Hour 3: Ethan Hawke In-Studio, Chargers atop AFC West, Nick Bosa’s Torn ACL

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0:56Rich Eisen:This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody! Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. The kick is away. It's blocked. It's picked up by the Eagles. Touchdown. Game over. This is the Rich Eisen Show. This is a 43-yard field goal drive to give Green Bay the league. It is blocked. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

1:42Today's guests, Academy Award-nominated actor Ethan Hawke. Plus, your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:56Rich Eisen:Hour number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air here on Disney +, the ESPN app everywhere, and ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. We're also on Sirius XM Channel 80. Phone lines are lit. We appreciate all that. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. Just had a delightful chat. It's going to be a great conversation when Ethan Hawke comes out here. Just had a nice chat with him in the green room. TJ, he's a cowboy fan by youth. Wow. But as an adult, not anymore. It'll be an interesting conversation. That's called a tease. I need to drop it up a little bit about this. He's called a tease.

2:28Rich Eisen:He signed the certificate. I guess. I'll have to talk to him and bring him back home. I think that drop, you can play one more time right here because we've had this forever from training day. It was one of my favorite drops. There was a boom moment for him as a cowboy fan. Maybe we'll play that once he actually comes out here and he tells the story. He's going to need to commiserate a little bit. I don't think he wants to commiserate. I think, again, I won't tell anymore, but who he's a fan of right now, he will commiserate with you, that's for sure. As long as it's not the Eagles. The Lowdown.

3:00Rich Eisen:FX is the Lowdown. Premieres tomorrow, 9 Eastern time, and it streams the next day on Hulu. He's also in The Black Phone 2 that's in theaters on October 17th, the horror sequel to the hit film of 2021. That movie freaked me out, by the way. And we also have a great celebrity, true or false, coming up with him. It's going to be awesome. When Ethan Hawke joins us in studio, 844-204-RICH is the number to dial on the show. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a 3-0 team here in Los Angeles, California. And the last time the Chargers were 3-0, the people of San Diego, California, got to see it up close and personal.

3:41Rich Eisen:Super Chargers. 2002. When Breeze was handing off to LaDamian Tomlinson. That's the last time they started 3-0. They finished 8-8, didn't make the playoffs. I can pretty much say that's not happening this time around. Because the Los Angeles Chargers are 100 % soul-stealing individuals right now. They are in the Harbaugh mold right now with a quarterback, Christopher and the Overreaction Monday podcast that we recorded before today's flagship show. Yes, sir. And it's available wherever you get your podcasts and also on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube channel. Do it. You threw out here that Justin Herbert is your currently leading candidate for most valuable player.

4:30Rich Eisen:And I didn't offer much pushback. I don't know how you could. I mean, there's Mayfield. There's Josh Allen. You got to look at 3-0 teams. We'll see what Lamar looks like tonight. Goff could be in the mix at some point. Justin Herbert, man. Game on the line. The Broncos were hitting this team in the mouth. You know, and Herbert, 8 of 9 for 93 passing yards on the last two drives, including a game-tying touchdown pass to Keenan Allen. That was an absolute dart, dot, however you want to put it. Dime, dart, dot, whatever D you want to throw out there. and then he led the team to a game-winning dicker-the-kicker field goal.

5:15Rich Eisen:He's awesome. 300 yards on the dot, on the nose, as a matter of fact. And the defense. Holy crap, this defense. I keep saying this to you. I'm going to do this. I keep threatening. Top five players, you feel like there's two of them on the field. Okay. number one might just be Derwin James. He's incredible. He had a sack yesterday also. This kid Henley, the number zero in your program, number one in your heart, there's like two of them out there as well. They're doing this without Khalil Mack. They are just, they are coming for you. And this is why I'm saying also that they're not going to miss the playoffs here or they're going to fall apart.

6:02Rich Eisen:You know, obviously injuries can happen, heaven forbid. but you have the AFC West standings. There they are. They're three, you know, and their three wins are against everybody else on the screen. Oh man. That's pretty impressive. Yep. They beat the chiefs on a Friday. They beat the Raiders on a Monday and they beat the Broncos on a Sunday. So they've done it in three different places. They've done it in the Northern hemisphere. They've done it in the Southern hemisphere. It's like a Dr. Seuss rhyme. We will beat you with our defense. We will beat you with our offense. We'll beat you with Dick or the Kicker, which rhymes with a lot.

6:37Rich Eisen:Just stop. I'm glad you did. Yes, so they beat the Raiders, the Broncos, and the Chiefs. They're all 1-2. The Chargers are 3-0. And yes, you could see in the games back column for our radio audience, I'll describe it to you. The number two is in each one. You can add a half because they're already up one win against them. And they got the Giants next. They're going to go to New Jersey. Listen, anything can happen. We just saw that with the Packers at the Bronx. Come on now. Come on now. This is exactly what the Chargers would have signed for. They started with all three teams in their division, had to go to Brazil to beat the Chiefs, go to Vegas to beat the Raiders, and stay at home to beat the Broncos in a comeback manner.

7:29Rich Eisen:And they got a coach too who can coach it up. Jesse Minter defensively for sure. and Jim. His secret sauce, man. 2002, the last time they were 3-0, the Chargers, was the last time Jim Harbaugh was 3-0 in the NFL when he was the quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders. He hasn't been 3-0 himself. Not even in San Francisco. Those Raiders started 4-0 and made the Super Bowl. Okay. how's Jim feeling about his quarterback, Justin Herbert? We know he came here, right? Didn't he come here? He sat here during the summer. It was here where he said he woke up in the middle of the night. I got to get this guy to the Hall of Fame.

8:16Rich Eisen:How do I get Justin Herbert to the Hall of Fame? I mean, it was a hardball file right here in person. And at the podium, after this game, he was sky high. I'm sure he did the who's better than us, telling everybody this is an enthusiasm unknown to mankind or a common man or whatever. and then he strolls the podium and gives us the latest Harbaugh file. Hit it. Sometimes people that are standing on third base think they hit a triple, but they didn't. The Harbaugh Files. I don't think I had the vocabulary to really express how great I feel with this win and just admiration for our team and for our players.

9:02I mean, gritty, spectacular. That's about the best word I can come up with to describe it. I'm just great thrill of winning. Wonderful, wonderful feeling of victory. Great thrill of victory. Yeah, that's about all I got. It's just so much good. And Cam Dicker. Cold-blooded, there's another phrase that comes to my mind. Great. Wish I had a better vocabulary.

9:34Rich Eisen:Chargers haven't won the AFC West since 2009. That's a 15-season drought, longest in the history of the team. Fifth longest active division title drought in the NFL. And they're off to a great start, man. A great start. Najee Harris going down with an Achilles is not good. But O'Marion Hampton, the necessity is the mother of, what, invention? and when Najee went down they're like okay this whole business of let's ease in our rookie running back went out the window 25 touches 129 scrimmage yards and one rushing touchdown first of his career after 26 touches in the first two weeks combined so there we go it's now O'Marrion Hampton with MVP quarterback and last year it was Ladidi and Quinton Johnston with Stonehands and fill in the blank.

10:31Rich Eisen:And now it's Quinton Johnston making big time plays with Keenan Allen and Ladidi and O'Marrion Hampton. Okay, got it. The offensive line might be a little bit of a concern as well, but everybody's got concerns. Well done. Charges first three weeks. And then listen, the Broncos are one and two. If I'm a Bronco fan, you're concerned. They had only nine first downs on offense on Sunday. That's it. And, but you could be, I mean, are they the winners of the first three weeks of the could have been 3-0 trophy? Right? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. If there are finalists, we could be 3-0. I think the Broncos are the clubhouse leaders.

11:19Rich Eisen:There's no banners for that.

11:24Rich Eisen:But, you know, it hasn't looked smooth on offense. Just hasn't. but they came damn close. No leverage penalty in Indianapolis. They're 2-0, and they watched it slip away here. They had a great chance to beat the Chargers. You worried about Bo Nix? No. No. It's just slow. Again, he started slow last year. He could be a slow starter for all we know. I don't know. Ask me that question in another month. Okay. We're still marathoning. I'll write it down. We're still marathoning, but everyone was just like, Broncos can win this division, and everyone saw the Chiefs being beatable. who knew the Chargers would start 3-0 like this.

12:04Rich Eisen:Courtland Sutton had a nice game. I mean, I'm not... Dobbins scored a touchdown. He had a chip on his shoulder. You know what I mean? I'm not there on the Broncos. Defensively, they're also looking pretty damn good too. Bandwagon thinning out a little bit? Maybe. we'll see if the Chargers will welcome the Broncos fans on their bandwagon because that's the bandwagon to hop on. So, you know, the Broncos right now, and again, Sean Payton knows it, there's no banners for the we could be 3-0, but they could really be 3-0. And then we're talking about, hey, we were talking to everybody all summer, the bandwagon filled up, everyone was right.

12:47Rich Eisen:And I don't know if this is, you know, when we're talking about the Raiders, if this is, again, fantasy-related. Hell hath no fury than a fantasy owner scorned. And those who drafted Ashton Gentry in the first round, and I'm one of them, might be sitting like I am right now 0-3 because you're seeing what O'Marrion Hampton just did in Los Angeles where it's like, hey, we can't just, with Najee Harris out, we can't just sit here and make sure that we're not running the wheels off of this guy. We just, we got to ease him in. Screw it. Here's a Marion Hampton. Oh, here's 229 scrimmage yards and a rushing touchdown.

13:34Rich Eisen:Well, by the way, against an offensive line that's banged up, or with an offensive line that's banged up. He did it. Cam Scadaboo in New York slash New Jersey. See, I added that for you, Bills fans. Running dudes over. You know what I mean? And Ashton Gentry, we're waiting. We're waiting. And again, this is potentially fantasy related because he did have 60-plus rush yards. He had a couple nice runs. And he had a couple nice runs. But when Geno Smith can't throw it because the minute he fades back to pass, there's somebody in his lap. You need somebody to run it to take that pressure off. and the offensive line wasn't blocking for him either.

14:18Rich Eisen:There was a couple times he was wearing Von Miller or wearing Bobby Wagner instead of his uniform. But that's two losses in a row for the Raiders and they've got a big one coming up against the Chicago Bears. Both teams one and two. Both teams needing it. And this would be a good time for Gentry to uncork a Scadaboo or a Hampton-type performance from rookie running backs. Just to throw those names. And again, it's unfair that we're throwing it anywhere near in the direction of just one guy. It is a team game. Pete will tell you that. But like a 25-touch time for this kid, because it would be helpful.

15:03You know?

15:04Rich Eisen:It would be massively helpful. Because the rest of it was working. when Geno could throw, right? I don't think I'm too far off on that front. Geno's been racking up some yards and garbage time the last couple weeks, but... You know, Trey Tucker, if you were going against him at fantasy, you lost 145 yards and three receiving touchdowns. I can imagine anyone started Trey Tucker. He's probably sitting on your bench with three tutties. Last Raiders player with three receiving touchdowns in a game. Michael Crabtree in 2017. There's your nugget for you. But the commanders had five sacks. I mean, you just, this is it.

15:43Rich Eisen:I mean, Geno's still throwing three touchdown passes. Don't say, at least he was hanging in there. But this thing, it didn't even look that close. No. This game was over pretty early. So, just 10 points and 178 total yards through the first three quarters. It was a fourth quarter, just like, we got to keep winging it around and hoping for the best. And then we'll just say this about the Chiefs. that second half touchdown drive was the Rick Dalton shift. Yeah. To lead off the second half with a touchdown drive, and it's just terrible. 6 '6". And there it was. Rick Dalton pointed at it. That was it.

16:28Rich Eisen:That was a touchdown drive right there. We're running it. We're throwing it. We're catching it. and Mahomes is on rhythm and people are catching his passes and we're not out of rhythm and we're not dropping it and then the defense takes over. Second half of that game, will we be looking back on it? And the answer is who knows. And the short-term answer is it was against the Giants. That Giants defense is no joke. And everyone's asking Patrick Mahomes, what'd you do at halftime? Because again, it was the Rick Dalton Jiff moment. Collinsworth who was talking about it on the game last night, so much so that my chief disliking son was going off so much on Collinsworth and the call, I had to FaceTime the only other person who could appreciate that.

17:21Rich Eisen:And who would that person be? That would be you, Christopher, right? Who's got two thumbs. Cooper was doing his Collinsworth impersonation. It was great. Let me tell you, Rich. I mean, this guy Patrick Mahomes. They played in the backyard. And so, but Collinsworth was rightfully pointing out, like, that was it. That touchdown drive was their best one. I called them in Brazil. We watched them against Philadelphia. That was it. What did you do at halftime, Patrick? Yeah, I mean, we talked at halftime. I think more than anything, guys were just, we wanted to execute. You know, like, at the end of the day, it's all about execution in this league.

17:57And when you make one mistake, you can really hurt your drive. Our defenses are good, and they do a good job of capitalizing on that. And so we had a couple drives early in the game that we drove down the field, and we pushed ourselves back and had to kick long field goals. And so for us, just executing all the way throughout a drive and seeing that, I mean, that's what we want to be, and we have to continue to do that more often. See, you're just not – everybody just wants to hear, yeah,

18:20Rich Eisen:Andy Reid was peeling the paint off, man. He was peeling the paint off, and we came out, and Tyquan Thornton's starting to catch passes, and we're catching fire and look out. but Thornton is in the role of Xavier Worthy. We're going to get Xavier Worthy back at some point. We're going to get Rasheed Rice back at some point. And if this defense keeps doing what it is doing, which is just 56 points in their first three games, that's it. It's the second time Kansas City has allowed fewer than 60 points in the first three games of the Mahomes era, and they won a Super Bowl in the last time they did it in 2023.

18:55Rich Eisen:The issue is they've only scored 60. Right. That's it. This is who they are now. I got it. They don't score more than three touchdowns. Let's see what, again, that's your narrative now. When Xavier Worthy comes back and then Rasheed Rice returns, then let's talk about it. I'd love to see more running. But Patrick Mahomes is perfect as a 30-year-old now. He's 1-0. Hey, this guy is a 30-year-old. He's just. You know what, Mike? Let me just say, I watch Patrick Mahomes, And I'm just like, man, he threw a terrible pass, but then he recovered the fumble. Was he how amazing that was? That said, if he loaned us one of his 90 Emmys, we'd take it.

19:39Rich Eisen:There you go. Taequann Thornton with back-to-back receiving touchdowns for the first time in his career. Rick Dalton, Jeff. Try and repeat it. Their next game is home against the Ravens. Taequann Thornton, this guy. That's exactly what Cooper said, too. Couldn't catch a GV cold with the Patriots. Turns into Randy F. and Moss with Patrick Mahomes. What are we doing? I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes you got to go somewhere else just to ask everybody you used to play for the Giants. Currently in Philadelphia and Indianapolis in particular. Like I said, with that fortune cookie I got, sometimes a new environment makes all the difference in the world.

20:14Rich Eisen:But the headline is the Los Angeles Chargers are 3-0 and they've beaten everyone in division to do it. And now they're off and running, heading to take on the 0-3 Giants. and that's exactly what the Chargers wanted to do to start the season. They have accomplished that mission, but you do not raise a banner on being 3-0. I get it. Let's take a break. Ethan Hawke is here. What a delightful conversation this is going to be. That's next. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

20:46Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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23:10Rich Eisen:Back on ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. We're one big happy simulcast family. Ethan Hawke is here. We just saw a clip of FX's The Lowdown, which premieres tomorrow on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu here on the Rich Eisen Show. You are from the state of Texas originally, correct? That's right. All right. And so your sports teams are based in your childhood? or you've evolved as a human or where are we right now? There's evolution and then there's de-evolution. I started my life as a diehard Cowboys fan. I mean, you have to understand, I was 12 years old when the Cowboys beat the Orange Crush, Denver Broncos, Roger Stahlbeck, Tony Dorsett won the Super Bowl, and I thought, God love me best.

23:57You know, I just thought I was a winner. And then, here's the thing. Then the next year, the Iron Curtain fell on the reign of the Dallas Cowboys, Terry Bradshaw. And I was 13 years old, and I remember going out back to the house and just weeping. It seemed like an unjust world. It was the first awakening that life just wasn't going to always go your way. Sports is an excellent metaphor for that sort of stuff. Since then, I have found that constant observation of athletics has more to teach you about the fundamental natures of mankind than Tolstoy does. Okay. I mean, I enjoy watching people. You know, you can see through athletics when their own hangups get in their own way.