First Things First - Nick's Tiers, Blue Jays win Game 4 of World Series, Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen, Load Management

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

(0:00) Blue Jays beat Dodgers in Game 4, Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen (37:35) A.J. Brown's unhappiness with Eagles (50:01) Nick's Tiers (01:12:35) Must-Win in Week 9 (01:27:45) WS Game 5 Picks (01:34:02) Do Chiefs or Bills have more to prove, Danny's packed stats (01:53:02) Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s success (01:45:58) Will Lamar Jackson’s return help turn things around for the Ravens? (02:06:45) A.J. Brown on current status w/Eagles (02:15:20) First Things Last with Danny Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is a matchup I wanted to see. There's a fly ball to deep left center field. Headed back there. It is gone. The franchise face putting the team on his back. Live from New York, it's a show that has the World Series tied up at two games apiece. Couldn't ask for more. I said seven.

I said seven. You said Blue Jays and seven? I said Dodgers and seven. I got Dodgers and six. We all could be right. I mean, the, yeah, it's possible. Yeah, right now, oddly, right now KW's the favorite. Really?

Well, that's the most of all the potential. Blue Jays and six, Dodgers and six, Dodgers and seven, Blue Jays and seven. The favorite of those is Dodgers and six. I'm on it. By a tiny first hour of first things first. Today we count down to yet another epic installment of Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes. The question, is this game a must win? And for who?

Meanwhile, game five, the world. series tonight seven who's been the MVP so far and can Blake Snell stop the bleeding for the Dodgers and finally well the committee met deep into the night after game four to deliver a special edition of NFL tears alongside Chris Bissartman Kevin Wilds how did the meeting go did you have the the meeting was tough we did have the World Series on but I have to tell you the committee had some constructive criticism about yesterday's show wow what was it?

They just thought that we weren't. They, you know, what Luther said was, we could tell that there was a baseball game on until three in the morning watching you guys. Like, you know what? We've got to be better. So today's show will be better. I will say this. The committee members have some awesome names.

Well, they're older gentlemen. And so, you know what I mean? Marshall. Yeah. No Bill. Malcolm. Oh, we have a William. There's a William.

There's a William. But he doesn't like when you call him Bill. World Series game for Toronto ties it up at two apiece. Vladdy goes two for four with a home run. Otani struck out six, but he himself struck out twice at the plate. Here's Vladdy with our post game squad. Take a listen. Yes, everybody was with his head down, you know, in the locker room.

And when I, I was the last one to go in. And when I went in, I saw everybody, what he says down. I say, come on, bro. Head up. It's not over yet. It's not over it. They not win the four game. You have to win four games to win the World Series.

You know, it's not over yet. And everybody was smiling. I say, if you want to pull music, put some music. You know, and we put a little bit of music, and we go home and rest and come back and winning today. There you go, power of music. Are the Dodgers in trouble? Right now, through four games, I feel the Blue Jays have been better.

certainly scored a lot more runs. And listen, Shohay had, you know, has last night notwithstanding been great and been dangerous. And Yamamoto was unbelievable. So to me, the Dodgers of won two games, one game because Yamamoto was spectacular,

and one game because Shohei broke records that will last for the rest of all of our lives, most likely. And that still could have. way. And right, and it still could have gone either way. And Freddie Freeman's been good. And obviously, you have the unbelievable moment. I feel like for the Blue Jays, even with Springer out and when you heard Schneider during the game yesterday made it sound like he thinks Springer could be back, Vladdy's been great. Burger's been great. Obviously, Alejandro Kirk's been great. And Bo Bichette is giving them more than they thought they were going to get. And this is Brew what I said going into the

series, and again, it's two, too. We'll see what happens. But I did think the Blue Jays were built in a way that they could get to the one, you know, portal in the Dodgers Death Star, which is their bullpen. What is it? Air Vent, Dust. I don't know. I'm a Star Wars guy, but I think that's what it was, where they could, if you look at what the Blue Jays were great at this year, you would think that's a team that's going to be able to get a starting pitcher out of the game. And every game that they did get the starting pitcher out of the game, they had the lead late.

They scored nine in the sixth inning of game one. They took the lead in the seventh inning of game three classic. And last night, they scored four in the seventh inning last night. And so I do think, I don't think the Dodgers are like, oh, they're, but I do think the Blue Jays have been the better team by a bit through four games. admit that I shudder a bit when I see Blake try and take them out. I just, I mean, nothing against him, but it's tough. Yeah.

He's having a rough series. But no, I don't think they're in trouble. Look, I think this is, and we go through this every year in the NBA playoffs, any seven-game series, exactly. You feel like the other team's in control because 24 hours ago we felt like the Blue Jays were done. All right, how are they going to bounce back from this 18 game, 18-any loss? So, no, I think the Dodger will find, I do have confidence in Blake Snell coming out.

Obviously, they roughed him up really well in game one, but I think he'll come out tonight and redeem himself and give them seven innings at least. That would be great. Because, again, like you said, and they may have gone a little too long with Otani just slightly because, I mean, he was great until he, you know, they got the two runners on in the six. and then they took him out and then the dam broke. But I think they'll be fine. They got to get their bats going. They've had three runs in the last 20 innings of baseball. So they have to get, Mook, it would be nice if Mookie,

he got a hit last night, but he's four for, I think, three for 19 in the series. And so, and the other thing, and I thought Shohei obviously didn't get a hit, but I thought he pitched fine. like I said, but when he pitches, now he had the historic game that we all say it was the best ever in the NLCS, but when he pitches, he doesn't hit as well, which is obviously understandable,

but you see the numbers are different. So look, I don't know if he's, you know, he would end up pitching again in this series. Only in a relief. If he needs to, right,

you got to throw him out there. But that, you know, understandably he doesn't hit it as well when he pitch. I like that the Blue Jays didn't walk Otani. They walked him in the first part. I was going to ask you about that. But I was nervous that they were just going to like go extreme and just walk him every time.

So now they're pitching to him and they struck him out twice. That was great. And no intentional walks. No. The first one they were staying away from him. They were being careful. Yeah, but they were giving him strike. He was swung and missed it.

Mookiee Betts, you mentioned it three for 19. It's even a quieter three for 19. It's just three singles. No doubles, no triples, no triples, no home runs. no RBI's. He scored one run. I'd like him, as Red Sox legend, to break out of this funk. He's five for 34 since the NLCS.

So he's been quiet. If he pops and Freeman pops, again, I think my Dodgers are in a good spot. Can I ask you a question about the Show Hey stuff real quick for you and move on? Because I think we probably all, in the after glow of seeing a guy reach base nine times. and the walks and the extra base hits. You know, we were remaking Major League Baseball yesterday. Maybe a little, maybe a little

pre-h. No, I'm not saying it's, I'm not saying it was bad. Basically five straight. And by the way, we weren't the only people doing it. It was a legitimate point of discussion. But part of that discussion then became you hearing Schneider say, we're not going to pitch to him.

And you saying maybe smartly, or maybe correctly, obviously. Or it may have just extended it too far. Both are on the board. No, no, no. But that would send the wrong message to the Blue Jays that were afraid of him. So I'm asking you sincerely, do you think because they didn't, it actually sent the other message? Oh, wow.

You know what I mean? The fact that it was that he was saying we're not going to pitch to him, and they literally pitched to him the whole game. They were careful. They were smart without pitching to them, but they pitched to them the whole game. do you think the flip side to the coin you were worried about for the Blue Jays could apply, which is they, you know, they stared him down and said, okay. With two strikeouts too, it wasn't just like super hard hit balls because in the NLCS, I think, he was slamming the ball, but they weren't hits and like, well, he's not actually struggling.

And I think, look, I don't know what Snyder was thinking when he said, yeah, this is going to continue throughout the series. But that may have been some gamesmanship. Like maybe he was not intending to do that, but just throw it out there. And you get into Dodgers head, oh, they're not even going to pitch to, you know, to show, hey, does that mess with Muki's head? Like, wow, they treat me like I'm just a regular player, you know, so. I was nervous he was going to get the Bond's treatment of just, like, put him on early. Well, it would have been shocking to me.

Like I said yesterday, I imagine no player in the history of baseball has gotten an intentional walk in the, you know, to start the first inning of a game. I just don't think that's a thing. So that would have shocked me, but they could have done it at any point. And instead, you know, like you said, they struck him out twice. It felt like it went up against the identity of a team. Yeah. They led the league with 49 comeback wins. They are like, we can do it.

Yep. I'm sure they know the graphic I showed, too. They know he doesn't hit as well when he's pitching, too, even though, you know. Oh, that's. You think they know what you think? No. The locker room, they put up a graphic with a spider on it. No.

I think the team, the team. The team obviously knows, maybe not the players, but the coaches and all that. He's a less dangerous hitter on the days. They might be more cautious with him today than they were yesterday is, I think, what Bruce said. Just quickly, just do you think the marathon affected the way Otani played? I think, well, yeah, I don't know how it couldn't, but I would imagine it affected everyone who played in that game, which is one of the benefits, advantages that Blue Jay's had yesterday was their starting pitcher didn't play. Everybody else basically played their starting pitcher was the only fresh guy on the two rosters.

I would say it didn't affect him more than anybody else. Now, he had a heavier low because he was pitching. Well, that's right. He actually was pretty good. I mean, he didn't get hits, but he's had other games where he's not hitting him. He could have gotten shelled early. Yeah, yeah, he didn't. Game 5 winner wins the series 68% of the times.

So what's, it was 86% of game. Is there a game four winner when you're down to one? I mean, yes, because it was 70% a lot of them are a lot of them are like 57.

Yeah. This one is 67. 26. I'm surprised it's not more. To be totally honest. Go off three. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm surprised it's not. Chiefs in Buffalo Sunday afternoon for what Dusty's calling, Mahomes versus Allen 10, but with an X. He wanted to make it a big thing like a wrestling. I don't know. Mahomes,

one and four in the regular season, four and O in the playoffs against Josh. Jim Nance. compared this rivalry to some of the greats with Adam Shine. Take a listen. They need one another. If you look at great rivalries in sport, you know, Magic needed bird. Jack and Arnie needed one another. You know, Brady needed Manning and Peyton needed Tom. It goes with the territory. They bring out the best in one another. And Tiger needed David Duvall, except Duval actually did win a major. Listen, I like, I love Jim Nance.

And I love Adam Shine. I love Adam Shine. Just a push back on it. No, Shine's never going to push back on it because Shine's as big of a Josh Allen Homer as there is in the sports media. And he knows it. And he has an annual interview with Jim Nance before Chiefs bills. He also has an annual interview with me before Chiefs Bill's in the playoffs,

where he gets to be wrong every year. But it is closer to Jordan Ewing or Jordan Malone than Bird Magic or Peyton Brady. and this is, this makes me mad every year. First of all, Patrick doesn't need Josh. What are the greatest moments of Patrick's career? One of them involves Josh, but there's the 13 seconds game. But then there's also the walkoff touch on the Super Bowl against San Francisco. The 10-point comeback was six minutes left in the other Super Bowl against San Francisco.

The final drive against Philly, the AFC championship game against the Bengals. So down 24-0-0 in the playoffs in the first half against Houston. What are Josh's greatest moments? What are they? Real quick. I know it's one greatest moment. No, it's the 13 seconds game. And then it's a lot of games in September and October.

Him hurtling over guys. No. The run against the Chiefs is a big deal. He hurtled the Chiefs. He hurtled the Chiefs the next year. He had the run against the Chiefs last year. Josh needs Patrick. All of his memorable moments that aren't really fun segments on Get Up are against Patrick.

And so there is this. So that part of it bothers me. And then there is the Peyton Tom thing. And Peyton, for the young people out there, for the 2000 aughts, Peyton Tom was a legitimate debate because it shined a light on what you value. in sports almost, the individual accomplishment in the team sport or the team success, because they were such different players. Peyton, so we can show it to you.

What I did was the first eight from 2001 to 2008. So since Tom became a starter, you know, those first eight years. Early on, yeah, everybody thought Peyton. Well, this is eight years of Brady Mahomes. So that's why I'm doing the first eight years of them. Tom had the wins. Peyton had all of the stats, and in the playoffs, it was close.

It was two to one. Tom over Peyton in the playoffs. By the way, that's the entirety of their Patriot cult career. It was two to one. But that's their first eight years. So Tom, you know, Peyton wins this graphic, if you will, the statistical one, but Tom wins the team one. But then, and then if you go to the next one,

and it's a similar thing. here. Payton beat Tim on individual accolades, MVP's, all pros, pro bowls, but Tom beat Tim on team stuff. Those same exact graphics for the same exact time frame of Patrick versus Josh, it's just a bunch of 10-8 rounds, if we can show them dust. So Patrick has started 11 more games. He is one, what's that math on that? 23 more games. He has a higher passer rating. He has 7,000 more total yards. He has 76 more passing touchdowns and 20 some more total touchdowns. He's 4 and 0 in the playoffs. What about their individual accolades and team accolades? Again, it is Patrick. Patrick has more Pro Bowls. He is the only one with all pros. He's the,

he has multiple MVPs. He's been to seven conference championship games. He's been to five, and then it's 53300. So at, Peyton versus Tom had a real three, friction to it. This does not. And it's so frustrating to me that people keep trying to act like this is not tiger versus the field, that it's bird versus magic when it's not that. I knew as soon as I saw that quote from Jim Nass that that was going to tick Nick off. And I would love to sit here and go at it with you and come up, come with some opposite viewpoint. But you're right. Like, and Jim Nance, I assume he knows it. He just was, you know, building up the game and saying something, you know, that is way off.

Look, it would be like if Brady during those first years where he won those three Super Bowls, if he was putting up numbers like Mahon, you know, like superstar individual numbers and winning, it wouldn't have been close, you know, with him and Peyton. It wouldn't have been a debate. It was that Brady was viewed as a system guy. He was viewed that way. And Peyton was the great individual. player.

And this is not anything like to have. And Peyton, by the way, I think was three and two against Brady in the playoffs all time. Right. So he actually beat him more, have more MVP's even at the end of their career, five versus three. So to have a rivalry like Magic Bird or Peyton Brady, one, both have to win sometimes. And Josh has not win.

These regular season games, I mean, that's nice. But the fact that you consistently, it almost. makes it worse that you keep losing to Mahomes in the playoffs. Because we've seen you beat him in the regular season routinely, but then you get to the big moments. And Josh has played fine, great at times, but still hasn't been able to get over the hump. So look, Mahomes has accomplished so much and been so good.

He doesn't need anybody in the league. Like his real rival is Brady. That's his real rival. Now, and if a rival, emerges, it might not be Josh. It could be Lamar. I mean, like if Lamar's talking, but right now, the closest thing to a rival is. Would be Jaylen.

And Jaylen's not as good individually, obviously. And it's also tougher because they're in a different conference. Right. And but it's rare to see somebody beat Mahomes in the playoffs. And Jaylen's obviously done it on the biggest stage and played, played him real close individually. So Jalen would be the rival if there is one right now from my own. my homes.

What's up, Katie? Well, you know, I'm a Jalen Hertz guy, so I agree with that. We're in Kansas City. Jaylen Hertz won, one in the Super Bowl, one in the previous regular season matchup. There is one other. Drake May. Yeah. No, it is, it is on the...

Well, I mean, you mean, maybe in the future? Look, Marca does give us a lot of headlines. Wait, this is from Spain, bro. What's that guy to do you? I'm just telling you. I'm just letting you know. So is ham. No, I'm not...

I'm not... I'm not... So is old classical. Wow. Yeah, go ahead. It's no longer Josh on. Drake May has become Patrick Jones main threat. So that's a little ahead of ourselves lately.

But what I would tell you is this. It would be, if you're a Bills fan, horrifying. And it's, you can't, it is certainly a possibility that Drake May beats Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs before Josh does. Like, you know what I mean? I mean, they could happen. In theory, it could happen, not in theory. It's good.

It is, you know, I don't know, a 20% chance or something that they play this year in the playoffs. And in that game, the Patriots will have at least a 10% chance of winning. So that's like a 2% chance that it happens this year. And so, no, like, that is. So, yes, I agree with you that it is not guaranteed that the quarterback that ends up being Patrick's main rival is Josh. Right. And I just It's wide open for AFC quarterback.

Like I said, I mean, I'm not just, it could be Lamar. It could be Drake May. It's not going to be Daniel Jones, but, you know. But Joe Burrow? Joe Burrow when he comes back. Burrow might even be, I actually think nobody fits what Dan said, but you could argue that Burrow fits it better than Josh Allen. I think he did beat him and get to the Super Bowl at least.

and he's a great individual player. It's just the, Peyton and Tom was marked by one guy having the it factor and the other guy having all the awards. And it is, since Patrick has more individual accolades far and away than Josh

and has done all of the winning, it doesn't, it's not a comp that works. He's playing both roles in that. He's playing, he is Peyton and Tom in there. Jordan Ewing or something like that. Yes, Jordan Ewing is a, yeah, that's right. Sorry, Patrick. That's on Sunday.

Four. Lamar is back. More than touchdown favorites when the Ravens play the Dolphins in Miami. Here's number eight. Take a listen. Can't wait to touch the grass with my guys, man. Been a while. I got a great group of guys on my team.

Good staff, man. I feel like we always got a chance to make something happen, and we still do. You know, each and every game going to be like a when to go home game, you know? We started off first season ever starting off like this slow, so, We're going to have to do a die right now each and every week. Okay, Brew, what can the Ravens prove tomorrow? Well, look, I like what I'm hearing from him. I mean, he seems really ready to go.

You know, I liked him the toy toss and all that stuff. Drew, don't shortchange. No, I'll get to that later. I'm setting it up. Just a little appetite. My best. Actually, that's for later in the show. Oh, okay.

But a win will be sufficient. I'm just going to keep it real. Right at this point, it's about them stacking wins and tracking down Pittsburgh. Like, that's really what it's about. So that will suffice. But again, for a team that I say is still, and I want to keep this at front of mind for people, they're still that's Bob. And I'm not saying that because I picked them. I'm saying it because I think it's the same.

We talked about that with Dallas. I don't know if it was last year or a couple years. Like now people may think, oh, if they just make the playoffs and win the division, what a great year. they have the talent where they should compete for the Super Bowl. So that's what it's all about. If you get there in an odd way, so be it. But that's what it's about. And to prove something, because just beating Miami is going to prove nothing.

Honestly, just blowing them out is not going to prove anything. Everybody that's good has blown them out. But I say you have to put probably about 40 plus on them. I'm talking about if you really want to make people take notice. You got to put 40. Look, Danny Jones put what, 37? But they're real. There are the best team in the league.

I'm talking about the quarterbacks, though. Buffalo put 31. Drake may put 33 on them. The Chargers put 39 on them. Like, they need to put 40 plus on them and hold them below 20. Now, that's even being generous because this offense isn't good. But I would, I would like to say. say 14, but I'm not going to go that far.

But hold them beneath 20. I went that far. Because it's a bad team. You need to blow them out. Here is what. If you want to prove. You and I are on the same page as far as what can they prove. I wrote, this is the old can't win spot if you're Baltimore.

You have to win. Yes. But narratively, the score that I said would make you take notice narratively is 30 to three. where the offense rolls and the defense totally shuts them down. Like that's, that is right. That is almost the,

it is something, and I know that sounds unfair, and this is really a five-minute massive diss of the dolphins. 30 to 7 would be fine. Of course, yeah. But where you score 30 and they don't score, really what I'm saying is you score 30 and they don't score more than 10. Chiefs Raiders.

Chiefs Raiders, it was like, yeah, I mean, that maybe to the extreme, but something like that. Oh, Colorado, Carolina. actually and the Carolina is a better team mind but you know what I mean like where you move the ball at will and your defense looks excellent because people don't care

that Miami actually won this weekend that was that was go I just we've had a lot of fun making catch phrases on points of lines in the sand where this is where the

tackle that turn the tide or the toy toss that transformed the tacklers, even though even after the toys were tossed, the Ravens still lost two games. But Homes threw a 99-yard pick six. That's why it's fair. And they lost. I do not have one for the Dolphins. Did you've given up?

That really, it disheartened me last night. This is for the Dolphys. This is for the Dolphins. No, but after the show, you were supposed to come up with a T-8. You got T-6, I have T-7. You gave up. You're at the waterfout. You're saying, I can't do this.

I can't do it. Hold on. Let Kate. Are the dolphins. I came up with the falcons. They're your team. I'm renting in Miami. I got a condo.

Is there, I think it's unfair in this. I'm trying to appeal to Mr. Consistency. Yeah. If all of a sudden the Ravens do something random and they get better, did something snap with the dolphins when they played the Falcons? Weeks one through seven, they weren't good. Last against the Falcons and maybe they just know something did snap.

But two, uh, through four touchdowns. No intercedent. Passer rating was around 140. They ran the ball for 141 yards. He's like, oh, we're playing the Falcons. All they got is Bejohn. Bejohn had 25 yards rushing, 23 yards receiving.

No, it is something. It's something. It's K-C-S-F-T-O-T. Go ahead. It's not. K-C-S-F-T-O-T. Go ahead. What is it?

Kurt Cousin starts for the other team. When that happens, you look great. That's what it is. So, like, I'm not, you're right. KW, that it's not totally fair. In Miami, I think... They don't have the talent either. The Ravens have the talent where you expect them to...

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you, Ruth. Like, the Ravens, to prove something, they have to dominate them. These do. They just have dominate them. I'll take... You'll take... But it's going to be hard to pump your chest out after... The robe will not be out.

The robe probably won't be out anyway, but it definitely will be out. A 28-26 victory. 28-26 would be a bum. That would be a bum. Should Eagle fans be worried about this latest must-win article? Must-win, must-reed article about A.J. Brown, that's next on FS1. Hey, last night, Vlad Jr. and the Blue Jay battled back to tie the World Series at two games apiece. Let's go, coach.

Dodgers trying to take the lead before this goes back to Toronto. Coverage begins live from L.A. tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific, only on Fox. Welcome back to first things first. Blue Jays fan. Coach Manjini is here. Prime performance, sponsored by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Pay for what you need. That's it, only for what you need. Don't go paying for other stuff you don't need.

The Eagles offense exploded against the Giants. AJ Brown watched from the sidelines. He's hurt. Dynamic wide receiver has been unsatisfied with his usage through, even though the Eagles are in first place. New articles from Brooks Cabina in The Athletic. Here's the headline. What does A.J. Brown want? Eagle star wide receiver chases greatness on his terms.

Key passage. passage. Here's a quote panel. Obviously I want to win. That's the main goal. But I want to help. I want to do my thing as well. I hear you, man. I want the show to do well, but let KW get some shine. reaction to this article. He's being honest about, I mean, everybody feels that way, just about every person feels that way. I think Michael Jordan had a quote once that I want to win, but I want to be the reason we win. Like, and players feel that.

I think that's easier in basketball to accept in football. It certainly than a receipt. Yeah, absolutely. But this article, I read it all. Talks a lot about Jesus, bro. Yeah, which I love that with AJ. But it did give me a different perspective on him. I'm not saying what he's doing is right with all these, you know, social media posts and stuff.

But, you know, it painted him as a tremendously hard worker who is obsessed with, like, being great, being awesome. And I do understand where if that's how you are and you have that talent, if you're not getting the football, you can get frustrated. Now, again, I don't think it's not right. I would say, look, you got to go talk with Jalen privately. You got to talk with the OC or Siri. I mean, whoever, privately, it's not right to say it publicly because it just creates a distraction.

And even to the point of last week, them scoring 38 points without him. Now it's like, oh, do they need a, you know, it creates negative things all the way around, even for him. So I'm not saying what he's doing is right. I understand it though and I just think he has to learn how to control it and be like look I'm don't do it's not good for your team and is actually not good for his image either

yeah the comments that he had were thoughtful and in reading them that they make a lot of sense and you appreciate someone who wants to be great and who wants to be a great contributor but if the main goal is to win then you constantly bring up your unhappiness doesn't contribute to the main goal. And so you did it last year in the playoffs. And then you did it after they won the Super Bowl.

And then you did it at the beginning of this year. And now you're trying to explain yourself and you're doing it all over again. So are you trying to litigate this in the court of public opinion to put pressure on the head coach, the offensive coordinator, to put pressure on the quarterback? Do you think that helps your relationship with Jalen Hurts? maybe you don't care. Maybe those two guys don't get along. I would imagine those two guys don't get along.

At one point, I mean, one of them is the godparent of the other one's kid. Yeah. So I forget which is which. I apologize. I don't know if it's AJ's kid or Jalen's kid. But it, and then Brandon Graham said to us last year, you know, those guys used to be really close. I don't know what's happened. So it does seem like that relationship went.

And in this article, AJ says, I don't have friends. Like the closest thing to his friend. It was sad. It was sad. He said he really demands a lot of the relationship. Right. He was like, but he also said like it would, I feel like it would be asking too much of my friend, someone to be my friend.

And so he does seem to have a lot of, you know, his own stuff that he's dealing with that he was open and vulnerable about. But to your point, clearly the relationship with Jalen Hertz is not what it once was. I'll let you finish. But I just. Yeah. And I can't imagine it's going to get better. And I would. I would imagine he's asked for a trade.

I would imagine the thinking... You think he's asked for a trade? Yeah, I bet you he's asked for a trade multiple times. Because you can't go this public this many times over this long a period of time and have not gone to see the owner of the GM and say, hey, I want to do something different. He's expressed over and over what he wants to do

and he's not going to really be able to do that in this structure and, So his only option is to go somewhere else. Now, they may not pull the trigger on that. But I would imagine if he's willing to be this public about his displeasure, then he's definitely gone to his higher ups and said, I want out. All right. Not the demanding a trade part, which I'll get to in a moment.

But you and I made the same joke. What? I wrote, honestly, he reminds me a wilds. His arrival marked the team's assent to real notoriety. But he's just a lot. A lot to deal with on a day-to-day basis. You want to contribute. No, I'm just, and in all seriousness, I respect his honesty,

but I think the most optimistic view of it is this is his last year in Philly. Like that, there, I, and it is. They talked about how Siriani seems to love him. Might love him, but Siriani, this has been, in my opinion, a failure. might be too strong, a shortcoming of Siriani, not being able to get his arms around this. That this has not been something he was able to find a way to communicate exactly what coach just communicated to his star player who he loves in a way that he'll understand. And does he love him?

What other alternatives does he have besides saying, I love the guy? Like, what other, what else? Well, it's got to be frustrating to hear him saying what he's saying public. And again, I, I, I, you guys remember last year when I said, and I think you gave me a hard time for it, I really like empathized with what AJ was saying in the locker room. Because it did feel to me like it was, yes, it was coming from a selfish place of I want the ball. But I really believed him that he thought, but getting me the ball helps the team so much that it was, it was self and team focused, if you will. reading this article only made me more fervent in that belief that he really believes I am being a good teammate in doing this I don't again you can believe something and it's not true

but I do think he really thinks you know his heart's in the right places I guess the cliche way to put it but it is so much and it is he is so consistently the epi-sense you know, the eye of whatever stormers around the Eagles. All of them start with him. And it is, it feels so unnecessary. And the other thing this article, to me, reconfirmed is he, he's not going to move off how he feels. No amount of winning or team success is going to make him feel like, oh, okay, this is fine. It's just how he's wired.

The one place I would disagree with you. And I do think he thinks him getting the ball. his best for the team. Where I would disagree with you on, if they're winning, which they have been, and he still is complaining, that does show you won it. It's not just about us. While he, after he caught a touchdown, his celebration was a complaint. We've never seen it.

He said it's hard to be his friend. What was the celebration complaint, KW? When he was like, when he was, this is what happens when you throw me to ball. Then it was using me, not using me? looked at the numbers like, these numbers are great, but it's, look, it, it, there are a lot of contradictions in the whole, in the whole article, and I think he's kind of owning up to them. The other quote pen I like, it's also why Brown's vented frustrations often lack a clear target and why his social media posts should be consumed with caution.

Of course, I want to talk to you about one other thing. It's my favorite, to bring it back to the Patriots, where we all want to be. The big story about Stefan Diggs is not just like the health of his knee and he's good. He'll say it. He's like, I've matured. And there's a clip that they released of just like sideline stuff with McDaniels. And Stefan goes up to Josh McDaniels. And he's just checking in during the game. He's like, hey, I'm just checking in. Is there anything you want me to echo? And I was like, oh, we always hear about him mature. He's like, he's not even talking about, he's not talking about targets. He's not talking about get me the ball. He's like, what do you want me to tell the guys? Are you good with all? And,

Stefan says he's matured. And I always like to think we celebrate guys when they have matured. And I think AJ Brown might get to that point. But now we're in the other point. I don't want to say he's immature. I feel like that's too much. But I feel like there is maturing that's gonna come.

He's not where Stefan Diggs is in the maturity journey, let's say. Yeah, Tennessee didn't move on from him because he wasn't talented. And you'll see this, we'll see this year, next year, 10 years from now, where good players get moved from teams, because they just become more problematic than what their... Which is what Diggs was, is I think, Wild's point. Yeah, and what number of team is this for Diggs?

Four. This is Team Four. And then he's at the point in his career where he doesn't have the cachet. He doesn't demand the big contracts. He wants to probably get some more years in the league. So, yeah, you do have to go through this. Ideally, it's just maturity. But there's also the realization that if I keep making noise like this,

not only am I not going to be with this team, I'm not going to be with any team. But it is guys can mature. Look, we all do. We all make mistakes and then hopefully. And also when you're not quite as good, you're not going to make it. Stefan's actually still really good. Tide for 41st and catches 35th in the yards, AJ Brown.

The goat talks about load management. That's not a picture of Brown. Don't. How dare you? I'm telling you. Diggs would meant the best, but McDaniel seemed like, all right, I'm working, man. Watch it again. How dare you.

Tears coming up in 15 minutes right now. We'll play for Boo during the break. He hasn't seen it. He doesn't follow you on the weather. Wonderful episode of Weird and Wonderful. Start with the weird first quarter. Pete Hornets. I know people say, accused Lamello of being a little unsyrious.

Here he is just deciding to kick the ball and a hit Steve on Mitchell in the face. Hornets give up 144 points. But he would- They gave up 144? To the heat. Yeah, it wasn't great. They're two and two. I hope.

Somebody can get through the little. That's not going to happen. Dodgers up one another, not for long. Vladdy, Homer's off of O'Tani. Makes a two, one, and the third. He goes two for four with an intentional walk that I was okay with. Yeah, I don't think that rule is going to be changed. More weird, Yonis against his future teammates.

That's for you, Ramsey. Count the steps here, Brewer. Are you okay with this? I was looking at that last night. It was about how many steps is. Once together. Four? It's too many steps.

But can I make it? One, we got plenty of time. Two, three, four. You may have missed one. Oh, he does again. Five and a half steps. What are we got? Now, Yonis is playing like the MVP.

That's what I was about to say. He is playing phenomenal. He's playing through a week. He's been the best player in the league. And it's not that he can't continue. He's going to obviously have great numbers. He's playing so, like it's almost like he's saying, look, I'm going to will this team to championship.

I just can't see that. 37, 8 and 7 bucks over the Knicks. Milwaukee's 3 in 1. Could he Willem to the finals, though, maybe? That was a good win last night. Wonderful, if you're a Blue Jays fan, Shane Bieber strikes out Otani. For the second time, Bieber was great. It was spinning.

Passwatch putting Beaver on my radar in a major way that he's unhittable when he's on his game and came through again. Spinning. Yeah. It's fantastic. More wonderful, Thunder up three in Sacramento. SGA hits this three to. give the Thunder a six point lead and that's it. Thunder remain undefeated, 31 points, nine rebounds.

Four assists three blocks. He's five and up. Thunder are five. So first two games of the year for the Thunder, they won in double overtime. Mm-hmm. I have a scorching hot take. Oh, great take. Because of those two double overtime wins, they're going to win 70.

Okay. Wow. I, like the winning 70 is so hard. that you've got to win almost all of those either or type of games, I think they're going to win 70. Wow. The hot one. Wonderful, James Madison, Texas State.

Texas State's Brad Jackson, hurdles the defender and throws a touchdown midair. Oh, that's sick. Jordan-esque. Not enough. James Madison wins. They put up 52 points. Oh, that's sick. I didn't see that to right now.

Afternoon headline sponsored by Hilton Garden Inn Hilton for this day. The NBA on NBC aired another. installment of insights to excellence. Same interview, but Mike Rico and. It's just going on all year. Today's topic, load management. Michael Jordan, not a fan. It shouldn't be needed.

I never wanted to miss a game. Fans were there. They're watching me play. I want to impress the guy way up top. We'll probably work his ass off to get a ticket. Brew. Reaction to Jordan. Look, I do agree with MJ.

And I'll address the. arguments that people have. Some are saying, Nick, well, now look how long the players play. Look at the length of the careers. You know, Jordan. Bird only played 12, 13 years. Jordan is 75th all time in games play. Yeah, yeah. Including the playoffs. Right. Isaiah Thomas, I think, had 12, 13 years. But here's the thing. LeBron did not load manage. And he's playing in his, what, 23rd year? Carl Malone and John Stockton played 19 years each. Stockton played 19 years each. Stockton played the maximum amount of games because of the one strike year.

He played 50. 17 of his 19 years. Carl Malone missed no more than two games until his last year. In 18 of his 19 years. Yeah, until his final year with later. Yeah. So you can have a long career and still not low it managed. So that's number one.

Number two, in fairness to the players today, a lot of this, if not most of it, is driven by the trainers and their science. And I'm not, the science is legit. Like, they're saying the human body can't, because of the floor is so spread out now, you cover it so much more ground defensively. It's too hard on your joints and stuff to play 82. If that's the case, then I'm saying, then cut it to 65 games. Correct.

Like, don't, and I get it, they probably never will as long as they can fill an arena. But that's where, because it is too, it is too expensive to go to these games. and I went to a game as a kid in Indianapolis. I didn't care about the Pacers. I wanted to see Dr. Jay. He played. But had he not played when I'm a nine-year-old kid at that game, I'm going to be heartbroken.

I got to tell you, had he not played, I'm not joking. Your whole life could be different. Like, you dedicate your life to doing sports. Dr. Jay was your favorite player. I'm not trying to do a bigger thing than that. But, like, I mean it. Like, you were a nine-year-old kid. Like, you might have, like, I don't know.

Like, there is an element of that of, like, when you were falling in love with basketball, you went to see your favorite guy, he played, and it made by coincidence, it ended up being your profession. You know what I mean? So whatever it is. But go ahead. No, I mean, so I do agree with Jordan in that regard.

It's just because it's too expensive otherwise. And so, look, the bottom line, though, is this. We see it in basketball. They have better nutrition, better sneakers, better travel, better weight training, and they're low managing. baseball we see the pitch counts they're so cautious with the pitchers the basketball players and the

baseball players get hurt it feels like more than ever but certainly as much as they used to get hurt back in the day so how's it working this low management is not keep the playoffs are just as be as riddled with injuries

that can help determine the champions as they were in the 80s and 90s like so to me I don't see it benefiting anybody at all. So I want to be nuanced about this because what I do think now that we have, you know, years of load management takes, so to speak,

is the two poster children, if you will, of load management, turns out are two guys with degenerative knee problems. Yeah, they need it. And in Beating Kaua. They need it. You know what I mean? Nobody's complaining about them. No, but no, right now they're not.

But like when the load management was like a topic all the time, Kauai was getting pilloried by me. You know what I mean? And others. You got cleared and Pop was like, I don't know what's going on. And Embed was another guy. And it turns out those guys have significant knee injury issues. So there's that.

Brew's point about the court being spread. I was trying because it's exactly, I think, the right point. And I was trying to figure out a way to try to demonstrate that without it seeming like I'm taking a shot at previous year of basketball because I'm not. It's just different. And so like you can watch. you know, if you go to YouTube, I did it, but we're not going to play the clips of like 90s defense versus 2020s defense. It's just rotations.

Right around the paint. Right now it's you're just running around side to stop, start. And in the 90s because there were big men and it was around the paint. It's a lot of on defense like, all right, see man and ball and stand there. And it's not about one being better than the other. It's just different. Quickly, I would just throw this in. And I don't know if it's the equivalent, maybe,

but you did get, you could get hammered in the 90s. Yes. When you, it was a lot more physical. So you went to the basket, you're getting drilled. So there is that. Right, but it's just, but it was less wear and tear. Maybe it was on your joints. Absolutely.

So I, but I tried to find a way to show what's happening. Because I think it's all related to the three point shot. Yeah. And there's a great substack that has this graph that I want to show you. This is average miles. covered over an 82 game season for a team. And what you'll, this is from 1980 to 2020s. What you'll notice is that I find really interesting.

See in the 90s the brief jump and then drop, that's when they shortened the three point line. And the three pointer was more prevalent for those two years than it went back to normal. And so it is directly correlated to the more three pointers you shoot, the more miles you to cover all of it. So I say this. They're never shortening the season. They're not doing it. This is to me another issue that the NBA would go a long way to solving by having a real

conversation about the proliferation and the overvalue or the not overvalue, the importance of three point shot. Because I think that's what's leading to, you know, the game being unsustainable for guys to play 80 times a year plus the playoffs, all of it. I think the... So you want to do like 30 attempts or something? I'm not going to lie. I don't have that part solved.

And I think there's a lot of different... What? Cut out the corner inside. Oh, the corner. I think the corners... In the arc at the free of line scene. I love that idea. I don't know if that's extreme enough.

I would certainly start there to where it's a true arc and then see where it goes. but you are short of making it like the Premier League almost where like, hey, no, you're playing like once or twice a week and you're going to be full strength at all times. This is going to happen as long as basketball has played the way it's currently played. And so you're going to have to change something. Like there's something's got to give because I do think there is, everybody has these anecdotes.

Shout out to Mr. Luce, Mark Luce, my old journalism teacher, an English teacher in high school, and I hope someone sends this to him. Years ago, he and his son went to San Antonio, specifically to see, I think it was Kauai and, you know, his favorite guys. It was a Spurs Warriors game that I think I helped him get tickets to. And every single, Steph sat, Kauai sat, everyone said, from Kansas City, there's no games.

Like, you know what I mean? He made a family trip. And that's what I'm, I'm not joking when I say about Brew, like that maybe sparked some of his passion. I don't know what, you know, but if you're, you know, a little kid. So I do think there is an obligation just like on Broadway, man. Yes. It's a big deal if the star is not performing that night. And I also think we have to recognize the reality of the way the game's currently played.

It's unrealistic to ask them to play every night. Also, quickly, it harms the viewing experience, too. I can't tell you how many times last season. This is early this season, but last season, I was looking forward to a big matchup. Oh, Janus versus, you know, staff or whatever. And then one of them sitting. And it was like, it happened a ton last year.

If it's any consolation, Mr. Luce, Royals tickets, four for $6.75 to get a free soda in hot dog. You're such a bad guy. Can the Patriots rise up the tears? Look at that. The ghost. Wow, we really took these teases to the next level. That's next.

I was gonna send it in a totally different. Live from New York. You gotta stop eating that, buddy. Show loves candy corn. What do you want me to do? Buddy, not have candy corn in your teeth while we're on the air. They don't sell them individually. They don't sell them individually.

I understand. That's a candy corn issue. No. I tried to look for little packets to give away to children as they came trick-or-treating. They would hate that. All they have is big bags. But you might as well give them a pencil.

or a sack of panties. Children would log candy corn. No, they would. Yes, they do. I'm going to get a ladle. Maybe 60 years ago. Scoop it in there. They're going to give them loose candy on Halloween.

They don't sell them free packs. I'm telling you right now, KW. I know you live in Pleasantville. No, it's worse than that. They're going to remember that this is the candy corn house. And when they're rambunctious teenagers, they're going to tee-pee you. An egg your house. They would love it.

No. I would love it. If I was a child, you got to give out, you give out full size, you give out full size candy bars, a man of your stature. That way when they're rambunctious teenagers, they're like, oh, don't get Mr. Wilde's house. He gave us snickers. He used to be great to get great.

That's what you do. Second hour, first and first. Today, a fresh episode of must win. A feisty episode, I'll be honest with you. It was tearing the group apart. It was. It wasn't great. But the segment will be great.

Coach, you need a W. It's a must. win for you. Yeah, if I had the right judge, that'd be in good thing. Okay, looks like 0 for three. That's a winless this year. Meanwhile, game five tonight. Who's been the World Series MVP so far? Is there a dark horse lurking maybe? Hmm, maybe. Maybe interesting. But right now, you're in for a real treat, and I'm not talking about the candy corns I'm handed out. Last night, next to the remains of a rated candy aisle at CBS, an elite group of statisticians, analysts and people who say, I really shouldn't before eating three crumble cookies.

Bought and toiled and burned the midnight oil to deliver the most accurate segment in all sports. It's not the standings, okay? So save your comments. You want the standings? Head over to the local motel. La Quinta. Yeah. Go to the breakfast bar by the scrambled eggs. Say, you go, what's that? Oh, a complimentary issue. USA today. Exactly. Flip open to the sports page and there it is all listed for you. Okay. We are so back, KW.

I appreciate that. Thank you. That's our best team work all week. You were set it up. We'll have to the must win debacle. It was a rough. We'll get to must win in a moment. Right now is time for tears.

No new elimination. Two teams were facing elimination last week. They were on a buy. The committee decided, debated long and hard. Should we eliminate them anyway? And we decided no. Fair is fair. need to lose to be eliminated.

So it's just those four teams that, by the way, all four of those teams were eliminated by week three. It has aged really well. The committee, you know, sometimes early, never late for eliminations. We were right on this. Who is facing elimination this week? Well, the Giants who have a real chance that that Broncos loss is their version of the Bears Hail Mary game last year, where it leads to a spiral.

The Giants, they host the Niners. The Raiders, they host the Prince. The Cardinals are at Dallas and Cleveland's on a buy and is really going to test our you can't be eliminated on a bystander. But those are the teams facing elimination. This is one of my favorite tier groups ever. Oh. The transitive property of quarterbacks.

So here's the deal. Wow. The Minnesota Vikings had Kurt Cousins, but they're like, you know what? He's not quite good enough. So he goes to Atlanta, a team. that then drafts Michael Pinnock's, despite the fact that he got outplayed in the national championship game by J.J. McCarthy,

who the Vikings then draft. The Vikings in the midst of it all see Sam Darnold, who the Panthers used to have after they got rid of Baker Mayfield as well, brought in Sam Darnold. He wasn't good enough for them either. And now all three of these teams are like, do we still not have a quarterback? Like, they all could have had Baker, one of them did.

Two of them had Darnold, neither of them do. Two of them had Kurt Cousins, neither of them won. of them wanted them. They got two young, three young guys. They just no good. Hanging by a thread. The bears from a mojo perspective. The jags from a,

here's the only thing hanging from thread in Jacksonville. It's not just the team season. It's also the Adidas marketing budget. Like, we spent how much on the Trevor Lawrence, Travis Hunter, footloose ad? Like that's, uh, the cowboys, uh, with that deep. The cowboys, uh, with that deep.

that if only they still had, I don't know, a great pass rusher coach. I know he stinks against the run, I guess. And Washington, who is really staring at a real season from hell for a team that went to the conference championship game last year. They're not done. None of those teams are done, but their, it's, their chances are dwindling. Asking a lot of the old guys. Now, Flacco's hurt, but he has to carry the team because they have no defense.

And Rogers is 41. He has to carry that. team because they have no defense. Mike Tomlin in August said this group has a chance to be a historically great defense. After this week, Tomlin talked about how he was disappointed that the offense didn't do better on third down. Buddy, I love you, Mike. That was a defensive problem and you're the defensive coach and you're spending $165 million on defensive players. attempting to avoid disaster. That's the Ravens and the Texans

because missing the playoffs for either of these teams would be a disaster. The Texans were supposed to be in the most winnable division. Last year was supposed to be the down year and they made the playoffs. The Ravens, their ultimate S-Bob. And again, we have recalibrated Bruce

you talked about, expectations for both of these teams where it's like, well, just making the playoffs would feel good. But it's really not that. It's that missing the playoffs would be an abject disaster. Good, but wildly frustrating and for different reasons. The Niners are frustrating. It's frustrating just because of the injuries.

Because if the Niners have this good of a record despite having two quarterbacks, both of which have been hurt, losing your best two defensive players, having your receiving court riddled with injuries, your offensive line, George Kittle, that part's frustrating. The Broncos are frustrating because, You watch Bo Nicks the last five quarters and you're like, hold on a second. If you can even be close to that consistently,

we could be what Sean Payton said we're going to be, but you also watch in the previous 40 quarters prior to that and you don't see it. And for the Chargers, they're frustrating because I oddly don't think they have a real identity right now. The identity is supposed to be, we've got a star quarterback, but we're gonna run the ball and play great defense,

but they seem to only win games this year by the quarterback carrying them and when they, so these are all good teams, but frustrating for different reasons. Power of PR. So if we throw out week one, which I guess is what we're supposed to do, both of these teams have only lost one time.

Both losses were in the waning moments where they played actually quite well against the playoff caliber opponent. Both of these teams have excellent coaches whose teams have, not really fully replaced them in the Shane Stike and leaving the Eagles offensive coordinator spot and Mike McDonald leaving the Ravens D coordinator spot. Both teams have an offensive player of the year, if not MVP candidate at skill position in Jackson Smith and Jigman, Jonathan

Taylor, and both teams have a quarterback that to varying degrees people don't fully trust. Yet, if you don't go on TV and say, why aren't the Colts the best team in football? You're considered a rube. And if you go on TV and say, anything happy about the Seattle Seahawks. You're like, why do you care about them? They're the same team. They have very different styles of play. But one team has great PR.

I don't know, give credit to Maccadie, I guess. And the other one, nobody cares about. Blame that on MENA. Next, excellent, but untested. That's the bills and the pants. Well, so of the 14 teams, Brew, who are currently playoff teams, the teams with the two worst strength of

meaning the winning percentage of the teams you've beaten are the Patriots with a 319 win percentage of their opponents they've beaten and the bills with a 256 winning percentage of the teams that they've beaten. Both of them aside in the game against each other, their best win by far is against the Panthers and when these two teams played each other, even though Wild would like you to believe one of these teams is amazing, one of these teams stinks. The game was literally tied with 15 seconds left as one team attempts a 50 plus yard field goal. Now, the Pat's one on the road and they deserve credit, but that was a very close game. I think they're both excellent teams, but aside from playing each other, they've been wholly untested, except for the good teams they've played a beat. Incredible upside. I really like all three of these teams.

I really like two of the three quarterbacks, or I love two of the three quarterbacks. I like all three of the quarterbacks. I really like all three of the coaches. I think that all three of the defenses have the ability to, on any given night, win a game for you. And all three of the offenses on any given night have the ability to score 40 points. I don't think they've been quite as consistent as the teams above them, but incredible upside. Hard to find a weakness.

If we're picking nits with the Packers, it's what Jordan Love might do, but not what he has done. Or it's that Josh Jacobs hasn't popped quite the way we would have hoped. With the Eagles, it's they win, but it's ugly. Or they throw not enough or they run not efficiently enough, but there's not a real weakness. It's more nitpicks. And then atop the tiers once again, back in our style points era,

yeah, you won the second half 21 nothing on Monday night football, but I mean, the first. half was a little up and down. Yeah, you had as many points as the other team had yards, but it wasn't against the Raiders. We're back in the style point era, which is exactly where we like to be with the Kansas Chiefs. That coach is the latest edition of the tears. I actually like this group of tears as well as I've liked a lot of your tears. Wow. Okay. Thank you, Coach. So you loved it. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I love it, but I like it better. I do, I do think you're you're being a little

little too harsh on the Broncos. Oh, okay. And here's why. So they're riding a five-game winning streak. That's one thing. They've got a nine-game winning streak at home, which is the longest winning streak in the NFL. So you've got to recognize that in addition. And if you look at where they are statistically, if we can pull this up, they're pretty much top

10 in everything, across board, every meaningful statistic. But to me, the most important statistics are the ones down at the bottom. How often they've been sacked and how many sacks have gotten. So they've gotten 36 sacks and they've only been sacked eight times. So that has never been achieved. That spread has never been achieved with 35 plus sacks and under 10 sacks in the history of the NFL. So that's groundbreaking. And what we know, and especially in big games, what does it come down to?

It usually comes down to the pass rush. And we've seen it in multiple Super Bowls for the team with the better pass rush, even if the secondary is weaker, That's the team that comes out on top. And then if you can stay upright, then you're not having the negative plays, which derail drives. You're not opening yourself up to strip sack fumbles. There are questions with the quarterback, and he limits their upside. But you're betting or hoping that the progress that we've seen here is going to continue to trend. And then everything else that they have built around him is going to elevate him higher than where Nick has him right now.

Yeah, listen, it is, you are 100% correct. That that's being number one in the league by a lot in getting to the quarterback and being the best in the league by a lot at preventing your quarterback from getting hit is remarkable. And as they are at historic level. Right. They're on pace to shatter the sack differential record, which is not like a common record, but what coach is talking about. So I agree with them there. I also want to give the Broncos credit in this regard.

You guys saw the Aidan Hutchinson news today. Mm-hmm. Got four years, $180 million, $45 million a year. The Broncos, right before the season, signed Nick Benito to an average of, I think, like $27 million a year. He might be the best pass rusher in football this season. 27's probably not enough. No, that's right. No, but that's like.

And so. It'll be back at the table. Yeah. But at least it's a great business by the Bronco. Yeah. And Benito, who had only had one. great year going into this season took the bird in the hand. I don't blame them for it at all, but like it is, that is a huge edge for them. So they're not paying their quarterback anything.

They have a superstar pass rusher. It's on a super team friendly deal. And I do give them credit, particularly for this last week when I thought the Cowboys were going to beat them and they trounced them. I don't trust the quarterback. So there is a ceiling on where I am going to feel like they can go. but to your point, what they are doing around the quarterbacks, wildly impressive. Look, I get that you're sticking

with your preseason pick, but I think you are way too high on the Buccaneers. They've been good. Have they? They are sinking. They are good. They are good.

They're not elite. Where they're listed at is the elite teams, and they are not that. They are kind of like the truck. of the NFC. You're good.

You're good. You're not really a threat to win the whole conference, but you're good. And so I actually would drop them below the bills and the pets, below the Seahawks. I know they beat the Seahawks and the Colts. You can bump the Niners out as banged up as they are and put them in where the Niners are.

That's where I think the Buccaneers belong. And here's why. Let's look at Baker's half dozen. All right. Here's the quarterback. that Baker has beaten. Now, Sam Darnold was a good win. They beat them by three, but just what?

A year and a half ago, Sam Donald, nobody believed to him. Here are the other quarterbacks. Michael Pinnock was up and down. They beat them by three. CJ Stroud when he was really struggling. When he was really strong. We don't know if he's back or not. He looked better lately.

But a year and a half ago, people love C.J. Stroud. They beat them by a point. Justin Fields. You beat them by two. All right. Matt Jones, sorry, Wals. And the Niners.

And Spencer Rattler, that's a list essentially outside of CJ and Darnold of backups. All right? And so, and they barely beat him. And here's the thing. And I'm,

look, Baker, he was my MVP a few weeks ago, last week, in fact. But Baker has not had a phenomenal year. Like, He's been heroic at the end of those games. But if you look at his numbers, like throughout the game, why were you so close? Why were the Jets giving you so much trouble?

Why was Houston, which I has a great defense? Like those games, he wasn't great throughout the first three quarters. He came on strong late. Here's his numbers. Passer rating 98. It's okay. He's 12th in the league. Yards per attempt, 7.1.

I know Nick likes this stat. 15th in the league. Completion percentage. Miles loves this. Below 64% 22nd in the league. 13 and 2, which is good. That 13 touchdowns, two picks. Last two games, though, one touchdown, one interception. We're going to find out who they are.

Yeah, they have a top three weeks. New England, Buffalo, the Rams. We will find out in a hurry. Listen, Parko said they're going to go 0 and 3 in that stretch. I think that's crazy. Here's what I would see. One and two is my prediction. This is, and by the way, one and two would be,

fine given who they play the final six. It'd be fine for their record, but it would tell us a little, where are they at? But you're right, if they beat any of those three, it's a good win. It felt a lot, KW. Like a Mahomes Mountain critique. Like Baker's stats, the other team's

quarterback stats. The bucks are six and two. They just got a great team win where the quarterback didn't play well. New Orleans? won easily. New Orleans? That's a divisional game. Yeah, holding it, they won 23 to 3.

This were ratler who just got benched. They ended his career, exactly. Thanks to the box. A little bit. They ended his career. Yes, he just got benched. I know, but he got bench courtesy of the bus defense. He saw the Saints, like give the Patriots a scare.

He was good. I'm not Greg Jennings, but someone's got a ride for the Indianapolis Colts. I'd like to flip the Colts. I'll just flip them with the bills. Just because I don't believe in the bills at all. Let's look at the ranks, the team ranks. And as you mentioned, the bills have been just playing tomato cans. The Colts have, you know, their quality wins, Broncos Chargers and the ridiculous loss against the Rams where we're giving away touchdown.

Not weird, but I'm certainly not one of their quality wins. Well, they lost. I know, but I'm saying like they have two quality wins. Yes, the bills don't. The bill's quality wins. And I know we can do it with a lot of teams. No, the bill's quality win is Baltimore. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And they got beat up most of that. But go ahead. So the Colts are first in points, first in yards, six in defense, first in point differential by a lot. Turnover differential second, which I'm always a little bit stressed about turnovers. Quarterbacks. At what point are we going to, and you hinted at it, we think that San Donald escaped pumpkin mode, correct?

We just saw him turn into a pumpkin. We literally saw him turn into a pumpkin. He's close, but not fully out of pumpkinville. Literally. Out of Pumpkinville. I think he's out of Pumpkinville. Daniel Jones is go get one of these pumpkins. Daniel Jones is doing his thing here.

I know Josh Allen is great. Buddy. What is this? Can I just ask a question? Yeah. What is this graphic supposed to get me to believe? I'm not even being a smart ass here. What am I, when I look at this graphic, what am I supposed to believe?

Your takeaways are supposed to be two things. Okay. Ready? One. Daniel Jones is putting up better numbers than I thought. You take away two. Josh Allen, who is like right up there in MVP talks, is not having a statistic as statistically great as a year of a year as I thought.

Especially in turnovers. But again, five turnovers through through eight games or seven games, I guess, is not a problem. What did he have all last year? Seven? Right. And I, and honestly, and I understand he won MVP because of it, I don't know that that's the best version of Josh. But go ahead.

I'll let you finish. But it is what it is. The offense is humming through, I mean, we're not in week three. At a certain point, we've got to be like, oh, Daniel Jones is playing great. So I do. No, no, no, though. So here's, I guess, what I would say. I think everyone acknowledges Daniel Jones is playing great.

Does that mean he is great? Does that mean the cults are great? And this is the point that I was trying to make about Seattle. Seattle in week one, which we just throw out for teams, I guess. lost up last second game to San Francisco. Remember, like, that was the game. They had the- Purdy brought him back and then Darnold

had them in position to win and fumble. And they lose. Since then, they've had a buy. So they're five and one. Since week one when the cults blew out the Titans, I think it was the Titans, the Colts are six and one. And there is an element to me that is the standings

obsession that, because the Colts have one loss and not two, people feel obligated to say they are great. They are definitively a great team because they have the best record. If they were six and two, no one, like the Seahawks, no one have run be like, oh, that seems better than I thought it would be. That team's having a good year. And so I just, I am not. But in fairness, Nick, their one loss was self-inflicted because a guy dropped the ball before

he crossed the line. And one of their wins. They could be easily undefeated. Well, okay. But if we're going to play that game, one of their wins, the game was over and they lost. Okay, so let's do this. Let's take away the fake loss. Let's take away the fake wins.

Then they have one loss. Yeah, exactly. So I'm just saying that's where we are. We're going to be caught. Yeah, no, no, that's right. It's not standing. Right. And so I am, I don't think the cult, not only do I not think the cults are better in the bills,

I don't think anyone at this table, if the cults were playing the bills, next week. I think. Okay. All right. I mean, I certainly don't. If we get this game in the postseason, which we very well could.

Love it. No matter where that game is, and it probably would be in indie, I think the bills will not only win, I think they will be favored in it. I just think they're. Well, people believe in the bills. I believe they would be favored.

And you, but you, you refuse to let the bills winning matter. You thought the bills could lose to the Panthers. They beat them by 30, and your opinion of them is totally unmoved. Well, they do have a terrible winning percentage against their opponent. Yeah, but so does the patch who he loves. We can't make our schedule. We played the bills, though.

The bills make their schedules. Yeah. Is this next must win a must win for Chris Broussard? Last night, Vladdy Jr. and the Blue Jays battled back to tie the World Series at two games apiece. Now they're going to square off against Otani and the Dodgers, Blake Snell on the mound, Pivotal Game 5, coverage begins tonight. At 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific if you're on the West Coast, only on Fox. Can't wait.

Right now, well, it's a very, even in the pre-production, feisty version of must win. What must-win game should we do? Here's the problem with the pre-production. We can't tell if Wilds is not saying anything because he's mad or not say anything because he's in a dead zone. Never know. So it leads to a lot of Zoom confusion where we can't read each other's what's going on. That's all.

I think we also need to take up a collection and buy Wilde some new ear pods. Yeah, there's a lot. Where are your earpies from like 2011? Yeah. Right now. First up, Ravens are touchdown. Faves in Miami, T7 versus T2, Tuatungo by a low. Ravens defense this season. First five games, not good.

Last two games, very good. Nick, you are the reigning must-win champion. Yes. And as the champion, you get to choose to pass or play. I'm going to let Brew have this one. I figured he was going to pass. This is the, I don't think I've ever seen this. There have been a lot of different types of must wins.

I don't know that we've ever seen a three plus must win. Three plus. Right out of the gate. So it's definitely a must win for the Ravens, literally. It's literally a must win for Mike McDaniel. He's fighting for his job. They need a run to save his job. It is a must win for me because they are my Super Bowl pick.

And then the three plus is, the plus. It's a must crush for the Ravens D. One, they are S Bob. I will not let them forget that. They can't win a Super Bowl or get there with that defense playing poorly like it did in the first five games. They have to continue to build on what they've done last two weeks. And they must live up to T7. The toy toss that transformed the tacklers.

So that is your three plus must win. A lot there. Thank you for your point. You know, this question, to me is slanted because it's is this a must win for Brew and I don't have all the theatrics that Brew has you don't with his Ravens but I think you remember I chose the Ravens win the Super Bowl too but this question is about is this a oh yeah must win well I chose the Ravens to win the Super Bowl as well but we slant the question and we have the theatrics and we have

the robe we have all those different things this is a must win for me wow in the win. And I'd say in this situation for, this isn't a triple plus must crush, all that. This is a must win for Lamar Jackson because if the Ravens can get it off a four game losing streak against the Chicago Bears who are on a four game winning streak with Huntley, and if Lamar comes back and they can't do the same thing, then then it's over. Forget S. Bob, forgetting that it's over. Oh my. And coach, this is a great job. But you guys left out this is the, this is the biggest must win for. I know you expected I would say brew, but I knew brew would, of course.

I mean brew was not going to leave out brew. We knew that. It's a must win for one of our favorite bits, the break dancers. If the dolphins win, the break dancers, not only do they stay alive as far as the dolphins potential relevance there, they might get called in for Friday in Ravens garb if the dolphins can beat the ravens. I bet they would. On the other hand, if the Ravens win and it does signal the end of the Mike McDaniel era, the break dancer bit is probably just gone and we'll never see those fellas again.

So it's a must win for three of our favorite show contributors whose names I do not know the break dancers. Oh, okay. Uh, before I give my answer, um, since everyone did a comical bit. I am going to have to do the analysis to give us things some meat. Tough one. Two is one and four on Thursday night. It's just that.

Nick actually takes the victory. You know what else? He can't be good teams. The pendulum swung a little bit too far on that. Okay. Okay. I thought it was good, Coach. Field cool underdogs in Buffalo.

Now, this is T6 versus Josh Allen, rare matchup, where neither team is in first place in their division. In the previous nine matchups, I didn't look it up, but it just felt like it. Felt like they're always in first place. Head to head, of course, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes had a meeting. He said, hey, which one of us wants to win the regular season? Which wants to win the post? And Mahom says, I'll take the post.

Coach, who is this a must win for? Yeah, this is definitely a must win for Allen. So the bills have only beaten one team with a 500 record. We talked about that last segment. how poor their opponents have been. He's got four picks this year versus six last year. He's got four fumbles this year versus five fumbles last year. And he's reaching those numbers through seven games versus 17.

So that's problematic. New England's one five straight. And May, you could argue, is looking like Josh Allen 2.0. So you don't want to get, you don't want to get, you don't mean better or just newer? A little bit of both. A little bit of both potentially. Nick used to talk. A little bit of both potentially.

No, the other way. It's pretty rough if you're going back on the roller coaster and then the young kid down the road is suddenly becoming the Superman of the division. Wow. Good stuff, Joe. That was very good. Bruce going to go to clockwise. What? You fell for that?

You told him to go? You skipped me. Gosh. You skipped me. If it goes clockwise, I was supposed to go. No, he passed. He passed and gave it to me. Yeah.

But that doesn't take away my chance. But you went to. I should have had the double first. He's right. You don't get a double first. I should get some points. You docked me. If you go first, if you defer in the NFL game, you don't get through.

Nick deferred. Nick, I'm sorry. Right. Fruit, you're obviously right. No, you're going to get crushed. Never do it. Go ahead. All ahead.

I got a good one. I hope so. Please. It's the double must win. All right. The Chiefs. They're the seventh seed right now. All right.

If the players, if all this talk about, they're back and they're about to win the championship better than last year, they're the seventh seed. And if they're in a tough division, their third in their division. So if they need to keep winning, they got a tough schedule going forward, several good teams. So you can't just, you know, you got to get into the tournament. So they can't lose that. And then for the bills, I get it that, oh, you always beat the chiefs in the regular season. So what's the big deal? Oh, the big deal is you haven't done Jack this year.

All right. I mean, they have not beaten a winning team. No. They're 0 and 1 against winning teams. Your Patriots. Wherever you heard that. And here's the thing, Coach. They think they've turned the corner.

The bills. Yeah, because of the buy. Yeah. They came out of the, they go into the buy all beating up. They have a buy week. They feel good. They get some things straightened out. They come out and crush Carolina.

If they lose to the chiefs, all of that is for not. And you're back to wondering, my goodness, are we just beating up on tomato cans? And so it's a double muscle. So to add to the idea that it could be a double muscle in what Wilds was alluding to, here is where the bills and chiefs have been in their own divisions. Or I'm sorry, their records, whatever it is, show it the graphic I have on this. Here's their records going into this matchup.

Great. Yeah, I've got it for you. We didn't do where they are in the division because some of them were early enough in the year that it was like in 2021. I think the chiefs were in third in the division, but it's not indicative of where they are. Never has there been a spot where neither of these teams is in first in their division going into this game. To where this game has real, it's not that they're essentially default playoff teams already. That leads to it being a double must win to Bruce point and to your lead. However, this is a must win.

for some individuals. And I understand it's not Thursday around 412, but this is a must win for Bill Simmons, Stephen Ruiz, Mike Greenberg, Jim Rome, Joe Montana, Dominique Foxworth, Colin Coward,

Kyle Brand, Adam Shine, who are just nine of the dozens of people who's declared as if it were a statement of fact. Well, Josh Allen's best quarterback in football. At this point, the torch has been passed. Josh Allen's either playing the position at the highest level that's ever been played, the most physically gifted, just quarterback 1A in the league.

And if Patrick once again, in what is likely, his final game ever at Highmark Stadium, goes in there and snatches his damn chain, those folks are going to have some answering to do. So it's a must win for them and both teams need of the Chiefs. I disagree with shouting out all those kind media brethren, but you did get the points. I think that was months ago. Well, it was said. It was said during this season. It was kind of cool.

It was during this season. Bears Bengals, this is worth three points. So it's still anybody's ballgame. Can Caleb bounce back? Flacco fresh off a losing of the Jets is banged up. So we might see the return of Jake Browning. Now, unfortunately for Caleb, although Danny will put some nonsense stats like that. Lowest passer rating since week four.

Gino, my guy, Cam Moore, Dylan Gabriel, Caleb, and Carson Went. And Carson Wentz was playing all those games with a broken shoulder. Yikes. Yeah. All right, so now, Nick, you are going first. Is that okay? In the anchor leg. Okay.

This is worth three, so you can lose it. That's, I understand. This is a must win for Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson had the opportunity to coach Jaden Daniels. And in fact, Washington was quite mad that he kind of snubbed them. It was like, turn the plane around. He said no, I believe in large part because he believed correctly. I wait a year.

I'm going to have the opportunity to coach Caleb Williams. All of a sudden, we're eight games in, and people are speculating in Chicago, does Ben Johnson even like coaching Caleb Williams? You took that job. You were the hottest coaching candidate for three cycles. You took that job specifically because you saw that player, not after college, after his rookie season and said, I can work with, not only can I work with that player,

I can stay within my own division and unseat the Detroit Lions. At this point, does Caleb need to play better? Obviously, of course. But Ben Johnson's supposed to be the one to fix them. So this is a game where they are the favorite. You're playing either Flacco or Browning. You just had a wildly disappointing game where you lost to a different backup quarterback

and Snoop Huntley. This is a must win for Ben Johnson. Solid analysis. This is the incredibly rare. This guy's just doing a comedy. MCHD for Caleb. Must cook. Not just cook.

Must cook. a holiday dinner. All right? I mean turkey, candy yams, dressing with gravy, mac and cheese, where I'm from,

gumbo, and wash it down for dessert with a red velvet cake. That's how much he has to cook. You hear me? Because everybody cooks against him. They are the worst defense

in the NFL, okay? They are the worst defense in the freaking big team. 10. All right. They give up 31.6 points a game. Look at these Carson Witts put up 48 against them.

All right. Jared Gough, 37. Bowdox 28. J-Lo, 27. Aaron Rogers at 41 years old, 31 points. Justin Fields, 39 points. If Caleb goes out there and does his typical, 76 passer rating, no touchdowns. pick, but 260

yards, it ain't going to cut it. All right. It's the last two games. Zero touchdowns, two picks. Last four games, two touchdowns, three interceptions. He must cook a freaking holiday dinner. You want to pass? The filibuster is beautiful.

I can listen to you all day. On the ropes. I got, I got hungry listening to you. Listening to Nick talk about Ben Johnson's future through seven. Not future. I didn't say anything about seven games because, you know, because Caleb's not, you know, popping the way he should be. To me, this is more in line with what we talked about earlier.

And you mentioned it, Nick. Last year, Chicago had the same record when they went and played Washington, and then they lost on the Hail Mary, and then they got into a supernatural funk and lost 10 games in a row. This year, they have the four-game winning streak, the same record. They go play Baltimore, who's on a four-game losing streak. again, incredibly disappointing. Now it's that same moment. Did they transition into the supernatural funk,

or is he able to pull him out of it and have a totally different trajectory this season? Coach, excellent job. Brew, your holiday dinner thing, it's Halloween. What is Halloween? It's not a holiday. It's not Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, it still worked.

Three points for Brew takes home yet another. win victory. Can Waddy? Coach is legit mad. The edge. This is legit man. I didn't get one point. You were all over the mat.

You didn't know who you wanted to be. Hey, how's the YouTube channel going? Crushing. She says it's going great. And our podcast is just on fire. We're up there with some of the best podcast there is. There are. Really?

Yeah. Yeah, we are. It's really controversial. Yeah, we're going to win one of those podcast awards. Oh, my goodness. The Golden Microphone? Yeah, one of those. Holy cow, I couldn't imagine.

Yeah. Game five, the World Series tonight. Series tied it to. Snell versus Yassavage in a rematch of game one. Now, remember Blake Snell came out, entered the World Series just on fire. Putting out there putting up Christy Matthewsons numbers, and Brew was like, great guy.

Blue Jays won. 11 of 4 in game 1. Who has been your MVP so far of this series? Honest, I'm going to go with Showhead. Really? And I get it. Most of it was kind of one game. But he's got the highest batting average on both teams, 400.

All the, I mean, on-base percentage, obviously, 591. You know, slugging is 1.13. Like, ridiculous. But he also is tied for first. He leads the Dodgers with five runs score and five RBI. And one of those, I think it's the RBI or the run score is tied for the most in the series. So I just think in a two two series, I mean, he's, and he's pitched. And he was pitched okay.

He wasn't phenomenal, but he was solid. So I'd have to give it to O'Otani right now. So right now I think it's Vlad because Vlad's, I think, hit at his hitting a has been at least as impactful as Show Hayes. And he made one of the best defensive plays of the series. I also maybe tie goes to what I'm rooting for, which is I think Vlad, this postseason, if we show you his numbers as a whole,

he has been the playoff MVP. Yes. I know that doesn't exist. And this would just be such a cool thing for a guy who I don't want to say he's flown under the radar, but if we show Vlad's career numbers, since he's come into the league, post-rooky year.

He's top 10 in almost everything, and that bottom line is crazy. Since he's coming in the league, his team has played 189 games. He's played, or I'm so 189, 891 games. I don't know where I got that. 891 games, and he has played in 873 of them. Jordan loves it.

So, yeah, exactly. So he averages 159 out of 162 games a year, and I think his home run last night. Isn't he only 26, too? I mean, this is his seventh year. We didn't count his rookie year because he wasn't called up, obviously, the day one. There was a feeling he was going to leave, too.

Correct. Well, they, if they had gotten Otani, he would have. The money they offered Otani that Otani turned down, they then gave to Vlad, just less of it. All right, so we're preparing for game five tonight. Let's see, quick update from Magic. Johnson with the series being 2-2 game 5 is very important whichever team wins takes control of the series Nick your pick for game five brue always I

Bruce loves magic man doesn't want to laugh I believe the Blue Jays win tonight wow I believe the Dodgers win game six with Yamamoto throwing another gym sure and I think the Blue Jays find a way in game seven but I believe the Blue Jays win tonight, and we do end up getting seven. I think it is, Nick, what you said earlier when you said every other, but that's already ended. Because the Dodgers won back to back. They won game two and three. That's right.

That's right. Yeah. Going forward. Okay, got you. The Dodgers win tonight. Obviously, go up three to two, Blue Jays take game six. And look, the Dodgers is darn near a must win because while I think they can definitely win a game there to And two there is going to be very tough.

I'm going Blake Snell and the Dodgers. Savage is 22 years old. Remember he's the second youngest guy besides, remember? Ralph. Ralph Bronca. Excellent. Yeah. So he wins two World Series games.

Like, hold on. Am I the World Series MVP? Well, no, that's, Yamamoto is 16 to 1 to win MVP. If the Dodgers win tonight and then Yamoto throws a gym to close it out, I think he'll win it. Tomorrow, ooh. a scary episode of the most motivational segment in all of sports. You guys got any recommendations?

For the Budlis? I mean, you've seen the power. Yeah. It's going to another. I would like to see how Muky Betts does tonight. Yeah, that would be good. If the Dodgers lose tonight, they're definitely going to be on the Budlis. Okay.

Anybody else? Somebody or some, the team as a whole. Quick episode of Weird and Wonderful. Bieber was really spinning it last night. Strikes Otani out twice. What is your prediction for Otani? Oh, I think Otani gets back on track. I think tonight is actually a high scoring game.

Really? Yeah. I think Snell struggles a bit in tonight's high scoring game. The, I think that this is shaping up to be just an all-time world series. It is. And I. In every way. In every way.

Like individual performances, length of series, the one classic game already. I'm super excited for tonight. Game five covered. starts at seven. First thing starts overtime starts at five. Live from New York, it's a show that it has a skewed view of aging just because LeBron is still good. This guy, 100% serious, I can't believe Joe Flacco got hurt. No, that's not what I meant. That is exactly.

I just, it is what I said. I just meant the Bengals got to feel like, God, dog it. We actually had something cooking. You signed a 40-year-old quarterback. Worse than that, you traded for one. But Tom one's going to be extra mad. Flacco had one great game in him. It was against his team, and now he's just heard.

That was a big loss. Eating dinner alone again. That's great. Living the dream. Third hour of first things first, first, first thing's first. Overtime. Remember, first person to score, and the show is over. Today, can the Ravens catch the Steelers in the AFC North as Lamar facing a must win in Miami?

Meanwhile, game five of the World Series tonight, Blake Snell got the Dodgers back on. track. Covered starts at 7 o'clock, of course, on Fox. But right now, we're headed to Sunday night, getting another edition of Mahomes Allen. Mahomes undefeated in the playoffs against Josh. But one four in the regular season, Jim Nance compared this rivalry to some of the greats with Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio. Take a listen. They need one another. If you look at great rivalries in sport, you know, Magic needed bird. Jack and Arnie needed one another. You know, Brady needed Manning and Peyton needed Tom. It goes with the territory. They bring out the

best in one another. The question here is, are you okay? I'm good. This guy's freaking out about his briefcase. You're supposed to be paying attention to the gym names. I heard it and I love how upset it made it. Gosh darn it. These stats aren't going to be cool.

I packed my stats. What can the bills prove with a victory? Well, to me, they can prove a lot if their defense can slow down Mahomes. I am not expecting them to because I think the bill's defense has been bad. They've been awful against the run and they've been statistically pretty good against the past, but when they've played good quarterbacks like Drake May or Lamar,

they've gotten carved up. So I don't think they're going to slow them down, but that would be like a thing they can prove because if the bills win, everyone's just going to say, oh, well, of course. they win in the regular season. But I think you were a little hard on Jim Nance earlier. Why? I think you were a little hard on him. Why?

Because he compared to, he's, if people weren't listening. You really think that's kind of? I mean, he said it's like Jack and Arnie when it's closer to Tiger and David Duvall. He said it's magic bird when it's closer to Jordan Carl Malone. Like I, I, I, so again, I'll let you go. But if people weren't watching earlier, that's when Danny says I was too hard. That's what I said. I think it is absurd to say when Peyton and Brady,

Peyton won the MVP's and had the flashy numbers, Brady had the it factor and won the games. When one guy has more MVP's, more O-Pro's, better numbers, and wins all the games, it is not a comp. And I understand that the exact corollary of those two Legends careers is not the exact same as this, but to pretend like anyone other than Josh Allen is the second best quarterback in football to Patrick Mahomes, I think is crazy.

And so the idea that they should not be in the same breath or that it is a David Duval situation. It is. Josh Allen is a much better quarterback than David Duval was a golf. Well, we don't have to do the golf thing. Wilde is getting ready to go crazy. What do you say about David Duvall? Honey, they're talking David Duvall. I know.

It's good. What play? The idea that he doesn't deserve to be in the same breath as Patrick Mahomes, when Josh Allen's best is basically Patrick Baham. Doesn't he have to beat him sometimes? Doesn't you have to get more accolades

than him at some point? At some point for sure. But I'm just curious. They've been in the league a long time. If Harrison Butker would have missed the kick in the 13-second game. I mean, but it's not a Josh Allen.

But that's the only game. Hold on. Wait, that's like saying if one, if Paxson or Kerr misses the jumper and Jordan doesn't win those finals. I mean, it didn't happen. But here's the problem. with that example.

They have played four times in the playoffs. Once Josh has played as well as Patrick. Every other time it has not been, oh, he got unlucky or actually he outplayed Patrick. In fact, the last two times, Josh has had the ball in his hands with Patrick nothing he can do. Last year. And the year before, neither time did Josh come through. Neither time. The first time they played, he got blown out.

The third time he played, he had the ball down three chance to keep Patrick off the field, got to the fringe of field goal range to tie it, leaving Patrick time, and he missed. And the next time got the ball down three, and he was doing the shake. I'm ready for this moment. There was 333 left on the clock, and they got 17 yards and got zero points. One time he played as well as Patrick, and we can say got unlucky, but that was the divisional round. He did get unlucky. And the one year, the one year they didn't get to play was because Josh couldn't win a home game against Joe Burrow in the snow.

Like, they are not comparable in any way. The idea, Josh has played Patrick 10 times, right? Regular season and post-season. And Josh has 24 touchdowns against five turnovers. Okay. That's incredible. Like, the idea that the second best loses to the best means that that is a reason to tear down the second best. No, he's just saying it's not.

not in from a historical standpoint they're not comparable. Mahomes is in the discussion for the goat. Sure. Josh is what? The second best player of his error. That's arguable because someone can argue Lamar. I think you can easily argue Lamar. Lamar's got more MVP's.

His regular season numbers are way better than Josh. I think I would say Lamar's a better runner. I guess that's arguable but obviously they're both better they can run like and if and and he's not as good as the. these guys, but Jalen. Jalen has been more of a rival for Mahomes than Josh has.

Jalen hurts is a better player. No, but if he were to, if they were to meet again in the Super Bowl and Jalen beats Mahomes again, that becomes a rivalry. Even though we know Jailen's not as good as Mahomes or as Josh Allen or Lamar, he still would be

winning Super Bowls against Mahomes. Since 2020, we can show it. It's, Patrick is won in every category that we care about. And Josh was two until the guy who's actually now second in passing yards is my other guy, Justin Herbert. Like he's, he is clearly the second. But that's a different right part. Why is he only got one MVP?

Again, I agree. I do think Josh is better than Lamar. I don't think it's undisputable. I'm just saying it. I'm just arguing. I think it's being proven that it's arguable. We're arguing about it. And there's legitimate cases on both sides of it.

But the, and again, with the risk of wilds getting upset, but I hope not. about what? Tom Brady or Jalen Hertz? No, neither. I'm actually going to talk about it. It's not David Duval. But it is, but it is, I think, a better, maybe I shouldn't have said Duval. But if we, if we would have, if you showed basketball accolades of the 90s and it's Jordan's first and everything and Akeem is second and everything. Or golf of the 2000s and Tigers first and everything and Phil Mickelson's second and everything, it doesn't mean their rivals. And so like there are certain times in sports where one guy ascends past all of his contemporaries.

And I understand for Nance and Romo, it is honestly probably a little frustrating that it is the same story every year. And for everyone in the media, I know it's frustrating because it is a race like a giveaway at Toys R Us to the front of the line every September to be like, nope, Josh is better. I'm first to market. Josh is better. And I would never say that. I just want everyone to agree that he's the second best. No, but you can agree he's the second.

I'm not going to get that. But you can say he's the second best while also acknowledging Brady needed Manning and Peyton needed Tom. It may or may not be true. But the idea that Patrick needs Josh is insane. If we were to list and this is the biggest knock on Josh. and that I think is hard to account for even while saying he's said best quarterback in the league. If we were saying, hey, what are the five greatest moments of Patrick Mahomes' career? They're very disparate.

You know what I mean? It's a bunch of different teams. It's a bunch of different settings. I agree. If we say, what are the greatest moments of Josh Allen's career? It is one playoff loss, a bunch of regular season highlights usually with his legs. and some blowouts in the wild card round of the playoffs. That's it.

The old Coward thing when he said, close your eyes and what do you see when he was taking shot at Tatum, when he was like, which was an all-time kind of clip, when you close your eyes and think of Patrick Mahomes, you think of these unbelievable postseason moments. When you close your eyes and think of Josh Allen, what do you see?

It's not playoff success. It's not that. Well, I just think it's a little harsh to say that most of his moments come with his legs when he has the second most passing touchdowns of the last six years. But, okay, that's fine, but I'm asking you, what do you, what do you see when you think of the crazy Josh Allen moment? I see him hurtling guys, or I see him sad losing to Patrick. Yeah, it's just more unique, probably. You just don't have a lot of guys hurtling people. So there you go.

That's what the bills can prove on. It got a little derailed. It got a little derail. Moving on. Well, you know, it's Tuesday. I brought it. No, it's Wednesday. Because otherwise it would have been top 10 Tuesday. It's Wednesday.

So we're previewing Cowboys Cardinals. Is Kyler about to get his season back on track? You think so. We're going to find out the answer in this week's edition of packed stats. And I brought my briefcase. Thank goodness. I was very that I was missing. Without my stats.

I didn't want to have to walk off camera. Your quarterback isn't good. He's just playing the Cowboys. The numbers here are. 120.4 and 81.7. Go on this little journey with me. Those are the passer ratings for Russ, Caleb, Fields, Bryce Young and Bo Nix this year against Dallas versus their passerating against everyone else. We left Jordan Love, Jalen Hertz, and Jaden Daniels out because

they're actually good. They're actually good. And they're good against everyone. And if you're like, well, what about that might be an outlier performance? No, we can go one by one here. It is a fairly remarkable jump that Dallas has provided for all of these quarter things. I know, I know. Poor Russell can't even play anymore. So expect Kyler Murray to have a big game. And I will fully admit that the second name on that list, Caleb Williams, it pains me to include him in this graphic. Yeah, go ahead.

No, good. I mean, and this is also, in my opinion, as all of these Cowboys stats have been a Micah Parsons stat. Because the defense is not demonstrably different than it's personnel-wise. the last few years, except for the fact they added Kenny Clark, who's a fine player, and they lost Michael Parsons. It also is, I think it tempers a little of the Boe Nicks enthusiasm. Because now, Bo, what he has going for him is the quarter before he played the Cowboys was the best quarter he's ever played in the pros where they scored 33 points. He was unbelievable. But even with that quarter factored into the right-hand column that you had,

his past rating is what, like 81 or I forget what it said, 81 or 87 for the year, and then against the Cowboys played basically a perfect game. Yeah, and I don't look, I don't think the Cowboys would be one of the top tier contenders in the NFC if they had kept Micah. They'd be what they were a few years ago. They win 12 games, 12 and 5 games. That'd be great. No, yeah, but that's what I think they would be and be disappointed in the playoffs.

But you're right. It's a great stat. And if your guy cooks the cowboys, don't get overly excited. Before we go to the next one, can I should have quick question on that, but given how, and I was wrong on this, how good Pickens has been, do you not think that might have been enough to pickens? I think Pickens been better than I expected. Schottenheimer, I think,'s been better than anybody expected.

The run game's been better. Is that not, like, are you open to the possibility that if the defense was what it had been in years past this Cowboys team maybe could have been different than years past? Because I am. I think we have to see DAC, not that he hasn't had any good playoff moments, but yeah, he's had great regular seasons and then kind of fizzled in the playoff. All right. These stats are cool, man.

You're trying to tell you. I'm a believer. I'm a believer. Thank you. Transforming one believer at a time. No, stop with the extra slogan. All right, Brud. This one's for you.

The Ravens can catch the Steelers before they play the Steelers. Wow. The next five opponents, those are their records of their upcoming opponents. Wow, this is extra cool. This is why people believe the Ravens are going to win the AFC North. And it's the most obvious point to make. They're two back of the Steelers in the loss column without having played the Steelers. So the Ravens next five, their combined opponents are 11 and 28.

The Steelers next five, their combined record is 24 and 14. And then if you just, well, let's see the team. because I feel like we've all memorized the Ravens schedule by now, because what can they do it? But before they play Pittsburgh, Miami, Minnesota, Cleveland, the Jets, and the Bengals, look at the Steelers what they have to go through. Colts, Chargers, Bengals, Bears, and Bills. It's very on the board that they are tied for first in the AFC North, or it's flipped by the time they even play each other in week 14.

No, I would agree. And look, the divisional games are always tough, particularly in the AFC North. And so they may not sweep the Steelers, the Ravens. Sure. But to your point, if they're ahead of them, they may not need to sweep them. You know, so, no, I fully expect that before they play, the Ravens will be in first. I don't know if we can put up the Steelers schedule by itself or not. The Steelers, I really are, we'll see how the, if the Ravens are back,

if it truly was the toy toss that transformed the tacklers. And the defense is going to be fine. I don't even think the devons has to be good. If the defense is going to be fine and Lamar is healthy, the Steelers are going to look at the missed opportunities of these first seven weeks, and it's going to be hard to deal with. The fact that they had an awesome, awesome Aaron Rogers performance and found a way to lose to the Cincinnati Bengals.

The fact that they had a legit, a two-score lead at halftime against the Packers and then did nothing in the second half. Those two games, like the Seattle loss is, nothing to be embarrassed about. I think Seattle's really good, and they probably got a little lucky in that Patriots win. But they were four and two, knowing they had that Bengals game,

which is really one I'm focused on before the schedule really got hard. And Rogers played out of his mind, and the fact that that was a loss, because it would just feel so different if they were sitting here at five and two with a three-game cushion, even with that different. Well, I mean, everything's broke for Pittsburgh. Rogers has been healthy.

Rogers has been better than most people expected. Lamar got hurt and Burrow got hurt. And they still might not even be in first place by the time they play these guys. I have terrible news. I might start rooting aggressively against the Ravens. Why? Because the Patriots are going to make the playoffs.

And I don't want to see Lamar in the playoffs. Despite the fact that he struggled, I don't want to see Lamar. I'd much rather see a resurgent Jake Browning or Flacco or... Can I give you a very realistic scenario? If the Patriots... Let's just say you're a little too pessimistic on the bills and that the bills don't get swept by the Patriots,

the bills split, which I think you think... And that the bills go 12 and 5. And the Patriots also go... You sign up for 12 and 5 right now. Sign up for... Right, 12 and 5. But the bills win the division. because of tiebreakers.

Oh, I got to go to Baltimore? That the 12 and 5 Patriots are at the 9 and 8 Ravens. Because whoever wins the AFC neighborhood is going to be the 4th seed. Yeah. And I would imagine right now the 5 seed is either going to be the second place team in the AFC West or the second place team in the AFC East. But Drake May's first ever playoff game being on the road in Baltimore would not be what you want. It would be fine.

And again, I know you super believe in the cults, but, I mean, because if you could, If you could, I'm just asking you, Patriots, they're like, hey, weird playoffs this year. You can pick. You can go to the eight and nine Baltimore Ravens or you can go to the 14 and three Colts. I'm scared of the Colts. More than the Ravens? We'll see. Okay.

Your fears are warned. Making stats cool. Last one. The original cool stat sport, baseball. Oh. Vlad Jr. Everyone's talking about Otani, deservedly so. Vlad Jr.

All time post season. Hanging out with Hall of Famers. Highest OPS in a postseason, minimum 15 games played, Bonds, A-Rod, Vlad, and Pujols. Simple stat. Full postseason. For a full post season, you've got to play at least 15 games. So it eliminates all the old-old timers because they couldn't have played 15.

Right, and it's not just, oh, I had one great series and my team happened to lose. So you've got to advance multiple rounds, play at least 15 games. But that is ridiculous company. He could legitimately have the second best OPS postseason. He easily could pass A-Rod. And if he does, it would be the best ever of a champion because Bonds didn't win that year. That's right. You know what I mean?

Which would put it in the all-time legendary playoff run. It doesn't feel like I'm watching an all-time player. Really? It does to me. All-time? Yeah, he was phenomenal in AOCS. And the, really, the playoffs. I was going to say it felt like that in the Yankee series.

In the Yankee series, it felt like Vlad was. terrifying. The ALCS, he was unbelievable. If you have an OPS of 1,300, it has to feel that way. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? It's almost impossible to just acquire those numbers and not hit the ball over the wall. Yeah, it feels that way. It doesn't. Okay. All right. I was telling you. All right. Uh, well, that's that stats are cool. I don't know what to tell you. Stop telling me they're not. Uh, coming up next is Aaron Rogers. Gonna have a big bounce back game or is it time for Daniel J. Jones to light up this poor Steelers defense.

Find out next. This is a matchup I wanted to see. There's a fly ball to deep left center field. Headed back there. It is gone. The franchise face putting the team on his back. That face from Shohei Otani. Oops.

I've made a mistake. The Blue Jays tied the World Series last night at two games apiece. Vlad with the Homer there on Show Hey, went 0 for 3 at the dish, Willie and I pick the Dodgers. Coach, congratulations on your correct pick. Where's the chain? You got to wear it. You should have, you got to bring the chain out.

When I wore the chain the first thing. Oh, okay. So it's a superstitious story. Not that superstitious, but why chance it? But why? It's not causal, but it might be. All right, gentlemen, Willie, surprised. We were wrong last night.

You surprised the series has tied it to? Yeah, I am. I thought this was going to be a game where the Dodgers showed up, and they simply didn't. You could see Otani running on He didn't have a great day on the mound and struggled at the plate. But you know, and I consider him a demigod, but my real question is where is the rest of the lineup, man? Where is bets?

Where is, you know, Andy Page is not giving them anything. So now they're going to pitch around Otani simply because the rest of the lineup is sleep. And I'm worried about him, but I'm still going with the Dodgers, man. Coach? Yeah, I am shocked. I'm shocked that this isn't 3-1 Toronto. That's a lot of shocked, right? They should have won the night before and had plenty of opportunities to do that.

And throughout this series, everybody, everybody. was talking about how this was going to essentially be a walkover and then they're going to win, you know, it's going to be win in five, one and four, the whole thing. But the consistent thing with Toronto is they're resilient and we're seeing it night in and night out. And even when they get the wins, LA's got to do everything they can to squeak it out. So I'm going to call my shot on this is a very annoying opinion. Like you guys are not going to like there's no baseball playoff result that is surprising because it's the, it's the ultimate sport of sample size, right? You play 162 games. The best teams make the playoffs.

And then it's completely random. Who is? So like, it's completely random. Like, if you started this series over tomorrow and it was zero, zero, the Dodgers could sweep in four. The Blue Jays could sweep in four. Like, it's just the, you take those huge sample size sport and they're like, all right, best of seven.

And that's why playoff baseball is awesome. That's why the intensity is so crazy. So, like, am I surprised? No. Anything can happen in playoff baseball. All right. Coach, got some picks. Ready to pick this game?

I got a new shocker. You want to shock us? Toronto? Toronto? Oh, wow. Okay. Willie? Let me guess.

Yeah, I'm going with the Dodgers, man. I feel like they're going to have some pride in a rally. Danny? Any surprise? I'm going to stay with the Dodgers. Oh, of course. I'll stay with the team I pick before the series. But again, flip a coin.

Who knows? It's playoff baseball. Anyone can win. All right, let's go and talk some football here. Sunday night, the Steelers fell to the Packers. They're allowing 28 points in the second half while scoring only nine themselves. A lot of frustration from that Steelers team on display. Mike Tomlin was asked about the adversity the Steelers faced in the game

and looking ahead to the best offense in football so far this year. They've got the Colts on Sunday. Here's Mike Tomlin. We're certainly being critical of ourselves and we're utilizing that as fuel as we prepare for our next opportunity. The first component of fixing it is acknowledging it. You really don't get an opportunity to fix it until you face it. those circumstances again. And so we spent some time acknowledging it. We're going to get back to work. We're certainly believed that we work in the right spirit. We do the right things

environmentally. We're going to get back to work, man, and wait for our opportunity to rectify it. So the question, gentlemen, is if the Steelers can get back on track against the Colts. And I just think this is a, it's a terrible time for the Colts to pop up on your schedule. You know, like maybe earlier in the season, maybe if the Steelers defense figures it out. But the Steelers defense at this point, we're basically halfway through the year. They're the 27th ranked defense in football. And they're playing the number one offense in football. Like maybe the Steelers will be a little better.

That's obviously on the board. But I don't think they go from what we've seen from them for a couple of months to playing the best offense in the league and all of a sudden shutting them down. So I don't think this is a get right spot for your state. Yeah, I think I was blinded by loyalty. I knew the Steelers' defense has been playing broken and they looked broken. I just didn't know they were that bad. I have a graphic to throw up right here.

This is, listen, you talk about they've gotten up 30 points plus four times and seven games. And I'm looking at the quarterbacks who they did. Field, Darnel, Flacco, love. Like, this isn't golf, Allen, Stafford. These are guys who are B-level quarterbacks and his defense has pretty much underperformed the whole way through. And so now I'm saying to myself, the Steelers defense is broken. Aaron has to do more. This offense needs to do more. You know they're going to bracket

DK. So who's the number two receiver? It has to be John Smith. He has to be the guy that they have to lean on when DK is a race from the field. And if you're Aaron Rogers, man, he was right. He said it at the end of the presser. We have to score. Like, it's no longer leaning on Chris Boswell to get us out the building with Ws. When we get in the red zone, we have to produce. And hopefully they can do it. But they have to be able to turn this into a backyard brawl. So it's playing clean football, scoring touchdowns, and a little ball control, keeping Danny Dimes in that offense on the sideline. So it's a lot to ask for, but this is where they're at right now.

Yeah, I don't think it's to fall on Aaron Rogers. I don't think it's to fall on a 40-plus-year-old quarterback who's the first year with the team when you've got the highest paid defense in the league and you've got one of the most matured defensive league. And if you pull up some of the clips from last game, the issue was sometimes effort and sometimes really poor tackling. And right now, the Steelers are third in the NFL and mistackled. And you never are saying that statistic in relationship to the Steelers.

And tackling is something that you can work on and you can try to get better at. But some guys are a lot better at it than other guys are. And you can only improve so much. And you can only improve so much during the season because it's not like you can do live tackling drills at practice. And then the effort part, Mike Tomlin is going to get that. Right. And I do think the pride of the guys that are in the room will get that straightened out. But we shouldn't be talking about that at this point in the league with an organization like that, with a history like that, and with a level of expectation that they've earned by virtue of how much they've been paid. So I love that you brought up like the history and the tradition and timeline's been there forever.

Normally I do not like, I don't find it terribly relevant to be like, let's compare. the 2025 Steelers to the 2018 Steelers. Like no one's on, no one is on this team that was on that team. But when you do have the history and the tradition of the Steelers and Tomlin has been there forever, I thought this, my guess is this going to hit you is very jarring. The Steelers right now, we could put up the graphic to show the exact number, they are allowing 386 yards per game. Yikes!

That would be the worst yards per game allowed in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers. 93 years of playing football. This would be with the highest paid defense in the NFL, with Mike Tomlin, it would be the worst defense in the history of the Steelers franchise. And those plays that you showed, bad effort, bad tackling, like I buy that that's a huge piece of it. But man, it's tough to explain how that coach with that personnel can be the worst defense in the history of that franchise.

Well, I think sometimes as ball plays, we lean on our resume, Meaning we have guys who are all pros, guys who are decade guys, guys who stand out single-handedly because, you know, their impressive resumes. And so what I mean by that is that other guys around them tend to lack detail and wait for the magic to happen, right? If DPs are all pro, I'm going to make sure he's going to save the game. And he is. They've been used to T.J. Watt, Cameron, Hey, with a certain guys on our defense to kind of mass their deficiencies. And now those guys have gotten older. There's a different level of expectation.

And his defense, some of these guys are fairly new to the puzzle. So now you're talking about chemistry. and communication, all that has to go into fruition for these guys to be successful. And I think they're going through that. But I think coach is 100% right. Effort and attitude you shouldn't have to coach. That's something you show up every day to work and got to be able to display. So the fact that we aren't seeing that, and they are a poor tackling team.

This is why you do have these leaders in the locker and say, hey, man, there's something as we can control. There's something as we can't control. Showing up and being a pistol still is we can control. And they need to do a better job at that. And one of the problems of having an older team is as you get to this point in the season, there is wear and tear. There is fatigue that hits totally different than when you've got a younger group.

And typically that group can rally when you get close to the playoffs because they see the end in sight. So they pick it up. Yeah, it's just middle of the season part and where you really are going to have to pull yourself out of it deliberately. And you're right, coach. And I know you got to go deep people. I'm saying the issue right now, when you have the Colts and you have the charges ahead, we all know the back five of this schedule is brutal for the Steelers. So you can't afford the losses they've already taken,

and you've got to start picking the momentum because look at that. You're talking about Baltimore, Week 18, talking about the Browns that's seven. The Browns are always going to fight them scrap, but the Lions, Dolphins, talking about the bills and Ravens. Like that back five, that backgonely gets nasty for the Steelers. So this is where if you're Mike Tomlin and this team, like, hey, man, we're out of lives right now.

We got to go. Like, there's no coming to save us. We're all we got. So we got to pick it up. Third most mistackles in football with Jonathan Taylor. in the Colts offensive line coming to Pittsburgh, probably a bad resume. The Lions who they'll play in December, they got a game against Minnesota this weekend. Coming off the by, hosting the Vikings, 1 o'clock on Fox.

The Lions are 5 and 2, the favorites to win the NFC. Here's their head coach, Dan Campbell. I really believe we hadn't played our best ball yet collectively, you know, in all three phases. And that's really what we're, you know, what we're trying to get to here, man, is, man, how can we sharpen ourselves? We know it's going to take every phase, every game's different, and one unit may have to pick up the slap, but, man, we need to start playing complete ball across the board.

I think that the league definitely should fear the Lions. I mean, if they had serious changes on the interior of their offensive line, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and they're still five and two. And they have still shown a very high capability on both sides of the ball. Like they just gave Aidan Hutchinson $180 million. Well deserved. Well deserved.

He's been amazing. Like I, we talk about how there's questions with every team in the league. The lions to me are on the short list of teams with the fewest questions, coach. Yeah. And the point you made initially is with the new coordinator on offense and new coordinator on defense, how is that going to gel? How quickly can they, can they get on the same page and be able to move forward? And there have been some hiccups, but now we're at midseason. and they had the benefit of coming off the buyer or having the buy where they can go evaluate things we did well, things we did poorly.

But you look at some of the other key stats outside of the traditional ones, fifth in giveaway takeaway, fifth defensively in sacks, 10th offensively in giving up and allowing sacks, fifth in time of possession, fifth least penalized team, fourth in red zone offense, first in red zone defense. So there's a lot of things outside of, you know, total points giving up or, you know, total yards that they're doing really well, which makes them extremely dangerous. Yeah, what I love about the Detroit Lions, man, this was a team that used to ask for respect. Now they send invoices, right? Now they're like, listen, we're coming to beat you up.

And outside of the Chiefsmen, I feel like they've gotten consistently better and hungry. You talk about the arsenal in which they have with Gibbs and Montgomery and LaPorter and Tesla. All these guys are focused on one goal, getting to the Super Bowl, right? They don't have the AJ Brown problems like the Philadelphia Eagles have. All these guys want to do is win. And so if you're Dan Campbell, man, when you got both sides of the ball humming, you have to feel good that you can step into any stadium, play your brand of football and walk out the building with the W.

I think they also understand that the window is closing. They have to be able to attack now because I think the league is getting better. More teams are starting to get better. And they're getting older, believe it or not. So outside of week one, there was a lot of questions about the interior of their line. Those questions are a race now. Those two young guards for the lines, they're road graders. So now with the run game, Jared Gough, in the MVP conversation,

Aiden Hutchinson being the lead dog, man, they're scary. Yeah, and I think that they've got a long window in front of them, but never as long as it seems. But yeah, golf's been great. They can run the ball, and it's a week one loss to Green Bay. Weird things happen in week one. Look how we responded after week one. We were like, uh-oh.

Right. And then that Chiefs game. So they don't have a bad loss on their resume at this point. And I do think their best football is clearly in front of them. Very interesting profile came out today on AJ Brown, and he's expected to be back. Will the Eagles keep winning with them and what we learned? Coming up, FTF. Welcome back.

We've seen A.J. Brown's frustrations with the Eagles offense come through in a variety of manners, videos of him on the sideline, reading books, Instagram posts. And now Brooks Cabina wrote a fascinating profile of A.J. Brown at the athletic. and among other things, he had this quote, you may see a little frustration. It's because I really want to contribute. I really want to help this team win. But if I'm not getting the ball, obviously it's not as fun.

Obviously, I want to win. That's the main goal, but I want to help. I want to do my thing as well. And so it's a little toll here and there sometimes. Now, there was a lot in this story. I thought it was a great profile. And I'm a bleeding heart. I'll admit it.

I'm an empath. I came out of reading that story. Have an empathy? Yeah. Why? So he talked about, I mean, he talked about being a child of separated parents and how that made him struggle with relationships, both personal and with friendships. He said he doesn't have friends because it's too much to put on these other people.

He said he had suicidal thoughts that he had to work through. He talked about the things that make him and make all of us vulnerable, complex human beings. And he is, he gets joy out of doing his job really well. I read the profile and I was like, A.J. Brown would be happier if he was a golfer or if he was a tennis player. Like if he was an individual sport athlete. But he was born six foot, 225 with great hands who could run a four or five. It was a dog. And he was a dog.

He's one of the five best receivers in football. So I understand the teammate wanting to, hey, we're winning, or the coach being like, let's put the team first. But I also coming out of that piece was like, A.J. Brown doesn't strike me as a bad guy. He strikes me as a guy who loves destroying the man across from him because that means that he did his job. And he believes if he does his job, he will help his team win. Yeah, there were a lot of things in that piece where you did feel empathy. I thought it was thoughtful and I thought it was sincere. But he stresses, I want to win.

Obviously, I want to win. Obviously, that's the main thing. But he's not doing the things that are helping them win in the sense that he's constantly creating these problems, whether it was last year during the playoffs, the start of this season, even this article. And I understand he has challenges in his life. But there's a lot of guys in locker rooms that have challenges in their life. There's a bunch of guys in those locker rooms that want to destroy the.

the person in front of them. That's how they're wired. That's why they're professional athletes. He's not the only one that wants to be great. He's not the only one that wants to be the reason the team wins, but it is a team game. And you have to do what is in the best interest of the greater good so we all can win together. I think we're all saying the same thing. I think we're empathetic to all everything you just said. And I agree with that. I think right now this is a Philadelphia Eagle problem. They shouldn't pivot back to AJ or bust. Clearly when the team is going in the right direction. They have reestablished their identity. And I also think if you're AJ Bram, it's up to you. Either you're in or out because no, I don't respect him to change.

He's an alpha. That's why you're here. But also we're trying to get back to the Super Bowl. And that's what coach is trying to say by simply saying nobody's trying to negate or suppress anything you've got going on. But if it takes us to run the ball 30 times, look to you on one on one and ones on third down or maybe in the red zone a little bit more, sure. But we're not going to read, we're not going to change our identity solely to keep a maintenance check on you. That's not fair to the team. And I think AJ has been in this lead long enough to understand it's a team sport. Right.

If you felt like if you're a me guy, which I don't necessarily think, and I think that's a bad title for him. But at this point, and we talk about a time and a season, all ships ahead right now, right? We don't need to revert back to you feeling like, man, I'm bored. Give me the ball. I'm open. Give me the ball when everything else is clicking around you. So he has to be a little more mature about that. And I'm sorry he's going through what he's been going through.

But if you're about the Philadelphia Eagles, be about what's the best for the Philadelphia Eagles. And I will still say, he's so good. I don't think they should trade him. Like there's a place for that receiver working off of the play action off Sequin, eating in the middle of the field. Like, they won a Super Bowl with A.J. Brown last year. Coach, we did not see A.J. Brown last week. The Eagles looked great.

We did see the offense click, though. I'm curious what your biggest takeaway was from why the offense looked so good. Yeah, we talk about Saquan Barkley and how. great he was last year and he's always been a great back but part of the reason he was so good is because the offensive line played so well so we're going to take a look at his touchdown last game and and this this to me is a really good picture of how those two when they're both working at a high level how powerful that is and so just for a setup it's the second play of the game philadelphia's going to go in big personnel they've got two tight ends but one of the tight ends

is actually an extra offensive lineman, and they're going to get big. So let's go ahead and show the tape. So it's Fred Johnson comes in at the tight end. And Philadelphia's got a close formation. So they've got eight potential blockers. Giants anticipating run. They've got eight potential defenders. Up top, the wide receiver, he's going to go ahead and handle the cornerback.

That's a hat for hat. And this is just a straight inside zone run by Sequin Barkley. What Philly's going to do is they're going to set up three double teams. A double team in here, up to the corner. They're double teaming the five technique. up to the mic, they're double team in right here on the one technique up to the wheel so they're trying to get movement on the first level and then get up to the second level. Sequin starts to his left but sees the opening over or

starts his right sees the opening over here to his left. You see Belton the safety who's the extra number for the Giants he's coming down but he comes down a little close Landon Dickerson this is awesome. So he's up on the second level he's got his hand on the linebacker he sees the safety coming in so he's got his right arm in the linebacker he gets his left arm on the safety and now watch what what what sayquine has. Sequin is in space now against Tyler Nubin one-on-one. He hasn't been touched yet and there is absolutely no chance that Nubin is making this tackle

in the open field. So as as good as Sequin is, that that block, that series of blocks by the Eagles, that's how you how you go through it and practice and hope it's going to look in the game. Did that remind you of dispensing justice back in your day? We were always taught get the runner back's feet to the line of scrimmage. He'll take care of rest. That's exactly what we saw. And when you see Dickinson taking pretty much two for one.

How great was that? That's instinct. That's just a guy who knows his job, right? You talk about doing your job? Listen, I got to get Sacoan going. If I can eat up this interior. And what you saw is that safety pretty much get caught up in the wash. But that's what coach is saying.

That takes chemistry. That takes reps. That takes continuity. You don't mess that up because you're trying to feed one guy, right? Like when they go to the sideline, you know what the O line is saying? Let's go do it again. Right. Let's go do it again.

The other part about that is Sequin had to press the hole long enough to bring the safety down deep enough so that he did get caught up in the wash. And when those two groups are when Sequin and that off the line is working that well together, that's what you have or what we saw last year. And that's how you get these type of play. That was what I was going to ask you. Like last year, Saquan led the NFL. fell by far in yards before contact. Like how far he would run before he was touched. This year, I haven't looked it up in the last two weeks,

but he was 37th in the NFL coming out of week five or six. Did that play and that blocking remind you of the Eagles last year? Yeah, this type of these types of holes, because him in space is a problem. You can't deal with him, but you've got to give him some of that space to work with. And this is a great example of it. You know how much pressure he puts on line back as a safety when he's able to do that? I mean, he goes back, those guys go back to the sideline like one-on-one, we're done.

Right, what are we supposed to do? ID-line guy would be better. Yeah, can you imagine me in Tyler Nubin and he's screened out? And there's 50, you know, 15 yards of space on either side before there's anybody else. He's coming full steam ahead at you. You got no chance. I cannot imagine that. Nor could I imagine being Justin Herbert.

But I would like to. And that is actually. Halloween's coming up. Yeah, that, you know what? It's a good idea for a costume. He's putting the league on notice. I'll tell you why. Right, next.

Time now for first things last. Justin Herbert owns the record for most touchdown passes by a rookie in NFL history, a star since the moment he stepped on the field. Anyone who watches him marvels at his arm strength and accuracy, and most of us assumed the awards and championships would soon follow. Yet, he's on his third coach in six years and still hasn't won a playoff game. But now I think things are starting to change, and sure, you could point to football reasons, like the fact that Jim Harbaugh wins everywhere he goes,

or Joe Alts returned from injury and LA's perfect record with a star tackle in the lineup. But I've got a theory that Justin's new relationship with singer, songwriter, actress, and model Madison Beer might be just the thing he needs. Just last week, Herbert dismantled the Vikings on Thursday and was courtside with beer at the Lakers game Friday. You want a QB who is calm under pressure?

The ball was coming right for Madison, and Justin displayed his DB's skills and batted the ball away. You want a guy who knows just how good he is? LeBron came over to introduce himself and pay his respects to the fellow LA sports star. Herbert didn't even stand up. I've seen enough high school comedies to know that the quarterback plays his best when he's trying to impress the prom queen. Then, if Courtside wasn't enough, Herbert and Beer took in the Marathon World Series game Monday night. And he's not letting fame change him.

He's in the same Callaway golf hat at both events. Now, there's no doubt in my mind, Herbert, by the way, can drive the ball 300 yards. which I resent, but I followed Herbert his entire career and figured I should learn more about Madison for research purposes. And I found a clip of her describing her ideal night. She said it doesn't involve partying, but that she prefers going out to dinner, having a few drinks, and returning home and going in the hot tub. So to recap, Justin Herbert has a rocket for an arm, a winning coach, a nine-figure contract, and a wildly talented and beautiful girlfriend who wants to go to games and go home to the hot tub. I wonder if he's happy. And if he is, happy to his,

usually leads to success, so the rest of the NFL better watch out. Oh yeah, eat your heart out, Colin Cowherd. I saw that exception you made for my guy, Justin. Looks good on him, doesn't it? We'll be back tomorrow on first things first.