The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 127: Friday Rollin' With Mike Lombardi, Joe House, and Chris Vernon

Episode Date: September 23, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on NFL insider Mike Lombardi to discuss Pats-Texans, Brock Osweiler's sustainability (5:00), the top four teams heading into Week 3 (8:00), Green Bay's predictable matchup offense (14:00), Kirk Cousins as a one-year wonder (19:00), the Jets' durability (25:00), and the Pats' 16-0 potential (29:00). Then, Joe House joins (33:30) to offer up his three best NFL bets, break down why the Warriors over-under is so high (48:00), and discuss KD's slighted stance (54:00). Finally, The Ringer's Chris Vernon hops on the line (1:02:30) to give a preview of his podcast plan for the college football and NBA seasons and give out his best bets for the weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We got NFL. There are a lot of reasons to use SeatGeek right now. We're also brought to you by Sling TV, the best way to watch live TV on your turf. Just $20 a month, stream more than 20 live channels, including ESPN, TNT, AMC, and CNN. No installation, no extra gear, no annual contracts, just an internet connection. Start watching for seven days free at sling.com slash bill Simmons, get sling TV on your favorite device restrictions do apply. I should also mention, we launched a new podcast feed on the ringer podcast that we're called ringer university. It's going to have college football and college basketball.

It is up. We're going to have two college football podcasts per week during the rest of this season. One is hosted by Mallory Rubin and Ben Glicksman for The Ringer. One is hosted by Chris Vernon, who joins The Ringer next week. And when college basketball starts. Oh, yeah. Mark Titus, a.k.a. Club Trillion. He finally has his own podcast. America has been clamoring for years and years.

He is co-hosting it with my man Tate Frazier, who's been producing the BS podcast since day one. So get ready for that. They'll be coming next month. The Ringer University podcast feed. Subscribe now on iTunes or SoundCloud. And also, don't forget about Any Given Wednesday. We had, I think, my favorite show we've ever done this week.

Vince Staples, KD, and Nas. And we threw out the format. We went 20 minutes with KD and Nas, because when are you going to get those two guys on the same set again? We also had some bonus clips from that that are up now. You can check that out on HBO Go or HBO On Demand or just the web. We put them on YouTube and our Facebook page. Extra speed round, all kinds of stuff. What a thrill to talk to those guys. Really interesting. We also have a new show next week, 10pm HBO. Bunch of rears

of that one as well. I think we have, I don't want to say the guess yet. I'll say next week. Don't forget to check out TheRinger.com. TV week is wrapping up and we have just a slew of stuff up. TV, football, NBA, pop culture. You name it.

It's all there. The Ringer. All right. We're going to call on this podcast Mike Lombardi. We're going to pick football games with Joe House, and you're going to meet Chris Vernon. He's going to give us some college football and pro football picks. Here we go.

Yeah. Clear enough for you. All right. and he's going to give us some college football and pro football picks. Here we go. On the line, our NFL insider, Mike Lombardi. What a Patriots win last night. Patriots shut out the Texans. Nobody believed. People keep doubting Belichick. People keep thinking it's about the players. No, it's about the genius in Foxborough. Were you surprised at all by it last night?

You know, I was. It was a challenge. And I think that it's a culture win. Those are the kind of things you have to propel yourself through, like they did in Arizona. And I think this game also allowed them to come closer as a team. You know, it's always that next man up mentality on the one side with the Pats. And Belichick loves challenges.

He loves being counted out. That's like his favorite situation to be in. But also, not a great spot for Houston. You know, they had a really tough game against the Chiefs four days ago. Their offense really isn't scoring points. So I was going into it thinking the Pats only needed somewhere between 17 and 23 points to steal the game. And as it turned out, they needed one point to steal the game. What do you see from that Texans team?

Because I think it's so early to judge a new quarterback and new pieces, stuff like that. At the same time, they just look poorly coached to me. What did you see? Well, I thought they went into the game. You know, one of the adages that Belichick always subscribes to, and it's called the inverse theory by Charlie Munger, and basically instead of saying what it will take to win,

you ask the question, what can we do to avoid losing? And Belichick always takes that approach, and the number one thing to avoid losing is not to turn the ball over. And I thought last night Houston took that approach. They felt like, okay, it's not going to take a lot of points to win this game. They're not going to score a lot on our defense. So if we play it conservatively and play it safe and kick field goals or run the ball on third and 10, we won't give them the game. And then what happened was they gave the Patriots the game. And when you look at the Houston offense, I think what you see is a team that can make explosive big plays, but the more third downs that come up, the more chances Brock Osweiler has to mess it up.

And I think for $18 million, I don't know if you're a Texan fan, if you can feel really good that Brock Osweiler is the answer. Now, we lost the game last year in Denver the first time, and if you recall, Patrick Chung got called for a horrendous holding call after Alan Branch sacked him on third down. It would have been, I think, fourth and goal from the 19. Could have put the game away, would have given us home field advantage, but that call in the end zone was atrocious. Osweiler really made a few throws in the game. We got beat in the running game, so Osweiler has yet to prove that he can execute a sustainable drive. He can make some throws down the field.

They have some great skill players. They needed to get Lamar Miller going. They tried because of the coverage that the Patriots were playing. But for the most part, I think what we learned about the Texans last night was don't give them the big play. Make them drive the ball down the field and put the ball in Osweiler's hands drive the ball down the field, and put the ball in Osweiler's hands on key downs, third downs, and see if he can deliver, and he couldn't last

night. It seemed like they were just dying to let Osweiler dink and dunk them. The underneath behind, you know, the five yards behind the line of scrimmage on the defensive side was open the whole game, and a couple times he took it, but for the most part, he just didn't seem that interested. If he'd just gone six, seven, eight yard passes down the field, it felt like it was open the whole game, right? Right. No, I mean, he's never going to flinch. I mean, that's the thing about Belichick. I've often said this about Bill. The beauty of his skill is he's so patient. If he was in the home building business, and I've said this a million times to my friends, he would build one home a year. It'd be the greatest home ever, but it would only be one

home a year. He's not going to get into the Pulte business where he's building neighborhoods. That's not who he is. And so if you're going to try to stand the test of time with him and try to see who blinks first, he's never blinking. And I agree, Houston should have done that, but Belichick sat there and said, the longer it takes them to score, the less we have to play in the game. So he was more than content to keep letting them take those checkdowns, run the ball on third and 12. It really reduced the game for him, and they did him a favor. Can you give me a rational opinion on Jacoby Brissett?

I thought Jacoby missed some throws. I think he was in a tough spot. I think he didn't process as quickly. I thought Josh McDaniels did a great job of high-low, letting him high-low read the first third down. He's got James White open for a first down, could run down the sidelines, might even get the ball into the red zone,

and he tries to throw the nine route up to Hogan, and it's incomplete, and he missed Hogan later in the game. I think he's a work in progress. I think he's not anything that he flashed like Jimmy Garoppolo flashed. But remember, Jimmy Garoppolo in his rookie season, the last game against Buffalo, didn't look very good either. So it's going to take some time. I thought he missed some throws.

The good news is that he didn't throw any picks or fumble or anything. He had one terrible throw in the end zone that could have been picked and wasn't. He made a couple good runs. But for the most part, really didn't do that much. I was surprised that the announcers were praising McDaniels and Belichick as much as they were because the reality was that the Texans fumbled two kicks. They had an interception of their own territory. They couldn't move anything offensively. I mean, it's about as easy of a game manager game as you could have had. I'm not willing to write off the Texans yet, though. I think it's going to take them a couple more games to figure out how to use Osweiler correctly. They didn't really have him air it out at all. He's got

a good arm, right? He's got a good deep throw. Well, they played a lot of cover, too. They deterred him away from it. And look, the hero of the game is Ryan Allen. I mean, Ryan Allen, the punter, he's going to get the Patriot of the Week because he did a remarkable job of turning field position, keeping them pinned up, and the special teams of the Patriots, which is what they work on. Belichick tells the team every single day in team meetings, look, we get our toughness from kickoff coverage.

That's who we are. We've got to cover kicks. We've got to be tough in covering kicks because games come down to being able to set the tempo on covering kicks. And Brandon Bolden has a unique ability to get the ball out, and they did that last night. I have the top four right now, Pat Steelers, Broncos, Panthers. Is there anyone you would put in there?

No, I still think Pittsburgh's really a good team. I think Arizona can be a better team. I don't think what we saw there on the opening game, I think Arizona, if they can fix some things, they certainly deserve to come in there. Seattle's offense, to me, is problematic because the offensive line, I think Lockett's the only receiver they have that gets separation instantly. It's caused Russell Wilson to hold the ball, which then becomes a problem because the line can't block very long. It's just kind of a never-ending battle there. So Seattle defensively, to me, would be in the top four, but right now offensively, they're not. So I would say those

four, Arizona could sneak in. Would you put the Vikings in there? You know, it's funny. The Vikings, everybody says, oh my God, we lost Adrian Peterson. How are we going to survive without Adrian Peterson? Well, look, let's just lay out some facts. I mean, I hate to go Malcolm Gladwell on you and do revisionist history here, but the reality is the Vikings haven't had Adrian Peterson. I mean, the Vikings have been a 70% pass team in the first half, a 30% run. Okay. If you have Adrian Peterson, and he's great, are you throwing it 70% of the time in the first half? Of course you're not. Also, they're last

in the league with Adrian Peterson in four-yard runs on first down. And you would say to me, oh, no problem, Bill. No problem, Michael. They're in eight-man fronts, so he's getting stymied all the time when he tries to run. Okay, great. They're last in the NFL on second down runs. They average less than two yards a run. Oh, and by the way, they're horrendous on negative

plays. They're last in the league in negative rushing plays. They were last year as well. So the injury to Adrian Peterson kind of shifts the dynamics of the Vikings to more of an open team, spread the court, let them try to run the ball, not try to feed Adrian Peterson because that really wasn't working. Right, and McKinnon maybe can give them a little bit more coming out of the backfield catching balls. They're seven-point underdogs in Carolina, and that line seems a little fat to me because you could argue Bradford is actually a little more competent than Bridgewater.

I'm not a huge Bradford fan, but I wasn't a huge Bridgewater fan either. And as you said, it's not like Peterson was dominating defenses here. And from what I saw from Carolina last week, they had a bunch of chances to just slam the door on Carolina and San Francisco and kind of couldn't get rid of them. It doesn't seem like Fozzie Whitaker is their running game right now. Defensively, they're not as much of a juggernaut as they were last year. Do you see any signs of holes with that Carolina team?

I think Carolina is kind of a work in progress. That's what they're always going to be on offense. But they can run the ball, and they create angles to force you to really be very good at tackling. Now, Minnesota's a good tackling team, but where they run the ball and the locations of where their backs typically are, whether it's the quarterback or Fozzie Whitaker, it becomes a problem if you're not a great tackling team. And they take advantage of teams they can't tackle.

Minnesota can tackle fairly well. But Minnesota's week two of the season, it's not a playoff game, but the physicality of the game was a playoff game. And those are always tough to come back the next week and play again and play another team as physical as the Green Bay Packers were and then have to match the physicality the next week. So I think that's the challenge. Carolina is always going to be an offense where you're going to say,

you know, they're not really that good on offense because they make a play here, they make a play there. But when you look at the stat sheet, they have 170 yards rushing, they have 200 yards passing, and you really never stop them. But you feel like you have control of the game, but you really don't because you don't tackle well enough. And that's where they get you, and they do a good job. And I think they're a tough team. And defensively is where I'm not sure they're quite as good as they were last year. The corners aren't as good. And the rush hasn't been as dominating as

it could be but it takes some time for your defense to get going week three is fun because there's a little bit of a rock paper scissors going on right like houston you watched him yesterday they just don't look very good it makes me think like all right so what does that mean about kansas city is kansas city, maybe we've overrated Kansas City. Maybe Kansas City doesn't have it anymore. You look at Green Bay. Week one, they eke it out against Jacksonville. I think the weather probably had a part of it.

Makes Jacksonville seem a little better than they are. They get killed in week two. Green Bay only scores 14 points against Minnesota. Minnesota has great defense. Now, Green Bay, week three, only laying seven to Detroit. And Detroit's just a mess. You know, Detroit still had a lot of injuries. They blew last week's game. And it makes me think, is this one of those weeks where it's like, oh yeah, Rodgers is really good. He's getting counted out. Oh, is he as good as he was five years ago? Doesn't this feel like an ass-kicking Packers week, or am I crazy?

I think the Packers emerged. Look, the Lions had seven. Brad Allen thought everybody went to the Detroit-Tennessee game last week to watch him officiate. He had 17 penalties on Detroit, and he had 14 on Tennessee. Really? I mean, is this what we're going to do here? And I'm sure that the 17 penalties the league office sent out memorandum this week

saying, you know, they were the absolutely perfect calls. Okay, really, that's really nice. That's what everybody wants to see is 17 penalties. But they were there, and that's the reality. And I think Detroit struggles. Golden Tate is averaging, I think he's averaging less than eight yards of reception. They're getting production from Abron. They're getting production from Marvin Jones.

But they need it more from Golden Tate as well. Losing their running back, they can overcome a little bit. This is going to be a challenge for Detroit to go in there. Detroit, we saw what they did against Indianapolis. Their defense is not as good as it once was. Their front seven isn't as good as it once was. They missed Levy. They're going to miss Ansu.

I mean, Kelly Hyder, number 61 for Detroit, probably played the best of anybody in their front seven. And nobody even knows who he is. He's a cast-off from the Jets. So I think their work's cut out. And Green Bay is one of those teams where, you know, for me Green Bay is always about the players. It's never about the scheme.

It's about the players. And so it's a match-up offense. So when they play a team that lacks talent at corner, then all of a sudden their talent rises above. And the they play a team that lacks talent at corner, then all of a sudden their talent rises above, and the plays work much better that week than they did the week before. And I think Green Bay's offense will come out, and we'll write next week about how Rodgers and Green Bay's offense is fine, but there's still core issues going on there. So you think it's system? You think it's receivers? If you had to blame anything,

what would you blame? On Green Bay, I think it's really that they rely so much on the talent of the quarterback, and they rely so much on the talent of their players. And when their players aren't as talented, the scheme, they don't really do a lot in the scheme to enhance their players. If they had Amendola and Edelman, I don't think they would be as talented as Green Bay as they are in New England, because New England is always scheming ways to get them the ball. Green Bay says, look, here we are. We're coming at you. And there's an old adage in football that I believe completely. Dan Henning told me one time, if you don't have any tendencies, you're not any good. And Green Bay is all about tendencies. And they say to you, look, we're talented. See what you can do to us. And sometimes that works, but sometimes they need

a little bit more. And I think that there's a fine line you have to go through. If you do a little bit more, you're taking away what you do. I think sometimes when Green Bay's played these better defensive teams, it shows up. That sounded like a very roundabout way of criticizing Mike McCarthy. I just have to be honest. Well, I am criticizing him. I don't know if it was roundabout.

I think it was fairly direct in the sense that I think they need more scheme. I think they need more scheme. I think they need more scheme. And I am empathizing with Mike because he's sitting there saying, I got a really good team. Do I want to? No, I think you need to do a little bit more. They ran a middle screen last week against the Vikings that hadn't been run in a while. And the Vikings were completely shocked by it.

So it tells you that the Vikings play plays when they play the Packers. They kind of know what's coming. And you have to get a little bit away from that. Like last night, for example, Romeo Cornell would have played the regular offense better than he played Brissette because he wasn't sure what Brissette was going to do. He was defending ghost half the time. What are they going to do?

They're not going to run Brady's offense. They're not going to do. What are they going to do? And I think that becomes the problem. I think Green Bay needs a little bit more of the suspense in their offense. It didn't help that Romeo Cornell's been in a coma for five years. Which you warned us last week that young teams don't handle success. And you saw Tampa Bay and Oakland get their asses kicked last week.

Although Oakland, I guess, was a little bit closer. But both of them fell short big time. Should we be scared off, or is that just part of the process? I think Oakland's only had two two-game winning streaks last year. I mean, Oakland's going to be the high-low team. They're going to be the 9-7. And if they can ever figure it out, they may be able to get the 10 wins and be the team that we hope they could be.

And they need more from Khalil Mack. I mean, Khalil Mack doesn't have a sack. Bruce Irvin has one sack. They're secondary. Here's the problem the way I see Oakland in terms of how they set up their defense. And it happens all through the league. And it's the reason why the Patriots made the Eric Rowe trade, is you have to have a secondary like a basketball team.

You have to have somebody who can guard a point guard. You have to have somebody who can guard a power forward. You have to have somebody who can guard a point guard. You have to have somebody who can guard a power forward. You have to have somebody who can guard a smart forward. And all that the Raiders have are a bunch of power forward guarders. They have these big corners that can take away big receivers, but when they play against a guy like Eli Rogers for Pittsburgh, for example, or they play against a guy this week, Kendall Wright, who's not even a great receiver, but he does the things that the Raiders can't cover, it becomes a problem for him. So when you build your secondary core, you have to build it like a basketball team.

Conversely, when you build your receiver core, you have to build it like a basketball team. You need a power forward. You need a center. You need a point guard. And you need a small forward because you need to create the different matchups. If you have them all the same, then they can do the same. If you have them different, you become a matchup problem and you can find it. And that's where the Patriots have gotten to a little bit of a rut.

That's why the Hogan signing was so important. They needed a bigger inside receiver to offset some of that. They needed a guy to go in there who could play small forward, but he'd also go outside and play power forward. And that's the diversity you need within your system. And I think that's what diversity you need within your system, and I think that's what really lacks in Oakland. What about Tampa?

Bounce back? They're playing the Rams. Seems like this has been a nice spot for them. I think the Rams beat them 31-21, but Tampa had 500 yards of offense against them last year. So I think Tampa will bounce back. I think Tampa's going to be one of those teams that go in between. They're better on defense than they showed in Arizona. And, look, you just have to be half good on defense to play the Rams.

Right. All right, so September's all about overreactions. I'm going to give you some overreactions, and you tell me if I'm overreacting or not. The Colts, if they don't beat San Diego this week, their season's over. I think that's right. I don't think you can overcome. They're playing at home. I don't think you can overcome. They're playing at home.

I don't think the Colts are not going to be a good road team. Let's just be honest, okay? And so they need to be 6-2 at home, 7-1. They need to get their wins at home. If they lose another home game, that's really, really going to be bad, and I think it'll be an issue for them to overcome all season. They're not good enough to go out there now. Let's face it.

They've got Tennessee. They've got Jacksonville. Houston, they play well. I think this is an important game for them. They can't have another AFC loss. They can't lose to Denver and then lose to San Diego. Those are two AFC losses.

If Rex Ryan doesn't win this week, he's going to be gone after he loses to the Pats in Week 4. I don't know. Who are they going to promote? Greg Roman? Maybe bring him back? Is he still there? Anthony Lynn, another battlefield promotion?

I mean, you know, this is like Lincoln's Army. I mean, are the guys just going to get promoted as we go along here? Kirk Cousins was a one-year wonder, and he sucks, and I can't believe they gave him $90 million. Overreaction, or did he just have two shaky games? Well, I'm not sure that offensively the Redskins are, you know, look, Jay Gruden threw Kirk Cousins off the bus, and I'm not sure that Kirk Cousins can play better,

but that's not really what you want to do. It's not Kirk Cousins' fault they won nine games and went to the playoffs. I mean, he did a nice job for them, but I think you've got to do a better job of managing them. I think they're one of nine in the red zone on third down. I mean, they're horrendous down there. So they have to be able to. Some of it's Kirk Cousins' fault, and some of it they need to run the football.

They need to take the pressure away from. Look, he is who he is. You manage him. I mean, the one thing is you've had him. You know who he is. Why do you think he's going to change? Manage him. Build a system around him that fits him. Don't try to ask him to do more just because you gave him

$18 million. Who are they playing this week? Oh, they're at the Giants. They've lost two home games. If they lose to the Giants and they start 0-3, they're not coming back. They're not good enough on defense to come back. And I'm not sure Cousins can come back because the guy I saw at the end

of that Dallas game had deer in the headlights. Right. And when you throw them under the bus, you tell the team they can throw them under the bus. Right. You know, that's why you can't do that. New Orleans Monday night, home for Atlanta, their own two. Is that a playoff game? Yeah, another dome team that loses two at home.

New Orleans needs to be 6-2 to have a good season at home, 7-1. They can't lose another home game. It's a must-win for New Orleans. Do we think New Orleans is good? No, we don't think New Orleans is good, but I like what they did last week. I like what they finally did last week. They said, you know what? We're not good enough to play man-to-man.

We're not good enough to really blitz. Let's just see if we can keep the ball in front of us and reduce the game, and hopefully our offense will score enough. And if they can just kick a field goal, they win that game. Jacksonville, I think Gus Bradley is 12-38 in his first 50. They're only getting a point at home against a 2-0 Ravens team. And people seem, I don't totally understand it at this point, especially after what happened last week,

but people seem to be giving Jacksonville the benefit of the doubt still. How is this not one of the three worst teams in the league? Well, I think Jacksonville's not their better home team. Blake Bortles has only won one road game. But here's the part I think that plays into this is Baltimore's not a good road team. I mean, John Harbaugh's 37-40 on the road. Yeah. And that's counting playoff games.

And eight of those 37 wins have occurred in Cleveland. So when Baltimore comes down there, they're not a good road team. I mean, they gave Cleveland a 20-point spot. And so I think there lies why, if Jacksonville's going to turn it around, this is the time to turn it around. Jacksonville has not been, I think Jacksonville is completely overrated as a team. I mean, they want to play Seattle's defense, except they can't rush the passer and they can't play the run. So tell me how they look like Seattle's defense. All right, next overreaction.

Seattle's just not good anymore. Seattle's offensive line has really been a problem, and they can't overcome their offensive line. They cannot overcome it. They have too many leaks in the line. Both the tackles are a problem. The right guard, the first-round pick, is more of a tackle than he is a guard. It's really just a problem. It shuts it down. And then the receivers, other than Lockett,

they don't have a great separation receiver that can create problems. So they're laying 9.5 to San Francisco this week. That seems like a lot for a team that can't block. Yeah, but I think, is that Blaine Gabbert? It sure is. Blaine looked good in garbage time last week. He was making plays. Would you rather have Blaine Gabbert or Blake Bortles?

I told Sal on Wednesday, I think I'd rather have Blaine Gabbert. I would rather have Blaine Gabbert. I would rather have Blaine Gabbert either. That's a hard one for me. Blake Bortles, you know, people give me crap. He's got three touchdowns in his first, in his what? The first quarter? Yeah. At some point, you gotta put, you know, where's the game plan? Help him out.

But those throws against San Diego last week were just atrocious. Yeah, he was bad. They were just horrible. Overreaction. Carson Wentz is a franchise quarterback. He's unbelievable. He's fantastic. You're buying?

No, I'm not buying that yet. Look, most of his throws have been behind the line of scrimmage. You can't live like that. And he's going to have to throw it down the field. He's going to have to make more throws. I think he's done a great job, and I think he's been really good at what he's done. But I think you need to be really careful about where he's throwing the football and how he does it.

I'm just not sold that, you know, when you want to throw the ball, I mean, most of his successes come on first down. He's 17 to 25 on first down. He averages over nine yards an attempt, and then it goes downhill from there. I think the Eagles have done a nice job of managing him, putting him in the right position, running that West Coast college version offense for him, and really placing the burden on some other factors. But they're going to play better defenses, and let's see how he does. Jets Chiefs at Kansas City.

It's weird to say this because it's only Week 3, but could this be a playoff game? Is this like whoever loses this is going to be on the outside looking in? I know it's only week three, but, man, it's going to take ten wins to get, I think, a wild card. And I don't want to be the team that loses this game. It's going to be a challenge. Look, I think the Jets are a really good offensive football team when they have all their players. Like Marshall, Enwa, and then Decker. Those guys, especially

Enwa inside when he's matched up in there. He's a mismatch for most of it. Again, he's the power forward that teams are trying to cover with their point guard. He wins those matchups. Now, if he has to play outside and he has to play in a different role and the Jets have to utilize other players in his role, I don't

think they'll be as good offensively. I think the key for the Jets is durability with their players. Marshall may not play this week. Decker's hurt. I think that affects them tremendously. So you think healthy Jets, you would like them in KC. Yeah. But banged up Jets, a little bit of a concern.

Absolutely. So you still have the Pats and the Steelers just head over heels above everybody else. I think they're significantly better than both. Yep, they really are. What about that? I think the Bengals could come in here. Denver's going to have to prove to me. Look, Denver has not been very good on third down.

They have not been very good in certain areas of the defense. They were sensational last year. I think it'll come around, and Denver's going to have to prove that they can throw the football. Did you see any signs of concerns from the Bengals last week? I just didn't think they looked good. The Bengals can't run the ball. I mean, the Bengals can't run the ball.

I mean, that's the whole thing. I mean, the Bengals can't run the football, and they need balance. Look, I'm not a big establish-the-run guy. That's not who I am. But the Bengals need to have some way to take the burden of the game off Andy Dalton, and they haven't been able to do that so far this year. And that's really where their concern has to be. They've got to be able to run the football and show some balance

so they can take those play-action shots down the field. Would you cross the Browns off for the season? No. Would you cross the Bills off? Yeah, the Bills, the Browns, no chance. Jaguars? No chance. Bears? No chance. Bears?

No chance. St. Louis Rams? The Rams have no—I mean, you need an offense to win this league. The Lions? I wouldn't cross them off yet. Okay. 49ers? I wouldn't cross them off.

Wow! Okay. That's good news for the Niners fans. Washington? I'm saying not yet. Not quite yet. No. Okay.

Dolphins? Not yet. No. And Colts you wouldn't cross off yet just because of luck? Nope. Saints have to win this week? I wouldn't rule them out. No. I wouldn't rule them out. No, I wouldn't rule them out.

Okay. Last thing, Giants. I don't know what to make of this team. They only put up 17 points against the Saints. Why did they do this? Why did they do this to people that gamble on them? Well, I think the Giants are a lot like the Packers. They run plays at their talent levels extreme.

They can beat them. I think New Orleans came in with a different plan last week, but you've got to love what the Giants did on defense. They spent all that money, but spending money, as we know, in Miami and other places, or Washington, don't always translate on the field. This has translated on the field. They've given up no big plays.

They've kept the ball in front of them. They've played much sounder defense. They're tackling better because they're in better positions. When you blitz and you're all over the place, you're not in position to tackle. And so, therefore, that four-yard check down becomes a 25-yard gain. And I think the Giants have done a really good job in that area. The Giants' offense, the right side of their offensive line, Marshall, Newhouse, John, Jerry, they've got to play better.

If they don't play better, that will be the downfall. But this week going in, they're talking about Beckham being in the slot. If Beckham's in the slot, they're not going to get Norman on them, and Beckham can really do damage in the slot. Favorite new coach? Favorite new coach. That's a great question. Oh boy, your answer could be nobody. I don't really have one yet. I really don't.

I'm still liking the Mike Zimmer, Bruce Arians combination of coaches. I really don't. I don't have one yet. Although I think that – I really think that the Minnesota Vikings do a great job in all areas of the game, and I think that that's really – it shows up on the field. I think people think their talent level is a little better than it really is. All right. Last one, Pat's 16 and 0. Should I start thinking about this yet? No, not at all. Okay. No, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. So I should erase all the texts I had with, with two of my friends

about it last night. Yes, I think I would. I would, I wouldn't do that. They're 4 and 0. They could be 4 and 0 without Brady. Brady comes back with the biggest chip on his shoulder of all time. I'm just saying that's how this could play out. I think the defense took a step last night for me, a defense that I was really concerned about going into the game. But 16-0 is so darn hard. And they got the tough game in Pittsburgh. I was glad Jamie Collins finally decided to show up for the season.

I've often said when I was in the building, and I would tell Jamie Collins, the team really is as good as he wants them to be. He sets the tone, and when he plays good, the team plays good, defensively. Michael Lombardi, we can see you on FS1, we can see you on Fox on Sundays, and we can hear you every week on the BS Podcast. Thanks, as always. Talk to you next week. All right. Bye-bye.

All right, we're going to call house and we're about to do the Callaway Par 3. But first, if you've ever seen anything we've done in my office for Facebook Live, you probably noticed how nice my posters look. That's because our friends at Framebridge framed everything in there and they're the best. Just go to framebridge.com,

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Right now, audible.com Free 30 day trial membership That includes one free audio book of your choice Go to audible.com slash BS today To start your free trial And now, we will call Joe House He's on the call Joe House. Joe House.

Hey, buddy. Wow. You rallied last week. The Callaway Part 3 had started off bad for you, but you went 2-1. Congratulations on that. We play all 18 holes here in the DMV, buddy. We don't get down after the first hole.

I've opened up with a lot of double bogeys in my life. Believe that. How are you feeling about Kirk Cousins right now? I know you don't like that, is my guess. You're not liking that. I don't like that. I'm glad you gave me the opportunity. I was going to launch in here.

I am not touching the Deadskins-Giants game. But I would like to thank the Deadskins for going ahead and delivering what I like to call the dandruff game. So early in the season this year, it's week two against Dallas home was this season's dandruff game because that's the game that I can go ahead and confidently brush off the dead skins. I'm done. I don't have to sit down every Sunday and block off some time on the calendar and get my wife to go away with the kids so I can watch

the stupid dead skins do their thing. I'm confident that they're going to be a shitty team this season. 7-9, 6-10, 8-8 is the ceiling. So I'd like to thank them for going ahead and getting that game out of the way. We have now the 2014 version of Kirk Cousins. He's gone back in time.

He is, once again, some people are colorblind. Kirk Cousins apparently is linebacker blind. He cannot see the floating linebacker who releases off as the floater in the passing lanes, and he has been very charitable in hitting those guys, especially in

the end zone. Red zone has been terrible so far this season. Even Dr. Gruden has said so. He says they've been bad, surprisingly bad. That's very well done, Dr. Gruden. I have to agree with you. So yeah, that's about where we are with the Jetskins so far. I like your concept of the dandruff game, and I'm excited for your wife and your son, that they're going to get to see you a little more often uh it is it is nice to be able to mentally just write off your team after week two just not just to remove that stress and i don't see any way these are open here's the one thing you have going for

you is that this yet again looks like another spot for the giants to just reach into people's colons and pull out their sphincters because every time it looks like the Giants are a safe bet, that's when they usually flip it on you. And they did it again last week. Somehow they only scored 17 points against the Saints. This week they're only favored by four against a desperate Deadskins team that had the coach. Can we say Lombardi was on before you?

He said that Gruden threw Cousins under the bus. I feel like not only did he throw him under the bus, but then he waved the bus to go in reverse and then run over Cousins' limp body again. I don't understand how that goes. In Gruden's defense, he has been nothing if not consistent in challenging his quarterbacks. He's a quarterback's coach. He arrived here and immediately challenged RG3, a quarterback that he inherited, and it became apparent very early on that he inherited him,

and it was against his will that RG3 was the expected starter. That would not have been Gruden's choice for starter two years ago, and RG3 did not last long as the starter. That would not have been Gruden's choice for starter two years ago, and RG3 did not last long as the starter. But I don't think... It sounds like you like Jay Gruden. Why does it sound like you like Jay Gruden? No, I honestly

think he's a dummy. He has been consistent in that one regard, which is calling out his quarterbacks and challenging them and identifying, you know, telling it like it is. I don't mind that aspect. There's no reason to coddle Kirk Cousins. Go play like you did for eight games last season, Kirk.

You know, you gambled on yourself. The team gave you $20 million. That was your gamble. You could have had a guaranteed, I think they put $34, $33, $34 million on the table. Kirk chose the $19.5 million to gamble on a bigger contract at the end of the season. Tough one. Go earn your money, Kirk. Come on, Kirk.

I want to rush through the Callaway Part 3 because I have a very important basketball topic for you. Oh, okay. We can rush right through it. So let's do it. You go first. All three of my games this week in the NFC South. Okay. Very hard to explain. I like Carolina minus seven at home against Minnesota.

I really, really, really respect Minnesota so far this season. They deserve the spot in the top five of the power ratings. Zimmer has been awesome. I just feel like it's a bit too much pressure for Bradford, and I'm not really basing my approach on this on AP's injury. They've been bad rushing the football all season long, so it's not

like that represents such a huge impediment to their success. I just feel like Sam Bradford on the road against a team that is 1A to me because the Patriots are 1 in terms of tops of the league.

And I just expect Carolina's defense to be a little bit better, and I like them just winning at home by a touchdown a little bit more. Yeah, I'm staying away from that one. It seems like the line is both too high and too low, and I don't know. Lombardi was saying how that was such a physical game last week with Green Bay Seems like the line is both too high and too low. And I don't know. Right. Lombardi was saying how that was such a physical game last week with Green Bay that this might just be if they fall behind, you just throw it away and you regroup for next week. At the same time, I just didn't like that Carolina kept letting San Francisco

back in that game. I thought about that. I mean, that was part of my consideration, except for they won by 20-whatever points. They did. They kept letting them back in, but then they whipped their ass. I mean, you know, objectively, they whipped their ass. So I subscribe to what Lombardi articulated there, which is if Minnesota gets behind,

they're going to stay behind, and I like Carolina by a touchdown or more. I forgot to set up the Callaway Par 3. Every week we pick three football games. Right now I am four and two. I'm two under par. And you are three and three. So you're dead even. So I have a two-stroke lead on you.

And we should mention that Callaway has the world's best irons. And we actually, the Callaway guys came to see us earlier this week. And I really like those guys. And we're going to try to figure out a whole bunch of stuff to do with them. They're a very good partner. Yeah, they're good friends to me, too. Still free shipping on all orders. Any item you want from CallawayGolf.com.

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I want folks to go buy some Callaway and get the stuff sent to you for free. We should also mention you have a podcast called Shackhouse. I'm going to come on for, I think, 15 minutes next week to talk about my Ryder Cup theory on what's wrong with the Ryder Cup. You called Shackhouse and I'm going to come on for I think 15 minutes next week to talk about my Ryder Cup theory on what's wrong with the Ryder Cup you and Shackhouse we have a pick still to make the captain of the team still has a selection that he's going to make at halftime of the

football game I already have an idea for that pick and his name rhymes with Schmeiger Schmoods that makes two of us daddy I just tweeted it just put him on the team just put him on the fucking team just tweeted it! Just put him on the team! Just put him on the fucking team! Everyone loves Tiger Woods! Just put him on the team!

NBC should pay them 10 million bucks to put Tiger on the team. Everybody's watching if Tiger Woods is on the Ryder Cup team. Yeah, that's exactly right. All right, I've got to do my first pick. With apologies to the six or seven Eagles fans in my life. That include Chris Ryan, my beloved former Grantland and now ringer person, Andy Greenwald, Zach Barron, who's married to Amanda Dobbins, my beloved culture editor. Who are the other Philly people in my life?

There's more. Oh, Stu Miller, one of the executive producers of my show. Jeff Chow. Jeff Chow, the COO of BSMG. Michael Bauman. Michael Bauman, who writes... I mean, we just load with Philly fans. There's a lot of Philly.

Phil's even Philly. A lot of Philly. And with apologies to all of them, I'm not buying the Carson Wentz-led Eagles because they played two of the shittiest teams in the league. I'm not buying the Carson Wentz-led Eagles because they played two of the shittiest teams in the league. I'm sorry. Now you're playing Pittsburgh, which I have ranked right now as the second best team in the league. And I just don't see it. I don't think you're hanging with Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is only laying four. I think there's going to be a lot of Pittsburgh fans there. And it just feels like one of those Steelers games where it's like 24 to 13 in the fourth quarter and the Eagles fans are just angry and they're leaving and there's a lot of Steelers fans left and they're doing Steelers chants and I can just see it so I'm grabbing the Steelers minus four as my first pick I like it okay I'm not touching that game but I like it. Okay, you go. I'm not touching that game, but I like it. Okay, you go. I have this week your pet sleeper team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, laying five at home against the L.A. Rams. I like Tampa minus the five.

Jameis just had the worst game of his career, four picks and a fumble. I expect a bounce back from him. The LA Rams have not yet scored a touchdown this season, which is kind of an issue. The Bucs are averaging 19 points a game, which is

kind of funny because what you do is add up the 34-35 they put on Atlanta plus the 7 from Arizona. But in any event, I like Tampa getting scoring around 20-some points. I can't get the Rams to 10. Maybe I can get them to 12, unless their defense scores a touchdown. For some reason, the Rams are 1-8 straight up and against a spread in Game 3

over the past nine seasons. I don't have any explanation for that. I don't really care. I'm taking Tampa minus 5. I have news for you. I'm taking them as well. Oh! Yeah. I think this is just a

Gus Ramsey memorial, how many points do they score a game. Just look at this. Can the Rams get to 10? Can they get to 12? Well, I know the Bucs are going to score at least 20. And I'm not shaken off by last week. I watched a lot of that Bucs-Arizona game. It got away from them early. They started to rally back. They scored. They had another dumb play where they were about to score a second touchdown and to settle for a field goal. And then just an interception that bounced off the guy's hands, went up in the air, got returned for a touchdown, game to settle for a field goal, and then just an interception that bounced off the guy's hands,

went up in the air, got returned for a touchdown, game over. But I know it was a blowout, but just watching it, I felt like they had a chance to come back and make it interesting, and then just a couple things went wrong. And whatever, toss it off. Arizona's probably the fifth or sixth best team in the league. They needed the win, and I'm not going to get scared off by it. probably the fifth or sixth best team in the league. They needed the win. And I'm not going to get scared off by it.

Case Keenum scored nine points in two games. I did a whole thing on my show on Wednesday about whether they'd just be better off signing a celebrity to play quarterback. I just don't see them doing a lot in this game. And if you're Tampa, you win this game, you're 2-1. You got the Broncos at home next week. You have... That's a loss. Well, it might be.

They're off week five. And then week six, I can't find them. How can they not play in week five or week six? Oh, then they're home. I'm sorry. They're at Carolina Monday night, week five. So going into that game two and two is fine. Right.

But I'm saying if they don't win this game, they're looking at one and four after five games potentially with that Broncos, Panthers, slaughterhouse coming up. So this is almost a must-win for them. They've got to take care of business, do their thing. I like the Rams. All right, give me your third pick. I am taking the New Orleans Saints minus two and a half at home on Monday night

against the Atlanta Falcons. Wow. Not a lot of math to talk about here. I got minus three for that one, though, to be fair. Same difference. I like the idea. This is going to be an all-time shootout. Like a lot of these Saints-Falcons games have been,

the Saints are no longer a lock at home against the spread, 4-9-1 against the spread their last 14 games at home. But we're only asking them to win by a field goal at that 2.5 or the 3 number. Last week we had Atlanta as the show me something game. Last week was their show me something against the Raiders on the road. This week it's got to be the Saints. They cannot lose this football game. And in a shootout at home, I just like Drew Brees a little bit better than

Matty Ice. It's only a field goal. I don't like the injuries in the Saints secondary. We have a broken fibula and a concussion. Two bad things, but, you know, this is going to be – the lock is the over. I think it's around 53. I like it at about 63. But I'm taking the Saints.

I like it. I'm just worried they're too banged up on defense. I can't make that one of my three. I just couldn't. I took a long, hard look at the Niners. Getting nine and a half in Seattle is my third pick. Because I don't think Seattle can block. I don't know if they're constructed to blow teams out.

I don't think Wilson's healthy. And San Francisco showed me last week that they can get garbage time points to cover late. Seems like a lot of points. But one of my rules is just don't bet against Seattle and Seattle. It's not a good idea. Why am I going to do that? So I'm staying away from that um the other one that i liked was arizona at buffalo laying for rex ryan's the fumes coming off his body but i don't want to take uh i don't want to take three favorites so i'm gonna take the oakland raiders plus one in tennessee and here's why wow Wow. Yeah. I don't think the Raiders handled success very well last week.

I think their defense can play better. As Lombardi pointed out, Khalil Mack hasn't really done anything yet. I'm sure somebody's mentioned that to him this week. I believe in Khalil Mack. I think this could be a Khalil Mack game. And Tennessee, I caught a lot of the last two weeks. Tennessee, their offense could not move the ball at all against Minnesota. In week two, they were going to lose that Detroit game,

and it was a combination of just the refs were calling penalty after penalty after penalty and ruining the flow of the game. It knocked Detroit out of a couple drives. Detroit has basically a corpse coaching their team. I mean, I think at one point they had to bring in the thing to shock you to get a pulse again. They just kind of let the game slip away. They had a couple injuries in the defense down the stretch. And Mariota was able to have a couple drives.

Yeah, they caught fire. Mariota started hitting a pass up the steam as soon as those the Detroit secondary was a little depleted and their linebackers they lost though and then plus Detroit lost their running back during the game it was just a fluky game and I don't think Tennessee I like Mariota but I just I'd like to see Tennessee actually you know put together a start to finish game I don't think they can. And I just think this is a nice spot for Oakland. I still believe in Oakland.

And if I'm going to believe in Oakland as a 9-7 or a 10-16, I've got to take them in this game. So I'm taking Oakland plus one. By the way, I think they have the number one offense in the league right now. So they're going to put up points, and Mariota's going to have to match the points. I'm not positive he can. That's my third pick. So to recap, we both have, who's the team we both have?

Tampa. We both have Tampa. I took Pittsburgh minus four, and I have Oakland plus one. And who are your other two? I have Carolina minus seven and New Orleans minus three. Okay. I don't want to step on our Over Under podcast, which is one of America's favorite podcasts. I don't want to step on that.

Yeah. The numbers came out. I got very excited. I immediately put it into a very special place in my bag. The numbers did come out. I don't want to step on that podcast, but I'm just going to bring up this one point so we can do five minutes of NBA talk here.

Golden State's over-under is 66 wins. That's way too fucking high. I don't see it. They don't have Bogut. They don't have Azili. They have Zaza Peculiar and the Rev James McAdoo, who's a big fan of the BS podcast. But still, the way they're going to succeed, they're basically built for the playoffs. They're going to have to go a little small.

They're going to have to play Draymond and Durant together as the four and the five. They're going to have to put a lot of miles on those guys. I'm not sure they're going to do that during the season. I think going to have to put a lot of miles on those guys. I'm not sure they're going to do that during the season. I think they're going to arrest a lot of people. I think they're going to be fine going 63 and 19. I think they're going to be sitting guys left and right. And I think we learned from last year that, you know, you just want to be healthy in the playoffs.

For them to go 67 and 15 just seems, I don't know, ambitious for me. What do you think? So you said it. I don't want to step on our over-under podcast, but you and I are in lockstep. I'm ready to declare the under a lock for two reasons, and you touched on both of them. There is going to be a transition.

We watched this with Miami. Miami 2010. Exactly. We watched it with Cleveland. Cleveland had a ridiculous over-under when LeBron returned and the under came through. There needs to be some time to let this new group of guys play together and for everybody in the whole organization to figure out what their identity is.

They have to find a new identity because of all of the guys that are gone and the new guys coming in. The other thing that you touched on that I think is really going to play a material role in the outcome of the win total, they learned last season how hard it is to go win regular season games. Right. I mean, they went all out because of the historical underpinnings, and I applaud them for it, and I loved watching every minute of it, and it made the regular season relevant. I mean, an otherwise quiet, cold February game between Golden State and Oklahoma City

on a Saturday night was like a highlight of 2016 sports season for me. I don't expect a repeat of that, because it's just too hard. There's no reason to do it. The most important thing is to arrive in the playoffs healthy and with the full complement of guys and guys ready to go to war for the, you know, 25 games it takes to be successful in the playoffs. And the other thing is, you know, as you said, it's rocky figuring out where everybody fits in. There's some personality issues that I'm going to be interested to see. You know, as you said, it's Rocky figuring out where everybody fits in. There's some personality issues that I'm going to be interested to see. You know, you see like Durant. You saw him on my show this week.

Big chip on his shoulder. Feels slighted by everybody. You know, I was watching it. I wish I had asked him because it was a repeated theme and I was joking about it. Like he always is slighted. It's a little strange why he always feels so slighted. And I really wish I had asked him that because he won the MVP two years ago. I think everybody thinks he's one of the best three players in the league.

He was a free agent this summer and everybody tried to sign him and woo him and flew to the Hamptons. And everybody was on pins and needles waiting to see what he was going to do. I don't totally understand why he feels slighted. Like Lifetime made a TV movie about his mom. What else needs to happen for Kevin Durant? Well, here's the reason he's slighted. And I don't think it's necessarily wrong that he takes what I'm about to describe. So personally, the recurring theme with Oklahoma City is the inability to get over the hump because he and Russie

have the ball in their hands with four minutes left in a number of the most important games in Oklahoma City Thunder history, and they haven't won those games. Right. history, and they haven't won those games. He has a well-deserved, to date, not reputation, but the evidence does not support a narrative that KD is a closer in the most important games of the season and in the playoffs. That's fair. He might perceive a slight, and he should take the slight. He should take the insult.

I wish I had asked him. He and Westbrook were not effective. You know, it's hard to do interviews. And I got almost everything out of that one that I wanted, and that was the one thing I would do over again, especially when you're juggling two people. But for the most part, you got a really good feel about just what Durant's like. What's interesting is he's always like that.

And I think people look at him sometimes in those interviews as he's a little standoffish or, you know, he's got a little chip on his shoulder. But I think there's a playfulness about him that it's weird. I don't know if it comes across on TV as much as it does in person. Like when I asked him about the Harden trade, like he's, that's his way of having fun. And people are like, whoa, he was kind of mad at you about the Harden trade. I said, no, he wasn't. Like that's kind of how he is.

It was funny. That was exactly the point I was going to make. I loved it. Yeah. I thought he actually, it was fun talking to him. I wish I had been slightly harder with him on the slate thing. So congratulations.

For the 90th straight year, the Washington Wizards have the most unexciting over-under possible. This year it's 42-and-a-half. I was right there. They went 41-and-41 last year. You're asking me are they one-and-a- half games better with Scotty Brooks over Randy Whitman. I'm going to say yes. You can already put that one in the book, too. I'm definitely taking you over for the almost bullets.

I was shocked. I don't want to step on our pot, so we're going to go on our over-under spot. But I cannot believe the Celtics were only 51 and a half. We won 48 last year. It was a perfect number. I love it. I love that number. It's such a good number.

We won 48 games last year, and we added Al Horford and Jalen Brown. And Marcus Smart's a year older. It's going to be good for our wallets. But I thought it was, honestly, maybe I'm the biggest homer who ever lived, but I thought that over-under was going to be like 57. First of all, not maybe. You are the biggest homer who ever lived, but I thought that over-under was going to be like 57. First of all, not maybe. You are the biggest homer who ever lived. Okay, thank you.

And 52, 53 seems about right. You're talking about a five-game improvement with Horford. Four or five-game improvement with Horford. That seems about right. I'm glad it is where it is. Let's not jinx it. Obviously, Cleveland's won. Who do you have as the second-best team where it is. Let's not jinx it. Obviously, Cleveland's won. Who do you have as the second-best

team in the East if it's not Boston? It is Boston. Of course it's Boston. Well, the second-best team in a conference usually wins somewhere between 55 and 57. Don't try to make any sense out of it. Just celebrate the number. Let's be modest about it.

Let's be humble about it. Let's be humble about it. 51 and a half. Thank you. Thank you, Las Vegas. There's one other over-under that just gave me a big, fat, raging boner. Oh, no. The Brooklyn Nets, 22. That means Vegas says they've looked at it objectively,

and they've decided Brooklyn is going to lose around 60 games minimum. That's pretty good. The Souths have their pick, just in case you didn't know. You have a pick. I mean, I know that you're counting every win as a pierce to the heart. 22 seems high. I can't name five nets right now. They got the Brooke Lopez, Jeremy Lin pick and roll going.

They have a bunch of no-name dudes. Is Bogdanovich still on that team? I don't even know. I haven't really dove into. I know. It's not. The other one that shocked me. All right.

One more. Did you look at this yet? Yes. Oh, damn it. Tate, did you look at this yet? Oh, you're going to. Well, no. I didn't commit it to memory that shocked me. All right, one more. Did you look at this yet? Yes. Oh, damn it. Tate, did you look at this yet? Oh, you're going to. Well, no, I didn't commit it to memory. Ask me.

I saw it, yeah. Oh, Tate saw it too. The Bulls were only 39. Oh, I didn't see that. I did not see that. Wade, Rondo, and Butler. Vegas not believing. Wow.

I was shocked. They only have to win 41 to go 500. Is that a 500 team? I mean, it kind of seems like it, right? It's disrespectful. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Lakers at 25 and a half looked a little tasty for the over. It's a little interesting. I think they're going to have a nice vibe to them.

I stopped looking. It's interesting because the great unknown is the Luke Jackson factor. Luke Walton? Walton. What did I just say? Luke Jackson? What are you, my dad? Who's Luke Jackson?

Look, it's not basketball season. The one that I could not believe, and I still have to read up and figure out why. Utah Jazz was like 47 and a half or something. Yeah, 48 and a half. Ludicrous. I don't get it either. I don't get it. Tough conference.

Let's not talk about this anymore. I don't remember anybody's names. I'm going to call them all by the wrong name. Well, you think Luke Jackson's coaching the... I got to say, I thought the Knicks was too low, too. I don't even know what it is. Don't tell me. 39 and a half.

It just seems low. Aren't they going to go 500? Is D-Row going to go have that trial? Which is a serious matter, not something we're making jokes about. I don't want to even. That's like the worst story of the year. That could be a derailer. That could be a derailer.

Yeah, it could be a derailer. It means a terrible story. Terrible story, and hard to believe they knew about it and still traded for him. Yeah. I thought that was weird. Probably wouldn't have made that trade. But yeah, 39.5 for them. Oklahoma City, 45.5.

Oh, that seems way too high. You're going through the list. I'm sorry. And by the way, I don't want to lean too hard one way or the other. Let Vegas do its thing. We don't need the Celtics to jump up to 53 or 54 because you and I think it's, you know. I mean, I'm not saying that we're going to exploit the effing line. No, before America airs this podcast, we're going to make a call to a couple people.

We need to make a call right now. Lock down certain things. Joe Haas, thanks for playing the Callaway Part 3. As always, talk to you next week. Talk to you next week. We have one more phone call to make, but first I want to tell you about Sonos, the smart speaker system that streams

all your favorite music to any room or every room. Control your music with one simple app. Fill your home with pure, immersive sound. Sonos brings all your music together in one simple app. All your favorite music services. Doesn't matter. Any of them. You control everything from songs to volume to what room those songs are playing. You can play those songs in any room. You can play them in every room at once. You can play a different song in the living room, bedroom, bathroom. Play the same track, doesn't matter. It's really great for parties.

I don't know how people would have a party without Sonos. You can play this stuff outside, inside, the kitchen, whatever. Sonos is really good. We have it in our house. I'm actually kind of mad that I didn't get it sooner than that. One of the things I've been doing is I'm just burnt out on sports announcers. I just can't take it anymore. So I've been watching games on mute and playing the Sonos,

and it's been great. Add your existing music services to Sonos or discover something new on Sonos. Go to Sonos.com right now. Check it out. And now we're going to call the newest addition to the Ringer Universe, Chris Vernon. All right, so as I mentioned earlier,

we launched a new podcast called Ringer University, and it's going to have college football during the season hosted by one show hosted by Mallory Rubin and Blaine Glicksman from The Ringer University, and it's going to have college football during the season, hosted by, one show hosted by Mallory Rubin and Blaine Glicksman from The Ringer, and one hosted by Chris Vernon, who has joined us right now. How are you?

Hey, Bill. You're also going to be hosting the Ringer NBA show twice a week until college football season ends, and then we're going to be doing three NBA pods a week from like January through free agency. Give people a little bit of a background on what you've been doing.

You've been living in Memphis. We met, we, I can't remember what we met like three, four years ago. And then I've come on. The Grizzlies made the West finals. Yeah.

Yeah. When they, when you were here for, I believe countdown, right years ago. When the Grizzlies made the West Finals, yeah. You were here for, I believe, Countdown, right? Yeah. And Jalen was making threes from the corner at practice and kind of secretly hoping they would activate him for one of the games because the Grizzlies couldn't hit an outside shot. And that's how they started talking. I don't know if you remember this, but Jalen was attempting to convince me that if he played that night, he could score 10 points.

Not only do I remember it, that's one of my enduring memories of the week. It was him like, if they put me in right now, I swear I could hit that corner three. So the Grizzlies hit a little bit of a crossroads this summer where it seemed like it might just really go wrong for them. They might lose Mike Conley, Gasol, broken foot. Who knows with him? He's in his early 30s. And then all of a sudden they brought Conley back. They signed Chandler Parsons.

Gasol looks like he's going to be ready for the season. Is it a little optimistic there? Everybody's really optimistic because i mean listen every conversation that goes on about the grizzlies is barring injury because they've all had they've all been injured connelly got injured gasol got injured uh coming back from the foot channel parsons had the knees and so it's one of those things where they're banking on guys staying healthy and if they stay healthy they're going to be really good. But who knows? And you've got Z-Bo and Tony both in contract years. So you get contract year Tony, contract year Zach,

then you add Parsons who, if Parsons is Chandler Parsons, they've added a real element to that team to space that thing out. So, yeah, people are really optimistic about what's upcoming. And there's only really a top three in the West. I mean, it's Golden State, San Antonio, and the Clips. After that, like the four spots up for grabs, I feel like, and there's a bunch of teams that could hop into it. The Grizz are definitely in the mix.

Has Zeebo or Tony ever been mad at you? Yeah, I can't remember. Zeebo, no. He hasn't been mad. No, he doesn't get mad. Tony's gotten mad at me about, I can't remember what it was. I think it was one time, oh, I asked him if he was really hurt. Uh-oh.

And he got, yeah, he got really mad at me. Really mad. Like in person? Huh? In person he got mad? like he was a couple feet away from you uh no he texted me oh he texted me he was mad right like if i say i'm hurt i'm hurt right because i just i wondered if he was mad at the coach yeah right if he was just sitting out because he was mad and he got really mad at me about that.

But no, like, that's one time in whatever, six years. So you're going to do some college football for us during the rest of this season. Explain college football in the South to us. Okay. So, well, like, I live in Memphis. And I would say most of the people that are either, like their lives will revolve around, or there's a good amount of people whose lives revolve around this, and their attitudes and their, like literally their well-being,

will depend on the outcome of their team's game this weekend. It's an odd situation because in the South, especially with the SEC, you've got all of these schools that are in small towns, right? Oxford, Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Knoxville, Tuscaloosa, wherever. It's usually not places where people end up living the rest of their lives. So there's only so many big cities in the South, right? Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis is one of those. And so if you want to go work for a fortune 500

company or you want to go that's how i i lived here i i went to school in a small town in tennessee and and memphis was the closest big city and so what you have is you've got this massive melting pot of all kinds of people that went to southern schools and so you could go anywhere in this town and you could find you you know, entire bars packed out with Arkansas fans, Mississippi State fans, Ole Miss fans, Tennessee fans, you name it. And it matters deeply to them. So, yeah, I mean, I've been in the middle of it for the last 15 years and it's unlike anything else. Like when you see, when Saturday comes around, especially like this weekend with Tennessee and Florida,

and Tennessee has 12-year-old kids that have never seen Tennessee beat Florida. I was meeting with some of my buddies yesterday, one of which is a Tennessee graduate, and he's like, I can't even work. I can't get any work done. See just how nervous he is about this game coming up this weekend so college football fans i think maybe a little bit unlike uh pro sports fans their their attitude and their like well-being is honestly affected by whatever happens that weekend and so so we go again on Saturday.

Well, you love football. You love the NBA. You love wrestling. You love gambling. And you love the Masters. I don't know how we never worked together. I don't know what was keeping us apart. These are all my favorite things. Yeah, on your podcast,

because you hosted a really popular radio show in Memphis for a few years there, and you had a pretty deep Rolodex of people you could just call up and drag on your show at any time. So your podcast is going to be, you're going to have a bunch of different guests, media, executives, occasionally some players. Explain to us what's going to happen. Okay, so my setup, my studio is going to be down at FedEx Forum. And where we got lucky on this is where the studio is is directly across the street, the biggest hotel where everybody stays in Memphis is the West. All the teams come in.

So coinciding with everything, you know, where I am set up locally, you know, the goal is we're going to be able to have crazy access to these teams. And so I'll have a studio over there and hopefully right when these executives come in town, when the players come in town, you know, we're going to have all 41 teams come through Memphis. And so the goal is that we're going to have some pretty crazy access to these guys. I just got to drop Bill Simmons' name. Well, I mean, there aren't a ton of NBA podcasts out there,

so I think we're going to have a real advantage there. I always enjoy going on your show, and I think you're a real talent. So we are very excited to have you in the Ringer universe. Give us one football pick for the weekend for NFL. For the NFL? Yeah. Give us one. The Cowboys Bears over.

Oh, wow. You like that? That's a good one. Yeah, I like that. I wasn't expecting it over. Wow. You like that? I checked it this morning. It was 44. I'm like, give me a break. Cowboys defense is terrible,

but they'll be able to score on the Bears. That game is not going under 44. No way. Speaking of over-unders, the NBA over-unders came out, and just quickly, Memphis was 44 over-under. You see that? Over-under.

Low. That's low. I take the over. Are we positive Gasol's going to be healthy? Listen, if they get 65 games out of Mike Conley and Mark Gasol, they are going to win over 44 games. And so I guess that's the bet, right? You're just betting on are those guys going to be healthy? And I would bet they're going to be.

I mean, I think they were like seventh in the West. Right. I think that's what they were ranked in, like in those sportsbook things. And they've pretty well gone outside of catastrophic injury years. They've exceeded their win total virtually every year. Well, Utah's 48 and a half. So Vegas thinks Utah's going to be four and a half games better than Memphis, which doesn't totally make sense.

That's a little weird. Everybody loves Utah. Everybody. Yeah, that's what happened with Milwaukee last year. Give me one college football pick for the weekend. The one, what did I? Well, I like Florida plus six over Tennessee. That's 12 straight years, right?

So I like that one. Ole Miss seven over Georgia. I mean, that's 12 straight years, right? So I like that one. Ole Miss, seven over Georgia. Yeah. I like that one. Arkansas, plus six against Texas A&M. I like that one. And I was trying to think, there's a couple others that I had that I liked. Oh, UCLA's at home against Stanford. There you go. There's in your backyard. You could go over to the game. I think they're plus three at home. God, it almost sounds like you have a gambling problem like me. I told you.

When I got the email, you're like, okay, here's what we're thinking. You're going to do NBA and college football gambling. I woke up the next morning. I was like, was that a dream? Like, what? I told my wife, I said, so they want me to do NBA and college football game. It's all I do anyway.

Like, it doesn't – I'll just be – listen, I'm going to be able to speak the language to the people that listen to you because I'm the guy that on – I heard you a couple weeks ago goofing on Sal for like, what was it, Oklahoma State versus that Oklahoma State game that's out in Central Michigan? Yeah. Okay. And you were like, you must have a problem, whatever. I was like, oh, my God.

Wait until it gets a load of me. I'll be watching like Idaho-Wyoming on ESPN3 on my laptop on a Saturday. All right. So subscribe to Ringer University, which just went up. The feed is active on iTunes or SoundCloud. And you can also subscribe to the Ringer NBA show. Chris, you start next week. Congratulations.

Welcome to the Ringer Universe. We can't wait to work with you. And good luck with everything. Awesome. Thank you, Bill. Thanks for the opportunity. All right. Anytime y'all want to see me you, and good luck with everything. Awesome. Thank you, Bill. Thanks for the opportunity. All right. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here, close your eyes, and

picture me rolling. All right, that's our show. Thanks to Sonos, the smart speaker system that streams all your favorite music to any room or every room. Control your music with one simple app and fill your home with pure immersive sound add your existing music services or discover something new go to sonos.com right now thanks to sling tv remember for just 20 bucks a month stream more than 20 live channels including espn tnt amc and cnn installation, no extra gears, no annual contract.

Just an internet connection. That's it. Start watching for seven days free at sling.com slash billsimmons. Get Sling TV on your favorite device. Restrictions do apply. It is the best way to watch live TV on your turf. Don't forget about my new HBO show any given Wednesday. We had an awesome one again this week.

Durant, Nas, and Vince Staples. and the re-airs are on HBO all weekend or you can go to HBO Go or you can go to HBO On Demand and where every episode every bonus clip is there and please subscribe to the Ringer University podcast feed we just put that up check out theringer.com

TV week is wrapping up some great TV pieces there some good football pieces too whole bunch of great stuff on there. And don't forget about all of our other podcast feeds on the Ringer Podcast Network as well. Please enjoy the weekend. We will be back

next week. Next Wednesday, my show coming back, HBO 10pm. And you will see me then.