PTI - Who had the BEST Win in NFL Week 4?

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the NFL, the Cowboys/Packers tie, and the MLB Playoffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. We have so much to dig into today, Tony. Let's give this show our best effort.

I'm Tony Cornheiser. Really? We're on ESPN 2. Oh. Oh, yeah. We'll downgrade our efforts. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Half effort. We won't run out the ground ball to show.

That's right. We'll just look at it as the throw goes over. Hey, go. Six-three. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. Listen, today's episode, baseball's playoffs are set. College football's weekend was wild, and Europe

retains the Ryder Cup. But we begin today with the NFL, and we are searching for the best win of any NFL team yesterday, and notice I said best win. That eliminates the the Cowboys and the Packers who tied, but we will get to them later. Wilbon, let me refresh your memory among the winners

were the chiefs, the Eagles, the Rams, the Giants, your Bears, the Lions, and the Steelers in Dublin. So who had the best win. Only one of those teams went out there. They're good wins, particularly anytime you went on the road. But I'm not going to start with the Bears at Raiders, even though that made me happy. Right.

I'm going to go to a guy that wanted home in his very first start as a rookie. Are you doing this to me again? Do you want to look at these notes? Are you doing this to me again? I apparently am. Because Jackson Dart, Tony, here's what I was impressed by. He's just a, he seems like a big, tough, rambunctious, fearless kid.

Do you like his dance in the end? No, the dance I was a little annoyed with. I like the way he ran over people. He's going to break his right throwing hand attempting to stiff-armed people. That's not the smartest move. But Tony, they were winless. They bench Russ.

I don't think this is going to work at all. They're playing the San Diego Superchargers, and I thought that that was going to be four-and-old. They beat a team that hadn't lost a game, and they hadn't won a game. Yes, that's right. I don't know how you start with any other win than that. So this is exactly how I felt when I learned that this was a story that we were going to do. I'm not going to say the Giants are a good team because they're not a good team.

No, but this is a big time win because the charges were undefeated and appeared to be a juggernaut. And the Giants beat them, the Giants who hadn't done anything. And it was the coming out party of Jackson Dart, as you say. Now, he got a win. I'm not saying he was great, but he was good enough. and I think Brian Dayball has to say to himself, why did I wait until game four to throw this kid out there? I thought the second best win was the Lions.

And I know that the Lions... The Lions? Yeah, I'm telling you why. Lions are at home. I understand. They beat the Browns, right? The Browns are not a good team. But what happened last week with the Browns?

The Browns, if I'm not mistaken, smothered the Packers. Yes, they did. And everybody said they had the best defense in the entire league. And the Lions put 34 on them. And earlier this season, it was the Packers who beat the Lions. And then you came out the next day. and said they're number one. Overreacted. Number one in the Wilbon

ratings, power ratings, right? Yes, I did see. I think the Lions have passed them now. I want to go the other way on this question. I want to say worst loss. Because I don't think it's the Chargers. And I don't think it's Tampa Bay, which had a chance to win. I don't think it's the Colts, which had a chance to win. I think it was a fine win, especially

considering they completed no passes in the second year. The worst loss was the Baltimore Ravens. The Baltimore, no, it's the worst loss. They played three good teams now. Kansas City. They have played, they got pasted by the Chiefs. Okay. What was the number on that?

3720. 37, 20, and now they're one and three. They have played a really tough schedule. They have lost to the bills. They have lost to the Lions. They have lost to the Chiefs, right? But they gave up 116 points in those games. They're not a playoff team right now.

No, but by the way, here's why you have to have a, at least it's not even a footnote because it's a sad note on the Giants. Malik neighbors going out. He's out. He's out. I mean, you talk about the encouragement. you would have if you had neighbors and you had Jackson Dart

throwing to him and now he's out for the season. You don't want to go crazy because what, Carson Wentz looked good the first time, you know, people come in the first time and they look good. They do. One game and then you get tape on. But the question is, which is the best win? This kid had a really good win, right? Yeah, yeah, the Giants.

Let's move to the baseball playoffs, which are finally locked. The national league, the Reds are in and the gagging Mets, get out of here. Over in the American League, both the Tigers and Guardians made it, and we'll play each other again. But the Astros are out for the first time since 2016,

and for UI-95ers, Sox, Yanks, start tomorrow. Tone your reaction to who made it, who didn't, and the initial match-ups. Okay, so the headline and who didn't make it is, you're right, it's the Mets, the highest payroll in baseball. Wow. They didn't make it because they got shut out by a division opponent, the Marlins, who beat them two out of three. in this series. The Marlins

team that finished four games under 500. Here's the Mets payroll. There's the Mets payroll. $342 million. Number one, right? Yeah, here's the Marlins payroll, $67 million. So I'll get to the matchups in a second, but I want to... We can agree on the Mets being out. That's the notable.

I just want to say this early. You know how I feel about this. Baseball is an everyday sport. That is the rhythm of baseball. I don't want to be in the buy if I'm in baseball. I want to be with the Yankees and Dodgers are having to play in a football. wild card. I want to play because this is in football. Now, what is attractive? Yankees

and Red Sox is attractive. Padres and Cubs is attractive. I'm disappointed in Detroit and Cleveland. Again, because it... We just saw it. It feels so regional. We just saw it for six games over the course of two weeks. No more regional to Yanked socks. Well, but it... No more regional than that. It was 5-1 Cleveland, so I'm disappointed. No, I'm with the, by the way, the Astros, we need to go back over that a little bit more, who had been in the postseason eight straight years. Yeah, they've been a dominating season. Seven times in the Champions League Championship Series,

four times in the World Series and twice won it. The Astros being out, that's a bummer to me. Okay, but things end. Things end. Apparently, apparently so. I'm with you on not wanting to have a buy. A buy for a week? No.

This is like college football when they get a buy for a month. No. And they're out. No, I like it. Listen, and you may not advance. I'd rather the Cubs be playing three days and by the way, the Dodgers. I'm sorry, the Padres.

The Padres lineup is a murderer's role. It is. No, no, no, they got... It's not as good as Phillies. It's right there. That's there. Yeah, yeah. You got a guy like a rise

who people forget is won, what, three batting championships? Yeah, but he's in the San Diego lineup with Tatees Jr. But your best pitcher, the rookie is going to pitch, isn't he? No, because Kate Horton, he coughed... A broke a rib. It cracked a rib.

Unbelievable. A coughing spill. Somebody gave him a cold. That person should be suspended. So now we don't have our best. That's so cubbish. We don't have our best pitcher. Since Jake Areietta, we don't have that guy to go against that lineup.

And I don't know how we get through, even though we have three at Wrigley. And they're all afternoon games. I wanted to go see a night game. I can't. Because ABC stole the afternoon games and put Cubs Padres on. I guess that's a good thing. Sox Yanks is too early. I like Sox Yanks too.

Not October 1, 2, 3. The Cubs are going to be playing against PTOI tomorrow. Three days in a row. I might not be here. I know you would agree with me on this. What? That we find ourselves with a soft spot in our hearts for Cincinnati because Terry Francona is the manager there.

Do you know that they don't have a single hitter who batted as high as 270 or had 25-home runs? No. They can't beat the Dodgers. They can't beat the Dodgers. They got a great player. You're going to beat the Dodgers? No. Tony?

You said that a year or two ago. Didn't Arizona beat the die? I mean, the best team, but the best team often loses in this very round. I wouldn't want the buy. I wouldn't either. All right. Let's move now to the Ryder Cup, which both you and I watched almost all of over three days. Europeans took a massive lead after the first two days and then barely hung on for dear life yesterday afternoon.

Wilbonn's, what stood out most for you? Tony, I guess the drama for about 90 minutes yesterday. because I started the day thinking it's football day. They're pretty good matchups. I'm nervous about Bears, Raiders. I'm lined up three TVs on football. Yeah. And then I called you.

You would Neville at the same time call and say, are you watching the Ryder Cup? And I go, man, not really. Get on it. Oh, my God. It's over. It's not going to matter. It's not supposed to matter.

We're supposed to sit here and talk about how the United States got drubbed in the team competition. and they couldn't make it up. And for a moment, it looked like the greatest comeback ever. Yeah, yeah, it did. It started with Cameron Young, hitting the Bernie on 18 and beating Justin Rose. And then Justin Thomas. Birdie on 18 and beat Tommy Fleetwood.

Unbelievable. And then Bryson DeChambo made up five strokes a man, had the match. And then Scotty Sheffler, who was 0 and 4 at that point, beat Rory on 18. And you looked at all the red on one side and you said, could this actually happen? But Shane Lowry said no. Shane Lowry said no. But you know what?

I have, there's so many notable things, including the U.S. dominance. I'm sorry, the European dominance on Friday. And Saturday. And Saturday. Also, you know, we have to talk about the crowd misbehavior. Thank you. And Tom Watson. Thank you.

If you don't want to listen to us or anybody else, great Tom Watson, went to social media to say, no, no, no, this is wrong. I thought about this. And I thought that I was happy that I didn't actually go in person that I watched on TV. Because had I gone in person, I would have been repulsed by the actions of the crowds. There's no place in sports to have chance of cursing at a player and his family. And throwing a beer at somebody? Rory McElroy was treated abysmally.

And part of this is the PGA of America, right? That they ginned up, they deliberately orchestrated and ginned up a thing that had a jingoistic feeling to it. And what I thought to myself was a lot of these people that are screaming of Rory McElroy. are the same people who cheered for him in Augusta when he completed the Grand Slam. They don't go to Augusta. And I think that PGA could be frank. I think the PGA had some help from a higher place. And that may be getting up.

And that may be the case. But it was not, it, it overshadowed. Not complete. No, not completely. But it was a part of it. It was. Yeah. But the golf, the actual performance.

You can't curse. No, you can't. And throw stuff. This could have been in a studio with. violence and the drama of it. Now, I guess part of it, the partisan nature and the passion certainly adds to it. That's okay. And by the way, the European players, they've won, they've won like, what, like five out of the last seven or something like that?

So you know what? First of all, Rory played great the first two days. Rom played great the first two days. Fleetwood and Lowry played great. I read with interest and looked at with interest the fact that the count. captains, Luke Donald and Kagan Bradley, put DeCambo and Rom out there the first two days in every match they could. And that's saying, I don't care that you're on a live tour. You're still great players. You're still great players. And they shouldn't care. The other thing that got to me,

Shane Lowry is from Ireland. He won the British Open. You'd think that's the biggest thing in his life. He said this. He said this was the biggest thing in his life. Okay, but three of the majors are played in the United States. The Ryder Cup always seems to mean more to the Europeans. They got to leave home to play in three of the four majors. Well, most of them live in Florida. They do. They do most live in Florida. But they seem to do the team thing better than we do.

They do the team. Let's take a break. Coming up, how should Micah Parsons feel about his return to Big D? And Virginia pulled a huge upset, but was that the most compelling result of the college football weekend? You know what I would do if I was running the Ryder Cup from the United States? I'd hire Luke Donald to be my captain. He seems to know how to do it. You know where he lives?

That's right. So I'd hire him. Luke Donald. Yeah. Couldn't bring mail. Time to find out what's cooking with the common folk. Let me see what's first in this mailbox. Here we go.

Man. How should Michael Parsons feel about his return to Dallas? Eh. Eh, that's it. That's all. A tie? And thankfully, he said it afterward. He talked about how that defense, which he's supposed to lead and be the Hall of Famer

and be Reggie White Jr. Yeah. They gave up 40. So, you know, no, you can't feel great about that. I know we got this semi-sack for zero yards on DAC, and they talked about that like it was, you know, the greatest sack of all time. But they didn't, you know, this game was,

this was a very, very, very entertaining game. Yes. This game had all the elements except not a winner. And so the Packers, what does this mean? I watched the Cowboys last week. I know how bad that defense is. Right. The Packers figured to go down.

there and win that game just like the Bears beat the Cowboys last week. Now they're two and two. Yeah. So I'm not going to dwell on the game where Michael Parsons. As you say, it was very entertaining. I think what you take away from it is that the Packers may not be as good as you thought originally. And the Cowboys may not be as bad. But the Cowboys are fatally flawed. I'm going to give you numbers that are shocking. Defense. Dak Prescott is really good. He should get his money. He's having a great season. They are number one in offense. They get four. 404 yards a game. They give up 420.

Their last, you get 404, you give up 420. It's bad math. It doesn't work. Dak Prescott is going to end up being this year's Joe Burrow. He's going to get 35, 38, 41, and they're not going to win games. You know the happiest guy in the joint was yesterday? Jerry Jones, because he didn't lose to Micah Parsons. Well, he didn't lose.

But you know what, and I know the Packers are 2-1-1-1. They're 2-2 in my book. Right, okay? Right. Because that's a loss for them. That's how it has to feel. And by the way, so that's the Browns and Cowboys, one team that can't play offense

and the other day can't play defense and they couldn't beat either one of them. Can't play. So, you know, cheese heads. I'm glad I was wrong on the cheese his. Early jump to conclusion. You did. Putting them in Sierra Leisure in February.

College football, what was the most compelling result of the college football weekend? Okay, so there were a lot of good things to talk about. Ole Miss is now 5 and O. they beat LSU with a D2 transfer quarterback. Virginia beat Florida State. What? Virginia beats Florida State.

And once again, James Franklin and Penn State lose to the top 10 team. They lose to Oregon. But it was an overtime. James Franklin at Penn State now 4 and 21 against top 10 teams. But the number one thing is Alabama. Alabama goes to Georgia, wins that game. You said that would never happen. It was going to be a rock.

I apologize to Book of McFarland. That's right. Who came on this show and killed. I killed it, and I did not. Okay. So, Kaelin DeBoer comes back with Alabama. He is now, I believe,

16 and 3 against ranked teams throughout the course of his career. He's not James Franklin. But Kirby Smart... He can't beat Alabama, no matter who's coach. Kirby Smart's 1 and 7 against Alabama, 0 and 2 against DeBoer. Kirby Smart's overall record is 107 and 13.

Half his losses are to Alabama. That means that Alabama, his kryptonite in the way that Michigan is Ryan Day's kryptonite. Yeah, no, I agree with you on that, but I'm not giving that the number one result of the week. What are you given? The number one result of the weekend is, oh, Miss Beaton LSU, I think. Or Penn State, this is supposed to be the year. You're a big 10 guy. I am a big 10 guy, and I will say this.

I thought Oregon was going to win that game comfortably. That did not happen. No. For Penn State. It was a boring game for a half. It was a boring. It was a boring. And Penn State needed to win that game, and they still can't break through.

And I know when I sit there and I hear Franklin talk pridefully about his school and his team, I like him. But they don't beat anybody. He has proven over a long time that these games, like if you're Penn State and you are thinking about a national championship, you got to beat top 10, top five team. You got to have won that game at home. I may have gotten. Kirby's more rated right down. Now, 107.13 is against everyone else, not against Alabama. So that's a one-third of the...

Did he lose to Bear Bryant somewhere along the way? No, just saving the war. Enough female. Let's take one last break, still to come. The Giants say, see you to Bob Melvin. Is that deserved? That's a wow. Yeah.

And in the WNBA, the Mercury move on could they face the catenless fever in the finals? Did you get that wrong? What? You didn't have Phoenix winning. I did. You did? I did.

They didn't have the phoeia collier. Oh, okay. Or she or. Happy time, people. Happy 37th birthday, Kevin Durant. ADD. Durant continues to orchestrate moves designed to get him a championship, but he hasn't come close anywhere he's gone since leaving the Warriors.

Now Durant is in Houston, who just took a big hit when Fred Van Vleet tore his ACL. Big hit. Durant is a statistical wonder. National Player of the Year is one season at the University of Texas. NBA All-Star 15 times. rookie of the year in 2008, two-time champion, two-time finals MVP with Golden State,

and a four-time scoring champion. Durant averaged 26.6 points and shot 52.7% last season with Phoenix. Yet another team he is no longer with. If I'm in Houston Rock, I've dedicated all these resources to beating, dethroning, OKC. I've got to go get C.J.

McCollum from the Wizards, from your Wizards. C.J. McCollum, that's the move. He's available for a dollar. The Wizards don't here. Happy anniversary. on Van Brockland. This is posthumous, but around this day, 74 years ago, the Rams quarterback passed for a still NFL record, 554 yards. Wow. Rocklin had five touchdowns as the Rams beat the then New York Yanks. Van Brocklin won two NFL championships, one with the Rams, one with the Eagles.

He was NFL MVP in 1960. After nine Pro Bowls and 12 seasons as a player, Van Brockland turned to coaching. First coach ever for the Minnesota Vikings also coached the Atlanta Falcons. Remember that. Ben Brocklin suffered a number of illnesses, including a brain tumor. After it was removed, he told the press, quote, it was a brain transplant. They gave me a sports writer's brain to make sure I got one that hadn't been used. That is such a funny line. Too bad we're a sports writer.

Such a funny line. Tony, the New York Yanks. What did they become? They were around for like two seasons. I don't know what they became. But there were Hall of Famers who were on that team on the New York Yanks. Happy trails to the Minnesota Links. The Phoenix Mercury rallied.

from a 13-point fourth quarter deficit Sunday to beat the links by five and advance to the WNBA finals. Minnesota was without injured star forward, Nefisa Collier. That was awful. And head coach Cheryl Reeve, who was ejected Friday and suspended

for ripping the refs and league leadership over Collier's injury. The Mercury will now meet either the fever or the aces. Aaliyah Boston had 24 and 14, and Kelsey Mitchell, scored 25 last night to help Indiana force a series deciding game five on Tuesday. The Fisa Collier is such a great, player, I believe, run her up. MVP, for her not to be in that game, it was awful to see her

get hurt in that game, but Coach Reeve had to be suspended. Wasn't she coming to the defense of her players? Yes, but it hasn't this been an issue all year that coaches have said the referee is bad, has been a thing in the league. But in the playoff like this, I've never seen anybody quite lose it like that. This was Earl Weaver like. All right, all right. Let's go to the big finish if we could.

Let's do it. The San Francisco Giants fired Bob Melvin. Man. After just two seasons, Rocco Baldelli out in Minnesota after seven. Wow. These moves make sense. Seven scenes is a long time. But the Giants expected to be better this year.

Tough division. Tough division. With the Padres, Arizona, and the Dodgers. But the... Ninus quarterback, Brock Purdy, says his toe hurts again. That's a big deal, right? Joe Burroughs out with a bad toe until December. Yeah, it's a big deal.

The Warriors are soft. signing Al Horford. Jonathan Caminga did not attend Media Day, which is the bigger deal? Al Horford's a big deal. Just trade Jonathan Comigga. I know where he should wind up. The Bulls. I'm going to play the drinking game with you.

Two Monday night games, Jets, Dolphins, Bingles, Broncos. You care about either one of those? I think the Broncos are a pretty good team. Dolphins have been disappointing. Yeah. Last one, Big Bunny. Bad Bunny. We'll headwine the Super Bowl halftime show.

Is that okay with you? Yes. I'm not a big fan of that. I sort of benched him, didn't you? Didn't want the bench for in a celebrity game? But Stephen A got mad. Well, you won the game? I had comment, and I had Horace Grant.

Okay, he was going to be on the bench. Later. Later. Stephen is still whining about that. We are out of time. Try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornhite. Stephen A.

Pipe down. Yeah. I'm Mike Will Bond. Back on ESP and tomorrow knuckleheads.