Latest / NFL Power Rankings / #2: Are Chiefs in Big Trouble?
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in
- 0:07Speaker 1: partnership with iHeartRadio.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Welcome to a brand new edition of NFL Power Rankings. Boy,
- 0:18Speaker 2: Week one did not disappoint as exciting a football that
- 0:22Speaker 2: you can actually watch the start off the entire season.
- 0:25Speaker 3: Mike am Eric at home with you.
- 0:26Speaker 2: For complete analysis on all thirty two teams, all you
- 0:29Speaker 2: have to do is check out.
- 0:30Speaker 3: Eric column on NFL dot com. But Eric, is this hyperbole? Man?
- 0:33Speaker 2: Was this one of the best Week ones in recent memory?
- 0:36Speaker 4: Some great matchups and some fantastic results, especially in the
- 0:39Speaker 4: primetime games, right, But we had some great games in
- 0:41Speaker 4: the early window on Sunday too, a lot of close ones.
- 0:44Speaker 4: Defense is mostly ahead of offenses, but a couple of
- 0:47Speaker 4: shootouts as well. So a buffet of football excitement for everybody.
- 0:51Speaker 3: Yeah, and some of the really good games.
- 0:53Speaker 2: I felt like it was a high level of execution
- 0:55Speaker 2: that you don't always see in Week number one in
- 0:57Speaker 2: the MVPs obviously from the last two seasons. Gave us
- 1:00Speaker 2: as good of a game as we're going to get
- 1:02Speaker 2: in a Week one. But that's where we start here.
- 1:04Speaker 3: Eight teams. According to Eric, You see.
- 1:06Speaker 2: The Philadelphia Eagles still sitting in that top spot. Buffalo
- 1:09Speaker 2: with scoring that huge win against Baltimore, they move up
- 1:12Speaker 2: a spot. Moving down here, the Ravens at four, the
- 1:15Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers moving up two spots. I feel like
- 1:18Speaker 2: this team is one that we're going to be talking
- 1:19Speaker 2: about in the entire season. The Kansas City Chiefs at five,
- 1:23Speaker 2: the Bucks Antoine Winfield as fun of a defensive players
- 1:26Speaker 2: you will get in the NFL. His team at six,
- 1:28Speaker 2: the Commanders at seven, and the Detroit Lions. They drop
- 1:32Speaker 2: three spots. They're still in the top eight for how
- 1:35Speaker 2: long might be one of those massive questions that we
- 1:37Speaker 2: are going to ask, But the Buffalo Bills have to
- 1:40Speaker 2: be the starting point in this show. Josh Allen was remarkable.
- 1:44Speaker 2: How much do you attribute to his arm and just
- 1:46Speaker 2: a resiliency around and the mental fortitude around this Bills
- 1:50Speaker 2: team that they were able to score this win.
- 1:52Speaker 4: Yeah, there might be half a dozen quarterbacks in the
- 1:54Speaker 4: league who can pull off what Josh did on Sunday night.
- 1:58Speaker 4: And the other one of the other half dozen was
- 2:00Speaker 4: on the other side of the field. So look, obviously,
- 2:03Speaker 4: for most of the game, the Ravens look like the
- 2:06Speaker 4: better team. Josh Allen went nuclear in the fourth quarter,
- 2:09Speaker 4: he was outstanding. The Bills defense finally got some stops though,
- 2:12Speaker 4: that was obviously a huge development, and I get why
- 2:15Speaker 4: there's there's concern about that unit. I really do. For
- 2:18Speaker 4: you know, the first eight drives of the game, it
- 2:20Speaker 4: wasn't looking pretty. Four hundred and ten yards forty points.
- 2:23Speaker 4: Things just weren't happen on that side of the ball.
- 2:25Speaker 4: That's really what we're going to be judging this team by.
- 2:27Speaker 4: Are they super Bowl quality and can their defense, you know,
- 2:31Speaker 4: help raise them to that level. So through one game,
- 2:34Speaker 4: I think you'd say no, but they finished strong and
- 2:36Speaker 4: they're gonna get help. I think it's really about January
- 2:39Speaker 4: at this point, right, You'll get Maxwell Harriston, you'll get
- 2:41Speaker 4: the two defensive linemen who are suspended six games. You're
- 2:45Speaker 4: gonna get some reinforcements, and you just look at what
- 2:47Speaker 4: the AFC East did Sunday. The Bills are going to
- 2:50Speaker 4: win this division of allens healthy. So take your time,
- 2:53Speaker 4: figure out ways to slow down explosive offenses like Baltimore's,
- 2:57Speaker 4: and come up with the solutions sometime in the next
- 2:59Speaker 4: three months. Here.
- 3:00Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned the Baltimore Ravens. They sit number three
- 3:03Speaker 2: in your power rankings.
- 3:04Speaker 3: Bear with me here.
- 3:06Speaker 2: I think back two years ago, Zay Flowers in the postseason,
- 3:08Speaker 2: Mark Andrews last year, Week one last year, Isaiah Likely
- 3:11Speaker 2: and the near touchdown against the Kansas City Chiefs.
- 3:13Speaker 3: The Raiders game comes to.
- 3:14Speaker 2: Mind where they have a big lead and they blow
- 3:16Speaker 2: it in the second half and then they're in control
- 3:19Speaker 2: on Sunday Night against the Bills. How much should Ravens
- 3:23Speaker 2: fans be worried about this inability to close when they
- 3:27Speaker 2: seem to have a stranglehold in these big moments.
- 3:29Speaker 4: Yeah, opening some wounds there for Ravens fans. They've been
- 3:32Speaker 4: through it, every franchise has, but they've had some particularly
- 3:35Speaker 4: tough wins, especially when it seems obvious to the eye
- 3:38Speaker 4: tests when they're the better team on the field, they've
- 3:41Speaker 4: got the fourth quarter lead. I mean, you know, this
- 3:43Speaker 4: is the sixth time they've lost the game since two
- 3:45Speaker 4: thousand and two, so we're talking really the last three
- 3:48Speaker 4: seasons with a lead of nine points or more in
- 3:51Speaker 4: the fourth quarter. I mean, you know, obviously, when the
- 3:53Speaker 4: stakes are at the level of tiebreaker game at Buffalo
- 3:58Speaker 4: potential playoff opponent, that's big. Even if it's Week one
- 4:01Speaker 4: We know the history and the playoffs and other big games,
- 4:04Speaker 4: so you know, look, this is just another one they
- 4:06Speaker 4: have to swallow. They've had other, you know, at least
- 4:08Speaker 4: one or two games per year the last few seasons
- 4:11Speaker 4: where they just have a terrible hiccup against a bad
- 4:13Speaker 4: team too. So you know, these are the questions I
- 4:16Speaker 4: think that that people are pointing at John Harbaugh Todd
- 4:19Speaker 4: munk In, the offensive coordinator. As great a game as
- 4:22Speaker 4: Lamar had, the facts are he only had the ball
- 4:25Speaker 4: in his hands at least, you know, definitively in his
- 4:27Speaker 4: hands on three of the last eight plays. You can't
- 4:30Speaker 4: predict Derek Henry fummeel, but Lamar should should have the
- 4:34Speaker 4: ball in his hands. He did well when he had it. Now.
- 4:36Speaker 2: I mean Derek Henry, by the way, just for context,
- 4:38Speaker 2: one lost fumble a season ago, and then he loses one.
- 4:41Speaker 2: Yeah on Sunday Night, Like these are Mark Andrews shorthanded
- 4:44Speaker 2: fly Like I can point to these things and they're
- 4:47Speaker 2: like right there. And I said this to you last
- 4:49Speaker 2: week on the show. I got to see this team
- 4:51Speaker 2: in person in the preseason. The last two seasons. I
- 4:54Speaker 2: got to tell you, walk off the field every single time,
- 4:56Speaker 2: and I go, how does this team ever lose a game?
- 4:58Speaker 3: I mean, they are that loaded. The talent is there,
- 5:01Speaker 3: and hopefully this is just a.
- 5:02Speaker 2: One off and we're talking about them and maybe this
- 5:04Speaker 2: is a previous the AFC Championship game. But nonetheless, I mean,
- 5:07Speaker 2: it was fireworks. It was a great game, It was
- 5:09Speaker 2: entertaining and sorry to open up those wounds for Baltimore Ravelos.
- 5:12Speaker 3: Who are basically like my adopted team.
- 5:14Speaker 2: By the way, I'm a Giants fan, but Lamar Jackson
- 5:16Speaker 2: is one of my favorite players, if not my favorite
- 5:18Speaker 2: player to watch. But a lot of focus this offseason
- 5:21Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks on the Green Bay Packers.
- 5:22Speaker 2: According to fan Duel, these are the odds to win
- 5:25Speaker 2: the NFC North. They are the driver's seed. Hello, and
- 5:28Speaker 2: I think there's some concern about the Detroit Lions. We
- 5:30Speaker 2: saw the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night score a win
- 5:33Speaker 2: against the Chicago Bears. All right, time for future champions
- 5:37Speaker 2: and it is presented by fan Duel. Are the Green
- 5:39Speaker 2: Bay Packers the future champs of this division?
- 5:42Speaker 3: Here?
- 5:42Speaker 2: I mean Micah hat his impact and his fingerprints on
- 5:46Speaker 2: the defense was there. Jordan Love I thought was slinging it,
- 5:48Speaker 2: picking up right where he left off last year. I'm
- 5:51Speaker 2: worried if I'm in this division of the Packers.
- 5:54Speaker 4: And first of all, how much has changed in one week, right?
- 5:57Speaker 4: I mean just the perception seeing Parsons out there with
- 5:59Speaker 4: that defense, right, seeing the Lions struggle offensively as well,
- 6:04Speaker 4: seeing what the Bears and Vikings. Where we knew all
- 6:06Speaker 4: four teams were good, but now we get a bigger
- 6:08Speaker 4: picture of what's actually going on in the division. And
- 6:11Speaker 4: I think you have every right to be if you're
- 6:12Speaker 4: an NFC North player not on the Green Bay package,
- 6:15Speaker 4: you have every right to think, Wow, this team could
- 6:18Speaker 4: be special by the end of the regular season. Parsons,
- 6:21Speaker 4: in only twenty nine to thirty snaps, had a terrific game.
- 6:24Speaker 4: I mean, he really made his imprint, but it was
- 6:26Speaker 4: the rest of the defense that seemed fired up as well.
- 6:29Speaker 4: And outside of one late series Jordan Love was a
- 6:31Speaker 4: little shaky, had a dropped interception, had one that was
- 6:34Speaker 4: called back by penalty. He was really darn good. This
- 6:37Speaker 4: is the moment, right for all Packers fans. They cheered
- 6:39Speaker 4: him when his name was announced to start the game,
- 6:41Speaker 4: and then they cheered him on that big sack to
- 6:43Speaker 4: close things out, and if you could do it going
- 6:45Speaker 4: up against the likes of Penny Well, I mean, that's fantastic.
- 6:49Speaker 4: Like this is going to be a great one on
- 6:52Speaker 4: one rivalry and also a great team rivalry too. But
- 6:55Speaker 4: I think, like you asked, you have to at least
- 6:58Speaker 4: consider them very strong contenders in the North, if not
- 7:02Speaker 4: super Bowl potential if everything goes on the path that's
- 7:05Speaker 4: on right now.
- 7:05Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think there was some I don't want
- 7:08Speaker 2: to say sketch moments, but I look, I mean, I
- 7:10Speaker 2: know JJ McCarthy that was his first career start against
- 7:13Speaker 2: the Chicago Bears.
- 7:15Speaker 3: They win that game.
- 7:16Speaker 2: I think there's concerns about the Lions, who we'll talk
- 7:18Speaker 2: to talk about in just a moment here the Packers,
- 7:20Speaker 2: and I get it. It's just one week, and lord knows,
- 7:23Speaker 2: I mean after TNF we might have a very different
- 7:25Speaker 2: conversation next week. They're going up against a very good
- 7:27Speaker 2: Washington Commander's team. But at least for right now, we
- 7:30Speaker 2: can give them their flowers. They can flex and that
- 7:32Speaker 2: is an impressive win against a team that I think
- 7:35Speaker 2: many felt like was maybe the best in the NFC
- 7:38Speaker 2: in the Detroit Lions Meanwhile, these Chantas City Chiefs sitting
- 7:42Speaker 2: at number five. Right now, I see a collision on
- 7:45Speaker 2: the fields between Travis Kelce and Xavier Worthy. There's concerns
- 7:51Speaker 2: right now because of that shoulder injury, some lack of
- 7:53Speaker 2: explosive plays down the field. How concerns should I be
- 7:56Speaker 2: about the Chiefs and that offense and more specifically a
- 7:58Speaker 2: loss against La.
- 8:00Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, obviously, travel all the way to Brazil,
- 8:02Speaker 4: you want to come away with a win, especially against
- 8:04Speaker 4: the team that you've had good success against. And it
- 8:07Speaker 4: just didn't happen. Right. The defense struggled that injury you
- 8:09Speaker 4: mentioned right at the start of the game. There kind
- 8:12Speaker 4: of shades of Hollywood Brown getting hurt on his first
- 8:14Speaker 4: preseason snap last year. Look, Hollywood did his job in
- 8:18Speaker 4: this one. They schemed up a touchdown for Kelsey. Taekwon
- 8:20Speaker 4: Thornton had to play late in this game. You know,
- 8:23Speaker 4: Juju did his role. But they seem to be kind
- 8:26Speaker 4: of missing something that will arrive when Rashid Rice is
- 8:29Speaker 4: off suspension. But they've got to go five more games
- 8:31Speaker 4: all of a sudden, starting with Philly on Sunday, a
- 8:33Speaker 4: team that absolutely destroyed him, at least for the first
- 8:36Speaker 4: part of the Super Bowl there, and yeah, I mean
- 8:38Speaker 4: it's just one of those things where we watched them
- 8:42Speaker 4: straight by week after week to fifteen wins give them
- 8:45Speaker 4: their credit, but still every single week you saw the
- 8:48Speaker 4: limitations of a lack of receiver threat there last year.
- 8:53Speaker 4: It's starting to crop up again a little bit now.
- 8:55Speaker 4: If they come out and play a great game this week,
- 8:57Speaker 4: Mahomes is back to normal. He does his thing. The
- 9:00Speaker 4: defense responds, Okay, we can have a normal conversation, but
- 9:04Speaker 4: you know the disabilities that they're ower and two after
- 9:06Speaker 4: this game, and you know it's going to look a
- 9:08Speaker 4: whole lot different, I think, So we'll see Week one
- 9:12Speaker 4: is Week one. I tried out to be the reactionary type,
- 9:14Speaker 4: but you have to look at what the reality is
- 9:17Speaker 4: right now. And it's a little bit scary.
- 9:18Speaker 2: Yeah, because if it isn't oh and two start, that's
- 9:20Speaker 2: not how many people would have drawn it up before
- 9:23Speaker 2: the season. By the way, I think the bigger question
- 9:25Speaker 2: in this, and we will discuss, is where the Chargers
- 9:27Speaker 2: now sit in your rankings, because that was an impressive
- 9:30Speaker 2: win and what does that do for the perception of
- 9:32Speaker 2: that organization and really justin Herbert, but the Detroit Lions.
- 9:36Speaker 2: They dropped three spots for you. They moved to now
- 9:38Speaker 2: number eight. Had a research team look this up. Eight
- 9:42Speaker 2: coaches left from last year's staff to this year. I
- 9:44Speaker 2: know we talked about coordinators, but eight coaches is a
- 9:47Speaker 2: really significant number. How much do you attribute that to
- 9:50Speaker 2: the result that we saw in Week one?
- 9:52Speaker 4: It just wasn't the same look as last year. Everything
- 9:55Speaker 4: was labored offensively. I can't say how much of an
- 9:59Speaker 4: impact it was that. You know, John Morton's in his
- 10:01Speaker 4: first game of playing a calling plays for this team.
- 10:04Speaker 4: You know, obviously you think about the way they built
- 10:07Speaker 4: this team. Dan Campbell kind of held Ben you know,
- 10:10Speaker 4: Johnson's hand for half a year until he kind of
- 10:12Speaker 4: got going. So I think Campbell deserves some of the
- 10:15Speaker 4: blame too. For Sunday as well, everything was short. Everything
- 10:18Speaker 4: took a lot more effort to get downfield, and it
- 10:21Speaker 4: just lacked the explosiveness we saw last year, the creativity
- 10:24Speaker 4: and all that. But there's time. I'm not going to
- 10:27Speaker 4: bury this team after one game. Was it disappointing? Absolutely?
- 10:31Speaker 4: You know, Terry and Arnold gets hurt on defense, you
- 10:33Speaker 4: shrug because you go, that's exactly what happened. Last year too,
- 10:36Speaker 4: same thing with the Chiefs, right, the same story seems
- 10:39Speaker 4: to be kind of playing out again. You hope it
- 10:41Speaker 4: doesn't go any further, but this is still the Lions.
- 10:44Speaker 4: Campbell's built a level of trust with this locker room.
- 10:47Speaker 4: They have a lot of veteran pieces in place. I
- 10:50Speaker 4: think they're going to rebound starting with this game against
- 10:52Speaker 4: Chicago this week. But you know that new offensive line
- 10:56Speaker 4: struggle a little bit, there were some issues in other places,
- 10:59Speaker 4: and so you know they got their work cut out
- 11:01Speaker 4: for him, no doubt about it.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Yeah, Ben Johnson gets to go against his former score.
- 11:04Speaker 2: If you tell me what's more likely the Bears go,
- 11:06Speaker 2: oh and to where the lines go?
- 11:07Speaker 3: Oh and two? I think we all know the answer
- 11:10Speaker 3: to that.
- 11:11Speaker 2: I look for as much as I like talking about
- 11:13Speaker 2: the top teams one through ay, to me, there's some
- 11:16Speaker 2: really juicy storylines teams nine through sixteen. We got the
- 11:19Speaker 2: Rams that scored a big win, the Vikings came back
- 11:22Speaker 2: on Monday Night football, and oh, by the way, Bots
- 11:25Speaker 2: up the Chargers and what we saw. We will tell
- 11:27Speaker 2: you exactly where those three teams and the rest of
- 11:29Speaker 2: nine through sixteen sit coming up next back here on
- 11:41Speaker 2: Power rankings along with Eric at home, Mike Am with you,
- 11:44Speaker 2: teams nine through sixteen. According to Eric at nine, it's
- 11:46Speaker 2: the dev Broncos. They got to win and that's the
- 11:48Speaker 2: only thing that matters. The Rams, who we'll talk about
- 11:50Speaker 2: sid ten, the Vikings at eleven, Cincinnati fast start out
- 11:54Speaker 2: of the gate, how about going want to know all
- 11:56Speaker 2: that conversation about them? With those slow starts, they figured
- 11:59Speaker 2: out a way to get a dump and the still
- 12:01Speaker 2: drop two spots.
- 12:02Speaker 3: According to Eric, the Chargers at thirteen.
- 12:04Speaker 2: The Houston Texans with that loss to the Rams moved
- 12:06Speaker 2: down to fourteen. The San Francisco forty nine or State
- 12:09Speaker 2: still at fifteen, even though it looks like George Kittle's
- 12:12Speaker 2: going to a mystery to five weeks and Rock Purty
- 12:15Speaker 2: is banged up shoulder and tow injury, and we got
- 12:17Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rodgers, Pittsburgh Steelers at sixteen. We'll
- 12:21Speaker 2: chump chop it up a little bit about them in
- 12:23Speaker 2: just a moment. I'm actually glad we're talking Rams here.
- 12:26Speaker 2: I felt like lost in the week one conversation, Eric,
- 12:29Speaker 2: was the Rams scoring.
- 12:31Speaker 3: A sneakily like stud stud game.
- 12:34Speaker 2: I mean the Houston Texans, we feel like are a good,
- 12:35Speaker 2: good football team. There's been some issues with that team
- 12:38Speaker 2: starting off a little slow, a lot of it because
- 12:40Speaker 2: of injuries. But to me, and I think he wrote
- 12:42Speaker 2: it this way on NFL dot Com in your Power
- 12:44Speaker 2: Rankings column, like they'll take the win. I know every
- 12:46Speaker 2: team will take any sort of win, but to me,
- 12:48Speaker 2: this was a.
- 12:48Speaker 4: Good victory absolutely, you know, I mean defensively, they did
- 12:51Speaker 4: what they had to do, kept the Texans out of
- 12:53Speaker 4: the end zone. A Matthew Stafford look, I mean all
- 12:55Speaker 4: this question about is back. Maybe some people thought it
- 12:58Speaker 4: was a little bit for show or him trying to
- 12:59Speaker 4: get out of training camp. I don't think that was it.
- 13:02Speaker 4: I think these issues have been chronic, they have been occurring,
- 13:05Speaker 4: and they weren't sure what he was going to be like.
- 13:07Speaker 4: But he was pretty darn good. Gets a good Texans
- 13:11Speaker 4: defense twenty one out of twenty nine for two forty
- 13:13Speaker 4: five in a touchdown and that you know that includes
- 13:15Speaker 4: a throwaway. And I counted at least three drops in
- 13:18Speaker 4: the in that game, so you know, Nikua had to
- 13:20Speaker 4: miss a few snaps. He diced them up. Devanta Adams
- 13:23Speaker 4: made plays in his first Rams game. I think the
- 13:25Speaker 4: upgrade at receiver, and the question is if that offensive
- 13:28Speaker 4: line holds up, what is the ceiling for this team?
- 13:31Speaker 4: You know, remember they almost knocked off the Eagles of
- 13:33Speaker 4: the playoffs last year, and you know, at least so
- 13:36Speaker 4: far they've avoided the slow start that has plagued them
- 13:38Speaker 4: the last couple of years. So who knows. If they
- 13:40Speaker 4: get a little bit of a runway into the season,
- 13:41Speaker 4: they could be real dangerous.
- 13:43Speaker 3: I'm with you there.
- 13:43Speaker 2: They will match up on the road against Tennessee, who,
- 13:46Speaker 2: by the way, looked better than I would have thought.
- 13:47Speaker 2: I thought cam Ward had some really impressive froze in
- 13:50Speaker 2: that game. So we'll just drawing that out there. It
- 13:53Speaker 2: is a good win from a RAMS perspective. But it
- 13:55Speaker 2: is time for power moves. It's presented by Energizer, all right, Vikings,
- 14:00Speaker 2: they move up one spot and we're saying power moves
- 14:03Speaker 2: here because what I want witness for the first three
- 14:06Speaker 2: quarters is very different than what I saw from this
- 14:08Speaker 2: team in the fourth quarter. I got to spend some
- 14:09Speaker 2: time around this organization in the preseason. I think there
- 14:13Speaker 2: was some buzz and some excitement around JJ McCarthy. How
- 14:17Speaker 2: does that performance on Monday Night football impact. How you
- 14:21Speaker 2: think about them over the next few weeks.
- 14:23Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, as you said, if we're just looking
- 14:24Speaker 4: at McCarthy, there was more bad than good, right, just
- 14:27Speaker 4: in terms of sheer volume. Right, the three quarters, three sacks,
- 14:31Speaker 4: the pick six, you know, had fifty yards passing or
- 14:34Speaker 4: whatever it was just wasn't connecting. Everything was a tick slow.
- 14:38Speaker 4: He telegraphed that pass that was picked off by nay
- 14:40Speaker 4: Sean Wright. You know, everything sort of seemed like, Wow,
- 14:43Speaker 4: this is his preseason game or this is his welcome
- 14:45Speaker 4: to the NFL moment. But as soon as the Bears
- 14:48Speaker 4: missed that field goal, was like a switch flipped, you know,
- 14:51Speaker 4: and stallone in that arm wrestling movie. You turn the
- 14:54Speaker 4: hat around, something changes. I don't know what got into him,
- 14:57Speaker 4: but you know, the kid grew up down the street
- 15:00Speaker 4: watching Bears games and wearing Bears jerseys. Put another hung
- 15:03Speaker 4: another bat loss for that fan based on with three
- 15:07Speaker 4: incredible drives and Mike, I thought it started with the
- 15:10Speaker 4: run game. They get that going a little bit helped
- 15:12Speaker 4: kind of suck in some of those defenders and gave
- 15:14Speaker 4: him some more passing windows. But you know, you just
- 15:17Speaker 4: compare his night to Calen Williams who started out and
- 15:19Speaker 4: then tapered off. I think you'd have to say it was.
- 15:22Speaker 4: It was very encouraging, even with the slow start. If
- 15:25Speaker 4: you there aren't many quarterbacks, I don't think who could
- 15:27Speaker 4: have the kind of first three quarters that that JJ
- 15:30Speaker 4: did and be able to turn it around on the
- 15:32Speaker 4: road down double digit scores. You know that's or sorry
- 15:36Speaker 4: I double digit points. Rather, that's pretty pretty darn good.
- 15:39Speaker 3: In your first start.
- 15:40Speaker 2: Like I know, I said this before about the Broncos, right, like,
- 15:42Speaker 2: you take the win, the Rams, just take the win.
- 15:44Speaker 3: This is your first start, you have been injured.
- 15:47Speaker 2: For over a year because of the meniscustare that you
- 15:49Speaker 2: suffered in the preseason, and you're on the road against
- 15:52Speaker 2: the Chicago Bears. It don't matter how bad it looked
- 15:54Speaker 2: in the first three quarters. Like there's some moxie that
- 15:57Speaker 2: was there from JJ McCarthy. By the way, there's a
- 15:59Speaker 2: lot to unpack here and has nothing to do with football.
- 16:01Speaker 2: I did watch that movie back in the day, Over
- 16:03Speaker 2: the Top. I forgot the name of it.
- 16:04Speaker 4: Over the Top, thank you. I couldn't come up with it.
- 16:06Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty seven it was released, Like what is that?
- 16:10Speaker 2: I was six when that happened. And I when you
- 16:12Speaker 2: mentioned Stallone, you realize that there's like a fan base
- 16:15Speaker 2: that's watching the show right now that might not even
- 16:17Speaker 2: know Sylvester Stallon.
- 16:19Speaker 3: Like does that make you.
- 16:19Speaker 4: Say, I don't even know nineteen eighty seven, right, I mean,
- 16:22Speaker 4: they don't, they don't know any of this stuff. So
- 16:24Speaker 4: we're bringing them back to the old school here, I
- 16:26Speaker 4: think on this show.
- 16:27Speaker 2: Eric, you know, I used to be young back in
- 16:29Speaker 2: the day, and you can sort of see a lot
- 16:30Speaker 2: of the gray hairs that are creeping in nineteen eighty seven.
- 16:32Speaker 3: Once again, I was six. I remember that movie Flip
- 16:35Speaker 3: the cap around the whole It was a good year. Yeah,
- 16:36Speaker 3: it was a great year. Let's shift our attention. They
- 16:40Speaker 3: were all good years because I was young.
- 16:41Speaker 2: Chargers all right, How significant is this because some people
- 16:45Speaker 2: will tell you, hey, again, you know, every game is
- 16:47Speaker 2: week by week, it's just a game.
- 16:49Speaker 3: In my opinion, there are some games that just meet
- 16:51Speaker 3: a little bit more.
- 16:51Speaker 2: Like I think Buffalo is gonna be able to point
- 16:53Speaker 2: to that win against the Ravens all season.
- 16:55Speaker 3: That one means a whole lot.
- 16:57Speaker 2: I think the Chargers can do the same exact thing
- 16:59Speaker 2: with this win against the Kansas City Chiefs.
- 17:02Speaker 4: I agree, from the playoff loss to losing ray Sean
- 17:06Speaker 4: Slater in the preseason, or just questions about, you know,
- 17:09Speaker 4: how they're gonna hold up from the division. I think
- 17:11Speaker 4: you would say the general perception on the Chargers heading
- 17:14Speaker 4: into this game was trickling downward. Right. You could make
- 17:17Speaker 4: a case for the Raiders, or you could say that
- 17:18Speaker 4: the Broncos are eight up and the Chiefs in the division,
- 17:21Speaker 4: whatever you wanted to say, but they kind of ended
- 17:25Speaker 4: a lot of those narratives with a really great game
- 17:27Speaker 4: down there. And justin Herbert looked for his career against
- 17:30Speaker 4: the Chiefs, it's been really up and down. Hasn't had
- 17:33Speaker 4: a lot of success. He hasn't been great in those
- 17:34Speaker 4: big moments necessarily or more bad than good. In this game,
- 17:39Speaker 4: he was fantastic and he had the ball, things started
- 17:41Speaker 4: getting a little tight, Patrick started making plays, and he
- 17:44Speaker 4: ends it with that quarterback run there. So I don't
- 17:46Speaker 4: care if it's in sal Polo or Santa Clair or
- 17:49Speaker 4: anywhere else. Rights, that's a big performance. And you could
- 17:52Speaker 4: say that about a guy who's zero and two in
- 17:54Speaker 4: the postseason and what two and seven entering the game
- 17:57Speaker 4: against the Chiefs two and six. So yeah, you start
- 18:00Speaker 4: checking those things off and you feel a lot better
- 18:02Speaker 4: about where your team's at.
- 18:04Speaker 2: Three touchdowns for him, and I think it's significant I
- 18:07Speaker 2: give his stat line because in my mind, if they
- 18:09Speaker 2: won that game before they played it, I would have said, hey,
- 18:11Speaker 2: it's the running attack that gets it done right, Okay,
- 18:14Speaker 2: But it was justin Herbert who put them over the top.
- 18:17Speaker 2: The Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, there is one person who
- 18:19Speaker 2: does probably watched Over the Top back in the day
- 18:22Speaker 2: and probably knows Sylvester Sloan. That's Aaron Rodgers because he's
- 18:26Speaker 2: about our age at this point. But Rogers specifically, I mean,
- 18:29Speaker 2: this is the fountain of youth here. Is this a
- 18:31Speaker 2: one off? Are you buying Rogers in this performance? Because
- 18:35Speaker 2: if he plays like this, I think our perception of
- 18:37Speaker 2: the Steelers has got to look a whole lot different.
- 18:39Speaker 1: Now.
- 18:39Speaker 4: Point to the game where he had that kind of
- 18:42Speaker 4: that youthful spirit, you know, and we were kind of
- 18:44Speaker 4: chatting about it a little bit before the game. I
- 18:46Speaker 4: mean you said he kind of looked like he was
- 18:47Speaker 4: in his thirties again. I mean the swagger was back,
- 18:51Speaker 4: first of all, but he was moving around even better
- 18:53Speaker 4: than he did last year, a year removed from that
- 18:55Speaker 4: Achilles injury, and you know, towards the end of the season,
- 18:57Speaker 4: we started seeing little glimpses of Okay, maybe he's not
- 19:00Speaker 4: finish right his days is a premiere quarterback, maybe those
- 19:03Speaker 4: are done. But on Sunday was terrific. And you know, look,
- 19:07Speaker 4: the best receiver, DK Metcalf is being shadowed by Sauce Gardener.
- 19:11Speaker 4: I know the Jets don't get a lot of respect,
- 19:12Speaker 4: and maybe they're not great defensively, but Aaron Glenn knows
- 19:15Speaker 4: a thing or two about a Aaron Rodgers and defense.
- 19:18Speaker 4: So I think you look at it for different TV receivers.
- 19:23Speaker 4: Arthur Smith kind of giving his quarterback a lot of
- 19:25Speaker 4: trust and everything you'd expect, not being sort of focused
- 19:28Speaker 4: on the run game. You know, it's I can't wait
- 19:31Speaker 4: to see him again just to find out is this real? Right?
- 19:33Speaker 4: Has he discovered the found youth? Is he turning back
- 19:36Speaker 4: the clock here? Because this is this one game was
- 19:39Speaker 4: as good as anything I think we saw last year.
- 19:41Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think this speaks volumes about how we
- 19:43Speaker 2: know nothing about football until we actually get some actual
- 19:46Speaker 2: games here.
- 19:47Speaker 3: So true. You know, if you watch Rogers.
- 19:49Speaker 2: You and I talked about this off air last year
- 19:51Speaker 2: with the Jets last couple of years. A ton of
- 19:53Speaker 2: shotguns seeing everything in front of them. If you would
- 19:55Speaker 2: have told me the Startlers would give up thirty two
- 19:57Speaker 2: points to the Jets and Aaron Rodgers would throw for
- 19:59Speaker 2: four touchdowns and some of those plays, it's a ton
- 20:01Speaker 2: of play action. He's on the move, Like, what are
- 20:04Speaker 2: you talking about? Aaron Rodgers is not going to be
- 20:06Speaker 2: making these drows on the move. That's exactly what we saw,
- 20:08Speaker 2: so small sample size. We'll see how it plays out
- 20:11Speaker 2: over the next couple of weeks. A couple things still
- 20:13Speaker 2: left to unpack here. The Raiders score a nice little win,
- 20:16Speaker 2: the Colts wake up with Daniel Jones and a conversation.
- 20:19Speaker 2: I need to find out that's happening in our control room.
- 20:21Speaker 2: I think as soon as I mentioned Sylvester Stallone, there
- 20:23Speaker 2: was a lot of chit chatter going on.
- 20:25Speaker 3: So we'll update everyone on that.
- 20:26Speaker 2: It's coming up next down Power Rankings.
- 20:37Speaker 3: Welcome back to Power Rankings.
- 20:38Speaker 2: Eric's rankings seventeenth through twenty four and just a quick update.
- 20:41Speaker 2: Only one person in our control room knew who Sylvester
- 20:44Speaker 2: Stalone was.
- 20:45Speaker 3: If you feel old. As you were watching the show,
- 20:46Speaker 3: you were not alone.
- 20:47Speaker 2: Arizona Cardinals sitting at seventeen, the Bears no change, but
- 20:51Speaker 2: in a starting the season zhe to one sitting at eighteen,
- 20:54Speaker 2: The Seahawks at nineteen. The Atlanta Falcons got a little
- 20:58Speaker 2: fight with them. I thought Michael Pennix looked really good.
- 21:00Speaker 2: They're at the twentieth ranked team. The Dallas Cowboys also
- 21:02Speaker 2: another team that I think buy some of their expectations
- 21:06Speaker 2: in week number one despite that lost there at twenty one,
- 21:08Speaker 2: the Jags twenty two, the Raiders at twenty three, and
- 21:12Speaker 2: then we got the Indianapolis Colts at twenty four. We'll
- 21:14Speaker 2: talk about Raiders and Colts here.
- 21:16Speaker 3: Right now, all right?
- 21:16Speaker 2: The Raiders move up two spots, go on the road.
- 21:19Speaker 2: Nice debut with Gino. Smith, Like to me, is there
- 21:22Speaker 2: enough for you to buy this team a little bit
- 21:24Speaker 2: more than you were last week when we were doing
- 21:26Speaker 2: the show.
- 21:27Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, I was excited about
- 21:29Speaker 4: Pete Carroll's excited about Gino, Ashton genty, all the pieces
- 21:32Speaker 4: they brought in, but how quickly could they bring it together?
- 21:35Speaker 4: Just really encouraged by the fact that they had a
- 21:37Speaker 4: little trouble defensively early. They fixed some things at halftime
- 21:41Speaker 4: and got after a shutout. Drake May and the Patriots
- 21:43Speaker 4: really made some great in game adjustments. And Brock Bauers,
- 21:47Speaker 4: you see him making place here. He was outstanding, but
- 21:49Speaker 4: he left the game with injury. And you know, Gino
- 21:51Speaker 4: made enough place, took some sacks, took some hits, but
- 21:55Speaker 4: moved pretty well for a guy in the mid to
- 21:58Speaker 4: late thirties now, and I think he's gonna do wonders
- 22:00Speaker 4: for this team. Energy was good, defense played much better
- 22:04Speaker 4: in the second half, and you can hit the big
- 22:06Speaker 4: play like this, The Trey Tucker and some of the
- 22:07Speaker 4: play action stuff really opens up with gen so interesting team.
- 22:12Speaker 4: I can't wait to see where they end up.
- 22:13Speaker 2: At a relentless effort in pursuit that we've seen from
- 22:15Speaker 2: Max Crosby that never seems to ever go away. The Colts,
- 22:19Speaker 2: they are your biggest movers. They move up four spots.
- 22:22Speaker 2: I like where you put them, and I love the
- 22:24Speaker 2: fact that you're giving them some respect. I was watching
- 22:25Speaker 2: Red Zone Scott Hanson throws the stat out there hasn't
- 22:28Speaker 2: happened since at least nineteen ninety one, where we've had
- 22:30Speaker 2: a quarterback seven straight possessions and all scoring drives. I
- 22:36Speaker 2: had a buddy of mine call me up this morning.
- 22:38Speaker 2: I'm a Giants fan. I think people realize that if
- 22:40Speaker 2: they've been listening, watching to the show going, Hey, did
- 22:42Speaker 2: you expect this from Daniel Jones? And I said, absolutely
- 22:44Speaker 2: expecting because he's not wearing a Giants uniform. At this point,
- 22:47Speaker 2: I think the guy has got some upside with this
- 22:49Speaker 2: Colts team. How much are you buying Daniel Jones being
- 22:51Speaker 2: able to sustain this the rest of the season.
- 22:53Speaker 4: Yeah. My philosophy to this thing is like, let's see
- 22:55Speaker 4: how far this guy could take us?
- 22:57Speaker 2: Right?
- 22:57Speaker 4: I mean Week one was outstanding, even if it's against
- 22:59Speaker 4: the Dolphins team that you know, we had some questions
- 23:02Speaker 4: about coming into the year. Right, the run game works.
- 23:05Speaker 4: Jones was highly effective. He was great. He rushed it and
- 23:07Speaker 4: ran in two scores, made some terrific throws so well.
- 23:11Speaker 4: I think the attitude at this point is not, hey,
- 23:13Speaker 4: let's try to figure out when we're getting Anthony Richardson
- 23:16Speaker 4: in there. Let's see how far Daniel Jones can take him.
- 23:18Speaker 4: You watched him drag that Giants team to the playoffs.
- 23:21Speaker 4: Big win up in Minnesota, only to lose the next week.
- 23:24Speaker 4: But still, I mean, you know, I just I guess
- 23:27Speaker 4: it makes me think there's still some talent in here
- 23:29Speaker 4: that hasn't been untapped. And it's a big game for
- 23:31Speaker 4: Shane Steichen. And you know, getting Tyler Warren involved early
- 23:34Speaker 4: that was more encouraging than I imagined it would be. And
- 23:38Speaker 4: we'll have to find out how they stack up. Is
- 23:39Speaker 4: this a real thing or is this just a one
- 23:41Speaker 4: week lip.
- 23:41Speaker 3: Yeah, he's healthy. One two.
- 23:43Speaker 2: He's got a better offensive line than he had in
- 23:45Speaker 2: New York. Just look at what we saw from the
- 23:47Speaker 2: Giants in week number one that actually matters. Let's get
- 23:50Speaker 2: the rest of the rankings here at twenty five through
- 23:52Speaker 2: thirty two. The Patriots at twenty five, the Titans, I
- 23:54Speaker 2: thought they looked over cam at twenty six, the Jets
- 23:57Speaker 2: twenty seven.
- 23:57Speaker 3: The Dolphins, ooh, that was hard to watch.
- 24:00Speaker 2: At twenty eight, those g Men. At twenty nine, the Browns,
- 24:03Speaker 2: the Panthers, and the Saints. At your bottom three teams.
- 24:06Speaker 2: The Jets moved up three spots despite the loss. They
- 24:09Speaker 2: score thirty two points. I think there's a lot of
- 24:11Speaker 2: positives to take away in that debut for Aaron Glenn
- 24:14Speaker 2: and Justin Field specifically.
- 24:15Speaker 3: Well, I thought look good, Eric, I.
- 24:16Speaker 4: Thought so too, right, especially after the preseason, we weren't
- 24:19Speaker 4: really sure how much he was going to prove through
- 24:20Speaker 4: the air. But he was very efficient throwing the ball
- 24:23Speaker 4: and he's usually great self running it as well. So
- 24:25Speaker 4: you know, you've got that three headed rushing attack, You've
- 24:28Speaker 4: got Field who makes it a fourth option too. That really,
- 24:31Speaker 4: you know, is the kind of game. I think that
- 24:33Speaker 4: they want to play there. But Aaron Glenn knows he
- 24:36Speaker 4: can't give up thirty four points because he can't ask
- 24:38Speaker 4: Fields and these guys to score so much. We'll see
- 24:41Speaker 4: if it works out.
- 24:43Speaker 2: I think it's going to be tough too, because it's
- 24:45Speaker 2: a Buffalo team that's on deck here.
- 24:47Speaker 3: But appreciate all you guys watching.
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