Best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Jason Smith and Michael Harmon with all the latest from the NFL’s Australia game between the 49ers and Rams. Why 0-4 is absolutely on the table for the New England Patriots. And Myles Garrett was SHUTOUT down under! Plus, FOX Sports NFL Insider Jay Glazer to recap the Australia game between the 49ers and Rams. Jay also talked about the Patriots and previewed some of this weekend’s BIG games!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern,
7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the Best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Greetings.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome inside. Happy Thursday. The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend, Mike Harmon.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Well-dressed hobo.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
If you work in logistics, you know nothing moves without you.
Companies need skilled people now, and Express Employment Professionals can
help you find contract or full-time work that fits at
no cost to you. Visit ExpressPros.com, get support, get options,
and get to work. I think I could go over
this every single night just jumping right in with a
football game. I kind of like that. It's weird. Now

(01:01):
we got NFL. Everything's going on as long as you
have Netflix, you're watching, or you're watching local in Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Hey, okay, man.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
We're good.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
It's good stuff, and it's daylight there in Australia, which
is kind of weird as we come in here in
the evening hours. So it's kind of fun. And now
we got the Joe Bros going. I mean, it's everything
we need. We are at halftime. Between the 49ers and
the Rams. A very quick first half, considering we kicked
off around an hour and 20 minutes ago. We're already

(01:32):
at halftime, and it felt like there were a ton
of commercial breaks.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Fire up the plane. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
The Niners lead the Rams. It is 10-7. And again,
just like last night, the game doesn't need to be great.
The game just needs to be close.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well, you had some moments.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
There have been at least a couple of great moments.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
There have been a couple of great, but there have
been a couple of good, enjoyable NFL moments. It's not like,
oh my goodness, I just watched the Statue of Liberty
play for a touchdown. Like, okay, there have been touchdowns. Okay,
we've had touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Look, man, when you're hungry... Anything tastes good, all right?

Speaker 5 (02:07):
But wait, not football. I mean, other than that, I
got Miami and Florida A & M.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah. 56-0. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
What do you got, Frostberg?

Speaker 6 (02:16):
How do you guys feel knowing you have better seats
than half of the.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
People out there?

Speaker 6 (02:20):
It looks good, though. Well, not if you're sitting at
the game there. I don't care about them. It looks
good for me on TV.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
It really doesn't. Yeah, that was my point. No, but
the thing is, I think you guys, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
I like to think that my eyesight, it's, you know,
I need glasses more as I get older a little
bit more. But the two big takeaways from this game,
number one is that I feel like Netflix is showing
you that time travel is possible because this game with
the trailing of the video and the quality of the picture,
I feel like we're back in the early 2000s. This

(02:53):
is not the clear-cut 4K, hey, what an incredible broadcast.
This is not the broadcast level we are used to
in NFL games. And I'm watching going, Really, I feel
like I'm back on my couch in my apartment and
I'm watching an NFL game from.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
The early 2000s. Hey, this is awesome.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Just seeing the trailing of the colors, you know, behind her.
There's a trailing behind Kyle Shanahan and behind the 49ers
colors and the Rams colors.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm like.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
wow, okay, Netflix, like, you know, the NFL is a thing. Like,
we need to see pretty good pictures. We need to
see the video needs to look really, really good. No,
it's passable. But you forget what we're used to now
with the level of production in sports that a game
like this stands out so much.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Like, oh, yeah, like the trailing of the video. Ooh,
all right then. Okay, I guess.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
this is how it's going to go or combination of
maybe being Netflix and, and, and, you know, being from Australia,
but like.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Maybe Australia's behind. How about that? They used a local
crew and local equipment. Take that. How about that? Paul
Hogan is running everything on television. You call that a knife?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
That's a knife. We'll plug it in for you right here. No,
I mean, I, I mean, seeing it, it just, right.
It takes me back in time. Like time travel is possible.
It's the early two thousands again. And this was, top
level broadcast of an NFL game.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
And Oh, this is good.

Speaker 6 (04:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Don't worry.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
We'll fix everything else at some point.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Like you're forget that now what we see with, with
replays and, and with the clarity of the picture is
it's a, you know, we've gotten used to it slowly
over time, but then you get a night like tonight
where you go back and you're like, Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, this is, this is what it was like just
a scant 20 years ago.

Speaker 5 (04:36):
Am I bad for not noticing or caring? I was
more worried about the— You're.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Just not observant. And that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Like, for me to observe it, because my wife always
says I'm the most non-observant person in the world, she goes,
you don't see anything.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
You're on your phone. You're thinking about the gent. You're this.
I'm like, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
But it seems crystal clear to me.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Not if you're sitting front row.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
It's not crystal clear. Those images from the people in
the front row, that was not good. That's a lot
of money for nothing. I say when something's important, I
pay attention. I realize I should not have said that.
That was the wrong.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Thing to say. No, terrible. Terrible line. Terrible line.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
But I mean, really, I'm just glad that I've observed
enough to see that and go, oh, that's good. Yeah,
this is like early 2000s. That's like 2003. Hey, all right, man.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
What do you think back to the kid in 2003? Mm-hmm. Oh,
you're feeling good. Life-like.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Now, you heard Frostberg mention it. Not all the seats.
Not all the seats. But a lot of the seats are...
as far away from the field as 50 yards.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
And your sight lines suck.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's three to four times further, because of the oval,
because of the way the field is. It's three to
four times further away from the field than general seats are.
You know how mad I would be if I spent
all that money to sit at the 50-yard line, and
I get to the game and I go.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
I can't see anything. I mean, I'm 50 yards away.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
At least when you're, when you're that close in the NFL, Hey,
they know what they're doing because, well, we've built it higher.
So you can see down a little bit. This is
where the seats start. No, this is you're right on
the ground and you spent all this money and you
can't see past the guys on the sideline that, Oh,
by the way, are 50 yards away. Like, Oh, How
did nobody see this? We're like, oh yeah, the fans

(06:21):
sitting here are going to be this far away. When
the NFL wants to make these moves and they want
to play games overseas and X, Y, and Z, I
get it. But certain things, I feel like after all
the details you can go through, whereas the Rams were
figuring out how to bring... 53 hyperbaric chambers on their planes.
Everybody can sleep and we're going to fake it where

(06:43):
it's going to seem like it's the nighttime and we're
going to trick all our players. Like, like all the,
all the details go into it. Like you see two things.
I go, wow, the picture in this game makes it
look like it's 20 years old. And I don't know
how you do that to the fans where a lot
of them. are 50 yards away from the field. Can
you imagine paying a lot? I can't wait for our
first game. I'm so excited. And I'm 50 yards away

(07:06):
from the field.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
To be fair, if you're a local, you understand it's
at the cricket grounds. And they're not... retrofitting the entire
stadium for one event.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Or you're at least, well, I'm sitting up higher so
I can see there's things you can do.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Well, yes, that is your decision. Because if you know
it's at the.

Speaker 5 (07:25):
Cricket grounds, and even if you don't know anything about
cricket and you do a little bit of your due diligence,
you recognize this may not be optimal viewing.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
But I'm not watching a cricket match, am I? I'm
watching the National Football League. And you've got to be,
you're charging me a lot of money to sit in
those seats where I can't see anything, but you got
to be at the game and you got to see
the Joe bros perform, including a lot of dancers wearing
fancy headdresses and the whole nine yards. The Jonas brothers
performing right now looked like it was a lot of fun.

(07:52):
uh you know again straight.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Out wearing their varsity jackets.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Again early to mid 2000s three just released two weeks
ago jonas brothers have been around it wasn't terrible they've
been jonas brothers are no longer a new group they're
not now jonas brothers been around 20 years like jonas
brothers is like like like at the time the jonas
brothers hit it big it's like man the new kids
on the block.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
But they're just hitting it big right now in australia Australia, Jason.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Yes, they are.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
But that's just it, right?

Speaker 5 (08:17):
With the colorization and the pixelation of your television site.
I think ET's in theaters there.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I'm checking this out. Sucker has just hit the top
25 in Australia.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
Did it really?

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, it's right there. Yeah, it's right there.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
No, I mean, seriously, every time the NFL doesn't go overseas,
I want to say, okay- How much have they buttoned
down the issues that we've seen? And already here's two
big ones. And the two biggest ones, which is how
you're consuming the game on television and how you're consuming
the game.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
When you're there.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Have you missed a play on television? I've not missed
a play.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
The colors have popped from the screen for you.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
But I'm paying for Netflix to see this game. I'm
paying to see this game. I want to see a
great broadcast.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Are they streaming the broadcast well enough for you?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
I'm getting the highlight. I'm getting the game. I'm watching it.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
I'm also paying for it, and I would like the
regular broadcast. I don't want to go back to where
we're at. You don't go back.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
But this is the Netflix version of the broadcast. Right,
I get it. And so who has the game? Netflix. Right. So, okay.
So this is what you get. When you come to
Netflix for this game. Yeah, I don't like it.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
But I don't like it. You got no choice.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
But I don't like it. You got no alternative unless
you're here in Los Angeles. But how else do you
foster change? You have to foster change some way, and
I'm fostering change.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Speaking of fosters, how many fosters do you think are
being consumed in the cricket pool right now? It's Australian.
Australian for beer. That's a pretty big beer. I'm Barry
Fostering Change right now. Nicely done. Running through people. I
am George Fostering Change right now. Get the sideburns. Attach
the sideburns and we'll talk. What a power hitter. And
he was like 5'11, 150 pounds. Nice compact swing there, man.

(09:55):
What was it, 52 in 1977? Yeah, 52 was big.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
But so, like, the two big things to broadcast-wise. Now,
the football itself, right? We're getting ready for the second
half to begin. And kind of piggybacking off last night
where we had rough quarterback play the entire game. Drew
Locke threw a couple of passes, eight yards, and they
were just enough. The defense won the game for Seattle.

(10:21):
Drake May was awful. Already, Brock Purdy has misfired on
many passes. He's already got a pick. Matthew Stafford also
has already thrown a pick. He has misfired on passes.
The era of rough quarterback play, the beginning of the
regular season... is never going anywhere. I want everybody to
understand that when the season starts, you get upset, oh,
we're this, we're this. That's never going anywhere because teams

(10:44):
have decided, look, our stars no longer need to play
whatever reps they get, but when we get to the
point where the footballs fly for real, we're just going
to have rough football. And that's another thing that the
NFL has decided, we're okay with rough football the first
couple of weeks. We're going to have less preseason games.
Teams aren't playing their guys. We're okay with that. We're
not going to make a big deal out of it.

(11:05):
We are okay with rough football the first couple of
weeks because no one's going to turn it off.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Well, that's just it, right?

Speaker 5 (11:10):
It's shiny and new, and we give you some heavyweight matchups,
so the storylines supersede what you may actually be seeing
on the field.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
But just get the majority of play the first week
or two is not going to be great. You're not
going to get quarterbacks jumping out of the gate in
the first week, in the first week plus in the NFL,
going for 360 and three touchdowns. There'll be a couple
of guys who do that. But you look at the
guys that go for 360 and three touchdowns week one
versus the guy that goes for 360 and three touchdowns

(11:39):
in week eight, and you're talking about, wow, there's two
guys week one, and there's seven guys in week eight,
and there's 10 guys in week 10. But it's the
era of rough football beginning of the season. It's not
going to become accepted.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
It's now.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
What it's going to be because you see the way
these games are. We're playing on Wednesday night. We're playing
in Australia. The beginning of the NFL season is now
being treated as a celebration of the sport. So for this,
you know the games are going to be rough and
the first week on Sundays, the games are going to
be rough because of the lack of play during the preseason.
That's just we're just going to have to deal with that.

(12:13):
And I'm dealing with that, you know, as the best
way I can when I go, man, I can't. But
I understand this is this is an era that's not
going anywhere. I just have to understand. I'm celebrating the
sport is back because I love celebrating the sport is back.
I'm celebrating that it's back. I'm celebrating work. We're enjoying
watching it. We have big games and big teams. I've
got to just keep reminding myself we're celebrating that it's
back and get that, okay, the roughness of it, it's

(12:35):
just going to be something we.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Have to deal with.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
You had Bill Belichick was an early adopter, and now
everybody else just came on board. September is feeling it out.
You're not getting a lot of reps, right? We've talked
about offensive line play, which has been uneven because we've
seen both quarterbacks play. chips and things that you normally
get from your running backs or maybe a little help

(12:58):
from your tight end, they're missing blocks and guys are
coming in clean. Both Birdie and Stafford tonight. You watched
it yesterday. Locke running for his life a little bit
and certainly Drake May having to move sideline to sideline
that we've seen that. So it takes a while for
that cohesion. Some of the timing on the routes, right?
The Stafford mistake to Pukunukuwa. In week three, that's a completion, right?

(13:22):
He cuts off his route and makes the play. Instead,
it's like, oops, I thought you were there. You went
five yards deeper on the route.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
So all of that timing works together.

Speaker 5 (13:32):
But we got a full half of football, and the
clarity on the picture is beautiful here in studio.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
It's not, though. It is, though. No, it's not. And
you're wearing glasses.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
You're wearing glasses. It's not. I mean, the gold, yellow,
whatever pops. I mean, it's great. Yeah, the color. I
like the trail. That's great. We're not getting a black
and white picture. It's not 1957. But it's like the
trail was the comet. Like we had 1994 when Fox
had the NHL.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Come on.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
It's like the buck.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
You're not watching the brand new underwater technology and creature
from the Black Lagoon.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Like this is, you know, this is the NFL here.
It looks fine. Getting something a little bit better.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Now, if it goes to 4D and all of a
sudden they're spitting on me, then it's next level.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
But until then, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
And right now, the content that's going out there is
all 49ers. Nine and a half to go in the
fourth quarter. A 60-yard line drive field goal has given
the 49ers now a 27-7 lead over the Rams. And
every time they show Sean McVay on the sideline. He's

(14:49):
got that smirk on his face, that sarcastic smirk that
he's saying to himself, yeah, we screwed up. Man, this
is not good. This is not going to be fun. Like,
I can see what the post-game press conference is going
to be. You know, they keep showing, like when he
shows his teeth and he's like, yeah, I don't know. Like,
you could just tell he's looking at what are the

(15:09):
next three or four days going to look like, and.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
I don't like it.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
I don't like it.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
Well, I can't wait for the hot take nonsense here
in L.A. because I was seeing everybody getting all chesty.
It's like en route to their perfect season and a
date with the Super Bowl at SoFi. Like, oops, I
can hear those beep, beep, like you're backing up a
truck right now because now they'll excoriate him for the
travel plans. It'll be, oh, it was all about the

(15:35):
sleep pads. Like, no, you got your ass worked from
pillar to post.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, but see, this is one of those cases where
the true outcome of the game is going to be
lost in one team had the better travel plan and
the other team didn't.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Should have gone to the zoo.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Because that's been the entirety of the topic going into
this game. The 49ers have been there for a week.
The Rams decide. They had people flying back and forth
for the last year, I think, trying to figure out
what to do. And all for this game that they're
going home and they're getting pummeled right now by 20.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Doing all the.

Speaker 5 (16:13):
the bio stats and checking in with physicians.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Like how did the travel affect you? How do you feel?

Speaker 5 (16:18):
And let's check your electrolytes. Let's check your blood and
all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Gatorade. It's got electrolytes. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
But I mean like, that's where, that's what it's going
to come down to. Like I said, you know, it's
going to be the first question in the post game
to Sean McVay. You know, did you leave early enough
that that's going to wind up being the story of this.
And now I guarantee you, Whatever that had to do
with the Rams losing, whatever percentage that had to do,
no team will ever travel like the Rams again.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Nobody will ever do it.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
I don't think the NFL should have let them either.
Roger Goodell is going to say, okay, that's never happening again.
When we have a game overseas, you need to be
there to do publicity and sell the game. It's what
we're doing. So that's an oversight on my part. I
will make sure everybody leaves ahead of time. But no
team is going to do that because they're going to
see this and go, well, the Rams left early and
look what happened. What did that have to really do
with them winning or losing the game? I don't know,

(17:08):
but it didn't work. So we're not doing that. The
thing is, is that by doing this, right? And this
is what sometimes Sean McVay, who likes to be a
real big innovative coach and I'm doing this and I'm
pushing the edge and F them picks and all this stuff,
is that sometimes you put yourself in a position where
to really take one on the chin when you don't

(17:31):
have to, right? Because let's just say the 49ers, we
came in this game and the result's the other way, right?
49ers win this, 49ers are getting killed. No one's going
to say, well, 49ers should have traveled later.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
No, well, they were there. They lost, right? The 49ers
went and they lost. They're older. And the Rams, oh,
the Rams won.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
And the....

Speaker 1 (17:50):
The positive outcome for Sean McVay is great because he
looks like more of a genius where, oh, he had
them leave the day before the game and look what
that did.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Oh, he cracked the code.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Sometimes when you reach for the stars, sometimes your reach
exceeds your grasp. And this is one of those times
where it's going to look like his reach exceeds his
grasp because the outcome of this is going to be,
that was so stupid, why did they do this? And
that's going to be the general narrative is that, boy,
Sean McVay and the Rams really blew it by making

(18:23):
this travel decision. Again, it doesn't matter how much this
had to do with the loss by the Rams. It's
what people are going to say. It's going to be
written about. People are going to talk about it. It's
what people are going to talk about in league circles.
And the Rams can sit back and say, no, no,
our travel plans are great. All our guys are awesome.
We did X, Y, and Z.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
People are going to say, why did you do this?
And it's going to seem like, boy, it's an unnecessary
risk that Sean McVay took. It was either going to
be Lady or the Tiger for Sean McVay. Either they're
going to win this game, and not only will they win,
but Sean McVay is going to be a genius. Whereas
winning the game should be the most important thing. So
I'm winning the game and I'm a genius. Now it's

(19:00):
going to be not only do we lose the game,
but I'm going to get blamed for travel. Where had
the Rams just gone there a few days ago and
played this game and lost? Are they going to say, Oh,
the rent? No, there was no travel. You added in
an extra level of what the hell are you doing?
And as a coach, as a team, you never want
to add in a level of what the hell are
we doing? Because you don't know when that happens. starts

(19:22):
to fester in the locker room. Hey, maybe coach has
too many ideas here. I don't know about this. What's
Miles Garrett going to say after the end? I'm waiting
for one player to go, yeah, maybe that wasn't a
great idea. A couple people got sick. I mean, I'm
just throwing this out there. I'm not saying what I know.
But you don't know what's going to happen, and certain
things like that can creep in. Now, you want to
think that Sean McVay, the stranglehold he has on the Rams,

(19:42):
the belief they have, the Super Bowl team they have,
nothing's changing for that after this game. You want to think, okay,
we got everybody's back, but you never know. And this
was an unnecessary let's try to grab the brass ring
by the Rams because the outcome should be, hey, we're
going to win the game, but, boy, we want to
win the game and look like geniuses. Whereas, okay, if
you lose the game, you want to lose the game
and have it just be a loss and move on.

(20:04):
And instead it's, boy, I don't know, do we trust
Sean McVay to make these big decisions? Do we trust
the front office to make these decisions? What's going on here?
And that's what they've opened the door to. by deciding
to fly the day before and then play the game.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
See, they flew too close to the sun.

Speaker 5 (20:19):
They full-on wax wings of Icarus, and they fall to earth.
But you're looking at all of that, right? Because now
you've opened the door also for the folks that just
want to attack the fact that Aaron Donald didn't play
in this game. So those that want to trade on
that one, they can do that as well.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
But.

Speaker 5 (20:38):
Yeah, it's all been about travel the last week. I mean,
how many articles did you read that referenced some sleep
scientist somewhere? Right? The biorhythm experts. Let's go to, are
your chakras in sync? All of these things, trying to
figure it all out. And for Sean McVay, since he
took over, what, it's nine years at this point. It's
always the next innovation, right? We're not going to play

(20:59):
players in the preseason. People followed suit. Now we see
the reversal to a degree, but we're still having these
feel-out first couple of weeks. But for McVay, this was
the ultimate in taking a shot and knowing that if
it turned out badly, you're going to wear it. Now,
I would zag when everybody else is in. It's like, hey, Sean,
I know you're ready for the question. They've already briefed

(21:22):
you about the sleep thing. Why'd you call the— quarterback
sneak with Matthew Stafford. We know he doesn't do that.
He doesn't do that well. Why would you do that?
And took those points potentially off the board instead of
putting Williams or Corham.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Then we might have a different game.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
That's another in-game adjustment that we'll be asking questions about
for a while. But the whole sleep pattern thing It's
like a whole other industry coming out of this from
the NFL circles. And again, they did it last year
in Jacksonville, and I heard that as the justification. It's

(21:59):
half the flight time. Half the flight time, older team,
guys coming off big injuries, guys trying to roll up.
So it's, you know, a risky proposition against a division
foe because it becomes more than a loss, right? Because
it's also a bad look for the NFL to go
back to the original part of it when you get

(22:20):
to Goodell of, all right, it's fine if they send
people over the course of a year.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
That's great. Those are small localized kind.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
Of meet and meet and greets, whatever. Here's your, all right.
The full pomp and circumstance pageantry light up glitter parade.
Like you're at the end of main street and Disneyland
was sending these two teams over for a regular season
kickoff event. And one of your teams showed up just
ahead of kickoff.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Now you want an example of how the Rams travel
plans are are going to cause shockwaves and questions all throughout,
and now suddenly you're going into week two with a
lot of head-scratching moments.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
The Rams travel. They leave the day before. Okay. Miles
Garrett tonight. Okay?

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Think about this stat line that I'm going to give
you for the best defensive player in the NFL. Miles
Garrett tonight. Zero quarterback hits. Zero sacks. Zero tackles. He
is zeros across the board. The best defensive player in
the NFL has been shut out. Now, have they been

(23:28):
double teaming him all the time?

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Yes. Sometimes triple teaming him?

Speaker 4 (23:31):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Did I see him go to the sideline in the
middle of the big drive that basically clinched the game
for the 49ers when he didn't play the last half?
He looked like he was exhausted? Yes.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
This has now become a thing. And now the best
defensive player in the NFL gives you absolute zeros across
the board. All of a sudden, it's, well, maybe Aaron Donald. Oh,
my God, if this is what Aaron Donald, if this
is Miles Garrett, what happened if Aaron Donald actually came
over to Australia? But this is what I mean when
you open up the door to all sorts of criticism

(24:00):
and potential... Disharmony. Did we really like the way we traveled?
Look at what happened to Miles Garrett. I mean, really,
I don't know when they've said his name on the
broadcast since early in the game when they're saying, hey,
Miles Garrett's first game as a Ram. We're looking forward
to seeing. Here's an ISO Miles Garrett looking really big
and intimidating. And instead, it's 0-0-0. This is what traveling

(24:25):
the way they did, that's what this is going to
open the door to for the Rams, where, again, no
team is ever going to travel like this again. No
team's ever going to listen to the Rams. And now
when Sean McVay says something that seems a.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Little bit outlandish, maybe a little bit of a mad
scientist idea, or the Rams have some idea to show
you we're better than everybody else, you're going to go, yeah,
don't know about that man I don't know.

Speaker 5 (24:49):
But here's where it takes it the next level is
that that meant you were on the practice facilities on
the practice fields in your offices right up until then
you weren't sightseeing you weren't glad handing you weren't doing
any of that stuff so you got no excuse right
beyond the the travel of it that means you were

(25:11):
grossly what'd you do with your time hmm Because you
got your ass handed to you. They put up the
Matthew Stafford, what, 84 starts. This is the first time
that he's under 10. This is only the second time.
In 84 starts, he's under 10 points as a starter here.

Speaker 6 (25:28):
Mike, his throws tonight looked like Hackenberg at Jets practice.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
But thrown off his back foot. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
He actually got it where a couple guys got their
hands on balls. Like Hackenberg would even get it. Like
Hackenberg would throw it where the guys like Rich Cimini
would catch passes.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
I mean, this looks like Stafford in the Lions playoff game. No,
this looks.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
It's absolutely a complete epic fail by the Rams on
all levels of this game.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Stafford's looked terrible.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
Again.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
an invisible miles Garrett, like top to bottom Puka Nakua
could get zero separation tonight. Every throw to him has
been something that has been contested. Uh, he's not been
able to find any open field and the Rams just,
just look like they are completely out of sync. And
what an egg to lay week one, when you're talking
about this being a super bowl team in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yeah, I mean, you had your one opportunity, right?

Speaker 5 (26:21):
Six plays, 19 yards, and then you end up losing
it on downs, right? You had a chance and failed.
But yeah, for Stafford, you had a couple of throws
into Kua. You also had.
A couple of opportunities where the, uh, the yellow laundry
didn't come up. I know they were joking about it
on the broadcast. There was, there were no penalties being called.

(26:44):
And so they, when they finally had the opportunity to say, Hey,
we're going to throw it to the officials. Like, wait,
it's how far into the second quarter.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Like, what are we doing?

Speaker 5 (26:52):
So yeah, very, uh, discombobulated effort from the normally buttoned
up Sean McVay. Can't wait to hear him talk really fast.
in the post game of how this got away.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
It's one game. You think he's even going to answer questions?
He's going to go, we got to get on the plane.
We got to go. He's going to do like a
five minute preamble. I'm going to write out here. You
know what I'm going to do?

Speaker 1 (27:09):
I'm going to tape a couple of answers and I'll
just send them out to you off my phone. What's your,
what's your phone number? I'll send them all to the
media here. You can just put them out there. And this,
this is my, this is my take on stuff.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
Yeah. I mean, it just a complete shambles. But again,
you had the game where you could have been in
a fight, but you called a quarterback sneak for Matthew Stafford.
That's just bothering me. And then they showed the graphic
of Miles Garrett, and he was still huffing and puffing,
and he hadn't been on the field for a while.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
So yeah, the play calling as well in question for
the Rams, and that was the biggest play of the game.
That really tilted the game forever. in favor of the 49ers.
Matthew Stafford gets stuffed on fourth and one when they
could have made it a field goal game.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
And then they go down the field 99 yards.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
And that was the end. Stafford getting stuffed was the,
was the Romeo Dobbs drop of last night.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
That's good.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
That's good.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
Let's tie it together. Now, can we do that 270
more times in this season? By the way, Raheem Morris,
he didn't get to celebrate a birthday. I think he'll
take this.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Well, I think he's still celebrated. You don't have cake
and everything else. Here you go. You're going to get
one of those, hey, you're 1-0 cakes. What's he get
on the plane ride back? I mean, come on. Easy.
Plane rides are easy. There's a celebratory. I know, I know,
I know. That plane's been gassed up and clean for
a week.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
You know, Sean McVay was just sitting there fourth quarter
knowing this is a blowout. You know, the smirk on
his face going, they're just going to ask me about
the travel. They're just going to ask me, and I'm
going to have to talk about it after the game.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
And I don't want to. I don't want to. But
they're going to ask me, and I don't want to.
I know that's all they're going to say to me
is about the travel. That's all they're going to say.
I don't want to say anything else. But they're going
to ask me about it. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
When your team is so methodically worked from pillar to post–
I think you'd rather talk about sleep cycles and sleep schedules.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Well, no, but then you have to say, I was wrong.
My opinion was wrong. Yeah, you got to own that. Yeah, yeah,
but he can at least say, look, I'm not a
sleep doctor. Dude, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's
a coach and he got his ass kicked. He still
needs to explain that part of the equation. What was it?
The last year plus they have been trying to figure

(29:29):
out the best way to travel for this game, sending people...
This is a lot of time spent on this. You
can't just say, oh, yeah, yeah, my bad on that.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
This is not like, you know, our small sample size.
It didn't work with the 53 man Ross.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
This is not like, hey, fourth and seven, we decide
to kick the field goal in the moment. I felt
it was the right thing to do. Talking to the
guys on the sideline, my coaches. No, that's like, hey,
my bad. This is that year for a whole year.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
We've been looking over a year when this game was
announced like a year and a half ago.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, we're doing all we're making sure we got. We
got hyperbaric chambers for everybody, right? Everybody's got a personal spa,
personal trainer, personal masseuse. We're making sure that we're carrying
people from the plane right to the field. They're going
to actually have robots put their jerseys on and everything.
You don't do that and then just go, oh, yeah,

(30:23):
you know, that's my fault.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
That's it. No, you can't do that, man. It's a
really big deal. It's a really big deal.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
Well, we got to talk to VP of Sports Medicine
and Performance, Reggie Scott.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Reggie, Reggie. Sleep data alongside workload metrics, wellness questionnaires, tracking devices,
and all of that.

Speaker 5 (30:43):
He's evidently the guy that is going to walk in,
throw his arms up and say, what happened? He's going
to say, you had one job. You had one job, man.
And look, and that's what I mean when I say,
It wasn't necessary for the Rams to travel like this
to try to say, look how smart we are.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
We're flying the day before. All of this new research
they put in, that's a huge chance they're taking. Jay Glazer,
when he joined us and said, hey, I felt like
they had the right plan, but you don't know. Guys
are waking up whatever time they're doing. There's so many
variables that go into something like this that why would
you take that chance? I want to show you how

(31:24):
smart we are. Look at this advantage that I'm going
to give this team by traveling the way we are.
You don't need to do that. That's basically showing, I
want to show you how smart I am. And then
look what happened. It backfired.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Had they gone four days before and lost the game,
it's not a question. You lost the game.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
What happened? Matthew Stafford looks bad. You couldn't move the football.
Puka Nakua looked bad. The Rams looked bad.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Across the board. Right. Kudos to Shanahan.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
And then move on. Across the board. But now you've
opened up a whole new era. avenue of criticism because
you decided we're smarter than everybody else and we're going
to do it this way. And now this is what
you're going to have to deal with. And this is
a story now for the next seven days. Hey, do
we really think that the Rams know what they're doing?

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Because boy, they really thought they knew that whole thing
about flying out, you know, eight minutes before the game
started taking an SST that will land you there or
the teleporting that's going to be a night crawler from
the X-Men is just teleporting.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Bamf, bamf, bamf, Bamf.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
I'm taking all 53 people. What's the other devil guy? Azazel. Azazel. Yeah,
get him going. Azazel. He's scary, man. Yeah, but he
pops around, too. He's dropping people from there. Like, that's
no good, man. I just did the rewatch of that.
That's no good. That was a good move. Was that
Oliver Platt that he dropped from there?

Speaker 4 (32:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
Oh, it's a movie with Oliver Platt in it today.
It's called Oranges. It was always good.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
With Hugh Laurie.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
You knew it when Kevin Bacon would just go, Azazel? Oh, no.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
He's going to just take somebody and drop them from
a really high height.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Oh, not good. Bad things, man. Not good. It's a
great villain that needed more time. So this is McVeigh.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Again, sometimes when you're a young, intelligent coach and you
push the boundaries, I get it. Ambition is good. Having
ambition is always good because you're always going to go
further than the guys that don't have ambition.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
But sometimes you have to stop and go. Is this
worth it?

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Is this really worth it, going to all this length
to say, we're going to travel the day before and
leave us wide open to criticism if we lose the game?
Is the win worth it? Is it a better win
to win the game and show you, look how we traveled,
we're going to show a whole new way for people
to travel, or is this better to win the game?

(33:29):
I don't know that the double win... for the Rams
here was worth what went on. And as bad as
they looked, I mean, no team is ever going to
do this again. They're going to say, yeah, all we
have research is that, yeah, no. Look what happened to
the Rams. Matthew Stafford was awful. Miles Garrett put zeros up.
Puka Nakua couldn't get any separation at all. You watch

(33:50):
tape of this game and go, yeah, never traveling like
that again.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
No, that's it, right?

Speaker 5 (33:54):
It becomes anecdotal. And as we talked about, whatever you
try to do, no matter how... forward thinking you are
and wide reaching you're still coming up with the equation
right the pluses the minuses and and all the variables
that have to go into your algorithm into your equation
and in this case it's the human cycles of 53

(34:15):
different guys plus your coaching staff plus all your trainers
plus everybody that's part of the entourage right all of
that has to sync up And to go out and
maximize performance against a team that plays you really well
on the best.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Of days, right?

Speaker 5 (34:29):
So now you've added another variable to it. And so
for Sean McVay and company, look, in anything you do, right,
any of you out there that are reaching, you're inventing,
you're creating spaces, you're entrepreneurial, whatever, you're going to be fails.
I mean, at the old, you can't make the omelet
without breaking the eggs kind of bit. But in this case.
Even if it's just, hey, we got our asses kicked,

(34:51):
that's not the narrative that comes out of this game.
It underscores a lot of other innovations you like to do.
You probably lost the trust of some of your players
the way this came together.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
And that's the thing. Was it worth it, right?

Speaker 5 (35:05):
But on the other side, you're like, well, I guess
we can also say we weren't tired and working with
the hangover there for multiple days, and then we got
to come home and still readjust. Now you just get
back on a plane and you're licking your wounds from
getting your ass kicked.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Exit out of Fresca, exit Swollen Dome. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon,
live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. So let's hear
from Sean McVay, who just met the media moments ago,
probably getting ready really fast to get back on the
plane and get the hell out of Australia.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
Did we have to boost his levels because he's just
walking past the microphone?

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Walk and talk, walk and talk. Like he's got that
little LeBron satchel on his shoulder.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
No, it's like a politician that doesn't want to answer
questions on the way.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Senator, Senator, Mr. President, whatever. Walk and talk and ask
me and maybe I'll answer. Maybe I won't.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
But we're walking and talking. It's a good move. Here
is Sean McVeigh moments ago giving credit, taking blame for
the Rams' loss to the Niners.

Speaker 7 (36:06):
First of all, congratulations to the 49ers. They outplayed us
in every fast set. I didn't do nearly a good
enough job. This is a humbling day for us, and
this will define us only if we allow it to.
And today was one of those days, and I always
look inside out. I didn't do a good enough job
getting us ready to go. There were some opportunities where
maybe the game could have flipped, but they deserve the win.

(36:28):
They were ready to go, and we'll look at it.
We'll see where we can improve and be better moving forward.
But This is a good, humbling day. This is what
can sometimes happen in sports. I love this locker room.
And the first thing that I'm going to look at
is myself. And I have to do a better job
for our group collectively, with our coaches, with our players.
And we'll look at this film. And we'll get back

(36:50):
to work because clearly that's obviously what we've got to do.
And sometimes sports can humble you. And today was one
of those days. I make no excuses. And, you know,
whether you want to say it's about travel, whatever, we
just weren't good enough in that window. I didn't coach
good enough. And we'll look at it and we'll move forward.
And that's where we're at right now. But it was
a great atmosphere. Give credit to the 49ers. They deserve it.

(37:11):
And we're all in one and we'll move forward.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
So I want to get out there and say, hey,
to travel, whatever, we lost. I give them all credit.
I don't want these questions. I got humbled. We got humbled.
Drinking game, the word humble four times. Like the Iron Sheik,
make him humble.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
I just want to say it's humble. It was bad. Look,
it was bad all the way around, right? It was
bad all the way around.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
And I don't want to be– I'm not going to
sit here and say, hey, week one– it's sudden doom
and gloom long-term, right? For the Patriots, the way Drake
May played, the injury to A.J. Brown, being without Travion Henderson,
that's a big deal, a tough schedule next three weeks.
The Patriots are staring at 0-4, right? They are staring
at 0-4 because they lost their two best playmakers. What

(37:55):
kind of quarterback is Drake May? For the Rams, I
don't want to sit here and say, okay, it's all
doom and gloom.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
It's one game. Look how bad they were.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
But.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Matthew Stafford coming off an MVP season. When you reach
the cliff, you don't reach the cliff in dribs and drabs.
You don't slowly get to the cliff. You get to
the cliff and suddenly the cliff is there, right? Stafford
looked awful. He looked off. And while hopefully for him
it's just, hey, it was a bad week one. And

(38:28):
he didn't look right. But, again, when you get older, like,
you get to that point. Like, Tom Brady, he saw
the cliff coming. Finally, after what Max Kellerman said, like,
12 years ago, the cliff is coming for Tom Brady.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Yeah, there were a couple of guys jumping up and
down on that one.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Brady saw it coming. Like, okay, next year is not.
You could tell that he didn't have the same arm
throwing the football. And, boy, I really don't want it
to fall. This is going to be as good as
it can be. I won with the Patriots. We made
it back to the one with the Bucs. Made it
back to the playoffs the next year. Okay, this is
as good as it's going to be. Now for Stafford,
suddenly the door is open because he played really, really poorly.
His decision-making was bad. The zip on the football wasn't

(39:07):
there because Matthew Stafford, the one thing the guy does
is he throws his receivers open. And there's times tonight where, okay,
Puka Nakua isn't open. Stafford normally throws you open. He
doesn't do it. And again, not to say that this
is how it's going to go for Matthew Stafford, But
if I'm a Rams fan, or I'm thinking in the
back of my head, I'm saying, well, if it's going
to happen, it's going to look like this, right? to

(39:30):
look like this. You get to be 38, 39. You
never know when physically that happens to you. And I
did not see this kind of game coming from Matthew
Stafford at all. We have seen him be sharp in
regular seasons before. We have seen the Rams put up
big numbers. He's coming in. This is the best offense
he's been with. It's another year with Devontae Adams in
the draft. the ascending Puka Nakua. I mean, this should

(39:52):
be as good as it is. You know, the Rams
have 17 tight ends they like to play. They've got
a couple of guys... 13 personnel, 14 personnel.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Come on. 18, 25 personnel. Whatever you got, yep. You
have two good running backs that can, you know, play
off each other, whether it's Kyron Williams, whether it's Blake Corum.
This is your best offense, and I know you don't
get a lot of time, but... This is not Matthew
Stafford's first year in the offense. This is none of
these guys' first year in the offense. They're not breaking
anybody in. They're not saying, well, we've got to get–
everybody's seen this, and this is what shows up, and

(40:21):
this is what shows up on tape. That's why I
see this and I go, okay, you planted the seed.
You didn't go all full overboard and it's done, but
you planted the seed that when it looks bad, this
is what it looks like.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
Well, you go back to that throw to Nakua to
the far side of the field, right? He's trying to
hit him on the sideline. It's kind of a back
off one foot, not really following through, kind of wing
it out there. And it's five yards short and it's
an easy interception ahead of where Nakua cut off his route.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
So you have that. You have the other.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
his situation when he's under duress that breaks down in
a hurry right because he's not buying any extra time
uh moving laterally we saw the fail uh in terms
of the goal line effort after a nice long drive
your your running backs have been averaging five yards of
carry between them 21 carries on the night 95 yards

(41:16):
so about five yards of carry uh and you uh
You decide to go with Stafford, who was 0-2 on
quarterback sneaks a year ago. Nekua had been stopped at
the 1 on a short slant earlier in the possession.
But all of that, you had your chances. But it
does look like there's a little something there. in terms
of the downgrade and whether it's just week one and

(41:40):
the flight and your opponent, who's really good, right? I
mentioned it with Jay Glazer, talking about all the old
guys coming back on the defensive side, right? Fred Warner
was back. He had 11 tackles on the night. Dre
Greenlaw comes back after being away in Denver. Six tackles
for him.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Nick Bosa. gutting it out.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
He had a couple of tackles for loss, four tackles
on the day. And so they got after it and
they did a great job of pressuring up front and
making him move his feet, which meant you didn't get
the extra seconds. Now, do you get that next week?
I don't know that you necessarily get that next week.
We'll wait and see what the Giants put up in
week one. But if you're Abdul Carter and those guys,

(42:20):
you're starting to feel pretty good about your opportunities, maybe
to make some hay there. conversely, if you're Matthew Stafford,
you're also saying it's the Giants, man. So we can
get after it. And if you're Miles Garrett in particular,
it's like, well, I know Jackson Dart's going to give
me an opportunity to make a play.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
But yeah, no, it's going to be a long week.
And Sean.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
John McVay doing a lot of humbling and humbling. That's
all fine and good and coach speak. And I'm glad
he said I didn't get him right because that was
the question I asked a while ago. How quickly will
he acknowledge that all the extra time you took before
you got on a flight.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Clearly didn't work.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
Another year, so looking forward to it. Can't wait.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
NFL on Fox, insider extraordinaire Jay Glazer. Jay, happy 2026
NFL season, man.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Welcome back.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
No doubt, man. You know, I'm really happy to be
back with you guys. But it's funny, I posted a
picture yesterday. I feel like I'm going to my first
day of school, and this is grade 34 for me.
I think I'm year.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
I'm.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
Year 24 with you guys. Do you know that? My
24th season with you guys. Wow.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yeah. Fox Radio.

Speaker 7 (43:41):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
And I know, and you still go all the, you
still remember when you started. You still remember year one.
You go back all the stories about you and Mike
Francesa and all this. Like, you still go all the
way back there.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
Yeah. Yeah, that was the 1991 NFL draft when I
was an intern at FRM Radio and I had to
take Mike Francesa to and from the bathroom so the
fans wouldn't bother me so he can get back in time.
And everybody always goes, what do you remember most about that?
I said, I took him to the bathroom. I took
a peek. I'm not going to lie. And they said,
what is that? I said, like he said, it's huge.

(44:12):
And then I talked to French and he goes, you're crazy.
I said, brother, you can't buy marketing like that.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
No, that is six figures worth right there.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
I hope he's given you a little bit of, you know,
part of his salary ever since then.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
He signed a lot of big contracts after that.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Are you kidding me? No doubt.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
All right, well, look, let's talk about this. Now, obviously,
the impact of it on the game, who knows? But
we just saw a great performance by the 49ers. The
Rams struggled. The difference in the 49ers being there for
a week, the Rams getting there, you know, just to
play the game and leaving.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Did you see anything in the game tonight that tells you, hey,
one strategy better than the other?

Speaker 4 (44:54):
Well, obviously everybody's going to say the Rams are flat and,
you know, they had the wrong strategy. I thought they
had the right one going on, to be honest with you.
I really did. Because it's like, you know, I saw
what the Niners were doing and they got out there.
I don't think they ever adjusted. I know guys were, like,
waking up still at 1 o'clock in the morning. And
I'm like, hey, the purpose is to, like, I'm sure
some guys did. But they're out there playing, like, you know, cricket,

(45:15):
this and that. And, you know, it felt like... it
felt like it was a, almost some of the stuff
you have to do for the Super Bowl that can
be exhausting, right? But obviously, I keep the summary, but obviously,
you know, with the Rams, it's like, all right, they
flew over Thursday night, right? They all slept on these planes,

(45:40):
which were insane. Like every seat was a, so the
plane they took, they both took over, the NFL gave
it to them. It was like a, new Airbus 380
for Qantas. The whole plane was double-decker, like upstairs and downstairs,
the entire plane. You usually see planes like this, right?
It's like just the front, like first class. And they
had like every sheet was a live flat sheet that

(46:02):
everybody had. And then there was like 14 first-class suites,
and both teams like put players up there and the
captains up there. But I think if– I look at
it like– If you and my teammates were fighting somewhere,
unless you're going to a high-altitude place, I want to
spend as much time home as I can, get out there,

(46:23):
sleep in somebody else's bed just one day and go. So,
you know, I got their strategy, but obviously it didn't
work for them.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
Yeah, unfortunately, the great game plan from Kyle Shanahan and
what the 49ers did will become the secondary story of
all this, Jay.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Yeah, hey, listen, not just Kyle, but Brock Purdy, man.
he's got to be the most underrated quarterback in this league.
It's almost like they paid him, but people are still waiting. Ah,
now he can't carry it. He's not that good. He's
that good. He's just unflappable. And like how much he
does with his legs and how he's played with pain,
but he's, man, he's a, he's underrated, but you're right.
Everything was the Rams of the superstar team.

Speaker 7 (47:04):
Right.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
And you shouldn't have, it shouldn't matter whether Aaron Donald's
there or not. Right. That's just carry on top. So you,
you put this team together for this. I, I, You know,
just knowing everybody over there. I really will highly doubt
that these teams are playing in the playoffs. They've been
through a lot of adversity at the Rams, and so

(47:25):
have the 49ers. And both teams know how to fight
through it pretty much better than anybody in the league.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
The thing that comes back to Jay is you're going
to see a lot of stat lines from this game.
And look, Brock Purdy had a big game and Matthew
Stafford's stat line was ugly. But I don't think something
anybody expected was Miles Garrett, no sacks, no quarterback hits,
no tackles.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
It's like Trent's.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
Like, oh yeah, you've been over there. come and play
over here and the NFC West like Trent Williams is
a bad man a bad man and like he's gonna
turn everything into a fight he gets his hands on
you it sucks if he gets moving right and he
hits you on contact it sucks and yeah he wore

(48:13):
malls out no doubt.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
Yeah, watching him go to work in those one-on-one situations,
something special. Happy returns also from injury for all these 49ers. Like,
I don't know what it looks like in Week 17,
but for tonight, all the old guys win. Fred Warner
is back from injury. DeBosa, surgically repaired.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
He's back. Greenlaw is back and had a big night. So,
big work from the D.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Kittle in. Don't forget about Kittle.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Of course.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
And it's funny. I kind of talked to somebody today
in the nonners. I'm like... Because they lost their defense tackle,
Alfred Collins, this week out there. Like a patella, it's terrible.
I'm like, I don't want to hear any more thing
about this substation thing. Because the substation is not in Australia.
There's something else going on there besides this conspiracy theory

(48:59):
with the substation. It's not that. There's something else. They
need to freaking figure out what it is. Because there's
just too many injuries.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Jay Glazer, our guest, the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. All right,
so we've seen two games now. We talked about Stafford
being off, the Rams being off. Who are you more
concerned about after seeing them play week one, the Rams
or the Patriots?

Speaker 4 (49:21):
I'm not concerned about anybody week one. When the Giants
won the Super Bowl in 07, straight in last year,
they gave up, go look at it, Steve Spagnuolo was
the defense coordinator. I think they gave up 48 a
game in the first two games. and they went on
to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. I just don't, like,
you got to remember, man, people don't hit the training camp.
It doesn't happen, right? So it's like the first four games,

(49:43):
I've told you guys this in the past, it's almost
like the first four weeks, and they don't do anything
in preseason. That's like camp for them now. And the
teams start rising up like week 10, you know? So
I'll say this, though. You know, I talked to Mike
McDonald this morning, and we were talking about, obviously, he
was pissed about a lot of the injuries. I mean,
you know, and things like that. I'm concerned about Sam. But, like, man, like,

(50:07):
as that game went on, and you guys know, I
always talk about the players I train in MMA and
the fighters, it's about, hey, like, we're just going to
be relentless, relentless, relentless, and wear you out. So the
last round, the last quarter, and you just keep coming
and coming and coming. Guys are like, get this dude
off of me. That's how they were. And, like, that
fourth quarter came, and they were sharpening their weapons. Let's go.

(50:29):
And I think... I don't have this. No one told
me this, but I know I would believe that Mike
Vrabel thought that too. Like, man, these guys are just,
they're getting after us in the fourth quarter. We don't
want to go to overtime. So let's throw it. Let's
not just go for three. Let's throw it. And we
don't want to, we don't want another, you know, another

(50:49):
period with these guys because they're just going to keep
getting after it. It was just really impressive to see
a team like that who did, they had injuries. I mean,
they lost their starting quarterback and five plays in. And,
The culture they have over there is a really, really
impressive culture. It's almost like they're so far away from
everybody else. We have nothing else to do except let's

(51:12):
all bond together. And I spent a lot of time
with the Seahawks, and that's how they act. They really do.
But every iteration of the Seahawks, they did it. The
Legion of Boom does it. All their Super Bowl teams
have all done that.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
So without Sam Darnold now, at least into Week 2 beyond,
you know, the way the defense played last night, I said,
I think they're going to be just fine without him.
Not nothing against Sam Darnold, but the defense plays like that,
I think they'll be okay with Drew Locke.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Well, I want people to think about this, too. They
have a new offensive coordinator, right? So, like, in camp
or in preseason, you know, Locke played, but did not
really run any plays that, you know, no game plan.
So these guys got to get to know each other.
In the middle of opening night against the defending AFC champions. That's...

(51:57):
And I think people just, ah, man, the professionals. No, man, that's...
That's really... What they did was... Really impressive. The offensive coordinator, right,
the backup quarterback, first-time offensive coordinator in there with these
guys that doesn't really know. They don't know each other's cadence,
what plays work, what plays don't work. Yeah, I mean, look,

(52:18):
now people have film on Drew and things like that, but,
you know, when you have a defensive like that, man,
and by the way, they still don't have Emmanuel back there.
They don't have their other safety back there. So they
couldn't run a lot of the defense that they normally would.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
He's on Twitter, at Jay Glazer. That is at Jay Glazer.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Check him out Sunday, NFL on Fox, week one, year
24 at Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Ready to go, Jay. We'll get it going. Have fun,
my friend.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
I can't wait. Love you guys.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Welcome back, buddy. All right, there goes Jay Glazer. Love
having him back. He's excited to be back. There's certain people.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
You know, fans who I talk to and everybody excited
about the NFL coming back. And then, you know, you
talk to people in the business like, yeah, NFL's back
and it's exciting, but you could just tell the excitement
level in his voice. Like I get to go be
with my guys again.

Speaker 7 (53:04):
Right.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
I get to go hang out with everybody. Like he says,
it's his family.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Right.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
When, when Jimmy Johnson retired, like that was a tough
thing for him. Like he goes, yeah, it's my family time.
It's this, I love it.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Like you could tell he, he's still all these years
in the business and, and he's still that excited to
go on and get ready to go week one, and
that's just fantastic.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
Boston chops with his guys, his driver Howie Long back for,
I mean, come on.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
We get the family back. His Uber driver, Uber driver
Howie Long. Yes, Uber driver. Uber driver. Again, five-star Uber
driver Howie Long.