September 6, 2025 • 45 mins
Gregg Rosenthal and Nick Shook join forces for a live edition of NFL Daily immediately following the Los Angeles Chargers' statement win over the Kansas City Chiefs in week 1 of the 2025 NFL regular season. The duo talks an impressive Bolts passing game, the Chiefs pass rush struggles, Xavier Worthy's injury implications and other AFC West-centric narratives from an action-packed Friday night in São Paulo, Brazil.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
First and ten from the twenty three slot left, single
man right, Herbert and the shotgun. Najie Harris is left.
Mconkey comes in motion from right to left. Herbert gets
the snap back to pass, sets his feet, rush coming,
lobs it down the middle, wide open Shotson at the
five in in the end zone, touchdown, Chargers second touchdown
catch tonight for Quentin Shotston and with five h two
(00:22):
to go, the Chargers lead twenty six eighteen.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That was justin Herbert finishing one of the best drives
of his life. I'm just gonna say it. You beat
the Chiefs in a primetime game in Brazil with an
eight for eight drive, and it's one of the best
drives of your life. The Chargers beat the Chiefs twenty
seven two twenty one. That was Ryan Radke on Westwood
(00:47):
one Radio. We've seen so many of these Chiefs Chargers
games nick over the years, and I can think of
the one five years ago with Travis Kelce running through
the SOFI second in overtime. But everyone feels the same.
It just feels like the Chargers are getting close. The
Chargers have the lead, and at some point in the
fourth quarter they're gonna blow it, and it felt like
(01:10):
this game was trending that way, except Greg Roman and
Justin Herbert got the ball back in the fourth quarter
in a tight game, and they stayed incredibly aggressive and
they made it look easy against this Chiefs defense like
they did most of the night. And what a way
to make this season twenty twenty five feel different right
off the jump for not just the Chargers but the
(01:33):
whole NFL. Having the Chiefs lose a tight game in
the division like this.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
The Chargers realized from the very first drive that they
were fully prepared.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
To attack this Chiefs defense.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
They knew that they didn't have much to fear beyond
some exotic blitzer that are typical Steve Spagnolo, and they
knew that they could throw on this secondary. So when
the time came for them to close this game out,
they said, screw it, We're not going conservative. We're gonna
rely on Justin Herbert's arm, and we're throwing all over
you because we know we're better than you.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
In that department.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It was deliciously disrespectful, and I loved it so much.
It's exactly what divisional rivalries are made of, and it's
peak entertainment for a Friday night on the opening week
at the NFL season.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yes, thank you everyone who is joining us on YouTube Live.
So obviously be our only Friday night game of the season,
but SHOOKI and I are gonna try to do this
every Monday night. You know, we love the NFL daily
listeners and viewers, and so come join us. And I
see someone in the comments already saying he's surprised Shookie's
not getting a Friday night pumpin. He's got too many
(02:32):
important things to do, like talks talk about Yeah, I mean,
it looks great. It always does. So one of the
things I love, not just from Greg Roman tonight and
justin Herbert, was that they stayed aggressive throughout because it
was what was working. And I mentioned that drive where
he's getting really good protection. But the Chiefs go back
(02:55):
right after that, and let's start at the end, and
they end up settling for a field from Harrison Bucker
with a little over two minutes remaining, after Mahomes pulls
off what was one of many just incredible mahomes in
plays in the final two and a half three quarters
of this game. He played outstanding tonight, but he hits
a fourth and seventeen, you know, deep down the field
(03:18):
on the run to potentially set up a touchdown that
would make the Charges feel very antsy, but instead they
settle for the field goal. The Charges get the ball
back with over two and a half minutes to go,
three timeouts for the Chiefs, and the conservative play caller
is absolutely running on first down or making a very
(03:38):
safe pass, and they call a play action and a
rollout where they had confidence in Justin Herbert. He hits
it on first down and he gets like one of
the most crucial plays of the game. Then on third
and long they have him drop back and he picks
it up as a scrambler. And the thing that stuck
(03:58):
out to me is not just that, like, of course
I believe Herbert can hit those plays, but that they
recognize the strength of their team. If Jim Harbaugh wants
to take Justin Herbert to the Hall of Fame, shock,
you gotta let him run the show. So we heard
all this stuff about this gotta be a run first team.
They weren't a run first team a year ago. And
I don't think they're necessarily gotta be won this year. Either.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
No, I mean, you get that kind of stereotype because
Greg Roman's your offensive coordinator, but he got completely out
of what you know how he's identified, which this is
a run first guy, and just decided to throw and
he used he used the anticipation of them being a
run first team, like I said earlier in this game
and throughout this game, and he also used it to
give Trey Pipkins the right tackle a little bit of
a break because there were periods in this game in
(04:38):
which George Carloftis was destroying him and Carloftis was blowing
up multiple plays where you know Herbert would drop back
and instantly get forced out of the pocket and have
to make plays on the run. But that's the beauty
of having Justin Herbert as your quarterback and not a
replacement level guy, not even a Dalton level guy, because
he's gonna go make those plays.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And the last play was the perfect example of it.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Scrambling right, got to get the first down to finish
the game, tons of room to run, no worries, slides
down in bounds, just completes a fantastic, complete performance from
a Chargers team that needed us with the didn't beat
the Chiefs since twenty twenty one it's been almost four
full years. It was late September of twenty twenty one.
They've finally done it.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That is a crazy stack because so many of these
games were awesome. I weirdly think of this as one
of the best rivalries in the NFL. And you can
tell me that it's not a rivalry when it's that
one sided, but when they are so important in each
other's lives, even if one is the little brother and
one is the three time world champion like big brother,
(05:39):
they're the team the Chargers that the Chiefs have to
get past in the division year after year. So to me,
it does feel like a rivalry, even if it's a
little Serena Williams versus Maria Sharapova. I always feel like
the Chiefs bring out the good stuff for the Chargers,
and it felt like they tried to. When the Chiefs
ended that first half with the field goal, got it,
you know, closer within a touchdown. The Chargers made some
(06:01):
mental mistakes, and the Chargers then give up a touchdown
after a three and out to start the second half.
Didn't you just feel like this was going to be
like the same story all over again.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
As soon as Patrick Mahomes scrambled and got the ball
across the pylon. I was like, oh no, And it
was the visions of Travis Kelcey running through the so
far secondary as you said, we're running through my head.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
As soon as he crossed the goal line for that touchdown,
I was just like, oh no.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
The Chargers are about to start charging. They're setting themselves
up for heartbreak, and they did it. And that's why,
even though it's only week one, this is a type
of wind that can propel you through an entire season
because it inspires hope and belief in your coach and
your staff and your organization, what you're doing, the culture
that you're building.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We can beat these guys.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Now, there are problems with the Chiefs that we are
going to get into that allowed the Chargers to find success,
But that doesn't matter. You saw those guys in red
and white, the guys that you can't beat. That's Goliath.
You're David, or at least in your mind you are. Tonight,
you hit that slingshot rock right between the eyes and
we're able to take down the giant big for them.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, I want I want to get into first the
slow start for the Chiefs offense, the Xavier Worthy injury,
just how disjointed the offense looked for a while, and
in the problems that I see on defense. But I
think you're right to stay on the Chargers. I'm going
to ask you to start here, like, what about this
offense other than Herbert being sharp? And I think if
(07:21):
there's one problem with Herbert, you know, his accuracy can
sometimes wane a little bit for a truly elite quarterback. Now,
he had great protection for the most part tonight, and
I think that helped him. But he was very accurate.
Other than one missed potential touchdown to McConkie. He was
really right on the money. A couple drops would have
made his night look better. But outside of Herbert, when
(07:43):
you're talking about the schematics or maybe the receiver group,
what stood out to you.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was very impressed by Joel making the switch from
right to left side after they lost for Shaun Slater.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
He looked like a complete natural there. He was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I'm a little worried about pickins, but that's what you
get from a guy that you have to call and
pull into the starting lineup when you lose your actual
starting right tackle. So that's fine, But I like that
Omrion Hampton's a dude. He's got the juice. He talked
about it in preseasons. Sometimes you can see off these
running backs they just got the juice. He's got the juice.
You can see why he was the first round pick.
I actually really like the way that their backfield is
set up with him as the lead guy. Keenan Allen
(08:18):
makes that receiving corps way better than we thought it was.
This is a core that we were worried about. We
were focusing on Trey Harris and ken Quintin Johnson make plays.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
He made plays, he'd come a couple of touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean, all the guys contributed tonight. We had ty
Conklin making a big catch. Fumbled the ball, but he
made a huge catch early in this game. I really
liked what they've built in this offense. They're much better,
again only one game than I anticipated from them offensive
because they're more balanced.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
They're not just that ground game.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
They have weapons outside, and I'm really excited to see
where they can take this this year.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, guys are open. That really stood out, and I
do think the Chiefs secondary played a part in that.
I don't think they have enough guys. But yeah, it
was Will Disley, by the way, who caught that late
first down that helped them kill the clock. You mentioned
the play by Conklin where he fumbles. That was one
of the mistakes that they made because even though they
(09:09):
got the ball back, McConkie had to hit the ball
out of bounds to keep the ball and then they
have a penalty and they're behind the sticks. And there
were a lot of plays like that. But you mentioned
Keenan Allen. I am surprised. So ten targets, seven catches,
sixty eight yards and a touchdown. I just did not expect,
based on last season in Chicago, for this Keenan Allen
(09:33):
thing to work that well. And I definitely was watching
where they were using him versus McConkie, and they were
moving him back and forth. I think it was probably
more mconkee in the slot, which makes sense to me
because he's really your number one receiver, and he had
a nice night. Six for seventy four would have been
about seven for one to ten if Herbert had hit
him on that touch that pass. But man Allen in
(09:54):
the second half had so many plays, including the touchdown
where Herbert knew exactly where he was going to be.
The scheme and the route basically got him open. He's
the third receiver now because Quinton Johnson who had a
really nice night five for seventy nine and two touchdowns
and a drop of a touchdown, which Quinton Johnson will do.
Like they're getting more attention, I think, and I'm impressed,
(10:17):
like Trey Harris who had a nice catch and ran
a couple nice routes like he was barely on the
field five or six snaps for him. So Keenan Allen
is actually gonna matter in twenty twenty five. And you
know what's cool, Nick, he actually could be the all
time leading Chargers receiver franchise history. I think he went
into tonight with fifty three for the season that he
(10:38):
needed and I thought, I don't know if he's catching
fifty three passes. Well, he caught seven tonight, so he
just took a pretty big chunk off. He only needs
forty six to go. That would be an amazing story
if Keenan Allen got that.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, and especially if they continue to maintain this balance,
and I think that they will because they have the
personnel to do it because then defenses can't focus on
one or two guys. And just Allen's addition in general
takes the was a little bit away from Lad McCaughey,
which allows him to be more dangerous as well. So yeah,
I'm a big fan of what they have overall in
this entire group. And we haven't even talked about their
defense because they had a couple of standout guys. Talk
about all right, I'm gonna talk about right now with
(11:11):
tier Tart maybe or maybe shouldn't have gotten ejected, but
through a bit of a slap at Travis Kelcey comes
back and just starts slapping at the ball. I mean
it was just every time a ball got batted down,
Tier Tart, tier Tart throwing a hand out there, knocking
it down. He might have had more pass breakups than
than the leading defensive back or linebacker on this defense.
That's how much of a difference he made. He was
(11:32):
constantly and Patrick Mahomes throwing windows and interrupted a lot
of key players, including their two point conversion attempt in
an incredible game. Diane Henley was all over the field.
We know we started talking about this last year. The
Chargers really like this Henley guy. Well, now we obviously
see why he's a monster of a linebacker. So I
you know, Khalil Mack I think got out of position
a couple of times, but closed pretty well, pretty strongly
(11:54):
in this game as well. So they're not the On paper,
they're not the strongest defense. That would be a slight
conscer for them. But man, they played tonight. They played
really hard.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah. I was a little worried about the interior of
their defensive line after losing Puna Ford, but they kept Tart,
who was another great pick up, kind of off the
scrap he'd He was literally released last year, I believe
by the Titans. I mean he has bounced around a
couple of places. He was very lucky not to get
kicked out of the game. Why is an open hand
(12:24):
slap uh not something you throw the guy out here,
but a punch is because opening slop would hurt more, right, Yes,
I mean it would.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
History, it's root in football history because they had to
outlaw the head slap, which used to be a defensive move.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
That was Deacon Jones great move.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
So I don't know, I'm just I'm just.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I don't even know if that's like a real thing,
And uh yeah, I think it all depends. But they
were lucky that they kept him in there. And I
thought they did a really good job stopping the run.
And then I look and actually the Chiefs had like
a fifty five percent design success rate on runs. And
I was like, oh, well, why why did the Chiefs,
you know, struggle, I need the ball so much? Why
didn't they have a number just because they didn't try?
I mean they had eleven rushing attempts tonight and Pacheko
(13:05):
goes five for fifty five for the second straight night.
The Super Bowl quarterback from a year ago it was
Jalen Hurts. Last night it was Patrick Mahomes. Tonight was
the leading rusher in the entire game, six for fifty seven.
So we came into the season here in like, oh,
the run game's back, the run games back. I'm sure
it will be back at some point, but literally, Jalen
(13:25):
Hurts and Patrick Mahomes led each of these games with
like fifty seven in sixty two yards. We got some
comments in YouTube, and let's throw up one from a
little charger gunn charger. I do like that if you
think about and this was from Tomato the crab Chargers
are gonna charger. That's tired. Wired chargers are going to
(13:46):
charger with a couple exclamation points. I don't know. I
don't know if I'm ready to, you know, give up
decades of horror. But it is year two.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Hard died that quickly.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It is it is year two under Jim Harbaugh. And
they come out and this game shook, and they get
up ten to nothing quickly, and they just looked so
much more prepared and bigger and tougher than the Chiefs.
I did start like immediately I started overreacting and thinking like, oh, yeah, Harbaugh,
year two, these are going to be some tough, you know, tough,
(14:21):
tough mfors. I wouldn't want to have to play them.
And I do think there's going to be a separation
in the AFC between the haves and the have nots.
And I do think the Chargers have enough talent to
be part of the halves.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, you know, it was actually indicative. It was pretty
obvious to me way back on that start of August
the Hall of Fame game when they played against the Lions.
In that game, they just looked like a professional group.
They executed well, they weren't sloppy. They knew where they
were supposed to be, no matter whether it was the
backups in there, the third stringers. I mean, they just
(14:57):
looked like a team that was well coached, and we
saw it again tonight.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Not only were they well coached, but they had a
great game plan. Like I know I've talked about that already.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
But they were so prepared for this game, both in personnel,
in how they wanted to approach the game, and how
they ultimately executed it. It's rare that a team comes
into a game against the Chiefs safe for last year's
Super Bowl and it seems like one team was more
prepared than the chief and that's what I felt like
the Chargers were tonight.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It's kind of crazy, though, Shuck, because they run like
the hardest training camp in the league in terms of
long practices, a lot of not tackling to the ground,
although like a little bit of that, but more like
actual hitting in practice. They play more in the preseason,
and so the idea behind that, I think is to
condition you for the entire season. But yeah, usually you
(15:45):
start fast. The Chargers aren't a team that play a
lot in the preseason necessarily but they come out this
year and they did for the first time with Justin Herbert,
and maybe it paid off. I love the moment and
this is and let's go back to the end of
the first half. So Marian Hampton, who you're right, I
(16:06):
think looked good, shook The numbers weren't overwhelming fifteen for
forty eight on the ground. He also had a couple
of catches, but I agree that he passed the eye
test and I think look good. But at the end
of the first half, they had a chance to essentially
run the clock down to about thirteen seconds or so
and then kick a field goal to go up ten
going into half, but he runs out of bound with
(16:27):
maybe a questionable play call. And you see Marshawn Lynch,
who is credited as a photographer at an NFL game
in Brazil that's being played on a Friday night on YouTube,
going over to the young man Amari and Hampton, twenty
two years old, and counseling him with the usual like
(16:49):
NFL media, you know, photographer vest that like usually our
friend Benn is wearing out on the sidelines, and I
was just thinking, like, wow, what is happening right now?
This is absolutely wild. And then it got even wild
there because Mahomes hits his first deep throw of the
night right after that, and Taekwon Thornton makes a nice,
(17:12):
nice catch, and that is when one of the best
fire drill field goals has ever happened. We do have this.
Let's listen to the fire drill field goal. I'm testing
Chris Babona here, has he got it ready? Let's go.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Folds takes the snap back to pass, looks right, throws right.
Noah Gray with a catch and he's run out of bounds.
They're gonna wind the clock nine seconds. It's fourth down.
The Chiefs can't spike it. They're gonna run the field
goal team out four seconds down to three seconds, down
to two seconds. Can they get the snap off? They do,
Bucker drives the kick. It is end over ready, it
(17:50):
is god Son the left up right.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
That is laughter in the west Wood One studio. I
believe that is for Chief Dante Hall, who's laughed that
you hear on Aspect while it's Ryan Radke on the call.
Great job, by the way, you're you're a radio announcer
and you get the trip to Brazil for that. What
did you think watching that? That was a pretty amazing
sequence that I thought was gonna be like the play
that changed the entire game.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, okay, First off, I think this is the greatest
fire drill in the history of football. You don wow,
but I do think it was the greatest fire drill
in the history of football because him getting pushed out
of it no great getting push out of bounds going backward.
You know, you see him go out of bounds. So
there's an opportunity for a second or two for everybody
in the side of and go okay, the clock stop.
And then they realized, oh god, the clock has not stopped.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Get on the field.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
It's chaos, Like it looked like chaos on TV. They
all get in line and set up properly, no mistakes
in alignment, none of.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
That, and they get the kickoff. They don't allow it
to get blocked. That's the first part.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
The second part, and I'm so glad that Dante Hall's
in the booth, the man known as the X factor, right,
because the X factor on this play was the guy
on the right side of the line who ran in
rubbing his jersey to follow the rules that he's designated
as an eligible re Dan Skipper didn't do that one time.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
We know how that went for the Lions.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
He goes in there, designates himself as the eligible receiver.
Obviously he's not running a route, but that allows them
to get that off with no issues. It is so
difficult to pull that off. You have to be prepared,
you have to know, oh, we don't have any timeouts,
and this is possible. But the fact that he went
out of bounds made it even more complicated, and they
pulled it off lawlessly.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I love some of the comments we're getting now, and
I think it's a good, good one saying only Andy
Reid would be prepared for that. And this was one
of those nights that you thought, just they're gonna figure
it out somehow. Margins, and let's go back a little
bit to the beginning of the game. Mahomes get hit
quite a bit early. I mean he got hit the
entire game. He was looking for contact throughout the night,
(19:44):
including on a play where he lowered his shoulder on
Dante Jackson from the Chargers and sent them flying like
he was delivering punishment. Once he got going in this game,
it was almost like he was so angry about how
it started and how it started was just a avocade
of poor timing, mental errors, guys not being on the
(20:06):
same page, just not being in sync, all stemming from
a play. I think it was the first play from
scrimmage right shook where where Axavier Worthy got hurt or
was it the second Either way, it was right.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
It was the third play.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
It was a third down Okay, it was a third
down concept and he got drilled by Travis Kelcey.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Right, Derwin James kind of bumps, Travis Kelcey disrupts the
timing of the play. Kelsey essentially tackles Worthy and Worthy
is knocked out for the game. Was in a lot
of pain. We have to find out how serious that
injury will be. And the word was how that Worthy
was going to be a huge part of their game
plan tonight. And I think that said them scrambling shok
(20:45):
because early in this game, Mahomes was at one point,
I think three of nine for like twenty three yards.
He was ten of seventeen for fifty seven yards. His
like average depth of target was behind him. Essentially it
was like two or three yards in front of him.
Anytime they tried to go down the field. That wasn't working.
At one point, they had nine targets to Hollywood Brown
and he had sixteen yards. He had a bad drop
(21:07):
during that, and I'm just thinking, oh my gosh, this
is the worst possible start. And it reminded me a
lot of Thursday Night too, with Jalen Carter getting knocked
out like right away, a really key piece getting knocked out,
and they just didn't seem prepared for it.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, that was one of the notes I took. I
think in the second quarter was, oh my god, Xavier
really must have been a key part of their game
plan because they are absolutely.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Just lost for what to do offensively.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I think at one point there was a botch snap
where Mahomes like falls down to pick it up and
just like flips it out on what was intended to
be a bubble screen, and it's a play that goes
for basically nothing. They just look disjointed, and I think
that kind of set that tone for them and also
kind of put them behind the eight ball, because the
Chargers were very prepared and executed, and sudden they look
at the scoreboard and they're trailing. But this is also
(21:49):
why we got the same feeling in the second half,
which is that the Chiefs are going to find a
way to come back and win this game, and they're
going to break the Chargers' hearts again because this is
a team that you have to absolutely put away. They
are essentially the end. Take your rising out of the coffin,
like this is just who they are. They're too good
to just have some mistakes completely blow up what they're
going to do. Over the course of four quarters. They
fight their way back. And I was thinking in the
(22:09):
late in the first half, they just got to get
to halftime. They got to crime down and get reorganized.
And also, Chargers, you cannot give them time, even less
than a minute to have an opportunity to put points
on the board because they're gonna do it. That's just
what they do and that's ultimately what they did. So
kudos to the Chargers for holding them off in the
second half.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Absolutely agree that the Chiefs looked very disjointed because where
they got knocked out early.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I mean, they had to get the halftime, but I
was a little worried like they would get distracted. We
have a comment from one of the watchers here who
was saying, Nick looks nothing like he thought he did.
I mean, we talk about what he looks like, but
I hear you you never quite know until you meet someone.
It was like when I managed the former guy Evan
Silva at rode a World and now his great work
(22:53):
with Established the Run, and I first met him and
he was about like fourteen inches taller than me. I
was like, man, I wouldn't have been as tough on
you over the last like nine months. But that was
that was back in the day when you just boss
people around on an instant message and text.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
But the fun thing too, and this is beneficial to you, Greg,
is that we're in two boxes across the country right
now because you only see me from the shoulders.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I mean, you're you're a lover, not a fighter anyways.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Uh, that's true.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Unlike yeah, unlike these teams today, which was it was spicy,
like I know, they had to get to halftime and
I think that taekwon Thornton catch before halftime, you know,
let them loosen up a little bit. But when they
went on that long drive where they kicked a field
goal to finally get some scoring, and it was just
dinks and dunks and it was juju and Kelsey had
(23:43):
not been seen like at all, and like the running
game was pretty lackluster and it was mostly just Mahomes
taking charge in scrambling. I'm thinking they talked all off
season about we want to be a big playoffense, we
want to be different than the Chiefs, we want to
be fun to watch again, and they tried that for
two or three drives and it did not work at all.
(24:04):
They lose worthy, Mahomes is getting hit, they try, They
forced a couple of shots down the field that don't work,
and it felt like midway through the second quarter it
was just like, oh man, we need to go back
to what we actually know what to do, which is
really not that fun to watch. But as the game
wore along, Patrick Mahomes started doing things like throwing while
mid air, levitating over the scrimmage line while completing a pass.
(24:29):
It's just like, we're getting so used to this, it
is ridiculous, Like what he is making us get used
to He's.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I think any other quarterback in the NFL does that,
and I'm going to social media to comment on it,
But because Patrick Mahomes did it, it's just like, yeah,
that's what he does, and you know, we talked about
how we felt like they were gonna come back, right,
they were gonna win this game. When he hit that
pass to Travis Kelsey, which was the product of great
play design by the way, basically faking a bubble screen.
They used a ton of motion to try to create
(24:55):
some mismatches and confuse the defense and get him disorganized.
They faked the bubble screen, Kelsey acts as if he's
going to block and then leaks out down the sideline.
When they hit that pass, I was like, Oh, that's
the one. That's the one that breaks open the damn
here it comes. And again it didn't happen. But they
still have that in them. They still do have the
big play in them.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Uh. Oh, if you're gonna mention it, let's let's get
the call. Uh. First to comment, Triple G much love,
how do you feel about Worthy's durability going forward knowing
that they're missing Rashi Rice for five more weeks. It's
a great point because there was a Super Bowl rematch
on the docket against the Eagles next week, and I
even the Kansas City Chiefs do not want to start
the season oh and two, especially not against the Chargers
(25:38):
and the Eagles just like two teams that are so
I believe in important to them, and I think Xavier
Worthy is really important to them because I love that
they're turning Taekwan Thornton's career round. But he's not Xavier Worthy,
and this offense just lacks explosiveness unless you know Travis
Kelcey said this offseason, He's trying to get a little
(25:58):
faster and I'm touchdown. Granted he was wide open. I
did think he looked a little faster. Let's listen from
the Los Angeles thirty seven mahomes with pressure.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Final run out to Kelsey, Travis Kelsey touchdown.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Thirty seven yards. Twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Mahomes to Kelsey strikes again against the.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Chargers, one of the longest touchdowns Kelsey has had in years.
It was the longest for a long time, only two
catches tonight for forty seven yards, and it was a
reminder not that he looked incredibly fast on that play,
and he actually had a costly miscommunication near the goal
line on the Chief's final drive where they would have
(26:49):
made the Chargers really sweat, but Kelsey slowed down while
they were improvising, so a rare time that him and
Mahomes was not on the same page. But is this
a reminder man, they will come up with solutions nick
schematically that not many teams can because Derwin James fell
so hard for that fake on that play. I mean
he just bit and was nowhere near it. And they
(27:11):
were absolutely attacking Troy Dye, who was in as the
second linebacker because Denzel Perriman for the Chargers got out.
So that's Kelsey and Mahomes, but especially Andy Reid kind
of putting a circle a target on a guy's back
and figuring out where their weaknesses is. And in the end,
their offense was playing well by the end of this game,
(27:32):
Like the second half of this game, they mostly did
what they wanted.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, I just took them too long to find their rhythm.
And you can't blame Derwin James for budding on that,
by the way, because how many times you're gonna get
poked the nose by somebody before you decide, all right,
I'm gonna react, I'm gonna block this, and right when
you go to block it, they punch you in the gut.
That's essentially what they did here, is that, all right,
we're playing the flats we're playing the flats. We're playing
the short game because we know we can't go down
the field to save for you know, just a one
off here and there. Oh, now we're gonna take the shot,
(27:57):
and now we're gonna get within you know, an extra
pointer or a two point conversion of tying this game.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
I mean, that's just that's what they do. And that's
the genius of Andy Reid.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Again, that's why you have to put them away when
you can, and luckily the Chargers did do that tonight.
But Greg, I think at some point, yes, we have
to have a discussion about this. Chiefs defense lead the
way yet shredded. They got shredded by Justin Herbert. And
I hate to say it, but Chris Jones didn't feel
like much of a factor in the interior, which is
a credit to the Chargers interior offensive line and outside
(28:29):
of carloft Is beating Pipkins, I mean, Spags in the
second half pulled a Matt Ebraflus from last night, which
is all right. I don't know what else to do,
so I'm just gonna start sending Blitz's NonStop and they
actually got some stops that way. They send Tranquil on
a blitz off the EDG. He shoots through the b gap,
gets a sack. They send, you know, a number of
different pressure looks. I mean, most of the second half
they're sending zero blitzes. They're setting different types of pressure
(28:51):
like that. That's the only way they could manufacture. And
if the Chargers had an answer for it, I am
gravely concerned. And that is super hyperbolic at this point,
and I acknowledge that, but I am gravely concerned that
they simply don't have the personnel to make up for
this and to patch things up, and that this is
going to have to be their identity, which then makes
them easier to game plan against. And we saw it
in that final drive when there was even that one
pass where Herbert just ran backward because he knew the
(29:13):
blitz was coming, just to buy himself some time and
find a guy open.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
That's a huge tell. That's a major weakness over the
course of a long season.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, I I do wonder if they're just sort a
body or two in the seconsive line in the secondary
both both places, because you know the numbers. I hear,
you are not feeling Chris Jones, and so that's why
I'm looking for the numbers as you're talking. You know,
he did have three pressures in this game. One quick
pressure pressures can be a little misleading. Was double teams
(29:43):
obviously a lot. Carl Loftis had four, and they did
blitz Drew Tranquil quite a bit and he got near
to the quarterback. But it's just that's even not enough.
I know you'll get better games out of Chris Jones,
but you just can't have two guys. And Carloftis is good,
but he's not great. If it's a huge all off
where everyone else on the line are losing their battles,
(30:04):
that's not a winning formula. Look, I wonder too, and
Jalen Watson made a nice play in this game. You
know there were there are players that they can trust
in the back end, but they have guys like Shamari
Corner playing a decent amount at safety who was not
good for them a year ago. And really the secondary
(30:26):
losing Eric Reid Jordan Reid rather to me, could be
a guy that they end up missing quite a bit.
So I just I just feel like both groups are
just a little thin in a way that I think
the offense is gonna need to be better this year
because I think the defense is gonna be worse.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I felt like the Reid departure was gonna, you know,
resonate in this coming season, and I hate that. I
was right in Week one because again, if you're gonna
be the Spags defense, which sends pressure at good times
to get these big game changing plays, you have to
be able to stand up and be strong enough on
the back end on other plays and like get them
in those situations where it's third long and they need
(31:03):
longer dropbacks, they need longer developing plays than you can
get after them with pressure. If you're never in that situation,
it's a bad formula. So I mean, he gives guys
the course of a season to figure it out and improve,
and you know, you might get stronger there, but in
the second half of the season or whatever it is.
But just overreaction week, which is Week one, I'm very
concerned about this defense.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, Shamart Connor sixty one snaps basically played the entire game,
so did Jalen Watson. They did get Christian Fulton on
the field for a little bit of this game, and
he's someone who I think is going to be a
full time player, but he's coming off an injury, so
sometimes early in the season, like you know, you don't
have everyone quite ready yet. And I didn't really realize
(31:42):
it until I looked at the game log right now.
I mean the Chiefs offense after those first three punts
on very quick drives went field goal, field goal, touchdown, touchdown,
field goal. This was not This was not a dry
game with many drives at all. In the Chargers just
matched them. The last three possessions they have were both touchdown,
(32:05):
were touchdown drives and then running out the clock. So
it basically was the Chargers winning kind of in an
old school Chief's way, which is like get a little
bit of a lead and then you just keep scoring.
You can keep giving up points, but you can keep scoring.
Let's throw that comment up. I appreciate you, Winthrop noticing
(32:27):
we got hundreds of people watching. I love that after
a game, and it's going to give us some win
in our sales to keep doing this. On Monday night,
noticing over three hundred people watching but only thirty three likes,
So smatch the likes that will help us out to
grow this, like subscribe, do all the thing. It is
kind of crazy though. The Chargers didn't have Rashaan Slater
(32:47):
in this game, Like, they played that well without Rashaun
Slater and they're not going to get him back this year,
and that's it's gonna be a what f all year.
But their offensive line played really well. I don't know
if that was because of the opposition, But what do
you think about them overall moving forward, Like, do you
think they'll be good enough?
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well, I think the start of the game it was.
It was the game plan, the script. The opening strip
was fantastic, a lot of play action, booting to the right,
that sort of thing, getting the flow to the left
and running away from it, buying Herbert time to find guys.
And usually in those situations when they're run committing, you know,
first read step is a run and then you have
to double back and cover the past you've given up
a step or two on a receiver. And that's why
Herbert was able to find guys open early in those drives.
(33:26):
And then in the second half it was it was
a bit of a chess match, but it was also
a team that had a lot of confidence behind that
they can continue to throw the football because they knew
that their passing game was superior to what the Chiefs
were bringing in the secondary. And again, if they knew
that the blitz is coming, they could call their plays accordingly.
Give yourself a hot you know, tell Herbert, Hey, they're
gonna blitz everybody here, and you better just back up
and get the ball out. It's it was an example
(33:48):
of game flow, I think, more than anything. But it
started up front where they appeared to be much better
even without you know, having your typical well your right
tackle was playing left tackle available at your disposal. And
and I don't think it's gonna to be that lopsided
from week to week because once that tape gets out there,
you're gonna have to adjust. Sometimes your scripts aren't going
to be as effective. But it's an encouraging sign.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
For this team.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I know we're gonna be wrapping up pretty soon, but
there's there's a few things I do want to get
to while we're on offensive line play. Was texting with
our friend Steve Weisch and he was noted. He thought
left guard was really a problem for the Chiefs. Kingsley
Sue Mattea, who was a guy who had to be
moved inside to replace, you know, help replace Joe Toney
(34:30):
who got traded away and he struggled in this game
and he was a problem. They're right tackle. Juwan Taylor
kind of has been a problem. Didn't have a great night.
I don't think, definitely had penalties. Josh Simmons, who I
thought for the most part looked good as far as
I could tell, But he had penalties in this game,
so you know that'll happen to a rookie. I do
(34:52):
think there was like a mental error on one play
with him where I don't think he knew what the
play was, knew who to block, and he gave up
a free rusher. But for the most I thought he
was fine. But that that's a little concerning for their
offensive line. If if left guard is a problem, they
could potentially move Jewan Taylor in there.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
God, because then what's your optional right tackle. We have
talked about how Juwan Taylor.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
I meant Jalen Moore, by the way, the pick that.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Is very much on the table. Ye, I would not
at all be shocked if he ends up. I mean,
they're paying fifteen million dollars a year, and if kings Assumati,
who struggled to tackle last year and is struggling at
guard now is not doing the job. They will make
that change. You knew what Jwan Taylor was. He makes
too much money for how he plays, and you know
that he's good for a false starter or two.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
In a game he got drilled for a holding call.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
It's just who he is. And but on the left
side justins. I thought he had a bit in an
up and down game early on. He was really solid.
He was doing a really good job. He had a
great block on draw. I think it was a hand
off the Pacheco approaching the red zone where he just
basically baits.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
That doesn't bait.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
But like basically the technique is on the draw, you
take a pass set and then you get the guy.
Let the guy get on your outside shoulder and throw
him back.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
We need some sort of sound effect when Shook really
gets into the football of Ohio. Apologize for interrupting. You
keep going. I just need it. I love it, I
love it.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Oh actually no, So you you essentially take a pass
and then you throw the guy back, which then creates
the running lane, which is exactly what happened. He threw
Mac back out of position, gives up his running lane,
Pacheco darts through the left side for a big game
to get inside the red zone, and I was like,
that is a hell of a play against, you know,
a veteran but still an upper tier edge rusher. That's
the good of Josh Simmons. The bad of Josh Simmons
(36:37):
was late in this game where he got he just
flat out got beat a couple of times, a couple
of times where he would engage the defender, got his
hands knocked off and then fell forward a bit of
a leaner in those situations. Those are things he's gonna
have to improve and clean up. So it wasn't one
hundred percent good. It wasn't terrible.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Just up and down.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
That's what you get from a rookie making its first
start at left tackle in a primetime setting in Brazil,
by the way, which is that adds the trip itself,
adds to the adversity and the challenge of this start.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
But not as good as I.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Think I would have expected, given the vibes that were
following him from training camp.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
But also wasn't bad.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, wasn't wasn't bad. Justin t says, weak ones always
an outlie. I remember how the Saints started last year
believe in the Charges, but let's take it one week
out of type. I hear that in week one, Week two,
week three. It's all really just a warm up for
the season. It's not extended preseason, but it's just rounding
into shape for the games that matter. Think about what
(37:31):
the Eagles looked like last September. They're just figuring out.
I totally agree. The only thing I would push back
on a little is division games matter no matter where
they are, just for the reality when you really do
believe in the teams and the quarterbacks. I just think
these two teams and these two coaches are too good
not to be in the mix in December. And for
(37:52):
the Chargers to already have clinched like a split at worse,
and to have a chance to now sweep the Chiefs,
that alone is massive. Not only you know, the confidence
that they'll get, I'm also getting some comments that I
look tired or something. I mean that, yeah, Daddy's got
to go to bed. I mean it's it's nine pm
on the West Coast. I'm fine. It has been a
long week, and you know, I'm looking at the Cup.
(38:14):
We're doing lots of things. I'm checking the stats. You
mentioned the two point conversion which was so big. You know,
after the Kelsea touchdown that they stopped the Tierra tarp play.
They only were going for two because Harrison Bucker missed
an extra point. That was kind of how this game
if you really look at it from a Chiefs perspective,
they started to look like they started to charger some
(38:35):
things like that was their original sin. Was the Harrison
Bucker extra point miss.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Yeah, that's actually absolutely what it was, because if they
I think it took a little bit of the energy
out of them. Yeah, if you're out of the fact
that they were, you know, overtaking the momentum battle.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Whether momentum is real or not. We'll get into that.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Later, but it like they were going to tie the game,
and that okay, Also, that's a new ball game. Oh no, wait,
we're still down by one. We still have work to do.
The Chargers score, they go up a eight. We got
to convert the two.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
You don't get it. The Chargers score again. They're up
by nine. Now we need two possessions to potentially win
this game. A tie is essentially out of the equation.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yeah, that had a huge impact on that game and really,
I think to find a lot of the way the
game flowed in the second half. But you know what,
greg I do now that we have two games in
two primetime games okay on two shows and everything, we
are so fortunate to have seen four teams play with
four quarterbacks who all played really well, who all tried
(39:31):
to put the team on their back. Granted, not all
four teams can win, but I mean for a first
couple of games to start a season when teams, some
teams start slow and they're still working.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Out the kinks.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
We got some great performances from Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott,
Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Herbert.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
It was week one ish, like, it doesn't shock me
that these were week one games, but I was thinking
the same thing that they were relatively crisp games. Cross
your fingers. And it's hard to say that when Ze
you're worthy left with the shoulder injury and everything, But
sometimes in these week one games, it's like carnage of
injuries right away. And Ben van sumer and got hurt
(40:08):
last night. I'm not saying no one got hurt, but
it wasn't out of the ordinary. I was thinking it
was pretty healthy it was pretty clean. It looked like good,
like professional football. And it makes sense because you put,
you know, four teams that you know, Cowboys accepted, you know,
but they have a quarterback that that's excellent. But four
teams I also think that that are run well and
I think Brian Schottenheimer and their offense. When I watched
(40:29):
that film today, I thought it was pretty good. Mikyle
Stanbury said Chiefs killed a lot of folks with survivor
picks this week. Happy about that myself. I mean, if
you took the Chiefs, that to me was a pretty
bold pick. I I mean, I took the Chiefs to win,
but I would never have taken them as my survivor pick.
A couple last things, two games in the kickoff is
(40:52):
totally different this year. It is a thing. I need
to check the numbers. But the field position I feel
like has changed to the negative. I don't even know
if NFL will like this so far, if it somehow continued,
because they're nailing hitting these line drive kicks and it's
a lot of drive starting below the thirty, below the
twenty five. It's absolutely been a difference. Just something to watch.
(41:14):
And then the fourth downs in this game shook in
the first half, especially, I mean Jim Harbaugh Old School
went for fourth and one at his own thirty five
yard line and Hampton picked it up with a big
run and they ended up scoring on that drive. And
Andy Reid went for I think it was a fourth
and two was it on his side? Maybe it was
(41:36):
like the forty one yard line, forty three yard line
and got it too. And now we're just so used
to this. You know, when Bill Belichick did it against
the Colts in whatever year that was two thousand and
nine or something like that, it's like we spent twelve
days talking about it, like seventeen straight hours on Sports Center.
It was like the craziest thing ever that Bill Belichick
(41:58):
went for it in his own end against Peyton Manning
because he didn't trust his defense or whatever. And that
was like in the fourth quarter when there wasn't much
time left. They're doing this in the second quarter. No
one's even noticing anymore. It's great, like we won the
fourth down. It happened, and like football's better, there's more
points because of it.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
It's amazing, And you know what that is, that's the
lasting legacy of Brandon Staley.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Right, Yeah, he he walked, so Jim Harbaugh could could
run like everything else didn't go well for him, but no, yeah, yeah,
the commenters are liking the new kickoff. I totally agree.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
And one big return, the opening return was pretty big.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, And I do think because there's more kicks, there
will be more kick like good kick returns too, But
just the odds are that's not going to happen like
too often, and it's just part of it. Really feels
like it's been part of the game, which is very exciting.
Last thing I got is just on that touchdown that
was wide open. I think it was the second Quinton
(42:59):
Johnson touchdown if I remember right. You know, they caught
the Chiefs in a cover zero like and they were like,
you know, switching the coverage in the middle of the
play or like as the play was starting, and so
you know, the players back there were way too slow,
and it was just it looked like a busted coverage. Essentially,
it was like wide open, and I was just thinking,
(43:21):
like that's the type of thing that an undermanned maybe
not ready for that sort of advanced calculus defense is
forced to do because they're not getting enough pressure. So
you have to just send everyone cover zero, and but
you have guys back there that aren't really ready to
handle all that responsibilities in a play like that like
that can just end the game. So now they're just
(43:42):
like little little warning sign there for the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Yeah, and especially when an opposing offense knows that that's
they're only option, because then you can just prepare for it.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
It's not like you're shocked by a blitz there.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
And that's a tip of the Captain Greg Roman again,
preparation one out for the Chargers tonight.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Tip of the cap to my friend Shook. Appreciate you.
You know, I asked, are you in? Are you in
for the kickoff game? Are you in for the Friday
night We're gonna set the table here for what's gonna
be a primetime season. Was Shook, He said, of course
I am.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Oh, yeah, this is fun. I'm looking forward to a
season's worth of this stuff. And thank you everybody who watched.
Getting into the chat and contribute the show just makes
it more lively and more fun for us.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I loved it. And yeah, like I said, we're gonna
be doing Thursday night recaps all year. But I'm gonna
be from the studio, So no YouTube that night, but
we will be doing it on Monday nights. And more importantly,
we're gonna have that podcast. I'm a podcast evangelist. I've
been doing it since you had to download the podcast
onto your iPad. I mean back in my day before
(44:44):
I would get on the Metro North in New York
and go up to work at road A World, and
I would listen to my Bill Simmons podcast on the
way there, but you would have to down and like, like,
I love the audio. I listened to NonStop audio. So
we love you all our podcasts listeners, and we will
be back in your ears on Sunday night.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Hey, you know, I remember the days when I used
to download the PTI and.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Around the Horne our first YouTube live, our very first
recap show of the season, my favorite show, Patrick Clayban,
Jordan Rodrigue's going to the Rams game then coming on
the show, and Nick Shook recapping every single week one game.
Football is so back
First and ten from the twenty three slot left, single
man right, Herbert and the shotgun. Najie Harris is left.
Mconkey comes in motion from right to left. Herbert gets
the snap back to pass, sets his feet, rush coming,
lobs it down the middle, wide open Shotson at the
five in in the end zone, touchdown, Chargers second touchdown
catch tonight for Quentin Shotston and with five h two
(00:22):
to go, the Chargers lead twenty six eighteen.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That was justin Herbert finishing one of the best drives
of his life. I'm just gonna say it. You beat
the Chiefs in a primetime game in Brazil with an
eight for eight drive, and it's one of the best
drives of your life. The Chargers beat the Chiefs twenty
seven two twenty one. That was Ryan Radke on Westwood
(00:47):
one Radio. We've seen so many of these Chiefs Chargers
games nick over the years, and I can think of
the one five years ago with Travis Kelce running through
the SOFI second in overtime. But everyone feels the same.
It just feels like the Chargers are getting close. The
Chargers have the lead, and at some point in the
fourth quarter they're gonna blow it, and it felt like
(01:10):
this game was trending that way, except Greg Roman and
Justin Herbert got the ball back in the fourth quarter
in a tight game, and they stayed incredibly aggressive and
they made it look easy against this Chiefs defense like
they did most of the night. And what a way
to make this season twenty twenty five feel different right
off the jump for not just the Chargers but the
(01:33):
whole NFL. Having the Chiefs lose a tight game in
the division like this.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
The Chargers realized from the very first drive that they
were fully prepared.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
To attack this Chiefs defense.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
They knew that they didn't have much to fear beyond
some exotic blitzer that are typical Steve Spagnolo, and they
knew that they could throw on this secondary. So when
the time came for them to close this game out,
they said, screw it, We're not going conservative. We're gonna
rely on Justin Herbert's arm, and we're throwing all over
you because we know we're better than you.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
In that department.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It was deliciously disrespectful, and I loved it so much.
It's exactly what divisional rivalries are made of, and it's
peak entertainment for a Friday night on the opening week
at the NFL season.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yes, thank you everyone who is joining us on YouTube Live.
So obviously be our only Friday night game of the season,
but SHOOKI and I are gonna try to do this
every Monday night. You know, we love the NFL daily
listeners and viewers, and so come join us. And I
see someone in the comments already saying he's surprised Shookie's
not getting a Friday night pumpin. He's got too many
(02:32):
important things to do, like talks talk about Yeah, I mean,
it looks great. It always does. So one of the
things I love, not just from Greg Roman tonight and
justin Herbert, was that they stayed aggressive throughout because it
was what was working. And I mentioned that drive where
he's getting really good protection. But the Chiefs go back
(02:55):
right after that, and let's start at the end, and
they end up settling for a field from Harrison Bucker
with a little over two minutes remaining, after Mahomes pulls
off what was one of many just incredible mahomes in
plays in the final two and a half three quarters
of this game. He played outstanding tonight, but he hits
a fourth and seventeen, you know, deep down the field
(03:18):
on the run to potentially set up a touchdown that
would make the Charges feel very antsy, but instead they
settle for the field goal. The Charges get the ball
back with over two and a half minutes to go,
three timeouts for the Chiefs, and the conservative play caller
is absolutely running on first down or making a very
(03:38):
safe pass, and they call a play action and a
rollout where they had confidence in Justin Herbert. He hits
it on first down and he gets like one of
the most crucial plays of the game. Then on third
and long they have him drop back and he picks
it up as a scrambler. And the thing that stuck
(03:58):
out to me is not just that, like, of course
I believe Herbert can hit those plays, but that they
recognize the strength of their team. If Jim Harbaugh wants
to take Justin Herbert to the Hall of Fame, shock,
you gotta let him run the show. So we heard
all this stuff about this gotta be a run first team.
They weren't a run first team a year ago. And
I don't think they're necessarily gotta be won this year. Either.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
No, I mean, you get that kind of stereotype because
Greg Roman's your offensive coordinator, but he got completely out
of what you know how he's identified, which this is
a run first guy, and just decided to throw and
he used he used the anticipation of them being a
run first team, like I said earlier in this game
and throughout this game, and he also used it to
give Trey Pipkins the right tackle a little bit of
a break because there were periods in this game in
(04:38):
which George Carloftis was destroying him and Carloftis was blowing
up multiple plays where you know Herbert would drop back
and instantly get forced out of the pocket and have
to make plays on the run. But that's the beauty
of having Justin Herbert as your quarterback and not a
replacement level guy, not even a Dalton level guy, because
he's gonna go make those plays.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And the last play was the perfect example of it.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Scrambling right, got to get the first down to finish
the game, tons of room to run, no worries, slides
down in bounds, just completes a fantastic, complete performance from
a Chargers team that needed us with the didn't beat
the Chiefs since twenty twenty one it's been almost four
full years. It was late September of twenty twenty one.
They've finally done it.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That is a crazy stack because so many of these
games were awesome. I weirdly think of this as one
of the best rivalries in the NFL. And you can
tell me that it's not a rivalry when it's that
one sided, but when they are so important in each
other's lives, even if one is the little brother and
one is the three time world champion like big brother,
(05:39):
they're the team the Chargers that the Chiefs have to
get past in the division year after year. So to me,
it does feel like a rivalry, even if it's a
little Serena Williams versus Maria Sharapova. I always feel like
the Chiefs bring out the good stuff for the Chargers,
and it felt like they tried to. When the Chiefs
ended that first half with the field goal, got it,
you know, closer within a touchdown. The Chargers made some
(06:01):
mental mistakes, and the Chargers then give up a touchdown
after a three and out to start the second half.
Didn't you just feel like this was going to be
like the same story all over again.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
As soon as Patrick Mahomes scrambled and got the ball
across the pylon. I was like, oh no, And it
was the visions of Travis Kelcey running through the so
far secondary as you said, we're running through my head.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
As soon as he crossed the goal line for that touchdown,
I was just like, oh no.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
The Chargers are about to start charging. They're setting themselves
up for heartbreak, and they did it. And that's why,
even though it's only week one, this is a type
of wind that can propel you through an entire season
because it inspires hope and belief in your coach and
your staff and your organization, what you're doing, the culture
that you're building.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We can beat these guys.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Now, there are problems with the Chiefs that we are
going to get into that allowed the Chargers to find success,
But that doesn't matter. You saw those guys in red
and white, the guys that you can't beat. That's Goliath.
You're David, or at least in your mind you are. Tonight,
you hit that slingshot rock right between the eyes and
we're able to take down the giant big for them.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, I want I want to get into first the
slow start for the Chiefs offense, the Xavier Worthy injury,
just how disjointed the offense looked for a while, and
in the problems that I see on defense. But I
think you're right to stay on the Chargers. I'm going
to ask you to start here, like, what about this
offense other than Herbert being sharp? And I think if
(07:21):
there's one problem with Herbert, you know, his accuracy can
sometimes wane a little bit for a truly elite quarterback. Now,
he had great protection for the most part tonight, and
I think that helped him. But he was very accurate.
Other than one missed potential touchdown to McConkie. He was
really right on the money. A couple drops would have
made his night look better. But outside of Herbert, when
(07:43):
you're talking about the schematics or maybe the receiver group,
what stood out to you.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was very impressed by Joel making the switch from
right to left side after they lost for Shaun Slater.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
He looked like a complete natural there. He was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I'm a little worried about pickins, but that's what you
get from a guy that you have to call and
pull into the starting lineup when you lose your actual
starting right tackle. So that's fine, But I like that
Omrion Hampton's a dude. He's got the juice. He talked
about it in preseasons. Sometimes you can see off these
running backs they just got the juice. He's got the juice.
You can see why he was the first round pick.
I actually really like the way that their backfield is
set up with him as the lead guy. Keenan Allen
(08:18):
makes that receiving corps way better than we thought it was.
This is a core that we were worried about. We
were focusing on Trey Harris and ken Quintin Johnson make plays.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
He made plays, he'd come a couple of touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean, all the guys contributed tonight. We had ty
Conklin making a big catch. Fumbled the ball, but he
made a huge catch early in this game. I really
liked what they've built in this offense. They're much better,
again only one game than I anticipated from them offensive
because they're more balanced.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
They're not just that ground game.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
They have weapons outside, and I'm really excited to see
where they can take this this year.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, guys are open. That really stood out, and I
do think the Chiefs secondary played a part in that.
I don't think they have enough guys. But yeah, it
was Will Disley, by the way, who caught that late
first down that helped them kill the clock. You mentioned
the play by Conklin where he fumbles. That was one
of the mistakes that they made because even though they
(09:09):
got the ball back, McConkie had to hit the ball
out of bounds to keep the ball and then they
have a penalty and they're behind the sticks. And there
were a lot of plays like that. But you mentioned
Keenan Allen. I am surprised. So ten targets, seven catches,
sixty eight yards and a touchdown. I just did not expect,
based on last season in Chicago, for this Keenan Allen
(09:33):
thing to work that well. And I definitely was watching
where they were using him versus McConkie, and they were
moving him back and forth. I think it was probably
more mconkee in the slot, which makes sense to me
because he's really your number one receiver, and he had
a nice night. Six for seventy four would have been
about seven for one to ten if Herbert had hit
him on that touch that pass. But man Allen in
(09:54):
the second half had so many plays, including the touchdown
where Herbert knew exactly where he was going to be.
The scheme and the route basically got him open. He's
the third receiver now because Quinton Johnson who had a
really nice night five for seventy nine and two touchdowns
and a drop of a touchdown, which Quinton Johnson will do.
Like they're getting more attention, I think, and I'm impressed,
(10:17):
like Trey Harris who had a nice catch and ran
a couple nice routes like he was barely on the
field five or six snaps for him. So Keenan Allen
is actually gonna matter in twenty twenty five. And you
know what's cool, Nick, he actually could be the all
time leading Chargers receiver franchise history. I think he went
into tonight with fifty three for the season that he
(10:38):
needed and I thought, I don't know if he's catching
fifty three passes. Well, he caught seven tonight, so he
just took a pretty big chunk off. He only needs
forty six to go. That would be an amazing story
if Keenan Allen got that.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, and especially if they continue to maintain this balance,
and I think that they will because they have the
personnel to do it because then defenses can't focus on
one or two guys. And just Allen's addition in general
takes the was a little bit away from Lad McCaughey,
which allows him to be more dangerous as well. So yeah,
I'm a big fan of what they have overall in
this entire group. And we haven't even talked about their
defense because they had a couple of standout guys. Talk
about all right, I'm gonna talk about right now with
(11:11):
tier Tart maybe or maybe shouldn't have gotten ejected, but
through a bit of a slap at Travis Kelcey comes
back and just starts slapping at the ball. I mean
it was just every time a ball got batted down,
Tier Tart, tier Tart throwing a hand out there, knocking
it down. He might have had more pass breakups than
than the leading defensive back or linebacker on this defense.
That's how much of a difference he made. He was
(11:32):
constantly and Patrick Mahomes throwing windows and interrupted a lot
of key players, including their two point conversion attempt in
an incredible game. Diane Henley was all over the field.
We know we started talking about this last year. The
Chargers really like this Henley guy. Well, now we obviously
see why he's a monster of a linebacker. So I
you know, Khalil Mack I think got out of position
a couple of times, but closed pretty well, pretty strongly
(11:54):
in this game as well. So they're not the On paper,
they're not the strongest defense. That would be a slight
conscer for them. But man, they played tonight. They played
really hard.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah. I was a little worried about the interior of
their defensive line after losing Puna Ford, but they kept Tart,
who was another great pick up, kind of off the
scrap he'd He was literally released last year, I believe
by the Titans. I mean he has bounced around a
couple of places. He was very lucky not to get
kicked out of the game. Why is an open hand
(12:24):
slap uh not something you throw the guy out here,
but a punch is because opening slop would hurt more, right, Yes,
I mean it would.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
History, it's root in football history because they had to
outlaw the head slap, which used to be a defensive move.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
That was Deacon Jones great move.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
So I don't know, I'm just I'm just.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I don't even know if that's like a real thing,
And uh yeah, I think it all depends. But they
were lucky that they kept him in there. And I
thought they did a really good job stopping the run.
And then I look and actually the Chiefs had like
a fifty five percent design success rate on runs. And
I was like, oh, well, why why did the Chiefs,
you know, struggle, I need the ball so much? Why
didn't they have a number just because they didn't try?
I mean they had eleven rushing attempts tonight and Pacheko
(13:05):
goes five for fifty five for the second straight night.
The Super Bowl quarterback from a year ago it was
Jalen Hurts. Last night it was Patrick Mahomes. Tonight was
the leading rusher in the entire game, six for fifty seven.
So we came into the season here in like, oh,
the run game's back, the run games back. I'm sure
it will be back at some point, but literally, Jalen
(13:25):
Hurts and Patrick Mahomes led each of these games with
like fifty seven in sixty two yards. We got some
comments in YouTube, and let's throw up one from a
little charger gunn charger. I do like that if you
think about and this was from Tomato the crab Chargers
are gonna charger. That's tired. Wired chargers are going to
(13:46):
charger with a couple exclamation points. I don't know. I
don't know if I'm ready to, you know, give up
decades of horror. But it is year two.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Hard died that quickly.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It is it is year two under Jim Harbaugh. And
they come out and this game shook, and they get
up ten to nothing quickly, and they just looked so
much more prepared and bigger and tougher than the Chiefs.
I did start like immediately I started overreacting and thinking like, oh, yeah, Harbaugh,
year two, these are going to be some tough, you know, tough,
(14:21):
tough mfors. I wouldn't want to have to play them.
And I do think there's going to be a separation
in the AFC between the haves and the have nots.
And I do think the Chargers have enough talent to
be part of the halves.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, you know, it was actually indicative. It was pretty
obvious to me way back on that start of August
the Hall of Fame game when they played against the Lions.
In that game, they just looked like a professional group.
They executed well, they weren't sloppy. They knew where they
were supposed to be, no matter whether it was the
backups in there, the third stringers. I mean, they just
(14:57):
looked like a team that was well coached, and we
saw it again tonight.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Not only were they well coached, but they had a
great game plan. Like I know I've talked about that already.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
But they were so prepared for this game, both in personnel,
in how they wanted to approach the game, and how
they ultimately executed it. It's rare that a team comes
into a game against the Chiefs safe for last year's
Super Bowl and it seems like one team was more
prepared than the chief and that's what I felt like
the Chargers were tonight.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It's kind of crazy, though, Shuck, because they run like
the hardest training camp in the league in terms of
long practices, a lot of not tackling to the ground,
although like a little bit of that, but more like
actual hitting in practice. They play more in the preseason,
and so the idea behind that, I think is to
condition you for the entire season. But yeah, usually you
(15:45):
start fast. The Chargers aren't a team that play a
lot in the preseason necessarily but they come out this
year and they did for the first time with Justin Herbert,
and maybe it paid off. I love the moment and
this is and let's go back to the end of
the first half. So Marian Hampton, who you're right, I
(16:06):
think looked good, shook The numbers weren't overwhelming fifteen for
forty eight on the ground. He also had a couple
of catches, but I agree that he passed the eye
test and I think look good. But at the end
of the first half, they had a chance to essentially
run the clock down to about thirteen seconds or so
and then kick a field goal to go up ten
going into half, but he runs out of bound with
(16:27):
maybe a questionable play call. And you see Marshawn Lynch,
who is credited as a photographer at an NFL game
in Brazil that's being played on a Friday night on YouTube,
going over to the young man Amari and Hampton, twenty
two years old, and counseling him with the usual like
(16:49):
NFL media, you know, photographer vest that like usually our
friend Benn is wearing out on the sidelines, and I
was just thinking, like, wow, what is happening right now?
This is absolutely wild. And then it got even wild
there because Mahomes hits his first deep throw of the
night right after that, and Taekwon Thornton makes a nice,
(17:12):
nice catch, and that is when one of the best
fire drill field goals has ever happened. We do have this.
Let's listen to the fire drill field goal. I'm testing
Chris Babona here, has he got it ready? Let's go.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Folds takes the snap back to pass, looks right, throws right.
Noah Gray with a catch and he's run out of bounds.
They're gonna wind the clock nine seconds. It's fourth down.
The Chiefs can't spike it. They're gonna run the field
goal team out four seconds down to three seconds, down
to two seconds. Can they get the snap off? They do,
Bucker drives the kick. It is end over ready, it
(17:50):
is god Son the left up right.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
That is laughter in the west Wood One studio. I
believe that is for Chief Dante Hall, who's laughed that
you hear on Aspect while it's Ryan Radke on the call.
Great job, by the way, you're you're a radio announcer
and you get the trip to Brazil for that. What
did you think watching that? That was a pretty amazing
sequence that I thought was gonna be like the play
that changed the entire game.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, okay, First off, I think this is the greatest
fire drill in the history of football. You don wow,
but I do think it was the greatest fire drill
in the history of football because him getting pushed out
of it no great getting push out of bounds going backward.
You know, you see him go out of bounds. So
there's an opportunity for a second or two for everybody
in the side of and go okay, the clock stop.
And then they realized, oh god, the clock has not stopped.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Get on the field.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
It's chaos, Like it looked like chaos on TV. They
all get in line and set up properly, no mistakes
in alignment, none of.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
That, and they get the kickoff. They don't allow it
to get blocked. That's the first part.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
The second part, and I'm so glad that Dante Hall's
in the booth, the man known as the X factor, right,
because the X factor on this play was the guy
on the right side of the line who ran in
rubbing his jersey to follow the rules that he's designated
as an eligible re Dan Skipper didn't do that one time.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
We know how that went for the Lions.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
He goes in there, designates himself as the eligible receiver.
Obviously he's not running a route, but that allows them
to get that off with no issues. It is so
difficult to pull that off. You have to be prepared,
you have to know, oh, we don't have any timeouts,
and this is possible. But the fact that he went
out of bounds made it even more complicated, and they
pulled it off lawlessly.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I love some of the comments we're getting now, and
I think it's a good, good one saying only Andy
Reid would be prepared for that. And this was one
of those nights that you thought, just they're gonna figure
it out somehow. Margins, and let's go back a little
bit to the beginning of the game. Mahomes get hit
quite a bit early. I mean he got hit the
entire game. He was looking for contact throughout the night,
(19:44):
including on a play where he lowered his shoulder on
Dante Jackson from the Chargers and sent them flying like
he was delivering punishment. Once he got going in this game,
it was almost like he was so angry about how
it started and how it started was just a avocade
of poor timing, mental errors, guys not being on the
(20:06):
same page, just not being in sync, all stemming from
a play. I think it was the first play from
scrimmage right shook where where Axavier Worthy got hurt or
was it the second Either way, it was right.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
It was the third play.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
It was a third down Okay, it was a third
down concept and he got drilled by Travis Kelcey.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Right, Derwin James kind of bumps, Travis Kelcey disrupts the
timing of the play. Kelsey essentially tackles Worthy and Worthy
is knocked out for the game. Was in a lot
of pain. We have to find out how serious that
injury will be. And the word was how that Worthy
was going to be a huge part of their game
plan tonight. And I think that said them scrambling shok
(20:45):
because early in this game, Mahomes was at one point,
I think three of nine for like twenty three yards.
He was ten of seventeen for fifty seven yards. His
like average depth of target was behind him. Essentially it
was like two or three yards in front of him.
Anytime they tried to go down the field. That wasn't working.
At one point, they had nine targets to Hollywood Brown
and he had sixteen yards. He had a bad drop
(21:07):
during that, and I'm just thinking, oh my gosh, this
is the worst possible start. And it reminded me a
lot of Thursday Night too, with Jalen Carter getting knocked
out like right away, a really key piece getting knocked out,
and they just didn't seem prepared for it.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, that was one of the notes I took. I
think in the second quarter was, oh my god, Xavier
really must have been a key part of their game
plan because they are absolutely.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Just lost for what to do offensively.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I think at one point there was a botch snap
where Mahomes like falls down to pick it up and
just like flips it out on what was intended to
be a bubble screen, and it's a play that goes
for basically nothing. They just look disjointed, and I think
that kind of set that tone for them and also
kind of put them behind the eight ball, because the
Chargers were very prepared and executed, and sudden they look
at the scoreboard and they're trailing. But this is also
(21:49):
why we got the same feeling in the second half,
which is that the Chiefs are going to find a
way to come back and win this game, and they're
going to break the Chargers' hearts again because this is
a team that you have to absolutely put away. They
are essentially the end. Take your rising out of the coffin,
like this is just who they are. They're too good
to just have some mistakes completely blow up what they're
going to do. Over the course of four quarters. They
fight their way back. And I was thinking in the
(22:09):
late in the first half, they just got to get
to halftime. They got to crime down and get reorganized.
And also, Chargers, you cannot give them time, even less
than a minute to have an opportunity to put points
on the board because they're gonna do it. That's just
what they do and that's ultimately what they did. So
kudos to the Chargers for holding them off in the
second half.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Absolutely agree that the Chiefs looked very disjointed because where
they got knocked out early.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I mean, they had to get the halftime, but I
was a little worried like they would get distracted. We
have a comment from one of the watchers here who
was saying, Nick looks nothing like he thought he did.
I mean, we talk about what he looks like, but
I hear you you never quite know until you meet someone.
It was like when I managed the former guy Evan
Silva at rode a World and now his great work
(22:53):
with Established the Run, and I first met him and
he was about like fourteen inches taller than me. I
was like, man, I wouldn't have been as tough on
you over the last like nine months. But that was
that was back in the day when you just boss
people around on an instant message and text.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
But the fun thing too, and this is beneficial to you, Greg,
is that we're in two boxes across the country right
now because you only see me from the shoulders.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I mean, you're you're a lover, not a fighter anyways.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Uh, that's true.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Unlike yeah, unlike these teams today, which was it was spicy,
like I know, they had to get to halftime and
I think that taekwon Thornton catch before halftime, you know,
let them loosen up a little bit. But when they
went on that long drive where they kicked a field
goal to finally get some scoring, and it was just
dinks and dunks and it was juju and Kelsey had
(23:43):
not been seen like at all, and like the running
game was pretty lackluster and it was mostly just Mahomes
taking charge in scrambling. I'm thinking they talked all off
season about we want to be a big playoffense, we
want to be different than the Chiefs, we want to
be fun to watch again, and they tried that for
two or three drives and it did not work at all.
(24:04):
They lose worthy, Mahomes is getting hit, they try, They
forced a couple of shots down the field that don't work,
and it felt like midway through the second quarter it
was just like, oh man, we need to go back
to what we actually know what to do, which is
really not that fun to watch. But as the game
wore along, Patrick Mahomes started doing things like throwing while
mid air, levitating over the scrimmage line while completing a pass.
(24:29):
It's just like, we're getting so used to this, it
is ridiculous, Like what he is making us get used
to He's.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I think any other quarterback in the NFL does that,
and I'm going to social media to comment on it,
But because Patrick Mahomes did it, it's just like, yeah,
that's what he does, and you know, we talked about
how we felt like they were gonna come back, right,
they were gonna win this game. When he hit that
pass to Travis Kelsey, which was the product of great
play design by the way, basically faking a bubble screen.
They used a ton of motion to try to create
(24:55):
some mismatches and confuse the defense and get him disorganized.
They faked the bubble screen, Kelsey acts as if he's
going to block and then leaks out down the sideline.
When they hit that pass, I was like, Oh, that's
the one. That's the one that breaks open the damn
here it comes. And again it didn't happen. But they
still have that in them. They still do have the
big play in them.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Uh. Oh, if you're gonna mention it, let's let's get
the call. Uh. First to comment, Triple G much love,
how do you feel about Worthy's durability going forward knowing
that they're missing Rashi Rice for five more weeks. It's
a great point because there was a Super Bowl rematch
on the docket against the Eagles next week, and I
even the Kansas City Chiefs do not want to start
the season oh and two, especially not against the Chargers
(25:38):
and the Eagles just like two teams that are so
I believe in important to them, and I think Xavier
Worthy is really important to them because I love that
they're turning Taekwan Thornton's career round. But he's not Xavier Worthy,
and this offense just lacks explosiveness unless you know Travis
Kelcey said this offseason, He's trying to get a little
(25:58):
faster and I'm touchdown. Granted he was wide open. I
did think he looked a little faster. Let's listen from
the Los Angeles thirty seven mahomes with pressure.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Final run out to Kelsey, Travis Kelsey touchdown.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Thirty seven yards. Twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Mahomes to Kelsey strikes again against the.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Chargers, one of the longest touchdowns Kelsey has had in years.
It was the longest for a long time, only two
catches tonight for forty seven yards, and it was a
reminder not that he looked incredibly fast on that play,
and he actually had a costly miscommunication near the goal
line on the Chief's final drive where they would have
(26:49):
made the Chargers really sweat, but Kelsey slowed down while
they were improvising, so a rare time that him and
Mahomes was not on the same page. But is this
a reminder man, they will come up with solutions nick
schematically that not many teams can because Derwin James fell
so hard for that fake on that play. I mean
he just bit and was nowhere near it. And they
(27:11):
were absolutely attacking Troy Dye, who was in as the
second linebacker because Denzel Perriman for the Chargers got out.
So that's Kelsey and Mahomes, but especially Andy Reid kind
of putting a circle a target on a guy's back
and figuring out where their weaknesses is. And in the end,
their offense was playing well by the end of this game,
(27:32):
Like the second half of this game, they mostly did
what they wanted.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, I just took them too long to find their rhythm.
And you can't blame Derwin James for budding on that,
by the way, because how many times you're gonna get
poked the nose by somebody before you decide, all right,
I'm gonna react, I'm gonna block this, and right when
you go to block it, they punch you in the gut.
That's essentially what they did here, is that, all right,
we're playing the flats we're playing the flats. We're playing
the short game because we know we can't go down
the field to save for you know, just a one
off here and there. Oh, now we're gonna take the shot,
(27:57):
and now we're gonna get within you know, an extra
pointer or a two point conversion of tying this game.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
I mean, that's just that's what they do. And that's
the genius of Andy Reid.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Again, that's why you have to put them away when
you can, and luckily the Chargers did do that tonight.
But Greg, I think at some point, yes, we have
to have a discussion about this. Chiefs defense lead the
way yet shredded. They got shredded by Justin Herbert. And
I hate to say it, but Chris Jones didn't feel
like much of a factor in the interior, which is
a credit to the Chargers interior offensive line and outside
(28:29):
of carloft Is beating Pipkins, I mean, Spags in the
second half pulled a Matt Ebraflus from last night, which
is all right. I don't know what else to do,
so I'm just gonna start sending Blitz's NonStop and they
actually got some stops that way. They send Tranquil on
a blitz off the EDG. He shoots through the b gap,
gets a sack. They send, you know, a number of
different pressure looks. I mean, most of the second half
they're sending zero blitzes. They're setting different types of pressure
(28:51):
like that. That's the only way they could manufacture. And
if the Chargers had an answer for it, I am
gravely concerned. And that is super hyperbolic at this point,
and I acknowledge that, but I am gravely concerned that
they simply don't have the personnel to make up for
this and to patch things up, and that this is
going to have to be their identity, which then makes
them easier to game plan against. And we saw it
in that final drive when there was even that one
pass where Herbert just ran backward because he knew the
(29:13):
blitz was coming, just to buy himself some time and
find a guy open.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
That's a huge tell. That's a major weakness over the
course of a long season.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, I I do wonder if they're just sort a
body or two in the seconsive line in the secondary
both both places, because you know the numbers. I hear,
you are not feeling Chris Jones, and so that's why
I'm looking for the numbers as you're talking. You know,
he did have three pressures in this game. One quick
pressure pressures can be a little misleading. Was double teams
(29:43):
obviously a lot. Carl Loftis had four, and they did
blitz Drew Tranquil quite a bit and he got near
to the quarterback. But it's just that's even not enough.
I know you'll get better games out of Chris Jones,
but you just can't have two guys. And Carloftis is good,
but he's not great. If it's a huge all off
where everyone else on the line are losing their battles,
(30:04):
that's not a winning formula. Look, I wonder too, and
Jalen Watson made a nice play in this game. You
know there were there are players that they can trust
in the back end, but they have guys like Shamari
Corner playing a decent amount at safety who was not
good for them a year ago. And really the secondary
(30:26):
losing Eric Reid Jordan Reid rather to me, could be
a guy that they end up missing quite a bit.
So I just I just feel like both groups are
just a little thin in a way that I think
the offense is gonna need to be better this year
because I think the defense is gonna be worse.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I felt like the Reid departure was gonna, you know,
resonate in this coming season, and I hate that. I
was right in Week one because again, if you're gonna
be the Spags defense, which sends pressure at good times
to get these big game changing plays, you have to
be able to stand up and be strong enough on
the back end on other plays and like get them
in those situations where it's third long and they need
(31:03):
longer dropbacks, they need longer developing plays than you can
get after them with pressure. If you're never in that situation,
it's a bad formula. So I mean, he gives guys
the course of a season to figure it out and improve,
and you know, you might get stronger there, but in
the second half of the season or whatever it is.
But just overreaction week, which is Week one, I'm very
concerned about this defense.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, Shamart Connor sixty one snaps basically played the entire game,
so did Jalen Watson. They did get Christian Fulton on
the field for a little bit of this game, and
he's someone who I think is going to be a
full time player, but he's coming off an injury, so
sometimes early in the season, like you know, you don't
have everyone quite ready yet. And I didn't really realize
(31:42):
it until I looked at the game log right now.
I mean the Chiefs offense after those first three punts
on very quick drives went field goal, field goal, touchdown, touchdown,
field goal. This was not This was not a dry
game with many drives at all. In the Chargers just
matched them. The last three possessions they have were both touchdown,
(32:05):
were touchdown drives and then running out the clock. So
it basically was the Chargers winning kind of in an
old school Chief's way, which is like get a little
bit of a lead and then you just keep scoring.
You can keep giving up points, but you can keep scoring.
Let's throw that comment up. I appreciate you, Winthrop noticing
(32:27):
we got hundreds of people watching. I love that after
a game, and it's going to give us some win
in our sales to keep doing this. On Monday night,
noticing over three hundred people watching but only thirty three likes,
So smatch the likes that will help us out to
grow this, like subscribe, do all the thing. It is
kind of crazy though. The Chargers didn't have Rashaan Slater
(32:47):
in this game, Like, they played that well without Rashaun
Slater and they're not going to get him back this year,
and that's it's gonna be a what f all year.
But their offensive line played really well. I don't know
if that was because of the opposition, But what do
you think about them overall moving forward, Like, do you
think they'll be good enough?
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well, I think the start of the game it was.
It was the game plan, the script. The opening strip
was fantastic, a lot of play action, booting to the right,
that sort of thing, getting the flow to the left
and running away from it, buying Herbert time to find guys.
And usually in those situations when they're run committing, you know,
first read step is a run and then you have
to double back and cover the past you've given up
a step or two on a receiver. And that's why
Herbert was able to find guys open early in those drives.
(33:26):
And then in the second half it was it was
a bit of a chess match, but it was also
a team that had a lot of confidence behind that
they can continue to throw the football because they knew
that their passing game was superior to what the Chiefs
were bringing in the secondary. And again, if they knew
that the blitz is coming, they could call their plays accordingly.
Give yourself a hot you know, tell Herbert, Hey, they're
gonna blitz everybody here, and you better just back up
and get the ball out. It's it was an example
(33:48):
of game flow, I think, more than anything. But it
started up front where they appeared to be much better
even without you know, having your typical well your right
tackle was playing left tackle available at your disposal. And
and I don't think it's gonna to be that lopsided
from week to week because once that tape gets out there,
you're gonna have to adjust. Sometimes your scripts aren't going
to be as effective. But it's an encouraging sign.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
For this team.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I know we're gonna be wrapping up pretty soon, but
there's there's a few things I do want to get
to while we're on offensive line play. Was texting with
our friend Steve Weisch and he was noted. He thought
left guard was really a problem for the Chiefs. Kingsley
Sue Mattea, who was a guy who had to be
moved inside to replace, you know, help replace Joe Toney
(34:30):
who got traded away and he struggled in this game
and he was a problem. They're right tackle. Juwan Taylor
kind of has been a problem. Didn't have a great night.
I don't think, definitely had penalties. Josh Simmons, who I
thought for the most part looked good as far as
I could tell, But he had penalties in this game,
so you know that'll happen to a rookie. I do
(34:52):
think there was like a mental error on one play
with him where I don't think he knew what the
play was, knew who to block, and he gave up
a free rusher. But for the most I thought he
was fine. But that that's a little concerning for their
offensive line. If if left guard is a problem, they
could potentially move Jewan Taylor in there.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
God, because then what's your optional right tackle. We have
talked about how Juwan Taylor.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
I meant Jalen Moore, by the way, the pick that.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Is very much on the table. Ye, I would not
at all be shocked if he ends up. I mean,
they're paying fifteen million dollars a year, and if kings Assumati,
who struggled to tackle last year and is struggling at
guard now is not doing the job. They will make
that change. You knew what Jwan Taylor was. He makes
too much money for how he plays, and you know
that he's good for a false starter or two.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
In a game he got drilled for a holding call.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
It's just who he is. And but on the left
side justins. I thought he had a bit in an
up and down game early on. He was really solid.
He was doing a really good job. He had a
great block on draw. I think it was a hand
off the Pacheco approaching the red zone where he just
basically baits.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
That doesn't bait.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
But like basically the technique is on the draw, you
take a pass set and then you get the guy.
Let the guy get on your outside shoulder and throw
him back.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
We need some sort of sound effect when Shook really
gets into the football of Ohio. Apologize for interrupting. You
keep going. I just need it. I love it, I
love it.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Oh actually no, So you you essentially take a pass
and then you throw the guy back, which then creates
the running lane, which is exactly what happened. He threw
Mac back out of position, gives up his running lane,
Pacheco darts through the left side for a big game
to get inside the red zone, and I was like,
that is a hell of a play against, you know,
a veteran but still an upper tier edge rusher. That's
the good of Josh Simmons. The bad of Josh Simmons
(36:37):
was late in this game where he got he just
flat out got beat a couple of times, a couple
of times where he would engage the defender, got his
hands knocked off and then fell forward a bit of
a leaner in those situations. Those are things he's gonna
have to improve and clean up. So it wasn't one
hundred percent good. It wasn't terrible.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Just up and down.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
That's what you get from a rookie making its first
start at left tackle in a primetime setting in Brazil,
by the way, which is that adds the trip itself,
adds to the adversity and the challenge of this start.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
But not as good as I.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Think I would have expected, given the vibes that were
following him from training camp.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
But also wasn't bad.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, wasn't wasn't bad. Justin t says, weak ones always
an outlie. I remember how the Saints started last year
believe in the Charges, but let's take it one week
out of type. I hear that in week one, Week two,
week three. It's all really just a warm up for
the season. It's not extended preseason, but it's just rounding
into shape for the games that matter. Think about what
(37:31):
the Eagles looked like last September. They're just figuring out.
I totally agree. The only thing I would push back
on a little is division games matter no matter where
they are, just for the reality when you really do
believe in the teams and the quarterbacks. I just think
these two teams and these two coaches are too good
not to be in the mix in December. And for
(37:52):
the Chargers to already have clinched like a split at worse,
and to have a chance to now sweep the Chiefs,
that alone is massive. Not only you know, the confidence
that they'll get, I'm also getting some comments that I
look tired or something. I mean that, yeah, Daddy's got
to go to bed. I mean it's it's nine pm
on the West Coast. I'm fine. It has been a
long week, and you know, I'm looking at the Cup.
(38:14):
We're doing lots of things. I'm checking the stats. You
mentioned the two point conversion which was so big. You know,
after the Kelsea touchdown that they stopped the Tierra tarp play.
They only were going for two because Harrison Bucker missed
an extra point. That was kind of how this game
if you really look at it from a Chiefs perspective,
they started to look like they started to charger some
(38:35):
things like that was their original sin. Was the Harrison
Bucker extra point miss.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Yeah, that's actually absolutely what it was, because if they
I think it took a little bit of the energy
out of them. Yeah, if you're out of the fact
that they were, you know, overtaking the momentum battle.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Whether momentum is real or not. We'll get into that.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Later, but it like they were going to tie the game,
and that okay, Also, that's a new ball game. Oh no, wait,
we're still down by one. We still have work to do.
The Chargers score, they go up a eight. We got
to convert the two.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
You don't get it. The Chargers score again. They're up
by nine. Now we need two possessions to potentially win
this game. A tie is essentially out of the equation.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yeah, that had a huge impact on that game and really,
I think to find a lot of the way the
game flowed in the second half. But you know what,
greg I do now that we have two games in
two primetime games okay on two shows and everything, we
are so fortunate to have seen four teams play with
four quarterbacks who all played really well, who all tried
(39:31):
to put the team on their back. Granted, not all
four teams can win, but I mean for a first
couple of games to start a season when teams, some
teams start slow and they're still working.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Out the kinks.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
We got some great performances from Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott,
Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Herbert.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
It was week one ish, like, it doesn't shock me
that these were week one games, but I was thinking
the same thing that they were relatively crisp games. Cross
your fingers. And it's hard to say that when Ze
you're worthy left with the shoulder injury and everything, But
sometimes in these week one games, it's like carnage of
injuries right away. And Ben van sumer and got hurt
(40:08):
last night. I'm not saying no one got hurt, but
it wasn't out of the ordinary. I was thinking it
was pretty healthy it was pretty clean. It looked like good,
like professional football. And it makes sense because you put,
you know, four teams that you know, Cowboys accepted, you know,
but they have a quarterback that that's excellent. But four
teams I also think that that are run well and
I think Brian Schottenheimer and their offense. When I watched
(40:29):
that film today, I thought it was pretty good. Mikyle
Stanbury said Chiefs killed a lot of folks with survivor
picks this week. Happy about that myself. I mean, if
you took the Chiefs, that to me was a pretty
bold pick. I I mean, I took the Chiefs to win,
but I would never have taken them as my survivor pick.
A couple last things, two games in the kickoff is
(40:52):
totally different this year. It is a thing. I need
to check the numbers. But the field position I feel
like has changed to the negative. I don't even know
if NFL will like this so far, if it somehow continued,
because they're nailing hitting these line drive kicks and it's
a lot of drive starting below the thirty, below the
twenty five. It's absolutely been a difference. Just something to watch.
(41:14):
And then the fourth downs in this game shook in
the first half, especially, I mean Jim Harbaugh Old School
went for fourth and one at his own thirty five
yard line and Hampton picked it up with a big
run and they ended up scoring on that drive. And
Andy Reid went for I think it was a fourth
and two was it on his side? Maybe it was
(41:36):
like the forty one yard line, forty three yard line
and got it too. And now we're just so used
to this. You know, when Bill Belichick did it against
the Colts in whatever year that was two thousand and
nine or something like that, it's like we spent twelve
days talking about it, like seventeen straight hours on Sports Center.
It was like the craziest thing ever that Bill Belichick
(41:58):
went for it in his own end against Peyton Manning
because he didn't trust his defense or whatever. And that
was like in the fourth quarter when there wasn't much
time left. They're doing this in the second quarter. No
one's even noticing anymore. It's great, like we won the
fourth down. It happened, and like football's better, there's more
points because of it.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
It's amazing, And you know what that is, that's the
lasting legacy of Brandon Staley.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Right, Yeah, he he walked, so Jim Harbaugh could could
run like everything else didn't go well for him, but no, yeah, yeah,
the commenters are liking the new kickoff. I totally agree.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
And one big return, the opening return was pretty big.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, And I do think because there's more kicks, there
will be more kick like good kick returns too, But
just the odds are that's not going to happen like
too often, and it's just part of it. Really feels
like it's been part of the game, which is very exciting.
Last thing I got is just on that touchdown that
was wide open. I think it was the second Quinton
(42:59):
Johnson touchdown if I remember right. You know, they caught
the Chiefs in a cover zero like and they were like,
you know, switching the coverage in the middle of the
play or like as the play was starting, and so
you know, the players back there were way too slow,
and it was just it looked like a busted coverage. Essentially,
it was like wide open, and I was just thinking,
(43:21):
like that's the type of thing that an undermanned maybe
not ready for that sort of advanced calculus defense is
forced to do because they're not getting enough pressure. So
you have to just send everyone cover zero, and but
you have guys back there that aren't really ready to
handle all that responsibilities in a play like that like
that can just end the game. So now they're just
(43:42):
like little little warning sign there for the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Yeah, and especially when an opposing offense knows that that's
they're only option, because then you can just prepare for it.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
It's not like you're shocked by a blitz there.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
And that's a tip of the Captain Greg Roman again,
preparation one out for the Chargers tonight.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Tip of the cap to my friend Shook. Appreciate you.
You know, I asked, are you in? Are you in
for the kickoff game? Are you in for the Friday
night We're gonna set the table here for what's gonna
be a primetime season. Was Shook, He said, of course
I am.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Oh, yeah, this is fun. I'm looking forward to a
season's worth of this stuff. And thank you everybody who watched.
Getting into the chat and contribute the show just makes
it more lively and more fun for us.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I loved it. And yeah, like I said, we're gonna
be doing Thursday night recaps all year. But I'm gonna
be from the studio, So no YouTube that night, but
we will be doing it on Monday nights. And more importantly,
we're gonna have that podcast. I'm a podcast evangelist. I've
been doing it since you had to download the podcast
onto your iPad. I mean back in my day before
(44:44):
I would get on the Metro North in New York
and go up to work at road A World, and
I would listen to my Bill Simmons podcast on the
way there, but you would have to down and like, like,
I love the audio. I listened to NonStop audio. So
we love you all our podcasts listeners, and we will
be back in your ears on Sunday night.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Hey, you know, I remember the days when I used
to download the PTI and.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Around the Horne our first YouTube live, our very first
recap show of the season, my favorite show, Patrick Clayban,
Jordan Rodrigue's going to the Rams game then coming on
the show, and Nick Shook recapping every single week one game.
Football is so back
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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