NFL Week 4 Big Show! Tua Tagovailoa concussion fallout, Full Slate of ATS & SU Picks, Is This Team For Real?

Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
Welcome to three Out, your nationalNFL podcast featuring three sports media pros.
Metai Shalta from five thirty eight,joined by Samantha Bunton at NBC Sports and
Michael Shotti the thirty thirteen. It'stime for this week's Big Show, where
we go long on big NFL topics. And instead of a big guest this
week, we had one ready togo, and you know, Hurricane Ian

(00:35):
had some ideas about when we shouldrecord, and then Hurricane to a Tongo
Vailoa had some other ideas about whatwe should record and what we should talk
about, and we decided we didnot want to release this podcast without weighing
in on what happened on Thursday Nightfootball. It's all the NFL world wants

(00:55):
to talk about. It's all wewant to talk about, and we have
takes and opinions and insights, anyemotions and if you want to hear them
twice a week every week, justgo to three outpod dot com and make
sure you are subscribed. Where howeveryou get your podcast Spotify, Stitcher,
soundclod, iTunes, overcast castro,however it is Podchaser, Just subscribe at

(01:15):
three outpod dot com. Follow uson Twitter at three Outpod, follow us
on Instagram at three Outpod. We'llbe back Monday morning, eight am Eastern,
just like we always are live onTwitter spaces to break down all these
games that we are about to pickagainst the spread and straight up, and
we'll get to our actual big topicthat we did as a kind of a

(01:37):
guest thing. That's our guest segment. Which teams are for real? Which
which teams that are winning games twoand one, three, and oh which
teams really are for real? Butright now we really have to get to
the two a situation. I knowwe all have thoughts about this, we
all feel strongly about this, Samantha, let me give you first crack at
this. Well. Last Sunday,I did something that I have never done

(02:00):
before since I began my career infootball media, which is to turn off
a game that I wanted to watch. Now, I've certainly turned off plenty
of football games in my day,either because I was too busy, or
I just didn't feel like watching,or the game itself was terrible I was
not required to cover it or whatever. But last night I turned off a
game that I was actually pretty investedin because I was so disgusted that I

(02:21):
didn't feel right watching it. Youknow, my husband too, will watch
anything that relates to the AFC.North was like, I don't feel right
about this, and so we turnedthe game off. I just kind of
can't believe that this happened. It'sappalling. I know that, like in
the past, I've probably been theperson on this podcast who's the most like

(02:45):
football meathead out of the three ofus. But in this case, I
just I'm so horrified by this,Like it's the Dolphins. Like I don't
even know where to start. Imean, I guess we have a lot
to talk about here about two ushelp and about the handling of it via

(03:05):
the Miami Dolphins organization and how punitiveessentially that the league should be, and
well I think also we should probablytalk about what happened with the Amazon broadcast
last night, because I have somethoughts on that as well as to why
that happened and kind of how responsibleof broadcast crew is for telling the truth
yea, no matter how the licensingfrom the NFL works. So I guess

(03:30):
I'll just start by saying that,like there's a part of you that thinks
the Dolphins that like the season shouldbe just vacated, and two it should
probably retire. And they know thatsort of an extreme standpoint, But anytime
you see somebody who has lost controlof their motor skills that way and who
should have been in concussion protocol aweek ago, like, concussions are cumulative,
right, Like you get hit inthe head twice in two weeks,
it's going to work a whole lotdifferently than if you get hit in the

(03:53):
head and then two years later youget hit in the head again. So
I'm appalled you guys. But beforeI say any more, but I wonder
what you guys think. Yeah,I'll jump in. I did not watch
the game at all, not becauseof a moral stance against it, but
because Hurricane Ian just barreled through myarea recently. But i'viously been following this

(04:13):
story, following the news. SoI don't have comments on the broadcast itself,
but I will drop I don't loveto do this, but I will
drop some bona fides in here,because the concussion world was my world back
during you know, the era whereeveryone was talking about, you know,
the various ESPN reports that were comingout and the various you know, you

(04:34):
know things that were dropping and theguys who were retiring, and all of
these symposiums, and you know thingsthat were really happening when the NFL was
microscopically focused on the concussion world wasthat my Hayda at Bleacher Report and I
was traveling around the world, theHarvard Brain Symposium, the San Francisco Brain
Symposium, and I am cited inlike a dozen scholarly articles in the medical

(05:00):
world based on my reporting of howthe NFL world has dealt with concussions.
And I am not a medical expert, so I will not comment on the
medical aspect of this, but Ican absolutely comment to someone who has covered
this for over a decade. TheNFL has not and will not learn their

(05:21):
lesson about player safety unless they areconfronted smack dab in the face with things
like this. And that's not mesaying things like this should happen, because
that's sparbaric and cruel. But theNFL, which has zero ability to police
itself and has shown numerous times thatit cannot do so time and time and

(05:45):
time again, will turn a blindeye to this until their feet are held
to the fire, Until things likethis happen on national TV until things are
jarring because the NFL does not,on a normal circumstances to a tone of
my plays this whole game, andhe's just kind of, you know,
to use some colloquial terms, he'sjust kind of woozy or punch drunk or

(06:05):
things like that. If he justlooks like he's quote unquote out on his
feet, all things that sort ofkind esteem within the bounds of you know,
the NFL world. The NFL willnot change. They needed this,
They needed that that that fencing uhsyndrome that they needed. His complete loss

(06:27):
motorcils the NFL. And again I'mnot saying need as in it's it's a
positive thing. I'm saying need asthe NFL is so decrepit when it comes
to things like this, when itcomes to being able to actually make changes
about these sorts of things. TheNFL needs these moments to be forced to
police itself because Mike McDaniel, rookiehead coach, clearly and over his head

(06:53):
when it comes to this sort ofthing. The Miami Dolphins organization not exactly
known for putting plays for sort ofthings into action. This is going to
force both this organization and the NFLat large should take a huge, long
look, and I hope it forcesthe NFLPA to take a little bit more

(07:15):
look at stuff like this and spenda little bit more time on stuff like
this and a little bit less on, you know, trying to get Deshaun
Watson's suspension shorter. Yeah, Ihave so many directions to go here,
Samantha, I will say on thebroadcasting front, you know, I thought,
you know, I said a littlebit on Twitter. I co signed
a couple of takes that there wasa lot of opportunity to say things that

(07:42):
didn't get said at the time ofthe of the injury. And while you
know, they're replaying it over andover and over and over and over.
That's super high rez, super closeup, just just watching to his you
know, body in distress in thefencing response. Um, you know many

(08:03):
people like that. I don't Idon't want to see I don't need to
see this anymore. And then therewas not a lot of context from Hey,
this he suffered what looked to thewhole world like a concussion four days
ago. Here he is out hereuntil later in the you know, later
in the second half. Um,it really kind of felt like somebody somewhere

(08:24):
doing a job much like yours,Samantha and can kill Booth is like,
oh my god, we're kidding.They're killing us. In the quote tweets,
we gotta we gotta say something aboutthis, and uh, you know,
they kind of batted it around alittle bit. Oh yeah, well,
hey, concussion man, there's gonnabe some fall up in this.
Uh yeah, I don't know.Updates together, taking the host, you

(08:46):
know, and it's like this,this is so under they are so low
bawling. How people's emotional response tothis is going to be Because the NFL's
concussion protocol. I want to beclear about this. The NFL's concussion Protocol
does not exist to prevent players fromgetting CTE and losing neurofunction in their forties,

(09:13):
fifties, and sixties. The NFL'sconcussion Protocol exists to create the appearance
that they are trying to prevent that, but more importantly, to prevent the
appearance of what we saw Thursday night. Austin Collie twitching on the field was

(09:37):
something that we saw and as aplayer who suffered many concussions, back out
there suffering, you know, justapparent nauseating neurological trauma, and people don't
want to see that. There isno appetite for that. That is not
an entertainment product. You know,as hey man, you know, Caveman
meathead, as you are, Samantha, as many of us are about the

(10:03):
NFL, and even you know,the barbarity of these guys smacking their bodies
into each other. We don't wantto see that, and we certainly don't
want to see it that many timesand in slow motion. And whether or
not the team doctors were right,whether or not the independent neurologists who are
there to evaluate him are right,and to actually had a back injury that

(10:24):
made him wabble like a drunken sailorin fall, four days ahead of time,
for appearance's sake, for PR's sake, for the lack of this happening,
he needed to sit and he didn't. And now we got exactly what
the protocols are designed to prevent.And to me, it literally does not

(10:46):
matter whether we actually had a concussionor not on Sunday, because he actually
had severe trauma on Thursday, andby the letter of the laws, he's
not supposed to be playing. Anda lot of people whose it is to
prevent that so that we don't havethese things that we don't have these press
conferences, that we don't have podcastslike this aren't aren't sitting there going well,

(11:09):
they said it was okay, sowe went and we have a repeat
of everything we've seen for decades inthis league. Oh absolutely, I mean
it's just an incredibly foolish risk totake from both a medical obviously of course,
from a medical and safety, butalso from a pr standpoint, Like
there's just a degree of stupidity herethat I can't get away from where you're

(11:33):
like, yeah, ah, soyou decided to take the risk. And
this is on the league, theDolphins, the team doctor, everybody who
had any kind of say so andthat you thought it was worth a risk
to make sure you got a goodcontest on a Thursday night when worst case
scenario, which is almost what wegot, is some kid looks like you

(11:54):
might be diet out there. Imean this is pretty serious. Like,
you know, we talk about whatdo we want to see as meat heads?
Right, Like nobody wants to seethis. Nobody Like when we say,
oh I want to see be tough, it's like what I want to
hear it's like this guy's had theblue for twenty four hours, but he's
gonna suck it up and go outthere and get six sacks. Yes,

(12:16):
we love that, right. Welove the guy who you know comes out
there even though he's ill, orthe guy who finishes the play on a
broken ankle to win the game.We love this Like no one wants to
see a guy guy bring trauma onlive television. And I mean it's head
injuries are weird and I've I've hada skull fracture and to your concussion,

(12:41):
and so I can tell you that, yeah, like it's not always indicative
of like mine was one that lookedway worse than it was. Some of
them don't look nearly as bad asthey are. So it's you know,
I'm not trying to be dramatic bysaying, well, he almost died out
there. The point is that hecould have. You know. It's this
is not like, oh, well, he might have blown out at his
knee and now a leak for therest of his life. This is like
he might be brain dead or paralyzed, like not the same thing at all.

(13:05):
Like we all love hero ball,but not at the expense of somebody's
life and the broadcast thing. Imean, look, I've gone back and
forth on what I should mention onthis because, like you know, it's
kind of alluded to like that there'sa like a contract in blood between like
the NFL poadcasters in the NFL onwhat you are allowed to do. And
it's been a This is a longtime issue that I've had with the NFL

(13:28):
and their sort of desire to controleverything. I mean, especially if you
look at you know, like NFLdot com, like all the content that
goes out on that website has tobe approved by the lead. Very very
different if you go and look atNBA dot com or MLB dot com,
it says this content is not subjectto the approval of so that subjective journalism.
You're not getting that from the NFLbecause they want to control everything,

(13:50):
which I think is really disturbing,and it's very disturbing that we all allow
this to go on. And assomebody who's taking a check from an organization
that benefits from this, it bothersme. Like it's one of those nights
last night where I had trouble sleepingbecause I'm thinking, should I be profiting
from this? This feels kind ofwrong, and the broadcast team, Look,

(14:11):
it's not a twenty two year oldwho's new to this job out there
who's like whoa, yes, theleague says they don't want us mentioning that
a week ago this kid probably shouldhave been in. I mean, these
are veteran broadcasters who are not goingto lose their jobs because they tell the
truth. They also don't have tostand out there and be like the NFL
wants you all to die, likethey can absolutely say it, like,

(14:35):
look, it was a mistake,this was an irresponsible decision, Like there
isn't measured and not truly attacking wayto tell the truth and make the audience
feel like you get it and thatyou're not trying to you know, be
a head injury denier essentially, becausethat just upsets people more, Like there's
a way to do it. Andif the league gets Maddie, do you

(14:56):
think the league's gonna pull their broadcastingrights so that they can't that the backlash
would be twice as bad. Soit just feels cowardly and showing the replay
over and over again, I mean, nobody wants to see that, right,
Like, you don't need to dothat, it just trauma dives as
everybody. I between that and thehalftime programming where you know, we had

(15:16):
Richard Sherman who was talking about that, oh, this is horrible and so
tragic and no one should have todo this. This is the same guy
who made some comments basically like well, you know, if you don't stug
it up, you're not really aman when he was a player. So
I don't want to hear from himon this topic. But I just I
thought it was handled incredibly badly bythe broadcast, as well as the league

(15:37):
and the Dolphins and pretty much everybodyinvolved and everybody who covers the Dolphins,
because if I see one more reporterclose to the team or previously close to
the team, I'm not going toname names, but there are both national
and local reporters who have worked forand around the Dolphins who if they continue

(16:00):
to keepe for this franchise not youknow, even speculating that something potentially could
have gone wrong or not above board. It's it's infuriating. And what it
is, it's protecting quote sources unquote, It's protecting their access, is protecting
their friends. Because most reporters getway too close to the teams that they

(16:22):
cover, and it's protecting the organizationand really in a way the player,
because I'm not faulting to it,but it certainly seems like TWA wanted to
play. You know. Golden Tateon the thirty third team came out with
a you know, sometimes you gottaprotect players from Marcels. Of course,
yeah, of cour And so I'mnot blaming TOA, but you're not protecting

(16:48):
to at this point, it's alreadydone, which you're protecting U. I
say, what we're protecting. Whatwe're trying to stop. Is this happening
again and again and again to akid who is currently twelve, fifteen,
sixteen, eighteen, to a kidwho is going to throw his superhero capeon
and look at two a tongue ofIola playing. He played through this,

(17:10):
and I've got my you know,sixteen year old left tackle who's on his
second concussion the season, who desperatelywants to get back on the field.
And if Tua, you know,if Tua can do it, why why
can't I. We're trying to protectthat from happening. And the idea that
we're being fought against, the ideathat this this idea of player safety,
which you know, player safety isnot going to ruin the game. Player

(17:33):
safety, heightened senses of awareness aroundthings like CCT, concussion protocol, you
know, return to play, that'sall going to be what saves this game.
And the idea that we're being foughtagainst by meat heads who can't give
up their access, who can't possiblycall out a team for doing something wrong

(17:55):
because that's my buddy and I gottago see him on Tuesday mornings. Like
that is just in fear creating forme. And you know, I can't
comment on the broadcast itself because youknow, my power was out and I'm
not watching but looking on Twitter aboutall these guys who are well, you
know, I didn't realize you werean amateur brain expert, and I didn't
know you did neurosurgeon in your pastime, and you know more than all these

(18:17):
medical doctors who work for the Dolphins. No, the point is, if
you are a doctor who works forthe Dolphins, you are not independent.
If you are someone who is youknow, advising the Dolphins, you are
not independent. Dolphins make millions ofdollars to put players on the field to
play. That is their job.That is their business. And sometimes the

(18:38):
NFL needs people to come in andsay no, that can't happen, and
yes, this is I mean,this is no different than Osha coming in
and saying, yeah, you're you'rebuilding widgets, which you're building widgets in
such a way that's unsafable. That'show we've always built widgets. Well not
anymore. And when that happens ina normal workplace, and like a normal

(19:00):
nine to five or a factory job, shift work kind of job, everyone
gets mad at Osha. Every singleperson who works there. Well, you
know, they're just making our livesharder, and this, that and the
other thing. And the people whoto this very day work it in places
like factories and minds and things likethat are benefiting from the workplace safety initiatives

(19:25):
that were put in against the wishesof everybody who worked their generation ago,
in a generation before that. Andthe NFL needs to get on board with
that style of oversight where it's completelyindependent from the money making that happens on
a daily basis in the NFL.You have to be able to remove yourself

(19:47):
from that. And if the NFLisn't able to do that, the NFL
will fail the NFL will eventually failbecause one of these is going to happen
on prime time to even a moreextreme degree, and advertisers are going to
get queasy, and that's going tobe the end. That will eventually be
the when when advertisers or Congress orsome massive body steps and says, this
can happen anymore and does the NFL'sjob of regulating the sport for it.

(20:12):
He nailed it, nailed it ashoddy And I want to kind of tie
together a couple of things. NumberOne, that you're a hundred percent right,
the decision needs to be taken outof the football people's hands. The
football player, who, of coursewants to play no matter what. That's
it. That's a given that thefootball player is going to want to get
out there and play, regardless ofyou know, broken bones, whatever.

(20:34):
You just have to assume that becausethat's what they've been coached to do.
Number Two, that football coach isgoing to want that player to play,
especially when it's someone as key tothe team success as a starting quarterback.
And Mike McDaniel, you know,continually got frustrated in the postgame press conference
by people going yeah, but heclearly had a concussion on Sunday and he

(20:56):
said, well, no, hedidn't according to you know, two neurologists
and to the protocols, and hewent through all that stuff and passed it.
And it's like, okay, well, there is a section that's like,
if this dude looks like he's hada concussion according to the fifty drunks
in a bar standard, unless youcan point to an orthopedic reason why he's

(21:17):
wobbling around, then like you haveto treat him as though he has a
concussion. And I said, oh, yeah, it turned out to be
a back injury. Okay, Wellif twas says no, no, no,
it wasn't a concussion, it wasa back injury, and he kind
of go, okay, well,let's just fludge this and say it was
a back injury, you know,and that's the report that you know,
that's the report that Mike McDaniel gets, and he rolls with that. Okay.

(21:41):
This is why the decision needs tobe taken out of his hands.
This is why the protocols need tobe enforced according to the way that they're
written. And if there's any doubtwhen you have something as high profile as
the whole football world on Sunday goingthat looked bad? How did he get
back in the game. You know, Roger Goodell needs to be on that
because again, if there's anybody whovalues PR solutions to PR problems, it's

(22:04):
Roger Goodell. If there's anybody whosteps in and goes, look, we
are going to implement a policy ormake a one off ruling that's going to
directly address what everyone is mad aboutand maybe not fix the systemic issue.
That's Roger Goodell's wheelhouse. And heshould have called into the Dolphins in bed
like that. Dude, cannot play, do not put like you know,

(22:27):
there may be no league by lawthat says I get to tell you who
you can play and not play,but I am telling you right now do
not activate too and Tago Byloa forThursday night football because we just do not
need the headache. I'm sorry,bad choice of words like, but here
we are, here, we arenow. This has happened, and they

(22:48):
needed to be proactive instead of reactive, and that's what the concussion protocols are
for. There's one other phase ofthis, though, Samantha, you brought
up from the you know, thePR perspective from the broadcasting perspective, what
about from the football perspective? Like, I understand this is a big game
against Cincinnati. You can go tofour and ozer against you know, three

(23:10):
teams that you're trying to beat inthe AFC to for in the playoffs.
These are these are you know,three playoff teams Ravens, the Bills,
and Bengals that you want w's over. You're gonna have to beat them again
if you want to get to whereyou want to go. I understand you
want two of to play, butdon't you want two of the rest of
the season. You rush two aback out there, even with back at

(23:32):
ankle injuries that just happened to combinein a way that made it look like
he had a concussion on Sunday.Now you got Teddy Bridgewater out there.
And I like Teddy Bridgewater and andI'm a Teddy fan, and I believe
he has a role in this league. And his role is backup that everyone
loves. And here comes the backupeveryone loves. But he's not winning games

(23:53):
the way that two of was winninggames for them. And and this is
this is also a failing of MikeDaniel and I think it's also why the
decision needs to be taken out ofhis hands. Well, yeah, this
is the cutting off your nose tospite your face. I mean, even
if we take out like the severesafety issues, like just so that we
can discuss it freely, like justpretend it's a knee injury, Pretend it's
the back injury he allegedly had,you know, and then let's talk about

(24:17):
how stupid it is to send aguy back out there on a short week
no less, or a short weeksituation like this, who you're gonna kind
of need later? So like whatyou dropped one game now or you dropped
like six games later, Like,come on, man, this is simple
math. And yet so many NFLhead coaches make this mistake. And I

(24:41):
want to be a little bit likecircumstanced respect about how much I blame Mike
McDaniel for the other part of this, because I don't know that he's the
ultimate decision maker there. I knowhe is following protocol. You know,
there would be a lot of pressureon somebody who is young in the first
time head go to this part.I do blame him for because this is
your call as the to this pieceof it. But like, well,

(25:02):
I don't want to lose six footballgames later, so maybe I should go
ahead and lose one now. Becauseyes, we all love Teddy Bridgewater.
He's a great guy. I thinkhe is a tremendously good backup in somebody
who is like a valuable person tohave in your organization. But there's a
reason why he has never been ableto establish himself as an NFL starter.
And the Dolphins roster is not strongenough to eat like five or six games

(25:29):
against competitive teams with Teddy Bridgewater atthe hell like we have seen that team
before, the Teddy and the Okaysupporting cast. They're not embarrassing in the
god, but they're not good.So I mean it's unfortunate that the Dolphins.
I mean that you want to askthere's a weird question to be asked
here. I think where we say, like if the Dolphins hadn't started out

(25:52):
three and oh is this how thisgoes? Like is the foot off the
gas a little bit? Then dowe say, oh, we're not going
to take the risk. You know, if the Dolphins are a very respectable
one in two where they have losttwo close games in one one close game
and some pretty impressive contest. Doyou send two out there even under the

(26:12):
circumstances, Maybe you don't, butI don't know from a football perspective,
it just seems equally stupid and ina way less meaningful way. But and
you know, yet again this ideathat we're robbing Peter to pay Paul that's
going to come back to hunt youdown the road like in a really really
serious play in this case, Yeah, I mean, just treat it like

(26:34):
any other injury, right with likeJustin Herbert, like he probably shouldn't have
played on Sunday either, Yes,yes, exactly what is what is the
teacher man to fish equivalent? Like, you know, lose your starting quarterback
for one game, you lose onegame, lose your starting quarterback for a
season, you lose the whole season. You know, like what why are

(26:56):
you pressing around with this? Andit's it's kind of the same thing that
I had when they moved to theeighteen games here in seventeen game schedule,
eighteen week schedule, Like if youkeep doing then they want to go to
one more, right, they wantto have eighteen game, nineteen week schedule.
And my reaction for ten year andshoddy. I've been written about this

(27:17):
for as long as we've been workingtogether, you know, a decade more.
At some point, it's gonna turninto soccer, it's gonna turn into
hockey, it's gonna turn into basketball. Where you've got veteran days, you've
got veteran weeks, You've got playerswho are not the number one string player
starting and playing games because you justcan't expose all your best players to that

(27:38):
much full speed, full contact footballand have them expect to last that many
games, plus that many rounds ofplayoff games for that many months of the
year. You just you just runout of physical stamina, run out and
roll too many dice too many timesfor freak things like this to come up.

(28:00):
And I don't think the NFL reallywants that. I know they don't
want. You know, it's it'sa choice, right, If you keep
making more football games, if youkeep making more TV content, you run
the risk of either Teddy Bridgewater startslast night or Teddy Bridgewater comes in after
we watch two. I get partedoff. So I'm struggling because I don't

(28:22):
want to like medically speculate on timetablesbecause I'm not that dude, But I'll
clculate about sort of the football standpointand you know, the coaching sort of
either or because you had this builtin, you know, short week scenario
that made it very easy from againfrom more of a pr perspective as a

(28:44):
head coach, to be like,yeah, you know, if this was
a full, full on week,two would probably go. But you know
what, you know, it's ashort week schedule, got us, it's
gonna be teddy, he's got fourdays prepair. We'll see what we can
do. And I honestly think ona full week of preparation is the starter
that game is probably even a littlebit closer. Because it did not look

(29:06):
like you know, from the fromthe things that I saw again didn't want
watch the game live, but butwatch the highlights followed the game. You
know, it wasn't as if completelyoutmatch. The Dolphins were not, you
know, losing forty to nothing againstthe Bengals. The Bengals were still struggling
offensively for much of that game.So you had this built an excuse and

(29:26):
now what you have this sort ofthis or scenario like either you know,
maybe two is sits out a weekor two you know, because you got
the Jets coming on after this,so it's very easy to sort of say,
you know, yeah, you knowhe didn't pass you know protocol X,
Y or Z. Again, Um, well, if you know this,
we're a playoff game, he'd probablyplay, but you know we're gonna

(29:47):
within a fund to caution, he'sgonna sit out the Jets game too.
And so you're losing for those twoweeks and you go one on one.
Now you're sort of looking at theflip side of that, like maybe,
you know, maybe he sits outa while, maybe after what looks like
two cont in two weeks now insome serious neurological issues. You know,
is Scannon was negative for like majorbrain trauma, but it does not look

(30:10):
like he should be playing football anytimesoon. And you're gonna bring him back
in like two weeks against Aidan Hutchinson. You're gonna bring him up against you
know, the Alex Highsmith and theSteelers defense leaving the league in sacks.
You're gonna bring him up against ChicagoBears, who get up against who you
know, get the quarterback hurries andsacks and hits as much as anybody,
I don't think so. And nowyou're looking at maybe holding him out until

(30:33):
the bye and if you can gotwo and four or three and three over
that six game stretch, like that'sa win. And I just think,
again, I don't know medically howlong he has to sit, how long
he should sit. I know frommy perspective it does not look like he
should be playing football anytime soon.But from a coaching perspect when you're looking

(30:55):
at that, either or either Ican have the short term hit like you
were saying, maybe two games wherewe can maybe split them, or we
can give them hell with Teddy twogloves and see what we can do.
That is not a great situation,but the opposite of that. And this
is where as an NFL head coachsometimes simply going ball to the wall and

(31:19):
simply throwing your players out there againstall odds when they might be hurt to
win this game, like it's it'snot sprint. The NFL season is a
marathon, and you have to mitigaterisk for your players for your team because
you gotta win games in December,you gotta win games in January. And
to me, this was just ashort sighted idea from a football perspective.

(31:44):
Medically, I think we all arelooking at this from the outside in and
again with our or our fake Twittermedical degrees sort of saying, wow,
this should never have happened. ButI'm saying, even throwing that aside,
throwing personal care of two a tonof an old aside, if you are
a complete more early bank from awhole of a human being, you still
don't play tool lest nay because itwas the stupid thing to do. All

(32:07):
right, Samantha, do you wantanother app? Better? We would get
a wrap? No, No,I'm good, Okay, all right,
cool, Yeah, this is goingto be a truly big, big show
because I think we had over anhour of the other stuff. Okay,
that's good though, Yeah you yousaid a shaddy and I just I just

(32:30):
hope we can get to a placewith this where the NFL does not forget
the outrage that we had week in, week out, year and year out,
does not forget the lawsuits, thebillions and billions and billions that they
had to commit to this fund becausethat exists because we don't want to see
this. We don't want to seewhat happened on Thursday happen. We don't

(32:52):
want to see what happened on Sundayhappen. And as much as we love
the violence of these guys playing football, we want to see great stories like
two a Tonkovailoa. We want tosee great teams like the Dolphins. You
know, fun exciting teams play fun, exciting football. We do not want
to see these guys put in themeat grinder and have somebody turn around and

(33:14):
go next man up. That's notwhat puts us in the seats. That's
not what gets us to tune in. That's not what pays subscription fees.
All right, we have some billsto pay off our own. We'll get
back. I'll put it in aversion. We're gonna have our original big
topic, which teams are for realand which teams are not? And then
we will pick every game straight upand against the spread, just like we

(33:36):
always do every week, right hereon three and out, your National NFL
Podcast. Welcome to three and Out, your National NFL podcast, featuring three
sports media pros, me Tai Shelterfrom five to thirty eight, joined by
Samantha Bunting at NBC Sports and MichaelShoddy. All Right, guys, it
is time for our big topic thisweek. Last week it was panic button
or no, this week it's forreal or no? Are these teams for

(34:01):
real? Let's go. I'm iam the conductor of the tour train.
The Miami Dolphins are three and ozerowith wins over the Bills and the Ravens.
They are on pop right now inthe AFC. But are they for
real? Absolutely? Is it goingto stay? For real? Is it

(34:23):
going to sustain? Those are thequestions we gotta ask. Are they real
right now in the first quarter ofthe twenty twenty two NFL season. Absolutely?
They have one of the hardest schedules. They've come out of it as
one of the few undefeated teams inthe NFL, and they've looked fantastic doing
it. Um Is it a houseof cards? Maybe, but it doesn't

(34:45):
really look like it. The onething that I'm a little skeptical of is
that defense has been opportunistic but hasn'treally been really strong up front. I'm
gonna say this as we do ourpicks later, but they have not gotten
to the quarterback as much as youwould like a defense to get to the
quarterback. And so that's the onething that sort of concerns me is one

(35:07):
of the quote unquote top teams inthe NFL. But other than that,
this has been a perfect team sofar. Yeah, I agree, And
they're absolutely legit. I think thequestion is how legit are they for me?
Like, Okay, is this legitas in, hey, this is
definitely like a plucky wild card team, or are they legit as in,

(35:29):
could make a deep run in theplayoffs, could threaten Bills for the division?
Like That's kind of where I'm aton this. And I think that
despite beating the Bills had to hadwell, the Bills had a decimated defensive
roster in this game. I don'tactually think that Miami has it because of
what you said, Shottie, Ihave a lot of questions about that defense
ultimately to be able to keep upin the division, to be able to

(35:51):
make a deep run in the postseason. But like, are they like a
legit winning team that should make thepostseason even a really really rough AFC.
Yeah, I think so. Iabsolutely think so. Yeah. I of
course, again I was saying Ithought it was a team of adequacy as
opposed to team of destiny. Maybe, but they've come out and done everything

(36:14):
they needed to do, and twohas taken some big steps forward. I
think they're gonna have the offense toscore points against anybody. There's enough.
You know they've gotten through the roughpart of their schedule, right, you
know, they've got the Bengals thisweek on Thursday Night Football, and then
it's like Jets, Vikings, Steelers, Lions, Bears, Browns, Texans.

(36:37):
You know, you're probably looking atonly losing one or two games.
So you know, if you getto the buy and you're seven and two,
you know, it's it almost doesn'tmatter how you finished down the stretch
because you're you're gonna be in theplayoffs. You're gonna be in the mix.
Are you gonna be? I thinkyou know you guys are both driving
at it. Are you going tobe AFC champion? AFC eas champions,

(37:00):
are going to finish ahead of theBills? Are you going to win a
first round playoff game or host afirst round playoff game and win that game?
Because if you do, you know, that's a different conversation than hey,
we made it, We're glad we'rehere, versus we made it and
the AFC Championship is going to haveto come through us. It's two very

(37:21):
different levels of performance. And evenI the conductor of the TWA train.
I'm not ready to put them inthat shelf yet. How about the other
team in Florida surprisingly good Jacksonville Jaguarstwo and one and in pretty emphatic fashion,
Samantha. Are the Jacks for real? I think they are in the

(37:43):
sense that it's a great story.They're going to be way better than they
were a year ago. They're headedin the right direction. But are they
realism? Are they a competitor inthe AFC for the put seaton? I
don't think they're there yet. Ithink they've had some new you know,
we talked about being opportunistic. Ithink that's what they've been able to do,
and that's great for them. Andyou know, I love that Trevor

(38:06):
Lawrence is out from under Urban Meyer, and I think Doug Peterson is a
pretty good coach. But they havea long way to go. So I
mean, are they for real inthe sense that they're way way better than
they were a year ago? Certainly, and then maybe even then we thought
they would be. Yes, Butare they really part of like the upper
echelonic competitive teams in the AFC.I do not think so, not yet.

(38:30):
If I had to draw like athrough line from right now to my
expectations for the Jacksonville Jaguars at theend of this season. I would say
this is a team that can fightfor a wild card spot, maybe not
get a wildcard spot on a verytough AFC, but fight for a wild
card spot. And if they getto the playoffs, no one's gonna want

(38:52):
to face them. I mean,they are giving up twelve point seven points
per game. They are top tenin the NFL. They have like the
third most expected points from their rushingdefense in the NFL. Doug Peterson came
in as a guy who was goingto be the quarterback whisperer, as someone
who's going to fix Trevor Lawrence inthat offense, and what he has brought

(39:15):
is a team that, more sothan any other team in the NFL,
their coaching staff has the most playerexperience, but most guys on their coaching
staff who have played in the NFL, and they have that team absolutely right
from top to bottom. Now,do they have enough talent, No,

(39:35):
not yet, and I'm not sureif they're ever going to get there with
Trent Bulky at the helm. Butso far, everything they're doing from a
coaching perspective has worked, and Ithink if they get to the playoffs with
like nine ten wins, they're goingto win a playoff game. Yeah.
I'm excited for this and I thinkit's the return of Saxonville potentially. This
team is so far through three games, number two in pass rush win rate,

(39:59):
you know they are. I thinkthey're eighth in overall defensive efficiency.
This is a team that is puttingtons of heat on quarterbacks. They're playing
very well there number one against therun in all the traditional metrics, so
like fewest attempts against the US,yards allowed, fewest touchdowns allowed. This
is a team that's that's playing veryvery well in all phases of defense.

(40:21):
And they're getting good plays from TrevorLawrence. They're making, you know,
the explosive plays. They're being effectiveon offense. They're gonna get some wins
and the AFC South, I canbelieve at this point. And you know,
we talked last week about is ittime to hit the panic button for
the Colts? Is it time tohit the panic button for the Titans.
Well, those are the two teamsthey're gonna be competing with for the AFC

(40:43):
nor for the SC South. Sothey can get in. But I agree
with you guys, there's just waytoo many balanced, strong teams in this
conference for them to be much ofa threat beyond just getting there and being
happy to be there. On theother side of the bracket, the Eagles
are three and oh and flying highfor real. Yeah, I will say

(41:07):
what I said about the Eagles onthe last episode that as much as we're
going to continue to talk about anoffense that at every single level, every
single level of that offense is scary, including Jalen Hurtz, who I saw
for that Lions game specifically, butyou know, watching the tape from the

(41:28):
last couple of weeks since that Lionsgame, even when things break down,
even when he misses his first orsecond read, he is such a phenomenal
athlete that he can just make playswith his legs. It's almost and this
is a really bad overall comparison,but the way he extends plays is Verry
Roethlisberger esque, where all of asudden, like you have to you have

(41:50):
to cover for you know, nineten seconds in some plays because he's just
running around back there and trying toextend plays, and then he just takes
off and runs and he's the fastestguy in the fields. It's hard to
defend. But as much as wetalk about that offense, that great offensive
line, that huge stable of runningbacks, all of those receivers, the

(42:10):
defense is actually what makes this teamgood. Nick Sirianni has put together a
fantastic, fantastic defense, and it'scrazy to me to think that they still
have as much draft capital as anyonemoving forward. Yeah. I agree,
very very legit for you know,here, they haven't played the toughest schedule,
but I think that the manner inwhich we have seen them win is

(42:32):
pretty convincing regardless of that, andI think they're going to continue to do
so once they face tougher opponents.And like, look, guys, I
spent like half of this offseason likepraying to the football gods, like please
let Jaalin Hurts be good because Iwant him to be and he is.
He's really really legit. Yeah yeah, and it's like it's really impressive.
I mean it's not. It's partlybecause he is such a tremendous athlete and

(42:57):
is able to make plays with hislegs, but also like he's making the
reads, he's making a really reallygood decisions under press right as well.
So just a nice, well roundedplayer, which is exactly what they hated.
And that defense incredible. I meanNick Sirianni, who we like tried
to laugh out of town after hisfirst press conference like a year and a
half ago. We're like, listento this bozo. He's talking about plants

(43:19):
and flowers. Like turns out,Yeah, terrible public speaker, probably a
pretty darn good football coach. Yeah, Samantha, you that's right where I
was going, which I said onMonday, you know, and key takeaways
like Howie Rosman kind of vindicated here, but they Nick Sirianni, he was
like, you know, whenever youhave a GM go, I'm going to

(43:40):
hire a head coach who will comein agreeing to make my pick at quarterback
work, unlike this last guy whocouldn't you know ninety nine times out of
one hundred, that's a recipe fordisaster, because the truth is the GM's
pick at quarterback can't play, andit's not going to be an issue of
a head coach. Should then hecome out. Okay, I found this

(44:02):
guy, Nick Sirianni. He'll makeit work with Jalen Hurts and by god,
he has fantastic stuff, fun towatch. I love the success story
here so far, and again Ithink they will cruise to the NFC East
title Bucks Tampa Bay Bucket ears twoand one. Um, but not a

(44:23):
lot of confidence on my part.I don't know if you guys think,
I don't know, I don't know. What do you think, Samantha,
I? Yeah, is there asatter more like underwhelming team that was supposed
to be at the top of thepile like a couple of months ago,
ye segment time? I'm true?True? Right? Also, like,

(44:47):
but like, here's the thing,guys, who in that division is going
to get in front of them?Like what a like trash pile of a
division? True, the NFC isnot creat like to me, like what
this is starting to look like isalmost like it looks like Green Bay to
me. The team that like isnot very good. It is colossally overwhelming

(45:09):
that people consistently overrate and then wonderwhy they don't win any playoff games.
And it's like because they play ina garbage division where they have no competition,
and so this is like the newPackers, right, and they're like
a worst version of the Packers.Too, because they don't have Aaron Rodgers.
So but yeah, I mean it'sare they legit like technically no?

(45:30):
But are they going to win theirdivision? Probably? Yeah, They're almost
certainly going to win their division.And I think some of this is just
playing a bit of a waiting gameas well. There's a lot of negatives
that you can pull out about theBuccaneers, But when they start to get
some of that receiving coreback healthy,I think a lot of those negatives are

(45:50):
going to go away, including butnot limited to, some of the grips
with Todd Bulls early on. Youknow, is he the best game manager
on the planet? Clearly not.But is it hard to manage games when
you're a team built around an offenseand you have to win games with Vitava
dropping into coverage. No, it'sreally hard to manage games like that.

(46:12):
And so I think that there's probablygoing to be a point where we look
back and say, like, whywere we worried about this Buccaneers team,
Because they're going to end up witha bunch of you know, divisional and
conference wins, They're going to bedeep into the playoffs, and when they
are, you know, that's whentom Brady is typically at his best,

(46:35):
and I hate to just sort offall back on the trust Brady train,
but at the end of the day, he has fooled us more times than
not. Yeah, and the fivethirty eight slack chat this Monday, we
do a Monday morning slack chat andposted on the site, and you know,
that kind of came up Tom Bradything. And I keep being like,
I'm not going to be the oneto say it. You are not

(46:58):
gonna get me in print or ina hot Mike saying Tom Brady doesn't look
right. And this could be theyear he actually sucks. This could be
his far last year, This couldbe his Peyton Manning last year. Because
it could be. But until thatactually happens, I'm not betting on it

(47:20):
happening. I do think there area lot more systemic issues with the Bucks,
but you know, you guys mightbe right that I hope the Saints,
the Panthers, the Falcons, theseare three teams that the Bucks just
have too much talent to lose toomany times too and it could be that
they end up failing upward a littlebit. Speaking of hot messes of divisions,

(47:40):
I just put entire NFC North isthe entire NFC North for real?
Are you for real? Come on? The Packers just sabreta as you just
just posted like a super uninspiring winover the Bucks who just happened to packer
a little bit harder than the Packerson that day. The Vikings are two
in one and needed two double digitcomebacks to be the Lions? Who are

(48:07):
they the Lions? Is that agood win over a good team? Is
that a bad win over a mediocreteam? You know? Are the Lions
feisty year? Are they actually competent? And then of course there's the Bears,
who are two in one and againabout as ugly at two in one
as you can get. Is thisdivision for real? So to me,

(48:27):
this is one of those things thathappens when the top two teams in the
division are not nearly as good aspeople want to think they are, at
the bottom of the teams in thedivision are actually a lot better than anybody
thought that they were, and thenthey all clump up in the middle and
people are like, oh my goodness, it's gass. It's like, I
mean, it's a former AFC Northperson, like this is the AFC no
North every year. Yeah, lookslike this, and now the NFC North

(48:52):
does two Now like are the Bearis going to like fall off the back
of the wagon absolutely, like arethe Lions? And the bike is probably
closer than anybody would like to think, at least anybody in Minnesota would like
to think. I think that's alsotrue. And the Packers are going to
win this division, but they're thesame underwhelming thing that they always are,
right Like, they're just the teamthat is plenty good enough to run away

(49:15):
with a bad division that can't competewith the class of the conference later in
the postseason. But yeah, Imean it's interesting, right like to see
all of these come together, like, oh wow, the records and the
is notoriously terrible division are actually prettygood. But I don't think that's going

(49:37):
to mean a whole lot going forward, especially for the Bears. I want
to start with the Bears because oneof my favorite stats right now in football
is the Bears have blitzed like sixtimes this season or seven times a season.
They're tied for the second least blitzesand they have one of the highest
pressure rates in the NFL by everysingle metric. Like this is Matt Eberflus

(50:04):
to a t. And it's someof the you know, some of the
things that I said in the offseason about him being a really fantastic coaching
candidate are coming true. But again, just so bereft of talent. He's
going to have this team overachieving untilthe end of time. But I'm not
one hundred percent justin Fields is thatdude, And he's certainly not with this

(50:27):
cast of characters around him now.The defense also is pretty bereft of talent,
but doesn't seem to matter. Likethey're getting pressure to quarterbacks. They're
absolutely making life difficult for opposing offensesevery way shape or formed. The running
game looks fantastic, Like this teamis going to be a tough out,
but it's not going to be enoughto matter. So are they for real?

(50:49):
No? But are they really tough? Yeah? And sometimes that's enough.
That's That's where we're at with theLions. It's not where we're at
with Kevin, don't me, JerryO'Connell. This is a tough division in
that it looks chalk but I thinkthere's going to be some I think there

(51:14):
are going to be some surprising momentsin this division. When the Bears or
the Lions win games are not supposedto win, the Vikings and the Packers
drop some games they're not supposed todrop, and I think we're gonna be
talking about a real muddled race,even if it's not an inspiring one,
even at the end of the season. Yeah, I really wanted the Vikings

(51:37):
to be better. I thought theywould be a better overall than they have
been. Obviously it's not a teamwithout flaws, But I was kind of
ready for the Vikings to surprise people, take some people by surprise, and
you know, maybe jump up aheadof the Packers, and you know,
they if you look at some ofthe early strength metrics that I like to
use, which is still very earlyin the season, three weeks is not

(52:00):
really enough to kind of train thesenumbers. Like simple rating system has Eagles,
Lions, and Vikings one two threein the NFC based on their results
against the other teams that they've played, right, Like, the suggestion is
the Eagles might be the best teamin the NFC. The Lions have played
the Eagles, and the Vikings theVikings have played the you know, like

(52:21):
like these could be really strong teamsor not. But I think overall,
just down to down. We haven'tseen that consistency from the Vikings. I
expected the Packers to fall back thisyear. I expected the Lions to take
a step up. I still haveno idea what's going to happen with the
Bears, because their trenches are playingmuch better than I expected, and that
hasn't translated into better Justin Field's performance. And until I see more from Justin

(52:45):
Fields, I don't think they're goingto be I don't think they're going to
be super competitive. And I thinkwe do have that thing where this goes
from, Oh, is this ameat grinder of a division where they're all
tearing each other down? Probably not. You know, I don't know that
more than one team is going tomake it out of this division unless you

(53:06):
know AFC South and and the AFCI'm sorry, the NFC South and the
NFC East out pathetic them, andand so I my hopes are low really
for the entire division. I don'tthink any of them are for real until
I see more. All right,guys, let's talk. Let's double up.
Last week we did panic button.This week we're doing for real.

(53:27):
We got a couple of teams thatare now switched from panic button to for
real. The Cowboys are two andone after a very uninspiring one and one
start shoddy. Are the Cowboys forreal? No? No, they're not.
Probably slightly better than the Giants,but that's not saying much and no,

(53:50):
no like no, just no like. Congrats to Cooper Rush for doing
what you did in primetime. Butit wasn't that firing, It wasn't that
impressive. Just stop, just stopright. Yeah, there's nobody swings wider
in public opinion than the Cowboys.They're either the best team on the planet

(54:12):
or the worst team on the planet. And guess what, it's not possible
to be the best team on theplanet with Cooper Rush at the help,
or Mike McCarthy for that matter.So I look like the only thing I
think that feels like. If youwant to just find something that's for real
about this, it's the fact thatthey haven't had nearly as bad of a
drop off as I thought that theywould without Dak. They're like the same

(54:35):
underwhelming roughly five hundred team with CooperRush out there for now. I don't
actually expect that to last, butit doesn't change anything. Like I felt
like this was an underwhelming team thatdidn't really have a great shot. Team
in the division might sneak into theplayoffs as a wildcard. Now I feel
like, yeah, the NFC,sure there's some room there for a team

(54:58):
like Dallas if they can keep ittogether to sneak in and get embarrassed Week
one of the postseason. But Idoubt it. I don't. I just
I can't buy this. I'm sounderwhelmed by everything in Dallas except for Michael
Parsons that I just can't do it. Yeah, Michael Parsons is for real,
and some of the analytics folks youknow, back channels that I've been

(55:20):
talking with, it's like the numbersare unbelievable from him, and we could
be talking about another defensive Player ofthe Year type campaign. We could be
talking about, you know, someof the comparisons. The real argument is,
is it too much to compare himto Lawrence Taylor? And it's it's
it's really not at this point,given the way that he is playing and

(55:43):
the way his career could go.But I don't think that that's going to
translate to real world wins and lossesfor enough for it to matter for the
Cowboys, and there's one other team. We're a panic button last week.
Now they're for real or not?The Broncos are two and one? Are
the Broncos now having hit the panicbutton? Suddenly for real? I okay?

(56:09):
They're like this is like the world'sluckiest scavenger birds. Like if you
were like a vulture who was likelousy at vulturing, bad eyesight, right
slow on the uptake, but youjust happen to like part yourself in a
tree on a block where people kepthitting raccoons over and over and over again,

(56:30):
and you're like, oh, score, I don't even have to move.
I'm in the best spot ever andI have no skill at this.
So it's like, yeah, Imean they're vulturing wins from teams they should
not be able to beat who aren'tactually very good, and yet still they
shouldn't be able to be able tobeat them, Like they're not going anywhere.
Like I would be more likely tobelieve you if you told me I

(56:52):
don't think they're going to win anothergame after this, Then if you told
me you thought they were going tobe a five hundred team. Yeah,
they lead the league with thirty penalties. This is a poorly coached team with
a poorly devised offense. They arequote unquote letting Russ cook without the write

(57:13):
ingredients. This needs to be likea Javante Williams led team right now,
and they don't see it. Idon't think they're strong enough to make that
happen. They spend all this moneyon Russ without a real plan to use
him, and without a good coachingstaff to put around him. Defensively,

(57:34):
They're going to keep themselves in gameslonger than they should. But this is
a five hundred team. I don'teven know if it's a five hundred team.
I mean that the defense is fantastic. I give the talent wise,
and they did the thing against theforty nine ers. But I'm really concerned
with what I'm seeing out of RussWillson, not just what I'm seeing with

(57:54):
what Nathaniel Hackett is getting out ofRuss Willson. I'm ancerned about what I'm
seeing about from ruts Wilson himself.Like, I just don't see the plays
being made that I expect him tomake. I don't see the quality they
expect, and I don't see thequality of the Broncos need to be consistently
competitive in the AFC and in theAFC West. All right, guys,

(58:15):
that is our big topic. Weare gonna pick every single NFL game.
We get back right here on threeand out your National NFL podcast. All
right, We're back on three andout your National NFL Podcast. We are
gonna pick every single NFL game againstthe spread and straight up. We've got
this whole Week four slate and we'regonna pick all these games right now.

(58:38):
We're gonna start off with a wildone, guys, Thursday Night Football.
The Miami Dolphins left Miami today toget there, you know, today Wednesday
morning, trying to get to Cincinnati, racing the hurricane out of Florida.
Basically, then they're going to playthe Bengals in prime time and they are

(59:00):
four point underdogs as we speak again, and we're getting the lines care to
see at pickwatch dot com. Ourfriends at Pickwatch's always been awesome. This
is this is a very interesting line, and I'm wondering how much the hurricane
is factoring into this. Samantha Dolphinsfour point underdogs at the Bengals. Who
you got? This kind of stuffalways makes me nervous because I look at

(59:22):
that, and I think we'll justgive me Miami, like that's the easiest
set ever, right, And thenyou kind of take a step back and
go, what is going on herethat I'm not thinking about? So I,
yeah, the whole like we livein a place where there's a hurricane
going on, even though we're notplaying their thing is really not it for
me. But I do wonder alittle bit about the Bengals sneaking back in

(59:45):
there, so maybe some overconfidence onMiami's part. We'll see. We don't
know if Uas can cost even thoughthey say he is not, I'm not
sure I buy it. There's somefactors you's there as well. But I'm
still gonna take Miami here, butI'm a little bit nervous about it.
As much as we've talked about tuhand the Dolphins offense, they've scored twenty

(01:00:09):
seven points per game. The Bengalsare only a couple of spots lower in
the rankings at twenty one points agame, and that's a pretty big margin
earlier in this early in the season. But it's not like Joe Burrow and
company can't score points. And whatworries me and I mentioned this earlier when

(01:00:30):
we talked about the Dolphins, theone thing you know you can do against
the Bengals is apply pressure to thatoffensive line into Joe Burrow. But the
Dolphins have not shown they can consistentlydo that yet, and they've played some
really good offensive line, so Iget it. But at the same time,
this could be a real trap gamein primetime on Thursday. We've seen

(01:00:52):
a ton of those recently, andit might just come down to how good
of a coach is Mike McDaniel,because you know, early in his coaching
career, they're throwing the speed bumpin, they're throwing this wrench into the
works with the hurricane, and nowhe's going on a Thursday night, which
is already short prep. So tome, I'm gonna take the favorite here,

(01:01:16):
both straight up and against the spread, because I just think the Bengals
have been in situations like this beforeand I haven't seen this Dolphins team do
that. And the thing about too, it does scare me just enough that
he if he comes out at lessthan one hundred percent, this can be
a really rough game offensively for theDolphins. Yeah, and it's tough again

(01:01:37):
for me, you know, theteam strength metrics that are most predictive that
I like to look at, thatI have that I trust and have borne
out over the years. Little earlyto start looking at those right up,
Dolphins are so far ahead of theBengals in everything like yards per play Offensively,
the Dolphins are third and the Bengalsare last thirty second. You know,

(01:02:01):
it's it's very very hard for meto look at this and come up
with a rational case for you know, other than Tah cannot go right.
That's that's that's really the only thingis if Tua can't play or Twa comes
out and is horrible and they haveto bench him. Um, that's really

(01:02:22):
the only scenario I can see becauseotherwise the Dolphins just playing too much better
than the Bengals and home field advantageis not not a big enough factor here.
So I'm gonna take the Dolphins.But like a Samantha, I'm I'm
stressed about it, and especially I'mgonna see I'm gonna watch this line.
Is it four? Is it threeand a half? Is it gonna move
more? Um? This is definitelyone that like if you're playing in a

(01:02:45):
pick contest and you don't have tohave them in before the Thursday night games.
I would not I would not lockthat in um Vikings minus three three
point favorites at the New Orleans Saints, Shaddy, who you got? Is
this one of like the most underratedrivalries in the NFL. I'm gonna take

(01:03:05):
the home team here because the Saintsget up for every single time they play
the Vikings. Like since Brett Farrwas in Minnesota, this has just been
like just teams and colors and fanbases and coaching staffs and guys in the
front offices who don't like each othervery much and we don't talk about like
the storied Like yeah, but I'mgonna take like some hometown pride again.

(01:03:30):
The Jamis Winston thing scares me nothaving a healthy quarterback, But I can
just see after a pretty rough dayagainst Detroit, Kirk Cousins laying an absolute
lay against the Saints defense. Yeah, I'm right there with you, Shaddy.
Like every time this matchup shows upon a schedule, I'm like,
oh, why am I excited aboutthis? And then I think back to

(01:03:51):
all the like weird things that havehappened between these two teams like that,
just like get is stating playoff gamewhere we had the very controversial College of
Reps and let them out of thepostseason. Just really interesting for two teams
that don't really have much to dowith each other like geographically or historically,
that there's a lot of animosity orwhich is actually kind of cool and fun.

(01:04:14):
But yeah, I have the samethought as you, Shoddy that like
Kirk Cousins was like the ultimate barometerfor mediocrity in the NFL, Like what
is the baseline acceptable standard for aquarterback? Is like absolutely like put it
together and came through a week ago, which tells me that, you know,
the law of averages says that Kirkis due for like a really really

(01:04:39):
kind of tough pay this week.So yes, broken Jamis or not,
I think New Orleans can be buttogether well enough and what I think will
be a surprisingly low scoring game hereinteresting. I just say, yeah,
I'm actually gonna think the Vikings again. I just think they're too much better
team, too much more talent,and jamis poor. Broken Jamis. That

(01:05:00):
dude is struggling out there, andI don't think it's going to get better
anytime soon. Browns minus one anda half going to Atlanta. Brown's one
and a half point favorites Falcons.I mean, what do you even make
of the Falcons at this point,Samantha, do you make anything of the
Falcons at this point against the Browns? I mean, this is exactly the

(01:05:24):
kind of game where everybody in Clevelandrelaxes and then they lose because the Browns
do something stupid. Yeah, that'sa thing to keep in mind. Like,
mostly I consider these kind of Brownmatchups like stay aways, because like,
of course they should win, theyare the better team, but also
like you know, Brown's gonna Brown'sright, so like you would never catch

(01:05:46):
me laying money on this one.I'll take Cleveland because they think they are
the greater talent, but I wouldvery much costume that this is exactly the
kind of situations where the Browns walkinto it and do something like spectacularly weird
and awful and managed to lose afootball game. I don't know what to
make of the Falcons either, becausethey've got like this really like plucky adjacent

(01:06:11):
aura around them to bring that turnback. But their defense is really bad,
like really bad. They have thissecond worst expected points for their rushing
defense, their average depth of targetwhen they're targeted on passes is just in
like insane. Let me pull thatup quick. Yeah, it's like eight

(01:06:33):
point six yards per pass attempting,you know, against them. So they're
giving up the long ball, they'regiving up rushes. Cleveland should be able
to walk in here and just dicethem up. But again, you know,
when you've got Ris set at quarterbackand a defense or sorry, an
offense that like hasn't really done muchmore than you know, overachieved without Deshaun

(01:06:58):
Watson, like, this should bea very easy game for the Browns.
GRAMM right there with you, Samantha. I think this line is so close
because we're waiting to sort of seethis uber talented Browns roster that we all
said would be, you know fine, and I think they've been fine,
but we're we're sort of waiting tosee them apply pressure two teams in a
way without a quarterback that I don'tknow is reasonable in today's NFL, and

(01:07:24):
I think that might come back tobite them in this one. So I'm
picking the Browns, but I thinkthis could be a close game, and
this could end up again being abit of a trap game because the Falcons
have stayed really tight in games likethis I think they're just a very well
coached team that is believing that they'rebetter than they actually are. I should
have mentioned probably no Mile Garrett inthis one too, just sort everything in

(01:07:46):
case anyone's not aware. Yeah,that's gonna make a difference. I already
had put down the Falcons just becausekind of like what Shaddy said that they're
playing tight, they're playing close games, they're winning and losing right at end,
and that coin can that coin canflip either way. And I don't
trust the Browns enough to to makeit enough of a difference early to keep

(01:08:09):
them out of it late Commanders gettingthree points three point underdogs at the Dallas
Cowboys, Shoddy, do you whodo you like here? I don't like
anyone here, but I'm going topick Cowboys because they're gonna They're gonna win,
just like they won against the Giants. This is going to be almost

(01:08:30):
a carbon copy of that game,because I trust Carson Wentz only slightly more
than I trust Danny Dimes, whichis not at all. And yeah,
that's literally one of those like Itrust you as far as I can throw
you, and I can just throwCarson Wentz a teency bit farther like that
is this is this is a roughmatch. I think the Commanders are gonna
get absolutely you know, blitzed outof their mind. Uh you know,

(01:08:55):
both during the game and then certainlyafter the game when they're drowning their sorrows
in their mall liquor of choice.This is a terrible matchup. Commanders and
the Cowboys are gonntinued to be thismirage where they're winning with a pretty stellar
pass rush. It's not just MichaelParsons, but it's a lot of Michael
Parsons dudes like lining up everywhere onthe defense. But DeMarcus Lawrence has also
been really good this season. Andif you could just put up like ten

(01:09:19):
fifteen points against the Commanders, they'renot going to be able to score those
against you. Yeah, Dallas.All they have to do is not screw
up, right, Like you canget out there and play just pretty okay
football and change you said. That'sexactly That's where I'm going with right,

(01:09:42):
Like the only reason like every timeI think that about the Cowboys, I
think, oh no, they're inso much trouble. But like, is
there anyone on the planet whom Itrust to do their job at it,
but we less than Carson Wentz.We're probably not, like, I don't
know, I don't think there's anythingworse out there, guys. So yeah,
Michael Parson's coming at him. Imean, the Dallas defense has been

(01:10:05):
at least better than adequate, andCarson Wentz, I mean, we're going
to get at least like one ortwo like the Throad to Nowhere, right,
the interception that just ooh, where'sthat going? There's nobody anywhere near
It happens every game, gonna happenin this one, he performs so poorly
under pressure. So yeah, Imean I say it with a caution,

(01:10:26):
like all they have to do isknot screw up, which is a pretty
tall order your Dallas. But atthe same time, I mean, you
can't fight Carson Wentz, right,So I'll take the Cowboys. Yeah,
I'll take the Cowboys too. AndI don't know if it's too trolly to
just say quarterback play, but yeah, that's truly enough, just truly enough.
Seahawks four and a half point underdogsat the Detroit Lions. This is

(01:10:54):
this is a fascinating one. Lionsare you know being made favorites a couple
of times here and out of thefirst four weeks, and they keep beating
the spread. Samantha, what doyou think I'll take the Lions here.
I think they are a more talentedteam, and I think they are a
better coach team, And anyway,game Campbell had to kind of a rough
one at the end of the gamelast week, but there are a lot

(01:11:15):
of things about what she does thatI think can kind of put them ahead
of a peak Carol coach team rightnow. They also just have a much
much higher ceiling. So yeah,I mean, again, a little bit
of caution anytime these teams where wekind of don't really know where to go
with them, and the Seahawks creditthat I'm looking better than we thought they
would be. Certainly they look likerelatively competent, but it's in Detroit.

(01:11:40):
Maybe I make a different pick ifthis one's on the road, that it's
not, I'll take the Lions.Yeah, I'm right there too. I
think I've picked the Lions reservedly justabout every week about and I'm going to
go back to that. Well,they're injury bug concerns me. I feel
like every other day I'm looking ata really important player for the Lions going

(01:12:01):
on to either injured reserve or seasonending or all of this stuff. They
desperately need to get some of theseguys healthy or to you know, find
there's no replacement for Jasey Walker.There's no replacement for Frank Mitzky right now,
and there's not going to be.So I think this game ends up
being close. But if you rewindthe clock like three or four years ago,

(01:12:26):
this would have been like a careerday sort of game for Geno Smith,
like the Lions were perfect for that, like a backup quarterback or a
backup running back. But at allthe like the the you know, storied
days of contracts earned against the DetroitLions defense, This isn't that. And
I think Gino Smith is going tohave a pretty rough day even against an

(01:12:46):
injured Detroit Lions secondary. And Ithink this could end up being a bit
of a statement game for a coachingstaff that that's really taking ownership for losing
that game last week. Yeah,I agree on all accounts. Plus I
just ninkolids for the better team.DeAndre Swift missing could hurt, Tracy Walker
missing could hurt, but I believethat Seahawks just do not have enough offensive

(01:13:12):
talent to make them pay. Titansthree and a half point underdogs at the
Indianapolis Colts. Shaddy, who doyou like here? I'm really tempted to
take the Titans, really tempted.I will actually take them against the spread.
But the Colts showed us last weeksort of the vision of what this

(01:13:34):
team is supposed to be and arethey going to be that team every week?
No, they can't protect Matt Ryan. I've seen sort of disparate opinions
on social media, like it isMatt Ryan trash? Where is Matt Ryan
like the best quarterback on the planetfor being able to still get something done
in this offense. I think theColts are probably getting healthier at the right

(01:13:58):
time, which feels weird to sayin Week four, but they're getting some
some offensive talent back, and Ithink that's going to be enough to win
this one. But I do think, you know, the old AFC South
slugfest. I think it's going tobe close, and I think it's gonna
be a low scoring game that theColts win. Yeah, I think this
one's probably going to get a littlebit ugly, But I'm fairly convinced that

(01:14:24):
after what we saw a week ago. The Colts looked like a really really
different team when Matt Ryan actually hassomebody to throw to, so that was
impressive. I thought their defense dida really nice job against Kansas City a
week ago, despite the Chiefs tryingto give that game away. But you
know, the Titans aren't the Chiefsguys. Ryan Daniel is not Badrick Mahomes,

(01:14:45):
So I think the Colts defense canhold up plenty well enough to give
an offense. It's still kind offiguring out an opportunity to get out there
and win a division game that well, both teams need to win it,
but the Colts I think having amore re list chance of staying on top
of this division, and the Titansdo more of a must win for them,
and I think they got him.Yeah. I really don't believe in

(01:15:12):
either of these teams at this point, but I'm gonna take the Colts that
I guess. Here's what I'll do. I'll take the Titans against the spread,
but I'll take the Colts straight up. I think the Colts win the
game at home they kind of needit, and the Titans, I don't
know that either of these teams isgoing to score enough to make the gap
very big. I think the Titansare going to keep it close. That

(01:15:33):
three and a half is big tome. I can very much see the
Colts winning by a field goal,So that is what I will pick.
Bears plus three at the New YorkFootball Giants. We have brought up the
Bears and the Giants repeatedly already inthis episode. Samantha, who do you
like? No one? This feelsterrible, you guys, I like,

(01:15:58):
I hate this. I feel likethe Bears are so much worse than they
appeared to be in The Giants cannever take advantage of good opportunities, and
that's what I think. It's agood opportunity for the Giants. So I'm
gonna go with the Giants here becauseI think that they're the better team right
now. But it's close. Iwait, what did you tell me the
line? Was it three exactly?Yeah? Three exactly? Oh? No,

(01:16:25):
oh, that's terrible. I thinkthat. Okay, Um, you
know what, I'll just I'm gonnago Giants, Just going Giants, Okay.
I don't want to get Samantha introuble, but this feels like one
of those games where some initial scheduleprojections came out and this was like a
Sunday night football matchup, and someonefrom NBC just like, no, absolutely

(01:16:46):
not, like we will not bedoing I can neither confirm nor denied.
This just feels like the worst possiblegame, and I'm just glad America doesn't
have to watch it. I trustJustin Fields very little. I trust him
more than I trust the Giants offense, and so that's where I'm gonna go.

(01:17:08):
I think this is a let's bepositive. I think this is gonna
be a really well coached game.I think I like what Brian Dable is
doing. I love what Maddie Brouflusis doing. The just talent is not
there on these two rosters yet,and I'm not one hundred percent sure either
team is going to get their longterm but I think this is gonna be

(01:17:30):
a really low scoring I think it'sgonna be really sloppy. I think this
is going to be a game that'sthat's one essentially buy the Bears defense,
and I don't honestly think it's goingto be that close, Like this is
a very small spread and I'm justpicking the Bears to win, like buy
a touchdown or more because this isgoing to be I think a really rough
day for Danny Dimes. I'm pickingmultiple turnovers in this game. Gets ugly,

(01:17:56):
Yeah, I ugly is definitely whatI'm betting on, potentially the under.
I didn't check and see what thetotal is at UM, but I'm
I'm gonna take the Bears here atleast to cover UM. I think you
can keep it close. I thinkthe game is going to be close.
I think it is going to beugly, and I think the offensive line
play might make the difference. Jaguarsgetting six and a half at the Philadelphia

(01:18:21):
Eagles two of our could they befor real teams? Shaddy? Who do
you like here? I will takethe Eagles to win, but I'm taking
the Jaguars again that that feels likea disrespectful line. And I don't know
if if betting lines get posted him. I think it's actually against the rules
to post those in locker rooms.But that is bulletin board material if I

(01:18:44):
ever saw it. Um. Ialso like the dogp revenge game scenario here.
I think he's gonna have that teampretty geared up, and I think
a you keep the ball out ofJalen hurts his hands with a rushing attack.
It's been very good. And Ihonestly believe if any coach is ready
to like scheme up something to stopJalen Hurts, it's probably this coaching staff.

(01:19:11):
And so I'm not saying they're goingto stop him or even really slow
him down, but I think they'regonna keep the ball out of his hands.
They're going to mitigate some of thethings that he does really, really
well, and I just think thatdefense is going to have a field day.
All that said, the Eagles arejust too good. The Eagles are
gonna win. But I think thisone stays close. If I'm Don Peterson,
like right now today, this ismy super Bowl for this season,

(01:19:33):
right like, I'll show you Howiebros Man. But yeah, the Eagles
are too good. I think thisis the easiest pick a week all week.
Eagles to win, Jaguars to cover, y'all. I'll be right there
in that boat with you, guys. It's a huge, huge number for

(01:19:53):
a team that's playing very, verywell. Six and a half points,
and the Eagles are scoring tons ofpoints and winning, but they're also allowing
a lot of points. I'm rightthere. Jets plus three and a half
at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Samantha,who you got? Oh? The Steelers
as underwhelming as the Mitch Shrubisky ledPittsburgh Steelers are. The Jets are really

(01:20:15):
really bad. I mean, likereally bad. I've watched a lot of
Jets football this season, and itis just absolutely horrendous. Zach Wilson knows.
Zach Wilson, I don't think itmatters. Steelers just purely by being
like a competent organization easily come outon top of this one. It absolutely
does not matter. In fact,when I saw the news just come across

(01:20:36):
to my Bleach Report app that he'sexpected to play, I'm actually wondering if
it moves the line in the otherdirection because I almost trust, I agree
with you, Yeah, almost trustJoe Flackamore against a really tough Steelers defense.
Now it's not the Steelers defense becausethere's not t J. Watt.
But at the same time, I'mgonna flip that around, and I think

(01:21:00):
the Jets defense, which has reallybeen what has allowed them to operate this
season, I don't know if they'regoing to have the success they want against
a Pittsburgh team that that's really overachievedin the trenches this season, So I'm
gonna pick the Steelers here and comfortablyso j E. T S absolutely not.

(01:21:21):
There's no way I'm taking the Jaguarsin this spot. Bills minus three
at the Baltimore Ravens. Yes,oh man. I love all these hot
AFC teams, just smashing them uptogether like kids with action figures. Shoddy
whose head falls off when these twoget smashed together? Going Ravens here,

(01:21:46):
who do you remember like the RexRyan days? And I say that like
both sides of the equation, butif you remember, yeah, like Bill's
Ravens, you used to be likea three seven slug match or like a
nine six, a twelve four,Like this was just crazy, crazy defensive

(01:22:13):
games. This could end up beinglike forty two thirty five. Lamar Jackson
poses such an interesting matchup problem,and the Bills have certainly seen him enough
that it's not like they don't don'thave a Scout import on him. But
the Bill struggled against two h anda lot of the same things that that

(01:22:38):
TUA does well. Lamar Jackson doesbetter. So give me the Ravens in
this one. I think it's gonnabe close. I think it's gonna be
a high scoring affair. The overunder set at like fifty one right now,
and I'm gonna smash that over.I think smash it. I'm gonna
mash it. And I think it'sgonna be a really good game. And

(01:22:58):
this is one that I should bewatching. Oh yeah, love be over
on this one, Love be overhere. But I look, with respect
to Eagles Jaguars, this is thebest game you're going to see this week.
I think it's going to be fantasticand it's close. I think it's
gonna be wild. I think there'sgonna be a ton of scoring. The
Ravens defense continues to make me veryvery nervous in terms of underperformance and roster

(01:23:25):
issues, and the Bills of course, still dealing with a lot of injury
problems on the defensive side of theball, though I think high scoring affair.
Totally agree with you, Shadi.Probably one team edges the other.
I'm in a lean Bills because stilltrush trash down just a little bit more
than Lamar j Acton. But likethe Martin is so small here. Oh,
I can't wait for this game.I'm so psyched. Yeah, it's

(01:23:47):
gonna be a fantastic game, andI have to have to have to ride
a team of destiny. I willtake the Ravens and especially getting points.
You know, again, technically mythree at Baltimore means it's it's a neutral
on a home you know, that'sstraight up on a neutral field. But

(01:24:08):
I feel like you're getting the betterteam points here. And I know that's
a spicy take, but it's mypick Chargers minus four and a half at
the Houston Texans, Samantha, whodo you got? Oh, I will
very unenthusiastically take the Chargers here.I mean, credit to the Texans,
They've been competent, adjacent, Iguess we'll say, but in the churches

(01:24:31):
are just I mean all the issueswith Herbert aside and the fact that I
continue to have some readibly strong reservationsabout the coaching staff there, there's too
much talent on this team. Ijust I don't think so. I think
that the Chargers are going to beable to sneak by at this one.

(01:24:51):
With all due respect and apologies tomy new thirty third team teammate Chase Daniel
who's just joined our roster, I'mgoing to Texans on this one. I'm
gonna go Texans. I think theinjuries are piling up for the Chargers.
This is a really tough opponent.I think the you know, we've talked

(01:25:18):
about the Chargers defensive backfield, wetalked about their path rush. They're susceptible
against the run, especially when whenyou're talking depth, when when you're talking
about some of those guys getting tiredor being rolled out of games. And
we know the Texans are going torun right at Is Davis mill Is gonna
have a fantastic day? Probably not, but I don't think he needs to.
I think he just needs justin Herbert, who you know, doesn't have

(01:25:41):
protection, doesn't have all of hisweapons, and doesn't have all of his
physical abilities right now. They justneed to keep him in check. And
I think they can. I thinkthat defense can. And again, Lovey
Smith has his team playing at ahigh level. I've never been a huge
Lovey Smith fan, dating back along long way, but he was the
perfect coach for this team. Well, I mean maybe David Culley was the

(01:26:04):
perfect coach for this team too,but they got rid of him. Didn't
love me Smith. He's doing areally good job and I don't think the
Texans are gonna win many of thesegames this season, but they're catching the
Chargers at the right time. Yeah, I agree. I see this line
minus four and a half on theroad for Chargers team that is beat up
on both sides of the ball.Texans are playing well. I will take

(01:26:26):
the Chargers to win this game becausethey need the win, but I will
take the Texans against the spread Cardinalsplus two at the Mighty Carolina Panthers.
Can this cat catch this bird?Shoddy? I want to pick the Panthers

(01:26:47):
here so bad. The Cardinals blitzmore than anyone in the NFL, and
I feel like that could end upbeing a really good day for the Panthers
receivers because the Panthers receivers are reallystruggled. I've got like numerous Panthers receivers
scattered throughout different fantasy leagues, andI think I caught them all this week.

(01:27:09):
Like it wasn't like they were mytop guys drafted. But it's like
DJ Moore was just sitting there atthe end of some of those rounds and
I was like, well, I'mgonna I'm gonna do it. Robbie Anderson
like towards the end of the draft, and I'll take a flyer on him.
They're all terrible, and Christian McCaffreyjust sort of showed last week that
he can take over games. Ireally do want to pick the Panthers,
but the Cardinals are just such abetter team, even on the road.

(01:27:30):
They're very flawed. They're very,very flawed, and I think the Panthers
will keep this one close, butthat line is so tight. I'm just
gonna pick the Cardinals straight up andagainst the spread. I think they're the
more talented team. But I willnot be surprised at all if the Panthers
went this one. Yeah. Idon't like this at all because this matchup
is like two teams that I feelvery like vindictive towards right now, like

(01:27:55):
one of you is performing the waythat you should be. I'm mad at
you. I'm not taking and thenthey face each other and it's like,
oh, you've gotta take somebody.It doesn't feel like I don't. I'm
not getting tie vibes off of this, Like I don't think they're going to
tie, so um. I Yeah, it's really really hard for me to
take the Panthers here. I thinkI've just been more underwhelmed by the things

(01:28:17):
that have gone right for them andmore concerned about the things that are going
wrong for them that I am withthe Cardinals. Both of these teams are
very problematic. But I'm going totake the Cardinals both straight up and against
the Scribe. I'm gonna take thePanthers, I am, And I said,
you know, a lot of mystrength metrics don't look you know,

(01:28:40):
aren't super super reliable after only threeweeks of data. But the Cardinals are
like in the bottom of all ofthem simple rating system DVOA yards per play
through three games. They are justmiserable. And the Packers are middle of
the pack. M you know,I I have my own assessment of these

(01:29:00):
two teams talent and especially the ceilingfor the Cardinals is much much higher.
But right now, in this spot, I will take I'll take Carolina Patriots
getting nine and a half points.That I'm I'm I'm mistaed. I'm double
checking this because that is an enormousnumber. Yes, the Packers, I'm

(01:29:23):
nine and a half point favorites athome against the New England Patriots. Samantha,
who you got not the Patriots?Yeah, the Mac Jones list Patriots.
I do not excite me. ThePatriots have a lot of problems anyway,
and now they have more. SoYeah, I think the only question

(01:29:46):
here is is nine and a halftoo big? In from like an academic
standpoint, the answer is absolutely yes. But like looking at the way that
the Patriots have performed lately now withouteven anything at quarterback again, stay like
extremely competitive Packers team, Like Ithink I'm going to take the Packers and
say they'll cover that. Okay,all right, I'm right there too.

(01:30:12):
Um, Brian Hoyer might be theworst backup quarterback in the league up there,
like he is there for familiar toreasons only this is like this is
the Josh McCown just times four thousand, Like this is he should not be
in the NFL to be clear,To be clear, you mean like divided

(01:30:36):
by four thousand, this is onefour thousandth of Josh. Yes, what
I'm is like the guys who signedJosh McCown just because they knew who he
was. This is that like tobe for the nth degree, because it's
almost like, hey, we needa backup quarterback, get me a list

(01:30:57):
of names, and they got BillBelichick a list of names of really talented
guys and threw Brian Hoyer on therelike as a joke, and it was
the only name he recognized. Sothat's where they signed. He should not
be in the NFL. I thinkthe Packers defense is going to have a
field day. I almost like,I almost overthought this one in my head
because I was like, well,you know, with Lawyer, you know,

(01:31:18):
you know they're gonna double down onthe rushing attack. It's still a
good offensive line in the Patriots world, like they could probably put together a
pretty solid rushing game against this Packersteam, and I think that's true.
But the Patriots defense is so freakingporus against the run. Aaron Jones might
have two thousand yards in this gamealone. This will not be a super

(01:31:42):
high scoring affair because I think thePatriots literally will just line up, know
they're better hand the ball to AaronJones like twenty three times. AJ Dillon
will get it like eighteen nineteen times, and they're gonna win walking away.
I'm taking them straight up against thespread. Strong wrong, but I believe
Brian Hoyer hashtag spartan dog is gonnado enough. It's gonna do enough to

(01:32:09):
maybe put six points up on theboard while the Packers scored, you know,
fourteen, something like that. Idon't believe in the Packers even a
little tiny bit. And as badas the Patriots have been, I just
cannot bring myself morally to lay nineand a half points against a Bill Belichick
coach team. I just can't doit. Broncos plus two and a half

(01:32:32):
at the Raiders. I think theless said about this gave the better But
Shaddy, who do you like here? I'm gonna go Raiders. I don't
love it. Myth of the playerteam meeting or the player led team meetings
is gonna wear it's ugly head inthis one. Raiders just had one.

(01:32:54):
Whether they get right or not.Following it, I probably could care less.
But right now they're the better team. I think they're a super flawed
team, but right now they're thebetter team. And the Broncos looked terrible.
Yeah, Raiders have been unlucky.The Broncos have been unbelievably lucky when
you look at it against the talentlevel that's there. I'm going Raiders here

(01:33:15):
all day, same same double extra, same Chiefs. Two point favorites at
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Samantha,Oh, wait, is that the Sunday
Night It? Sure? Is it? Sure? I forgot to write it
down, but I was like,hold on a minute, all right.
That brings us to Sunday Night Football. For those of you who are new

(01:33:35):
to the podcast, Samantha is acontent director for NBC Sports and is involved
in the production of Sunday Night Football, so cannot pick the game, but
she can tell you how she thinksit's going to go. Chiefs are two
point favorites at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Samantha, how do you think it's
going to go? As we're justtrying to get you some better primetime and

(01:33:55):
content, it's been put pretty bleak, maybe this will be it on Obviously,
as we talked about earlier in theshow, feel pretty underwhelmed by the
box right now. And the Chiefshave to be mad that they've got to
win a poke game a week ago. So I can't tell you out of
that on this one, but Icertainly like the Chiefs here a sort of

(01:34:16):
the better organized team at the moment. The Buccaneers are only allowing nine points
per game. That is gross,Like that is not like that stat's in
black and white that that is nota twenty twenty two NFL stat but it's
fun because you know, defense winschampionships and all that, at least mythically.

(01:34:40):
So they're going up against one ofthe top ranked offenses in the league
and something's that to break. Ithink the Buccaneers break in this one.
And again I think this line's alittle disrespectful. I think this is going
to be the toughest offense that theBuccaneers have faced. I think they're going
to equit themselves well, but atthe end of the day, the offense

(01:35:00):
also needs to end up doing somethingand we haven't seen that from the Buccaneers
yet. And it's still a prettyI mean, it's not the most impressive
defense of Kansas City, but they'renot slouches either. And I think what
breaks in this one is a coupleof turnovers going the Chiefs way, and
I think they win both straight upand against the spread. Yeah, I'm
going to take the Chiefs as well. My always caution with primetime games is

(01:35:25):
if you could tell which games aregoing to be good just based on the
two teams playing and what you thinkof them, like, you know they
would be easy to pick great onesevery time, and as bad as last
week's was, through a couple threequarters at Broncos Raiders was entertaining a sec
I'm sorry, Broncos forty nine Erswas entertaining as heck in that final quarter.

(01:35:47):
This one could be ugly too,honestly, because of the way the
Bucks defense is playing. Could beclose for a long time, could be
ugly for a long time. Bothquarterbacks could be responsible for a couple of
turnovers. But at the end ofthe day, I don't like anything the
Bucks are doing offensively, and Ithink the Chiefs have too much talent,
especially in a bounce back game.I'll take the Chiefs in this spot.

(01:36:09):
Rams two and a half point underdogsat the San Francisco forty nine Ers two
and a half point favorites at Mondaynight football. This is a fascinating line
to me, Shaddy, what doyou think forty nine ers? Oh?
Do I love the forty nine ers? I do not. I do not

(01:36:30):
in the slightest Do I love KyleShanahan to whoop up on Sean McVay as
he is wont to do. Yeah, Yeah, I'll take that one.
I think this game comes down todefensively right now, the the forty nine

(01:36:51):
ers are just a really good team. I'm waiting for their offense to kind
of like stop lurching and actually explode. I'll just really short story. I
felt very confident going into that gamelast week with a couple of forty nine
ers on my roster and fantasy andlike, down twenty points, I thought
for sure that I was going towin that one. And then the offense

(01:37:11):
just kept stalling and kept stalling.It showed bright in moments, and I
think this is a game if theycan start putting some things consistently together offensively.
With Garoppolo at the helm, witha full week of practice and all
that gets a very familiar opponent,I think things could look good. I
will not be surprised if the Ramswin this one, but I'm going forty
nine ers. Yeah, this isa bad storyline bowl coming into this.

(01:37:36):
It's like, is Jimmy Garoppolo dexDan Orlovski versus? Is Alan Robinson washed?
Like I'm logging off now, Nothank you to all of that,
but I yeah, look, Ithe history between these two teams. I
just trust Kyle Moore in this specificmatchup. And then they do. I
think the forty nine defenses there.I think Jimmy has a pretty respect history

(01:38:00):
against this team, so I justlike the forty nine ers better here,
especially at home. Not saying theywon't split on this season, but for
now, yeah, I'm gonna goforty nine Ers. I'm going to take
the Rams um. I know thatthe Rams haven't had everything clicking offensively,
and I'm sure that Jimmy g andcompany are going to get stronger week by

(01:38:21):
week as they get more of thegame plan in place and get back comfortable.
But I think this is the betterteam getting points and I will always
always take that that that doesn't forthe Slate, that doesn't for this episode.
Fantastic stuff from Reese Waters. Loveto pick through the teams that are
real and not. Make sure youare subscribed. If you dig this you

(01:38:42):
get anything out of the things thatwe do. Go to three outpod dot
com. Make sure you subscribe whateveryour podcatcher is, your podcast listening device,
platform service, what have you.Make sure you follow us on social
media at three outpod on Twitter,at three outpod on Instagram and share it
and make sure you check the feedon Sunday nights because We put up the

(01:39:02):
Twitter space link ahead of time soyou can join us live every Monday morning
at eight am. We've breaked outall of the games to give you the
key takeaways, everything you need toknow from the full Slatest Sunday Action the
slate that we just picked straight upand against the spread, and we'll do
it again, just like we alwaysdo. Have another big guest, just
like we always do, just likeReesewaters, next week right here on three

(01:39:23):
and out your National NFL Podcast

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