NFL Week 1, Best and Worst Performances, Rookie QB Play, College Football Favorites, Michigan, Norte Dame, and the Resurgent Cornhuskers

[00:00:07] Speaker A: Welcome back to the pod. This is episode number three. This is sources from the Sofa Sports podcast. We got the starting lineup today featuring Aaron, Jason and myself, Rome. We're going to be covering NFL week one action, which just kicked off this past Thursday with Ravens Chiefs, then a rare Friday night game with packers and Eagles down in Brazil. If you have a little time, we might cover a little college football. Not sure yet. Talk about Jason's Notre Dame, what a letdown that was and how the Bears just got away with the victory with an anemic offense. But let's kick it off. First of all, I'm excited that NFL season just finally got started underway. I don't think you could have asked for a better start with the Ravens and Chiefs game went down the wire. Considering that the Ravens lost, I thought they looked pretty nice on. Obviously they're both playoff teams. Ravens just maybe, maybe wearing the wrong shoe color for that tippy toe touchdown at the end. But Ravens should have won. I thought. Lamar Jackson, play nice. Everyone's like a little rusty, I think from here on out with NFL, with only three preseason games, you're going to see week one, week two with like a little adjustment. Packers, Eagles, messy field. Love goes down. That was like a, that was like a heavyweight match, slug for slug. I really enjoyed it. Let's start from there, guys. Do you guys have anything insightful you want to talk about either of those games? Like what, what we learned while we didn't. [00:01:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Ravens Chiefs Thursday night opener, you got everything you could ask for. Came down to literally a toe length. Ravens had a chance to tie that game up. Lamar missed a couple throws there late in the end zone, but he did hit likely. But unfortunately for Raven fans, he was a big toe out of bounds. So tough loss if you're a Ravens fan. [00:01:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I think when you look at the entire game from, you know, a composite, like it was two teams that probably wind up on the AFC championship game. Pretty sure that's what I predicted in our previous episodes. But, you know, overall, it's what we expected. Lamar was running a ton, I think, taken from, you know, really, really taking control of the offense where we saw it. I think personally, from a fantasy perspective, Mark Andrews was not involved in the passing game and he was basically a left tackle throughout the game and needed to help out that offensive line. So I think that was, you know, where we saw likely being, you know, much more into the passing game being the option for Lamar, that was, you know, a pretty big, you know, difference in the offense compared to years past, but I think they got two solid tight ends. I think Kansas City, you know, that's who we thought they were coming into the game. I don't think there was any big surprises there. But, you know, it was a great way to kick off the NFL season, you know, and really for a, you know, huge football weekend that, you know, obviously went so long, I think we forget, you know, some of the things that happened on a Thursday night. [00:02:51] Speaker A: At this point, I really like seeing the Ravens. I thought Lamar did a phenomenal job. Obviously that's not really sustainable throughout a 17 game season, but he did what he could do, came in clutch. Every team, basically every game featured dumb mistakes, self inflicted wounds, penalties, flags all over the place. But I liked what I saw from the Ravens and I think we did like a pretty good job of calling them out as like being like the, the best of the best in their division. So I'm really excited to see them, possibly them to face off in the playoffs. Packers Eagles it was a shaky game for Hertz. The O line looked a little shaky. Hurts had a few mistakes, a few fumbles. He did have a few rushing touchdowns. Packers looked really nice until love went down. He's only going to be out like it sounds like about three or four weeks. They didn't put him on the IR and Willis is going to get the start this Saturday or Sunday. [00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah, Willis gets to start this Sunday at home against the Colts. I think the love, the injury obviously is going to hurt the packers, but I don't think he's going to be out long. They're saying three to four weeks. I think he's going to miss maybe two games, tops. The fact they didn't put him on the IR, they're going to keep an eye on him week to week. Packers had a good game going with love. Like you mentioned, Roman Hertz got off to a slow start, I think two turnovers in the first three or four drives for Philadelphia. But they got things going with Saquon Barkley running the ball defense for Philly. [00:04:16] Speaker A: Barkley, that was money, him getting three touchdowns. He must be really happy being away from the Giants now. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the Giants, that decision to let him go is looking worse and worse every week now. They paid Daniel Jones. They didn't pay Barkley. He showed up in a big way and carried the Eagles with three touchdowns, as you mentioned, on his back and was a big part of the game plan, which we figured he would be. Eagles do like to run the ball that helped open up the game. For AJ Brown to get some big plays. I think he hit a good 60 yard pass there. Hurts with him. Packers love, you know, sloppy a little bit. Running game got going in the second half of Josh Jacobs, but Packers again, we've talked about, you know, new DC. They're still learning the scheme, struggled against the Eagles. For the packers going forward, obviously loves health, is going to be really important, but how far can that defense carry him? That's, that's the real question mark for Green Bay. And I still got questions going into week two. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll, we'll see. For the Eagles, they're really talented teams, so they still pull out the victory. I think it can only go up from here. Real quick, though. We did talk about Barkley looking really good. Have you guys seen that clip of the Giants owner talking to the GM saying that he's going to be really pissed off if he ends up on the Eagles? I feel like that's going to be like foreshadowing, like heads rolling this, this fucking offseason. Maybe not even the offseason, maybe during the season. There's already rumors that Belichick's, like, hanging around the corners to possibly take over the Giants. [00:05:40] Speaker C: I mean, the team that Belichick's got history for. But I mean, referencing the leprosy in the last podcast, I mean, we should have known, you know, Aaron called them saquon and broccoli, I think, in the last episode. So we should have known that he had a big game kind of ahead of him. But I think it's, I think it's a interesting different dynamic from the Eagles offense. You know, the last couple seasons. You know, they had swift and some other options around there that were thing. But, you know, saquon really brings, I think, a different element to that running game. Take a little pressure off of Hertz. I think he was, you know, pretty impactful, uh, to change the, uh, change the dynamic of that offense. So I think a lot of good things come from the Eagles. I think I picked him for the NFC championship game last year, and they're now you're looking at a team like the Giants as bad as they are and what that division looks like. You know, the Eagles, I think, probably still the class of that division. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Man, giants look terrible. Let's talk about them real quick. They just look really bad. [00:06:31] Speaker C: So, I mean, you could blame, you could just blame the, the uniforms. I don't know if it was a Montreal Canadiens inspired, you know, giants uniforms. They were rolling out with these 19, you know, twenties throwbacks. Or whatever they had kind of like them. Okay, well, you were the only one, so. [00:06:47] Speaker A: So Vikings looked really great. I thought Sam Donald came out on fire. They looked really nice. I think they're going to be pretty competitive still. We'll see how it goes from week to week, but they look pretty great and surprising for week one out the morning games. Besides the Giants, Bengals did not look too hot. I don't know. Do you guys want to go into like maybe disappointing week one performances? Let's kind of do that. Besides the Giants, we got the Panthers young. Just, I don't know, I kind of feel bad that he's starting his career over there. It's just not looking good. That and the Deshawn Watson trade looking like, like two of the worst trades ever in NFL history. Maybe all the sports. Bengals fell flat on their face. Who'd have thought Patriots would have come out with Brissette looking pretty sharp. The defense was solid. They saw some talent on there and they looked like they were playing for Mayo. They look like a pretty unified group. [00:07:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say the Bengals most disappointing. I think Aaron and I talked about the Bengals being a team that was going to be, you know, top one and two in the, in the AFC north this year. But going into the game, I mean, you had all sorts of drama. You know, t Higgins wasn't in the, wasn't in the lineup. You had all this conversation about Jamar Chase, whether he was going to play or not. And so I think even that was really like a tough start to the morning. Tons of breaking news. I think between 09:00 a.m. pacific and 10:00 a.m. pacific, what was going on, and the Bengals were part of that. And then from a Patriots team that no one really thought we were going to get a lot of out to this entire year to come at come out that flat offensively that the Bengals did. For a team that generally has a pretty high powered offense, you know, it was a pretty big shock from a, you know, overall from a week one upset. I think they were probably the most disappointing team. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we can elaborate it on that. I mean, giants, Panthers, we all expected not much for them. I'm not surprised that they got beat and got beat the way they did, but Bengals going down the way they did. It was disappointing. Came out flat. As Jason mentioned, they had injuries. T Higgins popped up on the injury port Thursday with a hamstring. Jamar Chase, is he going to play? He practices one day. He sits out, too. He practices. He wants to get paid Friday. The source is saying he is going to play Saturday. We don't know. Different game plans for whether or not he is going to play. He showed up and played. Wasn't a big part of the game plan. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Not at all. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Bengals, I mean, they just, they didn't have any juice. Versus the Patriots. The Patriots, like you mentioned, Roman, they came out, they wanted to win that game for Mayo. They came out with an attitude, aggressiveness on defense, offense, controlled the line of scrimmage, ran the ball when they needed to on clutch third downs throughout the game, on third and short, Jacoby Bursett kept them within manageable distances to get first rounds, made a couple throws, and that was really the big difference, man. I mean, the Patriots just look like a team that wanted to be there, and the Bengals look like a team stuck in the mud basically just starting training camp. [00:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah, Pat's had no turnovers. He played with a lot of energy. Burrow didn't look confident at all. Like, I so like, my concerns, you know, when the season started was like that risk. I wasn't sure how it was going to look like or how that team was going to play. Another slow start. They're six and six now, September with Burrow and what are they, Aaron? Or like what? You know, like one in five? [00:09:53] Speaker B: I think they're one in five under Zach Taylor. And I mean, if you go back last 133, they got, they got beat 30 to three by the Browns in week one. Disappointing start to this season with the Patriots. The year before that, they lose to the Steelers on a Monday night, the opening year. So the Bengals, I think, are just one of these teams, were week one and week two. I mean, they're going to Kansas City. Based off what I saw, I don't see any chance of them winning that football game. They giving me no, no hope that they're going to go. So they're going to start Owen two in a division that we've talked about, maybe the deepest division in the league. Lucky for them, talking about disappointing teams. Cleveland, the Browns look pretty bad on Sunday. I mean, Dallas just got in back in the backfield and made Watson run for his life all game. So, I mean, maybe, you know, maybe we undervalued Dallas, maybe we overvalued Cleveland. Time will tell. But I, the Bengals, I mean, they are going to start owen two. It looks like the Chiefs and Baltimore and Pittsburgh, you know, opportunity to get, get a game or two up on him in the division. [00:10:56] Speaker A: So the thing about Cincinnati is like, they will have some time to kind of gear up. I do hope that they do rebound to play better against KC. But let's talk about the Browns though. Deshaun Watson. I don't want to watch another Browns game this year. It was, it was bad. I had it on one of the screens. I kept on switching it. The weird thing about YouTube tv now like Sunday ticket like I couldn't get get the right combo of like four games on together was kind of pissed me off. Cowboys. I wasn't a big fan of them. Announcing Dak Prescott's new contract like minutes before the game. I thought it was kind of like a chicken shit move. Jerry Jones they're just all fooling themselves. It's like they already knew that was going to go down and then they just beat on the Browns like they have like a Super bowl caliber defense right from last year. Chubb comes back in week five. Does Jameson come in and be the main guy, you know, in a few weeks? Like they got all that guaranteed money tied up to Watson. It's just, it's just not a good. It's not a good situation. [00:11:45] Speaker C: I don't think that we're. I wasn't surprised with what you saw from Cleveland. I mean picked them to be worse than the division. They had the defense, but offensively I don't think they showed much at all. Last season it was Joe Flacco bring about. But yeah, you mentioned watching aspect of it like hasn't done anything. Not a surprise. Everyone has seen that probably will be the worst trade in NFL history at this point because now he's in the make it or break it time for the rest of this season. Cause do they move on, you know, from him and eat whatever, you know, cap penalty that's gonna ensue, you know, who knows how much that sets the team back for what, how they'd have to reset the roster, but a ton invested. The Dallas stuff. Yeah, a lot of pr stuff. This deal all of a sudden gets announced. I think a lot of, I think a lot of the people were questioning at this point in time like the CD Lam and you know, Dac deal gets done. They didn't do anything else in free agency. Lost a lot of guys in free agency. You know, it really didn't address any of the needs across the team and they look good in week one. But I think when you see from Dallas early in the year for the last, you know, in the Dak Prescott era maybe you see a lot of great September games, you see a lot of early October games. So what does this team look like down the stretch, like they're only, they're only measuring Dallas is what they're going to do in January at this point. So we're will. Time will tell, I think, with them, but, like, their depth will come into play because of how their offseason went and what they were able to add, didn't add because if you're relying on, I think, Zeke in week one, the running back position and him making plays, there's gonna be some questions. Got a touchdown. Got a touchdown. We'll take, won't take that away from him. But on the other side of the field, back to Cleveland, like, not surprised with it. I think just, you know, didn't show much last year. Flacco was able to come give some offense. We'll see when Chubb comes back, but that's, that's a team still, I think last in the division. I think the Bengals will get their act together, but, you know, the Cleveland, I don't see much for it. This doesn't seem like it was the right investment that Cleveland obviously made in Duchon and it's really going to set the franchise back a ton because, you know, the cap implications of that 200 million plus contract and all the assets they gave up, going to be really hard to come by when you just have a great defense and subpar offense. [00:13:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they gave up, what, three first round picks, three second round. [00:13:58] Speaker B: Picks, six totally picks and a $237 million guarantee fully guarantee. [00:14:03] Speaker A: That kind of broke the glass ceiling and the NFL and all the owners were pissed off because they kind of changed the way contracts are now structured with all the guaranteed money. Do you think Deshawn wants it? Makes it past week five. I'm guessing he doesn't make it past three or four more games. [00:14:20] Speaker B: Well, they got old line problems and Dallas really took advantage of that. They had tackles out. Their internal line is banged up. Like you mentioned, they get Chubb coming back. They didn't have any run game. They couldn't get anything established against Dallas. Give Cowboys a lot of credit. I mean, the PR, the drama of CD and Dak, you know, 3 hours before kickoff signs a $60 million contract. Mike McCarthy on the last year, he has no contract going in beyond this season. And the Cowboys delivered. They showed up, they took care of business. They looked great on Sunday. But like Jason mentioned, you know, Dallas, when they smell blood in the water, they're like a shark. They go out and they take care of business against bad teams and they make bad teams look bad and they look good. They will be measured on what Dak and those guys can do in January come playoff time. But Dallas, I thought, looked really good. [00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I know they're over under. Wasn't too high. Was like, what, nine and a half? But I don't know how good Dallas is. We can't really engage them on the Browns, but we got Cleveland, Giants, Panthers came out flat. Bengals. Is it like panic time this early in the season or just let's see how it goes after another week or two? [00:15:25] Speaker B: They do got Kansas City in week two. I'm looking at their schedule. Well, they get, they get a good right game against Washington, Carolina before Baltimore. So they could get back to 500 going into that game against Baltimore. So, I mean, losing at home against the Patriots, a team that's probably not going to win more than five games, it's not a good look. I mean, three turnovers versus none. Patriots, like we mentioned, just control the line of scrimmage, and we're able to get clutch runs on third and short. [00:15:54] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Let's go to, like, the other underperforming teams. Carolina, they just look bad. Young, as I mentioned, got roughed up. He had an interception, I believe, to start the game, and then he had another one to start the second half. They got a new coach, bunch of new players. They, they revamped the o line. It doesn't look like it's gonna be a very good year. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Didn't watch the game. Glad I didn't watch that game. I think it's gonna be a long year in Carolina. I mean, young, I mean, is he the right guy? They haven't gotten many real pieces around him yet. Carolina, they are a work in progress. And besides that, you know, the Sean Watson trade, that trade they made with the bears, you know, may not, I mean, it's a bad trade, but, you know, they can always just look across and say, look at what, you know, Cleveland did with the Sean Watson and can be off the hook for that one. The only last five years. [00:16:49] Speaker A: I'll go, Jason. [00:16:50] Speaker C: I'll say the only saving grace for Carolina is, like, they didn't pay Bryce young, like they paid you to Sean. Watch it. Like, Cleveland gave up all those assets and then paid him all this money, which, you know, has really long term implications. Like, if Bryce hung in the option, Carolina can cut bait, you know, have some bad years, but from a, you know, salary cap, you know, ramifications isn't what's there. But, yeah, it's still a pretty bad trade. My bears reaping the wards on that. And I think will, you know, next year. I think they saw the second round pick, you know, from, from that trade still coming. So that could be 33rd or 34th pick overall at this point. When you're looking at what that Carolina team could be doing, but lot of questions around the owner with David Zepper, like, yeah, very involved owner has made a lot of moves, but the talent really isn't there. Haven't put it together. Rule didn't work out, moved on pretty quickly, gutted the roster, turned things over. But Bryce Young really hasn't had the support yet, so just really not a hugely, you know, talented group. That's going to take some time. Will it be probably another bottom of the five of the league and early draft pick? Yeah, probably. [00:17:56] Speaker A: I think the race is off for the number one pick of next year's draft. Yeah. Young just doesn't look like the same player that he looked like in college. I just feel like his confidence is shot. You know, we always see this, like, the wrong situation can, like, totally derail your career. And I just think that's what's happening with young real quick. That you mentioned rule being cut by the Panthers. I'm really happy about that, by the way, being a Cornhusker fan. We'll get to that later, but I'm excited, man. I don't know if you watched the game this past weekend, but I'm loving it. [00:18:24] Speaker C: I learned something about Rome between being a Steelers fan and a corn Huskers fan, lives in San Francisco, I really don't understand his geographic Dodgers fan wearing the hat right now. So geographically, I don't know what he's rooting for. I guess all 50 states. When you come around from a sports fan perspective, which is fine, people get. [00:18:42] Speaker A: Pissed off in San Francisco when I tell them that, like, oh, who's your football team? Is it like the Rams? Like, no, the Rams weren't there when I was there. Oh, is it like the Raiders? Like, no, no, it's the Steelers. Who's your hockey team? Red Wings. They get fucking livid. They get fucking livid once you find out. Yeah. Like, who's your college football team? Cornhuskers. Yeah. [00:18:59] Speaker C: It makes sense if you live in the nineties because the Red Wings, the Steelers, the Corn Huskers were all relevant in the nineties. I think it was the last time all of them were relevant, so. [00:19:09] Speaker A: Well, I started watching sports around 94. [00:19:11] Speaker C: You know, so, yeah, I guess besides the Steelers. Steelers always relevant. But I'll just horn huskers, red wings. That's where it stores that. So. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Besides Bengals, Cleveland, Giants, Panthers, any other team that just fell flat on. [00:19:22] Speaker B: The face, underwhelming for me would be the Atlanta Falcons. [00:19:27] Speaker A: Falcons. Talk about it. [00:19:28] Speaker B: The Falcons, I mean, ten points, no running game. Cousins struggled. Couple turnovers, interceptions, strip sack. You know, every run of their plays was ran from the, from the shotgun except for one under center. They said that was part of the game plan. You can't run every play at shotgun against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Are you kidding me? TJ watch is going to tee off and charge at the quarterback all day and he controlled the line of scrimmage. Atlanta was overmatched, it looked like in that game, given all the weapons that got be John Robinson, Jason's, Kyle Pitts, that teases again with a touchdown, but again for 26 yards. So much talent, so much upside. London, Drake, these guys got weapons and they come out with ten points all off season to trade for that. I'm, I'm already on Pinnock's watch. I've already got it on Pinnock's watch over here and I'm hoping to see him maybe soon. [00:20:19] Speaker A: Kirk had a couple nice runs. London had a couple catches, but also a couple big drops. Cousins just looked a little old and he got roughed up. I think he had two picks that game. But Pittsburgh's defense looked really solid. We talked about that on our initial podcast. Like, at least I said they might be like last year's Cleveland Browns. Watt was on a tear. He had a couple sacks, fumble recovery. That kind of got called back by like some bullshit offsides call. It was definitely bullshit. And then Boswell coming up, clutch. Like he would have thought. Like it's such, it's such, such a Steelers game, you know, by winning, just by kicking all field goals, no touchdown. And then Jason, man, your guy, he looked great for our team. He looked poised. He only had the initial fumble to start the game, look collected, didn't make any bad mistakes throughout the game. Had some nice deep throws to a GP that some got called back over some more bullshit penalties. But other than that though, I really like the Steelers game one week, one. [00:21:14] Speaker C: A lot to unpack there, but Rome texting us this is the most complete game he's seen Justin Fields play when he scores 18 points and doesn't get one touchdown. Was a little bit okay. That, I mean, that's a big thing for Justin Fields. Is seeing him for the past couple of years. Big thing, but don't know if it was most complete game. I've seen him play, play some pretty good games with the Bears and have some, you know, at least have some touchdowns, you know. Boswell for MVP, I think it was. Aaron let us know halfway through that, I guess between Boswell and Watt, like those were, you know, the MVP's of the Steelers. Watt looking like the defensive player of the year in that, in that game. You know, Aaron is right on my guy. Pitts. Yeah, I, I got the TD alert. Wasn't even watching the game. Like, oh, it's Pits time. We finally got it. Cousins is going to figure it out. And that was the only thing we got from the Falcons the entire game, so. But the exact type of game that I expect from the Steelers. Aaron, disagree with me. This is going to be a losing season for Mike Tomlin. This guy doesn't know how to have a losing season. These are the type of games that he's going to sneak by. You're not going to know. 18 to ten sounds like the perfect Mike Tomlin score where this team is going to win 910 games this year that you don't expect it. But the no turnovers from fields. That's a great call, Aaron, because that's where it's at. I think he should have the job over Russell Wilson. Personally, it'd be interesting what they do when Russell's, Russell's healthy, but if, if Justin doesn't turn the ball over, they're able to get Justin and, you know, Najee and Warren in the backfield having a like the run option. There's a lot to, you know, a lot to like there if they're not able to turn the ball over and let the defense and special teams do their job. So. But that sounds, that sounds like a Bears fan because defensive special teams is how you win games, obviously, is what week one taught us. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Steelers were still kind of conservative on the offensive side, but they did let fields like rip some deep throws. One was like a completion of like 40 yards. But other than that, though, the fact that they scored 18 points without no touchdowns, hell of a lot better than last year. Hell of a lot better start. So I'm really excited about my Steelers this year. [00:23:19] Speaker B: Yeah, a couple of things to break down on. That game that you guys mentioned was, you know, since that first part has not been released yet, if we could edit out the part about the Steelers and Tomlin not finishing. [00:23:33] Speaker A: Sorry, dude. No, no. [00:23:34] Speaker B: That's, that was based on Russell Wilson playing quarterback, not fields. So, you know, my calculations with Fields in the lineup pits them over 500. I just want to get that out there on the record. Right now. [00:23:45] Speaker A: You guys also both picked Atlanta to win that division. I had the bucks, so I'm really excited about that pick as well moving forward. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not ready to give up on Atlanta, but we're talking week one over reactions and their performance was underwhelming for sure. [00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool. So we got like some disappointing teams out of all those teams. Falcons, Panthers, Giants, Cleveland Bengals. Who should be the most worried? [00:24:12] Speaker C: I probably would say the Giants. They look lost out there. I don't know what their answers are anywhere on the field with Daniel Jones as quarterback. I think anyone, if you listen to New York, is not sold on that. Yeah. I don't know of a worse team that looked. There's, there was a lot of bad performances in week one, but I don't think the Giants. I think the Giants buffer took it away. Aaron, I don't know your thoughts on that. [00:24:41] Speaker B: I mean, I'm looking at the Giants schedule right now. Mean, we've had an Owen 16 team. Could we be looking at an Owen 17 team? I mean, the Giants look bad in preseason Minnesota at home. I mean, they were only a one point underdog and they never even in that game. I mean, that game was over at the end of the first quarter. I think they have no quarterback. Brian dables double down on Daniel Jones. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Dude, he has more interceptions. He has more pick sixes and touchdowns, you know, for his own team. It's bad. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I don't see Daniel Jones either getting yanked out of here pretty soon, are getting hurt again. Either way. The Giants, I mean, they got lucky to win a few games last year with the spark they got from the backup quarterback. They might be looking at something similar again. But as far as teams that are, I think, hopeless, the Giants are number one on that list. Yeah. [00:25:34] Speaker A: Cool. Let's do like cream the crop. I was really impressed, as I mentioned by the Ravens Chiefs. They're obviously going to be there at the end. Packers Eagles felt like a playoff game. They're going to be there at the end. Well, depending on, on love now, you know, if they can't make it out of September alive, that season's over with bills. Aaron, you almost called the upset Cardinals to come in there and they just start high. I think they were up 17, three going to the second half, and then all of a sudden Bosh Allen, who I think is the best quarterback in the NFL, just lit it up in the second half, almost got hurt, but he's clear the play this weekend. [00:26:07] Speaker B: I. [00:26:07] Speaker A: What do you guys think? [00:26:09] Speaker B: Well, we talked about on the first podcast, what is Josh Allen going to do about that supporting cast? He's going to do what? Josh Allen does crazy stuff and win football games. He puts a team on his back, you know, third down, fourth down. He makes throws. He makes runs, he makes reads. He's, he's a complete package. And that's really what got Buffalo over the top in that game. I thought Arizona played a good game, got in control early, was moving the ball up and down the field. But, I mean, we haven't talked about Marvin Harrison, junior. Three targets for one catch for four yards. [00:26:41] Speaker A: I mean, not enough targets. [00:26:43] Speaker B: No, I mean also catch for four yards. That's not, that's not what I expected to see from him. Week one. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Jason. [00:26:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was also wide open at the end of the game. I think that is the, the most viral moment into the game where he's wide open running and Kyler doesn't hit him. But, you know, Aaron talked about, you know, Josh Allen a lot of questions. I think we probably talked about the AFC east way too much in our previous pods, but, like, the question around Josh Allen was like, hey, without some of the, not some of the weapons that he's have in the past, he gets the big contract. You're going to start getting new, younger weapons that you have to develop. And I think he did that. 19 carries out of James Cook in the game. That's what I kind of expected to see. Hey, could we rely on the running game while we develop some of the wide receivers? And I think that's where it's at. Keyon Coleman got a couple grabs, tore it up. [00:27:32] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of good, a lot. [00:27:34] Speaker C: Of good grabs in that game. So, yeah, hey, Stefan Diggs, you know, out of the picture. We got some other weapons around it. It was the questions I think we, that we asked in that, in that first episode or first episode, we did the season preview, so. But lots of, like in that game, Arizona, Aaron was calling for that upset, but the builds held, tried and true. We'll see how that, you know, shakes out, you know, through the rest of the year. But I, I think continually relying on James Cook in that running game to make sure that takes some pressure off of Josh Allen and he can, you know, do what he does at the quarterback position. The key to him in that game, I think overall, besides all that was no turnovers for him to, you know, two tighties, no interceptions. He gets kind of that gunslinger, you know, your reputation where he can make a careless mistake. I don't think he can with this particular team right now. He's got to be able to play, you know, ball control and not make those mistakes as well. [00:28:23] Speaker B: Yeah, with James Cook. Yeah, with James Cook. The two tight ends, Kincaid and ox. I like Shakira at wideout and Coleman at wideout. They're young, but they're talented. I think this offense has potential to be really good as the season goes on, and they got a big game coming up Thursday night with the Dolphins. [00:28:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm excited for that game. Arizona, we did say it might be a shootout. Arizona's defense was really poor as 14 plays of ten plus yards, most in the NFL this past weekend. Buffalo, we weren't really up on them to make the playoffs, but if they continue developing like that and Josh Allen just takes to the next step, I'm going to regret not picking them to go to the playoffs. I don't know. We'll see others. Cream of the crop. [00:29:08] Speaker C: You talked about the Buccaneers. I think. I think that was a pretty surprising result. Baker looked really good in his second season in Tampa versus the Commanders. I know we didn't, we didn't speak too highly on the commanders and what their prospects were this year, but Baker was really able to get the ball up and down the field, finding Goodwin, finding Evans every which way. The offense looked really great. I don't want to say I'm surprised they won that game, but if they're able to continue what they're doing offensively and have a pretty strong defense as well, I mean, you know, that could be a team that's more competitive with the Falcons than we probably thought the beginning of the year. Uh, Baker's probably sitting back laughing when he's looking at the situation in Cleveland versus what he has in Tampa Bay right now, where everyone in the league gave up on him. So I thought that was a pretty, pretty surprising performance for me. [00:29:54] Speaker A: Yeah, he has a pass rating of in the nineties. That game was kind of like a mixed bag. Buccaneers looked really sharp. Evans continues to show like he's a top whiteout in the NFL, going up for, you know, 50 50 balls that Baker just feels confident throwing to him. The commanders, they had their rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels. I know the quarterback rating wasn't too high, but I actually thought he did a pretty good job and he did, like the best performance out of all the rookie quarterbacks this weekend. Looked pretty solid out, some nice runs and some nice passes. It's going to be an up and down season, but I really liked what I saw out of Daniels and kind of excited, kind of maybe catch a few games throughout the year. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Tampa looked good. Baker looked good. Mike Evans, probably the most underappreciated, undervalued wide receiver in the NFL. I mean, all this guy does is catch touchdowns in a yemenite thousand yards every year. I think he's on 910 straight years, over a thousand yards. Mister consistent at wideout. Baker in the second season. It looks comfortable like he looks like he's in charge, like he's running the team. Like it's his. He's not looking over his shoulder. Tampa, like Jason said, I'm not surprised they won, but they just looked, they looked good. They looked comfortable. They got a big game coming up with Detroit this weekend. We know Detroit is, you know, one of the top teams in the NFC, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Tampa does there. WashinGton, Jaden Daniels, you know, running the ball, getting out of the pocket, making plays of his feet. We know he can do that. I think he was 17 for 23 throwing the ball, but under 200 yards. A lot of dink and dunk, just giving them easy throws, nothing too big. That game kind of got away from them early. And Tampa's defense with Todd Bowles, you know, he's going to bring blitz packages, give you different schemes, different looks. They kept the game plan pretty simple for Jaden Daniels. I think going forward Washington will open up things more form as other young quarterbacks will see that came into the league. But yeah, Tampa was definitely one of the more impressive victories on Sunday. [00:31:45] Speaker A: Let's go talk about the other rookie quarterbacks we have. Jason's Bears. I thought I was looking pretty good picking the tie ins and maybe do like, you know, a victory there. Up seventeen zero. I stopped watching the first avals and I checked the score. The Bears make a comeback. From what I saw, it was just an up and down game for Caleb Williams and you, and you expect that from a rookie quarterback, right? I know Jason, maybe you might expect like a 300 yard, three touchdown for first game, but you know, like the defense came through. Special teams and Tennessee Titans, they play with some heart, but man, Levitz looked really bad. I'm not sure how they move forward, but we kind of predict that might be an up and down season for them, too. [00:32:25] Speaker C: As a Bears fan, you don't expect any quarterback is going to throw for 300 yards because it doesn't happen very often. So definitely, probably not in week one for a rookie, you know, quarterback, but obviously disappointed when you look at offensively, Caleb in his post game interviews. I said so himself. I think he was very accountable for his overall performance, that there was some wide open throws that, that he missed, you know, maybe too much. The gentleman, whatever it could have been, there was definitely, that definitely happened the first half. But I think the offensive line also didn't help him out. When you looked at the interior of the offensive line, there's, there's a couple plays scrolling on social media right now where the center is just straight up beat every time by the defensive tackle. Sweat of the Titans. That was just getting in Caleb's face right away. That didn't make it comfortable. So that's, that's a unit that's got to improve for Caleb to be able to have the time to get the ball where it's at. The other thing in the game, Caleb should have had a touchdown pass, went to Keenan Allen, quick out in the end zone, went right to Keenan Allen's hands. That's a pass you never see, you know, Keenan Allen drop before. So that, that should have been seven points right there. So not a lot to love, but first game, first quarterback since David Carr back in the day, I think with the Texans in 2001 or two that won his opening game. But, but it was a Bears. It was, it was a classic Bears game where it's defense and special teams that the second time, the most infamous Bears game like this was versus the Arizona Cardinals and the famous Denny Green. We are who they thought they were. You know, that the Bears did it again. You know, we got, we got a special teams return for a touchdown, a really bad pick, six for turn for the touchdown. The key to Caleb, I think if you take the positive out of his game versus what you saw with the Bears, with Justin Fields a lot, especially Mitch Trubisky, was Caleb didn't turn the ball over. So he didn't lose them. He didn't lose them the game at all where easily, if he, if he tries to press too much because he's not doing as much. They would have lost that game with one turnover here or there because the big turnover was on special teams. I'm probably the only person that watches, but Bayless Jones had one of the worst turnovers ever on a kickoff return with the new kickoff rules that set the Titans up for points. But the Bears defense was why this team was seven and ten last year, where everyone's thinking the Bears are one of the worst teams in the league. Last year. You know, they won seven games and it was on the defense and they, you know, blood some points early on for the Titans in the first half, but the second half, Titans got nothing and they didn't cross the 50 yard line, if I think, if I remember correctly on the second half. So they, they put the pressure on Levis. They made them, you know, try to make plays that turned into turnovers and they won a very Chicago Bears football game. If you've ever watched this team over the past, I guess forever, it's defense and special teams that carries away the difference with Caleb and the offense is going to be going forward. Can they make the plays to make up for a defensive game that may not be as dominant? That's that, that's where it's at. So that's, that's looking forward but want to know I will. [00:35:24] Speaker A: How you feeling? [00:35:25] Speaker C: I am feeling great because going Owen one one against the Texans next week would have not looked as good versus a very good team. So, but offense definitely got to step up in week two. But getting that first win out of the way, I think the most important. [00:35:40] Speaker A: Part, I think it's a good start. Let's touch on the other rookie quarterback before we talk about the Texans really quickly. But did you guys catch any of the Seattle Broncos game? [00:35:51] Speaker B: I did get too much. [00:35:52] Speaker C: Yeah, too much of that game I caught. Just wait. Way too. [00:35:56] Speaker A: What do you guys thoughts too much. [00:35:59] Speaker B: On the play for Bo Nicks or week one Broncos? The Broncos just, I mean, threw the ball I think 42 times, 26 out of 42. They didn't really get much of the run game established going, going up against Seattle in Seattle probably easily one of the top five loudest stadiums, toughest stadiums to play in. Seattle had a good game plan. Their defense is young, talented. We talked about Seattle being a team that, you know, can surprise in the NFC. Getting a win at home against the Broncos was a good start for them. [00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah, the game was a little closer than what I thought. I thought Seattle Zoe looked a little shaky. I know they added some new pieces that they have a new coach. They had Marshawn lynch massaging coaches back in the first quarter. A lot of good vibes happening in Seattle, but I'm really kind of curious how everything pieced together for Seattle. They didn't look as hot as I thought they might against, you know what I think is just not a great team in the Broncos. [00:36:55] Speaker B: Broncos got a good defense. I mean, Broncos do got a decent defense. I mean, take away that 70 points they gave up. I think week three last year against the Dolphins, they stepped up and played well. I mean, they did beat the Kansas City Chiefs last year at home. So they, defensively, they got some. I mean, Seattle got off to a slow start offensively, but Seattle's going to run the ball, play defense, rely on special teams. Denver's kind of got to have the same recipe. They just put too much on Bo Nick's plate. He was overmatched, overwhelmed. Two bad picks, one in the end zone. Just trying to, trying to do what Jason mentioned Caleb didn't do was force plays that weren't there, led to turnovers, led to momentum for Seattle, and ended up getting them the victory. [00:37:38] Speaker C: Yeah, Aaron's the gambling expert of the pod, but this, this was a hot game coming in that I saw over social media that we're taking the Broncos, you know, covering as well as winning this game outright potentially in the first half. Defensively, if they showed it to safeties in the first half, was kind of a, it was an unreal, I think, score when we're speaker two. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Has that ever happened in an NFL game before? Two safeties in one game? [00:38:01] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Is that the stat of the year, stat of the day or I, it. [00:38:05] Speaker C: Could be if it's happened in a game. I don't know if it's happened in the first half, but it was, it was a very interesting first half score that we had was at nine to eight or something to start the game. So almost, almost a baseball score for looking at what it was at. But when you look at the Broncos side, Aaron already touched on that way too much on boat. Nick's made the mistakes and that's what probably cost him the game on the Seattle side. I think what you found, like Gino, Gino's going to make some plays. He, he used his legs early on to get an early touchdown, but Kenneth Walker, I think is going to be their key to success. Does he still have he, can they get him the ball making plays? He's really grounded that game out towards the second half to really seal it for the Seahawks. But, you know, I'll talk a lot about the running game with some of these teams, but these teams have got these runners that they can put the ball in and make, make some plays. You know, get first downs, make the clock. A lot of the difference. If Seattle is going to be competitive in a really, you know, fairly talented division in the NFC west, like Kenneth Walker is going to have to probably be the difference maker on that, on that offense for Seattle. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Yeah, real quick. For those who haven't caught the first episode of the podcast, Aaron did state that Pennix junior was Drew Brees 2.0. So Bo next is 2.0, so we'll keep a close eye on it. We have a couple of games week one. Yeah, yeah. [00:39:19] Speaker B: He's got a twelve to 15 year career, man. Take it easy, dude. Obviously Sean Payton. Obviously Sean Payton listened to the pod because he threw the ball 42 times. So he's like, hey, if Aaron thinks he's Drew Brees, then, hey, I'm going to throw the ball. [00:39:34] Speaker C: He listened to the unreleased pod that will never see the light of day potentially, but. But Sean Payton got his hands on it. [00:39:41] Speaker A: I just want to touch on real quickly. I really enjoyed the Texas and Colts game. I thought Richardson did pretty well. Stroud did really well. It was a fun. It was a fun slugfest. I'm not sure how the Colts measure out throughout the rest of the year, but I thought Texans, it was a good first win, and then the other game, it was another shootout, or at least not a shootout, but like a nice potential, you know, playoff preview. Right? Rams, Lions. Rams look like a playoff team with Stafford really throwing some bullets. A little under mashed. Lions played kind of like a poor game overall, but still managed to pull up the victory 26 20. Do you guys have any thoughts on either those two games? I think those kind of featured, you know, at least Rams, Lions potential playoff teams. I wasn't on the Rams, but, you know, if they say healthy, you know, they look like a legitimate playoff team. And then, you know, at least as far as the Colts look, they're going to be pretty competitive. [00:40:34] Speaker B: I'll touch base on the Rams. Rams, I mean, Sean McVeigh, Matt Stafford. I thought a brilliant performance, brilliant game plan they had. For all the injuries they have on their own line, I think they are out like four of their top nine linemen. And to go on the road into Troy and be up in that game late in fourth quarter, talking about teams that lost, I came away probably most impressed with the Rams in week one, despite the loss that they were able to stay in that game. I mean, no tackles, you lose the rookie of the year at wideout, given the weapons they had. I mean, Detroit stopped the running game. Aiden Hutchinson just teeing off every time, flying off the ball looking like TJ Watt out there trying to get sacks. And for the Rams and McVeigh to come up with a game plan and to adjust and to be in that game late, I came away really, really impressed with the Rams. [00:41:24] Speaker C: Yeah, we talked a lot about in the last episode. When you look at the Ravens, Steelers chief, some of these teams that stick around through different regimes like McVeigh's got that reputation as far as a guy who can just take new talent and bring it around and that's what he's going to do with the Rams. You lose Aaron Donald on defense. How does this defense go there? He finds new guys on the offensive side. Puka Naku is going to be down, you know, for, I think four weeks at this point right now. But yeah, so he finds the guys that makes the offense work. I didn't pick them to make the playoffs because I felt there was going to be some stuff there. But I agree with air and very impressive versa. Lions team that, you know, is one of the classes of the NFC this past year and McVeigh is always going to find it, be able to be in these games and find the guys to make the offense work. Very impressive performance. What was the other game we were talking about? [00:42:18] Speaker A: Roma. [00:42:18] Speaker C: I'm already. [00:42:19] Speaker B: Colts. Texas Colts. [00:42:21] Speaker C: Yeah, Colts. A lot of buzz for the way Richardson played. I think made some huge throws in that game. A lot of people do because I think when you athletically one of the most impressive quarterback prospects out there, but a guy that's only made 17 or 18 starts since he was in high school between college and pros and so wild. So a lot of natural ability, hasn't been able to get the reps impressed in college, but a lot of running, but made some big throws this week, too. And I think there's a lot of people probably more on the fantasy side, but I think you see this is a guy that's going to potentially have the breakout year, but I think that was a pretty big, you know, first week for them. I don't think they're as competitive as maybe the Texans and stuff in that division, but I'm sure not now. But the Jaguars, they were, you know, a fringe playoff team last year, could be a playoff team this year, a lot to forward, but I think Richardson, there was a, a lot of hype with some of the big throws he had because you, you can see what the potential is with him. Maybe it's not all together because he's going to need a few more reps, but, I mean, there's a lot of big plays that he was able to make that people are excited about. [00:43:33] Speaker B: The arm talent's legit with Richardson. The athleticism is legit with Richardson. But you see the rawness that, you know, Jason mentioned 18 games. You know, he's still young, still raw, only five. I think this was his fifth or 6th career NFL start. He missed a lot of reads, forced a lot of throws, threw a couple picks, had some guys open on routes. His accuracy isn't very great, but then you see him slip, fall down, get up and throw a 60 yard dime for a touchdown. The upside is there. Can he put it all together going forward this season? That's, that's really a big thing for the Colts and defensively for the Colts. Their d line linebacker is supposed to be the strength of this team. Houston ran the ball all over them, Joe, mixing over what, 155 yards rushing? Stefan Diggs came up big with a couple TD's. Houston, I mean, they were my Super bowl pick and I couldn't be more proud after that week one win. [00:44:25] Speaker A: Let's just talk briefly about Jaguars, Dolphins. I wasn't really impressed with either team. I know Terry kill got arrested before the game, yet a nice little handcuff celebration, scoring that winning touchdown at the end. But I think Dolphins kind of look shaky. Jaguars kind of look shaky as well. It is week one, I wasn't really impressed with either team. [00:44:46] Speaker B: I think two good teams, two playoff teams working out the kinks, you know, Jaguars got a new, new defensive coordinator. They had a good game plan. They did a good job of stopping the Dolphins run game, which was key, and getting pressure on Tua to miss a couple of long throws to Hill. Hit them late for that touchdown celebration that you mentioned. Jacksonville sloppy with the ball to fumbles. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Probably should have gave the game away. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Jacksonville, Jacksonville won the game, which I'm actually glad Jacksonville lost because they got Cleveland coming into town this week and they're looking juicy as one of my top plays for the week. [00:45:23] Speaker A: They should have a nice rebound. Do you have anything to say about the game or should we move on to Raiders Chargers? [00:45:29] Speaker C: I think disappointing game for the Dolphins, that it probably was that close, but I said that that 09:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. pacific lot of news going down. The Tyreek stuff was probably the biggest stuff going on. That news still carrying over even today with the, with the body cam footage coming out. But there was a lot to be desired. There was a lot, there was a lot to be desired overall for the Dolphins in that game. The Dolphins are, you know, usually a big September team under this, you know, McDaniel era where they, they're putting out points really early in these summer months and then they, and they aren't as good in the winter months. So kind of expect a little more from the offense, but a team that's going to bounce back that's still a ton of weapons. I know there's going to be some health potentially concerns. I don't remember seeing what waddle was at. I don't know if he's going to be out for any short time, but I know he had some injury stuff during that game, too. But the Dolphins are going to be there. That's a team that's going to make the playoffs. They still win the east in my opinion. So, yeah, I think that's it. But two, two tough playoff teams. Both teams I think Aaron and I picked to go to the Super bowl. Go to the playoffs. Not the Super bowl, to the playoffs. [00:46:33] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys had a winning for sure. Yeah. Really quickly before we touch on the other east team, the jets playing today against the 49 ers, which was a pretty fun game, I thought in the first half and then for nine ers just ran away with it. We did have the Raiders, Chargers, Pierce looking like a rookie coach, punting it on fourth and one. And in the fourth quarter with like five or six minutes ago, Chargers looking like a hardball team. Hard nose running the ball. Herbert didn't have like a lot of crazy deep throws. I think it was like the least amount of like throws, you know, over 1015 yards he's had in his career. But they look really solid and they looked like they're a unified group. I'm really excited to see them play this year. [00:47:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Harbor philosophies, you know, control the line of scrimmage both on the offense and defensive line. Run the ball late in the fourth quarter, control ball control, time of possession. Chargers won every aspect of that game. So, yeah, I mean, Raiders, here's game management, clock management, down and distance going to come into question. He went forward in the first quarter, zero zero game with the ball in his own 39 yard line on the. [00:47:39] Speaker A: For a couple times. Yeah, got stopped. [00:47:42] Speaker B: I think that probably played a role late in the game. [00:47:44] Speaker A: Got stuffed twice on fourth and short. [00:47:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think he figured his defense was playing well and the Raiders defense did play well. They ran out of gas in the second half, which is understandable. Teams, you know, don't play their players during the preseason. So defenses start to wear down and hardballs. Football has run the ball. They found some big gaps in the run game there in the fourth quarter and took advantage of it and that led to the Chargers getting the victory. [00:48:07] Speaker A: By the way, you could tell like all the teams are pretty gas at the end of the week one, you know, it was obvious they only had minimum reps there's only three pre season games now, so everyone looked pretty gassed. You could definitely tell. [00:48:16] Speaker C: Overall, I think offensively was much to be desired. When you look across the entire league like, and I think you chalk that up to a lot of the preseason reps. A lot of guys didn't play any in the preseason, maybe one or two of the games with one or two of the drives, but Chargers definitely impressive. Jim Harbaughs one, you know, at UC San Diego, one at Stanford, one of the Niners, one at Michigan. You know, he's going to win with the Chargers. Yeah. Akalil Mac and Bosa had a really good game defensively, so they're going to the quarterback. Dobbins, you know, had a huge game running back wise. So taking Dobbins and Gus Edwards from the Ravens last year and just plug them into this running game and had a really impressive game, control the ball, giving Herbert, you know, some time to breathe in the pocket. But Jarbo is going to make them competitive. They're going to be a winning team. We'll see how they compete with the class of that division with kind of still rebuilding that that roster. But the Raiders, I don't want to say they are who we thought they were, but they definitely don't have a legit NFL starting quarterback. I think Gardner Minshew was definitely, see, this is a guy who is the career backup, can come in for a pinch, but not the guy going forward for the Raiders. And they're going to have to probably, you know, assess that in the offseason and what they're going to do from a quarterback position. But we talked about in the NFL preview pod, like, you have a quarterback or you don't in the NFL. I don't think either of these guys are ones that are the path forward and what you're going to have one out of the starting quarterback position. I think that was evident yesterday. [00:49:48] Speaker B: Yeah, Mac and Boza, you know, they control the line of scrimmage. You know, Minshew, you know, he looked rattled. He looked rattled back there. I think he threw a backwards pass that led to almost a scoop and score by the Chargers. He missed a couple wide receivers. You know, the Raiders, their old line got dominated in that game. They got some talent on the outside with Devante and the rookie Bowers, who I think Brock Bowers showed me a lot. I think they got to get him more involved. I know he's been slowed in camp with a knee injury. Raiders got some playmakers there, but no quarterback. You're not going to win the National Football League. And that's where the Raiders need to restart. [00:50:24] Speaker A: Let's go to tonight's game. Both teams started out three and out a couple punts. Four Niners scored the first field goal, and then Aaron Rodgers looked really sharp on that one touchdown drive. They what? They drove like 70 yards, but sauce Gardner kind of missed a big portion of the game as well. Wasn't really clear whether he was hurt or not. They didn't really run the ball particularly well. The defense was kind of porous, a lot of gaps. They didn't really stop stack the box the way they usually do. And then the Niners, you know, they did pretty well without CMC. Who was the running back today? I didn't even know about him before today. [00:51:02] Speaker B: Jason Mason. Justin Mason. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Can someone look that up real quick? I totally had on top of my hand, I wrote it down and I. [00:51:11] Speaker B: Know the last, I know the last name is Mason. [00:51:13] Speaker A: It was Mason. [00:51:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:14] Speaker A: You did a great job. I think he had like over 150 yards rushing. [00:51:18] Speaker C: Jordan Mason. [00:51:19] Speaker A: Jordan Mason. He's played great. I really loved it. [00:51:24] Speaker B: I mean, obviously the jets didn't know who he was because they couldn't tackle him all night. [00:51:28] Speaker A: They could. Yeah. [00:51:29] Speaker C: Before, before we started recording that, they were talking about Jordan Mason, knew he was playing on Friday, that CMC wasn't going to play and this was kind of late, late breaking stuff going potentially so. But, you know, he had 147 yards. They gave him the ball. A good thing for the Niners offense because CMC, not the youngest player in the league, still dynamic. But this gives you offensively like really some dynamic weapons. If you're going to have two running backs, you can bounce it off. Not great for fantasy. For CMC owners, that probably took him first overall and potentially fantasy drafts. But now you had another running back into that can eat up carries and take pressure off of Brock Purdy and, you know, some late games in the season, that's, that's a great fine for the Niners to know, you know, in their back pocket. [00:52:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Initially Purdy looked a little rough, just like he did in preseason. Begin the game and then he just turned it up. Had some nice throws deep down the middle. I. You definitely looked rusty. Missing camp. Dropped a few like what could have been a touchdown pass, I think, at the end of the second quarter and then had another couple drop passes in the second half. Debo, solid as usual, but good win for the Niners. I had the jets for the upset, but it's obvious like the jets are really talented, but they still got a lot of pieces to put together. [00:52:44] Speaker B: Yeah. 49 ers, I thought looked really good both offensively and defensively. I mean, they just ran the ball. They controlled the line of scrimmage. We didn't talk about Trent Williams dominating there at laugh tackle in this game, running behind him. I mean, Purdy was under pressure maybe once all game, getting the run game going. I mean, if the 49 ers get the run game going, you're in trouble against them because that sets up the play action for kittle underneath and Devon Iuk over the top, even to get in the fullback use check involved. Great design there. And that will route they hit. [00:53:16] Speaker A: That was nice, right? [00:53:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a nice, beautiful, good concept. I mean, I wasn't. I mean, for the Jets, I expected way more. Not so much on offense, but this is top three defense. Yeah, and they got ran over. And that, to me is a bit concerning. [00:53:32] Speaker A: They got punked. [00:53:34] Speaker B: You know, Reddick's sitting out there waiting for a contract. His agent and him might be calling to up tomorrow morning and trying to renegotiate that one because they. They didn't look good on defense, which is a shocker. I mean, sauce Gardner did get hurt a little bit banged up. I think it was a shoulder injury that when he tackled Debo on an interround reverse. But the jets, for me, defensively, I was concerned. Offensively, you know, Rogers looked rusty, hasn't played in two years. Made some throws, missed some throws, but. [00:54:05] Speaker A: A good first start. I thought it was really funny. I think. What was it? Buck and Aikman, they were talking about how, like the fourth play, Rodgers, you know, towards achilles last year, the fourth play this year was like. Almost like an omen that it was gonna be like another mistake. He does a shovel pass, gets hit. [00:54:22] Speaker B: At least to a fumble, right? [00:54:24] Speaker A: Yeah, at least. Almost like a similar thing. I can't remember the defensive tackle that was on the bills that. [00:54:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Floyd. [00:54:32] Speaker A: Floyd, yeah, he was on that play. Applying a lot of pressure on Rogers was really funny. I was kind of like a little nervous on that one, but other than that, I thought it was a good first step for the jets. [00:54:43] Speaker C: Could be a first good step. But if you listen to any New York media or jets fans, like, they're going to freak out, like, from a tortured fan base, you know, perspective, like they rival, I think a lot of the teams in the league for how, you know, this team always underachieves and what they're supposed to do. And there's almost a. A curse on them compared to when you look at the crosstown Giants who've won some Super Bowls and just being in the same division of the Patriots over the last 20 something years like nothing's gone wrong with the jets. So I think they're always going to be freaking out after week one. I think, you know, the jets probably get crushed in the media for, you know, where they're at. You know, they thought in the second half, they get, they get that, they get that offside, you know, touchdown pass and they think they're going to make it a game and just never kind of was really close after that where the Niners took hold. But the Niners class of the NFC, a team that's a Super bowl contender, they're, they're worried about bigger and better things at this point. Health, I think, is the Niners biggest obstacle at this point. Can they be the first overall seed, stay healthy, you know, get back to the Super bowl? But they, they definitely have the talent. Potentially kind of a little bit of a last run because they paid, they paid Ayuk and some guys around there, you know, Devo and some, you know, some people may be moving on from a cap perspective, so really need to make a strong push. But back to the Jets. I think they got the talent, but they always seem to disappoint when it counts most. As a Bears fan, I know this. [00:56:07] Speaker A: But you can relate. [00:56:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I can. I can relate. The jets, when you look in New York, they are the second team in town. I take that as a White Sox fan, as the White Sox are the second team in town. The jets fan, I feel that, you know, the jets are generally Mets fans who are Islanders fans who are always the second team in town that's on the York runs. And so they, they have that fear that it's going to be burning around them. I think Roger Rogers is probably going to have a gear because he's coming back for revenge on where it's at, but it's always, he definitely did. [00:56:37] Speaker A: But I was watching the initial ESPN broadcast and I switched over to Eli and Payton. They had Belichick at the end of the first half, but then they had Adam Sandler. And right when they brought him on, that's when they had the turnover. He was like, fuck this, I want to hang up. It was just talking about all the misery of, like, how his dad talked him into being a Jets family, was three years old, like, it's gonna be good times, and it's been misery since then. So I thought it was hilarious, man. It was a lot of fun. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that was pretty funny. But yeah. Billitchek, I think it's gonna be on the first half, every podcast with Payton Eli. I was listening to them. [00:57:11] Speaker A: He's reallydae do much, but. All right, cool. Let's wrap this up. Let's do a power five. Who do you guys have top five teams in the NFL right now based on week one? [00:57:23] Speaker B: Well, no particular order. I'd put the 49 ers in there. [00:57:27] Speaker A: Most definitely. [00:57:28] Speaker B: I'd put the Buccaneers in there. I'd put the Cowboys in there. I'm going to put your Pittsburgh Steelers in there and I will go with the Cowboys. Yeah. Houston Texans, get out of here. [00:57:46] Speaker A: Okay, Jason. [00:57:49] Speaker B: Yeah, no particular the best five teams. I just. That's what the mess. They impressed me the most week one. [00:57:56] Speaker A: That's not how power fight works, but okay. [00:57:58] Speaker C: Yeah. No particular order with no prep on this, but I think starting from that Thursday night game, I think the Chiefs of, you know, big game won that there. The Niners from tonight's game are there as well. The Lions on the Sunday night game. You know, good. Trying to make a name for those. Get back to the NFC championship game, the Texans. That Aaron said, I think very impressive coming back. You know, from, you know, what they, you know, from Aaron's expectations at least for what the Texans are going to make the jump this year. And then the Cowboys. I agree. I think the Cowboys had a lot of drama coming in. They were a little low up to expectations, not fall five in their face in week one. So that'd be my five for night. Now, see, I didn't put the Bears in there for you, Rom. You wanted me to. I didn't just yet. I'll wait till they score an offensive touchdown and then the Bears will be in the. [00:58:43] Speaker B: If the Bears beat the Texans on Sunday night Football, they'll be in Jason's top five. [00:58:48] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, the Bears. I will give you a particular order where the Bears are number one. If they beat the Texas on Sunday. [00:58:53] Speaker A: Night Football, most likely a full video episode is not going to be coming out. But Jason's rocking a Chicago Bears hat today. Rocking it really nice and proud. My top five right now is 49 ERs, Lions, Ravens, Texans and Chiefs. Let's take a break and we'll just briefly talk about week two in college football. We're back talking a little bit about week two in college football. We had a couple nice upsets. Looks like the cream of the crop is starting to rise to the top with Texas, Ohio State, Georgia, USC, Tennessee and Ole Miss. We'll go into a little more detail, but let's start off with the biggest upset of the year. Toppling Georgia Tech, taking down errands. Florida State Seminoles, which. Which look like less than pieces of option. [00:59:41] Speaker B: That's not even an upset now, man. [00:59:43] Speaker A: It's not even an upset. But Northern Illinois came in. [00:59:46] Speaker B: That's an upset. [00:59:48] Speaker A: They got paid $1.5 million to play nordic tame, and they laid the smackdown they look like. So I was watching other games with my daughter on Saturday. Just made her some bagels, some bacon and eggs, and I was kind of surprised. I was just flipping the channels. I saw, like, it looked really competitive in the first quarter, and I couldn't change it. I was glued to the tv. I was. I was really impressed with how well northern Illinois was playing. For them to see a really clutch field goal at the end, to go up by two and then blocking that 60 yard. Was it a 60 yarder? [01:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah, 60, 61 yarder. [01:00:21] Speaker A: I mean, it looked a little low, but what a big turnout of events. They look like they knew that they can compete with Notre Dame. Notre Dame. I don't know how they recover from this. Making it to, like, the playoff standpoint. They have one more big game on their schedule because they have, like, a cupcake schedule after this. They got USC at the end of the year. USC is looking a hell of a lot better than what I thought they'd be. That's because they also stole my defensive coordinator for the UCLA. I think that might be, like, the difference maker for them. They're looking really solid. Uh, but let's start from there. Jason. Uh, for those they don't know, Jason's a big nordame guy or Nordic. Damn. I don't know. [01:00:56] Speaker C: Yeah. So Roman texts me, uh, Jason, how you feeling after that game? I I wasn't. I wasn't sure if he was talking about the game or just concerned about my overall well being on a Saturday, but, yeah, hugely, just, yeah, hugely, hugely disappointed from the Irish. I, like, my fandom for the Bears, was really high on the Irish this year. You mentioned the cupcake schedule. Yeah. We have a game versus USC and a game versus Florida state, which I guess that Florida state game isn't as big as it, you know, might have been. So, hey, we're not. The Irish aren't playing a ton of people. You have a massive week one win in. In Texas versus Texan, Texas A and McKayle Field, which is one of the hardest places to play at from a college football atmosphere standpoint. You get the win. Really great win. For the Irish and you're going against the team that, hey, this is supposed to be the win in northern Illinois. And frankly, offensively, which has generally been Notre Dame's thing, you know, you know, for a long time since maybe Brady Quinn at this point, like, how are we going to play offensively and score some points? And, you know, for the most part, Riley Leonard has not done much in the first two games. The defense was able to bail him out versus Texas A and M, and they were able to rely on the running game with Jeremiah Love. But, you know, Jeremiah Love has some great, one great run or a few great runs, a few drives versus Northern Illinois, but Northern Illinois just controlled the game. I mentioned this to some of my friends, you know, NCAA football, I'm sorry, college football 25 on EA Sports came back, you know, this year, you know, huge college football game. Everyone was itching to play this, you know, get into the portal, came big during COVID where some guys are out there getting back to NCAA football 14. So when you play NCAA football or at college football 25, you want to start with a bad program. So I, you know, chose Northern Illinois. Being a guy from Illinois, I'm going to take, you know, a Mac team and turn them into a powerhouse. And so I blame myself that, you know, I took northern Illinois and college football 25 and turned them to a perennial national championship. [01:03:03] Speaker A: You did tender. [01:03:04] Speaker C: It's a real story. You know, like many across, like many across the nation have taken some. I got a friend that's taken Hawaii to the promised land. Others have chosen Memphis and whatever team. I took northern Illinois. And so I said, you know, when northern Illinois, in my first year of my career, you know, beat Notre Dame and on the schedule, this plane, you know, that launched the northern Illinois dynasty in the college football 25 in the, in the PS five world. So, so I will blame myself for, for part of that. But other than that, selfishly, yeah, offensively, Notre Dame's got to figure it out. They got the soft schedule. Do they make the playoff? I don't know at this point because, you know, USC, like you, USC, like you said, looks good. They still got to play some other teams. If they can't get more than 14 points against a lot of these other teams from, from Power five conferences, they're not going to be there. So hugely disappointing because this was a team Aaron and I both take to go to the College Football playoff. There's a lot of questions after this week because this is a pretty big loss. [01:04:02] Speaker A: Yeah. One thing going for Notre Dame, they did have a big win against Texas A and M. They're a really good team. Maybe Northern Illinois is just a really good team. What if they. I think me and Aaron were texting or talking earlier, you know, what if. [01:04:14] Speaker B: They'Re in the playoff right now? Northern Illinois would have to be in the playoff right now. [01:04:18] Speaker A: Now the ranked number 25 non Power. [01:04:21] Speaker B: Four team, top ranked non Power 14 gets into the playoff. If Northern Illinois runs the table that win over the Irish, considering that they have the season they're capable of, you'd have to put Northern Illinois in the playoff over any other non Power 14 as of right now. [01:04:35] Speaker A: It didn't look like a fluke upset. It looked like a really competitive game. I hope it's not a fluke upset because, you know, we tend to have those. [01:04:42] Speaker B: They were, they were the better team on Saturday, coming in as a 20 and a half point underdog. You said they got paid one and a half million dollars. [01:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:49] Speaker B: I mean, to go into Notre Dame, when that game, Linda Riley really struggled. That quarterback doesn't seem to be able to read defenses, throw the deep ball. The run game is what the Irish got going on. Northern Illinois did a good job of stopping that. Defensively, they were good. Offensively, they round the ball really good against the Irish, even despite the referees and the replay booth. Not knowing what a first down was by a yard and the officiating, not knowing that the clock runs and it wasn't a timeout. With all that against them, the football gods gave us what we deserved, a Northern Illinois upset over Notre Dame. I couldn't be more pleased on Saturday evening. [01:05:26] Speaker C: As a Notre Dame fan, you're sad, but I think as a Northern Illinois, a team that hasn't, this was their first, I think, nationally telephoto buys game they talked about on the broadcast on Sunday. I believe they're ranking out. Aaron, you can catch me on that. I may be ranked 25th or 25th the nation right now. So we could be talking about some Thursday night matching games at this point that, you know, northern Illinois, who they plan where they're going to make a run could be a really interesting story. Ontario Brown, they're running back. You want to buy his jersey? I mean, they got some good looking jerseys. Yeah, I want to be stocked. But yeah, he had the really impressive performance in the first half and really put them on the board and gave them that lead nail to hold on. So it could be a really interesting team to walk. I watch, I picked Boise State as that non power five, you know, team to make the playoff. They look pretty impressive this week as well. But you know, Aaron, I'm trying to remember who you picked on that, but they're northern LA kids in that conversation, I think is that if they win the Mac, they could be in the playoff. [01:06:25] Speaker B: I got Memphis as a non powerful team that was going to get in. They do play Florida state this weekend. I don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I guess they should reform in Florida State goes to 00:13 so that's where I had methods. I think Boise State is obviously a player in that will touch base on that game against Oregon. That was a shootout. [01:06:43] Speaker A: Yes. Go to that right now, gene, because, you know, Oregon has been looking pretty shaky. I know some people picked him to win the national championship. They've been a big favorite. They're number one in the nation. [01:06:53] Speaker B: Was that Jason's national champion was in Oregon. Who do you got? Who'd you have winning the championship? [01:06:57] Speaker A: I don't recall right now. [01:06:58] Speaker B: Did we just pick him playoff teams? [01:07:00] Speaker C: We just picked last. We didn't pick national title. I did. [01:07:04] Speaker B: You have Oregon, Jason and you changing that right now. [01:07:06] Speaker C: I did not. I, I did not. I probably would have said Notre Dame, but I definitely didn't say that now. [01:07:12] Speaker B: You know, so that's a fun. That's not going to make the airways. [01:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah, Oregon's been looking really shaky. They're number one in the nation for sacks allowed. Bama hasn't looked too good either. Mill wrote, just looks like a one dimensional quarterback at this point. I just don't think they're going to make it very far as well. [01:07:32] Speaker B: I mean, I did have off the record Alabama getting to the title game. So that's still possibility they could get there. [01:07:39] Speaker A: I don't recall that. [01:07:42] Speaker C: I don't know. We didn't, we didn't pick that. We mostly did just playoff teams. [01:07:48] Speaker B: My final, I will say now, since Jason came out with Notre Dame, it can't be any worse than that. [01:07:52] Speaker C: I did, I didn't say Notre Dame. I said if, if you made me pick prior to this game, I may have said overnight. [01:07:58] Speaker B: That's what I'm thinking, man. [01:07:59] Speaker C: The thing about that, why I wouldn't pick Notre Dame, I'll tell you, is like the one thing they can't get the first round by. So I mean, the first year of the expanded playoff right now, Notre Dame cannot get the first round by. The best they could do, even if they went undefeated, is the fifth seed. So that's already a negative that to them win the national title until they join a conference is going to be a very tough hill to follow because when you look at NFL first round buys like those are the teams that generally get to the, you know, the conference championship games in the Super bowl. So you know, Notre Dame having to play the first time as is going to be a very difficult thing for them, you know, until they join a conference in the future years. [01:08:31] Speaker B: I think Notre Dame being an independent actually helps them out better to get into the playoffs as a five, six or seven seed. I don't know necessarily the buy is gonna be that big in college football. We're gonna find out cuz if you are a five, six, seven or eight seed you host a playoff game at home which is something that's never been done, which I think would be great. And then the other games are at neutral sites. So you know, maybe consistently playing and not having that off week to kind of like what's testing for finals and stuff midterms and what's going on. I think it actually could be beneficial. I don't think the buy is gonna be that great in a yemenite college football. You know, unless you got like a, you know a star player or somebody that's hurt or banged up. We'll see how that plays out. But yeah, my final for the championship game, I had Ohio State beating Alabama. That was the twelve teams. That was my final. [01:09:18] Speaker A: Let's talk about the other big game we had, Texas and Michigan. I spoke to Aaron about this in the beginning of the season. I think Texas is definitely a championship contender. Probably one of the better teams this year. I don't think Aaron is as up on Texas as I am, but they play Michigan. Michigan still has a top ten defense in all of NCAA. Lots of NFL guys on the defensive line, safeties, linebackers. A lot of they did lose a lot of guys on the offensive side and you've seen that like they look pretty anemic now, but the way they manhandled it, yours was pretty dope, mobile and accurate. That experience, he's like a third year starter. It's really coming through. And they just dissected the shit out of Michigan. I think now coming out of that game they're my favorite to win the championship. [01:10:03] Speaker B: Well, I think no other team outside of Notre Dame could be more happy that Michigan looks as bad as they are because Michigan's not going to make the playoff. I think this is probably a six and six, seven and five team at best. I don't think that defense. I think they're bad offenses, bad. Their offense is bad. Your defense, their defense is good. But the teams and the opponents they got coming up in the Big Ten, those teams can score and they have no quarterback play. I think we talked about this. I'm not a big fan of orgy parties, but it's time to go to orgy if you're a Michigan fan because Warren is not getting it done. So let's get, let's get that going right now. [01:10:40] Speaker A: That's a mouthful. [01:10:41] Speaker B: I mean, it's, it's time, it's time for the orgy to start over there in Michigan because they, what they're doing is not working. Texas went in there and basically with even their second string guys in the second half manhandled Michigan. That's not something we came to see from Michigan over the last three years. So Michigan, they're out of the playoff and that's that. [01:11:02] Speaker C: I didn't know where Aaron was going. Texas looks special, but, but Michigan, I think from the outset there was a lot of great social media stuff. I'm a big fan of the Dark Knight franchise and there was a lot of bane. If you remember the Dark Knight rises of Jim Harbaugh going. Jim Harbaugh going to his, his old team is that they expect one of us in the wreckage, brother. And that is definitely what he left behind, a wreckage in Michigan. All, you know, took all these guys to the NFL. That was the last kind of stand from that team that Harbaugh built. And it's going to take some time here for Michigan. And now you add you had a lot of good teams between USC and Oregon into the Big Ten. Ohio State is made, as Aaron mentioned, is good. I don't know if there's bad as a six or seven with a team like Aaron said, but they're not making the playoff either. Texas, really great for me. I still think Georgia number one at all. It's kind of, that's not a very controversial pick. There's, they still got the talent. They haven't lost a regular season game, you know, since 2020 or 2019. I don't even know at this point when the last time Georgia lost in the regular season. I think there's still the class, but Texas very good. We'll make the playoff will be, I think, contending with, with Georgia for the SEC champ. [01:12:18] Speaker A: I think Ohio State and Georgia have definitely separated themselves from the rest, rest of college football. Tennessee is looking really nice. Ole Miss, they haven't really played anybody yet, but they got all the pieces. You figured that they're going to do some damage throughout the season, I definitely got them, you know, are high on Texas. [01:12:36] Speaker B: I'm still not truly sold on them till they play somebody. I think they might still be the fifth best team in the SEC. [01:12:42] Speaker A: That's fucking crazy, dude. That's the craziest thing I've heard. [01:12:46] Speaker B: I like. I like Georgia, I like Ole miss, I like Alabama. [01:12:50] Speaker A: I'm not taking Tennessee. [01:12:52] Speaker C: Tennessee. Tennessee look good to my dark horse. [01:12:55] Speaker B: To get in there. So, I mean, Texas beat up on a bad Colorado state team. Who we're going to touch on Colorado. Colorado State. Colorado play this weekend and let's talk Michigan. Michigan doesn't have a quarterback, so like I said, six and six, seven and five. I don't think out of the realm for Michigan fans can be a long romance. [01:13:14] Speaker C: You mentioned Colorado. Romeo Stock, Colorado, Nebraska. We got. Let him take ISO right now on this. [01:13:20] Speaker A: No. Yeah, so, you know, I've been a corn hustlers fan since I've been a kid. Just always been a fan of, like, the run formation that they used to do in the nineties, dominated, won a couple of championships. I was a big fan of Eric Crouch, but it's been like, pretty, a pretty tough ten or twelve years that Nebraska has done anything. I think their last winning season was like 2016, and like, that was like a lone season and a sea of other disappointing seasons. But with rule now at Nebraska second year round, they lost a lot of close games last year. They got this new freshman quarterback. His father is a legendary defensive lineman. I believe he also played on the Detroit Lions for about a decade or so. He's the guy that's like the doppelganger for Mahomes. Mahomes. You see, like these little highlights, he got some jerry curls and little fanny pack nil. But they did play Colorado this past week, and Colorado has been a big hype machine. I think that when last year it was against TCU, kind of was like a little fool's gold. Right? It gave him a lot of promise, but they haven't been able to do anything since then. They got some really talented players in shadow. Sanders. They got Travis Hunter. [01:14:36] Speaker B: Yeah, Travis Hunter. Yeah. [01:14:37] Speaker A: Yeah, Travis Hunter. But I feel like maybe Deon Sanders, his hubris, his ego is kind of like, like downfall of like, why Colorado really can't do anything. There's just too much flash and just not enough presence in there. They get rid of half their guys every single year. Now it's year two. I think 40 something guys left, and then they recruited more during the Nil era. And I know Colorado looks really bad. But Nebraska, though, they're on the up. I feel like we're going to have, like, a pretty good season and have, like, a nice bowl game this year. [01:15:12] Speaker C: The broadcast really touched on it. It was a tale of two different head coaches and how they approached the building college football programs in kind of a new era. You mentioned the nil era, so, Dion, hey, all nil. I'm basically teach keeping this like a professional franchise, and we're going in the transfer portal. I'm recruiting all these guys, and I'm getting rid of whatever Matt rule. I'm gonna go the more traditional route. He's gonna focus on high school recruiting, recruiting, you know, building the program up year after year. A lot of questions with Dion, like, is he in it beyond whenever his son and Travis Hunter are gone? Like, is it just a tool for them in these couple years once they're eligible for pros? And then he's kind of out at that point. Matt Rule, I think he's there for your corn rosters to really try to build something and build, you know, a legendary program that was great in our youth. You know, you mentioned Eric Crouch and, you know, some of the other legends during the Tom Osborne era that, hey, this was a revered program that was a perennial championship contender, but there's something to build over the years. But Deon is going to be, hey, we're all in on this year. We're getting these guys, and there's not going to be much at. I think Colorado knows what they're getting themselves into because a ton of interest in this program that didn't win a lot of games last year and probably won't win a lot of games this year, either. [01:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah. 22 rushes for 16 yards this game against Nebraska. That's crazy. Yeah. [01:16:34] Speaker B: Colorado is a team that gets off the bus, does a lot of talking, but they don't back it up. You know, Deon went in the transfer portal year one. I think he got like 85, 90 guys. They upset a TCU team that, you know, lost a lot of players. They were depleted, kind of overhyped into the title game the year before. This year brings in 42 new transfers. They barely beat, like, a subdivision team in North Dakota State, 31 27 in the opener. They get manhandled this Saturday at Lincoln, Nebraska. You mentioned it, Rome. I don't know what Colorado's identity is, right. They don't run the ball. They can't stop the run. They basically sit in shotgun and say, hey, Shadir, roll up your stats, make them look good. Throw for 500 yards. And let's try to get you to the number one pick in the NFL draft. [01:17:18] Speaker A: What's the thing? Like everyone has them, either number two or number three. [01:17:22] Speaker B: I don't even have the first round. He's not even a first round talent in my opinion. [01:17:25] Speaker A: He was projected to go second round this past year. Some people think he might make the leap to maybe challenge for that number one spot from Georgia's quarterback, but I just don't see it happening. [01:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I don't, like I said, I don't have him as a first round talent. I mean, their best players, Travis Hunter, playing both offense and defense, you know, they got horn on the outside. I mean, they got some nice skillset players, nice guys, but their old line is bad. They can't protect the quarterback. Shadir Sanders got sacked four times in the first half. They pulled them in the fourth quarter because they didn't want him to get hurt. Nebraska wanted to. Could have ran up 50 points on them. But, you know, Matt rules got respect out there. He didn't want to make the on look as bad as he did. This wasn't like Dan landing in Oregon where he put a smack and whipping on him. I thought, I thought Nebraska should have done that, but, you know, I think Colorado State is going to beat Colorado. I hope they do on Saturday. Think this Colorado team's a two or three win team. Jason said, you know, how long is Deon going to be there? You know, Hunter and Saunders son are going to go pro. I think Deon probably stays there one more year and sees the writing on the wall and gets out because of health reasons. As a cop out to get out. Colorado, they're irrelevant in the college game. You know, Deon's brought the flash, made him look sexy, but, you know, they got no identity as a program. Matt rules building Nebraska up the way you got to do. You can go through the transfer portal, but you got to have an identity as a program. All, all, basically, Colorado is flash celebrities on the sidelines and they're a below 500 program. [01:18:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I like Deon Sanders. You know, I like prime, you know, prime time. I like to watch him as a kid. It's just I don't think he's taking like a lot of accountability for his program and just a lot of pointing fingers. They're banning reporters from the sideline based. [01:19:04] Speaker B: Off what I just said. I would be banned from even a talking to Deon based off you be banned. [01:19:08] Speaker C: Don't talk about it. [01:19:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:10] Speaker A: If you make any criticism on him on his sons or on the program. It's just not a good look. So. [01:19:15] Speaker B: And I think, I think. [01:19:17] Speaker A: But it's not a good thing for college. [01:19:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think Deon is, you know, I think Deon, when he did at Jackson State was great. You know, he brought recognition to the, you know, all black colleges and stuff. But I think he was interested in that Florida state job. I think he was hoping Mike Norville would kind of fall apart there. He kind of got that thing going where they got three straight ten win seasons. I think he was interested in going back to his alma mater there and then, you know, obviously Florida State started winning. Colorado gave him a shot, I think five year, $25 million contract. I mean, Colorado, let's just be real. They. I think the season he got there, they were one in eleven, maybe won two games before that. They are in the bottom dumps as far as talent. They are in the bottom, bottom barrel of like bottom ten programs. When he got there, he's made them relevant. The media is all over it. But like I said, I don't know what their identity is. They can't run the ball. They can't stop anybody. They're flashy. That's all great. Now they're in the big twelve conference. That's, you know, getting better. Arizona State, Utah, all these teams are getting better in the conference. And next year it's going to be, let's bring in 50 more transfers. It's tough to get any cohesiveness when every year you're going in the transfer portal and bring in over half of the new squad. [01:20:26] Speaker A: I feel like we gave Colorado a little too much love right now. Let's talk about some other things for week two. Anything that kind of sticks out going to week three for college football. [01:20:35] Speaker B: It. [01:20:35] Speaker C: Was a lot of blowout games. I think you look in week one, one program, I'll be honest, I didn't pick them to make the playoff, but one program that continually watch is going to be Miami. Aaron picked them to win the acc. They're a team that I think contends for the playoff. [01:20:52] Speaker A: I. [01:20:52] Speaker C: They got the right quarterback, which I think they didn't have under the first year. It was a blowout game for them, a game they should have won. But, but so far, like, you know, what you have in Miami is what should have been. This is a team. Aaron, correct me, he's the aCC expert, but Miami's never won the acc. They got all the big east types, but I don't think they've ever come away with like an ACC title. And I, when you look at the expectations for this team, bringing the U back to where they were during our heyday, when they had, you know, NFL talent top to bottom, this is a team that has top recruiting classes and didn't really put it together last year and, you know, head coach, great recruiter, questionable in game, you know, management, and actually being the coach on the field, you know, I think it's a team that's gone, you know, two, and, oh, so far. Can they sustain that? And that's what I'm gonna be looking forward. Will they have a slip in the, slip in the road they shouldn't have? [01:21:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Miami, yeah. Miami hasn't won a conference title, like jason said for like 20 years. And I know we're not talking about, I mean, maybe the last time Miami in Nebraska were really relevant is when they played for a national title way. [01:22:03] Speaker A: Back in the day, early two thousands. [01:22:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So Miami, I did pick him to win the accident. Cam Ward is a great, athletic quarterback, perfect for this system. They recruit well. Game management's a big question mark with those guys, but Miami, I'm high on, and they are right now the class of the ACC. [01:22:22] Speaker A: I could have said Florida state. [01:22:24] Speaker C: No, he picked Miami and I, he picked Miami. I'll vouch for it because it was, it was something that I wanted to consider. I went with Clemson bad, probably. They got, they got, they got, they got rolled. Wasn't the right pick. Miami's the kind of where I was at. I was swerving different to be different from Aaron, but Miami is when I had, I mean, like I said, mario Christophe gets the talent into Miami, questions on his actual in game management and can make the most out of that talent when, when they're there because he had a lot of great talent come to Oregon when he was there. Tons of big recruiting classes so far in Miami, but a team, a team that should win the ACC with the talent that they have, can they put it together on the feel? But so far so good. In two weeks in. [01:23:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he's got a quarterback. He's got a quarterback now, and that's, that's the key. If you got an elite quarterback at the collegiate level with all the talent that Miami has, as long as Mario Cristobal doesn't screw it up with game management. I think Miami's, they're rolling right now. They're top ten team right now going forward. [01:23:26] Speaker A: I'm not sure if Kenmore's elite, but he definitely has elite for the college game. [01:23:30] Speaker B: I don't know what he's going to try legit. [01:23:34] Speaker A: It's nice. So we talked about like some of the top teams. Is there like any fools gold in the top 25 right now? For me, it might be Oregon. Penn State has gotten lucky in a few games so far this year. They got really tested by Bowling Green this past week. I can't really think of anybody else but any other fools gold. [01:23:55] Speaker C: I don't think Oregon's fools go. I think Boise State's a good team that is going to win the Mountain west and gave them a really good game. Penn State, I think they go against a lot of tough competition in the Big Ten. Big Ten is going to be very interesting. Aaron mentioned Ohio State earlier in the pod 13 that probably should win the Big Ten this year. But you got Oregon, you got USC. You know, Penn State is going to have a lot of tough, competitive games with, with this expanded conference this year. So could be. But I don't think Oregon's a fool's goal that you said, rob, we talk about Penn State. [01:24:29] Speaker B: I want to bring go back on Penn State. We talk about Penn State and for once they don't have Michigan on their schedule. And God, they'd call them the Big Ten and bacon to pit Michigan on their schedule because they'd be, they'd beat Michigan by 30 points if they were playing this year. They are missing them. I feel bad for Penn State. They would love to see Michigan on that schedule. I mean, yeah, bowling greens, not a slouch team. I think bowling greens in the Mac conference, too, right? So they're going to see northern Illinois later. [01:24:53] Speaker C: So it could be, it could be. Could be the Mac title game right there. Bowling green in northern Illinois. [01:24:58] Speaker B: That could be. I've always been a big bowling green guy. They're competitive, they play hard. Oregon, I don't think they're fool's gold, but they're not playing as well as everybody had them hyped up to be. They struggled against Idaho even though they had 500 yards of total offense and still only score 24 points. Boise State's a really good football team, Jason said. I agree with that. Probably should have won that game. They gave up a punt return or kickoff return for a touchdown. That was a really, really good game. 3734 shootout Tennessee I think Tennessee is a team right now, that quarterback play they got. But defensively, I've been really, really impressed with Tennessee. That was my real question mark coming in. Could they stop anybody? They're looking really sharp there. And USC, USC, I think right now is playing this, it's the second best team right now in the biggest. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have said that two weeks ago. [01:25:49] Speaker A: No. [01:25:49] Speaker B: Lincoln Riley, we know he's an offensive genius and guru. What he's gotten out of quarterback Moss has been great, but that defense, like you said, bringing over the new D coronary from UCLA, I think he came over from the Ravens organization too, as he worked as the secondary DB coach there, that's been the key. Lincoln Riley's always been able to coach. [01:26:08] Speaker A: Quarterback and make them his name. [01:26:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Lynn. So USC, they've, they've impressed me, man. I've really, really impressed by USC. [01:26:19] Speaker C: It was really interesting. I saw this so this stat on X or Twitter or whatever you want to call it now. So the remit the remnants of the old Pac twelve. So we think of the old Pac twelve last year so far through two weeks, 21 and two, three and oh against the sec. [01:26:37] Speaker A: That's crazy. [01:26:38] Speaker C: So, you know, now defunct gonna miss a Pac twelve. But you know, you put a lot of teams that so far, you know, they may not play all the hardest teams but have gone into other conferences so far and have been really solid contributors. So USC being an Oregon both in the Big ten, what's that going to turn out to? And then a couple other schools like Arizona State, Arizona joined the and Utah that joined the big twelve. Like going to be very interesting how those teams adapt. But so far they have been the class kind of a little bit of a college football interesting from an out defunct conference. [01:27:13] Speaker A: Yeah. The back. [01:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I want to touch base on Utah. Obviously, 7th year quarterback cam rising got hurt. I don't know what his status is going forward. You know, I think he heard his throwing hand to middle fingers. Third backup quarterback is none other than Zach Wilson's brother. I believe his name is Isaac Wilson. So Utah, I think, I think jason, did you have them winning the big twelve? I did so, so I mean, utah is a good team. I like Utah. But if they don't have Cam rising, they're not, they're not going to win that conference again. You got to have a quarterback to win these elite power four conferences. Got a good defense, got some decent skilled players. But if you ain't got the quarterback, I don't care how good you're on defense, I don't care what kind of playmakers you got, you're going to struggle, especially in college football. [01:27:56] Speaker A: You guys want to give like a top five for college football favorites. [01:28:04] Speaker B: Hmm. [01:28:07] Speaker C: I don't know if I got five. You got five. [01:28:11] Speaker B: Five. I think the teams that are playing the best five right now, I think I'd throw Georgia in there. I'd throw Texas. I throw Ohio State. I'd throw Tennessee in Miami. I believe that's five. [01:28:22] Speaker A: Showing Texas some love. [01:28:24] Speaker B: I'm. Right now they're playing as a top five team. [01:28:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Jason, who's your top team? [01:28:31] Speaker B: We still got ten more games. [01:28:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the only, instead of Miami, I think you might want to throw Ole Miss in there. But I think the other four. Aaron hit the nail on the head, but you know, the SEC is going to be good battle. You'll see Ole Miss, you'll see Tennessee, Alabama really compete for one of those top five spots. [01:28:50] Speaker B: I think we have Georgia, Alabama, not this week, but the following weekend. And then later on Georgia goes to Texas. So we'll get a good idea of how good Texas really is for sure. [01:29:00] Speaker A: Cool, I take it. I think that wraps it up. We'll be back on Thursday for NFL lines. We'll preview of week two and week three in college football.