Trade Deadline Shockwaves And Playoff Buzz

A trade deadline this chaotic demands a new plan, so we flipped the show and dove headfirst into the madness. The Eagles doubled down on identity with Jaire Alexander for secondary flexibility and Jalen Phillips to juice a pass rush that drives everything they do. The Jets went the other way, selling stars and stacking capital—Sauce to Indy for two firsts and AD Mitchell, Quinnen to Dallas for a first and more—building a five-firsts runway over two drafts. Is that smart long-term leverage or giving away today for a hazy tomorrow? And what exactly are the Cowboys fixing when the secondary is the real leak?

We zoom across the rest: Raiders turn Jacoby Myers into picks while the Jaguars buy a short-term WR2; Seattle quietly makes the scariest fit move of the week with Rashid Shaheed; Ravens add Dremont1 Jones; Chargers try to reboot Trevor Penning under Harbaugh’s line shop. Then the field takes over. Buffalo’s defense corrals Mahomes behind a patchwork line, Chicago steals one from Cincinnati in a defensive indictment, Flores’ Vikings make the Lions miserable, the Seahawks torch Washington, and Arizona’s Jacoby Brissett calmly opens the middle of the field to topple Dallas.

College football closes the loop with statement wins and a fresh CFP board. Ohio State pairs efficiency with explosives against Penn State while Julian Sayin strengthens a Heisman bid. Georgia survives, Notre Dame keeps the path clean, and Miami stumbles again. We react to the first CFP rankings—why resume and dominance matter now, where the SEC logjam loosens, and which teams still control their fate.

It’s a full plate of strategy, context, and stakes—from trade logic and cap arcs to protection, pass rush, and quarterback health. If you’re into team-building and how Sundays and Saturdays cross-pollinate, this one’s for you. Enjoy the ride, then tell us where you land: who actually won the deadline, and who’s the real No. 1? Subscribe, share with a friend, and drop a five-star review to keep us rolling.

Chapters

• 0:00 Solo Setup And New Plan
• 3:29 Why Start With NFL And Trades
• 5:29 Eagles Load Up: Alexander And Phillips
• 14:58 Cowboys Moves And Bengals Fallout
• 19:33 Raiders Send Myers To Jaguars
• 27:32 Blockbuster 1A: Sauce To Colts
• 40:45 Blockbuster 1B: Quinnen To Cowboys
• 55:57 Saints, Seahawks, Titans, Chargers Deals
• 1:01:28 Steelers’ Non-Moves And Hall’s Frustration
• 1:07:27 NFL Picks Recap And Standings
• 1:09:30 Bears-Bengals Thriller Breakdown
• 1:15:28 Vikings Smother Lions
• 1:19:55 Panthers Stun Packers
• 1:25:15 Chargers Edge Titans
• 1:28:20 Patriots Survive Falcons
• 1:33:00 49ers’ McCaffrey Show
• 1:39:40 Steelers Upset Colts
• 1:50:25 Broncos Outlast Texans
• 1:54:05 Jags Win OT Vs Raiders
• 2:00:40 Rams Roll Saints
• 2:04:25 Bills Beat Chiefs With Defense
• 2:14:20 Seahawks Torch Commanders
• 2:22:55 Cardinals Drop Cowboys
• 2:31:00 Pivot To College Football
• 2:33:45 Auburn Fires Hugh Freeze
• 2:40:15 Ohio State Handles Penn State

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Welcome back to JV Sports Podcast. Today is Tuesday, November 4th, and we are back for another pod. This is a solo Tuesday. Just me, Joe, doing it by myself today. No Jace. Couldn't make it necessarily work out with schedules, so but the pod, so we couldn't make it work, but pod sucks to go on. You'll just be listening to me babble on today. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you like it, I don't think anybody is truly gonna be a fan of just me sitting here talking by myself. But if you can manage to download the pod, first off, thank you. Second off, listen to this pod, thank you. And third, listen to the whole thing. You're an absolute superstar, and I appreciate you very much. But even uh even with that being the case, I still have to come on here, get all my thoughts out, and do everything that way. So it but I also another thing before I really do get started, it's a little bit of a changeup in the way that I'm formatting it today. Usually, like pretty much all pods we do, it's usually college football and then NFL second when it comes to like stories and then the games and then for college football and then it goes on to the NFL. I want to flip it this time around because the way I see it, because it's gonna be the first the first announcement for the college football playoff rankings that are happening tonight. And as I'm recording right now, it's about 7.35, and the rankings won't technically start until 8, but who knows when the actual full like full rankings that they put out are actually gonna be out because they know they like to take their time and like release it as they want to with commercials and all to make everybody watch it. So, what my plan is is start start with the NFL when it comes to the trade deadline, because funny enough, that happened today as well. So talk about all the trades that happened today, and then get into the NFL games that happened this past weekend, and then transition into college football games that happened this past weekend, and then do like the kind of end it off with my college football play, my first the first college football playoff rankings reaction and everything I have to say from that. Hopefully it won't be too much. I don't like usually the first rankings just gives you an idea of like what the committee is thinking when it comes to how they're gonna rank these teams based off of nine weeks of the season that have gone on so far. So I hope it won't be necessarily anything too bad for me to nothing too big for me to react to based off the first ranking. But you know, you never know. So I just want to make sure to get that on here today instead of having like doing the pod today and then not reacting to that actual ranking until two, three days from now when everybody already knows about it and all that. So I figured if I just switch the format up a little bit, do it a little bit differently, not to mention all the trade deadline stuff for the NFL that happened today has me pretty excited. So a little bit of a change up in the format is I I think will be a good thing overall. It won't be like a permanent thing, but for this, I just want to it's a special case, so I just want to make sure to get do it this way so I can try to get everything in that I want to talk about. Alright. That's about it for the for me, kind of giving the uh what is it? What is the word I'm looking for? Um give like uh scope, not scope. The I just the everything on the outset that I wanted to talk about there. Let's go ahead and get into the nitty-gritty. So, as already mentioned, trade deadline happened today. The official time for the deadline was about four o'clock. We uh me and Jace, as we've been doing the podcast over the last couple weeks, when trades do happen, we have talked about them. It hasn't been anything too insane for us to kind of really get into, but we did talk about them at the time. But over the last two days, and then especially today when trades really started coming in, with some big ones actually that I didn't really see coming, I I just want to make sure to kind of go through all of them and just give my general thoughts on I'm not gonna necessarily go with like who won the trade, who lost the trade, but just anything that comes to mind as I'm going through these, I'll go ahead and talk about it. So it started with yesterday, coming off the games on Sunday, everything looks like it's gonna be going great, and then the news came out was it yesterday or was it today that when that the the trade those three trades came in for the Eagles? Um were they all today? Now now I gotta make sure because I don't want to necessarily say it wrong and said I was that it happened yesterday when they actually happened today. Um let's see here. Nope, that's definitely not it. Um let's see. I I just want to make sure I get the time I it the time doesn't necessarily matter, but you know, I can't help myself. Justander. It's not giving me. Hold on. That that this might actually might be. This is what happens when I'm not totally ready. I just was so excited to go and like just start this thing that I didn't have this necessarily popped up right away. So now I'm looking for now. I'm looking for this to for something to do it. It doesn't really matter. Okay. So it's this whole trade deadline stuff really started coming into focus when the Eagles kind of had a flurry of trades, pretty much happened like very close to each other. Okay. So the first one that came up was the Ravens trade for Jair Alexander from the from the Ravens, okay? So the Eagles get Jair Alexander in a set 2027 seventh round pick in exchange for the Ravens getting the um 2026 2026 sixth round pick from the Eagles, okay. The way I look at this trade is the Eagles are looking for more corner help, which is obviously one of the weaknesses on their defenses they have so far. Quinyon Mitchell has one of those corner spots pretty much locked up, and then you're looking for the right combination around him with other guys, including um, including including Cooper DeGene, who was like kind of switched him to safety, but maybe they might want to move him to corner, and like are they gonna have him as a slot? So this was a move that Jair Alexander really hasn't done all that much for the Ravens this year when they got when they actually signed him off of the uh off of free agency um before the season started. So like everybody thought it was gonna make make the Ravens so much better, but Jair Alexander has not necessarily been everything that the Ravens thought he would be coming into the year. Injuries are part of it, and then when he does play, it's not necessarily as locked down as you think. He is a little bit older, but it is what it is. But the Eagles are just trying to be aggressive, looking for somebody to kind of fill that spot. So now with Jair Alexander, I think it's a low risk, low reward, like low risk, high reward potential for the Eagles on that side because their their secondary has been so bad outside of Quinyon Mitchell that they're just looking for somebody to kind of like maybe solidify the other side. So getting a guy like Jair Alexander, being able to maybe move Cooper Dejean around, maybe he can play the other outside spot, or you can play uh he can still play the slot corner. Like, who knows how they're gonna necessarily do that? But they just need more dudes because outside of just Quenyon Mitchell, they've been kind of just rotating everybody, including Cooper Dejean, and they really haven't found a good fit yet. And I'm I totally understand them trying to do so. Ravens, they really weren't using JL Alexander all that much anyway. And if he wasn't what they thought they were gonna be, they didn't have to trade for him or anything, so they're not losing anything, but they are getting that 2026 sixth round pick off um in exchange for it. So they are getting something for some like J Alexander only signed like a one-year deal anyway. So he was gonna be a rental, a one-year rental for them anyway. So if they're not gonna use him, things aren't working out, go ahead and trade them. Maybe he can work out with the Eagles, and then you get something for him. That's the best thing you can ask for for the Ravens side of things. Back to the Eagles. Potential guy, will he work out? I don't know. Will he be more healthy? I don't know. But with how things have looked so far this season for the Eagles, anything they have to they're swinging for the fences, and with the moves they have made today before the trade deadline today, like you could just tell the Eagles were going all in and they were going to try to make their team bet better as much as they possibly can. So hopefully it'll work out. Maybe, maybe not. It's again, the Eagles winning a championship again would not necessarily hurt me all that much, but you know, it is what it is. So good good risk, I mean low risk, high reward for the Eagles side of it, Ravens getting something for a guy they really weren't depending on for the rest of the year anyway. I feel like it was a good trade for both sides. Well, decent. How is it is it can you say a good trade for the Eagles if you don't know if it's worked out yet? It has good potential. That's probably the better way to say it. Good potential deal for the Eagles, Ravens, good deal because they can get rid of they're getting rid of somebody and getting something that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise for him when he just walked at the end of the season. Another Eagles trade. You have the Eagles uh trading for the defensive end, Jalen Phillips from the Dolphins, and they got it was just pretty much straight up him, Jalen Phillips going from the Dolphins to the Eagles in exchange for a 2026 third round pick. This trade I think a lot more of for the Eagles because Jalen Phillips is a very talented pass rusher, injured at times, but I think in in general, I think is a very talented pass rusher that I think the Eagles could definitely use. And not to mention with their team being built around having a very good pass rush. I think it and with some of the guys they have lost, so like no one's Nolan Smith is on IR, he's not gonna be playing for the rest. I didn't is it for the rest of the year? Um tricep injury. So he won't be playing for a while. They did get Brandon Graham to come out of retirement to come back and play for them, but the Eagles, the way they want to play, they want to have an overwhelming pass rub pass rush to get after the quarterback, and then their secondary will be able to hold on until the pressure comes. So that's the way the Eagles want to build their team, and getting a guy like Jalen Phillips to come in, a very talented young pass rusher, is a very good deal. Third round pick, I'm not gonna say it's too much because I think Jalen Phillips is a very like a on the top end, a very good pass rusher, and he's on he's on a rookie deal, I believe, still. So with all of that being the case, I do think it is a very good deal for the Eagles. Miami side, I think they're just kind of selling. They they don't really see much coming of their the rest of their season anyway. So getting a guy, especially if they the Eagles, I mean the Miami Dolphins are gonna be more prone to doing a rebuild after this season, being able to trade away a guy and get a good draft pick to be able to use to help build their team for the future is definitely a great idea for the Miami Dolphins. And then for the Eagles, getting a young pass rusher is still on a I think he's still on his rookie deal. You see, now I want to check it. Hold on, let me see here. He's 2021? Ooh, so is he on his is he on his last year? See now I gotta check. He was traded. Do they pay him? I don't think. Hold on, now I gotta check and see if he's still on his rookie deal or not. Jalen Phillips contract. Boom, boom, boom. Okay, he's still on his rookie deal.

unknown: 12:21

Boom.

SPEAKER_00: 12:21

So he's still on his rookie deal. He's on his fourth year. So still on his rookie deal. If he works out, they can sign him for a long-term deal. Um, he'll be a free agent after next season. Well, next season. So if it works out, they'll be able to keep him and sign him to a nice deal. If not, it is what it is. I think that I think this is what this shows is what the Eagles are trying to do is go all in. Obviously, with the team that they have, everything going on. The defense has been the side that's not been as good as what it's been in at least last year when they went on their run. Offensively has definitely been not as good either as what it was, but I do think that that's not about talent. I think it's more about gelling together, getting their offense playing the right way, and having everybody buy in. So that's not something that you can really fix with adding more dudes, but it's just more of like cohesion type of thing. The defense, they needed to add more, so adding Jalen Phillips onto that team, definitely a good thing for the Eagles to make happen. And let's see here. The next I think there was one more Eagles one that I wanted to get into. That's why I gave when I switch off the page. Now I have to I have to scroll through all of it. Um was that it? I think that was it. No, I'm crazy. So that was it. Those are the two trades for the Eagles. So now, next trade. Eagles, but in general, Eagles making a lot of moves to try to go all in, help themselves out for this season. I think very smart trades. The GM for the Eagles is known as like one of the better GMs and if not the best GM in all the NFL. And he does so, he doesn't give up good draft picks unless they're really going to turn out to be good picks for him. And if he does get good players, usually he's not paying as much as what you think he would have to pay in order to get them. So I do think in general, and not to like heck, a lot of people say that when he is when this when that GM is around, they like everybody else in the NFL just kind of start squim like squirming because the GM for the Eagles, awesome. Why am I forgetting that guy's name? Um, GM for Eagles. Howie Roseman, yeah. Known as the best GM in the NFL. He comes around, he's always getting a deal. He's never really paying a premium on things. Usually he's gonna come out on the on the good side of trades. So, you know, he's making good deals. He's doing trying to help the team out as much as possible. It just shows they're all in. Next trade. Cowboys add Logan Wilson to their defense. This is not the only trade, not the even the close to the biggest trade they made today, but it is a nice piece. Logan Wilson is a no, Jace. It's crazy because I texted Jace about this when it happened. Because obviously that's not obviously, but like that is one of Jace's favorite players on the Bengals. And he had kind of been on the outs with the Bengals as of the last few weeks. I think they benched him, so he wasn't even a starter anymore. They were bringing him in, he was still playing, but it was the things were not going as well as Logan Wilson would have liked. I think weeks ago, he actually asked for a trade. So this was something that was probably bound to happen as long as the Bengals weren't gonna bangles it up and like keep a guy that obviously doesn't want to stay. So trade happens, Bangles send Logan Wilson to the Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 seventh round pick. I for for the Cowboys side, I understand why they're doing it. Their defense sucks. Adding any bodies onto that team is gonna help out because Logan Wilson is a he's still relatively young. He's at 29, not even 30 years old yet. He is a he is a good all-around linebacker. He can do a lot of he can do some covering, he's good in zone. He's you're he's not really ever gonna be out of place. He's not the craziest athlete in the world, but he is more than more than adequate enough to get the job done. And when you have a Cowboys defense that is as poor as it is, adding anybody would definitely be an upgrade over what they have as of right now. Bengals side, Logan Wilson wasn't happy there. He had already asked for a trade. I'm just happy they actually listened to the player that said he wants out and decided to go with it. Because at the end of the day, holding on to a guy that doesn't want to be there, especially if he's probably gonna walk at the end of the season anyway, if he's gonna be a free agent, why not get off of a guy early and get something for him rather than letting him walk and getting nothing for it? So getting rid of Logan Wilson, as much as it pains my brother Jace for that to have happened, it was probably necessary. He wasn't gonna be there long term, so it's the best way to go. Trade the guy, get something for him, and make sure that you're not gonna get, you know, sit with nothing in your hands while he walks away in free agency anyway. And not to mention with the Bengals season going as badly as it, yeah, you can say badly, but they still have three or four wins now. But after that loss to the Bears, it almost feels like it's rock bottom now. So maybe getting rid of guys would probably be the best way to go. But for whatever reason, the Bengals decided to only get rid of Logan Wilson, and Hendrickson is still sitting on their team because either they did not want to give up, they didn't want to give him up for less than what they thought they deserved for getting rid of Hendrickson, or they decided, like, hey, we're still in on this season, which either one is an absolutely crazy proposition because Hendrickson's gonna be gone at the end of the year anyway. So, like, I just like I said for Logan Wilson, Hendrixon Hendrickson is not gonna stay. He's gone after this year, and if your season is not gonna be going to the playoffs and like really doing something down the road, then why wouldn't you just get rid of him, trade him for something, and be able to use that to build your team for the future rather than having him on your team when he's not necessarily all the way locked in, and then whatever he does do for your team isn't gonna help you out for the season anyway, because the rest of your defense has been so bad. So I I don't I don't it's an absolutely insane thing that they did it for Logan Wilson, but they couldn't make a Hendrickson Hendrickson trade happen to make sure they get something for him when he's gone after the year anyway. It's an absolutely insane if they did it for one, why not do it for the other? It was such an obvious move, especially when they would get so much more for Trady Hendrickson to a team that says, hey, we need some defensive end help. He is one of the better ones in the NFL. You would get I'm not gonna say a first, but getting a second and more for him would be absolutely amazing to help the Bengals like really build out their team for future years where they have some holes, especially on defense that they have to fill. So I I don't know. I I it's in it's weird how they I don't know. The Bengals, again, Jace would tell you if he was here that their their rationale when it comes to some of the moves that they make is absolutely insane. Next trade, Raiders. This is one of the bigger ones. Raiders trade wide receiver Jacoby Myers to the Jaguars in exchange for a 2026 fourth round pick and also a 2026 sixth round pick. So this is what I'll say. Uh so before I get to the that that trade itself, another team that was in on potentially trading for Jacoby Myers was the Steelers. Apparently, both both the Steelers and the Jags were were sniffing around at a move making a move for Myers. And the way I see it as a Steelers fan, the what and what the Raiders gave, no, sorry, what the Jags gave up for him, I'm so happy the Steelers didn't make a move because if they were to give up anything close to what to what the uh Jaguars did to get him, it's not fucking worth it. Because the way I see it for the Steelers, getting a number two wide receiver for this team is not gonna change the outlook for what this team will be at by the end of the season. I think the absolute cap for what this Steelers team can be is maybe making the playoffs, maybe getting one win, and then losing in the second round for sure, getting your absolute face drug in that second round, even if you do get there. And I'm not um it's also on the board that they lose in the first round of the playoffs as well, or doesn't even make the playoffs. So giving up multiple draft picks that would like definitely help you build your team out for the future would definitely not be what I would want the Steelers to do. So I'm very happy the Steelers are not the team making the move for Jacoby Myers, even though I do think he's a very good wide receiver, especially if he's coming in to be your number two. Very good, very good pickup. But for where the Steelers are at as a team, I just don't I think it'd just be unrealistic for the Steelers to truly think that trading up that much for a guy like him is gonna be worth it in the end because he's not gonna get you to a Super Bowl. And especially with Joby Myers, he's uh he's a free agent after this year. So he's literally a straight-up rental for half a year, and then he's a free agent. So I just don't know giving up that much if he's not gonna get you to like the promised land when it comes to getting to an AFC title or a Super Bowl, doesn't make any sense for the Steelers to give up. So I'm very happy the Steelers are not the team getting Jacoby Myers today. So on to the actual trade that actually happened. Like I said, Raiders give up Jacoby Myers in exchange for the 2026th, fourth, and sixth round picks. The Jaguar side, I'm not sure. I get why you want to trade for him. He's a good player. You did just lose Travis Hunter. He's on IR with a potential what do they say, an ACL? It was an ACL injury, but it was still intact. So it's not like something you need surgery on, but they're gonna give it a few weeks, see how it goes, and they're gonna make a decision from there. So it could be an all-year thing, it could be a couple months thing. Who knows how long the Travis Hunter thing is like how long that's gonna be a problem for them to have to figure out. And for the Jaguar side, I get it, they feel like they're one of the better teams in the AFC. They're not they're probably not the top three teams in the AFC. But the way they look at it is that if they take care of business, they should have one of the wild card spots. If not, maybe the AFC South spot if the Colts kind of die off and like not die off, but they start faltering a little bit, losing a few games they shouldn't. So I do see why the Jaguars are going for it because they have Trevor Lawrence, they have a young quarterback they believe in. For for some reason, I'm not a big Trevor Lawrence believer, but who knows? Everybody has their thing they're into. I'm I'm just Trevor Lawrence is not not it for me. So they have young quarterbacks still, they have what they think is a decent defense, and they just want to add another weapon to take make up for Travis Hunter. And I think this move kind of shows that he may actually be gone longer than just a few weeks, now that I think about it. Because if Travis Hunter is only going to be gone a month, then why would you give up as much as you're giving up for Jacoby Myers, especially if he's just a rental? So a rental that may not even play free the rest the rest the whole rest of the year if Travis comes back, because I really do think that they were trying to make him the second, the number two receiver on the other side of Brian Thomas Jr. So this makes me think that Travis may be gone a little longer than we think. But we'll we'll see on that. I don't get it for the Jags. Maybe it's maybe the Jags feel like they're farther along than what I think they are, which is good. If they feel like they are a team that can make a move, for sure go after it. I don't see it. That's not really for me. But for the Raiders, Jacoby Myers had asked for a trade before the season had even had even started. So, like I said with the Bengals, getting rid of a guy that has already stated he doesn't want to be with you before he just walks for free anyway is always gonna be a good idea. Because if you're not gonna be able to convince him that staying with you is gonna be great, and he's gonna be gone after the year anyway as a free agent, why not get something for him while you still have him? And the fact that they could turn a guy like that that they obviously were not really planning on keeping long term because the whole reason he asked for a trade is because he wanted it a con a new contract that they were not willing to give. So, with all that being the case, why not get something for it? And getting a fourth and a sixth round pick in the next year's draft for him is definitely great. They can either use those picks on getting guys to help out their team, or they can use that as trade as a like a trade chip to go ahead and trade up to get the quarterback that they want if they decide to fall in love with one in next year's draft, or get whatever player that they need that's really gonna help them out for the future because the Raiders are one of those teams that are as very as close to a rebuild as I could possibly think of. I think the only two players that are safe on this team are Max Crosby and Ooh why am I forgetting his name now? Oh, that sucks that I'm forgetting Brock Bowers. Those are the only oh, and Ash and Genty. Those three players are the only players that are safe on this team. Everybody else is expendable. And I get it, Pete Carroll is an old he's an older coach. They brought him in to kind of be a what's what what's the word I'm looking for? Like a stabilizing force for their organization, along with bringing Tom Brady in as a partial owner. And be like, think about a Geno Smith, their quarterback right now, like he's not their long-term answer at all. And the way he's played this year, I think has only given him less of a leash for what he can be for the rest of the year. I mean for the rest of his time as a pro. So getting as many draft picks as you possibly can, especially when you're not really winning that game many games anyway, especially for a guy that's gonna leave after this year, I think was a great trade for the Raiders, and I think they definitely won this trade in general. Because on the Jaguar side, I just don't know how Myers changes their long-term hopes. He's a very good receiver. I think he'll be a very good compliment to Brian Thomas Jr. But like, are they gonna go beat the Chiefs? Are they gonna go beat the Bills in the playoffs? Like, because that's where that's where if they go do that, then this trade is worth it. But I just don't think that's gonna like that's gonna be the thing that changes changes what they are as a team. So especially in relation to that goal, if you understand what I'm saying. Okay, but that that's all I got on that trade. Let's go ahead and probably get to the big kahuna that happened today that no, maybe you know this. This is definitely one A. If you had to rate the trades that happened today, there is like a 1A and a 1B for the biggest trades of the day that you really did not see coming. And I do think this one is definitely the 1A. The Jets trade cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts for two first round picks and A.D. Mitchell. An absolutely insane trade. I think to a certain extent, the Colts way overpaid. But I'll get more to that in a second. But I think the Jets absolutely had a steal in this trade based on how things have gone. So Jets, one of the worst teams in the NFL. I think they're going nowhere fast. They're gonna be they're gonna have a top five pick in this year's draft, and I feel like they are closer to a rebuild than they are to really like just say, hey, we're gonna go after it, and like just add a few pieces here or there, and then we'll be in the thick of things. And not to mention the Justin Fields thing hasn't really gone all that great. It looks like they're gonna be in on a quarterback maybe this year or the year after, it won't whoever the guy that they find that they want to go all in for. And we'll get to the other the trades the Jets made, but it just shows they were fire, they were like on a fire sale this year, and that they were like, hey, we're we're ready to rebuild this whole thing, press reset, and they're willing to get it rid of a lot of bigger players that had a lot of cap a lot of money going their way in contracts. So for the Jets, absolutely insane trade that they got this much for Sauce Gardner because looking at it for how he has played this year, not only has he not necessarily been healthy, like he's been fine. It's not like he's been like all like hurt and never never playing at all, but like he's been partially hurt. And second, he has not played all like the Sauce Gardner of year one is not what he is looking like right now in year what is it, year three now? Is he year three, I think? Is he year three or year four for Sauce Gardner? I feel like he was a twenty twenty one draft, right? Um I feel like he's in year three. Hold on. He just signed a he they just gave him the deal this past offseason. So I do feel like it because he was going into his fourth year, and that's when they gave him his salary. No, no, that's not who. No, he's a my gardener. Okay. He's in year three. So the sauce gardener of year one that came in that like really took over the NFL, and people were like thinking, like, oh, he can be the number one corner here in the next couple years, and then what he's looking like right now are definitely nowhere near what they thought they were going to get. Okay. But if that was going to be the case, then why would they give him the contract before the year started? But I I think to a certain extent for that, they gave him and Garrett Wilson contracts before this season had started because they had a new coaching staff coming in. Aaron Rodgers had just left. They're bringing in Justin Fields, and they felt like, hey, we need to keep our guys that we have had, and we're bringing in a new coach, so maybe we can kind of change the culture here and go with the young guys that have been here, and they gave them contracts to keep them there long term, so they're locked in. So all of that I kind of get. And then this season happens. The Justin Fields thing isn't always working out as well. They won a game they they probably shouldn't have against the Bengals, not last week, but the week before. No, no, this not this past weekend, but the weekend before that. And so like so they decide, cool, we want to get we want to go ahead and press the reset button, and the way you do that is by getting rid of some of the bigger contracts on the on that you have on the books, so you can kind of rebuild for the future. And if they didn't think that they were going to get more better, I mean not more better, but if they're if they don't think that Sauce Gardner was going to give them more, if they were did if they didn't think that he was going to get to the point where he was going to be the number one quarter in the NFL, I get why they would make this move. And the fact that they were able to get as much as they did off of trading Sauce Gardner is an absolutely insane proposition. The fact that they were able to talk the Colts into giving them as much as they did for him was absolutely insane, especially when the guy wasn't playing up to their what they wanted, and they knew that they were gonna have to pay him big money. The first year usually isn't as big of money, it's usually the years after where this the price tag just goes up and up based off of what it's gonna be towards your salary cap. So on the jet side of this, it shows they're gonna be looking they're looking to do a whole reset, which is great for them. Cool. Sometimes, heck, I think the Steelers could learn from this. Sometimes hitting the reset button and just taking the pill sometimes will make it easier to make it easier to rebuild your team from the ground up rather than trying to keep stabbing away at it if it's not working. So cool. They did that, they get a bunch for him, absolutely insane. And those two first round picks being, I think it's this upcoming drafts first, and then there's a first next year as well. So for the next two years, they're getting a couple draft picks, a couple first-round draft picks for him. And then the icing on the cake of all that, they're getting A.D. Mitchell. So they have Garrett Wilson already as under wide receiver one, and one of the main problems that they have at their when it comes to their pass catchers is that outside of the Taylor, the tight end that they have, they really don't have any other dynamic weapons for you to be afraid of. And getting a guy like AD Mitchell, he has not really worked out for the Colts, but they traded, they they draft him. He I think it's his rookie year, right? Or is in year two? No, he's in year, he's in year one. Ooh. No, he's in year two. So A.D. Mitchell, a guy that really hadn't done too much for the Colts. He's kind of like their fourth or fifth guy because they already have guys that they the Colts use a lot of. So getting being able to get a guy like that to kind of be on the other side of Garrett Wilson to get some pressure off of him is definitely a big move. No matter what they're gonna be for the for these upcoming couple years, whenever they get their quarterback, they're at least gonna have a duo of weapons, especially with A.D. Mitchell being on his rookie deal. He'll be cheap for neck for another couple years. So, all that being the case, I do think it's a very good move on top of the fact you got two first-round picks. So I think as a trade, the Jets absolutely fleece the Colts in this situation, and I think they got way more than I have anybody ever thought they would get for a guy like Sauce Gardner, especially with him. It's not like he's tearing it up in the NFL as of this year. And on the Colts side, why do you do this? I think the Colts are saying they're going all in. And I feel like they they decided, hey, Daniel Jones is getting getting us good enough play. We're getting a very good year out of Jonathan Taylor. Our wide receivers are very good, and our offensive line is decent. Well, they're no, they're a deep they're a pretty decent offensive line. Last this past game, notwithstanding, they're one of the better offensive lines in the NFL. So if they can keep uh keep Dalen Jones upright, let him go out there and run the offense, run the ball through Jonathan Taylor a bunch. I think they're 7-1 before this weekend for a reason. So they are one of the better teams in the NFL, and one of their bigger weaknesses on their team was the fact that they don't really have a number one type of guy at the cornerback position. A la Sauce Gardner. The fact that they gave up as much as they did for him was absolutely insane. I don't think the A.D. Mitchell one hurts all that much for them because they drafted him to kind of be their next their like big play guy, but the fact that he did not make a he wasn't able to even get into like the regular rotation for them. I think the biggest thing he did all year this year was he got the one play for them where he was a big pass play, he was going into the end zone, then he fumbled before he got to the the goal line. That was the biggest thing he did for them all year, and it was a negative thing, and you really didn't see much of him after that. So I don't think the A.D. Mitchell part really hurts all that much, but the fact that you had to you gave up him and then two first-round picks, you're not gonna have your first round pick for the next two years. That's the part where I think it's like way too much to give up for Soft Scarner. I get it as a talent, he's absolutely amazing, but he hasn't been playing like that all season. And even heck, most of last season he wasn't playing like that. He holds a lot more, he doesn't really seem like he's like as locked down as he was in year one. So, like, it is not you're not getting a guaranteed like top five corner when you traded this much for him. So that's the part I don't understand for the Colts. I understand them wanting wanting to go for it. This may be their shot, and the way they're getting the the play they're getting out of Daniel Jones, and even if they decide to sign him and have him for the long term, they need to have a team around him because Daniel Jones, as good as he has been this year, outside of that Pittsburgh game that they just played, he is not going to lift you out of if your team is not gonna be good around him, he is not gonna be the one to like lift you over the he's not gonna get you that extra step, he's not gonna put the team on his back to get you farther than what you should be. He really does need to be, he's not gonna be the best driver at all. He's gonna be a part of it, he's gonna run your offense, he's gonna do what he needs to do, but he's not gonna put the whole team on his back. So you really do need to have a lot of like the whole team around him doing everything he needed to. And with them kind of getting cooked on the outside with their corners against some of the teams they faced this year, I see why they make the move. They gave up too much. I don't understand why they ever gave up this much for Sauce Gardner, or they could have gotten somebody else somewhere in the trade market, but they decided to swing for the fences. Good for them. I hope it all works out, but I think the Jets totally fleeced the Colts on this one. So we'll we'll see. We'll see on that. Next trade, Saints trade wide receiver, Rashid Shahid, to the Seahawks in exchange for a 2026 fourth round pick and a 2026 fifth round pick. I don't know why it's saying 2026 is so hard for me right now. I don't know. So I think this is a win-win for both sides, to be honest with you. Because, let's start with the Saints. The Saints have been in Cap Hell for a while. They are a team that really does need to hit the reset button. It doesn't help that they used a second-round pick on Tyler Shuck and they have played him, they played him last week, and then they did have him come in at the end of the game the week before, and who knows if he's gonna be their long-term answer. Absolutely insane that they use a second-round pick on a guy that they don't even seem in love with. But we'll maybe we'll see. He'll he'll play fine throughout the rest of this year to make us feel more confident. Okay, fine, for sure. But they do need to hit reset and the rest of their team around it because they have a lot of cap money going out that they're not really like it's all dead cap money, and they really do really they really do need to rebuild this team from the ground up, okay? So Rashid Shahid, he's a little bit older in his career. He's not older, he's 27, but he's not a young pup. And you do have Chris Olave on your team on the other side, who is the young guy. I don't think he's gotten paid yet off his rookie deal, but they are gonna pay him at some point. So if he's gonna be your number one guy, it gives you an opportunity to maybe get some draft capital for a guy like Rasheed Shaheed and use that to try to rebuild your team around Chris Olave and like really try to rebuild this team out for the future. So, Rasheed Shaheed. I'm not sure if he was gonna be a free agent after this year. Yeah, he'll be a free agent after this year. So it is a little bit of a gamble when it comes to for the Seahawks, of it is gonna be a little bit of a uh of a rental situation if you don't sign him long term. But for the Saints, if Shahe was gonna leave anyway, just like I've been saying this before, if he's gonna leave anyway, may as well get rid of him now and get something for him. They got something for him, and they'll be able to build out their team with those picks for the future. And especially if you do already have Chris Olave, I can see why they felt like they can make this move. As long as they trade trade for another, sorry, either draft or sign another wide receiver in the before next season or in the next couple seasons, it would definitely be the way to go. So I do think they're probably gonna sign Chris Olave to a long-term deal. So that they I think that's what makes this such a doable trade for the Saints. So it makes total sense on their side, and I do think they didn't get well what they got for him is fine. No, it was fine what they got for him. It was it was it's a good trade value for sure. Because Shaheed is a very good, very good wide receiver, especially as a number two. I think he's gonna be a little bit underrated for what he can bring to a team. And the so I do think it's a very good trade for both sides on this one. So getting to the Seahaw side. Why? Well, you have Jason, who was, I think, the leading wide receiver in the NFL when it comes to catches and yards, I believe. So he is absolutely tearing it up. And what you have around him, you have Arroyo, the tight end, and then you have uh, what is it, Barnum, the tight, the other tight end, and then you have your Tory Horton, I believe, is the other wide receiver that they've had. They're giving a lot of uh Tory Horton that they've been throwing the ball a lot to on the other side, but he's a rookie. Who knows there's a rookie wall that happens, all that. So you can't really expect him to be thrusted into the number one two spot and be consistent in that way. So, what do they want to do, especially with how explosive their their passing game already is with Sam Darnold at the helm, they decided, hey, let's get another guy, put him on the other side of JSN, and we'll be good to go. And adding Rashid Shahe to that team is an absolutely insane addition because he is a very good fit, he can be a little bit more of a big play receiver, he can he's a good route runner, and I think he is like there is no defense that can truly like totally lock in on JSN now because you have a guy that can be very, very dangerous on the other side. So I think I think it makes total sense. And the what they gave up for him was not necessarily all that much, it was a couple of good picks, but again, a fourth round pick, like usually those are viable to really get a guy, but a fifth-round pick, they give they trade those around all the time like they're candy. So you didn't give up a lot for him. And they the other wide receiver they had on their roster was Cooper Cup, but he's injured and he hasn't necessarily been healthy this year. Well, he's been healthy at times playing, but it's not consistent. He's a little bit older. So getting a guy like Shahid, younger, a little bit more explosive of a receiver, is I think definitely it just makes all the sense in the world, especially if Cooper Cup might be out for a bit. And even when he does come back, I just feel like you'll you'll have a lot more dudes that you can have that like that they can rely on. There's like multiple guys rather than just only having one or two. So I think for the Seahawks is an absolutely amazing trade. I think Shaheed just adds another explosive element to what was already a very explosive offense. If you look at what they did to the Washington on Sunday night, it was absolutely insane what they did to them. So, like, if that's gonna be the offense they're gonna have for the rest of the year and you're adding Rashid Shaheed to that, I pray for whatever defense is gonna have to go up against that and have to worry about it because uh if you can't get to Sam uh to Sam Darnold and make him feel uncomfortable back there, and he can just sit back there comfortable and making the throws to his guys, you're not gonna be able to do much against what they have when it comes to their weapons because they're very loaded at the wide receiver position now. So great trade for both sides for very different reasons. Alright, next one. This is where I told you there was a 1A, 1B situation for the best trades well, not best, but most surprising trades of the day. And this is the 1B, I will tell you. Let me go ahead and get a drink right quick. I tell you. This whole thing with the podcasting, especially when I'm by myself, there's a lot more pressure to like, you know, kind of keep keep going a lot a lot, not have a lot of dead air, but your mouth gets a little dry. Like your throat gets a little dry, and it makes it a little harder to talk. So gotta had to take that drink. So this is the one B 1B trade. I was totally I think I I only say 1B. Well no, it's 1B. Because I'm I was equally surprised at this one, but I'm even more perplexed as to the teams that made this trade happen. Not the one side, but for sure the other. So the Cowboys trade defensive tackle Mozzie Smith, a 2026 second round pick, and a 2027 first round pick, in exchange for defensive tackle Quinn and Will Quinn Williams. One of the better uh defensive tackles in the NFL, bar none. It's been it's very good, very a very good player that they're trading for. What side do I want to? I let's stick with the Jets. The Jets, with the trades that they have made, they now have five first round picks over the next two drafts. Let me repeat that five first round picks over the next two drafts, which is absolutely insane. And you can use that if you you literally use all those picks straight up on guys to help your team out for the future. You can use some of those picks as trade pieces to go and trade up for a quarterback that you like or a different player of like over the next two drafts. So you're gonna there's gonna be plenty of great players, especially quarterbacks, to go get maybe not this year for the quarterbacks, but definitely next year. So you will have plenty of trade assets to go and get the quarterback of your dreams, or use those picks to help build out your squad for years to come. So for the Jets, this is absolutely amazing trade. Like I said, I think they just pretty much put a big old what's the word I'm looking for, a for sale sign on their organization and said, Hey, we're open to anything, nobody's safe. And they made some big trades that'll help them, and they have a lot of trade assets now, not only trade assets, but first round picks and like really good, like they have opportunity to really help supercharge whatever they want to do over the next two years in drafts. So, like, definitely an amazing trade for them, especially if they're they're gonna hit the reset button. Absolutely amazing trade, they've what they got for him. And it was a lot, they got a lot for him, which is kind of crazy. Especially and then getting Mozzie Smith back. Mozzie Smith is nowhere near the player that Quentin Williams is, but he does help stop the run. And he may not be the pass rusher, but I think the Jets, when you're trading away a guy of as good as Quentin Williams, getting just a body to kind of put in that spot is definitely helpful. It's not gonna be, it's not gonna make it feel like he's not there, but it's definitely getting a body to help fill that spot is okay, fine. But the again, the more important part was getting those those picks. Let's get to the cowboys side of this, which is where the perplexity of it is absolutely insane to me. So that first round pick that the Cowboys gave to the Jets apparently was was it their own pick? Hold on, let me see here. Let me see here. So they're gonna be paying Quinn Williams twenty-one this year, next year, and then twenty-five the year after. But apparently the Jets are paying half of his salary for this year. So fine. But then I think the first round pick they're giving up for him was it was the Green Bay Packers first round pick they got when they traded when they traded uh Micah Parsons, I believe. Excuse me. I'm not sure on that, but it was a first it's a first-round pick. So the Cowboys had two first-round picks going into coming into the next year's draft in the 2020 2026 draft. They had two first-round picks, I believe. No. No, they had two, so they gave up their 2027 first-round pick. Oh, let me check. Hold on. Cowboys 2020. Cowboys trade. Let me make sure what picks did they get for him. Okay, so they gave the they gave one of their because they had two first-round picks in 2027, because they got a 2026 first-round pick from the Packers, and they also got a 2027 first-round pick. So they gave up one of their two first-round picks that they would have for 2027, along with the trade the 2026 second-round pick. Okay. Sorry, I went a little weird on what I don't know why I went so focused on that. But okay, so I don't understand what why the Cowboys did this whatsoever. I get it, their defense is ass. I get it, their offense is pretty good. So the fact they're looking at their defense, especially with some of the games they have lost this year, is because their defense hasn't played well enough. And I I totally get that they the defense was the obvious weakness of this team. But my question about that is that you had Micah fucking Parsons on your team. And again, I'm not the biggest Micah Parsons fan whatsoever. I am not going to be at the front of the line of rooting for Micah Parsons as a player because I just don't get it. I get it. He's a very premier pass rusher, he's a premier guy. But when it comes to being an all-around football player, I am not the on that hype train for Micah. But you had him on your team, okay? And you went through the process of trying to pay him, things don't work out, feelings get hurt, and then you trade him, ultimately, you decide to trade him away for the all the first round picks you got. I think you got two first round picks for him, along with some other things, I believe. And then, okay, fine. So you I think before the season started, you had you literally decided that your defense was going to be ass because you traded away your best defensive player for him for because of all the issues that you had. You traded him away. And then now you get into the season, you're halfway through, and then you decide to trade for a defensive tackle. I get it. The defense Quentin Williams is a very good, very good defensive tackle, very good pass rusher. Like he's very good at from that spot. But you trade away parts of what you got for trading away Micah Parsons. And then you're getting a Quentin Williams who was one of the higher paid defensive tackles in all of cut in all of the NFL. And your biggest issue was with Michael Parsons that you didn't want to pay him, he didn't want to have him be the highest paid defensive end at the position and you paying him that money to do so. So I just don't understand the logic of doing this. And I I all the pluses of trading away Michael Parsons, you gave up part of it to go get Quentin Williams. And as much as I think he is a very good player, I just don't think he fixes the issues that they have on this team. And I get it, they also got Logan Wilson, which I think helps from the linebacker position. But your secondary is still ass. And that was the biggest weakness for this Cowboys team is that their secondary is absolutely atrocious. And I get it getting a guy like Quentin Williams will help with the pass rush a little bit, but he isn't nearly the pass rusher that Micah Parsons was. I get it, he costs half of what they're gonna end up that they half of what Micah Parsons ended up getting from the Packers. But I just don't understand the logic behind all of it because you didn't, you got rid of the guy that you had and got all those pieces, and then you use some of those pieces to get another guy that isn't as good at what you probably need him to be. I don't know. And Quentin Williams is not the youngest guy, he's 28, he's close to being 28 years old. I I I don't know. I I just I don't I don't understand, especially when the Cowboys, where are they at on the season? I don't even know how many losses that they have. Um, let's see here. Where are they at? They have like two or three losses. Cowboys. Where are they at record-wise? They're three and five. And the Eagles are at six and two, so I doubt that the Cowboys are really going to be in a spot to win the division. So what they are hoping for is to maybe get a get a uh an sorry. A wild card spot. So they're at best they're trying they're hoping for a wild card spot when they're sitting at three and five right now. I just I just don't understand. I I just think that if you're gonna make a move like this, you should have just kept Micah Parsons and paid him. I just I don't understand this move whatsoever for the Cowboys. What they gave up for him was probably a little bit too much, and then you're gonna be paying them decent money at that position, probably some of the highest paid at that position, to then not get as much as you had from Michael Parsons when it comes to getting after the passer. So I just don't understand, and especially in this season where it doesn't like it's gonna go all that great in the first place. I it all around just doesn't make sense to me. I get it when Jerry Jones decides he wants to go all in, he'll go all in. But I just don't think he could see the force through the trees on this one because he just got so locked in on he needs a great defensive player, but he already fucking had one. He let him walk out the door. Not let him walk out the door, you forced him out, you traded him away. So I'm I I just don't know. This trade literally makes no sense to me whatsoever, and I'm absolutely baffled as to how like what was who in the Cowboys organization like okayed this? I get it, Jerry Jones is the is the head guy, he's the owner, he's the GM, he'll do what he wants, but doesn't his son have any sort of voice in the situation? Doesn't he think better of like, oh, we probably shouldn't do this, it doesn't really make sense. Like somebody in that organization has to like have some type of like some cojones to go in there and say, hey, that this probably isn't the best idea. I don't know. It's just a crazy trade to have made. And uh in general, I just don't understand what was the thinking behind that in like at all. I just don't understand. But yeah, that was absolutely an insane trade. Um, it doesn't make any sense to me at all for the Cowboys side, but for the Jets, man, like I said, five first round picks now over the last two next two years. Uh like the Jets are in a good spot right now when it comes to rebuilding their organization from the from the ground up. And as long as they can get as long as they believe in their GM and they like their head coach and they can kind of build things from the ground up, I think they'll be in a good spot and they have they'll have plenty of assets to in order to do that, no matter how they decide to use them. Okay, and then the other trades that I wanted to talk about was the Saints trade offensive tackle Trevor Penning to the Chargers for a 2027 sixth round pick. For the Saints, it makes total sense. Trevor, they drafted Trevor Penning with a first round pick, I believe, and he has not worked out for them whatsoever. Has not been all that great. Maybe he needs like a change of scenery, maybe he'll get better, but he has no, he has been nowhere near the tackle that they thought they were gonna get when they drafted him. Again, John Harbaugh, is it Jim or John? No, John, no. Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, coach for the Chargers, is a is an offensive line guy. And if he's gonna get, if Trevor Penning's gonna figure it out with anybody, I think it'll be with the Chargers. And if if he has anything inside of him that's worth having, it makes sense for him to go to the Chargers. Maybe he can figure out whatever that whatever has made him not play as well as they needed him to needed him, needed him to be throughout his career so far in the NFL. Again, angle's just hard sometimes. So maybe he can get a fresh start with the Chargers and figure it out because the Chargers are obviously in need of offensive tackle help because I think they lost Joe Alt to a injury that'll be take him out for the year, so he's gonna be gone, so they're gonna be gone out of a right tackle, and they already lost their left tackle before the season even Rashawn Slater before the season even started, so they needed offensive tackle help. Trevor Penning is a talented guy, but he has not worked out well in the NFL so far. Maybe they can transform him and make him the tackle that they need him to be for the rest of the year. Because the way they look at it is that the Chargers have a decent team. They have a very good quarterback in Justin Herbert. They need to have somebody to protect him at the offensive tackle position. And I totally understand why they would make this move. It's low risk, high reward if it all works out. They only gave up a sixth-round pick in not even this upcoming draft, but just next year's draft. So all that being the case, I just feel like it's a low risk, like I said, low risk, high reward. And on the Saints side, I understand the guy wasn't working out for you anyway. Getting rid of him and getting something for him is the best way to go. And the Saints have done that. So very good on them to make to make this move as well. And was there any other deal that I wanted to talk about here? Oh, Titans trade edge rusher Draymond Jones to the Ravens for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick that I believe, based on certain things, could become a fourth-round pick if things work out in the Ravens' way. Draymond Jones, good pass rush. He's not necessarily a superstar by any means, but he has a buckeye, so I'm definitely gonna always gonna be always love watching him play. I think so far this season, I think he has 13 solo tackles, like he has like a few like four or five sacks, something like that. But I think the Ravens, one of their weaknesses for their defense is not really having pat a pass rush. So getting a guy like Draymond Jones definitely gonna be a big help for them for the rest of their year. I think every every week for them is going to be a must-win week because they just they're so far in the hole when it comes to where they're at in their season because of how many losses they have, and they were looking up at the Steelers for the top of the AFC North. And on top of that, you have to even try to get a wild card spot if you can't get to the top of the AFC North. So getting a guy to help out with the pass rush is definitely a big deal, and Draymond Jones will definitely be able to do so. And especially with a fifth-round pick that could become a fourth. Like I said, fourth, fifth, sixth round picks are traded like candy. And if Draymond Jones can be anything near what they need him to be, a fifth round, fifth slash fourth round pick is chump change for what you can get out of him if everything works out correctly. And the Ravens get where they need to go, especially going to the playoffs and you know, getting to their ultimate goal, getting AFC North AFC, getting to the AFC Championship game slash Super Bowl. So good trades. I think it works for both sides and Titans. They're already so bad anyway. Getting rid of Guy to be able to get a draft pick out of it, definitely good. Especially when Draymond Jones was going nowhere fast with the Titans because they're not going to be winning a lot of games. So I think for the Titans side, getting rid of Draymond, getting a pick for it, definitely makes a lot of sense when they're not really in the business of winning this season anyway. So that's about it. And that's all I got for the NFL trades. I think it's been not the craziest NFL trade deadline that I have experienced, but it's definitely one of the more surprising with some of the guys that had gotten trade traded. I think the biggest one, like I said, was Sauce Gardner with a very close second being the Quinn and Williams trade to the Cowboys. And it's like the only trade that truly made sense to me was like the Eagles doing the trades that they did. And then you think about the the Seahawks getting Rashid Shaheed, but the rest of the trades were like, I'm not sure why. Especially the big ones. Like they didn't really make sense to me. And I think too much was given out. I think a lot of teams were fleeced today when it comes to what they had to give up to get the guy that they wanted from the other team. So it was definitely a very interesting trade deadline to nonetheless. So I was like at work sitting there jumping on my phone every 20 or 30 minutes, like, ooh, what trade happened next? And there was always something going on. And I'm like, it was it was a very nice day when it came to NFL news. And before I get to the games, real quick, the one thing I wanted to mention was the Steelers because they were looking out around the wide receivers, and it's been they were in the news of looking at Chris Olave or Cant. Apparently, there was like some rumor that they contacted the Cardinals about Marvin Harrison Jr. And it's felt like they were doing a lot of calls, but when it was time to actually pay up to get any of these dudes, they weren't willing to pay it. I think they were also calling about Brees Hall as well for the Jets. Oh, biggest loser of the day was Brees Hall, man. He like he wanted to be traded so bad away from the Jets. And apparently, like I think it was like news like a couple weeks ago that in order for the Jets to be willing to trade Brees Hall, they wanted a third round pick for him. But it seemed that nobody wanted to give that up whatsoever. So I think the biggest loser on the day was was Brees Hall because he wanted to get out as badly as possible, and he was tweeting his way through it, and he's now stuck with the Jets. Like a team that's I have no chance of winning. And heck, I think it was a whole thing during the offseason that the coaching staff really didn't like him. So it's just like he's not liked in the organization, and then they're not willing to get rid of him because they wanted too much for him. So I really do feel bad for Brees Hall that he's kind of stuck. Also, freaking Garrett Wilson, too, they're both just stuck in their situations playing for an organization that looks like it's gonna go nowhere fast. And then I do I will say this that at least those two guys that they traded away, uh no, Quentin Williams is not going to play for a winning winning organization, but at least he's gonna go play at a nicer place, I guess. No state income tax, so I think that's better for his wallet. But I think the only guy that really got out that may have a chance to actually have a better chance of winning was Sauce Gardner, and the Colts gave up way too much for him to do that. But uh, but yeah, it was a weird one. It was a weird trade deadline with a lot of teams giving up way too much for what they got. But uh it was it was at least interesting, and I'll take that. But the Steelers, real quick before I get to the games, I just wanted to mention them because, like I said, they were in on everybody, but did not do anything. Ultimately, I am happy they didn't. I think the one trade they made was getting Kyle Duggar was the safety from the Patriots for very I think it was like a fifth-round pick or something like that. Again, they needed some safety help with injuries and stuff like that. So I I get that, but I would say in general, as a Steelers fan, I'm very happy that they did not go all in. And like I've been saying, like why trip double or triple down on this team that doesn't have a real chance at going and winning the whole thing? So why double or triple down on this team and go get somebody that is ultimately not going to get you where you need to go? And especially if you're giving up really good draft compensation or players to do so. I'm just happy they didn't take that plunge because the Steelers are not that type of team. And I get it, the Steelers fans in general are a fan base that believes that they should that they should be going out and trying to win every year. To some degree, I agree with that because that's what the Steelers are built on as an organization. That's their motto, that's their that's their code, is they're going after it every year. But I think to a certain extent, to build a team that you need to how you need to nowadays, at some point you have to take the pill and realize you're not going to be winning and do it, do it the hard way. Because I think just kind of putting band-aid on the situation band-aids on the situation and hoping that it'll get better, it just never gets better. And it's like a disease that just gets more and more infected throughout the organization, and it just leads to an even harder crash when that crash does happen. So I'm just glad that they didn't go double or triple down on this team that obviously was not going to get where they want to go at the end of the year. So I just think in general, I just want to make sure I mentioned it because I've been talking about it for so long. Just don't give up real draft assets that you could use to really build this team for the future. Because, like I said, like I've been saying, rooting for a team that doesn't feel like they have a real pathway for like multiple years into the future is absolutely maddening when you're looking at teams, other teams that are building, right? I get it, you don't want to hit rock bottom. Again, I'm not sitting here saying I want to like I'd be happy about the Steelers going to rock bottom and building up, but at least there'd be a pathway to success and there would be an avenue that you can see there is some chance for growth. But the way the Steelers have gone the last few years, I don't see growth as an option. And if you go in and give up real draft assets to go get somebody, it would make it even worse when that when that debt truly does have to be paid at some point. So I'm glad that they did not take that plunge and go go after and get any of these dudes that would need actual draft assets to go get. So because like I said, it's been a thing that for this whole this whole trade deadline that do teams are overpaying. So I'm just glad the Steelers are not one of those teams that had to that went and overpaid for somebody that ultimately won't get you where you need to go. Okay. I talked for an hour on the drip on all the trades. Insane that I went that long. I really didn't mean to, but it is what it is. Heck, I think the the ESP, the college football rankings will probably be out very soon, if not already. So let's get to the rest of the NFL and then I'll go to college football and talk about all that. So NFL games did happen this past weekend. I just want to go through, recap them, do all of that, and then we'll go from there. So when it came to picks, I went eight and six, Jace went nine and five. Our one split being the Kansas City Buffalo game. Shame on me. I went and believed in Kansas City for one week. Well, no, not that I believed in them one week, but I believed in them to beat Buffalo in the regular season. That was my biggest issue. I shouldn't have. The Buff Buffalo has been good at beating Kansas City in the regular season for years now. It's in the playoffs that Buffalo can't get the job done, and I should have recognized that and not picked Kansas City. But, you know, I did, and I I'm paying the price for it. I am now overall, I am 76-44-1, and Jace is 79-41-1. So I'm currently three games behind Jace, and we'll have to figure out a way to catch up here in the future. But uh it won't be this week. Well, it wasn't this past week because it was already a two-game deficit, and now it's up went up to three because I keep taking weird chances. So we'll see. All right, let's go and get into the games, and then we'll go on to college football and talk about the rankings and all that. First game I want to talk about. We'll start with the Bears and Bengals. Bears win the game 47-42. This was a back and forth affair. Joe Flacco had a career day, I believe. He went 31-47 for 470 yards and four touchdowns. And it was crazy because the Bears, it felt like they had a very good handle on the game. But again, it was still a back and forth affair. The the Bengals were still they were still in the game, and then the fourth quarter they managed to score 15 points to go up, and I think they were up by they were up by two with like a when they gave the ball back to Chicago with like 60, like just under a minute left, and it felt like the Bengals had a real chance to win the game. Again, a field goal for Chicago would have bit had a chance to win it, but it's just you know, the Bears, can you really rely on them on a la on a comeback drive? Caleb Williams as the quarterback. Can you will in a big moment will he be able to pull through? And on that last play, I think it was the last play, and the Bears just able to throw a nice little like a crossing route, not a crossing route, but like an angled route to uh Colson Loveland, the tight end that they just drafted, the rookie, and he managed to get through two, I think, two tacklers and then run it all the way to our for a touchdown. And the Bengals lose the game in absolutely shocking fashion, and it was absolutely it was a shameful loss for the Bengals because again, they scored 42. I think they scored over 80 points the last two games and have lost both games because their defense has been awful. And the Bears, good for them. They're like obviously they're not going to apologize for winning the game, but like the Bengals had come back, they did their jobs, and they got back into this game, and they all you had to do was get one stop for just under a minute, and you should have been able to win this football game again. There's no guarantee they would, if they even stopped the touchdown, that they would have not given up the field goal that would have lost them the game anyway. But it was just it was very again, this is just a it's like a referendum on the Bengals for the season because even if they had Joe Burrow on this team, their defense was going to be their downfall. And when you traded for Joe Flacco, and I think he's been a much better guy player for this team than they ever thought they were gonna get, and he's been good for them. He's been making plays and getting the balls to their guys, getting the football to their obviously their two big wide receivers, and their offense has been very good. But the defense has been the Achilles heel for the Spangles team for years, and it keeps being that way, and it's just like they they won't learn their lesson, and I just don't get it, and it doesn't make sense. And you had players after this game complaining, you had the running back, why am I forgetting? It's Chase Brown complaining about it, and then there's video of Jamar Chase complaining about the defense one stop, and this has been a problem for years, and the Bengals haven't addressed it well enough or fixed it, and even when Joe Burrow comes back at the end of this year or next year, their defense is still gonna be a problem, their coaching staff is still gonna be an issue, and I just don't know how they're gonna fix this going into next year when Joe Burrow will be back and healthy. I don't know, because their defense is just absolutely atrocious, and I think it's only gotten worse. Which crazy thing is after last year, you think the defense can't get worse, and I think they might actually be. And it doesn't make sense to me, but you know, Bears, good for them. Do I think Caleb Williams has really turned a corner? Probably not, because of how bad this Bengals defense is. I'm not gonna sit here and say that the the Bears have figured it out, and Caleb Williams has now figured out how to be an NF, like a good, consistent NFL quarterback. But he took advantage of the moment that he had and he went out there and did his thing. That touchdown that he got from Colton Colston Loveland was like insane. The fact that the Bengals can't make a tackle to stop a simple crossing route from a tight end. But it's an insane, it's an insane, insane, but the Bears got the win. It was a very, very fun game to watch in general. Next game, Vikings, Lions, Vikings win the game 27-24. I think this game, well, if there was a metaphorical game ball to give, it has to be given to the Minnesota Vikings defense. And in why am I forgetting? Um his name. Uh the defense of DC for Brian Flores. The game ball would have to be given to the defense for Minnesota and Brian Flores because they absolutely put the Detroit Lions in a blender. They kept Jared Goff from being uncomfortable. I think he got sacked five times for negative 44 yards off of those sacks. He never felt comfortable. Jared Goff just felt off in this game in general. They stopped the run. I think in total, they only uh the Lions only ran for 65 yards with Jameer Gibbs and David Montgomery. So the Vikings defense came into this game. They made Jared Goff uncomfortable. He was nowhere near as productive as he has been throughout this year, and they stopped the run. And with that, it kept because Detroit Lions, when they can get the run going and they kind of have their offense humming, they're blowing out everybody and nobody can really keep up with him. But as soon as Minnesota came into this game and they was able to stifle the Lions' offense the way they did, it allowed for JJ McCarthy when he has struggled throughout this year mightily, and then he got hurt, and then now it's his first game back, and he's coming back. He still doesn't play efficiently. He went 14-25 for 143 yards, two touchdowns, and a pick. He's still terribly inefficient, and that's what he's been so far throughout his NFL career. And but here's the thing you can be inefficient if you can make some big plays every once in a while and get a couple touchdowns. And that's exactly what he did. He had two touchdown throws. I think he also had a touchdown run. So if you can get through the inefficiencies and still get touchdowns, I think you can win a lot of football games. But again, that's on top of the fact that the Minnesota Vikings defense played as well as they did against a very good Detroit Lions offense in Detroit, which is an even bigger task. So the fact that they were able to make all of this happen defensively against that Lions team, it only made the job easier for JJ McCarthy to come in and not necessarily have to press and have to keep up with the Lions. So I think it just made it easier in general on this Minnesota Vikings offense with a young quarterback that's not necessarily consistent to go in there, be able to get a few touchdowns, and be able to win the football game off of it. So I so all that being the case, Vikings played a very good game, but Brian Flores in that defense definitely deserves a big bulk of the credit on that win. Probably the biggest surprise of the day when it comes to upset wins, Panthers and Packers played each other. Panthers won the game 16-13. Panthers played a pretty decent game, but here's the problem though, is that you can't even really give the Carolina Panthers all that much credit because Bryce Young did not play well. He ran, he threw the football for 102 yards and he had a pick. He didn't even have a touchdown throw in this game. The real winners for the Panthers in this game was Rico Dowdle, who had 25 carries, 130 yards, and two touchdowns. Like that was the winner. Like he was like that was the biggest driver of why they won this football game. And then the rest of it, you can give to Green Bay Packers absolutely sucking offensively throughout this game. And you can't even blame the Green Bay Packers defense because when Bryce Young throws for just over 100 yards and no touchdown passes, and I guess the running game, you can probably say it's on them for not being able to stop the run with Rico Dowdo running for 130 yards. But like they did their jobs. When you come into a game and you can hold the Carolina Panthers to 16 points, and you have a Green Bay Packers offense that has Jordan Love, who is known as one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL, and they have all these weapons at their disposal. They did lose Tucker Kraft in this game to an ACL injury, so that he'll be gone for the rest of the year. So that's definitely a big loss for them. But they have more than enough different weapons that they should have been able to win this football game without much of an issue, and they absolutely struggled. Jordan Love, 26-37 for 273 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. And it should have been two because there was a play where Jordan Love was going and they were around the 40-yard line, something like that, and he threw it towards the end zone and he threw it straight to a Carolina Panthers defensive player that was sitting by himself in the end zone. Like it wasn't even close to where he was actually trying to throw it. And he the defensive player totally dropped the football. It should have been a pick. So he should have had multiple picks in this game. But it's just the the Green Bay could not get anything going. And Josh Jacobs played okay. He had 17 carries, 87 yards, and a touchdown. But for whatever reason, they just could not get things going offensively enough in order to win this football game. And that's a problem when they only you only need to have more than 16 points to beat the Carolina Panthers. You couldn't make it happen. And I think this is a referendum on Jordan Love as a quarterback because this offense is inconsistent as Jordan Love is inconsistent. Like Jordan Love has proven himself to be a very inconsistent quarterback through his years at in the NFL. And as he goes, this offense goes. And it's crazy how last week Jordan Love can complete 20 straight passes against the Steelers and totally be dicing him up. And then you're coming into this game against the Carolina Panthers, and you think, oh, this should be sh this should be an easy one. And he looks absolutely atrocious. And it's just absolutely insane how it can be so up and down. But that's been Jordan Love's career so far. And I was listening to like the Bomani Jones' podcast, and he when he said this, I'm like, I couldn't really relate because I didn't watch Brett Favre play all that much. I think the most I remember him playing was like his Viking when he was playing with the Vikings. But he was they said that he brings you the the weird years of Brett Favre before Brett Favre was the guy. Because Jordan Love, when he's at his best, looks like one of the most co talented quarterbacks in the NFL, and then as and at his worst, he's throwing picks and he's not being efficient, and he's doing like all this other like not looking good. So um it was an absolutely insane uh showing from this Green Bay Packers team, and I it was perplexing as to how they lost this game because I just really did not understand how they played so badly offensively in this game. But again, it's all comes back to Jordan Love. He plays how he needs to play. They look like one of the best teams in the NFL, but when he plays like this, they let they can be beat by anybody, and it's the crazy thing because they're they have two losses on the year, the Green Bay Packers do. And who are those two losses to? They are to the Cleveland Browns and they are to the Carolina fucking Panthers. And that that tells you all you need to know about how up and down this Green Bay Packers team is. Alright. Next game. Chargers, Titans. It's crazy because the Chargers, like, they tried to lose this game as much as they possibly could. It started with a very quick um pick-six from Justin Herbert, and it just felt like a lot of things just did not go their way in this game. The Titans took advantage of it. The Chargers won the game 27 to 20, but this game should not have been nearly as close as it ended up being. And it was because of mistakes by the Chargers, and then the Titans taking like some very having some very good things go their way that they managed to keep the game close. But it shouldn't have been. But it just kind of should goes to show the Titans have looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL, and they manage on a day like this to or like a day like Sunday to go and really give the Chargers a game and kind of make the Chargers have to sweat sweat it out. And I think that it just shows why the NFL is the way it is, is that on any given Sunday, if you come and have a bad day, you can get bit by even some of the worst teams that should have no reason to be on the same field as you. So it was a weird one, it was a close one, but the chargers came out with a with a win, and I think they have to be very happy um that that was the case. Next game, Falcons, Patriots, Patriots won the game 24 to 23. This one was a weird one. I I think that if the Falcons had any sort of a what is this game was close. Like this game was very close, and Pennyx was coming back off of injury. He played fine 22 of 37 for 221 and three touchdowns. Bichon really didn't do all that much in this game. He had 46 yards rushing and another 50 yards receiving, but it's nowhere near as explosive as what Bichon is usually giving you. But the real winner for the for the Falcons in this game, not winner, but he was like the biggest per biggest dude. Well, physically he's the biggest guy, but like the biggest contributor for the Falcons in this game was Drake London. He had nine catches, 118 yards, and three touchdowns. And the defense for the Falcons did make some plays, and like they were keeping them in it, and they were like really amazing, like again, it felt like at the beginning of this game, it felt like New England was going to run away with it, especially in the first half where they scored it was like 21-14 in the first half, and it's like, oh, Patriots are starting to kind of like ramp up, but it's in the second half the Atlanta's defense really started turning it on, and they kind of kept New England from being able to score as much as they did in the first half, and the Falcons just really couldn't pick up enough points to go ahead and win it. And Drake May played fine. 19-29, 259 yards, two touchdowns, and a pick. That pick was a big deal. Uh their running back, Terrell Jennings, had a touchdown. It was like a that's the rookie running back that they drafted. No, sorry, he's a free rookie free agent, I believe. I'm sorry, a unsigned, undrafted free agent. Uh Trevion Henderson was their leading back on the day because Ramondre Stevenson was out. He had 55 yards receiving. I mean, sorry, rushing. And then I think he also had another 32 yards receiving. Demario Douglas is a leading receiver, four catches, 100 yards and a touchdown. Stephon Diggs had a touchdown catch. It was just another win for the Patriots, man. They were at home, they're 7-2 now after this game, and they found a way to win it, even though it felt like it wasn't going their way in the second half, and I feel like that's a very good thing. But when you have a coach like Mike Vrabel and you have a quarterback and Drake May, that kind of it kind of centers you. And sometimes if you can have a game like that where you don't bring your best, but you still manage to pull out a win. And that's a very good thing in the NFL. Because like I said before, with the with the Chargers and the Saints when the Titans, if you just if you don't have a great day, another team can bite you. And the Falcons are far from the worst team in the NFL. Like they're still a very talented team. And Drake London had an awesome day. But the Patriots were able to pull it out and they were able to do enough, even though they just barely had to hang on. Instead of being able to like, they instead of being able to like really pour it on and like run away with it, they had to hang on in the second half and they just had to make enough plays to hope the Falcons didn't score enough points to come back and uh finit complete the comeback. But the Patriots got the win. Good for them. Next game, 49ers, Giants, Niners win the game for 34 to 24. Chris McCaffrey was awesome this game. He was the absolute monster for them. McCaffrey had 28 carries for 106 yards and a touchdown rushing, and then he also was a leading receiver in this game with five catches, 67 yards, and a touchdown. McCaffrey is absolutely awesome. Like when he's playing like this, he's one of the top players in the NFL. And when he came coming into the year, coming off the injury that he had last year, where he didn't, he only played like three or four games. I was still believing that he can come back and have a very good year. Jace was on the other side of that. He didn't believe it. And now watching Christian McCaffrey play like he's playing right now is an absolutely insane thing to see. If you draft him in fantasy, he's a fantasy monster. But in winning games, football games too, he's their leading guy as well. And because he's playing the way he needs to play, Mac Jones does not have to carry the weight of the offense because Mac Jones is not necessarily a like a guy that can you can throw the team on his back and you can go win football games. But guess what? Mac Jones as the automaton for for Shanahan to just get the ball where you need it to go in that offense. I think Mac Jones can do that when you have a guy like Christian McCaffrey doing what he's doing for that offense. So Mac Jones, 19-24, 235 yards, two touchdowns, zero picks. That's exactly what they need from Mac Jones when they are able to run the football like they are, not only with Christian McCaffrey, but Brian Robinson Jr., their backup running back had five carries, 53 yards, and a touchdown. So they had a couple touchdowns on the ground, and then you had Christian McCaffrey doing things in the um in the receiving game, as well as Juwan Jennings, who had 41 yards off four catches and a touchdown. So with all that being the case, the Niners, even with their defense not playing as well as they probably need it to, they're able to win this football game in the Giants' house because Jackson Dart did not play terribly. 24-33, 191 yards, two touchdowns, zero picks. But it's just very apparent the Giants are just not equipped enough offensively to win these games because the defense for the Giants is fine. They have a very good front seven, but their their secondary is absolutely atrocious, and they need a little bit more help in the secondary. But like if the Giants had a couple more weapons, I think they probably could have kept up in this game and potentially won it. But with that being the case, you only with that not being the case, Jackson Dart's really your only offensive guy that you really can like count on. I think Darius Leighton was their leading receiver in this game, but he dropped a touchdown pass. Like there was an easy touchdown Jackson Dart threw right in the right in Darius Leighton's breadbasket, and he managed to get it knocked out in the end zone. So it it would just be nice if they were able to, you know, have the weapon that they have on their team when with um why am I forgetting his name now? See, I've been better about remembering names this time around, but I'm forgetting his Malik Neighbors. If they have Malik Neighbors, their wide receiver that got knocked out of the season with a torn ACL, I can only imagine what this team would actually be offensively if they had a weapon of that magnitude along with the juice that Jackson Dart brings you. It could be they could be so much better, and not to mention freaking Cam Scattaboo that they had for them with them until last week, where he got injured and he's gonna be done for the year with that dislocated ankle. So it's just it'd be nice if they had some more weapons around Jackson Dart, but again, they have Malik neighbors until he got hurt. So I think they'll be very dangerous next year when they can kind of put it back all together, maybe add a couple pieces to that team, especially in the secondary, and maybe a couple pass catchers along with Malik Neighbors coming back. I think they'd be a uh a very dangerous team next year once they get some pieces together for it. Next game, Colts Steelers, another surprise on the day. I went into it very negatively. I thought the Steelers were gonna lose. I thought the Colts were gonna beat our asses, to be totally honest with you. And I was surprised that the Steelers came out defensively and put up the effort that they did in that game. And that's been the difference. Like I think like through the year so far, like nobody can really say the offense has been absolutely awful for the Steelers. I think the offense led by Aaron Rodgers has been fine. Would they need a potentially a set like a number two receiver to kind of like get some of the pressure off of DK Mecc? Yeah, for sure. To where they're not so reliant on throwing to the tight ends and just DK, it'd be very nice, or maybe a running back to help that off, like help them run the football more efficiently. But the Steelers' offense has been far from the worst it has looked in the last couple years. So they've been playing better, but the on the other side. Of it, the defense for the Steelers has been absolutely awful to the up to this point in the season. And then coming into this game, I thought this is going to be the icing on the cake. The Colts are going to beat our asses. They're going to run the football down our throats with Jonathan Taylor. And Danny Dimes going to throw for a few touchdowns. And I thought this game was going to be an absolute whitewashing. And the Steelers would have lost it in horrible fashion. That did not happen in this game. The Steelers won the game 27-20. They forced five turnovers. A couple picks by Daniel Jones. I think he had two picks or three picks. They forced three picks out of Daniel Jones. And I think it was a fumble as well. Or two fumbles. And then they lost, they had Daniel Jones lose a couple fumbles as well. And the Steelers are able to pull out this game. And here's the thing. And this is where I'm not going to get crazy excited because at the end of the day, this is the same thing as what happened with the Patriots earlier on this year. The fact that you were able to force five turnovers against a team, and you still only win the game by seven points, is an absolute travesty. And that same thing happened with the Patriots. They forced five turnovers against them, and they only won like the Patriots had the ball at the end of the game with a chance to tie it. And that's the same what happened in this game. The Colts still had a chance at the end of the game with the ball in hand to tie the game. And that's where, even with the defense playing as well as they did, forcing as many turnovers as they did, the offense still can't take advantage of that and like really get off to any big leads. And even with all those turnovers, the Colts still got some points in there. So I think this does put a little bit of a damper on all the credit I've been getting giving Daniel Jones throughout this year about how poised he's been and how good he's been and throwing the football all over the field. Heck, even in this game, outside of the turnovers, again, the turnovers were bad. The fumbles especially were, but then the picks that he threw as well just weren't again, they were a couple tip balls that didn't go their way. Again, I think this was this game was won based off the Steelers' defensive line. TJ Watt coming to life, getting a strip sack in this game. You had a couple a let's see, a pick by Peyton Wilson, as well as a tipped pass that then Jack Sawyer, Captain Jack, was able to catch off that tip in order for the for the interception. So like, and then Joey Porter Jr. also had an interception. Very good for him that he was able to make that play because JPJ has been a little bit, he's been getting called for a lot of fouls, pass interference, holding all of the everything up above because he's been having a little bit more of a rough year. So I was happy to see him be able to make a play in this game and get something positive for him as well. But that like this whole game was like the defensive line came to life, and their defense, the defense played the best they played the best they had played all year. The Colts, they weren't able to run the football. I think they ran the football for 55 yards total. Jonathan Taylor averaged 3.2 yards a rush, only had 14 carries, 45 yards. So I think the Steelers, with the way they were able to stop the run, and they were able to get after Daniel Jones, make him feel uncomfortable, was able, gave them a chance to win this football game the way they did. Do I think the Steelers' defense will be able to keep this up all year? Probably not. And that's not going to be the case. And even, again, like I said, even with all the turnovers that they forced, they still only won the game by seven points. So teams are going to be able to throw the football on us, which is exactly what they did. Daniel Jones played as bad as he did. He still went 31 of 50 for 342 yards and a touchdown. And then Daniel Jones also ran for a touchdown as well. So Alec Pierce, the wide receiver for the Colts, had 115 yards receiving. Michael Pittman Jr., 115 yards receiving. Josh Downs, 57 yards receiving and a touchdown. So, like, even with everything going the Steelers' way when it comes to getting after Daniel Jones, the secondary is still leaky as fuck. And that's why, even with them having a nice day, that makes me feel a little happy. Again, going into the day, I was feeling very negative. But as the game went along, I get positive. I'm a very dumb human. And as much as I know that losing is probably the best way for the Steelers to go, with my whole thing of taking the pill, losing for the year, building for the future. That's all honestly that I know in my brain that that's what I want. But once game starts, man, my heart gets into it, and I'm trying to root for the Steelers to win as much as I possibly can. So winning the game, I was happy to see. But at the end of it, I also understand that this team is still has their a bunch of issues. And I think this game was more about what the what it I think it proved to me the Colts are not in comparison to what they I think the Steelers are. And with all that being the case, I'm happy I was happy at the time, but I just think that there's gonna be a lot of fans for the Steelers. Heck, this trade deadline today. They there was a lot of fans that truly believe that the Steelers made a couple moves here or there and they're they're in the mix, and I just don't think that was gonna ever gonna be the case. And I don't think that that win against the Colts proved anything when it comes to what the Steelers season will ultimately ultimately end up being by the end of the year. So it was a good win. I was happy at the time. I'm still happy now. I'm happy I got to see them play TJ play a game like that because he had been kind of like a no-show all year long so far, up until this game, and the defensive line finally came alive, so I was happy to see that. But I just don't think it necessarily I think it just I think it's more about for me what I think it it's more of a downer on the Colts than I think it is a me feeling better about the Steelers, if that makes sense. But again, I think this heck that game kind of made the Colts decide they wanted to go all in, and they went and got Sauce Gardner and they made a big move to try to help their team out, and they they're going all in on the year, and I I'm very happy for them. I'm not sure that'll be the difference for them getting farther in the playoffs like they want to, but they're seven and two. The Colts are still in prime position for the rest of their season, but I don't know. I think I think it just shows a blueprint that if you get after Daniel Jones, make him feel uncomfortable, and stop the run, the Colts are not going to be able to go tip for tap for you with Daniel Jones throwing 50 times. That's not how that team is built to run offensively. So, you know, it is what it is. Next game, Broncos Texans, Broncos win the game 18-15. This game was a defensive battle, to say the least. And I think this game was really going the Texans' way until CJ ended up getting hit with a concussion. He was going to slide, got tackled by one of the defensive players for the Broncos. He didn't get hit in the head by that Broncos player, but the Broncos player came through when he was already sliding, hit him on a side, kind of banged his head onto the ground. It was an obvious concussion right away. Hands kind of froze all of that, like all the obvious things as a football fan. If you see it, you know it, you know what it is at the time. Once he went out, you have data had Davis Mills come in. The offense wasn't nearly not as efficient, but he kind of kept the offense going, but just they weren't able to get enough points to win the game. But heck, they were up, but it's just the Broncos came back in the fourth quarter, scored 11 points to come back and win the game, even against a very good Texans defense. Again, Texans defense coming into the day, if you held hold the Broncos to 18 points, you have a reasonable expectation to win the game. But I think if CJ would have stayed in, they probably would have won it. But they weren't able to hold on to the to the uh to the lead. Broncos come back, they win the game. Bonex, if nothing else, knows how to come back in the fourth quarter and make some plays. But this the defenses that were on that field on that Sunday were absolutely amazing. Texans are awesome. I think the Broncos are pretty as close as you can get to what the Texans defense is because of how insane that they are. But it's just as soon as CJ went out, it was just like a matter of time before the the Broncos just kept knocking on the door. They finally broke through and scored some points there in the fourth. But it was a good decent game. Broncos got the win there 7-2. Uh, it's definitely a win that they needed, and I hope the Texans can get CJ back at some point because I do think he was kind of getting into a rhythm that offense was getting better with him at the helm, and I just hope that he has isn't gone too long with the with the concussion. So hopefully he'll be good and ready to go by next week. If not, hopefully they'll take as much time as they need in order for him to get healthy and be able to go out there 100%. Next game. Uh Jags Raiders. Jags win the game 20 to 30 to 29 in overtime. You had a how did that happen? Hold on, let me see here. Yeah, the Jags win the game 30 to 29 in overtime. Play by play. Scoring. Make sure I'm not crazy here. The touch the Panthers got the touchdown. And then the Brock Bowers. Oh, okay. That's what happened. This game was a back and forth affair. And you know what's crazy is that the Braiders have been absolutely dog crap throughout this year, ever since Brock Bowers left the game, left, um, had an injury to his knee, and then he's been gone for like a month or so with the knee injury, and then he comes back, and the offense looks close to normal again, which is kind of crazy. Brock Bowers is an absolute unicorn of a tight end. He was leading receiver for the Raiders in this game. He had 12 receptions, 127 yards, and three touchdowns. Like he was absolutely unstoppable in this game. And it he really did give the Raiders a chance to win the game. And heck, and even in overtime, like the Jacksonville, Jacksonville scored first in that overtime, and then Las Vegas kind of came back, was able to score the touchdown, but then they went for went for two in overtime, and then didn't obviously failed it and then lost the game. But I have to give cred give credit to the Raiders. They went to try to win the game. It didn't work out for them, but they went and tried, they went, went for it. But again, they're two and six. What does a tie do for them at that point? So I do respect them going for the win in overtime when they got the touchdown to try to go for two instead of just going for the tie. Jags. Trevor Lawrence did not play his best, but he wasn't terrible. He had a rushing touchdown in this game. He went 23 at 34, 220 yards and a pick. Travis, uh Travis Etienne Jr., 84 yards rushing off 22 carries. Parker Washington was their leading receiver. It was a it was a weird game. It was a bad it was a it was a fun game to watch, honestly. It really was. It was a fun one. But it was just like, you know, it's almost felt like the Raiders, it was a Brock Bauer show. I feel like if he is not on this Raiders team, this this team's absolutely awful. The Raiders defense can't stop a nosebleed. And to be honest, without him, they really don't have like the rest of their offense really does shrink with what they're able to do. And Geno Smith, he kind of had a revival today. He went 29 of 39, four touchdowns, one pick. Ash and Genty, they didn't run the football that well. Genty ran the ball for 42 yards total off 13 carries. And it's it was the Brock Bauer show. He was awesome. He did his thing, and it really did give the Raiders a chance to win this football game, but they didn't didn't pull it off at the end. Give the Jags some credit. I think the uh kicker for the Jags hit a seven 68 yarder, which is the NFL record for a longest field goal hit in the NFL. He does have the leg to hit a 70 yarder. He did already in the preseason hit a 70 yarder. It's only a matter of time before that happens. But again, in the preseason, it doesn't count towards the record books, which is kind of insane. But he hit a 70 yarder in this game, so he was definitely a big deal for them as well. Sorry, he hit a 68 yarder in this game. So credit to the Jags for winning the game. They're 5-3, they're staying in the hunt. I think they're only a game behind the Colts now, who are sitting at 6-2 or 7-2. I think the Colts are 7-2 now. Hold on, let me check here. Hold on. Yeah, Colts are 7-2. They haven't had their bye yet, so that totally makes sense there. But yeah, Jags stay one game behind the Colts is what it is on that. But good for them. They got the win on that. Raiders. Brock Bowers is an absolute unicorn, man. He's awesome. And I think when you look at a guy like him, and then you look at like a guy like Tyler Warren or something like that, just Brock Bowers as a tight end, he's it's almost like Travis Kelsey on steroids. Not literally on steroids, but like just the aft like yards after catch for him are absolutely insane. If you give him any type of room, man, he's gonna burst and he's gonna get past anybody that you have guarding him, on top of the fact he's bigger than any sort of safety or linebacker that's gonna be on him. So he's an absolute unicorn. Next game, Rams Saints. Rams won the game 34-10. This was like a scrimmage, man. Rams absolutely destroyed the Saints. Saints had no chance of winning this football game whatsoever. Tyler Shuck, the quarterback, the guy that cut coming into his first start as a Saint, who they drafted in the second round, he was not good. 25 of sorry, 15 of 24, 176 yards, one touchdown, one pick. They really didn't run the football that great. They had 57 yards total rushing in this game. Rashid Shaheed, their leading receiver in this game, 68 yards, five receptions. He is now gone, going to play with the going to play with the Jags. Insane. He's gonna be playing. No, sorry. Am I right on that? Nope, not the Jags. Seahawks, sorry. My bad. I got lost there for a second. But yeah, he's gonna play with the Seahawks, he'll be with a lot better team. Good for him. He'll be in a more of a winning situation. Chris Olave came out, he still played well. Juwan Johnson had a touchdown catch. But it's just they're just not a good football team. I don't think Tyler Shuck is like really going to be a long-term NFL guy. And I think they really do need to hit the reset button on that team and really rebuild that thing from the bottom up. But it doesn't change the fact that the Rams got the win in this one. Matthew Stafford was awesome. 24-32, 281 yards, four touchdowns, zero picks. They ran the football so effectively. Kyron Williams had 114 yards rushing and a touchdown. Their backup Blake Coram had 58 yards rushing off 13 carries. Puka Nakua came back first game after a stint on the injury report. He's back, seven receptions, 95 yards, and a touchdown. Devontae Adams had two touchdowns off five catches and 60 yards. Tyler Higby had a touchdown catch. This was an absolute clinic by the LA LA Rams, and it was not even close. It was as close to a college performance as you could possibly get when it comes to like an Ohio State or an Oregon playing an FCS team and just taking care of business. Game's never close and it's just over from the start. That that's that's how systematic that Rams win was against the Saints. All the credit to them. Next one, probably the game that had the most hype going into it on Sunday. It was between it was the game of the week, I think. Bills Chiefs, Bills won the game 28-21. And to be honest, the game shouldn't have been that close. Josh Allen had an absolutely awesome game, 23 of 26 for 273 yards. He had a touchdown pass, he had a touchdown run, he had two touchdown um rushes. James Cook was awesome in this game. 27 carries, 114 yards, average over four yards a carry. Dalton Kincaid, if he plays like this, it's makes the it makes the Bills offense a lot harder to stop. I mean he had six catches, six catches, 101 yards and a touchdown. Khalil Shakir got involved. There was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. There was ten different receivers that caught a pass from from Josh Allen in this game. He was absolutely dealing, he was efficient, he didn't throw any picks. Like the Buffalo Bills from start to finish offensively were absolutely awesome. And I think defensively were even better. Because coming into this game, why I believe the Kansas City Chiefs had a chance to win that game, even with the game being in Buffalo, was because the Buffalo Bills defense has been awful this year. They haven't been able to get stops. You've been able to run the football on them, and they haven't really gotten after the passer, and their secondary hasn't been as great. But in this game, they totally flipped it, man. They played an absolutely amazing football game. They got after Patch Mahomes, they sacked him three times. Mahomes never felt comfortable in this game whatsoever. Again, there is one small caveat. They not small, but a big caveat that they were missing like two or three offensive linemen that they were expecting to start in this game. Not expecting to start because uh Simmons, the their left tackle that they had just drafted from Ohio State, had not played like for over a month because he had a personal thing, and then they lost a guard and another tackle on the other side of their line. So they had Mahomes never felt comfortable in this game whatsoever, and it looked like it because he looked like what he looked like in the Super Bowl against the Eagles. Like if he does not feel comfortable, he doesn't believe in the offensive line to protect him, he becomes a totally different quarterback. He's pressing, he had an interception that was a very bad pick that he threw. He's a very different quarterback when he feels like he doesn't have protection in front of him and they weren't able to protect him. So the offense was wasn't nearly as good as it has been in weeks past, where they have been scoring a bunch of points on everybody and beating them like beating them like the Death Star that they were starting to look like. But my main thing, like I said earlier, when I was mentioning our records, is that in for this Buffalo Bills team, the problem is not for them in the regular season. The problem is in the playoffs. So I did not take that into account. And the Buffalo Bills do not feel nearly the same amount of pressure playing the Chiefs in the regular season that they end up facing in the postseason because they managed to win these games. I think they've won five games in a row in the regular season, and then they I think they've lost multiple like every game they've played against the Chiefs in the postseason. So it doesn't make me think too differently about the I think the Bills, if their defense can play like that every game, I think I'll feel a lot differently about what their defense is. But again, it defense is a lot about effort, and if you have a kind of a game where they like everybody on the defense wakes up and they play their best, you can have a performance like that. But the question is, can you make that a multiple week thing and make that a playing like that for the rest of the year is probably my biggest question about their defense. But Josh Allen, he's been playing lights out for most of the year. I think there's been a couple games where he's kind of been off, but like when he's playing like this, playing efficiently, not throwing picks, not giving the ball to the other team, and he's distributing the ball like crazy, like they're like they've been very good when he is like that. And the Chiefs, the game, like I said, the game shouldn't have even been this close, but they managed to make it close with a few plays in the fourth quarter to get get those eight points to kind of make it feel a little bit better. But Mahomes didn't feel comfortable, they didn't run the football that effectively. They had 79 yards total rushing in this game. Their leading rusher was Kareem Hunt, 11 carries 49 yards. Rasheed Rice had was their leading receiver, Hollywood Brown got involved, Travis Kelsey had 66 yards. So, again, it doesn't make me feel any differently about the Chiefs. I think they probably are gonna end up in the Super Bowl again, for all we know, because it's just what they do. Get to the playoffs, the Bills can't beat them, the Ravens won't beat them. And I felt like the Colts may have been the team that have the best chance, but after watching this game on Sunday, I think it's still the Bills, but the problem is that the Bills just cannot beat the Chiefs in the playoffs. They have to change my mind on that. And they haven't been able to, but in the regular season they've been able to. So hopefully they can finally flip the switch and make it happen in the postseason like they need to. But if because if not, I just don't see there's a lot of teams that can like really put the Chiefs away. So it we'll see if once I see this in the if I can see the same type of outcome in the postseason, I will feel so much differently about the Bills. But until then, I still have to believe, again, the Chiefs wanted this game, they did not give this game away, and I think they really wanted to win. They're now five and four because of this game, so I do think they wanted to win this game. But I just think that until I see it in the postseason, that's when I'll really start to believe the Buffalo Bills can be that team to go win a Super Bowl. But very good on the defense, though. They played very good. I did see Joey Bosa, he was an absolute he played absolutely amazing in that game, and I love seeing my buckeyes play well in the NFL, especially with all the injury issues he had with at the Chargers and everything. So the fact that he's able to go to a new team in the Bills and go make an impact in the biggest game that they've had this year is definitely a big deal for me to watch that. Last two games. Sunday night game, Seahawks commanders. Seahawks win the game 38 to 14. JSN's a monster. I think Sam Darnold was in the first half was perfect. He went, I think it was 16 of 16. In the game, Sam Darnold went 21 of 24, 330 yards, four touchdowns, and one pick. The one pick was definitely bad. But other than that, he was practically perfect in this game. They didn't run the football like crazy good, but it was effective enough, especially with how explosive their all their offense was. They just did just enough to kind of keep the Washington's defense on their toes. They ran the football for like 88 yards total. Kenneth Walker looks some pretty good on some of those runs that he had. JSN, like I said, is insane. Eight catches, 129 yards. He's a leading receiver yards-wise, I think, in catches as well. Cody White had a touchdown catch. Tory Horton had two touchdown catches. Elijah Arroyo had a touchdown catch. It was a it was a race to see who can get into the end zone and get a touchdown catch from Sam Darnold. And actually, they it was amazing. And this game was totally over in the first half. I think the Seahawks going into halftime were up 31 to 7. And this game was over. Like there's there was no reason for Washington to think they had a chance to come back and win this football game whatsoever. And because of how awfully it went for them in the first half, and their offense really couldn't get anything going. The I mean, the Washington offense couldn't get anything going in the first half at all. On top, again, it's so hard to get into a game when you get stonewalled like that so fast and so quickly. A 24-point second quarter is absolutely insane that the Seahawks were able to make that happen. But it was like it was over, right? And it just it didn't make sense, and they were going into the second half, and I was I was wishing for a bet to happen, which I won my bet, but you know, I I had to pay attention to the game more a lot more than I would have liked, especially with the game being as a like a runaway scenario as the Seahawks were in. But in the second half, Washington was still trying to play. They had Jaden Daniels in there, and I think at the fourth quarter, I believe, or somewhere in the third quarter, he got injured. He I think he broke his elbow or something like that, and it was bad. It was a bad break, or is it dislocated? I'm not sure what exactly the injury was, but it did not look good when I saw it on television. It was gross. It was like one of those, like you see an injury happen, you're like, oh, like it happened to you. Absolutely insane injury. He should not have been playing in this game whatsoever. I think it was in the fourth quarter now that I think about it. But it was not good. Jane Daniels is gonna be out for the rest of the year. And it was on it was on his non-throwing elbow, so that is nice, but he will not be playing for the rest of this year at all. And it sucks, man, because he's like he is the reason that the Washington was able to do anything last year. Again, they draft him and they go straight to go all the way to the NFC Championship game. So now without him, their season is a dud. They don't really have any prospects outside of that. There will be good thing is they'll have a very good draft pick because they're not going to win a lot of games without him. And hopefully that he can bring him back for next year, have Scary Terry back for the whole um for all training camp, and they'll be able to build this team, maybe get a few defensive pieces to help them out. I think on top of losing Jaden Daniels, I think they also lost um why am I forgetting his name now? Um Marshawn Lattimore. They lost, he was supposed to be like he's been their number one corner this year, and they lost him to a tornado CL. So like they had a few injuries in this game. And it just sucks when you lose that guy, especially when Jaden Daniels did not have to play in that second half. He should have been on ice. The game wasn't in the balance, they were already going to lose. So why have him in there as much as they did in the second half was a big question to me. I will give the credit to the coach for at least owning it after the game, saying, hey, that's on me. I shouldn't have had him out there. At least he's willing to admit the fact that that was a mistake, but doesn't change the fact that Jane Daniels will be gone for the rest of the year. Um, but Washington, it just it sucks because now that's gonna be another team that's gonna have a lot of like because they have a young stud quarterback, they had a lot of standalone games that they were gonna be in for the rest of the year that they're not gonna be anywhere, like those games are not gonna be anywhere close now because they're not gonna have their young stud quarterback that everything, all their hopes and dreams are weighted on. So without him, it's those games are not gonna be nearly as good as what they would have been if they would have had him in. Again, injuries can happen at any time, could have happened in the first half when they felt like they still had a chance in this game, but the fact that it happened at a point where the game wasn't close, they had no chances of winning, it just makes it look that much worse. Last but not least, Monday night game, Cardinals, Cowboys, for all the people that can watch it. If you if you if you have YouTube TV, you had no chance of watching this game, which is insane. Again, I'm not making fun of you. I'm making fun of the situation, but I made my whole thing about how stupid it is that all that's happening, but I had to make a joke. It's just funny. Cardinals, Cowboys, Cardinals win the game 27 to 17. This game did not play anywhere like I thought it was going to. I thought it was really going to be a back and forth affair, but the Cardinals early on in this game with Jacoby Brissett as a starter because they're saying that Kyler Murray's going to be out for a little bit because of a foot injury. He's been out multiple weeks already, but it looks like he might be out even more. And I think this offense looks better with Jacoby Brissett at the helm. He's a bigger quarterback. He can use the middle of the field because he can see over his offensive line. And I feel like the offense is just a lot better overall with him at the can't get away from pressure. If you don't keep him protected, he's not getting away from anybody. But if he can stand in there in the pocket and feel comfortable with his protection, he's getting the ball to he's like getting the ball to everybody. Marvin Harrison had an awesome game. Seven receptions, 96 yards and a touchdown. Michael Wilson had 61 yards off three catches. Trey McBride had five catches, 55 yards, and a touchdown. They ran the football effectively. 14 carries, 70. I mean, they had 119 yards total rushing with Amari DiMercado being their leading rusher with 14 carries, 79 yards. And they just jumped on the cold, the sorry, the Cowboys early in this game and just never let up. And they just kept scoring, especially in the second half. They scored another 10 points in the third quarter. And it was just the Cowboys just trying their hardest to try to come back, and they weren't able to. Dak Prescott had it probably his worst game that he's had this year. He went 24 of 39 for 250 yards, a touchdown, and a pick. They ran the football for about 123 yards, like so it was fine, but you know, they were down, so they weren't able to run the football as much as they probably would have liked. And just Dak Prescott just wasn't, he got sacked five times this game, so he did not feel comfortable and he wasn't really all that accurate in this game. CeeDee Lamb was fine, seven catches, 85 yards. George Pickens had 79 yards uh receiving off six catches. Ferguson had 50 yards off five catches, but it's just the Cowboys were not able to get into the end zone like they needed to, especially in that second half, to come back and try to get into the football game to have a chance to win it. But it's just the Cardinals kind of came in. I think this Kylo Murray is an awesome talent. Not going to disagree with that. There's like that is what he is. But the fact I think their team with Brissett at the helm, I'm not saying they'll he'll be playing like this for the rest of the year because at some point it will fall off. Because if he was playing like this all the time, he'd be. A starting quarterback. But the way that he is, I think he opens up that offense in a way that I don't think Kyler Murray can because of some of his deficiencies as a quarterback. He's shorter, can't see over the offensive line. There's a lot of short passes. I think Brissett being able to open up the middle of the field, he can kind of hit some more intermediate throws. I think he changed that offense a lot, and I feel like the offense is better with him at the helm. And I think their defense has never been awful. Like their Arizona defense has been fine. And they played very good last night. I have to give them a lot of credit for playing as well as they did in limiting a Dallas Cowboys offense that has been very explosive throughout this year. And Dak Prescott looked like an MVP candidate throughout most of this year. And the Cardinals make him made him struggle last night. And you have to give them a lot of credit that the Cardinals were able to make that happen defensively. But it's just the Cardinals played a lot better. I have to give Joe Jacoby Brissett a lot of credit. He's in going there playing well. They're getting the ball to Marvin Harrison, giving him his catches, and it's opening up the offense so they can even run the football better. So I have to give a lot of credit. The Cardinals are of a tough out. I'm not going to sit here and say they're three and five. I'm not going to sit here and say they're going to make the playoffs or anything, but they're going to be a tough out for anybody that has to play them. You are going to get a hard game out of the Arizona Cardinals. Like you really are. They may not beat you, but they're going to make it as hard as possible on you if you're not going to bring your A-game. And they can potentially get a couple wins against teams that think they have a really good chance at winning. Like they can they can sneak up and get you, especially with Brissett at the at the helm. Like they have an offense that can actually be scary if they kind of keep this up when it comes to consistently doing this every week. They have they can do some things, I have to admit. Again, when you have Marvin Harrison and Trey McBride as like two big weapons for you, it makes things a lot easier as long as you can use them to their fullest potential. And I think Brissett, with the way that he opens up the middle of the field for them, I think he does that. And I feel like their offense may actually be better with him instead of Kyler. And that's it for the NFL games. That's yeah, that's all of them. So I don't I'm glad to mention all that. We've talked about all the trades. It's now 9 30, so all the college ball rankings and stuff have come out. So that's it for the NFL. I I know this it's weird for me to like to stop the NFL and then have to go to college football. But again, I just want to make sure to get all the college ball stuff in. I want to talk to talk about, especially with the rankings. So how do I want to do this? I want to do the rankings first, or do I want to do the football games? Hopefully, if you're listening to the pod, there will be uh markers for wearing the pod to listen to certain things. So if you want to hear my thoughts on the on the rankings, you can do that. If you just want to hear about the football games, you can listen to that. You can kind of flip around and kind of pick what you want to listen to me ramble on about. Let's get to the games first, and I'll end the pod talking about the rankings and how I feel about all that. Before I get to the games, another firing has happened in college football. Another coach is now without a job. There's another guy that's going to be paid a decent amount of money to go away and not do his job. Hugh Freeze, the coach for Auburn, has been fired. He'll be gone. He's not gonna be the coach there anymore. I think you're paying him like$15 million to go away. And this one's a weird one. I'm not sure why they fired him. Again, I'm not saying you're saying Hugh Freeze is an amazing coach. He's a good offensive guy, but I'm not but he's not a great coach of a winning football team. It was a weird hire when they decided to hire him in the first place. And when you he's been there for three years now, I believe. And then they again they lost four games in a row for the last couple years. So I get it the fact that you can't have multiple years in a row where you're losing four games in a row. Okay, fine, cool. But my thing with that is I think the biggest issue with that Auburn team, like their defense this year has been fine. Like they've been very good, actually. And they have young studs on offense, like they have young pieces and they've been recruiting actually decently well, along with the fact they're able to give money for NIL and all of that. Like they've been recruiting well too. I think the biggest issue for this Auburn team is they haven't been able to get a quarterback. Last year they had uh why am I forgetting the quarterback they had last year? I don't know. And then this year they come in and they have why am I forgetting uh Jackson Arnold, the quarterback that was at Oklahoma last year, they brought him in to be their guy, and he has not worked out well. He's not been good. Fine for sure. They made the choice they made was not good, but it was a known thing for them that they did they decided to not give out a bunch of money in NIL when it comes to the transfer portal and all that, because they thought their team was too young, and that they were going to save all their NIL money to go after it for next year, where they thought they would have a few more older players, that they would be a little more veteran, and that they'd be able to kind of go out and like really make some noise going into next year. So with that news coming into the year, it ha I thought it'd be very obvious that it's like, hey, they're not going all in on this year, especially with NIL and going after and trying to get the best quarterback they possibly can to go after it next year. So if that was your plan, then once the plan you go with and it's not working out this year, why would you fire the coach when this year was always meant to be a little bit of a down year in comparison to what next year would have been? Again, I'm not trying to take up for Hugh Freeze saying he's a great coach. He's not. But I just think that when your whole plan was to go after it next year and not go for it all in this year, I just feel like it just kind of shows to not have a good long, like sticking to a good long-term plan. And especially when you fire a guy and now you're gonna be the fifth or sixth best team. Sorry, fifth or sixth best coaching job opportunity for somebody to take. So you're not even gonna be at the front of the line when it comes to getting your guy because there's so many other better jobs in front of you that guys have an opportunity to go get. So there's not even an opportunity, you have a chance to get the guy that you want. So I just think it was a little bit um short-sighted to fire Hugh Freeze. Again, I'm not saying he's great, but I'm saying it's just like you did not think that you're gonna be going all in on this year anyway. So losing games was definitely an option. And then when things aren't going when things are going the way you exact you thought they were going to, when you didn't go get a better quarterback and all of that, you decide to fire the guy in a cycle where there's gonna be a lot of other teams that are a lot better programs that are gonna get their guy ahead of you, and it's I just think it doesn't make any sense at all. But, you know, hopefully they have a guy in mind, or somebody decides that that's the place for them and they can make a better choice. Again, it's another team that Ohio State can kind of go after recruits for. I think there's a very good safety, Braylon Womack, that's supposed to be supposed to go there in this upcoming uh signing day. So hopefully Ohio State can go after him, potentially get him to flip to go to Ohio State. But I don't know. It's just it was a weird, weird move to make, especially when you won't be at the top of the market with a job opening. I d I don't I just don't understand. But you know, like I said, as soon as Penn State did it earlier this year, it just kind of opened the floodgates for everybody to think they need to do it right now. When I'm like there like there is a real There is when there are so many other opportunities that are at the top of the market and you're not necessarily at the top of that list, wouldn't it be better if you waited a little bit, if you held on to Hugh Freeze for the this year, maybe you went into next year with him as your guy, and then if you if he didn't went in like you went all in next year and he doesn't do his job well and they don't win football games, you fire him next year, and guess what? You'll have a better chance to get your guy because there's not as many gu not as many teams with open coaching got open coaching roles that are better organizations than you, better universities than you. I I just like I d I don't know. It doesn't it doesn't scream to me that they have a good long-term plan. And it just it's weird. It's just weird. I I I thought they should just wait till next year and just be at the top of the market, but you're now you're gonna be fifth or sixth on a big line of teams looking for head coaches. So I don't know. It's it's weird, it's a weird one to me. Alright, let's get to the football games, react to those, and then do the uh playoff the first do our reaction to the first college football playoff rankings that just came out here in the last hour. So let's go through the games real quick. And so week 10. College football. Let's start with Ohio State, because we know let's get it out of the way because I love talking about my butt guys. Ohio State, Penn State, Penn State came into town. Penn State had lost four in a row. Their season is in shambles, and they're coming in to play Ohio State this game before the season started was supposed to be an amazing, awesome game, and it didn't turn out to be that way because Penn State, James Franklin did not hold up there under the bargain. Fine, cool, great, whatever. Didn't I did not lose any type of excitement for this game because I love beating the shit out of a team that I never thought was worth our worth our time anyway. Ohio State wins this game 38 to 14. This game was close in the first half. And it was only close because Ohio State gave them seven points because we had a fumble. It was like two-minute drill. Ohio State had the ball last two minutes of the first half. They were gonna have the ball at the start of the second half. So, okay, fine. You're gonna try to go score again so you can win the last six minutes of the first half and then win the first six minutes of the second half. Fine, cool. They give it to their running back, he fumbles, and that why am I forgetting the running back's name? That running back being CJ Donaldson. He fumbles, gives the ball to Penn State in the red zone. They managed to go score, and that's how they got the 14 points that they got. And going into halftime, the game was tight. I would say relatively tight. Not saying that they're Ohio State had a chance to lose the game, but they gave Penn State a little bit of life that they probably sh did not earn at all. Because starting the game, Ohio State was hot. They were they did they ran the went right down the field, did their thing, throwing the football all over the place. I think the first touchdown was the touchdown. It was 11 play drive that ended with a touchdown to Jeremiah Smith for the 14-yard touchdown uh catch. So like Ohio State was rolling early in this game. Like it was a I think the Ohio State got the ball four times in the first half. And had the other than the fumble, they scored every time they were in the red zone. They got a touchdown, field goal, touchdown with that second touchdown that they got going up 17 to 7, being a 45-yard touchdown pass to Carnell Tate. A big play. Ohio State in this game really did open up the playbook. Julian Sam threw all over threw the ball all over the place, and they were absolutely killing Penn State. And I think this that was a part of the plan. Jim Knowles, the defense defense coordinator for the Penn State Kittney Lions, he was at Ohio State the last three years, decided to go to Penn State because of some personal issues between him and Ryan Day. Goes to the enemy team, doesn't have a lot of positive things coming out of it to say, uh, going to the other team. And Ryan Day is one of those guys that once you get into the doghouse with him, he wants to make you he wants to make you feel it. And Ryan Day is one of those he likes to hold grudges, and not necessarily in a bad way, but in a competitive way. And you could tell coming into this game that if he had a chance to run up the score, he was going to. And they open up the offense. They let Julian Sand go ahead and do it. Sand went 20 of 23 for 316 yards and four touchdowns, no picks. Julian Sand's an absolute computer back there. And it's not even just that. He's not just a guy just distributing the ball. He's making some big boy plays. He had a third, there was like a third and five where he had a chance to run away from the pressure. He did a jump cut on somebody and ran for the first down. He was absolutely awesome in this game. And not just him. Ohio State, like obviously Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith were awesome. They, I think Carnell Tate, five catches, 124 yards and a touchdown. Jeremiah Smith, six receptions, 123 yards, two touchdowns. And I already mentioned the first touchdown in the first half being the 14-yard catch. And then the other one was an absolute like they were in the red zone. Julian Sang was about to throw, trying to throw it to Jeremiah. Defensive player was sitting right there, kind of tips the ball up. Jeremiah goes up with one hand, corrals it, and then gets a touchdown catch off the tip pass. Absolutely insane. Very crazy moment. And it was all steam ahead offensively for Ohio State. And again, it's against a Lions team, a Penn State team, that they didn't have their quarterback. Ethan Grunkermeyer was their starter coming into this game because Drew Aller got hurt many games ago. They had lost four games in a row. But here's the thing: even with their team not playing as well, and they've haven't had the success that you think they would have coming into the year, there is still a lot of NFL talent on that Penn State team on the other side. So I I don't think that we were playing an FCS team, which is what a lot of people nationally would like to make Penn State Penn State out to be with Ohio State coming out of that game. Like, oh, Penn State sucks, they're not that good. And what does it matter if Ohio State beat them by 24 points? But I think the thing is, is that if there was one little bit of fight that Penn State had left on the season, it was coming out of a bye week. They knew they've been a few weeks now without James Franklin as the head coach. They have a new quarterback that can kind of come in and build the offense around and kind of help him out. And they have a team with a lot of NFL guys that can kind of come out there and play better football. They have dudes, right? They still have dudes. Their team might not may not be good, but they have real NFL talent. And Ohio State offensively absolutely destroyed Penn State. The fact that Jim Knowles, the defense coordinator that had coached for Ohio State last year when he was seeing Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate last year on that playoff run, doing what they do every day in practice, the fact that he decided to build that defense up to where they were going to play one-on-one against Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate in that game was absolutely insane plan for him to have. But again, Jim Knowles knows how to give up big plays in this game. I think both Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith had 57-yard receptions in this game. So the fact, like this is not news to me as an Ohio State fan of knowing how Jim Knowles likes likes to give up big plays, but you would think that him coming out, coming away from Ohio State last year and coming to Penn State this year, that he wouldn't make that mistake, but that's exactly what he did. And offensively for Penn State, they just really didn't have a lot. Grunk uh Grunkenmeyer, the quarterback for them, he is a I think he's a freshman, I think, but not very good. 19-28, 145 yards and a pick. Not great. And he it's not like he has a bunch of weapons to throw to. His leading receiver was their running back, Nicholas Singleton, with three catches and 28 yards. They ran the football well in the first half, but in the second half, Ohio State's defense kind of locked it down. And it was an absolutely awesome game from Ohio State from top to bottom. There was a play where Caleb Downs in the second half was it was supposed to be a targeting play. He hit the guy, he launched helmet to helmet contact, and they called it and they reviewed it. And for whatever reason, the like the Big Ten powers at B came through and told the referees, hey, don't kick Caleb Downs out of the game because he won't be able to play for the first half of next game. And who wants that? And for whatever reason, they reversed the targeting call so he wasn't kicked out of the game whatsoever, which was insane. And you could watching his car uh watching Caleb Downs' face as the ruling came through that he wasn't kicked out. He was even surprised because I'm like, ooh, like he knew that that he should have been kicked out for that. So that was a little bit of a, you know, again, it we're playing Purdue next week. It's not like we needed Caleb Downs to go beat Purdue, but you know, it's nice to have Caleb Downs out there. He's one of the best players in all of college football. But yeah, it was a it was a thorough, again, the first half was a little bit weird based off Ohio State having the fumble, giving Penn State that second touchdown in the first half. But with that being the case, other than that, Ohio State really locked them down. The defense is awesome, Arwell Reese is awesome, our secondary is absolutely locked down again, not against not a great uh wide receiver core from Penn State. But even with Penn State having a little bit of uh success running the football in the first half, guess what Ohio State did at halftime? They went and they they fixed some things, and in the second half, they totally stopped the run altogether. So it's just another check mark on the on the uh line of Ohio State going from start to finish, being the best team in college football, and going potentially winning another national championship. So good on them coming out of the game. Julian Sand is now the number one, he had the he has the highest odds to go win the go win the Heisman. Again, I think Julian Sand has proven himself to be a top, I would call him the best quarterback in college football, but some people would like to go with some other guys that have a little bit more um experience. So fine, cool. Maybe some other guys have done more, but I think Julian Sand, the way he's playing right now, he is playing at a different level, and he's starting to show some of the highlight plays that you need to have as a guy that if you really want to believe that he can be that dude, and Julian Sand's done that. Will he have a Heisman Heisman moment maybe against Indiana, probably in the Big Ten championship game? Because I think the rest of Ohio State schedule is kind of uh not a lot of big play, big hitters to have to go face, other than Michigan, obviously, at the end of the year in November. But as long as Ohio State keeps going on this road and Julian Sand keeps doing his thing, I think Julian Sand has a real shot to go win the Heisman. I really do. And it's hard again, Jeremiah Smith is the best player on this football team, but it's just hard for wide receivers to have the stats necessary to go out and get the job done. So if I have to get behind somebody, I think Julian Sand has the better shot to win the Heisman. And I think he's playing well enough, and if he keeps things going the way he's going, I think he'll have a real opportunity too. And that's one thing I haven't seen for Ohio State is a Heisman winner at Ohio State. Well, I did, I guess, Troy Smith early on in my young days as a fan. So maybe the Troy Smith day, like the Heisman I saw. But other than that, like we haven't had a Ohio State Heisman winner in a while, so I'd definitely like Julian Sand to kind of break that curse. Oh, Bo Jackson, running back for Ohio State, another great day, 105 yards. He broke a 50-something yarder in the second half. The running game isn't where I would like it to be as an Ohio State fan, but I think if Ohio State keeps on this trend of letting the pass open up the run, I think it'll only make the running game better. So it's not as locked down as I would like it to be. But I think if this offense keeps rolling the way it does, I think the running game will be good enough when the time comes where they have to have it because the passing game will be something that every team in Cosmo has to worry about, and you're gonna be so worried about that that it'll open up the running game for Ohio State to get some big chunk yardage that way. So that's where I think about it. It's not a line it up and just run it all the way down your throat, all the way down the field, but it doesn't have to be. As long as Ohio State has those Ferraris at wide receiver and Julian Sand being the guy to run it all, you don't need the running game to be absolutely dominant in order to win football games. They're going to be able to beat everybody that they face if they just keep playing the way they need to play it and getting the ball to their guys. And they they definitely can do that. I think Ryan Day knows that, and I think he won't fall for the same tricks. He won't fall in that trap like he did last year against Michigan. Next game, Indiana, Maryland. Indiana beat Maryland 55 to 10. This game wasn't close. All credit to Indiana, man. It's again like I've been saying, Indiana is a better team than what they were last year. Indiana is the one team that everybody is saying that might have a chance to beat Ohio State. I think when it comes to odds, I think Indiana is the is only like a four-point underdog to Ohio State on a neutral field in comparison to everybody else. I think they're like that have the highest chance of beating Ohio State, at least when it comes to odd make odds makers. So, but again, you can talk about Indiana all you want, but if both Ohio State and Indiana take care of their business and get all the way to the Big Ten championship game, we will see what happens when those teams face on the field. But until then, people are going to keep saying that Indiana is a better football team, and I because they've proven it against Oregon. Well, okay, fine. They have a good win against Oregon on the road, cool, great. But I know what I see with my eyes, and I know I know dominant football, and Ohio State has it. Again, Indiana's a very good team, but I just don't think they're Ohio State. And I can't wait for Ohio State to have a chance to prove that. To anybody that wants to doubt Ohio State in general, but you know. Next game, Georgia, Florida. Georgia wins the game wins the game 24-20. They definitely should have lost this game. But again, you I say that because Georgia is just not as good as they've been in years past, but they're still a decent football team. And they have a very high flo high floor, low-ceiling type of team. Their defense is fine, they're not amazing, their offense is a little bit hit and miss. Florida really did have an opportunity to win this game, but they just couldn't get the job done at the end. And that's the thing. If you are going to face Georgia, even when they're not at their best, or they're not as good of a team as they've been in years past, with Kirby Kirby Smart as their head coach, you better bury them and put them in the dirt. Because if you don't, Kirby in that team knows how to win football games. Where they're utterly dominant. But if you are a Florida team that is having a good day, you better finish it off. And Florida wasn't able to finish off the job. And Georgia only having one loss on the year, I think what what team in the SEC are you like like, oh, that's the team. That's the best in the SEC. Maybe Texas AM, with them being undefeated so far this year, like maybe that's the team. But I think offensively, with their quarterback Marcel Reid being kind of like an up and down type of quarterback, like even they have their issues. But I just think with Georgia, man, it's just like if you do not cut the head off that snake, they will come back and bite you, man. And I think that's what happened to Florida. And again, on that in that game, Florida and Georgia were not all that different of football teams when it comes to the players and what talent that they have, but it was just Georgia having a better culture, which is what got them to win that game at the end. Where they had it was time to go win it, and Georgia did it, and Florida didn't. Next game, Ole Miss, South Carolina. This game was not pretty. Especially in the first half. Like it wasn't it wasn't pretty because Ole Miss probably should have won this game by even more. The fact they only won the game by 16 is a little bit of a thing because of their defense not being great, but I think offensively, as long as Ole Miss goes out there and they do their thing, they can win against a lot of these teams because South Carolina is not a good football team. They're not. And Ole Miss did not have their best that day. They Trinidad Chambless their quarterback 12 of 21 for 159 yards and a touchdown in a pick. So like Ole Miss gave South Carolina their opportunities to come out and like really win that game. But guess what? South Carolina's not good enough to take advantage. And Ole Miss was managed to outlast them, and they managed to win that football game. All the credit to them on that, but it's just it's like when Ole Miss really faces a real opponent, like that's where I'm like, ah, like their defense is an issue, their offense could be a little bit hit and miss. It's just like I just they're gonna make the playoff because they don't really have a lot in front of them at this point. And because they only have one loss, they could potentially lose another game and still make the playoff, but it's just I just think they're a little bit fraudulent to a certain degree. But you know, Omus is doing their thing, they're top ten, and they're doing they're they're winning football games, which is what they have to do. Georgia Tech goes down to NC State, NC State wins the game 48-36. Georgia Tech loses their first game of the year. Again, Georgia Tech being in the ACC, it looked like if they just kind of ran the table and did what they had to do, they were gonna make the playoff pretty easily. But now, with their loss against NC State, now if they lose another game and they still have to go face Georgia at the end of the regular season, they're probably gonna be out because of how bad the ACC is in general. So if they lose another game, they're their fate will not be in their own hands and they'll have to hope for the committee to get them in. But with how bad the ACC has been this year, I just don't think they will get respect. Even if they do go out and win the ACC or anything like that, that they'll oh well if they win the AC ACC, they're in. But if they don't, I think it'll make it a lot harder for the committee to get them in to the playoff. So it was a bad win for bad game for Georgia Tech to lose, especially with them having a game against Georgia on deck at the end of the year. They can win that game, they can. But I just think they have their margin for error went went down so much with that loss to NC State. Next game, Texas, Vanderbilt, Texas won the game 34 to 31. And honestly, this game the score shows that it's closer than the game actually was. Texas going into the fourth quarter was up 27. They were up 34 to 10 going into the fourth quarter. And then Texas let their foot off the gas, and then Vanderbilt in the fourth quarter scored 21 unanswered points, and they had an opportunity to get an onside kick to get the ball back and potentially have a chance to go tie or win the game, and the ball went right through the first Texas players' hands that had a chance to touch the football, and Vandy had like three or four players have a chance to really get that ball, get possession of it on the field before it went out of bounds, and they weren't they didn't manage not to be able to do so. And that was the final nail in the coffin for Fandy. But through the first three quarters, Texas was utterly dominant in this game. And I think it was more about the defense than it was about the offense. Well, even though Texas did their thing, Arch had his best game he's had this year: 25 of 33, 328 yards, three touchdowns, zero picks. Arch has best had his best game. Again, the Van D defense isn't great, but they have dudes that can get after you. But it's just Texas managed to use their speed on the outside and they managed to take advantage. Uh they ran the football well, they had 100 yards rushing. Ryan Wingo was the guy that had the big play. He had a 75-yard touchdown catch. It was like a quick out, a quick uh quick pass from Arch behind the line of scrimmage, and he took it for 75 yards to the house in the first play of the game. It was like first or second play. And it was like it was like they were just running away from it from there until the fourth quarter happened, and Van D just kind of came back. I do have to give Diego Pavia a lot of credit, though. Like going into that fourth quarter, they were down big. They could have easily just turned tail and just waited for the game to end. But Diego Pavia kind of pulled up, like pulled the team up by their bootstraps and like said, hey, we're gonna try to make this game close. And they did, they scored those 21 points in the fourth quarter, and then like I said, with that onside kick, they had a chance to go win it. And it just didn't happen for them, and they got the loss, and they're only seven and two on the year. But this is Vanderbilt, and they're seven and two on the year. So that's a that's a incredible feat like itself. It's that's an incredible feat for Vanderbilt already. So it was unfortunate that they lost this game, they had a chance to go win it. It just sucks they didn't. And then it sucks for Texas, like, because the way I see Texas, man, is that Arch Manning had his best game of the day of the season so far. Do I think that's a turning point for him for the rest of the year? I don't know. I really don't. And I think he played a lot better. He made some big plays, but again, it's a Vanderbilt, their defense is fine. They're not terrible, but they like in the first half, they couldn't even tackle. Like their defense just did not come to play in that first half, and Texas really built up a lead and they Got away from Van D. But I don't know, man. Like, do I trust this Texas offense on a week in, week out basis? I don't. And I think they need to prove it against a better team. They will have their opportunity too. They do have to face Texas AM the last game of the year. So I hope that Texas takes another loss. So, you know, I think they have to face Georgia as well. I think they have Georgia and Texas AM for the wrestlers. They have Georgia at Georgia. Texas, I mean, at Georgia, not this week, but next week. And then Arkansas and then Texas and M to end the year. So all that being the case, like they still have if they can go, they can still prove it. If if Arch kind of keeps this up and they can go do it in those last three games, then fine. I'll have to give them a little bit more respect than I have been giving him. But I'm just not going to put any any hope in Arch being a different quarterback than what he's been all year. Like that was a very good performance by him against a not so great Van D. They're a good team in Van D, but they don't have the same talent as Texas. So I don't know. I don't know how to parse it, but we will see if Texas can keep this this up and Arch can keep this up for the rest of their schedule that they have. And they do have some tough teams left, so we'll see. Next game, Miami, number 10 Miami, loses to SMU 26-20. And again, I will I will say this for sure. I did not watch a lot of this game. I ended up watching in like the fourth quarter when it was close, and um things are going at going into overtime where SMU managed to get the touchdown to finish it off. But Miami having their second loss of the year, it's just Mario Cristobal, man. That coach for them, like he he's a great recruiter. He can get all the guys there that he wants. He can have really good offensive and defensive lines. But in game, he is good for at least one, if not two losses to teams they should not lose to every single goddamn year. It's insane how how crazy of a rate it is where Mario Chris Ball can have such good-looking teams, and then in these games where they just look like they should, they're the better team, they should not lose them. They managed to lose these football games. It's absolutely insane. And Carson Beck did not help their quarterback in this game. Like I said, if he gives the football, he knows how to give the football to the other team, and he kind of has a little bit of a interception streak that he has going back to last year with Georgia, and he started in the middle of this year when they lost their first game. I think that was to Louisville, where he had the four picks, and then in this game against SMU, he had another two picks. So Miami, like they ran the football okay, but they weren't able to get a lot of big plays, and they weren't able to get into the end zone enough, and SMU stuck around, man. And that Miami defense just did not show up the way it needed to to stop SMU. The quarterback for SMU went 29 to 44, Kevin Jennings, for 365 and a touchdown. I think for half the game they said, I was hearing that he was on one leg. Like his he had a hurt leg, so he wasn't even like at his best, and he was out there slinging it around. And I'm just glad that because Miami fans are absolutely insane. They're I find them very annoying. So the fact that they were able to get the second loss and they look like they're one of the they're nowhere near the same team that everybody thought they were coming into the year was absolutely an amazing thing to see. I think Mario Cristobal is like one of like the coaches that I like seeing struggle because he gets so much hype for no good reason. And they always lose these games. Happens every year, and they've done it twice in the last three weeks, and I'm very happy to have seen it happen. Next game, Notre Dame won an ugly one against Boston College. It was they won it 25 to 10. It was ugly, but Notre Dame's getting the win. Like I've said about Notre Dame, as long as they keep winning and they win out the rest of their schedule, they will get into the playoff without much of an issue. And they're like I said, the rest of their schedule, Navy at Pitt, Syracuse at Stanford. As long as they take care of business the rest of the way, they are making the playoff. But if they lose one of those games, they are out. But again, they had a a not so great game against Boston College and still won. That's all they need to do is go keep winning football games. Doesn't matter how they do it, they just need to do it. And like I said, like I don't think Notre Dame's a awesome team, but I think their running game is great. I think their defense can have great games at times, but they're not as dominant as they were last year. And CJ Carr is a young quarterback, but he is make he's like he's growing week by week. And as long as they don't put too much on his plate and they run the football well, I think Notre Dame has a good team that can make some some real like do some real damage in the playoff against the right teams. So I hope they can kind of finish off the season the way they need to to get into the playoff. But if they lose one, they're definitely out. Next game. Texas Tech beat Kansas State 43-20. They took care of business, did their thing. They had their quarterback back. Um, Morton, he came out, played some very good football. They beat Kansas State like they needed to. Oklahoma, Tennessee, ranked on ranked matchup. Oklahoma won the game twenty 33 to 27. It was close for a little bit, but the second half, Oklahoma kind of like started taking control defensively, and they were able to kind of build a lead up and then just keep it for the rest of the game. And do I think either of these teams are great? No. Oklahoma's defense is a little bit better, but their offense is kind of like hit and miss, and with their quarterback, John Mateer, he's fine, but he there was a point in this season where he looked like a Heisman candidate, and then ever since he got their injury to his throwing thumb and then came back, he has been nowhere near as explosive as he started the year as. I think their defense has been exposed at times for not being as good as what they looked like earlier on in the year. But Tennessee, man, it's like if their quarterback, Joey Aguilar, like he threw the football well, 29 to 45 for 393 yards and three touchdowns, but the two picks he threw were absolute game changers. Like those were that's the difference between them winning and losing that game. And I think he has shown, like, throughout his time as a college quarterback, because this is not his first year playing, like at his other stops, he has been a turnover prone quarterback, and I think he's turned made out turned out to be that way for Tennessee this year. And if they don't protect him well enough and make him feel comfortable, he will throw picks, and that's been the game changer for Tennessee, and it's why they have three losses on the year. Well, I guess the one game against Georgia, they were close to winning, and he played a very good game. But like outside of that, he's been a little bit turnover prone. So neither of these teams are very good. I really don't, I think both of them are kind of fraudulent to a certain extent, but all credit to Oklahoma for being able to control the game enough to win that football game. Um let's see what they also want to talk about here. Utah, Detroit, Cincinnati. This was a very big game when it came to the Big 12 standings and all of that. Cincinnati, like, look, they only had like one loss on the season. They had they were undefeated in conference play. Coming into that game, they were like 10-point underdogs, and everybody was like, oh, but Cincinnati has looked so good this year. And when I talked about all this game on the last pod, I was like, Utah is so tough to play at home. And Utah at night, they were able to just like absolutely destroy Cincinnati on the lines of scrimmage. They got after Brennan Soresby, the quarterback for Cincinnati, made him feel uncomfortable. And they had an awesome game, and they totally d dominated, and they ran the football for like 267 yards. Utah did, and they had three touchdowns rushing. So, like, they absolutely dominated this game from start to finish, and that's Utah such a hard team to face in their house at night. It is a absolutely insane atmosphere to uh to watch go down as they were playing Cincinnati. Next game, Michigan. I'm only mentioning them because it was a very ugly game against Purdue, the team that Ohio State's gonna be facing next week. It was an ugly game. And the only way I'm really mentioning this because Bryce Underwood, they you can tell it was a thing that they were going into this game, being at home against a Purdue team that's not all that good. They're like, hey, Bryce, we are gonna let you throw the football around and see how we can kind of help grow this passing offense. And it's like a little bit too little too late type of thing, because they were so conservative with Bryce to begin the year, and then now halfway through, halfway, if not three quarters through the year, they're like, hey, let's try to build out the running the passing game a little bit more when you're losing your number one running back to injury, and they're like, hey, let's throw the football a little bit. And Bryce Underwood did not play all that great, 30 13 of 22 for 145 yards and a pick. Like, he was not all that good in this game. They ran the football well. Their backup running back, Jordan Marshall, awesome, 25 carries, 185 yards, and three touchdowns. He he was awesome. But like this game was still very close, and Purdue really had a chance to like win this football game. But it's just it just sucks that again, Michigan's a better team than Purdue. I'm not trying to say that they they should have lost or anything. But the fact that the game was that close was a is a definite issue. And the fact that they're trying to build the passing offense right now, and it's looking as Bryce Underwood doesn't look as developed as he probably needs to be at this point in his first season as a quarterback for them. And I get why they're trying to get a passing offense going because like if they're not gonna have their best back and they need and they're going against Ohio State at the end of the year, they're gonna have to have a little bit of a throwing option because I just don't think Ryan Day is gonna fall for the same trap of I'm gonna try to play Michigan the way Michigan wants to play. I think Ryan Day has learned his lesson from last year, and I think he's gonna he's gonna throw the football all over the place at all at all costs against Michigan this year, and I think they do need to have a little bit of a passing offense. So I get why they're doing with with Bryce Underwood trying to get something going with the passing game, but it's just not working out all that well, and I just think that it's it wasn't pretty. And it wasn't just that they don't have guys for him to throw to, but he's a little bit inaccurate. I'm not saying it's like something that can't be fixed, but I'm not sure it can be fixed this season, and if you know what I'm saying, so alright. That's all I got on that game. And then last but not least, we have a USC Nebraska. Um USC won the game 21 to 17. It was a close game, honestly, for the for the most part, all the way until the end. The game only went super sideways when Nebraska, their quarterback, Dylan Riola, had to go out with a I think he broke his fibula, he'll be out for the rest of the year. Then they had to come in with their second string guy who was a freshman. He did not look as polished when it comes to running the offense again. There was no way he was going to with him being a young guy on top of coming in in a spot where your your main guy gets injured. But this was a very close game. It was both teams deciding that running the football was going to be the way they're gonna win the football game, and that's exactly what happened. USC ran the football for over 200 yards total. Nebraska ran the football for 188 yards. So, like, this was a like a rock fight between two teams because neither team felt like they were gonna be consistent enough passing the football to win the football game, and USC just was able to do a little bit more than what Nebraska was. Again, once Dylan Rayola, the quarterback for them, went out, it did really change the football game in general. But USC managed to win a game in a way that I didn't think they would in years past, so you have to give credit to them for that. And Nebraska on their side, it's just it's a loss of a season for them because now they have their third loss on the year, so that pretty much does knock them out of any type of Big Ten title comp conversation. I think they're already knocked out of that in general because of what teams are at the top of the Big Ten. But I think they're knocked out of the playoff contention as well. And I think that is a big deal because Nebraska, if they had a chance, if they could finish off the season only have that only having two losses, they really did have a shot to get into the playoff without much of an issue. But now with that third loss, I just don't think that's an option. But USC, man, they got the win. It was in a hostile environment. Nebraska, their home environment was absolutely insane. They have a lot of fans, they're loud, and I have to give credit for USC for making the trip to Nebraska, going in there, doing the job, even with Nebraska um experiencing the hurt quarterback. USC got the job done. You have to give them credit for that. So, and they did it by running the football, which is not usually how USC has done it in years past. So, with Lincoln Riley as their coach. So, credit to them. And that's all the games I wanted to talk about. How long have I gone? About two hours and 43 minutes. Oh, I'm so bad. I didn't want to go this long, but I kept talking. It was the draft, it was the trade deadline stuff in the NFL. That's what made me go so long. This isn't good. And I still wanted to talk about the rankings. Oh, this isn't good. Okay, let me try to do this quickly. First, Cost of Wall playoff rankings have come out for this came out a couple hours ago. A little bit over an hour ago. So I just wanted to talk about that, get it out of the way, and give some any thoughts if I have them uh for this first ranking that came out. So, rankings. Ohio State number one, good for me. I the only question was if they were gonna put Indiana number one because Indiana has the better win against Oregon, but I think the committee made the right decision, made Ohio State because they have looked like the most dominant team in college football this year. Making the number one makes a lot of sense. Indiana at two, good. Texas AM at three, fine. They're the best team in the SEC. It makes sense. Bama at four, Georgia at five, Ole Miss at six, BYU at seven, good that they have them in the top ten because they deserve to be. They're the only other undefeated team outside of Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas AM. So it's good that they have them in the top 10. Texas Tech at 8, Oregon at 9, Notre Dame at 10, Texas at 11. I think they're a little too high. The fact that they're above Oklahoma, who beat them a couple weeks ago, is kind of funny because Oklahoma's at 12. And then you have Utah at 13, Virginia at 14, and then Louisville at 15. And then you have 16, Van D, 17, Georgia Tech, 18, Miami, 19, USC, Iowa's at 20, Michigan's at 21, Missouri's at 22, Washington's at 23, Pittsburgh is at 24, and Tennessee is at 25. The fact that Tennessee is above Iowa. No, Iowa's above them. Oh, sorry, my bad. Um so top 25 is fine. I don't have too big of issues. I think Texas being above Oklahoma is a little bit of an issue to make because obviously Oklahoma just beat them a couple weeks ago. Oregon being that low is kind of weird to me. Them being only a one-loss team, their one loss is to an Indiana team. So them being under some teams like Texas Tech that lost to who they lose to, losing to Arizona State a couple weeks ago is kind of weird on top of I I get BYU being above them, I understand. But Olmus being above them with their one loss being to Georgia. So Georgia only loss being to I don't know. I think Oregon should be a little higher. I think Notre Dame should be a little not sure if they should be lower. I guess their two losses was to Texas and M, who's at number three, and then Miami, who's not ranked all that high now because of their bad losses. But at the time it wasn't a bad loss. So I think my only my only big gripe, I think Oregon should be a tad bit higher. And I think Oklahoma should be above Texas. But other than that, I don't have a big problem with any of their rankings that have other any other teams that have come out in the rankings. I'm glad both Washington and Iowa are ranked because the AP has been playing around with both of those teams. And I just think that Iowa's a really good team that definitely deserves to be ranked, and they haven't been, they've been kind of doing the Iowa-Washington back and forth of not having them ranked and having them ranked is kind of weird. But no, I I think the rankings are fine. It's I don't see any huge issues as of right now. I think it's very heavy on the SEC teams, though. It's one, two, three, four. Six teams from the big from the SEC. Six teams from the SEC would be into in the playoff if the playoff started today. I feel like that'd be a little high, but I do think some of these some of these teams are gonna figure this out when it comes to they're gonna end up playing each other and like kind of like because Texas has to play both Georgia and Texas AM. I think they'll probably lose one, if not both of those, so they'll probably fall out. Oklahoma, they have to play Alabama and Missouri, so I think they'll probably lose one of those games and fall out as well. So I think both of those teams have a really good chance of falling outside of the top 12. And then you also have, so I think there's a little bit of room for teams to kind of fall out and other teams to jump back in. So I don't think six teams from the SEC deserve to be into the playoffs. So still plenty of season left. The ranking, the first ranking of the Cosmo playoff for this year is not bad. I'm not totally against it, and uh that's about it there. So I did not expect to go three hours, man. I hope nobody sits and wat listens to me going on this long about all this stuff. But you know, trade deadline stuff happened, so I had to talk about that. Went for that on an hour, and then I had to still do the normal reacting to games and all that. So this podcast went way too long. So if you do listen to the pod, download. I definitely appreciate that. But go ahead, skip around, find the thing you want to find me talking about, maybe piece it up a little bit if you want to really listen to me talk this whole time. Don't do it in one sitting. That's absolutely insane. I don't want to listen to myself talk for two and a half hours, let alone actually close to three hours, let alone do it in one failed swoop. So, all right, let's go ahead and end the pod. Don't let this go on too much longer. If you've been listening for a while, we appreciate you. 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