in
Speaker 1: week one and Aaron Rodgers was something to prove. Was
Speaker 1: I think a really bad combination. But the coaching is good,
Speaker 1: the roster is good, and yes, I agree with you
Speaker 1: Mark that this team seems to have a couple of
Speaker 1: stinkers in them every year. They got one out of
Speaker 1: the way in week one. I think this is a
Speaker 1: double digit win team and will be coming out of
Speaker 1: Week two after they perform well being like okay, things
Speaker 1: are back on track. Maybe that's what I think. All right,
Speaker 1: who's up? I can go. I'll throw the Chargers offense
Speaker 1: out there. Whether we're panicking or chilling about a Charger's offense,
Speaker 1: who uh you know, despite Joe Burrow having his struggles
Speaker 1: with with trailing until very late in the game against
Speaker 1: the Angles defense without a lot of talent, Sessleric Well,
Speaker 1: I here's the thing. I don't think I'm panicking. I
Speaker 1: think the Chargers um shame on them if they thought
Speaker 1: they were gonna get a whole lot more out of
Speaker 1: this whole thing. I watched that game, um, you know,
Speaker 1: partly to check out the Bengals for TNF. Tyrod Taylor
Speaker 1: great guy, fun guy on hard knocks. We all agree,
Speaker 1: a campaign killer. You're gonna have to make a switch
Speaker 1: at some point, can everyone at you know? The one
Speaker 1: thing that the one thing that bugs me a little
Speaker 1: bit is that the coaching staff talks about all these
Speaker 1: things that Tyrod Taylor can bring to the offense. What
Speaker 1: I see is what he takes away from an offense.
Speaker 1: I just I think he's a mobile guy. That's great,
Speaker 1: but that's not that big of a differentiator in terms
Speaker 1: of what Tyrod Taylor is doing with that These days,
Speaker 1: they're a field goal offense with him. Austin Ekeler has
Speaker 1: been essentially like de emphasized, they don't do they don't
Speaker 1: check down to him in the passing game that Anthony
Speaker 1: lynn basically said, We're not going to do that with
Speaker 1: Anthony Lynnett with are as much this year, that's your
Speaker 1: best player. Mike Williams makes a few amazing grabs in
Speaker 1: that game, but if he doesn't like the offense is
Speaker 1: a stink bomb. And then you have a rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: among them all that I think I want to see it,
Speaker 1: but it just does not seem completely ready for prime time.
Speaker 1: Might be shoved into the fire too soon. It's not
Speaker 1: a great situation. You were five and eleven last year.
Speaker 1: What are you supposed to be doing in the NFL?
Speaker 1: Why was Tyrod Taylor's advertised to us as a starter?
Speaker 1: I never really bought it to begin with. I'm gonna chill,
Speaker 1: but only because I didn't come into the season thinking
Speaker 1: the offense is gonna be very good. And I think
Speaker 1: it's an offense that on most games you're gonna be
Speaker 1: lucky if they give you twenty three points, you know that.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're ceiling most weeks. Is gonna be
Speaker 1: hoping to win a lot of like thirteen games, and
Speaker 1: this was a step below that. And it's in week one,
Speaker 1: you know, on the road. So I think they'll be
Speaker 1: better than they were in Week one. I think Tyrod
Speaker 1: Taylor will be better. I think Austin Ekeler will get
Speaker 1: more involved than they'll figure out ways to do it
Speaker 1: because I like Anthony Lynn, but this is who the
Speaker 1: Chargers are until and if Justin Herbert can play the guitar. Mhmm,
Speaker 1: I'm panicking a little about the approach because there was
Speaker 1: it was the third highest percentage of runs Anthony Lennis had.
Speaker 1: This is what he wants to do. He's told you
Speaker 1: they had three tight ends on the field half the time.
Speaker 1: He just wants to run out. They were losing in
Speaker 1: the game and they and they had the highest Like
Speaker 1: he is living out of three. He's so happy to
Speaker 1: be done with Philip Rivers so he can play the
Speaker 1: style of football he wants. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: a love works. I think I mentioned this uh before
Speaker 1: the season started, but it was so odd to me
Speaker 1: that Philip rivers name never came up once in five
Speaker 1: episodes of Hard Knocks, that that was kind of an
Speaker 1: underrated subplot, that there was bad blood behind the scenes
Speaker 1: and that was a bit of a messy divorce. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it played out because when you have a legendary
Speaker 1: quarterback in your team's history that goes away after eighteen
Speaker 1: years or whatever it was, and then it's not even
Speaker 1: something that people bring up his name out of respect. No,
Speaker 1: there's something cooking behind the scenes there and maybe maybe
Speaker 1: at the lynch shouldn't have been so excited. Can I
Speaker 1: dan one thing that you said, because this is sort
Speaker 1: of where my problem is because I I you, guys,
Speaker 1: we I love Anthony Lynn. Um. I felt so differently
Speaker 1: about him after watching Hard Knocks. I liked the whole team.
Speaker 1: I like Tyrod Taylor. But you go into a season
Speaker 1: saying we want to win games nineteen to sixteen, that's
Speaker 1: who we want to be. It's I mean, it just
Speaker 1: it feels to me like it's it's not all. It's
Speaker 1: not Tyrod Taylor's fault necessarily legs. Maybe those legs aren't.
Speaker 1: He used to be maybe the second best running quarterback
Speaker 1: in the entire NFL. He was an electric runner and
Speaker 1: he just hat didn't really use it anymore. You haven't
Speaker 1: seen it in a few years. But he's only about
Speaker 1: I think he's thirty one maybe, and he hasn't sustained
Speaker 1: any major injuries in recent years. I would imagine the
Speaker 1: athleticism is still there. Uh, does anybody have one more?
Speaker 1: Before we? I had have a quick one for you.
Speaker 1: I mean because this one, I kind of go both
Speaker 1: ways because I don't know how much wiggle room you
Speaker 1: have to um give game this away. The Cowboys offensive line, Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's banged up. I don't think Tyron Smith. People
Speaker 1: to say, you know, you watch a primetime it's Tyron Smith. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not the same Tyron Smith. Okay, Joe Looney,
Speaker 1: these guys were fine on Sunday Night, but if you
Speaker 1: go look at the scores, pff and sort of the
Speaker 1: overall feel you're right side. Connor Williams and Terrence Steele
Speaker 1: were hot messes. Uh. You don't have la all Collins
Speaker 1: back for a while. You've lost Blake jar Win a
Speaker 1: tight end um, so you're losing creativity in terms of
Speaker 1: how you can block. And when we think of offensive lines,
Speaker 1: I think sometimes you know, if you're just sort of
Speaker 1: more watching it from year to year, you get caught
Speaker 1: in what a team has been characteristically like, this is
Speaker 1: not the Cowboys offensive line of old, and I think
Speaker 1: it affects Dak Prescott, panic or chill. I would say
Speaker 1: that panic in the sense that there was a time
Speaker 1: where it doesn't matter who they were playing, they're going
Speaker 1: to handle their business on that front. But that might
Speaker 1: be over now. And when you get a an Aaron
Speaker 1: Donald led defensive line and he was like bullying Zack Martin. Uh,
Speaker 1: even on Sunday Night, they might have gotten to the
Speaker 1: point where they're vulnerable against truly great lines, would still
Speaker 1: will be able to hold their own against everyone else.
Speaker 1: So overall a chill, but with an acknowledgement that it's
Speaker 1: not the same team anymore. I'm gonna chill just because
Speaker 1: I think the offensive person Noel, can mostly make up for.
Speaker 1: There are other points of concern for me on this team,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna I'm gonna have some faith in Dac
Speaker 1: and those receivers and Zeke to just make up for
Speaker 1: You're right, the line is not going to be the
Speaker 1: same now. My expectations are not there. But if as
Speaker 1: long as the line can be average, I think that
Speaker 1: the other players can lift them up. Okay, last quick
Speaker 1: one before we get to Thursday night preview. Uh panic
Speaker 1: or chill? Chris Berman's grip on the cultural zeitgeist Gartner,
Speaker 1: you know across my what what? Who? Like? What? We were?
Speaker 1: Jet and I were watching the game last night and
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in this bean bag that we have and
Speaker 1: She's on the couch and I we both look at
Speaker 1: each other like what the just happened? Like? Who is now?
Speaker 1: This hits on? Ricky's hitting on something that's interesting to
Speaker 1: me because uh, Erica and Jet are obviously significantly younger
Speaker 1: than us. They're in their twenties, and they didn't come
Speaker 1: from the generation where Chris Berman was famous for doing
Speaker 1: things like he's from a bygone era and now when
Speaker 1: you bring them up, you take him out of mothballs
Speaker 1: and throw them on this halftime show on ESPN. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of people that were born like
Speaker 1: after that don't even have the context to understand what
Speaker 1: the hell is going on. And I just don't think
Speaker 1: it's for us. It's supposed to be a nostalgia driven
Speaker 1: and I guess Miles varies on that, but for everyone else,
Speaker 1: it's like a total w t F. I don't know
Speaker 1: if ESPN has piece that together yet. I for me,
Speaker 1: like it is nostalgic, but I can separate from the
Speaker 1: fact that, like I'd be panicking over in general ESPN's
Speaker 1: decisions about their primetime football over the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: and that this still seems like something that they're sitting
Speaker 1: around in production meetings saying this sings this is how
Speaker 1: you this is how you do football. Well, I go ahead, Ricky,
Speaker 1: so serious, like I'm the halftime and here we are,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's going to be a tough one.
Speaker 1: It's like very quiet and out of nowhere, and I
Speaker 1: was like, what is what is happening? Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: though he's been on that halftime show permanently, it's never
Speaker 1: he's never not been on that halftime show. And I'm
Speaker 1: with you, Um, it's it's a little much. But hey,
Speaker 1: you know, NFL Prime Time still going. And Tom Jackson
Speaker 1: understandably decided to opt out this year because of COVID
Speaker 1: and just stay and safe, and so you're adding a
Speaker 1: little bit of younger blood with Booger, and so it's
Speaker 1: Berman and Booger, and Booger brings the that's your cell. Okay,
Speaker 1: Wait is that a panic or is that a chill?
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm I'm I'm along for the ride. The
Speaker 1: website's website Awful Announcing, which does a good media criticism
Speaker 1: put it very well. I thought, Uh, they used to
Speaker 1: cover the Chris Burman late Monday night games with great
Speaker 1: fervor because of how they often went off the rails
Speaker 1: in those last few years. They called the decision to
Speaker 1: continue keeping Burman on the year long after his heyday
Speaker 1: institutional hubris. All right, let's get to a Thursday Night football.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I say that having grown up
Speaker 1: on Chris Burman and I've totally stole Lujiman And some
Speaker 1: people think that that's me being original. No, I just
Speaker 1: stole that from Chris Burman, who did it a million
Speaker 1: times in the nineties on ESPN Prime Time. So all
Speaker 1: due respect to the big Man ultimately, but we're just
Speaker 1: having some fun here, all right. The Thursday Night Football
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns Cincinnati Bengals. Uh, Mark, I imagine if we
Speaker 1: extended the segment uh panic or chill into this conversation,
Speaker 1: I have an idea where you would fall. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I would I think from the from the world
Speaker 1: of you know, Brown's hot and cold stuff. Um, it's
Speaker 1: a little panicky. They just didn't show up at all
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Um. I couldn't be more concerned about how
Speaker 1: long it's gonna take this offense to get its wheels
Speaker 1: going when you're watching other first year head coaches come
Speaker 1: out and uh move parts around. I mean, I know,
Speaker 1: I know that, like the Carolina Panthers fell apart on
Speaker 1: that last play there, but Matt Rule, you know who,
Speaker 1: People thoughts could take ten weeks for this team to
Speaker 1: get together. That offense was fun to watch, I thought,
Speaker 1: and Cleveland's was the opposite. Um, here's the thing, and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not gonna filibuster here Austin Cyber gets cut
Speaker 1: for another terrible open. He gets picked up by the Bengals.
Speaker 1: I have seen this act in this movie. No, but
Speaker 1: this is this is like, Greg, Greg, you gotta understand something, Greg.
Speaker 1: It's a team that is getting killed right now because
Speaker 1: everyone thinks Odell Beckham wants to get traded again or
Speaker 1: they want to trade Aldo because Mike Francessa put a
Speaker 1: tweet out. Okay, everyone left and right is ready to
Speaker 1: pounce on Baker Mayfield and destroy them. This is the
Speaker 1: last thing I want happening on national television. I want
Speaker 1: the team to have a chance to grow to It's
Speaker 1: all over the place now, and it's like, what's going on?
Speaker 1: I wait to hear from Mike Lombardi before I decide
Speaker 1: which of aging football pundits it's fair. I just I
Speaker 1: you know, the thing is like you, we keep saying
Speaker 1: we want to watch quarterbacks that make teams fun. We
Speaker 1: want to watch fun teams, and you know you sign
Speaker 1: up for one and you're not gonna walk away. I'm
Speaker 1: not walking away from them, but this is a sliding
Speaker 1: This is a black mirror scenario that has happened so
Speaker 1: many times during the course of our podcast, and it
Speaker 1: really dips into kind of evil feelings at points where
Speaker 1: I'm just like, this is not enjoyable, and the last
Speaker 1: thing I want is to have Twitter going absolutely nuts
Speaker 1: every It's all the same characters freaking out about Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow topping Baker Mayfield on Thursday Night, all the little chucklers,
Speaker 1: and it's like, it's not fun. It's not fun being
Speaker 1: a fan of this. There's twenty nine more interesting, intriguing,
Speaker 1: fun teams right now. Well, they weren't fun, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: I only was making a little light of the cyber
Speaker 1: thing because I saw Tony Gross. He was covered them forever,
Speaker 1: you know, to say the same thing. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, they should have like waited an extra day
Speaker 1: before they cut cyber, because now it's gonna come back
Speaker 1: to hanum. If Brown's fans are worrying that cutting cyber
Speaker 1: is gonna be the thing that makes or like problems,
Speaker 1: then you're looking at it and we're looking at it
Speaker 1: from the POV like a techno crowd on whether or
Speaker 1: not Austin Cybert is a good roster edition it's the
Speaker 1: kicker that you cut forty eight hours before beating you
Speaker 1: on Thursday night. To do with the person or the person,
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound I don't want to sound
Speaker 1: flip here, Mark, But if Cyber ends up killing you,
Speaker 1: that probably means you at least played a close, competitive game.
Speaker 1: And teams like the Browns and My Jets are included
Speaker 1: of that didn't even compete in week one, So maybe
Speaker 1: that is progress even if if that happens. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think this is gonna be because that Week to
Speaker 1: Thursday game is sneaky way up there in terms of
Speaker 1: visibility because people are still in love with the fact
Speaker 1: that football is back and it's the only game. And
Speaker 1: if Baker Mayfield and this offense and it's not all
Speaker 1: on Baker, it's it's the whole thing. But he is
Speaker 1: at the front of it, and Odell Beckham certainly is
Speaker 1: prominently involved with this too, after he bombed out in
Speaker 1: week one. They need to deliver here. They need to
Speaker 1: step up and put points on the board and look
Speaker 1: dangerous or whatever the hell you want to walk in silence.
Speaker 1: Do whatever you gotta do, but just put some points
Speaker 1: on the board, and don't put all the pressure on
Speaker 1: your defense, uh to stop Joe Burrow, because you don't
Speaker 1: want that to happen, you know, because that happened to
Speaker 1: me on Thursday night football. In fact, my team when
Speaker 1: Baker came in against the Jets when he was a
Speaker 1: rookie and he started getting confident and he was feeling it,
Speaker 1: uh in primetime under the lights. Put some points on
Speaker 1: the board and put the rookie quarterback in the spot
Speaker 1: where the maybe the game script is off and he
Speaker 1: has to throw the ball more than he wants and
Speaker 1: you start getting some turnovers. Don't bomb out on offense here,
Speaker 1: because that's when you're really gonna put yourself uh in
Speaker 1: position for another embarrassing game. Yeah. My My thing, more
Speaker 1: Mark is is it's just not about Cyber It's not.
Speaker 1: It's it's about not being an embarrassment on offense. Because
Speaker 1: last week's game, they were the most disappointing team. I
Speaker 1: thought in Week one that was straight out of the
Speaker 1: Freddie Kitchens. Um, you know, you know best of list.
Speaker 1: I mean, they couldn't have made more mental mistakes. He
Speaker 1: got Baker and uh Stefanski talking about what play they
Speaker 1: want to run on fourth and one with about six
Speaker 1: seconds on the play clock, you know, left before they
Speaker 1: like start sprinting in and try to stay like everything
Speaker 1: was sloppy. And I do go back to the Mayfield
Speaker 1: Beckham connected. It's not being unfair to them. They when
Speaker 1: he throws it to Odell Beckham, bad things happen and
Speaker 1: they gotta fix that. They gotta fix it fast, because
Speaker 1: that was one of the worst, like one of the
Speaker 1: worst um quarterback to wide receiver connections in the league
Speaker 1: last week was Mayfield to Beckham, Beckham dropping passes. He
Speaker 1: did a ton of that last year, mental mistakes, Mayfield's
Speaker 1: missing throws even when he is protected. Offensive line played well,
Speaker 1: running game was good. That that that wasn't the problem.
Speaker 1: So I'm not panicking either because it's only one week.
Speaker 1: But it was about as bad as a week one
Speaker 1: as you can get. And and I think the Thursday
Speaker 1: game is also tricky, Dan, because you have to play
Speaker 1: two games in five days after not playing anything all season.
Speaker 1: You are not conditioned for that, and so it's a
Speaker 1: recipe for more ugly football. I mean, if I were
Speaker 1: to panic about the Bengals to flip it to them
Speaker 1: for one minute. I mean, they're all offensive line in
Speaker 1: that game against the Chargers, and I get that you're playing,
Speaker 1: um a cast of characters from the Los Angeles side.
Speaker 1: Was was one of the worst games I've seen by
Speaker 1: an offensive line, and you know, more credit to Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow for even surviving and making a few plays down
Speaker 1: the stretch. Joe Burrow was not perfect. I keep hearing
Speaker 1: that Joe Burrow had this great debut. I mean he
Speaker 1: was forced into some really bad decisions and looked like
Speaker 1: a deer in headlights, and also made some great throws
Speaker 1: where you saw what Joe Burrow can be. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I trust Cleveland's defense to make any sort
Speaker 1: of impact the way the Chargers did that could open
Speaker 1: things up for Joe Burrow. A j Green looked pretty good.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could see that connection growing. And I'll
Speaker 1: say this last thing about Odell Beckham that the last
Speaker 1: time Baker Mayfield was really dangerous was before Odell Beckham
Speaker 1: was on this team. That's eighteen and that's when Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield was the unquestioned alpha male of the Browns. And
Speaker 1: I do wonder a little bit about this what I
Speaker 1: see with Odell Beckham, and you can tell me if
Speaker 1: you say something different. Is Baker feeding it to Beckham
Speaker 1: when it doesn't always make sense and Beckham just making
Speaker 1: terrible drops in the last game. I mean the chemistry
Speaker 1: was there. I mean, has been a better player for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: By the same time, it's more reliable. He's been better.
Speaker 1: I don't see why that should continue forever. It really shouldn't,
Speaker 1: but that's just been the facts. I think that was
Speaker 1: that was ignored when Beckham got traded to the Browns
Speaker 1: and everybody saw it as the heist of the century.
Speaker 1: Is like the Giants. How to deal with a lot
Speaker 1: of crap with Beckham and part of his whole thing
Speaker 1: is keep him happy, to get him the ball. Everything
Speaker 1: has to be right. But when things aren't going well,
Speaker 1: as Beckham the type of guy that makes a team better,
Speaker 1: or does he drag you down further? Through seventeen games
Speaker 1: of the experience, I'm not sold on the guy. I
Speaker 1: guess I never really have. But it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: fun game. Maybe not for you, Mark, and I get
Speaker 1: it because I feel the same as you, especially when
Speaker 1: you're vulnerable after week one. But two people that are
Speaker 1: less connected to the two teams. It's it's a fun
Speaker 1: matchup and I'm really looking forward to it. I think
Speaker 1: it's one of the better Thursday night football games will
Speaker 1: get all year. Hopefully plays out that way. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: It's a big game too, you can wipe it all
Speaker 1: the way. One and one feels great. It's I know
Speaker 1: you're you're afraid that this is the worst case scenario
Speaker 1: losing the Bengals, but the flip side of his, you're
Speaker 1: playing a team that's not that talented and is beatable,
Speaker 1: and you just the Browns just have to find a
Speaker 1: way to beat them. I'm I'm kind of shocked that
Speaker 1: Browns are as heavily favored as they are. I mean,
Speaker 1: people say, yeah, what's happening there? It's borderline not lockable,
Speaker 1: which seems crazy, but not that is absurd to me too.
Speaker 1: Um But but I don't think the Bengals really did
Speaker 1: much to impress in week one, um in any way,
Speaker 1: and so that that that should make you feel a
Speaker 1: little better. Okay, let's let's get out of here. Reminder,
Speaker 1: Thursday will be our week to preview episode Saturday morning
Speaker 1: on NFL Network. You'll have the network program which is
Speaker 1: a version of the preview episode. Please check that out.
Speaker 1: And of course Thursday Night, I don't know, Mark, You're
Speaker 1: gonna be with us Rain or Shine Thursday Night Recap TVD.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know I'll be in my house, so
Speaker 1: why not. I mean, if it goes horribly, I think
Speaker 1: it would be it would lack nobility to not show up.
Speaker 1: I mean when it's not like this is my first
Speaker 1: experience with the Browns dropping a gigantic egg on my
Speaker 1: onlike a primetime game or big spots, So I'll be there.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's it's cathartic to be able to
Speaker 1: speak about your team like this, Mark, but it is
Speaker 1: another reminder that you've told us fourteen times in the
Speaker 1: offseason that you weren't that you weren't that on board,
Speaker 1: that you weren't that plugged in. And I could feel
Speaker 1: how much this game means to you. So I also
Speaker 1: sincerely hope it goes well. Thank you. I also have
Speaker 1: been saying for over a month that they would start.
Speaker 1: Oh and two, I know you're protecting yourself and I
Speaker 1: am actually just predicting probably the future, and everyone's like, no, Mark,
Speaker 1: like you just have to be optimistic. It's like, excuse me,
Speaker 1: thirty four years into this Browns like rooting for the
Speaker 1: Browns thing, I kind of have a glass fund like
Speaker 1: impacting doom. But I was gonna say, like, if you
Speaker 1: already knew they were gonna go own too, why you
Speaker 1: so passionately upset right now? I understand that's that's the
Speaker 1: struggle within a true fan, because it's different when it's
Speaker 1: just this thing in the clouds in August. Now it's
Speaker 1: like everyone's starting to here we come with all the
Speaker 1: laughter and the giggles. Ever, either going to turn it
Speaker 1: off or I'm gonna change those texts. The text that
Speaker 1: could come on Thursday night, I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: texting weeks. We're gonna have to be like, hey, you
Speaker 1: gotta delete this, Mark, you got to take this down,
Speaker 1: Like no, Like it's not even interesting to tweet negatively
Speaker 1: about the Browns at this point. So yeah, but we'll
Speaker 1: get some I'll be getting text like, hey have you
Speaker 1: heard from Mark? Like is he okay? Like because you'll
Speaker 1: tweeted like wandering the streets with my children dragging behind me,
Speaker 1: like never returning, Like no, maybe check out our stuff
Speaker 1: on NFL dot com Greg has his great end of
Speaker 1: Sunday wrap up and do you have something else that
Speaker 1: files before week two? Greg got the picks picking games
Speaker 1: this year your pick them games? Uh, And also the
Speaker 1: network show Power Rankings are up. They go live every
Speaker 1: Tuesday morning and very excited. Me and Matt money Smith
Speaker 1: are on the network every Tuesday at three pm Eastern
Speaker 1: noon Pacific with the Power Ranking Show and Scisslor. You
Speaker 1: have your weekly column as well. Hot or Not. It's
Speaker 1: sort of just things that I think are cool, that
Speaker 1: I like, things I think should be shot into the space,
Speaker 1: into deep space. I think Eric hired doing a little,
Speaker 1: uh weekly fantasy thing that we basically write four minutes
Speaker 1: before we do it. So Hot or Not. That's how
Speaker 1: Facebook started, right, you know that was well, I hope
Speaker 1: this has a similar to I might be an IP issue,
Speaker 1: but you guys worked that out. Okay. That's it's Dan
Speaker 1: Anthon signing off for Quiet Storm, the old Boss Ricky
Speaker 1: Hollywood and in there Buddy Kiltarsday. If A. J. Green
Speaker 1: didn't have that like captain appearance, but talking about that
Speaker 1: part down like you would have been talking completely. I've
Speaker 1: heard about the Yeah, oh for sure, that's yeah. Alright,
Speaker 1: Erica's right. Though, Erica's right. If he would have went
Speaker 1: down the field burrow and through the game when he
Speaker 1: touched down to drop, it would have been people would
Speaker 1: have been going back