The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 14: Week 8 NFL w/ Cousin Sal

Episode Date: October 26, 2015

HBO's Bill Simmons guesses Week 8 NFL lines and World Series futures, and debates Pats-Dolphins, Broncos-Packers and worst NFL coaches with Cousin Sal. P.S. featuring our new theme song! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's realtyshares.com slash BS. All right, we did it. Can you sing it? Y'all ready for me? Alright, we did it Entrance music What was that? Oh my god Tupac Shakur He is really back this time It's really him

I actually got him He came to the studio And he re-recorded Picture Me Rolling That's very exciting No, this is good It took a few months here To clear all this

Nice And I'd like to thank About 1700 different700 different people who helped out, but they were very nice to let us use Picture Me Rolling. Well, go ahead. Read off the names. We'll be up to time. Maybe later in the week, but that is the official theme of the Bill Simmons podcast. Very excited.

Gets me in such a good mood. All right. We're at Cousin Sal's here. I am. Every Monday, he's here. Yes. Both of us are on fire with pics this year. We're just on fire. We're going to... Cousin Sal's here. I am. Every Monday, he's here. Yes. Both of us are on fire with picks this year. We're just on fire.

We're doing very well. And last week, we were apprehensive. Is that the word? Very apprehensive. A lot of the lines fell on that Vegas zone, which you just want to run away from that four to six. But a lot of those favorites came out on top, and it wasn't even hard, right? Yeah.

All right. We'll get to football in a second. Your team's in the World world series which has never happened we started doing these podcasts in the fall of 2007 yeah and uh and we could have done it in 2001 and it still wouldn't have happened yeah right yeah the year before we started doing the podcast beltran took the called third strike and that was the closest you've you've been since and now you have a world series team i had fantasy sean fantasy who i recently hired from grantland who's a giant meds fan was was saying how this was the best he was jokingly saying but not really joking because

the meds fans are fired up about this team that this is the best young rotation of all time or best young pitching staff ever i vaguely you know you know, in 86, people felt that way too, remember? I love that team. It's funny. I was looking at the 2006 team you looked at, and it was Glavin and over-the-hill Glavin who screwed us the following year. The 06 team you mean. Right, 06.

John Main and I think Oliver Perez got us started. It was really, really bad. Right. Yeah, I love those 86 guys too. But the story remains to be written. But Harvey, DeGrom, Syndergaard, top notch. I mean, Gooden in 86 was not Gooden from 85. It was just starting to feel the effects of maybe some of the stuff he was doing off the field.

I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. You darling. Yeah. You had Bobby Ojeda, who was over 25 at that point. Ojeda, El Cid. El Cid was there, Aguil darling. Yeah. You had Bobby Ojeda, who was over 25 at that point. Ojeda, El Cid. El Cid was there, Aguilera. Yeah.

But this team, when you throw in Familia, it's nice to have the lights out closer. It feels really nice to have the guy just come in and shut people down. It really is good. And obviously the Dodger series was rough, went to five games. So I was telling my 10-year-old son, like, this is not playoff baseball. The Mets are jumping out on these teams, and the Cubs are not even responding. The last three innings should take two hours. There should be six pitching changes, and you should be biting your fist off.

And I've had none of that so far in the last week and a half. You had it in the Dodgers series. The Dodgers have always been close, yeah. I mean, it's just a great example of why nobody should ever bet on baseball in the playoffs. Oh, yeah, no. Because it's like going into the NACS, I just thought, oh, the Cubs are going to stomp them. Right. The bats.

And then it gets cold. Mm-hmm. And then Arrieta, who you just feel like he's winning game two, and he can't even hit 94 on the gun. Yeah. And then that's it. That was the whole series for the Cubs. Like, he had to win that game.

That was it. That game two was big. So did you want to play Toronto or Kansas City? I wanted to play Toronto. I don't think it really matters, but I wanted Toronto. I think they were more like the Cubs with the big boppers and maybe we could silence them in the cold. And the Royals will base hit you to death and they have a great 7-8-9 and that's what's terrifying about playoff baseball. Right. And they'll score from first on a single and do all these little stupid playoff baseball things.

Yeah, I agree. The Royals are a little friskier, but Toronto still, when you hit that part of the lineup where it's like Bautista and Donaldson and Encarnacion, it reminded me of the 07 Red Sox, which was not a great World Series team to win the title. It was probably a little better than the 2013. But Manny and Poppy just got hot for 10 days and they won the World Series. And I feel like the Blue Jays could have done that. Like those two guys just get hot at the same time.

You're not beating them. Sure. So the Royals at least, you know. Definitely. Hosmer. Hench and I had Hosmer on our League of Dorks team for the first four years of his career, just waiting and waiting. And then finally in year four, he started to come on a little bit.

So I still feel an attachment to him. That guy is just money. That's, to me, the guy on that team that he comes up second and first, down a run in the seventh. You're just terrified of that guy. Yeah. And Lorenzo Cain and all these guys. But it's just weird watching

these mets pitchers like it's the fourth inning and they're approaching double digit strikeouts all of them it's just i've never seen anything like it and which makes me think the hammer's about to fall uh any second but with that said you de grom's hair you're still you're still upset i'm in now you're you're upset it's the halloween halloween yeah i was thinking yeah it's it's a big big sell in New York. So you did, you were at, I saw you in Brooklyn this week because you did a whole bunch of Jimmy Kimmel live shows. We did a week, yeah.

And you had a show on Friday night that was against the Royals-Blue Jays game. So you might have missed this. I didn't miss anything because everything starts so late out there. Well, were you like watching TV for one of the great rain delays of all time? Oh, I missed that part. Yeah, I think I was trying to remember. 35 minutes of A-Rod and Pete Rose. Oh, I missed that.

It was incredible. I couldn't stop tweeting. I never go on tweet binges anymore. Really? Pete Rose had a tux on and was just staring out into the distance. I said it was like somebody who was watching a $5 blackjack table from across the CB Casino. And then A-Rod was really good. Really?

Really good. And you leave it, you're like, ah, I like A-Rod. And they're like, oh my God, I like A-Rod. I need to take medication. I can't believe that. Do you think that the baseball gods just made it rain for 35 minutes just to have those guys together, just to have it fill in? It was a great TV night. It was one of those nights where we had a screener, a picture of straight out of Compton.

So my wife was kind of waiting, like put the kids to bed early, Zoe had a soccer game and like, all right, we'll watch the movie. But then the baseball rain delay. And then I was so into it. But it was such a, it really felt like the Royals had choked away their World Series chance. Yeah. And then they get the run. Came back and Davis shuts them down. Yeah, we had Friday night, we had DeGrom, Harvey, Flores, and Wright on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Oh.

And I got to meet them. You got to meet them. Super nice guys you're meeting all your heroes it was a really weird week like marty mcfly and those guys and just everything going on but uh it was weird to see and i don't want to sell anyone out to grom like pacing backstage like he's nervous i'm like jimmy's gonna ask you two questions and one of them's gonna be about your hair and that's gonna be it you're really nervous about this that's funny 55 000 people you know 25 that is amazing when guys get nervous about one one thing that's out but then the other thing that should make them more nervous they're like just right like my

daughter's like that my daughter in soccer like pen making penalty kicks in the state cup no nerves at all and then when she does math like pools of sweat under her feet. Right, yeah, yeah. Like just freaks out. It's weird that people can't channel pressure. Yeah. Is she wearing shin guards when she's doing her homework? Maybe you should.

Maybe that's what we, I should dress her up in a soccer uniform. That's a great idea. Yeah. All right. So we, who is favored in this World Series? It's dead even. Minus 110 both ways. And I think that's pretty fair. Did the layoff, what are the layoff stats? Five, six days are bad, right? It's dead even. Minus 110 both ways. And I think that's pretty fair.

What are the layoff stats? Five, six days are bad, right? It's bad. And anything over five, I think five of the last, five of the six teams that have had five-day layoffs have lost the World Series. What are the stats when your team's in the World Series during the same week when a Tupac song becomes the official theme of a podcast? Then it's an immediate loss.

You don't even have to bet it. I'm always wrong, so take this with a grain of salt on playoff baseball, but I would bet on the Mets if I had to pick a team. Really? Yeah, I just think your pitching's better. It feels like a 2-1 every game's going to be 2-1, 3-2. We just said, don't ever bet

on the World Series. Bet on playoff baseball. It's stupid. Now we're going to give out crazy... I don't think there's any way to know. I just said, don't ever bet on the World Series. Bet on playoff baseball. It's stupid. Now we're going to give out crazy. I don't think there's any way to know. I just think it's safer to bet on the pitching in a pitching defense. I don't know. Yeah. What's your biggest fear? I'm afraid Familia is going to get exposed in game one.

Oh, you're deep down worried about Familia? Yeah. Interesting. How come? I don't know why. Too much intensity? A little too much. He's been overworked and everything.

I love him, but I think that could end the series if he gets exposed in game one. All right. Quickly, the Back to the Future Jimmy Kimmel Live, I happen to be there for that, and it was probably the greatest moment in the history of the show, just from the standpoint of if you had told Jimmy that that was going to

happen 30 years ago, I think he would have been in more disbelief for that than anything else. Yeah. I mean, Letterman never actually came on into the LA set, right? Uh, no,

he's let him in ever on the show. He was on in New York, but that was it. Stern's been on. That would have been a big thing for Jimmy. He loved that, too. But Marty McFly and Doc

and the DeLorean, I mean, in Brooklyn? It was so good. That's insane. And I think if you watch the edited copy, like the edited cut, it's the DeLorean comes out,

there's Smoke, Christopher Lloyd, and Michael J. Fox come out And it was like a three minute standing ovation I think we cut it down to 45 seconds It lasted a little bit There was genuine, genuine, genuine euphoria In the stance

And so it didn't even matter if they pulled off the skit afterwards But they did, they really nailed it It was great I already had a crazy amount of respect for Michael J. Fox Because clearly he's been ailing for a long time. But to actually see him backstage and how he's able, you know, he's not in great shape physically. But to see him get on the stage and he's able to kind of lock in

and raise his game for, he like summons some crazy, I don't know, concentration or something. And it's like, God god that guy's amazing you would have thought he'd be as nervous as jacob de grom was for right being coming on for one question but he was such a pro and i don't think he does a lot of live stuff and for him to pull off like a seven minute skit just how many people there like 700 800 people in this dance or a thousand, yeah. That's my worst skill ever is trying to, if you show me a group of people knowing what the number of people is.

I'm always way off. I thought Letterman's studio was like 3,000 people and Baby's like, no, Baby, it's 500. He's out smoking. He doesn't know how many. Yeah, I drove with him in Brooklyn. We drove from New York to Brooklyn because we had meetings.

James Babydoll, Dixon's super agent. And I think he measures drives by how many cigarettes he can get in the drive. So remember how long it would take 25 minutes for his, like, it was a four cigarette drive. Right. And he's just, you know, most people when they smoke, at least in the last 20 years, if they're in a car and you're in the car with them, they'll usually put the cigarette like kind of near the window. Sure. Yeah.

Now smoke. He doesn't smoke. No. It's just right. No. Brady left. He's just getting bombarded with second. He doesn't care.

His cologne. Yeah. It's really like some smell that just only exists with him. He's kind of selfish. Did he litter during the drive? He littered. He insulted people. Oh, that's good. He cut people off. He's kind of selfish. Did he litter during the drive? He littered. He insulted people. Oh, that's good.

He cut people off. He's very excited. We went to Peter Luger's Steakhouse in Brooklyn, which he loves because he has a Peter Luger's credit card. Nice. And you're only allowed to pay with cash or the Peter Luger's credit card. They don't accept AMX and MasterCard, and it's sold out every night anyway.

But he makes it seem like it's like sold out every night anyway but he makes it seem like it's you know like getting into the soho house or something oh yeah and so i did a little research and it's like hey you just have to go to peter luger's and fill out the form to get a credit card don't tell him you're ruining him he makes it seem like it's like the players club with toby savalas it's like yeah you just fill some forms out he was amazing though um but yeah it was a good week for you guys. Yeah, it's good to be back. It's exhausting.

I mean, it was a little bit of a bummer when Kimmel, when he fell in the Jägermeister bottle and cut it. Oh, no, I'm sorry. That was around Jimmy. Was it? That was around Jimmy. My bad. He's going to end up getting blamed for that.

You'll see. Jimmy Fallon's just clumsy. He is. He's just clumsy. That's blamed for that. You'll see. And Jimmy Fallon's just clumsy. He is. He's just clumsy. That's all you can say about him. Three injuries in the span of five months. He's a very clumsy guy, apparently. Bad luck.

Get his eyesight checked or something. He'll be fine. It'll be good for him down the road. I can't talk about this. It's ridiculous. All right, let's go to the week 8 lines. It's ridiculous. Okay, let's do this

I was gonna talk Cowboys Giants for a second no we'll get to them when we get to your team let's do it so we have 4 teams on a bye week this week

Buffalo, Jacksonville Philly and Washington we're both doing very well what's your sports center record up to I'm like 5-2 with my best bets and I'm 2-0 this week and I close out a teaser with Arizona tonight so I'm like 5-2 with my best bets, and I'm 2-0 this week,

and I close out a teaser with Arizona tonight. So I'm doing very well. I went 5-0 in the house podcast on Friday. My best bet on Sunday on Instagram and Twitter is like 12-4. I like having the extra two days. You do? I used to have to write my football column on Wednesday and Thursday and make the picks Thursday night.

It's like so much happens. Although I will say I did change my Colts-Saints pick because the Saints cornerbacks were both out. You took the Colts? Yeah, I switched it to the Colts. I mean, Pagano's just a bad coach. I think we all have to come to grips now with the fact great guy, awesome guy, battled cancer, all that stuff.

But this team falls behind by 20 points five times a year. He looks lost. And at home, too. I don't know when I would take them giving points again, this Colts team. Very sloppy. Not for a while. I mean, you can tell who the sloppy coach teams are, right? Like Jim Caldwell, sloppy.

Sure. The Colts, they look super sloppy all the time. The Chiefs always look sloppy. But you can't fire him, right? He's still in first place. Pagano? Yeah. They'reano? Yeah. They're three and four.

I think he, unless Luck, I'm not positive Luck's healthy. Right. I don't think he is. I didn't think he looked healthy in that Pats game. It looked like he was like forcing the ball with like some messed up shoulder. He's not throwing well. They just don't look good though. Let's go to, let's just go through the games and we can hit all this stuff.

We have a nice Thursday game with my team. Miami at New England, 3-3 at 6-0. You, once again, did not send me your lines. What's Mondays? We don't have to send the lines on Mondays. I sent it last night. What do you mean Monday? What does it matter?

I didn't make you send the lines. What does that mean? You're not going to see them? I didn't look at your lines. You're not going to see the regular? All right. your lines no you're not going to see the regular all right what do you think what do you think for this so first of all i i was to answer your question that you haven't asked yet yeah i was legitimately scared during that game during yeah when uh third quarter jets were up one. We had to punt. Jets had the ball. And it was scary.

It reminded me of the playoff game. A couple of playoff games we had were in the third quarter. All of a sudden, we're down eight. And you're like, oh, my God. We actually have to score here. We're going to lose. They got to stop. Brady was amazing.

The offensive line was in shambles. They threw away the run game completely. He led the team in running. Yeah. It was just like, we're not going to be able to run the ball. We have no interior blocking at all. And it was just an amazing Brady game. And I know everybody made a big deal about all the drops,

but the Jets have a really good defense and knew he was going to throw every time. Wow. I thought this was all going to be about the drops, and I swore I came driving here. I was like, Simmons is going to save it for one by three touchdowns and the drops. When you win that game without playing well,

that's pretty good because I think the Jets are good. Fitzpatrick really helped. He's just not that good at playing quarterback, but a lot of teams are in that situation. I thought he managed the first two and a half quarters. If he'd been good in that game, I think we lose and their special teams is terrible and that was a big difference.

They just have a bad special teams. If you want to win in New England, you've got to hammer that home. Now, with that said, the guy made the 55-yard field goal for the incredible cover. That was something. It was actually a push in most places. Because it dropped to 7 on Sunday. It ended at 7. And then the random onside that they catch,

it's like they're trying to kill my dad. But that's three out of six wins this year for the Pats, where in the last 90 seconds of the game, the other team covered the spread. Is that right? Yeah. Steelers, last week Colts, and then the Jets. Every time we're covering with two minutes left,

and then the other team gets the backdoor. It's remarkable, too, because... Well, pick a line for this so we can talk about this. Oh, yeah, I have a... I'm a little scared of the Dolphins. So I had Pats by seven and a half just because of how bad their line looked. You're going to get that.

I said 11, and it's eight. Now, I think... I think that's fair. We're about to talk about... Now, here's an undefeated team at home. I don't care who it is. I think it has to. We're about to talk about now his undefeated team at home. I don't care who it is. I think it has to start at double digits, especially this is how you figure lines. Every team gets a power ranking, and then there's like a home field advantage is added in. And then I think there should be another factor with Patriots games.

If Bill Belichick does not care if he's up 10 points or 1 point or 7 points, he's not going to run from the 30-yard line on 3rd and 7, killing the clock. He's going to go for another touchdown. That should be factored into the spread. See, I would go the other way. Isn't the fact that we've blown three big spreads in six games? But not because Belichick's not trying to blow the team out.

True. The Gronk touchdown was... So I'm concerned about this game. I think the Dolphins are fairly talented, and they're going to be able to get a push with the D-line. They can run the ball. They can chew up clock. We're going to have to blitz Tannehill.

I don't think the Pats are very good right now. They can't block. You run the ball five times, that's not a good sign for me. I'm not kidding. No can't block. You run the ball five times. That's not a good sign for me. I'm not kidding. No Deion Lewis. Right. That's tough. Missing 3-0 linemen. No Sheard in the outside.

I'm a little nervous. I think they're going to win, but I just think it's going to be a tight game. Coach Campbell, I looked it up, has never lost to Bill Belichick. Everyone was waiting for this Coach Campbell. They have 10 sacks in the last two games. The Amagansu wasn't enough that he gets paid $4 billion.

They had to promote Coach Campbell to the head spot. Well, Wade coming back is good for them. You know how I keep track of like, you either win, you lose, it's an either-or game, or it's an ass-kicking? The Dolphins' last four games have been ass-kicks. it's an ass-kicking. The Dolphins' last four games have been ass-kicks. They got their ass kicked by Buffalo and the Jets by week.

Then they kicked the asses of the Titans and the Texans. Yeah, that's why I'm not too excited. So they haven't played a close game in a while. But here's the thing with them, though. This is three straight road games for them right now. New England Thursday, at Buffalo, at Philly. It's pretty tough. Three straight road games is rare.

And they had the London trip, too. This is a rough stretch for them. But like you said, let's see them beat someone under the new tutelage other than Tennessee and Houston, anyone in that South division. I'm scared of Jarvis Landry. I think Miller can run on us. And I think the key, it it's funny like the key with the pats you have to get the pressure with the four guys if you're gonna do like blitzing gimmicks

all that stuff brady will just he'll figure it out right if you can push with the four guys and then drop everyone back that's when we have trouble and i wonder if miami can do that and most teams blitzing schemes are just awful against Brady anyway, so it doesn't matter. He just stares at the line. He's like, oh, you're going to do this? All right, I'm going to throw here. Well, that's a good Thursday night game. Is that our first good Thursday night game since the Broncos game?

Broncos-Chiefs? Yeah, I would think so. That's the first one I'm excited for. Is there a World Series game that night? They stay away from NFL, right? No, it's Tuesday. Yeah, Thursday's an off day. Friday, it's Tuesday. Thursday's an off day. Friday's Sunday. That's a good game.

But game five goes up against Broncos-Packers Sunday. I can't wait to get to that one. I had a lot of trouble with Broncos-Packers. Oh, I was off six points. Yeah, all right. All right, Sunday, Detroit, Kansas City. London. All right, so I wasn't going to remind you, but you did get it.

You're going to get it just because you knew it was London. Well, I've been looking forward to this game all season. It's Andy Reid against Jim Caldwell in London. The home of last year's Jim Caldwell-Mike Smith clock mismanagement fiasco showdown. And I feel like they can trump it. I think this should be an annual thing in London where every year we send two of our worst clock mismanagement coaches. That's good. And just unbelievableness ensues.

They should bring Big Ben to the actual stadium and say, all right, there's your clock. The greatest clock of all time. You're still going to mess it up. Staring you in the face. I had a, the Yahoo thing was interesting. Did well, right? It did well, right? It did well, but in the mornings I always have my iPad and I'm doing

all my stuff on my iPad, but then I had the game on the iPad and then I figured out with whatever the new version of the iPad 9.2 or whatever the hell it is, you could actually make it a full screen, but then do all your other stuff and then have it in a tiny corner on the bottom of the right

of the stream. So that was pretty cool. Don't you have Apple TV? Can't you just, then you just, I threw it up on my TV. I was like half awake. It was like seven in the morning. My kids are running around. Right.

But I kind of liked it. Yeah. The other thing is, here's the thing with Jacksonville Buffalo. We're not watching a minute of that game unless it's on at 630 in the morning with no other games. Right. So it's like, why not put that on the Internet? Yeah. They should pick the worst game of the week and.

That's it. Send it to London. And you know what? They did. They did it again. You picked. I picked Jacksonville. So I was like, I have to watch this.

And, you know, and. That was a good pick. Well, you know what? Here's my main reason was they had already lost two in London. At some point, the team has to get fed up. And I almost think the same here with Detroit after blowing it. They lost last year, right? They did.

Yeah. Here's my thing with Jacksonville. And I was scarred by the Joe Philbin losing his job in London thing. And in the back of my head, I'm like, wow, if Jacksonville stinks again, they're probably firing Gus Bradley. This is the week to do it. I did it from that prism, but then I knew in the back of my head, EJ Manuel stinks,

Sammy Watkins not playing, Carlos Williams isn't playing. It's so stupid to lay more than three points with a bad offense. I have a lot of regrets about that one. You know what I have regrets about? We always cross off how many teams. I think we had five teams that we said were out of it.

Yeah. And I wanted to make it eight. But even with the Jacksonville win at two and five, I can't drop them from playoff. They're one game out. I'm glad you brought this up. The option at first and goal from the one, they ran Toby Gerhardt four times unsuccessfully,

and they're still in the playoff run. It's crazy. The AFC South versus, who's favorite NFC East versus AFC South? Just in a in a eight man tag team. The college basketball, the classic. They were in an eight man tag team match.

Oh man. The NFC East is like minus three and a half from the AFC South, right? Yeah, I would say that, yeah. The Giants are better than every AFC South team? Unfortunately, maybe. I feel like the Redskins might be better than every AFC South team. Yeah, yeah. The Eagles, I don't know what to make of the Eagles.

And your team, if you just hold the fort for two more weeks, nine and seven is going to win your division. It makes me sick. If Greg Hardy doesn't kill everyone on the sidelines. He will, though. He'll be two more weeks, you could nine and seven is going to win your division. It makes me sick. Greg Hardy doesn't kill everyone on the sidelines. He will though. He'll be in jail Thursday. You'll see. No,

I just, you know, I, I tweeted how miserable it is to root for this Cowboys team. And the only thing worse than rooting for the, the X players, like Dwayne Harris is a rooting for the current players. And everyone's like,

Oh, try being a lions fan and try being a Browns fan. And I get that, but it's a different kind of terrible when you're the best team in the division and you can't win a game. Like, for Whedon and Castle to, you know, come within one play of winning every single game

except the Patriots game, it's demoralizing. I can't take it anymore. I think it's worse to have tasted success and then have it yanked from you than it is to not know what success feels like right you know what i mean no yeah i'm miserable like you had that whole cowboys run in the 90s and it was basically like you're just in first class with people feeding you grapes and now you're like back in a middle seat like way back in the plane again well forget the nine you're just looking longingly at first class. First two weeks, we were 2-0. We should run away with this division.

So I have the Chiefs by 2-1⁄2. All right, I'm going to get this. I had no idea what to do with this. I said 3-1⁄2, and it's 4. Vegas does not love the Lions at all. Why do they like the Chiefs? That's stupid. If the Lions are more than 3 three I'm just taking the points

yeah like why not also the Vikings might be pretty good the Vikings to have beaten Detroit you're saying well the Vikings have four legitimate wins this year you know there's something going on there they're next Minnesota at Chicago

I have the Vikings favored by one and a half, and I want to know where this Stefan Diggs came from. I don't understand it. Well, I had two and a half, and it's three, so I'm going to get that one. I don't know where he came from. It's funny. It's like Mike Wallace. Fifth round pick from Maryland?

Yeah. Did he have some crime in his past? No, no, no. Was something wrong with him? No. Tate, what. Was something wrong with him? No. Tate, what's wrong with Stephon Diggs? He was a top recruit that went to Maryland for Randy Edsel, and he was supposed to be a big recruit, but he just never panned out.

So Tate says big recruit, never totally panned out. How about that, Tate? Nice. Tate's earning his keep. I like that. Yeah, Minnesota, so would you say they're the first wild card or second wild card? I don't trust Bridgewater, but there's enough going on with that team that they're in the conversation for the playoffs, and they seem well coached.

Yeah. I think there's something to be said for that, considering how many bad coaches we've seen. But, you know, Peterson, they seem to get like one or two big plays a game which is important right they can break plays by the way we get to 10 and 6 i think we lit a fire on the bridgewater's ass uh last year you said you're like are we sure teddy bridgewater's good i'm like i'm still not sure no no no i know i'm not sure well look what he did i mean we could do this we should do this for other quarterbacks like All right, I have one actually for later.

Let's just do this for Cutler. We won't even charge that much. No, we're sure. We're sure about him. I thought we could get some deep dish pizza. We're sure he's not good. All right. We're sure he's not good.

Minnesota, tough schedule though. Green Bay twice. Seattle, at Atlanta, at Oakland, and at Arizona. And at Oakland is all of a sudden a hard game. Sure. I think Oakland might have to be in our who has a chance to make the wild card conversation. Possibly.

I'm moving them up. All right. What else do we have? All right. Sorry. Arizona at Cleveland. Oh, man. I think I hit this exact.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. Cards by four. No. I said five, and it's five and a half. So... I mean, weren't's five and a half. So... I mean, weren't they four and a half, five at Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago? Yeah, so we talked about this a couple weeks ago.

The Ravens game, the Browns played the Chargers and the Ravens in back-to-back weeks and scored some points. And it threw everyone off their scent a little bit that their offense might actually not be that good. Right. Because those defenses stink. So then they put six points up against the Rams. Yeah.

Now Arizona. Oh, it's home in Cleveland, though. It's in Cleveland. Actually, Arizona on a short week going not cross-country, but, you know, much of the way cross country. And Arizona on the road versus home. I mean, it goes without saying, two different teams. Yeah.

It's a little bit of a sneaky, maybe something happens here in this game. I wouldn't tease it, that's for sure. We got bit by Landry Jones beating Arizona at home, right? I don't think we tease it. I think we stay away from this. Landry had bad luck yesterday. I don't know if the Chiefs and Steelers play 10 times. I think the Steelers won four even with Landry Jones.

Yeah, that was a good game. Cleveland actually not that bad yesterday. They started inside their 10. Almost every Rams defense is superb. So they're just faster than everyone. All right, San Diego at Baltimore. I hit this one exactly. I'm sure you will too.

Really? Yeah. I have Ravens by four and a half. Ooh, you went too high. I did? Three. Ravens by three. I don't agree with that.

Four and a half. Did the Chargers stink? Chargers have two wins. The Chargers were down like 50 to nothing yesterday in that Raiders game but the Chargers Rivers could pass for like 6,000 yards and that's Ravens that's their that's their problem it's just defense but it's it's a lot of garbage time yards for him right can they ship this game to London too is it too late it's weird though because the Ravens might look good against

Arizona today and then this line should be minus six or they might suck today and now that's the right line. This is a loser already left town match. Oh yeah. These two teams are done. I have both these teams making the playoffs early on. I have my doubts now. I really do.

San Diego stinks. Tampa Bay had Atlanta. Tampa had a terrible, I watched it this morning on shortcuts. I like shortcuts on DirecTV. God, Cousins only had the, he had to go the length of the field with like two minutes left. How did he not win that game? I know. He was just, I think Levy Smith retired.

Oh, he did? He's gone? I think he retired like a year ago. Wow. I didn't tell anybody. Cousins is just throwing eight, nine yard outs to guys just running out of bounds. And it's like the Bucs, they have no idea this is coming. They're protecting the middle of the field.

It's like, there's only two minutes left. What are you guys doing? But how do you let Cousins, of all people... It was Bill's Oilers all over again Just like everyone was open that last drive It was stupid It was embarrassing And if you're getting your ass kicked like that

On a two minute drive by Kirk Cousins Call a timeout and get the defense together And be like, hey guys You want to cover the out of bounds And then all of a sudden they swung the other way And they covered it That was a coaching malpractice. And if the Cowboys don't win, I'm rooting for the Redskins to win the NFC East.

They could do it. They really could do it. That's possible. Just hold on. They can do stuff. Now, on the other hand, Atlanta. Oh, man. Everyone had Atlanta.

That line yesterday against Tennessee went from like three to six and a half and everybody that was the one that if you stayed away from you were good and they made, Coach Quinn made some kind of deal with Vegas and the NFL and said don't worry we'll win but we won't cover this one. I mean they it was crazy that they didn't cover that game. So which line are we

guessing here? Tampa and Atlanta. Oh yeah. Atlanta by eight and I actually like atlanta i think they're due for one of those 39 to 10 you know they've been kind of on cruise control for the last couple weeks you get that the the line is seven i said nine i think that has to be higher you know you have a rookie quarterback on the road i don't care if it's interdivision atlanta's six and one um that should be nine or double digits but it's 7 so you get it well here Atlanta's

Atlanta destroyed your team in week 3 but you didn't have Roma right they destroyed them no remember in the second half it was like

right I remember but we're up we're up 10 but then the second half they trounced you alright well we count the whole game counts

a half destroy okay that one drive they crushed to Houston. Turns out Houston's terrible. Yeah. Week five, barely beat the Skins in OT on a Cousins pick six. And I felt like the Skins should have won that game.

Yeah. Week, or that was week five. Sorry. Week six, they lose to the Saints pretty convincingly. Week seven, they barely beat Tennessee, which brings us to another edition of the Atlanta Falcons. Are we sure they're good? No.

We are not sure. Because what you just did- I'm not sure at all. What you just did with the schedule, you could do with every team who has four or five or six wins, and nobody has impressive wins. Nobody has more than two because there are so many bad teams. There's double-dig digit bad teams this year. They just put up 31 points in consecutive

weeks against the Saints and the Titans. And then if you go to the other game, they only scored 19. I'm not counting the overtime touchdown. So now we're talking 50 points in three weeks against the Skins, the Saints and the Titans. Those aren't exactly like top five defenses. You should have, there

should be records, like your power ranking outside the AFC South and NFC East. What is your power ranking against teams that don't exist in those divisions? I would love the Bucs

in this game if their coach was alive. He's not? He might be. I'm saying we don't know. He just retired. We don't know. We don't know if he's alive.

He might be alive. I don't know don't know. We don't know. We don't know if he's alive. He might be alive. You might know. All right. Giants at Saints. The Giants, man. Eli, he does it. He sucks in a game, and everybody is convinced he's terrible, and then they win the next game.

What is that, like the 70th time that's happened? Yeah, I know. They always win the next game after he sucks that, like the 70th time that's happened? Yeah, I know. They always win the next game after he sucks. I don't like it. But let me tell you something. I know the Giants fans are celebrating and getting on me on Twitter and everything. But you suck, too. And it's going to be bad in January for you when Seattle sneaks in

or whoever, even an Atlanta team in the wild card. And this is your team, Giants. Who are you waiting for? Victor Cruz isn't coming back. JPP isn't going to find his. And this is your team, Giants. Who are you waiting for? Victor Cruz isn't coming back. JPP isn't going to find his fingers. This is your team, and they're not that good. Sorry. They're just not.

No pass rush is going to hurt. The Saints are quietly one win away from being 4-4. Right. 3-4, yep. Well, they're 3-4 right now. I'm saying if they win this game, they're 500. We wrote them off, didn't we? teams they're both whack job teams i don't know how you pick this game what would you think i have the saints by one and a half oh wow i said

three and they they make it three and a half which adding that half point i don't like that confusing to me i don't like that well i don't listen anyone who bets on this game is is has a gambling problem yes even i wouldn't bet yes we do stay away from saints giants and there's no way to know between breeze and eli how could you say like i know it's gonna happen with these two guys it's so bad uh the next two games don't have lines unfortunately tennessee at houston that always hurts my feelings i looked and looked and looked. I promise. Tennessee at Houston, I guess because Mariota, I don't know if he's playing.

Tennessee 1-5. Houston 2-5. I said Houston minus four. I had Houston 2-1. I actually think Houston's the worst team in the league. Wow. Yeah. They really do. I think they're the worst team. They've won two games they beat the

bucks in week three 19 and nine james was just that was a shit show and then uh in week six they beat the jags in jacksonville right when so i guess you could could you make a case the jags are worse than houston maybe i don't know. But now that Foster's out. It's bad, yeah. You just double-teamed DeAndre Hopkins. How are they going to move the ball? They have the worst quarterback situation in the league. And Hopkins didn't even have a good game in a ton of garbage time yesterday.

He did nothing. And Mallett missed the flight. It was late. Mallett missed the flight. Couldn't even put him in. Like O'Brien. I wonder if it's like the hard knocks hangover where we always seem to like a team. Like HBO does a good job convincing us that a team is going to be good.

Like Bill O'Brien's a good coach because he's a good soundbite. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they're going to compete in this division. And it's like, oh, my God. Look at them. Forget it. I'm done.

They are the worst team. They gave up 48 to Atlanta and they gave up 44 to Miami. And in both of those games, the teams were up like 28 to nothing midway through the second quarter. To me, that's the all-time red flag. When the game's over with 18 minutes in, then you stink. And I think that's the worst team. Well, Tennessee's pretty bad too.

I don't know what to think of them. So they have an outside chance to get the number one pick again. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because if they lose this game, at Cincy, home for the Jets and the Saints, at Buffalo, home for New England, at Indy, and then the last two they go at Tennessee and then home for Jacksonville. We may look at

this game as both these teams Tennessee one and five Houston two and five does the loser get the number one pick well Tennessee's lost five straight yeah but two of those actually three of those like the Colts one they should have won in week three right then in in week five that weird Bills game that they were in the whole game they lost lost by a point. That Falcons game they could have won. They don't convert on third down. I think they're better than Houston. I think they had one third down conversion yesterday and it's been like that all year. Another bad coach.

We always have eight bad coaches. What do you do? Can't the whole division fire their coaches? O'Brien or Pagano? Which do you go? But both of them are in playoff contention. So who are the coaches in that division or Pagano. Which do you go? But both of them are in playoff contention. So who are the coaches in that division? Pagano, O'Brien, Gus Bradley, and Wisenhut? That is a mess.

Yeah, it's good. That's really bad. Yeah. That's like the Checkers division. I don't know what to do. Who's the best coach in that division? I don't even know. Is Pagano the best coach in that division? I don't even know. Is Pagano the best coach in that division?

Who's Houston's assistant? I think Pagano's the best. At least he's been in the playoffs. Who's Houston's defensive coordinator? There's somebody in there that's an old coach. Is it Bum Phillips? Is he still alive? I think it is.

Bum Phillips. Buddy Ryan? Bum Phillips. Help out that division. Come back. That is horrible. God, that division. Come back. That is horrible. God, that division. Romeo Cornell. Romeo Cornell. Romeo!

I can't believe their defense isn't good. There you go. Romeo Cornell, man. These people that drafted off Belichick and got great jobs for the next 20 years. It is unbelievable. It's like that year when the Bulls won their third straight title in 98 and then MJ wasn't going to the Bulls won their third straight title in 98.

And then MJ wasn't going to put the Bulls broke up. And like Luke Longley and Bill Wennington and Steve Kerr, all these guys signed these big deals on other teams. It's like, no, you're in trouble. It's not happening. Yeah. Paul Pasqualone is the defensive line coach, old Syracuse coach. Promote him already.

Romeo Crinnell. Cincinnati at Pittsburgh also doesn't have a line. It'd be nice if Big Ben came back. It'd be a nice competitive game. That becomes an awesome game because you've just listed a bunch of games that I'm not that interested in watching. No. Also, it's Halloween on Saturday. This is my favorite weekend of the year every year.

Is it? Halloween. My son's birthday is the next day. All right, yeah. Halloween on Saturday This is my favorite weekend of the year every year Is it? Halloween My son's birthday is the next day Oh right yeah Nobody loves having a birthday more than my son Nice I know every kid loves having their birthday But it's really like he's thinking about it in like February

So Halloween's Saturday So you're gonna be able to watch the games? You have to run around Halloween's Saturday Birthday Birthday party's Sunday No I'm gonna do the thing where You just check in say hi

Yeah Make sure the gifts are all in there Where I pretend I'm going to do the thing where... You just check in, say hi. Yeah. Make sure the gifts are all in there. Where I pretend I'm involved, but then every time somebody's looking for me, I'm near wherever the TV is. Right. That's good. It'll be good. All right.

Well, so I don't know. I said Cincy by two and a half. I don't even know what I'm basing that line off of. I would have said with Roethlisberger, I had Cincy by two and a half, too. Okay. Yeah. I think that's the right line for that game. Now, Cincy had a bye. Bengals coming off a bye, too. Okay. Yeah. I think that's the right line for that game. Now,

Cincy had the bye. Did we forget how good they were? Are we sure they're good? Yeah, we're pretty sure. We have to be sure on them at least. Well,

here they're winning. So you look at their wins again. You know, they killed the Raiders in week one. That win actually looks a little bit better now. Came back against the Hawks.

Other than that, they haven't really, you know, they played the Chargers, Ravens, Chiefs, and Bills. This is what happens when half the league's bad. There are no impressive wins. Well, they have an interesting, they have at Pittsburgh Sunday, but then they have home for Cleveland on Thursday. It's like a two and five days. Right.

At home for Houston on a Monday night, they'll kill them. And then it goes at Zona, home for the on a Monday night. They'll kill them. And then it goes at Zona, home for the Rams, at Cleveland, home for Pittsburgh, at San Francisco Sunday night, at Denver Monday night, home for Ravens Week 17. So we'll find out some tidbits about this team soon. San Francisco at St. Louis.

A lot of Kaepernick benching buzz. Yeah. You know, it's the same thing we've been saying for weeks. If you're going to pressure him, Kaepernick's going to fall apart. And this is certainly a game where you would think the Rams are going to pressure him, and he's going to have a terrible game. And it's in St. Louis, and I think this has to be a lock of the week potential here. If the line's under seven. I have Rams by six and a half.

You're going to get it. I went low here. I said four. It's seven and a half. So we have to tease that. I think we should tease them right now. And it's funny. We just listed nine games, and that's the first teaser. That's not good for us.

But we have the Seahawks against your team coming up. Oh, that's true. Because J.P. Romo's not back yet, right? He is not back. You're not beating the Seahawks. No. I up. Oh, that's true. Because J. Romo's not back yet, right? He's not back. You're not beating the Seahawks. No. I'm sorry. Let me just say St. Louis. I think St. Louis is very close to being a team that can win like two playoff games. I think they're really

good. They can... If their defense can give them a lead and they can just run the ball and waste the clock and girly without the knee brace. Jesus. Did you see him? Phenomenal. Is he the best running back in the league?

I think so. Why not? You were down on him two weeks ago. You took a pot shot at him in your sports center thing. I did? Oh, yeah, I did. I did. I traded for him straight up for Demarius Thomas.

Damn, that trade hurt my feelings. It's going to hurt your record. See, here's the problem when you're in a fantasy league with people who work together is all of a sudden the two guys who work together are trading Todd Gurley for Demarius Thomas you made a trade and I'm not even in I'm not even no no email nothing well come back to work with us you put this HBO nonsense no one said yeah just retire I think Foles if Foles were just a little better he he's in that 15-19 quarterback range. If he was 11-13, I think this is maybe a Super Bowl

team. I'm speaking too high up, but if he's Cam Newton or Dalton or Carson Palmer even, I think they're in really good shape. It's too bad there's not that one. Every year, I always like to talk about how this team should trade for the quarterback who's kind of in limbo, the veteran, who would be good on it.

And that trade never happens, but I love babbling about it. And there's no guy this year. No. Unless you said Rivers, but he just signed that extension. Stafford would qualify if we all haven't watched him for seven years. He's not bringing you any closer to the Super Bowl, and there's really nobody else. My question is, is Matt Hasselbeck better than anybody the Rams have? Matt Hasselbeck.

Yeah, the Colts backup. What I saw from Matt Hasselbeck this season was better than I saw from Nick Foles, Sam Bradford, all these guys. Yeah, maybe. Maybe they should just put him in. I mean, like we said, I think luck is obviously hurt yeah maybe um all right late afternoon games which is when you usually do a read do you have to do a read or anything yeah let's give some love to our man tupac because they were gracious enough to let us use picture me rolling as the official

theme song of the bill simmons podcast if you go on iTunes right now, 25 of his best songs are on iTunes, only $12.99 for the whole album. And you get Keep Your Head Up, Me Against the World, So Many Tears, Unconditional Love, Hit Em Up, the greatest diss song of all time. Brendan's got Baby, California Love, Picture Me Rollin'. All the greatest songs that he's ever done. And I thought the man was a genius. I loved him. I ended the book of basketball with actually a story about Picture Me Rowland. I just love the guy. And the only song that I wanted for this podcast was Picture Me Rowland. And if I didn't get it, we were just working to use music. So thank you to the estate for letting me use this

and to everyone else who, uh, who helped us out. All right, let's get back to football jets at Raiders. And for some reason there's like two late afternoon games now lately. I don't like that. They, they,

so apparently, um, I know the London, it helps the ratings. If there's two, the dry, it drives people toward games. I don't agree with it.

I think it's yet another example of the NFL hates us. Yeah. They hate our guts. Right. I don't want to have to watch eight games in the morning, in the early afternoon. I don't like it. I don't understand why they do it that way.

I don't know why we don't have at least four. It feels like four should be the minimum. Four is good. I mean, when you're watching that split on DirecTV and there's two games, but they still have two other screens like the the other two quadrants are still occupied with something else it drives me nuts or you could go the other way and say maybe they're trying you know this is a league that has such a bad history of of uh respecting women maybe they're trying to get us to to spend time with our wives and girlfriends for those second games.

Well, but it's November 1st. Especially in the West Coast. Sunday's November 1st. I think they're done respecting women, right? Oh, that's it. You're right. You're right. Well, next October, they'll feel fondly about them again.

It'll be good. Meanwhile, Greg Hardy continues to run amok. At least he went after a male this time. All right. He doesn't discriminate. Yeah. He's after a male this time. All right. He doesn't discriminate. Yeah. He's just angry all the time. Jets at Oakland.

All right. So I had a lot of trouble with this. Me too. Raiders by one. I don't feel good about it. I said Raiders by three. It's Jets by two. Oh.

People like the Jets. They believe in the Jets. People like the Jets. You want to look at a schedule? You want to look at a schedule? Like, I'm going to see the Cowboys-Jets in December, like the week before Christmas. I was like, all right, that's going to be a game we can win. It's easy.

It's nice. Celebrate. Jets could be like 10-3 at that point. Well, they have, if they can get through this game with a win, they go home for Jacks, home for Buff on a Thursday. At Houston, they stink. Home for Miami. At Giants, home for

Tennessee. Hitting those last three. I mean, they really might be 8-3, 9-3, something like that. As far as the Raiders go, unless CBS's audio is out of whack, ton of Raiders fans in San Diego. No, they said it was like two-thirds.

Well, that's insane. Why don't the Raiders move to San Diego, the Rams to Oakland, and bring Chargers to LA? Just do that. Chargers to LA. I'm kidding about the second three, but Raiders to San Diego. I think the Raiders would move to St. Louis, right? Is that how this is going to play out?

The Chargers are out, and their fans know it, and we should bet against them every home game. Right. I thought St. Louis was out of luck. They're going to get a team? Well, the Rams are going to move here. Right, I know that. I just thought St. Louis would be.

I think St. Louis is going to build an arena or build a stadium and get the Raiders. That's what I always thought would happen. Then why won't the Rams stay? Oh, it's so confusing. I can't tell if St. Louis, it really feels like they'd, deep down, it would be fine just having the Cardinals. Sure.

Yeah, probably. Maybe I'm wrong, but they love the Cardinals, you know? Yeah. They'd be okay. I wouldn't feel like. The Cardinals. St. Louis had the Cardinals? No, I feel like if St. Louis lost the Rams. Yeah, I see. Yeah. I still feel like I wouldn't be like... The Cardinals. St. Louis had the Cardinals? No, I feel like if St. Louis lost the Rams, I still feel like I wouldn't be like, oh my

God. Like when the Kings were going to leave Sacramento, that was it. Sacramento now becomes Fresno without the Kings, you know? I don't know. It's a little different. All right. I guess we have to talk about this game. Seattle at Dallas.

Oh my God. I have Seattle by six at Dallas. I said six as well. It's six and a half. So we have a Seattle Rams Dallas. Oh, my God. I have Seattle by six at Dallas. I said six as well. It's six and a half. So we have a Seattle Rams tease. Well, I'll give you my blessing. I'm not going to do it, but Patriots-Seahawks is a winning teaser. You're okay if you take that.

I'm staying away from the Pats. You are? When I can't name four of my five offensive linemen who are starting in a game, that's when I don't tease the pats so greg hardy like what's at what point he's a mental case what do you want to do it'd be nice if he forced a turnover once in a while or anyone on this defense could do it so that you could say it was it was somewhat worth it but uh yeah he's out of control is he the least likable player you've ever rooted for he's got to be up there.

I didn't like Charles Haley. That's true. Well, at least he would masturbate in the locker room. Yeah, that was fun. No, that I liked a lot. Yeah. But, yeah, no, it's the same thing. And then how everyone on the team has to defend him is bad, too.

The post-game interview was just insanity. He had no comment. How can you be that much of a dick? I mean, he's just like other human beings. Like, how can you be that much of a dick to 20 other people? Right. And feel good about it? Like, oh, yeah, I handled that well.

It's easy. Great go some. How'd it go after the game? Oh, it was great. I was a complete asshole to 20 people, and I was also being filmed. Yeah. So that was good. So I feel good about that.

Let's go get some pizza. Well, maybe Dez shouldn't be on the sideline when he's not playing that's one thing but uh yeah i think des should be on the sideline but in the hannibal lecter stretcher with the metal mask just unable to move just rigid like that might be it against seattle that might be the way to do it so you have castle who the thing with castle is he'll look good for a little bit and then all of a sudden you the other teams just scored an interception touchdown you know what the problem is he plays with better energy than whedon yeah i mean that experience he has better zip on the ball yeah but all these backup quarterbacks and not just backup quarterbacks i think about 10 starting quarterbacks for bad teams do the same thing. They telegraph that out route, and it's either picked off or almost picked off.

You do it 10 times, it's going to get picked off and probably run back once. And that's what did it. But we had four turnovers and a kick return for a touchdown, and the Giants barely won that game. Makes me sick. It was not a great win. I didn't see a lot of it because I was at hell in a Cell, which we can talk about at the end of this. Oh, yeah.

I did see the Cole Beasley muffed punt. And he dropped an easy pass before that, too. So we're out on Cole Beasley. I hate it. I really wanted him to be like this Wes Welker, Edelman-type frisky guy. We were ready. He had the long hair as a little bit of differentiation. Yeah, these guys are all head cases.

You don't think it's Christine Michael's revenge against Seattle? No. Everyone's asking me about Christine Michael. Like, what's he going to do? Why aren't they starting him? I'm like, how do we know he's good anyway? It's crazy. The Seahawks chose Thomas Rawls over him.

They must know something. When did anyone ever see Christine Michael play? Quickly in the Seahawks. They must know something. When did anyone ever see Christine Michael play? Quickly in the Seahawks. They have this game. If they win it, they'll be four and four. Bye week. Three straight home games.

Home for Zona, home for San Francisco, home for Pitt. Oh, I don't know about those three. Those are tough games, but they could be seven and four

in five weeks and we'll all feel pretty stupid. Yeah. It's a tough one. All right. Green denver oh wow sunday night oh i have no idea if i'm right on this up against game five of the uh world series i did the rarely seen i actually switched my pick after i made it with like a four point swing and i don't know if it was right or wrong but initially i had the broncos by two and a half. And then I thought about it more and I'm like, God, if the Packers were getting two and a half points, I think I would bet that.

Like that maybe. Wait a second. The Packers should be favored in this game. And I have the Packers by one and a half. Well, pretty good analysis. I had Denver by three and I did not change it. And it's Green Bay by three. Well, pretty good analysis. I had Denver by three, and I did not change it, and it's Green Bay by three, so you get that one. Yeah, I mean, when you glance at it on paper,

you just go, oh, yeah, Denver. But then when you think about it, and you're like, uh-oh, gun to my head, who would I bet on? It's like, I'm not betting against Aaron Rodgers against Peyton Manning. He's throwing his ducks. What do you think of Denver plus nine on a two-team teaser, though. That's got to be good.

Is Ware playing or no? He's iffy right now. See, that's the other thing. Without him, then you can just block Von Miller. Peyton Manning must have been like junior high school since he was an underdog at home, right? When was the last time? It's pretty incredible.

Well, there must have been some time near the end with the Colts, because the Colts weren't very good the last couple years. But it is Peyton Manning in a night game. He's already burned us this year. That's true. And it's Rodgers in a night game. Now, when did the Packers look good last? Like, really good?

A month ago? They didn't have to be that good. No, they're good. But when did they look dominant? Denver's look sluggish for sure, but Green Bay isn't winning by 40. They struggled with the Rams. They struggled home against the Chargers. They did.

They had a bye. So we're talking about almost a month since they, look, who was that last game? Well, this is a really interesting stretch for them. I keep saying the word interesting today. Because they have Denver Sunday night and then at Carolina the next week. Yeah, this was, I remember being there tough. Would you take one and one right now if you're a Packer fan?

Yeah, I think so. I'm offering you one and one. I think they're going to be favored in both games though, right? That's what I mean. I think I wouldn't take one and one. I think they could win both of those games. I think they should play the games, Phil. Controversial. They need Devontae Adams back because that was the guy I thought would be the X factor, potentially.

We haven't really seen him in full strength yet, but I don't feel like Rodgers has his full team yet. No, maybe not. Were you sad that Jermichael Finley retired? Was I sad? No. Why would I be sad? I just felt like he was lingering in about four straight years of fantasy drafts. So somebody we all paid $18 for and we're kind of waiting. I always hate when the guys never reach the potential.

Now it's like Corliss or Rodgers. Who do we take? They're all dollar guys. Richard Rodgers. Richard Rodgers. Really good. And then Monday, they keep doing this where a team has to play two night games in a row. Indy at Carolina.

Well, see, I don't know if they screwed up or not with all the times Indy's been on TV. Yeah. By the way, you need this for a tie. I'm up six to five or five to four with one tie. Oh, I hit this exact. This is one of the only ones I felt good about. You're going to have to. Panthers by seven.

We split this. I said six. It's six and a half. Oh! So I win the win. Well, why wouldn't we tease the Panthers with the Rams? The Colts aren't winning in Carolina. They got me a little nervous last night.

Why? I don't know. I thought they should have won that easily. They don't have any receivers. As good as that defense is, they seem to still give up big plays. Strange. Did Riverboat rhyme? Did you feel good about him?

No, that's the other thing. It's never in the bag. So you beat me. I beat you. What's the score for the season? We're now in week eight. Are we like four and four? It's four-four.

Yep, you're up four-three, and I win. This is good for you. Very good. Halfway through the season, it's four, four. Yep. You're up four, three. And I win. This is good for you. Yes. Very good. Halfway through the season, it's four, four. So quickly, how in the cell? How in the cell? Let me hear it.

I just read the results. I didn't get to see it. I'm going to play it back for the boys tonight. Took my son and his buddies, the Williams brothers and their dad. And as we're going in, we ran into Cena. He held the belt, took the pick with cena right and cena goes i'm the first match you better get in there and he just he seemed kind of bummed out about it so i was like this isn't gonna go well and then uh del rio comes out right and uh and

cena's done in nine minutes but it was one of those matches a clean pin right yeah it was one of those matches where it feels like cena's about to take four months off sure like hey just we do a job for del rio and then go four months in the whole car like i know not only do i need time off i have to be the first match yeah i'm not gonna stick around i want to be i want there's a 730 point i want to get on so he was out and then um rollins kane was pretty good uh bray wyatt against roman reigns was excellent in the cage that was the best the problem with the cage is they don't have the tv you know they don't have the feed so there's there's parts where you just can't see like even if you have good seats but my son was sitting next to soia vergara nice and it could have gone one

of two ways because you know he gets a little emotional during these things either she would have thought he was adorable or been like this kid's a nightmare get him away and uh and and she was okay with him really yeah she was okay i i was nervous though especially he might have had a comment toward toward uh del rio oh Yeah, but it might not have been great. He wasn't staring at her? I mean, you would be proud of him if he was looking the other way. No, my son likes blondes. He does?

Yeah, he had no time for Sofia Bergara. Oh, my God. Laird Hamilton's daughter, though. He had a little eye contact with her. That's nice. So anyway, the main event was Lesnar-Undertaker. Undertaker's 50 years old. And as you know from going to these things, Lesnar reallyaker. Undertaker's 50 years old. And as you know from going to these things,

Lesnar like really fights. Yeah. Like he actually, they must do some deal backstage like, yeah, I'm going to really punch you and you can punch me and it'll be great.

He hits his head on his post. He's bleeding like a pig. Yeah, he's bleeding in three minutes. And then Undertaker is bleeding and they're just killing each other with chairs. And I don't know,

Undertaker's four years older than I am uh i don't know undertaker's four years older than i am i don't know how he does it and he collapsed his last big match didn't he on the way back to the dressing room yeah so lesnar won but listen lesnar in person is amazing it just is it's amazing it's so much he's a force of nature he's awesome it's a ufc match but he's throwing his opponent around the ring 250 pound opponent nobody is going to the bathroom during a Lesnar match

nobody's like yeah I'm gonna go get some popcorn I'll be back tell Lesnar not to pin him yet everyone's in and they're locked in

it was a fast show though it was over at like 242 something like that was it? wow yeah so

WWE's in a weird time right now they're they're like two guys short two main guys short. They got lucky for a few years there. They punk.

Daniel Bryan took off. Then Reigns and that Ambrose, all those guys, and Rollins. But now they need the next guy. I like Kevin Owens. I don't think it's him. I was just going to say it's not Kevin Owens. I think it's that guy Finn Balor from Next

Really? I think that guy's ready to move up And there's no one to bring back Like they bring back Flair And just Red Heart The nostalgia things Really failed for them Yeah

I think And Raw's going down a little bit But see I think the reason Raw's going down Is because it's three hours It's not fun to watch I heard they're closer To making it four than two. That's crazy.

I know. It's not fun to watch wrestling for three hours when half of it is just... Fast forward through it, yeah. If we were doing a podcast, but we were just doing promos half the time instead of actually talking about football. We're getting there. We're getting very close. What do you have to plug? Your shows this week? Jimmy Kimmel Live. Yeah, we're back there we're getting very close what do you have to plug all right shows this week

jimmy kim alive yeah we're back in la kristin wigg ed westwick uh music from l king later in the week julie bowen carry on the wood trevor noah and the great harrison ford we have our star wars show harrison ford yeah oh my god that's gonna be good and then uh do you ever do a thing like with celebrities like who has the highest approval rating? Like a Q rating? No, just in general. If somebody said, you're at dinner talking about celebrities you don't like, and somebody was like, you know, I fucking hate Harrison Ford. You'd be like, what?

You'd be shocked. Yeah, you'd be like, what? Yeah. You don't like Harrison Ford? That's un-American. I don't understand. I think Michael J. Fox would be up there. Michael J. Fox would be up there Michael J. Fox would be up there

but Harrison Ford's in the top six yeah definitely everyone loves Harrison Ford definitely I think Leo's way up there DiCaprio yeah

yeah I was thinking of you by the way but I think people could I think people could see him as a dick though I was thinking of you this always

I brought this up on a pod before it always makes me laugh Blood Diamonds but on the cable rotation love it and I've been watching. I brought this up in a pod before. It always makes me laugh. Blood Diamonds, but on the cable rotation. Love it. Stop with the story. I hate this. But I was thinking of you, though.

What was it? Romo fumbled the PAT? He fumbled that silly ball that they snapped in the ring. In Seattle. Yeah, in Seattle. And they lost. Yeah. And then you went on a date with your wife.

You went to blood diving that night yeah and Leo's dying at the end and you're crying which is hilarious because you're a cyborg yeah you became your romo proxy for your tears I shouldn't have gone in a movie after the game I should have just locked myself in the room I feel like they should say that in the DVR thing description of blood diamond blood. South African rocker. Made Cousin Sal cry in 2006. It would be great. It's the last time I'll ever, I'll never cry again, I promise.

I don't care what happens. You know when I cry? When I lose my Columbus bet. Columbus Blue Jacket bet. Oh, no, they're turning around. John Tortorella's in charge. We lost the Columbus Blue Jackets and Joe Biden. Oh, yeah, we did lose Joe Biden.

All in one week, yeah. We're going to win Marco Rubio, though. The guy didn't even run. It was a flyer. It was 15 to 1. You call me, you tell me, like, Eddie Vedder for president. I know he might not run, but the odds are too good to pass up.

You got to do it. You know what happened? Biden was doing a Hillary play. He was waiting to make sure the polls had her down, and then she did okay in the debate, and he was like, I'm out. 15-1 looked good. It really did. I have no regrets.

That's why they call it gambling. That's right. At the Cousin Sal on Twitter, SportsCenter, late Thursday night, early Friday. I'll give out my picks, and if Arizona covers one and a half, I'll go 3-0 with if Arizona covers one and a half I'll go three you know my best bets there we go I have a bet for you that I want to by the time we do uh the pod um by the time the pod's up I mean you're gonna have this in for us what is it so hold on it's uh there's a bet for the NBA who's gonna finish to finish with the best record? Let me not write this down. Hold on.

Oh, wow. There's a lot of things. There's a lot. Hold on. When does this start? Tate's going to have to edit this. No, it's tomorrow. Tomorrow?

I'm surprised I haven't heard from you. We have a million things specials i know well we'll find it the rockets are going to win the most games this year they are it doesn't mean they're going to win the title all right but i think they're going to have the most regular season wins and i want to figure out how to wager on that well we go we already have over there over wins right for that we do but there's some other bet it's like who's going to finish with the most wins or something and that's who's going to finish with the most wins or something. And that's who's going to have the home court advantage or something like that.

And that's what we should bet on. Should we spend 30 seconds on World Series MVP? Yeah, let's do it. Murphy, 4.5 to 1. Cespedes, 7 to 1. Escobar, 10. Zobris, 10. Is DeGrom pitching game one?

So it's Harvey game one. Oh. And Harvey's 10 to 1. DeGrom pitching game 1? So it's Harvey game 1. Oh. And Harvey's 10-1, DeGrom's 10-1, Syndergaard 15-1. So potentially you have DeGrom in game 2 and then DeGrom in game 5? 2 would be...

No, I don't think they'll do that. 2 Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? I don't think they'll do that. So DeGrom 2-6? Yeah. So if DeGrom wins 2-6 and gives up one run, does he win the MVP? Sure. If you win the World Series in Game 6 and he's won two starts?

Why not? I mean, I think Baumgartner had it won even before his Game 7. Man, that's interesting. 10-1. There's so many good ones. It could be Familia. it could be familia it could be what about what's hasmer i'm sorry hasmer hasmer's on the losing team so it doesn't matter hasmer's 10 to 1 take a couple 10 to 1s it's probably worth it all right i can't even think of this

i can't why i'm not that i'm i care about it your team's in the world series and you can't go can you go? It's Halloween weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You can't not be in a Halloween with your kids. I know. I think I might go to the parade if it happens. I can't talk about this. This is stupid to talk about a parade. The parade if it happens.

No, I'm already jinxing it. It's bad. I'm going to Royals parade when it happens. Because? Good job by you. Good job by you, Billy. Thanks to HBO for bringing us

the Bill Simmons podcast today. They were nice enough to give me my own television show that launches next spring. Thank you, HBO. Newsflash, you don't need cable or satellite to watch HBO anymore.

Just download the HBO Now app and start your free one-month trial today. Play us out, Tupac. We about this bitch. Anytime y'all wanna to see me again, rewind this track right here, close your eyes,

and picture me rolling.