cover of episode A Great Week 11, Burrow vs. Herbert, Allen vs. Mahomes, Rodgers vs. Father Time, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

A Great Week 11, Burrow vs. Herbert, Allen vs. Mahomes, Rodgers vs. Father Time, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

2024/11/18
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Bill Simmons: Chargers队险胜Bengals队,比赛过程精彩,双方都展现了各自的优缺点。Justin Herbert在关键时刻展现了实力,帮助Chargers赢得了比赛。对Herbert的表现评价:从一开始的惊艳到后来的低迷再到最后的出色发挥。Chargers的胜利比Bengals的失败更重要,Bengals的比赛风格像一个优秀的陪练对手。Bengals本赛季难以取得连胜,在AFC季后赛中的竞争力分析,以及对他们最终胜场数的预测。本周比赛中,踢球手表现出色,但并非Chargers输球的主要原因。Bengals的进攻实力强大,难以防守。Chargers在比赛中应该更多地采用跑攻战术。Chargers和Bengals在比赛中的时间管理存在问题。对Zach Taylor执教能力的质疑,以及对Belichick未来执教去向的预测。如果Belichick复出执教,Burrow将是最佳选择。Chargers的整体实力分析以及他们在季后赛中的潜在排名。对Zach Taylor执教能力的质疑,以及对Belichick未来执教去向的预测。 Cousin Sal: 对Tony Romo在比赛解说中的表现评价。对比赛结果的预测失误,以及对自身投注的反思。对酋长队获得有利判罚的讨论。对比赛结果的预测失误,以及对自身投注的反思。对酋长队获得有利判罚的讨论。对酋长队在关键时刻被判罚,影响了比赛结果的讨论。对酋长队获得有利判罚的讨论。对Steelers队比赛比分的评价,以及对Russell Wilson表现的评价。对Steelers队在季后赛中前景的担忧。对Russell Wilson在AFC季后赛中表现的质疑。对Steelers队进攻端人员配置的分析。Steelers队在防守端表现出色,但进攻端存在隐患。Lamar Jackson不希望在季后赛中对阵Steelers队。对Justin Tucker在关键时刻踢球能力的评价。对Pittsburgh-Kansas City Christmas比赛的评价。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Why did the Chargers almost lose to the Bengals despite having an 18-point lead?

The Chargers almost lost due to poor clock management and a lack of running game, allowing the Bengals to mount a comeback.

Why did the Bengals struggle to maintain momentum in their game against the Chargers?

The Bengals struggled with momentum due to a crucial fumble and inconsistent play, preventing them from stringing together multiple successful games.

Why did the Bills' victory over the Chiefs stand out as a significant regular-season achievement?

The Bills' win over the Chiefs was significant because it ended Kansas City's undefeated streak and was a highly anticipated matchup between two top teams.

Why did the Chiefs not perform at their full potential against the Bills?

The Chiefs did not bring their full potential, possibly resting key players like Travis Kelce, and focusing on evaluating other aspects of their game.

Why did the Lions become the unexpected favorites to win the Super Bowl?

The Lions became favorites due to their impressive performance, including multiple blowout wins, which led to favorable odds from sportsbooks.

Why did the Ravens struggle against the Steelers despite Lamar Jackson's performance?

The Ravens struggled due to missed field goals by their kicker, Justin Tucker, and the Steelers' defense having a strong record against Lamar Jackson.

Why did the Jets struggle in their game against the Colts?

The Jets struggled because of poor quarterback play by Aaron Rodgers, who was inconsistent and seemed to lack confidence in his receivers.

Why did the Patriots struggle in their game against the Rams?

The Patriots struggled due to poor play-calling and a lack of offensive creativity, relying too heavily on their running game and not utilizing Drake Maye's full potential.

Why did the 49ers struggle against the Seahawks despite having a strong roster?

The 49ers struggled because they failed to contain Geno Smith, who had a strong performance, and their defense was unable to adjust to his playstyle.

Why did the Falcons struggle against the Broncos despite having a decent record?

The Falcons struggled because they faced a motivated Broncos team coming off a tough loss, and their defense was unable to stop the Broncos' offense.

Chapters
The Chargers' dramatic comeback against the Bengals raises questions about the significance of the win for the Chargers and the impact of the loss for the Bengals.
  • Chargers almost choked away an 18-point lead.
  • Bengals have had multiple close losses this season.
  • Bengals' playoff chances are slim despite their talent.

Shownotes Transcript

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Coming up, probably the best football day of the year. We're going to talk about it next. This episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Built with Meta AI, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses react to what you see so you can learn more about the world around you. You can also take hands-free photos, videos, send messages, make video calls, even play music and podcasts straight from your glasses with Ray-Ban Meta.

This episode is brought to you by the all new reimagined Nissan Kicks. From the bold new exterior to the performance and tech features like intelligent all wheel drive and a Bose personal plus sound system. Cars, where I live, I live in the Los Angeles area and cars are one of the most important things you can have because you're in them a lot because you got to drive around all over the place. You know what's fun?

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We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. New rewatch of us coming on Monday night. We did The Replacements, the Keanu Reeves football movie that has grown on me a lot over the last two and a half decades. Van Lathan joined me. And then afterwards, we taped something for the Ringer Movies Channel as well because The Rock had a movie coming out, Red One, that we knew was going to bomb, which it did. But we did a whole thing about The Rock's movie career.

And just what happened? How has this movie career not been better and why are our expectations so low for every movie that The Rock is in? So you can find that on the Ringer Movies channel as well. You can find all the videos and clips from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. You can check out theringer.com as well. Great website.

A lot of good stuff going on at the Ringer lately. I hope you're checking out Todd McShay's new podcast too, which was going live on YouTube on Saturday nights last couple weeks, which during college football, as stuff was happening. So great to have Todd aboard. Great to have Jacoby and Goldsberry aboard as well. I hope you're listening to Mismatch because Jacoby and Verno have been

really, really funny together. So there you go. On this podcast, Cousin Sal is going to join us like he does every Sunday night. It was the best football day of the year. We broke it down live on YouTube. You're about to hear it. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. Oh, Mike.

Mike, Mike, Justin Herbert is throwing such rockets. I thought Elon Musk was living inside his bicep. I really did. Mike, I got no fluids left in my body. I got no fluids left, Mike. If they show those commercials with someone making dirty tacos again, I don't know what I'm going to do outside so far. I don't know what quarterback I like more, Mike. I don't know, Mike.

What a game. Chargers-Bengals. Wow. I tweeted this with like two minutes left. We've seen that exact Chargers game before.

We've seen that exact Bengals game before. We're taping this at nine o'clock. The game just ended. And it was just, it was just who's going to do what they do better. Are the Bengals just going to blow a completely winnable game and kick themselves after? Are the Chargers just going to have a massive choke in a game that seemed over at halftime? And I really didn't know until the, until McPherson lined up for 51. I was like, he's not making this. It's not going, it's not going in. But then Justin Herbert, much maligned.

Not a lot of clutch moments for Justin. Made some big throws. Won the game. You, and he's lucky too because you texted. You're like, I'm going to torch this mother effer if he loses this game. Something like that. I don't know. I'm bad at frozen. I was like, I'm going to fucking kill him. I don't know.

But no, I went through my Justin Herbert progression too as a fan. You know how quarterbacks go through their progression, tight end, slant, curl. Okay, I'll throw the screen. I went through the whole thing like, oh my God, look how great he is. How did anyone ever compare him to Tua? He's the best. This is ridiculous. They're going to upset somebody in the playoffs too. What the hell is he doing? How does he throw seven incomplete passes in a row? He's crushing us. He's overthrowing McConkie and now he's back to being great, I guess. Well, huge fumble.

Yeah. When he, he was, he was really running around like he used to a couple of years ago and enjoying the studio space. And then he had that fumble when he fumbled for anyone who says that momentum doesn't matter in a football game. That fumble was like, Oh no, here we go. I mean, this game had five momentum swings as it was going, but so we had that fumble and then just sailed it over McConkie's head who was wide open, but then he made up for it on that last drive with some big plays. Is that,

Is that a better win for the Chargers or a worse loss for the Bengals? I'm actually leaning toward worse loss, right? They're all like this. They're four and seven now. I know. They're done. But they're not done. They're not done. I know. But every game's like this, right? It's like, you know what? They're just like a great sparring partner. That's basically what they are at this point. Oh, I like that. They're like Razor Redick. Yeah.

Yeah, they are. Yeah, they're going to give you their all and they're going to come up short or they're going to win. But they can't put together three games in a row, I don't think, where they win. I haven't really scoured their schedule, but I guess I'll take a look here. Well, I'll do it right now. They're going to get tripped up somewhere. The question is whether it's 10 wins or nine.

Because right now, right now they're somehow four and seven where they have terrible loss this week. Tail end of the game. Baltimore week 10. Terrible. Baltimore week five. Terrible. Washington week three. Casey week two. They've, they've had basically five either or games and they lost their over five in the other or games, but they have to sweep the Steelers as I week next week. Two with the Steelers left. They have at Dallas at Tennessee home Cleveland.

And home, Denver, week 17. Well, that's it probably, right? So they could get to nine. I don't see 10. 10 means they run the slate the rest of the way. So the Broncos would be the seven, right? That's the one we're eyeing for the seven seed. So that might be for the seven seed. But I don't know. Are they really going to beat the Cowboys? Of course they are. AFC playoff picture. Yeah, they're four and seven. Miami's four and six. Indy's five and six. Denver's six and five. Chargers are now seven and three.

Yeah. It's, it's going to be that Denver Indy Cincy Miami. One of those four is going and Cincy is the best team out of those four. It's not close. It's crazy. How good they are. Like, how is this team not going to be in the top seven in that conference? And then I think like, I look at it from a fan's perspective, like, Oh, we got to get him in as a football fan. But I also look like, Oh, I want a shitty team at a seven seat. I could bet against. Right. And this,

This wouldn't be them. Denver might be at some point. Hench is already locked down. Pittsburgh, two seed. Denver, seven seed as the Shakey's Saturday first playoff game of round one game. Oh, you think? Yeah. Russell Wilson, Bo Nix.

Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin. I don't know if they'll be able to top that for the Shakey's game. Didn't the AFC South sign like a 12 year deal with Shakey's? Like they're in until 2038 or something. Like Notre Dame with NBC? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whoever wins AFC South and hosts that four or five. So that would have to be Tampa, like Washington? Yeah.

Or Tampa, Arizona? I guess Tampa, Arizona would be tough to beat. AFC South. I was thinking AFC South. I was thinking Houston and... Oh. I don't know. Yeah, no, no. Who would be the five? Houston, Baltimore, I guess. Houston's going to be a three seed. Probably right. Are they? Yeah. No, four seed? Oh, yeah, you're right. Buffalo, Pittsburgh, KC. Yeah, Houston's the four seed. Yeah. So it could be Houston. So Houston, Chargers, or Pittsburgh, Denver for shakies. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. That's fine.

This was the day.

We talked about the kicking was too good. What are we going to do? Should we move the uprights closer? And then today happened where it's just kickers all over the place, just murdering teams, including McPherson in this game with two long ones where a couple of years ago, it looked like he was Justin Tucker and waiting. And then today, he still looks like Justin Tucker. Yeah. Yeah. That's not why they, except the new version. He looks like Justin Tucker right now. Um, but that's not why they lost. They lost because they fell behind 24 to six. And yeah,

And Doug too big of a hole for themselves. It's funny though, when you watch them, when Higgins is playing and he's missed like four and a half games and they have chase on one side and Higgins on the other side, it really is one. And chase Brown, who I think has been really good this season. And you watch and you go, man, this, how do you stop these guys? It just feels like it's eight yards to the side. Anytime they want, they can go deep. Even when they miss the deep throws, they like just miss them.

And I don't know. They just seem like one of the best five offenses to me. I don't get it. And then the Chargers did too, though, right? And then they... I don't know. Look, I'd suck as a coach, but you and I were like, why aren't they running the ball? Run the ball a little bit. Herbert obviously doesn't have it for this 20-minute segment of the game. Give it to Dobbins, who's like the fastest guy in Southern California, and see what happens. And we saw. Yeah, they... So...

Dobbins was 11 for 56 and Edwards was six for 27. And then Herbert ran five for 65. But yeah, that both of those guys, Dobbins and Edwards were four and a half a carry. Dobbins ripped off that last one for the winner. But I was thinking the same thing because as I know the receivers have overachieved for the chargers, but it's still Will Disley. It's still a rookie McConkey. It's still Quentin Johnston. It's still Josh Palmer at a huge drop.

On the second round. And one of the weird things, the charges were like dying to give this game away. They got the ball back with what? One 45 left after the missed field goal. And you have to run on first down to kill some clock and they don't, they just threw it three straight times. They gave the ball back in like 13 seconds to the Bengals. And then the Bengals couldn't do anything either. But some of the clock management was bad. I usually think Harbaugh is pretty good at this stuff. Zach Taylor is not.

I usually have confidence he's going to do the wrong thing. And now we're going to lose middle seat Doug tomorrow. And Zach Taylor is going to move up the what the fuck are you doing rankings, I think. Interesting. He's got to keep middle seat Doug in a job there. Yeah, that's going to be fun. That's done, right? That's done. I don't know where you want to jump around to, but that game. Yeah, I have a spot for them. We'll get to them later. So best Collinsworth moments?

Um, he had that one where Burrow scrambled out and like did the Houdini thing and then hit somebody and Tariqa finished his whole play by play for another eight seconds. And Collinsworth can just hold the laugh now. It's a, it's almost like Richard, who is the tantric sex guy sting.

Yeah, yeah, that's him. Yeah, it's almost like how tantric sex people can hold the orgasm. Collinsworth can just hold it. Wow. Tariqa finishes and then he's like, Mike, Joe Burrow just made the greatest play I've ever seen. That is the greatest play I've ever seen, Mike. That's a spectacular play. Spectacular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's good. I hate to brag on him because I really enjoy it. No, I love Collinsworth. We have to. This is all out of love. We love Collinsworth. Yeah, we love you, Chris. And by the way,

Speaking of announcers that we've had fun with, I've had more fun than you, but I thought Romo was really good today too.

Excellent. He had a couple of rocky years there, but I thought he was excellent today. We had good answers today. Just a lot of little things that people don't appreciate. But when Mahomes went to the line of scrimmage and was definitely not going to draw them off sides, and he's like, he's overacting. When a quarterback overacts, they're just letting the clock run out. They're not going to run. It's like, yeah, you're right. Why didn't we pick that up? It's a big picture with this Chargers team. Because I think they needed one of these guys

feeling good about themselves. They're only giving up 13 points a game. Like how good is this team? They kind of needed a nut crunch game and they got it. That's for damn sure. But big picture, they're not going to catch the chiefs. They're in the hunt for the five seed. And I think you want the five seed this year. Cause you go to, you get to go to add Houston. Sure. And in round one, which is I think way more palatable than going to Buffalo or

you know, going to Pittsburgh slash Baltimore. So I think they can get to the five seed, right? Did you see anything today that made you worried about them other than the fact that they almost choked away an 18 point lead? So you would say, well, they would get there. Wouldn't you think it's either Pittsburgh or Baltimore in the five?

I don't know. They have the same record as Baltimore now. I guess they have the same record. They both have four losses. Baltimore is eight and three. Chargers are seven and three. And I think Baltimore is a harder schedule down the stretch. Yeah, it's all a mess there. I agree. And yeah, they're going to go on the road. But the biggest takeaway here is they had fans.

We said last week, we were like, well, here's the one game where they're not going to have fans. That was about as loud of a fan base as we've had in LA, right? I feel like we should, there's no way to quantify it, right? But I feel like their approval rating goes up each week at home. I was impressed. Well, I was impressed by the Bengals that they had that many fans. I don't really fully understand it. Yeah, that's true. That's true too. But yeah, the Chargers, they're coming there to see Harbaugh.

But it's for the Chargers. It's kind of good to, you almost feel like you're tested because it really did feel like the crowd was loud in the second half. I like this Chargers team. Khalil Mack didn't play today. I like that they can run the ball. And I think that's what they'll probably learn from big picture is maybe run the ball more. If I'm the Bengals, I don't know how Zach Taylor survives the season. This could be another job that's open. And I was thinking like,

It's a pretty interesting Belichick job. He's going to get one of these jobs, right? It's an interesting Belichick job. It's a really interesting Braybill job. But, oh, Steelers are 8-2. The Ravens are 7-4. I fucked up. So the Chargers have a better record. Yeah, they have four losses. That's what I thought. Yeah, well, he did Cleveland, right? He did Cleveland before Belichick, right? He's not going back to Cleveland. No, no, I'm just saying. He loves Ohio, clearly. No, I think this is definitely the best spot for him. But it's not...

I don't know. It's not the offense. It doesn't really matter, right? Like get rid of Lou Anarumo, who, I don't know, it's been inconsistent for years now. Yeah. I'm just saying if you're going for wins, if you're Belichick, if one of the reasons you're coming back is to break the record, no doubt, Burrow is the best quarterback available because otherwise you're looking at Trevor Lawrence, you're looking at whatever the Giants do, you're looking at whoever the hell the Raiders QB is going to be.

So the big game of the day, this was an awesome football day. I would, I would say this was the best start to finish day we had. Right. For sure. For sure. And it gets bad, gets a little lean next week, but, uh, yeah, I love this. They were like six good matchups. What was great was no London game, no Germany game. So we just were able to start off hot with some really good games, but then Bill's chiefs became the best game of the day. Yeah. And I was thinking, cause the, the bills pulled it out and it was a really good win for them.

I think beating KC, is it the most impressive thing you could do in a regular season in any sport right now where the fans are the most excited? Like, ah, we beat blank. It's got it. They have to be the mountain, right?

I think so. I mean, it's so exciting. I read, I don't know if this is true, like fans were jumping on through tables like before the game, even before it even started outside. Yes. And the parking lot, this was happening. Yeah. But the problem is they beat them in the regular season before, right? Last year or maybe even like twice. And then they like, you know, Kansas City's just got that.

Try it in January, Chip, but it's going to be a lot easier if they, you know, if they get the one seed and this brings them closer. I think it's a little more special because it was their first loss and it's week 11. Sure. You know, you hang that one on. But I did write down and I was texting with a Chiefs fan who predicted this early in the first quarter. Not Nick Wright, another Chiefs fan. Okay. A little Milton Berlish performance from the Chiefs today.

Obviously they want to win. They're trying to win, but I don't feel like they brought out the kitchen sink. Like Kelsey was two catches, eight yards, right? They really was trying to get worthy involved to see what they have with him. They're trying to get Hopkins involved, trying to run the ball a little bit. But for the most part, like there's another gear for these guys and the gear is Kelsey.

And it's not like the bills were like, we've taken out Travis Kelsey. They just, there's games where they put him in the garage and we've talked about it the last couple of years where it's clearly a Travis is in the garage game. This is a Travis is in the garage game. Yeah. I think if this is in January, he has eight catches for 80 yards and a bunch of first downs. I was trying, I was looking at the box going, you're probably right because it really doesn't make sense. Cause I look at it aside from Allen, they had 49 yards rushing.

right? And they still won time of possession by eight minutes. And the defense was very good. They allowed like 260 the whole game. So I don't know what to make of the

Of the Chiefs. I was waiting for like a bad call towards the end there, but that was a ballsy, ballsy call by McDermott. Like they likely lose the game if they go up five and kick a field goal on the fourth and two. They went forward or even more fourth and two. They're up to there. It's a little long for a field goal. And I don't think anyone watching the game or in the building thought Tyler Bass was making that field goal. So they go for it.

And it turns out to be like a signature awesome Josh Allen play. But, you know, we make fun of coaches all the time. I thought it was clearly you got to go for it. Romo thought the same thing. And then you just put... That's what Romo said, I think, before the play. Like, you got to put this in Josh's hands. You have to let Josh decide the game, which is what they did. And he ends up coming up with a signature play. But it was a tough one for...

Everyone who had the Chiefs in a tease. I was going to say, he didn't have to beat them by nine. It was just brutal. I had multiple teases in real life, million dollar picks. Shio Kapadia, our guy, tweeted after the game, 124 Mahomes games. How many times has he lost by more than eight points? I know it was 19 before the last loss. No, more than eight. More than eight? More than eight points.

15. Five. Jesus. Wow. That made me feel worse about my two teases. Not even early. I had them with Pittsburgh. I had them with Denver. Detroit minus two and a half. Like, I just... God.

And we needed it. Of course, I had it too. But we're like 30-24 will be all right. KC needs two scores. It'll be a soft Buffalo defense, right? They'll come down. They'll kick a field goal. I don't know who was kicked. You know, Butker sat out, which is such a girly thing to do. Good thing he's super secure. But I don't know what they... I thought we were going to cut it to six and we were going to be all right. But we didn't get there. Well, you know what happened. This is how you really know the game didn't matter for the Chiefs. Mahomes had that huge scramble to the 30 when they were down nine where they could have like

you know, either try to go for a TD or kick field goal, called back, flag on the play, holding on the Chiefs. It was like, oh my God. Yeah. Wow. They called a penalty on the Chiefs in a crunch time moment and pulled back a Mahomes play. We've made fucking history.

And then Chiefs fans get mad when you bring this up, but it's just a fact. Those things never get called for them ever. But for some reason, that one got called. And that was it for our teams. Both things could be true. They're a great, great team. Great team that gets crazy calls. A dynasty, potentially, and they get calls at the end. Yeah. I mean, their whole dynasty started out with the D-4 penalty where they lose to the Pats. And then that was against them. And since then...

They've had some good ones. But Buffalo, I mean, you mentioned it earlier, 19 carries for 49 yards. Yeah. I thought big picture. I said this last week to you, and it's a weird point to make.

Good loss for the Chiefs, as weird as that sounds. Get that undefeated thing over with. Now you don't have to worry about it. Just get through it. You don't have the pressure of it. I still feel like that 0-7 Pats, which I wanted them to go undefeated. I'm not saying I would take that back. That was so much fun. I loved that season. But they're better off if Baltimore beats them in that Monday night game.

The whole season's different in a good way. And I think they probably win the Super Bowl if they lose that game. So for the Chiefs, it's fine. They're going to go 15 and two, 14 and three, whatever it is, they're going to win the AFC. You just don't want to lose that one seed, right? Like, where do you think the one seed is more important in the AFC or the NFC? I kind of think the AFC.

I think in the NFC, it's almost a wrap at this point with the short schedule. I think they'd have to have like five more injuries. Right. I don't think it matters much to the Chiefs because it feels like they could just go and win anywhere, right? I think it would matter more for Pittsburgh. Yeah. If Pittsburgh got it, like when you think like how kind of crummy Russ was today.

And they were still able to pull one out. I kind of feel like home field is mandatory. I don't even, not even positive. We'll talk about that game later. I'm not even positive what they do for the quarterback situation going forward because Russ was not great, but Fields comes in. Keeps winning. Fields comes in and slides a yard before the marker in a game that would end it. Additional thoughts out of this. So are the Lions officially the best team now? I think they are, right?

Well, according to FanDuel and the odds makers, this is not only the first time this year, the first time ever they're favored to win the Super Bowl. Is that true? That is true. I wouldn't make something up like that. Was that one of our FanDuel people told us that? No, I'm just looking at... Oh, no, I saw multiple people reported it on Twitter, but they're plus 420, KC plus 500, Ravens plus 650, Bills 7-1. Wow.

First time ever. They've been playing for 309 years. We have not a small amount of Lions futures. No, right. With the one seed, with the NFC North, with the conference, Super Bowl matchup, best record. So the better they do at that. Yeah, so Detroit's plus 420. KC is 5-1. Baltimore plus 950 on FanDuel. No, 650. 650. Buffalo 7-1.

Eagles 9-1. And then the Niners are the sixth team right now, 14-1. I don't understand that at all. They're not even favored to win the division. Yeah, I don't get that. Plus, when you watch them, they're not passing the eye test either. So who's the MVP favorite then? Because we'll get to Lamar after the break, but it wasn't like Lamar was lighting it on fire. So Josh Allen, now the MVP favorite, plus 150. Lamar's 2-1 because he sucked today. He didn't suck.

He didn't suck. Tucker missed two field goals. Lamar was fine. He didn't suck. Stop it. He didn't suck.

We're talking about January. Lamar is back. I asked you, do you think at halftime the players have wished him a happy new year? Because it's January all over again for that guy. Is White Lotus starting? Yeah, it was January and Lamar. Mahomes is 12-1 to win the MVP at this point. Justin Herbert at 25-1. Not interesting.

If like they ran the slate, I'm just thinking for like long shot bets. Got to be a top two seed, which is why I think like Jared Goff, he had that pitiful performance last week, but I think he went out and said, Hey, I got five interceptions last week. Can you get me 14 touchdowns today? And so we score in our first seven drives. Can I climb back in this race? Just everyone just be open. And they were, we're taking a break for the podcast.

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And make sure your home is safe this season. Keep your home, your family, and your peace of mind protected with SimpliSafe. Again, go to simplisafe.com slash BS. That is SimpliSafe with two I's. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Pittsburgh, Baltimore. You mentioned earlier January Lamar is back. Chris Boswell, fantasy MVP today. Six field goals. He had 25 points in our league.

prompting Hench, our buddy, to have a conniption about field goal kickers and should we just eliminate them from leagues and all that stuff. I got to say, I actually kind of like having field goal kickers. Oh, you do? Yeah, I do. I do. I like it.

I like not having to worry about it. We, you know, but Hedge to, um, to be fair, when, when like Burrow has 46 points, he wants to eliminate quarterbacks too. So he's all over the place, but, um, it's kind of lucky, but we also, we could have guessed that exact score, right? It was either going to be 18, 16, 18, 17, or 19, 18, only three options really. So it was all perfectly scripted. All the Steelers scores are scores that sound like they were a world war or a

American war from the 1700s or 1800s. I wrote down 2024 Steelers, the most likely team in NFL history to win 18 to 16. It just, it just, it's the most Steelers these score you can get. But so Russ through a red zone pick that was among the worst passes of the year that felt like it was going to flip the game. It did not. He was two for nine in the red zone for seven yards.

When he escaped that sack, he had to escape a crazy sack to get there. And I was like, wow, that's 2014 Russ. And then it's like, oh, that's 2022 Russ right there with that interception. That's post-COVID Russ. So they're 8-2, and yet their defense was really good today, even though they got some help with the field goal kicking. But...

The Russ thing combined with only really having one receiver, I just worry about them in January. The fact that they're 8-2 with all the Pittsburgh, like I have a bunch of futures for them. It seems like they have a really good chance to win the division now, but just big picture.

It just feels like they're not going to be able to get to 20 points in a playoff game like this. It feels like 18-19 is probably the limit for them, right? Well, is there any scenario where he's not the worst quarterback in the AFC playoffs? Oh, now that Bo Nix is looking like he's coming out of a sports movie. This is a big one for you. You have a lot of Bo Nix stock. I think he tightened that offensive rookie of the year gap there. Yeah, I just thought it was something interesting before we move on from Baltimore-Pittsburgh.

Uh, borrow nine touchdowns against Baltimore combined in two games. Didn't walk away with a win. Steelers had no touchdowns today. Yeah. 1816. No touchdowns. It's a fun, it's a fun league. Russ was 23 for 36 for 205, but it's that second receiver thing. So Pickens was eight for 89 and made his every week. He makes just an unbelievable catch that you just can't believe.

Number two receiver was Washington, two for 42. Fryermuth was two for 14. Calvin Austin was one for minus one. Skoranek was one for four. And that's it for their receivers. Yeah. And at some point, that's going to come back to bite them. But their defense was great. That Queen got an awesome, awesome, awesome turnover for them that they really needed. And I hate to say phrases like this, but they kind of have Lamar's number.

He's 1-4 against them now, and it feels legit, right? Yeah, I don't know what... I don't know. This is the team Lamar doesn't want to play in the playoffs. I think he's going to get his wish, too, and he's going to have to do it on the road because they can't beat him. But Henry didn't go for 115 either. That was another thing. This defense is damn good when they need to be, but they really do have to figure out the quarterback thing. I feel bad for Tomlin. When Fields is sliding, you mentioned it, the

The thick white 40 stripe is the first down and he's sliding like two yards short. I got it. It was like a Johnny Knoxville fail video or something. There are two running backs for 27 for one Oh four. It felt worse watching it. It felt like they were having trouble getting unlocked, but you know, they moved the chains enough, I guess. Um, defense is great. It didn't get defense field goal kicking. Um,

Um, good special teams, home field advantage for a couple rounds. They're going to be heard from. I have a lot of questions about them winning on the road though, with what we've seen from us the last two weeks. Yeah. And fields isn't going to be any better than that. Uh, all right. Next one. Oh, speaking of that game, RIP, uh,

Justin Tucker as the guy you're afraid of for big kicks. We already knew it was coming, but today kind of cemented it. I'm afraid of him. If I bet the Ravens, I'm afraid of him. But yeah, this, but I guess last year he was maybe not just as bad, but really bad from 50 plus. So they can see the writing on the wall with this guy. One other thing. So the Christmas game, one of them on Netflix is

Pittsburgh, Kansas City, which we were talking about last week, maybe not mattering if Casey had this crazy record, but now it's probably going to matter. And that is suddenly an amazing Christmas game. If they're separated by one game, it's going to be like the opposite of Mike Tyson against Jake Paul.

Oh, that was pretty good. I don't know. I don't know what you were watching. We're saving that just, just for people listening. Sal and I will be talking about that fight. We watched together. Yes, we did. Yeah. That's a good one. Our family's going to hate us on Christmas. We're going to be glued to that one. I'll be good. Steelers. Yeah. I felt like my family already didn't like me that much on Christmas, but I feel like this could be a ticket. It's the next level. Uh, another game that really jumped out. That was awesome. San Francisco, Seattle. Uh,

This is the one. San Francisco? Of course. Moneyline parlay all over the place. Oh, no. What do you mean? No, no. Green Bay was my moneyline parlay that felt like it should have lost and miraculously won. Yeah. Which we'll get to. But, yeah, Geno, seventh game-winning drive in the fourth quarter OT since 2023. What?

Well, how did they do that? I know Bosa went off and they were helpless, right? Yeah. But how about contain Geno a little bit? He shouldn't be running around like 2006 Michael Vick, right? He's wide open on the runs, too. Nobody's there. They only blitzed him once today. I don't know if they're going to keep that up. If Shanahan's... Yeah, they kept it up and he just went for whatever he wanted. Could have run through the end zone. Yeah.

I really respect Gino, the confidence he has after it goes right for him, how he behaves after. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He's like really, really a lot of charisma about it. And it's like, but what about those 10 terrible throws you made earlier in the game and that fumble or the internet, but it's that like all of it gets wiped away in the crunch time. Yeah. Just does through. But, and yet that's crazy. Crazy. So we're, we have a, not only the year from hell for San Francisco, but

We're now in a situation where Arizona is six and four and the other three teams are five and five in the NFC West. And it feels like that division sending two teams. You think so? Yeah, I think so. So who's out then? Washington or Green Bay? Detroit, Philly, Minnesota, Green Bay, Washington, Arizona, Atlanta. Oh shit, you're right. Come on. So somebody would have to take Washington's spot, but.

Yeah. I feel like somebody could take Washington's spot. I mean, they're 7-4 and should be 6-5, and they're arrow pointing down. Yeah. They do play the Cowboys. Do you feel any difference between Washington, Seattle, San Francisco, and the Rams after watching football for the last four weeks? San Francisco is going to be the team that's maybe not that good that I'm going to hold on to, and I'm going to keep betting. I'm going to figure out a way to bet them in the second round of the playoffs, even though they were eliminated like two weeks before. There's no more dangerous football team

Then the team that you keep waiting for them to figure it out because you know how much talent they have. And then it's weak.

Week 19 and you're like, oh, they're not in the playoffs. And they went five and 12 against the spread this year. Yeah. And I had them in nine of the 12 games they didn't cover. And you shake me in my sleep and I'm like, ah, McCaffrey's back. McCaffrey's back. Like, yeah, it doesn't matter. I can't beat anybody. Arizona's favorite now, the one in the division, plus 100. Niners 270. Seahawks 5-1 and the Rams 5-1.

When do you think Arizona was favored to win the division the last time? Oh, that's a good question. Carson Palmer, 2013-14 range? Yeah, so after Warner. Earlier? Yeah. Yeah, right in there. That's a good question. San Francisco. They have the easiest schedule. I mean, San Francisco is like, what? You're about to read it, but six of the last seven are dogfights. Yeah, well, the bigger problem is they're one and three in the NFC West. Yeah.

The worst record, and they only have two games left. But they got at Green Bay, at Buffalo next to. Home Chicago, home Rams on a Thursday. At Miami, home Detroit, at Arizona. Those are all rough. I mean, I thought that last game would mean something, but it really might not. It might be wrapped by then for them. So they'd have to go five and two with all those games?

I mean, you go through all the NFC West teams, and really the only team that seems to have a semi-easy schedule is Arizona. Yeah. And their next two are at Seattle, at Minnesota. Not exactly easy, but at least they have home Seattle, home Pats, at Carolina, at the Rams, home San Francisco. There's a path to go four and three for them and get to 10 wins. Yeah, they're the only ones with Panthers on their schedule, I think, right? Yeah.

I could see you texting me on Monday with some NFC West division bet that we'll probably do. And then a week later, we'll have a different team. We'll be done. Which is key.

keep betting that dumb division over and over again. Well, here's the thing that, so Seattle and the Rams are similar in that they're going to kick you in the gut if you sleep on them. Right. But then if you bet them, they're going to lose, right. They're just like, they're going to come back from the dead and you're, you're just going to lose your mind trying to catch up to which a zag they're on or zigging or not. I 90% agree with that. And yet,

When I watch Seattle sometimes, I'm like, why aren't these guys better? I think Kenneth Walker's good. I think their receivers are excellent. I think Geno could move the ball. I feel like when they're down four with three minutes left, I feel like they can actually go down the field and score. How many teams would you even say that about? Holding a 49ers parlay slip. I felt the same way. Yeah.

A couple more games that really stood out and a delightful day. So Detroit-Jacksonville was beautiful because there were eight games early and this one allowed Detroit to immediately come off a TV. I had the multi-view on the big TV. I had Green Bay-Chicago by itself. And then I had the other TV with the three games. Detroit-Jacksonville just got to come off.

I left it on because I wasn't sure if they were going to escort coach middle seat out or not. I didn't want to miss that. Right. Like getting fired at halftime. Yeah. Yeah. Just pull up and like some kind of, um, it's just like a hearse and just cart them away. My goodness.

Here lies coach middle seat. He, he beat Belichick and Brady in a Superbowl, Nick falls, and then became one of the worst coaches in the last 10 years. There's no rhyme or reason to it. And then it's reported yesterday that this is probably his last game. So he's dead man walking and Jacksonville responds by giving up touchdowns on their first seven drives against them. And it was 52 to six. Yep.

I'm going to say he's going to get fired tomorrow. The GM needs to see you. Bring your boarding pass, please. You're in row 27B. On Greyhound, by the way. You have the middle seat on the bus back. But you know what they should do? Because he has that statue outside of Philly, right? Outside the stadium. They should have, to punish him, they should have the guy who did Dwayne Wade's statue redo his statue. That should be the FU for this miserable, miserable Jacksonville team.

My God. Well, this could be Belichick's next team. Yeah. We've talked about a new stadium coming. I guess it depends how excited you are about Trevor Lawrence. We have learned that Mac Jones, maybe it wasn't just New England's situation. He just might not be a starting quarterback. So what was the, what was the tweet we saw about all the, all the big spread lions bets that hit? Oh, the escalator thing. I could find it. Yeah. I,

I sometimes I wonder if that's the thing that we're fucking up the most out of. We move bet every year on football and just like identifying who the best team in the league is. And they always win at least three games by 30 points. And why aren't we just playing that? Because you could have taken lines over Jags plus,

put 30 and a half, whatever. And all of a sudden that's 12 to one. And all you need to do is take one of those and it covers 12 weeks of bets. So yeah, minus 27 and a half plus plus five 20 minus 32 and a half, 10 to one minus 38 and a half, 20 to one. If you bet the team total adjusted over 44 and a half, that was eight 50. Yeah. We, we missed out on a lot of free money. They're damn good. Colts jets. Hmm.

You know, Rogers has a Netflix special coming out in December about like, it's like the last year with Aaron Rogers. I'm waiting for the joke. Go ahead. That is the joke. Really? Yeah. You think they were, they were thinking, uh, Oh, well, this would be good. The jets will be good. And then we'll drop this Rogers thing. Like, does anyone want to hear one minute of Rogers at this point?

Do you think McAfee wants to talk to him for an hour? Who wants to hear from him? If you're ever going to have buffering issues, that's the time, Netflix. Go get it. Do it during the... Try to get the same buffer guy from the Jake Paul Tyson fight. Use it for your... He just looks like he doesn't want to get hit anymore. And it's the final stage of QBs. We've seen it a lot of times with older...

Oh, they're guys who used to be good. And that last stage where they're just getting rid of the ball before somebody dings them, that's it. Doesn't come back.

Right? I know you're like a pig in shit right now. I won't do this every week, but just let me... Or you can cut it out of the podcast. I don't care. No, we're not cutting it out. And plus, we're live on YouTube. Go do your thing. Well, they have eight losses. They're not going to go over their win total, which is nine and a half, which I thought was preposterous anyway. Right? I mean, my team sucks, but I knew the Jets weren't going over nine and a half. They can't make the playoffs. So...

A couple numbers for you. Winning percentages, Jets starters, Zach Wilson, 364, Sam Darnold, 342, Aaron Rodgers, 368.

273 sit down you phony you led new york to believe you could lead them to the playoffs and you're the fraud of all frauds you brought all your friends in yeah who couldn't catch a pass you got the coach fired somehow the best defense and football isn't excited to play for you now they're middle of the pack or worse there's got to be some accountability there's got to be and you know well

Of course, there's a personal stuff where he alluded to the idea that my cousin was on the Epstein-Iowan flight log and the list comes out. And he, of course, wasn't. But the guy Rogers likely voted for was so classic, classic douchebag. And now we're going to see a phantom injury in the next couple of weeks. So how's that for a conspiracy theory? You like that? Wow. What a sorry. Sorry. Take it. Take it. Smart guy. He's so damn smart. So well read. He's got to tell us all about it all the time. What's he going to do now?

I'd be surprised if he played next year, right? Next year. He's going to find something to sit out next week, I think. Oh, you think it'll be the calf strain? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're worried it could become a torn Achilles if he steps on it wrong again? I don't even know who their backup is. They could blame the bad field there at MetLife, whatever's next. Well, didn't they give up a third-round pick for Adams?

No, it was, was it third? Was it three? It was, that might be one of the like top six picks of the third round. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. I like, I love, as I've said many times, I have a kinship with the jets fans because the pats and the jets were the two sad sacks of the entire AFC, like for the most than 30 years of my life. And, um, and I think we were wired the same way DNA in a lot of ways, um,

Then the Pats fans life changed. The Jets fans did not. But this was like, honestly, this two years of Rodgers, it was almost cruel starting with like him blown out as a kill is immediately. And then all the other stuff. And I just can't think of it's one of the worst free agent act or I guess it was a trade. It's one of the worst veteran acquisitions in the history of the NFL.

Right. And they fell for it again. Right. Like they're trading assets for you to help them and they're firing people and everything. He had everything laid out for him. And Shane Stike can try to blow that game today. Like how many times can we talk about that? I asked Lombardi. Lombardi is the master of the nicknames. Yeah.

He came up with the clapper. He came up with this jockey, Mike McCarthy. I was like, I was like, can you, what's the Shane Steichen nickname? And he's texted us back. Uh, he is like, he, he put, he coaches like he's playing somebody online in Thailand.

So we were calling him Thailand Shane. Like, uh-oh. The guy I'm playing on Twitch. His stream went out in Thailand. So anyway, Thailand Shane. I think the key thing for him is that there seems to be

I was thinking like he's in a dark room just shouting out plays and doesn't know the score, the downs, or the situation. He's just like, ah, he wrote 45. Has no idea what's going on. The best of all of them was the two-point conversion with Richardson. They go up by one. They need the two points. Yeah, it's like, I wonder if Richardson can...

Wait for a guy to cross the middle and then loft a beautiful touch pass. I'm like, I am positive Richardson can't do this. There's no way. Never happened in practice. No way. There's no way this, whatever. But at the same time, Richardson, which is what makes him so interesting, he can't throw a four yard screen pass. He has no touch on a pass like that. And yet he'll rifle a 25 yarder perfectly. Or he'll nail somebody down the sidelines or he'll run around and he looks like, you

you know, giant Cam Newton. And you're like, this guy, it's clearly something. He's not a bust.

Yeah. But how about you recognize that Shane's right. And right. Like you're, you're, you're with them all week. You don't just inherit them at 1 PM Eastern on a Sunday. Right. You see, you know, the limitations and everything else. And it's like, fit them in where it's like, I don't know. I don't love golf, but you wouldn't use a sand wedge to hit a ball that was 10 feet from the hole. Right. Like just figure out where he works best. And they eventually did. It took a minute, but they won. Yeah.

Yeah. Lombardi's podcast is the GM shuffle. And I'm sure he's going to talk about this tomorrow, but one, one thing he said that I'm going to steal, but I'm giving him credit. Um,

He calls the game exactly the same, whether it's Flacco or Steichen. That's what Lombardi... Flacco or Richardson. That's what Lombardi said. And I was like, that's such a great point. But you have Richardson. You have this massive guy that you would think you could run QB draws with. You could roll him out almost like a giant fullback, like he's Bronco Nagurski. And yet they're running these goofy plays. I don't get it. I...

I support the benching from a couple weeks ago because I really thought Richardson looked terrible, but obviously they worked his confidence back. What's their record now? Because they're yes to make the playoffs. I thought they were 5-6. They're only plus 148 to make the playoffs. They don't really scare me. They're 5-6. Basically, the case for them would be...

They must have an easy schedule, but I don't even know what that would look like. Well, there's two pieces. One is their game behind Denver. Do you trust Denver? The other is there are only two games in the last combine Houston who keeps losing guys and just seems like they can never get all their guys healthy at the same time and haven't been that impressive to begin with. You know, Houston's six and four, they've scored 224 points. They've given up to 26.

Yeah. So maybe the odds factor into that, but frustrating game. They, they, uh, yeah, I guess they have a couple of easy ones. They have, and they play at Denver. That's another one. Denver's going to have a interesting way of controlling their own destiny here. They have the Colts and they have Cincinnati. Let's take one more break for the podcast.

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What would you like the power to do? Explore tips and more at bankofamerica.com slash yes. And a couple more quick games, bears Packers. So Caleb was good today. Yeah. And they changed a lot about him. He was getting the ball, getting rid of the ball a lot faster. I thought he was way more involved, but just as like a quarterback and a leader. And he just seemed like he had more energy. I thought they outplayed the Packers.

I would be alarmed if I was a Packers fan because you should have lost and you didn't lose because the Bears drove down inside what the 30 Eberfluss

Just decides to, I'm going to, I want to be careful here. I'm going to try to play for the outdoor 46 yard field goal. The Bears fans all hate Iberflues. And this is why, because he does shit like this. He's just not a terrible game management coach, but I thought they should have won. And I'll go further, Sal. Chicago's, they lost that Tennessee game in week one that I think you bet on. Yes, I did. Yeah. Right.

Oh, no, they won that game. No, they won. They won against Caleb Williams in his first game. Yeah. So they lost that Hail Mary game. They lost someone today. So they could at least be six and five.

So maybe it evens out with that they shouldn't have won the Tennessee game. I don't know. But whatever it is, their record should be at least one run better. That, yes. And I really think, I mean, that Hail Mary really spooked a lot of, I don't know, what do we call it? Like the haunted Hail Mary, the curse of Caleb, the Windy City Whisperer. Like really, I don't know.

the ghost of Shane Waldron. Like that was, that really, they can't, and now nobody blocks on field goals, field goal attempts. Like, Hey, the Hail Mary was almost like, like the whole team had a car accident. It was like a traumatic event. It's like, Hey, get over it guys. It was three weeks ago. But,

But there's also the part of it where, what are they, lost 11 in a row to Green Bay? Like eventually they had to be like, all right, we got to get... By the way, they shoved this rivalry down our throats, the league does. The greatest in football, even though you and I can't remember a good competitive game that we cared about between these two in the last quarter century. But I think the reason it's special is just because the teams have been around since like the...

19 pounds or whatever the fuck. That's it. I'm not saying I agree. And we can't remember any good game from that. So we had a great Matt LaFleur moment in this game too. This was not, I wouldn't have called this a chess match today. They have first down and goal from the eight. They're trying to score to take the lead late in the game. Somehow it ends up being fourth and six. There's still like, I don't know, 10, 11 minutes left. Kick the field goal, cut it to two, try to get a stop.

Nope. He goes for it on fourth and six, doesn't get it and traps the bears at the one yard line. But unless there's like two minutes left in the game, it's just idiotic. There's no other way to say it. That's just idiotic. It's so hard to get a fourth and two, much less a fourth and six. So many, you're basically hoping for like a pass interference or a defensive breakdown or some sort of like gimmick play that the play broke down and your quarterback rolled out and created something.

So I just didn't think Green Bay deserved to win that game. For the most part, you got to take points in these rivalry games, right? In the division games. Again, the rivalry, whatever. But in division games, we saw the Steelers do it against Baltimore. And, you know, you don't have to be super careful, but it would have helped the 49ers, a lot of these teams. I thought the Packers had a chance to be better than maybe they're going to be. Yeah. Kind of giving up on them a little bit as...

But we have seen around Thanksgiving, somebody comes out of nowhere in a sense heading into the playoffs. Can't rule them out because of their talent. But I think it's been, it's a disappointing, I thought they had a chance to be the second best team in the NFC. And from what I'm watching, I don't see it. Well, it's true, right? It's like, oh, they should be better. But also like, you know, if you live predicted their fate, you know,

after like love went down and get in Brazil. True. They're like, well, how are they going to be? They can't be seven and three. And here they are. I texted Kyle Brandt in the first half because Caleb really did look good. I was like, Caleb exclamation point. And he's like, don't worry. We're going to lose late. He's a Bears fan. There's no question. We're losing late. And that's what I was saying. Speaking of coaching scared.

Gerard Mayo, the Pats yet again lost the game that they probably could have won. The play calling was... You're upset about this? I thought we were doing better.

No, because Drake Bay is really special. And I feel like if you had just switched quarterbacks, we would have the same result. Maybe he would have done better. But there's a thing on ESPN about all the coaching mistakes, like not going for the fourth and goal, doing a PAT instead of a two point when it was 28-19, etc., etc.,

And then this is what the article says. Such decisions are always easy to second guess, but none worked out for the Patriots. Mayo has said he's taking notes throughout his first season and plans to learn from his experience. This game presented multiple decisions from which he can learn. Wow. It's week 11. Yeah.

This sounds like something you, if you get an F on your report card and you come home and tell your parents, like, yeah, I'm taking notes though. I'm going to kill theometry next semester. Yeah, I think my son said this last year when he was struggling in the 10th grade. Like, hey, I know my grades are bad, but I'm learning some good stuff. Did Mayo over here, Ben Simmons? Yeah, I think that's what happened. It's so funny. Like Kyle and I were going nuts because they just don't, I just, here's my advice for the Patriots. If anyone from the Patriots is listening. No, I'm sure they aren't.

Go and watch like the 50 most successful Josh Allen plays and the 50 most successful John Elway plays. Just study what those plays were. And then run some of them for Drake May. Because every time he rolls out to his right, he can throw it across his body in the middle of the field. He can zing it down the sideline. He can throw it deep. He can take off and run. Any QB draw with him, he's dangerous. The teams are so terrified he's going to take off.

They hand off on every first down. It's like that. We have to start out. So it's second and nine or second 11. Like that's a must. Um, I just, the receivers at one point he was 10 for 13 with three drops. All of his receivers suck. They spent a second round pick on a guy who all he does is get a false start whenever he's on the field.

Meanwhile, McConkie went nuts again today. But it's just like they have this incredible asset. It's like watching a team that has a diamond and they're like fucking playing Thanksgiving catch with it outside.

Yeah. Wow. This is more biting than my Aaron Rodgers eulogy. That's frustrating. I think Drake May is really good. He really is. This is going to make you feel better, but at some point, talent matters. And not his, but the supporting cast. And that's why the Rams were so good. Puka Nakula almost broke both of his elbows making that crazy catch, that first touchdown. Yeah.

And also, I don't really care because that was my best bet. The Rams minus four and a half. And you somehow fucking covered you, son of a bitch. Yeah, baby. Somehow. We're up two touchdowns. Nine and two on the year. Best handicapper on TV, radio, podcast, YouTube. McVay said he looks like a stud. Blah, blah, blah. You can just see the impact that he has on his teammates, the way people talk about him here. He looks like he's going to be a special player for a long time. And he gave us fits today.

Thanks, Sean McVay. You're in a good spot. Why do you want to go? You want to go seven and 10? You want to go eight and nine? My dad said that today. It's perfect outcome. Yeah. He, Jake did enough good stuff to make you feel great. The team did enough terrible stuff to end up losing the game. Perfect. There you go. Broncos, Falcons, Bo Nix. It's the beginning of October. Only two picks, 13 passing touchdowns, over 600 yards passing.

And he was awesome in that game today. Didn't it seem like some of these teams, they wear these uniforms and it's like, oh man, it looks so fast. Like Denver was getting, he was hitting these guys in stride. There was no doubt that they were open. Yeah. Like, is Atlanta that bad? Like we know that's a junk division, but my God. That was my favorite pick of the week. That was good. I just think the Falcons...

Whatever their record is, it could easily have been three wins worse. And I think the Broncos are, I've said this for weeks, that I think they're the good-bad team. Yeah. I think if you put another mediocre or worse team in front of them, they're probably going to win. That's a really nice bounce back for them after what happened last week. But here's my takeaway after watching that game. Can you guess what Atlanta's odds are to win the NFC South? I think I might have seen them by accident. Is it minus 400 or something like that?

They're minus 550 to win the NFC South. Yeah. Look at Tampa's schedule. Tampa's five to one. And their schedule is super easy down the stretch, right? Yeah, I saw that. And by the way, New Orleans somehow has four wins too with the Clogger. Oh, the Clogger. Clogger's 2-0. He's the best. He's unclogging Cleveland all over the place. So Tampa's at the Giants, at Carolina, home Vegas, next three. Look at those three. Wow. So that could be...

They could have seven wins in three weeks. Keep going. At Chargers, at Dallas, home Carolina, home Saints. They could put a six and one. We're betting this. All right, let's do it. We're betting on Tampa five to one. I said I wouldn't bet the NFC South. I said I wouldn't do it, but I guess 12 weeks is long enough to hold out there. This is like Seinfeld, the contest. Like how long can you last without betting the NFC South? I'm in.

Panics came in and it was super exciting because Cousins looked like he was 130 years old. I thought that was the dumbest line of the week. So two weeks in a row as we've done Guess the Lines.

And there was a line and I was like, that's absolutely out of it. So I wonder if that happens again this week. I'm going to bet even more money. I think you're right because two weeks ago they had gotten blown out by the Ravens. It could have been easy for them to pack it in. And then they lose on that dumb field goal to the Chiefs. And then they just light it up today. But yeah, they went over their win total five and a half already. Two weeks ago, Cardinals-Jets was the dumbest line. So we'll see if we have a dumb line this week.

Saints-Browns, so Jameis is 21 and 33 in his last 54 starts. Did you think that would be better or worse? - I might have been wrong about him. I thought he would turn his franchise around.

He might not be a winning QB. Yeah, I got really excited about this is a revenge game and the Saints should have started him nine weeks last year over Derek Carr. But no, that didn't really matter. You can't screw with the Clogger. Clogger's 55-31 outscored his opponents. He's the only undefeated coach in the league this year. Clogger's got great energy on the bench too. Yeah.

Definitely better than what did Lombardi call him? Thailand Shane? Thailand Shane. Yeah. He's beating a 14-year-old and mad at tonight. The Clogger's mad. He wants to be called the plunger, but no, we're sticking with the Clogger. Sorry. This Taysom Hill fantasy conundrum thing is weird. What's a conundrum? How many times have you picked up in a year? He's eligible for a tight end and suiting up as quarterback. We've never really figured this out. Runs the ball. Yeah. Random stuff really quick.

Why don't teams QB sneak anymore? What happened? The Chargers, Herbert's 6'6", and they won't QB sneak with him on first and goal from the one. He's 6'6". Brady, what did he not convert two QB sneaks out of 1,500 in his career?

Yeah. You're 6'6". It should be automatic. You should be able to get a yard. I'm with you. What happened? Is it because Mahomes got hurt that time? Everyone's afraid now? Well, we know why he does it or doesn't do it, right? We know why Hurts does it because it's an automatic. He's going to launch six yards. But yeah, you would think it would be a hardball thing. Like, hey, we're going to get our offensive line to be disciplined enough to get this giant forward half an inch.

Tennessee, Minnesota, I watched zero plays of. Yeah. I was thinking, what's the opposite of a multi-view game? Interesting. It's like a multi-view blackout. I didn't know what it is. A radio game. Yeah.

I had it on a small screen, like a big post-it, like that size screen. That's basically what I had. I'm good with not watching Tennessee again this season. Well, even the Vikings are boring. I don't know. We see Detroit kill these garbage, teal, AFC South teams like Jacksonville and Tennessee. Vikings don't feel like they're 8-2. Miami Dolphins, 4-6. We talked about this scenario two weeks ago, and now it's...

Now it's a, or one week ago because we did it for the Rams game on Monday night and they won two games in six days. They play the Patriots this week and they could be five and six. They're at green band at Thursday home jets at Houston home, San Francisco, a game that suddenly seems a lot easier than it was on the schedule. And then at Cleveland at the jets last two weeks, uh,

Could get to nine wins from four and six. The fights for the seven seeds are going to be good in both conferences, right? I don't know that they have a chance against the two seeds, but it's going to be good. Well, I mean, that really could be five. Sorry to jump. Good, but also not good because then we have to watch them when we're all together for round one. And then it's a lot less good when we're watching the Dolphins in a playoff game. Right.

I'm just thinking of the NFC West division where everybody's five and five. I could see all three of those other teams going three and three the rest of the way. Right. And then it's all going to come down to the next week. Well, I hope the Dolphins at least get a little more exciting because I think

Our friend, John Jastrzemski, who hosts the Ringer Sunday pregame show. The king of the underdog. He did it today. I think you're number one. I've known you a long time. I moved, I did an Instagram thing. I'm 22 years in LA now. So we've known each other 22 years. Your number one thing you hate over really anything else, including cancer and pestilence, like name all the worst things in the world is when people claim an underdog pick

And either they're not an underdog, which the Fox guys used to do. They're like, I like the Browns. Meanwhile, the Browns would be minus one and a half and Bradshaw's taking them as an underdog or somebody who takes an underdog. That's like a plus one Oh five or a plus one Oh eight.

which is what JJ did today on the show. The Fox guys are 80 years old, so you're teaching them how to, you know, you're teaching them how to text and their brains are spinning out of their heads. JJ does 17 podcasts a week on gambling and he's very proud of his Bengals plus 108 podcast.

By the way, good. I'm glad he lost. Now I'm thinking I didn't care about that game. Now I'm great. Yeah. Like houses, houses, Steelers plus 158. Like people are doing real underdog. I have the Raiders. Yeah. Yeah. You're the Raiders. Yeah, exactly. You want to take Jake Paul to JJ? I'm sorry. I don't know. He's, is that an underdog? I'm like, come on.

And then he gets defensive about it. He got upset. Jesus, JJ. Plus 108. Here's my courageous underdog pic. I was sending him cowardly lion pictures. He wasn't responding towards the end. Bro, that plus symbol? That plus symbol is all you need to see, bro. If it's a plus symbol, it counts as an underdog, bro. Good. Good for you. It's a pick-em.

Just hell hath no fury if I get Juan Soto on the Red Sox, the amount of text somebody was sending JJ. That'll bring me right back with the Red Sox. The sabbatical will be over. They won't get a ball. So playoff picture. KC, Detroit is the one seeds. Buffalo, Denver is one matchup, 2-7. Pittsburgh, Chargers. Oh no, I'm sorry. Pittsburgh, Baltimore would be the 3-6.

And then Houston Chargers would be the four or five if it ended today. Right. So that's probably the shakiest game, Houston Chargers. Houston Chargers. Yeah. AFC South is locked in. The other one we would have, let's see. I'm too confused by the NFC. I get it. I guess the most important one is right now it'd be Arizona hosting Minnesota.

In round one, another possible Shakey's game. So that's the 4-5? That would be the 4-5? That would be the 4-5. Because it looks like Minnesota's got the inside track on the 5 seed unless Green Bay or Washington. Well, but Atlanta's a worse division winner, right? At 6-5? Wouldn't they be the 4th?

Yeah, you're right. Because those teams are going to go backwards. Oh, yeah. So it could be Atlanta, Minnesota. That's a tough game to bet. See, this is Latin one to the NFC. I knew it was going to fuck it up. That's a tough one to bet, though. I don't like that. One more break for the podcast and then we'll do Guess the Lines. This episode is brought to you by Origin. Y'all know how much I love my guy Murph, my dog.

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Visit Workday.com to learn more. All right. Guess the line, Sal. What's our record for the year? All right. So I won last week. So you're up 6-4-1 through 11 weeks. So you're like a plus 107 underdog. Could JJ bet you? JJ's all over it. And then Raheem, who's also on the show, who's been doing well lately and just can't

Can't resist telling everybody about how well he's doing. He's in the dugout being like, hey, we're throwing a no-hitter through five innings. No hits by the other team. I love it. We just brag about each other. Then Joe House. Joe House.

You know, that pregame show is an hour and a half. And he holds the microphone for an hour. It's a heavy ass. It's not, you know, this is not, you're not hosting like a calendar here. It's a pretty hefty microphone. He has to get right in there. Raheem is a confidence player. Yeah, House did million dollar picks with me after the Washington game on Thursday night. And he's like, I might have a few drinks. I'm like, great. People love drunk House. He was actually pretty subdued. And as we're doing it, I'm like,

This actually might be drunk house because he's not loud and like fun drunk house. He actually seems like he's had a few. So then today he's like, yeah, the Browns. I was probably a little drunk on Thursday night. I probably should have suggested that one because he gave me the Browns. You're blaming him, but you're betting a million dollars on these picks. They really should come from you. I don't know why you're so trusting. I know. Thursday night, Steelers. Speaking of the Browns, Steelers in Cleveland.

It's really rough for the Browns. Maybe we should have seen it coming when they traded one of their past rushers right before the trade deadline. And then they traded Mark Cooper, their best receiver. That should have been a red flag. Steelers at Cleveland on a Thursday night. And to me, this has to be Steelers by three and a half. Really?

You're still going to get it. I said six and a half. It's four and a half. Why is that even that low? Eight and two against two and eight. I just think the Thursday night, you got to dock it for the road team coming off an emotional, physical... I mean, that Baltimore-Pittsburgh game, we didn't talk about how physical and how much shit-talking there was in that game. That game was awesome. These games were awesome today. Pittsburgh-Baltimore...

The Buffalo game was great. This Chargers game was great. And this Browns game would not be great. Yeah. Sunday marquee game. I think it's Packers-Niners, right? Yeah, I think so. It's in Green Bay. But that's it. I had a lot of trouble with this one because the Niners seem like they're getting a lot of respect based on past performance, potential of what the performance is.

And I really think this line should be at least Packers by one and a half. So I'm going to do that. Packers by one and a half. Well, you said at least. You want to go a little higher? You can go a little higher if you want. Motherfucker. I said two. It's one and a half. You think that flips? Is that Niners minus one and a half? George Kittle's back. Oh, yeah. Oh, they love flipping the one and a half. The one and a half is so dangerous. Right? And now we're going to add six and make a nice teaser and it's not going to make any sense.

Did you see there was a thing going around today about, and I don't know if it accounts for today's games or not. Somebody sent this to me. Active NFL coach records in one score games. And the worst coach is Eber Flus at five and 17 in one score games. Zach Taylor's 21 for 32, 21 and 32. Peterson's 32 and 43 and Kyle Shanahan's 29 and 33 in one score games. Kind of feels that way, right?

Yeah. Shanahan feels that way because I think we examined this stat a couple, like a year ago with Shanahan. You're telling me Zach Taylor's won 21 one-score games? Yeah. No way. Where were they? No. No. College? What is it? How'd that happen? Tomlin's 107 and 68 in one-score games. He's the man. Adds up. Yeah. LeFleur's 33 and 21. And then...

Your guy McCarthy's 73 and 65. But he had Rodgers before Rodgers was washed. That's not fair. That's not fair. But yeah, the Iberflues thing jumped out to me and then Shanahan 29 and 33 with all the talent they've had. I thought that was notable. Yeah. You think when you go for an extension, they show you that tweet or whatever you saw? It's not good. You know what else isn't good, Sal?

I only have two watchable games after the marquee game.

And one of them is the Lions, just because I think Lions Colts will be fun because I really enjoy watching Richardson. You just don't know what's going to happen with Richardson. Right. Every pass is exciting. He might sail it over somebody's head. He might bounce it. It might be like one of the best 20-yard in passes you've seen. Just don't know. I have the Lions favored by six and a half in Indianapolis. All right. Finally, I get this. I had seven and it's seven and a half. Hmm.

They're just crushing teams, though. They have to put it north of seven. This can't go lower. Feels like a tease, right? Yeah. They're not ready to lose yet, Detroit. There'll be a time. That's not yet. Campbell's definitely got the Drago's trainer face going during these games. He just wants to pour it on. Yeah! No! Seahawks Cardinals in Seattle.

And I was going to go one and a half, and I'm going to say Seahawks minus two after today. You get it. It's one and a half. I said four. Why are... Cardinals have had a really good month. I know. They're getting a little too much credit here. A little too much. Two fairly watchables. Vikings at Chicago is the first one. Something is not watchable about the Vikings that I can't put my finger on it.

But I'm never like, oh, cool, the Vikings are on offense. And they have guys I like watching. It's just something's missing. Yeah, we don't like when you have a big play guy, a top three fantasy guy, Justin Jefferson, who never seems to hit the ball. Struggling to score. I think they averaged 30 over their first four games. In the last two or three, they've averaged like 15 or something. I'm going to say Vikings by three in Chicago. Yeah.

You're going to get this. I said four and a half. It's three and a half. I think that ends at three. Did they play yet? No, they play week 15. I think that goes down. Yeah, I think that gets the three. Dolphins home for the Pats is the other one. And I swear the Pats aren't bad. You swear you wouldn't lie to me. I swear they're not bad. And you can't tell me you weren't fucking sweating out that Rams game. No, I was. I was. Yeah. I'm glad they kicked.

Pats lose to Seattle 23 to 20 in a game that they coach scared and they had Brissette instead of May. They lose week five to Miami when they should have started May. I think they would have won that. They lost that one 15 to 10. They lost that stupid Tennessee game in week nine by three and they lost this Rams game today. It's a three and 18 that could like they really could be six and seven.

A couple plays. They're not bad. Whatever you say. I don't know how the three and eight gets to six and seven. Like, they really could have played two more games in 11 weeks? I wasn't asked to do math. Well, the question is, do they have any... How many blowouts do they have? Like, I look at the Cowboys. I'm like, oh, we have at least three or four. You have none. You have no blowout. Like, receiving end of a blowout, I'm saying. Oh, yeah. We got blowed out a couple times. Yeah, Houston...

No, no, but coming up, like, are you going to have two or three or, you know, you have what? Seven games, right? Miami, Indy, Arizona, Buffalo, Chargers, Buffalo. Six games left. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have that. Pat's over under four and a half and they have three wins. Oh, you're fighting that out. But think about it at Miami home, Indy at Arizona at Buffalo Chargers, Buffalo, like probably only one win left with this coaching stuff.

You got to hit this exact. I got this exactly. You did? I'm going to say Miami by six and a half. Oh, you should have said seven. Very close. I would advise people not to tease that. I just don't. That seems like a classic Miami looking ahead game. Who does Miami play the week after this?

They play... Well, that's Thanksgiving week, right? Yeah, they're at Green Bay on Thursday, that next week. So this is a classic. Hey, it's the Pats. Let's just... We'll get by this. We got Green Bay on Thursday and then all of a sudden we're up 10-0. You played tough with them last time, right? It was like 15-10. Is that what you said? Yeah. I think we can play with that team. Now, the reason these games are so shitty is because six teams are off, right? Yeah. We forgot to mention that. Buffalo, Cincinnati. Some huge fantasy implications. Yeah. There's some teams with fantasy guys. So...

The poopfecta is loaded. We might need the clogger to unclog it. Really some doozies. There's five. Bucks Giants in Jersey. Bucks minus four. Yeah, you get it. I said five. It's three and a half. Stupid. That's dumb.

Except that we're going to bet Tampa to win the division. So they're definitely going to lose to the Giants. Yeah, so we kind of need to do that because I need to be interested in week 12. So maybe that's the first way to do it. Let's do it. Bet the Bucs. Washington is home for the Cowboys. Watch out. God only knows how bad you're going to look tomorrow. Watch out. I have Washington by eight. Oh man, you're edging me out here. I had seven and a half. It's nine and a half. That's too bad.

Washington hasn't looked good in a month. Well, Cowboys haven't looked good six years in a month. So fair. Should be interesting. Oh, you don't think the schedule can get worse? Can I offer you Chiefs Panthers in Carolina? Yeah, you could offer me a three-team teaser. Well, that's why I'm jacking this up because they're going to have, this will be in the tease range. I'm going to say Chiefs by 11 and a half in Carolina.

I can't get one of these. I had 12. It's 10 and a half. They can't lose that. Put that on any teaser from now, whenever, however long you think you're going to be betting 15, 20 more years, 40. Just try to try to get them on whatever fan to allow. I had another 14 or 13 pointer, by the way. Oh, I saw that. Wait. Chargers plus 11 Chiefs, Lions, and then the Eagles on Thursday night.

Oh, you sent me something else. I sent it. I think that was it. The UFC. Oh, I hit that too. Green Bay. Look at you, hitting everything. Bo Nickel with Jon Jones, who could not have been more amazing in that fight. And then the Lions and the Packers was basically even odds. Jon Jones figured out how to do a liver punch as a spinning back kick. Right, yeah. I've never seen a UFC move that looked like it hurt more than that move.

Yeah, you don't usually see... If they did that to us, what would happen to us? I would still... No, I would still be... I'd say I'd still be in the ring, but I think they would carry me to my grave. So I don't think I would still be in the ring. Yeah, no, his foot went right through. Did that break like five ribs, right? It looked like it really... Like he was going to have trouble getting his foot out of that sternum, right?

I thought he was so good. Stipe was terrible. Stipe looked like he was kind of washed. But John Jones was like, he played all the hits. He did the ground and pound in the first round. He has this ways of just like, it's like 20 elbows and 19 of them land. He was so good. Someone gave Stipe a round, which was insane. Jesus. It's one of the judges. Two more terrible games. Texans, Titans. This is in Houston. And

I really, I thought about getting this to nine because I know they're going to think everyone's going to tease it, but the Texans just haven't been good enough. So I'm going to say Texans eight and a half. I hate when you're explaining it and I know you have me dead to rights, but I still have to listen to the whole thing. And keep a poker face? Yeah, I had nine and it is eight and a half.

This is disgraceful. That's a slightly dangerous game for Houston because Tennessee's defense isn't bad. Short week for Houston. Short week for Houston. Battle. That's going to be a battle against the Cowboys. Very physical. You know, this one might not be a poop-fecta game with the way Bo Nix is playing, but Broncos in Vegas playing the Raiders and Bobby Bacala, Antonio Pierce.

Yeah. I was saying to you and Lombardi that Bobby Bacala was uncle Junior's driver for two years. And then like somehow a couple of people died and he became a captain. Right. And it was like, how is this guy captain? He was like getting, getting the, uh, getting uncle June, uncle June and Baba ghoul. Yeah. What do they call that? Gaba. What's that? Yeah.

What did I call it? Babagool? That was Karen's last lasagna, Junior. I've never heard of gabadool before. You're not saying it right. It's okay. Gabadool? Gabadool. Gabadool.

It's like your daughter's first words. No, I don't even know what it is. Not in the Connecticut, Massachusetts area. But yeah, it's like Antonio Pierce. They just cut to him on the sidelines and he just has this look like, I wonder if I'm going to be able to do TV next year. I wonder if there's going to be a college job. Broncos, I'm going to say minus four in Vegas. All right.

You get it either way. But this, I said three. It was three and a half. It went to four and a half. What kind of injury could there be on Vegas for them to move this a line? I know their running backs both got hurt, but it was like Amir Abdul or whatever. But why did this move within an hour? Well, did you see any of the Vegas game? Oh, I know they're terrible. Yeah. Minshew had a play where in the fourth quarter he rolled out. Mm-hmm.

And he threw a pass and I think it was Jalen Ramsey. He fell down. So he was on the ground and the guy was open and Minshew somehow threw it to Jalen Ramsey who caught it when he was lying on the ground for an interception. I didn't ever see that before. That's good. Yeah. Tough times for Minshew. Jesus. I love, I just want so badly to bet that team, but they gotta be a stay away for the rest of the year. Sunday night, Eagles Rams in LA. Not a bad game.

I have a crowd prediction for this. There's a lot of Philly fans that live here. Oh, yeah. You put a lot of Philly fans together. And if the game becomes frustrating or disappointing in the first or second quarter, the vibe slash energy in that arena or stadium completely changes and gets super weird. And I feel like that's going to happen in this game.

You put 50,000 Eagle fans who are furious because Sirianni went for it on fourth and three and Jalen Hurts got sacked. And just that you can hear the grumbling all around the stadium. I'll never forget the Super Bowl Eagles Pats. Like it was the weirdest energy I've ever felt in a game. It's just the Eagles fans are so mad. It was like in the second quarter. They're furious. But those are Eagles fans. These are going to be LA Eagles fans, right? You think they're going to be more mellow because we have good weather?

No, probably not. Yeah, I don't think so either. That'd be bad. But this means more to the Rams for sure. I do not have the Rams favorites, Sal. I have Eagles minus one and a half. Yeah, I said two and it's three. Eagles are a full field goal. Wow, they're rarely seen three. I think they're counting on what you're talking about. A lot of Eagles fans showing up there. There's a lot of Bengals fans. We're getting a lot of Eagles fans. Did I clinch yet or is this still up in the air? Why, you want to quit? No.

Yeah, it's like nine to three. I pull my starters. Yeah, pull them all. Nine to three, you're up. Last game, Monday night, we get to watch the Chargers again. Oh, Mike. Ravens at Chargers. Ravens at LA. I wonder if Mally Rubin will be in the house. I bet she will. She doesn't leave her own house, but she might be in this house. I'm going to say Baltimore by one and a half.

Uh, are they checking on an injury because it's not on fan? I pulled it up before and now it's not on. You look there, but what'd you say? We both said one and a half. Anyway, it's, uh, it's three. It's the last I saw.

But is Herbert Hurt or somebody? Herbert might be. Maybe he got hurt when they ran that play when he just got that option play when he just got annihilated. And Collinsworth's like, please don't ever run that play again. Oh, his right arm is tight. He could throw left-handed if he wants. He's still handsome either way. Of course. All right. You won 7-4-1 after 12.

Thanks again to Workday for sponsoring this segment. Be a finance and HR rockstar with Workday. To learn more, visit Workday.com. So we watched Tyson Paul together at our cousin Jimmy's. Yeah. One of the most depressing sporting events I can remember. You felt by the second round, felt like it was over. I went back because I remember I'd remembered writing a column about

some fight that felt like the end of Tyson's career. And it was the Lennox Lewis fight, which was in 2002. Wow. And that was when I wrote a whole long column about it was so sad to watch. It's over. It was literally 2002. Drake May was born in 2002.

Yeah. So I don't know why we were surprised. Well, I got to see his ass and that's all I really want. I told you before the night, I was like, I just, I just want to see his ass. I don't care who wins the fight, but it bums me out because you were smart. You were the only one in the room who didn't have money on Tyson. And yet the way we broke it down on against law, I almost called it exactly. I'm like, he's going to show he'll have like a flurry in the first couple rounds. And then these gloves are too big.

and Paul's going to realize that Tyson can't hurt him. And so he's just going to jab, jab him to death. And that wasn't even that much. And I didn't even count on the knee brace. When your fighter goes in there looking like Bill Walton at like 46 years old, the knee brace is just, Oh my God, automatic. I wish I didn't bet on this guy thing. So what, how many years was I off by? I know you wrote that column, but does he beat him at 48? Does he beat him at

30, 44? I don't know. I had, as we're watching the Chargers game today, I put on ESPN on the smaller TV because I thought SportsCenter was coming on and they were running Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits, Volume 2. Depressing. And it was just him destroying. The best one is the Donnie Long, I think is my favorite. He's fucking absolutely, I think he might have killed Donnie Long. Oh, yeah. But it's just over and over. Did you see how fast and crazy good he was back then? And then there's been this revisionist history since like,

Oh, no. He was just, he was both. At the moment, Douglas hit him like anyone could have. There's no. My answer to that is no. Like him really through the Spinks fight was the most unstoppable heavyweight I've ever seen. Ferocious. Nobody's getting it. I just don't know how anybody beats that guy. He's a fucking maniac. He's throwing uppercuts. He's ducking. He's round both hands. He had 17 different punches. Yeah.

For sure. And in the Jake Paul fight, he really only had like this weird, lazy left hook. He never threw his right, never threw uppercuts and had no legs. It was awful. In the Jake Paul fight, he had 17 different punches too, but those were over eight rounds. So total, he had 17 punches, but I feel like betting on it. Like I'm an asshole. Like it's dumb going into it. I knew, but it's, it's,

we don't want to admit we're old, right? Like this bet was basically like getting a facelift, right? Like it's a risk. And I know it's going to happen here. And the surgeon got paid either way, but I can't admit that I'm old. And, uh, uh, Mike, he just killed us. He just killed. It was so sad. Couldn't move forward in the training. 30 seconds spurts. Like it's nice. I know. Well, he planted the seed after about, he, he got,

hurt or whatever happened to him in June and he had that blood transfusion and he lost weight. So I feel like they're paving the way for one more. Oh, one more. We need one less. One more fight? Really? I don't know. He made like 20 million for this. I know. He got 20 million. That's when you really feel like a jerk. See, like fight George Foreman, we're not going to all get together if it's like him versus George Foreman or him versus Evander, Holyfield Tyson three.

Yep. Jimmy Carter could get sanctioned. I think they could do this. It's all about like the, it's the walkup. It's the anticipation of it. And then the actual fight is like a bonus. Yeah. I had buzzed, uh, Adam Carolla in my ear saying he's 58. What do you expect? I think I heard that about 25 times. Yeah. That seemed to be his, his go-to point. He's right. Um,

It was brutal. The women's fight was great, though. That should have been the main event. That was tremendous. I, of course, lost money on that. I was the most excited moment for me, though, is Babydoll. Jimmy had like this big fire pit with the fire going. Babydoll sees it and it's just like,

It's just like a cheetah seeing its prey. He just has to sit next to it and have at least two Marlboro Reds in a row while flicking it into the fire and then eventually throwing a cigarette in there. Even though it's not a fire, it's like one of those glass things shoot up. So now there's cigarette butts in there, which I'm sure they didn't want. Yeah, you're not supposed to put trash in there. But he makes it like it's a carnival game. Yeah, but he was... Listen, I know what I'm doing, baby. I got to get through these three packs before I open the other one.

What do you got for parent corner? All right. I got a good one.

So on Tuesday, this past Tuesday, my son Jack has a wrestling match, right? And it's a dual meet against another school. So he's on JV. And when you're on JV, like if you're on varsity, you pretty much feel the full lineup. And you know, the opposing team is going to have probably one guy at every weight class. So it'll match up. But if you're on JV, you never know. Like if the other team only has five extras and you have 20, you're not going to get a match. So I have to go and I have to wait, whatever. So we get there.

He comes in. He's like, I don't have a match. And my wife is working the concession stand. And she's like, oh, well, then you should eat that. I'm like, well, don't we want to wait? He's like, no, I don't have a match. So she's giving him like Costco pizza and like peanut and

M&M's and I'm like alright well I guess that's it we'll stay and watch anyway 15 minutes later he comes out he's like I have a match I'm wrestling varsity the regular varsity kid he's out with ringworm

I was like, you gotta be kidding me. Ringworm, the only thing you can get from wrestling. There's no other way to get ringworm unless you're wrestling for somebody. Yeah, guess what? He's also his partner, so he probably has it too, but anyway, officially he doesn't have it. Yes, we all have it now. So I have to talk to him now. So I'm like, all right, shit, this is crazy. You're wrestling varsity. So if you're losing, you're probably going to be losing because you're a 10th grader on varsity and you're not much experienced. You got to save your team points. So

If you lose him by five, don't give up. Don't go to your back. Because if you lose by 10, it costs the team more points than if you lose by six. So anyway, all right, whatever. So he goes out there and it's a wild first period. It's like 10 to eight. There's a takedown or reversal every 15 seconds. The gym is pumped. It's sloppy. It's sloppy.

The other school, probably not their regular varsity kid too. Like maybe their guy had scurvy. I don't know what it is. But anyway, this is a sloppy match. I have no idea. So it's actually nine to eight right before the end of the first period. Jack's on bottom and he throws up the Domino's pizza.

He throws up on the mat. On the mat? Yes, because he overdid it because he didn't know he was going to have a mat. And then they come out and they clean it and they have to spray it. And it's like a five-minute intermission there. And that's supposed to be it. They don't really...

they probably figure you're sick. Right. And then that you have to like leave the match. Right. Not that you had too much Costco pizza doesn't get the boom, by the way. And, uh, is there video of him puking or I'll send it to you. Yeah. Is it better than when you puked or now it's three or now the kids got some ways to go, but, uh, but it was, uh, it was interesting nonetheless, but I'll send it to you. Um,

He convinces him to let it keep going. And so he goes and he actually escapes to make it 10 to eight. So now the second period, same thing back and forth. They're exhausted. Jack's about to get thrown, but like leg trips, the kid right onto his back and the kid's exhausted. He pins the kid and the gym goes bananas and the team eventually wins by six points. So he made a difference. So wow, that was it. That was it. And it was, uh, it was pretty fricking great. I have to say it's like, uh,

you know, I could lose like a lot of, like a lot of bets and, uh, this would make up for it for sure. I like it. Yeah. So when they make a movie, it'll be called like vision puke. Yes. Vomit quest. Vision crust brought to you by Domino's. God. That's parent corners brought to you by Domino's pizza. Check out their app. Domino's has a great app. Yuck. My parent corner, um,

My daughter's boyfriend, Tommy, who's a great kid, she's been dating him for like a year. And he was playing like a touch football game and some kid fell into his leg and he hurt his leg. Like he broke like the top of his tibia. So he was like in a cast for four weeks. So he ends up moving in because my dad is like 12 minutes from where Zoe goes to school. So he moves in with my dad.

And my stepmom, because it's too hard for him. He's like, has an apartment in Austin. It's too hard for him to go back and forth, you know, like, so it's just, and then my dad's excited because he is like a live body to watch sports with. So Tommy's been there for like a month, hanging, hanging with my dad, watching, watching games and stuff, which of course led to, um, I insisted that he mailed me videos whenever my dad fell asleep during sporting events, which was every single night.

So I'll just be home and I'll just get this video from Tom. And it's just, it's some exciting like fourth quarter of like, you know, Lakers Warriors. And then the phone will cut to my dad and my dad's like, he's dead next to him. So I'm really excited. Well, it's probably one in the morning, fourth quarter, right? That'll stay up for all this stuff though. Really? Okay.

And then I'd put all these apps on my dad's TV, including NBA League Pass. Which, of course, he has no idea. It's like, all you have to do is press the Apple TV. The League Pass will come up quick on that.

The games will be there. And it's like too much for him. All he wants to do is turn on the TV and go to cable. And then the smart TV part has Netflix and that's all he's capable of. It's not Tommy's in there. And he's telling me how they're watching NBA games. He's like, yeah, Tommy knows how to get to these NBA games.

And I'm like, you mean the NBA games that I put on your TV and was telling you, like, you can click on this? And it's like, so he made it seem like Tommy's like red and Shawshank. Like Tommy's a man who knows how to get things. It's like, you mean Tommy just knows how to press the Apple TV menu? The things comes up and he presses the thing. Why can't our parents, why don't they understand how to use remote controls? Like, why is this? Do your parents have trouble with this? Like getting to...

the worst. My father's fingers are big, so he's breaking the shit out of whether it's a phone or a little Apple remote or something. So it's just not for him. But yeah, it seems like it should click. They couldn't make it easier. They can't get it. Every time my mom goes to see, her mom lives here, and every time she's over, the first 20 minutes are her fixing smart TV or something that happened. I was thinking, I said to Fennessey,

I actually think the ringer, we might have to launch a podcast where every episode is somebody telling stories about interactions with their parents and technology. If you have parents over 75 and it's just like, all right, here's my story of when I went over to help, help fix my mom's internet. And it just goes, my mom couldn't get on spectrum for like two weeks and called the guys and the guys came and

Like that, she thought there was a serious problem. And all the guy did was just turn the box off and on and the spectrum worked. Right, right, right. Like the guy, it was like a house call came in and that, that was the solution was, have you tried turning the box on and off? My mom was like, what do you mean? And did it. And all of a sudden it worked.

It scares the shit out of them. Because it makes me think, what are we going to be like 30 years from now? Like AI, are we going to be just as idiotic? Oh, we're going to be fine. We're going to be fine. We could navigate Fandle. We're good. We're good. But no, these people, like my father, I had to take him to DMV and you have to fill out all the shit on the tablet. You don't write anything. I'm like, if I wasn't there, he would be there. There wouldn't be cars. There'd be flying cars by the time he got out of there. He wouldn't be there. Yeah, it's tough. But the bigger point is,

You're jealous of Tommy, aren't you? I am a little bit jealous. It did make me think of when I lived in Boston and I could just hang out and watch games with my dad and then he would fall asleep in the fourth quarter or whatever we're watching. Now Tommy gets it. With his grandfather-in-law. But here's the other thing. Tom is a huge Heat fan because my dad watches every Celtic game if he doesn't go. So he feels like he has to like...

you know, kind of join the Celtics thing a little bit, but he's also a Heat fan. So what he does is he bets on the Celtics every game. Oh, interesting. All right. See, this is why this guy could be the one for my daughter. Like he's, that's kind of outside the box thinking. He's living, this is a crazy relationship set up here, isn't it? Well, it's only one more week. He's got, he'll be able to start moving around in a week. Yeah. All right. My dad's like, I'm bummed out. We love having him here. What's going on?

Yeah.

He's paying for the wedding. That's great. Anyway, that's parent quarter. Sal, what do you got to plug? Well, I just came off the ringer pregame show where I'm nine and two on my best bets. You've had a long day. Yeah, nine and two on your best bets. Come on. Wow. You were plus 108 to be nine and two on your best bets. It was an upset. Who knew I could do it? Through the ringer with Tate against all odds. We had a nice same game parlay with the fellas Thursday night and Cousin Sal's winning weekend with the great Jim Nance on

On Friday. What should I ask him? Hello, my friends. Yeah. Hello, friends. I think you have to make him rank his top three things he's ever called from three to one. All right. You got to get the bronze medal, silver medal, gold medal, greatest, greatest things he's called. I have to. You know, he has his top three. Yeah. I also want the top three most annoying things about Tony Romo. I want, I'm going to get it out of him.

What he finds. Definitely say like, Hey, three years ago, were you mad at Romo when he just wasn't memorizing the numbers of the guys on the thing? Did you get, did you give him a pep talk? Right. To yell at him? What happened? I love it. It's very exciting. Those are, those are good guests. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We do. All right. We have a Sunday pregame show. Let me, sorry. Let me shout out Alison Turner, the terrific booker for the ringer. Oh, we love Alison. Great job by her. She's great.

I almost don't like that you shattered her out. Now I'm worried someone's going to try to hire her away from us. She's one of our favorite employees. No, no, no. Her name is actually really bad. Yeah, she's not good. I had to yell at her a few times last few weeks. Yeah, Joe House is the one you want to book your guests. Ringer Sunday pregame, we came up with this new idea, the...

What do we call it? The hot fudge sundae with a Y where everybody has to do a parlay or a pick of plus 200 or higher. Put them all together.

And today's was like 42 to one. How many legs did we hit? I think we hit two. No, one or two. I had the under 31 and a half with Tennessee, Minnesota. Yeah. JJ freaks out. JJ breaks out in hives because he doesn't like anything over plus 200. He's like, where can I even find this? I don't know. He wanted to do it. It has to be plus 110 or higher.

for this Sunday. All right, Sal, we'll see you next week. Good job by you. Good job by you, buddy.