September 4, 2025 • 27 mins
On this episode of Chargers Weekly, Bolts radio play-by-play announcer Matt “Money” Smith and host Chris Hayre recap the latest news involving LA and the entire NFL. The hosts preview the Chargers’ 2025 season opener in São Paulo, Brazil vs the Kansas City Chiefs. They break down the key position groups to watch, including the new-look backfield featuring running backs Omarion Hampton & Najee Harris, highlight how the team is preparing for the game while staying in Brazil, and detail how quarterback Justin Herbert & the Bolts can take down quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, & the Chiefs to begin the 2025 NFL season with a win. Presented by Splitero.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Late fifteen ten touchdoup sucks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up? Guys?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome into Chargers Weekly, presented by Splintero as always, joined
by the Voice of the Chargers Matt Mudey Smith and Money.
This is not the content studio, but not a bad
backdrop here in South Pollo Date two.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Now, it's been great, What a wonderful trip that people
are incredible. Could not be happier to be here. I've
had some great experiences. I know the players, enjoyed the pressers,
and everyone's just been so incredibly friendly. What an awesome
opportunity for us, and just can't wait to get this
game going.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Dude, yesterday felt like maybe two or three days, just
with the time change and everything that went into yesterday
with the pressers in the media day. Getting in about
a twelve hour flight, not a bad flight though, right
I slept the whole time, Manah, I wouldn't know. I'm
pretty good about that, so I think I might have
won the Sleep Championship.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I think I got about eight hours, so that was
pretty good. And some adversity that I had to overcome
in order to get those eight hours, but I feel
like I faced it head on, took it on and
came out victorious.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yes you did.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I'm hoping I defeated my opponent because I think
I might have defeated my opponent.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's put that adversity in front of me as well.
So the Chargers they've been, they've been all right.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You just want to you want to get past. That's
inside and that's where it'll stay. But yeah, there is
a hierarchy and you kind of you quickly figure out
your place in the pecking order. And similar situation on
the flight back from London. For whatever reason, I'm just
that guy, you know. They they come to me.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And I'm like, yeah, put me wherever you want. Let's go. Listen.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Man, you are you are amenable, you are flexible, you
are fluid.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I think the thing about this trip though, money it's
it's only a four hour time different, so it's like
it's almost like an.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Extended East coast trip.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
But the staff, this is a true team effort just
getting these guys on the correct sleep schedule, the hydration,
the nutrition and trying to make a trip halfway around the.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
World actually just as seamless as possible. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Look, I think the thing to keep in mind is yes,
the Chargers lose a home game. They lose a home
game against the division rival, that division rival that's won
the division and has dominated the division, winn fifty one
of their last sixty games against it. Not ideal, but
the Chiefs are going through the same thing, and as
we have now figured out, having been here for almost
two days, the roads are not easily navigated, and so
(02:23):
they do have I think the Chargers do have an advantage.
We are considerably closer to the stadium than the Chiefs are.
You know, our commute is going to end up being
about twenty thirty minutes. Theirs could be anywhere from ninety
to three hours. Yeah, like it could be any of
those things. So I think you build that in and
maybe there is a little bit of a home field advantage.
(02:43):
Point being, they're overcoming the same thing we are. For
the people that are saying, you know, you dealt the
Chiefs a winning hand, again, how could you do this
to the charge that all that stuff I get because
it's happened in years past traveling for Thursday night football games,
But for this it's first game of the season. Chargers
are relatively healthy. You feel pretty good about you know,
who's gonna be out there on Friday night and get
(03:04):
after it and ste even get that first win of
the season.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Seems like the Chiefs gut in last night, Wednesday night.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So the Charges get in, you know, almost a full
day earlier, try to acclimate themselves.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So money.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I was at the media availability in the practice yesterday,
and I don't know why I was expecting just you know,
a normal scrum for whatever reason in my mind. Right, yeah,
I walk in. There are hundreds of international media. It's
like at international media frenzy for Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh.
They were getting applauses, standing ohs, they were getting collapse
(03:36):
after their press conferences. Man, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, I thank you forget you know what what having
a star quarterback means for a team. And there's a
reason why last year that the NFL made the Chargers
the first Thursday night flex. It's why there's seven nationally
televised games. It's why they're on a standalone the kick
off the season Friday night after the Super Bowl champions Play.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
They have stars.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I mean, look, Justin Herbert is a superstar. Jim Harbaugh
is a super star head coach, and so I think
for Charger fans that may feel like this is adversity
and unfair, get used to it, Get used to Thursday
night flexes, get used to playing on holidays, get used
to playing on short weeks, nationally televised games, international games.
And this is only going to embolden that. You know,
(04:17):
when the commissioner sees hundreds of people excited to talk
to Justin Herbert, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And I know it's it's cycles.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You know it's cyclical, and other teams have those opportunities
or those bits of adversity. But don't be surprised if
it's Chargers Rams that get sent to Australia next year.
You know, like that's that's not going to be surprising
to me at all.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Just give you guys a peek behind the easy Tyler,
Just prepare yourself for it, Hey, Tyler, Tyler is ready
for all the international trips, right.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I don't think eleven hours is a long flight. Wait
til you get a old, a freaking eighteen and a
half brother Australia. Yeah, let's go and guess what. Australia
has waves, more waves, and we.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Can do we can do an entire podcast on Buddy's
Last twenty four hours whatever, that's separative. We talk about
it at the end too, But when you talk about yesterday,
just behind the curtain, get in about nine am, Charge,
get a little rest here, go to practice. They come
back here, they are treated to a Brazilian style barbecue
team dinner. So the team bonding aspect of this, it's real.
(05:16):
And I go back to like the last seven games.
Charges have lost the last seven to the Chiefs. They've
had to lead in the fourth quarter in five of them.
In the sixth they were tied in the fourth quarter.
The only one they have blown out was.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
A meaningless game I think in like week eighteen.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
So this game always comes down to the wire. But
for whatever reason, is Patrick Mahomes. He's unbelievable in one
score games. But I almost feel like you have to
kind of throw out history in some regard because last
year with Jim Harball, you know, remember Justin was on
one leg in that first game, you lose on a
last second field going arrowhead. I just feel like a
(05:51):
Jim Harball prepared team may attack this a little bit
differently this year.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Look, I think for me the biggest thing is they've
never been able to run the ball against the Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's the key.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know, it's just been a struggle for whatever reason.
And last year, you know, coach comes in, we heard
what Greg Roman had to say, and they did their
best to try to make it right with JK and
with Gus, and it just didn't happen, you know, And
it certainly did not happen against the Chiefs. But you
talked about it, like the average margin of victory in
those in look, you said they won seven in a row,
but it's by an average of five points, you know,
(06:24):
and they have the one blowout in there. Outside of that,
it's been nineteen seventeen, thirteen ten. And like the one
thing that I think we've noticed with leads in the
fourth quarter, like last last year at Arrowhead, you know
they're up by a point with four minutes to go,
can you get the stop doing field the doink field
goal exactly that went through.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
But to me, like the that.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
There's a reason why I think the games look the
way they look is for whatever reason, these two coaches
and it's I shouldn't go. I think these two quarterbacks
they just kind of know, maybe you just got to
played a little bit safer because it feels like Mahomes
has been a little bit safer in these games, and
they've been sort of spag games.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Spagnola's been sort of the star of these where he
has shut down this rush attack. You know, every now
and then you'll get that Herbert forced turnover, and so
to me, that's that's sort of the Greg Roman element
of this. You've completely remade your room. You've got a
horse as a running back that you drafted in the
first round. You've got this offensive line. I know it
took the huge shot with Slater, but you bring in
Makai Beckton. You've got all that beef inside with Beckton,
(07:29):
Bozeman and Zion. Can you finally get this running game
to work? Can you get it to work so you
can open things up a little bit and play action
can work and we can finally get some explosive up
explosives out there, because I think ultimately that's what you're
gonna have to do against Bags. He's just he does
not care about anything downfield. He has pressed the line
and it has been really hard to run the ball.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Against this team.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
The big note that came out of yesterday's presser from
Jim Harball he expects Nijie Harris to play in this
football game. And that's fantastic news because say, if you
asked me this two weeks ago, we'd say probably no
chance because he didn't practice at all in training camp,
but gets back to practice last week, full practice this week.
And you said it with the running game and especially
(08:11):
in fourth quarters when you have a horse like a
Marion Hampton, but also a guy who has started every
game that he's played in the NFL, and Naji here
a thousand yards every season. Fourth quarter of football games
with the Chiefs, no pun intended chief among them. In
the fourth quarter, if you have a lead to be
able to run the football, they just have not been
(08:32):
able to do that in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That may be the elixir to beating.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
That's a great point, Chris, because that's what you need,
right You need a four minute drill, and they just
have not been abled. You met leads in five of
the seven games that they lost. You had a four
minute drill and you win those games, and they just
have not been able to do it. And every time
they punted away. And I do think even though everybody's
going to say, you know, don't look here, look here
look forward, like you can't help it. It has happened
(08:55):
too many times where you're looking at the clock and
you're like, here we are again, three and a half
minutes left, two point lead, six point lead, and somehow
it just unravels. Well, the best way to overcome that
is to not give them the ball back. And so look,
I think last year Gus certainly did not quite work
out the way they had hoped. I think, JK, when
you look at it overall, you know, there were explosives
(09:18):
in there where he was able to break something, but
run in, run out, yeah, just wasn't quite there. And
so I think this year that's again I hate to
kind of keep making the same point, but to me,
it's just the key. I think it's the key to
this game and sort of the key to the season.
Can you get you know what you invested it? Because look, Naji,
people will point out the lack of explosives and all that,
but if you just look at yards gained by design,
(09:39):
like what is he supposed to gain the way this
is blocked.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Which you said last week, he'll get your.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Four yards exactly, And that's and that's what they needed,
you know, That's what they desperately needed. So hopefully that's
what they get if they you know, if not, and look,
coach said, I believe what I read was Coach told
Rich Eisen, who's call in the game on YouTube, that
Omarion's going to get the start. So I'm anxious to see,
you know, how how ready he is to give Nase carries,
(10:06):
because I think if he's not, you know, if you're
worried about some of that soft tissue and he's not
ramped up enough yet. You know, when you look at
the at the practice squad, you know, is this maybe
and I know I took a lot incoming for this
by putting him on the fifty three, But is this
like a Naheim Heinz sort of situation where you've got
your horse in Hampton, You've got another big back in
Hassan Haskins, who had the best preseason of any running
(10:28):
back on the roster, and then you've got that there back.
You know, to me, when you're looking at it and
it's Nase, Hampton and and Haskins, it's kind of like,
you know, it's just three monsters. So I'm sort of
interested to see how that whole thing shakes out.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah, that's fascinating. And then you know, just the weapons
on the outside for Justin. You know, one of the
things too, the Chiefs have played so many different styles
over the years. You mentioned how Spagnol has kind of
been the headliner to some of these games as of late,
but you know, Mahomes is capable of putting up thirty
eight too, and Justin Herbert. And in terms of a
fast start, you know, it's it feels very cliche. We say,
(11:03):
got to get off to a fast start, gets Kinsey Chiefs,
you have to get off to a fast start, and
that maybe that starts with Justin in his arm and
all these new weapons on the outside.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I think the you know, the flip side of that, Chris,
is that the job that Jesse Minner has done, you know,
and how what a great job he did last year
in those games. And I do think there's probably it
feels like based on what they did in the offseason,
how they've been talking about it, Travis Kelsey saying maybe
he wasn't as committed last year as he should have been,
you know, going out on the Taylor Swift Tour and
all that sort of thing. In the shape he says
(11:32):
he's in the drafts Avier Worthy, he's another year down
the road. Hollywood Brown is now back and healthy after
missing all the last season. They want to push the
ball like they want their explosives back.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We haven't seen it in a half decade.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I mean, it's kind of been a Patrick Mahomes that's
not looked like the Patrick Mahomes the first five years,
the last four years. So I think, but what I'm getting,
I think there's going to be opportunities. I think they're
going to try to test this defense when they look
out at that secondary Worthy man.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Think and look, that was the difference in the game
at sofar right, it was one play I wouldn't call
it a bust and a sign was just kind of
a blown coverage And there's the difference in the game
that Xavier Worthy touched. That was the only explosive play
of the entire game.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I think that was Christian Fulton, who's coincidentally on the
Chiefs exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So I do think you're going to see the Chiefs
trot because they've set it all offseason, and I don't
think they're saying it to like rope adope you and
they're just going to come out and pound the ball
with the checko. We know they're very good at that,
but I do think you're going to see some opportunities
for a secondary that created a lot of turnovers last
year to perhaps get their hair And that's like, like, look,
we've done this so many times, like you've you've got
(12:38):
to cash in those turnovers.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
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Speaker 2 (13:04):
Slash Chargers you know money.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
We weren't sure maybe a few weeks ago, but Rushie
Rice is not going to play in this football game.
So one weapon down for Patrick Mahomes. But just to
kind of bring it back to the Chargers offense and
Justin Herbert these new weapons, and I'm really intrigued with
the wide receiver position. Who's going to be on the
field because you know, can you keep Kalos off the hill?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Can you keep Trey Harris off the field?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You got quintin he's one hundred percent now, Yeah, Keenan Ladd,
I mean, it's gonna be really fascinating to see how
they deployed the wide receivers.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Well, remember we didn't have Ladd out there in one
of those two games. So right, so you're talking about
the number one weapon for Herbert last year, a guy
that broke all the rookie records held by the aforementioned
Keenan Allen that wasn't out there for one of those
two games, and they were both tight games.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So that's going to be a.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Huge advantage certainly to have him available, not to mention
to have Keenan back. Keenan's always played well against the Chief,
you know, and again when it's spags and those exotic
looks and those design blitzes when you're not you know whatever,
that you never know when they're gonna come. Like, having
a guy that knows how to make himself available is
going to be pretty special. I think on top of that,
the one group I just don't feel like we talk
(14:16):
about enough and I know I'm projecting, but I'm also
kind of looking backwards. Just to me, the tight end
group is so different this year, and I think there
is such an upgrade there with a sure handed Tyler Conklin.
I think with a more now defined he made the
initial fifty three. You know, we want these guys out there.
(14:37):
We're going to be in twelve or we're gonna be
in twenty two. And I want Tucker Fisk and I
want Will Disley and they're both attached to let's say
the right side of line. And guess what Matt Lock's
in the backfield and here's Hampton. Like, to me, that
is a huge difference last year. I can't remember what
week it was that Fisk joined the team, but remember
he didn't get a lot of run until the back
half of that season. So I think you're talking about
(14:59):
a gri group in that rush attack. And then also
with the Rendez guess who had that big catch in
the in the San Francisco game. Like, it's such a
different group, and I'm you know, you brought up the
wide receivers with Keenan back with the emergence of lad
and how you're gonna have to honor him and perhaps
double him to open things up for a player like
Q or Trey if he's active, or KLS if he's active.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Or you know, Darius Davis.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
The one thing that coach said is he talked about
the running backs as receivers, and that is something we
barely saw last year. I mean it was almost non existent.
So but those guys can do it exactly. Naji's always
been great catching the ball out of the backfield his
whole career, and a Marion Hampton we know has that
level of explosiveness. So you know, you mentioned wide receivers,
(15:45):
I mentioned tight ends, and then we both kind of
collectively come back to.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And the running backs and the running backs. Yeah, and
Justin Herbert.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
The the wildcard game did not go as planned obviously
in all three phases, but for Justin it had been
so disappointing to put together regular season like that, and
you know, try to put the team on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Four interceptions in that game.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
He has to be championed at the bit to get
out there against the Kansas City Chiefs on an international stage.
And he's the type of guy who I know that
stuck with them all offseason.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
He's ready to go.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and I think it's also look, it was the
offensive line's worst game of the year, you know, and
and look you had Jamari out there in place of
Tray and it was you know, just in terms of
a performance, in terms of a graded performance, whatever, every
single offensive lineman had their worst game of the year.
So I think, now you're down, Slater, You've been challenged
(16:38):
from the way you mentioned Herbert. But I think it's
also a lot of that is the guys in front
of him. He had no time, He had guys in
his lap on every single snap. So I think that's
the weaponsion. No weapons were down, Yeah, exactly. I mean
you had lad and nothing else, literally nothing else. So
I think I think the combination of all that. I'm
sure they probably I think if I were them, i'd
(17:01):
probably want to just pretend like that thing never happened.
That's like that one game where the defense played so
well that first half and you had so many opportunities
against the Texans team that had just been blown out
and couldn't get anything going off en last week.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
There was a play here or there, the CJ. Stroud
play that could have changed everything.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, And I mean they just could not get it done.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And so I think to your point from earlier about
the fast start, Like hey man, in that game, you
drive it straight down their throats. You have a Will
Disley drop that could have been a touchdown. You settle
for three, you get the immediate turnover on the next play,
and you can't move the ball at all, and you
settle for three and at six nothing instead of fourteen nothing.
I think fourteen to nothing what the Texans had just
(17:41):
been through to back endo the playoffs could have been
completely different. So I hope that is the one thing
they remember, Like hey Man, to your point, start fast,
punch it in, get a touchdown on the board right away,
and let's see if we can apply a little bit
of pressure instead of getting in these nail bier games,
these grinded out games. You know, that's it's it's sixteen
(18:02):
fifteen or whatever, sixteen seventeen sixteen with four minutes to go.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I think it's worth mentioning special teams too, that
third phase. You know, Ryan Fickens has done a phenomenal
job with this with this unit the last few years.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You know, you got the kicker and camera dicker, JK. Scott.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Not having Josh Harris, that's going to be kind of
the you know, the small wrinkle that you hope just
goes seamless, and just that phase of the game, whether
it's kick return, punt return, field goals, it's got to
be clean.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Across the board against the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, I mean we just said it right, five points,
So field goals are going to be important. We know
the field wasn't great last year, so you're going to
have those specialists out there early trying to make sure.
And you've now got a long snapper that you're not
used to. We know how important Josh Harris is. They
made them the highest paid long slat snapper in the league.
He's a captain on the team. So you know, you
can't gloss over you know what that loss might mean.
(18:54):
So it is going to be huge. I think I
think the return game could be huge when you've got,
you know, someone as dynamic as Darius Davis that can
take it to the house on any potential kick return.
And now with the start at the thirty five we
saw the preseason, I assume that that's the warm up
for what we're going to see. You know that Dicker
can drop that thing between the ten and the goal line,
that's what they're gonna want to do. And so yeah,
(19:16):
those and look, there's a reason why John made this
team because he's their best gunner.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
But other than that, you had to remake that room.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Delseean Phillips, you know, even though he didn't make the
initial he's now back on. Like that's you know how
important it is when you just just look at the
roster and that's what you see. You see, Oh, Caleb Murphy,
great special teams player, Son Haskins, great special teams player,
John Taylor. You know, so they're telling you, yeah, third
phase might be the difference in a lot of the
games this year.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
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two to secure your ticket package today. Listen, you've called
games a number of different places. I think the wildcard
(20:28):
is what is that crowd going to be?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Like?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, it's a just if the press conferences were any
indication they love their football down here, they are happy
that the NFL is down here for this big game
on an international stage, and I just I wonder what
the crowd is going to be Like. There's so many
little things that you can't prepare for, and that's one
of them for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah. I think the one thing to recognize when we
noticed it when we were in London is there's no
home field advantage.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
You know, it's not a charge very neutral situation.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
It's yeah, And I mean I think if you're if
you're being honest, you know, Travis Kelsey is getting married
to Taylor Swift. You know Patrick Mahomes has won the
Super Bowl, you know three times, right, three times? Like
they're a national, an international brand, especially because of the
Kelsey thing with Taylor Swift. So I think you're going
(21:16):
to probably have a little bit of adversity on that front.
But I think, like you said, it's majority neutral and
so it's trying like I can remember the game they
lost in Houston a couple of years ago. It's probably
like three four years ago, and it was the COVID year.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, late late that year.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And there was just no energy, man, like the whole place,
like a preseason game. Yes, it was terrible, And so
I think it's feeding off that energy is going to
be easy.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It's an international stage.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
It might not be the home game that you wanted
it so far to feed off of, but there's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Juice and that's all.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
If you ever ask players, that's all they want, man,
they just they say the same thing, like, I don't
care if it's home a road, just as long as
there's juice in the crowd.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It's when it's flat and it's empty.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think about the Arizona game last year at Monday
Night Football, It's like where is everyone in the game.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Is like ESPN plus. It just felt like it felt
like we were a secondary situation.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
And what happened They played flat and they ended up
losing that game. So I don't think you're gonna have
that problem here. Even though it might not be a
Chargers crowd for a Charger home game, I think you'll
get a lot of juice and you'll certainly be able
to get a little balance.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
And a little pep for that.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, taping this on a on a Thursday afternoon, there'll
be a lot of Charger fans here.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
They've made they've made the trip.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
We're going to there the official party later later today.
I don't know if you're watching this on a Thursday
or Friday, but the Cowboys, Eagles, Uh, Chargers fans can
be well represented both in Brazil and from la and
and all over the country.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Man.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
So I do think it's a really cool opportunity for
Charger fans to get down here experience this completely different culture,
something completely different. And I'll tell you this, the guys
have really embraced everything that's been kind of thrown their way.
But you can tell that there's this Okay, we have
one goal here, that's to beat the Kanca City.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, look, you don't. They can't be me and and
get distracted.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
They didn't want to go out and explore and see
everything you possibly can and make the most of your trip. Ultimately,
they're still here to play a game, and we're seeing
a lot of what we saw when we spent the
week in Charlotte last year, and that's guys playing chess,
guys playing ping pong, guys hanging out at the pool.
Last night you mentioned the private Brazilian steak dinner by
the pool, like all of that's happening.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And I do think that goes.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
A long way, you know, when you're away from your family,
like you said, when you're a twelve hour flight from
LA you.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Want to try to make it as comfortable as possible.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And I think Coach Harbaugh and Joe or Tease and
the whole staff, like everybody involved with the operation, the
Spanos family, like they know how to do that, you know.
And I don't think that's an issue at all. I
think these guys look like they're having a great time here,
so you know, at least that's not something that's on
the forefront, like can we just get out of here?
Can we get this over with? Why couldn't we fly
(23:51):
in tomorrow. I don't get that that's the.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Vibe at all. Give me, give me your twenty four hours,
your last twenty four hours and two minutes. What'd you do?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Uh? Yeah, I got out of Dodge man I as
soon as we landed and got back to the hotel.
I threw, took out all my stuff unpacked, put together
a little duffel it's maybe this big, with a couple
pairs of trunks, a Colby plus one mill wet suit top.
Went over to local Lisa or local Asa and rented
(24:23):
a car little didn't want to be too conspicuous, even
though it was very inexpensive.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I was like, you know, what would you get? Would
you get just like a little.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Fiat or something, you know, And rolled that out to
uh Juque to see a buddy of mine, Thiago Carmona. No,
I'd never met him before, a friend of a friend,
a very good friend of a very good friend, my
friend Heath. So shout out to my man Heath Nuddy,
who was a pro on the on the the WSL
for a while, and so it was Thiago. So he's like, yeah,
my guy lives a couple hours away, so about a
(24:51):
two and a half hours he.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Was expecting your arrive.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
He's probably probably give you the five star tree.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, he's he owns a bunch of airbnbs in Juku
Beach and put me up in one and we served
a couple of days. We went to an incredible steakhouse
a friend of his who owns a couple, you know,
three or four different restaurants on the beach cities there
and serve two different spots. Went to an incredible coffee
shop for Brazilian coffee in the morning and pastries and
(25:16):
stuff and they had this like nutella croissant thing.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That was just stupid. We need like a money vlogged. Yeah,
I threw a couple of the stuff up. He was,
you know, someone was that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
He was nice enough to shoot a couple of videos
while I was taking my last wave in when it
got a little bit a little bit smaller, but yeah,
we got some good waves.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The water was warm.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
The people were incredibly friendly, like you know, you hear
about Brazilians in the water and how agro they are,
and these guys were just like, get everything you want.
Any wave you see you catch today is your day.
And they did that both days. They could not have
been nicer. So it was a special experience. If you
ever go uh, if you ever go down that, if
you ever come here, I cannot recommend enough. It's a beautiful,
little friendly beach town, just very high end vibe, you know,
(25:57):
just really nice restaurants and coffee shops and the place
I stayed was first class.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
So yeah, reach.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Out to Thiago. I don't even know what his last
name is because they'll call him. They call him Shrimpy.
He's got a busted finger, like a baldinger finger, you
know where his tip and it looks like a little
street He's the balding of surfing. Yes, so everybody calls
him Shrimpy. I think his last name is Carmel. That's
his nickname is Carmel, and I think it's a shrimp,
So that's what everybody calls him.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So yeah, big thank you to him and to Heath.
The JS industry is there in ocean side for hooking
it all up.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Awesome, dude, Well anything else before we get out of here.
Let's get a win, man, Let's just get a win.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Let's get a win, have a great flat home, and
get ready for the Raiders, because again it's Chiefs Raiders, Broncos.
I mean, those are your first three games. Start out
one and zero, and let's start I mean, you know,
the NFL sent us to Canton, had us play four
preseason games, sending us to Brazil. Monday night in Vegas,
home game against the Broncos, then off to New York
(26:55):
for a ten am Pacific kick like and starting in
the middle of July.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Starting in the middle training camp. This has started right.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
This has been a long slow build to this moment,
so you can tell these guys are locked in and want.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
To put on a show on an international stage and
get to want to know against Kansas City Chiefs. All right,
for Buddy, I'm Chris.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
This has been Chargers Weekly, presented by splittero
Late fifteen ten touchdoup sucks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up? Guys?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome into Chargers Weekly, presented by Splintero as always, joined
by the Voice of the Chargers Matt Mudey Smith and Money.
This is not the content studio, but not a bad
backdrop here in South Pollo Date two.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Now, it's been great, What a wonderful trip that people
are incredible. Could not be happier to be here. I've
had some great experiences. I know the players, enjoyed the pressers,
and everyone's just been so incredibly friendly. What an awesome
opportunity for us, and just can't wait to get this
game going.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Dude, yesterday felt like maybe two or three days, just
with the time change and everything that went into yesterday
with the pressers in the media day. Getting in about
a twelve hour flight, not a bad flight though, right
I slept the whole time, Manah, I wouldn't know. I'm
pretty good about that, so I think I might have
won the Sleep Championship.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I think I got about eight hours, so that was
pretty good. And some adversity that I had to overcome
in order to get those eight hours, but I feel
like I faced it head on, took it on and
came out victorious.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yes you did.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I'm hoping I defeated my opponent because I think
I might have defeated my opponent.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's put that adversity in front of me as well.
So the Chargers they've been, they've been all right.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You just want to you want to get past. That's
inside and that's where it'll stay. But yeah, there is
a hierarchy and you kind of you quickly figure out
your place in the pecking order. And similar situation on
the flight back from London. For whatever reason, I'm just
that guy, you know. They they come to me.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And I'm like, yeah, put me wherever you want. Let's go. Listen.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Man, you are you are amenable, you are flexible, you
are fluid.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I think the thing about this trip though, money it's
it's only a four hour time different, so it's like
it's almost like an.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Extended East coast trip.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
But the staff, this is a true team effort just
getting these guys on the correct sleep schedule, the hydration,
the nutrition and trying to make a trip halfway around the.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
World actually just as seamless as possible. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Look, I think the thing to keep in mind is yes,
the Chargers lose a home game. They lose a home
game against the division rival, that division rival that's won
the division and has dominated the division, winn fifty one
of their last sixty games against it. Not ideal, but
the Chiefs are going through the same thing, and as
we have now figured out, having been here for almost
two days, the roads are not easily navigated, and so
(02:23):
they do have I think the Chargers do have an advantage.
We are considerably closer to the stadium than the Chiefs are.
You know, our commute is going to end up being
about twenty thirty minutes. Theirs could be anywhere from ninety
to three hours. Yeah, like it could be any of
those things. So I think you build that in and
maybe there is a little bit of a home field advantage.
(02:43):
Point being, they're overcoming the same thing we are. For
the people that are saying, you know, you dealt the
Chiefs a winning hand, again, how could you do this
to the charge that all that stuff I get because
it's happened in years past traveling for Thursday night football games,
But for this it's first game of the season. Chargers
are relatively healthy. You feel pretty good about you know,
who's gonna be out there on Friday night and get
(03:04):
after it and ste even get that first win of
the season.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Seems like the Chiefs gut in last night, Wednesday night.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So the Charges get in, you know, almost a full
day earlier, try to acclimate themselves.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So money.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I was at the media availability in the practice yesterday,
and I don't know why I was expecting just you know,
a normal scrum for whatever reason in my mind. Right, yeah,
I walk in. There are hundreds of international media. It's
like at international media frenzy for Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh.
They were getting applauses, standing ohs, they were getting collapse
(03:36):
after their press conferences. Man, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, I thank you forget you know what what having
a star quarterback means for a team. And there's a
reason why last year that the NFL made the Chargers
the first Thursday night flex. It's why there's seven nationally
televised games. It's why they're on a standalone the kick
off the season Friday night after the Super Bowl champions Play.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
They have stars.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I mean, look, Justin Herbert is a superstar. Jim Harbaugh
is a super star head coach, and so I think
for Charger fans that may feel like this is adversity
and unfair, get used to it, Get used to Thursday
night flexes, get used to playing on holidays, get used
to playing on short weeks, nationally televised games, international games.
And this is only going to embolden that. You know,
(04:17):
when the commissioner sees hundreds of people excited to talk
to Justin Herbert, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And I know it's it's cycles.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You know it's cyclical, and other teams have those opportunities
or those bits of adversity. But don't be surprised if
it's Chargers Rams that get sent to Australia next year.
You know, like that's that's not going to be surprising
to me at all.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Just give you guys a peek behind the easy Tyler,
Just prepare yourself for it, Hey, Tyler, Tyler is ready
for all the international trips, right.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I don't think eleven hours is a long flight. Wait
til you get a old, a freaking eighteen and a
half brother Australia. Yeah, let's go and guess what. Australia
has waves, more waves, and we.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Can do we can do an entire podcast on Buddy's
Last twenty four hours whatever, that's separative. We talk about
it at the end too, But when you talk about yesterday,
just behind the curtain, get in about nine am, Charge,
get a little rest here, go to practice. They come
back here, they are treated to a Brazilian style barbecue
team dinner. So the team bonding aspect of this, it's real.
(05:16):
And I go back to like the last seven games.
Charges have lost the last seven to the Chiefs. They've
had to lead in the fourth quarter in five of them.
In the sixth they were tied in the fourth quarter.
The only one they have blown out was.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
A meaningless game I think in like week eighteen.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
So this game always comes down to the wire. But
for whatever reason, is Patrick Mahomes. He's unbelievable in one
score games. But I almost feel like you have to
kind of throw out history in some regard because last
year with Jim Harball, you know, remember Justin was on
one leg in that first game, you lose on a
last second field going arrowhead. I just feel like a
(05:51):
Jim Harball prepared team may attack this a little bit
differently this year.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Look, I think for me the biggest thing is they've
never been able to run the ball against the Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's the key.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know, it's just been a struggle for whatever reason.
And last year, you know, coach comes in, we heard
what Greg Roman had to say, and they did their
best to try to make it right with JK and
with Gus, and it just didn't happen, you know, And
it certainly did not happen against the Chiefs. But you
talked about it, like the average margin of victory in
those in look, you said they won seven in a row,
but it's by an average of five points, you know,
(06:24):
and they have the one blowout in there. Outside of that,
it's been nineteen seventeen, thirteen ten. And like the one
thing that I think we've noticed with leads in the
fourth quarter, like last last year at Arrowhead, you know
they're up by a point with four minutes to go,
can you get the stop doing field the doink field
goal exactly that went through.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
But to me, like the that.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
There's a reason why I think the games look the
way they look is for whatever reason, these two coaches
and it's I shouldn't go. I think these two quarterbacks
they just kind of know, maybe you just got to
played a little bit safer because it feels like Mahomes
has been a little bit safer in these games, and
they've been sort of spag games.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Spagnola's been sort of the star of these where he
has shut down this rush attack. You know, every now
and then you'll get that Herbert forced turnover, and so
to me, that's that's sort of the Greg Roman element
of this. You've completely remade your room. You've got a
horse as a running back that you drafted in the
first round. You've got this offensive line. I know it
took the huge shot with Slater, but you bring in
Makai Beckton. You've got all that beef inside with Beckton,
(07:29):
Bozeman and Zion. Can you finally get this running game
to work? Can you get it to work so you
can open things up a little bit and play action
can work and we can finally get some explosive up
explosives out there, because I think ultimately that's what you're
gonna have to do against Bags. He's just he does
not care about anything downfield. He has pressed the line
and it has been really hard to run the ball.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Against this team.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
The big note that came out of yesterday's presser from
Jim Harball he expects Nijie Harris to play in this
football game. And that's fantastic news because say, if you
asked me this two weeks ago, we'd say probably no
chance because he didn't practice at all in training camp,
but gets back to practice last week, full practice this week.
And you said it with the running game and especially
(08:11):
in fourth quarters when you have a horse like a
Marion Hampton, but also a guy who has started every
game that he's played in the NFL, and Naji here
a thousand yards every season. Fourth quarter of football games
with the Chiefs, no pun intended chief among them. In
the fourth quarter, if you have a lead to be
able to run the football, they just have not been
(08:32):
able to do that in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That may be the elixir to beating.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
That's a great point, Chris, because that's what you need,
right You need a four minute drill, and they just
have not been abled. You met leads in five of
the seven games that they lost. You had a four
minute drill and you win those games, and they just
have not been able to do it. And every time
they punted away. And I do think even though everybody's
going to say, you know, don't look here, look here
look forward, like you can't help it. It has happened
(08:55):
too many times where you're looking at the clock and
you're like, here we are again, three and a half
minutes left, two point lead, six point lead, and somehow
it just unravels. Well, the best way to overcome that
is to not give them the ball back. And so look,
I think last year Gus certainly did not quite work
out the way they had hoped. I think, JK, when
you look at it overall, you know, there were explosives
(09:18):
in there where he was able to break something, but
run in, run out, yeah, just wasn't quite there. And
so I think this year that's again I hate to
kind of keep making the same point, but to me,
it's just the key. I think it's the key to
this game and sort of the key to the season.
Can you get you know what you invested it? Because look, Naji,
people will point out the lack of explosives and all that,
but if you just look at yards gained by design,
(09:39):
like what is he supposed to gain the way this
is blocked.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Which you said last week, he'll get your.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Four yards exactly, And that's and that's what they needed,
you know, That's what they desperately needed. So hopefully that's
what they get if they you know, if not, and look,
coach said, I believe what I read was Coach told
Rich Eisen, who's call in the game on YouTube, that
Omarion's going to get the start. So I'm anxious to see,
you know, how how ready he is to give Nase carries,
(10:06):
because I think if he's not, you know, if you're
worried about some of that soft tissue and he's not
ramped up enough yet. You know, when you look at
the at the practice squad, you know, is this maybe
and I know I took a lot incoming for this
by putting him on the fifty three, But is this
like a Naheim Heinz sort of situation where you've got
your horse in Hampton, You've got another big back in
Hassan Haskins, who had the best preseason of any running
(10:28):
back on the roster, and then you've got that there back.
You know, to me, when you're looking at it and
it's Nase, Hampton and and Haskins, it's kind of like,
you know, it's just three monsters. So I'm sort of
interested to see how that whole thing shakes out.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah, that's fascinating. And then you know, just the weapons
on the outside for Justin. You know, one of the
things too, the Chiefs have played so many different styles
over the years. You mentioned how Spagnol has kind of
been the headliner to some of these games as of late,
but you know, Mahomes is capable of putting up thirty
eight too, and Justin Herbert. And in terms of a
fast start, you know, it's it feels very cliche. We say,
(11:03):
got to get off to a fast start, gets Kinsey Chiefs,
you have to get off to a fast start, and
that maybe that starts with Justin in his arm and
all these new weapons on the outside.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I think the you know, the flip side of that, Chris,
is that the job that Jesse Minner has done, you know,
and how what a great job he did last year
in those games. And I do think there's probably it
feels like based on what they did in the offseason,
how they've been talking about it, Travis Kelsey saying maybe
he wasn't as committed last year as he should have been,
you know, going out on the Taylor Swift Tour and
all that sort of thing. In the shape he says
(11:32):
he's in the drafts Avier Worthy, he's another year down
the road. Hollywood Brown is now back and healthy after
missing all the last season. They want to push the
ball like they want their explosives back.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We haven't seen it in a half decade.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I mean, it's kind of been a Patrick Mahomes that's
not looked like the Patrick Mahomes the first five years,
the last four years. So I think, but what I'm getting,
I think there's going to be opportunities. I think they're
going to try to test this defense when they look
out at that secondary Worthy man.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Think and look, that was the difference in the game
at sofar right, it was one play I wouldn't call
it a bust and a sign was just kind of
a blown coverage And there's the difference in the game
that Xavier Worthy touched. That was the only explosive play
of the entire game.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I think that was Christian Fulton, who's coincidentally on the
Chiefs exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So I do think you're going to see the Chiefs
trot because they've set it all offseason, and I don't
think they're saying it to like rope adope you and
they're just going to come out and pound the ball
with the checko. We know they're very good at that,
but I do think you're going to see some opportunities
for a secondary that created a lot of turnovers last
year to perhaps get their hair And that's like, like, look,
we've done this so many times, like you've you've got
(12:38):
to cash in those turnovers.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
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Speaker 2 (13:04):
Slash Chargers you know money.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
We weren't sure maybe a few weeks ago, but Rushie
Rice is not going to play in this football game.
So one weapon down for Patrick Mahomes. But just to
kind of bring it back to the Chargers offense and
Justin Herbert these new weapons, and I'm really intrigued with
the wide receiver position. Who's going to be on the
field because you know, can you keep Kalos off the hill?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Can you keep Trey Harris off the field?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You got quintin he's one hundred percent now, Yeah, Keenan Ladd,
I mean, it's gonna be really fascinating to see how
they deployed the wide receivers.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Well, remember we didn't have Ladd out there in one
of those two games. So right, so you're talking about
the number one weapon for Herbert last year, a guy
that broke all the rookie records held by the aforementioned
Keenan Allen that wasn't out there for one of those
two games, and they were both tight games.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So that's going to be a.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Huge advantage certainly to have him available, not to mention
to have Keenan back. Keenan's always played well against the Chief,
you know, and again when it's spags and those exotic
looks and those design blitzes when you're not you know whatever,
that you never know when they're gonna come. Like, having
a guy that knows how to make himself available is
going to be pretty special. I think on top of that,
the one group I just don't feel like we talk
(14:16):
about enough and I know I'm projecting, but I'm also
kind of looking backwards. Just to me, the tight end
group is so different this year, and I think there
is such an upgrade there with a sure handed Tyler Conklin.
I think with a more now defined he made the
initial fifty three. You know, we want these guys out there.
(14:37):
We're going to be in twelve or we're gonna be
in twenty two. And I want Tucker Fisk and I
want Will Disley and they're both attached to let's say
the right side of line. And guess what Matt Lock's
in the backfield and here's Hampton. Like, to me, that
is a huge difference last year. I can't remember what
week it was that Fisk joined the team, but remember
he didn't get a lot of run until the back
half of that season. So I think you're talking about
(14:59):
a gri group in that rush attack. And then also
with the Rendez guess who had that big catch in
the in the San Francisco game. Like, it's such a
different group, and I'm you know, you brought up the
wide receivers with Keenan back with the emergence of lad
and how you're gonna have to honor him and perhaps
double him to open things up for a player like
Q or Trey if he's active, or KLS if he's active.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Or you know, Darius Davis.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
The one thing that coach said is he talked about
the running backs as receivers, and that is something we
barely saw last year. I mean it was almost non existent.
So but those guys can do it exactly. Naji's always
been great catching the ball out of the backfield his
whole career, and a Marion Hampton we know has that
level of explosiveness. So you know, you mentioned wide receivers,
(15:45):
I mentioned tight ends, and then we both kind of
collectively come back to.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And the running backs and the running backs. Yeah, and
Justin Herbert.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
The the wildcard game did not go as planned obviously
in all three phases, but for Justin it had been
so disappointing to put together regular season like that, and
you know, try to put the team on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Four interceptions in that game.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
He has to be championed at the bit to get
out there against the Kansas City Chiefs on an international stage.
And he's the type of guy who I know that
stuck with them all offseason.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
He's ready to go.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and I think it's also look, it was the
offensive line's worst game of the year, you know, and
and look you had Jamari out there in place of
Tray and it was you know, just in terms of
a performance, in terms of a graded performance, whatever, every
single offensive lineman had their worst game of the year.
So I think, now you're down, Slater, You've been challenged
(16:38):
from the way you mentioned Herbert. But I think it's
also a lot of that is the guys in front
of him. He had no time, He had guys in
his lap on every single snap. So I think that's
the weaponsion. No weapons were down, Yeah, exactly. I mean
you had lad and nothing else, literally nothing else. So
I think I think the combination of all that. I'm
sure they probably I think if I were them, i'd
(17:01):
probably want to just pretend like that thing never happened.
That's like that one game where the defense played so
well that first half and you had so many opportunities
against the Texans team that had just been blown out
and couldn't get anything going off en last week.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
There was a play here or there, the CJ. Stroud
play that could have changed everything.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, And I mean they just could not get it done.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And so I think to your point from earlier about
the fast start, Like hey man, in that game, you
drive it straight down their throats. You have a Will
Disley drop that could have been a touchdown. You settle
for three, you get the immediate turnover on the next play,
and you can't move the ball at all, and you
settle for three and at six nothing instead of fourteen nothing.
I think fourteen to nothing what the Texans had just
(17:41):
been through to back endo the playoffs could have been
completely different. So I hope that is the one thing
they remember, Like hey Man, to your point, start fast,
punch it in, get a touchdown on the board right away,
and let's see if we can apply a little bit
of pressure instead of getting in these nail bier games,
these grinded out games. You know, that's it's it's sixteen
(18:02):
fifteen or whatever, sixteen seventeen sixteen with four minutes to go.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I think it's worth mentioning special teams too, that
third phase. You know, Ryan Fickens has done a phenomenal
job with this with this unit the last few years.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You know, you got the kicker and camera dicker, JK. Scott.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Not having Josh Harris, that's going to be kind of
the you know, the small wrinkle that you hope just
goes seamless, and just that phase of the game, whether
it's kick return, punt return, field goals, it's got to
be clean.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Across the board against the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, I mean we just said it right, five points,
So field goals are going to be important. We know
the field wasn't great last year, so you're going to
have those specialists out there early trying to make sure.
And you've now got a long snapper that you're not
used to. We know how important Josh Harris is. They
made them the highest paid long slat snapper in the league.
He's a captain on the team. So you know, you
can't gloss over you know what that loss might mean.
(18:54):
So it is going to be huge. I think I
think the return game could be huge when you've got,
you know, someone as dynamic as Darius Davis that can
take it to the house on any potential kick return.
And now with the start at the thirty five we
saw the preseason, I assume that that's the warm up
for what we're going to see. You know that Dicker
can drop that thing between the ten and the goal line,
that's what they're gonna want to do. And so yeah,
(19:16):
those and look, there's a reason why John made this
team because he's their best gunner.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
But other than that, you had to remake that room.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Delseean Phillips, you know, even though he didn't make the
initial he's now back on. Like that's you know how
important it is when you just just look at the
roster and that's what you see. You see, Oh, Caleb Murphy,
great special teams player, Son Haskins, great special teams player,
John Taylor. You know, so they're telling you, yeah, third
phase might be the difference in a lot of the
games this year.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
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games a number of different places. I think the wildcard
(20:28):
is what is that crowd going to be?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Like?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, it's a just if the press conferences were any
indication they love their football down here, they are happy
that the NFL is down here for this big game
on an international stage, and I just I wonder what
the crowd is going to be Like. There's so many
little things that you can't prepare for, and that's one
of them for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah. I think the one thing to recognize when we
noticed it when we were in London is there's no
home field advantage.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
You know, it's not a charge very neutral situation.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
It's yeah, And I mean I think if you're if
you're being honest, you know, Travis Kelsey is getting married
to Taylor Swift. You know Patrick Mahomes has won the
Super Bowl, you know three times, right, three times? Like
they're a national, an international brand, especially because of the
Kelsey thing with Taylor Swift. So I think you're going
(21:16):
to probably have a little bit of adversity on that front.
But I think, like you said, it's majority neutral and
so it's trying like I can remember the game they
lost in Houston a couple of years ago. It's probably
like three four years ago, and it was the COVID year.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, late late that year.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And there was just no energy, man, like the whole place,
like a preseason game. Yes, it was terrible, And so
I think it's feeding off that energy is going to
be easy.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It's an international stage.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
It might not be the home game that you wanted
it so far to feed off of, but there's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Juice and that's all.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
If you ever ask players, that's all they want, man,
they just they say the same thing, like, I don't
care if it's home a road, just as long as
there's juice in the crowd.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It's when it's flat and it's empty.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think about the Arizona game last year at Monday
Night Football, It's like where is everyone in the game.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Is like ESPN plus. It just felt like it felt
like we were a secondary situation.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
And what happened They played flat and they ended up
losing that game. So I don't think you're gonna have
that problem here. Even though it might not be a
Chargers crowd for a Charger home game, I think you'll
get a lot of juice and you'll certainly be able
to get a little balance.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
And a little pep for that.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, taping this on a on a Thursday afternoon, there'll
be a lot of Charger fans here.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
They've made they've made the trip.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
We're going to there the official party later later today.
I don't know if you're watching this on a Thursday
or Friday, but the Cowboys, Eagles, Uh, Chargers fans can
be well represented both in Brazil and from la and
and all over the country.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Man.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
So I do think it's a really cool opportunity for
Charger fans to get down here experience this completely different culture,
something completely different. And I'll tell you this, the guys
have really embraced everything that's been kind of thrown their way.
But you can tell that there's this Okay, we have
one goal here, that's to beat the Kanca City.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, look, you don't. They can't be me and and
get distracted.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
They didn't want to go out and explore and see
everything you possibly can and make the most of your trip. Ultimately,
they're still here to play a game, and we're seeing
a lot of what we saw when we spent the
week in Charlotte last year, and that's guys playing chess,
guys playing ping pong, guys hanging out at the pool.
Last night you mentioned the private Brazilian steak dinner by
the pool, like all of that's happening.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And I do think that goes.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
A long way, you know, when you're away from your family,
like you said, when you're a twelve hour flight from
LA you.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Want to try to make it as comfortable as possible.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And I think Coach Harbaugh and Joe or Tease and
the whole staff, like everybody involved with the operation, the
Spanos family, like they know how to do that, you know.
And I don't think that's an issue at all. I
think these guys look like they're having a great time here,
so you know, at least that's not something that's on
the forefront, like can we just get out of here?
Can we get this over with? Why couldn't we fly
(23:51):
in tomorrow. I don't get that that's the.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Vibe at all. Give me, give me your twenty four hours,
your last twenty four hours and two minutes. What'd you do?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Uh? Yeah, I got out of Dodge man I as
soon as we landed and got back to the hotel.
I threw, took out all my stuff unpacked, put together
a little duffel it's maybe this big, with a couple
pairs of trunks, a Colby plus one mill wet suit top.
Went over to local Lisa or local Asa and rented
(24:23):
a car little didn't want to be too conspicuous, even
though it was very inexpensive.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I was like, you know, what would you get? Would
you get just like a little.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Fiat or something, you know, And rolled that out to
uh Juque to see a buddy of mine, Thiago Carmona. No,
I'd never met him before, a friend of a friend,
a very good friend of a very good friend, my
friend Heath. So shout out to my man Heath Nuddy,
who was a pro on the on the the WSL
for a while, and so it was Thiago. So he's like, yeah,
my guy lives a couple hours away, so about a
(24:51):
two and a half hours he.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Was expecting your arrive.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
He's probably probably give you the five star tree.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, he's he owns a bunch of airbnbs in Juku
Beach and put me up in one and we served
a couple of days. We went to an incredible steakhouse
a friend of his who owns a couple, you know,
three or four different restaurants on the beach cities there
and serve two different spots. Went to an incredible coffee
shop for Brazilian coffee in the morning and pastries and
(25:16):
stuff and they had this like nutella croissant thing.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That was just stupid. We need like a money vlogged. Yeah,
I threw a couple of the stuff up. He was,
you know, someone was that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
He was nice enough to shoot a couple of videos
while I was taking my last wave in when it
got a little bit a little bit smaller, but yeah,
we got some good waves.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The water was warm.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
The people were incredibly friendly, like you know, you hear
about Brazilians in the water and how agro they are,
and these guys were just like, get everything you want.
Any wave you see you catch today is your day.
And they did that both days. They could not have
been nicer. So it was a special experience. If you
ever go uh, if you ever go down that, if
you ever come here, I cannot recommend enough. It's a beautiful,
little friendly beach town, just very high end vibe, you know,
(25:57):
just really nice restaurants and coffee shops and the place
I stayed was first class.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
So yeah, reach.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Out to Thiago. I don't even know what his last
name is because they'll call him. They call him Shrimpy.
He's got a busted finger, like a baldinger finger, you
know where his tip and it looks like a little
street He's the balding of surfing. Yes, so everybody calls
him Shrimpy. I think his last name is Carmel. That's
his nickname is Carmel, and I think it's a shrimp,
So that's what everybody calls him.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So yeah, big thank you to him and to Heath.
The JS industry is there in ocean side for hooking
it all up.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Awesome, dude, Well anything else before we get out of here.
Let's get a win, man, Let's just get a win.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Let's get a win, have a great flat home, and
get ready for the Raiders, because again it's Chiefs Raiders, Broncos.
I mean, those are your first three games. Start out
one and zero, and let's start I mean, you know,
the NFL sent us to Canton, had us play four
preseason games, sending us to Brazil. Monday night in Vegas,
home game against the Broncos, then off to New York
(26:55):
for a ten am Pacific kick like and starting in
the middle of July.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Starting in the middle training camp. This has started right.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
This has been a long slow build to this moment,
so you can tell these guys are locked in and want.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
To put on a show on an international stage and
get to want to know against Kansas City Chiefs. All right,
for Buddy, I'm Chris.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
This has been Chargers Weekly, presented by splittero
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