FnA with Kevin Figgers and Adam Ausland discuss the WIDE OPEN AFC, CFB Week 13, and are joined by Don Wolken!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
That is right, Fox Football Saturday, Kevin Figures, Adam alson
here with you guys, f n A on FSR, hit
us up on x at kfig one is where you
can find me.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
You can find Adam at Follow Adam A.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
You know it's Tonight's one of those good shows from US,
I think.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Suppost of the crappy ones we typically do.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
Tonight's gonna be the one, baby, this is the show
ready for coming up later. We got two on two off,
we got your college football forecast. We even have Dan
Wilkin from Yahoo Sports joining us talking college football plus
the NFL six pack Week twelve. Did I get that right?
Week Week twelve? Okay, okay, Geek News and you know

(00:44):
where it is. We're unveiling the list because next week
is Thanksgivings, right, So I have Adam's Thanksgiving foursome movie list,
the under the radar not so traditional Thanksgiving movies. I'm
gonna release at the end of this.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hour because I'll be honest with you, like and not
to you know, burn any of your picks.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
When it comes to these movies.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I feel like there's not a lot of at least
from in popular vernacular Thanksgiving movies that are outside of
like planes, trains, and automobiles. I feel like there's not
really a whole lot of mass appeal popular things giving
movies that people.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Even know about.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Well, that's why I got to hook it up. Okay, Hey,
Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving is a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's a solid one.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Planes Trains with the f bomb scene is an all
timer that really brings the family together. But I got
four four that you should know about, okay, that you
should be watching next Thursday. Since we won't be on
again until then, I thought we could release it tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
He works for me, coming up right now.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Let's see if this works. Little NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, the time.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
That's wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Speaking of four, how many losses the buffal Bills have
right now?

Speaker 4 (01:52):
After?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I guess I can't really say they got their asses
kicked on Thursday night.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
It was a one possession game and it came down
to the end.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
They didn't look good, And maybe it's one of those
you know, they're so talented and so good, they can
play terribly and still be in a game at the
very end. If you want to look at it from
a positive standpoint, a glass half full standpoint.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Not to mention, the Texans defense looked like the eighty
five Bears. I know they're good, but that was special.
That was different. You don't see that every year Like
that is a major rarity from them. Josh Allen, some
of that is him trying to do too much because
he has to right now. Yeah, he doesn't have a
lot of weapons as he has in past years. They're

(02:29):
six and four. They're currently in the sixth spot, six
seed if the playoffs were to start today in the AFC.
But I'm with you, they still are in that ballgame
despite eight sacks, which does tell you just how good,
how talented they are. And Josh Allen is still fourth
in MVP odds despite him being a little bit up

(02:50):
and down over the last five weeks or so.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
You could say, yeah, I think part of it with
him is and this is something they did starting last
year when it came to James Cook trying to take
a lot of pressure off of the shoulders of Josh Allen.
James Cook had I think just over a thousand yards
rushing last season. Do you realize he's the second leading
rusher in the NFL this year behind Jonathan Taylor by
only a couple of hundred yards.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Really, Jonathan Taylor is I think third now in the MVPs.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
So, yeah, Jonathan Taylor has about eleven hundred in change,
and I believe that James Cook is not that not
that far behind him.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
This is the work of a Cook.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
And so they've been able to run the ball generally speaking,
especially in their wins. Now, he ran for over one
hundred yards on Thursday night and they still were able
to drop that one. But I do think the design
was and it was said pretty explicitly, they wanted to
take more of the burden off of the shoulders of
Josh Allen because and we've used this analogy in the
past for you old f ANDA podcast listeners. When he
came to Kobe Bryant, we would say less is more,

(03:42):
the more and more he would shoot. You would say, hey,
he scored fifty points. He was like, yeah, but he
took forty eight shots. It's like, that's not necessarily the
greatest recipe for success for you. If the guys literally
have to do everything on a night in, night out basis,
I mean.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
You're selling them short. Kevin, he can take fifty shots
in his final game to get his sixty points. But
it was pretty awesome, including the game winner against Utah.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yes, it was.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Some guys can work really well in high volume situation
passing situations. I think Joe Burrow is a guy like, Hey,
you know what, you wanted to throw fifty times a
fifty times probably get probably.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
A pretty pretty decent Uh.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
You know results you won't from Jacoby Brissette. No record,
but in a loss a hell of a week last week.
If you're a fantasy owner, that's for damn sure. That
was the all time attempts leader competitions. I think it
was completion completed forty seven passes, so not completions and attempts.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I think attempts was sixty something.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Somebody has done that before.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, but the actual completions I believe was forty seven
and I believe that's an NFL.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
He completed in two yards. Dump off Doug tom Brady
with the Buccaneers type stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, Trevy Bride had a big had a big weekend.
I know that.

Speaker 6 (04:51):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
But they wanted to take the burden off of Josh
Allen because the more and more that he has to pass,
the more and more that he has to do. Yes,
he can have weeks like you had against Tampa Bay,
where you can go, you know, se score six touchdowns,
three through the air and three on the ground. But
he can also have nights like Thursday night, which I
will say to talking about the eight sacks and the
lack of offensive production, it's not all on him. The
Bills offensive line has been one of the better lines

(05:13):
in the NFL this season, and they at the very least,
regardless of how what the final score was, they got
their ass kicked by Will Anderson.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
In that defensive front that look like I.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Mentioned the eighty five Bears earlier, that's one of the
better defensive performances I've seen. That look like two thousand
Ravens esque. I guess, if you want to go a
little bit more modern, even though that's twenty five years
ago now, they were that good. I think it's a
combination of factors. Though you get eight sacks because Josh
Allen is out there extending place and trying to do
everything he can to open up the offense for weapons

(05:45):
on the outside that he doesn't necessarily have, at least
compared to pass seasons. Now it's all about throwing the
tight ends. Of course he missed one on that final pass.
Now it would have been offensive PI anyways, but he
still had a guy running wide open didn't see him.
I'm not saying take away the MVP votes because of this,
but he has been up and down and not quite

(06:06):
as steady. You talk about bouncing back against the Bucks.
Great in that game, obviously six total touchdowns, historic stuff.
But the week before that they lose to the Miami Dolphins,
something I think I predicted here.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Don't get cocky, this is one of my.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Best I have to out because you're the only one
who saw that one coming.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Nobody else can have pat me on the back for that. Here,
I may break my own arm.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, I guess it begs the question too. Sitting at
seven and four, you know, right in the thick of
the playoff race. Now there are what three games behind
the New Legan Patriots in the division at this two
games excuse me, behind the Patriots in the division, but
still very much in the wildcard race. Is it kind
of a jumble mess if you start talking about six, seven, eight,
all the way down nineteen eleven twelve, we got a
couple of five and five teams in there with the

(06:50):
Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. So I don't know if
they're necessarily in danger of missing the postseason, but certainly,
when you talk about the expectations, most of us thought
they were just gonna come in and run away with
the AFC East, kind of like the Bill Belichick Patriots
there for twenty straight years at that point.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
This has been their time to dominate the division. So
I think with much of the conversation this week regarding
Buffalo being about as the windows shut, I disagree with that.
When you have Josh Allen, who's still just twenty nine,
it's similar to Mahomes. If I have a quarterback like that,
they're still in their prime. Josh Allen has looked the

(07:27):
part plenty this season. I'm not giving up on this era.
They may have a bad season, they may be a
wild card team that has to go on the road
in order to get to the super Bowl, should they
get there, with case maybe being out of the playoffs
this year. Finally the team that always takes them out.
But I would say it's more of a missed opportunity
and the victim of their own success. Type of mentality

(07:51):
comes into play here. Because they've been so good for
so long, and they've been knocking on the door for
so long. We expected this season, especially after what happened
in Game one against the Baltimore Ravens, where a lot
of people said this is the front runner in the
AFC for them to take that next step and finally
make it to the big game. In fact, I picked
them out of the AFC for that reason. So we're
holding them to a much higher standard now. So it

(08:13):
looks bad, but they're still likely a playoff team now.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
The issue is because, and I think we talked about
this earlier in the season, whether or not they're just
going through a little bit of malaise. You mentioned all
the highest pectations they've had over the years. They've had
great regular seasons, they've had home field advantage, and they've
lost to teams like Cincinnati and the snow where they
ran the ball down their throats. They've gotten to multiple
AFC Championship games. They had that one game against Kansas
City that they had won if not for that whole

(08:38):
kickoff situation.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
They changed the rule after that. Yeah, who could have
seen it coming.

Speaker 7 (08:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
So they've had some their share of bad luck. I
guess they have one thing that's working against them now
was they're good overall numbers wise, there's nothing that jumps
out at you except for the fact that they're terrible
against the run. They cannot stop the run to save
their lives. And so you start phase. You go into
the postseason and you have to face teams like Indianas,
you know, who can run the ball, you know, if
they get healthy, and I don't know if they even

(09:04):
make it. I think the Chargers can actually make give
somebody a run if they get healthy with their rookie
running back. So I mean there are teams that you're
gonna have to face that what kid can run the
ball effectively in the postseason, and that's going to be
your major bugboo. That's gonna be hard to overcome, regardless
of who you have offensively.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Well, they weren't able to get to the Super Bowl
while having home field advantage, just losing to Kansas City
while having home field advantage. They thought that might be
the difference. It wasn't. So now you're talking about if
you're a sixth seed having to go on the road
and having to win three games to get to the
Super Bowl. That is tough to ask out of them,
and is there a way for them to still win

(09:40):
the division against the Patriots. It's possible they still play
them once more, so obviously they have to win that game,
but they still have the Eagles, the Bengals with likely
Joe Burrow back, and even the game in Pittsburgh this
week is not going to bet a guinny for the
Buffalo Bills like they have a tougher path and to
chase down the Patriots, They're gonna need some help. It's

(10:02):
not just gonna be them beating them, and the Pats
have a slightly easier schedule left to win the AFC East.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
But tell me, do you think that you mentioned having
Josh Allen. Yes, they have some shortcomings when it comes
to stopping the run. I think their biggest downfall is
going to be the fact they just don't have any
impact offensive weapons. I love Dalta Kinkaid, he's a good player,
but if he's your best threat in the passing game,
I think that's an issue.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
It's the same thing we've talked about. When Patrick Mahomes
gets himself in trouble, it's because he's having to carry
and elevate so many guys when they're missing Rice or Worthy.
That's what we've seen over the past couple of years
with him. Granted's still in the Super Bowl last season,
but obviously it kind of all crumbled down against the Eagles.
It's the same thing with Josh Allen. Now you're asking

(10:45):
him to do too much. On one hand, it shows
just how much he can carry a team and it
may help him win another MVP, but on the other
it's not sustainable long term for winning a Super Bowl.
This is not the peak Buffalo Bills team that we
thought they could be coming into this season, that could
finally get over the hump.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Well, his falls also just stand out at that point
because he goes back to rookie and second year Josh Allen,
where he trusts his arm maybe at a little bit
too much, his legs almost a little bit too much.
And you mentioned some of those sacks he ran into
on Thursday night was because he was just trying to
keep plays alive and trying to make a play right
even if there was nothing there.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
He can still be Superman. Do you want him always
being Superman leaving himself out there to be exposed.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Sometimes it's okay to be Clark Kent. You know what
I mean.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, get back in the phone, the glasses back on.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, hand the ball off to Lois Lane aka James
cooking the backfield because I disrespectful to James Cook to
call him Lowis Lane.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Probably, I think Hayley Steinfeld might feel like that cast.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Some beef there. But I don't think they're dead by
any stretch now.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
But there's a narrative out there like, oh, this is
a big loss for It was a big loss, especially
for the AFC playoff phrase. But as far as their
chances of making the postseason, I think they're still going
to get in. And quite honestly, when you have a
quarterback as talented as Josh Allen, you always have a chance.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yeah. I'm not worried about the Buffalo Bills in this
era being over. However, I might be concerned about their
head coach and Sean McDermott. Okay, maybe they're GM.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Two, like they came in together so McDermott hired being.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
Yeah, they're tandem, they're a duo. I could see if
they lost in the first round or got smoked by
somebody as a sixth seed on the road and just
looking like Josh Allen is helpless out there, They're gonna say,
why don't you get him more help? What's going on?
Or if he got hurt? Yeah, like that is a
scary situation. I think for your head coach and GM,

(12:34):
they're the ones who could take the most majority of
the blame or most of the heat here.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
And I don't want to store the pot or anything.
But there is a certain offensive mind who did not
had a job a couple of weeks ago and now
does not, who was credited with the ascension of Josh
Allen's talents and becoming a great quarterback at the NFL level.
That is mister Brian da Ball, who most people feel
that the shortcomings of the Giants weren't necessarily his fault.

(13:00):
You talked about this least on Fox Football Sunday when
he came to Brian daball it maybe it wasn't all
his fault. He was just trying to do what he
could to try to make sure the Giants could win
as many games as possible. It will not surprise me
in the least bit if things went south for Buffalo
this year. They missed the postseason. And what you say
is potentially true that they clear house in the front
office and at the coaching staff department. It wouldn't surprise

(13:21):
me at all if Brian Daball got a call.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, he's kind of their Josh McDaniels guy. Like, I
don't know how well it would work as a head coach,
but if you can get a little bit more out
of them offensively, with more creativity out there, so Josh
Allen doesn't have to improvise as much and doesn't have
to use his legs as much, which long term also
not sustainable. It's just not He's twenty nine. He can't

(13:46):
do this stuff forever. I remember watching Cam Newton for
a long time using those strong legs to get an MVP,
to get them to a super Bowl in Carolina, and
then eventually it just looked like they were cooked out there. Yeah,
it's the isn't over, but you have to adjust as
you age. When you're a type of quarterback like Josh Allen,
he can he can throw the ball as well as

(14:07):
anybody out there, so maybe lean into that more. But
to do that, you got to have a better roster
around him.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, you have to build that infrastructure, and you had
guys you had digs, you had a bunch of talented receivers,
and for whatever reason, I think a lot of times
teams fall into this trap too. We have a great quarterback,
he can elevate the play of all the guys around him,
so we can, you know, skirt around spending money on
receivers that we can spend it elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Ask Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay for all those year
I mean, yeah, not drafting receivers fime example. You know, yeah,
we can make we can make our defense better, we
can improve in all these other areas because he is
going to be the guy that keeps our offense afloat.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Generally speaking, I don't disagree with that notion.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
I'd much rather be great upfront and the trenches on
both sides if I have a great quarterback. But you're
really putting the onus on your scouting department to make
sure you find the right guys who fit your system,
and your coaching staff to make sure you can coach
those guys up. Because I'm generally not a proponent of
going out and spend and you know, one hundred and
fifty million dollars on a free agent receiver or anything
like that. Either but that you also can't do it
to the detriment of your quarterback. You have to make

(15:07):
sure that he has guys who are actually reliable, that
he can actually throw the ball to, who can make plays.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
Josh Allen will be seeing Aaron Rodgers this weekend. Broken
left wrist in all in Pittsburgh. Now, where do you
want to go?

Speaker 8 (15:18):
Here?

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Kevin?

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Cho's your own adventure quiz? Hot shot Bengals are rounds.
I'm sorry, these are the choices should giving me.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Well after saying that I think I want to go,
I think I want to take a break first, so
I could digest that bad But we have quarterback question
marks involving both of those teams in the AFC North.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
We'll talk about that coming up next to F and
A on FSR.

Speaker 8 (15:40):
Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
But here's the thing.

Speaker 8 (15:45):
We never have enough time to get to everything we
want to get to.

Speaker 9 (15:48):
And that's why we have a brand new podcast called
over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun in
our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Yeah, you blubber list jam in me.

Speaker 8 (16:03):
Well, you know what it's called over promise. You should
be good at it because you've been over promising women
for years.

Speaker 9 (16:07):
Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show, and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised.

Speaker 8 (16:21):
Well, if you don't get enough Covino and Rich, make
sure you check out over Promised and also uncensored, by
the way, so maybe we'll go at it even a
little harder. It's gonna be the best after show podcast
of all time.

Speaker 9 (16:31):
There you go, over promising. Remember you could see on YouTube,
but definitely join us. Listen Over Promised with Cavino and
Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
I'm fairly learned here.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Fna Cotton.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Be sure to subscribe to the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel.
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see
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and subscribe. It's FNA on FSR, Kevin Figures and Adam

(17:19):
Auslin Fox Football Saturday.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
Coming up in geek News, I'll get to my Thanksgiving
foursome four movies non traditional Thanksgiving movies you should probably
know about for this upcoming week.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
I thought your fourthum was going to be like your
four favorite you know, Thanksgiving food items.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
Well, there's so many issues from I'm looking at a
commercial right now, the Pillsbury Doull Boy.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Oh yeah, and the old crescent roles.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
I'm meeting him and those roles, And I put like
half a stick of butter on each of those crescent rolls.
That's actually what I'm supprising Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
A whole stick of butter for each Crescent role, not
on the entire betch.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Like half like half I spend day year respect How
much can that really clog my arteries? Yeah? How much
damage can that really do?

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Are you one of those guys who doesn't who like
stops eating on like Monday of Thanksgiving week and just
saves up all the space in the stomach.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Kevin, I'm not eating Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I'm not.
I'm gonna let this build and then I'm just going
to devour and have a ten thousand calorie Michael Phelps
type of meal and.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Just crash on the couch, drool coming down the side
of your mouth. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
And I got the perfect movies that can accompany you
while you have that trip to fan nap that's inevitable
during Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Perfect.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
Now, I did ask you a question, yes, before the
end of last segment, quiz where are we going next?
Brown's Vangles or bullet If you don't want to talk
about either of those toms.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
To quote a former Great Heck football coach who's now
struggling a little bit, Let's go on to Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Oh okay, Bill Belichick.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Because some surprising news and maybe I'm the only one
I don't know if I call you by surprise the
fact that Joe Burrow randomly pops up at practice as
a full participant on Wednesday of this week, and I'm like, wait,
what's just sell tickets?

Speaker 4 (19:13):
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Maybe the three and seven? Right, we talked about their beers.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
They are sixteen ounce beers that costs like five dollars
or something a couple of weeks ago on.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
The show, which is insanely that's a great deal.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
It is make Costco beer. You can't get a beer
at Costco that chief with a hot dog and so too.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Joe Burrow was supposed to be out until December. I
think the most optimistic outlook was Thanksgiving, but the general
view for a lot of people was probably the first
or second week of December. And now all of a sudden,
he potentially could be suiting up this weekend. At him,
he's questionable on the injury report.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Well, the other part of the equation is but why,
but why? Ryan Reynolds says, Yeah, that's a good question.
They're not making the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Now they're not mathematically dead. Okay, now it's math, it's arithmetic.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
For all intents and purposes, they're dead. I see him
clocking into a three and seven record, and right now
the final seat in the AFC playoffs is Jacksonville with
a six and four record.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
That's a lot of ground to have to make up
with not a lot of time.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
Do you think if they were mathematically eliminated, he would
not be coming back. Do you think that's the issue
they're selling their fans on. There's still hope. Hey, the
Ravens feel like they can get in. We got all
these divisional games left if we just run the table.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well, here's the thing, because seven we just washed up
Josh Allen pretty good. In the first segment of the show,
we talked about it. If you have a great quarterback,
you always have a chance.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Yeah, but what if you have the Bengals defense?

Speaker 1 (20:39):
All?

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Okay, fair enough, you know, I said, the Buffalo Bills
with thirtieth against the run, The Bengals are thirty third
against the run, thirty third against the past thirty They're
a category in and of their in themselves when it
comes to all the bad defensive category.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
They make every quarterback they're going up against look better
than Joe Burrow.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, like you are.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
An MVP that week against the Bengals defense.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Assessed Adam.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
I just kind of look at it from a risk
reward standpoint, Is the risk of him getting hurt again,
which is extremely high playing behind that offensive line, worth
him being out into next season?

Speaker 3 (21:11):
And for me, I would say no, Now I know
he's champion at the bits and want to play. He's
a competitor, he wants to play. You get out there
on the field.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
Fine.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
This is one of those things where if I'm the
ownership general manager, I'm like, I'm I'm pulling rank on you.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Joe ain't playing.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
I remember when this happened with Steph Curry where he
had that broken risk that lasted the entire season back
in I don't know, twenty twenty one, twenty two, somewhere
in there before they won their last championship, which wasn't
twenty twenty two. They held him out and they might
ended up with a good draft pick because of it.
I don't know if they wasted it or not. Probably

(21:48):
they ended up maybe they got pods passage, Okay, I
like pods. Like there was no way he was out
the entire season because of this risk injury. But once
they saw they didn't have a chance to make the
playoffs even with a play in situation now in the NBA,
or you could get into the tenth seed and work
your way up, they just gave in. He's older, he's

(22:11):
injury prone. He had those cankles going on early on
in his career. I don't understand it either. When a
guy is this brittle behind a mediocre offensive line.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
They're not god awful, certainly looks they're better than they
were last year. How dare you tell the truth on
this radio show in my presence while you're wearing a
raider wasn't necessary, but still bad enough to end up
getting this guy hurt again.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
And then you're kicking your own ass. Yes you are,
because we're chasing what exactly. You're just trying to sell
tickets to those fans that beat each other up in
Joe Burrow jerseys earlier in the season. That's what we
need to happen.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Is that also the guy One guy was wearing a
Joe Burrow jersey, Another guy was wearing a jersey with
sixty nine and your mom on the back?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Was that? Also?

Speaker 4 (22:59):
Was that the same that guy's allegen?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yes, go to make sure we're referencing the exact same
brawl here around the same.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
You could find a guy like that in every NFL
stadium and all the way. This guy was like forty two,
Like this wasn't like some college kid or something. This
guy has like three kids in a mortgage, right, What
the hell are we doing, That's what they're trying to do.
What's in seats? I guess?

Speaker 2 (23:18):
But are people not showing up to Bengal games? I mean,
I feel like I feel like in football markets like that.
And this is no disrespect to Cincinnati, Ohio, but there's
not like a whole lot else going on, Like, are
people not going to Bengal games?

Speaker 3 (23:30):
What else did you doing on a Sunday afternoon?

Speaker 4 (23:32):
They brought in Joe Flacco? Did they not?

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Well?

Speaker 4 (23:36):
They did? Were they not good for the rest of
the season?

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Well, I was Joe.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
Feeling right now? I don't think did he know that
Joe brought a chance to come back?

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Well?

Speaker 2 (23:44):
So it's interesting because Zach Taylor on Thursday said, you know, oh,
you know what, now Flacco's looking a little bit better.
We'll see what happens. He kind of seems to be
nudging himself towards the possibility that Flaco's gonna end up
starting this weekend and not Joe Burrow. But just based
on the fact that Joe Burrow was a full participant
in practice even once this week, Why would you do

(24:05):
that if you didn't have designs of him getting back
into the game.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yeah, at some point like, we'll get more into this later.
But speaking of guys, I don't know if Joe Flacco
took all the first team reps like shaduor Sanders did
this week, So everybody can relax. He got the first
team reps in because you know, backups don't typically get them.
So I don't know what everybody's crying about. Oh, they

(24:31):
set him up to fail. This is sabotage. They're trying
to screw up his career and stick it to Dion Sanders.
It's another conspiracy. It's like, no, it's not. Everybody that
I listened to as a former player this week about this,
Greg Jennings, Steve Smith, Dan Rolofski, they all said, yeah,
backups aren't getting reps during the season. You know what

(24:53):
they're doing scout team work. They're trying to show our
defense how the other team might play on offense. So
typically you're mimicking whatever quarterback that your team is going
to see that week. This was not out of the ordinary.
This was not unique to the Browns and Chadure Sanders.
I for the life of me, I cannot understand the

(25:15):
Chaduer Sanders cult that has been going on. But I
said the same thing with Tebow too, Like people freak
out about a guy who hasn't done that much yet
because of college, because of brand recognition, because of his dad.
In this case, I am rooting for him. Has God
on his side at him, Okay, and that's why do
you beat that. Only God can judge him.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
You can be a guest, that's right.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
I'm just saying, I really really despise the people on
both sides where you have the defenders to the death
of Shaduur Sanders, who played a second half of a
football game and went four sixteen, although the tape looked
a little bit better if you watched it.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
We'll also consider talking about a guy and not getting
first team reps. That's his first action against a team
that's on the come.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
But when do we ever do it? When do we
ever cover for a backup quarterback the way people are
caping up for sh Door Sanders? When do we ever
brought that up before? Well, you didn't get first team
reps this week when a backup quarterback comes into struggle.
I've never heard such a thing.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
I'm trying to think.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean, I'll be look, I don't know if people
are caping up for him, I think more or less
just try just trying to tell the truth. First of all,
it probably validates what people's thoughts were about Shadur coming
into the season, is that he was not ready. And
by the way, if he were ready, he wouldn't have
been a scout team guy, not even third string when
the season started.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
This was no conspiracy.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Look, the Browns really didn't want him, and when there's
NFL conspiracies and all that, and they were forced.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
To after their conspiracies.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
I know that Dion.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Said they turned down going to Baltimore, Baltimore and Philadelphia
by the way, Yeah, I don't want to hear that
the NFL passed on them. They tried to dictate where
he could go and that turned into a conspiracy.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the
doubt and say, like, yeah, you're gonna be shell shocked
one if you're not prepared to play at the NFL level.
In general, the only reason you were elevated to the
backup quarterback is because everybody else in front of you
got injured. And now you're playing against the Baltimore Ravens
team that's one of the hottest teams in the NFL
over the past month, So it all lined up for
him to not have a good performance last week.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
I just I don't know what you were expecting to
see from.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Him, not four of sixteen. But well, I mean, look,
I am rooting for him. That it's the people that
are so ingrained in their opinion on him when we
haven't even got much tape yet to see what his
real ability is at this level. It's insane, these extreme
sides that are these forces that are going after one another.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Well, nomo has any patience to say, let's just see
this whole situation play itself out.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
You just that's not fun.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Well, that's no fun in that the guy's either a
bum or he's the second coming of Randall Cunningham.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
ER's something, okay, But you don't have to accuse the
Browns of setting him up to fail and making these
just ludicrous, asinine points. It's to run a talk show
and to get clicks. And I know, I know Steven Asmith,
of course he's going to do this type of stuff.
It still bothers me sometimes.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah, well you're letting him get to you.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
And look and look the people who are too hard
on chadure when he's only thrown sixteen passes. When I said, hey,
I saw that game in the preseason against the Panthers.
I saw a few things there. I saw the ability.
Yeah that night, yep, those people need to relax too.
Let it play out.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
That was the preseason. You're playing.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
A different situation in the second and half. I watched
the tape of every throw of his I was like,
you know what, that throw on third down before the
fourth down play the end of the ball game, that
could have been a touchdown. That easily could have been
a touchdown. So the jury's out in my mind on
whether or not he's going to be a good quarterback.

(28:53):
This week will tell you a lot, though, because he's
going up against the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, well it will in many senses, and we'll get
into that coming up in the NFL six Pack later
on too. The jury is gonna be out, first of all.
There there's always levels to it. So whether or not
he can be a good quarterback, let's start at being competent.
Let's just be a c because again, this is an
organization that had this guy running scout team, not even
third string. He wasn't even suiting up so he ascended

(29:19):
from Matt to being the backup quarterback again only because
there is a bunch of injuries. Yeah, and obviously they
traded Joe Flacco away, which you know, I guess you
can kind of combine that in that same scenario.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
And Dylan Gabriel didn't look that bad his first few games, honestly.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
And then he kind of did, you know, you know.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Regression to the meaner love diminishing returns going on. But
still they don't have a lot of weapons around him
for the people that want to hate on should do
or It's like he's being asked to now do what
Flacco couldn't do and Dylan Gabriel couldn't do, which is
really get this offense moving. So if he doesn't, those
people that hate him for some reason, he'd be like,

(29:58):
see what he sucks? It's like, what about the last
two guys? The common denominator is this Cleveland Brown's offense
is just not that good.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
The people that hate him, And I'm just projecting here,
but my assumption is he had a lot of flak
against him coming out of the entire NFL draft process.
They didn't like the fact how we handled himself with
the combine and turning down interviews and workouts assuming he
was going to be a top ten pick, and that
wasn't the case. And people think that a lot of
teams in the league purposefully may have had him higher

(30:26):
on their board but passed them by to sort of,
quote unquote teach him a lesson. Only the teams actually
know that. I don't know if that's true or not.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
The Eagles didn't want to do that.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
I ultimately think that it's just it's a matter of
just getting him in there and get him some experience.
I think the Raiders is a very very very very
soft landing for him to see where. Now, granted, the
Raiders that can have had some good defensive efforts at
times this year too. I don't know if I necessarily
want to call it a full on soft landing when
I got Max Crosby breathing down my.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
Neck and a bad offensive line in front of him.
The Raiders one straight could be the weakness for him
having a good week if he's under pressure the entire time.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
But hey, try by fire right, you know. Yeah, there's
a element of one to see some positive things. Look,
we go back to your preseason comments it's like, all right,
if he can show a couple of things, show that
he's capable, even if his numbers are not the greatest.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
I mean, just show some improvement. I said, this is
about Kaleb Williams this year.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
If you look at his completetion percentage, like his completion
percentage in that high it's like sixty one percent or
something like that, which in today's NFL is not that great.
But if you look at it from last year to
this year, he is so markedly better about his pocket presence,
getting a read of the ball. There's an incremental progression
that you want to be able to see and look,
that's Caleb Williams. He was the first overall pick in
the draft and somebody a guy that a lot of

(31:40):
people touted as a generational talent. Shadra Sanders was a
guy even I remember during the draft process there was
a lot of debate about how good he actually was.
There was and as you know, cam Ward was a
first overall pick at the quarterback position. People were saying,
if it was the year before, cam Ward would have
been like the fifth quarterback on the board.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
To me, it's pretty simple, say it A lot is
the juice worth the squeeze or is it just lemon
juice going in your eyes when it comes to Schadur
Sanders out there because there is a distraction element. Some
of it, a lot of it is not his fault.
Some of it is for tanking interviews in the draft

(32:18):
and this conspiracy stuff started. But I think what team
saw more so than anything, is maybe he has fatal flaws.
Maybe he has unbreakable habits like backpedaling faster than Dion
hold On. He's a quarterback, not a quarterback.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Holding onto the ball too long was one of the
great drawbacks of his at Colorado.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
That's why he got sex so much, all.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
The sacks him just not having enough pocket presence and awareness,
which doesn't get easier at the NFL level. You already
saw it in that game against Baltimore, who did throw
the kitchen sink at him. They had like eight guys
in the box a ton just like, hey, I guess
you can guess on who's coming on the blitz. This
this down fun with the Raider should be a little

(33:00):
bit easier. He got all the practice time in. There's
less excuses this week for those that think he got
Delta bad hand last week but let's just see what happens.
It's it's a real unknown, and I'm really interested to
see how he plays because of that.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Even if he comes in on Sunday and doesn't look
that great against the Raiders, it still is not an
indictment on what his career is going to end up being.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Just show me a flashes, like, put out some good tape,
put out some good plays. I'm not asking for great,
I'm not asking for very good. Solid, be solid out there.
You said competent, Yes, competent. Look like there's something there,
a real foundation to build off of. With the tools

(33:44):
he has at the quarterback position.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Why she's gonna light up the Raiders for like four
hundred and thirty yards or something.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
But it's just the Raiders that doesn't count, right. I
won't say.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
That's a glorified bye week, I guess these days, I.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
Will say that I'm excited for him. That's probably one
of the games I'm looking forward to most on Sunday, honestly,
Brown Raiders.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
For that reason, I won't to say you're the one. Huh.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
Look it's Shador. He is, like he's super cool. I'm sorry,
but you can he can sell me a pack of cigarettes.
Like he's he's got more swagging or than anybody I've
ever seen.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Get me to swag, give me the or, but also
show me that you can play. Yeah, because all of
that means nothing. And if anything, you look like a
fool coming in, blinged out and all that stuff, and
you end up you're going four to sixteen to turning
the ball over five times.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Well, if Max Crosby sacks him, and he probably will,
he'll probably do his celebration and use it against him
where he's putting his rollie in the sky, just like
we saw at the Baltimore Ravens. Like, yeah, that's what happens.
You go out there saying you want to be legendary.
Well what does that say about the guys that are
playing good defense against you? I guess they're the real
legends if they stopped a legend in Shador Sanders, a

(34:52):
legend legendary.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Okay, well try your best.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
All right, I'm still into it. I'm into this too.
Coming up next geek News Thanksgiving movies. I got four
you probably haven't seen. I Metam Miles and these Kevin figures.
This is Evan.

Speaker 7 (35:08):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Maybe you and I could partner up FNA Cotton FN.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
It's Kevin Figures Adam Afflin back with you guys here
on Fox Football Saturday. FNA on FSR coming up next hour,
we will get into the NFL six pack. We'll also
talk a lot of college football with our guy, Dan
Wolkin from Yahoo Sports. Talk about the Lane Kiffin coaching drama.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
There's a lot.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, there's plenty, and I feel like there's new news
coming out every fifteen minutes.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
There seems Dan's on top of it though.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, So we'll talk to Dan about that, among other
big stories around the college football world. You can hit
us up on X by the way, at k fig
one and at Adam Ay. And before we get in
to geek News and Adam's Thanksgiving list, we do have
a tweet in from Jason B.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Diamond.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
He says, I thought we were going to go with
top Thanksgiving foods, and my top answer was going to
be deviled eggs.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
I could eat fifty or more.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
I'm good with that. Yeah, that's that's one of my
go to appetizers on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
Never been a double edgy guy.

Speaker 4 (36:20):
No, no, not used to be when I was a kid.
Now it's a delicacy. You remember that old what was it?
It was an old Miller High Life with a guy
eating deviled eggs. I remember seeing this in the early
two thousands.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
I don't remember that one.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Those look scrumptious. Now I can't drink the Verity bar.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
But you know, I mean, with all due respect, like
you're missing much.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
Yeah, the high life, Yes, exactly, the high Life isn't
all the deviled eggs are all right? We got four
Thanksgiving movies for you. If you're looking for some fresh
Thanksgiving movie choices as fresh as the garb whipped mashed
potatoes you might have. Oh now we're talking from scratch,

(37:04):
dive into Adams not so traditional Thanksgiving movies, My Thanksgiving foursome.
These are not the obvious choices. It's not playing trains
and Automobiles, it's not Charlie Brown's and His Thanksgiving. These
are movies that are under the radar and might make
your Thanksgiving a little bit more memorable. You might start

(37:25):
a new tradition with your loved ones watching one of these. Okay,
so you know what like the Deviled eggs or pigs
in a blanket, whatever appetiser you like on Thanksgiving. My
movies have a viewing order to them. Oh okay, your
meal might so all right, so you have your orders. Yeah,
this is a starter. Okay, Pieces of April. Why are

(37:47):
you sure this is a family friendly movie that we
can a's PG thirteen All right? This is about serving
warning to possible racist uncle who you're hoping didn't show up,
but did. He's already drunk off the Spike day nog
because in this movie you see the beauty in diversity.
Katie Holmes is introducing her family to her black boyfriend

(38:08):
for the first time. Will everyone's over for Thanksgiving? It's
got humor and heart and prime Katie Holmes before Tom
Cruise corrupted her then broke her heart. I don't know.
They're not together anymore?

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Right, I don't believe so.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
After the Silent Birth? Was that Tom? It's currently streaming
on to be for free Pieces of ape Hey, if
it's for me? The Second Course Movie Number two is
a movie I like to describe as the Big Lebowski
of documentaries. It's from nineteen ninety nine and it's called

(38:43):
American Movie. It's a documentary. We saw this a long
time ago, Kevin.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
This is the.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
One Midwesterners that are so intentionally funny. You'll have gravy
shooting out your nose if it's on the thinner side
of your gravy. Do you like a thinner or thicker
grave to be honest with you, Okay, fair enough? Like
fat fries?

Speaker 3 (39:02):
No, oh, always the fat fries. You know me.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
It's a bunch of quirky, kooky, salt of the earth
Midwesterners trying to make a black and white horror short
called Covin, and all the mishaps and challenges they go
through along the way while getting the movie completed. You're
gonna think it's a mockumentary, like it's Christopher Guests Best
in Show or something. Yes, but this is real and

(39:26):
the people are hilarious, and it takes place during Thanksgiving.
Like Pieces of April. This one is streaming on various
platforms for three ninety nine. You can read it. I
will not regret it. Oh, come on, lost me. The
third movie, Bit of a slow Burn, and this is
as you slowly start to digest your meal, and you're

(39:50):
getting a little bit tired. A little bit tired because
of the trip to fan you may want to sink
into the couch, possibly even fall asleep. This next movie
is called The Ice Storm by Ang Lee and Uh.
It takes place during Thanksgiving and there's some stuffing going on.
It tells the tale about swingers plus family dynamics and

(40:11):
dysfunction that is maybe relatable on Thanksgiving. It's got Kevin Klein,
Christina Ricci, Toby McGuire, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, a great cast.
It's gotten American beauty type vibe. So it's it's heavy,
heavier than you'll be after dinner. It came out in
ninety seven. You can stream it for the low price

(40:32):
of three dollars and seventy nine cents. It's not even
three ninety nine out. It's on Amazon Prime. My last movie.
This is a late night pay for Prime as it is,
So why do I have to pay to watch movies
for a surface I'm already paying for? This is the
Ice Storm we're talking about. All right, peez, you stop
your firestorm over there. Ridiculous This last movie. You're gonna

(40:54):
be watching it late. We're talking past ten o'clock. NFL
games are over. You're drunk. Uncle, who's racist? Is left?
This movie is in the vein of so bad It's good.
It's a slasher comedy involving a turkey that seeks revenge
on humans trying to kill it on Thanksgiving. It's called
thanks Killing. The turkey is evil, all the irony, and

(41:16):
the evil turkey likes to taunt its victims too. It
talks a lot of crap. It's a masterpiece Thanks Killing.
You can find it on to B Believe it or not.
It's free.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
That's in. I'm in.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
You know what else? I'm in for the six pac
Coming up next fn A on f That's why. Second
hour Fox Football Saturday with fn A, Kevin Figures, Adam
Alston with you guys, hit us up on x at
KFIG one and at follow Adam A. Coming up later
this hour, we will speak with Dan Wolkin, covers college
football for Yahoo Sports. Will get into the Lane Kiffin

(41:49):
courtship with LSU and maybe to a lesser extent now
based on all the reporting with Florida talk about college
football playoff rankings and the like, and many other things.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
Stay walkin on ILAG football. That'd be fun. We got
our college football forecast as well, will probably preview the
biggest game of the day coming up mire hours from now,
Oregon USC. It's basically a playoff game. Love that. But
we got more NFL here, including our six pack.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Time for the NFL six pack Hot Seat Heat Check.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Six categories across the NFL that we cover each and
every single week. We always begin with the first category,
the hot seat heat Check, which is the player or
coach under the most pressure going into this weekend.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
So who is your hot seat heat check for Week twelve?

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Adam, The hottest seat for me should be reserved for
I'm sorry Gino Smith with how bad he's been this year. Now,
there's a lot of context of this, but he's gonna
have a lot of people not to write back to
because small countries have written him off at this point.
Raider Nation certainly has. You couldn't fit the amount of

(43:05):
hate mail writing off Geno in a post office like
at the end of the season. They're just gonna have
like a cargo freight shipping container dropped off on his
front lawn with everyone expressing their disgust for his play
unless that gets intercepted to He's the only quarterback with
more interceptions than touchdowns this season. Jamis Winston may eventually

(43:26):
catch up here, but he's only in game two now
with the Giants. We'll see you know how they got
Geno versus Pats with he steaks in Philly. Yep, this
is Geno versus Pats point after attempts, because you can't
have any if you don't score touchdowns first. But I
liked Geno a lot, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
Doesn't sound like it.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
I feel for him because of that offensive line terrible,
which has him seen ghosts. Wait, that's not a ghost.
It's just a really old man in Pete Carroll. But
he's not in ghost form quite yet. But Pete is
like Obi Won, thinking Geno is luke and trying to
instill confidence in his Jedi Gino, who's been mostly forced

(44:09):
choking himself so far. After the Cowboys game, Pete Carroll
said quote, I think Gino played really well for the
most part. I continue to believe in him. I have
no hesitation in telling you that he couldn't even get
the statement out without hesitating on the eyes and the nose,
and that very sentence when you heard it, well, I

(44:30):
have no hesitation in telling you that the game may
have passed by Pete Carroll if he really believes in
Geno Smith and him being the answer. Still maybe he doesn't.
But the money is always the answer, Kevin. The problem
is the money is the answer, and Gino is getting
paid for a few more years, and money plays just

(44:53):
not well always. Gino's making forty million this year guaranteed.
Next year he's making twenty six and a half million,
eighteen and a half million guaranteed the year after that
in twenty twenty seven, thirty nine and a half million,
non guaranteed. But next year you get to dump them.
He's got eighteen and a half million dollars guaranteed. That's off.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I mean in today's NFL for a guy who's not producing.
I mean, that's certainly not nothing, but it certainly could
be a lot worse. It would not surprise me at
all if they wanted to eat that. And by the way,
I would have confidence of Gino Smith too, based on
who I have backing them up. Can you Pickett ad
and O'Connell, who just came off of injury reserve yesterday.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
I think it was why didn't they draft Shoulder again?
I thought Tom Brady was his mentor and he's part owner.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
I guess I don't know.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
But this team, I have to say a lot of
this is on their O line. Like I'm actually still,
aside from the jokes, a believer in Gino and Pete Carroll.
If you just have competent offensive line play in a
more consistent running game, I still believe in Chip Kelly.
I wish the Raiders could just load up on the
old line and run it back and see what you have.

(46:03):
Is that so wrong? No, that's the right philosophy to have.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Well, one, they weren't that great upfront to begin with
to start this season, and then they lost their best
offensive lineman, Colton Miller about four weeks ago, and Jackson Powers. Johnson,
who's a really good player, has been in and out
of the lineup with injuries and he's currently out. So
they're running a bunch of like third and fourth string
guys out there. I mean, this is this is might
as well be an XFL offensive line they're running out

(46:27):
there right now.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
Well, and it shows is Jesse the body body Vinceur
on the call on Sunday when they're taking on Shaduur,
Sanders might as well be the seat. Though they lose
to Shaduur and the Browns, it could get hotter for
Gino and Pete Carroll.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah, I can absolutely see that would not surprise me
in the least bit.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Who do you got in the hot I'm going to
stay in the AFC West and go with their brethren.
I'm going with the.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Colts this weekend with
that playoff Berth in the ballance. Surprising as it might sound,
and I think you brought this up earlier in the show, Adam,
there's a legitimate chance to Kansas City Chiefs don't even
make the postseason this year. Now, if we go back
to when we've the very first couple of shows we
did here on FSR, I think it might have been
our second or third show, that Friday night opener in

(47:09):
Brazil between Kansas City and the Chargers, and I say
Kansas City was not going to win the division, but
that they would make the playoffs as a wildcard. Well,
it looks like if we're gonna end up being sort of right,
So the Chiefs are not going to win the AFC West.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Now neither are the Chargers, because that's who our predicted
was going to win the division. That was my original prediction.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
He took them both down.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Ken, Yeah, the AFC.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
West is going to go to the different Broncos after
that big victory against Kansas City last week. The other
thing that I may be wrong about is the fact
and Eloy from Compton. I know you're listening because you
tweet us all the time. You're not gonna want to
hear this from Compton, but he's a big Chiefs Hank
Kansas City. I think there's a really good shot they
end up missing the playoffs entirely. Obviously a tough matchup

(47:51):
on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts and Daniel Jones still
trying to prove themselves as legit.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
The problem is what a victory over the Chiefs actually.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Legitimize the coach because right now, Kansas City this looks
like an average team. If you want to believe you
are what your record says you are. Bill Parcell's line,
they're five and five. They're mediocre. Their mediocre. As a
one great cornerback would say mediocre, thank you. So, by
the way, if you look at that five and five record,
it's not like they have the most impressive resume. They

(48:21):
beat the Lions soundly on that Sunday night about a
month or so ago.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
That was a big win.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
But there are other four wins, the Giants, the mid
September Ravens, who are a mash unit and not playing
that well.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
Doesn't count.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
The Raiders and Commanders definitely don't go. Might as well
be the University of Nevada and Virginia Tech. You know,
difference does that make? What seen those all those teams?
Is that where James Franklin win, Yeah, exactly, got paid
to what forty seven a half million dollars? Very good
for them, though incent of Leaden deal probably smart for
both sides to sign that anyway.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
Like win one big game to get this money. You know,
you win, win one game against a top ten team.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
You win a certain mint of games, you get certain
more money allocated to your coaching staff, and a bunch
of other different things.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
It's incentively and I think it's a pretty smart deal. Now.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Granted the five losses for Kansas City, by the way,
getting back on track, with the exception of Jacksonville, they've
all been against quality opponents, So and that's part of
the curse of winning your division every year and being
as good as they've been.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
You know a lot of those play schedule.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Yeah, you get a first place schedule, so that ends
up working against you. But this is also Patrick Mahomes
and Andy Reid, the duo. They've been basically the Apex
predator of the NFL for the past decade. At this
point in time, what is an eight straight AFC Championship
games they've been to.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
So that has not been the case this season.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
You look at their remaining schedule, it is not hard
to envision potentially three more losses, which replaced them with
a nine to eight record at best. That might not
be good enough to get you in the AFC. So
they played the Colts on Sunday. Like I mentioned, the Cowboys,
they should beat, but I wouldn't say that that's necessarily
a given at this point. Houston, who has the exact

(49:53):
same record as they do, or excuse me, Houston now
with a record a game better at six and five.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Now after their victory on Thursday night, they're going to.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Be more motivated. They got more to play for now.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
That can end up being a de facto playoff elimination game.
Right there between Houston and Kansas City, you have the Chargers,
who beat them already earlier this year. Granted they're banged up.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
They beat them in Brazil though, but division.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Games are tough. Then you get a de facto bye
week against the Titans. Fine, then you in the season
against Denver who just beat you last week. So outside
of the Titans, I'd say that every last one of
those games in the Raiders, who I'm not going to
count again obviously either, But outside of the Titans and Raiders,
I'd say every last one of the games left on
this schedule are losable. So also consider that the Chiefs, Texas,
and Ravens all are five and five and officially in

(50:33):
the hunt for a playoff spot at this point in time.
If you look at the bottom of the AFC standings,
the current seven seed is the Jaguars, who are six
and four, but most importantly have they head to have
tiebreaker over Kansas City. So the Chiefs are not dead
by any stretch, but their lifeboat is taking on water,
to say the least, I'll put it that way.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
Maybe a death boat. Well all right, uh, trap.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Game tap here trap game Tap.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
My trap game tap is for me. I must resist
the pool of falling back into the trap of getting
excited about my Panthers again just because they beat the
Falcons last week and are currently six and five. I
cannot let a Monday night football game against the San
Francisco forty nine Ers remind me of why I became

(51:21):
a Panthers fan in the first place. As they beat
the hated forty nine Ers in their first ever matchup
back in the old NFC West in nineteen ninety five,
a Niners team that was coming off winning the Super
Bowl the year before against the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
I can't dare think about simpler times when the Carolina
Panthers were in the NFC West.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
They saw the sense in.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
The world and they were thriving. Beating the forty nine ers.
I don't want to think about Wesley Walls, a former Niner,
scoring touchdowns on Merton Hanks That next year. Panthers second year,
they went twelve and four nineteen ninety six, made it
to the NFC Championship Game, lost to Brett Farv.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
I'm trying not to think about Ray Caruth. So that's
the that's the Panther. I'm trying to distance muscle from God.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
What those Wesley Walls hands, the biggest, softest hands in football.
What it must have felt like to be a football
in those strong, secure, and likely warm and fuzzy hands.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
You need a cigarette right now.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
Okay, I can't think about that right now, Kevin, or
else I'll get too wrapped up and Panthers nostalgia the
way I'd like to be wrapped up in those big
hands and Wesley Walls like he caught everything that tight end.
I can't think about the old NFC West battles between
the forty nine Ers and the Panthers that I lived for.
Nor do I need to mention that the Panthers lead

(52:38):
the all time series thirteen to ten, although the forty
nine Ers beat them in the playoffs, but that was
only because Cam Newton's failures, not the Panthers. Well, think
about it. If you aren't jumping on a fumble in
the Super Bowl, what type of effort is Cam gonna
give for a Measley Divisional round game? You want to
know what con two picks, five sacks? They lost by

(53:00):
twenty Thanks Cam. But maybe I should honestly think Cam
because he ruined my love for the Panthers when he
didn't jump on that fumble, and ever since then, I've
been appropriately cautious whenever they show signs of turning a corner,
Like right now, that's fair. I can't let myself get
excited that they're six and five and half a game
back in the NFC South, not just because they're in

(53:22):
SF this week on Monday Night Football. But look at
the rest of the schedule. The Panthers still play the
Rams at the Saints, who beat them yep, Highbury, the Bucks,
the Seahawks, and the Bucks again. Now the Bucks are
right in front of them. They only have like a
half game lead on the Panthers.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Yeah, but flacing someone like that twice in a three
weeks span it's hard.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:44):
And the Bucks' schedule is easier, so they have Atlanta,
the Cardinals, the Dolphins. The Panthers have the tougher schedule.
They're behind them in the division. It's possible they might
have to beat them both times. But all I'm saying is,
can't get too excited. The Wolf say in pulp fiction
to Jules and Vincent something about not getting too excited.

(54:08):
I can't repeat that.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
We say it on the air right now.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
That's how I'm treating this Panthers season. That's all I know.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Hey, fair enough, you know what if I'm happy for
you and Panther Nation if you want to call it
that for even being in the hunt.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
This is late in the season.

Speaker 4 (54:19):
We deserve it. So congratulations to you on that we
were paying the banner. You got a trap game.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Yes, I'm going with the Detroit Lions at home against
the Giants. I'm going with the Lions at home against
this scrappy New York Giant team. Because after being lauded
for taking over a play calling for John Morton last week,
Dan Campbell got humbled a little bit against Philadelphia on
Sunday night. I will say two. I do like his
aggressive philosophy to a point. Sometimes you have to take
the temple of the game into account when you're deciding

(54:45):
when to go for it on fourth down.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
Though, and I'll turn it to Brandon Staley. You never
go full Brandon Staley.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
No, It's like you can argue that their management of
the third quarter is what lost them the game. So
the score was thirteen to six Philly at the half.
Lions had three possessions in the third quarter, turns it
over downs in each and every last one of them.
You shoot a forty nine yard field goal to go
forward on fourth and five, and you missed fourth and
goal of the three yard line. On the next possession,

(55:11):
a little more understandable, you go for it. You have
a chance to score a touchdown deep in the red zone.
I don't have a big issue with that. One fourth
and three at the Eagles forty five yard line, you pump.
If you pump the ball to Philadelphia, based on how
the game was going, you're gonna get the ball back,
probably with a decent field position. Instead, you turn the
ball over on downs, Philadelphia gainst twenty yards, they get

(55:31):
a field goal.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Now they're up sixteen to six.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
So I don't know if it's analytics or gut feel
or a mix of both.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
When it comes to Dan Campbell. And that's kind of
my thought, Adams, to be honest.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
With you, because those ant letting them.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
There's a level of pragmatism that you have to use
in game situations like this. Though, I realized part of
the line's identity is to be aggressive and go forward
on fourth down. They built their game plans around knowing
that a lot of times they're gonna go forward on
fourth down. Yeah, philosophically, I get it. You just can't
be dogmatic these sorts of things. You have to sometimes
the potential risk is just as crippling as the reward

(56:05):
could be fruitful. So use analytics, use your gut, be aggressive,
call it whatever you want. Just understand the tenor and
the temple of the game that's being played out on
the field in front of you, and just realize that
all fourth and fives from midfield are not created.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Equal, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (56:20):
Ye, fair enough.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
So for this weekend, they're going to host the Giants, who,
despite their two to nine record, have been one of
the scrappiest teams in the NFL. We did learn yesterday
that Jackson Dart did not clear concussion protocol, So Jameis
Winston's going to be back in there yet again.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
I love it the Giants.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
We said last week the Giants were going to be
competitive against Green Bay.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Did we lie? And no, did we lie?

Speaker 2 (56:39):
And if anything, you know, Jameis Winston gets you know,
a lot of ridicule for throwing that picket towards the
end of the game.

Speaker 4 (56:44):
I mean, that was built in. That was baked in.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
He was anticipating the receiver curling off his route and
he didn't do that, So that was an anticipation throw.
The receiver, at least from what I understand, ran the
wrong route and that's why he was picked off.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
Look, I anticipate at least three more picks from Jamis
this week.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
You might be right, but I still love them now.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
The Sam Laporta is out for the season, as Steve
the Sacred told us at the top of the hour updates.
So that's a huge loss for Detroit. One of their
biggest weapons offensively didn't play last week, and I think
that was a huge reason as to why they struggled
against Philadelphia. So I do think the Lions win this
one would not surprise me in the least bit if
New York found a way to pull off the upset, though.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Interesting Okay, I like that. Coming up in our NFL
six pack, what do we Got Beer Goggles game? Our
O Troy Epic Fail Potential game. We still have four
more categories, but coming up next from Yahoo Sports, it
is college football insider and analyst Dan Walkin. That's next
here on FNA on FSR.

Speaker 7 (57:43):
listen live.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
FNA Cotton fn.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
A, FNA COTTONA.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
It's Kevin Figures, Adam Alsten back with you guys here
on Fox Football Saturday, FNA on FSR.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
Hit us up on.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Socials ex in particular at kfig one and at follow
Adam A coming up, and about twenty minutes or so
we will dive back into the NFL six pack.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
But right now we'll get into.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Some college football controversy surrounding the future of Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
Will he remain at Ole Miss?

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Will he go to LSU or Florida, although it looks
more likely that if you were to leave, it'd be
with LSU. Talk a little college football playoff and many
other things. With our next guest, let's get to.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
It, Alan Dragan did thank you, Donny.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Well, we had this CFB expert on at the start
of the season and he warned us about Clemson and
other frauds who wouldn't be making the college football playoffs.
So right now we have this man at the top
of our College Football Analyst rankings. He's the one seed
with a BUYE for the playoffs, just ahead of Joel Klatt.
Is Dan Walkin from a Yahoo Sports back on f

(59:00):
and a on FSR. Follow him at Dan Wilkin w
l K e N. Dan. Thanks for doing this here
on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (59:08):
Yeah, Hey, what's up.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Let's start with this. What's your biggest gripe and argument
you would like to present to the College Football Committee
if you could plead your case for said gripe. What's
your biggest issues so far with their rankings?

Speaker 6 (59:23):
Well, I think that this committee seems to be a
lot more focused on losses than wins, and I think
that's a departure from what we've seen in the past.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
And I'm only going based off of.

Speaker 6 (59:37):
What Hunter Yurchek, the Arkansas athletic director who's now the
head of the selection committee, what he is saying. And
you know, sometimes these guys are in a difficult spot
trying to explain decisions that don't make a lot of sense.
I frankly hate the weekly rankings, but they do give
us good fodder and good content. And I think the

(01:00:02):
Miami Notre Dame thing, I'm not saying I disagree with it,
or that I think Miami's better than Notre Dame.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
I think that, like the committee, Notre Dame is at
this moment a better team, even though we all saw
what happened when they played each other in Week one.
But I just think that's a really sticky problem for
the committee from a common sense perspective, when they both
have two losses and they played each other head to

(01:00:30):
head in Miami one, and yet Notre Dame is several
spots ahead of Miami and the rankings, and I just
think that's going to be really tough to explain as
things go forward.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Dan, what's your take when some people say that we
should just do away with this ranking model and go
to more of an NFL model and automatic bit. This
is something that I know that the Big Ten has
talked about. The SEC has kind of fought back on
that as far as how the slotting goes. But generally speaking,
don't worry about rankings. You have this certain record within
your conference, You're going to be slotted in and guarantee
the playoff spot for the front the top four or

(01:01:00):
five teams in this conference, top four or five in
that conference, et cetera. How do you feel about the
potential of just doing away with the rankings to begin
with and just going on an automatic bid situation.

Speaker 6 (01:01:11):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it really works in
college football because in the NFL, you know, everyone is
playing on the same plane of competition.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
College sports doesn't really work that way.

Speaker 6 (01:01:25):
The SEC and the Big Ten and the Big twelve,
they're all separate entities and they all have their own
thing going on, and there's such limited interplay between the
conferences that you know, you can't really just say, well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
Everybody deserves four.

Speaker 6 (01:01:45):
That's not tenable because the reality is some leagues are
better than others and some and schedules are vastly different.
Even within the conferences, the schedules are vastly different. I mean,
look at the schedule Alabama's played this year versus the
schedule Texas A and M has played this year, two
totally different animals.

Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
So I just don't think that works.

Speaker 6 (01:02:06):
And I don't think there's any interest from an SEC
standpoint in doing that, because the SEC recognizes that they
will benefit far more from a system where strength of
schedule and a committee is at least, you know, is

(01:02:26):
interpreting the results of the games they see. So I
just I just don't see an automatic bid situation ever
really happening.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Dan, Welcome Yahoo Sports, joining us here FNA on FSR,
Fox Football Saturday. Dan, your most recent column, you wrote
about Lane Kiffen and the chance if he potentially leaves
Ole Miss for another school, would elements be left out
of the college football playoff? You said that you don't
think that's likely to happen. Just in general, how do
you see this Kiffin situation playing out? Because there's reports
of his family traveling to Baton Rouge to meet with

(01:02:56):
you know, LSU, but he was very nebulous or actually
didn't say anything as far as addressing that in recent
interviews that he's done. Do you think that it's most
likely that he remains at Ole Miss or most likely
that he ends up bolting based on what you know?

Speaker 6 (01:03:09):
Well, let's put it this way. This has been a
thing for well over a week. We've seen all kinds
of reports and you know about his family going to
visit certain places. This has all been playing out very publicly,
and he hasn't shut it down. He hasn't said, hey,

(01:03:29):
I'm staying at all Miss. You would think if that
was his desire, that he would have already made that.

Speaker 5 (01:03:38):
Plane. He would have made it clear.

Speaker 6 (01:03:40):
I think much more likely is he wants to coach
at Ole Miss through the playoff and then wants to
have the opportunity to look around and go somewhere else.
But the way the timing is going to work on
all this stuff, I just.

Speaker 5 (01:03:53):
Don't think that's possible.

Speaker 6 (01:03:55):
And I think we're closing in very quickly on a
decision is going to have to be.

Speaker 4 (01:04:01):
What do you think the most likely destination is then
for Lane Kiffin?

Speaker 6 (01:04:04):
Dan, Yeah, I mean I feel fairly comfortable right now
saying if he leaves, it's going to be to LSU.

Speaker 5 (01:04:10):
But then again, we're dealing with Blane Kiffin. Things can
turn on a dime.

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
He's the most unpredictable person in college sports.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
There's also a certain level of it, Dan, when it
comes to Lane. You know, the expectation levels at Ole Miss,
no disrespect to them, are going to be different even
at Florida, who I've heard some people say that the
expectations at Florida are actually way over where there should be,
and that they see themselves as LSU or Alabama and
they're not that I can't necessarily speak to that. You've
covered the sport for a long time, you can more
than I. But would it not be more advantageous just

(01:04:39):
from a career I guess job security standpoint for Lane
to potentially stay at ole Miss where you can win
ten eleven games and make the playoff every year and
be fairly safe. Whereas you go to LSU, make the
playoff one year and miss it the next year, and
all of a sudden you're back on the hot seat again.

Speaker 6 (01:04:52):
Yeah, I mean I get that, But look, Lane is
a guy who you're hiring him win a national championship.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
He's going somewhere to win a national championship.

Speaker 6 (01:05:05):
Like I think at this point in his career, I
don't know that there's like much else beyond that. So
in some ways, his next move, whether it's Ole Miss
or anywhere else that's the past fail line is winning
a national championship. He's also going to be making like
thirteen fourteen million dollars a year.

Speaker 5 (01:05:26):
So I just don't think.

Speaker 6 (01:05:28):
I don't think the pressure aspect is relevant. You're you're
going to be under pressure regardless, Dan, who.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Do you think has a better chance of leaving or
going back on their word between Sark or Belichick.

Speaker 6 (01:05:41):
Well, I don't have a lot of insight into the
Belichick thing. I don't think anybody really does that one.
I'm just going to put a pin in and say,
let's see what this looks.

Speaker 5 (01:05:54):
Like, you know, in a few weeks.

Speaker 6 (01:05:56):
Like I don't think Bill Belichick is going to the
NFL because I don't think anyone in the NFL wants
Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick is either going to be the
North Carolina coach next year or he's going to be,
you know, in Nantucket with Jordan Hudson. Okay, Sark, different deal.
I think his people did probably take the temperature of

(01:06:20):
NFL and whatever, and there wasn't a lot out there
for him, and I think at that point there's there's
clarity for him.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
Hey I'm going to be at Texas next year.

Speaker 6 (01:06:30):
But you know, again, this is shilly season. People throw
out a lot of different things. Agents talk and back
channel and there's a lot of hypotheticals what if this,
what if that? And sometimes those what ifs as you make,
you know, two or three more phone calls down the
line turn into oh, well, somebody you know would really
like to leave or would really be interested in this

(01:06:51):
job or that job. And maybe it's not totally exactly accurate.
Go out of smoking mirrors. So I believe Sark is
going to be a Texas next year. I believe Kenny
Dillingham is going to be at Arizona State next year.

Speaker 5 (01:07:04):
When you come out.

Speaker 6 (01:07:05):
That strongly, especially in this day and age and the
way the internet works, I think you'd be making a
big mistake to.

Speaker 5 (01:07:14):
Be that strong and then change your mind.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Dan wolkan Yahoo Sports, joining us here on Fox Sports Radio.
Just going back to the committee and talking about the
twelve team playoff. I feel like there's been a lot
of steam or talk recently about the group of five
or group of six when you have the expandit, the
NEWPAC twelve coming in next year, whether or not they
actually deserve a bit regardless of how good of a
season a TWU Lane or a North Texas or somebody
like that is having. What are your thoughts on the

(01:07:37):
group of five slash group of six having for all
intentsive purposes of a facto automatic bid into the college
football Playoff?

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
It's fine.

Speaker 6 (01:07:46):
I don't send a lot of controversy about that. Look,
if you want to be a national sport and if
you want to have people invested, fans invested from from
coast to coasts across one hundred and thirty programs that
are part of the FBS, then they need representation and

(01:08:07):
they need a spot in that playoff, point blank period.
I don't think it's real complicated if they.

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
If you don't have a.

Speaker 6 (01:08:14):
Spot for them, then you might as well just get
on with forming this super league thing and just cutting
out all the fat cutting you know, cutout Purdue, cut
out Maryland. I mean, does anybody need those teams in
college football? Not really right if that's your attitude. So
I don't sense that that's going anywhere, and I don't

(01:08:35):
think there's a huge.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
Push for it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Dan, what'd you think about Alabama dropping as far as
they did, even behind Notre Dame? I probably have them
in front of Notre Dame? Like, would you make of
that steep decline after the lost to Oklahoma?

Speaker 6 (01:08:49):
It was interesting, especially because if you if you look
at the way the game was played, like Alabama was
the better team up and down on the field, but
they committed a bunch of turnovers and you know, they
made a lot of mistakes. Again, Alabama's not a great team.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
They're a good.

Speaker 6 (01:09:09):
Team, They're kind of just like a lot of others
in that top you know, ten to twelve that you
could shake them up and you know, in a cocktail
glass and pick one out and you'd have different results
every time. Like, I truly believe that they definitely dropped
more than I thought. And maybe it's the committee sort

(01:09:30):
of reassessing and reevaluating the second loss in light of
the Florida.

Speaker 5 (01:09:35):
State lost at the beginning of the season.

Speaker 6 (01:09:37):
I don't really know, but it's certainly it's interesting from
the standpoint of like Alabama better win that game next
week against sovereign, and they better look good doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
I don't know what you can do to really change
this dynamic, Dan, when you talk about conference championship games,
because I'm looking at Ohio State and I'm looking at Indiana,
and the SEC still needs to be fleshed out to
a certain degree to as far as who's going to Atlanta,
but I mean State Indiana, regardless of who wins that game,
both teams going to the playoffs, both teams likely getting
goodbye in the first round. So outside of and I
know and Rick Nwasl says this all the time. The

(01:10:08):
answer is money. Now, what's the question? But it seriously
is what is really the point of having these conference
championship games if we know, generally speaking, both teams are
going to get in the time.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
Yeah, look, there's definitely a shift in the attitude about
conference championship games across the sport of college football. They're
definitely more probably risk than reward.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
At this point.

Speaker 6 (01:10:33):
And you can even go back to last year Georgia
loses Carson Beck in the SEC championship game and that
effectively costs them a chance to win the national championship. So,
you know, the SEC is the only one that has
historic significance with fans. The others are fine, Like, I

(01:10:54):
think people enjoy them, but there's not It's not like.

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
It's not a huge.

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
Part of the tradition of those conferences in the SEC.

Speaker 5 (01:11:05):
It is.

Speaker 6 (01:11:06):
It's also a massive, massive money maker in the SEC,
So that one's tricky. I think getting rid of it
is tricky, But the focus of the sport increasingly just
goes toward the playoff itself and being ready for the
playoff and peaking for the playoff.

Speaker 5 (01:11:23):
To me, I think the importance of the championship.

Speaker 6 (01:11:27):
Games will continue to decrease, and I think more and
more people will kind of continue to just be like,
what are we doing here?

Speaker 4 (01:11:35):
Last one for me, Dan, we talked about it with
you at the beginning of the season, but the USC
expectations were about as low as we've ever seen them
entering a season. How much of they exceeded them? For you?
And what do you expect against Oregon later today?

Speaker 6 (01:11:48):
Yeah, really interesting game and USC's played well. I think
you have to give them some credit for changing their
identity a little bit and I think growing into the.

Speaker 5 (01:12:04):
Big pen style of play.

Speaker 6 (01:12:07):
Now they're playing another you know, former.

Speaker 5 (01:12:10):
PAC twelve team, and.

Speaker 6 (01:12:13):
This is I don't want to say it's a one
hundred percent of the elimination game, but it kind of is.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
Oregon. I'm not sure they have.

Speaker 6 (01:12:22):
Enough heft on their resume to survive a second loss.
You know, if you really dig into their their schedule,
it's it's not been that impressive that they're nine and one,
but they're kind of a weak nine and one even
you know, some of their wins have been pretty pretty
pretty much a struggle. So both teams have to win

(01:12:45):
this game. I think and I think that's that's a
fascinating personnel matchup, fascinating coaching matchup, and the stakes I
don't think it could be any higher.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
He has a great Dan Wilkin writes for Yahoo's Sports,
covering a college football among other things. Dan, this has
been great. Thanks so much for us spending so much
of your time with us. We appreciate it, and we'll
talk to you next time.

Speaker 5 (01:13:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:13:07):
There it goes, Dan Walkin. I want to remind you guys,
with the iHeartRadio app, you can stream us wherever you
happen to be. Catch us in all of our Fox
Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven in the
new and improved iHeartRadio app. Just searched Fox Sports Radio
in the app to stream us live all day every day,
and be sure to select Fox Sports Radio as one

(01:13:27):
of your presets in the iHeart app so it always
pops up at the top of your screen.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
We'll get back into the Lane Kiffin conversation a little
bit next hour, you know, talking to Dan Wolkan his
colleague Ross delingdret Yahoo Sports having the big report on
Friday night about a ninety plus million dollar a contract
offer that LSU was ready to present the Lane Kiff
and he apparently met with them. Sorry, still a lot
of people will believe that Lane Kiffin still may stay
in Ole miss that he likes the ra atmosphere out there.

Speaker 4 (01:13:54):
He kind of think, you know what, we'll get into
it latter. Yeah, we'll do it later.

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Yes, coming up next.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
I got thought we gotta get back to the NFL
six pack. Our beer goggles category is next. This is FNA.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
You're listening to Fox Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:14:10):
Radio D.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
Yeah, welcome back in f and A.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Have some technical difficulties over there, are we? I am
about to.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
You know how you would slam your hand on the
VCR and somehow it would start working again and the
tracking would work itself out. That's how I'm feeling about
the instant replay machine right now.

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
Or like my old method with the old you know
any s games, you know, you take it and you
blow on it, and if that didn't work, you would
take it and fling it across the room and step
on with a few times and see if that would
fix it. Is that kind of where you are right
now with the insta replay machine. Throw it to the
dog like a frisbee. Basically, yes, I'm getting there. Frustration
is setting in. It's it's old, scuzzy hard drives. I

(01:14:56):
think how you pronounce it. But you know what, we
got a new one coming and this is f and
A on fs R and.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
We gotta get to our beer goggles game.

Speaker 4 (01:15:06):
NFL six pack continues, Kevin, you got a beer goggles game?

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Ya, Yes, the beer goggles game, the ugly matchup that
might actually turn out to be entertaining. And I'm going
to one that Adams says, forget the DVR, forget the NFL. Plus,
I'm watching this crap live, I mean live. I need
more Raiders Browns in my life. Who doesn't Now, I
know what you're saying. How in the hell could this
game have a single ounce of redeeming value to the
casual fan outside of Cleveland and Las Vegas casuals? The

(01:15:33):
obvious answer is Shajur Sanders. Sure we all acknowledge that
that's tired. What's wired?

Speaker 3 (01:15:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
I would say a lot of the magic of Chadors
to a certain degree has worn off since his admittedly
terrible performance against Baltimore last week. He owned it, Yeah,
he did own it, which I give him all the credit.
In the world for you could have blamed everybody else
but himself, So I'll give him credit for that. I'm
not saying that you should watch this game because it
will resemble that opening week game between Baltimore and the Bills,
which was one of the more entertaining games in recent memory.

Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
Hell le even throw Bill's Bucks in there. That was
a great game last week.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
Oh yeah, high scoring.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
But I think this game will resemble the opposite, and
that in and of itself has appealed to it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
So hear me out at him.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
So it's like when people are rubber necking as they
drive past a car wreck on the side of a road.
You're just kind of in a state of shock and
all at the damage that's been done and hopefully it's
just to the cars and not to any of the
occupants devastation. And if we're all honest with ourselves in
the back of our subconscious minds, and some of us
might even say it explicitly, you're rolling by and you say, oh, damn,
that's terrible.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
I hope they're okay, what's happened to me?

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
That that wouldn't mean though, that you continue to drive
on your commute, go about your day and forget that
you ever saw.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
It, go back to texting while driving. No, don't do
that ever.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
That is exactly how you view this game if you're
not a fan of either of these franchises. Let's be honest,
we all know most of 'all are going to be
tuned in to what Eagles Cowboys in the four pm
Eastern one pm Pacific window anyway, because that's the only
game really of note in that window.

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
To be honest with you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
It's a pretty wake a week late slate this weekend,
if I'm to be honest with you, Sorry, Bree for
your Saints and Falcons matchup.

Speaker 4 (01:17:05):
Same in college football.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
To a certain great barrier. Verry like, we got blame.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
Calm before the storm because we've got Thanksgiving stuff going on.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
I blame the SEC personally.

Speaker 4 (01:17:13):
Patty Cake Week.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
Yeah, absolutely, every single year, without fail, the week of
Thanksgiving is patty Cake Week, or before Thanksgiving always is
before Rivalry week for the SEC is where they played
the week Sisters of the Poor.

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
That's what you should be punishing committee.

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
Absolutely, yeah, but they won't do it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
So here's what I'll say though, for if you're tuning
into Eagles Cowboys which I know you will be when
there's a commercial break and you don't want to sit
through another break that's pushing you to drink all for
beer or sign up for a prop betsite.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
That's praying on you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Folks who say I got a really good feeling about
the over under on brock party touchdown passes on Monday.

Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
Night, Well, hey, they put the one eight hundred numbers
below to cover their asses.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Sure, I'm sure, yeah right, I'm sure that works. Wonders,
I advise you to flip over to Raiders Browns doing
those commercial breaks and watch the spectacle of bad football
that it is and tell yourself, at least that's not
my thing, even if you are a Saints fan like Brie.
There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and no,
this is not that Mike D'Antoni. There's a train coming
down the other side of it. Granted, you have Tyler

(01:18:11):
shugg In there, not the most spectacular player, but you
also know that he's.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
Not really your future.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
They at least know that they're in the midst of
a rebuild at this point in time.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
Yeah, they'll have a high draft pick and a stack
draft coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:18:22):
They knew coming into the season the expectations were going
to be extremely low. You talked about Pete Carroll and
Gino Smith and Chip kirk Kelly earlier in the show.

Speaker 3 (01:18:30):
Adam, and I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:18:31):
I think a lot of people, if you were being realistic,
most people didn't think they would make the postseason. No,
but I think most people thought by the time you
got to Thanksgiving they probably still be in the hunt somewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:18:40):
They thought they might win seven or eight games this season.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
Right And if so, look, if you can win seven,
two or three bounces go a different direction, you can
look your way into nine or ten.

Speaker 1 (01:18:50):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
You know, they're obviously far, far, far from that. So
our expectations were low. But holy yeah, yeah, So all
that has gone through hell to say the least. Now
there's rumors, as you mentioned earlier, that the game may
have passed Pete Bye and the Milk's combat with Chip
Kelly and his offense, and Gino's regrets to the New
York Jets version that was getting knocked out by Special
Teams teammates in the locker room. So even if the

(01:19:13):
Browns had a modicum of confidence coming in with a
good defense and Joe flaccol as a competent veteran to
start the year.

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
We've seen what's happened to them too.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
So these are two downtrodden franchises who look like crap,
are playing like crap, and are going absolutely nowhere. Smell
like yeah, basically yeah, smells like the Oakland Alo Media
Coliseum there. So as you sit there and catch bits
and pieces up the debacle that'll be the Raiders and
Browns on Sunday afternoon, be fortunate that you don't have
to live and die with these two downtrodden franchises, because

(01:19:42):
if you did, to quote my friend Victor Brigg Jacobs,
you would have died a thousand deaths by this point.

Speaker 3 (01:19:49):
That is my beer goggles.

Speaker 4 (01:19:50):
Game, not death by a thousand paper cuts by a
thousand Raiders games.

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
Watch death by a thousand Raiders and Browns games watched.

Speaker 4 (01:19:59):
I mean, look, what can I say? The Panthers are
six and five, but we still lost to the Saints,
a team we were just making fun of.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
Well, you know what, that's something the Raiders can say.
At the very least they did not lose to the Saints.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
Why they beat them? No, I haven't played they play
them thankfully that was a scheduling conflict. Yeah, it's smart
on their part. Yeah it is a car wreck. It
is a train wreck.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
Well just think at them, like if Shador Sanders weren't
starting in this game, literally zero redeeming quality to this matchup, and.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
It's a game that's just for gambling and just for
degenerate gamblers.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
At that point, and to that point, I'm not gonna
say whether or not this game is in my two
one or two wall or not.

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
It may or may not be.

Speaker 4 (01:20:44):
I like the t's there. Do you want to guess
what quarterback Kevin Stefanski is at since he's been the
head coach of the Browns. I'm not going back all
the way to ninety nine where they've had forty two
different quarterbacks, but what is should do? Were for Kevin
Stefanski with all the quarterbacks they've had, what number is

(01:21:05):
he seven? You want to go higher?

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
Quickly?

Speaker 4 (01:21:09):
You want to go higher?

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
No, Kevin eleven, thirteen, twenty five, thirteen seventy five, thirteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
It's been there for like what eight years or something.

Speaker 4 (01:21:21):
Lucky they were thirteen.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
That is absolutely insane. That's your door.

Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
God coming up next, more of the NFL six pack
here on Fox Sports Radio. That's right, final hour of
fn A on FSR Here on Fox Football Saturday. Kevin
figures at kfig one is where you can find me
on X at Follow Adam A is where you could
find Adam on X. Coming up this hour, we would
dive deep into the college football slate, not the deepest

(01:21:48):
slate of games, but we'll talk about the Lane Kiffin
controversy sc Oregon, a huge matchup this weekend, get into
a couple of others as well. We also have our
official picks at the end of the show for two
to one too off. By the way, For the best
pregame show every weekend, be sure to tune into Fox
Sports Radios Counting Down to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM
every Saturday and Sunday morning. We will count you down

(01:22:09):
to all of the biggest games for three hours right
up until kickoff. For all of the best plays up
to the second injury news, Tune in to Countdown to Kickoff,
presented by bet MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning right
here on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart app.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
All right, Kevin, I still have a beer goggles game
to get to here in our NFL six pack, when
I put my beer goggles on, I see two teams
at the bottom of the gutter in the NFC South
that have a game that is sadder than those that
would watch bum fights because look at you, they were

(01:22:44):
also drinking malt liquor and couldn't turn away.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Carolina Panthers finally have themselves a decent season, and you
want to punch the rest of the division while they're down.

Speaker 4 (01:22:52):
I will punch down gladly. That's what this game is
gonna be. Like Falcons at New Orleans Aints. It's bum fights.
I believe that was actually the thing I didn't watch.
Didn't I would never uh huh. But there's some sickos
out there and some alcoholics that might find those videos entertaining.

(01:23:13):
So with my beer goggles on, I see the same
thing here with Breeze Saints hosting the Falcons. I could
see these two teams fighting hard though, since the Saints
last game was a win over the Panthers and they
feel good about themselves, and while the Falcons feel awful
since they've lost five in a row and the young
QB that they wanted to get more data on with Pennix. Well,

(01:23:36):
he's out the rest of the season.

Speaker 3 (01:23:37):
Take that for data.

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
Yeah, they also don't have a first round pick.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
But he tears acl for like the third time in
five years or something.

Speaker 4 (01:23:44):
Partial tear.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
I mean, okay, guy's barely walking as it is. I mean,
my god.

Speaker 4 (01:23:53):
Remember, they don't have a first round pick because they
traded with the Rams to get defender James Years, who's
also been hurt, but they thought he would put them
in a position the Falcons to make the playoffs this year.
But since they don't have that first round pick, that
also means they might as well try to win right
now and be competitive in this game against the Saints.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Oh, you can get a higher second round pick, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:24:17):
Yeah, that's true. I would say at this point the
blank in Arthur Blank, owner of the Falcons, should just
be basically filled in with yeah, f me, Arthur, f me.
I'm never gonna see the Falcons win. The Super Bowl.
Twenty eight to three was the.

Speaker 3 (01:24:37):
End of everything that's hard to come back from.

Speaker 4 (01:24:40):
You got two cursed teams here playing for nothing, but
with beer goggles on. It's like a beer goggles super
Bowl type of game. Oh, it's a car wreck, it's
bum fights, It's Saints Falcons. Baby, I'm in.

Speaker 3 (01:24:54):
Yeah, I think I'm out on that one, Adam. To
be honest with you for real, Yeah, you don't do
a whole lot for.

Speaker 4 (01:24:58):
Me, all right? What's up next here?

Speaker 10 (01:25:02):
Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh try, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
Yes, our old Troy potential the player coach a team
with epic failed potential this coming weekend, believe it or not, Adam,
I'm going with the Bears at home against the Steelers.
I know few people have championed the turnaround of Caleb
Williams more than I have.

Speaker 3 (01:25:38):
This season.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
I thought it was way too soon for people to
jump off of the bandwagon of a guy who some
scouts said could be a generational talent when he came
out of college. He's played better well you know, I
mean you saw the physical talent trophy carried that team
where they didn't have a whole lot at USC.

Speaker 4 (01:25:55):
They just reel it in, play it safe a little
bit more, and not take some any risks, which which
he's done.

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
And look, you look up on the Bears for seven
to three.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
You know you want to argue that they haven't beaten
anyone with the winning record these season, fair, but that
schedule is out of their control. You play who's in
front of you, and whatever of the cliche you want
to throw in there.

Speaker 3 (01:26:13):
If you can tear down and rebuild an.

Speaker 2 (01:26:14):
Entire offensive philosophy while going through growing pains while also
winning games, I think that's a great scenario for Ben
Johnson play to win the gate. That's right, Herm, You
absolutely do. And they've been doing a lot of winning
so far this year, so there's no better way for
Caleb to go through his lumps while playing in meaningful
games in November and December, and Sunday's game against Pittsburgh

(01:26:34):
is about as meaningful as it's going to get Steelers
in a similar position where they're fighting for their playoff
lives and they can feel the hot breath of the
Baltimore Ravens breathing down their necks in the AFC North.
We talked about this earlier in the season with the
Steelers about how befuddling it was that their defense had
performed so poorly.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
I mean, especially considering they didn't have any major injuries.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
All their horses were there, they just weren't performing for
whatever particular reason. Now fast forward over the past couple
of weeks, and even if the numbers don't necessarily show it,
their defense is actually playing a lot better. And if anything,
the offense has just been so inept it's placed the
defense and some really bad situations.

Speaker 4 (01:27:12):
Oh come on, Aaron Rodgers has a broken wrist. Oh wait,
that's how I was throwing hand. It just happened last
It just.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
Happened last week. What happened to the previous two months.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
All that being said, I do think this weekend could
end up being an epic fail for Chicago, even being
at home against Pittsburgh. Even when the Steelers were struggling
on defense earlier in the year, when they did win
games and when they did play well, it was because
they were able to force turnovers. Yes, Caleb has cut
down on his turnovers and SaaS considerably this year, but
we talked about it all the time. Improvement for young

(01:27:41):
players is almost never linear, So in this situation, with
a desperate Steeler team with potentially a backup quarterback with
fairly low expectations against an improving Bear squad, I can
absolutely see Pittsburgh not only coming away with the victory
but actually a fairly convincing one here against the Bears.

Speaker 4 (01:27:57):
Wow, I wonder if that's for shadowing for two on
two off ay too. All right, my olde Troy epic fail.
We talked about it earlier. I don't get it. The
Bengals are three and seven. What is the point of
Joe Burrow playing like they could win their next seven
games and that would probably get them the division? Is

(01:28:17):
that likely?

Speaker 5 (01:28:19):
Hell?

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
No, they likely end up seven to ten at best.
Joe Burrow is not playing defense. He could keep their
offense on the field more, which I guess could help
the defense, but or he scores too fast. All I
see is a lost season for an injury prone quarterback
behind a mediocre line and a bad defense that has
epic fail potential. Here he gets hurt again in a

(01:28:41):
lost year where you weren't making the playoffs? Like, what
are we doing? He might be the best QB in
the league. Honestly, I'm not risking that. I'm not if
I'm Jamar Chase, I'm saying the reason I spit on
Jalen Ramsey is because it was actually a natural spit
take reaction to hearing the news that Joe Burrow could

(01:29:01):
be coming back, Like why I say pack it in.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
Well, I'm sure Chase probably wants Burrow back, he wants
to hit his incentives.

Speaker 4 (01:29:08):
You no, he ain't back this week. He suspended as
he should be. Oh yeah, that was ridiculous pulling a
Bill Romanowski like that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
No, I don't blame Jalen Ramsey one bit.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
I find suspensions all that stuff you do that that's
next level.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
Here's the other reason I want to see what Zach
Taylor can do. He looks like a Joe Burrow merchant.
I put him on the hot seat like a month ago.
You did, I remember that because he got nothing out
of Jake Browning, and that's what he's supposed to be
good at here. But they're kind of like the Denver
Nuggets with Jokic. You know why Mike Malone got fired

(01:29:43):
because when Jokis was off the court, they were the
worst team in the league. You look at the numbers,
it never changed. Same with their GM and Calvin Booth
getting fired. They both were getting by because of one
player carrying them, and without that player, they got exposed.
So I'd say, let's keep evaluating how things look without
Joe Burrow and who's actually pulling their weight and who's not.

(01:30:06):
So he's not out there covering up for Zach Taylor's mistakes.
He could be on the hot seat. He has a
lot to prove. He made his way to being a
head coach by supposedly being a QB whisperer type. He
got the I guess. I don't want to say the
best out of Jared Goff. He got more out of him,
but more than Jeff Fisher did. That's not saying a lot.

(01:30:27):
And at this point you got to say Jared Goff
is just good. It doesn't matter who's there, who's coaching him.
He's a good player. He's not a system guy. I
don't think he's solid regardless.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
Yeah, I mean, they definitely built the system around his
skill set for him to thrive in. I don't know
if he's like scheme diverse. Well, he plays extremely well
in the situation that he's in.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
I just don't get how Zach Taylor gets a pass
for not getting more out of Jake Browning, who looked
okay a couple of years ago, and then he has
to go get Joe Flacco, who's a finished product. He
doesn't have to coach him up at all. What is
he doing exactly out there? Why not bring in a
more defensive minded coach fix the defense because I'm pretty

(01:31:06):
sure Joe Burrow's got things taken care of on the
offensive side.

Speaker 2 (01:31:09):
So this is the difficult part for me. Talking about Cincinnatis.
That kind of put them in the Miami category where
I feel like it's less coaching and more personnel based,
especially defensively. They went to the Super Bowl in twenty
twenty one. Their defense was excellent, their offense was very good,
and people thought that Zach Taylor was.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
A rising star at the head coaching. At the head
coaching position.

Speaker 2 (01:31:29):
It's just really hard, Like I mean, look, people think
that there's issues in Minnesota, like they have one of
the best coaches in the NFL, and JJ McCarthy's underperforming
and people are talking about him potentially being on the
hot seat, which I think is totally ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
Kevin O'Connell, I think is one of the best coaches, yeah,
in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
So just because it doesn't work out with a certain
it might not necessarily be the coach.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
Baby j Brown just ain't that good.

Speaker 4 (01:31:50):
So I just don't know what he's doing. Because they
look like a fraction of themselves without Burrow.

Speaker 2 (01:31:57):
Yeah, I don't know how much he can do. When
you have that, the entire team, especially the offense, is
built around that guy, and your defense is so horrible.
This reminds me of Tom Moore, the longtime assistant who
I think is still around as an assistant for somebody.
He's like ninety years old, still consulting for a team
at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:32:13):
More Tom Moore, he was.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
Peyton Manning's offensive coordinator for all those years with the Colts. Yeah,
and it goes back to our conversation earlier in the
show about backup quarterbacks and how many reps they get.
And someone asked Tom More, like, how come you're backup
quarter but why does Peyton Manning take one hundred and
two percent of the reps every single week? He says,
because if Peyton Manning gets hurt were ft, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (01:32:32):
So what was the record the one year he did
get hurt?

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
There were one in fifteen final I think there were
one in fifteen or something like that. He wasn't It
was like it does so our backup quarterback, it does
not matter how many reps he gets. Peyton Manning is
our offense Joe Burrow is their offense.

Speaker 3 (01:32:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
Is that a function of Zach Taylor and what he
is or isn't doing, or is that just the limitations
of what he has to work with for that organization,
knowing how they pinch pennies and really scamp on the roster.

Speaker 4 (01:32:58):
I just monitoring. I think it's a worry, guys. I'm
on it. I'm monitoring this situation.

Speaker 3 (01:33:05):
It's a fair criticism. He's the guy at the helm.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
I think you also say that the Bengals, and this
is part of them being i'll say frugal to be nice,
they get very long leashes to their coaches because they
do not want to pay guys not to be there
se Marvin Lewis, and Marvin Lewis never sniffed a Super
Bowl he didn't want a playoff game.

Speaker 4 (01:33:23):
Because of their owner issue. It is hard to figure
out exactly where the issue is.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
Sometimes, yea winning at being a head coach for an
organization like that is extremely difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
Your hands are tied to a certain degree.

Speaker 4 (01:33:36):
What's up next?

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Mark under the microscope?

Speaker 3 (01:33:40):
All right, game, team player. Everyone should watch closely this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:33:44):
I'm going with those Dallas Cowboys at home against the
Philadelphia Eagles. It would not be a six pack without
the inclusion of the Dallas Cowboys. I mean, we're talking headshows,
so we have to do this right now. Last week
I had them in my redemption around. I said they
had to lay the woods to the Raiders, and thankfully
for them.

Speaker 4 (01:34:00):
They did.

Speaker 3 (01:34:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
Now, which, by the way, can I go back to
the beginning of that game and that soft as suspension
or whatever you want to call it for Ceedee Lamb
oh and George Pickens, Yeah, please do so. For the
entirety of the week, we had no idea exactly what
they did. All we know is there were benched for
a series for disciplinary reasons. Ceedee Lamb comes out on
Thursday and says they were having dinner at a hotel

(01:34:24):
casino and they lost track of time.

Speaker 3 (01:34:28):
Believe that if you want. I don't know. Only they
and God know that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:32):
But I do know they mis curfew and that is
the reason why they were suspended for the first series.
But my question is if it's only for the first
series for who for what? To quote the great Ricky Waters, like,
what does that really do for anybody? You either find them,
you suspend them for the entire game. First of all,

(01:34:53):
I understand why you wouldn't suspend them for the entire game,
because you want to win. And that's why we always
talk about juggling star plays and rank and file. There's
always gonna be a little bit of a difference there.

Speaker 4 (01:35:03):
Yeah, but more talent you have, the more you can
get away with.

Speaker 3 (01:35:06):
Yeah, they know they need Pickings and Lamb to win games.

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
Although you can argue whether or not they actually needed
them to beat the Raiders or not.

Speaker 3 (01:35:11):
And Pickings certainly had a huge game.

Speaker 4 (01:35:13):
I won't argue with that, Kevin, they didn't need them.

Speaker 3 (01:35:16):
Yeah, Like we know, the rules are different for star players.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
I remember a few years ago when Aaron Donald, remember
he swung his helmet at a Bengals player doing a
joint workout. It was a joint practice at the end
of the preseason between the Bengals and the Rams, and
the Rams didn't do anything about it. Now, this was
not a game, so it was a practice, so the
team had to basically levy any sort of punishment, and
it sounds like they didn't levy any sort of punishment

(01:35:40):
in that situation.

Speaker 4 (01:35:41):
I wouldn't want to punish a man of that size
either well, look, you talk about we're nice.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
Yeah, exactly, if that was Aaron Johnson, a backup defensive end,
the Rams are fining and suspending him for a game.
Teams always talk real tough about having the right culture
and setting an example when it is the rank and
file play who runs a follow of the rules, but
it almost never happens when it's a star player who
gets suspended for conduct detrimental. I understand why it's that way.

(01:36:08):
I'm just telling you that I don't agree with it.
So if what CD and Pickins did was that minor,
then they shouldn't have been disciplined at all, or just
find him or something, or make them sing a song
in front of the teams something like that. But suspending
it for one series does nothing for nobody. It just
shines to spotlight on favoritism, is the way that I
look at it for star players. Anyway, I digress. It's

(01:36:31):
not the Raiders this week. For all the criticism the
Eagles have gotten this year for their inconsistent play and
Jalen Hurts being questioned for not being aggressive enough in
the passing game, aj Brown complaining about his touches, or
like thereof Eagles are eight and two.

Speaker 3 (01:36:43):
And their defense looks spectacular.

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
You talked about them trading for Jalen Phillips and how
big of an impact that would make. He has paid
immediate dividends for the Philadelphia Eagles to this point. So
they also held the Packers and Lions to ten and
nine points and back to back weeks, doing something pretty
special there. So this is a huge litmus test game
for DAB. They're not gonna catch Philadelphia in the division,
but they are still very much alive in the wildcart

(01:37:05):
race in the NFC. If they can get themselves a
victory against Philadelphia at home, I think it's a big
confidence boost for them. Say, if we can beat them,
we can beat anybody.

Speaker 3 (01:37:14):
Yeah, why not us?

Speaker 4 (01:37:16):
If they fixed our defense. Our offense has been here
all along.

Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
Quinn Williams looked great last week. Again it was the Raiders,
so take that with a grain of salt. But right
now Dallas Cowboys one game behind the forty nine Ers
in the lost column for the seventh seed in the NFC,
so all is not necessarily lost. If you're a Cowboy fan,
this is a huge matchup this weekend. I'm placing them
under the microscope against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 4 (01:37:37):
All right, my under the microscope. You know, sometimes it
can be a precursor to being on the hot seat
heat check, heat check in the NFL six pack. If
you're under the microscope, that's where it starts. And that's
why I have Mike Tomlin here. I'm putting him under
the microscope because why, well, what has he been doing
keeping Darnell Washington a secret for so long?

Speaker 3 (01:38:00):
Little big secret to keep.

Speaker 4 (01:38:02):
When we finally saw him fully unleashed. They're six seven,
three hundred and eleven pound tight end. Last week against
the Bengals, it looked like they snuck a full grown
man into a peewee football game. Like what did like
those Bengals get defenders? What he did to them on
that thirty one yard play. That should be a play

(01:38:24):
that's sent directly to Canton or something like that, like
straight to the Hall of Fame. That was the dream
of refrigerator Perry or who was it Lorenzen? Who was
the big.

Speaker 2 (01:38:35):
Quarterback joins Jared Lorenzen the round mound of Touchdownskentucky quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:38:40):
Yes, this is exactly what it's supposed to look like
when a big man is on offense with the ball
in his hands. That was a massacre Darnell Washington. It
was like Uma Thurman and kill Bill. He's also wearing
yellow and black and like Uma Thurman in the fight
scene The Bride against the Crazy eighty eight. Darnell after

(01:39:01):
that catch and run must have been like, all of
you that still have your lives, may leave, but leave
the limbs lost their mind now. Saying you have a
Darnell Washington is like when John Hammond said we have
a t Rex or Tony Stark goes we have a hulk.

(01:39:21):
Like the Steelers have a Darnell Washington and Mike Tomlin
barely even uses him, that is coaching malpractice. And if
Darnell Washington is not targeted at least thirty five times
against Chicago thirty five times at least, I don't care
how many years they've had a winning record with Mike Tomlin,
he's got to go. If he's not gonna feed Darnell Washington,

(01:39:43):
feed him to Darnell Washington, that man is a beast.
Feed him.

Speaker 2 (01:39:50):
By the way, I did see that the Bears are
gonna be down their top three linebackers this week, so
good luck to those backup special teams. Guy us trying
to keep up with basically an offensive tackle, rumbling stumbling
from them right in front of you.

Speaker 4 (01:40:01):
That's one of the greatest players I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (01:40:03):
No love whatsoever, trying to tackle that guy. I'll pass.
I'm out.

Speaker 2 (01:40:07):
I'm tapping out on that one. I'm done. We're gonna
tap out on this segment. Come back, finish off the
NFL six back and talk a little bit of college
football as well.

Speaker 3 (01:40:14):
It's FNA on FSR, Fox Football Saturday.

Speaker 7 (01:40:17):
listen live.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
FNA Cotton fn A. They're an echo in here.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
If you missed any of today's show you want to
catch the podcast, just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get your podcasts. Right after the show, today's podcast will
be posted. Be sure to follow the podcast radio five stars,
and you can even provide a review.

Speaker 3 (01:40:51):
Again.

Speaker 2 (01:40:51):
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll find today's full show posted right after we
get off of the air.

Speaker 4 (01:40:58):
NFL six packs still going, final redemption, all right, Kevin
all Right.

Speaker 2 (01:41:03):
Team of a player looking to bounce back from last weekend,
I'm going with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Rams
on Sunday night. I mentioned earlier in the six Pact
that Bill's Bucks game last week was one of the
more entertaining games of the season, high level offense from
both sides pretty much from start to finish, and consider
the fact that Bucks were right in it until the end.
With the Bills, despite having pretty much a mass unit

(01:41:24):
on offense, they've been banged up pretty much from the
start of the season. Chris god went in and out,
they lost Mike Evans early on.

Speaker 4 (01:41:31):
Look out if they ever get healthy, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:41:33):
Adam Bucky Irving practicing all week long, but it sounds
like he could still be out injuries on the offensive line,
and they find a way to just keep on moving. Meanwhile,
you look at the Rams all of a sudden, and
I don't know how many people recognize this. You realize
there are the favorites to win the Super Bowl right now,
and Matthew Stafford has now surpassed the Patriots quarterback for
favorite for MVP, Drake may Nevers. And this coming off

(01:41:57):
of a game where they didn't even play that well
and they found a way to win because Sam Arnold
turned into playoffs. Sam Donland through four interceptions in a
big game against a big opponent I got.

Speaker 3 (01:42:05):
I'm sure you do.

Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
The Rams or any team don't need to apologize for
getting victories, especially tough division wins.

Speaker 4 (01:42:11):
I don't apologized for.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
Well, if you play that game four times, I'm not
so sure Seattle doesn't win three of them.

Speaker 4 (01:42:16):
Well, they got them one more time, So that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:42:20):
Now you have quality opponent who would be even better
if they weren't be set by injuries, coming into SOFI
on National TV on Sunday night and a game they
really need to win, because, as you talked about, Adam,
those Carolina Panthers are right there within one game of
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the NFC South right now,
see Carolina team that they end up they will end

(01:42:41):
up playing twice in a three week span at the
end of the season. So the Buccaneers, similar to the Steelers,
like I talked about earlier, essentially in playoff mode right now,
they should view this as a must win, not only
as yet another litmus test for where they stand against
good teams, but really for their postseason survival. So I
think it's a redemption game for Tampa Bay going into

(01:43:01):
so FI against a really good Rams team, and I
think Tampa really has a great chance of pulling out
this win. I think they can get pressure on Matthew Stafford.
I think they can. You know, Baker Mayfield has a
lot of dog in them, former Ram could have some
motivation going in there against against his former team that
came in and beat the Raiders after being with the
Rams for a day and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:43:20):
I'll never forget that start.

Speaker 2 (01:43:22):
Yeah, no, no, trust me, I won't etched into my memory.
I think that the Buccaneers come out with a big
effort and at worst cover that six and a half
point spread.

Speaker 4 (01:43:31):
Oh interesting, okay, my redemption rounds. You mentioned them. You know,
some angry Seattle Seahawks fan must have chucked one of
those plastic rings for a six pack of beer into
the ocean and unfortunately they're Seahawk Quarterback Sam Donald choked
on it. It was a big game against the Rams

(01:43:51):
again for him, and Donald looked just as bad as
he did at the end of last season in that
playoff game for the Vikings. Against the Rams. If he
looked worthless, he wins for them. In the playoffs against the.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
Rams, shook worthless like damn. That cuts to the.

Speaker 4 (01:44:07):
Core strong words. Did you see that game?

Speaker 3 (01:44:10):
I did?

Speaker 4 (01:44:12):
If he had won that game in the playoffs against
the Rams, he'd still be in Minnesota, Whitney. They can't
let him go. JJ McCarthy be damned.

Speaker 3 (01:44:21):
By the way.

Speaker 2 (01:44:22):
Just based on how this season has played out for Minnesota,
they probably still would rather have Sam Donalds in there.

Speaker 4 (01:44:27):
You're not lying, but last week looked pretty similar in
just a regular season game against the Rams for him.
But to be fair to Donald, you know, he went
from the basically the Rose Bowl game against Penn State
to that wild card game last year against the Rams
without playing any significant football games. That's eight years. He

(01:44:49):
needs more big game reps. I'm not giving up on
him yet, And while I wouldn't call this week's game
in Tennessee a big game, it does call for a
big response from Sam donald. He's got to go right
back to looking like one of the best quarterbacks in
the league like he had been all this season till
last Sunday. They should actually change the Titans name to

(01:45:09):
the Redeemers, because if you need some redemption or get
right game, they'll give it to you. Sam Darnold, he's
gonna redeem himself on Sunday, or at least he better.

Speaker 3 (01:45:18):
He better.

Speaker 2 (01:45:19):
Can you imagine they find way to lose to the
Tennessee Titans.

Speaker 4 (01:45:22):
The Titans are due. They're like they're gonna sneak up
and bite somebody before this season is over. They've been
kind of close a few times. Kind of I would
hate to be that team, So I really was somebody
getting fired if that happens.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
So that'll do it for the NFL six pack. We
don't want to get into some college football talk here.
The big story really not on the field as far
as this weekend, as we mentioned, pretty light slate outside
of Oregon and USC which we can get to in
a second. But the big story is the future of
Lane Kiffin, current head coach at Ole Miss ten and one,
likely on their way to the playoff. Although we talked
to Dan Wolkin earlier in the show and he brought

(01:45:58):
up an interesting scenario, you know, similar to what happened
to Florida State when Jordan Travis got hurt a couple
of years ago. And the Committee left them out because
they felt like, well, without your starting quarterback, you're not
going to be competitive, so we're not going to put
you in the playoff. The Committee, in their statement or
their bylaws, have it written in that if there's any
sort of major shake up with a coach or a player,

(01:46:18):
they have their right to exclude a team based on
that factor. So if lane Kiffin were to say, sign
his contract with LSU and peace out to Baton Rouge
after the egg Bowl next week, I don't know if
the committee will do it, but based on their bylaws,
they have the right to leave a potential eleven to
one Ole Miss team out of the college football playoff,
which will be insane to me.

Speaker 4 (01:46:39):
So it's interesting. He met with Vice Chancellor Keith Carter
of ole Miss today and then Keith Carter released a
statement saying the decision will come, we believe after the
egg Bowl. Does that tell you anything about how that

(01:46:59):
meeting or which way Lane Kiffin is leaning, because if
he was coming back to Old Miss.

Speaker 3 (01:47:05):
I think they'd say something right now.

Speaker 4 (01:47:07):
They just had that meeting.

Speaker 2 (01:47:08):
The ultimate Lane Kiffin for as dry and drab as
he is on camera and during the interviews is one
of the most is one of the biggest trolls to
ever find on social media. Yes, so I would not
put it past them, and to get the ad and
the chancellor and all the people that Ole miss involved too.
String this thing out a little bit, I think, really
let him think and sweat about it. Let's go out there,

(01:47:31):
Let's kick Mississippi State's ass during the Egg Bowl, and
right after it, while I'm doing the postgame interview, announce
that I'm signing my contract extension. You know what, I'm
gonna go straight WWE with it. Have them bring the
contract to me while I'm talking to Holly row or
whoever the silent report is going to be, and I'll
sign it right here on the camera, right here on TV.

Speaker 4 (01:47:48):
I think he might go more Leo and Wolf of
Wall Street. Okay, I'm not leaving. I'm not having leaving.
The show goes on. This is my home. I honestly
could see him doing that. I don't think it tells
you much about if he's going to stay or go.
I agree, honestly, he's that guy. I mean that picture
he took after some hot yoga with two attractive women

(01:48:12):
few weeks ago Yeah, was trying to imply something else.
It was like a Johnny sins type picture, like, who
does Lane kiffen? He thinks he's Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 3 (01:48:20):
That's trying to keep himself a shape.

Speaker 7 (01:48:21):
Mad.

Speaker 3 (01:48:21):
I'm just taking a couple of picture with a couple
of his friends.

Speaker 4 (01:48:24):
This is this is what he does. So I don't
I'm not sure either if he leaves. I think, like
Dan Wilkins said, it's gonna be LSU, But I don't
know for sure he's leaving. And I gotta say, just
like when we were talking about Kurt.

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
Kurz Signetti yet Indiana, the same situation.

Speaker 4 (01:48:41):
Yeah, It's like, why not build your own legacy at
a place that, first of all hasn't won eleven games
and sixty years. They win on Friday in the Egg Bowl.
They do that, and you have a chance to win there.
Now you don't have to move anywhere else. Well, you
could be the with Penn State having a job open,

(01:49:03):
You could be the Joe Paterno of ole Miss. You
could be the Steve Spurrier of ole Miss. Why not
do that instead of go somewhere else where you're always
in some other legend shadow that you have to live
up to those standards. Why don't you set a standard
at all?

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
Miss And for me, it's even less about living in
the shadow of a legend and more the expectation level
is just so much higher at a place like Florida.
Whether it should or shouldn't be it is. Look at
all the coaches they've had since urban Meyer left LSU.
Their last three coaches except for Brian Kelly, all won
national championships and all were out of the door a couple.

Speaker 3 (01:49:40):
Of years later.

Speaker 2 (01:49:41):
Like, it's an unbelievably high standard that you're held to
coaching at places like that. And I'm not saying that
you shouldn't be held to high standards and you shouldn't
chase excellence, but with the way that the college football
is set up now, you know, I think part of
the reason why Nick Saban left he didn't want to
deal with the NIL stuff and paying players. But I
also think he saw the writing on the wall. He
knew that other people were gonna pay players. Their NIL

(01:50:01):
is going to be a big deal, the transfer portal
was gonna be a big deal, and he was not
gonna be able to stockpile first round picks for two
years sitting behind guys five stars sitting behind other five
stars before they can get their opportunity.

Speaker 3 (01:50:13):
Guys want to play.

Speaker 2 (01:50:14):
Now, you're not gonna have impact players sitting on a
bench for you anymore. Those guys are gonna be transferring
left and right. So that's why if you look at
the top twenty five standards in the CFP, you see
Texas Tech, who spent a boatload of money because of
a booster at nil. You know, Ole Miss is up
there as a perfect example, Indiana is up there. These
are non traditional football powers that now that the money

(01:50:36):
the floodgates have officially legally been opened, the world is
your oyster, regardless of where you're coaching at. If you're
a good enough head coach and you have enough booster
money behind you, you could be at Alabama or uab.
Uab is obviously not gonna be that sort of standard,
But I'm just saying it to make a point. If
you have a place that's willing to invest the money,
you can win almost anywhere in this in this college

(01:50:57):
football landscape.

Speaker 4 (01:50:58):
That's apparently what he was talking about with their vice
chancellor earlier today. What's the direction of the program, How
committed are you sell me on staying here. It sounds like,
according to Joel Klatt, it's not about the money they
can pay him, the exact amount that LSU is going
to offer or Florida. So it's really about where do

(01:51:21):
you want to live, Where do you want to build
your legacy.

Speaker 2 (01:51:24):
Now, from all the reporting and people have talked about
the fact that he's trying to revive his life. He
doesn't drink anymore. He's mended fences with his ex wife.
They have a cordial relationship now, like they all live
in Oxford. He enjoys it there. The fan base loves him,
he loves the community out there. So Van Rouge obviously
was all foreign. It'll be a brand new experience for him.

(01:51:44):
You have to pick up and move again. If you're
in a place where you're comfortable, that's willing to pay
you as much money as you potentially want. And the
competitive advantage has been severely diminished between teams like Ole
Miss and Alabama, and if you want to extrapolate that
out in Michigan's Ohio States were to a certain degree,
it doesn't really matter if you're in a major conference
and you have a lot of money behind you.

Speaker 3 (01:52:05):
If I were him, I stay at ole Miss.

Speaker 2 (01:52:07):
I would I don't even want to deal with the
extra the added pressure and unrealistic expectations. You know, you
win eleven games one year for LSU, make it to
the playoff, losing the quarterfinal. The next season you lose,
you win nine games, and they want you fired. That's
just how that works.

Speaker 4 (01:52:20):
You're a mercenary if you go there. They've been through
so many coaches that, granted, have won national championships outside
of Brian Kelly and Tom Herman. I guess you could
say he almost went there for a second, uh Texas.
It's saving less miles at Odron. Why follow them? Why
not be the guy that everybody else has to follow

(01:52:43):
in twenty years at ole Miss? Why not just have
your roots there. I don't get it. You can win there,
you don't have to leave anymore, especially because it's a
twelve team playoff. Like, it's not two teams, it's not
four teams, it's twelve teams. They win on Friday, they
are in in. The interesting part is okay, let's say
he is gonna leave, they gonna let him coach in

(01:53:06):
the playoffs. I don't think so, absolutely, of course, not, No,
of course not, because then he could be recruiting his
Old Miss guys to go to his new destination. That's awkward.
So he builds all this up and could have an
eleven win season and be in the playoff and win
a national championship with Old Miss and just leave it
for what an LSU team that he already beat this season.

Speaker 3 (01:53:29):
No, that part wouldn't make it. I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:31):
Yeah, so there's a train of thought that, hey, he'll
coach out as far as he can possibly go and
then eventually, you know, make his decision at that point.
But especially considering where the transfer portal Windo is now
in early January, I mean, by the time you get
to the end of the playoff and if they make
it to a semi final or the final, I mean,
you're basically gonna miss out on the entire transfer portal.
All that's gonna be gone for you. The early recruiting

(01:53:53):
in early December is gonna be gone for you. That's
which is, by the way, the big reason why Old
Miss as a school wanted him to make a decision
early than later, so they can decide what they want
to do with their next head coach. So they don't
lose out on the recruiting cycle and now the transfer
port up up portal cycle.

Speaker 4 (01:54:08):
I hate that the decision has to be made right now,
and it sounds like from reputable reporters there are players
that are already upset with him, and it's saying, hey,
if you want to leave, leave, why are you even
having these conversations like, we're out here trying to win.
We bought in all year long to what you were saying,
and now you're talking about leaving us. Remember Season one

(01:54:28):
or Friday Night Lights coach Eric Taylor is apparently taking
a head coaching job I think at a college. Yes,
he's moving on up and they're in the state title
game and seven Saracen is like, why is everybody always
leaving me?

Speaker 10 (01:54:46):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:54:47):
Because he had issues at home growing up. That was
a powerful scene, but it's like, yeah, look, it's not
the same as it used to be because there is
a trans transfer portal and the kids aren't getting as
screwed is they used to. My coach is always using
places as a stepping stone to go somewhere better.

Speaker 3 (01:55:04):
And it's a playoff bracket.

Speaker 2 (01:55:05):
This is not your all for a month before you
play a BCS game or a bowl game or something
on January first.

Speaker 4 (01:55:10):
But it still smells rotten when you're saying, buy in
all year to what I'm doing here, and we can
win it all, and then they're choosing to leave you. Right,
is that moment is approaching to have a chance to
win it all. It feels dirty, It feels nasty.

Speaker 2 (01:55:28):
It does part of me, A large part of me
certainly hopes that he stays at Ole Miss and LSU
can figure their own stuff out and get somebody else in.

Speaker 4 (01:55:34):
The fold quickly. Yes, my Ducks winning tomorrow right.

Speaker 2 (01:55:37):
Yes, USC has improved, but they still can't stop the run.
They're one of the worst teams in the Big Ten
at stopping the run despite their nine and two record.
So I think that the Oregon Ducks run all over
them in a pick up a victory. I think the
spread is nine and a half. I think some places
even have it at ten. I think that sounds about right.
I can see the Ducks winning by about two touchdowns, and.

Speaker 4 (01:55:56):
Also they need to I don't know if they get
in Like Dan was telling us, they absolutely this is
the playoff games.

Speaker 2 (01:56:02):
There's no ifans or butts about it. Basically, if they
were to lose to USC, they would need a giant
level of dominoes to fall in front of them for
them have a chance to make it into the playoffs.
So this is a playoff game for both the USC
and Oregon. I think the Ducks win it, all.

Speaker 4 (01:56:13):
Right, I'm with you, counting up next? Who's winning? And
two on two off? Or did we tie again for
like the fourth straight week? This is fn A on FSR.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Fitter, Happier, more product
than f and a.

Speaker 4 (01:56:37):
Cotton final segment here on f and A on FSR.
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(01:56:58):
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Speaker 1 (01:57:05):
App mark two on two on.

Speaker 4 (01:57:11):
All Right, Kevin, So, yes, it was the third or
fourth straight week.

Speaker 3 (01:57:16):
I think the fourth straight week.

Speaker 4 (01:57:18):
Yes, a month of us both going two and two.
So I'm currently twenty two and twenty two and you're
twenty five and nineteen.

Speaker 3 (01:57:33):
Sounds about right to me.

Speaker 4 (01:57:34):
What do you want to give me with? I'll say
so two on, two off. If you guys don't know,
we got to gamble not, you know, just give our
picks on two favorites, one two underdogs. So two on
for the favorites.

Speaker 2 (01:57:48):
Kevin, all right, So my first on is the Patriots
seven point favorites over those Cincinnati Bengals. I don't think
it matters who's under center. This the Patriots bone to
five playoff team. I think they're gonna end up winning
the AFC. I think them at least getting a touchdown
victory over the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:58:04):
I think is in order. So what about Burrow? It
doesn't matter. I won't say I could not care less
about him.

Speaker 2 (01:58:11):
I hope he's healthy, and I hope he plays well
if he does play, But I don't think it's gonna
end up mattering.

Speaker 4 (01:58:15):
Do you think the line is assuming yes that, I'm
pretty sure.

Speaker 3 (01:58:21):
This was a double digits to open the week.

Speaker 4 (01:58:23):
Okay, And when.

Speaker 2 (01:58:24):
News came out that Borrow might play. I think it
dropped considerably.

Speaker 4 (01:58:27):
So he's worth three points. Yes, so New England minus seven.
I got the same thing. Okay, you know I love
the Patriots and Drake May and that Bengals defense has
been bad so far. Give me another on with a favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:58:40):
Packers six and a half point favorites over the Minnesota Vikings.
I am not a fan of what I've been seeing
with JJ McCarthy these last couple of weeks. He can
talk about being mentally locked in and getting in his
breathing space or whatever stuff he was talking about this week.
Packers I think are pretty desperate at this point in time.
I know they're still in the postseason. They're probably gonna
make the playoffs, but they have not really impressed these
last few weeks. I think they get a convincing victory

(01:59:02):
over the Minnesota Vikings this weekend and show that they
are the Super Bowl contender that Adam believes that they are.

Speaker 4 (01:59:08):
Used to believe, well, at least hopes that they are. Yeah,
they're letting me down a little bit. I'm gonna go
Detroit minus thirteen against the New York Giants. I just
feel like that Detroit Lions offense. They are ready to
explode after what happened last week with all those fourth
downs that they missed. They got to improve. They're back
at home. It's a big number, but I got Detroit

(01:59:31):
minus thirteen. Give me a couple offs. Give me your underdogs.

Speaker 2 (01:59:34):
Sure definitely want to see how they adjustin not having
Sam Laporta in for the rest of the season. I'm
going with those Pittsburgh Steelers. I talked about it in
the six pack. Two and a half point underdogs against
the Chicago Bears. I think they end up covering that spread.
I think it's a big performance by that Steeler defense
against Caleb Williams. So I got the Steelers as two
and a half point dogs as my first off.

Speaker 4 (01:59:54):
I will go with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers plus seven.

Speaker 3 (02:00:00):
Oh, you got seven on this, okay? I had six
and a half.

Speaker 4 (02:00:03):
Take it on the Rams. Tampa Bay also needs a
big response SUD and some good health. I don't know
if that's gonna happen, but tleas cover, I don't know
if they're gonna win. I like Tampa Bay plus seven.

Speaker 2 (02:00:17):
Okay, Well, if you're giving me the hook, I had
the Tampa Bay plus six and a half. But if
you're gonna give me the hook here, we'll surpass it
and go seven of worse for me. So I also
like Tampa Bay. I talked about this excuse me in
the six pack. They're a resilient team despite the fact
that they've been as banged up to your point, heaven forbid,
they actually do get eighty percent healthy. How dangerous they

(02:00:38):
can potentially be in the playoff situation. I think going
on the road at Sofi Stadium is a huge stage
for them to show that they are still a legitimate
playoff contender, despite the fact that they've been one of
the more banged up teams in the entire league pretty
much since Week one of the season. So I love
Tampa Bay getting seven points against the Rams at so
Far on Sunday night.

Speaker 4 (02:00:57):
I don't know if I'm chasing here. I might be
at this point because Carolina has burned me both times,
and I'll take them so far this season. We'll pick
the home team, Adam, I can't help myself. They're not
they're not at home.

Speaker 3 (02:01:09):
Well, your home team, your favorite team, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 4 (02:01:13):
Look, I told myself earlier in the trap game Tap
not to buy in the Panthers are six and five.
They're taking on an old rival in the San Francisco
forty nine ers from the old NFC West days, and
they're getting seven points here Kevin seven points to Bryce
Young in my Panthers plus seven. I gotta take them

(02:01:35):
on the road. You have to in SF. It'll give
me another reason to watch that ball game.

Speaker 3 (02:01:40):
You don't need another reason.

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
You have it, you, Jerylina Panthers or a potential playoff
team and they're playing on Monday night football.

Speaker 3 (02:01:46):
Come on, all right?

Speaker 4 (02:01:46):
Fine in Cleveland plus three and a half on the road.

Speaker 3 (02:01:49):
Projecting Il coming up next here on Fox Sports Radio.

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