Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Its Super Bowl Or Bust For The Chiefs Plus Eagles Get Physical And Stafford Wins Mvp

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

On this episode of “Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You,” Geoff and Gabe break down the wild week in the NFL, starting with the Chiefs' surprising loss to the Broncos. Is this just a slump or a real decline for Mahomes and Andy Reid’s crew? Geoff explains why coaching stubbornness and missed moments are costing Kansas City big games — and could even cost them the playoffs. They also dive into how the Eagles keep stacking wins despite ugly play, and why dominating the trenches still gives Philly the edge. Then it’s all about the Rams resurgence — is Matthew Stafford quietly putting together an MVP-caliber season? Plus, they touch on Caleb Williams vs. Bo Nix, backup QB chaos in Cleveland, and how draft development (not combine hype) separates contenders from pretenders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, welcome Jeff Schwartz to Smarter, the new. Jeff Hort to Smarter, you've been up by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the Crown is yours. Today is Tuesday, November 18th, Gabe, and we are here to talk about the National Football League that was, and maybe a little future. And also, big game in this podcast. Saturday, Eugene Oregon, 3.30 Eastern. Game day is going to be there. We'll talk about USC versus Oregon here.

We get to college football at the end of the show game. How was your weekend? I don't know if you have kids sports right now, but good weekend for ball. Really fun weekend to watch football. Yes, I tried to watch football while coaching basketball. And you might have to do a bit of that again for this Oregon game coming up. Jeff, you see, you're lucky.

Football is your profession. You know, your family accepts this. Your weekends are carved out for football. That is not necessarily the case in my household. Yeah, well, I mean, I, I, So I have to, I've told this before, I have to pick a day. So basically, I pick Sunday as my football day. But what I do is we have family over.

So Meredith feels like it's not just a football watching day. So like we have people over every Sunday. And one of them is our cousin who's a big Bill's fan. So like we just like we have football on and we invite people over. Saturday is like kids day. To your point, like if my kids have sports, we're doing the sports obviously. And I'm watching on my phone. The thing about Oregon being the Big Ten now is our games are a lot earlier.

Like this was not a thing. Like for years, Oregon was playing 8 p.m. Eastern, most of their games, even 1030 Eastern. We've had now multiple weeks where we're 3.30 Eastern. We had it Indiana. We had it last week. Oh, no, it's Iowa. We're having it this weekend to USC. So I've told my wife that on Saturday at 3.30, I'm going to be busy.

So that's hopefully she accepts that and we move it along. Yeah, well, that's 1230 out here, and that is prime. Yeah, you're kind of screwed. Yeah, you're kind of screwed. Another thing we do, too, your kids are not at this age yet is like if Oregon's playing on Saturday at 3.30 as they are, as I mentioned 100 times now, I will invite friends over to hang out with my kids. So like, there's no parenting that has to be done.

So like the kids are just, they're just roaming the house or order my pizza and we won't see the kids for four or five hours game. So my wife doesn't have to watch the kids. I can watch football and my kids are happy. having friends over to play with. Yeah. So that's what happened for me during this Chiefs Broncos game on Sunday,

the one I'm itching to talk to you about. Had a whole baseball team running around keeping each other occupied for the end of season party. The big TV was on the Rams game. Didn't think we needed to pay attention to Broncos' chiefs figured that's a Chief's dub. Well, thanks to a kicker and this Tebow-like vibe

that's happening in Denver, as I call. you are now trailing the division by, I don't even know how many damn games, losing to a team that my buddy Nick Wright said would finish in last. What the hell is going on, man? Yeah. I really, though, for real now, what is going on?

Because Travis tried to play. They tried to give them their best game. Didn't work. So there's two things happening that are probably related, but we'll talk about them in order that I think are most important. One is that we've talked about this for years, Gabe, right?

The Chiefs, their superpower was essentially winning all the big moments and all the games where no matter how sloppy it was, and we know NFL games, whether you're scoring a bunch of points or not scoring points. They're typically within seven points with two minutes left, right? It's what the NFL is. And they've always won the moments. Whenever there was a big moment, whether you need to get a first down, whether you need to kick a field goal, We need to score a touchdown.

We need to do this, that or the other, the chiefs made those plays. On defense, right, we need to stop. They would pressure and sack a quarterback, and they would force an incompletion. They would do whatever they had to do to get off the field and give the ball back to their offense or eventually win the game. And even sometimes, Gabe, the pressure beating Kansas City led teams to fumble snaps, led them to drop passes. And all these things that the chiefs were doing,

or sometimes not doing just letting the other team lose the game is the reason why they won close games for so many years. And now they don't make any of those plays. And that is a big problem. Think about this game, 1919, four minutes left. Chiefs have the ball. And you would think to yourself, I think we all thought this, game's over, right? Drive down the field, convert a couple third downs,

get Harrison Butker in position, you can game when he field goal, game's over. That's what the chiefs have done for seven years in a row now. In the exact moment, on the road, rip someone's heart out and go down and score. You'll convert a third and seven when the Holmes has a great scramble, right? Travis Kelsey pops open late, you throw him the ball. We've seen it for seven years now, the exact same thing. Instead, it was first-time in completion.

On second down, a weird formation where they had three-tons on the field, and Ray She-Rice was in the running-back position. And then the third play, I believe, was that pass to Smith, who's like not really, really ready to be in that situation as a running back out of the backfield. And excuse me, it was a sack. That was a sack, third down sack, I should say. And now you punt the ball back to Denver.

And then Denver converts a third and 15 to get that long path. Like the chiefs don't win those moments anymore, Gabe. And that's what comes down to the NFL. It's these little moments. Now, of course, other things happen in the game that I don't think help the chiefs win the big moments. And part of that to me is, I don't think the coaching is as good this season. It's, when you look at this offense, they refuse to do the things that they're good at. And one of them is under center runs, okay?

Under center runs. They're highly efficient running the ball from under center. They might not have explosive runs, but they're highly efficient doing that. And in their mind, they only do it to throw play action passes. And my brother put out a great tweet. You go check it out. it's very true. When teams do play action pass, Gabe, right?

They're under center. They play action pass. It's a great, it's a great, it's typically a great play for them. It's opportunities. But the team asks to respect you're going to run the football. No one respects the chiefs are actually going to run the football.

So when they play action pass, there's no sell. And the defense just immediately backs up, gets in his own coverage, and no one's going to be open. And so little things like that where the chief's refusal to do what works for them and Andy's insistence on passing the football

is really killing an offense that really is actually good at run the football. And that's the thing about the Chiefs too is I saw a tweet yesterday that PFF ranks, they have their rankings and they say, like, who has the best supporting cast for the quarterback? And the Chiefs are seventh. Like they have legitimately the best players they've had an offense in a long time. You added a Mahomes interception in the first half.

That was a bad interception. You know, Chris Jones is after the game that they knew what we were doing on a third down. They kept running the same pressure over and over, So that's why I think it's a coaching thing. It's not executing thing. They're like 10% worse all over the field. And that's the reason why the Chiefs are not very good right now. Where Denver, as much as I think and you might think, and we might think, like, how good are they?

They've won those moments this season, Gabe. Like, they've won the big moments. The Chiefs have not won those moments. That's my long way to say the Chiefs have not played good football. Well, no. And I looked at the sort of scoring summary. And I saw what you just described. I saw Chief's ball with about 4-10 to play, one possession game.

Okay. How do they end up losing this game? They don't lose that game. So thank you for the explanation. I want to back up to one or two things you said. First of all, Bonix just has some weird thing. It's the Tebow-like thing. Apparently, he has the most fourth-player comebacks by a player in his first two seasons ever in NFL history. Good for him. I don't know. I don't know if that makes him clutch. He's not very good, but it makes him clutch, I suppose. Can we talk about the running under center and your brother, Mitch, who played guard? Like what the hell's that? What do you explain that? Why is that hard to do? If everyone knows that's the way to do it, why don't they just do it? Because they're stubborn and they're set in their ways. And look, everyone in that building in Kansas City is an Andy Reid guy. Sometimes you need to have someone in the building who's not an Andy Reid guy.

I'm curious if they go and find a couple of voices this offseason to tell them to do stuff differently. They're often just sort of stale, man. And Mahomes has made it work over the years. But this is not working right now. Like it's just the past concepts are pretty stale. The run game is not well designed. And then Mahomes is missing on a couple deep passes that they kind of kill them. The interception was bad.

It's just a team that's not playing with much confidence on either side of the ball. And, yeah, I mean, my brother sent over, I could pull up the stat. He had someone pull some of the data on the under center runs. And, I mean, like, they're legitimately good. Guys, here we go. This is very nerdy if you want to hear it. I know. I'm into it.

The Chiefs under center runs with three plus yards to go. So taking out short yarders because they're really good at short yarders. They're sixth. Inefficient, you add short yardage, which they're incredible in, goes to second. Like, they can, they're good at running the football under center. They have good offensive line. They just don't commit to it. I mean, they got to.

The thing that I've always liked about Andy Reed is his ability to adapt and evolve in a season or year to year, right? Like they've done, they've managed to make it work with no wide receivers. They managed to make it work with a bunch of wide. They managed to make it work different offensive line combination. They managed to make it work all different ways. And this season, they're just not doing that game. They're not changing what they do to benefit the team on offense.

And I've been there of only one year, but I've been there. And I saw them change in offense in the middle of the season because stuff didn't work. We went to a buy after nine games and our office line coach went down the list of run plays. it was like, this works, this works, this works for throwing the other ones out. And one of them was his favorite run play. It wasn't efficient. We just ran what worked for us the rest of the season. I don't know why they're being so stubborn to not do that.

I know Coach Reid said, well, you know, we call runs and Pat throws the RPO. Okay, that's certainly fair. But you can also just call it and run it. You can have plays up where you design the run play to have most of the guys blocked. and there's typically always one guy left for the running back, but that guy can be a corner or safety deep, and you can have must runs. And so I just don't buy that you can't run the football

because all you do is RPO. I've met on this rant about RPO's before where I get the purpose of them and they work in some instances. I don't like them as much because you can, if you want to run the football and you call an RPO, a defense can dictate you pass in the football. It's a thing.

It's just like I just don't like the RPA. that much because of that. Like if I want to run the football, I want to call an actual run. Some offenses don't have a ton of runs. They're all RPO-based. You could force the offense to pass the ball when you want to actually run the football game.

There's also a bunch of things that I think that are good about those RPO's, but in those instances, just call to run it, man. And the Chiefs just don't do that right now. So a lot of football there, but there's just something missing this year with them. That being said, if they just decide,

hey, how about we run the freaking ball a little bit more under the center? And we come up with a couple more creative things on offense. They're just as dangerous. Their defense is still good, Gabe. They can't rush the passer, but they're still good on defense. They have good wide receivers. They have Travis Kelsey. They have good offense.

They can decide to be better and win some of these moments. And they're right back where we thought they could be. But they're not winning in the division. I'll tell you that. That's not happening. No, I think that's almost completely mathematically almost over. How about this question? There comes a point, right, when you're talking about potential goats.

We lived through Brady Belichick. We're now experiencing Mahomes' reed. Are we at that tipping point where the power, the actual true decision making in the eyes of ownership or just sort of like some higher power out there, is squarely with the quarterback, not the coach. They got here because the coach was operating a team with an all-time great QB who did what he needed to do to win the games. But then the quarterback became more powerful than the coach himself and that some of those decisions, the RPO and then just throwing it or the stubbornness about installing just the boring get me four up the middle in the offense. Like,

is it possible that it's the Pat dominance? of the team that is causing that. Because he's so good that they refused to take the ball of his hands type of situation. That in the Patriots case, it might have won them an extra ring or two, where it was just like, cool, man, Tom Brady's in charge.

It doesn't really matter who's on the side. Oh, but I think Pat wants to run the ball more. I think he wants there to be more under, like I think he wants the stuff I'm saying. It's just not, they're not calling it. So you're saying that he should be more, forceful with coach about what to call? No, I'm saying, is it possible that he is doing things that he thinks are right,

that aren't right from the coaching staff point of view, but he's the guy in charge, so they all have to go along with it. No, no, I don't think that's the case. I mean, he's making, like, the deception was bad. I mean, that's what it was, but he's overthrowing a couple guys deep. No, I don't think there's any, that's an issue at all, no. Okay. Well, then not to panic you or Chiefs fans who might be listening,

and I know there are a few. Wild card's what you're playing for. Now, you've got the team that we try not to talk about on this show, who happened to be in first in the NFC South, with an MVP candidate running back. They're playing them. They've also got the Jags who are sneaky 6 and 4. They've got the Texans who are 5-0-0.

No, no, no. They lost the Jags already. They lost the Jacksonville already. Sorry. I'm sorry. You're right. I'm naming the teams that would be wise. wild card obstacles. I don't mean that they have them on the schedule.

Pardon me. Correct. These are teams that they have to outplay down the stretch. Jacksonville, Buffalo, maybe the Colts. Like, yes, correct. Steelers, for sure. Even maybe they get better with a different quarterback. Can they outlast these teams?

Can they find that chiefs? It's a great question. So if you think 10 wins gets in, they got to win five of the next seven. So they have a Raiders and Titans game that they should win. two. You play a Chargers team that Herbert who knows, who knows if he's healthy and that team's just a wreck right now. So let's say

that's three wins, okay? You need two more wins. The Texans are not a given because their defense is really good, but I think, I think that, and most of these games are at home, by the way. You know, you gotta feel like there's a 50-50 game. The Colts this weekend, I don't know, man.

I don't really think they're going to beat the Colts unless Dea Jones was certainly possible. Outside, cold weather, just like, shit's the bed, it's certainly possible. You have a Denver game, I think week 17. That's at home, though. And you play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. So you're like, I think you play Denver on Christmas, actually, the Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

I mean, look, you can win all seven. You could also lose five, Gabe. I mean, if, if you tell me I get the same Chiefs team we've seen for the first 10 games, I think they win between two and four of those games. Yeah, it's not enough. If you tell me that we... It's not enough, you're right. If you tell me that we get a Chief's team

that executes 10% better, they win five or six of those games. And the thing about... I said it's yesterday, people were kind of confused, but it's a very good... To me, the way to put it. I don't think they're making the playoffs, okay?

I just... Unless it's something different... I know people just keep saying, whoa, two years ago, they lost the Raiders and then they won the Super Bowl. Okay, that's two years ago. The way they're playing now,

unless you tell me they're going to play better to end the game, I don't think they're going to win these close games. Or 0 and 5 of close games this season, it's a problem. However, Gabe, if they do make the playoffs, I think they're getting back to the Super Bowl because that means they've played a lot better and they're playing up to their standard to win enough games to get into the playoffs.

Does that make sense? Yes. Unless if they get in, like are you telling me right now, New England's a two-seed. They're hosting Kansas City in divisional round on a Saturday night. Give me the Chiefs, right? Absolutely, give me the Chiefs. And then the Chiefs are going to the one-seed, Broncos or Colts,

on Sunday the next weekend. I'll take the Chiefs again. You see what I mean? Game? Like, there's a path very easily for the Chiefs to get back to the championship game, but they have to play better to actually get in the tournament first. And if they do that, they win five in the next seven games. That's better than they've started the season.

I think they're really live to get back to where they want to be. Are they going to play that well, game, is the question. I don't know. I haven't seen it. And so if I see it, great. Look, they might come out this weekend game against Indian played their best game of the season. And win the game by, you know, they beat the lines 3017. They beat the Colts 3017.

Okay, good start. Can you do it against the Cowboys? Like you do it against the Texans. Can you do it? I don't know they play. Raiders, whatever it is. Like, can you do it? Can you do it every week for seven more weeks in a row?

They've proven the past they can. Show it to me. Yeah, it feels to me like they waited a couple weeks too long to turn it on. Every now and then I'll like race a bunch of seven-year-olds, right? And I'll give them a head start. I'll say, we're under that fence and back, but I'll give you a head start. And if I don't time it just right, you know, if I give them a few extra steps, they might beat me.

But if I go too soon, then it's not really. any fun for anyone. The chiefs, I think, were trying to make it fun, and then they just gave those kids a few extra steps, and they're going to lose. They're just, they're just not as good. I think that's fair. I mean, the funny race, you ever race by kids in a while. My kids think I'm so just like slow and fat, because when they see like clips of me on the field, I look slow, and I'm like, I, yes, on a football field, I am slow, but I'm actually very fast in real life and they just they don't believe me and I beat them in a race my wife's 0 for five racing me it just doesn't work very well all right you just pivoted from beating your kids in race to beating

your wife and race you race your wife no she gets a little bit liquored up on vacations and tries to race me every vacation and I've been your race your drunk wife I could race her sober I beat her too but she'll just get a little bit she'll be like let's race I'm gonna beat you this time I'm like okay sure and then Typically it's like on the beach in Mexico. We're just like racing each other. And it's like, okay. Sure, whatever you want, whatever you want.

I'll beat you another than the race again. Yeah. I don't know if we race enough as adults. I feel like racing was like a regular daily occurrence as a kid. You're like, let's just race. Well, yeah, because now I'm worried about, you know, snapping my Achilles. So like that's the, I don't worry about that when I'm seven. Yeah.

Well, okay. So in this analogy that I concocted, it got us on this. tangent. I want to bring it back. The team that started losing the race to the seven-year-olds, and then was like, what the hell are we doing? And then just started gunning it and hasn't really looked back is the Eagles, right? So they're the champs. And they, we pretended to panic about the Eagles for the first few weeks.

Their own damn wide receiver one was bitching and moaning and making it seem like something was wrong. Bishes every week. Yeah, fine. But like, they're good. The Eagles look really good. They're top the NFC right now. Are we saying that they have all this stuff figured out that the Chiefs didn't figure out? Is this a quirk of the schedule?

No, no. I mean, the thing that the Eagles do, and look, their offense is never going to be pretty, I don't think. With the new OC, and it's just Jaylen hurts like 10th OC in 10 years. It's crazy. He's put the new OC in early every year of his career.

Alabama, Oklahoma. That excuse gets made for some guys and not others. I don't understand. Who doesn't get made for? I'm saying like some guys just play through that and win and other guys get just Well I mean Hertz is playing through that and win it

Yeah He won in Alabama he won't Oklahoma He won in Philly But the thing the Eagles do That I just It's just when you win with With force in the trenches Gabe You're going to be in every game man

When you win with defensive line Offensive line running game You're going to have a chance in every game right Because sometimes the Eagles often stalls out But their defense makes the play And their draft and development, right? Like they let a defense tackle go, right, in the offseason. And then here comes the third defensive tackle who becomes,

starting to become a superstar right behind Carter and Davis. You go trade for Jalen Phillips. All of a sudden becomes a better player. And by the way, that's a phenomenon that is very common, right? You go from a team that's losing to a team that's winning. And I'm not saying that Jalen Phillips didn't play hard with the dolphins, but there's a sense of like, of, okay, I got just won a Super Bowl now.

You're just going to play better, right? He's going to play better. And also, he's on a team now where teams are focused on Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and not him, right? Like he gets a one-on-ones. And so he's just going to naturally play better. I will say, though, Lane Johnson being out with a foot injury is a problem for them, especially with how beat up their offensive line has been this season. That does worry me.

That's a big component when now you're right tackles a little more vulnerable to pressuring. Jalen hurts, where that was not a problem at all for so many years. years now. He's probably out for most of the season with a foot injury. But other than that, man, they just keep winning games. When the Chiefs win these games last couple of years, we've been like, good for the Chiefs. They just know how to win. But for Philly, it's like, it's so gross. I don't like it. Who cares, man? It's week 11. Just win the games. And the Eagles just keep doing that. Yeah, I get a question for you about that, that idea that when you just add a player, they suddenly start to play better. I've noticed with the Eagles defense, there's a lot

like big name college players top recruits like these guys who everyone saw and were like well he's obviously he's great and then he kind of didn't really get picked as great in the NFL and then they show up at the Eagles and they're great again the Kobe Dean comes to mind watching that guy fly all over the field I'm like yeah man that guy was awesome what why are we surprised this is well because this is the problem with with the combine right and and not the combine the whole scouting process but part of the combine is people take so much into their athletic scores of the combine instead of just watching the film and being like that guy can play football I want to draft football player and the eagles just draft football men they draft dudes that can put you they can play football and that it continues to

be a superpower of there so drafting development is really really good and then of course they bring in a couple free agents that they hit for them whether it was you know it was zach bond now their middle linebacker or whether last year they you know sleigh plays really well for them they're able to just do this, right? To find a couple pieces of emergency, to find a couple pieces via trade. And also the draft development part of this is really important.

They're really good at it. But like, how hard is it to spot the smartest player on the best defense in the country and he's in the third round? It's like, yeah, let's draft that guy. Because teams are dumb? I don't know.

They're not all good teams. Okay. I just, they pick up that guy, Jaylon Phillips, you mentioned. Like, I didn't realize this. But he was, supposedly the best player in the country coming out of high school.

He's from L.A. Yeah, he went to UCLA, yeah. Yeah, and he went to, like, study the Miami. Yeah, he went to UCLA Miami, right? I think that's how he went. Yeah, he took a break, though, to study music. Then he came, got to Miami, and then everyone was like, duh, look at him.

First round. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good player. And then, of course, again, when you get to a winning team, you naturally just play a little bit better. It's just sort of like, like the sauce gardener's going to play better, I think,

and John Phillips just plays 10% 15% better. And, you know, because like, think about, like, I never won a Super Bowl, right? And what that does for your life, dude, like, these guys know what it means to win a Super Bowl. And he's trying to win a Super Bowl. He went from a team that's a dumpster fire to potentially winning Super Bowl. Like, sauce to the same thing. Went from the Jets to the Colts. Like, you just, you play better in that environment.

You play better when you're around, you know, winners, right? I'm sure you feel that way if you're in a group of people and you're, you know, your profession that are like winners, you feel. feel like being around them probably elevates your game as well. You want to match everyone else. If you're on a new team like Phillips is and you see how hard Jillyn Carter's works,

you see how hard Kobe Dean works. Like the guys you mentioned, you want to play that level. You want to perform at that level. So you play a little bit better. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I've been playing a lot of pickleball lately and play with these guys.

You know, mostly women in their late 50s. And some of them, like this woman, Tammy, she's no joke, man. and you know I I step up my game like if I'm playing with Harriet my game my game is way up here is this is this couples a pickleball or just no these are just other other women you know retirees mostly where you play pickleball at I played a club nearby my point is just if I'm just playing with some guy I'm not you know I'm not really anything special but once I get on the court with the best the best women out there then I really step okay are you questions are are you are you

Is it just a pickleball club only or is it like an actual gym that has pickleball? It's actually technically a yacht club, but I obviously don't have a yacht or use boats. You go like the Benjamin Club? No, no, no. I was just curious. I think that's the Jonathan Club. I think that's the Jonathan Club.

There you go, Jonathan Club. The John, I've been, yeah, that's like you drive. Benjamin Club. It's a Jonathan Club. That's what it is. Right as you enter Santa Monica. Not there, no. No. Now place is, I think I've been there once for a barmonds for something way back in the day.

It looks like everyone, it's so funny when you drive by that place. Nonetheless, so you're not probably one of those exclusive clubs, just a yacht club that has, that has pokerball. Yeah, I'm there for the pickleball. I play against some folks who are a bit older than me. And I was just trying to agree with your point that when I'm playing in a yacht club, that's pretty impressive. It's a long story. I'll tell you offline. But if I'm playing against people who are worse than me, my game drops. If I'm playing against people who are better than me, I get better. That's the way it works, yeah.

I mean, I do better podcasting like with Damasek, you know. You just, you have to get better up with me. You're telling me you're giving me like average? No, I'm 10% worth. Let's step your game up here. Let's do this right now. Let's get serious for a second. I'm giving away something from later in the show.

show. Okay. This is Matt Stafford's MVP season. I'm off Jonathan Taylor, whatever. Matthew Stafford's going to win an MVP, whether he deserves it or not. It's just going to be the cool thing to do to say Stafford deserves the MVP. They win that close game against the Seahawks. Like, the Rams are it. And he's the reason why. He's making a bunch of average players look great his whole career. I'm in, man. What's missing there? For Stafford winning the MVP or just in general? That team.

Talk to me about the Rams. They're good, man. They're really, really good. You know, they did a great job rebuilding on the fly. You know, you lose Aaron Donald and you draft Jared First. Verse is good, man. Like, you have that. I haven't even checked this.

Matt and I bet on Sacks for both Benito and Vers. I haven't checked it a while. Benito's going to go over. Vers, I think it's getting close. And look, there's just a, so defensively they're young, they're fast, they're physical. You can rush the pass. You have a chance in every game, of course. But then offensively, like, they've sort of made it work with, you know, not a lot of depth of

wide receiver, but the top end is really good. They started, we talked about us last week, the 13 personnel using the tied end, because their offensive line is okay, not great. But again, they scheme things up to make it work for everyone. is just really, really good. And so you have this combination of all those things together. And I think that, you know,

I think part of it too is like they really believe in themselves. They really believe in, in what they're doing as a team. And there's a lot of, you know, that matters a lot too when you buy in and believe that you can win every game. And they certainly feel that way.

I mean, this is another game too, by the way, that we had Rams minus three, Matt and I. I mean, you force four turnovers and you don't cover a field goal. one of those years, man. But the Rams are, I think the Rams Eagles meet again in the championship game. I feel very comfortable with that.

And Stafford's going to win the MVP. Okay. See, I didn't even have to try to convince you of anything. No, I have a, we talked about this on another podcast. You're welcome to check that out. One of those ones where your game steps up? On days, you'll listen to us. But we have a Chris Felica,

the bear put together a parlay for us, Gabe. Yeah. Um, that actually like, it's like, it's got a chance. Ameca, Buka, offensive rookie of the year, Mike Rable coach of the year, McCaffrey comeback player of the year, Stafford MVP. Surprisingly enough, I feel like a Buka is the one that you got to be worried about right now.

But who's going to win offensive rookie of the year at the moment? That's the problem. There's no other, it's not Jackson Dart. Yeah, I don't, I don't have a better suggestion. Oh, 35 to 1. Not bad. We'll see if that works. That pays 35 to 1.

You put those four together and only pays 35 to 1? Only? I'm just, I guess more than that, honestly. When did you make that bet? Two weeks ago? Oh, okay. Yeah, two weeks ago. I thought that would you put that in going into the year, where I would not have, I would not have.

No, no, no, no, no, two weeks ago. Okay. But, I mean, you got variable still at plus 125. I don't know what he's, I actually haven't checked any of the odds today. The other one, by the way, we gave this. this out on our preview show. Carson Swessinger, the Browns

rookie linebacker for defensive rookie of the year. I got it 40 to 1. He's now the favorite, like, by a good amount at the moment. So that would be a nice hit after the shit season we've had in the NFL to hit a 40 to 1 future.

Yeah. I hope you get that. Let's quickly squeeze one more topic in before the break here. I often caution you again. betting on the Cowboys or believing in the Cowboys or doing really anything more money in the Cowboys. Right. So what when a team says that they

aren't starting their two star wide receivers for quote unquote disciplinary reasons, typically, but then they play and they both play great in a night game. What does that usually mean? They're available, they're healthy. Yeah, they did something dumb

And they're being, and they're just being like punished. Two of them together did something dumb. What are they staying up and play an Xbox? What's going on there? That means they missed curfew. They didn't show up to, you know, a meeting on time. They were late for the travel party. Like, this home game, I guess that wouldn't be a problem.

No, that wasn't a way game. They either late to the bus. Like, that's just, it's not, if you're just down a drive, it's not a big deal. It's just to show everyone, I guess, that you're paying attention to the players and that if they do make some of those mistakes, you least home accountable for that. So it's likely that they were out super late. Did they report that they missed curfew or something?

The hotel? Well, yeah, it seems likely. They were in Vegas. Here's the thing. A couple guys with a lot of money in their pockets. This is my, this is, well, they weren't at a casino because you would have known that. I mean, everyone would take a picture to them.

Here's the, here's the thing I love about these. stories, right? So I'm going to probably butcher this, but Jimmy Johnson, former Cowboys coach, I've heard the story before. They asked him about like disciplining, you know, players. And he said that if a backup linebacker was sleeping in one of my meetings, I'd cut his ass. If Tracon was sleeping, I'd give him a pillow. Like it just like it, they're not going to do anything for C.D. Lamb and for Pickens doing anything. They're not going to, that those are the two wide receivers. not going to sit them for a half to prove a point. If it was Jeff Schwartz,

I might be cut if I didn't make curfew. I've seen players get cut who lied about, you know, who left the hotel after curfew and went out. Like, they were backup offensive linemen and they were backups. Like, they're not good.

So these guys can do whatever they want. If they miss curfew by 10 minutes or by two hours or they're gambling all night in Vegas, as long as you show up and play and you're one of the better players, the punishment's nothing. They might fine them a little bit. I don't know. They'll take some money from them.

But it's not going to, It doesn't mean anything. Have you ever missed curfew? No. I'm sleeping before curfew. Yeah, I was going to say. So how did you get roommates? You only get roommates for the first couple of years in the NFL, and then you don't.

So like the first maybe two years I had a roommate, and then you get your own room. And when you had a roommate, where is it like, you're with the other guy who wants to go to bed early? How do you find each other? Oh, good question. I mean, I don't know what early means. I would probably be, you know, 10.30? Is that early? 10, 10, 30? I'm not, I never played in the NFL. But when I was 20-something years old, yeah, 10-30 would have been an early bedtime. I don't know, I guess, I don't be like, I'm going to bed man, and I just go to sleep. I don't know.

What's the other guy? Turn the light off and doing whatever he wants. I don't care what he's doing. You're able to go to sleep with some other guy in the room just doing whatever he wants? I feel like I wouldn't be able to sleep like that. I'm a good I'm a good sleeper like that's what like my superpower I sleep very well one of my kids had that superpower my daughter and my son does not like my daughter I she was tired last night I gave her a kiss before bed and she was sleeping like by the time I left the room like she was not like that's me I when it's time for bed met I'm I'm out really gift I'm not

built that way not my wife's not built that way my son's not built that way but like I, when it's like, when I decide, when I decide like it's bedtime, like I might stay up late and and scroll my phone, but I decided like I'm going to bed now. I'm out. Got a clear mind, Jeff. Let's use that clear, sharp mind on some not so quick hitters after the break. And then we got to hit some college football. Big weekend.

All right. We're back and we're doing some quick hitters. I don't look at the quick hitters because I want to surprise them with me. And I just already see them. There's some topics here. They're going to be fun. Let's, the second one, really, really, let's go. Here we go.

There's a theme here. They're mostly trolling you. Who wins a Super Bowl first? My boy Caleb or you're a boy, Bo? Ooh, good question. I would say Denver. I think Denver's a better team than Caleb, and they're in an easier conference at the moment.

All right, how about this? What if Caleb Williams finds his way to Sean Peyton and Denver? How much better are they then? they're better on offense yeah heya boy was starting to do some he's still you see every week like the bears look they've won five games this year Gabe where they were trailing with two minutes left

it's their records for gasey it is what it is but we have a quarterback who can get them down the field to win games at the last minute like what we're seeing Williams I think like every week you see a little bit more of like that USC swag and confidence come out of him so I mean like Ben Johnson's game the best thing which is why you hired Ben Johnson

I like how hard you're working not to give Caleb Williams credit for what Caleb Williams is doing. He's playing well. The Bears should not be winning these games though. Five games, when you've been trailing in under two minutes, it's, yeah. Okay, I mean, we just did a whole segment on the Chiefs

and how they win those games because that's their magic and they like figure out a way. Yeah, but a lot of those games, they're already, last year they were already winning in the fourth quarter. Like they just count how long to the lead. They didn't come back with two minutes left. All right.

I'm just saying, I think everyone bought too high and then sold too low. And I've held my Caleb stock the whole time. And the price just keeps rising. So you tell me when you're interested in buying some of my stock. I got plenty of it. Okay. All right. Next topic.

Your boy, Kurt Benkert. He's calling out Matt LaFleur. He says he can't have his eyebrows done until he gives over play calling duties. that idea? I don't even know what this. I don't even know what this means. That's what it means. I'm glad that those tweets just never find me.

I'm just so glad this never find me. I'm in a whole separate universe of like I just don't see any of those tweets. I'm just, is he complaining about the official still every week? Is that still his favorite thing to do? I don't think he likes the play calling on the Packers offense. Okay. I will give the floor.

I bet you reluctantly agree. with that idea. I have not watched their offense enough to know if the play call is the problem. I know Jordan Love two weeks ago couldn't find an open receiver. Like there were guys open and he just couldn't find him. I'll tell you what, though. So Jordan Love came out and Malik Willis went in for a driver to against New York. And I got to give him a flirt credit because he had a whole package of plays ready to go for

Malik Willis. And they probably practiced those on Wednesday, maybe a period on Friday. And he was ready, ready for the backup. I was very impressed by that. And, oh, good, I'm looking at the rundown. No, Shadur Sanders. Okay, good. Let's making sure we don't go there.

You know, now that you mention it, the next topic I've already covered, so I'd like to cover that instead. Shadur Sanders got in the game, and we have to talk about it, so say something about it. The only thing I'll say is this. So whatever Josina Anderson's game, paid must be a lot of money because that is it's odd it's odd i was very cryptic what are you

talking about or tweets were very so you see what jocina anderson's tweets but you're not seeing kirk benkirt go mega viral no i don't i don't i don't see it all i don't know why my algorithm just like doesn't give me kirk benkirt you're just everything josena anderson thinks you're no i i i get those from other people um no one in my union universe even sends me Kurt's tweets. I just get, but, Josina had some...

You're on a text thread right now. While we're here, I bet we're getting some of them. Josina said for Sanders, against all odds, he could plead a third and ten pass for a first down. The pass went two yards

and then Judy broke four tackles for a first down. And then she said, you know, no first team reps. So this is the thing, okay, who boy,

all right. So, let's talk about about reps, right? And, and then you have, once I have this list of former backup players myself, Brian Hoyer, Luke McCown,

you have even like Kurt Warner chiming in, Chase Daniel chiming in, where the way it works in the regular season game is you have like 30 plays in a practice, okay, on a Wednesday or Thursday. The first team quarterback is going to get 28 of those, probably 30, okay? The backups do the scout team

and maybe every now and then they'll be like Schwartz, go get two reps for the right guard. He needs, he's old and needs a couple plays off in a practice. But for the most part, the backup quarterback gets very little work. And there's like 95 people, 900% of former players are like, yes,

that's how it works, right? And it does work that way. And think about the Browns, okay? So Flacco was a starter. Gabriel was the backup. and Sanders was third string. All right? So the pushback is,

well, Dylan Gabriel got backup reps. Well, yes, he was second string. Flacco was older. And as I mentioned, sometimes they put the young guy, you know,

the old guy steps out, he's too old, and he's in practice all the time, and the backup goes in that spot. So Gabriel might have gone a couple first team reps. Now when Gabriel becomes a starter, he's young,

he needs all the reps, right? He needs every single rep he can get to practice for, to prepare for the game. So they give him all the reps for the game. Because I think it was Tom Moore,

Payton Manning's O.C. And they asked him, like, do you give reps the backup? He goes, we don't practice. Fucked. Like, teams don't practice fucked. Like, they don't, like, who practices if the, your job is to get the starters ready to play, right? You know, legit, he said,

they say, we don't practice fucked. Like, we didn't, why, why would you not get Payton Manning every rep he can ever get in practice, right? Like, that's the way it works, okay? But then you have, like, these disingenuous people that former players that are like so in Sanders camp. You, Cam Noon's like, well,

Derek Anderson got a few reps when I was the quarterback. But that's not the way it works everywhere else. Like you have these, like I played for five teams, Luke McCamp played for seven, Hoyer played for a bunch, Chase, I play with your situation. And so people take that and run with it. Schwartz, you're lying. Backups do get reps.

Not really. His situation might be different. I don't know why they would give Derek Anderson reps when Cam Noon, I would imagine, could use the reps like everyone else could. But like, you think Tom Brady took a rep off at practice? You didn't pay me? No, they practice all the time.

The backup, that's what happens. You go into a game and never playing with the starters. I did, I tweet this out. My second year got my in my first game game, last three plays of one game. I'd never worked with the right guard before, the tight end, the quarterback. I was a backup.

I got backup reps. Then you're a starter. That's the way the NFL works. And it's like such a weird. So it's like, that's a weird thing that we're arguing about. Like, there's nothing abnormal. The Browns are not trying to screw Shudurr Sanders. They're not trying to.

He's starting this week. He'll get all the reps this week. It's just so weird, man. Like, I don't understand. If you take, I do understand. But if you take, if you take Schindersandard's name off and just put Joe Smith in. I told you, Joe Smith, fifth round picked and have reps with the ones before he played. You'd be like, oh, yeah.

That makes sense. Why would he have reps with the ones? He's a fifth round picking and he's a rookie. I just, I don't get it, man. I don't get, like, the need to just make this more than it has to be. He's going to get a chance to start this week. We'll show how he plays,

and he'll get reps with the ones. I'm so sorry to have had to drag you into that ache. You clearly had nothing to say about it. It's just frustrating, man. I probably should stop talking about it because it's really no point. I thought that was fascinating. I haven't heard that from other people.

That's why I like talking. to you. So there was a former NFL offensive lineman who was arguing with me about this. And I said at one point on Instagram and I said at one point like, bro, you know how this works.

Stop being weird about this. He goes, yeah, I know. It's still BS. Like everyone knows. All the players know how this works. Just because one player Cam Noon said every now and then Derek Anderson got reps.

That's the abnormal thing. Every other players been like, yeah, the backups get no reps. It's the way it works during the season. It's so dumb. Like you have guys making arguments being disingenuous. They know how it works. You might not like the Sanders is getting whatever you want,

whatever you want to use screwed or not give him a chance. But the fact is that Browns are operating no different than any other team in the NFL. Sanders were the fourth string quarterback heading into the season, Gabe. Fourth string. That he was third string. Then he was second string. Now, guess what? He gets to start, which, by the way, I said this season that all three of them would play

and the season is the starter. But the problem is, the last thing about this, and we'll move on to college probably, is this, this, this media storm about a guy playing, you know, 20 snaps to end a game and the discussion around it, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, is the reason why I think a lot of teams passed on this, Gabe, they just passed on it.

They're like, I don't want to deal with this. We don't think he's good enough to be a, starter, which we can argue about that evaluation. But once you get sort of out of the first round, second round, do you think teams want to deal with this? Do you think teams like, do you think the Browns in their crappy season want to answer questions about whether you gave the third string quarterback enough practice reps before you played in a game?

They don't want to deal with this. His supporters are hurting him by having these dumb discussions on national TV and saying that the Browns are sabotaging him and the Browns don't want him to be successful. the browser. It doesn't help Shedra Sanders at all to make these arguments on national television. I loved every second of that, but you're right. We need to keep it moving. So in the words of Tom Moore, we don't practice fucked and we don't talk about fucked. So the NFC South, we had a few topics there. Sorry, we're not doing that. You're fucked. But I do have to ask, Jamar Chase clearly spits in Jalen Ramsey's face, then says he didn't do it, then gets fine.

about a half a million bucks. Have you ever seen anything like that? Like, what do players think when stuff like that happens? You'll enjoy this story. Oh, yeah. So, um, uh, spitting to me is like, spitting, growing punches, like, disrespectful. It's just gross.

Spinning, it's just gross, right? We're playing USC in 2007 game. And, um, on a play, USC didn't, only had 10 guys on the field. And so me and the right guard, we just, dominated the defensive end at the time and like just like he buried him I speared him it was it was what it was um the later in the game I got spin in the face by said player um and yeah wasn't great and so uh but then like he went the NFL and me and him like side each other every now in the NFL like just the shit talking went like back and forth back and forth I told a teammate of his

what happened and he's like dude he's like the nicest guy ever like why would he do that I don't know. He called him on the phone where we were in the car together and we hashed it out and then I think we're cool now. I don't know. But yeah, that's, but I like legit.

He said, sorry I did that, Schwartz? No, I think he, he never admitted he did it. Like, I would call him out on it when I saw him on the field. And he said, like, I didn't do that. And then eventually he admitted he did it, yeah. Such a weird thing to do. I just, I can, the spit thing to me is,

it's always gross, obviously. But then the lie, but he's like, I didn't do it. Like, bro, bro, it's in 4K, man. Everyone's, we have 18 cameras on the field. We saw you do it. Right. And like, you know you're going to get hit if you do it.

The reason I find it especially gross, though, is, especially with you guys, you big guys, where your hands are all taped up, you can't even get your hand under the face mask. So now you got, you got spit on your face. Yeah, the spit, yeah. So if you spit it all during a game or anything, just like on the ground in your helmet, just like it just hangs off your face mask. It's gross.

Yeah, you're just trapped in a little, like dome of spit now until the next time you get off. So you try if you try to spit with your helmet all, just like on the ground, like it's just going to stick on your face mask. Yeah. Yeah, that's gross. Well, that was a lot of, that was a lot of spit too on, on, on Jaylon Ramsey. Jaylor Ramsey had the appropriate reaction to that.

You punch him in the face, correct. Yeah. I think almost anyone on earth would do that. Let's take a break, but I got to ask you about the content that we're talking about algorithms and what does and doesn't hit. I somehow got in this wormhole of, like, teams showing just how much goes into getting things ready. I saw a field in Madrid being made.

I saw a guy talking about all the crap they do to board an airplane, the Jaguars. The Chargers, the Chargers TikTok account, very big into this, by the way. I get my algorithm is big into this. Patriots as well. Seattle, I've seen them all. All right, we'll do that next.

We'll take a break. We'll be our back. All right, Gabe. We're back. Let's talk about algorithm and TikTok. Well, mudding the ball. I don't know if we want to watch some of this. Maybe it could just play while we're talking.

I had no idea, no idea, how much time and effort and precision it takes to make a football muddy so you don'ts can run around. Well, so footballs come, they're very slick. and everyone has their own way to get the slickness out of the ball. And so every team does their own thing. Like, every team has their own method. And you see the video we're showing now, like the Jets have their own, the Giants I remember did like Eli wanted a ball a certain way.

That's why the Tom Brady thing with the deflated balls was so dumb because every team does this to the balls. They break them in, they put them in dryers, they put lotion on them and oils on them. them and they sand them and then like to be like oh tom brady the ball was slightly deflated i'm like who gives a shit they don't they don't do this stuff to the football some like them a little bit plump or some like i'm a little bit less like this is what they do the ball it takes forever to get

and they do this for every single ball the quarterback uses now the kicking balls and the reason why people are theorizing the kicking is so much better now is those balls are not broken in they're rock hard and the ball flies further when it's not broken is sort of everyone's sort of guess on why the kicking is even better this season than ever before. Yeah, thank God we made kicking a more part of the game. Way to go. I mean, and they're using, by the way, like the same mud, the baseballs, the Vermont mud that they use for baseballs.

Yeah, what's, I saw that. Vermont mud. Yeah, it's one, one farm in Vermont makes all the mud that they use for baseballs and footballs. Makes the mud? You mean they just have like a muddy swamp area and they dig it up and package it? Yeah, essentially, yeah. One farmer in Vermont does it all for baseball, all the baseballs. Well, they don't do it there.

They send the mud to the baseball. Do we think maybe that's like a nice word for cow poop? Whatever, yeah, mud, sure, cow poop, mud, whatever you want to, yeah. So there might be some kid who's big break. Like his hope is that six jobs from now he'll be, you know, an offensive coordinator. But right now he's smearing cow shit on a football. So, no, these are equine managers. So they're not coaches.

You got to get your start somewhere, Jeff. You got to get in the building. Not many guys go from the EQ room up to being office coordinator, but certainly possible. Well, I mean, you take the job. I have, right? Do I have, I have a ball. I don't think I have a kicking ball.

But you can see, like, the difference in like, like, this is like, it's not great. Yeah, here. This is great. No, people are enjoying this. This is a good listening experience. you just walking away. There we go. I'm back.

So like a brand new ball, this is like a game ball I have. Like this is like it's like it's just not broken at all. So it's like completely brand new. And it's slick and it's just not. This is the 10 years old or 15 years old. It's a little bit different now. But they're just not broken at all. So you have to,

you have to like break them in so they're able to be thrown used. I fully grasp the need for a broken in ball. I've thrown footballs. I'm just saying I think that the whole problem. There was there were heating elements. There were 46 hours, not 48, 46 hours of waiting. There's mud. There's, you know, brushes.

There's oils. A lot of stuff where it's like, I don't know, man. Just throw the football. Do you think that USC will have enough broken footballs in to play Austin this weekend in the rain and the miserable weather, which, by the way, it might, it would be good for them this weekend to play in front of a full. It'd be nice to play like in a full crowd in the rain. too. That'd be such a treat for them this weekend as they head to Eugene Oregon.

All right. So you're segueing us nicely. Thank you. Everyone thanks to you. But you don't have to do it with such sarcasm. The reality is the Trojans played just fine in the rain. And yeah, a few less people showed up in an environmental or an eco, what the hell is it called? a atmospheric river. Is that what we were dealing with here in LA? Nobody wants to sit in that much. A bunch of losers who are used to spend on every day of our life in rain. We have a beach here.

Look at Riley was so excited about that win. It's a jump up in a Dally won the Super Bowl. Big win. Big win. We did it by five. It took you a last second field goal. I mean, it did. It did. Yeah. You should

win against Oregon. I'll tell you that. What do you think for this weekend? You got your hat on. Tell me about the game. I think we're going to win by multiple touchdowns. So a couple of things. I think just fundamentally a tough matchup for USC, right? So you can't stop the run, which is a problem against Oregon.

Because Oregon is, if not the best offensive line in the country. They're the second best offense line country. And they run the ball at a very efficient level, right? they're sixth in the country in rushing efficiency they don't give up any negative plays they're just their offense their number of the country in yards per successful play the number of the country in percent of 20 yard plays

like they're just a very very efficient offense they don't have three and outs they don't turn the ball over and you know the USC could certainly use like one of those tip pass interceptions against Iowa but we just don't do that we don't we don't give it up now our wide receivers are a little beat up still maybe that matters. I don't know,

but we designed a game playing Minnesota without them and we were fine. Then what really the matchup is, right? Like, can you stop USC's offense? A couple of things, Gabe. USC's offense averages 18 less points

a game on the road. That's just fundamentally not good. Now, I know they played maybe better teams on the road, but what's Purdue, Illinois, who's stinky on defense. Their name was good. Nebraska was not great on defense this season

and then lost their quarterback midway through the game. It just has not been. USC is like a pull up, I pull up right here. USC has lost like 12 straight games as a road underdog, which not great. It's not a great spot for USC. I'll pull this up.

I'll have the right number right here. I don't want to be, okay, USC is sorry. USC has lost eight straight games as a road underdog. O and five under Lincoln Riley. Last 21 games as a road dog. USC has only pulled just two upsets. And they're five and 16 against the spread.

It's just not been a good spot for them. Our defense line is really good. It comes down to this. Can we get to your quarterback and can he get the ball out to the wide receivers? The offense for USC right now is very much just get the ball. Your wide receivers are incredible. Lemon and they're really, really good. Can our corners hold up?

Can we get to Maya? And you have a couple of injuries that are not good. Like a page doesn't play, not great. And what's Ramsey's deal? I don't see why he left the game. He was on the bike. you know. Ramsey's out.

That's a huge loss in this game for you guys. You named the two guys I'm worried about. What is pay? I can't get a clear read on Page's latest. You've been raving about him all year. So this is why I, there's many, there's many reasons why the cause for one needs injury report.

But this is one of them, right? We're like, I'm not saying you owe us, Gabe, an accurate assessment of your team. But USC has, maybe their third most important offensive player in Elijah Page who makes a big difference at left tackle.

It's a big drop off, especially when your center's been out, I believe, right? Noah's been sort of beat up and he got beat for a bad sack against Iowa, and you just need him to be there. And then your best defensive player,

like Ramsey's, I know I mock USC for not having good players in defense. Like he's a day two pit. Like he's a very good safety for USC. And those two guys being out does change, in my opinion,

the equation for how U.S. he can play in this game. And we won't know that until Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern, 90 minutes before the game, if they're even dressed, if they're even traveling, like, we won't know any of this stuff. I'm not saying, you don't owe it to us as fans, but it'd be nice to sort of know, like, if you guys are healthy or not, before we handicap the game, it makes a big difference. And so, I don't know, I put out a clip, like Iowa had to open guys over the field, their quarterback couldn't find them.

So, again, if we can limit U.S. sees touches to their wide receivers. We have really good corners. Number four, Brandon Finney will be an All-American this season. We got a, I think we're positioned well for this one. We'll see how it goes. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't know where the number opened. It's open seven and a half.

I got seven and a half on Sunday. It's 10 now. Up to 10, wow. Yeah, I mean, look, I feel like, I think I texted this to you. Like, I mean, we're not supposed to win this game. You have everything to lose. If we win this game, we're going to the playoff. You lose this game.

Your whole season kind of hangs in the balance with whatever happens between Ohio State and Indiana. Like you have a lot on the line. We're just kind of like when we're in. Yeah. No, and look, this is obviously, I don't want to turn it to like an Oregon podcast, but I will. The thing that I have liked about this team this season game is we have played like a very controlled brand of football. if that makes sense. Like when you watch us play,

there's just like an energy about knowing what we're doing and the confidence that we have in what we're doing. And there's not a lot of mental mistakes. Like you're not finding like, you know, like, I think we're number one in the country and explosive plays on defense.

We're just not allowing, like we're not, we don't have busted coverages very often. Like we're not just allowing dudes open everywhere. We don't miss tackles. It's a very clean brand of football. We went to Penn State and,

went to Iowa and won. The Indiana game feels like an outlier. We're just like, I don't know what the hell we were doing on offense especially. Dante Morris looked completely different in every other game besides Indiana. I give Indiana credit, of course, but that feels like just an outlier for what we've done this season. Then last week, we finally had an opportunity with no rain. We played Wisconsin rain, Iowa rain and wind, and we threw the ball for 400 yards or 300 yards, and he completed 90% of his passes.

So we have different ways to win. We can run the ball. We can pass the ball. So I'm looking forward to it Saturday. I don't really love that. It's a CBS game would have been those guys. I don't know. They're fine, I guess.

But it's going to be a lot of fun, Gabe. Well, I'm looking forward to watching as much as I can between coaching and schlepping kids all over the place. You already started basketball, huh? We don't play games for another couple of weeks. No, this isn't, it's fall season. Then we get a winter. Oh, still in fall.

Oh, yeah, you guys start later than we do for all fall sports. We start like Labor Day weekend. Yeah. All right. coaching carousel. It's got big names on it. I don't know what's going on with Lane Kiffin. James Franklin's already got a new gig, right?

Yeah. Can't we come up with some different way to do this than just like... Yeah, the Lane thing is kind of like a little openly gross. Like his family is like going to other campuses, old misses tell him they need to answer from him like immediately about whether he's staying or going game. It feels like kind of gross, right, like the whole thing. Yeah.

It's a sport now, though. I don't know. Lane's leaving Old Miss, that I think is certain. It's a matter of when and where he's going and then the dominoes of that. Now, James frankly gets hired by Virginia Tech, but there's going to be, you know, more jobs open out possibly.

There's not a lot of great candidates. You know, like this is not, it's just not. You can't. This means job openings. I think that all hires are going to be good. I just wonder if maybe there needs to be an entirely, different category. I was listening to Joe Thomas. This is one person we both agree is great. Listen to Joe Thomas talk about, basically calm down Wisconsin fans. I like that he kept fickle.

I mean, it was right decision. Right. So he was talking to them about that. And he was like what? So you're going to go get like some new coach. And then he's going to lose a bunch of games too because this isn't about like play calling and how you run a practice. This is about the NIL. Yeah, players. play, you know, situation on campus and, and transfer portal. Like, that's what makes a team good or not good. So maybe we're just not seeing this correctly. And the, like, we're calling it coach, but it's really just like GM, essentially, right? Well, yeah.

I mean, you see a good example. Like, they, clearly Bill Belichick didn't forget how to coach football, but he doesn't have the right guys around. Correct. And that's why I think, that's why I think, Wisconsin keeping their coach, Mike Woxley keeping their coach in Minnesota, you know, Norville stays at Florida State. Like you have to decide, are we going to pay $100 million to bring in a new coach to have

and buy the other one out or just spend that money on getting better players? And I would argue getting better players is always the way to go here. It is. So shouldn't you just get some dork? Like not this guy. But remember Brandon Staley, we talked about him a lot on this show, the Chargers, dude. He's just like a spreadsheet guy. just get some guy like that and then put all the damn money into finding five stars from Texas and California and Florida and get them to your school.

Well, okay, the only pushback on that is that when you get those guys and the expectations go up to win, you need to have a good coach to win. Well, like, what does define good coach for me? Like what are they doing that's like so much better than the alternative? They all run a practice. They all hire a guy to call the players. But I think like, so, you know, I think that one of it is, you know, just simple, like, how do you structure your practice? Like, how much physicality do you put in your practice?

How are you preparing for your team to be physical? Like, that's a big thing of mine in college football where I think it's been a pushback of out of Lincoln Riley's teams where, like, they don't practice physical enough to win at the level they want to win. It's why they typically lose teams like Oregon, right? Like you, you know, and Kirby Smart had a great thing this weekend where he said something like, you know, I know you hate it because it's such a football guy thing.

You're shaking your head. You know, basically we're like, it's great players get paid, but if you don't have the physicality on your team, who cares, essentially, right? And he's like, we, Georgia hit and we're physical. And it's true. It's why Georgia right now,

if you're putting money on someone to win a championship right now, it's Ohio State and probably Georgia. Like, there's, you have to be able, Gabe, to punch someone directly in the mouth in, in, in a game at any moment.

And I think, so that's just one, one thing to mind about coaching that I like about some coaches and I always sort of choose the physical coach and the physical team over someone who doesn't play that way. So that, so you, I agree like you need someone to bring the players in, but also then you have to be able to execute and win those games when the expectations go way up because you have better players. Yeah. And let me clarify.

The part I didn't like about what Kirby Spartan said was he claimed. that when a guy doesn't want to be physical and so he transfers to another school, then they schedule that school to try to beat up that player and that program because clearly they're soft. Oh, okay, that's not true. Okay, that's interesting.

That's what he said. Like, that's just not true, coach? Is that why they scheduled Charlotte this weekend? Is there like someone in Charlotte who, like, transferred? Who cares? You don't schedule some random-ass game because some random kid decides, he didn't want to be in your program.

Clearly he wasn't a starter. So now he's going to some crap school to play and what you're going to go to that place to beat him up just to prove a point. That doesn't make any sense. That does not make sense, but the physicality part of him, of his game.

I very much buying that, yes. Okay. Let's end on this because we skipped it last week and it turned out, didn't work out so great. It was weird that Arch Manning put out there that he and Ty Simpson of Alabama were kind of sharing notes. on SEC competition.

I'm not sure that's helping either of them. It doesn't seem like it. But isn't that strange, first of all, that that's happening, but second of all, that he'd say that. Yeah, I mean, I guess maybe guys talk like that, Gabe, their friends.

They might share notes, but putting that out there after that is, I don't, I don't like that. Yeah. I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense. If you're supposedly a Heisman contender, to be sharing your sort of scouting report against your shared rivals

with the other Heisman contender, a guy who's in your way for a national championship. I don't think I'm helping that guy. Well, no, I think guys, I mean, March Manning is not a Heismic contender, obviously that's, you're right. He was given the Heisman preseason, and then we slowly took it away from him.

We did, because he was, well, he slowly took it away from himself, but being not very good. So, yeah, I don't think I would have shared this story if I was him. Yeah. If only he had some people around him who understood how to manipulate the media. Only he could just tap into some experience on his side.

He'll be smart, wouldn't it? Yeah. Too bad he doesn't have anyone like that. Yeah, it's a shame. Well, maybe he can be in every single ad or movie ever created because his last name is Manning. He's got a 50-50 chance. It's that or a Kelsey and everything. Jason is making good living.

post careers in a i like jason though so good for him um all right game we did it we did a show we did a lot of stuff in this show i will not talk to you face to face until next weekend so to me next monday so next tuesday whenever we do this show good luck oh no we got to figure out next week though it's thanksgiving week we have to talk about this we even talked about thanksgiving my here's my prediction to the audience who's still here this show suddenly jeff won't be so eager to talk to me next week if u sc somehow beats the ducks he'll suddenly You have for a show. We got to do our gambling show, though. We might you do one show next week. Maybe we'll do double. Maybe both the guys will be on.

We'll do a double. Like a like a like a pro reaction. You guys could use a reliever, man. Bring me in. Dude, but we could use a we could use a lot on our show. It is, it's as ugly as it gets right now. I, I, we lost two games, three games this weekend that in the last two minutes of the game, essentially. Giants, bucks, and Seahawks. Yeah, I prefer to just win my bets and feel comfortable by the fourth quarter. That's how I like to bet.

College, five and one, though. What are you to do? All right, we'll talk to you guys next week with Gabe, and then we'll talk to you on Thursday with Matt. Take care, everybody. Have another good.