The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 138: Week 9 Lines With Cousin Sal and Jamie Collins Counsel With Mike Lombardi

Episode Date: October 31, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on Cousin Sal to discuss who's more cursed in the World Series, the Raiders' ridiculous road record (10:00), Dak Prescott vs. Tony Romo (17:00), and the top-tier teams in the league (20:00). Then, Mike Lombardi hops on the line to break down the Jamie Collins trade and Bill Belichick's message behind it (23:00). Finally, Bill and Sal run the gamut and give out their picks for Week 9 (34:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yeah. Clear enough for you. All right. Yeah. Oh, man. This is it for Tupac. This is our last podcast with that song. We say that every week, though.

This really is, though. This is the last one with that song we say that every week this really is though this is the last one we're gonna picture him rolling from afar on iTunes I would highly recommend buying the Tupac Greatest Tits album

whole bunch of good stuff he is his music has aged nicely 20 years later Cousin Sal you've also aged nicely oh thank you I thought you'd be

a little more worse for wear after the Halloween party we had that Halloween party and went till like 2 30 in the morning and then inexplicably i woke up for that bangles redskins game i didn't have uh money on it i didn't have uh much i think i had the bangles kicker but i slept four hours and when football's on i just have to watch it it's really weird it's almost like an animal who needs to eat. Yeah. So you're up till two 30 in the morning and then you got up at six 30 at six 30. Yeah. How was your wife feeling about that decision? She's a, she's not happy. She's like, she rolls over and, and, and groans. And that's about it. I went, here's what my Saturday was.

I woke up, had two soccer games for my daughter in Norco, California, which is like over an hour away. It's just in the middle of nowhere, California, which is like over an hour away. It's just in the middle of nowhere. That's not in California. That's crazy. It's like near Ontario. There's this 20 field complex. Played two games.

Yeah. Immediately drove to Disneyland for my son's birthday because they had this Halloween thing. And I was at Disney until, I don't know, midnight and drove home. It was like the 18 hours in the car. And all I was thinking about was your party and whether I could I was trying to rig it because I had my daughter in the car it's like could I just go to the party

and leave her in the car for 40 minutes how bad of a father would I be it might have been worth it to make just to sneak your head in and pick your head in and make fun of our friend Daniel who was practically nude at the party. He went as Greg Louganis Greg Louganis right so he's just in his speedo the whole night with blood on his head from the diving board accident blood on his

forehead and uh uh you know this wasn't even one of the girls and oh he's just weird stuff all night not even one of his five most inappropriate halloween costumes probably no no no so speedo the whole night the whole thing did he get waxed or anything how did it work out he really did commit no he stays in okay shape i don't know he does the yoga and he's fine you know this is yoga hot yoga 52 years old he's looking all right but what was the best costume at the party uh there was that they were like it was olympic themed so they're like there were four pairs of nancy carrigan tanya hardings i cleaned out like 2 30 in the morning i was cleaning up like four batons from my yard right and uh i'm trying to think uh there's a couple that went as uh bobsledders they were in a in a bobsled that walked around in a bobsled all night but yeah no daniel was pretty good i would say that's that's

pretty uh what was jimmy i don know. He had like an Olympic jacket on with the dream team and all the signatures. I think it was something. Nobody went as Jim McKay? No, there was, no one went as Jim McKay.

There was a Bob Costas with pink eye. It was pretty good. That's nice. And, yeah, that was about it. Good stuff. So at Disney,

which I've only been to a couple times, once with you. We did Stroller Disney. I'm not a to a couple times once with you we did Stroller Disney I'm not a huge amusement park waiting rides guy I will say when you have your iPhone it is more fun to wait in lines now I was actually watching NBA League Pass a couple times but I'd never been on

Space Mountain it's amazing we went back we went back, we went twice. I wish Tupac were allowed to hear this. Does Tupac have a song called Space Mountain? He will, he will. Space Mountain was so good. I mean, rides at this point,

I just want to get out without hurting my back because it's all that constant jerking back and forth. My back's like, what's going on? I thought we had decided. We're never going through this again. Space Mountain was absolutely incredible. Was it all Halloweeneded up too it was all halloweened up it was a trick-or-treat thing uh my son had four friends of them one of whom you could see early because they have these big bags of candy and one of the kids was just eating it was like how many

of you had oh only two and you knew he had six kept going kept going, kept going. And then by about nine o'clock, the mom had to come get him. That was it, right? Yeah. He must have had 20 pieces of candy. Oh, that's great. Yeah. And some kids, they just can't handle it.

They can't handle the candy thing. So Ben is always on 10. Your son is always on 10. So I don't think there's any sugar that could push him. No, nothing can phase him. He went as Ben Simmons. He did? He dressed as Sixers Ben Simmons, which i don't think there's any sugar that could no he can't nothing can phase him he went as ben simmons he did he dressed as sixers ben simmons which i i don't know why not adorable but for some reason for school today he went as james bond really yeah we had to rent him a tux wow he was all fired up to be james bond he had like like a pipe and he went in he's like james

bond gets girls i'm gonna be james bond it's like, James Bond gets girls. I'm going to be James Bond. It's like, you're in third grade. What's going to happen? Anyway, football was amazing this week. Really good. It's back, right? Should we do a little baseball quickly? Sure, whatever you want to do. We can get it out of the way. I like the Indians. You like the Cubs. I still...

I thought the Indians were just going to finish it last night. It really did. Everyone was like, oh, the Cubs got it. Bowers hurt. Lester, oh finish it last night. It really did. Everyone was like, oh, the Cubs got it. Bauer's hurt. Lester, oh, it's over. And I just wanted the Indians to go up 1-0 to see what happened. And then they did. The crowd was super tense. And then Chris Bryant hits the homer.

Yeah. Even comic geniuses like Bill Murray and Vince Vaughn, Chicago faithful, would have appreciated the Cubs losing all three at home, wouldn't they? It did seem like a fitting way for them to go out. But at the same time, they rallied back. I can't believe how much Chris Bryant looks like Michael Sheen, Sarah's boyfriend. Oh, right, right. He does. I never thought about that.

Once it was in my head, I just can't tackle any Chris Bryant at bat the same way. So now we go back to Cleveland, game six Tuesday night. And if the calves hadn't won in june this would be one of the all-time fantastic which team's curse is going to beat the other team's curse who's going to have the worst karma but i do feel like the nba title has kind of vetted the calves a little bit or the indians yeah you know because with the right in boston we were in such a downslide from 86 to two. And then when the Pats won, it made everybody kind of a little easy.

You know how that works? On the other hand, though, who are the Browns rooting for? I would be rooting for the Cubs if I'm like Duke Johnson or Terrell Pryor. Those guys are just rooting to leave. Yeah. Yeah. I guess they want to be out. But you want to hear about the Indians for the next month, right?

I would say the Browns are rooting for the Indians to do it because then they'll be third. They'll be third in line. Now it's our turn. That would be their slogan next year. Now it's our turn. The 2017 Browns. I'm not sure it's going to be your turn.

Not close. Who is the number one pick in college? Because they're getting it. They're getting the first two, yeah. The Michigan Peppers, right? Yeah. Peppers. He's good.

I don't know. I mean, what do you do? You still don't have a quarterback. You still, after all these years, don't have a quarterback. You're putting it on your show. You have to use one of those two picks, and they're probably going to trade for four picks, one of those two. That was a good loss for them last night with Philly,

although I think Philly's a playoff team. What do you mean? Who? Cleveland has Philly's pick, right? Oh, right, right. Okay, yeah, Philly. I still think Philly's a playoff team. I did the week seven power poll, or week eight, sorry,

heading into week nine, and I had the Pats and Cowboys at the top, second tier,cos chiefs vikings falcons raiders eagles yeah i thought the eagles played really well in that game i and it was a great by the way phenomenal really good toggling back and forth then i know you're probably focused on the cowboys but what a great night yeah really great tv every commercial you go to another and something's happened but Baseball beat football by 30%, I think, last night. Really? Yeah.

I mean, if you're a baseball fan, you have to be watching that series, right? Yeah. That's just how it is. I would say. It makes sense. If you like baseball in any way, shape, or form, you're probably wondering what's going on in this one. Cowboys, though, what was it, 23-13 at one point? Yeah, they were down 10.

With like about, I don't know, enough time for a comeback, but enough time that if they had done a three and out, you would have been in real trouble. That's a nice win. I was proud of Jason Garrett going for it in overtime on fourth and one from the 28. We kick a field goal there, almost certainly lose the game. No question. And played well, 6-1.

I wouldn't put us in the top tier with the Patriots. I don't think there is a... I think you're just being nice. Patriots are in the league by themselves. I can't just put... Oh. What happened? Is that true?

Schefter tweeted it. What happened? Schefter just tweeted that the Patriots traded linebacker Jamie Collins to Cleveland for a compensatory third-round pick. Oh, that's going to work for Cleveland. Wow. Holy mackerel. I knew they weren't happy with how he was playing this year,

and they have this six-rounder from Houston that they liked. Yeah. And they were going to have trouble keeping Hightower and Collins, and Hightower is like the leader of the defense. So I assumed they were going to pick Hightower over Collins. I thought they were going to try to figure Hightower and Collins. And Hightower is like the leader of the defense. So I assume they're going to pick Hightower over Collins. I thought they were going to try to figure out how to keep going. Belichick does not fuck around. No, he doesn't.

He doesn't care. So that's basically a second round pick. That's the first pick of the third round. Yeah, yeah. Wow. It's going to work for them again. I have a feeling. The Browns should never trade with the Patriots.

No one should, but certainly the Browns. I stopped out in belichick about 10 years ago yeah i really like jamie collins i still kind of 10 blame him for not winning the super bowl last year though when he let uh who's the owen daniels beat him right down the middle the manning's only touchdown throw yeah the only play that manning can really throw is the three-step drop, 20-yard whatever, and he just blew it. He's going to be a Hall of Famer as a result. That's a stunner. We might have to call Lombardi at the end of this podcast.

Should we call him? January, let me just ask you this. Will you text him? Yeah. January 22nd. Yeah. The Patriots are home. Again, in round two.

No, this is it. This is an AFC championship game. Okay. January 2nd, Sunday, January round two. No, this is it. This is an AFC championship game. Okay. January 2nd. Sunday, January 22nd. You want to see the Raiders or the Steelers? I'm not even including them. Oh, the Steelers are the ones I don't want to see.

You don't want to see the Steelers? I don't want to see a healthy Steelers team. That would be the one that scared me. Raiders don't scare you. They can put up 35. Raiders? Raiders are getting that point where they can put up 30. They're going to score every game. You know I love. Raiders? Raiders are getting that point where they can put up third. They're going to score every game.

You know I love the Raiders. We bet on the Raiders before this season. I'm very excited that they're doing well. What if that game is January 25th? It's played on a Wednesday. You still want the Raiders. Can I just point out their six wins? They beat

the Saints at the last minute. They beat the Titans. They beat the Raven at the last minute yeah they beat the titans they beat the ravens by one point in either organ most exciting team in sports they barely beat the chargers they killed the jaguars and they barely beat the buccaneers right what if they're just a good bad team i would say there's a possibility of that but five and oh on the road is really solid really solid it's really good i agree it's a nice especially it shows your coaching though they know what they're doing like yeah they got 23 penalties yesterday yeah maybe maybe they don't know i don't understand

i don't know like if you want if i would have known if i was a bill the raiders are on the road and they have 23 penalties amassing 200 yards of penalties how much are we betting on the bucks i don't even know what we would have said i've done a 180 on jamis he's just not good enough yeah mike evans is this year's guy who's just open five times a game and and gets missed last year was sammy watkins it was larry fitzgerald for like four years and this year it's mike evans it seems like he's open a lot. It's like, oh, and Jameis just missed him. Oh, and Jameis couldn't connect. They should have put him away. Jameis is not accurate enough.

I've done a 180 on Aguayo. I've done a 360. You've done a 360? Yeah. I think he's doing 360s. What does this mean for kickers? They traded up to draft him in the second round, and now he's miserable.

What does this mean? Like, all these kickers are missing extra points. Are we going to see more kickers in the second round or fewer? Get rid of the extra point. I'm done with it. I'm convinced that my theory that I unveiled last week is the right theory. That these guys needed the PAT for the little practice

kick to get their confidence out and they're screwed up now every kick they kick is a high pressure kick no matter where it is but who is who called for this who is this benefiting like if we played fantasy football which you hate anyway and we change the rule and I hate it so much extra points of worth seven now we'd be like no I'm not doing it shut up why does the extra point why are guys who can't bench press their own weight and run five 340s deciding games? Who asked for this? No one wants that.

I want to know why you're so upset about this. I just don't. This doesn't make sense. When referees decide games, it's like, that's bad. This is the best sport. But we've always had PATs. I like that. You've got to actually make it now.

Mike Nugent. Mike Nugent's gotten to the point where I'm expecting him to miss. I get surprised when he makes a P.A.T. He's like, oh, he made it. I know. As a gambler, you have to hate it. As a gambler, you're losing. I don't know.

It's less control, I figure I have. I have so many reasons why I hate fantasy football. But let me just start here. You went off on me yesterday over text. Let me start here with Russell Wilson. By the week, his fantasy points in our league. 15.5, 14.1, 16.4, 27.4 against the Jets. Oh, thanks for that one, Russell.

I didn't even start you. 14.2, 11.25, and 11.75. I won last week with his 11.75. Yeah. It's unbelievable. He has five touchdowns. Why won't you believe everyone when they say the fifth best fantasy quarterback is like a point you're a jerk you're like you're like strutting

around you you were so panicked at the end of that draft i know you had deer in the headlights you're like oh my god remember you went you went to i went you went two dollars i met ryan yeah and i think i went three no i don three. I was missing like a dollar. If I had one more dollar, you don't get Matt Ryan. I was like, fuck that. He's not getting Matt Ryan. You spent it all on Gronk and Zeke Elliott. Matt Ryan.

By the way, what was your thing? You're texting me like, it doesn't make sense. Zeke Elliott should be the most valuable. I was like, yeah, he's the number one back in the league, isn't he? Points wise. I just feel like he's the number one tight end. He should count for 30 points a week. He's so good. He really is really he's clearly the best running back like all these

running backs i do believe someone in the whole denver running backs these guys are interchangeable it's okay they're all around the same and then it's like you watch him it's like these guys aren't the same and levion bell's the same way he carries the pile too not just speed it's hard to get him down and then at the end when you, and it didn't happen last night, obviously, but when you feel like you're going to win the game, and he's got to get his four more in there where he just takes out seven guys. It's like, save this. Have an 11-year career.

You're right. Emmitt Smith should have a talk with him. Although Emmitt's probably hoping he flames out in four years, right? Yeah, Emmitt. Emmitt's like, man, you got to get every yard, man. You got to go. Never take a break. He's jealous.

He was rooting against him in Ohio State. He wanted to see him. Can we have our weekly Prescott versus Romo conversation? I guess. Sponsored by Don Julio. I guess. I don't know. Don Julio shot of the week.

Well, I mean, let's take you. You texted me when Prescott threw the INT. You're like, Romo. And then he came back and threw a touchdown. You're like, Romo. And then he came back and threw a touchdown. You're like, Prescott. This is what people think. I don't care. I don't think it's a problem until it's a problem.

And I don't think Romo's ready anyway for Cleveland. I don't think it's a problem until it's a problem. I think you just qualified for ESPN Sunday countdown. Why worry about this? It's Romo's job. His stats yesterday. Yeah. 19 for 39. Oh, yeaho's job. His stats yesterday. Yeah. 19 for 39.

Oh, yeah. 287, two titties, one terrible pick. Seven runs for 38 yards. Romo won't give you the running because he's done from that sense. How much praise would we be laying on Romo right now for 19 for 39 with a bad pick in the end zone? We'd be going, singing his praises until Wednesday, right? I don't know. He did a fine game fine game it was good let me ask you this so okay let's say i'm put it this way this is romo's team so let's say your your show hbo every other wednesday that

you say we're going uh hbo says we're taking it to north korea for some reason uh kim jong-un loves the show and it'll be good for U.S.-North Korea relations. So you tell your wife, like, I'm gone for two months, you know, hold down the fort and you get back and you're like, how did it go? I know I'm going to take shit for this. It was bad. And she's like, oh, it was great. Your dad helped out. He took Ben to SummerSlam and my mom took Zoe to practice. It was great. And, you know as I'm, I just settled in and watched Jude Law rom-coms at night. So I didn't really need you around. And yeah.

So what do you do? Do you go back to North Korea? Or are you still part of the family? This scenario feels more real than you're letting on. I think my wife would probably need three weeks to realize it's fine. Three weeks? Yeah. How many would yours did?

Three hours. Four. need three weeks to realize it's fine three weeks yeah how many would yours did three hours i just i i think they're stuck i think they have to stick with deck because of the the yo-yo factor of romo oh he's hurt again oh he's not playing oh i'm back to deck like why mess it up you're gonna win the nfc i just want to bring him back. All right. And if the gods decide he needs to be involved in this season, they'll get him involved. With the Patriots, Brady Bledsoe, Brady got hurt in the AFC title game. Yeah.

Bledsoe came in. He had his moment. Exactly. And it helped us win the Super Bowl. I think that's what you have to wait for. I think it'll take care of itself. So you don't love this Cowboys team. So the football outsiders, guys.

I do. I'm excited about the defense because I know exactly. I figure I've followed this Cowboys team. So that the football outsiders guys. I do. I'm excited about the defense because I know exactly, I figure I've followed this team for so many years. I know exactly when they are, the defense is going to let up. And it's like that's first, second drive in the fourth quarter. And they didn't, it's like Sean Lee's playing out of his mind. They're, they're doing well. You guys have some heavy hitters in this defense. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. And they want to play some guys flying around sean lee hasn't had his annual injury yet i'd be worried about that no i know that's usually has he played he's gonna have to play 19 games this year well he's not the middle linebacker i mean he's you know they move them around yeah yeah i think you're in good shape

i don't really like any of the other afc teams i mean seriously nf. NFC? NFC. You have the Vikings who can't block. You have the Falcons who are fun, who are going to be dangerous in the playoffs, but ultimately beatable. Eagles, Packers, Seahawks, Cardinals, Saints, Giants, Redskins. Well, in a year where Carolina, Seattle, Green Bay, and Arizona aren't lighting it up, and maybe two of those don't make the playoffs even, yeah, it's nice. It's a nice spot to be in. All right, let's take a quick break, and then we will come back and do the Week 9 Lens.

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to do is enter the promo code bill simmons that happens to be my name download the free lift app today enter promo code bill simmons in the payment section three free free rides up to ten dollars each what do you have to lose all right back to sell all right week nine lines. All right. Six bye teams again. I don't, you know. Six bye teams are New England, Houston, Cincy, Washington, Chicago, Arizona. Five of those teams range from either excellent to half decent. So that means we're going to have a shit show of a football week. Oh, Lombardi's calling us.

All right, put your headphones on. All right. Hey, Sal's on the line, too. We wanted you for three minutes to explain this Jamie Collins trade. This is Mike Lombardi who comes on every Friday on the BS podcast, and you can see him on FS1 and Fox. They traded Collins for a third-round pick. Just your gut reaction, explain this to me.

Well, I think Collins has played poorly all season. He's going to be a free agent at the end of the year. They had no interest in really signing him for next year. And the way he's played through the first eight games, he was getting demoted within each game. Yesterday, the second play of the game, he goes, he just kind of does whatever he was going to do. He kind of played with no enthusiasm. And he seemed like he didn't really want to play. It seemed like he was playing on the 0-11 Southern Mississippi team that he played in college. And so I think at some point they have to send a message to the rest of the team. Their defense is a liability right now.

I mean, they've made quarterbacks, whether it's Tyrod Taylor, whether it's Ryan Tannehill, whether it's Landry Jones, they've made them look pretty good. And I think Bill needed to send a message to the team that this is not going to be tolerated, and I think Bill needed to send a message to the team that this is not going to be tolerated, and I think this trade does that. Go through the linebackers for us that are left other than Dante Hightower? Well, I think Alondon Roberts is the best run defender.

I mean, Dante Hightower's not playing it very well either. I mean, look, that's the thing that always cracks me up about sports. People evaluate other teams. They talk about the great talent of the Patriots front seven, and then nobody makes a play. You know, well, you can rush Jamie Collins, and yet he hasn't gotten near the quarterback. I mean, at some point you just have to evaluate what you see. And what I've seen out of the Patriots defense is subpar players,

players playing below, including, you know, Jabal Shears not having the season he needs to have. I mean, their best defensive player in the front seven has been Alan Branch. And Landon Roberts, the sixth-round draft pick out of the University of Houston, is one of their best run defenders. He has to play more. And so I think this defense has really been a liability. And I think what Bill's statement today to the team is we're not going to tolerate it.

We're not going to allow this to happen. And he needs to get control of it. And I think they lack a leadership element on their defense. McCourty in the back end certainly can help, but their defensive leadership has been void all season. Sal is sitting here jealous of a team that can just trade a starter for a third-round pick and still be 6-1. This is it for the Patriots. They're done. No, I will say, Mike, you said something interesting. And for a guy who doesn't want to play, I think Cleveland is a great landing spot. Really, for anyone who doesn't want to play.

I mean, really, that locker room now, you just would be worried. There was a time in the 50s where if you got traded to Green Bay, you were like petrified. And now I think it's become Cleveland. I mean, look, he's not going to play any harder for the Browns, and he's not going to do anything. I mean, he just did not play well. I watched the game tape this morning and their defense is six on blocks. I mean, it's not very good. They're not playing with any physicality or emotion. And you know, when they play against a good team, they are going to have trouble. And as good as the

offense is playing, you can't score 30 every week to win. Why aren't teams more skeptical about trading with the Patriots? I mean, it really is like walking into a three-card Monty game, right? Just run away when it happens. Yeah, I mean, look, the one thing you have to do, Donnie Walsh said this to me back in 1990, in the late 80s, you've got to know what you're trading before you can make a trade. And that's the one caveat that Belichick knows. He knows what he's trading. He's trading a guy who is very talented but very moody,

very inconsistent with his effort. And so for him to pay that player that kind of money, it sends a message to the locker room that, look, I tolerate this and I reward this. He's never doing that. It's interesting. And with Belichick, every message he sends in terms of a contract is a message to his locker room. It's interesting because they dumped Chandler Jones before the year for second round pick. This is basically a second round pick. Cleveland's the worst team in the league. So it'll be the first pick of the third round, which is a really valuable chess piece because isn't

that the day? That's the day. Day two of the draft starts, right? That's the one everybody's trying to trade for. So he's going to probably turn that into five picks. Well, they can get something out of it. I mean, there's no doubt. But the reality here is, I think what he decided was he could have held on to them and gotten a compensatory pick himself, or he could have just traded them and cashed it in for now. And I think that's what he decided to do. So you think it was a message send? Because I

was texting you during these games, like, are we allowed to touch the quarterback? Did they pass a rule that we can't touch him, or did Wibbitty tell me? The defense hasn't played well ever. I mean, it hasn't played well all season. I mean, the people are like, you know, I go on these shows and I talk about it, and it's only because they were able to outscore people.

I mean, look, Andy Dalton was playing well against them. I mean, every quarterback, the second half of the Miami game, Tyrod Taylor, you know, the Buffalo Bills moved the ball on them. I mean, it was just the end of the half and Brady was just too good. They have to fix the defense. They're not going to Houston to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl with

the way the defense has been playing. I can promise you that. That's what I kept telling us. Sal, the right offense hasn't played this Pat's defense yet because the same kind of throws and runs are open all game and like yesterday with Buffalo they just caught a break Buffalo had the way this is one of the reasons Sal and I loaded up on on the Pats yesterday Buffalo had the worst

offensive weapons you ever could have wanted yeah in a game like that Justin Hunter is his third team he's been on he started right so they just haven't caught the right team yet. Even Pittsburgh would have been the team, but it's Landy Jones is in there. And they just outscore you. So what happens is the game Buffalo can't, they have 12 possessions, they can't be consistent through 12 possessions, and then the game slips away.

It goes from, I mean, I don't know, Rex has seen this act before. He's down 21-10. He tries a long field goal, he misses it. Oh, now He's down 21-10. He tries a long field goal. He misses it. Oh, now he's down 24-10 going in the half, and guess who gets the ball to start the half? Right. And the game's over at 31-10. You know what's amazing?

The Pats, rest of the way, Seattle, San Francisco, the Jets, the Rams, the Ravens, Denver, Giants, Miami. They're going to go through this whole season without playing an elite defense, or elite offense. Pittsburgh was the only one that really would have been scary. They're going to go through this whole season without playing an elite defense or elite offense. Pittsburgh was the only one that really would have been scary. Like they're going to avoid the Oakland.

They're going to avoid Dallas. All the teams that probably would have torn this Pats defense up, they don't have to play any of them. Hey, Mike, on a bye week, that's the best time to make a trade like this, right? Yeah, because I think there's no bye in New England. I mean, they'll probably have Friday and Saturday off and they'll be back in there, but they need to fix this defense. And I think that's been something he's been waiting to do.

I mean, the second play of the game when Gillespie ran for 28 yards and Jamie Collins backdoored it, and then two plays later he was out of the game, you knew it was going to be over with. I mean, at some point, you know, there's a saying in coaching, you're either coaching it or allowing it to happen. Well, Belichick decided he's not going to allow it to happen anymore. All right, Mike Lombardi, thanks for clearing this up for us. Thanks, Mike. I love you. Thank you, Sal.

Good luck, Sal. If you need any therapy with the Romo situation, feel free to call. Go get your shine box, Mike. All right, thanks a lot. Thanks. Bye. All right, that was fun. All right, well, did they talk you off thebye. All right. That was fun. All right.

Well, did they talk you off the ledge? You think the Patriots are going to be okay now? Yeah. I told you Collins wasn't playing that great. No, I know. But, man. Just put him in the first tier, and now. Lombardi.

See, I watched the Pats game. I didn't even notice Collins was out there. Right. Like, I didn't notice he got yanked in the fourth play. Because here's when the Bills he just went over when the game was over the game was over when it was 14-10 the Bills scored it was 14-3, 14-10

and then Gronk is over the middle and that's it, it's a touchdown it's like alright, well we gotta cover this freaking monster the rest of the game we're just not gonna do it, we are mentally out of this game yeah, that's it and also when you can't when you don't have a receiver who can get open. When Klay got hurt, it's bad when Charles Klay gets hurt.

And you're like, oh, no. What do we do now? Like, that's, your receivers are in bad shape. All right. Week nine. We do the Don Julio shot of the week. I'm one in seven with Don Julio. This is your crypt today.

Don Julio, you've never been a big drinker. Maybe this is part of the problem meanwhile i love alcohol so here but you lost you had the jags last week i know thursday but after and lombardi yelled at me because i laid out the entire case for the broncos and then somehow took blake bortles yeah right i just thought i'm not even gonna go over the thursday game so tough yeah so today we have the vikings and the bears five and a half why is that so low why is it so low cutler back why is it so low doesn't make sense or we could go falcons thursday night i picked falcons minus three at tampa what was the line for that

are you gonna get it i said uh i said two and a half it's three and a half. It's three and a half. Oh. Closer there. They're dying for you to take the Bucs. Yeah. Bucs won 31-24 in week one. It was a rematch. Yeah. I'm taking the Vikings. I'm going to take them. Five and a half.

Yeah. All right. We'll both take them. I'll take the Vikings. They're Don Julio's shot of the week. I'm going to make it my Don Julio 1942 shot of the week. Wow. I mean, I'm going to go a little higher on this.

Interesting. I'm going to splurge. Yeah. Can I go 43? No, no, 42. That's their signature Don Julio. I don't think this to me is a Gus Ramsey Memorial, even though Gus Ramsey is still alive, but he always called this,

I always called this a Ramsey Memorial game of how many points are they going to score. We would talk about these games and Gus would go, how many points are they going to score? You look at the Bears. How many points are they scoring in this game? Ten? No, I know. Seven? The defense should feast on them.

So the Vikings just need to get to 20 points they're covering. The Thursday game, yeah. I was impressed with Matt Ryan yesterday. He's had a great season i think like sanu taylor gabriel and austin hooper at 17 receptions like he's doing that without julio jones that's a busted foot or whatever well it's busted but also sparingly yeah he was he was doubled when he was out there too every team that was just like you're not beating us julio jones i don't know any targets in the second half. I'm not sure. Maybe one. I feel like I'm in the top 0.5% of football fans.

Taylor Gabriel. Who is that? I vaguely remember Taylor. Didn't he come from the Browns? Was he? He was on. Who was he on? Tate?

Browns. Browns? Yeah. Vaguely remember him. Another bad try. First, I was like, is that Doug Gabriel? No. That was from 10 years ago. And I was having an old guy moment.

Yeah. Taylor Gabriel. I feel bad because I'm not sure if it was Lombardi's draft pick, but I remember they went high on him. I don't even think he was there. Well, then Lombardi's blatantly proven correct. Yeah. I would feel good about it.

Right. Yeah. So, all right. What happened? Falcons, Bucs. Mm-hmm. so all right i uh what happened falcons bucks i don't know i i i don't like that bucks team like you gotta win that it wasn't just that they lost the overtime and they made a bad tackle in that play i think they had the ball four times in a row at the end of that game they just did nothing every time nothing yeah and it wasn't like they had had a major injury or somebody was out or whatever it's just like the raiders figured out how to play defense against them and if they win this game and they can because it's thursday and they're all effed up they'll be a half game out of first

right bizarre the interesting one is the saints i ran into micah peters from the ringer who's a huge uh huge Saints fan. They're 3-4 with the Niners next week. They have a shot. I know. And we both think 9-7 wins a wild card. So I think the AFC West is the most exciting division, and I think the NFC South is right behind it.

Maybe not the best. The NFC East is probably better. NFC South, almost all the games are exciting right there. I agree. In your division, I think there's three teams i the more i look at the giants i just don't think they're good no they have four wins but they had their one and two with four either or games so you know and especially like that week one game where they beat you and prescott's first week you'd just been there's no way'd lose that game if it's five weeks later.

I'm like you. Tony Romo starts, you're right. So the Giants have Philly, Cincy, Chicago, and then at Cleveland for their next four. So that's a pretty favorable schedule on paper. And then after that it gets a little harder. Let's do that game. Philly at the Giants.

Philly at the Giants. I picked this exactly. It's the only one I picked. Giants minus two. And I do like that Eagles team. I think they can, I like their defense. I think Wentz is pretty good. They can run the ball a little. They can do some stuff. It feels playoff team-ish to me. Actually opened up at minus two is now minus three. People are betting the Giants. That's a mistake. I i think the giants being at home it's one of the few teams where it doesn't seem like that matters for them i don't feel like

there's a lot of home field advantage eagles haven't been that great on the road right no unless detroit alice i don't know is that a must win for the giants i feel like it is yeah they have to win that one yeah all right dallas at cleveland by the way six early games four i know i'm the only one in the country that cares about this yeah six early games four late afternoon games i love that that's how it should be that's how it should be the red zone should matter in the late afternoon so they could do that if they had six teams on by every week for 11 weeks that's 66 so that's the whole league twice. Everybody gets two bys.

Everyone can heal. You know, nice. Players' careers last longer. You get six early games, four late afternoon. I filled out my ballot on Sunday because I got the one where they send it. You could just mail it in. Yeah. If they had a prop, you know how they have those props on the ballot?

Like, I was really excited to vote for the cigarette tax. Right. And there was a porn one. There's all these good ones in there. If they had a prop on there and it was like, should Thursday night football continue? Yes or no?

And then in the paragraph, they were like, skeptics feel like Thursday night football has diluted the quality of the week. Would you vote yes or no on Thursday night football? I think I'd still vote yes. I do a lot of complaining. You're the worst. You're the worst. I the quality of the week. Would you vote yes or no on Thursday Night Football? I think I'd still vote yes. I do a lot of complaining. You're the worst.

You're the worst. I know I'm the worst. Where would Don Julio go if we couldn't do Thursday Night Game? We would just do Monday Night Don Julio. Don Julio would be fine. Don Julio wouldn't put up with that. He's a very stubborn man. I would vote no.

And I think the product's terrible on Thursday nights. I agree. And I would rather have that extra game on Sunday. I just love screaming about it. Yeah. What do you have for this? Yeah, what do we complain about? I had the Cowboys by eight.

I think I went too low. No, you didn't. Well, you went slightly low. I went 10, and it's eight and a half. You get that. God, I kill you on Mondays. You want to move back to Wednesdays. Well, I want you to send your picks to me in a timely fashion.

That's what I want. I sent them today. You sent them like 10 minutes before the podcast. No, that's not true. Everyone's sending you the lines. How do you take the Browns? Like, they fought ferociously. They got Jamie Collins now.

Now they have Jamie Collins. Can he take snaps? He's going to be mad. He's so fired up to go for a 6-1 team to an 0-8 team. They fought back. Well, of course they were ahead. By the way, that didn't make sense. That was the first Jet win in history yeah they were down 13 or more in the second half yeah crazy right fitzpatrick wow anyway they did they did in some places cover with that uh

that last score the browns so they good good for them but i thought i thought it was three and a half but i hadn't looked at in a while it was three and a half went went down to two so i think that's only the second game they've covered this year yeah it might be it might be uh pittsburgh at baltimore you know that's you're so great in so many ways i feel like you never know the records against the spreads because every year there's one team that after eight weeks is like one and seven against the spread know this better we should we'll look at that. We'll have it next week. Because what happens in the second half is it always evens out.

Nobody ever finishes one in 15 against the spread. They always rally late and it seesaws a little bit. Yeah, 11 and five is the best the team will do. And the other way, five and 11 or something. But Pittsburgh at Baltimore. Pittsburgh at Baltimore are the Ravens by one. And I flip-flopped on that. I had the Steelers favored. I changed my mind. I had no feel for it, I had the Ravens by one. And I flip-flopped on that. I had the Steelers favored.

I changed my mind. I had no feel for it. I had the Ravens by one also. Two and a half. It doesn't seem like these two could have the same record after week nine. It doesn't seem possible that the Ravens can win and they'll both be, what? I'm going to go further than that, cuz. Mm-hmm.

The Ravens have this game and then Cleveland Thursday night. They could be 5-4 in, you know, 98 hours or whatever. Miserable. At Dallas, probably loss. Cincy, Miami home. At Pat's, probably loss. Philly. And then at Pittsburgh, at cincy there there is a way

they could get to 10 wins and they i think they're terrible i mean i think you feel the same way as a degenerate gambler i think they're in my top three or four teams i just don't want to watch yeah or bet on or anything no you can't uh detroit at minnesota so stafford went against an above average defense yesterday and looked pretty pretty mortal right after a week of stafford hype i had the uh vikings as six and a half point favorites all right we're gonna kind of like the lions we're gonna split this because it's seven and i said seven and a half okay so we tie there. Feels tease-ish. You like that teaser. You like Dallas, Minnesota teaser so far. I got to say, I don't know if the Vikings O-line worries me.

I'm not sure I'd put them in a teaser parlay. Well, it's weird. You started talking about it. I feel like everybody was on Stafford and everyone was on the Chargers last week. I was like, that's not going 2-0. It might go 0-2. Maybe the Chargers should have covered, but yeah.

I love the Chargers. not going 2-0. It might go 0-2. Maybe the Chargers should have covered, but yeah. I love the Chargers. I still watch the Swami. The Swami's actually been kind of on fire this year, but he loved the Chargers. Yeah, the Swami was red hot for a while. What, record-wise or reference-wise? No, reference-wise. He dropped Hogan's Heroes yesterday.

I was so fired up. How old do you have to be to get a Hogan Heroes reference? Not even a Hulk Hogan thing? Is it Hogan heroes reference hogan heroes how old do you have to be like 55 so you could go with the hulk hogan thing which is also kind of hackish and i did it last week which is mid 80s or you could go 25 years before and go hogan zeros i love the choice the berman last year thing is fantastic he's got jim kelly coming out today nice jim a lot of great years in buffalo circle the wagon let's circle the wagons together we got it right now teach teach is week 17 right teach is like please teach let me have the flu the week he needs me i'm sick i can't do it. Jets at the Dolphins. Jets at Dolphins.

Dolphins. I had them by six. Dolphins could be four and four after this game. Wow. At San Diego, at Rams, at San Francisco. Six. Well, Vegas doesn't treat the Jets as a three and five team. I think they should. They probably should. That's a mistake.

I said two and a half. It's three and a half. So I get that. I don't like laying more than a field goal to Dolphins at home. I forgot to ask you something about Raven Steelers. Yeah.

If I gave you plus 500 that Roethlisberger plays in that game, would you bet it? Plus 500. I haven't been monitoring. Yeah, I'm saying

you haven't monitored anything. He's been modern yeah i'm saying you have modern anything he's been out this will be three weeks he's been out with the tournament it's supposed to be like six four to six sure yeah five to one yeah if i gave you plus 300 would you take it uh that's about right i think plus 350 yeah would you take it at plus 350 tate yeah he's gonna play i think he plays really yeah this week that's why That's why I couldn't figure out that Raven-Steelers line. Well, Adam Schefter just tweeted he's not playing. What? So pay me.

Pay me right now. If he—Steelers, if they're getting three in that game before it comes out that Roethlisberger is playing, we should— We should load up on that. Examine that a tiny bit. We should maybe even put it on a teaser now. Why would they lose by more than? I just think he plays. I don't think it's possible for him to be out for more than three weeks

unless he has a broken leg. Right. That would be the only injury that I think, even if he had a torn ACL, he's like, guys, I'm ready. I'm going to come back anyway. Luckily, the rest of the, I don't know, Bengals keep, like there's no, you know, you don't have the Patriots in front of you

where someone's running away with a division. Yeah, but you want to get that three seed. Right. I don't think you want the four seed in the AFC. No, it's true. Because then you're playing the Raiders. A good wild card team. I don't want to play the Raiders in round one.

All right. All right, let's keep going. Jacksonville at Kansas City. You assume it's the Raiders as the wild card or division winner, but I like this KC team. Yeah, I had a Pat. Under the radar. I put a Pat's Chiefs parlay. We did that one on Friday and then

I did another one on Sunday. I forgot I had the one on Friday. I think it was an old guy gambling moment. That was good. You had the balls to do it. I figure like we went against the Colts last week, right? We had Tennessee. I was like, I'm not going to do it. I figure, like, we went against the Colts last week, right? We had Tennessee. I was like, I'm not going to do it again because now I know I'm going to lose, even though the Chiefs are much better than the Colts.

And you're like, no, I'm doing it. I watched a lot of that game, and it just felt like it was a gimmick with the tight ends. But then when Smith went out in the first quarter with a concussion, had that moment of like, oh, shit, what happens now? And then I forgot that they, that they had Nick Foles and not only they have Nick Foles, but he wanted to sign there and he loves Andy Reed. And I felt weirdly calm with Nick Foles,

way calmer than I should have felt with Nick Foles. Two touchdowns. Yeah. He could be good. And like, it seems to like Mack when, I don't know what works better with Mack when they're, what'd you have this line at?

Chiefs, right? Yeah, Jacksonville. I thought about going into the 10 range, but I went nine. I think I hit that one. We split it. Yeah, it's eight and a half. I had eight. You had nine.

Oh, interesting. I thought it would be nine to deter people from teasing them. Well, we're doing it anyway, right? I think we should tease it when it's at 8.5. I hate that Jacksonville team. Like, why? That coach has got to go. Bortles, I don't, you know, so two years ago,

Bortles was ranked 28th as a quarterback, down to 10th last year, and now back to 27th. So what do they do? They promote the quarterback coach. He's the offensive coordinator now. It took after the Bills, like after the horrible defense. They fired the offensive coordinator. Maybe we'll do something stupid.

It'll work out for us. Greg Olson, the other Greg Olson they fired. Greg Olson, yeah. He's still playing, and they fired him. He's not even on the team. I did a DraftKings $50 single entry team, not a promo. And the guy who's in first place had Bortles, who had like 33 DraftKings points.

It was the weakest 30-point fantasy. Bortles got over 30? I had Drew Brees. He only ended up with 20. He's like 27th in the league and he still had all those garbage points. I need like 40 points to win the thing I'm in out of 90 teams.

Who do you have? And I have Asiata left in the Vikings defense and nobody has anything else left in the top 12. Really? I think I have a chance And I have Asiata left in the Vikings defense and nobody has anything else left in the top 12. Really? I think I have a chance. Like if Asiata had a couple... The Vikes defense got like a touchdown.

It's doable. You need three touchdowns between the two of them, right? I changed from Carr to Breeze, which was if I had kept Carr. He gets goal and carries. You could be okay. I like daily fantasy

because my real fantasy is an absolute atrocity. Two and six. All right, look, we're in the late afternoon already. How about that? So what's the game of the day? Ben Roethlisberger's return to Baltimore. That hasn't been announced yet.

Man, it really has to. Or maybe Philly at the Giants. I don't know. I think, so if we're guessing storylines that come out of these games, and you had to pick a storyline other than the rothlisberger comeback i would pick eli being horrible in that philly game followed by a week of is eli on the other side of the mountain i think that eagles pass rush is going to be a real problem for them right i would say can jamie coll Jamie Collins quarterback this Browns team to a victory?

Can Jamie Collins stop crying? Can he stop crying to play for some time? I will say Jamie Collins was the best athlete the Patriots have ever had on defense that I can remember, other than maybe to Bucky Jones. He swarmed. Jamie Collins, he was one of the first guys I've ever seen who just jumped the line on a field goal. He just vaulted it like Carl Lewis.

Yeah. All right. Late afternoon games. Late afternoon. Saints at Niners. This is, in my opinion, a Michael Conrad memorial. Let's be careful out there game. Because the Saints look so easy on paper here.

Yep. Everybody's feeling good. They're going to be four-4 after they win this. The Niners are terrible. I would be very scared. Breeze outdoors, West Coast. Breeze always, slow start. He's able to bring them back, but slow start almost every game.

I have the Saints by four. I went way high. You got it. It's three and a half. I said six. You know, Hightower looked good in that Saints game. No, he didn't. He did?

I thought he looked pretty good. I had the Saints, and he had six goal line carry. They couldn't get him in. I thought he had. Well, goal line's different. Well, different. That's when you want. I thought he looked good.

I thought he made some nice runs. He ended up with 20 for 88 or something. Good numbers, but he was driving me crazy. I got to make a suggestion for everyone on the goal line because the Chargers lost the game because they threw four straight times on the two-yard line. In Madden, you spread it out. You put four receivers out wide.

They have to defend all four receivers, and now it's six on six with a running back, and you're going to get two yards eventually. They can't stack up on it. You go to your slant on third down or something like that. Yeah, but don't load up with the one. I don't understand why the goal line offense is still a thing.

I hate it. Yeah, that's not good. Especially if you're the Saints. You've all these dangerous receivers. Spread them out. I think the Saints receivers are excellent. Sure. Sneed, that Thomas is good. Yeah, he's great. I like Cooks. I like that team. Good tight end, too. I like that offense.

Caroline at the Rams. This might be another be careful game. I think people might be, all right, Caroline's back. Oh, Caroline's back. Meanwhile, the Cards had just played an overtime game and had the shit kicked out of them and then had to go to the South. Yeah, I'm with you. Panthers by three I have over the Rams.

Yeah, I said three also. Three and a half. That's a dangerous one. I'd be very careful about the Panthers in that game. That Carolina-Arizona game was over faster than when they played in January. We should have seen that coming. Oh, yeah. We should definitely have seen that.

I liked it. I picked it. I didn't like it enough to bet on it because I didn't know what shape that Carolina defense was in. It's like, oh, it's 7-0. It's going to be 21-3. It is funny. Every Sunday there's that one game that's over at 1-10. Or 10-10. Our time. We could bet live

now in 2016. So we should be more in touch with that. Just what I need is more ways to bet. See you at San Diego. Chargers, i have as four and a half point favorites what i had four and a half it's five vegas zone just promise me you won't try to convince yourself that either of these teams are good when one of them wins i think the chargers are pretty good it's all right it didn't even play here i didn't we house

and i stayed away from the chargers playoff bet because we didn't want to risk them losing to Denver. The odds would be better now. What was it? 4-1? It was 4-1. Now it's got to be like 5-1. Rest of the schedule. Tennessee and Miami both at home. They could be 5-5 hitting the bye. At Houston, Tampa, at Carolina,

Oakland, at Cleveland, home for KC. I still think they can get to 10 wins. Is 10 enough? They may have to run the table. You may have to be 11-5 wild card in the AFC. Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos. Yeah, we can't have three wild cards, can we?

Yeah, they're not going to make it. Unless the Chiefs. The Spencer Ware concussion thing was sneaky. Because I don't trust Charles to play a full season anymore. I thought the depth they had at running back was good for them. All of a sudden they don't have a lot of depth. Indianapolis at Green Bay. Packers by six.

I hate these two teams. Wow, we tied three in a row now. I hate both of these teams. I said six. It's seven. Yeah, let's really really really try hard not to tease the packers i was watching undisputed today with skip and shannon oh nice shannon thinks aaron rogers sells his teammates out and he's been doing it for a while

and that's what he does now he's i think he's been good on that show really i actually kind of like that show in the morning it's a a little coffee, a little Skip and Shannon. Our friend Brad, who's crazy. A lot of caffeine all the time. Whenever that promo comes on, he's like, Oh, worst job in America. The guy who has to put this promo together. Let's take 20 seconds.

Well, nothing exciting happened this week. What about week two? Is there something we can grab from week two? Oh, okay. Oh, he seems like he's fake angry. Take him there. That's good. That's the hottest seat in sports.

I like it. We have to bring back our come on, man. You told me last week. Now it's white guys doing come on, man, right? Oh, yeah, that's right. Did you come up with a gimmick for that yet? Not really. I don't know.

I don't know. Should we call it please, dude? Yeah. First of all, it upsets me that they've continued to do come on, man. for that yet not really i don't know uh i don't know should we call please dude yeah admit first of all it upsets me that they've continued to come on man without chris carter right yeah chris carter created come on man you can't just do that when he's not there he should have patented smart people they're all doing you have like matt hasselbeck doing come on man come on it's so meant for chris carter and Carter and when Ray Lewis did it that was great I do feel like I I don't feel right about white quarterbacks doing come on it's hard

for white guys to look angry in a cool way I was thinking ours could be please dude please dude yeah all right let's start with please Cam uh Cam Newton's complaining about not feeling safe as a quarterback, please, dude. Please, dude. Please, dude. Come on. Please. Dude. Where are we? Oh, Indiana. You're sitting in the hottest seat in sports right now. I am?

Yeah. That seat is so hot. I think Bayless is great at his job. Yeah. It's his job is to just say stuff. He said this week that there is no way the Cowboys could start Tony Romo. Yeah, right. Okay.

They can't. It's going to divide the locker room. They can't. I like it. They can bring him in there. I think he believes everything he says. I'm pro-skip Bayless. Do you think it was a bad move,

Romo bringing everybody to his house? He invited everyone over. Did he do that? He invited everyone over and they took pictures and he has like slides in his- That's great. He's going to have a moment. It moment it's great it's awesome except i think these guys are like uh yeah he's doing all right let's let's make the young guy rich now i got that i hope it didn't backfire they're like wow tony god in all marble bathroom can you tell me who had the

most carries in green bay uh what uh i think, Rodgers ran the ball six times. Don Johnson's close. What's that guy's name? Don somebody? Aaron Repkowski. Aaron Repkowski had like six carries, and that was the second most for the Packers next to Aaron Rodgers. He was a clerk at Copps, the

frozen custard place in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, and now he's their fullback. Kelly Kapowski? Yeah. Unbelievable. I think Rodgers sold out Devontae Adams on that last play. You did? I do believe that.

Yeah. But God forbid they had a miscommunication and Rodgers made a mistake. Devontae Adams was pretty good in that game. I had Atlanta. That was my loser, minus three, and the two-point conversion hurt me. But don't you wish you could know when the Packers were going to be bad and when they aren't? Like when they're going to put up 21 points 24 in the first half like you can almost tell immediately in aaron rogers eyes when he's gonna he's gonna

i mean he did have four tds i know i know they were good i feel like he was that great in that game though probably partly because i was watching on my iphone my son's baseball game. I didn't think he was that good. Denver and Oakland. Oh, is this Sunday night? Sunday night. Hold on. Before we do this, I got to do one quick thing. Sonos.

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Well, we were going to do a karaoke thing, and our friend Tony brought a system, and then we just had the surround sound going. Well, I don't want to step on your ad here. Sonos is great. I just couldn't get it together. Well, we need to get you the Sonos for the next year. Sonos brings your music together in one simple app. All your favorite music devices, including Tony's karaoke machine.

And you control everything from the choice of songs to the volume to the rooms. Play your music in any room or every room all at once. Or play a different song in the living room, bedroom, even bathroom. Play the same track in every room. How can you have a party without Sonos? how add your existing music services or discover something new go to sonos.com right now do we did tony and carola ever tape their lover boy song their karaoke lover boy the kid is hot tonight no No, I don't think they recorded it. That's still the greatest karaoke performance I've ever seen. I don't know if Carolla, I don't know, maybe he's almost 50. Is he 50 now?

52 or something. 52? I don't know if he has the same gusto anymore, but I've never seen a better karaoke performance. Screaming with his eyes closed for six minutes. Really convinced to it. Sunday night, Denver at Oakland. This is the game of the week.

It's a great game. It was also the game I was off by most. Really? I had the Raiders by two. I had... Okay, yeah. I had the Raiders by three and a half. Yeah.

Denver by one. So you get that, and I think you beat me for the week. Son of a bitch. Ten to eight. Yeah. So C.J. Anderson might beat me for the week Son of a bitch 10-8 So CJ Anderson might be out for the year Booker got banged up In yesterday's game I need to

I'm going to watch every play of that game On Sunday night I really need to watch and examine the Broncos And figure out what's going on with them Because they keep winning these games They've been doing them for a couple years now I really need to watch and examine the Broncos and figure out what's going on with them. Because they keep winning these games. They've been doing them for a couple of years now. Speaking of Colas, I was recording my Facebook Live thing with him yesterday.

He jumped in and he was going on a 10-minute rant about beets, how he likes to eat. I said something about bad beets and he took this into his story about how when he eats beats how it changes his bowel movement so i just had to let him go and i looked up at the screen and the denver game was delayed i was like oh this is weird and then i'm getting messages like wade phillips has collapsed on the sideline like oh that's terrible this is a health thing yeah and then i'm like and then i say no uh he collided with a player uh out bounds. I'm like, oh, thank God. All of a sudden I'm thinking, oh, that's great. It's much better to collide with a player. A 250-pound guy runs 4.3, ran into him.

That's so much better. I remember maybe 10 years ago, somebody's special teams coach got nailed like that and hit his head and was like almost died. Right. Yeah. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Are they going to have to wear helmets? Coaches with helmets? How long before the assistants are in helmets? Well, maybe the heads almost died. Right. Yeah. Are they going to have to wear helmets? I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Are they going to have to wear –

Coaches with helmets? How long before the assistants are in the home? Well, maybe the headsets could be helmets. Yeah. Or maybe the sidelines, like a beach area with sand, so it doesn't hurt as much. It does seem like they haven't totally figured out how to make the sidelines safe.

Right. One of the games I was watching yesterday, somebody got shoved five feet after, and it was like he almost hit the ceiling. Oh, it was Edelman. It was Edelman, Armadillo, one of those. His head almost hit the wall, separating the fans. It's like, Jesus.

How about that sex toy getting thrown on the field there? Amazing. Amazing. That's how boring these Patriots games are. So good. They have to spice it up. So good. The ref kicking it, disgusted ref.

It is great. Usually when there's a dildo in the Patriots game he's wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. I'm sorry. I had to say it. You know it's true. Tate's snickering behind me. The best man at my wedding used to call me Bildo. Oh really? it was weird to see uh

it was weird to see the bills dildo become that's funny yeah did he throw it possibly no he didn't throw it no we always we it was bildo and then it was sir william doe like i had been knighted in london so it. Did you not like it at first? Oh, I loved it the whole time. Yeah, I did, though. All right. Monday night, Buffalo and Seattle. Also a good game. I do not like this Seahawks team. Are they the least impressive 4-2-1 team of all time?

They can't block. They can't run. They can't throw. Everything's a chore. Let's talk about some of the recent worst 4-2-1 teams and see where Seattle stacks up I had the Seahawks by 6 just because of the home field

yeah you killed me this week I had 5 and it's 7 I feel there's a teaser in there somewhere for us I'm not going near Seahawks I don't think Seahawks, I don't think Green Bay I think I like KC a lot and maybe Minnesota. I know there's no football trades, and every Monday on the trade deadline,

everyone writes their trade deadline, trades that should happen, wouldn't it be more fun if there were trades. Here are seven guys. Danny Kelly wrote a good one today for the ringer, the seven guys who should be traded. The Seahawks, in a wide-open open NFC actually should make a trade, and they should get Joe Thomas or Joe Staley, get one of the Joes, and give up the second-round pick.

Yeah, if you make the Super Bowl, it becomes a first-round pick, whatever it has to be. Their left tackle, and Wilson's not going to make the season. He's going to get hurt. I think if Rawls was healthy because they have you know they have kristen michael who's good and they have proceeds precise precise how whatever it is like i feel like they would be able to trade one of those guys for just what you're talking about like a good good running uh do you think kristen michael has trade value yeah why not yeah no i didn't uh

danny kelly was upset about this And I don't blame him I did not I hate the fade route in general I really hate it when it's to Jermaine Curse in the corner Right right right With my injured quarterback Who has five injuries Right

I just I just don't like anything about that I think you have to go over the middle On that play And you have to run a pick player The only time that ever works Is the over the middle guy Who's jumping in between three

guys. Right? The fade route. What are the odds of that working? I'm just laughing that a Patriot fan likes when Seattle throws over the middle. Yeah, of course. It makes sense. You won the Super Bowl that way.

No, that's not what I meant. I'm saying past the 10 when it's like 12 yards and longer, I think you have to go over the middle. He's running for his life. He's in a tough spot. So you win. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Wow.

I have one more thing for us to cover. Simmons storming back. What's our run for? Mondays have really helped. 4-3-2 now. We have ties. These ties with the NFL are hilarious. So good. There was almost two more. The Raiders could have been a tie. with the NFL are hilarious. So good. There was almost two more.

I know. Yeah, the Raiders could have been a tie. The Cowboys could have been a tie. That Bengals game was good. I wanted Angelina Jolie's brother to tweet how much he loves all these ties. Like kissing your sister? Yeah. Last thing, MVP odds.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Tate doesn't know. I'm going to ask Tate. Who do you think the MVP favorite is right now? Yeah. Is it Brady? It's Tom Brady. Jeez.

Not only is it Tom Brady. It was last week, too, right? Right. Not only is it Tom Brady, but now he's plus 140, and Matt Ryan is plus 300. And if you go down the list, it's really hard to come up with other candidates. I mean, Kelly at 12 to 1, why not?

Why wouldn't he be? Because I don't think he has the touchdowns. If he was actually putting the ball in the end zone and there was more of a statistical case, the most interesting long shot one is Derek Carr, 20 to 1. Yeah, that's pretty good. 20 to 1. Yeah, it's pretty good. 20 to 1 is pretty good. He was impressive.

He could end up with like 4,500 yards. He's won all these games at the end. But, you know, if Brady goes 11 and 1 or 12 and 0 and he's on pace now for 4,000 yards, 36 TDs and 0 picks, which is obviously he's not going to finish that way. But if they go 11 and 1 or 12 and 0 and they're in one seed, would you give them the MVP? Yeah, I think so. So why don't we bet on it?

I hate it. Don't we have it? We don't have it? No, I don't think we have it. What we have is the Patriots to go 8-4 or better when he's back with Arizona to not make the playoffs. Oh, we're going to win that. That's a win. Yeah, that's finally.

Well, Hillary's minus 325. We have a lot on Hillary. Brady is plus 140. You're not worried about this witch hunt? They might get her on something. They really might. Vegas knows. If Vegas has their 3-1s, though, I trust Vegas.

I don't trust Vegas. Minus 325 is basically the equivalent of the cowboys losing to the browns this week could the browns beat the cowboys uh no that's high that would be higher isn't that minus 600 won't that be minus all right so it's the equivalent of the packers losing the colts oh now i'm nervous adrian luck beating the packers we should be nervous every day it's something different with this dumb election. Well, the FBI, there's a specific rule that the FBI couldn't release anything that could affect the election within four months. The guy did it 11 days for the election.

Is that right? Yeah. Oh, they're not playing by the rules, huh? It doesn't seem like it. I'm really excited for the cigarette tax to go into effect. Why? It's like an extra two bucks. Yeah.

Let's tax the smokers. Put it toward potholes in schools. You're a smoker. You're a Vegas smoker. I'm a Vegas smoker. But you know what? I should feel more guilty when I buy cigarettes. Make them like 50 bucks a pack.

I should really have to think about it. You realize how much this is going to cost you when we're at Caesar's Palace? It's fun. Six in the morning when they're vacuuming around you and you're playing blackjack? Oh, man. Those days got to end. What do you got to plug?

Cousin Sal's shirt thing. I was two and one last week, nine and three in October. Nice. And tune in Friday. There's a new prop bet. You can win $1,000. We had a prop bet last week. What will the attendance be at Wembley stadium for uh for skins um bangles

someone guessed within one 84 488 really yeah there's a lot of nutcases out there jimmy kimmel live we have our halloween extravaganza tonight kathy griffin jacob jacob trembly jake gyllenhaal later in the week hallie steinfeld jessica chastain and chloe kardashian chloe you go you have the uh when is the halloween pranks running that's tomorrow yeah that'll be on tomorrow i shoot that tonight we do uh hidden camera trick-or-treating with the kids and i i give them weird stuff like uh i don't even know razors chocolate covered shrimp and razor chocolate covered shrimp yeah when is the one run where the where they they steal the halloween

candy from the kids that's also tomorrow that's tomorrow yeah big night i can't i can't tell you how much the simmons kids love those oh good good yeah that's polarizing there are some people that say you should go to jail for that and uh well he should go to jail just not for that just not for that um cuz as always good, good job by you. Good job by you, Billy. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. Close your eyes. And picture me rolling.

All right, thanks to Don Julio, the world's original handcrafted tequila, with the holidays coming up by a friend, a nice bottle to Don Julio, the world's original handcrafted tequila, with the holidays coming up by a friend. A nice bottle of Don Julio. Thanks to Sling TV, the best way to watch live TV on your favorite device. With Sling Orange service, pay just $20 a month and get ESPN, ESPN2, and more top channels. Add the Sports Extra for just $5 for the SEC network and more. Start watching for seven days free at sling.com slash bill simmons restrictions do apply 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 HBO. Thanks to The Ringer. We're back later in the week. And on Friday's podcast, we're going to debut our new music, our new theme song, and our new outro for season two, belatedly, of the BS Podcast. We will see you then.