September 16, 2022 • 41 mins
Delkery takes a look at the crazy opening week of football, looks ahead at week 2 games, and chats a little about who he's looking at trading in Fantasy Football!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome back to another episode of Cleats Off the Couch.
Guys, week one for the NFL is now done.
And I wanted to be able to talk about this earlier right after the week was done, but as a dad Ad, I got to take it when I can get it.
When it comes to the time, it was a crazy week.
I'm sure by now a lot of different people have had different conversations about how week one has caught them off guard.
(00:31):
I'm right there with you.
The Bills and the Rams caught me off guard right off the bat.
I thought I was going to be a lot tougher game all the way through.
Some of the things definitely that we saw there, the Bills definitely showed us that they are the team to beat.
I think it's going to be fun to watch them play football this year.
The Rams, I'll be honest with you, my all too soon thought after that game, all too soon being it's week one, you can't judge the entire season off of week one.
(01:01):
But the La rams, guys, my thought was that they would have more of a chance at missing the playoffs than the Cincinnati Bengals.
I know stats always show that the losing team from the Super Bowl normally doesn't make the playoffs, but from what I was seeing from the Rams guys, it made me think that we would have more of a chance of seeing the Rams missed the playoffs this year than the Cincinnati Bengals.
(01:29):
Like I said, all too soon.
Although the bangles, the way that they showed, especially that offensive line.
Now, granted, it was the Steelers defense.
What did I say? What did I say, guys, earlier in predictions this summer? I said the Steelers really are looking like they could have a top five, even a top three defense.
And if they were to play like that, they can't right now because obviously TJ Watt will talk more about some different stuff that's happened around the league.
(01:53):
But I hope you guys are all doing well as you're listening to this this morning, as you guys are preparing, as I'm recording this.
It's Thursday already, so it's already time for week two of the NFL Go to try and release this earlier than I normally do.
But a lot of surprises this week, a lot of second half surprises, if I'm honest.
Saints falcons.
(02:15):
Brown's Panthers, 49.
Ers Bears was one where the Bears just held it the whole game.
The Steelers bangles, the bangles, almost had the second half.
I'm not going to lie.
They almost grabbed it.
They should have had that like three different misfield goals, right? The Lions come storming back against the Eagles, the Colts and the Texans.
Probably one of the most unexpected games for me this week.
(02:39):
The patriots and the dolphins.
The Ravens expected that over the jets.
The Commanders and the Jaguars.
The Titans and the Giants.
The New York Football Giants.
The chiefs just destroyed the cardinals.
I did not expect that one.
I did not expect it to go that lopsided the charges and the Raiders was going to be a good game.
(03:03):
The Vikings and the packers.
I predicted a week, one win for Vikings in Minnesota and watch when they match up again.
Things will have come together.
It's going to be an re lax kind of year for Aaron Rodgers and the packers.
So don't get your skimpies in a bunch.
Calm down if you're a packers fan or if you're somebody who's going after the packers, because you're going to look like a fool if you jump too soon.
(03:27):
Good job by the Vikings.
We definitely got a good look at what their offense is going to be with those pieces and with that coaching staff.
Buccaneers and Cowboys, I obviously thought, this is what we see, the Cowboys.
I didn't think it would be because DAC Prescott gets injured so soon.
And then one of the final surprises to end us off was that Broncos Seahawks game.
(03:48):
Oh, my goodness.
I want to talk about that for a second.
My goodness.
I was sitting there as that was happening.
I'm sure a lot of you guys were, too.
Oh, my goodness.
I was watching the Manningcast from ESPN Two on NFL Plus on my phone.
If you are not signed up for NFL Plus, be sure to check out the link in the description.
Whether you're listening to this or you're on YouTube watching this, be sure to check that out.
(04:13):
NFL plus.
Have access to local market games on your mobile device.
Huge.
For me, each and every week, hopefully some future things come to where they add in some different ways to be able to do out of market games.
But right now, man, what a great way for me to be able to do the different things I need to do when the games are going on and still be able to have the game up with either a bluetooth headphone in or just to be able to watch it without audio.
(04:40):
Whatever it is.
I can still watch the game.
NFL plus.
Get it for $5 a month right now or $30 for the entire year.
That's what I did.
Nice, simple.
Only $30.
You're helping and supporting the podcast as you do that as well.
So be sure to check that out.
NFL plus.
Broncos and Seahawks.
The Seahawks, guys, we're going to see something.
(05:04):
We're going to see something.
Preseason, I was poking them with a stick, the whole, like, are you dead kind of thing, because I wasn't sure if they were showing anything and what they were actually going to do.
And then we see the Broncos come out and both of them played solid offense, I think, overall.
And their defenses, the defenses showed up kind of week early, and then obviously the final score was 1716.
(05:29):
So it wasn't that the defenses were terrible, or that the offenses were phenomenal, but we see a lot of potential of things with both teams.
Gino Smith looking like a top ten quarterback right now.
Oh, my goodness, he looked crisp.
And then we get to the whole debacle.
(05:50):
While watching the Manning cast on my phone, manning called like 37 timeouts, and the Broncos called zero in the final minute.
Let's talk about that for a second.
If you have any game sense, any game sense whatsoever, you know it's four and five.
You're looking at a 64 yard field goal.
It's a little far out.
(06:10):
You're down one point.
You have at that time, you had 56 seconds on the clock.
OK? At 56 seconds, you call a timeout you had through all three timeouts.
You call the time out at 56 seconds.
You've got two minutes left.
You go for the first down.
Best case scenario, you get the first down.
Now you're in a more viable field goal range, or potentially with two more timeouts and still some time on the clock, you can put yourself into a very good place for a field goal.
(06:41):
Worst case scenario, you don't get the first down on fourth and five.
That's okay.
You took a time out at 56 seconds.
The clock stops, say 4 seconds go off at 52.
Okay? The offense, the way the defense is playing, I think they could have done this, but say they didn't get that first down.
The defense holds on, first down, timeout, hold on, second down, time out, hold on, third down.
(07:09):
They let the clock run down, and either the Seahawks call timeout to stop the clock somewhere around that ten to 14 second mark, or they try to punt it with the running clock so it doesn't stop.
Either way, you're getting a punt off somewhere between ten and 14 seconds, so you've got a punt return potential even on top of that.
You may even get an offensive play.
(07:31):
And heck, if we're crazy and you say you fare catch it, maybe it's not a great punt or something, and you have 12 seconds on the clock.
You might get two plays, who knows? Even three, I don't think you'll get three plays.
But just thinking of that, I have no clue why they ran 36 seconds off of the clock to not use their time outs to their advantage, the field position to their advantage, the opportunities.
(07:59):
It just didn't make any sense to me.
The Seahawks couldn't have knelt in that situation because those two timeouts, not until, say, the third down.
If they wanted to do that, which I don't think they would have, I think they would have tried to push for the first down to close out the game.
I really, really do not know what the head coach was thinking.
I know he's a new head coach, but he's been an offensive coordinator for like twelve years or something like that at different places.
(08:21):
So I really don't know, but that one caught me really off guard.
Let me know how offguard that caught you.
Let me know if you agree with my analysis of that.
Do you think that's what that could have come out to be? I really think you have Russell Wilson, for pity sake, go for it.
Fourth and five probably make the first down.
If you don't make the first down, you've got Russell Wilson.
(08:44):
If forced to stop with the defense.
If you force that stop, you got two big shots or one, a little bit of field position to the out of bounds and then deep shot for a hail Mary for a touchdown attempt.
I don't know what they were thinking, but that one really I know that got a lot of people going and a lot of people are just confused.
(09:08):
Why would a starting head coach why would a head coach in the NFL not have that scenario ready? Why would they not be ready for that scenario? I don't understand.
Buccaneers and Cowboys, no surprise to me there.
I really thought that the Cowboys were not going to be as good on defense this year with some of the losses, like Gregory, who went to the Broncos.
(09:30):
From what I heard, I get to watch a lot of that game.
But what I heard is that Trayvon, that's his name, right? Number seven, I think it is.
Ball Hawk last year is that he had a solid game until there was a one on one to Mike Evans, and Mike Evans made him look like a little boy, and so good for him.
I wanted to see some improvement in yards giving up, and I'm tired of hearing the arguments about, like, it's not his fault because you guys say he one on one and plays man coverage a lot when he doesn't have safety help and he just trails too far.
(10:01):
He tries to play the ball.
I understand that.
But you take a big risk every time.
You always try to play the ball.
Just take it for what it is.
He's an aggressive player, and that's okay.
That's okay.
Cowboys fans, we don't have to cry about everything.
The Cowboys, I'm really curious to see what Cooper Rush is going to be able to do and are they going to trade for somebody? I know some people were talking about I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so I've heard different things to where different people have talked about are they going to try and trade for Mason Rudolph? Are they going to try to trade in Jimmy Garoppolo from the niners? Are they going to try and bring in I don't know.
(10:37):
I don't know what the situation there.
Knowing the Cowboys, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to save money and they just stick with Cooper Rush.
I thought that they were trying to be a win now kind of team, but who knows anymore? Who knows? And I haven't looked at the news today to see has anything happened? I think last I saw that, it was just practice with Cooper Rush and let's understand what's happening with DAX Hand completely so we understand what the season looks like.
(11:03):
The Packers Vikings.
Many people predicted this.
I had said this, the Vikings were going to win.
They have the ability episode five, guys, I think it was the Vikings have the ability to be the new forest in the north.
They were going to do it at home in week one with the new OC who gets Kirk Cousins and have fun on offense the way he needs to and wants to.
(11:26):
Justin Jefferson, the best wide receiver right now.
It's going to be fun to watch that offense.
And the packers, they'll get it together, but they've got young guys who are dropping wide open balls and Aaron Rogers still doing what he needs to to get the ball where it needs to go.
I'm kind of surprised the defense, the defense did not do everything.
(11:47):
I expected it, but again, it's that offense.
I mean, that Vikings offense.
How do you do it? How do you do it? The Raiders and Chargers, that could have gone either way.
I thought that that was going to be ASE West football.
It's going to be tight this year.
The Chiefs and the Cardinals, oh, my goodness.
Patrick Mahomes making sure people do not second guess him losing Tyreek Hill.
(12:07):
So I'm excited to see what happens with that.
I don't think the Cardinals are a team to give us a true feel of what Kansas City's defense can do.
So keep an eye on that as we move forward.
I'm kind of curious what's up with the Cardinals.
I don't think that they played as well as I thought that they should.
Now, granted, they don't have Hop right now with the suspension, so maybe things change after the four weeks.
(12:29):
We'll see.
Watch those chiefs, though.
They're going to be fighting.
I had them like, number, I think, like third in the division.
They're going to be doing everything they can to make sure they're not.
And then one of my favorite upsets of the week guys, the New York Giants.
I had said that the Titans were going to take a few steps back and I did not think it was going to be against the Giants.
(12:50):
I thought the Giants were going to be bottom five in the league this year.
They may still be.
They may still be.
Saquon still healthy, potential injury, always on the horizon with him.
Daniel Jones is still the quarterback.
There potential turnovers to lose, games, always there.
They've got some talent, they've got in the receivers, they got Saquon, they have a couple of people on defense, but still that's one of the things that surprised me is how the defense played and everybody loving that clip of, what was it, number 45 or something like that, just coming and decluding king Henry.
(13:26):
And I think we're going to see people are going to see stuff like that.
And the fear of Derek Henry has lessened and it should be less than it has been in the past two to three years.
He was injured a little bit last year and we've seen people like, I think it was Alex Highsmith one year and now this kid from the Giants.
(13:48):
And we've seen people who can manhandle this big guy.
Not all the time because Derek Henry does just as much dishing out, right.
But I'm excited to see what that's going to mean for their offense.
Tannahill was throwing some good balls.
They're getting some of those young receivers involved quickly.
I have Traylon Burke stashed on my fantasy bench, so I'm hoping to see that come around here soon.
(14:13):
I do think Titans take a few steps back, but how many steps I had said that nobody can carry the weight of their team taking hits like they do, like Derek Henry for five years in a row.
And so we're going to see what happens there.
But good job to the Giants.
It'd be fun to see them shake things up, especially since the NFC East is always such a mess.
(14:40):
The Commanders got a win this week.
I think Carson wentz.
There are a couple there were a couple of other people that he's still who he was again.
They got the win.
He had a decent game.
I don't have the details right in front of me.
I think they're going to get some wins this year.
I think they're going to have opportunities to be able to surprise people.
(15:04):
Carson, once he threw two interceptions.
He also threw four touchdowns.
And so I don't have the sheet in front of me to be able to see, OK, how did this happen? Was it because of a crappy offensive line maybe.
I don't know.
I don't have it in front of me.
But of course, we're in a quarterback league.
Everybody's going to blame the quarterback first, especially when there's somebody who's been blamed a lot before they'll carry that on.
(15:28):
But good for Carson Went, good for the Commanders.
They got that win.
The Giants got the win.
The Eagles barely got the win.
That one was interesting.
The lions came.
Surging back.
Some of that exciting football I was talking about in the summer, that I'm so excited to see Dan Campbell lead Detroit into some exciting runs like that.
And I'm sure Detroit is a fan base, is super excited about that too.
(15:51):
They didn't get the win.
Obviously, you don't just want moral victories.
But what an exciting thing for Detroit fans to be able to see how their team, with the current setup, the current coaching, is willing and able to come back against, honestly, one of the top teams in the NFC, the Eagles right now.
(16:11):
So good for them.
I'm excited to see them actually get a w here.
Soon.
The Eagles, interesting, though, because their defense, I thought, was going to be pretty darn good in that second half.
They just man, I'm surprised, honestly, that the Lions did not get that, did not get the win there.
But the Eagles kept the win.
The Cowboys got that loss.
(16:32):
And so talking about the NFC East guys right now, the Eagles and the commanders, like, I mean, the Giants got that win, but I still think there's a bit to prove defensively.
Are we going to see that prove that you're from Carson West again? I don't want to get ahead of week one, right? The Eagles are still the eagles.
I think we're still going to see some good football out of them.
(16:54):
But the NFC East, man, it's always murky waters.
It's always murky waters.
The Ravens being the Ravens.
I just want to say this.
I don't like the ravens.
I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
I love football.
I appreciate good football.
And I'm tired of people not appreciating lamar Jackson.
The dude can throw the dude can play NFL football at an elite level.
(17:17):
I just am tired of hearing people I saw a clip that showed one of those no look passes.
And of course, nobody wanted to talk about it when it's Lamar Jackson, just like before.
Nobody would ever talk about it when it was Matt Stafford until Patrick Mahomes started doing a couple of them.
And then people are just like, wait, you're giving him all the credit? Then it came afterward.
But Lamar Jackson throwing some great passes.
(17:37):
I'm not a proponent for no look passes, but hey, when you can make them work at a high level like that, by all means throw the defense off.
But Ravens with a win, no surprise there.
Raven still going to be fighting for the top of the AFC North if they stay healthy.
Dolphins and the Patriots, I had said that could go either way.
It's interdivisional.
It's Bill Belichick watch the next time they play.
(18:02):
I won't be surprised if they just trade it.
If they just trade it off.
The Dolphins got a win there.
We're going to see that up and down.
I talked about with the potentials of Miami, I don't think they're a team that is going to fulfill all of their potential, but they obviously are going to do what they have to at times and what they should do at times.
(18:24):
I think we're a little heavy there on the focus on Tyreek Hill, though.
Twelve passes to what, five to jail and waddle or something like that.
So keep an eye on how they do that because I do think focus and use like that against a smaller guy.
Yes, he's fast.
He's a smaller guy, though, could lead to injury.
And I hope not.
Obviously.
I hope that for all these teams.
I like to see teams compete at the highest level with all of their players.
(18:46):
That's a concern for me to watch out for.
I don't like to kind of predict injuries, but it is what it is.
And then the Colts and the Texans, man, good for the Texans.
Good for the Texans, honestly, to come out of that with a tie, good for them.
I think some busts there on the side of all the expectations of that running back for the Texans.
(19:10):
But I don't know what's going on with the Colts.
I hope it's just the first game.
Get things together, get things going.
Because there's no reason that the Indianapolis Cults, with their current roster, should have got a tie.
Let's be real.
It's pretty much a loss.
When you tie with one of the worst teams in the league, it's a loss.
(19:34):
I know that as a Steelers fan, tying with the Lions.
What was that last year, even or two years ago? They've done it like twice in the past four years, and it's ridiculous.
But the Colts, there's no reason that that should happen.
I don't think we'll see that kind of thing happen again for them.
I think we'll see some recovery from that, and we'll see them have some excellent games here moving forward.
(19:57):
Why that happened, I don't know.
I can't comprehend it.
Matt Ryan and that offense have got to put some pieces together, put some pieces forward.
Some of the final ones from last week, the Bears 49 Ers.
Good job on the bears.
I do think the weather helped them there, but good on them for taking advantage of that.
(20:19):
Good on them for taking advantage of that.
Another injury to the 49 Ers in the running game.
Just like the past three years.
This is what I talked about.
It's going to be huge for them.
They've got to stay healthy.
And the other thing is, well, I mean, it was just the weather, but Trey Lance, from the clips that I saw, didn't really show a ton to be desired for Justin Field, showed some flash of what he can do and what we should be looking forward to.
(20:48):
But I do think that that game was mainly decided because of weather.
I really do.
Weather and home field advantage were huge there.
Defense for the Bears, though, did an excellent job.
I don't want to underappreciate them.
They did a great job.
Again, weather was helpful.
The Steelers and the Bengals, though oh, I'm not going to go on about this because we all know the Steelers had arguably the best defensive showing of any team this week.
(21:12):
Arguably the best defensive showing here's, one of the best individual defensive performances in Steeler's history.
When you look at just statistics, when you look at statistics, not including the I mean, I'm talking about like, what the defense forced and such.
They forced seven sacks, I think it was, and four or five or more turnovers.
It's the first time the Steelers defense I think I've ever done that in a game.
(21:33):
The steelers offense.
Here's where I want to be real.
The Steelers look the exact same as last year to me, but with an improved defense.
And now TJ wat is injured, unfortunately, potentially six weeks out.
That is a sigh of relief.
But still, it consistently seems like whatever the Steelers have an opportunity to be a stud.
(21:55):
Last year, game one injuries out for the season, and obviously the unfortunate unpredicted piece with to it, and I think it was the loss of his brother.
But we never have the defense at full.
Go it's infuriating.
And I'm sure there's other teams, other of you listening, who are just like, well, what about my team? I'm sure that you could give me a similar picture.
(22:22):
I am just familiar with the Steelers picture.
But the Steeler's defense, excellent, excellent job.
And then the offense did not do anything to help.
And when the offense doesn't do anything to help, it doesn't matter how good your defense plays.
It really doesn't, because then you end up in tied game scenarios when you were leading in the first half, in the third quarter.
(22:48):
And then the offense, it killed me.
People talking about Mitch Chersky doing a great job, and I don't think he did a terrible job.
He didn't turn the ball over.
That's important.
But I don't think he did enough.
And I think a lot of it was because of the OC.
I think it's the play calling, and I've been saying this the past two years.
The past two years, I don't think it's been Ben.
(23:11):
Ben? Yes.
Did he lose a step? Yes.
Did he lose a little bit of power in his arm? Yes.
But Ben still statistically had two great seasons the past two years.
The average throw depth down field and stuff, it was worse this game.
(23:31):
It was averaged like five yards per pass.
And I think with Ben, it was down to 6.1 or something like that.
When somebody can correct me on that, because I know I'm probably not exactly right.
But this game, guys, I'm not sold on Matt Canada, and it's been a frustrating thing to me because I feel like we've had a consistent rollover when it comes to OC.
Is it the OC, or is it the capability of the head coach or management to be able to place them? I don't know.
(23:55):
I've always had some qualms about Mike Tomlin.
I'm not for a second going to contradict what the man has done and what he has accomplished as a head coach.
But when it comes to what you have available to you and what you could do with it, he far underwhelms.
And that's insane to me.
If you think about the Steelers over the past 15 seasons and how they have not had a losing season, they've had like eight and eight seasons, but they have not had a losing season in 15 years.
(24:27):
And to think, especially over the past decade, the steelers have had different issues, especially with OC situations to where they could not and play calling situations on offense to where they have underwhelmed from who they could be and what they could accomplish.
(24:49):
Dude, it's insane to think about what they should have accomplished.
Even just talking back to the Killer Bees right back when a b in his prime bell in his first few years, ben when he was in the height of his passing career.
Oh, my goodness.
Now, granted, then you have to consider the fact of a weaker defense that the Steelers had as well.
(25:10):
I do understand that.
But the reality of the offensive coordinator and the offensive play calling in Pittsburgh has been very questionable, very suspect to me.
And unfortunately, I think we're going to see some of the same this year, and it's not going to be because of poor play from Mitch completely.
There may be different games.
Every quarterback has a game or two that they play less than they should.
(25:31):
Right.
But I think we're going to see some play calling that it doesn't stretch the field.
It doesn't properly align according to the defense that you're seeing.
It doesn't properly use motions and zone and different movements to be able to bounce off and be able to mess with the mind of the defense.
(25:52):
I think what I've seen so far is a collegiate playbook in the NFL, and that concerns me.
But now I say that all with a clause.
I'm not an NFL offensive coordinator.
I'm not an NFL coach.
I'm not even an NFL cowboy.
So I say all that as a guy sitting on a couch, right, sitting on a couch with my observations, and that's it.
(26:18):
That's all I go with there.
On to the Browns and the Panthers guys, that one should have been the Panthers game.
That was a comeback game that they lost.
I was so excited to see Baker Mayfield get that over the Browns, but good on Jacobi percent and the Browns for being able to find a way to make that happen.
How Miles Garrett got rated as number one this past week with his performance, but Minka Fitzpatrick was not even top five is insane to me.
(26:44):
But when I see stuff like that and we saw what someone like Minka was able to do this past game versus what Miles Garrett was able to do, and obviously, great player, great player, that's just I can't trust those kind of rankings.
Minka Fitzpatrick wasn't even in the top five on the PFF rate.
That's ridiculous.
That is ridiculous.
We had the saints and the falcons.
(27:04):
That was one that felt like was going to be I mean, it's NFC South football.
I'll be honest with you.
I didn't expect the Falcons to be able to play that well, to play that hard, to play this early and so good on them.
Marcus Mariota not starting for a few years and then coming in and.
Being the guy.
Cordero Patterson.
Let's go.
So I think there'll be some great things there.
(27:25):
But then James Winston in the fourth quarter, it's like everybody remember Tim Tebow in the fourth quarter.
Everybody always talks about how terrible Tebow was when he played and said, dude, Tim Tebow in the fourth quarter was phenomenal.
James Winston, man.
Holy cow.
Holy cow.
What a what an end of the game that one was.
(27:45):
But guys, this week, let me know your thoughts.
(28:11):
Week two, we have another ASC West match up between the Chargers and the Chief.
That's going to be fun, fun to watch.
I think the Chargers will take it, but we'll see.
I'm not really given predictions each week.
That's not my plan with these episodes.
Just kind of looking at as we're going through the season, what we're feeling, what we're thinking, and what we're enjoying, what we're surprised by, all those kind of things.
(28:35):
The dolphins and the ravens.
That's going to be an interesting game.
It's going to be at MNT Bank.
The jets and the Browns.
The Commanders and the lions.
The Colts and the Jaguars.
The Bucks and the Saints.
The Panthers and the giants.
The patriots and the Steelers.
The falcons and the rams.
The Seahawks and the 49 ers.
(28:55):
The Bengals and the Cowboys.
The Texans and the Broncos.
The Cardinals and the raiders.
The bears in the pack.
The titans and the bills.
The Vikings and the Eagles.
So I'm kind of looking through this and my mind is going through, like, who would be that surprise this week? Right? We had a bunch of surprises this past week, guys.
(29:16):
I wouldn't be surprised if we see a surprise fight from the Texans against the Broncos at the Broncos, or even after the surprising loss to the Giants, the Titans in Orchard Park against the Bills.
What a surprise that would be to see them fight to a point of even potentially winning, but even just giving surprise after what we saw this past week.
(29:49):
But those are a couple of games.
Seahawks 40 niners.
I think that's going to be a fun one as well.
Division play, though, it's hard to call those upsets because division play is just a different style of football.
And we saw what the Seahawks can do, and we have yet to see the 40 Niners fulfill what we know that they can do.
(30:10):
Another one that I think could be a surprise for us this week is watch the Falcons in Sophie Stadium against the La rams.
That one could be a fun one with Cordero, with Marcus Mariota, with the defense, especially what's his name out on out at cornerback.
Man, I'm kind of excited to see that one.
That's an afternoon game this Sunday.
(30:31):
But the Steelers and Patriots, that's going to be a fight.
That's going to be dog fight, like it always is.
And then the Panthers and giants.
It wouldn't really be an upset there.
If either one of those win the Bucks and the Saints, that's going to be a fight.
I won't be surprised if the Saints get a second win, get a win over the Bucks there, but we'll see Colts and the Jags colt should win that.
(30:52):
But that's another one that I wouldn't be surprised if the Jags are able to make it happen because it's division play.
Division play is just a completely different brand.
Commanders and Lions.
That one can go either way.
Jets and Browns.
Okay.
I think that it would be a surprise if in Cleveland the jets were to be able to beat the Browns with Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback.
(31:14):
That would be a big surprise to me.
I think this is a game for the Browns to lose.
Dolphins and Ravens could go either way.
Charges cheap, so it's hard to say, but I think watch for those four games.
I said the Texans, Broncos, Titans, Bills, honestly.
Week two the Bears and the packers.
With what we can see out of the Bears, I'm not one to jump against Aaron in the Pack, but it's week two after struggles with a young receiving corps, the Bears might give us some fun football against the packers.
(31:46):
It's hard to tell because they're in Lambo and maybe that packers defense recovers a little, but that Texan Broncos, the Bangles Cowboys will see.
Obviously, it would be a big surprise if the Cowboys were to do something crazy against the Bengal since they don't have DAC, but if they get some pressure from that defense on that offensive line, it might not be as much of a surprise as we think it might not be, but the Falcons, Rams, that will be one to look for.
(32:15):
The Falcons and Rams, I keep looking at these division games, and I don't want to call those the Jags Colts.
It honestly won't surprise me either way.
It should be the Colts, but it shouldn't surprise me either way.
The Seahawks 49 ers, it won't surprise me either way, but it should be the 40 niners, you know what I mean? And then the jets browns probably would be the biggest one to me.
If the jets beat the Browns with Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback, that would be a huge surprise to me.
(32:41):
It really would.
I'm excited.
It's football season, baby.
How's everybody doing in their fantasy league? I know for myself, I've been looking at trying to trade away Cam Acres.
I'm not a big fan.
I was looking at stats from the past two years with Sean McVeigh's run offense, and it's been bottom of the league.
(33:03):
It's not been horrendous when you look at what stats can do for you in a general week for fantasy football.
But overall, it's not been the greatest run attack.
And so campaigns, obviously, Daryl Henderson controlling that job.
I know injuries can happen at any time so do I trade them out this early? But if I can get something for Cam Acres, if I can give away Cam Acres and I don't know Zay Jones or something like that for an ETN or something like that ETN, then why would I not try to do that? You know what I mean? Another one that I've been fighting with myself about is Naji Harris as a Pittsburgh Steelers guy and in a PPR league with heavy runner.
(33:45):
I don't know that I want to get rid of him this early.
But the fact that he's already dealt with the potential Liz Franc.
However you pronounce that in the preseason and now had to sit out the latter part of this past game in week one of an 18 week season is concerning to me.
And I kind of want to take advantage of a trade early before something does happen and then I can't get anything for him.
(34:16):
Those are two for me that I'm really looking cam Acres and Naji Harris.
In the league I'm playing in right now, it's with some people from my local church and we've been doing this league for about eight years.
I've won twice in the league.
We purposely set things up.
It's really difficult for anybody who does fantasy.
(34:37):
We've done it to where it's a standard draft, it's not a snake draft.
And the idea was that within the first four years, myself and one other guy who's my co commissioner won.
I won twice, he won twice.
And we were just like, we're going to lose people if it's just you and I going back and forth.
(34:58):
And actually the standard draft got set up by accident.
It was accidentally done one year.
But I liked how it gave more of an even competition and it gave opportunity for new players as well as for those who have been around awhile but not really had great shots to have a shot.
And within those next three seasons, he just won last year again.
(35:23):
So he was the first one to three in our league.
But there were two others who had never won before who won.
And so it was like awesome.
That's what we're trying to do.
We're trying to give it to where people see that they have a shot at winning this thing.
And so with that, though, this year was an 18 team league.
Think about that thing about the 18 teams.
(35:46):
So there's slim pickings across the league next year because of this.
We've had four straight years of at least 16 teams.
Two of those four years we've had 18.
So next year we're going to be splitting into two leagues to then do basically like an AFC conference and an NFC conference.
So we'll have at minimum a ten man league.
(36:09):
Hopefully we can find a couple more people that and get to a twelve man league in each because that right there is the sweet spot, right? But if we do 210 man leagues, everybody will draft and we'll split out accordingly to how things finished this year.
And whoever wins each league will basically be that league champion.
(36:30):
But then we'll compete together for the full league champion rather than the conference champion.
So if you have the same player, when that happens they'll cancel out and it will be based upon who you have that the other doesn't.
And the cocomission.
I will keep track of the stats and stuff like that.
It's a fun way if you got a big group, it's a fun idea to be able to split it up and not lose people, be able to keep it competitive.
(36:55):
People still have fun because we started getting complaints from people about the draft and stuff like that and about how many people and are there going to actually be people available, which didn't make sense to me because when you think about it, we had 18 people before and nobody complained about it.
So I think people are just getting to that place of like, okay, if we're going to have this many people, let's do something different with it, which I'm completely on board with and I had announced this is going to be our last time doing it this way, so I'm hoping that everybody's excited for that.
(37:23):
What are you guys thoughts on something like that being able to do a conference split? We've used Yahoo and I know there was somebody just grown listening to that, but I've really enjoyed Yahoo.
I like the aesthetic to it.
They've done a good job with advancing it forward and it just has always looked smoother, felt smoother.
(37:46):
I don't know, I've just liked Yahoo's.
Far and above over ESPN.
ESPN to me has looked so much like if I was a statistician, maybe ESPN.
It just looks so blue and it doesn't have a clean feel to it.
A smooth feel to it.
I've enjoyed Yahoo, but I've heard a lot about the sleeper app.
I don't know anything about it yet, I've just heard about it.
(38:08):
I'm really curious to check it out in the future.
We'll see what happens right now, not doing too hot.
Started out the season one with blanks from people like Cam Acres at my Flex and I joined a lot of people and heartache from that naji not having a phenomenal game this season has a lot of potential.
It's a long season and so I encourage you if you're in fantasy football, it's a long season.
(38:29):
You're a fan of a certain team, it's a long season.
Take a breath.
A loss does not decide the whole year unless it's the final game of the season and you're in a win and in it situation, then it does.
But it's very rare that a single win early in the season, a single loss earlier in the season will decide it all for you.
(38:50):
Take encouragement from that.
But overall today I really wanted to talk a little bit about those week one games as we get ready for week two.
Again, it's not going to be something that I do each and every week review through the previous week.
I just can't commit to that kind of thing with my son.
But this week, so many crazy things started just like, dude, I got to get these out, I got to talk about it.
(39:14):
And so we'll see what week two holds for us.
There's always some crazy things happening in football and the NFL.
Also some conversations moving forward about some things we've talked about before with fantasy football and as well as thoughts on different individual performances and what they'll look like come the end of the season.
Other scenarios and news happening, but also having conversations about other parts of life.
(39:38):
I mean, talking about this right now, you listening to this right now.
You're a football fan, you're most likely listening to this as a football fan.
And I love it.
I love that.
I love football and I'm going to constantly be talking about it.
But there's other pieces that blend into that, right? There's more to me than football.
There's more to life than football.
And I'd love for conversations that begin in football to be able to cover other topics and look at other important conversations.
(40:06):
Now, I'm not saying that about like, okay, we're going to get political or anything like that.
That's not the idea at all.
But I'm a dad, so there'll be other conversations that come up that I can talk about that maybe I have guests on that we talk about and cover that.
Start from sitting on the couch talking about football and head towards two dudes talking about being a dad or talking about being a Christian or talking about you name it, you name it.
(40:35):
Anything can come from those conversations.
I'm excited for where things can continue to go.
We've started with a place of predictions and football and I'm excited about that.
And I'm also excited about where things can go with a podcast that leaves a little bit of free form out of a base topic like that.
So let me know if you guys have any thoughts, anything you think would be an awesome topic of conversation.
(41:01):
Don't be afraid to tag me on Twitter, DM me on Twitter, let me know a thought you may have.
Check out the Patreon guys in the link below or in the description new Patreon out for ways to be able to be more a part of things and see more content as it comes out and to even have a voice in things, be sure to check that out.
(41:23):
And I look forward to not only continuing to have different conversations and looking at different topics that I want to do, but also addressing things that maybe you would like to hear about, hear my perspective on or get my thoughts on.
So I'm excited about that.
I look forward to week two and look forward to some of your predictions.
(41:45):
Let me know who you got winning some of these games that I said earlier.
There's three or four that could be big upsets to look out for.
How do you think the Steelers will do without TJ y? Let me know your thoughts, guys.
Throw them in the comments.
Tag me on Twitter, whatever it is.
I look forward to the next episode of Cleats Off the Couch.
I hope you guys have a great one.
Until then, peace.
Welcome back to another episode of Cleats Off the Couch.
Guys, week one for the NFL is now done.
And I wanted to be able to talk about this earlier right after the week was done, but as a dad Ad, I got to take it when I can get it.
When it comes to the time, it was a crazy week.
I'm sure by now a lot of different people have had different conversations about how week one has caught them off guard.
(00:31):
I'm right there with you.
The Bills and the Rams caught me off guard right off the bat.
I thought I was going to be a lot tougher game all the way through.
Some of the things definitely that we saw there, the Bills definitely showed us that they are the team to beat.
I think it's going to be fun to watch them play football this year.
The Rams, I'll be honest with you, my all too soon thought after that game, all too soon being it's week one, you can't judge the entire season off of week one.
(01:01):
But the La rams, guys, my thought was that they would have more of a chance at missing the playoffs than the Cincinnati Bengals.
I know stats always show that the losing team from the Super Bowl normally doesn't make the playoffs, but from what I was seeing from the Rams guys, it made me think that we would have more of a chance of seeing the Rams missed the playoffs this year than the Cincinnati Bengals.
(01:29):
Like I said, all too soon.
Although the bangles, the way that they showed, especially that offensive line.
Now, granted, it was the Steelers defense.
What did I say? What did I say, guys, earlier in predictions this summer? I said the Steelers really are looking like they could have a top five, even a top three defense.
And if they were to play like that, they can't right now because obviously TJ Watt will talk more about some different stuff that's happened around the league.
(01:53):
But I hope you guys are all doing well as you're listening to this this morning, as you guys are preparing, as I'm recording this.
It's Thursday already, so it's already time for week two of the NFL Go to try and release this earlier than I normally do.
But a lot of surprises this week, a lot of second half surprises, if I'm honest.
Saints falcons.
(02:15):
Brown's Panthers, 49.
Ers Bears was one where the Bears just held it the whole game.
The Steelers bangles, the bangles, almost had the second half.
I'm not going to lie.
They almost grabbed it.
They should have had that like three different misfield goals, right? The Lions come storming back against the Eagles, the Colts and the Texans.
Probably one of the most unexpected games for me this week.
(02:39):
The patriots and the dolphins.
The Ravens expected that over the jets.
The Commanders and the Jaguars.
The Titans and the Giants.
The New York Football Giants.
The chiefs just destroyed the cardinals.
I did not expect that one.
I did not expect it to go that lopsided the charges and the Raiders was going to be a good game.
(03:03):
The Vikings and the packers.
I predicted a week, one win for Vikings in Minnesota and watch when they match up again.
Things will have come together.
It's going to be an re lax kind of year for Aaron Rodgers and the packers.
So don't get your skimpies in a bunch.
Calm down if you're a packers fan or if you're somebody who's going after the packers, because you're going to look like a fool if you jump too soon.
(03:27):
Good job by the Vikings.
We definitely got a good look at what their offense is going to be with those pieces and with that coaching staff.
Buccaneers and Cowboys, I obviously thought, this is what we see, the Cowboys.
I didn't think it would be because DAC Prescott gets injured so soon.
And then one of the final surprises to end us off was that Broncos Seahawks game.
(03:48):
Oh, my goodness.
I want to talk about that for a second.
My goodness.
I was sitting there as that was happening.
I'm sure a lot of you guys were, too.
Oh, my goodness.
I was watching the Manningcast from ESPN Two on NFL Plus on my phone.
If you are not signed up for NFL Plus, be sure to check out the link in the description.
Whether you're listening to this or you're on YouTube watching this, be sure to check that out.
(04:13):
NFL plus.
Have access to local market games on your mobile device.
Huge.
For me, each and every week, hopefully some future things come to where they add in some different ways to be able to do out of market games.
But right now, man, what a great way for me to be able to do the different things I need to do when the games are going on and still be able to have the game up with either a bluetooth headphone in or just to be able to watch it without audio.
(04:40):
Whatever it is.
I can still watch the game.
NFL plus.
Get it for $5 a month right now or $30 for the entire year.
That's what I did.
Nice, simple.
Only $30.
You're helping and supporting the podcast as you do that as well.
So be sure to check that out.
NFL plus.
Broncos and Seahawks.
The Seahawks, guys, we're going to see something.
(05:04):
We're going to see something.
Preseason, I was poking them with a stick, the whole, like, are you dead kind of thing, because I wasn't sure if they were showing anything and what they were actually going to do.
And then we see the Broncos come out and both of them played solid offense, I think, overall.
And their defenses, the defenses showed up kind of week early, and then obviously the final score was 1716.
(05:29):
So it wasn't that the defenses were terrible, or that the offenses were phenomenal, but we see a lot of potential of things with both teams.
Gino Smith looking like a top ten quarterback right now.
Oh, my goodness, he looked crisp.
And then we get to the whole debacle.
(05:50):
While watching the Manning cast on my phone, manning called like 37 timeouts, and the Broncos called zero in the final minute.
Let's talk about that for a second.
If you have any game sense, any game sense whatsoever, you know it's four and five.
You're looking at a 64 yard field goal.
It's a little far out.
(06:10):
You're down one point.
You have at that time, you had 56 seconds on the clock.
OK? At 56 seconds, you call a timeout you had through all three timeouts.
You call the time out at 56 seconds.
You've got two minutes left.
You go for the first down.
Best case scenario, you get the first down.
Now you're in a more viable field goal range, or potentially with two more timeouts and still some time on the clock, you can put yourself into a very good place for a field goal.
(06:41):
Worst case scenario, you don't get the first down on fourth and five.
That's okay.
You took a time out at 56 seconds.
The clock stops, say 4 seconds go off at 52.
Okay? The offense, the way the defense is playing, I think they could have done this, but say they didn't get that first down.
The defense holds on, first down, timeout, hold on, second down, time out, hold on, third down.
(07:09):
They let the clock run down, and either the Seahawks call timeout to stop the clock somewhere around that ten to 14 second mark, or they try to punt it with the running clock so it doesn't stop.
Either way, you're getting a punt off somewhere between ten and 14 seconds, so you've got a punt return potential even on top of that.
You may even get an offensive play.
(07:31):
And heck, if we're crazy and you say you fare catch it, maybe it's not a great punt or something, and you have 12 seconds on the clock.
You might get two plays, who knows? Even three, I don't think you'll get three plays.
But just thinking of that, I have no clue why they ran 36 seconds off of the clock to not use their time outs to their advantage, the field position to their advantage, the opportunities.
(07:59):
It just didn't make any sense to me.
The Seahawks couldn't have knelt in that situation because those two timeouts, not until, say, the third down.
If they wanted to do that, which I don't think they would have, I think they would have tried to push for the first down to close out the game.
I really, really do not know what the head coach was thinking.
I know he's a new head coach, but he's been an offensive coordinator for like twelve years or something like that at different places.
(08:21):
So I really don't know, but that one caught me really off guard.
Let me know how offguard that caught you.
Let me know if you agree with my analysis of that.
Do you think that's what that could have come out to be? I really think you have Russell Wilson, for pity sake, go for it.
Fourth and five probably make the first down.
If you don't make the first down, you've got Russell Wilson.
(08:44):
If forced to stop with the defense.
If you force that stop, you got two big shots or one, a little bit of field position to the out of bounds and then deep shot for a hail Mary for a touchdown attempt.
I don't know what they were thinking, but that one really I know that got a lot of people going and a lot of people are just confused.
(09:08):
Why would a starting head coach why would a head coach in the NFL not have that scenario ready? Why would they not be ready for that scenario? I don't understand.
Buccaneers and Cowboys, no surprise to me there.
I really thought that the Cowboys were not going to be as good on defense this year with some of the losses, like Gregory, who went to the Broncos.
(09:30):
From what I heard, I get to watch a lot of that game.
But what I heard is that Trayvon, that's his name, right? Number seven, I think it is.
Ball Hawk last year is that he had a solid game until there was a one on one to Mike Evans, and Mike Evans made him look like a little boy, and so good for him.
I wanted to see some improvement in yards giving up, and I'm tired of hearing the arguments about, like, it's not his fault because you guys say he one on one and plays man coverage a lot when he doesn't have safety help and he just trails too far.
(10:01):
He tries to play the ball.
I understand that.
But you take a big risk every time.
You always try to play the ball.
Just take it for what it is.
He's an aggressive player, and that's okay.
That's okay.
Cowboys fans, we don't have to cry about everything.
The Cowboys, I'm really curious to see what Cooper Rush is going to be able to do and are they going to trade for somebody? I know some people were talking about I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so I've heard different things to where different people have talked about are they going to try and trade for Mason Rudolph? Are they going to try to trade in Jimmy Garoppolo from the niners? Are they going to try and bring in I don't know.
(10:37):
I don't know what the situation there.
Knowing the Cowboys, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to save money and they just stick with Cooper Rush.
I thought that they were trying to be a win now kind of team, but who knows anymore? Who knows? And I haven't looked at the news today to see has anything happened? I think last I saw that, it was just practice with Cooper Rush and let's understand what's happening with DAX Hand completely so we understand what the season looks like.
(11:03):
The Packers Vikings.
Many people predicted this.
I had said this, the Vikings were going to win.
They have the ability episode five, guys, I think it was the Vikings have the ability to be the new forest in the north.
They were going to do it at home in week one with the new OC who gets Kirk Cousins and have fun on offense the way he needs to and wants to.
(11:26):
Justin Jefferson, the best wide receiver right now.
It's going to be fun to watch that offense.
And the packers, they'll get it together, but they've got young guys who are dropping wide open balls and Aaron Rogers still doing what he needs to to get the ball where it needs to go.
I'm kind of surprised the defense, the defense did not do everything.
(11:47):
I expected it, but again, it's that offense.
I mean, that Vikings offense.
How do you do it? How do you do it? The Raiders and Chargers, that could have gone either way.
I thought that that was going to be ASE West football.
It's going to be tight this year.
The Chiefs and the Cardinals, oh, my goodness.
Patrick Mahomes making sure people do not second guess him losing Tyreek Hill.
(12:07):
So I'm excited to see what happens with that.
I don't think the Cardinals are a team to give us a true feel of what Kansas City's defense can do.
So keep an eye on that as we move forward.
I'm kind of curious what's up with the Cardinals.
I don't think that they played as well as I thought that they should.
Now, granted, they don't have Hop right now with the suspension, so maybe things change after the four weeks.
(12:29):
We'll see.
Watch those chiefs, though.
They're going to be fighting.
I had them like, number, I think, like third in the division.
They're going to be doing everything they can to make sure they're not.
And then one of my favorite upsets of the week guys, the New York Giants.
I had said that the Titans were going to take a few steps back and I did not think it was going to be against the Giants.
(12:50):
I thought the Giants were going to be bottom five in the league this year.
They may still be.
They may still be.
Saquon still healthy, potential injury, always on the horizon with him.
Daniel Jones is still the quarterback.
There potential turnovers to lose, games, always there.
They've got some talent, they've got in the receivers, they got Saquon, they have a couple of people on defense, but still that's one of the things that surprised me is how the defense played and everybody loving that clip of, what was it, number 45 or something like that, just coming and decluding king Henry.
(13:26):
And I think we're going to see people are going to see stuff like that.
And the fear of Derek Henry has lessened and it should be less than it has been in the past two to three years.
He was injured a little bit last year and we've seen people like, I think it was Alex Highsmith one year and now this kid from the Giants.
(13:48):
And we've seen people who can manhandle this big guy.
Not all the time because Derek Henry does just as much dishing out, right.
But I'm excited to see what that's going to mean for their offense.
Tannahill was throwing some good balls.
They're getting some of those young receivers involved quickly.
I have Traylon Burke stashed on my fantasy bench, so I'm hoping to see that come around here soon.
(14:13):
I do think Titans take a few steps back, but how many steps I had said that nobody can carry the weight of their team taking hits like they do, like Derek Henry for five years in a row.
And so we're going to see what happens there.
But good job to the Giants.
It'd be fun to see them shake things up, especially since the NFC East is always such a mess.
(14:40):
The Commanders got a win this week.
I think Carson wentz.
There are a couple there were a couple of other people that he's still who he was again.
They got the win.
He had a decent game.
I don't have the details right in front of me.
I think they're going to get some wins this year.
I think they're going to have opportunities to be able to surprise people.
(15:04):
Carson, once he threw two interceptions.
He also threw four touchdowns.
And so I don't have the sheet in front of me to be able to see, OK, how did this happen? Was it because of a crappy offensive line maybe.
I don't know.
I don't have it in front of me.
But of course, we're in a quarterback league.
Everybody's going to blame the quarterback first, especially when there's somebody who's been blamed a lot before they'll carry that on.
(15:28):
But good for Carson Went, good for the Commanders.
They got that win.
The Giants got the win.
The Eagles barely got the win.
That one was interesting.
The lions came.
Surging back.
Some of that exciting football I was talking about in the summer, that I'm so excited to see Dan Campbell lead Detroit into some exciting runs like that.
And I'm sure Detroit is a fan base, is super excited about that too.
(15:51):
They didn't get the win.
Obviously, you don't just want moral victories.
But what an exciting thing for Detroit fans to be able to see how their team, with the current setup, the current coaching, is willing and able to come back against, honestly, one of the top teams in the NFC, the Eagles right now.
(16:11):
So good for them.
I'm excited to see them actually get a w here.
Soon.
The Eagles, interesting, though, because their defense, I thought, was going to be pretty darn good in that second half.
They just man, I'm surprised, honestly, that the Lions did not get that, did not get the win there.
But the Eagles kept the win.
The Cowboys got that loss.
(16:32):
And so talking about the NFC East guys right now, the Eagles and the commanders, like, I mean, the Giants got that win, but I still think there's a bit to prove defensively.
Are we going to see that prove that you're from Carson West again? I don't want to get ahead of week one, right? The Eagles are still the eagles.
I think we're still going to see some good football out of them.
(16:54):
But the NFC East, man, it's always murky waters.
It's always murky waters.
The Ravens being the Ravens.
I just want to say this.
I don't like the ravens.
I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
I love football.
I appreciate good football.
And I'm tired of people not appreciating lamar Jackson.
The dude can throw the dude can play NFL football at an elite level.
(17:17):
I just am tired of hearing people I saw a clip that showed one of those no look passes.
And of course, nobody wanted to talk about it when it's Lamar Jackson, just like before.
Nobody would ever talk about it when it was Matt Stafford until Patrick Mahomes started doing a couple of them.
And then people are just like, wait, you're giving him all the credit? Then it came afterward.
But Lamar Jackson throwing some great passes.
(17:37):
I'm not a proponent for no look passes, but hey, when you can make them work at a high level like that, by all means throw the defense off.
But Ravens with a win, no surprise there.
Raven still going to be fighting for the top of the AFC North if they stay healthy.
Dolphins and the Patriots, I had said that could go either way.
It's interdivisional.
It's Bill Belichick watch the next time they play.
(18:02):
I won't be surprised if they just trade it.
If they just trade it off.
The Dolphins got a win there.
We're going to see that up and down.
I talked about with the potentials of Miami, I don't think they're a team that is going to fulfill all of their potential, but they obviously are going to do what they have to at times and what they should do at times.
(18:24):
I think we're a little heavy there on the focus on Tyreek Hill, though.
Twelve passes to what, five to jail and waddle or something like that.
So keep an eye on how they do that because I do think focus and use like that against a smaller guy.
Yes, he's fast.
He's a smaller guy, though, could lead to injury.
And I hope not.
Obviously.
I hope that for all these teams.
I like to see teams compete at the highest level with all of their players.
(18:46):
That's a concern for me to watch out for.
I don't like to kind of predict injuries, but it is what it is.
And then the Colts and the Texans, man, good for the Texans.
Good for the Texans, honestly, to come out of that with a tie, good for them.
I think some busts there on the side of all the expectations of that running back for the Texans.
(19:10):
But I don't know what's going on with the Colts.
I hope it's just the first game.
Get things together, get things going.
Because there's no reason that the Indianapolis Cults, with their current roster, should have got a tie.
Let's be real.
It's pretty much a loss.
When you tie with one of the worst teams in the league, it's a loss.
(19:34):
I know that as a Steelers fan, tying with the Lions.
What was that last year, even or two years ago? They've done it like twice in the past four years, and it's ridiculous.
But the Colts, there's no reason that that should happen.
I don't think we'll see that kind of thing happen again for them.
I think we'll see some recovery from that, and we'll see them have some excellent games here moving forward.
(19:57):
Why that happened, I don't know.
I can't comprehend it.
Matt Ryan and that offense have got to put some pieces together, put some pieces forward.
Some of the final ones from last week, the Bears 49 Ers.
Good job on the bears.
I do think the weather helped them there, but good on them for taking advantage of that.
(20:19):
Good on them for taking advantage of that.
Another injury to the 49 Ers in the running game.
Just like the past three years.
This is what I talked about.
It's going to be huge for them.
They've got to stay healthy.
And the other thing is, well, I mean, it was just the weather, but Trey Lance, from the clips that I saw, didn't really show a ton to be desired for Justin Field, showed some flash of what he can do and what we should be looking forward to.
(20:48):
But I do think that that game was mainly decided because of weather.
I really do.
Weather and home field advantage were huge there.
Defense for the Bears, though, did an excellent job.
I don't want to underappreciate them.
They did a great job.
Again, weather was helpful.
The Steelers and the Bengals, though oh, I'm not going to go on about this because we all know the Steelers had arguably the best defensive showing of any team this week.
(21:12):
Arguably the best defensive showing here's, one of the best individual defensive performances in Steeler's history.
When you look at just statistics, when you look at statistics, not including the I mean, I'm talking about like, what the defense forced and such.
They forced seven sacks, I think it was, and four or five or more turnovers.
It's the first time the Steelers defense I think I've ever done that in a game.
(21:33):
The steelers offense.
Here's where I want to be real.
The Steelers look the exact same as last year to me, but with an improved defense.
And now TJ wat is injured, unfortunately, potentially six weeks out.
That is a sigh of relief.
But still, it consistently seems like whatever the Steelers have an opportunity to be a stud.
(21:55):
Last year, game one injuries out for the season, and obviously the unfortunate unpredicted piece with to it, and I think it was the loss of his brother.
But we never have the defense at full.
Go it's infuriating.
And I'm sure there's other teams, other of you listening, who are just like, well, what about my team? I'm sure that you could give me a similar picture.
(22:22):
I am just familiar with the Steelers picture.
But the Steeler's defense, excellent, excellent job.
And then the offense did not do anything to help.
And when the offense doesn't do anything to help, it doesn't matter how good your defense plays.
It really doesn't, because then you end up in tied game scenarios when you were leading in the first half, in the third quarter.
(22:48):
And then the offense, it killed me.
People talking about Mitch Chersky doing a great job, and I don't think he did a terrible job.
He didn't turn the ball over.
That's important.
But I don't think he did enough.
And I think a lot of it was because of the OC.
I think it's the play calling, and I've been saying this the past two years.
The past two years, I don't think it's been Ben.
(23:11):
Ben? Yes.
Did he lose a step? Yes.
Did he lose a little bit of power in his arm? Yes.
But Ben still statistically had two great seasons the past two years.
The average throw depth down field and stuff, it was worse this game.
(23:31):
It was averaged like five yards per pass.
And I think with Ben, it was down to 6.1 or something like that.
When somebody can correct me on that, because I know I'm probably not exactly right.
But this game, guys, I'm not sold on Matt Canada, and it's been a frustrating thing to me because I feel like we've had a consistent rollover when it comes to OC.
Is it the OC, or is it the capability of the head coach or management to be able to place them? I don't know.
(23:55):
I've always had some qualms about Mike Tomlin.
I'm not for a second going to contradict what the man has done and what he has accomplished as a head coach.
But when it comes to what you have available to you and what you could do with it, he far underwhelms.
And that's insane to me.
If you think about the Steelers over the past 15 seasons and how they have not had a losing season, they've had like eight and eight seasons, but they have not had a losing season in 15 years.
(24:27):
And to think, especially over the past decade, the steelers have had different issues, especially with OC situations to where they could not and play calling situations on offense to where they have underwhelmed from who they could be and what they could accomplish.
(24:49):
Dude, it's insane to think about what they should have accomplished.
Even just talking back to the Killer Bees right back when a b in his prime bell in his first few years, ben when he was in the height of his passing career.
Oh, my goodness.
Now, granted, then you have to consider the fact of a weaker defense that the Steelers had as well.
(25:10):
I do understand that.
But the reality of the offensive coordinator and the offensive play calling in Pittsburgh has been very questionable, very suspect to me.
And unfortunately, I think we're going to see some of the same this year, and it's not going to be because of poor play from Mitch completely.
There may be different games.
Every quarterback has a game or two that they play less than they should.
(25:31):
Right.
But I think we're going to see some play calling that it doesn't stretch the field.
It doesn't properly align according to the defense that you're seeing.
It doesn't properly use motions and zone and different movements to be able to bounce off and be able to mess with the mind of the defense.
(25:52):
I think what I've seen so far is a collegiate playbook in the NFL, and that concerns me.
But now I say that all with a clause.
I'm not an NFL offensive coordinator.
I'm not an NFL coach.
I'm not even an NFL cowboy.
So I say all that as a guy sitting on a couch, right, sitting on a couch with my observations, and that's it.
(26:18):
That's all I go with there.
On to the Browns and the Panthers guys, that one should have been the Panthers game.
That was a comeback game that they lost.
I was so excited to see Baker Mayfield get that over the Browns, but good on Jacobi percent and the Browns for being able to find a way to make that happen.
How Miles Garrett got rated as number one this past week with his performance, but Minka Fitzpatrick was not even top five is insane to me.
(26:44):
But when I see stuff like that and we saw what someone like Minka was able to do this past game versus what Miles Garrett was able to do, and obviously, great player, great player, that's just I can't trust those kind of rankings.
Minka Fitzpatrick wasn't even in the top five on the PFF rate.
That's ridiculous.
That is ridiculous.
We had the saints and the falcons.
(27:04):
That was one that felt like was going to be I mean, it's NFC South football.
I'll be honest with you.
I didn't expect the Falcons to be able to play that well, to play that hard, to play this early and so good on them.
Marcus Mariota not starting for a few years and then coming in and.
Being the guy.
Cordero Patterson.
Let's go.
So I think there'll be some great things there.
(27:25):
But then James Winston in the fourth quarter, it's like everybody remember Tim Tebow in the fourth quarter.
Everybody always talks about how terrible Tebow was when he played and said, dude, Tim Tebow in the fourth quarter was phenomenal.
James Winston, man.
Holy cow.
Holy cow.
What a what an end of the game that one was.
(27:45):
But guys, this week, let me know your thoughts.
(28:11):
Week two, we have another ASC West match up between the Chargers and the Chief.
That's going to be fun, fun to watch.
I think the Chargers will take it, but we'll see.
I'm not really given predictions each week.
That's not my plan with these episodes.
Just kind of looking at as we're going through the season, what we're feeling, what we're thinking, and what we're enjoying, what we're surprised by, all those kind of things.
(28:35):
The dolphins and the ravens.
That's going to be an interesting game.
It's going to be at MNT Bank.
The jets and the Browns.
The Commanders and the lions.
The Colts and the Jaguars.
The Bucks and the Saints.
The Panthers and the giants.
The patriots and the Steelers.
The falcons and the rams.
The Seahawks and the 49 ers.
(28:55):
The Bengals and the Cowboys.
The Texans and the Broncos.
The Cardinals and the raiders.
The bears in the pack.
The titans and the bills.
The Vikings and the Eagles.
So I'm kind of looking through this and my mind is going through, like, who would be that surprise this week? Right? We had a bunch of surprises this past week, guys.
(29:16):
I wouldn't be surprised if we see a surprise fight from the Texans against the Broncos at the Broncos, or even after the surprising loss to the Giants, the Titans in Orchard Park against the Bills.
What a surprise that would be to see them fight to a point of even potentially winning, but even just giving surprise after what we saw this past week.
(29:49):
But those are a couple of games.
Seahawks 40 niners.
I think that's going to be a fun one as well.
Division play, though, it's hard to call those upsets because division play is just a different style of football.
And we saw what the Seahawks can do, and we have yet to see the 40 Niners fulfill what we know that they can do.
(30:10):
Another one that I think could be a surprise for us this week is watch the Falcons in Sophie Stadium against the La rams.
That one could be a fun one with Cordero, with Marcus Mariota, with the defense, especially what's his name out on out at cornerback.
Man, I'm kind of excited to see that one.
That's an afternoon game this Sunday.
(30:31):
But the Steelers and Patriots, that's going to be a fight.
That's going to be dog fight, like it always is.
And then the Panthers and giants.
It wouldn't really be an upset there.
If either one of those win the Bucks and the Saints, that's going to be a fight.
I won't be surprised if the Saints get a second win, get a win over the Bucks there, but we'll see Colts and the Jags colt should win that.
(30:52):
But that's another one that I wouldn't be surprised if the Jags are able to make it happen because it's division play.
Division play is just a completely different brand.
Commanders and Lions.
That one can go either way.
Jets and Browns.
Okay.
I think that it would be a surprise if in Cleveland the jets were to be able to beat the Browns with Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback.
(31:14):
That would be a big surprise to me.
I think this is a game for the Browns to lose.
Dolphins and Ravens could go either way.
Charges cheap, so it's hard to say, but I think watch for those four games.
I said the Texans, Broncos, Titans, Bills, honestly.
Week two the Bears and the packers.
With what we can see out of the Bears, I'm not one to jump against Aaron in the Pack, but it's week two after struggles with a young receiving corps, the Bears might give us some fun football against the packers.
(31:46):
It's hard to tell because they're in Lambo and maybe that packers defense recovers a little, but that Texan Broncos, the Bangles Cowboys will see.
Obviously, it would be a big surprise if the Cowboys were to do something crazy against the Bengal since they don't have DAC, but if they get some pressure from that defense on that offensive line, it might not be as much of a surprise as we think it might not be, but the Falcons, Rams, that will be one to look for.
(32:15):
The Falcons and Rams, I keep looking at these division games, and I don't want to call those the Jags Colts.
It honestly won't surprise me either way.
It should be the Colts, but it shouldn't surprise me either way.
The Seahawks 49 ers, it won't surprise me either way, but it should be the 40 niners, you know what I mean? And then the jets browns probably would be the biggest one to me.
If the jets beat the Browns with Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback, that would be a huge surprise to me.
(32:41):
It really would.
I'm excited.
It's football season, baby.
How's everybody doing in their fantasy league? I know for myself, I've been looking at trying to trade away Cam Acres.
I'm not a big fan.
I was looking at stats from the past two years with Sean McVeigh's run offense, and it's been bottom of the league.
(33:03):
It's not been horrendous when you look at what stats can do for you in a general week for fantasy football.
But overall, it's not been the greatest run attack.
And so campaigns, obviously, Daryl Henderson controlling that job.
I know injuries can happen at any time so do I trade them out this early? But if I can get something for Cam Acres, if I can give away Cam Acres and I don't know Zay Jones or something like that for an ETN or something like that ETN, then why would I not try to do that? You know what I mean? Another one that I've been fighting with myself about is Naji Harris as a Pittsburgh Steelers guy and in a PPR league with heavy runner.
(33:45):
I don't know that I want to get rid of him this early.
But the fact that he's already dealt with the potential Liz Franc.
However you pronounce that in the preseason and now had to sit out the latter part of this past game in week one of an 18 week season is concerning to me.
And I kind of want to take advantage of a trade early before something does happen and then I can't get anything for him.
(34:16):
Those are two for me that I'm really looking cam Acres and Naji Harris.
In the league I'm playing in right now, it's with some people from my local church and we've been doing this league for about eight years.
I've won twice in the league.
We purposely set things up.
It's really difficult for anybody who does fantasy.
(34:37):
We've done it to where it's a standard draft, it's not a snake draft.
And the idea was that within the first four years, myself and one other guy who's my co commissioner won.
I won twice, he won twice.
And we were just like, we're going to lose people if it's just you and I going back and forth.
(34:58):
And actually the standard draft got set up by accident.
It was accidentally done one year.
But I liked how it gave more of an even competition and it gave opportunity for new players as well as for those who have been around awhile but not really had great shots to have a shot.
And within those next three seasons, he just won last year again.
(35:23):
So he was the first one to three in our league.
But there were two others who had never won before who won.
And so it was like awesome.
That's what we're trying to do.
We're trying to give it to where people see that they have a shot at winning this thing.
And so with that, though, this year was an 18 team league.
Think about that thing about the 18 teams.
(35:46):
So there's slim pickings across the league next year because of this.
We've had four straight years of at least 16 teams.
Two of those four years we've had 18.
So next year we're going to be splitting into two leagues to then do basically like an AFC conference and an NFC conference.
So we'll have at minimum a ten man league.
(36:09):
Hopefully we can find a couple more people that and get to a twelve man league in each because that right there is the sweet spot, right? But if we do 210 man leagues, everybody will draft and we'll split out accordingly to how things finished this year.
And whoever wins each league will basically be that league champion.
(36:30):
But then we'll compete together for the full league champion rather than the conference champion.
So if you have the same player, when that happens they'll cancel out and it will be based upon who you have that the other doesn't.
And the cocomission.
I will keep track of the stats and stuff like that.
It's a fun way if you got a big group, it's a fun idea to be able to split it up and not lose people, be able to keep it competitive.
(36:55):
People still have fun because we started getting complaints from people about the draft and stuff like that and about how many people and are there going to actually be people available, which didn't make sense to me because when you think about it, we had 18 people before and nobody complained about it.
So I think people are just getting to that place of like, okay, if we're going to have this many people, let's do something different with it, which I'm completely on board with and I had announced this is going to be our last time doing it this way, so I'm hoping that everybody's excited for that.
(37:23):
What are you guys thoughts on something like that being able to do a conference split? We've used Yahoo and I know there was somebody just grown listening to that, but I've really enjoyed Yahoo.
I like the aesthetic to it.
They've done a good job with advancing it forward and it just has always looked smoother, felt smoother.
(37:46):
I don't know, I've just liked Yahoo's.
Far and above over ESPN.
ESPN to me has looked so much like if I was a statistician, maybe ESPN.
It just looks so blue and it doesn't have a clean feel to it.
A smooth feel to it.
I've enjoyed Yahoo, but I've heard a lot about the sleeper app.
I don't know anything about it yet, I've just heard about it.
(38:08):
I'm really curious to check it out in the future.
We'll see what happens right now, not doing too hot.
Started out the season one with blanks from people like Cam Acres at my Flex and I joined a lot of people and heartache from that naji not having a phenomenal game this season has a lot of potential.
It's a long season and so I encourage you if you're in fantasy football, it's a long season.
(38:29):
You're a fan of a certain team, it's a long season.
Take a breath.
A loss does not decide the whole year unless it's the final game of the season and you're in a win and in it situation, then it does.
But it's very rare that a single win early in the season, a single loss earlier in the season will decide it all for you.
(38:50):
Take encouragement from that.
But overall today I really wanted to talk a little bit about those week one games as we get ready for week two.
Again, it's not going to be something that I do each and every week review through the previous week.
I just can't commit to that kind of thing with my son.
But this week, so many crazy things started just like, dude, I got to get these out, I got to talk about it.
(39:14):
And so we'll see what week two holds for us.
There's always some crazy things happening in football and the NFL.
Also some conversations moving forward about some things we've talked about before with fantasy football and as well as thoughts on different individual performances and what they'll look like come the end of the season.
Other scenarios and news happening, but also having conversations about other parts of life.
(39:38):
I mean, talking about this right now, you listening to this right now.
You're a football fan, you're most likely listening to this as a football fan.
And I love it.
I love that.
I love football and I'm going to constantly be talking about it.
But there's other pieces that blend into that, right? There's more to me than football.
There's more to life than football.
And I'd love for conversations that begin in football to be able to cover other topics and look at other important conversations.
(40:06):
Now, I'm not saying that about like, okay, we're going to get political or anything like that.
That's not the idea at all.
But I'm a dad, so there'll be other conversations that come up that I can talk about that maybe I have guests on that we talk about and cover that.
Start from sitting on the couch talking about football and head towards two dudes talking about being a dad or talking about being a Christian or talking about you name it, you name it.
(40:35):
Anything can come from those conversations.
I'm excited for where things can continue to go.
We've started with a place of predictions and football and I'm excited about that.
And I'm also excited about where things can go with a podcast that leaves a little bit of free form out of a base topic like that.
So let me know if you guys have any thoughts, anything you think would be an awesome topic of conversation.
(41:01):
Don't be afraid to tag me on Twitter, DM me on Twitter, let me know a thought you may have.
Check out the Patreon guys in the link below or in the description new Patreon out for ways to be able to be more a part of things and see more content as it comes out and to even have a voice in things, be sure to check that out.
(41:23):
And I look forward to not only continuing to have different conversations and looking at different topics that I want to do, but also addressing things that maybe you would like to hear about, hear my perspective on or get my thoughts on.
So I'm excited about that.
I look forward to week two and look forward to some of your predictions.
(41:45):
Let me know who you got winning some of these games that I said earlier.
There's three or four that could be big upsets to look out for.
How do you think the Steelers will do without TJ y? Let me know your thoughts, guys.
Throw them in the comments.
Tag me on Twitter, whatever it is.
I look forward to the next episode of Cleats Off the Couch.
I hope you guys have a great one.
Until then, peace.
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