Sports Live! With Steve and Justin
Sports Talk Live! With Steve and Justin! NFL Offseason Analysis: Team Moves and Super Bowl Predictions. A Recording of our live Youtube Sports show every Monday Night 5pm EST.
Sports Live! With Steve and Justin
NFL Week 1 Showdowns: From Baltimore's Collapse to Aaron Rodgers' Revenge
From historic collapses to sweet revenge, NFL Week 1 delivered storylines that will shape the entire season. The most shocking moment came when Baltimore became the first team in NFL history to score 40+ points and lose a game, as Buffalo mounted an incredible comeback capped by a kicker who barely knew his teammates' names after taking a red-eye flight from Arizona.
Aaron Rodgers exacted his revenge against the New York Jets with what many consider his best performance since leaving Green Bay. His postgame comment - "I'm happy to beat anything associated with the New York Jets" - revealed lingering bitterness after reports that Jets coach Aaron Glenn had told him he "didn't have enough left in the tank." This saga highlights deeper organizational issues within the Jets franchise, where talented players and coaches seem to flourish only after leaving.
The Giants' offensive line woes continued in spectacular fashion during their season opener defeat. As we discuss extensively, "the offensive line is the center of the universe for NFL football," yet some teams still fail to invest properly in this crucial area. The Giants letting Saquon Barkley walk only to see him thrive with the Eagles represents another cautionary tale about organizational dysfunction.
Thursday night's matchup between Philadelphia and Dallas proved NFC East rivalries remain fierce, while Green Bay's defense looked rejuvenated with Micah Parsons dominating elite tackle Penei Sewell. Looking ahead to Week 2's compelling matchups, we analyze the Super Bowl rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City, with the Chiefs facing a potential 0-2 start.
Monday Night Football features two rookie quarterbacks as Caleb Williams and JJ McCarthy face off, giving us our first look at the future faces of the league. Whether you're a hardcore NFL fan or just getting into the sport, our detailed breakdown covers all the angles that truly matter.
Subscribe now for weekly NFL analysis that goes beyond the box scores and headlines!
hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of sports live with steve and justin. Uh, how are you, justin?
Speaker 2:I'm good steve a little tired, but I'm good. Steve A little tired, but I'm good.
Speaker 1:A little tired. Justin and I both cooked for a fundraiser yesterday and he did a lot more than I did, because he got there at 5 o'clock and I got there at 7.30 am and he did a lot more than I did and did an amazing job. We raised some money, which is always good, and you know it was a good day. It was a lot of fun, it was good, a lot of people had a good time, which, to be honest, always amazes me.
Speaker 2:That's what's important it keeps them coming back.
Speaker 1:We have some people that complain the whole time and some people that enjoy themselves the whole time, so it was good. So, though, it's Monday, and, needless to say, maybe we'll skip over our picks for the moment, since they were total disasters.
Speaker 2:Complete and total disasters.
Speaker 1:But you know, we still have one game for this week. Being Monday, we still have the Bears and Vikings. Vikings and Caleb Mack, Caleb Williams and JJ McCarthy and JJ McCarthy oh my God.
Speaker 2:Debut.
Speaker 1:We'll see what happens on that I have to be quite interested.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's going to be fun to watch. I hope for a Monday night game. There's certainly a lot of talent on the field on both sides, both offenses. You know JJ coming off the injury and missing all of last season and the Bears essentially scrapping their offense, at least getting rid of Sam Darnold and handed the keys to the Ferrari over to JJ. So it's going to be interesting to see him get out there and sling it.
Speaker 2:You know, it seems like these young quarterbacks early in the season what's best for them, or at least what offensive coordinators try to establish, is that they can throw the ball deep. Obviously Minnesota can throw the ball deep, but we're definitely going to see JJ uncork a couple, probably early in the first half, try and get the ball deep. But we're definitely going to see JJ uncork a couple, probably early in the first half, try and get the ball to Justin Jefferson and his other weapons there. And on the other side you know Caleb Williams, year two. He's got a season under his belt. He didn't play terribly at all last year, not great. But you know, rookie quarterback second year take another step forward. He's got some talent. I know Roma Dunze is on that offense and they're going to look to connect.
Speaker 2:I'm sure these young quarterbacks you know, if they can establish early that they can be accurate deep down the field, that allows them to progress, that allows them to open up the offense a little bit and do some more things. You know quarterback play is essential, obviously in the National Football League. But once coordinators, defense coordinators start to learn what your inefficiencies are or your deficiencies and deep accuracy is probably number one If they know they can take that away or they don't have to worry about it, they can stack the box, stop the run, put more pressure on the quarterback, get to the quarterback. So it's important for those guys to throw the ball early. Tonight We'll see if there's fireworks in the first half.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, as you notice that I changed the color in the background, which is all they have to do is push a button. But I'm doing it in honor of your jets green, not my jets. But I have to tell you I didn't see the entire game, but they played pretty well yesterday. Well, they seem to have heart yesterday they.
Speaker 2:They definitely were playing for something. And you have to wonder, after aaron rogers' comments today or after the game yesterday he said you know I am happy to beat anything or anyone associated with the New York Jets how much of that translated to what we saw on the field. And if the Jets themselves whether it was the guys in the locker room, the coaches, maybe the owner I certainly don't put it past the owner to want to go out and beat Aaron Rodgers. There seems to be some bad blood there and the question from the reporter was about Aaron Glenn essentially telling Rodgers you're not our quarterback, it's not who we want.
Speaker 2:I don't blame a new head coach, especially a guy coming into the Jets organization telling a 40-something I don't care that he's a pro bowler and a Hall of Famer and all that. The Jets were not built to win a championship, regardless of what their fans think about their roster. They have to move forward, they have to establish a new regime and part of doing that is changing quarterbacks or at least finding a new quarterback. Part of doing that is changing quarterbacks or at least finding a new quarterback, and Rodgers has to at least understand that. Now I wasn't in the room, maybe it was personal, maybe Aaron Glenn just doesn't like him, maybe it goes back to when he played for the Packers. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting. The quote I heard was you know, I heard you were told you didn't have enough left in the tank to be a pro quarterback anymore. And that's what they asked Aaron. And he goes well, that's what I was told. And then he said, literally told. So in other words, aaron told him that they didn't think he had anything in it to be an NFL quarterback, that they didn't think he had anything in it to be an NFL quarterback. Meanwhile he played.
Speaker 2:by all accounts he played the best game he's played since he left Green Bay, without question. I mean, that was, you know, that was a hell of a performance. It kind of reminds me of the question when someone says you know, if you could choose one quarterback for one game to win one, this, whatever I mean. Obviously Pittsburgh is a well-coached, well-prepared team. Tomlin is a fierce competitor, so I think you have two guys that match their personalities, so it makes it more fun and easy to run that offense for them. It certainly takes a little pressure off Tomlin in terms of what they have on offense. He can concentrate on his specialty and leave it up to his quarterback and coordinator. To, you know, matriculate the ball down the field, as they say. But yeah, you know, week one always leaves you wondering. You know, you always see something you don't expect. And is this team for real? Is that team for real? Is that team as bad as they thought we were? Are they worse? Are they better? So you know you don't. You got to get to, you know, weeks three or four when you start to find out who's for real, and then by mid season, I think you have that answer.
Speaker 2:So yesterday, you know, good props to the Jets. They did play well, the running back had over a hundred yards rushing. They fought hard. Um, you know, field seemed to have time to throw the ball. Um, he made some mistakes, which I think are mistakes that can be overcome. He still has to progress as a quarterback, as we know. He hasn't really had I won't say he hasn't had a fair shot, but the lack of continuity for him still exists and it seemed like yesterday he was on the same page as his coordinator and the rest of the offense and they were clicking and they can get better.
Speaker 2:The Jet defense I mean you're playing against Aaron Rodgers. You're going to give up points. Are they 34, 33 points bad every week? I don't think they are. So you know the Jets should be positive going into week two and they should build on what they have and not concentrate on, you know, any mistakes they made or little things. They can move forward and you know, hopefully they have something to build on here.
Speaker 2:I mean we talked about it last week with the culture change and Aaron Glenn, and can he get these guys to buy in and are they all on the same page and will they continue to fight? Have these guys to buy in and are they all on the same page. And will they continue to fight and I think they will. If they were playing, you know, just to beat our rogers and that's the best you're going to see this season, then they're in big trouble, right well, but the steelers, you know the steelers are going to be competitive. They, you know, they, they have a I won't say they have a soft schedule, but they have a winnable schedule in the first half and they're going to get to Green Bay in Week 8 probably with five or six wins, if not undefeated. And that'll be a test, because that's another revenge game for Aaron Rodgers. They play the Packers in Week 8.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it would seem that you know, I don't know, this team has some systemic problems right, that there is some kind of before Aaron Glenn, because we know, yeah, it would seem there are all kinds of problems. I mean you look at two quarterbacks they've had Geno Smith and Darnold and Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold, who no one's saying are, you know, roger Staubach out there, but they both had significant success in the National.
Speaker 2:Football League. Yeah, darnold, last year was like a complete and total surprise. He did have a year in San Francisco with Schottenheimer, um, that I think, probably made a big difference for him in his career, um. And then he got a chance to play in Minnesota and he, I mean he took full advantage of it. They were 12 13 win team last year, um. So you know he may be now past that part of his early stage of his career where he he's falling in sync now with the speed of the game and he's made all the mistakes he's going to make and he's going to be better and maybe that's the level of play he can produce every week.
Speaker 2:You know Minnesota had tremendous talent last year. I mean they they were arguably one of the best teams in the National Football League. I think they had a tremendous letdown in the playoffs and it seemed like same old Sam Darnold. So, but you know that's his first playoff game. That's his first, you know, foray into the postseason. So he can still build and grow and get better, which you know could scare you if he's progressing now and getting even better. You know it could scare you If he's progressing now and getting even better.
Speaker 2:You know what does the future hold for him? Geno Smith bounced around. I think Geno's gotten past. You know the youth and inexperience part that a lot of times you don't see quarterbacks, the young quarterbacks. You know somebody like a Johnny Manziel get past, just being a clown Not saying Geno's a clown, just that they're just.
Speaker 2:You know, when he got punched in the face in the jet locker room and there was a lot of cloud and uncertainty about who he was, his character even coming out of West Virginia. Could he play in the cold weather? Could he do this, could he do that? I think he's now righted the ship and he's on course. And you know, last year he had a lot of success thrown to his tight end. You know he's in a whole new situation this year and as far as those two coming from the Jets organization are concerned, I think it proves that there's more going on behind the scenes in Florham Park whatever they call that place, which is just an ode to Woody Johnson. Their organization needs to be cleaned out from top to bottom to get rid of whatever that systemic problem is, because you saw it in the video when Belichick and Parcells went back to the stadium and they just completely skipped. They didn't even want any part of going in the jet locker room to reminisce about their time with the Jets. And they were successful. You know, I know they didn't win a Super Bowl and then Belichick left immediately, but you know they didn't even want to go over it. I mean they were so disgusted with it.
Speaker 2:It seemed and you know, talking to former NFL coaches, it's likened to Sean Payton going to the Saints. When he got to the Saints facilities he knew right away what had to change and that's why I was hammering the point of when he became available, that I thought the jets had to go get him because he was. He's a culture changer. Look what he's doing in denver. I mean they're gonna be a good team for for a while he's. He's turned the course of the franchise. I mean I'm not saying they're gonna win a super bowl, but he's a coach that proved he could do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah but he bit the bullet there there in Denver pretty hard and made some decisions that I think the media in New York wouldn't have let it happen and would have gotten the reaction from the owner and he would have done something stupid, like he always does.
Speaker 2:The owner is very much manipulated by the media. They know how to push his buttons. I think that's why Rex was so good for the Jets when he was here, because he deflected, he took it all on. You know, I don't expect Sean Payton to do that or expect that he would do that in New York, but that's why I kind of take the New York media with a grain of salt. Everybody says they're so tough. I think they're just whiny and bitchy.
Speaker 1:It's amazing that the Jets both had successful coaches chase them to try to get the job this year, which includes Rex who went over and made a phone call, which includes Belichick who called and went over there and who knows who else tried to get back in there. And it would seem, you know and this is just me from looking from a novice from the outside it would seem that ownership doesn't want a person that may challenge them in the media and ownership's not going to win that challenge. And they may win the fight, they may win the war, but they're not going to win the fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jerry Jones is probably the perfect example of that. You know some of his coaching hirings. I remember when he hired was it Callahan, and there was another one either before or right after that. I mean, they have egos. These are billionaires, they want to be prime time. Look at somebody like Steve Ballmer in the NBA.
Speaker 2:These guys think that they're on the field, they think that they can make decisions, they think that because they're billionaires, that they can control every facet of the organization and win games, which is it defies logic, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:If you have a coach, that is good you got to let him coach, let him coach, let him coach, let the players play and stay out of it. If you know you have a direction, you want your team to go. You believe in a certain player or you don't believe in a player and you think he's bad for your locker room. I mean, you're still the owners, you can do whatever you want bring guys in, get guys out but ultimately I think we We've seen where the coaches that are allowed to coach, the coaches that are allowed to instill their program Like you know, again, Sean Payton changed the culture in New Orleans. I mean, they were just a terrible franchise and the owner wanted to win and he brought in Sean Payton at a time when other franchises, including the New York Jets he's too young, he's too raw, he's too green. He turned over the whole franchise to Sean Payton and he won them a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So you know again. You know Belichick same thing, right. I mean they gave him what he wanted in New England and he hadn't had much success before. But here he is, 20 years later, guy won six Super Bowls. I mean, it is what it is. So the proof is in the pudding. You know coaches have to coach. If you hire a guy to coach your team, you have to trust him. You can't meddle with that. You can't hire a guy to fit your piece. You have to let him do his thing. Either you love his personality or you don't and you let him coach. Players want to play for coaches that are in control. Players want to play for coaches that can win them games and make them superstars. At the end it's all about money. So you know these billionaire owners. They can just cycle through coaches and you know they don't. I don't think they care one way or the other about winning. I think it's really more about their ego could be.
Speaker 2:You can't have tom brady as a partner and not care about winning well, yeah, yeah, I mean, that makes a difference too sure for for sure. Tom's different breed altogether, you know, um, he just demands success from himself and he doesn't take the little things for granted. I mean you hear his interviews about, you know, only getting two reps with the practice squad or only getting two reps as a freshman at Michigan and taking those things very seriously and hyping the guys up and going 100%. You know that's what winners do? You know, a lot of times these guys come from the bottom and fight their way to the top and they don't take anything for granted. And other players, I think, see that and resonates with them and they become, you know, leaders among men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're talking about, you know, old quarterbacks for the Jets. I have to say we have to mention old quarterbacks for the Giants, it would seem. When you talk about you know, I can't help thinking about other people that played for the Giants when a total and absolute collapse yesterday. I know. Espn does some kind of rating thing where they rate teams on performances from 1 to 200. And Miami's effort yesterday was 1.9 on a scale from 1 to 100.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty bad. There's probably things going on in Miami under the radar that maybe we don't know about. I picked in the win last week thinking that the Colts were a disaster, and it was the complete opposite. Right Tua looked like he was still concussed yesterday in that game. He made some bad throws, some bad reads. You know you have to wonder.
Speaker 2:I mean, they did give him that huge contract, which you know I'm not rooting against the guy and I'm perfectly honest, I never really liked him as a quarterback. I thought it was just kind of fool's gold in the beginning. But after sustaining those concussions it breaks your heart to see that guy collapse on the field and stumble back to the sideline. And you know they were talking about his career being over and you don't want to see that for a young player. You don't want to see that for anybody, especially when you consider what the long-term effects of that might be. And the Dolphins seem to just ignore that and I want to believe that they think he's the future and he's great and he's. You know all these things.
Speaker 2:But I think they kind of force a square peg in a round hole here, and they're trying to justify that contract now, and if the way he played yesterday is indicative of how he's going to play for the rest of the season, they're in big trouble.
Speaker 1:But I have to say that it's beyond him. The entire team looked ill-prepared, the entire team, which is unusual. Unusual but.
Speaker 2:But I think that was across the NFL. I mean, these guys don't play in preseason games and you don't know anymore if they're practicing or just going through the motions. Their practice time is limited because the CBA and injuries and they can't practice all day and they only have so many hours a week that they can practice hours a day. It's not the same NFL and it shows If you don't maximize your practice time, clearly you can't just have this laissez-faire attitude that our players are going to play and they'll be, they'll show up and they'll be fine. They, they. They've clearly shifted now because guys just don't play in the preseason and they expect these guys to go out and perform week one at the top of their game and be ready to go. You know there were a few teams yesterday that looked like they were prepared to play week one and are ready for an entire season.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking about Miami, you can't do that without speaking about Baltimore and the performance by their quarterback.
Speaker 2:I think I owe them an apology after what I said last week. Yeah, they took advantage of Miami's inefficiency on defense. To their credit, their offensive line played tremendous and I think that alone is enough. I mean, my mother could have stood back there yesterday throwing the ball and that's not a knock on Daniel Jones at all. He had time to throw, whereas for the last five seasons he was basically running for his life. At times nobody could protect him. He took a lot of sacks. Yesterday he looked like a completely different guy.
Speaker 1:Yesterday he looked like a first round draft pick so let's just, for argument's sake, say that's true, say that this wasn't a fluke and the kid's a quarterback and can play Now. He's learned a lot and he was in Minnesota for a year and I saw an interview with him today and he acknowledged that he learned a lot playing in a backup role. Isn't this the same thing we said about Saquon Barkley? Isn't this the same thing that we said here's a guy he's not reaching his potential. He goes to another team that has an amazing offensive line and we all know that Saquon is a generational player. Right, Because that's already happened.
Speaker 1:He does things on the field that nobody else I mean, even just on thursday night he was fantastic yeah, and he's selfless that's right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you just don't find that in superstars you really don't, especially running backs, especially running backs, and especially running backs in today's game, where they're, you know, they're not like they were when we were kids.
Speaker 1:So you have to really scratch your head about the Giants. You scratch about the ownership I mean, you scratch about I think I think the coach didn't have the Giants prepared this year this week either. I have questions about his ability to prepare that team. Not that I don't have questions about their abilities on the whole, but I don't know. I didn't see things that anyone that gave me hope. I saw hope in the Jets but of course I have faith in Aaron Glenn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that it's deeper with the Giants because of what I witnessed on hard knocks. I don't think it's the coach. I think Dable is a good coach. I think it's the general manager. They have not solidified the problems that they have on offensive line.
Speaker 2:That was clear and evident yesterday. They were in that game late in the first half and I think it was that goal line. You know they had an opportunity in the red zone. They got a penalty that gave them an extra set of downs and they couldn't score a touchdown. That could be on the coach. You know you've got enough talent on the field or you got to score there.
Speaker 2:Russell Wilson did not look good, he looked terrible, but in that situation he just looked very unathletic and you know like he was not making the correct reads, he looked, you know, foolish in fact. So to have to settle for three points there. You know, when we talked about that game last week, you know you took the six points or gave the six points to the, to the giants. You were right. I thought six points is a lot on. You know it's a lot of points in football and that game was close, but the giants seem to be unconditioned. They weren't. They can't finish a game. Certainly the offensive line play. They made the statement this week that russell wilson's gonna play. If the offensive line is gonna continue to play like that, they can't put their number one quarterback back there.
Speaker 1:That's always been a problem.
Speaker 2:You can't get him. I mean, it's the same old thing. Ironically, it's the Giants, not the Jets, but you know they have to. You know, if you bring in all this talent and then you fix your offensive line, fine. But you got rid of Saquon. You got rid of who was the receiver before that? Why can't I think of his name with the blonde hair? Oh my God, went to the Rams and won a Superbowl.
Speaker 1:That's all right. God, I can't forget, it'll come up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you're. You're losing talent at skill positions, you're letting it walk out the door and you haven't done anything to elevate the talent that's on your roster. And if your offensive line is garbage, or you won't address it or you think you could just throw five warm bodies out there and you know, run a football team, expect to score or go get it. What you think is a top tier quarterback and throw him out there and throw him to the wolves, oh, he'll learn he'll. He's not going to learn anything if he's running for his life. He's not going to learn anything if they can't block. He's not going to learn anything if you can't run the football to help protect him. And that's a big problem. I think it's. It's also an nfl problem.
Speaker 2:I think you see it a lot with teams because I think the you know the analytics of football and the salary cap and all that plays a part in in guys at those positions playing a long time and guys being available to play deep into their careers. You know it's a systemic issue maybe. But with the Giants, yeah, to see both teams lose quarterbacks to go play elsewhere and have success. The Jets you could say three now with Aaron Rodgers. But Daniel Jones, you know he's shown signs of being somebody who could play, but it was never consistent because the Giants offensive line was never consistent protecting him or running the football, and it's the same old thing for the Giants.
Speaker 2:So they've got to fix that and if they don't fix it, I don't know how they're going to fix it. I mean, the season started. I don't know if they got somebody hiding somewhere on the practice squad or if their coaches have a fix for it. If it was just, you know we weren't prepared because we didn't play these guys in the preseason. You know there's going to be excuses, but those excuses are not going to last very long and you can't afford to just throw games away at the front end of the season. You have to be ready to go and all of those things are factors Practice time, game time, preseason, game time. You got to be ready to go from day one and the Giants were not.
Speaker 1:They really need somebody both of them and probably every team in the NFL. Some may have them People that recruit offensive linemen, that go to colleges and specialize in offensive linemen and nothing else and pay them a lot of money. If they're successful, who cares? Whatever you pay them is insignificant to the money you make on national television.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I mean, that's part of it too. Right, it's not sexy to pay an offensive lineman a lot of money if he's good. Uh, I remember when steve hudgenson got that youth contract from minnesota and people were you know, oh, it's a lot of money to give an offensive lineman, but the guy was great, he deserved. Look at panay sewell right now in detroit. I mean that was another guy the jets probably should have drafted and didn't. But you know, you know he I mean last night he had his hands full with Parsons but he's the best offensive tackle in the game.
Speaker 2:You got to pay guys like that. I mean the other. The flip side of that is guys like that don't stay in this league as long as they used to. So that's a problem. You know, I don't. There's people out there a lot smarter than me. Figure out the pay scale, but you know it's a problem. Yeah, I mean I. I offensive line is the is the center of the universe for nfl football. It always has been. Your offensive line is good. Your team should be good. You'll know if you have a good offensive line if your quarterback stinks or not. You'll know if you have a good offensive line if your quarterback stinks or not, they will give you the read on the entire team so you know to have guys at positions to look for talent coaches that go out scouts. I mean, you know, there's enough consumable information on the Internet alone.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And on Saturdays and Sundays, that you and I could probably sift through every offensive line in the country, every offensive lineman, and tell you this guy's good, this guy's no good, this guy's huge, this guy's fast, this guy's slow. You know, it's all on film. The tape doesn't lie. Nothing can beat the eyeball. Test Period.
Speaker 1:And you could travel all over the country and go to these places and watch them live and talk to their coaches. There's no, you know, nfl people at draft. You could talk to anybody. There's no prohibition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there isn't, and you know the coaching network. It's a fraternity, that will. You know. They love their players but they're going to give you an honest evaluation, no matter what If the kid you know. Perfect example, and it's really more about defensive. But just to show you, the Jets drafted Vernon Golsan years ago from Ohio State because he had one good game against Michigan. The film showed you that on the play that he made, jake Long, who was a Pro Bowl offensive lineman, took the wrong step. He went left instead of going right, or he went right instead of left and Golston blew up the play. That play.
Speaker 2:Let the Jets send Tannenbaum out to Ohio State with two coaches to look at this guy's pro day. The two coaches looked at each other and said why are we here? The coach from Ohio State called his buddy, told him don't bother coming here. The kid's a clarinet player, he only wants to be in the band. We just found a warm body and put pads on him and he doesn't even like football. Tannenbaum turns around and says isn't this great? After watching the video and seeing the kid run, and it's mind-boggling. So that's why, in this case, I think the Giants general manager is really more to blame for this than the coach, because it's like Parcells said if you want me to cook the meal, you got to let me pick the vegetables or pick the ingredients, whatever.
Speaker 2:And seeing Joe Shane with his feet up on the desk on the phone with Saquon Barkley, just so matter-of-factly tell the greatest running back of this generation yeah, we're going to let you go do whatever. So that's that that to me. I would have fired him on the spot. Instead, the owner walks in and goes. Well, I hope he doesn't go to the Eagles. You should have flown to his house and knocked on his door and said we're not letting you go.
Speaker 2:That's how you handle a player like that the backup punter, the guy on the practice squad, third string offensive tackle. You don't have to go to his house. Look him in the eye. Saquon, you got to go do that. If he's not going to do that with Saquon, he's not going to do it with anybody else. So what trust can you have in this general manager to identify talent and bring talent in to fix what's wrong If he's just letting all the talent? Odell Beckham, that was his name. If you're letting all this talent go, you know why. Why, even? What are you doing here? So it's gotta be frustrating for. So it's got to be frustrating for Dable. It has to be. I don't know what their relationship is like personally, but Dable's got to be losing his mind if this guy is going to allow talent to walk like that.
Speaker 1:I just, you know, think about it. You have a player that played for the Giants, had a good year Not an amazing year, but a good year, better than average year with the Giants, and then he goes to a team that actually has an offensive line and he has not just a generational season.
Speaker 2:He arguably has— he could have broke the all-time rushing record.
Speaker 1:He could have broken the all-time rushing record.
Speaker 2:He just chose not to Chose not to, which is one of the most— that and I think, the all-time rushing record he just chose not to Chose, not to, which is one of the most that and I think the single game record he could Just one of the most unselfish things I've ever witnessed on a football field, I know there's. You know, the only thing that I could think of that's more selfless is Ronnie Lott cutting off his finger to go back in the game. So you know, I don't think that this is a good sign. I wonder if and I know I talk about it all the time how much does analytics play in his decision-making? Is this an analytics GM? And his theory is we don't need an offensive line, we just need guys to hit those target points that we're looking for. Like the general manager from cleveland said, or assist the gm said last week you can't, you can't win games like that. You can't justify that on a football field.
Speaker 1:it just doesn't work it just players are in football, it's a team, right, you don't win unless the team plays, you don't? You know the offensive line? I mean you remember? Uh, what's his name, was it? Emma smith used to buy rolex watches for the, for the, the lineman you know, and give him all his gifts at the end of the year. He wasn't stupid. And here's. These guys know he's one of the greatest running backs of all time.
Speaker 2:Offensive line is so important. I mean you have to have such a cohesive unit to be good. You know I can't. They're. They do all the dirty work. They're never going to be on sports center highlight reels and they know that they're never going to be invited to all these chic parties and look at me and have you know the supermodel girlfriends and you know. But they're not that type of breed of guy. That's not what they're in it for. These are men. These are grown men that have hands the size of polar bears.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's not hard to identify them, to go into a season and think we're not going to worry about that. We have what we need. It's starting to look and smell like analytics to me. It's like I'm waiting for Yankees made the statement strikeouts don't matter, talking about offense. Then they go out and hire. You know they sign a pitcher for $36 million a year because he's got a high spin rate, which translates to more strikeouts. It justifies logic and I'm wondering if the analytics of today are like we don't really need to have a good offensive lineman as long as we have XYZ in position and a quarterback that can hit these target points that we're looking for and the data points that suggest he can be good. You can't be good without an offensive line period. You don't win Super Bowls without an offensive line.
Speaker 1:And that's why the tight ends have become so important, because you could use them at times to pick up blocking. When you have that big tough tight end, it's important and it's so important that you have that flexibility.
Speaker 2:You had to be able to block back then as a tight end it was. You know, having a set of hands was kind of like automatic, like if you had hands, great. But it was like every tight end had hands.
Speaker 1:But could they block If they can't do the little things they can't play things they can't play, and so talking about talking about teams the game last night Baltimore and Buffalo now arguably two of the best teams in the NFL yeah, and I went to bed with seven minutes left.
Speaker 2:I brushed my teeth, I cleaned my CPAP, I filled the tank, I laid down, I put on some pajamas and I brushed my teeth, I cleaned my CPAP, I filled the tank, I laid down, I put on some pajamas and then, all of a sudden, I got a text Wow.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was me right. You, Mike, somebody else. So I had fallen asleep and woken up so I was pretty with it. When I was watching, I fell asleep for a couple of minutes, but I remember my girlfriend was sitting there and we were watching the game. I wouldn't say she's a big football fan and I was like huffing and puffing and she was like what's the matter? I'm like there's five or six minutes left. I'm like, and this team's going through the motions, Buffalo, they could win this game. They have everything they need to win this game. They may need a little luck, they may need to hold them, they may, whatever, and it happens. So what did we learn? What are we saying After the game? You know, you see this great comeback. Now there's two things that both need to happen for them to win that game last night. One is the officials had to find a second left on the clock to leave them be able to kick the field goal during the end of the second half, first half. Second. End of the second quarter, first half.
Speaker 2:End of the second quarter.
Speaker 1:yeah, that allows them to kick a field goal for three points. The other thing is, after playing one of the sickest games as a running back I've seen, in some times you needed Henry to fumble. I mean some of his runs. He had one and I don't remember what part of the game it was. I want to say it was in the third quarter. He's running and I don't remember which position he played, but a defensive back goes to tackle him and he puts out his hand and swats him away like a fly.
Speaker 1:He looked like a runaway horse on a racetrack and the announcer says by the way, guys, that guy's 6'4" 210 pounds, so it wasn't like he was 150-pound weakling.
Speaker 2:It wasn't just some little defensive back corner he is amazing.
Speaker 1:But what did he do? I mean? Is this the first time, the third time, the fifth time that we see this Baltimore team loaded with talent, arguably one of the best cornerbacks? Who's won the MVP two or three times right?
Speaker 2:Should have won it probably more than that. Yeah, I think yeah.
Speaker 1:And they don't seem to play 60 minutes and the best coach in football.
Speaker 2:They kind of remind me like their offense looks like a video game. I mean they just, you know, press the button, snap the ball, score a touchdown. They just go right up the field at will, anytime they want.
Speaker 1:But how many times did they seem like they give up at the end of the game that they don't play 60 minutes? It happens.
Speaker 2:So we talked about that preseason when we made our picks and until somebody comes along to beat the Chiefs, who's it going to be? And I think we both said it was Baltimore or Buffalo's got to take that next step. My concern for Baltimore was that it's not the same Baltimore defense that we're used to, and the concern for Buffalo was can Josh Allen elevate himself to take that next step and command this offense into a deep playoff run towards the Super Bowl? Clearly, last night I mean and Buffalo, they weren't just down, I mean they had made a decision earlier to go for two, which I absolutely detest. Two-point conversions. I argue with my friends all the time. They always say the book says you have to go for two. I don't care what the book says, I want, want the point. Just, I'll worry about going for two at the end of the game, when the game is on the line, and I'll have my team prepared for that. They had to get you know because they missed. They had to play catch up and they did, to their credit. They won the game and I think that's a testament to their quarterback not giving up, who scolded the fans who left after the game said maybe have a little more faith next time, which I thought was great.
Speaker 2:As far as Baltimore is concerned, that's a problem. You look like world beaters. I mean you're shaming these guys on their own field. You're marching down the field, you're running back. It's just. Nobody can tackle him. Your quarterback is out of his mind. Even Zay Flowers played well last night. I mean they were clicking the whole game. But that Baltimore defense, just like you said, it just seemed like they took their foot off the gas and took for granted that they had this lead and they were just going to win.
Speaker 1:You know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of when the Giants used to go into pre-vent a hundred years ago, and they would get beat every time.
Speaker 2:Every time.
Speaker 1:It seems like their defense said well, there's only a few minutes left. We just got to play, we'll play conservative defense, we won't get beat long and we're going to win this game because the clock's going to run out. Well, guess what? It ran out all right.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry I didn't watch the last eight minutes or seven minutes of the game because that's when all the fun happened, but it certainly seemed like it was well at hand when I went to bed. It was 40 to 20 or whatever it was at that point 20-something. It was 40 to 20 or whatever it was. At that point 20, something. Um, I, I, I did not. I did hear one comment today about the rule changes affecting how the end of that game played out. I don't know if you noticed that, but you know you have to wonder again. You know, uh, and not taking anything away from the bills or suggesting anything you mean what rule changed that you couldn't challenge, or what was the other?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was their. I forgot which one it was. They said this the comment I turned the television on and they had talked about the Bills getting the ball back and they said as a result of the rule change, this allowed Buffalo to go on and score after the. I guess maybe it was a fumble, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what it was, but I don't know if you noticed anything during the game.
Speaker 1:Well, part of the rule change was that you can't challenge in the final two minutes of the game. You can't challenge and I know we went over the rule changes, I don't remember that rule change but that you can't do challenges in the final two minutes, which it didn't really.
Speaker 2:It's automatic right. It's an automatic look.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but there wasn't anything I don't remember anything significant with the rule changes that made it. I know it was mentioned. It had something to do with going out of bounds and whatever, and there has been talk in the NFL committees about putting a tenth of a second clock on the NFL clock, so when there's seconds left it isn't just one or zero but can be 0.5. Like the NBA.
Speaker 1:Like the NBA and it. Clearly at the halftime, when they talked about that, they went back and looked and he went out of bounds. There was still a one on the clock and that made a putback and Buffalo ran into the locker room. They were like we're out of here and that was interesting and the officials, to their credit, made them come back out and I don't know. There were a few things, but at the end of the day, everybody had the same rules, everybody had the same thing and Buffalo just kept let's do it, let's do it. They never let it get away from them.
Speaker 2:They never let it out of control.
Speaker 1:And they constantly so. Then you have, and they did things that I wouldn't have agreed with in a long time. They were like on the 30 yard line and I don't know. There was a penalty or whatever it was. It was first down, they had plenty of time to go for a touchdown, but they didn't. They chose. Their strategy was we're going to kick a field goal but we're going to burn out the clock at the same time. So they ran and ran and ran and short passes and whatever, and they got down. They ran it. It went out of bounds, short passes out of bounds. And they got it back within a few yards less than 10, I would say, of field goal range and burnt the clock. And in running that time, baltimore had three timeouts left.
Speaker 2:And because they ran the football.
Speaker 1:Baltimore had to burn their timeouts to create some time for them to get back. And once Baltimore had burned through their timeouts, they burned through the rest of the time. So when they kicked a field goal, there wouldn't be any time left for anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no time left, and that was a great, I never would have done that.
Speaker 1:I would have been like score who cares, go in. But, they were smart, they played it you know that's why you get.
Speaker 2:They played it right. They didn't want to give the ball back and score too early and give the ball back to Lamar and the best thing is Prater, the kicker Prater.
Speaker 1:He was in Arizona on Thursday. He took a red-eye back. They had just hired him to kick. You know he's been kicking for whatever.
Speaker 2:You know every big game. I think we've seen he's been around a long time he's been in the big kicks.
Speaker 1:They bring him in. They told him he was jet lagged and the conversation was he didn't even know the names of the players on the team. He just got there on Thursday. I mean, it's not like he went around and introduced himself.
Speaker 2:They're all doing their thing because they're playing right.
Speaker 1:We're going into the first game of the year. They're concentrating on Thursday. You think they went around. Hey, I'm like some old guy because Beard was all gray when they interviewed him after the game. Old guy because beard was all gray when they interviewed him after the game. When they interviewed josh allen and they asked him about it, he said you know, I didn't really talk to him, I didn't meet him. I met him before the game and he came up to me and says when the time comes, I'll be there for you. That's what he. He told Josh Allen before the game.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a love song, I'll be there for you, and sure as hell. Everybody was like, oh my God, this guy's had 10 hours sleep in the past three days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's the funniest. This is one of those stories where you're going to look back on the ESPN 30 for 30 of the Super Bowl Buffalo Bills story or the E60 on the kicker or whatever. The Bills very much looked like, you know, a team that was fighting to get and elevate themselves to a championship level. Even though I didn't watch the last seven minutes of the game, the Ravens looked like they were kind of looking ahead, almost like they took their offense for granted, Like all right, who's next?
Speaker 2:Let's get out of here. Let's take this 40 points and go home.
Speaker 1:First time in history and they didn't finish the game. First time in history, a team scored 40 pence and lost the game. First time in NFL history and I mean, you don't expect it from a coach like that.
Speaker 2:No, listen, he's. And I mean you don't expect it from a coach like that. No, listen, he's a good coach. He's won a Super Bowl. I think there's the AFC after yesterday. You have that game two offenses scoring 40 points. You have the Chiefs breaking down and looking like almost well, I don't want to curse, but they look terrible. Then you have the Chargers. Who are they for real? We don't know. We really don't know. I mean they played great, they got a good coach, the quarterback looked fantastic. Then you have the Steelers, who have veteran all-time quarterback, the longest tenured coach, super Bowl champion, and they brought in all these free agents. I think yesterday I heard something like 29 free agents and I don't know. They have all these pro bowlers all over the field.
Speaker 2:So that loss for the Ravens is a terrible loss, from the way they lost, who they lost, to where it puts them in the standings, what it's going to mean later in the season. I mean that is something where you're going to say are they going to have to go on the road now and play Buffalo in the championship game? If they get there, are they going to have to take a backseat? Are they going to be playing catch up. Are they going to have to take a backseat? Are they going to be playing catch-up? Are they going to be a game behind Pittsburgh all year?
Speaker 2:That's a big loss. Those are the games. You know you have to win those games and to just go flat and mail it in or if they were playing pre-vent or just you know, not know how to finish, that is very uncharacteristic of a Ravens football team, regardless of who the coach is. But that it's Harbaugh and you have all this offensive talent and you're right there and you've had some. You've had great, tremendous regular season success, but you can't win in the playoffs. This is, you know, it's a big loss. Buffalo loses that game and they score 38 points. Let's say the guy missed a field goal. Whatever the score was at the time, they fought back. They look good. They can run the ball.
Speaker 1:He's saying the same thing about Buffalo that here they are again, they come down to the end and they can't finish it. The reality is it's the first In the regular season Lamar's had success.
Speaker 2:I told I mean he was successful yesterday, played a great game, you can't knock him, he just. He just didn't get the ball back at the end apparently apparently yeah, but you know they're gonna battle now. Buffalo after week.
Speaker 1:One has a has the upper hand for sure so I know we did lousy with our picks and I know it's too early in the week to make picks, but I like to talk about it. So one other thing I want to talk about and we spoke a lot about it in our prior conversations and that is Dallas showing up Thursday night. Oh man, I mean they really showed up. I thought they had heart. I thought it was interesting that Jerry Jones says we're one strong defensive player away from winning the Super Bowl, or whatever the comment was like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we traded in the Green Bay and we have to note that the player he traded had a real everybody talking about it being hurt. He had a great game by all accounts and he had a sack at the opportune time that turned the tide of the game. So I don't know what to say, but I did want to mention that at all.
Speaker 2:I do have a Well, I think that that's another indicator game. You know Philly won the game, but it was ugly Jalen Hur. That that's another indicator game. You know philly won the game, but it was ugly jalen hurts. Proved that he could. You know he can play in that upper echelon tier of quarterback talent. He's good, he's, he's got a lot of talent. I I know people like to take away he can't do this or he can't do that, or he's too small or he's too. That he's a winner and the bottom line he's. Dallas played well, not well enough to win. I don't think you can talk about dallas without talking about green bay. But dallas, I think, on the outside, looking at this game itself, are the eagles as good as we thought they were? Coming back off the super is their defense, super Bowl defense. And then, are the Cowboys ready to take a next step? Or did they look good because the Eagles aren't as good as we thought they were? So I think we have to give that a couple weeks to progress.
Speaker 1:I think it has to play out. You have to worry about injuries and team plays. I think there's a lot of things.
Speaker 2:It's one week.
Speaker 1:that's not even over yet and it's going to have to play out.
Speaker 2:And to have all these tremendous matchups in week one.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, detroit gets Micah, who had a tremendous game yesterday. I mean he at one time knocked Panay Sewell right on his ass and I saw the game film and I was like, wow, I mean he at one time knocked Panay Sewell right on his ass and I saw the game film and I was like, wow, this guy was fired up to play yesterday. But, like we talked about last week, what impact was that going to have on this team and who was going to step up? You know they traded their you know run stopper to dallas and that trade to get mika and their interior defensive lineman played very well yesterday and you saw something on the packer side at least the defensive side of the football not knocking their offense. They looked like a team that was ready to take the next step. They are fired up. They were swarming to the football. You could just see that because Mika's presence on the field was so dominant that other guys were able to play their game and it looked like the beginning of he's going to make this defense better.
Speaker 2:So that's something to keep an eye on Plus they're playing the Detroit Lions, who have a ton of offensive weapons. They have one of the best offensive lines in football, the best offensive tackle in football, and that was a fairly low-scoring game all things considered. I didn't expect that game to be a shootout. You have Detroit, you know, losing both of their coordinators, so there's new coordinators in town now, same head coach, but Green Bay. That was kind of a statement from day one. I think they punched Detroit in the mouth there. Detroit will probably come back and it'll look different when they're in Detroit and they're going to be okay. But the Packers have taken another step, it seems.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've heard this story and not to change the subject to more comedic things that during this Cincinnati-Cleveland game that someone threw a sex toy onto the field. You know the story. I hadn't heard that, no. So one of the officials saw it Apparently it was bright yellow and kicked it to the sideline and then security grabbed it somewhere along the line and put it away it accidentally. Nobody knew what it was, so when they put the camera on it, they were a little shocked to see what it actually was. But apparently and this is the twist of the thing that over the past weeks it's happened three times in the WNBA, where people have thrown this object yellow, bright yellow onto the court. I heard about the green one Right, or yellow green, whatever you want to call it and supposedly it's related to some cryptocurrency that was just released and because of the hype of it all, the cryptocurrency, from when it was released, has increased value threefold.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I mean just because. Do you know the name of the crypto? No, I don't. It's certainly not that I own.
Speaker 1:No, I wasn't going to mention it, even if I did know it. I do know it, but I'm not even going to mention it and it's like I mean, it's amazing how brilliant people are to try to. You have to admit it's pretty, it's bizarre. It's not something we would do ourselves, but what it's done to increase the value, and it's a pennies kind of thing. But three times is still three times, right, listen?
Speaker 2:you never know in the crypto world what's going to make something boom or bust Right, and you know there are people that kind of understand it way smarter than me, I guess. But you know we've seen it before with crypto where if the right guy gets a hold of it or says something or mentions a buzzword, the value of the coin jumps. In this case, I'm not sure why a sex toy would increase the value of a cryptocurrency. It has some relationship to it.
Speaker 1:I don't know about the name of it, I don't know what, but I read in an article in like Sports Illustrated or one of the ESPN boards or whatever it is. It was fascinating, so I wanted to just. I know we're not going to do picks because it's too early in the week, but I'd like to mention a couple of matchups that seem to feed in well from the year.
Speaker 1:So the first one is, of course, Thursday night. You have Washington, who really showed up against the Giants playing Green Bay Thursday night, Thursday night. Where is the game? I believe it's in Green Bay.
Speaker 2:Thursday night games are just they're. So I don't like the Thursday night games. These guys don't get enough practice as it is, and on Thursday night games you see it and it boggles my mind how the NFL continues to push it, knowing it's a bad product. It doesn't matter who the teams are. It's not like the old school Monday night games where Monday night was a showdown between two potential playoff teams, division rivals. You know a cross-conference matchup that could determine. You know someone seeding two great teams. You know two teams that are going to be fun to watch, right.
Speaker 1:I think you have to organize it with a bye week. That's what you need to do.
Speaker 2:I agree, I mean, and there's no reason why you can't. But you know, again, this comes down to greed and money, and they know they're going to get the ratings, they know they're going to have it. They don't care what the product looks like To have it on a buy, you know, following a buy week or before the buy week, whatever, what have you, that's the logical thing to do.
Speaker 1:So this is a conference game, you would think that Green Bay's defense wants to destroy Washington. Washington played real well against the Giants.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean they knocked them out of the playoffs.
Speaker 2:So, the other— Washington is good, washington, you know they're— they're good. You know you're looking for their quarterback to take the next step. He looked decent against the Giants. I don't think he looked great he's. You know there's probably going to be a little regression there, I would imagine, but he's a tremendous talent. So, but on a short week. I mean, their quarterback is young too, greenback. But their defense, if their defense plays anywhere even half of what they played yesterday, washington's going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1:So I think that's an interesting game. I think Baltimore coming off their loss and then going to play at home with Cleveland, whose defense destroyed Cincinnati last week, I think Baltimore is going to see the defense that they want to be that are not, and I think that's going to be a bell ringer for them. They're going to realize that they're not as good as they think they are defensively.
Speaker 2:Baltimore or Cleveland.
Speaker 1:Baltimore.
Speaker 2:Baltimore is going to find out that they're not as good as they think they are.
Speaker 1:Defensively, defensively.
Speaker 2:Well, that certainly would open a lot of eyes If they lose that game, you know that's a terrible start for them to open the season that way. I still think their offense is equipped enough to handle the Cleveland Browns' defense.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of good games this week again. Plus, you have the Giants and Dallas at Dallas, and you know Dallas wants to make a statement and Giants are just a team to do it against. Yeah, certainly you have Chicago and Detroit Now. Chicago hasn't played yet, but Detroit's looking to spring back and that's always a grudge match those two teams.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's always a hard-fought game. You know you have a seasoned vet, I guess in Jared Goff, and then you have Caleb Williams coming in. Yeah, I mean that's a division game, that's an important game very early in the season that you know gives you a cushion if you win. That game gives you a little bit of an upper hand.
Speaker 1:So those are all 1 o'clock games, you know gives you a cushion if you win, that game gives you a little bit of an upper hand. So those are all 1 o'clock games, surprisingly enough, along with New England and Miami.
Speaker 2:That might be the ugliest football game you've ever seen.
Speaker 2:That might be uglier than when they played in the rain on Thursday night a few years back and there was like one pass in the whole game. New England lost this weekend to the Raiders. They think I think their fan base is probably the most shocked. The Raiders are well coached, you know, but New England and Miami now looks like they're playing for second place in the division. But if they're as bad as they looked yesterday, the Jets might surprise some people and finish second in that division this year.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the two other games I'd like to mention next week. The other is Seattle and Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:That's always a tough match too is that you know what the home team has such a huge advantage in that game yeah, I mean to come from one coast to the other and play in a hostile environment, you know the home team is typically at an advantage. But in a situation like that, when you're coming across the country Now Seattle, that's what they do, right, they know they have to go cross country a few times a year and they play in the farthest place to play on the planet. So we'll see. I mean they're new quarterback. You know interesting matchup for sure. It's a cross-conference matchup, so it should be interesting. I mean, that's a good gauge for the Steelers to see if they're, you know, if they're for real, because that's going to be a tough game for them for sure.
Speaker 1:So here's the most interesting one, especially the 4 o'clock games, and that is Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Speaker 2:Super Bowl rematch.
Speaker 1:At Kansas City.
Speaker 2:Revenge game. Revenge game for the Chiefs at Kansas City. They're looking to bounce back. They have to prove that last week was a fluke, or and the Super Bowl was a fluke. Yeah, I really don't think the Super Bowl was a fluke. But if you're Kansas City you kind of have to sell that.
Speaker 1:So they have a good chance of being 0-2, which they haven't been in I don't even know how many years- it's been a while.
Speaker 2:I mean they're usually good. They've been good the last five or six years. They've been to the Super Bowl three times. Four times They'll be prepared to play. I'm sticking with that mantra. You know, andy Reid still being Andy Reid Right, I doubt the Eagles will not be prepared to play. Sirianni has got such an ego. That's going to be a fun game to watch for sure. I mean it's another cross-conference game, potential Super Bowl rematch, all that Right? Yeah, I mean Kansas City, even if at 0-2,. I mean nobody wants to go 0-2. You don't want to start the season 0-2. But to lose to Philly it's not the worst way to start an 0-2 season. If that's what happens and if you're Philly, I think you know, given that you didn't play your best game against Dallas, you have to come out and beat Kansas City. You have to this. I think there might actually be more pressure on the Eagles than Kansas City to win this game.
Speaker 1:So here is their schedule Kansas City. So look, because you'd kind of think they're going to lose right At this point. If you had to pick them, you'd pick Philadelphia, right.
Speaker 2:So I would pick the Chiefs at home. To be honest, I mean, regardless of the points, I think I would still pick the Chiefs at home.
Speaker 1:I don't know what the points are.
Speaker 2:I don't have that yet, but so Not a knock on Philly, so they play the Eagles then they play the Giants.
Speaker 1:Imagine what do they do on the tour of the NFC East and then they play the Ravens, and then the Jaguars, then the Lions, then the Raiders, then the Commanders, so they're crisscrossing across the field, then the Jaguars, then the Lions, then the Raiders, then the Commanders, so they're crisscrossing across the field, then the Bills, then the Broncos, then the Colts which is Thanksgiving Then the Cowboys, then the Texans you think they have a tough schedule Chargers, titans, broncos on Christmas, and then the Raiders.
Speaker 2:That is not an easy schedule.
Speaker 1:Raiders on January 4th.
Speaker 2:So we'll find out for real on Sunday. I mean, if they beat the Eagles then we could say, well, maybe the Eagles aren't who we thought they were. And I think you know Dallas's indicator. You know any division game is always going to look uglier than you think it might play out from the start. Regardless of how good or bad the teams are, division rivals always find a way to scrap and fight and stay in games. To scrap and fight and stay in games. I mean the Giant game you know wasn't great, but they were in that game in the first half and they had some plays that you know could have went differently. I'm not saying they should have won the game, just that the division games are a lot tougher than playing outside the division. It's always a closer matchup. So we'll see.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you come away from the game and the Chiefs win, then you think all right, they righted the ship. You think maybe all right, maybe Philly isn't as good. Maybe Dallas? What if the Giants win? On Sunday? The Giants come and beat Dallas, regardless of the points, regardless if they beat them by three or by 30. It doesn't matter. If the Giants beat Dallas, then you have to wonder how good really is Philly. A lot of football left to be played. For sure. Very interesting matchups in these first two weeks, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I think we should end it there, unless there's something else you want to rip into.
Speaker 2:No, I'm good. It's nice to be back in swing and football for sure.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Next week we can start talking about postseason baseball. I think a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that should be interesting after our discussion last week about whether or not the seeds have changed at all. That'll be fun. It should be an exciting let's hope it's an exciting fall.
Speaker 1:Let's hope.
Speaker 2:For baseball and football.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Thank you again, Justin.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Steve, for having me. Always a pleasure as usual, it was a pleasure. I really enjoy this a lot.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure we had a lot of live listeners, but, as you know, we've had a good number of people that have watched our podcast after it was live, in hundreds and hundreds. We were pretty impressed, to be honest, and thankful and thankful. And we've also had a lot of subscribes. So please subscribe. If you're listening to us on YouTube, watching us live or listening to our recorded show on YouTube, please like and subscribe. And if you're listening to us on all the major podcasts audio podcasts please like and subscribe and continue to listen on both. You're able to leave on both audio and YouTube. You're able to leave comments and send messages. If there's something you want us to talk about, it's just something you want to give us a hard time about, because all my other podcasts, everybody gives me a hard time about everything and I'm more than welcome to address it. So, taking all comers, taking all comers. So, thank you very much. Please like and subscribe. Thank you for listening, justin. I'll talk to you in a minute.
Speaker 2:Thank you All right, talk to you in a minute.