Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk NFL Week 11!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listen to sports, and I don't want to speak
for you from salaam, but let me ask you right
out of the game. Are you a creature a habit?
Would you? Would you describe yourself that way? I think
we all are to some extent. Yeah, we have things
that we like. We you know, you might want to
get up in the morning, you have your morning coffee.

(00:21):
What you're uh, well, I would say newspaper, but you know,
read your favorite news app or you know, watch one
of the sports shows or something like that. I mean
you you you find yourself getting up and and and
doing the same thing, uh, because it's a it's a
comfort thing. So yeah, I guess in in in that sense,

(00:42):
I am a creature of habit. Now, don't date yourself
too much, but bringing up newspapers, but now right, and
athletes I've talked to tend to maybe even be more so, uh,
creatures of habit because of the way you guys go
through a workout, right, you man, whatever a routine I

(01:02):
bet you guys, I bet you had that when you
were still you had a very specific routine. Right every
game day, I get up, I do the same thing,
eat the same meal, get to the stadium the same
time and go through the same pregame ritual. By the way,
offensive lineman, I would love to hear what a pregame

(01:23):
meal is. Can you tell me what that was for me?
I had eggs. I had no no, no, it's just
you know, you know, but I guess to come on, man,
it's okay. I didn't eat a lot. I didn't like
to eat you too much before game. No, no, no, no,

(01:44):
even though a few hours before the game, I just
got enough, right, So I would have some eggs, some oatmeal, um,
and like a pastry and that was that was it.
A lot of guys eat pasta and steaking. But you
know you eat that. Yeah, you have an early game impost,

(02:08):
you know. But some guys did you know? I know,
what do you think? This is the World Cup? You
can't just get up in the morning start eating and
drinking like a mad person. Um. But you can now
because the World Cup is here in the middle of November.
But I'll tell you, I'm asking about the whole creature
a habit thing because there's one NFL team right now
where I'm like, my god, you guys are creatures of

(02:30):
habit and you might want to break this habit. More
on that in just a second. We're broadcasting live from
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Evening to you, Week eleven, National Football League and beyond

(02:52):
Fox Sports Sunday. That's e from Salam. I'm Mark Willard.
At what point when you're a creature of habit and
you're doing the same thing over and over again, at
what point when it's not working do you change the habit? Now,
the Denver Broncos tried to change who was calling the plays,

(03:15):
so they gave that back over to Gary Kubiak. And
I don't have the timeline in front of me, but
something tells me Gary Kubiak somebody that you know very
very well. Uh, yeah, I don't know if it's Gary
kuba It wasn't it, It wasn't it spoke Yes, I'm sorry,
Yes Kubiak uh takes over. But you you you know
that family very very well. And and sort of the

(03:37):
lines that that we're talking about with regard to the
play calling. Okay, so they moved things over to Kubiak,
and that's because of the start of the year that
Nathaniel Hackett has had as the head coach. Changed that
middle name to couldn't no no question. So now if

(03:58):
any of you missed, and I don't know why you'd
unless you're a red zone watcher, because it was by
far not the game. It's the opposite of the game
of the day. Okay, these two teams are now both
three and seven. But at the end of the football game,
here's the situation. The Broncos have the football, the Raiders
are out of time outs, the Broncos lead by three,

(04:19):
the two minute warning has just taken place, and it
is third and ten. Everybody in the world is thinking
what you're gonna You're gonna do what everybody does, which
is run the ball because that will probably not lead
to a first down, but it's gonna take forty seconds
off the clock. Raiders will get the ball with like
a minute fifteen that will be pinned down deep in

(04:41):
their own zone and they'll have no time outs, and
that will be difficult, uh not, you know, out of
the realm of possibility. But difficult. Well, the Broncos do
this nouveaux. Well, hey, let's just win the game right now,
and they drop back to pass. On third and ten,
Russell Wilson rolls right, he releases it, and wide open

(05:04):
were a few blades of grass twelve yards down the field.
To make this reception. The Raiders won the football game
a from I'm sitting here looking at every single thing
that the Denver Broncos have done offensively with regard to
Russell Wilson, especially at the end of games, and I'm thinking,
if I want to do that, if it's third and ten,

(05:27):
I'm gonna give my future Hall of Fame quarterback an option,
which is go ahead and drop back to pass. I'm
gonna give you one, maybe two options at most. If
it is not wide open, there's your knee. Use it,
sit down, take a bunch of time off the clock.
The Raiders ended up almost winning this game in regulation

(05:49):
only because of U three and out. Once they got
to first in gold didn't end up going to overtime,
and then they want it right away. I have never
seen an intend game stretch, more box play, calling, more
mismanagement at the end of games than what the Denver
Broncos have given us so far in two unbelievable. Yeah,

(06:09):
it is. And as a former Denver Bronco, Uh, it
saddens me, especially when it comes against the Raiders. Um,
it's it's almost hard to comprehend, um the ineptness of
time management, play calling, just overall direction of the offense. Uh.

(06:33):
You get a generational quarterback in again, which you did.
You had John Elway and then you went out and
you you got Peyton Manning and both of those guys
paid dividends for you, and you've kind of been muddling
about trying to find the guy you pay at King's
Random for for Russell Wilson, and it's it hasn't worked.

(06:58):
And I'm not saying it's Russell Wilson. He hasn't, you know,
played up to the standard we're used to. But in
this situation, for me, it starts, Um, it starts at
the top the missteps week one. Uh, it just goes
on and on and on and every week it seems

(07:18):
like we're scratching our head about mismanagement. Something they're not
doing right. You have to hire someone to come in
and manage the time. Now you're hiring someone to come
in and and call the plays. Um. Needless to say,
I believe the different Broncos pick the wrong guy to
lead the team. Uh, and Nathaniel Hackett, and I was

(07:39):
extremely critical and Nathaniel hack It at the hiring because
I just didn't understand it. Everybody wants to go young,
everybody wants to go new, and everybody wants to go fresh. Uh.
But sometimes new, young and fresh isn't ripe. And that's
what we're seeing here. I do have a question about
this though, and I like, from a genuine place, I

(08:01):
wonder on a play like that, even if a call
is sent in and it is a past play in
third and ten, we're gonna try to convert all of that.
Isn't there some responsibility that goes to Russell Wilson to say,
if I'm gonna roll out, this is one of the
rare situations in NFL end of games where I'm like, dude,

(08:23):
take the sack, Take the sack. Why would you roll
out right and do a throwaway to an empty space
of grass where you know you're just handing the raiders
forty more seconds on the clock. And they used them,
and they used him, and they won the football game?
Is this some of this on Russ? Uh? You know what?

(08:44):
And you can't say there's some of some of it
it's on him. But you also have to realize that
I don't believe he's comfortable enough within the new system,
within the the new UM. He doesn't have the relationship.
I don't believe. Uh, Russ isn't the rock the boat
type of guy. We've known that his whole career. UM,

(09:06):
if he was, he wouldn't have threw that pass on
the one yard line in the super Bowl. You get
what I'm saying, right, So it's good point. So you
know there isn't a history there of him bucking the system.
He is a system. He will he will call what
you you call. You know what I mean? And I
mean he is a what fourth round draft pick? He's

(09:29):
had ultimate success coming from that space. But you know,
Russell Westbrook is going to work within the confines of
what you call and what you do. He's not a
page man. He's not a right like pay Manny will
be like I'm not. They don't even call play pay
Man in that situation. They just let Payton do his thing.
They're not gonna send any play in They're gonna let

(09:50):
him do his thing, because when you have the ultimate
confidence in the in the quarterback, reading and understanding the
moment in situation, which we haven't seeing from Russ Are
are any of the higher up this year? In in
in uh, in Denver, you fall, you you you keep
finding yourselves in these situations. Yeah, I mean, he's not
someone who bucks the system on the play calls, but man,

(10:12):
he will buck the system afterward, after the game, in
the locker room, in the front office, executive rooms. I mean,
that's that's essentially what led him out of Seattle. And
you watch him play this year, I mean, correct me
if I'm wrong. And I don't want to be a
prisoner of the moment. And I'm certainly not taking anything
away from somebody who's already achieved these things, But my gosh,

(10:35):
the shine has fallen off of this guy. Like did
you the way you look at the teammate he's been
and so many of the things I've watched this year
with that team where you could, oh, he's got an
injury and he's flying to l A and he's getting
a PRP injection, and I'm like, this is so much
of it His decision making stuff. There's got nothing to
do with your legs, your arm, your offensive line, who's

(10:58):
calling the plays? Russ A Wilson to me, he should
be able to make better decisions. He's Russell Wilson. Yeah,
I get it, But once again, he's not Russell Wilson
in Seattle. Right. There was discord there when he left Seattle,
the place where he had ultimate success, the place where
um he got his start, the place where he became

(11:19):
Russell Wilson. At a certain point they were like, ah,
we're good on Russell Wilson. Right, let Russ cook right,
you know what I mean? Like why why? Why wasn't
he allowed to cook? Right? So now we may be
seeing a glimpse into what that actually really is, uh

(11:43):
in terms of a trust standpoint, I don't know. It's
it's it's it's it's weird. Yeah. We love to do this,
especially at this hour of the day on Fox Sports Sunday,
and that is with all of the new data, because
it's such a week to week league, with all of
the new data that's come in, how about a little

(12:03):
update and a check in on pretenders and contenders will
go through the list based off of what we saw today.
Dive in on that and much more as Sunday Night
football begins and one of the worst football games I've
seen in a long time at the NFL level. And
I get there are low scoring football games, but something

(12:23):
happened today, uh that that I'd love to see us
discussed so that it never happens again. We'll get into
all of that coming up next. Good evening to you.
Thank you for joining us wherever you are. That's eat
from Salama Mark. Whether it or on Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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(12:45):
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(13:07):
We give you smart takes, and we also bring on
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wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's keep doing this.

(13:29):
We're live in the Tiraq dot com studios. So I
gather you got up early and watched the little World
Cup today and you know, okay what you see because
I was saving. I'm saving my soccer juice for themorrow morning.
I believe that we will win. Okay. I watched uh

(13:49):
Ecuador in Qatar play and uh, it was you know,
it was good. It was a good opening match into
what's about to be you know, NonStop World Cup coverage.
And I'll tell you what. Qatar was out there playing
by straight person rules. I mean yeah, so literally, I

(14:16):
know they just got a team, because you gotta have
a team the host the world come. I know it's
a lot of question marks about how Qatar got the
World Cup in the first place, but there another question marks.
You got any questions I got anyway, go ahead, But

(14:38):
I say that to say, uh, it was good to
see them out on the pitch. Um Ecuador started the game.
I started the match I believe in the first you know,
eight minutes and scored. That score didn't count, it was
called off sides. And then I came right back and
scored again, and then good are just proceeded to just

(15:01):
clip legs, kick karate kicking too, chests like uh, it was.
It was exciting. And so my wife woke up and
she was watching soccer. I was like, yeah, it was
the World Cup opening match, and she was just like oh,
and I was like what. She was like, I can't

(15:22):
stand watching grown men flip them their bodies into the
air like they've been shot and roll around in pain
and then hop up. So I said, oh wait, So
she so she doesn't like the NBA. He doesn't like
the flopping right aspect of it. So this is what
this is what I was telling. And I was like, look,

(15:42):
two things they're trying to accomplish two things. When they
do that, the number one thing that they're trying to accomplish.
She was like, what, get like a penalty or something.
I was like, no, that's not the number one thing.
And I realized this by only over the years following
UM soccer and then coaching it. Uh, when when my

(16:05):
kids play, So what we have to realize is there
are no huddle ups timeouts. Bring it in. When a
soccer match is going, it's going right, you're you're going straight.
You got that forty five minute running clock. We're gonna go.

(16:27):
So when a player gets clipped and they flipped backwards
into the air, grab their legs, spine, hip, neck or
face and roll around, those are precious moments for their
team to rest. And you get that in penalty timing
at the end of of a half our game. But

(16:51):
just think about that, if you're in a NonStop continuing
with running all out, those little those theatrics that helps
you gain your breath, you know, get yourself situated, and
then you possibly get a yellow card. Right, and so

(17:11):
I almost get it. I still don't like it because
it's egregious. I mean, you clip somebody's heel, they throw
their head backwards, slam down onto the floor, roll around
like it's you know, it's crazy. But I understand what

(17:32):
they're trying to accomplish. Well, it's part of the culture. Now,
it's part of the culture and soccer maybe it always
has been. Um, you're right. The funny part of it
is not necessarily that somebody is out there, um faking
an injury like I said that flop in the NBA
the theatrics or what's funny. It's like, it's like, Okay,

(17:56):
I got trapped, I'm down. Just be down. You don't
need to literally ride on the floor as if there's
some sort of choreography to that. So it's good, that's funny. No,
of course not. They hop up. It's like Paul Pierce.
It's like getting taken off on the wool here and

(18:16):
coming back seven minutes later, like you know what, I'm good,
and you know, let's put in a couple of buckets.
But I mean, listening to you talk, I got to
imagine you, your wife, anybody who is near and dear
to the life of an offensive lineman. I mean, come
on with the fake injury, because right, I mean, you
guys are literally getting beat to hell on on a

(18:39):
play by play basis, and uh and and and nobody,
nobody wants to hear a damn thing out of you
hurt my hand or spraying my ankle or get my
knee twisted. And in a game, you know what happens.
I walked to the huddle, play and run the next play.

(19:00):
That's what happens right there is there there. The crazy
thing is you may get away with it a guard,
but they are not a bunch of left tackles just
hanging out on a team. You know, teams don't normally
have multiple left tackles. So playing that position, you knew
if you weren't available, then something dramatically was gonna something

(19:26):
dramatic was gonna have to happen and shift for your
team to continue to do what they needed to do.
So you know, I've always had that mentality of I'm good,
We're just gonna run it. Yep, yep. So so here
we are, and the World Cup is is always corrupt
with with wherever the host nation is that um it

(19:50):
is Uh, there's always the theatrics on the ground. And
then we've got this this year too. We got all
of one match in before the fans of the winning
team we're not chanting for their own nation. They were chanting,
we want beer. Uh, That's that's what the fans for
Ecuador were chanting during this match earlier today. And yeah,

(20:13):
so do I. I I had a couple of blue moons
today while I was sitting around watching football this morning.
So so no problems here. Can you imagine I don't
even know what kind of planes, trains and automobiles it
takes to get to Qatar. I have no idea who
planned this trip, but can you imagine getting all the
way out there and then being told we have sparkling
water here for you. Welcome to our nation. Yeah, man,

(20:35):
it's a Muslim country. You gotta do your research before
you get on the on on the plane train are
an automal ways. I wouldn't go, So you gotta make
your decision right like it's a it's a it's a
Muslim country, a Muslim nation, and you don't drink alcohol
in Islam. I mean, I've never drank alcohol the Muslim

(20:59):
my whole life. So I would be fine. Yeah, I
guess I'll get my boob zella and my sparkling water
and I'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with a good
food zella. But this, but this is like a late change.
This is what I don't understand. This. What you're saying
would make it sound like, well, there was never even

(21:20):
a discussion about about having alcohol and a Muslim nation,
but it was it was a late change just made
last week where suddenly access to alcohol was going to
be strictly limited. I mean, maybe somebody preyed on it.
It was like, you know, I don't I don't know.

(21:44):
I know what it'll cut down on. It'll cut down
on the fights, the shenanigans. The right sober people don't
usually go around pushing people and punch people in the mouth,
just you know, heightened after a win or a loss
in a match. I I know that, you know, y
if you over people, climb light poles in, rip things down,
or sit cars on fire, Just saying you know, you know,

(22:07):
I don't know. I haven't done the research on that,
but to me it may seem like if you had
your faculties about you, you probably wouldn't urinate uh on
the public transportation. Just saying this is a very fair point.
That that that that you're making right now. Um okay.
World Cup will continue to get interesting as the week unfolds,

(22:29):
because not only does Team USA get started against Wales
tomorrow morning, but Black Friday USA in England. I feel
like this is gonna be wonderful and cause all kinds
of fights at the same time. It's always a day
of leftover turkey sandwiches. Are we shopping? Are we watching
college football. Now you gotta wedge this into it, um

(22:53):
and and so right, I mean, I love it. There's
no issue for me. I gotta this is a family
fight event though on on Friday, because this is right,
you're supposed to. People are need to clean up after
events took place, and like there there's a lot of
energy around on Friday. You're right, um, I think. Um.

(23:16):
The great thing about it is you know it comes
on eleven pm, um, Pacific standard time. So I'm excuse me,
eleven am. Excuse me? So you can you can I know, right,
you can sleep in. You can sleep in right, or

(23:37):
you can you can get up, you can do the
whole parade thing and or all of that. You can
have some coffee or whatever. And by the time the
match starts, you'll be ready for leftovers. Right turkey, get
turkey sandwich right, like so now most people will be
out and about, so you can put your feet up, right,

(24:02):
maybe the kids in the backyard playing. If you're out
here on the West coast is it'll it'll probably seventy degrees,
so you can chill out right, You're chilling. This is
working well for you. I can I love where this
is going yes, yes, it's a perfect time. Look, you
could be whales in Iran. We could have had that

(24:25):
time slot. That's at two am, right, are the Senegal
guitar that's five am? Like, think about it. We got
the perfect time slot. Works for me. But yeah, if
you got a honey dude last or if you're supposed
to be at the mall, I feel for you. Yeah,

(24:47):
but do you're not going You're not going to the mall?
Like he said, Hey baby, Hey, you know what, person
go ahead? Whoever is still going to black outside of
the home to the Black Friday sales, they have not
discovered the internet yet. Well, exactly, open up your phone.
Black Friday has been going for eight weeks already. So

(25:09):
every single thing you've been said so and even if
you're not sure, if there's a sale in every single
site tapping all caps Black Friday, and I guarantee you
would be some promotional sale or something like that, there
is a sale. Uh. There are also teams that went
up and down the ladder today, pretenders and contenders. Before

(25:30):
we get to pretenders and contenders, e from let me
ask you this because very first play from Scrimmage for
the Chargers tonight Uh, Justin Herbert drops back and hits
Keenan Allen for seventeen yards. Haven't seen him in a
number of weeks. Mike Williams is back as well. Just
the presence of those two back in this offense, you think,
does what for this team? Well, it opens up the

(25:53):
field and we have a touchdown because on the very
next play, Justin Herbert goes you know what is that
full fifty two yards? Uh for a touchdown. Three plays
all passing yards for Herbert. So having Keenan Allen and
Mike Williams on the field left Palmer one on one

(26:13):
and wide open. That's what having those guys that it
makes the safety pay attention to them. And now you
got a guy running up to seem wide open. Safety
can't get over there to cover them touchdown. Just having
those guys on the field opens up the world for
uh Justin Herbert. And that's what we were able to

(26:34):
see early on in his career, first year and last year.
When you have those type of weapons, he can make
the throw, he can hit you anywhere, he can make
every throw and that's why people are so high on him.
And I know a couple of weeks ago, you were like,
have we given him too much praise? The bottom line
is right, that sounds like you're right heavily giving them

(26:55):
too much perfect thinking. So what ends up happening is, uh,
you know, we've we've seen some of the best quarterbacks
on the planet struggle when they don't have people to
throw the ball too right, why would he be right?

(27:19):
But no, no, that that's fair, And I'm actually a
very big fan of the guy when he's right. I
don't know that there's anyone that throws a prettier ball
in the league. I guess we've also, In fact, you
and I have had these conversations a lot just this year.
The two names that stand out for me are Tom
Brady and Aaron Rodgers, who have been great quarterbacks for

(27:39):
a number of years, more so Brady than Rogers. The
success they've had in the league without elite receivers, and
I know they've had some. Brady had Randy Moss for
a period of time. I'm not gonna take anything away
from the Davante Adams and the Donald Drivers and and
great Jennings of the world, but uh, for the most part,
these are quarterbacks who you know, whoever their top receiver

(28:03):
is they're gonna turn them into a significant receiver in
the NFL just because of the way they play. So, um,
you know, we're testing that this year with the Chiefs.
There's no Tyreek Hill. Patrick Mahomes still leads the league
in touchdown passes with so you take away Mike Williams
and Keenan Allen and I wanted to see that. I

(28:24):
also wonder about Herbert's health from the last time he
played the Chiefs and that ugly rib injury, and I
think he he was working his way back for a
good you know, four to six weeks h and playing
through it. But I'm always curious to see that because
it seems like the great ones don't always need a
quote unquote great wide receiver. Yeah they do. They don't

(28:47):
until they do, right, asked Aaron Rodgers, as he need
a great wide receiver right now? So when you when
you get to and I think the I think the
biggest reason in two day's in uh NFL now, defenses
are so much more sophisticated. Defensive players are so much

(29:11):
more talented. They're faster, they can get after the quarterback.
You can't hold the ball right, ask Kirk Cousins. Today.
He had some of the best receivers in the league.
If you if you, if you're not throwing the ball
when you hit that when that backfoot hits on that
five or seven step drop, good luck, good luck. So

(29:35):
if you got receivers that aren't out there breaks yet,
or you just don't have that chemistry with then you're
under siege. Ask um um uh Matthew Stafford. No, I
mean he is getting annihilated, and he's getting he's getting obliterated.
I don't know how much of the Rams players we've

(29:57):
heard of we're even gonna see uh for for the
rest of the way. Now, with Cooper Cup out at
least six to eight weeks, very much looks like the
Rams are going to be totally eliminated when he's ready
to come back, um, And so why would he come
back right right? And Matt Stafford gets a concussion, comes
back the next week, ends up in the whole blue

(30:17):
tent thing again, there's right lightweight to a situation going
on there, and and and he's much much older. So yeah,
those are all points very very well taken. I got
three teams on the pretender checklist. I got two teams
on the contender checklist Before we get to any of them, though,

(30:38):
from should the Eagles? Can we check in on that
they won the football game today, but in in two
games in seven days, and man, did it look wobbly?
What do you think? You know? A good team find
a way to do win ugly games, win a right.

(31:00):
Good teams find and it's easily. The other side of
the coin is bad teams find a way to lose. Right,
bad teams find a way. You you look at the game,
but how would you possibly lose that game? We had
some unbelievable losses this this year in the NFL. You're like,
what is happening? How are you up on sixteen points

(31:20):
with three minutes left and you lose the game? Right?
So I say that to say when you got a
Phillies team who's playing two games in such a short
period of time and they lose an emotional game and
emotional loss and they got to get themselves back up
to keep this thing going. And they run into an

(31:41):
Indianapolis coach team that has some type of a boost
they have. You know, they're responding to Jeff Saturday being
the coach and they're playing well. So you have to
figure out a way if you're Philly, how to fight
through that and come away with the wind. And it's

(32:02):
not gonna be pretty. You're not gonna be blown. You're
not gonna it's not gonna be a blowout. But it
can either be a win or let down. And they
did everything they needed to do to get the one
point win against the hapless Coats, and that winning that
way is going to do more for them than blowing

(32:23):
the Coats ol Live from the tyrocket dot Com studios,
we continue with the pretender Contender List coming up next,
with you from Salama Mark Willard on Fox Sports Radio.
With you from Salam Mark Willard, Fox Sports Radio, and
we welcome in Fix Sports Radio. Tailgate presented by the
Big Green Eg. Thing beats the flavor of live fire

(32:45):
cooking on a Big Green Egg. It's the most versatile
grill you'll ever own, backed by a lifetime warranty roll
with the best shop online for free delivery, Big green
egg dot Com. Lifetime warranty, free home delivery, Big green
egg dot Com. Okay, here we go, And in fact,
you heard Kevin say it about twenty minutes ago, first
time in the history of the league that an eight
and two team has a negative point differential. I get it.

(33:08):
They lost by what thirty seven points today? That's gonna
mess with a point differential. However, their seven game win
streak coming into this, every single win was by one score.
Now that's not a negative. I know what you'll say
to that, Hey, they're finding ways too wins. Give them
credit for that. But pretender check from Minnesota Vikings. What

(33:31):
do you think no they've played to will two be
considered pretenders? Um, you don't win eight games in NFL
eight out of ten games and and be a It's
hard to pretend that long. I really, I'm telling you

(33:51):
it is hard to to fool teamed for that for
half a season. I think offensively, they have too many weapons.
Are going to be probably probably the best receiver in
the game. They got a more than serviceable quarterback. They
ran into a bus all today, they really did. And uh,

(34:14):
you know, Dallas is finding out something about themselves. They
got a little energy and uh, you know, matchups like that.
Whereas the reason you know, Vegas had them as uh
Minnesota's underdogs at home even though they hadn't lost at
home yet Vegas, Nos Vegas knows, but they should do
because there wasn't you looked at that one. I think

(34:35):
a lot of people scratched my head. I was like, yeah, like,
wait a minute, what do you do? This is this?
They just be Buffalo, They're eight and one, their home,
and we're going let's make him an underdog like it
felt like a science experiment or something. And then they
lose by thirty seven. I mean, they got raced in

(34:57):
every single way, shape or form. And it does make
you think about it because I'm not taking away from
their eight wins and I'm not gonna take away from
what felt like the game of the year in the
NFL last week, but it does make you think because
if Josh Allen completes a snap and falls down, the
game's over and he didn't do it, and so you

(35:17):
know that, it just just start to look at the
whole picture. For for Minnesota, I'll say this, I think
they're good. I don't think they're as dominant as their
record would suggest, but I'm with you, it's still a
good football team. What about New York Giants? What what
are we feeling after what we saw today? Now that's
a that's that's a good one. You know. I was
shocked by what transpired today by the Giants. UM, but

(35:46):
once again Detroit has shown to be very dangerous offensively.
They've shown something is happening in Detroit. Dan Campbell has Yeah,
you know, it's been a long grind, but he's changing
the culture. They've won three games in a row. And

(36:09):
I wouldn't be super like this next game for Detroit,
for for Buffalo playing Detroit, that that this may be
a situation. Uh, because for whatever reason, UM, when they're

(36:31):
healthy offensively, Detroit can can hang with everybody. They're starting
to get defensive stops. They're starting to play better on defense.
If you put those two together, then uh, it's it's
gonna be something else. I say all that to say
to talk about the Giants. The Giants culture has changed,

(36:54):
and I can't call them pretenders because they've found a
way to be successful when no one expected them to
do anything. And you can't take that away from him,
you can't. I mean, they're in the most dominant uh
division in in in football right now, so it appears

(37:16):
unless you want to put it up against their counterpart
in the a f C a f C East, which
by the way, leads us to the last one I'm
putting on the pretender check, and that is the New
York Jets from We've got a lot of talks about
them and and I know the culture change. Robert salis
sure Zach Wilson does not look like somebody's gonna go

(37:37):
win any playoff games. And that's the that's the where
I would label them, uh, you know, slight pretended debt.
First of all, that defense is goodness. If they get
the quarterback position right, they're going to be a serious
problem for teams. Right now. With Zach Wilson, I don't

(37:59):
see him contending at all, not at that level they
were saying like a walk off punk return before that
was that? I mean, I felt bad, you know what
at my buddy. I'm watching games with my buddy today
and he looks at me. It's three to three with
a minute to go, and he's looking at these freezing
people uh in Foxboro, and he goes, man, they bought

(38:24):
tickets for this. And then then and a second later,
it's the absolute party in the stands. It's there as
he's running down the right sideline. I'm like, wow, yes,
that was crazy. Um okay along with you from Sala
Mark Willard and if that's the pretender check, Vikings, Giants

(38:48):
and Jets, who's on the contender check? We will do
that coming up next. As we continue on Fox Sports
Sunday and the Night we go, just like Travis Kelsey
into opponents territory fun look as expected, Mahomes and Herbert
both looking at the height of their powers as the

(39:09):
charges in chiefs take one another on here on Sunday
Night Football. Will keep you up to date on that
and let everything else unfold. Week eleven in the National
Football League, we got some baseball and hoops stuff for
you too. World Cup, we won't leave you out. We're
broadcasting live from the ti iraq dot com studios. Ti
rack dot com will help you get there an unmapped selection,

(39:31):
fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten
thousand recommended installers. Ti iraq dot com the way tire buying.
Should it be? Okay? E from we worked our way
through the pretender check. Now I got a couple of
teams I want to throw at you on the contender check.
And don't get mad at me, Cowboys fans, you already

(39:52):
were okay, you already were. I I understand very very
impressive day, and no one talks about you very very much.
In the NFC. It's all about the Eagles, a little
bit of Vikings and a lot of people saying the
forty Niners are the team to watch. But yes, Dallas
just solidified yourselves. But I want to give you two

(40:12):
other teams, one NFC, one a f C, and you
tell me how they've changed the narrative around themselves just
in the last two to three weeks. Come on, Washington Commanders,
what is this from? What am I looking at here
with Taylor Heineke? And I know they just beat Houston.
But when you when you're dominant against a team and

(40:33):
that's the team on your schedule, and this is six
days after handing the Eagles their first loss, I don't know.
They've got a winning record in the NFC. How do
we not take notice? I mean you can take notice,
but um, they don't. I mean they're not gonna make
the playoffs, right, are you sure? Okay, So let's look

(40:54):
at it like this. We got Philly um at nine
and one. He had Dallas at seven and three, and
you got the Giants at seven and three and then
at six and five. That's just in your division. Okay,
so in theory, all of them could go. Well, you

(41:15):
got the Giants twice, right, back to back, right, got
the Giants twice, and you have the Cowboys again. Now
have you beat all three of those teams, you would
still you would bump that will bump you up. But
you still got Philly right, and you still probably be
going head to head and that at the last game

(41:37):
of the year with the Dallas Cowboys to see who
makes it in I don't think, uh, this division is
going to have three teams in the playoffs. So would
you pick the Commanders over the Philly Are the Cowboys?
Well no, but no one but I might pick him

(41:59):
over the Giants. And I do think that division is
gonna get three teams in the playoffs. Look, the Giants
are at Dallas in four days. I'm gonna pick them
to lose that game from an and in that moment,
if that happens, that snapshot, Washington is only a game
behind them, with two head to head still to play. Uh.
And then look at the rest of the NFC. The
NFC South that's a one playoff division. NFC North, that's

(42:23):
a one playoff division. You go to the NFC West,
and you're looking at Seattle and San Francisco right now
as probable teams to get in, but Washington in the
forty niners similar records right now. We'll see what San
Francisco does tomorrow night against Arizona. These two teams played
each other on Christmas Eve, like they're tracking right now

(42:44):
toward a situation where that actually could really mean something.
And with Washington getting the six and five today, next
week they host Atlanta winnable hosting Atlanta next week, they'll
be favored then, as you say, giants by giants. Even
if I say they split those, let's say they split those,

(43:06):
is very plausible that this is an eight and six
team when they travel to San Francisco on Christmas Eve,
I mean, sign me up. I'm like, I'm not saying
I think they're gonna make the playoffs, but if there's
any party crasher in the NFC, it's definitely them. Right Well,
that that would actually mean you're attaching your your you're

(43:26):
hitching your wagon to Taylor Heineke right as the guy,
are you I mean, are you are you willing to
do that? I know he has a spark and as
guys are playing, but is that something you see you will, Taylor?

(43:49):
Uh No. But but here's what I'm saying. I guess
I needed to find the word contender. Uh. Is Washington
win the Super Bowl? No? No, that that That's not
what I'm saying. But are they a contender make the
playoffs in the NFC as we sit here today, absolutely
say yes. They could definitely catch the New York Giants.
And we'll see if the forty Niners can continue to

(44:10):
actualize what everybody thinks they should be. Right now, the
Niners are are a little bit too much should be
good as opposed to they are good, you know what
I mean. I think they're headed there, but we don't
know it yet. And so there's always some sort of
a team that works its way into the playoffs and
you're like, with that guy at quarterback. I feel like

(44:31):
that happens every year, especially with expansion now fourteen teams,
you're gonna get some of those uh and this will
sound so dismissive, but you're gonna get some of those
plucky teams to sort of end up in the dance.
Washington got a puncher's chance here. Yeah, they can punch.
Their defense can punch canyc enough points their defense can

(44:55):
definitely probably not. Yeah, like, look, if the Giants went
to Washington tomorrow, who you like? Mhmm, you had to
think about it. Yeah, I probably take the Giants. I
probably take the Giants. Okay, yeah, I take this yeah

(45:20):
yeah yeah. So what I mean, Okay, here's the one
in the a f C. And and this got real
interesting on Thursday night. Talk to me about the Tennessee
Titans with this conference that throws Mahomes and Allen and
Burrow and Herbert and Lamar at you. Here's Ryan Tannehill,
who worked his way through an injury and uh, you know,

(45:43):
breaking news they're gonna host a playoff game again this year. Yeah.
I mean, they find ways to win, and it starts
at the top down. Mike very Well was a great coach.
Um puts the team in the in the position that
they need to be put in to win, and they
they don't try to do more than they know they can. Right.

(46:06):
Why what I mean by that is they know who
they are. They're not gonna come out there and be
someone they're not. Now, you know what Tannehill was able
to do on on Thursday was unbelievable right, he goes
out and he throws for three thirty three yards and

(46:26):
two touchdowns. That's not normally what they like to do.
They like to hand the ball off and they did.
They handed it to Derrick Henry twenty eight times. Very
few teams hand the ball off to someone one person times. Hell,
very few teams run the ball twenty times in the
entire game. Um. But the thing that makes Tennessee dangerous

(46:51):
is if you do decide that you're going to stack
the box. Ryan Tannehill can still throw the ball. He's
not in it. He can throw the ball down the field.
So I mean he averaged twelve twelve yards a completion.
So that is the problem that they pose for teams. Yeah,

(47:13):
we're gonna stop Derek Hery number one. You can't stop him.
You can slow him down, but eventually, right, eventually he's
gonna get you. But if you spend so much time
focused on that, then you open yourself up for Ryan
Hill Ryan Tannehill to throw for three hundre yards. So
what do you do, Hey, I I threw this out

(47:36):
this week. Tell me if if I'm if I'm not
thinking of someone, If I were an NFL linebacker and
you told me take one guy to never have to
tackle again. I'm picking Derrick Henry. Oh of course, Oh
my god. I mean I don't know if he is

(48:00):
the Kevin Durant of the NFL. And here's what I
mean by that. He I've never seen a body type
like that be able to do that, to run when
he gets into open field all of a sudden, the
guy has he has regular running back or wide receiver
open field speed, but he has built like the people

(48:21):
that are are on the NFL on Fox. You know
those robots that are in that pregame show. I'm like
that that that's Jesus says that, that's Derrick Henry. Like,
it's just he's built like those things, and it's absolutely
it's breathtaking. I'm like, I would never want to get
in front of that guy when he gets speed behind him. Yeah,
it's um, he's dangerous. He's an X factor and the

(48:48):
team is wild coached. They don't make a lot of
mistakes and they're always gonna be in it. They're going
to be there and teams are gonna have to uh
to prepare for that, Like, how do you prepare for
a team they can run in throw the ball. It's
very difficult. The Bengals got a big test coming up, uh,

(49:09):
trying to stop Derrick Henry. It's just difficult to do. So,
you know games, Yeah, yeah, they got they got a
tough schedule coming down. You know, they had the Bengals,
they got the Eagles, they got the Chargers and the Cowboys,
with the Jags in there twice and another Texans. But
I mean, their their their path isn't easy, but they're

(49:32):
up to they're up for it. Yeah, it's not easy
schedule wise, except for that, they've got like a full
three and a half game lead already, uh in uh
in their division. So there's not really there's not a
whole lot threatening them. They have a few losses in
their future that will not hurt them because they will
end up. You know, I'm sure they'd love to be

(49:54):
the one seed of the two seed. Right now, there's
nobody better than seven and three in this league. We'll
see if the Chiefs win the night get to eight
and two, but right now they're they're basically evened up
with the best record in the a f C. I'm
sure they'd love to have the one of the two seed.
But if they do have that three seed, four seed,
whatever it is they're gonna have, they're gonna host a
playoff game. And with the way the NFL looks this year,

(50:15):
man that that is a tough out no matter who
they're playing. When when we get to to January, they're
they're probably the only team that right now we can
we can almost guarantee. I I guess the Chiefs maybe
alongside them, but we can almost guarantee the Titans are
gonna be the ones that are there. Yes, yes, And
like I said, it starts at the top a lot

(50:36):
of questions about coaching and this and that. We don't
have that with them, We don't. Uh, it's one of
the few Belichick disciples. It's proven then not only the
Belichick can he can be Belichick, but you know he's
a handful when he comes to getting his team ready
to play football. Fans be sure to tune into Fix

(50:59):
Sports Radio's count on the Kickoff, presented by bet MGM
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with E from salam Mark Wither and coming up next
to you from I got a wild idea. You're probably

(51:22):
gonna hate it, but I want to throw it at
you and see what you think based on an eye
roll of a football game that happened earlier today. That's
coming up next on Fox Sports Radio. All right, let's
keep doing it here live from the ti iraq dot
com studios. That is he from salam Mark Wellard. We
can leven in the National Football League and all it
has delivered so far on the table today and much

(51:44):
much more. I got a little World Cup, got a
little MBA, got a little baseball for you all down
the road. But I'm wanna throw something match you from
and you tell me if this is just recency bias
or whatever. But a walk off punt return is all
kinds of fun. But nothing up until that point was.

(52:08):
It had me googling stuff. I was googling stuff from
a sports bar with friends earlier today when the question
was asked, Hey, what is the record for the most
punts in a game in the history of the National
Football League? Um, I googled it. I've already forgotten the answer.

(52:30):
I don't know thirty something whatever. I don't know what
it was, but this particular game, the Patriots and Jets
had seventeen of them. Now, I understand defensive battles are
wonderful and they're pure and the rules of the game
of the rules of the game. However, we also watch

(52:50):
we watch sports leagues do it all the time. They
change rules, sometimes even to the point where it doesn't
seem fair, in an effort to be entertaining. Watching all
the time, you're not allowed to hand check in basketball,
You're not allowed to I don't know, defend in football.
Sometimes you certainly can't breathe on a quarterback. There's no

(53:12):
clutching and grabbing in hockey, and now baseball is doing
away with the shift. Why are all those things happening
so that we can be entertaining? This was the opposite
of entertaining. Is it ridiculous for me to say, in
a day and age of analytics and strategy, go for
it on fourth down? Maybe we'll go for two. How

(53:34):
about this a punt maximum? You get seven again, if
you've punted seven times, I'm sorry, you're going for it.
That's enough. The putter's leg has been used, he has
been sent to the showers, figure it out, play football.

(53:57):
It was. It was hard to watch. Um, it's hard
to win a game when you have forty yards passing
about forty four yards passing, uh fifty plays, you're in

(54:20):
fifty plays and you have a total of a hundred
and three yards. It's hard to to win a game.
And last segment, you asked me about the Jets, are
they contenders? Are pretenders? And the one thing that took
out for me was Zack Wilson nine seventy seven yards.

(54:47):
It's going to be difficult if you make the playoffs
to contend and compete with that, with those limitations, and so,
I mean it was I'm sure Belichick loved the game,

(55:09):
you know, I'm sure he loved This is perfect type
of game and the way it ended, the walk off,
punt return, all of it. Right, there was so many
punts in the game, it's only fitting that the game
be decided on punt team. Right. So it's a propos

(55:29):
it's poetic, right, It's it's Hollywood, it's scripting. This is
how it child. Oh we got we got to see
more punts than we ever wanted to see before. So
why not in the game on a punt return. I
say all that to say, New England is fine with
the how they want. The Jets are fine with how

(55:52):
good their defense is playing. So now we gotta they
gotta figure out what that we're gonna do offensively. Losing
briefs they're big time rookie running back. It kind of
took something out of this team because he was a
problem solver, and so now they're trying to figure out, Okay,

(56:15):
how do we continue to keep pace and continue to
complement our defense because eventually your defense is going to give.
If they're trying to win the game for you every week,
eventually it's gonna give. You. Gotta be able to score points.

(56:36):
And up until then they were putting I mean they
weren't putting up. I mean they put up forty on
the on the Dolphins. But that's really the outlier in
the season right there. They keep teams from from scoring points.
That's how they win. But you gotta do something offensively, brother,
I mean, goodness, they put up forty points against the Dolphins.

(57:02):
You wanted to hear Zach Wilson's stat line from that game? Ready, Yeah,
give it to me, okay. Fourteen twenty one two yards,
no touchdowns, no picks. Yeah, but you know they ran

(57:23):
the ball fight thirty five yards hundred thirty five yards.
That's not that crazy rush for five touchdowns, right, so right,
And they had a lot of special team stuff going
on and and and all of that. In fact, uh,
you know they were going up against Skyler Thompson in
that game as the quarterback in the Dolphins. Well, the

(57:46):
craziest staff from today is not the fact that the
Jets only threw for seventy seven yards. It's that the
final score was ten to three. There was only one touchdown,
it was the punt return at the end. There were
no turnover is in this game? How do you play
that good a defense? Zero offensive touchdowns in a football game,

(58:08):
yet there were no turnovers. At a certain point you
gotta go, well, that's just ineptitude on offense. That's just
you're just not playing offense. You're literally punting on the
idea of playing offense. So I don't know that one.
That one was really rough. And I know that when

(58:30):
we throw out ideas like this, you're like, oh, come on,
you're not being serious, and I'm I'm sort of not. However,
don't come at me with, oh, we don't do this
rinky dink stuff in in sports. You don't because in
college you give somebody the ball the twenty five yard
line to decide what's going on in overtime. And in

(58:50):
baseball for the last two years, we've been hucking a
dude out there at second base when we get to
the tent thinning. Why you know, because we want to
move it along and have fun. That's why this game,
I mean, could you imagine if this game would have
went into overtime, Oh my god, and it was it
should have. It should have it should have, it could have.

(59:12):
It would have known that one was looking forward to
that it was so gonna be a three three final.
It was it was gonna be a three three final,
because why wouldn't it have been. Nobody turned it over
and nobody moved the ball. They just over and over.
I'll throw it to you for two yards, you for

(59:33):
a yard and an incomplete But here we go. Now
you do it. You for t that just I mean absolutely,
we got the best game in the NFL had to
offer last week with the Vikings. Yeah, yeah, it's hard
to this one was, this one was the worst. Well,
this is the other side of the coin, right, you
can't have the good without the bed. And this was

(59:55):
the bad, this was the best. I love the way
Kevin just said that is the way everybody in Los
Angeles talks about the city of San Diego. You go
to San Diego, everybody's all hot and bothered. From a
sports perspective, they want someone to be their rival, right,

(01:00:16):
l A, You're our rival, and l A is like,
you're adorable, you're a weekend away, You've got a zoo,
and you're close to Mexico, wonderful Mexican food, Pacific Beach,
there's beer there. We love you, San Diego. And then
San Diegans are like b l A. And l A
is like, oh god, it's all we love you. We're

(01:00:37):
mad at San Francisco. The dynamic is hysterical to me.
How badly San Diego wants to be this rival and
l A just pats them on the head and it says,
we love visiting, we love coming down. They stole their
t l A stole their team, so they but they
didn't because to steal something. If you go into someone

(01:01:00):
else's house and you're like, I'm taking valuables because you
want them, so you took them because you want them.
LA did not steal the Chargers. They don't want them,
They had no interest in them. There are still to
this day people just now finding out that they're there,
like like it's the weirdest dynamic ever. They didn't steal them,

(01:01:23):
Dean Spano's just jammed them down someone else's throat and
and like, I'm not there tonight, but you tell me
more Chiefs fans of Chargers fans in the building tonight.
It's so far it'll probably be more chief fans in
the see a Red, see a Red, I guarantee. Now,
I know the dynamic is changing a little bit, a

(01:01:43):
little bit, little by little, it's less embarrassing. But yeah,
I'll never I'll never wrap my head around this one.
Relocations happen. I think I'm going to attend a game
at that airport in that's in Vegas now. Later this year,
I'm gonna go to a Raider game. Wrap my head

(01:02:04):
around that. The Ravens Browns thing. We've got it all
figured out, I understand. The Chargers man asked, the one
never gonna be okay with it? We'll find you just
hold out and you be a you know what from
a denier. You're a great denier. Yeah, well we already

(01:02:28):
we talked this out a few weeks ago. Facts are
no longer a part of our society's that's right. So
there they are, San Diego, front of Kansas City, seventeen
to thirteen. Good looking football game, UM live from the
ti iraq dot com studios. It is alongside e from
salam Mark Willard. Now, last week we had I thought

(01:02:51):
a really fun and healthy conversation about Jeff Saturday. I
think you and I both understand sort of the difficulties,
if you will, UM, of of that hiring process. I
also understand that he did not win his football game today, UM,
but it sort of felt like he did just because

(01:03:13):
of what we were looking at with the Colts prior
to Jeff Saturday's arrival. They win a game against the Raiders.
Last week, they took the Eagles to a fourth down
in a Golden Ghost situation UM earlier today, Jalen hurts
the seas part he runs it in. They win by one.
But Matt Ryan being back on the football field and

(01:03:35):
Jeff Saturday being on the sidelines, I'm not saying they
look great, but they look better. Yeah, right, I think
the notion of you know, Jeff Saturday going with Matt Ryan,
um gives them more punch even though Mett Ryan only
threw the ball for two yards and no touchdowns. Um,

(01:03:59):
they're gonna neat more out of that position. Their defense
is playing well. Um. But look, there's no moral victories,
there's no almostes, there's no jef a. Look, no, you
either win or you lose. You can win by one
or you can lose by one. A loss is a loss.

(01:04:20):
Jeff Saturday is one and one. If he loses the
rest of the games by one point, you we can't
at the end of the season like, well, you know
they were in the game, they only lost by one.
They only count the wins and losses. So if he
wants to make this a thing, then he has to
turn the team around. He's got he's got to get

(01:04:44):
seven games to do something no one expects him to do.
It's driven and I and I fully understand that, and
I know there's no moral victories. But based on the
conversation that was happening two weeks ago, don't you think
that what you're looking for with the Colts to really

(01:05:04):
sort of if if you're one of the people that
hated this hiring, and you you think it never should
have happened. What you're looking for when the Colts come
back out is disorganization, and and that didn't happen. It
looks more organized than than what it was before. And
I questioned the benching of Matt Ryan at the time.
I know he was hurt um when they initially benched him,

(01:05:27):
but they also immediately said, you know, Sam Ellinger is starting,
and when we're benching Matt Ryan for the rest of
the year. And I remember what went through my head
at the time, which was, oh boy, they bet they
must be seeing something in practice from Ellinger. They really
really like and and and then you watch him play
and you go, oh my god, they're tanking, they're taking

(01:05:52):
and then he comes in says, that's about enough of that,
Matt Ryan, get your butt back in there in the game.
And they have been much more organized. They have been
much more viable since then, even with a loss. I'm
gonna say that the last eight days have been very
productive for the idea of Jeff Saturday, the coach. Yeah,

(01:06:15):
they have um, but like I said, just it doesn't matter. Consistency.
That's what's gonna really matter showing up and giving effort
in a game and losing. Oh no, one remembers that.
They just remembered. They remember the losses unless they're gonna

(01:06:37):
give him some time now if they say, hey, you're
gonna be a coach for the next three year deal
and then you got time right now, he's trying to
force that hand. If if this is something Jeff Saturday
wants to do, then he has to win these games.
He has to turn of season around. He has to
win these games and make it easy for him to
to to keep this job. That's it. That's your whole goal.

(01:07:03):
If not, that's it. I mean, it's a tough situation
to be in. But it's no no secret why he
went to a former m VP and Matt Ryan who
has age and has been through a lot of things.
You're not gonna hit your your wagon too. You know,
someone who's never been good, right, You're trying to recycle

(01:07:27):
that energy and see if you're you're old, your old
dog is still hunt all right. Coming up at the
top of the hour, there was one NFL game today
that was completely different than all the others. Yet it
was totally a wild success. We'll get to that at
the top of the hour. But coming up next a

(01:07:50):
quirk of the NBA Western Conference standings that could be
good news for I don't know a concerned Laker fan
at an sarned Warriors fan? Do you do you do
you know any of those? From? No? Okay, Well, I'll
see if we can find some. Coming up next on

(01:08:12):
Fox Sports Radio, all right with a from salam Mark Willard,
Fox Sports Radio Tailgate presented by the Big Green Egg.
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Big Green Egg most Versatile girl You'll ever own, back
by a lifetime warranty roll with the best shop online
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free home delivery, Big green Egg dot Com. From UH,

(01:08:35):
congratulations to the Golden State Warriors. Uh, the defending champions
of the National Basketball Association. Ladies and gentlemen have one
a road game. Only it only took first off playing

(01:08:57):
the Houston Rockets. That helped. And I think it took
Let me see if I can pull this up here
fast enough. I believe it took a combined nineties six
points from Steph Curry, Clay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins. They
absolutely went off. All three of them um were at

(01:09:21):
or better from beyond three point range. They combined for
twenty three three point baskets and they still had to
eke one out by seven against the woeful Houston Rockets
for their first road game of the year. Well, that
that is what the recipe is going to have to
be for them, because the experiment of combining the old

(01:09:44):
with the young and then you know, it's not working,
it's disjoined, and so they're gonna lean heavily on the
older guys. You look at Green thirty two minutes, Wiggins
thirty seven, Looney twenty nine, Curry thirty seven, Thompson thirty six,
cominga six, Lamb four, Pool, Moody five. Right. Remember they

(01:10:11):
were trying to shuffle everybody in get him some minutes. Yeah,
that wasn't working. That was a dumpster fire. And so
the problem going to be second half of the season
is these older guys that I just mentioned, they're gonna
wear down, especially you know, coming off injuries. Still trying

(01:10:34):
to monitor Clay. We don't want to overextend him. He
played thirty six minutes, played one minute less than Wiggins,
and Curry Draymond, like you're you're we're gonna you're gonna
want to preserve these guys. But they had fallen so
far behind trying to do that early on they were like,
forget it, we just got to go with the old dogs,

(01:10:58):
right we we we gotta go James Wiseman down to
the league, you know. So they were trying to do
this thing because we know that the team is going
to look different next year, right paying five million dollars
over the the luxury that they're not gonna make it.
They're they're not about to keep doing that. No, so

(01:11:19):
you know, we know Draymond won't be there, possibly Clay Thompson.
They just extended Pool Wiggins right, like, you can't have everybody,
and so they're really trying to figure out the guys
that are gonna be there, Who's gonna be who uh.
And they were trying to experiment there um at the

(01:11:41):
beginning of the of the season, which was a disaster,
literally a disaster. Here's the amazing thing though about the
Western Conference. While teams like the Warriors Lakers as well
at four and ten, the Warriors are eight and nine overall, um,
both of them right now are sitting below that line

(01:12:01):
that they draw in below the ten seed right the lake. Yeah,
the Lakers are way below the line. The Warriors are
the first team below the line, but they're below the
damn line. And they won a championship five months ago.
So it's interesting. But here's here's one thing that I
don't think everybody's looking at. Are you looking at the
top of the line. Are you looking up there at

(01:12:21):
the top. Every team in the Western Conference has at
least six losses already, and the Warriors, with their ridiculously
inepp start and a record of eight and nine here
on November from currently sit a grand total of three

(01:12:42):
and a half games out of first place. Yeah, one seed.
You can go in a six game winning that's not right, right,
I mean? Yeah, said, it's a weird it's a weird

(01:13:02):
conference because the two teams sitting at the top, Uh,
the Utah Jazz traded away their best player, and so
I'm sure they'll be Yeah, they're right, they'll be fine.
But I don't think they're gonna stare anybody. They're not great. No,
they won't be able to it, won't be able to
hold up, you know what I mean. They're not the
one seed right, and now sitting in the two seed.

(01:13:23):
What do we have? What we know about them? They
just lost Dame Lillard, so Dame Lillard is going to
be out for probably a week or two at least,
and they've lost two games in a row. Then there's
the Phoenix Suns. You'd expect them to be good, but
they're dealing with injuries and Jay Crowder and all of

(01:13:44):
that stuff. And then even the teams that you you
really thought we're gonna be good basketball teams, and I'm
sure they are, but it's just kind of well wobbly
coming out of the gate. The Dallas and Denver who
are both nine and six. Memphis just lost jaw, the
Clippers disappointing, Pelicans nice but not ready right, Minnesota should

(01:14:11):
be better. This whole thing is all bunched up, I
hope for everybody's sake. If you bet Vegas win totals,
you bet the under on all of them, because the
whole thing is, I mean, no one's going anywhere. It's
it's it's all, you know, jumbled up, and and there's

(01:14:35):
a lot of parody. It's been a lot of moving pieces. Uh.
People are coming from coming off injury, trying to figure
it out, you know, trying to figure it out. It's
it's you don't have a team just far in above
better in the in the Western Conference. Um, I think
I just rolled through every single team except for the

(01:14:58):
Sacramento Kings. You got any idea what the hell they're doing? What? What? What?
What they think they're doing? Nine and six they've made
in their last ten. How are they doing? It's going points,
it's going points, man. Yeah, they are averaging four points. Yeah,
that's absurd. They're leading the league. That's that's just number

(01:15:22):
one in the league. That's all. That is. Hundred and
twenty one point four points for you good, good young players.
Again to that point, right, But is it sustainable? Probably not,
you know, right right, exactly right? All right, A lot
more coming up because you see what they pulled off
in Detroit today. More on that next. You could make

(01:15:45):
the case that it is the best November ever, not
only because the pandemic and the loss of sports are
still not too far off in our rear view mirror,
but October and November that's always when it all lends
together to give you football and basketball and baseball and
hockey and everything we're looking for all at once, along

(01:16:07):
with the holiday season, and now you're gonna throw the
World Cup in there too. It doesn't get any better
than this, and we're covering it all broadcasting live from
the ti iraq dot com studios ti rack dot com.
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(01:16:27):
tirack dot com. The way tire buying should be. It's
both a blessing and a curse, though. I from because
as we sort of discussed earlier, it is if it's
the time of the year, I really don't have the
time to sit down with a full belly and then
get grilled by aunt whoever about what's going on in
my life right Like, I'm sorry, there's something on TV

(01:16:49):
that I really want to pay attention to pretty much
around the clock. Like it doesn't it doesn't matter what
day it is. I mean, now we're waking up on
a Monday morning of a holiday week and instead of
being able to get errands done, like I could go
to Costco, I could get some rolls and gravy. Nope,

(01:17:09):
USA has got a World Cup match. I gotta sit
down and whych Hey, man, you ever used um, what's
the what's the delivery app? Ah, you're talking about instacart. Instacart.
You don't have to go nowhere, Turkey and look, let
me let me tell you a little something that I do. Right, people,

(01:17:34):
everybody in your family knows what you do for a living,
right they do? They know you. You know you're talking head,
you talk sports, sports, right, I mean it's any time
listen to me. I'm trying to put you okay, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. Anytime you feel the need, do you want

(01:17:57):
to sit down and you want to watch games, you
must tell them, hey, I'm working or I have to
go to work. And by that it means you walk
right into the living room and you turned the games
on because they know you have to talk about everything
that's happening. So you must watch everything that's happening. And

(01:18:22):
when I tell you, man, that's the smoothest thing I don't,
I mean zero pushbacks, true, zero pushed back. So you
don't have to be talking to Bunny about you know
what's going Hey, I'm bunny them. Hey, after these games,

(01:18:46):
you know we're gonna buy then I'm Bunny gonna be
off that ripple, right, she gonna be so you don't
hit them hot tiddies. You feel me, So you don't
brought yourself. You don't brought yourself about photos six hours.
So just just no, man, you this levels to this.
So I'm gonna eat the turkey and then it's working.

(01:19:11):
Its work man, right, that gonna work. I talk about tomorrow.
Look at him and just say, I'm working right now. Okay,
well that's what we're doing. I am working my red
and work man. I got talking about all this. That's
that's right. When I tell you, like when we come

(01:19:31):
on here and I watch every game, you don't watch
every single I was impressed. I was impressed with Curtech.
You know, there are normal things Sunday morning, we get
to the weekend. Okay, hey, what's going on? Friends? You know, like,
here's a couple of things I'm thinking and you you're like, okay,
here's it, and and boom. It was like bro qatar,
these people are playing some crazy soccer right now. I'm like,

(01:19:53):
my man, I'm in it, ready to go when I come.
When I come in here, this look this, this is
my this is my sanctuary. Okay, it's it's me alone
in our our beautiful studios here at the heart radio
and in it and it's this is where I come.
This is my zin place. So I take it serious.

(01:20:16):
If we're gonna talk sports, we gotta talk about everything.
We're gonna talk about our football and the other football,
right which I think we should start calling it because
in honor of the World Cup, the rest of the
world calls it football. It's true, so you know what
I mean, Like, I got up this morning and I
watched the opening game of of of the World Cup.

(01:20:40):
By the way, I mean not to get so thrown
off base here, but we probably shouldn't call our football
football because literally the parts of it that use your
feet no one cares about. There are least favorite parts
of the game. If you notice this. I can't tell
you how many forty Niner fans have been fed and
off for the last three weeks because car settles for

(01:21:04):
field goals. It just I mean, people are furious. You, you,
You and I have talked about this. The field goal
has gone through a denigration that is wildly unfair. It
is worth three points. It's not negative, it's not awful.
It doesn't kill your team. I understand you want seven,
but three is better than nothing. And and and it's

(01:21:24):
what comes from the foot or the kickoff or the
seventeen punts in New England and the Jets today, we
hate these things. Sunday night football just had its second
half kickoff. You know what happened on this kickoff? Hang on,
hang on, let me make sure. Okay, he got nothing,
he got tackled. Nothing good. Oh and there's a flag

(01:21:45):
and they're heading back to the fifteen yard line. Nothing good.
I want armball, not football. This is armball. I want
to see Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes throw the ball.
So good game of arm ball going on. I mean
called the tackle ball, you could call tackle ball options.

(01:22:07):
I'm open. Why did uh Anthony Davis go to the God?
He went to the locker room because that's where he goes. Brother,
That's where the good stuff is. It's in there. Man.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I really am. I'm sorry. He

(01:22:32):
always gets hurt. It just takes somebody of your soul
a little bit, right, It just takes a little bit
out of you. Well, there are there Now, there are
certain players, and this is in all sports, there are
certain players. Injuries are different for that player than another player,
you know, like when you just when it feels like

(01:22:55):
it's every single darn year, I'm trying to think of
a what would be a good NFL comp to uh,
to Anthony Davis right now, Like who's that player where
you're like, oh, Odell, that's a good one. It's a
tremendous talent when they're healthy, be able to completely change
a team. But just like it's it can't say something,

(01:23:21):
it's just it's always something. I mean, this is not
a household name. But the career is probably over for
Jason Varrette. I know you know who that is right
for Chargers and more recently forty Niners and popped in
Achilles and practice just last week, and I mean it's
the second Achilles. He's a two A c LS, that meniscus,

(01:23:43):
he's had a hip. The guy is still in his
mid twenties. And our mutual friend Rich Ornberger said to
me a couple of weeks ago, he goes, I'm telling
if Jason Verrette had never been hurt, we're talking about
Hall of Fame level talent, unbelieves and this guy, remember
just remember Brandon Roy. That's for the Portland's good one.

(01:24:08):
That's a good one. He could do everything you want
to about walking bucket mm hmmm. He couldn't. He couldn't
do it. Man. He trade tried everything. I think you
wouldn't gotta goat a goat knee transplanted. I mean he
literally tried everything, and it was heartbreaking because it just it.

(01:24:31):
You know, your your body is your body. Your body
tells you no, man, it's not for you. Bill Walton
was like Bill could have been Bill Walton. I know
we're aging ourselves, but sure, sure, sure man. Bill Walton
was raw feet man feet couldn't say big man, big

(01:24:55):
man and feet Yeah yeah, I mean the legs, the
lower body, reg old and yaoming. I mean, it just
it gets you. But god, yeah, some injuries are different
than others. And Anthony Davis is getting to that place,
isn't it. You know Lebron eighteen years without getting hurt

(01:25:19):
in the last three injury riddle, sure, sure, although that
that feels, I mean, it's it's cemented, right, it's it's
of course you're gonna be getting hurt now. I mean,
you've got almost more points than anybody in NBA history.
Is he thirty eight? How old is he thirty six,

(01:25:42):
only twenty years. He came in it thirty seven, thirty seven,
and he's turning thirty eight next month. He came in,
So that's a little bit more acceptable. That's a little
bit more understandable because he won eighteen straight years. Iran
man Anthony Davis hasn't even had his thirtieth birthday. You know.

(01:26:04):
It's Bambi legs every time he every time he jumps
man and just my heart just oh that also jobs
such a time heart Laker fan. It's gonna it's gonna
be a minute that. But I tell you what, I
tell you what last week was a good week for me.

(01:26:29):
San Diego State men's basketball team blew the doze off Stanford,
San Diego State football team blew the doors off New
Mexico and the Lakers one and that to me, that
just made my week last week. Oh he's back on
the bench. That's a perfect okay, good see. Nothing to

(01:26:51):
talk about, you know, college Hooper startup. But I love
this time of year, second half of the NBA season.
You got the NBA start it up in full swing,
you got college basketball starting now, college football coming down
to the end. This is a good time. Of year.
You got the holidays, all right, this is great, great

(01:27:14):
time of year. And the San Diego statements basketball team
brother currently ranked. I think with a seventeen, they're about
to give some people some problems. They play uh Ohio
State tomorrow. I like that arena you've been, You've been
to a game there. We get busy down there. Baby.

(01:27:35):
If you guys haven't been to arena in San Diego
for San Diego State Basket, treat yourself. I don't know
if you can get tickets. I don't know if you
can get in there. Hit me up. I know some people,
but it's rocking in there. Is that is an atmosphere.
There's there's no question. So I love what you're saying,
uh this time of year, especially if you want to

(01:27:55):
jam a World Cup into it. Also. Man, it's almost perfect.
But there's one thing that is messed up right now
that would make it even better, which I would love
to get into with you. Coming up next and we
will Fox Sports Radio Tailgate presented by the Big Green Egg.

(01:28:17):
Nothing beats the flavor of live fire cooking out of
a Big Green Egg. It is the most versatile grill
you'll ever own, backed by a lifetime warranty roll with
the bat Shop online free delivery at big green egg
dot com. Lifetime warranty free home delivery Big green egg
dot Com. With you from Salam Mark Willard on Fox
Sports Radio. We're live from the tairag dot com studios.

(01:28:39):
Mark Willardy from Salabi from Slower a snail, the line
at the d m V or baseball free agency? Which
of the three? The line at the d m V. Okay, Okay,

(01:29:01):
so it's not that bad. You can mess around and
died in the line. Brother, Hey, sir, your your number?
You just did sitting over there. That's like Tom Cruise
on the public transportation. What's the end of that movie Collateral?
It's just like it just dead and just riding around

(01:29:23):
like I get it. Um, here's the thing though, uh
so baseball free agency may not be as bad as
the line at the DMV, but you just said it.
We are in the middle of an apex. This is
absolutely fantastic what's going on in sports. Wouldn't it be
nice if baseball did, I don't know, something like basketball

(01:29:46):
and football do and collect their free agents and go okay,
so how about now? Now would be good? Rather than
having major names who give you free agency rumors and
then they're like, yeah, I like, you know, I'd like
to do this quickly, you know, maybe within the next

(01:30:07):
couple of weeks, hopefully by Christmas or January or February
or March, you know, one of those Oh my gosh,
Like can you imagine Lebron James did the decision and
he was the last one. Remember that the free agency
where is like I'm gonna wait, We're gonna do the

(01:30:28):
Chris Boss stuff. There's all that, the whole league figure
itself out, and then I'll do the decision. That entire
time period was two weeks. Two weeks, and you know this,
when NBA free agency hits at midnight, you have seven
deals by twelve or two. So I mean, why does
baseball not understand that, especially in two as interesting as

(01:30:54):
your game, if not more, is your off season collected
together and do a thing and who knows, somebody might
talk about you on social media once in a while.
Look at the thing that baseball does that no other
professional sport does. It moves at its own pace. Too

(01:31:18):
slow game, it's you know, a bunch of unwritten rules,
gotta play a certain way, not a lot of emotion
can't show up anybody, right, so it it. It's not
shocking to me that their free agency is the same way.

(01:31:42):
It's not exciting, it's not splashed, except for they're fixing
that pitch clock this year. Right, Yeah, I get it.
I mean it's got to be a lot board that
the pitch clock is great, but we got I mean,
young people just aren't watching baseball. Mm hmm. A fan
base is gonna age out right, you know what this

(01:32:04):
is real? Well, not only that, I mean now you're
talking about the larger point, which to me sort of
kind of feels like an easy fix um, at least conceptually.
Now I don't know about the actual functionality of doing this,
but it's pretty obvious to me someone with three kids
in my house ages fifteen, thirteen, and eight. How old

(01:32:27):
are yours now? Eleven and eight? Okay, so we're all
in the same So you know, you know exactly, I
can't get my son if I pick him up on
Monday at school, an hour has gone by by the
time he's done telling me everything that happened in fantasy

(01:32:48):
football the day before. Turn your sport into a video game.
It's really that simple and that's all you gotta do.
I go to a sports bar today, and in fact,
my girl is saying to me like, oh, you know what,
what what do you got? What are you gonna be watching?

(01:33:09):
Which game? You know what? What do I got? I
can't even keep track of what I got. There's a
matrix going on in my head. I have three fantasy leagues,
two pools, um and then fandom and then work. I
add this all together. We had turned an NFL Sunday

(01:33:32):
into a twelve hour video game. That and and I
get that it's not as easy to do another sports.
The NBA is good on social media. They haven't turned
their game into a video game like football has. And
there's fantasy Baseball and there's fantasy basketball. I understand the
event of football is hard to match. The baseball feels

(01:33:54):
like they push that stuff away and and if you,
if you start to welcome to do and they don't
want to bring any fresh new energy into it because
they're trying to hold onto this notion of there's a
right way to play this game. Ain't nobody trying? Who
are you talking to? What? No joke? Seriously, like whoa

(01:34:19):
if the players are younger and younger, they're more skilled. Then.
They all have social media, they all have personalities, but
you're not allowed to show your personality. If I could,
if I was a baseball player and I had the

(01:34:39):
abilities of judge are oh tiny, I would be insufferable.
They would be throwing at my head every game. Because
you want to talk about a bat flip, m you

(01:35:03):
know what I mean? If I hit the ball out
of every home run, I would spend the bat on
the tip of my finger and hip thrust it over
to the side as as I do the jumping jack's
around the basis every base I would switch it up

(01:35:26):
karaoke to first base, jumping Jack's defensive slide to third base,
and the kickworm all the way home. But guess what.
Guess who tuned in to watch? Everybody? Everybody? Guess who's
not tuning in the watch now? Nobody? Yeah, this is

(01:35:50):
why you're All Star game is on the weekday. Make
it make sense. It's a great point. And in fact,
you brought up a sentence that me has almost become
trigger worthy for sports fans, and maybe it shouldn't be,
but it just is because of what it's associated with,
and it's this phrase and you'll hear it. You hear

(01:36:11):
it from a lot of people. I want to play
the game the right way. I don't know what we're
actually saying there. Who Now, Yeah, be careful here because
I get what what I know what that person thinks
they're saying. They're saying that. I want to be respectful.
I want to you know, I want to treat my

(01:36:32):
opponents with respect because their players too. And you can
do all that. You can do all that without the
undertone of play the game the right way, which is
please fit into my little corporate box. Yeah. Man, look, look,
let me ask you this. Who's the best baseball player
in the league. Um, the names that come to mind Otani,

(01:36:56):
Judge Harper. So some people are Otani because he's such
as he's such a dynamic talent, like like no one's
ever seen. Yeah, he doesn't speak English. Rights, So how
does that relate? How do you relate that to right

(01:37:19):
America's pastime DA's game? How do you galvanize our youth
to relate to best player in the game? And they
can't communicate with him or he can't communicate with them.
Where are the splashy adds for MLB? Right? Where are

(01:37:45):
the the thing you know who you know what what
businesses have adopted hip hop? Successful ones? Yeah, think about
what I'm saying you, whether you listen to it or not,

(01:38:06):
hip hop drives the culture you're trying to tap into
the culture. People ask me all the time why don't
more African American kids stick with baseball? Because we also
I just came from my son's I'm an assistant coach
from my son's. Sherman was literally given his last game
of fallball. M hmm. There's not a lot of brothers

(01:38:30):
and black boys out there, right, So people asking me
all the time, you know, what do we have to
do to get more? I was talking to a ride
about this um and the thing is everybody starts with
baseball and soccer because that's you can play soccer the youngest,

(01:38:53):
and then baseball's next. And then as you get older
and you start getting into other sports. Number one, they're faster, Uh,
they're more exciting. But even at baseball, by the time
you get to high school. In baseball, no one goes
to high school baseball games. They're normally played during six period.

(01:39:17):
Are they start there? Do you remember baseball in high school?
Were there a lot of fans there outside of parents,
and you get what I'm saying. But when you think
about students, but when you think about high school and
the teenagers and what they want. They want popularity, want, notoriety.
The gyms are packed for basketball games, right Friday night

(01:39:41):
lights they got it's a whole it's a whole movement
for football, right, So what are the girls. The girls
going to the basketball and football game and I'm not
going to the baseball game. So there's a disconnect, right, Like,
so well, now you get into a situation where it's like,

(01:40:03):
all right, well, what are we doing? How do we change?
You gotta start at that level. You gotta embrace the
culture in order to USh youer it in you get
people paying attention. Yep, yep. Now it's uh, it's really
well said. Much more on that coming up in just moments.
Let's get Kevin wired in here with what's trending as well. Hey, Kevin,

(01:40:25):
take it away. Hey guys, the Sunday night football game
going on featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and that team
formerly known as the San Diego Chargers. Thank you got
that in there for you. It's twenty to sixteen right
now in favor of the Chargers. However, Mike Williams, who
injured his ankle earlier in the game, he will not return,
so justin Herbert is gonna be without one of his
weapons for the rest of the game and then some

(01:40:47):
week eleven scores from earlier today, Bills make it through
the snow to Detroit and beat the Cleveland Browns in
the temporary home as Buffalo is now seven and three.
Eagles escape against the colt seventeen sixteen Jalen Hurts with
the you stay on the ground eighty six yards in
a touchdown. Philadelphia is now a league best nine and one.
Cowboys obliterate the Vikings forty to three. The Vikings the

(01:41:09):
first eight and two team in history to have a
negative point differential. Lines with an upset over the Giants
eighteen three touchdowns for Jamal Williams. Sts meet the Rams
twenty seven to twenty. Ravens grinding went out against the
Panthers thirteen to three. Commanders over the Texans. Patriots making
fourteen in a row against the Jets ten to three
over New York Bengals top the Steelers thirty seven thirty.

(01:41:31):
Falcon's edge up the Bears the Raiders with sixteen overtime
win over the Broncos. That's what's been going on the
Sunday guys. Back to you, Kevin, great stuff, Thank you.
We are live ti irack dot Com Studios with e
from Salama Mark Willard. Good conversation there, and I wonder
how we would extend it to this. I was struck
by this. This is wild and if I am another league,

(01:41:55):
I take note of this. It was maybe seventy two
hours of go at most the rumors were already there,
but about seventy two hours ago it was confirmed for sure.
There's gonna be a football game, folks. It's gonna be
at Ford Field. It's gonna be in Detroit, Michigan. It
will feature the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns. Neither

(01:42:19):
of those cities are in Michigan. I think you know
that A from they sold fifty two thousand seats to
this game out of market. You can't you. I mean,
I don't know. If you saw the Texas A and
M game yesterday. You were just talking about baseball. We

(01:42:41):
see that all over the country. Basketball games, college basketball games,
vi ajas you mentioned, that's very very rare. I mean
Fifty two thousand people went to Ford Field to see
teams that don't play there, that have nothing they weren't
even miss in conference as the team that plays there.

(01:43:03):
So that idea of like traveling from out of town
on short notice. I don't know if you've ever tried
to buy a plane ticket within forty eight hours of departure.
It's not cheap, okay, And and Buffalo, New York is
not using money. But here's Bill's mafia to go to

(01:43:23):
Detroit Cleveland as well, get on the road, get there,
or just people in Detroit, or like, I don't know,
to go take a look at Josh Allen. This looks
kind of fun. Fifty two thousand people showed up to
a football game that they didn't know was happening until
seventy two hours ago. If I'm one of these other leagues,

(01:43:44):
I'm sitting down and try to figure out how I
can replicate even a tiny little piece of that. Yeah,
that that is uh, I mean, that's that's that's the NFL. Man.
People want to go see games, you know, I mean,
did you see what's that? Pfalo Stadium looked like, oh

(01:44:07):
God's good Lord? As a California and I was like,
I don't even know what I don't know what that is.
I'm like, this looks awful. Totally but totally. I mean
I was critical. I was like, why would they move
the game? You know by football? But then you know,
my good people from the area hit me up on
Twitter and like, look, they didn't want it was gonna

(01:44:28):
be a big storm and they didn't want to use
up the city's resources that could have been used to
help people clearing a stadium, which makes sense. I get it, right,
we can't come clear the roads because we gotta make
sure this football fielding, this parking lot it's done. Now

(01:44:50):
you go to the game, but if you're trying to
go to the growth, you just doing you on your own.
So I get that and I understand that, and it
makes sense, and um, you know it's hey, I'm sure
Detroit was happy the city absolutely, you know, makes sense.

(01:45:13):
I was looking at that stadium. I'm like, good lord
a from I mean again, two people that have lived
their lives out here in California. I'm like, I don't
I don't understand. I'm impressed. Um, this is not being critical.
I just don't understand. But I don't know whether I
would be like, we got to leave it. We got yeah,
that's it right. It's not like we need to leave

(01:45:35):
and come back. No, we just need to leave, right.
I went to the super Bowl. Do you remember the
Nick Foles Super Bowl? I was out there. Did you
go to that one? We're out there doing shows. Eagles
take on the New England Patriots, Minnesota, the Bold North.
And I got there and then uh, the plane lands

(01:45:58):
and you go into the air report and then I
went outside. Slap your lips. Now, hold on a second,
why do people live here slap you all in your face?
I don't understand, Like, God love you. You're right, it's bold.
It's so cold out there. It makes you mad. You

(01:46:20):
be mad, man like always mad? Lips chapped, right, you
know if you're just trying to walk down the driveway,
why do I need to slip and break my tailball?
What are we doing? I'm telling you? That is uh

(01:46:43):
goodness that stadium though that. I looked at that and
I said, oh man, I mean Josh Allen, I love
too where people like, well, they're they're the bills. They're
used to it. Josh Allen is from a town on
Highway five. Here in California, you're called fireball, not fireball,
but it might as well be in the summer. That

(01:47:05):
just I mean that guy, Oh he's used to it
knowing not No, he's not. I don't know what that is. So, man,
if you live in that, I salute you. It's incredible. Um. Okay,
we were talking baseball free agency just a couple of

(01:47:26):
minutes ago. There's one player who suddenly ended up on
the free agent market. Eyebrows up to some Is he
the perfect player for your team to sign? Or is
he done? We'll get to that coming up next with
me from salat Mark Wellard Fix Sports Radio. Okay, from
great stuff, always tons of fun. Enjoy World Cup tomorrow morning,

(01:47:47):
Team USA. I believe that we will win. Um, I
mean not just for tomorrow, by the way, I hope
you know that. Um, We're gonna win them all. Man,
we win them all? No or not? But uh but anyway,
I got I got another thing I want to I
want to run by you. And I always have a

(01:48:07):
hard time doing this, especially as somebody who is simply
um a consumer of this. I am. I'm a lover
of of all things sport. It is my job. It
is my business. Um, I was an athlete in high school.
I was not an athlete beyond that. So I'm always
very hesitant to do what you hear a lot in

(01:48:30):
sports media, which is to dismiss the human side of sports,
and hear it all the time. This guy is done.
Now hold on a second before you start throwing stuff
like that around. I take a lot of care in
not doing that, because there's a lot that goes into this.

(01:48:54):
But you help me, now, what to do with somebody
who is not even close to his thirty a day.
He has played at the highest of highest of levels
in his sport. In this particular example, we're talking baseball.
Young man has an m v P Award to his credit. However,

(01:49:15):
let me throw a couple of numbers at you. Combine
the last two seasons. This baseball player is hitting one.
He has got a two forty four uh collective strikeouts,
which equals thirty of all of his at bats. His
o PS over the two year period is six ten.

(01:49:40):
League average would be somewhere about a hundred and fifty
points higher. And even though he's a power hitter, he
only homer's every twenty eight point two at bats. I'm
sure many of the people listening. No, I'm talking about
Cody Bellinger, who was non tendered by the loss as
Les Dodgers and is free for the free agency taking.

(01:50:05):
Right now, what do you do with someone like this?
Is this a bargain or is this guy never gonna
find it again? Oh? No, it's definitely a bargain. Um,
if you can scoop up Cody now, um, if the
market isn't right from you know, you know how baseball

(01:50:26):
goes man. You can have a down here, you can
have two down years you and then come back with
the vengeance. Right remember when um, everybody thought Pool Halls
was done. It was just it was painful watching him play.
And then he had a rebirth. He had a resurgence. Right,
they found value and what he brought. And so somebody

(01:50:50):
as young as Cody and his abilities and where his ceiling,
where he's been, you scooped that up in a heartbeat.
H It's so wild because in fact, you know you
say he has a couple of down seasons. This guy
won the m v P twenty three. He wins the
m v P the very next year. It didn't feel

(01:51:13):
like much because it was the pandemic so it was
a sixty game season, Dodgers win the World Series. Why
would anybody be worried about Cody Bellinger's two thirty nine
batting average twelve home runs? But again, a sixty game
season ops a thousand thirty five dips to nine, but

(01:51:35):
still not terrible. Not a joke, certainly, not like what
they had seen the year before. And then since then,
since then, he can't crack them. Indoza line, and we're
talking about a span of almost a thousand plate appearances. Mhm,

(01:51:58):
this is not, oh, you know, a down year. He
hasn't really played great baseball in three years. I tell
you what. That's one thing I know as a former
professional athlete. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Sure,
boy has changed the scenery. You well, where was this guy?

(01:52:20):
Where was this guy laying the couple of last couple
of years? Right? We we we love that story, don't we.
We love talking about that with I mean, guy, this
is this is, this is the Cody We've been waiting
for it. Yeah, you get those. It happens, Yeah, it
really happens. I hear you, I hear you. It is breathtaking,
though to throw the numbers around it is more home

(01:52:42):
runs and more home runs in than he's hit since UM,
almost as many hits in then he's had since you know.
And even if you just want to call you know,
half season, third of a season, whatever it is, that's
a long, long period of time. So I know there's

(01:53:02):
a report out today that five teams called the second
the Dodgers non tendered him, and they have probably been
more since UM, which will drive the price up. I guess.
I'm not saying somebody's definitely signing the guy, but at
what price, at what commitment? That's what I'm really curious about.
Why wouldn't somebody take a flyer on him? But if

(01:53:24):
you're gonna have to do two years and thirty million dollars, ah, gosh,
what a risk? What a risk? Without risk? There is
no glory, that's true. There's been a lot of baseball
contracts you scratch your head and be like, so it's
not you know, this won't be unheard of. It won't.

(01:53:48):
It won't be unheard of. And that's not just baseball,
it's a bunch of it. Remembered the day of free
agency and the Lakers gave myth was what was it um.
They gave him eight six million dollars in lou all
dang ninety million dollars, which still paying both of them.

(01:54:13):
Never played for five years. Yeah, it happens. It happens, man,
somebody takes away, he takes wings, takes wings in every
sport that was That was one of those free agency periods.
Moscoff was one of those signings that came up five
minutes after the literally literally like they were waiting like

(01:54:35):
this is and look, they didn't have to rush because
it wasn't nobody about to do that. Nobody, nobody, Why
did they do that. It's one of the weirdest things
in sports. Never you're not allowed to talk to free
agency until midnight, and that we're supposed to believe that
these conversations multimillion dollar contracts come together in thirty seven seconds.

(01:55:01):
Great stuff, my man. Always awesome to spend time with you,
and I look forward to next week. But until then,
Happy Thanksgiving Okay, yes, Happy Thanksgiving? And remember what I
told you, all right, tell I'm bunny. Hey, got to work.
I'm bunny. I would love to see your stamp collection.
I gotta work all week long. I gotta work

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk NFL Week 11!