The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 149: Week 14 Lines With Cousin Sal

Episode Date: December 5, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal directly after ‘Sunday Night Football’ to discuss Cam Newton's dress code violation (5:00), Khalil Mack's monstrous season (10:00), Mike Nugent's PAT misses (14:00), Andy Reid out-coaching his opponents (17:00), firing Rob Ryan (24:00), Raiders-Chiefs (27:00), Carson Wentz's downfall (33:00), Jeff Fisher's extension (39:00), Broncos-Titans (44:00), Dolphins-Cardinals (48:00), potential Week 14 upsets (54:00), the history of Seahawks-Packers (58:00), Cowboys-Giants (1:01:00), and the post-Gronk Pats (1:04:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Bill Simmons podcast. It is Sunday night. We're breaking tradition. We're doing a Sunday night podcast because I am out of commission on Monday. I have things going on. We had to tape this on a Sunday night or you weren't getting the Cousin Sal podcast this week. Today's episode of the BS podcast brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor and the only fan friendly app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. Drop your old ticket app. Use OneBelt for 2017 and beyond. You can even do absolutely everything on your phone. Download the free SeatGeek app or go to SeatGeek.com.

We're also brought to you by Channel 33. That's the ringer's most eclectic podcast, the second one we ever created. It features the most entertaining shows for pop culture, wrestling, gaming, soccer, and more. Shows like The Watch with Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan, The Masked Man with David Shoemaker, Achievement Oriented with Ben Lindbergh and Jason Concepcion, and of course, my daughter's favorite, Jam Session with Amanda Dobbins and Juliette Lippman. Subscribe to Channel 33 and all of the other Ringer podcasts on your favorite audio platform, whatever that may be.

And by the way, TheRinger.com had a big back and forth with Malcolm Gladwell that I wrote that we put up Thursday. That is the longest piece in the history of The Ringer. I'm proud to break the record and own it, hopefully for a long time, 34 minutes. It's a long, long piece about the future of football. And if you haven't read it, go to the ringer and check it out. And by the way, go to the ringer more often because I might be writing there more often. In fact, I know I'm going to be writing there more often. Anyway, we have Cousin Sal coming up. We're going to do the week 14 lines, which are so hot off the press. I mean,

they're probably making them up right now as I'm talking. Anyway, let's do this. Here we go, Joe! Yes. There it is, Sunday Night Pearl Jam. We are Sunday rolling. Sunday night rolling. This brings me back to when we first started Guest Alliance. We used to do this on a Sunday night.

It was just me and you, Cousin Sal, on the phone. And we had Guest Alliance. We had no audience whatsoever. And we banged through them as soon as we could. We literally couldn't wait to get to them. And now we have to do this on a Sunday night, a rare Sunday night, because I am out on Monday. So thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. I don't care. I would have gone and watched the game

with you. You're like, no, no, no. Let me call you up. It'll be like old time. I was like, alright. We'll do that. I was thinking about your wife and three kids and the fact that you live like 45 minutes away. I was trying to look out for you. Don't think about them. People think about them too much, I find. So this podcast is already dated because I'm sure all of this Cam Newton stuff

is going to come out after we record and post and hit send and all that stuff. Something weird happened. I love the Panthers tonight. I thought that was my favorite pick of the week. I thought they were going to go toe-to-toe with the Hawks. And if you had told me that Earl Thomas was going to go out in the first half and not come back, I would have liked it even more. And yet, as we're talking, there's two minutes left.

It's 40-7 Seattle, and they are driving for a garbage time drive to cover, I don't even know what tee. Is there a 25-point tease they could cover? Is that possible? I guess, no. If you had the under on a teaser, you might be in trouble here. That was the only thing I was looking at, yeah. So Cam

must have done something super funky and it clearly rattled the Panthers because they mailed in the game and at one point, Luke Kuechly, Kuechly, Kuechly, Luke Kuechly. He changed his name. That's how rattled they were. He was so upset and he's in the concussion protocol and he was more upset

than seemingly anyone on the field. Were you expecting that though? I was not. I thought it was going to be a great game. I did too. But so now, now the report that I read and maybe you read is that it was a minor team infraction.

And so that Ron Rivera decided to bench him for the verse series. And that seemed to be enough for Derek Anderson to put his stink on this game. He threw an interception. And Seahawks, you look up, they're up 3-0 with like 13-33 left or something the first quarter. Not that this might have – I don't know if that changed the game, but like you said, people have lost thousands of dollars. They're doubling up on Seattle.

The line went up a little. And then they get this gift that Derek Anderson's the star. Not great for Vegas, I would say. No, and I don't know what you do if you're the announcers either, but the Panthers are now 4-8 and have had this season from hell. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot of stuff coming out over this next month about clubhouse turmoil and Cam thinks he's bigger than the team. And who the hell knows how that's going to be a lot of stuff coming out over this next month about clubhouse turmoil and Cam thinks he's bigger than the team. And who the hell knows how that's going to play out.

What's interesting about the NFC is you have Dallas who, congratulations, you clinched the NFC East today. That was great. Very strange. It would be highly- He clinched the playoff spot, not the NFC East. Well, you're going to clinch the NFC's because Eli took care of that for you today. Oh boy, did he ever.

So you're going to be either a one or a two seed. I would say Seattle has the inside track on the two seed. You're probably the one seed. Seattle is at Green Bay, home for the Terrible Rams, home for Zona, and then at San Francisco. I don't see any way they're not a two seed. You're probably the one seed. I don't remember having the top two seeds in a conference effectively clinched in the first week and in December. It's been a while.

It brings me back to like the mid-2000s, right? Yeah, you're right. Because now, well, Atlanta's just going to be battling Tampa for the division win. So they're a game and a half up on Atlanta. Eight, three, and one. I have to figure this dumb tie math. Well, I would say Detroit's the threat.

Oh, that's right. They're the ones. They're eight and four. Yeah, no, Detroit is eight. Yeah, you're at eight and four. And they have, boy, they smacked the Saints around today. They have the Bears next week. They're at the Giants at Dallas on a Monday night

and home for Green Bay. So they're going to be 9-4 with the Lions fans having the sinking concern that they're going to finish 9-7. But I will say their defense looked really good. I watched a lot of that game today. And Stafford just continues to make giant plays. And this was the first time I really felt like he moved into the MVP discussion for me because the Saints went an all-out blitz on the biggest play of the game.

And off his back foot, he finds Golden Tate wide open. And it was one of those either home run or strikeout kind of plays that Saints struck out. Tate wins the game. But it feels like Stafford has done that specific kind of pull it out of his ass, but not really because there's real skill involved play at least like 11 or 12 times this season. I've been impressed. I think you're right.

I think they're doing it with defense and quarterback protection. We're used to seeing him run for his life and then throwing one up to Calvin Johnson and either the flag or there's no flag or something. But like you said, the defense is great. Glover Quinn is unstoppable in the secondary. And they have a guy named Zee Zenner who had like 40 yards rushing. I don't understand how they're really doing it, but they are impressive. I think we can actually say, are we sure they're bad?

I think we're sure they're not bad. They're pretty good. Are we sure we haven't lost that think we're sure they're not bad. They're pretty good. Are we sure we haven't lost that bet? I think it's another game we could easily play in that. We have the NFC North and Green Bay has to get within one of them before Week 17. Green Bay's

got Seattle at home this week, at Chicago home for Minnesota. I think Detroit needs to lose at the Giants and at Dallas for us to have a chance week 17 when they're home against Green Bay. And not just us. Even though we're both selfish, it's really America. That'll be a really fun game because I was surprised they flexed your team

on December 18th. They flexed the Bucks-Cowboys. And on December 18th, you might just have everything locked up almost at that point except for the one seed. You'll still have something to play for, but it's hard for me to believe that's the best game. I guess so. People are falling in love

with Tampa Bay all of a sudden. It's Tampa Bay at Dallas. That'll be three primetime games in a row for the Cowboys. Well, we should mention the elephant in the room, which is that when the Cowboys are on a night game, it gets monster ratings every single time. It turns out the cure for the NFL ratings is to just have a good Cowboys team.

Yeah, no kidding. But, man, this Bucs team. It's getting interesting. It really is. I don't know. I will say there's no, even though teams are clinching buys and everything and your Patriots are going to have a buy, and I think whoever comes out of Raiders-Chiefs next Thursday

will probably have a buy, still not deathly afraid of anybody in this league right now. You can't tell me that no one's going to choke at home in the second round of the playoffs or in the conference championship or even the first round. So I don't know why that is, but I don't get that feeling that I normally get when there's a dominant Patriots team entering middle of December

or something like that. I don't see it right now. What do you make of the Raiders? What do you make of this Raiders team? They keep winning. And I know that sounds stupid, but they keep finding themselves in bad spots and they figure out how to win the game as it goes along and doing whatever it takes to win.

And their defense, which isn't good, makes plays when they need to make plays. And it lays the screws down when it needs to lay the screws down. And Khalil Mack, he's headed for defensive MVP of the year, which I think we bet on. We do have that, right? But it's all been Von Miller talk before the last couple weeks. I think Khalil Mack is in. I mean, he single-handedly won that game on defense for them.

Well, that would be great. Now, he did turn it around. But I will say this about the Raiders. I watched them, and I bet the freaking Bills was my best bet, looking good 24-9 late in the third. And then they just fell apart, largely due to Khalil Mack. But the Raiders, I don't know if this makes them a scary team or they're going to go away quickly,

but they only play like two and a half quarters a game. They take more than a quarter off a game. Last week against the Panthers, they always seem to either have to come back or they have a big lead and then they settle in for, you know, they do the Trinidad-De La Hoya thing. Right. I don't know if that's good or bad. Like, does that scare you more

or does that make you think they're, like, fickle? What scares me is they have a big offensive line that seems to gain strength as the game goes along. Yeah. And when they have a lead, they can protect it. They have a quarterback who the whole team has bought into him. I thought it was interesting, after Khalil Mack made the last big defensive play he made in the game,

he goes right over to Carr. It's like him and Carr. It's their team. You can really feel the chemistry. And I also think at home they're tough. That Raider crowd today, even though they've been winning on the road too, I thought that Raider crowd today had a big effect on the game.

And this is around the time when you're starting to see the team separate a little bit. I thought the Ravens showed us what we were kind of expecting, but even way more than I expected. Their defense just was dominant, and now they have that Patriots game coming up. And I think I'm concerned about the Ravens. But I think there's, even though I know everybody's like there's parity, nobody's that great. If you're watching, I think there are teams that are clearly starting to separate themselves a little bit. I think Tampa's good.

Tampa, the last three weeks, they win in Kansas City. They dismantled the Seahawks at home. And they legitimately beat San Diego today you know and San Diego that was it that was their season and they're done now and their playoff team right now

if the season ends today the division or not they're the sixth seed in the wild card they would go to Detroit if it ended today well I think I would pick Tampa over Atlanta at gunpoint. Oh, just to win the division?

Yeah. I think they're better. Atlanta does some good stuff, but I just like the way Tampa has played the last couple weeks. And it feels like too many teams have just gone into Atlanta and done whatever they've wanted for for quarters at a time so I have for the playoff teams I think New England Oakland I'm gonna say Pittsburgh I'm gonna say Tennessee definitely KC yeah and then you have the Baltimore Buffalo Miami Denver

quartet with Baltimore probably with the most momentum right now and Denver too so it really feels like it's going to be Pittsburgh Baltimore and Denver two spots for three of those teams would you agree with that? I would think so I'm trying to think I think Casey's in I actually think

they'll make me look stupid this Thursday night but I think they're the best team in the AFC right now. I think they were as detestable as Tyreek Hill is. This is what they've been missing all along for years. Like, well, I guess, you know, they had it with Jamal Charles, but on the wideout position or the flex position, wherever you want to put them, this guy is a playmaker

and didn't even do much. But you have to have a spotter on him every time on the field, and it makes a difference for their offense. It's better than ever just the last two weeks. I think KC is the best all-around team as well, and people are going to talk about the two-point, which was an incredible way to win the game, and now we've seen it twice in a year.

But Alex Smith missed Spencer Ware wide open on the wheel route like about four minutes before that. He was wide open. He runs down for a touchdown. It felt like the Falcons had kind of escaped once. I'm not saying the two-point was a complete make-up because that was insane. On the other hand, when you're up one,

there's four minutes left. I know you're running a two-point and you're trying to make stuff happen, but that's the one thing that can't happen. Whatever two-point and trying to make stuff happen, but that's the one thing that can't happen. Like, wait, whatever two-point play you have can't be a play that even has the potential to lead to that. So, I don't know. You need a safe two-point conversion there.

You do. Yeah, but it can't be the one where you're throwing and the ball's traveling in the air for a while and somebody can cut in front. By the way, I finally figured out a name for the two-point conversion that the defense gets. What is it? Do you have a name for the two-point conversion that the defense gets. What is it? Do you have a name for it? Because I feel pretty good about this one. Are you doing an acronym kind of thing?

Like a pick two? Go ahead. Let me hear it. I was going to do an acronym. My apologies if somebody else has done this on the internet or on Twitter. I did not look. All I have is my honor. That's all I have. I don't like to steal stuff

I don't like to lie I'm a huge believer in karma so I did not take this from anybody and if somebody independently also came up with it my bad, I'm sorry what is it? the two point reversion oh

yeah it's not a conversion, it's a reversion's a two-point reversion but mike and mike do that that's what they call it what do you mean they call it they call it the reversion mike and mike do they no i don't know i don't know i have no idea i got nervous though i did i was totally ready to tell tate to take the whole thing out i I don't know. Now we're going to find out that they do call the reversion. No, I do like that. The two-point reversion. They wanted a two-point reversion.

You could also call it the two-point pro version because pro is the opposite of con. That's good. But, man, what a great rule. Everyone gives the NFL shit. I like to think I'm among the leaders of the pack, but the two-point rule and the PAT rule and all the stuff that now has added this little extra I'm not really sure what might happen

at any point. All these little wrinkles I think are really fun. Mike Nugent's missed four of his last PATs. Four of his five last PATs. I know, but I think that's bad. I think we'd see more two-point reversions if you just went for the conversion every time and didn't count this extra point nonsense instead of moving it back to the 50-yard line.

But, no, it is fun. And how about this? I'll do you one better. Andy Reid is out coaching other coaches. Amazing. I never thought I'd say that, but it's really happening. That game was close, but he won it on fourth and two when he went for the fake punt, and no one touched the up back right up

the middle. Yeah, I don't want to call him brilliant because he did lose to Tampa like two weeks ago, but I think this is the best version of Andy Reid we've seen, and I gotta be honest, I want to see him pee in a cup. I want to see what's in his blood. You do? Yeah, I think Tate, I watched the

Seahawks-P Panthers with Tate today. Tate thinks like every player's on Adderall. He's almost like, prove me wrong, you're not on Adderall. And anytime there's a close-up of anyone, Tate's like, look at his pupils. Look at them. Look at those pupils. But I think Andy Reid might have discovered Adderall or something. Nice.

I want to see Tate be in a cup. I'll tell you that. That's what I want to say. I think you definitely want to see it today my christmas gift the uh so i have a couple more things yeah before we get to the lines and we could we could uh we could hit some of this stuff when we when we do the lines but um earl thomas out for the year it looks like it looks like he has a fractured tibia. And he's already tweeting farewells and all this stuff. This is great for your team.

I know you're following all kinds of karma rules here. All I'm pointing out is that the Seahawks were the most dangerous team in your conference. And they just lost their defensive leader. And the guy who, if you go over the middle, he's going to be one of the two guys waiting for you and now he's gone and it just continues to look like it's coming up cowboys over and over and over and over again and it just has to make you in a weird way sick to your stomach you have to just add this to it the whole thing who gave us Dak Prescott Seattle Seahawks oh is that Tony Romo out for the year don't forget oh the mole that their version of the Mo Lewis hit you're right right that's it and preseason

game so everyone who thinks Dak can't lose and doesn't look like he can uh yeah blame the Seahawks and you're right now they're thinner and defensively and that's not going to help them you know your team uh your team on Thursday really took care of business in that vice game. And then Dak slid like a half inch earlier than he should have. And then all of a sudden it was a game and it looked like the first stupid loss the Cowboys are going to have all season, but he fought it off. I was proud of you.

You know what he did? He slid in bounds though. I think 90% of the rookies go out of bounds there and, but maybe get the first down. Right. I think he had to choose one or the other. He probably thought he slid far enough anyway, but that was interesting. That was like a gutty move, I thought.

And also, I'll say this. I've never been less worried about a team driving on me down eight, on my team down eight, as I was when Sam Bradford had, and they did score. But then when they moved the two-point conversion back, it was a false start, they moved it back to the seven and a half. I said, this team doesn't have a play from the seven and a half. There's just not one play. Just double-covered Thielen or whoever it is out there.

And that was it. Yeah, I want to cross them off, but I guess we can't cross anyone off in the NFC North. I actually have the cross-off teams for you. Tell me if you agree with this. That's it. All right. Well, we have the original six, the Jets, the Rams, the Bears, the Jags,

the Niners, the Browns. I think Arizona is in there, even though they won today. I think they're 5-6-1, but I just don't see... 9-6-1, does that get a wild card? Maybe. But that also involves them running the slate, and they are not good enough. I didn't see that. Yeah, I thought that was a trap game for Washington. We're probably not going to see a lot more of that out of Arizona the rest of the year. You know, it had the makings of exactly the kind of cover you wanted

from Washington plus two and a half. And then Arizona kind of went for the jugular up one. And for once, Palmer made a play that looked like last year's Palmer, and they got the TD, and they won by eight. So I'm crossing off Zona. San Diego obviously is out. Carolina obviously is out. And what's funny is if Carolina, you would have thought, like,

with Atlanta losing and the saints losing that all of a sudden Carolina is like, wow, if we go nine and seven, we could win this division. Let's do this guys. And instead they lose by 30. And I think Philly is unquestionably a cross off now. So now we have 11 cross offs. Did you say Cincinnati? I forgot Cincinnati, but yeah, Cincinnati too.

So yeah, cause eight, eight-7-1 is not doing it no they're out they're done too we have 11 cross-offs in after 13 weeks and you said New Orleans

not crossing off New Orleans yet hmm yeah so 9-7 New Orleans here's the thing with New Orleans they play Tampa Bay

two out of the next three weeks yeah that's why I couldn't cross them off okay I think there's a there's a possibility of a three-way

9-7 NFC South tie. It can't be ruled out. I think the Saints have been probably the hardest team to figure out this year because they've had games where they've just crushed people. They could only score seven points against the Giants.

They look great against other teams. What are they? What's happening with the Saints? Their defense looks good some days. Today, I mean, football's exciting when Drew Brees is in the dome throwing three touchdowns and 400 yards. Let's just all

agree on that. So when he starts off slow against Detroit and just never gets there, and he threw three interceptions, it's like, ah, man. This is a team I want to see in January. But that helped themselves out. We had to take a quick break to talk about Blue Apron. Stop wasting money on expensive takeout.

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Don Julio 1942, the best luxury tequila you'll ever drink. And every Monday, even though we're doing this Sunday night, Sal and I take a Don Julio shot of the week on either the Monday night game or the Thursday night game. Now we have Colts Jets tomorrow night night and I think the Colts are favored by two and a half. Is that correct? Right. That's right.

I'm taking the Colts as my shot of the week. I think I just, I just have a feeling I can't fight it. I think they're terrible. It's a bad roster. I don't, I don't get it. I don't understand it,

but God, I just feel like we're going to see the Colts in the playoffs and it pisses me off. It's Colts chiefs. All right. I'm going to stay away from that. I don't know why. I just have understand it. But, God, I just feel like we're going to see the Colts in the playoffs, and it pisses me off. It's Colts-Chiefs. All right, I'm going to stay away from that. I don't know why. I just have a weird feeling. By the way, we did Don Julio wrong last week.

We both jumped on the Cowboys, and we had the lead for a while. But we skunked. Even the Cowboys, we mushed. By the way, we do that 100 times out of 100. We're up 17-9. The Cowboys had the ball with three minutes left in the best offensive line in the last five years, and they needed a first down.

Yeah. I would do that again 100 times out of 100. My apologies to Don Julio, though. Sorry, Don Julio. I don't know how many times we can keep apologizing, but this time we really mean it. I'm going to go to the Thursday game, so let's go over the line first, and then I'll tell you who I'm taking.

All right. Week 14 lines. Wow, week 14. We only have 1, 2, 3, 8 of these left. I'm sad. Yeah. I'm verklempt. And plus, if you keep going 1 and 2 and 0 and 3 and the Cousin

South Shore thing, you might only have 8 weeks left as a human being. Yeah, I'm going to have less than that. I'm getting near death threats on these free picks that I'm giving out. Unbelievable. Free pick. What was the one you won today? You bought Ravens. You bought the Ravens.

Yeah, I did the heady move by buying a half a point to minus three and they won by 75 points. It's a really good strategy. What were the two you lost on? You lost on the Bills and you lost on... I had the Falcons,

you know, up 13-6. I'm telling you, that fake punt turned everything around. Bad pick. You should have taken the Panthers.

Oh, wait, they lost by 30. All right. Let's just do with the Bills, though, because I'm really still mad about that. And I tweeted this,

but, okay, Rex, you don't have the uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner to look forward to. You could fire your brother now. That's enough. That's enough for the, you know, far be it from me to scream about nepotism, but how many points does this team have to give up in a big game? The Bills have given up 41 points to the Patriots and 38 to the Bills and 31 to the Seahawks and 37 to the Jets. The Jets.

Yeah. Those are four Bills games this year. Unbelievable. They could steal that wild card. All right, what do you have for Thursday night? Well, I have the TVs on in my office, and right now Herm Edwards is answering a Chris Berman question. I can't hear what he's saying, but his eyes are narrow.

I'm telling you. I think they hog tie him to the chair so he can't get up and walk away. I think they're happy just that his eyes are open, ever. He's sitting in that chair. All right, so we have Chiefs and we have uh the raiders raiders at the chiefs 10 and 2 at 9 and 3 it's that's a tough one the the going west to missouri's what does that is that the that's not the Midwest. Where is Missouri? It's Midwest. Of course it's Midwest. But it's close to,

I don't know. It's like, you know, last weekend you, you said the chiefs were a bird. And now this week you're saying you're not sure that's there in the Midwest. I did say that. A lot of problems.

You need to, we need to go to a chiefs game. I think. Missouri is like, Missouri is very close to the South. Well, they're flying, they're flying the wrong way.

So, I had the Chiefs. I hope you're not flying a plane. They're never going to get there. I had the Chiefs minus three and a half against the Raiders. Yeah, you nailed it.

I said, I said minus four. And you get that right. That's a great game. Another good Thursday night game. Thursday night is back. I just hope Thursday, the fact that it's Thursday, doesn't screw it up

and we're not looking at 7-3 with a bunch of turnovers early in the fourth. I said this a couple years ago and was proven correct. And ironically, it was with the Chiefs-Raiders game. It was a Thursday nighter, and I remember watching it in New York City, and I think I even predicted the Raiders were going to win or come damn close. And the Raiders were either winless or had one win. And most of my reason for the pick was that Andy Reid hadn't been Andy Reid in a while, and we were due for an Andy Reid game. Right.

I'm going to steal that point from myself three, four years later, however many years it's been wow i think we're due for an andy reed game and it feels like thursday night football might be the night for him as you said before he's been lights out right it's been lights out all year everybody everybody loves this chiefs team everybody's fired up for the chiefs you just said you thought they were the best team in the afc yeah that's enough reason to go against them, just me saying it. Well, I'm making this my Don Julio shot. I'm going for all those reasons. The Chiefs already beat them 26-10 in Week 6.

Oakland, why wouldn't you take Oakland getting any kind of points these days? I'm going Kansas City. I think they're the most balanced team. I'm taking them minus 3.5. All right, so if the Chiefs win this game, they will be... Hold on, I'm calling it up. Ten and three. Ten and three with Tennessee, Denver, and San Diego left.

Still not easy. But two of those are home. Yeah. How scared are you on a scale of one to ten of having Denver at home, if you're anybody who's a playoff caliber team? In the playoffs? What are you saying? December, January, Denver's coming to town that week. How scared are you on a scale of 1 to 10 if you have a good team?

I don't know. I don't expect to score a lot of points. And if it's cold and you're in a cold-weathered place, it's not great. It's not ideal scheduling. I'll say that much, but they are beatable for sure. They could have lost today. Yeah, I think if you have those fast running back, wide receiver guys coming out of the backfield, the Chiefs are kind of perfect

for what Denver's issue is as the linebackers. All right, let's go to Sunday. Pittsburgh at Buffalo. Let's start off with that Pittsburgh 75 Buffalo 6 and 6 a good game I watched a lot of that Steelers Giants

game today I watched football all day with my son today my son's starting to become intrigued by football and we created a DraftKings team for him it was the first time ever

oh yeah I saw that yeah because he was all excited he was like I want to have some money on it. Well, I'm like, well, do a DraftKings team. You can root for players on different teams.

Again, DraftKings does not sponsor this podcast. I actually like DraftKings. So we do the team, and it's really cute. He picks Travis Benjamin and Calvin Benjamin because his name's Ben. There's a lot of stuff like that. He loves Odell because of the one hand he catches whenever we play football he catches that catches one hand so I was like so he's trying to pick a quarterback and I was like why don't you take Odell's quarterback he's like yeah yeah good idea good idea so we take so he has Eli and Odell and it was really fun to watch a nine-year-old live through a shit Eli game for the first time.

Because we all take it for granted now after 12 years, the four to seven times a year where Eli just takes a giant ramrod and rams it right up your butthole. My son had never really experienced it before and was correctly answering questions or asking questions like, Dad, why did he throw it to the other team? Why doesn't he throw it to the other team why doesn't he throw it to adele like and just and by the end of the second quarter he left he went to watch the simpsons marathon and i'll tell you why because it was one of the questions dad why does obj have only one target in the first half yeah that's exactly what he had and this team's not going to go very far if that continues he lit it up in the second half when they went to him and that's when they closed the gap a little bit. Well, what's interesting about it, it was just a classic Eli game.

I mean, they have some issues, obviously. Jennings is the slowest running back I think I've seen in 10 years and it's tough when he's out there with the tight ends that they have. It's a pretty predictable offense. On the other hand, they gave away 14 points inside the Pittsburgh 10. They had two really good chances there.

The final score, I don't think was indicative of that game. I actually thought if that game was played 10 times, there were ways the Giants could have either won that game or lost by three.

I thought their defense did a really nice job and uh yeah and the problem is eli i don't know if it's the offense or if eli's just getting older or what's going on but man he makes some weird weird weird decisions like wide receiver screens where the defensive back is already hitting the wide receiver as eli's throwing it to him like a lot of weird moments like that. Or just throwing to Odell like seven times out of ten plays in a row and the Steelers are double covering him. He's throwing to him anyway. I don't know.

Well, that was probably not a good halftime experience based on what I said. He had one target. And I'm sure there was a lot of screaming. And Eli having to eat shit there and then just overcompensate it. But it does seem like the Giants are dependent on Odell making two big plays a game to win. I know there's no stat for this, but it seems more than any other team, that's the duo that needs to hook up in order to have some success.

It does seem like they do not have a lot of 15-play drives. Right. You know? And you're right. They have these games where it's like, oh, Odell just got loose again for a 70-yarder. But I think they're in danger of not being a playoff team. Yeah, no great tight end. Not the most controversial opinion, but, you know, they play you guys this week.

They're Detroit the next week. And then they're at Philly at Washington and I don't know especially the at Washington one that could be basically for a playoff spot yeah at Philly at Washington those teams will both be playing to beat the Giants even if they're

even if they're out of it by then but Washington won't be out of it hey remember the hilarity when I had a show called Any Given Wednesday and Wentz was playing well and it was like Any Given Wednesday and it was like, hey, Any Given – no. I don't have a show anymore. Is it possible that your show cursed the quarterback? It might have.

It might have. Wednesday went with Wentz? He certainly has major accuracy issues. Yeah. That first couple weeks were deceiving because he kind of lulled me into thinking he was, and I'm sure a lot of other people, he lulled us into thinking that he was ahead of his years and all that stuff. But I do think the league has a tendency to figure out young quarterbacks sometimes. And it seems like they figured him out and it's a mess.

And he has terrible receivers and terrible running backs. I get it. But I hope that. Well, unfortunately for him, there's something called the all 22 that you and I can watch and break down. And there are people much smarter than the two of us that could really study him and figure out his schemes. I think that's exactly what's happened in the last month or so, the Carson lines. If you're a Browns fan,

you feel better about that trade than you did two months ago. That's for sure. Sure. And you know, they, that every time the Eagles lose, that's good for the Browns. That might be like the 10th,

11th pick. Now it's the Browns. They'll probably screw it up. But yeah. And then the Eagles, the Eagles, well, the Eagles have that Vikings pick that might end up being like 12, 13, 14 range too.

So they're basically replacing that pick with the Bradford trade. All right, let's keep going. All right, I don't know how we got off Pittsburgh-Buffalo, but Pittsburgh-Buffalo. I had Pittsburgh by two, and I still don't totally understand this Pittsburgh team. All right, well, now you're two for two exactly, because I had two and a half. So we're not ever doing this again Sunday night. Yeah, now you're two for two exactly because I had two and a half. So we're not ever doing this again Sunday night. Tate was with me the whole

time. I can confirm that I didn't cheat. Tate. Tate has trouble running these pools. I'm going to trust him. That's it. Tate had a big comeback performance in the pool this week. He did. He actually did. Houston at Indianapolis. Houston at Indianapolis. Did you see any of brock

osweiler in the snow i try not to look but no i did watch that game it's funny i kept that game on the way we have it we can we could play seven games and i kept the san fran chicago game on too even though i knew it was terrible it's just so fun to watch the snow right yeah let's say i don't know what it is my my son was captivated you forget like the first the when you're a kid the snow football game and and and then he's asking like the houston quarterback's really having trouble with his footing like a direct quote for my son i'm like no that's every week it has nothing to do with the sound exactly he always numbers around like that but hopkins it always seems like it's quicksand for him. Yeah, maybe he needs to play in the snow every week.

But I have the – which one was this one? I'm sorry. Houston at Indianapolis. Oh, yeah, I got the Colts by three. All right, I'm going to get this one. I said three and a half. It's four and a half they made the Colts. I've seen enough of Houston.

Well, one thing's for sure, the AFC South playoff picture won't be any clearer after this game. Let's not even try to figure it out. It won't be after Week 17, it won't be clear. I have a word of advice for

everybody who's just willing to write off the Texans in this game. First of all, I think that line is a point and a half too high. But their last three games, they played Oakland, they played San Diego, and they played Green Bay. Oakland is obviously a contender. The other two are not, but they're at least decent football teams. All of those three teams are way better than anyone in the AFC South.

Sure, for sure. And the game they lost against Oakland was probably the best game they played in the AFC South. So I would urge people... And Oakland, the game they lost against Oakland was probably the best game they played in the last two months. They really should have won that game. Yeah, they're 6-6, but they beat the Titans. They beat the Colts. Beat the Colts in overtime. They beat the Jaguars.

So are they 3-0 in the AFC South? Yeah, they are. That's all you have to do. Yeah. Is that it? That line is a little out of whack is my point. All right. Well, I would never, ever bet it unless I had to fill it out for a pool anyway.

But Washington and Philadelphia. I'm still in on this Washington team. I actually thought they played pretty well in that cards game, and it was just one of those games. I have the Washington professional football team by two points in Philly. Oh, I get this. I said one and a half, and it's one. Right?

Yeah. It's a tough one. Yeah, I don't know. Philly looks like they're going in the wrong direction. I think it's funny. This happens in football sometimes. Who's Barry at North Carolina, Tate? Who? He got injured? direction. I think it's funny. This happens in football sometimes. Who's Barry at North Carolina, Tate?

Who? He got injured? Barry? Okay, you knew this? Okay. Yeah, he's okay. Sorry, that just came up on the TV. The TVs are distracting. What is this, college basketball?

Yeah, the TVs are distracting. Oh, I see. Yeah, Washington won 27-20 in week six, and that was when the Eagles were good. Yeah. Oh, I was going to say about the Eagles. I think they realized, and I think this happens in football sometimes, where you realize your coach isn't that good, and kind of everyone on the team realizes it,

and they're in the locker room, and they're getting hot tubs, or they're going out to get a cheeseburger. They're at some nightclub, and they're like, man, coach sucks. It's like, oh man, I was just thinking that. I've been waiting to talk to somebody about this. Yeah, coach is terrible.

And it does seem like now the Eagles are playing like a team that knows they don't have a good coach because they don't have a good coach. That was a good Saturday afternoon special. I like that. Thank you.

Thank you. Coach is terrible. Is he done taking a shit? We better stop talking about him. Wait, wait. He's coming. Thank you. Thank you. Coach is terrible. Is he done taking a shit? We better stop talking about him. Wait, wait. He's coming. Shut up. Shut up.

Pretend we're talking about something else. Yeah, I just think when you have a bad coach sometimes, look at the Rams. The Rams these last two weeks have been an abomination, and it turns out that they're extending Jeff Fisher. Oh, that's not a bad coach. He wouldn't have gotten an extension if he was a bad coach. Wow, that's true. I take it back.

Let me ask you this. Yeah. You're watching football with your son Ben next week. He gives it another shot, despite Eli Manning's attempt to ruin football for him. So he's like, all right, Dad, let's sit and watch it. And then you have a choice to ask him what's— You want to say, son, you could be anything you want to be. You could do anything you want to do.

Which of these examples do you use? Do you use the Cavs down 3-1, the Golden State? Do you use the Cubs down 3-1, the Indians? Do you use Trump winning the presidency? Or do you freaking use Fisher, Jeff Fisher, being extended two years when he can't put two wins together in a month? He couldn't find the challenge flag, and he thought Brandon Bolden and Danny Woodhead were two of my three running backs.

My God. It's amazing. What is that? I think Fisher would give him the most hope, would be my guess. All right, yeah, I'm with you, I think. You know, we were watching Jared Goff, who was just terrible in the Pats game today. And not his fault entirely,

because they just were blitzing from all directions. The offensive line has no idea what's going on. Greg Robinson, what a train wreck pick that was. And they're poorly coached. It's just rough times for Goff. We're flipping around and I started pretending I was an announcer. I'm like, let's go back to the Rams game where Jared Goff

is just taking a shit on the field. My son's dying. We're just making all these Jared Goff jokes. It's like, this guy was the first pick in the draft? Yeah, he was number one. Oh, man. You brought my son a lot of joy. If I'm Jeff Fisher, I get on the PA system,

and I say to the fans, like, I told you. I told you he wasn't as good. I told you. For months you were yelling at me to put him in. Look, this is what I told you. Listen to me from now on. To really make them think they're crazy. I think one of the announcers said at one point,

well, they obviously missed Tavon Austin today. I'm like, Tavon Austin? You're kidding me. I'll tell you about him. He's a wide receiver screen. That's the only point they could even run for him. What a shame. And what's funny is they blew that Greg Robinson pick.

He went second. But then they also had the 13th pick, and Aaron Donald fell to them at 13. If you did that draft over again, he'd be a top five pick but this was the draft that had khalil mack going fifth and sammy watkins and mike evans and odell and it's just a murderer's row of guys and they had the second pick and they took this guy robinson who they they cannot keep on the field right they benched him last week but man what a whiff i. I mean, if you hit two of the top 13 picks in that draft, you can make your team for 10 years.

Oh, and the worst is that they gave the fans hope. They were what? They were 3-1, right? I mean, they had the terrible, the stinker of the Monday night opener, but they were 3-1 after that. Can you imagine if the Raiders were here this year? In addition to the Rams? Yeah. it yeah or if they decided to come or if it had just been the raiders and chargers or whatever like this raiders team i actually think all the

la bandwagon fans they would have loved their car and they would have loved khalil mac it would have been great oh yeah yeah the rams better hope the chargers don't move here, or the Raiders, not looking like they are anyway. Well, I would really hope the Raiders figure out a way to stay in Oakland because it was really fun today, and there's so much tradition with that team, and I think it would just be a shame. And also, you're talking about one of the fastest-growing areas, probably the fastest in America other than maybe L.A. It's just like yeah what a

shame the raider the vegas raider crowd will be vastly different i'll say that they'll be hung over i'll just play blackjack like 45 minutes before that's true half the luxury suites will be filled with strippers yeah they're not ready for that their new crowd is your friends ken and harry that's right quick break to let's talk about propercloth.com. Every guy knows that it's hard to find a dress shirt that fits. You know that, Sal. Maybe the collar's too tight. The sleeves are too long.

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Denver, Tennessee. Good game, right? Yeah. Borderline loser leaves town match. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I guess Tennessee can't really leave town if 8-8's gonna win that division. How 8-8 is going to win that division.

How 8-4 is leaving town? I don't know. Denver's 8-4. I know, but they've got to play all the other teams, and I think they're the third best team in that division. This is a big game, and Tennessee's had one of the two bye teams from last week, this week, last whatever week. And they should be able to run on them.

It's either three or three and a half Broncos, and I went back and forth and I settled at Broncos by three. I thought I was seeing things here, and I said Denver by three also, so we'll split it. They have Tennessee favored by a point and a half. Is it because of Paxton Lynch's facial hair? It can't be him, right?

I mean, I guess if he's quarterback, Tennessee should be favored. Yeah, maybe they don't think Simeon's coming back. Paxton Lynch, 12 for 24, 104 yards. Not good. I mean, I picked the Jags in the office pool just because I thought their defense would keep it close because of Paxton Lynch. I forgot that their offense was going to score all the points for Denver.

Yeah. All Jacksonville had to do was basically just three downs and punt every single time, and the final score would have been 3-3, and they would have had a chance. Right. Instead, they allowed Denver to win without doing anything offensively. Did you see that Bortles stat, by the way? What was it? I know it was like 14-42. Did you see that Bortles stat, by the way? What was it?

I know it was like 14-42. What was it? Bortles? No, this is different. Bortles has 10 career wins and 11 career pick sixes. He has more career pick sixes than victories. Wow. That's good.

I mean, that's good. That might be stat of the year. That's pretty impressive. It's pretty good. That's pretty impressive. It's pretty good. That's pretty impressive. It's pretty, pretty good. He also has, I think. He should start working on the reversions,

although his team would have to score for him to have a reversion, right? Yeah, he's never going to set that record, the two-point reversion. I think he has replaced Phil Rivers now as the best body language after something's gone bad from a good team. Like he is now acting like the daughter from Homeland during season two. After everything goes wrong, just a lot of eye rolling and shoulder sagging and looking up into the sky. Dad! Dad! Hugging on her clothes, staring at her brother and leaving the room.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. Dad, why are you in a garage praying in a blanket? Dad! Anyway. Yeah. I think Denver could have lost. The Jaguars do a funny thing. Gus Bradley doesn't help. It was like, I might have

the numbers wrong, but it was like 220 left. They had two timeouts, and they punted from their 40, down seven. Come on. Try to win these games their 40 down seven. Come on. Try to win these games. 2.57 left, I think. Fourth and six.

There was reports swirling that he might be the sad loser of the first coach fired bet. He's the one, huh? Who do we have? We had everybody else, right? Who do we have? Well, we never ended up betting on it. Oh, we didn't. Yeah.

We talked about it a lot. No, the one we liked was McCarthy as the super-duper long shot, which would have really been a nice bet. But I think the shocker is Jim Caldwell was always one of the first ones we batted around. Mm-hmm. And now he could make a case. I don't know if he's in the running for coach of the year,

but it has to be mentioned. If the trade's going to go 11-5 or 12-4 and play defense. I'm with you. All right. I'm seeing now dress code violation for Cam Newton. Did you see that? Coach's decision dress code violation. That's absurd.

I don't know what that means. But thanks to everyone who bet the Panthers. Thanks, Coach. You didn't like the way he was dressing. Thanks, Mom know what that means. But thanks to everyone who bet the Panthers. Thanks, Coach. You didn't like the way he was dressing. Thanks, Mom. Arizona at Miami. That feels like you're not bigger than the team, Cam. Right.

Under the guise of a dress code violation. I have Miami giving two and a half to the Cardinals, and I like Miami. You nailed it. You hit it exactly. I said four. I thought it was going to be a little higher. I thought we could maybe get off the Arizona's good thing, even though they won.

But two and a half's fair. We still can. Who takes Arizona at two and a half? Anybody? No. Going west to east like that? No. I think it's a farewell to Arizona.

Minnesota at Jacksonville. Let me throw's a farewell to Arizona. Let me throw in one thing to you, though. Every last six weeks of the season, somebody who stunk for most of the year gets hot and does really well and goes 5-1 or 6-0 down the stretch. No, they're a candidate. I don't think it's going to be them. There's no chance that it's them, right? No, I don't think so I hadn't seen their schedule but they play Seattle again right

or are they done with that I'm going to give it to you right now I have them with home for New Orleans no no that's not who do they play this with at Miami

home for New Orleans at Seattle on a Saturday, and then at the Rams. Hmm. So that – I don't know. Those are going to be tough. It's going to be tough. Tough two and two, I think, there. No World Thomas for Seattle.

Right. Eh. They like to play Seattle. They've had some good games. They'll try. Yeah, maybe they're not a cross-off. No, we already crossed them off, Bill. We can't.

It ends up being messy if you uncross a cross-off. Yeah, what am I saying? They stink. Forget it. Minnesota at Jacksonville. Minnesota at Jacksonville is a game that I do not want to watch, even one minute enough. I have the Vikings by four.

I said four and a half. It's three. Oh, come on. So I win that one. You win that one, but we're all going to lose that one when we bet Minnesota and they lose. I guarantee you,

I won't bet Minnesota. I promise you, I won't put any money on St. Bradford. You know, it's one of those things where there's six and six now. And remember we were like, how are they 6-3? I can't

believe they have enough wins to be 6-6 at this point. I know. They've been so bad for so long. Their defense was pretty good against your team on Thursday. I don't know if it was a Thursday night thing or if they have a good defense, but I liked how they played on defense. But man, they are challenged offensively.

Everybody gets up for the Cowboys and almost nobody gets up for the Jaguars. So let's see what they do this week. Look at you, throwing out an everybody gets up for the Cowboys. You know that. Everyone gets up for New England, too. I know what I heard. Maybe the Rams. I know what I heard.

San Diego, Carolina. Man, I had the Carolina by three I don't feel good about it I said by six that was dumb I went too high you nailed it it's three

I went too high those are what is Derek Anderson wearing that the coach likes so much this is what I want to see it's a great outfit right go throw an interception then go sit down stupid the coach likes so much. This is what I want to see. It's a great outfit. Right?

Go throw an interception. Then go sit down. Stupid. Well, the problem with this game is either of these teams, both of these teams or none of these teams might have quit for the season. So I would advise everyone out there to stay away from this game. I know. Do not put any money in this game. All right.

Phillip Rivers' homecoming, Tate points out. Oh, he's from the tobacco state. Oh, really? Yeah. How nice. He hired a private plane to take his whole family back,

the eight kids. So this is, we always talk about how they don't have a home advantage. This is his home advantage. This is it, if he has one at all.

Well, especially if it's a whole week of Carolina people being mad about Cam Newton. Right. It's like, oh, Phillip Rivers, his hometown boy. Oh, that's good. I'm worried that I know you said we're not going to bet it, but I'm worried that one of us, or both of us are going to have a strong opinion on this game.

No, please don't let me have an opinion. Alright, I'm going to mark something. I was proud of myself. I didn't wager on anything this week. I didn't like the slate this week. No, it was smart. I just felt like it was a day-wide stay away. I didn't like anything. I was prepared for...

I like the Chiefs getting more than three in a row. We would add New Orleans on a teaser. We would add New Orleans on a teaser for sure, right? I picked Detroit in that game. I thought the line was too high. Yeah, I don't know. Just week 14. I've never liked week 14.

It's always wonky. Well, that's this week. Oh, yeah, week 13, I'm sorry. Week 13. Week 14, I feel like we've done either week 14 or week 15 is the week when perennially there's a lot of

big upsets, but then you look at all the lines that we have this week and none of the lines are higher than six. So I guess that's out the window. Well, and there's already three lines that I don't like look fishy. And this is another one, Cincinnati at Cleveland.

What do you think? Oh my God. I have a Cincy by five. All right. I said seven. It's four and a half. So what are they doing? It's how many times? I mean, I said 7 it's 4.5 so what are they doing

how many times they made it 7 against the Giants these teams like self-destruct unless Hugh Jackson's like look this is the only game we could win we have to go to Buffalo and then what they have to go to Pittsburgh the last game of the season

and the one in the middle is like home against San Diego this might be their best shot I think that's why the middle is like home against San Diego, this might be their best shot. I think that's why the line is like that. I think we can bet on them going 0-16. It's plus 160 if they actually go 0-16. We could do it. Go ahead.

My wife and I have been watching this new show. It's on TBS. Have you heard of it? It's called Search Party. Oh, Search Party, yeah. Oh, man, you Have you heard of it? It's called search party. Oh, search party. Yeah. Oh man.

You, you've actually heard about it. What is it? Oh, it's, it's these four friends and they have kind of this, this friend that's not even really, it's like an acquaintance who goes missing and they all,

the, the lead girl gets obsessed with it and starts looking for the friend. And it's like a comedy, but it's also very binge-watchy. Right. And I'm disappointed you heard about it because I was going to sell it like it was a fake show, but then it's actually a real show.

I'm still not sure. I'm still about 30% sure. I was going to ask where it's running, and then that's usually when we find out if it's fake or not now it's it's on tbs it's actually good i recommend it i think the girl said they liked it yeah i think daniel said he liked it or something yeah i think her name's like alia shawcott or something like that i think she's good i like her what is it netflix no uh tbs oh tbs okay the only problem with these on-demand binge-watch shows

is that they have the commercials and you can't fast-forward them. Oh, right, they don't let you do it, yeah. Yeah, it's like just all these TV networks should just put everything on demand and have nothing live, and then we're just stuck with the commercials. If they want to sell commercials, do that. Yeah. All right, keep going. It's like they want to make money off these things.

I know, seriously. It's so strange. Chicago at Detroit detroit oh this is a skipper i have no you have to guess oh i didn't i didn't write this one down so i'm gonna have to do what does it matter chicago at detroit okay I didn't write this one down for some reason, so I'm going to guess this one on the fly. I have the Lions by 10. Okay. I was going to get mad when you nailed it exactly. I said seven.

It's eight. Okay. I deserve to lose that one because I somehow missed it. I did some research. One of the Lions' losses against the Bears. Yeah. That's crazy to me. How would that happen?

One of the Bears' three wins is against the Lions, 17-14, way back in the day. I think that line's a little too high. And I also, we've seen this a million times. You've got 10. Why do you think 8's too high? I just was guessing what Vegas would think. I didn't know my own personal feelings. But I think

that second divisional game, everyone always forgets that it's always tighter than you think it's going to be. Could be close? Yeah. Because the teams are familiar and they get fired up. I've gotten kicked in the nuts too much betting against

Detroit this year, so I'll just pass like you suggested earlier on. Can we make a pact not to put them in a tease? I'm putting X's almost next to every game so far. Okay. Jets at Niners. Jets at Niners. I have the Jets by two and a half. Let's just skip through this one as fast as we can.

I said Jets by three and a half. Are you sure you want to skip it? Because Vegas has it as a pick. And all I was going to say is if you do a money line on Cincinnati over Cleveland, and then if you lose that and double up on money line on the Jets over San Francisco, you have to win one of those, don't you? No wins, one win. They're both going to win.

I'm not doing either of those things. All right. What's next? Seattle with Green Bay. Ooh. I had... Oh, man. See, I did this before the Earl Thomas thing.

I'm going to change my... Nah, you know what? I'll change it by a point. Seahawks by one and a half. All right, you're going to get it. I thought about this too long, and I just said a pick. I couldn't take it. It's Seahawks by two and a half.

Oh, that's what I had originally. I'm stupid. You did? Yeah. This is the one we should stay away from, because we're going to have a serious opinion about this. I need to really look at the entire history of Seahawks versus Packers before I...

I feel like there's been a lot of memorable games with these two, and I just want to make sure I'm on the right side of that. I can't even remember one. I can't even remember one. I can't even remember one. Oh, stop it. The Fail Mary. I know. I know.

What are you talking about? What about the championship game? Wasn't that the big one, the big comeback? Yeah, yeah, that. Three men were killing them, and it went to overtime? At least four or five. Yeah, there's a lot. For some reason, the Fail Mary really jumps out.

I think that was one of the great Monday Night Moments of all time. That was fun. New Orleans at Tampa Bay. As I said before, they play in two weeks again. I had Bucs by three. I think I nailed it. I said three also. It's two and a half.

I like the Bucs. The Bucs are coming on, man. The Bucs have found a diamond in the rough in this guy, Bray. Now, Bray's a guy that every fantasy owner has dropped and picked up every week, every Wednesday night between week 9 and week 13. And he's now the go-to man if Evans isn't open. He's great. For Jameis.

And him and Jack Doyle are tied for most times that an announcer has mentioned how much everybody on the team loves them. He's very popular. I like that. You got to protect your fantasy team, Sal. You also have to protect your home. I see what you were waiting for. Protect your home this winter.

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That's SimpliSafe with two I's. Once again, SimpliSafeBS.com. All right. All right. Let's do it. One more late afternoon game. Atlanta at the Los Angeles Rams. Oh, God.

The game's going to be delayed by 10 minutes for the standing ovation for Jeff Fisher. Maynard's contract extension. The fans have such a good history with him. Why don't they just have him and Eric Dickerson fight already? This is great. Have you ever heard an ex-player go out on a limb so much to get a coach fired? He actually brought up the nude pictures joke that we haven't heard in 20 years. Like, he must have nude pictures of somebody.

That's great. Crazy. Oh, man. So good. It would be funny if Jeff Fisher fired back about his sideline reporting for the Dickerson Oh, I forgot about that. Falcons by six. All right.

I went four and a half and it's five and a half. So you get it. You killed me this week. Absolutely. I love Sunday nights. I rise to the occasion on Sunday nights like the Cowboys. Good. All right.

Dallas at the Giants Sunday night. Great game. Is this a game every year? Dallas and the Giants are Sunday night. Great game. Is this a game every year? Dallas and the Giants are always a Sunday night game, right? Well, it's usually the first week. They find a way to put it on the first Sunday night. Okay. But, yeah, they always find one of them.

The Cowboys are going to be either favored by three or three and a half. I think it's going to be three, and I like the Cowboys. Yeah, I went too low. I said one, and it is three. You're really nailing it exactly. It's very suspicious. It's not that suspicious.

I lost my TV show about four weeks ago and I've been throwing myself into football. I didn't want to. No, listen. I'm locked in.

I have more time to watch football now. I guess it was worth it, right? Totally. If I was gambling more it would have been worth it I mean we play for nothing this stupid game I'm not nervous about this

Cowboys Giants game it's the first Cowboys Giants game I haven't been nervous for in years I have a prediction I think that line climbs to like 5.5 by next week yeah because they're better they're just a better football team but they were giving climbs to like five and a half by next week. Yeah, because they're better. They're just a better football team.

But they were giving, what were they giving Minnesota? Three and a half? Yeah, but you can make the case Minnesota might be better than the Giants. And they also have 79 that we're going to cover. Maybe. Yeah, you're right. If the Vikings line was four, maybe it at least climbs to four.

It will not stay at three. I think it's around three, three and a half. But Monday, Baltimore, New England. Talk about good history. Yeah, this is... You've got Seattle, Green Bay, Baltimore, New England. As far as out-of-division games, those are really good rivalries. This pisses me off because it's going to be a three-point game,

and yet the Pats will be favored by six and a half points. I said seven, and they're up to seven and a half already. That makes me mad. You beat me. You can crush me, Bill Simmons. Look at that, like 12 to six or something. That's terrible that that line's that high. Why?

We need something to tease with something. What are we going to do? I can't bet against the Patriots. No, I know. What do you mean? Patriots and somebody else. Oh, I think the Pats could lose this game. Oh.

No, I don't know. I don't want to hear this. This is nonsense. You don't think they could lose? I think they could lose this game. I think the Ravens are completely unafraid of the Patriots.

They have a very good defense and they have had a lot of success playing very close games and sometimes beating the Patriots over years and years. They are pretty impressive, I will say. I bet the Ravens two weeks in a row and it doesn't look like their offense is going to be dynamite, but

Flacco's in trouble and he throws that screen to Pitta and it goes for 13. It's like, oh, I'm going to see that in three but Flacco's in trouble, and he throws that screen to Pitta, and it goes for 13. And it's like, oh, I'm going to see that in three plays again. And you do. And they just move the ball. It's weird. Well, the other thing is Dixon's pretty good. And, you know, he's not – it's not like Arizona getting David Johnson

down the stretch of last year or anything. But he's – their running backs are at least confident now, and they can rotate them and do some stuff. Whereas you have the giants that are trying to do that with Jennings and Perkins and just can't, but, uh, yeah. Well, there you go, Bill. You won and it's six, six, two after 14 weeks. I, my history of warning people that so-and-so plays the Patriots well

and be careful of this one is pretty good. So I would urge everybody to respect the Rams. But Belichick's more aware than you are, I think. He might step it up here. It is funny. The defense and the Rams are terrible. I don't want to take anything great away from this game. But this guy they got from this game. But, you know,

this guy they got from this linebacker they got from Detroit that's playing in some of the Collins plays now, and he got an interception today. It does feel like more of a Belichick-y type team than it did a month and a half ago. More no-name guys.

I'm a little more optimistic about the defense, but at the same time, they've just played a terrible schedule. You like it when Hogan catches a touchdown and spikes it and going crazy. You're like, wow, this is a new guy I can get excited for. It's better than Amendola or anybody else catching it. It's more fun.

They are going to have trouble stretching the field against good teams. They're not going to be able to throw over their heads, and the Ravens are going to keep everything up. field against good teams. And that's what the Ravens are going to... They're not going to be able to throw over their heads. And the Ravens are going to keep everything up. But it'll be a really interesting game. And probably a better test for the Ravens. Because if the Ravens can go in there and win,

I think we have to take them seriously. I'll tell you this, too. I see Gronk. I know you got very upset by it. You see him with Walker in the hallway at the hospital. He could be back next week. You could see it. You could just see it.

The guy's coming back. It really hurts. I just miss him. I guess it's just not as much fun to watch the Pats when he's out there. It's still my team. I still love Brady. It's still great. But Gronk was the home run hitter.

He was like the Manny Ramirez or the Ortiz that you just kept watching because you were waiting for them to throw it to him. Is everyone wrong about Martellus Bennett? Because I know when they were together out there, it was going to be like gangbusters, and Gronk was still good. But did he have one, two fantasy points today, zero? I wasn't sure what he did. My guess is that they're saving

a couple things for the Ravens and the Broncos. They're saving the White and Lewis in the backfield and shotgun. They're saving that one. They're saving some of the Bennett plays. I'm sure they're just you know, they know they need to win one of those two games. What do you have to plug? That's it. Cousin Sal, sure thing.

I was one and two this week, but still a profit on the year. I'm turning it around this week. As you can see, there's a lot of games I love out there on the slate. Jimmy Kimmel Live, Monday, Will Smith and Celebrity Chef, Adam Perry Lang. Later in the week, Ryan Seacrest, Ryan Gosling, a couple other Ryans, Jennifer Aniston, and the cast of the new Star Wars movie will be on Friday. And I'm on at the cousin Sal on Twitter. God,

remember the days when it was like the cast of Joe millionaire and I was getting the cast in the Star Wars movie. Unbelievable. Our cousin. Thanks to simply safe, safe 200 off their exclusive holiday package, full on burger protection, 17 sensors,

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Remember, did a giant back and forth about the future of football last week with Malcolm Gladwell. That's on the website. Hopefully some more stuff this week. We have two more podcasts, one Wednesday with a special celebrity guest, and football and basketball on Friday. And then the Cuz comes back. We haven't,

so this will be Dallas Giants Sunday night and then you coming back Monday. It's like old times. It almost feels like that, the Cowboys could blow that game because we haven't had that happen this year. That's true. You coming out pissed off after.

I don't feel vulnerable enough. I know. I know. You coming out pissed off after a Giants loss could be fun. All right, cuz. Thanks for doing the special Sunday night thing. Good job by you.

Good job by you, Billy. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. I feel it's working On the wayside I'm a person never I don't have