Winners and Losers from the Patriots-Seahawks Season Opener!

17:28Sheil Kapadia:And you can't do it to me, Shield, this time because normally you say that I'm with the man and I'm against the little person. Today I'm going against the healthcare system. You can't get me today. That's true. See? You can't put him in a box. Billy out here trying to make sure that he lives through the midterms, trying to survive through the midterms here. I see what's going

17:44Diante Lee:on. You know, one day he's supporting billionaire owners, but the next he's kind of criticizing the healthcare system. So you don't know what size. People are complicated. You know, there are different issues. I'm an onion. Billy contains multitudes. He contains multitudes. All right, let's take a break. We come back. I want to get to the other injury you mentioned there because you did mention AJ Brown. We'll get to that injury. We'll get to more winners and losers from the NFL opener. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by FanDuel. Thursday night football is back and FanDuel is giving you a reason to celebrate every touchdown.

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19:45Diante Lee:All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. This segment is sponsored by Orgain. Deontay, big debut for A.J. Brown. They make the big trade in the offseason. He draws the defensive pass interference penalty, but then third quarter goes down. Ankle injury does not return. And I think what was so glaring is that you kind of saw how much this Patriots offense is really going to need him this year and how he was really slated to be a high-volume guy. So that's another one we got to await some updates on A.J. Brown's injury. I'm looking here at a tweet from Andrew Callahan right at the Boston Herald, and I think that his update is that he left the locker room wearing a boot, right?

20:31I'm sure, I mean, as we record this, I'm sure that Mike Brable, if he isn't already at a podium, is preparing to go to a podium. So I guess we'll wait and see if we get any information. He gave a no comment. He gave a no update. Not surprised by that. I'm not surprised by that, but I will say, I mean...

20:45Sheil Kapadia:He always says things when he's holding a puppy or a child. I mean, the implication alone, just wearing a boot, walking out of the locker room for A.J. Brown is probably not the greatest sign. And the fact that he didn't come back to the sidelines after going into the locker room, also probably a bit of a concern, right? I think that for him, right, you can't talk... I mean, when we're talking about frustrating, we mentioned that with Darnold, but for him, I can't imagine somebody who walked into week one feeling like there was more of an opportunity to prove who he still is as a receiver. This is a team, as you noted, Shield, that absolutely needs his skill set, being able to catch the ball on the move underneath and shake tacklers off or push the ball vertically and beat one-on-one coverage.

21:26And maybe the third quarter goes a little bit differently if on that, you know, play-action pass that I was talking about where you get an interception thrown, you're targeting number one, right? That might go a little bit differently for the Patriots offense. and if not even if you're not feeding the feeding him the ball maybe his gravity alone right as a vertical stretcher as somebody who you can't just leave consistently a one-on-one coverage might have opened some things up i'm i am a little concerned still about just like what is the next layer going to be for this offense clearly they don't have the most inventive or the most explosive run game drake may has now shown these pen this penchant for turning the ball over right um and this is something that's kind of dogged him throughout his professional career We just happened to get that flashpoint last season where he really wasn't throwing any interceptions while he was getting all those explosive plays.

22:12Maybe we're seeing a little bit of regression and have been, I guess, since the winter in last postseason. And now that you don't have what's supposed to be your number one man beater, put the ball out of one-on-one coverage and third downs, and you're going to move the chains with this guy or get a pass interference. if he misses significant amount of time, we're going to have real questions, I think, about how viable this offense is or if it's only going to work if Drake May is being a superhero again.

22:39Diante Lee:Yeah, it kind of reverts to last year's version, really, if A.J. Brown is out for a significant amount of time. So hopefully that's not the case, but we'll get an update on A.J. Brown. All right, I've got to win. I'm sure Seahawks fans right now are like, hey, we won the game. You're ripping Drake May. You're complimenting the X-ray machine. You're commenting on the American healthcare system. What about us? Mike McDonald. I mean, just every... That's a culture win right there. You're down 10-0. Your backup quarterback goes into the game five snaps in. You have a new offensive coordinator, and you come back and you win the football game 13-10.

23:19Diante Lee:So I've given this stat before. They had a bye in week 10 of Mike McDonald's first season. Since that bye, they are 24-5, and they've only lost by more than four points one time. I just continue to be so impressed by the job he does. Not only, you know, you can talk about the defensive schemes and how I've said before, I feel like you would give him pretty much any roster in the NFL, and I would feel good about them having a very good defense. But just on top of that, you can kind of see it just in the way they play and in a game where they just are getting all these penalties and you're like, oh, this doesn't look very crisp.

23:55Diante Lee:They somehow, you look up in the second half and you're like, wait, they actually have a chance to steal this one and they score 13 unanswered points. So yeah, Billy, Mike McDonald has to be a big winner from this game.

24:07Sheil Kapadia:The only series that they looked bad once they got rolling was when they had the second and one on the four yard line and then they had, you know, the delay of game. But that, you know, that was not McDonald. That was kind of not really. That sort of felt like

24:20Diante Lee:the play call was getting in late And also Drew Locke was like, I'm the backup. I don't like totally know all these plays. I need to look at my wristband for a while here. Yeah, that's what it felt like it was happening. Right, Deontay, on that stretch? Absolutely. I think, you know, we saw a lot of those late snaps and you can see him peeking at the wristband. Peek at the wristband again. Look at it one more time. Okay, where is Jackson Smith and Jigba at? Because I want to make sure if I'm throwing the ball, I'm throwing the ball to him. Are we setting up for the right run here? Right, I definitely think, you know, clearly a backup quarterback that was not thinking that week one before we even get 10 minutes into the first quarter that he is now going to have to strap up the chin strap and be out there running the offense.

25:01But I want to come back to your point about Mike McDonald because I've just really been thinking since about, after that first interception from Drake May, when it kind of became clear that Seattle was able to get themselves back in this game and then close it out, I was just thinking about when the last time was that we had a defensive-minded head coach that came into the league and just very instantly, as a head coach, gave you proof of concept. the way that Mike McDonald has. And I think maybe the closest corollary might be like Jimmy Johnson back in the 90s, right, with Dallas. And even then, there was a rocky start, right?

25:32You go 1-15 in 89 when you take the gig. You're not really a playoff team in year two. And then after that, obviously, you really kind of get them to take off from 91 to 93. You get those championships. But outside of that, I can't think of the last defensive-minded head coach who was able to go step into a job instantly and say, give me these vets that other teams are kind of casting away. Give me these young guys that have these kind of wonky skill sets, people who don't necessarily fit, you know, cleanly into one role or the other. And I will craft the best defense in football and give me Sam Darnold, this very flawed quarterback, and give me Clint Kubiak, you know, last year.

26:12And now Brian Fleury, these guys who aren't the highest profile coordinators. It just watched me work. and it is 100 % paid off in his time as a head coach and the fact that he has dominated so many offensive-minded guys that have either been heralded before or are very well-respected now. I think it just speaks volumes to how well-prepared he and his teams have been coming into these games.

26:34Diante Lee:Yeah, it's well said. I'm just looking at a list of coaches now and it's hard to find a similar guy. Sean McDermott comes up when you look at the win-loss percentage, but they weren't winning games because his defense was cooking. They were winning games because they had Josh Allen. Honestly, D 'Amico Ryans might be like in a similar Maybe the next closest, yeah. category, yeah. Next closest, but it has been a while since a guy has come in and performed like he has just as a defensive play caller, like you mentioned, and just building that dominant defense and being so good right off the bat. All right, Billy, what do you got?

27:08Diante Lee:You got another winner or loser for us?

27:10Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, I got a winner or loser. I was looking to see what quarterbacks are available. I was just curious. Not winners or losers. This is just my distraction seeing like, what do we do out here? Like, who do we get if Sam Darnold is actually injured? Because I mean, I don't think Drew Locke realistically is a plan for the season. So if this is going to be a long-term thing, what do they do? Never know. Jimmy Garoppolo, maybe. I'll keep looking for you guys. So winners and losers. You know, here's a loser. And this is, you might think, how is this related to the game exactly?

27:38Diante Lee:Okay.

27:39Sheil Kapadia:Los Angeles Rams, big losers tonight.

27:42Diante Lee:Los Angeles Rams, big loser. All right, give me a decision. What do you got?

27:47Sheil Kapadia:Well, because, you know, it's going to be a back and forth for them to win the division. And you and I, when we did the predictions last week, we had different. You had the Rams. I had the Seahawks. And it's going to come down to a game or two one way or another. And this is a game that the Seahawks should have lost with the way that it was playing out. This is a game the Patriots should have won. Seahawks should have lost. The Rams would have been in good shape. There would have been a game up. Now they play tomorrow. I don't know if you saw the pictures of them coming off that plane. They look tired as hell coming off that plane.

28:17Sheil Kapadia:I didn't see it. Are they there?

28:18Diante Lee:Are they in Australia now?

28:20Sheil Kapadia:They got to Australia today. They got in, I believe, what they said was 7 a.m. local time. And for them to stick to the plan of staying on time, they'd have to go to bed between 3 and 5 p.m. Australian time. So they got in at 7. They'd have to go to bed for the night, 3 to 5 p.m. and then I think they'd be up anywhere between midnight and 2 a.m. to get ready for the game. So this plan of theirs, while on paper and while the scientists said this was a good idea, I saw them get off the plane and I got to tell you, McVay looked like a man who was regretting the decision when you saw him getting off that plane because that's a long flight.

29:00Sheil Kapadia:And it's not the same, but I've done that a couple of times going to California where it's like, you know what, I'm going to go in, I'm going to do my thing that I have to do that day, I'll go back the next day. My body's not going to get used to it. I'll just be up at 3 a.m. I'll go through whatever. It'll be fine. And by like midday, that second day, you're like dragging. And by the third day, you're just waiting to get home and you're like, you're dead tired. So I'm a little bit concerned about this plan.

29:25Diante Lee:All right, so they have to stay up for eight hours. So they land at 7 a.m. and they need to go to bed around 3 p.m. So they have to stay up for eight hours, but then they can get a full night's sleep. assuming they have some blackout shades. Are you guys white noise guys when you sleep? Do you do that? No. I don't do TV. I don't do white noise. What do we call it? Raw dogging? Yeah, like I try.

29:54Sheil Kapadia:Do you just lie down and like, do you close your eyes and you just fall asleep? Vampire style, baby. And that works for you? It hasn't failed me yet. Can you sleep on a plane? Yeah, actually. I sleep most of the time on the plane. Oh, I'm so jealous. I can't do either of those.

30:13Diante Lee:He's got the dad skill. This is a dad skill where you're just able to sleep wherever. Like my dad was once, I think it was Legoland out actually probably by Deontay. And we just looked over and he was asleep on a bench. I'm like, all right, I don't know that you're supposed to sleep. I respect that deeply. Yeah, he was doing that. That was several years ago. But I do do the white noise, Billy. And if you have any sleep issues, because we started doing this when the kids were little, You do the white noise for them. And then you would be at a hotel and you're sleeping there with the kids. So you're putting the white noise on.

30:43Diante Lee:And then we just got addicted to the white noise. So we got the white noise machine. We travel with it and we play it wherever we are. Because sometimes if you're at a hotel now and it's like, all right, people are being noisy around, whatever, you got the white noise that blocks it out. So I would imagine Rams, I would say blackout shades, white noise. I don't know what else they might be doing here to try to get you sleep there.

31:06Sheil Kapadia:I saw that they had to send the stuff, like their essential stuff. They had to send it like in a boat, in like crates months ago for it to get to Australian time. And then for their actual equipment for the games. Yeah, I think they shipped it over there months ago for it to get their like essential stuff. And then I was reading that like their cleats and stuff like that had to be like deep clean because of, you know, customs or whatever. you can't transport soil into the country. So they had to remove all of the dirt and everything off of the shoes because it had to go through customs. All of the 80 like crates that they sent over there with stuff had to go through like deep screening.

31:49Sheil Kapadia:Listen, I understand. And Tom sold us on this. This is great expansion for the league. You're going to go out there, flag football, Olympics, all of that stuff that he told us. But man, this seems like a lot of effort for one game, like a lot of effort.

32:03Diante Lee:I like how anti this you are. I'm not anti.

32:06Sheil Kapadia:No, no, you're doing this. No, I don't think you should back down.

32:10Diante Lee:You're giving very valid reasons for why are they actually doing this? Because of flag football? Like, is that a good enough reason?

32:16Sheil Kapadia:In the Olympics in 2030, whatever, two or whatever. Like, I don't know. It's a long time. Like, what?

32:21Diante Lee:As Kyle Shanahan would say, we all, you know, who knows? We might not all be around even for those Olympics. Well, I mean, come on, Sheila. You got a card. That's what Shanahan says. Jeez Louise.

32:30Sheil Kapadia:Okay.

32:30Diante Lee:All right. So that's why you have the Rams as a loser. Yeah, losers, yeah.

32:34Sheil Kapadia:Well, because they could have taken an advantage here. They could have taken a leap. Or at the very worst case scenario, if they lose tomorrow because this sleep pattern didn't work out, they could have just remained tied at 0-1 each. But now, you know, who knows?

32:49Diante Lee:If they lose, they're a game back. Okay, there you go. All right, Deontay, you got a winner or a loser for us? I got some more if you don't have any. I've got a combo winner here because I don't want to separate either of them in this. My winner here is Brian Fleury's run game calls and Jadarian Price's performance today. He was pretty good. Average like five yards a pop on those first and second down runs. I think that the third down runs when you're just trying to get the ball across the chains ended up kind of being an anchor on his average on the day. But if you're able to control for early down runs, I think you went 10 for 49, right?

33:24Or 10 for 48, something to that effect. So a very effective day for him on the ground. I thought that Brian Fleury, you know, for somebody who also did not expect to be calling plays for his backup quarterback, actually seemed to change gears pretty well. He was still able to feed the ball to Jackson Smith and Jigba in spite of the fact that he didn't have his starting quarterback. So you have a guy in here who doesn't have much rhythm, you know, who wouldn't have much rhythm coming out of training camp with your number one receiver. Certainly not as much as your starting quarterback. And you were still able to manufacture those touches.

33:53and then Jackson Smith and Jigbo was able to get loose, right? Which is really the whole point of their approach to the passing game is if we just spam these calls to our best receiver, he's such a good route runner and he's proven himself to be so good after the catch, he'll probably pop on for a big gain. So I want to give a lot of credit to Brian Fleury and then from an individual basis, I think that what Jadarian Price showed on the ground, if he's able to consistently deliver that, whether Donald's hurt or not, that is going to be such a good home base, I think, for this offense if they can count on getting four to five yards a pop on those early down runs.

34:26Diante Lee:For sure. Good start for Price. And I'm with you on Fleury. It was like, if you look at the numbers, he had 13 first downs. The Seahawks had 13 first downs. Let's not go overboard. But if you watch the game, it's like you lose your quarterback. That fourth and one call to JSN was terrific. He scores the touchdown. I thought he started to find a rhythm a little bit in the second half, whereas early on, it was like, I don't know if Drew Locke is going to be completing a lot of passes, but then they found some stuff that worked there. Billy, I have an important question for you. Did you see Brian Fleury, like what he looks like on the sideline there tonight?

35:01Diante Lee:If not, do a quick Google search there. Okay. Brian Fleury. I was going to say yes, but... Well, because this is important. He has the look of a defensive coordinator, man. That's what I'm saying, De 'Ante. He doesn't look like an offensive coordinator. He's bald. He's got a nice beard going on. He's got a great beard. That's a D-line coach, man. I'm not believing it. Does that concern you, Billy, that this is what the offensive coordinator looks like? They're supposed to have, you know, the nice whatever, the nice hair.

35:29Sheil Kapadia:The Mike McDaniel, like the flashy, the shoes and the tags on him, the capri pants, basically the sunglasses. I don't think so.

35:38Diante Lee:Okay. He can break the mold and be okay.

35:41Sheil Kapadia:Yeah. Why not? Listen, Shield, this is 2026. We're going to come out here and just be judging people on their looks. Like, what are we doing right now? Is this the podcast you want to be doing?

35:49Diante Lee:Well, yes. To answer your question. Okay. All right. So Billy says it's okay. But Deontay does agree with me for the record. I got to be honest with you. I wonder if this is like a tight ends coach thing, right? You know, maybe that's it. Because Dan Campbell, another tight ends coach guy. He does look like a tight end. Yeah, you're right. I don't know if it's that whole like, are you a cop or are you a coach type of look, you know, type of thing that tight ends coaches seem to have going on. Maybe that's just what it is.

36:19Sheil Kapadia:So I was watching it on mute because it's late here and I didn't want to wake up my children. So I had the game on mute and they kept showing him and I just assumed he was a defensive coach, to your point.

36:29Diante Lee:See, you were judging him too, Billy. Yeah, well, you know. Not just me. Okay, let me see. All right, this honestly could have been one of our first losers that I've got. Romeo Dodds.

36:41Sheil Kapadia:Oh, he was my next loser.

36:42Diante Lee:Yeah, that drop was bad. Go ahead.

36:45Sheil Kapadia:Go ahead. No, go with it, Shield.

36:48Diante Lee:Well, not only Romeo Dobbs, but I don't know. Did Romeo Dobbs get drafted in your fantasy leagues? I can't remember if he got taken. Probably not. But that was tough for Romeo Dobbs. So first of all, at halftime, I'm checking out what people are saying online. Someone had tweeted that he had only actually played 12 out of 32 snaps in the first half. And I'm like, yeah, it actually didn't seem like he was really out there. Romeo Dobbs. That's weird. And then you have the third quarter where they're like, Like, all right, Drake May, just throwing one up there for Romeo Dobbs. And that gets intercepted.

37:21Diante Lee:And then, to Deontay's point, that drop. I mean, that was like one of Drake May's best plays of the game. Puts it right in his hands. Could have been a big play. And he drops the football. So I think May targeting him 0 for 3 with an interception. So he does not have a catch. And this is a game, again, where A.J. Brown went down. That's tough. That is a tough start there for Romeo Dobbs. Kind of an indictment of Drake May is targeting Matt Collins on key downs in the second half. You know, kind of an indictment. And not blaming him. You don't blame him when you're watching him. You're like, oh yeah, Matt Collins looks like he's getting open.

37:56Sheil Kapadia:That was this guy in the Super Bowl last year, though, too, you know? Like, when he was struggling in the Super Bowl, Matt Collins was there for him. I mean, I'm not going to act like Keyshawn Booty is like some future All-Pro, but you did give away Keyshawn Booty because you're assuming that Romeo Dobbs is going to be a certain kind of receiver for you. And again, we're not going to, as Billy Gill liked the word, catastrophize. We're not going to catastrophize here on their wide receiver situation, even though it does seem a little dire without A.J. Brown, especially if he has to miss a bunch of time.

38:25But yeah, in terms of just like week one impressions, I don't want to see the wide receiver that you spent money to go bring in not being on the field for more than half of your passing plays and not being targeted like a guy that you just invested in and was willing to clear out other talent that you had in the wide receiver room to be able to make space for him. It's just not the right kind of taste in your mouth coming out of week one.

38:46Diante Lee:It's weird. You signed him to a big contract. You would assume you had a plan for him. Again, you had all offseason. You've been working on this game plan for a while. And it was just like, you know, I guess they had three times they actually targeted him. But yes, very, very tough start there for Romeo Dobbs. All right, Billy, I stole yours. Do you have another one for us? No, that's fine. Don't worry about it. Here's a winner.

39:08Sheil Kapadia:Cooper Cup. Cooper Cup had the catch of the game. What a catch. And then he had a touchdown. They got taken away from him because of an illegal shift before. And it's like, come on. That didn't really affect the play. That was perfectly fine. Cooper should have had a touchdown. But I feel like a couple of years ago, Cooper was just discarded. We assume like, okay, this guy's going to kind of bounce around. He's not really going to be a contributor. Wins the Super Bowl last year. He's still very serviceable. He's there when you need him. Cooper Cup. I want to give him a winner for today.

39:38Diante Lee:It was a huge catch. I mean, it was one of their biggest, biggest plays of the game. You know, Drew Locke's just like, he's down there somewhere. I'm going to throw it up. And you didn't know, can Cooper Cup still make that play? He could. He had the other play in the middle of the field where he comes back to the ball, avoids a defender. So Deontay, I mean, I know Billy's not subtweeting me, but I was kind of like, when his career ended with the Rams, I was kind of like, that's probably it. I will admit that I thought it was over. Everyone did. Yeah. Yeah, especially me when wide receivers in corners, when their age starts with a three, I'm usually like, all right, it's going downhill here in a hurry.

40:15Diante Lee:But Deontay, he looked good tonight as a number two option. I mean, you know, it's one of those things where after you get so used to seeing a guy in a certain jersey, you go see him in, you know, especially a rival's jersey, you're like, ah, I've seen this story before. This usually ends with the wide receiver being cooked. But the fact that he's still able to be productive, right, able to go make, you know, an acrobatic catch along the sideline, right, right early in the game. And that was a huge play for Seattle's offense. I think that that, you know, that's a great sign for them. I still want to see Rashid Shahid get more involved.

40:45Maybe that's something that would have happened if he hadn't started quarterbacking. You know, I still just feel like they have not really carved out as much opportunity for him within the flow of the offense as they should. But yeah, I think that, I think if Cooper Cupp can give you this kind of production, God, that's got to make you feel good. Especially with all the things that we've mentioned in terms of the run game and the fact that you're still able to feed JSN basically on demand. I think this offense might have another one of those underrated, you know, they might not be top five in EPA or DVLA, but I think this offense is maybe showing that even in a game that was kind of herky-jerky because of the loss of Darnold and, you know, they weren't able to convert a bunch in the first half, they can maybe keep themselves afloat in ways that I had questions as to whether or not they'd be able to this year.

41:31Diante Lee:Yeah, guys made plays. There's no doubt about it. All right, let's take one more break. We come back. We finish up with some more winners and losers from this game. All right. We are back here on the Ringer NFL show. Now, I know Billy was watching on mute. I don't know if he was watching on mute the whole night. Deontay, I don't know about you. So, I might be on an island here. And I'm not trying to be mean. You can say it because I think... I got Jason Garrett as a loser here. And here's the reason. My kids are trying to educate me a little bit on aura. Am I saying that right? Aura? Right? Aura loss?

42:09Diante Lee:Yeah. I don't know. Is that made it? Okay. Nailing it. Yeah, I'm nailing it. So him being on a set there with Mike Tomlin, that feels like an aura loss for Jason Garrett. Are you familiar with the mogging? Yes. Yes. Yes. I think you're right. That probably would have been better. But it's like they're having conversations and it's kind of like Jason Garrett's off to the side. Like, wait, is he supposed to be here or not? And when Mike Tomlin says something and then Jason Garrett says something, it's like I'm putting very different stock into what these two men are telling me about the game of football.

42:46Diante Lee:So I feel like this is tough. Billy, I know you had your hand up over there. I feel like this is tough for Jason Garrett.

42:53Sheil Kapadia:Well, you mentioned Mike Tomlin. And I was wondering if you had, if you guys had grades for his debut today for, you know, football night in America, Sunday night football, whatever you would call it. I mean, Wednesday night football in America, whatever today would be called. What grades would you give Mike Tomlin? Because the halftime interview that I saw with him, I was kind of like, Mike, you said a lot of nothing here. You know what I mean? Like he didn't give us a ton, which by the way, was his MO in postgame press conferences. he said a lot of nothing or he just said a lot of crazy things about not blinking, cutting your eyelids off.

43:24Sheil Kapadia:Like I love him for the stuff that he said. I was wondering how he would do. And then they also showed us his sit down with John Harbaugh. And the clip that they showed us was like the biggest nothing burger ever. I was like, can you believe we're sitting here? It's like, no. And it's like, see more of that this week. If that's the best clip, Billy, that's not a good sign.

43:43Diante Lee:If that was the tease clip, I have concerns about that interview.

43:46Sheil Kapadia:So because part of my night was on mute, what grades would you give my guest pregame or whatever else I may have missed of him? I just thought this was a tough day for NBC's broadcast in general, honestly. I don't know if I love Chris Collinsworth today. Mike Tirico is Mike Tirico. Their pregame, and maybe this is just a Mike and Jason thing because they do just kind of offer up nothing burgers, right? But you're sitting there watching, and I'm like, as they're cutting a commercial break. If I was just a casual fan, what exactly did I just take from these conversations that I just witnessed? I don't know if I got any smarter about the game of football.

44:24I don't know if I heard anything captivated, you know, on the set either, right? And clearly these are not personalities. They're going to give you that inside the NBA back when they were on TNT, sort of whimsy or jokes, you know, either. So if I'm not learning anything and I'm not getting, you know, these very cool kind of former coach anecdotes, we're all just sitting around saying, hey, they got to control the line of scrimmage. They got to convert on third down. Thanks. You know, awesome.

44:50Diante Lee:It really, it did feel a lot like that. I thought the in-game broadcast was fine. I thought it was, you know, kind of classic. I feel comfort sometimes. It's like, all right, Tariko and Collinsworth, I know what I'm getting from these two. Collinsworth had the nice call on the JSN touchdown where he pointed that out right before. So yeah, that I didn't have an issue with. But Tomlin, I would say, okay. I wasn't watching it going, I can't stand this. This guy's annoying me. Get him off my TV. I wasn't going, oh my gosh. Now I see why every network wanted to bring in Mike Tomlin. But you are right, Billy.

45:24Diante Lee:He had one of those today where he said something about, can they deliver the baby was his thing. And you were kind of like, wait, what is he talking about? Delivering a baby? Oh, okay. He's just talking about like, can they sack Drink Man? I think that was what the comparison was. He did a podcast a while ago, the Pivot podcast with Ryan Clark and I think Fred Chandler. Channing Crowder. Yes. And I thought he was awesome on that. Because when he got the broadcasting job, a lot of people were saying what you said. Like, wait, this guy everyone has high hopes for? His press conferences are terrible.

46:01Diante Lee:But he was loose in that setting. He was telling great stories. He was giving his coaching philosophy. I thought what he was talking about in that interview about just the philosophy of what it means to be a coach. I know it sounds a little hokey, but I'm like, this is the best explanation I've ever heard for what the actual job is for an NFL coach. So I had some higher hopes for him. I think that's the side they need to bring out. It's less of just like, what are the keys to the game? I don't know that that's going to be that entertaining. But if he can, like you said, tell... How many stories must this guy have?

46:35Diante Lee:I mean, think of how much time he spent in the NFL. Just do like, let's have Mike Tomlin story time, and just give us something.

46:45Sheil Kapadia:Well, he also coached what was a circus and kept it completely under control when Antonio Brown was running around there too. And we had no idea that Antonio Brown was a crazy person until he left Pittsburgh. So what else did he take care of that we just didn't know because he's just very much a coach like, This stays in house. We're a family. All of that stuff.

47:08Diante Lee:There's got to be something. I want to see more. Incomplete. That's right. Give him some more time. Let's see how it goes for Mike Tomlin. Deontay, you got anything else for us? Any winners or losers before we close this out? I think I covered all my guys. It's not like this was a high-flying game. No, it wasn't. We definitely hit all the big stuff. But just in case, Billy, you got anything else for us? Winners or losers?

47:37Sheil Kapadia:Just a quick winner. We mentioned him a moment ago, but we haven't really talked that much about him. JSN. I mean, 122 yards on eight receptions, a touchdown. He had that little, basically like a screen pass that he turned into basically a 40-yard touchdown. That was awesome. I think he's just so good and the game wasn't great that we just are kind of like, hey, he's just kind of doing what he does. I didn't realize he had 122 yards, honestly,

47:58Diante Lee:until you said that. I would have guessed, you know, like, you know, 78 or something like that.

48:03Sheil Kapadia:Yeah. I mean, most of it was on that one play, but still, he's just so good that we almost take him for granted that like he puts a performance like that. It's like, it just seemed like an average game from him. No big deal.

48:12Diante Lee:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that play swung the entire game, that fourth and one to JSN. So he is incredible. He actually had a chance for another touchdown. Drew Locke kind of overthrew him on the one there left corner of the end zone, or he could have had an even bigger game. And where after that one, I'm like, uh-oh, is JSN going to be kind of frustrated by this quarterback's play? But they ended up getting him the ball. So he was fine there. All right, let me look at my list. I mean, is Mike Vrabel a loser here? If you're a great coach, should you be blowing a 10-0 lead to Drew Locke? I don't know.

48:48Diante Lee:Am I being mean?

48:50Sheil Kapadia:Who do we blame the loss on? You know, we can give credit to him. Yeah, I think Drake May.

48:55Diante Lee:It's Drake May.

48:56Sheil Kapadia:It's Drake May. All right. I'm just saying. You throw three picks in one quarter. The game kind of falls on your shoulders. What does their schedule look like? Because are things about to get really rough for Drake May here? I think they play a pretty healthy amount of teams that made the playoffs last year. So they play Pittsburgh next. And then they're at Jacksonville. And then it's Buffalo. Yeah, but then they have Vegas and the Jets. I mean, by the time you get to that Raiders-Jets stretch, if things go sideways, if A.J. Brown misses time and this offense sputters, outside of Pittsburgh, you're going to be dealing with teams who we have high expectations for their offense.

49:36So, I do have some questions about what New England's going to look like getting out of September.

49:41Diante Lee:Yeah, that's tough. They could be 1-3 going into that game now. This was a three-point game. It's not like they got blown out. They could bounce back easily and still be a very good team. But yeah, that's not an easy stretch and even Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's front is going to be quite challenging for them, I think, blocking those guys with the Steelers because I think their defense is going to be pretty good. I'm looking through my list here. The Seahawks just have so many defensive players. The lesser-known Seahawks defensive backs who maybe were not household names like Nehemiah Pritchett. It's just like they lose Reekwoolen in free agency and this guy's making a terrific interception.

50:20Diante Lee:Josh Jobe, anyone could have had this guy a couple years ago. Practice squad guy, man. practice squad guy. He plays great for them last year. They're like, hey, let's just sign him instead of Reekwool and he'll be cheaper. That interception, because the thing about that interception, we probably didn't give this enough props. We should have given early. If that's just a pass breakup or he makes the cash but one foot's out of bounds, the game's going overtime. And then you have a 50-50 % chance to lose the game. So the fact that he's a defensive back who can make that play, that acrobatic play, still get his feet in bounds, that was a huge play.

50:54Diante Lee:I mean, obviously a huge play, but an impressive play, I should say. Deontay, yeah. Do you have any thoughts on the Rams doing this travel 28 hours before the game versus the Niners staying there for a week? Because Billy and I can't get enough about talking about this.

51:08Sheil Kapadia:Or just general thoughts towards the Netflix game preview from Deontay. I mean, I think the science, I've listened to enough professors, scholars, and sleep science experts that I feel like the logic of it is sound, right? Like I've heard the argument made enough times where the logic of it is sound. I think that there's just this gap in my little linebacker brain where all I think about is more days in different environment means more opportunity to get your body acclimated, right? But I do think if you're the Rams, and you can't say this right now because you still have to go try to win the game.

51:49But if you're Sean McVay, no matter what happens on the Thursday night game between the 49ers and Rams, when you get to the podium after, you're going to say, we set up this travel this way because we did not want to be tanked in week two and week three by having to be in Australia for an extended amount of time and then have to try to get our bodies re-acclimated to being in Los Angeles or wherever else we're to travel from here. That, to me, is what makes the most sense for this kind of travel plan. It is less about maximizing the 24 hours you're going to spend in Melbourne and a lot more about once we get back to California, can we get back to being a normal team on a normal schedule and not have to modify week two or week three's plans just to give our guys a chance to catch up on their sleep and recover properly.

52:39Diante Lee:They're taking the long view. So, Billy, if that was the team you rooted for, like let's say the Rams lose this game and then McVay is like listen there are different ways to do it we listen to our sports science staff we're taking the long view it's a long season it's 18 weeks we want these guys to be as healthy as possible that's why we did it are you like okay I understand that or are you like man you overthought it I wish you would have just gone there earlier and tried to win

53:03Sheil Kapadia:this game I mean if it's my team I am not understanding of any reasons when my team loses you know what I mean like I don't care what sports scientist says I don't care about the long play. I'm the guy that when my baseball team has someone pitching a no-hitter, have them throw 250 pitches. I don't care about their arm and their career long-term. I want to see a no-hitter. So I don't know. Long view, they play the Giants. And you need all this extra rest to play the Giants. Get out of here. You're going to be perfectly fine. The thing about the science that I mean, obviously it's accounted for, but that I can't, but also because I'm dumb, is there's also like you're on a plane for 18 hours.

53:39Sheil Kapadia:So yeah, you could be sticking to the same clock, but being on a plane for 18 hours is not great for your body. Yeah, like that's an exhausting day that you have beforehand. You could still be on the same mental clock, but like your body's tired.

53:53Diante Lee:You know what I was just thinking? And I'm glad we're deep into the podcast for this. And I don't know if your family's discussed this as much as, you know, my family. We're very comfortable talking about gut health, you know. Are you regular? Are you regular? you know um travel can do a number on that and i'm wondering you know like are the nine years now acclimated and they're good or are they like man this is terrible this has been a week of this because the ramps i can't imagine that's going to be good for kind of the you know what i'm

54:26Sheil Kapadia:talking about billy here didn't didn't you tell us once that you had an uncle that came here from abroad and didn't go to the bathroom the entire time or something that's right muck and uncle

54:34Diante Lee:Yeah.

54:35Sheil Kapadia:Yeah.

54:35Diante Lee:Yeah. You know, he was, yeah, he, and he was very upset. He almost flew back to India because he was constipated. It was like there had to be a whole, Deontay, there had to be the whole family meeting of how can we get this guy, get some things moving there. He was so upset. Well, why didn't he give him like that? That's happening at the rims. Or something. Frank, I am, I am 100%. I am loving just the idea that Matthew Stafford can't escape a third down pressure because he didn't get his morning poop in. listen and I can speak because he's he's a little older I can speak to when you're a little bit older and that's it affects you a little bit more you know it's not like you're in your 20s and you're not thinking about it so I do think it could it's a shame too

55:17Sheil Kapadia:because Australia obviously famously has the toilet to spin the other way around so you know you'd want to take advantage

55:23Diante Lee:yeah

55:23Sheil Kapadia:because they're on a different hemisphere so instead of you know flushing clockwise or whatever they flush counterclockwise you never heard this shield no

55:31Diante Lee:I don't know anything about what you're talking about.

55:33Sheil Kapadia:Deontay, you don't know about this either? I'm totally unaware. Oh my gosh.

55:38Diante Lee:All right. Well, they do have the good coffee in Australia. So maybe that'll help them a little bit, get things moving. But listen, any enterprising journalists out there, if you tackle this angle of the story, I can guarantee you a shout out on a future Ringer NFL show.

55:56Sheil Kapadia:I mean, you have the guy that could have asked them about this because he's doing the game. and he's assigned to that team. We're just getting to know him, Billy.

56:04Diante Lee:Really? I can't be asking him to go report on the constipation situation with these two teams.

56:10Sheil Kapadia:Now that he's not here, how are you feeling? It's going so far. You're just saying you're getting to... It's going well. You're not entirely comfortable asking him yet to ask about the bathroom situation.

56:18Diante Lee:Well, you know, that's kind of a different level of intimacy with the person.

56:22Sheil Kapadia:I would say this, and we could talk about it when Tom comes back, but I feel like if Tom was assigned signed specifically to the Rams, he should have done the Rams experience also, correct?

56:35Diante Lee:Wow. Well, he's got to do what Netflix is, you know?

56:38Sheil Kapadia:Yeah, but Netflix should have said, hey, this is kind of like a crazy plan. Let's have him do the crazy plan with that.

56:43Diante Lee:That would have been good content. Yeah, he did exactly what they're doing. Yeah, you're right about that. Well, it's too late, Billy. Next time. Next time. Next time there in Australia. All right. There you go. All right. That was winners and losers, and also a look ahead to the second game of the NFL season. All right, thank you to Billy Gill. Thank you to Deontay Lee. And of course, thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing additional production supervision by Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal. I'm Shiel Kapadia. We'll talk to you after Rams 49ers on the Ringling NFL Show.

57:28Diante Lee:21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 and support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.