Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreigner and Hutch 49ers canceled media today, so we have plenty of time to talk to you.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Love the late night message that there's gonna be media and then being like, just kidding. Nope, it's.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: It's.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: We didn't ask Kyle, we just assumed. And then Kyle said absolutely no.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Hanlon's razor cuts over there pretty hard, so.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Drew. Sorry, go on.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Not a good day for him, by the way.
Oh, sorry. I was thinking about Demar Hamlin, who had a bad day. It's.
We got a lot of stuff to get off our chest. It's just going to be kind of scattershot. We're just.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: We're.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: We're getting out the. The 12 gauge and we're just shelling. Just shelling all over the place. Where do you want to start? I want to start with. I. I'll give you. I'll give you a starting point.
I'm not sure if you've heard of this guy, Fred Warner. He's pretty good.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: It was obvious.
No one's coming out of that game being like, I don't know about Fred, but his ability to just be everywhere all the time and his size at the position, which I don't think I was.
Again, we know all this stuff. He played nine games last year. Like, we know Fred Warner's unbelievable. But when you have some stuff actually schemed up and it works a little bit when you have some interior pass rush, not the no run defense, but you have some interior pass rush when Nick Bosa's out here throwing dudes to the ground on the very first snap.
And we'll get into the Rams of it all in a moment.
Fred Warner is able to do what Fred Warner do. And I'm not sure I saw a bad snap from Fred Warner that entire game. And the.
Okay, tell me.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: I saw one bad snap from Fred. It's where Higby got the little.
But it was also looked like Fred after that play was sort of talking to Dre or someone. So it might have been just a miscommunication. That was the only bad snap, which is to say the snap directly after that. He forced a fumble. Yeah, yeah.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: He was exceptional. And again, you take it for granted. So it's nice. You know, we had a little time off from Fred for the first time ever. He comes back and you're like, oh, right, so much better than everybody else. Like they got by last year with middling, definitively middling middle linebackers. Just like 32nd best middle linebacker in the league to the point Where Eric Kendricks looked like a revelation. And then you're like, oh, no, it's Fred Warner and kind of everybody else. And there's a pretty big gap there. And he looked. He looked unbelievable. And Bosa looked really good. And OSA Digizua looked really good, at least as a pass rusher.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: I can't get over the dime stuff, and I'm sure we'll get into it a little bit more.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: We will.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Boy, the defense. I'm not going to do the whole thing that everyone's been doing because I really do not fundamentally believe it yet. Yet. Oh, the Niners defense is back.
I'm also deeply taken.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Worried about the depth on their D line and attrition and, like, the lack
[00:03:07] Speaker A: of run defense, too.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Bose is not at 100%, and it's, like, hard. I mean, I think he will sort. There's an argument he can play himself. Yeah. Into more shape. But it's also, like. I don't know. I worry about how much they have to ask of him and the fact that, like, Khalid Kareem and Ogbo Akaranquo are out there playing, like, a lot of.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: A lot of Kareem. A lot of.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: And they got kind of, like, more Kareem than Akaranqua, which was interesting.
I think a size thing matters there. He's more of like a run defense option.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: I just.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: Reading out the D line.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
Body size.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Grades are back.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: I'm sorry, did you just say grades are back?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: That's right. The Hutch report. Grades are back. I found a way to do them quicker, so hopefully it doesn't ruin my life. It will. But as of right now, when the game's on a Thursday, it's great.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Last year. Last year he was doing it on abacus, which I always thought was a little bit much.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I just. I. I had a piece of. I would take bricks and I would take, like, a. A metal shaving tool and just shave into the bricks. And it was. It took a while because then I had to convert that into an Excel spreadsheet. It was not efficient. No.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: No. And now the robots give you the ability to type it in. Like you're. You ever see the video of how they do addresses at the post office and they have, like, a short.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: No.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: It's very cool video.
Obviously, a lot of people still write letters and they have to discriminate the handwriting. Like, they have to figure out what that handwriting says. And there's. It literally is manually done, but there's this crazy keyboard. It's Kind of like a stenographer almost. But even more unique than that, Jake's on that grind now when it comes to doing the offensive line and defensive line grades.
Can we just first and make this a blanket statement.
The Rams were not there.
I don't know what that team was.
The Miles Garrett of it all. He's now on ir. They're just like, oh, we hoped it would magically heal after a 16 hour flight. Maybe the radiation would help. I don't know.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: You know what the best part of the Rams offense was? Genuinely?
It was Steve Avila committing war crimes on Romello Height. They didn't care about anything unless Romello Height was rushing. And then Steve Avila helped in a way that I like. They didn't care about anything. They were not locked in. And then Romello Heights Russian Steve Avila is like, I'm leaving everyone else and I'm going to assault him. It was astounding how much that. And I don't even think Romello height, like he didn't have a great game, but he had like two really good snaps. Yeah, like he got attacked. I don't like. It was a very much like a rookie learning moment, but they just like went to crush him.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Do you think that's like a TCU Texas Tech thing?
Vil went to tcu.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: That's a good question. I didn't even think about that.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Yeah, could be.
Wouldn't make much sense given that they didn't go to college at the same time. But, you know, it's, it's. He. Avila is a fun guard. Like, they clearly have a model and an idea of what they do on the Rams. They just couldn't execute any of it because defensively, I mean, there was. Okay, let's just.
The DeMarcus Robinson touchdown, which was a really wonderfully sequenced play. Right. They had run out of that same four.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Cover three.
It was, it was single high number five. Forgive me.
Cover three going in. And they ran Evans on kind of the deep over.
And then it was a. It was A post from DeMarcus Robinson. They had run out of that formation, which was a tight 21 with Juice as the second tight end, which is. That's just going to be a pain in the ass. We got to figure out a better coding system for. Yeah, two tight ends, but one's a fullback.
They had run out of that a bunch of times and they, you know, short pass, medium pass. They had hit. No, there was cover four.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: That was cover four.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: It was not Jake because you had. Watson was hauling Ass to get back. There was only. It was one safety and two corners up top. We can watch it again.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Safeties anyway.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Well, the other safety was not there. And well, that's.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: That was Evans because he was. Because he had to account for Evans breaking in.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: How's that not cover 3?
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Because it was too, too high. And then, and then that's the thing is like people think like cover four because you can just cover everything deep. That's not really how it functions.
So it's like Evans with the deep in like the corner had to account for him. And then the safety couldn't help on Robinson because Evans was breaking in. So it was basically a one on one with the safety and then Robinson over the top.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Okay, so it's cover four because it was deep. So deep down the field is your argument.
I buy that. Fair enough. This is why we hash these things out.
Regardless, it was a. It was a direct conflict, very deep down the field situation. For the safety again, number five, whose name I should have available to me, but I don't.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Oh, I want to say that's Cam Kins.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah, sure, let's go with that.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: He's the guy from, from Florida or my. Or maybe Miami who I didn't. Really didn't like coming out of the draft and had kind of a good year because he got protected. He was not good in this game.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: And he had a very difficult thing where he's like, oh, do I come in and help on Evans? Because he's kind of beaten, beating my man right now.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: But then that half second of hesitation, now Robinson gets over the top. That. That's perfectly set up. That's perfect conflict stuff. It's also something that when you actually look at it, you're like, why were you thinking you needed to help with Evans? Like, I get that you're, you know, bad eyes. All this stuff. Safety is our destiny. Like, this is good. Really good play calling.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: But I don't know why the safety stop there. There was. It didn't make any sense.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it is kitchen, by the way. So.
Yeah. And that's the shot. So they knew that that was going to happen, that that was the entire plan of it all. And it was a play, you know, the. Brock had an interception on pretty much the same play earlier in the game because as we noted at the time, Quentin Lake just made a great play. He's just like, no, I'm getting deep. Good player. He's like, I'm getting deep. And Brock didn't read it right. And so.
But yeah, it was all set up for that. But it's kind of those things where it's like you're just not thinking quickly. And so there you could see the safety just, like, stop in his tracks because his brain and his body and it was all.
And that's what kills you in the NFL. It's half seconds, seconds. And there was so much of that in this game from the Rams that, like, I want to say, really, I take nothing away from the 49ers. I think they did wonderful things in, like, eight out of 10 facets of the game, like, really good stuff and really encouraging stuff moving forward. I don't think the Dolphins are going to challenge them the same way the Rams did, and they kicked the Rams ass. But, man, the Rams were not there.
And I'm not reading really anything into the Rams because it's so evident that it's like they were playing drunk.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: I was pretty disappointed with Shula as well.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Just staring into the half distance the entire.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was a lot. It was a, like, pretty basic. Like, they stuck to a too high shell a lot, but, like, I didn't see nearly as much, man, as I was expecting. We thought that was going to be a major component of this game. Game should be, especially with Debo and Jalen Watson and McDuffie. And then I just watched Shanahan immediately go, okay, this is gonna be a zone game. I'm gonna put them in conflict. The one time, the couple times they did run play action, it decimated them. Yes.
And it was like Shanahan had, like, one bad play call, and it was, like, in the red zone, where they just, like, flooded one side. Yeah, it was. It was one bad play call, and the rest of it, I'm just consistently, like, watching him go, okay, one defender has to account for two people.
Good luck.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: It was the equivalent of what we, frankly, should have seen a lot more in the preseason, where one team is playing their starters and, like, trying, and the other team is like, we're just going to run our vanilla stuff, and we're just trying to get to the regular season. It kind of felt like that watching a lot of this game, and maybe there's something to the effect of, like, they thought that they would have Myles Garrett and. And Miles Garrett make all defense look good. And then Miles Garrett's not actually there because he has one leg.
But that's. That's some stuff that, like, the 49ers usually are on where they're like, oh, we have Fred Warner. Everything's Fine. And then it's like, oh, you don't have Fred Warner anymore. It's like, oh, no, that's right. I need to get a new job.
So, yeah, bad day for Shula. Tough one. And he's going to have to. Now someone who is very bullish on Shula as a defensive coordinator and someone who I think could be a head coach for someone who interviewed very poorly, to my understanding, this past off season and then goes on national TV and sets that kind of precedent, which is very difficult to overcome for the rest of the season.
Maybe. Maybe they're tanking on purpose so that Chris Shula never has to leave. Maybe he's like, I got a plum gig. I don't want to go anywhere to the Browns.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: The Rams have a rough road.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
They soaring New York Giants next week.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: I gotta say, like, I'm still not a believer in the Giants, but that's not a great matchup for, like, the physicality that the Giants are trying to bring where they're just like, here's the thing. Here's one of. One of the many thousands of reasons I could never be an NFL head coach. I'd be like, I can't. Coach Cam. Scatter. Boo. Because this is just like brain injury. Like, this is brain injury football, where it's just like, we're gonna have this guy who. Who doesn't care and wants to be a battering ram, and we're going to use him that way, and we're just going to wear on the defense and be physical.
By the way, Maui know is like a perfect fit for what they're trying to do. They're like, listen, is he a tackle? We're just going to put him at guard because he's going to be good at guard and he's going to maul people.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Like, well, that's the. That's the packers model. That's the Rams model. We're just going to get a bunch of dudes who all kind of have the same size, and we're going to run duo. But in that case, they're running a lot of gap stuff, which is really fun.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah, they just.
I don't know, they could get behind the eight ball real quick here. The Rams, where it's like, Giants. They should beat the Giants, obviously, but who knows?
Then they have to go on the road to face the Broncos on Sunday Night Football. On the road early body clock game against the Eagles. Yeah, on the road and then home against the Bills.
Not a great matchup. The Cardinals. Who knows what the Cardinals you know,
[00:13:33] Speaker A: I like, I liked a lot of what they saw. You, you and I have always been very Cardinals curious.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: We were hitting the over on the Cardinals, like from the jump.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And we, we like a lot of their defensive personnel and it was clearly like a year away there. Brissette can spin it now. Can't do much else, so he can spin it. And Love being in there is good.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Trey McBride is like the Max Crosby of offense where he's like, I don't care how bad my team is, I'm very good at football and I'm going to play like a lunatic on every single snap regardless of what it means for my long term health. I don't know. He's incredible.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: He's really, really good. He can't block worth a lick, but they don't need him to. He's just out there. He's like, what if we took all
[00:14:12] Speaker B: block a little bit? But yeah, it's not even in the same stratosphere.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Like, what if we, by the way,
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Kittle actually had some really good blocks in this game despite not being able to like drive at all.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, he's, he's just kind of a limited player. It's like he's on a minutes restriction of sorts. I mean, and you know, like when there was those couple times when like Steph came off the bench for the warriors and it's like, well, we need to do the minutes restriction. Wouldn't it be fun to just kind of with the other team and throw Steph out there against the second unit? And it's kind of like that. And, and when they stopped, they tried to feed Kittle the ball early. I'm sure we mentioned this in the post game. Tried to feed it to him early. It's clear that he doesn't have the same wiggle or speed that he had. Which, you know, is that Australia or an Achilles tendon or both.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: It's taking him like one and a half steps to take a step.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: That, that, that Gatorade stutter step, man, is a thing I'm going to have to get better.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: But this is right now, it's not there. And I would be shocked if he pretended like he was close, if someone really pressed him.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: But again, this, this is the difference between truly elite athletes and others. So again with the warriors thing, people asked, people used to say pretty adamantly. And I always found this crazy. They're like, oh, well, Klay Thompson, he'll be fine after his leg injuries because he wasn't about athleticism in the first place. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, you don't understand. This is a war of attrition. And yeah, he'll still be able to make open three pointers, but he won't get open anymore. And that's kind of the whole thing. He was using all of his athleticism to not only play great on point defense, which he did for half a decade, but also now that's gone. But also to get open.
And that's kind of the same immediately
[00:16:00] Speaker B: from a shooting guard to a power forward, like, right.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Now you're a stretch four, which, yeah, kind of in the same way with Kittle. Right. He was kind of like a two two guard. He was. He was like a versatile. He put the ball in my hands, you know, three that you could bring the ball up the court with because he could do everything. Super versatile. You have no matchup for him.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: And as it stands now, he's kind of a post up four or not post up four, but a spot shooting four who will actually, like, pull down a good rebound every now and again. You're like, oh, this is super usable. This is positive. This is what we wanted coming good to be and it will get better. But like, if this is the same thing with Bosa, like, he's not at 100%, but like, what is his hundred percent from what it was? Is that the same hundred percent that it used to be, or is that now 90% of his previous level? And this is all just a fool's errand because we're putting numbers on something that can't truly be quantified. But, like, it doesn't. If they're not 100%, that doesn't mean that they're not useful. It means that they're still exceptionally useful. Because their bars, if you will, are so much bigger than everybody else's that even if they now come down to the realm of mortals, they're still really, really good. And you wish you had that guy on his team in most cases, actually, a position like this. And this is maybe some issues with the Niners team building. Like, usually these are like two, like really good years for a different team.
Like post injury, you're now somewhere else and you're like, oh, man, that's. Guys still got it. Why'd they get rid of them? And it's like, well, because when year three comes, you're going to see why they got rid of them. And in the Niners case, it will still be here or they might time this thing just perfectly.
I'm leaning towards the former. But those guys were both impact players. They were both positive players. They just weren't their full former selves. We only saw it in flashes.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Bosa got triple teamed on one snap and held up, which was awesome.
Against three tight ends. I gotta say, this is sort of an abrupt transition, but I have to just name. I'm not going to reveal much about my grades because that's the point, but Jake Brendel was the highest graded player on the offensive line. Now that was it particularly close?
Yeah, it was. It was. He was like one point above Trent, which, to be clear, Trent was like ISO.
What do I. I have. Let me reference the actual numbers that I have in front of me that I graded out.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: I would say he was ISO 23 times.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah, Trent was. Trent was overwhelmingly just in isolation situations. Right. So it was like. Yeah. So overall grades Trent had, it was ISO, run and pass 70% of the time, Brendel 28%. Right. So it's like a different ball game. And a lot of those are against Miles Garrett, who even on one leg, still very, very good.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Again, still in the same realm of the Kittle and the Bosas. Like, oh, that guy's injured. Cool. Now he's just a dude as opposed to a guy.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: So it's a different game and I need to figure out a better way to like calculate, you know, elite reps and, and one on one and all that. Sometimes I prefer just grading it and giving the context. But like, Brendel was phenomenal. Like, legitimately was like bulldozing. And the, and the way he.
I think it's. It's one of the best games I've seen from him in terms of passing stuff off where he, especially with Colby, worked really well helping Colby out in terms of like getting a little, like, shiver arm in there, be able to climb to the second level. And oftentimes with Jake Brundle, we see him climb to the second level and then he'll sort of like be spinning around, like just barely surviving. And there was still some of that, but there were some reps at the second level where he's driving and he's fully sealing Elaine in a way that we have very inconsistently seen from him. I was very impressed. And listen, I don't know if he'll look like this for the whole season. I'm not going to try and predict that. But for this game against a group that has like Puna Ford and Kobe Turner and Braden Fisk, that's pretty impressive.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: Even if those guys were playing functionally drunk.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Yes. Which they all were like, Puna Ford was like, what?
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Why is the sun out?
It's.
Yeah, it felt like everybody.
Maybe they're functionally drunk. Hungover maybe might be the better way to describe it. Like, I can get there if I need to, but it's going to take some revving.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: But it turned.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Brenda was incredible. That first drive of the second half when they're like Christian McCaffrey inside zone again, again. And I think it was only a five play drive. Brendel was just, I think he bulldozing, just.
And I made the joke on Twitter when it's like they came out of halftime and they said, this is a Jake Brendel show.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: Now. The, the early. Yeah, exactly. Right out of halftime for 14:20. Like the second run play, I want to say where it's at 16 yarder, where it was like him and Colby were. Were out in front for that 16 yarder for McCaffrey and they just like dominated up front. That looked.
It was beautiful. I mean.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't want to, I want to give away. I don't want to give away your stats, but how did.
What is your opinion on.
On Connor Colby's game, having now graded it?
[00:21:11] Speaker B: He was my lowest graded player overall.
Yeah. I mean, on offensive line. On offensive.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I would say notably the worst player on the offensive line. That said, he had like four very good reps in the run game. He had two very good reps or he had two very good reps in the run game and the same in the past game. So there were a couple, like, really good ones. Right. Like, it wasn't like he was just terrible, but there was some ugly plays. There were at least twice where Kobe Turner just stood him up and demolished a run play. And it was entirely on Colby. There are a couple times he missed blocks at the second level where he just sort of whiffed.
So there were at least, let's see, a handful of run stops that were just entirely on him. I had him with like four just complete whiffs.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Like missed blocks. Yeah. So that's, that's, that's not ideal. Right.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Yeah. But this is, this is why you watch the tape, because during the game you're. It's expectations versus reality and you're like,
[00:22:12] Speaker B: oh, I had him with six plays where he was like responsible for allowing a run stop and the second closest was like Puni with three.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: So, yeah, I still thought he was good. I, I still, I agree that way.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: I agree. Especially when he's surrounded by, like, a good offensive line, like the 49ers.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Are you allowed to say that?
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Can we just say this? 49ers have a good offensive line.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: They do.
They might have a tackle combo in football.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Maybe we're getting out over our skis a little bit here because it's week one, but Trent Williams looks just tremendous.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: He's.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: He's. I mean, obviously it's Trent Williams, but last year he was playing hurt for most of the season. Looks glorious. Jake Brendel was some of the best we've ever seen from him.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Truly.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Dominic Puni looks great. Looks healthy. He definitely has some plays where he does.
He kind of gets spun around and whiffs, but also really physical, like, really aggressive help where he couldn't drive last year because that PCL injury.
McKivitz was kind of underwhelming and still really good because there are some places experience, baby. McKivitz is kind of like, if the ball is not going my way, I'm phoning it in a little bit because it doesn't matter.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: So there's some of that where the grade's a little bit lower because he's just like, I'm gonna save myself. Yeah, he's good. So, like, if your worst player is Connor Colby and he's still a really good athlete, that bodes pretty well. Now, again, early, early, early, early. But.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: But it's the best defensive. And we'll see very different defensive lines that they'll see. I mean, boy, we'll talk about the Dolphins later, but holy.
I.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: The 49ers should sack Malik Willis at least five times.
That offensive line is horrifying, which is
[00:23:53] Speaker A: wild because actually, I don't want to get too deep in this, but, like, you looked at him going in and you're like, actually, I kind of like their offensive line. They got some players. And then I'm watching this game and it's like back to back holding penalties, just break down, get a playoff.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: They. Malik Willis just couldn't even throw the ball.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: I mean, when Tonka Hemingway's across from me, you know, you're freaking out. You're peeing down your leg a little bit.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: I love my. My beautiful boy.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Tonka, can I gotta give you a number here. And this goes along the offensive line things.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: So.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: So last three years for Christian McCaffrey, yards after contact per carry two, nine two eight. And then his MVP level season three, five against the Rams, it was three. Nine again. I don't know if that's the Rams or if that's Christian McCaffrey. But the boy looked like he had a little wiggle in him compared also was.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Again, I think the 49ers do have to stick to like, almost like a 60, 40 split, which is what it felt like. I haven't actually checked the snaps, but,
[00:24:52] Speaker A: like, this is what.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: That's what it felt like. Yeah. And here's the thing.
Kalon Black is not reading it that well. No, he's. He, like there were a couple times, more than a couple times where he didn't like, wait and like, let the guys get to second level where, like, Brendel makes a great block, but Kalon Black doesn't wait.
And so if he waits a quarter of a second, which is okay, he's a rookie, he's sped up first. He's just going, I don't actually care. Like, especially game one, you want a guy who's aggressive, who's not second guessing himself at all, who's just running with speed and power and aggression.
That timing, the game's gonna slow down for him as it goes. Like, maybe his vision is just never going to be great.
We'll see.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: I've actually kind of liked it. I think that there's enough.
I saw enough positives about the vision in training camp that I'm not concerned about. I don't think it's elite, but like,
[00:25:46] Speaker B: he saw a hole and he went for it and he said, I don't care if a better one opens up. I'm just going to get four yards and I'm going to run hard.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: But let's be, let's be clear about this, though. Like, that's what they're asking him to do.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: You would like it to where you can have it all, but, like, that's an elite running back where you have both the power and the patience.
If you have to lean one way or another as a rookie, as a backup, as, as a number two, whatever it is, you go power. And that's what they haven't had because Brian Robinson, you look at him and you go, oh, that could be a power back.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Nope.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Patient back.
Patient back. He thinks that he's.
He thinks that he's Chris Johnson back there. Like, oh, no, I'm so fast that when that hole opens up, I'll be able to. No, you're not. Nope. Just run as hard as you can. Year before the Garendo, nothing. Nothing. Doesn't have either of them.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah. By the way. Yeah. I have to mention this. This is just while we're on the subject of the offensive line because I. I texted you this and I said, how many times do you think the 49ers pulled an offensive lineman?
[00:26:45] Speaker A: I. I guessed it was higher, but
[00:26:48] Speaker B: it was a loan. It was still a relatively low number.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it was like a handful of times.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: And they did it from. From what I counted, and I tried to check it against the data. I didn't had it as one time. Puny pulled once.
And I think that goes back to, like, why the run game looks so good, because Shanahan was like, everybody was doing dash motion. DeMarcus Robinson did it. I saw Stribling do it early on in the game, like Rip and. And Kyle Juszczuk, as you mentioned, like, as the game was going, was just glorious. And everybody online is, like, doing the thing where they're catching up to, like, what we saw in the Falcons game last year where. Where the 49ers couldn't do anything, and they're like, all right, we're going against basically our defense. We're going to go power. We're going to just run, like a bunch of gap scheme stuff, and we're going to have Kyle Juszczyk leading, but we're going to put him in motion.
And that's a lot of what they did now. Now they did it with more zone than, like, power in this, which is, like, the wrinkle.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: It makes perfect sense. They didn't want. They don't want to be a gap team. They built their offensive line to be his own team. Puny is an outlier. Puni is like. They felt like he has enough athleticism to where he can be the zone guy, but then he gives them sort of the gap mauling stuff, right? So that if you ever need to go, it was again, third, you know, third round pick, right? Something like that. Like, nothing. They just thought that this guy could kind of be everything, and he's more of the Packers Rams mold of offensive
[00:28:15] Speaker B: lineman, which is kind of what you want. Like, you kind of need at least one of those guards to be a thick boy.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Right? And so.
But again, they feel like he has the athleticism where he can run the zone stuff, and he's smart and that helps.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Right?
[00:28:29] Speaker A: And so they want to be his own team. Last year, they couldn't be his own team until they figured out this dash motion thing. And then they started to become a gap team, and then, to be fair, team started to figure it out a little bit. Because the thing with gap is you're telling everyone where you're going and so you could now you have to add counters on top of it. And now it gets convoluted to the point where you're seeing guys lining up in the wrong spot in the playoffs offs mainly because they just learned each other's names but also because it's like too much motion.
You're going a bunch of different directions. It's very difficult especially if you're checking on the line, especially if you're on the road. So it makes perfect sense. They come into this season and say we're a zone team on the front and we're a gap team behind and we're going to shift strengths with Kyle Jus check and George Kittle and everything else. But we're going to do all of our fancy stuff in the backfield. But up front we're staying simple and straightforward and we've now built it. We've gotten this thing so refined and clear cut and the under in the Understand we're not figuring this out on the fly like we did last year. Now that we've worked on it, now that we know what it is, now that we've seen what's worked now that we've seen what's failed, we can mesh this into an actual cogent offensive system. And they were doing some cool stuff to where effectively they were inserting.
Inserting Kyle use check into like the A gap and it's like oh, that's.
I don't think it's different from last year, but it was more deliberate than it was.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: It's a little bit like of what the Rams did last year with like Puka. Yeah, they still. And you and Juice is kind of always.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: And before that per cup by the way.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Where they bring him in motion and then he becomes part of the offensive line on an insert. Especially if you're bringing a bigger front and you need that stuff against NFL where blitzing is out of control. You had.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: It was awesome the way they did that. I don't know if it was. I think it was that 16 yard McCaffrey Run where it was actually like a counterpl.
But they didn't pull anyone because they just used that motion to do it and it was awesome to watch.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: And again now that responsibility is entirely on what is allegedly the smartest guy on your team and it's not predictable in that.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: That's what I was going to say.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: Defensive linemen, how do they key in on that?
[00:30:37] Speaker B: That's exactly what I was going to say is. Is when you get somebody pulling. There's usually a tell. Like, there's every, every offensive lineman has a stance where people are like, oh, you can tell his pass or run. And it's like, okay, that's not always that useful, especially if it's a tackle. But like with the guards, you can usually it's like, okay, this guy's about to pull. Like, if it all looks the same on every single snap up front, that all matters. That's why it's going back to like when Mike McDaniel was their OC and I was asking them about the pitch back, where it's a pitch straight back, because it feels like it's going to be a pitch play to the right and you get flow and you get a little bit where you just get a half second to get up to the second level. And so like every quarter second matters in terms of that because you're just creating half an inch more, half a second more. And when you have like McCaffrey and Black to run through those holes, like, it's. It's going to create some problems for defenses. And I don't know what their solution. They're going to figure it out, but it might. I, I mean, McDonald, here's the thing, okay?
[00:31:38] Speaker A: I mean, let's game it out, okay? So they'll figure. How do you figure that out? Is now you have to have someone shadowing the fullback in effect, right?
[00:31:46] Speaker B: You're basically treating it like man coverage,
[00:31:48] Speaker A: but for a run play, well, that seems like a really good way to. So, okay, so do you have one guy spying a fullback?
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: In the same way that you would spy a quarterback, which you probably still have to do anyway with Brock Purdy to a degree. Right. Or at least you have to green dog them.
And then so now what are you doing on the back end behind that? Do you have to match it to where you have to be zoned behind and man to man up front as a defense?
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Because that creates a situation where it's like they're just going to check out of it and make it like. Or they'll just make it an RPO where Mike Evans is. Is in man. And they're going to say, all right, well, we're just going to throw a slant, little glance route to Mike Evans.
Like, that's. That's also the other thing is there were a lot of. I mean, people are understandably very excited about the 49ers and we have our takes. It's funny because we go back to when we did the season schedule, right? And we were both like, had the niners at like 11 or 12 wins each. And then it's like, oh, well, then Ricky Pearsall was out for the year and they lost a lot of pieces. And so our expectations came down and we still both predicted them to have like 10 wins and everybody's upset. It's like we also didn't know how healthy Mike Evans is. And if Mike Evans. Evans stays healthy.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: To be fair, if, if he, if Mike Evans stays healthy is carrying a lot of load.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: It's. It's a, it's not a. It's a huge question mark.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Every game that he's healthy for, though, he's going to be a dude.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: And stribling, like, we don't know, like, how long is stribling. So there's still like a lot of question marks. I get it. People are very excited.
But it's like if they have Evans for 75% of the season, of the regular season, yeah, that's gonna have an answer to so many of the problems. I mean, just. That was, that was another thing I texted you. It's just the most obvious thing in the world of, like, good players, really good. But the way he just beats man coverage by pushing off in a way that, like, just will never get called is a thing of beauty.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: I'm sure, I'm sure we talked about it because it's kind of. I've been ad nauseam about it, but, like, he just moves so different than anyone. It just doesn't make any sense. There's a weird tempo to it and so you don't. You can't. If you slow yourself down or speed yourself up to match him now you're screwed when Kyle moves him to the other side of the formation. I also think that having him in tight alignment was something that I didn't like. Of course that's what they did. Of course there's a couple things where it's just. Of course that's what they did. And one of them is, oh, we're just going to run Mike Evans the way that we ran Juwan Jennings last year. And you're like, oh, that's going to be awesome. Like, if someone were to have told me that, I'd be like, oh, yeah, that's gonna be sick. But instead, all training camp, he's out by the numbers and you're like, yeah, that'll be good too. But yeah, running him in a tight split to where he's effectively a y tight end, you're like, oh, yeah, that's
[00:34:33] Speaker B: gonna be A problem they would have. It would either be Kittle, or mostly it would be McCaffrey, where he's in the slot, but he's. He's seven yards off to the right of. Of Purdy and six yards behind the line of scrimmage, where it's like he's still in the slot and they have to account for him. So it's like one player is like, I have to guard McCaffrey from this weird depth, and Mike Evans. I'm at an impossible depth. And so Purdy just has to go. Which way does the linebacker want to go? I'm going to throw it to one of them especially.
They didn't run a lot of play action, but where sometimes they would do that and it would draw guys in for a second. I mean, Shanahan was. The way they're doing the. I don't know if you want to call it space cadet motion or where McCaffrey's just like, what that positioning is,
[00:35:16] Speaker A: where he's just on an island where he just goes.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: Or where he's not even in motion. He's just standing offset in that.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: There was a name for it, and I'm certain we've mentioned it a million times. Is it space motion?
[00:35:28] Speaker B: I don't think it is. I mean, it's. There's like, bump. And I don't think everyone.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: It's. You bump them out. Yeah, it's bump motion.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Right. But sometimes he doesn't even bump out. He just starts there, and he's just sitting and waiting for the snap, and you're like, this looks ridiculous.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: And also, like, where the CFL receiver starts before he gets his running start.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: But it creates a lot of timing conflicts for. For linebackers and hook defenders where they're just like, this sucks for me, that
[00:35:53] Speaker A: guy doing over there.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Right?
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Like, yeah, yeah.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: It's.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: It's.
You played FIFA, right?
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: Okay. So very. You know, before FIFA became way too complicated and uninteresting and microtransactional.
You know, one of the things that you would do, especially, like, when I was in college, like FIFA 9, was you would just mess around with the formations to the point where it's like, what does that guy do? Like, why is your left back at the full front? Part of. But it's like, it's fine. It works.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: I would. I always do that. I always have, like, it's like one center forward and then like two guys on the right wing and, like one left wing back. And it's unbalanced formation. Yeah. You're like, we're just gonna mess with you.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: There's no. There's, like. There's such marginal rules in that regard, especially when you are already in a situation where you have a lot of guys inside the box. And, man, I do want to go back to that. The idea, though, of, like, how defenses are going to counter sort of man to man on the back end and zone on the front end.
I don't think you can do it with. With like that. That. That's been the counter for zone fronts for half a decade more now of. You just counter it with. And have various. You don't know who's coming and who's going. And like. Right. That's how you mess with the protection schemes in pass pros. You have a bunch of dudes on the front. You don't know who's coming and who's going.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: So that the handoffs are Brian Flores just.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: We're gonna send all of them Brian Flores. 82 blitz rate in week one.
82. We thought that Raheem was dialing it up 19%. Meanwhile, the commanders blitzed 50% of the times. Aaron Glenn blitz 45% of the times. Jesse Mentor, unshockingly 44.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: I turned on that packers game and every snap, I'm just watching Jordan Love get assaulted.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: Just.
They're calling cover zero on critical downs.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: He just does every snap. They're like, they can't stop it. We're going to keep running.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Awesome. It's awesome. I love the aggression, but it is. That is going to be it. And then what are the wrinkles on top of that for the. For the Niners?
Yeah, I'm very. I'm very curious about it. I think that obviously dash motion was the story for us kind of last year. And in the Same sort of McVeigh innovates so the rest of the league can copy. By the way, NFL 9% usage of 13% personnel this week.
Fullbacks on the field almost 13 of the time. Last year it was 75 in week one.
All of this to just say, I feel like we're getting like. I feel like in a way we have gotten back to real football. I know that's such a ridiculous. Like, power is back, baby.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: You could feel it. You could feel it with Collins was
[00:38:42] Speaker A: being like, Patrick Ricardo.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: This is a guy you're just like.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: But yeah, like, the league has come back to Greg Roman in a weird way. And they always do. They always do because it's tried and true and now there's more and more wrinkles. And it's like, ironically, I was looking. I was looking at this the other day, and there's the only teams that run true option anymore in the college level after a little bit of a flourishing, I would say, about three, four years ago, where a bunch of teams were kind of running it and obviously modified, but it's back to just the service academies. And it, you know, everything flows up. Everything flows up. And we saw tempo again. You can do tempo from close quarters, play offensively, but.
And then Apex defenders, which is the term I'm giving them now, right? The Jackal, the joker.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: It's whatever you want to call it. Some people are like, it's a jackal. It's, you know, joker, whatever.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: I like Apex. I think that's a cool name.
That's a collegiate thing, and it has been for a long time now. That's commonplace. And that's kind of where I want to jump off here. The dime stuff. We talked about the dime stuff on tapes. Even cooler than it came across in the game. I am legitimately pissed at myself, like, deep down.
Deep down angry because, you know, every now and again, I'm like, oh, that's really good. That should have been mine. Like, is an ego thing. All this, like, legitimately pissed off. And they never showed it once during training camp. They never. None of this, but much like just
[00:40:13] Speaker B: goes back to their seriousness that they're like, we're not even showing the media a hint before face, Sean.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: No, but, you know, not like we could have said anything, but it's having d' Amador Lenore as your Sam linebacker in dime packages, and they only used it eight times, but it works so well.
And I don't know if you spam it, but I need eight or more in perpetuity here.
Having Lenore back in the slot, back in the action, back at a linebacker, quasi linebacker positioning. It's like, duh.
Like, no, you have Green, and we're like, oh, is it Renardo Green or Jack Jones and Porque no, los dose. Put them both on the outside.
Have one of your best football players, just overall football players, who frankly, is a better football player than he is a goddamn cornerback. And he's a pretty good quarterback, but he's not great cornerback, but he's a great football player. Having him as your Derwin James as your Caleb Downs, as your Kyle Hamilton. Having him as that guy, and then having lunatic man Upton Stout on the other side, and it's like, sure, you
[00:41:19] Speaker B: want to run it blitzing over the A gap, like, multiple times. Yeah.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: And then Fred, like, get Greenlaw off the field. Not that he's playing poorly, but like, yeah, you're. You're in a pass. Set. Get him off.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: There were a couple times where he just, like, forgot to move.
Yeah. Where he's like, got at the second level. He's like, I forgot to shoot my gap. And there's one where, like, you're like, oh, did. Did C.J. west and the entire defensive line blow this? Oh, no. Greenlaw. And. And. Or it was one of him or Siegel. I couldn't tell who. Just, like, overran the play. And we're supposed to say backside and just didn't. And he's like, ah, right. I did not practice much.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: I don't know if. I don't know if Siegel put a foot wrong that entire game. He was awesome.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: I was. I did want to mention Marquis. Siegel was hitting the hell out of people. That one play. There is one screen to Puka that could have gone. And Siegel just shot his gap and was downhill in a second. He's hitting hard. He's hitting.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Much harder than I realized. He couldn't call it.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: You know what, though? We should have. We. Again, it's one of those things where it's like, now you're in a position. He's effectively doing special teams tackles.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: From the safety position. Coming from too high, and then it's like, crash. Okay, well, how's that different than a kick return? How's that different than a punt return? And he's an awesome special teams player to the point where we're like, if he doesn't make it as a safety, he's got the Saron Neil thing on lockdown. Because when he hits somebody on special teams, they get hit, and you're like, oh, shit.
[00:42:42] Speaker B: That.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: That perfectly correlates here. If he can read it right, he's going to come and get him. Meanwhile, you. I mean, you and I might be the only people on the planet who have talked about this outside of Brant Boyer. But, like, Jair Brown is not a good special teamer. Like, he'll be in the right position, but he never delivers the thump.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: There's not enough speed and just straight line. And that's why, like, see Mustafa on special teams, you're like, this is. This is awesome.
Like, someone's not going to survive one of those hits, frankly. But, like, yeah, we'll. I'm curious how that develops because he obviously came off hamstring injury, didn't look great last year, but I think, like, certainly has a much, much higher ceiling than Jair Brown. I'm very curious how that develops over the course of the year. I would assume they leave it as is until problems present themselves, which they will.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: I think they already have in some ways. Now you're going to push it a little bit further but you still need somebody who can be single high and in coverage and coordinate that.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Yeah, they do not get challenged all that, all that much.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: No game and yeah, but like Brown. Brown is a man with no country. He's just, he's just not good enough.
I don't need to see anymore. We saw it all last year. He's only good if you line him up in the slot two yards behind the line of scrimmage and he's on a tight end like that's it. But we're talking, you know, like that, that's not it. Especially too with this, you know, dime thing that they're putting in now where you can play that game which wasn't against 13 personnel or anything but like you can play that and you have linebackers who can cover.
They might, they, they still will do, you know, single high stuff. That's Brown's area then.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: I mean Siegel was a single high for most of this game. Brown was the one who was like playing robber or lurking.
[00:44:35] Speaker A: I think they need to make a trade for safety.
I don't, I don't need to push it that far. But like I, I don't think you can play Malik Mustafa and Siegel together. I think it's too much of the same now maybe that, maybe I'm wrong about that. Right. Like maybe that works.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: I think Siegel's a true or free then the rest of their group. But like I, I, I still, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets into a dire situation at some point in the season.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I, I think that we need to stay on that one because it was good. Don't get me wrong, it was good but the gy. I mean I had two bad players in that game to be fair. CJ west and Brian.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: This game could look a lot different if Matthew Stafford wasn't scattershot and overthrowing about four or five. Like there's one play where Upton stat just gets like badly beat by Devonte Adams and Stafford just whiffs given, given
[00:45:22] Speaker A: the way that the Niners played, it's very difficult to imagine if you give the Rams more right if they showed up. Whatever it feels like the Niners still kick so much ass that they win that game. But it shouldn't have been a 20 point win. If the Rams are cogent and they weren't. And yeah, there were a lot of plays that they just left out there. And you know, defenses are going to get going to get hit. Like, this is why I don't want to do the whole like, oh, the Niners defense is back. It's like, oh, the IRS defense has a chance to be good, don't get me wrong. They have a chance to be a top 10 unit, don't get me wrong. But they were going out there and it was like they were playing Geno Smith. Like, you don't grade it off of that game. Right. In the same way that you don't look at last year's game against the Browns and be like, oh, what a defense for the 49ers. Like, no, the quarterback missed everything, just all the time. And this week is not going to help in that regard. So I think the hype train is going to get really revved probably the next next week, maybe the week after that.
And then I'm fascinated to see if it comes to a crashing halt or what kind of persists through that Broncos game in Week 4. But a great, I mean, you don't want to start poorly, so positives there for sure.
Anyone else you want to hit on?
[00:46:42] Speaker B: I'll mention some of the D line.
Like, C.J. west was bad. It wasn't as bad as I expected.
Like, it was definitely bad. But he did also have some good snaps. They did kind of take him off the field for a lot of the second half.
Yeah. As you said. As you said. I'll give you credit there.
And it's tough because some plays where it's like there's flow to the right and so their job is to, like, it looks bad, but their job is to sort of like try and surf and just survive. Yeah. And you know, but I did think his center of gravity was off. He did make some, some good plays, but I had him as certainly one of the lower graded defensive linemen. Not the lowest, but one of the lower ones.
I did see some real nice stuff from Grayson Holt.
Yes.
It wasn't, was not consistent.
It was up and down. But he did have some really nice reps in, in pass rush.
Yes. Yeah, I mean he did have a couple good run game plays.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: He had a couple of good fights on the run game. But it wasn't, I mean he, he
[00:47:49] Speaker B: had one where he got there's a double team and he discarded one guy and split it.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: So that was, I mean that was in terms of.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: But in terms of holding up at the point of attack. No, that's not his game. It's never supposed to be his game. The fact that he was better than
[00:48:05] Speaker B: I thought though, because he's just, he's
[00:48:07] Speaker A: squatty boy, is he.
They. I thought Thompson had a really rough game. I didn't go hard on it, but I thought Thompson had a really rough game as well, which shouldn't be surprising. But there was so much hope put into him that you were just begging that the arrow, he was going up.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: He wasn't terrible.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: I wasn't saying he was terrible. I was just saying he. It was.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Yeah, there was. He would hold.
He would hold up for a second just on physicality and then they would go, oh, he's not. There's no plan, there's no anchor. And then he'd start to lose. Right?
Yeah. I mean, Bosa was outstanding. OSA was outstanding. Keon White's very good. There are a couple of fantastic reps. I mean, here's the thing.
Romello height ended up on the ground more than any other player because that's why again, Avila was coming for his head.
That said, I think he's gonna learn.
Like, I think that's something that you need to experience in a game to learn. But the moves, like if he didn't get help, I'm curious how many of those come off because he had, listen, he kept going for the spin. He's getting his clock clean and he's like, I'm still going for it. Yeah, there was more help on him than like anybody else. Like he got double teamed in the past game quite a bit, which was like pretty impressive for rookie.
Yeah.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: To be, to be fair, the Rams entire offensive ethos is double teams up front.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: And yeah, it's in the run game he got double teamed less than anybody except for Ogbo. And then in the past game, he got double teamed more than any other edge rusher. He got double teamed 72% of the time.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: But I would be interested.
One, I bet that the functional thing, maybe not a specific Romello height thing, but like this is how the Rams do it. I don't, I haven't cross referenced that, but I imagine on those, a lot of those double teams for a mellow height, like, oh, look, OSA Digizua has a single man that he has to beat on the interior and that's how you get four quarterback hits in a game, which is pressures over, you know, attention's over there. I'm coming in over here in the same way that this is why it's so important to have good pass rushers on the interior, because now pressures, you know, we got to keep an eye on the middle because we got to make sure our tiny little quarterback doesn't get hit in the face and then guess who's coming around the outside. So that's the give and take. Last year, no one had to get double teamed at all. It was. They were. There were dudes just standing around waiting to hit somebody and they never had to do it.
[00:50:34] Speaker B: They also ran a lot of stunts for Bosa, I think as a method of not having to have him just drive get attacked every play because that cleans them up. They were very good on stunts. They were overall. Whoever.
And. And they would stack it up where it's like, I'm trying to remember who. Whose responsibility it was, but whoever it was that had to like, you know, attack the double team did a great job of that most of the time this game. And I give Chris Kaser credit for that. Like, there's a lot of criticisms for him, but, like, he's clearly. They were like run through a dude's face to like unleash whoever it is. And they did an effective job where Halton got free a couple times.
They. I don't think they sacked Stafford a single time, but he was. There were a couple times he was.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: He was under pressure and imagine how good that's going to be when now you have Keon White, who did that at an exceptional level of just run through this dude's face. And now you get Mikel into there, who's just don't.
[00:51:30] Speaker B: It's. It's too early, dear. No, too early to talk about Mikel.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: But my God, I'm telling you, there's one thing on this planet that Mikel Williams was put on to do, and it's clear out two dudes on a stunt. That's what he was put on this earth to do.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: I'm also. I mean, and listen, it might be a thing where I could be totally wrong and he doesn't come back until week six or seven, but I bet, like, he's ready earlier and they're just like. And he's on pup, which is interesting. So it'll be interesting after this week. I believe he can start to practice in week three. The new PUP rules, right? Where you don't have to like activate a guy, but they're allowed to start practicing.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:08] Speaker B: So that would be.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: I just.
I'm not saying it needs to happen anytime soon. I'm just saying that that's another person who can do a thing that they do well or they did well in that first game. That's. That's all he would bring to the fact. He'd be the best at it.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: Ah, he could be. Even if he's terrible. Just the force at the point of attack that he's going to bring. Correct. He's so exciting.
And now they've got, like, a good mix with, like, Halton's got some juice.
[00:52:35] Speaker A: I wish they had someone. I wish they had one. A true one technique. If they had a true one technique, this would be, like, the coolest defensive line in football. Also, can we get. I. I appreciate that Kaseric needs the credit for how the defensive line played, but the stunt timing, like that was the hallmark of last year's Falcons team. That's how they got so many pressures. They just time their stunts. That's. That's the Jeff Ulbricht thing. And it was good yesterday against the Steelers. And Raheem clearly learned something along those lines because, like, that showed up for the first time in Raheem Morris's career last year.
[00:53:07] Speaker B: Well, we're crediting Ulbricht, but, like, how much of that was Raheem as well?
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Well, they're still doing it in Atlanta. So, again, everything is tangential. And, you know, you carry this to
[00:53:17] Speaker B: that and all this, but you're right. The amount of times, like, a guard was just like, oh, God, I have to, like, cover this man. And then there's just somebody breaking open. The. The rhythm and timing of that was really, really effective.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: It's just gap scheme up front.
You counter gap. You counter gap with gap. You counter zone with zone. And it was. It was. It was good stuff. It was really schematic, really good.
[00:53:42] Speaker B: They looked really good. I don't have a ton of criticisms for this team after this week.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: I've not.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Criticisms, sure. I don't think they're gonna show up this week. And, you know, I know, like, listen, like, I know, you know, sometimes you talk about trap games and stuff. This is not a trap game. The Dolphins suck.
[00:54:03] Speaker A: It was. It was. It was jarring. Now, I. I will say this. Like, week one, lot.
Week one, you're working through a lot of stuff. Now you get to clean it up. You have something. You know, it's kind of like sometimes you're a writer. You know what it is. Sometimes you just have to put some slop on the page so you can edit it.
I don't think that the Dolphins are in a position to where, like, I
[00:54:23] Speaker B: Think that theoretically, fun offensive linemen, they got Proctor and Savayanea, whatever. Like, it's a bad offensive line. It looked completely uncoordinated.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: It looks wild.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: I mean, it just looked. And again, it's something where it's like, oh, lineman.
Sometimes it just takes guys time to figure it out in the league. And it helps a lot when you have a really good veteran and you have help around you, and that tends to like, clean some stuff up when it's a lot of other experience, inexperienced guys around you. It's a new quarterback, it's a new system. And the whole thing's like, what are we doing? And the guy next to you is like, I don't know. I'm trying to survive.
[00:54:58] Speaker A: Think about. Think about how last year for the Dolphins, think about how that offensive line was built. And there's carryover, right? Like, they didn't replace all five guys. So those guys are like, oh, well, I only need to work for like 1.5 seconds. I just need to deliver hands and then not get bowled over immediately because two is going to get rid of the ball so fast because otherwise he'll die. And now it's Malik Willis who's just putting the baby to sleep back there, just patting that thing. Just, oh, hi, it's okay.
[00:55:26] Speaker B: And Devon a chains like, I'm open. And they're like, we can't get it to you even in two seconds.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: It's such a jarring disconnect from last year. And it's not to say it's not a bad thing. And I think Willis, you were very critical in Willis and our text. I actually, maybe because I have him in fantasy. I'm watching, I go, this ain't that bad.
[00:55:42] Speaker B: It was. It was also. I got. My criticism got lessened on him the more I watched the O line and I went, yeah, he's. Yeah, getting his.
[00:55:50] Speaker A: And the other thing, too is I flipped on the All 22 this morning and it's like, oh, no. You know how we talked about these Dolphins receivers and so bad, man, they can't separate worth a damn. And the only way that they got
[00:56:02] Speaker B: open was out there, who's like 6 inches shorter than I am, and he might be the best of them.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: Well, yeah, Caleb Douglas had a nice game, but it was all over routes.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: Oh, oh, wait. Caleb Douglas was at a Texas Tech, right?
[00:56:13] Speaker A: Yeah, they drafted him in the third round.
[00:56:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he was interesting.
[00:56:18] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a. He's a nice enough player. He should be your fourth wide receiver, like, and in like two years now he. We bumped him up to two. Like, we feel like he's ready, and
[00:56:26] Speaker B: it's a bad, bad, bad team.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. Who's.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Yeah, who is juju Brentz. They have a cornerback named juju Brentz, and I'm not. And listen, he might actually be okay. I haven't thrown on.
What are you talking about? There's a reason they claimed, like, seven guys.
[00:56:44] Speaker A: They claimed seven guys and they lost nobody to waivers.
Also, they're using our beautiful boy, Chris Johnson. They're using him in the slot. I know it's malpractice playing the Stallion run.
We'll talk about them later in the week. Anything else we want to get off the chest or should we bounce?
[00:57:03] Speaker B: I think we should bounce. The only concern with the Dolphins is it could be a Bradley Pinion revenge game.
Gotta watch out.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: Okay, so the Niners regular week. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, game on Sunday.
Body clocks adjusting. I was actually. I was walking the dog yesterday. I love serious XM radio. Can't get enough of it. And I'm listening to the Panthers Bears game, and I put on the Panthers feed because Luke Keakley's on the radio thing, and he sounded fine. He sounded fine. Very cogent. So if Luke Keakley can recover, the 49ers can recover, and I'm not going to expect a bloodbath. But I. I don't know what the line is. I Presume it's like 11.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: Wait, should we guess? Let's. Let's.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: Actually, no one's ever done this bit before, so let me check.
And we're calling this guess the lines. Is that what this.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: We're calling this guess the lines.
[00:57:54] Speaker A: Okay. No one's ever done it.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: No one's ever heard of this. So home game.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: I'm gonna guess it's 11 or I'm gonna guess it's 10 and a half.
What are your. What is your guess?
[00:58:07] Speaker B: I'm gonna guess it's 12 and a half.
[00:58:09] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. Wow.
It is. Wow. It's 13 and a half. Oh, and the over in the over under is 45 and a half. So you can do the math. That means that I think that's 13 expected points for the Dolphins.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: Would you say the over under is 45?
[00:58:28] Speaker A: 45 and a half.
Dolphins are plus 650 on the money line. Honestly, I'd play it.
I'm not advocating for any of this, but, like, if the body clock is this big of a, I don't know, 650, you can't get that in an NFL game.
[00:58:45] Speaker B: That's insane.
No, I wouldn't.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: What an absolute. I mean, I always thought the Cardinals line was weird. I always thought their number was weird, and I think it was because of the division, but. Right.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Which was, like, overrated anyway because, like, you're gonna. There's gonna be a game where, like, one of the Seahawks or Rams or Cardinals, like, are probably gonna lose, like, one game. Right.
[00:59:07] Speaker A: Well, as I told you, whoever loses to the Cardinals finishes in third. That's. That's my threshold. Just don't lose to the Cardinals and you're good.
A lot of big lines for this upcoming week. A lot of big ones.
And by NFL standards, like, a touchdown is a huge line.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Do we want to revisit how your survivor picks did?
[00:59:28] Speaker A: Steelers won.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, props to you for having the guts to go there.
[00:59:34] Speaker A: It's fine. Listen, I said that there was a weird energy to the Browns Jaguars game. You cannot look at that game and say it wasn't weird.
[00:59:43] Speaker B: This is true.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: That said, couldn't have. I didn't. I didn't think the Browns would win it, but there was, like, one part of me that's just like, what if desean Watson is, like, sandbagging us? And then I literally watched the first drive and I went, nope, not sandbagging. Just awful.
[00:59:59] Speaker B: Just the worst.
[01:00:01] Speaker A: Really unbelievably bad.
So I know the box score is going to be there. Like, I'm watching it. I'm like, oh, no. Like, this is. I watch a lot of college football. And, like, most of the time in college football, you're like, oh, this quarterback, like, can't throw. Like the Florida State quarterback on Monday night, where you're like, oh, he doesn't know how to throw a football more than, like, three yards. Like, this is brutal. That's what it looked like watching desean Watson the other day.
But, like, you know, Charger, there's a lot of people who pick the Chargers. That didn't go.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that was tough. That was tough. Again, I. Listen, there's something about. It's not even like, Justin Herbert, but it's the vibe surrounding the Chargers I can't trust. It is just, like, a flimsy ness there that I like them. And also, I think it's going to take them time. I think they're going to, like, have to figure it out and be a little ugly, and it's going to be weird. And there's some games, they're just going to throttle people, but you won't know when it's coming.
[01:00:55] Speaker A: I Got to hand it to.
This is. This is the entry. It's pure path 9797, whoever that is. I got to hand it to you. The stones to pick the Raiders over the Dolphins in week one.
Just no one going. That is. That is some impressive stuff.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: I mean, I love it. Honestly, I kind of thought about that. I was like, who's the worst team you could take in week one where it's like week one, you know, bad teams can still win.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: Also. Also Bengals over Buccaneers. Two people pick Bengals over Buccaneers.
No. 3.
That's insane.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: I thought about it. I thought about it.
[01:01:33] Speaker A: I think Eagles were. This.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: We do. How many people got knocked out?
[01:01:37] Speaker A: Anyone who took the Chargers. It's the only. Only team. Oh, no.
[01:01:41] Speaker B: Somebody. Well, you picked. You picked the Cowboys.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: My second unit was Cowboys and.
[01:01:47] Speaker B: Oh, we lost a lot of people actually.
[01:01:49] Speaker A: We lost a lot of people. Rip Campbell back in. No buybacks.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: Nope.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: Is this is. Am I seeing this right?
I thought someone took the Jets. They didn't know it was the Seahawks logo. What's.
[01:02:00] Speaker B: Yeah. What's the wildest. Was the wildest pick someone had?
Well, Pittsburgh.
[01:02:04] Speaker A: Pittsburgh was pretty on the fence. A lot of people went with the Lions, which I could have told you.
Couple Raiders. Mike B. Had the Raiders as well.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: Jags was probably the most popular pick
[01:02:18] Speaker A: as well as should. I mean that makes sense. It's the Browns. Eagles now Bears, Panthers. I wouldn't have picked. Obviously. Now in retrospect, looks great, but too many question marks.
[01:02:29] Speaker B: Who. Who do you. Who do you have next week?
[01:02:32] Speaker A: I'm. I don't know. Can I take the 49ers? Do I feel good about that?
I mean Tampa, they're going to play the Browns.
There's a couple big lines here.
Chargers are a 7 point favorite over the Raiders.
[01:02:48] Speaker B: I might have to change mine.
I currently have the Seahawks.
[01:02:52] Speaker A: You've already.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: But it's. It's.
[01:02:57] Speaker A: I Actually you know what? I want to see how the Chiefs do on Monday Night Football.
And that might be the play because the Colts are looking rough.
[01:03:06] Speaker B: Very strange. Very strange with.
[01:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, I know. My pick is Eagles. Eagles at Titans.
Abysmal.
Abysmal.
[01:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: Bob, what are you doing?
[01:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: Brotherhood of bald. Not a great start.
I think it's Jover.
You think he gets one and done.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: He.
[01:03:32] Speaker A: They got a new stadium next year.
[01:03:34] Speaker B: I think. I think they give him two years.
[01:03:36] Speaker A: Okay. Well.
[01:03:37] Speaker B: Does Brian think it's necessarily the right choice?
But that's my prediction.
[01:03:42] Speaker A: Quarterback hot seat rankings
[01:03:47] Speaker B: number one. I mean Monkins pre fired so I'm not sure that counts.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Monkey Monkey has his own category.
Just the clearest one and done. Okay. Jim Harbaugh see on the hot seat rankings.
[01:03:59] Speaker B: Nah.
[01:04:01] Speaker A: Who you got?
[01:04:02] Speaker B: Nah. Jim. Jim's not on there quite yet.
Oh wait. Our boy Todd Bowles.
[01:04:09] Speaker A: Todd Bowles, though they played pretty well.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Better. It got better.
Bob Salah.
[01:04:17] Speaker B: Dan Quinn.
[01:04:18] Speaker A: Dan Quinn.
[01:04:19] Speaker B: It's gonna be hot all year.
Let's see.
I gotta say I think Sirianni's seat is just. I know it's.
I know that's like a hot take one. It's. It's not going to happen.
[01:04:35] Speaker A: So both. Both head coaches in the Commander's Eagles game hot seated.
[01:04:39] Speaker B: I just think anyone involved with that division discuss me we haven't talked about
[01:04:45] Speaker A: this and we'll end on this.
I feel very validated by the Bills Texans game as someone who's fading the Texans.
It's not as if the Bills don't have a really good offense and you know, former MVP and all that stuff but like the ease in which they carved them up was again, it's all about schemers. It's all about schemers. And I feel like. I feel like our Mandamito Ryan's caught out here now.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: My, my, my pro Texans take that. I was betting on CJ Stroud having a resurgence. Looking pretty good. Not bad.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: Not bad. That said, as someone who is anti Bill's defense, I also feel good.
[01:05:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:27] Speaker A: So that's why we asked about. It's like which games do you feel interested in? I'm like I don't know if I am going to learn anything from. From Bill's Texans.
[01:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Gotta feel pretty bad about. Oh, wait, I think. I mean, I guess they just extended him but. LaFleur. Matt LaFleur.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: I just. Yeah, I mentioned that you.
[01:05:44] Speaker B: You. Oh, I wasn't listening. I was looking at the list and I did not listen.
[01:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No. Matt LaFleur the seat it be hot.
They got a weird energy over there in Green Bay, man. It can. That can be the kind of energy that like propels them when they all use.
[01:06:00] Speaker B: Who knew Aaron Banks was holding their entire offensive line together? He was out.
[01:06:05] Speaker A: I don't even think he knew.
All right. We are barely holding this show together. Do we have anything to sell? No, no.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: Just know that the Hutch Report grades are coming out this week and they are back and better than ever. We'll see if I can do both sides of the ball the whole season but for this week got both sides of the ball and should have some new cool data points. Hot keys.
[01:06:26] Speaker A: Hot keys, baby.
And then.
Yeah. Yeah.
[01:06:32] Speaker B: Sharks.
[01:06:32] Speaker A: Sharks. At the end of the week.
Sharks corners coming.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: Sharks.
[01:06:37] Speaker A: Sharks.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: Their preseason starting.
[01:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah, Hockey starts earlier now. They also play 84 regular season games now.
[01:06:44] Speaker B: Is that more?
[01:06:45] Speaker A: It's more. They were playing 82 before the.
[01:06:47] Speaker B: They didn't need more.
[01:06:49] Speaker A: Now they took off a couple preseason games and gave them just regular season games.
[01:06:53] Speaker B: Okay. I mean, I'm excited to see the Sharks. Sharks. We'll start. That'll be the way we start, like, winding down the streams where we're like, well, people are watching. We don't want to end it. We just start talking shots.
[01:07:04] Speaker A: That's what the Sharks corner is for. That's when we go to.
[01:07:06] Speaker B: That's right.
[01:07:07] Speaker A: We're going teal.
[01:07:08] Speaker B: We're gonna go to a game where. Yeah.
[01:07:10] Speaker A: Oh. Oh. I've actually been trying to figure out how we get a Sicko's, like, outing, because you mentioned, like, the Sickos Classic, and I'm like, oh, that'd be great, but my golf game isn't good enough to actually do that.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: Figure something out. We'll figure something out.
[01:07:23] Speaker A: But Sharks game, something like that, where it's like, just get in there. But then I'm like, I don't want to pay for.
[01:07:28] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get it. We'll get it. Sponsored by an incredibly hyper local sponsor there.
[01:07:32] Speaker A: And by the way, Dieter Beer.
[01:07:35] Speaker B: You sell beer? We're interested.
[01:07:37] Speaker A: Bud Light reached out. I'm not kidding.
I got a couple of cans in the fridge.
I think they just knew that I was a consumer, but we're working on it.
[01:07:46] Speaker B: You look like you like to drink beer.
There's nothing to do with what you're.
[01:07:50] Speaker A: What, your podcast, German Face. That's right. What do you say? Throw a few back in 49ers college. All right, that is. That is the end of whatever the hell this is, folks. And we will talk to you guys later. Bye.
