The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Big Playoff Sleeper, Bright Future Bears, Bring Back Belichick, Plus Week 18 Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the biggest topics from NFL Week 17, including the powerful 1-seeds, the Bills and Dolphins battling for the 2-seed in the AFC, Chiefs-Bengals, Eagles-Cardinals, Bills-Patriots, an unsettling Cowboys win vs. the Lions, Steelers-Seahawks, Justin Fields seemingly securing his job in Chicago, the messy NFC South, and more (1:51). Then they guess the lines for Week 18 (1:02:24), before closing the show with Parent Corner (1:29:53). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, our first podcast of 2024. We've made it to another year. Cousin Sal's next. It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action. FanDuel's highest rated sports book is the best place to bet it all. We've been doing pretty well on million dollar picks this year. I love the first month of the season because you have to go into the season thinking,

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90 calories per 355 mil can. So why not grab some Miller Lites today? Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. I popped on the Ringer NBA show on Saturday morning because the Knicks and Raptors made a really fun old school NBA trade, a two for two. The big prizes were RJ Barrett and Emmanuel quickly going to Toronto and

OG Ananobi finally getting traded to the Knicks. I broke it down with Justin Barrier and Rob Mahoney. We said we were going to go for 25 minutes. We went for 58. You can also watch it on my YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Bill Simmons. We're going to start putting up more stuff on that channel. One of my New Year's resolutions is to start messing around a little bit more

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My next podcast on this feed will be Wednesday. We're taping that one Wednesday morning and then back to normal on Thursday and then we'll go back to a normal schedule after that. I also have new rewatchables coming up. It's going to be tonight, I guess. Me and Van Lathan and Charles Holmes breaking down one last movie from 1993.

So that's everything I got for you. Check out TheRinger.com. Check out TheRinger Podcast Network. And check out our friends. In 2024, still our friends. Pearl Jam! out our friends in 2024 still our friends ProJab All right, Sal, our first podcast of 2024. Our first podcast on a Monday after NFL, I think in like four or five years. This feels weird.

It felt weird to have all the games happen last night and then we weren't potting, but we're going to fight through this. I spent New Year's Eve with you. Yeah. So we tried to literally save it for the pod and not talk about NFL. Yes, bear with me. I'm five or six. We're going to be serious.

Honest Coke zeros, caffeine-free Coke zeros in. So I might be a little sluggish this morning. Yeah, you were wasted last night. I've never. South is a drink. All right, the big things that happen. I'm just going to rip these out in order, and then we'll go back and talk about them.

Baltimore and San Francisco clinched one seeds, and they might be the only two good teams in the league. Buffalo versus Miami, week 18 for the two seed. If Buffalo loses and Pittsburgh wins, Buffalo's out. Buffalo could be the two seed. Buffalo could be out. I don't remember that scenario before. Miami might actually be fucked for the season.

Philly, Casey, and Buffalo continue to be uninspiring. Do any Cowboy fans trust Mike McCarthy? Oh. The Pats lost a 2-3 pick tiebreaker to Washington right now, even though Washington beat them head-to-head. Still trying to figure that out. Pittsburgh, 9-3 in non-Trabisky games. Lamar won the MVP.

Fields locked down the Bears QB job, it seems like. We got the NFC South quagmire we deserved, and I officially want Bill Belichick to come back. Those are my takeaways from Week 17. Oh, I'm so interested in the last one now. Yeah, yeah. We'll go backwards. Baltimore and San Francisco, the only two teams. Disagree or agree? Yeah, it was great. I was trying to figure out only two teams. Disagree or agree?

Yeah, I was trying to figure out which two teams are peaking. We always talk about which teams are peaking. Ravens are peaking. I'm not sure if anybody else is. Maybe the Rams, even though they didn't look great yesterday either. I think you're right. I would sign off on one team in each conference at this point.

Yeah, that you feel good about. The thing with the Rams, they're special teams. Because now we've watched, they cost them the Baltimore game in OT. They almost cost them the Giants game yesterday. Their kicker's terrible. They might have to waive him this weekend.

And every year we have that team that looks awesome on paper that we really like. We're like, oh, dot, dot, dot, except for the special teams. And I actually think their special teams are bad enough that it makes me afraid to bet on them as a live dog in round one. Don't you agree?

I agree. And I don't know if that Gunner moment was exciting for you when he returns a touchdown. I know the Giants fans had a glint. He was terrible. As a Patriot, he was terrible. He's just a terrible Patriot. Well, he's the best giant right now.

I think they're trying to figure out if he lives with his parents or if there's any Italian thing or any kind of thing they could attach to him. But yeah, you're right. The Rams, that was a little scary. I thought that game was going to be tough for them. But once they had it in hand, I thought like, oh man, why do they keep letting this Giants team back in?

That's a team I still don't think you want to play in the playoffs. Couldn't agree more. Good QB, good running back, two good receivers. They're always going to be able to move the ball. Even if you're up on a touchdown

on them in the fourth quarter, they'll still be able to get a play. Their offensive line looked a little shaky yesterday, which I thought was worrisome. So the recipe for them is they might suck in, and then when we get to the playoffs, it's like, oh, they're not doing any of the little things

and Stafford's getting hit. And then you feel like an idiot. Um, Buffalo, Miami for the two seed. This is an unbelievable scenario because, uh, Baltimore killed Miami, like really like absolutely lambasted them. Like if they played that game 10 times, Baltimore's winning all 10. But at the end of the game, Bradley Chubb gets hurt. Right. And, you know, they had already lost their best pass rusher earlier in the season. Now they lose him.

And you're looking at this kind of semi carcass of a Dolphins team that they'll have Waddle back for the playoffs. They'll be able to throw the ball. Most of them sure it'll be healthy, but that defense that was really promising. And at least, you know, midway through the season, I just, that's a team I'd want to play now in the playoffs. Right? Yeah. I'm a jackass. That was my best bet of the week. Um, I don't know why I was just, Oh, the Raven's going to let down. They've done it five times before they've let down in games like this. It was an emotional, physical game against the 49ers.

And they just walloped them really worse than they did the 49ers even. I don't know if we're not giving the Ravens enough credit. Their receivers are super, super fast. You might even compare them to the Dolphins. They really got in there. And like you said, Lamar, the MVP, but Miami was soft, so soft defensively. And you said at the end of the game, Chubb, there's his ACL. Now it's like the end of the game is an hour and a half before. Why the hell is anybody in that game? All right,

prepare for the Bills the following week. But the other thing is there were about 27 touchdowns down between Mostert and Waddell being out, which I should have probably weighed more heavily in my analysis going into the game. But I don't know. You're right. I know different conferences, but I'd rather play the Dolphins than the Rams at this point.

Yeah. Baltimore has this incredible couple-week stretch here where they look great against San Francisco. They look even better against Miami, and they look as explosive as Miami was earlier in the year. What's weird is when they lost Mitchell when he went out for the year,

I was thinking, like, well, they're going to have no explosive running backs at all. Instead, Justice Hill looked like he was Marshall Falk in 1999 and was doing wheel routes and screen passes and just bursting through. And they really didn't lose anything. Zay Flowers emerging.

There's some kind of stealth. Wilds texted this to me. There's some stealth viewing theory potential with Mark Andrews going out because likely he's just a little more athletic. Andrew, maybe he relied on Andrews a tiny bit too much, but the receiver, there just seems like there's fast dudes going everywhere now. And Lamar's in the zone. This is, Lamar is not a guy who's had a lot of playoff success. This feels like it's his

best chance. You're going to have to go to Baltimore to beat them. At the same time, this is the type of team that in 12 degree weather, you're still going to have to ground and pound it a little bit, move the ball. He's good at that, but I'm still a little interested in what happens with the running game, but they seem healthy. I was just really impressed. The game was over. It was one of those, this game is over

15 minutes into the game. You're like, oh, this is over. I don't really need to monitor this anymore. Well, the Dolphins were up 7-0, and I was like, aha, you see? This Ravens team didn't show up, and then they just poured it on. Boy, getting behind D-backs and everything they had to do.

I think the only reason you wouldn't say is this game is over is because they've blown so many 10-point leads, 12-point leads. But from a gambler's standpoint, I don't think we've ever seen anything like this with the MVP odds. Like we talked about in the morning

on Ring of Wise guys, like Lamar was minus 200. Like, oh, there's just no value in that. He's minus 9,000 now. They're like an hour and a half into the game. He was minus 9,000. So lost opportunity there. Can we talk about the MVP really quickly?

Yeah. So Lamar is like, he's going to win and he's peaking at the perfect time and I would certainly vote for him. I think it's interesting. You mentioned like he's a minus 9,000 favorite. It's a little ridiculous because the Purdy piece is closer than I think people realize. Like I did like a breakdown. Wins, Lamar is 13, Purdy is 12. Head to head, Lamar beat him. So you got those two. Then rushing yards, Lamar's rushed for 851 and five TDs, Purdy's at like 134, two TDs. That's

fine. So Lamar has all those. Passing yards, Lamar's 14th, Purdy's second. He's got almost 600. He's got exactly 600 more passing yards. Touchdowns, Lamar's 11th. Purdy's second. He's got eight more touchdown passes. Yards per attempt, Lamar's 8.0, Purdy's 9.6. Turnovers, if it's interceptions and fumbles, 13 versus 13. Lamar's been sacked nine more times. Purdy's QBR is 7.4 higher. His QB rating is 10.3 higher. Lamar's best wins were Niners, Detroit, Rams, Miami. Purdy's best wins were Dallas, Jacksonville, Rams, Philly. I still think Lamar should win, but I also think it's way closer than minus 9,000.

That's absurd. You're right. And I think the minus 9,000 is just based on, okay, who's going to vote for who at this point? No one's going to vote Purdy over Lamar. So that's why it's minus 9,000 is just based on, okay, who's going to vote for who at this point? No one's going to vote Purdy over Lamar. So that's why it's minus 9,000. But you're absolutely right. And this was the year that a running back or a receiver could have stepped up and stolen it.

McCaffrey and Tyreek Hill didn't help their cause yesterday. But the numbers are not spectacular. Raheem on Ringo Wiseguys pointed out Lamar's over-under for touchdown passes was 24.5. He had 19 going into yesterday. All right, he's all caught up now. But he's really just done what you would expect of him. He's had a par season for Lamar Jackson. There's no quarterback with 36 touchdowns and four interceptions.

That's a runaway this year. But the narrative has led us to this point where they beat up on the 49ers, they beat up on the Dolphins. There's no one else to give it to. Yeah. And his best wins were loud wins, which I think really helped him. I mean,

the McCaffrey case, he's the only guy over 2000 yards from scrimmage. He's got two 66 more than lamb. Who's the next number two guy. Yeah. Um, he's got 350 more rushing yards than anyone else in the league. Kyron Williams,

the second he's 5.4 yards per attempt, which is first for running backs. 350 more rushing yards than anyone else in the league. Kyron Williams is second. He's 5.4 yards per attempt, which is first for running backs. He's fourth for rushing TDs. He also has the 567 receiving yards and seven TDs. I mean, he's having an awesome season. But I think Lamar's last two wins were so loud, he has to get it.

I'll make a very, very quick, selfish claim for C.D. Lamb. I think, and I know his numbers are not as grand as McCaffrey's or Tyreek Hill's, but Cowboys, I think, won six games without that guy. That's been another interesting piece of this season is that we had this whole moment where Tyreek Hill,

he's definitely 100% the best receiver in the league. Then it was, oh, A.J. Brown, look what he's doing. It's kind of close between those two. C.D. Lamb's stats are unbelievable. I mean, if you guys actually needed the game this weekend, he would have a chance to finish with 1,900 rushing yards. And he was awesome in that Lions game.

It actually felt like he could have had 300 yards if they just kept throwing to him. But it's funny, like that pick, they made it. And it was like, oh, classic Cowboys. The sexy pick, they couldn't resist. They needed so many other things. And then turns out to be this incredible pick. If you're in fantasy bidding on Tyree Kill and you're in the high 30s and you lose out to somebody

but C.D. Lamb is on the board, you're like you're not that bummed out, right? Between the two of them? No. He's a phenomenal you know, Dak tries to get him killed sometimes, thrown over the middle, but aside from that he is a monster receiver and

he had to be this year because the running game is not there. I don't know when you want to talk about the Cowboys, but just kind of a weird team this year for sure. Let's do it now. So you beat the trait. That's all you need to say. Yeah. It's a classic Cowboys win where you just feel terrible after the game.

You're just like, wow, I feel awful. There's this massive officiating controversy. And you leave the game. McCarthy, who in the last three minutes, we've talked about it, I think almost every week you've had a close game.

There's at least one thing where you go, what the fuck are they doing? I think he might leave the league and, what the fuck are they doing? I think he might lead the league in, what the fuck are they doing moments this season? Second down, they only have one timeout left. You have the ball. It's under two minutes. And all of a sudden,

Dak's throwing this 40-yard lollipop pass that isn't even inbounds. It's out of bounds. And he just gives the Lions 40 more seconds. And it was just inexplicable. And of course the Lions come down and they managed to score within the last 30 seconds. And somehow it became a terrible loss for Detroit, but also kind of a terrible win for Dallas. I just, you can't feel good about that. No, no way. I felt good. And remember the Rams had a get back guy, like when McVay would run on the sidelines and his, this guy's sole job was to hold Sean McVay by the hips and make sure he doesn't go on the field.

I think with two and a half minutes left in the close game, the Cowboys should have a get back in your car guy for McCarthy. He's great when we win him by 17. It's fine. The play calling's all there. But what the hell was that? Like really calling for a Hail Mary on second down when we're supposed to

be killing clock and then all that officiating. None of it matters if he does the right thing there. That's disgusting. We don't really have a running game, which is bad, which puts more pressure on Dak. CeeDee Lamb has

to be great. We have a bunch of ball hawkers on defense, which is great, but it's kind of like the same thing. I don't love this team. I would rather have the Lions team, actually, going forward than the Cowboys. Maybe not the way everything's seeded right now, but in terms of this year, you want a team that's running the ball in January and

the coach is not going to fuck everything up. Well, the funny thing is if you get to two seed, you at least have the first two games at home. The way you've played at home this year, you've got to feel better about that. It was for the Lions. I think it could have been

a really important golf game because he had his couple classic terrible golf moments in the first two and a half hours of that game, but he did lead them down for the big drive at the end. They score, and the two-point conversion worked, which you knew they were going to do from the moment they were driving inside the 20.

I did. I didn't think from the seven-yard line they would go for there. I don't know. That was the second inexplicable decision. What's Dan Campbell trying to do at that point? He's like, it reminded me of my son when my son was like seven and would get mad if something didn't go his way

and he would just storm off and do something crazy. Dan Campbell's like, well, I'm going to go for it from the seven. Fuck you guys. We'll take three more false starts. We'll do it from the 25 if we have to. I was on Twitter and our guy, Seth Walder, who does the analytics. And sometimes he'd be like, even though they didn't get it, that was the right decision. It always makes me mad.

And that one, he's like, that was the wrong decision. He decreased their chances by minus 13%. It was like, minus 13%? Yes, tangible. He gets a little pass, right? Because everyone feels bad for him because the officials screwed up. But that was a weird thing going forward. And let me just

say this. The officials did screw up, but when your goal is to ambush the ref with three linemen who one of them checked in the same way multiple times, you're creating trickery and you trick the wrong idiots. You trick both idiots, the Cowboys and the refs. But let both idiots, the Cowboys and the refs.

But let me just, I haven't heard anyone explain this. This is an unbelievable defense by you. I love it. Yeah. You're like, maybe it's the Lions' fault. I'm actually with you. They trick the refs. Yeah. Kind of on them. It's like you've got one guy sprinting off the sideline who's checked in the same way before. You got another guy not saying a word.

That's the guy who's supposed to be eligible. And you got the other guy, the third guy, who's saying, hey, he's supposed to be eligible. And the ref is supposed to figure, the ref, they screw everything up. They're supposed to figure this out six seconds before the ball snap. And I'm going to take it another, this is one thing I haven't heard. They announce over the PA system who's eligible, right? So when the Cowboys hear number 70 is eligible, he's checking in as eligible, they're not

covering 68. They're like, who is this clown, right? And you even see the Cowboys players after the play is like, hey, where'd this guy come from? We have our eyes on 70 who's lined up as a guard or a tackle for some reason. Why would we cover 68? So I don't know. I get it.

Lions fans are pissed off. And by the way, they are insufferable, Lions fans. There's a reason God doesn't let them win games. Yeah, I'm going to defend them. They've had the worst run of anyone. I don't care. You got to carry yourself with grace. They don't even have happy, fond memories of terrible losses. They've had no important games. That's fine. But don't take it out on me. You got to have grace and dignity like you and I do, rooting for our story franchise. We've got to have grace and dignity like you and I do, rooting for our story franchise. We've got so much grace and dignity over there.

Exactly. One of my favorite things about the Lions, the whole thing was they were like, look, we told the refs before the game to be ready for this. So three and a half hours later, the nationally televised game where 700 million things are happening. Right. And these guys are just so terrified to get anything

wrong because the moment they get anything wrong, it's on Twitter. It's on YouTube. People are Googling where they live and all this crazy shit. And they're just focused on, and it's like, oh yeah, Dan Campbell told me that three, I can't remember what my wife told me like 40 minutes ago. Yeah. And these guys are going to remember this from, oh yeah. And the pregame warmups, Dan Campbell mentioned to look out for our 70-68 switch. What if he told them 30 different things they're going to do? They're supposed to remember all of them? And that's from both teams.

How about this? Maybe run a more normal two-point play. You just gash down the field. The Cowboys couldn't stop you. Maybe just like or just throw to Laporta. Why do you have to do the all-time trick play? That's it. We did it.

We defended your terrible win. I feel better. The weirdest thing about the Cowboys season is that Pollard, who is going for high 50s in fantasy drafts, and just seems like he... I said this when we did the Ring or NBA show about the Quickly podcast. So the Raptors trade...

See, I brought an NBA. The Raptors trade for Quickly, brought an NBA. Oh, nice. The Raptors trade for quickly. And it's like, look at his stats. So my, you prorate that to 35 minutes a game and you get, and it's like, okay,

well, half of those stats are coming against the other team's bench. Um, he got to play 25 minutes and really focus. Now he has to play 35 and carry the load of the game. And the same thing with Pollard. He keeps changing pace. Zeke's getting these hard yards and Pollard can

come in. They can throw a screen. But now that you're the guy, he just hasn't seen the same. Yeah, I was hoping not to be as jealous of the Zeke Elliott Patriots touchdowns as I was this year. But they definitely miss him down low. He suffered a substantial leg injury in that 49ers game and it slowed him down I don't know, 25%, 30%.

He definitely doesn't seem to have that burst. That Donald guy will probably start when he comes back. Well, the big question, do you trust Mike McCarthy? What? Is that a question? With what? Do you trust him? Do you trust Mike McCarthy?

Oh, do I trust him? No. But do you trust Mike McCarthy? Oh, do I trust him? No. But do you trust Mike McCarthy? I want Jimmy Johnson. Here's the other thing. I don't believe in superstitious stuff, but wouldn't it be nice if this Jimmy Johnson, if that one last exclamation of how about them Cowboys

lifted the curse, we get the refs all on our side to end the game. We get a miraculous Cardinals win. They have no business winning in Philadelphia yesterday. Maybe, maybe it's all coming together despite having the most inefficient

NFL coach in the last two decades. The internet got very conspiracy-ish after this and like, oh, they rigged it for the Cowboys and all this stuff. I just think the refs they're incompetent every week I think it's really hard to

officiate I think they're terrified because there's so many checks and balances now and I just think they make the we watch it every weekend they make mistakes constantly in every game we watch and I do not believe like if I came home last night from New Years and Murph had constantly in every game we watch. And I do not believe...

If I came home last night from New Year's and Murph had taken a shit in my office, there's no conspiracy. He's just a dumbass. Right, right. And I think we give the NFL refs a little too much credit. I'm with you.

It's a hard job. I exactly agree. We saw a guy trip Lamar Jackson last week. He couldn't get out of the way. He fell down and tripped him in the ass. Listen, this is not just the NFL. We hate refs in every sport, maybe not hockey. So it's either it's a hard job

or this is a huge conspiracy against the fans for no reason. They're following some script where they're allegedly getting paid all this money. But yeah, I bet if we went and visited a bunch of retired refs, they're not living in giant mansions in Hawaii. They're probably living in like Arizona saving taxes. Yeah. All right. Lots more to discuss. We'll take a break. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports.

I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey. That's right. There's a new exclusive home for streaming Monday night NHL hockey. And it's on prime all season long. Watch prime Monday night hockey deliver unreal plays. The biggest goals can't miss moments. Matthews, McDavid, Crosby, the NHL's best. They're all on prime prime Monday night hockey. It's on Monday. It's on Prime. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too.

You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. Coming back, going through my list of the big things that happened. Philly, KC, and Buffalo continue to be uninspiring to me. Philly, that loss was one of the most abysmal

things. The Matt Patricia being brought in as the defensive coordinator and making the defense worse is one of the funniest predictable things that's ever happened. My Eagle fan friends are out of their mind. I don't think in any sport there's a more upset fan base than the Eagles fans right now. They're so pissed. I don't think in any sport there's a more upset fan base

than the Eagles fans right now. They're so pissed. They got roped in. And Arizona, I don't know how many people watch the game. It's New Year's Eve. But Arizona fucking spanked them. They had the ball for 40 minutes.

They did whatever they wanted. They got any third down they wanted. They got any play they wanted. James Conner was just running through them. Philly is the worst linebackers, I think, in either conference. And it just was, the Eagle fans were out of their mind booing. Dude, you can rarely do you hear the boos kind of flowing out of the TV. But that was one of those where they were just so pissed off.

It was like Silver Linings Playbook. It was hilarious was hilarious well let me just say this in their defense they had to get those booze out on december 31st they have to meet a quota it's kind of like if you go true silver status on an airline you're gonna take these weird flights on december 28th so they had to get that out of this yeah but they had a good reason to i mean that you're right with the patricia stuff and they had what 221 yards rushing. They got gouged. That wasn't just like, it wasn't a 90-yard Kyler Murray scamper in there. They got gouged all day on the

ground to a point where when the Cardinals are driving with like three minutes left to take the lead, they're running the ball. When do you ever see that? You see the team that's down has to pass. Yeah, we'll run on first down and maybe even on third down. We'll talk about the Chiefs too, but

Eagles, Chiefs, two Super Bowl teams, not sure they win a playoff game. Honestly. The James Conner and Kyron Williams deciding fantasy leagues was pretty funny. Ben Solak did a really good piece for the Ringer about

the weekend's games but was pointing out some of the Eagle stuff where Hassan Redick was just over and over again in pass coverage yeah right

they had no pass rush but somehow it designed a defense where their best pass rusher was going backwards it's weird because their front

at least their front like let's say front five because their linebackers suck but you would think there would be some way to just leverage that and have those guys pushing

the offensive line backwards in some way. But they don't even get that. And then the... We said this last week. There's no flow to their offense. It's just this kind of disjointed and then there's play. Both receivers seem unhappy.

Hurt seems unhappy Hurts seems unhappy. Everyone seems unhappy. If you had to pick three quarterbacks that in a month you found out played with a hairline fracture in their shoulder. Oh, Hurts would be one. He might be all three. Yeah. He would be the heavy, heavy favorite

of hairline fracture or he had a hairline fracture in his shin. Right, yeah. Somewhere there's a hairline fracture, or he had a hairline fracture in his shin. Right, yeah. Somewhere there's a hairline fracture. Or he had actually a torn MCL and played with it. I believe any hurts injury. KC wins by eight and somehow covers. That's the worst cover of the week.

Over and over again, just couldn't get it done in third down. Kelsey is getting slower every week. Kelsey's hit the point where I'm surprised when he has a catch. He had a catch on the sideline yesterday for a first down in the second half. I was like, oh, Kelsey. The other tight end seems like more of a threat. 84 going downfield. What's his name? Watson? Oh, yeah. Whatever 84's name is. He beat somebody down the field on like a nice little

pretended he was going to do a button hook and slip it. But like Kelsey can't even do that anymore. Um, they'll get like three Rasheed rice plays, but for the most part, uh, they just, they can't move the ball.

Great. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I used to be like, and I used to be like last year, two years ago, like how does Kelsey get open every play? And now, right? No Gray, yeah. Yeah, it used to be like, and it used to be like last year, two years ago, like how does Kelsey get open every play? And now, right?

Like, oh, come on, that's a tight end. Why don't they triple Kelsey? Right, nobody gets open. Now it's like, how is he ever getting open, this guy? And it's really, really strange to see, and they still drop balls, and I don't know why they're not just signing like the Julian Edelmans of the world. Just get a couple guys who can catch and help Mah drop balls. I don't know why they're not just signing the Julian Edelmans of the world.

Just get a couple guys who can catch and help Mahomes out. This happened in the past. It's really hard to find receivers, especially midseason. Is it? We had that Chris Hogan just running around. He was two years washed up.

Going into the year, would you have liked the Texans receivers? Would you have liked... I don't know. There are teams in the top 12. Jaguars have Ridley, but they're a top 10 have liked, I don't know, there are teams in the top 12 that are, like even the Jaguars have Ridley, but they're like a top 10 or 12.

Like, I don't know. It's very strange what we're watching with Kansas City. Well, the other thing is their defense isn't that good anymore.

Everybody's like, well, they've never had a defense like this. It's like, their defense isn't that good. People are going up and down on them. And usually when, when something good happens for them,

it's usually some sort of fuck up on the other team. Chris Jones, who was probably the best defensive player in the league last year, at least the best defensive lineman, and you never hear his name in the same way during the games. He might just be getting double teamed because they don't have to worry about anybody else. But I just don't think they look good.

And to me, they're a classic bet against that team in round one. We're going to go through the playoff matchups later. The other one is Buffalo. And it's funny that halftime, that horrendous NBC halftime show during the Sunday night game. And they're like, who do you like heading into the playoffs? And they go to Garrett first. And he's like, I like Buffalo.

I think Buffalo has found their swagger. What? And it was like, did you fucking watch the Pats almost beat Buffalo with two missed field goals and four turnovers? I'm sure he did.

Three of which were just like unforced error turnovers. And Allen could do jack shit for most of the game. And it's like, I actually don't know how the Pats didn't win that game because they kind of outplayed Buffalo in a lot of ways. And he's like, I actually don't know how the Pats didn't win that game because they kind of outplayed

Buffalo in a lot of ways. And he's like, they've got their swagger back. It's like, what fucking games are you watching, dude? Must win at home. What?

Two touchdown favorite by the time it kicked off. We turned the ball over three times in the first four years of action. I think you had four. Didn't you have four?

We had four. First half? Oh, yeah. I almost took the lead in the first half time. But I think you had four. Didn't you have four in the first half? Oh, yeah. You almost took the lead in the first half time. But I think part of it is, though, Belichick loves,

and we talked about this last week, he loves to spoil a role. I think he's like, oh, my God, why did I bother with these six Super Bowls? This is so much more fun. Right.

Just trying to get in there. The Week 17 prick. Look at these freezing fans diving through tables that are on fire. I'm going to send them home upset. And he almost did. It was so close.

Buffalo. Philly, KC, and Buffalo. I just don't see it. And we've been surprised as we head into the playoffs, but I don't think there's a foundation for any of those teams to actually win

three weeks in a row and get to a Super Bowl. Well, forget Philly, though. So then who the hell, who do you have challenging Baltimore, then? If it's not Casey or Puffel. You know what I realized yesterday? And a lot of times I zag

and I try to come up with the sleeper. I really think we're going to end up with Baltimore and San Francisco. I think they're elevated above everybody else on both ends. And they, you know, somebody, I read somebody last week, I apologize to whoever made this point

because I would love to credit you for it. And I can't remember who said it. Baltimore and San Francisco feel like the only two teams that can win any type of game. Right? So if it's 10 degrees, at least I,

we haven't seen it in the playoffs but at least I know Lamar can create some plays in the ground and in theory he should be able to win the 22 to 17 bad weather you know they cut to the fans they're wearing like

the whatever in theory he should be able to win one of those games he just hasn't done it yet. And then San Francisco, they can run the ball, do these bubble screens. The only thing they really can't do is play from behind. I don't trust anybody else. Even your stupid team.

Like, you get a lot of turnovers. You get this ball hawk stuff. But just in terms of just stopping somebody from long drives, I'm not sure you can do it. I mean, you talk about linebackers that are soft. I don't want to get into it, but that second level is just not there. Yeah. Not there at all.

I mean, we saw Laporta crush him. You're right. Laporta should have caught that winning two-point conversion because he got everything else in that soft defense. But I'm looking on Fandle. Ravens, 49ers, plus 376. You could do a lot worse than that. Well, you can't do a lot worse than 376

because those are the two favorites, but could be a winner. I'm embarrassed and somewhat mortified to tell you the bet that I almost made before this week that I backed off of. Do they have the Super Bowl matchups up yet on FanDuel? I've been just picking

the conference winners. Oh, yeah. You did do the conference of each one. Browns 49ers. Oh, wow. 34-1. Oh, yeah. That's right. The Browns are the only team that I could see going into Baltimore.

I'm just trying to play it out of my head. Kyle already turned on the TikTok camera. I don't even feel great about this. Flacco going against his old team. Yeah. They have the kind of defense that's fast and could at least kind of hang with the speed of the Ravens. Flacco throwing a couple of those ridiculous Flacco 40-yard passes

that either Cooper catches or they get a flag. Running the ball a little bit on them. They get the lead early. The Ravens fans get nervous like, oh my God, is this going to happen to us again with Lamar in January? And then it's like 10-7 Browns in the third quarter. And then they get like the tipped interception. And then now it's 13.

That's the only team I could see going into Baltimore and now it's 13. That's the only team I could see going into Baltimore and actually hanging with them. Yeah. I don't disagree. I do want to bet Flacco one or two playoff games, but this would probably be a semifinal matchup. This would probably be a second week. Is this like the Ravens'

first opponent? So they would have to... The Browns are in the 4-5, and I think the Browns are in the four or five. And I think the Browns are going to beat whoever that AFC South team is. I just do. I think they're going to beat them. So it could be your second round matchup. It could be Cleveland and Baltimore. Then it's like,

Oh my God, Baltimore, they haven't played a meaningful game in three weeks. And now you have this hungry Browns team. That's got the speed from the week before. I think the Browns are, I think the Browns are good. I just think they're legitimately

good. Let's do it. I do think Flacco's going to have a game. Are we in? We're doing 34-1? Yeah, why not? I like the other one too. Ravens 49ers, but why not 34-1? I think Flacco's going to have a game where he's too aggressive and throws a bad pick eventually. But you're right.

Here's the thing with the Browns. They've built in the Flacco two picks into their offense. They're just like, he's going to have two of them. We're good with it. We're going to keep challenging teams. We're going to keep throwing downfield and the seesaw is going to tilt our way because we're going to make

five big plays. And you'll get two back, but it'll be 35 yards down the field. Yeah. The way Njoku is, Njoku is probably a top three tight end in the league right now. This is the healthiest and best he's ever been. And Cooper, you had Cooper.

Cooper makes plays. Elijah Moore's been, I think, a pretty decent second guy for them. And they've been able to still run the ball. And we just, in our vote-out fantasy league, our buddy Hench wins our vote out fantasy league. He lost Chubb in the first half of week one and he lost Burrow six weeks ago. And it's just like next man up.

Like this team lost Chubb an hour into the season. And I think they have the best chance to be Baltimore. And that's probably why Stefanski is minus 950 to win the coach of the year. How does he not win? And by the way, like, I just don't know how Flacco doesn't win comeback of the player of the year. Like I, I, you know, I know Hamlin's probably going to win, but this Flacco comeback of the year for him, this is one of the great football comebacks we've had in the 21st century. This guy was done as a good quarterback four years ago. We were betting against him over and over again. He came back in and he's as good as he was during the 2012-13, whatever year that was when they won

the Super Bowl. I think he's been lights out and he's completely rejuvenated their team. I feel bad about this. I know we're supposed to pick Hamlin and it was a huge football story, but he played a cup. He was in a couple of plays and I think he got flagged for a couple of plays. So it probably has to be a little more than just stepping on the field, right? This is such an amorphous award. You could come back from injury injury you could come back from just sucking if you're like baker or whatever or you could come back from um never you know walking again and uh that that's what it was like looking like for hamlin but flacco at plus 105 should be the pick there should be maybe they need to just have this extra award they give out every year almost like when the oscars do that special Oscar award.

Humanitarian. When they do the guy that never won as a director and then it's like, hey, we've given you an Oscar. Hamlin should win that award or Flacco. Both of those guys should win awards for this season. Hamlin, it's amazing you came back. Here's some award. Maybe it's come back for you or whatever.

But Flacco gets something. You have to get something for literally being out of the league and being somebody that nobody took seriously as a starting quarterback since like 2018. And now you have the best chance to beat Baltimore and Baltimore, who

is a prohibitive favorite in the conference. That's my Flacco take. Wait, I have a couple other things. Pittsburgh. I think you could make a case that's my flack I'll take wait I have a couple other things Pittsburgh I think you could make a case that's another team

that could give Baltimore a good game in Baltimore Pittsburgh in games that Mitch Trubisky didn't play at

least half of is nine and three so the non Trubisky Steelers nine and three Rudolph I actually

I gotta say like I think this goes on Tomlin's legacy that he had Mason Rudolph non-Trubisky Steelers, 9-3. Rudolph, I actually, I got to say, I think this goes on Tomlin's legacy that he had Mason Rudolph and Trubisky on his team for the last two years and each time picked Trubisky in any situation over Mason Rudolph, who isn't just clearly better. He's like markedly, noticeably, unquestionably better in every respect and the team responds to him and he's

not afraid. And I had Pittsburgh as my big sleeper before the year and somehow their best quarterback didn't play until week 14 because he's better than Pickett too. Right. Yeah. I mean, a lot of those games were Pickett and that's why I'm so confused with Tomlin. How much praise do we want to give him? 17 years, whatever this has been, over 500 is remarkable. And this might be the most remarkable of all the years because those first 11 weeks, they were outgained offensively. But a lot

of that is his fault. You can blame Matt Canada, but yeah, figure out who your best quarterback is. I think what you said, who they respond to most is the biggest thing, right? Because you're not going to get like a four touchdown game, probably at a Mason Rudolph. But it seems like the team overall is responding to the running game

is so much better now. Najee Harris came back from. It looked awesome. Yeah, they ran the ball down the fruits. I did. But yeah, I don't know what to think with this. I like that they're playing that Saturday game too. We'll get to it.

The Steelers, if they don't make the playoffs, will be easily the best team that didn't make the playoffs. Yeah, well, they'll be the 10-win team that's out, right? We talked about the likely if they win on Saturday. Here's the thing. If Buffalo loses to this Miami team, Pittsburgh should be in the playoffs over them. Because how does Buffalo not beat Miami

without their two best pass rushers? That's ridiculous. That would be one of the worst losses. Now, could Miami just throw the ball all over the place on them and torch them and do that whole thing? Maybe. We have a bunch of really unthreatening wild cards

and you and I have vacillated on whether we like seven playoff teams in each conference or not because the plus side, more gambling for us. Two more games. The downside, we might have Seattle in the playoffs. We might have Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, Houston, the terrible, pathetic Falcons team.

Oh, God. There's some teams alive for six, seven seeds that I don't want to watch anymore this season. And, and seven feels a little heavy this year. I go back and forth with this too, because we want someone to bet against right in the playoffs. Right. So you think that seven seed opens it up.

I would love Indianapolis to go to, it would be Buffalo. I think, I think that's a good pick for us if we go Buffalo in that spot. But are they worthy? Probably not. I don't think that. Yeah, if Indy goes to Buffalo, then Buffalo is just in a tease,

even though I don't love Buffalo. Seattle, they kind of stink. They just got ran on all over the place. Pittsburgh just bully balled them in the worst possible way. That is not a playoff team. Tampa, just a humiliating effort against the Saints. I ignored it. I ended up, I stayed away from them for million-dollar picks

and then got, for some reason, bet them yesterday. I don't even know how that happened. The rat is the blind. It went to minus two and a half and I'm like, oh. Stupid. They did nothing. That was another game that was over and a half and I'm like, oh, um, stupid. Yeah. They did nothing. That,

that was another game that was over and a half hour. And you knew it was over when they had this 99 yard drive, the bucks that included car chucks it down the middle. Right. And Juwan Johnson makes one of the best catches all season. Okay. Like jumping out fingertips and then does a flip and somehow keeps the ball. And it's like, all right, the Saints are winning.

Yeah, as soon as Carr completes a 20-yard pass, you should check the live line. Like, all right, the Stars are winning. They couldn't force any pressure on him at all. Houston has Stroud back with their pass rush, but they just seem like the good-bad team to me. And then Atlanta's a joke. But somehow, maybe two of those teams are going to be in the playoffs.

Well, I don't want to talk bad about them because right now, my team would probably play them if they got the 2C. But the Packers, it's such an under-reported storyline, I think. Like the Packers, if they made the playoffs without Rodgers. Why aren't people screaming about this? And why the hell did I take the Vikings last night is another question. You didn't know that BYU quarterback

was probably the worst starting quarterback this season. Oh my god, he was awful. Too much support. The other thing I did is, and this has got to be a resolution for us. I can't read into stupid shit. When Jair Alexander is suspended for coming out for the coin toss. I thought the same thing. Maybe not like

the Packers. It's like they're falling apart. Exactly. They're already light in the secondary. What kind of message has LeFleur given here? LeFleur's lost control of the team. They're up by 30. Exactly. That game was over almost immediately, but that's I don't know. We saw them beat up on Detroit on Thanksgiving.

That might not be a bad team. And it's also a fun team to root for if you aren't in love with Aaron Rodgers. Well, the Packers, if they beat the Bears... They're in. They're in. I think you could make the case that should have been the Sunday night game

with the way the Bears are playing and Fields is playing for his job. I think that's probably the second best game of the entire weekend. Maybe even that could have been like a Saturday night second best game of the entire weekend. Maybe even that could have been a Saturday night game. They killed the Vikings yesterday and Collinsworth...

I don't know whether Collinsworth feels an obligation to push these crappy games that NBC has been having or what he's doing, but he was going nuts about Jordan Love and the Packers. He was like, oh, Jordan Love. The way he's He was like, oh, Jordan Love. The way he's playing right now, Mike,

I'm not so sure he was doing all that stuff. And you got to watch out for this Packers team. It's like this Packers team is, first of all, they barely beat the Panthers. Like barely. Probably should have lost. And then the two games before that, they lost both of those.

And now they're beating this Minnesota team that basically lost because they started the worst starting quarterback we've seen all year and then just went in a tailspin and he's telling us how dangerous the Packers are and I'm like, this is absurd. The Packers are definitely not dangerous.

I watched Carolina almost beat them last week. I'm fine with Packers' dangerous stuff. I do worry. I do wonder about collinsworth and like because he has to and i i get it like these it's a long game but these guys have to praise at least one of the quarterbacks right yeah whether it's romo or collinsworth or it was 278 teams and he's like oh and what does he have listed under jaron hall's like okay i could say this all right well he did donate to the salvation army like i don't it's like i'm not gonna get to any of this because this guy can't complete a pass yeah so what's on the other side oh my god

wow all right so it's jordan love i have to go nuts yeah he is so different than he was in that first minnesota game mike uh the top button on this tuxedo might be a little too bad. I'm not sure, Mike. Well, the guy who really deserves the praise our guy, Justin Fields. Yeah. Who was awesome. Kevin O'Connor, when the Suns started making a run a few years ago, he started calling them

the bright future Suns. We are officially in bright future Bears mode because they have the number one pick next year. They're probably going to trade down and keep Fields. And I would actually recommend that if I was their conciliary because there's no way you can tell me that. I know people like those two quarterbacks

and maybe even Jaden Danos if you throw him in. There's just no way you can tell me that they're definitively better than Fields. And if you're just trying to build the best team possible, the best bet is to trade down three, four spots, pick up more stuff, take the best left tackle or Marvin Harrison Jr. And then you have even more stuff to whatever. And then just say, you know what? Fields is like, we watch football every week. Fields is at least in the top half of QBs now. I don't know if he's 12th or 15th or 10th or whatever,

but he was awesome in the game yesterday. I would keep him. I'm with you. I think we're probably contradicting whatever we said a month ago, but he is really... It's fine. He got better. He got better.

And it's all that stuff. Who's going to get the fans excited? You're guaranteed to get the fans excited with Justin Fields. Maybe not with Daniels or May or any of these other guys. You got to, you got to keep him as a starting quarterback. The only thing I'll say is what,

what took so long? Where was this in weeks like three to nine or something? You know what I mean? Like this could have been a playoff team and we're talking about them playing spoiler against the Packers this week. Yeah. There's seven and nine. They lost to the chargers oners this week. Yeah, they're 7-9. They lost to the Chargers

on 10-29. Well, they had that... Fields got hurt for like, what, four weeks? That was the Tyson Badgett? Yeah. Was it that long? Yeah. Three or four weeks, something like that. You look at... It really started... The turnaround starts with that Lions game on

November 19th, which they should have won and they lost. They beat the Vikings. They beat the Lions. Almost beat the Browns. Should have. Beat the Cardinals and killed the Falcons. There's no terrible wins in those because even the Cardinals are at least frisky.

Right. And then you go back. They lost to the Saints by seven. Really, their last bad loss was the Chargers game. they lost to the saints by seven really their their last bad loss was the chargers game they lost the chargers 30 to 13 but um and i'm looking at his games they weren't too bad so this will be his 13th game he's playing you're right so right um against the bucks he wasn't great against the chiefs he was that's when the chiefs were kind of playing good defense he wasn't uh that good but yeah other than, it's kind of been a steady incline.

I mean, the only problem for them is they played so well that they had this scenario where they were looking at like... Two picks. Two of the top seven firsts in the draft. So now they would be five... Now they had like the 11th pick.

So the first and 11th. If they trade down, let's say they trade down to... I don't know. Let's say they trade down to Washington. don't know, let's say they trade down to Washington. Washington gives them another first and a second and 26, whatever, and they're just picking fourth. Right. And you just give them Harrison, who's probably the guy that, I mean, what they can't do is stay at one and not take one of the two QBs because the QB's going to be the most valuable.

Yeah, they got to get rid of that pick. But I don't know if we'll see anything like this. I mean, that was a spectacular trade, which allowed them to just go out and win and compete and still get the one pick. I had this written in my notes. I think it's now one of the five best trades of the last like 35 years

to dump a number one pick in a draft where nobody even knew who the number one pick was. And as it turned out, Carolina got it wrong and they should take its draft. But then to get the number one pick in the draft where nobody even knew who the number one pick was. And as it turned out, Carolina got it wrong and they should take its draft. But then to get the number one pick in the next year's draft, plus DJ Moore, plus they have another second, plus they got a starting left tackle out of it.

I mean, that trade was everyone in the Dallas fans, they talk about the Herschel Walker trade constantly. That trade is like way up there, especially if they're able to trade back from one and get more shit for it. Amazing. I agree.

I mean, Herschel Walker allowed us to win a Super Bowl, so let's pump the brakes a little bit. Your team was ridiculous. You were spending like more money than you and the Niners

were spending the most money in the league by far. It opened up a lot. You should be like, oh, we'll grab Deion Sanders. Oh, we need this guy. All right. Was Chicago poor?

Let's win a Super Bowl with all this trade progress. Go ahead. I'm happy for the Chicago people in my life, including Jason Goff, who's been hosting the Chicago podcast for us, the full go. And the moment we launched it,

the entire sports scene went in the tank. And now Kobe White and Justin Fields, and now he's got stuff to talk about. Two more quick things. We got the NFC South quagmire we deserved. We hated this division all year. I hedged. I didn't tell you this. What? I hedged against

our Saints bet yesterday. What a jerk. And now I'm just now I'm going to probably double lose the Saints bet. You hedged in the game or you bet the Bucs to win the division? No, I bet against the Saints yesterday in the Tampa game. Oh, you're going to get double screwed division. No, I bet against the Saints yesterday in the Tampa game. Oh, you're going to get double screwed here.

Yeah, I'm going to get double screwed. There was no question it was going to happen. The only thing I can think is if there's ever a scenario where there's going to be a tie to make it even more confusing, this could be the week because that's how annoying this division is.

Last but not least, we got to talk about Belichick, but we'll take a break. After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity All right, coming back, Bill Belichick. I want him to come back, Sal. And I know I've been flopping around on this

a little bit. Not the wanting him to come back part as much as I wanted the Pats to be as bad as possible and tank the pick and maybe it's time, blah, blah, blah. I found myself rooting for them in the Bills game yesterday. And because I thought Belichick was really locked in, really wanted it, and the players are playing hard for them. They have the worst skill position QB situation in either conference. Even the Chargers with Easton Stick, at least they have like Austin Eckler, you know,

and at least like Quentin Johnson was a number one pick. Like you go through all the teams, it is the worst, and they're hanging with Buffalo, and they're trying to steal the game. And they've played really hard for him really since the Saints game was probably the low point of the season and the Germany game.

They have the worst kicker of all time. The worst kicker that the Pats have had in 30 years since Scott Missinsison, who he drafted in the fourth round pick. I want them to come back and they just need to have somebody else pick the players and do the signings and just say, hey, Belichick,

nobody else is going to give you, nobody else is going to give you carte blanche to just do everything anymore. You're hitting your mid-70s. You've just proven for the last six, seven years, free agency, draft picks. Maybe you're getting a little long in the tooth on that stuff.

But what you can do is be an awesome fucking football coach because we've just watched it the last six weeks with this garbage offense we had. And you've stayed in all of these games. If he goes to Dallas, like let's say McCarthy flames out. If he goes to Dallas, which Nora Princiati floated out on this pot a few weeks ago, and it's been stuck in my head ever since, they're not going to let him pick the players. The Jones family is picking everything. So if he goes there, it's just a straight head coaching thing. Stay in New England. You're going to have a statue. We're going to have a top five pick. We're going to have a ton of cap money. Let us help you pick some of the players and let's

fucking do this. Break the record here. That's what I want the Pats to do. And that's where I've landed. I am with you. I don't know why the Pats to do, and that's where I've landed. I am with you. I don't know why I have to congratulate you on rooting for your own team, but congratulations. You're doing it. This is a guy who took you to six Super Bowls, whether it was him or Brady, whatever.

You won six Super Bowls with him. He deserves to break the record in New England, and he's done well with this ragtag garbage squad. You played close against how many playoff teams? Six? Oh, my God. You played close against the Eagles. You played close against how many playoff teams? Six? Oh my God. You played close against the Eagles. You played close against the Dolphins. You beat the Steelers who might make it. You played close against the Bills.

That's why you beat the Bills. Lost to them a game you could have won. The Chiefs game was closer than 10 points. How many do we have to look at here? The last game that they got smoked in was on October 8th. The Saints beat them 34 nothing. But if you go through

Raiders by four, they lose. Beat the Bills. Lost to the Dolphins by 14, but we're kind of like hanging around in that game for at least a little while. Lost to the Commanders by three. Lost to the Colts by four. Lost to the Giants by three. Chargers 6-0. Beat the Steelers. Lost to the Chiefs by four, lost to the Giants by three, Chargers 6-0,

beat the Steelers, lost to the Chiefs by 10, but we're in that game. I actually had a chance to steal it, beat the Broncos, almost beat the Bills with four turnovers and two missed kicks. They've been playing hard for this guy for two plus months. That's it. I really

think if the players are still playing hard for you and he's not calling two vanilla and offense, has the game passed him by? I would say no. Not with this roster. I wouldn't mark him down for a loser. I don't think anyone could win with the quarterbacks and running backs and receivers and tight ends that this team

had. Literally, there's no coach alive who could have been like, here are my ideas. The problem is he picked all of these players and he executed the blueprint for this team and the blueprint didn't work. And offensively, they're a disaster. So get some help.

Bring somebody in and let's run it back. I don't want to see him. If he goes to the Chargers, you think, if you're the Chargers, would you let him do total control of the football franchise? Just go look on Pro Football Reference at our drafts. We spent the 112th pick on the worst kicker in the league. We spent two third-round picks on two tight ends who caught a total of one ball.

We took Nikhil Harry. We took Sonny Michel over Nick Chubb. I could keep going for it. We took Cole Strange in the first round. I keep going and going and going. He's just not good at that part anymore. That's fine. He's still an awesome football coach.

Yeah. I'm with you again. I'm not going to congratulate you for coming around on this, but, but, but the big question is, is there a better situation out there? If the idea is that he's not going to be able to,

the Cowboys is the, is a better situation. So if the Patriots are not going to let him work the player personnel angle, then he could do that anywhere, right? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, he could say, I'll stay if you continue to let me pick the players.

Otherwise, I'm going to go to Dallas. And then Kraft will say, well, I'm going to have to get something for that then. Right. And he's at least... The best thing that's happened for the Pats with this,

other than the fact that they somehow still have a top three pick, is that Belichick has increased his trade value if they do decide this is a break. Definitely. They're not firing him. If they fired him, that would be the

stupidest fucking thing Kraft has done in 30 years. He's had a Justin Fields-esque last month here. Last seven weeks. This team stinks. All right. Calm down. All right. Well down. I'm with you. All right.

Well, would you trade your first round pick for him? What? The Cowboys first round pick? McCarthy flames out again? Would you trade your first round pick for Bill Belichick? No. We'll give you,

we'll trade you straight up for McCarthy and we'll pay his lunch tab the rest of the year if you want. I don't think the Chargers would trade a first. And the other thing is that I think the Bears coach saved his job. Heberflus. Yeah, well, they said they're extending him. He's not in jeopardy. But it's legitimate.

They're playing hard for that dude. That stuff matters. You can see this stuff, especially when... Yeah, the problem is you have to replace these guys. It's fun to fire anybody, but if there's not a better candidate out there, you might as well stick with the guys. And like I said, if the team is not quit on them. All right. Quickie questions for get the guest lines.

2023 is most devastating injury. Burrow Rogers or cousins. Give me the gold, silver, and bronze for those three. This is for the franchise or just for somebody's season? What changed the landscape of who could win the Super Bowl this year? Most devastating. For sports media, I think it's the Rodgers

injury, but I think in terms of I'm just going to go by personally how much money I had on the Bengals when they started to come back with Burrow to make the playoffs, to win the division, to win the Super Bowl. I would take the, I would say Burrow. Yeah, Burrow gets hurt

in August and screws up their first month and then he gets hurt for good four weeks later. And Browning was solid for them, but he's not Joe Burrow.

I would rank it Burrow, Cousins, Rogers because... Cousins second, huh? Yeah, because I think Minnesota had a good team and with the time of the year that he got hurt

and the roulette that they had to play at QB, but they had weapons and they were in a crappier conference. From what we saw from the Jets and especially from their coaching and just attention to detail,

I don't think Rodgers makes a difference. I know. Maybe they're like 8-9, 9-8, but they are not a Super Bowl contender. No way. Maybe they're like 8-9, 9-8, but they are not a Super Bowl contender. No way.

Is Russell Wilson's career over? You think he starts next year for somebody? Because he's definitely getting waived. I think he does. I don't know

what the ideal spot is for him. I think they said these places that have fake odds, like the Vikings were up there. It's funny you mentioned

Cousins, but is Cousins' contract up? That must be what's going on here. Yeah. I feel like he signs a contract every 18 months, but yeah, I think Vikings, Atlanta, a team like that, he'll end up. Oof. No?

No? He feels New Orleans-ish to me. Right. Something South. Washington, like stopgap Washington starter because they don't want to start their rookie QB that they draft right away. I could see that.

I don't think he's a starting QB anymore. Really? I don't know if you'd want him as a backup, but he did some good clapping yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just, it's, but you want Sharon Hall. It's weird because you want to get on Sean Payton and the Denver organization and everything. You don't want

to tank him, God forbid, but the way they run their offense, and I know Russ's numbers were decent and compatible even at some point to Lamar's. It's a lot of check down throws. It's not much difference with Stidham.

It really isn't. Well, Javante Williams proving yet again that the ACL is a two-year injury. He just did not. He looked like a

shell of himself this year. Their receivers, like their skill position guys are probably better than the Pats, but for the most part, they're in the bottom

five, I think. So I'm not sure how much a QB would have been able to do. I think it's kind of amazing that they even got to 500. I'm just going to ask, are we sure Tua is good? I'm so down on Tua after yesterday. Killed me. Killed my bank account.

There's moments where he looks like Scott Mitchell, where I feel like I'm watching Scott Mitchell on the Dolphins again. That's not a compliment. Where he just looks... His maneuverability just isn't there, but then if you catch him in a game from five weeks ago or the highlights, he looks like the best quarterback you've ever seen. I don't know what to make of him anymore.

I don't... I had Phil Simms on. I think we discussed this, and I was like, I remember him being a little more elusive. And maybe that's part of the game plan because all the concussions and everything else did he put on weight is he like bigger yeah I thought he put on weight yeah he doesn't even try to get out of the pocket doesn't do anything like uh and that that's a bummer I thought he could help himself out wasn't winning that game yesterday but uh no we're not sure on to it but I'm not even sure on Herbert either I know it was always between uh two of them, but I'm backing off both at this point.

Did Matt Patricia murder the Eagles or were they already dead? He helped it along. He might be getting some unfair blame for this, but my God, you shouldn't be able to run on that team like you did. If you go back to the Super Bowl when Nick Foles beat the Pats, Patricius had, I think, one of the worst five-year runs of any coach slash executive

we've ever seen. He gave up, what, 45 points to the Eagles in the Super Bowl to Nick Foles, who never had another moment in the league. Right. And just from that point on,

oof. Is Carolina's owner, this is my last one, is Carolina's owner, David Tepper, now that Snyder is out, the new worst owner in the league? It's fun. I had this jotted down. I used to do the character of the year awards where I rank all our friends and the ridiculous things they did. The funniest email of the year every year. Thank you. Thank you. I think he would win the character of the year. I mean, throwing drinks at fans. He threw drinks at fans yesterday.

Really spectacular. And his team rewarded him by saying, no, make no doubt a question about it. We are the worst. Don't confuse matters. So this guy is something else. They were one of my million dollar picks yesterday because Bryce sucked me in

in the second half of that Packers game. I'm like, this dude's figuring out. He was so bad in the game yesterday. That was actually the worst game I've seen him play. There was a couple plays where there was one play where I think they were down like 9-0 and it was like a third and five

and he rolled out and he had time. And there was like the backup running backs wide open 15 yards down the field. And he just sailed it over his head out of bounds. And it was one of those like record screech. Oh my God, you're just not playable. I actually thought they should have benched him. Like that's how bad he was.

It was like, are they going to start the second half with Andy Dalton? But they're like, nope, just going to grind it through. He goes in these funks when you can see it, where he's just kind of unplayable. It's weird. I don't want to write him off just yet because I have been players

who have rebounded off of terrible first years and become competent, really good quarterbacks. And their offensive line is lousy for the most part this year. But it is glaring when C.J. Beathard is out playing you, right? Is that even his name? Yeah. Poor Tepper.

The new worst owner in the league. I think it's like even you can't say Jimmy Haslam and the Browns. They're 11-5. And Stephanski was a good hire. You wanted to say Ursae too. In the beginning of the year, if you put odds on worst owner, now that Snyder's

out. Ursae was like minus 300. Yeah, with the whole Jonathan Taylor nonsense and everything. It's crazy. All right, guest lines. Week 18. We're changing the format around this time. Different categories, and we'll try to give you all of the possibilities. I didn't know about this. Did you tell Babydoll? I think they'll try to give you all the possibilities.

Did you tell Babydoll? Okay. First group of games. Second seeds on the line. First one is Bills at Miami. The winner gets the two seed. If Miami loses, they're the six seed. And if Buffalo loses and Pittsburgh beats Baltimore, Buffalo is out.

Just an incredible scenario. Wait, hold on. Did you say Jacksonville too? Isn't Jacksonville part of that or no? Yeah, but Jacksonville would have to be Tennessee. I'm assuming that's happening, right? Well, everything's a few points. Wait, so if Jacksonville... Now I'm confused.

So if Jacksonville loses, Buffalo could get in anyway? I think so. Okay. I think so. I'll tell you this, and I don't know whether it was New Year's Eve and New Year's Day or what was going on,

but I did not read an awesome... And I looked. I looked on every website. I looked everywhere. Give me the definitive, every single thing that could happen for each team. Yeah. And as of nine o'clock this morning, I could not find it. I had to patch it

together. The internet really let us down today. Bills at Miami, I had Bills minus 2.5. You have Bills minus 2.5? Yeah. I had Bills minus 1, which I think it kind of opened that. It shot up to 3, so you get this one.

Ooh. I think that's the right line. That's so weird, though. I get it. From what we saw from Miami last, I don't think they can stop the Bills. The Bills didn't even look that great. Right. Yeah, and they beat them up the first time, right?

They just out-physicaled them the first time right they just out physical them the first time these two play and the bills need it more and it makes it makes sense i should have gone higher than this and the dolphins honestly once they see they're not going to get it they could start pulling players they don't need another bradley chubb in there you know so if it looks bad early if it's 14-3 don't be surprised if they give up on this well if you're the dolphins so you'd get the sixth seed at that point casey's already up on this. Well, if you're the Dolphins, so you'd get the sixth seed at that point. KC's already locked in the third seed. So if you're the Dolphins

and you're like, we lose this game, we're going to KC in round one. And KC kind of sucks. Yeah. Score 24 points. You're in it. Can we throw in that team? Yes. Next number two seed game. Well, there's two of them Cowboys Eagles

Cowboys against at Washington if Dallas wins they're the two seed Eagles at the Giants if Philly wins and Dallas loses Philly gets the two seed I think we know how this is going to play out because you're going against rowboat run Cowboys at Washington I have Cowboys

minus 13. We split it. I said 14 and it's 13 and a half. Are you sure this is for the second pick? I would hate for this to be close. Are you sure they're not going to be competitive? Like they, if they lose there,

that they have the two pick Washington, or do we not know that? If Washington loses, they're the two-seed because their strength of schedule will be harder than the Wingo Patriots, even though Washington beat the Patriots. So somehow the tiebreaker for

who has the number two pick in the draft isn't, oh, this team beat the other team. They shouldn't get it. Their schedule was really hard. This is why you shouldn't have been rooting for the commanders against the Patriots. Didn't matter. You know who I blame? I blame Russell Wilson.

Because Denver comes back. They tie the game. We go three and out. Denver has the ball. It's like, just fucking go down and kick a field goal and let us have the season we're supposed to have. And then our kicker, who's been just an atrocity, ends up making a 54-yarder in high altitude.

God damn it. Eagles at the Giants. I like the Giants' money line in this game. Right? Because Dallas is going to be up 14-0. This stupid Eagles team, what do they care? And then the Giants with Tyrod, who Tyrod not playing behind Tommy DeVito

for what, two extra weeks? Was that a top three dumbest thing we've seen this year? That's a Trubisky. That's similar to Trubisky. No, it's worse than Trubisky because we at least think Tyrod Taylor was competent. Yeah.

DeVito wasn't competent. Right, right. I think they fell in love with the dumb storyline too much there in New Jersey. Eagles at the Giants. I have Eagles minus seven and a half. That's exactly what I had.

And I stand by it. I honestly do. But they only have it at five and a half. Oh, they put it in the Vegas zone. Well, what but they only have it at five and a half. Oh, they put it in the Vegas zone. Well, what were they yesterday? Were they six and a half to the Rams?

Like the rat, the Eagles need this more. Theoretically. Yeah. But they're worried that as soon as Dallas is running away with the game, everybody gets benched on the Eagles. Right. Right.

Right. Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah. God damn it. Pats are going to get the third. Boy, the Pats might beat the Jets. We'll get that later. All right. Yeah. Exactly. Well, yeah. God damn it. Pats are going to get the third. Well, the Pats might beat the Jets.

We'll get that later. All right. Next grouping. AFC playoff spots on the line. Jags-Titans. If the Jaguars win, they're the four seed. This is in Tennessee. Mm-hmm.

I have Jacksonville minus six and a half. Wow. I had two. It's three and a half. Oh, wow. They don't like Jacksonville. Vandal, Vegas, they don't like them. Well, I watched a lot of that Carolina game

yesterday because I stupidly bet on it. Or at least I watched the first half until it was clear that Carolina had no chance whatsoever. Jacksonville's defense was really good in that game. Josh Allen was awesome. It feels like he's peaking at the perfect time, the other Josh Allen. Right.

From what I saw from their defense, it made me rethink. Because I thought like, oh, Vrabel, spoiler. But I don't know. Jacksonville's D. That's a betting stay away from me. I'm not going near that game. So if they win there, the four state, if they lose,

they would have to have some help to even make the playoffs. Colts minus three against the Texans. This is our Saturday night game? This is Saturday night. Can I just say I'm happy and this is what I would love the NFL to look like every week with a couple Saturday 6, 1pm

kickoffs and then I think 6, 4pm kickoffs. Yesterday was disgusting. They had 10 early games. I couldn't red zone something with the Ravens, Dolphins. I couldn't. Everybody's got fantasy finals that they couldn't red zone something with the Ravens, Dolphins. Everybody's got fantasy finals that they couldn't even watch their players.

There should have been more later games tomorrow. Get it together and play another Saturday game. The Cowboys lines didn't have to be the only Saturday game. Just get it together at NFL. This is an easy one. Should we volunteer our services? Yes. I'll pay. I'll pay to do it as a consultant.

It'd be ridiculous. Your scheduled conciliar is Bill and Sal. Yeah. It wasn't rocket science to have two or three Saturday games this weekend as when everybody was off and there wasn't like a shitload to watch. Especially now with bowl games that nobody's playing in. So, all right, don't worry about competing with that. Colts home for the Texans. Indy wins, Jags lose, Indy gets the fourth seed. Houston wins. Jags

lose. Houston gets the fourth seed. And then they're both out if Jacksonville wins. It's a wrap unless a lot of shit would have to happen. Well, they're both out for the division, you're saying? Yeah. But they could still

nail the playoffs. Yeah, but they could potentially sneak into the playoffs if a whole bunch of other stuff happens. I have Colts minus three over the Texans. Yeah, you went a little high there. I got this exactly. I don't know how it could be anything other than one and a half. Oh, you Tic Tac zoned it?

Yeah. I thought that was easy. That's a lot to ask from the Texans to go in Indy. Think about it. that's a lot to ask from the Texans to go in Andy. Andy kind of, Andy kind of Milton burrowed the Raiders game a little bit. Cause I think, Oh, they crushed everybody there.

Yeah. Yeah. They, they did like just enough to win the Raiders killed me on the back door. Um, but I wonder like the Colts, I think the Colts might actually just be better than the Texans. They might.

It's not by much. By the way, that Raiders, that pier, I don't know if Pierce is going to get resigned, but he's, he punted. These guys don't have to go every time I'm fourth and four from midfield,

but could, could you do it once? Could it look, the Raiders weren't looking to score at all that game, but the Colts might be just a smidge better. Steelers at the Ravens. Pittsburgh wins. Buffalo loses. I guess Jacksonville also wins. Pitt makes the playoffs.

If Pitt wins and Tennessee beats Jacksonville, Pittsburgh makes the playoffs. Baltimore has nothing to play for. They have everything locked up. I'm going to say Steelers minus three at Baltimore. We split this. I said four. I thought whenever anybody's sitting, everybody, it should be at least four. It's three and a half.

So we split it. Okay, next category. Can I just say something? Another thing with Pittsburgh. How many times have they played Lamar Jackson in the last four or five years? One out of eight. They get so lucky with this matchup. Almost always going against Ravens. That's why it feels like they're going to make the playoffs somehow.

Maybe it'll be just Tennessee beating Jacksonville and all of a sudden Pittsburgh's in. Right. And we get Indianapolis as the fourth seed and Pittsburgh as the seventh seed. And we get like Indianapolis as the four seed and Pittsburgh is the seventh seed. And we're just like, what just happened? Mm-hmm.

Cleveland going to Indianapolis, Pittsburgh going to, uh, I don't know, Miami. Um, NFC playoff spots in the line. A lot of home dogs

this week. Yeah. Tampa at Carolina. Tampa gets a four seed with a win. Little Baker Mayfield Revenge game Carolina he had a shitty Month last month and they ended up releasing

Them I will say I'm a little scared of the Panthers At home I think they've been A little frisky I'm not going to Bet on it I'm just pointing it out Well Tepper throws drinks on all those fans to get the wake in them. Tepper could be hurling drinks at everybody. Also, very scared.

Whatever this line ends up being, it will be a teaser for a lot of people. There's red flags galore on this. You're trusting Baker Mayfield, who looked like shit yesterday. Bucks minus six and a half I have at Carolina. I got this exactly. I'm not lying. Six is the line. And I am putting that in a teaser.

We got to do it. We got to do it. Sal, do not let me tease that. No, I got to do it. Don't let me. I'm not teasing that game. We're doing it. We're doing it.

Well, that's got to be my hedge anyway. Speaking of bets, we hit our big boost before the season. We had Kansas City, Philadelphia. And who was the third team? Kansas City, Philadelphia. San Francisco.

San Francisco. To make the playoffs. All-night playoffs. A little plus there. We boosted it to plus 130. So this is the second year in a row we've hit that for football. I hit my one for basketball last year. I'm going for the basketball one.

I have a little momentum on these future boosts. I like it. We have to name it. The moral is just listen to us for these big fan-duel boosts and then not ever again for the next 22 weeks. Well, I don't think we had a good over-under. I haven't been afraid to look, but we're probably around 500 for the over-unders.

This is the worst year we've had in a while. There's this guy, Chris H., who sends this out. I forgot to tab this. We'll go over it next week. Yeah, we'll go over it next week. I feel like we're around 500. We won the big boost, which is what we care about. For the NBA, I did Celtics over 50 wins.

That's going to hit. Parlayed with OKC over 40 wins. I think that's going to hit. Ilayed with OKC over 40 wins. I think that's going to hit. I wish I had gone 45 on that. And then the last piece of it is the Lakers, 45 plus wins. The Lakers might fuck me and end my streak. I don't know if you saw them yesterday, but if you don't think we're getting the LeBron is unhappy story

from somebody over the next 48 hours, LeBron isn't sure he's going to stay. The LeBron is unhappy story from somebody over the next 48 hours, LeBron isn't sure he's going to stay. It's the LeBron is unhappy story is coming. I think you just started it. Well, he's going to pressure them to do a big deal, whether it's Zach Levine or whoever. Saints-Falcons, winner gets a four seed with a Tampa Bay loss, and both teams are out if Tampa Bay wins,

and it is played in New Orleans. I have the Saints minus three and a half. All right. Yeah, you got it exactly. I said two and a half. That seems fair, but who the hell knows? What a bizarre division. Those are the two zigzag teams this year, right?

I don't know what to make of either of those teams. Falcons can't play two bad games or good games in a row. And the Saints, you catch them one day, they look like they all hate each other. Catch them the next day, they're just lights out. They've blown out. They blew out the Pats. They blew out Carolina yesterday.

They have blowout decisive wins, and then they look like shit. And then you get excited about, oh, Heineke is better than Ritter. It's like, oh, well, it's still Heineke. Definitely not. Packers-Bears in Green Bay. Green Bay gets a wild card with a win, though.

And as you said, this is quite the story. This is the best game of the week. I think the Bears are going to be going all out trying to win this. I think they want Fields to... The other players seem like they love Fields and they want him to be the QB next year. I think Fields wants to stay. And this is a very dangerous spot for the Packers.

I have Packers. So even though it's in Green Bay, I'm going to say Packers minus two and a half. That's exactly what I had. They bumped it up to three. Hmm. I like the Bears. I might go the other way with this.

I think Fields is such a lock to be quarterback. I'm going to almost sit him this game. Oh, try to get the draft pick? Yeah, or if you're thinking of trading him, what is this game going to do for Justin Fields right now? He's kind of maxed out in terms of like... Like value? Yeah.

I want to win it. For 2023. I want to win it. I want to go 8-9. Oh, that's true, though. They have that thing where they haven't beaten, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

No, you're shedding the Packers thing. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Okay. Last one with the playoff spot, Seahawks. I can't believe this team is still alive. They're at Arizona.

Another dangerous game. Seattle wins and Green Bay loses and Seattle has a chance to get the seven seed. Some other stuff has to happen. I have Seahawks minus three against Arizona. Seahawks minus three is exactly right. I went higher. I said four and a half,

but I guess Arizona is considered on par with everybody. It's funny. Gannon turned into a pretty good rookie head coach. Yeah. All the Eagles fans were laughing their asses off when somebody hired him. And meanwhile, their defense went to shit and Arizona's trending up. So I know they have seven win team with,

with Kyla Murray, Arizona. Oh, they might've even been an eight win team. So weird. Shining up. Are they a seven-win team with Kyla Murray? Arizona? Oh, they might have even been an eight-win team. So weird. So here's my question for you. One of my big real-life future bets before the season was Arizona under four and a half wins. Oh, yeah.

Seahawks minus three, what do I do? I don't trust the Seahawks at all. Do I just bet the cards? Yeah. I just bet the cards, right? Well, we know this is just a fictitious conversation because you're not going to do anything. Right?

You're not going to actually have... No, I think I am because I think they can beat the Seahawks. One of the things I was thinking was I could tease them above the touchdown and try to get them over eight because I think this line is going to end up at Seahawks minus two and a half would be my guess. Maybe even Seahawks minus two. So I could tease them or I could just bet the money line and either way I win.

Let me tell you what I would do in this situation. I probably wouldn't do anything, but I think I would tease them with the bucks. So don't do that. So hedging two bets at once, what could go wrong? I can only tell you what not to do. Yeah.

Thanks. Next category, top two draft pick on the line. Jets at Pats. Pats locked down a top three pick if they lose. It'll be at least three, and then if Washington miraculously beats Dallas, the Pats will climb to two.

If the Pats just lose and Washington loses, the Pats will have the third pick in a two-quarterback draft, unless you can really get excited about Daniels, which I don't think I won't. I guarantee he's better than Billy Zappy. Then from a Jets standpoint, the Jets right now don't sleep on this piece. The Jets are eighth right now.

They're six and 10, and they'd be pretty much locked into that. But right behind them are the Giants at 5-11 and Tennessee at 5-11 and the Chargers at 5-11. So they're guaranteed a top eight pick at least, and maybe even a whiff higher. And I'm sitting here thinking, well, the Pats, they should throw this game away. It could be Belichick's last Patriots game. They're not going to throw it away. The Jets have already doubled down on Robert Sevenkid Sala for reasons that remain unclear, and Joe Douglas, who was an absolute disaster and could have signed Joe Flacco for three months and didn't.

Do the Jets have more tanking kind of incentive for this game than the Pats do? Oh, yeah. Listen, this is fun for you to talk about because all the NBA teams are tanking in the first week in December. But these teams want to win this game. The Patriots have won, what, 13 in a row against the Jets. If this is his swan song, Belichick,

he doesn't want to lose this game to the New York Jets. And the Jets have to break this ridiculous, get the monkey off their back. But I will say, as we're talking about it. Can I give you what I want to happen? Wednesday announcement, Bill Belichick will be returning as we're talking about it. Can I give you what I want to happen? Wednesday announcement. Bill Belichick will be returning as the 2024 Patriots coach.

Okay. Then he'll like this one. Then we're starting like Pop Douglas at quarterback for week 18. Let's run the fucking wishbone and just try to tank it. You don't think he hates these Jets? I think there's a little animosity between these two teams. Honestly.

So he just in any scenario wants to stick it to the Jets. Of course. If we win this game, we drop into the 5-6-7 range. Not awesome. I will say, as you were talking about it, do they give Aaron Rodgers a gift and trade up to get Marvin Harrison?

A guy who's never even had a first-round wide receiver? Isn't the receivers are absolutely loaded this year, right? It's like Marvin Harrison. Guy who's never even had a first round wide receiver. Isn't the receivers are absolutely loaded this year, right? It's not just Harrison. There's like a couple more top 10 studs. Yeah, very good. It'd be funny if the Jets took one of them instead of the offensive linemen they

desperately need because they can't fucking block. Exactly. I have the Jets. Did we do this? Jets minus three over the Pats. We're going to split it. I said two. It's two and a half. I'm going to bet the Jets. Did we do this? Jets minus three over the Pats. We're going to split it. I said two. It's two and a half. I'm going to bet the Pats. I'm just going to buy the win. Betting the Pats money line. Just telling you now.

Another interesting thing about this, other than the huge 13 game winnings, whatever they have against them, the overall under is 31 and a half. You've never played in a game like that. I actually made a decision, guys. Go ahead.

I'm done betting over-unders. Really? Like one of my million-dollar picks, I had two different bets tied to Dallas-Detroit adjusted over-under 41 and a half. And C.D. lambs straining for the touchdown to put the Cowboys up 14 to three early in the second quarter and fumbles it out of bounds.

And I'm like, I've I'm, there's no way this game gets over 40. Then we get to four, a two point conversion gets backed up to the seven and all Detroit has to do is just kick the PAT. Let's go into overtime 2020. Now we're getting over. Now Dan Campbell's like, hold my beer.

I'm going to go for it on fourth and seven. This is the dumbest thing you're going to see at least in 15 minutes because McCarthy just trumped it. I hate over-unders. It's an honorable resolution to have, but if you're in the same game parlay business, you can't exclude over-unders. It's an honorable resolution to have, but if you're in the same game parlay business, you can't exclude over-unders.

You're just going to spend an extra $40 million. Did you see about the lines that bumped over $50? And if you bet the under, it's like $37 and $23. It was something like 14 games over $500. See, now you're back. Shorted out. Yeah, you're back. Don't do this to me.

Two categories left. Probably irrelevant. 49ers home for the Rams. Rams basically have locked down a six seed unless some crazy shit happens. This is, we need a different word for the Niners. The situation there is it's not a tank game. It's like a whatever game.

Because they could be like, you know what? Fuck it. We're not going to play in round one. We're treating this like a real game. Let's beat the Rams. We hate the Rams. Yeah. Or they could be like, what are we doing?

Let's rest everybody. Because Debo Samuel, they have a pretty brittle team. There's three guys that you just want to get to round two. I think they're part-time lovers. These guys played a half a game, wouldn't you think? It would make sense. 49ers minus three over the Rams is what I have. Yeah, you're going to get this.

I think we probably have like five left. You're probably going to win all these because I couldn't get a handle on this. I had two. It's four and a half right now. Man, that's going to drop. Next one is Vikings at Detroit. So Lions win and Dallas and Philly both lose. Not probable.

Detroit gets the two seed. Otherwise, they are the three seed. Minnesota is somehow alive, but all of the pieces today were so kind of flimsy that I couldn't figure out the 90 things that have to happen, but somehow they are alive. So I'm guessing the Seahawks would have to lose. The Packers

would have to lose. Maybe the Bucks have to lose. I think they have a tie break over Atlanta, and that's it at this point. And somehow the Falcons, I can't believe they're still alive. They're alive too. Anyway, Vikings at Detroit.

I have Vikings minus three and a half at Detroit. You had Vikings minus three and a half? Yeah. Oh, all right. I get this. Well, I got to check this. Detroit's minus four and a half. And I had to pick them.

Oh, all right. I screwed that up. Well, only because they're going to try to win because those other games are later. The Dallas and Philly game. Detroit has every incentive to win. No, they really don't, though. Dallas isn't losing to Washington.

You could say, we got to go, but come on. It doesn't matter if you're the two seed or the three seed. Who cares? Yeah, all right. But if Jaron Hall beats you, Dan Campbell, when you're trying, I want

to hear a word out of you. I'm mailing that one in and arresting my guys. Yeah. It's like, oh, Jameer Gibbs got hurt because we thought we had a 1% chance of the two seed if Washington beats Dallas. Washington hasn't played well in six weeks. Washington's going to beat Dallas. You guys actually need the game.

That's not happening. If you're Dan Campbell, do you start number 68 or number 70 at quarterback? six weeks. Washington's going to beat Dallas. You guys actually need the game. Right. But so you think if you're Dan Campbell, do you start number 68 or number 70 at quarterback? And do you report? If I'm Dan Campbell and be like,

wait, why did we go for two from the 70-yard line? What happened? Did I black out? We reported this in the Friday pre-production meeting. I don't get it.

Bengals. Oh, our last category is absolutely irrelevant. These three games are irrelevant. I would ban them from the red zone. I would not put them on the YouTube multi-view. I would not have options for them. These games can all go to hell. Relevant for us because it's 9-9.

Okay. Oh, maybe relevant for NFL Futures. Yeah. Right. Bengals home for the Browns. Browns have clinched

the five seed. Cincy is out. If Cincy and Denver win week 18, we'd have 11 winning AFC teams. Wow. Out of 16.

That's just stupid. I have Bengals minus two and a half over the Browns. All right, edge out here. I said three. It's four and a half. Oh, my God. I believe. Chiefs home for the Chargers.

Chiefs are locked in to the three seed. I have the Chiefs five and a half Vegas zone over the Chargers. I had three. Chargers minus one and a half. Come on. So you beat me. I think I won. That's it.

Damn it. Yeah, that was easy. The Charger. Why are the Chargers favored? What are they playing for? Two words. Easton Stick. It's the dumbest thing.

Like, that coach isn't coming back. Wait a second. This doesn't make sense. It's starters against backups. That's all. It's not Mahomes. The Chargers, they would have the fifth pick right now. And if the stupid Pats win or Arizona wins,

they could get up to the third pick. But what would it be with Mahomes if this was like everybody's playing? Nobody's going to play for the Chiefs. I know. So he probably worked like six points, seven points. But the Chargers don't care either. All right.

That's stupid. Last one, Raiders, Broncos. It's in Vegas. This is an Antonio Pierce. Save your job game. Newsflash, Antonio. You're not getting that job. I have Raiders minus 2.5.

You get that exactly. Congratulations. You ended on an exact pick there. You lose. You lose the week. I'm up 10-9. I'm up 7-6-5 through 18 weeks. Congratulations. You don't think he gets that job, huh?

Well, I just... I don't. I do not. He's paying a lot of ex-coaches, though. So if he's not signing Harbaugh, it's just going to be another Antonio Pierce type thing. I don't think he cares. Really? All right.

I think he's making a lot of money having a team in Vegas. Yeah. And I think... Where does Jim Harbaugh go? Because Jim Harbaugh is clearly coming back to the NFL. Making a lot of money having a team in Vegas. Yeah. And I think, I think, where does Jim Harbaugh go? Because Jim Harbaugh is clearly coming back to the NFL. I would, wouldn't you bet on that?

Yeah, I think so. I just don't know which owners are going to open the, like who's on the hook for. Chargers are cheap. Right. Your team won't. The Bears are out. It's got to be Vegas.

Tapper would be fun. Go to Tapper. Carolina. Oh, that's got to be Vegas. Tepper would be fun. Go to Tepper. Carolina. Oh, that's good. Tepper and Harbaugh, the villains. Start wearing black hats. I love it. Dressing like Yellowstone villains.

Attacking the fans, stealing signs. Great. Let's take a break. We'll do Parent Corner. All right. Parent Corner, New Year's edition. what do you got all right so um look i don't get to make a lot of calls with this family christmas new year's week but i i did a lot of people were seeing iron claw and i was getting reviews on it i'm like i want to take the family to see this

let's write this we had family movie. There's only four suicides. We had Time to Kill. There was a 4.30 showing of Iron Claw the other day. So we take my in-laws. It's a movie about brotherhood. They have two daughters. I was like, all right, 17-year-old. They'll like to see Zac Efron with his shirt off.

I got my boys, right? Three brothers seeing it. We have my wife's stepmother and father who's battling dementia. I was like, this is perfect. Perfect movie. Really, really great. And we're watching. There's like 11 of us. And I have to say, it's rated R.

Probably not supposed to have a nine-year-old in the theater. Just turned 10 like two days after. Yeah, there's like a car sex scene. Yeah, there's rated R. Probably not supposed to have a nine-year-old in the theater. Just turned 10 like two days after. Yeah, there's like a car sex scene. Yeah, there's a lot. And the older brother, Archie did a good job covering Harrison's eyes when David Von Erich is jerking off in the shower. And when Kevin is having sex in the car with his wife. The wife is delighted, by the way, looking at me. Giving me the stink eye

through those scenes. But Arch did a good job keeping him occupied. I don't even know what he was talking about. Good job by Archie. Good job, Archie. Meanwhile, it's an hour and a half in and the movie is very dark. And I'm like, only I know this.

I'm like, holy shit, they still have to kill off three brothers. This is going to be bad. And so they did in my like my middle son is like really starting to get like upset by it i don't even think he sits through a lot of movies and this was like one and uh we get out of that theater and like everyone's like why the hell did you do that to us like they're all like to a person everybody's like like i brought them to a clan rally or something what's what's the matter with you i'm like oh it was good though wasn't it it's like i don't even know nobody could even tell me

if they thought it was good or the acting was good like that was so horrible and you knowing this like you knew the storyline now i'm like well maybe i should lie and say i only knew that one brother like killed himself yeah they know you're a big wrestling fan i knew it and as a matter of fact there was another brother and they didn't even portray him in there. They're like, yeah, you're a dirtbag. They're basically looking at me. So that's it.

I won father of the year for 2023. I got it in. You left out the part that the big theme was like these brothers that it goes sideways. Right. Meanwhile, you have a family of three brothers. Yes. I took a picture of them in front of the movie, the marquee there. Yeah, the next Von Eriks. No, no, wait. I don don't mean that they were bummed out and i told them i said one of

you three is going to bring me the title and we're going to flip a coin right now to see who it is you should rank your sons each week like right did even though i have my favorite three this week cherries my favorite number one change would that have been different i know you saw that movie and the one thing that surprised me is carrie von eric was like a champion discus thrower right and was headed to well i think a lot of that no that was that was some liberties were taken there was a lot of based on a true story and that was one of them i see okay because i was going to make the assumption that jimmy carter is responsible for the von eric deaths but no boycotting the Olympics, but not the game.

My thing is she would, I liked it. I took Ben. He was, he didn't know any of the story and was just mostly confused by how tragic it was. Meanwhile, they cut out the sixth brother,

but I told you this. I just, the more I think about it, I just can't believe they had the little dude from the Bears, Kerry Von Erich. I thought that was one of the weirdest casting decisions I've ever seen in my life.

Cary Von Erich was huge. He was at least the size of The Rock. It was like if you had the Rob Gronkowski story, and it was played by the guy from The Bear. People would be like, this is ridiculous. This guy's 5'7".

You could say, well, they wanted an awesome actor for that role. I don't think they were asking a lot from Cary in the movie. He was like the strong silent type. I just thought that was super weird. I didn't get it. They were small. Even Efron's not tall, right? David Von Erich was what, like 6'8"?

In real life. Yeah, he was 6'7". In real life. And so then- Partly they were like these strapping huge life. Yeah, he was 6'7". In real life. And so then- Partly, they were like these strapping huge dudes. Yeah. I'm with you.

I don't know. Every time they showed him with the brothers, I got taken out of it because it's like, Kerry was this larger than life dude. I watched the Von Erichs. Right.

Yeah. I just- Basketball movies do a better job of matching that up. Look, yeah, long hair. The actor's hot. I mean, career-wise, he's hot. And he could build up his

upper body to look like Cary. But yeah, he wasn't even as tall as Cary when he had the foot. Like, he didn't have the foot. I don't know. Whatever. I mean, our guy Stephen Amell is right there. Oh, right. He's put a wig on him, and he's ready to go. He's done the wrestling training. Maybe he could

do the sequel. Alright, for my parent corner, so my daughter's Put a wig on him and he's ready to go. He's done the wrestling training. Maybe he can do the sequel. All right. For my parent corner. Um, so my daughter's boyfriend came to visit us. You may remember she had the high school boyfriend. Now there's, you know,

she's like college. I'm just going to play side. It ends up with a boyfriend, like six weeks, really nice kid. you met him last night. He's, uh,

he's from Miami. And a couple things happened yesterday that I really enjoyed. One was I got to watch the Ravens-Dolphins game with him, which he thought it was like we're going to hang out, watch the whole game. Within an hour plus, he knew it was over. And he's a big Dolphins fan. Got to the point where they're going to the farmer's market

and Zoe comes down. She's mad. He's watching football with me. I'm like, welcome to the rest of your life. She's just like, really? You're going to watch football? It's like, it's my favorite team. So we got to do that whole thing.

And then he makes a really smart decision. It's pretty clear they're not going to win the game at halftime. Leaves the game and goes to the farmer's market with my wife and my daughter. So I was like, all right, this kid's kind of savvy, but a good kid. But he is from Miami. So he got me a Christmas gift.

And again, really nice kid. He was all excited about it and gets me a Christmas gift. And this is the Christmas gift. Oh, gift. I'm holding up a heat hat. So he gives me a heat hat. He's a big heat fan. Gave me a heat hat, funny gift. But at the same time now I'm like, dude, like, what if this gets super serious? Do I want my daughter to marry a heat fan? Like I, I hate the heat. This Heat. Was this, because I had always told her, like, you'll never root for the Lakers. You're never dating a real Laker fan.

And I banged that. I even wrote a piece about when I, back when my figures were for ESPN, I wrote this piece called The Color Purple about how I brainwashed her to hate the Lakers and hate the color purple. And I used to make up things about the Lakers and purple and Kobe Bryant just to get her.

And it works. She hates the Lakers, but now she's dating a heat fan. Right. I don't know. Do I root for this? First of all, completely.

He's in on the joke, buying the hat, right? He doesn't expect you to wear that. It was actually like a very funny move. I admired it. I like that. Good money.

You're all right. Is that a top? I. I admired it. Good gift. I like that. Good one. Funny. You're alright. Is that a top? I know you hate him, but that's a top three Celtics rivalry? It is now. I think it's our number one rival right now. Is it? Other than, I mean, it's the Lakers and the Heat, I would say are our top two. It's always Lakers. I guess Heat's second.

He's a good dude, and I don't know. What about the rooting part of the when that game was a game? Yes, he's second. Oh, yeah. No, he's a good dude. And I don't know. Did he... What about the rooting part of the rooting... When that game was a game? Like, that could go either way, too. It's a risky thing, sitting down with you watching a game, right? Yeah, I liked how he handled himself.

I'm going to give him a thumbs up. Like, he wasn't, like, trying too hard. He was just... And he clearly followed. So I was like, he checked a lot of boxes. Wasn't throwing shit, but he was knowledgeable. And then took off at halftime. I don't love that he abandoned his team.

I know. Well, no, he watched it on his phone, which I think he was like, I can get away. And I'm going to come back if they come back. But, you know, I mean, you know, he came to visit for five days. Right. And my daughter, it was just funny. I thought I raised her better than to do

the stink eyes during Sunday football, but I'll have to work on that over the next thing. How many tickets do you have to have to Celtics Heat before he's invited?

That's the thing. She's definitely taking him to a Celtic game, but I didn't realize he was a Heat fan. So I think I'm going to ban him from the home Celtic games.

She's just going to have to go with other people. I think that's fair. Yeah. They're going to Heat Clippers tonight. Okay. And that's that I fully condone. Because as you know,

the Harden Clippers, it's really hard for me to root for them. So anyway. Right. Yeah. My daughter's going to Miami Heat fans. Hey, good kid. Welcome to 2024.

Good job by you, Zoe. All right. Any plugs for the week? That's it. Against the Lodge a couple times this week. Podcast. good job by you Zoe alright any plugs for the week that's it against the odds couple times this week podcast it's getting good

with these playoff scenarios Simmons Cousin Sal's winning weekend Friday morning FanDuel TV and the Ringer Wise guys what a fun time we have on Sundays

right there on FanDuel TV that show is really really good and we're gonna be doing it in person yeah in two weekends right Joe House will be here in LA. Raheem's coming.

JJ's coming. If we can get him through customs. Even Jacko is going to come out just to hang for the weekend. They're already talking about golf. We got to get them off this golf thing. You're not missing any games for this golf bullshit. House told me JJ

said, are we bringing our sticks? Yeah, they're bringing their sticks. What do you mean your sticks? I mean, you better not. I'm going to hit you with them if you do. We got a lot of football to watch. Bring your stomachs. That's right.

All right, cuz. Happy New Year. Good job by you. Happy New Year by you. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti. Thanks to Cousin Sal. Don't forget our next podcast will be Wednesday,

probably Wednesday afternoon ET. It will be posted and then new rewatchables going up later tonight. So happy new year. Hope you had a great weekend and I will see you on Wednesday. I'm a person never lost And I don't have to give up Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. You can call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona. Call 1-888-789-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9WITH-IT in Indiana. 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana. msgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana.

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or text HOPE-NY in New York.