Seahawks-Patriots Recap + 49ers-Rams Australia Preview

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2:02I can't believe that, bro. Hey, oh, welcome to either call. The NFL podcast minutes after the opening game of the 2026 NFL season concluded with a stunning Drake May Interception, his third of the second half. Duming, the defending AFC champions to another disappointing loss to the defending now, Super Bowl champion, Seattle Seahawks Final Score, Seahawks 13 Patriots 10, and we're going to get into it right now live on YouTube. When we see everybody loading up in the stream, comments, keep them coming in, footballs back, maybe. Dan Hanzus, Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver on the ones and twos. The whole squad's here, Sessie.

3:05You know, when we started this game, and Sam Darnal immediately goes out of the game, and behind the scenes, Gravy is checking out and seeing if we have any updates from the podium on Darnal's hip injury, which did not look good. I thought we were going to get another one of those type of games where all this hype about a big matchup. Quite frankly, who's bringing memories of the last on the Patriots were winners at the AFC title game in Denver when a backup quarterback couldn't get it done, Drew Locke playing the role this time. And then because of struggles by Drake May and mistakes, it opened the door for a stirring Seahawks comeback, and they are one to know as a result. Drew Locke did just enough. I mean, I come out of this with dark feelings for both teams. I don't know what the deal is with AJ Brown, health wise. And if Sam Darnal, I mean, whenever I hear hip injury

4:08for a quarterback, and what we're hearing, just that he goes off-site for testing, it just, Connor, it doesn't feel good to me. I don't love what's happening there. It changes the complete complexion of the Seahawks and the NFC West. I mean, Mike McDonald coached, he did the best he could. He's nine and one against the AFC. And I thought it was a little bit of a repeat performance that the only multi-interception game that Drake May has had was the Super Bowl and tonight. And it was a complete fourth quarter meltdown. And I thought that Romeo Dobbs was going to be, and maybe he still will be down the stretch, like a productive intriguing asset to have in this passing game. Major drops in this game. The pick by Julian Love earlier on had a lot to do with Romeo Dobbs. And, you know, if you look at Drake May, he was 22 for 25 for 159 yards on passes under 15 yards. Everything else was a major disaster, which is the flip side of what made May an MVP candidate

5:10a year ago. I just can't keep, I can't stop thinking about the fact that last year there's all this build up to the NFL season opener. And then Jalen Carter spits on someone and gets removed from the game immediately. And then there is an equal amount of build up to this game and then Sam Donald makes it literally three plays into the game. There's something strange and cursed and mystical about the season opener at this point. Yeah. And because it's just like burned into my memory, September 11, 2023, when Aaron Rogers goes down three plays into the jet season and hearing that MetLife Stadium had never been louder than it was before that play happened. And then how the air went out of the balloon that night. And for that season and same thing happened when Donald goes out and lock in the offense are not able to move the football and the Patriots are able to score that first touchdown. They have now done the thing that when we talked about

6:10when we previewed this game, I said, I don't know how the Patriots can win this game in that setting. And then a couple of things happened because of the Donald injury, because you got ahead early, because the offense now was capped at the knees, you had a chance to win this game which felt like an almost impossible task. So to be in that position, Connor, to have the ability to play the type of game, to cite again the AFC title game where you can play a very conservative brand of football, work the clock, get the stops on defense, and get out of there with like a 13, 6, 13, 10 win. I was certain of it. And when Drake May went deep on the second down for his first interception, I remember thinking myself, I understand frustration from Patriots fans who don't like how conservative the game plan had been to that point. But that was going to work, I think. I think they win this game. If they just can chill, they couldn't. Josh McDaniel's didn't like,

7:10Vrable couldn't. And once that interception happened, it changed the whole complexion of the game. The crowd came back into it, Drew Locke hit a couple of throws, and he was feeling it. And from that point onward, we watched a totally different football game. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I think at first the idea of running into this defensive line looked foolish. And I think the fact that the Patriots kept doing it despite a low efficiency rate, there wasn't really a ton of explosives. I mean, you know, and you set it in the tech group, Dan. Bermondry Stevenson, it just felt one fumble away from completely disintegrating. But at the same time, we found out what happened if we let Drake May go full cowboy against the secondary. And it's a banged up secondary, but it's still a really good secondary with some really good players. And those interceptions were the ones that just deflated all the momentum and the energy out of it for New England. I needed them to be to your point, Dan. Like go conservative, be more balanced. Stevenson runs for 2.8 yards per carry. It just was sort of like outside.

8:10I thought that the wheel route to him was the most successful play they had. That's all the Patriots had tonight. And like their deep passing game completely fell apart. And I mean, on the flip side, it gave, I mean, the turnovers gave Seattle juice. And I think confidence to make some daring calls, some daring do on fourth down, Brian Flory, dials up that big catch and run to Jackson, Smith, and Jig. But I mean, you know, in our preview of this game, I said, you know, I don't know if Brian Flory walking into his first ever operation, calling plays. That is a tall order. And instead, I think he had the call of the game. And he's, and what's a bigger challenge than right away your starting quarterback goes out. Everything changes. Everything you do with a backup changes suddenly. And they found a way out of this. I don't know what the future is for this team if Darnold is gone. But tonight they found a way to survive. And I had thinking it a lot to do with coaching. And they did just enough. And they found a way to put the Patriots back in that recessive mind from six, seven months ago where it's like, we're going to make mistakes.

9:12We had not made all season. And they did again tonight. Not only a great call by Flory, but a great call by McDonald because he's typically really conservative in those situations, right? So the fact that you don't think he's going to go for it at all. And then when he goes for it, you're thinking, okay, it's a McDonald team. They're going to run the football. And so I think Flory did a great job of using those prior tendencies as a grist for this. And then all of a sudden, you have nobody in the secondary to tackle Jackson Smith and Jake Mitz. It's phenomenal. No, we have our first chime in from Amish Toast and shout out for the donation. Dan, did you get PTSD when Darnold went out in the first drive? Yes, I really did. There was absolutely feelings and shadows of the excitement and how quickly the air, he was out of the balloon. And quite frankly, and I wrote this in my notes, just to remind her of how every single team is just one play away from being completely up in. My notes, I put it in my note, little notebook. Yeah, I love it. I want to see your notes, but you're right though. You are right. Yeah. Thank you, Mark.

10:12And it's just like, now we will wait and see on Darnold. Drew Lock is not taking this team back to the Super Bowl. We know that. That's how vulnerable they are right now. And they just have to hope for the best. But yeah, you got to. You got to blow, mate. You got, no. We got to give up the Jimmy Gropelo dream also, while we're here. I hear it in the ink of that. I hear it in the ink of that. I mean, he's like 46 years old and dating a old film star. He's doing his own thing at this point in his life. Is he? All right. But can I, yes, Justin? An update on the dating scenario for Jimmy Gropelo from Justin. Here we go. I have Mike McDonald on Darnold injury. If you want it. Or we can't wait up to you. This is a perfect time for it. Thank you. That's why he's the best in the business, folks. Here we go. At this point, we were able to rule out a fracture. So there's some more tests to be done. And so that's what I'm saying when it's positive. But I know we're still working through all that. But right now, I think, fractures out, which is great news.

11:15Did he say it's good news right now? Is that what they said? Is that what he said? Good news. He said they ruled out a fracture with X-rays. OK. It could still mean a lot of things, though, because you got to get them right and see what else is going on in there. But fracture is what a lot of online people, the doctors, we love those guys. They were right. And in their notebooks about a potential fracture. They don't match your notebook. Your notebook is an epic writing, of course. Back to your boy. By the way, the Woodsman Mark Cessler, the Woodsman edition of Mark Cessler, didn't start great for Florian the first half. But again, he was putting a very tough spot, like everyone else. Once Darnold goes out of the game, the play call, the fourth down play call was brilliant. And it's just like a reminder as complicated as football can be as a sport. Sometimes it's like, get the ball into the hands of the best guy. Like you're like you're at the playground. And there's only like 10 guys in the league that take that play and turn it into a 50 yard touchdown. But the great thing about this true superstar wide receivers

12:17and why they're worth every penny is once he hit that second level of the defense. Even though there were guys all around him, you just know he's going. Like they, that's that special type of player. So shout out on the play call because it looked the way the Patriots stack the box there. You could just picture what was going to happen if they tried a sneak or a full back dive. And to put, to put your faith in the backup quarterback, that's again, as we've seen. And it's fun watching this game, Cessi, because two coaches that know what they're doing. Like one thing that I've always appreciated about Brable, he's on top of pretty much everything. He's always like got his eye out on the game. He's he's always getting up in the officials business to let them know they they missed something. And McDonald and his coaching staff being ready for that moment, that crucible moment with your backup quarterback and and cashing in in the biggest spot of the game. That's that's why they're the champs. It is. I mean, I think they they knew they were going to that was absolutely go for it on fourth down. I think they were stuffed on third and one right before it.

13:19And it set up that situation. Yeah, I think in this kind of a game, it's like, we don't know what's ahead, but it's a crucible. It's a scenario where like you've got to do, you got to pull out all the stops and give your backup quarterback a chance to do it. Drew Locke, I mean, if there's anyone to learn from, if he's the guy for a while, it is Sam Darnold, like someone that's been all over town, all the multiple towns, and he didn't turn the ball over tonight. He did just enough. And you know, I came away wondering like, would this turn into a game where like Jadarian price explodes? He did find, but they didn't, both teams were really, it was not, I would not call it like an epic fireworks display by either team. Did it not feel like a bit of a slog for the viewer? And that's maybe that's how football is sometimes, but a lot went wrong for fantasy fans, for other people. And I do think that Seattle though, leaned on the heart of what they are, which is we're going to cause problems for your quarterback. And the Patriots have shown us, and I thought we're going to come out of this saying,

14:19Vrable or not, we have, the Patriots can give a big F you to everyone else. We come out of this with the impression that they were unable to solve what they couldn't solve last winter. One interesting thing, and I think Dan Casey pointed this out on Twitter, speaking of just kind of the general sloppiness of it. That last play of the game when Drake made through the interception, both of the tackles are cut blocking, which is something you don't normally do on like a standard dropback pass. Like it's like screen action or maybe it's like, you know, it's just, it's not something you would do with that route concept I don't think. And so it's strange because I wonder if like everyone was even on the same page there on that play, or if that was something of a broken play. I mean, it's the only sees obvious on me to throw that away and realize that you're in a situation to tie the game and keep it going. But I think there was more to that. That offense just looked buggy. Romeo dobs the playing time he didn't even come in really until the second half of the game. He wasn't getting his snaps like it just makes me wonder

15:19a little bit what was going on there. And you know, as well as lock played 16 of 20, 22 with the touchdown, JSN obviously had a lot of yack on the play. But yes, not making the big mistake. The biggest mistake he made was the delay of game on second and one inside the five, which by the way, all time curse job by Chris Collins, who in after they get he scrambles lock to make it second and one inside the five. And Collins was says, Oh, that's actually even better than the first down because now you got an extra crack at you get five pounds like, does this guy know things like false starts happen in the NFL and next play, worse than a fall start, Drew lock kind of loses track of the play clock. It becomes a delay of game, knocks him into a field goal situation. And I want to get into we're going to take a break in a minute here. But we're going to get into the Patriots in the may side of it. But just just got to give credit to the Seattle defense because this is a game that could have easily gotten away from the Seahawks after the quarterback goes out

16:21in the first series. And with this defense and the punting game and Myers making his kicks, what that allowed them to do was just hang around and then do what great teams do. Wait for the other team to make a mistake and take advantage of it. How many big plays did we see? On a day where the Patriots did a better job than they did in the Super Bowl picking up blitzes and diagnosing that. Right. But they're the way they clogged the lane for Stephenson over and over again. The big third down stops and then of course the game changing interceptions. This defense looks just as dominant as it was a year ago. And I just came out of it so impressed how prepared they were for the worst case scenario. And remember, I mean, the thing that we thought could be the dark spot was how many players were missing at the safety spot for Seattle. And instead that part of the field changed the game positively. So there is depth here. I think they use some guys that didn't plan to obviously and you get this result.

17:21All right. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere in the live stream. We're going to continue to check in with you guys. And then we're going to talk about the Patriots of it all. Stay right there. Guys, I got to tell you what happened to me the other day. I was trying to change my flight reservation. And then ended up trapped in an endless loop of phone trees holds in a robotic voice asking me to repeat my confirmation code three separate times. The system feels completely broken, not just for us as callers, but for the support reps stuck answering the exact same basic queries all day. And the company's desperate to offer better service. Well, Dan, that's why 11 agents from 11 labs is a total game changer. 11 agents provides AI voice and chat agents that actually listen, understand and resolve issues in over 70 languages powered by 11 labs, ultra realistic, expressive voice models. These agents do far more than read scripts. They can look up accounts, process requests and smoothly handoff complex cases to human reps. Handling over 10 million weekly conversations for enterprise clients.

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20:28Hey, as we get into the Drake May apocalypse in the second half, let's start by looking at the guy that, you know, change the Patriots forever. He was watching the game as well. It's Tom Brady. Of course, this is the fakes thing I've ever seen in my life. He's at a pizza shop that he probably owns or he's an investor in. Arm around a guy is probably never met before. They're holding a beer that he certainly didn't take a sip of. And the worst part of it, the pepperoni pizza slice Connor. I mean, it's a calorie bomb with all that grease on top. He has it pulled, removed, removed from the pie and sitting on his plate, not a single bite. Am I supposed to believe that any of this is actually happening? Not to mention just an underwhelming looking pie to begin with. And that could just be a regional bias thing for me. But yeah, this is total horseshit. Well, so apparently that the what is he doing? Did he reach across the table to grab that particular slice? Like, come on. Exactly.

21:28This is as phony as it gets. This could be AI for all I know. I see. He's convinced he's friends with this other person. I'll start there. But I'm I supposed to know who that person is, by the way. It must be the own like, like, quasi like side owner of this establishment. It's a Rhode Island pizza. You know, they have sneaky good pizza, I think in Rhode Island. I don't want to judge. But I could to Connor's as a guy that lives in Jersey, you know, a good pie. And that one has all the markings of the one that goes through the kind of like the toaster thing at the buffet where the pizza goes through one end and comes out the other rather than an actual oven. I call everything about this feels and authentic. They're using that kind of oven. That's like a workplace type of oven for a pizza. Dan, that's quite an accusation for a pie factory. All right, let's talk about the Patriots. This was a terrible loss for the Patriots. Oh, and I feel horrible saying it. You got to win this game. You got to win this game when you have that lead and you got the ball and you have a chance to go

22:32at multiple scores and you do go up multiple scores and they have drew lock on the field. And you've taken the crowd out of it. You have to you really have to find a way to screw up that game. And they did. And I think the most stunning aspect of it all, of course, is that it is the great Drake May coming off an incredible near MVP season with three interceptions in the second half, all more damaging than the one before. The first one is what we talked about. The kick started the rally for Seattle and got them on the board. The second one came after an absolutely horrendous Romeo dobs drop, which, yes. And Collins worth pointed it out. Drake made the great job rolling to his right, squaring his shoulders, spotting the receiver, putting it right on him, dobs drops it. And that sucks, but that doesn't mean he then can be late and over the middle on the next passing attempt for a terrible love interception. And then the third one, you heard it even Toreco in his call is kind of dumbfounded.

23:37I'm thinking to myself, as the Patriots cross into Seattle territory late in the fourth quarter, I'm thinking this is going to be a signature Drake May moment. He's leading them is using his feet to get first downs. He's keeping the game alive. And if he could just get this ball in the end zone and they steal this game after letting it slip away, to force that throw, it's in all time or like in terms of, you know, weak one losses that a Patriots fan is going to remember. So it's just that it's a terrible loss and a bad job by the quarterback that you trusted to make the right decision there and he didn't. I mean, I would say that I do think that that pretty past the dobs that he just dropped. If that's made, I wonder if this game is a completely different result. That was that nullified the momentum of that drive and then the mistake occurs. I mean, I will say it is a team that if you are it's months ago, you think we've got AJ Brown through this whole game. I think he was a big part of the game plan and he's gone right away. Travion Henderson, the most explosive runner that you have is not in the game as well.

24:40The line did a pretty good job. It comes down to Drake May making those passes at the end and we trust him to do it because of what we saw last season and it doesn't happen. Instead, critical mistakes are made and so I mean, it is a crushing loss and if you look at their schedule down the stretch, they've got the Steelers, the Jaguars and the Bills coming up. It could be a really rough opening month for the New England Patriots. Mike Vrable said after the game, he mentioned the word reckless and there was an interesting stat that's been making its rounds after the game. The last time a quarterback, any quarterback in the NFL through an interception in a game of three or last points, this late in the game in the fourth quarter was in 2021. This hasn't happened in six years, like any quarterback doing this and it was Kyler Murray back then, a very young Kyler Murray back then. But this is the kind of thing that just simply can't happen and is the most unforgivable of all the mistakes.

25:43It's elemental and so I think that's the hard thing that people are going to try. That's the thing that's going to be impossible for anyone to get past tonight. Yeah, I'm, yeah, it really makes you wonder what happens next with May. Now he's going to be fine. He's a really good player. Maybe it's one of those situations where this is a team that just has his number. But you wonder how he bounces back from this game as you look at the upcoming schedule for the Patriots, how he plays. I think he'll be fine. I think he's a special quarterback. But those are really all three. I thought all three were bad, really bad throws. These weren't deflected. These weren't, these were forced into coverage. The last one, of course, being the one that cannot happen. Mike Vrable, that you saw it briefly. May goes into the tunnel and as he's heading to the locker room, Vrable's waiting to talk to him and you, and May kind of just kept walking, not in a disrespectful way. But he knows, he knows what he did. He knows he let that game go get away because it went from a chance to score the touchdown and win the game.

26:48But at the very least, sending out your very dependable kicker and taking this thing into overtime, which for no other reason than to see Cecil or get fired up about overtime, Cassessi hates overtime. No, because I know, no, it's not, it's just that this game didn't deserve to take more of our attention than it did. And I do feel like that no matter what happens. By the way, that's the mistake because that was a risky, weird off-kilter throw. When you've got a good kicker, you can at least at worst take it into an extra period. I mean, you know, Matt Collins, you're targeting there. And I know Matt Collins made some plays in this game and he had the big fourth down conversion that kept their final drive alive. So I don't want to, I don't want to shit on Matt Collins, but at the same time, he's Matt Collins. And it's not AJ Brown where you're throwing up a 50-50 ball, which he still shouldn't do in that spot. You're throwing to a like a, you know, a middle of the road replacement level wide receiver. Just a tough one. It's a tough one to make sense of Connor because this year, three, the big hook and the big angle on the Patriots here, of course, is that what if Drake may keep getting better.

27:56And obviously tonight was not a step in that direction. I just looked, he's never had more than two interceptions in a game. And there's only been other than the Super Bowl. Yeah, and tonight. And tonight. And there's only five total games with a quarterback rating below 70. And that was the appeal was the mobility, the decision making. He was never, he was not really a hugely net negative play guy. And I think that's really what is startling about this. But it just could be, I mean, the answer could just be as simple as this defense is so much deeper than we think it is. It's so much better than we even think it is. And, you know, every player kind of has their foil sometimes. And this just could be Drake Mays daddy as Pedro Marquette. And Dan, you and you, you, you were vocal about it in the preview that like there isn't really a worse place to have to go play at night in the opener with a jazzed up, juiceed up crowd like Seattle. And I mean, there, if anything, I would thought it would have been Drew Lock and a first time play caller that would have that one play that the Patriots had where May was completely confused and at the whip the ball.

29:05And they thought it was grounding, but it was, it ended up being like an illegal guy down field or something. But like, is it the Josh McDaniels Drake May offense that you think is going to look out of out of sorts and confused on a night like tonight in a big spot? And the other offense with the first time play caller and your backup and it, these things can't happen in England and their schedule is really, really rough. They've got the bills in their division and you, you now, this was one you could have stolen and it would have been a massive moment for New England to steal this. And instead, you come out with a lot of questions about who you are. I mean, they were, they were this close because when they're up 10 nothing they have, when he throws the first pick, it's 10 nothing when he throws the first interception. Correct. They are this close, even if they kick another field goal to putting Drew Locke in the position where he has to just start throwing the ball. And bad things were going to happen if he was forced to do that and the Patriots could play their defense knowing that you had to have locked beat you. And I just, just to not to belabor the point, but they had the template. They've used the template before against the compromised offense playing a backup quarterback.

30:12Just play smart, high percentage throws, run the football, play field control the field, take advantage of your punter. Like just and your special teams like, that's all they had to do, but they could not do it. I love, I might even, it might be off to see where it falls because we're going to be doing our lock challenge. Patriots are going to destroy the Steelers next week at home. I feel like you're going to get a pissed off Patriots team. I say that I say at the same time though, this AJ Brown injury did not look great. Where he was holding, where he was holding it, the dreaded high ankle sprain, I think could be. It was like the full weight of the knee coming down the opponents knee coming down on that ankle. I did not. If you take AJ Brown off the field, what we saw today, and again, it's not necessarily fair because you're playing the Seattle Seahawks in their opening game in prime time on the night they raised the banner. Any offense is going to look compromised, but I don't, there's not a lot of guys that are on this team that are going to scare me when AJ Brown's off the field.

31:19So yeah, a little gut check moment early. And yeah, home Steelers next week and then at Jack, at Jaguars at Buffalo. That's why you know how these things work though, Susie. Like these teams, whether they believe it or not, or what they say to the public or not, they're looking at the schedule. They know we can't go on to and then go on the road against two Super Bowl contenders. Right. You so you have them. They're going to Stomp Pittsburgh. You confidently have them dropping a bomb on the Steelers. And I like that. I think that's a good take. I'm with bomb drop anything else in this game. I was just wondering on the brown note. So the there was the moment where he got hurt. He went down and then the training staff is around him, checking to see if he broke his ankle, which is what a training staff should do. And then Mike Vabel comes and kind of just like, kind of almost like hugs him from behind and is like hugging his shoulders. And I'm like, sometimes you can just be a little too involved and performative as I had coach just like back up six steps and allow the trainers to examine his ankle.

32:19It's the most important second most important player on your offense. Like we know you care. We know you like this team better than other aspects of your life. Like we know it matters. Just back up two feet and let your player get his ankle examined. Just really bothered me. I love doing the show with Connor that is the most bizarre take that I've totally. Baby Mama. And while we're here because this guy this dumb ass is now sent multiple comments about this. Let me address something. Dan Spray-tan is almost as bad as Trump's. Do I look like the type of guy that's ever been in a tanning bed in my life? I live in Southern California in Los Angeles. Well, you're a man of the outdoor. I'm a sea town. Yes, I work outside a lot. I'm at the beach. I was just in Texas over the weekend. I'm in the sun and I've just enough non-irish blood to tan. So that I just want to set that. That's a whole reason the show exists. I want to let people know that I've never had a Spray-tan in my life. We don't tell you, right Connor?

33:19We don't tell Dan on that front. Connor? It reminds me of the Derek carb baby oil thing. Do you remember from Hard Knox, the season that the Raiders run Hard Knox? Every time he was on screen, he looked very strategically wet in the upper body. Soking wet. Yeah. I just don't want you to fall into this. I don't want it to be like, well, I'm really sweaty or I'm just naturally tan. I don't want that for you because I think it bothered Derek Carlotta. Someone named Deb, I believe that would be the name, said you look fine. I wouldn't worry too much Dan. Someone said you look fine. I'm waiting for you. I'm waiting for you. Someone just be like, it's fine. He's fine. He looks alright. It's definitely not, he's fine. It's like, he's fine. Right. Like we're getting by. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. Any other takeaways on this game before we'll take one more break and then we'll spin ahead, Tasha. Oh yeah. Let's pour one out. JJ Wad is stomping on the grave of PFF and it's grades.

34:21This is a fantastic development. He tweets a Roger Sherman tweet NBC replaced the PFF grades in the Sunday night football player issues with intros with the players hometowns. So it always felt a little I understood PFF at its height before things got one sideways obviously was revolutionary and and gained a lot and deservedly so like respect and footing in in our circles, right? But it always felt like and it might have been because Chris Collins worth owned it. Yeah. Collins worth is the reason it was always felt like a tiny overreach for it to show up in the Sunday night football graphics like this are not arbitrary but a thing that was not necessarily universally agreed upon was the right way or the most accurate way to track. Being all of a sudden in the guys like introductions. So in this different phase of PFF it disappearing.

35:22It is notable that it is gone now. Conor does it give it gives me a little bit like just as an older nerd that just liked watching football with less junk around it when I'm starting to have to analyze as a viewer like PFF grades for like the third string tight end on Sunday night football as or whatever they're calling this tonight with Chris Collins worth going off and off it was like it giving me anxiety get out of here just go I'll go look up your little charts and go to your website when I feel like it I respect you guys doing a nice job but like don't and don't bomb me visually during a game after I've been what I don't want it I just I don't know what to say I don't want it. It was the old it says it was the ultimate screw job because guess who was the founding lead investor in Pro football focus right NBC color analyst Chris Collins worth who would benefit in myriad ways for having that be the standard of how we evaluate players on Sunday night football it should and meanwhile my son is my son is on the pregame show

36:22also yeah I don't know what are we yeah we're crossing boundary that shit up yeah all right all right that way all right stop singing Mark I know we're all excited football's back it's official we got another game to come before we even get to Friday it's it's the Australian game so stay right there don't move anybody let's we'll get into that next football is finally back and prize picks is the absolute best way to make every game day even more exciting I've been building my daily fantasy lineups on prize picks recently and I have honestly have no idea why I waited so long it's just so simple skill based and ridiculously fun to use yeah it is you just pick anywhere from two to six players across whatever sports you're watching football baseball soccer whatever and choose more or less on their player projections like passing yards rushing yards or fantasy score yeah I'm super excited to play all throughout this football season tracking my favorite stars and grabbing more on their projected stats

37:23to test my ball knowing prowess plus prize picks is stacked with features they invented the injury reboot so a first half injury won't ruin your day they have live box scores built right into the app and there's a social feed where you can copy top trending lineups with a single tap yep stack September is packed with daily discounts profit boosts and special promos making now the perfect time to play download the prize picks app today and use code he'd to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup yep that's the prize picks app code he'd he'd to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup prize picks run your game today I'm Justin Wolffes host of the platypus economics podcast if there's one thing I've learned from a career teaching economics it's that your life is shaped by economic currents you'll never see a single price tag can explain things a thousand experts can't people who understand economics they make better decisions in their careers their

38:25finances their relationships in their communities and I want that for you listen to and follow platypus economics available now wherever you get your podcasts let's be honest I used to totally dread shopping for clothes I hated jumping between a dozen different websites trying to figure out what might work and stepping foot in a busy mall on a weekend absolutely not I can think of a million other things I'd rather be doing like tackling my reading list or just relaxing at home that's where stitch fix comes in that's correct and stitch fix is the easiest way to upgrade your wardrobe with zero stress because an expert stylist does all to have you lifting for you you start by taking a quick style quiz to share your sizes your personal vibe and your budget from there your pair with a real human stylist who picks out pieces tailored specifically to your lifestyle whether you need sharp outfits for work or easygoing gear for the weekend and they ship a fixed box directly to your door so you get to try everything on in the comfort of your own bedroom keep only what you love and send the rest back shipping and returns are always completely free

39:29best of all there's no subscription required meaning you can order a box whenever you need to refresh without any long term commitment plus you get a free try on for your first order get started today at stitch fix dot com slash heed that stitch fix dot com slash heed we got a nice number of people like almost a thousand people right now watch live wow and I only see the mark 167 have liked the stream we got what do we got to do mark what are the people have to do right now let's see what we can do it's instructive you got to smash that like button you got to be subscribing you got to be commenting but you got to smash that like button with both fists and other body parts yes your nards smash it whatever your male nards your female nards your butts anything just do it just and let us know when we get the one with the bill guards out there get all those female nards Conner senior writer sports illustrated here with us right now yeah thanks for your career

40:33well you know he's all in was like oh Conner the favorite team yeah it's the Houston Texans I mean this is a baby reputation is on the line after the big time summer profile and so I'm sure you were happy the new angle of Patriots going down in flames you know making you look smart so far so good although I was my reputation in the line when you know we just watched mark make a complete bastardization of the entire prediction market over the last two weeks and then I write a story and then all of a sudden it's my ass hanging out there I don't think that's necessary you're a ass isn't in the jackpot but since Mark contradicted almost every one of his prediction his ass isn't in the jackpot either it just it just floats it's a beautiful way to just float above the jackpot perpetually yeah well too bad for both of you right I mean let's let's now let's spin jackpot baby I almost said the late Brent Musburger still alive still alive

41:34but retire I believe he's still alive in Vegas I mean I tried have faith that he is I don't have proof okay Justin can you let us know that Brent Musburger is still with us oh we're already up to 229 likes smash it smash it right now with your right right now yeah man that's all we want okay now yep yep yep thank you Justin remember when the Justin reporting from the corner's office yeah remember when Musburger got super weird about AJ McCarran's girlfriend yeah there's like a major college clash incredible yeah all right anyway the second he is 87 thank you Justin the second game of the NFL season will be played tomorrow night we'll be live taking care of that for you as well as we just got it we got and I see it Connor's already fired up and Connor we let's just get it all out of the way now Connor

42:37before we get into the game we're gonna give you your soap box here everyone knows you're not a fan of the international games but especially this one is there anything because let's make let's make a deal here you can get your final shots off against this format and then we could actually dive into the game itself okay thank you during the break when on this game when it was coming back from break they had the Australian Seahawks fan watch party at a bar which was literally seven whites in like the corner of like a hotel bar that wasn't even a bar and the guys like see and then like there's just like three other guys and like jackets that you can tell that you know Brian McCarthy from the NFL just handed them six seconds or hand and they're just like what are we doing here and so yeah this is not like what is this foam finger let's stop pretending that this is anything but a massive cash grab it's just so annoying like the like the amount of storylines and energy and thought that have

43:41gone into shipping a hundred and six bodies 17 hours away just so we can like you know dance and in this subanartic continent for no reason is ridiculous and the fact that we're perpetuating the fact there's a fan watch party thank you I thank you I see the comments I know everybody else sought to it's straight up bullshit there's no football fans there and even if there is there's less football fans there than in San Antonio Texas have the game there anyway all right there you go give him around applause everybody he's gotten it out that did you know did did anyone else clock that though that's party that pot the party on the whole shit party yeah it looked about as a authentic as Tom Brady's pizza party yeah can I ask can I ask one follow-up question about the this particular venture but as long as it doesn't like lead to Connor talking more about this well no it's it's it's more strategy and I think it actually affects the game because it feels like something you'd report on Connor and talk to people

44:44behind the scenes like so if you're the Niners they go for what six days and get back home and then if you're the Rams you roll in it's like you just went to someone's house across the street right before the game you play football then you think it we come away with a decisive okay do we come away with a decisive idea of which way to do this is better because I feel like people have been toying around with the London thing with that you know she'll be there before show before show before you and I went to London I feel like a psycho the day after we got there the the best thing that can happen for America for the world is for the Rams to kick the shit out of the 49ers and dispel the fact that we have to send our players over here for a week of barnstorming so that like Roger Rogeson from the Sun Times has to ask him like what do you think of the king and queen like we don't care they don't have to answer that question this is our this is our entertainment you know so keep them over there Connor or is a let's say that's perfect time to throw it to some light-hearted

45:48drake green law press conference action I mean it's just interested in being in another country like I mean how far away from Antarctica that's what I got actually yeah so like I mean we're like right on top of it huh Roger Rogeson it's snow it's snow pretty pretty bad here not that bad so it's in Antarctica it's not that's cold in Antarctica yeah I've been there before never been there so how you know if it's cold or not okay okay well he walks off drops the mic and walks off stage the diaries of Ernest Shackleton or how we know it's cold and then the guy who tried to walk across it and died while doing a live radio broadcast like two years ago that's how we know it's cold taken up with drake green law yeah but this you know whatever let's move on you know while we're here I have more I have more sound from the 49ers because to your point 49ers have been there killing time for days and the Rams I don't even know if they're there yet

46:49here is what do we have do we have something about Kyle Shanahan not wanting to disclose anything because he technically is in the future what is it you have this one Justin no I have him being confused about what day it is because of the future aspect of where he is in his family and all that okay let's let's listen to this this port bastard Kyle Shanahan like I said we're a little confused with poor bass when I look at my clock and it says the time and then I try to see my family's time and it says the time but it says yesterday I don't even get how that's possible so I feel like I'm in the future and then also only play on our Friday which I think is the Thursday in the US we're such a good time so I call today Tuesday or no wait sorry I call today Wednesday oh my gosh is the first day we put in a game plan but I think it's Monday however though it's Sunday in the present what have we done to this man I'm not sure that concussion has been fully clear I don't know if he might still be in the protocol can I tell you one thing I flew to I lived in Australia and Kings Cross which was a CD part of town back then in a youth hostel for many months you chose to live in the CD area of a

47:52major city this is stunning this development well no it was not the only thing I did there but it was cheap I lived with a German soldier and two women but I will say one thing very quickly that like when I flew from L.A. to Sydney I also to his point experienced that I there was a day that I never experienced on earth based on the fact that you land there and it is your hopscotchene a full human day okay okay we talk about the game guys well he wasn't I mean okay I won't say anything more but I'm saying I empathize with his point and I have I don't even like I do want to know what happened with that soldier and the two women that were locked in the house with you I want to know but I just don't have the time right now but we're going to save it for another show okay stick a pin in it sure pin was the soldier guarding the door like he was he was very he was he was on leave from the German some sort of aspect of the German army and he was a very it was a malcontent an unlikeable person here's Kyle Shanahan this guy I'm

48:53glad he shaved the mustache by the way because that was weirding me out he looks a little bit more like Kyle Shanahan post car accident looks like himself again but I just I feel so bad for this guy he can't catch a break lately here he is talking about defense attack Alfred Collins who will miss the entire 2026 NFL season after suffering a torn patellar tendon in practice in Australia the worst one was Alfred Collins Alfred tours patellar tendon yesterday so I know that was a big loss you know the last two deal I'm in pretty much for the year after cuts before the first game which has been a huge challenge you know herding for Alfred I'm happy yesterday during a period right before we started going against each other and I was real real unfortunate for me I mean you could tell there's just an exhaustion yes for Shanahan talking about these injuries and you know he he also had mentioned he kind of said when he first talked about the industry injury injury might even been that same press conference he just bemoan the fact of the matters I get after cut downs were over here we don't

49:57have a lot of options it's just like he's not making excuses he just pointing out man I we can't catch a break with injuries but they also are getting back some key players for this game a huge showdown of course against the Rams who are the biggest story in the NFL at least during the summer so here we go from the Melbourne and cricket ground in Melbourne Australia it's the Niners and the Rams on Thursday night Mark get us going on this game I really want to see if this Rams offense can just pick up from where they left off you know I read this interesting number about them that last year's Rams that 54.2% of their drives reach the red zone or produce to touchdown the highest rate in the league since the 2007 Patriots they were that good and they're rushing game I think people forget about it because you talk about Pukinakua like their ground game was absolutely damaging so for the Niners that are down defensive tackles down people in general that on a team that is not found a way to solve the Rams the last time they

51:01play them I think they gave up 46 points to to the Rams they beat them earlier in the season but the Rams evolved in the Niners sort of stayed who they were and like I just think they've had I picked the Niners to win the division and I really I didn't do that as a as a you know it wasn't a hoax it wasn't a bit like I really think they're a very resilient team but they have to be about as resilient as they possibly can the one question I have is what is happening Connor with Miles Garrett in this knee situation he's barely been out he's not been on the field and here we go and I think tonight we saw players dealing with exhaustion who saw no preseason action I'm not advocating for that but that was a tired two tired teams and Miles Garrett has not played any amount of football on any level since last year like what version are we getting there's no Aaron Donald too so this isn't the fully I don't think this is the Rams at their fullest extent going into this game if anything is positive for the Niners I the one

52:01thing that I keep coming back to though is that this team is still arguably one of the three best teams or maybe the two best teams in the NFL without Aaron Donald or Miles Garrett if he just took those two guys out of the equation completely and I think that they're going to resemble one of those vintage Patriots teams that like they used to slow play a lot of this stuff there was a lot of you know subter fusion it came to the injury report it's like is Miles Garrett just being rested how hurt is the knee really they just trying to limit the snaps early in the season so that they can have everybody healthy towards the end of the year I don't know but I think the fact that you don't need them it should matter I mean you should win this game without Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald not playing any snaps and so I think that's the biggest testament and the one thing I'm looking forward to in this game is that like I don't think Sean McVeigh is going 13 personnel crazy like we all got obsessed about and talked about last year I talked to one coach you said watch him go back to vintage like 2017 2018 McVeigh again and totally flipped the script

53:02on the NFL after the NFL has been spending the whole off season trying to follow him this is when we find out fun stuff like that. Aaron Donald not playing in this game is probably the right move I'm curious how how much of a slow play this will be or if this is just let's not push things here with this ridiculous Australia game but yeah it makes sense you would say you would think that him showing up week two makes a lot of sense maybe in the near the end of the month but so I mean if from a 49 or standpoint you take that as a blessing right so at least you you dodge that I do want to see you know we talked about Matthew Stafford had such a special season last year how does he look you always wonder about these guys of course my gradual decline theory about Tom Brady took many years to actually cash but staff are coming off an MVP just what we saw Sam Darnell today is he able to stay upright on this at this age Brock Pertie has had issues with health

54:03health the times in his career but they what they've proven and again it's always a testament Mark to head coaching is you could slide in the back of quarterback with the Niners and he's going to keep this offense moving I wonder if we're going to see a shoot out in this game in a weird funky setting if it's possible we get a nice after today's game was a little bit of a rock throwing match maybe tomorrow turns into a game of the double 30s it's weird because it also you could you could make an equal pitch that the offenses are out of tune they haven't really played together at all I mean talk about two teams that barely put anyone on the field in the preseason so maybe the offenses could be slower I mean I like what you said about the Niners ability to overcome injury with like Pertie last year forget I just easy forget how much Mac Jones played and how he became a trade candidate because of how good he looked in the offseason they seem to overcome this stuff I think it really is it's the 20th time that Shanahann and McVeigh face each other I think they'd super respect each other

55:07and they super want to win this game and I I do wonder just based on the weirdness of this and those press conferences from Shanahann like what is the mental state of the Niners after a really weird strange bizarre offseason for Shanah hand personally and to watch the Rams become the bell of the ball in all of sports over the course of the last couple of months with Donald and Garrett and the rest of what they did this offseason in their secondary as well it's like they built a super team a lot we're going to have a lot to look at and talk about a night from a night a day from now if the Rams don't wipe them out I mean this is a team that should look like the 89 Niners and destroy people whether or not certain people are on the field what will it look like you make a good point that I think that it's reached a crescendo of hype that if the Rams come out slow and ineffective even if Miles Garrett is on a snap count right it works against our idea and everybody's idea of what we think they are and

56:07it has that us versus Soviet effect where if the 49ers hang around for a half it's like okay these guys aren't any different than we thought they were before it can become a rallying cry it probably already is a rallying cry right and you know we saw these teams get testy with one another about flight plants I mean I think that there's going to be a little more heat than we expected in this one yeah I saw Kevin Demaugh who is a high ranking front office official with the Rams going president the team president of the Rams Kevin Demaugh we know Kevin Well in fact he's a was a ATN listener it's nice this is a David Lombardi who's a media dude up in the Bay Area an actual quote business trip would involve the Rams taking the time to actually grow their brand there's a reason the Rams don't even own L.A. Yeah it's because they didn't go to Australia four days earlier who's this guy it's related to their I don't know what that is it's blurred mentality moving to anaheim and then St. Louis severely hurt the cultivation of a fan base for even

57:09under spent who is this guy Demaugh replies it's nice to see you taking a break from your Brock Purtie obsession to start to care about how we run our team and the decisions we make I simply can't understand why you and the rest of the 49ers media so obsessed with the Rams brand but I take it as a compliment okay I like it I mean listen I like that I want I want there to be bad blood between the teams current mentality sorry for the mess okay it's okay um just and spilled some ink on that tweet yeah I I would love their the bad blood to extend to the Rams and Niners hating each other but if it's if it's the team president and some random media guy with a terrible theory that's fine too anything else before we move on I don't know Kevin D I consider Kevin Demaugh I like him a lot and we've had a lot of we've had talks over the years I don't think he's going to love what I did in my previous show saying that they're going to go eight and nine and miss the playoffs I mean I'm glad that I'm glad that if he saw the show before that he

58:11would know that you picked them to be your number one pick to be a 12 game winner so working every angle all the time so I think it really depends which episode this week he catches right skip the latter episode maybe Kevin Demaugh all right all right here we go anything in the comments Justin before we sign off good question Justin you are on air just to let you know you're on your your on a functional microphone speaking live program just gonna give some shout outs to the generous hedonists out there how about Chris watch in are the patch cooked we love Kevin Kevin Sullivan five dollar super chat no comment necessary are the patch good I don't think so not yet no not even close they're fine but shout out to watching yeah junior nugget started Sam Darnold AJ Brown and Brock Bowers who was just who

59:14it just came out had a meniscus is having a meniscus surgery he's got a trim to miss a week to two weeks yeah well you're running around town is junior nugget there are larger questions covering yeah no I don't think your curse junior nugget if it's possible all three of these injuries will be okay hang in there it's everybody gets the injuries in the fantasy realm hang in there junior nugget Elliott patent 199 there's your fake VP don't know what that was referring to but thank you Elliott for the super chat junior nugget five more dollars thank you so much smash the like crush the subscribe and he the mother f'ing will oh father mucking call he cleaned it up he cleaned it up classic classic and he's not good well that's also junior not very versatile good to chat men glizzy don't know the means that mean hot dog dad okay still trying

1:00:19to figure that one out the mic oh wait a second mic a giri a gwire not a gwire no no no a giri wow we've been mispronouncing Mike's name for like seven years a giri in our in our defense come on I mean that's that's a tough one for us Chris wants to know if Connor's wearing a soupy Campbell oh yeah yeah wonder years oh there we go that's our boy I Dan if you're watching and Campbell shout out but we're close compadre's yeah check out the wonder years when they're in town one of the great bands Brent yo and oh five dollars hawks fan here we did not care isn't quite hitting the same but I'm going to keep saying it I don't know what that many Patriots fans in the chat where's the Patriots fan at right now I they're hushed this evening that is a tough one that is that that's a tough loss yeah tough to tune into a game recap after your team blows a 10-0 half-time lead would

1:01:20you rather win the game and maybe you'd lose your quarterback for two months or lose and your quarterback didn't play well but you go on see and I just want to say Tim Tim Walman this game sucked and I loved every second of it I really thought the first half was pretty rough because of the injury and then the lack of fireworks I thought the second half was tremendous and I'm even saying that if if the Patriots finish off that drive and we have a signature Drake may moment there that would have been a great ending as well I thought the second half really bailed out the first half even if this wasn't like a functionally beautiful game sure I agree coming down to the wire like that always good the food slayer with a pair of 499 chats with no comment just donating to say what he'd to call yeah that works and finally junior nugget again when we talked about the pf f rankings disappearing did they change it or is there not any data yet for pf f rank now they would have used last year no they that's a good question though if they go back to it will they

1:02:22know they got rid of it because there were games where players were like why you know this is like my signature moment my first game in the NFL and it's like 69th ranked guard he's an asshole out of 72 yeah yeah I texted that to Dan and then I remembered last year they put 2024 pf f rank or whatever so yeah it's gone and those are all the super chat good stuff there was Justin not we're good why did you text just a Dan with that he texted me I want this tweet and then I said is it actually not sounds suspicious to me Mark you might be surprised to learn that Justin and I do a lot of communication about how the show and the sausage gets made on this program I won't because you've reminded me of that um continually like you know it's more than once a massive amounts of texting between I text with Justin more than my wife well I don't have a follow up to that comment I also text you more than your wife so there you go my wife all right great good stuff

1:03:24hey again we'll be back tomorrow night with another live stream and we'll also have the full week one preview how about that it's back and he rouses back the draft is back on the big show we're gonna go through every game and figure out who's watching what and break down all the matchups to come on Sunday and Monday and it's gonna be so fun doing it Mark any final words I am waiting for a day when Connor and Australia can hear heal their issues between each other and maybe that happens tomorrow we'll we've got we've got more to come I think it's grossed all right get these cameras picked up I out tomorrow too he'd the call oh

1:04:26oh