PMS 2.0 1621 - Patriots vs. Seahawks Recap, Rams vs. 49ers Preview, Adam Schefter, Brian Baldinger, Seahawks GM John Schneider, Peter Berg, Coach Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

19:49Again, I know it was Drew Locke. But to be up two scores, 10-0 late in that ballgame, I mean, it's a brutal loss. It's going to be hard to overcome.

20:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, a lot of people are letting their jokes fly about the coach of the New England Patriots after losing that game. No doubt. And that's going to continue. And with what AI is now, I saw a banner. Did you see the banner? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot going on. I mean, that's the life that we live. Best truck down the line, Ram Trucks. Listen, if you want to ride on clouds and pull anything and feel that power underneath you whenever you're driving, you get yourself a Ram truck. What's it sound like whenever you hit that gas pedal again? Joining us now is a man who through all of the news and inside information of the NFL.

20:40Pat McAfee:Senior NFL insider for ESPN. Adam Schefter's back. Hopefully this connection is better. Hopefully this connection is better. Different phone. It already sounds better. You already look better, which is tough to do because of how fantastic you obviously always look. Okay, so Sam Darnold going through the scan. Doctor's reading you now. We dodged a bullet probably out a couple weeks, but probably not forever. Okay, let's go over to the New England Patriots side. A.J. Brown, sprained ankle. Is that what we're assuming? Have we gotten any information out of that? Because obviously high-priced target this offseason doesn't have a lot of impact in the game and ends in a walking boot.

21:09Pat McAfee:Can you tell us a little bit about what we know about A.J.? Right now, NFL Network, Junior, and Mike Garofalo said it's a high ankle sprain, which, again, you knew when he went down it was some type of ankle sprain. Not a surprise to see. It looks like a high ankle sprain. He's going to have more testing there today. They want to see how long he'll be out. I guess they want to see if there's any kind of fracture in there, hopefully not for his sake. Limped off the field there last night, went to the locker room. We'll see how long he's going to be out, but that's going to be probably a multiple-week injury in all probability.

21:42Pat McAfee:Okay, let's pivot away from last night. Let's move to tonight. It's down under football time tonight on Netflix. as the Rams and Niners will do battle down in Melbourne. The Rams landed 1 ,713 minutes away from kickoff time. Obviously, the Niners had been there for an entire week. A lot of different experts have come out and said multiple different things. If you go a week ahead, you can become a real Australian, and you can play at 10 a.m., you feel good. Rams, Sean McVay has been very good whenever he's played international. He's arrived about as close to kickoff time as you possibly can every single time.

22:16Pat McAfee:He has traveled over to London. They have pounded teams whenever they've gone to London. They sent four players this offseason in the past couple years down to Australia to document how they feel, when they feel. They think that what they're doing right now is actually strategically, scientifically advanced as opposed to what the Niners chose to do. How should we expect this to unfold? Is Myles Garrett going to play? Aaron Donald doesn't make the trip. Myles Garrett hasn't played in a while, had knee swelling. What do we know about the Los Angeles Rams, their travel, and who's playing, who's not playing?

22:48Well, I think it's fascinating on a lot of levels because opening week is always so unpredictable and organizations worry about opening week. Now, if you take opening week and then you throw in that it's in Australia and you throw in that one team left a week ago and one team left just this week and are taking two entirely different approaches to the game, it becomes more unpredictable than anybody could imagine. So the Niners have George Kittle back. He tore his Achilles in January. He obviously went and met with his doctor, Neil Elitrash, when the 49ers were having practices with the Chargers, and they knew that he was way ahead of schedule.

23:32And it's obviously shown up because he's going to be out there tonight. Nick Bosa coming off the knee injury last year. Now we'll see how effective he is, but he's going to be out there. tonight for the 49ers. Still know Mikel Williams. Christian McCaffrey was off the injury report for the soreness that he had for training camp. He'll be out there. Mike Evans will be out there. So it sounds like, by and large, the 49ers that we've known through the years will be out there, by and large. The Rams, Aaron Donald didn't make the trip. They just felt like they wanted to give him a little bit more time to get ready.

24:06My sense of it is, is that when the Rams return home to Los Angeles and play a Monday night football next week against the New York Giants, that Aaron Donald will be back on the field for that game. Now, Miles Garrett was held out of camp, had some knee issues. He's going to be back out there tonight. He's playing out there. Puka missed some time. He's going to be out there. I mean, as good as you can expect, both sides are pretty much full go, and we'll see how it works out with the time difference. You know, I will say this. Driving into the city this morning, New York City, 5.30 a.m. today, and I spoke to a couple of 49ers people at 5.30 a.m.

24:52It was 7.30 a.m. there, or 7.30 p.m. there, and they were going to bed to wake up early to go to the stadium for the Friday morning game that kicks off 10.30. So, Pat, you were a player. How far in advance until you get to the stadium, and if you were playing at 10.30, what time would you have been there?

25:12Pat McAfee:I think every single player is saying that they would like to do the Rams way. I think that is what everybody is saying. Just like I think four hours before game is when first bus go. When first bus go over normally. Four hours. Yeah, four hours before game was normally first bus. 6.30 in the morning. 6.30 in the morning in Australia. Well, that's 6.30 in the morning for the Niners because they've been there all week, and they've got to acclimate it to the time. So they're waking up 4.30 probably to get to 6.30 bus over to the thing. It's like you're in a bad spot where the Rams are like, yeah, we're waking up like 2 in the afternoon.

25:46Pat McAfee:2 in the afternoon, we're going to head over there. We've got a 5.30 game Pacific time, right? That would be there. They're staying on the Pacific time. But I appreciate, though, and Kevin Demoff of the Rams. Demoff, sorry, of the entire Kroenke operation. said we're about sick and tired of fucking san francisco 49ers talking about us not growing our brand okay but that is what the niners are doing we would like to say to the niners because they go over there a week in advance hotel other side of the world can't really talk to your family getting acclimated to a time zone that is not going to behoove you at all after this first game everything they're doing right now the more we think about it the more i would not want to be on their team i'd want to be on the rams team but what they're doing for the nfl showing face going of stuff we good on you good work all right we appreciate you niners doing it now is that going to affect you for weeks two and three coming back as you're an australian coming back to america and the rams are just not doing it all certainly a good thing but we would like to let them know we appreciate that you said miles garrett's up and running that's great news i feel like that's first time i've gotten real confirmation that miles garrett's going to be up and running that's a gate i cannot wait to see what the rams defense looks like with miles garrett out there Okay, let's pivot away from the NFC West, shall we?

26:56Pat McAfee:And let's go to the AFC West. Yesterday, I had some fantasy footballers not happy. Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Chef, you kind of out of nowhere, Brock Bowers is getting a trim on his meniscus. Yesterday or the day before, Kubiak said, hey, him, Crosby, everyone is going to be good to go. And then this kind of came out of nowhere. What is this situation? Doesn't feel like a meniscus trim is one to two weeks, but maybe he has a kind of the, what is it, Tasmanian devil blood, Wolverine blood like Russell Wilson. and can heal very fast. But what is this situation? How come we were told Bowers was going to be fine and good to go on Sunday?

27:30And is there going to be any repercussions from that? Well, I don't think there will be repercussions. They were not required to submit an injury report to the end of the day. And I think, in hindsight, Clint Kubiak, a rookie head coach, when he's answering the question, probably the best answer is the injury report will be out at the end of the day. He could have said that. He opted to answer it a different way. He has not been in that setting over and over. And it sounds like when you watch it, re-watch it, it sounds like he's just saying, yeah, everybody's going to be out there. Like, just leave me alone.

27:59Like, we'll get to this when we get to it. But the proper way to probably answer that would have just been, you know, the injury report will be out later. Of course, he didn't know that the report was going to come out on Brock Bowers in the afternoon, but he did know that Brock Bowers would be listed on the injury report as not practicing on Wednesday. Again, we didn't come across this information until early in the afternoon, and we went from there. So, again, if you're Clint Kubiak in that particular situation, you probably have to know that your team is going to be saying he's not practicing, which he didn't.

28:37And I would have just been very general and vague and said, the injury report will be out at the end of the day. But that's not the way he answered it. Now, are there going to be ramifications for that? But the league's not going to – I don't think – I've never heard of a league finding a coach for misrepresenting the truth. Like if he didn't do anything on the injury report that was illegal, if they fudged the injury report or didn't report Brock Bowers on Wednesday when he had the surgery the day before in Dallas, that would have been a problem. But he could say whatever he wants to the media.

29:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, and the people that are listening to him talk to the media are saying, oh, thanks, dude. You just kind of led me astray here in this entirety. Do you remember, it was just a couple years back, Christian McCaffrey, what, four days before the season started? You told us that he had Achilles tendonitis and he's going to be out a little bit. We're like, what? And now the Brock Bowers meniscus trim, he's going to be out for a little bit. Obviously, he's one of the top players in the entire National Football League. He's certainly something. A lot of people are going back to the Harry Ruiz video of when he got out on the field, obviously taped there on his left knee, that we could assume that that's potentially the knee that has the meniscus there.

29:40Pat McAfee:Go ahead. What I would say to this is, first of all, last week, the Raiders, every team, they're not required to submit an injury report. So I was unaware of some of these videos and him limping. But I can tell you, I covered the Denver Broncos for 16 years. If the star of their team, Shannon Sharp, were out there hopping around on one leg with his knee all taped up, I'm just telling you, Like, that would have meant more to me than anything else. So I don't know why it didn't come out. Like, I didn't know about it until yesterday. So that's the deal. None of us knew about it until yesterday. But we watch this clip and we see the tape on the knee.

30:22Pat McAfee:And you see how it goes. You go, man, I wonder if he just thought he was going to be able to battle through. Because remember, meniscus is something you can still operate. It's just incredibly painful. Just like wildly, wildly painful. The one to two week projection. Well, hold on. that the one-to-two-week projection is coming essentially from people around him. Him, okay? Him and people around him. That's what they believe. Now, a player, they're always going to downplay it because they're going to want you to think he'd come back sooner. He probably thinks he can come back in a week or two. That's what he probably thinks.

30:59That's what he shouldn't do. He wants to be there as soon as possible for his team and as soon as he can be on the field, he's going to be. is that going to be a week or two? Well, that may be what he thinks, but let's see how it actually goes. Right? And even if he is back in a week or two, let's give him the benefit of the doubt that he's a warrior. He gets back out there. He's playing sooner than we thought. Is he going to be at full strength in a week or two? No, he's not. That's not practical or realistic. It's going to take a little bit of time to get over that. How is that? How long? I don't know.

31:30Every player is different. I don't know the extent of the trim, But that's kind of where we're at right now. It'll be a little bit of time. It's a setback. It's a setback in what's a big year for Brock Bowers. He's eligible for a contract after this year. It's a big year for the Raiders. They have a new rookie head coach. They have the number one overall pick in Mendoza. And he might be their best player. And now he's going to miss the start of the season.

31:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, and as somebody who's got a few menisci done, I've never – mine were always in the offseason, but I don't think I was ever thinking to myself, vastly different position, probably a different procedure, you name it, all this type of stuff. But as somebody who's got their knee scoped four or five times now at this point, one to two weeks seems like such an aggressive response. But I think we had a guy who was maybe two weeks, three weeks. I think from my understanding, I'm just remembering Ewald. He got something like a scope done to his knee to Eric Walden. And I saw him walking out of the training room like four days after he got it done.

32:26Pat McAfee:And I was like, man, you're already walking right now. He's like, yeah, I think I'll be back. So I think there's varying degrees of the surgery. That's what he thinks. Now, again, we'll see, right? You know, he thinks it's going to be a game or two. Let's see what it turns out to be. Let's stay in Las Vegas. Go ahead, Chuck. Yeah, Shefty, what about two things? Aston Gentry, what's his status? From all reports, sounds like he's going to be good to go. And then second, hypothetical, let's say Kirk Cousins goes out and just absolutely lays an egg and starts throwing the ball to the Miami Dolphins.

32:58two, three times, and then this fan base, this crowd starts chanting, Fernando, Fernando, Fernando, Fernando, Fernando. Is there a possibility that they succumb to that pressure, pull Kirk, and stick Fernando in, or what's your thoughts on that? Yeah, well, first of all, hello, Coach. How you doing, right? Great to see you. Nice to see you. My answer to that would be this, that time and time again, And we have teams repeatedly saying that they're going to be patient with their number one overall pick, and they're not going to rush them onto the field. And Fernando Mendoza is the first quarterback since, I believe, Baker Mayfield in 2018 that isn't starting on opening day.

33:40Up until now, there have been six straight number one picks as quarterback that had started on opening day. So everybody always says, yeah, we're not going to rush them along, and then they do rush them along. And the Raiders have been steadfast and adamant in saying, we're not going to rush Fernando Mendoza. This is why we got Kirk Cousins. We want him to basically be out there while Fernando learns on the job, watches, observes. Don't want to rush him along, don't want to ruin him early, as some quarterbacks are. That's their plan. Now, let's see how long they can stick to the plan. A lot of that is going to be dependent on how Kirk Cousins plays, which, again, comes back to the Bowers' absence.

34:23That's a huge deal when you're missing your best player on offense. And so they would like to ride out Cousins as long as they can. If you look at their schedule, it's interesting. I think their bye is in week 13. And after their bye, they have three straight home games. Now, they've never said this, but I'm just telling you that in a perfect world, I think that they would love for Kirk Cousins to play well enough, for the team to play well enough, for them to win games, to get to that bye in December, and then midway through December, they can potentially turn to Mendoza for three straight home games against the Chargers, Broncos, and Titans.

35:07I can't even say the last one.

35:08Pat McAfee:Titans, yeah, so you got the Broncos' defense, but like 13 weeks is a long time. Okay, that is an incredibly long time. By then, fate has already probably been decided for your team and what it's going to look like. But obviously, you obviously have 13 weeks or 12 weeks at least of Nando watching Kirk be a leader, be a starting quarterback, so he can learn from that. Now, on the other side, you got the Chargers. They got Derwin. He's pretty good. Denver's defense, pretty good. And then Robert Sala's defense at Tennessee. It's like every week you're going to run into a good team. It's the NFL. Is there ever a perfect time?

35:39Pat McAfee:Maybe being home is the right time. But I like that Chuck Pagano is like, hey, let's say Kirk goes out there and Halfley's got a little something for him. Three picks in the first half, which we just saw three picks in the second half of a game for a quarterback last night that was finals for an MVP. So it was certainly possible out there. And they do start chanting Nando out there. A Nando chant would be a sweet one for Kubiak to have to deal with now. This is Kubiak having to deal with the public pressure. You're dealing with public pressure in real time. It's just like whenever fans want you to challenge something and you either have to do it or not do it.

36:09Pat McAfee:And it's like he's already stepped up to the press conference and said, guys, you're good. Don't worry about it. An hour later, he's not actually good. It's like, all right, how will Kubiak handle all of this stuff? Tough situation and the amount of money that they've invested in that roster might be their best team going forward. I love how many text messages you're getting because how much shit is actually happening in real time. We appreciate you joining us. We're wondering if any more stuff is going to happen business-wise. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shetty, are you anticipating any other extensions to happen before all the rest of the games kick off on Sunday, like JPJ, Tucker Craft, or any of these other guys who we've kind of been keeping an eye on who maybe haven't gotten a deal done yet?

36:50I think the Joey Porter one is difficult. The sides have been far apart. But again, we were on Monday, and I said to you at that point in time that Gonzalez and the Patriots were nowhere at that time. And there were some conversations within the organization about whether to pull the deal before they got on the plane, which the deal gets done while they're on the plane. And it just goes to show you in this last week, I always think that there's a last push on both sides to get something done. So even people that aren't close, like Joey Porter Jr., suddenly they could get close. They could get close.

37:27I'm not telling you they will. that one I think is going to be challenging to figure out because the sides have been so far apart but if you bring up a guy like Tucker Craft and he's coming off a torn ACL and the Packers have a relatively strong offer out there I think it's hard coming off an ACL to turn down real money in the case of Gonzalez the$102 million guaranteed was the same money on the table Monday as it was that he took Like, how are you stepping onto the field Wednesday night and turning down 102 guaranteed? That's hard to do in my mind. And he did. Now, I don't know what the guarantee the Packers have to Tucker Craft, but those conversations will go on up until the weekend.

38:10And I'm just saying, like, common sense-wise, I could see Tucker Craft getting it done. Like, Baker Mayfield. He didn't even know about it. But his agent's like, okay, they're offering 55 a year, 150 if it's guaranteed. What are we doing here? Like, there's no reason to hold this out any longer. And so I think every player has to make that decision this weekend before they play game one. Now, some of these talks will go into the year. The Lions have shown a propensity to do deals in season. So maybe Sam Laporte gets done into the season a little bit. But I think there'll be some extent. Parker Washington in Jacksonville.

38:47I think there'll be some extensions that get done by the time the opening games roll around.

38:51Pat McAfee:Congrats, Parker, getting the deal done there. Sounds like Tucker Craft potentially. coming off an injury, getting a good amount of money. $102 million, from our understanding, pretty hard to turn down$100 million. Definitely. From our understanding, that is not an easy thing to do at all, even though people will probably kill you for it if you were to do it going forward. So good for all these parties getting their money. But that is a huge part of negotiation and leverage. You know, whenever somebody has something and somebody's looking for something, you go, are you going to turn down your for show money?

39:17Pat McAfee:Looking for more money? Because you might end up with no money. That's the reality of the situation. Now, let's go to Green Bay because you tweeted something that none of us really understand. Go ahead, Tone. Yes, Shefty, in reference to Josh Jacobs and what he's going on, you tweeted legal developments in Green Bay. That was a quote tweet to Rob Damoski who said, Josh Jacobs is pleading no contest to the misdemeanor charges. I dropped out of law school. What does that mean exactly? You started. He pled no contest to misdemeanor battery and criminal damage to property. So basically We've got the situation That has been resolved legally He has pled In this particular case Which means he now can be On the clock for discipline With the NFL That's what it really means I also am not smart enough To figure out what it means legally I won't even step into that lane Because that's not my lane But I think of these things How does it impact his football status Well, the case is now essentially closed.

40:22The NFL now can step in and expedite its review and issue discipline. And it really wouldn't be a surprise if the discipline came sooner rather than later in this particular case. So, again, he's not going to play Sunday, we don't think, because the league placed him on a commissioner exempt. They'd have to remove him, and when they remove him, I would expect that there would be some form of discipline. We'll see how many games the league decides to suspend him for. Obviously, the DA referred to a video. All bets are off if we all see a video. That's a different deal as well.

41:03Pat McAfee:Has Roger seen the video? Would Roger see the video? Well, I would guess the league hasn't yet seen the video. I would think that the league would attempt it. I only say that because the Packers last week said they hadn't seen the video. So if the Packers haven't seen it, how did the league see it? Like, the league is powerful, but I don't know that they will be able to see it before the Packers. I would think that the league is going to want to see that video before it hands down discipline. So we'll see how this all shakes out. Yeah, because that video is going to be put out publicly at some point.

41:36Pat McAfee:That video is going to be made public at some point. And if just like the Ray Rice situation where Roger Goodell met, I believe, with, I forget her name, Ray's wife. Janae. Janae. Met with Ray and Janae, come to a conclusion, come to a punishment, announce the punishment, and then all of a sudden video hits and it's like, what? This is what this is? I think that moment has changed Roger Goodell and how he does punishments and how the NFL punishes people forever. So I think the NFL is right in saying we'd like to see everything. We'd like to know everything before we make a punishment. That's why the exemption list happens.

42:10Pat McAfee:It's like, hey, you've got to figure your shit out before we figure our stuff out. Hopefully they're able to figure that out. And honestly, we need to stop putting ourselves in these situations as a league as a whole. Let's go ahead and stop making these types of mistakes. And from this moment forward, no more arrests in the NFL. I like that. Boom. No more arrests in the NFL. I like that a lot. Anything we missed, Shefty, that we should have brought up for you? Any information that's falling and vibrating through your phone right now that maybe we should hit on right now? Because every time you talk, it sounds like you maybe got a toy in the side table.

42:46I'm going through it right now. We've got Josh Jacobs. We've got Sam Darnold. We've got A.J. Brown. Ashton Gentry back at practice. He's going to play Jeremiah Love. Looks like he's going to play Malik Neighbors. He's on track to play Sunday night for the New York Giants. A lot of players coming back from injuries, which is really interesting. And as I've said before, it's like Ty and I were talking about this in the podcast this week. You think you have an idea of how this is going to go always. And then the games begin, and Drake may throw three picks, and A.J. Brown gets a high ankle sprain, and Sam Darnold hurts his hip and is going to miss some time here.

43:21And things happen that just change and alter the trajectories of each franchise. It happens every week. We've seen one of 272 regular season games. there are going to be 271 more times those trajectories are altered starting tonight or tomorrow morning in Australia depending on the vantage point with which you're taking in that game.

43:40Pat McAfee:Before Baldy joins us here in a couple moments, he might have the better answer on this, no offense to you, but the Chiefs don't have a left tackle right now. They're going to undrafted rookie Khalil Benson, who's poised to start after the injury to left tackle Josh Simmons. Obviously Josh Simmons, household name, left tackle, very important position especially whenever you have potentially future Goat as quarterback. Undrafted rookie now. Gonna have a spotlight on him and a red dot on him. For sure, as that game goes. He's from IU. Obviously, he's no stranger to big moments and big games. We appreciate that, but this feels like a big storyline going into a season with Patrick Mahomes as quarterback.

44:15I agree. With Mahomes coming back, him starting nine months to the day that he tore his ACL, his blind side is now going to be protected by an undrafted rookie free agent. Now, again, Again, credit to that young man for making the team, for winning the starting job. Obviously, he's impressed the Chiefs coaches, but it is still an undrafted rookie free agent going up against a tough Denver defense in that setting on Monday night. And look, Andy Reid is as smart as anybody with these things. I'm sure they're going to slide protections, give the guy help, do whatever they have to. They're not going to leave the guy exposed, but it's still an undrafted rookie free agent starting at left tackle.

44:55Pat McAfee:That's Chiefs, Broncos, Monday Night Football. Cannot wait to be in Kansas City for that one. Shafter, we appreciate you. Have a good day today. Thank you, guys. Have a great one. Happy opening week. Are you joining Schrags on Big Day with Big Schrags? It's a big day here, Pat. That's why I'm stuck here in New York City in the office here. We're going to do Big Day from here, then do NFL Live and SportsCenter. Peter Schragers rearranged my entire Thursday and Monday so I could be in the city. That's good. It's a big day with Big Schrags. Talking about how the football play. Yep. Your man, Adam Schefter.

45:29Pat McAfee:What did you say there, Chuck? You want to talk about the Kansas City Chiefs? Obviously, having an undrafted rookie at left tackle there. I think they traded for or got the Super Bowl MVP, Kenny. They call him K-9. Kenneth Walker. Whole boatload of him. You think we're going to be running the ball a lot there. Potentially. Joining us now is an undrafted offensive lineman out of Duke. Played 10 years in the NFL. Seen him on the internet. Seen him on TV. quickly becoming one of our favorite people. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Baldinger. Yeah, Baldy! Baldy, perfect. Good to be with you here, man.

46:01Pat McAfee:Good to see you here. Hey, great to see you. Love the energy. Perfect timing for you to join us with the conversation about the left tackle being an undrafted guy out of IU for Patrick Mahomes to lead the season. Obviously not desirable position for the Kansas City Chiefs. Your thoughts on Patrick Mahomes coming back with how that could potentially affect literally everything? Yeah, you know, I saw Khalil Benson in training camp out at St. Joseph's, Missouri. He was competing for the right tackle job with Jalen Moore, and I thought he was the frontrunner to win that job. And then Trey Smith, he went down to training camp.

46:31Khalil Benson went into right guard. He started a game at right guard in preseason. Now he's out at left tackle. So he's been bouncing around Kansas City here along the offensive line, but they need to put their best five out there. And Khalil Benson has proven, at least in preseason, and up against what Spags is putting out there in training camp that he's held up pretty good. And, you know, you come out of Indiana and you play 15 games at Indiana and win the national championship. He got tested. He got tested against Miami in that championship game. And he looked pretty good in that last game in the championship.

47:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, you got to remember that Miami defensive line is an NFL defensive line. So maybe he does have the experience there. We'll certainly keep an eye on that. Let's talk about the trenches a little bit from last night. What did you see from the Patriots maybe that give you something good as we go down the road? Everybody's talking about, obviously, Drake May's decision-making in the second half. We think the tackles on the game losing interception cut for a reason. That ball's probably supposed to go out to the tight end. Instead, delay, off-balance throw, fade away, lose the game. Did we learn anything about the offensive line that maybe isn't terrible for the New England Patriots as we go forward, Baldy?

47:39They're much improved. But, I mean, that last play right there, both tackles, Will Campbell on the left side, Morgan Moses on the right side, They both went to cut block to get the edge rushers hands down to make that throw to Hunter Henry against Julian Love. That was the throw. And for whatever reason, Drake didn't decide to make that throw. But this is the first down route against the safety right there. That's where the ball's got to go. Moses is down. He's got Demarcus Lawrence's hands down. That's where the throw's got to go. That's on the quarterback. But I thought Olivera Tucker was a big upgrade at left guard.

48:11Will Campbell is bigger, stronger, and healthier than he was at any point in the postseason a year ago. He did have two penalties last night, one a push in the back. And so those are things that, you know, you don't want to have happen in any game, put your offense in that type of scenario. But I thought they played much better up front, along the front, with the new guys at center and at left guard. And that should bode well going forward for this offense, especially when they get some of the running backs back, Stevenson back that missed last night's game. That'll be a better one-two punch.

48:47Pat McAfee:Nobody talks about the Seattle Seahawks offensive line. They had the Super Bowl MVP as a running back. They basically win the Super Bowl MVP. Nobody talks about them. Backup quarterback comes in, seemingly goes off pretty smooth. Now, granted, play caller to quarterback. What the chuck is going on? They were breaking, obviously, the huddle at eight, nine seconds every single time down the stretch there. Can't have that take place. But nobody talks about the Seattle Seahawks offensive line. Should we? Feels like it is something that maybe should be more of a conversation piece, Bodie. Well, they returned all five starters from a year ago, including the tight ends.

49:20Saubert and A.J. Barner, I mean, they played great on the edges last night. Great in run blocking and whatever they had to do in pickup blocks. But they protected, I thought, Drew Locke very good last night. And when you watch them play, they play so well as a group. And I thought Brian Fleury did a great job, especially on that fourth and one play to Jackson Smith and Jigba. The Patriots did break down in coverage. But on fourth and one, they get the ball to their best playmaker of play action. I'm not so sure that here's a sidearm throw from Drew Locke to Jackson Smith and Jigba. to hit the gas pedal to go 45 yards and tie that game up.

50:00But I thought the offensive line played pretty good, especially with the backup quarterback in there where they didn't get a lot of time together a year ago and almost no time together in preseason this year.

50:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love that Drew Locke was the guy for the job last night. Feels like he's made up of the right stuff to hop in there. Now, granted, if he throws three picks, everybody's going to say, expect it. Drake throwing three picks, everybody's a little bit scared. Week one, Rob is going to make some big changes. Let's go to tonight's game. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Baldy, let's talk about the game down under. And there's been a lot of talk about the Rams defensive line adding Miles Garrett. Obviously, they bring back Aaron Donald, but he will not go tonight. But there's a bunch of other studs on that D-line.

50:39On the Niners O-line, we know we have Trent Williams. But what are your thoughts on the matchup tonight in the trenches with those two units? Well, that's the game within the game tonight. Trent Williams going up against Miles Garrett. I mean, you've got maybe the best tackle we've seen in pro football over the last 15 years. Trent Williams going up against the defensive player of the year. I mean, do you give Trent Williams any help against Miles Garrett tonight? We'll see what the jet lag factor does for Miles Garrett. He didn't look real comfortable coming off the plane, but he didn't look wide awake.

51:09But we'll see if the adrenaline kicks in. But, you know, this is an offense that Kyle Shanahan knows how to protect certain players, knows how to, you know, whether it's slide protection, play action. There's certain things you can do to slow those kind of guys down. There's draw plays to McCaffrey. There's a lot of things you could do to slow the rush down. But this is a good defensive line that they have built through the draft, whether it's Kobe Turner, Byron Young. There's so many different players over the last three years they have drafted there to go with Miles Garrett right now. We'll see what happens when Aaron Donald comes back probably next week.

51:40But for right now, this offensive line should be able to hold up pretty good and protect Brock Purdy tonight.

51:47Pat McAfee:Fisk is another one out of Florida State. Obviously in the middle, he's a monster. He can eat. Chuck Pagano was trying to scream into the microphone on why you're talking about Trent versus Miles, what would you do? Baldy, wouldn't we put him on the other side, put him on McKivitts? I know they've done it. They're going to move Miles Garrett around. He plays both sides. And so you'll see him against McKivitts. It's natural for him to be at the right-end spot, but you might see him over the center, just kind of like, you know, just back and forth and trying to get that center to have a bad snap.

52:17That's the move right there. Which way is he going? I mean, they used to do that with Jim Schwartz in Cleveland with Myles Garrett, and I just thought back to my center days going, this is a nightmare. I've got to snap the ball and block this animal, this alien right here. It's not really fair. But you might see that tonight.

52:34Pat McAfee:Do you remember the Florida State kid was doing it? Everybody was attacking him. Mandrell Dazir. He was doing it in Florida State game, 24-24 in the fourth quarter. He gets blocked up. They go the other way. See ya. Okay, and he obviously gets mocked and ridiculed for it. When Myles did it. You know, Miles was lined up over the center, causes a pressure, floods quarterback right into a sack, so it obviously works out. Be who you can afford to be. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn't, you're an idiot. But yeah, Miles and Aaron Donald both doing this, feel like something we're going to see out of a movie and some center, just like you, is going to have to sit there and figure out, check 95, 99, check 9.

53:15They're right here. We have no idea. You don't roll the ball back and shotgun. You know, you hope he's not getting a bowling ball coming back to him right there. You hope you at least get the snap right. It's got to start with the snap.

53:28Pat McAfee:That'll be a fun thing to watch this year, how they deploy Miles and Aaron whenever they're finally on the field together. Feels like Aaron's back for next week and Miles Garrett's playing. Obviously, can't wait to see him in that Rams defense. I'm excited that the NFL has started. Still a lot of things to chit-chat about, though. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, speaking of centers, Baldy, you know, a lot of people are very high on the Baltimore Ravens going into this year. new OC, new head coach, but how much does losing Tyler Linderbaum, how much is that going to affect their offensive line? Their offensive line as a whole is much younger this year, and obviously he gets made the highest-paid center of all time by the Las Vegas Raiders.

54:04So what are your expectations for that unit this year? If your center isn't great, your offensive line isn't going to be great. Now, Ethan Poston comes in. He's played a lot of football here. Fortunately, they signed him because he has played good football in Cleveland, but it's a drop-off. Tyler Linderbaum is a pit bull. Go back and look at that video. Get your producer to pull up that video of him taking out Tristan Wirth at Iowa because that's all you do at Iowa. You just wrestle and you play football. And that's what Linderbaum is great at. He's also excellent in the run game. He secures things in the passing game.

54:39It's something to watch. I do think that Vivego Yawani, the new right guard, is going to make a big difference on that offensive line. That's a big upgrade over what they had a year ago. He was my favorite offensive lineman coming out of the draft. Ioane. Like, just watch that guy. Like, he's only happy when he's sitting on top of defensive linemen after he puts him down to the ground. There'll be a lot of pancakes this weekend, I think, from Ioane.

55:03Pat McAfee:I like a good pancake. Had a waffle last night, actually. Nice. Was waffling on the pick, too. Yeah. And turns out that was the right play. Yeah. Because it was a push. So if you did think it was both sides could be it, you're actually super genius. You're seeing it better than anybody else is seeing it right now. Speaking of seeing it, it feels like you have a good eye on all the O-lines. Connor has a question for you. Yeah, Baldy, going into the weekend, which unit are you looking for to be kind of the best one of all the teams? Is there maybe two or three that you expect great things from all season long this year?

55:34I want to see the Eagles against the Commanders on Sunday afternoon at 425. Like, they returned all five starters, but they're healthy this year. Landon Dickerson wasn't healthy last year from the very beginning. Lane Johnson missed the second half of the season with the Liz Frank injury. The center is healthy this year. And I want to see Saquon Barkley eight yards deep in this offense to see what he looks like. I feel like it's going to be really good for Saquon. It's going to be good for this offensive line. I want to see the amount of money that the commander spent upgrading the defensive front.

56:07Can the Eagles move that front on Sunday afternoon? I want to see that. I want to see the Giants' offensive line Sunday night. against a rebuilt Cowboys defense and defensive front. And I feel like they're bigger, especially with Ricard at the fullback, with Maranoa at the right guard spot. They're bigger and stronger than they've been in a long time. I'm going to see if the Giants can control the line of scrimmage Sunday night against this Cowboys defense.

56:33Pat McAfee:Tell me a little bit about the Cowboys. So quiet. And that's kind of been the story, and we've all been mentioning it, about how this doesn't feel like a Dallas Cowboys preseason at all. could have had a huge contract dispute with George Pickens. We thought that was kicking off on draft day whenever he agreed to sign the franchise tag. All right, he's going to get traded. All right, he's going to be pissed. He's going to expect an extension. Instead, George Pickens is happy as hell. Can't swing a golf club. No. But he is happy as hell down there. How's their offensive line? Are we worrying about the trenches?

57:01Pat McAfee:I know the defensive side, they reloaded that entire thing. Are we pumped up about what the Cowboys could potentially be, Baldy, or are we living in a fantasy land like we do every single year with the star? It's not fantasy. But, you know, I mean, Tyler Smith is their best offensive lineman. We're a Pro Bowl lineman. He's their left guard. He's out. And so there's a little bit of a drop off there. Cooper, BB is fine. And, you know, Tyler Booker is really good at right guard. They're still going to be good. I don't know they're going to be great up front right now with Tyler Smith out. Tyler Guyton has had good days and bad days.

57:31So we've got to see what he looks like against those pass rushers of the Giants, Abdul Carter, Ryan Burns, Kayvon Thibodeau. We've got to see what they look like at that position. because, you know, if Dak is under siege, he has been prone to make some mistakes. But, you know, the defense right now, I played for the Cowboys for six years. They have a 65-year history, Pat. In their 65-year history, no defense had ever given up 511 points like they did a year ago. It was pathetic. They couldn't play man coverage. They couldn't blow zone coverage. They couldn't tackle. They couldn't do anything last year.

58:04They were the worst in the league. Now, they should be better this year. They've got better personnel. Now, the coach is a good teacher. He comes from Philadelphia. The secondary should be improved with Caleb Downs at safety. But we've got to see how it all comes together right now. A lot of new pieces, new system, new play caller. We've got to see how that comes together against the Giants Sunday night.

58:25Pat McAfee:You sound like a college football coach right now saying, I don't know, I've got 60 new guys. I have no clue what this team is going to look like. And for the Dallas Cowboys, obviously, a lot of new important pieces. It all feels good, though. It all feels good coming out of Dallas. as opposed, I mean, the Tyler Smith injury is obviously terrible with their broken thumb four weeks or whatever it's going to be, but everything else has felt very positive. Okay, tonight, Rams, Niners in Australia. I think every player I've ever talked to about this entire thing love that the Rams are flying down there, only going to be there for about 30 hours, and then they're flying back 30 hours home or whatever the case is.

58:58Pat McAfee:Rams favored by three and a half down in Australia against the Niners. How do you see tonight going? What is your expectations for tonight's game? Look, on paper, the Rams are a better team, period. I think the fact that the 49ers went down there, won the fan base over, it's going to be a home game for the 49ers, just like it is at SoFi Stadium when the 49ers come to play the Rams. Now, how that affects Matt Stafford, I don't know. I know this, Pat. I played a game in Japan when I was with the Eagles one time, and I had jet lag four days later for that game. I never really recovered. I'm curious what just the general feeling is going to be like.

59:36I know adrenaline kicks in game day. The ball gets kicked off. Maybe you don't think about any of it. But I feel like the 49ers played this thing the right way. Getting there quite a few days earlier, adjusting to the time zone, the time difference right now. They should, I feel, look fresher. I think the 49ers have a chance to win this game outright tonight.

59:56Pat McAfee:Okay. I'll tell you, it's hard not to just be like, Is it too obvious that the Rams? Yeah, I disagree, Baldy. The Avengers? Because that's a 10.30 local game, 10.30 a.m. local game, very rarely playing that. So if you acclimate to the Australian time, you've got an early bird game. And if it's the Rams, you're just showing up, ah, time zone, time warp, where are we, what are we, we're playing a game, sweet, let's get the hell out of here. Sean McVay has done very well in international games. Obviously, this is vastly different. They tested it. You talk about, yeah, and they sent four players, allegedly, over the last couple years over there to kind of explain how they feel, when they feel.

1:00:32Pat McAfee:I understand that the Cronkies, Les Snead, McVay, are always going to be well-versed, well-studied. They're going to have reasons behind they do it. But honestly, whoever wins this game, we're going to say it's the right way to do it. And then there's going to be another game over there and somebody's going to do it. They're going to win it. It's going to counter that. There's always going to be stats against it. I'm just happy we got an NFC West clash on the second night of the NFL season. We appreciate the hell out of you, Baldy. Yeah, thanks, Pat. Yep, look forward to joining you real soon.

1:00:57Pat McAfee:You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Brian Baldinger. Yes, sir. Hey, Baldy. Oh, wait, wait. Baldy, Baldy, we did find something for you. Here's Linderbaum taking Worf to the back. Boom. Yeah, yeah. Qualified for say, and then, yeah. Put that face right in the chest and takes Tristan Worf down like that. Oh, that's beautiful. That's a takedown. Yes, it certainly is. Let's not be holding, though. Let's not be holding like you big fat shows like to do every single play. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, Brian Baldinger. Yeah, Ball Z. I like that. The wrestling center. The best. AQ Shipley.

1:01:32Pat McAfee:Yeah. Lost every single match. Won his first one. Won his first match. This guy's going to be really good. Gets in there. Pin, pin, pin, pin. He might be the worst wrestling offensive lineman that made it to the NFL, won a Super Bowl in history. And that's why we're thankful for him. All right, we're taking a break. We'll be back on the other side. If you're watching us digitally, you're about to see the Mosquito Bowl trailer that dropped into the world yesterday. Peter Berg will be joining us later this hour, and John Schneider. We'll see you on the other side. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

1:02:04This episode is brought to you by the Hulu original series Chad Powers starring Glenn Powell. This season the walls are closing in on Chad's biggest secret and with his future on the field hanging in the balance he'll have to win back the one coach who wants nothing to do with him. Watch the new season of Chad Powers streaming now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Every game every practice every moment we rely on energy more than we realize from the courts and fields we play on to the gear athletes use to the technology and transportation that bring fans together.

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1:02:59Pat McAfee:Football! It's the greatest, and we are so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it. Week two of the college football season also kicks off this evening as Miami will host FAMU as over 50-point favorites. Now, I don't think a lot of people might be watching that game unless the Rams and Niners that kicks off tonight at about 8.30 gets a little bit out of control. Nonetheless, Miami's on TV tonight. We got Rams-Niners on TV tonight. Last night, we had the Super Bowl champs beating the New England Patriots late on TV. It is football season, and life is wonderful. The toxic table's here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt.

1:03:36Pat McAfee:One half of the hammer. Died. Cowboys AP Tone is here. A man who's coached football for 37 years. 19 in the pros. 18 in college. Our coach, ladies and gentlemen, Coach McGonis. Yeah, baby. Coach. You look good. Thank you. Where were you last year? You just kind of, we just missed you last year. A little hiatus. Wanted to go scratch that itch one more time. How'd it go? You know what? I got no regrets. It was great being back part of a team. You know, when you lose a team, you don't have that. It's hard to replicate. But I'm back with the real team. Yeah. It's great to have you on our team, Coach.

1:04:09Pat McAfee:We love having you back in here. Obviously, your vibes in the Thunderdome are immaculate. Joining us now is a guy who sends the vibes from Manatic in Ohio. I believe he's going to have a fresh haircut, right? Really? I think, if I'm not mistaken. He's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. A.J. Hawk. Wow. Yep. All right. Holy shit. Tried to call AJ earlier, couldn't answer because he was in the middle of a haircut. Obviously, everybody was super focused. Got to trim the sides up. You know, got to trim the sides up. Hey, hell of a game last night.

1:04:41Hell, fellas.

1:04:42Pat McAfee:It was hell of a haircut. Yeah, you look unbelievable right now. Let's talk about the game. What is your takeaway? Drake made three turnovers, three interceptions in the second half. Fourth quarter, I'm sorry. Fourth quarter, obviously a big talking point. The last one, I think, was just ball was supposed to get out of his hands. He doesn't. He delays, forces something, ends the game. There's going to be a lot to coach from, obviously, for Drake. But if you're on the Seattle Seahawks side, you lose your quarterback after four plays. You still get a win at home. What is your takeaway, AJ, after the opener for the NFL season in Seattle last night?

1:05:14Yeah, I like how you guys definitely went over this play and what most likely did happen here. Not all on Drake May. We know that. But, I mean, the story for me is the Seattle defense. These guys fly around. Like, obviously, Witherspoon coming off the edge. We see that. Julian Love with a pick early. like these guys can fly Ernest Jones. I know he had double-digit tackles. Drake Thomas had a sack, I believe, and almost double digits. Like these guys can run and they can hit. And seeing Ole Miss Williams get that sack early had to feel good for everybody there.

1:05:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I think the Seattle Seahawks, what we saw in hard knocks is everybody's all in. So whenever Sam Darnold gets hurt that early, it did feel like nobody blinked, even Drew Locke. What a perfect character to have as your backup quarterback on opening banner night in Seattle and Drew Locke. What did you see from him, AJ, that maybe you learned or kind of reaffirmed about who he is? Yeah, I mean, we all know the guy can sling it. If you watch any of his college films, this dude can sling it. I like his moxie. I feel like he's got like, I don't know, his perspective seems like he's like, all right, here we go.

1:06:07Like this is, there's no real panic ever, I feel like, in his demeanor. And obviously, great play call, fourth and one, whatever it was, third and two, whatever it was, and they went to JSN on his touchdown. And JSN, what does he run a 4-1 now, I believe? It looks like running away from the whole defense.

1:06:21Pat McAfee:Yeah, it didn't look like he was running that fast. But then you look at the New England Patriots kind of just fading into the background. It's like, wow, this dude is absolutely moving. But I think that is the Jackson Smith and Jigba kind of charm, right? You don't know how fast he's going. You have no idea where he's going. He's untackleable. He's always open. Unassuming. That's what they would say, right? He's unassuming. And then guys, like, may question it. And then all of a sudden they see him just, you know, right by him. And not a bad person to have on your offense if your backup quarterback gets thrusted into opening night.

1:06:48Pat McAfee:You know, hey, by the way, you've got the offensive player of the year over here who's going to make you right no matter what happens. Yak, last year for him was crazy. Yak already starting to be absurd. And the fact that he scored a touchdown made us hit our super boost. That's right. Shout out. Shout out. Now, on the New England Patriots side, before we're joined by the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks, which we appreciate you for obviously connecting us, what did you see from the Patriots side there? What did you see from Drake May? Are you as worried as a lot of people potentially are?

1:07:13Because I'm telling you, a lot of people are saying,

1:07:16Pat McAfee:you started looking to snatch Drake May over the last couple games. It's worse than C.J. Stroud. Whoa. Remember what was being said about C.J. Stroud over the last couple games? It's like things are – it's starting to drop you. What are your thoughts on Drake May? Are you scared for Drake May? Are you scared for the Patriots this season? No, before you continue all this line of questions, no, I'm not scared. What did I say here? What did I say like two days ago? I can't wait until we go and overact one way or another like on week one football games. We do that in college football and we do that in the NFL.

1:07:44Obviously, we know it's a long season, all the cliche garbage. You'd much rather play better than you did, Drake. You don't want to throw three interceptions, but it's a very good chance. This is the only time all season he throws three picks in a game.

1:07:57Pat McAfee:Okay, line of questioning, but then you dropped a very good chance at the end of it. So maybe the questions were accurate. And I do think having a lineup against the Seattle Seahawks defense, everybody's going to have problems. I think that is the case. Obviously saw that potentially with Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams. They have to see the Seattle Seahawks defense twice this season. everybody's going to have problems potentially with the Seahawks defense like they did last year joining us now is Amanda Pease-Dot together when it's all said and done he's going to have to be chatted about as one of the greatest general managers to ever build a team two teams in the NFL we got a chance to hang around him hilarious individual the man hard knocks we see he's an incredible leader of a franchise and obviously the proof is in the pudding they're a damn good football team, even if they lose their franchise quarterback just four plays in.

1:08:45Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, bright and early, good morning sunshine, general manager of the Seattle Seahawks, John Schneider. How you doing, brother? Yeah, a little early, fellas, huh? I don't know what you guys did after big opening day wins, but I did stay up and have a couple Teddy Brewskis last night. I like you had a little red riding brew there. You guys are calling me at 7 o 'clock in the morning and like, is AJ okay? hey, I'm worried about AJ now. Something happened to my buddy? Well, I want to let you know, the NFC team of mine is the Seattle Seahawks after hard knocks. So I did celebrate your win last night.

1:09:20Pat McAfee:Not as many Teddy Bruskis as I assume the Seattle Seahawks organization had. Thank you for answering this morning. Thank you for joining us. Obviously, first things first, congrats on the win. Quarterback. It looked bad. Obviously, he's limping. Schefter's reported that he got an MRI earlier today. What is kind of your stance on it? And we know you might not have the answer right now. We're not expecting that. Nobody is. but just kind of how do you feel about what happened to Sam Darnold last night and what are your guys' expectations around the building as we see it right now? Yeah, pretty scary, obviously, right, when players have to leave the facility, have to leave the stadium, go to the hospital.

1:09:55So obviously we're really concerned probably all the way through, I'd say about the middle of the third quarter, maybe the end of the third quarter, we got the news that you avoided a fracture in the hip. So obviously a sense of relief there. And you guys know Sam's tough as nails. But timeline, we just don't know yet. I mean, he's still, you know, we haven't even seen him yet this morning. I think he's just, you know, just got out of hospital a couple hours ago. So, but obviously, you know, much better news than we had anticipated early in the game. Pretty rough situation there.

1:10:32Pat McAfee:Yeah, definitely a rough situation. Now, tell me about Drew Locke, because we talk about you having to build up multiple Super Bowl winners, going down as one of the greatest GMs of all time. And you're not saying that. That's us saying that. But having a backup quarterback that is certainly able to step up in that moment is a huge deal. Can you tell me about the importance of Drew Locke and why you think it worked for him last night? Drew's just the ultimate team guy. He's one of those amazing, you know, quarterbacks. Like Sam, he's just a real dude. Like, no drama. and his teammates love him and they respond to him.

1:11:07Obviously, his arm talent, his leadership skills, his intelligence. Yeah, the guys love him. I mean, there was a reason he was part of the Russell Wilson trade initially and then he had to try to – he did his own thing there with the Giants. We were lucky to have him back in our building after that one year with the Giants and just so happy for him. I mean, he's been through a lot. lost his father last year you know went through a really tough time but everybody just responds to him you know and it took a minute as you guys well know I mean preseason that you know the starters aren't going like you know you have that sense of what are we like what's our identity and then Sam goes down so you're going to have like you know we had like you know six or seven pre-snap penalties pretty sloppy you know with some of the offensive process but the guys just responded and he settled in and ended up doing a great job.

1:12:03And poor Brian Fleury, his first game call and plays, and he was our starter in the first series. But, I mean, everybody just rallied around Drew and defense played great. So just so happy for him. He's a great guy.

1:12:16Pat McAfee:Tell me about Brian Fleury a little bit because we saw, obviously, the delay of game there on the second and one, I believe. But the plays leading up to that, they're potentially getting out of the huddle a little bit late. Can you tell me about Brian Flurry? And you just alluded to it there. First time calling plays, your starting quarterback goes down four plays in. He has to adjust a lot. What did you learn from him last night? And what do you kind of expect out of him the rest of the way? Yeah, just very calm, very patient, real intelligent, impeccable communicator. You know, he's just a quiet, steady, steady Eddie.

1:12:51He kind of has that personality like a Dick Geron or, you know, those really even-keeled, Lovie Smith, just like those really even-keeled individuals, you know, and he's got that. And, you know, the football intelligence, both sides of the ball he's worked on. He's worked in, you know, kind of like an analytics world there for a minute with Adam Gase down in Miami. He's got a really cool, well-rounded game to him.

1:13:17Pat McAfee:Great beard, too. I mean, great beard. He needs to get that damn play call a little bit earlier, though. Yeah, he does have a phenomenal beard. But it was fun to watch him. And, you know, I like they leaned on JSN. Obviously, you got a guy in JSN. But not just JSN. There's a rookie that was getting the ball early as well that you drafted. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, John, how did you feel about your first-round draft pick in Jadarian Price? Obviously, he got the first carry of the game last night. It was a great carry. He looked explosive. He looked good. What was your thoughts on your first-round draft pick and his first action in a real NFL game last night.

1:13:50Yeah, you know, real decisive, you know, the acceleration. You saw that, like, put his foot in the ground. Wides, like all the wides on stuff, like the cutback ability. Yeah, really, really pleased and excited for him. And, you know, we decided not to play him in the preseason, so it was pretty cool to be able to see, you know, opening day. I mean, I'm sure, I don't know if you guys get to tell on TV, but that place was rocking and we got the ball first and he got the ball and here we go. He ripped off a, I think it was like 12 or 13-yard run to start it. So pretty cool.

1:14:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think Mike Tirico said, very rare that a backup running back from college ends up the first play runner of the NFL season as a whole. He looked comfortable. He looked natural. And I like that you guys are going to pound the rock with him. How about that Notre Dame backfield last year? I'm going to just kind of get into it right now. Absolutely absurd. It feels like Marcus Freeman might be able to have a quarterback or two. You guys now are obviously in a big spotlight, and I became a fan. AJ has a question for you. Yeah, John, obviously Pat's mentioned that you guys' hard knocks this training camp.

1:14:57It's been awesome to watch. I don't think anyone has gained any more popularity than you guys if you actually watch the hard knocks. I guess, how has that process been like? Are you on your walking, standing desk, walking treadmill right now? And have you been watching the episodes and kind of checking in as we know with all of us? Yeah, I really appreciate you guys, you know, like, showing the Wisconsin Boilermaker there on your show. And then Hard Knocks, like, my wife Tracy, who AJ knows, is like, really, dude, you're wearing a white t-shirt? Like, Hard Knocks, like, yes. Anyway, you don't know, like, it was cool.

1:15:34We really wanted it to be, like, a, once you bite into it, it's like, let's let it rip and, like, be ourselves and let people understand what our culture is all about here and let it be kind of like an infomercial. I think they just did a great job. I think it looks like a place where players want to play, coaches want to coach. We're going to take care of you and we're going to do everything we can to help you and advance your career. We're still going to do it in a connected manner. I thought they did it. We had to edit some stuff. That helps when you can watch it. You can edit some stuff. What kind of stuff?

1:16:09What kind of stuff do you edit out? Like strategic stuff? yeah well i'll tell you exactly what we edited

1:16:17Pat McAfee:hey can you show us what they did yeah you know it was i just thought it was a cut i thought it was a cool experience especially seeing like you know being able to show like the and aj knows this i mean i i lived here in 2000 with coach i worked here with coach home green and ted thompson those guys and when this job opened up i was really excited about it just because it's kind of like that underdog city and it's so beautiful and like you know the grunge the music scene i thought they worked all that stuff in the water the mountains all that kind of stuff it was just i thought it was really cool and then you know we have this new ownership group and they're watching this like dang it's pretty cool we just bought this team it's like looks like a pretty cool culture and i thought it i thought it i thought it came through and i thought it was awesome for everybody to see mike too because he's he's kind of under the radar guy he's not like you're you know coaching clinic dude that's out there at every instance he can, like making people think he's all sweet and all that.

1:17:14I just thought it was pretty cool for everybody to see him. The person, the leader, the intelligence, the communicator. Yeah, pretty cool. It's just blessed to have him as a partner.

1:17:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, so let's talk about your partner there, McDonald. And I became a fan of the Seattle Seahawks. You guys are officially my NFC team because of your performance at the league meetings, but also because everything that I saw at Hard Knocks, your performance was top-notch. You need to know that. You won me over immediately, and I think if other people saw the same thing, they would say the same. But listening to McDonald, the way he coaches, and the way he talks to the guys, and the way the guys respond to him, has it been like that since jump? What have you noticed about Coach McDonald, maybe over your three-year run here together?

1:17:54Yeah, just the authenticity. And, you know, I think you guys can see now why, you know, our first sit-down was like a three-hour sit-down interview, and it felt like 20 minutes because there's an authenticity, there's an intelligence there's a clarity there's a there's a humbleness there's like that uh he gives you that like presence of i totally i got you like i'm one of you like we're all together in this i'm one of you like we're all we're all doing this together we're all gonna like we're all gonna walk down that hill together we're not just gonna run down there you know and and uh yeah he he's he's steady he's like that he's got he's got a really cool mix of like Coach Holmgren and Pete Carroll, that positiveness.

1:18:37Little edgy. He's got some Mike McCarthy edginess to him. It's a really cool combination.

1:18:45Pat McAfee:He's been fun to watch learn. I didn't want to stop you if you were going to say more, but Hard Knocks, us getting to watch him work was one of the best parts of all. Obviously, the views were incredible, but watching him work and what he pulls from and how he delivers and how the guys respond, especially with the guys that you have because we were talking off air about this it's like you could tell that you have dogs in that building okay so now wrangling dogs and having them all go in the same direction just like caesar with this it's not easy whenever you have a lot of hard-headed folks and hard-headed folks are normally cast aside and said it's a bad thing it's like but if you get hard-headed folks all rowing in the same direction now you have like an unstoppable force can you tell me about how you identify dogs in bringing into your roster and into your culture?

1:19:27Pat McAfee:Because it does seem very obvious at this point, but creating that is obviously not an easy thing to do. Everybody would do that. What are the types of players you think that fit into your team, and why do you think those are the types of players that fit into your team? Well, I would say getting back to Mike, I think, you know, to finish that thought, it's very hard to come in and replace an iconic guy like Pete. Coach Carroll is like, you know, you guys know this, it's a really strong presence we did a lot of awesome stuff here together for him to come in now it really feels like for Mike to come in it really feels like these are his guys this is his team and that takes a minute his first season he did an awesome job the 10 wins but understanding I want to make this a more connected team his His self-scouting was impeccable in what he wanted, the clarity of it.

1:20:30And he worked hard at it. And so bringing the guys together, the second part of that with what we're looking for, we've always had our grit scale. We've always had our competitor scale. What have you been through? What have you overcome? Are you a good teammate? Do you love ball? Do you want to be great? Do you want to just be a guy and get through and get your next contract? or you want to be, like you said, you want to be a dog. And you want to have that selfless attitude that we all grew up playing the game loving, like ultimate team sport, and I got your back. If you don't have that, and it's easier to identify now with the NIL stuff, then we're kind of like, thanks for coming, and somebody else can have them.

1:21:13Pat McAfee:Interesting. Easier to tell now with NIL because you can tell who can handle money, who can handle almost fame? I didn't think about that being a ripple effect of this whole. For you, though, you could see that. Yeah. At first I was concerned about it, but then now it's like, okay, well, we know how this guy handles the$200 ,000 a year or$5 million a year now, right? I mean, we can see how important it is to the guys, and we used to worry about players coming in and how they're going to handle money, and now we know how, okay, we can take care of them in this manner or they need help over here, but they're going to be able to handle their finances, how they handle their, you know, family, their extended family, their friends.

1:21:56They're like, who do they have? You know, it's easier to identify now. And what kind of like, how do the people, like our foundational people in this building, how can we help those guys? So that's really, you know, how we can identify those guys. And the power of like, okay, once you come in here, we got you. yeah we saw that unfold on hard knocks whenever uh terry arnold or terry on arnold terry on

1:22:25Pat McAfee:arnold out of detroit and then his agent nicole i believe was talking to you on speakerphone saying uh you know we want to develop this guy as a person as a person and you're like we got you like that was literally i i think one of the the messages that went across and people talk about you know is that going to be worth it is not going to be worth it what's the punishment going be? Well, how's this going to unfold? I just thought that there was like a natural understanding that if you end up in your building, in your guys' building up there in Seattle, it's like, yeah, we're going to develop human, we're going to develop player, we're going to develop culture.

1:22:54Pat McAfee:I think it's a beautiful thing in a world that's trying to win right now all the time. So, I don't know how you guys hang on to that, especially after winning a Super Bowl, but it seems like you've knocked it out. Now, there are some injuries in a very important part of an NFL team. Chuck Pagano has a question for you, John. Hey, John. Hey, Coach. Congratulations. Hey, how you doing, man? That's so cool. Last time we were together, we were drinking red wine at one of the owner's meetings. You remember that around the table. Had a blast with you and your wife. But, yeah, you were on the brewskies.

1:23:23Get back on that red. Anyway.

1:23:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, right. Red is like three days, isn't it? Red's a little bit harder on the next day, isn't it? Oh, hell no. After a win like that, congratulations. Overcame a lot of adversity early in that game. You were lighting the secondary last night. Any updates on the guys that we're missing in the back end, especially Nick? Yeah, Nick is, you know, he's been, you know, limited, practicing limited. We're kind of bringing him along. Obviously, Ty, you know, we lost Ty Okada to hamstring. You know, we have this window now. I believe it's 12 days, which is great. It was really weird, Coach, you know, playing on the Wednesday.

1:24:07Our schedule was so off. I was like all last weekend, the college games were on. We were in here studying and, you know, working on practice squad guys and getting the team ready and all that for the game. And we were just totally off of our schedule. So it's just wild how, you know, we kind of got through that schedule. It was weird. I don't know if you were starting on a Thursday night or not, but the Wednesday was just crazy. But so just kind of like, okay, how are we going to get those guys ready and who are we missing? And then the roster mechanics of, you know, elevating guys for the game while you're trying not to lose guys, you know, on the waiver wire and all that.

1:24:42So, but I'll say this, you know, Nehemiah Pritchett played amazing last night, best game of his career so far. And then Rodney Thomas did a great job stepping in. Yeah, just, I mean, his coaches do such a great job of preparing these guys and developing and, and just really proud of like those two guys in particular defense played great as you know, but those two guys in particular just did a great job.

1:25:07Pat McAfee:Britchett, huge pick. I mean, that ball bat in the air, tip drill happens, steals that thing from Dobbs. Now, Drake May did throw into a defensive meeting room here in the first one and the second interception. I think that's a credit to the defense. Obviously distracting, having Drake see some ghosts and put them into some bad situations and the game-winning pick taking place. Such a good identifier of the identity of the Seahawks. It's like, hey, our defense is going to be a problem. That's just how it's going to be. has been since the beginning of your stay up there in Seattle. Now it's finding a new way.

1:25:37Pat McAfee:Now the NFC West obviously packed and stacked with a lot of great teams, a lot of great players. We heard you talk about, you know, Les Snee coming on the show and telling me to text Aaron Donald or DM Aaron Donald and tell him how good of an idea it is. Yeah. Yeah, that was great. Thanks. That obviously kicks off the night, even though Aaron Donald's not going to be on the field. Connor has a question for you. Yeah, John, as a Patriots fan, Thanks a lot for ruining the season opener for me, Dickhead. It's a great win by you guys, Rick. But with that being said, tonight, kind of a different start to the season as well over in Australia for division rivals, the Niners and the Rams.

1:26:14When you're watching tonight, if you are, what are you looking for specifically? Is it something where it's like, hey, they're really good in this spot? Maybe we're looking to add for the weeks that we're playing against them here or here. Like, what is kind of your two cents? Are you talking to Mike McDonald throughout the night as you're hammering beers and he's hammering water. What is kind of the situation there? Hey, slow down, Sheriff. You guys need to chill on that. EJ has a couple beers, too, now. Okay, all right.

1:26:40Pat McAfee:That makes sense, because he does seem like a little bit of a serial killer, but he also knows balls, so I like to hear that a little bit. He's got a little bit of that, too. You're right. Actually, no, this evening we're kind of getting to know this new ownership group. So we'll be watching the game with – they have a tent set up out here this evening. And so we're going to have the game on and, you know, the Coastal family, we're going to get to know them a little bit. And then all the limited partners that are have joined as well, too, because this is a this is a big change for us. You know, we've been working directly with the Allen family and with Paul and then obviously with Paul's passing Jody.

1:27:21And now it's, you know, a family coming in really cool. It's been a great start. So we'll be watching the game while we're getting introduced to a whole new group of –

1:27:34Pat McAfee:God, thank God you guys won last night, bro. Jeez Louise, what a win last night. What have you done for me lately? We won, okay? Let's remember that. You also, huge part of that sale. Genuinely, and I know that you don't get a percentage of the sale or anything like that, but buying a team that has one of the greatest GMs to ever exist there, and also maybe the next great coach of all time, they are very lucky and fortunate that you're in that building. And obviously, once again, this is me saying it, not you, but I assume they will be telling you that tonight. And thank God you won last night, or this dinner would be a little bit different, seemingly.

1:28:10Pat McAfee:New ownership, completely defeated. Great. We go from winning the Super Bowl. Now this crew can't win a damn game on Thursday night. So I'm happy that that happened for you last night, and I'm happy that that's going to happen for you tonight. AJ has the final question for you here, John, as we look ahead. John, earlier you were mentioning how you evaluate players. You said your grit scale is always the same. Could you explain exactly what that is and how you grade grit? I like that. Yeah, it's basically a sense of adversity, whatever guys had to overcome in their lives on the field, off the field, whether it's like coming back from a major injury, losing a loved one.

1:28:50What kind of resilience have you shown? What kind of examples can you give us of the levels of intensity and like mental hardware it's going to take to be able to get through all these difficult times that we're going to go through, whether it's a two game losing streak, a six game losing streak or, you know, another injury setback in your career. So that's really, you know, it was really a Pete and I started it right when we got here. And then they had what they call a competitor scale at USC. So we kind of incorporated those two things. They're separate grades, much like we had a medical grade when guys were coming out.

1:29:35It was like pure, like our orthopod grade, right, or internist grade, but 80 % the orthopod grade. And then we had a couple guys that we drafted and started games all four years in college and then came in and started missing time. And so we're like, okay, let's start durability grades. So we'll have a medical grade and a durability grade now, kind of like projecting, you know, like all the functional movement stuff, AJ, and all the sports science stuff now that goes into this, all the GPS stuff. And that's the grit scale for us was like really the Earl Thomases and the Doug Baldwin's and the Richard Sherman's and Cam and, like, that group of, shoot, Marshawn, I mean, a bunch of really, like, Michael Bennett.

1:30:29Bobby. There's a whole group of guys, but really, yeah, Bobby Wagner. Like, there's a whole group of Ross. I mean, there's a whole group of guys that we were able to say, like, right when we got here, like, okay, if you fit these characteristics, we want to work with you and we feel like we can help develop you.

1:30:46Pat McAfee:How about MCDC, I think, told a story about putting a cigarette out on Tony Romo? Yeah, on it when he was a rookie. Does that go into the grit scale? I haven't heard that, sorry. Oh, yeah. So if Tony Romo came up to you and said, hey, listen, I had a cigarette put out right here on my arm, and I just kept on going, does that up the grit points? Do we get more of it? Yeah, I like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, because it's public shaming that could potentially be happening while you're getting the cigarette put out. that's a whole other mental object we have to do it okay john we appreciate you joining us obviously fresh off a dub if you want to break any news about sam donald right now we'll certainly let you do that no you're the man ladies and gentlemen john schneider facetimed him 7 10 a.m just got his phone number aj sends me his phone number he responds facetime we're doing this right now.

1:31:39Pat McAfee:Okay, hold on. He's still on? You said he's still on? What's up, John? Where are you going this weekend? Austin. Austin, Texas. You going to be down there? Sweet. No, I will not be down there. That'd be an awesome game, though. I was supposed to go, but a whole new ownership thing and stuff. Who's going to win? Who do you think is going to win, John? I can't do that, brother. Come on. You could. How about tonight's game? Who's going to win tonight's game? Yeah, who's going to win tonight? Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, John Schneider. New ownership saying, let's get to know each other. Put a 10 up here, go big screen.

1:32:14Pat McAfee:Could you imagine they lose that game last night? The worst. I mean, just the curse in general the fans would be talking about. They sell the team and our starting quarterback gets hurt on the first drive. Yeah, they'd just be talking about that too. Probably a lot of hate going towards the ownership, but they didn't. What are we, the New York Jets? No, they didn't actually. They got three picks in the fourth quarter and actually ended up winning that game. McDonald, John Schneider in a good spot over there. Ladies and gentlemen, it's 135. Okay? Okay. You know what that means. It is Thursday. Okay.

1:32:44Pat McAfee:We have Coach Pagano in here. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for Coach P to tell us who's going to win this damn game. Now, Chuck has dialed up all the numbers that you could, literally all of the numbers you could potentially have for tonight's matchup. and he's going to dive in and tell us, remember Chuck Pagano, normally pretty damn good at picking what's going to happen at night. Now, if he starts to waffle, what happens, AJ, if he waffles? What does happen? I don't know. He gets his ass ate out. Yep. What are you talking about? I didn't know I was tying those together. It's chewed out, man.

1:33:21It's chewed out. Tina.

1:33:23Pat McAfee:Nah, she eats you up. She eats you up out there. Miss Tina, we hope you're great. Chuck, as you see it, how does the night go, pal? Well, are we going to put the graphic up? You want to see all these numbers. You keep getting me. There we go. All right, so great matchup. So these numbers matter. How many are there? They do, especially for responsible gamblers, as you guys like to say, right? That's what we look at. So when you look at, you know, the tail of the tape, we know how strong this division is, the NFC West. These two teams, they split last year. That's good to know. Sam Fran went down to L.A.

1:33:59and won the first one, and then L.A. beat them the second game. Total offense, we all know the Rams are just stacked. They're loaded. They got all five offensive linemen back. The wide receiver, they got Puka. They got Devontae. The two tight ends, Parkinson, Higby, absolute studs. Kyron Williams and Coram, they can run the damn – total offense that were first last year, these are all 20-25 numbers, all right? Total defense, it's basically a wash. We know that the defensive coordinator from San Fran got the head job now. Salah's over in Tennessee now. And Raheem Morris, who worked for McVay for a couple years there in L.A., is now running the show in San Fran.

1:34:42So we'll talk about that later on when we talk about key matchups. So that's kind of a wash. Points per game, L.A. first. Points allowed, it's a wash. Third down offense. This was, if you didn't know this, you'd think, okay, total offense, Rams, right, number one in the league. Points scored, number one in the league. They're down. They've got to be good, right? You'd think? 17th. Whoa. Crazy. But conversely, they were really good, all right, in the red area. Turnover margin, they were fifth. Huge advantage there in the red zone as far as the red zone defense goes. Turnover margin was huge. Only six interceptions last year.

1:35:22We talk about the Jets, right, had zero in a 17 game. That's, like, absurd. That, like, will never happen ever, ever again. I won't be around. I'll be dead six feet under. Maybe if it does, but that probably never ends. Yeah, but they've tried to kill you a few times. They only had six.

1:35:39Pat McAfee:Chuck, remember, you're tough to kill, bro. They've been trying to get you for a while. I think you might live forever, dude. It's true. I feel it. They've been trying to get you for a while, haven't they, though? A long time. Yeah, they have, actually. A lot of different deals. Yeah, back, leukemia. They're just throwing that shit at you. You just keep slicking that hair straight back. That's right. Great Reaper keeps coming. Open heart. That's what I'm saying. They've been trying to. You got no shot. None. You got no shot. The Reaper's got no chance. That's Chuck Booker. Brown Royer may get me, but nothing else.

1:36:07Pat McAfee:You know what I mean? Yeah, CT definitely there because we know how you used to play. So turnover margin, they were really good. The Rams were sack rate. Guess how many sacks 49ers generated last year? Oh, my God. I remember Bosa was hurting and not playing good. I didn't know they were worse than the league. 20 for an entire season. Deadlaps. And we'll talk a little bit more about how they're going to try to generate some tonight, some pressure on Stafford and this offense. I don't see it. Anyway, explosives, just like you figure, the Rams were second. Special teams. Guy that coached for us, coached for me and Indy, Brant Boyer is a special teams coach there.

1:36:44He came on board a couple years ago. He took them from two years ago. They were dead last in EPA. That's expected points added per drive. Second last year. So they were really, really good on special teams. Conversely, the Rams, they were 32nd. They had to let their special teams coach go. So they brought in a guy, Bubba Ventron. We all know Bubba Ventron, right? Bubba's with the Rams now. So you're going to see a significant uptick in special teams there. Bubba's a highly respected special teams guy in the National Football League. I think he was with the Browns the last couple years. Yeah, poor guy.

1:37:23They'll be improved there, but those are the numbers there. When we look at the key matchups, guys, when you look at this offensive line, again, for the 49ers versus this defensive line, it was a huge advantage at Aaron Donald. Like when he signed back with these guys and then getting Miles Garrett into that group, and they already had a bunch of dogs over there with Fisk and company. You know, he's not playing. I still give a slight edge to this defensive line for the Rams in this matchup. 80 % of the offensive line is back for the 49ers. They got one new starter, a rookie left guard, all right?

1:37:58So give the slight edge to the Rams there. Okay, so Rams got a 1-0 here.

1:38:05Pat McAfee:1-0, yeah. Six of them here, 1-0 at the Rams. Top right, CMC, all right? We know he's a great player, right? Handing the ball out of the backfield. You can line them up anywhere on the offense. The rush defense, how about this, guys? Pat, you know what he averaged per carry on 34 rushes in two games last year versus this defense? How much? 2.6 per carry. Oh, gee. So they did a hell of a job of corralling this guy and containing this guy when it came to the run. Now he had 16 receptions for 100 and some yards, one tutty in those two games. So more of a threat in the pass game than the run game.

1:38:43I give the edge to the Rams on this as well. Oh, 2-0 Rams. They did. The receiving core, all new. You know, you got Mike Evans that come over for the Niners. They got Debo Samuel back. They got some other dudes. The secondary, though, their Achilles heel, I think, Ty, you talked about it the other day. Two corners they had, you know, they were bad on pass defense. And the reason why is they weren't very good at the corners. Their safeties are really good. Cam Curl and this Kitchens guy. So they go out and get McDuffie, who's regarded as one of the top corners, just paid him as one of the top corners in the National Football League.

1:39:17And Jalen Watson, if you remember back, way back when, when we started doing Coach P's keys, remember the first guy we highlighted? Pick six. Number 35 for the Kansas City Chiefs, and he ends up getting a pick six in that game. There he is, number 35. He's still around. Hell yeah. This secondary is really, really good. Lake is their nickelback. Witten Lake, he'll be their nickelback. I think McDuffie will play most of the time on the outside. Will they follow guys? I don't think they need to follow in this case. So I give this edge to the secondary for the Rams. Wow! Throw in the towel. Hey, Jet, you hear this?

1:39:56This is a 3-0. We talked about Raheem. Let's see who he picks to win. Going back, head coach for McVay, you'd say, shit. All right. Raheem Morris is in D.C. He's worked in that building. He knows everything about Sean McVay. He knows everything about Matthew Stafford. He knows what makes these guys tick. He knows the hand signals. This should be an absolute winner, right? Well, last time I checked, McVay's got a pretty big brain as well, right? So he knows every one of the tendencies of Raheem Moore. So Raheem will do a great job up there. He's an excellent football coach. This McVay is like one of one when it comes to that.

1:40:34Everybody's trying to hire the next Sean McVay. He's got an offensive coordinator in there, Sheil Haas. Yeah, Sheil Haas. Sheil Haas. He'll be the next head coach after these guys lead the league again and win the Super Bowl this year. All right, in Los Angeles. Don't bury the league. Okay, so what's happening here? So I think this is a wash. Wash. Okay. They know so much about each other. All right. Yeah, AJ says that side. You've got to pick a side. I'll give a slight edge to McVay.

1:41:01Pat McAfee:Oh, geez. These are the key matches. Because it's 4-0. Let's go to travel. Calm down. Okay. Let's go to travel. Let's do it. Okay, one week versus one day. The stats speak for themselves, right? Okay. Like we talked about in here ad nauseum, you talked about as a player, hey, guys love routine. Guys love normalcy. Guys like getting up and going to bed in their own bed. Same bed, right? Not a hotel bed, right? Don't do it, Chuck. 5-0. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, I do know what you're talking about. Going to the same office, same treatment, the meeting room, the facility. They love routine, right?

1:41:41So, McVay last year, we played the Rams. They beat us in Baltimore, all right? And then they had to go to London next week. Did they fly back home? No, sure. What they did, they stayed in Baltimore. They practiced all week at Camden Yards, all right, in the outfield there. And then they flew over 24 hours before kickoff, just like they did for this game. And I think it was 32-7. They beat the living shite out of the Jacksonville Jaguars. I think it was 37-7, something egregious. So, Sean McVay, Shanahan's 0-0. He's never coached a game international. So, he's 0-0. So, this is his first experience.

1:42:17Undefeated. Okay? So, we know they're all making good. I mean, world peace. I mean, they're shaking hands and kissing babies over there doing a hell of a job. They're growing the game!

1:42:25Pat McAfee:Watch it! I got a funny feeling. I know which way this one's going, too. Cripes. You never know. You never know. Hold on. So McVay, he's 3-0. And the point differential is plus 75 for Sean McVay in Los Angeles. 92-17. So hot. So? Sick. So? Now, keep in mind. Keep in mind. The caveat is this. London trip, seven hours. Australia, 17, plus 10. So who knows? 27 but they've done their research they've got big brains in there right Snead McVeigh and company so I'm going yeah the one day I'm going with the Rams you got an unknown you got an unknown I'm with you but it's fine freaking nothing these are keys yeah it feels like you kind of are setting this up to paint one particular story I assume Niners fans are saying can we get some different matchups than maybe this one though maybe special teams is easy unless they got M.

1:43:27Night Pagano going on over here I think the Rams, the edge of the special teams goes to the 49ers. They finished second last year in expected points. Oh, great. Added. So I give the special teams to Boyer and that group. Bubba Ventron is going to make a huge difference there. Okay. He's going to make a huge difference, but it's going to take a minute.

1:43:47Pat McAfee:Okay, so it's 5-1 key matchups, Los Angeles Rams. It felt like a charity. It felt like a charity one in that last one, too. It did. Yeah, a little bit. That's how we find it. And I know who Boyer is, by the way. Got to give him a little lockdown at the end. I get it, Chuck. I got this freaking con man up my ass. I will never be up your ass, pal. He certainly tries sometimes. He'd make you get him. And then you look at the tail of the tape, it's just green on the right side. Dang, does the key matchup. Basically. Chuck, who are you picking to win tonight with all that being said? Even Red's own offense, he doesn't even have the green on the San Fran side.

1:44:21He just wants it to be less green on their side.

1:44:24Pat McAfee:That's awesome. It does seem like that is maybe a mistake that was made there. No winners there. You can kind of call it a toss-up is what he's saying. So with all that being said, we got, what, 12 stats here. We had six key matchups. The Rams have been in a landslide dominant position for all your graphics thus far. Do you pick them to win tonight by at least three and a half, sir? I know this will shock you and our viewers. I'm going with the Rams. They're going to beat the 49ers in Australia, down under, get their ass back home, have a mini-buy. All right. 28-20. Rams. 28-20 Rams. All right.

1:45:01Pat McAfee:Four tuts. Okay. I like that there's a lot of points being scored here for the Australians to come watch our sport. Do you think it's cagey affair early like last night? Super cagey last night, but obviously incredible defense. No, there's going to be a filling out. There's going to be a bunch of sparring early in this one. But to play, don't care who makes it. That's right. It's true. Hey, six seconds, all you got for as many as we need. Don't look up. Hey, and this home field advantage deal that they're talking about? That's a big deal. Do those guys, do they actually know? You can't build up that much goodwill in four days.

1:45:28What's going on? Are they just going to sit there like some of these, ah, and just scream for three hours and five minutes? Some of these what? What were you saying?

1:45:34Pat McAfee:Some of these foreigners? Is that what you were going to say? These Aussies, do they know about American – I mean, everybody – hey, the whole – If we know how the Aussies operate, they've been up for 28 hours, and they're just going to go through the night. They can punt a football con, man. Yes, they can. I mean, they know about punning. They know how to catch – You know what I mean? They don't expect that. They don't expect that. In rugby, they know how to run over people. That's right. Same foot, same shoulder. Drink bass. Let's go. I think they're going to like our sport. I think Australia will really like our sport.

1:46:02Pat McAfee:Obviously, Australians have done great things for our sport in the kicking department and offensive line, I think, over there for Philadelphia. But I think when they see our sport, I think they are going to fall in love with it more. So I do think the goodwill of San Francisco going around saying hello to people is good. I don't know if it's going to win over an entire country in five days. They did try out an Australian rugby playoff. When they were over there? Yeah, yesterday, I believe. Crocodile? There's a chance. Let's go overseas, shall we, in a completely different direction. Chuck Pagano has the Los Angeles Rams.

1:46:33Pat McAfee:We'll make our official picks here in a matter of moments. Yesterday, a teaser hit the world about a movie called The Mosquito Bowl. Then today, an ode to Friday Night Lights with Coach Taylor telling a story of what football is hit the internet and ran wild. The man in the mind behind that is a friend of mine, friend of ours. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us live from London town, Peter Begg. Yeah, Peter! How you doing, brother? Cheers, fellas. Hey. Apologize for the camera setup, the lighting. I'm in a van going through downtown London right now, getting ready to show your new film, Pat, Mosquito Bowl, to a British audience.

1:47:14We're expanding the reach.

1:47:16Pat McAfee:Okay, I appreciate you doing that. The light looks great. You actually kind of look like pretty cinematic. Very dramatic. Yeah, a little dramatic. Yeah, there it is. You know, what was that movie, Tales from the Crypt? Yeah. When they had that flashlight that was kind of shooting up. Yeah. Peter? Well, the horror movie lighting is from below. This is a whole other vibe, so I apologize. You would know that, by the way. Auteur, a man who wrote the movie, directed the movie, and is also in the movie. You said it was my movie. Yeah, right. This is the world's movie, United States of America's movie.

1:47:46Pat McAfee:Can you tell us a little bit about the Mosquito Bowl and how excited you are to be a part of the football culture as much as you are as an avid football fan that you are? Well, for sure. And so the Mosquito Bowl is all based on a true story that my cousin, Buzz Bissinger, who wrote Friday Night Lights, wrote. He wrote it as an ode to his father, who was a Marine who fought in Okinawa. And he called me and he said, I'm writing a film about my father and your father because my father was a Marine who fought in Korea. and it's a true story about a group of Marines who before they joined the Marine Corps were elite college football players from Purdue, Wisconsin, Brown and Notre Dame.

1:48:31And when Pearl Harbor hit, these guys gave up their football careers and joined the Marine Corps, volunteered and went and fought in the Pacific Theater, which was some of the most horrific fighting in the last 200 years. They fought in places like Terawa and Okinawa, and these young men gave it all up for the Marine Corps, for the country, and some of them paid the ultimate sacrifice for it. So the film is an homage to these men.

1:49:01Pat McAfee:Okay, and honestly, it was, obviously it was an honor to be a part of. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this incredible story. I wanted to show my respect and tribute to the Marines and deliver. I think from my understanding, I've not seen the movie yet in its package. People say I'm not assing that, but it's not just about you got Skarsgård in this, you got Ray Nicholson in this you got Galvidsine in this movie who was just in Thor. It was like working alongside these guys, working alongside you. It did feel as if something special was coming together when we were shooting it. Now, Netflix has announced it's going to have a movie theater run then it's going to stream on Netflix.

1:49:37Pat McAfee:Can you tell us a little bit about that and how that happens and what people should expect, especially if they go a seat in the theaters on October 30th. Yeah, but before I talk about that, what I want to talk about, Pat, is you and what people do not understand about you, perhaps, as far as you being an actor in this film. It's raised some eyebrows. People have called me and said, was Pat really in the film? And I said, not only is he in the film, Pat McAbee was so committed to understanding the culture and honoring the culture of the Marine Corps and has good friends who were drill instructors in the Marine Corps, that he went down to Parris Island and spent four days living on Parris Island with the drill instructors, which nobody knows.

1:50:22Nobody needs to know that, but I'm going to tell them. You were so determined to get it right. You then moved yourself out to Australia, where there's about to be a football game, so you know about that jet lag, and spent two months with us. You spent every day on the set by my side, wanting to learn as much as you could and wanting to get it as right as you possibly could. And I know your buddy Tom Cruise was your acting coach on it, but you took it so seriously, so much respect for how seriously you took it, and your performance is awesome in this film. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.

1:50:58Pat McAfee:Now, let's stop talking about all that, please, okay? Sorry, but it's true. There's way too much of me. People need to know it. And I wasn't there for two months. You know that. That was just a little bit of a slight tell, but it was two weeks. Yes, I was there for two weeks. No, it was more than two weeks. No, it felt like forever because I was there doing it, obviously. That's probably your life was slowing down. But yes, I was there for two weeks. Nonetheless, I was honored to be a part of it, as was everybody else. It's going into movie theaters, which I think is a big deal for Netflix. Because if you do recall, Ted, the head of Netflix, got called out at the last Oscars for ruining movie theaters.

1:51:29Pat McAfee:I think he hopes to bring back the movie theater experience. And also Mosquito Bull can certainly do that. Right, Peter, don't you think? For sure. For sure. And for anyone who knows Ted Sarandos and knows who he is, let me assure you that this man is a fan of cinema. And he has gone out of his way to not only love our film and support our film, but to put it in the theaters and to walk the walk that he was talking when he was talking about buying Warner Brothers. and he said he was a big fan of the film, of the cinema and the cinema experience, which is something really important to me and anybody who loves film.

1:52:10And Ted did not have to do it, but he did do it. He saw the film, loved it, and we're gonna have a really nice theatrical run. And I think this story, Mosquito Bowl, deserves theaters and we're getting them. October 30th, we come out in the theaters.

1:52:27Pat McAfee:You're the man. Thank you for letting me be a part of that. Thank you for being a friend to us. and enjoy London. I'll be excited to hear how they feel about the movie. You know? I can't wait to tell you about it. Apologize for the crazy light. Fellas, great to see you. You're the best, ladies and gentlemen. It's Peter Byrd. Yeah, Peter! He's the man. Oh, yeah. Yeah, weapon. Big time. He said, Tom Cruise, your acting coach. That's because, you know, like, on set, Peter was just basically telling me everything to do. It was interesting, him trying to reach me. He's like a coach. You know, he's like a coach.

1:53:00Pat McAfee:He said, you know that song, bar with the bar to bang the bang, diggy, diggy, diggy said the boogie said up, jump the boogie. Bar with the bar to bang the da, bar with, that's why I need you here. Okay, you need to be here, then here, then here, and then all of a sudden, my name is, I'm like, you got it. He goes, live, let's roll. Then we're right back in it and I give a seven minute, seven minute kind of monologue walking through this entire thing. It was an honor of a lifetime to represent the most badass motherfuckers from the greatest generation, which are the DIs from the World War II era.

1:53:30Pat McAfee:College football, World War, Greatest Generation. Can't believe I'm a part of it, but I think it's going to be a great movie, from my understanding. I am not an expert, but it felt on set that everybody was like, yes, we got something that's going to pay tribute to great people. Now, on that note, it's a big day with Big Schrags. Nailed it. Perfect. Boom. Boom. For Peter Schrager. Yep. He been going since Monday? No, he starts today. Actually, three minutes from now. Day one. Okay. It's a big day for Big Schrags. Getting on a mic talking big place. Yeah, there it is. There it is. We found it. I didn't know if we were going to be able to get to it ever, but it's a big day with big shrags.

1:54:11Pat McAfee:Getting on a mic talking big place. They should cross out Peter and put big shrags on there. Yeah. Or with Pete Shrags. Big Pete. Yeah. It's a big day with Pete Shrags. Ah, I think big shrags, don't you think? Big shrags is just cooler, but I was just excited. He's a taller lad as well. Yeah, he's a big son of a bitch. People don't realize that. 6 '8". And he does kind of lumber. He does. He's a house. If he leans on you, you're falling. All right, let's take a break. On the other side, we'll make our picks officially. Hell yes. We'll see if Chuck swayed us with any of his numbers that certainly say the Rams are going to win this.

1:54:43Pat McAfee:AJ, did you see all the narrative-building stats Chuck put out there? I did, but you never know with Chuck, though. There's a great chance that Chuck flips around and picks the Niners and he comes up with some crazy reasoning of why they are able to do it. So I look forward to it. You don't see. Look at him. He's a showman. Maybe a little waffling. Also, we got to do what? The Chuck! Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Take five. Five. Five.

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1:56:18Pat McAfee:Football! Just got hawked at the camera there. That's A.J. Hawk. The Talks to the Table is here at Boston Corner. At Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Dad. Cowboys AP Tony's here and a man who's coached football for 37 years, 19 in the pros, 18 in college. Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Pagano. Hey, Josh. AJ, I don't know if you know this, but we're starting a new segment whenever Chuck's here. It's going to be something spotlighting like doofus things, spotlighting things that shouldn't happen, spotlighting things that make you say, What the Chuck? Listen, we're going to be talking about Chuck and football all over the place in some chucking mistakes.

1:56:57Pat McAfee:And the mistakes that make you say, what the chuck? Are the ones that he's going to spotlight. Now, obviously, only one NFL game to pull from. So we have a couple from last night. Hey, Chuck, why don't you start with the chucking what the chuck segment, pal? Well, it kind of makes me say what the chuck right now. Get the chuck together, pal. Yeah, you need to chuck it up. So anybody who had Seattle minus three and a half is really pissed off. Oh, boy, are they. That was early in the week. Obviously, you ended at minus three. You guys got it at three. I got it at minus three and a half, which is total BS.

1:57:34I said before I'd love to be tripping you. Exactly. Unlucky Chuck. I have a point, pal. Hey, new play caller. All right. With your starting quarterback, first game of the year, you think there's going to be some challenges. There's going to be some challenges, right? But you've got a new play caller in flurry. You got your backup quarterback in there. Communication, all we ever talked about, right, practice-wise is operation. So as we take a look at this, notice the play clock. What's on the play clock there, Pat? 5-4. Broke the huddle at 8, I do believe. So the biggest thing for me as a head coach sitting there is, like, get the plan.

1:58:10Give the guy a chance to communicate the play call. These play calls are what? They're egregious. They're long as hell. So you don't even give Drew Locke, your backup quarterback, an opportunity to get to the line. How about ID the defense a little bit? You do shifts and motions and things to try to gather some intel, right? Give him a chance to get to the line of scrimmage, get his shit sorted out, ID the defense, set the protection, all those kind of things. How can you do that? Second and inches, by the way. Now this is second and inches. They got a first and 15, right? And now he escapes, scrambles, you've got second in inches, and then we have this shit going on.

1:58:47I mean, this is going to be a touchdown, right? They're going to go up seven points. They're going to hold them on defense. They haven't gained the length of you-know-what. You know, the whole game, New England has it. One penalty play, right? And we're going to cover. We're going to win this thing easily. But no, we don't get the play call in. All right, we can't get the motion. We got the whole left side of the fucking line moving. And next thing you know, you're giving up five yards, right? Sorry for my language.

1:59:14Pat McAfee:No, it's the left side of the chucking line in this one. The whole left side of the chucking line. So, I mean, what the chuck are we doing? I mean, we'll be better week two than we were week one, I'm sure. We'll work out some of these kinks. But the thing that pisses you off, like you got second in inches. Like, what are we chucking looking at? Each play calls motion, too. It's a sneak or a dive.

1:59:45And I don't give a shit if they could see my lip. What a fucking sneak, Drew.

1:59:50Pat McAfee:Chuck and sneak. Now, Fleury ends up being an undefeated play caller. But on that note, on this particular drive, which is obviously fourth quarter late tie ball game, three different times they were breaking the huddle with nine seconds or eight seconds left. And Drew Locke had to send two people in motion. This is a lot to put on a backup quarterback. It's a lot to put on a fourth quarter drive. But I do think Fleury is going to learn from this move forward. But there's a lot of times as we're watching that play clock tick where we're going, what the Chuck is going on out there? They'll be much better.

2:00:21Absolutely. You would hope so.

2:00:22Pat McAfee:You would have to be. And from the sounds of it, Drew Locke is going to be the quarterback for the next couple weeks, although it won't be season long, but at least for the next few weeks as we await to hear what exactly happened to Sam Darnold's hip. He's currently getting some scans. What else are we saying? What the Chuck do from last night, Chuck? Like, you're down three. Chuck me! It's third and five. Conman, you probably didn't sleep, right, after this? No, I didn't. You couldn't have slept. You had to take a sleeping pill or something. He was chucking himself. We talked about this earlier, right?

2:00:53I couldn't even chuck off. Ball's got to come out right now. This is a quick game. Get it to Henry. Get it in his hands right now. You've got the edges being cut, trying to get the defensive ends on the ground, get their hands down. And I know Josh McDaniel got in May's ear right before this play, and he says, do not. All things, we've got to field goal. We're going to tie this thing. We're going to overtime. Do not take a sack and don't turn the chucking ball over. And what does Drake do? He don't pop the ball to Henry. We get pressure in his face, and he throws this thing up for grabs, game over.

2:01:31You don't even have a chance to go to overtime. That's as bad. And I know Drake Mays is going to take it. He's going to be a great player. He's in the MVP conversation last year. He'll climb his way back in it this year. But this is just, what are we doing?

2:01:47Pat McAfee:Amateur stuff is what he's saying. Make you say, what the? Chuck! What's going on right there? Chuck and egregious. AJ, what do you think? Do you think his two picks before this were certainly weighing on his mind a little bit? Do you think mentally he did lose to McDonald and saw ghosts? Or do you think what Connor was saying is he got bored and then he wanted to make some plays. Then he turned one over. Now he's trying to make up for it. Now he's pressing and pressing and pressing. Young quarterback still. People forget about this. Drake May is still like 22 years old. 24, yeah. He's still very incredibly young.

2:02:14Pat McAfee:He's already accomplished a lot, so the expectations are high. But there's some really bad decisions being made in real time late in the game last night, AJ. Yeah, there is. I mean, I think it's possible. You know, sometimes it's like when golfers, one day they shoot a 62, the next day they shoot an 80, where maybe it just wasn't his night. He wasn't feeling it for whatever reason mentally. I mean, I'm not worried about him going forward, but this is week one. Like, I think crazy things do happen in week one. He loses A.J. Brown, obviously. That doesn't help. But, yeah, look for him to rebound, obviously.

2:02:43I'm not worried long-term. But, yeah, you want to play well in big situations like this.

2:02:46Pat McAfee:What did you say whenever you saw this, A.J.? I said, what the Chuck? Wow. Wow. Wow. Unbelievable. My man. Yeah, unbelievable. Yes, sir. I did not think that you were going to buy into the bit. I think it's a good bit. I hope this continues for sure. Okay, in the final, what the Chuck, I think, is the one that we've all seen, is it? Is this what the Chuck? Oh, geez. Oh, boy. Okay. Yep. So if we can – can we back this up? Is this the last one or the one before this? This is the last one. Is there any chance? Here's the one before. Okay, so here's the one before. Nine seconds to go. All right. Hail Mary.

2:03:219.8. 9.8. They rush three. Typically, Pat, you guys on the set, all right, typically what you do in this Hail Mary situation is you rush three, you man up the five eligibles, and then you have three deep guys. You have a jumper, and then you have back tip guys. and you box out, all those kind of things. But right here, stop it. So what did the head coach, Whittingham, he's new, right? First year over to Michigan, he said, you know, his job is not infinite. Nobody's job is infinite, right? Yeah, so Bryce Underwood's job is not infinite. Yeah, excuse me, Bryce Underwood, right?

2:03:57Pat McAfee:Well, Whittingham's job is not infinite. I was going to say. But you'd like to say to your quarterback, hey, listen, Bryce, We've done this a million times in practice. This is one of those situational things. How many times do we practice it? At least twice a week. Every single week, right? Walk through it on Saturday, the last play, right? Give him a chance. Where does he throw this ball? We all know he's big, he's strong and all that. Everybody's talking about, hey, this guy was out of bounds. He touched it. They put a second back on the clock, all that kind of stuff, right? But he threw the thing out of the back of the chucking end zone.

2:04:29How can you not even freaking give him a chucking chance?

2:04:32Pat McAfee:Yeah, he missed the football field. He missed the – this is the worst thing. Nobody's talking about this. I think one person maybe mentioned this when they're talking about it because everybody's caught up in the referees, the situation. Do we use the TV copy? You know, the TV copy. Do we go to the command center copy? Do this, do that, right? All kinds of stuff moving forward. But you can't throw the ball out of the back of the chucking end zone. The guy missed the football field. 53 and a third wide. 120 long. Okay, Bryce Underwood missed the entirety of it. Now, because he threw it to a spot where he knew the defender was going to reach up and grab it with.1 seconds on the super secret clock, maybe it was a smart decision, actually, because they had the entire Western Michigan coaching staff and fan base on the field letting their guard down.

2:05:19Pat McAfee:So let's say Bryce Underwood threw it out of the back of the end zone on purpose, had no touch, no feel, missed the entire football field to set up everything that followed afterwards. Now, that's not the final what the Chuck it sounds like from this entire situation. Clock what the Chuck. Super secret clock what the Chuck. Super secret. I think Pereira came on a show with Clad on a podcast and talked about the mechanics of this whole deal. I thought it was very interesting when replay hit the NFL back in 99. They went back to say, hey, if we got any discrepancy situation like this, use the TV copy.

2:05:57Use what the tens of millions of people out in America are seeing. What the Chuck? Come on now. Take your Chuck it easy. Jesus. Yeah, you're getting a little Chuck up right now. It's kind of chucking you up a little bit. Hey, so they said, hey, use, they went and spliced together all the feed that they get in the commands. Not supposed to do it. Use the TV one. So that's where the first mistake. That's why we have all this controversy, right? Exactly. So anyway. Controversity. So anyway, they get another play. So, again, what we talked about. Show us. Right. Here you go. You got three-man rush, okay?

2:06:36You got three deep, and you got mano-a-mano on all these guys. And what we teach those guys. Can I get somebody out here to illustrate this thing? Yes, absolutely. Hey, talk. You got a second? Talk. Talk. Talk, oh. Please have him run. Have him run.

2:06:50Pat McAfee:I think we need a quarterback as well probably if we're going to be showcasing this entire thing. Thank you, talk. Great shirt. There's talk. Good to see you, talk. Hey, baby, talk, oh. Good to see you talk. Dirty, Dirty, good to see you out there, too. Appreciate you, bud. Cedar, good luck to your Rams tonight, Dirty. Okay, so hold on. You're not grabbing a mic. Talk. You got it? Are you sure? I think he might need one. So we got a man for man on all these guys, right? Uh-huh. And what you teach them to do is you run with them down the field. All right? Quarterback's going to buy enough time so those receivers can get down the field, just like the first play, and get in the end zone, right?

2:07:23And so what we always taught, okay, what we always taught the defenders were chest to chest and to box these guys out. So let's say Talk's running down. He's the last guy. Face this way, Talk. The ball's right there. The end zone's over there, okay? Talk now, all right? And there's a big group of guys right here, and the ball goes in there and say it gets tipped this way. I'm boxing him out so he can't make the play. Talk here. Mike's in your left hand. What happens here, if we run this tape, all right, Buchanan was the guy's name? Yeah. KG Buchanan. So Buchanan, all right, balls launched. Great throw by Underwood on this one.

2:08:00Hell of a throw on this one. That's right. So you can see, all right, here's talk. He's representing Buchanan. I'm going to be this joker here. Number six? I think he's number six. Okay. Good dude. Western Michigan stud. Western Michigan stud. Might be in his college football playoff. Could be, yeah. Western Michigan Bronco. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, they're running down the field, and we talked about being chest-to-chest so we can box out, right? So where he ends up when that ball's thrown is he's here, and he's got a big body in Buchanan, right? And he can't go make a play on it, right? So what's got to happen is he's got to get himself to where, once we get down the field, don't – hold on.

2:08:42All right, and he starts to go up to that thing. I'm chest to chest, right? Okay. And his hands are going to come up. Yeah. Right, so we're running. So that ball starts to come in. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I think that's a touchdown and a touchdown.

2:09:00Good catch, Todd. Good ball, Gertie. So, again, let's run down the field. Oh, my God.

2:09:07Pat McAfee:Good try, right?

2:09:11Pat McAfee:That's what you need to do. That's what you need to do. JJ Buchanan, get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. Hey, great ball, Dirty. Talk, great catch. I didn't know you had that in you. No, me either. Wow. Details, Pat. I understand. You got lost there, though. You got talked right there. Chuck embodied. You did get kind of chuck and talked right there. That was unbelievable. But what you're saying is the trail position is not where you want to be on a Hail Mary. Okay? We need you in front there because even if he overthrows J.J. Buchanan, you're going to be there to get it. And if he hits J.J.

2:09:42Pat McAfee:Buchanan, at least you're there to interrupt this throw. A hundred percent. We remember, what's his name from Chicago? Oh, yeah. Dicking around. Twenty-nine? Oh, man. 29 against Washington, right? Hail Mary. Stevenson? Stevenson, yeah. Another Stevenson, right? University of Miami kid. Great player. Great corner. Tyreek. Yeah. He's out there cheering, and the ball's in the air. So guess who catches the touchdown pass? The guy he's supposed to be on. So it's details. It's little things. Get yourself right here. You don't have a mic. Take a mic with you, Coach. You see all these other dudes, right, in position?

2:10:22That's right. Just do your job. Coachable at all. Okay, you're 111. Just do your job. Chuck, isn't there usually designated jumpers and then designated guys? If you're behind, you're boxing your dude out for the tip. That's it, 100%. And you've got a jump guy and you've got a back tip guy, AJ, and a front tip guy. There's two types of Hail Marys, right? You've got the three guys on one side. You're going to get probably a throw, a single receiver on the back side, and then throw down to the three receivers. that's where the jump ball is going to happen. If they ever get in a two-by-two, it's going to be a goal post.

2:10:56So you put your jumper in the middle, and then you've got two tip guys flanking the outside guys with man underneath. Now the other thing we ran in Baltimore last year is called Victory Cigar. You pressure that thing, AJ. Did you guys have that in your defensive package? Yeah, at least like the pressure, you know, flush him, try to flush him to his non-throwing hand and then have somebody like pressure him from there. Yeah, I'm always a fan of making him pull up. Don't let him sit there and crow hop seven times and get into it. Well, that's the whole idea. So we would rush five and end up sacking the guy twice because it takes time to get the receivers down the field.

2:11:29So it makes all the sense in the world. Arizona did it to Green Bay. Jam them up, too. Jam up number one receivers, too, to disrupt that. And go get the quarterback on the ground and don't even let him throw the ball down the field.

2:11:42Pat McAfee:It seems like that situation era was a big cluster chuck, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a huge chuck. Bryce Underwood misses the entire field. What the chuck? What the chuck? Clock operations? What the chuck? And then last one, we don't box out and defend a Hail Mary that has less than a percentage chance of hitting. It's unbelievable. What the chuck? The poor kid should have never been in that situation. No, he shouldn't have. He should have never got the other opportunity, but. That's football. That's the Big Ten, huh? They did. That's ball. That's ball. Now. And that's. Now. If you're Western Michigan.

2:12:14It's chucked up. You can't let Michigan beat you twice. Better wake the chuck up. You got to move the Chuck on. You have to move the Chuck on. Yes, you do.

2:12:22Pat McAfee:And ladies and gentlemen, that was What the Chuck. What the Chuck. I'm excited to see how this grows as the season continues to roll on with more situations that pop up. Great work there, Chuck. Thank you for the representation there, the physical demonstration of what we need to see. And shout out to talk being much more athletic than we could have ever imagined. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to make our official picks. Chuck Pagano heavy on the Rams. Baldinger, Brian, likes the Niners. So Niners plus three and a half is Brian Baldy. I think he liked them straight up, actually. Rams minus three and a half.

2:12:57Pat McAfee:Shout out to Chuck Pagano. He's a big fan of them, especially with all the stats and figures that he was showing us that certainly led us to all believe that the Rams might win by 100, including their travel scale. Now, let's go to one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone. What's the percentage of money on what right now, pal? So let me make sure it doesn't change. 85 % on the Rams money line and 63 % on the Rams minus three and a half. And what do you like? Oh, man, I hate the hook so much. That would be the.5 because it comes into play so much, specifically around three. If you buy a point, it takes it to minus 160.

2:13:33Now people will judge you for doing that, taking the Rams minus two and a half, minus 160. I wouldn't judge myself because dollars is better than zero dollars if you get caught with the hook. But everything laid out tonight, and I don't trust the Niners secondary. I think Stafford has a big night. Give me the Rams minus the 3-0.

2:13:51Pat McAfee:Okay, but you would prefer it to be 2-1. We're making a pick right now with 3-1. Got it. Let's go to the toxic table at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, we'll start with you. I'm going to go with the Niners. Everyone is picking the Rams. Everyone's acting like, why the fuck did the Niners even go over there? Why are they playing this game? I think Shanahan's a pretty good coach. He damn near died a couple weeks ago. I think that can put some things in perspective. Brock Purdy is good. Kittle's playing. I just, I mean, I don't know if they're going to win. I think they very well could win outright, but I think this is going to be very close, and no one else likes them.

2:14:23I like the Niners.

2:14:24Pat McAfee:Okay, so you like the Niners plus three and a half. Fun fact here from Hembo. Sean McVay has covered in five of his last six games versus Kyle Shanahan, but the previous seven of that never was able to accomplish. So the recent success that McVay has had covering over Shanahan is certainly just that, last three years or so, but he's hit for five straight. Do we think that continues? Con man, who do you like tonight? Yeah, I like the Rams. The three and a half. I love, I actually did take them alternate six and a half. Feels like there will be some sort of touchdown discrepancy. I just worry about Kittle.

2:14:54Like you come back from Achilles. Awesome. And you're on the field for sure. It's just how often are you going to be on the field? Is he going to play every single snap and be as effective as he always is? Maybe. I hope so. I just don't know if that is realistic. Miles Garrett, everything. Trent McDuffie. There's just so many things with the Rams, and I did love what their travel did. You mentioned that's what most players would want to do. They sent four guys over in the offseason to test that theory. Feels like it worked because if it didn't work, then they wouldn't have done it that way. I like the Rams tonight.

2:15:24It just feels like this is the beginning of a very deep run for them.

2:15:28Pat McAfee:Okay, AJ, we do have somebody on the Niners. We have a couple Rams picks. Remember, the Rams have 11 captains, and if we were to make this graphic and showcase all the stars on the Rams team, obviously it would take up a lot of space. They have studs everywhere, but so do the Niners. We get to see Fred Warner play football tonight. Oh, I forgot about that. Let's remind ourselves of that. Fred Warner's going to be flying around a football field this evening, talking shit and hitting everybody. Christian McCaffrey, what if he goes crazy, crazy? Remember, he took some time off during training camp.

2:15:57Pat McAfee:That was pre-scheduled. Obviously, we thought it was maybe a big deal. It's not. He feels good. George Kittle, flying around. Trent's over there enjoying himself. Debo, back on the team. And Brock Purdy has to deal with John Deere. That's true. He's finding farmers this offseason. So maybe he's feeling and playing better than ever. AJ, does that sway you at all? Or which way are you leaning here? No, I do agree with you. I think the 49ers are a very good football team. I love Fred Warner. He is very, very fun to watch. Anyone that loves watching defense, watch Fred Warner every single play. He has the style of play that I think you want everyone to play with if you're a defensive guy.

2:16:31But with that being said, give me the Rams 24-9 or 17.

2:16:36Pat McAfee:Oh, exact scores. I like that. Chuck had 28-20. A.J. has 24-17. Obviously, both men having in the covers and unders. I won't go into the score, but I would love to throw in Terrence Ferguson touchdown. Tight end for the Rams as well. Okay, so we got an extra tud call here by Conman. We got the under for both of these lads that they're saying as they both take the Rams minus 3.5. half i'll tell you i was maybe thinking about the niners you know because they've been there for a while and we obviously respect and love them then i saw this new york post tweet it's like stafford mcveigh are annoyed when they got to australia they do look annoyed don't i held them up in customs forever way too long these guys were just annoyed i mean just got off a 16 hour flight you know it was a little bit delayed they were annoyed these guys i believe it no wi-fi They said for 17 hours on the plane.

2:17:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, so I think I flew on a similar plane to this particular plane. And, you know, not every commercial plane company is putting Starlink on. Starlink would probably be the only one that would work out there because you're out in the middle of blue for a long, long time. I think this one had to have it. It said it's the most expensive commercial airline ever. Somebody said no. Did not have it. Yeah, Starlink. I think that would be the only one. I don't know. It was TV with like 90 movies on there, hopefully. Yeah, or download, yeah. Yeah, and there's, yeah, you load up your iPad going in, you know, because you know that this is going to happen before you get on the plane, and there's options on the screen and everything like that.

2:18:03Pat McAfee:So hopefully you're able to get through it. But it does feel like you're in a time warp. That's great. I mean, it feels like you're just kind of entrapped in a capsule while you're flying over. And if anything was to go wrong, we're fucked completely because you look at the map and it's just blue with like a tiny little green thing. And it's like, is that where that lady who flew around the? Amelia Earhart? Boom. This is all she was seeing too, right? Then she got down one. She was on the same plane, actually. She hit the triangle. Very different plane. Very, very different plane between Amelia Earhart and the Qantas Airbus that they were flying down there.

2:18:32Pat McAfee:The pods are nice, though. They looked incredible. Pods are really nice. If you're not in one of those. You fucked. You chucked. Excuse me. Yeah, completely chucked. So chucked. All right, let's get out of here. Can't wait to get chucked up tonight. So you're on the Rams. Huh? So you're on the Rams. You got us. You got me to pick. I like that they looked annoyed. Okay. If they would have came off that plane skipping, I would have been a little bit more worried. Yeah. I like the Rams to start their 2026 journey here. Now, I'm a Seahawks fan, so I don't love how. That's true. It's a lose-lose, though.

2:19:05Yeah. Two divisional rivals here. Yeah.

2:19:08Pat McAfee:Yeah, but everybody's been talking about the Rams all offseason. We're Super Bowl champs. Is that true? You're kind of hoping both these teams lose tonight. Yeah, under. You're rooting for a tie. Maybe a tie. Yeah, an ugly tie. Man, Australia experiencing a tie. I don't know. They ride in the nine. I think they're – Can they tie in – Doesn't cricket go for a long time? Yeah. Can they tie in Aussie rules football? I don't think so. They battle to the death. I think they would actually battle to the death, actually. That's a really behind-the-play game. They're doing a lot of cheeky – Oh, yeah. Some guy had to get subbed.

2:19:42Pat McAfee:One of the stars of the Brisbane Lions got subbed out like five minutes into the game that I was at because behind the scenes, he got punched right in the sternum. Guy couldn't breathe. And they showed a replay. They're like, what happened? Oh, literally, as soon as it started, a guy went and punched him right in the chest and then in the face. It's like, that's allowed? I'm looking around there like, ref didn't say it. So, you know, you just got to do what you got to do. It's like, that guy's a pretty good fucking player, isn't he? That guy's the best guy, yeah. Is he getting back out there? I don't know.

2:20:09Pat McAfee:Fucking watch, I guess. Baby, tell you. And they just kind of kept it moving. They don't even act like it's a big deal. It's like, yeah, it's just fucking part of it, I guess. They're a physical bunch. I think they will like our sport if it is a great game. And this should be a great game. It should be. So we cannot wait to watch. I like the Rams minus three. All right. Okay. Roughly every one in 100 matches in the AFL ends in a tie. Okay. So it's not, you know, they've seen it before. It's not happening. Tied in soccer is good. That's not soccer. It's Osheros football. Shelton playing tonight, right?

2:20:38Pat McAfee:Ben Shelton's playing. Oh, yeah. Two Americans. Big foe. I like big foe. I like the way he dresses. I like his pink shoes and everything. I like his attitude. I like the name Big Foe. It does feel like the stars come out for Big Foe. Stars also come out for Ben Sheldon. Oh, it's tomorrow. Okay, it's not tonight. I was told earlier today that it was tonight. That's on me. But Ben Sheldon playing tomorrow. Cannot wait to see him get back out there. I'm on Ben Sheldon. I'm on Ben Sheldon being the next great tennis player in America having to represent him. Head to head. He's 3-1 against Big Foe.

2:21:11Pat McAfee:He's 3-1 or 3-2-1? He's beating them three to one. Okay, so he's three to one. Three and one. Three to one would be gambling money. Three and one would be. Give a guy a break. I can't check in here, pal. You're making no checking sense. Zip it, you old Chuck. Jesus. Speak clearly, you checking idiot. Three and one against the guy. Three and one. Owns him. Three to one would be a gambling term, which we do talk about. You know? You're familiar. My bad. I'll fix that. I've got a lot to fix. I don't know if you got any chucking chance, bud. Chucking rusty, I'll tell you that. Hey, would you like to throw some chucking footballs, maybe?

2:21:49For world peace?

2:21:51Pat McAfee:Yeah. Why chucking not? I like that. Don't miss wide right, Chuck. I want to let you. Oh, he's like a Raven Steelers. Like your check and kicker. Talking about the Raven Steelers there. That's a tough miss. Ball should have won through the uprights there. But there was some holy water that was spread by Father. Father McNeely. McNeely from That's My Boy. Yeah, who was in place of Maximilian, who father took the night off. Yeah. And then potentially got Wally Pipp there whenever it comes to the holy water on the field, especially earning an AFC North championship, getting to the playoffs. And then the Baltimore Ravens completely dismantling everything that they had built.

2:22:26Pat McAfee:Yeah. Now the Ravens come into Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend. Good luck in the lighthouse. Would you like to make a pick for that game?

2:22:35Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I like the Colts. Boom. With points or straight up? I just like the fact that Shane had such great success. Now, they're going to say Ravens got better defense. They got really good players on that side of the ball on the defensive side. Jesse's the head coach, and he's the defensive coordinator. He's going to be calling the defense. They scored 38 against the Chargers last year. And Danny Dimes threw for 288 yards, two tuts. JT ran for 5.9 per carry. He had three tuts, two rushing, I think, one receiving. So, I mean, they played really, really well versus that unit. I'm sure Jesse watched that tape ad nauseum, see what the hell, you know, happened, what was good, what was bad.

2:23:20Jesse's like Mike. He does a great job attacking protection. But I like, hey, the other thing, Pat, there's three new starters for the interior line for that Ravens outfit. Really? Huh. Right? They brought Simpson back. He was there before. They brought him back. Gwen is the starting center. He has never started. This will be his first start on the road. Hostile environment, right? Hostile. Yeah, the loudest building. Oh, my gosh. Everybody's sitting down. It'll be Seattle. My challenge would be to, like, they came to me and said there was a fight in the stands after a game. Obviously. There was a fight during one of our games.

2:23:58I said, what are they fighting over? Somebody was standing up, clapping and yelling. And they're like, sit down. I said, you've got to be kidding me. We've got a lot of work to do with the mindset of this group. And we made it. Hey, Colts fans, get up, get loud, get nasty. Get proud. What? I mean. Stand the truck up. Stand the truck up. Exactly.

2:24:21Pat McAfee:I will say that it was potentially referred to as the Lucas Oil Library for a while. Seats are very comfortable. Really good Wi-Fi. Fans have experienced a lot of success. Very comfy. Very, very comfortable. Great food. Great drinks. So there has been conversations about it being maybe a little bit too comfortable in there. We'll do a polo match if you want that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, polo, they just sit down. I will say now it's a Lucas Oil lot house, especially the first 10 weeks last year. Last year, whenever they were rolling, the place was obnoxiously loud. It was cool to hear and to experience.

2:25:01Pat McAfee:I think they're going to bring that again. Ravens are coming into a tough place. Hey, first time communication-wise, new center, right? Buck, Grove on a young interior three. Yeah, we need some. You got big Grove inside. Double A-gap pressure there, Chuck. Buck, A-gap pressure, 100%. Let's go. Okay. I like the Colts as well. I like that you made two picks here today. We'll see how that goes. Would you like to do a throw for a giveaway or for world peace? Sure. Make the right choice here, Chuck. I think the Niners have covered the world peace thing for this week. Okay. Okay. That's a good call.

2:25:36Pat McAfee:So this will be for? Giveaway. Let's go for Chuck Pagano's back. Let's go 25 winners of$500. If Chuck Pagano is able to put that NFL flag championship football into that hoop right over there. Chuck, I know you were working this earlier. How do you think it's going to come out of the hand this year? It should be okay. Turn it on. You're good. Is that on? Yeah. Okay. Should be okay. I just spent the last year, you know, Throwing footballs to DBs like I used to do. You wanted to run the scout team and all that. No, I got this. Chuck it over. Yeah, you did. But we'll see. I feel pretty good about it.

2:26:12Pat McAfee:Okay, here we go. Come on, Chuck. One shot. One opportunity. Only one? Only one shot. Yeah. All right, slip. You were training last year to throw. Let's see if it happens. 25 winners. $500. All of you, Chuck. Oh. Almost. I like the line. All right, let's go. I like the line. Great line. You get another shot. Even though you practiced beforehand, you were very short. Hold on now. 25 winners of$500 if Chuck Pagano is able to put that football into the chucking hoop right over there. Ty Schmidt, anything to say to Coach before he throws this? Don't pussyfoot around here, Charlie. All right? Put that thing in the bucket.

2:26:42Let's go. Let's win some people some money, okay?

2:26:44Pat McAfee:Come on, Charles. 25 people,$500. I got to do this. Jesus Christ, dude. Not much. Sit the Chuck down. Sit the Chuck down. Sit the Chuck down. No way. God damn. Chuck is embarrassing. That's the longest tooth of all time. That's stick of one. Thank you for coming over, Chuck. We'll see you next week. Go to Chuck home. Jeez, Luis, that was tough. Tina's going to have you. She's going to be Chuck. Not one more. No. I mean, you can't let me walk out. Chuck off. The next one might go in. Come on, what's a Chuck, Pat? Okay, all right. I'll give you one more Chuck and Chuck. Okay, we'll give you one more Chuck and Chuck.

2:27:24Pat McAfee:Might be a flat ball. Yeah. Oh, play the ball. That's chucking soft. Super flat balls. I don't know what to tell you, bud. We've moved on to the NFL flat football balls. That's right earpiece been killing them. Make sure you have that earpiece in. If you don't have the right one in, you might not make the shot. 25 people,$500. Even worse. Coach. Guy didn't hit the rim one time. Good run, Chuck. Shari peeps. I didn't think it wasn't world peace. Exactly. Don't you worry about being shari, Chuck. Okay, because today you delivered us some stats, some analytics that told us our picks are the Los Angeles Rams minus three and a half was a good fucking pick.

2:28:05Pat McAfee:Now, what did Chuck? Great segment. Great segment. Great segment. Your energy, fucking great. The donuts this morning, phenomenal. Sublime. Your ears, seemingly worse than before, but not terrible. Yeah. You look like you're in great shape. Hair looks phenomenal. Oh, my gosh. I feel like you'd call this a success other than you throwing a football into a hoop. That was bad. It was bad, but so glad and appreciative and grateful and thankful to be back with this team. Great leadership. We're lucky for you. I told you earlier, right? Why did I tell you about why this thing is so freaking successful?

2:28:42We got good culture. Great culture, great leadership, and then you got a bunch of guys that are selfless. Know their role, do their job, keep their head down. You get in some of these organizations, you can get in some of these football buildings. and their demise is everybody wants to be the reason. We got a big group of guys. You got a group of guys that just want to be a reason that you succeed day in and day out. And I am so freaking grateful to be back on this team. Thank you. We love you. Love you, Coach. Love you, Coach. Love you.

2:29:15Pat McAfee:Love you, guys. Love you. Love you, guys. Love you. All of you. Another NFL game tonight. Rams-Niners from down under. Most of us are on the Rams, minus three and a half Ty likes the Niners So does Big Baldy We'll find out who's right tomorrow Be your friend, tell your friend something nice It might change your life Chuck, we love you, buddy Love you guys Team on me, team on three It's football season, isn't it? One, two, three Team Goodbye This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects.

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