You Really Don't Want to Start the Season 0-3

Let's start with the, uh, uh, that my number one pick is the Rams and the Broncos.

I mean, this would have been anybody's number one pick , you know.

I, uh, both, it's so early, but I think that the Broncos have logged a true quality win during this period of time and then played a really difficult opponent.

In, in week one, that, you know, kind of undressed them a little bit, and I think that there was some value in that.

Whereas the Rams, we, we still don't know what the Rams are, right?

Uh they went to, we know that they're good on paper, but they went to Australia, probably not the right strategy.

They get waxed by the Forty-Niners, and then they come back and Jack.

And Dart gets hurt on the first series.

When the Giants did seem to have some momentum, like it, it didn't look like that game was lost.

I would be curious to, to, to, to know what the score would have been if Dart would have stayed in that game and how close it would have been, but they put on that typical Rams clinic , which was basically just a Matt Stafford and Devonte Adams, you know, two-man show at that point.

You can't do that against the Broncos defense.

And so I think everything's gonna kind of come back to level.

What are you looking for in this one?

I mean, as much as anything else, like you said, like they both pulled themselves off the mat, they both finished the games last week really, really strong, um.

You know, I think like, and I, I went back and I watched Denver again in the second half of their game against Jacksonville in particular, and I think you started to see Bo getting comfortable and, and in particular getting comfortable with Jaylen Waddle, and I, I think, you know, with a Rams defense that doesn't have Miles Garrett.

This to me is like a real opportunity for, for Bo Nix and that offense to take another step forward against a really quality opponent.

Jacksonville is a quality opponent last week.

This is another quality opponent here.

Um, so for Denver, I think it would be, all right, like, Bonnix and Jaylen Waddle show like the chemistry.

Now, do we start to see that like having like this effect, this like, this like trickle-down effect on everyone else where, and that's the way I look at like, the Bills adding DJ Moore, the Patriots adding.

AJ Brown before he got hurt.

Like, you, you bring in that receiver, it should make things easier on everybody else.

And that those guys like Pat Bryant, like Cortland Sutton, Marvin Mimms, uh, you know, I, I, uh, Evan Ingraham was really good in week one, Jonah Coleman, like, it should make things easier on everybody else.

The Rams.

I feel like in that game we started to see them punching the gas, you know, and that was even without Puka Nakua.

And what I really like about where the Rams are going right now is I think you started to see violence in the run game and like they started to look like a really physical team, which I think Sean McVeigh's best teams have been, and I don't know if you've tracked this at all.

Blake Quorum is starting to get more of the, the workload like that split is starting to even out a little bit with him and Kyron Williams, and I just think the two of them together, they're different, they complement each other well, but they both bring like this edge in the run game.

And so, you know, faced with a Denver defense that I think is really good.

How does the Rams run game look, you know, going on the road 2 Mile High and that sort of environment.

There's only outside of the Bills, uh, who are just their offense maxing right now.

There are, there are only two teams in the NFL that are every time, by the way, somebody uses that term, I think of Clay Matthews with the, like Johnny Bravo chin.

Was that what a weird moment.

What a weird how weird was that whole thing, right?

Very strange.

Um, we're, we're headed down a dark path on the internet.

Um, but there's only two teams in the NFL, Albert, that are averaging 2 rushing yards before contact outside of the Bills, and I'm not gonna ask you to guess who they are because they're the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams.

And so this is going to be as much a game about stopping the run.

Uh, as it is getting after it, we know how powerful and how potent that Broncos defensive line can be.

I think the question that we need answered for ourselves, and we can't really get an answer to that until Miles Garrett is back, but Aaron Donald started looking really good towards the end of that Giants game, and he was really kind of puncturing the pocket and, and causing some issues there.

Is this the first real Aaron Donald game because he's got his feet underneath him.

Yeah, now that he's got his feet underneath him, uh, uh, we'll see .

It sounded to me, it sounded to me too, like you were, and this is like something I'm hanging on to from, I don't know if it was last week, the week before, but you're buying Jonah Coleman's stock.

Oh, baby, yeah, yeah, I figured that was the case.

No question.

Um, so , give me a game that you're looking for this weekend.

What do you love?

Chargers and Bills, I think it's just two teams in such a different spot, so rich, you know, it's just, it, they're in such a different spot.

The Bills are gonna wear those terrible uniforms, which is a shame.

Uh, are they the gray ones or whatever?

Yeah, yeah, the nickel, nickel uniforms, yeah, those are, um, those are unfortunate to say the least.

The Bills have a good look generally and Um, I think if you asked any Bills fan, they would say like, they would much rather go with like, let's have a red helmet game instead of whatever that abomination they're gonna be putting out there on Sunday is that what, those are, uh, those are not good.

Um, but I, I, I, I think this game, like I, The Chargers to me are, this is a back against the wall game for the Chargers.

It's not gonna get easier, and I'm not saying they have to win to save their season, right?

Like I'm not saying they have to win to pull their season out from under the fire.

It's getting pretty close though.

But, but like, here's the thing, it's like if they play, if they play really well and lose, I don't think that's the end of the world.

If like this looks like, like they, if they get blown out, right.

And again, like, I, do we need to go through the schedule again?

At Seattle, Denver, at Chiefs, by, at the Rams , which isn't really a road game, I understand, but it's the Rams, Texans at Ravens.

And that's their next 6 games after this one.

Um, and that gets you to mid-November.

And so I just, you know, I don't know.

By the way, the Colts, when I, when I clicked on the schedule, it also showed me that the, um, the Colts will be wearing their anvil strike uniforms this week.

So just Nichols, the Bills , Nichols City, and the Colts anvil strike uniforms will be gracing us, um, with their presence on Sunday.

The classic horseshoe beaten mentality of the people of Indiana.

There are 4 teams I counted that absolutely, positively cannot get their doors blown off this weekend, and 2 of them are playing each other.

So you have the Chargers or 1 of them, the Buccaneers, uh, you have the Colts, and you have the Texans.

And I, uh, I, I think that's what That's what I love about week 3, the most is that you see a, a season, you see like the diminishing of hope in a way that is really, it sucks, right?

Like that, basically all the energy and the thought and the love that you put into this season as a fan is essentially evaporated.

Now, uh, I got made fun of on uh the radio yesterday.

Everyone is calling me about I'm jinxing the Texans, uh, because I wrote the SI cover story on the Houston Texans, and this is all my fault somehow, and I keep saying if they lose this weekend, I got you right where I want you at 0 and 3, and that's when we're gonna get the 10-game winning streak just like we did last year, and we're gonna propel our way into the Super Bowl.

But as it relates to the Chargers in specific, Albert, um, I have not seen a team more outwardly frustrated 3 weeks into the season than I have the Chargers.

Go look up Justin Herbert's pretty tense exchange with a reporter yesterday about leadership in the locker room.

Yeah, you don't see that from him.

He's like flatline generally.

He was slamming his helmet into the bench over the weekend.

Um, and then I, I don't know if it helps that Jim Harbaugh comes out and says like we're letting Justin Herbert down.

Like it, it's a weird play for him, uh, sometimes, and maybe that's him understanding what Justin needs, and then that's been Jim.

I feel like that's always, that's always been him.

Jim has always been like, I need to get my quarterback confidence that I've got his back no matter what, and like I'm gonna talk about him that way and I'm gonna be public about it.

Um, yeah, he was that way with JJ McCarthy, if you remember when, um , McCarthy was at Michigan when he was coming out in the draft.

Um, and I, I, I, Look, I think at the very least.

That offense needs to show some sort of identity.

Cause I don't know that the defense is gonna be as good as it was with Jesse Minter pushing the buttons.

I think Chris O'Leary is a bright young coach.

I think he'll get there eventually, but Minter was at such a high level with what he was doing.

So, like offensively, they got to get some of this straightened out and can they show an identity ?

By the way, when I looked like I may have not been paying attention, I did look up the um the Nike description of the um Buffalo Nickel City uniforms, if you're interested in hearing that.

Yeah, to me, visual inspiration came from the steel mills, grain elevators, and rail yards, which are foundational to the city's place in history.

It's also a celebration of blue-collar men and women who built the team's new home, Highmark Stadium.

The most striking element is the royal blue Charge helmet.

The design brings the charge of buffalo to life with the signature horn, eye, and charge streak prominently displayed in a royal blue shell with a metallic flake finish and additional metallic blue flake accents, boasting a mindset of energy, strength, and attack.

Wow, how about that?

What do you think?

Um, I, it's any opportunity that you can get.

I mean, that's what I think of when I think of Western New York.

You lived there, but I always think of the grain elevators.

Yes, every morning at Syracuse, I was thinking to myself, uh, where are the grain elevators and not the grain alcohol?