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Willard and Dibs discuss how the 49ers' dominant win over the Rams, and a few other things, have totally shook the Rams to start the 2026 season.
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00:00The Rams sound shook. Maybe that's a better way of saying it than the 49ers broke the Rams.
00:06But the Rams feel and sound shook to me.
00:10Travel schedules, Miles Garrett on IR, Aaron Donald still a question mark as to whether or not he's going to
00:18play on Monday.
00:20Matt Stafford looked old. Devontae Adams trying to talk it out.
00:25Sean McVay with sunglasses and his medium hoodie saying that he hopes he never plays in Australia ever again.
00:32The whole operation to me right now feels off.
00:36And I don't think that's something that goes away in one game, but we will see.
00:40But again, here's a couple things from Kay Adams on FanDuel TV up in Adams.
00:45Here's the first thing, which we already heard once.
00:47We're underreacting to the Niners in this league.
00:53The win over the Rams isn't just that.
00:55This is going to propel them to a playoff appearance sans jet lag.
00:59Not just that, but into contention in the NFC.
01:02We made so much about the jet lag, all this stuff, Melbourne, Melbourne, whatever.
01:07Melbourne, I'm sorry.
01:09I don't think this had anything to do with sleep schedules or sleep science or any of that.
01:13I'm back and I didn't have any jet lag.
01:15You kind of power through it.
01:16You can power through anything for a little bit.
01:18I guess we'll see what happens in week two.
01:20There'll never be an answer to that conversation.
01:22The answer, though, is that they kicked the Rams ass.
01:25Even if you accept the jet lag argument, not to that.
01:28Jet lag can't make that big of a difference.
01:30You can sleep science that all you want.
01:31They just came to play and they're a good team.
01:34They've had a lot of great games.
01:36L.A. gets more attention.
01:37Obviously, the superstars, that's worthy.
01:39They deserve that.
01:40And it's the fresh news.
01:41But the Niners have had them and they haven't gone anywhere.
01:45Getting Bosa back.
01:46Kittle back.
01:46Warner looking the way he does.
01:48Still, adding Mike Evans into the mix.
01:51This team is so loaded.
01:53Okay.
01:53So, that's point one.
01:55She had more to say about it.
01:57And this is a question we could debate.
01:59What if I asked you this before I play what she said?
02:02How different do you think the Niner and Rams rosters are?
02:05I think that they're, I mean, when healthy, I think that they are slightly different.
02:11And we can go position group by position group.
02:13And if Aaron Donald is actually back and able to play football, like on paper, the Rams are better.
02:19But we're not doing on paper.
02:21And so, you've got Miles Garrett, who's now going to be out for four games.
02:25And I look at Matthew Stafford on paper.
02:28He is better than Brock Purdy.
02:30But through one week, he didn't play better.
02:32So, it's hard to look at it and say which roster was better.
02:36The Niners were better on Thursday last week.
02:39Here's what Kay said about that.
02:41And it was really wrong of us all to sort of make them the afterthought in the Super Bowl conversation.
02:47And if not to disparage the Seahawks or L.A. in that division, I'm still a believer in what they
02:52can do.
02:53And you can say it's anybody's game.
02:54But when you step back and you look at the roster construction, is there really that much difference between the
03:02Niners and L.A.?
03:03How much separation is there really?
03:06San Francisco won 12 games last season with one of the most insane injury situations that brought up a substation
03:13conspiracy.
03:13And we talked about that much more than we talked about anything else.
03:17I didn't even say the name Christian Freaky McCaffrey here.
03:20They have everything you look for in a contender, do they not?
03:24Kyle.
03:24Oh, my gosh.
03:25Kyle, get yourself a Super Bowl.
03:28You need it.
03:29You've been there knocking on the door.
03:31The window is now.
03:33And they got a chance.
03:34He's absolutely right.
03:35And I know we always have to use the phrase when healthy or if healthy.
03:39And that's fair and it's fine.
03:41But right now, they relatively are.
03:43Not saying it'll stay that way.
03:45But these guys are available right now.
03:48And when they're available, I honestly think what an opportunity if you're a gambler.
03:54If anybody ever wants to do that again and let you get points with this roster, that's funny to me.
04:02Take it.
04:03Take it.
04:04If the Niners are an underdog, take it when they're healthy.
04:07Yeah, and it was what?
04:08Three and a half was ultimately where it landed.
04:10And you look at the actual way the game played out.
04:13And again, I disagree that the 49ers, quote, kicked their ass.
04:19There were plays in the second half that if they go a different way, the 49ers are in a much
04:23tighter ballgame.
04:24I still think they win.
04:25But, you know, the Rams had a crack to make it 17-14 at the goal line.
04:31And they didn't.
04:31And then the Niners went 99 yards and scored a touchdown.
04:34So those two drives ultimately determined what the game would be.
04:38And the other piece of what she said is I don't, and I've tried not to do this when I
04:44talk about my jet lag because, you know, Kay's saying, oh, my jet lag wasn't a problem.
04:49Well, you didn't play football.
04:50And so for me, and you could talk about your own jet lag relative to your own career and your
04:55own body.
04:56But that's not something that I look at and say, okay, well, in that case, it's no excuse.
05:00Well, what if we hear about it from a football player?
05:02From Fox, Tom Brady.
05:04There's one thing I thought about all that was how much garbage people were talking about that stupid travel, this,
05:10that.
05:11You know what matters?
05:12Playing good football.
05:13I don't give a shit if you show up five minutes before the game, an hour before the game, a
05:17week before the game.
05:18When you show up and you walk out on the field, complete the passes, make the blocks, make the tackles,
05:23play good football.
05:24There's nothing more important than execution.
05:26Yeah, all the things may set up to better execution on game day, travel, food.
05:30At the end of the day, go out there and play well.
05:33That's how I settled the debate.
05:34Yeah, and he's absolutely right.
05:36And that's why I said that if I were a Ram, I'd be offended by this conversation.
05:41It's an excuse.
05:43And it's not one that you get because you guys chose this.
05:46In fact, you chose this opponent.
05:49You chose.
05:50Well, the players didn't.
05:51No, but McVeigh sure did, which is why I don't want to hear that, oh, we don't want to ever
05:57go to Australia again.
05:59You chose to bring the 49ers out there because you didn't want them overloading your stadium.
06:05You chose to show up 27 hours before a kick.
06:09You chose all this.
06:11This is part of your plan.
06:12And I know how this fan base works.
06:17If the Niners lost 27-7 and it felt for one second like Kyle Shanahan after the fact was saying,
06:27oh, I don't want to go to Australia again.
06:30That was tough.
06:31Oh, my God.
06:32He'd get skewered, skewered by this fan base for making excuses.
06:38McVeigh's initial comments were giving the Niners credit.
06:41And then since then, it's been a lot of, you know, God, I hope we don't have to go through
06:44that again and the whole rest of it.
06:46It doesn't play well.
06:47It doesn't.
06:48And, you know, Tom Brady never had to play in Australia.
06:50Not to say that he didn't play in Europe.
06:52I'm sure he did.
06:53Or Mexico.
06:54Or I don't think he ever went to Rio.
06:56I don't know.
06:56I don't know when they started this.
06:58He probably played in Europe during his brief time when they started going to play games in Europe.
07:03But this one is uncharted territory.
07:06And, again, if you want to look at that game and cite only the jet lag and the travel, well,
07:12that's an excuse.
07:13Because both teams had to travel that far.
07:15And the Rams chose to go last minute.
07:17And so, yeah, you have your own approach.
07:19And they approached it, I believe, so that they would be fresher for the game coming up on Monday.
07:25I guess the first game in Europe was actually a preseason game.
07:30And it was when I was eight years old.
07:33Wow.
07:34I didn't realize that.
07:36They played a game in Europe in 1983.
07:38Preseason.
07:39Preseason game.
07:39Yeah, but wow.
07:40Yeah.
07:41First regular season game in Europe, October 28th, 2007.
07:47Almost 20 years ago.
07:48So, Tom was definitely playing.
07:50Yeah, I mean, why the delay between the preseason game and the regular season game?
07:53Oh, yeah.
07:53Probably a lot of owner pushback.
07:55Probably a lot of all kinds of pushback.
07:57No doubt.
07:58Leroy in Oakland.
07:59Hi, Leroy.
08:00We thank you for calling, man.
08:04Willard, Dibs, happy Friday, brother.
08:07Yeah.
08:07I just got off work.
08:09Man, I just got off work.
08:11I got the weekend off.
08:13I came home.
08:14I threw on my 95-7 the game, blue and yellow t-shirt.
08:18And I'm ready for the weekend, man.
08:21Look.
08:21Let's go.
08:22The Niners.
08:23The Niners.
08:25We played the Rams.
08:27We played the Rams.
08:29We beat the Rams.
08:31Now, all week leading up to that game, we were saying, all you guys at the station, everybody
08:39across the sports landscape was saying, hey, what can the San Francisco 49ers do to offset
08:47what Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald can do?
08:52And that was all week.
08:54And I called in and said, we can do three things.
08:57We can win in three areas.
08:59We can win the special teams.
09:02We can win time of possession.
09:04And we can win the turnover battle.
09:06That's how we offset what Miles Garrett and Donald and that defense can do.
09:12Well, they basically didn't play.
09:16We still won in those three areas, but they didn't play.
09:20So what I'm saying is, I think the next matchup will be much more competitive.
09:27I think it will be a very close game.
09:30I don't know who will win it against the Niners and the Rams in that next game.
09:34It was the first game of the season.
09:36Always kind of throw that game out of the window.
09:40First game, nerves, this and that.
09:42So I'm just like, yeah, look, this, the 49ers are great in those three areas.
09:50And if they keep winning in those three areas, they can beat anybody.
09:55When you own the time of possession, you own the turnover battle,
09:59and you win on special teams, boy, you are in every game.
10:03And I just hope that they keep that up.
10:05But I want to see them play a good, good team with everybody healthy.
10:11And then, so I'm just like, hey, we got this game.
10:15Just keep getting games.
10:16But, you know, I don't look at it as this beat down.
10:18I don't look at it as this, you know, we beat a good team.
10:22Vegas said they had a good team.
10:24But I was like, what are they talking about?
10:26So I would like to see the 49ers win in those areas against a good, good, good team.
10:33Right?
10:34And so I'm not putting too much stock into, you know, what the Rams didn't do.
10:39Hey, I'm just happy my 49ers won, Dears Willard.
10:43I love it.
10:44Leroy, thanks.
10:45And we don't know how good, good, good the Rams are.
10:49And the next time they play, we'll be up here at Levi's,
10:52and there'll be no travel excuses as far as the Rams and this whole Australia thing.
10:56Long time from now, right?
10:57What week?
10:58Yeah, it's week, it is week 14.
11:0114.
11:01December 13th.
11:02I mean, who knows what the hell is going on by then?
11:04Right, who knows what the hell is going on by then?
11:06Right, so I think the next really, quote, good team the Niners will face
11:10will be at Seattle October 11th.
11:12Well, they've got Denver the week before, and Denver, I think Denver's good.
11:16But the game at Seattle, which is week five,
11:19that's going to be a real test against a really, quote, good, good, good team.
11:23Arizona might be good.
11:24Like, I don't know if I look at it the same way where, you know, we're kind of talking.
11:29Like, how can we do what we did all summer long and now suggest the Rams aren't good?
11:34Now, their record, sure, they're 0-1, and this season can go sideways.
11:41It's allowed to.
11:43They're allowed to miss the playoffs.
11:45I checked.
11:46And who knows, they might.
11:49I'm sort of torn on that one because I do think something's wrong with the Rams.
11:53I think something smells right now.
11:55Something doesn't feel right.
11:57But I'm not going to go so far as to say that's not a good team.
12:02Even if they were to miss the playoffs, like, what if I just described it this way?
12:07They are a team that is filled with good players.
12:09And even without Aaron Donald there, the rest of the guys were there.
12:13They were healthy.
12:14They were good to go.
12:16Puka played.
12:16Devontae played.
12:17Matt played.
12:18Kyron played.
12:19Blake played.
12:20Trent McDuffie played.
12:21Miles Garrett played.
12:23Like, they, Young played.
12:24They all played.
12:26And the Niners did, whether you want to call it a beatdown or not,
12:30they absolutely and clearly outplayed them and beat them by three touchdowns.
12:36So, that's a good win.
12:40You can't take that from the 49ers.
12:42That's a really good win.
12:43I think every win, for the most part, is a, quote, good win.
12:45And you beat a team that was hyped up to be the Super Bowl favorite,
12:49a prohibitive favorite, 5-1 to win the Super Bowl, et cetera.
12:52I just look at the actual bones of the game.
12:56Put the score aside because the score is all that really matters.
12:59But you outgained the Rams by basically 90 yards.
13:04And you had two takeaways.
13:05They had one.
13:06And I'm just looking at my notes again.
13:08Rams are up 7-3.
13:10Brock throws that bad throw into quadruple coverage.
13:13It's a pick.
13:13And the Rams have the lead in the ball.
13:15And then you get a pick back.
13:17And so, it's like, okay, we pick you back.
13:20The big play to Robinson.
13:22Niners get the lead that they never relinquish.
13:23And beyond that, the Rams still, in the third quarter,
13:27got down to your one-yard line.
13:28So, it's not like it was a series of three and outs
13:31and the Rams couldn't do anything all day.
13:32There were plays that needed to be made.
13:35And the Niners made the majority of them.
13:37And you stopped them at the one.
13:38And then you scored a touchdown.
13:40And then Fred Warner with the peanut punch gets the ball back again.
13:43You score again.
13:45And it's night-night.
13:46But for me, it was not a complete, like, first minute through 60th minute domination.
13:50I've seen bigger blowouts than that, yes.
13:53Right.
13:53I think that, you know, some of the narrative now,
13:55and Kay Adams is definitely feeding into this,
13:57is they absolutely kicked the Rams' ass.
14:00Well, I don't think so.
14:03I mean...
14:03If you look at every play,
14:05the Niners won about 70% of the plays in the game,
14:08and they made the big plays.
14:09I get where you're coming from,
14:11but I also think that that's sports.
14:13That's the way we talk about sports.
14:14Like, if you do make the big plays,
14:17even if there are moments in a game where you're like,
14:19ooh, this could go the other way.
14:21You know what I mean?
14:22Like, did the Bills kick the Lions' ass last night?
14:24I think they did.
14:25I know that the Lions,
14:27once you're in a situation where you're down by 20,
14:30and you can open it up and just keep hucking it to Amon Ross St. Brown,
14:33make all his fantasy players just salivate,
14:37you can do that.
14:39It doesn't remove the fact that the Bills kicked your ass.
14:42And that game, only on the scoreboard, ended up being 10.
14:45Like, the 49ers, at the end of the game,
14:48they had made all of the big plays in the big moments,
14:51and the Rams waved a white flag.
14:54So, I get that it's just phraseology,
14:56and you can like it or not like it.
14:58I accept that the Rams got their asses kicked.
15:02But I also accept what you're saying,
15:04which is that there were moments in the game
15:05where it could have gone a different way, but it didn't.
15:07Right.
15:07So, I give the Niners credit for that.
15:09I think the Niners still win the game,
15:10but you get down, like the Rams are down 17-7,
15:14and they spend almost eight minutes,
15:16and they drive down to the one,
15:18and that is exactly what the Rams try to do,
15:21which is keep the ball, possess it.
15:22They ran it.
15:23They threw it.
15:24There were very few plays where the Niners bowed up
15:27until you got to fourth and one at the one,
15:29inside the one,
15:30and Stafford tries to meander into the end zone.
15:32He doesn't get there.
15:33And the Niners go 99 yards the other way,
15:35and it's game over.
15:36So, I'm not saying that if the Rams score there, 17-14,
15:40oh, boy, the Rams have all the momentum.
15:42They're going to win the game.
15:43But the fact that they didn't score,
15:45and the Niners did score,
15:46that was very deflating.
15:48Yeah, completely.
15:49That was when the game was,
15:52that was the Niners game in that moment, for sure.
15:55Lucky in the city next.
15:56Hi, Lucky.
15:56Thanks for calling.
15:59Good afternoon, fellas.
16:02You know, as far as the Niners, man,
16:05like I was telling Pasta,
16:06man, it was a good first step
16:07because I liked how we stepped on the Australia land,
16:11and we put boot to it.
16:13You know what I mean.
16:14Hair.
16:14So, everybody said that,
16:18oh, on paper, the Rams are favorites.
16:20We don't have a shot.
16:22Okay, you might as well just go ahead
16:24and take that 0-1 loss.
16:25No, you have to step on the field,
16:28put your fingers in the grass and the dirt,
16:31and you go head up
16:32and see who has the best that day.
16:35That's what the Niners did.
16:37So, I'm happy.
16:38I'm impressed.
16:39I'm sad about, you know,
16:41scribbling, but he'll be back.
16:43You know, he'll be ready.
16:45But let's take it week to week, man.
16:47I don't care who the opponent is.
16:49Let's take it week to week.
16:50Keep swinging that pickaxe
16:52and chopping them down.
16:54Let's go.
16:54Lucky, thanks.
16:55I'll tell you this, too,
16:57and I know we've referenced it already
16:58a couple times,
16:59and we have a whole other show
17:00that's going to lead into it on Monday.
17:03I am very interested to see
17:06the New York Giants play the Los Angeles Rams.
17:09I am very interested.
17:11Week two, to me,
17:13you could argue is,
17:16boy, in the first half of the season,
17:18I'd argue it could be the most interesting week
17:20of the entire season.
17:22And the reason for that is,
17:25is we wait so long to get to week one
17:29and we all have our preconceived notions
17:31and then we watch it play out
17:33and then some things either get confirmed,
17:36others get denied.
17:37The two L.A. teams right now
17:39are the ones that really took it on the chin
17:40for week one in terms of looking very poor.
17:44But everything that we watched
17:46needs to kind of be confirmed.
17:49And I always feel like week two kind of does that.
17:52Like, what did we see week one
17:54that actually was real?
17:55What was circumstantial
17:57and therefore somewhat imagined?
17:59The New York Giants pulled off an upset
18:01and beat a division rival.
18:03The Rams did the opposite.
18:05I cannot wait to see those two teams play.
18:08I think that's your learned game of the weekend.
18:11It can be, certainly.
18:13And I think you can look at other games
18:14such as the Chargers taking on the Las Vegas Raiders
18:19because the Raiders with a nice win,
18:21the Chargers with a really bad loss,
18:23and the Chargers are home-ish
18:25against a Raider team
18:27who is probably going to win the building.
18:29And so that's one that's interesting.
18:31And the other one that I'm kind of keeping an eye on
18:34is what we're going to have with Dallas and Washington
18:36because Dallas had, you know,
18:38another one of those kind of dud performances.
18:40You mentioned the Giants.
18:41And so is Dallas going to be a team
18:44that dips to 0-2
18:45or are they going to bow up
18:46and take down Washington?
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