Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Cowboys Shock Eagles Chiefs Activate Playoff Mode And Oregon Whoops Usc

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

On today’s episode of Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You, Geoff and Gabe dive into a massive NFL and college football slate. The Cowboys storm back to stun the Eagles, the Chiefs survive a late push from the Colts, and the Rams suddenly look like the most complete team in football. Geoff breaks down Dak’s resurgence, Philly’s offensive concerns, and why the Chiefs still haven’t found their identity. Plus — Caleb Williams’ improvement, the Bears’ surprising climb, Jonathan Taylor MVP talk (dead?), conference playoff chaos, and a hilarious behind-the-scenes story about calling games with… severe stomach issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, welcome to Jeff Schwartz to Smarter than you. Jeff Schwartz, Smarter, you presented by Draftings. Draftings, the crown is yours. Oregon or alma mater, we will be on and on. Fellows gather. Oh, Gabe's here. Oh, hi. Jeff Schwartz, Gabe Goodwin.

How are we doing, Gabe? I sent you a text Sunday morning, and you didn't seem, I waited until you woke up and probably had a coffee, and then the text was sent. That just said good morning. Gabe was salty because his USC Trojans once again are, Soft as can be. Just a soft program. It is what it is.

We'll talk about that in a few minutes, though. We'll get to the NFL. We get to college football. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. A little different schedule. We have this show. Obviously, on Tuesday, we're going to do our NFL show

and put that a little bit earlier for you guys. So you have an idea and what we're going to do for the Thanksgiving games. And obviously, there's a Black Friday game, games on Sunday as well. Big college football slate,

Gabe, as we get to the end of that season. I can't believe already the end of the cultural ball season this weekend. how are you besides the USC game? How was the coaching this weekend? You coach and watch a game this time. The college football season is over, so we can just stick to talking about the NFL if you want.

Nothing left to talk about in college football. Was that really your fight song? What the hell was that that you were singing? That is the fight song, correct, yes. That's the fight song of Oregon? Yeah. I thought it was just like a Nike ad or something. It's part of the fight song for Oregon.

You probably heard it a lot on Saturday. No, actually, I heard our band, a world-class band. Your band plays, that band is, USC's band, for those who are uninitiated, does not shut up. They play the entire game. I will give them credit. They are a good band. They are a good band.

They play the fight song between 200 and 250 times in a 60-minute football game. We beat him in 07 and we were walking off the field at home and their band was playing the fight song. It plays the fight song the entire game. You've been, obviously, many USC games. It does not stop the entire game. But Oregon did win, Gabe. We should probably start with some NFL first. Yeah, I'll segue us.

Today, I would like to think of myself as the Elijah Clark of this podcast. Okay? I'm the little guy, the undrafted guy who just doesn't give up. I don't care how many times you hit me. I'm going to get up and make a play, Jeff. The play of the year came from the Cowboys and that undrafted free agent out of Syracuse. So for those who missed it, you should go find it, okay?

There's a clip floating around where an undrafted free agent who's a gunner on the punt team, he gets pushed around. He gets knocked down. I think it ends up being twice by the Philadelphia punt return player essentially, right, the guy on the gunner. Shoved, push down, gets up, keeps battling, hustling downfield, and then hits the Philly Returner, who field the ball to two, by the way, dumb move, forces the fumble. and it's just a great effort play. If you're thinking yourself,

I want to show something to my kids to just show the effort and determination to win it sports, this is the play to show. So go look that up. It's funny enough that actually, Cowboys, I don't think he's scoring that drive. They end up getting stuffed on fourth down,

but then got the ball back quickly, got it back, and ended up winning on a game when you field goal. It's just a great clip to show your kids, man, or anyone, anyone about perseverance, effort, determination, toughness. It was really cool. And I like seeing that in,

players because it's hard man NFL's hard and even when you get knocked down you still have to make plays so very impressive cowboys coming back from the 21 point deficit well we're going to talk a lot about the cowboys eagles game and uh we'll probably done talking about that guy but you did play a bunch of years in the NFL but you were asked to do a bunch of different things you've told us about how at one point i think you were the backup long snapper obviously you played offensive line, but surely they must have tapped you for certain special team situations. Like, why is it that some guys will do what that guy did with their chance in the NFL? And other guys just like won't give us the extra.

You were one of those guys who had to do extra. Well, some of us have to do it. Now, the NFL, though, starters have to play at least one special team. Like, there's not enough players to have to do it. I mean, look, I think just like everything else in life, some guys are more wired to do the hustle place, to make the effort plays. some guys are not. You know, it's, I think when you get paid sometimes,

you're obviously off special teams, but you don't feel the need to maybe give that same effort. But, you know, he's this undrafted kid. Like, he's not going to make the NFL any other way besides special teams. He's not going to get any reps on offense or defense. He's going to make it by these splash plays. And that's how you get recognized it. Some guys get it.

Some guys don't. Just like every walk of life, Gabe. Some guys understand that that's needed to win and to make, to make the roster. And some guys just aren't wired, even in the NFL, aren't wired that way. aren't wired that way. I had to do stuff like that.

I mean, that's just, but that's how I had to make it. I wasn't good enough to make it just playing offensive line. I had to be able to play right tackle, right guard, left guard, left tackle, kick return, field goal. I had to do all those things

because I wasn't going to make it just wasn't good enough to make it in that way. Like my brother is better than me, right? We've talked about as many times. He didn't have to do kickoff return because he was already starting on the offensive line. I had to do things like that to earn my way into the NFL. And being valuable, being versatile, it's hugely important for guys like me.

Yeah. Well, the Eagles probably wished they had a few more guys like you and Elijah Clark because they blew a 21-point lead to the Cowboys. And the Cowboys, every other week, I feel like we're making fun of them and saying their seasons over and let's not bet on them and let's not take them seriously. But they did enough right to beat the team who we kind of thought was the best in the NFC for the last few weeks. So what am I supposed to make of this?

Do I need to talk about the Cowboys being a contender? Or do I need to talk about the Eagles having problems with a run game and not being a complete team? So let's do Cowboys first. Their schedule is really tough, though. Like, I think that they're a fun team to talk about it. It's like a potential. Like if they sneak in as a seventh seed, they're going to be fun in an offense in the

postseason. But they have the Chiefs now, the Lions. I mean, they got to probably win both of those games. That tie hurts them, right? They're five, five and one right now. You got to think 10 wins. They've got to win, you know, five in the next six games, right? So, excuse me, five next six games.

Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, Chargers, Commanders, Giants. I mean, commanders, giants probably get a win there. So they got to rattle off a bunch of wins now, right? They got to do it. And can they do it? I think offensively they can. Dak Prescott, look, Gabe, when Dak Prescott has been healthy, he has been good. Now, is he as good as the best in the NFL?

I don't know. I think in certain weeks, he can be. but we know when he has been healthy, this offense has been good in his entire career. Pickens has been obviously a great addition to the offense. C.D. Lamb is good as we know. The offense is likely drafted well over the years.

It's a very good offense. The difference recently has been the defense. Quinn Williams has made a big difference for them. You know what's so funny, Gabe, is that they just would have paid Michael Parsons, man. They're probably a playoff team. You know, like, it took them too long for the defense to be good. And just one better defensive linemen

has made a difference in this team. And we're seeing Michael Parsons right now for Green Bay start to sort of get his rhythm going. You know, he was out in most of the camp with the back thing, got traded. Now he's making a big, big difference on the Packers defense. You know, yeah, the cap issues, I get it.

You might not want to pay Parsons all that money, but they got much better with just adding Quinn and Williams on defense. And that was one guy. Imagine adding Michael Parsons back to your defense, what you would be. So, but their schedules is tough. They just put themselves behind the eight ball,

losing some games early, Gabe, and that's what happens the NFL. You have the short margin for error if you can't win games early. Yeah, they did struggle out of the gate, but now a lot of the moves they made seem to be paying off. I mean, like, we've mocked them plenty, but Hank pointed it out. Like, Giovante

Williams seems like he's worked out, at least for the price in the run game. Obviously George Pickens has looked like the guy we hoped he'd be coming out of college. The defense has improved. Midseason moves, including for Quinn and Williams, seem to have worked. Like, If the Micah Parsons thing was completely untenable, and it must have been,

this is about as good as you could do in building a roster under that situation, no? It is a good job. And look, the Cowboys always hit home runs an offensive line. That's what they've done, right? So no surprise there. And they draft, look, and they draft really well. This is the thing that's the thing. I went back to it.

Like, they draft and develop pretty well. Like, that's what, they've done a good job at that. They just, they're adding the other pieces around them have not been great over the years. And look, the Williams trade was good. The Pickens trade was good. Now, the thing about Pickens, obviously, is, are they going to pay him or not? We'll find out if they end up doing that. The contract year for him, it's been helpful because I think Lamb at some point, you know, in this year has been a little bit unreliable. So having Pickens there has been such a big boost for this offense. And they're doing a good job. Again, I just don't know if, I just don't know if

it's enough to win six, you know, five the next six games. And that's what they have to do right now. This is why, you know, the idea, like, people often talk about how you want to hit your stride this time of the year. It's absolutely true, Gabe. But games do matter September or October because you can't hit your stride now, again, the playoffs, if you don't win those games early. We sort of dismiss those games. Oh, it's week one, week two, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter in my, like, you're not winning or losing a Super Bowl based on how you play in the first month of the season game. But to even qualify for the postseason to win the Super Bowl,

You've got to win games early too. And I think we often forget that part of this where the Cowboys just didn't win enough games early. Now they are hitting their stride. But it's too little too late probably, right? They got to win Thursday. They've got to probably beat the Lions. And then you have error for one loss in the last four games to maybe get in with 10 wins, right?

So the games matter. They don't matter to winning a Super Bowl in that moment. But if you lose early, you kind of get screwed late. I mean, the Chiefs are doing this too. A bunch of teams are right. When you lose games early, it's like we have to make up the distance at the end of the season. They all matter, man. They all matter.

You mentioned the Chiefs. We'll hit them in a second. Let me just flip it over to Philly for a second. So that first third of the season, we're not totally sure. This middle third of the season, we're like, all right, they're back. But now we start to notice, your boy, you know, his names come up a lot on this show. Lane Johnson's out. They also always seem to have a great offensive line, no matter who's in there, but it's not, the run game is not working quite the way it should.

like talk to me about their line and what the differences up front have done for an Eagles team that seemed reliably great the last few seasons. It's so this is sort of like, I think the criticism of the Jalen Hertz offense, right, Gabe? We're like if the running back, if the running game is not going, can you do enough to win on your own? And he, he, he was, Jail-Hartz was not bad. I think it was like 29 of 37 for nearly 300 yards. It wasn't a bad performance, but they didn't score for two and a half quarters. Yeah, 29 of 39, it's me 27 and 39 for 289, one touchdown, but only seven yards, you know, per, you know, per average. And, you know, Brown was good and Smith had some nice catches.

But it's the thing we're like, if it's not perfect on offense by running the football, right? They went touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. It just is not quite good enough, right? And I think this is the problem with hurts, right? where it's hard for me to even pinpoint the exact things he doesn't do, Gabe. But this is the difference, right? Like between maybe him and Mahomes is that like we saw Mahomes played the opposite, right? He played poorly for about two and a half quarters.

Not poor is the wrong word, but it wasn't good, right? All of a sudden he comes alive to win a game where the opposite is with Hertz, where things are not perfect in the run game and just not enough there to make those winning plays. I mean, look, they, they went touch on, touch on, touch on. Three plays, punt. These are the next four drive. Three plays, punt. Six plays, punt.

Three plays, punt. Like, 21, 21 right now. Five plays punt. Cowboys go down, kick a game when he field goal. Like, it's not good enough, dude. It's just not good enough. And maybe it's the offensive line's fault. Maybe it's a run game's fault.

But in the end, doesn't that blame always go to the quarterback? Because he's supposed to be a special player and make up the difference if it's not going perfect with everything else. Yeah, as you're describing Jalen Hertz, it never occurred to me. But there's an Alex Smith vibe to him. Like, you look at him and I think he, I mean, he's good. He always wins. The stats are fine.

Like, I can't quite say what's not great about him. But if that guy's available, I'd much rather have him in the game. You know, like, he's sort of that quarterback of this generation. And it's unfair because, I mean, he's got a ring. But like, I don't know if anyone's ever going to be completely sold up. on him. Probably not. And it's also like he he's a winner, Gabe. Like he is a winner. He is a winner. He won in Alabama. He won in Oklahoma. He won in Philly. But I do think that because of his calm demeanor, like he's never too up or never down, I think that does affect the way people

feel about him. Like I think a lot of times we want to see that emotion from those top dogs, whether we like it or not. I mean, people didn't like Tom Brady showing the motion he showed at times. People don't like Mahomes showing the emotion. But like there was a little bit of like life there. I'm not saying again, obviously Jalen Hertz is a good football player. But I think that like that kind of calmness, that know up and down. I think it does affect the way people feel about him. Yeah.

Well, that's why I brilliantly compared him to Alex Smith. Because I think we just sort of took him for granted. He was so calm all the time. Just kind of kept on plugging away and winning. So let's go to the chiefs, the team that he was known for. They got playoff Mahomes back. You know, they took on the team I don't like talking about on this show in Indy and beat them. And, you know, it took a little bit of heroics.

It took some late game magic from Mahomes, but they beat the top seat in the AFC. And, you know, the math isn't great for them either because of what you just were talking about. You know, they didn't really nail it in the first third of the season. But here they are. Do we think the chiefs are there? Can we save time on them for another week or two and talk about the Colts or you want to dwell on the chiefs from? So I don't know if the chiefs are good or not.

Still don't know. Every week I try to find out. You still don't know. Okay, so we're talking about the standard of what they've been, right? And what they've been, they're not playing quite in that way, even though there were some positive signs. They ran the ball a bunch. So we bullied Andy Reid and to run the football, which was great.

and you know, Mahomes again, kind of, I think, started slow a little bit and really picked it up. They couldn't beat man coverage, but figured out at the end there. But this, to me, was about the defense, right? The last four drives for the Colts were three and out, punt, punt, punt, punt. And the defense, Chris Jones showed up. I didn't even know if George Coloffice was playing. He gets paid all that money to maybe not play. I don't know.

Couldn't hear his name all game. Chris Jones came alive, man. The same issues they've had all season with Russian and Paso were there until Jones made those plays for them. So credit Trish Jones, who we've talked about this year, sometimes he has disappeared as well. He did his job. The Chiefs won. They had to win this game. It was

ugly. They got it done. And credit to them for winning. They got a Cowboys this weekend. They win this weekend, or excuse me, Thursday, I'd feel a lot better about where they stand. But look, a win is a win. You take it, Gabe, as best you can. And you move on to next week. The Colts, though, I think,

are starting to show, you know, if you take away Jonathan Taylor, Daniel Jones is just not We know this already We know what Daniel Jones is And they're starting to show I think those signs And the AFC South is interesting

Jags are one game back right now I think the Jags are putrid But they're one game back The Texans are kind of peeking right there Davis Mills has won three in a row I'm curious if the Colts get caught here And then I don't think they do But they play Texans on Sunday

They'll tell us a lot Can I propose that if they stumble against the Texans D, that we just start being a little bit more adherent to our ban topic list. And we just, we keep on making excuses for them. We talk about their running back being MVP. We've talked about who they're playing against. I think it's too much. I think we're, hinting at the cults a little too often. I think we can just officially ban them if they lose this coming week. We can officially ban them. We've already banned the Jackson and Jaguars quarterback. The Jordan Hudson thing, I've observed that well. We've not talked about her.

the lawsuit for the publicory thing is like it's so it's so dumb um no we don't have to go there we don't have to go there um did you but do i did you listen to the chiefs the chiefs game by any chance like we had to do you have the broadcast on like did you have the volume on okay so i'm normally a mute guy um i don't really watch a lot of broadcast with the volume on yeah but he tony ramos it's tough it's tough man they're saying he lost his magic man Well, he, he instead of like, so like Greg Olson, right, he's explaining what happens. Romo tries to predict what happens. There are two different things, right?

We're like he's predicting what happens. And then if it doesn't go like he said, like a bunch of fillers words are used, where like Greg also just explains what's happening. Even Tom Brady, like explaining what's happening. Troy Eichmann is explaining what's happening. Romo tries to predict everything. He's wrong half the time. and then he just repeats the same things over.

The chiefs, outside the numbers, outside the numbers. I'm like, dude, stop, stop, stop. And, you know, it just, it's, it's, it's a lot. I, I just want him to talk about what he sees. Stop predicting things that aren't going to happen. Well, I think that's on us, man. We were so enamored with him a few years ago that we basically were like, do that. Here's the thing, game, here's the reason why.

The reason why it was so good in his first couple years, because he just retired. He knew everyone. one's tendencies. He knew what teams were going to do. He'd watch the film for years and years and he said, no one's the same anymore. Everything's new now. And so he'd be like, the chiefs are going to run the ball here. Pass the ball. Oh, Jim, it's a passing down. They run the football. You're like, just stop. Just talk about what happened on the play. Stop trying to guess what's going to happen. Oh, Jim, Jim, it's man coverage. It's man coverage here. And they drop into to cover two or they drop

aiding the coverage. Like, dude, just, just tell us what, what happened on the play. You know what, Jeff? I've tried to make this lobby known a few of the networks. I think it's time to put old Schwartzy in the booth. You don't have to give him the top spot, CBS. I understand. You want to elevate a former quarterback into the Romo spot, but let's clear an opening. Let's get Jeff in the three or four hole. A lot of games every weekend. You know what happens? So I'm obviously pretty busy. And I, like, I sort of forget that I want to try calling games until like May. And then I text my agent. I'm like, hey, hey, can you, can you get me?

It's like, it's, I'm six months too late. I'm six months too late to the process of trying to like audition to call games. I got to get on it now. Like now I've got to get after the holidays. January is when I have to think start, start getting this done here. I love to call like one or two college games a year, like in September. Like, give me Eastern. Michigan against central south state on FS1 at 10 p.m. at night. Sign me up for that, Gabe.

Like the, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, late Saturday nights. I'll take one of those. Instead of him doing two in one day, give me one of the two Petros games. That's good. Yeah. Give, get an extra Petros game. That's like, like, like, aim at the right target, Jeff. Yeah. I just, that's all I want is like, those like those Mountain West preseason game. out of conference games, Labor Day weekend, signing up for that game. I called games, by the way,

in 2017, when I first got out, on Facebook Live, before it turned into stadium, which I don't think, is this still a stadium? I don't know. They were on Facebook Live only.

That's only where they were a game. No commercials at all. Zero commercials. Just talking the whole time. Just talking the whole time. We would throw to our sideline reporter who would do like, this is again, this is 2017.

Like, it's not really the social media. like it is now. They'd be like, you know, they'd take questions from, from the viewers. They would do social media hits and stuff. Um, Shea Pepler, who's now the host of first take. I worked with her one game. Kristen Balboni, another game. Um, it was like, it's so, it was so awkward, man. It was just was a weird, like, no commercials. We had five minute break at halftime. That was it. Um, very awkward flow to the game. Uh, weird. It was not, I wasn't good at it either. Jeff, you know what? I would like, like,

to volunteer myself. I was a, I was not a bad play-by-play guy back in college. I could do it. And, uh, I could tea, you know, I could just give you down and distance. Um, I might need some help with the, the rules analyst in my year. And every now and then, I'm not exactly sure what the flags for. We're going to need someone to explain it to me. But otherwise, I can keep it moving and you can fill. So you, you did play by play, play, at GW? I did play by play in color for basketball. And then, And this is, I don't know why anyone listening would care about this, but Georgetown, which had a football team, GW does not, they didn't have a radio program.

So they asked GW's radio program to come call their football games. And I did a couple of those. Do we have, is there a video of this anywhere, audio? Oh, thank God. I'll tell you what. I'm going to search YouTube for an old Georgetown football game from when you were in college. It might be up, who knows? It was pretty bad because the only people listening probably.

were like family of the team. So we would just goof around. So I did one game where I just made it my mission. This will segue us to our quick hitters. You'll like it. My mission was just to say the same cliches that you would hear on the broadcast all the time. So all I did, every play,

I'd be like, you know why that play resulted in five yards? Never stopped moving his legs. Just kept his legs moving. And I would just say this like all game long. And my partner would be like, That's exactly right, yes. Just kept his legs moving. So you're saying that you did not have a future in play by play?

I think I did. I just didn't have much of a future in analyzing the game, clearly. Yeah, that had two different jobs, obviously, to do that. I mean, really, you know, for a long time, I always admired the baseball guys, like Vince Scully that did both, right? They did a whole game by themselves. I mean, Rick Monday would pop in every now and then or Ross Porter, but like it was Finn Scully calling the game

and then also being the color guy at the same time with his storytelling. I also had the first game I ever did was UTSA and Rice in the Alamo Dome. All right? And that week I had a terrible stomach bug game.

And so like Monday through Thursday like just a lot of on the toilet time. Okay? Get to San Antonio. Feel better Friday. Saturday, I take multiple emotiums before the game. I got to get, no breaks, no breaks, no breaks. So I tell, and then I had like no breakfast.

Like, I'm just going to like, I'll starve it out, like not going to go to the bathroom. So I told my play by play guy like, look, this is what happened this week. I don't know. My stomach's been a little messed up. If I run, I run. Like, just got to cover for me. So about seven minutes left in the game. The bubble guts, man, to start.

bubbling in there. And I'm like, oh, no, it's just not going to be good. There's a third down with about two minutes left. Someone called timeout. Again, we have no TV breaks. I made a run for it. I made a run for it. I missed two downs.

I missed third down and fourth down. My guy covered for me. There was another timeout in there as well. And you wouldn't even know that I missed a couple downs to run to the bathroom. Jesus, not ideal, buddy. First game ever calling no timeouts, bubble guts, two minutes left in a close game. See, now when you're calling a playoff game for CBS in a few years,

you'll be able to go on all the podcasts and tell that story and everyone will be like that Schwartz, man. I wonder if the play-by-play guy, Jason Knapp, also tells that story. Like, guys, this guy is working with. First game ever, probably a nervous wreck, just had to go take a poop with two minutes left in the game. Yeah, I bet you he does tell that story.

I hope he tells that story. I hope it's a good story when he tells at the Thanksgiving table. We're going to take a break now and we'll come back with some quick hitters. All right, we're back. Quick hitters here. Hopefully they're all about Thanksgiving turkey, which people, gay. People don't like Thanksgiving turkey. It's kind of bothering me because I like it a lot.

Who doesn't like what? I went on Damashik's show and one of the Mike Fuentes was like he wants carnitas tacos on Thanksgiving. I'm like, what do you mean? And then we started talking about it. And then more people came out on social media said they don't eat turkey on things. They don't like turkey on Thanksgiving. Okay.

We're not doing that here. What the hell of these people talking about? If you don't like turkey on Thanksgiving, just keep it to yourself. Eat the size. Exactly. We don't need to have a whole topic out of that. Exactly. Yeah.

Okay. So let's talk about the only complete team in the NFL. I'm not willing to say only good team, but I am going to say only complete team in the NFL, Los Angeles. Rams. Which, by the way, a few weeks ago, we didn't have a chance to talk about this. Speaking of complete teams, they needed a kicker. They hired a guy, they call him the thicker kicker.

You heard about this guy? I have, yeah. The thicker kicker. So they got it in all phases in L.A., at least one of our two teams. Are we supposed to be talking about the Rams more? They feel like they're pretty damn good. So he doesn't hit the ball off and upright from 27 yards out. That's not what this thicker kicker does.

I don't know, man. Don't pop quiz me on that kind of show. shit. I just told you what I read on the internet. No, I'm making a U.S.E joke because your kicker hit the upright from like 27 yards. Okay. I just, okay. Our kicker's probably our best player, if I'm being honest. Mackay Lemon, then it's either the kicker or Lane. I'm not sure. Well, I mean, what's funny is Mikey Lemon, I think had like two catches on Saturday.

Lemon did all the work. And your other kid, the young kid, number 16, I think it was, had like 150 yards. Yeah. Well, I mean, nonetheless. because they were paying attention to number six there. Stay focused on the Rams. I'm starting to come around, by the way, to your no-kicker thing. It's too easy.

It's too easy now. Like, if you're the lions or the giants, and you're in that game, you have to get like 20 yards to get in field goal range now. It's like, it's wild. These got 60-yard field goal like that. The Rams are really good. And it's so funny, Gabe,

because to enter in the season, Let's say August 1st. A lot of us like the Rams. I like them to lose the MC championship game. I bet on that. It was plus 800. And then the Matt Stafford injury stuff comes out, right? His back is hurt.

He's seeing Watkins. He's a back specialist in L.A. And he's going to be out for a while in training camp. And then he tried to come back and he was able to start. And like, there's all this stop and go with his back. I've had a back injury. I'm sure people listening have bad backs. like those don't get better.

And then all of a sudden, he starts the season, right, Gabe? And it hasn't a problem since. No problems. And this is the team we all thought we were getting before the back injury. And now we have Rams over. I think in our preseason stuff, we have some Rams futures that we liked as well. This team I thought we get, Gabe, I thought they were good enough to make it back to the championship game. They're right where they should be right now.

They're playing good football. They're very complimentary. We talked about for years, you know, F them picks, right? We're trading away all these guys. they won the Super Bowl. Now they recovered the picks, Gabe, and look what they've done with the draft picks. Defense, home runs.

That addition to, of Devante Adams, who's been a really good addition to that team. The multiple tight ends they use, like it's just a very good team right now. Stafford is going to win the MVP. He's going to win the MVP, and that's where we sit with the Rams right now. You're just proclaiming that.

Stafford's going to win the MVP. Jake May is not winning the MVP. Jalen Hertz is not. Mahomes is not. the Rams are going to continue to play this well and it's not going to change. I'm all for a Stafford MVP. So is my son.

But, you know, we still got to hang on just a little bit to that Jonathan Taylor prediction I made. Yeah, that's not happening. The Chiefs lost ended that for him. And skipping a topic or two here, I think one other guy has entered the MVP conversation. I'm not ready to give it to him,

but I just have to ask, you're good at looking at these futures markets. Do we put one or two little, a dime or two on my guy Caleb for MVP? Just keeps doing the thing it takes to win. They're eight and three. No, he's not with MVP. Three touchdowns this weekend. The stats are improving.

The wins are there. Come on. 75 to 1 right now. Sounds like good odds to me. Not going to happen. Josh Allen's the fourth best odds. watching football lately, seems kind of high. Exactly.

Miles Garrett, Miles Garrett, I mean, he's not winning MVP. He's going to break the sack record, though. Sure. Well, why not think about that one? I mean, you can't win MVP, but I just think Caleb, like, right, just talk about it for a second here. Eight and three, we've sort of been laughing at how they've been climbing that division,

but they're in arguably the toughest division in football, and they're leading it right now, and the quarterback really has improved. He really has. He's gotten a lot better, yes. And it's been impressed. Well, Ben Johnson has done his magical game. We talk about how I evaluate quarterbacks, right? Where I want to see there's quarters of the season, right?

Let's just say, obviously, 17 games now, but, you know, 4, 4 and 4, right? Obviously, you can get out a fifth game in there at some point. And so you want it to me, the way you evaluate is you want to see now, essentially, in the third quarter of the season, Williams is better than the first quarter. right? Because judging game to game is a little unfair because you're going to have bad weeks. That's the NFL. Very clearly, quarter three is better than quarter one, right? And then you want, obviously, quarter four to be better than quarter three. However, though, as we get to the sort of the postseason push, Williams has not been in this spot before. If he does slide back a little bit, that's probably expected,

right? Is the more pressure mounts and games really start to matter, feel a lot more like they matter in December. It wouldn't surprise me if it's sloughed off a tiny bit at the end, but not enough to where you change, tired thought about it. But that's what you want to see, right? You want to see better at the end of the year under a new coach than the beginning of the season. So I love where he's at, his ascension. The bears still, I think, are not, you know, they're a team I cannot wait to fade in the postseason. They're 25th-ish in DVOA. They're negative point differential right now. I mean, it's not a good team. It's winning, absolutely. But your job is to win. But they're a team that I really look forward to kind of fading this postseason.

They are the Broncos of the NFC. Is that what you're telling me? The Broncos defense is better, though. So... Yeah, but the quarterback in Chicago is a bit better than the quarterback in Denver. That is correct, yes. Boom, score one for USC.

Nice job. You didn't get the W on Saturday, but our quarterback... They could put them their game notes this week. All right. Who would you rather be right now? Right now, you gotta be on one team. You want to be on the Patriots or the Ravens?

The Patriots are Ravens? My goal is what? Just like general vibes or like post-season success? Well, to win. You want to win games the rest of the season. You want to be taken seriously. You want a chance at a ring. Vibes is clearly Ravens.

There's no vibes in New England. Good question. Yeah. I know. I wrote that question. Look at how hard you're thinking. Come on. Yeah, it's a good question. I'd probably still say Baltimore,

even though I just don't like, I just don't like the way they're playing. What do you mean you don't like the way they're playing? It won't like six in a row. Yeah, again, like there's a standard, right, that I think you have some of these teams have to be held up to. Philly and the Chiefs and the Ravens and the Bills

and the Ravens just aren't, it was like 10 to 7 in the fourth quarter last week. It's not good enough. Okay, so, but you're saying you'd rather be them than the Patriots? Yes. Okay, so who'd you rather be? Ravens are the Bills. Ooh, those defenses.

I mean, this is not supposed to stump you like this. Bills. You'd rather be the Bills. Yeah. Would you rather be the Bills or the Chiefs? Chiefs. It always comes back to the Chiefs. Well, the Bills issues are not fixable.

Like there's no fix for the run game. The Chief's offense can just call. Talking about your Super Bowl pick, right? When you say the Bills, that's who you're still referring to. Yeah, the Bills defense is just not fixable. Like, you're not, there's no fix for their defense. The Chief's issues, you know, foe agrees, man. The Chief's issues, whatever they are,

we play calling could just be better. So that really helps. Yeah. Other way, I don't know what kind of noise cancellation you have. Every time you reference your dog, you're hearing it and I'm not really yeah it kind of makes you seem crazy you don't hear the he'll just be like faux agrees and you'll look around he's barking he's barking he's barking behind my chair right here I'm okay that's a great mic you got because we're not I'm not hearing any dog

oh someone's in the house because that's why he's barking someone who's unauthorized users in the house right now my brother's coming today and they're setting up a crib for his daughter so there's this unauthorized person in the house I left him in here with me so he doesn't bark too loudly at the nice lady who's setting this up for us. Yeah. Well, okay. We're getting a little too close to doing dog takes here. We've been pushing that off for weeks.

We're going to continue to push off dog takes by one more week. The one dog is banned. The one dog is banned. That's what we're not doing dog takes. Boy, that was, you know, listen, what do they say? The difference between being right and being a conspiracy theorist is just a matter of time, right? I got to say, man, I've made some statements on this show that aged very nicely. very nicely.

And I asked that we banned that dog before this, we were in week zero when I said, let's just not talk about this dog. There's going to be a temptation to talk about that guy's dog. I don't want to do it. I think we should just ignore that. I'm not falling for it. The whole internet is all on board with me now.

Isn't it a little bit weird how quickly he moved on to the next dog? Like no morning period, just straight to dog too. Not a dog guy. Don't know what that's like, what that cycle is, what the emotions are. You know, I didn't clone my dog when I, my dog passed. I don't get new dogs right after old dogs passed. The cloning dog thing is odd.

Yeah. It's weird. Okay. We're banning dog talk. Let's go to a guy who has the dog in him, but he just can't do it exactly. injuries and issues. We're done talking about Tampa, right? Yeah, unfortunately.

I have a great parlay that we talked about with Bear. You still don't hear the dog. No, I just know nothing that's ever hunt? Maybe, maybe, you know what it is how dogs can hear certain sounds and not others? Maybe the dog bark frequency doesn't make it into my ears.

Maybe it doesn't. I had this great parlay going that Bear gave us with like Rable Coach of the Year, McCaffrey comeback player of the year. Stafford MVP and Abuka to be, and it was, it paid out.

I think we talked about this, right, like 35 to 1. And unfortunately, the Abuka thing is kind of dead now with, uh, with, with Mayfield hurt. Um,

look, man, he plays a style of football we love to watch. But in the end, this is going to happen. He takes a ton of hits. And unfortunately, that hit,

better day, you know, knocked him out for probably a little bit. And then Teddy Bridgewater looked, expected. I mean, he's been out of football. I don't know why,

I saw a tweet. Like, why is he even playing still? It didn't make any sense. It's an issue, but the Panthers look terrible last night. The Panthers, I don't think, are as good as their record as either. So I think the Bucks would probably be fine, I think. But, you know, they got two against the Panthers still.

All right, I got to, I'm going to formulate this take on the fly. You can either come along with me and help me, or you can just shoot this down. I think the NFL needs to work a little bit more like college football. does now. I think we need to agree every season. There's a big five divisions. And then there's the sixth division that we sort of earmark as, look, if you do something exceptional, if you come out of nowhere and you go undefeated or you just have a dominant year against weaker competition, you can get into the playoffs. But you have to do that. If you are not exceptional, there is no automatic birth coming out of the NFC South. And we just say one division every year going in. We're like,

that's the one we're not taking seriously. I think that that would help because I just don't think anyone wants to see a champ from that division this year. I'd rather just give the extra by, or the extra birth to whoever, someone in the NFC North or... So no more divisions, basically.

No, there's division champs and that matters, but one division, it doesn't matter if you're the champ. If we don't like you, you're just not in. Who decides that we don't like part? whoever decides it in college football I guess ESPN A ESPN does A committee

A committee just chooses the worst division throws them out It's like look if you're the BYU Or the SMU We're just we don't have to do this Well the all amount of qualifier discussion For college football Needs to be addressed

Because this year it's bad We can do that in college football In a second The thing about this game though Is that that team That team that the fourth place team Essentially right that team sometimes is seven and nine.

That game was always close to a four or five game. Like it's actually way more competitive than you would think it would be each year. And sometimes those teams have the upset, which is shocking, but it is that way. I'd keep it just for that. Like there's enough games that are close the four or five game. I would keep it the way it is.

That's a, that's a, who cares? Like any team could pull an upset. What do we have to watch a bad team for? I mean, it's fun football, I think. I don't know. But we're going to, here's what's going to happen. The way this season plays out, some team that's basically a 500 team, is going to come out of the NFC cell.

Right. And the Cowboys, her previous conversation, will probably not make the postseason. Wouldn't we all just prefer to watch the Cowboys try to play a playoff game than the Hamps? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you there. I'd prefer to watch them play, yes. Okay.

That's kind of all I'm getting that. We'd rather see Notre Dame than Tulane. Oh, yeah. Okay, we can do a college football thing now. So here's a deal about college football. So the way it works, obviously, 12-team playoff, right? There's four buys at the top. Then there's essentially the top five conference champions get automatic bursts.

So you typically are going to get the four major conferences and one more, right? Five. And then you have the rest are at-larges, right? Seven at-larges. And that ensures a group of five team, essentially, group of six team. There's six now because the Pac-12 is now a group of five team. That ensures that one of those teams typically makes it, right? So last year was Boise State.

And my argument, Gabe, is this, is that the goal of the postseason is to find a champion. It shouldn't be a participation tournament. Now, in every five or seven or ten years, a team like Boise State is good enough to probably make the playoffs on their own, But other than that, like, why are we giving an automatic qualifier to North Texas or to whoever's going to be JMU this season? Your season should not be defined for most schools on whether or not you make the playoff.

Like when I got to Oregon in 04, if we made a Rose Bowl, that was going to be the pinnacle of our season. Even going like 8 and 4 and 9 and 3, you're like, great year, guys. It wasn't 12 in 0 or bust, right? And now it feels like the only way you can have a good season is being a playoff team, which I think is not the way cultural ball has ever been. And I don't think it should be that way, right? And like, if you're if you're JMU, okay, you can still say, great job you went 12 and O.

You're in some big bowl game. And that's it. Like, you got a great season. But I don't want to watch them go to Georgia and be 28 and a half point underdogs and lose that game 4510. Now, the blowback is always, well. last year they're much of blowouts between Blue Bloods. I would just rather watch better players play. And if it's a blowout game, it's a blowout.

I've never found interest in watching worst teams play football. I've never found interest in that. And if it keeps out Miami or Notre Dame, who is better than JMU and they're not in because they play better teams all season, I think that's not the right way to do it. Like, Notre Dame, the way they're playing now could win a championship is probably rough, but the official numbers are really good right now. And they're in over Miami at the moment.

But like I just I don't want to say you a group of five team can never make the postseason game but this year like why are they in? What's the purpose of having JMU? Yeah yeah it's a great season I get it but no one really wants to watch JMU play Georgia. The one thing too about this game too

is one thing always that people always say about March madness and a cultural ball playoff is that we want these underdogs we want these upsets, we want all this, right? I want to watch Underdogs play. You don't because the TV ratings show it. You don't watch them play. You don't watch the bad teams play. The highest rated games are the Blue Bloods.

And again, that shouldn't be the reason why we choose tournament teams across football teams. But the data shows game that when Blue Bloods are not playing in the semifinals, in the championship game, no one's watching it. No one watches it. So this idea that like you want to see it, well, the data doesn't back it up because you're not watching the game. So like JMU Georgia will be the lowest rated game of any of the four playoff games.

It just will be. And, you know, in the final four run where we have like a Cinderella, that game is not the highest rated game. You keep telling me you want to watch it. No one actually watches it, Gabe. Yeah. You're making a lot of points at once here. I'm going to contradict my point about the NFC South by saying,

score me as somebody who would rather watch JMU try. to make a game with Georgia. Well, yeah, instead of whatever, like the 14th ranked team in the country. Would you rather watch Miami, Georgia or JMU, Georgia? JMU, for sure. For the same reason that at this point, I don't want to watch Anthony Joshua fight Yusik. I don't see him fight Jake Paul and know what the hell, what happens now. I don't know what those words mean, but I believe you.

I want to see a mismatch. I can't predict. I don't know what the hell to do with it. Now I got to watch some sports and find out what happens on the field. Whereas if I just see Anthony Joshua fight against the heavyweight who's kind of similar to him, like I don't think that I'm not interested anymore. I don't know, man. I just don't,

I don't find that as interesting to watch the, I mean, look, it's fun in week one of March madness when there's a Cinderella story. Then I want to watch the best teams play. By the postseason, I want to watch the best teams play. And if we lose,

Miami, Georgia to get Miami JMU. I know I'm in the minority here, but again, the TV ratings would show that I'm the actually not. No, you're in the majority. You're just... Well, no, I'm in the minority on Twitter. I think social media wants to see these underdogs play. I think I'm in the majority for the rest of the country.

That obviously does not want to see these underdogs play in those games. Yeah, I would say being in the minority on Twitter is probably a safe place to be in life. It's also just to me just not as good. I would rather see Miami almost beat Georgia. And also, too, this is the thing about college football, too.

You know what? How about this? We have one more break to take, and then I'll get to more college football. We'll do that right now. Okay. We're back now. Again, the playoff to me should be about trying to find a champion, right? That's what it should be.

But also, too, like, it's different. It's funny because the NFL feels the argument I'm about to make in the NFL. Is an NFL fan, I would agree. but like it shouldn't be, Gabe, where the six, the sixth seed or the five seed in a 12-team playoff have the easiest path to get to the next round, right, Gabe? Like right now, if you're the five-seat or the sixth seed,

you get the ACC champion and the group of five team. That should not be that easy to advance the next round. Like, it just shouldn't be. And then also too, like if you are the way it's working out now, if you're the sixth seed, which I think Oregon's going to be, you get basically an ACC champion at home, and then you go play A&M who I think is not as good as Ohio State. Ohio State would have to play basically like the winner of Notre Dame and Old Miss

and then play Alabama. It's harder to, like the one seat has a much tougher path than any other. It's just a weird situation where the one seat seems to have the hardest path. of all. I just don't like the way the system is set up. I mean, guys like you spend a lot of time talking about rest and the value of a buy and all that. I mean, they don't have to play football for a weekend. Everyone else is banging into each other. It seems like it matters. It didn't matter last year, but it probably does matter over time.

Do you think, honest, real question, you played, you played a very physical position. Would you, you would, of these two scenarios, you would rather, play against a team that you're a two touchdown favorite against and then play the best team in the country the following week versus not play? Well, you wouldn't play the best team in the country the way it works out because you would play the five or 60 doesn't

get Ohio State like the next game. It's not receded like the NFL. So you would get the, you would get the, you would, again, you wouldn't play Ohio State. There's ever a scenario where you'd take the, you'd take the game over the buy. No matter, forget who you're playing the following. I think, I think you would,

I think you would, I think you would, always want the buy. In the end, you want the buy. But it still puts the one seed it's a tougher path, Gabe. Like if you're the sixth seed right now, again, you have an easier path on paper right now to make it

to the semifinals than the one seed would have. And it just feels like that's not a good system. Even though they're sitting, they're straight seeding this season. It doesn't something like a great system. That's my problem with the playoff at the moment. How much of this is you really, being very personally attached to the Oregon ducks and the seed they might have.

And like, I hope, well, I mean, I hope we get a five or six. I think, I think we'll be the 60th tonight. That's great. We'll get with the, dude, we're going to get like SMU at home December 19th. It's going to be 37 degrees and raining. Like, sign me up for that. Like, that's a good spot to be in if you're Oregon. What's the, there's no path for them to be.

The only path for them to be champ now is if what, if, if, if Ohio State, loses this weekend, can they get to the champ game? If, yeah, Orky beats Washington, Ohio State losers, we're in the championship game. I don't want to play the Big Ten championship game. Right. You don't want to play an extra game. Well, because we're so beat up right now. If we were healthy, I wouldn't mind it.

But we're down, you know, three offensive linemen and three wide receivers. I'd rather just take a week off. Having watched your team a little too closely this weekend, I got to say, I'm not doing a bit here. If your guys get healthy, I was watching the fourth string. wide receiver absolutely cook our defense. Like, if you're healthy, how do you lose? I'm sorry, like, it's been fun, Indiana. A healthy Oregon is going to kick the living crap out of Indiana in a playoff game.

So, yeah, interesting. Look, again, we at certain points of that game had, we started a redshirt freshman making his first start ever at left tackle. Our center got hurt in the first quarter. We had a backup in who, and I give credit to Charlie Pickard, he wasn't good last year. He was really good. USC's defense line also not great. And then we lost our right tackle for a couple series, and we put in another guy who

hadn't played much as here because our other backup tackle is hurt. So we had a situation where we had basically off at the tackle, three, center two, fifth off of the tackle, because, again, our backup is hurt as well. So we need a roll. We're down wide receiver one, who got hurt in the preseason. We're down wide receiver two, Decorian Moore, wide receiver four, than Gary Bryant Jr. But we have Sadiq or tight ed, which helps because he's a monster.

It'll be a first round pick who win the Mackey Award this season is the best time in the country. The one thing that I like about our team this year, Gabe, again, I don't know if we win a championship, but the thing I like is they've just been a very composed team this year. And they win many different ways, right? You know, you go to Penn State, you win a grind game, right? You go to Iowa, you win a grind game when you're out, all those wide receivers, for 250 yards. You win a game in a monsoon against Wisconsin

that wasn't really as close as the final score. You win this game 4227 against USC where your defense wasn't as good against U.S. Game two. USC, man, you got to figure out an offense. It just isn't throw the ball to a guy and hoping to make a catch. It's just not a good offense right now, nonetheless.

But we also, USC was averaging 20 yards rushing. We stopped 50 yards rushing. So I just like the different ways we have to win right now. I'm not sure we're good enough to beat Ohio State. or Georgia. I don't know, but I like where we're at at the moment.

We'll get our offensive alignment back for the playoffs. We'll have all three guys back. Some might play this week against Washington. We probably get back Gary Bryant, Jr. I don't know if DeCorey Moore plays in the postseason. Everett's going to be down-wide receivers. But it's going to be a lot of fun

to see us compete down the stretch. Well, the kid number four might be the fastest person on earth. Mike Benson, yeah, he's a, transfer from Florida State. I think he was, where do he go before that? The U.S. Olympic team?

What in the hell? Nobody could stay near that guy. Bama, Florida State Oregon, yeah. But he's technically like wide receiver, really after wide receiver two, they're kind of just, he's probably, if Gary Bryant's not, yeah, he's like wide receiver three, four, five, somewhere around there for us.

Yeah, he's good. That irritated me. him, you mentioned a bunch of different schools, including Alabama. I'm going to bring back a take. One of my takes that maybe didn't age as well, but I'm starting to think it has a chance again. We're going into rivalry week. If Alabama loses to Auburn, I would assume, would you agree they lose to Auburn, they're out of the playoffs, right? Yes. Three lost season, including to an Auburn team that's not great. If Kalin-de-Bore can't even make the playoff with this team.

And there's these Penn State rumors swirling. How true they are, I do not know. A lot of denials about those rumors. Could could my rather wacky Brian Dayball take come back to life? Could Kailen DeBorby

in a bit of trouble if he loses the sovereign game? They're not going to fire him, but he would be on the hot seat. Brian Dayball could be there. Might he just escape? And might that jab be open and might Brian Dayball take it? No. It won't be Daibel. Daibald is going to be the OC for Buffalo.

I bet after the season. So I, no, no, no. We're just going to be to the Iron Bowl game. I'm obviously not well-versed in, like, the history of the Iron Bowl completely. But this is interesting games. Alabama is that Auburn. Auburn, you know, fired their coach. They played better recently.

They just beat Deshaeton Mercer. But people talk about this game in Auburn. Like, it's the toughest place to play in America. I'm kind of fast. Numbers only five and a half for Alabama. I'm kind of curious about this game. Obviously, Bama loses. They're out of the opponent.

season. DeBoer, rumored to go to Penn State. But I'm going to look forward to this one because, again, there's a lot of talk about how tough Auburn is to play. They had some weird Iron Bulls over the years. I grant you that. But Alabama is much better than Auburn. They should win this game by a decent

amount, but it's Robert weekend, right? These games are really odd when you get to this weekend because it matters a lot, right? There's a lot of different energy in these stadiums for these Oregon's got to go to Washington, right? These are tough places to play. Oregon's much better to Washington, but just sitting kind of a touchdown on favor right now.

I should know this, but I don't. And it won't be long before Lane Kiffin doesn't have to care. Who's old miss play in a rivalry game? We get Mississippi State? Who did they? Egg Bowl, yeah. I actually like Mississippi State at law in this game because Elaine's 100% leaving.

Where is he leaving? He's going to Old Miss. I mean, he's going to LSU, I mean. Say that again? He's going to LSU. No, the other team. Old Miss. You're saying,

O-L or old? Oh. Ah, okay. Hank and I thought you were saying old. It's kind of like old for a while there. Oh, maybe, I don't, but I'm not saying O-L-E. Ole. Ole.

Oldness. Yeah, Ole. O-L-E. Yeah, okay. Okay. You know what's funny? Sometimes, like, when I'm searching for box scores, I'll type in like, O-M-M-N-S, and it's like, no, it's just Mississippi.

I mess that up. I mess that up a lot. Nonetheless. The lame thing, dude, I just don't care. Like, just go somewhere or don't. Who gives a shit? I need to update every half day on where you're going, man.

Like, just, he's leaving obviously. Old Miss AD put out a, old Miss AD put out a statement saying, like, we'll talk about this after the Egg Bowl, which definitely means that he's leaving. Because otherwise you would announce an extension if he was staying, right? So he's going to Old Miss.

I mean, go to LSU, I should say. But, like, he's never won anything. Like, why is he this big of a deal? I get it. He's done a good job with offense, but their defense is atrocious this season. You make the argument, I guess, that you give the resources to LSU's going to give him

and you buy a defense and you figure it out, but it's a lot, man. He's going to make a lot of money there. It's so funny, Gabe, that for those who knew him, like, 15 years ago, for him to be in this position now is kind of crazy. it makes you think that maybe who your agent is has a lot to do with all of this. So if I want to call games, I need to, Jimmy Sexton will get me to call games.

So call and make some calls for me. Seems like it could help. So I, yeah, I'm, I'm curious to see, obviously, if this, what happens. But look, think about, like, think about his team, his team, like, playing this robbery game. His team knows you're leaving.

Like, how, how hard you get to play? Like, how much... How many of them do you think even really care about their coach in the first place? Like, does Lane Kiffin give me the vibe that, like, he's real close with his players? I think you...

I know people think you... players only go someplace for the money. That's just not true, in my opinion. I think you have to like the coach. And I think people, the play for him probably like Lane Kiffin. But also, too, all the players right now, Gabe,

are trying to figure out, out their exit plan. Like, they're trying to, like, they're trying to find schools to go to your next year. And so how focused are they on beating Mississippi State this weekend? Who's not played well lately? They're not a good team, but they had a little bit of fight early in the season.

Really fascinates me to see how well this game goes. I think it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. Something I didn't write down, but I guess you telling me you think Ole Miss could lose, makes me want to ask. So who's in right now that you think blows it this weekend? Like Ohio State's in even if they lose to Michigan, right?

I mean, there's only two candidates, three. There's three candidates. It's Oregon, Old Miss, and Alabama. See, you just said old. Old Miss. I don't know, man. I think I'm combining the old and the first syllable of miss. That's why it sounds like I'm combining them like to make one word essentially.

That's why it sounds like. I'm not thinking Old Miss. I'm not. I'm not saying that. Okay. Nonetheless, those are the three candidates. That's it.

Nor Dame's not going to lose this weekend. The Stanford, I mean, Georgia's not going to lose to Georgia Tech. I don't think. Those are three candidates. Or, I mean,

look, the playoff simulators all claim Oregon will be in with a loss. I don't think so. They think they're in even with a loss? Yeah, I don't agree.

No. I think they're better than a bunch of other teams, but I think if they lose to a bad, team they're out. Agreed. Okay. So, and obviously Indiana has earned the right to lose a game and still get in. Texas A&M can lose and still get in.

The thing that I think is important here is like the conference championship game should not, you should not lose a playoff spot for losing that game, which is what we saw last year with SMU. Like that's what I think the right decision. Like if you, if you're 11 and 1, you play conference championship, championship game and you're in the top 12, you should not lose that spot for losing that game, which won't happen because Indiana and Ohio State will be undefeated.

Like it won't happen in that way. Georgia, who's playing for the, I think if Bama wins, it's Bama, A&M, I think, maybe Hank knows for the SEC. The Big 12, like,

if Texas Tech loses, I don't think they should be out, but you might put BYU in in that instance. That's probably the Dume Day scenario. Like, Texas Tech loses, and then you have to put BYU into the committee just, clearly doesn't want to put in to the postseason. So it actually would be, yeah, if Bama wins because they beat Georgia, they would play A&M.

But that, so you just outlined the most interesting scenario. You're talking about blue bloods and people want to watch them. All right. Now Bama wins the Iron Bowl. Plays in the SEC championship game as a two-lossed team. Loses to arguably the best team in the country in A&M. Now is a three-lossed team but lost their conference championship. game to a team that could win the title, what do you do with Bama?

What happens in the Big 12? Does BYU beat A&M? I mean, do BYU beat Texas Tech? Go with this scenario that makes this most complicated for you and then talk about it. Yeah, it's BYU beating Texas Tech. All right. Because then you would, BYU would be 12 in 1. Yep.

Having a bunch of ranked wins and a conference championship. Yep. They would be in over Alabama, in my opinion. Yeah. They deserve it. it. Yeah. It doesn't mean that they'd be a better, they're a better team, but that you got to reward

that, I think. I think in that situation you would have to, but that situation hasn't really happened yet where a team had, you know, that happened in that, and last year was different because SMU was still the same record as someone else, but if you have three lost BAMA against an 11, assuming a 12 and 1 BYU team, you'd have to take BYU. You just would have to. Yeah. Okay.

I feel like we've covered it all. Is there anything else in an odd week where we're going to be watching football pretty much nonstop for about five days in a row. Pretty nice stretch coming. Anything else you want to say? We got action tonight, buddy. Speak for yourself.

We got football tonight. Maxion. Tuesday night, Tuesday night at Maxion football. This is the kind of night I fire up league pass or, you know, check out something else. Last night, I couldn't stay away for the Panthers' Niners game. I was like a 10-15 just sleep

We're watching Landman right now. Good, good show. Yeah, I have not started that one. That's behind one of the paywalls I don't currently pay for, I believe. Who knows what I pay for? We've spent too much money. We've been watching The Beast and Me. And I got to say, man, Claire Danes, I just don't think I can take.

Wait, I'm not watching that. Is it like Homeland Claire Danes? Yeah. Oh, God. Which is I think Claire Danes. I don't think that. there's like oh she's doing that thing and then but no she's a normal actress and this other i think that's all she's got she might play the best like manic person i've ever seen in his show like consistently

over seasons like she did it's insane man there's too there's too much in every single scene so i watched this little mini series uh death by lightning on netflix which is about james garfield yeah and then i waited till the very end to like research James Garfield. Uh-huh. And the fact that, so he was assassinated, I think, in 1881.

Spoilers, bro. He was assassinated. I'm kidding. The president was assassinated 200 years ago. Yeah. But the fact that 20 years after Abraham Lincoln got shot and killed

that there was no, like, secret service with him at all, it blows my mind. Like it, so he was shot essentially in like a, in, in, in the train station with no, just him and like a senator were walking to the train together. 20 years after Abraham Lincoln got shot in the head. And there was like no security, at least according to the show. There was no, no security. Like no one was vetted in the train station.

And he just walked up to him and shot him in the back. I, it blows my mind. That's the way it used to be. Yeah. Well, I'm not saying that's good. But maybe if we just treated our politicians a little bit more like. normal people and didn't elevate them to this crazy status, they would be under less threat and we could just have a more normal society. We treat them like these all powerful people

and then they become somebody's enemy. They should just be guys. They're just representatives. I agree. They work for us. Yeah. Supposedly. Nobody should love or hate them anywhere near as much as they do. Certainly not enough to want to shoot any of them. That's crazy. Well, this guy who shot him, You watch a show yet? I was turned down when I proposed that we watched that. Oh, I watch it on my own. Don't worry. Is Nick Offerman, Chester A. Arthur?

Did I see that correctly? Yeah, he is. Yeah. I, this is a show I started for like seven minutes with my wife and it immediately was a no and I was like, I'm going to watch it on my own. So I watch it on my own. That's probably what I'm going to do, but I had to go through. You know the process.

You got to get turned down so that it can become your side piece. Yeah. So, yeah, James Garfield and Chester Arthur, is Nick Offerman, who I love. Nick's the best. Terrific. All right. We have, we reached the end here of our show.

I think Hank already left. I don't think he's even listening anymore. Have a good, he doesn't even know that there was a, there's a president named James Garfield, with Chester Arthur. Let's get to have a good Thanksgiving. We'll be back later this week with our gambling show. I think we want some wagers this week, which is nice to, it's always nice to win a couple wagers, Gabe.

Hope you have a good weekend, everyone. Enjoy the time with friends and family. We'll talk to you guys. Next week, take care, everybody.