Rams-49ers MNF Recap with J.B. Long

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Speaker 1: On first down. Here is a toss up the gut Wilson touchdown. Forty Niners down three, quick throw water cash, Sammuel stays upright, terrific, catch him one one on one with Ramsey, can't bring him down Samuel final touchdown. This one is Jocko Bitch Fungolongo touchdown, San Francisco pick six Tallnoah Fonga wrapping up the scoring for the forty Niners on an ugly night for the Rams twenty four to nine, but a glorious night in the Bay Area, and to weather in terms of uniform, in terms of smash mouth NFC West football, And that's kind of what this division is about. J B. Long, Now I am joined uh as you just slay from the radio voice, the play by play man, one of the most talented guys in the business, JB. Long, of the Rams. And I'm gonna put you in an awkward spot here, JB. You just announced the game on the radio here in Las Angeles. I'm gonna make you talk nicely about the forty nine ers for like fifteen minutes. Is that okay? Oh? Greg? I was so looking forward to this conversation. I had a goal on the back of my mind to go deeper into the night than your Geno Smith opening Seahawks podcast on the Monday Night recap. So, and I just don't know that I have it in me, but it does with my spirits to to see you and to hear from you. And well, I may be down in the dumps, I'm sure that you, coming back from across the pond, are feeling even more threadbarer than I. So oh, I yeah, a little bit. We we got delayed, so to to be perfectly honest, we landed uh sometime in the first quarter, and so I was racing watching it on my phone and then racing to get back to the two in position here to catch up to the game, and and I it went play lead is what I missed the highlight I did. I did see the fourteen play drive eventually caught up. You know, that's the beauty of game pass. You can try to cram through it. But man, there wasn't a lot of highlights like this Rams team right now. We'll get to them in a second, but they were a little overwhelmed by what's to me one of the best fronts UH in the NFL at the Forts. Do you think the Rams were taken aback a little bit by all the blitzes, when when maybe the forty Niners didn't even need to blitz to get all those secs. Well, Gregg, let me start with this. You won't get any sympathy from San Francisco. They were without Trent Williams and lost other pieces of their offensive line along the way. But I will point out that the Rams were playing with Bobby Evans at left guard in place of David Edwards. They started Coleman Shelton, he left with an injury, and so you had undrafted Jeremiah Cologne at center and then Aleric Jackson at right guard. So I would venture a guest at those three individuals have never stood side by side at practice with Matthew Stafford behind them, much less against this ferocious pass rush of the San Francisco FORDA Honors. It was very much a worst case scenario, and perhaps no surprise, it turned into the second seven sack night of the season for the Rams. The first ones against the Bills, this one against the Niners. Same result. Their loss right to two games where they've kind of been overwhelmed offensively. Seven sacks quarterback eleven quarterback hits nine tackles for loss. You heard the pick six which really ended there was still a game at that point. Amazingly, Uh, these two teams, like the the offenses aren't there right now. It feels like it's sort of like a trend in the NFL that the offenses behind the defense. Uh, in a lot of places, but especially these two teams seem like they're just trying to like piece it together. What can they get to do offensively? Like? Why? Why do you think everything is so hard right now? For for l A. I don't know if you can hear that plane overhead, Greg, but it might be mine. No, it there and and leave you hanging only four minutes into the Monday night football recap. No, I'm just kidding that boys will hopefully return. Yeah, right now, it does look like the Rams are a bit weapon deficient when you look at the targets nineteen to Cooper Cup, fourteen to Tyler Higbee, wide wide gap, and it's still Ben Scarronic ahead of Allan Robinson next in terms of catches and yards. And you know, we're now a month in, four games in, and that's becoming a predicament without much of an explanation, he and Matthew Stafford just aren't on the same page, which, as you know, having been at training camp this summer, is just very difficult to fathom given how hot a commodity they were at U C Irvine just a few short weeks ago. So yes, there there's a lot of issues. There are a lot of deficiencies, but I think you also have to give Damika Ryan's and the forty nine is a ton of credit. Like they came in one of, if not the best defenses in the National Football League. They came in, you know, allowing fewer than four yards per play. But I think there were some doubters saying, Okay, you played the Chicago Bears in a monsoon, you played the Seattle Seahawks with Greg's boy Gino, and you played the Broncos, who are disjointed as well. Right now, offensively, let's see it against McVeigh and Stafford and the Rams. I mean, don't start JB. I mean shutting out Gino, which is what they did. They didn't give up any offensive points. That might be the most impressive thing you can do. They have the number one offensive e p A. If you shut down Gino, they I mean no wonder the Rams can't do anything. Yeah, and and the Rams only got three and a half per play tonight. And I think the the statistic I saw from Monday Night Football was it was the first time the Rams did not have a single explosive play of at least twenty yards going back to two thousand seven. Um So, right now they are without answers, and they are running out of places to turn in search of those answers. But redemption is only a week away in the league, and they got the Cowboys next, right it it's twenty there's still just two and two. But they play one of the best defenses in the league next, so we'll talk about that during the week. I'm curious, as like a RAMS follower and maybe what the Rams, what's inside the building there? When Jimmy Garoppolo, you know, ends up taking over this job again, I wonder what the reaction is, because my reaction watching this is this, if nothing else this offense is they have answers, They have Deebo Samuel still uh, they have Brandon Ayouk, and they at least know who Jimmy Garoppolo is. And it just doesn't seem like it's it's the worst thing for them right now to have him back under center. I think you've got the pulse. Like, are they a complete offensive team right now? No, But identity wise, they know what their playbook look like, it looks like, and what they have to do given their current circumstances, and that includes being without Trent Williams. That includes being without Trey Lance. Like Deebo, Samuel goes for fifty seven yards and garoppolo stats look pretty good, but I think more than seventy of Garoppolo's yards came after a catch tonight. You know, he can drag his time to throw down into the low twos. He can spread it around to Kittle and to Auke and to Samuel, and they can make plays through tackles after the catch. Right now, aside from Cooper Cup, I'm not sure the Rams have enough of those players two similar timilarly survive and play a defensive oriented game right like that, They're working so hard, Like Cup, beating double teams is half the offense, and he does it week after week, which is completely amazing to me. Like the third down that Stafford hit the Cup last week, I thought changed the game and was just some miraculous play but they're they're needing miraculous plays sometimes uh to move the ball. Whereas Jimmy Garoppolo, on the other hand, like that play was a perfect example who the forty Niners are. I think Garoppolo threw it high. I don't know if that was on purpose. Darry and Kendrick might have picked that ball off if not for a high pass by Garoppolo. But then it's a bad tackle by Taylor Rap and then Debo gets in the open field, and Jalen Ramsey has had a great season so far, but trying to tackle Deebo Samuel in the open field, that to me was a difference. Today was like the playmakers of the forty Niners had a chance to come out and kind of be themselves. Jeff Wilson got a chance to just run up the middle. Deevo Samuel had his two big games, especially that when where he runs over Jalen Ramsey and Nick Bosa. I went into the game thinking it's either a Nick Bosa game or an Aaron Donald game, and it was absolutely a Nick Bosa game. And know by the way it was a Samson Evacom game. He's kind of been great for them to the old RAM former. M I have to ask you, Greg how you knew because I was on my weekly Thursday run and I'm listening to the preview show and I just had this bad feeling when Rosenthal's going against his home Rams and and your other two co hosts are picking Los Angeles. I couldn't believe it when when Dan and Mark are on the Rams bandlagg and I'm uneasy. I always I almost always picked the Rams because my daughter is a fan. Well, I don't need to tell you about the regular you know the matchup that this has been difficult. Obviously they won in the NFC Championship game, but this I keep in mind it's a really long season, but this seems like a part of the season that the Rams are really going to have to try to manage and get through and find solutions as they go, Whereas I feel like San Francisco is not as far away, even though they're they're one and two, because I think on paper they have a top two or three defense, and that's a that's like a great, great place to start. Yeah, I mean, it was almost a tease to see Odell Beckham Jr. Tweet about this robbery before the game and let everyone know whose side of it he's on. Um, it's almost like either he has to walk through that door or the RAMS have to come to grips of the fact that he's not walking through that door and moving. What do you what do you think you're the insider? I mean I heard, uh, Troy Aikman, Joe Buck throughout like a week where he would be ready and potentially on the RAMS, and I'm like, okay, are they just do they know this already? They said week ten? By the way, I don't know if you heard that, but you know I was. I was listening to myself talk instead of Troy, and I didn't know if you had heard week ten in your in your dealings. You know you do own a you do have a super Bowl ring that comes within for prized information. Yeah, well you are. You guys are the top ten global NFL insiders. So I'll take my from you in terms of the insights you. Um, but look, you're right, I mean two and to the entire division is flat. But it felt like I was watching a rerun of my least favorite movie for like the third or fourth year in a row, like below on third and long. You know, not in a savior season type of situation, but trying to dig out of a losing record and get out of an offensive malaise. And whether it's third and five, third and eleven, third and thirteen, that's where he's at his most comfortable, and it's where the Forts are at their most dynamics. And they won this one convincingly that they looked very much the part of a contender in an open NFC. Yeah. I mean they're gonna have their ups and downs too. Who founded By the way, uh is really turning into a story. And at first I thought I was just being lazy comparing him to Troy Polamalo, But that play tonight was a Troy Polo Milo play. And then I learned, oh, no way. Actually he trains under Troy Bolo Malo and it's like it's mentored by him every offseason. It makes total sense. Uh Dan Dan pointed him out as early as possible in this season and even in the preseason that he was great, and I think he he is really changing their team. Before I let you go, I know you need to go. You do a quick little interview with Sean McVeigh. Right after uh. He speaks to the team. What was kind of his frustration level? Where where do you think he's at right now? Because I've actually been impressed with the way he's found answers the last couple of weeks, getting so creative offensively. But I gotta imagine tonight was a tough one. Yeah, I've said pregame that I think Sean McVeigh has often been at his best when he's kind of been painted into a corner and has some options taken away from him and has to fight his way out, like I think moving Scarona to full back is one of those most recent examples. Um, but this was not his offense's finest performance, and clearly disappointed and frustrated and sick of the same old refrain here at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. He pointed to a few things, um blitz pick up being one of them, right, like the inexperience of the candidates in front of Matthew Stafford to buy him one more block to let a throw go. Clearly, tackling was an issue on the other side of the football, even though I think you would say that holding the forty Niners to twenty four, including the defensive touchdown, it should be plenty to win on most nights in the National Football League. Great goal line stand. I mean they didn't get any sacks, but they ultimately did a good job against the running game yea. And then ultimately kind of pointing the fingerback at himself, ultimately saying that he needs to provide in his coaching staff, has to provide better clarity to the players, apparently because the execution tonight was sorely lacking. It's got a little bit of It is different though than last year's dip and some of the dips they've had over the years, and it hasn't been I think a prolonged a sort of set of injuries like they've had. They've they've just generally been a healthy team. Uh and then I and and this like long of a funk where you're not getting any big plays is a little different. It's maybe that that really down Jared Goffe years is probably at points of the closest thing. But it is a little different. So I also think where it falls on the calendar, Greg right, like we're two Shaw mcphagh's team and often storming out of the gates with whatever iteration they are bringing to the new year, getting off to a positive start plane from in front plane, from like a three and one or better type position, and then you know the fastest evolving species on Earth. Defensive coordinators come up with something, or they get a mismatch that knocks them off course, and their year is determined by what counteradjustments they can make and whether or not they're healthy and talented enough to make a postseason run. As recently as last year, it was a resounding yes after a windless November game an undefeated December. But now it's kind of on the front end of the schedule, and I guess the good news is there's time for a course correction. There's time for additional pieces to be found internally and externally. Um. But I think tonight was was pivotal in this way. One you had a chance to get clearance on the division and head to head road wins over Arizona and San Francisco, who figure to be your top two competitors in back to back weeks. Instead, everyone's back to a level plane field, and you've put yourself in a position now where it looks like you're gonna have to scratch and clot every single week to division or get in as a wild card and it's way too early for any of those conversations. But it doesn't look like anyone is falling off the pace in the West. This is this is a scratching cloud type of season for the Rams. That's the thing about the NFL. You can be as high as as a canon. You can have all sorts of new challenges of the matter, how good a coach you are, like Sean McVeigh and and I think he can coach his way out of it. And it's not just O B J. You could come back. It could be Van Jefferson. They do potentially have some answers and getting healthier on the offensive line, like all those things will help. Before I let you go, I know you got to your li to really go into the plane. You were Chris Wesseling and Lakisha's uh Wesseling's neighbor for a few years. Just just give me, and this is I hope this isn't too tough off the top of your head. Just give me a Western Keisha neighborhood memory from over the years. They're just there's what what was like to be that neighbor we we you know, this is too much darkness uh, in this RAMS recap, let's have Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm thankful that through them I met you, and I'll never forget the day um as a fan of your show, that kind of moving into our home and and for the first time seeing two people walking down the street who may have matched the profile, but we're too far away to really get facial recognition on. But I did see like an NFL media string bag on the back of Chris walk into our neighborhood grocery store. So I just took a shot in the dark and yelled Chris Lakisha, and enough they turned around. And that's amazing. That's how you first said. I was able to call on them as friends and neighbors. And we really missed them in the neighborhood, and we missed them in our lives in lots of different ways. Um. But I think obviously the greatest part for me was getting to be there for Link's arrival, UM, and to live through his first few weeks and months and years, and having Lakisha's wonderful mother, Rhoda become a part of our family and become a grandmother to our two boys as well. UM. If we wanted to go down this pathway. We could double up the Geno Smith episode in length, because these are the stories that put me in a much much better mood and leave me with fonder feelings on a disappointing Monday night. Yeah, yeah, me too. Although I love that image of him just walking down the street. I mean, we don't get many celebrity sightings JV. Certainly not in l A. You know, if we're at an NFL game in London that's got a celebrity site, but we will get people call it in our name. But to have JB call it, I had heard enough about the what do you call the paramore or whatever you guys used to say yeah and and uh to kind of note enough to put two and two together. And the fact that she was a Rams fan. You know, she was kind of in our orbit as the Rams came back to Los Angeles and sou to stay that To say that the stars aligned would be the understatement of my lifetime. To think that, you know what I think of as the uh Lakisha and Chris super Bowl coming to Sophie Stadium. Um, They'll never be a clearer sign, I don't think in my lifetime now I'm with you, that'll ne There'll never be anything like that. And yeah, this is more of a down night for the Rams, but I I have a feeling we're gonna have you back, JB. I mean we're going to either way, but we're gonna have you back at a higher point in the Rams season. I just I just have a feeling. And it might take a while. We might be talking about the four and five Rams struggling to get through, but I think at some point that they'll be figuring things out and they'll be much better. Offensively. I'm not worried about the defense. I am worried about you getting your plane, So go, I'm gonna say bye to you. I'm gonna finish up with a couple of little thoughts on the forts uh, and then I'm gonna try to sleep off this jet lag. Go go get that plane. I hope the Tuesday's show is a banger and that it knocks this one off the top of the plane rather than later. Even though I was all prepared with some lines about my initials not diluting the number of g s and our shared character count, and much like the Lambs, offensively, they're all gonna fall flag. I mean you do have one g you're like you doesn't doesn't really get it done there, and uh, all right, j V. I'll see you good night. All right, Off goes j V, long into the California night. I mean he gets that quick plane. He's on the private plane. I mean we we've gotten a little spoiled on the plane. Uh justin graver, can you jump in for me here? Not as spoiled. But you did get a visit from Mark in coach class on the ride home today, right, that was nice. He walked back just to check on us, to ask if he could bring us a drink that was free up where you guys are sitting. And we said, I don't think you're allowed to do that, and he said no, they don't even want me to walk back here. And we said, okay, go back to your seat. But thanks, are saying hi. Ah, yeah, Well that's the thought accounts, even if you know the thought can deliver anything. My thought was, I'm not leaving my seat, yeah, just that's I'm just gonna sit next to uh the quasi celebrities, maybe Dan and Marco talking Dan Dan, I know we'll talk about one of them, so I'll leave it as a tease. But also you know a cast member of Scrubs, so up there, that was an addition. Uh, And I think he'll get into Um. Really was a great night for the forty Niners, just very quickly because I think we were so rams focused there. I think they're dangerous. I know people are just gonna point out like the shortcomings of Jimmy g but like every one of these NFC t has shortcomings. And if you hadn't noticed, like this isn't not an offensive league right now, and it is not a good NFC West. I don't think either the forty Niners could go ahead and lose six games and and potentially win this division. Uh. They can figure things out, and they always figure out their running game. And so the fact that the running game is not there now and that their offensive line is kind of just getting it going together there without Trent Williams, they're starting three new guys, Like I have a feeling their offensive line and the running game is gonna be a lot better by November. Jimmy Garoppol will be good enough. You have a great starting wide out crew, uh, and I think you have a top two or three defense. To me, they are the NFC West favorites. I thought they'd win this game. I think the Rams will be heard from, But I think the forty Niners to me, are one of those three teams in the NFC that I just think will will be there at at the end with some home games in the playoffs. But it's very early. Teams are just building. I just think they've got enough where they're going to be able to keep building and building. Who Fonga watch out for? Who found? He's great? Garoppolo has taken this team to NFC championships and a super Bowl. So if he's your shortcoming, like you even tonight, I get it. But last year he's stunk. At the end of that last year, all I was thinking watching the Forts last year was like if Mac Jones was quarterback in this team, I think they'd beat they'd be in the super Bowl. I mean, they were getting the worst five weeks of Jimmy Garoppolo. Granted he was playing with a terrible shoulder, but like tonight was a perfect example, like he's playing pretty well keeping short passes, and then there was that one drive where he just totally misfires two wide open receivers, including one that would have been a big play, and you're just like, oh, yeah, that's the Jimmy garoppolo. That's classic Jimmy Jing. But Kyle she in hand trusts him and he dials up the plays, and I just think he has a lot less to overcome right now than McVeigh, where everything is hard, and I think they're gonna be scratching and Cline I do not like that Cowboys matchup. We can talk about that during the week. We can get into the rest of our Week five look ahead. Some news. We're gonna look back at our predictions that we made, some predictions we made in the off season on our Tuesday show. I won't be part of it. Actually, justin so I'm taking that one off, and uh maybe I'll maybe I'll jump in for a quick cameo on that segment because I nailed mine. Um, But in the studio, I think it's gonna be Colleen, Dan and Mark until then we need to get some sleep. I feel bad making you edit one more thing fresh off the plane, but after that we can sleep off that jet lag graver and then on we go. The wheel doesn't stop turning. Neverse full season as the producer Graver, is it fun? Is that challenging week coming back from London? Um until tomorrow? Uh for Graver? For JB. Long, I'm heading out go ahead of head h