Aaron Torres & Jason Martin React to Ohio State Dominating Tennessee, Talk CFP Committee, Penix Starting & More!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome in everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Here, Torris, Jason Martin.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We are broadcasting live from the tireraq dot com studios
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should be, Jamar, I'm not gonna. I just had to
sprint down the hallway to get something. A little out

(00:31):
of breath, go, I need you to take this for
about twenty seconds here while I catch my breast. Speaking
of catching your breath, how about Ohio State thirty five
to ten college.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Football Playoff Round one? A little bit of a dud?
Jay Martin? How you doing today?

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Man?

Speaker 5 (00:45):
Doing all right? Watched a lot of football. Feels like
this day has been about three days long, doesn't it?
I think because these games have been, you know, less
than you wanted them to be. But I don't know
that that's entirely unexpected either. And we're gonna get into
a lot as a regard certainly the playoff, but also
circumstances surrounding the teams that got in all the debates,

(01:07):
all the controversy, all of those kinds of things. But ultimately,
and I'm i admit I'm a little surprised by this one,
not because Ohio State's not a good football team, but
because Tennessee hasn't been able to do anything. Samson going
out didn't help, But pretty much the home teams have

(01:28):
been the forest superior clubs in all four of these games.
And it turns out that Clemson, of all teams, ends
up really giving the best effort against their opponent. And
Tennessee might have thirty thousand people in the shoe, but
they did. They must. They needed a lot more, They

(01:48):
needed a lot more. Yeah, I don't know how many
of them are still there, but whew boy. Home field
advantage I think I will mention right off the top.
These atmospheres are phenomenal, but if you're a road team,
who this is quite an advantage to have. How loud
these stadiums have been. I would argue Texas was probably

(02:10):
the most subdued of the four, and that game was
the closest. Notre Dame was insane, Penn State was nuts.
Ohio State has been incredibly loud as well. It's and
you see these delay of games and these timeouts being
wasted because they can't get Blake calls in. It is
very difficult to be a road team in these on
campus year one playoff games.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
So I think, you know, and I didn't have the
opportunity to listen to Jason Smith and Mike Harmon last night,
but I think obviously look to start the playoff with
the manner in which Indiana performed. It was twenty seven
to three with under five minutes to go before they
scored two late touchdowns, scored a touchdown, we're covered an
on side kick, et cetera. I think if you had
asked you know, Mike Harmon and Jason Smith at you know,

(02:55):
late last night, if you had asked Jonas Knox and
everybody that was that was, you know, hosting this afternoon,
I think the early conversation was, ah, you know, I.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Mean, did the committee get it right?

Speaker 4 (03:06):
And you know what would would Ohio would uh, you know,
would Alabama or Old miss have done a better job
and put up a better fight, you know, if they
had been in the playoff instead of.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
SMU or Indiana. But what I do think, as the
day has gone on, has become obvious. Is exactly what
you just said, Jason, is that you know we're blessed
enough to do this time slot every single week and
more often than not. When we did this show, as
Ohio State has scored again a Travion Henderson touchdown run

(03:38):
makes it forty one to ten extra point pending Ohio State,
it is officially a beatdown. Listen, you know there's gonna
be we We have three hours to break down a
lot of things, not just in college football, but certainly
college football, to playoff how the first round went. But
I think you're being disingenuous if the takeaway that you

(04:01):
have from round one is anything other than it is
really hard to win on the road in college football.
I don't think it's an Indiana thing. I don't think
it's a Tennessee thing. I don't think it's an SMU thing.
I don't think it's a Clemson thing. I just think
it's really hard. We're on this this time slot every
single every single Saturday, and go through the list Alabama

(04:22):
beating Georgia at home, you know, Georgia beating Tennessee at
home every game virtually every week that we were on air,
except for the week that Georgia b Texas, it felt
like the home team was winning a big game because
it is really hard to win on the road in
college football, and I think this first round of the
College Football Playoff has proven that.

Speaker 5 (04:41):
Yeah, I mean it is. It's a bear. And especially
look when you go north and you're playing in the
cold and you're not used to it as much, and
that's not the case for Tennessee. In Knoxville tonight, it's
thirty degrees right here where I am. It's not I
don't even know that it's freezing, but it's right about
there here in Nashville, a couple of hours away from Knoxville,

(05:03):
so it's twenty five there with the wind show. It's cold. Yeah,
but it's cold here and it gets cold here, so
I don't look at that quite the same. But you know,
you got SMU and Happy Valley, You've got Indiana's used
to playing in the cold as well. But some guys
just react to it better than others. And a kid
from California like Nico has shown a lot to me

(05:23):
just still being in there and fighting as hard as
he has. But the environments in the atmosphere, coupled with
the momentum that comes with that, and the fact that
the teams that are hosting in general are better football
teams to have better players. Notre Dame had better players
than Indiana did, Penn State had better talent than SMU did.
Texas even though it wasn't quite as lopsided because of

(05:47):
you know, Clemson has been able to build a pretty
good stable of talent, and they had a quarterback that
really showed up for them in k Klubnick. But Texas
had one of the best recruiting classes in the country,
and you add that on top of the atmosphere. But
that's the benefit. You get a home playoff game, that's
the reward. Yes, you have to play one extra you
don't get to buy, but you still have a pretty

(06:08):
sizable advantage by being able to host that on your
campus and then try to control how the tickets are
dispersed and all of those things. So, I mean, the
environments in the atmosphere before kickoff, and all four of
these games were tremendous, But the road teams are gonna
leave with their ears ringing. In addition to these lopsided losses.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Let's talk about this game specifically, So Ohio State for
people just joining us up forty two to ten on
the Tennessee Volunteers. This was a game first of all,
j Mart, you know, you know, I know you and
I talked about it. I'll be honest, I'm really thinking
about it. I don't know that I heard anybody, and
maybe I was listening to the wrong radio shows and

(06:49):
podcasts whatever.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
I don't really think I heard.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Anybody making the strong case like oh Ohio State's gonna
come out and kick button take names on Saturday Night.
I think there were a lot of people that thought, Okay, yeah,
they're the more talented team, they're at home, they're gonna win.
First of all, you know, let's just talk about it.
You and I have been as critical as anybody of
Ryan Day. I think absolutely justifiably so all the things
that we always talk about Ohio State is, you know,

(07:16):
in my opinion, one of the best jobs in college football.
Not just my opinion, it's everybody's opinion. You have every resource,
every this, every that. And when we've been critical of
Ryan Day, it's because you're not supposed to lose to
your rival four straight years. You're not supposed to not
win the Big Ten four straight years. By the way,
I'll say this. He actually took some heat this week
because he did an interview where he said, look, you know,

(07:38):
that last game of the regular season didn't go as planned,
but our goal was to be in the playoff with
a chance to win it, and that's all that matters
right now. And he took some heat for basically saying, Hey,
the mission loss doesn't matter. I bring it up because
what is your takeaway of Ohio State? Was it just
back is against the wall? Is it they were always
the I mean, because this to me is shocking. Is

(07:59):
one I p Tennessee to win. I'll just say it
like it is. I'm not going to try to hide
from it. But to the manner in which they are dominating,
I think has shocked everybody this evening chamber.

Speaker 5 (08:08):
I mean, I do think they came in with a
chip on their shoulder. I think that it's clear that
Ryan Day and the staff did a nice job of
making it feel like this was them against the world
and everybody was expecting them to fall on their face
or something like that. But I think it's been a
perfect storm. I've never seen Will Howard throw the ball
like he's thrown it tonight. You saw exactly what Jeremiah

(08:30):
Smith is capable of, which is why I'm this. I
gotta stop because this is what I'm thinking about midway
through the third quarter. Now, revisionist history is a dumb
thing to do, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I
saw a comment at one point I was just looking
at a message board. I actually replied to this comment.
I thought it was ignorant, and it just said, how
did Tennessee go ten and two? I'm like, what a
stupid comment, because they went ten and two because they

(08:54):
won ten football games and they lost two. The way
they played tonight doesn't have anything to do with the
twelve games that came before at all. And it's like
Ohio State is ten and two as well. The thing
that got me and you can make this argument about
anybody that lost or whatever record at that point in time,
you can make that argument about them at that point.

(09:15):
The only one you really can't pacet the blemishaw on
yet is Oregon because they don't have one. But this
Ohio State team. I want you to explain this one
to me, Torres, How in the world did they lose
to Michigan. That's what boggles my mind. And that's where
I'm like, hey, Ryan, you need to explain this one
to me. I don't care whether or not you thought
that game mattered or not. That's irrelevant to me. Whatever. Yeah,

(09:38):
you guys might win a championship, right because you have
the talent and twenty million dollars roster and the coaching
staff at all that you may win at all. But
how is it I'm watching tre Von Henderson the way
he's running tonight, and I'm watching this defense, and I'm
watching Jeremiah Smith, and I'm watching these receivers down the field,
and I'm watching Will Howard dealing, and I'm like, Michigan

(09:58):
wasn't good. How do you lose that game? Like? Are
you just good? But you just can't beat them? Ever, Like,
I don't understand how this football team lost to that
one except for the fact that again, week to week,
these teams aren't the same. They don't look the same.
This Ohio State team right here, this one I've watched tonight,

(10:21):
will win the national championship. Well, there's no guarantee that
this team is gonna be the one that shows up
on January first.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
There's no doubt.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
And what I was gonna say, was this Ohio State
team is the one that you know, if you ask
guys like Bernie Fratto who understand the betting markets and
this and the that. I mean, even after they lost
to Oregon, they were still the favorites to win the
national championship. And I'm not smart enough to know what
goes into all these betting metrics and analytics and all
that and power rankings and stuff, but whatever it is,

(10:50):
and I think it's obviously like talent rankings and things
of that nature, like this was the team we were
supposed to see. And what's wild about Ryan Day is
a couple things that I think this is kind of interesting.
Is one the best games that he's ever coached are
the very few games in which he really isn't I
don't say not expected to win because he was a

(11:11):
seven and a half point favorite today, but you know,
basically the games where people really are like, I don't know,
like three games come to mind. Twenty twenty was the
COVID year when Ohio State basically didn't play any games.
They get into the playoff, and if you remember, Dabo
Sweeney was doing the whole they shouldn't even be in
the playoff, they only played four games or five games

(11:32):
or whatever it was. Then they destroyed Clemson in that game.
Then of course there was the Georgia game two years
ago that they did not win. But I forget the number,
but I think they were double digit close to favorite.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Or a double digit underdog, excuse me, in that.

Speaker 5 (11:46):
Game and they it almost did win.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
It, and they almost did win it.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Remember that was the game that Marvin Harrison got a
concussion on what was essentially a cheap shot, and they
were in control of the game. And then tonight, I
mean again again, you want to talk about revision's history,
it's to be revisionist history to say that Ohio State
was a seven and a half point favorite. This that
the other thing, I can't speak for you. I didn't
hear anybody all week. Jmart make the definitive case Ohio
State is going to win and dominate this game. And

(12:11):
so I do think it's a little bit of a
Michigan problem because the other crazy thing about Ryan Day is,
to his credit, never really loses games that he's not
supposed to, except obviously to Michigan, and especially this year,
like there are not major blemishes the way that Alabama
has the blemish for Vandy this year in Oklahoma this year,
and even you know, and this is you know what

(12:31):
an Ohio State fan I'll tell you is like Herbert
Meyer would lose some of those really bad games to
a Purdue, to whoever, but he was great against Michigan.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
He was great in the big games.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And so Ryan Day, I think at this point, I
don't think you can say anything other than that he
has a Michigan problem, in a Michigan block in whatever
he's doing on the job. Because when you look at
at Ohio State, they don't lose games they're not supposed to.
You know, he plays, he coaches his best in games
where people really don't think he's got a shot, and

(13:02):
so you look at his losses, it's really just Michigan
and then really really really really really good teams outside
of that.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
So it's just it's so bizarre and.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I don't have a good answer to it other than
that he's got a Michigan problem that he can't figure out.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
Yeah, And are Ohio State fans gonna be cool with that?
Like is everything hunky dory now because of this one?
Or do they have to continue to go even further
or are we still gonna have problems because Ohio State
fans are about as arrogant as they come in all
of sports. I've sat there and watched that message board
all night long, and the way they talk, I'm like, man,

(13:39):
how could anyone like your football team if they know
any of you because of how you come across You
may be wonderful people, but man, it's bad news listening
to you talk about other teams, referees and everything else.
I've never seen anything quite like it. And I'm in
the SEC territory and I don't feel like it's that bad.
But I do think that this Ohio State team, if

(14:01):
this team continues to show up for a couple of
more games, then they're gonna win it all. Because and
again I don't know that that's what's going to happen.
We have no idea. Now we have to sit here
and wait for another ten days and then we'll see
these matchups after that. But this Ohio State team is
the one that was at as advertised a week before Michigan.
I think I said I thought they were playing better

(14:21):
than anybody in the country. I felt like they should
They were potentially the best team in college football at
that point. Then they went and lost to Michigan like
immediately after I said that, So I guess I needed
to stay quiet. But I mean, you've got a thirty
two point lead over a good Tennessee team, so much
so that you have your backup sending game with ten

(14:44):
minutes left, and with everybody that was handwringing about SMU
and Indiana and Clemson, it's Tennessee that actually gets beaten
worse than everybody else. Real quick one that I'm supposed
to be the best game.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Real quick on that note, that bludgeting of Indiana that
oh they were completely remember last night, Oh Indiana, they
don't belong this, and that Indiana against Ohio State thirty
eight to fifteen. Tennessee right now trails forty two to ten.
So that beatdown that we all saw Indiana Will Howard
putting out the SIG and oh Indiana is an embarrassment,

(15:20):
and oh Indiana shouldn't be in Well, Tennessee in the
same building is currently losing by an even worse margin
than Indiana did a few weeks ago. Tell you what, Jamart,
what I do want to do? I want to come back.
I want to touch on one interesting thing that you
said about Ohio State and the state of Ohio State,
and then also from there, do want to go ahead
look at some of the other games and just the

(15:41):
big picture conversation on what you said about the bracket
and everything that we've seen over the last two days.
We'll take a quick break, come back eron Torres Jason Martin.
We are in until two a m. Eastern time. This
is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (15:55):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Eric Tords Jason Martin broadcasting live from the tire Rack
dot com studios. Five minutes left in Columbus, Ohio State
up forty two to ten. Forty two to ten with
five twenty two to go. They, by the way, are
down to their third string quarterback. And when I say
down to, nothing bad has happened. They're just beating up

(16:32):
Tennessee so bad. They have played their third different quarterback,
true freshman Julian Saying just got some snaps. They did
punt the ball back to Tennessee five minutes left in
this game. We'll keep you posted as it goes final. Jamart,
I want to ask you something real quick as a
piggyback to this question. And I know you can't and
won't speak for an entire fan base, especially one you

(16:52):
know you're obviously not an Ohio State fan.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I am kind of curious.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Though, like like what I don't I don't know, and
you know, if we by the way, I'll tell you what.
How about we do this if we have any Ohio
State fans listening, if you're driving around, call us one
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox one eight seven
seven nine nine six six three sixty nine, producer you
and make sure the phone lines are open. It's a

(17:17):
question I don't have an answer to. Jmart Is, like
what does this wipe away all of Ryan Day's previous sins?
You know, because I remember coming on after the Michigan
game saying, you know, Ohio State they gotta, you know,
they gotta maybe win the national championship for Ohio State
fans to forgive Ryan Day. But I'll tell you this,
if they're not gonna win a national championship, this is

(17:39):
about as good of a night as you could have expected. Uh,
they are up thirty two points with five minutes to go.
Tennessee's basically just running up the clock. They are headed
to the Rose Bowl to play Oregon, and you listen.
I don't know what the reaction will be if the
Oregon game is is is thirty five to three or
something like that, and they end up losing that game.

(18:00):
But I'll tell you, man, you know, it's funny how
sports works. I mean, you talk about a situation where
a guy who basically could do no right. Nothing he said,
nothing he did was good enough, Everything he said was criticized.
I don't know if this changes the narrative for him
in Ohio State. I don't know if they have to
keep winning. I don't know what happens if they end
up losing a game. We might get some phone calls

(18:21):
on this, But do you have any thoughts on what
this means for Ryan Day, given you know, the up
and down past, but also the fact that they look
pretty darn good tonight.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
It's hard, I mean, it's hard to say. This definitely
doesn't hurt him, This helps him, But I don't know
how much is it still going to be well you've
got to go win the whole thing, or at least
you have to beat Oregon and find your way past
another round. I don't know what the number is. Losing
to Michigan hurts Ohio State fans more than this win

(18:55):
helps them, I think, which is weird because this is
a playoff game. But it's just tough because I think
there are a lot of Ohio State fans that just
don't want Ryan Day anymore, that had already talked themselves
into it, and they're probably they're excited that they're winning here,
but at the same time, they're like, please, don't let
this end in an extension for Ryan Day. And I

(19:19):
think that there is a definite possibility that that's what
Ohio State brass are going to try to argue that. No,
as a matter of fact, as long as he still
wants to be here, we need to pay him more,
we need to do this, we need to do whatever
it is. And I think if you gave a bunch
of Ohio State fans truth serum, many of them would
say that's exactly what they don't want to see for

(19:41):
short term gain. They don't want to see long term mediocrity.
And I think mediocre is a dumb way to put it.
But I think the Ohio State sees Ryan Day as
mediocre simply because he can't beat Michigan.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
I'll tell you what, we don't have to wait very
much longer because we have a couple calls. Callers on
the line. I believe was it and was just give
me a thumbs up?

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Was it?

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Mike in Ohio?

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Mike in Ohio, you're on Fox Sports Radio aer Tours
Jason martin Tennessee. Looks like they may score here, but
independent that Ohio State's up forty two to ten one. Mike,
I assume you're an Ohio State fan. If you are,
does tonight do anything to change your opinion of Ryan Day?

Speaker 7 (20:20):
Well, listen, I'm in the minority when it comes to
Ryan Day. He's a hell of a recruiter. Just kyle it.
Maybe he needs to make a little decision as offensive coordinator,
even though Jim Kelly called a hell of a game tonight.
They need that's what they do. They need to open
it up and then found the ball light. It's what
they need to do. And he's seen what they utilize

(20:42):
their offensive weapons tonight out exposed so.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
They can be really quick, Mike, And I think that's
a good point.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Is first of all, you know you say, First of all,
you say that, but would you have said the same
thing after the Michigan game, Like if you had called
this show three weeks ago or whatever it was after
that game, would you say, Oh, he's a good recruiter
and he's this, and he's that. Because it's easy to
say now after you just kick Tennessee's butt. But uh,
is that that's really truly been your opinion this whole time?

Speaker 7 (21:09):
Absolutely? I believe it's had been an offensive coordinator problem
this year. Oh too much conservative against Michigan.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Okay, here's my here's my next question for you.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
How frustrating was it watching tonight seeing Ryan Day and
the offensive coordinator Chip Kelly completely open it up. You're
chucking it to all those five star receivers that we've
heard so much about three weeks ago against Michigan. You're
trying to shove it down their throats and you're getting
blown up four yards of the backfield.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
How frustrating was it?

Speaker 5 (21:38):
Like?

Speaker 2 (21:39):
How it must have been enjoyable but also frustrating at
the same time.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Am I right?

Speaker 7 (21:44):
What it's like? What the hell are we doing?

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (21:47):
You know what I mean. I mean there's talent all
over the place. I mean yeah, we've got the high
snow money spad utilize it, utilize it, spread, spread it around.
I wasn't sold on Will Howard at all until tonight.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
That that's kind of a problem. I mean, it's weak.
You know, it's the thirteenth game. It's the end of
December here, Jamar, do you have anything for Sean or
for Mike? We do have another caller on the line, Jamar,
did you want to add anything with Mike?

Speaker 5 (22:15):
No, I got to comment just on what he said.
He's Mike, we appreciated minority, and I think I think
that's the important thing that he said. Uh he said,
I'm in the minority, and I wonder how much in
the minority he is when he says that. I do
think to the Michigan point real fast, I think that
Ohio State, for whatever reason, wanted to prove how tough

(22:37):
they were are and try to beat Michigan at their
own game instead of playing Ohio State football. And we've
seen teams try to do that against Kansas City and
fall apart. We saw Baltimore get away from what they're
known for against them. We've seen other teams do that
through the years. I think they wanted to out tough
Michigan instead of actually beating them, they wanted to beat

(22:58):
them in a certain way, a certain style, and as
a result, you've got Jeremiah Smith sitting They're twiddling his
stumps down the field while you're trying to ground and
pound against Michigan, where Sharon Morris just got a giant
smile on his face.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Now, well, listen, there's no doubt that if that's the
Ohio That's the frustrating part if you're an Ohio State
fan is the fact that exactly what Mike just said,
you had the time. I mean, it was the first
drive of this game. You could see they were like,
oh crap, We've been listening to all of the noise,
all of the talk radio, all of the whatever people
listen to these days, podcast, radio shows, whatever, and that

(23:34):
was the number one could play. You didn't need to
be a football expert a former coach to know, hey,
they got a lot of really good wide receivers and
for some reason they decided not to throw to them.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Again.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
By the way, the phone number is one eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox one eight seven seven nine
nine six six three six ' nine. If you are
an Ohio State fan, we do want to hear from you.
Ohio State, by the way, has or excuse me, uh Tennessee,
did you score?

Speaker 3 (24:00):
It's forty two to seventeen Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
We'll get the ball back with a little under two
minutes to go and pretty much ice theclock. They have
already played three different quarterbacks in this game. Will come
back if you have any questions. If you're an Ohio
State Ohio State fan, excuse me, call us again one
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox one eight seven
seven nine nine six six three six nine. In the meantime, though,

(24:23):
while we wait for your calls and come back, talk
more playoff. Let's get it over the news test first
time this evening. Steve de Seger, what is trending?

Speaker 3 (24:29):
My friend?

Speaker 8 (24:29):
Hello, gentlemen, you mentioned the law somehow Ohio State dropping,
and I think we can say somehow now dropping the
game against rival Michigan not too long ago. In the
fourth quarter of that game, Ohio State gained ten yards
and allowed over one hundred. First quarter tonight, first three drives,
three touchdown.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Two hundred five yards in the first quarter. I looked
up and two hundred five yards in the first quarter.
Tennessee had negative three. It's unbelievable. And j Mart's right
is where was this for Michigan. It's it's crazy. I
don't find yeah.

Speaker 8 (25:00):
Meanwhile, in total yardage now is about four to sixty
for Ohio State, about two sixty for Tennessee.

Speaker 9 (25:06):
It's a forty two to seventeen.

Speaker 8 (25:08):
Buckeyes lead at home with about two minutes to go
against the balls. And keep in mind your college football
history as we start this best of what twelve team
playoff as of last night the Notre Dame win that
began things. So we have four first round games and
four blowouts. Really, but that's just in keeping with what
we've seen from a majority of college football playoff games,

(25:28):
even when it was a fourteen playoff, going back about
a decade in fact, including tonight, this makes thirty four
playoff games total. Twenty four of the thirty four have
been decided by double digits. Let's not forget blowout losses
in playoff games from TCU and Oklahoma and Notre Dame
and Florida State and Michigan State and Washington.

Speaker 9 (25:49):
And on and on and on over the past decade.

Speaker 8 (25:52):
Ohio State at home winning tonight against Tennessee so. Number
one ranked Oregon, which is off until it's Rosewold quarterfinal,
will face the Guys January first, a rematch of a game,
by the way that Ohio State lost thirty two to
thirty one at Oregon in mid October. At Texas today,
the Longhorns leg Clemson thirty one ten in the third
quarter thirty eight twenty four the final. Penn stayed at

(26:14):
home in the Cole led SMU twenty eight nothing at halftime.
Final thirty eight ten for the Nitney Lyons, who will
now face Boise State next. That'll be on New Year's
Eve in the Fiesta Bowl. The Texas Longhorns go to
a New Year's game the Peach Bowl against Arizona State.
Notre Dame dominated at home last night, led Indiana twenty
seven to three late in the game. New Year's Night,

(26:35):
the Irish against number two Georgia, which is off until.

Speaker 9 (26:38):
That Sugar Bowl quarter final.

Speaker 8 (26:40):
Two NFL games today at Kansas City, the Chiefs now
fourteen to one beat Houston twenty seven to nineteen. Texans
wide receiver Tank dell As hospitalized with a serious knee injury,
including a reported dislocated kneecap. At Baltimore, Ravens over the
Steelers thirty four to seventeen. That game was tied late
third quarter. Derrick Henry twenty four carries one hundred and

(27:00):
sixty two yards. The Ravens clinch a playoff spot. Saints
running back Alvin Kamara is out for the Monday night
game at Green Bay due to a groin injury. Baseball
Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson passed away at the age
of sixty five. The Yankees agreed to a one year
deal with first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. The Diamondbacks acquired All
star first baseman Josh Naylor from Cleveland. He'll be a

(27:21):
free agent after next season. The Guardian signed first baseman
Carlos Santana. The late game in the NBA is now
a final at Phoenix. Detroit beat the Suns one thirty three,
one twenty five despite forty three points from Kevin durant As.
Suns guard Devin Booker is out at least two games
with a groin injury. Dallas won, but Luka Donzich of
the MAVs was out again with a bruised heel. Mavericks

(27:44):
beat the Clippers one thirteen ninety seven Kyrie Irving in
the win six of twenty five, shooting for fifteen points.
And the other late game was at San Antonio Spurs
over Portland one fourteen ninety four Victor Wembenyama thirty points
and ten blocks. And on Fox tonight a top ten
women's basketball game USC winning at Yukon.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
I believe our team that.

Speaker 9 (28:06):
Sounds perly, that's the show's team.

Speaker 8 (28:08):
Yes, they lost at home seventy two seventy against the
women of Troy as Juoji Watkin scored twenty five points
Connecticut on free throws in this close game was ten
of seventeen.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Back to you, Thank you very much, Steve Desager.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
This is Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday Era towards
Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the tyrack dot Com studios.
By the way, Salty Ryan Day. They have just put
in their fourth different quarterback in this game. Lincoln kind Holes,
who you may remember jmart was the third string quarterback

(28:43):
in the Cotton Bowl that you and I were stuck
covering last year around the holidays. If you remember Kyle
McCord basically left the program. Devin Brown gets hurt, Lincoln
kind holes. I don't know if he has played the literally,
I guess. I guess he's taken a few snaps this year. No,
I stand correct that he has not played since last
year's Cotton Bowl. Is officially in this game, the fourth

(29:07):
different quarterback in this game.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
What do you think about salty chip on his shoulder?
Ryan Day?

Speaker 5 (29:13):
J Mart, Well, remember what he said about Lou Holtz.
He's got this in his bag, like every once in
a while he starts feeling himself and he does this
a bit. The one thing they need to be real
cautious about here. And I see it on the sidelines
and they're showing it like I've got it on mute

(29:34):
and everything.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
This is like the signe anything. Remember they're they're making
fun of Ohio, They're making fun of Indiana. Next week
they get their butt kicked by Michigan.

Speaker 5 (29:41):
Yeah, Like my takeaway here is, yeah, you guys dominated,
but it's not over. I don't mean the game. I
mean this season. Like you have to go play a
team that beats you already once you've got other really
good football teams coming up and and this is the
only one that you have in your building, so the

(30:03):
whole Like, I understand you're going to playing a rose
and so you've got a rose in your mouth and
all this other kind of stuff like, Okay, you can
I guess you can do that. But I just feel like,
let's not be too exuberant here or too arrogant on
the sidelines. Yes, you won, but you're just now making
it to the quarter finals. Let's save some of that energy.
And I actually think they're doing a better job after

(30:25):
the game of just kind of walking around. They're not
acting ridiculous here, and that's exactly what they need to do.
There's still a lot of business left to be transactive
for Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, no doubt And yeah no, I don't think there's
really anything else to add there.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
You know, I do think it's funny.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
And listen, I'll say this is like, you know, we
were very critical of them three weeks ago, We've been
very critical of them throughout his time at Ohio State.
He deserves this moment. Rub it in a little bit,
have fun. I know you're the Ohio State coach. I
know you're expected to compete for national championships every year,
but you were the better team tonight. You absolutely deserve
to win. Before we get to a k Jmart. We

(31:00):
only got a minute or two left. I mean, is
there anything big picture, small picture from this first round
that we learned, like now that we've lived through, you know,
basically four blowouts. Again, I said it earlier, I think
it's a little hard to pull that Indiana shouldn't have
been there, SMU shouldn't have been there, And I think
it's just, Hey.

Speaker 5 (31:19):
We just need more time to talk about that, and
we have plenty more show. We just need more time
to talk about that. I think that the one thing
that we have shown so far is that this system
has done what you would think it would do on paper.
The four teams that got the home games won. Those
four teams proved that they were better than the other

(31:41):
four teams on this given game, and that's the only
game that matters in this case. But you still got
an opportunity to quash some of the arguments that you
would have had if some of those teams had not
gotten their opportunity to show, or in this case not
show that they could actually get the job done. In
this case, Ohio State just showed up with the talent

(32:04):
and when they do that, I don't know that there's
anybody in the country that can beat them.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Ohio State does close out the win, final score forty
two to seventeen. They will advance to the Rose Bowl
on January first to face Oregon. By the way, j
Martin and I will be in for Jason Smith and
Mike Harmon the night of January first, so we will
be on probably for the end of the Rose Bowl,
and we will no, I guess we won't be but

(32:29):
we'll be on after the Rose Bowl and tell you what,
jmart Georgia Notre Dame and the Sugar Bowl to cap
off January first.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
I think we're gonna have a lot of fun with
that one.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
So Fox Sports Radio eron towards Jason Martin broadcasting live
from the Tyreck dot Com studios. Top next hour, we'll
look at some of the NFL from this week, and
I think jmart maybe top of our three will discuss
exactly what you just said, the state of the college
football playoff after the first round.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
When we come back, though, do want to.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Get a little bit serious as baseball lost an icon
over the course of twenty four hours. We will talk
very quickly about the passing of Ricky Henderson. That's next
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Welcome back, everybody.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Fox Sports Radio, Aeron Torres Das Martin broadcasting live from
the tyreck dot Com studios. We'll get back to college
football in just a little bit, and do want to
talk a little bit about the two NFL games on
Saturday momentarily before we do. J mart you know, think
I'd be remiss and I think we would both be
remiss if we didn't spend just a few minutes talking
about the passing of Frankly just, you know, a baseball icon,

(33:37):
a guy that I think, you know, so synonymous with
the sport for so long. I mean, you know, played
till well into his forties, twenty five year Major league career. I'm,
of course talking about Ricky Henderson, who passed away late
Friday into Saturday at the age of sixty five. You know,
over three thousand hits. MLB all time steals leader with

(33:58):
fourteen hundred, all time score score run scored leader with
over twenty two hundred, closer to twenty three hundred. American
League MVP two time World Series Champ. I it's just
sad man, you know, I mean, listen, sixty five is
obviously a great fulfilling life. But I don't know if
it's just because he played so late into his life.

(34:19):
I just didn't realize he was quite so old. And
this was a little bit of a shocker to me
when I heard it. But Ricky Henderson, all time great
Steeles King, passed away yesterday.

Speaker 9 (34:30):
Jmark.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
Yeah, I was definitely surprised too. I think that one
of the things I always really kind of it will
always be in my mind when I'm thinking about Ricky
Henderson is what he represented. When's the last like baseball
player particularly that said things sure that were newsworthy, just
about how great he was. He always talked about how

(34:53):
phenomenal he was and all this kind of stuff, but
he was He was one of those kind of personalities
that baseball doesn't have. Baseball has awesome players that don't
say anything, and you know, you can argue that in
a lot of sports, but he was a personality in
addition to being all time great, he was able to
back up what he said and there was something kind
of endearing about that, like, yeah, you probably didn't care

(35:16):
for him very much if he was playing against you,
because he probably stole a base against you or did
something like that. But like we all knew who Ricky
Henderson was. Everybody did. Even if you didn't watch baseball
all the time, you knew who Ricky Henderson was if
you watched sports or paid attention at all to what
was happening in a sporting landscape. I think there are
very few contemporary team sport athletes that you just know

(35:40):
from their personalities, like there are a few. I'm not
saying there's nobody, but Ricky Henderson was one of those
from an era where there were truly larger than life
personalities that weren't just awesome at what they did, but
also reveled in it and had fun with it when
it felt like it was more competitive and it was

(36:02):
allowed to be more competitive and more adversarial. And I
think that that it's I'm saying that as a compliment
because I miss when sports felt that way. I don't
know that it does. I think we live in a
great age when it comes to the sports that we're
privileged to watch in the athletes we get to see,
but there is a bit of edge that you don't
get very often that Ricky Henderson was was an embodiment of.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
I don't think there's any doubt.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
And yeah, it's funny if you read the obituary on
you know, on ESPN dot com, they they talk quite
a bit about that. I'm trying to find the exact quote,
you know, first of all, ripping the base out of
the dirt when when he obviously uh set set the
Steels record or the Steels record, which was incredible. I'm
trying to find some of the quotes. You know, the

(36:49):
story goes that, you know, he told this story when
he was you know, obviously alive, but his mom went
into labor on the way to the hospital and was
delivered in a and he always used to tell the story, Yeah,
I was always fast. I was you know, I always
had speed to burn. And then there was just some
other stuff about you know, some of the ways that
you know, some of the things that he said, you.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
Know, all of that.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I'll just say, like the thing that stands out to me,
I think that part is definitely one one of the
things that stands out. I think the other thing is
just the incredible longevity of his career. I mean, you know,
you look at the fact that you know made his
first All Star team in nineteen eighty and then won
a League MVP ten years later in nineteen ninety. You

(37:32):
know one you know made his first All Star team
in nineteen eighty, made a World Series and won a
World Series thirteen years later with the Toronto Blue Jays
as a key kaga on that team. So yeah, I
just you know, I don't know, it's I just think
more than anything, I think, you know, the confidence, the
swagger stood out. I also just think the longevity, like

(37:52):
I said, playing until two thousand and three at the
age of forty five years old.

Speaker 5 (37:57):
Yeah, well mean he's gonna be missed, but he one
of those that again, even if you didn't get to
see him, if you're younger in our audience that really
didn't get to watch him, you know somebody who can
tell you about Ricky Henderson. You know somebody if you're
listening to sports or radio, there's somebody in your life
that you can go to and say, tell me about
Ricky Henderson and they'll have something for you for sure.
And of course you have the wealth of the Internet

(38:19):
and all that kind of stuff to go and read
some of the classic news articles, and there'll be some
nice tributes I think in the next couple days, probably
some really funny stories and some really interesting stuff. So
if you were not alive to watch Ricky do Ricky things,
go out of your way to seek out some information
over the next couple of days, I think you'll be
delighted with what you find. And if you're a sportsman,

(38:41):
it's hard not to one just think of how great
he was, but also just I mean, he was an
incredibly just fun person in sports. He was somebody that
would you always wanted to pay attention to what Ricky
was doing.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Yeah, it's funny. I just think he was synonymous.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
You know, I'm trying to think of an example, maybe
Steph Curry with the three whatever, but you know, with
with speed, with stolen bases, with one part of the game,
I think as much as anybody you know.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
And it's it's funny, you know, I was joke.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
You know, Ryan Fowler and I obviously we had no
idea this was going on. But you know, Ryan Fowler
always calls me Ricky Henderson because I lead off his show.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
You know, hey, hey, you want to come in.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
You know, Ricky lead off the show, first guest of
the night, you know, and so Ricky Ricky Henderson is
so synonymous with the leadoff batter, the steals, to this,
to that. Just sad to see him go at the
age of sixty five. He passed away on Friday, short
shortly before, by the way, his birthday, which was Christmas Day.
Fox Sports Radio ertors Jay Smart, will come back two
NFL games on Sunday, our Saturday. Excuse me, you got

(39:41):
to break them all down heading into another busy Sunday.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
That's all. Next Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (39:47):

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Welcome in everybody, Hour two. Fox Sports Radio er Torris Jaysonmart.
We are broadcasting live from the tyraq dot com studios Tyre.
We'll help you get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping,
free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers.
Tyreck dot com the way tire buying should be should

(40:10):
mention Also, rapid radios are the official communication device of
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family in an emergency, go to Rapid Radios now for
up to sixty percent off and free shipping, Jay Mart,
We'll get back to some college football in a minute.

(40:32):
All of the college football is final. The most recent scores.
The SEGA just told you Ohio State with the statement
forty two to seventeen victory. We will get back to
that in just one moment.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
But we are a national radio show.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
We are, of course, you know, cover as stuff beyond
college football, and as fun as the college football was today,
there were of course two NFL games as well.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Let's go ahead and break them down.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Obviously, the two games that were played today, Kansas City
facing Houston and of course Baltimore taking on Pittsburgh. How
about a little choose your own adventure, j Mart, Which
game to you is more intriguing, more interesting, more noteworthy
needs to be discussed. I'm gonna give you the floor.
I think I know where you'll probably go, but I'll
give you.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
The floor, my friend.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
I mean, I think it's Baltimore. I agree for me,
I mean the first game. Notwithstanding, again the Chiefs win,
and it is hilarious to continue to hear about how
vulnerable they are and they're fourteen and one. Yeah, they're
super vulnerable, but they keep winning all these close games.
But how do they keep doing well? Because you end

(41:38):
up making your own luck when you're that kind of
team and have that kind of quarterback and you have
just that coach and all the stuff that plays into it.
They're fourteen and one, But the big one was Baltimore
because they needed to get the Steelers monkey off their back. Anyway.
Lamar has struggled his entire career against Pittsburgh, as have
many that have dealt with them in the AFC North
in the Mike Tomlin era, but this needed to be

(42:02):
a statement win because Baltimore was leaking a little bit
of oil. They just hadn't looked as dominant in the
last couple of weeks. It just things didn't look quite right.
And I think just as important as the win was
you get Derek Henry back on track. He goes for
over one hundred and sixty on the ground, Your defense
steps up and makes a couple of big plays that

(42:23):
stops Steelers drives, force turnovers. Those are the kind of
things that you need to show up at this point
in December because you're getting to that one and done
scenario for everybody that is playing, and I think this
is the kind of win that if you're Baltimore, this
is a confidence building win, and this is one you
really wanted. You did not want to be swept this

(42:44):
year by the Russell Wilson Pittsburgh Steelers, and there was
certainly danger of that happening. So I think this was
more of a statement win for Baltimore than Kansas City
beating a I would say underwhelming this season and disappoint
winning Texans team that's been ravaged, I will argue as
well with injuries and now has lost Tank Dell for

(43:06):
the year.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, I would say the Baltimore Pittsburgh thing is interesting
just because obviously they're now tied in the division. Baltimore,
of course, you know, will play Houston on Christmas Day.
Pittsburgh of course now has case on Christmas Day and
then raps with the Bengals. We know the Bengals have
some weird playoff scenarios, but they all pretty much involve

(43:27):
having to win that game. So it's not gonna be
easy for Pittsburgh to close the door there. Let me
ask you this, jam Mart, as far as Pittsburgh is concerned,
I think we've all, you know, you get off to
the hot start justin fields, of course, was the starter
to start the season. You're kind of winning games with
smoking mirrors. Then Russell Wilson comes in and kind of

(43:47):
steadies the ship. But I think we all kind of thought, okay, like,
I mean, what is this really you know, is he
really gonna go toe to toe with Josh Allen and
Patrick Mahomes and even Lamar Jackson in the playoff? And
you know, this is a good story, and I've always
been more of a rough guy than I think most
in the media.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
But it's also like, what does this really mean in
the bigger picture?

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Well, I bring it up because on Saturday he played
fine two hundred and seventeen yards, passing about six and
a half yards per completion, two touchdowns, one interception. The interception,
of course, was returned for a touchdown a pick six
at a crucial time. Is this just kind of Pittsburgh
kind of fin you know, what do they say? Water
finding its level? They're ten and five now five and

(44:30):
four obviously have lost the last two games to two
of the better teams in the league, at Philadelphia at Baltimore,
And it is this just who they were always destined
to be, kind of a team that's probably a wild card,
probably opens on the road, probably is one and done
in the playoff Or am I being a little bit
overly dramatic given that, of course, one they're still tied
to top the division, but then two you know there's

(44:53):
still a lot of season left to be played.

Speaker 5 (44:55):
I mean, I think it's more of the former. I
think there is a bit of a regression to the
mean when you look at Pittsburgh because here's kind of
how they feel to me. And with tom On, I
think you've always got a chance. I'm just as big
a tom On fan as you'll find. But and TJ. Watt,
presuming he's healthy, he's a game changer unlike just about
anybody else in the sport on that side of the ball.

(45:17):
But this has sort of a penthouse twoenty twenty three
Browns feel to it to me where Joe Flacco came
in from nowhere. But what were they really going to
do in the playoffs once they got there? But they
had a great defense. They have Miles Garrett playing out

(45:37):
of his mind. They were able to run the ball,
and Flacco was just doing enough and he was throwing
a couple of domes and he was doing some things.
Russ kind of came back from the dead too, right Like,
when you think about it, he was sort of he
was basically flacoed because of what happened in Denver, and
you weren't sure if he was ever even going to
become the starter in Pittsburgh. He does. He shows a

(45:58):
little bit of old us. He seems happier, the team
seems a little bit more bought in all of that,
But there's still like this sense of, yeah, but what's
gonna happen when you get to January with this team?
The one thing you don't want to have to do
is go play in their building, And because of the
last couple of weeks, it feels like it's less likely
that you're gonna have to do that. So I think

(46:19):
it's more likely that you know, you get in it's the
wild card, and you probably lose in the first week.
Maybe you even get through that game. I don't know,
but I think the divisional round is the ceiling for
this club.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
I think that's totally fair. And that's why I ask
is that I do think I think that exactly what
you just said. The divisional round feels like the ceiling.
I think we all came in and we all knew
how tough the schedule coming in was. And and listen,
I think most people did not have them in the playoffs.
But even in a situation where you know, they had
some early season success, I think we all kind of

(46:51):
felt like Water was going to kind of meet its level.
And I think it really has and I think they'll,
you know, it'll be what it is as they get
set to face the Chiefs on Christmas Day.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
That is the early game.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
I believe on Christmas Day, let's get to the other one,
Kansas City at home. They obviously took on the h
They took on the Houston Texans. As you said, Texans
with an injury. I I don't know if I mentioned
this to you, J Mart, this is gonna sound bad.
You know, listen, we were privileged to host sports talk radio.
We're privileged to, you know, have our job be to

(47:24):
talk about sports. I find the Chiefs to be just
literally the least interesting team in the NFL. I just
to me, it's almost like I was thinking about this.
I think the best analogy that I can really think of,
and I think it's interesting given what we're gonna probably
talk about in the next segment, But you know, remember
those years when Lebron was with the Calves and this

(47:45):
was like, you know, the second Calves run when he
was really at the peak of his powers, and maybe
even the later Miami years where it was like didn't
really matter if he got in as the two seed
or the three seed or the five seed. It was
kind of like you felt like, Okay, he's gonna win
the East and then it's gonna come down to what happens.
With Golden State, it's not apples to apples, But with
k C, it's just like they're not playing well. You know,

(48:09):
you know, Saturday they were completely fine. There was nothing,
you know, spectacular about the effort. There's nothing terrible about
the effort. But I just sit there and I'm like,
it doesn't you know. I just I know they can
win games in the regular season. Maybe they get a
little benefit of the doubt from the refs whatever, but
it's just like, I just want to see again, can
Baltimore beat them, can can Buffalo beat them?

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Whatever?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
By the way, I and it's not just I need
to see somebody beat them for me, to enjoy the
NFL because I love watching Buffalo, who's the best watch
in sports right now. I love watching Baltimore when they're clicking.
I love watching the Lions and the Eagles and thinking
about how they could potentially match up if they were
to face Casey in the Super Bowl. But it's just
I just with the Chiefs. It's no disrespect. Again, they

(48:51):
win twenty seven to nineteen, as you said, you know,
crushing injury to Tank Dell in that game for the
for the Texans. Texans, of course, by the way, still
control their their destiny in the AFC South. You know,
they're basically in already, and so but anyway, I'm rambling,
But the point I'm trying to make is it's no
disrespect to the Chiefs. I just don't really find them

(49:13):
interesting at all this year.

Speaker 9 (49:14):
I don't know how you mean.

Speaker 5 (49:15):
It's kind of like, I mean, they kind of remind
me of the Spurs.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Sure, maybe that's a better example.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
I mean, they win when it counts, but they're not
exactly the most exciting team to watch on a week
to week basis. They certainly haven't been this year. I
thought that Worthy was going to give them that Tyreek
Hill dimension. He's still young and he hasn't really developed
yet as a full on receiver, although he's still you know,
he shows a lot of flashes. But and Mahomes, of course,

(49:41):
is always gonna be fun to watch. And I think
that's where your lebron comparison is accurate. But yes, would
I like to see the Bills in Super Bowl this
year if my Denver Broncos weren't able to make it, Yes,
absolutely I would. I want to see if Josh Allen
can actually climb the mountain in what I think is
gonna be an MVP season for him and get it done.

(50:03):
Or Lamar Jackson, or the incredible story of the Lions,
who are if they do it now, they're gonna have
to overcome unfathomable injury luck. I almost think that it's
not gonna be their year because they just keep losing
so many guys and I don't know how they're going
to continue to win under that clip. And there's a
lot of controversy and drama on a lot of these teams,

(50:25):
and that's never really the case in Kansas City. That's
the other thing. There's always talk we can talk in
the off season about the Bills and what happened with
Stefan Diggs. And you've got Ty Dunn and his expose
on Sean McDermott, and then you've got you know, various
things about Lamar's contract situation. And then you've got aj
Brown versus Jayalen Hurts, and you've got Nick Sirianni and
all this. No, Andy Reid's really good. Patrick Mahomes is

(50:47):
really good. Travis Kelsey, even though he's lost a bit
of a step, he's still really good. And he's gonna
walk right into the Hall of Fame. Chris Jones is
going to walk right into the Hall of fame. They're
just really good. They're fundamentally sound, and generally they never
beat themselves and they give you plenty of opportunities to
beat you, and that generally is what happens. And that

(51:09):
doesn't necessarily make for the most captivating television on a
week to week basis. The saving grace for it is
that Mahomes is so much fun to watch. However, this
year he hadn't been that much fun to watch because
he's winning with like two hundred and five yards and
the thing that makes him great is that he can
make the four or five plays a game that other

(51:30):
guys somehow won't finish, that they either are incomplete, or
they come up a little short on a first down
run or whatever it is. He's got five or six
plays a game that he makes that other guys don't,
and that separates him in a lot of ways. But
I don't think that they have been a blockbuster action
flick this year at all. I think they've been. They've been.

(51:52):
They've been kind of paint dryish to watch, and of
course we've gotten our full helping of them in prime time.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Well, we've gotten our full hupping in prime time. By
the way, to pseudo correct something that I said, I said,
the Texans largely own their their path in the AFC South.
They have obviously clinched the AFC South, So I apologize
for that. But yeah, no, no, with with Case, like
you said, we've gotten plenty of them in primetime real quick,
you know, Christmas Day. Do you have any big picture
takeaways about what to expect from that Steelers game. I mean,

(52:21):
both teams obviously are gonna be on a weird short week,
and obviously, look, I mean you know, obviously you know,
Case still has to win this game to officially clinch
the number one seed in the in the NF, in
the AFC. Excuse me, any any thoughts on this one
before we get to break talk some other stuff.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of hard to say.
It's gonna be at Pittsburgh and that's gonna be a
tough place for them to win, and you feel like
the Steelers are going to want to try to get
back on the winning tip there, and I think that
that's I don't know. I mean, again, it's tough to
pick against the team. It's fourteen and one with Patrick

(53:00):
Mahomes that keeps out, keeps on pulling out close games.
And I mean, I was going to say they're on
a crazy streak, but they're fourteen to one. Their whole
season has been a streak. Their lone loss was to Buffalo,
which they'll probably have a chance to xize in the playoffs,
you would think, but I guess it's just how they
show up. Because the Bills have a pretty easy schedule

(53:21):
in terms of their road to potentially get the one seed.
You could easily see them finish this thing off undefeated.
I mean, they play against the Patriots twice in the Jets.
That's their last three games, so I think that's the
indicator if you can if you can see US acenario
where for some reason the Patriots where to beat them

(53:41):
tomorrow beat the Bills, then I think, yeah, I'd feel
pretty good about the Steelers going into that game. But
it's really hard to pick against Mahomes in December. So
I still think I would favor Kansas City.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah, Kansas City traveling to Pittsburgh on Christmas Day, and
then of course Baltimore playing Houston as.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Nobody'sn't watch it anyway. Watching the NBA?

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Yeah, whoa NBA? Well, I'll tell you what. Let's come
back and talk to the NBA.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Yeah, because one of our colleagues who I love, had
a very interesting take on why nobody is watching the NBA.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
I will say this really quick, Jamar.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
It's gonna be interesting because you gotta go seek out
the NFL on Netflix and where is it. We'll see
if there's buffering issues like there was with the Jake
Paul and Mike Tyson fight. That NBA is going to
be all over ABC and ESPN, so we'll see if
America finds the NBA on Christmas Day. My hunches they
won't and one of our colleagues with a very interesting

(54:34):
theory on who's to blame for the NBA's tanking ratings.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Who could that be? Will discuss it next.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio rators
Jason Martin broadcasting live from the Tireck dot Com studios.
Hope everybody is having a great holiday season, last minute shopping,
driving around, maybe Christmas parties tonight. We appreciate all of
you tuning in. Should mention, by the way, football fans,

(55:01):
be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radio every Sunday
morning beginning at ten am Eastern seven Pacific for count
Down to Kickoff presented by BETMGM, Brian No Jeff Schwartz,
a professional better Bill Krakenberger will have you covered three
hours before kickoff. Every Sunday morning. Listen to account Down
to Kickoff, presented by BETMGM right here on Fox Sports
Radio and the iHeartRadio app, jaymart Do you want to

(55:23):
switch gears from college football to the NFL? Do you
want to talk a little bit about the NBA? And
one thing that we did discuss last week, Ja mart
was kind of the jarring, you know, statistics on the
NBA viewership, it's down forty eight percent.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
From twelve years ago.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
So basically, the NBA has basically lost half their audience
over the last decade and change. And obviously a lot
of it was spurred by the by the play In Tournament,
which of course was down significantly from last year. By
the way, Jamie, I want to get to some stuff,
one of our colleagues said in a minute, But I
thought it was interesting that the Bucks chose not to
do a champagne celebration for the play In Championship. So

(56:11):
this big thing that the NBA tried to shove down
our throat. It's meaningful. This is supposed to matter. It's
the biggest deal in the world. You are supposed to
care if you're a real sports fan. Even the Bucks
were like, yeah, we're not drinking champagne to celebrate this earlier.

Speaker 5 (56:26):
In the week. Good for them, thankfully. It's not a thing.
I saw articles written naturally what they need to do
to fix the tournament. They need to get rid of
it because it's dumb. Because we all have a tournament
at the end of the season in pro sports that
determines the champion. We're watching it in college football right now,
we're a few weeks away from beginning it in the NFL.

(56:48):
We finished watching it in the Major League Baseball and
the Dodgers won, but they didn't win it in April.
They wanted at the end of the season. This whole
thing is just please watch our games before the All
Star break. Please watch our games before the stretch run.
That's not a good thing. It really isn't. And as
creative as that solution might be, nobody is watching this

(57:12):
and expecting it to work, Like, stop trying to make
fetch a thing. It's not a thing. Like it's just
you cannot make me watch that and think that it
actually matters, and that even the players even care about it,
Like it's just just just make them regular season games
and just go ahead and play your regular season. There
are other issues that we certainly could talk about. Lebron

(57:34):
came out and made the three point argument. Everybody's making
the three point argument. I don't know what you do,
but that's why I said. You can call me a
curmudget all you want. I said, erase the three point
line completely. Is almost the only rule change. Like some
of the other things you've been able to fix like
guys being able to back dudes down for fifteen seconds
or hold the ball for minutes at a time by

(57:54):
inventing the shot clock and all this other kind of
stuff to fix these exploits. This one, this is a
glitch in the matrix. I'm not sure you can fix
because you have a three point line that you had
moved in for a while to add more offense to
the game. Now you've moved it back a bit, but
you got guys shooting from thirty five feet who shoot
twenty three percent but then still pull up. I don't

(58:16):
know what the fix is there, but I think that
every problem that we have discussed for years about the NBA,
and it irritates me because I love the NBA and
I want it to be better.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
It appears we lost j mart I'll tell you. Look
at Steve de Sager the saga. This is a pro
right here, he threw on the headphones. We could go
ahead to the saga for a quick update.

Speaker 8 (58:38):
I have something on this as well, because what was
Thursday night in sports, the usual Thursday night football, but
for most of the country it's not on a regular channel.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
I'm streaming, yeah, in a second ago finish what you're
gonna say first, But I have a question, what does
that go up against the NBA with the regular TNT
doubleheader Thursday, and we also had the women's volleyball playoffs
going on on ESPN.

Speaker 8 (58:58):
The Thursday night TV rate in sports where Broncos Chargers
eleven million viewers, Women's volleyball semifinals on ESPN averaged one
point one million viewers and it beat the NBA. Had
no way it beat both NBA games. The NBA averaged
about six hundred and fifty thousand viewers national wise on Thursday,

(59:22):
and that included a Knicks Timberwolves game that got about
seven hundred thousand.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Karl Anthony Towns return game.

Speaker 8 (59:28):
That's correct, one of the least watch games this season,
the least watched was the game right before it on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
J Mart, I think Adam Silver just cut your mic
because the stat that De Sager just gave us was
that women's volleyball essentially, not quite but essentially doubled the
NBA doubleheader on Thursday. That's putting aside everybody that was watching.

Speaker 9 (59:54):
Go a step beyond.

Speaker 8 (59:55):
If you go back to the Nebraska volleyball quarterfinal that
got a better number than anything the NBA got on
Thursday night. In addition, Nebraska's semi final was one point
two million, which was almost double what the NBA got Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
I was gonna ask this, We'll get back to j Martin.
I do want your updates, Steve. So look, obviously, I'm
a college hoops guy, and you know I don't want
to labor. You know, oh one is better than the other.
But here's my question for you to singer. I've noticed
this week. You know, Wednesday night used to be ESPN's
midweek slot. This week they had one of the bowl games.

(01:00:30):
I think it was the California Bowl, the Gronk Bowl, whatever.
And in previous weeks they've had on college basketball. I
don't know if you would remember off the top of
your head. I don't remember them having anything other than
NBA on Wednesdays ever, but especially this time of year.
Am I crazy? I don't know if you would remember that.

Speaker 8 (01:00:48):
It used to always be Wednesday prime time, Friday primetime.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Yeah, and they did not this week. This past week
they had a bowl game. I'm sure this coming week
I believe is Christmas Day, so that'll be a little
bit different. But they not had on NBA Basketball on
Wednesday nights. So I'll tell you what. I want to
continue the conversation and talk about who is really to
blame for these low NBA ratings and interesting theory from

(01:01:12):
one of our colleagues before we get to it though,
to Sega, why don't you go ahead give us our
mid hour update everything we need to know.

Speaker 8 (01:01:18):
I will add a couple weeks ago in college football,
they put on prime time ABC the Two Lane Conference
Championship against Army, and that got a better number than
what the NBA has been getting for most of its
games so far this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
Season, doubled by women's vibeball.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
No disrespect all the hard working players at Penn State
and Nebraska.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
That's embarrassing.

Speaker 8 (01:01:36):
Yeah, that's yeah. And that's an apples to apples comparison.
By the way, that's cable channel against cable channel.

Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (01:01:43):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (01:01:44):
As for college football playoffs, well, we had four this weekend, and.

Speaker 9 (01:01:48):
We essentially had four blowouts.

Speaker 8 (01:01:50):
Ohio State dominated Tennessee tonight in Columbus forty two to seventeen.
Buck Guy scored three touchdowns on their first three drives.
Texas led Clemson thirty one ten in the third quarter
thirty eight twenty four the final and Penn State All
Over SMU to start the day thirty eight to ten.
Number one ranked Oregon is off until its Rose Bowl
quarter final against the Buckeyes, a rematch from October. Number

(01:02:13):
two Georgia is off until its Sugar Bowl quarter final,
which will be against Notre ed Aime New Year's Night.
There were two NFL games today at Kansas City. The
Chiefs now fourteen and one beat Houston twenty seven nineteen.
Texans wide receiver Tank Dell is hospitalized with a serious
knee injury, including a reported dislocated kneecap. He was hurt
on a touchdown reception, injured by a teammate in a

(01:02:35):
collision in the end zone. Tank Dell had six catches
ninety eight yards in that score. Houston wide receiver Stefan
Diggs is already out for the year with a torn
acl Baltimore clinched a playoff spot today. The Ravens at
home beat Pittsburgh thirty four to seventeen, as Dereck Henry
had twenty four carries one hundred and sixty two yards.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara is out with a groin

(01:02:57):
injury for Monday night as New Orleans is at Green
Bay and Saints wide receiver Chris Olave is also out
with a head injury.

Speaker 9 (01:03:03):
Derek Carr's course out.

Speaker 8 (01:03:05):
Packers tight end Luke Musgrave is questionable for the game
after an ankle injury. Green Bay linebacker Kway Walker out
with an ankle injury. Tennessee signed kicker Brayden Arbisson for
next year. Dolphins wide receiver Jalen Waddle was listed as
doubtful for Sunday against the forty nine Ers. He'd misspractice
all week with a knee injury. Linebacker Bradley Chubb out
with a knee injury for San Francisco. Running back Isaac

(01:03:26):
Guarndo out this weekend with foot and hamstring injuries. Colts
wide receiver Alec Pierce out with a concussion as Indye
host Tennessee. Arizona kicker Matt Prater out with a left
knee injury. Tampa Bay tight end Kate Otten out for
Sunday night against Dallas with a knee injury. The Raiders
said quarterback Aidan O'Connell after a knee Brews will play
this weekend.

Speaker 9 (01:03:45):
He did not play last game Jacksonville's at Las.

Speaker 8 (01:03:48):
Vegas on Fox TV Sunday, It's Philadelphia at Washington. Philly
can clinch the NFC East. The Eagles wide receiver Aj
Brown said he will play in this one despite a
knee injury after that game on Fox for some of
the Treots. Minnesota at Seattle Baseball Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson.

Speaker 9 (01:04:04):
Died at the age of sixty five.

Speaker 8 (01:04:05):
He had over three thousand career hits and over fourteen
hundred stolen bases.

Speaker 9 (01:04:10):
Number one old time.

Speaker 8 (01:04:11):
The Yankees agreed to a one year deal with first
baseman Paul Goldschmid. The Diamondbacks acquired All star first baseman
Josh Naylor from Cleveland. He'll be a free agent after
next season. The Guardian signed first baseman Carlos Santana. In
the NBA, San Antonio beat Portland won fourteen ninety four
victor Wembin Yama thirty points and ten block shots. In

(01:04:31):
college hoops doubleheader at Madison Square Garden, North Carolina came
back to beat number eighteen UCLA seventy six seventy four.
Tar Heels were down fourteen with about ten minutes left,
and then Ohio State. What a day for the Athletic
Department beat number four Kentucky eighty five sixty five in
New York. Kentucky shot thirty percent from the floor. Buck

(01:04:52):
Guy shot fifty seven percent from the floor. And Fox
TV tonight had a top ten women's hoops game as
number seven USC was a winner at number four yukon
seventy two seventy Elsewhere, South Florida upset number nine.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
Duke back to you, Thank you very much, Steve Disager.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Disager will revisit with us in just about ten minutes
from now with his extended update. Fox Sports Radio err
towards Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the tay Raq dot
Com studios. Jmart So, before uh, before we got to
Disaga for the update, we've just been talking about the
state of the NBA. I want to play you. So
writing's down forty eight percent. Sager just told you women's

(01:05:31):
volleyball on cable doubled the NBA in recent weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
Okay, that's that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
I don't even know what's saying.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Stunning, stunning, stunning.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
I'm I trust to Seger, but I just I couldn't
believe that when I heard it. It's like that is unbelievable.
And listen, there's a million theories on what's gone wrong.
We talked about some of them. We did get an
interesting thought from our buddy Jason McIntyre. Jason, of course,
is the co host of The Herd with Colin Cowherd,

(01:06:04):
you know, Monday through Friday. Obviously you can hear it
on these Fox Sports radio airwaves twelve to three Eastern,
nine to noon Pacific. Jason mctyre, big NBA fan. Let's
go ahead and play the sound of Jason McIntyre on
his thoughts about what's plaguing the NBA right now.

Speaker 10 (01:06:20):
This take probably won't be very popular, but I would
argue that Inside the NBA, the show that everybody loves,
has done more damage to the NBA in the last
decade than anything.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
Forget about this woke and.

Speaker 5 (01:06:31):
Left and right.

Speaker 10 (01:06:32):
Inside the NBA goes on every week and just trash
as players, trashes the style of play.

Speaker 5 (01:06:37):
Colin.

Speaker 10 (01:06:37):
You look at any other show, MLB network, NFL network,
These shows are network. We're all positive, we're excited, we're
talking about the games. Inside the NBA, they just hammer
the players. Charles Barkley's on TV. The Rockets are in
the final four for that NBA Cup.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
Oh, the Rockets don't know how to play basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
They stink, they don't know what they're doing.

Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
What are you doing?

Speaker 10 (01:06:56):
You're damaging your product on a nightly basis, hammering it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
So that was Jason McIntyre on The Herd with Colin
Cowhard sharing his thoughts on what is plaguing the NBA.
I have thoughts on J Max's thoughts. But j Mart,
what are your thoughts on J Mack?

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
I know what he's saying. And weirdly enough, and I
didn't know about this audio. I suggested something to you
this morning that I had found just on a random
you know, one of those NBA YouTubers that spends a
lot of time talking about the league, and I wanted
to get just more crowdsourcing information. And they had the
same take about media in general, but specifically about inside

(01:07:36):
the NBA. And while I understand it, I'm also like,
I mean, don't you want people to be honest, Like
do we have to shill for the league that we're
employed by when it's not. Yeah, maybe they are overly
negative because they're critical guys. They always were. I mean,
Barkley was an edgy dude who spoke and said what

(01:07:56):
was on his mind. That's why we love him, Like,
that's why Barkley has then who Barkley has been. He
has free reign to do his thing, to say kind
of whatever it is that he wants to say it.
He's gonna be blatantly honest when he thinks something is
not up to snuff. Shaq who cannot take even the
even like one iota of criticism about himself or about

(01:08:19):
his career or anything else like that. He's he's real
fun until you start talking about his game, and then
then things get a little bit salty real quick. Doesn't
mean I don't like Shack. It just means that's just
something in him that I've noticed for a long time.
Shaq crushes guys repeatedly. That tends to happen when you
have all time greats like Hall of famers, like arguably

(01:08:39):
the best at their positions to ever play, and things
like that that are watching a game that they don't
recognize anymore. Like I get his point. I know exactly
what Jason McIntyre is saying. It's like, Yeah, you want
to be more positive. You want it to be about
the good things that are happening in the league. But
that's not why those guys are popular. Like it's a
double edged sword inside the NBA. Hey, And I've said

(01:09:00):
this before. I love the NBA. But if there are
moments where I don't have time to watch the games
during the week or whatever like that, I have had
on you know, weekly DVR for about a decade now
scheduled inside the NBA, I get the NBA TV coverage
because you never know when the late game is gonna

(01:09:21):
end on T and T, and I want to make
sure I get the entire thing, so I make sure
to get one in the morning on NBA TV that's repeated,
so I make sure I get the entire program. But
I'm able to catch up. And sometimes that's what I do.
That doesn't make me hate the league because they're critical
of it. That's just that's who those guys are. They
have a giant megaphone and they're blatantly honest. And I

(01:09:44):
think that that's why Ernie fits, because Ernie then kind
of counterbalances that by being more the everyman and more
the devil's advocate to the negativity. But that negativity, to
me is never like from a bad place. I don't
see it as a bad spear thing. I see them
being critical of things that irritate them as basketball fans

(01:10:06):
and certainly as the styles that they like and the
styles that they played. They see things that don't compute
and they always view those and talk about those from
that lens.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Yeah, I would say this obviously. Look, we both like
Jay mca loot great guy.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
I disagree.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
I think why the first of all, First of all,
you can't say that no other league, no other show
criticizes their sport because I turned our college game day
to day and all I heard was how Indiana belonging
to the college football playoffs. So you can't say you
heard it on the broadcast last night exactly. I mean,
Greg Michaelroy and Shaw mcdunough buried the Big Ten doesn't

(01:10:45):
looks so smart now. But that's neither here nor there.
But the point is one, you certainly hear other sports,
you know, league league issued shows criticize the league and
criticized decisions and this and that. But two, I think
why it feels so shocking is because, of course the
fact that nobody else in the media is willing to

(01:11:08):
criticize the NBA. That's why it sounds so shocking is
because you don't have media that actually covers the sport.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
You have largely propaganda.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
I mean, the NBA ratings have been dropping for a decade,
and if you even tried to pretend that it was
an issue, you were called all sorts of names. And
you know what the names were, j Mark, because you've
been critical, just like I am. Oh, you don't criticize
the NFL like this, Well yeah, because the NFL's ratings
are through the freaking roof.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Well you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
And it's like and then the NBA fans have every excuse, Oh, well,
we're big in China and we're big here and it
doesn't matter this and it's like, I'm sorry. There is
no American based product that is perfectly okay with their
consumers falling off at almost fifty percent over the last decade.
It doesn't exist. And so to me, why the inside

(01:11:59):
the the NBA guys sound so critical is not because
they're that critical one, it's just because they have the
biggest platform.

Speaker 5 (01:12:06):
Two.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
To your point, I would argue they have the biggest
platform because they're honest and sincere and actually talked about
the sport in a real way. But it also just
feels so jarring because nobody else in the media is
willing to have the honest conversations that they are not
that they are willing to have.

Speaker 5 (01:12:24):
Yeah, I mean that's what makes them unique in space.
And I don't just mean in their own sport. I
mean I mean the cookie cutter stuff that you're gonna
hear tomorrow leading into the NFL games with that comment
here or there, maybe notwithstanding, there's no reason to watch
that stuff. There was a time when there was a
reason to watch that, but most of that's been replaced

(01:12:45):
by the manufactured debate garbage that you get during the
week every morning on all your favorite sports networks and
on a lot of sports talk radio in general. Also,
I feel like the difference and what has separated inside
the NBA is, Yes, they are compelling and interesting. They
come from a place of education certainly where they know
what they're talking about. Doesn't mean they're always right, that

(01:13:08):
mean I always agree with them, but that doesn't matter.
They're compelling and interesting. They create topics that are and
their discussions and debates among themselves is the other thing.
Like and it doesn't feel artificial, like there's no world
in which I see them sitting down and say, Charles Barkley,
you're going to take this position, and then Kenny is
going to say no, like there is a very off

(01:13:29):
the cuff, Well, what are they going to say about
this that makes you want to see them in a
very genuine it's it's just different. And so I don't
think that that. I don't think you want to bite
that head. I don't think you want to go after that.
I don't think that the problem with the league is
that people are saying the league's bad. No, what you

(01:13:49):
need to do is figure out why they're saying it's bad.
And I don't think that. I don't think that those
two things work. I don't think you can beg the
question there like you're assuming the thing you're trying to prove.
I don't think that works.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Tell you what we could do the conversation on the
NBA why the ratings are failing all day? But interesting
thought from Jason mcattsire. Tell you what, though, j Mart,
we will come back.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
When we do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
We gotta get to Disager. Disager has his extended update.
He does it every week around this time, and boy,
there's so much sports going on right now I can't
keep up with all of it. Thank you, thank thankfully
to Sager's here. We're gonna just we'll throw it over
to him. He'll get you caught up. That's all.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
Next. Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back everybody, Fox.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Sports Radio Air towards Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the
zayak dot Com studios. As we do every week around
this time, let's toss it over the news desk to
Sager Flores yours get us caught up out of everything
we missed throughout the day.

Speaker 8 (01:14:44):
We've got so much football to get to. But two
quick notes. First, because we had a heavyweight title fight today.
The boxing champ and the heavyweight division is Alexander Usik,
still undefeated, won a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury and
Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 9 (01:14:57):
And there was an NBA game.

Speaker 8 (01:14:59):
At Orlando to night where the Magic trailed Miami by
twenty two to start the fourth quarter and still won
the game one twenty one one fourteen because the heat
in the first ten minutes of the fourth quarter scored
three points. Orlando, somehow, with all the injuries, is still
winning some games. By the way, here are the exact
numbers from the ratings from Thursday night we were talking about.

(01:15:20):
The first game was Orlando against Oklahoma City. And this
was not only T and T, it was on True
TV as well. This is two channels combined with the
TV ratings nationally, it got five hundred and sixty two
thousand viewers compared to one million for Louisville Volleyball beating
Pit and then the late NBA game Thursday night with
Nick Timberwolves seven hundred and twenty two thousand compared to

(01:15:44):
one point two million viewers for Penn State over Nebraska.
You talk this hour about the Buffalo Bills. The high
temperature for kickoff due to be at the most fifteen
degrees tomorrow. Bills have a shot at the two seed
behind Kansas City. Chiefs are now fourteen and one after
to the home win today, they are that much closer
to clinching the one seed in a first round by

(01:16:05):
and even though Pittsburgh lost at Baltimore today, guys, the
Steelers could be still the division champ and the number
three seed in the AFC. They didn't clinch the AFC
North title because they didn't win today, but they do
have the tiebreaker advantage still over Baltimore because Pittsburgh has
a better conference record. What is killing the Ravens in

(01:16:25):
that is, early in the season, Baltimore blew a home
game against the Raiders. Also, the Ravens lost a game
at Cleveland this year, So at the moment, even after
today's win, the Ravens are the five seed at the
moment in the AFC. As for cold temperatures, three of
the four college football playoff games were played in temperatures
in the twenties, including tonight Ohio State's win. We mentioned

(01:16:48):
the cold for Buffalo at home to the Patriots tomorrow
for the Greenpay Monday night game about thirty degrees, also
about thirty for the Washington home game tomorrow, under thirty
for the Jets home game, out thirty degrees for the
Bengals at home and the Bears at home tomorrow, And
we had tempts in the thirties for the two NFL
games today. We had four college football playoff games in

(01:17:09):
this first round and blowouts in all four. We mentioned
early in the show that a majority of the college
football playoff games going back a decade have not been competitive.
They've been at least double digit margin of victory ap
did a great study tonight. Let's compare the college football
playoff results to what the NFL playoffs have given us

(01:17:29):
in that same time span over the past decade. Here's
the comparison. How many NFL playoff games the last decade
or so are decided by eight points or less? The
answer is almost fifty five percent of the pro playoff
games in college football, it's under thirty percent.

Speaker 9 (01:17:45):
Of them are decided by eight points or less.

Speaker 8 (01:17:48):
Average margin of victory in the NFL playoffs the last
decade it is eleven points. College football playoffs, nineteen points
is the average margin of victory, including some of the
blowout we had this weekend, and that just adds to
the legacy when it was a fourteen playoff. Of the
amount of blowout college playoff games we're getting going back

(01:18:08):
to twenty fifteen, there have been games where TCU was
blown out, or Michigan in or Florida State, or Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Washington,
Michigan State, and on and on down the list. Number
one ranked Oregon is off until the quarterfinal in the
Rose Bowl. It's against Ohio State. Let's keep in mind
in mid October, Ohio State played at Oregon and lost

(01:18:29):
to the Ducks thirty two to thirty one. Number two
Georgia is off until its quarterfinal in the Sugar Bowl
New Year's Night against Notre Dame, which defeated Indiana in
the first round. In fact, the Irish led twenty seven
to three late in the game. Penn State will be
facing Boise State next that is New Year's Eve. In
the Fiesta Bowl, Penn State beat an SMU team that

(01:18:49):
had started the year eleven to one and then lost
to Clemson in the ACC Championship. Lost badly at Penn
State today, thirty eight to ten. In fact, SMU as
a team today thirty six carries fifty eight yards rushing,
including three six Kevin Jennings through three interceptions first half,
two of them returned for touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
To Sager, Thank you so much. That is Steve Disaga
with his extended update to Sager. Aaron Torris, Jason Martin,
we are taking you up till two am Eastern.

Speaker 3 (01:19:16):
We'll come back.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
We'll revisit a busy first day of the first we
get to college football playoff atfl and more.

Speaker 9 (01:19:22):
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Welcome man, everybody, our three tours and Martin Fox Sports Radio.
We are broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studios.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
Tyreck dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
We'll help you get there an unmatched selection, fast free shipping.
Free road has a protection over ten thousand recommended installers.
Tyreck dot com the way tire buying should be. We
are taking you up till two am Eastern Time. Bernie
Freddo over The Bernie Fraddo Show follows us. We still
have fifty eight minutes and change to go at Jamart,

(01:20:00):
do you want to go ahead and start with the
story of the weekend. The first ever twelve team college
football playoff got underway, and unfortunately it didn't really totally
live up to what we had hoped for. Bottom line,
four blowouts in four games. On Friday Night, Indiana loses

(01:20:21):
by tenant Notre Dame. That game really wasn't that close.
It was twenty seven to three with five minutes to
go before Indiana scores then puts in you know, converts
a on side kick scores again. They made it much
more competitive than it was. All the discourse was Indiana
didn't belong at least until sm You lost by twenty
eight to Penn State. That it was Indiana and sm

(01:20:42):
you didn't belong because darn at Alabama and South Carolina
would have been better. Unfortunately, from there it didn't really
get better. Texas beats Clemson thirty eight to twenty four,
and then in a game that went final right as
we got on air around eleven Eastern time, Ohio State
forty two, Tennessee seventeen. Four games, four blowouts, Jaymartin, I'll

(01:21:02):
let you kind of take this wherever you want, just
your impressions of this first college football Playoff?

Speaker 3 (01:21:08):
Does it need fixing? Does it need tweaking? Is this
just what was gonna happen?

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
As Di Seger said all night long, we got a
lot of blowouts in the four team era. Is this
just gonna happen or is there something fundamentally wrong or
something that needs to be changed.

Speaker 5 (01:21:22):
The sport is always going to be imperfect and there's
only so much that you can do. This is probably
more than likely what you're gonna get a lot of
times in the first round. The better teams, who also
are playing at home in crazy environments are going to
beat the other teams. They're gonna beat the road teams
more often than not. This year, all for one handily,

(01:21:44):
with Clemson really equating itself the best of the four,
and the last game, which I think most of us
thought was gonna be very competitive, turned out not to
be at all, and it really looked like that was
one of the worst first quarters I've ever seen a
pretty good football team play, and I mean Tennessee's pretty
good at worst, and I mean they got their doors

(01:22:06):
blown off in the first fifteen minutes of that game,
and it didn't get much better from there. They had
a little bit of an opportunity at the end of
the first half, scored, got the ball and couldn't do
anything with it coming out of the tunnel, gave it
back up, gave up a score, and that was it.
But I think this is what you're gonna get because
better teams beat lesser teams most of the time, and

(01:22:29):
especially in college football, that's always been the case. Like
in college basketball, you'll get the NCAA Tournament, you have
a lot more games, so just by quantity alone, you're
gonna have more of a chance for upsets. But the
game is different. Like college football, a lot of times,
talent really does show up and win out in a
way that a lot of other sports you can cover

(01:22:50):
because of certain other things that are happening, the frantic
pace and all this. This was just one team was
a lot better than the other in all four of
these games. I don't think that anything needs to be
tweaked though, as a result of that. And you know,
there's a lot hand ringing and a lot of takes,
especially on a network that the SEC spends a lot
of money with and has a lot of television coverage

(01:23:11):
with arguing against Indiana and arguing against SMU, and then
of course they have egg on their face with what
happens to Tennessee in the later game. But they're making
all these arguments and all this, and it's just like
and we can get into it in a lot bigger way,
But I don't understand your argument. At some point there

(01:23:33):
has to be a scenario in which insert team here
is not worthy of an opportunity because of what they
didn't accomplish in the regular season, and we can jump
off it from there.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
Yeah, I think you know, it's interesting, And this is
unfortunately the gift in the curse of social media, mostly
the curse in this case of social media. Everything's instant,
everything's whatever, and listen. You know, I think if we
had done this show at ten am Pacific time instead
of ten pm, we would have had a different conversation.

(01:24:10):
Because even on College Game Day this morning, and listen,
you know, I actually, you know I can and have
been critical VESPN. I think for the most part, you know,
Kirkurbstreet specifically does a very good job. But kirkurb Street
on College Game Day this morning from Ohio State, said
that Indiana did not belong in the playoff.

Speaker 5 (01:24:29):
And I thought he was. I thought he was. I
actually thought he kind of embarrassed himself a little bit.
Like I agree with you. I really like Kurbstreet a lot,
but here I just thought he was way over his skis.
I think him saying that the committee needs to do
a better job. He's like, you know, Indiana had a
great year. I mean, they didn't play anybody, but they
won eleven games and all this. It's just like does

(01:24:51):
it matter or does it not? Like does it matter
that they played twelve games and only lost one of them?
Does that matter at all? If not, then we don't
need a season, Kirk. Let's just pick because before the season,
why don't we just instead of even playing the games
let's just look at the conglomeration of talent. We can
factor in the money that was spent and the combined

(01:25:14):
star ratings, and then the twelve teams to have the
highest total. We will pick them in August and then
we can just kind of simulate things but not actually
play them for four months, and then come January, we'll
just let those twelve teams decide it. Like, at some
point the season has to matter, or we have to
reveal our biases. One of those two things have to

(01:25:37):
be true, because they both can't. They cannot coincide. Those
two things do not work together.

Speaker 3 (01:25:43):
So I agree with everything.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
And that's my whole thing is that, you know, it's
amazing that we expanded this playoffs so we could settle
it on the field. This this and this, and then
all anybody wanted to talk about was oh, well, I mean, well, well,
you know, oh, Miss would have never lost a Notre
Dame that way in Alabama. They would have been competitive
against Penn State. It's like, well, they played a bunch
of games and they lost them, many of them to

(01:26:06):
inferior teams. And so you know, at some point, like
you know, wins and losses do have to matter.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
But yeah, you know, I think it is funny.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
And again it's it's the curse of social media is
everything is urgent, everything is now everyone can share their
opinions all the time, and listen, you know, there's a
reason that old takes Exposed exists, and it's because they're
you know, you you you are, You're sharing your thoughts
in real time and stuff is subject to change.

Speaker 3 (01:26:33):
So you know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
That anybody that was arguing twenty four hours ago that
that Indiana didn't belong to your point. I think the
bigger takeaway is that I think there's really two big takeaways. One,
it's really hard to win on neutral fields or on
home fields excuse me as opposed to neutral fields. But two,
you know, listen, I don't want to pour water on something,
especially this is the first year and whatever, but listen,

(01:26:58):
when you get twelve teams into any postseason, there are
going to be teams that are inherently flawed. Maybe let
me take that back, not twelve teams, but when you
triple the number of teams in a postseason, there are
going to be teams that are inherently flawed. And so

(01:27:19):
whether it was SMU with no great wins, whether it
was Indiana with no great wins, whether it was by
the way, Texas that came into this playoff with no
great wins, whether it was Alabama with great wins but
some really bad losses. Like everyone is going to be
inherently flawed, and so to me one, I don't want
to hear the handwringing about this team would have done better.

(01:27:40):
That team, we don't know and those if those teams
were so good, they wouldn't have left it up for debate.
Like the thing that cracks me up about the Alabama
stuff is like people are like, how did the Indiana
get in on It's like Alabama was gonna get in
with more losses if they had just beaten a five
and five Oklahoma team with two weeks left in the season.
And so it's not like Alabama lost its first two games.

(01:28:04):
They had one more loss than Indiana, and it was
a real debate. It was like they were in with
more losses and then they lost another one and so
but I think I guess the point I'm trying to
make is I don't want to pour water on it,
and I don't want to say that we should not
have expanded to twelve. What I will tell you is

(01:28:24):
there has never been a year in the history of
college football where there have been twelve teams that are
good enough to win it. When you get to the
bottom teams that are getting in and essentially SMU and
Indiana and you know, they.

Speaker 3 (01:28:37):
Were the last teams that got in.

Speaker 2 (01:28:38):
They didn't win their conference, they were the last automatic bids. Like,
they're going to be inherently flawed teams. And in theory,
could Alabama have played better than them?

Speaker 5 (01:28:48):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (01:28:48):
In theory, yes they could have. It doesn't mean that
it was guaranteed. And like I said, no matter who
you put in in spot nine, ten, eleven, whatever, you're
going to have in inherently flawed teams. And I think
that's what we've seen over the course of the last
twenty four hours.

Speaker 5 (01:29:05):
Listen, I one thing that you just said you talked about,
could Alabama have played them tougher? Yes, and probably would
have right even with even lacking evidence, because we've seen
some duds from Alabama this year. Yes, they have more talent. Again,
they have better players than Indiana does. But that's irrelevant

(01:29:26):
like that, that's not the point. The point is that
Alabama couldn't beat Oklahoma, so they don't get an opportunity.
Ole Miss couldn't beat Kentucky and Florida, so they don't
get an opportunity. South Carolina had a couple of close
calls but lost and unfortunately, Yeah, they beat Clemson, but
Clemson won a conference championship game. Yeah, I appreachi to

(01:29:47):
the choir. Get rid of the championship games. They're bad
for the sport. They don't make any sense anymore at all.
The logic doesn't work with the college football playoff. It's
all now just a money grab. There's no point in it.
All that stuff, all those things are true, all of
the arguments that are about you know, and I actually
even heard this. I saw ESPN. I guess during our

(01:30:09):
last commercial break was asking the question. I thin because
Van Pelt was asking his guest. I think it was
Tim Hasselback, you know what they should do? And Tim
Hasselback said, we'll going forward to the committee. He needs
to look at who actually has a chance to go
to Happy Valley. No, No, absolutely, not like because I
can tell you who's got a chance. And all these
kinds of things. Sports exist because things happen the whole

(01:30:32):
terrible argument.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
But the whole complaint about the committee is that it's
too much conjecture and eye test. Like the dumbest thing
that I've heard over the last couple of weeks and
months is, you know, we got to go back to
computers because the committee is terrible. It's like, do we
remember how terrible the computers were? Like literally, it just

(01:30:53):
be like, oh, this team would be the number one
team and then the next week they would it lose,
they'd be number two, and nobody could explain it, and
nobody had to explain it. And so I bring it
up because that does crack me up of the idea, like, well,
you know, I mean, if that's what they said, I
didn't hear. But to follow up on your point, jmart,
if the argument is well we need to think about
who could go and who could do this, and who

(01:31:14):
could do that, it makes the thing more subjective, more objectives,
and more subject whatever it is, whatever whatever TIV it is,
t ive, subjective or objective. It makes it more letting
people make up their own criteria as they go.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
And so I know I've said it a million times.

Speaker 2 (01:31:34):
I didn't mean to cut you up, but I'll just
be quick is that you can agree or disagree with
the criteria that the committee.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
Used, but at least they were consistent about it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:43):
They didn't punish it if you lost in your conference
championship game, and they gave the benefit of the doubt
to teams that won more games than they lost and
did not take bad losses. So it's just funny to
me that it's just funny to me that somebody is
on TV saying, well, we need to figure out who
would be better this and a better that. And it's like,
I thought your complaints ten minutes ago were that the

(01:32:04):
committee had too much power. Now you're saying give them
more power and disregard win loss, disregard stats, and it
should just be all eye tests. It doesn't even make sense.

Speaker 5 (01:32:13):
Yeah. So another guy I really like his Peter Burns. Oh,
he was awful this week, interviewed him through the years.
Really just a super nice guy. I happen to see
this on Awful Announcing here. Just a minute ago he
tweeted out apparently SMU and Indiana finessing their way into
the playoffs by beating on the bottom dwellers of their

(01:32:34):
respective conferences, and then he came back later and said
for those upset that I pointed out Indiana and SMU
featured on the bottom part of their conferences to finessa invite,
and then point out Texas schedule. Keep that energy when
the Longhorns dogwalk Clemson later this afternoon, all right, Peter,
So they did win, but that's a terrible argument. Again,
it's not about who's gonna go win in the playoff.

(01:32:55):
It's about who earned the opportunity to play in the
playoff in the first on. The truth is, the job
of the college football Playoff Committee is not to go
find the sexiest matchup, or the biggest brands, or the
most entertaining matchup or the well, I mean, they're nine
to three, but we know who should be there because

(01:33:19):
we know who they don't want to play. We know
people would much rather play this team than play Alabama.
So we got to put it out. No, No, At
some point, the season has to matter, or you just
admit that you have no sport like that doesn't. The
committee's job is to pick select reward and then rank

(01:33:39):
the teams that, through their body of work, have done
enough to earn an opportunity. It's not about how good
you think you are, how good I think you are Subjectively,
It's not about how many stars you have on your team.
It's not about your fan base size and all this stuff.
It has to be about what you did during the season.

(01:34:01):
And at that point in a sport where nobody plays
the same teams, where you have all of this disparity
and there's so much subjectivity anyway, you either let teams
like fm U and Indiana in or you disband the ACC,
You disband every conference that's not the SEC in the

(01:34:21):
Big Ten, and you just basically have the SEC Big
Ten challenge, Like throw Arizona State out too, right, because
they didn't play anybody you could throw all like, do
all of these arguments. It doesn't matter that Alabama could
have gone to Happy Valley and given them a better chance.
Alabama blew their chance because they lost three games. At
some point there has to be a scenario where Alabama

(01:34:43):
doesn't deserve to be in a playoff, right, Like can
we all agree on that? And this is coming from
somebody in Nashville who is an SEC fan and who
you know is married to a Tennessee fan, Like, I
don't know what you want me to say in this moment,
but like Lane Kiffin, stop like I understand what you're

(01:35:06):
doing because you're Lane Kiffin. But all of this stuff
and fine Baum and his bang Up Job Committee and
all this other kind of stuff, well, I imagine they're
probably a little bit quieter after watching what Ohio State
did to Tennessee tonight. And that's not what I wanted
to see. Is not what I was predicting was going
to happen either way. I thought that game was probably
going to be close. I thought Tennessee may have had

(01:35:26):
the advantage going in because it felt like all the
pressure was on Ohio State. But Ohio State kicked their
rear ends. Did they deserve to be in Yes, absolutely
they did. Why Let mean, look at their schedule? Who
did they beat? Who did they beat? That super impresses
you and Texas that same argument you made it Toeres.
You even made it I think on Twitter because awful

(01:35:47):
announcing used your I just saw it, Indiana and Smu
like you want to knock their schedule? Well, Texas beat nobody. Yes,
they equated themselves well in the College Football Playoff. Okay, great.
The lucky thing for Texas was even though they didn't
really beat anybody of consequence, they only lost to Georgia twice,

(01:36:08):
and the second one didn't count because it was a
conference championship game, so they get their opportunity. So all
of this it reflects badly, first of all on SEC
homers because it's just not a very valid argument, and
then it reflects bad on the national media because it
just shows the bias that's there. It's like, yeah, you

(01:36:28):
say you want to give X and Y a chance,
but you really don't well, and you're using everything you
can to now g reach the skids so that next
year the committee is afraid to put in in Indiana
or an SMU.

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
Yeah, and I'll just say this really quick because we
got to come back and do some other stuff. But
you know, that's the disappointing part is the people that claim, oh,
I love college football so much, and you know it's
you know, I care about this sport more than anybody
are also the people that want to tear down anybody
that's not in the SEC. And you know, and like

(01:37:02):
I think we could, like I do think the SEC
is the best conference, but I will say I don't
think it's by a country mile. Like you know, listen,
the third best team in the SEC went to the
third best team in the Big Ten and got destroyed tonight. Now,
maybe the third best team of the Big Ten would
have gotten destroyed if the game was in Tennessee. I
don't know. But we have to go based on the facts.

(01:37:22):
And so that's the other thing. And this might be
a whole other conversation for another day. I also, I
think the SEC is really good. I don't think they're
miles ahead of everybody else in college football. I just don't.
They didn't have a team play for the national championship
last year. All of their teams are inherently flawed. So
I could go on and on, but I don't know

(01:37:44):
if you have anything to add before break J Martin,
Maybe after the break, But it's just, you know, it
is what it is, Like I just wish we could
all celebrate it. No playoff system, period is perfect. And
I've said this before. I do wonder if because we're
doing the playoff in real time in front of our eyes,

(01:38:04):
that maybe that, like because we're creating the playoff system
in real time, I wonder if that's part of it,
Like if we did the NFL playoffs where every division
winner gets a first round by now, like, I wonder
if people would say that's insane and I just bring
it up because I do wonder if if that's part
of it anyway, I'm rambling, but yes, stop complaining SEC fans.
You got three teams in one to one today. One

(01:38:27):
didn't you play really good football? I just don't think
it's that much better than everybody else, specifically the big ten.
Fox Sports Radio eritwards Jason mart We gotta come back.
We got to talk about Michael Pennix. Oh baby, Jymartin,
I know you got takes on that. Speaking of crazy
football stories, we'll discuss Michael Penix next.

Speaker 3 (01:38:46):
This is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:38:48):
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio hair towards Jason Martin
broadcasting live from the tyreck dot Com studio. Should match
shortly after the show. Our podcast will be going up.
If you missed any of today's show before, sure to
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Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts. You'll see this

(01:39:09):
show posted after we get off air. It is middle
of the hour. Do want to go ahead for the
final time this evening. Get it over to the news
desk before what is trending with Steve Seger.

Speaker 8 (01:39:20):
Mister torres I did notice that in two seasons Indiana
College football will be playing a game at Connecticut.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
Oh wow, on the road.

Speaker 8 (01:39:29):
No doubt what the exact same pre sure they just
experienced it.

Speaker 9 (01:39:33):
Notre Dame and Nicole.

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
Will put out that sick just like Will Howard did
a few weeks ago.

Speaker 8 (01:39:37):
So Indiana was down twenty seven to three late in
the game last night. So it'll be Notre Dame against
number two Georgia and the Sugar Bowl quarter final. Number
one ranked Oregon has a rematch with Ohio State in
the Rose Bowl quarter Final. New Year's Ohio State four
touchdown runs tonight beat up Tennessee forty two to seventeen.
The balls on the road this year went two and three.

(01:39:58):
Texas led Clemson in thirty one ten in the third quarter,
beat the Tigers thirty eight to fourteen.

Speaker 5 (01:40:04):
KD.

Speaker 8 (01:40:04):
Klebnik three touchdown passes, one interception, three hundred thirty six
yards a native of Austin, Texas, but the Longhrens had
nearly five hundred yards of offense. Penn State was up
twenty eight to nothing at the half, beat SMU thirty
eight to ten. Penn State will face Boise State next
and that's on New Year's Eve in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Longhorns game is New Year's Day Peach Bowl against

(01:40:25):
Arizona State.

Speaker 3 (01:40:26):
Two NFL games.

Speaker 8 (01:40:27):
Today, Kansas City fourteen in one defeated Houston twenty seven
to nineteen. Chiefs now closer to clinching the one seed
in the AFC. Defensive lineman Chris Jones, though left with
a strained cap. Xavier Worthy did have seven catches sixty
five yards and a touchdown, but Texans wide receiver Tanked
dell Is hospitalized with a serious knee injury. Baltimore clinched

(01:40:47):
a playoff spot beating Pittsburgh thirty four to seventeen. Derek
Henry one hundred and sixty two yards rushing. This game
was tied late third quarter. Russell Wilson and defeat two touchdowns,
two turnovers. He had a fumble in the red zone
and a pick six. Lamar Jackson three touchdown passes. Zay
Flowers in fact five catches one hundred yards. Running back
for the Saints, Alvin Kamara is out with a groin

(01:41:08):
injury for Monday night, when New Orleans is at Green
Bay at Saints. Wide receiver Chris Olave also out with
a head injury. Baseball Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson died
at the age of sixty five. The Yankees acquired first baseman.

Speaker 9 (01:41:20):
Paul Goldschmid on a one year deal.

Speaker 8 (01:41:22):
The Diamondbacks picked up All star first baseman Josh Naylor
from Cleveland, so The Guardian signed first baseman Carlos Santana.
In the NBA at San Antonio, Victor Wimbenyama thirty points
and ten block shots as they beat Portland by twenty.
Late night wins for Dallas and Detroit. New York got
thirty nine points from Jalen Brunson in a win at
New Orleans. Boston got a triple double from Jason Tatum,

(01:41:44):
including forty three.

Speaker 9 (01:41:45):
Points in an easy win at Chicago.

Speaker 8 (01:41:48):
Cleveland won again, Milwaukee and Golden State with victories. Lakers
won a close one at Sacramento one oh three ninety nine.
Lebron James thirty two points and Orlando was down twenty
two to start the fourth quarter. Still beat Miami one
twenty one. One fourteen college hoops doubleheader at Madison Square Garden,
North Carolina came back to beat Ucla. Then Ohio State
upset number four Kentucky by twenty. Women's college hoops on

(01:42:11):
Fox TV tonight, Top ten matchup USC one at Connecticut
seventy two seventy NHL Vegas six to two over Seattle.
Back to you, thank you very much, to Saga, to Siega,
have a great evening. We'll hear you tomorrow Sunday with
fellows Chris Plank, Arney Spaniard, among others. Fox Sports Radio
it is aeron Torres, Jason Martin for twenty nine more minutes,

(01:42:32):
taking you up till two am Eastern j mart before
we get to uh looking ahead to some Sunday games.
Where were you h when the Kirk Cousins you were
a came to an abrupt end? What was it Wednesday night?
Tuesday night against you know whatever? Kirk Cousins benched Michael
Pennix in Torres has lots of takesh but curious for

(01:42:54):
your perspective.

Speaker 5 (01:42:56):
Well, man, I think it's it's sort of inevitable and
it's kind of been build for a handful of weeks.
Kirk Cousins just hasn't been good enough. He hasn't been
very good at all, as a matter of fact. And
now you can actually look at Atlanta and understand what
they were thinking during the draft when they made the

(01:43:16):
move they made, because when you brought in Kirk Cousins,
you knew you weren't bringing in a long term fix.
You were probably bringing in somebody that could steady the
ship and help you ease your quarterback of the future
into his role. Now did you jump up and take
a guy that some people thought would have fallen further? Well, yeah, maybe,
but you know that's never guaranteed. The only spot that
you were guaranteed in is the one that you had there,

(01:43:37):
and you went ahead and pulled the trigger. So now
you're going to bring Panis in. Only thing I don't
like about it is they're running throwback uniforms, like on
his first week, let's wear the ones he's going to
be wearing on a regular basis. I know that sounds ridiculous,
but the first time I saw it, I was just like,
don't put him in weird uniforms, like put him in
the But I guess they already had it scheduled either way.
I mean, what team now is going to be in

(01:44:00):
kirk Cousins. I mean, I'm sure someone will, we'll take
him in, but it just seems like we're pretty much
near the end to that. On the other side, for Atlanta,
they want to go ahead and jump start the future.
They want to see what they've got in Pennis, try
to develop some chemistry with those receivers, and just get
that staff working with them a little bit more. I
like it. It makes Atlanta interesting because Atlanta had become one

(01:44:22):
of the most boring teams in the league to me
over the last month or so, and this immediately makes
me want to see them and to see because Pennix
was great in college, and you know, I want to
see what of his skill set, what that looks like
in an NFL uniform. And I already know what kirk
Cousins was. He's pretty good for most of his career,

(01:44:44):
and at times he was even better than pretty good.
But there was no real indication that we were going
to see this return to form from him. And so
this is a move that I'm not surprised to see.
And now you're seeing they're going to cut him before
they have to pay the ten million on him, and
then there'll be a second third tier team that will

(01:45:05):
take him on. Probably is a starter because he's better
than some of the guys that are starting in the
league right now, and then you know, he'll just kind
of fizzle out from there.

Speaker 3 (01:45:16):
My only real thought is to be transparent.

Speaker 2 (01:45:20):
You know, I thought this was clunky from the beginning,
and I remember talking about this right after the draft
with you J mart Is, like.

Speaker 3 (01:45:27):
I thought the I thought, first of all, I thought
Kirk Cousins was just come.

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
I go back to draft night when he puts out
the statement through his agent, Hey, we need to be
trying to win games right now, and I was like, guy,
you just got here five minutes ago, like this isn't
you know whoever, even Aaron Rodgers. We criticized Aaron Rodgers
or whatever. Aaron Rodgers helped the Packers win a lot
of games, and you at the time you understood, like, oh,

(01:45:53):
I understand why he's mad. They haven't drafted an offensive
skill position player in the first round. His entire time
a quarterback, but they're drafting his replacement with Kirk Cousins.
It's like, you just got there. You have no equity
with the fan base. You haven't won him a single game,
and you're sitting there like, oh, you know, why are
we doing And it's like, by the way, part of
the reason you chose to go to the Atlanta Falcons

(01:46:16):
is because they had all that young talent Bjon Robinson,
the wide receivers, on and on down the list, And
so I thought it was clunky. I thought it was weird.
I also thought, and there's something I ended up being
right on. I'm not trying to just take a victory
lap this entire segment, but I'm bringing it up because
I did think that, like, it wasn't crazy to me, Like, yes,

(01:46:39):
you invested a lot of money, including a lot of
guaranteed money in Kirk Cousins, I get it. But it
also like, wasn't absurd to me that you would take
a quarterback to back up a guy that is thirty
five years old coming off of Achille surgery. Like, I
found it weird that everybody last offseason was kind of

(01:46:59):
like the well, you know, what are we gonna get
from Aaron Rodgers and he's forty this years old and
he's coming off Achille surgery and blah blah. But was
no one saying that about Kirk Cousins as well, and
so I I this is all just a long way
of me saying is that I didn't find it nearly
as weird as everybody else for the Falcons to draft
a quarterback. I thought there was a po by the way,

(01:47:20):
it wasn't even I was rooting against Kirk Cousins, like
I thought there was a possibility. What if he's just
not healthy enough to go to start the season. And
so it's been weird, you know, Kirk Cousins, like you said,
they'll he'll find a spot because there's only you know,
there's thirty two teams and there's only so many functional quarterbacks.
And the one thing you can say about him is
at least he basically stays out of the headlines when

(01:47:40):
he's playing onlike some other older quarterbacks that are coming
off Achilles injuries.

Speaker 3 (01:47:44):
But I also found the whole thing weird his behavior.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
And i'd also say, like, I just didn't find it
that crazy that they would take a quarterback in that spot. Now,
by the way, last thing, because I know I'm going on,
I would argue that you could say, taking the twenty
four year old quarterback who did six years of college.
That was a little weird if you if you expect
him to be on the sidelines for two or three years,

(01:48:10):
like maybe you know Drake May wasn't available, but maybe
you take a younger quarterback that you can develop.

Speaker 3 (01:48:15):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:48:16):
But the point I'm trying to make is I never
found it that weird that they would take a quarterback
with that pick, given that Kirk Cousins was coming off
achilles surgery, new to the organization, thirty five years old,
all of those things.

Speaker 5 (01:48:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think all that's right. I don't
have that much to add iman. They were seven and
seventeen right now, Pennix. This first starts going to be
at home against the Giants, who are I don't know
if a Dable's gonna survive. They've already exiled their quarterback.
He's gone. There's nothing really for them to play for
at two and twelve right now. I'm not even sure

(01:48:50):
a Giants fan wants to see them win, because they might.
Even though it's not a great quarterback draft, you definitely
want an early pick in it, I would think. So
it's a nice landing spot for him to start his career.
Like this is late in the year if I can
still have an opportunity in that division, because that division
is that division, And I think that says a lot,

(01:49:13):
like the fact that they're not out of it, the
fact that I mean they enter now as a nine
point favorite I think to win that game, which is
a huge number considering it's Penix that's going to play quarterback.
That tells you what everybody thinks of the Giants at
this point in time. But I mean, Kirk Cousins has
thrown for thirty five hundred yards this year. He's also
thrown sixteen interceptions, and you just can't win like that.

(01:49:39):
I think, even if you throw for five hundred less
yards but you have ten interceptions, we're not having this conversation.
But cousins inability to protect the football is actively harming
his team's opportunity to go anywhere or to even have
an opportunity to play in January. So I think this
is a move that you make right now. If you
make this for the future, you want to go ahead

(01:50:01):
and get a jump start on it. You want Penix
to get comfortable, and you want to see, you know,
what he has and see if he can actually get
you into the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:50:11):
Well, I'll tell you what jmart Atlanta host in New
York is one of several intriguing games. That one's intriguing
solely because of Michael Penix. But we'll come back. So
we'll come back. We'll wrap the show and we'll talk
about some of those games. By the way, interesting thought
on the final eight teams of the college football Playoff
as well.

Speaker 3 (01:50:28):
We'll do all that, wrap the show. That's all next.
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
Fox Sports Radio Air towards Jason Martin, broadcasting live from
the Tireck dot Com studios, jmart Before we get to uh,
before we get to some week Week fifteen of the
NFL quick thing, Week sixteen, Week seventeen, Week eighteen, whatever cares,
we know what. It's go time College football Playoff. Let

(01:50:55):
me ask you a question. Ohio State. It's not a question,
it's a statement. Ohio State has opened as a one
point favorite against Oregon and the Rose Bowl according to Fandel.
What is your take on that. That's a true thing.
I'm not making that up. It's not like a hypothetical.
What would happen if that has happened?

Speaker 5 (01:51:15):
Well, it was the one point loss. That's fair if
you look at pure talent, Ohio State has more talent
they do. They paid for it. We know all about it.
Like they're they're rosser based on that they should beat everybody.
And I think that when you see the way they played,
they finally lived up to what they were supposed to

(01:51:36):
look like against a quality opponent with what they did
in this first round game. And I think you can
look at Oregon. You can see the last game they played,
they gave up a lot of yards to Penn State.
You know, they had to escape. Boise had that close.
That other close one was that the Michigan game. I
can't remember. There was some there was some team that

(01:51:56):
they sort of struggled with and ended up playing on
Lake Whichisconsin. That's it. I think you can make those arguments.
I can kind of see it from a town. I
think that they're looking at from a talent perspective and
they're also trying to get action. Of course, it is
interesting that the undefeated number one team that already beat

(01:52:17):
this team once this year is a one and a
half point dog right now. But I kind of look
at it and say I'm alright with it, because again,
if Ohio State shows up the way they showed in
this game. I don't think Oregon can beat them either.
I don't think anybody can beat them, Like I think
they're the best team in the country, the way that

(01:52:37):
you would have thought before you watched them play at
all this year. I just don't know that that's the same
team we're going to see again. For Ryan Day's sake,
I hope that it is, because he had them ready
to play, and if they show up like that, I
don't think that Oregon is going to be beating them either.
So I do think it's fascinating if you expect the
top seed to get that love. But in this case,

(01:53:00):
going into the year, Ohio State had the higher ceiling
and they're kind of looking at that.

Speaker 2 (01:53:04):
Yeah, all I'll say is one, I guess I'm not surprised.
I think the only reason that I am surprised is
because I feel like we're all falling into the same
trap of with Ohio State is nobody's ever questioned their talent.
It's their ability to consistently show up ready to play.
And it wasn't just a Michigan game. I mean, they

(01:53:24):
easily could have lost to Nebraska. There's a couple others
along the way, we don't have to go through it.
But I guess from my perspective, I'm just saying, you know,
we've known Ohio State always had as good or better
than everybody else in terms of talent, and they just
didn't always take advantage of it. So I guess I
am a little bit surprised, But to your point, maybe
I shouldn't be, just again because of the fact that

(01:53:48):
you know, it's just one of those deals where like
we know what they're capable of, they just got to
go ahead and do it. So yeah, Rose Bowl is
obviously January first.

Speaker 3 (01:53:59):
We got all next week to preview that.

Speaker 2 (01:54:01):
But I'll tell you what's speaking of preview curious if
you could give us a little NFL music.

Speaker 3 (01:54:06):
Put us in the mood.

Speaker 2 (01:54:07):
There we go, Oh yeah, that sounds good. All right,
go ahead, Ian surprise us. I don't even know what
game you're gonna tell us about.

Speaker 3 (01:54:14):
What game are we previewing right now? You tell us?

Speaker 11 (01:54:17):
All right, I'll surprise you guys. Let's start with the
Philadelphia Eagles. They're traveling to Washington to face the Commanders,
and the Eagles are favored by four.

Speaker 3 (01:54:24):
What do we think? What do you got Jamark.

Speaker 5 (01:54:27):
I like Philadelphia, not that I don't believe at all
in Washington, but I do think that we've seen some
spots where Jayden and Daniels is still going to have
to develop a bit. He gets a little bit of
happy feet in the pocket. He's still really only got
one target that you truly trust, and Terry McLaurin, they
haven't run the ball quite as effectively. I still like
that team. I like that coaching staff, I like sort

(01:54:50):
of the attitude of that team. But Philadelphia looks like
a buzzsaw. I was really impressed with what they looked
like a week ago, in particular, especially coming off the
drama leading into that game. I tend to think that
we'll travel just fine. You know, Saquon didn't have a
big game, they still win it. AJ says he's gonna
go I just kind of feel like they're gonna go
in there and handle business.

Speaker 2 (01:55:10):
So I'm with you. I just it's one of those
Phillies a buzz saw right now. As you just said,
you know, Washington, it feels like they kind of, you know,
kind of they kind of hit a wall a few
weeks ago. They've been playing a little bit you know
better the last few weeks. But Philly's a different beast.
They ain't playing New Orleans anymore. They ain't playing the
Tennessee Titans. I like Philadelphia to win this game, all right.

Speaker 11 (01:55:31):
Next up the Minnesota Vikings versus the Seattle Seahawks, two
division leaders. Minnesota's favored by three points, though Seattle's the
home team. What do we think?

Speaker 3 (01:55:41):
What do you got?

Speaker 5 (01:55:41):
Jamart? Is Gino gonna play?

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
I think he is supposed to be playing.

Speaker 5 (01:55:46):
He says he's gonna play. If he's not one hundred percent,
they're in trouble because he they had nothing when he
was out of the game. I'm just not really a
believer in Seattle right now. I think that Kevin O'Connell
continues to show why you should be the coach of
the year. I really like their makeup. They're getting everything

(01:56:07):
out of dam darnold that you could possibly want, even
if they're not gonna pay them and they're gonna hand
the ball to JJ McCarthy next year. I don't see
any reason for them to lose this game. I understand
it's in Seattle, so that's usually more of a challenge,
But give me Minnesota. I just think they're too strong
right now.

Speaker 2 (01:56:22):
Yeah, I just think Minnesota has so much to play for,
you know, and I mean that was the gift. What
ended up happening with the Detroit Lions game last week
is it was not only an awesome, you know, win
for Buffalo, but it changes everything. I mean, Detroit obviously
no longer has complete possession of not only first place,
but the division. They're now tied with Minnesota, a top

(01:56:43):
that division with two games with three games to go.
Excuse me, Minnesota's actually got two pretty tough games after this,
with green Bay at home at Detroit. I just think
Minnesota has too much to play for. I know it's
a weird cross country trip after you know, an emotional
win over the Bears the other day, but I just
don't see how they don't win this.

Speaker 3 (01:57:02):
Game, all right.

Speaker 11 (01:57:03):
Next up, the Cowboys are fighting for their playoff lives.
They're hosting the Buccaneers, who are favored by four and
a half points.

Speaker 5 (01:57:10):
What do we think, gosh, I don't know. Now, the
Cowboys have nothing to play for. They're showing up against
them teams. That's frustrating. The Bucks are very inconsistent, but
Mayfield's fun to watch. Mayfield will do something in this
game that'll be fun. He'll do so actually, he'll do
multiple things in this game that'll that'll be fun. Tampa

(01:57:32):
Bay needs to win because again, that division is terrible,
but we got to see what Pennix does Tomorrow with
the Falcons, we get to the privilege of watching the Saints,
the most boring team on planet Earth on Monday Night football.
I'll take Baker in the bucks.

Speaker 3 (01:57:49):
Yeah, I'll take Baker in the Bucks.

Speaker 5 (01:57:51):
Two.

Speaker 3 (01:57:51):
By the way, the Saints are the most boring team
in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (01:57:55):
By the way, we're so unwatchable. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
My pick to finish with the worst record in the NFE.
Not quite there, but they are so bad and one close? Yeah,
what do we got?

Speaker 3 (01:58:06):
Ian? One more?

Speaker 11 (01:58:07):
Let's go with the Los Angeles Rams going to MetLife
to face the Jets. The Rams are favored by three,
but the Jets are coming off a win.

Speaker 3 (01:58:14):
What do we think.

Speaker 5 (01:58:16):
I'm at your squad the four and ten Jets.

Speaker 2 (01:58:18):
Aaron, Yeah, so be careful. Yeah, I mean you see
that comeback against the Titans. Baby, No, it's it's sad.
I mean it's sad. I mean Aaron Rodgers has more
fight picking arguments with ESPN personalities than he does as
a quarterback these days. But uh yeah, I'll take the Rams.

Speaker 3 (01:58:34):
By the way.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
Fun fact, I got invited to the Rams game next week.
I was like, oh, I'll go. I don't take off
Sundays very often. Then I found out it was Saturday.
I can't miss a Saturday with j mart So apparently
we're coming on right after that game, Jamart one quick answer.

Speaker 3 (01:58:48):
I assume it's the Rams in this one for you?

Speaker 5 (01:58:51):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:58:52):
All right, I'll tell you what we gotta get out
of here.

Speaker 2 (01:58:54):
Well, thank the crew, Carrous on the board, producer Ian
Steve de Sager from my partner Jason Martin, I mere Torres.
Make sure to download the podcast, which will be available
in just moments after we get off air. Coming up
next Bernie Fratto of The Bernie Fratto Show. Cannot even
tell you how much Bernie's got for you the next
four hours.

Speaker 3 (01:59:11):
That's next, Fox, What's are you

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Aaron Torres & Jason Martin React to Ohio State Dominating Tennessee, Talk CFP Committee, Penix Starting & More!