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Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about the Spurs demolishing the Wolves to earn a chance at the Thunder, the Pistons forcing a Game 7 against the Cavaliers, thoughts on the NFL schedule, which of the “big boys” could pull through at the PGA Championship, and more! Plus – Parlay Platter, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Fox Sports Countdown. We're setting you up for
their sports weekend and covering all the action from the stadiums.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
To the arenas. This is this.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Is Fox Sports Countdown, Rot tomg Maked Legendary. The Countdown
starts nine to live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
Here's Brian no, Rich Hornberger and Jared Smith.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Oh what is going on? Welcome in here, Happy Saturday,
as we are all blown into the NBA playoffs. Ball
on the brain as well, NFL schedule release. Lots of
takeaways as far as that goes. Good morning, Rich, Good
morning Jared.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Hope.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
All is well, I know all is well. And Spurs
land right over there as they crushed the Tea Wolves
by thirty points. Give them the People's elbow. I think
they gave him every pro wrestling finishing move. At the
same time, I think they spared them. I think they
gave them the figure four leg everything, and they did everything,
did the tombstone pile driver. What a beatdown last night

(01:11):
by thirty points.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Good lord.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
Yeah, you know what's amazing When you see a team
completely dominate, you think to yourself, phll geez, like like
that's it, Like they figured it out. They put it
all together. But that's so fast because you know it's
what's waiting on the other side of that domination that
that's really going to be the curiosity of this NBA season.

(01:35):
I think, do the Spurs have what it takes for
the thunderneckt But my goodness, that was I mean, we've
seen some blowouts now in this NBA postseason and and
I thought we had already seen our worst a couple
of weeks ago. Well, that was probably about the worst

(01:55):
one you could possibly have seen.

Speaker 6 (02:00):
Yeah, it kind of looked like when that's what happens
when you let go of the rope in the NBA,
And I think that it's it's kind of like when
reality sets in.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
And I think, well, first of all.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
There was a I don't want to say controversy, but
it was a little weird last night with Anthony Edwards,
Like in the third quarter, it was like eight minutes
left in the fourth quarter, there was a lot of
time left in the game, going over and tapping up
the Spurs bench like, hey, congrats on the win. It's
still eight minutes left in the game. And I think
he knew that the game was over, but I just
didn't love the optics of that for a team leader,

(02:31):
you know, a floor general who still you know obviously
is not playing in the game anymore. They pulled him,
but all of his teammates that are still playing, that
were rooting him on throughout the course of the season,
now they get a chance to play. I just I
thought it was a bad look, weird look. But you
credit the Spurs. I mean, they dominated the game. They
were a plus thirty one on the glass, like they
just they just did not want anything to do with

(02:53):
the game seven. Reverse mentality for the Cleveland Cavaliers, like
it just it And again that's what happens when you
let go of the rope, where Cleveland just kind of
it wasn't there night.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
And you saw what happens when a team believes that
it's not their night, like it.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
Just it's snowballs and spirals out of control violently. But
San Antonio, okay, see, I mean that those have been
the two best teams in the league all year, right,
I know the East has kind of been up and down,
and we don't know how good the Pistons really are.
I mean, okay, see in San Antonio, you know those
are those are that's the filet mignon on the menu
for sure.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well, there's no doubt. But man, it's so interesting how
a series goes where you know, for a while you're
looking at it and you're like, hey man, you know
the te Wolves they stole game one, they got to
split on the road. Even though Wenby got ejected in
game four, You're like, oh, hey man, you know it's
the best of three series over here in Minnesota. They're

(03:51):
showing some heart, you know, And then it's just like,
all right, pivotal Game five series is tied to to
Spurs one by twenty nine. I think last night you
just like you just remember the last thing you saw.
But Game five they won by twenty nine. Last night
they won by thirty. You know, like these series, when
it gets done, we always talked about like winning time,

(04:12):
remember the Reggie Miller versus the Knicks thing, the winning time,
that whole thing. But when it's the fourth quarter, when
it's like Pivotal Game five, when we're getting into like
the later games of a series, then you see which
team is really you know, bouty bout it, and it
was the Spurs. Man when you went back to back
games by twenty nine, and thirty. You're so far ahead

(04:34):
of your competition it's not even funny. And I take
my hat off to Ann Edwards on two. You know,
Gimpy Knees, the guy was a gamer. He was just
incredibly inefficient last night. You can't have your star only
score twenty four points on twenty six shots. It's very inefficient.
And you just got nothing from Orange Julius man Julius

(04:55):
Randall was on a milk cart and last night three
points on one of eight shooting. You just can't have
that man, Rudy Gobert scoreless. You don't need his scoring.
Three rebounds, three rebounds for Rudy Gobert, and he played
twenty two minutes limited action, but just not nearly enough.
And there was no resistance whatsoever. The Spurs got everything

(05:16):
they wanted. You should have known from the beginning. When
Rudy go Bear's playing drop coverage, Rudy go Bear's like
in the paint, like doing his best to try to
throw off Stefan Castle from three, and Steph Castle's like,
all right, if he's to give this to me, I'll
just start raining threes. He's not known as a three
point shooter. He had five of them five threes for

(05:36):
Castle last night. It was just an epic beat down
twenty to nothing run for the Spurs in the second
quarter to start this unbelievable Man, there were so many
unbelievable things last night, but the Spurs moving on in
epic fashion. And I can't wait for this Western Conference
Finals matchup. We have gotten the matchup that we all

(05:56):
wanted and it is go time starting Monday. Baby, wait
for that.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
I agree with a lot of what you said about
how the game went Spurs. I would say, well, really,
if Minnesota's wemby plan was set on fire by the Spurs,
and it really had a lot to do with the
way Castle played. The Wolves clearly have been and wanted
to continue to tilt coverage toward Victor webbin Yama, but

(06:25):
san Antonio was able to punish him because Castle Castle
put up thirty two points. It's like, what can you
do when a team with that scary of a weapon
has an ancillary character who has the answers when you
try to shut down their star. And then Minnesota didn't

(06:46):
just lose, they kind of ran out of answers. The
Wolves got outscored by fifty nine combined points in games
five and six. They didn't win a quarter after Game four.
They didn't win a quarter after Game four. So it
just goes to show you, like the dominance of the
San Antonio Spurs in this series was so overwhelming for

(07:08):
Minnesota that as this series continued on, like once san
Antonio really got to feel them and understand them and
see the way this series was progressing, they got stronger,
the Wolves got worse, or a combination of both.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
I do believe it was a combination of both.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
So yeah, now we head to the Western matchup that
we've been waiting for. Okay See and Spurs, and this
should be a fun one.

Speaker 6 (07:38):
How good is is san Antonio? Are they okay See
good or are they just better than Minnesota?

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think that's the question that I have.

Speaker 6 (07:45):
I Mean, they beat him during the regular season, so yeah,
I guess it's fair to say that they can compete
in this series. Everybody thinks they're a year away, except
probably those guys in the room. I will say this Castle,
who you're not known for his three point shooting, not
something that was the strength of his coming out of Yukon.
But we've seen guys develop that shot. I mean, he's

(08:07):
still a professional basketball player. We have seen guys develop
that shot. And if he does develop that shot and
he becomes a guy who can give you a couple
of threes a night, like that's kind of the only
missing piece that san Antonio has is like that knockdown
three point shooter who's also kind of a star guard.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
I mean, man like.

Speaker 6 (08:29):
That makes that makes san Antonio that much more dangerous
if he can give you that kind of out, if
he can give you thirty and still have wemby doing
his thing.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
I mean, it is a very.

Speaker 6 (08:40):
Interesting construction for the way the Spurs have kind of
figured this thing out. You know a lot of times
they say, especially in the NBA right now, you want
to be outside in guard heavy. You know that the
Spurs started in the middle and they kind of worked
their way out, and it's worked.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
It really has. I'm excited.

Speaker 6 (08:58):
I have not been this sided for a Western Conference
series in a long time, in a really long time,
because I think we really do have two elite teams
going at it. I mean, this is these are the
two best teams in the sport all year, and we're
getting them at their peak. Oklahoma City's just run through
the play I mean they hot knife through butter. You

(09:20):
forget how good they were because they haven't played.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
In a while. But this is going to be an
awesome series between those two.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Oh, it absolutely will. And it was a great stat
on Sports Center last night. So both the Spurs and
the OKC Thunder they won at least seventy five percent
of their games in the regular season. And so the
last time we've had a playoff series between two teams
that won at least seventy five percent of their regular

(09:47):
season games. You gotta go all the way back to
the nineteen ninety eight NBA Finals between the Bowls and
the Jazz Thats the last Dance Bowls. That was Jordan
hitting the game winner on Brian Russ in Game six.
That was the last time we had two teams in
the playoffs that want at least seventy five percent of
their regular season games. And that's what we have with

(10:09):
the Spurs and Thunder. That's tremendous. That is top shelf
type matchup stuff. And I will say, if I could
belly ate to begin this show on a Saturday, I
saw this little blurb where Amazon Prime Video. I'll try
to withhold my negative comments for that great presentation. But
it's just a pain in the BOUTOI to get to

(10:32):
at Prime Video to watch any of these NBA games
just brutal.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
I hate it.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
I hate putting anything streaming on my TV set. I know,
I sound like a fossil. I don't care. I want
to flip around. I want to have the option. I
don't have the option with Prime Video. I don't know that.
But they Prime Video announced that they're going to reveal
this season's MVP Award during the pregame show tomorrow before
you know, Calves and Pistons get it out in game seven.

(10:57):
What is the NBA doing? Why wouldn't you wait until
Monday and and do it live. We'll do it live
with SGA in front of the crowd right before the
Western Conference finals. Make yeah, a little shot of whim
Bin Yama just kind of like, okay, right.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
Like the Academy Awards right before the show and they're
showing both guys.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
On the screen.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Ah yeah, exactly, just a little little Actually is a
good idea.

Speaker 6 (11:24):
It's rare that you get both guys playing I guess
that are competing, you know, in the same game.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
That is a very rare situation. I would.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
And you're gonna announce it on Prime Video before Game seven?

Speaker 2 (11:33):
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (11:34):
That's such a missed opportunity.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
That's terrible.

Speaker 5 (11:38):
Yeah, yeah, the streamers, you know what it's it's really interesting.
It's like there's going to be changes that are gonna stick.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
There's gonna be changes that don't.

Speaker 5 (11:49):
I mean, one thing that will stick, like we know
is there's going to be more and more games streamed.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
And that's just the world we live in. So I
agree with you.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
I think it's kind of annoying that instead of being
on like and and this wasn't long ago, so I
don't think you sound like a fossil. And I think
even there's some young people, you know, a generation or
two below us who have similar complaints who are sports fans.
It's it's it's too many different platforms that you have
to try to remember to keep your subscription updated for

(12:24):
and and it's hard to remember which one. It's like
sometimes you know, I either I'm forgetting what day it is,
or I'm forgetting what which which streamer carries the football
game or the basketball game I'm looking for, or the
baseball game I'm looking for whether it's you know, for baseball,
it's Apple TV or this or it's it's nuts. But

(12:47):
getting back to what you're saying, I also think like
they're taking some big swings with production, and I think
some some of that's gonna go away as well.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
Now looking forward to this.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
Okay, see san Antonio, I agree with what you said.
I think this is I think it was you, Jared,
I this is this is what we've all been waiting for,
and I'm really excited. Okay, see, just a just a note.
They're unbeaten in the playoffs at eight No, all right,
they became the eleventh team in NBA history to start

(13:18):
a playoff run that way. The machine that they've built
here is built on pressure, SGA attacking down hill, guards,
forcing rush decisions, waves of bodies at you, making you
play faster than you wanna.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
San Antonio is not a normal young team the Spurs.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
They've they've got ween Minyama and and and it's it's
not it's not like any other player you're going to
face this postseason or in the NBA. He's enormous. He's
got handles, he's got court vision. Obviously, he has a
perimeter a shot. San Antonio has the best defensive rating

(14:03):
among the teams that are remaining, so this is going
to be inarguably the hardest defense you're going to face
if you're okay. See, like, this truly is the matchup
that you've been waiting for. And I didn't even really
spend enough time talking about the Spurs offensively because, like
we were just talking about this demolishment of the Tea Wolves,

(14:24):
They've now got other players who are stepping up into
big roles and filling big shoes. When wem beIN Yama
gets quote unquote shut down or they limit the damage
on wem Binyama, you can have a castle raise up
and have a thirty plus night, So good luck. You know,
the Spurs are a tough test if we want to
look at them that way. They're the tallest speed bump

(14:47):
that OKAC will experience this postseason or dare I say
a contender to win it All this year because of
what they've shown us so far this postseason.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Let's wrap our heads around this. And I, Brian, I
agree with you on this.

Speaker 6 (15:00):
The MVP announcement that that was that is a missed opportunity,
my guess, is though it's been playing like this for
for months and they.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Changed Chase planning on the fly. Come on, what are
you doing here? It's terrible, so bad?

Speaker 4 (15:13):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
I think they are really strong on the Amazon investment.

Speaker 6 (15:17):
And to be fair, I actually think their pregame show
isn't bad. Like I've been watching it because it's like
you have to put it on because you know, you
can't change the channel, so you just have to leave
it on. And I used to work with Taylor Rooks
at S and Y. She's fantastic. And I like the
crew that Dave assembled. I think Dirk and Steve Nash
together are are on are interesting on set. Blake's got,

(15:37):
you know, Blake Griffin's got a little bit, you know,
the pizazz and new Donnas Haslam's like the old Vet.
Like I think it's a really it's a it's a
good it's actually a decent, you know analysis. And I
don't love you know, and heart you know, high level
NBA analysis, but I actually think it it is pretty decent.
But yeah, they definitely missed an opportunity.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Thunder minus two seventy five favorite in the series. Wow
is that heavy to you?

Speaker 6 (16:01):
And to put that in perspective, for example, Nicks Pistons.
Let's assume it's going to be Nick's Pistons. The Knicks
are a minus two twenty favorite to win the East.
So despite the fact that the Knicks don't have home court,
if it is the Pistons, there's still almost the same
level of favorite as the Spurs are to win the West.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
I mean, has a thunder er to win the West?
Does that? Does that strike you as hot as high?
For Okase?

Speaker 3 (16:30):
I mean, not not necessarily, it's a bit high. It's weird.
It's all how you look at it. Because high is
they're like minus two thousand or what, you know the
previous series, so you know, plus minus two seventy five
doesn't sound crazy. But if you look at it just
by itself, I just look at again the Spurs. Give

(16:50):
them credit for getting this far, but they still are
a young, playoff, inexperienced team. And it's what the market's
telling us. Yeah, it's we're not ready for this moment.
The Blaze. It's another thing to get by the t Wolves.
Now you're going up against the defending champion thunder that's
a different test. So I just still believe that playoff
experience matters, and that's what the line is telling you, partially, right,

(17:13):
it's partially telling you that playoff experience matters. And I mean,
I don't I don't have any huge beef. I'm not
itching to bet on the Spurs.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
It would be a little higher, to be honest.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
With you, really, than than minus two seventy five.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
Yeah, I mean, I think based on what we've seen, okay,
see in this postseason.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, but again it's you know, it's suns, Lakers. Spurs
are a much different test with the alien out there
for sure, so should be a first a.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Pretty high favorite a lot in the series. In the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
Yeah, they're like minus a thousand against against the Blazers.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Oh, I think they are heavier than that. Yeah, yeah,
even heavier. All Right, we're often running. We got rich Orenberger,
Penn State All American, Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian.
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(18:06):
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Remember when Jason Kelsey, former center of the Eagles, Remember
when he said hungry dogs run faster. Remember that, Well,

(18:28):
this team proves maybe another saying here, they prove that
wounded dogs fight harder. We'll have that story for you.
Coming up, it's Fox Sports Radios Countdown, presented by BETMGM.

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So as far as wounded dogs run harder or fight harder,
I guess that would be your Detroit Pistons over here

(19:57):
as they beat the Calves by twenty one points. It's
a close out game. There you go, Chris Purfett in
the house right now. It was just itching to hit
that button right there, you know. But the Calves, the
Calves at home could close out the series in game
six and they absolutely get punched in the nose and

(20:20):
don't do anything about it. They just kind of grab
their nose like ah, it kind of hurts Pistons And.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
That was it.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
There's no real fight back, just a disaster for Cleveland.
But you look at this Pistons team.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
Man.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
They were down three to one against Orlando and they
came storming back. They were even down by twenty four
points in Game six on the road, and they claw
back and win that game. And then last night, facing elimination,
they win the game. They don't just win it, they
win by twenty one points on the road. And so
this Pistons team, man, you can say what you want.

(20:56):
Tobias Harris is the incredibly shrinking man right now. Only
six points yesterday. They don't have a consistent number two score.
They have holes, they have flaws, but they are hard
to kill. And these playoffs have proved that much. You
can't take that away from them. For an Orlando team,
for a Cleveland team, they're just one win away. Especially

(21:18):
Orlando up by twenty four and the next thing you know,
they're losing by fourteen. You know, like the Pistons erased
that deficit right away. So if they're able to survive
tomorrow in Game seven, be a really interesting matchup against
the Knicks. But we'll see if the Cavs can do
what nobody else has been able to do and just
put them out of their misery. No one's been able

(21:38):
to do that against Detroit so far.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
Yeah, Detroit, I think what they've found is a non
Caid Cunningham survival formula.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Like Caid, he's still the engine.

Speaker 5 (21:50):
But Game six really mattered because Detroit didn't need him
to be superman. He shot seven for nineteen with seven turnovers.
But the Pistons bench outscored Cleveland's Benz forty eight to nineteen.
And so when you have those role players who are
stepping up and finding a way for you, that shows

(22:12):
grit that very few NBA teams have even in the postseason.
Paul Reachs scored seventeen in sixteen minutes off the bait
off the bench. Jenkins added fifteen, no turnovers, careful with
the basketball, like these.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Are the sort of numbers that you're looking for.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
Also, Cleveland, I mean, now it really it falls on
Mitchell to respond. I mean, Donovan Mitchell going six for
twenty in Game six was his worst shooting night in
the playoffs. So, I mean, there always has to be okay,
one team's definitely found some answers, but then you always

(22:52):
have to shine the spotlight back on the opponent and say,
and what went wrong over here? And the Cavaliers things
went wrong and they need their star to play like
a star.

Speaker 6 (23:05):
Paul Reid's been unbelievable in this series. I and Duncan
Robinson obviously didn't play in the last game. When he
has been on the floor, he's been fantastic Reid. So
I don't even know how to explain it, because it's
one thing, for you know, Mitchell defensively has been a
little bit lax. I know that the Cleveland defense at
times has kind of been a little bit all over

(23:27):
the map. So you'd expect a guy like Duncan Robinson
to get loose.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
And hit some threes.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
I mean, he's got a ton of playoff experience that
that should not come as a surprise.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
But Paul Reid.

Speaker 6 (23:37):
Coming off the bench and dominating the inside, like that's
what Cleveland's supposed to be strong at, Like that was
their strength all year with Alan and Mobley, Like it's
the two bigs on the inside, like nothing passes here.
You want to get us on the outside, go ahead,
make you threes. But for Paul Reid shooting seventy six
percent in the series, off the bench like that is unacceptable. Frankly,

(24:07):
I think there is a certain level of like pride
that you have to take at some point. Minnesota didn't
show it down the stretch, down the stretch. I think
it's hard for teams down the stretch when they know
the end is near to show that pride. Man, Cleveland
just quit like they just they just threw in the
towel in the second half last night. It was it

(24:28):
was tough to watch. I don't know how you recover
from that. But these are pros, you don't. You know,
it's a separate game. You hope that they have a
little bit more fight and more fire in them in
Game seven. But I mean the Piston shot over fifty
percent from the floor. They are not a good offensive team.
Like that is not their strength. You know, Cunningham does
his thing, but this is not an offensive juggernaut. This

(24:51):
is a Pistons team that's super gritty. And I like
what you said, Brian. I tweeted the same thing out
last night. It's the it's the Kirby Smart tweet or
the Kirby Smart quote hard to kill.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
We're hard to kill.

Speaker 6 (25:02):
Yeah, And that is a very good thing to be
in the playoffs. We saw it against Orlando down three
to one, didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
I'll tell you who.

Speaker 6 (25:11):
The biggest winner though last night was was the New
York Knicks. I mean, they've been sitting kicking their feet
up and just watching this seven game series play out
in the East which is turned into a knockdown, drag
out affair.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Super low total.

Speaker 6 (25:24):
For Game seven on Sunday, you know, ten to fifteen
points lower than what we've seen for any game in
the series. Should be a really, you.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Know, slugfest kind of game in Detroit.

Speaker 6 (25:36):
But I would expect after what we saw like that
was the chance for the Cavs to close this thing out.
Couldn't do it. Now, you gotta go back to Detroit.
And I don't like their chances in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Man, a lot of turnovers last night. What a sloppy game,
you know, And I know we kind of forget, we
have amnesia because Detroit won. They won by twenty one points,
so you don't focus on their turnovers as much. But
Detroit had seventeen turnover Cleveland had twenty.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
That's a lot.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
That's a lot for a game. You don't want to
have seventeen to twenty turnovers in a single game. That's
way too much. But the Calves man again, I think quietly,
James Harden again more turnovers than made field goals. It's
the third time this series that's happened. Harden had eight
turnovers and only six made field goals. But because he

(26:26):
made some shots down the stretch, it doesn't stand out
as much, at least not to me. But like you
guys were talking about Spider Mitchell man Donovan Mitchell, who
was unbelievable in what game five or no, it was
game four? I think it was where he went crazy.
He scored thirty nine points in the second half alone,
and there's just a couple of games removed, and he's

(26:46):
six for twenty from the field. He had more shots
than points. That's terrible. It's incredibly inefficient. And we'll see. Man,
you can't trust either of these teams, but you really
can't trust the Calves on the road in a games.
So I just don't. I don't like either team. I
think both teams are not that great at all.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
The Knicks are going to the finals, let's go.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's like the Spider Man meme where instead of pointing
each other like they're they're kind of like, I don't know,
their finger is bent or something. They're still pointing at
each other. But something's different about the Spider Man meme.
You know, it's not as it's not as powerful as
it really is with these two squads. Man, they can't
be trusted kids.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
Yeah, yeah, that is kind of what it looked like
last or Game six that the the It felt like
it really felt like you're watching two teams that really,
I mean, in a vacuum that really shouldn't be in
the postseason. It was just a really sloppy game when
stars are missing shots in abundance. James Harden had eight turnovers.

(27:50):
I believe that'll be the most for the series. If
that number is true, I'll go back and look at
my notes on it. But it's it's really it's disappointing, right,
you know, because I don't get me wrong, basketball in
the postseason, this is the best it gets for the NBA.
But it also does feel like you start to notice,

(28:11):
like the things we saw with the Tea Wolve Spurs game,
there are definitely players out there who take their foot
off the gas and I never loved that. I don't
I don't love seeing it like, and it can be
for a variety of reasons. Your team's getting blown out,
you're having a bad night, you just I mean, you
see it. You see it so much less in hockey.

(28:34):
You see it so much less in in the NFL.
Certainly in the NFL, it's like, as soon as you
take your foot off the guests, you could get yourself injured.
I mean, I suppose occasionally there will be a couple
of receivers who run some sloppy routes or don't put
in one hundred percent effort. They're looking to get yanked
off the field in a blowout game.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
You know. It's uh, it's it's rarer in that sport.

Speaker 5 (28:56):
Though major League Baseball usually it doesn't happen because it's
such an individual team sport anyways, like you're kind of
always playing for the back of your baseball card kind of,
you know, so it doesn't usually happen in baseball. But
in basketball, man, this happens where you sort of see
the effort quotient drop off the map. In some of

(29:17):
these postseason games, you're like, what are we doing here?
And I think it is because a lot of these players,
they know who they are. They know how significant their
play is, and if they're having a cold night, they
can sort of relent and say, well, I'll save myself
for Game seven. And it's like, well, that's that's not
good for us, for the viewer at home, But that's

(29:38):
what it feels like is happening. There's business decisions being
made on the court instead of basketball decisions.

Speaker 6 (29:44):
It's a volume thing, like, for example, in baseball, you
get four to five at bats in a game, you're
not gonna give up one of those. In the NFL
you get a very few number of games. It's a
scarcity thing. You only have twenty possessions in a game.
Combine in the NBA you have two hundred possessions in
a game. Like it's you have a lot of opportunities

(30:06):
to kind of mail it in. And I think it's
that scarcity mindset where the less opportunities you have, the
more you need to make out of every time you
touch the ball, where every time you step on the floor.
And then you get this. Of all the athletes out there,
and I'm open to push back here, I would say

(30:28):
of all the sports, I would say basketball players seem
to be the most entitled.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
I don't know, it's not a contact sport, so you don't.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
Get that humbling sometimes that football players can't when you
get knocked on your tookes. Baseball obviously is just a
different vibe. Like I do think baseball players do have
a look at airtive entitlement to them based on what
I've seen, But I do think it's a different vibe
basketball players. They're making just more money than God these days,
you know, the load management, everything like it just seems

(30:57):
like it's of the sports. It's it's the softer of
the sports. Am I off base for saying that?

Speaker 3 (31:05):
No, I don't think you're off base, but man, I
just that's the thing though, is if if you look
forward to the Pistons potentially taken on the Knicks, that's
what's interesting to me because the Pistons are on fire
right now in the playoffs, but you go back to
the regular season and it was all Pistons, all freaking
Pistons here right They won the three games they played

(31:27):
against the Knicks by twenty nine, thirty eight, and fifteen.
Those are beatdowns, And so that would be a really
interesting matchup where the here and now and with Kat
playing point forward and what the Knicks have unlocked offensively,
the big question would be og Ananobi is he good
to go with the hamstring issue there that's a big deal.

(31:50):
But for the here and now, the Knicks are they
look much better than the Pistons. But you can't forget listen,
styles make fights and those matchups in the right season
they were so one sided. So there are some Knick
Knicks fans that are like, oh, Cleveland couldn't beat us,
but the Pistons, you know, like it's that sort of thing.

(32:11):
So if we do get that matchup, it'd be interesting.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, it's all.

Speaker 5 (32:17):
And that's those are the teams you kind of want
to avoid, you know, the cockroaches of the postseason teams
where you face them and you're like, you know, they're
not good or great, but they do enough things well
to scare you and they can back you into corners
you don't want to be backed into. And yeah, there's
there is a certain feeling and I'm I'm related to

(32:41):
and speak to on a pretty consistent basis a lot
of Knicks fans. I grew up in New York, you know,
so I've got buddies who have you know, not only
big interest in this series, just from lifelong patronage to
Madison Square Garden and and and obviously a rooting in,
but I mean putting big dollars on the Knicks, and

(33:04):
I and I think, like we know, the handle goes
up for certain teams when they're in the postseason. The
Lakers always bring betters to the window. The Knicks do
the same thing. The Knicks are a team that have
broken hearts around New York for ages and ages. It's
just sort of like death taxes in the Knicks finding

(33:25):
a way to disappoint you. It's a part of and
the Jets, let's be honest with each other. But it's
a part of the New York metropolitan you know. It's
it's part of interstate commerce in in the Tri state
region of our country. It's really fun to speak to
a Knicks fan in the in the preseason because they'll

(33:47):
they'll complain about ownership, and they'll complain about team construction,
they'll complain about the coach they hired, and they'll complain
about the star they have. And then you talk to
them in the postseason, especially if the Knicks have a
hot team of the like, this team will not be beat.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
I absolutely love it.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
So, Yeah, that's the matchup you're looking to avoid is
the Pistons, because you know, if you want to make
a finals run, I think the Cavs offer the path
of least resistance. The Pistons seem to have figured it
out late, and teams who figured out late typically are
the scariest teams to face.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Bring it on, That's what I say to the Pistons.

Speaker 6 (34:26):
Let's go Chris purfet me and you duking it out
in the ring for seven games.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Should be a great series if that is, you know,
if that's what we get, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
That's true.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
Pistons four and a half point favorite in Game seven
tomorrow should be a good one. Super low total two
five and a half. Again, the total has been in
the two teams for most of this series. I don't
know if if the tax is becoming too heavy like
we saw this in prior Game sevens. We've had about
actually had a bunch of Game sevens so far in
this postseason, which has been really fun.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
But for example, well, the total in Game one of.

Speaker 6 (35:01):
This series was two sixteen and a half and now
we're down to two oh five and a half, so
it's an eleven point tax. From game one to game seven,
and there are fewer possessions in a game seven. You know,
as the series goes on, it's you know, an arrow,
a trend line down of possessions per game that makes sense,

(35:23):
and you get to know the team's better. But I
just don't know how much is too much. And that's
where I'm kind of leaning to the over. Every game
in this series has gone over two oh five and
a half. In fact, the game last night, how about this, Brian,
the game last night? So I bet under two oh
nine and a half relatively early once the line dropped

(35:45):
after game five or after game yeah, after game five
and it went down to two eight, and then it
went back up to two ten, and it kind of
settled in that two oh nine range. Game landed two
oh nine one fifteen ninety four. So the odds makers
were right on it. But it just it feels like
we're kind of getting over the hill with these adjustments
for the game sevens. And if there was a bet

(36:08):
to be made on the total, I would probably lean
to the over.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
By the way, I could give you a million notes here.
One of the last ones I'll give you. The calves
were only down by three points at halftime, and they
only scored forty three points in the second half. They
got out scored by eighteen points in the second half
to lose by twenty one.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
But that was like the three.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Point game at the half. But go the rope just brutal.
And the last nugget I'll give you is you guys
mentioned it. Paul Reid seventeen points in sixteen minutes. I
love the and one where the ball just hung on
Oh yeah, that was crazy.

Speaker 6 (36:45):
As long as the ball's ever sat on a rim
before it's gone.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
It before time was suspended.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Yeah, but there was a Jalen Duran sighting. He even
showed up fifteen points eleven rebounds. So it was Durham
and Paul Reid doing their thing as big men last night.
But Paul Reid didn't even play the first two games
of this series, and now he's been contributing down the
stretch in a big way. So that's crazy. So many
crazy things in that series. All right, We've got rich Oornberger,

(37:11):
Penn State All American, Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm
Brian No. Be sure to check out the new looking
features in the BETMGM app it's fast and easy access
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(37:34):
if they don't win their first bet. That's code countdown
in the BETMGM app. All right, coming up next to
parlay platter. We won last week. Try to make it
two in a row over a year.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
We did, Yeah, we did.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
Oh, that's on the way. We'll compare notes. Fox Sports
Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM. It is Fox Sports Radios
Countdown presented by bet MGM. Every time you make a
wager at BETMGM, you earn BETMGM rewards point that can
be redeemed for things like bonus bets or converted to
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(38:09):
sure to follow bet MGM across all socials at BETMGM. Alright,
let's do this.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Check this out parlay letter.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Hey, al right, we had a winner last week. How
about Jared went with the nurfy in the Pirates Giants game.
Rich went over in Piston's Calves last Saturday. I had
Jalen Duran under thirteen and a half points, so little
four to sixty eight pay out right there, nearing five
to one. Pretty good winner. We'll try to make it
two in a row here, Jared, we start with you.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Very proud of us.

Speaker 6 (38:42):
We've actually done a good job since we've transitioned to
this like kind of scattering, you know, Schmorgesborg parlay platter vibes.
We've given out a lot of winners. So even if
you're not winning the parla, we've got a lot of
two in one weeks as well, which is a winner.
And if you just bet the game's solo.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
You can bet this one solo. You can pop it
out of parlay.

Speaker 6 (39:00):
I like the over ten high total today in Orioles
and Nationals. So these two teams have been slugging it
all year. Combined fifty four and thirty four to the over.
The Nats were supposed to be one of the worst
teams in baseball according to their link total. That might
end up being true, but man, they are pretty good
hitting team. They got some really good young hitters on
this team. James What at the top has been fantastic

(39:21):
top ten in wOBA waited on bass average. So I
like this National's offense. We know the Oriols offense can slug,
especially at the top. They got Pete Alonzo, Gunner Henderson
and not a good pitching matchup today at all eight
Kabali versus Chris Bassett arguably the worst pitching matchup and
on the board high total high for a reason, good
weather in DC. Let's go over ten first leg of
the flutter, all right.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
I also went Spaull going with the nightcap for our
East coast listeners. This is going to be a late
start on the West coast too. And six thirty two
first pitch Dodgers Angels. Both starters are absolutely killing here.
Soriano for the Angels has been tasky Rubleski.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
He's been steadian dealing.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
The price basically even money on the nerfy here. So
I'm gonna take the no runs first inning for this game.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
It's minus one hundred.

Speaker 5 (40:11):
So it doesn't feel like you're tap dancing on top
of the volcano here and really roblesk he's been wonderful
five and one two four to two era, he's got
a sub one whip.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
I mean, this feels like a good.

Speaker 5 (40:24):
Spot to uh, to not risk a ton or have
to overpay for good odds here.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
All right, I'm gonna go with a guy who is
just on fire right now, Kyle Schwabe. Huh, Schwarber is
going nuts. Nine schwar bombs right, nine home runs in
his last eight games. That's insanity right there. So I'm
gonna look to Schwabe. Two plus bases. I'll go with
plus one thirty over here in the total basis department.

(40:53):
The one thing you worry about is, you know, intentional
walks and it like just to take your base Schwarber's
I think two plus bases good way to look. Plus money.
I'll go with that.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Plus seven nine. Let's get juicy today, all right?

Speaker 3 (41:06):
I like it good with juice? Oh, what is going on?
Happy Saturday?

Speaker 4 (41:11):
Too?

Speaker 3 (41:12):
You hope all is fantastic. The NFL schedule released in
bulk this week. They had a couple of little strip teases,
as I call him first, a couple of days the
waitlan Monday. Hey, here's a little you know, here's a
little game here, a little game there. Tuesday, Wednesday, little
game here. Here are the international games. Here you go,
you know, wet the whistle, if you will. And then Thursday,

(41:34):
you know, everything everything released, all the team schedules. And
the first thing that stands out to most to me,
very first game of the season. Who are the Seahawks
playing defending champions? They started off on a Wednesday. They're
gonna play the Patriots, can't I'm stunned. I can't believe

(41:54):
that we've got the Super Bowl rematch, if you will.
With all the Mike Vrabel stuff going on, this is
the very first thing that the NFL signs up for.
I thought it was gonna be Bear Seahawks. I thought
that was a more intriguing matchup. I mean, I'll watch
this thing beginning to end, but I just saw the
Patriots get punked on a neutral field. Now they're going
on the road in Seattle, and I'm expecting them to

(42:17):
just win this game. It'd be a lot more interesting
with Aj Brown there, and we're assuming that the Patriots
are going to trade for the Eagles wide receivers. That
gives it some pizzazz, but I'm just surprised, right, Like,
how does NBC not talk about Vrabel. They have to
talk about it in some capacity. That's how you want
to start off the entire season. It was just surprising

(42:37):
to me that we get Pats Seahawks in Week one
to start things off here.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
What it says to me is that the NFL schedule
makers are worried about how both of those teams are
going to look this season. What it says to me
is that they're worried about So if you think about
what happened last season, it was kind of an oddity
of a season, Like think about the Kansas City Chiefs

(43:04):
and Patrick Mahomes and the AFC. Think about the NFC
how wide open it was, and it didn't really feel
like any team was really pulling hard at the reins.
And so Seattle emerged due to their consistency, consistency defensively
and Sam Donald sort of facilitating that offense.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
Well, he didn't.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
He didn't have like the season he did for the
Minnesota Vikings where there was MVP talk around Sam Donald,
but he was learning an offense clearly, he was getting
used to some of the weapons around Seattle and really
did a nice job coordinating that offense all the way
through a difficult postseason and got the job done. I

(43:46):
kind of look at the Seahawks as a team with
a really tough schedule and the NFL thinking like, how
good is a super Bowl matchup gonna look week three,
week four later in the season as compared to early
And you look at the Patriots and it's a little
bit of the same thing.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
Like we were talking about.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
They've They've found their way to the final game through
a good deal of great play out of their second
year quarterback Drake May, a ferocious defense, a run game
that that really supplanted the passing offense when it needed to. Well,
good coaching from Vrabel. But then we have this storyline

(44:24):
with the Vrabel Resini affair, and you know all the
attention it got throughout the postseason, there is a possibility
that the Patriots struggles. So if you want as much
juice an interest on this game to start the season,
which is what the NFL is looking for. They're looking
for the most interest, the most exciting matchups at the

(44:48):
best times when you have to put it on paper,
I think they kind of nailed this one.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
I really do.

Speaker 6 (44:55):
Yeah, I think it missed the mark for me in
terms of excite meant about a matchup for sure, Like
we just saw it, and I think that's like where
you know, the repetition bias works against us as human beings,
and that's why it's so hard to win MVP back
to back years, Like same same concept, Like it's just

(45:16):
we just saw it, and we you know, is it
really going to be better than what we saw last time?
It wasn't that great in the last game. But I
also think that there's maybe some other factors at play here.
I'll go with the more wholesome factor. For I have
two theories on this. I'll go with the more wholesome theory. First,
that is a little more I'll call it logical. The

(45:37):
Patriots have to make two trips out West this year.
They have to play at the Chargers as well later
in the year. They absolutely like every team from what
I heard from front office people and and coaching they
ask the league, they make requests, right, It's like a
It's like you go to the you know, the restaurant.
You're you're customizing your order, like hey, I don't want
lettuce on this, I want, you know, no tomatoes.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
And the Onions.

Speaker 6 (46:00):
So the Patriots absolutely requested back to back West Coast
games because it's easier to stay out there and you
don't want to have to go to the West Coast,
come back to the East Coast, and then a week
or two later go back to the West Coast. And
they knew, we knew for months that the Patriots had
to play two West Coast games.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
This year at Seattle and at the Chargers.

Speaker 6 (46:22):
So instead of grouping them together, they did the next
best thing. Right, They don't play the Chargers until I
think like week twelve, So they did the next best thing.
They gave them the first game of the year with
extra rest, and then they're gonna make them go back
to the West Coast a little bit later on in
the season. So that's like the logical reason why they

(46:43):
put this game early on. Now here's the conspiracy theory reason.
Maybe the NFL this is like a punishment of Vrabel,
like honestly, because they're not going to investigate right now
at least, and they're gonna kind of let this thing,
let this thing die.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Out, as as hard as it is to die out
with the news cycle.

Speaker 6 (47:02):
Maybe this is a way for the NFL to say
you're not getting you're not getting at it.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
It is so easy, Mike.

Speaker 6 (47:09):
We are going to put you front and center game
one week one, opening night, and this is going to
be a massive talking point, not only the whole week,
but obviously, as you mentioned, Brian during the game, that's
my other conspiracy theory about why they gave the Patriots
this game, because on paper, it doesn't happen often. It's
only happened once before where the Super Bowl contenders from

(47:33):
the prior year meet in Week one. It was twenty
sixteen Broncos Panthers. It doesn't happen often that they play,
but of the times that they have played, Brian, it's
only happened once. So they played in Week one, so
it is rare. But I don't know which of the
theories you you like more.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
I don't know what the reason was, or it's a
blend of reasons that they chose Patriots Seahawks week one
to start things off. But the reason that they overlook
the most is what's gonna lead to the biggest build up.
You know, what's gonna get fans like, all right, let's
go seasons here, let's go babe. I think that's Bears

(48:10):
Seahawks way more than Patriots Seahawks. That's the most obvious
is just sitting right there in front of you, and
it seems like they just overlooked it. The NFL typically
does a great job of not doing what college football does,
which is the soft launch right week zero, let's give
you a La Tech and I don't know, like Oklahoma State,

(48:33):
like all right, cool, right, it's like what are we
doing over here? Like the NFL doesn't do that. They
go the opposite way, and they typically give you matchups
where you're like, all right, this is a banger right
from the get go. This is not man like. I'll
watch it beginning to end. When it finally rolls around,
I'll probably be excited more so than I am right now.
But this does nothing for me, man nothing. And I

(48:57):
just I think that the the common NFL fan, like,
not a die hard Bears fan, not a diehard Patriots fan,
just the common NFL fan I think, more times than not,
would be much more fired up for Bears Seahawks than
Patriots Seahawks. But I don't know, I don't know why
they chose to do this, but they're doing it. I'll
tell you. One other thing that caught my attention was

(49:20):
the Broncos. You see the start of their schedule. Holy cow.
If you're talking about maybe the Patriots getting a punishment,
I don't know what the NFL has against the Broncos.
But listen to these first six games. At the Chiefs
on a Monday night, right it's not a home game.
It's like, all right, we're starting off at our place
on Monday night against the Chiefs, and no, it's Bo Nicks.

(49:43):
We don't know how healthy he's gonna be. You're gonna
go on the road against the Chiefs, who should be
absolutely laser focused to start the season after a terrible
season last year. So that's your opener. Then you're at
home against the Jaguars, the Rams on a Sunday night,
and then here comes the NFC West at the nine
at the Rams Seahawks defending champs on a short week

(50:03):
on Thursday night football. Holy The first six games are
like murderers row for the Broncos. That is a brutal
That is a hard launch to the season right there.
That's crazy.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think so the
measuring stick immediately, there's no question about it. It's so
funny that you focused on the Broncos, because when I
saw their schedule, my eyes were drawn to like kind
of the middle of the first half of their season,
games three through eight, where you had mentioned the Rams.

(50:37):
They've got to face them at home, but they go
on the road to the Niners, on the road to
the Chargers, they host the Seahawks, and then that's gonna
be a Thursday night game, and then they're on the
road at Cardinals and have to play the Chiefs again.
All of those teams are good. All of those games
are potential losses, Like, I mean, all of them. You're

(51:01):
you're talking about having a hard role into the season anyways,
and then you know on your way heading toward your
bye week, your I mean the the the Denver Broncos,
well coached, good quarterback, you know, obviously a team with
recent playoff success. This is one of those seasons where

(51:26):
my goodness, I mean, they could end up at Week
nine and we could be looking at potentially a two
and six or three and five ball team. I mean
that that's that's that's a hard schedule. Now, can can
they win the Yeah? They obviously ken they're talented enough
but that's that's a tough schedule.

Speaker 6 (51:48):
You know what the irony is actually when I do
the strength of schedule. So here's how I do strength
of schedule. I don't base it off of.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Your win totals from last year. Frankly, I think that's irrelevant.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
I base strength of schedule off of the projected win totals, right,
the Vegas Sportsbook win totals from this year. And basically
what I do is, I, you know, take your average
whatever your win total is for each game, Like you're
facing the Rams and their win total is ten and
a half, So you add that with every team, and
then you get a number at the end of it.

(52:18):
And the higher the number, the harder your schedule, right,
the more projected wins you're expected to face. Denver actually
is twenty first, so relatively easy schedule overall, but the
cadence of it, it's a little bit in balance. Now
at the back half of the year, right, you get
to play Arizona, you get to play Vegas, you get
to play Miami, you get to play the Jets, get

(52:39):
to play Vegas again, so they will get some cupcakes
in the latter half of the year.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
But if they're two and six.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
It's it's tougher to, you know, say that they're going
to overcome the early part of the schedule. Actually, ironically enough,
the toughest schedule this year in terms of the teams
that you're facing with the highest it's actually Arizona who
has the worst average spread.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
No surprise, their average spread.

Speaker 6 (53:11):
For an Arizona game this year is plus eight and
a half, So the average game for the Cardinals this year,
they're an eight and a half point dog.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
They have the toughest schedule.

Speaker 6 (53:21):
Miami's got a pretty tough schedule, two second toughest, But Denver,
I think it's all about the health the bon Nicks,
and you know, if he comes back and he's strong
and they make it through that early part of the
gauntlet at five hundred, then you probably feel pretty good
about Denver the back half of the year, because again
they don't have the toughest schedule in terms of their

(53:43):
full body of work, but that opening stretch is brutal.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
So we'll see how they handle that.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
By the way, the spread matrix is live, that's where
I'm getting a lot of this information from. I've been
toiling very hard over the last two days since the infants,
the schedule dropped to get all the little day points,
all little nuggets, all a little color coding, all that
fun stuff.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
But it is live.

Speaker 6 (54:04):
I'm also working on a rest matrix. I know, we
talk about rest a lot and which team will be
more rested throughout the course of the season. That is
another thing I'm working on this weekend. But yeah, I
love the schedule. I think the schedule release is kind
of like Christmas morning for me as an NFL fan
and as a as a football analyst, it's really when

(54:24):
we can start to put the pieces together and really
formulate strong opinions on teams, when we actually have a
roadmap and a sequence to go off of. No surprise,
there are some teams that are not favored in any
game throughout the course of the year. Can you guys
guess which teams that is? That's just one team that
is not favored.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
Where is only one team that's not favored all year?

Speaker 6 (54:47):
Miami's favored once all year? The Jets are favorite home
four times?

Speaker 2 (54:53):
How about that? The Jets are favorite four times this year?

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Geez, And here's the one too. Everybody still to clown
the Jets. They've made a ton of defensive upgrades in
the season. Yeah, a lot.

Speaker 6 (55:05):
Here's what we're archesing nugget I have on the schedule.
Atlanta's win total is seven and a half. They're only
favorite in two games. That's the biggest delta of win
total to how many games you're favored in. So market's
not very high on Atlanta this year.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
I biggest absolutely love love that Jared Smith does this
every year.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
I mean, think about the turnaround.

Speaker 6 (55:29):
I haven't had a lights the last two days's been
staring at my computer like twenty four hours.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
This schedule came out Thursday, and if you go to
what's your your Twitter handle Jared at Jared Smith bets okay,
Jared Smith bets, go and look at this this power
point present. It is an unbelievable I don't know how
you do it every year, but it really is impressive.

(55:55):
And the color coding. You've stepped up your game with
the international.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
Game you have.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
I tweaked it, I tweak the model a little bit.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
It's unbelievable. Yeah, go check that out. But I will
agree with you. I think Miami has the toughest draw
of the season. Uh well, I didn't you know what
I actually didn't focus on Arizona as much as I
should have, because I do agree with you it does
feel like murderers row that they're facing. But Miami, I

(56:22):
would say the early bye week is one of the
things that is the greatest annoyance in football. Having that
week six by It gives you early relief, but then
you have twelve straight games to go into it afterwards,
and then the cold weather travel clothes is pretty gross.
They're gonna be at Denver home for Chicago, at green Bay,

(56:43):
then Chicago Bill's Patriots. I mean, you're basically I don't know, Miami.
That's that feels like an underwin total for me, just
based on like where they are schedule wise. But who knows.
I mean, maybe maybe they can figure it out. The

(57:04):
Dolphins have it tough this year.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
They do, they do. You know what's funny is I
have to recalibrate myself as a diehard Dolphins fan. I've
been that way since I was hatched the Bills. The
Bills go to Miami in like Week seventeen, like second
to last game.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
It's the worst. You want to the opposite, right right right?

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Well, typically, yeah, you want the Bills to go there
in September where they're trying to beat Red and they're like.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
So humid, so humid.

Speaker 5 (57:33):
Playing in Miami early in the season is just they
give you the sun side of the field, right, because
they specifically.

Speaker 6 (57:39):
Design the sidelines that way to where they put you
on the sun side.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
They put you on the sunny side. There's no reprieve
from the heat. And then you get like basically their
their training camp heat, you know, in humidity. It's it's brutal.
That is a tough place to play early in the season.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Yeah, but that's the thing is normally I'm like, ah boo,
I wanted the Bills to go there early in the season.
They always struggle in September on the road in Miami,
so I'm like, well, that sucks. And then I started thinking,
I'm like, this is actually a good thing. I have
to recalibrate my thoughts of I just want one win.
Just don't go winless. Win one game could be against anybody.

(58:16):
I don't care who you beat. Win one game, but
be at the top of the draft orders. That's the
goal for this season for the Dolphins. It's not hey,
scratch out, you know, six seven wins and be lower
in the draft. It's like, no, it's the lost year,
the resetting. They're going young take your lumps. So it's
actually a good thing that the Dolphins are hosting the
Bills in Week seventeen. I don't think like that ever,

(58:39):
but I have to think like that this season. I'm like,
wait a minute, that's actually a good thing, right, Yeah,
it's a weird thing. Yeah, but uh, you gotta do that.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Isn't that strange?

Speaker 5 (58:48):
Where like I mean, yeah, yeah, I'm there are certain
fan bases and unfortunately for you, Brian, like you're you're
in this spot right now where the schedule comes out
and you and you're almost like rooting for a tough
schedule in some ways if you are, like if you're
a real fan, if you're not just a bandwagon fan

(59:09):
who just clings on it to like, Hey, we're in
the midst of a rebuild. We have a good QB
class next year. We want to be at the top
of the draft order. If it looks ugly on paper,
that the better it's going to become.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
April of twenty twenty seven, basically.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Yeah, no doubt. That's rich Orenberger,
Penn State all American. Jared Smith, FSR betting analyst with us,
I'm probably in no BETMGM authorized gaming partner of the
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(59:44):
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up next, what I would label a flim the pushback.
We got some pushback this morning here. Someone fired up

(01:00:05):
the old X machine. The pushing back. I think it's flimsy.
And also how the NFL has gotten out of the
business of orange slices for everyone, and I think it's
an awesome thing. It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented
by BETMGM. It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by
bet MGM. Be sure to check out the new look

(01:00:28):
and features in the betmgm app. It's fast and easy
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of your personalized rewards, and new players can receive up
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code countdown if they don't win their first bet. That's
code countdown in the BETMGM app. All right, so I've

(01:00:50):
got a little bit of bad news and then some
good news. Okay, So no shamous today. Let's just rip
the bandid right off, boots on the ground at the Preakness. Huh,
how about that good news starts? He did text in
as Shamus special chip Poncho to win is what he says.

(01:01:12):
That's what he's going with right there. Yepch to win,
as they say in the streets right there. I don't know,
I'm just making things up, but he goes with that.
So no Shamus. But you got a sham of special
and you know what you do get, You get a
lot more ball, right, A little more NFL schedule stuff
over here. The NFL has gotten out of the business

(01:01:33):
of orange slices for everyone, and I actually like it.
No primetime games for sucky teams from last season who
project to be sucky teams this year? You get nothing.
Get off of my TV set. You got nothing for
five teams here, Jets, Raiders, my Dolphins, the Titans, and
the Cardinals. Not one single primetime game scheduled this season.

(01:01:58):
The only thing I would say is maybe a Fernando Mendoza,
you know, middle of the season toil later in the
season Raids game.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
Maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
But are you dying to see the Jets, Dolphins, Titans
or Cardinals. Probably not. I think you're gonna be justifying
without those teams on your primetime TV sets. Remember, it
wasn't that long ago the NFL would make sure they
scheduled at least a primetime game for every single team,
and they've gotten out of that business. I think we're

(01:02:27):
better off for that. I don't I love Jeremiah Love.
I don't need to see the Arizona Cardinals. I'm cool
with cam Ward. I don't need to see them on
my primetime TV set, right Like so, I'm okay with this.
I'm more than okay with this. I think it's a
win for the NFL to schedule the big boys instead
of the low guys on the totem pole, like get
them away from primetime.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
I like that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:47):
Uh yeah, I mean it almost sort of feels like
relegation in soccer. You know how it works. Obviously, if
you're one of those teams that performs well at your
or division level or conference level, however they divide it
over there on the other side of the pond, you
can move up to a championship level esteem And so

(01:03:13):
with our sports leagues, we don't do relegation. We don't
do it in college, we don't do it in the pros,
but we kind of do it with the NFL scheduling.
If you're a great team, and you predict to be
a great team, you're going to be rewarded by having
more primetime games, and I think that's the right way
to do it. Sports ultimately should be a meritocracy. It

(01:03:36):
often isn't. But one of the things that really sort
of makes it very clear when the NFL schedule comes
out is the overlap of money in sports sometimes can
get you there. And that's what this is. The NFL
doesn't want stinkers or clunkers. Neither do the networks. These

(01:03:57):
streamers are paying un gobble gobs of money for one
off games over the holidays.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
They don't want stinkers.

Speaker 5 (01:04:06):
So they've expanded the portfolio of primetime games and they've
only included say, the best twenty eight teams to be involved,
you know, and if you're left out in the cold,
I'm sorry, do better.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
Like that's sports.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
I hate to make that sound harsh, you know, especially
for anybody playing youth league right now, or have a
kid in youth league. But this isn't youth league, you know,
this isn't pony league baseball. This is the NFL. These
are the best teams, the highest paid athletes on the planet.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
Some of them.

Speaker 5 (01:04:42):
You're going to have to be better if you want
to have those spotlight games in those spotlight moments. And
the teams that got off the docket, I think it's
smart they shouldn't be included. And then you also have
the flexibility to flex them into primetime if they somehow
surge and have the season they're hoping for.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
Yeah, that the flex scheduling is really what changed it, Brian,
to your original point of you know, everyone used to
get a primetime game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
That was before flex scheduling.

Speaker 6 (01:05:10):
Now that there's flex scheduling, you don't need to put
every team in primetime if they earn a primetime game
later in the year and then you give them one,
I think I'm at the point now in the NFL
where I expect them to always do what is best
for the shield, protect the shield, and it makes the
most sense. We are leaning into a standalone era in

(01:05:32):
NFL terms.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
With the schedule. We have a Wednesday game this year.

Speaker 6 (01:05:37):
We have multiple international games in multiple cities in standalone fashion.
We have a game in Rio, we have a game
in Australia. Like the prime time standalone nature. That is
what the NFL is becoming. It is less about packing
every game into that Sunday afternoon window and making you,

(01:05:58):
you know, octobac your way through the day.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
It is more.

Speaker 6 (01:06:02):
About the standalone games. That is where the NFL is
going with their streaming partners. I know that there's an
anti trust lawsuit happening right now in investigations about are
they doing too many streaming partners. I don't want to
get into that. The direction that the NFL is choosing
to go into is we want to put our best
teams in the spotlight in the biggest on the biggest
days of the year, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Eve, Christmas, Day, Christmas Eve,

(01:06:25):
and the letter rip and that's where we're going. I'll
make the case for teams to be happy that they're
not in primetime. And here's the case. I personally believe
it is easier for a team to know every game
we play this year is on Sunday afternoon, much easier

(01:06:46):
to prepare as a coaching staff. There are several teams
this year that are going through that, the Jets, Titans, Raiders, Cardinals, Dolphins.
You don't have to worry about short weeks, weird travel schedules.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
You get into a routine.

Speaker 6 (01:07:00):
And I think for younger teams with younger coaching staffs
that have not gone through all the bells and whistles
of playing on Thursday, Thanday than Sunday night here than
Wednesday there, I think it's easier for those coaching staffs
to prepare their teams. So while you might feel like
your team is left out in the cold without a

(01:07:21):
primetime game, there's your reason for optimism. It actually, in
my opinion, is easier for these teams to prepare for
the games every week when you know we're playing on
Sunday afternoon, and that's all we got to worry about.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Well, that's the deal man. Flex scheduling. It's we've had
it forever. We've had flex scheduling for a long time.
But we've had more flex scheduling now with you know,
different days than we've ever had. So that's the pushback
for anyone who's like, I don't know, a diehard Cardinals fan,
like I don't good to see Jeremiah Love in primetime,
It's like, no, you don't, and you're gonna have to

(01:07:53):
get over that because your roster isn't good enough, you know. Like,
but if any of these teams that don't have a
primetime game scheduled, they're somehow really good by the graces
of the football gods or I don't know, the planets aligned,
like Dolphins nine and three, Holy col If somehow one
of these sucky teams is actually good, they'll have their
game flex to prime time. So my question would be,

(01:08:14):
who's that team gonna be?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Like, which team are you betting on to have this
great season out of nowhere? You're not betting on the Jets, Raiders, Dolphins, Titans,
or Cardinals. Sorry, you're not betting on one of those
teams to be shockingly really really good. So that's your
answer right there, why they're not in prime time?

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
We do have flimsy pushback, I think. Shout out to
our guy Jason. He checked in on X and he
just tweeted in why Bear Seahawks? We were talking about
the first game of the season. I would much rather
see Bear Seahawks than Patriots Seahawks. Why Bear Seahawks? What's
the intrigue there? Not a rivalry? Okay, listen, Well, always

(01:08:51):
appreciate the feedback, but this is a bad argument. Okay,
it doesn't need to be a rivalry to be a
better matchup. Patriots Seahawks isn't a rivalry, by the way,
they just met in the Super Bowl. That's not a
rivalry like Rams Bills is in a rivalry. I'd love
to see Rams Bills Like that's a fantastic matchup, right, Yeah,
it doesn't have to be a rivalry. The intrigue like,

(01:09:11):
what's the intrigue there? Crazy, what's the intrigue there? You've
got the Bears on the rise, a much deeper playoff
run than expected. Caleb Williams taking another step forward. These
are two teams in the NFC that are expected to
be major players this season. Week one, Caleb Williams, do
get it out against Sam Darnold. Right, that's a good matchup.

(01:09:33):
Defending Super Bowl champs, hopeful Super Bowl contenders against the Bears.
That is a fantastic matchup. You don't get all the
vverybl nonsense. I'd much rather see Bear Seahawks. But that's
wild to me to just kind of shrug your shoulders,
like what's the intrigue there, Like there's no intrigue at all.
That's crazy to me. I think Bear Seahawks is the
best matchup they could have had.

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
Yeah, if they wanted to do a division rivalry that
could potentially have Super Bowl implications at some point, Seattle
Seattle against the forty nine ers could have been a
good day.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
They couldn't.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
They're playing in Australia the next day.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Yeah, they're going to have.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Them by a lot of the travel. I think when
they're looking at this stuff, they are and.

Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
You know what, you know, kind of going big picture
here with the scheduling and talking about primetime games and
things like that. I actually actually international play and primetime games.
I actually wanted to comment on something both of you said. First,
of all. Yeah, I think the idea of having a
consistency with your scheduling and knowing that every game is

(01:10:39):
going to be played on a Sunday is to the
benefit of your football team.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
It really is.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
There is nothing more infuriating for a professional athlete or
an athlete really at any level, but especially pro than
a lack of consistency. That's what dialing in the process
is the most part of your season. And I'm telling
you there's a lot of guys who struggle with the

(01:11:05):
process of playing early on a Thursday. There's a lot
of guys who struggle getting up and hyped at the
right hour of the day for a primetime game. And
so we look at the schedule right now through the
lens of like, ah, you know these teams without all
these primetime games, it's like, well, jeez, you know the Rams,

(01:11:25):
for example, they're kind of punished by having seven primetime
games this year.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
The Chiefs they've got six.

Speaker 5 (01:11:33):
You say to yourself, like, oh, these fan bases are
being rewarded and these teams are so good and how
exciting for the players.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Yeah, kind of, But.

Speaker 5 (01:11:41):
Then when you think about where and when a lot
of these primetime games are they're international, they're on odd
nights of the week because of the holiday scheduling that's
happening now around Christmas and Thanksgiving. Obviously Saturday games are
up for like so it's not to your benefit. And
then when we're talking about international games, look, it used

(01:12:04):
to be a novelty and now it's it's a competitive variable.
I mean, the NFL has a record nine international games
against four on four continents, seven different countries.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
They've got.

Speaker 5 (01:12:19):
New regular regular season host cities including Melbourne, Melbourne.

Speaker 4 (01:12:25):
Paris, and Rio.

Speaker 5 (01:12:27):
So we're gonna see our first games in Paris and Melbourne.
I mean, look, it's great for the global growth of
the game. But you know, Jared, you know, and Brian
for that matter, both of you guys bet heavy on
the NFL when the season comes around. I mean, I
know from playing overseas one time during the course of

(01:12:48):
my NFL career, it's it's a completely different animal. The
travels different, the way it feels getting on the field
is different, the lay of the land is different. You're
not in the States. There's so many different things. It's
hard to get those games going. And so I mean
there can be edges and angles to take on the

(01:13:08):
NFL schedule in the preseason, just looking at those international games,
it changes everything and it's only expanding.

Speaker 6 (01:13:17):
Yeah, to your point, So there are several teams this
year that have very few Sunday games. The Bills, the Bears,
and the Rams only play eleven of their seventeen games
on Sunday. That's the fewest in the NFL this year. Wow,
I mean, I don't think that's an advantage. I don't Seattle.

(01:13:37):
So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, those are the
days of the week where an NFL game will be
played at some point throughout the course of the season.
Seattle's the only team that plays on all six days.
The only day they don't play a game this year
is Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Like that is.

Speaker 6 (01:13:54):
And I'm not saying that Seat's gonna have a terrible
year because of this one little nugget, but but I
do believe that it is more difficult to get into
a rhythm, especially when you're talking about the game plans.
And I don't know this personally, Rich does. The install
that takes place every week is a lot. It's like
studying for the SATs and you're doing it now. On

(01:14:18):
different times, in different time zones, on different continents.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
It's difficult, and it takes.

Speaker 6 (01:14:23):
Its toll throughout the course of the year, and they're
only making the season longer and longer. It is a
lot of legwork to get engaged in a game. And
I think a team like Chicago, for example, Ben Johnson
is a wizard.

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:14:37):
They play only eleven out of their seventeen games on
Sunday this year. Now, they're fortunate they have a lot
of extra rest one of the highest net rest edges
of any team in the NFL this year.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
But that's an adjustment.

Speaker 6 (01:14:47):
You've got a young quarterback that still hasn't made his
name in the NFL really, with a young coaching staff,
with a second year head coach, and they play essentially
like a primetime schedule almost every week. It's a really interesting,
you know now, just to kind of go through the
cadences of each schedule and see which team kind of
is in that routine and which team is definitely going
to be.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Out of routine for a good part of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
Man, we had delta, We've got cadences. You are a
pig and slop right now.

Speaker 5 (01:15:14):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
Hopefully it's a great week. It really is live for Christmas.
It's a Christmas morning for us.

Speaker 3 (01:15:21):
With the schedule, it absolutely is all right. We got
Rich Orenberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith FSR betting analyst,
also the Pig and Ball Slop over here, I'm Brian No.
If you should have subscribed to Fox Sports Radio's YouTube channel,
just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see
our best videos from all of our shows. And don't
stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and comment away.

(01:15:42):
Let us know whose takes you like and even whose
takes you don't like. Just search Fox Sports Radio on
YouTube and subscribe. Okay, Coming up next, prop it up
the prop betting market. We will compare copious notes, have
a couple of plays for you, we'll share that with
the next It's Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by betmg
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by bet MGM.

(01:16:07):
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(01:16:29):
I like how the offspring just elbowed their way into
the you know, the bump back music, right. I will
be honest.

Speaker 7 (01:16:35):
I couldn't hear it, so I thought it wasn't playing,
and that's why I panicked.

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
So got it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
Yeah, I apologize for that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
Well, we'll fix that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
We'll fix that. That was like the Pistons in Game
six right there. The offspring is like, we will be hurt,
we will be heard right now? Love that?

Speaker 4 (01:16:48):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
Let's do this.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
Prop it up player plays alrighty.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
The prop betting market you compare extensive. Note shared. We
start with you with something you like today.

Speaker 6 (01:17:05):
I've got a few today on my card. I'll give
you one early and if we have time, I'll give
you another one later. But Carlos Rodon coming back for
the Yankees, making his second start back. The Mets have been,
oh my god on offense this year, an absolute disaster.
So I do want to try to target Carlos Rodon
prop today, the one that looks to have the most
value right now is under four and a half hits allowed,

(01:17:27):
not even money over at at MGM, and again, I
just think Rodan's a guy coming back, has pretty decent stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
Pitch counts still relatively low, He's not.

Speaker 6 (01:17:37):
Fully stretched out yet. I was on a strikeout prop
over in his first start last week. He started out great,
to four strikeouts his first winnings, and then just you know,
the fatigue of not having been fully stretched out really
got to him.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
He didn't even make it through the fifth.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
So I think Rodin again, this is a rivalry game,
obviously Subway series Mets Yankees.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
Used to pitch for the Mets.

Speaker 6 (01:17:56):
I think this is one of those opportunities for Rodan
to maybe not be the full get get the full
innings count yet and still.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
Have some pretty good stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:18:04):
So we'll go under four and a half hits allowed
for Carlos to ro Don.

Speaker 4 (01:18:09):
To the NBA we go.

Speaker 5 (01:18:12):
I like the Kate Cunningham assists total going over for
game seven.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
And here's why.

Speaker 5 (01:18:17):
Game six he had twenty one points eight assists.

Speaker 4 (01:18:21):
He had kind of a coult Knight.

Speaker 5 (01:18:22):
Scoring and h and the role players really stepped up.

Speaker 4 (01:18:27):
I think in order for them to win, and I
think they will beat the Cavs. I think he has
to have a night.

Speaker 5 (01:18:34):
So I mean, I actually, if if you want to
get real cheeky, you could go with Kate Cunningham for
the double double. And I think that's what's gonna take
for Detroit to win. But give me the over on assist.
He's at eight and a half on bet MGM, I like.

Speaker 4 (01:18:50):
Go over there.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
Okay, So I got a little bit of good and
bad news. So I bet Scottie Scheffler to shoot sixty eight.
Are better at minus championship? Yeah, and listen the amount
of money I put down.

Speaker 4 (01:19:05):
I think it's moved the market.

Speaker 6 (01:19:07):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
I put down a half under one half a colored
bed and now it's minus one fifty. So it's you know,
if you don't love the juice, I get it. But look, man,
we're seeing some lower scores Scotty Scheffler. We'll get to
the audio next hour where he was complaining about the
ten placement yesterday. And so I expect a little bit

(01:19:29):
more of a favorable golf course setup today. This isn't
the US Open, this is the PGA Championship, right Like,
so I think it's gonna be a better day. Collectively,
it's certainly a better morning. You're a lot of minus numbers,
and I'm supposed to believe the greatest player in the
world right now is not gonna shoot two under when
it's moving day. I just don't buy that. So I've
got Scotty Scheffler to shoot sixty eight or better. Like

(01:19:51):
I said, it's minus one fifty. If you don't love
laying that juice, maybe you take a peek at Rory.
He's matched up with Brooks Koepka and hate each other's cuts,
you know, so I expect Rory to be locked in,
and you look at Rory six bogies in round one,
bogie free yesterday, so a lot better tightening the screws

(01:20:12):
over there. That's at minus one ten, same thing. Sixty
eight are better. So if you like Rory minus too today,
that's better juice. If you're like, yeah, I'm just gonna
stick with Scotty Scheffler, I still don't think that's a
bad bet minus one and fifty. I still bet that
I just got it at a little bit of a
better price. But I would go with Scotti Scheffler to
be sixty eight or better today.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
I like that Scotty too hot.

Speaker 5 (01:20:33):
Yeah, he's uh, he's mister consistency on tour. He's falling
off a little bit. But I like that beat.

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Yeah, yeah too.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
I'll give you one more quick one.

Speaker 6 (01:20:44):
Chris Bassett under four and a half strikeouts juicy, but
we like that over in the Knats game today.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
I don't think he's gonna last long.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
All right, very nice? Okay? Coming up next the team
that is hard to kill? Will they be killed soon?

Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
What is going on? Happy Saturday to you? Hope all
is just jolly good. We will get to the wounded
dogs that might not be wounded anymore. Details on that
to come. 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 search Fox

(01:21:20):
Sports Radio in the app to stream us live all day,
every day, and be sure to select Fox Sports Radio
is one of your presets in the iHeart app, so
it'll always pop up at the top of your screen.
The Detroit Pistons we got game seven tomorrow evening on Prime.
A lot of them MAdM until on Prime. But whatever,

(01:21:40):
it's the cross we bear as NBA fans and Detroit listen,
they got a big Game six win, crushed the Cavs
by twenty one points last night, and so they might
not be wounded anymore. You get Game seven at home
favored in that thing. It's just when the Pistons backs
are against the wall man.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
They've just been.

Speaker 3 (01:22:02):
They've been unbeatable so far, and it doesn't mean they're
going to remain that way going forward. It might not
even mean that tomorrow night. We'll see how it shakes out.
But thus far, three to one series deficit against Orlando,
they come back win three straight, facing elimination on the
road last night against the Calves and they punk them.
They win by twenty one points in a game that

(01:22:24):
Kay Cunningham didn't even go often, right, So that was
impressive by Detroit. So when they are wounded, when they
are down, when they are facing elimination, they are really
really tough to put out of their misery. And one
of the biggest questions now is with the Calves absolutely
laying an egg like that last night, just forty eight
hours later, can you rebound? Can you get your head right.

(01:22:46):
Can you focus to the point where the Beard isn't
turning it over more than he's making field goals? Can
Donovan Mitchell shoot an efficient percentage from the field? Are
you gonna see the best from Spider the best from
the Beard, because you've got to have big timed doubts
about both of those things right now on the heels
of Game six.

Speaker 5 (01:23:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's really there's a lot of questions yet
to be answered by Cleveland and most importantly don Van Mitchell.
He's got to respond. I mean, going six or twenty
in Game six, it was his worst shooting of the
postseason all together. James Harden adding eight turnovers to the

(01:23:25):
headaches for the Cavaliers. Detroit found a way to survive themselves,
and they did it without the help of Kate Cunham, who, don't.

Speaker 4 (01:23:35):
Get me wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:23:36):
I mean he got some buckets, but seven turnovers, seven
from nineteen from the field, it wasn't good enough. But
they don't need him to wear the cape every night,
especially with Paul Reid scoring seventeen points and his efficiency
was unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
He did that in short order.

Speaker 5 (01:23:57):
You had the bench outscoring Detroit's bench outscoring the Calves
bench forty eight to nineteen, you know, and then you
look at sort of sort of just the tone of
this series. You mentioned it that they're hard to kill.
Detroit just sticks around, they find a way. It feels

(01:24:20):
like Detroit is the lean here. I don't love this team.
I think that they came on late in the season,
but they're finding a way to impress you with their
grit and their ability to finish games as a close
game at half, and they found a way with adjustments
and frankly better play. And then it's been the aforementioned

(01:24:43):
cliche that we've used on the show a couple times,
but the Calves really seem like they let go of
the rope in the fourth and I'm not expecting a
herculean effort out of them in Game seven, although they
better show up. How you couldn't show up for a
Game seven is beyond me. But it feels like this
series just about over mentally for me.

Speaker 6 (01:25:06):
Yeah, I mean they face each other now ten times
this year, right, four times in the regular season, six
times in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
Five and five, so we're right. I mean they were
right now in the middle.

Speaker 6 (01:25:18):
This is a very evenly match series. I think the
Pistons were favored slightly because of home court, but it
was it was pretty even on the odds heading into
the series.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
I think the market likes Cleveland.

Speaker 6 (01:25:29):
I think Cleveland, I don't want to say he has
better players, but definitely expected. I mean Donovan Mitchell, you know,
James Harden, Mobley Allen. I mean, these are, you know,
all star caliber players, whereas the Pistons are still young
and upcoming. And Kate Cunningham. Don't get me wrong, this dude.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Is the truth.

Speaker 6 (01:25:46):
He looks like the real fricking deal but hasn't done
it yet in the playoffs. This is the deepest they've
ever been in the postseason with this group and around Cunningham.
And I love Tobias Harris, I love Duncan Robbinson. I
love these guys role players, right, they don't have that
second star. Maybe Durn's becoming that second star, but he's
kind of been on a milk carton for a lot

(01:26:08):
of the series. Even though he played well the other night.
Paul Reid, really Paul Reid might he might be the best,
second best player in this series for the Pistons. Harris
has played really well, but I think unexpectedly. I don't
like If you ask me who the better team is,
I still think it's Cleveland, and I don't fully trust
Detroit because they don't have that solid second scorer who
I know is going to show up. It's kind of

(01:26:30):
a hodgepodge, a mix of players, and I give them
a lot of credit because we didn't really know who
that guy was gonna be last night and it kind
of was everybody, Like Cunningham did his thing, Robinson hit
some big threes, carrosel Vert's been big at times in
this series. Like you don't necessarily know who that second
scorer is going to be, and maybe that's a good

(01:26:51):
thing for the Pistons. It doesn't really matter. Someone is
going to step up and fill that role. Whoever has
the hot hand. They definitely have the mental edge in
this series. I mean, they were down three one to Orlando.
They didn't lose three to two. They didn't blink, So mentally,
I think they are the tougher team.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
But I think if both teams and.

Speaker 6 (01:27:09):
Brian you can disagree if you want, I'd be interested
to hear your thoughts on this. If both teams play
to their peak, to their ceiling, Cleveland wins, right, I
think Cleveland's ceiling is slightly better. If Mitchell goes off
and hardens distributing and they got the bigs doing their
thing inside, I think the ceiling favors Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
But we just haven't seen that ceiling enough in this series.

Speaker 3 (01:27:28):
Probably it's close. It is close, because I think your
mind can't go to you know, Jalen Duran playing at
his best, because he hasn't for so long, right, But
Jalen Duran playing at his best. He's an all star
twenty and ten guy, you know what I mean. So
if you've got Cad Cunningham doing his thing, Jalen Duran

(01:27:50):
doing his thing, and then you get Tobias as like
your third guy, right, Like, that's a big difference than
him being largely your second guy. Tobias Harris is pretty
interesting because he had eight straight games in the playoffs
scoring at least twenty points. He didn't have back to
back games scoring twenty points in the entire regular season,

(01:28:10):
so he got hot at the right time. But he's
cooled off since he had If you just look at
this series starting in game one, so his point total
twenty twenty one, twenty one so three straight twenty plus games,
then these last three games sixteen under his point prop,
thirteen under his point prop, sixth well under his point prop.

(01:28:31):
So what are you getting from Tobias Harris? Is he
hitting a wall here? Because his efficiency has gone way down.
He's been just from the from the field starting in
game four, six of seventeen, six of nineteen, two of
seven last night, So it's like, where are you getting
from Tobias Harris? Because he has been reliable and the
last three games he definitely hasn't been. So that's the

(01:28:53):
question is if Tobias Harris is unreliable tomorrow night, do
you have enough with a concoction of Duncan Robinson and
Asar Thompson and Danis Jenkins and Paul Reid and just
the others. Do you have enough with the others if
you don't have a reliable second scoring option and Tobias Harris,
that's a big question for Detroit.

Speaker 5 (01:29:14):
Yeah, and Durren have been fading badly, even getting benched
late in game five, I mean, responding well with fifteen
points and eleven bounds in that Game six.

Speaker 4 (01:29:25):
It does give.

Speaker 5 (01:29:27):
Detroit something they do desperately need for Game seven, which
is a physical interior presence that can punish Cleveland. It's
going to be. It's hard for me to I shouldn't
say it's hard for me to imagine. I can imagine
a world where Cleveland steps up and they knock down

(01:29:48):
their shots and their stars play like stars, even if
for just one night only. Right, because you're heading into
a beehive against the New York Knicks. You know, I
look at this next matchup and I think about who
matches up better. And I do think, oddly, even though
they're less talented, it may be Detroit. The Pistons kind

(01:30:11):
of feel like a team that would give a more
gritty performance against the New York Knicks than Cleveland. There's
just less rollover and die and more will figure it
out with the Detroit Pistons, at least that's just through
my purview of watching them through the postseason so far,
and especially the series against the Calves. They never quit,
they don't they It feels like they just figure it out.

(01:30:34):
And second half adjustments in a couple of games now
have really impressed me with Detroit.

Speaker 6 (01:30:40):
Yeah, I agree. I think Detroit is definitely the tougher
matchup for the Knicks. First of all, they wouldn't get
home court. That is obviously huge. I mean, if you
tell me that I get Game seven at the Gatten,
that's a great equalizer. I feel much better in a
series with the Knicks getting home floor, home court. I mean,
theden is just. I can't imagine what like, let's say

(01:31:05):
there's a Game six eliminate. Let's say it's the Pistons,
and let's say there's a Game six elimination game at
MSG in the Eastern Conference Finals. To go to the
NBA Finals for a franchise that hasn't been since nineteen
ninety nine, that has been just.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
I mean, you want to talk about.

Speaker 6 (01:31:19):
The the caboose of the NBA for many years in
the biggest media market, I mean it's been It's been
a rough couple of decades for Knicks fans.

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
Trust me.

Speaker 6 (01:31:29):
I can't see a better environment than Matdis Square Garden
in an elimination game to go to the finals. So
it could be Game six, you know, maybe they're up
three to two, but you know, if you get that
home court, I think it definitely favors the team with
home court.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
When you have a home court.

Speaker 6 (01:31:45):
As good as the Knicks, So definitely the Pistons. Tougher matchup,
grittier team. I actually think Knicks Pistons would.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
Be a really good East Final, I really do.

Speaker 6 (01:31:54):
It would kind of throw it back to maybe some
nineties vibes, even though the Knicks are not the Thibodeau
like they're much more open running gun pace, but they
still have that ability to grind you down. The Pistons,
They're not going to win a lot of games in
the one twenties, Like that's just not their pace, that's
not their style. So I'm curious if that is the

(01:32:15):
that is the vibe in the next round. If it
is Nicks Pistons, do the Knicks and Mike Brown push
the accelerator, Like I'm just kind of flash forwarding, And
we'll obviously get some answers next week when we come
on the air next Saturday, we'll know what the vibe
of the series is.

Speaker 2 (01:32:29):
We'll have a couple of games under our belt.

Speaker 6 (01:32:30):
But like, that's my initial push because I think the
Knicks calves, the Calves.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Want to run. The Knicks also like to run. Which
team runs better?

Speaker 6 (01:32:40):
I don't know, maybe you lean Calves there, but I
think the Knicks are better defensively, so maybe they can
slow the Calves down. Like I think based off of
what the matchup is Brian, It'll be two very different
vibes of a series. I'm fascinated to see how Cleveland
comes out in Game seven though. Is Donovan Mitchell very
aggressive early on after having a rough Game six? My
lean is yes, does James Harden figure out a way

(01:33:02):
to get the turnovers in check, because again, I still
believe that if it is both teams playing to their
ceiling tomorrow, I think the Calves are still the better
team and they clearly can go into Detroit and win.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
They did it just a few nights ago.

Speaker 6 (01:33:16):
I don't want to count them out, but man mentally,
really tough to expect much from them after what we
saw last night.

Speaker 3 (01:33:23):
Yeah, it's a little bit like the not the same thing,
but remember when the Orlando Magic in Game six had
a twenty four point lead and completely blew it and
lost by fourteen points. They didn't just lose on a
last second buzzer beater. They got worked and lost by
double digits, and they just they were dead when Game
seven rolled around. Now, it's not the same thing as

(01:33:45):
last night for the Calves. But that was pretty disappointing
man to get smacked around by twenty one points. I
just I don't know if they're mentally strong enough to
come out fresh in game seven, you know, like a
defensive back in the NFL got burned for a touchdown.
It's like, I don't remember that. I don't even remember
short memory, don't even remember that happening, right, Like ultimate confidence.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:34:07):
I don't know if you're gonna get that from the Calves,
but can't wait to see how it plays out a
little bit of time for the Western Conference Finals. We
get game one on Monday. The prop bets are out
on bet MGM, at least with the starters. What caught
my attention the most, Jaylen Williams hadn't played a second
all last series against the Lakers. His point prop is

(01:34:27):
fourteen and a half. What do you think about Jalen
Williams first game back against the Spurs? Point totals fourteen
and a half, rebounds at four and a half shaded
greatly to the under. That's my other question is aj Mitchell,
who was spectacular against the Lakers. He's been a force
in these playoffs for OKC. How much playing time, does

(01:34:49):
he get what's his role now that he's not in
the starting unit, in the starting lineup with Jalen Williams
coming back, So I want to see the type of
minutes AJ Mitchell gets if he can still maintain his
rhythm without getting starter like minutes, because he got thirty
three minutes the last game, Game four, Like, he's averaging
around thirty minutes per night against the Lakers. So what's

(01:35:11):
his role and will he be a big time asset
because he was against the Lakers. We'll see what Jalen
Williams coming back.

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
Yeah, yeah, AJ Mitchell's playoff breakout has really helped okaysee survive.
Obviously the absence of Williams, he hadn't played since Game
two of the first round because of the hammy, and
Mitchell's twenty eight points in the Lakers close out after
a twenty four point ten assist Game three. It matters

(01:35:38):
because the Thunder aren't just hey, you know, like we've
we've got Shay. They They've got they've got problems like
all over the court. So this is this is going
to be interesting to see.

Speaker 4 (01:35:53):
How they respond to all that. I'm curious how.

Speaker 5 (01:35:56):
All the pieces fit I'm I really, I'm curious if
this is what we see early in this season, early
in this series between the Spurs and okay See. Are
we going to see a battle tested Spurs team with
momentum against a flat.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
Footed oka See team?

Speaker 5 (01:36:17):
Not specifically highlighting, you know, maybe some issues with players
melding together with potentially a fresh.

Speaker 4 (01:36:30):
Excuse me, Jalen Williams, I was blanking on his name.

Speaker 5 (01:36:32):
With a fresh Jalen Williams coming back after recovering from
the hammy or maybe potentially playing limited minutes because he's
still easing his way back from from the injury, the
injury time off, or are we going to see them
actually eager to go out there and play against the
better test. I'm curious what Thunder team shows up, because

(01:36:53):
if they continue to play the way they did in
their opening series, and I mean plural, they're going to dominate,
right it was, That's what it's looked like.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
They've won eight straight games.

Speaker 5 (01:37:06):
You know, they have potential to make it twelve if
they play to that level. But will they be able
to with the extended rest?

Speaker 4 (01:37:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:37:16):
My lean always when we get these situations, Brian, your
original question about player props, and you know players coming
back from injuries. Usually the sportsbook is kind of conservative
with the minutes, and it's hard to tell exactly how
many minutes he's going to get, which always gives you

(01:37:37):
upside to the over, right, Like if he plays the
full allotment of minutes, and he plays his normal game
and he's had a lot of time off and they'll
get a few more days off before the series starts.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
If he plays his.

Speaker 6 (01:37:48):
Normal allotment of minutes, you're getting value to the over.
But do you know if he's going to play his
normal allotment of minutes, Even if the coach comes out
and says it, does that mean you're going to get
that full allotment? I don't know the answer to that question.
But if you do get it, fourteen and a half points.
I'm even seeing some thirteen and a half's out there

(01:38:08):
that is low for Jayla Williams's points prop. Usually it's
in the high teens. So and especially in the playoffs,
when guys play play a little bit more minutes, maybe
rotations tighten up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:38:17):
But the question is who do you take off the floor.

Speaker 6 (01:38:18):
Jared McCain's been really good They've got a lot of
really good role players, So it might.

Speaker 2 (01:38:23):
Be one of those situations where.

Speaker 6 (01:38:26):
You're trying to figure out Mark Daniels, trying to figure
out what the right buttons to push is and maybe
Williams's minutes will slowly increase as the series goes on,
or maybe it's the opposite. Maybe they throw them out
there and see how healthy is and then as minutes
slowly decreased as the series goes on. To me, that
is the mark of a great coach and a great team.
Can you make adjustments in series game to game. That's

(01:38:49):
why I think the coaching as much as the NBA
coaches matter, maybe they don't matter.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
I think they.

Speaker 6 (01:38:54):
Matter more in the playoffs because of the end game
and in series adjustments.

Speaker 2 (01:38:58):
So if Jala Williams plays the full minutes, I think
there's vie.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
To the over.

Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
But I just don't know the answer to that question.

Speaker 4 (01:39:03):
I hear you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:04):
By the way, last thing I'll mention real fast, I'm
just looking at the first quarter, first half lines for
Cavs Pistons tomorrow night they're out at bet MGM. I
just love the totals. First quarter total fifty and a
half It's like h scross. If you're on the under
any made bucket, you're like, oh my gosh, this is

(01:39:25):
just Torger right now. But I don't know. I don't
know that they get over. The first half total is
ninety nine and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
That's insanely low.

Speaker 6 (01:39:34):
It's really low. But you got to bet over. They
have juiced these unders. In game seven to High Heaven,
they went they all went over in the last round.

Speaker 4 (01:39:41):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:39:42):
Yeah, just don't be surprised if the under hits. Man,
I can see it in an absolute slobber knocker, you know,
I could. I could see it being like whoa, someone scored?
Holy cow, what's happening over? You know, just turnovers, ugliness,
just you know, Detroit getting into Cleveland. So it could
be pretty choppy. We'll see, We'll see how it chakes out.

(01:40:03):
I've got Rich Hornberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith,
FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian. No BETMGM authorized gaming partner
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(01:40:26):
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Is it legit or a little bit of sour grapes?
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM. It
is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by bet MGM. Every

(01:40:48):
time and make a wager at BETMGM, you earn BETMGM
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MGM resorts. And be sure to follow bet MGM across
all socials at bet MGM. All right, So we're looking
at the PGA Championship and we got some lower scores today,

(01:41:12):
which might be a good thing for Scottie Scheffler. Maybe,
I mean, I don't want to see the rest of
the field shooting low, but it's a decent sign that
he could shoot low as well. And he had a
lot to say, yesterday yesterday about the the pin placements
over here, the pin locations. He was not a fan
of the pin low cows if you will. Here's what

(01:41:33):
he had to say after a second round.

Speaker 8 (01:41:35):
Most of the penns today were, I mean kind of absurd.
They were just so far into the areas where we
thought the pins were going to be, and then they
just like the one on fourteen is probably the hardest
pin that I've seen in a long time, just because
I mean there's literally just like a spine and they're like,
I'll just put the pin right on top of it,
and you're like, all right, well let's see what I
can do and just just challenging.

Speaker 3 (01:41:56):
Yeah, he expanded on that too. He was not a
fan of the pin locations. You're seeing some lower scores today,
so they might have, you know, eased it up just
a little bit. This is not the US Open, but
when a player of Scotty Scheffler's caliber is detailing it
and it's like, okay, dude, the the location of this

(01:42:16):
green right it goes kind of down left to right,
up right to left at and do you put the
pin right there? It's like, dude, I have so little
margin for error. So with him detailing it like that,
you know, it was really really challenging yesterday.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
Yeah, I mean, okay, So I think that there's two
ways to look at this. I think calling the pin
set up kind of absurd is accurate from the standpoint
of if on every single green you're on the crest
of the green or you're on one of those spines

(01:42:55):
as he referred to it, where you're you're basically putting
up a riot and trying to get the ball on
a flat surface of maybe only two or three inches
or put or drain it. It leads golfers to have
to basically lag putt and cross their fingers on every
single green, you know, as opposed to like rewarding golfers

(01:43:19):
for being super aggressive and and you know, going for
a shot near the pin, you know, on their approach.

Speaker 4 (01:43:29):
You know, you're rewarding.

Speaker 5 (01:43:30):
Golfers for basically being careful once the ball gets to
the to the putting surface, which I think for a
golfer obviously is a less enjoyable event to participate in
and for viewers too, like it kind of makes the
whole you know, is this core solvable less of a

(01:43:51):
less of less of the sport of it, and it
becomes hey, who's the best putter out here? Now, the
PGA can defend themselves by saying, well, well, you know, shoot,
somebody was able to solve it because Chris gottrups sixty
five is a legitimate low score for a day where
a course was playing unfairly if you want to look

(01:44:13):
at it that way. But but I can, I can
see the argument through both lenses, Like the PJA obviously
the PJA Championship, they're trying to make this as challenging
as possible.

Speaker 4 (01:44:23):
Is it the right kind of hard? I think is
the heart of this debate.

Speaker 5 (01:44:28):
You know, are you just you know, messing with the
pin placement and that's the only major change you're making
from one day to the next, or are you actually
making this course a difficult course for pros to play
and calibrating their approaches appropriately.

Speaker 6 (01:44:46):
Yeah, it's been a pretty lackluster PGA Championship in terms
of the star power. Like here's the top of the leaderboard.
Alex Smalley, Maverick McNeely, minually, Max griersman Aldrich Pott, Geeter,
Stefan Jeger, Matsuyama's in the top five there's a name
that we know. Justin Rose is in the top ten.
That's a name we know. I'd love to see Ludwig

(01:45:07):
oberg Win his first major. Young player from sweden's been
fantastic on tour so far, but it hasn't been you know,
Scotti in the top ten, kind of hanging around.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
But it hasn't been a very exciting.

Speaker 6 (01:45:19):
And I'm usually guy loves watching golf when there's something
really exciting to watch. This tournament has not grabbed me yet.

Speaker 2 (01:45:26):
Weekend can still be played.

Speaker 6 (01:45:28):
I'll be kind of, you know, my attention span split
with Game seven tomorrow and the NBA, but I'll have
a screen.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
Dedicated to the PGA Championship this weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:45:40):
Justin Row is one of those guys that's Brian mentioned,
going super low today, five under so far through his
first nine holes.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
He's been really good.

Speaker 6 (01:45:46):
But it hasn't really been a tournament that's really grabbed
my attention. I obviously have to agree with Scotty that
I'm sure the pin placements are very difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:45:55):
It is a major. It should be difficult.

Speaker 6 (01:45:58):
It's not the US Open, it's not the mass it's
a it's the PGA.

Speaker 4 (01:46:01):
Is the one.

Speaker 6 (01:46:02):
You know, obviously in the Open Championship, being overseas always
has a unique blend to it. But the PGA Championship
is kind of like the Forgotten Major, like the Stepchild Major.
Like it just unless there's a course, or there's a
storyline or there's something that really grabs you, it kind
of just feels like another tournament on on tour.

Speaker 2 (01:46:22):
It's got a cool trophy, big want to make a trophy,
but I just don't. I don't really know.

Speaker 6 (01:46:26):
Uh, I don't really know what the vibe is of
this tournament just yet because I'm not familiar with this
course too much.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
There's not a lot of star power at the top
of the leader board.

Speaker 6 (01:46:34):
You know, you got Scheffler complaining like it just you
know one guy, what was the guy the other day
that missed his tea time? Like it just it was
it's been a weird week, I think for the PGA.

Speaker 3 (01:46:43):
I love that because the guy was like if I
if I had known I was running late, I wouldn't
have been late. And it's like, uh, what doing over?

Speaker 6 (01:46:56):
I can't got a Scheffler got arrested, went the jail,
still made his.

Speaker 2 (01:46:58):
Tea time on top.

Speaker 6 (01:47:00):
Crazy This guy's catching's out ont of the early.

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
What a brutal beat. If you had that guy in
the first round, you would have been tied for the
first round lead. He would have been three. But the
two stroke penalty it was minus one. Can you imagine
if you were right and it's like this, this freaking
guy is just a minute late two stroke penalty. If
you're five minutes late, you're dq audio see you next event?
Maybe right? You gotta be on time, man, corse, how.

Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
Do you not show you're you're there, you're in, you're
you're at the course. How do you not show up
on time?

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
Yeah? It's like the uh, the movie Den of Thieves.
It's a small part. It's a stupid reference, but uh,
you know they steal and aren't an armored truck and
they're robbing a bank and the whole thing that one
of the guys is like, we run a tight ship here.

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
That's golf.

Speaker 3 (01:47:45):
That is the tightest of tight ships. This is not
the NBA where it's like it's a seven o'clock tip off,
which means like seven to ten, issues, seven twelve, whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:47:54):
There's no slide here.

Speaker 3 (01:47:56):
Yeah, no, no, it's it's on the dot. Man all
the shows. Yeah, two stroke penalty if you're a second late,
that's wild.

Speaker 5 (01:48:03):
I will say this about just like majors in golf
in general, they should be difficult. I think this setup
lean too heavily on like one note difficulty, you know,
and I think that was the heart of Scotti Scheffler's complaint.
You know, the best major setups usually ask players, you know,

(01:48:26):
to choose between risk and reward, and I think the
Masters and Augusta National masterfully have done that in the past.
I think the US Opens sometimes slides a little bit
too hard toward course conditions where it'll be like really
really short, tight cut greens, really really long rough like

(01:48:49):
major penalties if you play aggressively, you know, just just
because of how tight they draw ob lines and things
like that. But in general, I think most will agree
that they are trying to set up the course where
if you risk it and you shoot well, you'll benefit

(01:49:11):
from it. Now, the problem with the way this course
was set up was if you risk it and you
shoot well all the way up into the green, it
may not necessarily benefit you because the green was quote
unquote so unfair with the pin placement. And that's where
a pro has a legitimate gripe. It's like, where do
I make up ground here?

Speaker 4 (01:49:32):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:49:33):
How do I separate myself from the field with you know,
or if I'm pushing to crack the top ten or
get in the money in the top five, like show
me where the margin is where that could happen with
greens that are playing this way with the pin placement,
and so it's a reasonable gripe. It gets really in
the weeds when you start talking this way about golf,

(01:49:54):
because most people aren't that into golf, even when the
majors come around.

Speaker 4 (01:49:59):
This is kind of heady stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:50:01):
But Scotti Scheffler's got a real complaint and it does
affect the watchability of the tournament, like you said, Jared,
and I think that's perfectly placed in this conversation is
the fact that you have a lot of these names
that we know not appearing in the top ten. It's
because again, their risks aren't being rewarded on the greens.

Speaker 6 (01:50:20):
Yeah, Golf's a weird sport, guys. And I talk about
this with baseball all the time. Baseball is the only sport,
along with golf, where the dimensions of the of the
field literally change every week. You know, you're playing a
Fenway Park one day with that short left field monster,
and then you go to Yankee Stadium in a short
right field parts and then you go to these gigantic stadiums,

(01:50:41):
and you know you have to adjust and throttle up
and throttle down how you feel and how you're handicapping
a certain game based off.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
The literal field they play in. Same thing with golf.

Speaker 6 (01:50:50):
Depending on what course they're in, what major it is,
what situation it is, the actual playing conditions will change.
Whereas football field is always going to be one hundred
yards long and fifty yards wide, basketball floor is always
gonna have a ten foot rim right like it's it
doesn't change, But baseball and golf change. Baseball is also
unique because it's the only sport where the manager actually

(01:51:11):
dresses in the same uniform as the players do. But
don't get me started on the oddities of baseball. But
but golf just it's just like you really have to
adjust your expectations based off of what course and how
that course is playing. And this particular course this week,
I mean, I'll be honest, the leaders are at four

(01:51:33):
under as they're making the turn to the weekend course
play pretty damn tough. Like you know, Masters, we got
double digit under pars.

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
I don't think we're.

Speaker 6 (01:51:43):
Gonna see that with PGA Championship this weekend. And you know,
to Rich's point, like the US Open typically is that
difficulty level, you know, extreme Madden level difficulty of the
Majors and Masters and Open Championship, PGA Championship tend to
be on the easier side in terms of how the
course typically plays. But I don't think the PGA Championship

(01:52:05):
folks got this memo because again a lot of very
odd names.

Speaker 2 (01:52:09):
At the top and not a whole lot of red numbers.

Speaker 6 (01:52:13):
But maybe Justin Rose and Chris Kirk, who's also four
under making the turn, maybe those guys have kind of
unlocked it this weekend should be in it.

Speaker 2 (01:52:20):
I mean, they've got a lot of guys.

Speaker 6 (01:52:21):
You got well like fifteen to twenty guys all under
par within four shots of the lead. So it certainly
is intriguing. John Rahm's up there, Jason Dave, Patrick Cantley,
like all those guys red numbers, Cameron Young Masters, you know,
runner up. I think he's kind of in the mix too.
I think there's definitely some interesting names, but I think
it's probably.

Speaker 2 (01:52:42):
Gonna be one of the big boys. It usually is
at these tournaments.

Speaker 6 (01:52:45):
I would be shocked if it's not a Scotti or
a Decky or Justin Rose or maybe a Ludvig kind
of pulling it out in the end.

Speaker 3 (01:52:51):
By the way, I had to mention this where we've
got a little mma tonight. We've got Ronda Rousey against
Gina Carano. It's on Netflix PM Eastern Time or thereabouts. Yeah,
gotta love the fight game. It's like that means eleven
fifty three, you know, East Easter time. But uh, I
saw this nugget and Gina Carano she had a social

(01:53:13):
media post after weigh in, so Ronda Rowsey she weighed
in at uh one forty two. Krono weighed in at
one forty one point four. Gina Corno had to lose
over one hundred pounds over the last year plus to
make this fight happen, and she had this long post
like all this stuff she worked through. This is her

(01:53:34):
first fight, Gina Corano since two thousand and nine. Two
thousand and nine, she lost all how do we not
fade her? Like Ronda Rowsey is a massive favorite. If
you're just looking at her to win in any way,
you're gonna have to pick if it's submission, if it's knockout,
if it's first round, you're gonna have to do something

(01:53:54):
eclectic like that, or the juice is just insane. But
how does Corona win this? She hasn't been in the
octagon sense? Oh nine, you just lost all that man,
more power to her losing all that weight and getting here.
But that is that that's seismic right there to then
just turn around and beat Ronda Rousey. I don't see
that happening.

Speaker 4 (01:54:14):
No, I agree with you. That's wild.

Speaker 5 (01:54:16):
Also, I'm really curious how I'm going to feel watching
these fights, because when you turn on an exhibition boxing match,
there there is sort of a feeling of, you know,
you can win a boxing match and protect your opponent
a little bit, especially.

Speaker 4 (01:54:37):
If you you you've outmatched your opponent.

Speaker 5 (01:54:41):
And I'm I'm I'm curious, I'm and I'm sure there
is a way in mixed martial arts to do that too,
like scoring a whole bunch of takedowns, you know, finding
a way to maybe submit somebody in a way that
isn't going to hurt them. You know, it's kind of
like do no harm? I mean, are they Are they
really gonna let the fur fly? Are they really going

(01:55:02):
to try to beat the hell out of it on
each other? I'm very curious how this fight goes. And
I'm that's part of the reason why I'm not a
huge fan of exhibitions with retired fighters in general and boxing,
but now also a mixed martial arts because there is
that possibility of protecting each other. So what does that

(01:55:22):
look like in mixed martial arts? Will it still be compelling?

Speaker 4 (01:55:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:55:29):
Yeah, yeah, no doubt, but we'll see how it shakes out.
We got Rich Wrenberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith
FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian No and it is time
for the tire rack play of the day with LeVert
and Tobias following down losing the ball outside is Wade,
scooped up by Tobias gets to the basket of slam.

(01:55:50):
There we go, one of Tobias's only points on the night.

Speaker 4 (01:55:53):
There.

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
How about that ninety seven to one the ticket Piston's
radio network as Tobias poured in six points and those
are two of them. I love that. Yeah, that was
Dean Wade, you know little James Harden slick spot right there.
That was the night in a nutshell for the cavs man.
That was brutal. For over forty years, tire Rack has
been helping customers find the right tires for how, what

(01:56:16):
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should be all right? Coming up, rapid Fire, which have
a bushel of picks. We'll throw them to your Frisbee style.
Coming up, it's Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM.

(01:56:36):
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by bet MGM.
If you missed any of today's show, you'll want to
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(01:56:56):
you'll find today's full show posted right after we get
off the air. Is Rory just had to put lip out?
Freaking guy? Uh props to the crew the Dodgers Zone
pod host himself, our trusted producer, Bo Benson.

Speaker 7 (01:57:13):
Yeah, if anyone can tell me why Saquon Barkley was
in Silmar, California, last night, that'd be great. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:18):
I have no answer for you. I don't know you're
hanging out with them, Bo.

Speaker 1 (01:57:21):
He went to my local taco spot.

Speaker 3 (01:57:23):
There you go over.

Speaker 4 (01:57:24):
I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (01:57:24):
It's a small little suburb in LA I don't get
why he was there. Echnical producer extraordinary, that is, mister
Chris Perfet.

Speaker 7 (01:57:31):
I'm not worried. I'm not worried at all. And if
it goes wrong, guess what. I've got stuff at home
and make my own cal I'm gonna make some California rolls.

Speaker 3 (01:57:39):
He's a Pistons fan, by the way, is out.

Speaker 2 (01:57:42):
There'll be fine, not worried. He'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (01:57:43):
Worried. Okay, both of you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:45):
I shout out to our guy Saga on digital posting
our clips. Give Fox Sports ready will follow on X
your smiling faces, get all of our picks, all that
good stuff. Top of the Hour up on Game LaVar Arrington,
t J Hushman, Zada, Plexico Buris. They have got you
covered in less than nine American minutes. Keep it locked
right here on Fox Sports Radio. All right, we got
some bicks to make.

Speaker 4 (01:58:05):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:58:08):
Rapid fire.

Speaker 3 (01:58:10):
All right, Jared, we s talk with you.

Speaker 4 (01:58:11):
What do you like?

Speaker 6 (01:58:12):
All right, I'll give you that over I gave you
in the apartment in the Parley platter Orioles.

Speaker 2 (01:58:16):
Nationals over ten.

Speaker 6 (01:58:17):
You want to buy a hook down to nine and
a half. It's more expensive, but I'll give you the
oz Nacks combined fifty four to thirty four to the
over this year, and.

Speaker 2 (01:58:25):
That's offense really been humming.

Speaker 6 (01:58:27):
I'll go under Blue Jays Tigers game starts in about
an hour, under eight and a half. Casey meis Mason
Flu Hardy Flu. Hardy's got really good stuff only made.

Speaker 2 (01:58:38):
There's a bullpen guy. They're moving him to the rotation.

Speaker 6 (01:58:40):
His stuff has been unbelievable over eleven k's per nine.
Casey My is also pretty good strike out numbers this
year too for Detroit.

Speaker 2 (01:58:47):
Don't love the offense. It's not a great weather day
in the Midwest.

Speaker 6 (01:58:50):
And Royals Cardinals Nerfy minus a bucko five here Noah Cameron,
Kyle Leehy combined thirty one and nine to the Nerfy
in their career. This is I think a pretty good
Nerfy game, decent price, and I think two pitchers that.

Speaker 2 (01:59:04):
Have okay number, especially Cameron against the Cardinals lineup, So
nurfy in Kansas City Saint Louis.

Speaker 5 (01:59:10):
All right, I'm going run lines in pro baseball. Give
me the Rangers minus one and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:59:18):
This is more.

Speaker 5 (01:59:19):
This is I would say, my favorite run line value
on the board. Houston has been a bad run line
team this season. That's who the Rangers are facing eighteen
and twenty eight against the run line. Let's see, Oh,
I got the Rays minus one and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:59:35):
Basically, this comes down to.

Speaker 5 (01:59:38):
The Rays being great at home, they're on a home
winning streak or looking to extend their home winning streak
to eleven. They've won seventeen of their last twenty. And
then the Braves minus one and a half. I just
like the pitching matchup better for the Braves. I like
Elder on the mound for the Braves. And again their
cover right against spread this season so far six six

(02:00:00):
plus percent.

Speaker 4 (02:00:01):
So give me the Braves today.

Speaker 3 (02:00:03):
Alrighty, I was fully prepared to give me the Irish
in lacrosse today. But the line changed. My first lacrosse
rapid fire pick and it was minus two and a half.
That's minus three and a half. Can't do it. So
we got to look elsewhere. Give me Shuaba, Give me
Kyle Schwarber, the Her kind of like Jingi and right
there right the Her hits runs and RBIs. Give me

(02:00:27):
two plus. That's at minus one twenty. So I like that.
I'll take that. Give me shot Scotty Scheffler right at
the edge of good taste. Minus won fifty to shoot
sixty eight are better on vet MGM. Let me go
a little parlay. Let's get eclectic. Let me go with
Rich's Rangers money line against the Astros. De gram on
the pump. Give me Ronda Rousey for the win. Put
those two together, it's minus one eleven.

Speaker 4 (02:00:48):
Good luck.