The Bill Simmons Podcast - Purdy’s X-Mas Flop, Lamar In Charge, Chiefs In Trouble and Week 17 Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal
Episode Date: December 26, 2023The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the Ravens' decisive win vs. the 49ers (2:09), the Raiders upsetting the Chiefs, Eagles-Giants, Joe Flacco's resurrection/Browns-Texans, an...d Panthers-Packers (18:22), before talking Broncos-Patriots, Vikings-Lions, Chargers-Bills, and Bengals-Steelers (51:36). Next they guess the lines for NFL Week 17 (0:00), before closing the show with Parent Corner (1:13:05) Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Galaxy lights, Coachella, lightning bolt necklaces.
2023 was the year of Scandival.
On March 3rd, one cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated
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We had a lot of fun breaking it down.
So you can check that out on the Rewatchables feed.
Coming up on this podcast,
Cousin Sal and I taping right after
the Ravens-Diners game,
Sunday night, Christmas night,
our families hate us.
We don't care.
We're delivering a podcast to you.
It's next.
First, our friends from ProJet. All right, we're taping this.
It is about 8.35 Christmas night.
I can't remember us doing too many Christmas pods, Sal.
Do you think people bet on what time we tape?
Because you unnecessarily announce the time every time we start.
And now I'm thinking maybe it is necessary.
Maybe people are betting on our start time, which that would make me happy.
That would be fun.
So 835 would be minus 200 every podcast.
Over, under, 839.
I lied.
It's actually 839.
Oh, boy.
I wasn't even honest.
Yeah, I hope we don't have to refund any bets.
Just watched Ravens-Niners,
where the Niners were either 5.5 or 6 all week.
A lot of people had them in teases and parlays
and Moneyline stuff.
And then there was some Ravens momentum
as the week went along.
A lot of people pointing out how the Ravens
had led every single game heading into
midway through the fourth quarter.
Niners, not a good come-from-behind team.
Brock Purdy was sure.
And within two hours,
the Niners bandwagon crashed into a telephone pole.
It was brutal.
The whole effing day was brutal.
It was a Christmas massacre
where Goodell and the gambling gods got together
and shoved it up our Christmas keisters
because everybody had that Moneyline parlay.
I mean, you at least had the Chiefs and Eagles on it.
And the Chiefs, I mean, we'll talk about that game.
And then when they don't show up,
I thought one of those smart people who liked the Ravens,
I'm like, all right, but we already saw our upset.
We're not going to do it again.
And then I doubled up on the Niners, Eagles.
And oh boy, it's good though.
I'm putting on the gifts now.
The kids know I'll put on the gifts like this
iPhone pending
Chiefs covering on a Moneyline parlay.
Otherwise, we'll be restocked
by the end of the day.
We started out, so the most obvious
parlay of the weekend
was Bills, Chiefs,
Eagles. Three team,
10 point tees. I stayed away
from it.
I thought the Bills would easily hit,
and the new coach theory kicked in.
We'll talk about that later.
So then we have the Chiefs.
All of a sudden, they're losing to the Raiders on Christmas morning Pacific time.
The Eagles barely squeaked by.
So it's like, all right,
there's going to be some normalcy tonight with the Niners.
I truly, honestly believe the Niners, healthy,
we're the best team in the league.
Can I throw this theory at you?
Purdy got hurt last week. He had that stinger.
And they were
like, oh, he's fine. And then he had the same
thing happen today in the fourth quarter.
But is it possible Purdy wasn't
healthy for this game? Because
this was not the Purdy we've been watching
all year. I thought, it wasn't just the
interceptions. He had bad luck on maybe one and a half of them, but there were other passes where he was behind
people. There was a couple others that could have been picked. I just thought he looked terrible,
and it didn't add up to what we've seen this season. Either that or he wants to be right.
When he says Christian McCaffrey's the MVP, he's like, all right, let me step aside and let my running back take over here.
Listen, you got to believe me.
McCaffrey's the MVP.
I told you.
That'd be great if he comes on a press conference.
I told you, people.
See how bad I was?
Back off now.
I could have had 10 picks today.
Yeah, he's down to 19 to 1.
He was what, minus 200 to start?
Now, Fandel has Lamar as the favorite at minus 180.
McCaffrey plus 450.
And Brock Purdy's like 60.
He's behind Dak Prescott.
But you might be on to something.
I don't know what to think.
I still think they're number one in the NFC.
It helps that the Cowboys didn't look good.
Helps that the Eagles didn't look good.
Maybe the Bucs are catching up to everybody.
I don't know.
But I still think they're the best.
They just don't want to face the Ravens in the Super Bowl.
I did Million Dollar Picks,
was going through them
with Kevin Wilds
on Thursday's pod,
and I was reading him.
Aaron Schatz had this DVOA stat
heading into this game
that the Niners were third all time
in DVOA through 14 games.
0-7 Pats were one.
91 Washington was second,
and the 84 Bears were fourth. 85 Bears were fourth. The Niners was second. And the 84 bears were fourth,
85 bears were fourth and the Niners were third.
And I was like,
I,
but I'm not getting scared off by this Ravens thing.
I believe in this Niners team.
I think this is a really,
really,
really great team.
But on that list,
the night,
the Ravens were 11th all time heading into this game.
This year's Ravens?
Yeah, this year's Ravens.
And now that's going to be even better after this game.
So the case for them was like, yeah, the Niners are great,
but this Ravens team is pretty great too.
And then you look at the games where really they could be undefeated
with like four or five other plays.
So, you know,
hindsight's 20-20, but this was, I think, the best they've looked all season. I thought their
defense was absolutely flying around. You could feel it instantly. And then Lamar's a cheat code.
The receivers were making plays. And the thing that shocked me was that they were able to run
the ball. I thought when the rookie went out last week, I thought that was going to rob them of their speed from the running game, and it didn't. It didn't seem to matter.
Didn't matter. I felt like they caught the 49ers off guard a little bit. Like you said,
batting down passes, they did everything right, but I still think it's the same team in that,
who was it, House? Someone said, hey, live line, Niners plus 540 here. Harbaugh loves to blow these
games. I don't want to say he came close to blowing it,
but there is always that in the back of your mind,
like that could happen.
Like no lead is safe with this team.
And I'm going to stick with that for the Ravens,
but probably should be the one seed going forward.
So they get a safety, the Niners,
when Lamar scrambles backwards so fast
that he runs kind of into the umpire
in the end zone and throws it against the
intentional grounding. I've
been watching football my whole life. I've
never seen that play, right? That was the first we've
ever seen of that. I felt bad for the
umpire too, but so it's 2-0.
I did too. Yeah. And by the way,
people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa. They call that?
How could they call that? The referee was like, yeah, the
ref's part of the game. How many times have we,
what we have seen is refs get hit with passes
and the ball is intercepted.
Like it all counts.
And that play started at the 20.
So how is that ref supposed to know
five yards deep in the end zone
isn't a safe spot for him?
But go ahead.
Yeah.
It would have been much funnier
if it was a way older ref
because that ref was actually younger
and seemed like he was in pretty good shape
and he just kind of lost his balance. But it would have been funny if it was like the 69-year-old guy who
probably should have retired two years ago who just gets bowled over. So anyway, they get two
points on that. And we've talked over and over again over the years of whether that's enough
points for a safety. It just feels like that's a more important play than what you get credit for. So it's two points.
And then they punt from the 20.
And the guy booms the punt.
And the Niners returner just drops it out of bounds.
So all of a sudden, it's Niners ball on their 20.
Heading into that drive, when the Ravens had the ball,
they were like inside their own 20.
And so it's basically two points.
But now the Niners are on their own 20.
And then all of a sudden, the Ravens were winning.
And just this whole game felt off. I felt like they should have been
able to run McCaffrey. To me, this was a McCaffrey game and they were trying to make it a kiddo on
the receivers game and it worked a little bit, but I just feel like there's another version of
this game where McCaffrey has like 37 carries. Yeah. And who do they play? Washington next week
will probably have like six touchdowns,
and that'll be that.
But yeah, I think you're right.
I don't know if a safety should be worth more,
or maybe they should punt from the 10.
Right?
Or punt from their own end zone.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just not the 20.
It doesn't seem like enough of a penalty sometime.
Yeah.
Or maybe they should have to kick off from their 20 instead of punting.
Yeah, while the ref runs into the kicker.
Yeah, I like all that.
So, yeah, the big thing from an MVP standpoint was, you know,
this is Purdy's award heading into the game.
Now it's Lamar's to lose.
And I don't really see a scenario where, you know,
they played Pittsburgh in the last week.
He'll be fine in that game.
And then this week they're playing. They have another in the last week. He'll be fine in that game. And then this
week, they're playing... They have another
good game this week. They're playing Miami.
Yeah, this is the one.
Yeah, but he'll be at least good in that game.
To me, the MVP is a wrap. I think
Purdy has... Wilds and I talked
about this a little on Thursday.
Purdy is unequivocally the content
MVP, not just of the
NFL this year, but I think of all professional sports.
Yeah.
We've, everybody has some sort of take on him.
It shifted a couple times during the season.
We had that stretch when they lost the three straight
where people were like, nope, see, it's not real.
And then he bounced back and was awesome again.
And now all those people get to change their mind.
And nobody, I don't think is really right. It's like the great unknown. I don't know if there's a right Brock Purdy opinion. He did have great numbers though. What did he have? 29
touchdowns, seven interceptions. And now Lamar has like 19 and seven. I know he has like six
rushing touchdowns and a bunch of rushing yards and everything. But yeah, if you went by pure
numbers and you weren't going to give it to a running back, Purdy was a good pick. But man, I don't think we've ever seen odd shift like this
this late in the season. From minus 200 to 19 to one, we've never seen that. And yet I was rooting
for that fifth interception. What do we call that? The Peterman? We call the four the Dallome.
No, it's the Dallome.
Oh, the Dallome had five? I thought he had four.
I thought the Dallome was basically, it was five turnovers,
whether it's four interceptions and a fumble or five.
It's got to be the full D'Lome, I think, is if it's five picks.
Just straight picks.
I looked at the guys with five interceptions.
I wanted to make a big deal out of it.
Then I saw my guy Romo was on there.
I'm like, oh, maybe I won't even bring this up.
But there are as many guys in the Hall of Fame as there are Nathan Peterman.
It's like, well, Eli will get in, I'm sure.
The Peyton Manning and Russ and Favre. Some good
Kurt Warners on there. Brady had a four interception stinker
during his 0-1 season. The first year as a starter that
definitely threw some water on the Brady versus Bledsoe thing.
But yeah, I mean, so the Ravens had the best record in the league.
They're in the driver's seat now for the one seed in the AFC.
They just got to beat Miami next week,
which won't be a walk in the park,
but Waddle's got a high ankle sprain.
There's been some offensive line injuries.
Their defensive line, I don't think Miami is quite the same team
maybe they were six weeks ago.
They're definitely more beatable.
So the Ravens can get the one seed, they get a bye.
You'd have to go through Baltimore the first two rounds.
Then they would be in Vegas for the Super Bowl,
which I think a dome would be good for that team because they're fast.
So to me, I think a dome would be good for that team because they're fast.
To me, I think they're legit favorites now. I didn't even see what the odds were.
I was screaming about the Niners at plus 220 all week. Now they're only plus
230 and the Ravens are plus 460.
That's right now? Is that on Fandle?
That's on Fandle. I feel like they haven't disrespected this win here.
Really?
You think they leave it open like that?
I don't know.
I think they should flip that.
Yeah, you're right.
They should be updating that.
How are the Ravens?
How do they?
That doesn't make sense.
That's bizarre.
I think it was Raheem who said on the Ringer Gambling Show,
the best bet all week,
if you thought the Ravens had a chance to win this game, was the
Lamar MVP odds. I said that.
Oh, you said it. Plus 450.
We talked about that on Against the Laws. It was 5-1
and we were saying, like, if you like
the Ravens to win Sunday or
Monday night, you might as well take Lamar.
Yeah. So they
were like plus, what,
plus 200 to win the game today?
Yeah. But the MVP odds were 5-1.
And now I would say it's pretty much a wrap.
I don't think Sam Darnold did enough today either to get in there.
To win MVP?
No.
No, he came in.
As we're doing this, was Purdy 19-1 when you looked at this earlier?
Yeah, he was just 19-1 when I looked.
He's dropped to sixth.
Yeah, it's crazy.
It's craziness.
Oh, my God.
We've never seen a shift like that from one game,
and yet it makes sense.
Maybe we're not.
Maybe we weren't monitoring this week to week like we used to.
I mean, maybe we're monitoring it more closely,
but I don't remember it swinging week to week like this.
It feels like since week four, it's been...
I remember that one year when Russell Wilson,
after four or five weeks, and we were doing,
oh, Russell Wilson, he's number one.
Maybe this is the year.
But this is where it's been like each week there's a new guy.
Dak week seemed like it was five months ago.
It was like two weeks ago.
Yeah.
I think when there's no Mahomes in the mix
and no Rodgers and no Brady,
it really is anyone's game, right?
Yeah.
Well, on the Ravens' side, this felt Super Bowl-y, this game.
Yeah, definitely felt like a playoff game.
If it's not San Francisco, who is it?
Because it's probably your stupid team.
Why? Could this be a Baltimore-Dallas?
Based on this weekend?
No. I don't know.
Was that a horrible loss for you?
Or was there some moral victory
pieces in there? That drive
Dak had was about as good as
anything I've seen from Dak in his career.
That was a clutch drive
that if his defense holds up,
we're talking about, oh my God, Dallas,
they finally arrived, here we go.
And instead you gave up the game-winning drive.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I don't trust the coaches
more than anything.
And I praised McCarthy last week
and I hated him for handing off to the fullback
on first and goal.
Not even really the fullback's fault.
It never got to him. And I didn't like the defense for the fullback on first and goal. Not even really the fullback's fault. It never got to him.
And I didn't like the defense for the fewest pressures in three years.
And then Dan Quinn, we were joking about,
hey, do you let the Dolphins score from the 40?
But they were a no-man's land with four and a half minutes left.
Don't let this be their last drive.
Don't let them line up for a field goal.
And that's exactly what they did.
They gave them five-yard passes all the way
down to the 15 or 20.
Yeah, that sucked. I thought
they didn't play great, but they were still in a
good position to win.
Again, I don't know if
that game mattered as much. You just don't want to keep
losing games like this is the problem.
That game and this
Ravens-Niners game felt
like the level of play was a little bit higher
than everything else we watched over the course of the week.
To me, those all felt like teams I could see in a Super Bowl.
And they all have a little bit of flaws.
I think the Ravens, their running game at some point
against the wrong team,
the fact that they don't have an awesome running back
is going to hurt them a little bit.
But, you know, Lamar three, four times a game just creates something out of nothing where,
you know, that's, that's something that Patriots like with the quarterbacks we've had the last
couple of years, when you don't have that quarterback who could just create a wow play
out of nowhere, he does it once a quarter. But I thought those four, especially with what happened
with Casey today, what Buffalo looked like, you go through and it's like,
those are probably the four best teams.
And Philly looked like a loss today, right?
I mean, basically went back and forth between maybe covering a giant number
and losing the game outright between a team.
Well, the long touchdown late was just outrageous.
Like that can never happen.
The giant touchdown? Yeah, you're trying can never happen. The Giants touchdown?
Yeah, you're trying to prove to us
you're a serious Super Bowl contender
and you're right at the ship
and then you give up this long touchdown.
And even at the end of the game,
you're barely holding on to this eight-point win
where the Giants have the ball
and they have a chance to at least tie it.
That game did not make me feel better about the Eagles.
What kind of odds could I give you that
a participant in last year's Super Bowl
doesn't win a playoff game this year?
The Chiefs or Eagles
don't win. They'll both have
a home game. Do they
survive that home game? Because if I'm on the other
side, I see those Chiefs.
If I'm the Browns, I'm like, oh God, yeah.
We got a Max Crosby. We got two
Max Crosbyys on our team.
I love to play Mahomes.
We love to chase them around.
And Eagles, I don't know.
Throw the Rams at them or a team like that,
they'd be in trouble too.
Let's take a break.
I want to talk about the Chiefs.
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All right. So we had the three games today where it starts out with Chiefs-Raiders,
which I got to be honest,
I just thought the Chiefs defense
would win this game by itself
and the Chiefs would just kind of have the ball a lot.
Wouldn't be that fun of a game.
It came out at 10 o'clock in the morning,
West Coast time.
Just seemed like your classic.
It's 9-0 in the third quarter, and the Raiders have 50 yards rushing.
That's kind of what the game was, except for the Chiefs' offense part.
The Raiders, what was that stat?
When was Aiden O'Connell's last completion?
First quarter.
In first quarter, that was it.
He had nine completions the whole game.
Bizarre game.
4.2 yards per play for the Chiefs.
And I thought the body language was...
We're taping this as the Suns are playing the Mavericks right now.
The Suns have the worst body language in the NBA right now
of any good team.
The Chiefs' body language, I can't tell if it's...
We have married couples in our lives who are like, oh, they're fighting again,
but it feels like a bit. Deep down, they love each other. And then there's the married couples
where you're like, oh man, they're fighting again. This is fucking awkward. Bob might be
sleeping on our living room couch tonight. To me, the Chiefs have more married couple that still
loves each other,
fighting energy, but the body language is awful. It's so funny you say that. My wife and I think
of that just by looking at the Christmas cards. We could tell the body language. We don't have
to see them at the party, but you're right. Christmas card, body language doctor.
Just analyzing the cards. But yeah, you're right, man. They were
awful. He's running for his life.
He had to make every play work. I thought Romo
called a good game. He's going to have to make it
work with his legs if they're going to win this.
And yet, the
Raiders didn't score an offensive point
and they won that game. Didn't complete
a pass. If you saw that box score,
how much would you have put on the Chiefs' money
line? It was one of those where you could have gone and quickly take a shower
and you come back and the Raiders have 15 more points or whatever they had.
I've made this point before, but I'm going to make it more
strongly now. This Chiefs team really reminds me of
Brady's last season with the Pats, where
it all looked the same.
Structurally, it was the same.
Belichick, Brady, the Pats had just won the Super Bowl.
And we kind of knew something was wrong
the entire second half of the season,
but didn't want to admit it.
Then they lost the Fitzpatrick game.
Pats were 12-4 that year.
They lost in round one, 20-13 to Tennessee.
KC's 9-6 this year.
The Pats lost. They went 4-4 in their last eight, 20 to 13 to Tennessee. KC's nine and six this year. The Pats lost.
They went four and four in their last day,
including the playoff game.
The Chiefs are three and five in their last day,
which is, I couldn't believe that when I was like,
man, they're probably 500 in their last day.
It's worse.
They're three and five.
The Pats had the crap running backs.
It was like Sonny Michelle, Rex Burkhead,
the last years of James White.
Chiefs, same thing.
It's just, you know, it's like, oh my God, Isaiah Pacheco's out.
This is like a huge thing for them.
They had no Tyreek this year.
Pats didn't have Gronk because that was the year he retired.
Edelman is kind of the Kelsey of that Pats team.
And then the rest of the Pats receivers, it was like Philip Dorsett,
washed up Josh Gordon.
Jacoby Myers was a rookie.
That was the year they thought they were going to get Antonio Brown, and it fell through.
And it just reminds me that where Mahomes had really great moments in the game today,
but his receivers are never open.
And he's just buying himself eight, nine, ten seconds, and it just doesn't matter.
And to me, it's not an overreaction to say,
I just think this team, I just don't think they have it.
To me, this is a let's bet against them round one situation officially.
Yeah, I'm with you.
I thought going into this week, I'm like, all right,
you know, Andy Reid, smart, maybe like Popovich,
you know, maybe my basketball talk, but maybe he's like,
he knows.
I knew you'd bring basketball.
Jesus Christ.
By the way, I didn't even know there was a game going on now.
Should we postpone it?
Should we watch that? No, it's fine.
I don't have it on.
Maverick's game?
Are you sure?
No, it's fine.
I'm taking it.
But no, I was thinking like Andy Reid, maybe he's learned and it's like, all right, we
don't want to peak too early, which is what some of these teams do.
So they'll turn it on today.
I thought it was the day they would turn it on.
I honestly don't think like Mahomes is confident going to any of those receivers.
He had a head start with Kadarius Toney being out.
He didn't have to worry about that disaster show.
But even so, they did nothing offensively.
Really bad.
The Pats receiving yards a year.
Edelman had 1,100.
So that's basically where Kelsey is going to end up. Their second receiver, the 2019 Pats, yards a year, Edelman had 1,100. So that's basically where Kelsey's going to end up.
Their second receiver, the 2019 Pats, was James White with 645 yards.
Right.
Dorsett, 397.
Jacoby Myers, 359.
Josh Gordon, 287.
And they traded for Mohamed Sanu midseason.
He gave them 207.
When you don't have the weapons, you don't have the weapons.
To me, I was thinking in my head, this is more like the
2006 Pats where Brady dragged
them to the AFC title game with nobody.
It feels more like
2019. They don't have it.
They had a great run. This is a five-year run,
but somebody's going to beat them.
I still don't really get it because they won
the Super Bowl without Tyreek Hill, right?
So I don't... It doesn't completely add up, except it all just goes away at once.
Well, Kelsey's worse.
There's no question.
Yeah.
He's worse.
He's not getting open in the same ways.
And I don't know.
They just, they seemed a little more banged up on both sides.
They've had some injury luck.
And I don't think they hit the draft this year the same way.
Last year, they crushed the draft.
And all those dudes were helping right away.
It doesn't seem like they've had the same success this year.
You think if you ask Kelsey if he could be himself from 2020
or himself from this year, what would he say?
Does he get Taylor Swift this year?
He's himself from 2020.
I think he'd probably be in better
position.
So he doesn't have Taylor Swift
in 2020? No Taylor Swift, but he's a
good football player. He's super happy.
He's a two-time
champion and he's dating Taylor Swift.
He's thinking right now.
He's probably thinking like, man, I don't know
how much more I want to do this. When he whipped the helmet
down.
Right now they're the three seed,
which means they would play Buffalo.
There's two incredible possibilities right now.
So we have the 13 seconds rematch
because Buffalo's the six seed right now.
The other one,
Detroit against the Rams.
Stafford going to Detroit.
Homecoming.
Goff going against McVay.
I don't even know.
What's the signature game that first weekend?
It's the Sunday night game, right?
Well, there's a Monday game.
Saturday's three in a row.
Isn't there a Monday game too?
But Monday's not the signature game.
No, they usually make that the four or five.
It's like, oh, this is the game.
That'll be like... I mean, that the 4-5. It's like, oh, this is the game. That'll be like...
I mean, that might be your team.
That could be Tampa Bay-Dallas.
Yeah, or that could be Monday, too.
Because I was thinking Rams-Detroit would be the Saturday night game.
Big Rams.
Rams-Detroit, and then the Sunday game.
The KC-Buffalo is the biggest audience game.
That's Central Castle.
Yeah, for sure.
Another great one, and now
we may have to wait until the second round to see it.
Browns-Ravens. Flacco
going back to Baltimore.
Oh, man.
That's a fun one.
If they couldn't get the one,
it's the only way.
Well, that's not going to happen.
Right now, we could get
Cleveland-Jacksonville in round one,
which I think is the shakiest game, right?
Flacco against injured, losing his confidence, Trevor Lawrence.
We'll talk about him later.
But I think Cleveland has a chance to be favored in that game.
I think you're right.
Because Jacksonville has been garbage at home this year anyway
I think that's like
a Cleveland by
minus one and a half
something like that
who's betting
who's betting Jacksonville
that game
nobody
so
Eagles Giants today
Tommy DeVito got whacked
when was the last time
the Eagles played a good game
that you felt like oh the Eagles I'm scared
I mean going back to October right pre-Halloween I can't I mean even like they almost lost twice
to Washington who doesn't play anyone good anymore I yeah you're right it had to be October
it's still weird there's I've said this before but there's a weird flow to that team
it's like a lack of urgency they like they't like, oh, they're hustling up.
Oh, they changed the pace.
It's just everything's like deliberate.
Everything's like seems exhausted.
Then they, all right, we'll throw to A.J. Brown.
Like everything is so begrudging with that team.
I don't really understand it.
And then defensively, I mean,
even Tyrod Taylor was picking them apart.
So that was a bad game for them.
Going backwards to yesterday's game.
Flacco is now 3-1.
The Browns are 10-5 with Nick Chubb going down week one.
Right?
That was the Monday night game week one.
Yep.
And they've started four QBs.
And they're 10-5.
They're pretty much locked into the five seed unless they fuck up the last two weeks here.
But this Flacco story I think is
I think the most unexpected story of the year.
I'm not counting injuries like Aaron Rodgers
getting hurt, something like that.
Flacco coming back from the dead.
We were having fun betting against Joe Flacco
like three years ago.
I don't even remember the last time
he's been truly competent.
What's crazy is he just looks good on this team.
It makes you wonder like,
are there just certain teams or offenses for a quarterback?
Because he didn't look like this in the Jets.
The play action looks awesome.
He's revived Amari Cooper,
who murdered a million fantasy teams over the weekend.
But it really feels legitimate when you watch it.
I don't think it feels fluky, do you?
He has a look on his face.
You're right.
He's confident as if he had a team meeting and said,
Hey, our defense is so good.
You're going to allow me one or two picks,
and I'm just going to be a gunslinger,
and I'm going to find Amari Cooper or Elijah Moore.
And Cooper, when I saw him, you and I both went against him in fantasy and it crushed us.
Like he broke the record for receiving yards for a Brown, like, which was like 38 yards.
I think before now, two 65, which is crazy, but he might to think about it.
He and Cooper could be one of the top three hookups in going into the playoffs.
And Baker and Evans could be one of the other two.
Like, it's crazy what's going on this year.
Doesn't make sense.
They've had injuries on both lines.
Yeah.
I think Stefanski has to be coach of the year.
Yeah.
Right?
I don't think there's any question now.
There's a McVay case that's probably down to those two
with two games left.
But I think...
Four quarterbacks.
Four quarterbacks is nuts.
Plus, waiving Josh Dobbs, who probably would have been the fifth one.
I mean, this is a team that started PJ Walker for a couple games
and then cut him.
How many teams have cut a guy that started for them multiple games?
And then Garrett, I think, is defensive player of the year.
But they really kicked Houston's ass.
That was a fun one, I bet, on Cleveland.
Houston's in major trouble
when we go to the
AFC wildcard stuff.
Buffalo's up to the sixth seed.
We have Indy, Pittsburgh, Cincy, and Houston
all at 8-7, and Denver
screwed up, and they're at 7-8.
But Indy
is the wild
card to lose because they already beat
Pittsburgh.
I think they beat Cincy too.
Pittsburgh's the one that's the most screwed.
But Indy has Las Vegas
next week and then Houston at home
in week 18.
So it seems like they control their destiny.
Meanwhile,
what were the odds that Vegas would still be alive
heading into week 17 in the playoff hunt?
Because they're technically still alive
and have beaten a couple of these teams.
I saw something that they're at 80%
if they win their last two to get in.
And it would be, it's not unwinnable games.
Like you said, they're at Indy.
And then now I'm lost here.
What's the last game?
The Broncos. Home against the Broncos.
So they could be 9-8 and get in.
So the more
9-8 teams, I think the better
it is for them. There's also
a crazy scenario where KC
loses their last two and the Raiders are still
technically
alive for the AFC West.
I was all excited because my big preseason boost for FanDuel
was that San Francisco, KC, Philadelphia all make the playoffs.
Parlay, which they boosted to plus 130.
And I've hit the last two in basketball,
and we hit last year's in football.
So this is the one we did together for this year.
Nice.
And I was all excited to tweet it out today.
Hit another one. We're in a four parlay streak. Are we good? Yeah, we're good.
I don't feel awesome with Casey yet. What do we think though about this Antonio Pierce? I know he's getting like a lot of praise and I like the guy from what I see, but you're not going to find
a more bizarre stretch of three games that the Raiders have played. They don't score at home against Minnesota.
Four days later, they put up 63 against the Chargers.
And then today, they don't score any offensive points
and beat the Chiefs on the road.
I guess it's the coach.
I don't know.
I don't know what to think of this team.
They could lose by 40 the last two or win by 20.
Yeah, I wouldn't.
To me, I'd be a little nervous.
I always feel like the interim NFL coach is like starting to date somebody right before
you go away for freshman year of college.
Like, hey, let's have some fun, but you don't want to lock it down.
We have no idea if this guy should be somebody that coaches for the next four years.
They hated McDaniels so much.
How do you even weigh that variable?
You could feel it with the Chargers this week.
The Chargers with Easton Stick
almost beat Buffalo.
And those guys were flying around like it was the Super Bowl.
So I don't know how to gauge that.
We love Basachi, right?
Was that his name? Basachi?
Oh, Pip Osrich.
Yeah, for the Raiders.
Special teams coach.
Vegas is somewhere in there.
But if the playoffs started right now,
Miami against Indianapolis,
KC against Buffalo,
Jacksonville, Cleveland, and the AFC,
and then in the NFC,
it would be Philly, Seattle,
Detroit Rams,
Tampa Bay, Dallas.
Admit it.
Deep down,
you're like a whiff scared of the Bucs.
Not that deep.
Not very deep at all.
Like you do.
Like one of those tiny kid shovels to get there.
I think three weeks ago, that line was probably seven, seven and a half.
And now it's probably three and a half, four.
Cowboys favorite, right?
Probably Vegas.
Yeah. Yeah, I don't love that. Oh, it's in Tampa, though. It's Probably Vegas. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't love that.
Oh, it's in Tampa, though.
It's in Tampa, yeah.
Well, Dallas will be favored. So it'll be somewhere between
three and a half and four and a half.
Do you know what they signed
Mayfield for before the season?
What was it?
I don't know.
What do you think it was?
Take a guess.
Was it more than what I lost tonight
on the Chiefs in 49ers?
It was exactly the same number.
It was one year, $8.5
million. A little less.
That's the signing of the year.
Yeah, that's great. I mean, he's been
with the 8th, 9th, 10th best
quarterback in the league this year. He beat
Trevor Lawrence pretty badly.
There's excuses now
about he's got a shoulder sprain.
I don't know how that explains the last few weeks with him.
And they're probably going to, I would say,
have to give him a new contract.
That's up to Mike Evans.
So this might be one of those fool's gold situations
where you're like, all right, everybody back, here's money.
And then you go six and 11 next year.
But the Trevor Lawrence thing,
Lombardi talked about this on his
podcast last week and
I wrote it down wondering about
how he'd look this
weekend. He looked terrible.
Would you pay him?
He's going to be due for the
$250 million extension.
That's this year?
Has he shown you
basically anything to make you want to give that money?
I was thinking like, oh, NBA, I'm bringing it in.
It reminds me of the Bradley Beal situation a little bit that Washington was in,
where it was like, ah, he's our franchise guy.
It's the going rate.
You got to pay him.
And nobody felt good about it.
I don't know how you'd feel good about giving Trevor Lawrence $260 million.
It is very weird, right?
Because we see all these backups come in and the Tommy DeVitos,
and they leave you with very little hope.
But then you see, like we just talked about, Baker and Flacco
and how these guys, maybe if they're in the right situation,
they could thrive.
Maybe a Calvin Ridley really turns things around for them.
So I don't know where...
I don't know.
I would say no right now to signing him.
You'd say no, and then by February, you're going,
well, he didn't have his left tackle two different stretches during the year.
He lost Christian Kirk halfway through the year.
He lost Zay Jones right before their biggest game of December.
You could start making excuses left and right.
They're going to end up paying them.
Well, don't you just tag them?
You tag them one year.
You do what you do with all these guys.
And then you see.
Well, wouldn't they get in a situation
like what Baltimore was in with Lamar?
Yeah.
Where you're kind of like,
hey, if somebody wants to make an offer,
but nobody really wants to spend time making an offer because
it's like the Lamar situation, which has been remembered a little bit incorrectly
as the months go along. You could have gotten them, but
it was up to them whether they wanted to take the two first round.
They could match. And if you believe the real conspiracy theorists that
everyone was in collusion and so they weren't going to allow anybody but the Ravens to get them anyway.
No, I would love to make fun of the Atlantas.
And who screwed up the most by not getting Lamar?
Washington.
Washington.
Atlanta, Washington, Carolina were the three.
Because Carolina could have just gotten Lamar and instead they traded all that draft capital for Bray Sion.
But we've never seen, I guess the last time this happened, ironically, was with Flacco.
When Flacco won the Super Bowl.
And remember, all of a sudden he was due for that big contract.
And all of a sudden he was making like, what was it?
It was like $25 million a year or some crazy number at the time.
Got $100 million plus contract.
And everyone was like, oh my God, that's so much money for Joe Flacco.
And it didn't turn out that great.
So this situation, he's young enough and you can make excuses
and you can point to the Chargers come back last year.
But to me, he has not been one of the best 15 quarterbacks I've watched this year.
I would not put him in the top half.
Would you?
God, no.
And this was the year to break out, right?
This was the year that he should have jumped to the top five.
It's insane.
Speaking of quarterbacks with signs of life,
Bryce Young almost beat...
So I had a rollercoaster ride of a day on Saturday.
I had Panthers-Packers.
I was convinced the Panthers had a chance to beat the Packers.
Bryce was terrible for the first hour of the game.
Just missing guys.
You did it great.
You killed him on our text exchange,
and then you praised him on Twitter.
That's the way to do it.
I killed him a couple times on Twitter.
Oh, on Twitter too?
I took a couple shots at Twitter too.
He fell way behind
and then got super comfortable in the second half.
And all of a sudden, it was like, this is it.
This is what they saw when they gave this guy,
it's against Green Bay's defense and Joe Barry, who
I was thinking out like Ben Johnson
is the hot coaching
candidate, head coaching candidate, the
line's offensive coordinator.
Joe Barry is the cold
head coaching candidate. He's not hot
at all. He's frigid. But
Bryce was picking them apart, and
they come down, and they tied
the game.
Now there's two minutes left. The Packers are
driving down. It's third down or whatever.
They chuck it down to Dobbs, who's done
nothing the whole game. Catches it,
rolls over, and loses the ball.
Most of the time,
this isn't a catch, but this time, it was
like he caught the ball in his back, and then
he rolled over, but it didn't count. And all of a sudden it was Packers
that kept the ball and they kicked the field goal, but they almost beat them. But if I'm the
Panthers, at least I have some hope now.
And they're still going to end up with the
draft. I agree. They have two linemen in the bottom tent
of all linemen.
So it's not all Bryce Young's fault.
You got to give him a minute to survive.
But that's why I love this sport.
I really do.
Everybody's trying.
The Panthers are trying.
Not that they would get a pick anyway, but they're a bad team.
They could have gone 2-15, whatever.
This Mavericks game, notwithstanding, the NFL is the best.
Everybody's trying, Simmons. Well, then you have the Pats,
who, let's take a break and we'll
talk about them.
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Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special alright so Kyle
we had some family over
for Christmas Eve
including
nephew Kyle
and
intentionally didn't put
the Pats game on
but was kind of monitoring it
they take a big lead
and I'm just like
you gotta be kidding me
like
this
we're really
we're gonna screw this one up
we're gonna
fall out of the top three
because Belichick
who might be leaving
in three weeks
and he's on his way out, is just going to
grab a couple more wins with Bailey Zappi
and then tell us to fuck off.
And then Wilson comes back. Kyle and
I now leave the table and
we kind of sneak over to an adjacent room that
has a TV and we're watching and
the Broncos come down. They score.
They get the two point.
And this is it. We, we've done the job.
This is the most honorable loss you could have with the Pats.
Now Bailey Zappi's going to take us home and throw a pick or get strip-sacked.
Nope.
Brought him down.
Our rookie kicker, who is the worst kicker in the league,
who had already missed an extra point in a field goal,
and it's like, well, at least this guy will fuck up for us.
Nope. 56 right down the middle.
Perfect.
In the altitude.
And it knocked us out of the top three.
And Washington, who came back to almost beat the Jets and didn't.
So now the Pats are fourth.
And now, you know what?
I'm at peace with it now.
Good.
I'm done.
This was a dumb bit anyway.
Maybe Jaden Daniels would be better than the other two guys.
I'm fine with it.
Whatever.
Yeah.
How do you know?
And by the way, Kyle, turn the TikTok camera on yourself for a second.
You're rooting for the Patriots in this situation.
You could pretend you're not, but you are.
I promise you he wasn't.
Let him answer, Kyle.
No, he wasn't.
He was not rooting for them.
No, I was not.
The worst part was that all the women in our life,
basically the grandmasmas were asking why we
wanted them to lose when we all knew so we had to then explain it too so that was not good like
wait but i don't understand and we're like i don't want to talk about it anymore and they're like but
just tell me why you want them to lose it wasn't good well i'm not a grandma i'm not a grandma and
i need you to explain it to me like you could tell the difference between drake may or caleb
williams or jayden dan I mean, come on at this point.
Don't you feel bad that that old man is freezing?
You think he wants to lose those games on the sideline?
No, he's trying to catch you.
I get it.
It was actually funny to try to explain this to Kyle's wife who knows nothing about sports.
And she didn't understand why we were rooting against our team.
So we're trying to explain to her. I said, this whole Pat season was like being on a seven-hour date
with the worst person you've ever been on a date with.
But at the end of the date, there's a chance you could win $50,000.
You're just trying to make it through the date,
make it through the date, make it through the date
because there's this prize at the end
that will at least make
the shittiness worth it.
And then at the six-hour mark,
the waiter came over and said,
we've decided not to give the $50,000
up. That's pretty
good. That's as good.
Kyle, she like semi
understood that, I felt like. I think that you landed
the plane with that one. I think she got it.
She's like, Kyle, does Bill need money?
Does he really need $50,000?
What is that about?
I don't understand that.
What happened?
Yeah, so it's really hard to explain to non-sports people
the process of rooting against your team.
But the thing is, when you get one of these guys,
five years later, you don't remember this season.
Like, you know't remember this season.
The year the Celtics, we tanked that whole year
and we ended up with the fifth pick anyway. We weren't trying
to get Durant, but we were able to trade him for
in the KG trade
or in the Ray Allen trade.
I don't remember anything about that season
now. I remember being miserable when it was happening,
but they
just kind of come and go.
I would say the one thing that was kind of cool was reading the stories the next day and seeing
some of the clips. This team really is playing for Belichick.
It's not nothing. And I don't
understand whether it's the guys that they've either
drafted or signed to come play, if it's a certain character type, or whether
they really like the guy and respect him and his accomplishments but they they're still going not a lot some of these teams
fold as we hit this part of the season but they have not i mean think about belichick in your
bad date equation like he must be like man i did so much for this team and these fans and now
everybody's rooting against me now they're taking my fifty thousand dollar prize away from me which
wins record.
I know.
But the thing is,
I still want him to come back as coach.
And I'm still hoping that that's how it plays out.
And that would be...
So there's two ways to look at either.
He's trying to establish a foundation
with the guys we have
because he feels like he's coming back next year
or he doesn't give a shit because he's leaving.
But I still feel like
him giving up the player personnel stuff
and just being the coach is how this should land.
He's better than any other coach they're going to get.
A couple other things from the weekend before we go to Guest Alliance.
Lions-Vikings, did you watch a lot of that game or were you busy?
Yeah, it was fun.
Did you see enough football this weekend or did you have too much family stuff?
I think it beat me up a little bit.
I think too much, actually.
I would never say that, but it started Thursday.
What is this? Monday, it's still going?
Right.
Another lucky Lions
win. The Lions continue
to leave. That's, I think, the
NFC, other than Philly, the
leave you cold team as you watch them. Nick Mullins had four picks.
Right.
And Minnesota still almost won.
They lost Hawkinson during the game.
They lost Addison during the game.
They have the worst set of running backs,
probably, of all the possible playoff teams.
And they were still hanging around, hanging around,
hanging around with a chance to win.
And Mullins just killed them.
I went through the games.
I think they'd have a chance to be 11-ins just killed them. I went through the games. I think they'd have a chance
to be 11-4 with Cousins.
Because they had,
since he went out,
they lost to Denver by one.
They lost to the Bears by two.
They lost to Cincy by three
in a game they had last week
and they blew
and then they lost this Lions game.
I really feel like they could have won
all those games.
And it's weird to think that
Cousins, this guy who was like Mr. 500
and nobody took that seriously, really until the quarterback show on Netflix.
But now it's like that could have been one of the key injuries of the year.
When he went down, I was like, oh my God, Minnesota,
we lost a possible division champ.
I don't think anyone thought that,
but I actually think they could have won the division championship.
Yeah, well, I mean, last year they won all their one score games.
Right.
And then this year they went,
the only pushback I'll give you is cousins was on his way to losing a lot
of one score game.
So maybe luck wasn't on his side,
but yeah,
there are specific games you think he could have pulled out.
Uh,
well,
he definitely would have won that 12,
10 bears game.
Yeah.
I think he would have won the one last week against Cincy and,
this one, this lion's game. And this Lions game, definitely 100%.
I thought they were going to win Minnesota.
They were down 10.
I checked that live line.
I'm like, all right, I'm going to put a few on it.
What the hell does it matter?
I'm losing anyway.
And then what was it?
Fourth and 21 when he completed to Jefferson?
I was like, wow.
This team could go far.
And then just one underthrown pass too many.
Jefferson had three absolutely unbelievable plays in that game
that made me think like Tyreek wins the best receiver title this year,
but Jefferson's not far away.
Not going away, yeah.
The Bills Chargers, we mentioned that earlier,
the new coach theory.
So they covered, does the new coach theory,
is it for covering games or for actually winning outright?
I couldn't remember.
I think it's covering.
But it was a couple things, though, because it's a scary proposition.
But when the team wins by 20 the week before,
which the Bills did to the Cowboys, team loses by 20,
really 40 as the Chargers did to the Raiders.
You got to take the underdog in that situation
and you add the new coach thing
to it. And it didn't make any sense,
but the Chargers were... And by the way,
it seemed like a pro-Charger crowd
there for the first time ever.
I don't know.
I thought this was going to be a
50,000 Bills fans came here for the
holiday break, but I don't think that was the case at all.
So that game left me.
I know the Bills coming off the emotional win the week before,
but that game was a little scary for the whole.
Although the Bills have figured it out.
All systems go.
Look out.
I mean, they couldn't have been luckier to win that game.
The last one we got to talk about just quick is Steelers-Bengals.
Just from a standpoint of Mason Rudolph,
I made this case when we did Million Dollar Picks on Thursday
because we took the Steelers,
that if you went back and looked at his 2019,
it's pretty good except for that one Browns game
when he threw four picks
and then Miles Garrett hit him with the helmet.
I think that was the same game.
But he was pretty good.
Why wouldn't they have played him over Trubisky the last month?
I don't understand it.
How is he not better than Trubisky?
Trubisky, three years ago, we knew Trubisky was terrible.
It's looking a little like coach malpractice here, right?
Like they operated on the wrong knee.
Like, no, no, no, you circled the wrong area there.
Yeah, and the Rudolph jokes are great, no, no, no. You circled the wrong area there. Yeah.
And the Rudolph jokes are great.
Everybody keep them coming with Christmas.
But yeah, he went out there and he crushed them.
I mean, they didn't have any sign of life in them, Cincinnati.
So, you know, Pittsburgh, he's got to do it, Tomlin.
He's got to be eight and seven going into the last two weeks every year.
Well, it's not lined up for him this year.
No. They got to play at Well, it's not lined up for them this year. No.
They got to play at Seattle,
at Baltimore.
At Baltimore, yeah.
Last two.
They lost.
They need help.
They need Indy to lose.
They need Houston to lose.
They just need a lot of stuff
going on.
And then the...
Our stupid Saints.
I just want the bet.
I just want resolution.
I just... I almost want to let the bet go. I want to bring Dr. Bivork in and just like, can we kill the bet I just want resolution I almost want to let the bet go
I want to bring Dr. Kevorkian in
and just like can we kill the bet
but they're playing at Tampa this week
and then they're home for Atlanta
and they actually have their destiny in their own hands
they could beat Tampa this week
win at home against Atlanta
and that garbage Saints team could be 9-8
and we win our NFC South bet
I can't stand them
my fantasy week starts out with Kamara who puts up the 3.5 points to get me
coming out of the gate against Hensch.
I lost in the semifinals to Hensch who got Amari Cooper 40.5 points,
whatever the fuck it was.
Hensch loses Burrow.
He lost Nick Chubb.
And then he lost Chase just for this week, which I
think were his three guys
that he paid for. And then
I dominated our league the whole year.
I dominated it. And then Hench beat me
in the semifinals. And I'm out again.
I don't want to stir the pot,
but someone referred to you
versus Hench as the insufferable.
Who was the someone?
It wasn't me. I don't want to start
trouble. What's that? Insufferable.
No, it wasn't. It wasn't Damoshek.
If you keep
asking me, I'll tell you eventually.
The insufferable is pretty funny
though, I thought. I need Hench
to win now because he's going against Damoshek.
I know. You called him out. This is tough.
Now, if Damoshek wins, I'm not even going to the draft
next year. I'm not even giving him
the satisfaction
of having the chance
to vote me out.
He should kick Jon Hamm out. Jon Hamm kicked him out.
That's how it would go, right?
Whatever it'll be, it'll be the wrong move.
Stupid. I'll never win the vote out league
this is my best chance
I had the best team
this year and I still lost
I don't know what else to do
well you had all Eagles
not that that killed you today
but is that
is that a good
no what killed me was
was the Camara
and
yeah
what was the other guy
I had
it's just it was one of those.
You could just tell.
I'm watching. I forgot
who had Amari Cooper. He starts
the game with the 75 yard touchdown.
I'm like, wait, does Hench have Amari Cooper?
Of course he does.
I played him against Connor in our league.
How was that?
It's the worst. Fantasy's
the worst. Don't ever get involved, kids.
Let's do, I guess, the Lions.
Thursday game.
I love that we have a Thursday game.
The schedule's been relentless.
Even you and I,
who love football as much as anyone,
even I'm like,
you know what?
I'm good.
I could take like a week off.
Browns are home for the Jets.
The Jets had an all-time
hilarious...
First they announced the extensions.
Or not announced, but it leaked.
Salah and Joe Douglas are coming back
because they did an awesome job this year.
All they did was hold the team hostage,
pretend that Rodgers was coming back,
not fix the quarterback situation when there
are a million different options.
Salah in three years has shown me
no evidence that he's a real head coach.
This, to me, is the sequel
to the Brandon Staley thing last year.
Brandon Staley loses to the Jaguars,
and it's like, this is it.
We should be done with this, right?
They're like, nope, he's coming back.
And it was even worse.
And the Salah thing, I don't...
Well, I'm with you, but I think this...
They bring in Hackett as the offensive coordinator
who's been terrible?
Oh, that's terrible.
Come on.
I think the extension thing is like the Madden curse.
I feel like more guys get fired months after an extension
than ever before.
Kingsbury got fired.
It was another one recently.
Belichick could be gone.
He signed an extension over the offseason.
But yeah, that's a joke.
I have the Browns minus seven over the Jets.
I went higher than that.
I said seven and a half.
You win.
It's six and a half.
Oh, that went down.
You know we're going to want it.
You know we're all going to want that.
I sent you Guess the Lions this morning because I wanted to bet that Browns game.
That's the good news. The bad news
is I bet it with the Niners.
49ers? Yeah.
Saturday, your team, that's it.
This is New Year's Eve?
No, no, no. Sunday's
New Year's Eve.
I wish we had more than one game.
Why didn't they
give us multiple games? Well, this is bad because
guess how many 1pm eastern games
there are on Sunday
oh no too many
10
how are we supposed to keep that
thank god for youtube multi-view
yeah
10
Cowboys Lions
I'm giving this the straight minus three
you know
I said two and a half
because I don't like the way we're playing
Vandal said four and a half
and now it's five and a half
so that's
people just don't really understand
I wonder if the thinking behind
it is you know what the Cowboys want
to sit everybody next week,
so they have to put up a good showing.
The Lions, a little hungover from their first division title
in half a century, whatever.
Yeah.
And they really kind of don't need it as much
because they're not going to get a one seed.
But five and a half is a lot.
Oh, yeah, you're right.
Detroit.
So Detroit's basically locked into the three seed
unless Philly blows a game here.
Yeah.
And Philly's not going to blow a game here
because they got,
don't they have the Giants in the last week?
Giants and the Cardinals.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the Lions are locked into three.
So actually this line,
you could argue might keep going up.
I guess.
All right.
Let's stay away from it and just watch as it goes up.
Sunday's marquee game is the Ravens-Dolphins.
This is either three or three and a half.
I bet three, or I guess three when I say the line,
so I'm not going to change.
Ravens minus three.
You sure?
You could change if you want.
No, I'm fine.
I said three also, and it is three.
Boy, that's a trap, isn't it?
That's a trap.
They just beat up on the 49ers.
They look like the best team.
They're a physical team, which Miami hates.
Why is this only three?
Mostar was another guy that started in the vote-out league.
Yeah.
Gets the touchdown.
Second quarter,
tackled,
limps off.
They showed the replay.
The guy's helmet goes right in the side
of his knee.
It's just,
I fucking hate
fantasy football.
I hope fantasy football
dies in a fire.
It's the worst.
Makes me so unhappy.
I met the Celtics-Lakers
game today
with the Eagles-Giants
game on my phone just in case the Eagles could putakers game today with the Eagles Giants game on
my phone just in case
the Eagles could put up 80 points
in the game
insufferable
insufferable
you know what maybe that person would like
if we weren't in his fantasy league
maybe that
he could be a bunch of people
that don't say anything during the draft. I'll tell you
off the air who it was. See if that's more fun.
The watchables.
Only three,
unfortunately. And one of them
isn't even really a watchable except for the
stakes. Bucks Saints in
Tampa Bay. This is about
the only reason Derek Carr would be in a
watchables game if a division title
is at stake. I had Bucs by
three in Tampa.
I had four and a half. The Bucs are better than the
Saints. We made a bad bet.
Tampa is just rising as the Saints
are meandering around 500
the whole time. We can't move the ball.
We, the Saints. It's
two and a half. You get it.
But what the
hell? Why is that two and a half?
Ten days off for the Saints.
Maybe they feel
like the Bucs are a little fraudulent. I don't
know. Good Lord.
That line will get to three.
If that's that line on Thursday,
I'm betting the Bucs.
Wait, what happened the first time they played?
I thought the Bucs beat them the first time, right?
26-9 on October 1st.
Bucs won.
Bucs win, yeah.
It was convincing.
What the hell?
That's weird.
Seahawks are home for the Steelers.
Seahawks with a dramatic comeback win on Monday night
led by Drew Locke
and then another dramatic comeback win
led by
Geno Smith six days later
against a Tennessee team that's 5-10
and feels like
they're three plays away from being 8-7
although they did win that stupid Monday night game
Did you take them to win the
AFC South also?
I did. Or was that just me?
I did.
How are they the only team not in the mix?
They look just as good as those others.
My whole case was I don't like the Jaguars.
I don't believe it.
I didn't like the Jaguars, Chargers, and Lions,
and I basically went two for three with that.
But the Jaguars somehow have a chance to win the division anyway.
It feels like the Jags could screw this up, though,
because even this,
they play the Panthers,
which we'll get to later in Poopfecta,
but from what I've seen
from the Jags
the last couple weeks
and what I've seen
from the Panthers,
I think the Panthers
could give them a game.
Yeah.
I can see the Jags
completely choking that one.
I mean, the thing is,
if they get by that,
they have the tiebreaker
over these other teams, right?
The Texans and Colts.
So they kind of just need
to get that one. They really... But they have the tiebreaker over these other teams, right? The Texans and Colts. So they kind of just need to get that one.
They really
have a losing record now in American soil.
Right. They're 6-7
in America and 2-0 in London.
Seahawks-Steelers, it's in
Seattle and I have the Seahawks by 3.
Yeah, you're edging me out of all these. I said
2.5. It is 3.5.
Hmm.
It's a good one.
One of the three thanks NFL late afternoon games.
Is it QB confession time?
I kind of think Mason Ross is pretty good.
Oh, come on.
Slow down.
He's not bad.
He's not bad.
He woke up George Pickens.
I guess you could say that.
He's unquestionably better than Trubisky.
Oh, yeah.
And I actually think he might be better than Pickett.
If it's Pickett limping around versus Mason Rudolph,
I'm not playing Pickett yet.
Yeah, I don't know what anybody sees in practice.
Is it just like you give the reps to the one guy you want to be quarterback?
And that's why a guy like Rudolph never rises to the one guy you want to be quarterback. That's why a guy like Rudolph never rises to
the top because it's obvious to all of
us as soon as we see him in action for
10 minutes, then he's the guy.
Mitch must be unbelievable in practice.
That's the only explanation.
They must watch him do drills and be like,
oh man, fucking Mitch was slinging
it today. It doesn't seem to matter
that when we get to a game...
Maybe he buys the linemen good gifts.
Maybe he buys the best gifts for the linemen, even when he's
not playing.
Chiefs-Bengals.
I think I sent you the lines. I had this at
seven. I'm going to
take that down a half point. I'm going to say
Chiefs by six and a half.
That's a good move then, because I had eight and it by six and a half. That's a good move then because I had
eight and it's seven and a half.
Why did I not just leave it?
God damn it. You love
the Chiefs on a teaser. Oh my
God. I don't. I will not.
No money will go to the Chiefs for me
for the rest of this year. I'm out.
They're banned. They're kicked out of my betting bar.
What a garbage, garbage
performance. I think the Bengals could hang around in this game
if they have Chase, don't you?
I mean, it depends.
Yeah, is he due back?
If he's able to play.
Yeah.
Fairly watchables. I got four.
Falcons at Chicago.
That was the Falcons were the one game this week
other than tonight's Ravens game,
that I just was,
I just thought the Colts
were going to go in there
and move the ball up and down,
and Arthur Smith,
he was done,
and Heineke,
I thought,
gave them a nice,
they had a little pizzazz.
They got Robinson going,
they really ran the ball.
They looked like the team
that I kept thinking
the Falcons were going to be
for like two months there.
Like this 40 carry, three running backs,
like just either pounding the ball or play action.
Pitts made a couple plays.
I thought they played a really good game.
And that's another one.
Why did it take 15, 16 weeks to decide on Heineke over Ritter?
Three times, I think.
How many times has he been benched, Ritter?
Yeah.
Leave the better guy in there already.
And the Bears, solid game against the Cardinals.
It was amazing.
But I think the Falcons are going to be favored.
I have the Falcons minus one and a half at the Bears.
Oh, Falcons one and a half.
I said Bears minus two and a half.
It's Bears minus three.
Wow.
That's the most off I've been in a while.
They love... You know what that means.
You're going the other way?
I'm probably right.
Oh, you're probably right.
Yeah, they...
Fandel loves the Bears.
Any chance they get to
make them a three-point favor, they do it.
That line's moving.
We haven't... Have you noticed we haven't had a bad weather week yet with football?
I know.
Where's the good snow coming?
That's like a staple is the terrible weather week.
That screws up all the picks we have.
Texans, Titans.
It's in Houston.
Probably CJ Stroud this week, I'm guessing.
Yeah, I hope so.
If he doesn't play this week, then you start to get concerned.
There's something more going on.
I have Texans minus two and a half.
I picked this exactly.
It's three and a half.
You're coming back on me.
You're up five-four.
So you said there's 10 early games?
10 early, yeah.
I'm going to say right now that on my multi-view,
Texans-Titans will not be one of the choices.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah.
Don't be hasty here.
Think this through.
I'm going to say, so right now, let me do it right now.
I think there's a watchable.
I think you missed a watchable, and it's not your
fault. I think it became a watchable
today. Vegas
and Colts?
I put that in the
fairly watchables.
Oh, okay.
10 o'clock
games. 10 o'clock Pacific
time for people listening.
Pat's Bills
Dolphins Ravens
which will be a TV game
definitely
so I don't think
that'll be in the multi-view
unless you have YouTube TV
Falcons Bears
Raiders Colts
Panthers Jaguars
Titans Texans
Rams Giants
Cardinals Eagles
Saints Bucks
49ers
Commanders. Jesus Christ.
It's too many. What are they doing?
Run this by us.
So it's got to be Dolphins, Ravens
I think will be a cable game.
So it's probably Pat's Bills.
You got to put Saints Bucks just
because. Saints Bucks, Falcons Bears, and then.
Vegas Indy.
Yeah, or Rams Giants.
But yeah, Vegas Indy because the Rams are going to be in there either way.
Both have a shot.
Yeah.
Somehow that's not that fun of a multi-view.
No, I know.
I guess.
I'll still have a good time with it.
Yeah, we'll figure it out.
Rams Giants. just mentioned that one.
Rams at the Giants.
What do we make of the Rams giving Baltimore
everything they could handle
and looking even better than the Niners did
against the Ravens?
Peter Schrager pointed this out on Twitter
and I was like, good point, Peter.
I'll be crediting you as I steal it for the
podcast.
But the Rams have been really good now for four
or five weeks.
And they end
with the Niners. The Niners probably didn't think
they needed that game. But what's
interesting about it is, maybe
the Rams don't need that game.
Could the Niners get
lucky and like Stafford sits?
Because the Rams will have locked up a...
What do they care if they're 5, 6, or 7?
You know, 6 seed?
Whatever.
So the Rams would be the 6 seed.
If Seattle wins though...
Yeah, I guess it doesn't really matter.
But they want momentum.
I'm sure they want to go 10 and 7.
I'm sure McVay's
having a great time with this team.
I think the Rams are legit good.
I can't believe this team, honestly.
I can't praise them enough.
I thought they were going to be horrible.
I picked them for worst record.
Yeah.
All the quarterbacks that went down,
the 34-year-old with a spinal injury coming into the season,
made it to the finish line.
Knock wood.
You know, two weeks left.
And Kupp
is injured and they have two superstars
emerge on the offensive end. It's really
something else.
Stafford wins a playoff game in
Detroit.
Round one.
That's kind of the final Hall of Fame
piece for him, it feels like.
He was there
with the yards. They won the Super Bowl.
He's probably already in anyway.
Mm-hmm.
But then to have one more year
where it's like,
and then you go
and you have the dramatic
winning in Detroit.
Mm-hmm.
What a weird game
that's going to be
for the Lions fans, right?
They had this horrible decade
where, you know,
it was him and Calvin Johnson
and nothing else
and just dysfunction and bad picks and bad signings.
Yeah.
I guess you're right.
I was thinking Flacco.
What does he have to do to make the haul?
Does he have to win the Super Bowl?
To me, he's in already.
If Eli's in, Flacco playing the greatest four-round playoff
of any quarterback ever, he's at least on the cusp.
Probably the same if he beats Baltimore
for sure.
His whole team.
That's a fun one.
I don't think he has the stats like Stafford has.
Stafford's
6th or 7th all-time passing yards.
Yeah, I think so.
He's way up there in all these places.
Eagles, Cardinals I have for fairly watchables
because I think the Eagles are just,
I always kind of want to know what's going on with them,
and it seems like whoever they play is somewhere in the game.
I guessed minus 12.5 before when I sent this to you,
but I'm changing that because of the way that it looks today.
I'm going to go 11.5.
Oh, she kept going. I said nine, and it's nine and a half before when I sent this to you, but I'm changing that because of the way that it looks today. I'm going to go 11 and a half. Oh, she kept going. I said nine and it's
nine and a half.
Arizona's kind of frisky.
They're a weird team. I know they're coming east
in the cold. Different story.
Well, they're
locked in now to the number two.
And they're
also locked in. Yeah, it looks
like I'm going to actually win.
I think I lost most of my futures this year
that I bet real money on, but
one that is going to
hit is Arizona four and a half
for wins.
Oh, that's good. I adjusted
that to five and a half on the part. Yeah, that's
good though.
Second pick, Dale Kyler, a shitload of money,
and they seem like they're a tradeback candidate.
That's why with the Pats, maybe they just trade up
and give up a future first if they really love Drake Bay.
Who knows?
All right, last fairly watchable is Colts Raiders.
I put this in the Vegas zone.
I have Colts by five.
I said two and a half. I said two and a half.
It's three and a half.
You won that one too.
Yeah.
Jesus.
Coming back.
Six to five.
That's a good one.
Antonio Pierce.
Although they could get crushed too, the Raiders.
That quarterback shows me nothing.
Which Carson Daly girlfriend from the early 2000s
would you compare Antonio Pierce's Raiders run to?
Just in terms of not thinking it should last more than a couple weeks,
but now maybe you're wondering if it will.
Tara Reid?
I want to say Tara Reid because it seems like the funniest to say,
but maybe Tracy Chapman.
Did he take Tracy Chapman?
No, I just want to see your face.
I wouldn't believe that.
Carson was having a good run there for four or five years.
He really did.
Our friend Daniel ruined it.
Baby, you can't even imagine baby.
Poop Fecta.
Bill's Pats is a Poop Fectaa game would you put that as a fairly watchable
I'd probably promote that
yeah it's on your multi
I'll promote that one to fairly watchable
I have the Bills by
11.5 over the Pats
you're going to get this I said 11 and it's 12
yeah I like the Pats
I mean he's going to play hard.
I mean, is there a better spoiler coach than Belichick?
No.
I'm upset that we gave up Jack Jones,
but I also understand it because he just couldn't be in a team.
At least this Pats team.
He goes to the Raiders, and he's with Pierce,
and they have a history.
His pick six is back.
I think that guy's genuinely talented.
It just wasn't going to happen in the Pats.
Yeah.
But Raiders makes a lot more sense.
Poop fact that Jags Panthers in Jacksonville.
I have Jacksonville by eight
and I'm going to bet the Panthers.
Yeah, you got this exactly.
I said eight and a half.
It is eight.
So you're back.
That could be a money line bet.
I think you're up seven, six. That could be a Moneyline bet. I think you're up 7-6.
That could be a...
Hearing rumors Doug Peterson might not be as safe
as people thought in Jacksonville,
like an Ian Rappaport 12-15 tweet right before the games.
Niners at Washington.
Wait, did we do Rams-Giants?
Did we pick Rams Giants
I guess we never actually picked it we talked about it
never picked it
I had Rams by 7.5 over the Giants
I said 6 it's 6.5
so I get it
I love the Rams
Niners Washington I have Niners by 11.5
out Washington we both had 11.5 out Washington
we both had 11.5
it's 13.5
oof
well hold on
so there's two left
yep
you made a big comeback
were we tied?
4, 5, 6, 7, 8
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
we are tied
Broncos
Chargers
at Denver. Denver's still
mathematically alive somehow.
They should be embarrassed that they lost to
Billy Zappi. Billy Zappi, four and two, is a
starter with the Pats. Do you know that?
It's bizarre. No. Yeah, crazy.
I have the Broncos by seven over
Easton Stick and Coach Giff
and the Chargers.
I went low. I have a lot more confidence in Easton Stick. I Giff and the Chargers? I went low.
I have a lot more confidence in Easton Stick.
I said five.
It's six and a half.
You get it.
You have the lead going into the last pick.
I'm hitting this.
Vikings in Minnesota hosting the Green Bay Packers.
Vikings by two and a half is the answer.
I had Vikings by two, and half is the answer. I had Vikings by two
and I'm going to check it.
Right now,
Fandel has it
at Vikings one and a half.
Oh, you mother...
I get that.
Take the tie.
Another tie for us.
Jesus.
Put that right
in the Tic Tacs zone.
Nick Mullins
needed some Tic Tacs.
I am dubbing
Vikings Packers
an official loser leaves town match.
Right?
Will anyone see it?
That's the New Year's Eve.
That's the night game.
New Year's Eve.
It's a perfect New Year's Eve game.
Yeah.
Yeah, the Minnesota 7-8.
The Packers are 7-8.
Oh, yeah.
That's an official you're going home at the end of the match.
Of course.
It's a dog collar match. of course it's a dog collar match
let's make it a dog collar match
with some barbed wire
I love it
alright
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All right.
So we're coming off Christmas Day here.
And you know how it is.
You wrap the gifts all night and they open it up in like 45 seconds
and it's very unsatisfying.
And you see like Nintendo Switches
and watches and jerseys.
My nine-year-old gets an Alvin Kamara jersey,
which is going to make you laugh.
But because he has them on Fantasy, and three weeks ago
he had a major... That's the only reason he's getting this jersey.
He had a good game three weeks ago. So, $75 out the door.
Now, what I noticed is, the kids were asking me
about some stuff that we had when we were younger.
For some reason, I brought up Silly Putty,
and I started explaining what Silly Putty is to them.
You know what it is, right?
It's that pink stuff, right?
And you flatten it out, you put it on newspapers,
and it comes up, and you can even do naughty things.
You can get the read on the Silly Putty.
It's fun.
And so this was two weeks ago.
I'm like, I'm going to order some Silly Putty for their stockings.
So I get the Silly Putty.
They open it up.
Done with it in like four seconds.
Don't even want to look.
I'm like, wait a minute.
This is gold here, guys.
This is Silly Putty.
They're like, oh, dad, what do we care about this?
So I get the Silly Putty.
I flatten it out like I'm making a pizza.
I'm so proud.
And I'm like, all right, get me a newspaper.
Watch what this thing does.
And my wife's like, we don't have newspapers around here. Your silly putty's old. The fact
that we'd have a newspaper here is old. Get away from it already. You're in 1978, right?
Yeah. I was like, there's no silly putty, no newspaper. What's going on here? So finally,
I find something like instructions on some manual from another Gap. And I put it in. It barely picks up the print on it.
And I show them.
And they couldn't give a shit less.
And I was so mad at this.
I was so mad that they didn't care about my silly putty bit.
I put in so much time.
And everyone's spoiled.
But I got the last laugh because two hours later, I tested positive for COVID.
And they were stuck with me.
So now they're going to get it.
When did that happen?
It happened this afternoon.
Come on.
And I wasn't even going to test, but I have to shoot my show with some of the crew guys from the ringer.
And I had to be in the same room and I was like, I better alert them.
And yeah, so I have COVID-19, whatever strand it is.
So that's that.
Good times.
So you're doing the podcast right now with COVID.
I'm doing it with COVID.
Don't worry.
I read up on it.
And you lost nine of your 10 bets.
Yeah.
Can I get it?
Not a great Christmas all around.
See, of COVID.
The good news is everybody, I feel like I was early getting COVID, but everybody's getting
Well, your Thanksgiving was ruined, right?
And now it's Christmas yeah christmas as well yeah but were you going to florida with the family in four
days because that's what i was supposed to do and that's oh so you can't go now yeah now i'm out of
that maybe you're lying maybe you don't actually have covet yeah i can't go quiet down got covet
no no the wife you buy a fake covet test she saw it and slammed it into the, like a Lajuan, just dunked it into the trash.
She was so mad.
So that was that.
I have two short parent corners.
One is, you know, we had Christmas Eve and my wife did everything.
And, you know, when you have kids and they're younger, you think when they get older, they're going to be really helpful.
And some people have really helpful kids.
And then other people have kids like my kids that just aren't helpful at all.
Right.
Including my daughter, who's an absolutely lovely person by all accounts.
Everybody says my daughter is like the nicest person.
People always go out of their way to tell us how sweet she is and all that stuff.
But she's just not helpful.
And my wife today,
she was going to go to the Celtic-Laker game with me,
but the house was still a mess.
And she's like, I'm stressed out.
I'm just, I just take Zoe.
So I ended up taking Zoe to the Clippers game
and the Lakers game this weekend.
And she just didn't help her.
And my wife's really mad at Zoe that she didn't help.
So Merry Christmas to everybody here.
The question I have is, is it Zoe's fault that she's not helpful or is it our fault?
Because we raise the kids, right? Zoe's a really nice kid, which I think we get a W for,
but she's also not helpful with, oh, we had all those people. This instinct human
beings have, especially kids or family members, they're like, I should help. Oh, the kitchen's a
mess. I'll help out mom. I'll cut that. But it doesn't occur to her. But I feel like that's my
fault and my wife's fault, right? It's not a DNA thing. You kind of learn that.
Yeah, it could be, but also you're right.
Like you could be a good kid
and not check all the boxes of good, like helpful.
That's the point I made to my wife.
I think like for the most part,
Zoe's like a massive win, but nobody's perfect.
It's like how Jason Tatum takes end of the quarter threes where everybody in the building knows he's just going to dribble through his legs nine times and then take a three that misses right at the end. And it's like, I accept that because he does so many other awesome things. I love Jason Tatum. But with Zoe, this is kind of a whole thing right now.
Yeah, but you can see why she might point it out, whereas you got to go to the Lakers game, Celtics, and she had to stay home and actually do the things
that she wanted help with.
It went over great.
It's really been an awesome Christmas for me.
Hey, Zoe's a perfect 2-0 watching games with you, right?
Well, my counter was Carrie and Zoe went to Hawaii for five days
and it was just me and Ben, and I did all the house stuff.
So I'm like, I mean, you can get mad at me a little bit,
but you did just go to Hawaii for five days while we were here.
Right, right.
But really, the only person who won all the way through was Zoe because she went to Hawaii.
Yeah, that's true.
And went to two Celtic games.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like that.
No, I don't think it's your fault.
You're trying to make memories.
And that memory is of you, your wife cleaning the house while you were out.
I did the dishes last night.
I was proud of myself.
Oh, nice.
But it's bad.
You know you're not that helpful
if you do something helpful
and people are like,
wow, that's so great that you did that
versus just assuming.
But you're from a family
where people are more helpful.
You're from a more old school Italian family.
Everybody's trying to do dishes
and stabbing each other with knives.
I think that helps.
I probably am about to give the whole family COVID.
I feel like that's a generous ask. You're a generous knives. I think that helps. Like I probably am about to give the whole family COVID.
Like that's, I feel like that's a generous.
You're a generous guy.
Yeah, thank you.
I still want to see the actual,
you should take another COVID test right on the Zoom.
Not positive, I believe you.
My other story, every once in a while, you know, my dad's old.
He's in his mid seventies now.
Or not old, old, but he's old.
And you think like when you get older,
we've won a lot of
titles. Are you going to care a little bit less about sports? He told me this story. They had
this Christmas Eve thing last night. So he didn't see the Pats game and he did the thing where he
didn't check his phone. He didn't want to find out what happened. Didn't do anything. And my Uncle Mark is staying with them this weekend.
So my dad, he wakes up this morning
and he's watching the Pats game
and still doesn't know what's happened.
And it's the third quarter and they're winning.
That's great.
And I think the Broncos are starting to come back.
And my Uncle Mark comes out of his room
and he sees my dad watching the game
and he goes,
I can't believe they won that.
It just completely spoils it.
My dad was so upset.
He's like, I had this all planned out.
I avoided everything.
And I was just like, man.
That's his brother?
His brother-in-law.
Oh, his brother-in-law.
So I was just like, man,
when I'm 76,
I hope I still care like this.
So you're upset that somebody ruined your 3-11 Pats game.
I love it.
Whether they were going to go 4-11 or 3-12.
And he's like, cut off all communications.
Wasn't responding to texts last night.
So he could watch this game live, pretend it was live.
Anyway.
I think we'll care.
I think we'll care just as much about fantasy
and everything else
because it's the best
except all the money
we lose.
That's the problem.
That's going to be a
problem.
Kyle, you don't want to
do a grandmother corner,
right?
Probably a bad idea.
Oh, I think we could
skip it.
That's cool.
Great.
All right.
That's it for
parent corner.
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All right, so Sal,
what did we say?
When is the next time we're doing this?
We're doing it on New Year's Day.
Late morning?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, late.
We're going to do,
because Sunday night is New Year's Eve.
Right.
Don't blame us.
Blame God who came up with this calendar.
Yeah, what a weird schedule.
But yeah, we've decided not to do an 830 New Year's Eve podcast on Saturday night.
So we're going to do Monday morning.
Old school.
This is what the kids grew up with.
That's right.
Exactly.
This is how we started with the, I mean, sometimes on the Mondays we would tape it like you'd
have to wait.
We'd have to wait for Jimmy come alive schedule.
We'd be doing like one in the afternoon, something like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Hopefully, we don't lose our way.
We're going to remember how to do it.
I think we'll be okay.
My coffee will kick in.
So, anyway, we'll probably tape, I don't know, 10 o'clock, 10.30 range,
and hopefully, that will be up.
Yeah, bet 10.06 if you want.
I think that's a good number.
Monday afternoon for the betting pool.
What else do you got to put?
Against the Lods, new episodes this week.
The D3 and I will lick our wounds.
Our Ringer Wise guys, always fun.
We had a great time this Christmas Eve morning.
My best bet, by the way, McCaffrey and Hertz to both score.
Nice.
Not my best bet, but McCaffrey and Hertz to both score.
Still plus money.
Should we just be
betting that every week
and not worry about
these dumb teams
it does seem like
the TD Pro
I saw something on Twitter
some guy had a 14 player
TD Pro
that was something
yeah
it's like $10
for $483,000
something like that
I mean yeah
like that Rodriguez
that Chris Rodriguez
that should have been
just $400,000
just that pick
but yeah
and then
what else we got?
Oh, Cousin Sal's winning weekend.
Nate Bargatze's on.
We can pick all the Week 17 games.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
You know, I was really impressed by my team in person Saturday and Monday.
They waxed the Clippers.
Kawhi didn't play, but we didn't have Porzingis, and it was still a beating.
And then the Lakers game today it was interesting
seeing LeBron
grasping for excuses after
when he was like
we haven't had
we've had more injuries
than
some of these other contenders
and it's like
meanwhile the injuries
were Gabe Vincent
and Jared Vanderbilt
they've gotten a full season
out of LeBron and Davis
and Austin Reeves who are the three best players and the They've gotten a full season out of LeBron and Davis and Austin Reeves, sort of the three best players.
The Celtics waxed them,
and they were guarding LeBron with Drew Holiday.
They put some Derek White on him.
They were kind of fucking with the Lakers a little bit.
It was really interesting.
And they were basically like,
Davis, knock yourself out, score your 35.
We're going to keep pushing the pace, shooting threes.
What was interesting was they didn't even shoot threes that well, and they still won pretty convincingly.
And there was a version of this game where if they had hit like six, seven more threes,
I think they could have had like over 140 points. So I think LeBron was a little rattled after they,
to me, that, that cinched that the Lakers are going to make some sort of big trade
because the distance between the two teams was,
you could feel it in the game.
Like it just was the white holiday combo.
White was amazing.
Again,
I,
the Celtics,
they should have beaten the Warriors.
They would have gone four and own this trip,
but to rip through these two LA teams like this,
I was really impressed.
They're the favorites right now in Fandu plus three 40.
But,
uh,
if Porzingis is healthy,
I actually think they can win the title.
Is it possible LeBron looked up and saw Zoe?
He's like, oh, crap.
She's undefeated here, rooting for the Celtics.
And he got nervous.
Yeah, she's a good luck charm.
Hey, you gave me SGA at 10-1 last week.
I put it in.
It's plus 650 now.
Although Embiid has gone on a tear even since then. He's a big favorite.
It's going to keep moving and keep moving and keep moving.
But I think the principles...
Yeah, I'm trying to see if anybody else...
Those 30-10s are racking up.
There's...
Curry at 55-1?
Oh, come on.
No, I would just kind of write it down on the side.
That's just crazy odds because he's one
of the best five or six players in the league.
I like what I'm seeing from them
even in this Denver game, which I didn't see
because I was at the Laker game.
How many games has he missed though, Curry?
Only a couple.
I could see that team
coming out a little bit.
It seems like
SGA, if they got a top two seed...
Yeah, already got value in there.
It's a good pick.
Yeah, it wasn't bad.
But this Celtics team...
This is a really good team.
It really is.
It's impressive.
They have length and defense and three-point shooting.
It's all set up.
We'll see.
Flip this, Kyle.
This is what happens
we lose a lot of
Christmas money
on football
we gotta look to the hoops
there's no value
to bet the Celtics
they have the best odds
I just
I'm way more encouraged
than I was five days ago
there you go
but Philly still has a trade
to make anyway
alright cuz
I hope you feel better
good job Bayou
good job Bayou
alright that's it
for the podcast
thanks to Cousin Sal thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti as well Good job by you. All right, that's it for the podcast.
Thanks to Cousin Sal.
Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti as well for producing.
And I'm going to see you in this feed on Thursday.
I'm only doing one other podcast this week. So Thursday, I will be back.
Enjoy the last vestiges of the Christmas break.