The Sportsbook Sharps

Why ESPN’s and YouTube's Standoff Broke My Football Weekend

• Andy Reust • Season 4 • Episode 9

Share episode

Send us a text

A Halloween hangover, a blacked-out playbook, and a slate that still pays. We open with the chaos of ESPN’s split from YouTube TV, including the surreal moment a DVR’d show vanished mid-episode, then pull the lens back to what it means for fans and bettors: more subscriptions, more logins, fewer live looks. If you’ve felt the pain of app-hopping on a college Saturday, you’re not alone—and yes, it’s costing you edges in live-betting and line reads.

From there, we regroup and sharpen the card. We revisit last week’s college calls—BYU as a rat-line hammer and Vandy’s cover—before setting new positions with a simple rule: if we can’t watch it, we won’t bet it. That narrows the board and heightens conviction. On the NFL front, we parse matchups, not helmets: why Seattle should handle Washington, why Detroit can punish a shaky QB situation, and why Carolina’s big number is ripe for a cover. Short dogs with real defense, bloated favorites with hollow resumes—this is where prices get interesting.

The centerpiece is our Lock of the Week: Cowboys–Cardinals Over 53.5. Dallas pairs a bottom-tier defense in third-down stops, red-zone resistance, and yards per play with a top-tier scoring offense. Add Arizona’s recent trend toward overs and the explosive play profiles on both sides, and you get a total that scares the public but rewards the prepared. High numbers exist for a reason; this one has multiple paths to cashing early.

If the streaming wars are wearing you down, consider this your reset. Bet what you can watch, use metrics that matter, and let the market misprice reputation. If you found value here, tap follow, share the show with a friend, and drop your weekend pick or fade in the comments. Your best angle might start with a cleaner screen—subscribe now and stay sharp.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey everybody, we have a brand new D Sportsbook Sharps for you here. I am your host Andy and happy Halloween to everybody. Uh in celebration of the Halloween week, we gave you a spooky bad gambling week. We went three and five on the week. I missed my lock for only the second time all season. San Francisco looked horrible. So I am going to refocus, lock in, and rethink everything I think I know about football and my lock this week, and I will give you a great lock at the end of the week. Or at the end of the episode here for this weekend. Also, the NFL graced us with a spooky bad weekend. Here's a fun stat for you. Just one of the 11 Sunday games were decided by single digits in week eight. This is the lowest percentage of games decided by single digits on a Sunday in the regular season since week 14 of 1970, which only had one of 12. Just an absolutely dreadful Sunday. Um just so bad. Um yeah. So look, we're gonna refocus. We've got some good locks here, I think, this week that I've seen so far come in. We don't have them all in yet, uh, but we'll we'll get to that in a moment. I'm gonna go jump straight into the stave frosty. Big update, if you recall last week, I said Brian Kelly of LSU should stay Frosty, put him up on the Frosty throne, boom! Sunday, before the NFL games were even over, I think before even the one o'clock games were over, it was their rumors were already swirling that he was gonna get fired. Uh, it couldn't happen to a worse guy. So I am so glad he's gone. He's a scumbag of a human. If you need to know anything about what a terrible, awful person he is. Like personally, I look, coaching, you can be a bad coach, whatever, that's one thing. But to be an absolute piece of garbage human like he is, there's just stories everywhere about players. Uh just search Brian Kelly, terrible human, and you'll get so many stories from former coaches, former players. There was one story about coaches that um I forget what school it was at one of the smaller schools that he was at um when he before he got started, but they thought they were getting invited to like his holiday party, they show up, and he has them park cars the entire night long for all the other guests that were invited to the party. So he invited assistant coaches to park cars uh and didn't make that clear to them uh when they were invited. Uh he's had players get injured uh and like have career-ending injuries and stuff, and there's just families of the player and players commenting about how you know you'd hear from Brian Kelly all the time when you were playing and performing for him, but the moment that you stopped being any value to him at all, he just cut all communications, didn't go see kids in the hospital, things like that. Uh, there was a story, and it's a conflicting story. Um about uh a player that had uh what was the story now? I don't have it in my notes. I don't know, just look it up. Um there's another story about how he um was at a recruit when he was at Notre Dame uh the last year that he was there. He was at a recruit's house, uh stepped away for a little bit and took a phone call and came back and finished like eating. The parents said uh that he came back and had three plates of barbecue. This is an actual store news article I found. Came back to the end of the house after apparently when he stepped out, he was talking about the LSU job and accepted it. Came back in, still kind of talked to the family and ate food and then dismissed himself. And then they said later that day they saw on the news that he was heading to LSU. So it's just incredible. Uh, I'm glad he's gone. The list is so long this year, uh, but they got steamrolled. I, you know, I said it on Stay Frosty last week. I thought I thought he could lose this game and lose to Alabama and still have his job, but just be fired at the end of the year with four losses. Um, you know, I thought maybe they'd give him a chance to see if he could upset AM, see if he could upset Alabama. Apparently they're just done with him because they lost 49 to 25 at home, and the boo birds were going. Um everything. So, yeah. Uh so that uh but anyway, so this week I am putting up a unique one here on Stave Frosty. I am putting up, and I'm not gonna get the name right, Patar Pitaro, James Pitaro, who is the chairman of ESPN Incorporated. That's right. The head of the mothership is going up on Stay Frosty. Listen, people in Bristol, you're catching the frosty throne here. He's getting put up because as of 11 or so last night, uh the I'm recording this on Friday, 11 or so on Thursday night, the deal with YouTube TV and ESPN and ABC and the family of ABC networks has ceased. So if you have YouTube TV, you can no longer watch ABC, ESPN, FX Movie, FXX, FX, all these different channels. I I think there's a list of like 15 or 18 channels that you lose. That's an important one. ESPN, uh kind of a big deal in the sports world. This is a sports gambling podcast, so it makes it a little hard to watch college football. I have YouTube TV, obviously, that's why I'm putting him up. Uh, many people in my family have YouTube TV. This is such an annoyance. I cannot believe they didn't strike a deal. I I we've been talking about it in the gambling group, Greg and and some of the others. Matt, I think, chimed in a few things on it. We do think this is like a ploy. They just announced that they were raising their ESPN price to$30 for the ESPN streaming. We think this is trying to push people to that new app that they just launched recently. Uh, but rumors are next year, sometime, that app might go up to$60 a month, might double in price because of all the stuff they're buying and putting on it. Look, I don't know what I pay for YouTube TV. Somewhere between uh I think like$80 to$90 a week or a month, a month, something like that. I will never pay$60 for just ESPN. That is insane. I'm I I've talked many times on this program about how I'm tired and sick of being nickel and dimed. You want to watch the NHL, you gotta have HBO Max because there's a bunch of games on there. Uh the NBA this year is too numerous to name uh Peacock. Uh you know, Peacock's a big one. Peacock gets you a lot of things at least. You get college football with the Big Ten, you get college basketball with the Big Ten. Um, and I don't think Peacock's all that expensive. I think it's 12 or 15 bucks a month. But some of these other ones are getting way up there in price, but you gotta you gotta have Netflix for a few things, you gotta have Peacock for a few things, you gotta have HBO Max now for a few things. Like it just keeps going and going. Prime, you gotta have Prime for a few things. It's just it's too complicated. I talked last week about how the MLS made a huge mistake of putting all their product on Apple TV. Uh baseball, they used to, I don't know if they did it this year or not. Uh again, we don't really watch Apple hardly ever. Um, but there for a while they were doing Friday night baseball, a free game, and then I think you could pay for baseball games. I don't even know how that works. Um, but it's just too complicated. And the and the worst thing is between all these different apps, like if I'm especially on college football Saturday, I want to be able to flip around on commercial breaks. So, like, even with multiple TVs, the main TV, you know, if we're watching a big game, I want to be able to flip it. You know, there's usually a dozen or plus college games on it, and it annoys me to no end when we put some of the side TVs on an app like ESPN Plus or something, because it takes for or Peacock to it takes forever to back out of the app, go to the home menu on your uh whatever, you use a Fire stick or I think our basement we use the Roku's. Go to that menu, find the item, find the right area, find how to search in it to find the game or whatever, and even remembering what one it's on is difficult. That's why I always liked YouTube TV. We've had it for a few years now. It surfaces the games at the top when you go to find channels. A lot of times we don't even have to know what game the channel channel the game is on because right at the top of YouTube TV, they'll list like 15 games, and you just scroll left to right, pick the one you want, whatever. Now I'm like pulling up a phone, I gotta find what channel it's on. Oh, it's on ESPN. That means I need the ESPN app. Oh, that TV was never logged into the ESPN app before, or timed out, or whatever. It's gotta do a push code to my phone. Oh, it's not my phone, it pushed it to my wife's phone. My wife's not here right now, she's out doing something else. Now I gotta call my wife. Hey, you got a six-digit code, can you read that code off? Oh, it's been 16 minutes instead of 15. Now the code's expired. Now I gotta send another code. Hold on the line, I'm sending you another code, send me the code. Do you hear how insane that is? We just want to watch sports on TV. We had it so good with cable, we didn't even realize it. I think I'd rather go back to the 90s and early aughts before all this streaming stuff, and just get like eight games and just be happy with I that I have eight games for the cost of a cable subscription. I we have more options now, but at what cost? We've lost the convenience, we've lost uh sometimes they're fighting like this. This is not even the first time this football season that YouTube has fought with somebody. They almost lost Fox right before the Big Ten uh college football kickoff season in August. I was looking through my old uh notes and tweets and stuff. We we almost lost Fox and all the Fox FS1 and all those channels in in August, but they settled right before the football season, so we never lost anything. But yeah, the wife and I last night, we got home, we were watching Grey's Anatomy, and like halfway through the Gray's Anatomy episode, all of a sudden it just said, boom, this content's not available. And I'm like, well, that's weird. So we rebooted it or whatever. Thought maybe the Echo of the we had one of those Amazon Echo or uh device things. Um thought maybe it needed rebooted, whatever. We pull up the YouTube app, we restart it, or whatever. No, they just straight up pulled every single item you ever had recorded, anything. They they pulled it in the middle of watching the episode. They pulled it down. It was the episode from Thursday night at 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock, whenever it recorded. We got home, tried to watch the episode, got half more than halfway through, and then all of a sudden they just poop pulled it, and then the YouTube sends me an email at like midnight last night that says, Hey, we didn't reach an agreement, so we pulled all the content, including all your library and DVR saved items. So they just need to figure it out. ESPN is a part of the Disney Corporation. This is a multi-billion dollar corporation. They don't need to try and squeeze another couple bucks out of us. It was disgusting. They had all their media personalities last night regurgitate the same talking point on all their social media things about how we should call in, click this link to go sign this petition to make YouTube sign this deal, whatever. No, you know what? I'm tired of the price of everything going up. This is the one I'm taking a stand on, ESPN. Like, you don't want me to watch your product on YouTube? Fine. Screw you. I'm not paying for ESPN app thing. I'm just not gonna watch SEC games. Okay? Well, fine, whatever. I'll watch the Big Ten. Uh, I don't know what I'm gonna do Monday night. My Cowboys are on ESPN. I guess I'll check the score and see if they won. I I am not breaking and buying a$30 app because they want to fight with that, and I don't want YouTube to break and start charging me an extra eight or nine bucks a month because they had to carry ESPN channels more. They don't want to be a part of my life, then maybe it's time to move on from the mothership and ESPN, and for that reason, James Patero, stay frosty. That's also gonna wrap in. That's my old man yells at cloud about all that stuff. Uh, so I'm not gonna do an old man yells at cloud this week. I think I've yelled enough. Uh, we're barely 10 minutes into the podcast here, and I'm already losing my voice. I've been so I'm so agitated with this whole ESPN thing. Uh, but let me give you some recaps here from last week. We're not gonna do too much, we're not even gonna recap the NFL deck was such a disgusting display. So I'm gonna skip over the NFL, but I do want to call out a few things that I hope you listen to this podcast. Uh maybe you maybe you have your phone out and you have your little gambling apps open, or maybe you have a little pad and a pen, but I hope you're taking notes because even though I didn't get my lock last week, I gave you some good college football ones, and I'm gonna recap those that I gave you last week. I think I called this my rat line of the week. Iowa State was hosting undefeated BYU, Iowa State minus two and a half. I said to you last week, I was confused. I don't understand why an undefeated team, I know it's a road game, but an undefeated team going in to Iowa State, and uh Iowa State's best win was a very mediocre Iowa team. I told you that. I said you've got to take BYU in the points. Hammer, I said, do not sprinkle, but hammer the BYU money line. BYU won by 14, called it. I mean, what a what a stinky line. I I don't know who set that line. I I don't understand that one at all, and I and I delivered it to you, so I hope you followed me, tailed me on it. I needed some winners last week because the gambling group did not give me money. Uh, I also told you Mizoo at Vandy. I said Mizoo's not very good. I don't know why this is only a two and a half point spread. I told you you should probably back Vandy there. I wasn't as confident as the BYU one. I didn't tell you to hammer it, but I did tell you I liked Vandy there. Vandy covers by seven. And then the last one, I and we already talked about this, so I don't have to belabor it. I said LSU plus two and a half. I know they're at home, but they're against Texas AM. Texas AM's looked really, really good this year. LSU is not. They already had two losses. They've been in close games. Uh I told you, I know I thought Brian Kelly would lose this one. I thought he'd lose the Bama one and then eventually be fired if he lost to Oklahoma at the end of the season. They lost by 24 LSU. And they were only two and a half point underdogs. I I did not understand that one at all. Uh yeah. So those are the ones I want to give you. Alright, now I'm gonna get in to the games for this week. Let me pull up the college here. I thought I had it ready here, but I'm pulling up my notes. Uh yeah, we're just I'm just gonna give you some here that you should definitely get on. Uh, first one up. Uh this one, first one up for me because it's one of one of my teams or whatever, but it's not in order. Usually I go in order of the kickoffs at noon and stuff like that, but I'm seeing Michigan minus 21 hosting Purdue. Uh, Purdue is very, very bad at football. They are not going to win a Big Ten game this year for the millionth season in a row. Um, you should hammer Michigan minus 21. Purdue is so bad at football this year. I uh I had hope. They won two games, non-conference games. I thought maybe they could win. I didn't think necessarily they were going to a bowl game. They kind of had an easier Big Ten schedule this year, but it's just it's it's it's a bad season. So uh they'll look to regroup next year. It'll be the second year uh of the coach, so whatever. Um let's see, let's talk about. Oh no, I'm not gonna talk about this one. I was gonna talk a little bit about Miami SMU, but I can't watch it. It's on uh it's on ESPN, so I guess I won't talk about that one. Uh let's talk about Vandy, Texas. Oh, can't talk about that one either. It's on ABC. I don't know. That channel doesn't exist in this house, so I don't know what to say about that game. Um let's look at uh oh, ranked Notre Dame. Oh no, that's that's on ESPN. I can't talk about that one either. I'm not gonna be able to watch it. So uh oh Florida's not very good this year. They're hosting Georgia. Oh, mmm, no, that's on ABC. I can't talk about that one. Um I'll give you one here. Texas Tech, Kansas State. Uh that's on Fox. That's at 3:30 on Fox. Uh, Texas Tech rolls. Kansas State is so bad this year. I know they're 4-4. That's a fake 4-4. Be aware, be alert. Whoop, whoop, the alarm's going off. That is a non-conference 4-4 right there for Kansas State. They are not very good this year. The line is 7. You will want to take Texas Tech minus 7 and thank me later. Oh, for Pete's sake. This game is saying it is on CBS, but it is also available on Paramount Plus. When I went through my rant earlier, I totally forgot that some sporting events are on Paramount Plus as well. That's another streaming one. I just, it's incredible to me. Uh, this is Indiana, Maryland. Uh, we're gonna get to this later. That's somebody's lock, so I'll I will skip over part of that, my thoughts on that for now. Umlahoma. This is a ranked matchup here. Oklahoma at Tennessee. Uh, good old Rocky Top minus three. Oh, but the game is on ABC. I don't know what that channel even is. Uh sure. I'm sure it'll be a game of football. But I won't see it, so I don't care. And I'm not gonna bet it. If I can't watch it, I'm not gonna bet it. Uh USC at Nebraska. USC minus four and a half. Nebraska's not very good. I don't know if Matt, I don't know if Matt Rule is like already looking ahead, getting calls from Penn State to go take that job. I don't know what's happened, but they uh I don't think Nebraska's I don't think the focus is there. I like USC minus four and a half. Don't don't what don't lay the house on it. I mean, it's in Nebraska. It could be uh you know, with the travel and everything. It is at 7.30 at night, so that's a little better for USC. I know the USC likes to boohoo about how they signed up to be in a conference where they have to travel to Piscataway, but you know what? Maybe don't blow up the Pac-12, and then you don't have to worry about it. But uh, I do like them there at minus four and a half, so I'll give you that one. Ah, this one breaks my heart. Cincinnati, who's having a fantastic season, is going out to Utah, 10.15 at night. But it's on ESPN, so I can't watch it. I mean, I just I guess I forgot the Big 12 is also on ESPN. This is a bummer because they're on FS1 and some other channels. I think they're on TNT. I think I've seen that ad uh with the sports and stuff that they host the Big 12 ones, but but yeah, so that's uh that's gonna do it for the college games this time. Um boy, I wish I hope they strike a deal. Maybe they'll strike a deal during game day tomorrow or something and and get us the channels back, and then then maybe I'll bet some of these games, but uh, just disgusting. Uh the NFL this week. We got uh four teams on bye. We got two really bad teams. We got the Browns and the Jets. Uh, although the Jets with that miraculous win last week to be the last team to get a win on the season, uh, and then catch a bye right after. That's kind of a bummer for them. But uh, I mean they're not gonna win many more games. They can only play the Bengals once a year, so they'll probably end with one win this season. I mean, they're just absolutely dreadful. If they didn't play the Bengals, I think they probably could have went 0-17. But uh we'll see. We'll see how their season goes the rest of the time. But uh and then the Bucs and Eagles are on a bye. Uh, so I'm gonna give you some for this week. Uh uh first one up here, Seattle at Washington. Now I know they don't uh this is what time is this game? Is this an early game? One second, I'm looking at this. No, that's Sunday night. Why do they put that? I don't know why they put that in my app. My app's a little scrammy this week. Uh usually, I again I go in order. I usually do one o'clock's 4:30s, then Sunday and night, and then Monday night if I talk about them. But uh look, you need the this is Sunday night football. We'll see what Poochie does. Poochie's pretty good this year. I think he's only got three losses. He did miss this past week. Um But I you need to hammer the Seahawks here. The last two Washington games, they've been rolled. Uh last week they only scored seven Washington against the Chiefs. They are not a very good football team. Uh, yeah, you need to you need to load up on this one. Uh Seattle minus three. That's what my advice is to you. Uh Minnesota at Detroit. Detroit eight and a half point favorite. This was not my lock of the week, but it is lock adjacent. This was almost my lock. I I I sat here and I thought and I thought, and and for a very long time, I was like, oh. So I'm gonna bet both of these my lock in this one. But I I really wanted this uh to be my lock, but I I just I think I have a slightly better lock. So we'll see. We'll see what you people think. But uh JJ McCarthy is back. He stinks. He is so bad at football. Uh he's only played in a couple games, but my Uncle Mike went to the game in Atlanta. Or was it in Atlanta? It was in Minnesota, maybe, but it was against Atlanta. Anyway, it doesn't matter where it was. They stunk in that game. He stunk against the Bears. If it wasn't for that fourth quarter on that Monday night football, they they wouldn't have a win. Uh, he only had one good quarter of that entire game. Uh, the whole way they've handled the Minnesota Vikings, this Carson Wentz injury is disgusting. I cannot believe they marched this man out there the last couple of weeks. He he's if you haven't heard, he had a separated shoulder, uh, something broken with the shoulder, and a collarbone or something. I don't know. All the I don't remember all the details of it, but he is out for the season. Out for the season. He played the last couple of games, injured, and is out for the season. Uh their head coach, Kevin O'Connell, was almost my Stay Frosty. He probably would have been if it wasn't for this whole ESPN debacle. Although, actually, maybe not. After the Bengals lost to the Jets, I did say I was gonna make Zach Taylor. Like, as I was watching the game, I was like, oof, Zach Taylor. I know you've been up on Stay Frosty before, but it's time again to be up. But no, uh, so so maybe Kevin O'Connell wouldn't be there. But boy, Kevin O'Connell's seat is getting mighty icy. Uh they are not having a very good season this year. So that is why I'm telling you, Detroit minus eight and a half. Uh Detroit's gonna kill him. They're gonna murder him. Uh JJ McCarthy, and they may have to scrape him up off the Ford Dome or whatever that thing's called up there. This is gonna be a very ugly game. Uh, it won't even be close to the eight and a half. Uh I'm gonna also give you Carolina plus 13 and a half at Green Bay. Uh, the pack doesn't destroy teams, with the exception if you throw out week one, where they played Detroit, they do not destroy teams. Bryce is back for the Panthers, replacing Andy Dalton, who backed them up the last couple of games. I love the Panthers here. This is uh this is almost my lock. Like, I had three that I was tossing around. I was juggling three games, and uh, this was another one that I was juggling. I'm like, oof. Almost two full touchdowns. I know it's at Green Bay, but the Panthers are frisky, they're four and four. This is not your Panthers team from you know the last couple of years where they'll win one or two games a year or whatever. They're very frisky, this this Panthers team. Um I I like them to cover 13 and a half here. Now, by no means do I think you should take them to win. Uh, but I think they cover two touchdowns. 13 and a half's a lot of points. Uh Denver plus one and a half at Houston. Another one where this was very, again, not as close as the others. But this one, I don't get this line at all. I uh Houston just beat San Francisco and Mac Jones, but Mac Jones, who? Mac Jones. Um I Denver's defense is legit. I think it's one of the best in the NFL. Um I think Denver wins this outright and moves to 7-2. I I don't get the Denver plus one and a half. Take the money line. Don't bother with points. Points, points are unnecessary in this game. You want Denver money line. That's what you want for this one. I know they haven't, their offense hasn't looked as sharp on the road when they played in London. I'm counting that one as a road game, too. It hasn't looked as sharp, but you know what they did? They won in London. So they're dogs. So they'll find a way to win. Houston's not very good. Yeah, I I they'll move to 7-2. But Denver wins this game. Take them in the money line. San Francisco minus two and a half of the New York Giants. Uh, we saw last week what the Giants are without Cam Scadabo. They lost by 18 to an Eagles team that they had already beat on Thursday night football. This Giants team is a bad team. This is a stinky bad team. Uh you went San Francisco minus two and a half here. That's that's what I'm telling you to do. Chargers minus nine and a half at Tennessee. You the ban has been lifted. I said that last week. They've covered a spread. You now have my permission to bet the Chargers, and you should this week. Tennessee is one of the least competitive teams I have ever seen. They're terrible, they stink. You need to be all over the Chargers on this one. And then I'm gonna get into the bet what I think is the best game of the week. Kansas City minus one and a half at Buffalo. This is my stay away game of the week. I it's every now and then. I don't always do a stay away game. I you could flip a coin on this one. I have no idea who's gonna even win this game, let alone cover. I I don't know how it's gonna go. This is gonna be very good. I don't I wish they could have flexed this into Monday night instead of putting the Cowboys Arizona on. I wish they could have flexed this into Sunday night instead of giving us Seattle at Washington. This is gonna be the best game of the week. This is at 4.25. This should be the one that most of America gets at 4.25. This is gonna be a very good game. I think Kansas City wins, but I it wouldn't surprise me at all if Buffalo wins. So uh this is an outstanding game. Uh so enjoy that one on Sunday. We didn't get very many good games last week. I hope this stays a close game and we don't get a blowout. Um, I don't think it will turn into a blowout. So all right, let's talk gambling group. We got four plus nine so far this week. We're missing three. So I'm gonna give you Greg's Penn State at Ohio State. Ohio State minus 20 and a half. The line's actually moved since Greg put the lock in early in the week. You can now get OSU at minus 18 and a half. I thought it was a buy at minus 20 and a half, it's a steal at minus 18 and a half. I went in the app and bedded immediately when I saw it and shifted two points. I Penn State's not very good. Uh Ohio State rolls them. It's at home. Ohio State just destroys. Penn State this year. There, no, no. This very good luck, Greg. Ethan, minus three Colts at the Stollers. Now, I gave you all these stats last week about the Steelers. Mike Tomlin against Green Bay when he's underdog, home underdog. He's, I don't remember what the numbers were. 27 and 12 or something, and all this stuff, frame rate. And I and I hyped it up. I said, I like this one. Um, that was Greg's lock last week. I'm like, oh, I love it. This, that, and the next thing. All these stats in favor of it. They got destroyed by Green Bay. They the whole Rogers thing is not working out. Their defense is not very good. They can't get stops, they can't get turnovers. I I don't know what's going on in the Steel City right now, but uh I the Colts have only lost one game all year. They've looked like an absolute juggernaut. Indiana Jones is playing out of his mind. There are people talking about Daniel Jones being the MVP this year. Uh they want to give him comeback of the player of the year award, which which makes me laugh because he wasn't injured. He's just coming back from being on a bad Giants team. Like, I guess that's a comeback now. I I don't know. It kind of makes me laugh. Um, but the Colts are very good. I I I don't know. The way that the Steelers looked on Sunday night, I don't know how you don't take the Colts here. I like this lock, Ethan. I like Colts minus three. Uh speaking of teams that look very good, Indiana University, Maryland playing Maryland. Uncle Mike has given us over 50 and a half. Somebody, I think it was Scott, gave us the over in the IU game last week. IU hit it on their own. IU is a wagon. I they are gonna finish the season undefeated and make the college football playoffs. They're gonna make a Big Ten championship game. Uh, as a Purdue fan, it absolutely disgusts me to say this, but they are top-notch. I they truly are the number two team in all the land. I don't care, you little SEC people in your little ESPN channel, you can go and talk to yourself all day about how you think Alabama should be number two. The the the the SEC online fans are some of the worst in the world. They're doing hypotheticals. Oh, if Bama played IU's schedule, if if uh if IU played Bama's schedule this last five weeks, they'd at least have one loss, all this stuff. The the king of hypothetical situations, the SEC online fan, um I saw they were giving out double-digit hypothetical victories now, and then not only enough that the SEC fans say that this team would beat this team and this and that. Now they're saying they'd beat them by at least 10, they'd beat them by 20, all this stuff. So we've evolved from being just hypothetical victories to hypothetical double-digit victories. So at least the SEC online fan is evolving. But uh, yeah, Indiana kills Maryland here. I they probably hit the over again on their own. They're just scoring so many points. That offense is a lot of fun. Uh yeah, I like that over. Good uh good over. My Uncle Mike with the Overs Club, I think this is his fifth over pick of the season. He's three and one in over-unders this year. Uh so he's he sees the over-unders he likes and he goes for them. I like that. Uh, and then Steve. Oh, poor maligned Steve here. Uh Steve's had a rough season this year. I think he's only got two wins on the year. But I do like this one. He gave us MSU at Minnesota, Minnesota minus three and a half. Row the boat. I love to row the boat. It's fun to say row the boat. Uh Michigan State's very bad this year. For a Michigan State team, they're very bad. I think they have three wins on the year. Uh, they're not very good. So I like this lock, Steve. I hope you get another victory here. I'll bet it. I'll row the boat with you. Let's get in the boat. Everybody jump in the boat. We're gonna go row the boat at Minnesota. And uh, I think they covered the three and a half. It's at home. I I like it. Alright, now we got my lock. And I said, uh, you know, I gave you a bunch of NFL games I liked. I like the NFL slate this week. But my lock of the week this week, I am giving you. I'm jumping in with Uncle Mike here. I'm taking an over. My first over of the season. I'm giving you Cardinals at Cowboys over 53 and a half. Now I know hopefully you were sitting down when you heard that number. 53 and a half is a lot of points. You may be sitting there at home driving your car, wherever. You're saying, oh my, 53 and a half, that's a lot of points. That is a lot of points. But you know what? The Cowboys defense gives up a lot of points. This season, the Cowboys on the over-underline, they are six and two on overs. Six and two. Out of their eight games, six of them have gone over. I got some stats for you here. I always like to back up, but like I I people may think I just like pick these off a tree and say, oh, I like this one, I like that one, give me some of that one. You know, I'm in a buffet of sports games and I'm just scooping onto my plate, like, I want some of that, I want some of that. No, no, no. I take time, I research these things, I look into it. I watch a lot of football. I know when teams are good and when teams are bad, but it's always good. Like, I know, like watching the Cowboys, you can just see it. Their defense is atrocious, but when I look the numbers up, I love it when the stats and the numbers and my eyes all align, and I'm like, ooh. So I'm not, it's not a mirage. Their defense is truly horrific. I'm gonna give you some stats here to back up why it's one of the worst in the NFL. Their defense, the Cowboys. They are 32nd on stopping third down conversions. They are 32nd on allowing first downs in a game. 29th. Now remember, the NFL only has 32 teams, so that means those first two stats, they are dead last. They are 29th on red zone efficiency, so basically, you get in the red zone, you're gonna score against the Cowboys. Uh they are 31st in passing yards allowed per game. That means only one team's worse. Uh 29th in rushing yards allowed, which is truly remarkable because usually it's one or the other, right? Like, usually you can stop the run, can't stop the pass, can't stop the run, but you can stop the pass. All these, like you usually set a defense to stop one or the other. Like you go into it with a game plan, you say, I'm gonna, we're gonna, this team's got a really good running back, we're gonna stop the run. No. The Cowboys, I don't think they have any defensive plan. I think they show up. I think the defensive plan is we cannot have more than 11 players on the field. Find me 11 people and get them on the field. That's the defense. Just put 11 warm bodies out there. Just remarkable. Uh, I'm not even done with the bad stats. I had to do a little aside there. Uh, they are 31st in uh yards per play. Yards per play. 31st in points and 27th in turnovers. Now, the turnover, that's sometimes a little lucky stat. You get in the right place at the right time. But like you would think at least, like, okay, they're really bad at everything on defense. You know, at least maybe like 31st in passing yards, but maybe their corners are like jumping the routes and trying to get an interception all the time or whatever. No. No, the corners and the safeties aren't even just jumping the routes, they just are missing assignments. I mean, you can see it in the secondary. They're just it's so bad. Um and then the Cowboys to go in favor of the over-under here, the Cowboys offense is number one in passing yards and number two in points scored per game. Um, because they know, like the team knows, the offense, especially, that if they ever stand a chance of winning a game, they have to score at least 32 points and uh hope that they timed it just right, that the clock runs out when they score the 32nd point. Otherwise, they're gonna give the ball back, and the other team's gonna score their 33rd or more point and they're gonna lose the game. So the Cardinals, the Arizona Cardinals, are four and three on overs this year, but they've gone over in three straight games. Um, and then just two weeks ago, the Cowboys hit an over of, if you're if you're sitting there thinking, like, ooh, 53 and a half, though, that's a lot of points. You know, you're giving me all these stats about how bad their defense is, but 53 and a half is a lot for an over. No, no, no. Just two weeks ago, the Cowboys hit an over of 55 and a half. Uh, and then last week, they easily cleared the over of 51 and a half. It wasn't even close. I think the total was 60 something, almost 70 points scored. So, like, it's it's not even that they're historically bad at defense, but the the points allowed are just through the roof. This is not a situation where you'll be sitting there in the fourth quarter, like, oh, I need I need two more scores or whatever. No, no, no. You'll probably you'll probably have your 53 and a half before the fourth quarter. And if not, don't you worry, the Cardinals will probably just throw one ball up to uh Marvin Harrison Jr. and uh boom, a touchdown, 70-yard touchdown or something. Uh, some of those touchdowns last week against Denver were just ridiculous. They're just so long. I just couldn't even believe. I was like, oh, that was a 70-yard run. Like, oh, that makes sense. Uh teams, isn't that normal? Teams often give up 70 yard runs, right? I mean, it's just disgusting. Cowboys were never competitive in that Denver game. It made me very sad last week, Cowboys. And for that reason, I'm making my lock of the week this week. Cardinals at Cowboys over 53 and a half. Now, the side bet I wish I could do on this, will I be able to watch this game? Because Monday, this is a Monday night football game, and that is on the ESPN channel, which I currently don't get. So, will I be going to a bar? Maybe bet that. Will Andy be at a bar Monday night with his wife? Perhaps. Uh, will they be watching this on their phone, just watching the score? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe we'll just do something else Monday night. I don't know. But uh we'll see. We'll see. Hopefully, ESPN comes to their senses and makes an agreement with YouTube by then. But uh that's my lock this week. Cowboys, Cardinals over 53.5. Oh, and the Cowboys, I don't have the stat on here. 3-0 at home on the overs. And this is at home. So I you gotta hammer this one. This I'm back. I'm back, baby. I'm back. I made a mistake. I trusted Mac Jones last week. No mistakes made this week. Cowboys defense, stinky bad. Over. Over, over, over. It was always the Cowboys over. 53 and a half. That's gonna do it for this week's show. Remember, we do have the dog locks on TikTok. Follow us at TSS Gambling, subscribe to the podcast, uh, anywhere you listen to podcasts, Apple, Spotify, anywhere you do it, Buzz Sprout, which is where I post the thing. However, you want to subscribe to it, subscribe, follow, like, give us feedback, give us comments, whatever. At TSS Gambling on Twitter, at TSS Gambling on TikTok, that's where you can find us. Good luck gambling, everybody.