The Bill Simmons Podcast - Stafford’s Salvation, Big Ben’s Downfall, the Cocaine Cardinals and Guess the Lines Week 4 with Cousin Sal

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss NFL Week 3. They cover the Packers’ last-second win over the 49ers, Rams-Buccaneers, the Chiefs’ second straight loss, Justin Tucker���s record-setting field goal in the Ravens’ narrow win against the Lions, Patriots-Saints, Dolphins-Raiders, and more (2:20). Then they Guess the Lines for NFL Week 4 (50:30) before closing the show with Parent Corner (1:27:40). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I hope you're listening to our new Prestige TV podcast. Last week, we did a Sopranos Hall of Fame episode. Me, Van, Big Waz, we broke down the famous Tony Bobby fight episode, which was awesome. I really enjoyed doing the Hall of Fame episode. I think I want to do a couple more in that feed. On Monday, Amanda Dobbins and I are breaking down

episode two of The Morning Show, which has become one of the most compellingly, confusingly entertaining shows, I think, in the last five years. So we're going to be covering a lot of TV on that feed over the next couple of weeks. Ted Lasso, scenes from a marriage, succession, billions. Billions we'll be doing this week and a whole bunch more.

Check it out. The Prestige TV podcast. You can find that on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a really good one. Coming up, the Cuz and I are going to be talking about week three NFL. I'm in a surprisingly good mood considering the Red Sox got swept, the Patriots were embarrassed, and Tom Brady's coming to town. Why am I so happy?

Oh, it was my birthday. I made it to another birthday. My dad came to town. That was fun. But yeah, I shouldn't be in this good of a mood considering I hate the Yankees so much. But we'll see how it goes. We'll see if the Red Sox can rally

and keep my fingers crossed. Oh, and America won in the Ryder Cup. That was great. We're going to talk about it all next with Sal First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, taping this a little after 8.30 on Sunday night.

Cousin Sal is here, as always. We just watched Packers 9 or Sal. All I did, it was my birthday this weekend. Yes, happy birthday. Thanks. All I did for three straight days was watch television. And it was glorious. The Ryder Cup, one of my favorite sporting events, had that.

Red Sox-Yankees was a predictable disaster. It was like a mini massacre. And then football all day today. And it was just great. I didn't really move. I probably put on a couple pounds. I'm feeling great great. So I was going to say glorious, glorious. You consider Brady being exposed as a fraud. And finally, after all these years, I'm glad it came out. That's glorious. Your, your Patriots are a horrific team. I don't know. You had them go in the Superbowl. That is

glorious. The, the Red Sox getting swept by the Yankees. What's glorious about this? This is a terrible day. You should not be excited for this podcast. None of that was glorious. In fact, I tweeted, I wanted, I was worried about Brown and Tatum by like 11 p.m. tonight that we should just like put them in some sort of protective room

until we get out of this weekend. No, what was glorious was my dad was in town. I just, sometimes it's fun to just have those weekends where you don't really do anything and you just watch sports nonstop. The Ryder Cup, I thought, was incredible. I really enjoyed it. We kicked their ass. We destroyed them.

Did you win money in the Ryder Cup? I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. I bet the Europeans and nothing feels worse than when you do the anti-patriotic thing. And I don't mean betting against the Patriots because that would have been good, but I'm an anti-Patriot and all I see is high fives by all the Americans

and I'm an idiot. I feel bad. Did you make money off of that? I stayed away from the Ryder Cup because I enjoy it so much. House loved Europe. Yeah. And that made me want to bet on America.

I don't know what everybody loved about Europe so much, but it was great. It's just such a great event. I love the pairs. I felt like Bryson DeChambeau has been reinvented. He was in his own personal doghouse. I think people are being mean to him on the course.

They own Brooks Koepka's name at him. And you can see he was really in his own head. And by Saturday, he was a new guy. He was like Stallone at the end of Rocky IV. He was running around. He was draped in the flag. It was great. I know. I mean, he was a new guy. He was like Stallone at the end of Rocky IV. He was running around. He was draped in the flag. It was great. I know.

I mean, we brought up this rivalry. We don't want to talk about golf too much. But one of those guys should have to move to Europe or should have to claim to be European. Brooks or Koepka or DeChambeau. It's the only rivalry in golf which golf needs. And they can't be paired together or on the same team from the same country or any of those things.

Well, he missed such an easy chance to just put them together on Saturday morning. I know. And he just wouldn't do it because DeChambeau is like the best possible partner guy because he's feast or famine every shot. I loved it. I loved the course. I loved how hard it was. I loved the sand traps and people in the water.

You got Irish guys falling down hills trying to hit shots for Shane Lowry. I love it. It was great. All distracts from your Patriots, which is the lead story. But, yeah, we could talk Packers. No, let's do Packers-Niners first because it was yet another good Sunday night game. Rodgers, it looked like he was going to fall apart there at the end. They cut to him.

My wife was just randomly watching. Was like, why is he so sad? What's going on with him? Like, is he becoming the guy from that State Farm commercial? I'm like, I don't know. He's probably going to end up winning this game. And then he ends up going down, takes it down. They leave the middle of the field open for him with 10 seconds left. So he can do the classic, you know, 15 yarder, run up to the line, spike it. It's crazy how defenses screw that up over and over again. If you're the Niners, you're like, wow, how did we lose that game? We needed that one. Well, how about this? How about the offense is screwing that up? I think it's all on the quarterback. We were talking

about with Hench and Juszczyk, whatever. He breaks a tackle to score. It's like, oh my God, there's 37 seconds left. Why didn't he go down at the one? You're leaving Rodgers too much time. I think it starts way before that. Teams are like really rushing to the line with a minute 20 left from the 25 yard line. Like I don't care if you have zero or three timeouts. If you're at the 25 yard line, it's your game.

With a minute 20 left, you have seven plays. You have as many plays as you want. You have 10 plays if you want. Why are you rushing? Why do you have to get it going there? I even thought they should let Kittle score on that long catch with like, you know, 220 left or whatever it was, a little less than two minutes left. So teams continue to screw that up.

I didn't love Jimmy G's game. Every drive was either a great pass or something like a horrific pass that should have been picked or something he thought wasn't a pass that was a fumble. He should have gotten called once for, um, for grounding and he didn't. And then that fumble that he thought, how did he think that was an incomplete pass that had to have been nonsense. But I think the right team won tonight. Yeah, I agree with that.

We saw it in the chargers game too. The thing you were talking about, about scoring too fast. Yeah. They scored the touchdown. Who was doing that game? Romo. I was like, Oh no. Like he audibly gas was like, wow, no. He audibly gasped.

He was like, wow, they just gave Mahomes a lot of time when they could have just basically three nils. I guess they just didn't trust their kicker even like 1%. They didn't trust him, but they went for the field goal with the minute 40, whatever it was, right? I was like, oh, man, you got to go for a touchdown here. Mahomes is coming right down. They proved me wrong.

I don't know if that's Staley's a genius or what, but it looked like it was some questionable. They got a break with the pass interference on third and nine. Yeah, that was bad. And not a great replay there. With the Packers-Niners game, we mentioned in the podcast last week how much we kind of

liked the Niners, how malleable they were, that they could kind of steal games in different ways. And we're watching the second half today as they were roaring back. And I was thinking like, wow, they're going to win this game. And Sal and I are going to talk about like, this is like the weird resilient. They can win ugly game after game after game, they can figure it out. And then they lose. And now the narrative is completely different, where it's like this weird quarterback thing is now hanging over them where Lance comes in. They clearly have like seven plays that

he's learned, but athletically there's things that he brings to the table. You could see it from the Packers, you know, Jimmy G good, not great. Like he missed the Super Bowl throw the deep pass in the first half. As you said, looks great for three plays. Then there's the fourth play where you're like, what just happened there? Was he disoriented? And I guess the big question with this team is,

when did they pull the trigger? And then you watch what happened to the rookie quarterbacks today, and it's like, should they pull the trigger at all? Maybe you'd wait a year. We're going to go through how bad the rookie QBs were today. But man, after you see that collection of terribleness, maybe they're doing the right thing, kind of easing Lance in. And it's weird because these coaches can't say, hey, we'll put him in when he's ready. But that's what they want to say, right?

Like then it looks like you don't have any confidence in the guy you just drafted. But that is the truth. Like Justin feels like, hey, calm down. We'll put him in when he's ready. Just because he's running gadget plays and same with Trey Lance, like it doesn't mean they're able to read progressions.

Like we practice with these guys. You don't see the practice. I know you're seeing Jimmy G falling short here. You're seeing Andy Dalton and everything. But in that regard, I think you do have to trust the coach and trust the organization. Yeah, I think you throw this one away if you're the Niners because you had such a weird running back situation. As anyone who has any of these guys in any fantasy league knows where it's like

I've who's the guy from the Bengals I picked him up in two leagues I think I waved him in one the guy that they picked up this week oh right right yeah Jacques Jacques somebody yeah right hey maybe he'll be the Niners running back and rush for 1,200 yards this year. Yeah, I don't want any Jock anyway. Yeah. Yeah. This guy's named Jock. He'll look good on my team. And then by Sunday, it's like, no, no, Trey Sermon's out of concussion protocol. And then you watch Trey Sermon and there's probably 60 running backs who look better than him today.

So I'm sure the Niners are just thinking like, can we somehow stay healthy until December? For the Packers, that would have been, I think, a worse loss than it was a good win, even though they get the game-winning field. That would have been an awful loss to be up. It seemed like the game was in control. Then Adams got beheaded. Adams got knocked out, it seemed like. Then he was fine. And it's like, no, no, no, he's good. He's had a concussion protocol. It's like, he looked like he was out. What are we talking about? He didn't have a concussion? They went to the rules expert. I'm not sure which one it was. And he's like, he looked like he was out. What are we talking about? He didn't have a concussion. They went to the rules expert. I'm not sure which one it was, but then he's like,

no, no, these referees are all out of position now because of this new situation of the way they're situated on the field. So, okay. Which is it? Is safety a concern or, or is it not? Because that's, that's the play you need to watch, right? Right. The converging, uh, free safety going helmet to helmet, how they miss that is is crazy and not only that like they can't even be like okay we owe them one play then you get the ticky tack roughing the passer against the packers like three plays later it's like oh man they let this fall don't don't have me root for aaron rogers when i don't need to this is silly i know you know it's weird i have no dog in this race i don't i'm AFC guy. I've always kind of liked Rodgers.

I've always thought he was interesting. And after all the drama this year, I didn't have a bet on the game. I didn't really care who won. I had already done my bets. I was like really rooting against Green Bay. It was just fun to root against Rodgers now. And I have no reason for it at all.

I can't explain it. Well, it's weird too. I know I was rooting for him only because I thought they were getting gypped by the refs and everything. But we do have our West bet, it's weird, too. I know. I was rooting for them only because I thought they were getting gypped by the refs and everything. But we do have our West bet, which is winning right now. If the season ended right now. And by the way, I think it should.

I think we've seen enough. No, if the season ended right now, there would be six West teams in the playoffs. Three from the AFC and three from the NFC. And we'd win 15 to one odds. That Fandle created. We could cash out now, I think, right? If they want to settle with us. Well,

you left the best part out. None of those six teams is the Chiefs. Yeah, that's right. You're right. They'll probably make a comeback somewhere along the line.

Last place. If you're adding up wins in the divisions, the, the AFC West already has nine. So does the NFC West. Nobody else is close to that. I mean,

the NFC North has four. Your crappy division has three, but you got a game tomorrow. The AFC East has four. Yeah, we sure your division isn't crappy? I don't know. Everyone who doubted that the Bills were going to run away with this,

like, won't they win this? It's very premature, but they look like they're going to win this thing by three games. The Bills were the one team today that did exactly what they were supposed to do. Because we had... This was a teaser weekend, and we'll talk

about some of the fun stuff that happened with that. But it was a teaser weekend, and you're always like, alright, which team is going to fuck with us here? Is it going to be the Ravens, 7.5 against Detroit? Is it going to be the Cards in the seemingly easy Jags game against this team that already has a coach that might be going to USC for all we know? Or is it the to be the cards in the seemingly easy Jags game against this team that already has a coach that might be going to USC for all we know? Or is it the Bills home against Washington

looking a little frisky? Washington, the Sharps were kind of coming at Washington during the week a little bit. And the Bills were the one that were like, we got this. We're good. We're going to put up a lot of points. Don't forget that we're explosive. We buried dirt on Josh Allen after two games because he was a little inaccurate. He was fine today. So now we've seen close to 50 games, right? Like 47, I guess it'll be 48 after tomorrow. Which is the anomaly? Which sticks out in your mind?

For me, it's Buffalo, Pittsburgh. Like, I can't believe Pittsburgh stay with them. I think Buffalo is going to start trucking teams. And that's what we're going to see the rest of the way. You could say New Orleans, Green Bay. I don't mind New Orleans winning that game. They shouldn't have won by that many. Like that to me is like, whoa, that's ridiculous that that happened.

But that's my weird game, Buffalo, Pittsburgh. I think they're going in different directions for sure. Yeah, that week one where the team has the whole summer to prepare and come up with a specific wrinkle against a team that they know they're going to see maybe later in the year. They did some weird defensive stuff, stayed in that zone just

for, I don't know, Buffalo just wasn't ready for it. And then you think how bad they've been the last two weeks, and they were even bad in that game when we saw it, but they were able to put together some points. They got a block punt, but if that block punt doesn't happen in that game, Buffalo probably wins that game from what we've seen the next two weeks. And they were even bad in that game when we saw it, but they were able to put together some points. They got a block punt, but if that block punt doesn't happen in that game, Buffalo probably wins that game for what we've seen the next two weeks.

Right. Right. That was the play. So yeah, I think that was a weird one. I, I gotta say, I think chiefs Ravens is going to end up being a super weird one.

So really chiefs up 11 with the ball at midfield from what we saw from that crap Ravens performance today, where they're dying to give it away against Jared Goff in Detroit, that was embarrassing. None of their skills guys could make a play except Andrews. They had a lot of defensive guys out. I get it. They said like eight guys.

No, but you're right. Lamar threw a terrible pass. Lamar was bad today. Yeah. They relied on a lot of luck. Oh, then they're like, Lamar's banged pass. Lamar was bad today. Yeah. They relied on a lot of luck. Oh, then they're like, Lamar's banged up. Oh, why is he banged up? Did he get hurt in the Chiefs game?

Yeah, when he did the flip. Right. Yeah. He landed wrong. It's like, really? That's how he got hurt? That was a bad idea for so many damn reasons, that stupid flip. Like, you still have Mahomes with the ball with the better part of a minute left.

Like, what are you doing? Well, I want to talk about that game in a little bit. Let's go back to your NFC West thing because we had the Rams that you have to say they're either the best team in the league or they have to be one of the first two or three teams mentioned. Just admit Brady sucks and he sucked for a while now.

Many years. Just admit it. It's fine. So if they play that game 10 times, what happens? I'm curious. Do you think the Rams are better than Tampa or did that game go really nicely from them from really the first quarter? I like the Rams, so I'm going to stick with pretending like I know what I'm talking

about here and I love them. I thought they'd win 27 21 and Stafford it took a little time to warm up, but were you as confident? I was as confident in him as I have been every quarterback in recent memory. Like when he dropped back to pass, I really did like, oh, cup is open and he's going to find him. And that's all I need to know about this game.

They're not going to run because this is a top five defensive run defense here. And like the Rams are like three running backs down. So Stafford's going to throw between 40 and 60 times and they're going to win this game. And they, they did, they really shoved it right down their throat. It was amazing. They really did. They couldn't really run the ball. I've there, I lived the Sonya Michelle experience for three years. It was exactly what you saw today. It was the three yards. It was the second and five run where he only gets three yards and now it's third and two, but you know, he at least can keep the chains moving a little bit. The Stafford stuff.

I think Cupp's the best receiver in the league right now. He really is. I had him second two weeks ago, but it just seems like any time they need a first down, third and 10, third and three, third and 15. The fucking guy's wide open. Well, here's what helps. I think this is what helps. Deshaun Jackson, who's 53 years old, is still like the fastest guy in the league. Like, I don't know how this

happens, but you spread him out wide and cup and Van Jefferson and Higby and Robert Woods. Like, oh boy, that is a tough squad. You don't have to really run the ball. You could get away with having 70 yards on the ground. Well, the standout things, it's so fucking early. And we know in December these teams will be different. We know Deshaun Jackson will be on the IR by then and a bunch of stuff like that.

No Antonio Brown today. I think even removing one of those weapons, remove the calibration a tiny bit, I don't feel like the Bucs can run the ball really at even an average level this year. And I don't know

what happened to Fournette. I don't know whether he's just going to be playoff winning now. So that's concerning. And then I was really surprised by how much pressure the Rams got against Brady and the Bucs, even when they had the tight ends in. And I mean, Donald, we know he's probably not only

the best defensive player in the league, one of the best defensive players of all time, but they were getting a real push. And I thought the Bucs would get a similar push, but you mentioned Stafford. It felt like he had a ton of time for all four quarters. So I left it thinking the same way as you. I think if they played 10 times, that first quarter felt stealable for the Bucs

as the Rams were feeling each other out and they just couldn't get a good drive going. But they felt like if you play that 10 times, I think the Rams win eight. I don't know what's going to happen in December, but right now the Rams are better. I think so. If you play it 10 times and add up the rushing yards,

you're right. I think Tampa might get to 100. They do need that help. They do need, you know. I'm not going to say Brady looks old. I don't know. They do need that help. They do need, you know. I'm not going to say Brady looks old. I don't know who's looking ahead. It seemed like your Patriots were really looking ahead to next week. Or we're bad.

You should have been rooting for Tom today because he's not probably going to have two subpar performances. I mean, this is the first game he ever had 400 yards and lost, right? I was rooting for him because I bet on the Bucs. I thought they were going to win. I really did. The one thing I didn't anticipate was the Rams home crowd

actually having an impact on the game. It's not bad. It kind of felt like an event. They were showing the suites and their celebs all over the place. It's been really hard to get tickets. The tickets, the demand for them and the prices for them are way higher than I ever expected. And I thought the crowd affected the game, especially when the Bucks were on offense. It was at least as good as like, I don't know, a Dallas crowd, right?

They had it working for them. And I feel like McVay won the coaching matchup today too. I think that was something like you always want to say, oh, it's Brady against Stafford or whatever else and all these other receivers and everything, but McVay kind of stepped it up and showed who was boss, at least for this week. Well, what was that play at the end of the first half? I can't remember what went the Rams way, but they cut to McVay and he

went crazy. He ran on the field and he was like, and that was when I was like, oh, fuck, should I hedge? Should I take the Rams? The Rams are so locked in. It just seemed like in general, it was a bigger game for them. I think the Bucs are at a point now where it's like every game they play

is kind of like where the Chiefs are. Every game they play is a huge game for the other team. For the Rams, this was like, if we win this game, we're the best team in the NFC. I think they have the case right now. If you go through their one, I think probably Tampa's probably two, right? Sure.

Yeah, you could say that. And then it's a drop-off. Again, we don't know. If we're just doing power rankings now, yeah. But Green Bay, Tampa, they could be one, too. Green Bay, they got the monkey off the back. Yeah. Beating San Francisco. We just beat them up for the last two years.

I would have the Bucs ahead of Tampa still. But then you go to the AFC, and it's like, I was going to ask you this later, but I'm going to ask you now. I don't even know who the best AFC team is. Well, we talked all summer about how the AFC is going to be dominant, but I think you're going to get a 9-8 team in the playoffs, right? I think you're going to, there now doesn't have to be one from the AFC East. I won't give up on your Patriots just yet. It could that I'm not giving up either there's definitely not one from the south

you could make a case that the AFC South is as bad or not worse than the NFC East um could be three from the west like you said the Chiefs are in last place but uh and the Steelers are falling apart I don't think they'll be around I think think Cincinnati will drop off too. I think there's like a nine and eight. I don't know. How do you rank the top three? I still have Bills. I'll have Bills one and I don't want to drop the Chiefs out of that second spot, but what do you do?

What do you do with the two, number two? I'm not going to overreact with the Chiefs. I still have them first, even if we've seen some alarming stuff. They've still been in these games. They should have beaten the Ravens. They easily could have won the Chargers game today. This is the first one that Mahomes kind

of blew for them, right? Even the one against the Ravens, he didn't look bad, but he's allowed one of these, and the Chargers coming off a loss. You talk about a game that could be played 10 times, and they are going to play again. It could be 6-4, 7-3 Chiefs, I think. Well, on Fando, the AFC title ads,

Chiefs are the leaders still, plus 290. Bills are plus 450. Who do you think is the third team? They're going to, I think they'll say, I'm just going to go by, I'm going to say Ravens. Yeah. So the Ravens are third at 6-1. Browns are plus 650.

Then it gets weird. Titans 11-1. Chargers 14-1. Denver 15-1. The Raiders 3-0, 24-1. Dolphins 29-1. Pats 29-1. And then it dips off after that.

I have an interesting one for you. Well, God, you're used to, oh, the Browns were. I just thought that, I thought the Browns should have been third. I from what I've seen the first three weeks, I think the Browns are a safer bet to me than than the Ravens. I have not been as impressed with the Ravens and they should have lost to fucking Jared Goff

today. Yeah, let's see who we're playing. I mean, that won't that, you know, I don't know what happened to the Bears. Like you could stare at that box score for hours and hours and hours and not figure out what the hell happened, why he had six completions, Justin Fields, in a game they were losing the whole time. And obviously they beat a bad Houston team.

So I don't know what to say about the Browns. But look at the AFC West for a second. The Chiefs are minus 115. Denver plus 340. Chargers plus 390. Vegas plus 550. I don't know what to do. I want to bet all four of those teams,

but I really do think there's value in there somewhere. I can't figure it out just yet. And conceivable, you could see all four in the playoffs. Sure, yeah. It's not ridiculous. All right, we're going to take a break and come back, and I want to talk about my hero, Justin Tucker. This episode is brought to you by Movember.

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Just search Movember. Coming back, we were talking about the Fando odds for the conference before we went to break. And the Browns are still not favored to win the division. The Ravens are plus 110 and the Browns are plus 120. And you think the Browns, they lost Landry. I don't know. I just think at least the Browns know who they are.

They can run the ball. Baker has been pretty good. He's been a little frisky. He's at least been able to create a couple plays for them when they need it. And their defense did what it needed to do today. They only gave up six points. Now, granted, they're going against a rookie QB and a coach who seems like he might have had a head injury, but they took care of business. I picked the Bears in that game. That was one of our million-dollar picks. I thought they could get to... I thought the Browns were going to have trouble moving the ball on them. They did. They ended up with 22 points, but their defense shut them down. I was alarmed by everything the Bears did in that game.

I don't understand... I don't know what they did. What the hell did they do? What was that? It's 60 yards passing. Well, and you count... If you count the sacks against them they had one yard passing because he went he had nine sacks he took for minus 67 and he had 68 yards passing so

i don't know depending on how you work that in he had they had one yard passing and they had 47 total yards if you count the sacks like it's insane that it happened like that and we talked about and time of possession was 40 to 20, basically. We discussed a couple weeks ago when you look at a screen and you never see the team you want with the ball like somebody else. We have that. What was it? Was it like a Superman reference?

Right? I noticed it was somebody on Instagram and he had it. He said, I can't find it. It was called the Jarrell. And that's right. I'll get your name next time.

Instagram guy. But he said, Superman was billed as like Marlon Brando is a star in it. And then you went to Superman. This is the 1978 one. And Marlon Brando is in like eight minutes. And then the rest of the movie is Christopher Reeve. And if you, you're going, you're like, wait, where's Marlon Brando? Where's my Marlon Brando's in like eight minutes. And then the rest of the movie is Christopher Reeve. And if you're going, you're like, wait, where's Marlon Brando?

Where's my Marlon Brando? Right. Yeah. So you're on Marlon Brando. Where is it? Yeah. Right. So the Bears were the Jarrell team this week.

They never had the ball more than a second. I'll go the other way with it. And again, I'm dating myself here, but I think the Browns were the Steely Dan team. You go to Yacht Rock and every time you turn it on, it's Steely Dan. So the Cleveland Browns are Hey 19 and the Bears were Jarrell, right? What's the modern day? Pitbull maybe is on the radio much more than any of the days. I love the Steely Dan. It's either Steely Dan or Mike McDonnell at Yacht Rock

all the time. Hey 19, Cleveland Browns. Good job by you. So we have Maggie for first coach fired, and I'm feeling really good about it after three weeks. They have a whole week to prepare. They have a quarterback who he would go back to pass if the first thing he was supposed to get in the play wasn't open. His instinct, it seemed like, was just to try to run at that point. He didn't even try to go, like, who's my second receiver, my third receiver, but yet they didn't have that offense that like Jalen hurts to a type

of get the ball. I have a quick throw, quick ball, quick throw or design run it. I don't, it was like they were running the Indy Dalton offense with him. It was, I thought the weirdest coaching I've seen all year. It was very strange. And yet if that that Packers field goal, Crosby goes wide right, they're tied for first, the Bears are, right? At one and two. I don't even know what to think about this division. I don't see them winning many games. I feel good about Nagy first coach fired,

especially with the Bengals getting a win this week. So rookie QBs, Trevor Lawrence, who is bad again, 34 passes, 219 yards, two picks. Mack was 51 for 273 picks. Two weren't his fault. Zach Wilson, 35 attempts for 160, two picks. Oh, man. And then Fields was 20 attempts for 68, zero picks.

The four of them, their offenses scored 31 points combined. I think the Lawrence thing is the most surprising to me. Because their wide receivers are pretty good. He was, everyone's saying, one of the best college quarterbacks of the last 20 years. And I don't know if this is an Urban Meyer is just putting in

six hours a day and he's on ZipRecruiter looking for college coaching jobs or what's going on. That team looks super sloppy. And Lawrence doesn't look nearly as good as I did. You watch way more college than I did. Did you think he was going to look better? I thought he looked better.

I mean, he threw, he, he threw a very, a tough pass to throw an interception with, but he, it was a flea flicker and he didn't go all the way downfield. He threw like a 12 yard out pattern for a flea flicker.

And he actually flicked it. He put the flick in flea flick. I don't think he actually had it in his hand and threw it in. He's been throwing bad interceptions. And all these guys you mentioned, they're playing from behind and not even racking up yards. That's the weird thing, right? And I'll give you a stat our buddy Ben Fulks threw.

This year's rookie quarterbacks are 1-10 and 1-10 against the spread. The only win was your boy against Zach Wilson in a game that someone had to win. One of the rookies had to win. It's way worse than it was last year with Burrow and Herbert and even Tua wasn't great, but he played on a good team last year. We've not seen anything like this in a while.

Mack, this is another bad coaching thing and I broke my rule of not tweeting when I was upset during a Boston sports game. Yeah, you went after Josh McDaniels. He was so bad today. Josh McDaniels has been so bad this season that when you think the combination of how they

looked last year, how Brady's looked with the Bucs last year and then this year, and you start to think like, was Josh McDaniels just like a complete Brady creation? Is this guy good at all? Because it's so obvious when you watch the Patriots. Josh McDaniels knows way more about football than I do.

It's so clear with the Patriots, like spread the field for Mac and shotgun. He's really good. He makes good decisions every time. He's just, he moves around. It's like eight, 10 yards a pop. And it almost seems like they spent all this money on these tight ends.

And Warren Sharp has been on this from the first week. It's like when they run these two tight ends, they call it the 12, the Pats suck. And then you see it in this game. It's like, oh, they're the two tight ends. Here comes like a two yard loss or an incompletion. And it's for whatever reason, they're afraid to let them kind of cook.

And I don't get it. Cause I think he's had really good moments and he's gone against a Miami defense. That's really active. A Jets defense that is weirdly kind of fast for how bad they are. And then the saints defense that just eats up the run. You can't run on them period. So I don't know.

I was, I don't like this. I think this is a convenient way to not blame your boy Belichick. I know a lot of Patriots fans like you. They're looking every in and out. You're feeling bad now because it's crunch time and Tompa's coming to town. He's going to break the record against you. That's going to be a very sad moment.

It should be a sad moment for you. You better not be excited about it, but no one can blame Belichick for any of this. I love Tom Brady and I'll be rooting for him when he breaks. I'll be cheering him. He won a six Superbowls. They're going to stop. They'll stop the game. Right.

For that. They stopped it for breeze. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, everybody's going to cheer for him. Cause he's like one of the all time icons in the history of the city. I don't like it.

I want you guys to feel some pain. I don't like this. I've been back and forth. All they had to do was give him a four year contract and you would have retired as a Patriot. He didn't want to. And I, it. I want you guys to feel some pain. I don't like this. Listen, all they had to do was give him a four-year contract and he would have retired as a Patriot. He didn't want to. And I see both sides of it because whatever. But Belichick didn't think he could play until he was 44, and he did.

So I guess you could say Belichick takes the L. Look, I see both sides too. I just want Patriots fans to be more upset than they are instead of cheering for Tom half the time. I was so upset today that I rearranged our six Super Bowl DVDs. I had them initially.

The latest one was on the top, but I switched it. I guess you always get the last laugh. I don't know. Listen, maybe... We don't know the answer of Belichick. Is he just getting old? I don't know. We don't know the answer of Belichick. Is he just getting old? I don't know the answer. Because he's not young.

Well, ask Alex Guerrero. And at some point, you get old. Alex Guerrero has the answer. That's what I didn't like. I didn't like we had to hear from Brady's dad. As we get closer, Alex Guerrero's got a way in. It's like, of course, Alex Guerrero had an ax to grind. They told him to get his fucking TB12 out of the Patriots.

Right. Out of the building. Like, of course, he was going to take shots. But I don't know. I don't think there should be friction. They lasted 19 years together. What an unbelievable working relationship.

Now this has to be adversarial? Yeah, I don't care about the ad. I don't care about them. I just want the fans to be upset. Yeah, yeah. I know what you're doing. You know what I mean? I know what you're doing.

I get it. I don't give a crap about them or Kraft or any of them yeah just be more upset that's all I ask here's something that didn't make me upset I was about to have my first

losing week million dollar picks in eight weeks for Schrager needed the Ravens to pull off America all they had to do we had them in tees all they had to do was just win by two yeah

Lamar first of all delay a game they don't call. An incredible no-delay. Did you notice that? Yeah, it went down to nothing. It went down to nothing for like a second and a half, and the refs were like, no, it's good. Go anyway.

And that wouldn't have been good from 71. So, yeah, it was important. Yeah, it was relatively important. Lamar somehow completes the fourth to 19. The guy could run out of bounds, decides not to. He's good. He's going to stay in bounds, try to get the extra yard. He just run out of bounds.

And they bring in Tucker and it's like, what are we doing? This is 66 yards. Even Tucker can't make this. Have you ever seen a football that was kicked by a field goal kicker, hit the upright and hit the net? It hit the net. I haven't seen it in fact i was so used to not seeing it and i think my eyes are going bad anyway i thought the refs i thought the refs lost sight of it i i didn't realize it hit the thing and they were waiting a good three

mississippi count for it to come down and they're staring at each other i'm like oh my god are these idiots really gonna decide on the spot if it went in? I mean, it was spectacular. And 66 yards, I think is, if you give an over-under of five and a half years, do you think that goes, that record lasts under or over? I think this goes a while. 66 is a bomb.

Oh, I don't think, I think this lasts. It would have to be some sort of super kicker. I was thinking about when we were growing up and there was so much less sports history. Right. And you always heard about the Tom Dempsey kick, right? Against the Lions, too.

He was handicapped. He had this special shoe and he made this crazy kick and he did this straightforward kick. And it was this famous replay that we grew up with. And it was like, this is the record. This will never be, nobody will ever do this again. I think it was the oldest highlight in color at the time. It might've been.

I think the greatest, wasn't it for the Saints? It was like the greatest moment in Saints history until they won the Super Bowl. And now, and Tucker, not only was that greater, not only was it the gambling moment of the year, that's going to be tough on the top. I mean, who didn't have, did anyone not have the Ravens in the tees today?

No, everybody had it. And now it knocked out a lot of eliminator picks, right? Ravens over the Lions. I didn't love laying the points because they declare like seven guys, important guys out and coming off a big win against the Chiefs. So I thought there'd be a little bit of a letdown, but my God, they just, there really

should be no argument anymore. Who's the most tortured fan base? Because now, now the Lions have this clip to add to the many, many, many that they already have, the Detroit fans. So sorry. I think I've made this point on the pod before with you, but when we always talk about the tortured fan bases, and it's always Browns, Bills, Vikings are the first three,

and then the Lions never get mentioned because they've never even had any playoff. They've never had a Biner fumble. They've never lost four straight Super Bowls. They've never had all the terrible shit that's happened to the Vikings in the playoffs because they really don't have anything. Nobody can remember anything that's happened, and their fans always get upset that they don't get more credit for being tortured because they don't, they really don't have anything. Nobody can remember anything that's happened.

Right. And their fans always get upset that they don't get more credit for being tortured because they're basically like, we're dead inside. We've had nothing to even enjoy or look forward to forever. Now they have to watch Matt Stafford on the Rams is going to win the MVP. So for 58 touchdowns, he looks great. You get to hear every, every week about how he went to Cabo with Sean McVay. Right.

And got stolen away. And then they got to watch Jared Goff. And it's really unbelievable. Yeah. In a way, it's good for them, right? Like, all right, we're sorry. We're going to give you the recognition you deserve. Like, forget it.

Atlanta and Buffalo and everybody else can take a backseat for a while. It's Detroit. Well, they had a whole thing at halftime, too. They were retiring Calvin Johnson's number and the fans booed the owner. So it was like the liveliest Lions home game

in a while. And I got to say, I wasn't crazy about taking the Ravens and the Tees. And Schrager was really bullish on it. And it was between

them and the Cards. And I just couldn't do the Kyler rollercoaster, Kyler Cliff rollercoaster again. Schrager called me out. Does Schrager want to fight me or something? You heard Schrager. You made him seem like a Pat's pick lackey. He didn't like it.

What is is. I mean, that's it. You picked him to go to the Super Bowl and he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it. I'm not jealous of your million dollars. I don't give a crap about that. Dumbest segment in the world. We'll have to hash it out. The Detroit thing.

I don't know where they go from that game because they had two they had an encouraging Packers performance. Right? They were leading at halftime

and then it kind of falls apart but it's like no no maybe maybe no now they're 0-3. What do you do? What do you do?

Now they're in that zone of like, should we just go for the first pick? We're trying to build something. That coach is like a maniac. He wants to win every game. But they're kind of the frisky bad team this year. I think that that might be their destiny. I think so too.

And I think Goff is... We can throw darts at Goff all we want. He's better than these other guys we mentioned that are going to end up with three or four wins or two or one or zero, right? I think. And these other teams, he still will put together a game or two better than any of these rookies.

And I don't know. It just seems like they're going to win by accident and they're going to screw themselves out of a top two pick. Yeah, they're kind of a little too confident to be a bad team. I was wondering about Goff because I was trying to figure out what the Steelers do. And in the NBA, I have a total complete grasp of the trading rules in the NBA, right?

We have the trade machine, the salary cap, very easy to understand. You go on spot track and figure it out. In football, it's like harder to land a UFO than it is to make a football trade. The Lions took Goff's contract in that Rams deal. He had all these bonuses and all these things. Do they inherit those

bonuses? I don't know. I guess my point is, could they trade Goff for Roethlisberger tomorrow? Is that a trade that could even work under the salary cap? Are there bonuses on the Steeler side? So I was trying to figure out, like, if you're the Steelers, you watch that game today. Trade Roethlisberger.

What could they get? I'm just saying, like, you can't play Roethlisberger for the whole season. The guy can barely do anything. I thought he was as bad as the rookie QBs today. Roethlisberger reminds me of, and far be it for me to make fun of fat people, but he reminds me of like you're 12 years old and you're going to go play football on Thanksgiving, right? Right before the meal.

And you're out there with your friends and you have this giant fat kid who could beat you up, right? He could beat everybody up, but he refuses to play the line. And he says, I'm going to be the designated quarterback. And they're like, oh crap. All right. Really? You don't want to block? Like, nope, I'm going to be the designated quarterback. And they're like, oh, crap. All right. Really?

You don't want to block? Like, nope. I'm going to be. And he lumbers around there. Right. Exactly. Fat Tommy can't complete a pass for an hour and a half, and then you leave and you go eat dinner.

And that's that. And that's what Roethlisberger. I mean, he's so immobile back there. It really didn't matter a few years ago. But now when you see guys zipping around like fireflies, it really stands out how bad and how, how much Ben Roethlisberger is holding them back. I mean, Najee Harris has to have a hundred yards receiving because that's his outlet now. I was trying to think of like the

levels of a quarterback being washed up and some of the ones we've seen over the years. And, you know, like Favre had that second Viking season. That first Viking season was great. Got the shit kicked out of him in that Saints game. And then the next year was really bad. Manning's last Denver season where he just had no zip on the ball. Breeze last season where it was like basically nothing over seven yards was even in play. Aikman was bad too. Sure. Aikman's, yeah. Everything was a screen. Everything was- Steve Young near the tail end there when he had taken a lot of

hits. And there's been some bad ones like Ken Stabler when he was on Houston going way back was like, I think he had more interceptions than TDs one year. Roethlisberger is as bad as we've seen for like a great guy who's won a Superbowl who has good weapons, but it's this weird mix of like, you have this guy who is completely immobile,

who just has a bullseye and his helmet and then an offensive line and can't block for him. You know, what might help Tomlin make the decision that there's a meme out there. You saw the meme. Did you see the meme of Ben like dropping back to pass and just falls like that? That I think is the difference.

Like, uh, I don't even know. I can tell the story, but way back when Jimmy, uh, had, my cousin Jimmy had a hair person who, like, really wasn't keeping up with the styles. And it wasn't until Jimmy found out that his soon-to-be wife labeled him Cotton Candy Clamshell. She said, it looks like a Cotton Candy Clamshell. He's like, oh, my God, there's a name for it? She's like, okay, I have to make a change. And I think that's what it is.

Like, oh my God, there's a meme now. Millions of people watching this. I keep getting it texted to me. I can't have this. Tomlin may have to do something. We may have to go to the Duck Hodges Rudolph experiment again, whatever they have going. Well, I guess they have, what's his name, from Washington, right? Remember we had to screenshot a text thread about his hair before he believed us how upset we were about the hair situation? Yeah, you're right. Maybe the meme will be what puts it over the top. My question is,

all right, who's out there? And this is where I bring up Minshew every week, which is, I guess, my Sunday night tradition now, but just give a fifth round for Minshew. You just need a C-plus or a C or a C-minus. Anybody who can round for Minshew. You just need a C plus or a C or a C minus. Anybody who can just chuck the ball. You have these

good receivers. You have a really good running back and you just need somebody who can actually move around a little bit because you can't block. How about someone who there's a chance in the world that on third and six, he'll be able to scramble for a first down. How, how about that?

Like, let's start there. Even if he can't even throw the ball. Like, just that. It's really rough. The linebackers have to be a little bit weary of him running for a first down. Well, at the last five, six games last year, we were like, oh man,

looks like he might be washed. And then all the story, oh, he looks great. He's in better shape. All right, let's give it a chance. He's got some good receivers. This is done. It's over. There's no going back. It's not going to get better.

And I guess if you're the Steelers, now you're in this weird thing where it's like, is there a loyalty because of the Superbowls? Is this like a John Elway in Denver, Brett Favre in Green Bay? We know how that turned out, but like, is this Roethlisberger matter in the same way to those Pittsburgh fans? I'm not positive he does. I think it's a little more conflicted. I know some Steelers fans love him, but I don't think it's like... It's not like Troy Aikman in Dallas.

Yeah. No, I think they'd be okay with that. I think secretly they want him to get hurt. Not seriously hurt, but just they want him to hang it up. They want him to make the breakup call. But Tomlin, on the other hand, is probably like, I've never done bad with this guy, right? I still have that thing where I've never gone under 500.

It's going to be a little weird starting over with somebody else. But this team is not big. It's like the car that has 220,000 miles, right? No, no, we can do one trip in this. It'll be fine. Right. But it's different than this car. Yeah, but the other teams,

the other quarterbacks in division are good now. Like Lamar and Burrow and, you know, Baker are all better now. You can't get lucky with your defense and make the playoffs

at nine and eight. I don't think they can at least. What would you give me if we could give it to put odds on Ben Roethlisberger will retire during this season

at some point, at some point before the end of week 17? What would you put for odds? Does he have to announce he's retiring? Just if he can milk an injury for the rest of the year and then just not renew, right? Oh, that's interesting.

Maybe he announces he's retiring after the season. Just say how many more games he's going to play as a Steelers. I would. All right, let's do that. Eight. Oh,

I would say less. I think, I think eight starts. You think he has seven and a half. Yeah. I mean, I think it's few. I think you have to make it around seven or eight,

but I would, I would go under there. Who's so your favorite AFC team is the bank is the bills. Yeah. I have bills ramp Superbowl. So today, today was good for me, but? Yeah, I have Bills-Ram Super Bowl. So today was good for me, but whatever. We're still in September. Who do you have for most fun team of 2021 so far?

I have the Raiders. I think they've been an absolute delight. Lots of fun, right? Because everyone and their brother apologized for anything they said negative about Derek Carr this week. And then he threw the pick six, and it was like everybody right back on it. Yeah, fuck you. This guy sucks. Yeah, exactly. it was like everybody right back on it. Yeah. Fuck you.

This guy sucks. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, oh, this is a game they're going to win, but not cover. And I thought it would happen when the Dolphins didn't make the two.

I thought they wouldn't make the two point conversion. They'll so they'll lose 25, 23. But instead they lost by a field goal in overtime. So I'm like, all right, that makes sense. We overvalue the Raiders a little,

but they are fun. Kylo Murray's fun, too. Like we talk MVP all the time. Way too much and he's always in a discussion the first month and here he is again. Raiders tried to give that game away so many times. The guy

misses the extra point where it would have been a two-possession game. Carlson, who's usually pretty good. He made 24 straight field goals. You're not even really looking at the extra point with him. Then he misses it. Then you do the math. They're not even really looking at the extra point with him and then he misses it. Right. And then you do the math, they're like, oh,

so they're only up 11. Awesome. This, you know, this is rearing in so we had. So then of course, and then the Dolphins come down. The rarely seen, they actually tried the run

with under 20 seconds left inside the two and no timeouts. Don't get it. Have to scramble back to the line and Brissette does. Listen, as I've said scramble back to the line and Brissette does... Listen, as I've said many times, I don't mind Brissette. I think he's... That's another one who, if he was in Pittsburgh, would

be a huge upgrade over Ben. He's okay. You're not the only one who thinks he's okay. Fandel and everyone else thinks he's okay. In fact, the line moved down a little bit when he was named quarterback and Tua was out for three weeks or whatever he is on the IR. Yeah, he's fine.

He's manageable and he'll stay with these middle tier teams. Vegas Lions don't lie. When your backup comes in and the line moves toward you, it's usually a sign there might be something wrong with your starter. We'll come back and we'll do a couple more things to get started. When you ride transit, please be safe. Yeah, be safe. Because what you do, others will do too.

Others will do it too. So don't take shortcuts across tracks. Don't do that. In fact, just don't walk on tracks at all. Not at all. Trains move quietly so you won't hear them coming. You won't hear them coming. You won't hear them coming. See?

Safe riding sets an example. Yeah, an example for me. Because safety is learned. It's learned. Okay, give it up. Give what up? Really? Really, really.

Ugh. This message is brought to you by Metrolinks. Okay, couple, uh, some housecleaning really quick. I ended up, even though we didn't do Kyla Murray million dollar picks, I ended up betting on the cards today. I couldn't resist last second. I had them in a couple of teases just last minute. I had sworn I'm staying away. I don't want to do the rollercoaster again. And I got sucked in and I realized like they're cocaine. I've never tried cocaine, but it's like the people who like cocaine and they go back and they're like, I'm not going to do it this weekend.

And then they end up doing it. I think the Cardinals are cocaine. I'm going to call them the cocaine Cardinals from now on. We were going to add them to the 86 Met stock. It just didn't quite make sense. The entire Cardinals were with Dwight Gooden after the title. Yeah, I just couldn't resist. I couldn't stay away.

I knew it was bad for me, and I just did it. Craziest record. I'm going to give you four nominations. The Raiders being 3-0, Panthers being 3-0, Broncos being 3-0, or the Colts being 0-3.

Which one surprises you the most? You had the Raiders before the season. I had the Raiders before. I'm trying to think who the Broncos beat. Based on their schedule, it might make sense. I got to say, when I wrote those down, even though the Colts make sense,

seeing the 0-3 next to them was a little jarring. Yeah, because I'll say the Colts because I had them to win the division. I thought that was screwy that it was a coin flip against Tennessee who had all these additions and won the division last year and it's still a coin flip. But I don't know. I mean, Carson, once he breaks both ankles, which I feel like you only see in mobster

movies, maybe it's time to be concerned for this Colts team. But they were gutty today. I bet them today I thought they would be like an upset team. I took the plus money. And they stayed with them, but not promising. Just not electric. And you keep waiting for Jonathan Taylor to explode, and it hasn't been happening.

Seahawks, should the Seahawks fans panic yet or no? I mean, Seahawks and Chiefs in last place, right? But the Seahawks, it's a little worse with how that Titans game ended. And then, you know, that Vikings team, that was one of my favorite picks of the week. You like the Vikings, huh? I do. I just, I like the, I think they moved the ball. I think they could move the ball against any team.

And I just like them getting points at home. That was a great Cousins game. That really was. I mean, that's, you're not going to get better than him. Yeah. I don't know. Seattle, just, that was another Hay 19 game where they just never had the ball after the first quarter.

I didn't see them moving it at all. And I don't know what's going to be with them. Every game's a mystery with the Seahawks, and they can't afford to lose games like this in that division for sure. Yeah, I was trying to think, like, so we get to the end of the month and we panic about one team, right? One team that we thought was going to be good.

I guess that's the Steelers, but did know the Steelers they're over under was eight and a half. Right. Just as like a pedigree team. I think Seattle is the one that I would worry about just because the odds of there being four really good teams in the same division, you know, and right. They, they still have to play all those other the same division, you know, and right.

They, they still have to play all those other ones. Well, they play, uh, yeah, the, the third,

uh, next Thursday night, they play the Rams. So that'll be, you got to go at all. Yeah. Just for the people under 30 who don't know what the song is. This song,

if you go on yacht rock, there's a one in 10 chance this song is playing. Yeah, I think Michael McDonald's in the background of this. Is he in this one? It's a good one. Stealing Ham was really good. They're great. That's proud.

But I may not have to hear this ever again. Seattle is at San Francisco, and then they play the Rams. So, yeah, even if they split those, that's not good, right? But that could be a legit one in four. We're now they're scrambling. Let's do a guest lines. Every week we guess the lines every year. I beat you this year.

You're up to one. Not this year. Three weeks. I can't believe how bad the Thursday night game is. Right. Well, Fox takes over next week, like I said,

but yeah, this is a bad one with Carolina Houston. And now this one's terrible to Jaguars at Bengals. with Burrow though and those receivers there are signs of something I don't think they're a well coached team but it does seem like they've been drafting you know in the top 10 for a couple years here it does seem like they have some talent on both sides yeah it's working yeah if you can protect Burrow

you're going to get an exciting game you're going to be entertained by the Cincinnati team for sure if he's not eating the turf and his coach didn't even defend him this week he was If he's not eating the turf. And his coach didn't even defend him this week. He was like, ah, he downplayed the number of sacks. If I'm Burrell, I'm like, hey, shut up already, dude. I've been sacked like 12 times in three games.

What's going on here? But just a quick question. Do you prefer when they put the bad teams? Because the idea is you have to play every team in prime time, right? So you're saying if you put the two together, you can get rid of both of them. Yeah, like Houston, Carolina. Would you rather have seen Houston at Tennessee or get rid of them all at once? I would rather they put the bad teams during the baseball playoffs month.

Like next week. That's interesting. When there's all kinds of baseball stuff and I don't really care as much about the Thursday night. I didn't think about that. I would have actually had a good Thursday night game for this one. Burrow reminds me of, we both had little boys and little boys are dumbasses till they turn six. But when dad gets to spend the day with like the three-year-old boy and it goes surprisingly well, but like two terrible things happen. Like they, you don't realize that they took a shit in their diaper and it went all the

way down the back of their shirt. And then there was another thing where they, you were eating lunch with them at the diner and they threw a French fry and hit some old lady head. But other than that, it went great. Right. Right.

Other than that, those two things, your wife comes back like, how'd it go? And you're like, Oh, it went great. Did anything happen?

You're like, well, two things happen. And then they're too terrible. That's kind of what bur is like on the Bengals. Was that your parent corner? I don't think we were ready for that. But that's like Burrow.

He looks great, and then he'll have two throws a game that are really awful. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But he's found this Jamar Chase. I know he's only had four receptions, but you can find him in the end zone. It's fun to watch with that LSU connection. Well, I put this squarely in the end zone. It's fun to watch with that LSU connection. Well, I put this squarely in the Vegas zone. My guess was Bengals by five and a half at home over the Jaguars.

I get this. I went very heavy. I went eight and a half, and it's seven and a half. So I was a point off. You were two points off. So in the ZFL, which pick all the games. My buddy Gus has had forever. He used to have this thing called the Oaks game, which I've written about.

This guy, John Oaks, who was in the ZFL forever. He would have any game where like a bad team was favored more by a touchdown. He would just automatically be like, I'm taking the other team. Right.

That team should never be favored by more than seven ever in any. This to me is an Oaks game. The Bengals should not be favored by a touchdown over a New England league. Don't you think? I mean, they are the Bengals. I do, but... You just don't want to take the Jaguars. These rookies have been so bad on the road too.

Here's my case for the Jaguars in this game. It's like, oh, only four days to prepare for the Bengals. Well, Urban Meyer's unprepared every week. So this would be the one week where it works out for him. Right. He's coaching by the seat of his pants all the time. This week it'll work out great. You know what?

We don't have to bet it. I know it's not baseball playoffs yet, but the Red Sox will have an important game against the Nationals or who they play. We can watch that. I told you, I bet on the Yankees to win the series this weekend. I'm not ashamed to admit that publicly.

Yeah, but you still want to make the playoffs, don't you? We have no bullpen left. People don't seem to understand. It's like, oh my God, I can't believe they brought in Hernandez yesterday to pitch to Stanton. It's like, who the fuck are we going to bring in? We have no relievers. Just walk Stanton

and try to pitch around Judge next Monday or Tuesday whenever you play and you'll be fine. How many times is the same guy going to beat you? I watch an incredible amount of Red Sox. Our MVP this year, and I say this without hyperbole, was Garrett Whitlock. Really? He

probably swung the season by 13 games because over and over again, he would pitch these high leverage situations and get out of them in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. And we didn't have him this weekend because he was hurt. And that, and that's why we lost yesterday.

And that's why we lost today. He would have come in and we would have won those games. I'm betting there. I think your MVP is the Baltimore Orioles. That's who your MVP is. And you got three more times. I'm going to, I'm going to lay heavy on the red socks this week.

I'm trying not to get too upset about the Yankee thing, but I don't like how it's like they win three in a row and Stanton hits two home run derby homers and then all the other guys are like, we're back! It's a massacre, baby! It's like, you guys suck too. Neither of us are winning the World Series. Let's be honest. My Mets

tried to help you. I don't know why you couldn't. You did. You guys are bad. Sunday marquee game. I'm going with this one. I had six games I really liked, and I picked Rams Cardinals because we have the Rams who are the best team in the league. We have the LA Stadium. We have Kyler Murray

and Matt Stafford, two MVP candidates, and we have the Cocaine Cardinals, and that's all we need. Plus, we have the Cliff Kingsbury, Sean McVay, who did a podcast together on the Ringer Podcast Network. Oh, right. That's right. This is great and that's all we need. Plus we have the cliff Kingsbury, Sean McVay, who did a podcast together on the ringer podcast network. Oh, right. That's right.

Oh, this is great. Yeah. This is a great game. Yep. And it's in LA and I have the Rams by six. You get this. Exactly.

I went low. I said five. And, um, I guess Fandle and the books aren't as impressed with the Cardinals as we are. So if you like the Cardinals in this game, I would recommend Cardinals money line with the Cardinals as we are. So if you like the Cardinals in this game, I would recommend Cardinals money line with the over.

Because I think that's how they win this. It's like a 38 to 35, 42 to 40. Interesting. I don't think either team is going to be able to stop each other. It's so funny that the Tampa Rams game was around 55. I'm like, wow, that seems high. The Rams still have good defense, right? And what was it? It was no scoring in the first quarter at all. And then that went over, right? Or it was over 55. I'm like, wow, that seems high. Like, the Rams still have good defense, right? And what was it?

It was no scoring in the first quarter at all. And then that went over, right? Or it was over 54. Chargers Chiefs did the same thing. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. The cocaine Cardinals today,

they try a 67-yard field goal with somebody who had literally no chance to make it. Who was it? I think it was 68. No, it was Prater who has the record. No, come on. It was outdoors. He wasn't making that. But Prater has the record. No, I'm with you.

There was no fucking way he was making that. And the Jags had their guy underneath waiting for it. Kingsbury went from, this guy should be fired to, oh my God, they might go to the Super Bowl. At some point, you can't kick the long field goal before the half. Tucker had to do it. They had no timeout.

They had to kick that 66 yarder. This 68, you wouldn't kick a field goal from your own goal line, right? Eventually, the guy's going to return it. He's going to have a head of speed. He's going to have a 30-yard head start on everybody. Just don't do it. They almost blew it. And the fact that the Jaguars couldn't

cover after that, that speaks volumes. Like they were way worse than, than that final score indicated. If we were sitting next to each other and I paused the game and I asked you a percentage of the possibility of that kick making, I would have said 2%. Nothing is dumb shit all over the place.

And it's like, what are the odds of, what are the odds of that? He doesn't make it. And this guy returns it for a touchdown. I would have been like 10%, 11%. We see this all the place. And it's like, what are the odds of, what are the odds of that? He doesn't make it. And this guy returns it for a touchdown. I would have been like 10%, 11%. We see this all the time. These field goal kick units have no

idea how to recover, how to do basically a punt. They don't know how to cover that. I got to tell you, that was idiotic. I sometimes feel bad that I'm like, well, I didn't play in college. I didn't play in pro. I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be talking about all this stuff. But as long as there are morons like Kingsbury, who's

going to kick a 68-yard field goal when there's as good a chance that's going to be returned for a touchdown, and we can comment on it, and we will, like, all right, I feel okay. I feel like, no, people aren't doing their job, so they need to be put to the test. If it was in a dome,

I still wouldn't have liked it. But at least in a dome, I'm like, all right, it's in a dome. It carries a little bit more in the test. If it was in a dome, I still wouldn't have liked it. But at least in a dome, I'm like, all right, it's in a dome. It carries a little bit more in the dome. But like, in Jacksonville?

Come on. That was idiotic. This would be a great game. I can't wait for, if people haven't watched the Cardinals this year, I'm excited for you to be able to watch them.

All right, the watchables. We have five watchables games and four poopfecta games. So it's really a top heavy schedule this year first one is your dumb team it's home playing the uh panthers and we have no idea if your team will be coming off a win or not yes we do yeah they're gonna win okay i'm very confident in this i am are you yeah i think why i think there's much like the titans in the afc south the The Cowboys are going to.

Because you know what? I looked at Washington's defense and I told everybody. I was like, this might be an overrated unit. Sorry, Joe House. But we saw the Bills ate them up and they didn't look good last week against the Giants. And I just feel like we by far have the best unit offensively. And now I'm jinxing it because Dak's going to go down with a sprained MCL and that'll be that. As far as tomorrow goes

and the near future, I like the Cowboys. You could clinch the division. Yeah, isn't it weird? I'm with you. The Giants, who I bet on their under, and I'm delighted that I did, they suck. Washington,

as you said, overrated defense. Not nearly enough explosiveness. And I don't really see a path for them either. So it's between your team and Philly. So we'll know tomorrow night. I still like, I like a couple of the units on that Philly team. I like their skill guys. I like their front, their kind of front pass rush, front four, plus the linebackers.

I like their coach who does these weird sports movie speeches before the games. But you should win. You should win this division. Well, here's the thing about week three. It's kind of like week one in that after week three, we'll really become experts again, right? We didn't know what to make of the Packers getting beat up by the Saints and then the Saints losing to Carolina. Like, oh, man, now we need to see three games, right? Like we didn't know what to make of the Packers getting beat up by the Saints and then the Saints losing to Carolina. Like, oh man, I, uh, now we need to see three games, right? Like

we didn't know what the bills getting beat by the Steelers. Like if the Cowboys beat the Eagles, like, okay, then we're like, oh, we get it. They're good. Like the Eagles in week one against the Falcons before we knew how bad they were. They look great. They look faster than everyone else. Jim hurts is making smart decisions. And then week two, they're awful. They barely scored in that game. So we do need this one more game to determine basically nothing. We still won't learn anything. Yeah, week four is my favorite week to bet, I think.

Yeah. Because it's like the rock, paper, scissors analogy. You brought up the Panthers. I think the Panthers might be good. And you were talking about how good their defense was when we were texting about it on Thursday. Even with McCaffrey out, I think people are going might be good. And you were talking about how good their defense was on Thursday. Like even with McCaffrey out, I think people are going to be off on them,

but that team, that team's good. They fly around. They're fast. They have good skill guys. They're well coached. And now you look back at that saints game in week two, where the same,

and then the saints going to new England. And that line is like suspiciously only pats by three. Cause I think people were fat. The sharps were factoring in like, Hey, Carolina is good. Like Carolina might be a really good team. That's why the saints look bad.

Right. And I think also the saints losing seven coaches actually makes it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. It's not like getting a substitute teacher in there. Like you really kind of need, it needs to work out.

Um, and also you're, you're going to bid $28 on Chuba Hubbard this week for sure. Oh, maybe more. I have the Cowboys favored by three and a half over the Panthers. All right, I get this one. I said five. It's four and a half.

I always go a little high with them, but I was off a half. You were off a full point. That's dumb. The Panthers could easily win that game, and that line's too high. I like that McCaffrey's not playing. I'm not going to lie to you. It helps. So, I think Schrager said this on Thursday.

He did a whole thing about McCaffrey. Don't bring him up anymore. I'm sorry. I know you guys have beef. How McCaffrey's like the Mike Trout of football. He's this guy. He's the number one fantasy guy every year. And people might not be able to identify him

out of a police lineup. Do you know what he looks like? Are you confident you could identify him? I think so. I don't have a mental image of his face. Nobody can name him. African-American guy, kind of like mutton chops on the side, right?

I don't know. Never really had a memorable football moment that I could think of other than in college. Right. Wasn't it that snow game against the Packers? Although I think they lost, but then he get down to the goal line or something.

I don't know. There was some. No, you're right. But then it was all set up for him to have this moment. The team's finally good. And now he's, now he's out. Now he's going to be out for a while. All right.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know if there's ever been a player like him that's so highly regarded fantasy-wise, but I mean, he makes all pros and everything. It's hard to say. Wasn't Priest Holmes like this?

Where Priest Holmes was good for a couple years and it didn't really translate to anything? Yeah, I guess that's a good comparison. Vikings Browns in Minnesota. I'll fully confess, I probably got this wrong because I think the Vikings are better than probably most people, but I had the Vikings by one and a half at home over the Browns.

We both had exactly one and a half, and the Browns are favored by one. Yeah. Lots of love for those Browns. Listen, I'm just telling you and the listeners, I will be betting the Vikings this week. Oh, really? Yeah.

I thought you were going to say stay away. No, I believe in that Vikings team. I think they're good. I think they can move the ball. The fact that Cook didn't play, and Cook was so awesome in week two and doesn't play week three. They just put Madison in. He's like 95% as good.

I like Osgood as a third receiver. They just have, even though he didn't do much today, but they just have weapons. And Cousins looks really comfortable. It looks like they can block for him this year. This was the best game for him, for sure. For sure. He was available on two waiver wires this week.

He was? I picked him up in two leagues, yeah. 30 for 38, 323, three touchdowns. That's what you think when you think of him. He'll probably be a COVID proximity scratch on Wednesday and I'll have to take it back.

I think that's a dumb line. I think the Vikes should be favored. Yeah, Cousins had a great game and didn't Beasley have like 11 receptions or something? Yeah.

This is the COVID breakout. Chiefs are in Philly. And again, we don't know enough about Philly yet, but the Chiefs have to be favored. I probably did this too low. I had Chiefs by five in Philly.

I said six and a half. No, you're right. You said it's five and a half. So you're closer. Oh, I win that one. Now, this is interesting with Andy Reid. I guess they're saying he's okay.

He's like stable and everything. And he's up. Not about, but he's still hospitalized. This is his old team, right? Obviously. Is BNME making all the calls? I wonder if that makes a difference for this week. I can't imagine the Chiefs would lose

that game. The Chiefs are going to go 1-3. That's our teaser team. Or parlay team. You take that money parlay and you put them with somebody else that you like and do it that way. I will have the Chiefs in something. Yep. I also think they could easily be 3-0.

Ravens are at Denver. I believe the Ravens will be favored in this game. And I would have liked Denver a little more. Hamler got hurt. So they've lost Judy and they've lost Hamler. Right. They lost two of their best three receivers. They only Patrick's really the only guy left.

Their running game was, was good today, but they're playing a crappy team. Chubbs out. It's a deceiving three, you know, and I think Baltimore has to be favored at Baltimore by one and a half. I wonder you're going to get this.

I said Baltimore by two and a half and it's the Broncos minus one. So maybe that's our teaser. Ooh. Maybe we get the full seven there. So you get that. I wonder if the Jets screw teams up, though. I mean, they screwed up your Patriots, right? You can't really play them.

It's hard. You got to shower like 35 times to get the stink off. And I wonder if the Denver is going to go through the same thing this week. I don't enjoy betting on Lamar. It's if he's behind or if you, if you feel like he needs to actually throw the ball versus like the almond control thing.

I, it's, I just never feel like they're going to move the ball down the field. I was so surprised when he converted that fourth and 19. Yeah. I love so surprised when he converted that fourth to 19. I don't love his decision making. I love him when you're up 10 with him. It's great. Although it wasn't great today, but in general, I mean, Hollywood Brown dropped a couple of huge ones for them today and they should have, that game should have been over. But in that situation where it's like, all right, they just need a field goal. Lamar, you got to take them 50 yards.

I just didn't think he was going to do it. Yeah. No, he's not one of those guys. One drive, give Lamar the ball for sure. That's a different... Whereas like Rodgers today. Sure. Now he is the history. It's hard to compare anyone to Rodgers. Right. If it had been Garoppolo on the other side, I wouldn't have believed in Garoppolo. I don't know.

This will not go well. I'm with you. We should have more confidence in Lamar in the regular season. He probably averages like 12 wins a year, right? Well, he's like... I just think there's certain situations that aren't favorable for him. But for the most part, he's still like

with the fourth or fifth best QB you'd want if you were drafting QBs. Right. It's just when you know he has to drop back, I'm not as sold. When it's like, I don't know what he's going to do play to play, that's when he's devastating. But in those situations, it's like, all right, he's got a minute.

He's got to go 55 yards. I never feel great about it. Well, it helps that he only has to go 35 yards because he's got a kicker launching from the moon. Jesus. He's the best kicker of our lifetime, right? Well, I don't know. Tucker, have you ever been

more confident in a kicker? Are you giving up on your boy? I would say Vinatieri's right there. I think Vinatieri's made the biggest kicks. But Tucker, when you throw in his ability to basically

kick it into the 60s, I think he has to be... He's the most talented kicker ever. I guess so. Do you still have Ray Guy as number one punter? It's been so long now with him. Right.

I saw Peter King's right up on that. And he listed like seven other punters like that. It could be, but, um, that, that's what we remember as a kid, as kids.

I still have Ray guy. Yeah. I like Reggie Roby. We'll watch. Reggie Roby was amazing. Yeah. He was up there too. Uh,

last one for the watchables 49 or Seahawks. Hmm. If this was like. Yeah, he was up there too. Last one for the watchables. 49ers Seahawks. If this was like week 15, we would be saying this is a loser leaves town match. This is a loser might have to think about leaving town match. Yeah. This to me looks like a textbook minus three. 49ers minus three Seahawks. I got this one.

It's at three and a half and that's what I said. Ooh, not a lot of faith in the Seahawks, huh? I don't know. It's interesting. Yeah, I just, well, some guys off a loss, right? I mean, Seahawks off a loss, Chiefs off a loss should win. Who else lost that should bounce back here? I mean,

I think these are kind of easy. We've always liked week four. Right. We're going to take one more quick break and then we'll do the rest. How can you be sure your child is making the right decision when choosing a university? The smart approach is to look at the facts, like the fact that York U graduates have a 90% employer satisfaction rate. That's because across its three GTA campuses, York U's programs are strategically designed to prepare students for a meaningful career and long-term success.

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Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. All right, come back. We have nine games left. We had the barely watchables. I'm putting Bill's Texans in here. I don't really know why other than this should probably be in the poopfecta.

Where would you put this? Barely watchables or poop vector? Uh, I, uh, well, since I have, I know your number already,

I'll tell you the odds makers would put this in the depths of the poop factor. Okay. I picked bills by 12 over Houston. I said 14. I said, they're a good two touchdown favorite. It's 17 and a half.

Oh my Lord. Good golly. Not a lot of faith in Davis Mills, I guess. So no chance for Taylor? I don't know about that. I guess there isn't. What day was he ruled out this week? Yeah, I don't think we'll see him.

I don't think we'll see him. No chance for Deshaun. If he's in there, that's too many points. No, Deshaun if he's in there that's too many that's too many points Deshaun's probably not making it I think he's gonna be sitting this one out again yeah Dolphins-Colts

another barely watchable so this is a loser leaves town match for the Colts because 0-4 will be insurmountable and they have a tough game

next week too I had Dolphins by 4 over the Colts at home yeah you went high on this I said 1 and it's one and a half. Why did I go high? What's good about the Colts? What have you seen?

Their quarterback has two sprained ankles. I think it's pretty close. I think the Dolphins are going to be in every game is going to be the same for both these teams. Wouldn't you be surprised if either one's up by 10 in the fourth quarter?

I think it's very close. Kyle, turn the camera on. I got one for you. Uh-oh. Is it possible everyone involved with that Eagles win over the Pats

in the Super Bowl sold their soul to the devil and that was it? What? Who's turned out well since that Super Bowl? Anyone? Even in the Philadelphia sports scene.

Frank Rank. The Colts are like a bottom five coach team. They fuck up every week. Have you ever seen a team? They'll go for it on fourth and two. Frank Rank's going for it. It's like, oh yeah, Wentz got sacked again. They turned the ball over. They're poorly coached. And then

Nick Foles, Big Dick Nick, what's happened to that guy since then? But you say the entire Philly sport, like Philadelphia 76ers. The process. He's fine. The process with his Simmons and Embiid. We got it. No. Wow. There's stinks all over that. What about the Phillies? What's happened with them? Nothing. Flyers zero. Interesting. Yeah. I think that, I think they sold their souls for that Super Bowl

just to beat Belichick. Take it away from us. Nothing good has happened in Philly since. You know what? It's worth it. Thank you for Philly. Philly for taking it away from the Patriots. They won a Super Bowl with Nick Foles and Frank Gregg.

Nick Foles is like a third string quarterback. And Frank Gregg, who week after week, looks like he has no idea where he is. Unbelievable. I love this. And then it's like, oh my God, we lost Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz is terrible. How did they beat the Patriots?

I'll never get over it. They're still paying a salary. They're still paying a salary. There's still 40 million. Just one stop. Oh, we do a stop on once. We scored like 42 points. We lost Super Bowl.

I love that this still upsets you. God damn it. It's the greatest. So bad. Packers, Steelers is our other barely watchable. I should have put this in the watchable because I think the Steelers are now watchable in a car crash kind of way.

Yeah. You said Loser Leaves Town. It seems like it's Loser Leaves. Not that we cross them off the playoff list, but it seems like Loser Leaves Town for four teams that are decent. Well, at least we thought were decent going into the season, right? Do we think 10 wins is the cutoff for AFC? Or would you say nine?

I now think it could be nine and eight. It's too early. Don't you think the Raiders could be nine and eight and make it? The Raiders are going to go 14 and three. Oh, wow. All right. I have Packers by seven at home against the Steelers. And I think we have to strongly,

strongly, strongly consider them in a teaser. I would have liked it better if the Packers had lost. You're right, by the way, it's six and a half. And I said five and a half. So you're going to get that one.

But, um, I definitely would have liked it if the Crosby had missed that kick today. I think there would have been an ass-kicking mode for sure. Poopfecta. Falcons-Washington is our first one. Falcons-Home. I should probably know this.

Did somebody end up winning the Falcons-Giants game? What happened? Was there a winner? They called it off. Who won that one? There's just, they have both teams left. Not anyone at the game. Nobody at the game won it.

Now the Falcons, Dirty Birds are back, baby. This is going to be a winning year now for them. So the Falcons could win this game and be 2-2. Yeah. With, I'm going to give you the schedule coming up. I know they have the Panthers twice

in like five weeks or something. They have the Jets in London in week five. And then a bye week. So they could be three and two coming out of the bye week at Dolphins, home Carolina, at Saints,

at Cowboys, home Patriots, at Jags, home Bucks, at Panthers, at 49ers, home Lions, at Bills, home Patriots, at Jags, home Bucks, at Panthers, at 49ers, home Lions, at Bills, home Saints. We both had the Falcons

over-under, I think it was 7.5. Oh, yeah. 8-9 is reasonable for them with that terrible schedule. Who knows? And they suck. I had them win 11 games. I know. They're so bad. They stink. They can win all these games. And then again, they were down 3 to Tampa Bay in the fourth quarter last week.

I'm taking them this week. Of course I'm taking them this week. Arthur Smith, incredible offensive coordinator, much like Frank Reich. He's kind of the new wave Frank Reich. On the sidelines, just has a weird look on his face, and the team looks super sloppy, and he might have been promoted. What the hell happened there? He's supposed to be offensive guy like ryan finally has an offensive coach it's always

been defensive quinn and this guy and that uh and now they can't score points like they have to depend on a coup field goal at the at the buzzer you have kyle pitts in the keeper league right i have kyle pitts in my other two leagues when do we we panic about this? I don't know. I mean, he had two catches today. How many yards? I don't like two for 35. Well, I spent 33 on him.

So he's, he's at least exceeding that. That's good. Uh, bears lions. Well, you didn't pick a line. You're, you're going to,

I picked Falcons two and a half over. I said three. I thought it was a full three, but it's only one. Yeah. Heineke is another one who has moments where you're like, okay, it's better than Ben Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger is the new Mendoza line. Every quarterback I watch, I wonder if they're better than Ben Roethlisberger. And the answer is usually yes. Yeah. The answer is almost always yes. Okay. Bears-Lions. This is usually yes. Yeah. The answer is almost always yes. Okay. Bears-Lions.

This is in Chicago. Matt Nagy will have yet another week to figure out should he call plays that benefit the skill set of his rookie quarterback or just continue to run the offense he's been running the last seven years.

I'm on pins and needles. I can't wait. You'd think this could be it for him if he loses this game? Or is it too early? What's next for him if they lose this? What are the next ones? I know we had it by week seven. I think they have a bye somewhere

in there. Yeah, there's a bye. No, there's not a bye until week nine. Home Lions at Vegas week five. Home Packers at Bucks. Home Niners at Steelers. Oh, my God.

So, yeah, I think next week could be it for him. If they lose to the Lions, if it's like a 30-7 kind of Lions shellacking, I like this spot for the Lions. Because the fans like you are-7 kind of Lions shellacking, I like this spot for the Lions. Because the fans like you are not going to blame Fields for this, right? So if they have another, if they lay another egg next week against the pitiful Lions, that

definitely, definitely is on the hot seat. Their game plan with Fields today, I know I mentioned it earlier, honestly, it was stupefying. I can't wait to listen to Jason Goff on the Full Go podcast because he cares about the Bears way more than I do. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a Bears fan and watch that game. And it looks like he found out 10 minutes before the game that he was the starter.

Right. Well, maybe Bears fans past Lions fans and our pantheon of... No. Don't get carried away. Don't get carried away. Let's see. You hit this exactly. I said four and a half. You said three, and't get carried away. Don't get carried away. Let's see. You hit this exactly. I said four and a half. You said three

and it's exactly three. Yeah, Detroit's a little sneaky. Saints-Giants. This is in New Orleans. This line should not be double figures. The Giants do have cheap touchdown potential. And Saints minus eight and a half is my pick.

I don't mean to be ignorant here. It's definitely in New Orleans, right? Yeah. Okay. No, but I mean, they're safely playing there? Yeah. Okay. I thought they were.

Yeah, I think you're right. We both said eight and a half, and it's eight. That seems fair. Kyle and I watched his Pats game today, waiting for Jameis to throw us one. Every time we went back to pass, throw us one, Jameis. It's time, Jameis to throw us one. Every time we went back to pass, throw us one, Jameis. It's time, Jameis.

Here it is. Never did it. He's so weird. How many yards passing did he have? I mean, he had... Not many. 180 in that win against the Packers, but five touchdowns.

And then today he had... What did he have? Did he have like 120 or something stupid? Yeah, it was less than 150. I can't figure him out. I can't figure what's going on. The game came down to two picks.

Two Pats picks. Titans-Jets is our last poop-fecting game. I went too low. I don't know why I guessed five. I haven't seen the lines. Can I change my pick?

I don't know why I did five. Oh, come on. All right, go ahead. I hit it exactly, actually, so I'll give you a chance. And you're right. You did go light. I don't know why I said five. I almost felt

like that was a tie, but I'm going to say seven. It's seven and a half. Okay. You win it. Close enough. Let me count these up. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. It's eight, eight, including ties. Wait, go back to the Titans. Yeah. That's

a parlay teaser team. I'm hesitant to throw a team with a bad defense and a tease, but the Jets aren't. Yeah, they're not ready to win yet. The Jets aren't ready to win yet. They're literally impotent offensively. Right. I mean, they can't do anything.

They can't even move the ball 20 yards. I hear you about the defense, though, but how long can you keep everybody in check on that Titans team? I don't know. Well, did you see like A.J. Brown got hurt today and then Julio didn't really play in the second half and then the coach was kind of coy about it afterwards.

Yeah, he had a hamstring. So we like the Titans and Chiefs both to win and they're both in that 6-7 range. I like the Packers and the Chiefs the most. I don't see the Steelers with this Roethlisberger situation winning in Lambeau.

It's going to be tough. Talk about tougher a team that moved the ball. I don't see it. Sunday night. Bucks Patriots in New England. A game so anticipated

that NBC came out of a commercial with a one minute long Adele montage of Brady and the Pats to that hello song. Is it whatever? Hello. Yeah. Yeah. Come out of it. Now it's like, oh yeah.

Like really do we need the Adele montage? That's, that's where we are with the, just show, show us some Superbowl highlights. We won six Superbowls with the guy. We don't have need the Adele montage? That's where we are with the... Just show us some Super Bowl highlights. We won six Super Bowls with the guy. We don't need to bring Adele into this. You don't really have to watch this game. Now I'm starting to feel bad a little bit. I mean, you're going to be a wreck. You're not even going to realize you're a wreck.

I'll take my chances in this game. All right. We were missing some guys today. If we have everybody back, I think we can hang. Assuming Josh McDaniels isn't like, hey, I'm going to run the ball into the middle of the line again, so it could be second and 11. This is a subway ball.

I didn't realize it's a subway ball. One of them should have to give up their endorsement at least. Let's start there. Josh, have some coffee before this one please Monday night wait wait you didn't guess I mean you got it right

I don't want to guess you just I said I went high I was stupid I went seven and a half and it's five and a half you went four and a half

I put it I said four and a half I put it in the Vegas zone alright so I'm winning by one you're up one going into the last one I think you get this one if I remember up one going into the last one. I think you get this one.

If I remember correctly what you said. The last one is a wonderful, wonderful Monday night game. Really nice. And I really do. We are. Do we have wildcard baseball on Monday? Do we have play playing games? I think that's when it starts.

Oh, uh, is that if there's like a tie, if there's like a tie for the last spot, we could have a baseball game that night. Yeah, that's right. I think that's a good TV night. I'm excited for it. Chargers-Raiders. This is a great game. You know, the West is taking care of itself this week. So we're going to be missing a few wins because they're playing each other.

But both Wests, it's nice. Cardinals against Rams, Seahawks against Niners, Raiders against Chargers. All great games, I think. I have the Chargers by three and a half. I think I hit it exactly. Screw you. You hit it exactly.

I said four. You win the week. Bill Simmons, the cheater, 10 to 8, 2-2. I like the Raiders. I like them in that game. I think they could win it. I'm not jumping off their bandwagon anytime soon, but man, Herbert was so good though today.

You see his numbers? What did he end up being? I watched a lot of that game. And I swear Herbert's been better than whatever his numbers are for these three games. 26 for 35, 287, four touchdowns, no interceptions. And there was a couple like dumb shoot themselves in the foot penalties that pulled back big plays, as always with this Chargers team.

He's so good. I was actually... Kyle, turn the camera back on. I was actually thinking today that the Herbert Tua thing might be football's version of Durant-Odin in 2007. Really? thinking today that the Herbert Tua thing might be football's version of Durant Odin in 2007. Really? That bad, huh?

I think it might be that bad. I think he might be like a generally, generationally, I can't speak, generationally really good quarterback. Like he might be the one beat of my homes for like the next 15 years. Yeah. And Miami took two over him

coming off a major, major injury. And he had another major injury. And since he's come to the NFL, he's been banged up. And I don't really know what, I know he was great in college, but then all these guys come into the league and like every guy is awesome. Every receiver he has is awesome. Every running back, the backup running back's awesome. He's got the best offensive line. And it's like, maybe that's why he was so good in college. Sure.

From what I've seen, I just don't see it. I haven't seen it for, I didn't see it last year. I didn't see it this year before he got hurt. I just don't see it. And then you watch Herbert and he's like breathtaking.

You know, Mac Jones went to that college too. I don't know if you know. It might be the same situation. No, I'm aware. I hope it's not. I don't know if you know. It might be the same situation. I'm aware. I hope it's not. I don't think it needs 10 years to play out. I think Herbert was a bad choice.

And evidence of that is that they're offering eight first round picks for a guy who might be in jail for a year and a half. So I don't know theoretically there. But the other question might be, did the Bengals screw up by not taking Herbert? I think we need to move on to the next thing, right? No, that was never happening, though. I know. Herbert was a little...

That's what's fun about looking back. Yeah. Herbert was a little polarized. And the reason I was thinking Duran Odom, because heading into that draft, even though that was for the first pick, it's a big back and forth of Duran versus Odom. And Odom had some injuries already and had some, you know, some suspect. Can this guy stay durable?

And they measured it. His legs were different sizes. And then with Herbert, it was like, they're, they're going out. Does he, but I'm not sure in college.

Like the, you know, it seemed like people were nicking him for dumb things. And with Duran in 07, it was like, oh, he didn't bench that much. He only benched 190. He's too skinny. And it was like, oh, he didn't bench that much. He only benched 190.

He's too skinny. And it was like, did you guys fucking watch in college? The guy was one of the best college players I've ever seen in my life. It was clearly Duran. I had no opinion on Herbert Tua because I don't watch college football. But passing up Herbert and taking Tua,

a guy who the line moved toward the backup because he got scratched this week. It's like one of the most devastating draft blunders we've had in decades. It could be. And yet we probably wouldn't have even known about it if it wasn't for a malpractice by the team doctor. Right. It's crazy, right? Like we've seen half a season from him.

I don't know how much. Well, I wonder. Yeah, you're right. Like I wonder when they would eventually would have had to just put him out there. Because I was watching that game. And it was like, oh my God, the rookies playing? He found out 10 minutes before.

And then remember watching? And it was like, wait a second. Is this guy good? What's going on here? He's like throwing lasers. He throws just an incredible ball. I mean, Mahomes has, he does, he has his own kind of like crazy shit he does.

The Herbert balls, him and Stafford are the two where it's just like these 40 yarders are just like these fucking frozen ropes. Yeah, it's different. They don't break and tame like Mahomes or anyone like that. But man, they just, you are so confident when they let it fly.

And he's got the right receivers this year. It's a really fun team. That'll be a fun Monday Night game. Alright, coming up we're going to do Parent Corner. Today's Parent Corner is brought to you by Nissan, the Nissan Pathfinder. Ruggedly redesigned and rebuilt for families that know how to embrace outdoor adventures. Return to rugged in the all-new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder, ruggedly redesigned and rebuilt for families that know how to embrace outdoor adventures. Return to rugged in the all-new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder. Learn more at nissanusa.com.

Sal, you should get this car for your son. I'd love to find out more about this Nissan Pathfinder. Do they exist? I wonder if Nissan could help you. Oh, I don't think so. Wouldn't you get one for your son? I would, but it sounds like such a great deal. They might be out of cars, but I'll try. Maybe they're out of cars. All right. You should try to get this. All right. Parent corner, you go first. All right. First of all, I want to say my seven-year-old is doing kid pitch baseball. It was the first year, seven years old. That's when you do it. Machine pitch was so much nicer. The balls, it comes in as a strike. You can go to the batting cage and kind of see the same kind

of pitch you'll see from a machine because you're also hitting off a machine. When they turn seven, it becomes kid pitch. I want to say, and it's not just because some of the fathers listen to this podcast. I love all the fathers and the kids involved with this team. I hate seven-year-old kid pitch. I was there for two hours today and it was four pitch walk after four pitch walk after four pitch walk. And not only that, it was the pitcher throwing the ball to the backstop, the catcher retrieving it and him throwing it to the pitcher and it going past the pitcher and the shortstop retrieving it and him flipping it back to the pitcher and it going back to the catcher and the shortstop

are having a catch for an hour and 15 minutes before we see a second pitch. And it's just so many walks and it's crazy. And I was like, I just want my kid to strike out like umpire call a strike. I don't care if it bounces twice before it hits the plate. Kid pitch seven years old should not be, I'm sorry. It should be at the very least, it should be five kid pitch and then coach pitch for pitches like six, seven, maybe get three more pitches or something. But kid pitches infuriating beyond belief, and especially when there's NFL games going on. There you go.

I would ban all youth baseball until the kids are nine. I think it should be banned across the board. I think it's a complete waste of time. For what you just mentioned, then when a year later, then all of a sudden kids can steal bases and there's the two kids on each team that just run around the bases. It's like, this isn't baseball. What are we doing?

That's a big year. This sucks. That's a big year. Eight to nine. You got to get it. You got kids trying out pitching. They have to let them pitch, but they have no interest in pitching and they're not even close.

I mean, how many times can you say, just hit the glove, Owen. Just hit the glove, Owen. Good. Good one, Owen. Good strike. Good job, Owen. That hit the glove, Owen. Good! Good one, Owen! Good strike! Good job, Owen. That was only eight feet out of the strike zone. Good job. The only guy having a worse time is the umpire.

Yeah, right. The umpire is like, why am I here? What am I doing? I think I just don't think we should have baseball before age nine. If your kid is remotely a good athlete, they're going to be able to figure it out on the fly when they're nine. Just let them hit off the machine one more year.

Yeah, or do that. Do something. Yeah, do machine, do tees, whatever you need to do. But yeah, kid pitchers, I'm with you. So my son, who's a ball buster in kind of your vein, right? Loves fucking with everybody. He had his girlfriend that he's been dating

in the last few weeks. Mm-hmm. He was out and about and he did a thing where we told him like, look, when you're out, your phone can't run out of batteries. You can't have a phone, your phone's out of batteries and it's like, sorry phone can't run out of batteries. You can't have a phone,

your phone's out of batteries, and it's like, sorry, my phone ran out of batteries. I couldn't get ahold of you because what happens if you get lost? What happens if you get kidnapped? What happens if you get accidentally hurt? We have no way to contact you. You're not leaving the house again and doing this.

And we have that Life360 thing, so I can only see how much phone's left. You have to find your phone? Yeah. So he's out. They're out walking around doing whatever they do. And his phone's out of batteries. So I get mad.

I go and I drive, and I just drive around until I actually find them. And I'm like, hey, your phone's out of batteries. Like, let's go. We're going back to the house. Wow. So his new girl, who's never really been at our house and i was like can you call your parents and see if you can come over for pizza she calls the parents they're great she can stay for dinner so now we're back in the house and my

son is like oh shit and i could see him calculating all the ways that i can now fuck with him because i'm with him and and this girl that he likes like all the all the I can now fuck with him because I'm with him and this girl that he likes. All the ways he would fuck with me, now in the reverse, I can do to him. And I see a tension with him that I've never seen before because you've met him. He's a big swagger kid. And now he's on his best behavior and I'm loving it. So we get pizza. My dad and my stepmom are here and my, and my daughter and we're all at the table and we're sitting around, we're having pizza and they're asking her questions and he's just sitting there and I've never seen him behave like this ever where he's just,

can I have the red pepper? And I'm like, a, this is hilarious. And then B, he's just terrified. I'm going to make some joke. So I didn't do it.

And neither did my dad. Cause my dad, we had the same ball busting thing. We were very nice and we laughed and we were like, hey, that was your one free one. Nice. It's going forward. We're going to be making fun of you in front of her. So just be ready. But it was so nice to have. I don't know if you have this.

Your ball buster son is the middle one. Yeah, yeah. Power is a great thing. When you can flip the fucking power switch on them and you're in control, it was great. I've never seen him act like that ever. It was awesome. And I hope they stay together for a while.

He'll flip it back on you. That's good that you did that for him, but he will flip it back. You'll be shivering in your boxers outside demanding to get in the house at some point, somehow. I had so many things, so many one-liners. Did you tell her how you didn't brush your teeth for two weeks, six months ago? Until we put toothpaste on.

Just so many nuggets I was ready to give, and I just did it. I kept them all to myself. Good. I hope this works out for you. I hope that Nissan works out for you. Today's Paracorner is brought to you by Nissan. The Nissan Pathfinder, which Sal would love to get for his son, Archie, will get you back outdoors from sailing to windsurfing, wakeboarding to snowboarding,

or whatever happens at Manhattan Beach. Return to rugged in the all-new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder, which Sal would love to get for his son. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Sal, what do you have to plug? Against all odds, extra points, minus three, lemon pepper parlay, all on ExtraPoints.com. We also have free-to-play games at the ExtraPoints.com arcade.

Yes, all your sports gambling needs. Fox Bet Live is on Mondays and Fridays. They figured it out, Simmons. They're putting us on Mondays and Fridays, and it's me, and it's Clay Travis, and it's Alex Curry. So I'll be on today. So that's the schedule for now on Mondays, Fridays?

That's correct. I think that's actually better than doing those specials and just appearing for... No, we're doing that too. We're going to be on like 40 tentpole days around the big events, but we are on every Monday and Friday during the regular season.

What kind of money did Harry lose on the Ryder Cup? I think he won money. He lost a lot of money on Sam Darnold. I'm in a tough spot here because he hates Sam Darnold. He inexplicably hates Sam Darnold and it makes everybody around us root for Sam Donald.

Now Sam Donald's going against the Cowboys. I think I'm rooting for Sam Donald. I like Harry being upset. Well, that's that dick gene we were both talking about that we both have. All right, Sal, as always, good job by you.

Good job by you, buddy. This podcast was produced by Kyle Creighton and, oh, new rewatchables coming on Monday. I am not on this one, but we're doing Trainspotting. Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald. So be ready for that one. I'll be back on this podcast on Tuesday. Don't forget to check out the Prestige TV podcast.

Sal, we did the Tony Bobby fight on Friday. Me, Vaden Wise. Like the most underrated Sopranos great episode, right? Yeah, yeah. Under the boardwalk. Get it? He's singing. He's making fun of his sister.

Janice is thinking about these sucker questions. It's the greatest. You can check that out. We got to do a Sopranos Hall of Fame episode. Let's do it. I know you're doing

a hundred podcasts, but we got to do one. Just get me in there. What do you... It can't be Pine Barrens. What would you do? Which one? Oh, man. Honestly, I watch clips on do one. What would be, what do you, it can't be Pine Barrens. What would you do? Which one? Oh man, honestly, I watch clips on like Facebook and Instagram every single day, and I

do want to talk about the movie. We'll be able to talk about the movie next week, right? Right. You'll have seen it. That'll be exciting too. I'll pick one out. All right, pick one out. There's a million good ones. You tell us. All right, we'll see you in this feed on Tuesday. Thanks, Seth.