November 27, 2025 • 49 mins
Jason Fitz and Buck Reising fill-in for Jason and Mike, previewing the 3 Thanksgiving games. The Lane Kiffin conundrum provides an opportunity to fix college football. And the guys tell you why the Chiefs and Bears are among the biggest frauds in the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It's a Bucking Fits takeover on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
He's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm Jason Fitz for the next four That's right, count.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
On four, four big hours.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are gonna be hanging out with you guys, getting
you ready for the most overrated.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Holiday on the calendar.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I just it took me three seconds and I've already frustrated.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Buck.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I just say, wow, Look, Thanksgiving is the most overrated
holiday on the calendar. We all know what Thanksgiving food sucks,
but we don't suck. We're gonna have a good time
for the next fi.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
I disagree you you suck. If you want to start
this show that way, then I'm distancing myself from you immediately. First,
and foremost too, you suck if you think that Thanksgiving
is the most overrated holiday now, end of discussion.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Look it is, uh And I just came in guns
blazing because frankly, I knew that it would piss you off.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
And that was my goal right out of the gates.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Like, look, sometimes you need like, look, you need just
a little slap, right, Like everybody has their own thing
in the in the in the tunnel before the game starts.
I think Buck Rising needs just a little slap, just
a little little slap in the face.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
And that John Henderson, I gotta I gotta feel it,
but I gotta feel a little blood in my mouth
to get going to here fair enough.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Look, I know you as a teammate, right, so I
just feel like the right thing to do is to
make sure that we start the show off is as
fired up as possible. The football tomorrow is actually, I
think gonna be really good. The football tomorrow is gonna
be excellent. It's gonna be great. The food that people
pretend they like while they're eating the football is all
gonna be trashed, But the football itself, all of its trash,
is going to be is gonna be really good. And
(02:03):
I'm excited. Maybe I don't know, Buck.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Maybe it's because the Lions are finally not hot garbage.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Maybe it's because the Cowboys have given us just enough
hope for everybody to feel like it's going to be
a great day. But it just feels like Thanksgiving football
the last couple of years, between the fact that they're
always going to find a way to get the Chiefs involved,
the fact that the Lions are actually worth watching, and
the Cowboys have become interesting on the field, not just
off the field, I feel like Tomorrow's stacked to be
(02:29):
a really good day.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
Yeah, all three of these games are interesting for different reasons. Right,
You've got the NFC North, which is very much in
a bit of a flux, the eight and three Bears,
who don't play until Black Friday. I'm sure we'll touch
on that at some point as well, going to Philadelphia too,
eight and three teams who would have had the Bears
at eight and three leading the division on Thanksgiving. But
(02:53):
that's where things stand right now. So the Packers, Lions
trying to clean things up. The Vikings obviously out of
the picture. Worst case scenario for them this season, given
the decision that they made a quarterback the Chiefs and
Cowboys coming off of crazy comeback victories. I mean, I
don't know how you feel about this. We obviously haven't
(03:14):
spoke since our normal Saturday night slot FITZI previewing Week twelve,
But the way that the Cowboys came back against the
Eagles and the way that the Chiefs needed over time
to get past the Colts at home to finally move
above five hundred this season, I don't know which win
was more impressive, But I found myself in a situation
(03:37):
never in my lifetime I'm thirty two years old. Never
in my lifetime have the Dallas Cowboys actually been America's team.
And yet, given that there's a lot of emotion tied
up in this Dallas team with the marshaw neland situation,
we understand this. But I for reasons beyond just the
tragedy that they've experienced so far this season, I feel
(03:59):
like I felt America rooting for the Cowboys against the
embattled Philadelphia Eagles. For the first time in my life,
the Cowboys felt likable this past Sunday.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Man That feels like the impossibility.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And I love this because it reminds me of eighties wrestling.
You know, I love my eighties wrestling, right, So, in
the eighties, one of the best thing about well still
to this day, but really one of the best things
back then in old school wrestling was that you'd be
a heel for a while, a bad guy, and then
you become a face for a while, good guy, and
then you're.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Back to a bad guy.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I like that sort of transformation where you go from
you can't decide if you're rooting for or against somebody.
And I also like the fact that this matchup between
the Cowboys and the Chiefs particularly becomes the ultimate again
eighties wrestling reference, loser leaves town battle right like, because
it does feel like we've gotten to the point where
both teams were dug into such.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
A bad hole and just trying to figure out how.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You get your way out of that becomes what feels
like virtually impossible to do, and they've lost the most
important thing you can have to at the course of
the season, which is wigglebroom.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So, you've got a Chiefs team at six and five
that frankly is fighting for its playoff life. They're not
going to win the division, but they're fighting for their
playoff life. And you've got a Cowboys team that at
five point five and one that was left for dead
that all of a sudden is coming through straight MONDI python,
I'm not dead yet, right like merely a flesh wound.
There's this moment of the Cowboys that they've sort of
(05:24):
had this search. Now I will say loudly whatever they
did against the Raiders doesn't count. And thank God that
that Twitter. You know, I had a moment. I had
a moment on Sunday. I was getting ready to tweet, hey,
there's no takeaway when you take on the Raiders. There
is no takeaway right for the Cowboys for tour.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I was ready to say there's no takeaway.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
The Cowboys were down twenty one nothing at the time,
and then I was like, you know, I just don't
want to get into the battle on Twitter. So I
deleted the not yet sent tweet and said I will
just wait for another day.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Turns out, then the Cowboys came back.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So is there something from the comeback against the Eagles.
I think so, I really do think so. And I
think part of this is as much as we have
just spent all year trashing the Cowboys relentlessly the signing
of George Pickens, the trade.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
For George Pickens.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The acquisition of George Pickens turns out to be one
of the smartest moves in the entire NFL this season.
He is absolutely uncoverable. He is, to me the number
one on this team. I think he's a better wide
receiver today right now than CD is. That's how good
I think Pickens has become. And so there when you
watch how explosive this offense can be. And we've said
all year all they need is just a mediocre defense,
(06:28):
Well now they have that. I'm not sure the defense
is fixed, but the defense is a lot better. They
got healthier, They've gotten right at the right times. Quinn
Williams is a big acquisition for him. The defense is
just good enough. I'm not ready to leave the Cowboys
for dead. So I do think that of all the
games we have tomorrow, this Chiefs Cowboys one has the
most on the line because there's the most doubt on
(06:48):
both sides of it.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Yes, and inevitably that game will disappoint us the most,
given that we are going to spend as much time
as humanly possible trying to take advantage of the fact
that the Cowboys have a little juice here, and I
would clarify a little bit. I don't feel like we've
spent all year trashing the Cowboys. I feel like we've
spent all year trashing Jerry Jones. And while I feel
(07:11):
that Jerry, I'm conflicted on the Jerry of it, all right,
because on the one hand, most NFL fans, I feel
would probably be in a situation where they would say,
I don't want an owner that medals, and certainly not
to the level where he's the literal star of the show.
(07:32):
Versus the other side of this, if you're a fan
of a team that has absentee ownership, for example, the
franchise that I cover on a day to day basis,
the Tennessee Titans, or a team like that, there's something
to be said about an owner who's willing to be
in the trenches with you. And Jerry very much is
the definition of that, sometimes to their detriments, sometimes to
(07:56):
their success, always to their attention or their attention grabbing ability.
The George Pickens situation, I know that he was benched.
Him and cdee Lamb were benched for the initial drive
of their What was that the week eleven game that
they played for missing curfew. Essentially, well, we'll leave it
at that. Beyond all the Internet rumors and the idea
(08:17):
that Cedee Lamb can hold, he hold his liquor, so
it couldn't have been him throwing up in that trash
can of the casino. One of my favorite quotes of
all time. George Pickens had so much Let's just classify
it as attitude that it was too much for Mike Tomlin.
Mike Tomlin, who was put up with Antonio Brown and
(08:39):
Le'Veon Bell and Ben Roethlisberger, somebody who is as adept
as anybody in the world at handling outsized personalities, managing
the ebbs and flows of a season, and still finding
ways to have success. Maybe they didn't win a Super
Bowl with those guys, but you understand my point. Somebody
who is capable of managing a situation. But George Pickens
is just too much At points, he was a healthy
(09:01):
scratch in Pittsburgh. He goes to Dallas. You and I
talked about this this summer day. This had all the
combustible elements of terrible, terrible idea, terrible idea, You're going
to put him in a bigger media market, with more
media scrutiny, way more pressure, way more attention, all these
(09:22):
different things. And to George Pickens' credit and to the
Cowboys credit, I think a lot of different people, Brian
Schottenheimer included, deserve a lot of credit for the way
that they've managed all of the things around this season.
So George Pickens, I think, is going to stand to
make himself a lot of money. Whether that ends up
being in Dallas or somewhere else. That's wide receiver needy.
Will it go as well as it has in Dallas
(09:44):
this offseason? Who's to say? But right now for the Cowboys,
who are I mean, look at the Cowboys and the
Packers with that ugly ass tie sitting on their record.
It's going to matter for one of these teams later
down the stretch, and I'm looking forward to seeing who
was sweating that out at the end.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I said this on y'ahoo Sports Daily my usual uh,
my usual Daycake that you can check me out. On
Monday through Friday, I heard so many people screaming about
how ties are the worst thing in football.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Tis are so ugly. Oh my god, why would we ever?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
You never play for a tie Okay, look at the
standings now, ladies and gentlemen, because that tie matters a
lot of the Green Bay Packers, right like, so all
of a sudden, and it may end up mattering a
hell of a lot.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
To the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So I just it's a good reminder by you that hey,
a tie is better than a loss. I don't I
don't want to give breaking big hot takes here, but
a tie is better than a loss. And for everybody
that's like, oh, I don't want to tie, nobody wants
to see a tie.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Hell yeah, you do if it helps your team get
in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Because right now, certainly the standings are impacted by the
fact that there's only been one tie. And I hear
you on Jerry, this is this is just just being real.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Maybe it's because the holiday tomorrow that's on my mind.
Jerry Jones just turned eighty three years old. I think,
like anybody that's got.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Their eighty three year old popaw coming to Thanksgiving tomorrow, Like,
you just know, even if things are going okay at dinner,
eventually it's not gonna go okay. You know, eventually your
eighty three year old papa is gonna say something they shouldn't,
and the whole table is just gonna sit.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
There and figure out how to deal with it.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Like, you know, eventually, even if it's going right now,
it's not gonna go right all night long. And that's
just that. That's royal with Jeredy Like, look, it's great,
sometimes it works. Sometimes he's an eighty three year old
papaw Like I just I don't know what we expect
at some point when that's what we're dealing with. I
just think everybody in Spirited Thanksgiving kind of knows how
(11:37):
it feels to be a Cowboys fan.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I feel like you've probably just described with the next
you know, three hours and forty five minutes of us
are going to look like eventually something's gonna go wrong
throughout the course of the evening and we're going to
have to try and reel this thing back in. But
we'll do our best in the meantime. We're very happy
to be hanging out with you here on this Thanksgiving
on the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. We're filling
(11:59):
in for the guy. Of course. You can be sure
to check out the brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Just search Jason Smith's show on YouTube begins again. That's
Jason Smith's Show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button
and don't stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and
comment away. Let us know which of us you agree
with and who you disagree with. Go check out the
(12:20):
brand new channel on YouTube again. Just search Jason Smith's
show and subscribe. He's Jason Fitz. I'm Buck Rising, filling
in for the guys. So fitsy of the games that
we have talked about. We've talked about a little bit.
The Packers and the Lions, the Chiefs and the Cowboys
are going to take up the vast majority of the oxygen.
But this Joe Burrow storyline hovering out there for the
(12:42):
three and eight Bengals who really don't have a leg
to stand on going up against the Ravens who are
just recently in the lead of the AFC North. I
am curious to know what your thoughts on the implications
of this game are because we heard a little bit.
I'm sure the audience heard a little bit if you
were listening through the commercial break that Dan Patrick promo
(13:03):
where he's talking about he would play Joe Burrow that
the Bengals can really only play spoiler here, it feels
like maybe they run the table. That seems very unlikely
given their deficiencies as a roster, But can they really
just exist to bother the Ravens Given the fact that
these two teams have not yet met and will for
(13:23):
the first time tomorrow on Thanksgiving, I think.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
The hard part here is that we need to understand
what both of these franchisors are playing for. Zach Taylor
is playing is coaching for his job? I believe, and
I don't believe anything is short like. The only thing
I am sure of is that the Cincinnati Bengals are
doing everything they possibly can to turn Joe Burrow into
(13:46):
the modern Dan Marino made the Super Bowls rookie Year,
never went back. The Miami Dolphins could simply never surround
him with what he needed to be surrounded by, and
they wasted a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
That's what the Bengals are doing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So now, if you're the coaching staff for the Bengals,
you're trying to prove that you're not wasting him.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
So you need to win games. But unfortunately, winning games
is just.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Gonna put a band aid on a very very serious wound.
But on the other side, if you're the Ravens, you're
a team that hasn't looked good all. I don't care
anymore what our expectations are. The question is are the
Ravens a good football team? And right now the answer
to that is no. Lamar has not looked right, he
has not looked healthy. The offense has no identity. It
is disjointed as hell, like everything looks just it looks
(14:28):
wrong with the Ravens. So I think this is an
interesting game simply because you've got one team that is
trying to find a way to win to stay in
the conversation and another team that's trying to find a
way to win because they could actually make the playoffs
and they're trying to figure out if they're any good bucks.
So it's like, I don't think this. I think both
of these teams frankly stink this year. I think this
could end up being by far the worst of the games.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
I wouldn't say the Ravens stink anytime you have Lamar
Jackson on your roster, I'm gonna struggle with the idea
of stink. Even though they've looked disjointed and there's clear
really some things that they're going to be up against,
should they. I mean, obviously they're winning their division right now.
So if they end up holding Serve and they end
up winning the AFC North, they will be a playoff
team and we'll see how they manage against the competition.
(15:12):
But I know we are going to get ready to
talk about a changing of the guard potentially in the AFC,
and given I mean, I don't know that Lamar Jackson
not You're thirty years old is part of the old Guard,
but it kind of feels like those are the same
kind of characters Chiefs, Bill's Ravens that we're talking about,
and I think there's some very interesting teams to threaten
all three of those.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat. Every day, Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stat.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
To help you win big at the sportsbook, and all
the best guests.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
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Speaker 3 (16:14):
I gotta be honest, I've been covering college football professionally
for about a decade now, Buck, I've never seen anything
quite like what we're seeing right now with Lane Kiffen.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Like, I.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Get it, he's the biggest name on the market. I
get it, he's the biggest brand on the market.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I get why.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Teams would be interested to a degree in Lane Kiffen,
But it feels like this is absolutely blowing the entire
college football world up. I mean, when have we ever
seen three different programs just sitting and waiting.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
And now there are.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Reports out that Floridas started talking to some other candidates,
and there reports out that ole Miss is starting to
quietly reach out. It looks like maybe a decision has
been made, and you know we're gonna find out.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
On Saturday he's headed to LSU. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I won't pretend to know, but Buck, what I do
know is that this thing is broken. And the entire
there is no fix. Sometimes things are broken in there
isn't a fix. But if a head coach walks away
from a team before they go into the college football playoff,
which I don't fault him for doing, he's got to go,
like he's got to go and make his money.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
He's gonna go take his new gig. Whatever. Fine, he
wants a new job. I get it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
But the thought of not coaching your team through the playoffs,
to me is just something I'm having a hard time
wrapping my head around.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
No, it's egregious. And this is something that clearly has
bothered Nick Saban, who is now sitting up there on
the desk of College Game Day offering his thoughts to
America as a de facto college football commissioner without actually
having to do the job. In fact, Lee, I know
we have an abbreviated version of what Sabin had to
(17:56):
say this past Saturday on the search the situation, Sir
Lane Kiffin.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
This is not a Lane Kiffin conundrum. This is a
college football conundrum that we need some leadership to step
up and change the rules on how this gets done
in terms of coaching searches and opportunities for people to leave.
Players can lead. So if you went to the ole
Miss players, they would say, I want my coach to
coach to the seasons over. We got a chance to
(18:26):
go to the playoffs ones, and next time we're going
to have a chance to go to the playoffs. So
that's the way it should be, regardless of what Lane
decides to do.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
So that's Nick Saban on the desk of College Game
Day this past weekend. FITZI, what's the biggest flaw in
Saban's explanation or Saban's articulation of the problem without being
able to find a solution there? Because he's saying the obvious, right,
And I'm not knocking Nick Saban or whatever, Like, It's
true we do need leadership to step in and correct
(18:57):
the problem. But what he's not necessarily articular what the
problem is, other than that they should change the schedule,
which of course revolves around collegiate academic institutions that theoretically
should not be deferential to athletics and the decision making
that comes there.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Right, Like, that's the hardest part is that national signing
days in early December, right, and so you have the
transfer portal and you have kids that have the opportunity
to start committing in early December. Many people have said,
you know what, we need to move that to after
the National Championship Game, which would be the NFL equivalent.
This is one hundred percent right. For everybody that says this,
your mindset is right. I cannot imagine being near the
(19:39):
end of the NFL season and then having free agencies
start while teams are still in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
It is broken.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
The problem is if you move it all the way
to after the National Championship Game, you would be moving
National Signing Day and transfer portal opening to the beginning
of February. I would ask everybody that's listening.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
How do you enroll in school a new college?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
How do you how do you change where you're going
to school in the beginning of February.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
The school times don't align with.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
That, So like, there's no way to start that school
system when you need to start. If you want to
be a part of UH, the the spring practices, all
of these things, you have to be enrolled in school.
How do you enroll in school in the middle of February?
That doesn't work with actual academic calendars. So college football
to fix this would have to either ask every college
(20:30):
in America to change when their semesters start.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Doesn't seem like that's.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Likely to happen, or they're going to have to change
the college football calendar and start their games substantially early earlier.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
So then you're.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Talking about asking kids to start playing college football games
in what late July?
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Like that, that doesn't make any sense. So like I
hear Nick Chamer.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
South South No, or in Texas or on the West coast, like,
it's just it's not it's not to enact that level
of change for a variety of different rates.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yes, no, exactly. So that's why everything just becomes stuck.
And I think, you know again, this is where I
don't have any emotion.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
I just have logic with these things.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
When you look at all of the logic, there is
no easy way for this to get worked out. Like
this is just the worst imaginable situation where a coach,
in order to go out and get the transfers and
get the roster built that he needs to get built
at the school that's likely going to be paying him
ninety million dollars, he's going to have to stop coaching
(21:34):
at all MISS before the playoffs and that just feels
icky like that.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
But I can't figure out a way to solve it.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
No, it's I mean it is, it's not currently there's
not a solve that currently exists, right, We're just going
to have to get through the flaws of this thing
as it's currently constructed. And I mean, I don't know.
We'll see what decision Lane ends up making. It's going
to be polarized either way. To your point, the way
that you started this segment, there's never been one a
(22:05):
situation like this, but also an atmosphere to create a
situation like this ever in the that I can think
of in the history of collegiate athletics. And the fact
that Lane Kiffin has done his job right, He's gotten
old Miss into the playoff picture. Lane Kiffin has done
his job. And you could say, well, the job is
not finished because the goal is a national championship and
(22:25):
that should be the priority. But that I think that
depends on the program that you're at, and it oll Miss.
I think it is good enough to make the playoffs,
Like I think Lane Kiffin has done his job at
a commensurate level that anything else beyond this would be gravy. Now,
if you want to be considered as one of the
best in your profession. If you want to be talked
about in the same way that we talk about Ryan
Day or Kirby Smart, than Yeah, national championship every year
(22:48):
is the standard, which is why LSU and Florida are
in consideration at all, because if it was just about
winning ten games a year, he could stay at all
miss and have a much easier lifestyle, as you've pointed
out several times on our our weekend show together, FITZI,
but it's just it's very, very convoluted right now, and
I don't what if what if he loses the egg Ball,
(23:09):
you know what I'm saying, Like, what if he loses
the egg Maybe maybe he's thinking about all right, I'm
I'm I'm going no matter what, But then he loses
the egg Bowl. LSU and Florida look around and be like,
how much money are we going to offer the guy
that just lost to Mississippi State When Mississippi State doesn't
beat anybody by the way, they're playing for ball eligibility.
They're not a good team, but they're a team that's
good enough to make you sweat this. You talked about
(23:32):
chaos scenarios earlier in the world of college football, that
that Egg Bowl has the potential to be as catastrophic
as any game played this weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
That's that's complicated, like this entire situation, and there's another
reason why.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
I don't think there's an easy answer.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
We'll tell you what it is next, but first Manzi
Blagya's got to get his.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Caught up on what is going on? Get us caught up.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
My friend shit.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
See you saying that it's Ikey is putting it nicely
because it's so.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
It is so.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
It just like the situation just sucks.
Speaker 8 (24:02):
And you guys think there's a chance that Lane Kiffin
is not leaving. Why would you make that announcement if
you were not leaving. I know we're waiting on the
official announcement, but you get what I'm saying, like, why
would you announce the announcement?
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Hey?
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Why is there an announcement to begin with?
Speaker 6 (24:17):
Why?
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Everybody shut up? I'm so with you, I'm so with you.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Why are we announcing anything?
Speaker 8 (24:24):
Just play and then when there's news, then share the
news because maybe there's not no news, but there's no
way there's no news anyway. It's just it's just an
annoying situation in the NBA. Fellas you know, I don't
know how old Steph Curry is off the top of
my head, but this guy is actually playing defense tonight,
and it's really nice to see. Against the Rockets. The
Warriors are up right now, sixty three to fifty. It's
still early in the third quarter. This is the NBA
(24:46):
group play for the NBA Cup. The Spurs are up
on the Trailblazer seventy to sixty five, also still early
in the third. Halfway through the third, these Suns are
just cruising past the Kings right now.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Seventy two to fifty five is the score.
Speaker 8 (24:58):
Russell Westbrook leading the way for Sacramento with fourteen points.
The Celtics snapped the pistons thirteen game winning streak already.
They came out on top one seventeen to one fourteen. OKC, though,
is one of five NBA teams in the history of
NBA to start the season eighteen and one or better.
They defeated the Timberwolves one thirteen to one oh five.
OKAC has also won ten in a row. The Grizzlies
(25:19):
defeated the Pelicans in overtime one thirty three to one
twenty eight. When it comes to the NHL, the Avalanche
have won ten in a row. They just shut out
the Sharks six zero early in the third period. The
Mammoth are up on the Canadians three to two. Late
in the second period, the Senators are edging the Golden
Knights three to two. Just like the Canucks and the Ducks,
where the Canucks are up three to two and the
Krakenner up are no The Crackinger are losing to the
(25:42):
Stars two to one, but alex ovachikan Fell has scored
his nine hundred and eighth career goal and the Capitol's
top the Jets four to three. Lightning extend their winning
streak to five after beating the Flames five to one,
and the Wild now have won six in a row.
They edged the Blackhawks four to three in overtime. When
it comes to the NFL, four time Pro Bowl Detroit
(26:02):
line center Frank.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Ragnow is coming out of retirement.
Speaker 8 (26:05):
The Bengals have activated Joe Burrow off injured reserve, and
Isaiah Pacheco, running back of the Chiefs, who's been dealing
with the knee injury. He is expected to play Thursday
against the Cowboys. In baseball, the Blue Jays are signing
pitcher Dylan Sees to a seven year, two hundred and
ten million dollar contract, pending a physical. Also, ESPN reports
at the Angels and Third Basement Anthony Rendon are in
(26:28):
talks about buying out the final year of his contract.
He is owed thirty eight million in twenty twenty six,
and he hasn't played in years. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but years.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Back to you, guys, I.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Just like the way you said Anthony's last name, Monzi
say just yet.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Please bendun Yeah, sure, bendun.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
No, don't let don't make him do it?
Speaker 8 (26:51):
Now what it's a good thing to practice rolling your rs.
You never know when you're gonna need it.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
No, that's fine, But he tries to do the sensual
thing I just I cannot have.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
I can't viola.
Speaker 8 (27:04):
Spanish is a sensual language, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Yeah, But this, this little pink Caucasian human being in
front of me rolling as ours is not central in
the least.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I you know, look, I can't help that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
My sensualness just comes through when I say buck rising?
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Does that? See see these book rising on Jason Frish.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Stop that's right, Sometimes I whisper just to make my
co host uncomfortable.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Work.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
You did great, You're amazing. Uh yeah, Look, I don't
even know where I was going to go.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I just started whispering and Buck, and now I forgot
what I was talking about.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Oh, Lane Kiffin, Yeah, Lankiff again. My my theory in life.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
By the way, you can test this out while you're
hanging out with your family on Thanksgiving. Anything that you
say normal, that you whisper then becomes creepy. It's not
creepy when you say it, it's creepy when you whisper.
It Like if I look at Buck and I say
I like the hat you're wearing tonight, not creepy. If
I look at Buck and.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
I say I like the hat you're wearing tonight, it's
very creepy. See what I mean. So just try that
at a Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
I don't like that at all. Not wonder Oh you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I'm here to help. I'm here to help. I'll be
here all night. Try the mail. For over forty years,
tire Rack's been helping customers find the right tires for how,
what and where they drive.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Buck wants to drive away from me, as fast as possible.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
They're shipped fast and free, backed by free road hazard
protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation, tire
rack dot com. The way tire buying should be. I'm
not sure what the way coach hiring should be, but
like there is some nuance to this, and I find
myself correcting my own thought process sometimes because Buck, we've
(28:52):
we've debated this on the weekend a few times about
where you can win a national championship. I'm a big
believer you can win a national championship and Ole Miss
right now. I mean, the proof is in the fact
that they should have been in the playoffs last year.
If their head coach hadn't helped them blow a game
against Kentucky, they would have been in the playoffs. And
the proof is in the fact that they should be
in the playoffs this year. So they have one of
(29:14):
the top NIL budgets in the country. You can win
a national championship at ole Miss. So many people like
me have been screaming, why would you go to LSU
when you can win.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
A national championship at all Miss?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
But also what if Lane just wants to go to LSU,
Like if one thing that Nick Saban was very right
about in his statement, if a player just decides they
want to play somewhere else, they can play somewhere else
in college football, really anywhere. If a coach decides they
want to coach somewhere else, they're just gonna go coach
somewhere else. We spent so much time trying to figure
(29:47):
out what job is the better job, when reality is,
if Lane just wants to go to LSU or Florida
in the way that this is now, in the way
wild West, he's got every right to do that.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
And if he.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Built it an ole mess, he can certainly build to
build it wherever he goes.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
So I understand the Lane portion of this.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
What I don't necessarily understand is why there's this level
of absolute just buffoonery over hiring a coach that doesn't
have a landmark win, Like what is what is the
biggest win of Lane Kiffin's career? And this is where
people say just making old misrelevant is the biggest win
(30:26):
of their career.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Well maybe, yes, I know that's my entire argument. Thank
you for underminding me before I have the chance to speak.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
But here's the thing, like just being able to win games,
didn't keep Brian Kelly employed, right, Like.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Just how many smiles miles stay?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, but that's the thing, Like this all gets really
confusing to me because, yeah, he's the best candidate available,
But is the entire college football calendar worth changing and the.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Entire way that everybody does business we're changing for Lane
Damn Kiffin.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
Well, no, it's not Lane Kiffin, but it's what it represents.
It's what like represents, right, It's the opportunity for this
to happen again. I think that if you are talking
about the circumstance around Lane, yes it is. I think
it's exacerbated because it's Lane, because Lane leans in on
social media. Because Lane is dealing with an athletic director
(31:19):
that is comfortable putting out statements saying, will announce what
we're gonna do with Lang Tiffin after the egg ball.
I just think that's as bad a move as has
been made in the middle of all of this that
has stirred stuff up unnecessarily. You can say that Lane,
you know, is that he should be above this, Right,
He's supposed to be this change person, this and the other.
Lane Tiffin has changed a great deal about his life
(31:39):
and route to making himself again a success after all
the trials and tribulations of the early part of his career.
That doesn't mean that he's not allowed to lean into
some of this on social media the way that very
many of us would in our own lives. I think
your point about making it about Lane is correct, But
it's not about Lane. It's about preventing another situation like
(32:02):
this for a team potentially. Get who is in the
playoff picture, who should be able to be in the
playoff picture, who has earned the right to participate in that,
but who's being undermined by the fact that all of
these institutions fired their coach in season. It's thrown the
coach in carousel into a level of fervor that we
(32:22):
haven't seen so much so that James Franklin is getting
scooped up by Virginia Tech basically in the middle of
the season and is hanging out on the sidelines on
a Virginia Tech hoodie watching everybody else coach a team
that he's getting ready to take over next year. It's
just it's it's a very messy situation. So Lane, it's
impossible to remove Lane from the scenario. But you have
(32:44):
to think about how many times, how many more times
this could happen down the line with coaches of a
similar caliber. Once SEC money and that's really what it is,
once SEC money starts to get involved the way that
it has.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
You're right, and that's why I think there's a massive
change that has to be made.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
If you're on the East Coast, Happy Thanksgiving. We've crossed
over midnight. It's officially Thanksgiving. You can start drinking now.
You have full permission. I mean that's the way that works, right, Like,
I don't know how there know.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Why people aren't already drunk at this point. I mean, buddy,
blackout Wednesday is a thing. I know that you and
your music theater child background don't understand how us, the
regular people, the normies, if you will celebrate just generally
(33:41):
any reason that we can to and vibe. But yeah,
most people are slashed by now. I mean, Happy Thanksgiving.
You can start drinking now, what do you mean?
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
First and foremost of how many years on a tour
bus and do you think you're gonna tell me about drinking.
Good lord, I mean I don't think you under stand.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
But drinking within the conventions of normal people, that's not
a normal experience. Oh I rode around on a tour
bus with a with a Grammy nominated band.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Would um win?
Speaker 5 (34:13):
We won? We want you, simple child, you sweet summer child. Yeah,
where's your Grammary? Show it to me?
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Show thirteen.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
I want the actual Grammary. I want the actual Grammary,
not not some little certificate that says, yeah I want
a Grammy, but somebody else got to keep it at
their house. No, where's the Grammy?
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Thirteen nominations, So I mean that that that's pretty good, right,
thirteen nominations?
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Pretty good? This is this is what we do.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
This is what we do. I mean, look, I get it,
I get it. You know we can't all be reporters
covering the Titans.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Actually most of us could, most of us.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Could you want that?
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Dad?
Speaker 5 (34:51):
I don't practice tomorrow. I don't want.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Does that team actually practice? Oh no, I'm just throwing shade.
I here's the question. Here's the question that the Titans
are not a fraud, right, Like the Titans are exactly
who we know they are. You can't be fraud. The
Titans just suck. Like, when you are that level of suck,
you're not a fraud.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Like.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
But there are some teams in the NFL right now
that are coming into Thanksgiving and they're gonna suit at
the table and they're gonna tell you that they you know,
that they've found their significant other and that they've got
their life in order, and that they're up for a promotion.
And everybody sitting at the table knows that they are
sitting on a throne of lies. So let's figure out,
in honor of the liars at the Thanksgiving table, who the.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Frauds are in the NFL so far this season.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
I am just throwing all sorts of shades at Thanksgiving
and in some of these teams. And I will start
with the team that we talked about earlier, the Ravens.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Are they a fraud to you? At this point?
Speaker 5 (35:47):
The Ravens are not a fraud because they are a
team that is flawed. Like, I think that you have
to consider where the Ravens defense was, how they're managing
the situation. It's the early part of the season where
we're like, this is the worst defense that anybody has
ever seen is certainly associated with that uniform color, because
(36:08):
that's the thing that that franchise has prided itself on.
Now that Lamar Jackson is back in the mix, they're
playing a little more balanced football. They still have issues,
but I think six and five is appropriate. Now. You
could say, well, I picked them to win the Super Bowl.
Many people did that this past offseason, understandably. So the
Ravens were the number one offense in terms of DVOA
last year. They are as or they were as efficient
(36:31):
as anybody. They were as difficult to stop as anybody,
and there was reason to believe that they might be
able to carry that over into twenty twenty five. Lamar
Jackson gets injured. That throws things a wrench into things.
Their defense can't stop a nosebleed. They're losing by thirty
to the Houston Texans, who aren't a good offense with CJ.
Stroud in the lineup early in the year. So I
(36:51):
think if you are talking about relative to preseason expectation, yeah,
they haven't been what we all expected them to be.
But if you're looking at them right now and saying,
are you a fraud? At six and five. Now, I
feel like they're appropriately placed at six and five. They're
a division leader, they're talented enough to be, and they
should be able to outlast the corpse of Aaron Rodgers
and whoever Joe Burrow is going to try and fight
(37:15):
fight through with tomorrow. I know t Higgins is out
and jamar Che should be back from suspension, so we'll see.
But Trey Hendrickson also out in that game. So what
are the Bengals are rather, what are the Ravens up
against that would make them anything but the best team
and a bad division this year?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yeah, I think the Ravens are. You're right, it's pretty
accurate where they are. I think some of the conversation
around the Ravens is fradulent. I think some of the
people that just presume that now, like we've seen it
over the course in the last three or four weeks
where it's like, well, the Ravens are going to take
off and they're going to win the division. Yes, that
is true, because their schedule is soft as sharpman for
(37:54):
the rest of the way, right, So they're going to
beat up on some bad teams and they're going to
win some football games that doesn't mean they're good, right,
But to your point, I'm not sure they're a fraud.
What about Kansas City? Then, Like, are we at a
spot where we can call the Chiefs a fraud? Because
I'll be honest, Buck, like I want this. I want
to call the Chiefs a fraud. I want to turn
around and say, all right, the Chiefs are kind of
(38:15):
a joke this year and they are broken and blah
blah all the things.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
That we say about Kansas City.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
But like I said earlier, if I'm gonna be real,
if I had to place a bet on my house
for or against the Chiefs, I don't feel good betting
against Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
So I don't know what to make a Kansas City.
Are they a fraud?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
No, I'd put them in the same category as the Ravens,
I'll tell you, because the things that are a problem
for them are not They're not fixed. Because they came
back in overtime at home against the Cults. The Colts
are a good team. That's a quality opponent that they beat.
It's enough to one keep Chiefs Chiefs fans hopes alive
and also two to strike fear into the rest of
(38:56):
the NFL. Be like, oh my god, they can still
do the thing. But can they still do the thing?
Or is that just a situation where the Colts screwed
around at the end of that game, couldn't run the
football with Jonathan Taylor, which has been their superpower, and
the Chiefs are good enough to come back at any
given point. I would say that that that the latter
is more accurate. I will tell you I think the
Seahawks are a fraud. I just saw the Seahawks play
(39:17):
here in Nashville, and I think that Jackson Smith and
Jigber is the truth. I think that Seattle's defense is
good enough to keep Sam Darnold in it. But I
saw Sam Donald not cover himself in glory against the
Tennessee Titans, who did not play a good game defensively,
who have put up, you know, a fight here or there.
They're a one to ten football team, so you make
(39:39):
of that what you will. But I just watched them
in person this past weekend, after seeing Sam Donald come
off that four interception performance, and I, you know, I
think he's still the same guy. I think that it's
it's enough to say, like I got what Minnesota tried
to do, right they made a move for a more
cost effective option that their head coach handpicked. Their head
coaches a quarterback developer. He's somebody who is going to
(40:02):
continue to believe that organizations ruin players far more than
players ruin organizations. So he said, all right, J. J. McCarthy,
you're my guy, and we'll let Sam Donald go on
to greener pastors and we'll figure it out from there.
And for a while, for the now eight win Seahawks team,
that's been enough, and he's been objectively good. He has
been worth the contract. But these last two weeks, it's
(40:22):
just it's signs of the end of last season right
where he's facing the Lions and he's under durest from
a pass rush or a defense that's playing better than
it probably should have been playing at the end of
the year, given all the injuries they had at the
end of last season, and that cost them the division.
So all of a sudden they're the wild card team.
They go into the Rams, and the Rams rough them up.
Because on any given day, Sam Donald against a pass
(40:43):
rush like that, he's going to look less less than
superhuman at this point in time. So I think because
of the fact that we have seen teams start to
expose Sam Donald the fact that they are a team
with a poor turnover deferential even though they have one
of the most explosive offenses in football, to get them
buy in these moments. I think the Seahawks are gettable,
(41:05):
and just seeing them in person felt like that ratified
that to make okay.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
But I do think two things can be true to
your point, I'll buy what you're selling.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
If we want to.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Talk about whether or not Sam Donald may not be epic,
I'll buy that if that's what we want to sell.
I still don't think the vikings lett him walk out
the door made any sense because you didn't have to
do it. You could have figured out a way to
franchise him and keep him. And that's where I get
a little bit nervous. As I said earlier, you know,
I understand wanting some level of I understand wanting some
(41:38):
level of cheaper options.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
But I will just remind.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Everybody according to true media and make what you will
on this. But EPA per dropback is a big number
for quarterback efficiency all times since two thousand. He ranks
currently eight hundred and fifty one out of eight hundred
and fifty two in EPA forquarterbacks per dropback, the only
quarterback McCarthy does, the only quarterback worse since the year
(42:05):
two thousand was JaMarcus Russell. So I say all of
that to say that JJ McCarthy right now, statistically in
one major metric.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Is JaMarcus Russell.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
And when you look at that level of disaster, two
things can be true. Sam Donald melted down. Sam Donald
may not be a world saver.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
We'll see for Seattle.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I don't know that I'm ready to jump off the
train entirely, but currently as we sit right now, we've
had very little to JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
When we've had him, it's been tragically bad.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
So I don't think that there's any like The Vikings
put themselves in a situation where they have a roster
that was built to try and contempt for Super Bowls
right now, and they risked everything on their savants quarterback
whispering head coach that turns out can't whisper through the media,
the guy that they need him to be able to
get through with JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (42:55):
This thing's broken.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
So I hear you, But I also just want to
at least throw the Vikings under the bus for letting
Sam Donald go. I think the Seahawks defense is so
good and Jackson Smith and Jig but is so good,
and their ability to run the football will save them
from being a fraud.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I do think that the Chicago Bears are a fraud.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
And it's okay, Like it's okay that the Bears are
much better than we expected record wise, but man, you
look at the teams and the quarterbacks that the Bears
have had to beat this year, it's a whole bunch
of slop. It is just this year in the NFL,
more than recent memory. Who you play and when you
play them matters, and golly like the Bears have needed
miracle win after miracle win against trash teams. I would
(43:36):
buy that the Bears are frauds. Now it does matter.
They're in first place in their division currently. Enjoy Chicago fans,
and enjoy this whole run. Just remember next summer when
we're talking about the Bears the same way we were
talking about the Commanders this summer with the Hey advanced
analytics shows they weren't that good. They're going to take
a step back. Commanders fans tried to rip everybody's heads
(43:57):
off for it.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
What do you know?
Speaker 3 (43:59):
So just a reminder to everybody that I think the
Bears are frauds.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
I think there's been appreciable growth in Caleb Williams. I
think that Ben Johnson deserves a lot of credit for that.
And I think that Ben Johnson and Shane Steichen are
the thing that every team in the NFL is chasing
right now, that there are only so many of those
dudes who are the kind of one personality type to
handle the job of head coach too adept enough at
(44:27):
the balancing of that job versus calling the offensive plays
for your team, which is no small thing. And I
don't just say that because I covered a coach who
got play calling duties taken from him in Brian Callahan
before he would go on to be fired. As if
there was a more pre fired move in America than
taking the play calling from a play calling head coach
that you specifically hired to do that, whether it was
(44:49):
Will Levis cam or or anybody else who's going to
work with here. The thing about Chicago that would concern me,
just in terms of down the stretch here is what,
how can I be harmed by the teams that are
sitting behind me, even though I've handled the competition in
(45:12):
my division pretty well so far, Like how big is
the golf actually? Between the Lions, the Packers, and the Bears.
We understand that Minnesota is getting left in the dust here,
so they're not relevant for the purposes of our conversation.
Matt Lafleur has come under some scrutiny because of the
way that the Packers' offense looks Does the Packers offense
(45:32):
look like that? Because Matt Lafleur is not a good
play caller and has forgotten all the things that have
made him very, very good at that job. Or the
wide receivers, the young wide receivers in Green Bay inconsistent.
They look a lot different without Tucker Craft the tight
end in the lineup, and Matt Lafleur is actually making
the best of a bad situation. How much can how
much can Dan Campbell make Jared Goff better? If Dan
(45:56):
Campbell is actually going to be in charge of play
calling here as opposed to Joe Morton in.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Detroit, Campbell has the play calling now, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (46:04):
Right, because he did, the change was made. He looked
like a genius for a minute in time. He had
the glasses on the whole thing. But I don't know.
Are are we taking too much out of a one
game sample size and saying all right, but is that sustainable?
Is he going to be able to get figured out again?
The balance of managing those things like where are the
(46:26):
flaws for the other teams that are chasing Chicago or
on Chicago's heels? Right now, I feel about as good
as Chicago being able to mitigate their flaws as I
do these other teams catching them at this point in time,
which would basically make the argument against them being frauds.
You just feel a little more, at least me, I
feel a little more confident in what they have versus
what the other teams are up against.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
It's just for me again. I'll go back to this.
You say it with me, you'll get a kick out
of this. Early they beat the Cowboys early in the year,
particularly when the Cowboys, So this is the Bears we're
talking about, yea. Then the Bears beat the Raiders, who suck.
Then they beat the Commanders, who suck. Then they beat
(47:08):
the Saints, who suck. Then they beat the Bengals, who
say it with me, suck. Then they beat the Giants
even without I think Jackson Dart in that game, I
don't remember, but they suck. Then they beat the Vikings,
who suck, and they just beat the Steelers, who.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
Saw Mike right, No, they do.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
So I was like, so for me, I just looked
at it was like, I don't have a single win
at all that for the Bears. Now the Bears coming up,
I don't have a single win that. I look at that,
and they say, oh my god, that proofs up. Now
coming up Eagles, Packers, Packers, forty nine, Ers, Lions. I've
listed all of their remaining games except for the Browns
for one very important reason. So I look at Eagles, Packers, Packers,
(47:50):
forty nine, Ers, Lions. I don't know what the Browns
game is going to be. Those other five games, they'll
be very very telling. Now, you're right, they could lose
all five of those and still finish nine to eight.
I just think that that's I don't think losing all
five is I think that's a little disrespectful, sir. When
we think of an eight and three football team and
you look at what's ahead of them, I don't think
we're going to talk about Chicago in six weeks. The
(48:11):
way we're talking about Chicago today.
Speaker 5 (48:13):
Well, just look at what they're up against on Friday.
They're at Philadelphia. Those are two eight and three teams,
like what is the And again, it will not define
specifically how big the gulf is between Chicago and Philadelphia.
If you know, Chicago were to fall short or Philadelphia
were to lose there, I don't think we would be
able to definitively say, yeah, that's how big the distance
(48:34):
is between these two teams. If we're talking about a
representative sample size. But they head to head, you know,
to get kind of back into the college football playoff parlance.
Had the head should matter and could matter, especially if
they go on the road, if they go to Philly,
especially coming off that loss that the Eagles just experienced
at the hand of the Cowboys, which has to be
(48:55):
at that's a long history and a storied his So
I don't want to say it's as traumatic a loss
as Eagles fans have ever experienced against Cowboys, but certainly
in recent memory, it's as traumatic a loss as Eagles
fans have had against the Cowboys. Where they're up, what
was it, twenty one to nothing and the Cowboys roar
back in the second half to just take it from them.
(49:16):
That way, Philadelphia now has something to prove. There's been
a lot of dialogue around Jalen Hurts in the media,
whether it's founded or reported or rumors. At this point
in time in Chicago's just kind of plugging away and
Ben Johnson's doing their the little good better best breakdown
in the huddle, which is a little clunky to me,
but whatever, if it works for them, they're eight and three,
far be it from me to judge. We will learn
(49:37):
a great deal about what Chicago has actually accomplished and
what they can still accomplish after this Black Friday football
game is played.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
Yeah, I will remind everybody right now to eight and
three teams, and Vegas has Philly favored by seven, a
large number for two teams that are eight and three
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It's a Bucking Fits takeover on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
He's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm Jason Fitz for the next four That's right, count.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
On four, four big hours.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are gonna be hanging out with you guys, getting
you ready for the most overrated.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Holiday on the calendar.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I just it took me three seconds and I've already frustrated.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Buck.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I just say, wow, Look, Thanksgiving is the most overrated
holiday on the calendar. We all know what Thanksgiving food sucks,
but we don't suck. We're gonna have a good time
for the next fi.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
I disagree you you suck. If you want to start
this show that way, then I'm distancing myself from you immediately. First,
and foremost too, you suck if you think that Thanksgiving
is the most overrated holiday now, end of discussion.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Look it is, uh And I just came in guns
blazing because frankly, I knew that it would piss you off.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
And that was my goal right out of the gates.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Like, look, sometimes you need like, look, you need just
a little slap, right, Like everybody has their own thing
in the in the in the tunnel before the game starts.
I think Buck Rising needs just a little slap, just
a little little slap in the face.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
And that John Henderson, I gotta I gotta feel it,
but I gotta feel a little blood in my mouth
to get going to here fair enough.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Look, I know you as a teammate, right, so I
just feel like the right thing to do is to
make sure that we start the show off is as
fired up as possible. The football tomorrow is actually, I
think gonna be really good. The football tomorrow is gonna
be excellent. It's gonna be great. The food that people
pretend they like while they're eating the football is all
gonna be trashed, But the football itself, all of its trash,
is going to be is gonna be really good. And
(02:03):
I'm excited. Maybe I don't know, Buck.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Maybe it's because the Lions are finally not hot garbage.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Maybe it's because the Cowboys have given us just enough
hope for everybody to feel like it's going to be
a great day. But it just feels like Thanksgiving football
the last couple of years, between the fact that they're
always going to find a way to get the Chiefs involved,
the fact that the Lions are actually worth watching, and
the Cowboys have become interesting on the field, not just
off the field, I feel like Tomorrow's stacked to be
(02:29):
a really good day.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
Yeah, all three of these games are interesting for different reasons. Right,
You've got the NFC North, which is very much in
a bit of a flux, the eight and three Bears,
who don't play until Black Friday. I'm sure we'll touch
on that at some point as well, going to Philadelphia too,
eight and three teams who would have had the Bears
at eight and three leading the division on Thanksgiving. But
(02:53):
that's where things stand right now. So the Packers, Lions
trying to clean things up. The Vikings obviously out of
the picture. Worst case scenario for them this season, given
the decision that they made a quarterback the Chiefs and
Cowboys coming off of crazy comeback victories. I mean, I
don't know how you feel about this. We obviously haven't
(03:14):
spoke since our normal Saturday night slot FITZI previewing Week twelve,
But the way that the Cowboys came back against the
Eagles and the way that the Chiefs needed over time
to get past the Colts at home to finally move
above five hundred this season, I don't know which win
was more impressive, But I found myself in a situation
(03:37):
never in my lifetime I'm thirty two years old. Never
in my lifetime have the Dallas Cowboys actually been America's team.
And yet, given that there's a lot of emotion tied
up in this Dallas team with the marshaw neland situation,
we understand this. But I for reasons beyond just the
tragedy that they've experienced so far this season, I feel
(03:59):
like I felt America rooting for the Cowboys against the
embattled Philadelphia Eagles. For the first time in my life,
the Cowboys felt likable this past Sunday.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Man That feels like the impossibility.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And I love this because it reminds me of eighties wrestling.
You know, I love my eighties wrestling, right, So, in
the eighties, one of the best thing about well still
to this day, but really one of the best things
back then in old school wrestling was that you'd be
a heel for a while, a bad guy, and then
you become a face for a while, good guy, and
then you're.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Back to a bad guy.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I like that sort of transformation where you go from
you can't decide if you're rooting for or against somebody.
And I also like the fact that this matchup between
the Cowboys and the Chiefs particularly becomes the ultimate again
eighties wrestling reference, loser leaves town battle right like, because
it does feel like we've gotten to the point where
both teams were dug into such.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
A bad hole and just trying to figure out how.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You get your way out of that becomes what feels
like virtually impossible to do, and they've lost the most
important thing you can have to at the course of
the season, which is wigglebroom.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So, you've got a Chiefs team at six and five
that frankly is fighting for its playoff life. They're not
going to win the division, but they're fighting for their
playoff life. And you've got a Cowboys team that at
five point five and one that was left for dead
that all of a sudden is coming through straight MONDI python,
I'm not dead yet, right like merely a flesh wound.
There's this moment of the Cowboys that they've sort of
(05:24):
had this search. Now I will say loudly whatever they
did against the Raiders doesn't count. And thank God that
that Twitter. You know, I had a moment. I had
a moment on Sunday. I was getting ready to tweet, hey,
there's no takeaway when you take on the Raiders. There
is no takeaway right for the Cowboys for tour.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I was ready to say there's no takeaway.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
The Cowboys were down twenty one nothing at the time,
and then I was like, you know, I just don't
want to get into the battle on Twitter. So I
deleted the not yet sent tweet and said I will
just wait for another day.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Turns out, then the Cowboys came back.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So is there something from the comeback against the Eagles.
I think so, I really do think so. And I
think part of this is as much as we have
just spent all year trashing the Cowboys relentlessly the signing
of George Pickens, the trade.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
For George Pickens.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The acquisition of George Pickens turns out to be one
of the smartest moves in the entire NFL this season.
He is absolutely uncoverable. He is, to me the number
one on this team. I think he's a better wide
receiver today right now than CD is. That's how good
I think Pickens has become. And so there when you
watch how explosive this offense can be. And we've said
all year all they need is just a mediocre defense,
(06:28):
Well now they have that. I'm not sure the defense
is fixed, but the defense is a lot better. They
got healthier, They've gotten right at the right times. Quinn
Williams is a big acquisition for him. The defense is
just good enough. I'm not ready to leave the Cowboys
for dead. So I do think that of all the
games we have tomorrow, this Chiefs Cowboys one has the
most on the line because there's the most doubt on
(06:48):
both sides of it.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Yes, and inevitably that game will disappoint us the most,
given that we are going to spend as much time
as humanly possible trying to take advantage of the fact
that the Cowboys have a little juice here, and I
would clarify a little bit. I don't feel like we've
spent all year trashing the Cowboys. I feel like we've
spent all year trashing Jerry Jones. And while I feel
(07:11):
that Jerry, I'm conflicted on the Jerry of it, all right,
because on the one hand, most NFL fans, I feel
would probably be in a situation where they would say,
I don't want an owner that medals, and certainly not
to the level where he's the literal star of the show.
(07:32):
Versus the other side of this, if you're a fan
of a team that has absentee ownership, for example, the
franchise that I cover on a day to day basis,
the Tennessee Titans, or a team like that, there's something
to be said about an owner who's willing to be
in the trenches with you. And Jerry very much is
the definition of that, sometimes to their detriments, sometimes to
(07:56):
their success, always to their attention or their attention grabbing ability.
The George Pickens situation, I know that he was benched.
Him and cdee Lamb were benched for the initial drive
of their What was that the week eleven game that
they played for missing curfew. Essentially, well, we'll leave it
at that. Beyond all the Internet rumors and the idea
(08:17):
that Cedee Lamb can hold, he hold his liquor, so
it couldn't have been him throwing up in that trash
can of the casino. One of my favorite quotes of
all time. George Pickens had so much Let's just classify
it as attitude that it was too much for Mike Tomlin.
Mike Tomlin, who was put up with Antonio Brown and
(08:39):
Le'Veon Bell and Ben Roethlisberger, somebody who is as adept
as anybody in the world at handling outsized personalities, managing
the ebbs and flows of a season, and still finding
ways to have success. Maybe they didn't win a Super
Bowl with those guys, but you understand my point. Somebody
who is capable of managing a situation. But George Pickens
is just too much At points, he was a healthy
(09:01):
scratch in Pittsburgh. He goes to Dallas. You and I
talked about this this summer day. This had all the
combustible elements of terrible, terrible idea, terrible idea, You're going
to put him in a bigger media market, with more
media scrutiny, way more pressure, way more attention, all these
(09:22):
different things. And to George Pickens' credit and to the
Cowboys credit, I think a lot of different people, Brian
Schottenheimer included, deserve a lot of credit for the way
that they've managed all of the things around this season.
So George Pickens, I think, is going to stand to
make himself a lot of money. Whether that ends up
being in Dallas or somewhere else. That's wide receiver needy.
Will it go as well as it has in Dallas
(09:44):
this offseason? Who's to say? But right now for the Cowboys,
who are I mean, look at the Cowboys and the
Packers with that ugly ass tie sitting on their record.
It's going to matter for one of these teams later
down the stretch, and I'm looking forward to seeing who
was sweating that out at the end.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I said this on y'ahoo Sports Daily my usual uh,
my usual Daycake that you can check me out. On
Monday through Friday, I heard so many people screaming about
how ties are the worst thing in football.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Tis are so ugly. Oh my god, why would we ever?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
You never play for a tie Okay, look at the
standings now, ladies and gentlemen, because that tie matters a
lot of the Green Bay Packers, right like, so all
of a sudden, and it may end up mattering a
hell of a lot.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
To the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So I just it's a good reminder by you that hey,
a tie is better than a loss. I don't I
don't want to give breaking big hot takes here, but
a tie is better than a loss. And for everybody
that's like, oh, I don't want to tie, nobody wants
to see a tie.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Hell yeah, you do if it helps your team get
in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Because right now, certainly the standings are impacted by the
fact that there's only been one tie. And I hear
you on Jerry, this is this is just just being real.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Maybe it's because the holiday tomorrow that's on my mind.
Jerry Jones just turned eighty three years old. I think,
like anybody that's got.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Their eighty three year old popaw coming to Thanksgiving tomorrow, Like,
you just know, even if things are going okay at dinner,
eventually it's not gonna go okay. You know, eventually your
eighty three year old papa is gonna say something they shouldn't,
and the whole table is just gonna sit.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
There and figure out how to deal with it.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Like, you know, eventually, even if it's going right now,
it's not gonna go right all night long. And that's
just that. That's royal with Jeredy Like, look, it's great,
sometimes it works. Sometimes he's an eighty three year old
papaw Like I just I don't know what we expect
at some point when that's what we're dealing with. I
just think everybody in Spirited Thanksgiving kind of knows how
(11:37):
it feels to be a Cowboys fan.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I feel like you've probably just described with the next
you know, three hours and forty five minutes of us
are going to look like eventually something's gonna go wrong
throughout the course of the evening and we're going to
have to try and reel this thing back in. But
we'll do our best in the meantime. We're very happy
to be hanging out with you here on this Thanksgiving
on the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. We're filling
(11:59):
in for the guy. Of course. You can be sure
to check out the brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Just search Jason Smith's show on YouTube begins again. That's
Jason Smith's Show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button
and don't stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and
comment away. Let us know which of us you agree
with and who you disagree with. Go check out the
(12:20):
brand new channel on YouTube again. Just search Jason Smith's
show and subscribe. He's Jason Fitz. I'm Buck Rising, filling
in for the guys. So fitsy of the games that
we have talked about. We've talked about a little bit.
The Packers and the Lions, the Chiefs and the Cowboys
are going to take up the vast majority of the oxygen.
But this Joe Burrow storyline hovering out there for the
(12:42):
three and eight Bengals who really don't have a leg
to stand on going up against the Ravens who are
just recently in the lead of the AFC North. I
am curious to know what your thoughts on the implications
of this game are because we heard a little bit.
I'm sure the audience heard a little bit if you
were listening through the commercial break that Dan Patrick promo
(13:03):
where he's talking about he would play Joe Burrow that
the Bengals can really only play spoiler here, it feels
like maybe they run the table. That seems very unlikely
given their deficiencies as a roster, But can they really
just exist to bother the Ravens Given the fact that
these two teams have not yet met and will for
(13:23):
the first time tomorrow on Thanksgiving, I think.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
The hard part here is that we need to understand
what both of these franchisors are playing for. Zach Taylor
is playing is coaching for his job? I believe, and
I don't believe anything is short like. The only thing
I am sure of is that the Cincinnati Bengals are
doing everything they possibly can to turn Joe Burrow into
(13:46):
the modern Dan Marino made the Super Bowls rookie Year,
never went back. The Miami Dolphins could simply never surround
him with what he needed to be surrounded by, and
they wasted a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
That's what the Bengals are doing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So now, if you're the coaching staff for the Bengals,
you're trying to prove that you're not wasting him.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
So you need to win games. But unfortunately, winning games
is just.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Gonna put a band aid on a very very serious wound.
But on the other side, if you're the Ravens, you're
a team that hasn't looked good all. I don't care
anymore what our expectations are. The question is are the
Ravens a good football team? And right now the answer
to that is no. Lamar has not looked right, he
has not looked healthy. The offense has no identity. It
is disjointed as hell, like everything looks just it looks
(14:28):
wrong with the Ravens. So I think this is an
interesting game simply because you've got one team that is
trying to find a way to win to stay in
the conversation and another team that's trying to find a
way to win because they could actually make the playoffs
and they're trying to figure out if they're any good bucks.
So it's like, I don't think this. I think both
of these teams frankly stink this year. I think this
could end up being by far the worst of the games.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
I wouldn't say the Ravens stink anytime you have Lamar
Jackson on your roster, I'm gonna struggle with the idea
of stink. Even though they've looked disjointed and there's clear
really some things that they're going to be up against,
should they. I mean, obviously they're winning their division right now.
So if they end up holding Serve and they end
up winning the AFC North, they will be a playoff
team and we'll see how they manage against the competition.
(15:12):
But I know we are going to get ready to
talk about a changing of the guard potentially in the AFC,
and given I mean, I don't know that Lamar Jackson
not You're thirty years old is part of the old Guard,
but it kind of feels like those are the same
kind of characters Chiefs, Bill's Ravens that we're talking about,
and I think there's some very interesting teams to threaten
all three of those.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat. Every day, Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stat.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
To help you win big at the sportsbook, and all
the best guests.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I gotta be honest, I've been covering college football professionally
for about a decade now, Buck, I've never seen anything
quite like what we're seeing right now with Lane Kiffen.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Like, I.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Get it, he's the biggest name on the market. I
get it, he's the biggest brand on the market.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I get why.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Teams would be interested to a degree in Lane Kiffen,
But it feels like this is absolutely blowing the entire
college football world up. I mean, when have we ever
seen three different programs just sitting and waiting.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
And now there are.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Reports out that Floridas started talking to some other candidates,
and there reports out that ole Miss is starting to
quietly reach out. It looks like maybe a decision has
been made, and you know we're gonna find out.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
On Saturday he's headed to LSU. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I won't pretend to know, but Buck, what I do
know is that this thing is broken. And the entire
there is no fix. Sometimes things are broken in there
isn't a fix. But if a head coach walks away
from a team before they go into the college football playoff,
which I don't fault him for doing, he's got to go,
like he's got to go and make his money.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
He's gonna go take his new gig. Whatever. Fine, he
wants a new job. I get it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
But the thought of not coaching your team through the playoffs,
to me is just something I'm having a hard time
wrapping my head around.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
No, it's egregious. And this is something that clearly has
bothered Nick Saban, who is now sitting up there on
the desk of College Game Day offering his thoughts to
America as a de facto college football commissioner without actually
having to do the job. In fact, Lee, I know
we have an abbreviated version of what Sabin had to
(17:56):
say this past Saturday on the search the situation, Sir
Lane Kiffin.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
This is not a Lane Kiffin conundrum. This is a
college football conundrum that we need some leadership to step
up and change the rules on how this gets done
in terms of coaching searches and opportunities for people to leave.
Players can lead. So if you went to the ole
Miss players, they would say, I want my coach to
coach to the seasons over. We got a chance to
(18:26):
go to the playoffs ones, and next time we're going
to have a chance to go to the playoffs. So
that's the way it should be, regardless of what Lane
decides to do.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
So that's Nick Saban on the desk of College Game
Day this past weekend. FITZI, what's the biggest flaw in
Saban's explanation or Saban's articulation of the problem without being
able to find a solution there? Because he's saying the obvious, right,
And I'm not knocking Nick Saban or whatever, Like, It's
true we do need leadership to step in and correct
(18:57):
the problem. But what he's not necessarily articular what the
problem is, other than that they should change the schedule,
which of course revolves around collegiate academic institutions that theoretically
should not be deferential to athletics and the decision making
that comes there.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Right, Like, that's the hardest part is that national signing
days in early December, right, and so you have the
transfer portal and you have kids that have the opportunity
to start committing in early December. Many people have said,
you know what, we need to move that to after
the National Championship Game, which would be the NFL equivalent.
This is one hundred percent right. For everybody that says this,
your mindset is right. I cannot imagine being near the
(19:39):
end of the NFL season and then having free agencies
start while teams are still in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
It is broken.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
The problem is if you move it all the way
to after the National Championship Game, you would be moving
National Signing Day and transfer portal opening to the beginning
of February. I would ask everybody that's listening.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
How do you enroll in school a new college?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
How do you how do you change where you're going
to school in the beginning of February.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
The school times don't align with.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
That, So like, there's no way to start that school
system when you need to start. If you want to
be a part of UH, the the spring practices, all
of these things, you have to be enrolled in school.
How do you enroll in school in the middle of February?
That doesn't work with actual academic calendars. So college football
to fix this would have to either ask every college
(20:30):
in America to change when their semesters start.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Doesn't seem like that's.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Likely to happen, or they're going to have to change
the college football calendar and start their games substantially early earlier.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
So then you're.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Talking about asking kids to start playing college football games
in what late July?
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Like that, that doesn't make any sense. So like I
hear Nick Chamer.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
South South No, or in Texas or on the West coast, like,
it's just it's not it's not to enact that level
of change for a variety of different rates.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yes, no, exactly. So that's why everything just becomes stuck.
And I think, you know again, this is where I
don't have any emotion.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
I just have logic with these things.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
When you look at all of the logic, there is
no easy way for this to get worked out. Like
this is just the worst imaginable situation where a coach,
in order to go out and get the transfers and
get the roster built that he needs to get built
at the school that's likely going to be paying him
ninety million dollars, he's going to have to stop coaching
(21:34):
at all MISS before the playoffs and that just feels
icky like that.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
But I can't figure out a way to solve it.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
No, it's I mean it is, it's not currently there's
not a solve that currently exists, right, We're just going
to have to get through the flaws of this thing
as it's currently constructed. And I mean, I don't know.
We'll see what decision Lane ends up making. It's going
to be polarized either way. To your point, the way
that you started this segment, there's never been one a
(22:05):
situation like this, but also an atmosphere to create a
situation like this ever in the that I can think
of in the history of collegiate athletics. And the fact
that Lane Kiffin has done his job right, He's gotten
old Miss into the playoff picture. Lane Kiffin has done
his job. And you could say, well, the job is
not finished because the goal is a national championship and
(22:25):
that should be the priority. But that I think that
depends on the program that you're at, and it oll Miss.
I think it is good enough to make the playoffs,
Like I think Lane Kiffin has done his job at
a commensurate level that anything else beyond this would be gravy. Now,
if you want to be considered as one of the
best in your profession. If you want to be talked
about in the same way that we talk about Ryan
Day or Kirby Smart, than Yeah, national championship every year
(22:48):
is the standard, which is why LSU and Florida are
in consideration at all, because if it was just about
winning ten games a year, he could stay at all
miss and have a much easier lifestyle, as you've pointed
out several times on our our weekend show together, FITZI,
but it's just it's very, very convoluted right now, and
I don't what if what if he loses the egg Ball,
(23:09):
you know what I'm saying, Like, what if he loses
the egg Maybe maybe he's thinking about all right, I'm
I'm I'm going no matter what, But then he loses
the egg Bowl. LSU and Florida look around and be like,
how much money are we going to offer the guy
that just lost to Mississippi State When Mississippi State doesn't
beat anybody by the way, they're playing for ball eligibility.
They're not a good team, but they're a team that's
good enough to make you sweat this. You talked about
(23:32):
chaos scenarios earlier in the world of college football, that
that Egg Bowl has the potential to be as catastrophic
as any game played this weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
That's that's complicated, like this entire situation, and there's another
reason why.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
I don't think there's an easy answer.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
We'll tell you what it is next, but first Manzi
Blagya's got to get his.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Caught up on what is going on? Get us caught up.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
My friend shit.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
See you saying that it's Ikey is putting it nicely
because it's so.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
It is so.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
It just like the situation just sucks.
Speaker 8 (24:02):
And you guys think there's a chance that Lane Kiffin
is not leaving. Why would you make that announcement if
you were not leaving. I know we're waiting on the
official announcement, but you get what I'm saying, like, why
would you announce the announcement?
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Hey?
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Why is there an announcement to begin with?
Speaker 6 (24:17):
Why?
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Everybody shut up? I'm so with you, I'm so with you.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Why are we announcing anything?
Speaker 8 (24:24):
Just play and then when there's news, then share the
news because maybe there's not no news, but there's no
way there's no news anyway. It's just it's just an
annoying situation in the NBA. Fellas you know, I don't
know how old Steph Curry is off the top of
my head, but this guy is actually playing defense tonight,
and it's really nice to see. Against the Rockets. The
Warriors are up right now, sixty three to fifty. It's
still early in the third quarter. This is the NBA
(24:46):
group play for the NBA Cup. The Spurs are up
on the Trailblazer seventy to sixty five, also still early
in the third. Halfway through the third, these Suns are
just cruising past the Kings right now.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Seventy two to fifty five is the score.
Speaker 8 (24:58):
Russell Westbrook leading the way for Sacramento with fourteen points.
The Celtics snapped the pistons thirteen game winning streak already.
They came out on top one seventeen to one fourteen. OKC, though,
is one of five NBA teams in the history of
NBA to start the season eighteen and one or better.
They defeated the Timberwolves one thirteen to one oh five.
OKAC has also won ten in a row. The Grizzlies
(25:19):
defeated the Pelicans in overtime one thirty three to one
twenty eight. When it comes to the NHL, the Avalanche
have won ten in a row. They just shut out
the Sharks six zero early in the third period. The
Mammoth are up on the Canadians three to two. Late
in the second period, the Senators are edging the Golden
Knights three to two. Just like the Canucks and the Ducks,
where the Canucks are up three to two and the
Krakenner up are no The Crackinger are losing to the
(25:42):
Stars two to one, but alex ovachikan Fell has scored
his nine hundred and eighth career goal and the Capitol's
top the Jets four to three. Lightning extend their winning
streak to five after beating the Flames five to one,
and the Wild now have won six in a row.
They edged the Blackhawks four to three in overtime. When
it comes to the NFL, four time Pro Bowl Detroit
(26:02):
line center Frank.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Ragnow is coming out of retirement.
Speaker 8 (26:05):
The Bengals have activated Joe Burrow off injured reserve, and
Isaiah Pacheco, running back of the Chiefs, who's been dealing
with the knee injury. He is expected to play Thursday
against the Cowboys. In baseball, the Blue Jays are signing
pitcher Dylan Sees to a seven year, two hundred and
ten million dollar contract, pending a physical. Also, ESPN reports
at the Angels and Third Basement Anthony Rendon are in
(26:28):
talks about buying out the final year of his contract.
He is owed thirty eight million in twenty twenty six,
and he hasn't played in years. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but years.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Back to you, guys, I.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Just like the way you said Anthony's last name, Monzi
say just yet.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Please bendun Yeah, sure, bendun.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
No, don't let don't make him do it?
Speaker 8 (26:51):
Now what it's a good thing to practice rolling your rs.
You never know when you're gonna need it.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
No, that's fine, But he tries to do the sensual
thing I just I cannot have.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
I can't viola.
Speaker 8 (27:04):
Spanish is a sensual language, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Yeah, But this, this little pink Caucasian human being in
front of me rolling as ours is not central in
the least.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I you know, look, I can't help that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
My sensualness just comes through when I say buck rising?
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Does that? See see these book rising on Jason Frish.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Stop that's right, Sometimes I whisper just to make my
co host uncomfortable.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Work.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
You did great, You're amazing. Uh yeah, Look, I don't
even know where I was going to go.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I just started whispering and Buck, and now I forgot
what I was talking about.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Oh, Lane Kiffin, Yeah, Lankiff again. My my theory in life.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
By the way, you can test this out while you're
hanging out with your family on Thanksgiving. Anything that you
say normal, that you whisper then becomes creepy. It's not
creepy when you say it, it's creepy when you whisper.
It Like if I look at Buck and I say
I like the hat you're wearing tonight, not creepy. If
I look at Buck and.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
I say I like the hat you're wearing tonight, it's
very creepy. See what I mean. So just try that
at a Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
I don't like that at all. Not wonder Oh you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I'm here to help. I'm here to help. I'll be
here all night. Try the mail. For over forty years,
tire Rack's been helping customers find the right tires for how,
what and where they drive.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Buck wants to drive away from me, as fast as possible.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
They're shipped fast and free, backed by free road hazard
protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation, tire
rack dot com. The way tire buying should be. I'm
not sure what the way coach hiring should be, but
like there is some nuance to this, and I find
myself correcting my own thought process sometimes because Buck, we've
(28:52):
we've debated this on the weekend a few times about
where you can win a national championship. I'm a big
believer you can win a national championship and Ole Miss
right now. I mean, the proof is in the fact
that they should have been in the playoffs last year.
If their head coach hadn't helped them blow a game
against Kentucky, they would have been in the playoffs. And
the proof is in the fact that they should be
in the playoffs this year. So they have one of
(29:14):
the top NIL budgets in the country. You can win
a national championship at ole Miss. So many people like
me have been screaming, why would you go to LSU
when you can win.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
A national championship at all Miss?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
But also what if Lane just wants to go to LSU,
Like if one thing that Nick Saban was very right
about in his statement, if a player just decides they
want to play somewhere else, they can play somewhere else
in college football, really anywhere. If a coach decides they
want to coach somewhere else, they're just gonna go coach
somewhere else. We spent so much time trying to figure
(29:47):
out what job is the better job, when reality is,
if Lane just wants to go to LSU or Florida
in the way that this is now, in the way
wild West, he's got every right to do that.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
And if he.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Built it an ole mess, he can certainly build to
build it wherever he goes.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
So I understand the Lane portion of this.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
What I don't necessarily understand is why there's this level
of absolute just buffoonery over hiring a coach that doesn't
have a landmark win, Like what is what is the
biggest win of Lane Kiffin's career? And this is where
people say just making old misrelevant is the biggest win
(30:26):
of their career.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Well maybe, yes, I know that's my entire argument. Thank
you for underminding me before I have the chance to speak.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
But here's the thing, like just being able to win games,
didn't keep Brian Kelly employed, right, Like.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Just how many smiles miles stay?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, but that's the thing, Like this all gets really
confusing to me because, yeah, he's the best candidate available,
But is the entire college football calendar worth changing and the.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Entire way that everybody does business we're changing for Lane
Damn Kiffin.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
Well, no, it's not Lane Kiffin, but it's what it represents.
It's what like represents, right, It's the opportunity for this
to happen again. I think that if you are talking
about the circumstance around Lane, yes it is. I think
it's exacerbated because it's Lane, because Lane leans in on
social media. Because Lane is dealing with an athletic director
(31:19):
that is comfortable putting out statements saying, will announce what
we're gonna do with Lang Tiffin after the egg ball.
I just think that's as bad a move as has
been made in the middle of all of this that
has stirred stuff up unnecessarily. You can say that Lane,
you know, is that he should be above this, Right,
He's supposed to be this change person, this and the other.
Lane Tiffin has changed a great deal about his life
(31:39):
and route to making himself again a success after all
the trials and tribulations of the early part of his career.
That doesn't mean that he's not allowed to lean into
some of this on social media the way that very
many of us would in our own lives. I think
your point about making it about Lane is correct, But
it's not about Lane. It's about preventing another situation like
(32:02):
this for a team potentially. Get who is in the
playoff picture, who should be able to be in the
playoff picture, who has earned the right to participate in that,
but who's being undermined by the fact that all of
these institutions fired their coach in season. It's thrown the
coach in carousel into a level of fervor that we
(32:22):
haven't seen so much so that James Franklin is getting
scooped up by Virginia Tech basically in the middle of
the season and is hanging out on the sidelines on
a Virginia Tech hoodie watching everybody else coach a team
that he's getting ready to take over next year. It's
just it's it's a very messy situation. So Lane, it's
impossible to remove Lane from the scenario. But you have
(32:44):
to think about how many times, how many more times
this could happen down the line with coaches of a
similar caliber. Once SEC money and that's really what it is,
once SEC money starts to get involved the way that
it has.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
You're right, and that's why I think there's a massive
change that has to be made.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
If you're on the East Coast, Happy Thanksgiving. We've crossed
over midnight. It's officially Thanksgiving. You can start drinking now.
You have full permission. I mean that's the way that works, right, Like,
I don't know how there know.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Why people aren't already drunk at this point. I mean, buddy,
blackout Wednesday is a thing. I know that you and
your music theater child background don't understand how us, the
regular people, the normies, if you will celebrate just generally
(33:41):
any reason that we can to and vibe. But yeah,
most people are slashed by now. I mean, Happy Thanksgiving.
You can start drinking now, what do you mean?
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
First and foremost of how many years on a tour
bus and do you think you're gonna tell me about drinking.
Good lord, I mean I don't think you under stand.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
But drinking within the conventions of normal people, that's not
a normal experience. Oh I rode around on a tour
bus with a with a Grammy nominated band.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Would um win?
Speaker 5 (34:13):
We won? We want you, simple child, you sweet summer child. Yeah,
where's your Grammary? Show it to me?
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Show thirteen.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
I want the actual Grammary. I want the actual Grammary,
not not some little certificate that says, yeah I want
a Grammy, but somebody else got to keep it at
their house. No, where's the Grammy?
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Thirteen nominations, So I mean that that that's pretty good, right,
thirteen nominations?
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Pretty good? This is this is what we do.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
This is what we do. I mean, look, I get it,
I get it. You know we can't all be reporters
covering the Titans.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Actually most of us could, most of us.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Could you want that?
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Dad?
Speaker 5 (34:51):
I don't practice tomorrow. I don't want.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Does that team actually practice? Oh no, I'm just throwing shade.
I here's the question. Here's the question that the Titans
are not a fraud, right, Like the Titans are exactly
who we know they are. You can't be fraud. The
Titans just suck. Like, when you are that level of suck,
you're not a fraud.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Like.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
But there are some teams in the NFL right now
that are coming into Thanksgiving and they're gonna suit at
the table and they're gonna tell you that they you know,
that they've found their significant other and that they've got
their life in order, and that they're up for a promotion.
And everybody sitting at the table knows that they are
sitting on a throne of lies. So let's figure out,
in honor of the liars at the Thanksgiving table, who the.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Frauds are in the NFL so far this season.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
I am just throwing all sorts of shades at Thanksgiving
and in some of these teams. And I will start
with the team that we talked about earlier, the Ravens.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Are they a fraud to you? At this point?
Speaker 5 (35:47):
The Ravens are not a fraud because they are a
team that is flawed. Like, I think that you have
to consider where the Ravens defense was, how they're managing
the situation. It's the early part of the season where
we're like, this is the worst defense that anybody has
ever seen is certainly associated with that uniform color, because
(36:08):
that's the thing that that franchise has prided itself on.
Now that Lamar Jackson is back in the mix, they're
playing a little more balanced football. They still have issues,
but I think six and five is appropriate. Now. You
could say, well, I picked them to win the Super Bowl.
Many people did that this past offseason, understandably. So the
Ravens were the number one offense in terms of DVOA
last year. They are as or they were as efficient
(36:31):
as anybody. They were as difficult to stop as anybody,
and there was reason to believe that they might be
able to carry that over into twenty twenty five. Lamar
Jackson gets injured. That throws things a wrench into things.
Their defense can't stop a nosebleed. They're losing by thirty
to the Houston Texans, who aren't a good offense with CJ.
Stroud in the lineup early in the year. So I
(36:51):
think if you are talking about relative to preseason expectation, yeah,
they haven't been what we all expected them to be.
But if you're looking at them right now and saying,
are you a fraud? At six and five. Now, I
feel like they're appropriately placed at six and five. They're
a division leader, they're talented enough to be, and they
should be able to outlast the corpse of Aaron Rodgers
and whoever Joe Burrow is going to try and fight
(37:15):
fight through with tomorrow. I know t Higgins is out
and jamar Che should be back from suspension, so we'll see.
But Trey Hendrickson also out in that game. So what
are the Bengals are rather, what are the Ravens up
against that would make them anything but the best team
and a bad division this year?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yeah, I think the Ravens are. You're right, it's pretty
accurate where they are. I think some of the conversation
around the Ravens is fradulent. I think some of the
people that just presume that now, like we've seen it
over the course in the last three or four weeks
where it's like, well, the Ravens are going to take
off and they're going to win the division. Yes, that
is true, because their schedule is soft as sharpman for
(37:54):
the rest of the way, right, So they're going to
beat up on some bad teams and they're going to
win some football games that doesn't mean they're good, right,
But to your point, I'm not sure they're a fraud.
What about Kansas City? Then, Like, are we at a
spot where we can call the Chiefs a fraud? Because
I'll be honest, Buck, like I want this. I want
to call the Chiefs a fraud. I want to turn
around and say, all right, the Chiefs are kind of
(38:15):
a joke this year and they are broken and blah
blah all the things.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
That we say about Kansas City.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
But like I said earlier, if I'm gonna be real,
if I had to place a bet on my house
for or against the Chiefs, I don't feel good betting
against Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
So I don't know what to make a Kansas City.
Are they a fraud?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
No, I'd put them in the same category as the Ravens,
I'll tell you, because the things that are a problem
for them are not They're not fixed. Because they came
back in overtime at home against the Cults. The Colts
are a good team. That's a quality opponent that they beat.
It's enough to one keep Chiefs Chiefs fans hopes alive
and also two to strike fear into the rest of
(38:56):
the NFL. Be like, oh my god, they can still
do the thing. But can they still do the thing?
Or is that just a situation where the Colts screwed
around at the end of that game, couldn't run the
football with Jonathan Taylor, which has been their superpower, and
the Chiefs are good enough to come back at any
given point. I would say that that that the latter
is more accurate. I will tell you I think the
Seahawks are a fraud. I just saw the Seahawks play
(39:17):
here in Nashville, and I think that Jackson Smith and
Jigber is the truth. I think that Seattle's defense is
good enough to keep Sam Darnold in it. But I
saw Sam Donald not cover himself in glory against the
Tennessee Titans, who did not play a good game defensively,
who have put up, you know, a fight here or there.
They're a one to ten football team, so you make
(39:39):
of that what you will. But I just watched them
in person this past weekend, after seeing Sam Donald come
off that four interception performance, and I, you know, I
think he's still the same guy. I think that it's
it's enough to say, like I got what Minnesota tried
to do, right they made a move for a more
cost effective option that their head coach handpicked. Their head
coaches a quarterback developer. He's somebody who is going to
(40:02):
continue to believe that organizations ruin players far more than
players ruin organizations. So he said, all right, J. J. McCarthy,
you're my guy, and we'll let Sam Donald go on
to greener pastors and we'll figure it out from there.
And for a while, for the now eight win Seahawks team,
that's been enough, and he's been objectively good. He has
been worth the contract. But these last two weeks, it's
(40:22):
just it's signs of the end of last season right
where he's facing the Lions and he's under durest from
a pass rush or a defense that's playing better than
it probably should have been playing at the end of
the year, given all the injuries they had at the
end of last season, and that cost them the division.
So all of a sudden they're the wild card team.
They go into the Rams, and the Rams rough them up.
Because on any given day, Sam Donald against a pass
(40:43):
rush like that, he's going to look less less than
superhuman at this point in time. So I think because
of the fact that we have seen teams start to
expose Sam Donald the fact that they are a team
with a poor turnover deferential even though they have one
of the most explosive offenses in football, to get them
buy in these moments. I think the Seahawks are gettable,
(41:05):
and just seeing them in person felt like that ratified
that to make okay.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
But I do think two things can be true to
your point, I'll buy what you're selling.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
If we want to.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Talk about whether or not Sam Donald may not be epic,
I'll buy that if that's what we want to sell.
I still don't think the vikings lett him walk out
the door made any sense because you didn't have to
do it. You could have figured out a way to
franchise him and keep him. And that's where I get
a little bit nervous. As I said earlier, you know,
I understand wanting some level of I understand wanting some
(41:38):
level of cheaper options.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
But I will just remind.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Everybody according to true media and make what you will
on this. But EPA per dropback is a big number
for quarterback efficiency all times since two thousand. He ranks
currently eight hundred and fifty one out of eight hundred
and fifty two in EPA forquarterbacks per dropback, the only
quarterback McCarthy does, the only quarterback worse since the year
(42:05):
two thousand was JaMarcus Russell. So I say all of
that to say that JJ McCarthy right now, statistically in
one major metric.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Is JaMarcus Russell.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
And when you look at that level of disaster, two
things can be true. Sam Donald melted down. Sam Donald
may not be a world saver.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
We'll see for Seattle.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I don't know that I'm ready to jump off the
train entirely, but currently as we sit right now, we've
had very little to JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
When we've had him, it's been tragically bad.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
So I don't think that there's any like The Vikings
put themselves in a situation where they have a roster
that was built to try and contempt for Super Bowls
right now, and they risked everything on their savants quarterback
whispering head coach that turns out can't whisper through the media,
the guy that they need him to be able to
get through with JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (42:55):
This thing's broken.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
So I hear you, But I also just want to
at least throw the Vikings under the bus for letting
Sam Donald go. I think the Seahawks defense is so
good and Jackson Smith and Jig but is so good,
and their ability to run the football will save them
from being a fraud.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I do think that the Chicago Bears are a fraud.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
And it's okay, Like it's okay that the Bears are
much better than we expected record wise, but man, you
look at the teams and the quarterbacks that the Bears
have had to beat this year, it's a whole bunch
of slop. It is just this year in the NFL,
more than recent memory. Who you play and when you
play them matters, and golly like the Bears have needed
miracle win after miracle win against trash teams. I would
(43:36):
buy that the Bears are frauds. Now it does matter.
They're in first place in their division currently. Enjoy Chicago fans,
and enjoy this whole run. Just remember next summer when
we're talking about the Bears the same way we were
talking about the Commanders this summer with the Hey advanced
analytics shows they weren't that good. They're going to take
a step back. Commanders fans tried to rip everybody's heads
(43:57):
off for it.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
What do you know?
Speaker 3 (43:59):
So just a reminder to everybody that I think the
Bears are frauds.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
I think there's been appreciable growth in Caleb Williams. I
think that Ben Johnson deserves a lot of credit for that.
And I think that Ben Johnson and Shane Steichen are
the thing that every team in the NFL is chasing
right now, that there are only so many of those
dudes who are the kind of one personality type to
handle the job of head coach too adept enough at
(44:27):
the balancing of that job versus calling the offensive plays
for your team, which is no small thing. And I
don't just say that because I covered a coach who
got play calling duties taken from him in Brian Callahan
before he would go on to be fired. As if
there was a more pre fired move in America than
taking the play calling from a play calling head coach
that you specifically hired to do that, whether it was
(44:49):
Will Levis cam or or anybody else who's going to
work with here. The thing about Chicago that would concern me,
just in terms of down the stretch here is what,
how can I be harmed by the teams that are
sitting behind me, even though I've handled the competition in
(45:12):
my division pretty well so far, Like how big is
the golf actually? Between the Lions, the Packers, and the Bears.
We understand that Minnesota is getting left in the dust here,
so they're not relevant for the purposes of our conversation.
Matt Lafleur has come under some scrutiny because of the
way that the Packers' offense looks Does the Packers offense
(45:32):
look like that? Because Matt Lafleur is not a good
play caller and has forgotten all the things that have
made him very, very good at that job. Or the
wide receivers, the young wide receivers in Green Bay inconsistent.
They look a lot different without Tucker Craft the tight
end in the lineup, and Matt Lafleur is actually making
the best of a bad situation. How much can how
much can Dan Campbell make Jared Goff better? If Dan
(45:56):
Campbell is actually going to be in charge of play
calling here as opposed to Joe Morton in.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Detroit, Campbell has the play calling now, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (46:04):
Right, because he did, the change was made. He looked
like a genius for a minute in time. He had
the glasses on the whole thing. But I don't know.
Are are we taking too much out of a one
game sample size and saying all right, but is that sustainable?
Is he going to be able to get figured out again?
The balance of managing those things like where are the
(46:26):
flaws for the other teams that are chasing Chicago or
on Chicago's heels? Right now, I feel about as good
as Chicago being able to mitigate their flaws as I
do these other teams catching them at this point in time,
which would basically make the argument against them being frauds.
You just feel a little more, at least me, I
feel a little more confident in what they have versus
what the other teams are up against.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
It's just for me again. I'll go back to this.
You say it with me, you'll get a kick out
of this. Early they beat the Cowboys early in the year,
particularly when the Cowboys, So this is the Bears we're
talking about, yea. Then the Bears beat the Raiders, who suck.
Then they beat the Commanders, who suck. Then they beat
(47:08):
the Saints, who suck. Then they beat the Bengals, who
say it with me, suck. Then they beat the Giants
even without I think Jackson Dart in that game, I
don't remember, but they suck. Then they beat the Vikings,
who suck, and they just beat the Steelers, who.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
Saw Mike right, No, they do.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
So I was like, so for me, I just looked
at it was like, I don't have a single win
at all that for the Bears. Now the Bears coming up,
I don't have a single win that. I look at that,
and they say, oh my god, that proofs up. Now
coming up Eagles, Packers, Packers, forty nine, Ers, Lions. I've
listed all of their remaining games except for the Browns
for one very important reason. So I look at Eagles, Packers, Packers,
(47:50):
forty nine, Ers, Lions. I don't know what the Browns
game is going to be. Those other five games, they'll
be very very telling. Now, you're right, they could lose
all five of those and still finish nine to eight.
I just think that that's I don't think losing all
five is I think that's a little disrespectful, sir. When
we think of an eight and three football team and
you look at what's ahead of them, I don't think
we're going to talk about Chicago in six weeks. The
(48:11):
way we're talking about Chicago today.
Speaker 5 (48:13):
Well, just look at what they're up against on Friday.
They're at Philadelphia. Those are two eight and three teams,
like what is the And again, it will not define
specifically how big the gulf is between Chicago and Philadelphia.
If you know, Chicago were to fall short or Philadelphia
were to lose there, I don't think we would be
able to definitively say, yeah, that's how big the distance
(48:34):
is between these two teams. If we're talking about a
representative sample size. But they head to head, you know,
to get kind of back into the college football playoff parlance.
Had the head should matter and could matter, especially if
they go on the road, if they go to Philly,
especially coming off that loss that the Eagles just experienced
at the hand of the Cowboys, which has to be
(48:55):
at that's a long history and a storied his So
I don't want to say it's as traumatic a loss
as Eagles fans have ever experienced against Cowboys, but certainly
in recent memory, it's as traumatic a loss as Eagles
fans have had against the Cowboys. Where they're up, what
was it, twenty one to nothing and the Cowboys roar
back in the second half to just take it from them.
(49:16):
That way, Philadelphia now has something to prove. There's been
a lot of dialogue around Jalen Hurts in the media,
whether it's founded or reported or rumors. At this point
in time in Chicago's just kind of plugging away and
Ben Johnson's doing their the little good better best breakdown
in the huddle, which is a little clunky to me,
but whatever, if it works for them, they're eight and three,
far be it from me to judge. We will learn
(49:37):
a great deal about what Chicago has actually accomplished and
what they can still accomplish after this Black Friday football
game is played.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
Yeah, I will remind everybody right now to eight and
three teams, and Vegas has Philly favored by seven, a
large number for two teams that are eight and three
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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