The Rams look very mortal after losing to the 49ers 27-7

0:00Hey, I arrived almost here. Are you ready? Just grabbing my shoes. That's what you said 10 minutes ago. I just wrapped a video call, uploading this giant file on my tablet, looking at my watch group and Nana's with the group chat, and of course, still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone. All at once? Yep, story of my life. That's why I switched to D-Mobile. They have the fastest 5G network. Okay, multitasker. I see you. Honestly, I never imagined I could do all this at once. It's awesome. Say no more, I'm totally switching. My post is taking way too long to upload. That's a sign you've got to get D-Mobile. So many reasons to join D-Mobile. Find yours at T-Mobile.com. Fastest based on analysis by Uclosepetextintelligence data of National Speed Score results in incorporating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026.

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2:00What's up? Second and eight. Cody. They'll rip on the line. Wide open, deep o' Samuel, touchdown. 15 yards strike. And the Niners extend. Debo is still pretty good, you know, when he's healthy. And he's in an offense with other healthy players. Wow, last night. Now, Max and I were both on the 49ers. I did not give it out officially as a Smeltest pick last night. But I told you if you needed to play the game, to play the underdog plus the three and a half, I was on them. I did not expect that though. And there is a lot of theory running around as to why it happened. But we will talk about last night's 27 to 7, 49ers win over these super bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia here in a moment.

3:00It is the first full Friday football show here on the team, 980. We love this time of year. And we know you guys love this time of year. And every Friday features a couple of things. Number one, the Smeltest. That'll come up next hour. Number two is, how do they beat Philadelphia on Sunday? I have no idea, but I came up with four things, a couple of which are pretty NFL cliche, but I will get to them on the show. Ben's standing is a staple of our Friday football show every day, every Friday and Monday, by the way, at noon. Today on the show, Eric Edholm from the NFL Network will join us at 11.25. And here in the first hour, you're going to hear my conversation with the guy that I think does it as well as any other former player when it comes to analyzing our team. Logan Paulson joined me the other day on my podcast.

4:01And I'm going to place some of that back for you this hour. Logan actually gives a season prediction on the team this year, which is what Max and I will do in our three of this show. We will give our Washington final record prediction, and then we'll invite you guys to do the same. Anyway, there you go. Did I miss anything? I'll tell you what, more than anything else to start off this football weekend, I'm looking forward to watching Ben Shelton in Francis Tiafo tonight at the US Open. No, I'm not going to do 10 minutes of tennis talk like I did the other day, but that is one hell of a way to kick off NFL weekend number one with truly one of the most anticipated US Open matches in a long time. Two Americans, one guaranteed to make it to the final. And it is in prime time tonight on Friday night. Will you hit the, what do you got,

5:01sounder real quickly, Max? Thank you. So last night, there was a college football game, which included seventh ranked Miami at home against Florida, A&M. The canes were like 57 and a half point favorites. It was on television. And Miami won the game, 77 to seven. They had 77 points at the end of the third quarter. In fact, they had 77 points with still three and a half minutes to go in the third quarter. They could have easily scored 100. It's possible that they could have gotten 110 in this game. They already had after the first quarter, second stringers, and then the third and fourth stringers were in the game in the second half. This got so bad that the two coaches got together

6:02at the end of the third quarter. And they did something that you occasionally, but rarely, no, you rarely see. It's not occasionally. It's very rare. But I've seen it before. Where the coaches agree, and I guess they can do this with the approval of the leagues and anything else. They cut the fourth quarter from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. They shaved five minutes off the fourth quarter clock in a 77 to nothing game. I guess that is a mercy rule of some regard. I don't know. The clock was not a running clock. I've seen that happen certainly in basketball games at the youth level. You get up by a lot and then you just run the clock in the second half. And if you're a coach, you stop pressing and you make sure that you pass it six or seven times before you take a shot offensively

7:02is to not embarrass the other team. Yes, I've run into teams that actually enjoy embarrassing the other teams. But it's not necessarily the right thing to do. Even at the college level, where they clearly put the mercy rule in last night, or they decided during the game to show some mercy and to shorten the bloodletting. Miami did not score in the fourth quarter. I'm assuming that they essentially handed the ball off on every play. Florida A&M scored in the fourth quarter on a 72 yard fumble return for a touchdown. So Miami was on the verge of scoring again when they coughed it up and it was returned for a touchdown. In the game, Miami had a school record, 856 yards, and had a school record, 42 first downs. This is one of those box scores when you look at it, you're like, oh my God.

8:04This couldn't have been varsity against varsity. Miami, in addition to outscoring Florida A&M 77 to seven, 856 yards to 107, 42 first downs to just four for Florida A&M. By the way, my pick after week one last weekend to win the Heisman Trophy this year, Darian Ments of the quarterback, who started at Tulane, transferred to Duke last year, had a big season and then transferred to Miami. In just over a quarter, he was 14 of 15 for 252 yards and three touchdowns. The backup quarterback came in and was eight for eight for 144 yards and three touchdowns. They threw as a team 27 of 29 for 426 and six touchdowns and they rushed for 430 yards and Malachi Tony. If you don't know who Malachi Tony is, then you didn't probably pay attention to last college football season when the true freshman

9:06was just incredible and really incredible during their playoff run to the final against Indiana. He had 109 receptions as a true freshman last year, 10 touchdown catches for 1,200 and 11 yards already in two games, 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns in two games in which he has only played a half, not even a half in both of those games. Actually, he did play into the third quarter against Stanford, my fault. That is going to be a race between Mensa and Tony to see who ends up becoming the Heisman Front Runner from that team. There will obviously be others, but Miami is loaded once again, the canes are back. All right, last night's game. Look, I've said this for every single year for 15 plus years. Week one can be a major, major head fake

10:08and is rarely a massive predictor of anything to come. These teams can't figure out what they are or who they are until they've played multiple games, not a game. And I've used this example from last year over and over again, I've beaten this dead horse, but just if you haven't heard it, the Raiders who went three and 14 beat the Patriots who went 14 and three in the season opener last year in Foxboro and it was hardly an indicator of what was to come. Hey, all right, it's almost here. Are you ready? Just grabbing my shoes. That's what you said 10 minutes ago. I just wrapped the video call, uploading this giant file on my tablet, looking at my watch group and Nana's with the group chat and of course, still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone. All at once? Yep, story of my life. That's why I switched to T-Mobile. They have the fastest 5G network. Okay, multi-tasker, I see you. Honestly, I never imagined I could do all this at once.

11:10It's awesome. Say no more, I'm totally switching. My post is taking way too long to upload. That's a sign you've got to get T-Mobile. So many reasons to join T-Mobile. Find yours at T-Mobile.com. Fastest based on analysis by Uglos Speed Test Intelligence data of national speed score results in cooperating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026. If you're the type of person who wants data, not assumptions, pre-new Vose whole body scan gives you a deep understanding of your health. Screen for over 500 conditions, including many cancers, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and more. Add blood panels to test over 80 bio markers. And you've got information about your body you may never have had before. Book your scan at pre-newvo.com. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O.com.

12:11The ocean moves us, whether that's surfing a wave or taking in an inspiring view. The ocean feeds us. Sustainable seafood practices bring the ocean's bounty to our plates. The ocean teaches us. How are everyday choices big and small make an impact? The ocean delights us as playful otters restore coastal kelp forests. The ocean connects us. Find your connection at monoraybeacquarium.org slash connects. I am not off of Drake May. After one game, I'm still a fan of Drake May. Not as big of a fan as I am of Jaden Daniels. I was never off of Jaden Daniels. I'd still go back and redraft Jaden Daniels ahead of any of them. And I'd probably go Caleb too. And then Drake May at this point, three, even though I had Penn Extruder three back in 2024. But I've still seen enough of Drake May to not say, okay, yeah, it's been a bad stretch of games going back to the post season.

13:14And it was a terrible second half and fourth quarter of the other night. But he's in year three and it was week one. I have a feeling he's going to have some really good games this year and that the Patriots will be a decent team if they remain healthy. Always a key. I'm still thinking that the Rams are going to be an excellent football team. But I will say this about last night's game. It was a reminder that when the 49ers are completely healthy, no matter how old they are, this is a legitimate contender in the NFL, a legitimate contender in the loaded NFC West in the NFC and in the league. When they have everybody, by the way, I throw the quarterback in there. God, he's good at running a shenanhan style scheme. He is quick, it's quick release. He's super decisive. He reads the field well. You see some decisions occasionally,

14:15but you see with every quarterback where occasionally there is a bad throw, but Perty's a good fit. When you've got McCaffrey, when you've got, you know, Debow back and healthy along with Mike Evans, who look awesome in his first game, you've got Kittleback, you've got Fred Warner and Nick Bosa. When you've got everybody healthy in that on that team, Trent Williams, God, he looks big and still looks great. The 49ers don't sleep on them. They still have six or seven legit A level players and future Hall of Famers for that matter. Probably the worst game I've seen Matt Stafford play in a while. You had Miles Garrett in his first game go without a tackle without a sack and just one quarterback pressure. Man, did you see the way Kyle Scheme did up against Miles Garrett?

15:16There must have been three or four different screens in that game. What slows a pass rush down, great pass rush, which by the way, let me just add, you didn't see in the two snaps against the Lions in the preseason game, and you probably didn't see in the joint practice against the Ravens, because they don't game plan for that. Screens slow down pass rushes, quick game, quick hitches, getting the ball out, slows down a pass rush. You can scheme around maybe a disadvantage, although Trent Williams is not a disadvantage. But Miles Garrett was rendered literally useless and worthless by Kyle Shanahan. And maybe by the travel plan, I'll get to that in a moment. The screens, the chips, the doubles, the crackbacks. It was amazing what they did to Miles Garrett. Miles Garrett's the greatest defensive player of this generation. You could argue along with his teammate, Aaron Donald, who wasn't there last night.

16:18And in his first game, now he is not 100% healthy, and that's coming out now after the game as well. He wasn't 100% healthy during camp, but he was as much of a non factor in a football game as I have ever seen. Maybe it was him, maybe it was the travel, maybe it was the injury, or the not 100%, but a lot of that was the mastermind of Kyle Shanahan, who can scheme it up with the best of them and can protect his own disadvantages and expose those that you have as good as any coach we've seen in a long time. Miles Garrett, a non factor in the football game. Matt Stafford, did he just grow old overnight? Because that was as bad as I've ever seen him look. He had a 30.7 QBR on 15 of 25 for 155 yards and one pick, but he was lucky he wasn't picked three times in the game.

17:20How about just the Rams defense in general? In general, couldn't get off the field. I mean, the 49ers rushed for 174 yards in the game against that defense. No, Aaron Donald, not yet. So we'll see what it looks like. Seven of 12 on third down for the 49ers. That was week one, who knows what it'll look like by week 10. But in week one, the 49ers still have great players who, when they're healthy, can play great. And the Rams were rendered literally useless by a great offensive mastermind and perhaps by their inexact inaccurate, maybe science in approaching this game. They went rogue. They didn't do it like most teams have done it when there have been long trips. Now, there's never been a trip like Melbourne, Australia,

18:20but they went in, played the game and came back. The 49ers were there for over a week and acclimated. The Rams said their science said this is the way to do it. The 49ers said our science says this is the way to do it. There's no way you could have watched that game and not seen a difference in energy level. The 49ers were energy at 100% the Rams were sluggish. Also, I think the 49ers had a little bit of that. Man, is anybody talking about us? Because everywhere we read, the Rams are the best roster in decades and are going to win the NFC West and the Super Bowl pretty easily. Long season, big game, though, ultimately because it was a division matchup. And it could end up being a significant game later in the season. But, yeah, we'll see, by the way, if the science coming back makes more sense for the Rams,

19:23where they don't have to necessarily get back into a sleep rhythm, circadian rhythm, whatever you want to describe it. Maybe part of their thing was, we'll give up this game, but we're not going to give up the next two or three because we are jet lagged or we're just not back into a normal rhythm. Now, the good news is neither team has to play until next weekend. And in the Rams case, it's next Monday night against the Giants. That was a blowout and really a boring game. That stadium was packed, though, but it was a cricket stadium. Did you see how far away the fans were from the actual field? I don't know how anybody could see the game if you had been there. Didn't seem like the most enthusiastic of crowds and the Australians can get pretty enthusiastic for their sports. They like a beer or ten and a good outing at a sporting event, but it didn't seem that

20:23way, but the two teams in the game itself didn't give them a reason. Look, if the Rams were going to have an opportunity, they needed to score on that drive where they had it down to the half yard line and Stafford tried to sneak it in and got stopped. And then 11 plays, 99 yards later, it was 24 to seven. Instead of it being 17 to 14, but the 49ers flat out, the much better team, the last night. Alright, when we come back, Logan Paulson joined me the other day on my podcast. I love Logan's analysis. He'll actually give you his season prediction for Washington and he'll give you a quick how to beat Philadelphia on Sunday. That's next. Hey, all right, it's almost here. Are you ready? Just grabbing my shoes. That's what you said 10 minutes ago. I just wrapped a video call, uploading this giant file on my tablet, looking at my watch group and Nana's with the group chat, and of course, still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone. All at once?

21:24Yep, story of my life. That's why I switched to team mobile. They have the fastest 5G network. Okay, multi-tasker. I see you. Honestly, I never imagined I could do all this at once. It's awesome. Say no more, I'm totally switching. My post is taking way too long to upload. That's a sign you've got to get team mobile. So many reasons to join team mobile. Find yours at teamable.com. Fastest based on analysis by Uglospeed Distant Intelligence, the data of national speed score results in cooperating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026. The ocean delights us. Some marvel at the colorful world below the surface. The ocean feeds us. Others find nourishment in its bounty. The ocean teaches us how our everyday choices impact even the deepest places. The ocean moves us, whether we're riding a wave or soaking in its breathtaking beauty.

22:28The ocean connects us. Find your connection at monoraybeacquarium.org slash connects. I am Mike Sullivan, L.A. Carguide. You already know that L.A. Carguide.com is the best place to search our dealerships for a new car. But we also have hundreds of pre-owned and certified pre-owned vehicles available for every lifestyle and budget. Customize your search by make, mileage, or even monthly payment. Whether you're looking for an SUV, a truck, a hybrid, or an EV, L.A. Carguide.com is the perfect place to find your next car. Designed by T-Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join T-Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Diamond Dynacy has all new red diamond cards and world baseball classic content in MLB the show 26. Collect your favorites and compete against the best.

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