First Things First - Chiefs beat Commanders, Dodgers beat Blue Jays in Game 3, Lamar Jackson comeback, Mahomes Mountain

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

(0:00) Dodgers beat Blue Jays in 18-inning thriller, Chiefs beat Commanders (27:13) Lamar Jackson removes distractions, Will Ravens blowout Dolphins? (40:02) Mahomes Mountain (01:03:36) Browns & Shedeur Sanders, ’25 Chiefs better than the ’24 Chiefs? (01:19:27) Brou’s MVP Ballot (01:22:33) WS Game 4 Picks (01:24:26) Biggest takeaways from WS Game 3, Danny’s Top 10 (01:45:58) Will Lamar Jackson’s return help turn things around for the Ravens? (01:57:57) He Said We Said (02:07:14) Jordan Love lights up Steelers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1150 in Los Angeles. Freeman sends a fly ball to center field. Varshot's going back before the cut. It's a week. From New York. It's a show that was up late last night. And you're going to see the repercussions of that. We are fired up.

I had to get an extra bag of candy corn. And we're celebrating one of the greatest games in baseball history. And it's Bruce's birthday. Bruce birthday. Oh, thank you guys. Guys. Happy birthday, Drew. I gave Drew a full two-armed hug. He did.

Oh, that's nice. Yeah. You just said a like. Happy birthday. Heart. Oh, yeah. Heart. First hour, first thing, first power pack show, as always.

Today, Chiefs over commander. I forgot that. I know. Why didn't the dominating win leave everyone here very impressed? Meanwhile, O'Tani on the mound tonight. How will yesterday's marathon affect tonight? This is really, we're in uncharted water. We really are.

Like I'm wondering. You see, it's seriously. Yeah, I know. You're an uncharted water. You go out and start a game. I mean, only, there's only been one other 18-Aid and World Series game, but now the guy's also starting pitcher. That's crazy.

And finally, another edition of the iciest segment in all of sports with some major changes. Yeah. A lot of changes and too many injuries. Yeah. Well, hopefully. Yeah. Hopefully some of those guys. Purdy should be back soon.

Hopefully James coming back. The purdy thing's weird. It's turf toe, man. It's turftoe. I don't know if he's coming back this week. Yeah. Whole thing. Alongside, Nick Wright, Kevin Wilde's Christmas start.

We are starting with one of the best games in the history of American sports. 18 innings before last year's World Series MVP, Freddie Freeman, walks it off. Here's Dave Roberts post game. Those guys gave everything they had tonight to be. beat us and none of us wavered, quit, we continue to fight. That's who we are. So enjoy the of it, but we got a game later today. All right? Hey, we got a game. A starting pitcher was on base nine times. That's right. Hey, leave it all out there. Game three, tail of the tape, six hours, 39 minutes, 153 plate appearances, 19

pitchers took the mound and 609 pitches were thrown. Brew. What was your number one takeaway from an epic game three? I mean, obviously I could point out the boat, Shohei getting on base nine times. Freddie Freeman, Mr. Clutch

does it again. You can point him out. I'm going to go to the role players though because even though they are a they have stars. I mean, they are star laden, obviously. Mookie Betts, I didn't even mention him. Like, They have tons of superstars, but they are a team.

And in baseball, that's what it takes because the nature of the sport is that your superstars aren't going to always deliver. I mean, we just saw Shohei go two for 25 over a stretch in the NLCS, and now he's on fire. But, you know, they had to pick up the slack when he was struggling. So I want to point to, like, a couple defensive plays. And it's not just that you have other good role players, but they are a full team in terms of defense pitching. And look, Tommy Edmund, second base. Yeah, this play in the ninth inning, it's a tie game.

I mean, oh, so this is, okay, this is not the one I was talking about, but it's the relay, 10th inning, tied at five. I mean, that could have been the game right there. Yes. And great, I mean, they get only five miles. Yeah, yeah. But great play. First of all, Tioscar Hernandez, then to Edmund.

I mean, that's just beautiful baseball. baseball, beautiful defensive baseball. And then Edmund, the inning before, had made another great play. I get it that they had two errors, but these are great defensive plays. All Freeman's glove. Yeah, that is fantastic. I mean, to know where you got to go with it and then to be able to execute it. And then I'm going to look at the pitching.

And Nick, you rightly pointed out the bullpen issues with the Dodgers going into the series. How about Will Klein? Yeah. I mean, this dude had never, I mean, spent much of the season in AAA, had never thrown more than two innings in a major league game, had never thrown more than like 36 pitches, I think it is. Throw 72 pitches, which I love because I do think there's an over, they're too cautious with pitchers and players overall today.

But this was a situation, like look, like Dave Roberts said earlier, we just got to go for it. And no matter what, and for him to go four innings, what do you allow, two hits, I think, struck out five and no runs. Like, that was tremendous. So again, just the team, and I hate to bring, I'll be quick on this, because we're in New York. So you get the shrapnel of just the Yankees who haven't been able to win a World Series since 2009,

have had great hitters as far as home runs and things like that. But even last year, we saw not was not a balanced team in terms of being a great defensive team. And this is a team that does it at all levels. So that was really my big takeaway. Yeah. So, I mean, O-Tani is the story. I mean, he set a bunch of records yesterday that some of them will never be touched. The reaching base nine times when the previous record was six will never be touched.

because it takes the perfect storm of the longest game, one of the longest games in playoff history, and a guy who is simply on fire to the point to where they just have to walk him every time. And we'll get more to him later. But Otani's writing a different legacy than this game specific. And this game specifically, and I don't want to be prisoner of the moment, but I am going to be hyperbolic, but it's just what I think.

it's simply one of the greatest sporting events and the greatest baseball games of my entire life. And Major League Baseball's official YouTube page posts the condensed, the highlights of the game, it's 33 minutes long. The highlights of the game is a 33-minute long video. And very often in sports commentary, I think people conflate close games

and multiple overtimes with great games. Very often games are anxious and close. And I don't know if you'll even remember this, but when I was fresh out of college, Syracuse played Yukon in a Big East tournament game that went to six over time. Yeah, I do remember. That was a terrible.

I don't know, Eric Devendorf was on the team. I think Syracuse won, correct? Syracuse won. That was a terrible game. But it was amazing because it was six overtimes and so close. If this game had ended in the ninth, it would have been one of the three or four best world series games of the last decade. Brew mentioned it, but I just jotted down a few things throughout the regulation, if you will. First of all, you had a weird moment.

The second inning, wait, did Varshow walk? He didn't walk. Oh, wait, Bo Bichette is now picked off, which could have been the biggest story of most games. It didn't even make the highlights. It doesn't even make the highlights. Right. Third inning, Freddie Freeman is thrown out trying to get to home. A great Dodger play.

Sixth inning, Vladdy nails Tiosker at third in an unbelievable defensive play by Bladdy going across the diamond. Did you see the stat cast on that one? 1,000 miles per hour. Okay, yeah, there it is. That play right there. That is an awesome play. That is a remarkable play.

Seventh inning. Vladdy's scoring from first with one of the coolest slides. you're going to see. Then, and the bottom half of it, so that was to take the lead, then the bottom half of the seventh inning, Joey Otani sets the record for extra base hits in a baseball game or in a playoff game, or he's going to.

I don't know if that was the record or not. And it's a bomb to tie the game, right? Ninth inning was the play Bruce showed, Edmund getting kinder at third. 10th inning was another play Bruce showed, Schneider dead at home, and then 11th inning, something that hasn't even mentioned yet.

Hey, Mr. Kershaw, I know you're one of the greatest pitchers of the last 50 years, and you're far past your prime, and you're almost an honorary member of the team, and you've never once come out of the pen in extra innings. It's the World Series and the bases are loaded. Can you get us out of it? I got it. That's unbelievable. That's innings 1 through 11, and then innings 12 through 17.

it's just edgy or scene. Yeah, yeah. And then Freddie Freeman hits a bomb. I mean, it's just I don't, I, yes, by the 17th inning I was exalted, it was 2.30 in the morning out here. But it was, I've never, I lost money on the game. I picked Blue Jays on the show. I bet the Blue Jays with the Chiefs. I had like a nice little windfall coming my way if the Blue Jays won.

And I was, I found myself when Kershaw was in. Like, dude, get out of it. Don't give up a run. Like, I was so. wrapped up in the in the environment of the theater of the moment. I just thought it was remarkable. When they put Kersh, and I was

terrified for it. Right. Fantastic picture historically. I love his character, everything he's about. But I was, I was like, it almost felt, and you got to do it, and I'm sure he won at the moment, but it almost felt unfair. Like, don't blow it. You're putting this dude bases jammed.

Just a single and like, I lost the game with who's World Series. And it would be a lot of people would look at him because of, you know, some of his struggles in the pro season. But yeah, it was great. Let's turn our attention to Otani specifically. He trotted around the bases and then just kept walking to first. First four at-bats, two doubles, two home runs.

Next five at-bats were walks. The last four intentional. Here's the Blue Jays manager who is going to keep walking, Shohei, as the series continues. He had a great game. He's a great player. But I think, you know, after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands. And not to give away secrets, but this is pretty much what we should expect going forward. Yeah.

Okay, Brew, here. First seven innings, double home run, double home run, rest of the game. Tension walk, tension, one. And that last one was basically an intentional walk. Yes. I mean, they gave him. Did you have any issue? We're going to say specifically with the four consecutive intentional walk.

I have a few things to say on this. right now it's in the rules. You can do this. And if you're the manager, the Blue Jays or whoever, you're thinking, I just got to win this game. All right, no matter what, I kind of look at it as like Hackashack. Yes. You are putting your team at risk by sending somebody to the foul.

He might hit the free throws, right? But I'm willing to take that risk. I'm putting my team at risk by putting this guy on base. And the fact is, it did work for them. I would argue they should have started it, won it bat earlier. I was texting. Maybe they win.

I was texting Danny because I'm rooting for the Blue Jays. I'm sweating my bet. And I text him. I was like, if they give Shohei one pitch to hit, I'm going to lose my mind. And then he hits a bomb to tie the game. I'm like,

what are we doing? Man Jeannie text me. Why are they pitching to him in the seventh inning? So go ahead. Yeah, no, no. Smart. Look, it didn't hurt them. He wasn't even on base when Freeman hit his,

you know, the game wouldn't matter. But still, game winning at home run. So that's saying, all right, that's that. The notion that this manager might, and I don't think he, let's say he walks him 75% of the time going forward. That is disheartening as a fan. I mean, and I'm pulling for the Dodgers. I love show. Hey, I picked them and all that.

But just if I have no rooting interest, I don't want to see the best players walk like that. So if he does that, I do think Major League Baseball would need to, and maybe I'm going too far because it's been in the rules forever. And it happened to bonds. Yeah, yeah. But if they don't pitch to him for the next, if they go seven and he walks 75% of the time, it is going to be terrible. I also think it sends a bad message to your team.

It's almost like conceding like, this dude's too good. We can't do anything. What does that do with your team? team mentally. Well, that's fair, but what does that do to your team mentally? Do you even, does that lessen your chances even more of beating him if you are mentally

defeated? So I just hope it doesn't happen going forward like that. Listen, it's a testament to Otani, obviously. And here are the records he's set yesterday. So yesterday, he has the most extra base hits, I think we can show him to you, in

any playoff game, in any World Series game, since as far back as the records go, I think, or since 1906. He got on base nine times the most in any game, playoffs, World Series, regular season, and the previous playoff record was six. So that's the walks included. So he's shattering the records.

So the previous record was in 42? 1942 for the most times. That's the last time anyone got on base nine times in any game at any point in the season. The previous playoff record was six. No one had had four extra base hits in a World Series game since 1906. He did it in the first few winnings. He was intentionally walked four times yesterday. Here is in baseball history all of the people with more intentional walks in the World Series in their career in their career than Shohei had last night.

Bond, shout out to him, seven and seven games, you know, and then a bunch guys with a bunch of World Series appearances. So this was aberrant and unique, and intentional walks are. There's only two people in baseball history with more than 300 for their career. Pooleholz with 316 is in second place, and Barry Bonds was 688 because he was just a different animal. And Wilds you hate it, and I'm a solutions guy. Great. So I was thinking, I was like, here's the problem. If you're like, okay, no intentional walk, then you'll just do what they did in the final at bat, which was an

unintentional, you know, unintentional walk. Or you just throw it at it. To another way, you don't want to see that. You don't want to see that. So what do you think? So I thought, I was like, what is the fix? Because we had Manfred on, Commissioner Manfred. They are forward thinking.

If this, if it needs a fix, what about this? So I also have three, I also have three solutions. Would you rather, you want to go first? Let me do mine because I crowd sourced mine. Okay, mine, I just came up with it. So I wonder if it overlaps with yours. Look at my paper. I'm not.

All right. So I put up the tweet, you shouldn't be allowed to do this. You should only be able to do it once. And then there's going to have some sort of issue. So people are like, well, you're just going to, like I said, you're just going to have a fake intention walk or hit the person. So here's where the best two solutions on their applies. The rule should be each sequential walk gets you an extra base.

So I don't. Regardless of intention or not. I don't like that. Twice. I'm on second. I don't like that because a lot of, A lot of times, like Juan Soto, all of a sudden then becomes the most valuable player in the sport with no one ever trying to intentionally walk. Right.

So it's a tricky. It's imperfect. But it's, I drew it akin to you can only throw over to first base three times. It's like, oh. Here's the thing. If I'm facing Otani and I'm really going to pitch to him, but I'm not giving him anything good. Correct. You know, I'm not trying to walk him, but I'm also making sure.

That should be a laugh. Right. And that walk, he shouldn't get extra. One more. This might be yours. Let me see. Shoot, I can't read that.

If a walk happens, then the manager is the right to let a bench player run for the hitter walked in the walk. Hit Walker stays up to bat. I don't like that either. I have the solution. Why don't you like that? Because to me that is, that's too gimmicky. It's like, okay, this guy's at bat just keeps going.

And you don't get to bypass me. No, no, but you, but the thing is that is pitching around guys. So can I tell you what I think is a fix, KW? Sure. I think it's very simple. If you are walked and never without ever facing a single strike, a four ball zero strike walk, the second one of those you get second base. If you never throw me a strike, that's what an intentional walk is.

Because I do think that you should be able to try to get a guy to chase, make him see with, you know, see him, you'll throw one. But if you, if we have multiple lip bats where you never throw me a strike and we want to disincentivize it that way, that to me feels fair. Because I do think pitching around guys is smart strategy. I do think that you should punish almost teams or pitchers that are, that can't figure out, oh, okay, the guy up next, you know, can't hit lefty. So I'm really going to, I'm not giving you anything.

Like it totally changes what great pitchers are if you are for, if you, there's no idea of, okay, we're going to avoid this guy and pitch to that guy. But I understand your concern, which is fans, you should not be incentivized for a, if you're a fan, you're like, Otani's not going to get a single pitch to hit the entire game. Yeah, I think, I think your idea is a little bit. It's Dodgers specific, which is tricky. and then you get to see Mookiee Betts, former MVP. Then they walked Mookie Betts. You get to see Freddie Freeman. There's some teams that are built around one star or two stars.

Right. So just like, let's just put Aaron Judge out. I do like it. It needs to be a stronger deterrent. And yesterday, Brew, I feel like it echoed the tush push controversy. We all know, like, ah, it's a fair play. It's part of the rules. But all of a sudden, the chatter grew very loud because of something.

It was a abhorrent. Can I tell you, can I hear, can I say why I don't think it's that big of a concern, actually? Because we had two totally aberrant events happened simultaneously. That will never happen again. We had literally the hottest hitter in the history of postseason baseball. A guy who in that stadium had seven first, last seven with five home runs and in that game hit more extra base hits than anyone of all time. What if he walks him in the first? Right.

What if they walk him forward? So I don't, I'm not sure, but just to finish real quick. And then the game, it was two games and one. Because nobody's freaking out if they, if it's fifth at bat, they intentionally walk him. And then the Blue Jays win in the 11th. Nobody's, we're not having this conversation. Just because the game kept going. No, look, I agree with that.

I want to see what this manager does tonight. Like if he walks, intentionally walks him three times, that's going to be a problem. I don't think they will intentionally walk him to start the game. I think that they will pitch a round. I hope it's at 500 feet then. All right. Meanwhile in Kansas City, game four is tonight on Fox. Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Chiefs rolled to a 21-point victory

over an overmatched commander squad. Mahomes just one yard shy of 300. He did throw three T-Ds. Were you impressed with the Chief's win last? We're so back. We're back to where just played good for a half and blow a team out. desperately needs the win. Because that wasn't a good first half offensively.

Patrick made one mistake. Travis made a mistake and it accounted for two turnovers. Listen, fair is fair. It's two picks on Patrick's ledger. Patrick now is four picks on the season. Two of which were bad plays, two of which were bad luck. But it evens out for the most part in the end, I've always believed. But it doesn't matter.

None of it matters. Because now that we are in, a post-tackle that turned the tide era, and everything's all back to the way it's supposed to be, except with an added bonus. And the added bonuses, that Chief's defense got inspired by watching their star quarterback rip away what would have been a season-altering turnover, tackle the turn of the tide. And since then, they have the best defense in the NFL. We can show it to you.

I know that they're not first in any of those categories, but they in Houston are the only teams that are first, second, or third in all of those categories. That is all post-tackle that turn the tide. So since we are short on time, I'll just drop the first banner immediately. It's, yeah, best defense in the NFL if you couldn't figure it out. And then you add to it. Oh, they're second and everything. Right, but there's second or third and everything, but it's a bunch of different teams that are, you see what I mean?

It's not one team ahead of them in all those categories. So overall, the bunch of a second. There's a tad bit of subject. No, it's them in Houston that are in the top three of all those categories. Then of course, there's, if you want some first, I'll give you some first, the Chief's offense, which all Patrick ever needed was an offensive line he trusts in receiving core that'll run the right routes. And even though last night they were without two of their five starters, two of their three best offensive linemen, didn't much matter after the first quarter.

They lead the league in 28 plus point games. They lead the league in point per game differential. They lead the league in total yards per game. Even if we go pre-tackle that turn the tide, you guys love point differential. They're second to the cults in that. margin of victory, which people have loved in the past. The only team ahead of them in that is Houston, but that's kind of phony because Houston only has two wins.

So their margin of victory is kind of fake. And then there's Mahomes post-tackle that turned the tide, which is he's back to being the best quarterback in football. 16 touchdowns, 13 to 17 yards per game, fourth in pass rating, fourth in completion percentage, which I don't really care about. That is all since the tackle that turn the tide, which means, once again,

we have the best evens in the NFL. You have the best quarterback in the NFL. You're probably the best team in the NFL, bro. Were you as impressed? I think maybe my standards for the Chiefs are too high. Oh. And it was the tale of two halves.

First half I was underwhelmed. I was surprised that Washington was giving them all they wanted. And then the second half I was obviously you know, extremely impressed with what they did. But the first half, I mean, Washington, I felt like, you know, there was the play in early in the second quarter where they went for it on fourth down,

fourth and one. I think we have it. Fourth and one in Marriota throws deep to McLaurin, which I didn't like, like, I didn't like that play call. Well, I think it was because the chiefs were blitzing everyone, so he thought he had to get it away. And that's the guys, they're going to blitz. Right, you should know that. Right, you should know that, first of all, and then have a play that maybe gets the first down.

Don't do that. So, look, I don't think they would have won the game had they done that. But my point is, I was surprised that they were playing with the Chiefs throughout the first half. Yeah, tied at half time. And then the Chiefs obviously rolled over them on the second half. So look, they didn't play their best game by any stretch, and they blew them out by three touchdown.

So, you know, it's definitely impressive. but I was, I'm back to the point, which is good, where I'm surprised when Mahomes doesn't light it up, and I'm surprised when the Chiefs. But I would say he lit it up last night. He had the 200 yards, he had 330 total yards, three touchdowns. But he had two, and I get that the second one definitely wasn't his fault. And the first one was a great play by the command.

The first one, though, it was a bad decision. It was a great play by Latimore. For him, three touchdowns, two picks isn't, you know. I'd say, I mean, I'll take that game from Mahomes every game. the rest of the year. Two interceptions? Well, no. I mean, that level of execution, because I think that game, I think, I think he does that all the time without the picks, though. Yeah, in my brain, I understand it's two picks. I think Patrick missed one throw all night. He missed one. They had a drive last night where they gained 119 yards. And so, and it all sets up, of course,

for the Chiefs, it's just a week nine game. But it's very fun for the Chiefs to get prepared for the actual Super Bowl with someone else's Super Bowl. The Bill's annual Super Bowl is this Sunday at Highmark Field. You know, that's interesting. Yeah. And here's what's going to be interesting about it. For the last bastions of Chiefs doubt out there, no matter what happens, people are going to say it's bad.

Because if they lose, it's bad. And if they beat the bills, folks will be like, well, it always goes, whoever loses in the regular season wins in the playoffs. I bet they smash the bills. Really? You just think the bills aren't good. But you put KW, you weren't impressed with the bills before the Panthers. You said if they blew out the Panthers, it would move you.

I thought Andy Dalton was going to get out the Panthers. Andy Dalton didn't have anything in the tank. It's very hard. James Cook is really good. James Cook, maybe I underestimated. That was a big James Cook thing. It's hard to be, it's hard to argue you're super impressed with your Pats and not be impressed with the bills. Well, we play each other.

I know, and it was a very close good game. That's my point is. She can't be very impressive. In Buffalo. Coming up next. That's kind of scary, bro. That's you. Oh, no.

Oh, my goodness, on your birthday and everything. That's what they're doing with my road. Should not be asked about that? Or are they going to be left for dead in Miami next on FS 1 of the Fox Sports show on Sirius X-N? Dodgers take a two games to one World Series lead. Epic 18 inning marathon. Freddie Freeman ends it.

Otani on fire. Nine total. and now he takes the mound. How will he respond after an epic game of three? Coverage begins tonight, 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific, only on Fox. Welcome back to the show. Coach Manjini is here. He was up all night watching the game. Unfortunately, Blue Jays took an out.

Lamar missed the Bears game, but looks to benefit from T7. Brooke, can you remind everybody what T7 is? The toy toss that trans transformed the tacklers. It's taking country by storm, yes. Yeah, yeah. And we have new sound from Lamar because we heard the players did it, and then we heard like the trainer, the coaches did it.

But this is now we have new sound. Oh, really? About T7, take a listen. I told Kineko, I had equipment and I told him to take all the games, ping-pong, turning TVs out. And we could have took the TVs out, it would have been out too, but I appreciate me. Mr. Steve will put that in there for us, you know, but yeah, we had to focus.

I wouldn't say people don't take the job seriously or don't get in the wrong, but like, I didn't feel like it was a time for that, you know. We got a lot of work. We got a lot of work with it. Brew, your reaction to Lamar being the leader of T7 and are you guaranteeing a dominant Ravens game on Thursday? It just keeps getting better. I mean, I liked it when I thought it was horrible.

Then I liked it more. when I thought it was the veterans. It's Lamar by himself making a unilateral decision. And they all took heed and look at what it has wrought. The defense is back. Maybe not back to where they will be in a month because they'll be even further back. Yeah. But they are back to playing Ravens football.

I love this. And yes, I am now assuming Lamar plays. Thursday, yes, blowout on deck. All right, they average 32 points a game in the first four games that Lamar played. Miami is a bottom five defense in terms of, or bottom six, something like that, in terms of points allowed. Tua is having his worst season as a pro, really. Yeah.

And so, and Miami is really bad against the run. And so it might be, I mean, Lamar is going to. obviously I'm sure he'll do some great things. But it might be Lamar, Derek Henry, running for 150 yards. Because even though I would agree with you, Nick, that he probably isn't what he was last year, or even maybe a few years ago. But the presence of Lamar, where the defense has to worry about him doing different things,

I think that just opens everything up for Henry. So it may just be a huge game for Derek Henry, but yeah, I'm thinking blowout. Yeah, I don't know if the things in the locker room really affect how they play or how they don't play. What? But when you're in a streak like they were in, you're looking for any kind of answers. And you're looking to make some kind of changes to make sure the message is getting through to everybody as to how important, you know, this moment is. And I do agree with you, Brew, that with Lamar taking the lead on this, there's not going to be.

anybody in the locker room that says, hey, we shouldn't do that. And if the coaches have done it, it could have looked like, why, why now? It was fine before when we were winning. You know, this seems like punitive as opposed to something that's going to help us move forward. But Lamar doing it, I think, is a positive thing. And I imagine that them getting healthy, getting a guy like Patrick Carrback, getting off the losing streak, huge, and now inserting Lamar into the, this mix with this mentality of really it's a one game season and the things that have happened in the past are in the past, they could easily get rolling and have two wins so close together. That's a big momentum swing and you get the extra time off.

So they could be in a really positive position after this. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but I'm a little disappointed in you, Brew, that you're just now finding out that it was Lamar because I assumed you were a subscriber to Marlon Humphrey's podcast and he in the podcast this morning he said he said he said the toys

I didn't say toys the whatever the items were removed by what he initially called a top two player on our team and then later he said it was Lamar and so but Lamar with the other well that's I'm really interesting or because it here's the only

other thing because Marlins on defense it does he have like Kyle Hamilton you know his fellow secondary guy. Or was he talking about himself? No, oh yeah, I don't think he was talking about himself. He probably liked the toys, though.

And so, well, Lamar liked the toys. To be fair, again, if we're going to be honest about this whole thing, the Ravens punter or kicker shortly before Lamar got hurt, right before the Chiefs game, I think, Instagramed a video of Lamar in the locker room playing video games and saying Lamar hard at film study. So, like, the idea that Lamar was watching everybody, they play ping pong like you, you're scally wagg.

I mean, that's just not true. Getting away. Now, if I wanted to be really contrarian, I would say, oh, so this is another thing Lamar and Harbaugh don't agree on, because Harbaugh bought the pinball machine. We know they don't agree on whether or not Lamar can play. And Harbaugh is now once again on the record saying he expects him to play. I think this week Harbaal will probably be right. But I am.

That would be shocking if he doesn't play. Well, it'd also be shocking because we're hearing from Lamar. Like, is this our first time hearing from Lamar since he got hurt? I think it is. Yeah. I don't think we have heard. I would imagine they asked him, is he playing? Well, that's, I, yeah, I mean, this, I didn't, this press conference happened.

I don't think he didn't do the post game. That's what I'm saying. I do not think we've heard from Lamar since before the Chiefs game. I'm very interested in a lot of things. The toys are secondary to, uh, did. Did you hold yourself out on Sunday? Because I think it's from hearing what Todd Munkin said, from hearing what John Harbaugh said, and from hearing the optimism Harbaugh had before the buy, to me it is, and I promise this part is not a judgment.

It's just an observation. It is very clear to me that the Raven's doctors cleared Lamar and said, you know, but obviously the doctors clearing you has to happen for you to be able to play, but that does not mean you feel comfortable playing. You can't play without the doctor's glaring you. It appears to me for the at least second, if not third time when Lamar has been hurt over the last few years,

the Ravens doctors are like, we think he's good, told Harbaugh that, and Lamar said, I'm not. Now, maybe the Ravens team doctors are overly optimistic and Lamar knows his body and nobody, nobody, and I am not, and I'm not even doing it like a wink and a nod. Nobody doubts Lamar's toughness.

You don't play his style football without being tough. But that, to me, is a real disconnect. And if, Brew, you're wrong that the Raven Seasons is going to turn around, when they are deciding what changes to make at the end of the year, I think the fact that Lamar and Harbaugh are never on the same page about Lamar's health is going to be a significant mark in the column of evidence as to, do we need to make a significant change at coach? Yeah, but we need to change the doctors.

Well, yeah, I mean, honestly, there was something significant. Quickly on that, I would say, if they don't go on a run and they're nowhere near the playoffs or just don't make it, because they might be near it in their division. I think a coaching change is very much in order. I mean, this was a team that was supposed to compete for the Super Bowl. And it's nothing against Harbaugh. I think he'll get a job whenever he wants it somewhere else. But what, 17 years he's been there?

sometimes you just need a change. And Andy Reid was like, I mean, come on. You know, so it can happen to anybody. So I do think that would be very much an order. Regardless of him, I feel like him and Lamar probably have a good relationship. He seems to really love Lamar. I do. So I want to.

I think it was the greatest of all time. Yeah. I mean, he really seems to be high on Lamar. No, no. And I want to be, I do not think they have a bad relationship. I do think that Harbaugh clearly wants to build up Lamar and seems to really like Lamar. They, to me, there is a very clear pattern of evidence that they have a disconnect when it comes to Lamar's health. That Harbaugh is consistent.

Harbaugh's never been wrong in the other direction. Ah, man. I think Lamar might be out a month. And then Lamar's like, nope, I'm back. But there's been three, he's had three non-illness, you know, not sick with COVID or what. whatever. He's had three injuries. That's causing him his time. All three times, Harbaugh has expressed optimism about when he's returning, if not said we expect him back. And all three times he has not been back when Harbaugh said he thought he was going to be back. And when

you're making the kind of money that Lamar is making and you play the style of football that Lamar plays, you can see why Lamar would err on the side of caution. And especially in a situation like this where he would have had a play on Sunday and then coming to a short week. So I'm sure from his thought process, it's can I do the things I need to do, especially from an escapability standpoint, a mobility standpoint, to actually put myself in the best position to be successful. And I would imagine that factored in. He could have played, but would he have been playing at 80%, 70%, where he couldn't have been effective like he wanted to be. Can I ask you a question about that when you said when you make the money Lamar makes? in 2021 when he hurt his ankle,

he had not been paid yet and was at the beginning of a contract, you know, dispute. 2022, when he heard his knee, he was in a real contract dispute with Baltimore. He was a few months away from asking for a trade. Now that he's been paid, do you think the team may be more understanding years back of a guy really protecting himself?

He doesn't have a long-term security. But once a guy's been paid, and has the long-term guaranteed contract, does the team then feel like, okay, like you, if it's borderline, we need a borderline and it's a must-win. We're gonna expect you to be out there because you've already been paid,

because you have the long-term security. Yeah, there is an assumption when the guy's got a long-term contract that he'll play through things that maybe he wouldn't play through if we're in a contract situation. But then from the players perspective, they see it, they're starting to see it the other way as well. Or they have for a long-term.

They have for a long time where if I go out and do poorly, I'm not going to see my next contract or I could get injured in a way that affects me longer term. The Baker Mayfield experience in Cleveland is a pretty big cautionary tale for a lot of guys where he went and played hurt. They evaluated as he can't play very well anymore. Some guys are saying he's worse than Kyle Trask. Then he gets cut. You guys were jumping on me when I praised him for playing for me.

Y'all jumped in. But Kawhi Leonard, particularly earlier in his career, was a guy that felt like he had to be 100 percent to go out there and play. And the Spurs. And maybe, yeah, you saw how that ended. It didn't end well in San Antonio. But have you come across a lot of guys? Lamar may just be a guy. That's part of the draft process.

Like you'll evaluate guys. And typically they're called track guys. So if a guy is a track guy, that means they can't play unless they're 100%. Because a lot of track athletes. And I don't think that's Lamar. Lamar seems incredibly tough. He has a weak immune system, but he's incredibly tough. It's just a weird situation.

It's how my son feels. He's at home today. Really? He's 90%. He's 90%. You fell for it? He's gay. He's like, I know my body.

He's in a contract. I'm like, you're cleared, dude. Live from New York, it's the show that does not want to intentionally walk Joe O'Tani, at least 75% of the table. I mean, coach stuff. Coach is about winning. Yeah. Walk him.

Honestly, I don't know if you would coach. I think you might. No. Throw one in his ribs. No. This back him off plate. We're not going to walk you. We're going to face you.

And then right. No. Right. The right. I just think that might be what coach would do. Second out of first things first. Today, Patrick Mahalm says, Kansas City's record might not be as good as last year.

But he's certainly having more fun. Light show. One person here loves this. Meanwhile, World Series Game 4 coverage starts tonight at 7 on Fox. Why the Dodgers will take a commanding 3-1 lead. I'm sorry, Coach. But right now, we're headed upwards. I'll watch that one.

Week 8 is in the books. Halloween is near. Some offenses are scary. Some quarterbacks are seeing ghosts. And the quarterback who originally saw ghost, Sam Darnold, has an offense who's scary. So it's all come full circle as we head up. Oh, I'm smelling. Stand by, Rick, one more time.

Gosh, darn it. Yes, I did. Do it. You have your candy corn right there. We'll pause the mountain. Let's see it. Do it. You don't think I can do that?

I want to see it. I'm impressed by people that can do that. Really? Yeah, yeah. I want to see it. I know a lot of pressure on old KW. No AI to help him. This is on national TV.

First of all, I have a huge thing in candy corn with a clip on. He loves candy. He loves candy. Love candy corn. Everyone loves candy corn. Okay, let's just see it. I didn't even like it that much when I was seven. All right, let's do it.

There's a lot of pressure. I guarantee you. Will you miss it? Just regular. Just regular. Just how regular would do it. Yeah, do it. Five feet, I don't know.

Four feet. Three feet. Three feet. Oh. I guarantee I'm going to do it. Yes. All right. Now you got to do it.

All right. If not, W. Time for the mountain. All right, here's the deal, guys. We got a lot of injuries. We got a lot of bad quarterback play. This is who's off the mountain. Wow.

Eight guys. You broke the statement. Lamar, Purdy, Kyler, Jaden, Bryce, Pennix, Wentz, all off for injury. Wow. Off the mountain for play. Dylan Gabriel. More on him later.

Moore, who Wilde's put in the playoffs. Spencer Rattler, who some people think is Frisky. He was good for two weeks ago. JJ, he's been benched, by the way, Tyler Shuck time. J.J. McCarthy, who's soft benching is ending due to the fact that his backup was playing. They'd rather

play Carson Wentz with a totally shredded left shoulder that J.J. McCarthy with a sore ankle. Even though he was a tough first round pick. And by the way, also Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins, I would like to apologize personally to Bryce Young and Michael Pinnock's because I I thought your teams were

going to be better off with your backups than your starters. Then I saw him play with the backups set of the starters. Andy and Kirk might be immediate time. It might be it might be time to text Matt Ryan and be like can you connect me with your agent? Now I'm the bottom of the mountain. Gino stays there. He had a week off, Brew. Don't kill him. Jacobi Brissette is fine. Mack Jones, again, didn't play well this week,

but we're running out of people on the mountain. Tyler Huntley, shout out Huntley, on the mountain. Thought he played well. Marcus Marriota, again, happy to be there. He was there. He was all right. I mean, I know there was four seven points,

but the pick was on Debo, like one of the picks. I don't know, in vacancies. Again, the bottom part of the mountain. Quarterback's too many hurt. This is tough. Sixth row. Jackson Dart drops a bit. Joe Flacco stays where he's at.

Tua, good for you, buddy. I never saw this coming. I thought row six was only in your dreams in the future. Justin Fields, legit happy for you, bro. And I thought, I thought his post-game press conference was part touching and part hilarious. The touching part was the sincerity. The hilarious part was when he called and on the record on

camera quote from the guy who owns the team as quote, outside noise, buddy. Again, I'm pro Justin Field did this, but he's like, the people outside of the locker room. He owns the team, man. Caleb stays where he is and Trevor didn't play, but gets elevated just because

I don't know what to do with the mountain. Like who on the bottom row am I supposed put up there? It could have been one of those. I mean, humbly, I suppose maybe. All right, now we're getting some actual good quarterbacks. Ro five. Justin Herbert. Listen, I'm happy for Justin Herbert.

Unlike Colin, I don't mind these wearing a backwards hat to the Laker game. However, I am going to point out Laker game this weekend. Dodger game last night. That Dodger game went quite late last night. And you ever tried to get out of Chavis Chavez Ravine to nightmare. I'm not saying Justin Herber was a little sleepy at practice today. I'm just saying I'd be checking his alarm clock.

Aaron Rogers, it's more about the guys above you or the guys who moved up than you playing poorly. I thought he was fine this week. Drop him just a bit. Sam Donald stays where he is. C.J. Stroud, great game. The back, really good game and good the previous week.

Like C.J. Or a couple weeks before. CJ steadying himself in Bo, Bo Nix, after that amazing fourth quarter against the giant, no, the, who's the, yeah, the amazing fourth quarter against the Giants, four great quarters this week against Dallas. Now Dallas has been a bit of a quarterback stat inflation program. However, he was awesome. When Caleb did it, I bumped him.

Got to be fair, Bo Nix's highest spot so far this year. Top 10. Jordan Love moves up after what I think is the best game of his. best regular season game of his career. Baker was not that good week before this. And then this week was not bad, but was nothing special after talking a little bit about the Saints about how he doesn't like him.

Antoine Winfield got robbed out of two touchdowns. The team won easily. I didn't really feel great about dropping him because they only allowed three points, but he didn't play great. Fair is fair. Daniel Jones continues to be excellent. Jared Gough, solid, or steady,

where he is now to the top. Again, Jones, Gough, Baker, they're love. They're all right now on the fringes of MVP ballots, right? So that's a really solid row. It's not good enough for the top six. Top six.

Dak Prescott has to drop after his first actual bad game of the year, the first time all year where he didn't hold up his end of it. The defense was the bigger problem, but still he wasn't very good. Josh Allen, I'm not going to drop him. They won 40 to 9. He didn't do much at all.

It was a James Cook game, but he didn't make any big mistakes. He did his job. And J.Alen Hertz, four touchdowns, five incompletions, no A.J. Brown. Again, not a lot of yards. And he did fumble on that tush push, but you're allowed to, evidently. He has seven touchdowns and nine in completions his last two games as he starts rising up the mountain. Here we go. Top two.

Everybody's All-American. and Kevin Wilde's All-American Drake May. It's a big home. We're almost there. I mean, it's a big, fair is fair. We are halfway through the year. We're almost there. He has the pedigree of a superstar.

He is following the path of many a superstar. And he looks the part, plays the part. Matt Stafford, obviously, has just been awesome all year. It's almost underrated at this point, how good Stafford's been this season. And then, despite a shaky first quarter, Ever since the tackle the turn the tide, Patrick Mahomes has gone back to being not only eye test-wise the best quarterback in football, but statistically the best quarterback in football. The Chiefs over the last five weeks, they score 28 every week.

They have the highest scoring team. Mahomes leads to league in yards, leads to league in touchdowns, has made two mistakes all season long. And by the way, he's still, I think, I think he's now second on the team in rushing. but sadly Pacheco just got hurt this week, so he might retake his spot as the Chiefs rushing leader as well. That coach is the latest edition of Mahomes Mountain. Yeah, I don't remember when Jaden Daniels was lighting it up last year that he scampered up the mountain as quickly as Drake May as this year. But, you know, I like Drake May. I think he's doing a lot of really positive things.

Jalen Hertz, that's where I'm going to make my change is I'm moving Jordan Love in for Jalen Hertz. And I know Jalen's stat line this week was really impressive, but it was a little bit more of a function of how the Giants played than necessarily how Jalen played. Saquan walks in. He's uncovered on the first touchdown. The second touchdown that Jalen throws the linebacker falls down. The guy walks in on that one. The third one is a two-yard slant that the DB jumps outside. And the last one really should have been picked off.

The receiver just did a great job picking it off his head. So, so, yeah, it was. Coach is back in the film. No, it was a great stat line. And he does a lot of good things in that formula that they have. But he can be somewhat of a limiting factor where I think where Jordan Love is progressing to, is he's allowing this offense to expand. And you're seeing some growth.

And my issue with Jordan Love has always been his down games in the 70s, where this year his down games are different when he's been under 100 quarterback rating. Now he's got a 93.9 and 89.2. So the bad isn't as bad as it was, but you're still seeing the really good parts of it. And it's not like he lit it up with the passes he had in his game either, but in terms of the touchdown passes. But that growth that I'm seeing from him. He threw 360 yards. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just saying the actual touchdown plays were not, you know, as exciting as you would have hoped him to be with that stat line that had, but the ability for that offense to be more explosive because of him, I think is the reason

that I would move Jalen Hertz down because he tends to limit it as a passer. KW. Do you want to take issue with coach? I have to stay focused. I can only fight one. I can't fight two front war. Coach, I think you make some really solid points. I also, where I want to, listen, And I think Jordan Love was outstanding this weekend. Maybe it's colored, maybe I'm not giving him quite as much credit as other people because I expected the Packers to win. Like it wasn't surprising to me that they won the game the way they did.

But I just, I want to make sure the mountain is always fair to Jail and Hertz. And two weeks ago when they were coming off the buy and in, or I'm not coming off the back-to-back losses. And in a bit of disarray, we said, hey, every other team with a superstar quarterback, we would say he's going to stop the bleeding. And he did. And he threw for a ton of yards and was great. And then this past week, when A.J. Brown all of a sudden is out for the game, he wants J. Jalen Hertz, despite that, still plays his regular efficient game. So I want to give him credit. I understand. I do think, I agree with you that Jordan Love certainly has been more impressive this

year. I don't, but I'm giving jail on the kind of super role in me. You guys are watching his touchdown. You can't see the linebacker fall down on that one. Coach, welcome to the Jordan Love Fest. Wow. Wow. You like to play a word. Thanks, Bruce. First of all, Nick, I noticed something about the mountain. That went, obviously you guys didn't pick it up.

G-no is down there on the tier, whatever, level. Tier 7. With all backups, is there a subtle hint in there that you want to see some Kenny Pickett out there in Vegas? No, God, no. I'm just wondering, Brissette, Matt, Huntley,

they're all backups. I'm wondering what happened. Well, it's just, I'll be honest, it was between Gino and, because the Raiders were off this week, right? Yeah, he didn't play. Yeah, Gino and Trevor. Gino and Trevor were both off this week.

One of them had to move up because I wasn't going to have an extra vacancy on row six. And as much as I like Gino and as disappointing as this season has been for Trevor, Trevor has been better than Gino this year. Yes. And so that's really all it was, bro. I understand you're trying to bench Gino. No, I'm not.

I like Gino. And by the way, do you? I'm just tough love. Do you know what game Gino has this weekend? Could be an elimination game for the Raiders. Raiders Jacks. Gino versus the Prince. Really?

Some would say I can't win. I would say I can't win. Go ahead, Drew. All right, along the lines of what coach did, I'm moving, I'm moving back down. You moved him down one level. I'm moving down another. I'm moving down another. And it's not a huge insult to Dak.

And if you want a guy, I'm going to put J-Lo up there. But you could even put golf up there as far as I'm concerned. But I just think that should drop down one more level. One thing is this, we got a graphic, and we've shown it before. Can you give me something better on the road? And I get that the defense has been six, less than seven yards, an attempt, eight and four as far as your TD interception ratio. And look at the passer rate.

I mean, that's, that's home. Three is not terrible. You got him in the top four. I haven't. Or top six. I kind of, I lean toward wild on this and that I think it's left to right. It's not. I do not think it's not left to right.

I think it might be. I'm kind of. Yeah. We'll see when you go, when you get your chance, because you got some mischief. I saw your little thing. All right. Whatever. He's top six.

If you're top six, I need you to be able to play well on the road just like you do at home. And then the thing is this, too, DAC, I thought you had them top four, but let's say it's top six. He is only in the top five or six in total yards. But I look at his total passing yards is their defense, I mean, gives up a ton of points. So you got to be throwing.

He's second in the league in pass attempts. So he's throwing it a ton. He's not top five or six in yards per attempt in TD the interception ratio. because I know he's got a lot of TDs, but he's also got, what, five interceptions? Yeah, I mean, only Mahomes and Stafford have more passing time. Right, but they don't have as many interceptions.

I mean, he has five. He has a bunch. He has five picks. But I don't think touchdown to interception ratio, he wouldn't be top six. Also, he has better receivers than just about everybody in that group. Not everybody, but just about. I mean, with CD and George Pickens,

he's got coached the fourth leading rusher in the league and Javante Resurrection Williams. And so love has none of that. Can you imagine Jordan Love with Cedie Lamb and George Pickens? Frue, you were speaking the praises of it loves receivers all of us. They're a good group, but he doesn't have a superstar like. Like that's got one, maybe two superstars. I mean, Josh Jacobs is a better running back than Javentay.

I think he is, but this year, Javante's been producing at a bar. I wonder how much of Javante Williams' success this year is because teams are selling out to stop the pass because that is the Cowboys' way to win. A lot more split safety defense. I do like Josh better than him, but just this year, John Jacobs certainly has a better pedigree. This year, Devonte has been excellent. I just feel like Dak hadn't had a bad game all year until this week. It was again, the-

What about the Bears? You know, they only put up 14 points in that game. Okay, that's fair. So the non-descript game as well there. I thought, so I thought dropping DAC outside of the top six when going into this week some people thought he was on the fringes of the MVP would have been too far. But I understand what you're saying.

Go ahead, Wilde. I know it's not left to right. Wait, wait, do you? Yeah, I'm not. I subscribe to the fact that it's not left to right. But I would like Drake May to be on the left side of that. Stafford. If it doesn't make it different, if it's just the community of property. Here's why. And you said, I didn't write it down exactly, but like Stafford has been

underrated at this point almost with numbers are so good. Yeah. And Drake May is flying high. Yeah. When you compare their numbers. I think Stafford's numbers are better. Incorrect. I mean, I, okay, I'll explain why I think that, but go ahead. Well, we've got a better record, complete a better percentage of the passes, have more total yards, More yards per pass. Yeah, Drake's are better. Touchdown turnover ratio is the same, except Drake has run some in. Probably Stafford hasn't run.

I don't think he's run any. And a pass-for rating is better. So can I tell you why? Sure. So because, so. EPA? No, no, no. If we just, if passing-wise, and I'll explain it, because rushing counts, but I think you'll buy this.

Stafford has thrown 17 touchdowns two picks. Drake is 15 to 3. And passing it. Stafford's total yards are actually somehow, lower than his passing yards per game. He has... Total yards are lower than... He has...

He has 266.6 passing yards per game and 266.3 total yards per game. So Drake is 253 passing yards in game. He's getting 31 rushing. So the only reason I am not giving Drake a bump for the rushing is because all

of his rushing success is upset by the fact that he has been a sack magnet. He Leads the league, no, he's second in the league in sacks taken only to Cam Ward. He's at 28 sacks. And I worry about Drake May as a rusher because how the hard hits he takes. So I think Drake May rushing right now is actually a net long-term negative for this season. So I think as a passer, Stafford's been a touch better.

Again, I've got him on the same level. I don't think one's necessarily better than the other. But I think the Drake, but it hasn't yielded it. any negative consequences. Well, I mean, he left a game once. That concerns me. And so, and it certainly has, I mean, the yardage loss doesn't show up on his statute, but it shows up on the teams.

And so again, I, like, I think that they're total yards per game when you incorporate Drake's Sacks actually nets out is the same. The touchdown turnover ratio is the same. And so, but regardless, I'm not, I have Drake May on the second tier and I'll let you keep going. But I don't think he's been better than Stafford this year. I don't think that. I do.

Okay, go ahead. He's also just on a heater. That part's undeniable. Here are the legends that you may have said, wow, wow, this graphic sounds familiar. Could you not run this yesterday? Because of some sort of snafu, correct. Two Aaron Rogers seasons, Brady,

Peyton, Drake May, and Patrick Mahomes, 200 passing yards, 100% or 100 or more passer rating. Those are the longest streak since the merger. So he's playing at sort of a legendary pace. where we've got the Falcons this week so he can pop up and tie with Brady, I assume he's going to have another good game. And coach, I know a lot of that is Josh McDaniels.

It's a team game. And it's easy to come into the league. Not easy, I shouldn't say. But it's one thing to come into the league and just throw the ball around. You know what I mean? See a gap in the line take off. But what do you really,

what do you think separates great quarterbacks from legendary quarterbacks? You always talk about force multiplier. Patriots as a whole. Offense playing great. And you know, it's complimentary football. Defense also playing great. So our defensive numbers.

Wait. What? This isn't tears. Don't show me a team defense on Mahomes Mountain. We talk about force multiply and leadership. That we're not giving great. credit for the team's defensive yards for game. Keeping the other defense off the field.

That's what they're saying. Time of possession, not turning the ball over, not short fields, going over to the punters saying, good job. KW. Are the Patriots super high in the league in fewest turnovers or time of possession? We had a lot of turnovers in that one game. Well, I don't think it's, I mean, again, maybe I'm, maybe I'm wrong. I think they're middle of the pack in both of those categories.

But you got to eliminate the Steelers game. You can't. Why? We can't just. Again, that's for the team. We're talking about Drake May, right? Yeah, Dr. May had one turnover game that was really Ramandre's fault.

But guess what he did? Again. Circle the wagons. Don't worry about Romandre. I have him on the second highest he can get. Why do you want him? Why is it so important for you to move him on the other side of? Because the only place isn't going to down.

It's the way I consume stuff left to right. I know it is not left to right. But I, when I look, look at the mountain. I go, do do, do like this. He's the third quarterback you see. Right now he is, yeah. Well, he's the number one quarterback I see, but I think I would prefer him on the left. For the fifth straight week, Kevin Wilde has broken the format.

Well, what do you want me to do? Literally anything else. Talk about Daniel Jones? Sure. It's something other than me like, I like where you have Drake May. Let me just turn this into a five minute Drake May. He's a forest multiplier. Okay.

And I also diss Stafford. Everybody's all American. I mean, Saffert's having an unbelievable. He is. He is having it. Also, we have one, we played one more game. Oh. Oh, thank you.

This is a good one. I don't know if this is good television. I don't think that's good for you, KW. That you guys have played one more game and he has the same touch. Last night, Dodgers took a two games to one World Series lead. 18 innings, Freddie Freeman finally ended it on the 600 and ninth pitch of the night. Now the Blue Jays looked to tie it up. in game for Otani on the mound though coach you're in trouble coverage begins tonight seven

eastern 4 p.m. Pacific only on fox welcome back to the show coach eric mangini blue jays fan is here with us chiefs rolled the commanders 21 point victory they're five and three mahomes having a blast take a listen i know the records not as good but it's a lot more fun just when you're when everybody's kind of going out there and making stuff happen but uh i think we're getting better and better you know we lost some tough games early um that we had one in previous years, but it's not like anyone hung their head. They just continue to get better and better. And that's all we have to do is push forward.

And whenever the offense, the defense, and the special teams are rolling, it's fun to play football. AFC West standings with the odds. So the standings are Broncos Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders, but the Chiefs have the best odds. Nick, is this year's Chief's team better than last year's Chief's team? Oh, I think it's definitely better than last year's. The question is, can it be the best Chief's team ever?

And the best Chiefs team ever, in my opinion, is the best Chiefs team that I've seen is didn't win the Super Bowl. I think the 2020 Chiefs was the best Chiefs team ever. You had Pete Kelsey, Peak Hill. That team was 14 and 1 in the regular season. They sat in the final week of the year. Mahomes. Josh, you can fact check me on this. I think he had like, I think it was like 36 touchdown six picks.

It was bananas. and then they blew out Buffalo in the AFC title game. But by the time they got to the Super Bowl, they were down four of their five offensive linemen and Brady and the Bucks killed them. The best chiefs team that has won the Super Bowl was 2022, which was the first year without Tyreek. It was the number one offense by a mile

and a top 10-ish defense. I thought last year had a chance to be the best chief team ever because of what they were trying to accomplish. winning the third Super Bowl in a row. But right now, if you look at what the defense has been, you know, over the last, again, post-tackle to turn the tide. They have the number two scoring defense in football over the course of the entire season, but since things changed, they're two or three in everything. And since that Giants game, they also have the best offense in football, and Mahomes is playing the best he's played. So when you have, you have the best,

the most consistent offense, you know, either the best second or third best defense and your quarterback's playing the best, you certainly have a chance to be the best version of the team that you've ever been, even if the record is not the best record that they've had. And what's

nice is they were able to get some used toys from the Ravens sent out to them so they can have even more fun in the locker room and have a good time. I don't know how you can say this is going to be the best team in Chief's history. So they go 15 to 1 last year. with Mahomes when he's playing.

And they go 15-1 as they're trying to three-peat. And they go 15-1 when Lamar Jackson is having an MVP year. And when Josh Allen is having an MVP year, what do we have this year? Who is the big competition in the AFC right now? You had two juggernauts, and they go 15-1, and they're dealing with all the fatigue that they had from back-to-back. But that team was so injured. They're hunted.

So now we're giving them. We're giving them a bump here because we've lowered expectations. Because they started out poorly, we're giving a bump because we've lowered expectations. The win last night, they'd be just squeaking into the playoffs. That team last year found ways to win consistently, all different types of ways, with arguably a much better level of competition in the AFC and a much harder road to travel. So, yeah, I guess we can get excited because they've scored 30 points a couple games. and they've won a few games now after they started slow.

But to say it's the best team compared to what they did last year, just because they started four? No, it's not that. It's that last year they had to play four different left tackles. They lost their starting second and third string running back. And they lost three of their top four receivers before we got to the four week mark of the season. And it was remarkable what they were able to over to overcome. Me is a great team.

I agree with that. Nothing's going to make me take a shot at last year's chiefs team. I thought it was trying to become the greatest team of all time. My point is, this team right now, I believe Brew has a higher ceiling. I think that because they have a much better offensive line, the defense is playing at a higher level than last year's defense, and they have a healthy receiving core. Like that, to me, gives them a higher ceiling than last year.

I wonder if coach, if you're pushing back on the stats that come after T6, tackle to turn to time. But I'm looking, because I do. There weren't two intersections last night. Did I miss? Did I see that right? I guess those don't count. I mean, they clearly had a huge impact on the game.

And the touchdowns that he threw were all off schedule stuff. There was nothing on schedule. He was running around. He threw touchdown. And at some point, he'll stop doing that. And not 10 years into his career. And the on schedule played. that he threw early, that was one of the picks.

I do, I don't know about, like, I'm not going to go all-time, best team for the Chiefs, but I do agree with Nick that this, I think they're better than last year. And here's why, because this, I talked about this early, look at the ranks both offensively and defensively. They are now a top 10 offense and defense. Last year, they were a top 10 defense, but the offense was mediocre. Like now, that's why I. I do think it's not just that the offense is clearly better with the receivers back,

but the defense, I think, is better. And last year's defense was great, but this defense and offense are great now. And for whatever. Collectively in the AFC, who is? Well, I agree. The AFC isn't as strong as it was last year. But for whatever it's worth, when the chiefs played Lamar Jackson, he was the favorite to be MVP, and they annihilated them.

They're about to play the bill. Josh Allen right now is the second favorite to be MVP. And so the idea that they are not going through these MVP candidates. Jared Goff is what fifth favorite to be MVP right now? They annihilated them. I understand who the favorite is, but we can all collectively agree those guys aren't playing to an MVP level like we saw last year. Lamar is pasturing this year's one-thirty.

The AFC is it. I mean, I think I would agree that AFC. isn't nearly as good as it was last year. I do agree with that. But I think, and that's fair. I'm just saying compared though to the competition they're facing, I definitely think this Chief Team is good. I don't understand how we're not giving that team last year credit

for the way that they were able to win those close games. But we're giving this team credit because they were poor early. And now suddenly, because we've scored 30 points, now we really, now they're awesome. No, it's, coach, it is. It is just to be fair. It is because that team last year, despite winning every week on this show and others, it was talked about, yeah, they win, but it feels fluky, and how often can you keep getting away with it?

It was the 11-1 score victories, and it was, and look at the lions blowing people out. And now that it's the opposite of that, they've lost the close games and they've blown everyone out. we're changing it a bit. But again, like I... We're not all changing it a bit. I think that last year I appreciated the way that they were winning. I thought that that was the mark of a really mature, disciplined, collective good team.

Okay. Brown's headed into a buy. So was it time to pull the plug on Dylan Gabriel? Stofansky was asked about going to Chador. And here was his exchange with Mary Kay Cabot. Take a listen. Why wouldn't you just to see if it does anything to the offense give him an opportunity to go in there and play? Yeah, obviously my focus is where we are right now, Mary Kay.

That's not my focus. Okay, should Chador get a shot? Where you are right now is you have the worst starting quarterback in the league, which is what it is. And that, again, I don't know that they'll be better with Chador. I mean, you tell me who? I'm going to. I mean, because here is what Dylan Gabriel, his name. numbers for the year and where they rank.

So that is, I mean, it's about as, the numbers are grizzly and watching the games is worse. And this past weekend, we pointed out the throwaway safety. He is just giving you on a week-to-week basis very, very little chance to run an effective offense. I don't know that Shador will give you a better chance. I do know that you have nothing to lose by during the buy before you play the Jets, the Ravens who I believe have a bad defense and the Raiders. So two of those teams are flat bad and one of them has a bad record and we'll see what they are in Baltimore.

It seems like the only chance you have to give your season a spark would be to make this change. Even though you're a much bigger Shador guy than me, I just, the playing. was not to have Gabriel play yet. The plan was to play Flacco. They pulled the plug on that early. Maybe Gabriel will be better later. Right now, if I were them, I would see what else I could do with Shador. Well, look, like you said, I've been the Shadour guy on this show.

I think he should have got drafted earlier. I think he should have been ahead of Gabriel on the depth chart. But I got to be honest, I think in fairness, I think what's fair. Like this season is now, I don't know what if Sifansky is holding out. some hope that they make a run. But it's all about seeing if one or both of these rookies is a keeper or is a potential franchise quarterback down the road. And I think you got to give them both a fair look.

So Gabriel started four games. Obviously hasn't been great. But I thought early on, remember I was saying I think Shaduro play after the buy, but that's when I thought he would be the second string quarterback. I think you have to give Gabriel a few. more games. They have nine games left. I get it. The buy feels like a perfect time to make a switch.

But nine games left, I would give Gabriel two at least two more games. And presumably, I'm just trying to be. I'm just trying to be. He's, he doesn't. I think Shadour would probably get crushed too against Ravens. But just in fairness,

I can't give Gabriel four and Shadour nine. No, there's honestly. You can't. If Shodon, you go back to Gabriel. You don't have to be fair. Well, see, I don't think you want to do that. I would give Gabriel two more games at least. If it's bad, then I go to Shadur. So Shadur gets seven, Gabriel gets six or Gabriel gets six.

I don't think if this continues, Shadur should only get five. I think he should get at least six games to start, and then we'll see. No, it would have been good as if they could have gotten the first overall draft pick. That would have been good. Let's see how he's doing as a rookie quarterback versus how Dylan Gabriel's doing. just that oh so they're both rookies one's the first overall draft pick and the NFL draft and you ask who had a worse starter well I think these numbers say that- Cam Ward has not been worse than Dylan Gabor really well I mean the numbers are the numbers are the numbers and that when you start a rookie quarterback they're not all going to be great and there's going to be growing pains and I think that you know you see that the growing pains that cam's going through in in Tennessee and there's growing pains here in Cleveland so you can go and

And I do agree with you, Bru, give him more time to see whether or not this continues to progress or there's some kind of growth, just like you would any rookie quarterback. And Shador, just because people disagree where he got drafted doesn't mean that he's lighting it up at practice or in the meetings or any of those things. And it doesn't mean he's not going to get an opportunity. but when you move off of a quarterback, usually you're moving off from the rest of the season. Right, right. So you want to be just judicious with when you make that decision and not rush it just because the whole, you know, the media things, you know, put this guy in.

I am not trying to bang on Dylan Gabriel. Listen, he's a mid-round player that's an undersized quarterback that was always going to take a lot of time. And I understand what the numbers are. I also, when you watch the Titans, Cam absolutely seems in over his skis a bunch, takes some terrible sacks, make some bananas decisions. But he also is attempting to make big time NFL plays

and won in like five. It's like, oh, okay, I see it. You could watch every single play Dylan Gabriel has played since he became the Brown starter. and you won't find five, oh, okay, that's something to build on. It's why his yards per attempt are less than five, which is almost unheard of,

and it is, the numbers are like that, and it's all dink and dunk checkdown stuff. So would you, I hear you, and I don't think coach is arguing he's as good as Cam Ward. No, he's just saying that Camp's having a worse, or as good, bad of a year. Yeah, you not agree. One Cam Ward highlight the whole season

where he threw it across his body. Yeah, go ahead. I mean, so, you would, I just think it wouldn't, it doesn't have to be fair, but I'm just saying you would go to Chador now. Here is what I would do. To give Gabriel Ford and him nine years. If we are arguing that the two and five Baltimore Ravens are alive because the division is that bad,

then when I have a team that might have a top three defense in the NFL and maybe the best defensive player in the whole league, and I'm about to have a bye week, and then I don't know if we can put up the Brown schedule or not. And I have a really soft portion of my schedule coming. I have the Jets. I have the Raiders. I have the Titans who you talked about. And one of the games against those Ravens.

I am saying, you know what, if we can get the 23rd best quarterback play in the league that any given week, we can win a game. And if we think the division might be won at eight and nine, I want to give myself a shot. And I think with Dylan Gabriel, you don't have a shot. I would be shocked if Shador walks in and is good, but it's not 0%. And I think right now it's 0% for Gabriel. You could make the same argument that with that soft part of the schedule coming up,

there's growth and that Dylan Gabriel will show a different side. Yeah, I would put Chador in to see what he can do. I don't think you're putting in there because he's going to win a bunch of games. I think it's just let's see if he can play. Patrick Mahomes throws three more touchdowns. Needed one yard to get to 300. But was it enough to get on this week's edition of Brew's ballot?

I thought number five, I'm gonna get right to it. I thought number five would be controversial, but you know, Judge by Mahomes Mountain and coaches, you know, Jordan Love Fest. J-Lo, I'm glad he's earned your guys respect. 13 touchdowns, two picks, 113 rating, pretty good. Now look, golf, is in the discussion.

Darnold, maybe, even at this point. You know, so there's some guys, but I'm going with J-Lo. Here's why. Number one seed. We know that's big for MVP. Number one-see right now. All right, at number four, he dropped a notch, just because of the two picks.

I get it. He played a good game overall. It was great in the second half. But, you know, coming off a few picks, you drop a notch. All right. At number three, everybody's all-American. He did drop.

a notch too. He had the week off. Yeah, but, you know. He didn't play. Look at Wilde. Wilde is excited. He's been great. I think 12 touchdowns, no picks in his last four games, something like that.

He's been, and hasn't missed Puka. He's been great without Puka. At number two, Wilds, your man, Drake, May. I'll take it. Look, I know you, Stefan Diggs is having a good season, but I still contend Drake does not. not have the weapons that everybody else virtually on that list has. And he's going to number one.

I like making it happen. Number one. I'm a coach. I don't know if coach knows where I'm going, but we'll maybe. At number one, not a quarterback. Love it. Yeah. Jonathan Taylor.

I love this. Yeah. He, look, they're seven and one. And it's not just the numbers. The numbers are phenomenal. He's leading the league in Russian. He's on pace for 30 touchdowns total. That'd be second most to LaDainian Tomlinson, which was 19 years ago.

And no one's come close to that in the last 19 years. And he, and it's also the eye test. And again, nothing against Daniel Jones. But the way Taylor is running and making things happen for them is just incredible. So I got to go with him at number. I know it'll be tough for him to win it as a running back. But right now. If the Colts go 15 and 2, he'll have a real shot.

as a running. Yeah, if he keeps up this production. And Curtis Martin, you said great running backs are like water. They always find the crack and we watch them. That's what he does. There's these small openings that he's able to hit and then he's able to accelerate through and then he's able to put back. And his balance is crazy. Yeah, it's, he's driven that team to where they are.

I think this is a totally fair list, bro. I like, I like Drake May it too. I don't want to get to work. I want to be a little uncomfortable. Is this a must win? for the Blue Jays. Coverage starts at 7 o'clock on Fox. We make our picks next.

Tomorrow, a special edition of the committee's tears. The committee, of course, will be up late. Maybe not too late. Maybe we just get a nine inning game. Oh my goodness. By the way, can somebody get wild some officiantado before the OT? You're lagging.

Last, you totally forgot to send us to break two segments to go. It is what it is. World Series game four tonight. Coverage starts at. 7, Blue Jays still in Los Angeles. Otani on the mound against Shane Bieber. Here's Otani's last four games at the plate and pitching.

So he'll be on the mound. Ten strikeouts, no runs allowed in game four of the NLCS. We're going to go right to our game picks. Does anybody see the Blue Jays pulling this out? I do. Really? Yeah, because they have to. I just do because they have to.

And so I'll go Blue Jays. There has to be some atrophy for Atani as the pitcher because of what happened last night. And here's the other upside to walking him. You kind of want him on base when he's pitcher. You don't want him at the plate. And so, like, I think that's just having him hanging out on base. Not a bad take. Yeah, so.

I am going with the Dodgers tonight. I think coming off of that last night, is they going to have momentum? And I don't think that means the Blue Jays are done. They were down 2 O going on the road in the ALCS. But yeah, I got the Dodgers tonight. The intentional walks have stripped the spirit of the Blue Jays. I could not be more down on the intentional walk.

Oh, the big bad Dodgers. We can play with them until your manager says, you know what? We actually can't. Dodgers roll. Wow. That's a shocking take. Roll.

Can't do it. Welcome to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles as this series shift scenes from the Rogers Center to this baseball cathedral. Seems like he always delivers when the moment calls for it. Otani. Oh, and a center cut. Down the line towards the corner. It's a fair ball. Schneider's head at home.

Kershaw comes out of the Dodger bullpen. Kershaw tries one more. Time. Bouncing ball to second. Edmund Hurries over. 1150 in Los Angeles. Freeman sends a fly ball to center field. Bar shows going back before the cut strikes me.

It's a repeat hero with the last one. From extra innings to overtime, game three last night, Danny, six hours, 39 minutes, 153 plate appearances, 19 pitchers, and 609 pitches. pitches till Freddie Freeman ended it. What was your number one takeaway? It was an all-timer. There's a million of them, but I know Nick mentioned earlier

that we were texting during the game, so I went back and looked at him. At 10.04, I texted you, this has been a great baseball game. Yeah. At the sixth inning, it was just getting started. Yeah, at 10.04. At 1130, I texted,

this has been an all-time great baseball game. I attached all-time. it. Three hours and 20 minutes later, the game ended. I deemed it an all-time sporting event, and then seven more innings of baseball were played. So it was just for people who are baseball romantics, you can point to a game like that and be like, that's what our sport can do that nothing else can do. It was just, it was special because the star power was special, and the role players were special. And we had never seen anything before, but it was also uniquely baseball. It was just great. No, you

brought up the role players. Obviously Otani is, I mean, come on. The two homers, the two doubles. Crazy. And then all the walks. But I would go to some of the plays. The defensive plays, both sides made some great defensive plays. And I know the Dodgers had a few errors. But some of their

defensive plays, like we showed a couple of them, but Edmonds at second base, like throwing out the guy at third, and then, you know, the relay from Tiazcar to Edmonds to get the guy at home. Like, they are a complete team. They have the superstars, but it's more than the stars. And when you look at so many of our sports, yeah, the Bulls had Jordan, but Steve Kerr hit a big shot.

You know, like a lot of times the Lakers had Kobe and Shaq, but Robert Ory or Derek Fisher hit a big shot. This is kind of like that. Yeah, you got a lot of. Tony and Mookie Betts and Freeman, but Edmonds and Tiascar and some of these other guys, Will Keith, they made great plays too. So that's kind of what stuck out to me. And I'll admit it, I fell asleep. But it's humiliating. When I saw that it went 18 innings, I was like, oh, no. And if my kid grows up to love baseball, I'll tell him I stay. Yeah, you got it. Yeah. It's just like a classic

lie situation. Oh, of course I watch that game. Well, and it was, I mean, Brew, you mentioned the I really liked that it was not. I understand you had the three-run bomb for the Dodgers, or I'm sorry, for the Blue Jays that gave him the lead. Obviously, Otani's two home runs and then the game-winning home run. But in the midst of all that was just amazing defense and some sick-based running and then some real, like, tough baseball decisions. Like pulling Kirk for a pinch runner was a game.

gutsy call that I don't think was necessarily wrong, but obviously when you pull him, you don't think he's got that spot in the order is going to come up three more times. You would have liked his bat. Right. Of course you'd have loved his bat. Vladdy scoring from first, if we said Vladdy's going to have two massive highlights and neither one's going to involve his bat, it's going to be him scoring from first and his unbelievable play across the infield to get, forget who he got, whoever he got at third. or you got Tioscar at third. I just thought it was awesome.

And I am really interested in the knock-on effect tonight when it comes to Otani specifically. Like we have literally never seen someone in any, we have not seen someone in any baseball game in more than 70 years be on base that many times. We certainly have never seen someone in the history. I'm going to go ahead and say, in the history of baseball,

all the way down to Peewee or Little League, get on base nine times and be the starting pitcher the next day. And so what that is going to mean for his ability tonight, I think it's really fascinating. Fascinating. All right, coverage starts at 7 on Fox. Blue Jays need this one. Well, yeah, it's a big one.

Falling down three won't be a problem. Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Chiefs rolled the commanders who put up a listless second half. They lost by 21. My home's had three touchdowns, 299 yards. Danny, do you think the Chiefs proved anything in their third straight win here? They're scary. We've known that, though.

So, like, I don't know that I learned anything new last night, but my biggest takeaway was, like, they committed nine penalties and threw two interceptions, one a bad decision, one, obviously a terrible execution by Kelsey, unlucky, right. But still, so, like two. giveaways and nine penalties, and they won by 21 points. Like, that is just a, that would send shockwaves around.

Like, we know all the coaches, watch all the film of all of the games, and they're just scouting their opponents, and they're like, oh, they just played a B-minus game and won by three touchdowns. And then if you zoom out a little bit for the Chiefs now over this stretch of time. Just say, the post-tackle to turn the ties? I'm not going to exactly T-T6, turn-the-time. But, like, I attribute it more to, like, personnel, like, word. be coming back and Rice coming back.

You attribute it to a tackle by a quarterback? Yeah, tackle the turn. But they're now producing on offense like they produced in the five-year stretch where you guys referred to them as the light show. Again, that is a, I mean, if that's the case, and it's identical in an eerie way, including like Travis Kelsey yards per catch is the same. What? Out of nowhere, Mahomes' pass-a-rating is actually better.

And again, five games against five years. understand it is selective endpoints. But still. Five games, again, the tackle the turn on the tide was five games ago? Okay. I just couldn't do it. I'm just saying, Troy or Trie Christina, feel free to add the note line even to Danny's graphics.

Don't do it. Post-TTT include the first half of the game? No. No, no, no, because there have been five full games since then. Oh, five full games have played eight games. It includes a second half. It includes a second half. It includes a second half.

We still need to do it. It's maybe not perfect. And so, can I, so I, listen, and what that doesn't speak to is right now, statistically, they have the best defense they've had in the Mahomes era. I don't know if I actually think they have the best defense they've had in the Mahomes zero, but statistically they've had. But there's one other thing, and this is something I know you're going to love.

I don't know how much Brew is going to love it, but I know you're going to love it. and I said this to you in your shared office privately five weeks ago. It's like a weird thing has happened with the Chiefs because Buck Kerr's been shaky. Andy was, I think, forced into, all right, I guess we'll be a fourth down team. And they've never been that. The Holmahomes era, they have been one of the five most conservative. They've had Patrick Malmes. They've been one of the five most conservative teams in the league when it comes to going for it on fourth down.

And then I think the combination of the offense wasn't really humming, the kicker was shaky, or maybe Andy, you know, found, as Greg Rosenthal put it this morning, found religion in this offseason about fourth downs. I don't know what it was. But this year, they have been the second most aggressive fourth down team in the league. First drive last night, or the touchdown drive after the half, I think. think it was last night was on a fourth down. They went for a fourth down in their own territory. And that the analytics community would say the chiefs have been giving away points over the last

few years by being so conservative. Yeah, I mean, we've watched dozens of Chiefs games together. And I'm like, you have the best play caller and the best quarterback. And you are punting with regularity and kicking short field goals. It's been like the only complaint I've had of this run of the Chief. And this year, Brew, they have, Kareem Hunt on fourth and one has been a higher percentage. percentage than the tush push on fourth and one. So they have, you know, so they've got a,

they're running back on third and one or fourth and one is 12 out of 13. And then, and Andy's going for it, which is an interesting wrinkle that the Chiefs teams of the past haven't had. Yeah. Go ahead. No, I just, they didn't play, like you said, a B minus game is what they played, if that. And they routed them. Now, I get it. It was Marriota, the backup quarterback.

But, you know, they look great in the second half, underwhelming in the first half. All right. Of course, today is top 10 Tuesday. The Bucks bounced the Saints. But Bakeshow had a lackluster statistical game. Bucks are six and two and in first place. So did they keep their spot?

Were they on last week? They were on. Did they keep their spot in Top 10 Tuesday? They did not. Wow. Bucks with a 20-point win fall. Part of this is how I see the league very clearly. And I'm seeing a slide coming for Tampa Bay.

But I don't talk about teams outside of the top 10. The Chargers on Thursday when they dominated the Vikings, all of a sudden, Joe Walt's back, Justin Herbert's back. Let's look at the last three games of the Chargers offense. Feels to me like a team that is absolutely ready to go on a run scoring, oh, I don't know, 30 points per game after averaging less than 20 in their first five. Beat the Titans, beat the Steelers, beat the Jaguars, beat the Ravens. Nine and three?

Oh, that's their next four. That's their next four. Okay, go. Yeah, I'm just saying, you've got to get them in the top 10 now because they're only going to move up once they're all of a sudden nine and three team. That'll be a consensus opinion everywhere else. Number nine, wilds, congratulations. They've made it. They absolutely deserve it.

Maybe you'll say too low. We'll get to that in a little bit. Yeah, I think we're in the second place. Five, five. You have five. You have five straight wins and your quarterback's a top three candidate for MVP. It's a pretty open and shut case. The schedule's easy.

I expect them to hang out in the top 10 for a ways to come. Coming in at number eight, the Rams on a buy. All I can do to explain this one is throw up the resume and it's offense and its defense and it's dominant. The stats suggest they should be higher. Yeah. My eye test tells me that it still is about right and I want to give the benefit of the doubt to teams in the NFC that I think have a higher ceiling than them, which will get. two on the list. Can I ask a quick question? I mean, I don't know if we can do that.

Yeah, yeah, you can ask a question. Sure. Go ahead. Do you at all question your eye test even a bit? Never. Even coming off an O and three weekend like you are. I know it's not picks, but this spoiler. I mean, we all saw the picks. I don't know. It's a bad guy question. I don't know. Legitimate question. Thank you, bro. Like you trust the eye test and then you have the Rams at when their first, second, third, and all those things is like the eye test, then it's like, oh, wait, I might need to go do that thing where you do like E, bad guy question. Unfair.

Okay. We leave those in a silo. Oh, okay. We don't question the bro. I thought it was a fair question. We thought the bears were going to beat the rain. I did.

I love the plus six and a half. Nick, how are you on picks on the season, by the way? No way to tell. Worst than the, I'm not, I don't even know. After this week, I don't know. I have to see how I did. Go ahead. You're too worse than me.

Go ahead. Number seven. Seattle Seahawks, how did they drop their spots and in three spots? Well, the teams behind them had very impressive performances, so I wanted to do something for Seahawks fans. Dear Seahawks fans. Wow. It's not fair that you dropped two spots on a buy,

but the teams behind you and the rankings all had very impressive performances and deserve to move up, but please do not take this as a sign that I do not believe in you. I've already bet you minus three against Washington. Wow. Serious apologies. Okay. I wanted to shout out the 12. I like that.

Yeah. Could have used flowers and a kiss of the lips. It's too much. It's too much. It's just a straight. Yeah. Okay. Plows didn't love the last time I brought out flowers.

Go ahead and number six. The Green Bay Packers, highest they've been rated for me all year. Is it if Jordan Love is completing 20 consecutive passes, and his second half passer rating is rivaling Brett Farve and Aaron Rogers in their MVP seasons. And his. Who could have foreseen? Moonballs to Tucker Craft. or landing in his arms and getting 30 yards after the catch.

Listen, he was spectacular against the Steelers. Their ceiling with him playing that way is obviously very, very high. Coming to number five, the Indianapolis Colts. I heard Nick today with Collins say there is no scenario he could see them winning a Super Bowl until they actually win the Super Bowl, which means your take will probably age correctly because they probably won't. But I'll just say they beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead in a couple of weeks and they're nine and one. And they get the one seed with a win in Arrowhead.

we should start looking at this team as a Super Bowl contender. I'm going to beat the Chiefs in it. Oh, okay. They're just, go ahead. Okay, I'm just saying we're going to be able to revisit that take very soon. It's not going to take all the way until the AFC championship came with the Super Bowl. Coming in to number four, the Eagles, right where I had him last week, if two weeks ago you can get Jalen Hertz with a perfect passer rating against Brian Flores and you could follow it up with Seekwon Barkley just being dominant and he had zero explosive. runs on the season before this game.

And then he has two, including this long run. And that was with AJ Brown out. I know there's been like a weird national conversation of like, well, clearly the Eagles auditioned by some traction and they should get rid of him and they should trade AJ Brown and teams are going to call. Or you could look at it if they scored 38 points without a top five receiver and they're going to get him back and their ceiling is incredibly scary. Coming in at number three, the Buffalo Bills.

Listen, this team, I told you if they'd lost to the Panthers, then I would drop them significantly. Instead, they blew them out. They've got the most wins of 28 or more over the last five years of any team in the NFL. I know Nick says that's just them being bum slayers. I'll say this. We never say bum slayers. That's how I would say that. I would be fine. My bad. On this, we say tomato cans. We say tomato cans. There's a lot of tomato cans. There's a lot of tomato cans on the schedule after the chief's game. So I think the bills are going to have plenty of wins here. They're going to win that division yet again. And eventually, it'll come around and they will write the rugs here.

The Patriots on top of them. I just don't believe in it. Number two, the Lions. It's been impressive what their offense can do despite that Chiefs game. And I'll say this, coming up, you beat the Vikings and the commanders in your next two. Eagles beat the Packers out of the buy.

You will get 7 and 2 Detroit at 7 and 2 Philly on Sunday night football in two weeks. That's the NFC championship game we deserved from last year, and I think we're on a collision course for it. And then at number one, again, not much. much explanation here. The Kansas City Chiefs played a B minus game. We're dominant.

Mahomes looks locked in. Kelsey's great. The defense is statistically incredible. I really have no holes to poke in the resume of the chiefs at this point. And amazingly, they can be without their left tackle and the quarterback doesn't crumble. It's cool. Well, yeah, it's a little better than Justin Herbert.

Go ahead. Little better. Go ahead, Brew. Perfect list. I know, well, I know you first saw a pat on the back for raising the Packers. I've been telling you to do that. I think two weeks now, they were at number nine stuck there.

You moved them up to six. You need to keep moving them up. Wilds, you like to say there's this thing called in the NFL where you actually play each other. And that determines who's better. That's how we find out who's better. Lions Chiefs, for example. Yes, exactly.

So it's fair to have the Chiefs ahead of the Lions. Okay. The Packers and the Lions played, if I'm not mistaken. I'll throw out week one. Week one. For a while it's not going to be with you. It counts.

We're throwing out week one. We don't count the chargers and the cheats. We do not. I do not throw out week one. All right. I'm about 17 weeks. So I think the Packers have to move up. It doesn't, and they are the number one seed.

They are the one. That's the other thing. They're the number one seed. They have beat the lion's heads up. That's one of the best victories of the seeds. season and of the top four teams in the NFC, which you do have listed outside of Seattle. I'm talking about the Lions, Eagles, Packers, Rams. Seattle probably is in this boat, too.

The Packers are the only group of the team in that group that is in the top 10 in offense and defense. All right? So they're a balanced team. They can run the ball. And I expect that to even improve. They got help coming in Jaden Reed, the wide receiver. that's just going to bolster that passing attack and the running attack. So, yeah, I think the Packers haven't even been playing great football yet.

They should still be moved up. I mean, I can live with the quibble of the Packers and Colts switching, number five. All right. I realized last week that I'm not taking advantage of this segment the way I should because when I do tears, Brew has his main thing, but then he has a little amuse, a few appetizers that he's like, So if I may, I think the Eagles are a touch too low, and I think the Colts are a touch too high,

and I don't think deep down you actually believe either. I think everyone is just afraid of Colts Twitter coming after. I'm like, give me, give me. What more do we have to do? I've seen Eagles Twitter, buddy. But all of us know what the real thing and nobody wants to say it, what you have to do is have a quarterback that's not named Daniel Jones. We believe in you more.

I know that seems unfair, but the side of fare is, it's what NFL history tells us to see if it's true. But that's not, as Brew would say, but that's not my main point. Okay. My main point is this, why are the Chargers ahead of Tampa? Both teams have suffered massive injury. The Tampa more than the Chargers. Tampa has dealt with it better than the Chargers. Tampa has a more proven, established, trustworthy quarterback than the Chargers.

The Tampa has better playmakers than the Chargers. Tampa has better playmakers than the Chargers. You could argue the defenses are comparable. Tampa, the Chargers have one great win all year, but you guys all said week one doesn't count. So why would the Chargers be on and Tampa not be in? If it's because we're projecting what it's going to be down the road, nobody is going to be on a better run late in the year than Tampa

with multiple games against the Falcons, the Panthers, the Saints, all of it. So I don't follow them. Okay. Two weeks ago, Tampa scored nine against Detroit. Last week against the Saints, they had one offensive touchdown and three field goals over 50 yards. 1.23 to 3. Did not look great doing it. Yes, and you're right.

The next three for Tampa, the Patriots, Bills, and Rams. So I think six and two is about to become six and five. You think they're going to go 0 in that stretch? O and 3 in that stretch. I don't think Tampa has looked good the last two weeks. I'm a little scared of Tampa. Of course. Tampa is really good.

Oh, and three is disrespectful to Baker. One and two. That's interesting. One and two. That's top 10 Tuesday coming up next. Are there a chance? God, that would be great. You didn't learn your lesson last week.

We're just asking questions. The break dancers on standby. One for punishment. Two had four touchdowns. Welcome back. We got Coach Mangeny and Willie Colon. out here after Sunday's win over my bears without Lamar Jackson. They now are two and five heading into Thursday night against the Dolphins. They are seven and a half point favorites because

they have that guy, Lamar Jackson. He's playing and he spoke. Take a listen. Extremely excited. Can't wait to touch the grass with my guys, man. Been a while. I don't force any of that. You know, I'm focused on winning. You know, I'm out there. Let's play football. If they can win with Snoop Huntley. They probably can win within multiple time MVP. Coach, you expect Lamar to turn this season around for the Ravens? Yeah. I was really happy that they were able to get the win the other night.

To get off that four-game losing streak and then for them to now come back on a short week and get Lamar back, they're in a great position to potentially string two wins together in the short amount of time and then go into a long week. that sets them up for a significant run. And when you hear him talk, you hear him talk about the fact that what's happened to this point is in the past and they're really looking at it as more just win the next game.

The focus to me is in the right place. They're getting healthier. And having Lamar excited and healthy, they got a chance. Yeah, it is about the most dangerous man of football coming back to the field. Bottom line. I think he gives this Ravens team a chance to form Voltron.

I'm showing my 80s, my 80s lingo there. Voltron? Vultron, baby. So, but I mean, he just makes the offense better. Why are the rush lanes for Derek Henry, Zay Flowers, D.Hop, Mark Angels, they get more targets. The offense, the playbook, all gets bigger because Lamar Jackson is on the field. And it gives this defense a chance to play with the league, right? And so now you're talking about this Ravens teams,

his Raven team getting saved from the depths of hell solely because Lamar And if you're the Ravens right now, with the win against the Bears, now you get the chance to pick up steam, right? Now you get to get back in the division because right now I'm going to thick of it. So he's a big plus, but I want to see this Ravens team look like what they look like against the Buffalo Bills week one. So that, that I think is what they're going to be expecting in Baltimore is that that offense immediately is going to become the scariest in the league. And Lamar has been instant offense now for years. So I have no reason to expect that to be any different, especially against the Dolphins defense. They're like, that was a crazy performance for them against Atlanta.

But coming into that game, they were dead last in a ton of statistical categories. Yeah, I thought that was going to be a blowout. I didn't see the Dolphus doing anything. The other way. Correct. Right, right. So now the quick turnaround for them, Lamar's back. I think it's a spot where the Ravens can get two wins in five days and feel really good about themselves. But we can, I know everyone watches FTF.

I feel like we've shown the Ravens schedule, maybe more than anyone else's schedule. Because it's like, can they figure it out? Can they turn it around? And it is remarkably open for them. But I was just looking at the standing. they are two back of the Steelers in the lost comment. And they haven't yet played the Steelers. Correct.

So like if the question is, can the Ravens turn it around, but we all agree, they really just need to get into the tournament, right? Like the one seat is obviously, that's done based on how they started the year. But I think the answer to that question is now like objectively yes, because as long as they beat the teams they are supposed to beat, it's going to come down to can you beat Pittsburgh? And I know those games are always close and always tough and not to take anything away from Pittsburgh,

but just Baltimore is going to be playing meaningful games in the right-hand column there simply because they haven't yet lost to the team that they're chasing. But I also think it comes down. This is why Thursday's game is big because you have to also see how limited Lamar Jackson is with his hamstring, right? Because if he's limited, that means the RPO shrink a little bit,

the outside run, him being an instinctual, a stintful quarterback, all that thing's coming to fruition. So you need him at his best and you need his offense to be at their best so they can make that type of run. I don't know what it looks like come Thursday, but it's going to be interesting to see if he's healthy enough to be him. Well, that's why I was so not just important, but so great that they were able to win without him this past week. So he was able to get the extra rest moving to Thursday. And as far as Pittsburgh goes, they're unreliable.

And they've got major issues. And as much as I thought the issues were going to be Aaron Rogers, the issues has been. has been the defense. And when you watch them play last game, it just doesn't look anything like what we've been so used to seeing. So Pittsburgh is vulnerable, and Baltimore seems to be gaining some steam. And you're right.

How healthy is Lamar? If Lamar is anywhere close to fully healthy, they're easily, I would think the favorite to win the deal. Well, I mean, yeah, the Vegas odds say that they are the favorite. And people are like, how can they be the favorite? And it's because what you're talking about, they wouldn't be the favorite in the AFC West. They wouldn't be the favorite in the AFC East.

But in the AFC North, when people don't really believe in Pittsburgh, Burrow is out, Cleveland is Cleveland, and Baltimore has been what they've been for the last five years. And it's like, oh, well, they get Lamar back and they're just going to be fine. And I'll say this. Obviously, we all watched it.

I watched it every snap of it very closely of the Bears Ravens game. That Ravens defense was impressive. Like the Bears' offense, Yes, Caleb did not, you know, he threw the bad interception and he didn't get them into the, he didn't have a touchdown in the game. But the Bears' offense had been playing well leading into it. They had been running. They ran on the Saints.

They ran on the commanders. Like, the Bears' offense had been good. And the Ravens defense really gave them problems. So it looks to me like the Ravens defense is getting healthy. Lamar is getting healthy. Like, I just, I think this team is very scary and going to get right at the right time. But it all comes down to Lamar. He's the one that gives them the confidence.

He's the oil change, man. Hopefully you can get it done Thursday. All right. So now, nature. is healing. Things are becoming all normal again. The chiefs, I guess they're just back. 299 yards, three touchdowns for Mahomes, 99 receiving yards and a touchdown for Travis Kelsey. That looks vintage last night. Here is Patrick Mahomes on his tight end, Travis Kelsey. He's just like the true chief's chief. I mean, he is the guy that's been here through the

whole thing, been here with Coach Reed the entire time. And he said helps set the culture. You know, he upsets up the culture of what it means and to play for Coach Reed and to play in Kansas City. And I was able to come in and have that guy to rely on. All right. Are the Chiefs back to being the scariest team in football? I hate to admit it. I mean, they're scary and they're wet the bed scary. You know, five and three, and they've hit a level of consistency where you're like, uh-oh, here they come.

And I think it's not just because of the office. I think the defense has arrived. I think on special teams they're playing big time football. And I think when you talk about them offensively, they're top. top three, defense to the top two. And what they do from a brand standpoint, they get you out of the game early. I mean, they don't wait around. There's a killer instinct they're starting to develop solely because of Patrick Mahomes

and his connection with this receiving corps. And what I love about the Chiefs and I love about them right now is the no-name guys are starting to have names in the building, right? You talk about Bashar Smith. You talk about Tyquan Thornt. You talk about Mike Dana. These guys are now starting to become guys because of how efficient they are as a team. And we know who the superstars are, but when the team and the no-name guys are starting to have names, you start to recognize them.

Like, they look like they're unbeatable at this point. Yeah, they're scary because of Patrick Mahomes, and they're scary because he's now back to putting up 30 points a game. Yeah, that's a good reason to be scary. With some frequency, but this is a little bit of a reeling commanders team that they face. Okay, there's no Jaden Daniels, so that's dramatically different. And he did throw two interceptions. We gloss over the two interceptions last night. One was a perfect pass off Kelsey's hands.

Okay, but they existed. They did exist. And that was the reality of last night. Now, fortunately, they were playing a team that they could easily overcome that with a backup quarterback who couldn't move the ball as effectively as they would have hoped getting back Terry McLaren and Debo Samuel. So I wouldn't put too much stock in the performance. last night. It was positive, but this wasn't, this wasn't a major contender that they knocked down.

Can we, can we show the, the, the, the, I want to show the offensive graphic that I showed, uh, Nick Wilds and Brew in the last segment. Like, yeah, the last five games compared to the five years that was described as the light show and the dynasty and, you know, that's the 5,000 yard 50 touchdown season. There's a few Super Bowls in there and all the Super Bowl appearances and the Arrowhead invitation on all that. The numbers are odd. identical. And I just, like, I mean, come on, man. Like, like they, I'm going to give it to him. No, it felt, it felt to me like they saw, like last year they played four guys at left tackle. Yes. Right. And they have solved that in a unconventional way, because Simmons is not playing.

Correct. Right. He is out with the personal issue. But like, Mahomes has time back there. And his weapons are back. And now Kelsey, who had 97 catches last year, because he was the focal point because everyone was out. able to catch the ball but not score touchdowns. Now it's just, oh, he's just one of the guys with Rice and with Worthy and with Thornton and with Juju. And so I don't know, man. If they aren't, who is scarier than that? The tape.

Who is scarier? I don't know because I thought. If not them than who. I thought a statement game was against the Detroit Lions. And they won 30 to 17. Right. And they beat the Detroit Lions and they beat them their way. Now with the receiving court was sheet rice being back.

They have spacing. They have timing. Patrick Mahomes seems like the button has been turned on. And ever since that game, I'm looking at a Chief's team where it doesn't matter what stadium they're playing in, you know the outcome. Because of Patrick Mahomes in this offense. And with the defense playing at a high level, I'm saying to myself, yeah, you should be scared. Okay, so you picks them to lose the game against the Jaguars, and they did. Let me back that up.

I said this was an end of an error. Oh, okay, well, if you want to do it. I said this was the end of an error. So you're talking about who's eating crow. I'm admitting I'm eating crow right now, D.P. What else do you want for me? How does it taste? How does it taste?

Burr. I don't think it's a full plate of crow. Last year they went 15 and 1 against a much tougher AFC slate of teams. He had two guys playing at MVP levels. We're grading them up because of how poorly they started. So that team last year was really, really talented, and we're grading this team up significantly

because of how slow they started. But is that not how it works, though? Don't they get the benefit of the doubt for what they've... No, that's your rule. For what they've accomplished. That's not, that's your rule. And you like to lay that rule. I feel like it's pretty logical.

They're getting the benefit of doubt because they set expectations low with how they started. Well, no, see, I don't think the expectations were low. I think we're seeing a team that's being consistent and they've built momentum. And I think Patrick Mahomes been stable enough. You don't think expectations are low. You said there was an end of an era. Well, because how they performed last year, those were at those were low experience. Right.

But the end of it ever was more to talk about how dominant they were, they thought they were last year solely because of the wins. They were winning one-point games. Like, I was like, they're not going to be able to do that again. Now they're blowing teams out. So I'm like, okay, chill out, Willie. Put yourself on ice a little bit. You talk about yourself on the third person? Who's scarier?

Well, I can't say someone is scary because they have the best quarterback in the NFL. Whenever you have the best quarterback in the NFL, you know, you are the elite contender. And there's really nobody, to me, that is close to him at this point. All right. So then it's universal agreement. No, it's not. They are the scariest team. in the league again.

Expectations for Show A. O'Tonni. What's the encore performance from one of the greatest baseball games of all time? Welcome back. Time for a little edition of He Said We Said, showing you what the stars say, and telling you what we think about it. First up, my coach, Ben Johnson. When you look at it all 60 minutes, and I'm not saying it's perfect, but I actually came away from watching the tape this morning,

encouraged that we took a step in the right direction here this week. And I know some people it's hard to maybe rationalize that because the result wasn't there. But yet I saw tangible growth from him. I think he's right. As weird as that is to say, right, they had a four-game winning streak where they had 15 takeaways. And that masked a lot of things. And then they got no takeaways against Baltimore.

And the quarterback wasn't good enough to win a shootout. But he wasn't terrible. And I think that a lot of the criticism is because he's Caleb Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner, the number one overall pick. He's taking 12 sacks this year. He took 68 last year. He is currently on pace for more yards, more touchdowns, fewer sacks, more yards per attempt, a higher pass rating, higher QBR,

and he already has two game winning drives this year than he did last year. So he is improving. He's just not as good as Drake, May, or Jaden Daniels right now, so he's getting knocked for it. But I do agree with what Ben Johnson said. coach. Yeah, I agree with them too. And it's so easy to look at the final outcome and say, okay, this is bad. But when you do have a chance to go back, look at what the game plan was, look at what you were trying to achieve in different situations, see where breakdowns were.

And in watching the interception, I was trying to figure out whether or not that receiver is supposed to be running an over route or a true in cut. He went over. He went over. Yeah, because there was an in cut. He should have shaved it down and it wouldn't have been an interception. Yeah, we can stay with him. I did think Caleb was a little bit late on the throw, and that caused a problem, but he was poised in the pocket. And to your point, the way that he's dramatically cut down on sacks,

that's huge. All those are negative plays and drive stopper and situations where you could fumble the ball, that he's done such a better job with that, and that alone, to me, is significant growth. Yeah, the Bears took an L, but I don't think Caleb took his step. step back. I think he needs to be better versus pressure. But I also think he did some good things. I got to take for you real quick. This is the first quarter right, third and six, takes the snap. Now they're supposed to have a little rubber out in the middle of the field. They get

caught up, so that's bad execution between the receivers. But he buys some time with his legs. And he, on Dizzily does a great job of getting ahead of sticks and completing the first down. And so what you're seeing to him is saying, okay, it's not working. Let me buy some time with my legs. Let me find my star receiver, deliver to football. We stay, we stay ahead of the sticks. So I like that aspect of them. But there are still times to your point, coach, where he gets a little stoic in the pocket and he's late with the football.

But to you're also, DP, we have to stop comparing him to his peers. Right now, it's a process. I said it before and I'll say it now. Josh Allen become Josh Allen into year three. This is year two. Let the cake cook, right? Let it bake a little bit. Next up, Patrick Mahomes on the results of this season

versus last. I know the records not as good, but it's a lot more fun, just when everybody's kind of going out there, He's kind of going out there and making stuff happen. But I think we're getting better and better. You know, we lost some tough games early that we had won in previous years, but it's not like anyone hung their head.

They just continue to get better and better. And that's all we have to do is push forward. And whenever the offense, the defense, and the special teams are rolling, it's fun to play football. Sometimes people make fun of me for how much I will reference the eye test. You're supposed to be the stat guy or whatever. I know the stats, but I watch the games. And I feel like I know exactly what he's talking about.

My eye test tells me that this team is better than last. year's team. We know last year's team won 15 and 2. Oh. You know what I mean? I think this team is better than last year's team. Well, when I hear fun, I think about commitment. And coach, I don't know if you was, if you seen it, obviously you probably have, but when I was a part of good teams, what you see is when God's finished practice, they stay in the building.

They eat together. They watch film. You damn near have to kick them out the building because they love being around each other. When you turn on the tape and you watch this Chief's team hunt, they look like a team that's like, hey, man, we're committed to one goal. It's not an individual process. We know who. Patrick Mahomes is and Travis Kelsey on and on and on. But as a team, they look like they're having fun and they committed to winning.

So when I hear fun, he's saying, man, we're finally all on the same page. And that's a good sound. Well, they can get a secondhand ping pong table and pinball machine from Baltimore who wasn't having any fun when they were losing. Oh, sell. Yeah. So that's available. To me, the reason that things may be more fun is because, again, the way they started, they totally changed everybody. expectations. They were coming off last season of trying to do something that nobody else had

ever done, back-to-back Super Bowl, trying to do it again, all that pressure. They go 15 to 1, they go to the Super Bowl again. It's a lot. Then they start slow this year. Everybody's kind of writing them off. And now as they cycle back and they're winning, it's just a different level of pressure. Travis Kelsey's in his final season. So he's enjoying every single day. They don't have The Taylor Swift distraction, you know, now she's as fiance. That's changed. There's not 8 million commercials. All the stuff that was happening in that world, which is adding pressure to the situation,

a lot of that's been taken away. So I'm sure it is a lot more fun than it was last season. They're also blowing people out when they win. Right. And last year. As an office, you drop in 30 on teams. That's fun. Because that was the thing last year.

It was like, man, they're winning, but they're just skin of their teeth, block field goals, weird things, like the margin of victory. When they've won, it's been in convincing fashion. Let's go to the baseball Diamond and hear from Shohei Otani, the historic game yesterday, and then he has to turn around and really on the same day, pitch a game. How do you feel and how will you feel tomorrow? Well, today's share of the time of the day, what I'm going to say? More quickly, need to sleep, and ask you to know it. as soon as possible so I can get ready.

So it's been written about show he's like a big sleep guy. He can sleep for like 11, 12 hours in a night and he's like a big rest and recovery guy. So he's one of it, one of his secrets. So I don't know that he's going to get the full amount of sleep that he would normally like to, but it was worth it for them to win. There's no superlative that you could say about this guy that is totally fair. But the video of him in the clubhouse last night after they won, after they won and someone in the background yells,

our starting pitcher got on base nine times. He was like jumping up and down and so excited because he was starting a game and he realized it was the same day as that game ended. He's probably gonna throw a shutout tonight. He's Superman. I'm sorry, Coach. I'm sorry, Billy, I'm not better.

I'm not better than Superman. I really, I really wish he had gone to sleep prior to that seventh inning home run. Yeah. You know, I kind of wish Toronto had walked them earlier. That would have been good. And I really wanted to go to sleep happy last night, but he unfortunately made that impossible.

And hopefully tonight he allows me to go to sleep a lot earlier and a lot happier. Yeah, we're rooting for the game tonight to end before 2.50 a.m. on the East Coast. That's possible. That was good. Right. Yeah, I don't know what it means or what it feels like to play 18 innings. I just know what it feels like to be emotionally and physical drain. When I played in the body back game, the AFC championship, my Super Bowl year against the Ravis, man. I was spent.

Like, I had nothing. And that was a physical game. And then we rolled into the Super Bowl against the Cardinals. And I remember being in the locker where everybody's like, yeah, let's go. Let's get this thing going. I'm just like, be. And it was scaring me because this is the one, right? This is the game you need to be on.

And I was tapped and I was fortunate enough to be on an historic team. But I know what it means to feel like, man. I feel like I left everything I had last week. I don't know what I'm going to do this week to kind of muster up and get going. Imagine if Showhill County was also getting tackled. Oh, it's good that you guys had two weeks off. This is baseball. He can play again tonight.

All right. So it was an epic game three. Let's get on the record here with our picks, gentlemen ahead of game four. Coach? 100% Toronto. 100%? Yep.

OK. I mean, nothing yesterday makes you want a waiver? 18 innings, bought it tooth and nail. I think that LA is a little bit more tired than Toronto is. Oh. OK, yeah, that's a scientific diagnosis. It's about as scientific as they're having more fun. I'm using that same analysis.

That's true. That's fair enough. No, I got the Dodgers. I think they're going to rally, not rally, but they're going to carry this momentum. Otani's on the mound. He's been dominant during the series. I got the Dodgers all the way. Listen, I pick the Dodgers.

I'm not going to pick against them in the game. But it is fairly amazing that you can intentionally walk Shohei Otani in front of Mookie and Freddie Freeman. And everyone be like, yeah, that's the right strategy. Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly what you are supposed to do. Dodgers are pretty good. We will end with the wildest play of week eight coming up.

All right, guys, we're basically halfway through the year. Week eight and the books wanted to end with the wildest play. We didn't have to. From week eight. I know it's against your steos. But do you ever watch a game and sometimes you, like, sit up off your couch and you, like, hit the couch and you're just making couch noises? How does this play a completed pass? That's an interception for every Bears quarterback of my life.

And it lands in Tucker Craft's arms, and then he runs 30 yards after the catch. It was unbelievable. Yeah, that's pretty low percentage football. You're getting hit by two guys and just tossing it up. You can't really give him an add-a-board because if he does it often, that thing's getting picked out nine out of ten times. The Steelers look horrible. And not even that. This kid Tucker Kraft balled out so much.

People call him yak and cheese now. I like that's his nickname. I saw that. I like that. He had a breakout game against the Steelers. Everybody's, oh, yak and cheese. I'm like. had a breakout game.

That was in a stretch of 20 consecutive completions for Troy. Oh, you know you're going right. If that is a completed bet. Absolutely insane. Enjoy the baseball tonight. Jack and cheese.