The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - Josh Allen OUTDUELS Tua, Bills Take Down Dolphins on TNF

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Former NFL scout John Middlekauff is LIVE reacting to the Week 3 Thursday Night Football matchup between AFC East divisional rivals Miami Dolphins, led by QB Tua Tagovailoa vs. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. John recaps the win for the Bills and defends Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and believes he is still a great offensive mind in the NFL despite the 0-3 start for his team. John also predicts that Josh Allen and the Bills are primed for the number 1 seed in the AFC due to their schedule and weak division. Next, John discussing the plethora of backup QBs we will see in Week 3 with Carson Wentz of the Minnesota Vikings & Marcus Mariota of the Washington Commanders leading the charge. John then presents his Fugazi Friday takes on the Tush Push and Tom Brady controversies. John wraps up by reacting to reports of the NCAA eliminating the spring transfer portal. Plus, John is joined by betting guru, Stuckey from The Action Network to break down the upcoming weekend in both college football and the NFL. They dive into the biggest matchups, key storylines, and deliver their expert insight on where the value is for bettors. From Saturday’s slate of college games to Sunday’s NFL action, they’ve got you covered with sharp analysis and some of the best bets to make this weekend. 04:54 - Dolphins-Bills 21:28 - Backup QBs 27:11 - Fugazi Friday: Tush Push 29:43 - Fugazi Friday: Tom Brady 32:21 - College Football eliminates spring transfer portal 44:18 - Stuckey joins the show Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest.  All lines provided by hardrock.bet Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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What is going on, everybody? How are we doing, John Middilcock, Three and Out podcast, late here on a Thursday night. The Fighting Mike McDaniels gave a valiant effort. but the Buffalo Bills, they win by 10 and go to 3 and O and look like one of the best teams in the league. And I do want to start tonight by defending or as Rex Ryan called him the nerd in Miami,

who I would consider a very, very good offensive coach, who's just in the wrong role. But I think he's being compared to so many other coaches that have failed. And I think we've gone too far. So we'll dive into that. the bills they're good

I don't know they got a lot going for them so we'll talk a little bills some Tom Brady and the Tush Bush those topics just haven't gone away all week we got a lot of backup quarterbacks that are just going to be in the mix over the next

I don't know 48 hours playing this weekend so buckle up you're going to be like who's that a quarterback that's Carson Wentz on his 16 in six years which I read I think I saw a headline that's an NFL record six starts for six franchises, six straight years. Talk about Journeyman.

The guy went from the number two overall pick to legitimate Journeyman. So we'll dive into some of that as well as Stucky, who joins us every single Friday. Talk gambling. You know, tough slate. I'm not going to lie. I looked at the board for the last couple days. I don't feel great about it,

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Last minute, take its lowest prices. Guaranteed. You know, I know they lost, but they have been a headline, honestly, going back to training camp because everyone thought Mike McDaniel is going to get fired. And Rex Ryan called him a nerd, you know, a couple weeks ago. that kind of went viral, a lot of people had different takes. Like, listen, yeah, he's an Ivy League guy, he looks kind of nerdy.

But here's what I do know. And I want to defend Mike McDaniel for a second. Not everyone's meant to be a head coach. Vic Fangio is widely considered not just one of the best defensive coordinator in the league, but one of the best of his generation. He's got an opportunity now winning a Super Bowl, might win another. He's been a Super Bowl defensive coordinator with Harbaugh. I mean, his resume speaks for itself.

he's not a head coach. He is a fantastic coordinator. And I've said this forever about the NFL. It's Wall Street on grass. And when I mean, I don't just mean the hours and how big of a grind it is, whether you're working on Wall Street or in finance, or whether you are a coach or an executive. You work crazy hours during the season. You do not sleep much. You are drinking a ton of coffee, probably a prescription to Adderalls. The only ways you can keep your eyes open. but it pays a lot. And obviously if you're the head honcho in finance, the CEO, the boss, in football, the GM, the head coach, you make millions upon millions of dollars.

But guess what in the NFL? If you're a coordinator, Vic Fangio, you make five or six. And Mike McDaniel has talked about like he's completely over his head. A lot of guys aren't meant to be head coaches. There's nothing wrong with that. Here's what I know. We have seen some guys who are also over their head that honestly, have no business even being in the role they're in now.

I think Brandon Staley is one of the most overrated coach in the history of football, definitely since I've been doing this either working in football or talking about football. Matt Eberfluse might just be atrocious at his job. So we see guys that, yeah, they get an opportunity to be a head coach. It's like first round picks. Half the head coaches are going to get fired anyway. A lot of those guys go on to be coordinators and excel. Look around the league.

Brian Flores had a lot of trouble being the head coach. he couldn't deal with the offense. Elite defensive coordinator. Right there with Fangio as one of the best. Robert Sala, kind of over his head being the head honcho. Awesome defensive coordinator. And they can do that role for a long time. I'm watching Mike McDaniel.

Everyone's making fun of him. It's like he's not the guy picking the players. His GM, we give Ryan Poles a lot of crap, rightfully so. I mean, he's brought some of this on himself, self-inflicted. He looks like Ron Wolf compared to Chris Greer in Miami. their roster is atrocious. So yeah, Mike McDaniel is going to need a good GM. He clearly doesn't have one if he was even going to have a shot

and clearly knows nothing about defense. I mean, they had Vic Fangio in the building. Vic couldn't get out of there quick enough. Now, I'd argue whether it was Mike McDaniel or whether it's, you know, give me a high-level coach. I don't know if you could win in Miami in this modern-day society with the money, with everything going on.

I think it is an uphill battle. I really do. you know, having to compete against Buffalo, guess what Sean McDermott doesn't have to deal with? Clubs open until 6 in the morning, right? It's a completely different animal. There's a lot more to do down there, and clearly a lot of guys are screwing off,

and it's hard to keep guys just focused and dialed in on football. But I know Mike's really good at coaching offense, because I see Tua, who's an average talent, look really good consistently over the last three or four years. Once it gets cold, because he's kind of got a piece shooter arm, he's going to have limitations. But how many times tonight on 3rd and 7, on 3rd and 8, on 3rd and 6, does Mike have a play dialed up because he is a really good offensive mind? So Rex called him a nerd a couple weeks ago.

He is a nerd who knows a ton about offense and is good at dealing with the quarterback. Last time I checked, that's pretty valuable. Should he be a head coach? Probably not. Is he going to get fired? All signs point to that. Whether that's next week, in two weeks at the end of the season. I know this.

I see a lot of guys get fired as head coaches, and they immediately get coordinator jobs. And I laugh. I go, I wouldn't touch that guy with a 10-foot pole. This guy should have half the league lined up to coach their offense. He not only can communicate and coach and build up a quarterback who has average talent, he can scheme guys wide open. And I'll never forget, I used to be around the 49.

Niners a lot and Kyle Eusecheck told me one time, this guy is so good with the run game. Obviously their run game now, Ollie Gore and a couple years ago was really good. Ollie had a good run tonight. A couple years ago, I mean, he looked like a superstar in college at Oklahoma State. But countless times tonight, it's like, I think this drive's going to stall and then boom, Tua hits a guy who's literally wide open. And then back-to-back weeks, the game flipped on Tua, who I'm sure they're not coaching, stares down a wide receiver the moment the ball is snapped.

Both times picked off, basically ended the game. But I'm watching Mike McDaniel, and everyone's shitting on the guy. And I mean everyone. And listen, I've been guilty too. He's not a head coach. But he's not that bad. And he clearly has a skill that translates to a lot of teams around the league that would be desperate to coach up the quarterback

and get my offense rolling in the right direction. Tua has four touchdowns the last two weeks. I thought tonight in the second half up until the pick, he was playing pretty well. And a lot of that has to do with Mike having guys wide open. Now, I wouldn't call the Bills, the 85 Bears on defense. But I thought McDaniel was kind of having his way the second half of the game. And you could tell the moment they get the roughing the punter play go against them, which, by the letter of the law, obviously you've got to throw the flag.

I hate that play. I mean, I really do. I thought that was one, like, you know, malicious intent. He was in the air. It's a defensive tackle. It is what it is. But once that happens, you could see Mike screaming. He knows that's the game.

And that's, you know, it's all, it all feels inevitable. But I don't follow the dolphins as close, obviously, as if you're like a diehard Dolphins fan, you know, being on the West Coast, the AFC East, beside Belichick and Brady, or now Josh Allen. I'm not super dialed in to every moment of the Jets. but I've read enough articles now just because they've been pretty prevalent. Like people think that Chris Greer could survive. Why?

Because he knows where the bodies are buried. So anytime you have a situation like that, it just shows you how dysfunctional this organization is. I do think it's going to be difficult for them to hire a guy. But I think the conversation on Mike McDaniel where he's being talked about like he's Jim Tom Sula is absolutely laughable. And I just felt like I had to defend him because, listen, Are the Dolphins going to win that many games?

No. They're not going to be as bad as people think, because typically when you have like the number one overall pick, last year the Titans, you have no quarterback play. We've seen before like with the Panthers or the Jags. You have the worst quarterback play in the league. The one year that the Lions went winless or the year the Colts ended up with Andrew Luck. They have too good of quarterback played not to win some games.

So I just think the conversation has taken on a life of its own where it's like the GM is a joke. And let's face it, I mean, I think the owner, you know, while he has a lot of money, relative to the rest of the league, would be viewed as someone that most people wouldn't be lined up to work for. So let's pump the brakes on just acting like Mike McDaniels should, like, go to high school once he gets fired.

When it comes to the bills, I feel pretty confident saying this is Josh is one of the more talented and best players I've ever seen. It doesn't mean he has the resume of some of these guys. and obviously he has a contemporary that already has three Super Bowls and two MVPs. So even if Josh maximizes everything, the chance that he ever gets to multiple Super Bowls, just Super Bowl bursts, you know, is going to be difficult,

let alone become a champion. But like, we've all watched sports long enough. You know when you see it, you're like, this is just, this is different. And I do think when you look at the group, and one conversation that happens, And I got a DM about this recently. Because Purdy's often pretty polarizing. He goes, well, Brock was awesome when he had a bunch of sweet players

and he's not as good without him. It's like, yeah, welcome to the NFL. Last time I checked, Joe Montana was throwing to, oh yeah, Jerry Rice. Peyton Manning was throwing to Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. When Patrick Mahom hit the scene and became a legend, he was throwing to Tyree Kill and Prime Travis Kelsey, it kind of helps to have some of those guys.

I'm watching Josh Allen. Cook is an awesome player. And ever since they've kind of thrown him into the mix a couple years ago and he's become a stalwart of the offense, he's changed kind of their identity and their franchise, I think. They're clearly a better team now with him than they were before, kind of searching for the running back. I like Khalil Shakir.

I root for my small school guys, Boise State. He's solid, right? Keon Coleman. I mean, okay. I think he's pretty funny when he makes his Tiger Woods jokes at the Combine. or puts on the coats, but hey man, when the ball hit your hands, you kind of need to catch it. You know, Palmer, who they got from the Chargers, solid. I mean, he's not exactly throwing to, you know, Andre Reid and Stevie Johnson out there.

His offense of weapons from a skill position, he's got some good tight ends, but, I mean, we got to factor in who he's playing with here. He's incredible. And tonight, they started playing with their food a little bit in the second half and stalled out. But this offense, I mean, one thing I'm. I wrote down late in the game, I said the difference between the bills and what feels like the Ravens these last couple years, obviously the Chiefs and now what it looks like the Chargers, is at any given moment for those teams when they're humming, their defense can just pick six

or some incredible pick across the middle or some strip sack. And I feel like the bills, they win a lot of games just because Josh does Josh things nonstop. He's like an NBA player. It's like, if you don't go 40 tonight, we're losing. where some of these other quarterbacks can play in individual games. Like, yeah, I had an off game, but my defense had held them to 13 points, and they had a pick six, and they caused a fumble. It rarely happens with the bills. And then right on cue, Bernard picks it off on a play that, you know,

Tua just gave to him. If their defense comes through with timely plays, they're never going to be statistically as good as some of the top defense in the league. But if Joey Bosa can stay on the field, and they can come up with timely play specifically, league turnovers, they can win the Super Bowl. We knew that coming in. I mean, they clearly were one of the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl.

But when you have a guy like this in the prime of their career, when you have a bunch of of guys who have been in these big games, and your defense personnel is what it is, but like they've come through on some big moments over the last couple years. And to me, for them to win, it's going to be a pick or a big strip. Because offensively, when it comes to their quarterback, what they say tonight? For the last five straight years, he's had over 40 touchdowns. passing and running each and every season. He's obviously the reigning MVP.

He feels like he's at the point, and Lamar got to this point a couple years ago. It's like they just get incrementally better every year. Like every year you see him, it's like, this guy's a little bit better and he's unstoppable. I mean, Tua admitted it. Two is a guy that got $200 million and $150 of it guaranteed and is going to start in the league for a decade plus,

was drafted fifth overall. He's like, yeah, I can't even do half of what that guy can do. It's not like he was just being dead. honest. I saw a lot of people trying to, you know, dive into Tua Psyche on that. Like, what's he supposed to say? I'm as good as Josh Allen. His mom would say, too, you can't lie and say that. We all know what he said is, honestly, he's probably being too nice to himself. He's like, maybe it's quarter of his good. I mean, he can't remotely do anything Josh can do. On one play tonight, where Tarek probably should have caught it, they just ran a deep post and Tua let it

rip, the ball just floated up in the air. It's like, that ball looks, and it's not even cold yet. I mean, it's September 18th, but the gap between those two guys, and we talk about this all the time in the NFL, like Tua is on the low end of the second or third tier of quarterbacks. So even if your roster was good enough, your margin for error playing the top guy is slim the nun. And then when your roster is clearly, and they got injuries as well, but as shitty as it is. And listen, I try to bring this into light. Like, Brandon Bean gets a lot of credit, right?

Eric DeCosta gets a lot of credit. Brett Beech gets a lot of credit. Ortiz is going to get a lot of credit. Sometimes GMs fly a little under the radar, and the coach takes all the heat. It's like, I don't think Mike McDaniels picking every player on the draft board. So the talent gap in this game was obviously pretty wide, but the quarterback gap couldn't be any wider,

and you just got to acknowledge, we got no shot. Like, we got no shot to beat those guys. That's why the Bills are going to win this division for the foreseeable future. I mean, unless Drake May takes a gigantic step in the next couple of years, it's not even going to be a fair fight.

And if you're a Bills fan, for as crappy as a lot of this decade was, right, you had, if you're my age, you would have come into your own as a sports fan right as they were making the Super Bowls, which they showed the highlight tonight of Norwood, kicking that 47-yarder that he missed that Al Michaels was calling in Tampa Bay.

I feel like we got to do some sort of study why these kickers' legs are so much stronger now. They showed one angle like, yeah, that might have cleared from like 52, 53 yards. How could a kicker struggle to kick long kicks forever? Like, why over the last several years has been like, oh, yeah, 60 yards, no problem. It's pretty crazy, but most of the 2000s, your franchise was an embarrassment.

The Patriots beat the living crap out of you. And now you're not only the real deal franchise. You're like legitimately one of the star brands of the league, led by your MVP quarterback and just your overall team. So I'm going to keep saying this all year long about Lamar 2. If not now, then when? If not now, then when for both those guys. I do feel confident saying this.

If the Ravens or the Bills are not representing the AFC and the Super Bowl, it is a failure for those teams. It really is. And, you know, obviously they play themselves like they did last year in the second round. Someone has to lose. But I don't see a scenario where it's not devastating. Like, one, it would be an incredible upset if one of those two teams is not in the conference championship. I mean, the bills are going to be in a pretty good position.

to have the one seat, be a little harder for the Ravens, especially if they drop one of these next couple games. You know, they play the Lions this week. I think they play Chiefs in a couple weeks. You know, their division can get a little weird too. I guess burrows out, so that helps definitely. But, you know, if the bills get the number one seed, it'll just be like Super Bowl birth or bust.

And that's how it kind of feels. But when back to their defense, when you do have some holes, now we'll see, they get some guys back. You know, Ed Oliver didn't play tonight. Their first round pick, who's on Pup or IR or whatever, will come back in a couple of weeks. And, you know, ideally, like, he can just be a good player for them at the second half of the season. Their first round are from Kentucky. But the bills are just – there's a fun team to watch.

And that it's the power of the NFL, right? For most of this decade, in the Manning, in the Brady, in the Aaron Rogers, the Breeze, the Rothertsburgh, the Eli, kind of that era. This franchise was a joke. I mean, some of their highlights were Fitzpatrick, you know, competing for like eight, nine wins. And now it's like, how many games could they win? 15? So if you're a Bill's fan, you've got to feel pretty good about this. And really quick on the backup quarterbacks.

And speaking of Tua, we do this a lot, and I can be guilty of this too. Like, I'm not immune to this by any means. Is when we talk about the top guys, right? Lamar and Josh are first bowed Hall of Famers. I promise you that. obviously Mahomes already has a resume to be like one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Herbert is coming. If Burrow can just stay on the field, his resume speaks for itself.

You know, even Jayden Daniels, long way to go, but when he's been on the field, he's been pretty good. But then there's that group of guys, right? From golf to, I don't know Jaylen won a Super Bowl, but statistically, like passing-wise, you know, he can leave a little something to be desired. from Purdy to Dak to Cousins Forever. We talk so much about these guys, and Tua is at the lower end of this. It's like, why would you pay these guys?

Why? Do you got to stick? Why are we doing this? And listen, we can argue how much you should pay them. Like, should Dak Prescott be the highest paid person in the league? Of course not. Should Dak Prescott, relative to some of these other guys, make like $38, $40 million or Purdy make a little... Yeah, but that's not really the way it works.

it never really has is probably not going to change anytime soon. But there's a reason of like, why didn't they just go to someone else? Do you see the backup quarterbacks that are playing this week? Wait till you watch some of these guys play, right? Especially if they have to play multiple games. If you are a backup quarterback, I'd argue, and you have to start, let's say, four games. If you win two of them, you have not only earned your salary, you're underpaid.

if you can win a game as a backup quarterback. I'm not talking about a guy that comes into the game. I'm talking about your quarterback's out. You're starting, starting on Monday all week long. The other team knows you're starting and the game plan around you. And you can win a game. You've earned your salary. That's how low the bar is.

Because we see it all the time. That's how bad these guys typically are. Typically your backup does not turn out to be Steve Young or Aaron Rogers. It's a guy that's going to bounce on. team to team. Or, ideally, if you got like a Patrick Mahomes and it's a Chad Hennie, he never has to play. But every once a while, quarterback rolls an ankle, hurts a shoulder, sprains a knee, and the backup gets thrown in there. Like Carson Wentz, Marcus Marriota, I'll promise you this, my expectations are pretty low. It's why I said about Sean McVeigh when he was kind of

worried about Matt Stafford, he said, Jimmy Garoppela is the best starting, or backup quarterback. We think we have the number one backup quarterback who would be a starter, multiple plays in the league. I said, I know you're guessing them up, Sean, but I disagree. And I don't think, especially if you're playing a decent team, you would be any lock to win a game with that guy playing a quarterback for you. Not the way that he's played recently. And I think we've got to be careful, especially because the draft and the college football now is clearly the second best sport in America. Think about the conversation this offseason in mock drafts, having Arch Manning as the number one overall pick.

Honestly, sometimes shitting on him pains me because my youth, when I was a pure sports fan, before I ever got in the business or worked in football or anything, I loved Peyton Manning. Like in the late 90s, early 2000s, Peyton Manning was my favorite player. And I used to hate the Patriots. I used to want her to beat him, but he couldn't.

So I've been rooting for the Manning family forever, but we got to call a spade of spade. the guy can't complete an out route. And it's like, should the Dallas Cowboys, should the Cleveland Browns tank for Arch? Are we sure Arch is going to be the starting quarterback October 1st? I mean, what are we? In college football,

and we were talking about this before we hit record tonight, in basketball, for example, a guy coming out of high school, this guy's going to be a top three pick. He could have a bad college season, more than likely. Worst case scenario, it would be like, the fifth pick. In football, the moment you play three bad games, people are like, whoa,

what is going on here? And all I heard, this college quarterback, this, it's going to be a great college quarterback season. I'm watching these guys. I got Lagway throwing five interceptions. I got Sellers concussed. I got Garrett Nussmeyer, who I'm rooting for. Let's face it, his ceilings. I got Kirk Cousins. So sometimes we overhyped because we root for these guys. most of them, guess what, are not going to turn out to be Jared Goff or Dak Prescott. Won't sniff being as good as Brock Purdy. Why? Because this is really, really difficult. And the moment these guys get hurt and we're sitting on our couch watching some of these games with backup facing backup,

you'll realize why. They're playing a different sport. And even the guys we try to gas up, J.J. McCarthy, big time prospect. Am I watching this? What am I watching? Justin Jefferson's wide open He can't hit him It's very very difficult

This is really really hard The college game Even as the games have morphed A lot of it does not translate To two Sundays Or Thursday nights Or Monday nights Double headers

You know what I mean So I think sometimes we got to be careful About shitting on all these quarterbacks Because most of them Are not Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen But the reality is Most of the other guys aren't like Tua.

You know, think about that. Tua Tung of Iloa is better than like half the NFL. The starting quarterbacks, let alone all the backups that we're going to have to watch this week. Okay, today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor Hard Rock bet.

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cover the spread, but every prop when it comes to Josh Allen. I think he goes nuts. Throw several touchdowns, runs for a touchdown. I like to have a massive game and dominate the dolphins. We got big time college football coming up. I do like a couple underdogs. I do think Auburn, who played Oklahoma really well last year, is going to be feisty in this game. I also think Texas Tech against Utah. I think Utah's pretty. good, but Texas Tech had a bunch of guys coming to transfer portal. They've spent a lot of money on this team, as well as Tulane against Ole Miss. I like those underdogs to keep it frisky. Hard Rock Bet has new promos every day. This week's, there's profit boost for five straight days

of football. That's a Thursday night profit boost, a Friday college profit boost, another profit boost Saturday's college games, plus NFL Sunday, like the Steelers big that weekend. And Monday night, kind of like the Lions. Let's get it on. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, Nick? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a...

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, a pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band

before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say,

Hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen.

We don't care where you hear it. podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelive 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.

She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Can I hit on a quick Fugazi Friday?

I think sometimes the two biggest conversations this week have been, which if you listen to any podcasts, watching shows, it's kind of been everywhere. It's been impossible if you're following people on Twitter or on Instagram. I've seen a lot of talk on the tush push and talk about Tom Brady. And I think one thing when people think the National Football League, they think like they really care about all this stuff. And one thing I learned long time ago, and it really was evident in 2011. And when I think the NFL, I think Raj and the owners,

guess what the owners don't always care about? What their GMs and coaches do. Most of the times, they don't really give a shit. You know when the league dramatically changed was in 2011 during the CBA? When the players were like, we want more money. And the league was like, no. And then the players were like,

okay, we'll take a little more money, but we want no more double days. And every fourth day in training camp, a day off, and limitations on pads and practice. And the owners were like, so wait, we can give you similar about a month. money, but you just don't want any of that stuff? Do you know who they didn't ask?

Their coaches or their GMs what they thought about it? Because there's not a coach alive that would have been like, yeah, just get rid of double days. Give us limitations during the season when they can wear shoulder pads and helmets. The owner said, uh, yeah, sign me up. And I think sometimes we think Roger Goodell, who's obviously a pretty polarizing figure over the years, all he cares about, and rightfully so, is making the league more money. And the place where they make the majority of their money,

I think it's anywhere between like 60 to 65%, is on the games on TV. And I thought Colin had a pretty good take today about the tush push. It's getting overused now. To me, where the play's going to die is because it's really boring to watch. And it feels like every time you watch the Eagles who are going to be playing in a lot of prime time games,

they're using it over and over and over again. But I'll promise you this. Do you think Goodell cares logistically about where guys are lining up, where you're pushing the integrity of the game, the rule. He doesn't care at all. Honestly, he probably likes at times. People are just talking about football, the tush push. But there gets to a point where he starts going, yeah, people watching this,

it's kind of turning people off. See ya. It's over. The Tom Brady situation. It's important, like back in the day when the NBA let Michael Jordan buy the Charlotte Bobcats for actually cheaper than market value because they wanted Michael and Why? Because he's the most important sports figure, at least of my lifetime, any sport, and that includes Tom Brady. I think the NFL views Tom similarly, right? He wants to be involved. They want him involved. It's just good for business to keep guys like him around. Well, then Fox came after him because Fox wants to legitimize as this thing changes and streamers get involved. They never want to lose the NFL. Because if they ever lost the NFL, obviously it would cripple their business just like it would NBC. CBS or whatever, and Tom having him, whether it turns out he's really good, whether he's peaked,

wherever gives them a lot of credibility with advertisers with the league. It's important. The league doesn't actually care that much if Tom finds out inside information on some random linebacker that the Raiders sign in a year. Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh, I'm sure do. They don't want, but if you think Roger Goodell worries about that, you're high some good stuff because he does not give a shit. The problem is, is one, only Tom Brady could pull this off. Because this headache, if it was the equivalent of Greg Olson, a Mark Sanchez, a whoever, just some former NFL player that's called it would not be worth the headache and dealing

with these questions and getting calls from the Florios and the Big Js, it'd be a pain in the ass. But it's Tom Brady, so they deal with it. And they're probably overlook it. And they're like, we'll just deal with it later. But this situation to think that they really worry about the integrity, they do not care. They never really have.

They pretend to care. They only care about making more money. And in fairness, that's their job. It's like running a public company. What's their number one role to do whatever is best for the shareholders? That's all that matters. And for Raj and the league office,

when it comes to Tush push, when it comes to Tom Brady, the only thing truly they care about is this going to slow us down from making more money. like that's as cutthroat as this league is so all this talk about the integrity of jumping off sides and the push and Brady and the knowledge and listen I've talked a lot about this but the end of the day like if you think those people in New York are worrying about it for the reasons that we are fans are

you're just you're just that's the biggest Fugazi going because they just simply are not other than that I'm pretty excited for college football actually this one weekend. I was putting together a little parlay. I don't quite understand why Indiana is favored by so much against Illinois. Because Indiana plays nobody, I'm really rooting for Bilema. But one story that came out and we'll end on this is this college football rule that they're going to get rid of one of the transfer portal times. So you only have one time a year to go into the transfer portal, and that would potentially be in the fall. Now, some of the coaches have pushed back against it because some of these teams are in the playoffs, and it's complicated.

This whole college football thing is complicated, and there aren't easy answers to this. I do think one thing they need to institute is, like a coach, if I sign a contract, there are stipulations. I can't leave without a buyout, and you can't fire me without a buyout. I think if we got somehow that, hey, if you are coming out of high school or in the transfer portal and you are going to sign an NIL contract, right, if I sign a contract with the volume, whatever it stipulates for a year, for two years, for five years. There are things on both sides where it's like,

you can't get rid of me without giving me X, and I can't go do this without giving you Y. That's usually the way business works. And right now it does feel one-sided. And I think a large reason for this is the media was so adamant about these guys not getting paid, which looking back watching them paid feels so stupid that we went this long, with like just allow them to have money.

But with money, like all of us that earn money in the real world, because that's what this is now. They are professionals. Usually there's something behind it, unless you're, you know, Kauai Leonard and you have a company pretending to plant trees so people feel good about getting in their private jet, flying to a state, you know, three hours away to eat lunch and flying back and they don't want to feel bad when they're tweeting about certain things.

And it's a giant, you're talking about a Fugazi, Ponzi scheme. Holy shit. but these guys are clearly being paid and listen most of them and Dionne Sanders said this last year like I only see Travis and Chador and ads and now Arch Manning most of these guys they're not actually being paid for their brand they're just being paid

to play that's fine but there should be some like you can't just take my money and then leave three months later I think it would solve a lot of issues no different in the NFL when I signed Josh Allen to a five year contract even if I cut them after two or three years there's guaranteed money involved like there's a give and take

on both sides. And if you look at this thing, I think it would be easy-solve, even if we just made it two years. You sign a contract for X amount of dollars. Maybe if you play better, you can increase your value, but you're stuck there for a couple years. Now, obviously, if a coach gets fired, if a coach leaves or something like that happens, the transfer portal should open. I've never had a problem with that. But just like, yeah, I don't really like my situation, but I've been paid, now I'm just going to bounce on you. That feels like an easy fix. It doesn't have to be a four-year contract, but there should be some rules, even need to. Nico was there a couple years and then bounce.

Like, I don't even have that big issue with it. Dumb move. Obviously, it wasn't the correct move. Looks really bad. But, you know, Tennessee has a skip to beat. They easily should have won that game. Easily strong, but they should have won the game. But I do think there has to be some common sense that comes here.

And it does feel like we're limping in that direction. And this is the power of the NFL, which isn't tied to academics. and all these separate conferences. It's like everything's under one umbrella. Whether they agree or disagree, they all kind of pull in the same direction. Their hands all part of the same cookie jar. And in this situation, like, well, Fox is paying me here. Well, CBS is paying me here.

This conference, you got too many different agendas, too many people pulling in a different direction. So it is really complicated. But I think the only way to kind of settle everything down a little bit is to make some just hard and fast rules. and you can change the transfer portal to once a year. I still think you would have some similar issues arise. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast. network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself.

I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen she went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French, me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is.

arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Okay, as we head into week three, I said this the other day, Stucky. I, you know, it's like middle of summer and you're like, God, football can't get here fast enough. All of a sudden, you blink. We're not that far away from October. Football flies by. College football, I mean, we're a week away from basically just being in conference play. The NFL's often running.

I feel like looking at the board these last couple weeks, it's not easy. I feel like the last couple years I've been a lot more confident. I'm just looking at college, looking at the pros. I don't feel as confident as I have in years past a couple weeks into the season. Maybe that's parody all over football in general. yeah i mean sometimes you just don't you don't you don't feel it you just need uh you do all you need is one one good saturday or sunday and you'll you'll uh gain that clarity but sometimes it's like that in the beginning of the year uh NFL this i will say NFL week three is one of my favorite weeks it is generally an underdog week and the reason for that i mean if you go back

historically week three underdogs are 55% oh and two underdogs so teams that are oh and two catching points since 2010 in week three they're 40, 21 and one against the spread 66% covering about about a field goal per game. Why is that? You never want to follow any of these things blindly, but it makes sense. So a lot of times what happens after two weeks is the overreactions in the market get pretty wild. And you're almost better off just going into a coma for the first two weeks in the NFL, not seeing anything, and then like sticking to what you thought and your priors before the year going into week three. For example, like right now, everyone is saying, think about it. You watch Green Bay for two weeks. Green Bay looks like the best team in the NFL.

Does anyone want to bet against them? No. I mean, I did this week, but then you watch the Browns lose by 24 last week. Does anyone want to bet the Browns week? But there's a world where the Packers are really good, but they're not elite elite. And they're, and they're, They just had a two game. It's a two game stretch. If you go back in any season and you pull two random games from the schedule out, and then you look at that that's probably not indicative of what that team became, but because that's all we have, a lot of times people start anchoring to,

okay, now this team's really good. Now the Colts all of a sudden they're going to be this juggernaut offense. Daniel Jones is good now, right? And then so you start to see like now the Colts are four-point favorites at Tennessee instead of like, you know, that game would have been under a field goal. before it might have been a pick or the Titans might have been minus one before the season. So you start to see this creep and market overreaction. And generally speaking, you want to look for some of those underdogs and buy low,

some of those own two underdogs. For example, one of them is the Browns that I played. I hate it. I love the Packers. Packers are my only Super Bowl future. I bet them in a many. I think they're really good. But the Brown's defense is playing at an elite level.

So maybe Flacco gets, you know, Parsons forces them into three turnovers and it goes sideways. But the Brown's defense, people don't realize last week that's what happened in Baltimore. Baltimore had 240 total yards. Henry had 11 carries for 20 yards. They couldn't do anything. They had a couple of Lamar awesome plays with doing what Lamar does. And then the week before, they held the Bengals and burrowed a two yards in the second half. So this might not be as easy as a task for Green Bay going on the road.

So, I mean, I took the eight and a half there. It's scary, but those are some of the spots that I look for in week three where underdogs, generally speaking, reign supreme. And you usually will see a couple outright upsets, which we haven't been seeing in the NFL. But I have a sneaky suspicion. We might see some more chaos this week. I think the pushback would be the Packers team speed up front.

And Flacco, obviously, is probably the most immobile quarterback in the league. Is that fair to say? Yes, that would be the scary point. How does he get away? I mean, Parsons, Parsons looks like he's running around like a DB right now. Obviously, now that back healed real, real quick once he signed that piece of paper. Yep.

Yeah, that would be the main concern. So the Browns, I mean, Judkins look good. The Brown's got to run it here. They got to get rid of the ball quick. But there's also a chance that the Packers' offense line isn't fully healthy. And then Miles Garrett and company, they're getting a ton of pressure. They can wreck some havoc on the Packers. So I took the 8.5.

It's certainly scary, though. Well, I mean, let's just stay on board with the NFL. I mean, one of my favorite, my favorite bet of the weekend is the Texans plus two and a half at Jacksonville. They just like, this is, I mean, the kitchen sink came for them. I mean, it feels it's crazy, but like we're not even to the end of September and it feels like their seasons on the line. Now, granted, their division you think would be a little more open, but if the Colts just keep rattling off wins, all of a sudden you're two and five and they're five and two. It's pretty, this isn't baseball or basketball.

It's hard to make up games, right? You need stuff out of your control. you need them to lose like three in a row and you cannot your margin for error zero. So obviously the Jacksonville situation, he played more both ways last game, had the big penalty. But, you know, I don't know, Liam Cohen, you know, he's a young coach screaming at Trevor Lawrence. I don't make that much of that situation. But I don't know. I just think Texans getting points.

I mean, this would have been a game where I think a couple weeks ago you would have thought like, oh, Texans are going to beat the Jags. But now it's ever, like you said, everyone just thinks the Texans stink their defense. I mean, it's still fucking good. I mean, Baker pulled that play out of his ass on fourth and ten. I just listen. I mean, I think Baker's dramatically better than Trevor Lawrence, and I'm just taking the Texans here. Could be wrong.

I mean, I'm out on the Titans. I will eventually wave by the white flag. I'm not quite out on the Texans yet. Yeah, I mean, I don't play. These are the spots that you have to look for in week three, and like, divisional road divisional dogs that are O and two generally have performed well. And look, the Texans are two plays away from potentially being two and no, right? The fourth and ten, they had Mayfield there.

They whiffed on a sack that would have ended the game. And then against the Rams, like they fumble late. And in that game, they had a bunch of offensive line injuries. My fear, I mean, it is a short week, so it's not the best. But my fear is, and Brian Thomas Jr., I don't know if he's hurt or what's going on there, but that could help the Texans as well. My fear is just that the offense, the Texans offense looks like last year. And this was supposed to be an evolved scheme under Nick Kelly, who came from the McVatry that got rid of Slowick.

But like you look, the motion rates are down. The play action is down. These are the things that we were supposed to start seeing too many early down run. It looked like just the same exact offense. We knew the offensive line wasn't going to be great. But I was expecting some more innovation and creativity to make up for some of those deficiencies, which we're not seeing, which concerns me a bit. And I've liked the Jags' offense has definitely improved under Cohen, like just schematically,

some of the things they're doing in the run game and the screen game. And I like that they're playing more zone on defense, which matches the skill set of their defense. So I like some of the things that Jags are doing. They should have beat the Bengals, but it's pretty damning that they lost after Burrow went down. So like the Jags can always pull a Jags. So I don't blame you for taking the points there. Yeah, the other game is, you know, these are, divisional early matchups. Obviously, if the Chargers beat Denver, they beat every team of their

division. They are poe, especially getting the news yesterday that Khalil Mack, you know, avoided disaster and we'll be back. Because I did think if he was out for the season, it's easy to patch something up for a game. That'd be a pretty big blow for them, you know, what he brings to the table just in terms of his play against the run. Clearly, they talked about him just like his presence with them. Clearly, Jim loves the guy. I mean, his big thing this offseason was to resign him. but short week, not only short week, like extra short, right? They had a couple hour later kickoff.

Now, Vegas to L.A. is not a long flight, but Monday basically they get nothing out of. So by the time they get to the office, it's four or five in the morning on Tuesday, they're 24 hours behind, a top flight coach and coaching staff in Denver that just had a devastating L, right? And this is the way you just described it, getting Denver two and a half points. let's face it, the Chargers have no home field advantage. So it's not like I factor that in at all. Little like the Texans, a little less because they already have a win. And, you know, listen, they easily could have won that game in Indy.

You know, it's a big game for Denver. You know, I mean, the Chargers, after winning those two games, got a little breathing room. I just think two and a half. I actually think, I'm not out on Denver. I know some people are a little worried, you know, defensively. What was the knock, right? They didn't really play any quarter. orderbacks last year. I do think Daniel Jones is playing pretty well. I mean, you just watch the

Colts. He's just slinging it to those guys. They have good offensive weapons. It's not like the Colts are just some, are the Patriots with nobody to throw it. Like they have really good players, especially if Tyler Warren's going to be this good, Jonathan Taylor, Pittman's a good player. So I don't think that loss, the ending is really bad, but losing to the Colts, when we look back at the end of the year, might not look as bad if they're a 10 or 11 win team. Yeah, I mean, the knock on the Denver defense is, it's not running. Not on anything they're doing as far as building that team or the roster, the personnel. They actually, like, improved their defense and their defense was the best defense in the NFL last year.

It's just that defense is, there's, it's highly variant from one year to the next. Like, you just don't know. It's very unpredictable in the offense is much more steady on a year-to-year basis. Going into last year, everyone thought the jets and the Browns were going to be like two of the top five defenses, and they fell off a cliff. It looks like the Browns might be back. Like just like, because all their secondary guys just had a bad year at all at once. So the Denver defense might just naturally regress on a year-to-year basis, which would be the knock there. But yeah, you mentioned the home field.

There's not much. The short week. I think that if you get them, let me look, this is, the charters have taken some money. You might be able to get a three. So I would wait, you know, if it's at two and a half this morning when I look. Yeah, if you can get. It looks like it might touch three. I think you have to look at Denver here.

I also think it's it could be a sneaky over. Like the Chargers offense looks incredible. They're throwing it a ton. They're letting Herbert just cook. But in order to beat this Chargers defense, which, I mean, they're so well-schooled under Minter. They run a lot of quarters. They're going to, they're just, you can't get anything downfield.

They look, they look fucking good. I mean, they tackle it. They look like the Ravens or Mike McDonald. I mean, it's pretty impressive. So what you have to do, you have to, you have to move the ball, number one on the ground. You have to run it. And the Broncos should be able to do that.

Really good offensive line. And they can move there. But then you have to short pass and officially move down. And that's kind of the Denver offense. So, you know, it's not like they're relying on explosive plays. And, like, the Raiders were trying to just kept trying to hit deep throws. And you're just not going to do that against, against, I definitely don't mind those looks. I, you know, it wasn't necessarily.

the score I felt was closer than the game. But going in, I'm like Chip Kelly, Ohio State, last year against the Michigan guys, and then early on they're just getting punked. I'm like there's something about his scheme. Now it's different than maybe it was back when he was in Philadelphia, where I thought if you go back and look when they played physical teams, he really struggled.

Yeah, I would agree with you there. What are you looking at? Which side? I'm just talking Denver plus two. You know, in that, or excuse me, the Charger game against, you know, the Raiders, where it's like, you know, his, he just, there's something soft about just the way he coaches. And I understand that it's changed. I would say the same thing for Cliff and Washington.

Yeah. If you go back, I just vividly remember some of these Eagles games when they would play, you know, a physical front. Yeah. And it's just a problem for, and this is the same thing with Cliff. It's just any spread type offense where there's something with, let's say, Jim Harbour. or John Harbaugh or now Dan Campbell. I think it gets down to the way you practice and the way you practice establishes a physicality.

You know, you think there's a high correlation between like the coach and the identity of the coach and the staff and then the actual physical nature of what you see on the field. I think 100% because I think now Pete Carroll is a tough guy and a physical guy. Yeah. But like ultimately he has nothing to do with the offensive script.

Like he's not telling Chip. what to run. So like his mentality, like his defense, they were playing hard. I mean, they have tough physical guys, obviously Max. And, you know, Chip, if you give him years, he will build a tough, Jamal Adams. It's clear who the one that loved Jamal Adams and that trade was. And honestly, it's pretty impressive. Jamal's changed positions. My point is, I guess, I understand what Pete likes, but when you are, have nothing to do with the side of the ball, that's what makes Jim so impressive is Jim's not the play caller, but what he demands out of of his philosophical belief in offense translates to the defense,

something he has nothing to do with because the way they practice. And this is a Coach Reed thing. Like Coach Reed, who is more of a passing game guy, all of his players, our camps are really physical. And so if he has the right players, right when he got to Kansas City, and then as they've transitioned with Spags, they've got better players again on defense, they've been a really physical defense,

even though you go, well, he doesn't even want to call runs. It's not about that. It's the mentality that you get in practice. Look at the Ravens. Like, why do all these guys that go out from the race? I was thinking about this the other day, like Belichick's coaching tree is so shitty. Now, the Ravens are multiple coaches, right?

It's Billick and Harbaugh. Think how many coaches they have put out over the last 25 years all over the league, not even just head coaches, but coordinators, up-and-comers. De'ant Lynn, I mean, they got guys in college. It's fucking insane because I think it's like they see in practice, this would work in high school, this would work in the pros, this would work in college. it always translates being a good physical team

because if you're a good physical team, that means you're mentally tough and you tackle well. Like how many teams do you watch Saturdays and Sundays? Like that's a bad tackling team. Yeah. Yeah. And plus you got to give Carol just got there. Yeah, I'm not holding him.

I'm just saying the chip scheme big picture. You know, when they try to get into like, okay, let's get in the ring and let's throw blows with Mike Tyson. He cannot win that way. He can not. And it goes back to when he lost to Auburn. obviously he I would say is expanded his passing game over the years you have to and you know they have better players and they got hot in Ohio State and listen Gino's a solid player but like Ashen Genty

it's not you know their offensive line you what would you say average at best for the years yeah yeah so it's like in ashen gentie this was my thing taking him six overall it's like you're not getting like Walter Payton or Barry Sanders here he's a good college player but he's not even think about some of the best prospects over the last decade, McCaffrey, Bejohn, Sequin. He's not on, there's not a scout alive that would put him on their tier, including SpyTech. Now relative to a draft clash, you can only go off like what's presented on that given year. And I guess I understand it, but I think a lot of people are like, where's Adrian Peterson? Like, guys, that's not what you were getting here.

Yeah. And Harbao, the charges never would have made that move. Like everyone wanted them to draft the receiver, and they went off into tackle. And that's how the carball is building that identity of how the team wants it to be. And look, the passing attack is electric right now. It's crazy. Yeah. And that's where he does, and I know, you know, you saw Roman in Baltimore.

Like, Herbert is, I mean, I think he can, he's, if he stays healthy, he can win an MVP in the NFL. Like, he is a special, but he can win a Super Bowl. He's an elite talent. And, like, they have kind of transitioned. like he's our best player. So let's let him rip. And you got to get credit for the Keenan Allen situation. He's just a pro.

McCawkey's a stud. You know, what's your take early on the running back from North Carolina, Hampton? I was like, you know, he looks a little slow to me. Yeah, their running game hasn't been as eye-catching as I thought it might be,

which is maybe why they're going more pass-heavy and it's working. Maybe it's like we'll end up just unleashing Herbert and unlocking. the full potential of this offense, but I haven't been overly wowed so far. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, news?

Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to our first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with the name, Hey Jonas, guys?

I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should. call it and well we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers was this is how you guys remember it going down

yes I have a very different memory of this we were talking about a thing a bit for the podcast for people could call in and say hey Jonas and then I wrote down on my little notepad hey Jonas and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast but thanks for remembering that guys listen to hey Jonas on the iHeart

radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from

Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the truth. triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. first hand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris every match, every upset and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenschen win. I mean she went down in three to Rabakina but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me and she likes Clay. Listen, Lina

Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. We can talk about the Steelers game now. I would say what the Steelers were most of our like, you know, 15, 20 years ago, even up until the last six or seven years, that now is going to be the Chargers moving forward.

because they are like parallel Baltimore, where I think they could play Baltimore and at least have a chance because they are built like them where the Steelers have turned into this team that, you know, last week, I was wrong on Caleb Johnson. Maybe I didn't study him hard enough,

but I feel like I watched a decent amount of Iowa game. I remember watching, like, YouTube highlights and thinking, like, I think this guy's a pretty good player. He's been a disaster. And that play was, I mean, would you be a little stunned if he's not just your classic, like, healthy scratch this week, kind of, you know, coaching move?

But they get the ball or they have a chance, just get a stop, get the ball back down to touchdown, and Seattle scores. It's like, I can't. Part of the reason I kind of believed in this team was I thought their defense is going to be really good. They've been atrocious. Now they're going to New England, who I don't think is really that talented. If the Steelers are going to be anything, they go on the road and they win this game. And obviously, they would cover this. But I just don't have that much faith in Pittsburgh.

I think this has got to be this week kind of a rally to troops all-time might. If Mike Tomlin still has it, then he gets it this week. If he doesn't, like we might be looking at truly the beginning of the end of this situation. If like Mike Vrable,

and this pretty average roster can take down this highly paid bunch of veteran Aaron Rogers-led squad. Yeah, the problem for the Steelers, I mean, maybe this is the first year they finally have a losing record, which hasn't happened in many moons, never under Tomlin.

The problem with the Steelers, they have so many defensive injuries right now. So I don't even know who's going to play. They might be down four or five starters, key starters. So we'll see, like High Smith, Porter, if they have Elliott, they have injuries all over. The defense has been horrendous. And it's been bad. I mean, they paid a lot all that money, but Watt is clearly not the same impactful player

that he once was. And if you used to look at the splits with the Steelers when he was on and off the field, when he was injured for a couple games. They were drastic, and that's what they look like right now. Think about... Which wouldn't that be a problem? They just invested $100 million. Let's use the other two guys.

Miles Garrett still looks elite. I would say watching Max against the Chargers, I know his team's not good. Every team in the league would sign up for Max Crosby on that contract. If Watt falls off that tier of those three guys that just got paid, you got a financial problem on your hands. Big time. I would not have done it, but like I can see why they had to do it. it's like Watt. He's the face of the franchise.

But you already have like other good edge rushers. And he was just his age. And I would not have dedicated. Like the Steelers, what they need to do is they need to reset this whole thing. Like they've just been this nine and 18 for since Ben left. And then they're not like they just get to they get the, they sneak into the playoffs and lose. And they need to just full reset it. That contract didn't help, especially if Watt, it's going to fall off.

But think about what. how the Jets looked against the Steelers. And then how the Jets looked last week. Like that's the state of their defense. The Seahawks in week one against the 49ers versus last week. They're going up and down the field. So, yeah, that defense is problematic. The Patriots defense has also been bad, but they might get Christian Gonzalez back.

That could be huge. He practiced yesterday the first time since July. So with the points, if it's New England or nothing for me. By the way, you mentioned that Caleb Johnson play. The only other time I can remember that happening, was actually another Steelers rookie. I don't know if you remember this game. He ended up going on to have a good career.

I forget his name Perry or something. He was a rookie running back, I think. 90 in the 90s at Candlestick against the Niners. The Niners kicked it off and it just landed at the five. And he didn't know that he had to feel. He stood there. And he just stood there. And then the 49ers picked it up and scored.

Like that's the only other time. It was funny because it was also a Steelers rookie. So maybe he can bounce back. But, yeah, that was a huge blunder. I just, I mean, that visual, you know, Danny Smith is probably one of the more famous. Special teams coach in the NFL. He's pretty, he's like a small or shorter version of Pete Carroll, always chewing gum, stomping around. And you just see him in the background.

And Kayla's walking towards the sideline. It's like, what are you doing? Now, it was also kind of sketchy. I never saw the slow-mo version. Did he have possession before he fell out of the end zone? Like, it was kind of rapid fire. I was shocked they didn't smoke about that. Look at that more.

It did not seem like he caught it like two yards in and just was celebrated. Like he rolled out of the end zone. Was the ball in his hands? Yeah, I don't know why they didn't. Everyone was confused, I think, because it's like this new rule. I think everyone on the field, the refs, the announcers, everyone was confused. And I don't know if they had full possession for, like, that way was just so bizarre. And yeah, he was just jogging off the field.

Like, okay, the head offense. It's your turn. What a disaster. It ended the game pretty much. Like, he was 1714. You know, Rogers talking about like the league, you know, I know the league's binary, but we can't be like that. Aaron, you're not 34. You didn't just sign a five-year contract.

It's all about wins and losses this year. Like, this is an all-in situation. This isn't Nick Saban in the process for you guys. Like, this was about you trying to be a 10, 11, 12-win team, win a playoff game, you know, have a successful season. This is not about like, for the next five years, I'm teaching the squad. What the fuck are we talking about? Yeah. And I think he's saying that because he knows, like, maybe we're not as good is I thought when I signed up.

And that's, you know, like when Farve did the thing with Minnesota, you look back and like, yeah, they had a pretty good roster. You know, that team was pretty, was pretty stacked. They had this other guy, I think it was like 24 years old named Adrian Peterson that was unstoppable. Like if I put Adrian Peters on the Steeler team, they're probably a little bit different. And they just handed him the ball a lot. He's a freak show. I agree. It's a big, big week for the Steelers.

I mean, it's huge. I think you get a break because maybe. the Vikings and Bengals are coming up on your schedule, so you get a break that, like, No Barrow, the Vikings' injuring quarterback situation, and you host to Browns. So that could help, but this will be a very telling game, as you alluded to, on, like, where this team is and where Tomlin is.

I think the two teams that it's borderline must win, given the hype and how much we talk about these two teams, Steelers in Chicago. And, you know, the Chicago thing, we talked about it last week. It was hard because you only had the one game, game evidence with the lions. It's pretty clear. Lions at home. I mean, they're going to be pretty explosive in the dome. We'll see how it plays out. Obviously, they have a massive game Monday night where a couple years ago, your squad beat the living piss out of them. I remember

watching that game on my couch, and it was over before it even. Wasn't it like 28 nothing after the first quarter? Yeah, it was 35 nothing at one point. It was one of the easiest bets I've ever won. They're three-point favorites at home. It was a joke. Now, maybe this Lions team, who will dive into in a second is like a lot of the core guys on that team are much more established better players now a little older so it's it's probably a little bit different animal though the coaching probably worse uh this chicago thing i mean that was i mean they quit i mean they just they just tapped out even their coach admitted it like we got to start judging guys a little harsher in practice because in his comments this week like he's under fire obviously the GM's under fire

the quarterback's under fire Dallas gets a little house money they they you know one thing i when I was in the NFL is like when you talk about guys in zone defense, a linebacker especially as like a zone dropper, it's so easy to be justified for him. Like, well, I just drop back my seven yards and two yards over. That's the landmark you told me. And then there comes to a point where you like kind of got to be a football player and the linebacker just drop back.

Ferguson is two yards away from you. Yeah, I know you're supposed to be there. But the fucking guy is right next to you. Cover him. I mean, that's just, that's like football 101. After brain. Sabin and Belichick would puke. Mike McDonald, like they can't even fathom.

So I just, Dowell's got pretty lucky. I think to get that completion. Now, their kicker, they benefit from. Their offense is good. I mean, they got two good wide receivers. Chicago's injuries in the secondary. The Iber Fluse Bowl here. This would be something, you know,

I know from a gambling standpoint, you got to be careful about the narrative, but you can already see if Dow's were to win this game and they get a couple stops on defense and Caleb looks a little weird. Iber Fluse coming in, handed him the game ball. after the game because you know that would happen.

This is must win for Chicago from the simple fact of their season could just become like the negativity surrounding them. It'd be impossible to shut off. Their schedule is look at the division there until like they have to win this game. Yeah, there are secondaries and shambles. That was part of the reason why Detroit. Well, Jaylon's out for the year now, right? Yeah, it looks like, I don't think it's confirmed, but it looks that's the word.

He's definitely out this week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Kyler Gordon, he's week to week. He's like the MVP of their defense, their other corner. So like their corners now are in shambles. And Campbell was running it off too. And he wanted to stick it to Johnson. But they're like number one corner is Tyreek Stevenson now.

He's not good. He should be like your three. Maybe not even your three. He's given up a 158.3 perfect pass rating so far this year. So that's not great against Lamb and Pickens. but I think you have to take I mean so their defense is a mess

they're not even getting pressure they can't get pressure they're just playing a ton of man like Dennis Allen man and they don't have corners so like what do you what do we even doing what happened to Montes sweat I thought he was good uh yeah he might be falling off a bit but they just they don't have a bunch of they don't have any other pass

rush he gets a ton of attention so like they're not blake it's I don't know it's very bizarre they're just playing like Dennis Allen's a man guy and obviously every team mixes it up with man but as far as like percentage of man they're on the high end. And like, you don't have the corners to do that.

Or so at least you got to blitz or do something. Like the dolphins, you'll watch, like, their secondary is so bad and it's so injured, like, similar to the bears that they're just blitzing, like, 60% of the time. Because, I mean, why not? You're not going to stop anything. You can't give a quarterback time because you can't cover. So you've got to, like, just try to create chaos and try to force the turners. I don't know what the bears are. Maybe they'll switch it up this week.

But I think you have to bet the bear's. this week. Look, number one, first of all, they should have won week one. Like, they should be one-on-one. The Cowboys easily could be 0-2. Now that the Bears are catching points at home, like this is the Cowboys outdoors.

There might be some weather. They're coming off of an overtime game. Their defense is also horrendous. Theron Blan probably won't play, so their secondary is in shambles. Can Caleb Williams actually make the throws? It's hard to trust them. But look, they just lost by 30.

that's usually when I jump in teams that after the week after losing by 30 55% historically like sample size of like 300 games as a dog or a favorite of less than a field goal that that number goes up to about 61%. So yeah an 0-2 underdog here desperate spot. I think Johnson and Johnson owns that Iber flus defense and that ever flus defense is just not going to work with Dallas's personnel. Number one, you don't have Parsons anymore. And then especially if you don't have bland, your secondaries and Chambles,

but they don't have the linebackers. And that's like the whole key to, you were just mentioning dropping zones. Like in order for Iverflus to run his zone heavy defense, it is super reliant on, number one, you're going to have to get pressure naturally. That's where they're going to miss Parsons. But it's super reliant on those really athletic linebackers that can fill voids and work the middle of the field freeing up others.

They just don't have that. Their linebackers aren't that good. So I think you got to trust the spot and the bear is bouncing back. Like it helps that it's outdoors and Dallas's offense just isn't the same there. But it's scary. Like they're going to have to score. Caleb's going to have to be good because they're secondary right now. It's just not going to hold down lamb and pickings all game.

I mean, this game, I mean, both these two teams could be like six win teams. But it's the Tom Brady, who's obviously back in the headline. There will be a lot of people watching this. thing. You know, Sunday after dudes, they're going to be, you talk about takes flying Monday, there will be a lot of people having thoughts on this game.

Oh, yeah. Because, you know, the Niners Cardinals, which 2-2 and 0 teams, now granted, you know, the Cardinals have played nobody and the Niners just got to play the Saints. But, I mean, this is, I was looking at, they, I was watching at the gym McAfee put up, like, all the records of all the divisions.

This division's seven and one, right? And one of the losses came because they played each other in Seattle and San Francisco. It'll be a war all year. Yeah, but this is why, like, the schedule matters. And I understand, like, I was on Collins show, and Edelman was there. He got offended by saying easy schedules. Now, he's been taught by Belichick.

But there's a big difference of playing Mack Jones on the road against the Saints instead of playing the Bills or the Packers. Like, I'm sorry. Like, they benefit, like, if the Niners go 11, if they're an 11-win team, if they had a hard schedule, they could have been an 8-win team. it's really going to impact them, especially as they're playing young guys, Mack Jones, I'm sorry. Yes, it's not.

Yeah, exactly. I don't know if the Cardinals are good. I do know that they have been a problem in Kyler specifically, even in losses for the Niners, with him scrambling around. Like when they have been well coached under D'Amico and Sala, like good lane discipline and being in there, it's hard to coach against this little fucking guy. Because every time I look up, when they're playing the Panthers or they're playing Saints and games that like it's like whatever they're going to win this thing you just see this

little guy running around back and forth he he talk about backyard football with Caleb there is no more backyard football player in the NFL than Kyler murray which he's really talented so it makes like if he's on it's hard now Marvin harrison like that pick was the wrong pick like he's never going to be malik neighbors yeah and McBride's a good player they have some offensive weapons defensively they have more talent on defense but uh what's your take on the cardinals to me my my bet on this one nineers backup quarterback like it makes me a little nervous though i you know as we're recording this on 30th already out i keep he's not he's not definitely out so he's they're probably going to sit them like they're two and oh right don't i think after winning that game it gives

them a little breathing room yeah i like the under in this game i looked this morning it was 45 and a half like i can see this being a lower scoring kind of ugly game but to me kaii kaii's I could see him just having a rushing touchdown in the second half when a tie like in a 13-13 game. All of a sudden the Niners are down and they struggle to score with Mac Jones. That would be the, that's their, that's the Cardinals path to winning. Is Kyler just making shit up? Yeah, Mac Jones, he looked, he looked decent enough last week. By the way, I had that over.

I talked about that over because I was like these two play callers indoors and it luckily got there, but I was sat down to watch it. And I'm like, oh, also the 49ers of a new kicker. and of course the new kicker misses an extra point. I'm like maybe this is a 49ers thing that's never going to go. One takeaway, the Saints offense is better than the perception, I think, by people that aren't paying attention. They have good wide receivers, tight ends, good player, Kamar's good.

Rattler is not terrible. Yeah, he's playing at an average level so far this season. We'll see if he can keep it up. Obviously, he's been at home. He's not the perception of him, though. I think he's like some screed. Yeah, they're at. had the ball late in like both games.

Twice. Like, yeah. I mean, they had it twice in the Niners game with a chance, you know, down four, five points. Yeah. Yeah, the problem with this game, like, I don't, the Matt, I don't know who's going to start Mac Jones or if it's pretty. The car, one of the biggest things to keep an eye on, the Cardinals secondary.

We just talked about secondaries that are in shambles. The Cardinals cornerback room is decimated. They, they all, their three starters got hurt last week. week. So one of the one of their best corners in training camp for the season. I think they lost, yeah, they lost a corner in training camp. But they, Will Johnson, who didn't practice yesterday, I haven't seen today. He's looked outstanding, but he got hurt. Melton got hurt. And they put Williams on IR. So they might be without three starting to start in corners. And their corners were starting to look pretty good.

I like the room because Will Johnson hit. And like, shocker if yeah seriously but now like it's not if you lose your one corner and then like another a couple weeks later like that's bad but three in the same week and then you got to like that's and they run a lot of complex stuff uh they run some of the best stuff schematically in the league so i i don't know like that is are the 49ers fully capable of exploiting that with their passing attack. Maybe. Pierce all looks good.

Jennings made some plays last week. Yeah. So it could be a disaster for the Cardinals defense. I don't know how they're going to handle it. They might just go, they might be forced to just go super conservative and play insane coverage and just prevent explosives. Or they just switch it up and say, we're going to come after. So I don't know how they're going to play it.

I also don't know exactly if, like, all three are out. So as of right now, I can't bet it. But if you want to bet that game and you're just looking into it, keep an eye on the injury report for the Cardinals because it would be pretty bad if they're without, let me see if there's an update yet. I mean, they're on the West Coast like that. Yeah, so Garrett Williams, he's on IR.

And, I mean, yeah, earlier this season they lost, I mean, Murphy Bunnings out. Starling Thomas is on IR. But Will Johnson and Max, no, and if they're out, like, you're talking about I mean, I know most rosters. I don't even know, like, Denzel Burke, I think,

who, like, that's probably who would start. He's another rookie. Wasn't supposed to play. Like, I don't even know their other corner is. Like, you're talking, like,

you'd also, the kid, this guy Clark, who would probably play nickel. So, like, they're secondary could be in complete shambles. So that's, that would be my hesitation for the under. And then that would be my hesitation for like wanting to back the Cardinals.

So like, if you want to get on San Fran under three, I wouldn't blame anyone because it just could be a very bad situation. I think the other thing that this is why I always say in the draft, there is no such thing as a high floor, right? I mean, talented guy from big programs or Ashton Genty who almost shatters Barry's you just never know. Everyone's like, Marvin Harrison cannot miss this. Well, what if he can't?

Because the quarterback in him, they have no cohesion. He keeps saying like, hey, he's just, Kyler always has weird comments. Like the situation now is it wasn't just last year. It's carrying into this year. He's got 11 targets through two games. And every time I hear, like, see a clip of Kyler. It doesn't feel like he's ready to force feed him the rock.

I mean, I clearly Kyler doesn't think he's as good is the way everyone told me that Marvin Harrison was as good. yeah and they like the cardinals are like i think their staff is really smart their coordinators their head coach totally great sharp and but and they're building this team in the right way obviously it be so much better if they had neighbors but they need like this is a team like i bet them to go to the playoffs this year this is a team that their win total was like eight and a half like they're expected to be a winning team in order to get there and like we just talked about this division is going to be a war they need

Harrison to hit. Like, yeah, the run game's going to be good and McBride's going to be good. But look at their other receivers. It's like Zay Jones and Michael Wilson. It's so like, if Harrison doesn't hit, like you're, you're building that offense on like, okay, you got McBride, a good run game. And then we have our top pick that's going to be the stud number one. And then you can have role players.

But if he's not the alpha one, it just doesn't work. And the ceiling of that offense is so much lower. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts.

We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas.

And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some

retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-heartedly. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games,

from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand. because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay.

Jenchian went. I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. consider this your court side seat to the French Open.

Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Okay, two more games. Let's go Rams Eagles. You know, I saw the highlight. I remember last year in that playoff game, was it the first drive where Jalen busted a long run? It was like the first couple plays of the game. and clearly if he's run around making plays, their offense is a different animal.

You watch them this year. I mean, their passing game is atrocious. People making fun of Chris Jones for saying the comment. All he's saying is like, you don't get to say shit. You didn't do a goddamn thing besides the fucking tush push. You're throwing 100 yards a game. You're the defending champs. I'm on Chris Jones side there.

They're like, yeah, we lost the game, but like you don't get to boast, you know, of all the people. I just think they're passing game. like the thing with Philly, and you know, having grown up there, that it's good. They're 2-0, they're defending champs, but the undercurrent is like, what's up with our offensive coordinator?

And we have seen this now twice in the last four years. Their coordinator, when they get it right, they're unstoppable. Well, right now, the passing game, something just looks off. It's not like AJ Brown's not there. It's not like Devonte Smith's not there. It's not like their offensive line's not there. Something's off. Now, luckily, their defense is well-coached.

They've got the chiefs who's struggling offensively, something concerns me and it's hard. I'm never betting the Titans again, Stucky, until like Steve McDair 2.0 shows up. But the Rams, I think it looked pretty good. I mean, if Stafford's healthy, like I like the Rams in this spot. Yeah, I agree.

I play the Rams. Getting Goddard back, I believe he should play. That'll help the Eagles. But yeah, the offense is broken. Like, there's no creativity. They're telegraphing their plays. Like when what information they're in is, You can tell when they're running or passing.

It's really bad. It could just be a Brian Johnson 2.0 situation. Think about this. They've only completed two passes over 10 yards in two weeks. One of them was just a jump ball to Devante Smith down the side. The all-out blitz. Yeah, that's it. And they played the Cowboys who just gave up 7 trillion passing yards to Russell Wilson.

And then they played the Chiefs, who has issues on the back end. Like, the Chargers ripped them apart. Like, this is not the same Chief's secondary. And they couldn't do anything. and yeah the Rams like their offense and the Eagles defense is going to take a step back they lost a ton of talent they're not getting as much pressure so yeah I mean this is big revenge spot for the Rams McVeigh 1811 and 2 against the spread as an underdog of more than three points he also his teams are always ready and prepared for these East Coast games I don't know what he does the routine that they have but he has had he has had as much success as any head coach NFL going west to east. He's 14-7 and 1 against the spread in the eastern time zone, 67% covering by about six points per game.

Just look at last year, like with older Stafford in the snow, they were 20 yards away from beating the Eagles who went on to dominate the Super Bowl. So, yeah, I mean, the Rams have had this game circle. Their defense is playing well. Their offense is on fire. Devont-Adams has been an upgrade. Stafford is playing out of the game. his mind. He's apparently ageless. The other thing is, this is like really in the weeds,

but if I had, if I, if I could bet this, I would, all this discourse around the tush push, and McVeigh went to the league this week on Wednesday, and he used to be on the rules committee. He went to the league and wanted to talk about the tush push. Well, everyone's talking about this. Everyone clearly saw that the Eagles went, you know, they were lining up all sides. there was a couple false starts that they didn't call. Now, there's also a couple neutral zone infractions that they weren't called, but all this talk about it. Every show is talking about it, like, all over Twitter.

So what I think is going to happen this week is you're going to see, like, I don't know, three or four penalties on it, depending on how often it gets run. But it's such a huge swing play. And here's the thing. If it's on the defense, so if they're going to like say, okay, here. Neutral zone. It doesn't really matter because the Eagles were going to get it anyway. So it's just five yards.

but the difference between the Eagles, like, fourth and one at the goal line, oh, they're going to score, but if they call the false start, that's four points off the board. If it's at the 50-yard line and you call it, instead of keeping your drive going, that's a punt. So it's way more detrimental to call it on the offense. I think they're going to make an example maybe of both sides. So that could help the Rams. I think you're going to see those calls. Also, like the Eagles, when they're laying, they're like the new chiefs.

Like, when they're laying over a field goal, this offense just looks like it can't build margin. but if they're winning by a fuel goal, like they're more likely than any team, the NFL to win by just a fuel goal because if they have the ball up a fuel goal with like nine minutes to go, they're going to go three yards, three yards, push, push, push, four minutes off the clock.

Three yards, it's like service academy. And then they're going to go 30 yards down the field in eight minutes and then take knees. And then if you bet the Eagles, you're like, oh, my God. But yeah, I like the Rams here. Look out the tush, I know these in the tush, push. Well, you're right. They call the false start

on the offense, the tush push is dead, right, if that happened, on that individual drive. Now, I haven't broken down every time. Obviously, they don't jump every time. They clearly were doing against the Chiefs. And they should have lost that. They should have lost that Chiefs game. Kelsey catches, that play was worth negative, seven and a half expected points. That's bad. Go from a touchdown to 60 yards the other way and then a touchdown. Like, that was as big of a swing as you'll ever see in an NFL game. So, yeah, the Eagles, the Eagles have certainly been a bit lucky, which is covered up. They're still good.

But, like, the think about all the drops that C.D. Lamb had, like, the Cowboys could have beat him in week one. Well, they better take advantage of it. Do you expect the Tush Push to get banned in the middle of the season? Probably not, right? No, I don't think they can do it. They'd have to do it in the off season. So it's the last year. Yeah, because there were two votes short.

And now, like, I think that game on, like, that game just magnified it. It probably swung a couple people. I think that 12% of their plays this year have been the Dush Push, which is insane. So I'm sure the NFL doesn't like it because it's just boring, right? And they're trying to like increase action and points and like part of the kickoff rule was that. And like the Eagles going on an eight-minute rugby drive probably isn't the best entertainment product, which at the end of the day, that's partly what they're trying to put out. So, yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if it does get banned in this offseat.

Yeah, before I jumped on, I was going over the board and had cowered on in the back. And, you know, his, he was basically, and I totally agree that, you know, the shift wasn't that big a deal when a couple teams did it here and there for a player or two. When everybody did it for every guy in the lineup, it became like, we can't watch this anymore. Hack a shack for Shaquille O'Neal, no big deal. But when you start hacking literally every big guy that can't shoot free, throws. No one's going to want to watch this. Like it was a tough watch last. I mean, this is ultimately entertainment. And it's really boring to watch when part of football is you don't know what's going to happen. Even someone DME, like, why don't you just ban the quarterback sneak?

Because quarterback sneaks get stuffed all the time. Yeah. And the other thing is like that anyone for the Eagles could run it. I disagree because if you put Tanner McKee on the play where Chris Jones jumps over and grabs Jalen, I don't think Tanner McKee has the strength to drag Chris. Jones but Jalen is no yeah yeah he hurts the bench like he can squat like 600 pounds so yeah he's he's the strongest quarterback of all time who's also you know even like cam and Josh they're leverage because they're so much taller they're like basketball players jalen's built like saiquan so it's it's it's an outlier situation it's as much him to me as the offensive line which obviously they have a powerful offensive line but they have this fucking quarterback

who's built like a little tank and that's a huge part of it He also has, we talked about this last week. He also has the knack for where to go. Yeah, yeah. Some quarterbacks don't have. Josh Allen. Yeah, they're just like, oh, I don't know where to go. He's in college a lot.

Like, that play does not work in college often. Yeah, yeah. Arch was a disaster that first week. He was like, ah. But it shows you, the one thing that, the difference in that game, which was so apparent, is that because when it's worth an inches, you should be able to sneak it most times. and like when you need it and the chiefs don't have a sneak

and I've been screaming this because they won't do it because Mahomes is hurt like he got hurt one time doing it seven years ago but he's like what other quarterback you ever seen get hurt

on a sneak so the chiefs refused to do it they got stopped on a fourth and one like just blown up there was and the Eagles meanwhile and every fourth and one those huge swing plays

I've been yelling this that every team should just have a guy that if you don't want your quarterback if you're afraid of quarterback have a guy that just practices it. A big guy, big strong guy,

practices a snap and then do it. Like the Chiefs, they don't have a run game. So on these fourth and ones, like they got to get so creative and it's just not as efficient as just going up and sneaking it. So I was very evident that game. Okay, Monday night.

I just, maybe I'm overreacting to one game, but like I do think the Lions lost to the Packers aged a little bit better once we saw the Packers play another game. I do think they, you know, the players, they got their ass kicked by the Ravens who honestly got to be one of the better teams to not win a Super Bowl over the last 25 years when you factor in.

They had Lamar Jackson in his prime in one of the great defenses of its era with Mike McDonnell calling defense. So, I mean, that team, I think if you simulate it five times, win some Super Bowls, maybe three of the five times, maybe four of those five times. But I just kind of feel like I like the lions and the points in this matchup. Maybe I'm overreacting to last week. clearly the Ravens are good. I do just, I don't know.

I mean, I think this is kind of an easy rallying cry, too, for a lot of those guys, we're a part of that ass kicking. I know Jogoff, outdoors, different animal. I think he had a comment, and it could be the Bears. That's the best pass protection he'd ever had in a game in his career.

So not a great indication of the Bears front, which clearly the Ravens are going to be better. Every time I look up, I mean, Wiggins, do the Ravens ever miss on a pick? I mean, it's like they just get this guy at the end of the first round and he's just fucking making players. Usually receivers. They hit on flowers, but for 20 years they couldn't hit on a receiver.

There was a blind spot for their entire scouting department who usually is nails on. Could have been, you know, Flacco's for a lot of that period of time wasn't exactly Peyton Manning. Yes, but even before, like even like you go back. Ray Lewis Day's free Flacco. Yeah, like Kyle Bolt. They also couldn't direct the quarterback. quarterback wide receiver.

They hit on Flacco, but the Kyle Bowler pick, who, that was wrong. But guys like Travis Taylor, I mean, there was a Mark Clayton guys that just never hit. Like, in order to get over the hump, they went out and got bolden, like, and that's how they won the Super Bowl. They had to go on and sign him.

Yeah, the two things you really want to watch here, like I mentioned last week, like I don't take too much from the lines running it up. They were at home. The Bears had no secondary. They were playing a scheme that is, you don't want to play against golf. You don't want to play.

man, and if you're not going to get pressure, that won't be the case in Baltimore. It'll be a completely different animal. So I think the lines will look somewhere in the middle of what we saw in week one and week two. I mean, Lamar and Harbault, they don't usually ever lose these primetime games at home. I, the two guys that I'm watching to see, the Ravens' offense isn't the same without likely. Apparently, he's practicing today.

If he's back, their offense becomes so much more difficult to defend. Like, they got to practice guy up there. and Mark Andrews isn't the same guy. And they have a practice guy that's getting snaps that is just that they don't really have to pay attention to. But when they have likely, it's a whole different offense and it's so much harder to defend schematically. Like what are they going to do? And you can go in so many different formations and you can put the defense in compromise situation. So if he's back and then Marlon Humphrey, who got hurt over the weekend, if he's back, that's huge.

They meet him in the slot, especially against Amman Rah on that offense. So that's what I'm waiting for. my initial gut says Ravens, but I haven't bet it yet. It'll be a great game to watch, so highly entertaining. Yeah, I can't wait. Okay, before I get you out of here, any Tulane, any big upset alerts in college, I got a little home favorite parlay, Utah, Oklahoma. You get them about plus 125.

Parlay, those just money line. You got Texas Tech, Auburn, like either one of those teams, to ruin my parlay. Tulane? What are you thinking about that group? They know Jackson-on-a-well out of Oklahoma defensive staff, so they should have some really good stuff dialed up. Their defense looks sweet right now. Yeah, and their defense is really, really good. Kendrick Falk for Auburn, he's an NFL player, maybe a first rounder.

He's going to have to wreck havoc in this game for Auburn. Auburn also has secondary injuries, which isn't great. But Kendrick Falk on, in this Oklahoma offensive line is their one-week point, and they've had injuries and they got two freshmen in there. If he can, like, wreck the game, that's probably Auburn's best. shot. And Utah, yeah, Utah, Texas Tech, I don't have a great feel on it.

Just because neither team has played anybody. So, Morton looks great, the passing offense for Texas Tech. The O line for Utah's unbelievable, one of the best in the country. Texas Tech went out and got dudes on the defensive line. They have one of the best of that matchups. Great. The Utah receivers aren't great,

and the Texas Tech corners aren't great. So, like, everything washes out. It's going to come down to, like, And then one of these teams wants to run it. One of the, it's like an air raid versus like a run raid, for lack of a better term. So like good contrast to style starts at 10 a.m. What time is that mountain time? 10 a.m. mountain time is local.

So people will talk about the altitude, not that big of a deal because Utah, Salt Lake City is like 4,500 feet. People who don't realize Lovick's like 3,500. So like Lubbock is in probably like the seventh or eighth highest college town in the country but weird start so like i've on texas tech i'm i don't know if i'm i probably happy about it you don't want to play ryeclic at night places the zoo uh but i don't have a strong it's almost like utah couldn't turn down i mean there's a lot of people watching this game right a big new kickoff yeah it's probably good to like to just because they don't get any exposure no one's

watching their games as far as nationally uh so no strong feel there one i'll throw out um i just brought it too lane because they're undefeated they're obviously pretty good you know obviously old miss is good too but i don't mind too laying there um i could see 12 and a half i look this morning n i u is a good bet against mississippi state um thomas hammock the coach for n iu is like five and twenty one against the spread as a favorite and he's like 22 and six against the spread as an underdog like we saw him beat notre dame last year he went into georgia tech and beat them because they just will scrine this game down to an absolute halt like they they were at maryland last week and

like the game was like 186 in the fourth quarter. They know how to go in and he has them ready for these like big games. And plus Mississippi State has Tennessee and Texas A M. on deck, sleepy spot 21 and a half. And then my favorite bet, this is really random, but Miami of Ohio at home, noon kick against UNLV. Like first of all, it's a 9 a.m. body clock game for UNLV. Out of conference going up to Oxford, Ohio, like really weird spot. Miami of Ohio hasn't won a game yet.

They're looking for the first win, but they played, all they have played is Big Ten teams. And UNOVee has one of the weakest, UNAV's, their three and O, they played UCLA, who they barely beat, who is in shambles. They fired their coach. It's, they just lost by 35 and owned the New Mexico. So they beat UCLA, they beat Sam Houston, who's probably the worst, one of the three worst teams in the country. And then Idaho State, who they almost lost to at home. So their profile is a complete broad, huge strength of schedule disparity. Big special teams edge for Miami-Hia, like a bunch of the little things.

Weird spot for you, One of the Ohio gets it done at home. Noon Eastern on ESPNU. I'll be one of the seven people watching that. You are a true sicko. That's why we love you. Have a good weekend. Stucky talk to you soon. Absolutely, you too, brother.

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