Soto’s a Met, KC Doinks It Up, Bleakest NFL Franchises, Rams-Bills Bliss, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

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Coming up, I am in a fantastic mood today because the Patriots did not fail Drake May. They did not play.
They did it by.

Speaker 1 But I'm in a better mood. The Pats were zero and zero today.
And cousin Sal and I are going to break down a fantastic roller coaster ride. And it wasn't that good.
Week 14 NFL.

Speaker 1 There are a couple good games. That's about it.
First, our friends from Pearl Jab.

Speaker 1 What a night to go live. Cousin Sal is here.
Sunday night. The Chiefs just doinked their way to 12 and 1, but more importantly, Sal got Juan Soto on his Mets team.

Speaker 1 I know you want to talk about Juan Soto. Let's do it.
I really

Speaker 1 am over the moon. I was going to come on dressed as Grimace or Jerry Seinfeld, but those costumes are in the cleaners.
But I love it, man. I'm so happy.
I don't care that everyone hates us now.

Speaker 1 I don't. It makes it better.
It really does. Who hates you?

Speaker 1 I don't know. Who started the hating thing? What do you mean? Albert Poohol's 2.0.
Ticket prices are going to be affordable now. Good luck.

Speaker 1 Enjoy paying him $51 million at age 41.

Speaker 1 Listen to the

Speaker 1 text that Hench sent you.

Speaker 1 That was all Kevin Hench.

Speaker 1 I love it. I'm sorry.
Your Red Sox lost out. I love beating the Yankees.
That's the best part is beating the, we beat, we beat them. They, they were outbid.
They bid 760 for 16, and we beat them.

Speaker 1 And I know you have to to go on the field and win and all that stuff, but we never beat them at anything. We're little brother, like forever.
So you bid 760 for 15. 765.
What do we say? 765 for 15.

Speaker 1 The Yankees were at 760 for 16.

Speaker 1 And then Boris is like, do you want to drop the 16th year? and just go 15. And the Yanks were like, that's too rich for our blood.
That's crazy. We can't do that.

Speaker 1 Once you get over like 600 million,

Speaker 1 at what point is this like funny money at this point? It is kind of like losing a house, a bid on a house for like $120 or something

Speaker 1 at that point. Because everyone's like, yeah, 41 years old.

Speaker 1 Sure, he'll get 51 million at 41. He'll be the lowest paid player at that point.
But I just love beating the Yankees, man.

Speaker 1 It's like Casey Affleck dating Margo Robbie and saying, take that, big brother, bring that to TMZ. This is great.
This is the Casey Affleck.

Speaker 1 You're like the little brother?

Speaker 1 I think you're worse than the little brother.

Speaker 1 You're like the freaking cousin.

Speaker 1 I am the cousin, but thank you. Well, you're literally the cousin.
I don't even know if you're the brother. You haven't won in 38 years.
Oh, stop it. Stop it.
It's great. We won tonight.

Speaker 1 We won tonight. We beat the Yankees.
That's all I care about. I was delighted because this really ruins the Yankees.

Speaker 1 There's no plan B. This was the guy.
They have this short window with Judge and Cole, and this was the guy they were grooming to be like the next major guy.

Speaker 1 And now, what do you do if you're the Yankees? Plus, you lose them to the Mets, the team that for the last,

Speaker 1 what, really since like the mid-90s, you've been kind of kicking their butt.

Speaker 1 The Mets had a couple of little tiny runs here and there, but for the most part, it just felt like the Yankees were in the driver's seat. And now it doesn't.

Speaker 1 Now you just have this rich owner who doesn't care. Yeah.
That's it. He's like, here's money.
How much? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 800 million. I'm still worth $88 billion.
What do I care? It's beautiful. It really is.
And he left the Yankees. He played for the Yankees.
Let's not forget, right? He left.

Speaker 1 It's sort of like, remember that girl, another Seinfeld reference, dated Newman, and Jerry couldn't figure out why he broke up with her. It's like, this is the same thing.

Speaker 1 Like, Juan Soto didn't care about playing for the Yankees anymore. How many Mets Yankees crossovers have there been?

Speaker 1 Just for players? Yeah. Like for stars.
It's pretty rare, right? Oh, for stars, yeah. Well, I mean, it's gone.
It's gone.

Speaker 1 the yankees ended up strawberry and good and were the two big ones yeah yeah we haven't really i mean we had severino that was there weren't there haven't been too many the other way we'll take it

Speaker 1 so do you feel like you feel like you're the one a in new york now like for real

Speaker 1 this is it yeah our guy john justramsky is disconsolate i think he knew it was coming um because again they had all their eggs in this basket you asked how i felt as a red sox fan i never thought the red socks were going to be in this the red socks are they're the person that just goes to a bar and pretends they talk to girls all night and it's like, I got eight numbers.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I got, I'm going to text a bunch of girls when I get home.
It's like, yeah, you're going home alone.

Speaker 1 That's that's but also are there going to be any girls available for them in the next five years? Like it's kind of

Speaker 1 who they are. They're the Red Sox are just riding on the coattails of the four World Series they won because they know people like me were just wanted to see one before they died and we won four.

Speaker 1 And they've taken advantage of that for the entire 2020s. I think the thing with soto just paying a guy like that once they get 36 37 and up

Speaker 1 you just kind of know where it's going to go so you're really you're really spending all the money in the first 10 years of the contract and then you have your fingers crossed for the last five right right

Speaker 1 it's not like he's like mookie bets where he's like this amazing athlete where he's gonna be 38 and he'll still be able to play second base and be some sort of impactful player you're your guy so it'll probably move more toward the poojo stanton he'll get bigger he'll get stiffer Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's dumb. Otani, he's not Otani, but they compared it to Otani, right? So this deal had to be based on Otani, which is dumb.
He's going to be a DH, you know, if not this year in a few years. So

Speaker 1 we'll take it. We stole him from the Yankees.
That's all that matters. So what are the biggest free agent signings of your lifetime?

Speaker 1 Because I'm old enough to remember, and you are too, when they got George Foster from the Reds.

Speaker 1 And it was a huge deal. It was one of the big free agent signings in the 70s, and he was awesome on the Reds.
He was basically like National League Jim Rice.

Speaker 1 And then he went to the Mets, and it just did not go well. Nothing.
I remember the program, the two Georges, George Foster, and the manager, George Stein, George Bamberger.

Speaker 1 And it was Foster and Kingman, and they were all, they were both hit and miss back and forth. But like, I don't even know.
Like, I've gotten

Speaker 1 Bobby Bonilla was a big one. Bonilla was big.
Piazza. We're still paying that one.
Piazza.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I can't even think. I was like, I got excited about Saberhagen and Viola and stuff like that.
But

Speaker 1 we'll take it, man. We'll take it.
It's pretty cool to have a guy hitting, what is he? He's 20, he's 26 next year.

Speaker 1 You just get this guy.

Speaker 1 You could be in your 70s. He'll still be on the team.

Speaker 1 Think about it that way. That's how I've been thinking about Drake May.
I'm like, Drake May's going to take me to my 70s with a smile on my face. I feel I'm not going to live that long.

Speaker 1 And this is like me buying a turtle. You know, turtles last like 90 years.
It's like, all right, turtle, you're going to be on your own in a few years, but I'll enjoy you in the meantime.

Speaker 1 What What is the reaction with all the on the Mets fan texts? Is it like euphoria or is it like cautious euphoria? No, I think right now it's euphoria. Honestly,

Speaker 1 the Yankee part of it is just so big. Our buddy Gus is on there, and it's just a lay.
He had a funny, a really funny thing he said. I'm going to read it about his dad.

Speaker 1 He said, My dad says the four best words in English language are Mets win, Yankees lose. That's true.
I don't even know if that's English. It is.

Speaker 1 The only two teams I hate are the the Yankees and the Lakers, and it's been a rough weekend for both of them. The LeBron trade rumors, the whispers have started,

Speaker 1 and they look like they're winning tonight against Portland. But I'm always happier when those two teams aren't doing well.

Speaker 1 Well, when you're in your 70s, I think the Chiefs will still be winning stupid games.

Speaker 1 Mahomes will be 41. Collinsworth will have a walker.
And they'll just be like,

Speaker 1 back then, Fugo hit both uprights. And somehow the crossbar, and it somehow went through through back.
I can't believe how many uprights do they have in our head? Come on, Mike.

Speaker 1 I just want to kiss Patrick Mahomes' neck. That's all.
I love all these cornerbacks.

Speaker 1 I had the cheese.

Speaker 1 Why do we even get nervous? Why do we even, when it boinked off and then you wait to see if it falls in the end zone? Yeah. It's in.
Like, what do we even get excited about?

Speaker 1 Well, the field goal the guy made earlier in the game from like 49 or 50. Yeah.
It went through and then

Speaker 1 ricocheted backwards. So it kind of landed in the end zone, which I hadn't seen very often either.
That guy did not inspire a lot of confidence, but I think

Speaker 1 it was even fooled. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There were multiple chances to hedge all the Chiefs' parlays and teasers you had if you had them. I know I had a few.

Speaker 1 Halftime, 13, nothing, perfect time, because as Collinsworth was saying during that game,

Speaker 1 it was going. The Chargers were weirdly in it.
They had missed a big long pass for a touchdown. It felt like it was pretty toe-to-toe.
The score wasn't reflective. Get to the third quarter.

Speaker 1 Chargers score twice in a row. They have the lead, and it's the perfect time for the hedge.
And I looked at it, and it was

Speaker 1 Chargers, I think, plus two and a half. So it was basically like if the Chiefs win by a field goal, you could still win this Chargers bet.
And I was just like, you know,

Speaker 1 the Chiefs win this every time. Why am I hedging with it? Why am I nervous that the Chiefs, this will be the time they blow it? I'm just going to ride the Chiefs.
And that turned out to be the move.

Speaker 1 Do you think they, in the beginning of the year, got together and Andy Reed's like, this is boring, guys.

Speaker 1 Let's try this. 31.
31's a number. Let's never score 31 points.
I think they've scored 30 twice. And let's see if we can win all the games or all but one of the games.

Speaker 1 And because, I mean, really, that third and seven play, they're really... are challenging themselves, right?

Speaker 1 If they don't get a first down, they're kicking a field goal and then the Chargers could go right down. And he made it look so easy.
And then just dumping it off to Kelsey makes the defender miss.

Speaker 1 And then hitting the goal post post is like your uncle playing you in pool and, like, uh, say, I'm going to call a bank shot on every ball. Like, they're just screwing with you the whole time.

Speaker 1 They never look comfortable. They miss when they have no explosive plays whatsoever anymore.
And when they, when they try to run one, he'll miss the guy by like 10 yards.

Speaker 1 Or it'll be like his arm will get hit as he's throwing it. Or it'll be like that Hopkins play where Hopkins catches it and he gets stripped.
They just have nothing.

Speaker 1 They'll run, even like this last drive when it seemed like they would have momentum, and then they'll just run in the line, the guy will fall down. You never feel comfortable play to play.

Speaker 1 I was watching Mahomes today, like trying to remember,

Speaker 1 like, hey, are you going to do Mahomes stuff? I can barely remember what it looks like.

Speaker 1 And then he had two of them on the final drive, but we just watched Josh Allen, the fucking Superman, cape on in the earlier game.

Speaker 1 And it was, I didn't want to go there mentally because I know it's reactive and it's, but I was thinking like, shit, the way Josh Allen played played versus the way I'm watching Mahomes play now,

Speaker 1 it just seems like Allen's better this season. I'm not saying he's better career.
I'm not saying he's passed him, but just this season, it seems like he's better.

Speaker 1 And then Mahomes did like five things. And it's like, no, no, no, I'm still here.
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 1 You start a team. Is it Josh Allen or Mahomes?

Speaker 1 And I guess I'm asking, are Mahomes' best years behind him, right? Because that's a different way of asking it. And I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 I think maybe he has a clip.

Speaker 1 You can't say he's a better player because Mahomes has all the hardware. But if you're starting a team, what are you doing? What are you setting up a computer?

Speaker 1 No, I have two iPads going because I knew you were going to ask me this. Oh, all right.
So as always, I'm going to bring a Boston team into this because

Speaker 1 there's so many Chiefs, Pats parallels. Bruins, I hope.
And I was trying to remember if Brady had hit a point where it was like.

Speaker 1 Man, what's going on? And it happened. It was way later in his crib.
It was the 2013 Pats who finished 12 and 4, and it was a season very similar to this Chiefs season. But Brady that year was only

Speaker 1 25 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, threw for 43, 43 yards. The whole year was, it was the year Gronk was hurt, Hernandez was gone.
The two receivers were Edelman and Amandola.

Speaker 1 The two running backs were Stephon Ridley and LeGuerret Bunt. They just didn't have anybody.
And it led to this whole Brady conversation of what is this? Manning was lighting it up for Denver.

Speaker 1 It's like, what is Brady? Is it over?

Speaker 1 Do we need to think about the future? And it was just his supporting cast wasn't very good. And I think that's the case with Bahomes this year.
Like, who are his good offensive weapons?

Speaker 1 Kelsey was gone in that game for two hours. I forgot he was in the game.
Hopkins is okay. Pacheco's okay.

Speaker 1 Worthy's okay. They just,

Speaker 1 they don't have a single guy. You watch these other teams.
You know, like you watch

Speaker 1 that Bills Rams game, like that Nakua and Cooper Cup and Shakir, like all those guys are way better than him and the Chiefs have. But what about what you all right? So compare him to Josh Allen.

Speaker 1 You think he's got a ton of a great supporting cast? Like those names are interchangeable, I think, with the Shakir, you know, the Shakirs. I think his running backs are better.

Speaker 1 Shakir has got Amara. I'd rather have Amari Cooper than Hopkins.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Tight ends, maybe, maybe Kelsey in a big game, but when Kincaid's out there, I'm not sure it's that much of a drop-off.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I guess for what you're saying, the difference is Allen Allen has these holy shit.

Speaker 1 You know, he had five of them in the game today and Mahomes, the holy shit plays seem to be these third and sevens that bring drives, keep a drive going versus like the Allen type of play.

Speaker 1 It's like, oh my God, he just ran for 38 yards. Yeah, we get excited for Kelsey lumbering for eight yards after, you know, on third and seven, right?

Speaker 1 Whereas Allen is just zipping it in between two defenders and

Speaker 1 forget about what he does with his legs. It's insane.
He sent a fantasy record, right? 58 points or something.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. He was.

Speaker 1 I was in that guillotine league I'm in. We needed Allen to have a bad game.
As soon as the Rams took a big lead, we were like, this is going to go terribly. And then he had an awesome game.

Speaker 1 I think the other difference with them, at least this season, is Mahomes is just taking more hits. Like they had that.
Collinsworth just pointed out the whole game. They had that stat at one point.

Speaker 1 He'd been back to pass 40 times. He got hit 16.
It just seems like physically there's a toll he's taking, whereas Allen just seems superhuman at all times.

Speaker 1 Even if he's getting hit a couple times in a game, I still feel like he's fine. It still feels like he's bigger than almost everyone he's playing against.
Yeah. But Holmes had a couple ones today.

Speaker 1 Herbert did too. I thought that was a really, really physical, playoff-y kind of game.
I thought the Chargers were the big winner of the game, even though they lost.

Speaker 1 Like that game made me think that team in January, I actually think could go toe-to-toe with some AFC teams. That defense is excellent, I think, for most of the games they play.

Speaker 1 And you're right, they're physical. And like Collinsworth said it, when they were down 6-0, Harbaugh's like,

Speaker 1 I don't want to say Harbaugh's kind of got him where he wants, but this is the kind of game you want to play. But

Speaker 1 anytime the Chiefs aren't scoring 40, which seems like forever now, you're in good shape. Well, and they didn't have Dobbins, and they didn't have McConkey.

Speaker 1 And I thought when McConkey got scratched, which I didn't even know when we did like million-dollar picks on Thursday, figured McConkie was going to play, they scratched him.

Speaker 1 And after watching what we watched from Quentin Johnston this season, Palmer's been hit or miss. It's like, how are they going to move the ball?

Speaker 1 They basically got two drives where they just bullyballed the Chiefs down the field, which was unusual.

Speaker 1 Then the Chiefs are going to be able to play. I'm going to figure something out.

Speaker 1 He's going to try to play. That's a new thing.
Like, yeah, he's going to try to play.

Speaker 1 It's like when you're, when your kid, the night before school is like, I'm not feeling well, but I'm going to try to go to school. It's like, no, that's a no.
No way. Just email the teacher.

Speaker 1 You're not doing it. 10-year-old's staying staying home.
We got them all day.

Speaker 1 Chiefs now 12-1.

Speaker 1 They clinched their division.

Speaker 1 It looks like

Speaker 1 it's probably the one seed for them now.

Speaker 1 There's only four games left. The Steelers, I would say, maybe have a chance because they play them.

Speaker 1 But don't the Chiefs that Steelers play on Christmas? They play on Christmas, and that's a Wednesday, right? Yeah. Why?

Speaker 1 What, really? This is going to be three days' rest for everybody? They play on a Saturday and then a Wednesday. Oh, Saturday and Wednesday.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So you would say maybe the Steelers, if they beat them and then the Chiefs lost one more and the Steelers ran the slate, but

Speaker 1 I'm not seeing it.

Speaker 1 It feels like they're going to win.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Come on.
Clanking it off the post. Ridiculous team.
So then that two seed goes between

Speaker 1 Buffalo and Pittsburgh, who are both 10 and three.

Speaker 1 And I'm going to say this, Sal.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I officially think Pittsburgh's the best team in the AFC. Oh, come on.
You can't

Speaker 1 after a Jameis game. You can't claim that.
I think they're the best team. I feel the safest about them if you start nitpicking all these AFC teams.
Really? I feel the most comfortable with Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Great defense. I think their defense can make plays, create turnovers, create pressure.
They can cover.

Speaker 1 I just like them. They can run the ball.
They always seem to get like two or three 30 to 40 yard plays per game or a pass interference or something. They have unbelievable special teams.

Speaker 1 They have the best field goal kicker in the conference. They're going to have

Speaker 1 home field advantage for at least the first two rounds. And they have an awesome coach.

Speaker 1 And I just think, I think right now, and I'll feel free to change my mind in two weeks, but right now, I feel the best about them all. They have seat teams.
Buffalo's defense, you saw it today.

Speaker 1 This Chiefs team can't get to 20 points. I think if the Steelers played the Chiefs right now, is what we're watching from the Chiefs, I think the Steelers would beat them.

Speaker 1 I think it's unfair to judge the Bills' defense. I think that was going to happen.
And by the way, I had my best bet on the ring of pregame show was the Rams over two and a half touchdowns.

Speaker 1 I didn't think

Speaker 1 I was waiting for you to bring this up. I think they're red hot six.
But the point of this is, of course, I'm red hot and I'm wiping the mat. I'm red hot too.
We're two red hot guys.

Speaker 1 I love that we're red hot, but but I saw it coming. The Bills defense flying east to west.
It was going to have to let up eventually, right? And it makes sense.

Speaker 1 It was very soft. It was a very soft zone that Stafford threw against for three hours.

Speaker 1 But I don't want to judge that, just like I'm not going to judge how great the Steelers defense was against Jameis. I know they're very good in general.
I'm judging the three months.

Speaker 1 I've just been really impressed by, I thought they should have won the Colts game, right? That Browns Thursday game, they had the lead with three minutes left. And, you know, that was stupid.

Speaker 1 I just think they've been the most impressively consistent team in the AFC this year.

Speaker 1 With that said, I'd have to take a big gulp before I went against Mahomes in a playoff game, especially if it was in Kansas City. But I don't know.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh, week after week, people keep looking for reasons not to, even today, Pickens got scratched. Like, oh my God, the mile moved toward Cleveland.
You know, and it's like, they're fine.

Speaker 1 They're going to be very good.

Speaker 1 They have 74 points fewer than the the bills and they've allowed 30 points less so i i i that's the team that would scare me if i was a steelers like i don't know if you're going to buffalo that's a mess i think it's rock paper scissors because

Speaker 1 the chiefs can't get explosive plays so if they played buffalo that's actually bad if you're the chiefs right because the way to beat the chiefs is to basically move the ball on them i think the steelers could get explosive plays on the bills i think they would beat the bills but i think the bills the way they're set up right now probably beat the the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then maybe the Chiefs would beat the Steelers because it would be an 18 to 16 type game, which they specialize in.
So maybe that's what it is. Maybe that's our answer.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's our answer. The one thing the Bills showed me is that they can come back, right?

Speaker 1 Like, I think I would figured that anyway, but that was a game that they really could have just walked off and be like, all right, we'll lose this by 21. But they were in it till the very end.

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Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. Real talk for a second.
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Speaker 1 iPhone 11 or later required. Well, let's switch topics to that because

Speaker 1 that was the game of the season so far. I had some clinching questions.
So the first clinching question was, did Bills Rams clinch game of the season so far?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it had my attention the whole time. I think so.
What other candidates? I'm trying to think what else is. There were some good ones over the first third.

Speaker 1 Even the week one, that Baltimore KC game was really good. There's been some good ones, but this one.
Cowboys Giants Thanksgiving was the highest rated. I don't was it the best? I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't know. I didn't have that one.
There's been a couple good Lions games. Lions Packers on Thursday was good.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What was cool about this one was the Rams took that big lead, and it was not a turn off the channel game. I was like, all right, Josh will get this back.
Right. Josh will bring them back into this.

Speaker 1 They had 54 plays and scored 42 points. What was that stat hench set us? They scored six touchdowns with zero turnovers.
The first team, 255 to lose. It's never those.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. 265, I think it was.

Speaker 1 Yeah. They got a pretty good crowd, too.

Speaker 1 It was good. It was fun all around.

Speaker 1 I don't know that, you know, switch it to the Rams for a second. I don't think

Speaker 1 is this too much to say? I don't know if I've ever seen a receiver like Puka Nakua.

Speaker 1 Like as a possession receiver, he's phenomenal, and you could miss by like three or four yards, and he's going to catch it, and he's going to protect himself, and all that, all that good stuff.

Speaker 1 And they use him as a running back, and he's like one of the best black receivers in the league. Right.
And just seems like he can get open whenever he wants.

Speaker 1 He's kind of like the 2.0 version of Debo.

Speaker 1 Like, whatever we thought Debo was, he's a better version of it. He's finally remarkable catches.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 It seems like now that those two guys are healthy, anytime he had like third and seven, third and nine, third and five, and they put those two guys on the same side, and you didn't know if they were going to like run little pick plays for each other or what, it just felt like one of them was getting open.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Yeah.
Like I said, it was a soft zone and everything else, but he's great.

Speaker 1 Rams had 457 yards on nine drives. They were 11 for 15 on third down.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it seemed like if the Bills had scored fast enough with the three timeouts, somehow they had a a chance to possibly steal the game, leading to one of the weirdest calls of the season where they do QB sneak on first down.

Speaker 1 They don't get it, and they call timeout, which immediately made it impossible for them to just kick off and get the stops, which Brady, who was fantastic today for him, I thought he was really good.

Speaker 1 Really good. But Brady called it out even before the first down.

Speaker 1 He's like, you don't want a QB sneak here because if you don't get it, then you either going to burn too much clock or use the timeout that you have time.

Speaker 1 Like he spelled out everything that was about to happen that it happened. But they do spring timeout in that situation.

Speaker 1 You might as well use all three because then you're just relying on getting the onside kick versus

Speaker 1 okay, if we don't get the onside kick, we could stop the clock three times. I didn't understand that at all.

Speaker 1 They would have been better off sneaking up to the line of scrimmage and running a second-down play and letting the clock go to 45.

Speaker 1 So that was where it was a miracle they had three timeouts in the first place. And that was the hard part.
Then they blew it. Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the play probably has to be like a rollout where he's either going to run it or pass quick or throw it out of bounds or or like a shotgun quick pass like the Malcolm Butler play, something like that.

Speaker 1 But the thing you can't do is the QB sneak and then you can't then also call a timeout and ruin your chance. I'm always amazed that these coaches blow the basic like video game stuff.

Speaker 1 This is like a pretty basic 1.0 video game thing. Like I was, I like math and I was good in math, but I do think it is the video games.

Speaker 1 But for God's sakes, you should be able that that was easy to me. Like that jumped out right away.
How does McDermott not see that?

Speaker 1 Do you think because we're just watching because of the YouTube multi-view and some of this other stuff, and we're just watching all these games and we're seeing so many situations, we're getting in our 10,000 hours for game management now?

Speaker 1 I feel like I'm at the peak of my powers. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I watch these games. I'm just like, oh, yeah, clearly you should never QB sneak here.

Speaker 1 But maybe when you're on the field and it's going so fast and there's 90 things you're worrying about, sometimes you lose like a sense of just what the most normal thing to do would be, which maybe to not sneak it there.

Speaker 1 But also, are they not watching enough situational things? I feel like we're putting ourselves on a pedestal here. But the guys that are getting to the facility,

Speaker 1 4.30 in the morning, they're just watching tape of the opponent and not worried about what's going to happen at the end of the games and how they should use their timeouts and timing and stuff.

Speaker 1 I don't think a lot of this stuff is that hard.

Speaker 1 It's like if you have the three timeouts and there's under two minutes left and it's a two-score game and you can somehow score a touchdown and keep your three timeouts, that's the goal.

Speaker 1 You want to be able to kick off and try to get a stop and hopefully get the ball back for a field goal would be the ideal, which they almost pulled off.

Speaker 1 I have friends that text me who barely got through junior college and know the ins and outs of all these. It was like, this can't be hard stuff.
Ultimately for the Bills, not a big deal.

Speaker 1 because they're either going to be the two-seed or three-seed. They've already clinched the AFC East a week ago.

Speaker 1 There's no chance they could fall to the four seed. They weren't going to catch the Chiefs probably anyway.

Speaker 1 And Josh, I think, probably clinched the MVP once and for all today. Yeah, that's the odds.
Let's see.

Speaker 1 It was the rare loss that helped clinch somebody that beats. Rumo Lamar didn't even play.

Speaker 1 I don't even know who else would be in the mix. Minus 450 for Alan.
Well, Saquon was second last week, but he's gone up to plus 550. That's not happening.
Sorry, Saquon.

Speaker 1 Tom Brady was good. And I think,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 there are only three games. And I just, I put the three on the one TV together because I wanted to watch basketball.
Sorry. On the other ones.

Speaker 1 And I gave Brady the audio and I really listened like for the three hours. And

Speaker 1 he's changed a couple of things that I thought were really important. Like he's, he's definitely, it feels like you're hanging out with him a little bit more.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's reacting to what he's seeing. He's not doing like, oh, I have prep on this situation.
Now I'm going to do my prep. Doesn't feel like he's overproduced.

Speaker 1 But what we got, and I don't know if it was a case of like, we just had two awesome quarterbacks. And when it's awesome quarterbacks, he can put himself in the mind of the quarterback.

Speaker 1 But he was pointing out like, oh, here's what, and Burkhart was doing a good job of saying,

Speaker 1 hey, when they're using all those words at the line, what does that mean? And then Brady's like, well, here's what that means. And that's like, that's exactly what I want from him.

Speaker 1 And then he was explaining like how to, how they're using the receivers, how they were exploiting certain things, the game management stuff, he was all over. I thought he was excellent.

Speaker 1 I thought it helped that he had his Hubie Brown moment. He just went hoarse.
He went hoarse a little bit.

Speaker 1 And it felt like he was in the game. Like it's all that stuff you said he did the previous weeks.
No, he was in the game and he was liking it and he was, he was doing it. He was inside of it.

Speaker 1 So it's good. And like Nakua had that incredible catch when he kept his feet in.
And Brady got so excited, it got me excited because I'm like, this guy's the best quarterback ever.

Speaker 1 If he's that excited about that catch, that must have been an awesome catch. So anyway, I think the Brady thing, it started out as rocky as you would have thought.

Speaker 1 I thought it was getting worse, like around week seven, week eight, weeks nine, which we talked about on the pod. And Thanksgiving was a little better.
And I thought today was really encouraging.

Speaker 1 I really feel like he's getting the hang of it. Yeah, all he needs is the best game of the year every week.

Speaker 1 That's it.

Speaker 1 If he had Cooper Rush against Drew Locke, I wonder if it would have been that great.

Speaker 1 Did the NFC West clinch clinch division you've changed your mind on the most status today?

Speaker 1 Because we've had yet another shift at the top. Seattle's now eight and five in the driver's seat, and they were dead two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think the good news is we're not going to change our minds again, right? We've changed it

Speaker 1 for December. And they're only minus 135 because I guess the Rams are right there at plus 160, but the Cardinals have fallen off at 13 to 1 now.
I'm seeing on fan, though. They're done.

Speaker 1 They lost to Seattle twice and they're two back. Like it's a wrap.
That's it. So, it's just the Rams in Seattle for the division.
And I think Seattle showed some toughness.

Speaker 1 You know, that's one of the narratives.

Speaker 1 Like, I feel like we drive some of these narratives, and whatever our top three or four narratives are going into Monday, we should scrap all of them and start over.

Speaker 1 One of them was going to be like, oh, Kenneth Walker without Kenneth Walker, they're not going to be as tough as Arizona. Yeah, they were much tougher on both sides of the ball.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they ran the ball. Their two running backs that weren't Kenneth Walker, 29 for 172.
Sharpener. Gino, no turnovers.

Speaker 1 and they got the middle of their defensive linebacker my big fear with them was that they couldn't block but they actually seem like they blocked a little bit better today um

Speaker 1 we have a lot of future stuff with seattle we do that was i think the one i had i had division bets with them i had over bets with them um

Speaker 1 make the playoff bets all kinds of things that looked pretty bleak a couple weeks ago now we look at them i actually think they might be good i don't know if they're on the Detroit, Green Bay,

Speaker 1 maybe even Minnesota Philly level.

Speaker 1 They're probably fifth in that group, but

Speaker 1 they have a bunch of good players on both sides of the ball. And when Gino's not making any mistakes, you watch them and you go, all right, I get this.
So I think they're going to be their three seed.

Speaker 1 Right now, they would be playing Green Bay in the 3-6.

Speaker 1 I like it. Two solid teams.

Speaker 1 Nice game. Really good first-round matchup.
I do think there's a team out there that, not that we owe an apology for, but it's time we give them the recognition. You mentioned it briefly, the Vikings.

Speaker 1 Oh, today's good.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Today was great.
Yeah, it's time, Bill. It's time.

Speaker 1 We have to do it. Wait, can we hold that for one second? I just want to rip through the NFC West Quinn.
Yes, go ahead. Arizona's sixth and seven.
They're done. Niners are six and seven.

Speaker 1 Not totally done.

Speaker 1 You also have Washington at eight and five with the last wildcard spot. That who the hell knows what's going to happen with them.

Speaker 1 They have New Orleans on the road this week, home Philly, home Atlanta at Dallas. I would assume that gets them to at least 10 wins, which would knock out a couple of these teams.
Right.

Speaker 1 But Seattle has Green Bay home, Minnesota home, Chicago on the road, Rams on the road.

Speaker 1 And then the Rams have San Francisco and the Jets on the road. Home Zona, home Seattle.

Speaker 1 So it might come down to that Rams Seattle game. Yeah, yeah.
And that's what we thought. I mean, I was like, this is the only division that's going to come down to week 18.

Speaker 1 Now I'm not even sure if we get that. But at San Francisco,

Speaker 1 now the 49ers are kind of back, not maybe in the mix, but they're going to be spoiler, I think, if not next week, somewhere in the road. That was the one.

Speaker 1 So that was the bet I lost this week. I did well this week, and that that was the one.
And I didn't just lose it. It was an annihilation.
They look good, but the Bears also look bad.

Speaker 1 There's no such thing as the new coach, apparently. But I don't know what to believe with the Niners.
Is that the Bears were just bad or the Niners back? Like, I honestly don't know.

Speaker 1 And I had that game on for three hours. I don't know either.
I mean, you see that stat in the second quarter or close to half. It was 310 to two.

Speaker 1 And yeah, I think you're right. I think that means that there's no new coach energy.
There's no new new coach. It's dead.
Two yards.

Speaker 1 We had the Jets didn't cover with the new coach, and they didn't cover. The Clogger covered.
Right. So.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's it. And what is San Francisco? They're like, that was another narrative that we could throw out.
Like, they're done. They have too many injuries.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, everybody bid $37 on Isaac Guarendo and he got them into the playoffs in fantasy. And he took over today.

Speaker 1 And now he's there's one, there's one Arizona question that we have to ask because Kyler sucked again today. He had two terrible picks.

Speaker 1 And that game against Seattle a couple weeks ago, he had that awful play on fourth and one that basically was the swing that blew the game for them.

Speaker 1 And Harrison, considering he's the fourth pick in the draft, I can't say he's been jumping off my TV.

Speaker 1 Though Arizona was six and four three weeks ago, and we were feeling good about them. And I like them.
I like how they're playing. And now

Speaker 1 I'm wondering, like, are these, what are these last four weeks going to mean for Kyler? And is this the guy that's going to be the QB for them? Because they don't have a huge fan base.

Speaker 1 They're not going to be leading first take tomorrow. Nobody really cares.

Speaker 1 But, you know, this has been a recurring thing with Kyler, where it feels like he's, can keep you around, but he's not quite good enough.

Speaker 1 He can do the garbage time TD at the end of the game that makes it seem like the game was closer than it was.

Speaker 1 But I just, we have a lot of evidence now that you might not be able to trust him against a good defense. Yeah, they don't finish drives.

Speaker 1 They don't, you know, they're just still some coaches in the division that they never beat or barely beat.

Speaker 1 And like you said, they were winning despite the fact that Harrison wasn't having a great year. I think he probably has five or six touchdowns, but you know, yeah, you'll wait.

Speaker 1 You were expecting him to go for like six for 150 most games, and uh, not that at all. Now they've lost three in a row, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 well, Bowers turned out to be the receiver from the draft. All right, your guys Sam Darnold.

Speaker 1 So, 347 yards, five TDs today. He's had clutch games over and over again.
Last week, brought them down to win it. Today, like that, that Falcons game was a little closer.

Speaker 1 So I'm sure you watched it too. Like, I know the scoring

Speaker 1 blowout, but I was nervous about the Falcons for two hours in that game. And Darnold was just winging it downfield.
He really has energy with Jefferson and Addison. Addison, about three touchdowns?

Speaker 1 It's craziness. So he has almost 3,300 yards, Darnold, 28 touchdowns and 10 picks.

Speaker 1 And if they are in round one, he'll probably be like a four-plus-point favorite. He's on a one-year deal.
They have J.J. McCarthy.

Speaker 1 I'd be really hesitant not to bring him back. I think they have to,

Speaker 1 today was the first day where I was like, wow, they might have actually found their QB and maybe they should think about trading J.J. McCarthy.
It's interesting.

Speaker 1 There aren't too many out there like him. And we're going to talk about some shitty franchises probably a little later.
And this is the way to rebound.

Speaker 1 Like, you have to kind of strike gold with a guy like this who's getting $10 million a year, and you could do that for a couple of seasons.

Speaker 1 Like Epidem, Baker, Mayfield, Gino on a smaller scale, but I would say Darnold has a higher upside than both of them because of the pedigree he had once upon a time. I think so, too.

Speaker 1 I think the Yankees should offer him $650 million for $15 for sure, if you ask me. Well, so six teams need a quarterback next year:

Speaker 1 Vegas,

Speaker 1 the Giants,

Speaker 1 Titans,

Speaker 1 Saints,

Speaker 1 maybe the Seahawks if they can't agree to a deal with Geno, and maybe the Niners if they can't figure out a Brock Purdy extension.

Speaker 1 And I was looking at those teams, and it's like, if you're Vegas and you could get Sam Darnold and you draft Travis Hunter and you have the money to spend, like, I'm probably... Probably doing that.

Speaker 1 Like this guy,

Speaker 1 the Niners really liked him. The Vikings seem like they love him.
And then if I'm the Vikings,

Speaker 1 I don't know. I'd have to really think about this one.
He's only 27. It's not like he's Kirk Cousins.
He's not 37, like heading into his late 30s. Like, this is, he's entering the prime of his career.

Speaker 1 He's always playing great. He's a really.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And he has real chemistry with the receivers.

Speaker 1 They're loaded offensively, but he's won them a few games now.

Speaker 1 Yes. And you said 28 and 10.
What did he have? 3,300 yards. Like, this is, I don't know.

Speaker 1 He's not the reason they're 11 and 2, but

Speaker 1 you get rid of them.

Speaker 1 Get used to being 7-6 with the new guy, whoever it is, right?

Speaker 1 I think it's easy at this point, honestly.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 if you're just watching them on red zone and you're just seeing the highlights, you've probably seen some of the long passes.

Speaker 1 The thing that jumps out to me is they're really nice, long, beautiful, on-target passes. Like he really, and he got lucky today with the first touchdown he had.

Speaker 1 He just, his arm kind of got touched, so it was an underthrow and Addison made a great play. But when you have two weapons like that,

Speaker 1 you want a guy who's like not afraid to wing it downfield and who has the confidence to, and if he makes a mistake, is going to come back.

Speaker 1 I think that's been the thing that's been the most impressive about that. He gets him out of trouble.

Speaker 1 We're at the point, if I was a Jets fan, I'd actually be like legitimately bummed out about it.

Speaker 1 The good news is there's like a hundred things. I know he's been on three teams.

Speaker 1 Listen, I get it. He's been on three teams since, but I was like, oh my God, like, really? This guy's like this good? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I remember in the 70s when we lost, we, Plunkett was the number one pick for the Pats, and he just got the shit kicked out of him. They end up like trading him.
He gets waved.

Speaker 1 Then he ends up in the Raiders in the Super Bowl. And our quarterbacks were terrible when I was a kid.
And then Plunkett's like winning the Super Bowl. And it was kind of like, wait, what's going on?

Speaker 1 We had this guy? It's really frustrating.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, on a different scale, it's like the Bears, what they did for years with Mahomes. Like, yeah, we could have had this guy.

Speaker 1 I know people say they could have have had him, but we were interested and we passed on him. So, yeah, there's a million what-ifs like that, but oh, the Jets for sure are kicking themselves.

Speaker 1 It's tough with these late Bloomer reclamation guys because, you know, that Case Keenum year, we were doing pods and it was legitimate.

Speaker 1 Like he was moving the ball and making plays, but, you know, physically he wasn't a big guy. He didn't have like a cannon arm.
And there was.

Speaker 1 You knew there was some smoke and marrows in it as it was happening, but they were winning with him, so you couldn't say much. Darnold's like, kind of checks all the boxes for,

Speaker 1 you know, I don't think he would be like a top seven quarterback, but he has the size, he has the arm, he has the confidence, he can move around.

Speaker 1 He had one touchdown that he created today where he like somehow did this Jedi fucking move to get out of it. It seemed like he was going to get sacked and bought time and just winged it down.

Speaker 1 And it's a touchdown, like, I'm really impressed. And

Speaker 1 my buddy, who's a Vikes fan, like, loves him. He's just like, I like, just love Darnold.
Like, I don't want him to go.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, if you rank the,

Speaker 1 let's say we were in the playoffs now, you rank the quarterbacks. He wouldn't be at the bottom.
He wouldn't be at the bottom of the list.

Speaker 1 And for teams that didn't make the playoffs, like Tua, I'd have him over Tua right now. You know, I'd have him.
That's, yeah, no question. Some of these other teams, I'm not, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 I just trust him more.

Speaker 1 Do you think he's playing better than Love?

Speaker 1 I think it's close. I feel like we're doing it.
I think he is.

Speaker 1 We did a weird thing, right, with this division. Like, we have so much in stock.
We ranked them one through four in the beginning of the year, and we have all that stuff going on. And then we have,

Speaker 1 oh, Lions are playing great. And then we're like, whoa, the Lions defense is decimated.
And then they hold the Packers to under 300 yards. Another narrative that went south.

Speaker 1 But I think we were raising the stock of Jordan Love and the Packers when we probably should have been looking at the Vikings, right?

Speaker 1 Like at this point, I think I'd be more surprised if the Packers pulled off an upset in the playoffs than if the Vikings did.

Speaker 1 Well, the thing with them, they won a couple stupid games early on, right? Like that

Speaker 1 Jets game in London in week five when the Jets felt like the Jets were going to win the game and they didn't.

Speaker 1 They lost to Detroit, the Rams twice in a row. They had that weird stretch where they beat Indy and the Jags in Tennessee all in a row.
And it's like, what is this?

Speaker 1 They barely beat the Bears in a game that it felt like the Bears should have won. Then last week against Arizona, Arizona had the game.
It was 19-6. It felt like it was over.

Speaker 1 This was a real statement game for them. And it was also a statement for

Speaker 1 Atlanta because I don't know how long.

Speaker 1 I just can't imagine they could keep playing cousins. Yeah, that was a dumb pick by me, Atlanta, this week.
He has eight interceptions in the last four games. And

Speaker 1 I don't know, like, why did they draft Pennix?

Speaker 1 Like, it's a genius pick if you start him, but otherwise it's a huge waste unless there's something like, we don't know, like a Trey Lance situation where, like, no, he's just bad behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 Like, you know,

Speaker 1 trust us, he's not ready. Because we talked, we talked about this last week, right? Like, did they had that six weeks after they signed him? Right.
In March, yeah.

Speaker 1 Did they know something from those six weeks?

Speaker 1 Cousins, zero TDs in the last four weeks, six picks in the last two weeks, and two awful, awful, awful picks today.

Speaker 1 I mean, that the problem with him is they're not just interceptions, they're horrible. They're like suck the life out of the team bad place.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 like him compared to Darnold, it was no contest.

Speaker 1 If you said which, which one of these guys got 100 million guaranteed last year to somebody who just woke up from a coma, they would have thought it was Darnold. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 A lot of big contracts for cousins. Yeah.
I don't know how he does it. I really don't.
And if it's, you know, I haven't seen the metrics.

Speaker 1 Did he surpass 36 miles an hour? Because that was the big one. That's when I was.
I felt like he had a couple that got into the low 40s today. Oh, that's good.
I don't know. All right.

Speaker 1 Do you

Speaker 1 there's this narrative about how the Giants actually probably need Sam Darnold the most,

Speaker 1 but they can't sign him because he was on the Jets and they'd be bringing him back to Giants Stadium. Interesting.

Speaker 1 I think that's stupid, but I also can't speak for the despair of Giants and Jets fans these days.

Speaker 1 to get somebody that was a Jets cast off like mentally is some sort of invisible hump for them, apparently. Well, unless he thrives with the Giants.
Isn't that the best medicine, right?

Speaker 1 That was a little bit of what I'm feeling with Lon Soto right now with the Yankees, but I need to bring that back to Brandon. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I would go dome team if I was Sam. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It does seem like he's better there. And the Giants,

Speaker 1 the Giants, I don't know if you watch that game, but I

Speaker 1 tried not to. Well, when they're driving to win, like, you know, the front office is like, oh, don't, what are you doing, Drew Locke? Just get tripped up here or something.

Speaker 1 Like, that's the, that's the red zone I want to see, like, the owner's box when the two-team, two-win team is driving. And you know,

Speaker 1 they don't, the players don't tank because they can't, they'll get killed. But you know, the front office is like, we got to stay at two wins.
We have to get that top pick.

Speaker 1 We'll figure out who it is then.

Speaker 1 I made a business decision to not watch that game or Jags Titans and concentrate on all the other ones. And one of the games switched over to Giant Saints, right?

Speaker 1 As it was like that big Drew Locke drive at the end, you know, big, long scramble.

Speaker 1 Turn your head. No, I actually

Speaker 1 realized that I should have actually been more focused on it because if the Giants won, the Pats would have gotten, they would have been the number two pick in the draft, basically, unless they win again.

Speaker 1 And so all of a sudden, I'm rooting for the Giants. And then, of course, they giant stood up at the end.
And

Speaker 1 that was it. So Pats are at the number three spot right now.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 Raiders and Giants are the top two. Is that right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So Tampa has

Speaker 1 Tampa is up by a game now

Speaker 1 in the NFC South. A bet that you made it, I did not.

Speaker 1 But they have Chargers next week at L.A., at Dallas, home for Carolina in a game that's suddenly tough because I guess Carolina is just going to be frisky every game now, and then New Orleans at home to end it with Derek Carr probably not playing.

Speaker 1 So I think that's a good place today.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but he was reckless. He really really was.
I mean, the Raiders can't help themselves

Speaker 1 and just blow it towards the end. But,

Speaker 1 you know, they're like, you want to turn the ball over three times? We got you. We got you.
We got you back, Bucs, 28, 13, before you look for it. Oh, and then Aiden O'Connell left.

Speaker 1 The Riddler came in. Desmond Riddler

Speaker 1 is back.

Speaker 1 So the Steelers clinch the AFC North.

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 1 I think if they split one of the next two games, games, they probably have it. They lead the NFL in takeaways.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 the most interesting thing to me about that game was just that they did that well without Pickens. And then Mike Williams made a couple of plays for them.
Well, this is a tough week, right?

Speaker 1 Because they're at Philly. And Baltimore's got a walkover against the Giants.
So it could be cut to one, and then they have the head-to-head.

Speaker 1 Except they're catching Philly during a week when

Speaker 1 they looked awful against Carolina. And then A.J.
Brown had a really weird interview after. It was just like the Eagles, they just don't want to be loved.
That's who they are.

Speaker 1 There was too much love for them the last week.

Speaker 1 People, especially when Detroit's defense got banged up, even I was thinking, I thought they had a chance to maybe be the best team in the league with Detroit's defense, you know, kind of cratering.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 they barely beat Carolina. And if you missed the game, I know you didn't, but.
Legette had the touchdown. He dropped it.
The game was over. I thought he caught it.
I was furious.

Speaker 1 Like Like you, I probably had Philly and five UFC NFL parlays that I made yesterday that were lingering over. I'm like, oh my God, really? They're going to lose this? But he dropped it.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Believe me, I had him on, I did have him on money line parlays with all those things you just said. And one guy had $3.1 million on Eagles.
So that became a rooting interest as well.

Speaker 1 You know, when I saw that, that made me think Carolina had a chance because I was like, that's just too much money. This has to get weird now.
Yeah. It's like

Speaker 1 when the betters betters are getting up for the games more than the team, but that might be it.

Speaker 1 Like, maybe, maybe you just don't, how much are you going to get up for the Panthers coming to town in December after you've rocked everybody? But yeah, the A.J. Brown thing is weird for sure.

Speaker 1 I think if Green Bay had beaten Detroit on Thursday and Philly had a chance to be the one seed, they might have approached that game a little differently. Now they're like, eh,

Speaker 1 we are where we are. They're basically locked into the two seed, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think so. There's no scenario where they're not the two seed.

Speaker 1 They have a three-game lead over Seattle and a four-game lead over Tampa. Yep, two seed.

Speaker 1 Bryce Young, though.

Speaker 1 So they're on their own two.

Speaker 1 They're down six. I'm just getting excited for our stupid picks pool because I had Philly

Speaker 1 minus 12 and a half or 13. I'm like, oh, Bryce will throw a pick six and somehow Philly's going to cover.
And then he just kind of started marching down the field. Thielen made a couple big plays.

Speaker 1 I thought Bryce was really impressive. I thought I had that in my multi-view on

Speaker 1 for the whole game and was watching some of it. And I thought Bryce,

Speaker 1 he clearly has salvaged whatever he needed to salvage. He's got to be the guy for them next year.
He is decent, man. He really isn't.

Speaker 1 We went over it and how fluky it was for him to get his job back, right? It was like a Dalton family car accident and stuff.

Speaker 1 But I think the play you're talking about, like he scrambled on third down from his three.

Speaker 1 He ran just up to, I don't even know if he realized if he wasn't over the line yet when he passed it and then got him down the field.

Speaker 1 But yeah,

Speaker 1 they're going to be a pain in the ass team. We no longer have a team who we could just bet against.

Speaker 1 And that's why that's why I've been so

Speaker 1 kind of pissy about the Patriots because I think when you have these young teams that are going nowhere,

Speaker 1 once you hit like late November, early December,

Speaker 1 It could go one of two ways. Either you go the way the Giants are going where you've lost eight straight and it's just a comedy of errors.

Speaker 1 You go the way the Patriots are going where you're looking at every part of the team other than the quarterback going, are we better at one spot than we were eight weeks ago?

Speaker 1 And you look at Carolina, they've been in these close games now. I think this was their sixth straight game.
I mean, there was a point when they looked like they might be the worst team in the league.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, they're still losing them all.
So, I mean, you know, they're losing them all, but starting, they beat the Saints. They beat the Giants.
They lost to Casey by three.

Speaker 1 They lost to Tampa by three. They lost to Philly by six and dropped the go-winning touchdown.
That's a six-week sample size if you include the bye-week. I feel like they won that.

Speaker 1 But then you look at a team like the Pats, even Vegas has shown like a little

Speaker 1 something,

Speaker 1 you know, when you consider they probably have the worst quarterback situation in the league. Yeah.
And they almost beat Casey last week. They kind of hung around against Tampa.

Speaker 1 Well, your Patriots have been in a couple of these. I mean, I know it's not, you know, the Titans and stuff.
It's not going to get too excited. I feel like we could be seven and six.

Speaker 1 If we had Belichick, we'd be seven and six. That's where I've landed.
But with Steve, Belichick?

Speaker 1 If we had Steve Belichick, or we had Belichick's girlfriend.

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Speaker 1 We'll talk about the Jets who clinched 2024's most depressing team today.

Speaker 1 They played actually pretty well the whole game. And Tua was bad.
I thought.

Speaker 1 I thought he was all over the place. He would have one good throw.
He would have a terrible throw. The team team had no flow at all.

Speaker 1 A couple of times, it just seems like he's leading his receivers toward a spot where they're just going to get decked.

Speaker 1 Waddle, a couple of times, I almost felt like pulled up a little because he's like, nah, I'm not. Stop.

Speaker 1 Don't you feel like the way he tilts his body when he drops back to pass, and maybe it looks weirder because he's a lefty, but the way he turns his body, it feels like anyone could know to jump a route, right?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Which is why he's throwing it so fast. He gets rid of it in two seconds.

Speaker 1 He's fine, except when he can't.

Speaker 1 And Rodgers was okay for how he's been this year, but had some, I mean, the funniest one was he had Wilson open by 30 yards and somehow led him out of bounds on the throw.

Speaker 1 He caught it and like just it was an 80-yard touchdown with anybody.

Speaker 1 But they had the game and it felt like they were going to win. Two-minute warning.
They get a first down on Miami's 27. Miami has two timeouts left.
Clock ticks down to like under 120.

Speaker 1 And here's what they did: they ran for minus five, timeout, Miami. Rodgers gets sacked for minus six, timeout, Miami.
Miami has no timeouts left, and we're close to a minute left.

Speaker 1 Rodgers throws a 14-yard out to Adams, who goes out of bounds with a minute left. Yep.
Jets kick a field goal, go up three, but now instead of having 15 seconds left, the Dolphins have a minute left.

Speaker 1 They return the kickoff to midfield. They end up tying it.
They win in an OT.

Speaker 1 It was abominable. But the Jets suck, so nobody cares, but it was about as bad clock management as we've seen this year.

Speaker 1 It was really bad. You know,

Speaker 1 the DJ was bad on the other side, too. But you're right.
Like, I don't know why Adams is going out of bounds on that play. If you run for four yards and the clock runs, it's better.

Speaker 1 Even if you miss the field goal, it's better than what they did there.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 they could have kneeled three times and it would have been better. They could have kneeled.
Yeah, just don't go backwards. Yeah.
But the DJ, if I could bring that up for a second, please.

Speaker 1 Daniel, that this is my biggest pet peeve in sports. When you're fourth and three on plus territory at the 45, you have to, have to, have to go for the hard count.
You have to. You have to try.

Speaker 1 But when you punt it without even doing it, you can't just bring the punt team on. You have to line up.
And then

Speaker 1 if you don't do it

Speaker 1 and they punt it through the end zone, which they did, I think the authorities should come down and just take you off the field right there because you just don't get it. You're not trying.

Speaker 1 These guys are the jittery jets. You can get get them to jump off sides.
It happens like one out of every seven times. So just try it.

Speaker 1 It's a great point. I like it.
I'm mad that he has a nickname already. Thanks to Lombardi, the DJ, because I think Young Dexter would have been a good nickname too.
He's in Miami. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He kind of looks like he's just going to go back to some room and plan some murders.

Speaker 1 He could have a few nicknames. He could be like Shaq with just like six or seven nicknames.
There's no reason not to.

Speaker 1 Young Dexter.

Speaker 1 I wonder, like, I've been thinking a lot about the head coach stuff because I really hope the pay, I don't think they will, but I'm really hoping the Patriots just get Fray Bull.

Speaker 1 I just don't understand why we wouldn't. He's in the Patriots Hall of Fame.
I know he's a good coach. Like, just let's admit the Mayo thing didn't work.
Let's just get Fray. Let's get a real coach.

Speaker 1 We have this unbelievable quarterback. Like, let's not waste one year with this.

Speaker 1 Let's just get him an awesome coach and let's try to build around the coach and the quarterback like we did for 20 years in Belichick and Brady.

Speaker 1 But I was thinking about what makes a coach succeed and what doesn't. And over and over again, it's like the hot play caller gets called in.

Speaker 1 It's like this amazing defensive whiz, or like this guy who's like, are we doing this wrong? I guess is my point.

Speaker 1 Because over and over again, it seems like if they, like, if they fired Mayo, you know, like, we've hired Ben Johnson, the Lions WhizKid offensive coordinator. It's going to be great for Drake May.

Speaker 1 My response would be, is he?

Speaker 1 Are we sure? Does he know how to coach like all aspects of a team? I know he could probably draw up some cool plays, like the DJ.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But does he know how to like lead men? Does he understand game situations?

Speaker 1 Like, we always rave about these great coaches that we have in the league that you and I love to bet on, like Tomlin and Andy Reid and, you know, the Harbaughs and these guys, these aren't like WizKid specialist things.

Speaker 1 They're like attitude. They're like leaders of men who look for specific things.
They build through the lines. I don't understand why everybody doesn't do that.
Wow. I think I'm a soliloquy.

Speaker 1 I really well, I think the answer is there might not be enough guys like that. There just aren't, right? I mean, it might just be a handful leaders of men.
I mean, you got Dan Campbell.

Speaker 1 You love his post-game speeches. I saw the tweet.
He's another one, right? He's awesome.

Speaker 1 He's going to win Coach of the Year, if not for the Lions' great record, because of these speeches. And these get on Sports Center.

Speaker 1 And if you're a Dan Quinn or a Mike Tomlin or an Andy Reid, you kind of have to step it up.

Speaker 1 You'd like to take your shirt off in the locker room and let that get on TV if you're going to win this Coach of the year thing because he's pretty damn good and uh you're right he's

Speaker 1 a good point you got to think of yeah you almost have to think of the post-game youtube clip or the twitter clip on that you're on trying to win coach of the year yeah you almost had to memorize lines like an actor strip down but wave the shirt over your head do something campbell uses notes which i thought was interesting i don't know if you've noticed that yeah

Speaker 1 he's like all right first ball and he looks down maybe that could be tomlin's edge tomlin has no notes he just knows who to who to give the game ball to Teleprompter. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Anyway, my point is, I just think the WizKid thing,

Speaker 1 I think we're going to grow out of that soon. It feels like that goes wrong way more than it goes right.
Cliff Kingsbury, last week, was the number one guy for the Bears in terms of odds and stuff.

Speaker 1 How much do you need to see about with him, right? Right. The Arizona thing went so badly, they paid him to go away during the season.
And even the coordinated thing is a little sketchy at this point.

Speaker 1 Also, all right, let's say Steve Sarkasian is a good, no, that's not Steve, Steve Spagnolo. I got my double S's computer.
Spagnola is a good example. Like, he was a head coach, didn't work.
Right.

Speaker 1 He might go to the Hall of Fame as a defensive coordinator. Would you rather be like the most incredible offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator?

Speaker 1 I know you make more money as a coach, but like Josh McDaniels is a good example. He was an excellent offensive coordinator and a terrible head coach.

Speaker 1 So maybe sometimes it's okay, maybe to be just like an overqualified, awesome, properly paid defensive coordinator versus getting thrown. I know they have to do it.
I know it's a bigger job.

Speaker 1 It's more money. You got to do it.
But yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, maybe if Andy Reid had given him like a nicer Christmas gift, Eric Bianame would be around and they wouldn't be scoring like 16 points a game, like things like that. But yeah, you're right.

Speaker 1 Do you know who the running backs coach is of the commanders?

Speaker 1 I don't. I don't think so.
It's Anthony Lynn.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Remember him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the thing.

Speaker 1 These guys get one-head coaching job, and then they go back, and they're like a coordinator, or like a linebackers coach, or a running backs coach, or like a D-backs coach, or a special teams coach.

Speaker 1 And a lot of times they get their one shot, and that's it. But that the big picture point is Vrabel sitting there.
Belichick might go to college, for God's sakes,

Speaker 1 because he's so disgruntled.

Speaker 1 All right, next topic. Oh, I want to do a quick Jets thing.
The Jets had,

Speaker 1 they went 0-7 in these games that they almost won.

Speaker 1 And I'm just going to remind you of the games really quick.

Speaker 1 The Denver bad weather game, 10-9, and the guy missed the field goal.

Speaker 1 And they also lost the ball in downs. Minnesota and London, they had a first down inside the 30, down six, and then Rodgers threw a pick.

Speaker 1 Bills, 23-20, they lost that. They were midfield, three minutes left, driving Rodgers through a pick.

Speaker 1 Pats, 25-22, they lost. They missed a two-point to go up seven, and then the Pats drove down the field and won the game on them.

Speaker 1 Colts, 28-27, they actually scored, give up a game-winning drive to Anthony Richardson, which that has somehow happened twice this year.

Speaker 1 Seattle, 26-21, first down inside the 30, lost the ball on Downs.

Speaker 1 And then Dolphins, they lose by six today, and I have no idea how they lost. Is it possible the Jets weren't bad?

Speaker 1 Like, the Jets are 3-10. Is it possible they actually weren't bad? Like, even if they go four and three in those games, they're seven and six right now, like battling for a seven seed.

Speaker 1 They can't close games. There are plenty of bad teams that are in one score games.

Speaker 1 You could literally pinpoint Rodgers as the reason they're three and ten instead of seven and six. I didn't realize it was that easy to figure out.
Yeah. All right.
I guess so.

Speaker 1 By that, by that, if you're going to measure it like that. But I also think he should be.
0-7?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 He went over 300 yards today. He should be like, that's it.
It's not going to get better than that.

Speaker 1 I have a Netflix documentary coming out next week, and I passed for 300 yards, and I'm never going to blame myself. You and I both had the Dolphins money on them.
Yeah, I was scared for a minute.

Speaker 1 They were reprehensible for most of that game. They looked like they didn't really want to be there.

Speaker 1 They looked like they thought the game was three hours later than it was, and they all hustled over and got dressed and just kind of ran out and didn't warm up.

Speaker 1 I was alarmed by how, and the Jets moved the ball up and down on them the whole game. They didn't have Brees Hall.

Speaker 1 It was pretty disgusting. And then Miami ends up winning it.
Our buddy JJ was there. He goes there.

Speaker 1 He's like an old man. He flies from New York.
He goes to the gut, has to have the sun. He's there.
And he was like, by the end of the game, he texts us. He's like, I was shaking.

Speaker 1 I was shaking at the end. I was like, why are you shaking? This is a monumental win that puts it.
You lost like six tracks. Six and seven.
We're one away from 500.

Speaker 1 It's like, oh man, if he was shaking about that, he's not going to be happy about Juan Soto.

Speaker 1 Let's do the

Speaker 1 most depressing franchise rankings. Okay.

Speaker 1 Right now,

Speaker 1 in your opinion, who is the most depressing franchise?

Speaker 1 If you're a fan and you're looking at the season you're having, the assets you have, your quarterback coach situation, what your picks are, your salary cap situation, the division you're in, the conference you're in, everything, who should be the most depressed right now?

Speaker 1 Cleveland Browns. I had them number one as well.
Without hesitation. Now, the Jameis stuff, he's a miracle.
He's a lot of fun to watch.

Speaker 1 I think he should be like an all-time quarterback for Monday night football or something because he's so much fun. And today we didn't even get a great Jameis game.

Speaker 1 We got like a four, but if he could do anything from

Speaker 1 he's actually kind of bad today. Yeah, yeah.
He was, I don't like if he's just bad. I want him to be great and bad, but ultimately worse.

Speaker 1 But yeah, it's uh, they owe their quarterback $92 million over the next two years.

Speaker 1 They're a losing franchise, they have borderline criminal owners, alleged bribery scandals all over the place, and they're in a tough. I mean, that division is gross.
How are they going to,

Speaker 1 they'll play like today, they'll be tied to the close for a minute, and that's it. But they're looking at like six and eleven in the next few years, I think, at best.
I had them number one as well.

Speaker 1 My second pick was the Giants.

Speaker 1 Eight straight straight losses, most incompetent NFL franchise, really, for the last decade.

Speaker 1 If you look at record, you look at all the stuff that's happened with them.

Speaker 1 They don't have a QB coach or GM.

Speaker 1 I want at least one of the three.

Speaker 1 They're 0 for 3. Today, a plane flew over the stadium that said, Mr.
Mara, enough, please fix this dumpster fire was flying over the stadium.

Speaker 1 And now they're going to have the number one pick, and it's a draft where nobody really likes the QBs.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's rough.
And you're going to have to talk yourself into Sam Darnold. I think they have to be second.
Would you have anybody over them?

Speaker 1 If I had to go next, I would take the Bears, I think.

Speaker 1 Oh, interesting. I had the Bears number nine.
Oh, you did? Oh, wow. Yeah.
Who do you have? Because I think you could talk yourself into Caleb. And they've had some draft picks.

Speaker 1 I think that division is going to be very good for a while. And I feel like it's a little depressing, the Caleb thing right now.

Speaker 1 And they just don't really i i i don't think they know what they're doing in the front office and uh i i you know they're in a loud much like the giants they're in a loud city you know they're never gonna hear the end of how bad they are forever so it gets amplified who do you have i had the raiders third for me

Speaker 1 they're paying three coaches right now they have the worst record in the league They've had no results whatsoever other than that one year they made the playoffs with uh with Carr when Max Crosby was fun.

Speaker 1 We had Pit Boss Rich. That was fun, I guess.
That was good.

Speaker 1 No QB.

Speaker 1 I guess Tom Brady is now a part owner, but there's just not a lot going on. And I'm in a division now with Mahomes and Harabaugh and Herbert and Sean Payton.
And I'm just bummed if I'm a Raiders fan.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think they interviewed 31 agents. Was James Baby Dahl Dixon one of them? I don't know.
But they said, they all said they were the worst run organization, the Raiders.

Speaker 1 I mean, they've been taking wild swings for 25 years and can't get there.

Speaker 1 Who'd you have for four? Okay, for four, worst franchise. I'm going to go Quiznos.

Speaker 1 You know, we had someone work at Jimmy Kim Alive and moved to the Pacific Northwest like 15 years ago, opened the Quiznos, and it closed immediately.

Speaker 1 And now you hear less about it than Subway, Jimmy Johns, Blimpy's. Jersey Mike's, Fat Sals out here.
You know, you make your own sandwiches. There's too many options.
Listen to

Speaker 1 that. They're in trouble, Quiznos.
Quiznos. Unless they sponsor us.
In that case, they'll Jimmy Jets is taking their lunch. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Go ahead.
You go. Jets.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 They'll unwind this Rodgers thing, but they've spent so much capital and cap picks everything. Their fans have no faith in anything they do.
They don't have a coach. They don't have a GM.

Speaker 1 They don't have a quarterback. When you're 0 for 3, as I said earlier, that's where you get worried.
I don't really know what the solutions are. I guess the good news is they lost today.

Speaker 1 Those were pretty easy top four for me at Browns, Giants, Raiders, Jets. But anybody else you would put up there?

Speaker 1 I thought what was interesting about this exercise was I would have the Panthers in the top three like two months ago. And now

Speaker 1 you know, I think they might have, might have found a coach, and I think they at least have a QB that they know they can bring into the offseason and feel good about.

Speaker 1 They're going to have another high draft pick. They've paid the Caleb thing.

Speaker 1 The Caleb trade turned the way Caleb played this year, it's you know, maybe not going to haunt them in the way we could have thought. So I dropped them down to number eight.

Speaker 1 Well, let me ask you this: who would you rather have? So, you'd rather have the Panthers franchise than the Jaguars,

Speaker 1 yeah, because the thinking with the Panthers was they're in such a funky division.

Speaker 1 I was playing with the Bucks and the Saints and the Falcons. Like, we, you know, all I have to do is, you know, find a couple good players, I can go to war whereas if on the jags

Speaker 1 i'm i'm intervision with stroud

Speaker 1 i don't know i guess they're it's not that worth i mean they have to they're paying trevor lawrence 275 for that thing so that that's gotta be tight

Speaker 1 i had titans five and jags six and the only difference is the titans definitely don't have a qb and i don't think they have a coach either or a gym the jags

Speaker 1 might have a QB

Speaker 1 right that's that's that's it. And I, I do like Brian Thomas.
I do like some of the Jags. I do wonder what would happen if you gave them a really good coach next year.

Speaker 1 I do think they have some talent, whereas the Titans, they were awful today. You also have to have an owner who wants to win.
Okay, most of them do, and is not a freaking idiot, right? Like,

Speaker 1 I don't know. We can't put my team up there because it's

Speaker 1 pretty much. You did.
Yeah. Son of a bitch.
I had the Bears ninth and the Cowboys 10th. All right.
But,

Speaker 1 you know, it's a distant 10th compared to Jets, Titans, Jags, 4, 5, 6. Like, you're miles away from those teams.
They're kind of worth a lot, though, if you wanted to sell them.

Speaker 1 I'm just talking about winning and all that stuff. The Saints ahead number seven,

Speaker 1 that's another one where I don't really know long-term what you got there. They're probably the weirdest ownership situation

Speaker 1 combined with what's going on with the basketball team. No QB.

Speaker 1 They're in Cap Hel. Peyton fled them a couple years ago for

Speaker 1 mysterious reasons. So I think they have to be mentioned as well.
I think we have to mention the Patriots too. They haven't won their division in years.
In years. They haven't won a division.

Speaker 1 They have an impossible time building. If we didn't have Drake May, we would be in the top five for this comedy.
Stadium, no one cares. Nephew Kyle's the only one ballsy enough to wear the jersey.

Speaker 1 I have the May jersey now. I wore it last week.
That's true. Want to do guests the lines? Yeah, let's do it.
I don't know. Do we take any breaks? Do we take breaks? No, we're just flying through.

Speaker 1 I like it. All right.

Speaker 1 Kyle's going to put the breaks in. Oh.

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Speaker 1 thursday night

Speaker 1 niners rams in san francisco

Speaker 1 Interesting one a more exciting game than it was a week ago

Speaker 1 if you told me like Friday how excited are you about Niners Rams? Next Thursday, I would have been like, eh, four.

Speaker 1 Now I might be like a seven. I like it.
Seven and a half. Play tough, San Francisco.
Play like, give us your B-minus game at least for this. What's our record for against the Lines?

Speaker 1 What are we right now? I won the last couple of weeks. Seven, six, and one.
You still have the lead.

Speaker 1 I have the Niners by three over the Rams. Ooh.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you get this. Yeah, by the way, you're going to win this week.
I was way off on a lot.

Speaker 1 I said one and a half. It's two and a half.
So you're getting

Speaker 1 pretty

Speaker 1 Rams on every teaser. I know you are.

Speaker 1 Bengals tomorrow. Rams Thursday.
Good. Good job by you.
Something I don't trust about the Rams.

Speaker 1 It's never easy with them.

Speaker 1 You know, even today, what was that score? 35-13 at one point? Yeah. Something like that.

Speaker 1 Just don't never feel comfortable with them. And you watch that offense is

Speaker 1 better. Yeah, I know it.
That's just feels like they you watch their offense and they seem like they should be the nobody wants to see these guys in the playoffs, but

Speaker 1 I feel like people will be fine seeing them.

Speaker 1 Sunday's marquee game. We had two really good options for this, but I'm going to go with Lions, Bills, in Detroit.

Speaker 1 Jared Goff of the Punchers chance to steal the MVP. I don't think he will.

Speaker 1 Bills don't totally need the game, as we mentioned earlier.

Speaker 1 They're going to be their two-seater or three-seed. Lions kind of need the game because the Vikings won't go away.

Speaker 1 And the Eagles won't go away either. So I had the Lions by three and a half.

Speaker 1 We split this. I said one and a half.
It is two and a half.

Speaker 1 You surprised? That's fair. Well, I didn't think they were going to make it three.
I know it's not a must-win for the Bills, but I just don't see them losing back-to-back a lot. It's a fun one.

Speaker 1 I'm already fast-forwarding to Dan Campbell's written speech. Excited.

Speaker 1 I wonder, it feels like they docked the Lions

Speaker 1 at least a point for the defensive injuries.

Speaker 1 GC Hutchinson might come back for

Speaker 1 round three.

Speaker 1 I don't know. They weren't bad, though, against Greenway.
I know it was a lot of points, but if you hold them less than 300 yards, this was my preseason Super Bowl pick, too. So it should be fun.

Speaker 1 By the way, there's seven good games this week. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Watchables.

Speaker 1 I have four. I have eight good games.

Speaker 1 Texans home for the Dolphins.

Speaker 1 I put some games in the Watchables and the Fairleigh Watchables because

Speaker 1 they're kind of loser leave town matches for at least one of the teams. Like in this case, Texans Dolphins.
I don't think the Dolphins can lose again. I'm not even sure they're a playoff team.
But

Speaker 1 the Broncos are also playing the Colts.

Speaker 1 And that's one that normally would be like a fairly watchable, but that's actually a really good game. That's probably a seven seed.

Speaker 1 And there's a scenario where Dolphins beat the Texans, Colts beat the Broncos. And now all of a sudden, we have all these scenarios to figure out.

Speaker 1 So Houston, Miami, I have the Texans by three and a half over Miami. Oh, do I get this one? I do.
I said two. It's two and a half.
No, that's too low. That's stupid.

Speaker 1 I have some big, big misses coming up.

Speaker 1 I might bet Houston straight up in that one. I was not impressed by the Dolphins today.

Speaker 1 No, of course not. They just look sloppy and asleep would be my scouting report.

Speaker 1 Broncos, Colts.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 Broncos have been tough to gauge how the bookmakers think of them. So I'm going to play it safe.
Broncos by three.

Speaker 1 That's what I said. It's five and a half.
Yeah. See, that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 I can't tell if Fando and company like the Broncos or not, because sometimes it seems like they do, and then other times it seems like they don't. Five and a half is rich.

Speaker 1 Well, I know you said Rams Bills was the game of the year, but I don't think we could say enough about Denver, Cleveland, last Monday. It's just

Speaker 1 up there so damn good.

Speaker 1 That was at least a gambling moment of the year. Oh, yeah.
Jameis somehow taking the deaths of the one and then throwing another pick.

Speaker 1 Eagles, Steelers.

Speaker 1 in Philly.

Speaker 1 This was the other candidate for the marquee game.

Speaker 1 And I think this has to be Eagles by three.

Speaker 1 That's what I said.

Speaker 1 I can't believe this, actually. Four and a half.

Speaker 1 See, this is what I was telling you before: the people don't see the Steelers thing.

Speaker 1 And I think it's good for us. All right.
Steelers special. Let's do it.
They dump the first half and win the game. The Steelers get no respect.
It's bizarre.

Speaker 1 I mean, Tomlin against

Speaker 1 Philly in Philly getting like four and a half, five.

Speaker 1 I guarantee I'd pick that game.

Speaker 1 Chargers home for the Bucs.

Speaker 1 And the Bucs have been scotch taping it here for a while.

Speaker 1 Chargers look good today. I had this at three this morning when I did this, but I'm going to bump at a half point.
I'm going to say Chargers by three and a half. Ooh,

Speaker 1 shouldn't have bumped. No bump.
I said one and a half. It's two and a half.
So we split this. God damn it.
Why did I touch it? What's going on?

Speaker 1 I like the Chargers. I think the Bucs are going to have a lot of trouble scoring against them.
Yeah, I think Baker's going to be a little jittery. They'll get to him in the pocket.

Speaker 1 It's a fun one, though.

Speaker 1 You know, this could be,

Speaker 1 they'll have more fans, right?

Speaker 1 Chargers. A rare home game with an advantage.
Yeah, how many Tampa fans would make the trip from Florida Florida to LA in mid-December?

Speaker 1 Fairly watchables.

Speaker 1 Chiefs

Speaker 1 at Cleveland

Speaker 1 in a game that, by law, has to be in the Vegas zone. And I'm going to say Chiefs by five and a half.

Speaker 1 This makes me

Speaker 1 people going to think I've never done this before. And they might be, I said nine and a half.

Speaker 1 It's six and a half.

Speaker 1 I don't know. I mean,

Speaker 1 I guess. I don't know.

Speaker 1 I hate them both for various reasons. They just don't know what to make these Chiefs lines anymore.
Yeah. They have no idea.
Washington is at the Saints.

Speaker 1 I assume no Derek Carr, which means this line has to be at least three and a half. And that's what I'm going to guess.
Washington by three and a half. So that's what I said.
Unless they change this.

Speaker 1 It's seven. Washington by seven.
Oh, so Carr's out.

Speaker 1 Not a lot of Spencer Rattler fans?

Speaker 1 No, I guess not. I'm trying to figure out why this would be.
Washington offer by.

Speaker 1 I don't love it. Last fairly watchable, at least fairly watchable for me.
Cardinals at home for the Patriots. Probably the Pats' last chance to win a game.

Speaker 1 Cardinals playing to stay in the playoff hunt.

Speaker 1 And I was in Denver on Thursday. Here's how much I love Drake May.

Speaker 1 The Patriots over-under on FanDuel was three and a half, and the under was plus 152.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And I'm like, we're not winning another game this year.
Like, this is, we're finishing three and 14 unless some crazy Drake May game happens. Plus 152.
What a great line. I should bet that.

Speaker 1 I'm not betting it. I didn't bet it.
What? Because I don't want to root against Drake May. I love Drake May.
I can't root against him.

Speaker 1 Nephew Kyle was talking about this, too. You guys betting like crazy.
And

Speaker 1 he did he go for under three and a half? He would never. No.
We discussed it. We were like, very unlikely win-win again, but not betting against Drake May.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 This should be close. What do you think? Yeah, I got to say, so I'd have cards by six.
What'd you have? I said six also. It's six and a half.
My real matchup, Pets.

Speaker 1 I think the Pats could win this game. Why not?

Speaker 1 Poopfecta. Bengals at Titans.
I have Bengals by six at Tennessee. I swear I had the same thing, and it's four and a half.

Speaker 1 They put it in the Vegas.

Speaker 1 Ravens. So we have a lot.
Oh, shit. I just realized this.
Jesus. What's the matter? Just a lot of home underdogs.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So we have Browns, Saints, Titans, Giants, potentially a couple more here, and then potentially on Monday nighter.

Speaker 1 Ravens at Giants. I'm going to say Ravens by 10 and a half, and I'm not going to put them in a tease.

Speaker 1 You're going to get this because I said 10.

Speaker 1 It's 14 and a half. Oh, my Lord.
That's stupid. Obviously, nobody's watched Lamar and Jim and John Harbaugh against a shitty team in the road.

Speaker 1 If the team has given up, they have,

Speaker 1 what can you say?

Speaker 1 Right? And the Giants are up 14-3 heading into halftime here at Giants Stadium. Cowboys Panthers had a lot of trouble with this one.

Speaker 1 I gave this the old one and a half. Cowboys by one and a half at Carolina.
I had even more trouble. I said, Cowboys by three.

Speaker 1 Get ready, Bill. Panthers by one and a half.
Oh,

Speaker 1 that is a low point for the franchise. Maybe the Cowboys are the worst franchise.
Maybe, maybe that puts us, maybe we have to re-rank these franchise.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Wow. I'm staring at it, and it's not changing.
The Panthers are favored against the Cowboys.

Speaker 1 If I had told you six weeks ago that in week 15, the Panthers were going to be favored by a point and a half over the Cowboys, would you have assumed there was like a bus accident?

Speaker 1 If you told me six minutes ago, I wouldn't believe it. I still don't believe what's going on here.
Now, I guess it's... Wow.
The Panthers have been good. This is what we talked about earlier.

Speaker 1 They've been good. For, I mean, a good, bad team, not good, good, but they hang around in those games.
I'd rather have their quarterback. I'd rather have their running back.

Speaker 1 I'd rather have one of their receivers. Yeah, you're right.
The defensive tackle.

Speaker 1 I guess it makes sense. It's just very depressing.

Speaker 1 Jets are at Jacksonville, speaking depressing. I don't know if it gets more depressing than this.
This is the Aaron Rodgers, Mac Jones game.

Speaker 1 Nobody wanted.

Speaker 1 And I have the Jets favored by one and a half. All right, I got this exactly.
It's three.

Speaker 1 They still like the Jets, the Oddsmakers. They do.
Yeah. Yeah, they still do.
Did they end up covering today? Or because it was six and a half and it dropped to five and a half?

Speaker 1 It was in the next one. I think during the week it was five and a half.
And

Speaker 1 at kickoff, it was six and a half, but you can't win by six and a half in overtime.

Speaker 1 Sunday night.

Speaker 1 You're up 11.9, so if you win one of these, I think you're in good shape. I'm hitting this one.
Seahawks Packers in Seattle. A very good one.
Always a problem with the uniforms, always confusing.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Some good history with these two teams.

Speaker 1 I'm going to say Seahawks by one and a half. Oh, no, no, no.
I said Green Bay by one. It is Green Bay by two and a half.
Oh, man.

Speaker 1 Let's go.

Speaker 1 That's a big mistake.

Speaker 1 This could be good because I picked one. There's two Monday night games and I picked one of them exactly.

Speaker 1 Packers two and a half.

Speaker 1 Wow. You're looking at a teaser.
I know you are.

Speaker 1 Did anyone watch the Seahawks last couple weeks?

Speaker 1 I guess they'll have the rest advantage, right? Green Bay?

Speaker 1 Jordan Love in Seattle. Two Monday night games.
Yep.

Speaker 1 And I wish they were better.

Speaker 1 You know, I don't care. I just, as long as there's seven early afternoon now, I mean, because it would have been eight if there was one, right? So that's fine.
It's fine. Vikings home for the Bears,

Speaker 1 and uh, I don't see how this is less than seven and a half, so I'm gonna say Vikings by seven and a half.

Speaker 1 I said seven, it is seven,

Speaker 1 Jesus. So, I'm up one on you right now.
You're up,

Speaker 1 you're up one, and uh, wait, one, two, three,

Speaker 1 11, two, three.

Speaker 1 No, it's 11-11. I was off by a point and a half in this.
You should be able to maybe get it.

Speaker 1 Desmond Ritter against his whole team.

Speaker 1 What a game.

Speaker 1 Atlanta at Vegas. I'm going to say Atlanta by three and a half.
Oh, I pulled it out. Four.
It's five and a half. Oh, my God.
What a fun.

Speaker 1 What a day. One Soto.
This was good. One Soto.
You've tied me and guessed the lunch. Woohoo.

Speaker 1 I'm a little less depressed that the Cowboys aren't on the dog to the Panthers.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do Parent Corner. What do you got? Let's do it.

Speaker 1 What do I have? All right.

Speaker 1 A couple things. First of all, my youngest, my 10-year-old, is in this travel baseball team.
He got five hits this weekend, and he's batting like 360. And he's available, Mets.

Speaker 1 I know you don't have any money left, but he is available. So he wants to hit 400 in the worst way.
And I asked him if he'd rather get all A's in school. and hit 300 or all C's and hit 400.

Speaker 1 And he gave the right answer. He said he'd rather get all C's and hit 400.
And I made sure his mother wasn't looking at high-fived him. So anyway, I'm a good father.

Speaker 1 But the big one I want to talk about is the Spotify rap

Speaker 1 and how much of a loser I feel like

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 I'm embarrassed to say that even though this is what I like, Kenny Loggins, Billy Joel, Healy Lewis and The News, Chicago, and Holland Oates, those are my

Speaker 1 55.

Speaker 1 Some of those bands are too old for even you to make a documentary about. So I don't,

Speaker 1 I mean, I've heard of that. And all of your texts are about the Yacht Rock Doc.
Yeah, absolutely. So you're just old.

Speaker 1 I'm just old. And it's sad, but then it said, like, July was my psychedelic beach goth moment.
I was like, oh, wow.

Speaker 1 And I was big into the growlers, the dead ghosts, and the pesos. I was like, this is terrific.
I don't even remember listening to those. It's my kids.
It's my son.

Speaker 1 It's my college kid who shares it with Spotify, and he puts me in a different realm. But it makes me feel bad-like, wow, those sound like cool bands.

Speaker 1 I couldn't name one song by any of them, but the growlers. I don't think the Spotify rap, even though the sun comes in for the save, with like some,

Speaker 1 I assume, hipster music.

Speaker 1 I don't know about the Spotify rap. If an app tells you how many times you get up in the middle of the night to pee, it's like, ah, that's I don't want that getting out.

Speaker 1 So, thanks for trying to save me, kid. But I'm old and dying.
The growlers. The growlers.

Speaker 1 My daughter asked if she could Instacart some stuff in college, and I said yes. And I just wanted to redo the order as my parent corner.
I'll do it.

Speaker 1 Almond Breeze Unsweetened.

Speaker 1 Almond Breeze Unsweetened Original Almond Milk, Non-Dairy Milk Alternative. Hood Instant Whipped Light Cream.
Ready Whip Orange Original Dairy Whip Topping. These are the first four things she got.

Speaker 1 Girardelli hot cocoa with chocolate chips. Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa K-Cup Pods.
Pillsbury Eater Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Speaker 1 Toll House Chocolate Chip Lovers Cookie Dough with Chocolate Chips and Chocolate Chunks.

Speaker 1 Peanut Butter, 90% less fat, powdered original. That was my favorite.
Less fat after all these other orders.

Speaker 1 Archer Farms Women's Plaid Flannel Holiday Matching Family Pajama Set. Small.

Speaker 1 Archer Farms women's plaid flannel holiday matching family pajama set

Speaker 1 large

Speaker 1 strawberries jet puff mini marshmallows and skinny pop microwave popcorn with sea salt wow that was the instagram order and apparently she was at my dad's house and they decided to um

Speaker 1 make cookies and drink hot chocolate and um and she wanted to wear all this stuff

Speaker 1 But I got the order and I'm like, are you in college or you're in like second grade? What's happening?

Speaker 1 Remember in college, like you used to go to college and you were just on your own and you had like somebody had like a toaster oven. And now you can just order whatever the fuck you want and it comes.

Speaker 1 That was it. Yeah.
You had a crock pot or something. Like

Speaker 1 having hot chocolate when we were in college, it would have been like a miracle. It would be like, you have hot chocolate? That sounds amazing.
Do you have like a crock pot? You can make it?

Speaker 1 Now it's just, I don't know. The whole thing of being in college, I just feels like it's like in this delivery era.

Speaker 1 Like, oh, I want pizza. Oh, our pizza place closed.
Oh, shit. I guess we can't have pizza.
Now it's like, oh, just order a pizza. So easy.
Yeah. Does college make it too easy on our kids?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, or just like 2024, it's it's too easy to be a kid in college compared to the way it used to be.
Like, you used to like get sent off and that was it, man. You had to like sink or swim.

Speaker 1 You're on your own. Defend for yourself.
Right.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I blame college, but she'd be doing this at home too, right? If you weren't paying attention, definitely done that, yeah, I like it.

Speaker 1 Well, you see her every couple weeks, but it'd be funny if she came back like for Christmas break 220

Speaker 1 red foot.

Speaker 1 But that's the thing.

Speaker 1 She'll take like two bites of all this stuff because

Speaker 1 we call her the maggot is her nickname in our house because she'll like there'll be a piece of pizza on the counter and she'll just take like just enough of the cheese to ruin the piece, but not eat the pizza.

Speaker 1 So we're always like, oh, the maggot got it.

Speaker 1 Isn't that what Sergeant Slaughter would call his opponents a maggot? You should get a sergeant,

Speaker 1 you know how maggots just like eat away at the at the

Speaker 1 we call Ben the raccoon because when Ben, when Ben gets into the kitchen, it's a lot different. There's a lot of

Speaker 1 damage, stuff like that. Yeah,

Speaker 1 um, did you watch UFC last night? I did, I did, it was great, really. It's actually a better card than I thought.
A couple weird decisions, but uh, I had uh

Speaker 1 opposite of you. You had gone, right? I had Volkoff, yeah, that was good.
I don't know if he won any round.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 I wrote the bet off.

Speaker 1 I thought, yeah, he lost all three rounds. What did he do? Why do they have a Gracie in there? Just because of the name? And is that the best Gracie they could have?

Speaker 1 Because he seemed content to fight from his back. He just got half guard before he was thrown down.
He was like 36. He's 36.
But Rogan made a big case for him when he came in.

Speaker 1 He was like, Gracie, you know, we talked to him. He said he's feeling great.

Speaker 1 And he just got completely annihilated.

Speaker 1 There's got to be a better Gracie is what I'm thinking. I don't know.
The LA card is going to be unbelievable. Yeah, that's fun.
Is that in February?

Speaker 1 No, it's January 18th. Oh, okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right. That's it for our corner.
Anything else we got?

Speaker 1 That's it.

Speaker 1 What number is Juan Soto going to wear?

Speaker 1 I don't know. It'd be funny if he had to pay someone like $3.5 million for it.
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure. What is he going to do? Whatever freaking number he wants.
He could wear it. You should mention on the Ringer Sunday pregame show, you were now 12 and 2 on your best bets.

Speaker 1 That's pretty good, right? Like I brag and I'm an asshole on that show for sure. And I asked these guys if they wanted a concede.
But yeah, it's right there in the beginning of the show.

Speaker 1 We give our best bets. We'll give him bets the whole hour and a half.
It's a lot of fun. We have a pre-game show.
We're having a pretty good year, just in general. I think our future is the good.

Speaker 1 Million-dollar picks are doing good. The Ringer Sunday pregame is doing pretty good.
Everybody's house has been hitting some teeth, some

Speaker 1 underdogs. Underdogs, House heats up with the underdogs in December.

Speaker 1 Who did he have today? He had Jackson? Jaguars. Yeah.
He made a case that said the Titans' numbers were fraudulent. They're defensive numbers and a defensive play, okay.

Speaker 1 But yeah, we have Cousin South winning weekend on Friday against all odds. By the way, you want winners 7-1 with our last eight basketball bets, better than anyone else on the ringer, actually.

Speaker 1 It's quite sad. No one can compete.
But yeah. And then

Speaker 1 what else uh through the ringer with tate frazier i want to thank our friend kurt schwartzkopf the general yeah hooked me up at the into it dome what are you lots of fun

Speaker 1 what'd you what did you what did you say

Speaker 1 i saw the clippers and the trailblazers i bet the clippers that night I know you gave your review of the place.

Speaker 1 I mean, I feel like I was buying a condo trying to get into the app and face scanning and all that shit. But once you're in, once you're in,

Speaker 1 it's fine. They make it really hard.
Games for the kids at the seats and everything. ballmer did a nice job on the on the cheap

Speaker 1 wait before we go seahawks minus 135 rams plus 160. yeah

Speaker 1 tampa's minus 230 atlanta's plus 185

Speaker 1 pittsburgh's minus 210 baltimore is plus 175.

Speaker 1 they're just dying to get you to try to put baltimore money down Look at that Steeler schedule and

Speaker 1 there's a whole path, but I think the Steelers are going to do it. Anyway, all right, Cuz, as always, good job by you.
Good job by you, buddy. Thanks to Kyle Creighton.
Thanks to Steve Sarudi.

Speaker 1 Thanks to Gahal.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 you can watch this on Spotify. You might not have even realized that as you were listening to it, but you can watch it on the YouTube channel as well.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be back with the rewatchables on Monday night. Did a Michael Douglas movie.

Speaker 1 Oh, which one? Falling Down? No, I'm not going to say. It's a Michael Douglas movie.
That's the only hint. And then back on this podcast on Tuesday.
Great to see you, Sal. See you, buddy.

Speaker 1 On the wayside

Speaker 1 on the bruison never runs in.

Speaker 1 I don't have

Speaker 1 to do it.