Takeaways From Broncos-Chiefs, Plus the Biggest Winners and Losers From Week 1!

23:20They didn't announce the play calling thing until the combine. So there was a lot of discussion and thought that went into this, which is why I go back to, it's not going to be one game and you give up on it. Like this was part of a broader type of a plan. I also do think that you're correct on this guys, which is, think of the best play callers in the league. And at what point, if ever, they gave up play calling. Sean did it once before to Pete Carmichael. He ended up getting it back. Mike McCarthy did it once upon a time with Tom Clements in Green Bay. He took it over in like December of that same season.

23:56Kellen Moore called plays with Mike in Dallas for a couple of years. Then ultimately, everybody was ready to move on. Kellen went and became the Chargers offensive coordinator. Mike took back over. Those guys, when that is your superpower, which is being able to be one step ahead at every turn, I'd always be reluctant to do it. Like with Sean, it's not a complete cold, dead hand situation, obviously, but it's close. And I don't think that Sean goes into it saying, I don't want to call plays anymore. This was about what's the best thing for the Denver Broncos now and into the future. And it was keeping Davis Webb there, keeping that continuity with the quarterback.

24:35Time will tell how this plays out. The Chiefs have the Colts next week, by the way. So if you want to see if they can continue to run the football, the Colts just became the first team since the 1920s to give up six rushing touchdowns in a game. So a lot of adjustments that obviously need to be made on that front. The Broncos go and they have a home game against the Jaguars. Wow. That's a team that just, I mean, granted, they're playing the Browns, who just, it's the first game of the new coach. You have Deshaun Watson. He throws the early pick. It wasn't the best thing out there, but that's a tough game in week two.

25:12Week three, the Broncos have the Rams. Week four, they're at the 49ers. Week five, they're at the Chargers. We'll get to that and what happened to the Chargers on Sunday. And then they're home against the Seahawks. That's not the six games that I want to see out of the gate if I'm a new play caller. Those are some really good defenses. Those are some tough teams. and we'll see whether or not they can turn this thing around. Being at home should help. I think that always helps. And having tape on people, that's the biggest difference week one and week two. Every coach, including Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, who I spent time around going into the game in Melbourne last week, everyone will say there's so much.

25:53Yeah, you can watch last season's tape. You can watch preseason tape. They haven't shown you what they're going to do with this new player. They haven't shown you if they're going to completely change their front or play different coverage styles now. So like five, 10, 15 plays into the game, you're just trying to figure out, you're trying to run plays so that they show you what they're gonna do and then adjust off it. Let's see in week two where everybody is. But first, week one, winners and losers. There is so much to get into. We'll do it after this. This episode is brought to you by Ethos.

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27:46Sheil, you have spent the better part of 24 hours compiling your list. I don't know if it changed at all Monday night as the Chiefs took it to the Broncos, but you got three winners and three losers. Where do you want to start in this thing here, Shield, for week one? Let's start with the winners. Let's be positive. You know, I was kind of mean to the Broncos there. And by the way, this is Shield's scoreboard. Yeah. I named it myself. That's what I call it. There you go. Very saleable. Billy, you have a question already. I haven't even started yet.

28:15Sheil Kapadia:Well, can I ask you a question? Just one last thing about the Chiefs. Did you guys feel conflicted when you saw the Joe Buck pictures at Travis Kelsey's wedding that they were showing? Because I was kind of like, you know what? I didn't think about it at the time, But now that he's covering him, like, I don't know, this feels a little bit weird that he was at his wedding. Aikman literally works for the Dolphins. Yeah, well. Brady works for the Raiders. Like, we're going to get Joe for throwing on the old 007 suit and showing up with Michelle to a wedding. That's a little weird. Why was Tom Cruise there also?

28:45That, all right, that is one thing I meant to bring up. And we'll get to the winners and losers momentarily here. But the Rasheed Rice catch, and he goes into the end zone. It's a big moment. Like, Rasheed's been through a lot. okay like he's been in jail he's had knee surgery he's had all kinds of things take place this offseason and as he's in the end zone and two seconds later all i'm saying is why is tom cruise in that luxury box hugging taylor swift well i started googling like where did tom cruise grow up not kansas city i i have no idea shield you have any idea why was i know tom cruise was at the wedding.

29:24Now we're going to do it because I heard Ross Tucker, the CBS broadcaster, tell a story about how his wife kind of ran into Tom Cruise at the wedding. So I know there's some type of relationship there. Now, I don't know how tight-knit you had to be with Taylor Swift or Travis Kelsey to go to that wedding, but obviously he's sitting in the box with Taylor Swift, so there must be some kind of friendship there.

29:45Sheil Kapadia:I was like, is there a movie coming out? What are we promoting? Why does he need to be seen? Because if he's there, he's going to be seen, obviously. He's been all over ESPN stuff. he popped up with McAfee recently. He's promoting something potentially. There's got to be... Oh, well, he's got Days of Thunder. They're making a Days of Thunder sequel. But like, I don't think that that was like guerrilla marketing. I think it's just Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise. And he's like, I'm just going to be at a Chiefs game tonight. Let's go watch some ball. Rasheed Rice, what a hey! Maverick. All right, Shield.

30:18Let's go. Shield scoreboard week one. Let's hear it. All right, so you guys have to help because I'm going to give you three. We'll go one by one. And then I want to pick one. Who actually won the week? We don't want to be one of those podcasts that's flip-flopping in all. We named six or seven winners. No, but I think we need to settle on one at the end here. So I'm going to give you three candidates. Here's the first candidate. The Chicago freaking Bears. You had to know this one. What's coming? 59 points, 552 yards of offense. Ben Johnson does that big profile in the athletic in the offseason.

30:50Says, we want to be the greatest scoring, biggest, highest scoring offense of all time. And then he puts up 59 in his first game of the season. This is why I call him millennial Sean Payton, Ben Johnson. So here's a little stat for you guys. Okay. 25 years. Billy, I'm going to make you guess this one. Okay. Are you listening?

31:08Sheil Kapadia:Yeah. Okay. 25 years from 2000 to 2024, the Bears played 413 football games. How many times do you think they had 500 yards in a game? 24 years. You can guess too, Tom. They said 413 games, 25 years. How many times did they have 500 yards in a football game? I'm going to say 32. 32. Tom, your guess? Seven. Seven. 32. Okay. That's good. I thought Tom might just go 31 to box you in there, Billy, but he played it fairly twice. Twice. in 25 years than 500 yards in the game. The last two seasons with Ben Johnson, they've done it twice. Twice already in 20 games with Ben Johnson. So I'm watching that game.

32:02I think Bears fans are over the moon with the way their football team played. And since it's just us three, I've been having some irresponsible thoughts. Can I let you guys in on a little secret?

32:13Sheil Kapadia:Well, are they going to get you any legal problems? No, I think it'll be okay. We're on Netflix. Yeah, be careful. Just remember. because it's only one game. Tom was reminding us at the top. It's only one game. Everyone settled down. I was watching Caleb Williams and going, is he about to have an MVP season this year? Because no, because here's the deal. I'm watching him and the physical tools. I know. That was a heavy raspberry situation. I mean, he did crowd himself after a touchdown. So, okay, but here's the deal. I'm watching the physical tools. Like if you watch him run in for those touchdowns, you're like, is he the fastest quarterback in the NFL?

32:48You watch him throw that touchdown to Cole Komet. You're like, that's absurd. How did he fit that ball in there? And I'm thinking of the most talented quarterbacks of my lifetime, just physically gifted. John Elway, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. Like all these guys were winning MVPs. And I see Caleb Williams, the physical gifts, I'm telling you, are in the same category. So Bears continue to be one of the most entertaining teams in the NFL. and I was thinking, man, maybe I should have just picked Caleb Williams to win the MVP this season. So they're my first winner.

33:22Billy, thoughts?

33:25Sheil Kapadia:You know, obviously it's cheating, if we're going to be honest with you. You want me to settle down? You picked a team that scored 59 points. Like, yes, obviously they're a winner here. It feels like a cheat code. You didn't exactly go out on a limb here, Shield. No, I did choose players and teams that performed well in week one, Billy. That is accurate. Well, that's how you do winners, I suppose. Who's the Broncos. Yeah. I could have gone off the radar, but listen, it's week one. I thought I'm going to come in. We'll have some conversations. You know, it might be a little obvious. And then we get to week three and I can name like a long snapper for you so that you're more entertained.

33:58Sheil Kapadia:No, but like you talk about that game. You say, you know what? Like the bears looked great. They put up 59 points, Caleb Williams, maybe he wins the MVP, but like the real winner of this game might be Bryce young. You know, he came out and he impressed in the year ago. He essentially lost his job. It took a car accident to the red rifle to come in for him to get his job back and then he came back and we said you know what i don't know if you know this tom you know because you you started with us a couple a couple weeks ago but this is a bryce young pod we decided last year sheila and i that we were bryce young fans and we we said this is the most nor i think we nominated him as the most normal quarterback in the nfl right him and sam darnold tom yeah the only normal very nice guys the most average guys that you could just have like a normal conversation with.

34:43Sheil Kapadia:So we are somewhat invested in his success because we want him to succeed and do well. The problem is he had a great game and he still lost by 22 points, which is not his fault. Obviously he, he really did look good in that game. I mean, it's spreading the football around Chuba Hubbard for all the off season hype about Jonathan Brooks, Chuba Hubbard was eating in that game as well. They just couldn't stop anybody. We saw a few of those and you might get to some of these later, but there was a lot of discombobulated defense. in week one, when you're talking about, you know, how the Panthers looked, how the Colts looked, how the Cowboys looked.

35:18And again, week one, there's some things that, hey, you haven't seen it on tape. And so maybe you don't have it, but like the number of missed assignments and blown coverages in those games and wide open receivers just felt like it was at a really high number. But back to, oh, I'm going to fact check myself on this because I cited the wrong team. It was not the Ravens. It was the Bears who were the first team since the 1920s to run for six touchdowns in the season opener. This is my favorite stat of the week. The Bears recorded six rushing touchdowns in week one. This is from the NFL. Tied with the 1920 Detroit Heralds, 1920 Rock Island Independents, and 1922 Canton Bulldogs for the most of the season opening game in NFL history.

35:58Three teams that don't exist, at least not in name now. That's how long it's been since somebody did what the Bears did. The Ravens also put up ridiculous yards and scored a bunch of touchdowns. So my apologies for messing that up. I would say this was Chicago. And you made the comparison, you know, with Mahomes. That's what I feel like we're seeing Caleb evolve to. In his, you know, his first season in particular, but then even out of the gate last season, there was just kind of this wild stallion component to his game. You saw it back at USC. And the fact that, you know, his final season wasn't as good as the one before because he was playing so much hero ball, so much of it was just run around and try to make things happen.

36:38Now what you're seeing is a guy who's getting more dialed in. And Ben Johnson made a comment about that after the game. He slept well the night before because he knew how dialed Caleb was. And that's what you're seeing is Caleb's making the on-schedule plays, the on-time plays. You know, Patrick Mahomes, even though they ran a zone read with him, like a read option with him and Kenneth Walker in like the third quarter of the game tonight, which I'm like, Andy does remember he's got a torn ACL and LCL nine months ago, right? Like we're putting him out there and he's taking the hit. If you're a quarterback running that play, like you're getting hit.

37:12That's beside the point. But like, he's not a designed run type of guy very often. And neither is Caleb. And I don't think either one is like the top five fastest quarterbacks in the NFL. Certainly not Patrick at this stage. Caleb maybe is in there. But what Caleb has is he has this functional athletic ability where he can move around. He can make things happen off schedule. But then, yeah, if you give him a lane, like straight line when he starts running, like he can get himself moving just like Mahal. Mahomes has never been like, he's not Lamar. He's not shifty in traffic. But he'll get out there and he'll just kind of, it's kind of like these old man moves where he just like slows down and like lets guys go buy him.

37:46That's what Caleb can do as well. I was really impressed by what the Bears did in that opening game. I mean, they looked, remember, they traded away, I don't know if DJ Moore led them last year, but I'm pretty sure it was their leading receiver. They traded away the leading receiver and still looked unstoppable in the passing game. I mean, Ben's on another level. we'll see, you know, coming into week two, I would say, I would also say this before I come back to you, Shield, for another winner. The, we're going to be, we want to be the greatest offense in NFL history, highest scoring offense in NFL history.

38:17That, through one week, aging better than Justin Herbert will be, go down as the greatest quarterback to have ever played the game. Week one only, looks a little bit better. Who else you got? Winner number two on Shield's scoreboard. We're going to get to that one maybe in the next section there, Tom. So good, good, good setting it up there. All right, next one. Billy, this is also obvious. Now you got me in my own head because I did, you know, maybe I did choose too obvious. But I thought the way the Bills went into Houston when they had gotten cooked by the Texans the last two years were some of the worst games of Josh Allen's career.

38:52The last two years to go in there, 334 yards, four touchdowns. And it was kind of the way they did it. It wasn't like dick and dunk. There have been some times in, you know, last year where you're kind of like, oh, the Bills are now a ball control offense where they're just running the football and getting these easy completions. This was, no, let Josh Allen just chuck the football downfield. And they were completing just huge explosive plays all game long against what I thought was going to be the best defense in the NFL coming into the season. So he nearly had the back-breaking interception at the end of the game, which it's very funny how one play can totally shape the narrative of a team or a player or a week where if that ball is caught by Kamari Lassiter, we're like, oh, you know, Allen, another mistake in crunch time there.

39:35But you know what? Lassiter didn't catch it. And for most of the game, Josh Allen was incredible there. And so the start of the Joe Brady era to go into Houston, put up 410 yards of offense, they are a winner. Are you awake, Billy? You might be asleep. No, I'm here.

39:50Sheil Kapadia:No, I'm locked in, Sheel, on this game. I love this game. I was going to say, you know, also something that happens with Josh is, and that didn't happen in this game, was they were driving. The Texans were driving. CJ Stroud was there. They were within striking distance, and then he coughed up the ball, and it kind of, I mean, it's just week one. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've mentioned this a number of times, but it kind of starts feeling like, again, just week one, it kind of starts feeling like, are we starting to check off some of those boxes for Josh Allen? Is he starting to exercise some of those demons that he has had in his career?

40:27Sheil Kapadia:0-4 coming into this game in Houston. Wins this game in Houston. The four losses, all heartbreaking fashion, all one score games. This time he wins it in heartbreaking fashion for the Texans. Then you start saying, well, what else has he not done? What else can he do this season? He's never won a game in Lambeau. Oh, and one. He has an opportunity to win in Lambeau in week 14 this year. Then if you continue checking off some boxes, well, Chiefs are looking good. I mean, last year they missed the playoffs, but this doesn't look like a team that's going to miss the playoffs. Is this the year that Josh Allen faces the Chiefs in the playoffs?

41:01Sheil Kapadia:and he beats the Chiefs in the playoffs. He's done in the regular season, hasn't done in the playoffs. Can he then get to the AFC Championship game and check off that box? Then get to the Super Bowl, check off the box of getting there, check off the box of winning the Super Bowl. Did we watch in week one, the beginning of a journey for Josh Allen by simply beating the Texans in Houston, where he is now slowly checking off all the boxes that he has been missing? I would say two things on this. One, I did kind of walk away from watching. I watched a lot of that game, that you kind of kept waiting to feel the Texans defense.

41:35The one that, as you guys said, like a vaunted defense. It was the top defense in the league last year. One of the best pass rushes. They sacked Josh Allen twice in that game. And if you think off the top of your head, like I can't really remember those plays. They didn't have a huge impact in the game. I thought the DJ Moore addition immediately, like that's paying dividends. Everybody in the world has been begging the Bills to get a receiver. It's not been for a lack of trying for Brandon Bean. They land DJ Moore and he immediately comes in and makes an impact for him. And then the defense, even though, yes, it was another CJ Stroud fumble and taking a sack late and those things.

42:10That stuff will get picked apart all season long until CJ Stroud finishes some games, wins some games, and then all that will go away. But a Bills defense that a lot of times, it's not been Josh Allen at the end. It's been the guys on the other side who haven't been able to get a stop. Call it what you will. Yeah, they cough up the football at the end. The Texans do. But the Bills are still on the field, and they didn't have that one too many laps. We'll see how they progress under Jim Leonard over the course of the season. But certainly to go in there on the road, too, in week one before a quick turnaround.

42:42Imagine if you lose that game to Houston, then a quick turnaround coming back home to face the Lions, staring down the barrel of 0-2 if you don't show up on national TV. This just takes a little bit of that pressure off. You got a new head coach. He got him his first win. He took his shirt off after win number one, which Joe, if you're watching, like it feels like there's nowhere to go from here. Right. You already kind of skipped ahead. Ben Johnson was on like the 10th win last year. He took the took the shirt off. Pants would be next. But I think, Billy, that would be frowned upon by the NFL if it's just like a full on, you know, strip poker game to the course of season.

43:19But good for Joe. Fun to see him get his first win. Third winner. Shield, what do you got? All right, third winner. This is a team where they swish head coaches in the offseason. And some people were saying, is this coach on washed watch? I believe is how the kids might have been describing it saying, look at this clip. He's in front of his team. Just saying, New York Giants, you're playing for the New York Giants. Everyone's making fun of him going, oh my gosh, the Ravens fans, they were ready to get rid of this guy. Thank God he's gone. and everyone's looking at it saying, oh my God, this guy's not going to turn the New York Giants around.

43:56And all they do is just go up and down the field, 29 first downs, 394 yards. What really stood out, they looked like the way more physical team against the Cowboys and the better coach team against the Cowboys en route to a 28-20 victory. So the New York Giants, I think, are my third candidate here because honestly, an incompletion in that game and maybe we'll get to the other side of it in the next segment here. But an incompletion by the Giants in that game felt like a miracle. It felt like the ball never hit the ground. They were doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. I'll put my hand up as someone who was making fun of the Giants in the offseason saying, wait, you're bringing in Greg Roman and Brian Callahan and Matt Nagy?

44:41And this is the brain trust you're putting together. These guys are going to work well together and this is going to get the most out of Jackson Dart. Well, one weekend, it looked incredible. So the New York Giants, They haven't had many of these moments. Second fewest wins in the last 10 years in the NFL, only ahead of the Jets. They had a nice moment on Sunday night. They're my third winner. Billy?

45:05Sheil Kapadia:It was a nice moment. No, it was a nice moment for them. And look, defensively, they held the greatest offense there is to only 20 yards. So that's a kind of rough start for the Cowboys there on their quest to be the greatest offense there is. You know where they lost me? when John Harbaugh said that this win ranked as his number one career win of all time. Because when he grew up, his dad taught him that the last win is always the biggest win and the most important win. And like, that's nice. It's like podcasting. Billy's just semantic. Like, this is the best podcast you're going to do this year because this is the podcast you're doing this year.

45:40It's a mentality thing.

45:41Sheil Kapadia:It's not, you don't have to take it so literally. It feels sincere to me. Come on, John. Like, we won a Super Bowl. You know what I mean? Like this is not, this is a nice win. I mean, I think there's question marks. Jackson Dart looks good. Like that's fine. I think they might be a surprising team. There were questions as to whether or not, you know, like you mentioned, the Ravens were kind of happy to get rid of him and the Giants brought him on and it was a back and forth. How is he going to, you know, how is he going to be interacting with their GM? Who's he going to be reporting to? He was holding out.

46:12Sheil Kapadia:They're having these secret meetings in the restaurants. Eventually they got all that sorted out. He comes in, he's going to take over. and there's all these expectations because of his name. But since that Super Bowl, he hasn't been the greatest coach in the NFL, as some people might think. So there were question marks as to whether or not he can do it. And sure enough, he comes in Sunday night football, opening night. He has a big win. I'm happy for them. They're big winners. But biggest win of the weekend, I don't know about that. She'll pump the brakes a little bit. Scadaboo looked healthy.

46:41Jackson Dart took a hit. They got flagged out of bounds and didn't end up in the blue tent. Neighbors looked healthy. There were questions, and I don't know to the extent. Sometimes those things get exaggerated. I don't know how much in doubt he really was, but he looked like Malik Nabors on the field. I mean, he is capable of being a top-ten receiver in the NFL if he could just stay on the field. It's been the injuries that have been the issue for Nabors. So having him out there. Isaiah Likely, who I don't know if I was the only one, but for those of us who lost Brock Bowers and couldn't start him in week one, Isaiah Likely just sitting there on the waiver wire going, hey, how about me coming up with a couple of touchdowns?

47:20Him combined with Theo Johnson, like that. So I got to get this microphone in a better spot. Those two combined, like you can create some different things physically, like the way that they can match up with you. The defense played well in that game. I thought, yeah, Dallas was just, there was some slop. I mean, Pickens had a terrible drop, you know, defensively. It was just, you know, you turn a guy loose in the end zone for a touchdown. You got two guys both covering like the hook. And it's like, how has that happened? And it happened to him a bunch of times. These are things I'm sure that they're going to get cleaned up.

47:52I also would say this. I don't think the bar is high enough, as it has been discussed, as being high enough for John Harbaugh with the Giants. He's one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL. This was a splash move that the Giants made that's unlike anything they've done in their history. Like to go out and get that guy and to woo him and to send the plane and like make sure and give him the things he wanted organizationally and how he wanted the structure set up and getting some of his own people in. Like they turned over. What's been a family business, they turned over a lot to somebody from outside the family.

48:26And I haven't seen people picking the Giants in the playoffs. John Arbaugh went to the AFC Championship game his first year with the Ravens. I'm not saying that's what the Giants are going to do, but you pay that money because you're expecting to get that type of an impact. and after watching the games yesterday, as much as, again, we don't want to overreact you week one, I came up with the same impression I've had the entire time and we've talked about it on the show, which is I don't know who the favorite is in the NFC East. I could see cases for anybody coming out of the NFC East. The Eagles are the team.

48:57They find their way every single time. It was a grinder. It was a little bit ugly at times, but they found a way to get a win, which is kind of what they do. Jalen Hurts looked more comfortable running that offense than I thought. The Commanders had their moments too. Again, first time play caller on both sides. Defensively, they looked pretty good in that game. Jaden Daniels finally looks healthy again. The Cowboys, that's the team everyone was gassing up and picking to go to the playoffs, if not the Super Bowl. And they just came out flat. We'll see where the season goes from here. But I think the NFC East is completely wide open, at least as we head on to week two here.

49:32We'll get some losers, but first, this. This episode is brought to you by Chevrolet. Chevy drivers need a truck that shows up the same way they do. That's why Chevy Silverado is number one in manufacturer loyalty, so they can go where others won't. Make their own way there and always get it done. And as long as Chevy people keep showing up, we'll keep building trucks that do the same. Chevrolet, together, let's drive. Visit chevy.com slash trucks to explore the lineup. This episode is brought to you by Nationwide. A football team is so much more than a set of players. It's a complete roster filled with depth and grit.

50:13It's offense and defense coming together to make something unstoppable. It's like how Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies too. Insurance and financial services together, that's a whole team in and of itself. Team Nationwide. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, member FINRA, Columbus, Ohio. All right, so we covered the winners from week one. Let's hear some losers. Who do you got? Well, I think we should just stick with the team you were just mentioning.

50:53The team that everybody, Ken, I'll raise my hand here, was gassing up saying, you know what? if they could just get like the 24th ranked defense this year, given how good that Cowboys offense is going to be. You said this verbatim. You said that verbatim on the show. Yeah, I think it was the exact number I probably said. They're going to be a playoff team. And they come in here against the Giants, where you felt like, all right, there's a good draw for them in week one. You don't have to be perfect. You should be able to slow that defense down. It was one of the worst defensive performances we've seen by a team.

51:27in the last two years. If you just, you can slice this one up any way you want. If you want to look at the nerd stats, it literally was one of the five worst defensive performances by a team in the last two years. If you want to do what Tom was saying earlier, which is a great way to do it. Hey, I watched the game and it looks like guys were running wide open and Cowboys players were looking at each other. It's kind of like the palms up defense when the play just happened and everyone's looking at each other going, wait, why were you there? It was like, if you would have told me they didn't practice all summer and those 11 guys like just met each other in North Jersey before the game and had to go.

51:59It was like some weird movie, some weird type of movie situation where they just had to call them up that morning and have them play together. That's kind of what it looked like in that game. Again, when the ball hit the ground, it felt like a miracle. They got out physical. That was embarrassing. Seven possessions. They give up four touchdowns because some people are saying, well, the Panthers gave up more points. The thing about this game, they were only on the field for seven possessions. They gave up four touchdowns. And then remember, end of that game, they're only down by eight. where if you can get the ball back, you have a chance to win.

52:29Giants take over with 521 left, and they do not get the ball back. I mean, I don't know. We keep saying we don't want to overreact. I'm kind of overreacting to that Cowboys defense. I know it's a new coordinator and new personnel, but that was pretty much as bad as it could have gone for that team. So they are absolutely one of my losers here.

52:52Sheil Kapadia:I'm conflicted, Sheil, about how you're playing this game and about how you just sold us on the Giants are big winners, but you're telling us really the Cowboys were the losers of that game. Well, that's how sports works, Billy. There's a winner and a loser in each game. This shouldn't be that confusing. This is a cop-out. This is the classic situation. Did this team win the game or did the other team lose the game? And you just told us, wow, the Giants, they should be the big winners. John Harbaugh did this and that, and Jackson Dart looked great, and Scadaboo looked healthy. And wow, Isaiah likely had two touchdowns.

53:24Sheil Kapadia:Who could have seen it coming? Which, by the way, Tom, you missed out on this because you were in Australia. But we played a little game on Friday called Monday Headlines. And in Monday Headlines, we predicted that Isaiah likely would have two touchdowns. You predicted. Take credit. You don't have to say we. Thanks for trying to be a team player. We predicted that he would have two touchdowns. We also predicted that at the end of the game, Jackson Dart would throw it away and the Cowboys would end up winning on an interception. So half right on the prediction. Half right on the prediction. But the two touchdowns.

53:52Sheil Kapadia:I mean, I don't know how we got that right. Anyways, Sheil, it can't be that the Giants are the winners, but then also the Cowboys are the big losers because they couldn't do any of this stuff. Every game literally has a winner and a loser, Billy. I know, but in this game, we're trying to position it as this person for sure. Now I'm thinking, well, we have two left, so what are we going to do? Well, the Texans are obviously going to be another loser nomination, and then the Panthers are because they're just doing winners and losers each game here. So just to be clear, not only is Billy unable to follow directions of games that we create for him, he's going to tell you he doesn't like the rules of the games that we create.

54:27So no matter what, he's the worst guy at the party when the board games come out. Listen, I have faith that the Cowboys defense is going to get better. You know, Christian Parker, his first time out, and they just, like, missed assignments is a lot different than, man, they were just getting manhandled, you know. But you got money in Quinnen Williams, who did make a big play in that game at the Strip. You know, you've invested now. Could they use another edge rusher? probably. Max Grosby. But you need to be able to, you need to do better against Cam Scadaboo before you even get to that. Alright, loser number two, Shield.

55:01Alright, loser number two. This is, really, if I had to rank them, this would be loser number one. Because the Green Bay Packers, I can't imagine being more upset this week as a fan base than the Green Bay Packers. I mean, they get outscored 29-3 in the second half. 22-0 in the fourth quarter against a backup quarterback in Carson Wentz. Here's how the game ended for the Vikings. Turnover on downs, fumble, interception, turnover on downs. That's for the Packers. Then the Vikings' last four possessions, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. And if this were a one-week, one-time thing, we could say, all right, and it's weird, the NFL, it's just a weird week one result.

55:43This is what happened to the Packers last year in the playoffs, before the playoffs, week 16, whenever they played the Bears in that game. And I just don't know how you fix it. It feels like once things start snowballing for them, they can't stop it. And it's not just one thing. It's special teams. It's their defense. It's their offensive line. It's Jordan Love. It's Matt LaFleur. So I think the Packers are still going to be a solid team. I don't have them as a playoff team, but what a bummer to start your season with such a disastrous loss. So they have to be on this list.

56:20Sheil Kapadia:I'm with you on this one. You cannot lose that badly to Carson Wentz, especially when Kyler Murray was a solution. And you're like, I don't know if Kyler Murray is actually going to be that good. And it's like, well, he beat out Carson Wentz for the job and Carson Wentz started. And he beat out JJ McCarthy, which is like, what a mess that quarterback situation was. But you knock out Kyler early, you bring in Carson Wentz, you're not expecting him. But then you literally were giving away points that you scored. You kicked a field goal. you then decide you know what because of the penalty we're not we're going to give you those three points back because we're so sure in our team we're going to get those extra two yards there and then we're going to drive we're going to score a touchdown and then you don't and then you hand the ball over to them like the decision did you like the decision to take the points off the board it was fourth and one from the 17.

57:06I did I thought it was the right decision I you know you look back at it and of course you can question it but at the time you know I think even if they kick the field goal there. They were what? Going to go up? I forget what. Eight. 13 minutes to go. Did you like it or not? Did you like the decision?

57:24Sheil Kapadia:With hindsight, no. Absolutely not, obviously. Outcome-based analysis is not what I'm coming to you for. When you saw it happening, did you like the decision? Would you want them to do it again? I'm sure they ran that play for a reason. They saw something on tape. They didn't anticipate Big Citrus would blow the thing up. Did you like the decision? You like your coach going for it. Yes, you like your coach going for it. If you're a Packers fan, you're like, I like the intensity here. In a rivalry game, and then you lose, it's like, oh, what are we doing there? So, yeah, at the time it was fine, but it immediately felt bad when you don't get that extra yard there.

58:03Well, I would say this too, because everyone's connected back to the games at the tail end of last season and in the playoffs. But the common thread here, I mean, the Packers did something completely out of character for them a little over a year ago, which was trade two first-round picks for Micah Parsons. Micah Parsons got hurt in that Denver game last year in like week 14 or 15, whatever it was. And from that point forward, they've had this issue. One of the best pass rushers in the NFL isn't out there. So when they're trying to close these games, like they don't have their best player. It is hard.

58:35It's not impossible. We see teams do it, but it is hard to play without your best player, your highest paid player at a premium position. position. If you don't have your quarterback or your pass rusher or to a lesser extent, in some cases, your left tackle, like the game becomes much more difficult for you. Not having Micah Parsons is a big deal. Guess what? Fourth and one, that might've been a Josh Jacobs play. Normally you, you might've been handing off to him. You don't have him on the field either. And I'm not making excuses for what happened in the game. It absolutely was the momentum swing.

59:04I mean, I had that. I live in Minneapolis. And so that was the main on the main screen while I was watching Scott Hanson call everything else on red zone. Once that started working about an hour into the games. And you could feel it in the stadium. That that was where all of a sudden it was like, I mean, this was a disaster. Okay, Kyler Murray throws an interception on the first drive, then gets knocked unconscious, I think, on the second drive. Carson Wentz is coming in. You could hear a pin drop in U.S. Bank Stadium, which was so lively before the game. And then from that point forward, the Vikings go right down the field and they score.

59:37And it just felt like the proverbial tipped the table and everything started rolling that way. And then it was the Packers can't function offensively. Vikings get the ball back again. There's a turnover. They score again. Carson Wentz, man, that wasn't by accident. They brought him back. And everybody had questions about when they re-signed him back in March, what does that mean? Like, are they trading JJ McCarthy? He was, no. Kevin O 'Connell, in three of his five seasons, or two of his four seasons to this point, has played at least three, if not four, quarterbacks starting. His other two years, he won a ton of games.

1:00:11Those two years, it was a mess. They wanted to make sure they had a third guy in the room who could go out and win football games for you. It just so happened that Carson Wentz makes more sense coming in in relief than J.J. McCarthy, even with limited reps, which is what you get when you're a backup quarterback, as Carson's seen so much in his career. That's not to say that they're going to consider going to J.J. McCarthy as a starter this week, but J.J. presumably is going to be the two. He may be one snap away, and we could already in week two be on to the third quarterback for Kevin O 'Connell in this season.

1:00:44It's just the Vikings have had, the staff they showed during the game that since 1993, the Packers have had three starting quarterbacks and the Vikings have had 17 in week one. 17 different week one starting quarterbacks. Packers have had three. That's just, that's life if you're the Vikings. They've just always had these different issues. It's a cool win and I would not, I don't care if I'm up, down, up 20, down 20. I don't want Brian Flores on the other side. He's going to do the same stuff. He is going to blitz the living crap out of you. And he absolutely took them out yesterday. Even when the Packers are moving the football, it just creates so many challenges.

1:01:22All the different fronts, all the different things he can do. Harrison Smith coming back and being able to be the quarterback of the defense and move guys around. The Vikings are going to be a tough out. I agree. Like it's a gut punch type of loss for the Packers. There is no doubt about it for the fan base, for the locker room and all that. Matt LaFleur will have him ready to go in week two. And I'd much rather be answering questions about why I was overly aggressive than why I didn't go for the jugular, go for the throat as he put it while I could. Third loser, Shield. All right. Third loser here.

1:01:56We go to Los Angeles. Oh. And this was supposed to be a fireworks display. Justin Herbert, Mike McDaniel. The league's never seen a quarterback this talented with such a brilliant offensive mind. And Billy, you know what I was thinking back to? I was thinking back when you said we should play the game. Does Tom think or does Tom know? And one of the first things Tom said on the Ringer Airwaves, he was just asked a question about coaches who might be under pressure this year. And he threw a big curveball out there as Jim Harbaugh. And I said, Tom, what are you talking about? Jim Harbaugh wins 11 games every year.

1:02:38Come on, a.k.a. Jim Harbaugh. There's all these other coaches. They're not coming anywhere near as much success. But then Jim Harbaugh's team in week one as nine and a half point favorites just get flat out outplayed by a team that's supposed to be a joke in the Arizona Cardinals this season. Jacoby Brissett's going up and down the field. They missed Jesse Minter. They have one sack on Brissett all game long. Even that was for zero yards. So I don't even, does that even count? If you're not losing any yards, no takeaways, that defense. And again, the offense was a dud. It wasn't like the worst offense I've ever seen, but I sure thought it was going to look a lot better than that with Justin Herbert getting sacked three times, throwing an interception against that Cardinals defense.

1:03:18So the Chargers came into the season with one of the hardest schedules in the NFL. And when you have a hard schedule, you can't afford to be dropping games to the Arizona Cardinals at home. That's nine and a half point favorites. So they have to be on this list of losers from week one.

1:03:35Sheil Kapadia:I was expecting a Browns was going to come up here because we didn't talk about the Browns. They kind of just bore me, to be quite honest. Yeah, I was thinking maybe the Saints would come in here because they rallied all the way back. Then they went for the win and they lost. But no, you went with the Chargers, which I think we should have seen coming because the Chargers were a huge disappointment. and you know there was a lot of talk in the offseason of mike mcdaniel did a lot of talking mike mcdaniel came in oh i've never had a quarterback with this skill set of justin herbert i have all these plays that i've come up with that i just could simply never unleash on the world because i didn't have the talent at quarterback position that i have now they're going to put up historic numbers and she'll are we a little bitter because we had our monday headlines and we predicted because we bought into this hype that Justin Herbert was going to have a career passing day.

1:04:28Sheil Kapadia:I wasn't going to bring that up. I mean, us as a show, we predicted that. Were we upset about that? No, we're fine. We're professionals. We're not going to bring that situation up. By the way, credit to Nick Rollis, who is the defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals, because I saw a lot after the game where we were looking and it's like, oh, Mike LeFleur gets it done. It's like, oh, yeah, kind of. But also like their defense had this like they held this this power offense, only 14 points the whole time. And I guess you do give credit to him because he did this with Jacoby percent with 277 passing yards and was, you know, pretty efficient, 27 to 37.

1:05:05Sheil Kapadia:So I like I like the Chargers as as a big loser here. I think this is a good nomination on your part. Nick Rollis, by the way, from the same hometown as me down in Minnesota. think about what he goes through last January. So his boss, the guy who brought him to Arizona, Jonathan Gannon, gets fired. The Cardinals tell their assistants, hey, you're still under contract. You can't look elsewhere. And that included Rawls. So he's sitting there for like three weeks and he has to go through the same interview process as everyone else. They were a terrible defense the second half of last year. I mean, awful.

1:05:44That's part of the reason Gannon, who's also a defensive guy, got fired. They're giving up 40 points like every time out. Rallis gets the job. But it took like a month. And in that time, you can just imagine, like the fan base has to be going like, all right, who's the new guy we're going to bring in? His own coaches are sitting there going like, are we going to be sticking around? Nick doesn't know what's going on. Finally, they give him the job. And it was like, oh, yay. He's a highly regarded assistant. like everybody thinks he's got a break he's like he's only like 32 or 33 years old he's got a bright future ahead so i mean like honestly like a personal level you're just happy for rollis like he came out he's like hey yeah like i can coach you know like just reminding everybody like i can do this you know i would not if you had the lefleur brothers parlay with mike winning and matt losing i think you um you were the only person on earth to call that but back to the chargers thing I just, the concern all along, and the reason I said that, the pressure thing, it wasn't Jim's going to get fired if they don't win the Super Bowl.

1:06:44It was the same thing I just said about his brother, which is when you're being paid that much money by an organization that historically has not paid that much money, that's a family operation, and you basically turn over your entire organization to that person. They hire the GM you want. They run the building the way you want. You've got all the power, all the control. It comes with a level of expectation. reputation. Jim Harbaugh's gone to the playoffs. You're right. Two times. Brandon Staley went to the playoffs once with the Chargers and he had Justin Herbert. And if they don't blow one of the biggest leads in playoff history, I guess Jay Gores, Brandon Staley still might be the head coach of the Chargers.

1:07:22But like the bar is not getting in the playoffs and going one and done. It's winning big. When you fire your bullets of we're going to clean out the offensive staff, the coordinator and the O-line coach, and bring in somebody like Mike McDaniel, this is your play. This is it. And by the way, he also had to replace his defensive coordinator because Minter went to Baltimore. But this is kind of the move. And my question all along, and this is, again, not judging off week one other than, yes, it was a dud. It was a highly disappointing performance by the Chargers offense. But my question all along has been, how are Jim and Mike going to communicate?

1:07:57Because Jim is not the type of guy who just goes, all right, Mike, you're the coordinator. All you. Jim wants to be involved on everything. He wants to be in every type of meeting. He wants to have a voice in the game plan. He wants to have a voice in everything that they're doing. He wants to be involved. How are these two guys going to go forward together? Now you just suffered a really embarrassing loss. Let's call it what it is. It was an embarrassing loss to a Cardinals team that was like nine and a half point underdogs in that game. How many people got knocked out of their, whatever, elimination pools, suicide pools, whatever you call them, in week one?

1:08:33because they took the Chargers. It was like the obvious game on paper. How is that building going to be this week? What type of stuff are they going to change? Is Jim going to want to exert more influence? I don't know that. I would just say, I think it's going to be an uncomfortable week because that's generally how it is. Jim is very much more is more. And it probably needs to be that way because that was a really bad performance. But I just wonder as this thing goes on, does this look more like what we've seen Jim do in the past? Or does it look like what Mike has done? Especially at a time, let's remember too, Lab McConkie, they're saying his day-to-day and they'll evaluate him through the week.

1:09:08I'd be surprised if he plays. They got the Raiders this week. Look at that hit, and you tell me if Lab McConkie's playing this week. I just put it with that. I think Lab McConkie's going to be down for at least a bit here, and that's one of your most effective weapons on offense that you're not going to have, I believe, at least this week and maybe beyond.

1:09:27Sheil Kapadia:We did this earlier with the Broncos, and unless this is a kick in, like, you know, the ass, basically. You have the Raiders coming up this week where you're hosting, and then you have Bills, Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans, Ravens. So unless you figure it out, this could get ugly really fast for the Chargers. And then McConkie, I mean, like you said, if he is out, there were many snaps in that game where Herbert was protected, and it felt like either there was nowhere to go with the football, or he wasn't throwing the football. If you look at the numbers, this wasn't one of those games where he was being pressured on 45 % of his dropbacks and he had no chance, there were a lot of snaps where it's just like, what's going on?

1:10:07I thought this was supposed to be offensive wizardry. You would think that some of these guys would be open and maybe you give Rallis credit partially for that, but part of it has me a little bit concerned about that Chargers offense. Big piece of Mike McDaniel's offense too is the motions and it's moving people around. I know that kind of varied in Miami, did less of it last season, but still like McConkie's your move piece. that's the guy you're moving around the formation. Like Quentin Johnston, we all know what he is. He's a vertical stretch type of a receiver. You take Lad out of the mix, it's not like you've got a bunch of other Lads sitting there that you can plug in.

1:10:43So they're going to need to find some offense if, in fact, he's not playing for a little bit here. You've got to find a way to run the football more. You've got to do everything better than they did in that game. Scoring one touchdown with that offense, it's not good enough. I don't think anybody would argue that it is. We mentioned it very briefly. the Saints going for two. And Billy, I'm going to kick this back to you because you said you liked ultimately the LaFleur decision. Did you like Kellen Moore's decision to go for the win?

1:11:12Sheil Kapadia:I did like it because they shouldn't have been in that position, right? Like if we're going to be honest, it's a game that they should have lost. And in that game, there was like weird things that was going on going back to the second quarter where it looked like the Saints had scored a defensive touchdown on a ball that everyone, I think, thought like, oh, well, that clearly was a backwards pass. I still don't understand what happened. That's a live ball. They picked it up. They scored a touchdown. And then Mike Pereira comes on and he's like, oh, no, absolutely not. And he knows this like rule that no one has ever heard of because it seems counter to what we all thought was the rule, which was basically, I think we all thought, and Tom, maybe you knew the rule, but I think we all thought, okay, if you throw the ball and it goes backwards, that's a live ball.

1:11:55Sheil Kapadia:But then Mike Pereira and the replay review and the crew comes on and they say, well, no, because his arm was moving forward and he intended to throw it forward. But because his body twisted backwards, his arm was still in a forward motion. So even if it went backwards, it's not a backwards pass. It's a forward pass that went backwards. And we're like, whoa, I'm just never going to understand the rules of football. So had they gotten that, they wouldn't have even been in that position. They wouldn't have gone to overtime. They theoretically could have won the game. Right. So then when you get to the position and it's like they had no business the saints had no business hanging with the lions the lions are someone that a lot of us think might make it to the super bowl through the nfc and the saints are on the opposite end of that spectrum and where they are so if you get a chance week one with tyler shuck who by the way leads the nfl in passing yards right now he is the lead leaguer in passing yards they were down three touchdowns 410 yards like if you if you're the shuck family like print out this, you know, all the newspaper articles, cut them out, frame them, put them on the wall because your boy is leading the league in passing yards.

1:13:01Sheil Kapadia:That's probably not going to be the case next week. But they got this incredible performance. They get right back in this game. I think you go for it if you're the Saints because what do you have to lose? The game, right? But you should have lost the game anyways. Well, and also Kellen said after the game, he was also concerned the Lions have a high-powered offense. There was like a minute 30, I think, on the clock. So if you tie it, the Lions still have the chance now to go back down and score again or take a long field goal and it's over. I liked the logic on the play. I thought it made, I thought it made a lot of sense.

1:13:32Obviously you'd like, I mean, it's clear. They're trying to get the guy out in the flat. They're trying to run a game. It's not there. It's covered. And then there's just no, I don't know if there wasn't a second option. The second option was covered too, but it felt like we thought this guy's going to be open. He was not. Now we're chucking it up to the back of the end zone. It's a tough break. I mean, you're running the highest percentage play that you can. It's the play you feel best about. just didn't work out in their favor. In terms of that rule, because there was also a play in the game tonight that I saw a discussion on social media about where the pass is going forward and the ball gets hit directly and it's an incomplete pass, even though he never let go of the football.

1:14:07These are two separate rules. But what I would emphasize to everybody who's wondering about this is the rules haven't changed. Neither of these plays, again, there are different rules in the rule book. Neither one, this is not some new interpretation. They didn't change the rule in the offseason. I saw Matt Judon on social being like, hey, what's up with this new rule? It's not a new rule. The first one, the Lions play. If your arm is in the throwing motion prior to defensive contact, and then you get contacted, which makes the ball go someplace else, that is an incomplete pass. That's the rule as it's been on the books.

1:14:41I am with everybody else who has not seen it overturned in replay the way that this one was. And then the one tonight you see a lot more often, which was, I think it was Knicks, that had the ball coming forward and then the ball basically gets palmed and then goes sideways and it's not a fumble. That's a rule you see more commonly, which is his arm's moving forward with the ball. So that's an incomplete pass, even if it doesn't leave his hand, if the arm is moving forward with the ball. It may seem counterintuitive, but this is not some secret thing that they passed. This is not some new interpretation of the tuck rule.

1:15:14This was the rule, and if it happens a few more times, frankly, I'm sure it's one of those rules that's going to come up. in the offseason. Sheila, you said you wanted an actual pick on the winner, right? The one winner for week one. So who is your selection? Or do you want us to come up with this collectively? Yeah, who do you guys? So the three candidates... Recap your winners. Recap the winners and the losers. What do we have? Bears, Bills, and Giants were the three candidates for the winners there. Candidates for the losers, the Packers, the Chargers, and the Cowboys. So I'm trying to think which teams we kind of were most impassioned about for the winners and losers.

1:15:54And maybe that leads us down the right path. Billy, you look like your mind's working over there.

1:15:58Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, I'm writing them down. Can I vote for the loser first? You want the winner first? Who's the loser? I'd vote for the Chargers for the loser, I think, for this week. That feels right, right, Tom? And then nine and a half points favorites and they lost. Yeah, okay, Chargers. Biggest disappointment. Chargers are the losers. Biggest winner? I'm going to go with the Bills. Because is this on the road, new head coach, again, the quick turnaround to Thursday night. The meaning of this game, even though it's week one, just to get that win, you're going up against the defense everybody's talking about.

1:16:33You go into their building. I mean, Giants, that's a cool program win for them. I just, you know, the Cowboys were not a playoff team last year. You know, like there's a lot that still needs to be written. The Bears light up the Panthers. But it also felt like this was just, you know, a Panthers team that was completely overwhelmed. And by the way, the Bears' defense was not great in that game. Yeah, that was a close game in the third quarter. You're right. Right. To me, that's separate. I mean, great performance by Caleb. Ben Johnson's unbelievable. But I just go with the Bills because that's a hard game in week one.

1:17:06That's one if you're being realistic and you were going down the calendar, you're like, that one might be a loss in week one. You're going to have to come back and get the win in week two. I just felt like that. To me, the Bills are the biggest winner. Billy

1:17:18Sheil Kapadia:you on board I voted for the Bills also that was going to be my nomination there we go Bills biggest winner of week one and who do we pick Chargers biggest loser of week one there you go before we wrap to some big news over the weekend that I broke on Sunday Miles Garrett going to injured reserve for the Rams let's briefly touch on this one my antenna was up on this because just talking with Miles, both when we had our production meeting with him and he was talking about still having pain. And then I interviewed him on the sideline before the game. And I asked him, you told us you're in pain. How are you feeling?

1:18:02And how much of it all do you anticipate it's going to impact you today? And some guys go like, oh, I'm ready to roll. And he was not. He gave a very thoughtful answer. And his overall point, I don't want to paraphrase it even because I was, when you're on the sideline doing a pregame interview with a very large man in pads, like you're not necessarily processing every word. So I won't try to paraphrase it. But the overall point matched what he told us before, which was like, I'm gonna, you know, whatever it is, like I got to deal with it and I'm gonna try to put my best foot forward. Well, watching him in that game, and I said it in the broadcast, he just, he didn't look like himself.

1:18:38He was gassed coming to the sideline. He played, I think, 40 snaps in that game. He'd be like two plays in, two plays out. He sat out a pretty good chunk of the third quarter. And he just wasn't effective. He wasn't playing with his legs. Just like the Miles Garrett we've seen, he was giving it his all. I never mean for gas to come off like, oh, he's loafing or something. No, he was doing everything he could. But when he said after the game, that's the worst version of myself I've ever put out there. To me, this always was pointed toward if he doesn't look right, they're going to have to do something, whether it's rest or surgery.

1:19:12he ends up having the scope on the knee. The hope is he's back after missing four games. And by the way, I mean, you can pull up the Rams schedule. They're next four. They got the Giants this week at home, which Giants played well. We'll see how that one goes. Then they got three games against teams that were in the playoffs last year. It's a challenging stretch. And you're doing it without the defensive player of the year who you just gave up first, second, and third round picks and Jared Vers for, a guy who's healthy and granted on a Browns defense that didn't exactly show up in Jacksonville.

1:19:41but you're talking about a guy who was like, this was the centerpiece of everything you did. Aaron Donald may be back this week. I know that was what Sean's hope was, was they could get him going, get a long layoff after this game and get him back into the lineup. But it wasn't out of nowhere to me, just talking with Miles, watching him in the game and seeing how he was coming on and off the field and seeing his comments. You know, I give him credit for this. He wanted to tough it out. He wanted to be playing. He thought he could give it a go. He hadn't practiced hardly at all in training camp.

1:20:14It just didn't work out. And now the Rams are going to have to find a way. They got to be better offensively too. Defensively, they didn't stop the run very well in that game once Kyle Shanahan just decided to jam it up the middle. And offensively, they just, they weren't in sync. I think they'll be much better. They might have to score a lot more points, if not this week, then in the future weeks. But that's a big, that's a big loss, Sheila, as you know, because we talked a lot about Miles. I mean, this was the marquee blockbuster trade of the entire offseason. And now for at least the next month, he's not going to be out there.

1:20:45Yeah. And again, nice job by you. You were giving us the news during the sideline report, Bill. Remember, during that, we're like, oh, I don't remember hearing that before. And Tom's giving us the news on Miles Garrett. I think the analytical part of my brain wants to say Sean McVay's had a winning record in all but one season. And this was a great team last year. And they can survive without Miles Garrett. And even though they don't have Jared first, they're going to be fine. There is a part of me sort of just like the gut reaction where it's like what you were saying, Billy, before the season, where it's just like when a team is hyped up this much before a season, how often does it actually work out?

1:21:21And now you look at they lose their first game and a mild scare. It's out for a month. So I think it may be a shifted a little bit to, hey, this team's going to be a juggernaut to I think it's going to be a good team. But the mentality shifts to like they need to be playing their best football in December. Everybody's back healthy. That's the first thing I said. We were talking about that team. And it was like, well, what's, you know, the only concern I have is the age. Right. Guys don't become more durable or get better beyond age 30. Like it just, it doesn't happen. I think the example I gave was like, if something happens to Stafford, it changes the whole season.

1:21:52Something happened to the Stafford of defense. And so I still anticipate, you're right, Sheila, in my opinion, like this is still a really good Rams team, but this is exactly the type of thing that can, Billy, change the entire outlook on your season. It is, I mean, it rips it, rips the carpet out from under your defense. And you hope in the locker room, this is the rallying cry, which was like, Hey guys, we were pretty damn good last year without the guy here. We love miles. He's going to be back. He's gonna be great. But like, let's go kick everybody's ass and remind people we were doing it before he got here.

1:22:21Sheil Kapadia:Yeah. Guys have faith, shield. Like I feel like you're already kind of giving up on this season. You're saying, Oh, you know what? It didn't go perfect. So what are we going to do? We thought we were going to have miles Garrett and Aaron Donald. Now we don't seem to have either one of them potentially. Maybe we'll have Aaron Donald back this weekend, but it could be an extended period with none of them. Like the season's falling. Like, let's just, let's calm down. Let's, let's all just, let's take a deep breath. Like everything's going to be fine here. They're going to play the giants. The giants are flying cross country to play them.

1:22:49Sheil Kapadia:You had them as big winners. I still was kind of like, I don't know, but that, you know, to Tom's point, that could be a game that you win. You get back on track and then you have Broncos, Eagles, bills. That's going to be a difficult stretch there, but maybe Aaron Donald's good. He's in, he's playing by them. And you know what? we're saving up. We're resting up. Hey, Miles, you go, you get healthy and you come back when you're ready. We're going to hold down the floor without you. Like, let's not, no fire alarms here, Shield. It's early still. It sounds like, it's like, you know, when Paul George got suspended for 50 games in the NBA, then he came back.

1:23:19It's like, wow, that was a great rest. I feel great. Maybe that's what the story will be with Miles Garrett. We was like, you know, having those four weeks off, my body has never felt better in December. And he's just getting like three sacks a game. Maybe.

1:23:31Sheil Kapadia:Who amongst us couldn't use a good knee scope? You know, Just to feel good. Moral of this pod, moral for everybody there. Good or bad, don't overact week one. Yeah. If week two looks the same, then we can start to panic. Tune in next week for that episode. We're back on Wednesday. Another episode of the Ringer NFL show for Sheil, Billy, Chris, our producer. Everybody behind the scenes. We'll see you then.

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