Latest / Unicorn Football Talk / Reaction: NFL Week 1
Transcript
- Emily: Hello, we are here to talk about NFL week one. We're a little bit late to the party. Sorry we're putting this out late in the week. Hopefully we'll be able to put these episodes out a little bit closer to the end of the week. But we're here. We're still doing it, right, Hillary? Hilary: We are here. We are doing it and I am psyched. Week one in the books. Let's go. Emily: In the books. it delivered. I feel like it delivered. Now, I can't watch every game. I'm sure you can't watch every game, but the ones I watched were really entertaining. but I read today that the audience, overall, average audience per game. dropped 13% from week one last year. And I know it didn't drop for me. I watched just as much as I did last year. Hilary: Yeah, that's interesting. I hadn't heard that yet. Any ideas why? I th that kind of surprises me. That seems like a significant drop. Emily: No, I have no idea because I feel like the Wednesday game was a great matchup. I mean, it's the beginning of the season. The Thursday game, what a great matchup. Texas Bills, great, which we'll get into, great matchup. The Sunday night game. I'm a little tired of Dallas. Dallas and the the Giants. But anyway, Hilary: We're gonna talk about that later. Yeah. Emily: okay, to answer your question, no clue. that surprised me 'cause I watched just as much. Hilary: Yeah, I did too. I I I took in a lot of games last weekend and through this last week. Emily: All right. Well, since this is our first time doing this, I will say that Tuesday, this is not a Tuesday, is a classic overreaction. You can you can easily overreact to what happened the weekend before and there's nothing like the first Tuesday after week one. Like like is Arizona really that good and the Chargers are that bad? That's the kind of stuff. So I don't like to overreact personally. I like to keep it all in check and I'm not super worried about one team or holding one team up above other teams at this point. Hilary: Agree. It's it's new. As much as a lot of the teams have, you know, tried to work things out in the preseason and stuff. There's new coaches, there's personnel changes. most of the teams have scrimmaged against themselves. A lot of times, starters don't play in the preseason very much. So I'm gonna chalk some things up to being a little rusty, So here we go. Emily: All right, let's get to it. Let's start with Seahawks Patriots. It seems so long ago now. I was at that game and I'll just say it was great to see how great the atmosphere was in the stadium. I've complained a little bit to you about in general, it feels like the stadium experience has been lackluster, but it was really amped up. Obviously, first game of the season, Super Bowl champions. Richard Sherman raised the flag, who's one of my all-time favorite Seahawks. So that was like a goosebumps moment for me. Hilary: And They did the big s fan appreciation ceremony and the unveiling of the championship flag and all of that, right? Emily: Yeah, but I have to say, I felt like they messed it up. Like there was something off. Like like all of a sudden I was like, look, the banner is there. Like they didn't say we're now unveiling the banner. and there were a few moments during the game where I felt like they were rusty as well. Like they were showing Hilary: Mm. Okay. Emily: they were showing some videos as plays are about to start. Like so they were just off. And so it was still a great moment, but it Mm, maybe wasn't as like hyped as I would have liked it. Hilary: Okay. Well, the game was sure hyped. Emily: The game was disappointing and exciting at the same time. I mean, Sam Darnold going down. who wants to see their QB one go down? And I didn't even know. I was like, the guy next to me all of a sudden is like, why is Drew Locke in the game? So, wow, Drew Locke is in the game for the Super Bowl champs. And it's kind of like mixed feelings on how he did, but he really did a good job in terms of managing the game and not messing up in a major way. And he didn't practice his QB one. So overall you gotta give him a pretty good grade. Hilary: Yeah, I think given the situation he came in and played just great and did what was asked of him. Emily: Yeah, and we won. but I think we didn't win because of Drew Locke. We won because of the defense and the outstanding end to the game with multiple turnovers, the pick on Drake May in the end zone. I cannot believe he threw the ball there. And instead of a tie or a touchdown and overtime, whatever, we just won outright. Stunning. Wonderful. Love it. Hilary: Yeah. The dark side looks good. The dark side looks Emily: They look good. Hilary: really good. Emily: and so we'll see. Drew Locke is starting this weekend in Arizona. I guess that's about as soft a landing as you can get, even though, as we'll talk about Arizona won last weekend. Okay, I'm moving on. On the Hilary: Okay. Emily: theme of overreaction, if you want to overreact, the Rams looked awful and the 49ers looked amazing. Now I don't think the Rams are that bad. I think the Forty Niners might be that good though. they are getting some of their key defensive players back from last season. I love the whole conversation on whether they should have come to Australia early. Sean McVay is just so full of himself. He's thinking he doesn't need to do it. So I'd like to think it's because Sean McVeigh messed up in their travel schedule. Hilary: Yeah, that was an interesting choice on the team's part to just kind of roll with the we're gonna show up the day before, just push through our sleep schedule, training schedule, play the game. And I mean, they were right back out out of there, out of town right after two. that might have backfired on them. Emily: Might have cannot wait to see how they play this weekend. Miles Garrett being out on IR. I mean, who saw that coming? Not me. Aaron Donald, can't wait to see if he plays this weekend. Hilary: Y yeah. I don't think anybody saw Miles Garrett's injury coming. And that's IR, that's four weeks minimum, right? Emily: Yeah, correct. Or maybe you know, maybe more if it's a knee, but four week four Hilary: Maybe more, yeah. Emily: weeks minimum. Okay, moving on. Texans Bills. I think this is one of the games that I circled super excited that I got it because I don't have any special packages or anything. wow, that was a really fun game. Did you know there were nine lead changes? It was just very back and forth. Hilary: I knew there were a lot, I didn't count, but that's so cool. That was a crazy game. Emily: Yeah, and I had picked Bills and Texans were both teams that I kind of w if you if y'all listen to the podcast we did about who to root for, I like both those teams, but I was pulling for the Bills in that game. But I was happy to see CJ Stroud looked he looked okay to me. He didn't look like he did at the end of last season. Hilary: He looked okay and man, their defensive guide dropped what would have been the INT in the end zone and gave Josh Allen another chance. Don't give him another Emily: Yeah. Hilary: chance. Don't give him a second go at it ever. He's gonna make you pay. Emily: No, it was it was just a close game, and it could have been either of their Hilary: Yeah. Emily: games, and they're both gonna be fine, in my opinion. but yeah, it was it was an early good matchup in week one. All right, I'm gonna move on. Arizona beating the Chargers. I mean, that's gotta be the biggest shock from the weekend. I believe that that game had the biggest spread. obviously in favor of the Chargers beating Arizona. So that was a shocker. They must be reeling in LA. Hilary: Yeah, but you know, again, the overreaction thing, I don't think that that game is indicative of how the Chargers season is gonna go. I do think in that game they were sloppy and there was a lack of attention to detail. I don't know, did you watch the game? They had this key play in the second quarter and they were on it, they had a really good drive going and they stalled out to face fourth and goal. And instead of the kicking the field goal for the tie, they went for it. And Cardinals tackle Dante Stills just sacked Herbert for a 10-yard loss, turnover on downs. And they kind of never recovered from that. And so in total, they turned the ball over three times on downs and crossed the midfield once in the second half. And I think they had a punt block too. I just it it was not good. Next up for them is the Raiders. I'll be watching to see how they bounce back. From that loss. And that's in LA, but you know, the Raiders travel really great. So I'm expecting not much home field advantage there either. Emily: for sure. It'll be full of Raiders fans. I did not watch that game, but I will be watching the Cardinals play this weekend our Seahawks. Hilary: Okay. Go Hawks. Emily: All right, Gohawks. the Bears. I guess we have to mention the Bears scoring fifty-nine points. This is not a college team. This is a pro team. And I don't know if you caught that Ben Johnson came out at the beginning of the season saying he wanted to have the highest scoring offense in the history of the NFL. Hilary: Okay, so that would be more than the Broncos, right? The Broncos hold that record, I think. Emily: Yes, yes, yes, more than the Broncos. So I guess if it's if it's my coach and my team, I'm gonna love a comment like that. But as an as a fan of another team, I don't like it. And I'm hoping that they can be slowed down. Hilary: Okay. I like the Bears a lot. I think they're gonna be good this season, but you know, that was against the Panthers and quite honestly the Panthers scored a bunch of points too. So I'm gonna go with the defense was missing an action for both teams on that one. Emily: Okay, that's why we play the whole season. Hilary: Right. Emily: Okay, let's talk about Lions Saints. I did not see that game. I did not expect it to go down to the why well, weren't they up like 21-0 or something? The Lions and the Saints came back. I don't know if you Hilary: Yes. Yeah, they came back to tie it and send it to Emily: So Hilary: overtime. Emily: yeah, they sent it to overtime and then at the end the Saints went for two to win instead of one to tie again and to keep O T going. Hilary: And that's kind of a gutsy call, right? And like, isn't that kind of I mean, isn't that Dan Campbell's move usually like to go for the win? So Emily: Yeah. Hilary: a little irony there that but hey, can we talk about the Vikings Packers? Emily: Yeah, let's do it. Hilary: That was wild. Emily: Wow. Wow. Wow. Hilary: Yeah. Emily: Wow. I thought for sure well Kyler, I guess, threw an interception on his first pass. Hilary: Correct. Emily: And then out with a concussion, Hilary: Yeah, yeah. They okay. So first off, Kyler Murray goes out concussion. Hello, Carson Wentz. Second, you know, backup quarterback, JJ McCarthy, third on the third sitting there on the bench, right? Like so nobody predicted that. And yeah, Green Bay kind of looked like they had everything in hand. And when I tuned in, gosh, I don't know, it was after the halftime. So they were up and they had this kind of crucial play, I guess I'm gonna call it, where let me see if I get this right. Correct me if I'm not. They kicked the field goal, the Packers did, and Emily: Right. Hilary: the Vikings were called for offsides. Emily: Offside. So it made it like a f instead of like a fourth and six or something, it was like a fourth and one. Yeah. Hilary: Right, but they'd made the field goal, right? So they make the choice to take the points off the board and go for it on fourth and one. Have I got that right? Emily: Yes, you do. That's what happened. And guess what happened? They didn't make it. They didn't make it. They didn't make it. Hilary: Okay. Well, I know, but tell me, they didn't make it, right? They didn't make it. So now all of a sudden the Vikings get the ball on their own 17 on turnover of the ball on downs, and they start to drive the other way. And I lost count, but I think the Packers committed three, maybe four. major penalties that helped sustain that drive. And from that point on, it was just kind of this massive Green Bay meltdown. They could never get it together. And in the end, Minnesota scored 29 unanswered points and won by by a lot. I think that Matt LaFleur's popularity in Green Bay probably took a hit this week. That's my guess. Emily: I mean, all can be right after week two. I mean, like one week later he Hilary: Yeah. Do you feel like this Emily: could be okay. Hilary: do you feel like Green Bay's coming up game is kind of a must win though? I mean, they they can't start 0 2, right? Okay, anyway, final score on that one. Thirty nine twenty two Vikings. Crazy one. Emily: Crazy one. All right. I think we're gonna have to talk about the Chiefs Broncos. I don't really want to. mainly because in Seattle we were watching Kenneth Walker, who is the AFC offensive player of the week, run all over the Broncos defense. I think The big talking point for us for years is why we never really treated him like a running back one where he carry the load all the time. we don't know. We're not in the room with with with the Seahawks, but what we suspected was that, you know, he's been injured and they're trying to keep reps from him to keep him going for the whole season. So I think it'll be fascinating to see will he play the full season for the Chiefs in that role? Hilary: Yeah, I don't know that he has a staying healthy all season track record with that level of workload. So for him I hope so, but boy, he looked good. He looked really good. And the Broncos Emily: Yeah. Hilary: did not. The Broncos did not look good. Emily: Not yeah. that'll be another one that'll be interesting to watch next week to see how they bounce back. But also just shout out Manning Cast, which I don't really watch, even though I love the Mannings. it's more of a show. Like if they was just them talking football, I think I would more likely watch it. But they like to have on different personalities and celebrities, and I'm just less interested. But They did have Mike McDonald on and what a great gift that was. Like he looked loose, he was funny, and I would have turned off the game because it was such a blowout, but it was really enjoyable to see Mike McDonald. Hilary: He looked like he was still at work. Emily: I think he was still at work for sure. Yeah. He was still at work. Which is good. That's what I wanna hear. You know, that's what I wanna hear. Hilary: Right, right. Okay. Moving on. The Giants were a team that I highlighted in a prior podcast as a team that I was optimistically hopeful for this season. And you know, they delivered. I was so excited. I had kind of circled that Cowboys Giants game. And last May, after I think after the draft, John Harbaugh said that his plan was to build a team good enough to, and I'm gonna quote here, kick the Cowboys' ass. Unquote. Did he succeed? Yeah. At least for this game on Sunday, which the Giants won 28-20. I think the game was not as close as the score leads you to believe. I think the Giants Emily: Yeah, same. Hilary: play the Giants played well. Jackson Dart played well, certainly better than Dak. And I think he appears comfortable with the new offensive plan from Matt Nagy. Yeah, there were some fumbles and there were some penalties. And unbelievably, on the fumbles, I think there were four. The Giants recovered all but one of them. And the team kept playing. Like they kept, you know. One play at a time, just stacking the positive stuff. I think my really big takeaway from all of that is that the culture in the organization is already changing under Haba and the Giants fans are gonna get a good product every Sunday. Emily: Well, wha after one week I would agree, Hilary: Yep. Emily: but we'll see. We'll see. Hilary: Okay. Emily: I decided I don't want to mention the Browns. Like what does there e even say at this point? It's it's the Browns. They they showed up the way you would expect, right? We can probably just move on from that one. Moving Hilary: Yep, moving on. Emily: on. Hilary: Okay, Steelers Falcons. Emily: DK did not play well. He did not play well. He dropped passes. He was called for offensive pass interference twice. That does not happen very often. And he got called twice in a game. Gained 40 yards on 10 targets, I guess, or maybe maybe he had more targets. I'm not sure. Hilary: Okay. The call out I have on that game is TJ Watt. He had a phenomenal game. four tackles, three for a loss, two sacks, two quarterback hits, and an interception, which he returned for a touchdown. I feel like he kind of took over the game in the fourth quarter and really bailed out the Steelers' offense. I thought their offense was kind of mediocre. And gives Mike McCarthy his first win on the home opener. So that's all I have to say on that one. Any further comments on that? Emily: No, Let's move on. Hilary: Okay. Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Bengals versus the Bucks. 33 27 Bengals. the Bengals had a solid game. All three position groups contributing. Joe Burrow had a pretty solid day. One T D, one interception, which unfortunately was a pick six, but he had 254 yards. the Bengals kicker McPherson had four field goals, two of them from really long in the second half. I think he hit a 55 and a 58 yarder. And the bright spot for the Bengals is the improved defense. And of course, I'm going to call out our former Seahawk, Boye Mafei, and also Brian Cook acquired in the offseason. They both had big games, each had forced fumbles. And all in all, the defense had four turnovers, and the Bengals took advantage, scored 24 points off of Tampa Bay's mistakes. So all I really have to say about Tampa Bay is that three of those mistakes were on Baker Mayfield. Two sack fumbles and a third fumble when he was scrambling. Up next for the Bengals at Houston. That's a game to watch for me, and the Bucks host Cleveland. Emily: Yeah, okay. Well, I don't think we're planning to cover every game. I don't know if we did. I don't think we're planning to do that every week. But we're just Hilary: Nope. We can't we came cl we came close, but yeah. Emily: you know just calling out the stuff that stood out to us. Hilary: I've got a couple matchups that are circled for me for the coming week. Vikings, Bears, Jaguars, Broncos, and the Monday night game, which is the Giants versus the Rams. Emily: All right, well, enjoy the Thursday night game coming up, hopefully, and the week Hilary: Yeah. Yeah. As soon as we log off here. Emily: enjoy week two, Hillary, and cannot wait to see how these storylines change in week two. Hilary: All right, Bye Emily.