Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Geoff joins Tuanon, Burrow's Troubles, and Tom Brady Throws a Tantrum

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

Geoff and Gabe dive into the biggest headlines from week 2 of the NFL season, starting with the nuclear bomb that went off in Miami. Tua Tagovailoa might have done enough to convert Geoff to his cause, and he definitely did enough to remind Gabe of a certain other "proven winner" from Florida. Also, Geoff talks about what the Bengals need to change to get their season back on track, and Gabe... complains about Tom Brady.Plus, on Moving the Line, Geoff and Gabe nominate a few teams that they are already done talking about for the season, and Notre Dame gets some divine intervention, and Geoff breaks down his griddy.If you enjoyed the episode, please rate, subscribe, comment, and tune in on Thursday for the NFL Week 3 Best Bets!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's Tuesday September 20th I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin this is Jeff Schwartz this morning you're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network it was a crazy day of comebacks in the NFL three tremendous comebacks it was incredible Gabe we'll talk about everything that we saw in week two including maybe that we're members of 2-1-1 now I have not been I have refused to but maybe we are members but first and foremost Gabe. I have not been, I have refused to, but maybe we are members. But first and foremost, Gabe, how was your weekend? Congratulations, the USC Trojans and the New York Jets. Oh, I thought you were going to congratulate me on completing another mini triathlon, something our producer and buddy Hank could not do. Uh, but I could, I've completed another mission and, and my team's won.

Wait, I thought, I thought you were doing this with, with a group. Yeah. A team from our company went out there and, uh, competed. Hank was meant to compete. Hank was doing a mini version of the mini triathlon, call it a duathlon, but then he broke the bike I lent him and could not even complete one leg of the duathlon. What? Yeah.

He broke my bike. What part, what part didn't Matt What? Yeah, he broke my bike. What part didn't Matt do? He did no parts. Matt was too busy focused on the picks he tried to give you cashing. Oh, we will talk about this on Thursday. Oh, he gave good advice. We have to change, well,

we have to change the way we do our picks because we both convinced ourselves to not take our favorite picks. And those ended up all winning this week, which happens every single week. Jeff, you're the authority on the show. You got to take responsibility. Don't blame Matt. No, I do.

But I like two a lot. Matt was like, no, not happening. He liked two. I was like, no, not happening. And those all four of those won on Sunday. But we're not here to talk about our gambling or your love of the USC Trojans. We're here to talk about our gambling or your love of the USC Trojans. We're here to talk about pro football. We had three comebacks yesterday that were with teams that had less than a 2% chance to win at any point in the fourth quarter. They were down 21 points

and what, 13 points under two minutes. And I believe the other game was 20 to nothing. So a lot of craziness in the NFL in week two game. Where do you want to start? Well, it's interesting because I was this close to sending our group text thread a note saying, we're never talking about the Cardinals ever again. And then they had that comeback and won. So I guess we'll keep talking about them. I tweeted out in like halftime, like, well, thank you, Cardinals.

I don't have to talk about you much earlier than usual. I did not check the mentions to that one after they won. So it's out there. It's on my Twitter. But I did not know how the Cardinals are an unserious team. They, I mean, when you have to, and I give Kyler Murray credit for the way he played down the stretch, but when you have to make plays like that to win a game,

that's not sustainable. So they're an unserious team. I'm not worried about them. We will continue to talk about them as an unserious team. I don't think we should ever talk about the Jets, my former team, even if they win. Good for them.

Nice win. Who cares? We should talk about Tuanan. Because, Jeff, I'm here to tell you that deep down within me, in my beating heart, something tells me that I should be a Tua fan

because he reminds me of somebody, maybe the greatest college football player of all time and a guy who never got the shot Tua's getting. No, no, no. Don't do this. Yes. He does not. No, this is disrespectful to Tua.

Don't do this. Proven winner, Tim Tebow. That's who Tua makes me think of. Don't do this. No, that's unfair. I was think of don't do this no that's unfair i was coming in here to probably say like hey like let's slow down on the two of love but now you compare him to tim tebow now i have to defend tua because you compare him with tim tebow that's that's called good co-hosting so you don't know where i'm going with this tua was incredible he looked average for

the first three quarters and then he had four touchdowns and a huge comeback win and looked like a superhero. And I guess we all have to wonder, is Tua plus these two receivers, plus the great coach that we love, plus a pretty good defense, you know, is this a thing? Are they real? And I'm here to tell you, I think they sneak into the playoffs and I actually think they might win a game because this dude is a winner. And all you nerds who try to talk us out of what our eyes tell us need to relax dude can play football so it's a good question about where the Dolphins are right now I think that shows you obviously

that speed on an NFL field is very important a speed at wide receiver is very important and the repercussions of that to a defense make you terrified if you're a defense and it ends up with blown coverages and guys all over the place and we saw that happen all day on Sunday right there were at least two blown coverages the two it took advantage of both to Tyree kill one was obviously the late touchdown where no safety came back to the middle of the field the other one was when he ran right past Marcus Peters and looked like Kyle Hamilton was stuck in the mud. Someone's wrong there, right? Now, is it Hamilton or Peters?

Probably Hamilton. Who knows? But more than anything else, Gabe, this game really made me impressed with Mike McDaniel, their head coach. The schemes and his ability to get guys open. There's a clip floating around the internet. Nate Tyson, the athletic, put it out there. Other people will talk about it all week. They took

a concept that's typically run for a tight end in the slot called stick nod, where you basically run a stick route. You run like a little kind of out. You fake like you nod. You're going to catch the ball and you go up the field, right? Gronk has run it for years.

They, you know, they kiddle running. Tight end. There's always a tight end route, right? Middle of the field against a? Gronk has run it for years. Kittle run it. Tight end. There's always a tight end around, right? Middle of the field against a linebacker. But they put Jalen Waddell in that position in this game. And of course, Jalen Waddell beat the linebackers and boom, up the middle of the field for a big game. That was because the Dolphins were in a personnel grouping that got the Ravens into their base defense. And so, yeah, it was very impressive, the comeback and Tua's ability to make some very difficult throws. And I gave him a lot of credit for the way he played in the fourth quarter. But also, when someone pulls a 21-point lead,

you have to look at the team that blew that 21-point lead game. Needing one yard in this game, either on third or fourth down, the Ravens were three of 10 getting that one yard. They did not play well to their standard, even though they scored 38 points, right? 38 points. Lamar had a 75-yard touchdown run and a 75-yard touchdown pass. I think the first time in NFL history a player has had both of those in one game. They had a kick return touchdown for the first play of the game,

but they have some issues on their offensive line in their run game still. Their offensive line is so beat up. But also just, you know, when you have a unit like they had a couple years ago and you have retirements and guys going to Kansas City and guys you've cut and injuries, all of a sudden you look and you're like, wow, what is this unit? It's hard to kind of come back and build that unit back up when you have all these issues with the roster.

I was disappointed in some of the run blocking. I thought Lamar played fine. He was good. But there is some on the Ravens for blown coverages and not being able to convert on those fourth downs. And I told Matt, because we had the Ravens minus three and a half, they didn't convert on fourth and one from the one-yard line. They did not convert a fourth and one from about midfield.

And I told Matt, like, you don't win games gambling very often when a team misses two fourths and ones. You really don't. One of those would have been a touchdown, would have been obviously a cover. Another one would have been a first down, clock continues to move, and things change, right? So I give it, the Dolphins are, they are lively. I like their head coach.

He's done a good job so far. As you're right, I mean, Tua played much better in the fourth quarter than he did the rest of the game. But I just think that this offense, we've talked about this for years now, Gabe. This offense has put quarterbacks in really good positions for many years, right? in really good positions for many years, right? We've seen this happen all throughout the tenure of Mike Shanahan's offenses, right? It's essentially Shanahan's offense.

Or whether it is Conor Shanahan himself or Sean McVay with Jared Goff or now Tua. Like this is a very quarterback-friendly offense. And when you're staying on schedule and you have the wide receiving threats that really stretch a team vertically, you can do really good things. And we saw in the fourth quarter of that game, Tua doing some really good things. And you have to be very happy if you're a Dolphins fan

of this result. Again, not going to happen very often. You're not coming back, you know, down 21 points, 2% chance to win. It's not going to be an often game, but you're now 2-0, and I think if you look at the AFC right now, Buffalo probably wins that division. Buffalo goes there this next weekend. And then they're a wildcard team, and I think that anyone who would play them in the wildcard round would be a little bit concerned about this offense

and the weapons that they have to come back in any game. All right. A lot to unpack there. I'd like to first just throw as an aside, if you're looking for a team to convert fourth downs and cover big spreads, bet on the USC Trojans. They do that consistently this season, but that's for a later show. It must be nice to have the starting quarterback get hurt in one game of the best offense you faced all season and force more turnovers again it just must be nice but continue and now by the way as we're

talking right now the Oregon State announces like the two best offensive players aren't playing this weekend against USC must be nice well I didn't mean to trigger you and set you off on a USC rant but you just enjoy greatness when you see it before you Jeff back to the Dolphins though I want to ask you a little bit more about the receiving core, because you just gave me a lot to think about with the coach and the quarterback and the Ravens, the team they beat. Let's talk about these two dudes, Hill and Waddle. I don't remember a time in the league where we had two clear number ones who could stretch the field and be possession guys who could play it every the X, the Y, the Z, all of it. And now you're telling me they're basically running tight end routes.

I don't remember a time where a quarterback had these kinds of weapons. Next gen stats had a great little nugget here. The Ravens defensive backs traveled a total of 6,131 yards on pass plays over the course of the game, the most by a defensive back group in a game since the start of last season. These dudes just run your ass into the ground. You have to chase them. Is there something to just wearing teams out? Because the fourth quarter was unreal. It didn't look anything like the previous three quarters. Could that be the strategy? It could, but you obviously don't want to be down 21 points. I mean, yeah, I think they're trying to find ways to stress the defense with their speed game.

But you need to do it, obviously, before the fourth quarter. I mean, this is great. And this is the thing about what I mentioned with the Chiefs losing with Tyreek Hill. They're losing this big play capability at any time you can make a big play. And that's what this, again, this offense is going to stress the defense for all those reasons.

At any time, you don't guard Tyreek Hill, you have a bust, you're going to get beat. And that's the hard part about playing a team with two of these guys in Waddle and Hill. Okay, so then I'm not forcing my Tebow comparison here, but I want to bring it up again. Do you have to be as accurate when you have guys who can get that open? If Tua's issue is accuracy, can't he get away with a little bit if he just knows who to throw to?

If he's just smart? Yes, which is, again, the point of this offense is to find those easy throws. It's designed in that way. And Tua found a lot of them in this game. Again, the game plan, I thought, again, the fourth quarter, the whole game was a good game plan. But that's just what this offense is designed for, is to make it easier on the quarterback.

And so the accuracy issues, and again, I think he's accurate enough. I never understood the most accurate player of all time, basically, that people were acting like, is that you can work with Tua in this offense because he is accurate enough to get to hit those open guys. Then there were some tight window throws he made in this game, which you have to do down 21. The offense is designed for easy completions. The RPOs, the bootlegs, the play-action passes, the screens,

all those things are very important to make it easy i should say well let's just say i'm i'm joining two or none i think i'm a believer until i see something crappy happen guys won at every level i don't quite know how he does it but it works so i like him with this coach let's talk about lamar for a second more because he lost but everyone was still happy with how he played. Robert Griffin III, who's, by the way, turned into an awesome analyst as a college football guy in the booth. He tweeted, yesterday's price ain't today's price. Lamar Jackson, probably.

Yeah, losing but playing well. That's the kind of thing they're going to pay him for one day. Losing but playing well. Is it his fault they lost well you mentioned converting on that fourth down early like there's some stuff that's in his control yeah i don't i don't know if i'm not trying to go after him i'm just saying like is the price going up right now on the market i think the price is the same it's always been okay and the ravens know that and lamar knows that and that is kind of where um where they're at and nothing's gonna happen now all right uh well the price would probably be going down on joe burrow if he was on the open market he has not started well

yeah and the story is all about the sacks and last year when he was getting beat up and obviously his his rookie season when he got beat up badly a lot of excuses made about the sort of terrible offensive line he had in front of him well they had that great run last year then they rebuilt the offensive line to try to protect him and it's not working right so he's on pace according to stat music he's on pace to be sacked 111 times this season it's just getting crushed they're oh2. How much blame should we be putting on Joe Burrow, though? Because I feel like maybe, maybe, maybe he ain't doing everything right. All right. So by the time you listen to this, I hope my article is up on Fox Sports that is talking about this subject. I have a video on my Twitter at Jeff Schwartz,

Jeff with a G. If you're listening to this, I assume you know that, but just remind you. Anyways, Jeff with a G. You'll find that video. You can also review and give me five stars. We've got a lot of those lately. I appreciate that. It's been very nice. You can find the video that I posted about a similar play from the Bengals game.

It was a sack by the Cowboys. And it kind of sums up the issue with the Bengals right now. And I've talked about this before, probably most recently with the Patriots when Brady was there the last year, kind of when things aren't going very well, is that it kind of snowballs on you, right? When the offensive line has not been good game. Not been as bad as people think, but not been great, especially tackle. Lyle Collins and Jonah Williams have been not very good.

And what that leads to is Joe Burrow not being confident in his time in the pocket, which speeds him up in what he's doing. So he's looking to get the ball out quicker, and if not, he's tucking and running. He's not even really scanning around, trying to find a second and third or fourth reads. And then when he does pull the ball down and look to move in the pocket, there are guys open. He's just not looking at them anymore because he's in the mode of, I'm going to get hit from somewhere.

I need to protect myself. I need to get some yards. There's also a severe lack of communication and preparation that I see on this protection unit. There were moments in the game when Lyle Collins, the right tackle, just had a mental error that is the easiest it can be. Even the video I shared, Joe Mixon is running back. I don't know what the hell he's looking at.

Who knows? There's other plays where, you know, they're running a play-action pass and the right guard and right tackle don't sell play-action pass. What are we doing, guys? Like, are we listening to the play call? Are we paying attention to what's happening? And it goes back to coaching, right? And again, these are also player issues, right?

Joe Burrow not throwing the ball is a player issue, not a coaching issue. But there's still not enough in this offense that is easy for Joe Burrow. Like, there's not enough move the pockets. There's not enough play action pass. There's not enough quick pass. If you watch on Sunday, they were pretty good when they asked Joe to throw the ball quickly. Like, when they put Jamar Chase in the slot or had him end up over the ball, balls out, making plays, in rhythm.

There's just not enough of that. It's a lot of deep routes. It's a lot of deep routes. It's a lot of trying to get Joe to make these incredible throws again. And it looks like they thought because they had a good end to last season, things would be the same this year without any change in what they do. And when you are the champions of a conference, every team that you face is going to spend extra time preparing for you in the offseason

or already has spent that time preparing for you. And the Bengals look like they were unaware that was going to happen. They look like an offense that's unaware they have a bad offensive line right now. Like they call it offense as though the offensive line is good. It's not.

And so all those, it's a lot of those, it's a lot of things, right? And so what happens is, Gabe, when you try to fix it, what do you fix first? Do you fix the offensive line? Well, they thought they did that, right? How do you fix Joe Burrow? Because if you fix Joe Burrow but not the offensive line,

then none of that matters, right? But if you fix the offensive line and don't fix Joe Burrow, none of that matters again, right? So it's hard to kind of start the process of figuring out where to make the changes because you don't know on any given play who's going to screw up. That becomes a problem, right? Because one play is the right tackle.

Then it's the running back. Then Burrow won't throw the ball. Then no one's open. And then it's the left guard. And Burrow won't throw the ball. Then no one's open. And then it's the left guard. And so they're just in a bad place right now. And you are able to sort of get out of this by just grinding away, right? Practicing, simplifying things, making things easier for Burrow, getting the ball out quickly, running the football, and it just takes time. Now, this is not that far off from, I think, what their season was last year, but also what happened to Mahomes a little bit at a point last year

when he just seemed kind of paralyzed a little bit and wasn't able to find ways to get the ball out of his hand. It's why, honestly, I think the Chiefs decided to go without Tyreek Hill at a certain price point and force him to get the ball out quicker. They're all able to change, Gabe, but you're 0-2. You think you have the Jets this weekend in New York? You go 1-2 and whatnot, but if you lose this weekend, man, you're 0-3, you ain't making the playoffs.

Right, so that's always the most fun thing to do after week two ends. You look at the 0-2 teams that have come back in history and you're not dead at 0-2, you start to look pretty dead at 0-3. I think no team has made the playoffs 0-2 in 18 years or something like that.

I feel like it's tradition in sports media to talk about the teams that are surprising 0-2 teams. Can they still turn it around? So we have three in the AFC. I'm just chalking up. This is being recorded before the Monday night game. I'm giving the Titans and Allianz the bills.

Let's just pretend that we already know that happened. That means the Titans, the Bengals, and the Raiders. Three AFC teams that some people, I don't think think you but some people were saying could win their divisions would be 0-2 how much are those you know projections really matter like if the Bengals just get hot can they find what they had at the end of last year oh they still have most of it they certainly can but to me it's the it's the Titans in the situation right look we I've made fun of Titans fans for a while because on twitter they're just very sensitive and over the top and for a team that really hasn't

done very much playoff winning however every single year game we come on this program and we hype up the colts right no no i don't but well it happens to be fair last year though we did not because of the quarterback. Yeah. But every year there's this thing where like, oh my God, the Colts roster. And Frank Reich, they're doing things the right way, guys. They're building this up. It's just their year.

And then they fucking stink every year. You know what I mean? I'm tired of it, man. They have two playoff appearances since 2014 okay and one playoff win yeah and that was against the that was against the texans the playoff win in the game was like 16 to 13 it was like a terrible game i'm tired of it and and every year we say oh the titans i'm not sure about the titans all i do is win. Like, I'm not hyping the Colts up anymore. I'm not doing it.

So I'm picking the Titans to win the division, even if they start 0-2. The Colts are 0-2 as well. Or 0-1-1. 0-1-1, which is even worse than 0-2 in America. But, like, I'm not doing the Colts thing anymore. I know Chris Ballard is a good general manager. He's popular with the media, and he's got friends, and, like, I know Chris Ballard is a good general manager. He's popular with the media

and he's got friends and like, I get all that. And he seems like the nicest guy. I like him. Frank Reich seems great, but you notice how Doug Peterson's doing well in Jacksonville in two games. Maybe Doug Peterson, guys, was the mind in Philadelphia, which I've said for years now. We always give credit to Frank Reich and John DeFilippo. How about Doug Peterson? Well, he looks pretty good so far in Jacksonville. He's kicked the Colts' ass. But the Colts' stubbornness on quarterback, right,

have yet to bring in a young quarterback in five years. Luck retired five years ago now. They've yet to bring in a starting quarterback in the first round. Have yet to address left tackle for three years now. Just no acknowledgement at all that that's a problem. Just duct taping that over. I'm out. I'm out on the Colts.

So in this situation game, give me the Titans. They're going to lose tonight probably. Whatever. They keep winning. I'll take the Tennessee to win this division now. I'm off the Colts. I'm not here to talk you into the Colts. And they put the Chiefs in week three too.

So they're like, they're going to be 0-3. Yeah, again, 0-2-1. But I agree with you. The sentiment is 0-3. I will bring up some other teams that I think we can do without talking about the rest of the season in our next segment. For now, though, let's talk about a guy who we have to talk about every week, but I wish we could stop talking about. Let's talk about Tom Brady. Now, I would have's talk about a guy who we have to talk about every week, but I wish we could stop talking about. Let's talk about Tom Brady. Now, I would have called his his Sunday very typical because he didn't look great for three quarters, threw a bunch of temper tantrums, picked a fight.

He had no interest in finishing himself, then got his defense to bail him out, took credit for a win and and then didn't have to address any tricky questions in the media. Like, why do you get Wednesdays off? Huh? We know we know why he's old and he's trying to save his marriage fair enough jeff like this isn't the goat year right like please we're gonna get a chance we're gonna get a major match up this in week three this isn't it right please it seems very unlikely that this is gonna end with a fairy tale you know there was a picture of him today man he just looks tired he looks like yeah it looks like his personal life is taking a toll on his football life which i think at some point a lot of us have gone through i mean my wife had told me entering year nine this is your last

year in the nfl like this is it and i was hurt i mean it was my last year in the NFL. Like, this is it. And I was hurt. I mean, it was my last year anyways. But I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. And I've said for a couple years now that Gisele would eventually be like, Tom, you're not doing this anymore. You're not going to do it anymore. And it feels like it's at that point now where, you know, the age is starting to show a little bit. His play, you know, again, his offensive line is not great right now.

And he's had, you know, wide receiver concerns. I get that. But it just looks like it's a where I'm going to end up now game, finally. The thing about the NFC conference, though, is, like, who's going to win that conference? I mean, Tampa can have the one seed. And then Tom Brady has to win just two home games to make it back to the Super Bowl. I mean, don't describe my nightmares.

But, like, who do you feel great about right now? Green Bay? Okay. And then Tom Brady has to win just two home games to make it back to the Super Bowl. All right. I mean, don't describe my nightmares. But who do you feel great about right now? Green Bay? Okay. Maybe. The Rams? No, the NFC doesn't look great. I would think the Rams are going to end up winning 12 or 13 games. What about, I mean, hey, man, Naira's with Jimmy Garoppolo are going to win 12 games.

Yeah, they might. Yeah. All right. Well, let me ask you this then. And it's not the first time we've seen it. Is there any other quarterback on earth? Young, old, white, black, well-liked, disliked. I don't care.

Pick whatever way you want to describe this person. Is there any other quarterback in our lifetime who can throw the temper tantrums that Tom Brady does on the sidelines and not face some sort of punishment, either from the team or the league, or just generally piss off his teammates. Well, no one cares about the surface. It's more of a question is, does social media mock Patrick Mahomes if he does this? It's accepted with Tom Brady.

That's the question they ask. Well, James Jones, former teammate of Aaron Rodgers, tweeted, if Aaron Rodgers acted like Tom Brady on the sidelines, he wouldn't be labeled a, quote, competitor. And I think James is right. Yeah, it's not cool to just spike the surface. I mean, those things stink.

It's a temper tantrum. He's a 45-year-old throwing a temper tantrum on the sidelines. Do you think, because he's been doing this for years and nobody ever told him it was wrong, do you think that there's a chance that some guys on the team are turned off by that? No. Do you think that there's a chance that some guys on the team are turned off by that? No. So you think when Mike Evans says, and people, lip readers out there said,

after Brady picked a fight, essentially, and Mike Evans had to step in and, you know, got himself ejected and probably suspended. He is suspended. Yeah, he's been suspended. And Mike says to the ref, that's Tom Brady. What do you want me to do? Like, do they just have his back no matter how much of a baby he acts like?

No matter what he brings to the... They want a Super Bowl with him. But then what about all the other players who are a distraction, who are in the way when they... I don't want to have to be asked about his behavior at my press conference. How come that doesn't apply to him?

Dude, players like him to special treatment man i know you hate that but that's just the way it is isn't there that famous jimmy johnson quote where like he says you know if you were you know if you were sleeping in the meeting room he just he'd cut you but if it was troy i'm gonna give him a pillow yeah same deal that's that's what it is that's what right sounds like That's what, right? Sounds like you and Ric Flair are in the same camp. Ric Flair tweeted, I would suggest everyone get off Tom Brady's ass and applaud him.

His personal life is his business, not yours. To judge, comment on, or laugh about makes you all look bad. So disrespectful. He's the GOAT. I mean, that's a little much. I think you can criticize him for that. But I don't think his teammates care, Gabe. You might care.

I mean, if Matt came in there and slammed the surface you'd be probably pretty pissed at him. But for Tom Brady not a big deal. Yeah I don't know. Let's see them lose a few of these close games and then him have a hissy fit and see if it still works. He's like 25

years older than some of his teammates. I don't know that they all care about his history. I don't know that they all care about his history. Probably not, but they know that he is a seven-time champion. Alright, well let's take a break and then hopefully we can whittle down the

list of teams we have to talk about on this show. I've got a few suggestions for edits. You can weigh in next when we move the line. Alright, Jeff, we're back. You're still smarter than the rest of us, so you're going to help me out here. We're two weeks in. I'm breaking format a little.

Here's the teams I'm sick of talking about or hearing about that we can just save time if you agree on this podcast. Okay. The Broncos. Let's ride. Out. Can we agree? Yes. Unless they do something we want to talk about, we don't need to talk about it. I feel like I told you guys they would stink this year, but whatever.

I'm just a Chiefs homer. Continue. So how about if they play the Chiefs and there's something to say, okay, if Russell Wilson wins like five games in a row and looks like himself 10 years ago, we'll talk about it. That's not happening. Otherwise, who cares? He's just so cringy, dude. He's so cringy. I just don't like that guy. He seems like such 10 years ago. That's not happening. He's just so cringy, dude. He's so cringy.

I just don't like that guy. He seems like such a fraud sometimes. We continue. Alright, so I'm gaveling that in. The Broncos do not need to be in this show unless we all agree. Me, you, Hank, Matt, everybody says it's a must discuss, otherwise they're out. Hank gets no vote. He's still an intern. That's a

fair point. Panthers. We all thought they might actually be kind of decent this year and i like baker do we have to talk about them so i said this on twitter the other day um the scheme on sat sunday giants panthers a good example of why coaching matters right so the giants general manager came out about a week before the season and said, guys, look, our roster stinks. Don't hold it against us if we lose. Basically is what he said, right? The Panthers

think they're a playoff team. The Giants are 2-0. They might be the worst 2-0 team of all time. I don't care. They're 2-0. The Panthers, with a better roster, have stunk and not played very well. It's coaching, man. So I am fine with not talking about them anymore. Really?

Okay. It took me a while. I've been wondering why we had to talk about Matt Rule for a couple seasons now. So we're here. That's it. Sorry, Panthers. We've made it. I know you will not object to this one.

Unless this means you also can't just crap on their coach just because that's what you do. I think we don't need to talk about the Seahawks the rest of the season. Don't crap on their coach, do I? Yes, you do. You love crapping on Pete Carroll. I would go to USC too if they'd offer me. Yeah, Seahawks are, it's so funny, man. Like, the reaction to Geno Smith is so interesting.

So, he had that great first half of Monday Night Football. He then threw for 30 yards in the second half and then stunk yesterday. Somehow people are just fawning over Geno Smith. It doesn't make no sense to me. But yeah, they're going to win. I had them for Bears for worst record in the NFL this year. They're on the way for that.

All right. I'm not sure we ever have talked about this next team. Can we just strike the Texans for a season? We'll bring them up again at the draft. They're going to be a great gambling team, though. We will not restrict them from the record on Thursdays. Okay, but for this show where we try to unpack some takes, we don't need it.

Cover two in a row. Cover two in a row. Alright, cool. No Texans takes. We're good. Yes. This one's controversial because they're fun to talk about, but I could do without the commanders.

Well, we don't talk about their quarterback, so yeah, the answer's no. Okay, they're out. Great. Colts we've covered.

They're officially out. Last one. It's going to be hard to avoid this train wreck all season, but can we just not talk about the Browns? We have to,

we think we have to, especially after yesterday and their fans and the dumb crap they're doing in the parking lot. Their fans should just be ejected from life for that. So we, Australia is interesting. So Nick Chubb is 24, 17 under two minutes left.

And we just have no timeouts. If Chubb just takes a knee when he gets a first down, the game's over. They kneel the ball and they go home. He doesn't. They go up 30-17 and end up allowing two touchdowns the last, and an onside kick recovery to win the game. The Browns missed extra point.

Do you think he should have gone down? I don't know. I i mean we know how the game ended so it's easy to say sure but i i don't know in a in a sport that now often prioritizes individual stats it was like turning down a touchdown probably not the best thing to do yeah i mean you know we had those famous examples in the Giants Super Bowl run. You know, we all got a lesson in how to try to manage the clock versus the scoreboard. It sounds like you screwed it up. Also, too, Nick Chubb was the same guy that did this last year, two years ago.

He had like a 75-yard touchdown, and the game just ran out of bounds. So very confusing, very confusing. Yeah, Nick Chubb giving fantasy owners all kinds of confusion. Are you in on the Jets now after this game? No, I'm not falling for it. The Browns are more Jets than the Jets. I mean, they're more dysfunctional. Yeah, they're both one and one though.

Your Chargers and the Jets are both one and one. Okay, okay, stop. You know you're scared of the Chargers. Not one part of you is scared of the Jets. I mean, the 2-0 Chiefs. Everyone else in that division has a loss. Okay. Let's talk about the team that you brought up earlier that probably maybe could be considered the top team in the NFC

in another couple of weeks. Packers won on Sunday night, beat the Bears. Okay, fine. But we looked ahead at their schedule. Not hard. So over under 20% chance the Packers win six in a row. Let me give you the schedule. Brady and the Bucs, that's not an easy one. Then we got home versus the Patriots, another team I could do without talking about. Home against the Giants, we'll get to them in a minute. Home against the Jets,

I don't know how they have so many home games in a row. Packers at commanders, winnable game Packers at bills, not so winnable. What are the chances that they could get really hot here and suddenly be top team in the NFC? Uh, I don't,

you know, they've struggled in the heat in Tampa before, so I don't know if this is, they're going to win this weekend. Um, but if they do, then they're coasting for heat in Tampa before. I don't know if they're going to win this weekend. But if they do, then they're coasting for four in a row. The Bears only beat them four times since 2008, which is crazy. They are who I thought they were going to be. This is the same team every year with Matt LaFleur.

They're better on defense this year than they have been in the past. They have more talent. But offensively, with Lazard there, they're able to move the ball just fine the combination play action pass and aaron rogers and running the football they're gonna win 12 13 games again gabe like what a surprise the packers are good again shocker this is what they are yeah i uh i i feel like they're gonna be contending for the one seed and that this is the year that aaron rogers like nobody's gonna even fight for the one seed because the guys at the top of the division are all like, I'm too tired for this shit.

Like it's going to be between Brady, Rodgers and Stafford figuring out who, who cares enough to go get the one seed. I don't see any of them caring. They all just think if they get in the win. I think, I think, I think that a buy would be, people would definitely take a buy.

All right, and maybe those old guys will want to buy. Here's a team, you mentioned them. You said they might be the worst 2-0 team ever. I don't know if I can disagree with that, but the next three are the Cowboys, the Bears, and then at the Packers. So over under, 4-1 start for the Giants. Possible? So I will will it's possible certainly they cooper rush this weekend i would here's what i do with the giants guys as soon as they go three and oh or four and oh you just immediately hammer their season win total

under because they're going to be it's going to add to add to like nine. They're not winning nine games this year. They're not good enough for that, especially when this guy gets tougher. So when that happens, go ahead and hammer, hammer the Giants season win total under. Because they're going to win a bunch of these games coming up.

But again, the teams are not very good they're playing against. Also would not surprise me if Dallas won this weekend either, right? So we'll find out obviously what happens. But yeah, the Giants, hey man, wins a win. If you're a Giants fan after the last couple years you'll take it all right let's um let's shift to a team that I think most people love to hate but then some

people really really love Notre Dame they avoided an 0-3 colossal failure of a season. With perhaps a little bit of help from some referees. Perhaps. And some might think a little help from NBC. I'm not buying that part. But, Jeff, there was a holding call, or excuse me, an offsides call on the missed field goal attempt. But there was no offsides. None whatsoever. Now Notre Dame goes on to win do you think that like some higher powers coming in to help notre dame from embarrassing themselves

yeah god um but but i don't know i just don't know how this was called um they call defensive offsides on cal no one's offsides even the mbc broadcasters were like i don't see anything yeah i don't see i watched the video and then they went ahead and scored touchdown on that drive and they won by seven um so man the the man of man above is looking out for um for notre dame notre dame is they are not good right now yeah yeah i don't know quite how it would work at a place like Notre Dame. Like, can they just rebuild? You know, like, how are they going to fare in the whole NIL portal world? So they have a really good recruiting class right now.

They're doing really good on that end. It's just, you know, Marcus Freeman's a young coach. He's figuring it out. And their offense is just not very good right now. Yeah, and probably a lot of the guys who would have considered going there are just going to go to SC now. So that's going to be hard for them. Sure, or Oregon, who's recruiting better than USC at the moment.

But other than that, sure. Oregon's back, baby. What a win. What a win. Well, there aren't really enough spots in the lineup right now at SC. If you're a great wide receiver, where are you going to get on the field? How are you going to find room out there? I mean, there's five offensive line spots up for grabs probably so okay well yeah i mean any any big guys who want to come play there's 11 spots on defense available uh not not 11 have

you seen our six foot six inch middle linebacker that notice that shane they never mentioned shanley or jensen gentry oh gentry. Oh, Gentry, yeah, from Arizona State. Yeah. It's huge. It's funny that all of our – all SC's players are described as from and then the school that they used to play for. There's like almost no one on the team who's there before. I mean, there's five starters. I think there's five transfers starting in offense and four in defense,

or five and five, something like that, yeah. Addison and Williams, Marioiams both look awesome the other night and caleb looks like the heisman winner so he looks like he might yeah he might he might uh okay quickie couple more for you over under 15 chance you know how to gritty uh my son does it all the time by the way i'm actually i'm actually surprised him you got a little bit of uh of um rhythm to him i i couldn't do it I could do better than Mike Lasecki can or whatever that was. That was pretty bad. That was embarrassing.

He shouldn't do that ever again. Mike Lasecki is getting roasted for a, what wasn't a great gritty, but he owned it. He said, man, it looks so much better in my room in front of the mirror. Back to the back to work tonight.

When I get home. He did. He did own it. Yeah. Good for you, Mike. Uh, and fantasy owners appreciate you as well.

Jeff, listen to this stat. A couple crazy ones out of New York. The Mets, Yankees, Jets, and Giants all won on Sunday. First time since September of 2009 that's happened. Yeah. And the Giants, Jets, Jags, and Lions all won on Sunday. First time since December 2011. Pretty incredible.

Over under 1% chance you knew all that. I did not. And the Kansas Jayhawks are 3-0, facing the 3-0 Duke Blue Devils. Oh, look at that, a little extra piece of trivia. And Game Day decided to go to Tennessee instead of Kansas. Boo. I did not know all that.

Good for you, man. I forget, you're still a Mets fan or is that gone now too? No, I become a Mets fan every October if they're relevant. Okay. It's not every October. It's like every 5th October. The one thing that about the New York, the one New York

story that I just, I'm not going to be able to take is the people that start calling Aaron Judge the rightful home run champion. Say more. I'm so annoyed by this. Go. It's Judge the rightful home run champion. Say more. I'm so annoyed by this. Go. It's not the way it is, guys. It's Barry Bonds.

Sorry. The self-righteousness of baseball fans is mind-blowing to me. Everyone used steroids. They didn't test for it. Generations of players have used greenies and other substances. There's been famous stories of players high while they're on the field, playing through cocaine binges, playing drunk, and playing on amphetamines and speed.

Come on, man. Don't do this. Don't do this. Just don't do it. Yeah. No, I can't stand it. Barry Bonds is still the greatest baseball player I've ever seen. I don't care what he did.

And his peers say that too. Yes. And Aaron Judge says it. Aaron Judge knows that 73 is the number, not 61 or even 70, which was tainted, I guess. No, he will break Roger Maris' record. I mean, Yankee's record. Sure. Sure. That's cool. And that, Yankee's record. Sure. Sure.

That's cool. Yeah. And that's something he should be proud of. Of course. I mean, he is playing in a little league part. That's also part of it as well.

Let's be honest about that. That was a very tough part, very tough place to hit home. And here's the thing too. And then people realize this. Bond's got like one strike a game to hit. No one walks Aaron Judge.

I don't get it. Why does no one walk Aaron Judge? Well, because baseball, it seems, has, I'm sure some stat nerd strike a game to hit no one walks Aaron judge I don't get it why is no one walking Aaron judge well because baseball it seems has I'm sure some stat nerd figured this out but you look around some of the best hitters the best power hitters in baseball a lot of them hit in different spot in the order than when we were growing up number two yeah and so I'm guessing that they that that's so that you have to pitch them more like if Barry Bonds had hit down in the two hole and had, you know, I mean, you can remember the stars around him, Matt Williams or some of the other big hitters around him.

It was Jeff Kent. It was behind him. Jeff Kent. Okay. Thank you. So Barry Bonds in 2004 walked 232 times. He was intentionally walked over a hundred times. Yeah.

Judge had only been intentionally walked 17 times this season. That's wild. Yeah. That's wild to me. No, it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. They keep pitching to him and he keeps jacking it out. But, you know, he's got about a third of his home runs are opposite field home runs.

Oh, that's small. Not looking at the exact stat. Small little stadium. He's flipping them out to right field. Okay. I mean, you know, listen, mostly the guy crushes the ball. Let's be honest. He pulls a lot into the left field upper decks but uh he does occasionally drop one over the

right field wall he's a good player i think the giants fans are going to want him to go to san francisco well i mean i think most towns are going to want to see him um jeff let's get further away from football for last 30 seconds here i'm through four episodes maybe you're through all five but over under 30 chance house of dragon is actually better than game of thrones so i haven't watched much of house of dragon um oh really mostly because i just don't want to commit to learning more characters that i can't pronounce oh interesting and i just okay so when i got into game of thrones it was like season three and And my brother said, hey, go watch, go start from the beginning, which I did. And the first season of Game of Thrones on HBO Go, whenever I was watching my iPad, had

like descriptions of every person in the show. I don't even remember this. Like it said, like, this is Ned Stark. This is Arya Stark. This is Targaryen. This is a Lannister. And like, you got to learn the names like it was it was I need this for House of Dragons I need I can't are they not of of a names like who the

who the hell are these people I can't remember their names Gabe it's so I haven't got into it yet I want to watch it I heard there's a lot of nudity this this season um right isn't there one like episode four there's a lot of episode four has got some stuff going on yeah okay i want to watch it but also i just don't know when like i'm watching football a bunch so i don't know it's not like it might think to watch right now and now the nfl has finally said to us if sunday night was out of the question for your hbo binging then you most of us would then push that off to monday night and go and monday night game's not great. I'll kind of keep it a half on and then I'll, I'll watch some HBO when the game dies down. Now we get two Monday night games.

So, you know, you don't even have, you don't even have time for that on Monday. You got to push dragons out to Tuesday. And by the way, the games are not even staggered. They're at the same, they play at the same time, basically like 7. to 815. That makes no sense to me. Well, that means I guess you get as much prime time as possible and you get two finishes. So you go from one game to the next. I guess.

They're asking a lot. They're asking a lot. I have one TV in my office. I'm going to have to split screen or something. I don't know how that works. I'm not good at that. I think everyone, everyone listening to this,

most of you will be hearing this after those games are played. I would imagine the audience here will be 90% Bills Titans, 10% Vikings Eagles. Vikings Eagles is not a game I need to see. Really? It's going to be good. Nah, that's for football dorks. I'm not into that one. Football dorks, sure. Yeah, essentially I'm describing people who listen to this show

by the way one more one more um one more uh savage or stupid there's an uproar i said savage stupid that's like what i do on my uh on my show on my radio show one more over under um over under one percent people should be angry that Bruce Arians was on the sidelines for Tampa Bay on Sunday. Why are people angry about this, Mike Florio? Who cares? Yeah, well, I didn't know this was even a thing people were pretending to be angry about.

He was on the sidelines. He's just like a senior advisor. They're like, he should be on the sidelines. He should be on the sidelines. What? For whose benefit? They think it's undermining bowls? No, because he.

What's the logic for why he shouldn't? He was talking shit to the Saints players. So? Right, exactly. Better him than like the owner or some other annoying person who doesn't know what they're doing. Agreed. It's so stupid, dude. It's like, it's one of those fake outrage things that's just like perfect for Florio to be angry about.

I just saw more tweets about it yeah well uh it'll not be the first time you've disliked it mike florio tweet jeff also worth pointing out if you guys have the chance to go do this i've saved it i haven't watched yet but uh eli manning dressed in disguise and go and try it on at penn state as a walk-on quarterback. Have you watched that yet, Gabe? No. I saw him not dressed in disguise selling hot dogs in New York, and nobody knew who he was. His personality has really picked up since the show started. So go watch that. Go rate, review, subscribe this podcast.

Please, we'll be back on Thursday with some more gambling, and hopefully we'll get you some winners this week. We had a bad week, too. Yeah, listen to Matt this week. Go with his picks. I had two as well that would have won but we didn't go with them. That was nonsense. Is Matt complaining at the office? I need to call

Matt and talk to Matt. Matt's fine. Hank's the only one complaining. Hank thinks I tried to undermine him with a faulty bike so he wouldn't break my records. It's just completely preposterous. Yeah, well, you know, Hank's dad, I'm sure, is still listening at the end. He can tell his son, get over yourself.

You broke the boss's bike. You owe an apology. Oh, you should owe an apology, for sure. I would need a video apology, please. Thank you. Thank you, Hank. Get on that right away. All right, guys, we'll talk to you Thursday.

Powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. Have a great couple of days.