After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

It's that time of year again. I can feel the adrenaline.

It's just different on NFL Sunday nights. Now, producer Jay asked me before the show, how are you feeling? He's all excited.

He's over the moon. The Giants won, blah, blah, blah. We'll get to all of that. But all I could think was, boy, man, there's a lot of information to digest. Man, there are a lot of games for which I need to finish up my notes. Man, this is the first of the 16 hour Sunday into Monday work days. But you know, I wouldn't trade them for any other shift on this entire network.

I love working at NFL Sundays. But right, until I find my groove until I get comfortable, it's a little bit like the football players themselves until I feel like I settle in. Shake the rust off, if you will, get back into that rhythm because it's different when you have 17 pages of notes.

All right, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. I do have seven full five by seven index cards covered with, well cursive because I write in cursive, covered with notes. Jay actually offered to share some of his notes with me and I said, what? No, I've got a system. It's not quite shorthand, but I got a system.

And also writing things down helps me remember, which is why I tweet a lot more on NFL Sundays, because there's a lot to remember. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there.

For home loan solutions that fit your life, Rocket can. What are your reactions and your overreactions? Just go ahead. Let it all out. Let it all out.

It's totally fine. It's a safe space here. There really is a safe space. We offer therapy and yelling. And so you can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio. Also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Our phone number 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We have so much more to get to. I still want you to hear from Baker Mayfield, as well as the Cleveland Browns, plus that insane in the membrane finish. Well, really the entire game plus OT in Cincinnati between Steelers and Bengals and the victory for Pittsburgh coming at a cost. We had Carson Wentz in his debut in Washington. The new built and new look, Philadelphia Eagles.

A monsoon in Chicago. A brand new coach with an aggressive mentality in New York. There's so much to get to and I promise you we're going to get to every game at least once. The big news, well there's lots of it, but the big news actually being on the injury front from Sunday Night Football. And to that end, as chaos reigned on this first NFL Sunday, we are pleased to welcome Matt Verteram, who joins us from Chicago.

He covers the NFL for fansited and I'm going to take a deep breath here and I'm going to give you a wide open question just to start to kind of get our feet wet because we're getting right back into this too, Matt. What are a few things that jump out at you about week number one this Sunday as we get off and rolling and man, it was it was not just rolling, but it was cruising through Sunday. I think week one is the most unpredictable week every year because there's no tape for some of these teams and these new coaches. You know, some teams play a lot in the preseason, others don't play their stars in the preseason. And I think this week really lived up to that.

You know, you saw some crazy justice. I don't think many people thought Chicago would win, that Atlanta would take New Orleans to the wire, probably should have won. Same thing with Houston against Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, you know, in a game that took Joe Burrows for four interceptions and lose the fumble. But I think probably the lasting takeaways other than injury related ones are what you saw last year. The Bills were an excellent team that fell in Kansas City, but looked like a Super Bowl favorite coming in.

They looked like one. Kansas City, even though Tyler Gilligan, a lot of people thought they just even stole a really top tier team, still a contender, went out scored 44 points. On the flip side, Tennessee, you looked at them, did they have enough? Did they have enough offensively?

I don't know. They couldn't get much explosive and is going against the Giants. You know, I think the Bengals reworked the offensive line, gave up seven sacks.

So there's a lot to digest from the week. Yes, there definitely is a lot to digest but injury certainly jump out after week one because it's so quick and specifically Sunday Night Football. Dak Prescott we find out is going to need surgery on his thumb and then TJ Watt, Najee Harris from the Steelers, even that win that you mentioned against the Bengals.

Of the injuries that we know so far, which ones are most damaging? Oh Prescott, without him the Cowboys are done. They're not winning anything without him. No offense to Cooper Rush, but they're not staying in the playoffs even in the weaker NFC without Prescott. If Prescott's out for a month, two months, if it's on Dallas, I'm making the phone call to San Francisco and saying, look, would Jimmy waive his no trade clause to come here?

And if so, what would the draft compensation need to be? Now you're the Niners of all the leverage in the world. Because you can sit there and say, look, without him, you're, you're screwed. You're not going to win games.

So how do you want to play this? And the other question is though, if you're San Francisco and that call is made to you, do you want to trade to me Garoppolo after what you saw in week one? No, I'm not going to, I'm not going to get on trail and answer his performance today. They played them on June in Chicago, but are you willing to trade Garoppolo to another NFC team that you might be fighting for a playoff spot with? Do you feel confident enough in Lance that you would move off of Garoppolo for what would probably be a mid-round pick? But if you're the Cowboys, the next 48 to 72 hours have to be, you're doing anything you possibly can to replace Prescott with somebody who's not named Cooper Rush. Thinking about the Steelers though, if they lose TJ Watt, seeing today's offensive display by Pittsburgh, I get it. They were on the road, hostile territory, Mitch Trubisky's first game, but they did lose Najee who's supposed to be their bell cow. And it was on the defense. It was all on the defense. And that defense is so different without TJ.

Oh, there's no question. The Steelers were plus five in turnovers today and scored 16 offensive or special teams points. Again, they had a pick six and otherwise scored 16 points in a game that went the full night of overtime.

They have no offense. The offensive line is not good. Trubisky is not a starting quarterback in the NFL. And so you're stuck with this team. If they're going to win games, it's going to be a lot like it was last year where they're going to have to hold teams under 20 points. They're going to have to win the turnover battle, probably take less penalties and win a game 17 to 14. And they essentially did so today, got a little bit over 20, but without Watt, everything changes.

Now you don't have to fly blind that way. You don't have to devote all that time to high Smith at three sacks today. You know, Hayward is a future hall of Famer, but now it's not as hard. Now you can double Hayward.

You can chip on the high Smith. You don't have to worry about the other side, whether it be something like a Malik Reed stepping in as an ice player, but nowhere near the caliber TJ watt. So for the Steelers, you're right. They're going to have to win playing a defensive ball control type of game. And while Harris hurts, watt is a crusher. If they don't have him, they're going to be forced to open up offensively as they're going to give up more points. And that's going to lead to them turning the ball over more. We are processing week number one with Matt Verderam of fan sided covering the NFL on the national scale also has a stacking the box podcast.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS sports radio. I've been saying over the course of the off season because quarterbacks, we know most impactful player on the field at any point, but the amount of movement among wide receivers you knew was going to impact the league in a major way. And even in week number one, we see guys in new places who are already racking up yards and connecting with their new QBs. What impressed you the most in week one in terms of wide receivers? I've been happy AJ Brown came in was dynamite right away, had over a hundred yards in the first half finished with over a buck 50 Philadelphia scored 38 points against the Detroit team that may not be very good yet, but certainly his game is a frisky team.

The team that really actually gave the eagle all they could handle by the end of it. So I love his fit there. You know, he's a big bodied guy.

You've heard that big target. Of course, the Vontae Adams, it was in a loss, but you couldn't have played much better. He was phenomenal against the chargers. They were, you know, the chargers ultimately get away with the game. But, but Taron Adams showed that that hookup that they had in Fresno State so many years ago, he looked great. Tyrese Hill had over 90 yards with Tua and a win for Miami. And the offense only scored 13 points that game for the dolphins.

You'd like to see a little bit more than that, but their connection was really good. And I think it was interesting that teams that lost those players, look, Tennessee had no juice offensively. They only must've 20 points against the Giants. The Packers were abysmal in Minnesota.

They had no ability to get down the field. The only team that was able to overcome it was Kansas City who scored 44 points and didn't even really try in the fourth quarter and they were pulling starters. So it was very interesting to see how it all started. I know that he's not in a new place, but man, it was good to see Mike Thomas back on the field making a difference for the Saints again, wasn't it?

Sure was. Look, the Saints are a team I thought coming into the year could be really interesting to watch. And I didn't feel that way at 26 to 10 in Atlanta, but Mike Thomas comes back, has a couple of touchdowns, but he is a guy that you can run on those shorter and intermediate routes.

And he's just about impossible to guard. If Winston puts the ball on him, he's going to make the catch and he's going to make some yards after it. They have a nice triplets group there at the receiver position with between Landry and the rookie Olave, of course, out of Ohio State. And now you factor in Michael Thomas is back, you have Kamara in the backfield. The Saints have a lot of firepower and early on today, really for the first two quarters of the game, they could not get anything going.

We finally found themselves. But yet Michael Thomas was out all of last year, of course, with the ankle injury and the surgery was really good and is someone I am very interested to see next week when the Saints host the Buccaneers over in the Superdome. Matt Verderam is with us from Chicago, covers the NFL for fans. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. You know how it is with fans. And I dare say those of us in broadcasting, too, we tend to overreact when it comes to the season openers. So, Matt, playing devil's advocate, we're a few places where you can just hear it now. Fans and media overreacting to what we saw in one week.

Oh, there's going to be plenty of that. You know, I think there's going to be if you if you had to point to a few different cities, I mean, Pittsburgh, I think there's going to be this thought all of a sudden that now they can compete in the division. Now, maybe the injuries mute that some. I don't think Pittsburgh can do that, even without the injuries. They just can't score. They have no offense. But the flip side of that is going to be the places that will really go nuts with teams that lost.

The tablets, they can react as harshly as they want to, because with everything that happened today or tonight, rather, that's an issue. Green Bay, that will probably be an overreaction. The Packers played horrible football today in Minnesota. They also did that last year in week one against the Saints. They got blown out and they were the number one team. They will figure it out. They're too talented not to. They were missing some ski guys on the offensive line. You know, and then the other one, I wonder how the reaction is going to be in Los Angeles. Now that you see the whole week play out, the Rams are in a position where everybody in the division lost, except for Shadow, who of course plays on Monday night.

And you walk away from the center. That's one of the hardest things you're going to play all year in Buffalo. But the offensive line looks like a wreck, and you have this injury to Brian Allen's center. Is the reaction there like, hey, it's going to be all right? Or is it, hey, this is already trending in a bad way, except for this division that might keep us alive?

I'm curious to see there. And then of course, Vegas, where expectations are high. Raiders went to the playoffs last year. They lose a game to the Chargers, where the offense gives up six sacks.

That's a problem. And that I think is actually a proper reaction because they cannot block. And if you can't block in that division with all those pass rushers, you have a problem. What's your reaction to what we saw from the Patriots offense in Miami, considering all the questions surrounding Bill Belichick, setting up his offensive coaching staff, Amy, I think it was predictable.

I mean, at least from my vantage point, I think it was just a predictable outcome. They more money on receivers and tight ends and any other team in football this year, which is crazy when you really think about it. Who's the star? Who is the guy on third and eighth year? You're clearing out the throat to Hunter Henry. I don't think it's Hunter Henry, but he's not that guy. John Smith, he's not that guy. Devontae Parker. So I'm not shocked that what we saw today was an offense that just couldn't get in the rhythm.

They were very disjointed to achieve some communication issues. This is a team that you just have a ton of questions on offensively from execution to the play calling to the talent of it. I think for the past, they played the Steelers in week two. That's a game where if you lose that game and you're sitting there at 0-2 in a division where Miami's better and the Bills are great, you're already in a hole that you're looking up to. It's going to be a little bit of a difficult climb out, but I just don't think the talent is there for doing it offensively to be more than a 20 point a game type offense. We saw the Browns go into Charlotte and win, Matt, and I would say the Panthers offense found some stability, some rhythm late in the game, even though of course they didn't come away with the W, but first reaction to Baker Mayfield in Charlotte.

I kind of like you said, the first three quarters he was really anywhere from terrible to average in the fourth quarter. He led two big drives and if not for an unbelievable kick at the end, a 58 yard field goal by York, the rookie in Cleveland, Carolina wins and Baker gets his revenge. But you know, the problem is going to be for Carolina all year that they're going to have to contend with is their offensive line. Now they drafted a three quantum top 10 pick. I think he will be a very good player for them over time, but he went against miles power today. Garrett, a couple of sacks, Cleveland had four in total. Mayfield's not the most mobile guy. And so Caroline is going to have to do a better job protecting. If the Panthers would do that, then I think, you know what?

They've got some weapons. DJ Moore can play. Robbie Anderson is a good player. Christian McCaffrey, if he's healthy, is great. The talent is there for the Panthers to win some games, especially in the division where I don't think it's overwhelming. It's not terrible, but it's not a great division. So, um, all the overall, if you're the Panthers, it's a bitter loss.

You're disappointed. The defense, I think you got to sit there and say, you know, we got to do a better job. Jacoby per set did nothing in that game. And yet you're getting just gassed by the run, which of course is how Cleveland has played and is going to continue to play. Um, but yeah, I thought if you're Baker, you can build off some positives in the fourth quarter, but yeah, the protection has got to be better and they've got to give them much more complete effort. At least initially the Baker that we saw in Carolina was a lot like the Baker that we saw in Cleveland. Yeah, it was just, it was a, it was a weird game. I mean, at least I knew he was going to come out and just be gangbusters right off the bat, you know, with all the motivation and I figured he'd be so laser focused, you know, look up and through the first 11 to 10, he had 15 yards. Hey, it was a weird start of the game. Then they settled down.

It's all like, all right, maybe they're going to sneak out of here with this, but it wasn't to be. And now they go to play the giants who all of a sudden are wanting to know and feel great about themselves and are coming home to a crowd that I'm sure is starving for any kind of a, of a team to root for. So that's actually an interesting game. That's a really fascinating matchup in East Rutherford next summer. Before I let you go, Matt, we found out, uh, prior to the games kicking off on Sunday that the Ravens had offered guaranteed $133 million to Lamar Jackson as part of a $250 million contract offer, which he declined.

If you're the Ravens, how far are you willing to go? You know, I'm willing to play out this season and then I'm tagging him. And I think they're probably going to have to give him an exclusive tag, which is going to be over $40 million unless they're willing to risk that a team offers him a deal they can't match. And then they get two first round picks, but he's worth more than that.

So I think they'd have to give him an exclusive tag. And if I'm Eric DeCosta, if I'm the GM there at that point, I should download Lamar Jackson and say, look, we are making your best offer, whatever that is, it is. And if he's unwilling to take that, I'd shop him. Because at some point you can't play on these huge tag numbers with no long-term security.

And you, you're, you never know. You, you at that point have to figure if he's not willing to sign whatever your, your best offer is, where do you go from there? I mean, he's only going to get more expensive as time goes on, as the cap continues to rise and if he continues to have good years. So I make my absolute best offer after the season.

I do place him on the tag because I don't want to lose him in free agency, but at some point you either have to be able to come to an agreement or say, look, we've done the absolute best we can. We will get a fortune's worth of draft picks for him. And the big class coming up, a lot of people in the league that I've spoken to think you're going to have six or seven kids at a quarterback still in the first round. So I think if you're the Ravens, you give them one more shot this next off season, but if not, then, then I think you start looking around and seeing what's out there. Time will tell, but it's only week one.

So we have plenty of time to see how this plays out. You can find Matt Verderam on Twitter at Matt Verderam, V-E-R-D-E-R-A-M-E covers the NFL, has the stacking the box podcast. Matt, thank you so much for a couple of minutes after what was a wild and wacky start to the season. No problem, Amy. Thanks for having me.

We couldn't even scratch the surface. Really? There's so much happening, but good to get a few of Matt's thoughts. I already think some of your overreactions it's okay. I'm here to tell you to breathe and tap the brakes unless you're a Dallas Cowboys fan.

And then I say, there's no such thing as an overreaction right now. Not after Sunday night football. We've got more from week one. Bengal Steelers bottom of the hour.

It's going to require the second half of the hour, but how about a little bit with Baker as well as the Browns, considering that their clash turned out to be spicy in the late stages as well. And that is, we were just talking about Lamar Jackson. This is also AFC North, right?

Lamar Jackson turning down a pretty impressive offer from the Baltimore Ravens on Friday. He actually talked about it. Not just that though. Ravens were a very popular survivor Island pick. Huh?

So were the Titans. Oh, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Baker in the shotgun, a former number one pick takes the snap. Mayfield steps up.

He's got a lane. Touchdown! Baker Mayfield who fires the ball against the back wall. It's time to pull on the pads and hit somebody on After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

He definitely fired the ball at the back wall. Baker Mayfield with his rushing touchdown as the Panthers were making their fourth quarter charge, nearly took off the head of the security guard, but made it looked a lot like his celebration in Cleveland when he used to be a member of the Browns. Browns and Panthers, one of the juicy matchups of week one, the early round of games.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, the call there on Panthers Radio. So I wanted you to hear from Baker Mayfield. I don't know if you were counting the fumbles because they weren't lost fumbles, but did you know the Panthers dropped the ball five different times and recovered it all five times? Not only does that affect your rhythm and your timing, but it allows the defense to pick up precious seconds while you're fumbling around and four of the times that the ball was dropped and recovered, it was Baker. Now, I'm not saying it was all on Baker because he's working with a new center, right? He's trying to get comfortable with a new offensive line.

They're trying to get comfortable with him. But there were a lot of mistakes that didn't necessarily affect them in ways that would stand out like interceptions, though there was one of those, or lost fumbles, but just out of sync. A ton of mistakes, self-inflicted mistakes in the first half by our offense.

I don't take the blame on that for sure. The ball's on the ground too many times, just miscommunication and just things that we can get fixed. You know, disappointing because they're things that we know we can do and we've handled before. So those are the ones that, you know, you think about, you harp on, but they're fixable. That's the positive.

So Baker Mafio believes they are fixable. No place to go but up. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. We'll get to the Browns perspective. Miles Garrett had a pair of sacks. Can you imagine the type of trash talking there was going on in the trenches between Browns and Panthers?

It must have been juicy. And then the rookie, Cade York, drafted in the fourth round. It's rare that kickers get drafted in the fourth round, but he goes six for six with four field goals, two extra points, and the game winner from 58 yards as time expired. So yes, this was a Browns win. We've all been waiting to hear from Baker about what it was like to face his former team, the team that drafted him and then unceremoniously dumped him. Everybody made this out to be the Super Bowl, but despite what everybody's going to make this, there's 16 more games.

The Super Bowl is not until February and this is the beginning of September. So like I said, a lot of anticipation, but we're going to flush this. We're going to learn it and we're going to be better from it. Obviously a disappointing end to what looked like a great football game. In summation, I would say, you know, guys that I thought it just took us way too long to get started. You know, we were kind of banking on our defense, keeping us in the game until our offense could get clicking. It just took us too long offensively, I thought, to get clicking. You know, the kick out of bounds at the end of the half, you know, after we had scored the touchdown obviously didn't help. Them finishing with two field goals, you know, obviously was the difference in the game.

So a lot of things that we have to correct. I think what I will say is I saw a lot of the positive things that we believe that we have, you know, once the offense did kind of get on track, saw some of the explosiveness that we know that we have and we'll just have to become more consistent with that. Baker and Matt Ruhl and I don't know, maybe I just missed it, but I don't recall one person, not even one, saying that this was a Super Bowl preview, making this out to be the Super Bowl. Is that what Baker said? Everybody made this out to be the Super Bowl.

Hmm. I mean, seems like members of the media are contradicting Baker these days. Yeah, not the Super Bowl.

At least not yet. And he's right. It's September. You know how I feel about Super Bowl talk in September. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio.

So yes, we have to clean up. As for the Browns, well, their offense is what it is. Jacoby Brissett. We have seen enough of him in the NFL that we know what he is. He has to start 10 more weeks as long as he's healthy.

And so it's going to be hit or miss at times. He goes 18 of 34, not even 150 yards. He does have a touchdown, but I will give him credit. He directs that six play drive with two first downs to get the Browns into Cade York's field goal range.

A 58 yarder for the rookie as time expires to beat the Panthers. Coming in, everybody obviously knew about Cade and seeing the kicks that he's made throughout his college career. And I mean, like I said, we saw him in practice do it. You see the work that he puts in, the confidence he has. And it showed up today in the biggest moment.

The moment you're just like, you're so focused on the task at hand and what we need to do. I mean, they get the big play. They're in field goal territory. Great job by our defense to hold them to three. Obviously that was huge.

And then it's, all right, we're coming back and you're just in the moment, just figuring out what you got to do to get a win and any which way you got to find a way to win. Do you know this was the first win in a season opener for the Browns since 2004? 2004. I have friends who were Giants fans.

This doesn't even include producer Jay. Friends who were Giants fans who were over the moon excited because the Giants snapped a five year losing skid in season openers. The Browns go back to 2004. Boy, think about how many quarterbacks they've had since 2004, but now they got a kicker. He's legit and he's a rookie.

So welcome to the NFL, Cade York. I remember hitting it, realizing it was going in, stopped watching it and kind of just, I usually say I don't celebrate kicks, but that one was a little bit different. So yeah, everyone was just all there.

That's kind of a blur. A fist pump, maybe somewhere in there. Lots of yelling.

That's amazing. I love it when you've got these moments and young guys, rookies don't really know what to do. Maybe somewhere in there, lots of yelling. But in his case, like we hear from a lot of pro athletes, they kind of blackout momentarily blackout and really don't remember it. And he'll probably go back and watch it and think, wait, I did that. It's probably a fist pump somewhere in there.

All right. So that's lots of yelling always. There are actually a fair number of Browns fans there in Charlotte. It seemed like the Browns contingent was making some noise. So we've got one AFC North team with a win. Cleveland starts out with the first victory in the season opener since 2004.

I have to keep saying that because it just doesn't seem real. The Ravens, well, they know they're playing out this final year of Lamar Jackson's rookie contract. What did he have to say about the reports, the numbers that he turned down and what may be the game of week one?

Steelers and Bengals in Cincinnati. Oh, my gosh. I mean, it was more twists and turns than a soap opera, the kind that you don't even believe. It was that it was like that.

It was unbelievable. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. D.J. Moseley drops back into coverage.

Jeff's rush four. Jackson to throw. Lob near side.

Looking for DuVernay. End zone reaches up. Makes the catch. Touchdown Ravens. A 25-yard strike from Lamar Jackson. As Kenyon Drake with him in the backfield, Jackson takes the snap. Steps up.

Fires. Touchdown. Devin DuVernay, his second of the day, and the Ravens extend their lead. Jackson off the play fake.

Drifts to the right. Steps up, throwing deep. He's looking for Bateman at the 10.

Bateman has it. Touchdown Ravens. Rashad Bateman, 55 yards, and the Ravens are pulling away.

Very positively on them. It boosts our confidence. We trust in each other. We just got to keep going. It's the first game. We got 16 more games to go. We play yards and stuff like that. We got to keep it going. We haven't played preseason. I haven't played like six games last year.

Not much, really. Yeah, we just getting back in the swing of things. We came out better in the second half, man.

Start putting points on the board. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The Ravens finish with just 274 total yards of offense, but they're able to limit old friend Joe Flacco and the Jets to even fewer yards and only two of 14 on third down.

So this was one of the games, one of the only games that was extremely lopsided on Sunday. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Flacco throws a first quarter interception.

I mean, what? I think they're used to that in Baltimore. Baltimore has a field goal, and then Lamar finds Devin DuVernay a couple of times, and so at that point they're off to the races.

The pretty play was the 55 yard bomb to Rashad Bateman, and that was really the capper, and you hear it with Jerry Sandusky there on Ravens Radio. So Lamar finishes with 213 yards, passing three touchdowns and a pick, but let's be honest. What everyone really wanted to talk about is the report that he turned down a hell of a lot of money on Friday to go into the final year of his rookie contract with no extension. Now the reports out there, there's multiple places where this is being reported, that he nixed a five year $250 million deal that only, yes, I'm using my air quotations, only guaranteed him $133 million. Now compare that to Deshaun Watson, who has $230 million guaranteed and Lamar reportedly is holding out for a fully guaranteed contract and is willing to double down on Lamar until he gets what he wants. So not $133 million guaranteed, not a five year $250 million deal that would pay him $50 million per year. Again, the reports out there are that he wants a fully guaranteed deal, and Lamar was actually talking about this after the game. He says there's no truth to that.

Whether or not that's accurate remains to be seen. But we do know that there is no contract moving forward. And so John Harbaugh now has a starting quarterback who's in the final year of his deal, even though they've worked to try to get something done that would guarantee some stability.

And even though they now know there will be no negotiations, no new negotiations through the course of the season. All the feelings that you would expect that anybody would have, you know, you probably have, you know, you're hopeful. Those things will work themselves out in the end. I'm confident that I think I said at the beginning, that'll happen when it's time, you know, and when it's time, it'll happen. So Lamar's playing quarterback, he's going to be playing quarterback here for a long time.

He and I talked about it yesterday a little bit like, hey, let's go be our best and go focus on football. And that's what he's been doing all along. So I know nothing will change with that and just focused on Sunday. At least the Ravens are consistent. They've said from day one that Lamar Jackson will be their quarterback moving forward, that they want him to be their face of the franchise and their quarterback for a long time.

So that hasn't changed. But nothing's been done and will not be done until he plays out this final year on his rookie deal. So Browns and Ravens and the AFC North start out with wins. Steelers and Bengals were facing each other in Cincinnati. And Mitch Trubisky, the first time it was a starter other than Ben Roethlisberger since 2010 in the season opener. But of course, Roethlisberger goes back to 2004, right? 18 years with Ben Roethlisberger.

So something completely different. The thing that jumped out at me right away, and I hope it jumped out at you right away, too, is that the quarterback may be different, but the defense is the same. Minka Fitzpatrick, unbelievable.

Did you notice that Minka was absolutely everywhere in this game? Right gun this time with a protector for Burrow. Wide side to his right. He gets the snap he wants to throw it.

Late rush. He throws it down the field. Intercepted at the 30.

25-20. Minka Fitzpatrick goes into the end zone for the Pittsburgh. Well, we got a marker down on the play, so hold on. Oh, sweet Marie. What a play by Minka Fitzpatrick.

Sweet Marie. I like that on the Steelers radio network with Bill Hillgrove as the play by play voice. It was stunning to see the turnovers in the first half alone. So that Minka pick six was just the beginning. First pass of the season by Jill Burrow, picked off. Then there's a fumble by Burrow. The second interception right into the gut of a leaping T.J. Watt. That was early second quarter. That leads to a Najee Harris touchdown. And in the first half alone, the Steelers have 17 points off Bengals turnovers.

Joe Burrow himself under siege. What happened to the offensive line? I could have sworn they worked on that. I guess they need a little more time to gel. We're not going to overreact to that, right Bengals fans? Four turnovers by the QB in the first half. But the Pittsburgh offense was unproductive. And so the Bengals keep coming and they keep coming.

Didn't we see this from them at the end of last regular season all the way into the playoffs? They keep working. Burrow keeps flinging it and they take it down to the wire. Four seconds on the clock. Cincinnati at the six yard line of Pittsburgh shotgun snap to Burrow.

He fires toward the end. Yeah. Caught by Jamar Chase.

Yeah. Both feet down. Touchdown.

Bengals. Ball is down. The kick is on.

It's blocked. Kick is blocked. Minkovich Patrick blocked the kick.

Again. We have a tie game with two seconds left. Another Minkah moment. I got to tell you, this is one of the most sensational games I've ever seen. Well, it's sensational when Minkah Fitzpatrick blocks a PAT.

Oh, sweet Marie. What a play by Minkah Fitzpatrick. With no time left on the clock in regulation. So of course Steelers radio is going to say this is spectacular, but there was more drama to come. By the way, in addition to that point after blocked by Fitzpatrick, the pick six and 14 tackles, the man was everywhere in this game. So they go into overtime and oh, well, you're just going to have to hear it.

I can't even possibly do this drama justice. And this to try to end the game in overtime. The snap is high. The kick is on its way.

That kick is line drive. It's no good. Unbelievable. It's left.

It's left. No good. The high snap cost him.

You've got to be kidding me. Laces out 27 left in overtime. The snap, the put down, the kick it's on its way. It hit the upright.

It did bounce right off that bad boy. And the bangles will get the ball at the 45 yard line. That's bangles radio.

Of course, Dan Horton, Dave Lapham. Can you please just isolate the, the clang? It was such an awful sound if you're a Steelers fan, but a beautiful sound of you're a bangles fan.

It's on its way. It was so loud on TV. That's actually muted there on radio, but it was so loud on TV. Oh my gosh, Chris Boswell. He was incredulous, but that's how this overtime went. Both kickers miss field goals. Boswell bangs his 55 yarder off an upright, but he does have a chance at redemption.

We do love redemption. Straightaway kick. Good snap down. Kick is on its way. That kick is long enough.

High enough. And it is good. The Steelers survive in Cincinnati. How it happened.

It'll take you an hour, me an hour to tell you. I'm not surprised by the fight. I knew they would fight. I found comfort in that. I wasn't looking for comfort, but I found comfort in that. I just seen enough of that during team development. Obviously it was a hard fought game on both sides, man. And it always is when you're in the AFC North.

It's good to come down here and get it done today. I wasn't looking for comfort. I wasn't looking for the comfort, but I found some comfort in the fight. Mike Tomlin, he was very flustered.

He was like adrenaline filled. Now there's good news and there's bad news for the Steelers. The good news is they got the win. The bad news is they fear a torn pectoral muscle for TJ Watt, who was not there on the field at the end of the game. And also they lose Najee Harris to a foot injury. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.