REP: NFL Week 2 preview

Rich Eisen dials in from the road in Baltimore as Week 2 of the NFL is set to kick off from Charm City with the Steelers visiting the Ravens. Eisen and the crew discuss the recent and ever-evolving news surrounding the Ray Rice domestic violence incident and the subsequent fallout from the League's handling of the incident. The guys also look ahead to Sunday and roll through their Week 2 NFL Weekly Picks Em selections. Enjoy, and as always, thanks for downloading!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
I don't download many podcasts, but when I do, I
prefer the Rich Eyes and Podcast. Is your host, Rich everybody,
it's the latest edition of the Rich Eyes and Podcast.
I am always been accused of phoning it, and now
I'm literally doing it from Baltimore, Maryland's side of the
first Thursday night football game of two thousand and fourteen,

(00:27):
fittingly in the city of Baltimore, where the entire free
football world knows the case of Ray Rice and what
it has turned into, and how the focus is now
moved from Rice and the Ravens all the way up
the Seller Railway to Midtown Manhattan, and we'll discuss as
much of that and we possibly can here on this

(00:48):
show while getting you set for week number two. My
name is Rich Eyes and again your humble host. My
two Christies are back in the studio. Is that correct?
Correct sir? We're both here, Pulses. Got to chat with
you boys. How you doing, Buddy, I'm hanging in there.
It's it's pretty awkward down here in Baltimore. You're down
to the Inner Harbor. Yeah, well, I mean it's you know,

(01:10):
they've been here for a while getting ready for this
game for many reasons. And again it's it's it's a
nationally televised night game, and fans here in Baltimore, UM
get pumped up for it, um in a manner that
that many you know, that's the envy of a lot
of fan bases across the country. UM. And it's also

(01:31):
the two d anniversary of the national Anthem this weekend,
celebrating anniversary of Francis Scott Key Um writing the poem
that served as the eventual lyrics to our national anthem.
And not to give a history lesson off the top here,
but you know, it's about the defense of Fort mckenry

(01:53):
in the Battle of eighteen twelve, and um, Fort McHenry's
about four miles from the Ravens Nest here off of
the Chesapeake Bay. So this has been something that's been
planned for quite some time. With the Thursday night game
taking place in the thirteenth anniversary of nine eleven, there's
quite a patriotic feel here in this town. But um,

(02:13):
it's all Ray Rice all the time right now, and
it's all what's going on with the league's investigation of
Ray Rice and how the league now itself. It's amazing
how Monday started with Ray Rice getting set to serve
the last four days of his two games suspension. He
was supposed to be able to return as we're talking
hours before the Thursday night game. He was supposed to
have returned tomorrow the two games suspension finished because the

(02:37):
Ravens second game was earlier in week two. He was
said to come back Friday and Monday morning. He had
only four days left in his suspension. In the two
games suspension, even though the controversy that had stirred was
still in the ether. UM, the TMZ tape comes out

(02:57):
and hours later, seventy two hours later, even the Wednesday night,
now the league was under investigation in UM calling it
its own investigation because of the clear credibility gap that
the league UM was facing with the its fan base.
And UM, you know many people might still question, and

(03:20):
I see it already out there on Twitter and the
the Internet, that that the independent investigator, Robert Mullo, the
third in FBI agent, former FBI parton ME director, who
is now part of a law firm that the NFL
has ties to, is the one who's coming in to
do the independent investigation. And UM, it's just an incredible
whirlwind of events that took over three three days, and

(03:43):
and you know, I'm even hesitant to be posting a
podcast on this right now because it's just the twist
and turns that this story has taken has dated it.
You know, a minute we hang up after the show,
which is going to be just us kicking around this
subject as well as everything else in the NFL. Um
things could break into totally changed the tenor of the conversation.
You never know. It's such it's such a bizarre story.

(04:06):
It's got so many turns, and like you said, we
say one thing and something else will come out immediately,
So we don't know, um, what's gonna come of this
investigation and where it's gonna when it's gonna wind up.
I mean, the Ted Wells took months, four months, It
took months to figure out, and um, the the final

(04:27):
straw for the league to go ahead and announced. This
was the AP story that came out on Wednesday, where
law enforcement official in New Jersey told a reporter that
he had sent a copy of the tape to an
NFL executive. Who that executive is has not been revealed. Um.
The only thing that was revealed it was a female
voice confirming receipt of the of the tape in the

(04:49):
league office. UM. Female voice confirming receiving of of the
tape being received and saying that the contents were quote unquote,
you're right, it's terrible, and the contents of the tape
we're awful, and and and and and part of the
dilemma that a lot of people are dealing with, and

(05:09):
myself included, is did I really need to see that
tape to to conclude what happened in that elevator? And
and the conflict that I have within me that you know,
I always thought we mentioned it before that the two
games was light. The league itself had that may A
call both a few weeks ago and announcing a new
domestic abuse policy. But did we really need to see

(05:32):
what was in that elevator? I mean, what did we
think happened in that elevator? And? Um, we do live
in a visual society where we need to see things.
It's different having it described. Yeah, we've we've all heard people.
We've all heard that did you need to see it?
And had we not seen the original one where you
just see the door opening and her laying there, and
like this kind of stuff has happened multiple times in

(05:52):
the past in the league. And you know, you read
about Terrell Suggs in two thousand ten or the Greg
Hardy thing in Carolina. But the power in the impact
of the first video and then the second video, it
makes a difference. It makes a huge difference here. Well,
all I know, you know is this there's just too
certainties here about this. I'm let's say this tonight on

(06:13):
the show is that it's an unmitigated as a disaster
for everyone involved the media to the number of of
people who are not equipped to discuss domestic violence in
in the nuanced uh time um, in the manner of
the amount of time that it requires. Uh. Many of
people in army, in our end of the business are

(06:33):
not equipped to have this discussion. And so many people
have said ridiculous, silly things just opining about it. And
you know, it is a scourge of of domestic violence
that is out there in society that obviously this is
this entire episode has cast a light on and the

(06:53):
videotape still being shown right now by news outlets. To me,
is is sort of an affront on Monday. It had
a news value and for the lack of a better
phrase because of we had not seen it, and what
happened in how the NFL and the Ravens reacted to
it has has has that news value in that, But
now it's just I mean, there's no sense in showing

(07:13):
it anymore. You know, ray Rice's wife is reliving it
every single time. It's now on the internet. I mean,
we're talking about how ray Rice goes through the intervention program.
As Again, this tape has cast a spotlight on everybody,
including the the authorities in Atlantic City that that prosecuted
this and and decided that ray Rice could go through

(07:36):
an intervention program and counseling as opposed to a trial
and potential jail time. They have account of their thought process.
Now there's going to be attorneys general looking into this
case UM in in New Jersey. And you know, we've
already gotten tweets when we came out and saying about

(07:57):
this podcast. People really want to hear more Ray Rice talk.
I think they just want to know is what did
the league know and when did it know it to
use the phrase that a lot of people are you
are using right now, and I think we're all curious
as to that UM personally and This is just my
my belief, and I'll say it here. I said it
on radio on Thursday. I believe that too too many

(08:20):
people would have had to see that tape in the
NFL before the commissioners saw it for us for them
to have an effectual quote unquote cover up as people
are accusing them of doing. I truly believe the commissioner
never saw that tape on Monday. Now I might be
proven wrong, and if that's the case, then I will
I will issue an apology to all people who are
hearing this and might be throwing their headsets or or

(08:41):
their earbuds while they're jogging or working out well here
in this thing, or not believe me, or accuse me
of being an NFL guy. I just do not believe
the commissioners saw this, and that was part of the
reason why two games were given in the first place.
This may be borne out by the BYE to be
the case, and you may choose to believe of whatever
investigation it is. I believe the guy never saw that

(09:05):
whoever was in receipt of this in the NFL, and
it didn't kick it up the chain of command, and
we'll find that out. I think that's the way it's
going to prove out to be. But I could be
completely wrong. And if I am wrong, and he did
see it, you already hear owners who are already saying
anonymously to members of the media that that support for
the commissioner would erode. It's just and and like I said,

(09:26):
it's terribly conflicting here in Baltimore because people here are
ready for a celebration and for a football game tonight.
That's the case here of ray Rice. And you know,
we'll we'll talk about it as conditions weren't. But um,
you know, in the meantime, UM, let's move on to
what Week one was, which was something else. What for

(09:49):
our pick up? Where are we do? You guys have
the standings for that? We're not doing so hard. We
we started off for dead. You're you're leading, Bracken and I.
You went one game of of five. You had nine
and seven and Brockfan and I are at eight and
eight at the Mendoza line. Not even, but we are
very far back. I believe the overall leader went fourteen

(10:12):
and two. Pretty impressive. That is impressive. Um, you know,
I did not see a few things coming, clearly didn't
see the Bills beating the Bears. That was the biggest surprise,
the first in Philadelphia. You must have been very nervous,
Chris law I was very nervous. I was waiting to

(10:32):
see when Sanchez was gonna get put in. Actually there
was we might see Mark Sanchez to how how ineffectual
Nick Foles was in that first half was shocking, and
he looked more like Napoland Dynamite out there than he
actually looks like to like, he just looked uncle, he
looked he looked awful in the sack fumbles. I mean,
but man, he turned it around thirty four points in
the second half. Well, that that fourth and and inches

(10:54):
at midfield, um going forward as Chip Kelly did, and
then Darren's rolls bursting through may prove to be something
we look back weeks from now as as a as
the biggest moment in the Eagles season. And again, I mean,
I don't think that's overstating it. One game. I know
it's a week two week game, it's a week to

(11:15):
week league, and it's just one week. But losing your
home opener to a nonconference opponent, as say the Bills
did before having to go on the road to play
a night m a night game, nationally televised night game,
as the Bears are about to do. The Bears are

(11:37):
obviously the ones that lost the game at home last week.
That's just the I mean, the Bears and the Eagles
are your Sunday and Monday night wrote opponents in week two.
So those are toughest signments. I mean the Bears losing
it home to the Bills and now having to go
across the country and be the opponents to open the
Field of Genes, the new stadium for the forty Niners,

(11:59):
who looked great as I predicted, I was not buying
into that hole, you know, forty Niners issue with Jim Harbon,
how the team was going to look and the offense
was going to be dreadful. It certainly helped that the
Cowboys kept coughing the ball up, but so the Eagles.
If they had gone down at home to the Jaguars

(12:20):
to kick off the season before having to go to Indianapolis,
where the Colts are usually a much better home team
than a road team that would have been brutal, Gus
Bradley's can coach them up. So I was a little
less surprised that Jacksonville kind of gave Philadelphia game. I
was just shocked that Chicago laid an absolute egg, like

(12:41):
they're talking Super Bowl in Chicago, and they come out
no offense to the Bills, but they didn't exactly like
the preseason on fire and to just come out like
Jake Cutler just throwing it all over the yard once again,
I was I was stunned at the Bears. The Bears
losing to Buffalo. Yeah, I mean, that was defferent Lee
a shocker of Week one. Another surprise to me was

(13:05):
how Tampa looked at home. I thought they would look
much stronger. Obviously Tennessee going into Kansas City and putting
the bang thing on the Chiefs um you know who,
clearly looked like they were missing Dwyane Bow And then
Andy Reid lost his marbles, which is why I did

(13:25):
not draft Lashawn McCoy last year, even though he was
not in control of it, and stayed away from Jamal Charles.
And that's where you know, my fantasy UH picks went
a little bit down the tubes last year because you know,
obviously both of those guys were pretty damn great fantasy,
but Jamal Charles got seven touches passes I think, I mean,

(13:46):
that's ada and how does that happen? It's not like
the Titans were thoroughly running away from it. And without
bow I mean Jamal Charles and and you know Andy
Reid took the hit this week saying that that's my fault. Yeah.
But now Tennessee has a home game this week against
Dallas and dal. I mean, we've got Dez Bryant on

(14:07):
Sunday Game Day morning with with Irvin, So we're gonna
be talking for a very heavy Cowboys discussion coming up
this Sunday, because if the Cowboys dropped to Owen two
and they've got a trip to Seattle coming up, Man,
that defense is brutal. I know him a little bit
all over the map here. But the difference between starting
you know, making the playoffs at Owen to um and

(14:31):
Curry if your team went Owen one last week. Here's
the deal. The last team to start OWING to make
the playoffs was last year's Carolina Panthers. They were the
only team in twelve to start OWING two and make it.
You add three more previous seasons to that mix, the
three previous playoff fields. That's thirty six more teams. Add
that to the mix, and the the last team to

(14:52):
have made the playoffs O and two is still Carolina
one team in four years correct, yeah, two thousand eight,
so you can actually add four seasons to that. Two
was the last team two eight. Three teams started and
two made the playoffs. Oh, nine, ten, eleven, twelve zero,

(15:14):
last year one. You don't want to go on too,
You just don't. You just don't. You have an eleven
percent chance of making the playoffs in in the quarter century,
if you take the entire twenty five years of the
expanded playoff system, an eleven percent chance of making it.
If you're on in two or eleven percent of the
previous teams? Did you go one and one? That pops up?

(15:37):
Those are the hard, unvarnished facts. You can talk about
a team facing two in the face to New England Patriots.
What happened there? I mean the second half, they just
couldn't get a first down, They couldn't protect Tom Brady,
they couldn't stop no Sean Marino and Lamar Miller. I
don't know what happened. That was an unmitigated disaster. And

(15:58):
let's give. Let's give the you want to talk about
unmitigated disasters. Though St. Louis is that Sean Hill is
not going to start this week. It's gonna be Austin
Davis again, the third string quarterback going into Tampa and
and no Chris Long for weeks. That's that's no Chris Long.

(16:19):
And they they are there in dire straits and they
look terrible. I mean, they looked absolutely terrible. The defense
really couldn't you know. Obviously, if you're gonna get three
and outed back on the field is a defense that
doesn't help. Yeah, they must have been exhausted. But you know,
the the Minnesota Vikings, a lot of people are tipping
the cap to Mike Zimmer. The defense looked good, but

(16:40):
of course they were going against the third string quarterback.
Tom Brady is going to be different, and Brady doesn't
you know, to go to oh and two. That would
be never happened to start a year under Tom Brady.
You know. Here's here's the Here's the thing, obviously, is
the shockers of the week are that every single a
f C East team one bought two England, right, that's
a surprise teoted out in New England's in fourth place,

(17:02):
and UM and that's that. That was the surprise to
me right there. And of course Denver is already off
and running. Is the only as C West team we
don't win. It was almost the Cults almost were the
only a f C South team with a with a loss.
But Jacksonville had a dreadful second half. That was interesting,

(17:26):
and um, you know Brian Hoyer looking so terrible in
the first half. Everybody was looking at at Manzille warming
up for the second half of his helmet on, thinking
he might run out there, but he didn't. Yeah, so
if the Browns would have just pulled that off, that
would have been great for me because I did faith
they could go into three Rivers and do it. And well,

(17:46):
I thought I had a good lone wolf going with
San Diego and the Chargers. I mean, how many times
can they open a season with a double digit loss
and Chris Berman calling it but he asked, it's like
they went Chargers. They had they had the lead heading
into the fourth quarter. They played great for three quarters.
Phil Rivers is clicking, Ryan Matthews is running, the defense

(18:08):
is hitting, and then something just kind of fumbled snap
it went through Rivers's hands, And if they had kicked
the field goal there. Um then then you know, and
I know Berman and Burman conversion would have been necessary
if I'm not mistaken, to tie the game. And Berman
and Delford were talking about how that was an errand snap,

(18:29):
but to me, it looked like it just went right
through Phil's hands. I think said it was an errand
snap and Dilford. Dilford called it okay if I had to,
if I recall correctly, but you know, be that as
it may. I mean, man, those those are the losses
that hurt. But I still like the Chargers. I'd like
their defense and I think, you know, when they don't

(18:50):
shoot themselves in the foot, they're gonna be really dangerous.
And you could say the Lions are in that group too.
I mean, they look explosive we expected them to do
and then times you see the Stafford off balance throws.
Doesn't matter because Megatron is a beast. And first score
was because the Lions had their typical foot shooting on

(19:12):
defense with penalties, and um, if they can cut out
those mistakes, and that's what you know, doubt there are
certain teams that out there that have a big opportunity
coming up this week and Detroit's one of them. Detroit
is at Carolina, which had an impressive win. I know
I started this by saying, how shocked that was how
Tampa looked at home. But um Carolina to go into

(19:36):
Tampa with their backup quarterback and absolutely put the clamps
down on on them on an offense that Say what
you will about Josh McCown. He looked superb last year
in Chicago. Say what you will about him. He is
more than serviceable. And they had three beasts of a
wide receivers right Safarian Jenkins, Vincent Jackson, and Mike Evans seven,

(20:02):
as Barren Stat referred to them on game day morning.
But Duncan Years and Doug Martin, who's supposedly healthy coming
into the season, and they shut it all down. I
mean they shut it all down. And Derek Anderson looked
solid and Riverboat Ron pushing buttons again like he's still
coach of the year. Did anyone expect Derrick Anderson to

(20:24):
do anything well? He did more that he managed the game.
And Kelvin Benjamin looked really good then really good the
hand strength to hold onto that touchdown, he looked really
very good. I mean, that was one of the plays
of the week still a big time tight end threat,
and Cam Newton's coming back this week. But Detroit has

(20:45):
his chance. If Detroit can go into Carolina and win
that game. Another team, I don't you don't want to
hear this, Brockman, but the Jets look good and the
Jets have it well. I mean, look, they had Derek
carr Derek carr ugle obviously in game one, right and
Geno Smith still didn't have too much of a command
of the offense where it looked like he was fully

(21:07):
in control and it was and it was and it
was in rhythm. They didn't look that way. And then
at then again they put they would put vic In
at white out inside the tent doing all sorts of
tricks and games instead of taking these beasts of their
running backs and jamming it down the throat of their opponent. So,

(21:28):
you know, the Jets offense still I need to be
sold on. But what I am sold on as the
Jets front line defensively, and they have an opportunity with
this Green Bay interior line offensively offensive line with a
rookie center, some banged up guys in the middle of
that line. The Laga might not be playing. They have

(21:48):
every chance to put pressure in Aaron Rodgers face. A minute,
Wait a minute, did up here? They have a chance
to go ahead if they can go into lambeau Field
and come out with a surprising win. To make statements here,
two teams that have an opportunity to make big time
statements on the road. UM and Arizona is going to

(22:09):
go to the Giants play an early one o'clock game.
They could be two and oh, which is crucial for
them because you take a look at San Francisco opening
up against Chicago, that's no gimme. But you'd have to
think they're in Seattle's at San Diego. An interesting week
to game because in this week to week league, we're
last week we crowned Seattle. If Seattle struggles on the
road this week, it'll be wellting. You see, they're different

(22:30):
without the the the twelves in the stands. Yeah, but
you don't think that's gonna be at Seattle South. You
don't think that place is going to be crawling with twelves.
It possibly is, because they're everywhere everywhere, but it's still
not it's still not their home field. I think I
think the interesting one is the I think the Redskins
scare and danger of potentially being going to I could

(22:51):
see the Jaguars totally going in there and felling that
one off. I'm gonna still pick Washington because you know,
I've said they win the division last this week, and
so I kind of gotta go that way. But man,
something's going on there with Robert. They looked dreadful against Houston,
which lost Jadavian Clowney for a month and a half,

(23:12):
maybe after just a quarter and a half of football,
but they played very well defensively. They scored twice um
on defense, and that's how you win football games. That's
how you win football games in the National Football League.
And Washington's at Philadelphia next week, so and that's where

(23:36):
we're going to kick off Week four of the NFL
season and Thursday Night Football next week. A week from today,
we're in Atlanta for Tampa at Atlanta, and then the
week after that it's Giants at FedEx Field. I mean,
you talk about a team in disarray, it's possible. We
see Gruden in inn r G three in the Gang
at Owen three. It's entirely possible. There was a swear,

(24:00):
but Jacksonville is a chance to serve notice there too. Yeah,
there was a play in that game when Swerringer just
like he blitzed and r G three saw him coming
from far away. She couldn't even move latterly get other way.
It's just he Yeah, I don't know if he was
called for roughing the passer, which which I thought was
a bad call as much as as much of his

(24:21):
reputation that he has. I thought he hit he hit
him appropriately and he didn't lift him and land on
him either. I thought it was a good call. And
what it did was it set but too fresh set
of towns uh instead of instead of the Redskins kicking
the field goal, it set up in a new fresh
set of downs that that Washington went ahead and turned
the ball over next so that penalty they gave fresh

(24:45):
set of downs actually wound up helping Houston and UH
and and Houston one and now Houston UH this week
has to go on the road and they're at Oakland.
Interesting game but which our friend m j D may
not be available because he he fractured his hand. Hands

(25:06):
he had a hand procedure. So man, there's there's a
lot going There's a lot going on. Discussed. What did
you make of the Giants? I mean, are they in
for an absolute dreadful or Eli looked Eli looked off again.
He looked off again. I don't know the weapons that
he has at his disposal, if there, if they're good enough.

(25:26):
I mean Victor Cruz talking about needing the ball more,
wouldn't you key on him? Who else? Who are you
going to cover? Yeah, if you're if you're if you're
defense playing the John certainly, Ruben Randall hasn't proven himself. Beckham,
if you're out, Beckham is not even on the field
tight end. But but I mean, I mean Eli, I

(25:48):
don't he's always finding his tight ends. I mean, you
know he's He's made Bear Pasco famous cattle rancher bar Pascal.
I mean, the NFC East is dreadful, atually the worst division,
and it's gonna win it. Wait the sorry, how do
you how can you defend the NFC easting? I know

(26:10):
they are pretty bad. I'm not I'm not gonna lie.
It's not I think the NFC East is going to
prove to be the worst division in the League eight
and it's gonna win it, which which by the way,
would start contrasts from the means what they're going to
finish if they're lucky. If they're lucky eight ate Dallas, Yes,
I think Dallas. I mean Dallas right here later on.
I think Dallas goes into Tennessee this week and loses.

(26:30):
I do not think Dallas wins in tennis. Dallas might
win five if they're lucky, if the way they play
and Tony keeps throwing the ball for grabs like that,
that the interception in the end zone. I gotta tell
you know again, people are I'm as you know, a
Romo fan that that that surprised me. Patrick Willis pick, Yeah,
I couldn't believe he was throwing that up. Couldn't believe
it off off one foot into quadruple coverage. Who do

(26:53):
you think that ball was going to? I have no idea. Alright,
let's pick games. Let's do it. Then I gotta go
to fifteen more meetings. I can only and by the way,
you may listen, we're gonna try and talk as much
football tonight as possible, but we we all know what
the story is gonna what the story is, and it
could be completely different by the time we hit the
air and when we hit the air, then there's an

(27:15):
actual football game, and I think the Ravens win it
in this one. I think they're gonna go ahead and
and rally around the situation and um and and the
star of the game I think is going to be
for set interesting. You know if if, uh what if
Isaiah Crowell went ahead and lit it up for Cleveland

(27:38):
and Terence West. I don't think this is the same
Steelers defense we're gonna see moving forward. UM in the past.
I don't see if the think we're gonna see that.
And I'm gonna take the Ravens at home under the lights.
I don't think they dropped to Owen too. I'm gonna
go the other way. I really like, um what Pittsburgh
has done with kind of upping the tempo a little
bit on offense, and I think there's just there's too

(28:01):
much going on. I don't want to use the d
distraction word, but there's a lot going on that Ravens
team right now. So I think Pittsburgh goes in and
gets it done. Yeah. I actually I'm with you, Rich.
I think the Ravens pull it off and they and
they kind of rally around it. I would also say
that this situation. People are are saying, oh, how are
the Ravens gonna play play a game under under this situation?

(28:22):
I think it, as you said, it can rally the
team and and to put this as a tough situation
to play and is nothing compared to what obviously the
Chiefs went through two years. They the team has had
three days to absorb it. Ray Rice wasn't supposed to
play in this game anyway. Um, And and you know, uh,
in terms of absorbing it, you know, there's a lot

(28:43):
of people who consider in that locker room, who consider
ray Rice a lifelong friend, and you know, the video
shocked them just as much as it shocked everybody when
we saw it on Monday, even though again, what were
we thinking happened in that elevator for him for her
to be dragged out unconscious. Um. That said, I think
they've had three days to absorb it, and I think
they at home. Um, it's a short week, and um,

(29:07):
I think they pull it out tonight. Moving down our
our our list here, I'm gonna take the Cardinals. I
think that they're just a better team. They're better team defensively,
they have more offensive weapons and if Carson Palmer just
doesn't turn it over, which I don't think he will. Um,
I'm gonna take the Giants to fall to Owen two
and there'll be just a big time problem on on

(29:30):
the big Blue hands as Arizona UM wins this game. Yeah.
I like the way Carson kind of managed the game.
He was very fleet of foot, surprisingly in the face
of San Diego's pressure. I definitely think, you know, one
of the topics coming out of that game was Larry
Fitzgerald and not getting any targets till the fourth quarter.
I think that Larry comes back and has a good game,

(29:50):
and you know, Andrea Ellington is one of those versatile
backs in the mold of McCoy and Charles who can
kind of do it all, and I think they have
a big game. Yeah. John Brown was good. My Floyd
looked good as well. I like the Cardinals here too,
a little bit disturbing the John Abrahams story as well.
That kind of came out this week and unfortunate. But
their defense has lost a lot too because no docket.

(30:11):
But I still like the Cardinals, Redskins, Jags. I'm gonna
go with the Jaguars in this one. I think they're
a better team, and I'm gonna take them. I love it.
I'm sticking with the Redskins at so at least one
more weeks. So I listened back to last week's show
Rich and a lot of Brockman's picks that he made
last week. He would follow it up with I have
so and so in my fantasy team. So I'm taking

(30:32):
the Redskins. I have Alfred Morris. He did it about
seven times. He just said earlier the Redskins are a mess,
but I picked them to win the division. So I'm
just kind of gotta know when to fold him. Man,
it's week two. I'm folding already. Jaguars alright, alright, Well,
am I lone wil thing The Patriots. No, I'm gonna
take them. I'm gonna take them. I think that Um,

(30:54):
they always have problems in Miami, they just do. And
it was a division game and UM and Miami really
took it to him, took it to him in the
second half. And UM deserve to win, there's no doubt
about that. But I think New England rebounds on the road. Um,
I just don't see Brady and Belichick. Oh and two,

(31:15):
I just don't and UM, I might be wrong, but
I'm going to go that way. Even though you know,
I think Brady beats his back up from a few
years ago. You don't see this too many times by
the way that we're we're backup goes against the quarterback
that he backed up under a different team. UM. I
do believe the Patriots will pull it together, even though

(31:36):
their line play was pretty dreadful. Mike Zimmer was a
defensive coordinator for a Cincinnati team that was the that
actually held Brady off the board. Uh, and the out
of the end zone for the first time. I think
at the time it was it ended a fifty six
game streak last year. UM. All that said, UM, you know,
and it's the first game outdoors in the in the

(31:57):
Gopher Stadium for for the Vikings. Uh. I just think
Brady goes in there and and reminds everybody who who
who he is and takes care of business. I believe it.
I hope you're right. And like I said this earlier,
the stat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick never started the
season oh and two, So I hope that continues. Yeah,
this one's tough. I I kind of went a lone

(32:17):
wolf the Vikings here. Um, but just do it. I
think I'm gonna just do it. I reserve therect to
change the pick, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna go with
the Picturets. As of right now, they've won the last
three against the Vikings, and um, I think they definitely
definitely get the win, and I assume we're all taking
the Titans. I'm gonna do it. You know. Bill Coward
came on, as you know, a few weeks ago and

(32:39):
and and named the Titans and the Buses his surprise
teams of of two thousand and fourteen, and and last
week he was half right. And the Titans has looked
great in Kansas City. I mean defensively, they shut them down.
They're strong upfront. Defensively, they're strong and the back defensively,
And locker Is is definitely improved, or at least showed

(33:02):
he's improved with with with Wizzen Hunt in his ear
and you know, probably up his back, you know. And
Sean green Is as a stout runner, you know, Jet
fans know that eventually he'll at some point, you know,
crack a rib or something because it's tough for him
to stay healthy. But maybe Bishop Sanky can help keep

(33:23):
keep the load from being totally borne by Green. They
have receivers that a few people know about him. I
like the Titans right now, and I think the Cowboys
are are in trouble. I really I'm gonna go with
Tennessee here. You know the quarterback was the last time
these two teams played, and the Titans got the wind.
For the Tennessee Titans, Carrie Collins Vince Young went twelve

(33:44):
or fifteen and seventy yards and two touchdowns. I like
the Titans. Two Rich fact, good fact. I'm with you
on that one. Um. I think the Titans. The Titans
pulled off man Dallas is they just we thought that
the defense would struggle in the offense will put up points.
They didn't do anything. Didn't do anything, didn't do anything.
My favorite is is Tony Romo postgame and then the

(34:05):
you always get the Jerry Jones comments too, and he wants,
you know, he wants to say so much and he
has to bite his tongue all the time. Tony Jerry. Yeah.
I wonder if Jerry was thinking about whether or not
he should have taken Manzel when he was watching Romo
throw picks last week. Yeah, of course everybody was thinking
about that too, So we're all taking the Titans. Who

(34:27):
who Who's taking the bills? I took the bills. I
got the bills. You yeah, I'm taking the bills at
home to you both are. Look, they got new blood
potentially in there with Terry Pegila coming in my Penn
State guy is the new owner. The fan base is
gonna rally. I love early September early October games at
Orchard Park two when the Bills were throwbacks. I'm taking

(34:48):
the bills here in the home. Oh wow, Okay, you
know what, I really liked what I saw out of
the Dolphins last week, and so I'm riding Miami right now.
I think they're gonna be able to run the ball. Uh,
and they're gonna get pressure on E. J. May Annual.
There you go open there. Um. I as much as
I said that the Lions have a chance to make
a statement in Carolina this weekend, I don't believe they're
gonna wind up being able to make it successfully. I

(35:10):
like Cam coming back. That defense is too good. That
defense is so good. They're just they are just hitting
people and um, they play smart football. Um. And I
do believe that Um, they're gonna they're gonna prove to
be tougher than the Lions in this game. I'm gonna
take Carolina. M you know I originally taken the Lions

(35:33):
and then, Uh, did I just convince you to do
other ones? Yeah, you kind of did. I was just
thinking to myself, I need the Lions need to prove
it to me that they can kind of put together
some put together back to back games. I'll go on
the road, beat beat a division winner, and then I'm
looking at sixty of users are picking the Lions. That
is crazy. I'm going Carolina after all of that. Well,

(35:57):
our fens have you know, they know what they're doing
with this pick in the sixties. I'm with you. I'm
going with the Lions to come in. I met four
d plus yards of offense last week. Matt Stafford looks great,
Calvin Johnson looks great, Joyke Bell and Reggie Bush going
off and on even Uh what's this? The uh Golden Tate,

(36:19):
you know, getting mixed into the offense, looking looking solid,
and their their defense, although again it was the Giants. Look,
I don't know if Cam if the running back situation,
the wide receiver situation in Carolina. I like. I like
the lines in this one. I think the defense combined
with Cam coming back and he's gonna want to put
on a show and really have a good showing in

(36:39):
his you know, home opener, season opener. I think that's
gonna be enough. Okay, I'm gonna take the Bengals at
home against the Falcons. I loaned Wolf the Falcons last week.
I was I nailed it, man. I saw that I
had the Falcons. I took them to Okay, I was
with I loaned Wolf the Saints at the Natural looked great.
I'm gonna take the Falcons. I'm back on both word. Yeah. Offensively,

(37:02):
they're just gonna I don't know. I think the Bengals
are gonna just better defensively than the Saints and the Falcons.
Do you think the Bengals are gonna be able to
score points? I think the Beans are gonna be able
to score point. Someone not named Mike Nugent and un again,
that Ravens defense played very well last week. They did.
Reason why I'm taking the Ravens tonight too. Gino, I

(37:23):
guess Gino Atkins was a little winded and I guess
had sore feet because It was really the first full
action he's gotten since coming back. I like the Falcons
in this one too. I'm gonna take the Falcons on
the road. Okay, I'm gonna take the Saints. Anybody taking
the Browns, Anybody taking the Rams on the road against
the Buccaneers. Anybody taking the Charges at home against zero. No,

(37:45):
I'm with you. Anybody taking the Texans against the Raiders.
I am taking the Texans. My hand is also up.
I'm taking the Raiders at home. Black Derrick Carr is
gonna beat his brother's team at Ledge. This one's for
the car family, bro, this one is for the Car families.
He's gonna take care of the Texas. That's great, Okay,

(38:06):
I have a feeling at home. They're gonna be much
more comfortable, and the kid's gonna get his first win
under his belt. Okay, then alright, Fitzpatrick is going to
hear it from the black hole. You're gonna take the Jets. No,
I'm taking the Pack green Bay. I don't think green
Bay falls towing to it's the home opener. I think
that Aaron Rodgers, if he does get pressured from up
the up the middle, so what he's one of those
few guys in the league for whom the place starts

(38:28):
five seconds after it. It's actually snapped, no doubt about it.
So I think that he's going to prove to be
very difficult for the Jets to keep in the pocket.
And um, he's gonna find his guys down the down
the down the field against depleted secondary. I mean, de
Milner's practicing, but I don't know. We were talking high
ankle sprain from the middle of August, so those things
usually take a while. Yeah, I'm not taking much stock

(38:49):
in green Bay getting dropped by Seattle last week. That's
a tough situation the twelve season opener, and I think
the pack kind of proved that everyone who's picking them
to the Super Bowl, uh, doesn't need to change their pick.
They're gonna put it on the Jets this week. Yeah.
I like the Packers too. I'll tell you what the
kind of what you said earlier, though, if the Jets
do go in there on the road, the panic button
is going to start in Green Bay and the Jets

(39:10):
have a chance. I mean that would that would be
a big time win for the Jets and Jet and
and Rex says that people are are looking past them.
I mean, get no, no doubt. A lot of people
are are not on the Jets bandwagon for many reasons.
But one one thing I am on the Jets bandwagon
is that front four. I mean, that's as good as
any front four in the NFL in my mind. And

(39:32):
that's saying a lot. But at least the middle of
that deep the middle of that line is with Wilkerson
and Richardson. That is tough man, that is tough, and
Wilkerson's all over there. They're both all over the place.
I can't even just say what I'm so. The bottom
line is, you know, they should be able to exploit
the pressure up the middle, but that quarterbacks no statue.
He's an m v P for a reason, and the

(39:54):
same as an m v P. And in Denver Um,
I'm gonna take the Broncos for owners and colts, I'm
gonna take the home teams there. To finish up too
interesting little little little nugget here with Peyton and Alex
Smith going against each other to both former number one
overall picks. There are seven current number one overall picks

(40:15):
that are starting at quarterback, and uh they all face off.
Six of them play each other this week Elive versus
Carson Palmer, Peyton Manning verse Alex Smith and Matt Stafford
verse Cam Newton. If you nice, you know, someone looks
at the research and are you going to take the Eagles? Uh?
So that's my Super Bowl prediction and if you're a call,

(40:37):
I also took the Colts to win the Super Bowl,
but I think the Eagles win this one. We to
Monday night football in Indie too. Rich. I do have
a question for you, um, with all the Ray Rice
thing going on, what's your mindset as a broadcaster going
into a situation like that going into tonight is to

(40:58):
give the voice to the to the to the fan
is to is to right off the bat communicate that
me sitting in my chair knows how most fans sitting
at home are angry. They're angry. It's very difficult for
fans to reconcile the sport that they love with the
visceral nature of the video they saw. And you know,

(41:22):
clearly you can't paint everybody with the same brush. But
this league, with what's happened over the last ninety hours,
has ticked off a lot of the loyal fan base
and I want to run off the bat, acknowledge what
folks at on the couch with the remote in their
hands are probably feeling and thinking, and discussed this as

(41:45):
straightforward as we possibly can, which is the facts. We'll
talk about the facts. There's a major credibility gap going
on here. And what else we when are we going
to find out? When this thing's over? Because a lot
of fans are already sick and tired of it um
and uh what what can be done to make sure
none of this ever happens again? Nothing even close to it,

(42:07):
But we do have to talk football to I mean,
it's a pretty big game here, it's a monster game here,
and and fans are getting set for the rest of
their week too. And unless there's a another break in this,
I think the news cycle might be over here with
the naming of Robert Mueller the third And whether when

(42:30):
this investigation begins or what the commissioner or the league
might add to it before this investigation begins, remains to
be seen. I think it's it's incredible to how I mean,
with the age we live in with Twitter and the
amplified nous of everything, and how quickly it can just go.
I mean, I got off the I was landing on

(42:50):
the plane yesterday when the a P story hit and
the first thing is AP tweeted out the headline, right,
headline is New Jersey law enforcement official confirms uh tape
was sent to an NFL executive. Right. So now that's
the headline, and what that reads is like game set match,

(43:15):
It's all over. And then the story comes and it's
not like, well, New Jersey official from law enforcement was
asked specifically for the tape and had it sent to
somebody who has confirmed that the commissioner saw it or
confirmed that anybody in the NFL other than whoever received

(43:35):
it saw it, which the NFL the New Jersey Law
enforcement official could not do. So it's just like, oh, okay,
so there's a little bit more nuanced in detail than
the headline actually for trade but nobody but on Twitter,
what gets retweeted first is that headline. And I don't

(43:58):
know who might have the story or not. The headline
might have been enough for people, and who knows who
received this tape in the NFL and what they did
with it. Now many people think that obviously it was
it was had to have been shown up the chain
of command. Do we know that for sure. Anybody know that.

(44:21):
Could it have been somebody who's who is a friend
of somebody from law enforcement who have got this tape?
I mean, this is full of speculation here. It could
be the exact opposite that. Yeah, it was. It was
purposely received and sent up the chain of command. Why
why would everybody up the chain of command, including the
top person in the NFL, lie on behalf of ray

(44:42):
Rice and sit down and do an interview on CVS
and double down to None of that makes sense to me.
And people are already even saying that it's it's like,
what's what? What is this done on behalf of ray Rice? Why?
So I was just againing. I was just we need
to take a breath, see what what comes out over

(45:03):
the next few days. And obviously in this investigation, because
we know for a fact, guys working for the NFL
or you know, you used to technically, but you know
that if somebody made a phone call from the league
office down to a New Jersey number on April nine

(45:23):
to leave a voicemail within minutes, that could be pinpointed
within whatever hardware mainframe system isn't the league they know
who made that phone call within minutes, So the headline
that gets tweeted out becomes the narrative more so than

(45:47):
maybe what the narrative actually might be. It makes sense. Yeah, Well,
like I said, I was just curious what how you
approached something like well and again approaching it by telling
the facts, speaking about the truth. The facts. The facts
are this, the facts are that, and in facts are
that most fans are ticked off and want answers, and

(46:08):
kind of how you manage the guys on the set
when because this is such a hot, hot issue, it's
just keeping it within the rails of of of of
their areas of expertise. Last year, when the story that
hopped from the back to the front page involved bullying,
and it hopped from the back to the front page

(46:28):
because so many moms and dads and kids deal with
that scourge on a daily basis and to see it
happened between grown men within a football locker room was shocking.
But when our sports analysts and sports announcers talked about it,
they could talk about it from the idea of what
was going on within the locker room in this particular
case of bullying, and then extrapolated potentially to the greater

(46:53):
social issue. This has nothing to do with football. It
was a football player who did it. So what does
that make us experts on talking about domestic violence? It doesn't.
And that's where so many people in our professional put
foot and mouth and said absolutely ridiculous things. Paul George
today tweet. I mean, it's so tonight we'll be talking

(47:15):
about it. The guys will be talking about it, and
from a football standpoint, you know, we'll we'll present the
news as we know it. We'll have reporters on the scene.
I think I'm even interviewing to Baltimore local reporters to
talk about how the Ravens have handled all this and
what it means to the people of Baltimore to put
it in perspective there, and then you know, we'll talk

(47:36):
about it as conditions warn't but if it's if news
is breaking during their show in the world, we'll be
all over. Can you give us any any hint of
what the new set looks like? And have you seen?
Um it's it's very nice, very nice. There's two of them.
There's one outside the stadium, there's one inside. And we'll
have fun tonight. You know. It'll be the first of

(47:57):
the Thursday night games and we'll we'll be the football
game and it's going to be, like I said, crucially important.
And then next week hopefully we'll be able to do
this on time. Although you know they're part of the
reason why this got delayed is we've got the Rich
Eyes and Show that we're we're planning and hopefully launching,
um this, you know, if not October, then sometime late

(48:19):
in October early November if we're still trying to pinpoint
a date on that, but it's coming to Direct TV
and the NFL now app. So we're planning on that,
getting ready for Thursday night football. Then there's Sunday game
day morning. There's all sorts of stuff going on going
on the podcast. I had to phone it in this time,
but um, do you have an international shout out? Oh

(48:39):
you know what I actually do? Oh great, well, no,
no problem, not that he has one ready rich scrambling. Well,
I mean when we do this just on the Rich
Eyes and Show, I'll be a little more block is
actually taking right now, We're not We're not up against
any clock clock. Now, there's no clock clock. You could
just you can need you can need, you need to

(49:00):
be prepared for this. It's just important game day meetings
to go to. Here's the thing, like when we have
when the show goes on the air, it'll be lined
in the rundown and so I'll have I'll have the
time blaming the producing element of this program, which they
had little black thereof. I take offense to that international
shout out this week to my man Mark Brown at

(49:22):
Draco m j B. He says, international shout out Melbourne, Australia.
He's a Patriots fan for thirty years. We need all
the support we can get this week, market buddy. Also,
I have to amend my earlier statement of fourteen and
two was our best record. We actually had five. We
had five people go fifteen and one. I misspoke. Um,

(49:43):
so it's a five way tie. Top of basically, we
all got we all got boat raced in week one.
We're way behind, way behind, way behind. But John Hynd
joined from the Howard Stern Show. A couple of guys
from the DP Show joined as well, so they're into
so and we're up to almost four thousand right now. Yeah,
so go ahead and join us. Why don't you? I

(50:03):
went nine and seven? Yeah, join us, because you already
have a great chance of beating us, and we all
went five all right at Cliff, Chris Law and Chris Brockman.
I'm at Rich Eyes and for at the at Rich
Eyes and Show, which is the name of this part.
Absolutely enjoy the game tonight, buddy. To add backs, take
care from both, stay listening to friends,