On today’s episode, Jason discusses the Atlanta Falcons' latest improbable win of the season over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whether or not Kirk Cousins recent string of game-winning drives actually bodes well for Atlanta's long-term future and what he'd like to see the Falcons do differently moving forward. Plus, Jason shares a few quick thoughts on the New York Mets' exhilarating playoff win powered by slugger Pete Alonso. Later, J-Mac hits us with his Best Bets for the upcoming slate of college football and NFL action this upcoming weekend.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up? Straight fire? Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre.
Straight fire for Friday, October fourth, and holy cow, if
you're an Atlanta Falcons fan, you are riding high this morning.
What a crazy game. Obviously the Bucks have reason to
be ticked off some questionable officiating late, but Atlanta stole one.
(00:33):
Kirk Cousins went from goat throwing the interception on fourth
and fifteen with like ninety seconds left to hero. Actually,
maybe you give Cadarroll Hodge the hero tag. Dude came
in ice cold. I don't know if you had any
plays all game, Rob, but he definitely did not have
any catches. I'm sorry he had one catch before that.
Cadarroll Hodge catches one over the middle and goes forty
(00:54):
five yards of the house and Atlanta's going off in
the overtime win over Tampa. Just a wild game. It's
saping up like we have a wild weekend ahead, folks.
I will do best bets for the final ten minutes.
I don't feel awesome about this card. I didn't feel
great about the Falcons, and you watch Tampa Bay totally
dominate the first half. Let me just quickly tell you
(01:16):
drive by drive for Tampa in the first half, touchdown,
field goal, touchdown, touchdown, and then they took a knee,
so they basically every possession four for four scored. And
then in the second half, you've got to wonder what
was going on with the Tampa Bay offense. I mean,
Baker Mayfield totally dominant in the first half. Second half,
they do punt right out of the gate field goal,
(01:38):
field goal, a brutal fumble by Bucky Irving, who I
started in fantasy like a moron, and then they had
to punt after going backwards. We'll talk about that in
a second. But a great win. Coup bangs of fifty
was it fifty four to force overtime after oh sorry,
fifty two yard after having one blocked earlier in the
second half. Just a crazy game, divisional matchup, the favorite
(02:02):
comes out on top. Again. After the Lions Seahawks game
on Monday, if you guys heard the pod, I was
pretty clear I'm not drawing any sweepy conclusions about the Lions,
but I thought the loser Seattle was pretty impressive. Here again,
I thought Tampa, with the tempo they used in the
first half, the mixing up the running in the past.
They totally had Atlanta off balance. I was impressed with
(02:25):
Tampa second half play calling left a little to be desired.
And then of course it's Captain Kirk Cousins finishing. Are
you ready for this? Forty two of fifty eight for
five hundred and nine yards, four tuddies, the pick late
took four sacks. The run game didn't really get on track.
Drake London had a monster performance with twelve for one
(02:48):
hundred and fifty four, his best game as a pro,
but it was it was like Kyle Pitts got unlocked,
Kirk Cousins just wants to throw the damn ball, and
it was just just a wacky game.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Rob.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I don't have any weep in conclusions other than to say, listen,
this is the cardiac Falcons. I went to my men's
league game and I get a text from my buddy, Hey,
I can't believe the kick was blocked, and I'm like,
that's the Falcons. You bet on the Falcons. Crazy stuff's
gonna happen. And of course I'm playing my men's leg
game and the guys are telling me what's going on,
and I was on Atlanta, so I was kind of excited,
(03:19):
but Richard Jefferson did not play, neither did our other superstar.
And then another really good we have down four guys,
so we only had six and we lost to the
defending champs by six. It's fine, it's a good loss
if that qualifies. But I don't know if you're Tampa Bay,
is this a good loss to the Falcons? I mean,
I thought Tampa blew this. I mean, rob when you
get the ball after the cousin's interception, Kirk throws the pick.
(03:42):
Let me see what time it was. Yeah, there was
one fifty two left in the game. You get the
interception by the linebacker Levante David Right, and it's like, okay,
we're at the Atlanta twenty twenty eight yard line. We're
in field range, like we got to lock this up,
(04:03):
and all of a sudden they go backwards. You get
the holding penalty, they don't call the face mask, and
in a span of twenty four seconds they lose fourteen
yards and have to punt instead of kick a field goal.
And that was just unbelievable. And then Kirk goes postal
in the final one to fourteen against the passive defense,
and that's that. But I don't know, Rob, Like, if
(04:24):
you're Atlanta, these sweats are just They've got to be
tough Atlanta. By the way, ladies and gentlemen, five games
this season they've lost by eight. That's a one score game.
They won by one against the Eagles, they lost by
five to the Chiefs. They had two chances late. They
beat the Saints by two and the Bucks by six
in overtime. Five games and I count eight as a
one score game. I don't know if you do, but
(04:46):
eight is a touchdown and a two point conversion. So
to me, that's a one score game. Five games, five
to one score games. I can't bet on the Falcons anymore. Rob,
It's just too stressful.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Jason Leviticus Bartholomew McIntyre Junior worried about all the wrong
things early here Friday morning. You should be focusing on
what Kirk Cousins has done, rising from the ashes like
a glorious phoenix back into relevancy. Okay, after week one
on this very podcast, yourself and myself were ready to,
(05:18):
you know, basically send Kirk Cousin a retirement. He looked
like he couldn't move his Achilles was busted. They had
a running the pistol offense all game. That's how bad
he looked. Totally immobile, looked like the washed King, to
be quite honest with you. And then it was much
of the same in Week two for about three quarters
and ten minutes or so in Philly. Because then against Philadelphia,
(05:41):
something snapped in that game winning drive. Shout out to
Sakwon Barkley who dropped it would have been a game
winning touchdown pass. Kirk Cousin comes all the way back
touchdown and suddenly the light bulb went off, and he's like, hey,
you know what, I may not be one hundred percent
of what I was last year before the Achilles injury,
but I have a lot more than fifty percent, have
(06:01):
a lot more than sixty percent. I'm closer to ninety
percent than I am to fifty percent. And I have
confidence that when I step off that right foot, I'm
going to be able to fire the ball into tight
windows to some good wide receivers and lo and behold,
the last three games he engineers game winning drives. Kirk
Cousins is starting to look a hell of a lot
(06:24):
more like that top ten quarterback we saw at the
beginning of last season than the wash King he was
in Week one. But Kirk Cousins, okay, I mean again,
because we were ready to bury him. It's only right
that the you know, adulation is as loud as the
criticism was.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, no, no, that's fair, that's fair. I mean he
did when you throw for five hundred yards, you got
to give the guy props. That being said, what was
your reaction when he threw the interception on fourth and fifteen?
Typical Kirk Cousins, right.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Not really, you know what, Honestly, I was really just
I would when he came to that play. The interception
in bothered me as much as their decision to go
for it, because they still are all three time outs
of that and they could have easily punted it, played defense,
got the ball back and made them their lives a
little bit easier, and instead it took a non face
mask call on Bucky Irving for them to even have
(07:17):
a chance, because if that call is made to offset
the holding penalty, they're still in field goal range. They
can still milk some clock, potentially kick a fielder to
go up six, And that's a totally different conversation. So
I thought Raheem Morris kind of got bailed out in
that regard by Kirk Cousins. But when you have three
straight game winning drives, and now for all the talk
(07:38):
about primetime Kirk and him being a problem and him,
you know, always letting you down in the biggest moments.
Since twenty twenty one, Kirk Cousins now has the most
game winning drives in the NFL while missing nine games
last year, He's at fifteen. Patrick Mahomes is second with eleven. Like,
if this is the Kirk Cousins you're going to get,
and I'm not saying he's throw five hny yards every game,
(07:59):
but if he's going to look like a reasonably healthy
facsimile of himself, there's a reason why the Atlanta Falcons
were the popular pick for popular people to win that division.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, I mean, I will point out through five games
they're three and two, on top of the division by tiebreaker,
but they're negative four point differential, Like they're not impressing.
But like you said, Kirk is coming off the Achilles.
He's been slow to ramp things up, and fortunately for
Atlanta fans, the schedule it's not like it gets harder.
I mean, you could argue they've already faced probably two
(08:32):
of the toughest tests in Pittsburgh and Kansas City, and
now they're in the division. They still have two left
against Carolina. One is next week, so they get some
extra time prepare for Carolina. They do have Seattle after that,
but they get Seattle at home. Then they go to
Tampa Dallas, which after this week, folks, I think Dallas
is gonna be two and three. We'll get to that
on picks. But then it's like Saints Broncos. I don't
(08:54):
know what the Chargers will be or if Herbert will
be upright, maybe the Vikings will come down to Earth.
And then they still have games against the Raiders and
the Giants. So there's a world where, you know, the
Falcons end up winning eleven games and are in the
mix for the number one seed, assuming that this offense
can keep cooking. But rob let's be real, throwing for
five hundred yards and fifty eight pass attempts is not sustainable.
(09:16):
They've got to quote unquote establish the run. Like you've
got Bijon Robinson, use him. I mean I bet at
Bjon Robinson. Propit didn't come close to sniffing because Kirk
Cousins just wants to go air raid like all game.
I don't get that strategy, Like I just I don't
get dropping back fifty eight times and try. I mean,
rob they were losing much of that game. They had
(09:37):
no business winning that game. That's their Fate's safe to say.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, I mean, and it just to be quite honest,
if you were to look at the ESPN, what is
the win probability index? Basically for every one of their wins,
they had a ninety percent chance of losing with like
two minutes left. So that part is totally fair, and
I agree with you that they can't. The recipe cannot
be Kirk Cousins dropping back fifty plus times. I haven't
throw the ball, you know, even if I do, like
the wide receiving Corps, that's just not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
What they really got to do is unlock what is
supposedly the most gifted running back in all of football,
John Robinson, because he's been I mean, he looks fine,
he doesn't look unhealthy or anything like that. He's getting
the yards that are there. But I don't see him
looking like some generational talent like he was hyped up
to be. I mean, you use him like McCaffrey is used.
(10:35):
Know that they really don't. And then the fact is
is that you know, I know Arthur Smith took a
lot of heat for this last year, but you know,
Algier's not going anywhere like he's getting a decent workload,
you know, relative to back back. So unless they can
get Bjon Robinson, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of
(10:56):
fifteen to twenty carries a game, and you know he's
giving you a consistent seventy seventy five eighty five yards
a game, then maybe that'll even things out. But you know,
most recently his last three games sixty one yards, twenty
eight yards, thirty one yards, and that's not gonna get
it done. And that's the reason why Kirk's having to
check it all over the field.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I think twenty touches in the pass and run game
is sufficient for Bijon. And it's weird because last year
this same thing happened. They're like, what's our identity, and weirdly,
Arthur Smith at the time decided, well, Desmion ruders our guy.
And he had a couple games where he threw like
thirty five forty passes. I think one of them was
against Tampa, and I'm like, I just don't know what
Atlanta is and I don't know rob There's not a
(11:39):
world where I can watch this team and think, oh,
they're a threat when Kirk Cousins is dropping back to
pass fifty eight times, because you know how close the
margins are so tight in this league. You know, like,
let's say Ko misses the fifty two yarder or they
don't or they throw the flag for the face mask
and the Falcons lose this game, then what's the narrative, Well,
(12:00):
Kirk Cousins failed and ys he chucking it all of
the field and they're not using b John Robinson. But
because they won, the narrative is how about Kirk Cousins
with that game winning drive or game time drive, the
game winning drive. What a game? But we gloss over
it because they won. And if you're playing the results,
that's fine, but process wise, it's tough to really like
(12:21):
either of these teams going forward. Like Rob Baker Mayfield
had a tremendous first half. I don't have the isolated
second half passing yards, but it feels like he did
nothing like what. I don't understand that strategy. Meanwhile, Kirk
Cousin threw for two hundred and fifty yards in the
first half and two hundred fifty yards in the second
half in overtime. That is a clear strategy.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Absolutely, And again your point about the Falcons is well taken.
My only counter and whether this is a good argument
or not you can you can tell me is that
them winning these games, that that they have that three
game winning drives of their all three their wins have
coming behind the last minute or so. That has to
make you feel good. Because again, when the margins are
that slim, when you're you're parsing between you know, Atlanta
(13:03):
and Seattle, and you know, we'll see about Minnesota and
Green Bay and Detroit and all these teams that we
think are gonna be jockeying for those playoff positions that
outside of a healthy San Francisco forty nine ers team,
I don't really see a world beater in the NFC.
As good as Minnesota has looked, you know, God forbid
the fact that it's Sam Darnold never gonna be fully
(13:24):
on board until I see it over a sustained period.
Cause we've seen him good for a month. We've never
seen him good for two, three, four months. Right, So
if it comes down to we'll say Detroit and Atlanta,
I'm gonna pick Detroit. But if you're at Atlanta and you're saying, hey,
maybe we're not as good as these guys on a weekend,
week out basis, and you're right, maybe we're gonna need
(13:46):
something to go our way, like a face mask or
a fumble or something that's gonna put in some position.
What they do have going for them, though, that not
a lot of other teams have, is Kirk Cousins, as
crazy as it sound, has a proven track record now
of coming up bit in crunch time. So if you
got anything to hang your hat on, that's a hell
of a thing to have these days.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
All right, real quick, before we get the best bets,
I do just want to bring this up. So I
did not watch a ton of baseball in the regular season,
but the playoffs, baseball in the postseason is awesome. It's
the kind of it's just the stuff dreams are made
of when you watch guys hit late inning home runs
and the crowd goes wild and all this stuff. So
I'm a Yankees fan. I'm not a huge I don't
(14:26):
dislike the Mets the way I dislike the Giants as
a Jets fan. But so the Mets win Game one
against the Brewers. Game two, the Mets are leading, I
think they were up three to two in the eighth
or something like that, and they give up a three
run homer or the Brewers score three runs and stun
the Mets, and you know, in the NFL, it's like, well,
(14:47):
what happened last week? There's carry over in the NBA,
there's carryover. Weirdly in baseball. Everybody tells me there's no momentum.
Momentum is the next day starting pitcher. That's a momentum. Okay,
all right, cut it. And of course what happens in
Game three series The Brewers are totally dominated. The Mets
can do nothing. The Mets, I believe, were down to
(15:07):
their final out in the ninth inning, trailing to nothing,
and Pete Alonso steps to the plate and hits one
the opposite way. And it was one of those moments
where I was like, oh my goodness, like the Mets
have been pretty futile for a while. And I'm not
a Mets fan, like I said, but the hair on
(15:28):
my arm stood up when Alonzo went yard. He did
the chef's kiss rounding first. It was one of those
baseball moments that was that was special. And they go
on to stun the Brewers on the road in the
third game. Just a tremendous rally for the Mets. So
now the National League is set up, Dodgers padres out
(15:49):
here in Los Angeles. Everybody's very excited, and then Mets
Phillies on the East Coast. It doesn't get the like
if the MLB coming could hand pick the final four,
I rob is it safe to say he picked those four?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I'm so freaking lotly.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, unless you would argue maybe the Braves somehow, But
I don't know. I think the Phillies have a lot
of juice. I think New York is come on, it's
New York. They're a good story. They're a bit of
a Cinderella here. And then it's like the Dodgers with
Otani Otani's first playoff game ever, is is it tonight?
Rop or is it Saturday?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
It's Saturday?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Okay, okay, so the Otani and then of course the
Padres are fun. Man Petko is just popping. Every time
you watch on the screen, that park jumps off the screen.
It's just incredible. And then of course you got the
Yankees in the AL and I don't know, I just
feel like baseball's having this pretty cool moment, and in
a way, I feel not bad, but like the WNBA
(16:44):
was on the cusp and then Katel Clark gets knocked
out and it's like, oh, okay, well, no need to
check out the WNBA. I don't know who's left. I
don't know who's one. I haven't paid attention, but nobody's
paying attention now now that baseball has an amazing final
eight teams left. Last year, if you looked at the
final and I looked it up online earlier, it was
like just not attractive sexy matchups. I think the best
(17:08):
was Brave's Phillies, but after that it was like, you
can't get too excited. I think people are geeked about
these final eight teams left in.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Baseball, absolutely, and I'm not even really a baseball fan,
which is funny because number one, I live in Los Angeles,
so you think being'd be a Dodger fan. And number two,
the fact that I also produce an MLB podcast for
iHeart that you would assume that I'm a baseball fan
and I'm just not. However, I will say as a
sports fan, major League Baseball postseason is better than the
(17:39):
NFL and the NBA, point blank period for me. And
I'm not even a baseball fan because the drama and
that the tension is something that you just don't really
get in the NBA and in the NFL. For my money,
like the Peter Alonzo home run, people say that momentum
is not real and whether or not, I mean historically
(18:00):
the guy give it up. Devin Williams is one of
the best closures in all the baseball I think his
ra was like one point two or something stupid like that,
Like he's that good of a picture. And once he
gave up the leadoff walk and then the guy hits
a single, then it's a guy's runners up first and third.
It's like you could feel it coming. You're like, this
is either going to be a three run jack by
Alonzo or he's gonna strike him out. There's no in between,
(18:23):
Like something's got to get the rubbers got to meet
the road here in some way form of fashion. And
when that happened, I was at the studio at the
Foxfort Radio studios. As you know, there's Mets fans all
in the media these days, and.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You're they're coming out of nowhere. Where are they from?
But like apparently they all went to Syracuse.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Like they all went to Syracuse and they're all Mets fans.
That's usually how it works. But when we're watching it
in the studio and we have soundproof glass, you could
feel the floor beneath us because you couldn't hear anything
because of the soundproof, you could feel the floor shaking.
I mean, that was a cool moment. I'm not even
a Mets fan or a baseball fan. That was cool.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, it was certainly fun and exciting and congrats to
the Mets. The let's see tonight we have I think
the al steps up tonight. Oh no, there's no games tonight.
It starts Saturday, So that's weird. How are they passing
on a Friday? So Saturday starting at at ten am
against college it's a week college football stague. We'll get
(19:19):
to it. I have a lot of bets on there,
but it's Tigers, Guardians, that Mets, Phillies, Royals, Yankees, and
then the nightcap is Padres Dodgers. I have not tried
to get Padres Dodgers tickets, but oh my gosh, the
prices look exorbitant.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I mean good that you got money, so we gotta
worry about that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I do not rob things ate anyways. All right, let's
get to the best bets for this weekend in football.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. The only thing better than sitting on your
couch watching the games. He's making money while you do it.
(20:01):
Here's your best bet.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
All right, best bets college football and the NFL. I
probably should start adding some MLB, but I haven't fired
on one baseball game all season. Sorry, guys. Just enjoyed
watching the games, for sure, But college football. I do
want to keep a lot of powder dry because next
weekend has so many freaking good games it's gonna be
off the chain. I really like the card next weekend.
(20:24):
This weekend, a lot of bad teams, a lot of underdogs.
Fire fire when Redd Day, we'll go. Minnesota plus eight
hosting USC. I like USC and my buddy Nico, he
is a big USC guy, got fortunate last week with him.
This is a look ahead game. USC has Penn State
next week. Minnesota should keep it closed. I've got Minnesota
plus eight, a bunch of teams that you don't want
(20:47):
to hear about. Vanderbilt plus twenty two, Colorado State plus eleven,
WVU plus three and a half, Stanford plus eight. Stanford
did not do well for me last week, and then
cal is hosting game Day. I took the ten and
a half, Why the heck not? And finally another rotten team,
Duke getting nine and a half. By the way, I
(21:08):
should note Stanford I believe is on its third string quarterback,
so buyer beware, and that one favorite I have on
the card, Oh my gosh, where's the three six seven dogs?
And then Nebraska as the favorite in college football. Saturday
is a busy, busy day for me, so I won't
be watching these games, so unlikely for me to add
anything on the IG. Let's get to the NFL. Now,
(21:29):
I've been telling you guys for the last I think
two weeks that this NFL strategy of the lines are
a little skewed based on teams that did not cover
facing teams that did cover the week prior. Why is that, well,
public perception drives a lot of this. You know, remember
(21:51):
two weeks ago, Baltimore beat Jacksonville Monday night football. Buffalo
was like the best team in the NFL Super Bowl bound.
Then they go to Baltimore get spanked, and we had
Baltimore in that. You know, this happens all the time.
Whatever people saw last they overreact to and they want
to bet. The house obviously knows this, and that's why
you seeing some of these skewed lines. So two weeks ago,
(22:12):
backing teams that did not cover against teams that did
seven and two against the spread that was the weekend,
I went five to zero in the contest. Last week,
this system went four to one and one the Chargers,
depending on how you graded it. Chargers, we gave them
a push. It was seven, depending it could have been
seven and a half. Of course, I had the Cardinals
and I was too much of a woos to take
(22:35):
Dallas on Thursday night, and so I ended up three
to two in the contest. This week, these are the
remaining games. Obviously, Falcons did not cover the week prior
and then Tampa did, so that result from last night
it applies here. But the New York Jets did not
cover last week. They look bad against the Broncos. I
bet the Jets against the Vikings, and I know nobody
wants to touch the Jets here. By the way, the
(22:57):
Jets were if you go listen to the podcast with
ta they were two and a half point favorites in
this matchup. Now they're suddenly too and a half point underdogs.
It's not through a key number right, three and seven
of the key numbers, but that's still a radical swing.
I am of the belief, and I know I'm a
Jets fan, so you guys can take this with a
grain of salt. The Jets are well aware that just
(23:20):
like Denver, Minnesota loves the Blitz. I mean, everybody knows
that you get the handicap is everywhere? What is it? Everywhere?
Is as good as Sam Darnold has been, as much
as the media has glossed over him, He's had a
lot of shall we say, suspect turnovers or near turnovers.
He's gotten kind of fortunate. Now he faces a Jets
defense with wait for it, good cornerbacks. Minnesota has faced
(23:42):
a lot of bottom tier cornerbacks and as a result,
Darnald has cooked. I mean, remember Jayla Alexander didn't play
last week, so he didn't get to match up with
Justin Jefferson. The Jets have Sauce Gardner, they have DJ Reied,
So I'm not saying they're gonna lock down Addison and Jefferson.
I'm sure they're gonna have They're gonna get their's events.
But the Jets will not need massive help, and I
(24:03):
am of the belief they will be loading up with
the line of scrimmage and pressuring the hell out of
Sam Darnold. I have the Jets now. I don't know
if I'm going to put the Jets in the contest
because it's two and a half. Besides the Jets, teams
that did not cover versus did. Here we go Carolina Panthers.
Anyone want a piece of the Carolina Panthers. The defense
is horrific, it's beat up. Can Andy Dalton get it
(24:27):
done outside against the Bears? I don't know. Bears did
cover against the Rams. We had that one last week.
I don't know if I have the cahonis to put
the Panthers in, but I have bet Carolina. The Steelers
did not cover the Cowboys did. The Steelers are so
far my biggest play of the week, and I already
am feeling a little regretful giving these offensive line injuries
to the Steelers. My gosh. Fortunately they're facing a Dallas
(24:48):
defense that's down Lawrence. Looks like it's gonna be down Parsons.
I haven't seen in confirmation yet, and I think justin
Fields and Pittsburgh get it done. A nice bounce back
spot for Mike Tomlin. You know he likes to get
the troops all fired up, and Tomlin should be able
to do that at home after a pretty tough lost
on the road to the Colts. I don't want to
call for a Steelers blot or anything, but I have
(25:08):
them at two and two and a half. Also included
in this list, and nobody's gonna want this team the
Cleveland Browns. If you listen to the podcast with Ta again,
we talked about this at length, so I won't go
too deep, but Cleveland didn't cover Cleveland's bad Obviously, you
got to check the Cleveland Brown's injury report as late
as you can on Friday. And one other thing I
(25:30):
do right before the contest submissions are due. I think
at like one pm on Saturday, I make sure to
look up Rapaport and I look up Schefter and scroll
their timeline because they are leaking all the injuries and
who's gonna play and who's gonna sit. So, for instance,
the Browns were really beat up on Wednesday. Conkland didn't practice. Obviously,
(25:50):
Willis did not practice. Guests who returned to practice on Thursday.
Conklin and Willis both tackles. Kind of a big deal.
The backup center did not practice Wednesday. He was back Thursday.
Brown's getting a little healthier, obviously, they'd love to get
back in djoku. He's still not practicing due to the ankle.
But the one thing that has me nervous about the
(26:12):
Browns here is this a Mari Cooper thing. The more
smoke that is out there about a Mari Cooper possibly
getting traded, I believe he leaves the league and drops
had a brutal win last week that resulted at a pick,
and you just wonder if he's kind of sort of
checked out after that loss to the Raiders, and if
they fall behind, I don't know, fourteen nothing to this
(26:32):
Washington juggernaut that is Jaden Daniels. Does Cooper kind of
pack it in and start quitting and packing his backs?
I don't know. That locker room feels tenuous. It just
doesn't feel great. That being said, I definitely will have
the Browns because I don't think the Commanders can do
it again. Now the other one, which I don't think
I can put in the contest, and I actually haven't
(26:52):
bet this because I'm a woos Arizona getting seven against
the Niners. It was seven and a half, it's down
to seven again. I'm probably overreacting to the Niners getting healthy,
but they are starting to look like the juggernaut that
can reel off. Oh, I don't know, ten straight wins
in a row. This team looks very, very good. I
(27:13):
am a little concerned about Fred Warner, who you got
dinged up. I had an amazing pick six last week
and then ended up getting injured. And it's like, listen,
if Warner's out against Kyler Murray, like Warner, he's going
to scare Kyler Murray into not running. The problem is
Warner isn't practicing. In the other issue, Kittle back on
(27:34):
theand report he's not practicing. So I probably will end
up on the Cardinals. I just this Niners team. It
feels like they're close to rounding into form. And then
I don't know if c Max coming back, but we'll see.
So those are the teams did not cover versus did
Besides those, let's see what else I have here, as
(27:56):
I'm the nerd who has a document with all of
the wagers that I have already. Okay, so I also, oh, no,
I'm sorry, I did bet the Cardinals at seven and
a half. I have them. I don't have them in
the contest yet because that's just, you know, going against
the Niners and then not getting a result is just
one of those like why did you do it? They've
got the best roster in the league. What are you doing?
(28:16):
You're messing around, and it's just I don't know if
I'll play them in the contest. I have Denver money
line against the Raiders. It's a little expensive, minus one
forty five, so that's like a one hundred and forty five
bucks to win one hundred. I like Denver at home
against the Raiders. I added the Steelers money line minus
one thirty eight. I have the Saints plus six on
(28:36):
Monday Night football against the Chiefs. I don't know how
I feel about that. I have the under in Cowboys Steelers.
And the one game that I have circled that I
did bet late last night after seeing the injury report
is the Seattle Seahawks minus six and a half. So
here's where it gets interesting. The New York Giants, we know,
are aggressively bad. They have basically their offenses Molik Neighbors
(28:58):
and that's it. They don't have much else. Milke Neighbors
is a concussion protocol and has not been cleared. Now
he's basically got one day to clear, and that would
be Friday. If he's not practicing, how on earth is
he gonna play against Seattle. And then you're looking at, oh, well, well,
I guess they can just run against Seattle, you know,
kind of like Detroit did oh really the Giants offensive
(29:21):
lines that gould and oh, by the way, Devin Singletary,
starting running back hasn't practiced this week due to a
groin injury. You start to add this up and you're like,
where's the offense coming from? And I think back to
Seattle kind of choking out the Skyler Thompson Dolphins a
couple of weeks ago. It was twenty four to three.
I can definitely see that happening. And then you look
at the Seahawks front, which was banged up. They were
down four starting defensive linemen last week. It looks like
(29:45):
a couple of them are gonna be back now. Byron
Murphy does not look like he's gonna return. Hankins, it
doesn't look like he will, but others Leonard Williams looks
like he's a go. Nuosu is practicing again. They're hopeful
to get him back. He's their best pass rusher. Mafe
is kind of dinged up with a knee. He's good
on the edge. If they get their guys, I think
(30:07):
this is a Seahawks smash spot.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Six and a half is a tough number. It's a
big number to kind of cover if you're Seattle, because
remember they didn't cover. They got to push in the opener.
I believe against Denver at six now, they handed Denver
a lot of points in that one or sorry field
position that was less about Denver being good and Seattle
just screwing up. I don't have any faith in the
Giants defense. Now there is a world where they get
a strip sack on Geno Smith and you know, blah
(30:31):
blah blah, and it's a disaster. I feel like the
Seahawks are the side here. So that's where I'm at
heading into the week. My I, like I said, I
have this nerdy document and this is my current order
for the contest. I have at the top, Browns they're
plus three. I got three and a half as a bet,
(30:51):
Jets two and a half. Don't like that, wish it
was a three. I bet them three, Steelers two and
a half. Jags. Oh, I forgot to add the Jags
Jags minus two and a half. I think they get
it done against the Colts. I mean, they've totally dominated
the Colts at home. The Colts leave the friendly confines
of the Dome and now have to go outside Jacksonville
eight and oh against the spread, and they've won eight
(31:14):
straight at home against the Colts. Now, it's gonna sound
weird to say, but if Joe Flacco ends up starting
I'm probably a little more worried about this Richardson's gonna
give you occasional splash plays, but the consistency won't be there.
I saw stat that flacco On passes under ten yards
was twelve of twelve for like one hundred eight yards
(31:34):
and a touchdown or a touchdown last week. Like he
doesn't miss the layups Richardson does. So the Jags are
high on my list of probably playing Seattle's there a
mount of six and a half, Panthers plus three and
a half Bengals. I didn't really get into Bengals Ravens,
but Bengals plus two and a half is on the list,
and then Denver at three. I just have a hard
time laying a number with bo Nicks, and I do
(31:55):
want to remind you guys, bo Nix's last two covers
were as underdogs, right, Tampa and the Jets. The other
thing that's interesting, and this is I don't know how
betting related it is, but all three rookie quarterbacks are
favored by three or more this week. Jade Daniels three
to three and a half, bo Nicks is three, and
(32:16):
Caleb Williams three and a half or four. Just let
that one sink in for a little bit. Rookie quarterback favorite.
Remember in the first week, they were all abysmal, and
they were all dogs and none of them. Oh wait no, actually,
I'm sorry. Caleb Williams was a favorite against the Titans
and they got super lucky to cover. But these rookie
quarterbacks are much better as dogs. Jade and Daniels dog
(32:37):
against the Bengals boom. Jade and Daniels dog against Arizona boom.
Now he's favored against Jim Schwartz, the best Devinci's faced.
Just tread cautiously, ladies and gentlemen. All right, this is
a great week. This weekend at sports got the baseball postseason,
college football, although it's not a great college football schedule,
and of course the NFL on Sunday, folks, it's getting
(32:59):
that time. A lot of people think October is the
best sports month. I lean November because you get NBA
and college hoops, and when you combine those two, I
give that the edge over baseball postseason. But I can
understand baseball postseason. Man, That Mets game fun stuff for
the Mets. Sorry, Brewers fans. All right, guys, have a
great weekend. Back on Monday. Talk to you then,
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up? Straight fire? Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre.
Straight fire for Friday, October fourth, and holy cow, if
you're an Atlanta Falcons fan, you are riding high this morning.
What a crazy game. Obviously the Bucks have reason to
be ticked off some questionable officiating late, but Atlanta stole one.
(00:33):
Kirk Cousins went from goat throwing the interception on fourth
and fifteen with like ninety seconds left to hero. Actually,
maybe you give Cadarroll Hodge the hero tag. Dude came
in ice cold. I don't know if you had any
plays all game, Rob, but he definitely did not have
any catches. I'm sorry he had one catch before that.
Cadarroll Hodge catches one over the middle and goes forty
(00:54):
five yards of the house and Atlanta's going off in
the overtime win over Tampa. Just a wild game. It's
saping up like we have a wild weekend ahead, folks.
I will do best bets for the final ten minutes.
I don't feel awesome about this card. I didn't feel
great about the Falcons, and you watch Tampa Bay totally
dominate the first half. Let me just quickly tell you
(01:16):
drive by drive for Tampa in the first half, touchdown,
field goal, touchdown, touchdown, and then they took a knee,
so they basically every possession four for four scored. And
then in the second half, you've got to wonder what
was going on with the Tampa Bay offense. I mean,
Baker Mayfield totally dominant in the first half. Second half,
they do punt right out of the gate field goal,
(01:38):
field goal, a brutal fumble by Bucky Irving, who I
started in fantasy like a moron, and then they had
to punt after going backwards. We'll talk about that in
a second. But a great win. Coup bangs of fifty
was it fifty four to force overtime after oh sorry,
fifty two yard after having one blocked earlier in the
second half. Just a crazy game, divisional matchup, the favorite
(02:02):
comes out on top. Again. After the Lions Seahawks game
on Monday, if you guys heard the pod, I was
pretty clear I'm not drawing any sweepy conclusions about the Lions,
but I thought the loser Seattle was pretty impressive. Here again,
I thought Tampa, with the tempo they used in the
first half, the mixing up the running in the past.
They totally had Atlanta off balance. I was impressed with
(02:25):
Tampa second half play calling left a little to be desired.
And then of course it's Captain Kirk Cousins finishing. Are
you ready for this? Forty two of fifty eight for
five hundred and nine yards, four tuddies, the pick late
took four sacks. The run game didn't really get on track.
Drake London had a monster performance with twelve for one
(02:48):
hundred and fifty four, his best game as a pro,
but it was it was like Kyle Pitts got unlocked,
Kirk Cousins just wants to throw the damn ball, and
it was just just a wacky game.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Rob.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I don't have any weep in conclusions other than to say, listen,
this is the cardiac Falcons. I went to my men's
league game and I get a text from my buddy, Hey,
I can't believe the kick was blocked, and I'm like,
that's the Falcons. You bet on the Falcons. Crazy stuff's
gonna happen. And of course I'm playing my men's leg
game and the guys are telling me what's going on,
and I was on Atlanta, so I was kind of excited,
(03:19):
but Richard Jefferson did not play, neither did our other superstar.
And then another really good we have down four guys,
so we only had six and we lost to the
defending champs by six. It's fine, it's a good loss
if that qualifies. But I don't know if you're Tampa Bay,
is this a good loss to the Falcons? I mean,
I thought Tampa blew this. I mean, rob when you
get the ball after the cousin's interception, Kirk throws the pick.
(03:42):
Let me see what time it was. Yeah, there was
one fifty two left in the game. You get the
interception by the linebacker Levante David Right, and it's like, okay,
we're at the Atlanta twenty twenty eight yard line. We're
in field range, like we got to lock this up,
(04:03):
and all of a sudden they go backwards. You get
the holding penalty, they don't call the face mask, and
in a span of twenty four seconds they lose fourteen
yards and have to punt instead of kick a field goal.
And that was just unbelievable. And then Kirk goes postal
in the final one to fourteen against the passive defense,
and that's that. But I don't know, Rob, Like, if
(04:24):
you're Atlanta, these sweats are just They've got to be
tough Atlanta. By the way, ladies and gentlemen, five games
this season they've lost by eight. That's a one score game.
They won by one against the Eagles, they lost by
five to the Chiefs. They had two chances late. They
beat the Saints by two and the Bucks by six
in overtime. Five games and I count eight as a
one score game. I don't know if you do, but
(04:46):
eight is a touchdown and a two point conversion. So
to me, that's a one score game. Five games, five
to one score games. I can't bet on the Falcons anymore. Rob,
It's just too stressful.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Jason Leviticus Bartholomew McIntyre Junior worried about all the wrong
things early here Friday morning. You should be focusing on
what Kirk Cousins has done, rising from the ashes like
a glorious phoenix back into relevancy. Okay, after week one
on this very podcast, yourself and myself were ready to,
(05:18):
you know, basically send Kirk Cousin a retirement. He looked
like he couldn't move his Achilles was busted. They had
a running the pistol offense all game. That's how bad
he looked. Totally immobile, looked like the washed King, to
be quite honest with you. And then it was much
of the same in Week two for about three quarters
and ten minutes or so in Philly. Because then against Philadelphia,
(05:41):
something snapped in that game winning drive. Shout out to
Sakwon Barkley who dropped it would have been a game
winning touchdown pass. Kirk Cousin comes all the way back
touchdown and suddenly the light bulb went off, and he's like, hey,
you know what, I may not be one hundred percent
of what I was last year before the Achilles injury,
but I have a lot more than fifty percent, have
(06:01):
a lot more than sixty percent. I'm closer to ninety
percent than I am to fifty percent. And I have
confidence that when I step off that right foot, I'm
going to be able to fire the ball into tight
windows to some good wide receivers and lo and behold,
the last three games he engineers game winning drives. Kirk
Cousins is starting to look a hell of a lot
(06:24):
more like that top ten quarterback we saw at the
beginning of last season than the wash King he was
in Week one. But Kirk Cousins, okay, I mean again,
because we were ready to bury him. It's only right
that the you know, adulation is as loud as the
criticism was.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, no, no, that's fair, that's fair. I mean he
did when you throw for five hundred yards, you got
to give the guy props. That being said, what was
your reaction when he threw the interception on fourth and fifteen?
Typical Kirk Cousins, right.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Not really, you know what, Honestly, I was really just
I would when he came to that play. The interception
in bothered me as much as their decision to go
for it, because they still are all three time outs
of that and they could have easily punted it, played defense,
got the ball back and made them their lives a
little bit easier, and instead it took a non face
mask call on Bucky Irving for them to even have
(07:17):
a chance, because if that call is made to offset
the holding penalty, they're still in field goal range. They
can still milk some clock, potentially kick a fielder to
go up six, And that's a totally different conversation. So
I thought Raheem Morris kind of got bailed out in
that regard by Kirk Cousins. But when you have three
straight game winning drives, and now for all the talk
(07:38):
about primetime Kirk and him being a problem and him,
you know, always letting you down in the biggest moments.
Since twenty twenty one, Kirk Cousins now has the most
game winning drives in the NFL while missing nine games
last year, He's at fifteen. Patrick Mahomes is second with eleven. Like,
if this is the Kirk Cousins you're going to get,
and I'm not saying he's throw five hny yards every game,
(07:59):
but if he's going to look like a reasonably healthy
facsimile of himself, there's a reason why the Atlanta Falcons
were the popular pick for popular people to win that division.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, I mean, I will point out through five games
they're three and two, on top of the division by tiebreaker,
but they're negative four point differential, Like they're not impressing.
But like you said, Kirk is coming off the Achilles.
He's been slow to ramp things up, and fortunately for
Atlanta fans, the schedule it's not like it gets harder.
I mean, you could argue they've already faced probably two
(08:32):
of the toughest tests in Pittsburgh and Kansas City, and
now they're in the division. They still have two left
against Carolina. One is next week, so they get some
extra time prepare for Carolina. They do have Seattle after that,
but they get Seattle at home. Then they go to
Tampa Dallas, which after this week, folks, I think Dallas
is gonna be two and three. We'll get to that
on picks. But then it's like Saints Broncos. I don't
(08:54):
know what the Chargers will be or if Herbert will
be upright, maybe the Vikings will come down to Earth.
And then they still have games against the Raiders and
the Giants. So there's a world where, you know, the
Falcons end up winning eleven games and are in the
mix for the number one seed, assuming that this offense
can keep cooking. But rob let's be real, throwing for
five hundred yards and fifty eight pass attempts is not sustainable.
(09:16):
They've got to quote unquote establish the run. Like you've
got Bijon Robinson, use him. I mean I bet at
Bjon Robinson. Propit didn't come close to sniffing because Kirk
Cousins just wants to go air raid like all game.
I don't get that strategy, Like I just I don't
get dropping back fifty eight times and try. I mean,
rob they were losing much of that game. They had
(09:37):
no business winning that game. That's their Fate's safe to say.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, I mean, and it just to be quite honest,
if you were to look at the ESPN, what is
the win probability index? Basically for every one of their wins,
they had a ninety percent chance of losing with like
two minutes left. So that part is totally fair, and
I agree with you that they can't. The recipe cannot
be Kirk Cousins dropping back fifty plus times. I haven't
throw the ball, you know, even if I do, like
the wide receiving Corps, that's just not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 3 (10:14):
What they really got to do is unlock what is
supposedly the most gifted running back in all of football,
John Robinson, because he's been I mean, he looks fine,
he doesn't look unhealthy or anything like that. He's getting
the yards that are there. But I don't see him
looking like some generational talent like he was hyped up
to be. I mean, you use him like McCaffrey is used.
(10:35):
Know that they really don't. And then the fact is
is that you know, I know Arthur Smith took a
lot of heat for this last year, but you know,
Algier's not going anywhere like he's getting a decent workload,
you know, relative to back back. So unless they can
get Bjon Robinson, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of
(10:56):
fifteen to twenty carries a game, and you know he's
giving you a consistent seventy seventy five eighty five yards
a game, then maybe that'll even things out. But you know,
most recently his last three games sixty one yards, twenty
eight yards, thirty one yards, and that's not gonna get
it done. And that's the reason why Kirk's having to
check it all over the field.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I think twenty touches in the pass and run game
is sufficient for Bijon. And it's weird because last year
this same thing happened. They're like, what's our identity, and weirdly,
Arthur Smith at the time decided, well, Desmion ruders our guy.
And he had a couple games where he threw like
thirty five forty passes. I think one of them was
against Tampa, and I'm like, I just don't know what
Atlanta is and I don't know rob There's not a
(11:39):
world where I can watch this team and think, oh,
they're a threat when Kirk Cousins is dropping back to
pass fifty eight times, because you know how close the
margins are so tight in this league. You know, like,
let's say Ko misses the fifty two yarder or they
don't or they throw the flag for the face mask
and the Falcons lose this game, then what's the narrative, Well,
(12:00):
Kirk Cousins failed and ys he chucking it all of
the field and they're not using b John Robinson. But
because they won, the narrative is how about Kirk Cousins
with that game winning drive or game time drive, the
game winning drive. What a game? But we gloss over
it because they won. And if you're playing the results,
that's fine, but process wise, it's tough to really like
(12:21):
either of these teams going forward. Like Rob Baker Mayfield
had a tremendous first half. I don't have the isolated
second half passing yards, but it feels like he did
nothing like what. I don't understand that strategy. Meanwhile, Kirk
Cousin threw for two hundred and fifty yards in the
first half and two hundred fifty yards in the second
half in overtime. That is a clear strategy.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Absolutely, And again your point about the Falcons is well taken.
My only counter and whether this is a good argument
or not you can you can tell me is that
them winning these games, that that they have that three
game winning drives of their all three their wins have
coming behind the last minute or so. That has to
make you feel good. Because again, when the margins are
that slim, when you're you're parsing between you know, Atlanta
(13:03):
and Seattle, and you know, we'll see about Minnesota and
Green Bay and Detroit and all these teams that we
think are gonna be jockeying for those playoff positions that
outside of a healthy San Francisco forty nine ers team,
I don't really see a world beater in the NFC.
As good as Minnesota has looked, you know, God forbid
the fact that it's Sam Darnold never gonna be fully
(13:24):
on board until I see it over a sustained period.
Cause we've seen him good for a month. We've never
seen him good for two, three, four months. Right, So
if it comes down to we'll say Detroit and Atlanta,
I'm gonna pick Detroit. But if you're at Atlanta and you're saying, hey,
maybe we're not as good as these guys on a weekend,
week out basis, and you're right, maybe we're gonna need
(13:46):
something to go our way, like a face mask or
a fumble or something that's gonna put in some position.
What they do have going for them, though, that not
a lot of other teams have, is Kirk Cousins, as
crazy as it sound, has a proven track record now
of coming up bit in crunch time. So if you
got anything to hang your hat on, that's a hell
of a thing to have these days.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
All right, real quick, before we get the best bets,
I do just want to bring this up. So I
did not watch a ton of baseball in the regular season,
but the playoffs, baseball in the postseason is awesome. It's
the kind of it's just the stuff dreams are made
of when you watch guys hit late inning home runs
and the crowd goes wild and all this stuff. So
I'm a Yankees fan. I'm not a huge I don't
(14:26):
dislike the Mets the way I dislike the Giants as
a Jets fan. But so the Mets win Game one
against the Brewers. Game two, the Mets are leading, I
think they were up three to two in the eighth
or something like that, and they give up a three
run homer or the Brewers score three runs and stun
the Mets, and you know, in the NFL, it's like, well,
(14:47):
what happened last week? There's carry over in the NBA,
there's carryover. Weirdly in baseball. Everybody tells me there's no momentum.
Momentum is the next day starting pitcher. That's a momentum. Okay,
all right, cut it. And of course what happens in
Game three series The Brewers are totally dominated. The Mets
can do nothing. The Mets, I believe, were down to
(15:07):
their final out in the ninth inning, trailing to nothing,
and Pete Alonso steps to the plate and hits one
the opposite way. And it was one of those moments
where I was like, oh my goodness, like the Mets
have been pretty futile for a while. And I'm not
a Mets fan, like I said, but the hair on
(15:28):
my arm stood up when Alonzo went yard. He did
the chef's kiss rounding first. It was one of those
baseball moments that was that was special. And they go
on to stun the Brewers on the road in the
third game. Just a tremendous rally for the Mets. So
now the National League is set up, Dodgers padres out
(15:49):
here in Los Angeles. Everybody's very excited, and then Mets
Phillies on the East Coast. It doesn't get the like
if the MLB coming could hand pick the final four,
I rob is it safe to say he picked those four?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I'm so freaking lotly.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, unless you would argue maybe the Braves somehow, But
I don't know. I think the Phillies have a lot
of juice. I think New York is come on, it's
New York. They're a good story. They're a bit of
a Cinderella here. And then it's like the Dodgers with
Otani Otani's first playoff game ever, is is it tonight?
Rop or is it Saturday?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
It's Saturday?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Okay, okay, so the Otani and then of course the
Padres are fun. Man Petko is just popping. Every time
you watch on the screen, that park jumps off the screen.
It's just incredible. And then of course you got the
Yankees in the AL and I don't know, I just
feel like baseball's having this pretty cool moment, and in
a way, I feel not bad, but like the WNBA
(16:44):
was on the cusp and then Katel Clark gets knocked
out and it's like, oh, okay, well, no need to
check out the WNBA. I don't know who's left. I
don't know who's one. I haven't paid attention, but nobody's
paying attention now now that baseball has an amazing final
eight teams left. Last year, if you looked at the
final and I looked it up online earlier, it was
like just not attractive sexy matchups. I think the best
(17:08):
was Brave's Phillies, but after that it was like, you
can't get too excited. I think people are geeked about
these final eight teams left in.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Baseball, absolutely, and I'm not even really a baseball fan,
which is funny because number one, I live in Los Angeles,
so you think being'd be a Dodger fan. And number two,
the fact that I also produce an MLB podcast for
iHeart that you would assume that I'm a baseball fan
and I'm just not. However, I will say as a
sports fan, major League Baseball postseason is better than the
(17:39):
NFL and the NBA, point blank period for me. And
I'm not even a baseball fan because the drama and
that the tension is something that you just don't really
get in the NBA and in the NFL. For my money,
like the Peter Alonzo home run, people say that momentum
is not real and whether or not, I mean historically
(18:00):
the guy give it up. Devin Williams is one of
the best closures in all the baseball I think his
ra was like one point two or something stupid like that,
Like he's that good of a picture. And once he
gave up the leadoff walk and then the guy hits
a single, then it's a guy's runners up first and third.
It's like you could feel it coming. You're like, this
is either going to be a three run jack by
Alonzo or he's gonna strike him out. There's no in between,
(18:23):
Like something's got to get the rubbers got to meet
the road here in some way form of fashion. And
when that happened, I was at the studio at the
Foxfort Radio studios. As you know, there's Mets fans all
in the media these days, and.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
You're they're coming out of nowhere. Where are they from?
But like apparently they all went to Syracuse.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Like they all went to Syracuse and they're all Mets fans.
That's usually how it works. But when we're watching it
in the studio and we have soundproof glass, you could
feel the floor beneath us because you couldn't hear anything
because of the soundproof, you could feel the floor shaking.
I mean, that was a cool moment. I'm not even
a Mets fan or a baseball fan. That was cool.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, it was certainly fun and exciting and congrats to
the Mets. The let's see tonight we have I think
the al steps up tonight. Oh no, there's no games tonight.
It starts Saturday, So that's weird. How are they passing
on a Friday? So Saturday starting at at ten am
against college it's a week college football stague. We'll get
(19:19):
to it. I have a lot of bets on there,
but it's Tigers, Guardians, that Mets, Phillies, Royals, Yankees, and
then the nightcap is Padres Dodgers. I have not tried
to get Padres Dodgers tickets, but oh my gosh, the
prices look exorbitant.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I mean good that you got money, so we gotta
worry about that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I do not rob things ate anyways. All right, let's
get to the best bets for this weekend in football.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. The only thing better than sitting on your
couch watching the games. He's making money while you do it.
(20:01):
Here's your best bet.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
All right, best bets college football and the NFL. I
probably should start adding some MLB, but I haven't fired
on one baseball game all season. Sorry, guys. Just enjoyed
watching the games, for sure, But college football. I do
want to keep a lot of powder dry because next
weekend has so many freaking good games it's gonna be
off the chain. I really like the card next weekend.
(20:24):
This weekend, a lot of bad teams, a lot of underdogs.
Fire fire when Redd Day, we'll go. Minnesota plus eight
hosting USC. I like USC and my buddy Nico, he
is a big USC guy, got fortunate last week with him.
This is a look ahead game. USC has Penn State
next week. Minnesota should keep it closed. I've got Minnesota
plus eight, a bunch of teams that you don't want
(20:47):
to hear about. Vanderbilt plus twenty two, Colorado State plus eleven,
WVU plus three and a half, Stanford plus eight. Stanford
did not do well for me last week, and then
cal is hosting game Day. I took the ten and
a half, Why the heck not? And finally another rotten team,
Duke getting nine and a half. By the way, I
(21:08):
should note Stanford I believe is on its third string quarterback,
so buyer beware, and that one favorite I have on
the card, Oh my gosh, where's the three six seven dogs?
And then Nebraska as the favorite in college football. Saturday
is a busy, busy day for me, so I won't
be watching these games, so unlikely for me to add
anything on the IG. Let's get to the NFL. Now,
(21:29):
I've been telling you guys for the last I think
two weeks that this NFL strategy of the lines are
a little skewed based on teams that did not cover
facing teams that did cover the week prior. Why is that, well,
public perception drives a lot of this. You know, remember
(21:51):
two weeks ago, Baltimore beat Jacksonville Monday night football. Buffalo
was like the best team in the NFL Super Bowl bound.
Then they go to Baltimore get spanked, and we had
Baltimore in that. You know, this happens all the time.
Whatever people saw last they overreact to and they want
to bet. The house obviously knows this, and that's why
you seeing some of these skewed lines. So two weeks ago,
(22:12):
backing teams that did not cover against teams that did
seven and two against the spread that was the weekend,
I went five to zero in the contest. Last week,
this system went four to one and one the Chargers,
depending on how you graded it. Chargers, we gave them
a push. It was seven, depending it could have been
seven and a half. Of course, I had the Cardinals
and I was too much of a woos to take
(22:35):
Dallas on Thursday night, and so I ended up three
to two in the contest. This week, these are the
remaining games. Obviously, Falcons did not cover the week prior
and then Tampa did, so that result from last night
it applies here. But the New York Jets did not
cover last week. They look bad against the Broncos. I
bet the Jets against the Vikings, and I know nobody
wants to touch the Jets here. By the way, the
(22:57):
Jets were if you go listen to the podcast with
ta they were two and a half point favorites in
this matchup. Now they're suddenly too and a half point underdogs.
It's not through a key number right, three and seven
of the key numbers, but that's still a radical swing.
I am of the belief, and I know I'm a
Jets fan, so you guys can take this with a
grain of salt. The Jets are well aware that just
(23:20):
like Denver, Minnesota loves the Blitz. I mean, everybody knows
that you get the handicap is everywhere? What is it? Everywhere?
Is as good as Sam Darnold has been, as much
as the media has glossed over him, He's had a
lot of shall we say, suspect turnovers or near turnovers.
He's gotten kind of fortunate. Now he faces a Jets
defense with wait for it, good cornerbacks. Minnesota has faced
(23:42):
a lot of bottom tier cornerbacks and as a result,
Darnald has cooked. I mean, remember Jayla Alexander didn't play
last week, so he didn't get to match up with
Justin Jefferson. The Jets have Sauce Gardner, they have DJ Reied,
So I'm not saying they're gonna lock down Addison and Jefferson.
I'm sure they're gonna have They're gonna get their's events.
But the Jets will not need massive help, and I
(24:03):
am of the belief they will be loading up with
the line of scrimmage and pressuring the hell out of
Sam Darnold. I have the Jets now. I don't know
if I'm going to put the Jets in the contest
because it's two and a half. Besides the Jets, teams
that did not cover versus did. Here we go Carolina Panthers.
Anyone want a piece of the Carolina Panthers. The defense
is horrific, it's beat up. Can Andy Dalton get it
(24:27):
done outside against the Bears? I don't know. Bears did
cover against the Rams. We had that one last week.
I don't know if I have the cahonis to put
the Panthers in, but I have bet Carolina. The Steelers
did not cover the Cowboys did. The Steelers are so
far my biggest play of the week, and I already
am feeling a little regretful giving these offensive line injuries
to the Steelers. My gosh. Fortunately they're facing a Dallas
(24:48):
defense that's down Lawrence. Looks like it's gonna be down Parsons.
I haven't seen in confirmation yet, and I think justin
Fields and Pittsburgh get it done. A nice bounce back
spot for Mike Tomlin. You know he likes to get
the troops all fired up, and Tomlin should be able
to do that at home after a pretty tough lost
on the road to the Colts. I don't want to
call for a Steelers blot or anything, but I have
(25:08):
them at two and two and a half. Also included
in this list, and nobody's gonna want this team the
Cleveland Browns. If you listen to the podcast with Ta again,
we talked about this at length, so I won't go
too deep, but Cleveland didn't cover Cleveland's bad Obviously, you
got to check the Cleveland Brown's injury report as late
as you can on Friday. And one other thing I
(25:30):
do right before the contest submissions are due. I think
at like one pm on Saturday, I make sure to
look up Rapaport and I look up Schefter and scroll
their timeline because they are leaking all the injuries and
who's gonna play and who's gonna sit. So, for instance,
the Browns were really beat up on Wednesday. Conkland didn't practice. Obviously,
(25:50):
Willis did not practice. Guests who returned to practice on Thursday.
Conklin and Willis both tackles. Kind of a big deal.
The backup center did not practice Wednesday. He was back Thursday.
Brown's getting a little healthier, obviously, they'd love to get
back in djoku. He's still not practicing due to the ankle.
But the one thing that has me nervous about the
(26:12):
Browns here is this a Mari Cooper thing. The more
smoke that is out there about a Mari Cooper possibly
getting traded, I believe he leaves the league and drops
had a brutal win last week that resulted at a pick,
and you just wonder if he's kind of sort of
checked out after that loss to the Raiders, and if
they fall behind, I don't know, fourteen nothing to this
(26:32):
Washington juggernaut that is Jaden Daniels. Does Cooper kind of
pack it in and start quitting and packing his backs?
I don't know. That locker room feels tenuous. It just
doesn't feel great. That being said, I definitely will have
the Browns because I don't think the Commanders can do
it again. Now the other one, which I don't think
I can put in the contest, and I actually haven't
(26:52):
bet this because I'm a woos Arizona getting seven against
the Niners. It was seven and a half, it's down
to seven again. I'm probably overreacting to the Niners getting healthy,
but they are starting to look like the juggernaut that
can reel off. Oh, I don't know, ten straight wins
in a row. This team looks very, very good. I
(27:13):
am a little concerned about Fred Warner, who you got
dinged up. I had an amazing pick six last week
and then ended up getting injured. And it's like, listen,
if Warner's out against Kyler Murray, like Warner, he's going
to scare Kyler Murray into not running. The problem is
Warner isn't practicing. In the other issue, Kittle back on
(27:34):
theand report he's not practicing. So I probably will end
up on the Cardinals. I just this Niners team. It
feels like they're close to rounding into form. And then
I don't know if c Max coming back, but we'll see.
So those are the teams did not cover versus did
Besides those, let's see what else I have here, as
(27:56):
I'm the nerd who has a document with all of
the wagers that I have already. Okay, so I also, oh, no,
I'm sorry, I did bet the Cardinals at seven and
a half. I have them. I don't have them in
the contest yet because that's just, you know, going against
the Niners and then not getting a result is just
one of those like why did you do it? They've
got the best roster in the league. What are you doing?
(28:16):
You're messing around, and it's just I don't know if
I'll play them in the contest. I have Denver money
line against the Raiders. It's a little expensive, minus one
forty five, so that's like a one hundred and forty five
bucks to win one hundred. I like Denver at home
against the Raiders. I added the Steelers money line minus
one thirty eight. I have the Saints plus six on
(28:36):
Monday Night football against the Chiefs. I don't know how
I feel about that. I have the under in Cowboys Steelers.
And the one game that I have circled that I
did bet late last night after seeing the injury report
is the Seattle Seahawks minus six and a half. So
here's where it gets interesting. The New York Giants, we know,
are aggressively bad. They have basically their offenses Molik Neighbors
(28:58):
and that's it. They don't have much else. Milke Neighbors
is a concussion protocol and has not been cleared. Now
he's basically got one day to clear, and that would
be Friday. If he's not practicing, how on earth is
he gonna play against Seattle. And then you're looking at, oh, well, well,
I guess they can just run against Seattle, you know,
kind of like Detroit did oh really the Giants offensive
(29:21):
lines that gould and oh, by the way, Devin Singletary,
starting running back hasn't practiced this week due to a
groin injury. You start to add this up and you're like,
where's the offense coming from? And I think back to
Seattle kind of choking out the Skyler Thompson Dolphins a
couple of weeks ago. It was twenty four to three.
I can definitely see that happening. And then you look
at the Seahawks front, which was banged up. They were
down four starting defensive linemen last week. It looks like
(29:45):
a couple of them are gonna be back now. Byron
Murphy does not look like he's gonna return. Hankins, it
doesn't look like he will, but others Leonard Williams looks
like he's a go. Nuosu is practicing again. They're hopeful
to get him back. He's their best pass rusher. Mafe
is kind of dinged up with a knee. He's good
on the edge. If they get their guys, I think
(30:07):
this is a Seahawks smash spot.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Six and a half is a tough number. It's a
big number to kind of cover if you're Seattle, because
remember they didn't cover. They got to push in the opener.
I believe against Denver at six now, they handed Denver
a lot of points in that one or sorry field
position that was less about Denver being good and Seattle
just screwing up. I don't have any faith in the
Giants defense. Now there is a world where they get
a strip sack on Geno Smith and you know, blah
(30:31):
blah blah, and it's a disaster. I feel like the
Seahawks are the side here. So that's where I'm at
heading into the week. My I, like I said, I
have this nerdy document and this is my current order
for the contest. I have at the top, Browns they're
plus three. I got three and a half as a bet,
(30:51):
Jets two and a half. Don't like that, wish it
was a three. I bet them three, Steelers two and
a half. Jags. Oh, I forgot to add the Jags
Jags minus two and a half. I think they get
it done against the Colts. I mean, they've totally dominated
the Colts at home. The Colts leave the friendly confines
of the Dome and now have to go outside Jacksonville
eight and oh against the spread, and they've won eight
(31:14):
straight at home against the Colts. Now, it's gonna sound
weird to say, but if Joe Flacco ends up starting
I'm probably a little more worried about this Richardson's gonna
give you occasional splash plays, but the consistency won't be there.
I saw stat that flacco On passes under ten yards
was twelve of twelve for like one hundred eight yards
(31:34):
and a touchdown or a touchdown last week. Like he
doesn't miss the layups Richardson does. So the Jags are
high on my list of probably playing Seattle's there a
mount of six and a half, Panthers plus three and
a half Bengals. I didn't really get into Bengals Ravens,
but Bengals plus two and a half is on the list,
and then Denver at three. I just have a hard
time laying a number with bo Nicks, and I do
(31:55):
want to remind you guys, bo Nix's last two covers
were as underdogs, right, Tampa and the Jets. The other
thing that's interesting, and this is I don't know how
betting related it is, but all three rookie quarterbacks are
favored by three or more this week. Jade Daniels three
to three and a half, bo Nicks is three, and
(32:16):
Caleb Williams three and a half or four. Just let
that one sink in for a little bit. Rookie quarterback favorite.
Remember in the first week, they were all abysmal, and
they were all dogs and none of them. Oh wait no, actually,
I'm sorry. Caleb Williams was a favorite against the Titans
and they got super lucky to cover. But these rookie
quarterbacks are much better as dogs. Jade and Daniels dog
(32:37):
against the Bengals boom. Jade and Daniels dog against Arizona boom.
Now he's favored against Jim Schwartz, the best Devinci's faced.
Just tread cautiously, ladies and gentlemen. All right, this is
a great week. This weekend at sports got the baseball postseason,
college football, although it's not a great college football schedule,
and of course the NFL on Sunday, folks, it's getting
(32:59):
that time. A lot of people think October is the
best sports month. I lean November because you get NBA
and college hoops, and when you combine those two, I
give that the edge over baseball postseason. But I can
understand baseball postseason. Man, That Mets game fun stuff for
the Mets. Sorry, Brewers fans. All right, guys, have a
great weekend. Back on Monday. Talk to you then,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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