3 & Out - Jameis Winston and Cleveland Browns STUN Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers on TNF - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John middlecoff three and Now podcast. The Cleveland Browns upset

(00:24):
the Pittsburgh Steelers in a blizzard, in a driving snow storm.
Maybe I'm over hyping it. Maybe it's just snow, but
in my mind, that's a that's a blizzard so awesome.
Doesn't get much better for sitting on your couch and
your slippers, you know, drinking some hot cocoa. I was

(00:45):
actually drinking some red wine, but and just enjoying AFC
North football. That was bad. As props to the Browns fans,
We'll dive into the game some of the Pittsburgh Steelers
coaching decisions down the stretch, which I, you know, I
think cost him the game. I do want to hit
on Daniel Jones basically gave a speech today acknowledging his

(01:08):
career with the Giants is over and the Jets. Some
stories are coming out on the Athletic about Woody Johnson,
and you know a lot of people think Joe Douglas
is leaking it. So we'll dive into those as well.
And you know, it's Fugazi Friday, so we got some
fugazi's out there. I see Netflix has a class action
lawsuit against it for Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, you got

(01:31):
the Sixers who might win ten games this season, and
there was something else which I'll get to a little later,
as well as Stuckey, who joins us every Thursday. So
Stucky will join us to talk about some of the
games this weekend on Sunday, as well as the big
college football game Indiana thirteen point dog against the Ohio

(01:53):
State Buckeyes. Can Kurt Signetti upset Ohio State. Only time
will tell, but we'll discuss that game from a gambling perspective.
Other than that, make sure you subscribe to three and
Out if you listen on Collins Feed the YouTube page,
go subscribe to that as well. And other than that,
let's talk some ball. But first you can go to

(02:15):
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(03:21):
dive into the actual game, I just want to tip
my hat and give a standing ovation to the Browns fans.
Obviously that game. If you don't live in an area
where there's frigid cold temperatures like the Midwest or the Northeast,
it is an extremely cool event to watch a snow

(03:42):
game like that. For those of us that grew up
on the West coast, when we wanted to go to
the snow, we had to get into our car and
drive several hours to a place called Lake Tahoe. I
think in my eighteen years of growing up in the
Sacramento area, I think it snowed one time for like
two hours, and it was really really big deal. And
then having lived in Philly and live in some of

(04:03):
these cities where it snows, it's a different way of life.
And I was thinking this watching the game that I listen.
I love football. If you're listening to this, you probably
love football. I really think you know. And you just
look around this country. It's hard to fake when you
really really give a shit. Like it's pretty obvious in
the South how much they care about college football. It's

(04:26):
pretty obvious when you go to some of these big
cities how much they care about like their food scene.
You can't fake being two to eight and having a
season from hell, having your team be a joke again
after it, you know, Stefanski helped resurrect it these last
three or four years, be completely out of it, be
a feel like a hopeless franchise because you have this
quarterback with a torn achilles who's going to take up

(04:48):
a bunch of your cap space and to pack that
house to be against. And I understand it's a division
rival and it's a big deal for the game, but
to treat that game. If you didn't know any better
and you didn't follow the NFL and you just turned
on that game and you didn't know records, you would
think that was like a winner get into the playoff
level environment. So props to Endlesten. I. I have so

(05:10):
much admiration for fans that, like, it's easy to be
a Yankee fan. Like, ultimately you just complain, oh we
got knocked out again in the wild card round, Oh
we didn't make it to the World Series, or we
haven't won the World Series in fifteen years, you're still
good all the time. If you're of a certain age
and you're a Browns fan. One the team left you

(05:32):
once upon a time, and two for most of the
Internet era, your team hasn't just been bad, they've been
an embarrassment. And you watch that tonight and you just go,
that is awesome. And so many of these places, especially
in the Midwest, have just such a special powerful fan
base and Obviously, the you know, the vibe of the

(05:54):
snow game is a unique viewing experience. I can't even
imagine trying to play in that, especially at the NFL level,
where you know, in high school football whatever, you can
have a little fun, but these games really matter if
you're the Pittsburgh Steelers and you can barely, you know,
grip the ball, you can barely pivot and turn and

(06:15):
change direction. But the fans man that place was rocking,
and just props to every fan that was there for
making that a pretty awesome viewing experience. Now dive into
the game, it's hard to truly like nitpick plays right,
especially once the second half. The Steelers were awful on offense.
In the first half, they scored three points. You started wondering, like,

(06:39):
are they gonna be able to score a touchdown again?
And then obviously the weather was turning. You're like, they
are screwed. They're down eighteen to six going into the
fourth quarter. Jamis goes viral before the game even starts.
He has an incredible touchdown where he jumps into the
end zone. He has several other plays that easily could
have got caught. It was just because of the environment

(07:01):
I mean the Steelers were getting out played, outclassed and
kind of getting worked, and then Russell Wilson, I mean,
has one of his finest I would say couple drive
performances so far as a Steeler, especially when you factor
in playing an unreal a defense that's playing at a
high level, you know, playing what I think it's fair
to say the most talented defensive player in the NFL,

(07:24):
Miles Garrett, and a couple times he hit Russell so
hard and he just elevated, I mean he crunched him.
And I was thinking about this and when I scouted
for Philadelphia, like I'm born and raised in the West Coast,
I don't. I mean, it gets kind of cold in
northern California, like fifty degrees. You got to put on

(07:44):
a jacket. But I had never experienced like people in
the Midwest or people in the Northeast that have that
second coat, Like we've always just needed one coat, right,
like a jacket or a pullover. But when you live
in those type environments, you put on your normal warm
weather clothes and then you put on that long ass jacket,

(08:04):
and then you realize when you're around the football team
how difficult it is to play in these conditions, the wind,
how cold it is, it's just a different level of
mental toughness and scouting defensive players in that environment. You know,
regardless who you get, whether you play in a dome
or whether you play outside, most defensive players translate, right,

(08:26):
Like Miles Garrett could play in cold weather, warm weather,
it doesn't matter. Same thing with Jared Verse or Nick Bosa.
You could easily put them in Philadelphia, New England. They'd
be fine. Aaron Donald it doesn't matter, but an offense
it does, especially with the quarterback. And when you scout
in that environment, it's like the Steelers really drafted Kenny

(08:46):
Pickett to play in the AFC North. That is insanity,
and then you watch what they got. Like Russell Wilson
played for a decade in Seattle, which doesn't get the
snowstorms like that, but it's very cold, very windy, and
obviously very wet. So he's used to playing in inclement conditions.
And then their backup quarterback, you know, once he transferred

(09:08):
to Ohio State, then played early on in his NFL
career in Chicago, so they are comfortable playing in that environment.
And Russell like flipped a switch in the fourth quarter
led two touchdown drives and you're like, the Steelers are
going to win this game, and it is going to
be a fantastic victory, and one thing a couple times
and listen, like, I'm not opposed to doing this, especially

(09:30):
in that game. Bringing in Justin Fields. They've done it
now two or three weeks in a row, and running
some of the zone read, getting the ball in his
hands and let him use his explosive athleticism. And tonight
he busted out a big run, but he was also
stuffed on a fourth down. And I do think if
you're gonna keep doing that, you're gonna have to implement

(09:52):
some passes. So at least the defense, if it's third
and short or fourth and short, has to honor the pass.
I do believe that I wrote that down in my
notes while the game was going. But I also think
there's a time in a place, and there was under
four minutes. The Steelers had the ball. If they got
a first down, they couldn't have run out the clock
because the brown still had timeouts, but they definitely could

(10:13):
have dictated more of the terms of the game, and
they put Justin Fields in in a situation in which
they'd put him in earlier, but they have him throw
the ball and it wasn't like a high percentage throw.
It was a deep bomb down the left side to
George Pickens that wasn't really remotely close to being completed.

(10:34):
And listen, you can question Russell Wilson just like how
good is he relative to how good he used to be?
You know tonight he still makes some of those great
lollipop throws. He actually hit some slant routes throughout the game.
To me, the most impressive part about tonight was like
his toughness in how like unfhazed he was by getting
peppered by their defensive line and linebackers. He just kept

(10:55):
getting up like it's like, goddamn, this guy's really uh,
you know, showing out for Pittsburgh Steeler and Pittsburgh Steeler football,
Like this is the type guy they like. He probably
earned a lot of respect tonight. His best throw is
that pass down the sideline. So if you are going
to call that play in that spot under four minutes,
when you have a one point lead in this crazy

(11:17):
ass game, have the better quarterback in terms of throwing
the ball, throw that ball. It made no sense in
that spot. So then you got a punt, the punter
shanks the punt, and they get into this weird situation
on third and two where they call it great blitz.
Patrick Queen crushes Jamis. Jamis desperation gets rid of it

(11:41):
and they get a penalty. Luckily, they avoid, you know,
intentional grounding, and they get the illegal alignment touching the ball,
and there's a lot of like what no one knew
what was going on. And essentially, if I was Mike Tomlin,
I would not have accepted the penalty because if you
make them instead of going fourth and two, you'd give
him third and seven. Well, they get two plays. Then

(12:04):
if you go fourth and two, one they got to choose.
Are they gonna try to kick a forty three to
forty four yard field goal? Clearly they probably weren't. It
was into the wind, into the snow, they would go
for it. Well, the unit you rely on the most
if you are going anywhere this season, obviously you're gonna
need Russell to play at high level. It's going to
be because of your defense. It's not gonna be some

(12:25):
offense scoring twenty five plus points. That's not the way
you play. Whether it's a blizzard or not a blizzard.
So I didn't like that decision. And then he fucking
calls the time out after they are all discombobulated and
he only had two of them at the time, and
he blows one in that situation, and obviously a couple
of plays later they score and then they get the
ball back with fifty five seconds and they only got

(12:47):
one time out. It made no sense if I was
a Steeler fan, like, it's hard for me to judge
like play calling, Like, you know, why didn't we run
more quick game? Why didn't we It's a difficult spot
to be in a blizzard. So I'm not nitpicking. You're like,
why did we run so many off tackle runs? Like

(13:08):
it's hard, but there were two specific moments where there
is no avoiding And listen, Mike Tomlin has had an
incredible season. I mean, at one point in time when
they take the lead, you're like, listen, it's hard. Coach
of the year. There's four or five guys that you
could make a legit argument for, but this has got
to be one of Tomlin's great achievements. Nine and two

(13:29):
with its justin fields Russell Wilson situation, geez, how do
you do that? How many people, even Steeler fans, would
have believed at the beginning of the season, when it
looked like they were gonna win this game, they would
be nine and two going into Thanksgiving Week. There is
a Steeler fan alive that wouldn't have signed up for that,

(13:50):
and most of us humans would have been like, listen,
I was wrong on the Steelers even at eight and three,
but I never thought they would be eight and three.
I thought, you know, probably like a middling five hundred team.
Maybe little underd is gonna get weird. So he's done
an incredible job, but those two moments, and I understand
he's not the offensive play caller, but I'm sorry in
that spot, I gotta be on the headset if I'm

(14:12):
Tomlin telling Arthur Smith we got to win or lose
this game. With Russell Wilson, I think at the time
he was eighteen of twenty two. Think he ended up
finishing like twenty to twenty seven or something. I just
can't believe they had justin fields throw it in that spot.
It made no sense. And the blowing the time out,
I guess maybe you were discombobulated on defense or whatever,

(14:36):
but there's nothing worse than blowing a timeout and then
giving up an immedia first down. It was just like
that couldn't have been any worse. And then ultimately at
the end of the game, it was a huge swing
moment for not having, you know, an extra time out.
They only had one, and it really limited what they
could do on that final drive because they had to
hurry up to the line after I think they're one

(14:58):
of their first plays to friar move to try to
get off another play because they wanted to kind of
like have their cake and eat it too, because they
wanted to use the time out a little bit later. Well,
if they had two, they could have called it right
there and preserved a bunch of times. So listen, I'm
not like acting like he sucks or it's just some
devastating big picture move. But like, listen, they had a

(15:22):
two game cushion, they had the lead and the coaching
staff which has been really good tonight. I thought kind
of fucked the Steelers in this spot with the Justin
Fields throw and then that time out, And I also
think they got lucky that. Like if I was Stefanski,
I would not have had Nick Chubb or my running backs,
like we're getting down at the one or two now,
you can say in the blizzard kickings a little worrisome.

(15:45):
But even Kirk Herbstreet said, like, listen, as someone that's
born and raised in Ohio and been watching the Browns
my whole life, seeing that fifty plus seconds on the
clock was pretty nerve wracking. But you know, props to
jamis a very very fun game to Miles Garrett for
still playing his ass off. That's the thing about the NFL.
We talk about it all the time. In these primetime games,

(16:08):
especially divisional matchups. You got to throw the record out
the window because one, the Browns have a lot of
dudes that live in big ass houses and drive range
rovers as well. And two, like you have pride. You know,
everyone in the league, everyone in the country that watches
football is watching you play. It's why we see and listen.

(16:29):
Thursday nights are weird. You know, short week you got
a huge advantage being the home team later in the season, right,
your bodies are really kind of beaten down. But we
see these upsets on Thursday night and Monday nights in
November and December every single year. Relative to the records,
and you just got to throw it out. Now, I listen,

(16:49):
once you saw the weather, obviously, the game kind of
like all the advantages gets neutralized a little bit given
the field conditions and turning and passing is difficult. But
the Browns out executed him, out coached them down the
stretch period, point blank, end of story and what to
see how this plays out. They still got the one

(17:10):
game lead over Baltimore. But if the Steelers end up
not winning the division, if I was a Steeler fan,
it'd be difficult for me to forget the last three
or four minutes of this game, because they really had
an opportunity to be nine to two and be on
the fast track down the end of this season to like,

(17:30):
who knows, maybe you have a seat, you know, a
two or three seed wrapped up by that final week
and you can rest everybody going into the you know,
wild card weekend. And now you know that this loss
could come down to haunt them. And we said this
about the the the Browns. Isn't it crazy that when
Deshaun like, is there any doubt that the Browns lose

(17:54):
the Ravens game and lose the Steeler game? If Deshaun
Watson doesn't hurt his achilles and Jamis doesn't play. I mean,
how many guys and listen, it's not like they've won
a lot of games, but if you just watch him play,
how much more competitive they are on a weekly basis
With Jameis Winston. I mean, he looks like John Elway
relative to de Shaun Watson. So props the Browns, props

(18:15):
to Stefanski. Appreciate Stefanski as well. You know, younger guy,
but you know this isn't college, you're not recruiting. You
don't need to die your beard. Just let it be natural.
He's got the Grays going. Obviously a lot of stress
with the Jimmy Haslam, you know, hanging over peeking into
his office probably twenty four hours a day. It can't
be easy. But that was a nice win. So even
if you're having the season from hell, you get at home,

(18:38):
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Speaker 1 (20:21):
Okay, I wanted to go to New York football. And
there's a lot going on right now with the Giants
and the Jets. None of it good. Both teams, I guess,
simply put, stink and they're terrible at football, which is
a problem given that they are football teams. So it's
not good. The Giants, you could argue, are even worse

(20:42):
than the Jets. It's really really ugly with both franchise.
But I wanted to start with the Giants because Daniel
Jones today addressed the press, the media, the people that
cover the team and essential he said his goodbyes, which

(21:02):
some would say, we why is he doing this now? Well,
I obviously everyone knows by now if you fall football.
Daniel Jones has been benched. But he hasn't just been benched.
He's been made the third string quarterback. Basically acknowledging he's
never going to play another snap for the Giants ever. Again,
this move was made for financial reasons. They don't want
him to get injured and all them twenty three million dollars,

(21:24):
So they don't make them the backup because you're just
one snap away. You make them the third string. That
the game plan would be for him never to play
again for the New York Giants, And I think it's
unless there's a complete disaster, multiple people got hurt and
he's got to go in as an emergency quarterback. He's
never ever going to take a snap again for the
New York Giants. But I think when you listen to
Daniel Jones speak about his situation, it reminds me of

(21:49):
something I learned a long time ago when it came
to scouting and why it's so much different than most
of our businesses. Well, let's just let's take a listen
to Daniel Jones kind of go on a you know,
over a minute rant about his goodbyes and him acknowledging
that he's the blame or played a big part in
the failures that was this season and how his career

(22:12):
is basically coming to it as a New York Giant, all.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
Right, wrote something down just to make sure I say
the right way. Let's see, the opportunity to play for
the New York Giants was truly a dream come true,
and I'm extremely grateful to the Mare and Tisch families
for the chance to play here. The Giants are truly
a first class organization, and I have nothing but genuine
respect and appreciation for the people who have built it
and who helped carry on that tradition. I've met so

(22:37):
many special people and created relationships that will truly last
a lifetime. Thank you to all my teammates, coaches, and
staff that have done so much for me these past
six years.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
There have been some.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Great times, but of course we all wish there'd been
more of those. I take full responsibility for my part
and not bringing more wins. No one wanted to win
those win more games worse than me, and I gave
everything I had on the field and in my preparation.
Of course, this season has been disappointing for all, and
of course I wish I could have done more.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
I'm one hundred percent accountable for my part. I did
not play well. I did not play well.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Enough consistently enough to help the team get the results.
The reality of the NFL is it's hard to win
games and requires consistent performance from everyone involved. We didn't
do that well enough, so the idea to change something happens,
and I understand.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
I love the game, I love being part of a team.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
I'm excited for the next opportunity and know that there's
a lot of good football in front of me, and
I'm excited about that. To all the fans, I have
deep respect and appreciation for your passion and love for
the Giants. The fans are a huge part of what
makes playing for the Giants so special.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
One thing I was taught early on when I was
scouting college players is to always evaluate the player before
you got the character information. Because if you got the
character information first and it was a guy that just

(24:08):
was really impressive, stood for everything that you would want
in a player that you'd want to pound the table for,
because of his work ethic, because of his love of football,
because maybe what he's overcome in his personal life, in
his family life, his background and where he started and
where he's at now, maybe it's just the leadership that

(24:31):
he possesses in that program. Whatever it may be, can
cloud your judgment once you get that information and then
once you turn on the tape. And it can also
work in the reverse. If you get the character information
before you watch the player and it's really bad and
I mean just stuff that might be non negotiables for

(24:53):
you or your organization, and then you watch the player
and he's pretty good, it can also cloud your judgment
the wrong way. So ideally, you watch the player without
any information about the guy, and you just evaluate the player.
Then you get all the off the field information and
you separate that in your report, which you would anyway,

(25:15):
but your evaluation on the field, which obviously is the
most important thing in the business of football, is separate.
And it's just strictly can the guy play, can he not?
Does he fit your team or does he not? Nothing
involved with how he is as a guy. And I
think Daniel Jones is a perfect example of when you

(25:37):
let the character cloud your judgment on the player, because
when we listen to Daniel Jones talk, I mean, this
has got to be one of the most embarrassing moments
of his professional life. He's a third stringer while he's
making forty million dollars a year, the best player on
the team. Dexter Lawrence has been outspoken how he doesn't

(25:59):
agree with the desame I saw. Brian Daball had to
come out today and say, like, I respect Dexter Lawrence,
Obviously we love him here, but sometimes we're going to disagree.
And clearly this decision was made for financial reasons, but
also acknowledging Daniel Jones stinks. He can't be our starting
quarterback anymore and we can't risk him getting hurt while
we are losing, so we gotta pay him twenty three

(26:19):
million dollars next year. Well, when you listen to Daniel
Jones talk, you got pretty impressive individual. You know why,
because he is. He's really outside of the game of football.
Everything you would want from a work ethic standpoint, clearly
from an in the locker room leadership, get along with

(26:41):
the teammates and be a good guy standpoint. You never
when you lay your head down at night as a GM,
as a coach, as an owner. He is probably the
last guy on your fifty three man roster that you
were worried about getting a call in the middle of
the night. He got in trouble and that matters. It

(27:01):
really does. Especially at the quarterback position. He looks the part.
He's clearly an intelligent guy coming from Duke. Honestly, if
you drew up a quarterback, not on the field, but
just in terms of height, athleticism, you know, intangibles, intelligence
like he would check a lot of boxes. The problem

(27:22):
is he's not very good at football. And in most
of our industries, I'm a good example of this. When
people took chances on me, whether it be in college football,
whether it was in the NFL early on in my
career talking for a living, it was because they just
kind of bet on the guy. It was hard for

(27:42):
me to prove quote unquote was I talented enough could
I get the job done? But like a lot of
people listening, someone just went, this kid's hungry, this guy
wants it. I'm taking a chance. Rights. That's why most
of us, whether you run a company, whether you run

(28:02):
a business, whether you're in charge of hiring, why a
lot of people take chances on people. You're just kind
of betting on the person. Obviously, there are some industries
where you have to have, you know, a level of
a resume in that field, whether it's a doctor, medical degree,
a lawyer. You know a lot agree, But for a
lot of us in the private sector, it's like, I
just believe in this guy and we will help teach

(28:25):
him and figure out how to produce and set industry.
That is not the case in football, especially at the
quarterback position. Obviously betting on the person matters. Most of
the top quarterbacks, really, all the top quarterbacks are clearly
really good guys in the NFL right now, and check
all the boxes off the field, Mahomes, Alan Lamar, Herbert Burrow, right,

(28:51):
the old guy who can still play Stafford even some
of the guys that have turned their careers around. Clearly
Kyler Murray has matured a lot like that's not really
debatable at this time. A couple of years ago, a
lot of question marks has really grown up. We'll let's
use him as an example, even early on in his
career when I mean, if the worst thing you have

(29:12):
is you're playing too much video games, like there could
be worse problems to have, But why did they ultimately like, listen,
we need you to play less video games, but here's
your contract. Because he was a freak talent. He's faster
than every guy when he steps on the field. He
has a massive arm. Despite being five to nine, he
can play at an elite level in the NFL. No

(29:36):
one has ever disputed his physical characteristics or his ability
to play football at a high level going back to
college when he transferred to Oklahoma and dominated so in
the NFL. Character matters, and when you have the talent,
all that intangible stuff, it can help separate you. I've

(29:59):
seen like with the forty nine ers, for example, George Kittle,
fifth round pick, but he's six foot four, six foot three.
He's one of the faster tight ends in the NFL.
He's one of the stronger tight ends in the NFL.
He loves football, his work ethics great. It's not shocking
looking back why he became a great player, but his

(30:21):
physical characteristics on top of the intangibles, helped him separate.
Daniel Jones checks every box off the field, but on
the field he lacks a lot of them. He can't
throw the ball down the field. His decision making is
more than questionable. Honestly, for being a really smart guy,

(30:44):
I think he plays kind of dumb. And in scouting,
you have to be very careful about betting on the
guy when they're not a good enough player. Just like
you have to be very careful and betting against the
guy when they're an elite player. Why because young people mature,

(31:05):
Because people turn around their life. Because sometimes at twenty two,
twenty three, twenty four, you do dumb shit and you're
not a bad guy. Some people are bad guys. Like,
we don't live in some utopian society. No matter how
much some people in the media believe that that's what
ultimately this world can be. That's not going to be
the case. It never will be. Some people are just

(31:26):
awful people for whatever reason. I don't know why. We
all have different stories, but we've all The longer you live,
the more you realize, like, yeah, some people are just
not good people. But some people do something dumb when
they're young, and then immediately, like you look back ten
years later in their NFL career and they're off half
the draft boards and they're like, God, that's a really

(31:46):
impressive guy. It's like, well, yeah, turned his life around.
I think the best example is like Tyrone Matthew was
kicked out of college at LSU. He clearly, you know,
had some issues with authority and I'm not even ultimately
smoking synthetic weed. Who gives a shit. Now, at the
time it was a much bigger deal. But you don't
just get kicked off the team like there was some

(32:07):
stuff going on. And then he became the team captain
for literally every team he's ever played for, and it's
gonna go down as like one of the great leaders
for every guy that he ever played with. I'm just
using him as an example because if you got his
character going into LSU and you gave it to your
GM and your head coach, I bet a lot of
people did not have him on the draft board. Where

(32:30):
Yet in the draft meeting, when you're talking about guys
like Daniel Jones, it's so easy to be like, this
is the type guy we want, this is the type
person you want to have in your building. Yet in
the second half on a Sunday night football game, when
you're playing a top five defense and he's getting his
ass kick because he's completely overwhelmed, that stuff doesn't matter.

(32:51):
And that to me is the difference at the highest
level of a business like football than a lot of ours,
where you can take a young guy and mold him
over time. Doesn't work that way in football because if
you're just simply not good enough. You can't overcome that,
especially at the quarterback position. And we go back to

(33:12):
when the Giants drafted him at number six. It was
insane because a guy with his talent level should never
be drafted in the first round. I've been saying this
forever about like the mac Jones version of player. Those
guys aren't first round talents. They should go in the
third and the fourth round. Daniel Jones in a perfect

(33:35):
world like good backup, and you know what, there's nothing
wrong with that. I was did a golf shoot yesterday
with my guy Luis, who's a good example. Like I
didn't know that much about him. Someone told me about him.
He's young, he's like twenty three, twenty four years old,
he's in the video business. Took a shot on him.
He's good. I'm betting on the guy. Obviously, he has

(33:58):
to have skills in the ed skills and he's got
a lot of them. But you just kind of betting
on the person. And going back to these quarterbacks to
get overdrafted, it's like they don't have the physical skills.
No matter how good of people they are, they're just
not good enough. And I think sometimes we get overwhelmed.

(34:23):
You know owners and gms by people, and it gets
them in these situations why they constantly lose. And I'm
not acting like you just need to get a team
full of idiots and slappies that are great players. Obviously,
character matters. Chiefs have won three Super Bowls in five years.
Their team is full of high level guys. As a

(34:45):
buddy told me within the last couple of months, that
works for the Chiefs. He's like Karlovskis and McDuffie are like,
it just doesn't get any better football character. So obviously
they have drafted really well and Chris Jones, Homes and
Kelsey's careers speak for themselves. The Patriots for twenty years,

(35:06):
for the most part, had I would call overachievers. I mean,
obviously they had a lot of talent, but they a
lot of their starters I think would fall under the
bucket of overachievers. Julian Edelman's a good example, but he
was still damn good at football. And the Giants found
themselves in this situation because they doubled down on a

(35:31):
player who simply wasn't good enough because he was a
great human being. Now, speaking of questionable human beings, everyone
is shitting on Woody Johnson. He is getting destroyed. An
article came out in The Athletic about this meeting that
he had. You know, obviously, Joe Douglas gets fired, and

(35:51):
then all these you know, stories get leaked and a
lot of people think that it's probably Joe Douglas telling
I also think that there's a chance that Diane or
Russini whoever had this information for a while. Once everyone
gets fired, you might as well just let it rip.
I'm not going to defend Woody Johnson for being a
good owner. He's not. His resume of hiring people of

(36:14):
dysfunction kind of speaks for itself. But I also think
you can go to the other side of the coin
and go, well, if I was in his shoes after
we lost ten to nine at home to the Denver Broncos,
I probably wouldn't be happy either. And I don't think
calling a meeting with your coordinators and coaches is that crazy. Now.

(36:40):
I also understand that should you have a meeting every
single Monday, if you're an owner with your head coach,
probably could be a little tedious. And let's face it,
guys like Andy Reid, John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh Kyle Shanahan,
Sean McVay ain't meeting with their owner every Monday. But
I also think if I'm Woody Johnson and I didn't

(37:03):
hire Robert Sala and Joe Douglas like coming into the season,
I don't think it's crazy to think are these guys
good at their job? I get Listen. I know a
lot of people with the Eagles that worked for Joe Douglas.
Most people really like him, think he's pretty impressive. He
also drafted Zack Wilson number two overall instead it's one

(37:26):
of the best workouts he's ever seen. Zack Wilson is
currently a third string quarterback in year four of his career.
He then doubled down on trading for Aaron Rodgers, who
the majority of the NFL wasn't interested in, and the
Green Bay Packers kind of fleeced him. Like that happened. Now,

(37:49):
did he draft some good players? Of course he did,
but he made some devastating moves when it came to
the quarterback. He also is the guy that hired Robertson,
who like Joe Douglas. I've never heard anyone say a
bad word about Robert Sala. The guy people really really
like Robert sala his players, the coaches, people in the

(38:13):
forty nine ers front office. Robert Sala is really well liked.
Was he a good coach? Did he have any clue
what he was doing? Yes, he's a good defensive coordinator.
We know that he was with the forty nine Ers
the defenses were good. With the Jets, he wasn't the
Jets defensive coordinator. He was the head coach and the

(38:35):
team sucked. So him firing these two guys, Listen, is
firing your head coach and then six weeks later firing
your GM while they're still seven games to go in
the season. Bizarre, weird, dysfunctional. Of course it is. It's
a head scratcher. I'm not acting like the Jets owner

(38:58):
as someone I would bet on if they were stock.
But I do think we have this narrative going on
right now that Woody is the reason everything failed. I
think this team failed because the head coach and the
GM sucked. Now there are also reports of he wanted
Aaron Rodgers bench, or Woody Johnson said that in the

(39:19):
meeting and then under their breath the coaches laughed or
whatever I would imagine, and Belichick hit on this a
couple of weeks ago. Owners say crazy shit, of course
they do. Fans say crazy shit. I say crazy shit
all the time. Ultimately, he wasn't benched, And two they
traded a couple weeks later for the guy's best friend

(39:43):
where it's also been reported that Joe Douglas and the
Jets didn't really want to do that wood. He did it.
So I just think this whole thing is, why can't
we just acknowledge this wood? He not a great owner.
Joe Douglas average at best general manager, doesn't have a

(40:05):
great idea when it comes to quarterbacks, which, okay, he
can find Sauce Gardener. Think about his two best picks,
Sauce Gardener and Garrett Wilson. It's like, geez, he found
that guy in the third round. Oh damn, he found
Garrett Wilson the fifth.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
No.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Actually, uh, Sauce was the fourth overall pick and Garrett
Wilson was picked ten. So your two best picks were
in the top ten. Oh, Breeze Hall is really good too.
Where'd he go the sixth? No, we got him at
the top of the second If your three best picks
are all really high picks like great. I hope you

(40:43):
hit on some guys high in the draft, Like, isn't
that your job? What about everybody else? And part of
hiring good coaches, Like we talk about this as a
GM a lot too. Your job is a draft? How
about the draft? How about the draft? Your job is
so much more than the fucking draft. The two most

(41:05):
important things you will ever do, And you could argue
they go hand in hand. Who you hire as your
coach and who you sign draft acquire as your quarterback.
Joe Douglass hired Robert Salap, who you never say never,
he's young, is not going to be a head coach
in the NFL for the foreseeable future. He drafted Zach Wilson,

(41:30):
who probably out of the league in a couple of years,
and Aaron Rodgers, who it's probably fifty to fifty if
he ever plays a game after twenty twenty four. So
I think, just objectively speaking, we'd have to go he's
not very good, right, He's not very good? And Robert

(41:51):
sala Like everyone, it's so easy to just crush the
crazy owner, which I understand. If I was a fan,
I'd be like, we can fire everybody in the building.
We're stuck with that guy. It sucks. But I also
see a lot of people in the media like giving
these other two guys a pass, you know, like acting

(42:14):
like they were given the autonomy for a long period
of time to kind of do whatever they wanted to
do and they didn't get it right now, big picture,
all these stories doesn't help their ability to go hire people,
of course not do I think top candidates are going
to be interested. Yes, it's gonna be difficult. That's why
I think Rex Ryan, who desperately wants to come back

(42:36):
and who's already buddies with the you know, Woody Johnson
is the most I would say, uh, I would say
he has the best possibility of being a candidate that
like makes sense for everyone involved. One. He has a
resume of like kind of knows what he's doing. He
has success as a head coach with the Jets. Obviously

(42:59):
you're gonna need some one to you know, it's going
to be very very difficult for them to hire some
no name coordinator and feel.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Good about it.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
And this is probably a job where you want someone
that knows what they're doing, that has some experience. I
think he makes a lot of sense. But man, I
just some of these conversations that are being had, like
it's it's Woody coaching the team, or Woody Johnson was
the one pounding the table for Zach Wilson. I don't know, man,

(43:31):
Like I say the same thing about the Raiders all
the time. Are do the Raiders have good ownership? Of
course not. They have been a disaster under Mark Davis,
a disaster. But he's not coaching the team. He's not
the guy calling the defensive coverages for the last ten years.
He's not the guy running this offense. Does he hire

(43:55):
the wrong people? Of course, but those people that he
hires are clearly completely over their head. San Antonio be
the coach? Probably not. He's not any good. Is he
gonna get fired? A lot of people in the league
think he's going to. Is it Mark Davis's fault that
he like listened to some of his star players? I
don't know. I mean, I think being an owner for
these teams, like did how much credit? Obviously Robert Craft

(44:19):
really liked Bill Belichick when he was an assistant coach
for him, Not in a million years. When that thing
happened with the Jets and he became the head coach,
of the Patriots that Robert Craft ever thought he would
have six Super Bowls. There's always an element of luck
when you hire these people. Now he identified them, he
liked them, But like, I just think sometimes you know,

(44:45):
as an owner, hiring people like it's kind of a
gut feel, and a lot of times in this profession,
probably more than a lot, they speak a language. They
speak Chinese and you speak Spanish. You ants speak football.
You don't know the plays, you don't really understand scheme
no one does. Interviewing Brian d a Ball and interviewing

(45:10):
Ben Johnson, interviewing whoever and having them talk intricate football
thoughts are just going to go over your head no
matter how smart of a guy you are. Look at
David Tepper, He's one of the greatest businessmen in his
field in the history of finance. He has no clue

(45:32):
what he's doing. Why because he can't hire the right people,
because unlike hiring some trader or a CFO or a
chief marketing guy, hiring a football coach or a GM
has no parallels to anything he's gonna know. So I
guess he's a long winded way of saying of like

(45:52):
you just got to hire someone and hope you get
it right, you know, and you could say some people
get it right more often than not. Clearly the Rooneys
have a good gut instinct. But like and they get
credit from hiring Mike Tomlin, but they would over cocktails
have to be the first to acknowledge that. Like listen,
we really liked him. He blew us away in the interview.

(46:13):
We never thought he was gonna be this good. I mean,
clearly the Rams really like Sean McVay. He's a smart guy, young, hungry,
full of energy, looks the part you know, ten percent
body fat would run through a wall, comes from a
football family. Everyone saying his praises, so we just kind
of bet on the guy. It's clearly gone a way

(46:34):
better than even they would have acknowledged at the time.
Like they would never have said, like, this guy is
gonna lead us to a super Bowl and go to another.
You would never say that at the moment you hired him,
because every time that you think that, turns out the
guy is gonna be Joe Judge. There's just a randomness
to this all. That's what makes it so fun. You know,

(46:56):
it's Fugazi Friday and there's a lot going on right
now with Fugazi Friday. I just want to do a
rapid fire because there's a couple of things I want
to hit on. First, there's a class action lawsuit right
now against Netflix for the Jake Paul fight, and you know,

(47:17):
the streaming issues, the whole thing, And it just shows
you that you can literally file a lawsuit for anything,
because we talked about this earlier in the week. If
you are one, it's just a classic money grab. You're
going after this multi billion dollar company hoping to get
a settlement. I hope you lose because no one forced

(47:41):
you to watch that. And One, it was essentially free
given that the overwhelming majority of people I guess not
majority of people, but a large percentage of people in
this country have Netflix. It's not a pay per view event,
and you did not have to watch it. But if
you were to get part of a class action lawsuit

(48:01):
against Netflix, I guess this is the best way to
give my opinion on this. I think you're a loser.
I think, deep down you are a massive, massive loser. Two,
I was I saw today that Pat McAfee had on
this young quarterback in high school who I guess a

(48:22):
five star kid from Georgia who had offers from everybody,
and he was making his commitment on McAfee show and
he chose and it was Colorado. Did a pretty cool
video of Shador handing him the keys that he's going
to Colorado, and I was thinking about what giants, Fugazi.

(48:44):
These commitments in college football are now if you're a
fan of that team, Because before if you've got a
commitment and the guy signed with your team and come
either he's an early enroller or he's going to come
in the summer, there was like a five percent chance
that guy was going to be in your program as

(49:04):
long as he played right, If he was a great player,
it might only be three years. For the overwhelming majority
of players, it would be four or five years. That
guy would be a Colorado Buffalo, a Nebraska Cornhusker, a
USC Trojan. He's not even guaranteed to be on your
team in twenty twenty five. I'll give you a couple scenarios.

(49:28):
If Dion were to leave to Colorado, he could transfer
to anywhere he wanted. If Dion were to leave to
program X to coach it next year, he would go
with him just like the star left tackle that was
one of the highest rated guys that currently is their

(49:49):
starting left tackle number seventy seven would also be gone.
So your team that you have right now of returners
and guys that are going to commit, if Dion leaves,
they're gone. They are all gone. So I think forever,
Like picking up a hat and making a commitment was

(50:12):
cool because like, damn, this guy's going to Oregon, his
kids going to Bama. I'll never forget when land In
Collins remember the safety pretty sure he's from Louisiana the
under Armour All American Game if I remember correctly, and
he had the LSU hat and the Alabama hat and
he picked up the Alabama hat where obviously he played

(50:33):
for Nick Saban and his mother was not very happy.
She wanted him to go to LSU well, and obviously
he just played his entire career. Yeah, like wherever you committed,
that's where you played. But now with the transfer portal,
none of that matters at all. Someone told me a
story recently about a kid that was an early enrolly

(50:55):
at you know, coming out of high school. So he's
an early enrollly basically instead of having your spring semester
in high school, you graduate early, and you're in that
program for spring practice, and he was in the transfer
portal after spring practice. Wasn't even technically a college freshman yet,
so to act like any of this means anything. Again,

(51:18):
the social media video was cool, Shador handed him the keys.
Travis Hunter said today, like I'm going to the NFL. Travis,
we knew that. But like, and I'm not a huge
recruiting guy, never really have been since leaving college football.
But anyone trying to act like these recruiting signings mean

(51:39):
much in twenty twenty four slash twenty five, I just
got to push back because it just doesn't. And then
I was also, I'm gonna end with this. The Sixers
being two and twelve is really really funny. And you know,
I think sometimes you know Joebi, who is the article,

(52:03):
and the story just came out that he was literally
late to practice and late to basketball related things. And
this is a man that cried several years ago after
losing and claimed recently as recently, probably within the last month,
maybe even less than that, that people talking shit. It's
bs because of everything he's done for the city of Philadelphia.

(52:27):
I am glad that the process, which I think started
a movement in the NBA that has definitely played a
part in the interest in the sport, which has been
diminished in terms of people watching the games dramatically. They've
lost a lot of the audience. I do think that

(52:48):
the Sixers were the most upfront about it. They fully
tanked that they are not alone. Other teams has done
it as well. They were the most i would say
aggressive multiple years, refusing to sign veteran players and just sucked.
And it's led to where they're at now currently two
and twelve, and I think I heard someone say they're

(53:08):
like plus, they're like two to one right now currently
to make the playoffs. I mean, this was a team
that people thought could win the NBA Finals. And I
think anytime where your number one goal, especially when it
comes to sports, is not everything we have to do
to win? What do we have to do to win?
And obviously, unlike football, in basketball and baseball, sometimes you're

(53:29):
cool with losing a game. You have eighty two games,
one hundred and sixty two games, like not every game matters.
That speaks true to when I was a kid and
Michael Jordan was playing eighty one games or eighty two games, right,
if he lost one, it wasn't the end of the world.
This is not football. But for a long period of time,
winning just was not important. And I think it's impossible

(53:51):
to flip the switch, right when things that matter always
kind of matter to those who are very serious about things.
And I think it's fair to say that the environment
that this organization I would say, raised their best player
in had a lot of things that didn't matter, and
now has manifested itself into some of his comments before

(54:16):
the season started. And that's the one thing I think
when you look at football and it's I mean, it's
always been popular, but it's separation and popularity that even
when teams really really suck. I think the thing is
why everyone makes fun of the Jets and Giants as
you're like, they're really trying, like the Cowboys Monday Night
Football against the Eagles, like they tried as hard as

(54:39):
humanly possible. They were not trying to lose that game.
They did not want to get blown out by the Eagles.
They were desperately trying to keep that thing close. Against
the Dexans, it just wasn't humanly possible for them to
do it yet. I think in basketball, you go, yeah,
this team didn't try for a long period of time,
and then they've acknowledged some games they'll just take off.

(55:00):
And I think that has a carryover effect. And I
think the Sixers have become one of the great examples
of one of the biggest fugazi's in the history of sports.
A lot of hype, a lot of talk, and not
much to show up for themselves. And I think Joel
Embiid is really the poster child of kind of the movement,

(55:22):
and it's kind of sad and embarrassing. Okay, back at
it again with my main man, Stucky from the Action Network.
You can find him on subscribe to his podcast Big
Bets on Campus. You can find him on the Action
Network podcast. You can find him on the YouTube streets

(55:44):
bullshitting about betting because that's what he does and he's
a man deep in it and knows a shit. And
he told me a pretty interesting stat about a team
that somehow he's still loyal to. I was very loyal
to them about halfway through the season. I had to
jump off. Your Titan stat was pretty interesting because you

(56:05):
watch them, you go, they're not terrible. I mean, they're
they're gonna end up with a top two or three
or four pick. But they have been more competitive than
some of these other teams. Like they're better right now
than this version of the Dallas Cowboys, or they're better
than the Tua List Dolphins, who are obviously two separate teams.
But we have seen some awful teams. I don't quite

(56:26):
put the Titans there. Their quarterback plays bad, but they
don't win and they also don't do something else.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
Yeah, they the Tens are one and nine against the spread.
They don't cover. That is a rarity in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
They haven't been a favorite in any game, right.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
They were a favorite against the Patriots. They should have
covered that game. I think they closed minus three and
a half and the Patriots scored on the last play
of the game, the fourth overtime, then they won by three.
I had them in that game minus three and a half. So, yeah,
they're one and nine against the spread. That rarely happens
NFL pretty official market. Like we're talking about against the
close closing line too, And the only other team to

(57:06):
do that over the past thirty years to be that
bad against the number through eleven weeks was the two
thousand and seven Ravens. I remember them well as the
Kyle Bowler Ravens. Last year of Brian Billock, they went
five and eleven. It was a bad team. That was
the year before bar Ball and Flacco ended up coming
to town. So, yeah, they rarely cover. I've been burned

(57:29):
by them a bunch. They get so unlucky in how
they don't cover too. I mean, this is going all
the way back to I had them Week one against
the Bears, catching four and a half and they were
up seventeen to nothing and the Bears covered without scoring
an offensive touchdown. They had a punt blocked, they had

(57:52):
Will Levis with a Asen nine throw. I mean, they've
they've found ways.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Last week I had had him in that as well
as the Jags money line against the Dolphins. That was
That was a rough start to the twenty twenty four season.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
Yeah, that was one of the worst NFL beats I've
ever had in my life. To not not only lose
that game out right, to not cover four and a
half was insane. You know that they've just found ways
to not cover. If they've been pretty on, like their
special teams have cost them a bunch.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
Of affairs to the Titans that week one game would
be like you going on date one with the girl
and she's like, I'm also a stripper. Like they told
you who they were, and they have pretty consistently kind
of rode that out. It's not like that was an
anomaly game in this one to nine experience. I mean
that was I think that game kind of sums up
their season, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (58:38):
Yeah, just but they've also had things like out of
their control that have cost them. And so I bet
them this week plus eight and a half against the Texans.
Shortly the Texans. I think it'll be a really low
scoring game. These are two slow paced teams. The Titans
defense is still good. They're playing really well. I mean,

(59:01):
if you look the past two weeks, they you know,
from a net from a yards per play perspective, they
outplayed the Vikings and the Chargers. They outgained both, held
him to under five yards per play. Not many people
probably saw the game last week against and I didn't
have any money on the Titans against the Vikings. Probably

(59:22):
the worst officiated game I've ever seen in my life.
I mean, I've never seen one team get royally screwed
over as much as the Titans did. I'm talking touchdowns
called back on illegal formations, a fourth down stop where
there was the worst rough unnecessary roughness call I've ever
seen on just like a shoulder to the chest ASD nine,

(59:43):
Like that was the worst officiated game I've seen. Calaham
was going ballistic on the sidelines the.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
Entire I saw I had the red zone on and
they flipped in on that game. He went nuts. Yeah,
I didn't know. I didn't know what I had it muted,
so I didn't quite know what he was getting mad at.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
I think that one that they showed was the fourth
down stop when they called it unnecessarily rough. That was
one of the worst calls I've ever seen in my life,
you know, so they were they should have covered that game.
Will Levis is playing better since he returned to the lineup.
He was also asked, like, have you seen any improvement
since returning for injury? He said, yeah, I haven't thrown

(01:00:18):
the ball underhand or chess passed it, so that's an improvement.
Uh So, I kind of like that comment for little
self deprecating humor. But he's he's around like twentieth and
adjusted EPA per play over the past two weeks, and
he's played the Vikings and Chargers, two really good defenses,
you know, and twentieth it's not great, but when he's

(01:00:39):
playing two really good defenses, and in the beginning of
the year he's one of the worst right at the bottom.
And over the past two weeks, Stroud is basically same
adjusted EPA per play as Lewis and he got to
play the Cowboys. This Texans offense, it's just broken right now.
And you know, I know that they had the blowout
win over Dallas. I think that had more to do
with Dallas than used to. And they can't block in

(01:01:02):
the interior at all. I mean their left guard position
in particular, just the turnstile. The kind of the head
of the snake of their offense right now is Joe Mixon.
And you know, they got Nico Collins back, which will help,
will probably provide a couple explosive plays, but Titans do
a really good job of limiting exposive plays. And the
Titans rundy is really good and the strength of that
defense is in the interior of the defensive line. Yeah,

(01:01:27):
so you know you have sweat and Simmons. They're going
to cause chaos against this Texans offense. Stroud has not
been great as a favorite this Texans team. They get
too conservative, the play calling isn't great. So I think
this will be really low scoring. Like Levis is going
to take sacks too. I mean, Lewis is basically playing
without a right tackle. The right tackle situation in Tennessee

(01:01:50):
is as bad as I've ever seen. Any petite ferrer
is a bust. They try to put him in and
they end up taking him out. They had this guy
Earnest for getting. You know, I forget not Ernest Jones,
but I forget his name. That he was hurt. He's terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
That's a crazy ass position switch.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
Yeah, last week they elevated the guy from the practice
squad and put him in there. He was so bad. So,
I mean, Levis is taking twelve sacks over the best
two games. He takes a lot of sacks. There's gonna
be a lot of negative plays in this game, not
a lot of explosive. I think it'd be lower scoring,
which gives more value to the dog And you know,
Titans defense I think will keep them in this game.

(01:02:28):
They're due to just get some breaks like not have
everything on special teams, not have everything go wrong with
the refs. These are both too heavily penalized teams, so
maybe that washes out. And yeah, I just think this
is too many points for a divisional game. I took
the Titans. It's scary though, but yeah, you rarely see this.
NFL is so efficient. You really seven one in nine

(01:02:49):
against the spread.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
While I was texting with the all Eyes here provided
by DraftKings On, one of my good buddies out in
Arizona actually works for them, and he's like, uh, you know,
takes care of some of their whales and VIP clients,
and he was like, yeah, we've had you know, it's
been a crazy year, right because there have been some
of these moments. It's why, like, as a better the

(01:03:10):
first thing I do when I'm getting ready to talk
to you or just kind of you know, look at
the board even earlier in the week is who the
Jets play. And obviously they're not playing this week, so
that's disappointing. But I think piggybacking off that we talked
about last week, you know, going all in on the Colts,
and it's one of the biggest bets I've made this season.
And I got to be honest with you, when I

(01:03:32):
was twenty four to sixteen and Anthony Richardson had had
this bad fumble on a delayed blitz, I was getting nervous.
Now the cream rises and we were proven right over time.
But one thing I've learned from you over the years
is those those teams that score like an enormous point
total the next week against the spread, and the Lions
have now done this twice, right, I mean, how many

(01:03:54):
teams in NFL history, or at least modern day NFL history,
have scored fifty two points twice in a season, let
alone basically twice in a month. I mean, it's it's
pretty unheard of. I don't give a shit who you're playing.
And obviously they did it to two of the worst
teams in the league. That is that's insane. But I
do think getting an enormous dog at home some momentum. Listen.

(01:04:17):
I was as critical and is out on Anthony Richardson
as anyone, but reading some of the quotes, and I
have a buddy who's you know, works for a team now,
but he's he's been a part of a team that won.
I think he's got like three or four rinks, and
he was like, you know, when the Anthony Richardson stuff happened,
He's like, I'll defend him a little bit. He's like,
if this was you know, Joe el Embi showing up late,

(01:04:38):
it's like, bro, you're thirty years old. It's like this
guy's twenty two. He's barely played. He's like, it's not
as crazy as I think people are making it out
to be. He's not doing this if like cause he's
a slap or malicious, Like I don't even think he
knows what he doesn't know. And then everything that's happened
in these two weeks, what's come out of Like maybe
it was an enormous wake up call for him, and

(01:05:00):
he led two of the best drives sucky I think
in his football playing career, not just like this year.
I'm talking ever, because he hasn't played that much. So
they got a little momentum, they got a little life. Also,
you know, you just historically just short teams like the Lions,
not I don't know if they're gonna lose this game,
but getting over a touchdown coming off that win that

(01:05:22):
they got another big injury. I do defend Dan Campbell, like,
this is not the NBA or even baseball, where you
can just you only have so many guys dressed on
game day. I can't just take all five in my
offensive lineman. You only have six wide receivers and a couple,
you know, two or three running backs. It's not as
easy as like, why your starter's still in there. This
isn't college. We don't have eighty five guys and pads

(01:05:43):
on the sideline. There's there's really only so much you
can do, right, So it's kind of a tough spot.
And he's like, I'm not critical of him at all
on that, but he has lost some players in these
games where it's in a preseason game, they'd all be
on the sideline, but you just you don't have the numbers.
So that's a long winded way of saying, I'm taking
the colsplus seven and a half. You got to ride
the hot hand.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
Yeah, I'm with you. This is I'm hoping that Bernard Raymond,
their left tackle plays. Otherwise, you have three rookie offensive
linemen in there, again, which is an ideal, but at
least it's a second game playing together, which is important.
For continuity. But yeah, this line's defense, it has injuries.

(01:06:24):
They also haven't really been tested. Like if you look
at who they played, like it's Mac Jones, it's Jordan
Love who was banged up with his groin injury. You
know when they played the Seahawks they were so hurt,
the Cowboys when they were so hurt. So I think
this defense is a bit more vulnerable than their numbers
would indicate. You know, you go back to like that
Minnesota game. Minnesota was able to move the ball at

(01:06:46):
will against them, and then you have these injuries. So
and I was really impressed with Richardson last week. It
was his best game by a country mile throwing the ball.
So I think they can have some success here on
the ground against the Lions front seven that has been
hit hard by injuries. And I think they can have
some success through the air, and Lion's played a time
to cover one. I think that's a defense that Richardson's
going to have success against with his legs and his arm,

(01:07:08):
hitting some explosive plays downfield. And the Colts defense is healthy,
they're like it. They've been playing like a slightly above
average unit when they're fully healthy. And what did they do.
They play less man coverage than any team in the NFL.
We know what you're going to get with the Colts.
Jared Goff this year against man coverage has been an

(01:07:31):
absolute menace. He's I got one forty five quarterback rating,
like I think eleven touchdowns no interceptions against. Zoni has
more interceptions than touchdowns, like an eighty nine rating. You
want to zone this Lion's offense. Their offense is going
to be tremendous regardless. But that's the Colts play the
ideal scheme.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Do you think that's because like it's just really hard
to cover. You know, Saint Brown's an excellent receiver. Laporta
gets open Jamison so fast. They just create separation. It
means that you're it's just such.

Speaker 4 (01:08:01):
A well schemed offense. You're not gonna be able to
stick with their receivers and all of their rubs, and
it's you're just gonna get lost. So you have to
play zone. It's the only only shot you have. And
so that helps a bit. And yeah, they're coming off
a win. They're coming off of fifty two to ten

(01:08:21):
win generally speaking, And you mentioned how rare is that
it's pretty rare for teams to score fifty twice. They
scored fifty two twice in back to back home games.
That's only been done three other times in NFL story.
I think like the pack I think the Packers in
the fifties, the Cowboys in the sixties, and twenty fourteen
Hackers the only teams to do that. But teams that

(01:08:42):
win by thirty five or more points the next week,
they're usually overinflated. Like I don't think this line should
be over a touchdown, and I think that's part of
the reason why we're getting it. And the lines have
obviously been a wagon against the spread, but teams following
a win by thirty five or more points historically around
like thirty nine forty against the spread when favored by

(01:09:03):
four or more around thirty six percent, So it's been
a good bet to go against those teams. So yeah,
I think this is too many points. It's also not
the best spot just on paper. So if there was
ever a spot where the Lions might come out a
bit flat, it would be this one. They just put
up fifty two. They're rolling. Now you're going on the

(01:09:24):
road for a non conference game and you have a
divisional opponent on deck for Thanksgiving on a short week,
probably put some time into preparing for that this week.
And the Colts meanwhile in full desperation mode.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
That's the biggest is that the Bears on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 (01:09:42):
Yeah, Thanksgiving slates, the epenon slate is awful, especially the
Bears lose to the Vikings this week. And then but yeah,
the Cooper rush versus Danny DeVito.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
Danny DeVito well, because remember we like them after they
score fifty two against the Jags. But looking back, like
that Packer game outside and hearing Dan after that was
a big proving ground for them because his whole thing
was like we wanted approve to everyone that fucking bring
on the rain, the snow, the sleet, the win, Like
we're not a Dome team. That was an and divisional opponent.

(01:10:17):
I mean, let's face it, the team, you know, they're
they chase in that division. I know Minnesota has a
better record, but you hold yourself up against the Packers
if you're the Lions, not the Viking. So that was
I mean, that was like I would say, their biggest
game of the year, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
But also love he was not up. He threw a
pick six at the end of the first half. The
Lions were out gained by like two hundred yards, and
they deserve to win that game. But it wasn't like
some juggernaut performance. You know, this is still a team
that scored what and I think they're and there. They've
always been under airon gun, they're vulnerable to running quarterbacks,
so I think that's important here with the way they

(01:10:52):
rushed the passer, and I think we're just gonna have
some success with his legs. So yeah, I think that
this is it's just too many points. I know the
lines are tough to fade, but I think it's a
good spot, good number, and good matchup on both sides
of the ball for various reasons. So yeah, as long
as Vickerson doesn't make too many mistakes, I think the

(01:11:14):
Colts will stay within summer And by the way, all
the Colts do all change. Steichen does play close games.
Every one of their games.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Is good team, bad team, doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
They it's just a one possession game, which obviously is
important if you're catching seven and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
I would say if we just circled fifteen to twenty
of the top games this season, this game, hell, it
might have cracked the top six or seven. Niners at
Green Bay's changed a little bit. I mean, I would
say the Packers have been a roller coaster, partly because
of Love's health and the Niners. For all the teams

(01:11:50):
that we thought were gonna be awesome, I would say
have had one of the more disappointing seasons. You know,
they're five and five, but it feels like they're two
to eight. And I saw a boast to say yesterday,
you know, we're just really just a couple of plays
away from being eight and two, and he's not wrong,
but it's like, yeah, I mean, part of the you
deserve to be five and five because the games you're blowing,

(01:12:12):
and part of it's just health, you know. Kittle, all
of a sudden, you know, the forty nine Ers, because
they're an older team, they have guys on the injury report.
I don't pay that much attention to it. It's like, Oh,
this guy's gonna play, this guy's gonna play, this guy's
gonna play, unless it's something serious like McCaffrey. Throughout the season,
but like all of a sudden, Kittle just on Saturday Night,
Chefter tweets he's not playing. That's a pretty big deal.

(01:12:33):
That was my guy. David Lombardi, who covers the team,
said that their average separation per route last game was like,
well under three yards. It was by far the smallest
in the league. I mean, Juwan Jennings is our best
receiver right now, he doesn't it's not like he's fast,
doesn't get open. Deebo cannot get away from anyone. If

(01:12:54):
Kittle's gone, it really limits their passing game. But like
I look, yesterday the line was two and a half. Today,
the line this morning on DraftKings was the Niners plus
one and a half. This is kind of I mean,
they play Ackering Bay at Buffalo. Obviously, you lose both
your seasons. They're just done. They're not gonna win the division,
they're not gonna make the playoffs. If you go one

(01:13:16):
and one in these two games, you're six and six.
Maybe you go on a run get to ten and seven,
but like you got to win one of these two games.
And to me, this is their best chance. They have
a better chance to win this game than they do
at Buffalo. Just they've played Green Bay very very well
for a long period of time. And it's not like
Jordan love is exactly. You know, Brett Farvar, Aaron Rodgers
in his prime right now. But I have a hard time, man.

(01:13:37):
I got burned a couple weeks ago Tampa. Last week, Seattle,
I just wasn't gonna touch. I'm like, yeah, the Niners
should win this game by ten plus they own Geno,
but fuck this and then they lose the game. You know,
I don't know, man, I want to take the forty
nine ers, but they've really, they've really given me trust issues, Stucky,
So what's your take on this?

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
Yeah, I mean they are close, They're there. I agree
with that sentiment that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
They might be out, which would be a problem.

Speaker 4 (01:14:05):
Yeah, Bosa's a would be a big blow. That's Seattle's
most successful offensive drives are when he had to go
to the sideline and their pressure rates went way down
this game. It's it's tough for me to crack me
with all the injury uncertainty with San Francisco and Bosa
is a big piece of that. But Kitt'll also you know,

(01:14:26):
even Trent Williams dealing with an.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
Injury sounds like Kittle's gonna play. The way Kyle talked
about Bosa and Trent a little more worry. I would
guess Trent plays. I think Bosa's definitely in question. I
mean he was in a lot of pain.

Speaker 4 (01:14:39):
Yeah, what about Purdy, I mean he's he also has
like a little shoulder and he's gonna play. But so
they're just beat up. I think it's a good spot
for them. I mean, look, they're sty we are so
close to being eighty two. Like you lose a kicker
against Arizona, you blow a ten point lead, You blow
the ten point lead, and part of it's their own
fault with special teams like the Rams. Part of that

(01:14:59):
was special team the Cardinals, with special teams on that
side of your control. You lose your kicker, but you know,
you blow this game against Seattle. I mean, I could
go on and on about how close this team has been.
On top of that, you've had the injuries, like go
to the Chiefs game, you lose all of your weapons
at once. And and then also the red zone. This
is a team historically that's been dominant, but last year

(01:15:21):
they're a number one in the NFL in the red zone.
This year they're one of the worst. I would think
that that that's a high variance stat over short samplelized.
I would think that that stabilizes, so I wouldn't be
surprised if they go on a run here in the
red zone, especially with McCaffrey back, and it's a team
that can run and pass like they should be good
in the red zone. So yeah, they've They've just had
a lot of things to go against them, and some

(01:15:42):
of it is just their own fault.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
So I think I saw a picture of Lambo today
and it was snowing, So I don't know if that
benefits Historically, it would benefit the Niners because they just
want a ground, pound and play defense. But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
Now, yeah, I think I know. I don't think it
would be a huge evan for either team here. Yeah,
so I lean forty nine ers on the spot. They
do a good job of taking away explosive plays, which
you need to do against Green Bay. An interesting nugget here,
but I probably can't get I'm probably not going to
get involved an interesting nugget with and by and by

(01:16:17):
the way, the Packers have been the opposite of the
forty nine ers. I mean they've been pretty fortunate and
I mean you look at their you know, they just
beat the Bears on a block field goal.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
They didn't three. Would you agree with that? Last week?
They did not like. Last week was not a good
performance for them.

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
Now Love has been off, i'd been off. I don't
I don't like. I know he's been dealing with some stuff.
But you know, they beat the Jags by three, the
Texans by two, So their last three wins have come
by a combined six points. And you know, so they've
been a bit fortunate. So these these records could easily

(01:16:57):
be flipped. But the injury on so indeed, but the
forty nine ers makes it a pass for me as
of now. An interesting nugget that might go unnoticed by
some is the the Matt Lafleur, But I think it's
a really good coach. He hired Robert Sala a couple
of weeks ago as an offensive assistant or an advisor,

(01:17:23):
so I'm sure part of that had to do with
this game on his mind. So yeah, Sala is part
of the Packer staff. Obviously a lot of familiarity.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
There, decent chances though Sala hasn't watched much film this week.
He's him and Douglas around a bender somewhere at a
bar for the last three days.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
That's probably true. So yeah, this is if I had
a bet it, I probably bet the forty nine ers,
but as of now it's a pass I got. I
need more clarity on the injury situation and why bet
on good teams when I've already said I bet on
the Titans, the Colts, and I also bet on I
was called him Danny Debuto. I bet on Tommy Tommy DeVito,
who's awful, but so is Daniel Jones. Bucks aren't healthy,

(01:18:05):
Lang six in New York. I can't get there, and
Tristan Wurss I think is gonna miss one of the
best tackles in football. Baker Mayfield under pressure not as good.
The Giants defensive line can dominate this game. That's their
biggest strength, and without Worfs, it's a very vulnerable offensive line.
So reluctantly I also played the Giants, but that's a

(01:18:27):
hold your note as special.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
I'd say one game, and we mentioned this last week,
taking Vegas at Miami. The seven points just was screaming
at you to take Vegas. But it's like, under no circumstances,
kind of like the Titans, I just can't bet on Vegas.
Seems crazy. Denver on the road, I'll probably be like
a Bronco home game, and the Broncos up until this year,
somehow Vegas has kind of owned him for like the

(01:18:50):
last five or six years. But if you're just shorting Vegas,
who actually looked a little bit better offensively with Norvin
his pops. But I could just it's this. I think
the same thing about Vegas as the Cowboys and the Jets,
Like I just cannot be shocked when I look up
and they're down fifteen, twenty points or definitely doubled, you know,

(01:19:13):
ten plus in the fourth quarter, because it happens every time,
like Cowboys playing Washington. Obviously Washington's you know, not playing
as well. They've lost some games. Jaden's been you know,
I would say, come back to Earth. But it's like
I just kind of expect the Cowboys to lose by
twenty I kind of expect the same thing with Vegas,
like expect them to lose by multiple touchdowns. Now both

(01:19:34):
I think those two games fall into the same category
of like divisional games could get weird, you just never know.
But I think at minimum one of these two teams,
you know, not only doesn't cover, but just kind of
gets rolled where it's like Chicago Minnesota, Like the plus
three and a half with the Bears jumps out to
me like kind of like the Bears in that spot,

(01:19:54):
even though I don't really like the Bears, but in
these other two situations, like I truly believe the Cowboys
in Vegas or right there with you know, the Titans,
and I guess whoever else really sucks. I guess we'll
find out next week when the Giants play the Cowboys.
Of like, these teams are competing for the number one
overall pick. We have teams competing for the playoffs, and
then we have teams like truly competing for the number

(01:20:15):
one pick. And if you're a sick o gambler, this
is this is why you watch them play.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Yeah, I gotta find a way to have some money
on that Cowboys Giants game in order to make that watchable.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
If you're a batman right now, who do you think
ends up with the number one overall pick? Because they're
all kind of bunched up in two and three wins,
But the Cowboys have like I mean, they have no
life in sight, Like are you do you plan on
taking the Giants next week against Cowboys, I.

Speaker 4 (01:20:44):
Mean the Cowboy I'm not. I don't the Cowby's gonna
be favored. It gonna be like a small favorite.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
Is that game in Dallas? Yeah, I guess it's always
in Dallas.

Speaker 4 (01:20:56):
Cowboys are at the Panthers a couple of weeks. That
might end up determining it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:01):
But I feel like the Panthers have got another win
or to win them, you know, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
That I would agree. That could be the Cowboys. I
mean the Cowboys. Most winnable games are at the Panthers,
the Giants at home. It's pretty much it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
But wing is Vegas winning another game?

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
That's a good question.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
I mean Kansas City, Kansas.

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
City this Black Friday. They they need to probably beat
the Broncos here play the Jagon. It actually might be
the Jags if I had a bet. The Jags are
Texans at Titans, Jets at Raiders, Titans, Colts at Colts. Yeah,

(01:21:45):
Raiders Jags game might determine it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:48):
In regards to Bears, don't mind the three and a
half third straight road game from Minnesota. Bears a bit
healthier on d and on the offensive line, KILEB. Williams
against the Blitz and floors does scare me a bit,
but the offense looked better last week after the coordinator change.
Kids just getting the ball hot quick, which is going
to be useful this week. Yeah, well I would think,

(01:22:10):
you know Daniels after this look. Washington's a bad spot
for Dallas. They have a game on Thanksgiving. They're coming
off a short week, gone on the road. Washington played
on Thursday night. They have extended rests, give Daniels some
time to get healthier. I think he was still dealing
with that injury, and Dallas has and they also Dallas
might have to be down multiple of their It might
be without a couple of their best offensive linemen. They

(01:22:33):
just have nothing, Like it's Cooper rush now. If you
can't block like how many how many times do you
throw a CD lane who looks like he's up, He's
over this season already. Their defense is terrible. They can't
stop the run, they can't their corners are all hurt.
They just have nothing. And I'm sure dan Quinn wants
to put up a number here. So yeah, I don't
have any interest in.

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
No one's gonna cry for the Cowboys if you got
to play on Thanksgiving, it's fucked up to get a
Monday night game leading into basically and then going on
the days away. That's that seems a little unfair, Like
this is this is a pretty crazy stretch for the Cowboys.
Monday Night on the road, then Thanksgiving, Like, what are
we doing? This isn't September, this is late November.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
The Seahawks had to do that Monday Night, went to
you know, came back home Sunday, and then had a
short week against the forty nine ers and we're all
beat up and they obviously got rolled in that spot.
And then the other one you mentioned, yeah with Denver.
I mean the first I bet Denver last week against

(01:23:38):
the Raiders because acting against the Falcons, because the Falcons
couldn't get pressure and their secondary was all beat up.
The Raiders can at least get pressure. But the problem is,
and this line is getting a bit inflated. I mean,
like you look, the Broncos have been good. Bon Nix
has been improving. John Payton's a great coach. Their defense
is really good. But they've done their damage against the

(01:24:01):
NFC South kind of like the Falcons have. They're four
and oh against the NFC South. All those bad defenses
that can't get pressure and have been hurt. So I
think the Broncos are getting into like over inflated territory.
The problem is the last week against the Dolphins. By
the end of the game, the Raiders were down all
three of their starting corners. Nate Hobbs didn't play, Corey

(01:24:23):
and Bennett got hurt, Jack Jones got hurt. They were
down all three starting corners. None of them practiced yesterday.
So again, they might be able to get a little
bit more pressure than the Falcons, but they don't have
the three starting corners. It's not a great secondary. Raiders
try to just really limit your explosive plays. That's problematic.

(01:24:44):
And I probably can't back the Raiders in this spot.
If they were fully healthy, I would look to attention
back them. You know, all five straight losses home divisional dogs.
Historically it's a good spot. But they're both their running
backs are hurt too, they have some offensive line injuries.
They're just beat up. So yeah, I can't lay it

(01:25:04):
with Denver at this price. But and I also just
can't look at the Raiders because of the injury situation.

Speaker 1 (01:25:12):
What about the Rams as a home dog.

Speaker 4 (01:25:18):
I'm kind of close to market there that that game is.
It's really interesting to me because I think the Rams
offense is starting to ascend. Right they got healthier on
the offensive line, getting some continuity there, and then obviously
they got their receivers back, and over the past two years,
we have enough data to show us that this Rams offense,
when they have all their pieces healthy, is one of

(01:25:38):
the best in the NFL. So they're kind of on
this upward trajectory. And then I think that the Eagles
defense is also on all fic Fangio usually takes time
for when he's had it with a new team. You know,
people referred to it as a Fangio bump. It's a
very complex defense, like when do you kind of when

(01:26:00):
is that switch golf? And it looks like it has
for the Eagles. Now. I know they haven't played the
best of competition, and maybe Daniels was a bit banged up,
but I go back to that game in Cincy. That's
the one where I really saw it, when they shut
down that Bengals high powered offense. A lot of it
comes down to, you know, the defense is getting used
to the scheme, but both of their rookie corners are

(01:26:20):
playing extremely well, Quinnon, Mitchell, Cooper Dejen Mitchell in particular
has been playing at an all pro level against some
of the best receivers in the NFL. So those rookie
corners against the Rams receivers, I can't wait to watch that.
I'm pretty close to where this is priced, So nothing

(01:26:43):
for me there, but it's probably a really it's a
really important game for the Rams. You probably get against
a good imponent, you and the Rams can get some
pressure with their defense, and that's what you need to do.
Against Hurts, you probably get like a very good McVeigh
game plan, play calling game. So yeah, if I could

(01:27:04):
get three, it would be Rams or nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
I know this. The Eagles think they got that. He doesn't.
You know, Sherman had great hands, and obviously Sherman was
a different type player. Reeves had pretty good hands too.
This guy doesn't have good hands, but he's got a
chance to be like an elite, like, you know, the
best corner in the league for a long time. I
think we're gonna look back and go, wait, were they

(01:27:31):
draft this guy like fourth overall? No, No, they got
him in the twenties. They got him in the and honestly,
that's kind of like the Rams things like, what wait,
they draft Khalil Mack two point zero number six. No,
they got him at the end of the teams because
all these fucking quarterbacks and the receivers pushed everyone down.
It's like the Rams and the Eagles got I'd feel

(01:27:52):
pretty confident saying in three or four years, those two
guys are gonna be two of the better players from
the first round all Pro. Yeah. So it's like, I mean,
Jared Ver looks like Khalil Mack did when he was young.

Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Power, I think in pressure rate.

Speaker 1 (01:28:05):
Yeah, obviously he's better. He's better than Khalil Mack because
Khalil Mack had to kind of learn how to like
some pass rush moves. It was just all power. But
like like Khalil, it's like his power immediately, like he's
lifting guys up and driving them back, and that's like,
holy holy shit.

Speaker 4 (01:28:22):
Pretty stunning that a guy like that was at University
of Albany three years ago before Florida State got him
in the portal.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
Well, let's transition to you know, if you would have
told anyone three months ago that this would have been
by far one of the more intriguing games of the year,
and I bet when the numbers come out, it'll be
one of the especially if it's close, will be one
of the highest rated college football games of the year,
which aka non NFL games, means it'll be one of

(01:28:54):
the more higher rated non NFL sporting events of the year.
You know, I would expect if this game good, ten
plus million people to watch, We're either gonna look back
and go that's insane that Indiana was getting almost two touchdowns.
I look at morning it was thirteen points or it's like, God,
Indiana's pretty overrated. You speak of the Albany thing. This
guy has countless players from JMU that start for his team.

(01:29:18):
And I didn't realize, but maybe we've talked about this before,
is a lot of those players when they were originally
recruited from JMU, they were not even a D one team.
They were D one double A. So this guy has
turned these guys into now. When I was at cal Pauly,
we were sending guys to the NFL in the third
or fourth round. It's not like D one double A
players don't go to the NFL. But to make the

(01:29:38):
transition like they've made, it's been pretty insane. I don't.
I don't really have a feel for this. I guess
just watching football long enough to know. Usually in these spots,
like it wouldn't chock me if ahow State wins like
forty to fifteen. But maybe Indiana is just really good.
Maybe the Signetti guy, you know, I thought he was
a little like the mu money. Clearly he must be

(01:30:01):
cool with staying there because like, what if Michigan fires
their coach, I would imagine they would have came after him. Now,
maybe nil makes these jobs. If Indiana has nil money,
then maybe it's just a good job. Like maybe it's
better in Wisconsin or Nebraska. I don't know. I mean,
it's we're in a changing landscape. But my gut tells me,
like I just i'd be a little stunned if Ohio

(01:30:22):
State doesn't control this game. But maybe just Indiana's on
one of those magical seasons.

Speaker 4 (01:30:29):
Yeah, I normally in this spot, I would be on
Ohio State. And historically, when you look at ranked team's
high profile matchups, when there's a team that's a bigger favorite,
it's usually for a reason. Bigger favorites have done well.
Double DIGITR favorites in this spot. But I actually played Indiana.
They're hard to gauge because they've played nobody. I mean,

(01:30:50):
you look at the offenses they faced.

Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
What's what's their best win.

Speaker 4 (01:30:59):
Michigan Washington. Now, the thing is that with their schedule
you can adjust for opponent. They've done about as well
as you could with their schedule, like even the best
teams in the country, what they would have done, like
their margin, how dominant they've been.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
So I exact that Nebraska like you just go, that's
not a great win. But I watched that game. They
beat the living piss out of them. They treated them like, yeah,
it's not gonna be a great win, but we're gonna
win this thing. Fifty five to seven.

Speaker 4 (01:31:27):
Yeah, ucla team that's been competitive in almost every game.
Granted it was early in the year, but I mean
Indiana went there and just absolutely bludgeoned them. They won
the game forty two to thirteen. So I think we
have enough of a data set to say that they're
pretty good. I mean, they put forty one up on Northwestern.
Northwestern is the top twenty five defense, you know, thirty

(01:31:50):
one Washington is a really good defense, fifty six on Nebraska,
forty seven on Michigan State. So yeah, I think that
they're legit. Their well coached, are coming off a bye.
I think they'll have I like their coordinators. I think
they'll have a really good scheme here.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Well, if they win this game, they're essentially playing Oregon
in the championship game. Correct, they would they'd be in Ye. Yeah,
there's a lot of I mean, this is obviously an
enormous game for several reasons for them.

Speaker 4 (01:32:18):
Yeah and yeah, So I yeah, I played them. I'm
gonna I'm gonna trust Signetti.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
I'm gonna I think I might join you.

Speaker 4 (01:32:29):
And they're gonna play like Signetti for two weeks. Are
gonna play this disrespect card with with the line and
no one giving them a chance and all the media
is trashing their schedule, and their defensive line is really good,
and they can cause they caused a lot of issues
with like their stunts, and they can get into the backfield,
they can get a ton of pressure. Ohio, well, I
think one of the keysest game in Ohio States offense.
They have great receivers, but it's just been underwhelming to me.

(01:32:51):
And I go back like the Nebraska game. They should
have lost the Nebraska at home. When we talk about
like comparing opponents and their offensive line, they already lost
their left tackle. Was their best offensive line for the year,
that to make some adjustments. They adjusted well this week
at practice. Their stud center towards Achilles, Alabama transfer. He's

(01:33:12):
out for the year. That's an enormous loss. Now you're
probably going to move your guard to your center and
then bring in this other kid who I don't think
it's very good at guard. You're talking about reshuffling again.
Your all offensive line, well, I would say it is
one of the best rosters, if not the best, in
college football. One of the places they don't have depth
coming into the year was their offensive line and losing

(01:33:33):
their left tackle in their center. Probably two of the guys.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
He tours the act practice Achilles.

Speaker 4 (01:33:39):
He have towards Achilles of practice on Tuesday, Tuesday. We're
recording this on Thursday. Yeah, Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:33:44):
I can't imagine. I didn't even see that. How do
you practice after that moment? Because clearly, when an injury,
the guy goes down and he has to get carted
or carried off. That had to rattle the program, right.

Speaker 4 (01:33:56):
Yeah, and your offensive lines is all about cont new
You're gonna be get's a really good defensive line and
now you've got to reshuffle your offensive whole offensive line again.
Ohio State also is a snail, like it's very weird
because Chip Kelly calls opens. They're so slow, So like
the possessions might be limited this game. There might be
some weather. So yeah, I'm gonna trust Signetti playing the
disrespect card. I'm gonna trust what I've seen with my

(01:34:18):
eyes and also just the numbers when I'm adjusting for
opponent that Indiana actually is legit and we're just gonna
see this in the new There's also just no elite teams.
I've said this over and over again. There's no elite
teams that like just deserve that you are going to
roll the ball out there and blow teams out on
a weekend a weekend basis, And I think Indiana is

(01:34:39):
a top ten isshed team and it's not like Ohio
State is head and shoulders above everybody else like we've
seen with a team or two each year. I don't
think we have that this year, and now they're dealing
with injuries on the offensive line. My one concern is
with the Indiana offensive line. Their offense might has been
really really good against Michigan in the second half. Michigan

(01:35:00):
is one of the best defensive lines in the College
of Wall. Michigan's defensive line really owned them, so can
and Indiana lost its left guard for the year, and
their offense line have been playing really well a lot
of continuity. Now they get a multi year starter in
there from JMU. But their left guard it went out
I think a lot only three pressures all year, and
this happened at least this happened like two weeks ago,

(01:35:22):
and then in their last game against Michigan, he allowed
four pressures just in the game alone. Is that the
weak link of the offensive line and does the offensive
line just crumble on the road? Maybe? But I think
Indiana Rourke, they have good weapons, their offensive line has
played really well a year. They're well coached, and I
think their defensive line is going to cause some problems

(01:35:45):
for this and I don't think it has It's going
to be a run it with their offensive line issues,
that's what what hurt them against Nebraska. They you know,
they had their their tackle got hurt, they had a shuffle,
they were trying to figure out their offensive line rotage
and they couldn't run it against Nebraska. I think it's
going to happen here again, and then Indiana's gonna be
able to get pressure on Will Howard and Will Howard

(01:36:05):
is not great under pressure. So yeah, like I think
the sharp side the quote unclosed SHARPSID would be Ohio State.
I'm going to disagree with it here. I'm rolling with
the Hoosiers.

Speaker 1 (01:36:16):
I do think too, and I get it, you know,
the Big Ten just in generals down. But if you
remove the Michigan game, I mean really their only close
game of the season, and you just look at their
road games against Big Ten opponents UCLA forty two thirteen,
Northwestern forty one, twenty four, Michigan, Michigan State forty seven
to ten. I mean they're going on the road and
they are destroying these teams yep, so even and obviously

(01:36:40):
even their home games like fifty six to seven, thirty one, seventeen,
forty two to twenty eight. I mean, they're blowing out
all these Big ten teams just I mean just destroying.
So it's like we have had years. Yeah, I mean
they might not be a true national championship contender, but
I think if.

Speaker 4 (01:36:57):
But staying within two touchdowns. That's a different ass Like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
I mean, is it crazy to think obviously Ohio State,
no one would choose Indiana's roster of Ohio State, But like,
you know, I think when we look back, we talked
about that Notre Dame arm uh Notre Dame Navy game,
and it was clear it was just like outmatched. Like
what I'm interested do you just and I think you'll
kind of know it within the first quarter? Do their
athletes look way slower compared how they've usually looked against

(01:37:23):
these other teams or it's like, oh, it's not that
big of a difference, because I think the frustrating thing
for Nebraska is obviously Riola's played like shit, but like
you watched them in that game against Ohio State and
it was like, they don't look that much different. Like
Nebraska's had some moments this year where you're like, damn
they you know, they got a lot of good athletes,
They're physical, like the Colorado game, the Ohio State game.

(01:37:44):
Like I would understand being a fan and being frustrated,
and I'm just fascinated, like has Indiana like what are
they going to look like on the field against like
their dbs who have made plays whenever I've watched them
against you know, Jeremiah Smith, or is the guy gonna
look like me out there? Is he going to be like, Oh,
they're just running stride for stride with I don't know.
That's like I'm tempted to even sprinkle a little bit

(01:38:05):
on the money line, if you know what I'm saying,
because maybe.

Speaker 4 (01:38:08):
Yeah, there's there's I don't agree that. I don't disagree
that because there's a lot of variants in like how good,
how just how good really is Indiana. I think it's
safe to say that they're really good, but how good
are they? There's still someone certainty there Because of the schedule.
This game kind of reminds me a bit about you know,
like you have these teams that just they just it's

(01:38:30):
just their year, and like I go back to two
years ago, I think on the same weekend, Michigan, well
the Michigan would have been weekend after but Michigan was
catching like ten against Ohio State, and no one believed
in that Michigan team in the Michigan won by like
twenty two at Ohio State and then TCU, who ended
up going to the national title. They beat Michigan en route.

(01:38:54):
Did no one believed in them? At Texas? They were
like an eight point dog at Texas and Texas is
like six and three and they were undefeated. Yeah, and
uh PCU went to Texas and went out right. So
and you know, Texas and Ohio State were both like
the quote unquote sharp sides of that game. I think
there's there's something to this Indiana season. I'm gonna trust signetty,

(01:39:15):
but yeah, you should know. You'll know right away. Also
like in the trenches. That's my biggest concern, Like the
Indiana offensive line. That's what I'm gonna be watching early.

Speaker 1 (01:39:26):
Okay, stuck at, I'm gonna join you then on the
Indiana train. I need. I need a little juice for
the uh the old big new kickoff that Ohio State fans. Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:39:34):
That's another thing that doesn't help them. They keep getting
this neon slate because of Fox. So I think that
they would rather play this game at night.

Speaker 1 (01:39:43):
Hell yeah, they would much be a six thirty kickoff
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:39:47):
Yeah, So I think that that that that helps Indiana
a bit.

Speaker 1 (01:39:52):
Okay, Stuckey, Uh have fun uh watching Indiana cover and
I'll be right there with you, and let's buckle up
and enjoy Titans see if they can see if they
can change the narrative of their old one to nine season.
I will talk to you next week.

Speaker 4 (01:40:05):
Thanks brother. I won't enjoy it, but hopefully they get
to the window.

Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
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