January 20, 2019 • 41 mins
Bernie Fratto gives you his Vegas perspective on this weekend’s NFL Divisional Playoff games with the best from this past week’s Straight Outta Vegas. Bernie and Brad Powers share some of their best bets in this weekend’s college basketball action, he wonders if there is an issue with Drew Brees or if it was just rust and he you RJ and Fezz’s best bets of the NFL Championship games. Plus, Bernie wonders if the New England Patriots are the Rodney Dangerfield of NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. You know, perhaps we
were given a clue last September. In the month of September,
for the two thousand and eighteen NFL regular season, there
were more four yard passing games than in the entire
two thousand seventeen season. Offense is the new rage, the
shiny new toy. You know, Don Coreo must be spinning
(00:23):
in his grave on this the final weekend before the
Super Bowl. We've got the top four offenses in the league,
and we should have some glorious battles tomorrow, some real
sensational highlights before the close of business on Sunday. And
to those of you who doubted me about the Patriots,
and you know who you are, know this. The Pats
are merely one goofy schoolyard played by the Dolphins away
(00:44):
from actually hosting tomorrow's gating versus Kansas City. But what
does Bill Belichick bringing the airhead that no remaining team
in the tournament has you guessed at a top ten
defense to match the robust offense. And while the Chiefs
were bringing the only other unit to score more than
four than twenty points this season in the Sunday's contest,
along with Tom Brady and company, the chiefs will they
(01:06):
work with the defense. That's thirty one against the pass
and against the run. And on that note, welcome back
to another edition of Straight Out of Vegas. R G.
Bell is out and about it. I'm Bernie Fratto. We're
coming to you live from the Getico Fox Sports Radio Studios.
We're fifteen minutes. Could save you fift or more on
car insurance. Visit geigo dot com for a free rate quote.
(01:27):
Now this is the weekend edition of Straight Out of Vegas.
As you know, Straight out of Vegas there's Monday through
Friday right here on Fox Sports Radio, I Heart Radio
Sirius XM A E three from three to six specific
six to seven pm Eastern. R J Bell, Steve Brad Powers,
and Jonas knocks every day. They take you behind the scenes,
(01:48):
solid commentary, great insights on the world of sports betting,
and you can benefit from the years of expertise. Saturday,
our Saturday edition is Straight out of Vegas. We look
back at the best of We take another look at
some of the best takes of the week and analyzes
from the previous week so you can enjoy them again.
Here's the best thing about this concept. Each of these
best of takes their designed to look ahead to tomorrow.
(02:10):
So during the week the guys devote five hours they
provide the finest content. The weekends we distill it down
to the best hour. Of course, I'll add my own
inflection as well, because i live in Las Vegas two
and I've been privat to these guys and there're no
how for many years. So join us every Saturday night
lev P and Pacific two a m. Eastern. Yep, we
want you along for the ride. This is Straight out
(02:30):
of Vegas, the pregame show you always wanted. Now we
got a special treat Tonight we're joined by Weekdays Straight
out of Vegas co host Brad Powers, and actually we're
going to devote the first segment tonight entirely to college basketball.
Brad is one of the most respected analysts in the country,
and as you've often heard our j refer to him
during the week is quote, the man with the college
(02:53):
knowledge should be dropping a lout of that in here
in just a minute. Of course, tonight we continue are
their ten second feature. While you were sleeping with our
own sleepy j See while you're sleeping, look the straight
out of Vega staff. We never sleep man. They're looking
for ways seven to distress your bookie, to impress your friends.
You get the drill if you listen. Last week, Sleepy
(03:13):
gave you the pick Casey over Indian Nappas. Okay again
tonight at the bottom of the hour, once again, I'll
take you inside the Frattle House for my weekly commentary.
Very simply, tonight, we're gonna tackle a simple question. You
heard Tom Brady's rant last week on the sideline when
he said, I know you all think we sucked. So
here's the question. Are the New England Patriots the Roddy
danger Field of the NFL hold that thought? We'll Addrett
(03:37):
will address that at the bottom of the hour, and
this week inside the Frattle House, Brad is this weekend's
experience versus youth continues. Pacio has already beaten Adrian Brouner,
and tomorrow we'll have a couple of forty year old
quarterbacks against a couple of young whipper snappers. But before
we get to that, the fans are in for a
treat tonight because very few folks have I talked to
(03:59):
that are walking pewter. When it comes to college basketball,
and right on que both undefeateds go down today. Let's
end to Chapel Hill for Duke knocks off Virginia, but
Virginia backers cash. Yeah, Virginia backers did definitely cash. And
that's what all it matters here, straight out of Vegas, Bernie.
So let me set the framework for you here. Duke
(04:21):
pretty much controlled most of the game. We're mostly leading throughout,
not by much, basically right around the spread. The spread
on the game has Duke favored by three and a
half points, Bernie. That usually means that on a neutral
court that these two teams are relatively even. That says
a lot considering Duke's playing without their point guard Trey Jones.
(04:41):
So when you consider that you give three and a
half points of home court advantage, Duke's a three and
a half point favorite. So here's what happens in the
final ten seconds of the game. Virginia's at the free
throw line, they make both of their free throws, they foul,
Virginia does Duke. Duke makes one out of two free throws.
So at that time, with eight seconds left, Duke is
(05:03):
up four. Duke Backers laying three and a half feeling
pretty good. Virginia loses the ball, it's out near mid court,
they throw it and what we would call in most
cases a meaningless two point shot at the buzzer that
allows Virginia to only lose the game by two, allows
(05:24):
any Virginia backer to win plus three and a half.
Thousands upon thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of
dollars changed hands, Bernie, because that game today in Chapel
Hill was arguably the biggest game of the college basketball
season so far. So Virginia suffers the first loss of
the year. Brad uh coming into the game twelve straight
(05:45):
a CEC Conference road wins. What's your takeaway in terms
of Virginia looking ahead? We all know the Maryland Baltimore
County loss last year sticks in their cross. They no
longer have Malcolm Brogden, but this is one of the
best Tony Bennett offenses have seen in a while. Looking ahead,
do you project him as a Final four possible? You know, arrival,
(06:08):
they're a contender, but I have my doubts because again,
when a lot of these other teams, the youthful teams
like Duke, when they get fully healthy, Kentucky is starting
to make some strides. Now they're youthful roster. They all
have that extra gear in March, something that I haven't
seen Virginia have the last five years. I really like
(06:29):
Virginia that I think they are clearly top five power
rated team, and I'll be on Virginia more often than not.
Why Bernie, last five years, if you just blindly bet
on Virginia in every single game, you'd be hitting sixty
two percent, sixty two percent against the spread. No different
this year with that cover. Today Virginia's fourteen and three
against the number, except for today when points were in bunchies.
(06:52):
I gotta believe they've been a pretty good underbet too
with that defense. Absolutely so, I mean what Virginia style
play hasn't changed too much. They bay basically or like
a Boa constrictor. They just squeezy, squeeze the life right
out of you. And a lot of times you look
up at a game, it looks ugly with Virginia. They're
laying ten points of the calves and they're up five
(07:13):
thirty to twenty five, and then you blink and it's
forty two to five. Let's talk about the other team
they went down today. Brad Michigan travels to the coal
centered Wisconsin where they're actually two and fourteen or last
sixteen trips there. They go down, they go down by
double digits, they do. They lose. Michigan loses by ten.
So the big story there. This was a Michigan team
that had won twenty seven consecutive regular season games. In fact,
(07:37):
they're only lost in their last thirty three games coming
in today National championship game against Villanova last year. So
it was a thirty two and one run. But you're
gonna see a lot of people say, hey, big upset.
Unranked Wisconsin beats a top three Michigan team. You know
what the line on the game was on that one,
Bernie three points. Michigan was only a three point road
(07:59):
favorite if you wanted to bet Wisconsin to win the
game plus one fifty. So Hunter Bucks winsy one fifty.
About chance coming in the game that Wisconsin had to
win it out right, that's what you hear from pros.
It's all about winning long term and getting positive ev
We're gonna get to that later, Brad, real quickly. This
stand in Michigan for just a second. They visit Indiana
next Friday, I'm guessing that line is gonna be to
(08:21):
three as well, Michigan being a short favorite on the road.
I don't know, I'll defer to you, but Archie Miller
in his tenure in Indiana six and oh's a home
dog against Big ten competition. Now that's a strong stat there,
And you wonder how Michigan after they've been holding onto
this unbeaten streak a lot of times, what I've seen
is one loss sometimes turns into two. And I'll be
quite frank, even though Michigan came in unbeating the day,
(08:44):
they're not the best team in the Big Ten. The
best team right now in the Big Ten is Michigan State. Yes,
that's really surging. Last eleven games the Spartans eleven and
oh straight up ten and one against the number. So actually,
we'll talk about this again the show real quickly. That
might be one of my best bets of the week
next week to fade Michigan. Part of the reason there's
(09:06):
some real trends, including that the game before the Ohio
State game, Michigan has a habit of not covering in
the house state after Indiana. That's spent a few minutes here,
Brad and kind of a lightning ground. I want to
hit you with some teams in terms of whether or
not they're pretenders or contenders. This Nevada team their ranked tenth.
They've been a constant overlay. They lay twenty one and
a half tonight against air Force, never had a chance
(09:28):
of covering trail at They have laid seventy other night
at Boise. Almost lost the game over right, we know
the game they lost. They were laying fourteen and a
half at the Pitt in New Mexico lost outright, a
huge overlay. I guess what I'm getting at is when
you fast forward to March, they were a sweet sixteen
team last year. Are they for real? Brad? I I
think they are. I think we talked pre show you
(09:50):
know what's Nevada's problem. I think you mentioned that I
think bored them a little bit. Nevada is so far
suppared to anyone else in my power ranks. I have
Nevada close to where they are in the polls. I
have Nevada twelve, so it's not like I've downgraded them
too much. On a neutral floor, they're probably six seven
points better than anybody else in their own conference this
time of year. A lot of times with experienced teams, look,
(10:13):
there's more out for them at the end of the season.
I really like the experience factor. This is a team
that returned almost everyone from last year. That experience they
got going on to the Sweet sixth team, I think
bode well for him this year. A couple of big
wins over Texas and Cincinnati, and they earned those wins.
I agree they played great defense welld coach by Eric Musselman,
one of the other Buggaboos. They don't shoot threes real well,
so we'll see if that shows up. All right, let's
(10:34):
bounce around a bit. I want to talk about the
Pack twelve, a conference I can't figure out, like one
full over the cuckoo's nest. Look U c l A.
You lose to Bellomont, you lose to Liberty, then you
lose your coach. Oregon loses Bull Bull Arizona States showing
some flashes. Utah's down. Who is going to emerge out
of that conference? Brad because it's an automatic big conference? Yeah,
(10:56):
an automatic big conference is right? So similar to college football,
the PAC twell really bringing up the rear when it
comes to the major conferences. I do not have a
single not a single pack twelve team right now in
my top forty. The team that is surging though, keep
an eye on the Washington Huskies. They got a coaches
starting to develop. He comes from Syracuse. They run his
(11:17):
zone and they're a team that's been winning and covering
the sprint. Had a blade a big number today seventeen
and a half against Carol and hung it and hung
it and want it. Yeah, they did hung it late,
but but to your point, they hung it. Uh. Gonzaga
an interesting team. Uh. Look, two years ago they got
to the final game, fell to North Carolina. Do you
see the same kind of on floor talent that team?
(11:39):
And two years ago it's tough because they haven't a
Gonzaga hasn't been healthy this whole season. They're close to
that team and we've seen it. They're the only team.
One of the only teams to beat Duke this year
was Gonzaga. They hung in there in a Tennessee game
that came down to the final seconds. Tennessee's a top five,
clear nut cut team. And also their only other lost
Gonzaga was the North Carolina on the road. So I
(12:00):
see it. And here's also where I see at Bernie
Gonzaga even though they're laying like points in a lot
of these games. They're four team five against the spread
so far. The seven on the road tonight at Portland State,
they didn't cover the Can you manage that? How do
you do that? Let's go to the SEC. No One
for football, but I gotta see you, Brad, they get
my respect in basketball. You mentioned Tennessee and I think
(12:20):
you made a great case before the show. They are
the real deal. A lot of athletic teams in that conference, Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia,
night in, night out, they're getting tested. They are. And
the the SEC made a commitment about four or five
years ago to up that. That basically what happened. The
SEC Commissioner sat down all the athletic directors and they
wanted to put more of an emphasis on basketball. They
(12:43):
were tired of football having to carry the weight in
that conference all year long. Still does the majority. But
what the SEC did went out and hired a bunch
of good coaches and guess what, Rick barn Rick Barnes
is a really good coach. And now you're starting to see,
now that's year three four, his recruits are coming in there,
and uh, you know to see clear cut the best
team right now, but don't look now like Kentucky Wildcats
(13:04):
starting to search a big road win at Auburn earlier today,
Big twelve, give me a quick one down there. Uh,
you know you gotta start a little bit with Kansas
so you don't know they lost today. Kansas has won
fourteen straight regular season titles. A lot of competition teams
like Texas Tech, Iowa State, surgeon. Kansas State is now
healthy with Wade coming back at center. Very competitive Kansas,
(13:25):
unlike most of this run here in the last decade,
not the runaway favorite. Talk about Texas Tech with Chris Beard.
Can they make some noise that they are on the
defensive side of the ball and now they haven't been
covering a lot of numbers. It's tough to lay some points.
They're coming off a loss against Iowa State at home
earlier this week. They can Chris bears fin o My god,
I had them plus nine and a half against Duke.
(13:47):
I thought I had to cash the whole way until
the end. Remember that game on the number. But Chris
Beard has proven Brad like you said, uh, great coach
and he keeps the competitive no matter who they take
the floor with. Final thought Andy at large teams, any
lesser conferences that you know stick out to you. You know,
are there Cleveland States lurking out there? Uh, similar region
(14:08):
of the country. The Buffalo Bulls made some noise last
year beating Arizona in the n C Double A Tournament.
One lost team. Right now, I have the Buffalo power
rate in the top twenty. Great stuff. Brat. As we
head towards March, Madness will hope to get Brad on
when his schedule permits between now and it. You know,
as we head towards that time of the year and
we wind down with the NFL and we're in that
(14:30):
transition period, he is Brad Powers. I'm Bernie Freddo will
come to you alive from the Guicho Fox Sports Radio Studios.
This is the pregame show you always wanted to. Don't
go away. You're listening to Straight out of Vegas, Vega.
Be sure to catch live editions of Straight Out of
Vegas weekdays at six pm Eastern three pm Pacific on
(14:52):
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. You're
back on Straight out of Vegas, the pregame show you
always wanted. I'm Bernie Freddo come to you alive from
the Geiko Fox Sports Radio studios, and who Don't Remind
You Straight out of Vegas is brought to you by Discover.
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(15:14):
Discovered dot com. Slash credit scorecard limitations apply. Fortunate to
be joined by Brad Powers tonight. Not just a man
with the college knowledge finished fourth in the prestigious Golden
Nugget contest entries. Brad finished fourth. Brad, Here we are
are the four best teams, the four highest sieves, the
four top offenses, and in his first cut, r J
(15:37):
details the reason why these are the four best team
and he even lists teams who were eliminated who might
have been considered to be in the top four but
they're not. Pasik also points out the Power Rating metric
as well to support their case while surmising future lines
based on who advances to the Super Bowl. Let's have
a listen, these are the four best teams in football.
(15:59):
I'm mean, at various points you could have debated the
Chargers were on that list of the top four. Maybe
New England wasn't. You could have debated the Bears, I
think at certain points, but as of today, it seems
to me you'd really struggle to make the case that
these aren't the four best teams. They are my four
best teams, absolutely, and they're all within half a point
(16:22):
of each other r J and my power ratings, which
means that whoever wins these games, we're looking at a
pickum super Bowl. Maybe one team favored by one, maybe
another team favored by one. I'd be show no matter
what the matchup is, if any team is even a
field goal favor in the Super Bowl, I would be
shocked as well. Brad, it's hard to argue you've got
(16:45):
one and two and one or two in each conference,
you've got the top for offenses, but only one team
brings the top ten defense. And by the way, this
is the first time Tom Brady and company been an
underdog in sixty seven games. It is, and that's always
scary when you're looking to pass a league, go against
New England in that rare underdog role. Very motivated. I
can't wait to hear your take on that at the
(17:06):
bottom of the hour here Bernie, but it makes sense.
We have something called here in Vegas, some look aheadlines.
A couple of casinos have put out possible Super Bowl
matchups and they have come out. None of those games
are three point lines. We have a bunch of games
that are either pick or one team's favored by one.
So the market agrees with the boys. And of course
(17:27):
Kansas City has been the darling this year. And in
this next cut R G and Physics they sort of
give a dissertation about offense versus defense and how they
evaluate both sides of the ball. And RG points out
that while statistically the Chiefs do not rank will, they
still have the ability to impact the game in certain
other ways. Defensively, they don't exactly show up in the
box score. Meanwhile, on offense, while it's true Kansas City
(17:50):
lost one of its prolific playmakers, they still have plenty
of weapons to wreak havoc and Physic points out the
challenges they impose on opposing team and why let's give
it a listen. Kansas City the whole year, I think,
has at a defense that isn't gonna be statistically good,
but they're impactful, as in, they can make a strip sack,
(18:11):
they can get a sack, you know, like you said,
the pressure is one of their stronger suits. I wouldn't
say very good, but stronger suits. And if you can
score as much as they can score, the theory is
you get one or two stops a half, you're fine.
You're probably gonna win the game, especially if it's an
impact play. It seems like we saw that in action here.
Would you agree with that? So Kansas City positive impactful
(18:34):
plays on defense. On the other hand, I agree with you.
And the prior seven games for Kansas City, they've only
covered one time, and one of the reasons we thought
was Kareem Hunt's absence. You're saying, now you've seen enough
that Williams is telling you, hey, not much difference with
him and Hunt exactly, and then you're saying, hey, they
added another playmake Watkins is back, and Hill, who has
(18:57):
been hobbleed, would look a dent. So in a way,
you proved your second or third receiver whatever you wanna
call Watkins, and your number one receiver is better than
you thought he might be because there was uncertainty about injuries,
exactly right, so now that you've got really three great
scale position players running around with Kelsey out there, with Hill,
with Watkins, you can't cover all of them. Very difficult, Brad.
(19:18):
I'm a little conflicted. The Chiefs have scored thirty points
or more thirteen times this season. Belichick has only given
up forty points seven times in his career. Three times
it was it was against Dandy Red. However, I found
a stat, Brad. Since the inception of the a f C,
NFC Championship Round games since nineteen seventy, they've played ninety
(19:39):
six of those the higher ranked defense sixty and thirty
two against the spread. Your thoughts, oh, sixty and thirty
two against the number, I'm gonna agree with you. I think,
historically speaking this time of year, what have we always
wanted this time of year? We've heard the old adage
defense wins championships, and I think that ran true in
(20:00):
the seventies, the eighties, the nineties, the two thousand's. But
I'm here to tell you, Bernie two thousand and eighteen,
I think offense is what wins your championships more than
defenses because of the rule changes. You're right that you
know it's evidenced by the final four teams. We have,
uh bred the home road dichotomy. For the Patriots, it's sclaring.
(20:22):
They're nine of No. One home this year, three and
five on the road. We've heard them all. They give
up more points, they score more points, the whole deal.
And in his plan, and you know his career, Brady
twenty three at home, three and four in the road,
same situation, Lord qbr rating, there's this rear teddum already.
You have to throw it out. It's one game affair.
Uh No, I think it does because it's not only
a one year sample size. Even though it's really the
(20:43):
despar it this year, I would argue it's the most
despaired in the entire NFL. Let's look at the entire
career of Tom Brady playoffs home away home forty six touchdowns,
eighteen picks away from home only eight touchdowns, eight interceptions,
no wins in the playoffs on the road since two
thousand seven. Take a quick look at the earlier game
(21:05):
tomorrow and the Saints and their offensive concerns in recent weeks,
and then this cut r J raises a key concern
that one might acquire about the Saints when you reverse
engineer the relative performance or their offensive unit when you
compare early in the season versus late in the year.
R J even delves into the home road comparisons. Now
he cites specific evidence against the same opponent in terms
(21:27):
of variants of effectiveness and wonders if these clues had
been there all along. Let's give it a listen. The
key question with the Saints last week was if you
look at their last end of the season, even the
non breeze game, and just divided up their points per game, boy,
it looked like there was a huge drop off on offense.
(21:48):
But then if you dug deeper that if you look
at the home games with breeze in the last game
didn't count with Bridgewater Steelers, it was like thirty one.
And then if you went back five games is all
the way to the Browns game, which was the second
game of the season, the Saints were averaging like almost
forty points a game. So it's like, was it the
fact that the Saints the offense got worse later in
(22:11):
the year, or was it the fact that they're just
naturally worse on the road the Saints offense, and now
they're home, they're gonna be fine. You're making an interesting point.
This is an Eagles team that's no better on defense
than they were when the Saints put up forty eight
against them. The idea they're only putting up twenty now
against pretty much the same defense, and you could make
(22:31):
the case a little less of a d because of
those injuries during the game on the D line. Now
you gotta wonder, this was at home, first time this
season under thirty points at home. Does it reinforce that
maybe we were relying too much on the home results
and we should have looked at all these results and
say something's wrong with the Saints deep Drew Brees and
(22:53):
Sean Payton signal at home in the playoffs in their
tenure breeze fourteen touchdowns to interceptions with a QBR at home,
match that up against the Rams, pasty that ranks or
lower or worse against yards per play, past touchdowns per game,
and of course twenty yard plus chunk plays. We've got
(23:16):
so much more to get to. We've got weather, We've
got Drew Brees health concerns, we've got more of the
matchups best bets, and on the other side, we've got
my inside the frattle House commentary. Tonight, we asked the
question is Roddy Dingerfield? Excuse me? Are the Patriots to
Roddy Daingerfield of the NFL? But first let's go to
(23:38):
the Duelsit tones of Brian Finley with a hey, Bernie,
thank you so much man. The w b A Walter
title returns to Manny Pacquiao on Saturday, winning by unanimous
decision against Adrian Broner. Meantime, Henry Cahudo makes quick work
of t J. Dillashaw only thirty two seconds to be exact,
to reclaim the flyweight title that you have c Brooklyn
(24:00):
on Saturday night. Also at that event, Greg Hardy got
disqualified for an illegal kick versus Alan Crowder. For Hardy,
this is nothing new. He's been breaking the law his
whole life. NBA Saturday Night, the Lakers come undone against
the Rockets. Stevenson a leaning long three off the front
of the rim. The game is over in The Rockets
(24:22):
have officially completed a miraculous comeback and they beat the
Lakers in over time after trilling by as many as one.
The final score Houston one eight, Los Angeles four, Rockets.
Radio Network James Harden finished with forty eight points. He's
(24:44):
had at least thirty in nineteen straight games, only one
game shy of a record set by Wilt Chamberlain. Lakers
Lonzo Ball left the game with a sprained ankle x
rays though we're negative one other score out of the NBA.
On Saturday, the Nuggets run fast the as one oh two.
Cleveland is now a flattering nine and thirty seven on
(25:07):
this season. Hey, Online car shopping can be confusing, but
not anymore. With True Price from True Car, now you
can know the exact price you'll pay for your next car.
So visit True Car to enjoy a more confident car
buying experience. And of course, the NFL postseason picking back
up on Sunday, as Bernie is discussing. In the NFC Championship,
(25:28):
the Rams at the Saints at three or five Eastern,
then the Patriots head to head with the Chiefs at
six forty eastern in the a f C Title Game. Bernie,
back to you, my friend, Hey, Brian, eighth straight championship games,
a f C Championship games and the Paths getting no
respect or either Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL, I think
fans are sick many of them of one repeated winner.
(25:52):
I think people like a change, and I just think
that there's an overall sense of just can we have
somebody new. So I think it's more of just a
disgruntled feeling of they're just sick of them, as opposed
to anything else. All right, fair enough, Vince, how about you?
What are your thoughts? I would say they are the
Rodney Dangerfield, but it's by people that either don't get
(26:14):
what they're seeing is one of the greatest things in
the history of the sport, or don't want to get
that what they're seeing is one of the greatest things
that you're seeing in the history of sports, especially the NFL. Right,
all right, and on that note, wake the kids, Alert
the neighbors, Grandpa, put on pants. Time for another rousing
edition of Inside the Frotter House. I ask you the question,
are the Pats the Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL? Hold
that thought? In many ways? I'm a simple guy. Hell
(26:37):
I had a lunchables for dinner last night, and I
lived by two simple rules. I never insult anybody who's
got a loaded gun pointed at my face. And I
never I never bet against the New England Patriots to
the group think echo chamber, who's been telling me since
Week three the Pats would run into a thought ending
this year. How'd that work on for you? Or that
Tom Brady was too old? How that pan out for you?
(26:58):
They hate and vitriol of the New England Patriots. It's
over human, It's become laughable. The joke is on you.
When people talk about the greatest teams of all time, folks,
well they're quick to mention the Steelers of the seventies,
the Niners of the eighties, the Cowboys. Excuse me, Steelers
of the seventies, of Niners of the eighties, yes, and
the Cowboys in the nineties. But even if they talk
about the Patriots of this millennium, they can't do it
(27:18):
without marginalizing their accomplishments. Sure they've won five Super Bowls,
but they lost three. The Niners never did that. Oh,
sure they've been to eight Super Bowls, but they cheated.
They put air and footballs magically made them invincible. And
oh yeah, man, remember the spy gate. Yeah we got you.
Now mentioned the greatest coaches you may or may out
here Belichick, Yep, the echo chamber hates him. Too. Now,
many people listening to me right now hate the Patriots.
(27:41):
You know who you are, don't act like you don't,
and that's your right. But when pressed I never seemed
to really get a coaching answer as to why. The
only real question are the Patriots simply the Rodney Daingerfield
at the NFL. You remember Rodney Daingerfield. Hey, I get
no respect. I called my psychiatrists the other day. I
told him I was suicide. All he said, from now on,
(28:01):
you pay in advance. I got no respect. Now I
got a theory as to why, but it's too simplistic.
See and today's look at me, roaring round of applause
for me, society. Let's take a selfie? How important? Look
at me? The Patriots will They're just the opposite. They
don't want your love and admiration. They just want to win.
To a man and his teammates, They're focused on their
obligations and responsibilities. Meanwhile, ploy of other folks, I'm not
(28:23):
gonna mention names. Leivan Bill, you want to focus on
their rights and privileges. Make no mistake, Bill might be
the best running back in the NFL. But I digress.
The other reason I think people hate the Patriots is
because I honestly feel people are jealous and envious of
their success. This is a success that spans seventeen years
and the salary cap era. It's unheard of. For many people.
(28:44):
When someone else does that well, they become threatened. It
forces them to look in the mirror and ask themselves
if they measure up. Make no mistake, envy and jealousy
are very real. They have deep biological roots. Perhaps they
feel their powers seeping away. So what's the most natural
thing to do? Be smirkes, tough accomplish. In other words,
you get your power back by trying to steal theirs. Now, look,
I'm just spitballing here. I'm not a psychologist. I said
(29:06):
many times it's against a lot of practice psychology without
a license. But I have an opinion, and I'm paid
to have opinions. And by the way, I don't mean
to offend anyone by invoking Levian Bell. He'll get paid.
He deserves to be paid. But he did you go
about it the right way, nol. You see, Levian Bell
put himself before his team, asked the Pittsburgh Steelers how
they feel about that. Levian Bell won't be playing tomorrow.
(29:27):
Neither of the Steelers, but the New England's New England
Patriots will be because to a man, the Pats are
focused on team, not themselves. There's an old saying of
star may win in one game, but a team might
win them all. As far as their star quarterback Tom Brady,
Remember the guy who told me he was washed up
and would collapse with the thud this year. Well, when
it comes to describing him, perhaps Toby Key said it best,
(29:48):
and I think this might be the best way to
describe Brady. Think about this tomorrow. I'm not as good
as I once was, but once I'm as good as
I ever was. Yes, the New England Patriots. They are
the NFL's version of Rodney Danjerf. They get in no respect,
but they don't care. I will not be betting against
the Pats tomorrow, but you can if you want to.
Most of you have been doing it all year. How's
(30:08):
that been working out for you? Brad? Let's look ahead
the pat scheme and coin toss. You and Rjie had
an interesting take about that. This week, are talked about
the gamesmanship Belichick employed last week right from the coin
toss and how his decision really underscored the confidence he
had in his offense. Meanwhile, Brad, you had a nice
take here. You underscored that decision with some specific data
(30:30):
to support Bill belichick strategy. Let's have a listen. Belichick
is the genius. The Patriots taken the ball, and we thought, well,
what could this be and we were just kind of
brainstorm and so the conclusion we've come up with the
Belichick felt so confident schematically against his defense against the
Chargers d that he wanted to step on their throat
(30:51):
early and get the ball, saying maybe at halftime they
could make adjustments. We want to get as many first
half possessions because we think we have the superior game plan. Brad,
you had to stat that four straight touchdowns and how
rare that was. The research department here at pregame came
up with this one. First time in fifteen years playoff
(31:12):
teams score touchdowns on their first four possessions. Brad, the
Pats when they score first, yeah at home, No, Bernie,
that's at home. So keep that in mind. This one's
in the arrow and so a little bit different story
with the Pats there. We kind of talked about this software. Uh,
do you expect the Pats to get the ball first?
(31:32):
I mean, let's let's say Andy reid Winson toss. Will
he defer? What are your thoughts? You know, obviously it
worked for for Bill Belichick to take the ball last week,
but traditionally I would say thirty nine times out of
forty he differs and takes the ball in the second half.
I'll go with the thirty nine out of forty than
than the one outlier. Good stuff, Brad, I appreciate it.
(31:55):
By the way, before we go any further, I want
to thank my broadcast team back in l A, Iowa, Sam,
Vince Wis and Brian Finley. Great job guys, helping us
put this show together, turning all the dials, keeping us
glued together. And by the way, your comedy Live from
the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's easy to say
or more on car insurance with the Geico go to
Geico dot com or call seven Auto. The only hard
(32:16):
part figuring out which way is easier. I'm Bernie Fratto.
We're Comedy Alive from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studies.
This is a pregame show you always wanted, so don't
go away. You're listening to Straight Out of Vegas Vega.
Be sure to catch live editions of Straight Out of
Vegas weekdays at six pm Eastern three pm Pacific. Back
(32:38):
on Straight Out of Vegas, the pregame show you Always wanted.
I'm Bernie Fratto Comedy Alive from the Gecko Fox Sports
Radio Studios. We've been joined tonight by Brad Powers and
of course our man Sleepy J who does so much
work here behind the scenes. We believe me, we would
not be on the air without Sleepy D. And you've
heard him over the weeks giving his why you were
Sleeping picks. Tonight he's handling some other duties, but there'll
(33:00):
be more of that in the future. By the way,
great news, there's a quick way you could save money.
Switch to get Go. Go to Geiko dot com and
in fifteen minutes you can see fIF or more on
car insurance. Brad. In this next cut, let's talk weather. Now.
Before this last week, how I thought that an Arctic
blast was a menuite him a dairy queen. But all
we hear about his Arctic blast, well r g ads
a dose a reality when it comes to assuming that
(33:23):
cool weather will cause the game to vera toward a
typical result, and that is not always the case. Let's
give it a listen. So what we have seen historically
is whenever it gets below thirty two. Because everyone loves
handicapping data that's objective, like there's so much we're just
grasping for facts and ration now and things that make sense.
(33:44):
But when you get something as clean as boy, it's
gonna be cold, it's gonna be tough to catch out ball.
I remember sometimes I go out when it's cold. I
have trouble opening up my car. You know that everyone
can kind of relate to that. And what happens is
there's an overreact. If you look at the NFL games
since two thousand, so almost twenty years, and the temperature
(34:07):
is from twenty to thirty two, so freezing, blow freezing
to twenty more overs than unders. But that doesn't mean
that the cold weather help scoring. It means the adjustment
down is too much. Then if you look at from
ten degrees to nineteen degrees, now that's the teen's baby
(34:29):
that is cold. The overs are almost sixty. People look
and say, man, it's super cold, I'm going Underwell, it
goes over. But what we uncovered was when it's nine degrees,
single digits and down into the negatives. It was two
overs nine under small sample size, but boy, two to
(34:52):
nine is pretty extreme. So it's one of those situations
where it doesn't really affect you all that much, doesn't,
and then it's like, wow, it's so cold, you're having
trouble breathing. Brad. At halftime last week of the Pat's game,
the west Gate posted a total of fifty nine and
a half. It was immediately steamed down at that time
we thought it was going to be like eleven degrees.
(35:13):
But even then, Brad, since there's been eleven games played
when the temperature was under fifteen degrees, it's seven and
four of the over talk about that, Brad. Cool weather
doesn't necessarily mean less offense. Uh no, it doesn't. Um Well,
what usually happens, though, Bernie, is there's an overreaction to it,
and so, you know, maybe there we a little bit
(35:35):
more unders as far as that. But what we see
the betting market do is drive the line down four
or five six points, and I'm wondering how many of
those games would have actually went, you know, under the
total at the opening line point closing line. Very good point.
So we've seen this line go from fifty nine and
a half. I saw as little as fifty four and
a half. It cg technology. You've seen it rise again
(35:57):
because the temperature rises. But I started to wonder, Brad,
and this is why I like having the pros in here.
Have the syndicates manipulated this so they get themselves a
nice middle tomorrow? It could possibly be. Uh. I'll say this,
it's tough going under the total when when you've seen
these two teams play earlier this season and at shootout,
and I can't get my mind around the fact that
(36:18):
the Chiefs still on the thirty first rank defense against
the past and seven against the run. You're the only
two teams remaining, Brad that scored north of forward and
twenty points this year. They're on the same field. Tomorrow
should be fun. One other topic of conversation this week
that was prevalent was Drew Brees and his health. RJ
asked a very interesting question in this cut that frankly
(36:38):
was on some folks mind about how is Drew Brees
feeling heading into Sunday. He's forty and depending on the answer,
that may determine which side r j might fire on.
Let's give it a listen. Is Drew Brees a hundred
percent physically? If he is, I love the Saints. If
he isn't, I gotta pass the game him. Because obviously
(37:01):
one game without Breeze and then obviously they had three
straight road games starting with that Cowboy game, and then
they put up thirty one against the Steelers. So the
only home game they played after that Dallas defeat where
they got beat by Dallas when Breeze started was the Steelers.
They put up thirty one in a very hotly contested game.
The thing that trouvels me is at home against the Eagles,
(37:24):
they only put up twenty And to me, the rationale
is maybe Breeze is less. Brad Breeze made two under
throws which would have been touchdowns. However, just like before
the beginning of the season when they came out rusty,
neither Breeze nor his offense had played in three weeks
when you had the bye week, plus the fact that
they took week seventeen day off. So is that why
(37:44):
is the Saints offense out of scenc and rusty because
of the time off or do we have an issue
with breeze. Well, a bigger sample size says we have
an issue. And then just last week, first eleven games,
Saints offense averages thirty seven points per game. Last six games,
now one of those games in there is a Bridgewater game,
Saints offense only averaging nineteen points for a game. And
I get it. There might have been some rust last week.
(38:06):
But if they can't take advantage of a banged up
Eagles secondary, an Eagles team they put up forty eight
earlier this season, to me, there does look like something's
wrong with breeze. It's a great point. Let's fast forward.
I forgot about three minutes to the show. Let's get
the best bets, Brad. Let's start with you. Do you
have the best bet tomorrow? I'm gonna go under in
the NFC Championship games. So total points scored between the
(38:26):
Rams and the Saints, what is its sleepy is right
around fifty six and a half. Fifty six and a half,
we're going under. Here's what I see Rams offense running
the football. Heck of a lot more down the stretch here.
I'm not sure they totally trust golf. Last three games,
the Rams have ran the ball forty or more times
all three games. They didn't do that, Bernie at all
in the first four teen games. Defense for the Rams
(38:48):
better with to leave than without so much improvement there
Saints offense. We just said, struggling down the stretch. Saints defense.
Here's my number one factor last nine games, Saints defense
a lot sixteen and a half points per game, and
if you expanded that out to a full season, that
would be number one in the NFL and scoring defense
under the total. Best bet for me spot on Bred
(39:10):
and you're right on how they've dumbed down. For lack
of a better term, Jared Goff only threw the ball
twenty eight times last week. Earlier in the year, he
was slinging it all around a lot. Look at the
first five games versus the last five games very quickly.
R J's best bet Travis Kelsey under eighty yards and
go back and listen to the show from Friday. He
gave a very good reason why it seems like a
(39:32):
solid play. Steve Fezik his best bet the first five
and a half minutes no score and uh, I think
Brad you probably would agree with that. Yeah, no score
in the NFC Championship game between the Rams, and the Saints.
I'm sorry, thank you for clarifying that. Ye no score
in that one, and obviously I agree with that one.
I think you get conservative nests from the Rams on
a road game with golf, and on the other side,
(39:54):
I don't think the Saints are taking an early deep
shot down the field after that went all right last
week against the Eagles. My best bet very simply. I
like the over Sony Michelle seventy eight yards. I think
the Pats come out run power against that defense. Belichick
wants to play ball, control fuel position. I don't know
that he wants to get into a shootout tomorrow, but
I will tell you, Brady with his short art, his short,
(40:16):
high precision passing attack will open up running lanes for
Sony Michelle as well. I like Sonny Michelle over seventy
eight yards. Brad, Thanks so much for coming in tonight, Sleepy,
Thanks for everything you do. Folks. That is going to
do it for tonight's this week's edition, straight out of Vegas,
this Saturday weekend edition. But do me a favorite. Don't
(40:37):
go anywhere up next a man who was so formidable.
If emailed a letter without postage, it would still be delivered. YEP,
it's my man, the inimitable Jonas Knox Vegan. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
(40:58):
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live.
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. You know, perhaps we
were given a clue last September. In the month of September,
for the two thousand and eighteen NFL regular season, there
were more four yard passing games than in the entire
two thousand seventeen season. Offense is the new rage, the
shiny new toy. You know, Don Coreo must be spinning
(00:23):
in his grave on this the final weekend before the
Super Bowl. We've got the top four offenses in the league,
and we should have some glorious battles tomorrow, some real
sensational highlights before the close of business on Sunday. And
to those of you who doubted me about the Patriots,
and you know who you are, know this. The Pats
are merely one goofy schoolyard played by the Dolphins away
(00:44):
from actually hosting tomorrow's gating versus Kansas City. But what
does Bill Belichick bringing the airhead that no remaining team
in the tournament has you guessed at a top ten
defense to match the robust offense. And while the Chiefs
were bringing the only other unit to score more than
four than twenty points this season in the Sunday's contest,
along with Tom Brady and company, the chiefs will they
(01:06):
work with the defense. That's thirty one against the pass
and against the run. And on that note, welcome back
to another edition of Straight Out of Vegas. R G.
Bell is out and about it. I'm Bernie Fratto. We're
coming to you live from the Getico Fox Sports Radio Studios.
We're fifteen minutes. Could save you fift or more on
car insurance. Visit geigo dot com for a free rate quote.
(01:27):
Now this is the weekend edition of Straight Out of Vegas.
As you know, Straight out of Vegas there's Monday through
Friday right here on Fox Sports Radio, I Heart Radio
Sirius XM A E three from three to six specific
six to seven pm Eastern. R J Bell, Steve Brad Powers,
and Jonas knocks every day. They take you behind the scenes,
(01:48):
solid commentary, great insights on the world of sports betting,
and you can benefit from the years of expertise. Saturday,
our Saturday edition is Straight out of Vegas. We look
back at the best of We take another look at
some of the best takes of the week and analyzes
from the previous week so you can enjoy them again.
Here's the best thing about this concept. Each of these
best of takes their designed to look ahead to tomorrow.
(02:10):
So during the week the guys devote five hours they
provide the finest content. The weekends we distill it down
to the best hour. Of course, I'll add my own
inflection as well, because i live in Las Vegas two
and I've been privat to these guys and there're no
how for many years. So join us every Saturday night
lev P and Pacific two a m. Eastern. Yep, we
want you along for the ride. This is Straight out
(02:30):
of Vegas, the pregame show you always wanted. Now we
got a special treat Tonight we're joined by Weekdays Straight
out of Vegas co host Brad Powers, and actually we're
going to devote the first segment tonight entirely to college basketball.
Brad is one of the most respected analysts in the country,
and as you've often heard our j refer to him
during the week is quote, the man with the college
(02:53):
knowledge should be dropping a lout of that in here
in just a minute. Of course, tonight we continue are
their ten second feature. While you were sleeping with our
own sleepy j See while you're sleeping, look the straight
out of Vega staff. We never sleep man. They're looking
for ways seven to distress your bookie, to impress your friends.
You get the drill if you listen. Last week, Sleepy
(03:13):
gave you the pick Casey over Indian Nappas. Okay again
tonight at the bottom of the hour, once again, I'll
take you inside the Frattle House for my weekly commentary.
Very simply, tonight, we're gonna tackle a simple question. You
heard Tom Brady's rant last week on the sideline when
he said, I know you all think we sucked. So
here's the question. Are the New England Patriots the Roddy
danger Field of the NFL hold that thought? We'll Addrett
(03:37):
will address that at the bottom of the hour, and
this week inside the Frattle House, Brad is this weekend's
experience versus youth continues. Pacio has already beaten Adrian Brouner,
and tomorrow we'll have a couple of forty year old
quarterbacks against a couple of young whipper snappers. But before
we get to that, the fans are in for a
treat tonight because very few folks have I talked to
(03:59):
that are walking pewter. When it comes to college basketball,
and right on que both undefeateds go down today. Let's
end to Chapel Hill for Duke knocks off Virginia, but
Virginia backers cash. Yeah, Virginia backers did definitely cash. And
that's what all it matters here, straight out of Vegas, Bernie.
So let me set the framework for you here. Duke
(04:21):
pretty much controlled most of the game. We're mostly leading throughout,
not by much, basically right around the spread. The spread
on the game has Duke favored by three and a
half points, Bernie. That usually means that on a neutral
court that these two teams are relatively even. That says
a lot considering Duke's playing without their point guard Trey Jones.
(04:41):
So when you consider that you give three and a
half points of home court advantage, Duke's a three and
a half point favorite. So here's what happens in the
final ten seconds of the game. Virginia's at the free
throw line, they make both of their free throws, they foul,
Virginia does Duke. Duke makes one out of two free throws.
So at that time, with eight seconds left, Duke is
(05:03):
up four. Duke Backers laying three and a half feeling
pretty good. Virginia loses the ball, it's out near mid court,
they throw it and what we would call in most
cases a meaningless two point shot at the buzzer that
allows Virginia to only lose the game by two, allows
(05:24):
any Virginia backer to win plus three and a half.
Thousands upon thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of
dollars changed hands, Bernie, because that game today in Chapel
Hill was arguably the biggest game of the college basketball
season so far. So Virginia suffers the first loss of
the year. Brad uh coming into the game twelve straight
(05:45):
a CEC Conference road wins. What's your takeaway in terms
of Virginia looking ahead? We all know the Maryland Baltimore
County loss last year sticks in their cross. They no
longer have Malcolm Brogden, but this is one of the
best Tony Bennett offenses have seen in a while. Looking ahead,
do you project him as a Final four possible? You know, arrival,
(06:08):
they're a contender, but I have my doubts because again,
when a lot of these other teams, the youthful teams
like Duke, when they get fully healthy, Kentucky is starting
to make some strides. Now they're youthful roster. They all
have that extra gear in March, something that I haven't
seen Virginia have the last five years. I really like
(06:29):
Virginia that I think they are clearly top five power
rated team, and I'll be on Virginia more often than not.
Why Bernie, last five years, if you just blindly bet
on Virginia in every single game, you'd be hitting sixty
two percent, sixty two percent against the spread. No different
this year with that cover. Today Virginia's fourteen and three
against the number, except for today when points were in bunchies.
(06:52):
I gotta believe they've been a pretty good underbet too
with that defense. Absolutely so, I mean what Virginia style
play hasn't changed too much. They bay basically or like
a Boa constrictor. They just squeezy, squeeze the life right
out of you. And a lot of times you look
up at a game, it looks ugly with Virginia. They're
laying ten points of the calves and they're up five
(07:13):
thirty to twenty five, and then you blink and it's
forty two to five. Let's talk about the other team
they went down today. Brad Michigan travels to the coal
centered Wisconsin where they're actually two and fourteen or last
sixteen trips there. They go down, they go down by
double digits, they do. They lose. Michigan loses by ten.
So the big story there. This was a Michigan team
that had won twenty seven consecutive regular season games. In fact,
(07:37):
they're only lost in their last thirty three games coming
in today National championship game against Villanova last year. So
it was a thirty two and one run. But you're
gonna see a lot of people say, hey, big upset.
Unranked Wisconsin beats a top three Michigan team. You know
what the line on the game was on that one,
Bernie three points. Michigan was only a three point road
(07:59):
favorite if you wanted to bet Wisconsin to win the
game plus one fifty. So Hunter Bucks winsy one fifty.
About chance coming in the game that Wisconsin had to
win it out right, that's what you hear from pros.
It's all about winning long term and getting positive ev
We're gonna get to that later, Brad, real quickly. This
stand in Michigan for just a second. They visit Indiana
next Friday, I'm guessing that line is gonna be to
(08:21):
three as well, Michigan being a short favorite on the road.
I don't know, I'll defer to you, but Archie Miller
in his tenure in Indiana six and oh's a home
dog against Big ten competition. Now that's a strong stat there,
And you wonder how Michigan after they've been holding onto
this unbeaten streak a lot of times, what I've seen
is one loss sometimes turns into two. And I'll be
quite frank, even though Michigan came in unbeating the day,
(08:44):
they're not the best team in the Big Ten. The
best team right now in the Big Ten is Michigan State. Yes,
that's really surging. Last eleven games the Spartans eleven and
oh straight up ten and one against the number. So actually,
we'll talk about this again the show real quickly. That
might be one of my best bets of the week
next week to fade Michigan. Part of the reason there's
(09:06):
some real trends, including that the game before the Ohio
State game, Michigan has a habit of not covering in
the house state after Indiana. That's spent a few minutes here,
Brad and kind of a lightning ground. I want to
hit you with some teams in terms of whether or
not they're pretenders or contenders. This Nevada team their ranked tenth.
They've been a constant overlay. They lay twenty one and
a half tonight against air Force, never had a chance
(09:28):
of covering trail at They have laid seventy other night
at Boise. Almost lost the game over right, we know
the game they lost. They were laying fourteen and a
half at the Pitt in New Mexico lost outright, a
huge overlay. I guess what I'm getting at is when
you fast forward to March, they were a sweet sixteen
team last year. Are they for real? Brad? I I
think they are. I think we talked pre show you
(09:50):
know what's Nevada's problem. I think you mentioned that I
think bored them a little bit. Nevada is so far
suppared to anyone else in my power ranks. I have
Nevada close to where they are in the polls. I
have Nevada twelve, so it's not like I've downgraded them
too much. On a neutral floor, they're probably six seven
points better than anybody else in their own conference this
time of year. A lot of times with experienced teams, look,
(10:13):
there's more out for them at the end of the season.
I really like the experience factor. This is a team
that returned almost everyone from last year. That experience they
got going on to the Sweet sixth team, I think
bode well for him this year. A couple of big
wins over Texas and Cincinnati, and they earned those wins.
I agree they played great defense welld coach by Eric Musselman,
one of the other Buggaboos. They don't shoot threes real well,
so we'll see if that shows up. All right, let's
(10:34):
bounce around a bit. I want to talk about the
Pack twelve, a conference I can't figure out, like one
full over the cuckoo's nest. Look U c l A.
You lose to Bellomont, you lose to Liberty, then you
lose your coach. Oregon loses Bull Bull Arizona States showing
some flashes. Utah's down. Who is going to emerge out
of that conference? Brad because it's an automatic big conference? Yeah,
(10:56):
an automatic big conference is right? So similar to college football,
the PAC twell really bringing up the rear when it
comes to the major conferences. I do not have a
single not a single pack twelve team right now in
my top forty. The team that is surging though, keep
an eye on the Washington Huskies. They got a coaches
starting to develop. He comes from Syracuse. They run his
(11:17):
zone and they're a team that's been winning and covering
the sprint. Had a blade a big number today seventeen
and a half against Carol and hung it and hung
it and want it. Yeah, they did hung it late,
but but to your point, they hung it. Uh. Gonzaga
an interesting team. Uh. Look, two years ago they got
to the final game, fell to North Carolina. Do you
see the same kind of on floor talent that team?
(11:39):
And two years ago it's tough because they haven't a
Gonzaga hasn't been healthy this whole season. They're close to
that team and we've seen it. They're the only team.
One of the only teams to beat Duke this year
was Gonzaga. They hung in there in a Tennessee game
that came down to the final seconds. Tennessee's a top five,
clear nut cut team. And also their only other lost
Gonzaga was the North Carolina on the road. So I
(12:00):
see it. And here's also where I see at Bernie
Gonzaga even though they're laying like points in a lot
of these games. They're four team five against the spread
so far. The seven on the road tonight at Portland State,
they didn't cover the Can you manage that? How do
you do that? Let's go to the SEC. No One
for football, but I gotta see you, Brad, they get
my respect in basketball. You mentioned Tennessee and I think
(12:20):
you made a great case before the show. They are
the real deal. A lot of athletic teams in that conference, Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia,
night in, night out, they're getting tested. They are. And
the the SEC made a commitment about four or five
years ago to up that. That basically what happened. The
SEC Commissioner sat down all the athletic directors and they
wanted to put more of an emphasis on basketball. They
(12:43):
were tired of football having to carry the weight in
that conference all year long. Still does the majority. But
what the SEC did went out and hired a bunch
of good coaches and guess what, Rick barn Rick Barnes
is a really good coach. And now you're starting to see,
now that's year three four, his recruits are coming in there,
and uh, you know to see clear cut the best
team right now, but don't look now like Kentucky Wildcats
(13:04):
starting to search a big road win at Auburn earlier today,
Big twelve, give me a quick one down there. Uh,
you know you gotta start a little bit with Kansas
so you don't know they lost today. Kansas has won
fourteen straight regular season titles. A lot of competition teams
like Texas Tech, Iowa State, surgeon. Kansas State is now
healthy with Wade coming back at center. Very competitive Kansas,
(13:25):
unlike most of this run here in the last decade,
not the runaway favorite. Talk about Texas Tech with Chris Beard.
Can they make some noise that they are on the
defensive side of the ball and now they haven't been
covering a lot of numbers. It's tough to lay some points.
They're coming off a loss against Iowa State at home
earlier this week. They can Chris bears fin o My god,
I had them plus nine and a half against Duke.
(13:47):
I thought I had to cash the whole way until
the end. Remember that game on the number. But Chris
Beard has proven Brad like you said, uh, great coach
and he keeps the competitive no matter who they take
the floor with. Final thought Andy at large teams, any
lesser conferences that you know stick out to you. You know,
are there Cleveland States lurking out there? Uh, similar region
(14:08):
of the country. The Buffalo Bulls made some noise last
year beating Arizona in the n C Double A Tournament.
One lost team. Right now, I have the Buffalo power
rate in the top twenty. Great stuff. Brat. As we
head towards March, Madness will hope to get Brad on
when his schedule permits between now and it. You know,
as we head towards that time of the year and
we wind down with the NFL and we're in that
(14:30):
transition period, he is Brad Powers. I'm Bernie Freddo will
come to you alive from the Guicho Fox Sports Radio Studios.
This is the pregame show you always wanted to. Don't
go away. You're listening to Straight out of Vegas, Vega.
Be sure to catch live editions of Straight Out of
Vegas weekdays at six pm Eastern three pm Pacific on
(14:52):
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. You're
back on Straight out of Vegas, the pregame show you
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the Geiko Fox Sports Radio studios, and who Don't Remind
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(15:14):
Discovered dot com. Slash credit scorecard limitations apply. Fortunate to
be joined by Brad Powers tonight. Not just a man
with the college knowledge finished fourth in the prestigious Golden
Nugget contest entries. Brad finished fourth. Brad, Here we are
are the four best teams, the four highest sieves, the
four top offenses, and in his first cut, r J
(15:37):
details the reason why these are the four best team
and he even lists teams who were eliminated who might
have been considered to be in the top four but
they're not. Pasik also points out the Power Rating metric
as well to support their case while surmising future lines
based on who advances to the Super Bowl. Let's have
a listen, these are the four best teams in football.
(15:59):
I'm mean, at various points you could have debated the
Chargers were on that list of the top four. Maybe
New England wasn't. You could have debated the Bears, I
think at certain points, but as of today, it seems
to me you'd really struggle to make the case that
these aren't the four best teams. They are my four
best teams, absolutely, and they're all within half a point
(16:22):
of each other r J and my power ratings, which
means that whoever wins these games, we're looking at a
pickum super Bowl. Maybe one team favored by one, maybe
another team favored by one. I'd be show no matter
what the matchup is, if any team is even a
field goal favor in the Super Bowl, I would be
shocked as well. Brad, it's hard to argue you've got
(16:45):
one and two and one or two in each conference,
you've got the top for offenses, but only one team
brings the top ten defense. And by the way, this
is the first time Tom Brady and company been an
underdog in sixty seven games. It is, and that's always
scary when you're looking to pass a league, go against
New England in that rare underdog role. Very motivated. I
can't wait to hear your take on that at the
(17:06):
bottom of the hour here Bernie, but it makes sense.
We have something called here in Vegas, some look aheadlines.
A couple of casinos have put out possible Super Bowl
matchups and they have come out. None of those games
are three point lines. We have a bunch of games
that are either pick or one team's favored by one.
So the market agrees with the boys. And of course
(17:27):
Kansas City has been the darling this year. And in
this next cut R G and Physics they sort of
give a dissertation about offense versus defense and how they
evaluate both sides of the ball. And RG points out
that while statistically the Chiefs do not rank will, they
still have the ability to impact the game in certain
other ways. Defensively, they don't exactly show up in the
box score. Meanwhile, on offense, while it's true Kansas City
(17:50):
lost one of its prolific playmakers, they still have plenty
of weapons to wreak havoc and Physic points out the
challenges they impose on opposing team and why let's give
it a listen. Kansas City the whole year, I think,
has at a defense that isn't gonna be statistically good,
but they're impactful, as in, they can make a strip sack,
(18:11):
they can get a sack, you know, like you said,
the pressure is one of their stronger suits. I wouldn't
say very good, but stronger suits. And if you can
score as much as they can score, the theory is
you get one or two stops a half, you're fine.
You're probably gonna win the game, especially if it's an
impact play. It seems like we saw that in action here.
Would you agree with that? So Kansas City positive impactful
(18:34):
plays on defense. On the other hand, I agree with you.
And the prior seven games for Kansas City, they've only
covered one time, and one of the reasons we thought
was Kareem Hunt's absence. You're saying, now you've seen enough
that Williams is telling you, hey, not much difference with
him and Hunt exactly, and then you're saying, hey, they
added another playmake Watkins is back, and Hill, who has
(18:57):
been hobbleed, would look a dent. So in a way,
you proved your second or third receiver whatever you wanna
call Watkins, and your number one receiver is better than
you thought he might be because there was uncertainty about injuries,
exactly right, so now that you've got really three great
scale position players running around with Kelsey out there, with Hill,
with Watkins, you can't cover all of them. Very difficult, Brad.
(19:18):
I'm a little conflicted. The Chiefs have scored thirty points
or more thirteen times this season. Belichick has only given
up forty points seven times in his career. Three times
it was it was against Dandy Red. However, I found
a stat, Brad. Since the inception of the a f C,
NFC Championship Round games since nineteen seventy, they've played ninety
(19:39):
six of those the higher ranked defense sixty and thirty
two against the spread. Your thoughts, oh, sixty and thirty
two against the number, I'm gonna agree with you. I think,
historically speaking this time of year, what have we always
wanted this time of year? We've heard the old adage
defense wins championships, and I think that ran true in
(20:00):
the seventies, the eighties, the nineties, the two thousand's. But
I'm here to tell you, Bernie two thousand and eighteen,
I think offense is what wins your championships more than
defenses because of the rule changes. You're right that you
know it's evidenced by the final four teams. We have,
uh bred the home road dichotomy. For the Patriots, it's sclaring.
(20:22):
They're nine of No. One home this year, three and
five on the road. We've heard them all. They give
up more points, they score more points, the whole deal.
And in his plan, and you know his career, Brady
twenty three at home, three and four in the road,
same situation, Lord qbr rating, there's this rear teddum already.
You have to throw it out. It's one game affair.
Uh No, I think it does because it's not only
a one year sample size. Even though it's really the
(20:43):
despar it this year, I would argue it's the most
despaired in the entire NFL. Let's look at the entire
career of Tom Brady playoffs home away home forty six touchdowns,
eighteen picks away from home only eight touchdowns, eight interceptions,
no wins in the playoffs on the road since two
thousand seven. Take a quick look at the earlier game
(21:05):
tomorrow and the Saints and their offensive concerns in recent weeks,
and then this cut r J raises a key concern
that one might acquire about the Saints when you reverse
engineer the relative performance or their offensive unit when you
compare early in the season versus late in the year.
R J even delves into the home road comparisons. Now
he cites specific evidence against the same opponent in terms
(21:27):
of variants of effectiveness and wonders if these clues had
been there all along. Let's give it a listen. The
key question with the Saints last week was if you
look at their last end of the season, even the
non breeze game, and just divided up their points per game, boy,
it looked like there was a huge drop off on offense.
(21:48):
But then if you dug deeper that if you look
at the home games with breeze in the last game
didn't count with Bridgewater Steelers, it was like thirty one.
And then if you went back five games is all
the way to the Browns game, which was the second
game of the season, the Saints were averaging like almost
forty points a game. So it's like, was it the
fact that the Saints the offense got worse later in
(22:11):
the year, or was it the fact that they're just
naturally worse on the road the Saints offense, and now
they're home, they're gonna be fine. You're making an interesting point.
This is an Eagles team that's no better on defense
than they were when the Saints put up forty eight
against them. The idea they're only putting up twenty now
against pretty much the same defense, and you could make
(22:31):
the case a little less of a d because of
those injuries during the game on the D line. Now
you gotta wonder, this was at home, first time this
season under thirty points at home. Does it reinforce that
maybe we were relying too much on the home results
and we should have looked at all these results and
say something's wrong with the Saints deep Drew Brees and
(22:53):
Sean Payton signal at home in the playoffs in their
tenure breeze fourteen touchdowns to interceptions with a QBR at home,
match that up against the Rams, pasty that ranks or
lower or worse against yards per play, past touchdowns per game,
and of course twenty yard plus chunk plays. We've got
(23:16):
so much more to get to. We've got weather, We've
got Drew Brees health concerns, we've got more of the
matchups best bets, and on the other side, we've got
my inside the frattle House commentary. Tonight, we asked the
question is Roddy Dingerfield? Excuse me? Are the Patriots to
Roddy Daingerfield of the NFL? But first let's go to
(23:38):
the Duelsit tones of Brian Finley with a hey, Bernie,
thank you so much man. The w b A Walter
title returns to Manny Pacquiao on Saturday, winning by unanimous
decision against Adrian Broner. Meantime, Henry Cahudo makes quick work
of t J. Dillashaw only thirty two seconds to be exact,
to reclaim the flyweight title that you have c Brooklyn
(24:00):
on Saturday night. Also at that event, Greg Hardy got
disqualified for an illegal kick versus Alan Crowder. For Hardy,
this is nothing new. He's been breaking the law his
whole life. NBA Saturday Night, the Lakers come undone against
the Rockets. Stevenson a leaning long three off the front
of the rim. The game is over in The Rockets
(24:22):
have officially completed a miraculous comeback and they beat the
Lakers in over time after trilling by as many as one.
The final score Houston one eight, Los Angeles four, Rockets.
Radio Network James Harden finished with forty eight points. He's
(24:44):
had at least thirty in nineteen straight games, only one
game shy of a record set by Wilt Chamberlain. Lakers
Lonzo Ball left the game with a sprained ankle x
rays though we're negative one other score out of the NBA.
On Saturday, the Nuggets run fast the as one oh two.
Cleveland is now a flattering nine and thirty seven on
(25:07):
this season. Hey, Online car shopping can be confusing, but
not anymore. With True Price from True Car, now you
can know the exact price you'll pay for your next car.
So visit True Car to enjoy a more confident car
buying experience. And of course, the NFL postseason picking back
up on Sunday, as Bernie is discussing. In the NFC Championship,
(25:28):
the Rams at the Saints at three or five Eastern,
then the Patriots head to head with the Chiefs at
six forty eastern in the a f C Title Game. Bernie,
back to you, my friend, Hey, Brian, eighth straight championship games,
a f C Championship games and the Paths getting no
respect or either Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL, I think
fans are sick many of them of one repeated winner.
(25:52):
I think people like a change, and I just think
that there's an overall sense of just can we have
somebody new. So I think it's more of just a
disgruntled feeling of they're just sick of them, as opposed
to anything else. All right, fair enough, Vince, how about you?
What are your thoughts? I would say they are the
Rodney Dangerfield, but it's by people that either don't get
(26:14):
what they're seeing is one of the greatest things in
the history of the sport, or don't want to get
that what they're seeing is one of the greatest things
that you're seeing in the history of sports, especially the NFL. Right,
all right, and on that note, wake the kids, Alert
the neighbors, Grandpa, put on pants. Time for another rousing
edition of Inside the Frotter House. I ask you the question,
are the Pats the Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL? Hold
that thought? In many ways? I'm a simple guy. Hell
(26:37):
I had a lunchables for dinner last night, and I
lived by two simple rules. I never insult anybody who's
got a loaded gun pointed at my face. And I
never I never bet against the New England Patriots to
the group think echo chamber, who's been telling me since
Week three the Pats would run into a thought ending
this year. How'd that work on for you? Or that
Tom Brady was too old? How that pan out for you?
(26:58):
They hate and vitriol of the New England Patriots. It's
over human, It's become laughable. The joke is on you.
When people talk about the greatest teams of all time, folks,
well they're quick to mention the Steelers of the seventies,
the Niners of the eighties, the Cowboys. Excuse me, Steelers
of the seventies, of Niners of the eighties, yes, and
the Cowboys in the nineties. But even if they talk
about the Patriots of this millennium, they can't do it
(27:18):
without marginalizing their accomplishments. Sure they've won five Super Bowls,
but they lost three. The Niners never did that. Oh,
sure they've been to eight Super Bowls, but they cheated.
They put air and footballs magically made them invincible. And
oh yeah, man, remember the spy gate. Yeah we got you.
Now mentioned the greatest coaches you may or may out
here Belichick, Yep, the echo chamber hates him. Too. Now,
many people listening to me right now hate the Patriots.
(27:41):
You know who you are, don't act like you don't,
and that's your right. But when pressed I never seemed
to really get a coaching answer as to why. The
only real question are the Patriots simply the Rodney Daingerfield
at the NFL. You remember Rodney Daingerfield. Hey, I get
no respect. I called my psychiatrists the other day. I
told him I was suicide. All he said, from now on,
(28:01):
you pay in advance. I got no respect. Now I
got a theory as to why, but it's too simplistic.
See and today's look at me, roaring round of applause
for me, society. Let's take a selfie? How important? Look
at me? The Patriots will They're just the opposite. They
don't want your love and admiration. They just want to win.
To a man and his teammates, They're focused on their
obligations and responsibilities. Meanwhile, ploy of other folks, I'm not
(28:23):
gonna mention names. Leivan Bill, you want to focus on
their rights and privileges. Make no mistake, Bill might be
the best running back in the NFL. But I digress.
The other reason I think people hate the Patriots is
because I honestly feel people are jealous and envious of
their success. This is a success that spans seventeen years
and the salary cap era. It's unheard of. For many people.
(28:44):
When someone else does that well, they become threatened. It
forces them to look in the mirror and ask themselves
if they measure up. Make no mistake, envy and jealousy
are very real. They have deep biological roots. Perhaps they
feel their powers seeping away. So what's the most natural
thing to do? Be smirkes, tough accomplish. In other words,
you get your power back by trying to steal theirs. Now, look,
I'm just spitballing here. I'm not a psychologist. I said
(29:06):
many times it's against a lot of practice psychology without
a license. But I have an opinion, and I'm paid
to have opinions. And by the way, I don't mean
to offend anyone by invoking Levian Bell. He'll get paid.
He deserves to be paid. But he did you go
about it the right way, nol. You see, Levian Bell
put himself before his team, asked the Pittsburgh Steelers how
they feel about that. Levian Bell won't be playing tomorrow.
(29:27):
Neither of the Steelers, but the New England's New England
Patriots will be because to a man, the Pats are
focused on team, not themselves. There's an old saying of
star may win in one game, but a team might
win them all. As far as their star quarterback Tom Brady,
Remember the guy who told me he was washed up
and would collapse with the thud this year. Well, when
it comes to describing him, perhaps Toby Key said it best,
(29:48):
and I think this might be the best way to
describe Brady. Think about this tomorrow. I'm not as good
as I once was, but once I'm as good as
I ever was. Yes, the New England Patriots. They are
the NFL's version of Rodney Danjerf. They get in no respect,
but they don't care. I will not be betting against
the Pats tomorrow, but you can if you want to.
Most of you have been doing it all year. How's
(30:08):
that been working out for you? Brad? Let's look ahead
the pat scheme and coin toss. You and Rjie had
an interesting take about that. This week, are talked about
the gamesmanship Belichick employed last week right from the coin
toss and how his decision really underscored the confidence he
had in his offense. Meanwhile, Brad, you had a nice
take here. You underscored that decision with some specific data
(30:30):
to support Bill belichick strategy. Let's have a listen. Belichick
is the genius. The Patriots taken the ball, and we thought, well,
what could this be and we were just kind of
brainstorm and so the conclusion we've come up with the
Belichick felt so confident schematically against his defense against the
Chargers d that he wanted to step on their throat
(30:51):
early and get the ball, saying maybe at halftime they
could make adjustments. We want to get as many first
half possessions because we think we have the superior game plan. Brad,
you had to stat that four straight touchdowns and how
rare that was. The research department here at pregame came
up with this one. First time in fifteen years playoff
(31:12):
teams score touchdowns on their first four possessions. Brad, the
Pats when they score first, yeah at home, No, Bernie,
that's at home. So keep that in mind. This one's
in the arrow and so a little bit different story
with the Pats there. We kind of talked about this software. Uh,
do you expect the Pats to get the ball first?
(31:32):
I mean, let's let's say Andy reid Winson toss. Will
he defer? What are your thoughts? You know, obviously it
worked for for Bill Belichick to take the ball last week,
but traditionally I would say thirty nine times out of
forty he differs and takes the ball in the second half.
I'll go with the thirty nine out of forty than
than the one outlier. Good stuff, Brad, I appreciate it.
(31:55):
By the way, before we go any further, I want
to thank my broadcast team back in l A, Iowa, Sam,
Vince Wis and Brian Finley. Great job guys, helping us
put this show together, turning all the dials, keeping us
glued together. And by the way, your comedy Live from
the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's easy to say
or more on car insurance with the Geico go to
Geico dot com or call seven Auto. The only hard
(32:16):
part figuring out which way is easier. I'm Bernie Fratto.
We're Comedy Alive from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studies.
This is a pregame show you always wanted, so don't
go away. You're listening to Straight Out of Vegas Vega.
Be sure to catch live editions of Straight Out of
Vegas weekdays at six pm Eastern three pm Pacific. Back
(32:38):
on Straight Out of Vegas, the pregame show you Always wanted.
I'm Bernie Fratto Comedy Alive from the Gecko Fox Sports
Radio Studios. We've been joined tonight by Brad Powers and
of course our man Sleepy J who does so much
work here behind the scenes. We believe me, we would
not be on the air without Sleepy D. And you've
heard him over the weeks giving his why you were
Sleeping picks. Tonight he's handling some other duties, but there'll
(33:00):
be more of that in the future. By the way,
great news, there's a quick way you could save money.
Switch to get Go. Go to Geiko dot com and
in fifteen minutes you can see fIF or more on
car insurance. Brad. In this next cut, let's talk weather. Now.
Before this last week, how I thought that an Arctic
blast was a menuite him a dairy queen. But all
we hear about his Arctic blast, well r g ads
a dose a reality when it comes to assuming that
(33:23):
cool weather will cause the game to vera toward a
typical result, and that is not always the case. Let's
give it a listen. So what we have seen historically
is whenever it gets below thirty two. Because everyone loves
handicapping data that's objective, like there's so much we're just
grasping for facts and ration now and things that make sense.
(33:44):
But when you get something as clean as boy, it's
gonna be cold, it's gonna be tough to catch out ball.
I remember sometimes I go out when it's cold. I
have trouble opening up my car. You know that everyone
can kind of relate to that. And what happens is
there's an overreact. If you look at the NFL games
since two thousand, so almost twenty years, and the temperature
(34:07):
is from twenty to thirty two, so freezing, blow freezing
to twenty more overs than unders. But that doesn't mean
that the cold weather help scoring. It means the adjustment
down is too much. Then if you look at from
ten degrees to nineteen degrees, now that's the teen's baby
(34:29):
that is cold. The overs are almost sixty. People look
and say, man, it's super cold, I'm going Underwell, it
goes over. But what we uncovered was when it's nine degrees,
single digits and down into the negatives. It was two
overs nine under small sample size, but boy, two to
(34:52):
nine is pretty extreme. So it's one of those situations
where it doesn't really affect you all that much, doesn't,
and then it's like, wow, it's so cold, you're having
trouble breathing. Brad. At halftime last week of the Pat's game,
the west Gate posted a total of fifty nine and
a half. It was immediately steamed down at that time
we thought it was going to be like eleven degrees.
(35:13):
But even then, Brad, since there's been eleven games played
when the temperature was under fifteen degrees, it's seven and
four of the over talk about that, Brad. Cool weather
doesn't necessarily mean less offense. Uh no, it doesn't. Um Well,
what usually happens, though, Bernie, is there's an overreaction to it,
and so, you know, maybe there we a little bit
(35:35):
more unders as far as that. But what we see
the betting market do is drive the line down four
or five six points, and I'm wondering how many of
those games would have actually went, you know, under the
total at the opening line point closing line. Very good point.
So we've seen this line go from fifty nine and
a half. I saw as little as fifty four and
a half. It cg technology. You've seen it rise again
(35:57):
because the temperature rises. But I started to wonder, Brad,
and this is why I like having the pros in here.
Have the syndicates manipulated this so they get themselves a
nice middle tomorrow? It could possibly be. Uh. I'll say this,
it's tough going under the total when when you've seen
these two teams play earlier this season and at shootout,
and I can't get my mind around the fact that
(36:18):
the Chiefs still on the thirty first rank defense against
the past and seven against the run. You're the only
two teams remaining, Brad that scored north of forward and
twenty points this year. They're on the same field. Tomorrow
should be fun. One other topic of conversation this week
that was prevalent was Drew Brees and his health. RJ
asked a very interesting question in this cut that frankly
(36:38):
was on some folks mind about how is Drew Brees
feeling heading into Sunday. He's forty and depending on the answer,
that may determine which side r j might fire on.
Let's give it a listen. Is Drew Brees a hundred
percent physically? If he is, I love the Saints. If
he isn't, I gotta pass the game him. Because obviously
(37:01):
one game without Breeze and then obviously they had three
straight road games starting with that Cowboy game, and then
they put up thirty one against the Steelers. So the
only home game they played after that Dallas defeat where
they got beat by Dallas when Breeze started was the Steelers.
They put up thirty one in a very hotly contested game.
The thing that trouvels me is at home against the Eagles,
(37:24):
they only put up twenty And to me, the rationale
is maybe Breeze is less. Brad Breeze made two under
throws which would have been touchdowns. However, just like before
the beginning of the season when they came out rusty,
neither Breeze nor his offense had played in three weeks
when you had the bye week, plus the fact that
they took week seventeen day off. So is that why
(37:44):
is the Saints offense out of scenc and rusty because
of the time off or do we have an issue
with breeze. Well, a bigger sample size says we have
an issue. And then just last week, first eleven games,
Saints offense averages thirty seven points per game. Last six games,
now one of those games in there is a Bridgewater game,
Saints offense only averaging nineteen points for a game. And
I get it. There might have been some rust last week.
(38:06):
But if they can't take advantage of a banged up
Eagles secondary, an Eagles team they put up forty eight
earlier this season, to me, there does look like something's
wrong with breeze. It's a great point. Let's fast forward.
I forgot about three minutes to the show. Let's get
the best bets, Brad. Let's start with you. Do you
have the best bet tomorrow? I'm gonna go under in
the NFC Championship games. So total points scored between the
(38:26):
Rams and the Saints, what is its sleepy is right
around fifty six and a half. Fifty six and a half,
we're going under. Here's what I see Rams offense running
the football. Heck of a lot more down the stretch here.
I'm not sure they totally trust golf. Last three games,
the Rams have ran the ball forty or more times
all three games. They didn't do that, Bernie at all
in the first four teen games. Defense for the Rams
(38:48):
better with to leave than without so much improvement there
Saints offense. We just said, struggling down the stretch. Saints defense.
Here's my number one factor last nine games, Saints defense
a lot sixteen and a half points per game, and
if you expanded that out to a full season, that
would be number one in the NFL and scoring defense
under the total. Best bet for me spot on Bred
(39:10):
and you're right on how they've dumbed down. For lack
of a better term, Jared Goff only threw the ball
twenty eight times last week. Earlier in the year, he
was slinging it all around a lot. Look at the
first five games versus the last five games very quickly.
R J's best bet Travis Kelsey under eighty yards and
go back and listen to the show from Friday. He
gave a very good reason why it seems like a
(39:32):
solid play. Steve Fezik his best bet the first five
and a half minutes no score and uh, I think
Brad you probably would agree with that. Yeah, no score
in the NFC Championship game between the Rams, and the Saints.
I'm sorry, thank you for clarifying that. Ye no score
in that one, and obviously I agree with that one.
I think you get conservative nests from the Rams on
a road game with golf, and on the other side,
(39:54):
I don't think the Saints are taking an early deep
shot down the field after that went all right last
week against the Eagles. My best bet very simply. I
like the over Sony Michelle seventy eight yards. I think
the Pats come out run power against that defense. Belichick
wants to play ball, control fuel position. I don't know
that he wants to get into a shootout tomorrow, but
I will tell you, Brady with his short art, his short,
(40:16):
high precision passing attack will open up running lanes for
Sony Michelle as well. I like Sonny Michelle over seventy
eight yards. Brad, Thanks so much for coming in tonight, Sleepy,
Thanks for everything you do. Folks. That is going to
do it for tonight's this week's edition, straight out of Vegas,
this Saturday weekend edition. But do me a favorite. Don't
(40:37):
go anywhere up next a man who was so formidable.
If emailed a letter without postage, it would still be delivered. YEP,
it's my man, the inimitable Jonas Knox Vegan. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
(40:58):
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live.
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