00:00I thought last night after the first half, it was going to be a yawn fest there, Craig.
00:04And next thing I know, Denver is just, what, 30 unanswered in the second half.
00:11And I'm going, I had no problem, no understanding of what the Rams were heading into last night.
00:19I still had a lot of questions.
00:21Somehow, Craig, I have even more questions about the Rams now after that performance in the second half.
00:27I thought after watching them play Denver early, I was like, ah, they figured it out.
00:31Of course, this is what the, here we go, 16-0, could have been 23-0, defense is playing well.
00:39This is just what I thought the Rams are.
00:41And then to watch them melt down like they did against Denver in the second half, now I'm really confused
00:47at one and two.
00:48What this, don't tell me it's Puka Nakua.
00:51Like, no, absolutely not.
00:53Like, what are the Rams now to you here at one and two?
00:58Well, if you remember last week when we were sitting here on the show, I gave my two favorite picks
01:03of the week.
01:04We'll talk about the first one.
01:05But the second one was Denver.
01:08And the reasons are the exact same that they were before.
01:12If I was, right now, somebody who was betting on futures, the first thing that I would do would be
01:19take the Rams to win the Super Bowl.
01:21It would be right now.
01:23This is the point where I think you get your best shot at that in the NFC.
01:27Joe, it's a tale as old as time.
01:30And it's something to remember again for next year.
01:33The Denver Broncos, in the first month of the season at home, have the best ATS record, like, in history.
01:41It always plays out like this, and especially in the second half.
01:46Joe, the guys can't breathe in altitude in the first couple of weeks of the season in Denver.
01:52It always happens.
01:53And then it happened a couple weeks ago.
01:55Denver was losing.
01:56They came back.
01:57And it happened again last night.
01:59The Rams are going to be fine.
02:00It's a horrible spot.
02:02You don't want to have to play there early.
02:03And then the other thing that compounds this is that teams haven't had that preseason to really get their wind.
02:09And so now you're asking them to go do it at mile high in Denver.
02:13Make no mistake about it.
02:15The Broncos are not going to go 8-0 at home.
02:17But they win.
02:18They have a winning record like Green Bay almost every single season at home there.
02:23And the reason why is because they have the altitude, Joe.
02:25They have that home field advantage there.
02:26So while I saw the game and I was like, wow, I'm going to be dead wrong about this one,
02:33yeah, the second half played out exactly.
02:35And I just would encourage people to remember this for next year because when the Broncos are at home next
02:40year and they're a dog to Kansas City and they're getting four or something like that, they are going to
02:45win that game because teams are not ready to play them there.
02:48But Denver's not that good.
02:50The Rams are much better.
02:51And now is the time to jump on the Rams because they're only going to lose a couple more games
02:55this season, Joe.
02:56But that spot to me was another one in September.
03:00Now the tide will turn.
03:02Denver will start losing some games.
03:04But don't bet against them at home in September.
03:06That's my moral of the story.
03:10Well, that's fine if you're playing the Jets.
03:12But when you are the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl in Week 3 and you spot them
03:2116 points, I don't care what the altitude is,
03:24you can't be throwing a pick-six, Stafford.
03:28Your defense can't go MIA in the second half.
03:31That I would expect from the Jets or the Dolphins or any other middle-of-the-road team.
03:38If you are to be considered a favorite to win it all, then you've got to be better than that.
03:44Altitude or not altitude, I still have no idea.
03:48Unless Puka Nakua is the greatest football player that we have ever seen, and when he comes back, this is
03:55going to be a totally different team.
03:56And I can't even blame this on Miles Garrett.
03:59Like, no.
04:00This is two games now that they have lost and look terrible in doing so, and we're continuing to make
04:07excuses for them.
04:08I would want nothing to do with the Rams right now because you and I also both know, Craig, that
04:15this time of year, the overvaluing of teams on what they look like on paper is ridiculous here.
04:23Does that look like any sort of team that has it?
04:27I mean, this is now two out of three games they've lost, and all I keep hearing is about, oh,
04:32well, Puka Nakua was there.
04:34What is Puka Nakua going to do when their defense is getting torched in the secondary by Bo Nix all
04:40night?
04:40Like, what is Puka going to do when he comes back?
04:43If he even comes back healthy, by the way.
04:47Yeah, I don't know if it's him.
04:47Yeah, I don't know if it's him necessarily.
04:48I have zero concerns.
04:49I thought the Rams, in terms of the beginning of the season, were the most overvalued team in the NFL
04:54because they got Garrett, and then they signed Donald, and then the betting odds changed.
04:58But now, this is the fair number now on the Rams, and I do think the Rams will be better
05:06than Seattle at the end of the season, probably better than San Francisco.
05:12I do think the Rams are still one of the best teams in the NFL.
05:15I think they've had some bad spots.
05:17I think they screwed up on that trip to Australia, and I think, Joe, in November and December, we're going
05:22to be looking at them, and we're going to be thinking that they got one of the best shots to
05:26win the Super Bowl.
05:26So I am not going to overreact to that one at all.
