Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Reactions to BradyFest in Foxborough, Ranking the NFC West, and Expectations for Rookie QBs

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Geoff is joined by Gabe to recap Week 4 of NFL action, including Tom Brady’s triumphant return  to Gillette Stadium. Geoff and Gabe both express concerns with the Bucs performance, but Geoff explains why the Bucs will be fine as long as they can get healthy by the playoffs. Geoff ranks the four teams in the NFC West, naming the Cardinals as the team to beat as long as Kingsbury  can keep the momentum through the second half of the season. Also, the Rams are still dangerous, and Trey Lance could impress with a game plan built around him next week.Five teams have bounced back to win three straight after three win losses, and Geoff and Gabe talk whether they think the revivals are legit. Geoff thinks the Cowboys defense playing at a high level makes them contenders, but he wants to see how the Bills defense holds up against the Chiefs next week before he’s sold on them. This weekend could have six rookie QBs starting for their teams, and Geoff breaks down his expectations for all six. Plus, what college game Geoff is most excited to watch this weekend, and what does Geoff think about Squid Game?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, October 5th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz's Smart. You were powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. A lot to get into after four weeks of the NFL season, including tonight as we record in the middle of the Chargers and Raiders game. Gabe, there was a rain delay, a lightning delay, I should say, in Los Angeles with a quote-unquote domed stadium. First time I've ever seen that before. So that's a brand new thing that's happening in the NFL this year.

Yeah, and the idea of rain and lightning is very new and weird for us here in LA. People were completely freaked out. We are not used to this. The lightning was literally hitting like right on top of central LA. It was intense and loud. So you don't usually hear about lightning delays out here, but it made perfect sense. But there's a roof over the stadium.

You know? The fans got to stay in their seats and the ESPN crew was on the field broadcasting during the lightning delay. Normally a lightning delay, everyone leaves the seats and leaves everything. But alas, they didn't. So we have some screwy football tonight

afc west is going to be good chargers right now leading the raiders we're going to focus mostly on action that happened on sunday as this game started late um and the game that you were forced to watch as far as the rest of the country as well and everyone tuned in to watch the patriots and the bucks play the patriots and the bucks were those play. The Patriots and the Bucs? Were those two teams playing? I thought it was just Tom Brady against a bunch of guys who used to play with Tom Brady and a coach who used to coach Tom Brady. There were other players on the field? There were other players on the field.

But yes, a lot of focus was on one Tom Brady going back to New England. He's now beaten every team in the National Football League because, of course, he played for New England for so many years. And it was the second highest rated game in like 10 years. Second highest rated Sunday night game in about a decade. Second highest rated ever, which means millions and millions of people tuned in to see this disgusting love fest. This bunch of sycophantic media members. We've already had 20 years to praise this guy. We don't need to keep doing it. If you got beat by him, you don't need to keep on talking about how great he is.

But just like many other of his great moments at Foxborough, he was bailed out by a kicker and outplayed by the other quarterback. And yet history will remember it as some triumphant win for him. That's just how it is if you're Tom Brady. Here's the reality. And I'm not just saying this as a Tom Brady hater. He's playing for a team that isn't as good as they're supposed to be. The Bucs don't look awesome right now. Sorry. Hate to break it to you, everybody. Tom Brady is infallible, except maybe the Bucs are fallible. Yeah. So they're not playing as well as they should. We saw that last night again, offensively, just kind of not clicking as we've seen in the past. You know, right now their

eighth and efficiency and offense doesn't feel like they're actually that good on offense right now and defensively they're just so beat up and that doink you heard to end that game was was this conversation was exactly everyone saying that Tom Brady got lucky to win that game last night it was a long kick and obviously went off off the left upright uh 56 yards in the rain and look yes Tampa Bay's offense does not look quite the same they have they look the same without Gronkowski uh but to be fair New England's defense is really good all right we talked about them heading into this game number one in the NFL covering passes over 10 yards and they did a great job of closing the middle of the field down and forcing Tom Brady and his arm to throw the ball outside wide.

Again, not excuses for Tom, just an X and O's reason why they didn't look as good as maybe we thought they would. The rushing attack quite hasn't been the same as we've seen in previous years as well. And yeah, they survived the game essentially, right? Against a New England team that was feisty, that played well. And look, I think if Belichick would have it over again, he probably goes for it on fourth and three

and just lives and dies with Mac Jones, who played well. Look, I think they threw the ball over 40 times. They only ran the ball about five times, six times with their backs. Tampa Bay's defense is the best in the NFL, stopping the run with that defensive line. Everyone throws on Tampa Bay. And the game was far closer than I thought. I thought Tom Brady would score at will. Not going to lie, I thought he would just score and score and score.

Yeah, Mac Jones just had 40 attempts, 31 of 40. Average almost near seven yards an attempt. Got sacked a couple times. But I thought, generally speaking, played pretty well against a Tampa defense, again, that's beat up. Poor Richard Sherman off the street. Did not play well in the secondary for Tampa Bay. He'll get better as he kind of gets his sea legs going.

But you're right, Tom, 22 of 43. It's not very good. Okay, so Richard Sherman was something I wanted to bring up. Yet another guy pulled off the scrap heap to ring chase with Tom. I feel like everyone on the team is like a few years past their prime, but find some extra gear because Tom Brady blesses them with young age or something. I don't know how it works.

Not him. That dude ain't ready. And you know, it's been a few years since he looked like the guy we all thought could stop everyone. So, I mean, how are they going to survive without a secondary?

If Richard Sherman's playing a lot of snaps, because we're talking about the Rams, the chiefs and the bills, that's the going to survive without a secondary? If Richard Sherman's playing a lot of snaps. They're not. Because we're talking about the Rams, the Chiefs, and the Bills. That's the threats to these guys, right? Yeah. Those teams will throw all over this team. Yeah. And so, look, here is the truth of it.

A lot of Super Bowl teams are in the spot they're in because of health. Right? They're just healthy. They're just healthy. And when you lose your health, not a lot of depth in the NFL there's just not most teams have starting 22s that are good and great especially the teams that have a chance to win besides that maybe one or two guys that can fill in that can do an adequate job but when you start stacking up injuries at positions you have to take Richard Sherman who hasn't played all year wasn't in training camp somewhere sign him on a Wednesday and let him play on Sunday right I mean that's just that's not ideal for a team and Tampa Bay right now is dealing with a ton of injuries

and all they have to do is kind of weather the storm win ugly games and get themselves in the playoffs hopefully they're healthy that's what they did last year obviously it's tougher with more injured guys and you're playing a division where they're kind of the alpha dog, right? The Saints are lost at home to the Giants. Atlanta's not any good. And the Panthers are just okay, I guess, after getting shellacked by the first good team they played. So I just have to get in, Gabe, and get in healthy.

And they'll have a chance. But they've got to get healthy. And that's the problem in their secondary. Yeah. By the way, in case you're hearing it on my microphone, there's a child laughing at the idea that anyone else in that division is a real team that could compete with Tampa Bay. That's the sound you're hearing in the background.

Carolina showed us against the Cowboys that it was a nice start and Sam Darnold's a fine fantasy player, but they aren't a real competitor in the NFC. So it is the Bucks division to win. But I just I wonder if Tom is fooling himself like Tom versus time that works for him. You know, he doesn't eat tomatoes or drink caffeine, but like normal human beings just get old. And when you hire all your old buddies to come and, you know, play for less, it's eventually going to average out and like all these guys can't stay healthy like they did last year i mean so it just seems bound to fail it's at this

rate if they are this injured come january yes it will fail it will fail uh but right now it's week four heading into week five and all i gotta do is survive and get some wins and get again get to look they're the dolphinsphins this weekend. They're like 10-point favorites. The Dolphins, I don't know what their identity is. They're not as good as they were last year. No surprise on a little defensive regression, and Jacoby Brissett looked really bad last weekend.

Then they play the Eagles, okay? So they're going to be 5-1 after those two games. Then they play the Bears, probably 6-1. And then they play the Saints, Washington, one and then you play the saints washington the giants the colts the falcons the bill i mean their schedule is setting up for them to be 12 and 5 game and have a home playoff game obviously have at least one of them and injuries be damned as long as they get back for the playoffs they don't matter yeah i guess that's the theory as long as tom gets in he can he can make miracles happen.

But as a player, I'll tell you what, though. As a player, so when I was in New York, we weren't very good. We were 6-10 both years. And I always had the feeling, though, as long as we can get to the dance with Eli Manning, we have a chance, right? He's done it before. He did it twice in 07 and 11. If we just get to the dance, you have a chance.

And with New England, with Tampa Bay, I should say, what happened last year is a five seed got to the dance and got it done if they get to the dance they're gonna have confidence that Tom and the defense really and the run game will do enough to win Super Bowls that's the theory that I think most teams feel like and Tom's obviously done it for many years now we're just getting the dance and and hope things go well okay so then let's spend one minute on the other side uh none of the broadcast really was about this, but I felt like Monday morning everyone wanted to acknowledge that Mac Jones played a pretty good game. The 19 straight completions. You mentioned that he looked pretty good. I joked that he outplayed Brady, though some people actually made that serious point. You know, does it seem like Belichick found his Brady replacement? I know it's early, but like this kid's got something or nothing what do we think i think he has something but you know you're you're what you're replacing with brady is that little extra right which we don't know mac jones has yet he just we don't know if he has that um and that little extra is obviously that kind of in clutch moments making the big

throws not being scared by the moment and kind of willing your team to victory we don't know that quite yet right now defensively they're really good this year like i mentioned they're better than i think we give them credit for offensively though again skill position players not good enough um offensive line is is good but a little health a little beat up running backs are they good enough like they just don't have the skill players i think not yet they got new guys they're trying to work them in to kind of get them into go in the shape i want to see more of kind of a downfield passing attack with new england with mac just like i feel like now he's played four games he's done a good job kind of let him take some chances now down the field i mean they're one in three you might as well let it go yeah let it rip uh i think that

the pats and steelers are kind of similar teams in that very good coaches with pretty good defenses who every now and then are going to sneak up on someone and maybe ruin someone's season. And that's the most they can hope for. Well, the problem with the Steelers is that they don't have a future quarterback where the Patriots do. Yeah, well, that's right. The Pats are certainly more set up for the next few years. Until Aaron Rodgers ends up in Pittsburgh. That rumor started here. We're going to keep that rumor going. I would say, I think him and Tomlin had like a little tip of the cap in the game this weekend. Yeah. Oh, they caught it on the, on the broadcast, the little wink wink, quite literally.

I think it's coming, Jeff. We started it here. It's spread around. I think that's a thing. I love it. Yeah. Love it yeah love it all right um let's talk about uh the best game of the week probably or the most impactful game of the week out in the nfc so we had an nfc west showdown cardinals surprisingly when the heavyweight fight with the rams put up a bunch of points uh looked like every bit the best team in the nfc at least for now but i know you are very skeptical because you have told us Cliff Kingsbury is kind of a frontrunner. You don't believe in him over the long haul.

Everyone else in our business believes Kyler Murray is the MVP and they're going to the postseason. They've forgotten last year. Who's the top team in this division? Kyler Murray's been fantastic. No argument with me on that. He's been fantastic. The offense and the way they're designing

plays are very tough to defend. They're very fast. They spread you out. They throw the ball quickly. And Kyler Murray's making throws he has not made. They deserve credit for that. They've been great. They've been far better than I thought. I want to look this up. So, Kingsbury coach, six years at Tech. That's the fourth year, I believe, with Arizona.

I think it's his fourth year with Arizona. Third year, fourth year. No, it's his fourth year with Arizona. Third year, fourth year. No, it's his third year in Arizona. Okay, third year in Arizona. In those nine years, how many big wins did he have? Like in college, how many times did they beat a ranked opponent at Texas Tech? Six years there. I would have guessed, because you're asking me now,

it can only be two or three times. It didn't happen once. Twice in his first season. And one was a bowl game we get the pac-12 team this is the biggest win he's had in nine years as a head of coach that's why we don't believe in them that's simple and maybe he can prove us wrong and we'll see we have a lot of season left and his offense is off to a great start there's no doubt about it again Kyler Murray and is stressing the defense both vertically with the passing threats,

horizontally with his ability to run and make plays outside of the pocket. We saw a long first down run, a scamper on third down against the Rams. They play fast. Their offensive line has done a great job. Their center, I want to shout out Rodney Hudson. Everywhere he's been, Kansas City, Oakland, Vegas, he's done a great job at center. Now he's done a great job for the Cardinals. It's no surprise, in my opinion, the offense is playing better with Rodney Hudson in there.

Defensively, efficiency numbers, good. They're playing good football. But again, you got to prove me wrong on this kind of end of the season thing, right? You started 3-3-1 two years ago, finished 6-10, I believe. And last year started, what, something like 6-3 and finished 8-8.

Finish slow, man. Like, I got to see this. And what's so funny about the Cardinals, I saw this floating around Twitter yesterday. This idea that, you know, that fans of teams, when their team does better than expected, say, we knew it all along. You guys were wrong. We were right. We knew it all along, right?

It's like, no, you didn't. You're a fan. Of course you know that, right? There's no indication showing us that this team is going to be 4-0 besides maybe looking at their schedule and saying, okay, they have Tennessee and the Vikings and the Jaguars and the Rams. They play really well against. There's no indication they're going to be 4-0.

So don't blab on Twitter to me about you knew it. You didn't know it. I knew the Giants were going to win the NL West, okay? I just knew it. I knew it, Gabe. I knew we were going to do it. But 107 wins later, I knew we were going to do it. No, I didn't know we were going to do that.

So stop. Stop it. All fans, stop doing that. But they deserve the credit so far for their good start. They have played some very good football. All right. Well, and so beating the Rams means we can't pretend that these wins are meaningless. Yet, the experts out in Vegas Vegas and I'm going to say

I agree with these folks still think even after that game the Rams are the favorite in that division so do you have a way to sort of rank those two and can either of these teams beat your boy Tom Brady when it matters so to me obviously with the Rams experience in the, in these spots and with Stafford, there is thought that they can withstand one loss. I mean, they're going to lose some more games, obviously. And again, Arizona has not shown the ability to finish a season. Kingsbury has not shown in college. Look at his college record.

He finished, you know, he lost five games in a row to end the season one year, six of eight the next year, five of six to one year. He just doesn't win at the end of the season. And so if you're gambling on this, you're gambling on what we've seen so far in his career which is not winning the end of season it's not kyler murray maybe this year he's good enough remember last year he kind of got hurt at the end of the season wasn't playing quite up so if he stays healthy and they finish strong then we're all wrong and arizona's right and they win the division but i get why the rams are still the favorite however the rams have some issues

defensively not what they were last year, which we all called. We all said there was defensive regression coming. Brandon Staley was coaching the Chargers right now, was their DC. They're just going to have regression, and they've had that regression. So now defensively, you know you have some regression, so how do you fix it now, right? How do you make sure that the Cardinals ran up and down the field on them? They had no answers, And the Cardinals did.

Offensively, they're fine, I think. They'll be fine. But just defensively, as good as last year, it's been four weeks now. Typically, the first four weeks, now we start seeing changes in scheme, changes in identities. It basically kind of goes in four-week increments. Now, obviously, it might be five weeks to end the season. But they're kind of four weeks now.

So you have four weeks to film. How do you change what you do? And I'm not smart enough. I know I'm supposed to be smarter than everyone. I don't know defensive scheme like that. I can't really tell you like, oh, and I should play. But they got to figure something out, Gabe.

And because their defense is not what they were last year. Well, the stat you love to point to is DVOA from the Football Outsider guys. The first in offense, very average in defense to sort of support your point I actually think that defense will be there when all is said and done because all anyone ever tells me is Aaron Donald's the best player in the NFL and Jalen Ramsey's the most gifted good yeah you know defensive backfield player good so I don't

want to rule them out I guess the question I have to ask though because we saw the Seahawks and Niners go at it and it's probably the beginning of the Lance era officially in San Fran but Russ ain't dead fastest player ever to 100 wins are both those teams relevant playoff teams still I mean we said a few weeks ago they could get all four in do you still feel that way the Niners are pretty interesting again just supremely injured for whatever reason they just can't stay healthy and now Trey Lance is going to play and I'd like to see him kind of in a full game plan just not thrown in there in the middle of a game right a game plan that's tailored to him as grapple has a calf injury of some sort um look seattle's always in it right each year they win nine or ten games they cannot be extinguished ever um and they won a big game in my opinion in san francisco which is the one

we victory we had this week in in wager it was another ridiculously tough week for us um I think they're both they're both in this um and now it's Niners Cardinals this week I believe it's you know it's not it's uh no it's it's uh Seattle LA on Thursday and then Cardinals and uh Niners this weekend so we'll know a lot more about this division obviously after this weekend and then and they start kind of really playing each other yeah i mean the seahawks feel like a team who every year of of the last decade really just the whole russ and pete era however they start isn't how they finish and you never quite know what you're going to get but i don't ever like to sleep on them and so you know i don't know what to make of them until we're in the playoffs if they make it they're they're they're basically the same team every year right they're gonna win nine or ten games they're gonna

play in the oddest games of all time yeah the russ is gonna like the first half of that game they look at their offense had no idea how to play football and the second half of the game they played great and that's reverse of the year they had because the first three weeks of the season they scored 13 second half points and like 68 points in the second half of the game, they played great. And that's reverse of the year they had because the first three weeks of the season, they scored 13 second half points and like 68 points in the first half of games. I mean, who knows each week?

But in the end, they play close games. They have Russell Wilson and they have a good coaching staff. So they're in every game and they're going to win 9 or 10 games. Are they good enough

to win the Super Bowl? No, but they'll win 9 or 10 games. All right. Well then, speaking of some teams that maybe are just getting hot at the right moment and we don't think are Super Bowl teams, but I win 110 games. All right. Well, then speaking of some teams that maybe are just getting hot at the right moment, and we don't think are Super Bowl teams, but I don't know. I'm going to let you have a redo on some of this.

I counted it up. I found five teams that have won three straight after losing week one, and all of them are interesting and in about the same tier. The Packers, the Cowboys, the Bills, the Browns, and the Ravens. At some time or another on this show, you have basically told me, eh, I'm not buying them as a real Super Bowl contender. But after three straight wins for each, which of them impresses you most? Oh, it's a great question.

So the Cowboys are good. I told you before the season that if they get everyone back healthy, mainly Dak, they're going to be good offensively. They're one of the top three offense in the NFL right now. Their offensive line is playing fabulous. Dak is playing wonderful. But here's the thing. Their defense, who adjusted has to be league average for them to be good this year,

is above league average. That's all that matters. If their defense can play like this the entire season, play between 10 and 15 efficiency, it's all they need. They're going to score 30 points a game. Virginia defense doesn't allow 30 points. That's it. Trevon Diggs, five interceptions so far.

Micah Parsons has been a beast. That's all they need. And they're doing that right now. And they play a division where they're going to win five of six division games for sure. And they're going to be in the playoffs. There are teams you mentioned. So the Bills, interesting.

Historically speaking, they have like the best defense, one of them, ever in the first four weeks of the year, according to DVOA. Like top three all time. You can't say this weekend. We'll see how it goes, right? The Chiefs, by the way, number one offense in the NFL by far. Like they're not even close.

The Chiefs are playing so good on offense. So it's a great, great matchup this weekend. I believe in the Bills. Again, defensively, we talked about it. Pass rush has to be better, and they're doing that. They're playing better football. But again, let's see how they do against the Chiefs. The Browns played an interesting game against the Vikings this weekend. I believe in the Browns from the start.

I just don't believe in Baker. And Baker didn't play very well. And they won the game. Now, to be fair, good teams win games like that, right? You play an ugly game, you muck it up a little bit, and for 50 years, the Browns have always lost that game. But this year, they won that game.

Baker was 15-33. I mean, he missed Odell wide open in that game. Just threw the wrong shoulder. Wide open, you just can't do it. So I feel the same about the Browns. The Ravens, I feel the same about them. They were impressive in Denver. I think Denver might be a little bit of a fraud team,

especially if Drew Locke has to play. And the Packers are who they are, except the Jair Alexander injury could be pretty bad. If he can't play on that defense, that defense takes a turn for the worse. So I think these teams are kind of where I thought they would be. And I still think it's Kansas City's ball game in the AFC, even though defensively they're still just a complete dumpster fire. but offensively kansas city don't turn the ball over man good luck

stopping them okay uh i just want to keep asking you about a couple of those teams including the bills each and every week until something in your attitude about them changes because i saw bill's team that did look different to me than you know the last few years well against the texans well all right but i mean blasting a team like it looked like college football like it did look like college football but you know offensively they're just not as good this year for whatever reason their offensive line struggled a little bit josh allen's not quite the same um but defensively he's where again all you need in my opinion to win the super bowl is that if your offense can play really well it's like an average defense right like the chiefs the year they won their defense was a little bit above average yeah just you need and so the bills

defense again historically playing great so far let's see how you play and we're going to recap this game next weekend right we're going to hopefully this game doesn't have a lightning delay so we can i can my my my old my old ass can stay up late enough to talk about it. And we'll know more about the Bills. We know who the Chiefs are. We'll know more about the Bills after they play the Chiefs this weekend. All right. Well, let's take a quick break.

We got a few other teams to talk about, a bunch of rookie QBs. This weird sort of unwritten rules thing going on in Baltimore that we haven't talked about, but I'm sure you're going to make us smarter on some college ball, a whole bunch of stuff when we move the line. That's next. Jeff, welcome back to your own show. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you. It's nice to be here with you, man. We got a few weeks down in the NFL season, but it's really like rookie breakout time of the year so we could have six rookie quarterbacks starting week five over under three and a half wins for those six quarterbacks and i can run through them if you need me to this weekend you mean this coming

weekend we're gonna have i want to know if they get more than three and a half wins. The Jets are playing the Falcons in London. So there's Zach Wilson's chance. The Bears, and we think Justin Fields, I guess, unless Andy Dalton is healthy, the never-ending comment from Nagy, they're playing the Raiders. Trevor and Coach Urban Meyer teamed up together to play the Titans. Lance, presumably, against the Cardinals. Mills and Jones playing in Texans Pats. Yeah.

Well, someone has to win in the Texans Pats game. So we have one. We have one. I actually think the Jaguars win at home this weekend against the Titans team. Okay. I know that seems kind of weird, but they're close to winning.

So I'll go two there. The Jets on the road in London against the Falcons oh I I um the Niners traditionally don't play well against running quarterbacks so I would kind of maybe like I would lean Cardinals there a little bit plus Trey Lance's first start the Bears can beat the Raiders but it seems like like Matt Nagy just refuses to play fields anymore. And look, we said all week, will they change the game plan? They did. They changed it for fields. And it worked.

It worked well. And he says that when Dalton's healthy, he's their starter again. So I'll stay under this weekend, under game. And that includes one game where I work he has to win. Yeah. Well, I mean, I learned my lesson. We already talked about it once this week, betting against the Jets. So I guess I can't do that again. But I've been to London a lot, and I am a former Jets fan.

I have never found a single Jets fan anywhere in London. I don't know if there's any Falcons fans either. Jets, Falcons, I'm sorry, guys. Jets, Falcons is a brutal matchup for you guys. Thanks for the Beatles. Sorry, this is what we brought back for you. Matt Nagy keeps play calling going, or how's this working? Who's calling plays for the Bears? Whoever does it the best.

Okay, well, I'm not sure anyone's doing it right. Let's talk about another coach call. So this made a whole lot of news, especially among the former players and media members who pay attention to the unwritten rules of the NFL. So apparently, Coach Harbaugh and the Ravens ran the ball when, you know, they should have kneeled it. They got across a hundred yards rushing to keep some sort of street going. It's very meaningful to them. But Denver,

at least coach in Denver got upset that they ran instead of kneeling, thought it was disrespectful. I can't keep track of these stupid rules. So 1% chance, any player on the Broncos was actually upset about the Ravens running the ball. Probably none. So the Ravens at the end of the game wanted to keep their 100-yard rushing streak alive. And so they ran the ball for five yards at the end of the game. And Vic Fangio looked upset.

The Broncos looked upset. I know Mark Schlereth is upset about it and I get it, right? That's, it's kind of bush. You just take a knee and go home. But Harbaugh's answer to this was basically like, well, they threw a, you know, they threw a basket in zone with six seconds left. I don't know if a 16 point touchdown

or something like that. I don't know. It's a little petty. It's a little whatever, but the Broncos players actually care about this? No, no. I didn't think so. And, like, I always thought that players said, like,

you have a problem with it? Stop it. Correct. But, look, in that spot, though, like, if the Broncos had lined up in sort of a defensive formation expecting them to kneel, I mean, and they didn't. I mean, I guess you'd be pissed about that. But I mean, they ran for five yards

and like just the play was over. It's not like they tried to score a touchdown. Yeah, this felt like a nothing burger to me. And I don't know why, especially like tough minded coaches would ever get into a spat over this. It just seems totally ridiculous to me. All right, let's talk about some other tough games and coaches,

but over in the college ranks. I want to know which game, you can only watch one, which game are you more likely to watch this weekend, Penn State, Iowa, or Georgia, Auburn, if you can only choose one? Oh, geez. So Penn State, Iowa is going to see a lot of defense, a lot of defense. Georgia, Auburn, Bo Nix runs around and makes some crazy throws. I think I would rather watch Georgia-Auburn just for that factor.

The Bo Nix factor of playing this Georgia defense that's allowed 23 points all season long is going to be tremendous. He's going to probably make some terrible throws, some good throws. But Penn State-Iowa, we know what that game is. It's 10-7. It's ugly defensive football, we know what that game is. It's 10-7. It's ugly defensive football, turnovers, run the football. The games that take two hours and 30 minutes. So give me the Georgia-Auburn game. Yeah, I kind of thought that a guy with your sensibilities,

you might take the boring, low-scoring, you know, soccer-style game, a bunch of just big guys slamming into each other. It'll be boring, but probably the most, you know, soccer-style game, a bunch of just big guys slamming into each other. It'll be boring, but probably the most consequential game, right? Because we assume Georgia's in the playoff. It's a playoff elimination game. Right. Penn State and Iowa are basically playing a playoff to stay relevant in the Big Ten.

So, you know, they aren't mutually exclusive. You'll be watching both, but good to know which way you lean. Hey, is Ben rothlisberger still going to be a starter in two and a half weeks over under that many more starts for ben yeah who's going to play instead i don't know i just can't tell if he can possibly survive all of this he might be able to survive this but he's going to keep playing till he's too injured to play and it's not happening yet all right then i'm just going to keep asking you every week so over under on weeks straight i ask this question is till the end of the year i mean i'm never going

to stop the steelers have really screwed this up there's no it feels a lot like with eli with the giants right just you kind of just ride it to the end you wait two years too long to make a decision because he's a hall of fame quarterback a legacy quarterback and you just don't want to do wrong by him but he's killing the team man yeah it seemed like this was the year to deal for or draft. Yes, absolutely. The guy you wanted and they missed it because this was a deep quarterback draft and they don't have the guy.

All right, Jeff, percent chance you ever watch Squid Game on Netflix? Over or under 5%? Okay, so last night I was in the bedroom and my wife was watching this show and i was like and she does not watch quote-unquote violent shows at night that's like her thing not watching it so i go in there and it's a show that's dubbed over it's in english but they're they're speaking i believe chinese and they're in a jail and i'm like what is going on here i'm like like, what show is this? And then they go out to this yard.

And they're playing Red Light, Green Light. And they're murking everyone on this show. And I was like, what the hell are you watching? And then tonight, going back downstairs after radio, she's watching Squid Game again. So I'm shocked she's watching Squid Game, like utterly shocked. But yeah, I don't know.

And the funny thing, I caught the first episode in the middle and then tonight I caught the second episode in the middle. I have no idea the backstory, none on what's happening, except the main character is, I don't even know. I have no idea. I've caught the shows in the middle both times. So I have no idea what's happening. Um, but my wife's been watching it.

Yeah. Okay. So, so it sounds like you're probably going to watch it. You seem intrigued. There's a gambling component, which should get your interest up. Yeah, but I'm not gambling on people getting shot if they don't do red light, green light. Well, Jeff, you've gambled on some weird things. I've known you a few years. I've seen you put some action on some very strange stuff uh i i started watching it i'm gonna i think i can admit to this this is all legal behavior i had a few drinks maybe more than i needed to have and i was like what's this thing everyone's talking about and i hit play and it was subtitled and it was confusing and I couldn't keep up and I passed out about halfway through. And then the next day, this is all anyone wanted to talk about. And I had no

frame of reference. So I think some night when I haven't had too much to drink and I am wide awake, I'm going to power through like three episodes and find out what all these references are. Yeah. I don't know. I need to power through it as well. I got to catch up. I have like two episodes of Ted Lasso to still catch up on. It's just like during the season, man, I got to watch college and NFL. And I got to wake up on, I think Ted Lasso comes out Sundays, right?

I got to like wake up, right? Friday, Sundays. Okay, Fridays. Okay, what am I going to watch on Saturday? I'm watching football Saturday and Sunday. Monday morning, I wake up. I have to watch the recaps of all these Pac-12 games

I fell asleep through, right? Like Oregon State, Washington, UCLA, Arizona State. They take 20 minutes to watch those. I got my kids. I got to watch. I watched Chiefs film today. I watched Cowboys film today. Like, I did two hours of radio.

We did a podcast. Like, I went to the gym. I don't have time to watch shows right now. So, I need to catch up on Ted Lasso, Squid Game, a bunch of other stuff I would imagine. I'm just very behind in my show watching. I know no one feels sorry for me that I'm busy. Everyone's busy.

But I wish I had time to watch some of this stuff. Well, all right. So I asked 5% chance. It started to feel like that was an over. Then this last rant makes me think under. So I think I picked the number correctly. Why don't we just tag team this? We'll pick like Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

There's no football to get in the way. We'll each just knock one or two out. We'll text each'll text each other till 9 p.m i my radio show is seven to nine eastern yeah okay so i mean the last thing i want to do is be done with radio and then watch some weird show for the rest i'll be freaked out the rest of the night yeah all right well i'll come back to that i'm going to come back to a few things ben roethlisberger still starting uh tom brady being unbearable. Squid game and when you take the bills seriously. These are the things that are going to not fall off my radar for the next few weeks. You have bets to make on Thursday. Wonky week again, but you're okay there. Tell me a little bit about the Thursday show and whatever's coming up next

week. Yeah. Are we okay? We've had good week, bad week, good week, not as bad week in week four. But yeah, we had some great games again this weekend. We'll talk about college football. You mentioned Iowa, Penn State, Georgia-Auburn. There is the Red River rivalry, Oklahoma, Texas. We have Chiefs and Bills this weekend. I've already looked at all the lines. The Panthers seem intriguing.

So there's just plenty of lines to talk about. We just got to get right. And I don't feel like the process is wrong either. Like I feel like we're on the right process just not getting these right. So make sure to tune in on Thursday.

Please rate, review, and subscribe. Really appreciate this. And as always, we're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. Have a great night, everyone. Have a great week of football.

We'll talk to you guys on Thursday.