49ers - Rams Postgame Reaction | Breaking Down NFL Week 1 Down Under

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreigner and Hutch. Eventually we were running Australian time, other jobs, things of that nature. Not much of a football game. I told you someone was scoring 27, buddy. [00:00:18] Speaker B: We both got that right. It's. It's funny. In my initial prediction, I was like. I was picking the Niners. I was like, no, let's not be stupid. Let's be practical. It's like, yeah. And then, of course, I think obvious [00:00:30] Speaker A: thing ever didn't come through, and I. I'll take the L, like, Galaxy brain the shit out of it. Just like Sean McVeigh and the Rant. [00:00:37] Speaker B: We always do this, though. Like, we always forget, like, Kyle really, really cares and really, really still does have Sean's number. [00:00:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:44] Speaker B: It's just he tends to not have all of his weapons and the better roster. And usually when it's even sort of even Kyle gets him. And that's on us for, like, not really giving that fair do. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Well, absolutely true. Kyle and I thought Raheem schemed the hell out of this game. It was by no means perfect. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:06] Speaker A: And this is to take nothing away. We'll get into all of the wonderful things that the Niners did today. Let me know when the Rams show up in Australia, because that looked like the FA mu Miami game today. I mean, the reigning NFL MVP looked like Geno Smith out there. He was. [00:01:25] Speaker B: He was scattershot. He missed everything from the jump. And it was like, the only time [00:01:30] Speaker A: something was when Jair Brown's like, I can be more scattershot. [00:01:34] Speaker B: Right. There were times, too, where you're like, in hindsight, that was wide open. Like, he really did have a Devonte. Like, kind of a bunch of times they got pressure. [00:01:42] Speaker A: I mean, they did. They did their job. And. [00:01:44] Speaker B: And that's 49ers got home, which didn't happen all of last year. It turns out Nick Bose is really goddamn good. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Nick Bose has probably taken. I'm guessing here, I should just ask somebody. Certainly less than 50. 11 on 11 snaps in the last 11 months. [00:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:02] Speaker A: It would have been the last two or three days of 11 on 11 snaps. And I don't think he's out there for all the 11 snaps. [00:02:08] Speaker B: No. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Given that he was a man amongst boys today and that McClendon fellow that they brought in at right tackle, he's going to have a tough flight home when he's watching that tape he got. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Keon White was also great, too. I thought he was really good. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Totally. So glad you brought it up. Keon White has been a great edge setter, a great, you know, Pressure guy. Keon White's been a wonderful pickup. I. So many of the things that are talked about sort of in the general populace are just locked into initial impressions. And because Keon White wasn't Max Crosby or some other, you know, big time, big name pass rusher last year, everyone's like, oh, Keon White, he sucks. Well, he sucks under that, guys, right? He sucks under the premise of this guy's going to get 15 sacks a season. But as a edge setting defensive end to replace Mikel Williams, like, that's a hell of a backup for, I still think a hell of a player. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Mike playing like three tech and like, run, run snaps where it's like, all right, he's our defensive tackle because let's be clear. Like, C.J. west had, let me say up front, he did have some snaps that were good there. I did see some snaps. There were more where he got torched, wrecked. He got Greg Dorched, too. And listen, it was. I was like. There were a couple where we texted each other. There were two, like, in a row where it was like, whoa, like, what happened, man? Like, did you forget? You're supposed to stay low. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Like, there's a second and five early. And it was. He got. [00:03:43] Speaker B: He's on skates. [00:03:44] Speaker A: He got blown so far out. There were a couple of tackles that he made in this game where he was running forward towards a running back. The running back had gotten 8 yards. [00:03:55] Speaker B: I know exactly which play you're talking about. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, you're like, that's not good. You're not a linebacker or a safety. But that's where he was. And they stopped playing him in the second half. I texted you about this and I go, I think they just benched cj. And we'll have to check, you know, we'll check the tape. I didn't notice him one way or another, which might have been a good thing, better than what we were going at. But there was a certain point where, like, my frustration on the other side of the world was such. With CJ that I'm like, there, bench his ass. I don't want to see him. I don't want to see him anymore. And after that, I don't think we saw him anymore. And Grayson Halton had some. Some punch. [00:04:31] Speaker B: He also got washed out too, though. [00:04:33] Speaker A: Totally. [00:04:34] Speaker B: And I saw OSA get washed out too. I mean, though, yeah, he was. He was great. And he. And they did one play where they, you know, they had him basically. Him and Bosa stunted. And he was rushing from like 5tech and it was awesome together. I thought that was phenomenal. There's a lot of great things Raheem did. I gotta say, the rams didn't use 13 personnel all that much. Like, they did. [00:05:02] Speaker A: They did a damn touchdown. They. [00:05:05] Speaker B: When they did, they were really effective with it. Like, I think they were 5 for 5 at 13 personnel, but they stuck to a lot of 11. And. And it felt like there were. It was like, just go at the Niners. Like, keep go. And. And they were. [00:05:18] Speaker A: And they didn't spam it. They had the duo run and they didn't spam it. And very McVeigh. This is what happens when you don't sleep, folks. You make bad decisions. I got two kids under four. Trust me, I know all about making bad decision. We started this podcast under such circumstances. Bad decisions. You know, constantly picking the wrong team. Bad decisions. Your brain, you just. You're drunk all the time. You don't even need alcohol anymore. You don't need drugs. Just get a kid who stays up or just fly to Australia. 29 hours before a fucking NFL game is unbelievable. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Let me just say. [00:05:49] Speaker A: How stupid to think for a second, A second that that was a good idea. [00:05:54] Speaker B: Let me just say. I'm going to address that in one second. I. We're not going to take comments until the end, but I do have to, because we have a dime. [00:06:02] Speaker A: It was fantastic. [00:06:04] Speaker B: We debated. We debated because The Rams use 13 personnel, because the 49ers are sort of outgunned. Like, talked about Jaden Duggar a lot, who played a lot. [00:06:12] Speaker A: I don't think he actually looked okay, especially on inline stuff. [00:06:16] Speaker B: I don't think he was terrible. And. And that was like, sort of the prerequisite. [00:06:20] Speaker A: He. [00:06:21] Speaker B: I think he looked pretty good on special teams, as we talked about. Shut up a couple, by the way, special teams coverage in return. I mean, granted, the Rams are always going to be bad there, but, like, [00:06:33] Speaker A: sleep deprived Rams on special teams, we were really deprived of the full possibilities there. True. [00:06:39] Speaker B: But like, the 49ers ran more dead dime, I believe, than they did nickel. It was about the same. And. And it was something where it was like, all right, you're gonna go up against 13 personnel. Like, what are you gonna do? Like, are you really gonna use. Like, you have to use kind of big nickel. You have to compensate in some way or you're gonna play a lot of bass. And they said, no, we're actually not. We're gonna use Upton Stout and Jack Jones because those are our best players. And it worked. And it was like, [00:07:10] Speaker A: well, the Rams did not see that coming. And it was. No, it was somewhat reminiscent because I'm not sure that's going to work moving forward, though. I do. I do think everybody, but not against everybody, but it kind of had a. It kind of reminded me of last year in that Colts game where they, like, cut to Robert Salah and he's like, wait a minute, he can throw it. They're letting Philip throw it and he's kind of cooking us right now. Like, we did not prepare for that. [00:07:37] Speaker B: That's my favorite game of the season. We're like, this is obviously an impossible thing that won't happen. And the 49ers prepared the same way because they went, yeah, there's no way in hell they're going to spam Jonathan Taylor. And. And they went, just. Just launch. Just launch Philip. [00:07:52] Speaker A: And eventually they'll never see it coming. And. Except De Winters did see it coming that one time. They ran dime on 14% of snapshots. I don't think I'm just on Sumner here. It seems a little bit higher than that. A lot of the EPA stuff won't bear out positively towards dime. I just. I just disagree with. With that because they used it at the end of the second half and Jack Jones had that great pbu. They used it again when the Rams kind of had their last ditch effort and went to hurry up, and it worked great there. And it works because d' Amador Lenore, who I don't think had a good day in coverage, is just an absolute menace as a tackler. Just unbelievable tackler. And they slid him back to basically, you know, nickelback. And so now you have Stout and Lenore as your nickelbacks. You use Jones on the outside. He's just punching dudes in the solar plexus. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Also Green, just, like, looking pretty tremendous, like the one he got called for, which totally fair call. But, like, if you're a better, more well renowned corner, you kind of get away with that. [00:08:56] Speaker A: Get away with it? [00:08:57] Speaker B: Depends on who it is. He's not at that level, obviously, but it was like, it was a good play. Like, I want my corners to be doing that little, like, sneaky tug. It's not aggressive. It's not, like, obvious. And, like, it was a pretty good play. Like, I'm. I'm fine with him getting a penalty on that. He just looked tremendous. Like, getting an interception in week one for him. Like, you want him to be confident and aggressive as a corner, and if he has that from the jump, they just, they seem refreshed with Raheem. Again, we've talked about it. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Like, everything about them was more fresh today. I mean, Raheem, it might have been a terrible tactic. The Rams were sleepwalking through that game. And again, I like a lot of these things. I think that this dime thing is really interesting because it puts Jones on the field and Jones was a really good player. Throughout training camp, we talked about it. We thought that there might be an actual battle for one spot. Smart move. And, hey, I don't have a fever backer. I don't have this extra guy that we can do. Like, I. We can't play a quasi base with somebody who's a big safety. We're not going to play Malik Mustafa, who didn't play at all in the preset. We're not doing any of this stuff. We're just going to put our best players out there. And the irony is, that's what the Rams did last year. The Rams, everyone talks about 13 personnel. The real tactical intrigue that the Rams threw out there with Chris Shula was was they just ran a shit ton of dime last year and said, let the cards fall as they may. [00:10:21] Speaker B: That's the other thing we talked about. Like, oh, are they going to spam? Ram coverage? Man coverage. The 49ers ran more man than the Rams did. Like that. That's insane to me that they didn't see. They, like, have Trent McDuffie and Jalen Watson, the guys who clamped Deebo Samuel in the 49ers in the super bowl, and they said, yeah, we're good. We've talked up how we're going to play a lot more, man, this year. We're good. And maybe they do. And maybe it's part of, like, week one. And part of it is feels. I said it. It feels like the Rams just came in with a level of, like, hubris, of like, we're going to stay on LA time. We can afford to lose this game. Like, that's how it felt to me. [00:11:02] Speaker A: No, totally. And they didn't. They didn't throw out anything funky or weird. Miles Garrett was. Did he have any impact outside of blowing out Jake Tonjas ACL on a trip? [00:11:12] Speaker B: No. They also gave up with, like, four minutes to go. [00:11:15] Speaker A: Right? Like, it was an ass kicking. It was an absolute ass kicking because one team took it seriously and one team thought that they were that much better that they didn't have to. And they might be right when it's all said and done. But, like, yeah, come. Come December 13th, this game could Loom extremely large. It could already be a decider in many senses, because the Rams have a brutal schedule where they're just prime time every night. And this is why I picked them to not win the division. I mean, obviously, I picked the Drew Lock Seahawks to win it, because we all saw that coming, but I just think they're gonna dick around, and then they'll probably turn it on or maybe they never do and good luck to them. Maybe they're the Brooklyn Nets and not the Warriors. [00:11:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean. I mean, that's the thing. It's like they just. If you sort of act that way where you just have all these pieces and you're like, we're just better than everybody. Like, that's not a functional way to do. Do stuff. And it does feel like they. They were lazy. Like, they were just like. [00:12:12] Speaker A: And it wasn't. They were lazy. [00:12:14] Speaker B: It. [00:12:15] Speaker A: They didn't have such an advantage over the Niners in other areas that their quarterback playing like dog water could. Like, that mattered. That mattered a lot. Because Brock Purdy played at an MVP level today. The box score won't show it, but he did everything that we had seen from him in the preseason when obviously, it's behind closed doors and all that stuff. We were there. Like, he was just operating as if he was listening to the podcast on 0.25 speed and everything. So slow. [00:12:43] Speaker B: He threw one pick, and it was like he realized it, like, as soon as he. I mean, the second. I mean, it was a good job by the corner. Yeah, that's like a smart. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Like a Brian Lake Vikings pick. [00:12:53] Speaker B: Was that Quinn Lake? [00:12:54] Speaker A: Yes, it was like he was. [00:12:56] Speaker B: He's kind of nice, like. He is. [00:12:59] Speaker A: They got nice players. [00:13:00] Speaker B: Like, that's. That's the thing. Like, I loved, like, their secondary and all these pieces they have, and it just felt like. I don't know, it felt like they [00:13:08] Speaker A: might never come together. [00:13:10] Speaker B: It didn't feel like they. Like Shula was on. It didn't feel like he was locked in. [00:13:15] Speaker A: How about this? Here's how you know, and I love doing this because it's totally unfair. Every time they cut to Shula on the sidelines, he was silent, was just standing there staring in the half distance. Like, you could see Sean McVeigh having, like, visions when they cut to him on the sideline. Just, like, hallucinating, weird play. Like, he's like, why is there an elephant on the field right now? That's wild. They just. They looked out of it. [00:13:42] Speaker B: And a lot of complaining from McFadden. I mean, granted, like, every coach complaints, but, like, every time they cut to him, he was, like, grabbing the reps. [00:13:49] Speaker A: He was playing like crap. You got to take it out on somebody. And the Niners, the Niners delivered it. It was a tactical masterclass before the game in, I don't know, not trying to game the human body for 53 men and coaches. [00:14:04] Speaker B: And listen, maybe that works out on the other end where the Rams stay on LA time and going back is easier for them. I kind of think they're just going to get rocked both ways. [00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I just. I think. I don't think I trust their sleep science going back either. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Like, I don't think they did any sleep science. They're like, we're in Southern California. There's no time. [00:14:22] Speaker A: If it was. If it was a more competitive game, I could buy. I could. I could spin it. But it wasn't even remotely competitive. And surely the gap between these two teams when it's all said and done, is not that. But the Niners played something close to an A game. Simple, by the way, a simple game for the Niners offense was not complicated. I want to get into the offense, but like, I did not expect to see in this game the 49ers offensive line, not just pass protecting really well, but also absolutely leaning on the Rams defensive line. [00:14:58] Speaker B: The run game is looked in a while extraordinarily balanced. And I got to give Kyle an outrageous amount of credit for not sacrificing Christian McCaffrey and going, we actually have a really fun, explosive, like, little running back. I'm gonna. Let me say it. The pistol shrimp. That's what I texted. If anyone knows what a pistol shrimp is, that's Kalon Black. Because I don't know if he's reading a thing. I don't know that he's, like, looking. I don't know he's. I don't know that he's like leaning on creases and like, waiting for something to open up. Yeah, I think he's just going. And I think that's great for what they need because he's. He's gonna get yardage even if he's not necessarily reading it for the best play. And if you give him an inch, he's flying through there. I think using him in that way, I think that's the only way McCaffrey can be sustained where you're sort of like, listen. And it looked like McCaffrey was like a little pissed on the sidelines. Maybe I'm reading too much into body language about it. [00:15:53] Speaker A: But like kind of always looks a little pissed to be fair. [00:15:55] Speaker B: Yeah, every time he's off the field he's pissed. But like, that's a practical thing you need to do. Like he had, he led the league. He had more, more touches last year than anyone since 2014, when DeMarco Murray had like the six most in NFL history. He had 413 touches last year. You simply like, cannot play him every down. You probably need to play him like this, like a 50% split. I don't know that they will. I think it'll, it'll lean much more in crucial games. But like, this was like a fundamental thing they needed to do. [00:16:25] Speaker A: This is what we've been talking about though, for months with Black because we both saw the vision of it, because the vision isn't complicated. This is going back to what they've done when they've been successful. Thunder and lightning. And having somebody who is just going to get you three or four yards no matter what, but can also has the ability to break it outside, isn't reading the hole, you know, isn't jitter bugging in the backfield or anything. Like, just go, just go lean your shoulder into somebody, find somebody, take them out, go. And this is what they had with Elijah, Elijah Mitchell, ironically, who's not a big guy. And that was a really effective thing. This is January football, Australian winter. You play by winter rules, baby. And I thought McCaffrey was ineffective in the first half and I think that's why Black started getting more carries, because then Black was effective and Kyle's like, shit, let's just stick with the effective thing. [00:17:17] Speaker B: McCaffrey popped off for like 15 yard runs that he hasn't had in like two years. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Well, that's because they came out of halftime and they said, you know what? This offense is now the Jake Brendel show, baby. He was the best offensive lineman. He was outstanding. [00:17:30] Speaker B: Also, also remember left guard where you're talking about left guard. It'll show up against the Seahawks. But like Connor Colby look great, look great. He got destroyed on one snap by, by Kobe Turner where he just got stood up and you went, but that's gonna happen. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Turner is a good player. [00:17:46] Speaker B: And again and again with O line especially, like, I don't like to make any proclamations. No, I just like, I need to go and watch it because, like, it's, it's impossible to tell on every snap. Trent looked glorious. I mean, just manhandling Miles Garrett. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Let me know when Miles Garrett shows up to the game. That was that Was tough. I mean, in Pelissero's on the sidelines, like, he's really huffing and puffing. It's like, dude, maybe you should have left him at home. He didn't practice. But that's the other thing. You know, Nick Bosa didn't practice. It's like, okay, so we have these guys who didn't practice and now they're coming in on jet lag. And that's probably not going to go well because they're like, why is the sun up? It's seven o'. Clock. [00:18:27] Speaker B: Chin lag feels awful. Like the worst football game in that. [00:18:30] Speaker A: Also, do you think when they get back to la, or will it just be. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Not sure because, like, it must feel like a hallucination with where the field is set up. I think. I think one of our commenters was at the game. We have an Aussie in the comments. Like, that must have been so strange to be like, where are the fans? They're like miles away in the bet quote, unquote. Best seats where you at the 50 yard line and close, you can't see anything. [00:18:57] Speaker A: I would say that the best seats were in the end zone, as I tweeted out earlier. And no one really liked. [00:19:01] Speaker B: No, I mean, typically the best seats, like, when you think of an NFL game, you want to be on the 50 yard line. If you're looking that lower bowl, you're kind of screwed. [00:19:08] Speaker A: No, and low would be worse because [00:19:10] Speaker B: that's what I mean. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's. Yeah, we talked about it before the game. Just weird sight lines. Netflix did a nice job. I like Keakley, though. I did find it interesting that Keakley was not familiar with Kyle Shanahan's conservativeness. And he's like, I can't believe they did. People forget. [00:19:27] Speaker B: It's like Kyle has this, this sycophantic philosophy of lapping people. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Which three points. [00:19:33] Speaker B: It makes sense. But listen, if there's less than five minutes left and they get the ball and they're getting it out of the second half, they have no desire to score a touchdown. Unless it's like. Unless they're right there. Like, if it's anywhere close, they're. They're trying to get a field goal because he wants to, quote, unquote, lap them, as he said in his press conference after the game, which he says every time and everyone forgets. This is an explicit part of his philosophy that I'm not necessarily defending, but it is hilarious and he is true to it. [00:20:08] Speaker A: There was. There was so much to chew on in this game because now we have data points as well. Offensive line looked fantastic. Connor Colby looked fantastic. It was good stuff. It was good stuff. And we'll see. We'll see. I mean, listen, Connor Colby looked great against the Saints last year, and then I was surprised they just went with Colby. The plan, to my understanding, was that there was going to be a rotation. And after the. After the Kobe Durant play, I'm like, oh, that motion might be Carver Willis, you know, warm on up the old. [00:20:40] Speaker B: The old Spencer Burford and He who Shall Not Be Named rotation. [00:20:46] Speaker A: But yeah, Colby. Colby really upped it. I thought Brenda was fantastic. It's absolute malpractice that we're 20 minutes in and we haven't mentioned that Mike Evans is a man amongst boys and just sunned sun Watson on that touchdown. Also keeping him in tight splits on third down. [00:21:05] Speaker B: They just, of course, played him from the slot. I was like, we're just. [00:21:08] Speaker A: We're going to treat him like Juwan Jennings last year. It's like, no, that. What a great idea. [00:21:12] Speaker B: They just gave him, like, almost like, little angle routes and, like, little options and, like, we're going to trust Mike Evans to make the right decision. Also, shout out Debo Samuel, who absolutely cooked in man coverage on at least one option route. [00:21:24] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Also great blocking from Deebo in this game. [00:21:28] Speaker B: Oh, dude, he took out Miles Garrett. [00:21:30] Speaker A: Yeah. But he was really good before that as well. And there were a couple big lanes that were open because Deebo was setting the edge. I thought use check was immense in this game. Yeah, that dash motion, that ain't a trick anymore. That is base stuff. And they were in 12 pretty much. It was really 21, but, you know, the 12, 21 thing that they did all the way down the stretch last year, like, Kyle's all in on that now, and you're seeing other teams do it around the league. That is. That is a thing. That is an absolute thing. And they did some really cool wrinkles with that where they were doing, you know, dive runs off it. It was really good. [00:22:05] Speaker B: They did. They did one. It didn't work out, but they had, I think, Kittle and CMC on the right side of the formation. Then they bumped cmc. They hopped him to the left. Then they had Kittle motion to the left. And then Kittle basically ran a CFL running head start where he went left about five yards behind the line of scrimmage, and then. And then started running right at the timing of the snap. And I was like, that's very cool. And granted, Kittle. Let's say the negative thing, because, I mean, people are waiting for our brand of negativity, which is, I don't know, whatever. Like, Kittle looked bad. [00:22:48] Speaker A: He did not look like George Kittle. And it's something. Okay, so here's. Here's where I was at coming in. [00:22:54] Speaker B: He looked. He looked slow. There were a couple times he made decent blocks and, like, shut up. But it looked like you're, like. It felt like a train starting to get going and it wasn't there, Which, I mean, wouldn't expect day one. Kind of surprising that he's just, like, ready to go already. [00:23:13] Speaker A: He looked like Dalton Schultz today. Like, nothing wrong. Dalton Schultz, good tight end, but not George Kittle. Here's. So there's something I noticed. So my YouTube algorithm is just fucked. So it's like Bluey and West side Cowboy music videos, which, by the way, check out west side Cowboy. They kick ass. And. And new sports teams out, too, which is very good. And then, like, a bunch of, like, how to smart home stuff. Okay, you don't need to know about my algorithm. It should only be Dieter and Hutch. Regardless, one of the things that popped up, because we watch a lot of, like, Chargers YouTube shorts in the Kurtenbach household because they do a good job over there, is George Kittle's Gatorade Sweat Science video. Okay, this is a thing that happened where Gatorade has these patches that analyze your sweat so that you can be better hydrated. And I was legitimately interested in, like, sweat hydration. So it turned out to just be an infomercial, but they are just showing. Basically all it was was B roll of George Kittle running. And all I could notice is that he couldn't get the surgically repaired foot. And this is a recent video. Like, he clearly did this in the last, like, week or two before they left. He could not get. He was almost, like, stutter stepping with the injured, like, foot. So he would take a step forward, and then, like, it wouldn't go, and then it would kind of sputter, and then it would, you know, jump a little bit, and then he'd get off of it. And I saw that again and again in this game, and I'm like, who knew that the Gatorade video would be so prescient? [00:24:51] Speaker B: It kind of feels like it's like when you're running in a dream and you're, like, trying to run. You're like, why can't I? I get. [00:24:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that kind of stays in place. It a little bit. Scooby Doo's for just a half second where it starts. [00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:03] Speaker A: And I imagine that will get back, but I don't think it's going to be like next week or the week after that. I think it's going to take a while for him to get the power in there. But the fact of the matter is that he can be a very effective, if not above average, tight end with one leg. [00:25:20] Speaker B: We should also remember he is like a 10th, 10 out of 10, like, athlete, like, at the position. Like an elite, elite athlete, which you [00:25:29] Speaker A: get drafted with 30 catches in college. [00:25:30] Speaker B: Right. With all of this, it goes back to, like, that's why his recovery is going to be quicker. Yeah, that's part of it. But, like, I would imagine it comes. I will just say he did not look at all like the George Kittle we know. I will also say I thought Drake Greenlaw did not look particularly good. It looked. Again, he hasn't practiced much either, and he's had a bunch of injuries. [00:25:56] Speaker A: He was kind of floating unless it was a clear crash. [00:25:59] Speaker B: And then he would have physicality at the point of attack, which is great. Which is what you want and what you need. And he still in some ways set the tone, which is, I know, a coach speaky thing. But for the 49ers in particular, where your linebackers are going to get attacked at times like that does matter. You do need to hit people hard. Yeah. But he. It's not Trey Greenlaw that we remember. [00:26:20] Speaker A: It was almost. [00:26:21] Speaker B: At least right now. [00:26:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I was almost to the point where I'm like, they. They were hitting them so hard on kick returns. And then the Dre Greenlaw is hitting him hard and, like, demo a couple of big hits where I'm like, you might not actually want to hit them that hard. It might wake them up. [00:26:35] Speaker B: They. Yeah, they literally. I think it was Siegel concussed Davis Allen, where he got up and he, like, he cleaned his clock. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I noted a couple of good Seagull reps. I wasn't. I didn't want to go all in on it because I just need to see what it looks like in the All 22. Jair was awful. Jair not only had the one clear play where he's like, I got this. And it's like, you do not have that. That is puka Nakua, sir. And here. Here he goes the other way. He also failed to set the edge multiple times. There were multiple crashes into, you know, C gap, B gap. Pardon me. Where he failed to to complete it. Open field misses. I didn't see anything good from Jair in this game. I'm. I'm all choked up. I'm getting [00:27:21] Speaker B: sickened by what he saw. [00:27:23] Speaker A: Clearly. Again, the only two bad players in this game, My only duds from this game were Jair Brown and C.J. west. [00:27:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I. I think that's fair. Again, I. It's tough safety play, like. [00:27:33] Speaker A: And obviously Eddie Pinero for that. I just miss what it. [00:27:37] Speaker B: By the way, did you think there was any chance that 56 yarder was going in? [00:27:40] Speaker A: Not when it came off the foot. [00:27:43] Speaker B: I was like. I thought it was 15 yards short. [00:27:47] Speaker A: It looked at and it kept going. [00:27:49] Speaker B: And depth perception. Do you think he. He sort of kicked it low intentionally, like he towed it? [00:27:57] Speaker A: Maybe. [00:27:58] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:27:59] Speaker A: I don't like how sometimes you choke up on the driver a little bit and just hit it off the end and just, you know, a little fairway finder. I wish I had a fairway finder that could go 56. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Here's. Here's the real hack. You never hit your driver. You just mash the hell out of your three wood. And that's what I do. [00:28:13] Speaker A: I'm not a three wooder. I actually got a driving iron because I can hit a drive. Well, I haven't played golf in a couple of years and I need to get back into it now that my children are older. [00:28:21] Speaker B: But we'll have a Sicko's invitational. The worst idea. [00:28:25] Speaker A: We'll come out to Karika. It's a great course. Sicko's invitational would actually be fantastic. I got to get the driving iron going because I can hit the driving iron about 260. So it's like, why do you even need a driver? [00:28:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:35] Speaker A: I'm a big boy. Okay. Who else should we talk about? I actually. Let me pull up my game notes here. That would be a good thing to have. Originally. Demarcus Robinson. [00:28:46] Speaker B: Very impressive shout out to Marcus Robinson, a guy who sort of disappeared off the face of the earth at times last year. [00:28:54] Speaker A: Played a hell of a game until the game against the Eagles. [00:28:57] Speaker B: Also. What the hell was that play call in the red zone where it was like they. It was. They sort of. [00:29:05] Speaker A: I think it was supposed to be sprint. Right option, but. [00:29:07] Speaker B: Right. I. I thought that's what it was because everybody was breaking and it was like DeMarcus Robinson was the only option and there was no space. And McCaffrey was covered by five people and so were. And Juice and Kittle were in the Same spot. I was like, that is. And it was after they called timeout, I think I was like, that was. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Don't love that. [00:29:26] Speaker B: Shanahan's worst. I just never love when it's like every single player is going in the same direction. Oh, here's what we should talk about. Mike Evans. Remember when they signed Mike Evans and we were breaking it down and I was telling you, he does this thing where Mike Evans just stays attached to you and he waits because if he stays attached the whole time is not really, like pushing off. He's just like separating. Right. He does this very crafty thing where he's got long arms. He's done it forever. He's going to get the benefit of the dad every time. And at the top of his stems, he just. Just a little. Little light nudge, and it gets him the separation he needs. He's also not as slow. He might look slow because he's older and. And he's not like. But he just has people off balance at all times. And it looked tremendous. And. And one more thing. The 49ers threw a goddamn fade touchdown. Since when has that been in their bag? They have, like, almost never been able to pull that off. I want to say they tried it with Kittle a few times, Jordan Reed, but, like, they've. That has not been enough for them. [00:30:34] Speaker A: They did it with Jordan Reed. I remember that, yes. I don't remember the last time they effectively did it. They tried it. Certainly they try and it's not an efficient play. [00:30:45] Speaker B: But it's different when it's Mike Evans. [00:30:47] Speaker A: It is when you got that guy. Because, like, I don't know if you could have better coverage on that play than what Watson gave him. And it. Mike Evans was like, give me that. He. Kenneth far readed him on a reboot. [00:30:58] Speaker B: He's like, it was like a Standing Moss. Like, he didn't moss him, but it was sort of like. It was sort of like playing basketball with a toddler where you're like, I got the ball. [00:31:10] Speaker A: I might be familiar with that. It was. It was awesome. It was awesome with Mike Evans. We talked about this in the preseason. I do not. I do not. I'm legitimately racking my brain. I think the last time the 49ers tried it was when they tried Richard Sherman with a sorry ass receiver like Michael Crabtree. I think that was the last time they ran fade and they just banned it. I mean, they obviously have tried it since then, but it didn't get completed then. [00:31:39] Speaker B: But I love that Kyle Was like, we're doing this. This is the play. [00:31:43] Speaker A: It was a good play in that spot, too. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Totally. [00:31:46] Speaker A: I liked it there because, you know, you're getting one on one on the outside. The thing with Evans is this. The great receivers don't make any sense. Like, and I'm talking, like, truly great. And Mike Evans, I think you nailed it perfectly. He moves slow, but is fast. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:32:03] Speaker A: And the weird part is you just see a certain amount of guys running at you when you're a corner, which, obviously, I can speak from my vast NFL experience of being a cornerback, but I imagine you just see the same sort of thing again and again and again. Right? And now here comes Mike Evans, and he has somehow taken four fewer steps to get to where he. Where everyone else would go. And you're. He never dips his shoulders. There's no tells. And then he's losing. [00:32:33] Speaker B: Even when he sits in zone, he's just there. Like, it's not like he's sprinting and then breaking out. He's just stops and they're like, oh, he's okay. That's just seven yards. [00:32:44] Speaker A: All he does is separate. It's. He just has an innate ability. When you watch, like, a Ricky Pierce all separate, you're like, oh, he worked really hard to do that. Yeah, Like. But like, he had to put on, like, two or three moves and he had to, like David Copperfield sleight of hand. [00:32:57] Speaker B: You like the other night where he. He created his own pick and it didn't quite work because he tripped, but, like, he literally, like, worked hard to create his own pick play. It's. Evans is, like, a little bit like Jokic, where it's just like, immense feel. He's at his own tempo, and you're getting dominated. And you're like, what? But him. [00:33:20] Speaker A: Because if you were to ever. If you were to ever try to pick to get on, you know, shout out whiplash. Like, you're not on my tempo. Like, if you were ever try to get on Mike Evans's tempo, you'd be totally screwed against everybody else because. [00:33:33] Speaker B: Right. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Just the way that he comes at you. Pause. Is. It's weird looking. It's weird looking. Not in a negative way. It's just weird looking. And I just don't think that you can mentally line it up. And then he's just further away, and he's just big and strong. He's sneaky lanky like that. You look at Mike Evans and you're like, wow, what a big body. And then you, like, see him in person. You're like, that dude needs to eat something. [00:33:58] Speaker B: It's weird. He's never, he's never in four, four time. He's never, never just. [00:34:03] Speaker A: It's doing a six, eight tempo. It's bizarre. [00:34:06] Speaker B: I got juked by him. Me and Josh Dubow, we got juked by him when he was injured in camp. And I was like, interesting. He's bored. [00:34:12] Speaker A: Also, why are we picking on Josh Dubow? Special teams again, I got to bring it up. Malik Mustafa sets the tone early. Big tackle. [00:34:21] Speaker B: How about that? They're just like, we're going to use a human missile as a missile. How much was he actually playing? [00:34:29] Speaker A: I don't play from scrimmage. [00:34:31] Speaker B: I saw him like once or twice, but it was rare. Maybe it might have just been in the second half late in the game. [00:34:36] Speaker A: Ashton Davis. Ashton Davis had a big hit. Garrett Wallow got thrown into a dude that was my favorite where was like, Neil was fantastic. [00:34:45] Speaker B: It was one of the best tackles of special teams. And it was not a tackle he made. He just got ragdolled into somebody else. [00:34:51] Speaker A: It was great. And then I, I. You mentioned it earlier. I want to, I want to. I thought Duggar was really, really good in special teams. Him and Gifford were always sort of creating bad lanes for guys to run through. So, like, he wasn't in on the tackle, but your choice was to run at him. And everyone's like, I'm not doing that, and I'm going the other way. Also, the Rams are just God awful on special teams and it will end up probably ruining their season. [00:35:16] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, here's the thing Kyle has learned. He's like, I hate special teams so much, but I'm gonna hire a guy who is so good at special teams that he stayed with the jets through like seven different coaching staffs. Like, this man, make him the head [00:35:31] Speaker A: coach because he doesn't know anything but special teams. [00:35:34] Speaker B: And a God, he is a stallion. I mean, him and John Weeks. Did you see when they brought out John Weeks for the first time? He's got the long. I just. [00:35:43] Speaker A: Every Australian recognized. They're like, he could play prop for us. [00:35:46] Speaker B: Gets me right? Gets me fired up to work for John Weeks. [00:35:52] Speaker A: Okay. Two injuries in this game. I don't know when Stribling first got injured. I'm not even sure. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Kind of early. [00:35:59] Speaker A: It was definitely early. I think it was like first or second series. And then they put him back in and I'm not sure if he's. If it was even the same injury. Now Kyle says that the Achilles is intact, which indicates he ain't playing anytime soon. That that was everyone's first thought of. He blew out his Achilles and then I, I like Jake ton just a lot and I thought that he was going to have a really nice year. My guess right now, and this is totally unsubstantiated, my guess right now is that he tore his ACL after whiffing on a block, a crackback block, a sift block, whatever you want to call it. Whiffing and trying to kick Miles Garrett. And Miles Garrett, I believe has actually done this now multiple times, which where someone has kicked him and it has hurt their legs. [00:36:45] Speaker B: Yeah, Shanahan said it was an MCL and it wasn't good. [00:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean when they're working on his leg, it's like, well, that's a cramp or something exploded in his knee. [00:36:58] Speaker B: Sorry, I'm going to need to vet a comment. You vamp for two seconds in a [00:37:02] Speaker A: way again, I don't want to pardon the pun here. Kick somebody when they're down. Of all the injuries that the 49ers will have this year and there will be many, many injuries, it might be the funniest. It's not appropriate. I feel bad, but it might be the funniest. [00:37:19] Speaker B: Sorry, I'm not laughing at the Tondra's injury. This is. I'm read. Let me read from. Our buddy Matt Barrows is at the game. Did a great job where he reported from the game and he did a video of how long it took to walk from like the 50 yard line of the stands to the actual sideline. Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. Shout out, Matt. He said One of the 49ers game balls went to strength and conditioning coach Dustin Perry. Suffice to say, the 49ers felt like they were well prepared for their game against the just arrived Rams. [00:37:48] Speaker A: So honestly, one way. [00:37:50] Speaker B: Yes, honestly fair, but extraordinarily funny given all of the other context. [00:38:00] Speaker A: I mean, this is the yin and yang of life in football. Like Nick Bosa and George Kittle are out there. Nick Bosa in particular is out there and looking incredible. You have all these guys coming back from injuries and like, you know, Mike Evans, the practice three times in a row challenge has not been achieved. They got a lot of guys back and they were impactful, but then they just keep going down like flies and. Yeah, I mean it's. I don't know what it is. It's football. At a certain point, the conscious injury is kind of funny. [00:38:34] Speaker B: It's a. It's a bummer, though. [00:38:36] Speaker A: It's a bummer for him because I thought he was going to have a really monster year. And now this means Luke Farrell, who looked good, have a nice catch. I thought he looked tough blocking, but I'll. We'll vet it. We'll vet it. We'll check the tape. [00:38:48] Speaker B: I. I thought he was better than what we saw last year. [00:38:52] Speaker A: Not a high bar. [00:38:53] Speaker B: Not a high bar. [00:38:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:38:54] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. Again. [00:38:57] Speaker A: So they're going to get on a plane. They're going to fly. 16 hours might be longer, I'm not sure. With the jet streams and things of that nature. [00:39:06] Speaker B: Technically, it's three days. With the time change, they're all getting [00:39:10] Speaker A: on a boat and they'll be back just in time for the game, but they'll be able to slowly adjust and practice on the deck. [00:39:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:20] Speaker A: You ever read any stories about when they used to do, like, crazy distance games back in the early 1900s? Like, Mizzou played a game in Mexico city in, like, 1909? They got on a train for three days. Crazy stuff. So they're going to come back. They get the Dolphins next Sunday. I imagine they'll have a very sleepy extra practice either Sunday or Monday, and then they'll get back into. [00:39:47] Speaker B: That's more of a wellness check to make sure everybody made it. [00:39:50] Speaker A: They do need to make some, like, roster moves, by the way. There's some. Yeah, there's some shifts that need to happen when it comes to getting in enough defensive linemen. They were playing that. That Kareem guy that they just signed. They were playing him, like, for a significant portion of the end of the second quarter, and I'm like, oh, this is inauspicious, because that game was close and on the edge. And here comes a guy they signed when they were in Australia. [00:40:15] Speaker B: They need a defensive tackle. They probably need another defensive end. They need a tight end, which I guess will be Braden Willis, but they need another one in addition to Braden Willis. [00:40:23] Speaker A: What if it wasn't Braden Willis? Wouldn't that be hilarious? [00:40:26] Speaker B: It. It. I don't know. It shouldn't. It like. Yeah, I'm still mad they didn't draft my guy, Dallin Bentley, who made the. The Denver Broncos roster. [00:40:35] Speaker A: They cut Jolly for him, didn't they? [00:40:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [00:40:38] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a Stallion. He's from Miami. We might see him next week. I. I thought. Can I also. I don't think we pounded this home enough. I thought Upton Stout was incredible in this game. Yeah, I thought he was. [00:40:51] Speaker B: Oh, he had that one, like, run, run, stop, where he blitzed from the A gap, and you're like, you ran over Kyron Williams. [00:40:58] Speaker A: I was, like, here for a good time. Not for a long time. [00:41:02] Speaker B: I mean, up and stop. [00:41:03] Speaker A: But enjoy the hell out of it while it's here. [00:41:05] Speaker B: I mean, I've said, like, again in the. In the column I wrote, like, it was. The 49ers wanted it more. And I don't. I literally don't mean it in, like, the coach speaky terms of, like, it was about heart and all that. Like, I literally mean, like, they know practically, like, this thing could go sideways in a second. They don't have a lot of margin for error. They're going up against the Rams and the Seahawks, and they have an aging roster. Like, they can't screw around. That's sort of what I mean. Now, that said, like, I will say in coach speak terms like, Upton Stout plays with as much heart as I've ever seen a player. Like, just like five, eight. He's like, I don't care. I'm sacrificing my body and my soul, and I. I'm gonna play harder and more aggressively than everybody else on the field. And it's incredible to watch. [00:41:56] Speaker A: It was really, really impressive. Let me run through a couple of just quick ones. Connor Colby had two reps against Miles Garrett. That was Miles Garrett's only pressure of the game. [00:42:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds right. [00:42:13] Speaker A: Puni went three and three for three. Trent Williams won 11 for 11. Colton McKivitz went 11 for 11. And our take that. Colton McKivitz, by the end of the season, might be the most underrated player in football. Off to a great start. He has been fantastic. [00:42:29] Speaker B: Also, Dominic Puni, with no PCL injury that he has to play with from [00:42:33] Speaker A: day one, he's about to get paid. I mean, like, I know that sounds ridiculous, but, like, he. He was poised for the breakout last year. He had to scrap, fight and claw, and he still was an above average offensive lineman. [00:42:44] Speaker B: I remember him, like, talking to Dieter, and you were like, so, how's it going? [00:42:48] Speaker A: He's like, well, it's not great. Dieter, every minute of my life is agony. But I'm a professional football player and I'm going to tough it out. And. And the level of credibility, not that he needed it, but the level of credibility he got from his teammates who were very overt in some cases. I won't name names, but we're like, there's a lot of guys in this room who wouldn't do a Puny's doing. And then they'd look around to the locker room. Yeah, we know what you're saying. [00:43:14] Speaker B: I should have made a highlight reel of him last year of his, like, because he would just surviving, like, surviving leg pass pros. It's. It's something that I think is actually crucial for an offensive lineman is, like, because you're mostly looking for a good rep, but there's not. Like, you want a good rep, right? You want a rep that's like, that looks good. A lot of offensive line play doesn't look good. Even if it's good. Like, Puni was just out there surviving and surviving. When you don't allow a pressure and the play works. Yeah, like, that works. Functional reps that look ugly. [00:43:51] Speaker A: Function over form, that counts. [00:43:53] Speaker B: And Puni was like a master of that last year. He's just like, I'm fighting for my life, but I will literally throw my ass in the way. I will spin around, but I'm going to stay in front of this guy somehow. And it was genuinely, I should have made a highlight reel of it. [00:44:06] Speaker A: I did not see Puni off balance, but maybe once in this game. [00:44:13] Speaker B: He looks healthy. [00:44:13] Speaker A: He looks healthy. I thought Colby did a nice job in kind of scrapping. [00:44:20] Speaker B: He moves well, man. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Like, he moves well. I thought his hands were in a good spot. And when you get him moving forward, things were interesting. Right. The most interesting aspect of the left guard battle was sort of the dichotomy where you're like, oh, no, Carver Willis, we can't have this in pass pro. But anytime he was in run blocking, you're like, oh, boy, this is fun. This is like a tsunami coming your way, and there's just nothing you can do. And Conor Colby's run blocking today was outstanding. And he held up as you would expect. I mean, if you were thinking, best case scenario, pretty well in. In pass pro. Did Fisk even have a pressure in this game? [00:44:59] Speaker B: I don't. I don't think so. I mean, they all looked. I didn't want to make it too much about, you know, the fact that they're gassed and the. But they looked off. Like, everyone on that team, except for, like, Quinton Lake, looked pretty also. Trent McDuffie had some nice plays, too. [00:45:15] Speaker A: They're a good team and they'll be fine. It's just, how much do they want to dick around? [00:45:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the left guard spot, to me, I'm like, the 49ers can look good against every team they play. It's Seahawks to me. It's like, yeah. And I know you shouldn't probably build a roster around one team, but I kind of think Rams did. I don't. I still. Again, I don't want to get to the negative thing because this was like a goddamn impressive win. And they. And from the jump, they just look professional. Like, even just watching the coaches on the sideline, like after, they're like, first down, first down, first down, they're just like. There's no like, excitement or anything. They were just like very clearly communicating, very efficient. Everyone was incredibly locked in. It just looked like, okay, they knew what they were doing. And I, and I know that, like, is maybe reading too much into that, but that's what it felt like from the jump. [00:46:10] Speaker A: I mean, first drive, 15 plays, 65 yards. Probably should have gone for it on fourth down. Second drive, three and out. But you could see. Exactly. It was just a drop. Next play, you get the Brock interception. And after that, touchdown punt. But yeah, it was pretty good drive, touchdown, touchdown, game over. I mean, and that, by the way, that is the nature of the modern NFL. You're not going to get that many bites of the apple and only average [00:46:43] Speaker B: something like seven possessions a game. I want to say maybe I'm wrong on that, but it seems low, but it's not. [00:46:50] Speaker A: It's not 10 unless it's a bad game. If you're getting like, if you're getting like 11, 12 possessions a game, you've had an awful game. I don't want to watch this game anymore. Please let me die. There were 169 total plays in this game. I mean, it's just not that many. [00:47:07] Speaker B: Teams average. I'm way off. That's half of it. Teams average 11, 11 to 13 possession. I was thinking of per half. [00:47:15] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Well, fair enough. And then you can lap them so you get an extra one. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Not even close. [00:47:23] Speaker A: I do. Yeah. When you have a lot of possessions, though, that means that you weren't sustaining drives and the other team was doing whatever they wanted. Or vice versa, I suppose. I. Yeah, the scripted drives. So first series of the game for the Niners. Offensively exceptional. Right. And it wasn't. It was clearly designed to take advantage of the fact that they were in control of their facilities on the field. [00:47:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:57] Speaker A: Screen throws, you know, student body left. Screen throws. McCaffrey. Screen throws to Kittle. Screen throws to Debo Little. Seven yard outs, nothing crazy. And then rams creep in, creep in, creep in. Bam. Over the top on you. Just. [00:48:13] Speaker B: It was the protection. The protection on that play was I mean, phenomenal. The one to Robinson. I was like, it's very rare that Brock has had that much time. [00:48:23] Speaker A: It wasn't perfect, but he also makes. It was very, very good. [00:48:27] Speaker B: It was, let me say, at the end to Brock started running more in a way that was incredibly smart. It was like, it's a little muddy. It's not that clear. We've also had some drops, and it felt very intentional of him, of like, all right, I haven't had to scramble a lot this game. I feel good. Like, let me make buy some time, keep the clock running. And then there's like no threat of an interception. He's like, the only thing that could hurt us is an interception. So he's like, I'm going to start running. And he felt like he did that very intentionally towards the end of the game. And that was like, crucial in putting the nail in the coffin again. Now, I don't know what this does in terms of MVP narratives. Probably what didn't cross the threshold just quite. But it's like, whatever. Just because we've talked about it, like, yeah, very good game from him. Aside from the one interception, hard to find a lot of faults. There were a couple drops. He was not throwing a lot of like one of those fluttery over the middle. Let's just throw it up to George and see what happens. Which may be because of George's health situation is a benefit. [00:49:29] Speaker A: Once they kind of stopped throwing to George, the offense looked a hell of a lot better. [00:49:32] Speaker B: They were trying to get him involved early and get him going. They're like, this is not working. [00:49:36] Speaker A: He ain't going. Today's not the day. It was. I brought it up many times going into the game. It felt very Atlanta ish. Obviously they threw it to a Moore, but it's like, George ain't here today, boys. We got to figure out some other way. So use check. You're kind of going to lead the way. I mean, they were with the screens. They were 53, 47 on past to run, but they were in 22 or 21 or 12 personnel 70% of the time. So they. And with the way that juice moves around, it's kind of all the same. They always had two tight ends on the field. In effect, whether that was Juice or feral, but, you know, or Kittle didn't really matter. They mixed it up. Right. So you think about the Niners. Obviously it's dated, but you think Niners outside zone, outside zone, outside zone. Well, they run an outside zone. Yeah, they ran it. They did A good job with it. But they had inside Zone 2 at a very nice clip. [00:50:30] Speaker B: Almost did feel like they, you know, like, everyone defines them by outside zone. This is the first time in a while where it felt like, oh, the Niners are actually back to their identity of running outside zone effectively. Like, it really felt like they were pressing those edges, and that's where they got some of their biggest runs. They got some up the middle, especially with McCaffrey early in the second half. But, like, they were pressing those edges in a way that, like, felt like, almost like most, like 2019. [00:50:54] Speaker A: Well, the Rams had to adjust because they were getting ruined on the edges, so they threw extra guys in the box. And then here comes inside zone, and they hit you with some man. They hit you with some man about once every player, you know, out of one out of every four times, one out of every five times, they would hit you with a true gap power run. Like, here comes a guard, he's on the move, on top of use check in dash motion. And I thought it was a really effective way to get those Rams linebackers, who we had some questions about, and really all they do is fill when the defensive line clears out. It also. [00:51:27] Speaker B: Landman got hurt. Like, they don't. They just don't have linebackers. [00:51:30] Speaker A: And Spates. Did Spates get hurt in this game, too, or was he just bad? [00:51:33] Speaker B: I think he's just bad. [00:51:35] Speaker A: But it was an effective way. And it's something that I had asked for before the game in that every team has kind of figured out how to stop outside zone, right. Going back to Belichick against the Golf Rams in the super bowl, it's put many men on the line of scrimmage and take away the outside and just beat them on the edge. You'll always have one more guy on the edge and doing it with, you know, odd fronts and sometimes, you know, even fronts with two extra guys and sonic blitzing and all this stuff, and it's just get wider than them, is the answer. And the way that you counter that is that you do. Pun intended. In some cases, you have gap scheme stuff that throws extra bodies on one side. You overload one side of that line, because in zone, obviously, everyone's kind of moving in motion, but the defense can move in that same motion. It's easy to read in gap. You have to calculate and play man to man. And. Yeah, I just thought that was a really, really effective run game. And when you have an effective run game with two different guys, so if it's not working for McCaffrey, you can do it with Black. And when Black starts to get a little less effective or needs a blow. Okay, well, now we're going to go inside zone with McCaffrey to start the second half. When you have that and you have your wide receivers blocking their ass off. Demarcus Robinson had some good blocks today, which is a crazy statement. Like, Debo was great. Every tight end and fullback, like, when [00:52:58] Speaker B: the loss of stribling is going to be substantial in that regard, but they'll figure it out. [00:53:02] Speaker A: Barely playing them before he got injured. [00:53:05] Speaker B: Not true. Not true. He. He had more snaps than. Than any. Any, I think, receiver. I missed that on the team before he got hurt. He was. He was playing a lot, which is rare for Kyle, which, I mean, I think was indicative that he started right. Like, fair enough. For. For Kyle to start a rookie is astounding. It is fascinating that, like, Jordan James just not even active, and they're like, debo's our third running back. If that's what it comes to. [00:53:31] Speaker A: I mean, it's because Jordan James doesn't have any special teams value. [00:53:35] Speaker B: Totally. I get it. Makes sense. It's just. Yeah, it's kind of fascinating. [00:53:41] Speaker A: You're carrying. You're carrying Neil, you're carrying Gifford. You play Duggar, but you don't love it. [00:53:51] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, there were times it did feel like Duggar was out, and he's like, where do I go? And friends, like, that way. [00:53:58] Speaker A: Thank God you have Fred. [00:53:59] Speaker B: But he's. But he's big. He's big. Duggar's big, and he's athletic. So they're just like, just. Just stand over there and sort of like, be the second guy to the tackle. [00:54:10] Speaker A: I'm really. I'm legitimately surprised that McVeigh didn't have something dialed up for when Duggar was on the field. [00:54:18] Speaker B: They win it. C.J. west. [00:54:20] Speaker A: That. I mean, yeah, but that's what they do against everybody. Like, that's their true. That's their play. They run it more than anybody else. That's. [00:54:26] Speaker B: They just didn't feel sharp. Their whole operation just didn't feel like. Usually when they see blood in the water, they go, we're gonna spam this. Yeah, we're gonna attack you. And it just didn't feel like that. [00:54:36] Speaker A: No, it felt very preseason for them. Okay. I'm sure. [00:54:38] Speaker B: Anything you want to get to before questions? [00:54:40] Speaker A: I'm sure we have a million of them, so let's do it. Let's start burning and churning. [00:54:43] Speaker B: All right. Let's start With Joe just trashing the Rams. [00:54:52] Speaker A: It's fair. It's 100 fair. [00:54:54] Speaker B: I still cannot figure out how the Niners won that big while being antique cheesecloth. They were a doily against the run. I. I'm still trying to figure that out. I think the takeaways were very well timed. They were very gut punchy, by the way, the way to get your feet inbound with Renardo Green. Also. I didn't think that ball got out, but Fred is arguably the best in the league at punching the ball out [00:55:23] Speaker A: because he just one on quorum that he was a little late on. And he's like, I'm getting one of these motherfuckers. [00:55:29] Speaker B: You. You saw. I think Corum was like, stop, stop. [00:55:33] Speaker A: And Jordan James is out there in street clothes like, yeah, I know, man, it sucks. [00:55:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:39] Speaker A: Broke my ribs. But he's. He's got that peanut punch down. And that's, that's why it's so big that Greenlaw is back, because you trust that Greenlaw is going to make the tackle. And then Fred's like, yes, I'm going to do some fun shit while he's coming down. Punch him right in the neck. It's just so funny that the meanest, baddest dude on the planet is like the nicest guy off the field. [00:55:59] Speaker B: I was. He was messaging somebody. I was like that. The thing about Fred is that he is like, you talk to him, you're like, what a lovely. What a lovely man. What a lovely guy. Just well rounded. And then he's out. He's a warmonger. Yeah. He's out to commit crimes on the field in a way that is so beautiful to watch because he does. And he's talked about it. I remember when I talked to him a couple of years ago, he's like. Like there is a requisite level of physicality that the game hasn't lost and I think actually is coming back in a big way. McDonald, I think, has spurred some of that with like getting guys like Witherspoon and Eman worries like human missiles. [00:56:39] Speaker A: Say, like Director of Violence, right? [00:56:42] Speaker B: Which. It's better than swear. You know, I, That's. I have. I think I have trouble taking d' Amico ever fully seriously because of swear. I have. [00:56:52] Speaker A: It's. [00:56:53] Speaker B: It. It's so right here. So top of mind for me. Every day I wake up, I'm like, he couldn't have figured out a way to get the. He couldn't have figured out a way to get the E out of there. Like, no, no. [00:57:05] Speaker A: Or just. Or just not. Like just have the E in there, but just don't use it as part of. They need. They need some congressional staffer, Capitol Hill, who always has a crazy analogy. The Save College Sports Act. And it's all. Every letter. [00:57:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:57:21] Speaker A: Go ahead. [00:57:22] Speaker B: By the way, this is our guy, Brad from Australia. He said he was there. From what he could see in person, that makes a lot of sense. Shout out, Brad. Feel free to let us know your experience. 889 versus Dre was good. Jack Jones was good. But Colby was surprisingly good. Pass blocking, DT still can't stop the run. McVeigh just stopped running. Yeah. And they also got behind and they just also always feel like they can get out of it with Stafford and Stafford didn't even come close to having it today. [00:57:53] Speaker A: That Niners touchdown coming out of halftime, just seven play Debo. That was a perfect drive. Debo with the 45 yard kick return. And you're like, let's cook. McCaffrey for 14, McCaffrey for 16. Here's. Here's DeMarcus Robinson for 11 yards. Getting yards after the catch. And then here's Evans just dunking on a dude, just done and it. And then the Rams come back and they have this long drive and they get to the one. And the Niners in short yardage situations against The Rams, Sean McVeigh just mount 2019. [00:58:27] Speaker B: Guess what happened. Guess what happened. Sean spammed it and they tried to go for it and they didn't get it. It's like the. Almost the exact same thing. They ran it twice on the goal line, got stopped twice. Changed the entire complexion of the game. [00:58:41] Speaker A: Last year, Thursday Night Football, short yardage run. It's wild too, because the first touchdown [00:58:47] Speaker B: that they had, Stafford's not good at it because he's trying to protect himself. He turns immediately like you need to. There's an art to it. [00:58:56] Speaker A: And he's. And he's trying to dive in off in between the guard and the center and he's not going to go over the top. And it's. You can just read it and you know where he's going because he's shading that way. [00:59:05] Speaker B: Use the. Use one of your five tight ends like the Seahawks did. [00:59:09] Speaker A: They had. They had three tight ends on the field to run a QB sneak. And it's like, that's not what that's for. That's put one of those tight ends and put him at quarterback and then have him stand over it. Just put the ball over the top. It was a Very weird play. It's happened now multiple times. And it's so bizarre because when you watch the Rams score their touchdown, they just duo them into oblivion. And then they run in from eight yards out on a duo play where. I'm not sure that Kyren Williams got touched. [00:59:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not sure he did, so. I'm not sure he did. [00:59:41] Speaker A: You have one yard to go, and it's like, hey, you know what? Plays really worked for us. Let's not do that. [00:59:46] Speaker B: Let's snap it to your bowling ball. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Right. And so they. That's. I think. I think after that, they just kind of gave up because then the Niners come back and 11. 11 plays, and it was over. And then they couldn't run anymore. [00:59:56] Speaker B: Couple questions, Stefan. Niners, is it possible that the Rams just suck? Probably not. [01:00:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean. [01:00:04] Speaker B: Yeah, but they were. [01:00:05] Speaker A: That the Rams are Today. Yes. And is it possible that the Rams are just going to kind of look disjointed and bizarre and it never really comes together? [01:00:15] Speaker B: It might be a likelihood. [01:00:17] Speaker A: Months. Absolutely. This could also just be like, okay, boys, we got a game next week, and we only place 16 games in this house. Right. So, you know. [01:00:28] Speaker B: Right. [01:00:29] Speaker A: Might spark something in them. [01:00:30] Speaker B: They. In some ways, it feels like they're treating it like the warriors would, where they're like, I get, like, do okay. [01:00:36] Speaker A: I guess. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. It could also be Brooklyn Nets, where they never put it together and then they try to turn it on at the end, and they never got enough practice at it. At least the warriors teams that dicked around, dicked around for 44 minutes, and then they're like, yeah, fine, we'll play. [01:00:53] Speaker B: And then Jeremy Drano is Brock Purdy. Is he just good? I mean. Yeah, I think we've been very clear on that. He's really good. I. I genuinely tried to get him in every fantasy league I could because I was like, jen, it's. It's funny. And I don't mean that is like, to just shout out Brock. Like, I truly believe, like, in terms of quarterbacks I trust to produce this year, he's pretty high on the list. It's like. Like Herbert, I feel good about, but there's still always weirdness with him getting hurt. I actually feel very good about Dak Prescott, which. I mean, everyone is high on the Cowboys, but, like, the greatest offense there is. I know, I know, but Brock's. I'm very high on the list in terms of, like, yeah, he's going to get his this year. Like this offense is going to churn. [01:01:41] Speaker A: I don't, I have absolutely no concerns whatsoever, and I mean this earnestly, that Brock Purdy won't play quarterback at the level to properly execute the game plan every week. Like, Brock Purdy might not play well every week, but it will never be because he doesn't know what he's looking at. It will never be because he's not in control of the situation. He just sometimes swashbuckles a little bit too much and turns into Baker Mayfield. But like, that's a floor. Like his floor is Baker Mayfield. His ceiling is like sometimes when he's really on, you're like, oh, shit, this is Drew Brees. He's a really, really good quarterback. The problem is I do think a lot of folks view the quarterback position solely through the lens of fantasy football. And it's not to say he's not a good fantasy player, but like they just see the stats and stats equals effectiveness. But Brock was saved for the interception, which frankly, it just seemed like he thought about it too much paralysis by analysis on it because he had so much time save for that. Like, was he ever off at any point? No, the ball got. The ball got where it needed to go every time and he was failed by some drops and yeah, he had to scramble a couple times, but he just, he did distributed it at the highest level. He's a point guard and everyone says, oh, it's so easy to be a point guard until you actually need a really good point guard to distribute the ball. And Brock's really good. [01:03:15] Speaker B: Interesting nugget. Fred is now the 49ers leading tackler of all time, surpassed Patrick Willis, which normally I don't really care about that, but it is like a reflection of like Willis and Bowman were here for a good time, not a long time. Like they were out. Outrageous. By the, by the way, how about like Bowman's kid being like a five [01:03:34] Speaker A: star point guard playing for Danny Hurley at UConn. Can you name either three or four on the all time 49ers tackle list? Fred Warner is one. Patrick Willis is two.950 career. [01:03:52] Speaker B: Is it going to be like, like a Charles Haley type or something? [01:03:55] Speaker A: No, Charles Haley is a defenseman. [01:03:57] Speaker B: No, I know, I know. I thought you were trying to throw me. [01:03:59] Speaker A: I'll give you the numbers. It was 703 or 695 career tackles and you have not said their name yet. You're not gonna get it. It's okay. [01:04:09] Speaker B: Who is it? [01:04:09] Speaker A: How about how about a Derek Smith, who I can tell you almost nothing about, or a a Ken Norton Jr. With 695seattle Seahawks and Raiders defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. Not very good job. Great. [01:04:23] Speaker B: It's interesting. I'm not sure they used to log assisted tackles because Ronnie Lott is listed as 721 solo tackles and zero assists. So I'm not sure about. [01:04:36] Speaker A: I'm looking at that as well. [01:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah, these numbers are all locked. [01:04:39] Speaker A: Well, it's not as much fun not to ask who has the most interceptions in 49ers history. [01:04:44] Speaker B: Oh, wouldn't it be? I mean, yeah, obviously. Besides Ryan. I was trying to thinking. I was thinking of Merton Hanks is a good one. [01:04:52] Speaker A: He's. He's fourth at 31. It's Jimmy Johnson and then shout out. Kermit Alexander, 1963 to 1969. He had 36 interceptions. [01:05:02] Speaker B: Love that. [01:05:03] Speaker A: I have not spent enough time with the 1960s 49ers. Maybe because they were mostly. [01:05:08] Speaker B: But you're not looking at Dicky Mogul. [01:05:12] Speaker A: What other fun? [01:05:13] Speaker B: Number 13 on the list. [01:05:15] Speaker A: Dickie Mogul. That's a good one. Carlton Williamson. [01:05:20] Speaker B: Skip Vanderbund. Who remembers Skip Vanderbund? [01:05:24] Speaker A: What about Tyrone Drakeford? [01:05:26] Speaker B: He beat me to it. Reading names is awesome. I could just keep doing this all day. [01:05:34] Speaker A: Eric Reed, 41 on the list with 10. Shout out, Eric. [01:05:38] Speaker B: Shout out Eric Reed. [01:05:39] Speaker A: Fred has 10. Yeah, I would have thought Fred had more. [01:05:45] Speaker B: I would too. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Alas Veral Lily White Fred has a [01:05:49] Speaker B: lot of dropped interceptions. [01:05:52] Speaker A: Interception in this game. I think it was the first pass play of the game. [01:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a. That should have been a sign. A couple people to shout out. Shout out. J.J. sent in shadow. Thank you very much. [01:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:05] Speaker B: And shout out PV Niners fan. [01:06:07] Speaker A: I don't know what that SOSAR means. [01:06:09] Speaker B: I probably. I'm not sure I want to find out what it means. But that's okay. But that's okay. Is there anything else? We haven't covered any ground left untouched? [01:06:20] Speaker A: Well, no, I think we've talked about every player on the team. [01:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's. I think it's. Oh, we got one more big tone. I didn't expect Black to have more carries than cmc. That is astounding. At times CMC looked like being on the sideline was confusing. He looked fresh. Some nice runs. [01:06:39] Speaker A: I agree. [01:06:40] Speaker B: I, I. [01:06:41] Speaker A: Isn't that the way you should handle? Like we're playing in Australia? Like, like we're just going to kind of rotate a little bit more and we're totally sure like, that's what I'm [01:06:48] Speaker B: trying to figure out. Like, is that a long term thing for the whole season that Kyle's going to stick to? I think Kyle is a person where he typically doesn't like to do that stuff, but then when he sees it works, he is, he is a guy that is doesn't. He's seen his believing for him. I think he has to see something. [01:07:07] Speaker A: It's. It's same old sorry ass Rams. [01:07:09] Speaker B: Ah, there we go. [01:07:11] Speaker A: Shout out. Shout out to the Anaheim days of the Rams. Yeah, I thought Black looked really good. [01:07:18] Speaker B: I do too. [01:07:19] Speaker A: I just think that it is a certain style of run that they want to go for and that might not be what they need in a lot [01:07:31] Speaker B: of games and it might not be sustainable for him long term. [01:07:34] Speaker A: There's also the element of you want Christian McCaffrey as a pass catcher and you want that option to keep the ramp. Especially when you play teams with weak linebackers in coverage. You just want to have that as something more. And it's not that bad if you have to telegraph like hey, Blacks, and we're running it. [01:07:50] Speaker B: Although he did have that incredible catch like at his shoestrings that he scooped [01:07:57] Speaker A: up the second he can play. The second he showed up at rookie minicamp and he made a couple of catches, I'm like, oh, well, that he can do that. Not even. [01:08:04] Speaker B: I really liked his Indiana tape. I mean, again, that was the only draft pick I predicted correctly that they would draft Kaylon Black. [01:08:10] Speaker A: What round did you think that he was? [01:08:12] Speaker B: I said round four wasn't that bad. No, no. [01:08:16] Speaker A: But they, they really, they do have to have it. And this is what they thought they were getting, which was preposterous in the moment and obviously looks terrible in hindsight. Like they thought Brian Robinson was going to be that battering ram and it's like, are you not. I mean a very clear Shaq. I was not familiar with your game pejorative usage of the Brian Robinson, like, what did you think was going to happen? He doesn't get yards. [01:08:42] Speaker B: I can't wait for people because there's the bright. He's backing up B John Robinson, which should be illegal. [01:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah, they should not allow that. [01:08:50] Speaker B: It's going to be awful. [01:08:52] Speaker A: I had a couple of different friends from college and stuff sending send me memes of people in auction drafts nominating Brian Robinson like second or third and people just running up the bids to like 50, 60, 70, 100 bucks and then be like, oh, no, different B. Robinson, Atlanta. But Brian Robinson's not good. He's never been good. But they had no choice last year. They had to get a running back because their. Their option for thunder and lightning last year was Isaac Garendo, which did not work out, and Jordan James as well. [01:09:24] Speaker B: I think they. I think if he doesn't work out, you wait for old Big. My big Chungus boy from Miami, Mark Fletcher. [01:09:33] Speaker A: I do like me some Mark Fletcher. [01:09:35] Speaker B: He runs so mad. It's not quite Isaiah Pacheco level, but he. He is mean. [01:09:42] Speaker A: Is there anything looking. I don't know if we're going to. I imagine we might hop on once we get the film done. If not, we'll be back early next week. Is there anything you're really interested in looking forward to on Sunday or Monday on the NFL slate? [01:09:57] Speaker B: No, I do want to see. I do want to see the Chargers. I want to see what they look like. I. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I know they're playing the Cardinals, which is actually. It should be the most fun version. Right. [01:10:13] Speaker A: I would hope. I would hope. I'm interested. I'm interested to see what the Dolphins look like. They're going to play the Raiders. That's a game that shouldn't exist for survivor league purposes. [01:10:24] Speaker B: Over. Under. Under. I mean, Devon H12. Devon. A chain's got to lead the league in touches. Right? [01:10:34] Speaker A: Like, there's. I know he. [01:10:37] Speaker B: I know he's not a big guy, but like, injury. [01:10:39] Speaker A: Injury. Slider off. Sure. Right. It's not how this works. It's not how any of this works. Do you have any takeaways from Seattle and New England last night? [01:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. Seattle still is a pain in the ass. [01:10:57] Speaker A: It is just like their defense is special. [01:11:02] Speaker B: Mike McDonald's so good at his job. And I still can't wrap my head around what Drake May was doing. I know that's the most obvious take. Yeah. But one of the most confounding things I've ever watched where you just guarantee over time, if you don't do that, [01:11:17] Speaker A: anytime you can throw a 50. 50 ball to Matt Collins, you just. You got to do it. By the way, Matt Collins was in. They threw the ball to him. It's like they did the same thing last year. It's like a terrible tell. [01:11:28] Speaker B: I. I do think my. My big boy Ramandre. Even when Travion comes back, it's going to get a lot of run. He's. There's going to be no tread left on that tire. By the way, I understand the hate for him. He's Also not that bad. He's just. No, not particularly fast. [01:11:47] Speaker A: Well, it's kind of. He's kind of now entered what I would call like a David Montgomery zone, where it's because of fantasy football. And you watch. You watch Henderson and you're like, more of that. And then everyone was doing the same thing with the Lions. And it's like, give me Jameer Gibbs on every play. And it's like, why do you think they're not doing that? [01:12:05] Speaker B: Everyone yearns for Mike Tolbert, okay? And we'll never have him again. He's gone. Mike Tolbert is gone. And we all have to live with that fact. It's a post Mike Tolbert world and we're all living in it. [01:12:18] Speaker A: We're not even in an all stop world anymore. Shout out. By the way, here's how good McDonald is. Nemah Pritchett yesterday. [01:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:27] Speaker A: The opposite corner taking over for Reek Wolin. Who the hell is Nehemiah Pritchett and why does he look like an all. [01:12:33] Speaker B: Probably that's what I texted you. Because they were like, searching for a corner, you know, where they're like, kind [01:12:38] Speaker A: of like they tr. They signed what's his name from Detroit who has the whole little thing going on. [01:12:44] Speaker B: The whole. The whole thing. Let's leave it at that. And then they signed Trayvon Diggs as well, which made me think, like, the 49ers got to be glad. Like, Daryl Luder's not a good player. But would Daryl Luder be a good player if he played for Mike McDonald's? [01:13:01] Speaker A: I. I don't know. I don't think he has the physical. I don't. It doesn't matter. [01:13:06] Speaker B: Like, I don't. I don't think so. But the fact that it makes you even go, maybe. [01:13:12] Speaker A: Maybe he's. [01:13:13] Speaker B: It's a reflection. [01:13:14] Speaker A: Offensive coordinator. He's really good. [01:13:16] Speaker B: He also does a thing of flurry. I thought he was pragmatic. I thought he, like, he was like, all right, Drew Locke is in, I think. I don't love that. They stayed away from Jadarian Price a lot. I was not. I was not. Yeah, understandable. I was not particularly impressed. But I think there was probably an edict of like, hey, let's just stay in this. We are the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah. [01:13:49] Speaker A: This is the funny part of. Of the. The Sam Darnold of it. All right? So he goes out. He basically, luckily not to the effect for him, but like, he kind of. Aaron Rodgers himself immediately like, oh, season's over. That. Then you think about it and you're like, he led the NFL in turnovers last year. [01:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:09] Speaker A: And the. Everyone has this revisionist history and of course playoff games count more. He had no turnovers in the playoffs. And so suddenly now he's just this like incredible quarterback and, you know, this baseline of acceptability to win a Super Bowl. And then you watch the first half of the super bowl again, as I did a couple weeks ago, and you're like, oh, no, this is terrible. To the point where they're like, we only run the ball or throw it to JSN now. [01:14:34] Speaker B: Which. [01:14:34] Speaker A: Good, good offensive coordination. Like, let's pull it back. [01:14:36] Speaker B: I mean, I mean, yeah, Drew Lock couldn't really get the plays in. That was like a huge problem. He was like, ah. [01:14:42] Speaker A: He was like, yeah, yeah. He had that terrible delay game on like the one yard line or four. But it was. They had four. Who was, who was announcing it? Oh, Collinsworth. He was just beside himself. [01:14:53] Speaker B: I mean, you could see it. It feels like how if you had to call a play, you'd be looking at the clock. You're wasting time because you're looking at the clock. [01:14:59] Speaker A: You're like, oh, yeah, that's also, that's also got to be a little bit of an issue with, with Flurry too, who's always kind of very calm and stuff, but like not exactly getting them in there fast. And he's. They're working off of the wrist pad. So he's giving a play call, then he's probably giving a second play call. And Drew Locke, who went to the University of Missouri, so we all know his threshold of education. [01:15:21] Speaker B: The video of him dancing to Jeezy. [01:15:24] Speaker A: Listen, we all understand that, you know, folks who go to Mizzou, not all the way there. And it's kind of a school. [01:15:30] Speaker B: He's a vibe cultivator and that vibe [01:15:34] Speaker A: is confusion when he gets those plays called in. It was a tough. It was a tough look. But then he completed damn near everything. And. But backup quarterback not prepared. First time play caller, not wanting to overdo because that's Flurry's thing. Like, he's not going to ever get frantic. So he'll probably just knowing him a little bit here. Slow it down, stay calm. Everything's okay. We're going to get it done. Except not really. You kind of need to get these plays in more, Brian. And that I imagine that will get better for them. But yeah. Sam Darnold, like, oh, is their season ruined in a way because it's like, man, he almost ruined their season last year. [01:16:11] Speaker B: They can't ruin a season if they, if they have McDonald. Not defense. [01:16:15] Speaker A: Like, yeah, the second. [01:16:15] Speaker B: I don't care who you put there. [01:16:17] Speaker A: The Seahawks defense. I think back to their game against Carolina, which would have been whenever the Niners played the Bears and they had like three points going into halftime. They're getting their ass kicked. Darnold's just getting absolutely wrecked, throwing the ball every which way. Totally confused by the Panthers defense and Pardon me. And the Seahawks defense, like, came out in the second half. It's like, fine, we'll do it ourselves. [01:16:41] Speaker B: They're probably a playoff team. If Philip Rivers was their quarterback. Current day Philip Rivers, obviously current day Philip Rivers or Joe Flacco, like, either one. I legitimately think, like, that defense carries them. [01:16:56] Speaker A: Who's the worst quarterback that can get the Seahawks, this Seahawks team to the playoffs if they had to play the rest of the year? Is it Drew Locke? If so, I mean, I'm very excited for that experiment. [01:17:09] Speaker B: I think it's right on the fringe. Which rule lock. [01:17:13] Speaker A: Could. What was the name of. What was the name? Zach Wilson. Because Zach Wilson do it? [01:17:19] Speaker B: No. [01:17:21] Speaker A: Could Jimmy Garoppolo, current state do it? [01:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Jimmy's retired, but yeah, Jimmy could. Jimmy could check it down a couple of. A couple times. [01:17:34] Speaker A: Could Geno. Geno Smith Absolutely could. Right? [01:17:36] Speaker B: For sure. [01:17:37] Speaker A: Could Tua. [01:17:38] Speaker B: For sure. No, I don't think two exists anymore. Anthony Richardson's a good one. [01:17:47] Speaker A: Could he. I don't know. I don't know about that one, Jim. [01:17:51] Speaker B: I think probably not, but I think if you just used him. No, I think no. [01:17:56] Speaker A: Okay, time. [01:17:57] Speaker B: Well, Jacoby Brissette, obviously that's not even close. Like, yeah, there's definitely a playoff team with Jacoby Brissette's not even like, he's like, probably what, the 25th best quarterback league. He's not even below 30. I'd have to look at the. [01:18:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll give you that. I'll give you that. He's. I think Simmons had this joke the other day. I could be wrong about this. I. I heard this third, second, third hand. I really hope that Mendoza is like bog standard average his entire career so that we can. We can have a NFL Mendoza line. [01:18:39] Speaker B: Ooh, I'm looking at the. The full list of just NFL quarterbacks. Daniel Jones. Yes. [01:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:49] Speaker B: Oh, here's a very good question. I know in some ways, given some of the names we said yes to, this might seem obvious. Aaron Rodgers. [01:18:59] Speaker A: Yes. I think current state. Aaron Rodgers. Yes. Mainly because as, as documented, I'm bullish on The Steelers this year. Just a total narrative. Also, I'm really excited. I'm excited for the Steelers this year. Not because I particularly like anything, but mainly because I want Mike Tomlin to be exposed as a fraud. What is it you say you do here? Like, he just, he held on. There's some Harbaugh stuff. Like, I'm excited for both Tomlin and John Harbaugh to be exposed as frauds. And like we've set a culture. It's like, yeah, you know, it's a [01:19:41] Speaker B: cold take for Tomlin, but it, but here's the thing. Towards the end of his career, it was like, what's the vision here? And there wasn't really a vision that kind of matters. [01:19:51] Speaker A: That's kind of the thing that a culture setting head coach is supposed to have. Joe coming in, honest question, is Mike variable top five head coach or you just preside over the Derek Henry Tennessee era? I don't think I've ever seen him as a top five head coach. [01:20:02] Speaker B: No, I think he's. [01:20:03] Speaker A: He's a good one, though. [01:20:04] Speaker B: Yeah, he is a reliably very good coach because he also, he just cares a lot. Like, even if he tactically, like, he, he'll make some really good time management decisions and will also make some like very questionable actual tactical play call errors. And I know he's more of like a head coach head coach, like an executive. And he's outsourcing a lot of that. I would say. No, I'd say he's a reliably very good head coach who will coach defenses very well. We'll get guys amped culture and all that. But like, he's not really, like, he's smart, but he's not like a paradigm shifting play caller. [01:20:48] Speaker A: He's not. Yeah, but there's not an area of the game that he won't attack. Right. He learned from Belichick. He. Special teams are always going to be good. There's two things going against him right now. One, it's very clear that Josh McDaniels made no adjustments whatsoever. Year over year. They're like, oh, we'll just do all the same stuff we did last year, [01:21:08] Speaker B: but we'll do stuff that just, you know, Nate Tice does a great job of breaking that down, by the way. Like, what the. [01:21:14] Speaker A: What the is going on with the clip from the tackles? [01:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:19] Speaker A: What are we doing? What are we doing here? We're cut blocking a tackle. Like you're naming. What's happening here? What's going on here? Also, they have Todd Downing on their coaching staff. They'll never see. They'll never see nirvana with that last one. Derek Carr, current state. No, I covered Derek Carr too much. I don't think it's got it in him. I don't think he's got that dog. I think he wants you to think he's got that dog, but he don't got that dog. [01:21:46] Speaker B: Now what about current state? Taysom Hill? [01:21:49] Speaker A: Yes. [01:21:51] Speaker B: I actually would love to see the Seahawks just with like AJ Barner and Taysom Hill just running like a full [01:21:58] Speaker A: house, running the window, having a Jalen Milroe. If you can't use him right now, [01:22:03] Speaker B: oh, like what's the point? Imagine that. [01:22:06] Speaker A: I, I can't. [01:22:07] Speaker B: No receivers on the field. [01:22:09] Speaker A: Just we're going full option. It's basically Kaepernick replacing Alex Smith. [01:22:15] Speaker B: They could do that so. Well, they already go jumbo. I think Jake Bobo got hurt, but Jake, he's the only. [01:22:21] Speaker A: He did. He's after the season. [01:22:23] Speaker B: All right. Well, on that note, I do want [01:22:26] Speaker A: to say there's going to be a couple good games this weekend that I'm looking forward to. Jake doesn't have to, but I will. I'm very excited for Bear Panthers. I think Bears are on fraud watch. I think Panthers are on the up. I could be very wrong about that. I've never been wrong. But you know, especially about, you know, week one NFL. But like that could be a really interesting one. Packers, Vikings Feels like a tone setter for the season in a lot of ways. [01:22:49] Speaker B: Feels like a chaos game both ways. [01:22:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I'm bullish on the Broncos. I don't understand the Chiefs hype other than oh, they can't be bad two years in a row. [01:23:00] Speaker B: Like they were six highest favorite to like win the super bowl. And I. [01:23:05] Speaker A: It might just be as simple as quarterback be good. [01:23:07] Speaker B: I mean it also might be as simple as Vegas being like on the off chance. [01:23:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:23:11] Speaker B: You got to protect ourselves. [01:23:13] Speaker A: Hedge got a hedgehog. There was one other game that I really Bills, Texans. No, no. I mean I'll watch it. Don't get me wrong. It'll be Cowboys, Giants, Cowboys, Giants. No. [01:23:27] Speaker B: Bucks, Bengals. [01:23:28] Speaker A: No. [01:23:29] Speaker B: Ravens, Colts, [01:23:32] Speaker A: Little Saints, Lions, Saints, Lions for sure. Saints, Lions for sure. [01:23:37] Speaker B: Because suge daddy. [01:23:40] Speaker A: I need my suge daddy. And I am fascinated to see just how bad the Lions defense is. And I think that Kellen Moore is a very good game planner when you give him a lot of time and then it kind of all. Which is why he was like good in the playoffs that year. But it wasn't I? I think that game could be really interesting. And then I'm telling you right now, I have a weird, weird effing feeling about Brown's Jaguars. Got a bad feeling about that one for our boys in Jacksonville. [01:24:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't feel good about my pick. [01:24:13] Speaker A: Just feel bad about it, not feeling good. And that's, that's where we're at. Monday Night Football, Broncos, Chiefs. We'll certainly talk before then. Exciting. Do you think that the game tape is already in NFL Based on yesterday now it's Friday. It's Friday in Australia, so they should have the game film already. [01:24:31] Speaker B: They should have it. They won't. I would love if they do. [01:24:34] Speaker A: I I sent a couple emails today to see if we can get NFL Next Gen with the film in it. I have not received anything back, but I saw Orlovsky. [01:24:43] Speaker B: Someone in the NFL give us access. [01:24:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I need the docs. [01:24:48] Speaker B: We want to be better. We just want to know things. [01:24:52] Speaker A: We're striving. [01:24:53] Speaker B: We're so stupid. Help us be smart. [01:24:56] Speaker A: We both predicted the Rams to win. We're morons. We need all the help we can get. And on that note, yeah, thanks for joining us. We'll appreciate you folks once we check the film, I'm not sure if you can still get in on the Survivor splash pool, but it will be in the comments section or will be in the description. If you want to do that, we're going to leave now. Bye.