PTI - Who’s the most impressive 4-0 team?

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss which NFL team has the most impressive 4-0 start, the controversial ending to the Braves vs Brewers game, and what was the most intriguing result of the college football weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Lobinist National, do something. Nice day, Tony. Is there anything nice yet today? I'm Tony Kornheiser. I have. I gave one of your Emmys to my driver. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was good. Oh, wow, that's good. You had three. Must be, you know. Is that a tip? You had three. Is that your Uber? Is that your way of tipping Uber? Well, five stars and an Emmy.

And an Emmy. Yeah. And an Emmy. I don't do Uber, as you know. I don't have that app. I'm the last person on Earth. I'm waiting for Kipp. I have the Uber app. I don't. I don't. I don't. This is unbelievable. We'll talk about this in the break. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls in today's episode. The Patriots beat the Bills.

The Texans remain winless, and the Brewers and Braves. Both win on Sunday. But we begin today with games from yesterday's late window. In those games, Kansas City held on to beat Las Vegas by three points but didn't cover. San Francisco beat Denver by 10 points. And again, Brock Purdy had no interceptions. He has just won on the year. And Minnesota won again without scoring a touchdown 15 to 10 over Miami.

Those three teams, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Minnesota are the only unbeaten teams left in the NFL. Wilbon, which one impresses you the most? Damn sure not Minnesota, who you know I hate. I know. And he should have lost the Bears if Caleb Williams hadn't gotten hurt running into the end zone late in that game. So I'm not counting them, which leaves me, Tony, San Francisco, a couple of, you know, homecoming opponents, including Miami. I don't want to, Brock Purdy has looked like he can be in the MVP. discussion, right? It's fair. He could be in that discussion. But Kansas

City, they just know how to do this. I don't think they look impressive. I don't think any of these teams is the 85 bears or the 07 Patriots or the 72 Dolphins. I don't think that. I don't think any of these teams is great yet. But how can you doubt the Chiefs? They just, it's muscle memory. It's like, okay, let's show them we haven't forgotten how to do this. So impressive. I'm going to sort of kind of agree. And then at the end, I'm going to disagree. I'm going to take Minnesota first because it's important to me. Two of their four games, they have failed to score a touchdown.

Yeah. The last team that went to four and O that failed to score a touchdown in two of those games was in the 1920s. That's even before I was born. They have 47 points in their last four games. Flores is good though. That guy's a hell of a point in here. They have six offensive touchdowns all year. Six, and they've played terrible teams. Tampa Bay and Miami are 0 and 8 combined. So that now leaves me with San Francisco and Kansas. Kansas City. I want to love San Francisco. Everybody loves Kyle Shanahan. I want to fall in love with that team. And I watch them. And they have the highest point differential in the league. It's plus 58. But Mike, when I see them, I see a team that wins efficiently, but not particularly

impressively to me. But isn't it as impressive considering the injuries they've got that they keep moving on? I worry about that. Yeah. But I don't, I don't love them. I don't know why I'm holding back. I don't love them. I'm holding back too. I still think that the Rand and the Seahawks are as good or better than them, and they beat the Rams. They beat the Rams. So that gives me to Kansas City where you're with Kansas City as well.

I worry that they're losing people because of injury, but... Now, no receivers. Patrick Mahomes is as good now as he was three years ago. No, as good. He's as good so far. He's already all the way back.

I think if you want to talk about an MVP conversation, Kenneth Walker is in the MVP conversation. But here's where we're going to disagree. This was my man, Bryce Young. I don't think... I don't think... that any of these undefeated teams

is the best team in a league. Don't ask me the best team is, but I think by week eight or week 10, we're going to have a different order. Because as you're saying, there's no 72 dolphins, there's no 86. You know, I don't love any of them.

You know who I think I'm going to love again? Because they just took a week off. And we saw it and we put too much into it. Seattle. We saw them lose to the commanders without their starting quarterback and went, eh. That's right. Seattle.

Okay. I'm going to steal. I'm going to hang on that. for a few weeks anyway, let's move to the tight finishes in Sunday's early games. A revived Drake May hooked up with, this guy's name is Efton, Chisholm?

That can get you in trouble. For an insane touchdown, this New England upset Buffalo. The Rams got into the end zone twice in the last four minutes to beat the Eagles. The Cowboys Road City Lambs' historic day to rally late against Houston. Meanwhile, the Bengals came up just short against the Jags.

And the last second pick, six, scroats the cards bid to beat the G-Men, Tony, which result most stood out to you. Okay. The early window games were fabulous. Scott Hanson on the Red Zone, fabulous. Every game was tense. I can't tell you how many times they went to the quad box. It was a fabulous thing to watch.

They got to get you more TV. Fabulous thing. We got to get you more. Two results to me eclips all the others, one bad and one good. The bad was Houston. Houston went to O and 4. And if you want to sit there and say they'll still make the playoffs, you can have that bet.

You can have that bet. I don't want anything to do with that bet. Dak Prescott shredded them when he had to. When he had to, they were at home, and their alleged tremendous defense has now given up 109 points, which may be the most in the A.S. Here's the one thing you missed, though,

by not, I mean, you interrupt just for a second, by not watching the game and watching Red Zol. Love Reds. You couldn't see the violence of that game. I could not. Dallas, Houston was an old-fashioned violent game that looked like it should be played in January, and you don't get that flavor on Red Zon.

That's the intramural quality of the game of the year in Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, the one for good desperation was New England beating Buffalo at Buffalo, which is completely unexpected. I had the sense that New England was staring at its season in this particular game. Drake May has begun to change the narrative that has him collapsing. He did not throw any interceptions in the end zone. He did not throw any in the fourth quarter.

He had one, but it was meaningless. He had three touchdown passes. is if you add up his rushing yardage and his passing yardage, he had the 323 yards. And he made that catch at the end or he made the throw at the end to that little kid who caught this ball a tremendous play, absolutely tremendous.

So to me, he gets, this week is good for him because Buffalo's supposed to win that. They intercepted Josh Allen to seal the game. He gets this week for free, as does Mike Vrabel, who was threatening to be dragged down into this thing. Nothing is as wildly overstated as every result in the NFL.

every one and two team has to turn its season around, even though teams like the 49ers and the old Redskins won Super Bowls from five and six. Right. They did. And so everybody just screams these stupid declarations. Well, this is the question. I know.

Wait, wait, it can impress you without being a season turning round. I don't know that season turning around, but New England it might be. Might be. Beating Buffalo at Buffalo? You know what New England knows how to do? They're like Kansas City. They know how to win games. They know how to set it right.

Mike Vrable knows how to get a team by the throat and say, wait a minute, we're going the wrong direction. Again, none of those teams said to me, oh my God, they're a juggernaut. Let me say, let me just mention one team I think is better than everybody else seems to think. Jacksonville. Jacksonville's good. I will say this.

I'll tell you what team look bad. The Philadelphia Eagles. They look tired. Again. They have no offense. If I have this number correct, Jalen Hertz, passed for 10 yards in the second half. They're failing him. That team, the only thing I like about the Eagles is Jalen Hertz.

They're failing. I like the Rams. I thought they looked good. I like the Rams a lot better than you do. Right? And you know who's failing to me? Cincinnati has me worried. Joe Burrow is not rallyed.

I did because they got some defense. Now receivers are getting hurt. Joe Burrow has not rallied them in the second half the way he would. Let's move to baseball. Please. The National League played yesterday. The American League will play today. Milwaukee got a walk-off two-run single from Jackson Churio of San Diego's all-world closer,

Mason Miller, beat the Padres for the second straight day. The Braves with yet another bullpen game, held off the Dodgers 3-2 to 2 in hot L.A. Wilbon, which is more impressive to you, the Brewers taking the first two at home, or the Braves getting a split on the road? Neither. Jackson Churio, I hate him because he's great. Yeah, he's in your division. A lot of him.

We got to play him for maybe the next 15 years in Shurray. Chicago and Milwaukee. That kid is a beast. So I'm looking at him going, my God, we can't get rid of him and they got, you know, stretch out there throwing 105 miles an hour every five days. So, I mean, Milwaukee's got to say, yet that's not what sticks with me. What sticks with me is the most unfulfilling result of a baseball playoff game I may ever have seen. A ball hitting a roof that should have been a home run to give San Diego likely a 100 series lead. Yes. And people telling me, no, no, no, no, no, there's ground rules. This is a lie like Michigan beating Western Michigan. This is awful.

It's distasteful. Major League Baseball ought to be better than this. And the Padres are now down O2, and they were cheated. Yeah. Okay. So let me get to that, because I know how you feel about that. And I said to you earlier this morning when we spoke, I used the word unsatisfying.

Yes, you did. It's an unsatisfying close. But there are ground rules that are gone over at home plate. every game by the managers and the umpires. Everybody knows the specific rules. They have them at Tropicana Field. They have them in all of these places. Let me finish.

Let me finish. I got a call today from somebody you know well. Oh, good. I got a call from Josh Mower, who was our first intern here. And now broadcast the Milwaukee Brewers. And he said to me, what you're missing in this

is the percentage of people, which he thought was above 50%, but not like 80%, who were there who thought that's going to be a foul ball. That's not necessarily going to be a fair ball. So my position is this. You cannot award a home run if it doesn't go out.

You just can't do it. I don't see a good fix here. Tony, I don't see a good fix. Put a line on the ceiling. Double here, triple here. I don't want to be like the state fair, but that's, you got to do better. Do you think it should be a fair ball or a foul ball if it lands back down? Because that's part of the rules to what do you do?

If you have the roof, what do you do? First of all, keep the damn roof open. It was 70 degrees. Josh said it was raining. It was about to rain in Milwaukee. You know what? I used to love Josh Mal. Now he's just another cheesehead who's dead to me.

I do love Josh. Tony, come on now. You watched it and your first reaction was not to be so diplomatic. Your first reaction was, what? Yeah, I understand. But again, there are these rules that go stadium to stadium and everybody understands those rules. I will say this.

I don't think that the Padres can beat the Brewers three in a row. No, no. Neither one of us does. And also, I look at the Dodgers. They're a little bit less than I thought. Do you know, the Dodgers at this point, they hit home runs, but they don't build runs. They left 13 people on.

They went 0 for eight with runners and scored in position. And they got guys in the lineup who can do it either way. It's going to be a tough road for them. I still think they'll win this series against Atlanta. I think they'll win this series. Tony, Milwaukee's better. Atlanta with a bullpen game gambled and won. Milwaukee's better than.

They held Chris Sale out. They helped. It seemed to have worked. Let's take a break. Coming up. Missouri upset Florida. Crushed him. But was that the most intriguing result

for the college football weekend? And are the Jim Harbaugh and Dan Campbell both right to stand by their men off criticized? Did I tell people that you called me yesterday at 8 and said, what did you think of the baseball? I said I didn't know the baseball was gone. I thought they wouldn't compete against the NFL.

I didn't know. Then I watched the Dodgers. Thanks to you. I didn't watch the NFL. I watched it. You know, you can put more than one thing on. We've got to get you another TV. No, I only have two eyes.

You and Ralph Framden. I only have two eyes. You and Norton. Time to drain the bilge tank for your emails. Let me get the first one. What's the bill? It's not good. You don't want to be sent to the bilge is in there.

You don't want to be sent there. What was the most intriguing result of the college football weekend? I'm going to annoy you now. And I watched everything. I watched everything. I just sat in my apartment in Chicago and watched every parts of every game I could. And you know what? The only thing that was compelling was my game.

That's fine. To beat the hell out of Penn State a second straight year, we got to hear Penn State and Colorado kids looking at our student section, now call the wall that frightens the hell out of them and say it looks like a library. I don't know that you kids would know what a library is, and we do.

But we beat Penn State. We opened a billion dollar stadium, and the reviews of which, I'll send you one from the New York Times, all said, oh my God, this is incredible, it's a game changer. I don't know that. Is that a journalism business thing now

where you review stadiums and you give stars to state? Maybe, but Tony, this was different. And you know, you watched a little bit of it. I did. A hundred years, I've been, 50 of the 100 years, I've been sitting in a dump. I'm going to sit the next few in this palace. And I don't know whether it, we're going to have to put teams in there that now justify

the expenditure of a billion dollars. How do you do that? How do you pay for that? We're three and one. And there's a certain national championship coach who was gone out publicly and said, they look like us two years ago. This is Wilbon money. You're going to be able to handle all of that stuff.

I'm happy your school won. I'm happy your stadium is beautiful. I know. I'm happy for the fact that you ate all the prime rib that you did and you told me about it. I will answer the college question. The college question, the most stunning thing is Florida. What happened to Florida? The same thing that happened to Mississippi the previous week.

No, I'm going to get to that. Okay. They got, they were the crusher of Ole Miss and they became. the crushy as Missouri beat them 4517. I understand that Ole Miss was emotionally spent after beating LSU. That's all I'm saying. But I don't

see, I don't think that Florida has that excuse. I don't think Old Miss means anything to them. They spit the bit. They were terrible. They're going to beat up on each other. They were terrible. The other thing I would mention is that North Carolina came relatively close at the end to Notre Dame, but then I'm grading on a curve.

You just, you turn the channel. Grading on a curve. Because you got one TV. You're going to give us no credit for stomping Penn State. You took all the credit. You took a minute. I'm going to hear it from you. I said congratulations on your school.

I missed that part. Are Dan Campbell and Jim... Is that a four-year school these days? I hope some of those players stay four years. Dan Campbell and Jim Harbaugh, are they right to stand by their coordinators? Detroit, as you well know, has now given up 127 points in four games. That's 32 points a game. Yeah.

The last Detroit team, the first four games of the year that gave up that many points was 2008. You know how they finished? Oh, and 16. Oh, and 16. So you talked, you talked for a couple of years. I scoffed at it about the brain drain there. When they lost Aaron Glenn and they lost Ben Johnson.

It is now a real, it's an obvious real thing. Yes. So the guy who it falls on, what's his name, Kelvin Shepard? Kelvin Shepard. The D.C. It's going to fall on him. Incredible guy. The Chargers are in worse shape than Houston. I don't know.

They are 0 and 4 in a better. division. That's true. Okay? Now, they, the Chargers at this point, Justin Herbert was better yesterday. The offense was better, but Mike, they're averaging 17 points a game. It's not working. Do you know

who their next three games are? Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, it looks bleak. You know what, again, this goes back to my comment to you in the first block in the first part of the show. Get better. Go to practice every day and get better. Get better. You don't think they're trying to get better? Don't just go firing people because you don't need good

the first four games. Get better. I mean, try some new things. The hard balls, and particularly now this hard ball, the one is in San Diego. The other hard balls, three and one at the moment. Come on. They know how to coach. They know how to improve a team. Yes. They know how to grab a team and get it redirected.

So do it, by the way. Carolina, they got an early candidate. He might be on outside, not on the rail, for MVP. Bryce Young. So two years ago, that kid's spinning it. Two years ago, both of us sat here on numerous occasions and said, is he big enough?

Can it work in the NFL? We did not think it could work. No, not like this. He's really, really good. And Detroit hung in there last night. They had a chance to win that game late in Carolina where all the pressure was on that team. They gave up 127 in four games. I like it.

It's outrageous. I love it. It's enough email. Good. I win. Let's take one last break still to come. The NFL hands-out punishment for the behavior. of a couple of game officials from yesterday.

And what chance do the raised half against Cam Schlittler? I was careful tonight. Do I have this right? Somebody get in my ear? Is Alabama Georgia this week? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Isn't that the one we want to see? Yeah, because you want to see if Alabama's any good.

Yeah, they went over 50. They went over 50. Well, I don't, I don't. Did they do it on Mississippi State? They're not good? I think the SEC's good. It was good. Georgia's good. Yeah, Georgia's good. So let's see that.

Happy time, people. happy 89th birthday, Barry Switzerland. Wow. Probably best known as the head coach at Oklahoma, where he won three national championships and established his reputation as a rough and tumble wise guy who liked the spotlight and could coach better than almost everybody else. Not unlike Nick Saban as the face of a dominating program and not unlike Lane Kiffin as a one step ahead of the posse level. Switzer won Super Bowl 30 with the Cowboys after Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson broke up and probably doesn't get the credit he deserved. Switzer is one of only three coaches to win the national championship and the Super Bowl

along with Pete Carroll and the aforementioned Johnson. I love Switzer. You know that. I was covering college football then to hang out with Barry Switzer. It's great. But too much credit for that team. That's Jimmy Johnson's team. He was part, as long as they were combinations, to me, part James Bond, part Mike Ditka. Okay. And I know that's high praise for me. Yes, it is. Happy anniversary, Dante Hall, on this day, 23 years ago,

the diminutive return specialist for the Kansas City Chiefs took a kick or punt for a touchdown in a record fourth consecutive game. This particular return stands out most in the minds of Chiefs fans. Hall fielded a Broncos punt on his own seven-yard line. Duke left, chuffled right, cut hard left towards his own end zone, and then managed to beat every Denver defender to the end zone 97 yards away. That proved to be the difference in Kansas City's 24 to 23 win. The touchdown was Hall's seventh in a 10-game stretch over two seasons.

Paul went on to total 10 touchdowns in 13 games. Look, I'm a Devin Hester guy. I know. That belongs on any highlight reel anywhere that anyone's turned in. Breatthaking touchdown. Absolutely. Happy Trails, Tyson Summers. You can add former in front of the Colorado State defensive coordinator's title.

Rams head coach Jim Moore Jr. We'll leave Summers of his play calling duties after Oregon State scored its second touchdown of the first quarter of Saturday's game. Summers decided to take it a few steps further and reportedly walked off the field with a minute left in the quarter. Morris said he then fired Summers after the game, which Colorado State lost 56-26. The two were seen getting heated with one another on the sideline during the team's recent loss to University of Texas, San Antonio. I love it when coaches have that happen. Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan had that happen in a game they was trying to remain undefeated in Miami in 1985. And Dicko wanted to tell him, buddy, let's take it out.

out back and they had to be separated. How great is that? One omission, the NFL announced suspensions of two officials for instances of unprofessional conduct towards a player. Line guards Jeff Seaman got two games for his altercation with Cardinals, tight end, Trey McBride. Seaman appeared to curse at McBride and referee Adrian Hill got one game for his interaction with Vikings linebacker, Eric Wilson. You and I covered a trillion games in NBA where referees and players cursed at each other. It was no big deal. Jeff Seaman, that's my guy, man.

He can play golf with him in Arizona? Is that right? Let's go if we could to the big finish. Let's do it. The Dream and Valkyries, both won game one of their series. Your thoughts? I'm rooting for Veronica Burtens, and that tells you I'm room for the Valkyries. These series tone are fascinating.

They really are. Alex Olveshkin told his teammates today, this is officially his last season, your thoughts. The greatest goal scorer of all time. It's got to end. He's 41 years old. Got to end. LeBron, Joel M. Bid, and Tyrese, all your boys. Yeah.

Will all miss tonight's preseason game against the Knicks? You disappointed? Well, they're making commercials. It got in the way of any appointment they might have in the basketball court. Falcon Saints tonight break it down. Saints are more interesting than they've been in a lot of years. Falcons have Bijan Robinson.

This is, I think, trying to be the anniversary, the 20th anniversary of the Katrina. We were both at that game, which is incredibly emotional. Last one, Yankees raised game two tonight. To whom do you give the edge? I know who better had the edge? The Yankees need to bounce back after being essentially no-node the other night.

Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, they got clitler. They ought to help out. We're out of time. We're trying to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornynheim. And I'm Mike Robbins. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.