From Otani’s Legend To College Upsets And NFL Reality Checks

A once-in-a-generation baseball moment lit the fuse for a marathon sports breakdown. Shohei Ohtani didn’t just win a game—he bent it—fanning ten and parking three homers in a performance that belongs in every “where were you?” list. From there we sprint into college and pro football, where dominance, identity, and accountability either showed up or fell apart in plain sight.

We start with the college slate’s sharp turns: Miami’s stumble against Louisville and a messy four-INT night that reignites leadership questions. Ohio State looks inevitable, with Julian Sayin’s pocket poise and ball placement turning a rout of Wisconsin into a clinic while one glaring right guard issue lingers. Georgia outlasts Ole Miss by stopping the run and pounding out their own, Notre Dame bulldozes USC with 300 rushing yards, and Vanderbilt’s win at LSU feels more “plan and culture” than “cute story.” Georgia Tech keeps its unbeaten march real, while Michigan’s back-to-basics approach with Bryce Underwood looks sustainable when the ground game sets the table.

The NFL window is a reveal. The Rams hammered Jacksonville in London with pressure and precision. Chicago leaned on the run, not fireworks. Cleveland barely needed to sweat as Miami imploded and Tua was benched. New England’s Drake May delivered ruthless efficiency. And the Chiefs? That offense looks terrifying again—Mahomes in rhythm, depth everywhere, Death Star humming. The Colts feel like a wagon behind Jonathan Taylor’s tempo and Daniel Jones’ control, Dallas has Dak playing MVP-caliber ball, and Philadelphia’s path likely runs through Hurts’ arm more than Saquon’s legs this year.

We close with a hard truth in Houston: the defense is good enough to carry a contender, but the offensive line isn’t good enough to protect one. CJ Stroud’s processing can’t beat free rushers and a disappearing run game. Last draft, the Texans chose skill flavor over trench substance, and it shows on every stalled drive. Fix the front, and the whole picture flips.

If you live for smart film talk, honest takes, and a little controlled chaos, you’re in the right feed. Hit follow, share the show with a friend, and drop a review to keep this rolling. Who’s real, who’s a mirage, and who’s about to flip the script? Let’s argue.

Chapters

• 0:10 Solo Tuesday And The Plan
• 1:11 World Series Set And Otani’s Masterclass
• 7:38 Transition To Football
• 9:06 Miami vs Louisville: Beck’s Meltdown
• 19:06 Nebraska’s No-Show At Minnesota
• 22:08 Ohio State Destroys Wisconsin
• 31:45 Michigan State Bounce And Indiana’s Rise
• 34:26 SEC Shootouts And Georgia’s Late Surge
• 41:42 Bama Handles Tennessee
• 44:02 Texas Tech Falls, Oregon Rolls
• 46:15 Vanderbilt’s Statement Over LSU
• 53:28 Georgia Tech’s Quiet March
• 55:48 Notre Dame Runs Through USC
• 1:02:00 Oklahoma, BYU, Missouri Grind Wins
• 1:06:12 Michigan Stifles Washington
• 1:13:25 Penn State Slips Again, Florida Fires Napier
• 1:20:28 NFL Slate Setup And Betting Woes
• 1:22:37 Rams Crush Jaguars In London
• 1:28:19 Bears Ride The Run Game
• 1:31:31 Browns Embarrass Dolphins As Tua Benched
• 1:39:20 Patriots Roll, Titans Regress
• 1:43:22 Chiefs’ Offense Looks Unstoppable
• 1:51:17 Eagles Air It Out vs Vikings
• 1:58:38 Panthers Edge Jets, Fields Benched
• 2:08:18 Broncos’ Wild Comeback Over Giants
• 2:19:06 Colts Look Like A Wagon
• 2:25:02 Cowboys’ MVP Dak And WR Duo
• 2:31:10 Packers Outlast Cardinals
• 2:35:47 Niners Lean On McCaffrey

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

Welcome back to the JB Sports Podcast. Today is Tuesday, October 21st, and we are back for another pod, uh solo Tuesday, as I am now starting to call it. It has been confirmed that Jace will be here later on in the week, but as of today, it's just gonna be me here kind of staring, talking, rambling at a wall slash computer about what I what everything I want to talk about when it comes to recapping this last weekend's worth of games in the NFL, in college football, a tad bit of baseball, just real quick, right before we get to all the football stuff. And then I know basketball starting, but to be honest, as a Bulls fan, I don't really have a lot of optimism about the start of the season. You know, the Bulls are terrible, they'll always be terrible, and they'll never be bad enough to get a good draft pick. But guess where they will be? Right there at the uh play-in line. Maybe they'll get in the play-in, maybe not. But even if they do get in the play-in, they're getting knocked out in the first round of the play-in. So that is where I'm at as a basketball fan, but for baseball, before I get to the football stuff, I just had to mention because the World Series is now set as to which two teams are gonna be playing. It is gonna be the LA Dodgers playing Toronto, going back and forth for try the right to win the World Series. Two thoughts. One, I'm not happy it's the Blue Jays, but I am happy that at least the Dodgers have to take a very long plane ride to Toronto to get that done. Or they're on the wet are they on the east or in part? See, I'm not very I'm not gonna say I'm like very good with geography. I like I know places, but like off the top of my head. And Canada. Because if Toronto's on the western part of Canada, then I look very stupid. Southeastern. Okay, we're good. So it's where I thought. I just want to make sure I was right before I made this point. At least it's gonna be a very nice plane, not nice, but long plane ride for the Dodgers to have to go back and forth when they do have to go play in Toronto. Second note, it's probably gonna be Toronto winning the World Series because no, sorry, it's gonna be the Dodgers winning the World Series. I meant to say Dodgers. Because at the end of the day, what the thing, even though Toronto has a lot of things on their side, they really do. The Dodgers starting pitching is a dominant force, and I also and as long as you as long as you don't get to a point where they have to start throwing their like their middle relievers and their and their um wow and their safe. Nope, that's not in their oh no, I I suck at this. If you don't have to go much past the starters for the Dodgers, it's gonna be very hard to beat them, at least when it comes to hitting off of them. And then Shohei Otani Man. He had a game, I think it was Friday night against the Brewers. Was it the Brewers, right? Or am I crazy? Yeah, it was the Brewers. Was it the Brewers? Oh no, now now I'm see. I started this with such a good thought, and then I lose my train of thought. It was Brewers, okay, I was right. So that Friday night, Shohei had 10, he started the game, he had 10 strikeouts, and he also hit three home runs in that game. And I think that was one of those moments where you look at it and you're like, is this one of those like you had to be there moments in like the history of like mankind? Or like okay, mankind's probably a little too harsh, like a little bit too big, right? But as a sports fan, I think that game was a where were you moment because that is something that is not heard of. That's not something you do, especially with how baseball looks now. That's not something that happens, right? And obviously, we've talked a bunch about Shoe Aotani and how great he is, and how as a two-way player, he is like just one of a kind, and really just laps the field with everything he can do when he's doing it at his best. But having a game like that in the playoffs in a big moment when you're in a series in the National League uh division uh National League Oh no, Pennett, sorry. Yes, looking for the National League Pennant. It's a big moment in the fact that he was able to do that, three home runs and ten strike counts and one nightman. It is it's one of the it's like he might be the best, like before him, you would think like maybe the best baseball players I've ever seen. Like just automatically, you just know there's just something different about them, then I would say like Mike Trout obviously is very high up there. He's definitely fallen off over the last few years, more than the last few years, just with injuries and stuff like that, age. But Bryce Harper maybe, but I don't think Bryce Harper really has like the long term, and I'm just like Shohe Otani might win it by a landslide, and even with at the same time as him, you have Aaron Aaron Judge playing, and he's doing what he's doing in the regular seasons, but obviously with his issues in the playoffs, it's a totally different story. But the fact that Shoey Otani put up a day like that in the playoffs in a big moment was absolutely legendary, and I think definitely, if you haven't seen it, go watch clips of it, but like that's just not something that happens in baseball, and it will go down as one of those like where were you moments, and it was it was definitely a crazy, like legendary night for one player to have, and he might easily go down as like the best player I've ever I've ever seen now for sure, because that's just something you just you just don't do. That's just not something you do. And he did it, and he did it when he was just a batter last year, he did the 50-50, 50 home runs, 50 solemn bases, and then now he's back to pitching again and doing what he's doing like that in the playoffs in a big moment. Like that is that it's something definitely something to take down, and like that's a history, that's a history moment. That's like that's a moment. So I decided to make sure to mention that because as a avid baseball fan, there is like when you watch or as a sports fan in general, just it doesn't have to be in baseball, but it has to be in anything, like Michael Phelps, or one of my favorites is even though I know nothing about the sport, Sean White, him being a snowboarder and watching him do like the half pipe and like the X games and stuff, like even though I don't know shit about snowboarding whatsoever, I'm a black man, so there's not a lot of black people out there doing ice like when it comes to snow sports like that. And I hate that's more of a joke, but I I feel like that's how racist it sounds when I heard it when I was hearing myself say it. But you can as a sports fan, even if you're not a sports fan, I feel like to a certain extent, but like as a sports fan in particular, you can look at moments like that and get have a huge appreciation, even if you're not necessarily a fan of the sport. Dominance is dominance, greatness is greatness, and you just know when you see it. And what Shahi Otani did was absolutely great, all-time type of stuff that day. Alright. Before I talk too much more about baseball and like get upset that my Yankees are not a part of it anymore, let's go ahead and get on to the football stuff, which is what anybody that's listening to the pod is here for. Again, maybe maybe you do appreciate a little bit of baseball slash a little bit of baseball talk, but other than that, it's all good. So let's go ahead and get to the football. Let's start with college football. I'm just gonna do the recap of week eight as it happened this past weekend, all the way from Friday night all the way through Saturday. I have plenty of games to talk about. I'll go from there, and then then we'll switch over to NFL to do the recap of what is that week seven or eight? Hold on. It'll be week seven, okay. I'm not totally off on that. So we we'll do the recap week seven of NFL after we do the week eight recap of Cosmo. So before I get started, let me take a drink. Alright, let's go. Sorry about the debt day there, but you know, it is what it is. We'll start with Friday night. I was podcasting that night as the Louisville, Miami game was happening, and by the time I was done, it was like in the middle of like a third quarter or something like that, and I did end up watching the rest of that game. And it it sucks that I was doing it as it was happening because it just I took away. I wish I I wish I I wish I would have been able to watch the full thing. Again, I went back afterwards and did a and did the and watched it, but in the moment it was definitely a crazy thing because Louisville beating Miami 24 to 21 was not something I was thinking I was gonna get on my bingo card. But even still thinking about Miami, they do this every year. Every year. Under why am I forgetting the coach's name now? It's oh no. I always forget the names when I definitely want to remember them. Um why am I forgetting his name? Mar uh Mario Cristobal. Um Mario Cristobal team, especially with Miami, he does this every year. It's the team's gonna look as good as it does for most of the year, and they're gonna have a few slip-ups that totally break your brain as to how they happen. And this was no different. It was throughout this whole season so far, before that game on Friday, Miami, other with it was Miami and Ohio State all year long, has looked like the best team bar none from week one to week six, week five, November six. Every game before that, it was the the two most dominant teams were Miami and Ohio State. Coming into this game, Miami, but here's the thing: it's just I knew that, but I was like, Miami had looked so good this season that I was thinking with Carson Beck playing a lot better and not really showing his old ways when it comes to how he was playing at Georgia, throwing a bunch of picks and everything, and how dominant at the offensive and defensive lines Miami is. I was thinking, even though Mario, Mario always finds a way to fuck up a game, at least one or two every year. I didn't see this one coming. Even though Louisville's a good team, they're five and one, they're not a bad team whatsoever. But the way Miami lost that game, I think was even worse than how just losing it in general. Because I think in college football, I think that there's a lot of parody. There's a lot, no team is has multiple guys worth of like recruits sitting on their benches that aren't starters and can have them with injuries and everything like that. So like the way college football is now, it has even out the playing field a decent amount, especially when it comes to your depth. But this game was absolutely insane to watch. Um, Carson Beck, like I said, what from what he was last year at Georgia, throwing a bunch of picks and kind of having a down year in comparison to what he had shown the year before at Georgia when he played so well, it was like, okay, after last year, you're like, okay, he's going to Miami. He's taking the$7 million in IL money. And will he be different with a better offensive line, a few more weapons for him to throw to? Can he be different? And throughout the season so far, he had. Again, he was throwing some passes that are like, oh, he's taking a few chances he probably shouldn't. But overall, he was producing, he wasn't throwing a ton of picks, and it like he had put been playing well in the play in the Heisman conversation for how well he had played. And then he came into Friday night, he goes 25 of 35 for 271 and four interceptions with no touchdowns. Four interceptions, no touchdowns. And that is an absolute like playing Louisville again, Miami, even with Louisville being a good team, Miami is head and shoulders a better team than Louisville. When it comes to talent, of course. But as a team, Louisville is a very good team. And I think with Carson Beck having that many interceptions, I'm talking bad interception. This is not just one of those bad luck type of nights. He was throwing some balls he should not have thrown, and they turned out to go to Louisville. And it was just a very bad night. And on top of that, Miami couldn't run the football at all. They only had 63 yards total rushing in this game, even with how good their offensive line is. Malachi Tony, their wide receiver, played well. He had 135 yards off nine receptions. But outside of that, that was their best player on the field for Miami, or at least offensively. And then defensively, you have the one guy that's an absolute monster. Reuben Bain, who was good, but like he didn't really do a lot in this game either. The defense for Miami really didn't, they were getting man-handled for the most part. Louisville threw for uh Miller Moss, their starting quarterback, the guy that used to be at USC and got taken out from there, transferred to Louisville. He had a 250-yard passing night and two touchdowns. 23 of 37. Running the football, Louisville outrushed Miami. One night, they had 119 yards total rushing with Isaac Brown, their main back, having 15 carries for 113 yards, averaging over seven yards a carry. The wide receiver for Louisville, Chris Bell, nine receptions, 136 yards, two touchdowns. He was an absolute monster, and you could just tell Miami's Miami did not have a DB that could stop that guy from doing what we wanted to do. But here's the thing: the game was close anyway, even with all those things going Louisville's way. But you know the difference was was Carson Beck through the four interceptions, didn't have a touchdown pass. That's the difference. In a close game like this, Louisville only beats some 24-21 by three points. The difference is Carson Beck made those four interceptions. A game just like what he had last year with Georgia, and why they were more than happy to let him go. Even with Georgia having their issues with their quarterback, why am I forgetting that guy's name? Um Gunnar Stockton. So even with them having the issues with him, like he's kind of up and down, he'll have some very good game, and then sometimes it will be down. People were crushing coming to the year. Like, what do how do they feel better about car like about Gunnar Stockton in comparison to what Carson Beck? Because Carson Beck is a better all-around talent than Gunnar Stockton is. This is why. This is the moment. This is this is why they're willing to let Carson Beck go. Go let Miami pay him a bunch of NIL money, and he'll give you games like this. And that's exactly what happened. It's just it's just one of those it's one of those weird ones, right? And I just think that even though Miami definitely put themselves in this position to lose to Louisville, and I think Louisville earned it. They took that moment and they went and won the football game. But, you know, it was just a crazy, crazy game to see. I'm not gonna lie to you. It really was. And I just don't think Carson Beck, if he can't get it back, like if he just if he's just gonna go start going on this run of throwing picks now, going back to what he was at Georgia last year, like everybody was thinking that that was gone when he started playing with Miami this year and how well he had played to start the year. And then I think now that he's opened that door for people to start doubting him again, how how does this how does this get fixed? And I I just don't know. And after the game, they asked Carson Beck about the last pick that he threw, and he totally threw his his uh his receiver under the bus saying he should have run, I think it was a tight end, saying that they should have ran a better route, and I threw the ball where it needed to go, and he was he was wrong, so that's why I threw the pick. And maybe that's the truth. Maybe it's not. I I'm not a football guru, so I'm not gonna sit here and go down that road. But you know what that tells me is that as a quarterback of your team that's like quarterback one-on-one, it's it's my fault when we lose. It's not somebody else's. Quarterback needs to take that on the chin and say we could have played. And even if he didn't want to sit there and blame himself, if he could have easily said in that moment, hey, we all have things that we could have done better. It wasn't just one play, like he could have easily taken the high road and he didn't. And this is one of those things that everybody questioned about Carson Beck is like when times get hard, is he gonna be the leader you need him to be? And times got hard that night and he decided not to be. And I think that moment more than anything shows that like he didn't learn from what happened at Georgia last year. He didn't learn. I I just think at the end of the day, when times get hard, you go back to being what you are, and he showed what he was that night. And I just don't know how his teammates are going to feel about him, knowing that if they make a mistake, he's more than happy to throw them under throw them under the bus and run them over with it and then back back and back back over them with it. That's what he did that night. It wasn't it wasn't his fault that he threw that pick, though, even though he threw three other ones. It was that guy's fault. And in Carson Beck, when times get hard, has always been the guy that's willing to point the finger somewhere else and not look at himself as to what he could have done better. And I think that is what shows me more than anything is that he's not going to change and he's not gonna make the necessary steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. And I think what this game has shown is that Miami needs him to be the team that they need that they want to be, and they need the good version of him. But if Carson Beck can't take accountability for his own his own mistakes, like I just don't know how you're gonna get better from there. And that that's my thoughts. Stupid Miami, stupid Mario Cristobal. He always loses these games. As soon as you get any confidence, he'll have a game like this, just lay an egg, and uh that that's it's crazy. And then on the other game that Friday night, you have Nebraska going to Minnesota, Minnesota winning that game 24-6. And I'm like, Nebraska was awful that night, Dylan Rayola was awful that night, like nothing really went all that well for Nebraska in general, and Minnesota took care of business. And Nebraska's had a Minnesota Minnesota problem. Like Minnesota practically beats them every year, especially under Mario, uh, not Mario, um, under Matt Rule in his coaching, like his coaching tenure there. Minnesota's own them. That's been a game that Minnesota can win. And Dylan Rill didn't play well. He went 17 to 25 for 177, no touchdowns, no picks. They didn't run the football effectively, they only had 36 yards total rushing. And they just like defensively, they could not stop Minnesota whatsoever. Minnesota's quarterback, Drake Lindsay, threw for 153 yards and a touchdown. Minnesota ran for 186 total yards with their main back, Darius Taylor, uh, having 24 carries, 124 carries for 148 yards, averaging over six yards a carry and a touchdown. And I just look at this and just say, it's just funny. As soon as Matt Rule got all that love for potentially being the main guy that Penn State's going to look to to take their open coaching position, and he lays an egg like this to Minnesota. It just goes to show. And I like I had my thoughts that Matt Rule is not going to be any different than what James Franklin is. And as soon as things start going well and everybody's starting to sing his praises, he has a game like this with Nebraska losing, a game they should not have lost. And I'm not saying Minnesota's a bad team. I'm just saying with what Nebraska has at quarterback and with a lot of their skill guys and what their defense was looking like coming into the year, like it hasn't really played out that way, but like they should not have lost this game and they lost it in a kind of embarrassing fashion. They got manhandled in this game. So we'll see what Penn State decides to do about Matt Rule if they really decide he's the guy. But again, if they were thinking he was going to be their first person they'd go to anyway, one game is not going to change how they think about him. But I think it is kind of like it does shend a message that Matt Rule is not the perfect guy either. He has his warts. And if you think James Franklin's record against top 10 teams is bad, Matt Rule's is just as bad. The difference is that Matt Rule hasn't doesn't really have a top 10 team in those games. He's usually the got team that's unranked and they're losing those top 10 teams. At least James Franklin has his team ranked with Penn State over the years to where once they lose that game, there's they're they're up there and they have some what is it, expectations in general. Uh Matt Rule has not even got to the expectations part of being a ranked team and like having a team that can do it in those big games. So that's about it on that. Let's go ahead and go on to the next game there. Let's go to Saturday, and I'm just gonna kind of go down the list, talk about them as we go. Ohio State beat Wisconsin 34-0. It was a very belt-to-ass type of day, if I have to say so myself. Julian Sand, they really let opened the door and let Julian Sand run through. Said, hey, we're gonna give you this game, we're gonna let you throw the football, and he did that. 36 of 42, 393 yards, four touchdowns, zero picks. He was slinging it all day long. His pocket awareness is awesome. Um, when it comes to him sliding in the pocket and staying in and still keeping his eyes downfield, he's absolutely amazing at it. He also had another play on the move where he was able to, he's running to his right. He threw a perfect ball to Brandon Innis in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Like, I can say this with confidence. He is a ball placement expert. Like he knows where to get the ball to his guy where only his guy can get it more often than not. And I think he also has shown that when given the space and the opportunity, he's going to make the right decisions, and he's going to make sure that he gets the ball to his guys so they can make the plays, and he's going to give them that opportunity. He is not going to be too shy. He's going to make he's going to make sure he's making the right decision. But when he does take those chances, he's going to throw a very good ball. And he's going to throw make have those chances, and those great balls go to Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith, who are good enough to where they'll be able to make the plays. And Julian is going to make it as easy as possible for them for them to make those plays when those plays need to happen. And that's like the like Wisconsin really isn't a team worthy of Ohio, like having be on the same field as well as Ohio State, and Ohio State showed it that day. On top of the fact that Ohio State's defense held Wisconsin to zero points. 50 yards total passing, 95 total yards receiving, I mean rushing. And I think they got most of that in like the final drive when Ohio State had thrown their second and third strings in and said, Hey, this is your drive. Don't give up a score. We're trying, we have we're trying to keep the shutout here. And they let the team go down the field rushing-wise a little bit, but I think at the end of the day, when the play absolutely needed to happen, those second and third string guys came up and they made and they made a big play. And they kept Wisconsin out of the end zone to keep the shutout going. I think that was a big moment for those backup guys to be given that leash and for them to be like, hey, we're going to let you go out there and you finish this off. And that's exactly what they did. And that was a very good, very fun moment for those backup guys to know, like, hey, what I got my moment now, and we took advantage. So when it's is my moment later on down the road, when I'm the starter or when I'm going to get a lot more snaps, I know what the moment feels like and I'm ready to perform when those moments happen. And that was a very fun thing to watch. Back to the starters, though. The running game is a little bit iffy for Ohio State in this game. I think the best two running backs on this squad is Bo Jackson and Isaiah West, and being those two guys. Again, they didn't try to run the football that much. They added like a 98 total yards rushing. But I think what was very evident is that Bo Jackson is our clear number one, and Isaiah West, the other red shirt freshman running. Oh no, sorry, he's a true freshman. Isaiah West is also like those two are the best backs on our squad. And Isaiah West has a little bit more of the like he has a little bit of a boot, like a burst to him, and then Bo Jackson a little more of the all-around back, but has a little more power. And I feel like if you just have those two be our main two guys, I feel like you can get. But it is very obvious those two guys are the best backs on this team, and they should be the ones getting the bulk of the carries, with maybe CJ Donaldson getting in in goal line situations because he has like seven straight touchdowns into seven straight weeks, because he's just he's kind of like the getting into the end zone guy with him being a little bit bigger of a back. But like in other parts of the running game, right guard is technically very much an issue. Uh Tegra Shabolo has not been good at all. He's been struggling, and even in comparison to last year, I think he's worse. And with this bye week they have this coming weekend, I feel like over the next two weeks, they either get need to get Tegra back up to speed or get somebody else in there that can do it. Because on this team that really doesn't have a lot of flaws, that right guard spot is our bit is our one and only flaw on this team. We have the offense, we have the receivers, we have the running backs now. I feel like with those two guys, Isaiah West and Bo Jackson, and the rest of our also offensive line is very good. And they're really good, they're like amazing at pass pro running is a little bit more of an issue, but usually it's the other way around. But like that right guard spot is our biggest problem when it comes to the running game and protecting Julian Saiyan. So if they can get take these next two weeks and find it either either a different option or Tagra steps it up, I'll be more than happy either way, but just let's just try to get it fixed. So when we do end up playing those teams that have a little bit better defensive lines, we don't have such a liability. But even if with that being the case, Julian Saiyan can move so well in the pocket, he makes the offensive line look right more often than not because he just knows how to sit in the pocket and move and maneuver and keep his eyes downfield in a way that we haven't had in a minute. So I just think that with if we could just figure up that right guard spot, I feel like we'll be in a much even better place than what we already are. And where Ohio State's at right now is the best team in the country with that amazing defense, with the offense looking the way it is on a weekend, we week in, week out basis. Julian Sand getting more and more put on his plate every week and him passing with flying colors, throwing to those wide receivers and Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, those two guys you cannot stop whatsoever. When they are working at peak capacity, they are an absolute they're like both of them together are hellraisers. And even if you give all the attention over to Jeremiah, Carnell has shown that he is going to torture you up just as just as much if you don't want to give him that attention. So at the end of the day, it should make Jeremiah's life a little bit easier as teams start to realize, like, hey, we can't just give double and triple teams to Jeremiah all day, or guess what, Carnell's gonna eat. Maybe it'll lessen up the amount of uh attention that Jeremiah's getting and help him make get some bigger plays going as well. And then even the guys behind them, Milan Graham, Quincy Porter, like those backup wide receivers going in there and making plays as well, and I was very happy to see it. So it's hard in this game because it's like, hey, we know Wisconsin's bad, they're very bad, they're two and five on the year. But at the same time, when you get to blank a team on purpose, cover the spread, and Ohio State made it look as easy as they did, you have to give them credit for that. Even though I know it was against a very bad and poor team, and probably coached by a head coach over there in Wisconsin that doesn't have a lot of time left. But again, they gave him the they gave Luke Fickle, their coach, a vote of confidence and said, hey, he's gonna be here next year, which is like crazy to me with how bad it has gone, but you know, it is what it is. I'm not gonna count their my their pocketbooks when it comes to having to pay out buyout money. But you just have to give respect to Ohio State for doing what they're doing, and obviously I feel this way because I'm a Buckeye fan at all. So I'm definitely gonna be one of the first people in the line fighting for Ohio State at all times. But I just feel like they're doing stuff right now to where, like, if you really have a like if you Really have a gripe, you're just hating at this point because Ohio State has passed every test they've had with flying colors so far, and they haven't really had to break a sweat yet. And again, I get it. Maybe they don't have an S SEC schedule that has a gauntlet going every week, but I feel like Ohio State is making it look as easy as they are because of how good they are. So you have to give them credit that way, even if you have a little bit of a what would they do over here, even though I think Ohio State would be just as good in the SEC, maybe not undefeated, but I would think they would dominate the SEC as well with how good they have looked this year. So again, this is I'm a little bit biased, obviously, with being a Buckeye fan, but I just think there's a lot of things Ohio State's doing that you just can't deny. And I feel like if you are, you're not watching football, you're not watching the games, and you need to you need to like study up because I think Ohio State's doing their thing right now, and I feel like it is a potential historic thing they're doing this year with how great that defense is. And if Julian can keep growing, I just don't think by the end of the year there's gonna be anybody that can stop this offense. Alright, next game. Indiana, Michigan State. Indiana coming off of their win against Oregon. How do they look on the comeback game? We're like, hey, are they going to what's the word I'm looking for? Are they gonna let the foot off the gas? Are they gonna get in, be into it, playing against a Michigan State team that has not won a lot of games this year? They have not looked great. So are they gonna take care of business? It was a little bit tough at first, but in the second half, Indiana was able to pull away. They won the game 38-13. All the credit goes to Indiana. They took that moment they had last week against Oregon, were able to put it away enough to go and play against Michigan State and beat them and look good doing it. Um did I mention the Kurt Signetti money? I think I did, but just in case they did pay Kurt Signetti because he was one of the guys that everybody was saying was would be looked at for other coaching jobs, they went and paid him, paid him a bunch of money that it was like a contract extension that takes him through like 2032 or something like that. He'll get paid$11.6 million a year. So they have all the intention to keep him there for a very long time. And the buy, and this is the most important part, the buyout jumps up to like 90 something million. So I feel like it makes him almost un impossible to be hired because of how much money a team would have to pay to get him from Indiana. So he'll be there for a good time, like for a long time to come. And I think he has shown that he's able and willing to bring Indiana along to like be that pat national power. And if he keeps going at this rate, they will be. I'm not saying they'll ever beat Ohio State or Michigan or any like any of the biggest teams when they're at their best, but I think they will be in the playoff conversation every year if he keeps going at this rate, building the team up like he is. So that's it on that. Let's go to the next game. AM, Tech AM versus Arkansas. They Tex AM won the game 45-42. It was not a good defensive game whatsoever, again, with all the points, but I do think that Tech SM has shown they can win in different ways. They've shown at points their defense can kind of come up, like play up to the moment and play a little bit better than you think. But I think also they can be as leak as anybody and give up a ton of points. So I just feel like Tech SM winning this game was good. They didn't give in to that moment and they managed to pull the game out. But I do think that their defense is definitely an issue, which has kind of been all year, but it Arkansas is not looking at as like a great team that took advantage of your defense. So, what happens when you go and face a great team with a great offense that'll be able to do a lot more to your defense that even Arkansas can't do? So that's my thought. That's my thought on that. Texan M's good. They're still the other only undefeated team left in the SEC, but they definitely have shown some warts that against better competition, what would it look like? Let's go to the next game here. Next one is Ole Miss, Georgia, um, ranked like top 10 matchup. Ole Miss went to Georgia, and Georgia won the game 43 to 35. In the first half, like honestly, the first three quarters, Ole Miss looked like they were gonna win win this game running away. But then in that fourth quarter, Georgia scored 17 unanswered points and managed to win this game by eight. And I think that this game just goes to show, like what I was talking about before this game, when I was previewing it, I was like, hey, I know Ole Miss offense is very good, but if they let Georgia stay around, like they can definitely lose. And especially with Ole Miss's defense not being any good, like if Georgia manages to turn it on, they could definitely jump in and win the game. And in the fourth quarter, that's exactly what happened. And at the end of the day, I just it just shows even though this Georgia's team is not that great, the Georgia defense is not all that good. Stockton can be a little bit of a hit and miss, but again, when he heats up, he can be a very good college quarterback. And but it's just if you could put Georgia in the ground and have at least a little bit of defense to make it hard on them, I feel like Georgia would definitely lose. But it's just with Ole Miss, man, even as good as they are offensively, they just did not have the defense to stop Georgia once they kind of started heating up in the second half. But also, they were able to not like Georgia was able to stop the run for Ole Miss. Ole Miss is like their running game is very important to them. So the fact that Ole Miss is only able to run for 88 yards in this game was definitely something that played into Georgia's favor. Especially with the fact that Georgia was able to run the football for over 200 yards on that Ole Miss defense. So like Georgia's able to stop the run, they're able to run the football themselves, and Gunnar Stockton was there making plays, averaging almost 10 yards a throw, and had four touchdown passes with no picks. It was just this game kind of was like an antithesis of like, hey, Georgia, even though they're not the same Georgia of past years, they have a lot of older dudes that know how to play ball, and they're not gonna make the big mistake, and they're just gonna keep chugging along, they're gonna keep doing their thing, and if you leave the door open for them, they're more they're more than happy to jump out the bushes and come and take the game back, even though Ole Miss felt very comfortable through the first three quarters. So, especially with Georgia being at home, there was just no way they were just gonna lay down and get blown out by a di by a team at home, and it just wasn't gonna happen, which is why I thought Georgia's gonna win the game. That's exactly what they did. But it was a very fun game to watch for sure. But it's just if you had any doubts about Ole Miss being a national title contender, that game showed you what you need to be worried about, and or if you're not really a fan of them, you don't have to be worried about it. But what you're talking about, because as good as that offense is for Ole Miss, their defense is absolutely awful. And if you can stop their running game, it just kind of keeps them from doing what they need to do. It keeps their offense from being being in rhythm and it makes them much less dangerous than what they were if they were able to run the football. So credit to Georgia, credit to Kirby for winning that game. Because even with Georgia not being close to the same team they were three, four years ago when they were winning national titles, it's just Georgia's still Georgia, and they still have dudes, they still have dudes everywhere on the field. It's just they don't have two, three teams worth of dudes sitting on their bench. That's where the difference was Georgia now, but they definitely still have dudes out there that can play. Uh, next game, Alabama, Tennessee. Bama won the game 37 to Tennessee's 20. This game wasn't really all that difficult. Bama won this game pretty easily. Bama's defense showed that they can play well and they played very well in this game in general. They got the big pick uh against Tennessee. I think it was a pick six. I think that was in the second half, right? Hold on, let me see. Yeah, I think it was it was a pick six, literally, yeah, in like with like a few minutes left in the first half. That was like the thing that kind of was like the turning point, not the turning point, but it kind of made it to where Alabama had a big lead. I think they were up like 23-7. Yeah, that pick sick turned into the 23-7 lead that then Tennessee would have to try to dig their way out of in the second half, and they just couldn't do it. But I'll give Bama this credit. Ever since their their week one loss to Florida State, which was a bad loss because of how bad Florida has been, Florida State has been since then, but like that I think that loss really kind of unlocked something inside of them. Again, I don't think their defense is good whatsoever. Tennessee was able to get what they wanted offensively for the most part. They ran the football for them, I mean, sorry, they threw the football for almost 300 yards, they ran the football for 150. And if Tennessee's defense had any type of fight at all in them, or not necessarily fight, because that implies they didn't try, if they had any sort of real talent on that defense, I feel like Tennessee could have won that football game. But guess what? They didn't, they don't have anybody that can stop those wide receivers, and Bama was able to run the football effectively enough to keep their offense running and keep it on schedule, and Babel Bama was able to win that football game because of it. So as much as it's a great win for Bama, but I do see they have some warts that if you are a team of a certain caliber, you should be able to take advantage of. And I think that Bama will probably be in the playoff. They'll be a good team, but it's just when you face off against the other big boys that'll have some of those things, I just don't think it'll go as well for Bama whatsoever. Next game. Texas Tech losing to Arizona State. Arizona State won the game 26-22, uh, taking away Texas Tech's undefeated season. It was a weird one. It was Arizona State, even though I think Tech Tech is still a better team. Arizona State was able to make plays. Sam Levitt, their quarterback uh for Arizona State played very well, 28-47, 319 yards and a touchdown. Uh Jordan Tyson, their wide receiver, 10 receptions, 105 yards and a touchdown. He had an awesome day. Along with their other receiver, Hamilton, had three catches for 101 yards, and they had another wide receiver at 66 yards receiving. So, like Arizona State was able to run the football, me throw the football very effectively against that Texas Tech defense that looked like they was very uh what's the word I'm looking for? It's not spite, they're probably spicy by the way they go, because they're able to stop the pass a little bit. So the fact that Arizona State was able to do that to Texas Tech just kind of took Texas Tech out of that, like people were starting to talk about them as if they're like one of the best teams in the country, but that game against Arizona State kind of took them out of that conversation, and now they're with the rest of the Big 12. Like, hey, if they lose another game, their chances to be in the Big 12 championship game are drastically reduced. And I think that Big 12 has already proven themselves to be a one-bid lead with league when it comes to getting into the playoff because there's just not a lot of great Big 12 teams that are deserving of the playoffs. And if that's the case, they're only gonna get one spot. And if you don't make that uh that championship game for the conference, I just don't think you're gonna be vaulted up to be in the playoff with how the Big 12 has looked this year. So big win for Arizona State, though, for sure, without Cam Scattaboo. Next game, Oregon Ruckers, Oregon destroyed them 56-10. The game wasn't close. They when Oregon is facing off against a team that is not as good as them, they are very quick to treat that team, the other team like the roach they are and stomp them out. And that's exactly what Oregon did. They had a bad attitude from losing the game the week before, and they came out there, took took care of business, and Rutgers was no fight in that art in that that accord whatsoever. Next game, LSU Vandy. Vandy won the game 34-21, and this was not a fluke, man. And I was talking about this on the last pod doing the preview of this, is that there were a lot of people that still consider Vanderbilt a cute story. They're not cute anymore. They are a six-in-one football team in the SEC. And I'm not gonna sit here and say Vanderbilt's a national title contender because I really don't think they are, but in the Big Ten, they're one of the best Big Ten teams out there because of their consistency. Offensively, at quarterback, Diego Pavia, even though I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of the plays that he can make, but in the offense that they have, he is the perfect player that knows what he's doing and that can make the right plays and make the right runs. And with that offense that they have, like, I'm not gonna sit here and say the sky's the limit because I just don't think it's that. But I do think that Vanderbilt has proven like they are here to stay, and they have a certain buy-in from a program perspective that they that as long as they like have their eyes on the ball, they should be a very dangerous team to have to deal with for everybody else in the SEC, even if it results in a Vanderbilt maybe getting a loss or two in a season where they only have one loss right now. So I don't know. Uh LSU, I'll go to the other side real quick. LC's offense is still very bad. Nuss Meyer, you could tell, is kind of hurt. And that was like the news story coming into the year was that he was hurt and he was still trying to play. But it does not look good this year. The ball coming out of his hand looks different. It just feels like I think they were saying it was a core injury at one point, but you could just tell like he doesn't have what he had last year that made everybody so excited for him coming into the year. And it doesn't help that your offensive line can't protect them whatsoever, and that the wide receivers that they have are good, but they're not necessarily like all-time level, is what LSU's been dealing with over the last few years. And then also with the running game, they ran for hundred yards, but it just wasn't consistent enough, and it just takes it takes even more of the shine off Brian Kelly as the LSU's quarterback, I mean LSU's coach, because they brought him in to take that next step to go be a national title contender again, which is what they usually do with every new coach they have. But guess what? It's just with it's a new era, and if you don't have a strong culture and you don't have and you put all of your money into one side of the ball being your defense and then your offense struggles because you don't go get an offensive lineman that'll help you out, there's a lot of things that are not going LSU's way right now, even with their defense playing by their offense looks like absolute garbage, and because of that, Vanderbilt was able to take advantage of it. And I think Brian Kelly should be on the hot seat because of it, because do how do you see this going better? How does this get better from where they're at now? And can Brian Kelly be the coach to get you there? And I just feel like to a certain extent, for that to happen, Brian Kelly would have to take responsibility for what has happened thus far in his tenure as a head coach at LSU. And guess what he probably won't do? He's not gonna take accountability whatsoever. And I just feel like with all that being the case, I just think it shows that I think Vanderbilt's on a different level. I'm not gonna say like much better than LSU by any means, but I'm gonna say that as a team, Vanderbilt has a clear vision for what they want to be, and they go there. And I think LSU's not that yet, and I'm not sure if they're going to get that because of their head coach and because of everything else going on. So all the credit to Vanderbilt and Diego Pavia and that that school for not just being a cute story anymore. They're out here, they have a very tough schedule the rest of the year, like I already said before. The rest of the season, they have Missouri, number 15, Missouri, they have number 22, Texas, which isn't Texas is back being ranked again for some reason, which is like they what wins do they have? But they they have Missouri, Texas, Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee. They have three ranked teams on the schedule left with Missouri and Missouri having a fairly fairly good defense, Texas having a great defense, Tennessee not much, but their offense is a different animal. And I'm like, there are they could be some losses for Vanderbilt in this spot, but I also think that Diego Pavia and that team has shown you when you doubt them is when they come to bite you in the butt, and I'm not gonna be that guy to get bit on the butt. So I think Vanderbilt, looking at the rest of that schedule with those three big games left, I think they can easily win two out of the three. I really do. Which three is definitely an option, but I think two out of the three I probably would lean towards with the rest of their schedule. And if there are only a three-loss team going into the playoff, do they have a chance to get in? Like that's where the question lies. But a lot of things have to be figured out before you even get to the playoff conversation for the most part. But yeah, all in all, Vanderbilt's good, LSU's looking bad, it's bad everywhere, so it's it's like a um stock on the rise, stock taking the downturn. Brian Kelly's looking like stock-wise, he's probably gonna be out as the head coach there at some point sooner rather than later. The question is how disappointed will LSU get for what they have gotten out of him over his start starting tenure at the uh at LSU. And if they do decide to take that, take that step, I they're that's gonna be another team that's like near the top of the realm when it comes to having a great coaching job for a coaching candidate for to want to take. So, you know, it is what we'll see how the rest of the season goes for LSU after that loss to Van D. And they're gonna lose more games too. LSU is not out of the woods yet. They're not by any means a team that is good enough to just guarantee wins for them because of how bad their offense has looked. So definitely more losses on the horizon. Next game, Georgia Tech Duke. Georgia Tech won the game 27-18. They are one of the like I think there's only six undefeated teams left in all of college football, and Georgia Tech's one of them. If they can take care of the rest of their games, and I'm not even if they lose to Georgia at the end of the year, I Georgia Tech will probably make the playoff either way, as long as they win their AFCC title game, and that'll be a huge accomplishment for what this Georgia Tech team has been. Do I think they're any type of like real team to like go win a title? No, because of how putrid their offense can look at times when teams can stop the run. But I do think Georgia Tech is a hard out for anybody out there, and I feel like they're gonna win a lot of like a few more, definitely a lot of more games for them because they're 7-0 right now, obviously five games left. Like, I don't I don't see a guaranteed loss left in their schedule, but there's definitely some tough games left for sure. They have Syracuse left, NC State, Boston College, Pitt, and then Georgia. Like, I could see them winning all four of those conference games and then having Georgia end of the year and potentially take a loss there, but like otherwise, I I think they're in a very good spot. Next game, USC Notre Dame. Notre Dame won the game 34-24. I was saying in the last pod doing the preview on this, is that this game was a statement game for USC coming off the week before, where they had ran all over Michigan, and you it was like one of those things you're like, hey, we haven't seen USC run the football like that against a Big Ten opponent for pretty much their entire time in the Big Ten. So, like, is this real? Was this a bad day for Michigan's part? Was this a great day for USC? Like, so you look at the game coming into this past week where you're going against Notre Dame. Notre Dame is just a bigger, stronger, faster version of Michigan on both sides of the football. And they have a little bit better, probably a little more consistent quarterback, even though I think Bryce Underwood will be better by the end of the year or by the time their college careers are done. But this was a game against Notre Dame that USC can really like plant their flags like, hey, we are here to stay. You're not getting rid of us so easily. And Notre Dame ran all over USC. And I think that USC was definitely in the game for the most part until the very end where Notre Dame was just they just could not stop Notre Dame's running attack. But like Jeremiah Love for Notre Dame ran for 24 carries and 228 yards and a touchdown. The backup running back for Notre Dame had 13 carries, 87 yards, and a touchdown. And then you add CJ Carr running the football a little bit, he also had a touchdown this game as well. And the passing game for Notre Dame is not necessarily great. They only threw the football with CJ Carr for like 136 yards, a touchdown, and a pick. Like you could tell, like he is not a guaranteed bona fide dude that doesn't have any any mistakes in his game right now. It's quite honestly the opposite. I feel like it shows that CJ Carr needs a running game to kind of calm him down and not if you have to put the whole game on CJ Carr's shoulders for you to win, that's not going to be a great game for you. But guess what? Against USC, it wasn't a problem because USC couldn't stop the run to save their gosh darn lives. Total, Notre Dame ran the football for over 300 yards against that USC defense. That was it. Jeremiah had an awesome day. Janarian Price, their backup, had a great day. So, like, with all of that being the case, it just goes to show you that in the big game when it truly matters most, and maybe you can kind of give USC credit for Michigan the week before, but it just shows that there's even a level above that, even with everybody like all the Michigan fans out there thinking they're still the B's knees and like they should be one of the top teams in all of college football, which is a crazy thing to say. No, I'm not gonna say not all of them, but some of them like are still thinking that they have a chance to go win a title this year, which is definitely not the case. But against a bigger, stronger, faster team in Notre Dame, USC could not run the football like they wanted to, and then they had to put the whole game on Jaden Mayev's shoulders. He had to throw the football for 42 times for him to complete 22 passes for 328 yards, two touchdowns, and then the two picks they threw were definitely big ones at bad moments that lost them that game. So Notre Dame with this win, with the rest of their schedule, they should be able to make the playoff very easily if they don't have a catastrophic letdown over their last four games they have this year. Their last four are Navy, Pitt, Syracuse, and Stanford. So as long as they keep showing up every week, I think they should be able to win that game pretty all those games handedly and meet back up in the playoff with whoever they end up playing. But UFC, with them already having two losses, I look at the rest of their schedule and they have North, uh sorry, Nebraska, Northwestern, Iowa, Oregon, UCLA. And you think the way that Oregon and UCLA are playing, you're gonna get you're gonna come out of both of those games unscathed. And if they get a third loss with the losses they already have, they're not making the playoffs because they don't really have any great wins against anybody other than maybe Michigan. And I think everybody has enough brain power to understand that Michigan was not the team they are now with how they like run that team. So if they don't have any wiggle room the rest of the way, and I think they will end up losing a couple games, potentially one, if not two games the rest of their year, they're not making the playoff. And that's another spot. Lincoln Riley as their head coach, will he be still safe there? Is definitely a question I would want to ask. But, you know, you're not gonna get everybody gonna answer that until they do or don't. So but USC, I mean, sorry, Notre Dame, much better team, much bigger, faster, stronger team. And with Jeremiah Love running like that, there's gonna be a deep defense are gonna have a hard time stopping that running game. So you gotta give them that credit there. Notre Dam getting the big win, and with the rest of their schedule looking as cheeks as it is, they will be a playoff team without much of an issue. Um again, barring catastrophic meltdown sorts of a game. So they should have win out the rest of their schedule. And uh, again, as long as they don't lose another game. If they lose another one, they might be out altogether. But if they win out, they should definitely be in the playoff. Next game, Oklahoma, South Carolina. Oklahoma won that game pretty handedly, 26-7. Game wasn't close. And like like I said on the last pod, if like as long as you don't give South Carolina any confidence that they can stay in this game, Oklahoma didn't do that. Uh oh, sorry, Oklahoma should win this game going away, and that's exactly what they did. 26-7 game wasn't necessarily close. Next game, Utah and BYU. B all BYU won the game 24-21. It was a home game, so they had a little bit of the advantage there. But I think out like Utah is a much better team at home, but playing away, they're definitely a little bit of a step down with what they usually are. And I think with this game being as heat of a heated of a rivalry as it is, BYU being the home team was a difference there, and they managed to pull out the game and win and win all together. So credit to BYU, another one of those teams that are undefeated, still left in the FPS. And uh, you know, it is what it is on that. Next game, Missouri, Auburn. Missouri won the game 23-17. The game wasn't really all that close. Auburn, with how good it is their defense looks, it's incre incredible to see how bad their offense is and they can't move the football. And it's like it's so maddening as an Auburn fan. If well, I'm not an Auburn fan, but if you are an Auburn fan, it has to be maddening with how talented your defense is, and then your offense is like so bad, especially with your head coach being an offensive guy. So the fact they can't kind of put everything together and they brought in Jackson Ardwell from the transfer portal, he's been absolutely awful. Uh for the guy from op that transferred from Oklahoma. He's been awful. And there's like he does not have like there's times he can make a pass, and other times, like he just can't he can't do it, he can't even get a check down right, and it's just as bad as offense could look. It's absolutely insane. Uh, Missouri did get the win, though. Missouri's a good football team, they can score, but it's just they're just up and down, and then defensively that's an issue, which is why the fact that Auburn couldn't take more advantage of it was a problem. But another good win for Missouri, be only being one loss on the year, they're still near the top of the SEC race, and uh that's definitely a big one for parody in the SEC and in college football in general. But Missouri got the win, even though Auburn is a very maddening team to watch with as much talent as they have to look as bad as they do. Next game, Washington State in Virginia. Virginia won the game 22-20. I have to admit, Washington State is a very hard out. They have been making life hard on teams to kind of put them away. Washington State has been has shown to be a team that is not just gonna lay down and just kind of let you beat them up. They're like they're gonna show up and show out, and you better bring your A game or they can kind of sting you. And Virginia did. Luckily, they managed to win the game with the score with the uh with the 12 points they scored unresponse like no, sorry. What's the word? Well, that's what I'm looking for. Um unanswered. With the Virginia scoring scoring the 12 unanswered points in that fourth quarter was the difference in this game. But uh, but yeah, Virginia won the game. Washington State is a very tough out as of right now with the way they're playing. Texas, Kentucky, they won the I they're now ranked, which is crazy because of really who have they beat this year. I think their best win is probably against Oklahoma, but even Oklahoma hasn't been looking all that great with John Mateer coming back from his hand injury and all that. But Texas is five and two. They barely beat Kentucky. That offense for kid for Texas is absolutely atrocious. Like, they're just not getting the the positive progression from Archmanning that you would think that they would with how Sarkeesian is as a head coach and offensive guy. You would think they're getting at least a little bit of improvement from Arch Manning on a week in week out basis, but they're not getting that whatsoever. They're not running the football effectively. They only ran for just under 50 yards in this game against Kentucky. A two and four Kentucky team. They can't really pass, their wide receivers can't get separation. Their defense is very good, but they can look a little bit weird at times. But even in this game, their defense played, they their defense played lights out. And it took overtime to win this game against you Kentucky 16 13. It's just a very bad issue, and I this is my this is my PSA to any college football fans out there. If you Are a team if you are a fan of a team that ends up facing Texas sometime in this rest of this regular season, please just beat Texas at least once, if not twice more. Because I do not want to see them in the playoff. They are absolutely atrocious offensively. Their defense, I have to admit, is a championship level defense with all the guys they have, even though they had that game against Florida that was insane with how bad they the defense looked. But like their defense is a championship caliber defense. But that offense is so atrocious, like we need to find a way to like though we need two more teams to at least two more. Sorry, at least one, if not two, to just knock Texas out of this whole thing and make sure they don't make a playoff because they just wouldn't deserve it. But it's just the fact they're an SEC team, they have the brand power of being at Texas, and if there is any wiggle room to get them into the playoff, the committee will try to, and we just need to make sure that's not even an opportunity because of how bad this Texas offense has looked. And I just don't think it's going to change anytime soon. Maybe Arch will come back next year and be like a totally different quarterback, but for this year, they're cooked. And their wide receivers, they're cooked. Like they need to get some real playmakers that can separate on a week in, week out basis from all the teams they have to face. And that's not coming anytime soon for that team. So, you know, it we we just need to make sure Texas is not getting to the playoff because that's just how bad they are. But they're just gonna keep being in all these games because of how good their defense is, but it's just gonna be unwatchable to watch them play again against an actually good team in the like in a playoff scenario, it won't be pretty. So let's just make sure they don't have an opportunity to get in. And the other game I want to talk about was uh Michigan and Michigan and Washington, yes. You had Michigan win that game 24-7, and this was with Washington coming all the way across the country to go play at Michigan. Again, it's the going theory about teams that have to go across two time zones not playing their best. But I think to a certain extent with Michigan looking the way that they did, I have to give them a little bit of credit. In this game, they really did decide to go back to like running the football, that being their bread and butter. And then with Bryce Underwood just kind of make having him make plays when they pop when they have them. And it this that formula worked that day against Washington. They Bryce Underwood threw for 21 to 27, 230 yards, two touchdowns, zero picks. Michigan ran the football effectively. They had 40 carries for 187 yards, averaging close to five yards a carry, and they also had a touchdown in this game. Washington, as much as as much faith as they were given with their crazy good quarterback, wide receiver, running back combo with Damon Williams, Jonah Coleman, and Denzel Boston. Everybody's like, oh, that's like the best trio in college football. And yet every time they face a team with a real, like a real team with a pulse, Washington doesn't look good. Damon Williams does not look good at all. Honestly, the biggest difference in this game was the fact that Damon Williams couldn't get any touchdown passes in. And then he threw those three late, like I think he threw a couple late interceptions to kind of take them out of the game to where it was like on both, like two turnovers that they had, Michigan went down and scored touchdowns and kind of made the game look a lot worse than what it was because up until that point the game was actually a one-score game. And Michigan couldn't run the football, but get they couldn't run the football or get no sorry, they couldn't run the football consistently, and that they couldn't move the football down the field like they wanted to. But with this Washington offense not playing well against good teams, it's it's it's a pattern at this point. Like it's one thing to say, hey, they didn't do anything against Ohio State, but then when you come, you go, Washington goes and looks good in the other games they had to play, and then they come up against this Michigan team that's not really looked at as a talented team, but they are a tough team. And they have enough talent to sit there and at least put somebody on DeMar Williams to make sure he doesn't run outside the pocket, and they did that. Washington laid an egg like that. I don't know. I was going into this game hoping that Washington would win the football game because obviously I hate Michigan as an Ohio State fan. But outside of that, I just you know, again, I wanted to put some more faith in Washington that they can be a really good football team, if not like just to kind of make Ohio State look better, but they're not they're not up pen uh uphelding upholding their end of the bargain. And every time they face off against a good team, they like they just crumble, that offense crumbles. And it's a definite issue for sure. No questions asked. Um, in Michigan, like I said, Bryce Underwood playing a lot better ball, and if they can keep this formula going with a lot like the JJ McCarthy formula, where hey, we're gonna run the football effectively, we're gonna give the ball to you in spurts, and we're gonna make sure that if we do have to pass, it'll be with Bryce Underwood using his legs and getting outside the pocket and kind of like attaching themselves to like the strengths that Underwood has as a quarterback, and then add that on to the running game that Michigan has when they're decide to run the football like they did in that game uh that Saturday. Like they have something that they can brew. I'm not gonna sit here and say that they can beat Ohio State because I do think the Ohio State defense is on a different level right now, so I just think that it's gonna be hard for Michigan to do that, but they can win a lot of games just playing a little bit more cons not conservatively, but playing smarter when it comes to what you're that's what I'm looking for here. Let's just go with the other thought here. Uh Michigan has shown themselves to be a tough out, and if they can get better in the spots they need to get at, they'll be a hard team to face at the end of the year, even to Ohio State. I do think a high state defense is different, and I think that they'll be able to make the plays necessary to stop a potential Bryce Underwood and what the guy they have wide receivers playing very well, but I just think that I just think that Michigan is like they're they're growing into something. Not saying they're gonna grow to be a national title contender, I think they're probably gonna lose one or two more games, but I do think they're showing some some actual signs of growth with that young quarterback and with their team in general. So is what it is. A little bit of credit to Sharon Moore, even if I don't think he deserves a lot of it because he's not really a great head coach. But you know, it is what it is on that. Oh, and the other game we want to talk about Penn State, Iowa. Iowa won the game 25-24. This is now a fourth straight loss for Penn State. They are now three and four on the year, and it's just crazy to think that they were 3-0 at one point and going to face Indiana, and people were thinking they were fighting for the right to be the national title favorite. And now Penn State's now 3-4. James Franklin's already been fired for a week now, and then Iowa goes out there and scores 25 points on Penn State. And let me tell you, Penn State's defense coordinator has not left. He's still there. That that boy Jim Knowles, he just knows how to give up points, especially in the first year at a place. He knows how to give up the points and exactly what they're doing. Exactly what they're doing. And I was able to score plenty of points on their own and that that they earned that Pensei didn't really help them with. And it's just like one of those things where it's like this the writing's on the wall. If Pensei doesn't get this higher rate, they're just like, they're done. They're done. And let me see here. I think there's one more I wanted to talk about. Let's go to the SCC, I think. We talked about that, talked about that, talked about that. LC Vandy talked about it. Let's see here. No? Oh no, yeah, there was one, there's one other one I'll on the SC I want to talk about. Um Mississippi, Florida. Florida won the game 23-21. But apparently they were not happy with that performance, and they fired their quarterback after this game. After a win. They were not willing to sit with what they had been dealing with up to this point, and they decided to fire Billy Napier, their head coach. I think this is Florida making a making a uh proclamation that, hey, we don't want to be this team anymore, we want to get some better coaching. And heck, Florida's in a spot where like they might be the best job on the market because of where they sit when it comes to recruiting in the middle of Florida and having that all that talent right so so very close to you. They have people giving money, like they have buy-in from boosters and stuff like that. So, with all of that being the case, why not, if you're Florida, pay for the buyout for for him to leave and go have your choice to get whatever co whatever coach you would like to have at the helm. Everybody's saying Lane Kiffin is like the first option, and they're gonna make Lane Kiffin tell them no, obviously him being the head coach at Ole Miss. But again, it's it's a better job, and I feel like it's a even a better job than Penn State right now because of where they sit and it being a being at SEC school and having the backing and all of that, even though I don't think competitively it's a better spot, because I do think Penn State will every year be one of the top three, as long as it's a regular year, be a top three or four team in the Big Ten every year because it's talent they they manage to pull in every year because they're just a good recruiting team. But Florida's in a different level. They can get some good coaching there, they have enough talent in that state, and they can get guy guys from other states around, and they have a like they have a real spot. It's just can Florida find the head coach to kind of put that all together, and they haven't been able to do that ever since Urban left, I guess. Haven't really find it. Not at like not least not consistently. And with that being the case, they did ask the quarterback for Florida, uh DJ Lagway, about how he feels about that school now that Billy Napier, the head coach, isn't there, and he's like, hey, I'm I'm a Florida Gator man, and I'm like, maybe he's lying because again, why would you feel comfortable with staying without knowing who the head coach is and what offensive system they're gonna have to kind of help accentuate you? And maybe he just goes off to the NFL after the year, so like maybe that maybe that's the reason why he's so nonchalant. But I feel like there's just gonna be other maybe maybe if it's they're just we're gonna bring in Lane Kiff and an offensive guy that knows how to put together offenses, like maybe he just knows that and he knows that that's gonna be an eventual op the option they go with. So maybe it gives them a little more confidence that way to say something like that. But if you don't have the confidence of that, like how are you gonna feel confident that you're gonna be put in a position to go out there and do what you need to do as the quarterback at Florida with whatever new head coach kind of comes in and changes everything up? That's where I'm at. That's where I'm at with that. So I don't know. Florida, even after a win beating, like I I think this just kind of showed that they were pretty much dead set on firing Billy Napier weeks ago. But it's just with this, with all the openings coming up, I think Florida just wanted to make a splash and just say, hey, our name's involved, so they can be one of the top options available so they can have their pick of them. And I think I think they just jumped at the head of the line pretty much over anybody other than no, I don't think there's a job that'll be ahead of at least not that'll be open. And I just think with that being the case, it's just it's gonna be a mess trying to get all these coaches to take over these head coach, head coaching positions if they're not gonna be given the leeway, especially with guys like Kurt Signetti kind of turning out turning around the program in a two years' time. Now every team that's gonna be looking for a new coach is gonna be looking for a quick rebuild like that, and it's not always gonna go that well. So I don't know. It it's on Florida's side, I totally understand them firing Napier. He hasn't done what he's been at what he's supposed to do over the last like multiple years now. So like I feel like they've they've exhausted everything they possibly could while I think that yeah, yeah, that that that's all I got. I don't I don't want to go like too much deeper because like obviously once they find a candidate and all that, I feel like it'll be a little bit different conversation. But I like at the end of the day, I do think it's gonna be Florida making a run at Landkiff and trying to make trying to tell him make him say no. Make him say no to the job and make sure he doesn't want to be there because if he does, like he'll bring you the offense guy you need. Again, maybe he may not win you a national title, but they'll bring you more to prominence and kind of get you out of the dumps where they have been over the last few years. So and he'd be good, he'd good enough offense coordinator to help DJ Lagway out for next year. So, you know, it is what it is. Um, I just want to mention that one because Florida did go and fire their head coach after that win against Mississippi State. So all right. That's it for Kyle Triple. That's it. I know I've gone a little long on this, but I wanted to make sure I kind of talked about all the games because I didn't talk about them all before. And uh I'm gonna hope to go through the NFL stuff a little bit faster, I hope, and kind of keep this pot under two hours. I've been on a run here, so hopefully I can keep it going. So NFL. Let's go ahead and switch over to the games here. First one I want to talk about. And I think that if you listen to the last pod, you got to hear a lot about me complaining about the Steelers, which isn't going to be the case today because again, they played on Thursday last week, so that game's already been talked about, so I don't have to go more down to the dumps to talk about the Steelers again. So that if you weren't looking forward to that, guess what? You don't have to. Let's go ahead and talk about the rest of the games, which I watched a lot of. I think I watch a lot of football every week, and I feel like, especially without the Steelers playing on Sunday, I got to really lock in, and I made sure I didn't watch any other, I didn't play any video games or anything like that. I mean I just really watched football all day. I bet a lot and lost a lot. I just lost everything. I didn't lose all the money, but I lost a lot of the bets that I made. I think I won a couple small ones, but nothing crazy. But did a lot of losing bets, but I watched a lot of football, and I feel like I do have a pretty decent perspective on all the games because I just watched them all. So let's start with that the Sunday slate here. Um, Rams, Jags, that Sunday morning game in London. Rams won the game 35-7. This game was not close. The Rams dominated this game. It was a little bit messy when it came to the weather. It was raining and all that, but it didn't really affect the Rams all that much. The Rams just did whatever they wanted in this football game. The Jacksonville Jaguars did not really show up offensively whatsoever. Trevor Lawrence played well technically, but they just could not get into the end zone like they needed to. It's almost like they would like get to like the 45-50 yard line, and then their their whole no, they wouldn't just do that because they got into the end zone multiple times and couldn't convert anything into touchdowns. And then it got to a point where they would keep getting into the red zone and they would like heck, we're down so much. We need to get touchdowns, and they couldn't do it. So technically, Trevor Lawrence played well, but he just didn't get a lot of execution when it comes to actually getting touchdowns instead of you know not converting on fourth downs. Trevor Lawrence, 23 of 48, 296, a touchdown, no picks, but he was sacked seven times in this game, so like that was a huge deal. The Rams were definitely getting after him a lot. They didn't run the football effectively, they had only like 94 yards total rushing in this game. Travis Hunter finally had a decent game, eight receptions, 101 yards, and a touchdown. Maybe this will be the launching point for him playing a lot better at the wide receiver position for the rest of the season. And he did have one good play defensively as a corner against Devontae Adams. And again, maybe this will be the thing, but here's I just don't think long term that'll ever work because they're just never going to get 100% of the player that he is with having to split so much of his time up. And I feel like what he has done so far in this season has shown that. Usually wide receiver and cornerback are positions like once you figure it out, like it should be an easy transition, and he hasn't done it yet, with as talented as a player as he is. And I feel like with that being the case, I'd like with the case study, I just feel like if you just kind of put him to one spot, maybe you'll get a little more out of him than what you're getting now, with only getting 50% of the player he could be at both of those positions. Maybe you could get 100% if you kind of move him over to one spot and just say, hey, focus on this. I just feel like you might get a little bit more out of him. And they think they really need him offensively. Um, but yeah, Jacksonville could not do anything in this game. LA Rams. Stafford, awesome. 21 of 33, 182, five touchdowns, zero picks. They didn't run the football that effectively, but again, they didn't really have to because they were throwing the football so well. And they were kept getting like short fields, and they didn't really have to go. Like they were just making a lot of good plays. Uh Devontae Adams had an amazing day, five catches, 35 yards, and three touchdowns. They just kept feeding him and he kept making plays in the end zone. Uh, like it was just a dominating day game by the LA Rams, and they went out there to England to do it, and they took care of business, man. You have to give them all the credit for that, even in bad weather. Matthew Stafford went up and showed out and played very good football, and they took care of the Jacksonville Jaguars without much of an issue. Next game, Saints Bears. Bears win a game 26-14. I think the Bears, that's the Bears' fourth win in the row, so they're definitely on a run right now of playing some very good football. Caleb is playing okay. I would say he's not the main reason why they're winning these football games whatsoever. They're starting to run the football better. I think Caleb first four, I'd get to the running game. Caleb, 15 of 26, 172 in an interception. Like he did not light up the Saints whatsoever. He did not play a good game. But the running game was definitely a huge, a huge boost for this team. DeAndre Swift, 19 carries, 124 yards in a touchdown. Their backup, Kyle Manungay, 13 carries, 81 yards in a touchdown, both of them averaging over six yards a carry. Like that was the thing that's powered them into this game again against the Saints team that is not all that good, but this game was close. This game was close. Spencer Rattler for the Saints, 20 of 32, 233, two touchdowns, three picks. Again, the three picks are bad. And he was sacked four times. But like Spencer Rattler is not playing terrible football. But they can't run the football effectively to help him out at all. They only ran for 44 yards total in this game. Chris Olave was awesome. Five catches, 98 yards, two touchdowns. Juwan Johnson, their tight end, five catches, 79 yards. Rasheed Shahid only had four catches for 40 yards. But it's just they were not able to get into the like again. This game was close. If they can get to the end zone more, maybe it would definitely have helped and they would have been this game even closer. But they couldn't. With those three picks, were definitely a big deal, especially in bad spots that kind of take took away some good drives that New Orleans were was having. But it's credit to the Bears, though. They won the game. Again, it's just I'm not sure if I would feel better if Caleb Williams was throwing it all over the place, but they were losing games. I'm not sure if I'd feel better if they were doing that in comparison to what they are now with Caleb Williams barely scraping by, having some flash plays every once in a while, but like really kind of looking down, and but they're winning games. I'm just I'm not sure which I would rather I would prefer. I think I'd prefer if they were losing games, but Caleb was looking a lot better offensively. Because again, they're nobody's gonna like come to convince themselves that they're a team that can go win in the playoffs. But like so, like maybe if they were just losing more games and Caleb was figuring it out and it was starting to click for him, you can kind of talk yourself into them having a little bit more of a future. But with him playing like this, even when you're winning football games, are they winning because or in spite of him? And again, it's not like he's looked like this all year, but he had a really good game last game. But like this, a game like this is what he has had more often than not this season. So if it's not looking better, like what are we like what are we doing here? But they won good for them. Four wins in a row, they're not four and two on the year. Next game, Dolphins Browns. Browns win the game 31-6. They were superpowered by Quinshawn Judkins, 25 carries, 84 yards, and three touchdowns. He was absolutely their superman in this game. Dylan Gabriel, 13 of 18, 116 yards, zero touchdowns, zero picks. He really didn't do a lot in this football game. And it that was the difference, man, because their defense, okay, so they were their defense was awesome in this game, but I think there's a caveat is they didn't have to play lights out because Tua was absolutely helping them. Tua, Tago, Tagobaloa, the quarterback for the Dolphins, who's making$53 million a year, went 12 of 23 for 100 yards, zero touchdowns, three picks. He got benched in this football game. He got benched. They said, hey, you're not playing well enough, and they threw Quinn Ewers in, the guy they just drafted in the seventh round. They threw him in and he played five of eight, 53 yards. Again, it was it was garbage time by that point. But Tua had thrown those three picks and they were he was playing so terribly that the Browns wouldn't really not try that hard. And they won this game in a landslide. Again, Quinsha Judkins did his thing, but like Tua was that bad. He was like, he might have been an undercover Browns player in that game because of how bad he played. And as bad as I've talked about too, and how bad as he has been throughout his career, but like it was an especially level, like a terrible level of bad in that game. And the Browns were there to take advantage of it. They ran the football effectively with Quinshawn, and their defense was ready to take advantage of the moment where, hey, I'm just gonna put give you this football on a silver platter, nice and hand-wrapped, and you just go ahead and take that. And the Browns did every single time. So credit to the Browns, even if it's to a terrible Miami Dolphins team that I think will be firing everybody here soon. And you know what's funny is that one of the news stories was uh this start of this week is that they don't plan on getting rid of my uh Mike McDaniel, their head coach. Why? What has shown you that he can be a good head coach in this league? The team doesn't respect him, and again, maybe, maybe to the quarterback thing, maybe you can say that Tua was a guy that was handed to him and he had to make it work and he did, and they they decided to pay him after a couple good seasons that he had with Mike McDaniels being his head coach slash office coordinator. Maybe you can say that. But it doesn't change the fact they're all their whole team does not respect Mike McDaniels as the head coach whatsoever. So, like, as a culture, you're never gonna have a culture that you need to go win football games because of how he's looked at in that locker room. That's not gonna change until you do a clean sweep of everybody there, let them all go, and have to build your team from ground up once again. But keeping Mike McDaniels is not gonna like he's again, he is a he will be a bang up offensive coordinator wherever he goes. Wherever he decides to get his next job as an OC, he'll be amazing because he is that good of a play caller when he has this thing moving, but I just don't think he is a coach. People have to respect the coach. You are not gonna have a head coach you don't respect. Your coach can't be your best friend. There has to be a level of respect there, and Mike McDaniel will never be able to respect get that respect in a locker room full of men with children. He's not gonna do it. He's not physically imposing. He kind of has like the LA type of vibe. Uh uh like he's just like talk super slow. Again, I'm not saying he's slow, but I'm saying it's just like he's very deliberate, but it's just he's a nerd, man. And it's like he's never gonna, he's a small guy, he's a nerd, he's not physically imposing, he's not mentally opposing, like imposing. So, like, if the you're doing he's not gonna like magically start getting respect from people, from players, he's not gonna magically start getting respect from them, and if that's the case, you're never gonna be able to build a team you need. Because on top of that, because maybe you can make the case that the Eagles, like, they don't respect their head coach, but they're winning games. But guess what? They have an organization that's a strong organization that even if their head coach isn't all that respected, they respect the GM and they respect the owner. Miami is not a team that is built off respect. The owner that is a billionaire. Nobody looks at him and loves him or respects him in general. They're they're um their GM, not really a well-respected guy either. So like they do not have a strong organization that can handle a coach of Mike McDaniel's tenure. Not tenure, of style. Style is probably the word I'm looking for. If you're gonna have a have a guy that's a little bit more of a like a soft, soft guy at the off uh at the coaching spot, you need to have a little bit more of a hard ass type of organization on the top. But they don't have that either because they're just bad at their jobs. So they just need to do a clean sweep. Again, you're not gonna get rid of the owner, but of everybody else, do a clean sweep and get somebody in there that can like establish a real culture there, and that for whatever reason, they're not gonna do that right now. But Tua, definitely get rid of him. He's just he's not he's not it. Next game, Patriots, Titans. Patriots win the game 31 to 13. This game was not honestly close at all. This game was pretty much a I honestly it was close in the first quarter where the Titans had scored that those 10 points. They were up 10-3 at the end of the first quarter, and then the Patriots will go over the next two quarters and score 28 points, and they pretty much put that put that game away pretty easily. Drake May went 21 to 20 21 of 23, 222 yards, two touchdowns, and zero picks. He was absolutely awesome in this game, playing very good football. They ran the football effectively, they ran for over 175 yards total. Ramondre Stevenson being the lead back, getting 88 yards off 18 carries and a touchdown. Um, they threw the football, like again, all the receivers kind of got involved. Stephon Diggs had seven catches. K Sean Boutte only had two catches, but 55 yards, Matt Collins had a couple catches for 50 yards, Hunter Henry got involved. Like, they just have a they don't have like maybe Stefan Diggs is probably the closest you get to a number one receiver, but they have a lot of dudes that can be involved, especially with Drake May playing at the level he is right now, with playing as efficiently as he is, getting the ball down the field. If he's playing like this, you don't necessarily need a superstar total receiver to do what you have to do. But it's just with Drake May playing as well. I think you're the like he's starting to make a case like he's like one of the of like all the quarterbacks playing right now. He's looking, he's like in the top five for players looking their play at what I'm not trying to say Drake May is a top five quarterback, but he might be playing his production, might be top five worthy. That's what I'm saying, trying to say. That's what I'm trying to say. Because I was trying to like like put the needle through the thread, needle through the hole. Like, I was trying to put it there where I'm like, oh, he's I'm not saying he's a top five guy, but he's playing like one. But uh for whatever reason I was struggling there. Titans, without their head coach, they had just fired. You were thinking, oh, maybe they'll play better, which happened in the first quarter, and then it pretty much got taken away after that. Cam Ward was fine, 25 of 34, 255 yards, one touchdown, one pick. Again, they were overmatched. It was what it is. Even with no with New England not being the most talented of football teams, they're still leagues above what Tennessee Titans has. The Tennessee Titans have at the helm. Not at the helm, but talent-wise, other than Cam Ward is a very talented player, but outside of him, they really don't have anybody else. Uh they ran the football for only 40 yards total in this game. They have dudes that can catch like it's just like they don't have any other real difference. Maybe a Elick Aomanor, Aleik Eomanor, the guy they drafted uh this past season in the draft, like maybe him, but like outside of that, they have a bunch of guys. And it's just not consistent enough. Their defense is not good, and playing against Drake May, playing the way he was that day, they had no shot, and the Patriots made it made it look not pretty. Chiefs, Raiders. Chiefs won the game 31-0 to the Raiders at home. Chiefs, I I've been saying this for a couple weeks now, and I think they're it. This is the first game they have back with Rasheed Rice. And guess what? It looks straight up Death Star like again. They may not have the guy that can really stretch the field and get the big plays, but it doesn't matter. With Mahomes playing like this, and with him having a decent amount of protection on his offensive line, that's all he needs, man. He went 26-35, 286 yards, three touchdowns, zero picks. Absolutely unstoppable, man. It was so bad to where the Chiefs were kneeing the ball out. They were kneeing it. Victory formation with minutes left on the clock. I'm talking like two, three minutes left on the clock, and they were kneeing it out, and the Raiders weren't even trying to fight back, and they were like, hey, we want this game to be over. No, sorry, it was like four minutes left on the clock. I was seeing them kneeing the ball. Like they just wanted the game to be over because of how lopsided it was from start to finish. They, and even with Patrick Mahomes playing at a like a much different level right now, they ran the football as well. They ran for over 152 yards total in this game, like a very good amount for what they need to be doing. And guess what? They have all their weapons back. Everybody is involved. Travis Kelsey, 54 yards. Rasheed Rice, 42 yards. A guy that just came back off his suspension, seven receptions, 42 yards, and two scores. Brashard Smith, 42 yards off five catches. Taekwon Thornton got involved. Juju Smith Schuster, Xavier Worthy, Noah Gray, Hollywood Brown. This is the thing. They may not have a Tyreek Hill, but the post-Tyreek Hill, that like year and a half, two years where that offense was still very good and they had a bunch of weapons, they're back. And maybe their defense isn't what it was over the last couple years, but it doesn't have to be now because their offense has figured it out. And that this is what I've been scared of, man. I've been scared of this for I've been scared of this all season long. And I'm like, hey, like ever since that like they started kind of putting things together over the last three or four weeks, they started out 0-2, I think, or 0-3, and now they won four games in a row. Like and they're looking like they're just gonna be in the Super Bowl again, and and like nobody else is gonna be able to get to have fun. Because they just Canada City finally start to figure it out, and no other team in the AFC looks like they're ready to take the mantle. So guess what? They're gonna Kansas City's gonna figure it out. They're gonna Matt Mahomes is already like in the he's like the favorite for MVP right now, the way that he's playing, and they have all their weapons back, and nobody's gonna be able to stop them offensively. Defensively, maybe you could just have a scoring fest where the team's just going back and forth first to 30 wins, but like you are not gonna stop this Kansas City offense the way they're playing right now. So I don't know. The Raiders, I'm not gonna say here that Gino's bad. He ended up getting benched for how badly he played. He only had he went Gino went 10 of 16 for 67 yards. One of my all-time bad takes. I was very positive about Geno Smith coming into the year, and I was thinking, oh, Geno Smith, Ash and Gente, they have a bringing in um why am I forgetting the head coach's name? Uh Pete Carroll is the head coach. Maybe they can do something this year. Eh, wrong. Gino's ass. Ash and Gente had a couple weeks there where they was looking very good, but otherwise, he is ass. Again, it's hard for to think of anything else because their offensive line is so terrible. I thought their offense line would be a little bit better coming into the year, but they have not been. It's been garbage. They don't have any consistent weapons throwing the football to if Brock Bowers isn't there, and guess what? He hasn't been there. So their offense has been absolutely awful, especially in this game. They didn't have any type of fight in this game. So I don't know, man. It's it's bad. It's the Raiders are very bad. The Chiefs are back to being like Death Star level offensively, and I'm down bad right now because I'm just like, again, it wasn't like I was going to see my team in the Super Bowl. What's going to happen? The Steelers suck. But I was at least going to be happy seeing somebody else play in the Super Bowl from the AFC side. And it's not looking that way, and I'm kind of upset about it. Next game, Eagles, Vikings. Eagles win the game 28-22. I the Eagles have a very good offensive game finally. Jalen Hurts might have had his best game as a pro in this game. He went 19-23 for 326 yards and three touchdowns. One of those touchdowns being to Devontae Smith, who had nine catches, 183 yards and a touchdown, and then those other two touchdown passes went to AJ Brown, who had four catches, 121 yards, and two touchdowns. And here's what I'll say. And this has been the thing over the last couple years is that you'll get a lot of complaints from the wide receivers, and they'll get let them have a great wide receiver game, and then they'll the the loudness, the the complaining will simmer down for a little bit, and then it'll pop up a couple games later. But I think the difference is now that they don't have a running game to go back and rely on. Saquon has not been good this year. I'm not saying he's washed. I'm not saying he'll be like this forever, but I think coming off of last year where he ran up for ran for 2,000 yards and had all those carries, and I think also compounded on top of that, their offensive line had all those runs and like all those guys, all those times they had to run block, and then they lost a couple of guys and all of that. I think that just compounds into them not having a good offensive running, like a good running game this year. Like I just don't think it's gonna happen. And I'm not saying Saquon will never get back to playing how he did last year, but like there's a reason why going back to back, having awesome seasons, all-time seasons like that is not gonna happen. And as of right now, it looks like Saquon is gonna be this is gonna be a down year for him. And if you can't run the football like you did last year to kind of lead them to go into the Super Bowl like they did last year, guess what they're gonna have to do? They're gonna have to put it all on Jalen Hurts, and they're gonna have to have a good passing game on a week in, week out basis to go win football games. And I've already made my case is that Jalen Hurts is a streaky thrower. You're gonna have games that he's gonna be awesome, you're gonna have games where he can't throw to save his life, and that's something you're gonna have to deal with. And usually it's a running game to help support that. But if you don't have that, what do you have? You got nothing else offensively now. So now the Eagles are gonna have to build an offensive game plan out of, hey, Jalen, we we just need you to throw the football a lot, and you're just gonna have to keep throwing to Devontae Smith and AJ Brown all day, and hope they can be happy with that and hope we can win football games because they're not gonna be able to run the football the way they did last year. It's just not gonna happen this year. It's just the way it way that it looks right now. So Jalen's gonna have to throw the football, he's gonna have to be a little more consistent, and hopefully that'll be enough for Devontae Smith and AJ Brown to not blow up the team with being with complaining. And that the defense for the Eagles is not the same either. Like they their secondary is not nearly the same, and pass rush-wise, like they can get after you some games, but it's just not consistent whatsoever. Maybe they'll get better by the end of the year, but because they have talent to do, so like it's not a lack of talent on the defensive side, it's just a lack of continuity, and they did they do they are missing some talent on the back end, so like that is a problem that they have. But the front seven, they have some, they still have talent, but it's just will it get to being as dominant as it was last year? I don't think so. So, with all that, it's like the way they get back to the Super Bowl and win it again is for Jalen Hurts to be the MVP like player for your team. And I just don't know that they have an offense that can support that if Jalen is not gonna be playing lights out every week. And he played lights out on Sunday against Minnesota, all the credits to him. But I just question whether they can keep that going on a weekend, week out basis, and I just don't think it's gonna happen. To the other side, Minnesota. They lost this game. Carson Winston not played great. He had two very bad interceptions in this game. It was awful, those two picks that he had. Other than that, he went 26 to 42, 313 yards, seven and a half yards of throw. He got sacked twice. They didn't really run the football that effectively. They ran for 89 yards total in this game. They just couldn't convert and get into the end zone enough. They got into the end zone a little bit, but with the running game. But how many field goals was it? I think it was one touchdown total, right? Yeah, I think it was one touchdown total offensively, and then the rest was just a bunch of field goals. So they couldn't they couldn't convert, get into the red zone, score touchdowns. That was the difference in this game, while Philadelphia was able to. But their defense is not showing to be nearly as good as it had been in the past couple years. And if Carson Wentz is not going to be able to be lights out every week, like he like honestly, I think he'd been playing very not, he has not been playing lights out, but he's been playing well throughout the season so far, and that game he just kind of he was throwing some bad picks and couldn't get it all the way together, and uh they definitely lost because of it. And especially without the running game, they couldn't run the football whatsoever in this one, and I don't know, it's it's just a weird one, and the whole JJ McCarthy thing, like they keep saying that he still has an ankle injury, even though they said it was supposed to be only a four-week injury, and now it's on track to be six weeks, and I think that they benched, not Billy Bench him, I think they the McCarthy did have an injury, and then they brought Carson Wentz in and he started playing some pretty good football, and then every week they keep getting some decent play out of Carson Wentz, it's like, uh, you don't have to play, right? JJ McCarthy, your ankle still hurts, right? Owie, oui. But the problem is that if Carson Wentz really starts to fall off a cliff and not keep that production up over the lot he's had the last few weeks, other than this past week this past uh game this on Sunday, like what happens when Carson Wentz starts to suck again? You're gonna have to go back to JJ, and JJ wasn't playing all that well either. It's just at some point you're gonna have to like swallow that pill and go take it because like that's the guy you put the the future of your of your organization into. Like that's what you that's the bet you made. So you're gonna have to figure out whether he can be that guy or not, or maybe they're already convinced he's not, and they pulled up San Fran, and it's their quarterback position looks like shit. Like maybe that's the case as well. But you're gonna have to let JJ McCarthy out there to figure it out. Like, again, I get it, he didn't play well the first few starts that he had, but I just think Carson Wentz is gonna overstay his welcome sooner rather than later. You're gonna have to go to somebody else, and you ain't got shit else but JJ McCarthy. So, you know, it is what it is on that, but congrats to the Eagles for winning that game. They definitely needed that to kind of kind of quiet the noise that is kind of been building up in Philadelphia over the last few weeks. Um, Panthers, Jets, Panthers won 13-6. Justin Fields looked like shit. It was bad. And the owner came out, I think today, and backed their head, their head coach up, and they were like, hey, like he literally blamed Fields is like, hey, if our quarterback can't complete a forward pass, then how are we gonna look? And I'm sitting here like, okay. I'm biased here. Jay uh Justin Fields being a buckeye, I always root for the buckeyes, even in the NFL, no matter where they go, I root for them to have all this all the success in the world. And when Justin Fields has looked his best, he was with the Steelers last year. He was playing well, he was playing in structure, he had a little bit of offensive line to protect him, but he was playing good football, okay? And it's not like we had weapons last year. Honestly, we had nobody but George Pickens, and he made it work, okay? And he was playing some decent football. We were in four and two before we benched him. And then we got into the offseason. The Steelers wanted to keep him, but they wanted to keep him at a cheaper price, and he had the opportunity to go get paid$30 million guaranteed from the Jets, and he took it. Okay. And he went to a Jets team that, yes, does have Garrett Wilson, his his college teammate that he played with, that he had a very good connection with. Like he had they had him there. Okay, fine, that makes sense. But for the Jets, what else do they have? Their offensive line is ass. Outside of Garrett Wilson, they really don't have a lot of weapons to throw to. I guess Brees Hall is a definitely a good running back, but he's inconsistent at times and they can't really run the football well because their offensive line is so terrible. And then defensively, they have been a total train wreck defensively. So even if Justin Fields had turned his life around and become a much better quarterback and all of his problems were solved, he was going to an ass team that doesn't have any support around him. And I'm not sitting here saying that Justin Fields isn't part of the problem. He is bad. He holds on to the football too long, and you could just tell he's not comfortable because his offensive line is awful and they can't protect in front of him. But the thing is, is that him and CJ are having similar issues right now with not believing in their protection. But the difference is that at least CJ has a better idea as to when to get rid of the ball and he can kind of survive a little bit more. But the fact that Justin Fields on his end, he can't he holds on the football too long, he needs the ball, he needs the window to be open to throw it, and then he tries to run and he can't, and it just looks like totally like he looks like the worst quarterback in the NFL the way that it's looking right now. And he's gonna take the brunt of that. But again, at least he got his$30 million. It's life-changing money. But it's just it makes me wonder like what it could have been like if he would have just stayed with Pittsburgh, and they would have put time and put effort into him and believed in him, got him some weapons, and maybe have better at offensive line. As much as I don't believe the offensive line of the Steelers is awesome, it's much better than what the Jets have. There was a real chance he could have been the long-term option for the Steelers. And again, I'm not sitting here saying Justin Fields would have turned into an amazing quarterback, but he would have been a starting quarterback in the NFL, and I just feel like he went to the spot that gave him the most money. Again, I'm not blaming him whatsoever for that. I'm not. The Steelers should have came correct with more money on the table and he would have stayed, but he didn't. And on top of the fact they they took him off the field when they were four and two and playing good football, like all those things I can totally I could totally understand Justin Fields not trusting in the Steelers organization, and then take seeing the bigger money on the other side with the Jets, and then the guarantee that he can be the starter without anybody looking having to look behind him. I understand why he took that chance, but the chance it was a bad spot to go to, and it's proven to be that way, and then now he's playing bad on top of that, and it makes it look so much worse, and now he's gonna be the fall guy. And this may be his last chance to be a real starter in the NFL, and he's he's lost it because he went to a bad spot. That wasn't gonna help him. And again, I'm still again, I'm not I'm not trying to absolve him of his issues because he has issues, he's not all that accurate, and he doesn't like he relies on athleticism too much, and he doesn't see the field well, and like all those things are are all those things are true and real. But I saw him play good football last year with the Steelers, and it just makes me wonder. What if we weren't like stuck to a one-year rental in Aaron Rodgers this year, and we had Justin Fields maybe playing some decent football, not saying great football, but playing decent football, and we had a real future with a guy, maybe not isn't a franchise guy, but at least a starter that we can rely on for a couple years. It could have been a help for both him and the Steelers. I'm just saying, I don't know. But he's been playing terribly, it hasn't been good. He got benched in this game. It was because it was so bad. They're the only winless team in this season. Panthers took advantage. Bryce Young did not play great, but he played well enough. Again, he decided to be better than Justin Fields, and that's exactly what he was. He went 15, Bryce Young went 15 of 25, 138 yards and a touchdown. Carolina ran the football a little bit better. They ran for 125 yards total. Rico Dowdle, the running back that has kind of like come on to kind of like be one of their better players in general. He's had 17 carries, 79 yards, and then he also had another 17 yards receiving. Xavier Leggett made a made a couple big plays. He had nine receptions, 92 yards and a touchdown. Tet McMillan, still there, guy you have to worry about on like down and down out basis that kind of opens up the offense for everybody else. But Carolina didn't have to do that much. They decided to be better than the Jets, and that's exactly what happened because of how bad the Jets were offensively. And uh congrats to the Panthers for the win. But it again, it I'm sorry it sorry it comes off as me just kind of like lamenting about what could have been, but you know, it is what it is. And uh I I it sucks for Justin Fields that this may be his last opportunity, and then he's kind of out of the league. When I know it can be okay. I'm not saying it'll be great. I'm just saying I know it can be okay because I've seen it. I've seen it in real time for my own team. I've seen it, I've seen him play good football. And it sucks he kind of like I'm not gonna say sold his soul, but like he took the money, the guaranteed money, but it was from a spot that was never gonna be able to give him the support he needs as a quarterback. So I don't know. Next game. Giants, Broncos. Oh, this game was a doozy. Broncos win the game 33-32. Going into the fourth quarter, the Giants were absolutely dominating. Jackson Dart and Cam Scadaboo in that defense were absolutely dominating the Broncos. I think they were up 19 0. 7 plus 6 plus 6. It's 19. They were up 19-0 to start the third the fourth quarter. And the Giants had an all-time meltdown and let the Broncos score 33 unanswered points. No, sorry, not unanswered. They let the Broncos score 33 points, including a last second field goal to end it in regulation. And this was with the Giants scoring 13 points of their own in the fourth quarter. There was a total of 46 points scored in that fourth quarter. I think there were three lead changes. And they the Giants also led with like a minute left, and they let the Broncos come back and win that game with the game-winning field goal. So, how do I feel? If I'm on the Jets side, I mean the Giants side, I'm like again, it sucks because especially with the pick that Jackson Dart threw in that fourth quarter, if he didn't throw that, that kind of upstarted the comeback really for the Broncos. He threw that pick and it just kind of like Broncos were instantly close to scoring position, and they kind of got into the red zone quickly and managed to score the touchdown to kind of get it down to two scores. I think it was down to two scores, I think. Hold on, let me see here. Let me make sure I'm not crazy. Scoring plays. It was all plays and then do it that way. Interception he threw. Yeah, the Giants were up 26-16 when they threw that pick. So they were up two scores at the time. And then Jackson Dart threw the bad pick. Then the uh Broncos scored the touchdown to get it to 26-23. And then the Giants punt, and then the Broncos score another touchdown to go up 30 to 26. And then here's the thing: that happened. So the Broncos are up 20 30 to 26 because on that touchdown, it was the Bonex throwing to the wide receiver. It pops out of his hands. I think they were trying to throw to somebody, I forget whoever they were trying to throw to. And then it popped, it was a ricochet into the hands of Troy Franklin that scored the touchdown in the end zone that put them up 30 to 26. And then on the neck, very next drive, the Giants get the ball back, go on a seven play, 65 yards, touchdown drive, with the game, with the uh the touchdown coming off of a ricochet off of their wide receiver, and then jumps into the hands of the quarterback. No, sorry. Was that oh that was a different different time, wasn't it? Oh no, I messed up on that. Yeah, it was the one for Johnson. So that would that that play happened early in the fourth quarter when the so the in the early in the fourth quarter, Broncos score a touchdown to start the fourth, that and that was off the ricochet, and then to go to make the game 19-8 to make it a one-score game. No, two-score game, and then the Giants score that touchdown off with the Ricochet to the tight end, Johnson, Theo Johnson, to go up 26-8, and then it goes from there, and then all that stuff happens. It's like kept going back and forth. Um, Jackson Dart threw that pick, it was the whole thing. And on the Giants side, it's a young team. Dayball, the head coach for there, is just hoping that Jackson Dart shows enough to convince the ownership group that they need to keep Dayball on to kind of nurture Jackson Dart to kind of help him out to be the quarterback. I think Dart has shown more than enough to show that he's like their guy for the future, at least for right now. He hasn't shown a real reason like to not believe in him to be their future quarterback, along with Cam Scottaboo playing some good football, like they were dominating for a good portion of this game. And I think the difference was in that fourth quarter is that like their defense just didn't let up. And there was one point where they missed, they were trying to go up, they hit got the touchdown to try to go up four with the extra point, and then their kicker missed the extra point to only stay up three, and that allowed the opportunity for was that three or two to go up. Seven plays, extra point, yeah. So it was the touchdown to allow to have the Giants to be able to go up. So they would have been up five. No, no, no, no. Touchdown. Okay, sorry, to go up one. That was what that's what I was trying to say. No, 26-30. Yeah, the Giants scored the touchdown, there was a it was 26-30 at the time. The Giants scored the touchdown, they try to go for the field goal, sorry, the extra point, and they missed the extra point. And then instead of them being up three, they were up two. Yes, that's exactly what happened. And then that allowed the the the Broncos to be able to come back and only have to hit the field goal to win the game instead of instead of it being to tie the football game. That's what I was trying to say. That's it. Sorry, English is hard sometimes, and my thoughts aren't necessarily coming out as seamlessly as I would like at the as at the moment. But my whole thing was Giants, they're a young team, they gotta learn, their defense is a little bit iffy, they kind of let the Broncos come back. It was a legendary fumbling of the bag to be up 19-0 in that fourth quarter to start, and then you give up 33 points. Okay? I get it. A lot of people want to jump on the kicker from not hitting the extra point to go up three. Fine, but I think they had more than a more than ample opportunities to get the job done themselves and not it not be on the special teams at all. So I don't want to hear anybody blaming the kicker for the reason that they lost. Denver. The idea that they keep doing this throughout the year, they keep having three quarters of playing like ass and then playing well in the fourth quarter to come back to win. That's setting up unreal expectations for playing football teams, especially when they're doing against a bad football teams that like you can't expect to be able to play like this against good football teams, then have an opportunity to come back and win. So I think with that being the case, that's something that's set up setting up a bad uh precedent for what this team is. And again, it's like weird with not having Jace here because he's the guy that's a little bit more of the Bo Knicks guy, and I feel like he would be a little more positive about how this game went and said, Hey, look at how great Bo Knicks was. He managed to engineer the comeback, but I'm like, the Giants helped the Broncos as much as the Broncos went and took it. That they should not have had an o had an opportunity to come back and win that game, but the Giants kept giving them that opportunity to do that. So there was some bad calls in this game that kind of helped the game go the way that it went, but I just feel like the Giants have ample opportunities to kind of end this game and they couldn't because they're a young team and they're not as good. And then the Broncos took advantage of their opportunities, but I just feel like you're not gonna have a lot of spots where you're gonna be able to play like booty cheeks for three quarters and then be able to come back and put win it in the fourth. Not only are you not gonna get that many opportunities, but you're not gonna be able to like you're not to thread that needle is such a hard thing, and the other team has to help you as much as you do it for yourself. And it's like it's not something you can rely on every week, and it's just I just don't believe that that is a a good recipe for winning football on a week in, week out basis. Again, credit to Bo Knicks for having that magical moment, but it's just it's just they play so bad, it's just like, what are they? Why can't they do this for a whole football game and take care of it rather than needing a crazy comeback in the fourth quarter to win? I just I don't know. It's a weird football team. That defense for Denver is very good though. When they lock in, but again, even with that, even with their defense knowing, I know that they're good, they were losing to the Giants 19-0. Like, what do like what are we doing? Like, I know the giant Broncos defense is good, but like they were they were getting beat up by the Giants. I'm just like, I don't know. It's a weird football team that Broncos are, but credit to them, they won the football game. But I just like if you're there's no way you feel great about this. At least if you're if you know what you're talking about. There's no way you feel great about this, that that win. No way you feel great about it. Um, next game, Colts, Chargers. The col the Colts are a wagon, dude. Like, they are not a fun story anymore. They are real. This game, they won 38 to 24, and the game shouldn't even have been that close. It really shouldn't have. Like the the Colts were dominating that football game. Dominating. It felt like every time they got the football, they scored. It felt that's what it felt like in this game. Again, the Chargers are able to do a little bit more offensively in the second half to kind of make the game closer. But like the Colts were just unstoppable. Like, offensively, they're unstoppable, man. Credit to Daniel Jones. He's like playing really good football right now. But even still, they're not even relying on him like that. And he's still playing good ball. He went 23 of 34 for 288 yards, two touchdowns, zero picks. He's averaging eight and a half yards of throw, eight and a half yards of completion. He's not he's not a check down merchant. He is throwing the football down the field and making good decisions and getting the ball to his weapons, and they're they're getting the job done. Jonathan Taylor is an absolute monster. He went, he had 16 carries for 94 yards and three touchdowns. Jonathan Taylor is the battery that runs this team, and they're running the they're they're like he is the reason their team, their offense is as good as it is, good as it is, along with Daniel Jones making good good plays and keeping the offense rolling. But like Jonathan Taylor is the straw that stirs that drink and he's doing it right now. Jonathan Taylor had a couple years where it wasn't looking good due to injuries, but like this year he's an absolute monster. And I think it's between him and Bijan being the best running backs in the NFL, the way production-wise, at least, because for the Lions, you have uh Oh no, why am I forgetting his name now? That sucks. Uh oh no. Quinn uh Jameer, Jameer Gibbs. Jameer Gibbs is also amazing, but he's not. Getting the same touches, and it's just even though I know he's as talented as those those two backs being Bijan and Jonathan Taylor, it's just it's just not at the same rate. But like Jonathan Taylor's playing at a crazy level right now, and they're running the football very well. And their offense is just very good. Is it crazy to think they might be the big like the biggest test for the Kansas City Chiefs right now? Like seriously, I think they might be the biggest test because I'm just like they have constant proven it all year long that offensively they're just a team that can do the job. Daniel Jones is like playing within himself. Again, it's it's probably gonna be different once you have real like stakes in the playoffs and everything. But as of right now, he is passing every test and he's playing very good football as their quarterback. Showing to be like that he might be their long-term answer with how good he's playing right now. Colts are just on a different level, and like the Chargers, like maybe you can think that maybe the Chargers aren't that good with them being four and three and having the record that they do, but like the Chargers can play. Like they Justin Herbert had a good game, 20 37 to 55, 420 yards passing, three touchdowns, the two picks. The two picks are very bad in very bad spots. Like that was one, that was a couple bad mistakes on him. But I think otherwise, like the they the Chargers came to play, but they got outclassed. The Colts were a much better football team and it looked like it on that day. Chargers couldn't run the football whatsoever. They only had 54 yards total rushing in this game. But it's like the Colts are just running up running away with it, dude. They just got the lead early and just never gave it up. It was a crazy game to watch because it's just how dominant the Colts looked. And I'm like, I don't remember maybe the Peyton days when they've last looked this dominant, man. They just like could not be stopped. Again, offensively, defensively, they can let some things up, and the Chargers did score. But like offensively, man, the Colts are just on an insane level, and Jonathan Taylor is playing at an all-time, like not all-time level, but like he's playing at the top peak of his powers right now. And Jace is a big Jonathan Taylor hater, and I would love to rub it in his face because I've been the one that's kind of been hanging on to Jonathan Taylor over the last couple years with all of his injuries and saying he could still be a top top five back, and he's like, what are you talking about? Jonathan Taylor showing me to be right this year. He's playing awesome. Next game, Cowboys beat the Commanders 44 to 22. Dak Prescott is playing at an MVP level right now. He was dealing in this game. He went 21 of 30 for 264 yards and three touchdowns. They did have CeeDee Lamb back in this game. He came back and made a big impact. He had five catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. George Pickens had four receptions for 82 yards. He played very well. And again, this is what I'll say because everybody's starting to like jump on the Cowboys with Pickens and Lamb being like one of the top wide receiver duos in the NFL. And they're like, oh, Pickens is he's doing playing so well now that he finally has a quarterback. And I'm sitting here like, that's not again, maybe again. I wanna I would love to be able to sit here and say that all every everything he did in Pittsburgh was only about not having a quarterback that can get him the football. It wasn't just that. It wasn't. There's no way it was just that, dude. Like the way that I was saying in play at times in Pittsburgh, like I get it, the quarterback wasn't playing well, but they were trying to give you everything. You were the number one dude, and it felt like he gave up on the team more often than not. And again, it's going well right now. He's looking for a contract, but maybe I just don't think this is gonna this is now George Pickens being a new person now that he has a new quarterback that can get him the football. It's gonna start going bad at some point, and he's gonna be part of the problem. Maybe I'll maybe I'll turn out to be wrong and I'll look very stupid on this, but I will I'll die on this. I'm willing to die on this hill. Again, I keep going back to it, but I'll keep saying it every time. When I saw him in that game in Pittsburgh live on the field, I saw him. I was there, and I watched him, and I could tell right away that he wasn't getting the ball based on how he was running his routes. That was when I totally turned off on him when I'm never going back. And that's still in there. That is not gone. That's still in there. He's hiding it, and he's doing darn well. He's playing very good football with the Cowboys right now, especially as a number two. The fact that a guy of George Pickens' talent is a number two wide receiver is insane. But the problem is that you're just not going to get that same consistency every single week, every single year. And I feel like they are taking advantage of him having a great year right now, but it's just that's not gonna last long term. It's not. What I saw with him being for years in Pittsburgh is that that does not change. So credit to the Cowboys. They won. Dak played awesome. He's playing at an MVP level right now, he's probably having his best year as a pro. The Cowboys' defense is still not good, but they did have the one pick six in this game to kind of help them extend their lead. Um, the commanders weren't playing all that good. Jaden Daniels was playing was fine, I guess, in this game. Hold on, let me see here. Let me get I just want to make sure I got his stats so I'm not totally off. Um, Jaden, 12 of 22 for 156 yards and a touchdown. He was not throwing the football that effectively in this game. He really couldn't run the football either. He only ran for like 35 yards and had a touchdown, but like he wasn't looking all that dynamic. And he ended up getting hurt in this game. I think it was a hamstring injury or something like that. And Marcus Maru had had to come in, and then he threw the pick six to I think Daron Bland, right? I think it was Daron Bland that got the touch the pick six. So, and that was like kind of like superpowered the Cowboys to like really getting out ahead and really winning this game of like pretty handedly. I don't know, man. Uh like the Cowboys are fine. Like they're everybody's saying they're going after trying to get a uh get a pass rusher to kind of help out their defense, and everybody, all the Cowboys fans are like, oh, what if we go get uh uh why am I forgetting his name? Uh Max Crosby. And I'm like, well, you're kind of like hustling backwards or just like going the wrong way because you gave up Micah Parsons to then go trade for another w another defensive end that's making similar money. It's just I don't I don't know. I just feel like you if you gave up Micah Parsons didn't want to pay that type of money to that one player, you shouldn't go then trade for somebody else that's older and making in the same type of ballpark money. It doesn't make any sense to me. But the Cowboys offensively are playing awesome right now. The Dak is in his bag. Um the wide receivers are great. Now they have CeeDee Lamb, that it's just um they even ran the football effectively. Javante Williams had 116 yards total rushing in this game and a touchdown. Like he they also ran the football well. Again, it's against a Washington football team defense that is nothing really to bright home about whatsoever. So I'm not gonna sit here and say the Cowboys are like take doing this against some of the best defenses in the NFL. But like, again, all you can do is go off of what the games they're playing, and Dak and that offense is looking looking and playing very good football right now. Next game, Packers, Cardinals. Packers win the game 27 to 33. This game was kind of close throughout the whole thing. Um it really it did take the Green Bay getting those 14 points in the fourth quarter to really kind of get Vault themselves to really win this game. Let me see here. I'm gonna make sure I'm not crazy. Yeah, it took Green Bay getting the touchdown to tie it earlier on in the fourth quarter, and then getting the late touchdown to go up 27 to 23 to go and win it with like about a little less than two minutes left. It was a close game. And I was saying how the Cardinals' offense was looking a little bit different with Joby Brissett, and he was playing well in this game. He went 25 of 36 for two touchdowns and a hundred sorry uh 279 yards passing. They ran the football for about 100 yards, they didn't run the football all that well, but like they were getting the getting the ball to their weapons. Trey McBride, 10 receptions, 74 yards, two touchdowns. Marvin Harrison Jr., two receptions, 58 yards. Zay Jones had 67 yards off two catches. Michael Wilson made a couple big plays. Michael Carter, like they it almost felt like I get it, Brissett is not as as talented of a quarterback as Kyler Murray is, but he's taller. He uses the middle of the field, he knows his own limitations, and he takes advantage, like he he does what he needs to do, and he plays the the game on time, he gets the ball on target, he's getting it to his guys, and they're making plays, and they're actually looking good in these football games. Coming into the year, there was nobody that was going to think that Arizona was gonna be competitive with a team like Green Bay, and they were. I don't know. Green Bay did enough to win. Jordan Love played fine, 19 of 29, 179 yards, one touchdown, zero picks. He didn't play great. He didn't play great whatsoever. But when it was time when they needed the touchdown to win it, they he did it, they did enough to do the do the job. Josh Jacobs was really like the main guy for them offensively. 13 carries, 55 yards, and two touchdowns. Like he was like the main guy. Um Tucker Kraft made a big play for a touchdown in this game. Romeo Dubbs had 72 yards, six receptions. The Packers did what they needed to win the game, but it was a very it was much closer than you would think coming into it. And Cardinals did show out and play some pretty decent football. So I do have to give them a little bit of credit, even if it was in a loss. Um next game. We only have a couple left, so hopefully I'm not going too much longer. Um, Sunday night game. Falcons, Niners, Niners won the game 20-10. Chris McCaffrey had a very good night. He had 24 carries, 129 yards, two touchdowns. He was awesome running the football um Sunday night. Mac Jones did not play great. 17 of 26, 152 yards, zero touchdowns, and a pick. He wasn't all that good. But it was Chris McCaffrey show, man. He had, like I said, he had the all those yards rushing, and then he also had seven recepts for 72 yards receiving as well. And he was the reason I have to give Kyle Shanahan a little bit of credit that he is coaching this team. And I get it, I've always made my jokes about Mac Jones and him about Kyle Shanahan only wanting an automaton as the quarterback, so he can just the quarterback can just do what he says. But I do think he is, with all the injuries a San Fran team has, he is getting this team to play above their weight class every single week. And they're playing good football. And again, they're leaning on their superstars. Christian McCaffrey is having an awesome year. And they did get uh George Kittle back in this game. He didn't do anything, but he did block. He did help them run the football. And that's exactly what they did. They decided to go in this game, and they they were like, hey, we are by hook or by crook, we are going to establish the run running the football. And that's exactly what they did. And Christian McCaffrey had an awesome game. And defensively, like here's the thing: defensively, the San Francisco's not great, they're not. But the Falcons did just did not show up at all offensively in this game. Michael Penix, 21-38 for 241 and a touchdown. Not a great game. And he they weren't effective in getting into the red zone and scoring touchdowns like they needed to. B. He was like their best player that night. He had Bijan had 14 carries, 40 yards, and then he also had six receptions for 52 yards and a touchdown receiving. But Drake Lund didn't do all that much. He had four recepts for 42 yards. Darnell Mooney was their leading receiver with 68 yards off three catches. Kyle Pitts had 62 yards off seven catches. But it's just the Falcons just were meh offensively that night. And San Fran was able to control the football by running the football effectively, and that's exactly what they did. And you have to give all the credit to San Fran, man, is like they came that night and said, hey, we're gonna run the football, we're gonna establish, we're gonna establish it, and we're gonna control this football game. That's exactly what they did. And the Falcons with uh Michael Penix could not answer back and do what they needed to do. And uh San Fran gets the win because they just know how to win football games, even if, even with all the injuries that they have. So, you know, it is what it is. Big big game for the Niners. They're five and two. If the fact they have so many injuries, guys that are gone for the year, and they're five and two right now is absolutely insane to me. Alright, Monday night games. Let's get to them. There wasn't, honestly, in retrospect, these games were not I guess the Texans game was close, but we'll start with the first one. Lions beat the Buccaneers 24-9. The Lions were dominating offensively. Jared Goff was fine, 20 of 29, 241 yards, one touchdown, one pick. He was not necessarily the reason they won this game. You know who was the reason? It was Jameer Gibbs. He was the energizer for bunny for this offense. He had 17 carries, 136 yards, and two touchdowns, average over eight, average eight yards of carry. Amaro St. Brown also had an awesome game. He had six receptions, six receptions, 86 yards and a touchdown. And then Jameer Gibbs, on top of the running, also had 82 yards receiving as well. So like it was Jameer Gibbs and Amara St. Brown show, and they did what they needed to do. And they their and their offense did play great, and their defense played awesome too. And this was the same night, again, the Buccaneers had had so many guys injured coming in too last night, and it the news came out that Mike Evans and Emeka Buka were gonna be able to come in and play for the Tampa Bay last night. And I was like, oh, okay, this is gonna be a shootout, and they're gonna be playing well because the Allies have so many guys hurt in their secondary, and it's about to be a shootout, and it's gonna be awesome. But that did not happen last night. The Buccaneers were just stymied offensively all night long. Baker went 28 of 50 for 228 yards, one touchdown, and one pick. Like all those passes completed in yards are empty empty calories, man, because they were just they would get they would go down the field and get into the close to like scoring range, and they would just keep not converting and not getting touchdowns and having to go for field goals instead. And it was just and it got to a point they were down so much going into like the third and the fourth quarter, is that hey, we can't even take field goals anymore, so we have to keep going for it, and they couldn't do it. Baker Mayfield was not comfortable at all last night. He only hit he got sacked four times. I think he was getting bruised and battered all night long. There was always somebody getting after him, even if he got a ball off. And the passes he did he did get off, he wasn't all that accurate either. It didn't help that Amekabook was coming off an injury with his hamstring, so he did not look like 100%. Mike Evans did come back and he was playing, but he ended up going leaving this game because he broke his clavicle, um, broke his collarbone, and he's gonna be out for pretty much all the regular season. Maybe he'll come back in the playoffs. So like they didn't like it's not like they were at full strength or anything, but like it was just not a good game whatsoever. And the Buccaneers couldn't get anything going offensively. Defensively, I have to give the Buccaneers credit. They did try until the very end, like they were playing some tough ball, and even with Jameer Gibbs playing as out of his mind as he did, it could have been worse if the Buccaneers hadn't played with as much heart as they did. So I have to give the Buccaneers defense a lot of credit for keeping them in the game as long as they did. But it's just as the game went along, it just went just became harder and harder and harder for that defense to fight off the Lions, and they made the play enough plays to win the game going away 24-9 last night. So all the credit to the Lions. Tampa Bay looked like a wagon at one point. They lost a few guys. Hopefully, they can get a Mecca back healthy so he can be their main guy again because Mike Evans is gone, and maybe they'll get uh why am I forgetting that other wide receiver's name? Chris Godwin. Hopefully they'll get him back to be on the other side of Mek, but it's just they have so many guys injured right now offensively, and Baker did not feel any type of comfortability at all in that game, and he was hurt, and he just wasn't stepping into throws. He was missing some throws short. Like, usually, like he was on a run there for like pretty much since the start of the year, like he was like at his most accurate and he was playing so well, and people were saying, hey, he's having his Drew Brees moment, but in that game, it was just it kind of all fell apart, and there was nothing the Buccaneers could do about it. It really couldn't. Um, but good win for the Lions for sure. They kind of dominated, and and uh and that boy Jameer Gibbs, absolutely amazing at football, man. It's like the most exciting players in the NFL to watch right now is Jameer Gibbs, it's Jonathan Taylor, and it's uh why? Why am I B. John Robinson? Like those are the three dudes, and again, they're all running backs, but like it don't matter. Those those three guys are crazy good. And then last but not least, the Monday, the uh last Monday night game, the one that started at 10 o'clock PM. Again, I'm I am not totally against the two Monday night games, but having the second game start at 10 o'clock is absolutely asinine, and I hope they don't keep doing that because I'm just like it was not it was it was a weird game. It was weird in general, and I did not like that I had to stay up so late to watch it. But Seahawks, Texans, Seahawks win the game at home 27-19. Um talk about the winners fair. Sam Darnold did not play his best football. 17-31, 213 yards, one touchdown, one pick. I'm not gonna fault him too much for that because I think that Houston defense is absolutely legit. It doesn't take a lot to see it because it's like when they play, when that Houston defense plays, they play hard, they hit hard, they play tough, they're really good on the back end of not letting you get any type anything easy. And even still, like they even as great as JSN was last night for Seattle, he had eight receptions, 123 yards, and a touchdown. Like he was like the only dude that like receiving the ball that was really any type, like he was like the guy, right? Elijah Arroyo, the tight end for them, played fine, four receptions, 42 yards. Cooper Cup had one catch for 32 yards. Cooper Cup also had like the they tried to do a double reverse to Cooper Cup to throw, and he threw it and he threw a pick. It was a bad pick at the time. Get managed to give Houston some points and kind of keep the game closer than what it was. But it I have to give all the credit to like the Seattle, they did their thing, especially defensively. They kept CJ Stroud uncomfortable all night long. They got a lot of pressure, even when they didn't get to him, they were getting close to him to make him feel uncomfortable. And Seattle did exactly what they had to do last night to win the football game. That's exactly what they did. They're five-2. It was a good team win in general, especially when you take it, take, take into account the fact that they were they knew that CJ was uncomfortable, they could not protect him, they could not run the football, and Seattle said, Hey, we know our defense is going to be able to control this game, and they didn't try to push it all that much until they did like the Cooper Cup throw thing, which once that happened, they didn't even did they give up points? No, it didn't, because they didn't uh Houston ended up going three and out. So even with that, it didn't really manage to matter all that much. But Sandartle played fine, he had that one pick that was bad, but like otherwise it was fine. They ran the football kind of good. They had 33 carries, 118 yards, and two touchdowns. So like Zach Charbonnet was like a big deal in this game. He had both touchdowns with the 12 carries and 49 yards, and uh the Seattle did their thing, and you have to give them a lot of credit. So let me get to Houston, okay. Again, I am a very biased guy, I am a Buckeye super fan, and I want to see everybody that ever plays in a Buckeye uniform go to the NFL and play awesome football. Okay, that's me. That's where I'm at. And CJ, CJ Stroud might go down as like my favorite quarterback I've ever seen in a Buckeye uniform. And so this is where my allegiances lie. So I have been on Houston all year long, and again, and through all of the struggles that they had, especially early on those first three games when they went 0-3. I all the troubles were there. Not being able to protect him, that offensive line is awful. Um, their offense not really kind of fitting what CJ Stroud likes to do, but their defense is awesome, and CJ, when he gets some time, can make some plays, but they can't run the football, they can't protect CJ Stroud, and that is like the big Achilles heel of this team, and that's not changing. Especially after watching last night coming off of a bye, you would think that Houston would have something figured out in general to kind of help, but they didn't. They didn't at all. That offensive line is absolutely garbage. CJ Stroud, 23 of 49 for 229 yards, one touchdown, and one pick. He got sacked three times for 31 yards, but I think he got pressured so much more. So I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, he only got touched three times. No. They only got to him three times, but the other times they were affecting passes. They were getting into passing lanes, they were making him throw earlier when he was trying to wait for a play to come open, and he did not feel comfortable all night, and they couldn't run the football at all either. Houston had 56 total yards rushing total. They could not run the football with CJ being the leading rusher with two carriers for 25 yards. This this Houston offense was so dead in the water because of how bad that offensive line is. That it's ridiculous. And let me get to the rest, let me talk about the rest of the team first before I get into like my main thought on this Houston Texans team. Um the Dalton Schultz played fine. He was like the he was the leading receiver for them in this game, nine receptions, 98 yards. He was like the only safety blanket really for them that he couldn't really get open. Uh Jalen, and I will give Seattle credit. Their secondary came to play. There was not an easy pass for Houston to hit because of how much pressure they got on CJ. And then on top of that, when those plays were trying to be made, their secondary guys were just going around hitting balls out of the air, making plays, getting after people. Like they, I would have to give Seattle a lot of credit. Their defense came to play and it really made Houston struggle because of it. But Dalton Schultz, like I said, was their leading receiver, had a great day at the tight end position. Jalen Noel, four receptions, 77 yards. Nico Collins did not do anything because I think they put a lot of uh uh attention on him to where he, if he was gonna get the ball, he was gonna be double covered, and there wasn't gonna be a lot of open plays for him to make, and he didn't really do anything. Like I said, four catches 27 yards, and it's just but here's the thing: even with how bad that offense is, and I'll get to my main point on the offensive line in a minute, that defense for Houston is absolutely might be the best defense in the NFL, and they're gonna waste it because they can't do anything offensively because of the lack of protection for CJ Stroud and the lack of a running game. And I'm talking like free rushers, dude, like it wasn't even close. It like it's so bad, and that offensive line is awful. And it sucks that they're gonna waste a year of CJ Stroud being on a cheap rookie contract and a great year from that defense because of them not being adult enough to fix the offensive line when they know it's a problem. And now it's my big overarching thing on Houston with the offensive line. Going into last year's draft, the main thing that everybody knew they needed was offensive line, offensive line, offensive line. And I think they had just traded away their best offensive tackle, Laramie Tunsil. Was it Larry Tunsil? Am I crazy? Or is it somebody else? I think it might have been somebody else. Uh he was Larry Tunsell, right? Houston, okay. So they just traded away both their tackles. No, sorry, they let one tackle go and they traded away Larry Tunsel to Washington. So they didn't have any offensive tackles. Their their middle or deep their offensive line already sucked. We already knew that. And so going into last the draft, everybody knew that that's what you need. You need offensive line help, you need offensive line help, you need offensive line help. Coming off the year they had the year before last year, they made the playoffs, even with the offensive line struggling as much as they did. And they everybody knew that if you got CJ Stroud some protection, you'll be in a better spot. And you go into that draft, and guess what they decide to do with their first round pick? They trade out. Oh, okay. When offensive linemen go like crazy in the first round, especially tackles, which is what you need, you decide to trade out because you didn't like one of the guys that were there when you were picking. Okay. Maybe they wanted to trade up for a guy and they couldn't get it. So, like maybe they they decided to get out altogether because getting a great offensive lineman is going to be very easy in the later rounds, right? But here's my problem they trade out of the first round to get get a pick that'll help you out for future years, but in that second and third round, what do you do? You go and pick up wide receivers. They go with those two picks, they picked up the the bigger guy. Let me see here. Let me make sure I have the names right. They pick Let me see Jaden Higgins in the second round, and they pick up Jalen Knoll later on the in the in the uh draft as well. You go and take two wide receivers, a position that you already have Nico Collins, your number one guy, but they went and gotten got two wide receivers to help out that team when what they really needed was an offensive line. And what I came to last night watching this game is that they decided in that draft they wanted more ice cream. They when you go into the draft, you want to eat some good, good food, some good, hardy food, healthy food, eat some greens. You want to get all your food groups, and one of the main parts of the food group, if we're making a make the food analogy for your for your for your football team, is you need a good protective offensive line. I would say something like maybe something like um hardy. It was like something that like is hardy, but it's not like fatty. You need some good food that'll fill you up, but it but it you just need you need that, right? But they decided no, I want some ice cream, I want to add two wide receivers of what we already have been over the last couple years and make us more explosive. But the problem is when you go and make that move of I want more ice cream, when you need to eat some real greens and get some fiber in you, probably fiber is the way to go for offensive line, really get some fiber in there to kind of help your digestive digestive system out, you're overloading on ice cream and then you're shitting out the other end because your offensive line can't stop nothing. And they can't protect CJ. And now CJ isn't comfortable whatsoever playing in these football games, and now he's not playing as well as he needs to, and you can't do anything offensively because of how bad that offensive line is. And everybody knew this was your main issue going into the draft, and they didn't address it at all. And they went and got some spare parts that couldn't make it with their former stops, and just said, hey, we're gonna put this little like grab like little uh grab bag full of guys, and maybe it'll work. Guess what? It's not fucking working. In CJ Stroud, and that offense has to pay the price for it, and that the defense. Has to pay the price for it because you made the decision to go get more ice cream instead of getting some hardy food. They could have made the let's get off the analogy. They had an opportunity, and this is what the Chiefs did for a good while, which is why they're able to build their dynasty the way they had it. Not dynasty, because I can't probably call it dynasty at this point, but like when they traded away Tyree Kill, they got rid of the flash and then used those picks to go get offensive linemen and defensive players to help their team out to build it out on the other end. Houston had the opportunity to go and do that in this past year's draft to really help build a foundation to help CJ Stroud for his future. You can go get him some offensive linemen that he can have for a good portion of his career to protect him. And they decided to go get him more weapons, which is something they really again, it's nice, but they needed an offensive line and they don't have one. And that's organizational mispractice, malpractice, whatever you want to call it. They did wrong because they weren't they weren't willing to make the right decision, the good decision in the moment. Maybe it may not lead to you being better right now because you're gonna have to break in some new offensive linemen and they may not look good. But at least you'll have a pathway for them to be good in the long term because you'll have some real dudes to kind of be there to protect CJ Stroud for the long term. That'll give you the next 10 years worth of CJ Stroud to have an opportunity to go win the Super Bowl. But they didn't want to do that, they couldn't do that, and they didn't. And now they have to look like one of the worst offenses in the NFL when I know CJ Stroud is an absolute assassin. And if you gave him a little bit of protection and gave him a good offensive line to like for him to feel confidence in, it don't matter what wide receivers you have, you can have just make regular guys and he'll make them look better because of how good he is as a quarterback. But now they all have to pay the price because they couldn't make the smart and wise decision at the time. And that's where my biggest like Houston's done for the year, they're two and fourth at this point. I don't see them turning it around. And that I hope with the all these losses they're gonna take this year, they're gonna take that and go get an offensive lineman that like multiple offensive linemen that'll help out CJ because that's what they need. That is the difference between them getting where they're at right now to then getting back to what they were in the last two years, making the playoffs, and then taking that next step to go get to the AFC championship game and getting into a Super Bowl. Go make a sound decision. Like they had an opportunity to do last draft and they didn't do it. I hope they make a different decision next time. And that's it. That's all I got for the recasts on the NFL games. I know I went too long. I know I'm at two and a half at this point, over two and a half. Um, last thing before I get out of here and don't sit there and ramble on anymore. We won't be potting again until after the Thursday night football game. So I have our picks for the Thursday game. That game is between and oh, by our by the by the way, our records for last week's game was me and Jace both went eight and seven. We had a couple splits, we had four splits total in this game where we picked different teams. We went two and two on them, obviously, with us having tied records. I picked since I picked Pittsburgh and Jace picked Cincinnati with him getting that win. I picked the Denver game in Denver Giants. I picked Denver, he picked the Giants, I got that win. Um, and then you had Detroit and Tampa Bay, we picked different on that one. I picked Detroit, he took Tampa Bay, I got that one, and then Houston and Seattle, I picked Houston, obviously, because I, you know, I love my butt guys and I couldn't help myself. And see Jace picked Seattle and he got the win on that. So we both went eight and seven. And again, eight and seven's not a bad record, but you know, I'd like to be better. So hopefully we can kind of get off to a better start this week. And it all starts with the with the Thursday night football game this week, which is between Minnesota and the Chargers. So you have Minnesota going to LA to play that game, and I asked Jace, since he's not here, who he has to win that game. He picked the Chargers. I don't know. Do the Chargers have anybody to stop Minnesota? No. And you can run the football on the Chargers. I think the Chargers had the ball for the football ran on them, right? Oh, the Colts ran for a decent amount. I think I'm gonna pick Minnesota. I'll take Minnesota coming off their loss. I think that they'll get a little bit better play out of um out of Carson Wentz. I think they'll be able to run the football a little more effectively. And I think that I think the Chargers are I don't know. The Chargers are actually pretty good though. And they're coming off their bad loss to the Colts. Chargers are at home. I think that might be the difference, honestly. I think these two teams are very similar in the way that they are. I think Herbert's the better quarterback, obviously. But I do think Minnesota, with the guys they have healthy, I think they have a better assortment of weapons to rely on. But that Minnesota defense is not good, and I think the Chargers offense is playing well. Alright, I've kind of I've already talked myself out of it. Maybe I'm just a bitch. I don't know. I'll say I'll take the Chargers. They're at home. I'll give them the slight edge uh to win that Thursday night football game. I'll be watching it. So that's about it. Don't want to go on too much longer, so let's go ahead and end the podcast here. If you've been listening for a while, we appreciate you. You're just now joining on. Hopefully, you like us and enjoy us enough to join us on this ride of talking about sports in the dumbest way possible. And if this is the first pod you're listening to, hopefully you can go and listen to a different pod with both me and Jace on to get a better idea of what this podcast is when it's both me and him going back and forth as brothers talking about sports, talking shit to each other. I hope you get a better idea if you don't already know. By doing it by listening to one of those to get a better idea of what this pod is at its best. And if you decide you want to stick around longer and do a couple things, we would love if you could do a couple things for us. Like our podcast, subscribe to the podcast, rate the podcast five stars wherever you listen to us. Uh, we're pretty much available on all audio platforms out there, and uh that's about it there. Make sure you share us for uh share us with friends, family, enemies, anybody you feel like can enjoy our podcast we put out on a weekly basis, with it being two times a week during the football season. We would love if you could do that. 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