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[Assistant] It's even more likely that the Seahawks would win handily, but I just think because of the continuity of the roster, because of the hashtag LetRusCook and the ability of Russell Wilson to go out there and make things happen, you complement that with a running game, you look at the history of Belichick and Pete Carroll during their mutual time with their current teams,


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[Assistant] I think the Seahawks win this game by a touchdown. I could see it go either way. I wanted to pick the Patriots. I want to see this Cam Newton thing continue to flourish and maybe it will, but I think Russell Wilson and company at this stage of the season in a better position to perform better than the Patriots offense. 27-20 Seahawks.


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[Assistant] Well, John Gruden and Sean Payton is an interesting matchup. Sean Payton's got that, that little impish quality to him that I love. Uh, remember he was once considered for the Raiders job and almost took it. And I think it may have been Bill Parcells that told him, you don't want that job. You don't want to work for Al Davis. So, you know, there's some,


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[Assistant] Lower level animosity there between Peyton and the organization, and I think Peyton would love nothing more than to go into that new stadium.


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[Assistant] And I think that even without Michael Thomas, the Saints are the better team here. I was disappointed in how the Raiders let the Panthers hang around last week. So I've got the Saints 31-20, easily covering the spread and winning the first game ever played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'll lead it off. My first one, Green Bay Packers covering, uh, the spread against the Detroit Lions. If there was only one game that I could pick this week, it's the Packers giving five and a half to the Detroit Lions. Boom.


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[Assistant] I'm gonna also go with the Ravens, I was holding it for later. I was gonna either take Ravens or Chiefs, and the difference is this. The Ravens are favored by 6.5, the Chiefs are favored by 8.5.


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[Assistant] All the Ravens have to do is win by a touchdown. And I think they will, I think both teams are going to win by 10, but I'll gladly take the extra two points as it relates to the Ravens and only have to win by a touchdown because I think they will win by at least a touchdown.


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[Assistant] Alright, for the last one, let me give you a quick glimpse of what I considered. I thought about the panther's bucks over, but I'm off the over for now after we had to sweat out the push.


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[Assistant] Last week with the Texans Chiefs game, I thought about the 49ers, but for the injury issues, I'd have gone with them. I thought about the Steelers, because I think there's a chance they win by double digits, but sometimes with the Steelers, they just kind of plod their way to a three or four point win.


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[Assistant] I'm going Rams, giving one and a half to the Eagles. That offensive line is crap. Aaron Donald is not, and I think he's gonna wreak havoc all day long, and I don't think the, I think the Eagles are going to feel the effects of blowing that 17 point lead for more than a week. I like the Rams to win easily in that game. One and a half, not enough of a spread.


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[Assistant] You're gonna be one and two in best bets this week, that's what I say, because the only one you got right is the one I took also, the Ravens. That's it. Hey, this was fun. All the games, all the spreads, our best bets, money back guarantee, uh, given that all this content is free. Don't blame us if you're waiting.


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[Assistant] We'll find out. We'll find out. Alright, uh, that's it. PFTPM. Chris Simms on Button Podcast. Chris does his podcast several times a week. PFTPM every weekday. Thanks for some of your time. We'll see you on PFTPM on Friday. See ya.


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[Assistant] I mean, you'd like your junk to be already attached when you go out in the field, right?


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[Assistant] Oh yeaah baby, we got two guys here, our junk is attached and this will not be a junky podcast. I know that. We got some great stuff. Some high quality health food. So alright, for our topics today. I don't know, junk, junk food, I don't know what the hell I'm saying.


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[Assistant] Well, Kristen is not, she's fearless. I know she'll put it in. She is fearless. I don't worry about her. And she did. Yes. And if she does take it out, it's only to save our butts. I thought that was, that didn't cross the line. It didn't cross the line. And if you're gonna give me pictures that are sexually provocative and sayings that are like that at times, yes. What do you expect?


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[Assistant] Yep, I can quickly through the Cowboys offense. I can certainly give you the theme of the game or things that I saw or liked or whatever else. I didn't like dissect it quite the way I did. Let's say the Rams offense and what they did.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I looked at the film. Okay, alright, so this is what I'll say. Just write off number one comment.


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[Assistant] It wasn't that bad by Jimmy G. He played solid football. He really did. Are there a few plays where I'd go, man...


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[Assistant] Yeah, you should throw a better football here or don't, don't get off this read. It's there. You know, why did you flip to the other side? Sure. There's no doubt about it. I think though, all in all, yeah, you know, it wasn't the smoothest game for Kyle Shanahan and his game plan. I think Arizona threw a few curve balls at him too.


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[Assistant] Injuries, yeaah, not only at receiver, and I think that's the first thing that I jumped out to me when I watched the film. I went, ooh, Arizona.


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[Assistant] Because of the receiver situation, has no fear of these 49ers, uh, players. So, they were up in their face, that allowed them to crowd the box a little bit, crowd the line of scrimmage, stop the run game, so that didn't ever really get off, right? They stopped that from


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[Assistant] When Shanahan gets the run game going, then you're screwed as a defense. They made that number one priority to stop that, and you're allowed to do that because of the lack of wide receivers being healthy right now. Then Kittle went out, and that even compounded it even more.


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[Assistant] Let alone Vance Joseph, who's a good defensive coordinator, threw a few curve balls out, and then also, just pure physicality blocking.


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[Assistant] You know, the 49ers are not up, up, up to strength up front either. They got a, a backup playing right guard, and they got a backup playing center right now. And there was moments in pass protection and run game where you go, oh, well, that's them. They, they show up where Jimmy had a move, ooh, somebody's gonna be open, I gotta move, I gotta do something, bam, I'm out of here.


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[Assistant] And that made them feel like, okay, we're in this game. And you know, we talked about the 49ers then make a great drive, go all the way down the field, and are not able to score from the one foot line.


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[Assistant] Right? So it's fourth and one, that happens, and then it became a ballgame from that point. But I just think overall... So you went into the game thinking that Jimmy would look worse than he actually did. No doubt about it. Yes. I always try to go into game going, okay, I know my thought.


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[Assistant] Clean slate. Let's watch the game for what it is. Don't like try to make a reason to make it match what you said on Monday, okay? Yeah, Monday it didn't look great to me. The film was better. Was it perfect? No.


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[Assistant] Uh, I think the big thing that I take away from Jimmy G and the 49ers in general, if teams are gonna play them like that, they gotta be more aggressive and take shots down the field. They have to. At the very least, get some pass interference calls. They did get that a little late in the game where they took a shot or two and I wanted to go, damn, there it is, yea, you gotta take a shot, one, just to back them off, two,


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[Assistant] You know, as we talk about all the time, these DBs, the ball's in the air a long time, they usually choke all to death and, you know, start grabbing or misplay the ball or whatever.


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[Assistant] So I think that would be one thing that, uh, certainly jumps out to me. And then, the other thing, and I think this plays into Jimmy Garoppolo's weaknesses a little bit, and probably why the Cardinals did it. They probably go, let's take our chances. Give him the deep ball. He's not the best at that.


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[Assistant] Okay, let's take away the middle of the field. So I said they're playing a lot of man to man. Shanahan's smart. He sees that. He starts doing crossers. I think they hit one. Then they start to go back to the well a few times in some like obvious passing situations. Cardinals did a good job of like,


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[Assistant] We got a guy here, as soon as they crossed, he stopped, and he waited for the crosser. And then the same thing on the other side, he waited for the crosser. So then, here's Jimmy G dropping back thinking, oh I got man to man, I'm one of these crossers, and there's guys waiting for him. And then, that throws it off. So, that's what I mean by curve balls thrown at Shanahan.


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[Assistant] And my point was saying that is, they live over the freakin' middle too much. They live over the middle. Gotta throw the ball outside the numbers.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, that's not a scary group. You're right. And you know, Kendrick Borden and Pettis have enough to win on the outside. Yeah, they're not gonna like make DBs like shake in their boots or anything like that.


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[Assistant] You know, conversely, you know, I think this is going to be the next thing, because this is what they did. They played the man to man, like I talked about, to help with the run. And then the other thing I saw was quarters coverage.


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[Assistant] Quarter's coverage is a great way to take away the middle of the field. It takes away over the middle slants, crossers, things like that. The safeties don't really worry about behind them. Their first thing is to kind of come up front in quarter's coverage, or come up.


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[Assistant] And also allows them to be more aggressive in the run game, right? When your first few steps are told, alright, we're playing quarters, you play cover too, the defensive coordinator's gonna tell you, safeties. At the snap, I don't give a shit what you see, if you're not backpedaling.


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[Assistant] You're getting a minus grade. It doesn't matter. Even if you think, oh it's a run and it's a run and it's a run.


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[Assistant] You take your three steps backpedaling because, you know, after a while they'll get cocky and fly up and it'll be a play action pass and be like, hey it's cover two and you're not there and you're half.


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[Assistant] So, in quarters that doesn't go. They're allowed to be flat footed and be aggressive downhill to stop the Shanahan run game. It gives them an extra guy in the box that way. But then it also takes away that Garoppolo, you know, play action pass come up and there's Kendrick Bourne over the middle or Deebo Samuel over the middle who I know wasn't playing.


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[Assistant] But that takes away that element. And it's hard to find any space in there, I don't care who you are, when teams are playing you like that.


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[Assistant] And that's where you have to start going, okay, they've got nine guys right inside the hash marks. I gotta start going comebacks, out routes, and we're gonna talk about this. There was a number of teams who I saw had this approach on defense. This, going into week one, probably think, let's take away the easy completions. This quarter's approach. And quarters are flooding the middle of the field. Okay.


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[Assistant] Talk about Kyler Murray in a minute. They had 49ers took away the middle of the field. They started going, okay, I'll throw a 10 yard out to DeAndre Hopkins. I'll throw a 20 yard out to DeAndre Hopkins. That to me is what they're missing. And the big thing


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[Assistant] I think I took away, last thing I'll say, with Garoppolo, the reason I think I comment on Monday and go it wasn't good, and like I said, I still wish it was more crisp.


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[Assistant] Yeah, too many slam dunks that you just go, you're too good to miss that throw. Or, or even throws that end up completions but the guy has to go to the ground or he has to turn around to catch it and you go damn, if he threw that on the money the guy's gonna run for 20 more yards and instead he had to fall down and it became no yards.


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[Assistant] Uhm, that is an issue with him mechanically that they're gonna have to work on, but I think the biggest thing at the end of the game, that just looked a bad taste on everybody's map. Because that's, those are slam dunk. Those are wide open. Uh, the, the double move on Patrick Peterson.


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[Assistant] And what I want to say is, Kyler Murray, other great throwing quarterbacks, they don't try to place the ball in between the middle of your chest, they try to drive the ball through the target of your middle of the chest. And to me that's where he messes up, and that's what he did.


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[Assistant] On that play, and then on two plays later on the fourth down, same type of thing. Just tries to rhythm throw it out there. And at times, hey, that's cool, but not here. Not in man to man, five yard out. You gotta drive the ball, throw it with authority.


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[Assistant] I doubt that. You know, I need to call him or text. I haven't talked to Kyle on the phone since like two days before training camp. And you can't call him after a loss like that. No, no. I don't. Give it a day. Yea, I don't. I'm not going to call. I don't really call him at all. I just send texts and say great job, whatever, sorry about that. And he'll call me when he's ready to go.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well yeah, I think, I think so. I think you're gonna see a little bit, I mean if you're smart and you're playing Kyle in the 49ers, you look at the Super Bowl one, and you start to look at some of the things that made life hard on Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo last year, and I think the one thing you'll see even in the Minnesota game, or the Super Bowl,


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[Assistant] I expect this day and age, quarterback's gotta make some plays on his own every now and then too. Uhm, he does a good job moving in the pocket and making some awkward throws, but I would like to see a little bit more playmaking as far as that's concerned.


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[Assistant] No, but he'll have to find a way to go, okay, how am I going to now use the pass to kind of help out my run game and get everybody off my, you know, my ass or my back as far as that's concerned. And he's going to have to find little creative ways to attack those part of the field. I would think he looked at that film last week and went, damn.


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[Assistant] Whoa, I mean, Isaiah Simmons is in there, Hicks is in there, Buddha Baker's in there, you know, 31, uh, I can't remember his name, the other safety, they're all in the middle of the field. You know, it's just, it's too dicey.


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[Assistant] So he is going to have to go back to the drawing board and find just little ways to attack the edges of these defense so he can stop that. He'll find it. I'll be excited to see what he does this week to kind of help that out. And of course, you know, it doesn't look like they're going to have Kittle. I don't know where that goes.


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[Assistant] Probably going in this game, some more plays for George Kittle that Shanahan had, you know, with the old screw you, I'm gonna kill you with George Kittle here. And, yeaah, it just didn't work out. And listen, the other thing, they got a little lucky. I can't lie about that either.


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[Assistant] You know, they had a few plays here and there where you go, oh, he's gonna have it, and the pass protection broke down, going back to the center and the right guard where there was issues there. You know, they had another game plan play in the fourth quarter at one point, Ahmed and...


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[Assistant] Gosh, I can't, I think they ended up punting on the drive, but they had basically, they like to do those fake play actions, right, and then use check goes up the field, right, as fullback, so the linebacker thinks, oh man, he's coming at me and gonna block me, he braces himself, and then the guy just runs by him, and you're like, oh shit, it's a great play. I mean, Shanahan invented it.


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[Assistant] And they hit use check, a few plays later they had a similar play with George Kittle.


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[Assistant] They ran the ball effectively, right? And not necessarily because he's a part of the run game. Yeah, he's the man. Uh, but you have to take that into account. So there, you know, there's just him alone gives them schematical advantages. And here's another thing that'll never be on the stat sheet.


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[Assistant] You know, and this is where the 40, this is why I say he's the kryptonite for the 49ers. You know, it's hard to put Kyler Murray in bad positions just from the D-line standpoint where I mean like, uh, he can always get himself out of trouble.


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[Assistant] Because he's quick enough to kind of avoid it and, oh, throw it away.


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[Assistant] Third and seventh. And most teams, that's what would happen.


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[Assistant] The strip sack fumbles that happen because of the pressure. You never really get to corral him that way to get the turnover to start that. Or corral him enough to, uhm, oh the pocket's collapsing, let me throw the ball down the field, there's a guy that's gonna be open and he gets it and he's throwing the ball, pops in the air, intercepted. Yeah.


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[Assistant] A lot of teams beat themselves with the 49ers. They get overwhelmed by the front four, and the game compounds on him. And he's so mature. I mean, for a second year player, I mean, he really is mature.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, you know, uhm, it's more in the DNA of a Cliff Kingsbury, I think, in his offense, to get a guy the ball. Like, this is my go-to guy. And again, we can always have that argument. Is it better to have a committee?


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[Assistant] Or is it better to have that one guy and then you make everybody stop him and then that opens up everything. I mean, it's a great conversation. It really is. I'm not saying I know the right or wrong answer to that all the way. It is. It's probably both depending on each scenario.


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[Assistant] Uh, would this specifically, yea they forced that up, especially early. But good for them, they were supposed to. They gave him some screens, a few quick passes early. I mean early on I would bet you, I felt like he had like six receptions for like 20 yards. And you're just like, okay, cool. They're just getting him going.


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[Assistant] Getting the ball out of their hands so they don't get a strip sack fumble or something crazy happens, they're just trying to manage the game. But then as they started to get a feel for the game, and like I said,


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[Assistant] San Francisco playing that Seattle scheme, eight men in the box all the time. I think they just started going, our guy? Better than your guy. I don't care if Sherman, Mosley, whatever.


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[Assistant] Our guy is going to scare you and our other guy at quarterback


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[Assistant] You can throw the ball with the best of them. And they started throwing out routes. They're just going, fine, you're going to give us out here, 10 yard out, 20 yard comeback. They started having that kind of approach.


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[Assistant] It opened up the floodgates a little bit to open up the rest of the offense and it was all basically nickel and dime stuff other than some of the out routes.


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[Assistant] That I talk about, he threw a quick pass out to the left and DeAndre Hopkins broke a tackle and sprung up the field for like 20 more yards. And then in the fourth quarter, they had the shallow cross.


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[Assistant] Where 49ers had, you know, Rush 4, but it was man to man. They got a little pick and he threw it to Yandere Hopkins and he ran down to the one yard line and that was it. So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I was like, oh man, did they do some amazing stuff with him? But they certainly made him a focal point smartly.


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[Assistant] I'm still saying okay. I like it. I do. I saw a few other things. Again, I saw him underneath the center, saw three backs in the backfield, some more two tight end sets, you know, some other formations. He's a stealer of plays, which he should be, and then he's expanded his own kind of thoughts and how he wants to make some of the stuff he does look a little different.


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[Assistant] I'm total believer in Cliff Kingsbury all the way there. Uhm, and, you know, I think the other thing too is he's not afraid to just dumb it down, like I said.


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[Assistant] You know, when, when they got, like I said, man to man or quarters coverage, which a lot of times ends up being like one on one on the outside.


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[Assistant] They said, okay, we'll, we'll, we'll find if that's what you want to give us, our quarterback can throw it out there all day long with accuracy and speed and everything. So, uh, I, I appreciated that. And, you know, there's other guys, they were close, you know, Kenyon Drake does have a good look.


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[Assistant] Christian Kirk looks good, like he's flying around the field.


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[Assistant] You know, those are two guys that can line up a slot receiver too, so I bet you they continue to toy with that. Uhm, the biggest thing though is,


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[Assistant] It's Kyler Murray. There's no other way to say it. He was the great equalizer in this football game because he saves them.


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[Assistant] And his ability to run and do those things. And then the last thing I'll say is, the 49ers gotta start to learn their lesson.


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[Assistant] You know, you're playing Kyler Murray. You can't have like a second or third down pass play where he steps up in the pocket and all four defensive linemen are five yards behind him. That just, that can't happen.


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[Assistant] It shouldn't happen. Like, if New England played Kyler Murray, which they will later this year, I bet you you'd never see that. They probably won't even freaking rush him. And it takes away an element of his game that really stresses your defense. And I think the 49ers now go back to the drawing board.


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[Assistant] Don't worry, they're gonna be okay. Garoppolo, again, I don't think he's a world-beater, but he is plenty good enough for them to win football games. They do gotta get healthy. And, yeah, Robert Salah,


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[Assistant] There's enough there to where creative blitz is every now and then where I go, okay, that was kinda cool. That was a little outside the realm of the Seattle DPS. We'll give them a pass against Kyler Murray. We're gonna give them a pass. We're gonna see where that goes. But, uh, their big thing to me


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[Assistant] Not a whole lot. Not a whole lot if I was gonna sit here and speak honestly to you. And I think there's some reasons behind that. Now the one thing I'll say that I do think was different is, did see more too tight ends on the field.


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[Assistant] You know, and they'd be crazy not to because I think their third receiver, Van Jefferson, he's still young and getting used to the NFL. So they want to keep Woods and Cooper Cup on the field. And then I think their best 11 is when they have Higbee and Gerald Everett.


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[Assistant] I was just, but I was interested because I do think I can look it up. Well, we've always known how much their 11 personnel team and I would say still the game itself probably still had 70% 11 personnel.


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[Assistant] But the two tight end sets, there was enough there to where I think it's gonna make teams think. A few more formations out of it because of the two tight ends. 33% for Everett. 33% for Everett? Okay. Alright. And then they used him as the fullback. You know, like how the 49ers used Juszczyk as the fullback. They used Gerald Everett. So they'd get in some eye formation type plays and do that. That was a little different. But they still did their bread and butter stuff off that.


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[Assistant] Now, it's week one, teams tend to go to their bread and butter week one, it's no offseason, things like that, and


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[Assistant] Really, McVeigh won this football game for them, overall, just with all his.


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[Assistant] The screens and the running back screens and the wide receiver screens and everything like that. I mean, as I sat there and watched the game out of the 20 completions Jared Goff had, I truly mean this and I'm not trying to say this is a knock. There was only two, like, what I would call throws.


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[Assistant] He hit Robert Woods up the left sidelines. He hit him on a skinny post on the right side one other time. Everything else was pretty much what I would call a Sean McVeigh special. Where it's just a lot of window dressing to go, here you go one guy, here's the ball, make something happen. And they won the game with just his ability to chew up the clock.


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[Assistant] Then control the football, uh, he stays patient with the run.


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[Assistant] And they stay ahead of the chains on first and second down, so then they get in third and three and it's like, well I don't know what they, it could be a quick drop back pass, could be the speed sweep, they could run it.


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[Assistant] And then he can throw the screen game on that too, so it really makes them tough to defend. Dallas' defense was the issue in this football game more than anything when I came away watching the game. Just the inability to get stops, get LA off the field, they were just bled to death.


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[Assistant] They played very simple in the back, the back end. Uhm, but I think what I'm saying more than anything is,


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[Assistant] I didn't see a lot different. I'm interested to see if it's a week one setup.


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[Assistant] For the Cowboys. No, or for the Rams, just to go, okay, we play with some personnel, we play some formations. It was week one, so I just did what we're best at, but I've been working on this other stuff, and I'm gonna unveil that here, cause it just gave us one more week of practice and gets a wind under our butt. That does happen a lot, so we'll see if that happens here as we go forward.


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[Assistant] I think so. I think so. I think he's gonna be a little more steadfast than just sending the running back by committee. He's got a three headed monster there I think this year. Yeaah. He's gonna stay patient. I think he, he knows


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[Assistant] You know, enough at this point that that's his best way to play football. It sets up everything else that he likes to do with his offense. It takes a little pressure off Jared Goff to where he doesn't have to carry the offense because I don't think he's that type of guy. And also, in a game like this, especially early on, you know, McVeigh and his ability to do that, it really helped his defense.


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[Assistant] Against, uh, a high-powered, really talented Dallas offense to where, yeaah, the defense got to be fresh.


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[Assistant] Be on, you know, on the sidelines while the offense kind of worked over that Dallas defense. The Dallas defense, I think, was scared overall of what they might get from McVeigh. And they played very basic. I was shocked to see that. Mike Nolan is kind of known for his exotic defenses and things he does that way.


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[Assistant] But I think with week one, all the movements, lack of a preseason game, he had a few young guys in there. Trevon digs a corner and things like that. I think he probably wanted to keep it simple. It gave them a fighting, fighting chance. It was just a lot of bending. They didn't break, but it was a lot of bending.


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[Assistant] I would, I would think this continues to be a point of emphasis for this football team. Especially if they want to run the ball, I think it's going to create some matchups. Both of those tight ends can run and get open in the pass game too.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and we'll see. You know I'm gonna have my eye on this for more things that McVeigh adds to the offense and all that, but we saw a little bit and we'll see where it goes from here.


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[Assistant] He's good. Am I gonna sit here and tell you he's great? There's moments where I go, ooh, that was a nice series of plays. How he tied that together. I like that. I mean, you can't be number one in the NFL in yards and be terrible. No, no, you can't. But a lot of it was some bullshit yards too. You know, we can go through the games and we start to go, look,


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[Assistant] You know, they're down in this game. They had no chance. He ends up throwing for 300 yards against the Bears on a Thursday night and he didn't throw for 30 yards in the competitive part of the football game. You know, so I'm always wary of that. Uhm, but nonetheless, you're right. It's still a lot there to like.


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[Assistant] He is good enough. They're finding their way too as far as what they want to do with Mike McCarthy and everything like that.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I did see some creativity in some things. I'd like to see still more movement. I loved how they kinda did some of the...


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[Assistant] You know, Michael Gallup, Amari Cooper, almost Speed Sweep Ram type stuff, and a little bit of the like same type of thing of like Kansas City where you see the guy like


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[Assistant] Fake, like he's about to do the speed sweep, he stops and then he goes back out the same way he came from, right? We saw some of that. The screen game was certainly effective. Uhm, but yea, do I still think I need to see a little bit more of a tying of plays together? And, again, not sure if I know what is it that's their identity.


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[Assistant] Like, okay, we know McVeigh's identity. You can say what you want about the eye. It's gonna be pace at the line of scrimmage, right? And they're gonna run plays, and he's gonna figure out how to kind of stress you there and find easy completions, right? That's their identity. He almost uses a de facto run game with the run game.


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[Assistant] We know what Shanahan's identity, we just talked about it. Running the football, creative ways to do that, play action over the middle, right?


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[Assistant] I don't know exactly what Dallas is. So we'll see where it goes. What should it be? If you were Kellen Moore, what would you lean on? I would almost, with this group right here, I would lean on going Kansas City.


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[Assistant] I would go and let's, let's, yeah, I'd like to run the ball. You know, we got Zeke Elliott. But man, we got so many weapons here. I'd like to have more moving parts like Kansas City Rams. Hey, SpeedSweep and Mario Cooper. Hey, we faked the SpeedSweep to Zeke Elliott.


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[Assistant] Oh, now we're in the shotgun. I got Zika next to me or Mark Cooper's next to me. He goes in motion. We're attacking downfield. I just think it needs to be a little bit more wide open.


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[Assistant] You know, I don't think they need to be like the old Dallas Cowboys and let's just like, we'll have one series we're gonna smash them out.


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[Assistant] And then the next series, we're gonna, like, just drop back and pass. To me, it's still a little all over the place that way. To where I just, like,


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[Assistant] And I, you know, again, I told you before we started this, I kind of went over this game quickly. I didn't like dissect the Dallas offense, like I did the Rams offense.


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[Assistant] Ram's got some playmakers on D. And you never, like, Aaron Donald to start week one is not fun for anybody. Uh, and he causes some issues. You know, there was a few times Prescott drops back and he can't set up or throw the ball he wants to because there's people around him and it's scary that way. Uh, but we'll watch what they do here.


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[Assistant] Man, I mean, Cooper looked good, CD-Land looked good, but they just gotta get him, they gotta get some of these guys the ball and space more. I guess that's the thing that, that I'd like to see, and that's why I almost say the Kansas City approach. Sure. Blake Jarwin got hurt, the tight end got hurt, so they're not gonna be able to play like power, smash,


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, the Vikings are not going to be real talented on defense, and especially with that, Daniil Hunter. I mean, to me, that's why I picked the Packers in the game right away. I mean, I've always said this, anybody that's listening to my podcast, to me, when you get on that surface, and you don't have a great pass rush to corral Rogers,


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[Assistant] That's when he can take over games. Because even when everything's covered, since you don't have that great pass rush, he'll buy time or scramble and extend the play, and then somebody will be open. I mean, you can't cover for seven seconds all the time. So that's where he's dangerous, but...


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[Assistant] I do think there was something more to their offense. I think that, so I wrote down the first things that jumped off to me, like right away.


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[Assistant] More aggressive pass game cause. There's no doubt. Like, they didn't come out trying to go, let's run slant flat and make Aaron jam it in there for five yards into triple coverage. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] It's just like, that's what they used to do. Like, oh, you're in rhythm? That doesn't sound like Lafleur. No, I know. It's like, I don't know who's coaching you. I don't know who that is. But, it just used to drive me crazy, and yea, Lafleur tried to break away from it a little last year, but also it's what, it's what Rodgers has done in his whole career with McCarthy before that too. So I'm sure, you know, Lafleur was trying to please him to a degree. Yea, yea.


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[Assistant] They came out in this one and it was like none of that bullshit. It was like we're attacking. You're gonna see guys going post corner post.


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[Assistant] Post corner, uh, er, corner, post corner. You're gonna see all these. We're gonna have guys running deep crosses, double moves, straight go routes, all that. So I think that's the first thing that jumped out to me. It wasn't like, let's find a five yard completion.


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[Assistant] That was one, uh, incompletions was an unbelievable.


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[Assistant] Deep post throw to Valda Scanling who dropped it on the five yard line. So it would have been even more. It would have been even more. But again, I think that just shows it. Now, the second thing that jumps out to me. Yes, more aggressive play con. Think it's going to be great for Green Bay. They need to. They got the, one of the greatest throwers of the deep ball and arms in the history of the sport.


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[Assistant] I think it'll make them more aggressive in general and just feel better. Like, it was fun to watch. They came out firing. But here's the biggest thing. My man, O'Aaron Rodgers.


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[Assistant] He got back to 2014 Aaron Rodgers, 2013. And when I say that, I mean, he got into


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[Assistant] Let the first guy, the first read happen. Wait on it. You know, you heard me say if I had a complaint about Aaron Rodgers last year and things like that, it would be times where I'd go, man, within the normal rhythm of the offense, just throw to that guy. I know it's a little tight, but he's open. Like slam it in there. Do it. You're Aaron Rodgers. Nobody hits the bullseye with like more 100 mile per hour fastballs than you. But, you know,


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[Assistant] He would, he would pat the ball and look and then dance around and try to wait for somebody to get a little bit more open.


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[Assistant] Man, one of the first things I noticed on the first drive, I was like, Rodgers is staying with the first read. He's not gonna pass it off. And he made a lot of, you know, throws with conviction. And where you go, I'm not sure he throws that last year, but here he did this year, and it's a 12 yard gain. 15 yard gain. So I think those are the first two things that jumped out to me more than anything.


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[Assistant] You know, a little bit like Mahomes or Russell Wilson, if you want to run the ball too, the great thing about the deep passing game is it's usually a deep drop off the play action or just a drop back pass, right? It creates separation from the line.


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[Assistant] And that's when they're dangerous too, because now there's separation, and yeaah, there's more room for them to move and make magic.


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[Assistant] Uh, if the play doesn't deliver on its own to where now, okay, I can run up in the scene here and attack the line of scrimmage and run or start to set up and find somebody open that way. And that's, that's why I like it. I do think I saw


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[Assistant] More formations and more personnel usage from Green Bet. I didn't sit there and chart it and do all that shit, but my eye is pretty damn good usually with that stuff. I thought I did notice that. They need, they're another team.


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[Assistant] They're gonna be a little more deadly with the tight end sets this year. They're better off without Jimmy Graham. The fact that they got, you know, Mercedes Lewis, the Sternberger kid, and I'm missing one other tight end they got.


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[Assistant] If you want to run the ball and do that, these tight ends can run block and they're pretty good athletes. They're good enough to where they might be able to go, oh, you're overplaying the run, okay, we're going to split them out and throw the pass game and do all that too. So I just feel like that, that fit their team better as well.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think it was, and here, I'm gonna pull out the, uh, pull it out here, cause I got it, uhm.


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[Assistant] Right here. Pull up the teams. Pull up the old teams.


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[Assistant] Yeah, then Robert Tanyan, he was getting in there, J. Sternberg, so yeah, 85, 87, and 89. Sternberger. In two more weeks, this will be, these will be household names, right here. Yeah, I don't know about that. Sternberger has a chance to be a guy. Okay. Where you go, ooh. Cause he pops when you watch him physically. He can run.


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[Assistant] And really be a threat in the past game. He's young. He came from Texas A&M. It's only a year or two. He was hurt a little last year. We'll see what he does. But I like that formula too. If you're gonna be Matt LaFleur...


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[Assistant] And you want to run the football and be the Kyle Shanahan guy, yeaah, overpower some people up front. That tight end usage will help, but it's only going to set up these deep pass plays to Devontae Adams and Valdez Scanling, which I like.


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[Assistant] They went after Holton Hill in long corner, uhm, from Texas. But he's, he's, he's issues in man to man. He's not made to play man to man. You know, he's a Seattle corner. That's what I would say. Jam, get back, don't let the guy go deep. But they attacked his ass, uh, badly. If Valdez Scantling


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[Assistant] Can continue to be the guy we just saw in week one.


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[Assistant] They've been saying that for the previous two years too. When we think we got this guy Velda Scanling and then, you know, the season comes and for lack of a better phrase, he shits the bed or whatever.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but I think that should be a good bit of a confidence builder. And I heard Rodgers talk him up during training camp and you hear Rodgers after the game talking about the communication with the team and everything's on the same page. To me, when he starts saying that, he gets, he's basically going, I trust the young guys. They're not up too much because I think he's like Brady that way you up too much. He's like, get them out coach.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so we'll see where it goes. But yeaah, he'll be crucial to the success of their football team. They don't have any other guy on the team like that. He's gotta pop, you know, a few times a game to be that scary downfield guy.


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[Assistant] Alright, the game didn't unfold for them the way you'd like, offensively. You know, they got the first drive of the game and went down to score at a touchdown.


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[Assistant] Kirk Cousins, who does look like he's trying to move more this year, he talked about this offseason, he scrambles to the right and hits a guy downfield. So yea, it was a good first drive, but my point of saying this is, I also go, I don't know if anything schematically really helped them. They just, they got a few good players that made some plays and they're in the NFL for a reason too.


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[Assistant] But just to, just a long story short here, just to sum up, the first half was tough on them because you have that drive, green bag goes on a long drive, you know, you go three and out, green bag goes on another long drive and ends up getting stopped on fourth and goal on the one yard line going into score, which we saw in a number of games this past week.


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[Assistant] Now, okay, Minnesota's got the ball back, first down they run up the middle, second down, it was either, I think it was second down, was the safety. So here they are, they had the touchdown drive, they had a three and out, they're getting the ball back, safety, damn we gotta kick to Rodgers again. So Rodgers gets the ball, they go down and score,


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[Assistant] They go three and out again. Roger scores right before the half. And then they get a quick field goal drive just to go down and get us something positive. So, long story short, their defense didn't help them out. The safety certainly screwed them over giving Green Bay the other possession. They never got to get in a rhythm in the first half.


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[Assistant] Like Jimmy Garoppolo, you can win with Kirk Cousins. You can definitely win with Kirk Cousins. Yeah, Kirk Cousins is a higher level thrower than Jimmy Garoppolo. I mean, just so you know, just the throw you're talking about there. And we can watch a number of other throws where I go, that's a high level throw. That's big time.


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[Assistant] I am concerned about the passing offense, so there's no doubt about it. First off, the same issue we saw last year as far as pass protection, Pat Elfline has an issue at guard, at right guard. I mean, he is, he's a good run blocker. He can pass block for shit.


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[Assistant] So there was a bunch of plays there where I'd go, oh, somebody's open, oh, Kirk Cousins, he can't settle in there and see the guy because he's got somebody right in his face.


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[Assistant] Do I see repeat concepts? Yea, I do. I do. View too many for me in the first few past plays in itself to where I want to go, wait, we just ran this play three plays ago, it wasn't that great the first time around, why are we calling it again? So, we'll see where it goes from here.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and you know, again, they have the fourth and three throw.


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[Assistant] Uh, to Taje Sharp down the right sideline. I mean it's fourth and three, they've kind of fought them, fought their way back in the game.


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[Assistant] And, that's the play we have? Like, Tajay Sharp go route? First off, Kirk Cousins was wrong to play Tajay Sharp.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but the lesser corners are on the lesser receiver. To me, I'd rather go down with my lead horse.


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[Assistant] So that was, that was annoying to me, one, that he did that, but two, the play call. Like, we had a whole summer. Yeah. Fourth and three, our first call of the year is just run straight.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, he'll be an asset, I don't think he's gonna be like Stefan Diggs, cause he's not the kind of guy that's just gonna run people, buy people on the outside. You know, you heard me say with Jefferson going up, Jefferson to me was more like a Michael Thomas. To me, he's that kind of guy.


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[Assistant] You want him to be on the inside, he's gonna, he can really run routes, he's got amazing hands, he understands coverage, and he's physical, so he can catch a ball and break a linebacker's tackle or safety's tackle and go get more yards. Uhm, he, it's early, as we saw with all basically young receivers in week one.


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[Assistant] None of them were like trusted in big spots or nobody really wanted to put too much on them. It was kind of like, hey, he's in, it's a big third down, take him out. Rugs, maybe the Raiders. Rugs is probably the number one guy. Exactly right. He was probably the one guy I looked at that said rookie receiver and they kind of based the offense around him.


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[Assistant] Game one, it was like, wow, 16 targets, 14 of them were catches. Now the pressure's off and there will be no thought of it. Yeaah. We've never had that game with Baker and Odell. Right. So it's constantly like, I hope this is the week!


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[Assistant] And there's an issue there. I don't know what else to say.


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[Assistant] Well, the tape, you know, okay, there's a lot of things the tape says. Alright, so let's say, the first thing I'll say, just to start off the bat.


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[Assistant] You know, you're moving the ball a little bit on the first drive, and your quarterback throws an interception. Backside slant. And again, interception is going to happen. I've got no issue with that. But this interception was solely because of Baker Mayfield. That's all there is to it.


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[Assistant] You take one step and you get ready to throw, right? You just get your body in position, here we go. Like, anybody's ever seen like, Rodgers or Brady? They get the ball, they snap it, okay, we're gonna throw a three step, you know, quick game. They don't take three steps in the shotgun, cause the snap itself is like two steps, right?


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[Assistant] Get it, set up, here we go, ready to throw. Baker Mayfield, okay, I know it was to this side, I'm lefty, so I'm going to do the opposite. He got it and took three steps.


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[Assistant] And he still tried to make it just really hard. He threw it behind the guy. I mean, if you guys, anybody out there wants to watch the replay of the play, even if Cleus Campbell doesn't catch it,


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[Assistant] It's gonna have to be like a turn and unbelievable behind you kind of catch that does it, but Campbell gets the ball, boom. Interception gives them the short field, touchdown a few players, so off to a bad start. But oh, after that,


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[Assistant] I don't, I don't gonna sit here and say like Baker Mayfield was horrible or anything like that. Uhm.


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[Assistant] Ten targets. Yes. Three receptions, 22 yards. They cannot get on the same page with anything.


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[Assistant] First, first two, first two drives of the game, first play of the game. It's Odell running a six yard hitch route. He looks right at him. He's open. He doesn't throw it. I don't know.


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[Assistant] You know, there was a few scenarios like that early in the game where I want to go, do it, he's there.


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[Assistant] But I don't know what he was expecting. I don't know. There's an uncomfortableness of Baker throwing to Odell. Odell drops the ball, you know, on a big third down, where the game was still kind of there to be had.


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[Assistant] And that caused, uh, that caused the game to kind of lose control after that. I think it was 10-6 or 17-6 and they had just driven down. It's third and, uh, third and two. He drops an easy completion.


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[Assistant] They go for it, I'm for it, don't get it, and that's pretty much the game after that. What do I want to say here? Well, here's something interesting. Yeah, go ahead.


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[Assistant] I do think he had a few moments of like just leaving the pocket or getting out of the pocket when you shouldn't. Like just stay there. You're gonna, the guy's gonna be open. You're gonna have the throw you want.


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[Assistant] I don't know, he gets into this like looking around and he wants to escape and get outside the pocket and I want to go, no, if you just stay there, there's the, you know, 20 yard crosser, you're going to hit him and way to go. But he takes himself out of that. There was something else I wanted to say and I blanked out on what that was. But either way, okay, I'll just do this.


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[Assistant] Just go, hey, we got all these plays for this one guy. We're going to feature him. Like, you know, Patriots with Edelman, Michael Thomas with Sean Payton, uh, you know, Hopkins with, with Cliff Kingsbury. It's not that type of offense. They want to run the football and then just do everything off the run and like let it, just let the offense flow.


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[Assistant] They have a good offense run blocking O-line. They were gashing.


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[Assistant] The Ravens in the run game. And those two are studs.


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[Assistant] I don't know, they need to find a bread and butter as far as what they want to do and just stick with that and stop worrying about getting those guys the balls.


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[Assistant] And it'll just come within, in the normal flow of the offense. And Baker, yeaah, he's just a little all over the place. He's still not throwing the ball clean all the time where I go, there's still a few throws every game where I go, come on, I mean, you can't miss that throw.


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[Assistant] You know, you've played three years in football and you've been in three different offenses. We gotta remember that with Baker Mayfield.


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[Assistant] Right, let's see where this goes. I'm not gonna like totally panic on this yet. I am a little starting to panic on like, man, can these two get together, Odell and Baker? I don't know where this is gonna go. It's gone on too long. And I'm telling you, if they go another four or five weeks,


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[Assistant] And they still haven't figured this out. You're gonna start hearing me say,


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[Assistant] Get rid of it. Trade Odell, move on. Let's move on with your team. You'll probably get something pretty noteworthy off of still trading him. Cause he's still, I'll say this about Odell when I watched him, just physically, he looks good. He can separate. He did separate.


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[Assistant] I mean, I wouldn't be shocked. I don't know what to expect with this football team. I don't. I don't. I do want them just to go back to like, let's just run the ball, run play action passes, keep it really simple. The offense, like, I like Stefanski's offense more than Kubiak. There's enough there to make it all happen.


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[Assistant] I have no issues really overall other than I wish they just ran the ball more and I had another point I wanted to make about Baker and this is why I don't know why I didn't write it down. I'm shocked I didn't write it down but there was something else I was going to say and I forgot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so good, so tweet it from your voice and your fingers. If they're not from me. Yeah, it's stuff you've said. Well, it's stuff I've said, or it's something...


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[Assistant] Pete has heard me say, and now he's checking on Twitter, and then he'll send me the tweet he's about to send. He screenshots it and he goes, hey, I was gonna send this out because you've been getting quite, and I go, good job, Pete. And you go, uh, I wouldn't spell that word right.


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[Assistant] No, no, we talked about the Ravens offense. We saw that defenses, you know, they're, they're still a special group. I was surprised with how they got pushed around a little bit. No, I was, I did not expect them to be pushed around that way. Um, but I also, you know, it's week one and that's a, I think a pretty talented offensive line there in Cleveland. I think it could sneak up on some people. Okay.


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[Assistant] I mean, the game fell right for them there in the fourth quarter, where...


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[Assistant] You know, between the long miss field goal and the turnover by Stafford, that gave them two short fields, and they had this long drive at the end of the third quarter that went into the fourth quarter to get that first touchdown, right, to make it 23 to 13 at that time. But, uhm.


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[Assistant] The three touchdown passes were all impressive, you know.


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[Assistant] One was what, the Jimmy, uh, Jimmy Graham back shoulder, right? Which is a great asset to have. I mean, gosh, you got Jimmy Graham and Allen Robinson on either side for that situation when you're, you know, first and goal from the four or anything like that, where they're great jump ball receivers.


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[Assistant] Then, he had the sprint out to the left, where it was very tight, and he throws the out route in the back of the end zone, and I can't remember who caught that. That might have been, uh. That Wimms, or was it Miller? Yea, that was Wimms. That was Wimms, right. And then the last one was the slot fade to Anthony Miller for the game winning touchdown.


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[Assistant] And they were all great throws. Now, you already brought up a little bit. You know, was Trubisky good? There was some moments of some real good throws.


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[Assistant] Were there some moments of, like, oh, I mean, first of all, he fumbled in the fourth quarter at one point. It was almost a disaster. Did he...


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[Assistant] He's still inaccurate with the ball and the ball comes out of his hand weirdly too much. I mean you can see it on film. There's too many balls that flutter where I go


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[Assistant] Man, pockets clean, guys open. Like, what? How can the ball flutter like that? And how can you miss Ted Ginn on a third down on a 20-yard in-cut and throw it six yards behind him? I just don't even know how that happens to him sometimes. Because I see enough good throws to go,


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[Assistant] That was, put that on the money. That was like high level. But there are just some quarterbacks like that. No, I know there is. There is. And I don't know if he's ever gonna get it straightened out. I don't know if I can necessarily sit here and go, oh, this game makes me feel better. I'm happy for him.


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[Assistant] I think their offense is going to be better. I do think that Matt Nagy, just from the overall look of Chicago, is trying to instill some toughness in his team. Another team that went to a lot of three tight end sets. Jimmy Graham.


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[Assistant] Again, I think, you know, let's just impose our will. Let's pull some guards. Let's get bodies on bodies. Let's let Montgomery and Tariq Cohen and Cordero Patterson at running back kind of work a little bit. I like that.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there's some big bodies in there in Detroit, and Matt Patricia, he's, you know, capable of doing some stuff on a weekly basis where you go, oh, we weren't prepared for that, or they threw a wrinkle at us that we weren't ready for. Demetrius Harris was the other tight end at it. So you got three guys there, you know.


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[Assistant] Who can all catch the ball at the tight end position. Jimmy Graham by far the worst out of the run blocking. But I think that adds something to their offense. I like that. That was something new for this year that I saw that I didn't see a lot last year. So there's that aspect of it. And then they had a shot they got when they get in the shotgun.


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[Assistant] They got into some Andy Reid more here, oh here goes Tariq Cohen this way, oh wait he stopped and went back that way, we just talked about a few minutes ago. I saw that, that's a good blend.


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[Assistant] So I was encouraged by Matt Nagy in the offense, I'll say that, and I do think he's trying, like I said, to instill the attitude a little bit of like, let's run the ball, I saw a few more play action passes, a few different formations because of the three tight end sets, and I think that will give them somewhat of an advantage as we


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[Assistant] Right now, I'm gonna put it at, cause this is gonna buy him a few weeks, nonetheless. Like, even if he plays like crap for the next two weeks, this game will still be a, well, he did that in the fourth quarter. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Not, not yet. I'd like to see it one more time, maybe two more times. You know, between that, you know, uhm,


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[Assistant] Was right in Tavon Austin, not Tavon Austin, uh, one of the safeties for Detroit, the guy that came from New England, uh, I'm gonna have it, I got it right here, don't tell me, don't tell me. No, not Justin Coleman. Damn it, who the hell was it? I'm wrong here. Okay, either way, screw it.


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[Assistant] He, he threw a ball into tight coverage, like three people around Robinson, to Alan Robinson, and he's got a, it's like a third and eight, and


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[Assistant] He just, he doesn't get off it to where I wanna go, wait, so here's an under route by Anthony Miller coming off on the outside of it. If he just hits that, he's gonna catch it six yards and he's gonna run for another ten yards and it'll be a first down.


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[Assistant] You know, just there's times where he does not see the field well. And I think that's what concerns me. And then we talk about throws that should be hit that just get away from him. That happens too much. And the other thing that excited me was seeing Tariq Cohn in Montgomery on the field at the same time too. That's another cool personnel set. So, I think Matt Nagy,


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[Assistant] Self-scouted thyself in the offseason a little bit and he's realized there was some flaws there and I think they're working on it.


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[Assistant] No doubt. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see where that goes there. Like I said, I like the offensive wrinkles. I think that's going in the right direction. I can't sit here and tell you that I'm sold on Trubisky. Was gonna make it through the whole year yet. Not yet. I'm not ready to go there. And give me one positive thing about the Lions.


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[Assistant] You know, again, I think that's also, though, a little indicative of still a Matenegi needs to expand, and there's a little bit of a predictability with some of the formations and the routes he runs out of those. Because there's just too many times where I see average man-to-man cover guys having a pretty good feel for where the receiver's gonna go.


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[Assistant] It's like somebody told him, hey, when they're in this set and he's in this split, he never breaks outside. And they're playing man and it's like before the guy breaks, he's already breaking inside before the guy is. Those are little things that just hurt me. So the one good thing you gave me about the Lions was actually


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[Assistant] The missed field goal and the stupid interception itself, I mean, that lost in the game. That's it. And Matt, you know, I'm not trying to get mad at Matt Patricia for the missed field goal. It's a really tough decision. I mean, what do you do there? I'm asking you. Like, what do you do? You know, you're up, you're up, what was it at that time? 23 to 13. So he's trying to make it a two touchdown game.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think so. I think so too. I mean, I guess the other thing you think of is just you go, man, the Bears offense, not that great. It is Trubisky. Maybe we just punt them down in there and make them go the distance to the field. I like being aggressive. But going up to touchdowns with, again,


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[Assistant] One of the better 50 plus yard kickers in the history of football, I get it, I can't be mad at that.


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[Assistant] Right? Whoever falls to that number one draft. Yeah. But if they don't, they'll probably trade out of it. They probably will. And this guy will probably be enough of a commodity that somebody will trade up together. Yeah, Trevor Lawrence is going to be the number one pick of the draft.


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[Assistant] I don't need to see anymore film. I don't give a shit if he just goes and sits in the Shage Lounge here for the rest of the year. He's the number one pick of the draft. He has everything, and to me,


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[Assistant] And again, I know Ohio State hasn't started playing. I mean, he is leaps and bounds ahead of Justin Fields, or the kid that's at North Dakota State, who everybody talks about as being the other first round type quarterbacks. This kid...


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[Assistant] And I take that too, not only because of what I see, but people I trust.


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[Assistant] The guys like for real can throw it. And when you run for 50 yard touchdowns against teams like Ohio State and LSU, then you can run. Because they got NFL guys all over the field chasing you down.


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[Assistant] I can get that, you're right, that game was way more lopsided than the score, like, showed. I mean, the bills, they found ways to keep them in the game. And then it was, what, 27-10? It might have even been worse than that at one point. And it became kind of a cheap, cheap time for the New York Gets, right?


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[Assistant] Yeah, they had 21-3, 21-0, 21-3. They were up to, uh, 27-10 and that's when the Jets scored late to get a touchdown. The interesting thing about your Trevor Top 5 though is, I mean, three of those teams have quarterbacks.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'm a little concerned with Baker Mayfield. I can't lie. I really can't. I gotta, I gotta see where this goes. You know, the one thing I'll say between, especially like those guys and that draft,


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[Assistant] What does Baker, and Pete's probably heard me say this, what does Baker Mayfield do that's elite? What is it, like I know what Josh Allen does elite. I know what Lamar Jackson does elite. Even Sam Darnal.


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[Assistant] He's an elite intermediate thrower, like, manipulator of the pocket. If anybody's open, 15 or below, he's gonna bullseye it every time. He's got a quick release, he's great that way. He does that at an elite level. Now there's other things I'd like to see him be better at, but...


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[Assistant] With Baker, what is it? Like, what is it that stands out to his game that, like, when you think of Baker, what is it? You know what I mean? Personality. Right. I think that's what it is for a lot of people. It seems like he's got a great leadership quality and got some personality. There's a lot of good in his game, but I just don't know where I see that elite area.


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[Assistant] And that to me is something I'm going to kind of keep watching, because I see sometimes elite throws, but then I see two or three throws in a row where I go, ball's out of his hand, kind of funny, and it's not accurate. You know, I see some great decisions and then I go, I mean what the f***, that's like a rookie decision, how do you do that? So I just don't know what to think of him right now. Yea, especially if he doesn't hold the


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[Assistant] And I know we didn't talk about it, we didn't talk, defenses were very underwhelming. There was not a lot of creativity like, ooh, got Chris Sims excited to watch this, other than a few.


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[Assistant] Just didn't see a lot of these exotic type stuff, right? I think we'll see that as we go here as defenses get to play a little bit more, you get to start to see the other offenses and what they're doing on film so they'll know like when to take a chance, when to do something crazy, uh, but I think for the most part that's why we saw


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[Assistant] The good teams that stayed with their offense and the quarterback and the offensive coordinator all together, I think that's why you saw for the most part those


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[Assistant] They were, they were, they were close. They were close. The Giants put up a great showing.


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[Assistant] Lose track of where Bud Dupree is as he's scrambling to the left and they get hit as he throws and he gets intercepted and they're gonna have a chance maybe to score a touchdown there and go up 17 to 16 and who knows where that game goes.


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[Assistant] Got picked tomorrow with Florio. I dominated him. You did really well. I know. All I know is we disagreed on four games and I swept his ass, so. Okay. I'm, I'm on a man on a mission in picks this year. Last year was not acceptable. Yeah. I will be, I'm gonna be a force to be reckoned with now.


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[Assistant] I knew I was losing the whole year. Florio wasn't that much better, but it was just better than me. So that kind of made me feel good about myself to like where I always had a chance. All right, so we'll see where it goes. But yes, Thursday picks podcast. That'd be Chris Sims on button, PFTPM collaboration. You the man as always. Bam.


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[Assistant] And uhm, when will we see you again? Next week sometime? Monday I got soccer. Oh, here we go. Freaking soccer. Okay, alright, so we'll see you when we see you. I got Tour de France this weekend. Oh, good job. I'm a man of many sports. You are. You are so talented. Man, you are. So good looking too. Alright.


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[Assistant] Peace out. Chris Sims, Ahmed Fareed. Thanks for listening. We'll hit you up next week. Clap it up!


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[Assistant] Yo, yo, what's up? Come on, man. Subscribe on YouTube to Chris Simms Unbuttoned Podcast. I need you. Please hit the subscribe button, please.


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[Assistant] Zipped or unzipped? Yeaah, nah, I can't zip this up. You're not supposed to. That's not what the cool kids do. So I gotta keep it unzipped. But, uh, yeaah, I don't know, I got a lot of compliments about my jacket on the show today. A lot of people texting me going, I like the jacket, I like the look. And, you know, too bad my host just, you know, continues to crap on it and say it's not cool. But alright, no big deal.


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[Assistant] I feel like I, you know, went through 500 yards of crap, and I'm clean on the other side, working with you, everything like that. I kind of feel like that. What was his name? Anthony Dufresne?


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[Assistant] That's still, that's still strong. I've been bragging about you to my friends and even my dad last week, he was over the house last Thursday night, I was like, man, Florio's, his picks, his against the spreads, he's on fire. And you are. And listen.


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[Assistant] The Atlanta Falcons screwed you the other night. I mean, if they just would...


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[Assistant] They could have just scored some points early on. I mean, that was gonna become a shootout. They just made it so they got beat so bad that it never got quite into shootout mode to where really, I think, you know, it's, it's betting. So you get a little unlucky sometimes, but like really, I think the thought of that bet was really damn good.


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[Assistant] Okay, let's do it. Alright, so you went through it. We got a great one tonight. I mean, this is the best Thursday night game of the year so far. Uh, I'm excited for it. You've talked about it all week. Foles, Brady, everything like that. It's in Chicago and both defenses are awesome. Nick Foles struggled last week against an awesome defense. Uhm, what do you think, Mike? How do you think this one plays out?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I, I, I think, uh, I agree and, and like a lot of what you said. I mean, I think you broke it down really in, in its simplest terms. You're right. It's like you have faith in both defenses.


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[Assistant] You got just more faith in the Buccaneers offense more than anything. And I think that's where it kind of boils down to me too. Both defenses are really good.


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[Assistant] There's no question. I mean, these are top defenses in football. They can dominate certain parts of the game at times where you just go, man, it's three and out, three and out, three and out. Cause these defenses are on fire.


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[Assistant] So I don't think moving the ball for Tampa will be easy. And especially the way Chicago plays, they're not a team that lets you or presents you with a lot of opportunities to make big throws. They're a little bit...


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[Assistant] You know, for lack of a better way to say it, conservative on the back end. They make you execute and go on drives because they think eventually our front four or somebody will get there too to cause havoc and get you to throw an interception or strip sack fumble or something like that will get you behind the chain. So I do think this will be a tough close football game.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but I think I'm going with the Bucs for the same reason you are. I just think there's a little more offense there to trust. And I think ultimately the biggest thing is, I don't think either team's gonna be able to run the football.


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[Assistant] And I just think the Bucs, their old line has been pass protecting pretty well. And plus with those weapons, yeaah, I got more faith in Brady than I do. Nick Foles, who has a bad offensive line in front of him. And then, you know, that pass rush could disrupt the game. That to me will be the big area. I'm gonna go Bucs 20 to 16.


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[Assistant] If that Bucks D line dominates and really ruins the game, you're going to be right and they're going to cover the spread. If the Bears online can just hang in there and not let them ruin the game, then I'll be right. But we'll see where that goes. That's kind of the fine category.


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[Assistant] All right. Yeah. All right. Good. So we're both, we're both on Tampa Bay. I forgot I won that by a half there with the 20 to 16 cover, but we both obviously do not expect a high scoring affair. Maybe we should be in the under.


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[Assistant] Uh, conversation when it comes to this game. But Thursday nights scare the crap out of me because it's always something weird on a Thursday night. Alright, you ready for the 1pm games? I am ready. Alright.


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[Assistant] We got Carolina Panthers, a pleasant surprise in the NFL. And, uh, the Atlanta Falcons, a pleasant crap surprise in the NFL this year. Uh, Carolina coming off a win last week, Atlanta, we just talked about Atlanta favored by one point. Little surprise to hear that. Do you think Atlanta gets the first one of the year?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I hear you there. I do. I mean, uh, there is some things that you look at with Carolina and you go, I like it. I mean, we hit on it, even though I know I haven't been like a total believer, but weapons on offense are there. And then yeah, the McCaffrey injury did not hurt the team.


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[Assistant] More talented than I gave it credit for too, albeit, albeit that it's, it's young, doesn't really matter. They're playing well. I'm going with Carolina too.


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[Assistant] I am, and especially with this Atlanta team like you talked about that's got a lot of issues across the board. The defense is banged up, it stinks. The Panthers played against this exact scheme of the Chargers a few weeks ago, except this is a less...


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[Assistant] So they'll have all the right formulas and plays to, you know, ways to get people open is what I'm saying. I-I-I'm gonna go 33-31 though here. I'm gonna go in a little bit of a high-scoring affair. I-I do think that...


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[Assistant] Opportunities will present itself for this Falcons team, and I just think they're desperate, and I'm gonna play, uh, kind of that way, to where I think this Panthers team here, the way they play, like we saw in weeks one and two with the Raiders and Bucs,


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[Assistant] You know, there's, they can give up some plays. They're gonna present those opportunities. So I just think it's a little closer, but I'm going with the Panthers to win the game. I'm with you there. Alright, next one. We got the, uh, Bengals and the Ravens.


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[Assistant] Ravens get back on the ship, you know, in the winning direction last week. Bengals get their first win of the Joe Burrow, uh, era. Now Baltimore favored by 13. I took Baltimore with the big spread last week. Just covered.


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[Assistant] It's similar this week. It's 13 once again. You think they cover or not, Mike? Because I know you're picking them to win.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I definitely can. I mean, yeah, we're seeing Joe Burrow get better every week, and the offense itself getting better every week. Uhm, but they haven't played anything like this.


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[Assistant] This is a different animal altogether. And we know Joe Burrow's gotten hit a lot. He's gonna get hit a lot again this week. That's what I worry about. You know, I think he'll have his moments, certainly. But I just think this is a team in Baltimore that matches up really well with them. And ultimately what I worry about too is just the Bengals defense. I really do.


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[Assistant] You can move the ball and make plays on them. You know, we saw the Browns do it. Even Jacksonville made some plays last week. We'll see where this goes. But I think this is more of one of those.


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[Assistant] I'm looking at it as one of the more of those, yeaah, the bangles kinda hang around for a little while, but...


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[Assistant] I think the Ravens will pull away. And I'm expecting more of a pull away than I saw last week. You know, I don't know if I necessarily agree with you that the Bengals are better than the Washington football team. I think it's close. I think that Washington football team is really damn good on defense. I really do.


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[Assistant] Now the quarterback situation certainly favored the Bengals. We'll see where that goes. But either way, I'm going to go with the Ravens, kind of blowing them out. I'm taking the points here. I'm going 34-17 and I'm seriously thinking as well about making this a best bet. So we'll see.


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[Assistant] I did not learn my lesson. In fact, I think I was, it was, it was, it was, I feel good about it. I really do. I do. I'm, I'm, I'm perfectly fine about it. I might take that one. I got it starred three times over here right now. All right. Jaguars Texans, Houston coaching chain favored by six over under at 54. Do you think Houston gets the first one of the year against Jacksonville?


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[Assistant] I worry about Jacksonville's defense. I mean, that's the, that's an issue. I mean, they're starting to, you know, break everywhere. And I look at that.


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[Assistant] You know, their ability to match up with the Texans offense, who yes, like you said, has struggled and certainly hasn't been great and all that, but, uh, it's only a matter of time and this might be the week that it happens because Jacksonville just is not


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[Assistant] Not a real great defense. Now I think Jacksonville will move the ball on Houston's defense. I don't see how that doesn't happen.


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[Assistant] You know, again, I know that it's been a little spotty and a little all over the place by that Jacksonville offense, but I kind of expect a high scoring affair. And as it goes that way, I'm going to favor Deshaun Watson in that matchup. So I'm going Texas, Texans 31 28 to win this football game. So I got Jacksonville cover in the spread here, but I just, I,


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[Assistant] I just don't trust that Texans defense to hold anybody to say they can win a game by more than 6 points. I guess that's where it really kind of bothers me. Uhm, alright. Vegas, Kansas City. We got the Las Vegas Raiders playing the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City favored by 13.


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[Assistant] Over, under at 56. I'll leave this one off, Mike, just to change it up a little bit so we don't always go in the same routine here. Uhm.


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[Assistant] Chief's gotta be a little disappointed with being asleep at the wheel on Monday night versus the Patriots. Now, I mean, I know that's a good Patriots team, but I also think there was a little bit of a, uh, Cam Newton's not playing, we'll win this no matter what. It led to some sloppy play. I think that'll kind of get their attention, get them back going in the right direction.


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[Assistant] Uh, the Raiders, I guess I worry about in this game a little bit, the Raiders being able to run the ball to the effect where...


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[Assistant] A lot like New England did last week. Now, Chris Jones, do we know where he's at, Mike? Because that'll be a big thing for me in this football game. But, you know, the, the Patriots, who have a really good ol' line and a run game, they kept Mahomes and them off the field a lot.


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[Assistant] You know, so I'm gonna go with the Chiefs winning this football game, obviously. I'm gonna make it 34-24 though, because I do think there'll be moments of the Raiders running the ball and having a few drives and getting some points. That offense is not bad, certainly in Oakland. So, I think they kinda hang around there before the Chiefs kinda, you know, pull away.


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[Assistant] I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. And again, last week we saw the Bills throw the ball on the Raiders, right? The Raiders...


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[Assistant] They, they, their front seven is just not good. So they're really in a predicament. And like we talked, I think we talked about this earlier in the week.


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[Assistant] It forces them to have to play man a lot. They got some good young rookie corners and, I mean, some good young secondary football players. But playing man to man against the Kansas City Chiefs on every, every play basis.


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[Assistant] Is not a good formula for winning. So, you could be right there. I mean, with that 38-20 score, I wouldn't be shocked to see that either way.


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[Assistant] Uh, that run game, like I said, of the Raiders kind of scares me just as far as the spread's concerned. Alright, Arizona, they came off a stinker last week with the Carolina Panthers. The Jets have had four stinkers. We know that, but at least they were competitive last Thursday night against the Broncos.


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[Assistant] Cardinals are favored by 7. We got Joe Flacco starting. We got an over-under of 47 points. Mike, do you think that Jess can keep this close with Flacco at quarterback?


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[Assistant] I, I agree. The Cardinals are one of those teams, they're hard to figure out. They really are. I thought I had a feel for them even after they lost to Detroit, but obviously I was wrong there. And I think I thought, I thought I saw some concerning things about them when I watched them on film last week, Mike, to where, you know, Carolina,


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[Assistant] Might have showed a little bit of a blueprint on what to do and how to stop the Arizona Cardinals offense to a degree.


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[Assistant] You know, playing certain areas in zone coverage where they played areas, not necessarily the players of the play. I think they, I think there's some tendencies in that Carolina, I mean in that Arizona offense, you know, where you've heard me say this about Sean McDermott before, where, you know, Arizona's calling pass plays,


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[Assistant] And Carolina just somehow had everybody drop right into the area where they're trying to throw it.


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[Assistant] And then they did a really good job of taking away like the screens and the short passing game. That's where Arizona kind of uses their, we don't have a run game.


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[Assistant] Here's the screen, get five yards. Here's a short pass, get five yards. It keeps them in second and four and second and three and those things to now where they kind of got you to where, ooh, they might throw it short to get the first down or now you're going to play man to man. They might take a shot. Oh, you're trying to play a big shell defense. Oh, quarterback draw or run up the middle with Kenyon Drake as we're spread out.


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[Assistant] I think Greg Williams is gonna have them broken down. I have no reason for this. Obviously, the Jets are the worst team. I'm picking the Cardinals to win, but I'm only going 1916 here. I think with the extra time,


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[Assistant] The Jets being, you know, pissed off that they're 0-4, and I'm gonna bet on Greg Williams having a good hold on this Kingsbury offense to where they make this game interesting. They lose, but they're a pain in the butt and hanging around.


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[Assistant] That's what's scary about them. That's exactly what I mean. It's just, it's too much of the same look always. There's not enough variations of making the defenses think.


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[Assistant] You know, I saw a few plays here and there to start the year where I went, oh, okay, Clif Kingsbury's got a little something, but there's just not enough. There needs to be more because there's going to be certain teams and certain coaches who know how to break down when you just do this one thing all the time and you got to have something else you can go to.


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[Assistant] And I don't know if they do, and that's what's concerning, and I think your point's very real. Alright, we're gonna go to the Battle of...


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[Assistant] Pennsylvania baby, here we go. We got the Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers coming off of their fake bye week last week because they got screwed over by the Tennessee Titans.


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[Assistant] I teetered back and forth with this too, to where, I mean, I got the Steelers winning too, and I'm going Steelers 28-20.


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[Assistant] There was a thought in my mind to kinda like what you said, like this could be the week they win 34-17 or something like that.


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[Assistant] There's no doubt. I mean, I like the fact that they didn't play a game last week, but yet they still practice. You know, for a Big Ben who's just getting back in the swing of things, no training camp, a defense that's very complicated and has a lot of rules, I bet you that week and a little bit of the self-scouting and self-evaluating themselves probably helped their football team.


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[Assistant] I'm going Steelers 28-20, really for this reason. I clearly, like you said, I think they're the better football team in just about all areas. Only thing I'm, I guess I worry about, the Eagles have a really good short passing game.


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[Assistant] And the Steelers don't play man to man. So, you can pick it apart a little bit with these zone concepts and do that way. And Wentz and the Eagles are kinda good at that.


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[Assistant] I'm gonna bet that they are able to kind of pull that off and hang around. And that's why I'm only going Steelers, uh, 28-20, but I think they're clearly the better team. And Wens could make two bone-hunting mistakes and this game be 40-17 too. I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. Alright.


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[Assistant] Now here's the game we don't know. Covid-19 has infiltrated this football game and the Tennessee Titans in a major way. Buffalo favored by one at Tennessee. We don't know what's gonna happen here. I don't think we're gonna pick this as a best bet for either one of us, right? Because we're not even sure they're gonna play. And uhm, go ahead Mike, what do you-


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[Assistant] That'd be kind of funny. You could put a, put a, put a


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[Assistant] I like the Bills too. You know, the Titans defense lets up way too many big plays, and this is arguably the biggest play offense in football.


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[Assistant] You know, the, the, the Titans play man to man coverage sometimes, like they think they got the Patriots secondary or like, you know, one of the, the legion of boom. And I want to be like, no, you don't have that. Stop putting your guys in that position. This is the seventh time this game they've gotten burned. What do you keep thinking they're going to, like, why do you think the result will change? So,


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[Assistant] Uh, that's a bad formula against the Bills. And like you said, they haven't played and all that. The one thing I do look at, I guess that would worry me, but it worries me less because you don't get to practice, is the Bills have had issues stopping the run game. And, you know, the Titans, of course, we know can run the ball.


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[Assistant] And converse, like off of that, conversely off that, I don't even know if I'm using that right, are, are, are able to really use the play action pass and gash people with big plays in the pass game too.


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[Assistant] So I'm gonna go that they make some plays too. I'm gonna go Bills 31-27. I don't know why, I just think the Titans will be able to make some plays with the way the Bills are playing right now. Lack of a pass rush and not doing a great job of stopping the run, but do pick the Bills all the way.


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[Assistant] No, I, I, I get that. I'm expecting a bump from Kyle Allen this week though. I think you're gonna see, I think you will see a better offense. And hey, again, I'll say it again, Washington's defense is real. They are real. And I do think that the offense being a little bit better could help them out. Plus,


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[Assistant] You know, the, the Giants showed some ways you could slow down that Rams offense, and I just think Washington will be able to stop that running game and boot game to where, yeaah, their Rams aren't gonna be able to go to their, you know, usual bag of trips. I think this game's gonna be close. I do.


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[Assistant] I think that that, because the Rams don't do a ton on defense and they play pretty simple,


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[Assistant] And the Washington football team has a decent O line to where I don't think Aaron Donald's gonna ruin this game. I'm gonna pick the Rams in a close one, 20 to 17. I, I do. I, I'm just, I'm feeling it, the matchup the right way. We'll see where it goes.


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[Assistant] Alright, well we got Miami and San Francisco to kick it off with these 4 o'clock games. 4.05 east coast time.


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[Assistant] 49ers favored by 8.5. Clearly the better team.


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[Assistant] The quarterback situation, we're still not sure about where, where that's gonna be. I don't think we're gonna see Nick Mullins, right? It's gonna be Jimmy Garoppolo if healthy. If not, I think you'll see CJ Beathard. But, uhm.


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[Assistant] I don't know, man. I have a hard time with this one. I'm picking the 49ers to win, but I don't know how much I feel about them being able to win by more than eight and a half, especially when I don't know the quarterback situation. That's kind of my thought on it. What about you, Mike?


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[Assistant] That's right. Uh, I look at it the same way. I mean, first off, these are, you know, two of my favorite coaches in football and Brian Flores is almost, uh, you know, in a lot of ways, a young up and coming star for my mind, as far as a head coach, but through the defensive side of the ball, I don't think he's going to let some of the normal Shanahan tricks, you know, get off on him and his defense.


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[Assistant] You know, the teams you've seen them struggle a little with on their defensive side of the ball this year have been teams with


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[Assistant] You know, big time quarterbacks and big time passing attacks, right? Like last week, Seattle or Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen. And they kept that game close, but that's not the same. Even with Jimmy Garoppolo, the passing attack for the 49ers is not good enough to be like that. They're not like that.


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[Assistant] They are run-based that way, and I have a hard time thinking that they're gonna get off in the run game against the Bryan Flores defense, especially with


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[Assistant] The ability for them to cover man-to-man on the outside and add more people in the box to stop the bootlegs and the play actions and all that. And like you, you know, like you said, Miami hangs around, they make plays on the offensive side of the ball. You know, so I'm going with the 49ers to win 27-21.


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[Assistant] That's, that's all it comes down to. But he could also be if it's tragic and they lose, you know, 38 to 19 because he threw a pick six and another interception when they were backed up. And there you go, well, the Dolphins kind of played close, but they got killed. Why? Well, that is why. So that's what's scary. And I wouldn't bet on that. Uh, I can't do it. So here's one of my favorites.


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[Assistant] Of favorite games of the week, Colts-Browns in Cleveland. Colts favored by one and a half. I'm on the Colts bandwagon right now, as you could probably tell for the last few days of us on the show. Uhm, Browns though, looking better, certainly. Over-under at 46. Do you think the Browns could beat the Colts this weekend?


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[Assistant] Yeah, well they should. I mean there's things to like, certainly. I don't think they're ready for cults, the cults though. I don't think they're on that level yet. Like what you said, I'm a believer in the cults, I really am. And uhm, I think this is, without a doubt,


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[Assistant] Well, the Ravens, I'm not going to say that, but definitely one of the more complete teams the Browns have played this year. I think it's a bad matchup for the Browns. The Browns, who want to play through that run game and everything like that, they're not going to be able to run on this Colts defense. This Colts defense is...


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[Assistant] The best defense in football. The linebackers are awesome. Waves of people on the defensive line. Secondary has been a pleasant surprise there, too. That was always my question. And, you know, they play that Seattle scheme, right, Mike, that you hear me complain about at times.


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[Assistant] Eberfluss has done the defensive coordinator for the Colts. He's done a good job. There's wrinkles in that scheme. So it's not the same look all the time to me where it's enough curve balls to go. No, you're not going to feel that comfortable that it's going to be the same look all the time. I'm going with the Colts to win this.