NFL Cover Zero: Week 1 Surprises and Reactions to every game!

00:00:06
Speaker 1: NFL Covers Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and iHeart podcast One Absolutely Crazy Day of Football Week one of the NFL is over and it is time for our first NFL Cover zero Reaction show. We're gonna be doing this every Sunday night. Come down after the Sunday Night game is over and talk about all the games of the day. Drew Franklin and I. We've never done this late at night like this, but we've got Drew Well, we got Billy and Mario here as well, Drew, So I'm gonna just be honest with everybody. I think honesty is the best policy. Of course, you're actually hearing the second version of this because with ten minutes and twenty five seconds to go in the Sunday Night game, the Ravens were up forty to twenty five and got the ball after an interception, and I thought to myself, what's over, Let's go in start that way we can get some sleep tonight. And then all of a sudden we look up and the Bills is a minute to go when they're going to drive and take the lead. We've now gone back and watched it, but the very first version of this show you'll never hear. It will be in the unedited archives that will release when the history of the show is over. What an amazing comeback by the Buffalo Bills.

00:01:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, minor inconvenience for us will be a little more tired tomorrow, but what a great week one ending just having that game on the schedule. We were blessed to have that. That's an AFC championship game and then for it to and it feels like the worst the wrong team won. That's true, no, I mean, the Ravens are like the best team the entire time, and the Bills are going to get this win.

00:01:47
Speaker 1: They deserve it. But for what we saw from Lamar and Derek Henry, it feels like the wrong team won, but they wont.

00:01:52
Speaker 2: But you know Mark Andrews last year drops the ball and the Stralia team wins. That's football. It did, and if everyone ever hears the lost episode, you know it did look like the Ravens were unstoppable. I don't know if I predicted an undefeated season, but for ninety five percent of that game, it looked like the rafteen and one are going to be a force.

00:02:11
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry with a fumble you just can't can't have. It's forty to thirty two, three minutes to go. You basically can run out the game if you get one or two first downs and he coughs it up in Bill's territory. You know, he's had such an amazing game, absolutely bulldozing. But that's a mistake you just can't make. It's very similar to the Andrews drop last year. These are vets. Can't make the mistake, and one he doesn't normally make. Been watching that guy a long time and that's not something he does. Ruined an otherwise great night. One hundred and seventy yards. He average like ten yards of rush. There was the long run fifty yarder for a touchdowner. He's just blowing past the secondary. It looks like Pete Derrick Henry at age thirty one. And as much as I hate see him with the Ravens, I hate seeing him worse. But they cut to him on the sideline and zoomed in on him and he's got that look after the fumble.

00:03:00
Speaker 2: I hate to see it go out like that.

00:03:01
Speaker 1: I mean, this is probably the early favorite for Game of the Year, even though it's it's week one. I wonder how many people had turned it off. I mean I know too, I know two you and I turned I'd say with those two teams. Terreck Henry one hundred and sixty nine yards rushing, Okay, Lamar Jackson was fourteen of nineteen two hundred nine. Zave Flowers has a career high one hundred and forty three yards receiving, and they still lose. That one's gotta hurt if you're a Baltimore fan that has got a hurt. And of course Josh Allen gets to win. We got to talk though about the Buffalo kicker, forty one year old Matt Prater, who honestly I thought retired in nineteen ninety seven. They show him on the sideline with a minute forty to go. He looks like he's in a Marlborough ad. I mean, let me just say, he looked older than forty one to me. You know, sometimes people go he looks good for his age. Matt looked like he'd been rough and then he comes in and gets the kick. I guess Tylers had pelvic pain and they call him up. He was retired, sitting on his couch on Thursday, and now he makes the winning kick on Sunday night.

00:04:13
Speaker 2: That's kind of amazing. Earlier in the game, he had come in for the extra point on Buffalo's opening drive, and I watching TV went mag Prater, what is he doing on the Bills? That guy's retired, had no expectations that had come down to this. And right before he kicks the game winner, they're saying on the broadcast that doesn't know his teammates' names barely. He's caught up on you.

00:04:34
Speaker 1: It was.

00:04:35
Speaker 2: It feels like he's follow the news. But I mean, I even thought it was a little bit of a gamble, putting on his shoulders at the end where the Bills are running out of the clock, set up the field goal. You're right there at the edge of the end zone. You have all these stars and you're putting that whole game with all this maybe home field at stake, with Matt Prater fresh off the red eye, but he got it done.

00:04:56
Speaker 1: Let me give you some Matt Prader information. Bored in nineteen eighty four, bored in the Reagan administration. Right he was considered one of the best long distance field goal kickers in history. He has the record for most fifty plus yard field goals in a career. Now he had been retired. He was living in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. Kicked at Central Florida. Was drafted in two thousand and six. How about this. Guess how many teams he's played for?

00:05:21
Speaker 2: Oh, he's a journeyman. I'm gonna say probably five or six, nine? Nine?

00:05:26
Speaker 1: Wow, for nine teams and now he comes and gets that home.

00:05:30
Speaker 2: As a cardinal, longtime cardinal.

00:05:33
Speaker 1: Matt Prater, who would have ever imagined? All right, so let's talk about some other things for this game. But first of all, would you have gone for it there if you were if you were the Ravens, they had the ball, I think on their own thirty eight or something. They don't go for it. On fourth down, they punt it gives the Josh Allen the ball. A lot of people saying they should have gone for it. But if they, if they, if they go for it and don't get it, Bills are already in field goal range.

00:05:56
Speaker 2: What do you do right there? That's a sub spot field position because normally you said it, Give Josh Allen the ball, No, give Lamar Jackson ball, No. Give Pat Mahomes the ball. No, those are the three where you would go for it. But that's spot on the field. It's so tough. I think they had to do the right thing.

00:06:11
Speaker 1: I think whatever they do, you're going to argue the other if it doesn't work. I think you punt right there just because they're already in field present and you don't want to give Matt Prater a change. The last thing you want to do is put the ball on Matt Prater's foot. What about Lamar gets in a fight with the fan. On a previous version of this podcast, Billy You argued that it was Lamar's fault, which I thought was an odd argument.

00:06:36
Speaker 3: I just say, you can't be doing that, Lamar. It's usually the second guy that gets caught as well. I wonder if there'll be any something from the league, but the fan reach it was a little aggressive from the fan, yes, a little.

00:06:50
Speaker 1: Yes, I think it's a little more than a little. Here's what I will say. This podcast is going to go up. You're probably listening to it on Monday morning. Monday afternoon. The Internet already knows who this guy is. Now that they already know who he is, they know where he was, they know his social media history, they know his girlfriend. He made a mistake. That's probably gonna last with him alot. He's lucky the game was such a good game where he would be the only story of the day. Oh yeah, he loves that ending. I do want to add with Billy here for our listeners. Of the four of us in this room, Billy would be the most likely to push that fan back.

00:07:28
Speaker 2: Oh come on, you don't think you would shove it. If he shoved your teammate's head and then shoved your head, you wouldn't give him a little bit.

00:07:34
Speaker 1: Of a Well, maybe you're right, Maybe you're right. Yeah, I'm all in for Lamar. I would have been fine with whatever he did. You can't go up into the stands if you're a player, but if the if, the if, the fan comes to you, then you get to respond. I hit his teammate, He hit his teammates. He could have hit all the teammates. He didn't act like it was you know, it wasn't an accident. He hit two different guys.

00:08:00
Speaker 2: And what in the world did that guy.

00:08:02
Speaker 1: Think he was doing. First of all, why do you punch people with helmets on? I've never understood it. I've never understood you hit somebody with a helmet on, it's not gonna hurt them. Secondly, they will kill you. Can you imagine voluntarily hitting Lamar Jackson.

00:08:19
Speaker 2: Bill's Mafia ran a little hot tonight. They threw a drink at Derrick Henry when he ran into the end zone. We got this kid shoving DeAndre Hopkins and Lamar shoving them in the head, kind of making their neck pop back a little bit. It was no easy shove. We like you Bill's Mafia. Let's just let's just thrill it in. Let's stay in. Man, it's not likable.

00:08:36
Speaker 1: Maybe we think we like them, but then if we actually see what they do, it's a little bit different.

00:08:41
Speaker 2: I know who really likes him. The Phillies woman, she's she's glad that that that that's gone. Clint's her off the timeline because that's all I saw until the nurl's bill there that she she she had a rough week until the NFL took over there social It's crazy because this was such an impressive performance by Baltimore.

00:08:59
Speaker 1: But now Buffalo gets the win and that's a huge win for playoff seating. Down the road, there might be a there, There might be a time in January where the AFC Championship game is played in the in Buffalo instead of Baltimore because of that event, Just that fumble by Derrick Henry Tonight.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a mike. It's crazy to say this about a week one game, but I think when we get to the AFC Championship, we're gonna look back at how this game unfolded and they're gonna be in a different city because of it. I do have to also know Chris collins Worth a lot of grunting tonight, big grunts.

00:09:32
Speaker 4: Oh my, they sounds like I'm just.

00:09:47
Speaker 1: Saying the man grunts. Now probably the second biggest game of the day. Steelers Jets Aaron Rodgers, who I do not like, but I have to acknowledge he he had some of the old magic today, four touchdown passes, moving around, not great but good enough.

00:10:13
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: He and DK Metcalf look to be a pretty formidable weapon. I know it's the Jets, but even the last fe year Jets had pretty good defense. Were he's surprised to see speaking of an unk? Yeah, you know he's an unvaccinated unk. Were you surprised to see him.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: Do so well? This is the ONNK that post his Facebook opinions. Everybody's got one of those. Definitely, I watched this whole game. I'm embarrassed by how much I enjoyed this game. I want to remind you I ranked the Steelers thirty second and watchabilities. I even said nothing will make me watch the Steelers. I don't want to see this crap. This game was pretty awesome. I mean, he looks great, Justin Fields looked great. The Jets went up big, looking like they're going to give it to Rogers and the Jets might have some of the fields. And then he scores two touchdowns and fifty seconds to come back. Walking off the field, he's doing the Hogan near thing like Darren em yell at him as they're tawning. I can't believe how into the Steelers Jets game I was. Ben lived up to the buildings.

00:11:09
Speaker 1: Such a Jets thing to do to turn that ball over, because you know it's gonna get lost in all this that Justin Field's played really well.

00:11:18
Speaker 2: Justin Fields looked great.

00:11:19
Speaker 1: That's the best as a you know, as a former Bears quarterback. I'm happy for him. I always like Justin Fields. But it'll get lost because they won. They won the game, and the Jets, of course missed a kick. We'll talk more about kickers as they go, but back to Aaron Rodgers for a second. He was asked after the game, what did you think about beating Aaron Glenn and his quote was, I'm happy to beat everyone associated with the Jets.

00:11:46
Speaker 2: Who is more petty? Him? Or Bill Belichick? Who Bill not letting the Patriots in still pretty high, But this is pretty petty. I knew it was a bad breakup, but you're only there a year. Whatever, man, it's the Jets. Just move on with your life. No, you're Aaron Rodgers, who care? People are forgetting you, even with the Jets. But no calling out everybody. Everybody. I mean the catering, uh, training, doctors, physicians, you're associated with the Jets. I'm glad you lost Janitor's parking attendance. He called the ball out stick those hot dogs up your nose. You you are the worst. That is the level of pettiness. I do have to respect. Even though I do not like Aaron Rodgers one bit. I've always kind of liked the Steelers. I hate seeing him on the team. I was pulling for the Jets heavily, but he wins. Is he gonna be Is this a one week thing or is it all? He looked really good. What's crazy is the Steelers line didn't even look very good. He was kind of made some impressive plays under pressure, but he's still just dropping it right. He really is one of the best ever do it. As much as we don't like him. I mean, some of the throws he's making at his age. Was he forty? Is that right? Forty one? Yeah? I gotta hand it to him. I'm gonna get my jokes off all season long. But four touchdowns no interceptions in your reunion game in New York. That's he's allowed to talk to.

00:13:06
Speaker 1: You about that hit by Jalen Ramsey at the end to basically seal the game. I mean, if if he doesn't that was this is a huge play. I mean, if the guy catches that, they keep going, they have a chance to get in arrange to do another field goal, and then just that was a pop.

00:13:22
Speaker 2: It was clean, it was. He was on fire all game. He got into it with Garrett Wilson earlier had some big hits. He'll be a big addition for them to another guy that's got a little age on him that has played well in week one for that seam.

00:13:34
Speaker 1: Two very important things about that game. First of all, you know you and I are good friends. There's not very many times we can name drop people, but we can name drop Iron Eagle. Yeah, Drew and I on one Eagle we go way back Tennis channel days, right, Iron Eagle got he can't he can't stand up next to J. J.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: Waddick. No, that was unfair. And I don't even I don't even know if I was standing. I hope he wasn't. I was laying down.

00:14:02
Speaker 1: I hope he was in a chair. But that was not fair that the picture of the two of them side by side. Somebody did Iron dirty? A producer like you, Billy has to say to Iron, let's not stand next to each other like.

00:14:15
Speaker 2: Both or what let's send in these two chairs we have right here? Why don't we? Why don't we? Why did JJ Watt have to stand up? It's like they put a stool out for Ryan Eagle, but then JJ Watt stood on it. Next Iyan like doesn't even look proportional.

00:14:29
Speaker 1: Ain looks like his kid Noah, and another one we know and we're just dropping eagles dropping name. So I i' I feel bad for you. That was not that was not fair. Uh, that was not fair what they did to him. Jj Watt. By the way, I thought that. I think that was the first game he's ever done. I actually thought I'm good. I actually thought he did a really good job.

00:14:49
Speaker 2: Didn't you.

00:14:49
Speaker 1: Normally when they bring these dudes in that were high profile players, throw them in, I don't think they're ready.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: I actually thought he did a really good job. Yeah. Too many guys try to do it and they just need to go pick up golf. It's like, listen, not everybody can do both. But JJ Watt pass the test. What about the guy that gets stuck on top of the American flag?

00:15:05
Speaker 1: I have so many qui Uessians, So people don't know they did that thing which they like to do where you bring all the people on the crowd and you're holding the flag and then they tell you to wave it, and somehow he ended up in the middle of it, on top of it.

00:15:16
Speaker 2: How do you think that happened? My first guess, I'm being serious, was was he rolled up in it from the last time that you like?

00:15:23
Speaker 1: If you think about them, I'm rolling it.

00:15:25
Speaker 2: How else would he get.

00:15:26
Speaker 1: In the middle, right, he's been there since lash because they're unraveling it and he just appears.

00:15:31
Speaker 2: The next thing you know, he's on all fours. He's out in the fifty crawling across this thing. I can't think of another way he would get out there, because he couldn't just crawl out there. Somebody'd catch him and stop him. He was rolled up in it in the back of that life I thought I had.

00:15:45
Speaker 1: I didn't think that was what we've seen people be stuck under it before.

00:15:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, that happens. I've never seen anyone be on top of it. There was a quarterback, Brandon Weeden maybe, Wow, some quarterback got caught under it and they were like about to make their first start and they're caught up getting trampled in the flag. But never seen one on the middle on the top. And then he was crawling. Am I just waiting? He's desecrating the American flag?

00:16:11
Speaker 1: I mean literally, he's literally think about, what's the worst thing you can do the American flag? Crawl on it in the middle of the national anthem.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: But everyone has to kind of stop and watch him crawl on it, because what's the other solution. You like, you're like, parachute him up in the air and get him off of it. I don't know, you just got to sit wait for him to crawl.

00:16:27
Speaker 3: You're right, you're twenty twelve NFL season opener for rookie quarterback Brandon Wheedon gets pot underneath the flag.

00:16:33
Speaker 2: What a memory? He was like, it wasn't kind of under it. It was like, well, we might have to go to the backup something.

00:16:39
Speaker 1: That is an amazing memory to be able to recall which quarterback got stuck under the flag.

00:16:45
Speaker 2: Big Brandon Wheton got played in.

00:16:48
Speaker 1: Chris Boswell, the kicker for the Steelers, kick sixty yards like it's nothing. They used to break into the news when guys made sixty yarders, and now dudes just boom it like it's nothing. What's the difference? It feels like of all the positions, kicking should be the one that the actual act has not changed that much.

00:17:10
Speaker 2: Something's changed. We need explanation. I don't know. We got the seventy one yarder in preseason, but that same night and preseason didn't get attention to guy made like a fifty eight yarder but it was still going up. Is it torque. I mean, but you're right, the ball hasn't changed the yards feet er feet feeder feet. These dudes are not big, like I mean Boswell. It's not like Boswell's been working out. Why do they kick it so much farther? I don't get it.

00:17:41
Speaker 1: He hit sixty that could have been a good from another six or seven yards easy. Should we launch our first cover zero investigation? I would like to know how you cannot just say that it's they've gotten better because the act of what it takes to kick hit nothing has changed. I mean once the one guy just kicked straight on right for a long time and then they go, oh, well, let's kick it like a soccer ball, and that's been the only revolution. Ray Dempsey had a club foot, but it's the only thing I know about him.

00:18:16
Speaker 2: Club for a long time.

00:18:17
Speaker 1: For a long time, you could have said Dempsey and I would just go clubfoot.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: What is it? Club foot? By the way, is it.

00:18:27
Speaker 1: Like it's a square shaped so he has no toes?

00:18:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I love to talk into that our investigation. Yeah, we'll look into that. So Chris Boswell has been in the league a long time, like it's not like some rookie, that young kid made in the lab that grew up trying something just like just suddenly flipped a slope, and I'll kick from back there.

00:18:48
Speaker 1: Every week, I'm going to try to wear some piece of clothing that gives a shout out to a team. Now, the Ravens would have been my team of the week, but we were already down here getting ready for the show, so I didn't have Ravens gear on. So I'm wearing a Packer shirt.

00:19:03
Speaker 2: Now.

00:19:03
Speaker 1: I'm a Bears faner, so this is in some ways like heresy, but you have to acknowledge for me. Until the Ravens game, the Packers were the team of the day, just an absolute annihilation of the Lions. Game was really never close. Michael Parsons gets his first career sack, didn't even have a tackle for most of the game, but then got a sack. Place goes crazy. Are they your favorites now in the NFC or do you still have the Eagles?

00:19:29
Speaker 2: Well? I actually had the Lions, so today was pretty easy to change my pick. I think you probably need to do that. Yeah, Parsons a little limited. They didn't play him a full game, but he was so disruptive, like you can't just look at the box go on him. There was another sack that he created. There was an interception he created by getting pressure. He finally got the sack with like a superhuman effort in the fourth quarter, chasing down golf after just running through one of the better linemen in the NFC. It's not fair that they landed him because Jordan Love looked good.

00:19:59
Speaker 1: I mean, it's Jordan Love looks really good. I mean he was a dark horse for me for MVP. We talked about that on our first show, and I think if you had MVP today after week one, Lamar would win, but Jordan Love would probably come in second. I mean, he looked great.

00:20:14
Speaker 2: And just to add that, because the Packers they were already an NFC contender, there's a little question about Love's thumb. All that's good. He looked good today. But then when you add Parsons the way they did, it's almost you just throw your hands up, like.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: This ain't fair. They didn't play all that many plays and they still will. You could still just see it. You can see what he's gonna do. You know, ted Teddy Brewski, who a little backstory, You know when I work at ESPN and I do the Sunday Morning NFL show, and back before COVID, they would fly us up there every week. So every week I would have to fly to Bristol, Connecticut for the show. And when the game, when my show was over, everybody'd go into this big the war room and you'd watch games together. And it was quite a scene, right. It was like Rex Ryan, Randy Moss. Back then it was Jeff's Saturday, Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, like all these people, a little Rex Ryan. Yeah, I said. All those people were there, and then you'd also have like Dan Orlovsky, who was my co host at the time. Anyway, one of those guys was Teddy Bruski. Teddy Brusky was good friends with Daan. Then he would always come up and I'd go hey, Teddy, and he'd look at me and he'd go hey. That was a big connection. I thought we had acknowledgement, hey guys, but we were hey guys, right we are. The conversation never went beyond that, but we were hey guys. So I've always rooted for Teddy brusk because of that bond. Yeah, because we shared I used to share omelets with Mac Brown during breakfast, and I would share Hayes.

00:21:49
Speaker 2: Beg brown gets egg white omelet right.

00:21:51
Speaker 1: No, No, he's he's full out, loaded up, loaded up. And I shared Hayes with Teddy Brusky. So I always root for Teddy Brusky. But then today Teddy Brewski said that he was worried that Micah Parsons might ruined Green Bay. Said literally, he might bring Dallas into the Green Bay locker room and ruin the team. Is that gonna go down as the worst prediction of twenty twenty five by my man? Hey, Teddy, Yeah, I hate to ruin this.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: This lifelong friendship you have by going against your boy here. You're hey, guy, Hey, But I mean and no, I don't I don't think. I don't think it's gonna ruin anything. They all seem so excited. I was watching the postgame interview. He did it with love. They already looked like they're best friends. Crowds going crazy, Micah calls Lambeau one of one, and Packers fans are the best. It's it's already off to a great start. Now, maybe Brucey means Michael start podcasting and say things you shouldn't you know, But I don't think that's gonna be the case.

00:22:41
Speaker 1: I sort of hoped in my relationship with Teddy Bruce Key we would move on to a second step. Never really happened. Two years we were there together, never got past hey. One time I was like, how are you? And he just oh, whoa man?

00:22:57
Speaker 2: Whoa back up? Keep unwalking? Whoa dude?

00:23:00
Speaker 1: Our roof. Our relationship is not like that. I need my first space.

00:23:08
Speaker 2: It's small. But when you look at the TV and he's there with all those guys, one of them has said, hey, do you and the others yeah.

00:23:14
Speaker 1: I don't think Rex Ryan ever spoke to me. I don't think Randy Boss did, Chris Bourman, Tom. I mean, they didn't like I didn't go up to them. You know, my only real riff was in Field Yates because he told me to get up out of his chair, and I'm like, of all the people in here, Field Yates, you are not get out of my chair worthy. He sense apologized to me about that.

00:23:38
Speaker 2: Did you name drop Birskie to him?

00:23:41
Speaker 3: I hate friend over there, Go get him. I'll say hey to him right now. Field has got some nice hair. Now, who Field Yates?

00:23:49
Speaker 2: Have you seen his hair?

00:23:50
Speaker 3: No?

00:23:51
Speaker 1: He was he had looks pretty good.

00:23:53
Speaker 2: Was that me a little slick back hair a little longer ago? Yeah?

00:23:56
Speaker 1: Oh, speaking of that, one time I did confront of my air about it and he was like, I didn't tell you to get up. I said, yes, you did. You literally looked at me and said that is my chair And I didn't see any picture that said field Yates on it.

00:24:13
Speaker 2: Speaking of good hair, if I may ask, guy, you got to see Warren Sharps mustache that we talked about earlier in the episode one. I mean at ESPN. He was not there that day. You know what I'm saying. But you just last week you ought to see Warren Sharks Mary Bushy great mustache.

00:24:28
Speaker 6: Huh, That's what I look for. Dolphins, Colts Danny Dives.

00:24:49
Speaker 1: Before we get to the Dolphins being bad, how about a resurrection of Daniel Jones. Let me give you a stat that was given to me by a producer, Billy. The Colts scored on every drive. Daniel Jones scored on every drive in the game. Do you know he's the first touch quarterback this century score on every drive. As a matter of fact, Franklin, he has scored on every drive this season. Undefeated on Did you ever think that Daniel Jones would have that level of success?

00:25:18
Speaker 2: Could he have resurrected his career.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: Let's say Baker Mayfield's second stop is is Danny Jones's guy.

00:25:25
Speaker 2: I'm raising my hand. I know it's a podcast. No one can see me my hands raised. I was very wrong about Daniel Jones. I've gotten off by Daniel Jones jokes. I've made fun of the Colts. I think it's hilarious that they even ended up with Daniel Jones and their starting quarterback. I got to shut up. He looked pretty awesome. I mean, yes, the Dolphins suck, but I mean Uniteds Manning Jones Andlts Uniteds Manning Luck, Dimes Luck, Yeah, Harball, there he is.

00:25:52
Speaker 1: I'm putting him above Luck and Harball. I've always had a soft spot for Daniel Jones for two reasons. One, he went to Duke. I went to law school with Duke. I hate Duke, but I kind of like Duke football because it's pathetic, and the fact that he was pathetic and that was pathetic everybody was booing him. I liked him. Second, he had a bowl cut when he came to the NFL. I used to have a bowl cut. People are not nice to people that have bowl cuts. So you have a bowl cut. You're a dork from Duke, and your name is Daniel, not even Danny Daniel. I'm pulling for you. And now maybe all these years later, it's finally coming to Fruition says.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: A lot about the giants too. There really is something here. You mentioned his look. You know, a lot of guys picked where he is. They get the money, they have the glow up. Maybe they're not wearing chains, but they just look different. No, he looks like he's still just roaming the halls of Duke. By the way, the Colts were ten to one in opening games until this one, which is a crazy streak. Now the bigger story, though, for most people, is going to be the Dolphins, who were awful. Mike McDaniel looks like his mom didn't pick him up from school in time after must have forgot as she went to her second husband's house and left for Mike standing on the curb, he did not seem to be happy. And then I'll tell you else and look happy.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill already complaining after after he said, you know what, we're good in the off season. Tyreek's already that's a disaster. Mike McDaniel, he's gonna be the first first got fired, right.

00:27:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't think they even scored four minutes left from the game. They almost got completely shut out and it was a half a catch.

00:27:26
Speaker 1: So the one that it was the game, it was Tesla.

00:27:30
Speaker 2: Also, just McDaniel was wearing these like really gaudy Miami gold rim sunglasses. I sat on this show just last week that I kind of like him. But I'm watching him in Indy and his team's got zero points midway through the fourth quarter and he's got these Miami sunglasses on. I thought, you know, it's not working.

00:27:47
Speaker 1: It's not working. You're not fake, You're not fooling anybody. Man, It's okay. You can be a nerd. It's just now your nerd. That's not a good coach.

00:27:54
Speaker 2: Uh. I can't watch too a play.

00:27:58
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm working, like I just it makes me not comfortable. I worry about him, and he took another hard hit today. I just I don't like it. He needs to do what he needs to do. Who am I to tell somebody what to do? But like watching to do a play just pains me me too.

00:28:16
Speaker 2: A big hit today and through some bad interceptions, doesn't look like himself. You know, they got some some names on that offense. And to go to the Colts, who I thought, give me the worst team in the league. I mean, their defense is all right, but to not score any points to the final minutes, what an embarrassing effort by that group. Plus they got Zach Wilson, that's right.

00:28:35
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the moms of Miami are out there like they got they got Zach Wilson.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: Right to rock. I got to play a little bit and on Tyreek I saw he was in. There was a video viral. There was like a fan mocking him in the elevator after the game. It's just it's just gonna get It's gonna worse.

00:28:53
Speaker 1: If anyone in Miami carried about their sports teams, it would be much worse. Lucky they're Luckily they're in the city that doesn't care. West Coast forty nine or Seahawks brought party, you got brought Perdy. He looks like he loses the game with a terrible interception down the stretch and then ends up throwing an amazing pass to the backup tight end who scores his first touchdown after George Kittle goes out.

00:29:19
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:29:20
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about the forty nine Ers schedule and how it's so easy. I continue to believe they're going to go fourteen and three and not even be good.

00:29:29
Speaker 2: You wait and see.

00:29:30
Speaker 1: This was the first step today, getting that victory in Seattle.

00:29:33
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:29:34
Speaker 2: I was ready to celebrate the Sam Darnold era getting off the shit win.

00:29:38
Speaker 1: Anyway, it wasn't even before.

00:29:40
Speaker 2: The party looked bad. The interception is bad. He had a couple of them, But on that game winner, that play looked so dead. I mean, it looks like he had no chance. I even saw. We got to shout out NFL next gen stats. I don't know how you determined this this.

00:29:54
Speaker 1: Wait minute, This isn't just for record Billy. This is not this generation stats. This is the next generation stat way way beyond us one. Okay, but it called it the least like completion of the weekend. It did all kinds of math. That's way beyond me. They decided, and it.

00:30:11
Speaker 2: Said when the ball was released, he had a fourteen percent chance of completing it. They determined party was running. I'm not kidding. I saw this party was running. You know, that party was running fifteen miles an hour or two was right, and then the tight end was like had like half a foot of separation, and then they determined the velametary pressure. This is next gen, Matt. I'm trying, Jet, I say that I'm present gen.

00:30:37
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to fathom because it's like I'm in this generation.

00:30:42
Speaker 2: But they did. There was all kinds of graphics and things that decided Party to Tan just for the win. Was the toughest completion of the entire weekend, and it won the game.

00:30:52
Speaker 1: I'm very impressed that they that they're able to they are able to figure that out. Well, big win for the forty nine ers Seahawks. Sam Darnold, The question was, is he Moore? What's the real Sam Darnold, Jet, Sam Darnld, came Stefanski. Sam Darnald. I think we're leaning more towards it yet. Sam Darnald, Right, Yeah, it would have been a nice wind. It's a good spot to get a win over the forty nine. No, I'm sorry, but not a great statistic day. I mean he was fine, Yeah, not really. It was a Sam Donald day. It was Sam donaldn't lose it, but didn't do anything. This is what Sam Donald gets. Only had he turnovers.

00:31:29
Speaker 2: He was just there. He just showed up.

00:31:32
Speaker 1: Is there a fate worse for humanity than having to be a Cleveland Browns fan?

00:31:39
Speaker 2: I feel.

00:31:41
Speaker 1: You look at all sports and you say, what team would it be the worst to be a fan of? Okay, I think in professional sports it's the Cleveland Browns who.

00:31:51
Speaker 2: Would be worse?

00:31:52
Speaker 1: Those the Lions for a while, not anymore. You have once once Dan Campbell put the abyss up.

00:31:58
Speaker 2: In the bar.

00:31:59
Speaker 1: You know that was that was what it was over.

00:32:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the worst. They care a lot, though, like the dog pounds. I know which makes it works? The hope that kills you. It's the fact that they care. I mean, that's what makes today. Their kicker is named Andre Smidt sz Myt way too many consonants. The consonant to val Ratio suggests failure miss is an extra point, misses an easy field goal. They lose seventeen to sixteen. They had an interception in their hands that they drop, goes through his hands. Bengals guy catches it and the Bengals win the first game. What was it.

00:32:43
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor was like one in seven in his last four years in the first two games of the year. And they get this win.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: And start the game. The Bengals went right down the field and scored, and I thought, my goodness, Burrow is about to just light this game up. And then we get this low scoring game. Burrow didn't do much after that, and the Browns have a chance to win it and hit the Bengals with another early season loss that's gonna affect their playoff push. But then they still end up pulling it off. It was an ugly game. But something about Joe Flacco out there, I just.

00:33:12
Speaker 1: Write Joe Placo. I think Flacco in general, I thought he played five. He had guys drop passes. He had drops, Yes, your guy. Oh yeah, that's that's a big story in Cleveland right now.

00:33:24
Speaker 2: What in joku in Joe? I didn't get my touchdown, but even bigger, he's not even like the start of the tight end anymore. The Harold fannin junior is a rookie from Bowling Green and he got like all of the targets.

00:33:36
Speaker 1: I just want to I want to go for the record in our game of pick. Who's going to score a touchdown. Drew could have picked any player in the NFL, and you picked a player who didn't even start.

00:33:47
Speaker 2: Boy started, But this Harold fan and junior from Bowling Green got like eight targets. Even Browns fans are like, is in djoku? Is he? Is he done? I like how you call it?

00:33:56
Speaker 1: Harold fannin junior from Bowling Green.

00:33:58
Speaker 2: I mean, have you heard that?

00:34:00
Speaker 1: Now? That's what I want to call him for the rest of the year. Harold fannin junior from Bowling Green. I have not no no, I think asked the story.

00:34:06
Speaker 2: He was like money for the Browns and Flacco was going to him all day. That was one of the bigger things for the Browns. Is who the hell is this guy? But he got most of the targets on offense well, Harold fannin junior from Bowling Green.

00:34:17
Speaker 1: They did not get the win, but hopefully he was able to be one of the groomsmen for what I think was the biggest event of the day, yes, which was the pregame wedding in Cleveland. Two Cleveland fans who call themselves the Brown Spider and First Lady. They got married in the parking lot of the Browns Bengals game. Very romantic. The women dressed as cheerleaders, the men dressed as like football players slash Bowling League participants. If you looked at the shirts they were wearing. For some reason that the preacher was dressed as Batman, which didn't really fit the theme. But he was dressed as Batman. Did you see and there were a lot of people there. Did you see the wedding?

00:35:11
Speaker 2: I did? I love it. I love a good NFL wedding. I've attended one. I was actually a witness to a Bill's wedding one time outside of stadium and it was incredible.

00:35:22
Speaker 1: Was it the wedding or the engage the wedding?

00:35:24
Speaker 2: Really? It was Monday night football. Bill's at Titans, several hours before the game. I got on a little walk, get a little coffee. We see a wedding on the bridge.

00:35:34
Speaker 1: Like wait, so the Bills fans got mayored in Nashville at a road game on the bridge with Titan Stadium behind them, Monday night football.

00:35:42
Speaker 2: We're walking by it. I'm getting video and then they I'm wearing a Titan shirt. I step in, I get my pictures with them. I'm in like the official family photo, but it was incredible.

00:35:52
Speaker 5: More.

00:35:53
Speaker 2: I love the crazy NFL fans that do this cause you know, some people, I want the flowers in the chapel and I want it to be perfect. No, give me the parking lot in Week one, Brown's Bengals or Road.

00:36:08
Speaker 1: I love the NFL weddings. Brown Spider and First Lady have their own. I mean, can you imagine what their wedding night's like? Although the problem is now it's sad. Yeah, I mean they lost, you know, stupid Andre Smitt misses the kick and now Brown Spider's like, this just didn't working for you.

00:36:29
Speaker 2: Gonna remember that forever?

00:36:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, so where do you think they honeymooned?

00:36:32
Speaker 2: The dog? Found?

00:36:34
Speaker 1: That?

00:36:34
Speaker 2: Was it? Akron Toledo? Well? Poor, good for them, though, congratulations.

00:36:42
Speaker 1: You know, this is the kind of game the Bengals have not won over the years, don't play particularly well everything, you know, it's not all clicking, and they still get a win. Is that a good sign for Cincinnati? Normally this would have been a loss, like in the last twenty years of Bingles fandom.

00:36:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the people that are the status about this are Bingles fantasy owners. With the chase somebody have like twenty yards. Higgins didn't do much. Borrow didn't like it up. This offense we think is one of the best in the NFL. I don't think this will determine what they are, but.

00:37:11
Speaker 1: That was a defense played pretty well. Pection still awful though for the Bingles, like I mean, they supposedly upgraded their offensive line, they were awful the protection of the entire game, but they got the win. How many games does Cleveland win this year?

00:37:30
Speaker 2: I still have a little more belief in Cleveland. I mean, they're not going to make the playoffs or anything, but they looked all right. I mean what they did to that Bengals offense and flaccoh we mentioned the drops. We now have Harold Fan and junior football and Green I say the I'll give the Browns four or five wins.

00:37:46
Speaker 1: Right, I'm giving you a job, Billy. You have a job going into this week. If you're able to do this, you will get.

00:37:55
Speaker 2: A reward for me.

00:37:56
Speaker 1: Okay, and Mario, can you can help Billy? Your job is to see if you can get Brown Spider and first Lady on our show.

00:38:04
Speaker 2: That'd be great, all right, right after Tate Ratledge.

00:38:07
Speaker 1: No, no, Well, first of all, you're already supposed to you already going, is he here? If we could get both, well, Tate Ratlets lost, that's probably in the week to ask him.

00:38:15
Speaker 2: A matter of fact, scratch Tate Ratlet.

00:38:17
Speaker 1: Okay, I want brown I want Browns. Well, we can't have them either, they lost, But I want Brown Spider and First Lady. Presumably they're on their honeymoon so they might have to like interrupt it. But when we do the show Net this wednesdady, if you can get me Brown Spider and First Lady, I'll get you a Tate Ratling's jersey. Oh wow, wow, okay, okay, this is two things will happen. First of all, no one else is going to request them. Secondly, no one's bought a Tate Ratlands jersey, so these are going to be two huge moments.

00:38:49
Speaker 2: Do you think you can do it?

00:38:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna reach out to the Dog Pound. I'm sure if somebody's got their contact info.

00:38:53
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you can help at Billy our Sports on Twitter, we would like to I'm not kidding.

00:38:58
Speaker 5: I would love to talk to them. I think it would be good. I think they love to talk to us. I think they would too.

00:39:16
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Matt Jones. You're listening to NFL Cover zero. And let me just say we're trying to continue to grow the podcast. We've had such great feedback. Do me a favor if you haven't yet subscribed, and just tell one friend say, hey, it's the NFL A different way like subscribe and tell your friends.

00:39:32
Speaker 2: About NFL Cover zero.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: Let's go back and let's talk about the games on Thursday and Friday, Eagles, Cowboys, Eagles win. All anybody's talking about suspinning. Where you did you think it was? Do you think it was as bad as everybody else did that they did? Jalen Carter spit in his face first playing a game.

00:39:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, not even first play, before the first play the game. Yeah, what a way to kick off the NFL season with one of these stars of the Eagles defense getting ejected. But we just we can't be in a society where we accept spitting people's faces. He had to go, you, we can't do that.

00:40:10
Speaker 1: Why is it can't we think spitting is worse than punching because we do, Like people fight all the time and it might be dumb, but like we don't we don't get furious at them but spitting. It's a level of disrespect. But I can't go, like to the hospital with a spit. I could go to the hospital with a punch, but most people, myself in glue, would rather be punched than spitted or spat.

00:40:37
Speaker 2: Punch. You're it's a it's not respectful, but like we're engaged, it's combat spinning. You are beneath me combat. Yeah, you're beneath me. You are scum. It is my DNA, yeah, I mean, there's just a lot of DNA as part of it.

00:40:54
Speaker 1: Okay, it is just probably like a punch too, though I'm aware.

00:40:59
Speaker 2: It's just it's one of the lowest things you can do to someone, especially directly in the face.

00:41:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the face. So he had to go, well, yeah, he did have to go. Would you suspend him for another game? If you were in the NFL? Is his spit worth two games? I don't know about that. Primetime Thursday night football week one.

00:41:15
Speaker 2: You're jacked up to play hit somebody your first game and you're sitting out and people are talking about you for the whole time. I think that's enough. I think he learned his lesson. However, if he does it again, we're looking at a major suspension, all right, and then Friday night they go to Brazil. Chiefs lose to the Chargers. Justin Herbert played great? Is he?

00:41:32
Speaker 6: Uh?

00:41:33
Speaker 1: Is this the year he rises to the next level? This was a game Speaking of teams that usually lost, Chargers have lost a version of this game thirty times in the last decade. They win it this time. Impressive.

00:41:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually I had the Chargers money line. I'm confident in them. It was the only bet I won all weekend. Got murdered today, But I wasn't that shocked that they pulled it off. I don't know if the Chiefs aren't going to be bad, but there's gradually sliding as the Chargers, I mean coming up, and I think they're knocking on the door. If you lose that game, start zing two. You know, historically the Super Bowl loser has had a bad year the next year, and we think the Chiefs are immune from that. Only winless team in the AFC West.

00:42:16
Speaker 1: It's just worth noting historically, the only one historically that's been a tough spot. I think they'll be all right, but I think it's very if you're worthy out. We don't know what his status will be outside the game. The biggest story I think was Mackay Beckton. He had to miss the game for the Chargers because he was in the emergency room. Uh with what bad beans and rice?

00:42:39
Speaker 3: The Instagram caption that he posted said don't eat the beans and rice in Brazil from a hospital bed.

00:42:45
Speaker 2: Huh. Seems like those they should be the two safest things to e though, beans and rice. First of all, if I go to Brazil, that's what I want, is beans and rice.

00:42:53
Speaker 1: I feel like that. I bet the spices are good.

00:42:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:42:56
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but Kai may not want to blot. Maybe it's him, Maybe his stomach doesn't It's just not a very tough stomach.

00:43:04
Speaker 2: This is another example of the way but a lot of players bring up though with traveling these games is the food. And now we've got a guy at least claiming that beans and rice have put him in the hospital. See that seems like the simplest thing that you couldn't mess up and get sick on. Though I don't know that I believe his beans and rice story. We're going on record is saying he.

00:43:23
Speaker 1: Like probably took tequila shoes, might have found something, and he was like oh no, the beans and rice.

00:43:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll blame the beans and rice. Definitely out the worm in the tequila or anything else.

00:43:33
Speaker 3: I have found Brown Spider's Twitter account that has twenty seven thousand fallows.

00:43:38
Speaker 2: No way, he does not have twenty seven You can.

00:43:40
Speaker 3: Also RSVP for his wedding on his Twitter account, so he.

00:43:44
Speaker 2: Must be like a local celebrity. Oh yeah, yeah he's so when you.

00:43:49
Speaker 1: Are SVP on the Twitter account, does he give you an email address?

00:43:53
Speaker 2: See? You know what?

00:43:54
Speaker 1: Actually hang on. The NFL has said to us we can help you get guess, and I think that they've meant, like, you know, big guess. George Seaffort, Matt Prater, Matt Prader. I don't want Matt Prater. Actually I do want Matt Prad, but Brown Spider. Maybe they can help us.

00:44:17
Speaker 3: Hopefully you have to be verified to DM people that don't follow you, So hopefully he follows you verified because I won't pay for Twitter.

00:44:24
Speaker 1: Okay, but usually celebrities already get it.

00:44:27
Speaker 2: You didn't get it? No, they didn't. Well I should not, Billy.

00:44:31
Speaker 1: Well, you're going to be able to do this, Billy, and I hopefully our listeners will help you. I want to see Wednesday Brown Spider and hopefully with First Lady, she may be harder to get. But well, I think we can get Brown Spider.

00:44:41
Speaker 3: We'll break into the honeymoon, see if they can join it.

00:44:43
Speaker 1: We definitely should call the NFL and say, like, what's the first guess you want found Spider first?

00:44:49
Speaker 2: Like what's the best duo in the league.

00:44:53
Speaker 1: All right, so those are the big games. Let's go to some of the smaller games. I picked the upset of the week Raiders Patriots. I'm not gonna say I called it on Wednesday Show, but I did call it on Wednesday Show. But what was what was interesting to me is it didn't look like an upset. Raiders dominated that game only one twenty to ten, but really they were in control the whole time.

00:45:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got your asking genty first TV.

00:45:15
Speaker 1: That was a good run to It was a good hard road, hard boys leads.

00:45:22
Speaker 2: What I was about saying a lot? He got excited, told Mumblin, oh Rabel speaking of running the Patson, not much I did it there on offer they had like sixty yards rushing. Uh didn't look good at all. I thought they were going to take a little bit of a step forward.

00:45:36
Speaker 1: This year, Drake may not quite the same coming that everybody acts like, only you know, didn't it didn't didn't quite do it for I mean, lose it home by ten to the Raiders when you have sight set on a playoff bit, I think that's it was a poor performance by Drake. Yeah, and Maximum the only part Drake that's had a bad year. I might add Max Crosby was lett him know about it too. There was a moment where he was like tawning the whole sideline. He hit him with the little crowd baby.

00:46:02
Speaker 2: Little to a cross. So yeah, Vegas showed up with some attitude and really rattle when we got to mind that, I like.

00:46:09
Speaker 1: I think a Vegas team that talks trash is what the league needs, right Uh. Brought Bowers got hurt during the game. He's a he's a stub, was playing well. He had a great day. So uh hopefully he'll be all right right because he's a he's he's a freakish talent.

00:46:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, unreal game for him. Didn't get in the end zone, but put up a bunch of yards with a lot of catches. Still getting I've always liked Geno too. Yeah, uh, you know, I had a lot of yards. You mentioned rumbling, bumbling, stumbling that comes from Chris Berman. Back to talking for a second about going to ESPN and watching the game. Chris Berman was there, and Chris Berman talks in private like he talks on television. Oh that's awesome.

00:46:49
Speaker 1: No, I'm not kidding. When he's watching the game. You know, there's like sixty people in his room. He comments as if he was on TV, like your team shouldn't they? So like if Ashton Genty was doing that run, he would sit there going rub the stumbling. It's a touchdown with the radus. What no, what what he does that? I'm not even kidding with you. He just does that in his regular conversation. Tick tick tick tick. I would love to just watch a game with him. Dick uh. You know, he'll make some nickname during the whole BA But he does that and you're sitting there and it's almost freaky.

00:47:36
Speaker 2: But what's also.

00:47:37
Speaker 1: Interesting is the other people are so used to it they don't even acknowledge.

00:47:41
Speaker 2: Just like Chris, he's got an opportunity. You know a lot of people they're on Twitch and all the streaming. He should just be on his couch the live stream just making noises. I'd watch Red Zone on one TV. Chris Berman on his couch is tick tick tick tick, Burt be home, BLI levin.

00:48:03
Speaker 1: Uh, Bill Belichick, you would have been proud of the circ on the wagons tonight on Sunday Night Football. He would have Bill Belichick announced after the Carolina game on Saturday that the Patriots are not invited to Carolina practices or games because he's not allowed in the Patriots facility, which I again, speaking of pettiness, love it.

00:48:30
Speaker 2: I'm so tired of Bill, But also give me more, Bill. This is so stupid. It's not even the same thing. You're not allowed to building because you don't work there anymore and you got fired. They're coming to your building to recruit your college athletes who would like to be seen by the Patriots. These are in no way the same situation. I love it.

00:48:47
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's the best form of pettiness you could possibly have. No, And I like the idea that he doesn't get invited so they don't get invited. So even though it's not being fired, it would be like me going, yeah, you know what, Governor Kentucky, Governor, No, you can't come because I'm not allowed to come to your governor's mansion anytime I want.

00:49:11
Speaker 2: I got fired from Sam Goodie in high school. You know what, y'all aren't allowed in my house. Don't come by.

00:49:17
Speaker 1: You got fired from Sam Goodie. Yeah, so like you can't get the CD from Sam Goody anymore.

00:49:22
Speaker 2: No, no, No, that's unfortunate. It was tough a lot of you. Yeah, didn't he you know, did you steal? Kind of it was an organizational thing. What do you mean you kind of stole? You a stole? You didn't. It was part of I was part of a bigger effort of steeling.

00:49:41
Speaker 1: It was a crime ring.

00:49:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was unintentional.

00:49:44
Speaker 1: So we're actually now turning this into a rico.

00:49:46
Speaker 2: I'm afraid of what I should say. No, I had had a boss like he'd like no, no, but he'd be like a great job this week, you won the contest. Here's your PlayStation two. That's awesome. And we learned later that he was just taking it off the shelf and handing it to us and there was like no record of us winning this PlayStation too. So they're like, dru, do you have the PlayStation too? I'm like yeah, I sold the most DVD cleaners and like, yeah, well you don't get a PlayStation two for that. So it was a lot of.

00:50:11
Speaker 1: Just hang on, this is now, this is even even crazy. So your boss was just taking things off the shelves and there were contests.

00:50:18
Speaker 2: Like who can sell the most of X. He was probably getting a perk on his end for all of us selling stuff. So like, Drew, you won April, get anything you want. I'm like, oh I want that. He's like, awesome, congratulations, But why did they fire you for that? Well, I said fired. It was more of just a I wanted whatever where this is going, I want nothing to do with it. Okay, But yeah, he was just so he was just.

00:50:42
Speaker 1: Taking things off the shelf and handing them to the employees, like congrats, you had a great day to day. Here's here's this sounds like the best boss I've ever heard. And we thought this was like a company policy, like you get rewarded. You would think that, yeah, like sure, I want are we there yet too?

00:51:00
Speaker 2: On DVD tonight?

00:51:01
Speaker 1: For working hard?

00:51:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll take that home with me. Boss, Thank you, I did put in a good four hours.

00:51:06
Speaker 1: You had the first one you wanted to see how it ended.

00:51:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, well there were some organizational concerns. I did you know that?

00:51:14
Speaker 1: But now I see why they ended up in bankruptcy. Saints and Cardinals. Kyler Murray. I like watching he still runs around with the football in one hand. He's the only player I've ever seen do that. He holds the football like when I was a kid and I could show I could pull him my basketball, and I was like, look at this.

00:51:30
Speaker 2: He looks so tiny scrambled doing that with the ball.

00:51:35
Speaker 1: But I don't who cares. The only story about that game that matters is what were the Saints wearing?

00:51:40
Speaker 2: I turned that game on and genuinely thought I had found like a random D two college game with that Saint jersey. What it looked looked like a like a high school generic jersey that looked like, you're exactly right, that looked like a Southern HBCU uniform. That's exactly what it looked like. I genuinely thought, what game did I just wait? I thought this was the Saints, And then I had to think, are these like color rush?

00:52:02
Speaker 1: What is this? And then I wasn't even sure that is there even a logo for was it celebrating something. Not sure they did say. I did hear the announcers at one point go, this is their alternate jersey. I was like, alternate to what were where anything? I mean the monochrome pants to monochrome shirt.

00:52:22
Speaker 2: Look.

00:52:22
Speaker 1: It reminded me of what seventies baseball uniforms look like. You ever seen those, like the own Pirates and White Sox uniforms.

00:52:29
Speaker 2: It reminds me on Mad in the video game, if you create a team, they give you like a basic uniform that you can kind of add logos and stuff too.

00:52:37
Speaker 1: They just got the generic they want to sell. I mean, the whole point of having alternate uniforms is to sell. How man of those you think they're gonna sell after losing it home to the Cardinals, you can't be meant.

00:53:01
Speaker 2: The lowest rating game of the day. Oh I tried to watch it. No not good, not good, not good at Allan's had a chance to win, and it was a fitting drop there to not do anything.

00:53:13
Speaker 1: It's one of those games that when you're at a bar and there's like eight games on and there's one that they're like just sitting on any television that was Cardinals Saints Today. Cardinals got the win. Commanders, Giants, Elite Neighbors already done with Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson burns through receivers as quick as anybody on Earth. Miliite Neighbors was done. They might be doing with Russell Wilson.

00:53:37
Speaker 2: He didn't look too good either, But Neighbors looks like he wants on the first flight out of New York to whatever.

00:53:42
Speaker 1: After the game saying do you commit to Russell Wilson for next week? No, it did not look good. You can't even get through week one? And he said, I mean Jackson, it's Jackson dark time. But Russell Wilson is It's over for him already, right.

00:53:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, Darts was one of the preseason darlings, one of the hot names right now. He's got a little bit of the swag. He can bring some life into your franchise that's been bad for so long. Give it to him. Nobody wants to see Russell Wilson.

00:54:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, but no, that's a good just theme for life.

00:54:13
Speaker 2: Nobody wants Russell Wilson.

00:54:14
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to see Russell Wilson. Honestly, Marshall, anywhere, do you I mean he's my he would be my third quarterback on that team. I go to Winston before him. Oh yeah, and they won't let day. They're not letting Jackson Dart or Jamis Winston speak to the media, which is I mean, I guess in the NFL everyone is always allowed to speak to the media except those two. It's just open locker rooms, which is which is interesting to me. You wouldn't let the backup speak. But it's clear Jackson Dart is starting next week. That's the shortest lease at leash anyone's ever had. Didn't even get through a week.

00:54:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, the camera Scott Neighbors yelling at pretty much anyone on the sideline that he could yell at. We couldn't tell what he was saying, but I can only assume he's yelling, give me Jackson Darter, I'm out of here.

00:55:00
Speaker 1: Well, it's understandable. Although even with all that, they had a pass right there to wand down with a chance. I mean, commanders didn't look great.

00:55:11
Speaker 2: Uh no.

00:55:12
Speaker 4: Uh.

00:55:12
Speaker 2: They have that that rookie running back Crosby. They call him Bill. That's what I was gonna bring up. I just love that his name is Bill Jacorey Crosskey Merritt. I think is why do they call him Bill, I don't know, but he had a big game today, and I just the fact that he's Bill. I think it's there's a cartoon character that he looks like young he used to watch as a kid.

00:55:32
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:55:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, so his name is Jacory Crossky Merritt. None of those names are close to Bill.

00:55:38
Speaker 2: Which makes it awesome. He had a touchdown today, so Commanders fans are excited about that that Bill got his touchdown. Yeah.

00:55:45
Speaker 1: Well, I can understand that everybody likes a good Bill, but that's a weird. It's weird to have no names that are even close to it and take them. But the Commanders get the win. Panthers Jaguars was the game. Oddly, was kind of excited about to see Travis Hunter go both ways. He did, had had a couple catches that hang. There was a long weather delay.

00:56:09
Speaker 2: That's what hurt this game. Yeah, I was into it till this delay. Then I kind of forgot to go back.

00:56:14
Speaker 1: Honestly, forgot it happened until until it was over. I did look online though, because I wanted to see the good thing about the Jaguars is because they're boring on the field. They have always a weird cast of people off the field. Irban Meyer of course. A couple of years ago. Well, their owner Kahn speaking of great mustaches, a little bit like Warren Sharp and the mustache. Did you see the speech he gave Liam Cohen after the game?

00:56:42
Speaker 2: Oh no, I did not.

00:56:44
Speaker 1: He gave Liam Cohen a speech and it said something like today is the start of we win forever.

00:56:52
Speaker 6: Yeah, forever, which I think is that's confidence.

00:56:59
Speaker 2: Jaguars really have never.

00:57:01
Speaker 1: Won of any significance and he's like, starting today, we win four a half.

00:57:06
Speaker 2: But if you're Liam Cohen, are you like, wait a minute, are you expecting that like undefeated forever? Hey, Cohen is undefeated one and oho as a head coach. Big win for your boy, Liam.

00:57:17
Speaker 1: I have said, I said all during the offseason. I think they're gonna be a surprising I think they're gonna make the playoffs.

00:57:22
Speaker 2: I think the.

00:57:23
Speaker 1: Combination of Trevor Lawrence needs to do something. Liam is. Liam Cohen's a good coach. We saw it here at Kentucky. Travis Hunter is going to be exciting. They got a good defense. Josh Haines Allen, you know, coming off the edge. I think the Jaguars is gonna be good this year.

00:57:41
Speaker 2: Yep, They're gonna take that crappy division.

00:57:43
Speaker 1: And Bryce Young looked like the Bryce Young a little bit the year before than this one. One game, but not a great performance.

00:57:51
Speaker 2: I had a couple of picks. I like seeing my guy Hunter refro get a couple of catches. Did you see how he ended up on the Panthers? The story with his daughter, No, she was watching Blue on his phone and the Panthers called him ten straight times to sign him and she kept declining it. So did not become a Panther because his daughter we kept hitting decline. I love it. And then he gets to Carolina and I got a couple of catches today.

00:58:13
Speaker 1: That's actually a really good story. I did not know that Bucks Falcons. So your guy, that's your team, Billy Amika Abuka is that right?

00:58:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, rookie from Ohio State.

00:58:24
Speaker 1: I had a great game, including that catch at the end that passed from Baker was amazing.

00:58:28
Speaker 2: The catch was terrific.

00:58:30
Speaker 6: Uh.

00:58:31
Speaker 1: The game was kind of back and forth. The Falcons had the ball I think eleven times inside the five yard line eleven plays and then finally got in. But the Bucks won. You had to be happy.

00:58:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, really dramatic. A lot of reviews late and a lot of reviews took a while, but you know, Atlanta swept Tampa last year, so that was a big one.

00:58:50
Speaker 1: It was a nice win for Tampa. But I came away very impressed with Michael Pennix Junior. That's great wretch. Yeah, that stretch he did to score to the touchdown was one of the most athletic plays I've seen that That was a while.

00:59:04
Speaker 2: To me, he had a great game, had had a couple other runs, three hundred yards passing. It's a shame they couldn't get it done for him because he looks like he's gonna be a second year now. It looks like he's gonna be a good sophomore season for him.

00:59:15
Speaker 1: I still that division. Those teams all play each other seven times during the year.

00:59:20
Speaker 2: They don't play anyone.

00:59:21
Speaker 1: They're all gonna I mean, I know the Bucks have won it four or five years in a row, but I think it's gonna come down to the end. I don't I don't make huge generalizations about one game. In the NFC South Titans and Broncos, Oh boy, yeah, talk to me about your Titans. How they looked. What do you think cam Ward's debut?

00:59:38
Speaker 2: I did like some cam We couldn't catch the passes he was throwing. Ridley, who's supposed to be is his guy dropped two. I don't know if you saw, but they cut to cam Wards dad in the crowd and he leaves his seat and like walks over the aisle and puts his He just lays on the rail like he's just so disappointed the rail.

00:59:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:59:56
Speaker 2: Even the Denver fans around and we're like pat him on the Cam's dad was going through it. But my Titans, it's gonna be a long year. They're bad. They're so bad. Our coach is awful. Yeah, he last year they.

01:00:07
Speaker 1: Were bad decisions, so poorly prepared. It seemed like for every game, and it didn't look a whole lot better.

01:00:13
Speaker 2: We had some clock mismanagement before the half. I love the Titans. We'reing Titan Show right now. I couldn't wait for this game, guys, A guy met. I fell asleep during my own team's game. I watched a lot of football today. I fell asleep. Fell asleep during your own teams. Fell asleep once today watching one game and it was my own team.

01:00:30
Speaker 1: Well, Can I give you one thing that might make you feel better?

01:00:32
Speaker 2: Please?

01:00:33
Speaker 1: Denver was an eight and a half point favorite. Rookie quarterbacks starting in their first game were zero to ten against the spread in the last ten games. The cam Ward covered by half of them.

01:00:44
Speaker 2: Here we go. Does that make you feel better?

01:00:46
Speaker 1: First player in eleven games is a rookie starting in his first game to cover.

01:00:51
Speaker 2: That's got to make you feel better. I do have. It does make me feel better, and I have faith in him. It's just the pieces around him. There's just there's not much hope. Ridley I thought was like the one thing we had going and he had two bad drops on some deep passes that could have been difference makers. But it's not lost on me. I ranked the Titans fifth and watchability, and they put me to sleep today in Week one.

01:01:11
Speaker 1: People need to watch out for a bow Nick slump. I know they won the game, but I mean that was my Survivor League team. That should have been an easy game and it wasn't, and the Titans led for a significant part of the game. The bow Knicks regression year is coming. The Drake May regression year is coming. I said both of those before the year. I stand by them. Now Texans Rams maybe the worst game of the day, and I thought it was going to be good. Both those teams are interesting to me. The Rams won. It was fourteen to nine. It was awful. I tried to watch it. I could not get in. I'd love to give you a review. All I can say is Sean McVay only wears under armor shirts. But beyond that, I have nothing to say about the game.

01:01:58
Speaker 2: I'm all in on the Texans going backwards. C J Stroud going backwards. So far, so good on that, and he threw a pick. Didn't have a great day, if you wasn't a very entertaining game. At one point, uh pookin the cool was like bleeding from his eye. That was scary, That's what did. They bleed from his eye. Made him look like a bat, to be honest, but that was a big story. It was coming from inside, which is I don't saved me fine, you know we're walking it off.

01:02:27
Speaker 1: But to see someone like bleeding from their eyes, it's a very football thing to do. You're bleeding from the eye walking off, kid.

01:02:34
Speaker 2: That was all right, That was honestly. The big thing I remember is his eye bleeding and Matthew Stafford looking all right, what's your note from the game, Drew?

01:02:43
Speaker 1: I believe it was really crazy looking like is it?

01:02:46
Speaker 2: Is he good? Do you need to go somewhere and get that checked out?

01:02:48
Speaker 1: Yes, were part of our our pick. So we did the uh this week, we did the the the Survivor League. I picked the Broncos one. Uh, you picked the Commanders.

01:03:02
Speaker 2: You got it.

01:03:03
Speaker 1: And Billy took a little bit of a risk picked the Jaguars.

01:03:05
Speaker 2: Got it. All three of us moved to the.

01:03:07
Speaker 1: Second round and all none of us picking one of the best teams. So all three of us kind of you know, getting a solid early start.

01:03:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, good week. Did was anyone even threatened at all? I know my Commanders weren't.

01:03:20
Speaker 1: So Ronalds were down a little bit early that you could have looked like it. Trying to think what would have been the game where you were most likely to see people eliminated. Maybe some people had the Dolphins against the coach.

01:03:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'd still be a weird thing to put your hand survivorally over Chargers.

01:03:37
Speaker 1: Maybe probably a lot of people had Commanders and Giants, but they won pretty easily. I mean, I'd say this would be a year where most people survived the first first game? Would you agree there was no crazy? Probably the biggest upset I guess would be Colts Dolphins. But how many people are going to pick the Dolphins in the first.

01:03:55
Speaker 2: No, that was even like a one point spread. Even the upsets, I think we're all like a field goal spread. Chiefs, Chargers and Raiders. Patriots were probably the biggest upsets by point spread.

01:04:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we all moved to the second. Then we'll on Wednesday pick our other ones. We also did our touchdown game. You picked Najoku who who didn't get to a lot of catches because of what?

01:04:16
Speaker 2: Harold Griffin from Bowling Green, Harold Griffin Junior from Bowling Harrol Griffol, Harold.

01:04:22
Speaker 1: Fannin Junior from Bowling Green. So you get zero points zero? Did did Billy McCaffrey or not? Billy Christian McCaffrey did did not score?

01:04:31
Speaker 2: He did not?

01:04:32
Speaker 1: But you know who did score Hurts? That would be Jay one Hurts twice. Right, Yeah, but we just you get only you get one a game. So I'm up now one zero zero. After that, I take an early league. In the touchdown game.

01:04:47
Speaker 2: I did my big anytime touchdown Parlay at one o'clock. It didn't win. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here. But it's so fun. That's just that's my favorite way to watch the game. So fun. You say that all I don't play fantasy, So like, if another team's in the red zone, if I don't care about the team, I really stand up. Mike is my guy in are we passing or we throwing it? Just in normal games, I wouldn't care as much. I get dialed in when they're in a scoring position.

01:05:11
Speaker 1: So should I expect expect that? Next week you're picking Harold Fann and Junior from Bowling Green. Actually I probably should, probably should, Okay, just keep picking Brown's tight ends. Well, that was one of the worst picks I've ever seen you had. You could have picked anyone in the league, and you went with Harold.

01:05:29
Speaker 2: I'll say that they said Joku was the most bet propa bet of any players, so I think you're incorrect on that.

01:05:35
Speaker 1: Did he's popular pick, he had four catches, But this fan and thing. Here's my logic, though, I didn't think Flacco could see down the field being fifty years old, so I thought it was gonna be tight ends all day, which it was. I just had the wrong tight end. So I was going with Flacco being an old man and just.

01:05:51
Speaker 2: Relying on my tight end there, but here comes Harold Fanning Junior from Bowling Green.

01:05:56
Speaker 1: Well, all right, so Billy, remember your job. Brown Spider, Brown Spider, and the first lady, if not second, is Matt Braker. Okay, that's the order at the NFL involved.

01:06:07
Speaker 2: And if you can only get one of Spider, first Lady, you compare them with Matt Prader. So if it's like first Lady and Matt Prater, we'll figure it out.

01:06:16
Speaker 1: I think it would be good to interview Matt Prader and the first Lady together.

01:06:20
Speaker 2: Let me see what hijinks occur.

01:06:21
Speaker 1: Just two of the three. Those three get two of the pasture. All right, thank you guys for enjoying or listening. Hopefully enjoyed The week one review will be back on Wednesday. Please like, subscribe, Tell your friends, your associates, your family. This has been NFL Cover zero. NFL Cover zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcast. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.