Cool. All right, jump out, and then we'll see all the sounds. Should sound all right. It should be fine. Let's do it.

Look at your new camera.

He hurts on the football in the gun again.

Tied in three receivers and Barkley in the backfield.

Atlanta going to break four this time.

Try to get there. Hertz is hit as he throws.

Bates is talking. Jesse Bates interception.

With 32 seconds left, Jesse Bates comes up with the interception.

And Atlanta, in the thick of the night, has stolen one from the Philadelphia Eagles. I cannot believe the Falcons won this game. That was West Durham on WZGC in Atlanta. I am Greg Rosenthal. This is NFL Daily. The Atlanta Falcon stole one in the night in Philadelphia, 22 to 21:00. I am so excited today to be joined by nick Shuck, who just finished writing up this crazy game for nfl. Com. He thought it was going to be one story, but Kirk Cousins and Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hertz, they all had different ideas, nick.

Yeah, I'd like to thank Kirk Cousins for rediscovering his Minnesota form and blowing up everything I'd written and writing a fantastic ending for everybody to watch in the thick of the Night in Philadelphia, where Eagles fans booed their team off the field because of the way the game ended. My God, Greg, this was a stunner. Truly, we get treated these every once in a while, right? But it was pretty clear that the Eagles just needed to run the ball one more time, maybe get one more first down. This game was pretty much over, and then it wasn't. And then Kirk Cousins was ripping passes down the sidelines line. And before you knew it, they had a game-tying, touched down, and then they had to hit a 50-yard extra point, and Youngway Coo bangs it through, and we're treated to truly a spectacular Monday night football game.

Yeah, I cannot believe the Eagles Actually, I know I'm being weird here. I had this whole idea that I was going to set up the whole beginning and run through everything that happened right off the top, and I spaced. I hate restarting, but I would like to just maybe restart. Sorry for blowing your time, nick. Because I also was distracted. The music was so loud at the front that I feel like we would probably have to re-do that. Unless I'm crazy, It didn't sound that way to you that you could... I don't know if it's just maybe my earpiece, which is not the greatest, but that you could barely hear the call from the music? Well, I rebuild the beginning of that entirely. It would sound fine in post. Oh, okay. Yeah. Do you want to reset this whole thing? Yes. Sorry. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I blanked out. No, no worries. It's all good.

I have my only blue face there because of my second monitor, so it's all good.

All right, I'm going to restart this thing. If you say so, it sounded to me like the music was so up that you could barely hear the call. What did you think, nick?

Well, that's an IFP thing.

That's because-You think it is? I'll play I'll play it lower for you guys here so you can hear the play. But just for future reference, I rebuild that part of the production anyways. Okay. In post, I'll put the video in. I'll do my own- Got you. I guess I was thinking about the other That week one or whatever, the music was so low and I didn't say anything then either and regreted that or whatever. Okay. Yeah, no worries. I know that was different. That was in the studio. Stop me down. I'd rather you stop me down then have to do something. Yeah, it's fine. We can do your set. Here we go. All right. We're restarting. Yeah. So I'll run the music a little lower just so you can hear the play and feel it. And then I build all that stuff and post out anyways. Cool. What you're hearing here isn't even exactly what will be out. All right, here we go.

It hurts on the football in the gun again. Tied in three receivers and Barkley in the backfield. Atlanta going to bring four this time. Try to get there. Hertz is hit as he throws.

Bates talking. Bates. With 32 seconds left, Bates comes up with the interception, and Atlanta in the thick of the night has stolen one from the Philadelphia Eagles. That was West Durham of WZGC. I cannot believe that the Atlanta Falcons won this game, that they went to Philadelphia in the middle of the night. I'm Greg Rosenthal. This is NFL Daily. I'm with nick Shuck. I'm so happy to be with nick Shuck, and I cannot believe how this game ended, nick, with the Eagles running it down the Atlanta Falcon's throats all night, having the ball with one minute and 46 seconds left, third down, and they call a pass to Saquon Barkley, and it's there. The game is going to be over, but Saquon Barkley drops it. The Eagles choose not to go for it on fourth and three. The Falcons get the ball back. Kirk Cousins, who didn't look good all night, goes 70 yards in six plays. He had too much time. Darnell Mooney shakes Darius Slay for a big play down the field. Drake London shakes Darius Slay, rather, for the countdown. Suddenly, Jalen Hertz has the ball, and the Falcons defense, who didn't get any pressure all night on Jalen Hertz, actually did send a blitz on that last play.

It was a sneaky one. Five-man protection. Caden Ellis, who starts all the way over on the right tackle, loops over to the left tackle, and hits Jalen Hertz as it happens. Game-ending interception in Philadelphia, who was right about 99.5% chance to win that game before that third down, lose the game And both of these teams are at one and one. And yet it feels to me, shook like the Falcon saved their season, at least for now, and that they ruined your nfl. Com write-up that you just finished. Yeah.

Kirk Cousins discovering his old Minnesota form at the perfect time to save the Falcons from an 0-2 start and blow up everything I'd written, going down the field, leading a masterful drive after not being able to throw the ball consistently all night, after struggling in week one to move the football and dealing with pressure, suddenly, he's back to Kirk Cousins. And he's shoving a stiff arm right in the face of those old primetime Kirk, all the disses that he used to get online. He's four and one now in his last five Monday night football starts. And this one, the most memorable of them all, Falcon's one and one. And you're right, they may have just saved their season with this win, which they got, as you heard on the call, in the thick of the night.

I'm just still stunned by it. It's why we love the NFL, that a game that was a little sloppy, a little bit of a snoozer, a strange game that in the first half was driving Bill Belichick crazy on the Manning cast. I had a chance to watch that. Just I was like, Wow, I get to watch a game with Bill Belichick. This is interesting. And he's just annoyed at the Falcons lack of tackling and both teams lack a pass rush. I can't remember two offensive lines just completely dominating in pass protection and in the running game for the most part, although there were a lot of penalties called, especially on the Eagles. And yet it wasn't really showing up on the scoreboard. The quarterbacks weren't all that comfortable, and the Eagles wind up getting in a commanding position after Chauncey Gardner Johnson blows up a Béjon Robinson run on fourth and 1 to get the Eagles the ball back with under five minutes to go. They run all the clock down to that moment that I started the show with, third down. I was thinking about you when they threw this pass because I'm going to run the ball guy.

This was a night where it was a nice night for the run the ball guy type of night because both these teams, they got inside the 10 and they stopped running it, and it was just making me pull my hair out. The Eagles could have scored a touch. I think earlier in the game when they threw it to Devante Smith on the goal line, Jesse Bates makes a great play there. What a player Jesse Bates is. But they just weren't sticking with Saquon Barkley when he was the man. And then in this spot, instead of running the ball there, it would have taken the clock down to about a minute. They throw to Saquan, were you upset at the play call or at the execution? Because I don't mind the play call. Saquon had four targets tonight. He caught all four passes. It was right there. It was a good throw. It was a good decision by Hertz. I'm sure he had the option to keep it, and he just drops it and gives the Falcons a chance.

Yeah, tip of the cap to NFL Daily's own Patrick Claibon, who tweeted, Three teams did that this weekend. The Browns were one of them. The Eagles were another one. Look, I understand getting aggressive in that situation, trying to put the game away, but also don't outcoach yourself. And it felt like at least in two of those situations this week, that coaches were outcoaching themselves. They're outsmarting themselves. The good thing on the Eagles side is at least they rolled Jalen Hertz to his passing arm side. The play was there. They just simply did not execute. But again, if you think about situationally, like you just said, it would have taken about down to a minute. Well, the Falcons need a minute five to get down the field with no timeouts. They have no timeouts. Run the clock down as far as you can and kick the field goal, make them go 70 plus yards, and They get a shutdown with no timeouts. It's really hard to do. They started that drive with an 11-yard completion to Kyle Pitz over the middle of the field. You knew they had to go quickly. And the next thing you know, they're in the red zone, and they're scoring a countdown in the blink of an eye.

And it's because he gave them that extra 40 seconds, guys. And that's why I'm against it.

Now, for argument's sake, look, they got it done with about 40 seconds to go. Now, they did have the time out. That's absolutely fair. But I thought the last drive more on just, you've been playing defense all night. For you to give up those sideline routes is just total mismanagement of how you are playing defense. As I mentioned, London shook Darius Slay on the countdown. It was a great route. There was actually a great exchange caught by the cameras afterwards of Slay just being like, Great route, dude. But to give up the London play on the sideline, that was Quinian Mitchell. They had a deep throw to Darnell Mooney, who had an up and down night, but they had a big in this game, where it was just they were playing too safe. Then they had the play before that, another deep out to Mooney, where it's Reid Blankenship pushing him out of bounds, but he's getting between the safety and the linebacker. To me, that's where They really blew it. Now, I'll give you another spot, though, where I actually do fault them for the play calling. Now, I would have liked them to run the ball on the third and three because I just think they would have picked it up.

They had been running the ball so well on that drive in that night that they think they would have gotten it. But after it was fourth and three, it wouldn't have been that crazy to go for it there. First of all, you still just need three yards. If you were gutsy enough to go for it before, you'd go for it again to win the game. But the reason why is when you're up three, teams naturally are way more conservative. They actually don't go for the countdown. Our friend Bill Barnwell tweeted out, The worst lead in sports is up six in the NFL. I swear, if they were up three, first of all, they would 90 yards to go instead of 70. I'll come back to that in a second. But they would have only been down three, and I don't think they would have really gone for the touch down there. To me, it's worth going for in that spot if you're going to go for it the first time. That's like next level, like super analytics thinking that maybe the eagles weren't quite there yet.

Well, no, that's what first came to mind was analytics people were probably just pulling their hair out at the fact that they approach it this way. But also, I think in that instance, when you know what do you mean?

No, I think they wanted them to go for it. You mean in terms of passing it instead of running it?

On third down and then kicking the field goal. Yeah. In that situation, for me, if you're really trying to put the game away, you treat third down and fourth down as two downs to get a first down. So you run the ball on third down, you're kicking the clock down. Let's say you get to fourth and one, you have the best play known to man on fourth and short. You're setting yourself up for a better situation. I know we're talking with hindsight as privilege here, but still, situationally speaking, the Eagles have become masters of fumbling situations like this. This is their fourth loss since the start of 2023, in which they had a lead inside two minutes. This is a consistent problem for the Eagles. The Falcons had a 0.7 % chance of winning this game with less than two minutes to go, according to the next Gen stats, win probability model. So you want some analytics there? I just dropped an analytical bomb on you. Eat that next week. You got to sit with that All week.

0.7. That is just crazy. I can't believe that it happened. And Kirk Cousins, after the game, talked to Lisa Salter on ESPN, And I think after the game Kirk Cousins had, it just meant a little more for him to play that well down the stretch. I still am not sharp enough. I didn't feel like I was sharp enough today, accurate enough.

I got to be better. But that last drive, hopefully, can give us a boost going into next week. We can build on that. There's a lot of new, and it takes time.

I was pleased with the way we finished tonight, but there's still so much to be better with. It's really interesting to me because Lisa Salter set him up to say, What a tough week you had everyone questioning you for you to come out and be a different player tonight. How important is that? And he was saying what we thought probably during the game, which was, I wasn't a different player tonight. But I think he's overlooking. We know Kirk Cousins well enough from the quarterback series on Netflix that he's very hard on himself. I think he is overlooking that he was Kirk Cousins on that drive. He was clean as hell. He threw to the outside. He threw with confidence. He had one throw that was a a little low, which was a problem all night. But for the most part, he threw with confidence, and that was a badass drive. You got to give it up to yourself, Kirk.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. That was the wonderful thing about it. It's funny because I actually slacked Kevin Patra, also of NFL Daily, as you heard him on yesterday's show. I said, Oh, no, I think Kirk might have 2015 Payton Manning arm. Because that throw, that first throw he had on the sideline was dying as it got to its intended target. And then the next one, he just rips a rocket. I went, oh, no, I spoke too soon. Suddenly, Kirk Cousins has found himself again. And I think you can sense that in his response where he admits, Look, it's a lot of new. I haven't been my best. It's been a lot to process and adjust to, and he's coming off the Achilles injury. He knows he just hasn't been very good, but he had to feel like he got a little bit of a boost. I think he alluded to that when he said, Hopefully this can carry us into the next week because now, finally, in the biggest moment, he came through with what he does best, which is firing the ball down the field in a clutch moment. That's really encouraging for the Falcons because look, we went into this game thinking, Oh, no.

Did they make the wrong decision in free agency? Is Kirk Cousins Are they going to be the best spot?

I mean, time will tell, but I really think this is a big moment in both of these seasons. For what you said about the Eagles and how last season ended, it's going to test them because I haven't got the feeling in either of these games, as someone who definitely likes picking the Eagles and whatnot, that they have played particularly well. But if you can win while having a lot of issues, this is a team that, to me, struck me as a little Well, fragile, obviously, down the stretch last year. But if you're winning as you're figuring out this, A, total lack of pass rush, and then B, passing game that just isn't in sync. Jalen Hertz got it done tonight by just running the ball when he absolutely needed to and making a few high-level throws like he did a week ago. But on a down-to-down basis, the hitting the back of your drop, getting rid of the ball, it's just not there for him. He's having to be in create mode. Tonight, he was better in create mode than he was a week ago, but that's concerning. Aj Brown missed this game and is going to miss a couple of weeks, reportedly.

And so that's a concern for them. And I think this loss could potentially linger and just be a little bit of a stink on Vic Fangio and this offense. But to flip it to the Falcons, they have Kansas City next week, then New Orleans, then Tampa Bay. Now, all three of those games are in Atlanta. But if you are 0-2, and they don't ever get the ball back here, and they lose this game by double digits. Let's say Saquan goes in for the touch down. Probably wasn't going to happen. He probably gets the first down. Eagles Neil, game over. You're 0-2. You come back and you have the Chiefs on Sunday night football, and then you have the League's hottest team, the Saints, your biggest rival coming in the next week. I mean, you're talking about like your season is on the line in the next couple of weeks. Not like those games are any easier now, but just gives you a little bit of breathing room where you look at these three games that are tough in a row. Even if they don't play well and they go one and two in these three games, you're still getting to your buy or whatever.

I think you're getting to the Carolina game. I call that a buy now, at two and three. You're still alive. If you look at their schedule, they're still Their second half of their schedule on paper looks extremely easy, so they just need to survive early. What a moment for this team.

But here's the thing that we often overlook in this results-based business that is the NFL. We forget about the human element of this game way too often. The Falcons set themselves themselves up in the offseason with the way that they went and signed Kirk Cousins and drafted Michael Pennex for a potential disaster scenario that's very emotionally driven. If they go through that three-game stretch, they enter an 0-2, and say they lose all three, and they're 0-5, suddenly people are calling for Michael Pennex. Suddenly, they're questioning everything about what they thought about the Falcons going to this highly anticipated season. And that throws everything right off the tracks. That's why I think Kirk talked about it in the post game where that little boost. This is an example where, look, you can go to that locker room now and there's video of them after this game celebrating with Raheem Morris.

It's like crazy. It's awesome. It's awesome stuff.

But that's the jolt that you can get because it's such a long season. Being in a facility like I was with the Browns, week to week, when you're struggling, you can feel it. You can be on the opposite side of the building, and you can feel the tension and the stress and the pressure. All of that combines and just it's pervasive throughout the entire building. Getting this win eases all of that and makes the next few games that are going to be difficult games a lot easier to prepare for, not in terms of workload, but mentally. I think it's nice for them over that stretch way more than just one game's result.

I love that because I think Rahim Morris is a guy who is going to get buy-in from his players, but they needed a reason on the field to believe. And when you look at their faces, looking at Rahim Morris and celebrating like they won the Super Bowl in that locker room, and everyone there, especially I'm looking at Jesse Bates and some of the veteran leaders on defense are so locked into what he is saying, and they stepped up in the biggest moments. I do I do think that is going to be huge in carry-over because of how many different players ended up stepping up for them. The defense wasn't great in this game. I do think they're going to have an issue in terms of their run defense and not getting enough past rush, but they made plays in the red zone a couple of times. They got a little lucky at the end. And yes, Kirk Cousins did save them. Let's listen to the go-ahead, TD throw by Kirk Cousins. This is on third down. It It's getting a little dicey inside the 10. The Falcons trying to take an improbable lead late at the link.

Cousins in the gun.

Three receivers right. The shotgun snap, the center block, the line drive, though, far side, caught, at the Pylon London caught a chest high. Touchdown Atlanta.

34 seconds to go.

They've tied the game. A seven-yard Cousins' Touchdown Pass.

Holy smokes.

I love Kevin Harland. That's Eric Roberts, our great producer behind the Glass, looking through all the different calls. Is it ESPN? Is it local? Is it Westwood One and Kevin Harland that has the best one. And finding it. Holy smokes, Kevin Harland. I love that. And when you watch the highlights, you see a couple of Eagle staffers. I'm not sure what their role is with the team, just getting upset in the moment, showing more emotion than they're supposed to in that moment on the sideline. You mentioned the building having bad vibes. That eagles building had the worst vibes in the league last year, and this is going to feel a little too familiar. I do want to point out right after that TD, Drake London gets a celebration penalty. There was a couple of them tonight in big spots. It forced Youngwei Kuh, one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history to hit a 48-yard extra point, and he piped it like Young Weku tends to do. Some props to Young Weku, some props to Bajon Robinson, who goes 14 for 97 on the ground, 4 for 25. Very similar numbers, nick, to Saquon Barkley, although he did it in less carries.

As much as I love Saquon and think he looks maybe better than he's ever looked, and he's going to wear the goat horns a little bit tonight, you look at Bajon and you look at Saquon and you almost see, Oh, there's a guy in the second year in the league, and there's a guy in the six or seventh, because Saquon is as explosive as he's been in two or three years. But my God, Bajon Robinson, when he makes cuts going forward, there just haven't been that many runningbacks that I've ever seen like that. And he's at that young, just fresh, absolutely peaking part of his career.

Oh, yeah. He's just getting started. He gave Quinian Mitchell his welcome to the NFL moment with a cut. Here's your jock strap. I don't know if they still wear those. I think they've advanced in terms of the little thing, but here you go. Hand it back to you because I just pulled it right off you with that move. It's really fun to watch him play because he came into the league with a lot of expectation. He was clearly the best running back in that class, and all the fantasy owners wanted him to pop off last year, and he had a good rookie year, but he didn't have the great year. Well, That doesn't matter to me because this guy is a stud, and he's capable of carrying an offense on the ground when the passing game isn't working. That's what made that last drive just so fascinating to me, because they get the ball back with no time. I know he talked about already, but I'm thinking, they haven't thrown the ball well all night. They've been pounding the run, and suddenly they just start ripping it down the field. I'm like, Oh, they can do this, too.

They don't just have to lean on him. If they can actually do that consistently, then this team could reach the potential that we all set out for them at the beginning of the year.

Yeah, they just need Kirk Cousins to be solid, and he was in the second half of this game.

It starts with him. That's how it was in Minnesota. It's out of the play-action, it's out of the run game. So if he can do that consistently, then we're looking at a pretty good situation.

So he goes 13 for 16 for 166 yards and the two touch downs in the second half after a pretty lackluster first half. I would say the numbers flatter him. He wasn't as good as the numbers indicate, but they did do play action tonight. He finished his five for eight for 52 yards, so solid enough. There were more plays from under center. He didn't move a ton. Like you said, he didn't step into his throat. The ball did not look great coming out of his hand a lot. There were some concerns, but I thought it got better as the game wore on. I do want I'd like to point out, just to put in context, when they didn't run the ball on third down, what game this was for the Eagles. The Eagles were trailing as the fourth quarter was starting, and they were, at the time, in the midst of a 17-play, 9-minute, 34-second drive that finished with the push-push. It was a lot of Saquon. Saquon was fantastic until that dropped, 22 for 95 on on the ground, also had four catches, and had about 50 yards called back from penalties for holding calls, which always seemed to be away from the play.

And yes, I might have been a little locked into his yardage because I needed 100 yards out of him to win my fantasy tonight. And he got it in the end. So thank you for that, at least, Saquon. But he was running fantastic, and they got the push-push going a couple of times. And yet when they went inside the 10-yard line, they tended to pass, and the passing game was erratic. And so I think that's why at the end, it hurts. You went away from what you were doing really well in this game.

Yeah. And that's a frustration that I experience with a lot of coaches around the NFL. When they get in the red zone, suddenly they get cute and they try to throw the football. You've seen the goal line fades, that type It's the thing. It feels like a wasted down to me unless you have a Mike Evans going up there for it. But it is what it is in the NFL. It's a copycat league. Everybody does that now. But when you know, you have to figure out what your bread and butter is. And I think the Eagles are still trying to figure out what their offense necessarily is. You have Kelen Moore come in and he introduces all this pre-snap And that's the talk of the town because it's an easy talking point going into the week. But eventually, they should settle in as long as they can get out of their own way. Because nine penalties committed, three legal man downfields. We got to work on it. If you're going to run RPO and you're going to run tempo and everything else, you got to be able to stay a little more disciplined in that game in order to preserve those positive gains.

Now, I will say one more thing. Statistically, it doesn't show up. No Ajay Brown, as you mentioned before. And we get an early catch out of Jahaan Dotson, right? And on the broadcaster, he's going to be an important receiver number two tonight. That was his catch for six yards. I want to tip a cap here to Britain Covey, who was drafted as a returner. Six catches for 23 yards, not a lot, but some of them came in some clutch spots, or at least kept the offense going forward. That's not a guy I thought was going to factor into this game. Statistically, didn't show up, like I said, really that significantly. But sometimes you need all hands on deck, and it was impressive to see them figure it out even though they lost.

Yeah. I'm going to take the negative route that, yes, he could be role player for them.

He's not going to be a consistent guy. This is the case situation.

No, I think he can be even a consistent in the role that he was. But the fact that Dallas Godert has a quiet night, three for 38, Dotson doesn't look ready to do much of anything. The whole offense is Devante Smith. He goes seven for 76, catches a nice countdown on a really nice throw by Hertz. Like I said, Hertz had a couple of really high-level throws, but it just was a little erratic. It's just all on Devante Smith, Saquan, and Hertz right now. Hertz put them on his back. He went 13 for 85 and a countdown on the ground. There was chunks of this game where it felt like the only thing they could do is have him go back, have all the time in the world, not find any receivers, and then just run for or make a play. But that's a tough way to live, especially against good defenses. I don't think the Falcons are going to be a good defense. Fourth down decisions. I'll just wrap with this. We're also huge in this game. The Eagles go for one inside the 10 yard line early in the game. They don't get it, but they do go for two other fourth downs.

They do get it. I just want to point this out. Fourth down on the Falcons, I think it was the 48 or so yard line in the third quarter, trailing by one. They're in their own territory, and the Falcons are trailing, and they go for it. That is a play if they didn't get it. I believe it was a fourth and 4 for the Falcons, that if they didn't get it, everyone be killing Raheem Morris and the analytics. Why are you throwing the ball on fourth down when you haven't been playing that well? Just punt the ball and play defense. You know what? Karko backs up, gets good protection like he has all night, hits an easy pass over the middle for the first down, and they score a shutdown, a long one to Mooney, three plays later. That's one where the Atlanta Falcons showed a lot of faith in Kirk. They stayed aggressive on offense. That was a big moment, I thought, in this game. I thought that was a good sense of the game by the Falcons, because I think if they had kept giving it up, they were going to keep giving up 17 play drives.

Raheem Morris knew the score there. They needed to score. And again, that's one where the anti-fourth-down folks would be honking about it if they didn't get it, and they did get it.

Yeah, they can stay quiet because look, this is also a team with a new offensive coordinator. I just talked about Kelen more with the Eagles, but the same situation with the Falcons. They're still adjusting to who they have with a new quarterback as well. So that's a key moment where you build a little bit of confidence trust between play collar and quarterback, and he delivers. And that's going to go a long way over the course of the season.

It was a fourth and 4 on the 47. All right, I think we've hit this Eagles-Falcons game enough. It was a lot of fun. It was not a lot of fun for nick Siriani. As we go to break, why don't we listen to a little of what nick Siriani said after the game?

Again, in that scenario, I was thinking they might not have any timeouts there, but obviously they did with with the incomplete pass. That would have came down to maybe a minute. And so we wanted to go up six points, and it didn't work. So the decision to pass it there. Again, like I said, they were junking it up inside. With it being fourth and three to go for it, I thought with them not having any timeouts, I wanted them to be down a countdown and see if they could drive the field, and they did. Hats off to them.

I guess someone did ask about not going for it. On fourth down, he was down. Saquon Barkley was wearing it, too, said he let the team down, and so the Eagles will have to bounce back in week three. We'll bounce back after the break. We're going to break down what we wish we thought we... I'm sorry. After the break, we will break down what we wish we said on Sunday Night's recap, although we said a lot, we're going to have a lot of news. Man, it was a newsy, injury-filled week 2. Then we'll wrap up with our players of the week right after this. Cool. Cool. You can clean that up. Yeah, I got you. Why am I fucking up? All right. Cool. All right. I'll jump out. I'll need to come back. Back on NFL Daily. And, yeah, nick, we got a lot of news to get to. But before we do that, every Monday night, we spend exactly two minutes Saying all the little nuggets that we wish we had said during the Sunday night recap. Hit the music, Eric. I think we forgot to mention that Kingsley Suamatea, the franchise left tackle of the Chiefs, got benched in that That game, Trey Hendriksen has been just abusing left tackle, so that is a little something to be concerned about.

The Chief's 16th in DVOA through two weeks. Just saying. Just saying it hasn't been great.

I'm not going to lie, when I watched him in the combine, I wasn't a big fan of him, so I'm not that surprised. He's got heavy feet. He's a raw player. He's going to need time. But speaking of offensive line, Greg, the Saints offensive line is awesome. Their zone scheme is working so well. And for all the concerns we had about Trevor Penning, he's doing a pretty good job in the run game. The way they scheme it up, the way they get tight ends involved, they get Tais and Hill involved, they get a bunch of other people involved. They are creating creases for Alvin Kamara to just run free. There was a couple of touch downs. He scored against Dallas. He didn't get touched. I wish I would have talked about that more.

Yes. The Marvin Harrison touch down where he toe tapped at the back of the end zone was the least probable touch down of the season, which is amazing because the other Kyler Murray touch down where he does the figure 8s felt about as least probable as ever. Kyler Murray, we found out today, actually, wasn't watching by the time that second shutdown was caught. But yes, the least probable touch down of the season, Harrison had 0.7 yards of separation and was 0.7 yards from the sideline. Go, nick.

Speaking of least probable catches, the smooth criminal catch. That just tells me everything you need to know about Devante Adams. He's smiling on the sideline. He is so back, and I love it for the Raiders.

I should have followed the petting point up with this. Tateam Hill got hurt on Sunday, and I think that could be a big factor for the Saints. He's key to a lot of what they are doing.

Matt Lafleur put together a phenomenal offensive game plan in that game against the Colts. He ran that like a college offense that doesn't trust its quarterback, and they didn't need to. All the pre-snap motions, everything else, super creative, worked to perfection, and that went over the Colts.

People always wonder who's the one in Green Bay in terms of the receiver. Romeo Dobbs is the one. When they need to play, they go to Romeo Dobbs. He gets the most snaps. He's the guy you go to on third down. He is their one. They also love Tucker Kraft getting a lot more snaps than Luke Musgrave.

And finally, as the whistle blows, we had the Josh Allen experience for a long time. It is now the Anthony Richardson experience after watching the interview.

Yeah, I can see that. There's a lot of similarities between young A-rich and young Josh Allen. All right, let's get to the news because there are some big old items. News. All right, the Bryce Young era is over, at least for now in Carolina. Yeah. Maybe on hold, maybe over.

Yeah.

That's more of a take than a statement of fact. But Dave Kedales, the Carolina Panthers head coach, announced on Monday, rather, that, yeah, he's going to Andy Dalton for week three against the Raiders. And nick, one of the reasons why I think it might be for good if Andy Dalton stays healthy, is that there was no talk of trying to get Bryce Young a little bit of a break and then bring him back or refreshing his mind. He just benched him and I think it was partly because of energy and partly because he wants to give this team a better chance to win. Let's listen to Dave Knauss.

I owe it to all of the guys, the coaches, the staff, the players, everybody involved, to be really critical about what we put on film, about what I'm seeing, and to make sure that I'm constantly making the best decision for the team every week. And it happens to be the quarterback position, and so it's loaded that way. But it's every position, and it's all the guys. I was able to stand in front of the team and challenge all the guys that we all have to step up our passion for what we're doing to play with the play style that we're looking for.

The word passion there I thought was interesting. This is the Pete Carroll, God's son. I don't even know what he is, but he's like his spiritual son. Pete Carroll is his guy. Maybe he wants other members of the team to play with more passion, but But you did get a sense maybe, Bryce Young, he was a little beaten down his body language, and everything was just rough the last couple of weeks, and that was part of the decision-making process.

I heard a clip of Daniel Jeremiah even talking about this. He doesn't look like the guy he was in Alabama. The body language being one of the things, just can't even complete short passes anymore. And also, Greg, we have to think about this contextually. This is a franchise that fired Frank Wright after 11 games last year. This is a franchise that has demonstrated that they lack patience when it comes to watching things develop and grow. And Dave Canales is not about to wait to find out whether he's going to be next in the chopping block. He's going to go to the guy that he knows can win them games. The last time Andy Dalton played in a game for the Panthers last year was their best offensive showing of the year. The only game in which they looked really competent. He went for 361 and two touch downs in a 10-point loss to the Seahawks on the road last year. Look, I'm not saying he's coaching for his job, but he has a reason to think he might have to coach for his job even after two weeks. And Andy Dalton is clearly the better option, even if it means that you're essentially giving up on Bryce Young.

Right. So I think it was a mercy benching. It was absolutely the right decision. I shouldn't have been as surprised about it as I was because we even talked about it on Sunday that we thought it was getting to that point. I just didn't think that they would do it. Now, Canales was also asked whether ownership was involved in this decision. His answer was not direct. He said he was going to keep that private, but that he spoke to all the important parties in the organization. You can read into that what you will. Now, I would believe that the conversation would start with Knauss, but there's no way to guess, and it doesn't really matter. He did confirm he talked with the front office heads about the decision, including Dan Morgan. But It came after watching the tape, and I get it. It's as tough. I wanted to watch it before we talked about him, so I did go back and watch that. I had watched the first game on Coach's film, and it was as tough a quarterback tape as I've seen. It was so much worse than it was a year ago. We said on the show yesterday, he wasn't even attempting throws over 10 yards.

His last throw, potentially as a Carolina Panther, was a jump pass on fourth down that get batted down by the Chargers fullback, Medlock or whatever, who's also a defensive lineman. It was one of a couple passes where he had to jump to get over the top of the offensive lineman or the defender. A couple of times, they got batted down. A couple, they were incomplete. A couple, they were complete. Almost every drive ended with him just throwing short of the sticks on third and long. He just looked shattered. It sucks, man. It's unprecedented. I went through because I've been covering the NFL since '03. I was like, I don't think this has ever happened, a number one overall pick, getting bench this early and playing this part. I don't think it's ever happened. I did go through it. Josh Rosen is probably the closest, but he wasn't a number one overall pick. For number one overall picks, Jamarcus Russell got bench 25 starts in. That was pretty deep into his third season. He had the Mahomes rookie year where he didn't start until the very last game of the season. That's the only thing that's close.

But even that was 10 games into his third season. His second season actually had a lot more positive moments than Bryce Young's ever had. Alex Smith got bench, but that was four years in for Troy Smith. I remember them chanting, We want Carr, deep into that season, too, for David Carr, who is now our colleague. I just remember that being a tough moment because Alex Smith was in the game and the fans are chanting. Jameis got bench for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Again, that was four years in. That's pretty different. That was actually coming off a suspension, and then he got bench later. If he doesn't ever make it happen with the Panthers, it's pretty unique how poorly this has gone.

Yeah, and not to mention the capital they gave up to move up. We've already seen the ramifications of the bear seeing the number one pick and spending it on Caleb Williams this past draft. And it's something that could make waves for multiple years. But again, you live in the now in the NFL. You have to go win this upcoming game. So you totally understand why Dave Canales went in this direction. It is funny, though. You made that point about them not even talking about giving him a chance to get a breather or grow. Even when Zack Wilson got benched, when Robert Salah put him on the bench, he talked about he needs time to reset and grow. We We believe in him, even though that didn't pan out. You're not getting any of that from the Panthers, so it doesn't vote well.

No, it makes me wonder if he's a trade candidate. Who was him? Now, I look. Who was him? Well, just because it's uncomfortable, could you get a fifth-round pick or whatever for Bryce Young or something. That would be great.

That once drafted Jimmy Klauss and then followed that up by drafting Cam Newton.

Right. I mean, his struggles, now that it's going into a second season, are It's rare for a quarterback taking that high. As rookies, Alex Smith, Eli Manning had struggles like that. But there's always a team that's willing to give up a mid-round pick to take another swing. We just saw it happen with Trey Lance. It's a little crazy for it to happen now, but the only reason I even thought of it was because of what you said, nick, that this has been an organization that is not afraid to turn the page quickly. Even that this decision was made made me think, Where is the decision coming from exactly? The GM that drafted him technically is not there. The coach that was there when they drafted him is not there. Maybe the loyalty is not there. The odds are that Andy Dalton won't make it through the season healthy based on just how Dalton has gotten hurt pretty quickly when he's played in the last couple of years, including in this preseason. I don't know if they would bench him for a third stringer. That would seem absolutely crazy. They would take a huge cap hit this year at $9 million if they traded him during this season, let's say, to Mike McDaniel.

I don't know. That's not going to happen. No, it's not going to happen, I don't think. And they don't have much cap room either. I'm just spinning wheels because this is just an unprecedented crazy situation.

Yeah, we'll see how it plays out. It is really unfortunate because this is a guy who just was super talented at Alabama. And even in that draft, I know we're going a little long at this point, but even in that draft, I remember it was Bryce Young and C. J. Stroud, and it seemed like the consensus was Bryce Young was the runaway QB1. I sat back at the time, and I'm not trying to take a victory lap or anything, but I was like, Are we sure? He is small. He doesn't necessarily... He's not going to be going to be going to a situation with the best traits to find success, whereas Stroud's greatest trait was accuracy. Obviously, he's in a much better situation, but just hindsight with the privilege of it. Oh, man, what a tough pick.

Right. It's one of the things that frustrates me about the draft process is the total consensus- Too much groupthink. That forms from draft analyst, where it just becomes like, Well, of course, he has to be one. It was really bold for people to get out on a limb and say, Stroud, they like Stroud better. There were people that liked that. But even those people, they wouldn't have had any, Bryce, any lower than three or five overall. You looked at his size in the NFL. It's a setback for us short guys.

Yeah, I was going to say a tough day for Short Kings.

Short representation. Seriously, I think his size has been a problem. You can point to Kyler Murray, who is not much taller, but then you can point out, Kyler Murray has insane physical gifts. That's probably what you need to make up for it. Now, Drew Brees didn't have that, and it took him a while to get going. But again, I even think the difference in height between Bryce Young and Drew Brees and the difference in frame actually is pretty significant. Once you're getting to this point, it's maybe, I don't know what the word is, where once you get over a certain threshold, an extra two or three inches down means a lot. Yeah, Drew Brees was probably not really 6 feet, but like, Bryce Young being 5'9, that's a big difference.

Yeah, and the frame usually makes up for it when it comes to sustaining hits, too. I mean, oftentimes you got to roll guys out and get them out of the pocket. That's part of what makes Kyler special is his scrambling ability, which we talked at length on yesterday's show.

This is all depressing me. I mentioned the Dolphins. As I'm talking about it, I'm realizing, yeah, they're probably not going to do that. But they did sign Tyler Hunt on Monday, and I think that's a really good signing for them. I think he's an NFL quarterback. He was on the Ravens Practice Squad. He is not going to challenge Skyler Thompson for the starting job, assuming Skyler Thompson is the starter in week three that has not officially been announced. But Mike McDaniel did talk on Monday and made it clear this has nothing to do with Skyler Thompson. We wanted another quarterback in the room who's a professional, but we believe in Skyler, who's been with them for a couple of years now and won the backup job. And so listening to that, it would sound like Skyler Thompson will start this week and presumably the next few weeks. But we still don't know how long Tua Tuna Vailoa will be out. Mcdaniel said the next couple of days would be important about making a decision on him. Injured reserve is a possibility, but we don't know on that situation. But we're getting Skyler Thompson trying to keep the Dolphins season afloat in the meantime.

And one thing I did want to talk about here just quickly is Ian Rappaport reported Sunday, we didn't mention this yet on NFL game day morning, that Tua Tunga-Vailoa has no plans to retire and that the intent is for him to return to football. And so we'll just have to find out how long it'll be until that's possible and that does happen.

Yeah, hopefully Skyler plays well enough, better than he did in Thursday night's game. The limited sample size we have on him is not very encouraging at this point. So hopefully for the Dolphins' sake, that a week of preparation gets him in a better situation to perform this week.

Hopefully for our sake. I mean, I'm selfish. I want to see good quarterback play. We're struggling right now. The league hurts when you lose a quarterback like Jordan Love. Now, Malik Willis made it fun for a week. Look, Skyler Thompson made it pretty fun in that playoff game against the Bills. But at this point, that's been the highlight of what we've seen out of Skyler Thompson, and there were some struggles. I think that's going to be a challenging matchup for Miami in Seattle this week. Then they have Tennessee and then the Patriots after that coming up as they try to manage their season. There's a lot of teams. I think Atlanta did a nice job managing their season. Tonight, the Rams are suddenly in a real big manage the season mode. Cooper Cup is expected to miss multiple weeks. What a blow for this team. Potentially could go on injured reserve with the ankle injury that he suffered on Sunday. So they are without Cooper Cup and Pukenau Kua. Can this Ram's offense survive, Shipp?

I mean, if you look at their depth chart, it's not super encouraging. The fact that we had a player who wasn't really getting any reps with the Bucaneers, Tyler Johnson, making plays for them, that's not encouraging. You have a veteran, DeMarcus Robinson, who's made some plays in spots. You got Tutu Atwell, who's good to take the top off a defense or at least be a decoy. And Jordan Wittington, the preseason darling, that's not what you thought you were going to go into the season with. They're super banged up, and it's early, and it's never going to be banged up early. But hopefully, they get good news on CUP because I don't think we're going to see Puga for a while.

Yeah, it sounds like Puga could miss up to two months, according to Ian Rapport, but injured reserve is still a possibility for Cooper CUP. And when they even throw that out as a possibility, then you think it's more likely. They also got bad news on the injury front losing John Johnson. Their safety is going to be out for an extended time. Then, Jona Jackson, another one of their starting guards in their big offensive line acquisition. The offensive line is just absolutely beleagered. It sounds like all three of those guys could go on injured reserve. I actually think they could win with this receiver group if they had a fully intact offensive line and running game and Matthew Stafford. I've seen these guys. They're NFL players, and we've seen offenses without great receiver survive with a great offensive line, great quarterback, great running game. But the offensive line is totally in shambles. The defense really struggled on Sunday, so that's not helping matters either. Yeah, they have the 49ers this week who are dealing with their own injury news. Debo Samuel is going to miss an extended period of time, multiple weeks. It sounds like for Debo Samuel, just I feel like the fantasy football community has been hit hard, but the 49ers got to be happy they got Brandon Ayuk in the building.

I know he hasn't looked great so far this season, but now with Samuel out, Ayuk plays an even bigger role.

Yeah. And like you said, he's gotten up to a slow start. He's been a bit of a non-factor. I think some of that is situational, just scheme, Debo's open, Ayuk's not. Maybe he's getting more attention. But after we spent so much time talking about his contract, did not see the payoff early. It stings a little bit, but now we're going to see it's going to be a real test. He's getting thrown in the fire. You're going to earn that money now. So they're a team that's built to withstand this. They are not in a situation like the Rams. They'll be in a better spot, but still.

Okay, I hear you. They didn't withstand it on Sunday. That was a tough matchup against a Vikings team. We gave them trouble last year when they were also banged up. But they're not just without Devo Samuel, who's vital to everything they do. He's involved in so much of what they do. They're missing Devo Samuel and Christian McAfree and Ricky Pearsall, who is their first-round draft pick. Now, we don't know what player Pearsall is going to be at the pro level, but they drafted him in the first round just for a situation like this. Yeah, you have Johan Jennings and Brandon Ayuk. Look, that's still a better receiver duo than many teams have. You have George Kido is also coming in and out of that game. But the NFC West, we're going to talk about it on Wednesday show with Jordan Rodriegue and Connie Fox. Judge Connie is returning to the courtroom. And I think we're going to talk a little NFC West there. But it's interesting. 49ers and Rams were the teams that were on top last year, and they're vulnerable right now. The Rams are just trying to survive right now, or else who knows?

They could be 0-4, 0-5, 1-5, something like when you look at their schedule.

I have a bit of a comp that might serve the 49ers well during this time in which they're missing so many receiving options, including Christian McCaffree. Go be the Pittsburgh Steelers. Go be a team that lost your penciled in number two in Roman Wilson early in the year in preseason. And just go win with defense and ugly offense. Just go figure it out. You got Jordan Mason pound in the rock. You got an offensive line that blocks it up well. Go win that way for a few weeks. Why not?

Absolutely true. Good teams find different ways to win. We saw it with the packers and the 49ers are more than capable. Oh, and they still have Kyle Shanehan and nick Bosa and Brock Purdy.

And Fred Warner, who's playing his tail off.

And Trent Williams. And you're right, they have no excuses, especially with the Rams on the schedule this week. Isiah Pacheco has a broken fibula. He will miss 6-8 weeks. They've also been without Clyde Edwards Halear on the NFI list, so he's out for at least two more weeks. They are bringing in Kareem Hunt for a visit. He's not signed as of yet. That would make sense to me. On paper, how big of a loss do you think Pacheco is?

Pretty big. He runs hard. He paces his offense on the ground, and they're thin in the backfield. But, Greg, I do have a fun little insider tidbit. I went to the Cleveland Guardian's game on Friday night, and guess who I saw at the game?

Oh, wow. Karine Hillen. How about that?

I was with my friends. I was like, Hey, there's Karine. They go, Why is he here? I go, Well, he lives here, and he doesn't have a job right now. Look who might have a job.

Nothing better. Maybe not nothing better, but it doesn't matter what you're doing in life. Going to a baseball game, just a joy. Just a great time. My kids don't even love baseball that much. They love going to a baseball game. So Careem Hunt. Was not the same Kareem Hunt that you remember, but you never know. With some time off, maybe that will help or maybe not. Dalvin Cook had time off and come back, and it never really has been the same. Same with Levy on Bell. So we'll see. They could be starting, and I'm sure people will be picking up on the old fantasy waiver wire. Like, Carson Steel might be their starting running back.

Which is crazy. It's crazy because he was largely their fullback or their short yardage situation back. I don't see him getting a full workload.

No. Samajee P. Ryan is there who was also available for absolutely anyone to sign just a few weeks ago. And yeah, their offense has gotten pretty banged up pretty quickly. Question at left tackle. Mark East Brown out for maybe most of the season. I think it's fair to ask questions, even though they win through all their questions, unlike most teams in the league. All right, let's just roll through a bunch of quick hitters, injury-wise. Justin Herber, X-rays were negative after he had an ankle injury, although there's still been a little cagey. He might get an MRI this week. Harbaugh wouldn't answer that directly. Justin Jefferson, as I indicated, sounds like it's not going to be a major issue. Kevin O'Kunal didn't promise anything but said Jefferson felt good on Monday, so that's good. Jermaine Johnson, the Jets Edge player, did confirm he has a torn Achilles. Juan Bentley, the Patriots linebacker, has a torn pectoral muscle, according to our NFL Network insider, so he might miss the season. He's a valuable player for them. Mike McGlinchey, the Broncos, their tackle could miss a month. More bad news for that offense. Joe Mixon was getting an MRI on his ankle.

If any or all of those stand out to you, feel free to comment on them. Shuck, I would be impressed if you remembered each and every one and then had one comment from, but I think that would not be a pleasant listening experience.

Well, no, it wouldn't be, but luckily, I have a list in front of me, so I will pop through a couple of them. The Jermaine Johnson injury Immediately makes me think about Hassan Radik again because they are struggling to generate a pass rush, and that's a key part of their defense.

Wait, hold it right there because it is very funny to me how much Eagles fans hate Bryce Huff right now.

Everyone is so focused. He was getting the push in the broadcast tonight. There's number zero, Bryce Huff. Let's see if he can generate a pass rush Stonewalled by the right tackle.

He was on the ground, and because they were pointed out in part, but because also he's been a story. He was on the ground so many times. That's not a good sign when your edge player is on the ground. Josh Sweat hasn't really gotten it done. It's one thing we didn't mention. Yeah, I'm not surprised. The Falcons didn't have much of a pass rush. I know they have Matthew Jude on, and he'll pop for one or two good rushes every once in a while. But I'm a little surprised and disappointed how bad that Eagles's pass rush is. It's just funny to me because-The best pass rush is in the interior. Right. Eagles and Jets fans are both so mad about this swap. It wasn't actually a trade. The Hassan Redik was a trade for a third-round pick. Brycehoff just came in free agency. But Everyone has lost here, except for sports talk radio hosts that are just rage complaining about these moves.

In the words of Kevin Harland, calamity. Also on this list, the Joe Mixon ankle injury. I didn't see today yet. I don't know if it came through, but it looked like it might have been our first example of a pretty clear hip drop tackle. Would like to see what happens with that.

Yes, he would, too. He sent out something on social saying the NFL needs to respond with their actions. By that, he means, give a fine, and they should have called it on the field. I suspect he's right. I suspect there will be a fine, and they just missed the call on the field. All right, that is it for news. We We wrap up every show with a little segment I like to call Captain's Corner. I didn't make it up, but it is time for Captain's Corner presented by Captain Morgan. Nick, both you and I can present our players that struck our fancy this week. Why don't you get us going?

Well, if you don't know me, you do know now that I'm an Ohio State fan, born and bred, didn't go there, but raised to be an Ohio State fan. I've watched Marvin Harrison Jr. Dominate collegiate defenses for years. So it was a joy to see him pop off for not one, but two relatively long, TD passes, one very long, in his second professional game, especially after he was essentially ignored in his debut. It was a beautiful thing. He is my captain of the week because not only did he have a couple of TD receptions, not only did he finally make his mark in his second NFL game, but he became the first rookie to have four plus receptions, two or more receiving touch downs in the first quarter of the game since his dad did it in week 16 of 1996 at TIIP NFL research for unearthing that. That is how you make your first mark in the NFL.

I love that pick. I wanted to get hipster and was like, Oh, yeah, let's go like Tucker Kraft or something. Oh, deep dive. You know, great blocks. Or Chris O'Lavi is doing the small things. He's blocking now. He's making contested catches. But when I saw the screenshot that Nate Tice, our friend, sent out of Kyler Murray doing the LeBron after that insane shutdown that he had and turning away and looking at the sideline before making what I now believe to be is the throw of the week. He got robbed in our throw of the year nomination. Maybe I'll bring that back up. Once I saw that, that's being a captain right there. That's just unreal for him to make one of the plays of the year and then turn around and not even watch the shutdown being completed because he knew it was happening. Kyler Murray, he's got a chance to potentially get into the MVP talk. I know it's only two weeks, but it would be a lot of fun. That was the Captain's Corner presented by Captain Morgan. It's delicious and crisp. Perfect for game day with friends. Spice it up. Visit captinmorgan.

Com to find a captain near you. Please drink responsibly. I give that recommendation to you, nick. You've had a long day and night. It is now 1:00 AM in Cleveland. Thank you for staying up with me on NFL Daily after cranking out. Everyone should check out Shuck's work on the old website. Been a great recap for a great game.

Oh, yeah. And Thursday, you'll get a fresh QB Index. And I promise there will be some movers and shakers. You can always find that at nfl. Com/qbindex. And that's after, of course, you listen to NFL Daily.

You should be a daily listening to. Wow, this is almost too many plugs at the end of this show, but I love it. We will be back on NFL Daily, as I mentioned on Wednesday. Jordan, Rodrieg and Colleen Wolf, our Wednesday crew in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio. Yes, for the long-awaited return of Judge Connie. The Falcon season is alive. False hope. That's how we know football is back.