Hour 3: Jayden Daniels & JJ McCarthy Injuries, Lions’ 50-Burger, plus 2-0 Colts

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1:26You've got to be kidding me. I can't believe what I just saw. Sock! Ball out in Atlanta! Scramble score! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. 64 is... Today's gasps. Senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer. And your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:56Rich Eisen:Final hour of our week two Monday edition of the Rich Eisen show here on Disney Plus, ESPN app everywhere and ESPN radio presented by Progressive Insurance. Not one, but two football games tonight. Two football games tonight, 7 Eastern and 10 PM Eastern time. The kickoffs to Tampa and Houston, the winners of the Southern divisions in last year's National Football League season. Texans coming off of licking its wounds here in Los Angeles. one of three teams to not score a touchdown in week number one. The Houston Texans trying to bounce back, avoid the dreaded 0-2 start against the Bucs, trying to stay one in front of the Atlanta team that turned things around.

2:36Rich Eisen:Lickety split last night defensively, pounding J.J. McCarthy and not letting him off the mat like the Bears did one week ago tonight. And then the Vegas Raiders trying to lead the division after just two weeks of action, taking on the Los Angeles Chargers we have not seen since two Fridays ago and trying to take a two-and-a-half game lead over the 0-2 Chiefs and then lead the division by one-and-a-half over the Raiders and one over the Denver Broncos, who they are seeing in their house to kick off their home schedule on week three. So that's what's all at stake tonight on ESPN and ABC and all the family of networks.

3:19Rich Eisen:We'll be talking about it at length, obviously, tomorrow. Our first hour guest tomorrow is Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers. Check out our Overreaction Monday pod. It's already been out there for a couple of hours, wherever you get your podcasts. All three hours of this show available that way as well. A rhetorical question to kick off hour number three, which means I already know the answer, and it does not require an answer. But we'll give you one. Yeah, I mean. Oh, man, I really want to answer. Do you think the Detroit Lions and Dan Campbell were sending a message on Sunday? Do you? Do you?

3:56Rich Eisen:Hang on. You got that? Yeah, hold on. Our favorite Bill Burr soundbite. Do you think they were sending a message? Like Mighty Ducks. Not worth winning if you can't win big. Exactly. Gents, I was fearful for the Chicago Bears this week. The narrative that has been sitting out there. Oh, the secret sauce for Jared Goff is Ben Johnson. He's gone, and so is your opportunity to score points. Mm-mm. How does a 50-burger sound to you with Ben Johnson in their house? And then, you know, Ben Johnson's going to turn around Caleb Williams. That's what he's going to do. And so if Caleb Williams is turned around in their house and Jared Goff in the offense suffers, that's a double narrative salted away that Ben Johnson was the real reason that the Lions could do what they did on offense and thus win 15 games and be the one seed last year.

4:57Rich Eisen:Coming in with as many consecutive losses in a row as they had total losses last year, including obviously the playoff loss to the Washington Commanders, potentially it's Ben Johnson's doing, is it not? I mean, that stumble-bum play that happened in Chicago was the moment that the Bears maybe thought, this is our guy. Jared Goff stumbling around, throwing for touchdowns on purpose. That guy's gone, and so are the Lions on offense, and thus, in general. How does 52 points sound? A lot. It is indeed. So many. Second most tied for second most in a game all time. And how about Goff? Boy, Jared Goff, boy, you can't do Jack without Ben Johnson.

5:46Rich Eisen:How does a five-touchdown, no-interception game do? He's now had three of those as a line. Stafford only had one in his tenure. Amon Ross St. Brown, what's he going to do without Ben Johnson, huh? We didn't see him very much of significance in Week 1. How does 100 yards and a touchdown by halftime sound to you? That's what he had. First player with 100 yards receiving a touchdown in the first half of a game this year. First 100-yard first half game of his career. Oh, that's Ben Johnson on the other sideline doing that. How about Sonic and Knuckles scoring a touchdown for the 10th time? as teammates Jameer Gibbs and David Montgomery now have as many such games, 10, as Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor and Hugh McElhaney and Joe Perry had for the Packers and Niners respectively.

6:47Rich Eisen:I'll give you a little hint. They're all in the Hall of Fame. How about that? Oh, and just in case you think you're missing Aaron Glenn too, how about we just get all over Caleb Williams and Kirby Joseph comes up with his 18th career interception, most since 2022. Man, you would talk about it's the second most of any safety this century. The first four seasons of a career. So the Lions, I think, were sending a message. You know, how about Jameson Williams and all? I mean, I could go on and on and on and on and on because the Lions did on Sunday. and restored a little bit of faith in me as they were restoring that roar in Ford Field for choosing them to win the conference.

7:38Rich Eisen:You heard Albert Breer say in hour two, the issue was communication in week one, according to Jameer Gibbs on offense. Makes sense. Dan Campbell, I think, was communicated the narrative. And I told you, watch out. It's not the roster. It's certainly not the head coach. It's the guy who's now the head coach of the Bears. And it's not like Ben Johnson was the one who started that narrative. We're all in the media, the ones who have been talking about it. And I think Dan Campbell wanted to shut everybody up. I mean, I don't know all that. I know this. That was a tough loss last week. That was tough.

8:19You know, we went out there. We expected to play much better than we did. And, you know, we didn't give ourselves a chance. You know, Green Bay got after us pretty good. And so I think more than anything, that was a big part of it. You know, I think we answered a lot of questions as it pertains back to what you said. You know, I've said this all along, man. This train keeps rolling, man. And we got plenty here. And it always is going to start with the players. We got players. We got playmakers. And they're made the right way. They're the right kind of guys, man. They know how to get in a ditch and just start digging, man.

8:56They don't worry about the other stuff. So, you know, it's a good job.

9:01Rich Eisen:Good job, indeed, I would say. Can confirm. Good job. Ben Johnson didn't want to hear about the run-up, the score stuff. I liked his response, actually. Hit it. Do you believe Dan Campbell ran it up on you on that fourth and goal? What's he supposed to do? His fourth and goal, what do you want him to do? Yeah, he could have kicked the field goal. They don't kick field goals. They go forward there. So he was doing what he was supposed to do. That's what he does. How demoralizing is this loss considering you were coming back, you left for Chicago? It's not demoralizing at all. It's not demoralizing at all.

9:34We've got to play better. Simple as that.

9:37Rich Eisen:Okay. Not demoralized. I'll tell you what, man. Tell you what, man. Tell you what, man. A couple things. First on the Bears here. Roma Dunze is getting his. and if he's the first option, one would think in most of the schemes, right, he's first option. Caleb's finding him. The question is what about options two, three, and four? What about that? All of three of Caleb's touchdown passes this year has gone to Rome at Dunsay. As people I imagine who have DJ Moore and anybody else in fantasy or any of the tight ends are probably talking about right now. I resemble that. And he's already, Adunze, he's already matched his receiving touchdown total from all of last year.

10:25Rich Eisen:So the Caleb-Adunze combination is working. DeAndre Swift got in the end zone. There's just going to be, certainly when you're 0-2, it's going to ratchet it up next week against Dallas and Chicago. That's a must win for the Bears. and they're going to have to start looking a lot more efficient on that side of the ball soon. I don't think I'm stating anything out of the ordinary here, but already we're seeing too many shades of last year and not enough of what we're supposed to see this year through two weeks. It's a long season. Let us see. I don't know how patient everyone's going to be. You're already hearing, I guess, you know, Ben Johnson.

11:20Rich Eisen:What's he supposed to do? Just kneel on the ball on fourth down? Last week he didn't want to hear questions deep into the week as he was getting about his decision to not kick the ball out of bounds to force the Minnesota Vikings to. Right. have fewer stoppages of the clock at their disposal, right? Cost themselves about... Of their own self, right? Seconds, yeah. Okay. So that was something you didn't want to talk about deep into the week. We'll see how Ben Johnson as HC handles everything. So far, we haven't seen enough wins. That's obvious. So I'll still counsel patience for you Bears fans.

12:07And as for the Lions, that's what you want to see.

12:12Rich Eisen:You want to see them feeling dominant again, the place in Ford Field going nuts, one of the toughest places to play. You want that right back at you. And week one caused a lot of the mojo to be taken away. And you wanted that right away. You didn't want more doubts. I mean, the Bears are leaving not demoralized, as he said, Ben Johnson, but feeling doubts. You want doubts removed. You want to feel like we're back. Check that box. Through the long run, though, we'll find out that week one Lions-Packers game, more about the Lions not having communication, or the Packers are just that freaking good.

12:59Rich Eisen:the Lions are the first team to play since being beaten by the Packers this year and we've seen the big difference between week one to week two is it more about them getting their ducks in a row better communication we'll see down the line but right now I look at this and I'm like the Packers are maybe just that good and we'll see how the commanders are in week three against the Vegas Raiders who will see how they follow up their week one win in New England on Monday night but I'm still I'm like great to see certainly since I picked the Lions to win the conference. Great to see. Roar restored.

13:31Rich Eisen:They're back. It's not just Ben Johnson. It really is the guys there. They can get on the page and jump and maul people and be bullies and push around and bite kneecaps and take off hunks of your muscles and all that sort of stuff. They can do that still. Great. Check that box, but are they better than the Packers? We shall see. And the Lions, as we can check out, next see the Packers when is that they are oh boy look at this 13 Thanksgiving there you go that's right so that's a nice meal to kick off the John Madden triple header celebration yes so because the way we saw the Vikings struggle we're going to see ups and downs clearly with them and the Bears are dare I say who we thought they might be I don't know just yet.

14:26Rich Eisen:That's the way I took, that was my takeaway from that. Let's go to where are we going to go? Terzo in Iowa. All rise. Let's take our friend. What's up, Terzo? How are you, sir? Doing well, Rich. Hey, man, Jimmy kind of took my joke away. I was going to make a funny joke about Jerry and who needs me when you got a golden leg of Brandon Aubrey. Nice. But But the Niners looked good yesterday. Mack Jones played well enough. I don't know if I really agree with Breer on saying that he looked really great. I just thought he played well, did what we needed him to do. It still just feels like we're just injury prone.

15:12And each game, I'm just nervous that somebody's just going to continue to go down. And we had a couple people on the offensive line that that happened to.

15:20Rich Eisen:Yeah, again, I'm looking at the standings right here. I don't see any pictures, and I don't see any medical reports. I see 2-0. You know what I mean? And not to go all Brian Kelly on you here, but Mack played the game to win the game. You know what I mean? And he won the game, which is more than anybody else who's backed up for Brock Purdy since Purdy became the man has done. He won the game. They improved that position. They didn't know by week two they'd need it. and they're also now 2-4 all time without Kittle so you don't usually do well without anybody named Purdy when Purdy's been the starter and you don't do well without anybody named Kittle in the in uniform so you just gotta check the boxes man check the boxes, matriculate now you got Arizona which is a battle of 2-0 teams in week 3, how about that that's gonna be good and I'm gonna be at the game for my 40th birthday.

16:22Oh, nice. Happy birthday in advance. Look at you.

16:24Rich Eisen:Look at you. Happy birthday to you. I got an awesome girlfriend who's taking care of me, so I do appreciate that. Love it. Okay. Thanks for the call, Terzo. Mack Jones had this to say about getting over the nerves. Oh. Okay. I think it's just like not making it bigger than it is. And like sometimes when you have them, like you fight them, but you can't really do that. You just got to let them come and figure out how to work through it. and a lot of it's just breathing and slowing down your pulse. And obviously worked on that this offseason and got to continue to grow in that area. But really the guys around me, like Trent, came up to me.

16:58He's like, you're good, dude. Just go out there and hoop. And I was like, I got you. I can go hoop. And then once he said that, I was like, all right, let's play ball. So that was kind of cool.

17:07Rich Eisen:I'm so happy for him. When I, with Kurt and the NFL Network crew, called his game in Frankfurt, Germany against the Colts. That turned out to be his last gasp as the starter in New England. He was talking about him, talking to his old teammate Tua and hearing about how Mike McDaniel would sit next to him on the bench, have him over, chit-chat, connect with him as a head coach. And it sounded to me like, I wish I had that here in New England. You know what I mean? and when he left the room and he left the room and we were waiting for Bill to show up I asked that of Kurt and everyone else in the room I'm like did you get that vibe from Mac and they were all like we were thinking the same exact thing and now I don't know if Kyle's inviting the Joneses if he is married I don't know what his situation is over to the Shanahans I don't know if the Joneses and Shanahans are all hanging together and you know playing Scrabble Trivial Pursuit what do we do anymore I don't know.

18:14Rich Eisen:A little Quizlet? Cards Against Humanity? I don't know. Whatever. Uno. I don't know if that's what's happening. But he's got something different going for him. Last year he had it with Doug Peterson. Peterson? And now he's got it with Kyle. And Kyle is the one who sent Darnold off into the next iteration that wound up with a 14-win season for Sam. And then now here he is as the Pizade quarterback of the one-and-one Seattle Seahawks. Sam Darnold won the battle of former Jet quarterbacks in Pittsburgh. So, I don't know. I mean, you are what you are. And what you are is a 2-0 team. And you know what helps?

18:59Rich Eisen:It helps to have number 22 around. Christian McCaffrey joined two other gentlemen as the only players in the history of the NFL with 50 or more career rushing touchdowns and 30 or more career receiving touchdowns because he had a receiving touchdown on five catches for 89 yards. Let me tell you again. He's 23 with the 49ers. Oh, 23. Did I say 22? He was 22 at the Carolina. My bad, 23. 23, my bad. Thank you for that number correction. But, you know, it helps to have McCaffrey there. And I remember McCaffrey at the Combine when he was running routes. They had him run the route tree as a receiver.

19:36Rich Eisen:and he was running it better than the receivers in the combine when he was there working out as a running back out of Stanford. And we were all talking about, oh, man, he didn't want to play in the Sun Bowl in El Paso. And what a bad teammate he might be. Do you want to pass on him in the draft? Because there's a red flag. That's such a big deal. Let's not forget that one. That's such a big deal. Go dumb. At any rate, you know the two people he passes, the only ones with 50 or more rushing touchdowns and 30 more receiving touchdowns in a career? he joined Lenny Moore and our guy, 28, Marshall Falk.

20:12Rich Eisen:So it helps to have that guy healthy. Isn't it crazy everyone else around him is getting hurt, and this guy is as strong as a bull, it seems, after scaring everybody with a limited designation? You find some wood to knock on right now, Mitch Eisen. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. It's not wood, but I'm with you. I understand. To use the Gruden phrase. I think this is wood. So, hey, for you Niner fans, 2-0. don't don't don't care about anything else oh man we almost lost to Spencer Rattler okay so what onward move on that's gone you're 2-0 I see that on the on the standings without any pictures next up for them Arizona and Jacksonville at home before an early week Thursday night trip here to take on the Rams it's possible Purdy's back for that who knows before they visit Tampa and then have a pretty big Sunday night or against Atlanta.

21:06Rich Eisen:The Niners have got some interesting games coming up, and we'll see. You know, they keep sneaking through, and nobody keeps paying attention to them. You never know. Get Ayuk back, and off you go. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program. ESPN Radio is presented by Progressive Insurance. Insurance for motorcycles, boats, and RVs for protection on the road and on the water. See how much you can save at 1-800-PROGRESSIVE and Progressive.com. more of your phone calls and we'll talk about the wild game in Indianapolis and a new nickname that I'm hoping will stick in the NFL and more of your calls here on the Rich Eisen Show.

21:46The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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23:27Rich Eisen:Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network on ESPN Radio, presented by Progressive Insurance. We just had a nice update from what TJ was doing over the weekend at the Bud Crawford, I guess, coronation. It was neat stuff. Everyone buzzing about that. 844-204-RICH, number to dial here on the program. Let's go to Matt in Omaha, Nebraska. What's up, Matt? Speaking of. Not much. How are you guys doing? Good. What's on your mind, sir? You've got to be feeling good, man. Well, I was watching the Indiana Jones and the Leverage of Doom this weekend. Nice. Wow. By the way, next level. If I wasn't sitting down, I'd be standing up, if that means anything to you.

24:13I've been watching the Leverage of Doom. Indiana Jones do so well this weekend and also the weekend before. and I've been on record as being, before the season, very negative towards Danny Dimes when we signed him. I was really hoping Anthony Richardson would get the job, but I've been kind of turning the other way. But I'm a little nervous since I watched him last season, same as you did, Rich, in Europe, and how poorly he played then. And I'm nervous that, you know, can we make it to the playoffs this year? and we'll be able to take the division for the first time in almost 10 years. And I'm unsure of how we're going to do this year.