Championship Weekend

This week, We get into the thrilling moments from championship weekend in college football, including a nail-biting Clemson-SMU game and other marquee matchups. We also break down the latest developments in the college football playoff bracket and discuss the potential impact of certain games on selection committee decisions. In the NFL segment, we cover the latest team eliminations from the playoffs and analyze surprising outcomes from the past weekend, discussions about MVP candidates like Josh Allen and Saquon Barkley, the unpredictability of Dan Campbell’s play-calling, and the resurgence of Sam Darnold. Plus, a heartfelt look at Jonathan Brooks' injury and its implications. 

Chapters

• 0:51 Championship Weekend
• 0:56 Clemson vs. SMU: Game Highlights
• 8:11 College Football Playoff Bracket Breakdown
• 20:56 Alabama's Controversial Exclusion
• 28:52 NFL Hard Knocks Recap
• 31:25 Joe Burrow's House Break-In
• 33:56 Teams Eliminated from Playoffs
• 37:52 Wild Weekend Recap
• 44:53 Sam Darnold's Redemption
• 49:10 Josh Allen's Historic Performance
• 52:44 weekend notes
• 54:08 Closing Remarks

Transcript

Jason: 0:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition of the Pond Pony podcast. A happy addition to the Pond Pony podcast. That's right. We are jumping for joy over here. What's happening Persian. Howdy.

pershin: 0:15

Howdy. I see you got your Clemson sweater on. You are so excited. My Clemson

Jason: 0:22

quarter zip.

pershin: 0:24

It is, it is a quarter zip. That's right. That's

Jason: 0:27

the Manning's would be

pershin: 0:28

not, not necessarily a sweater. I don't know what category it actually falls in, but you know, whatever

Jason: 0:36

athletic sweater, maybe. Anyway, that's right. So let's go ahead and start the show.

0:44

The Pied Pony Podcast.

Jason: 0:51

All right. So this past weekend was championship weekend in college football. And boy, was it a good one? I decided to go to the Clemson SMU game up in Charlotte and what a game it was. Great seats, SMU fans showed up. There was a ton of SMU fans there. Way more than I ever thought there ever would be.

pershin: 1:12

Wow.

Jason: 1:13

Yeah.

pershin: 1:14

I was not expecting that SMU would have a big crowd in Charlotte.

Jason: 1:18

Yeah. And in fact, we actually ended up with tickets on the SMU side.

pershin: 1:26

Oh Lord.

Jason: 1:27

Yeah. Well, it ended up being great because well, people try to

pershin: 1:31

rag on you.

Jason: 1:32

No, no, everybody was cool. We actually had like for whatever reason in our like area our small area It was like nothing but Clemson fans and then like two SMU fans But then there was like a ton of them outside of that little cluster that we had We actually have a Gamecock fan behind me and he was even pretty nice. I think we hugged after the game. I don't know Oh, wow. I had a few. I had a few. And I mean, how, how could you not in celebration? My guy makes a field goal to win the game as clock expires. Yeah. I mean, Clemson has a pretty

pershin: 2:10

good game.

Jason: 2:11

Yeah, pretty good game. Clemson had a hell of a first half and then lack of depth bit him in the butt again in the second half guys were getting tired.

pershin: 2:23

Yeah, I thought SMU did a good job of clawing their way back into that. They definitely got gumption. Pro gumption. So I'm down with that. I'm sure we'll talk about SMU getting in versus some teams not getting in. But I think that that probably had something to do with it. The fact that they made that a game

Jason: 2:46

when yeah,

pershin: 2:49

they, they made it a game when it didn't look like one at first. And so I think that that probably had something to do with, you know, the committee siding with them. So,

Jason: 3:00

yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah.'cause if they had gotten blown out, it would've been a done deal, but it would've

pershin: 3:08

been a much worse loss,

Jason: 3:10

I gotta say. I mean, the, the qb Jennings threw, threw 50 times, 31. He completions he threw, i, I, he threw a lot of balls in the dirt. Like that people see, you know, not on

pershin: 3:26

the radar for the NFL scouts. No, no,

Jason: 3:31

no. He, the, most of his passes that he hit were people wide open in the middle of the field because Clemson, for whatever reason, just did not want to guard the middle of the field.

pershin: 3:42

Well, I'm pretty sure they had like, some of that was blown coverages too. Right. Yeah. It looked like, like just missed assignments on, on a few of those.

Jason: 3:52

Yeah, and then we let our foot off the gas pedal in the second half. You know, only scored 10 points versus the 24 in the first half. Would have been nice to blow these guys out. But nonetheless, Clemson did win 34 31 on a last second 56 yard field goal. From a true freshman. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. He had missed one earlier in the game. He missed the 40

pershin: 4:23

18 year old kid.

Jason: 4:24

Yeah. Yeah. Guy is having his moment. I like it. So. Yeah, another thing to note. Clemson since, what, last year. Leads the nation in takeaways at 53. Cause they had two this game. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, they're, they're getting after it on defense. We just got to do better at turning those into points like we did this game. Because if you think about it, if they didn't turn those two turnovers or, you know, turnover on downs into points, you know, it could be talking about different games. So.

pershin: 5:03

Yeah, you might not be wearing the quarter zip,

Jason: 5:06

right? No, no, I will I might not but all in all it was a good trip I could not have asked for a better game to have have paid to see

pershin: 5:16

Yeah, you went with friend of the pod Smith, right?

Jason: 5:18

Yes. Yes friend of the pod Smith Shout out

pershin: 5:22

to the old pine pony.

Jason: 5:23

That's right. That's right So, moving on to the other games of the weekend, Boise State beat UNLV for the Mountain West Championship 21 7. Army beat Tulane for the American Athletic Championship 35 14. Penn State, Oregon. Oregon beat Penn State 45 37 in the Big Ten. The SEC Texas, I mean, Georgia beat Texas again. It's bro. Like Texas is

pershin: 6:00

wild.

Jason: 6:02

It's like, they just can't do anything against Georgia and Georgia didn't play that great. This was a Georgia. I was, we were watching this game at the bar at tilted or twin peaks and the, I was. Georgia at the end of the first half was begging. Was begging for Texas to score. They threw the, they threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball, but the two interceptions got called back for an offsides on Texas and then they still ended up with a fumble and got the ball, did nothing with it. Like

pershin: 6:43

I think it's crazy how like the SEC this year has been like, oh. These guys can beat these guys. But then they can't beat the other guy. And it's like something weird about the SCC where it's really matchup based and it's like rock, paper, scissors, where it's like, Oh, well, we can totally dominate this one team. Can't seem to beat the other good teams. And it's, you end up with this weird situation where it's almost like none of them really seem to. That's strong at the end of it. They all just have these really bad losses. It seems like, you know,

Jason: 7:23

absolutely. I completely agree. And then the other game, Arizona state punching their ticket to the playoffs beating Iowa state 45 to 19 with the self proclaimed Heisman trophy winner. Scatter bow, the running back. Did not even catch an invite. He did not catch an invite to New York. I saw

pershin: 7:46

the weird like Press conference moment. I like just a snippet of it where he's talking about. Yeah, that's just that's just the truth of it Is I'm just telling you like it is and one day y'all will all reckon. I'm just like what is he talking about? What does he have to back that up with like nothing like

Jason: 8:09

nothing? Nothing. So on Sunday Was the big talk of the day of the weekend the college football Playoff bracket Let's go ahead and break that down. Getting the buys are Arizona State, Oregon, Boise State in Georgia. I love it. I love it. Were

pershin: 8:31

you expecting that? I was not expecting Boise State to be in the top four. I, I mean,

Jason: 8:39

I was a little surprised. I was a little surprised, but I'm not, I'm not surprised. Like I'm okay with it.

pershin: 8:47

I actually think it's kind of cool. I mean, who else

Jason: 8:49

would you put there?

pershin: 8:51

Well, I actually thought, and this obviously was incorrect, but I actually thought that the top four would definitely be conference championship winners from the power conferences. I didn't realize that they could put in a group of five if they wanted to.

Jason: 9:11

Yeah, that's a little confusing because You would have thought anyone who won their conference would have at least gotten the buy and then a home game, but that's not

pershin: 9:23

right. Exactly. Like one of them might be the odd man out as far as the buy goes, but I figured they're locked in, right?

Jason: 9:31

For the home.

pershin: 9:32

And they're, but they're not locked in. I didn't realize that

Jason: 9:36

either. I was a little confused that If you, so what it was is if you were a team that won your conference, because that, but if you were a team that won your conference and you were ranked outside of the top 12 by the committee, when you, if you won your, so Clemson was ranked 16, right? Even after they won the conference or whatever, they might've been like, you know, whatever. Either way, they were outside the top. Even

pershin: 10:04

after this past week.

Jason: 10:05

Right. So then they had to be put into the top 12. So really they took the 12th spot, the last spot. So therefore.

pershin: 10:16

Okay. Which I mean, it makes sense. Like if you're, if you're actually ranked in the top 12 already and you won your championship, then it's probably. Like what I thought it was, right.

Jason: 10:30

So then what that leaves us with is Clemson is at Texas and I, initial thoughts when I saw this, I didn't like it. I was like, Oh man, Texas might steamroll us at Texas. It

pershin: 10:48

seems like an incredibly hard place,

Jason: 10:52

but, but then I look at Texas's schedule. And I'm like, Oh man, these guys are fraudulent, man. These guys are fraudulent. Look at this schedule. You really think they're

pershin: 11:09

fraudulent?

Jason: 11:10

Look at this schedule. Colorado State, Michigan, Michigan, UTSA, UL Monroe.

pershin: 11:20

TSA, I don't even know who that, what does UTSA?

Jason: 11:21

Exactly, UL Monroe, Mississippi State, Mississippi State. They played Oklahoma, which were, which are not, which we've discovered as the season, they're too, they were overrated. They're overrated. Then they lost to Georgia. Then they, then they, they beat Vanderbilt by three. Then they beat Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas A& M in the championship game, the SEC title game. So in the regular season. The only legit three, you know, legit three

pershin: 12:04

good wins in there, right?

Jason: 12:06

Maybe like Oklahoma was fraudulent. Michigan's fraudulent. Vanderbilt is six and six. They're, they're not good. Vandermouth's kind of streaky though. Like they've had some pretty good, right. They play people tough.

pershin: 12:20

Yeah.

Jason: 12:20

So I think there is a. Look, if Clemson doesn't win, it's whatever. I mean, they could possibly lose. They could get blown out, you know. Right. Not even about Clemson, just aside from that. Look at it, it's at a half glass full. There is a way they could win this game. I mean, defensively, I mean, you gotta

pershin: 12:40

think,

Jason: 12:41

Quinn Muir is not that great of a passer.

pershin: 12:44

I mean, you gotta think, if Vandy comes within three, I mean anything's possible for Clemson. Right, right. I, I gotta think Clemson is a better match to them than Vandy would be, at least on paper. I understand. You know, gotta play the games, but it's you know, they're not like, oh, they're so supreme unbeatable or whatever. Like, Clemson could totally beat them, comes, could totally beat.

Jason: 13:08

Absolutely. Absolutely.

pershin: 13:09

They, they need to come out and play. Well, you know, that's all it takes, right? You

Jason: 13:12

gotta play full four quarters. So moving on to the next game. Tennessee versus Ohio state. That's an interesting one. I would have assumed, man, I don't know, man. That's a toss up, but to be honest, it doesn't, you know, Ohio state, I think is fraudulent as well. The only team they played, they've lost to the, they played a terrible Michigan team and they lost to

pershin: 13:34

it. So we talked about that. Yeah.

Jason: 13:37

And then moving to the next game is SMU gets in versus Penn state. At Penn State that's

pershin: 13:47

man Penn State's actually been good lately. I feel like they've been pretty tough lately haven't they? They have

Jason: 13:54

been, they've been playing, they've been better than most

pershin: 13:56

years. I mean look they put up, they put up what 35?

Jason: 14:00

36? 37 Again, yeah,

pershin: 14:01

I mean, I mean that's a That's a pretty good game despite the L. You know what I mean like

Jason: 14:09

I mean, I'm looking forward to that game. I want to see if SMU can, you know, play play with another big game. Yeah Do you know what the spread is on there?

pershin: 14:19

I haven't taken a look at any of the college stuff yet, but I wonder I gotta think it's two weeks away.

Jason: 14:28

So the spread is PSU's giving up nine 53 and a half is the over under

pershin: 14:36

That's actually more of a favorite than I thought they would be

Jason: 14:39

you want to know the so the clemson texas game texas is

pershin: 14:44

A six point favorite seven Oh, no, really? All right 11 point favorite 11

Jason: 14:53

point

pershin: 14:53

favorite Wow, that is these spreads are actually are honestly like higher than I thought they would

Jason: 15:00

and then Let's see. What else what other so we got one more game Indiana versus Notre Dame, the battle, the battle, that would be an interstate battle. Yeah.

pershin: 15:13

An interstate battle. Yeah. An interstate battle. It's funny. Cause I just think of interstates that you drive on.

Jason: 15:21

Oh yeah. And Notre Dame is a seven and a half point favorite there.

pershin: 15:26

Yeah. I feel like Notre Dame probably wins that.

Jason: 15:32

Okay. And then, so here's the paths. So if Clemson and winner of Clemson, Texas plays Arizona state, I like my chances there.

pershin: 15:43

That's good. I like my

Jason: 15:44

chances there. I don't care who comes out of us. I think they're

pershin: 15:48

probably rather go to Arizona state and play them. Then go to Texas. Well, this would be

Jason: 15:53

at tech. So if you, whoever comes out of that game, it's the, it actually is so good because If Clemson plays Arizona State, that's going to be at the Chick fil A Peach Bowl, which is in Atlanta. So that could be a big time home game, essentially. Like an

pershin: 16:13

hour and a half away from Clemson.

Jason: 16:15

Right, exactly. So we'll see. Pie in the sky. But you know me, positive fall. Getting ahead of ourselves here. Getting ahead of ourselves here. Gotta beat Texas. And then, so Tennessee, Ohio State gets the luxury of playing Oregon. I don't care who plays Oregon in that out of there. They're losing and the games of Rose bowl. So it's in California. So that's going to be really Pacific

pershin: 16:41

Northwest. Yeah.

Jason: 16:44

And then SMU Penn state plays Boise state for some reason. I want an SMU Boise state game.

pershin: 16:53

Is that possible? Yeah.

Jason: 16:54

If SMU beats Penn state,

pershin: 16:58

nice.

Jason: 16:59

And then Indiana Notre Dame winner of that goes and plays Georgia. So

pershin: 17:08

Yeah, I feel like Georgia Would be the favorite versus either of those It's just weird. I don't know not against

Jason: 17:18

Notre Dame. Yeah, I don't I mean they probably would be like a 2.

pershin: 17:22

0 It's just weird because Georgia has had some At least a couple of losses this year where it's like damn they look bad That was a home game

Jason: 17:32

for them too because it's at the Sugar Bowl, which is New Orleans

pershin: 17:37

Hmm. Plot thickens.

Jason: 17:39

Yeah. Much further away, much closer to Notre Dame. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, man, I mean, that's, oh, and I will say this, I will, I will say going back to the SMU game, I forgot to mention that was pretty much a home game for clips and not even as far as far as fans. I thought the fans were pretty, pretty even. Yeah. But like, it just seemed like the video boards and like everything was just like heavy Clemson favored. Like we're going into the fourth quarter. There's a, there's a Clemson promo going up. Like

pershin: 18:18

Damn, that's fucked up.

Jason: 18:20

Yeah, man. ACC was like, yo SMU, you can't come in here and win this first year.

pershin: 18:26

Yeah, you got to earn your stripes.

Jason: 18:29

Yeah. Yeah. It, Oh, it was also watching the fans cheer and Jubilee for that tying touchdown and then immediately turn around and be sad as they're walking away. Yeah. That was awesome. Well, it was a good game. Yeah.

pershin: 18:49

Here, here's what I want to ask you though, before we move on is You know, as we sort of expected, predicted in the off season, like With the 12 team playoffs, it's not going to fix the fact that there's going to be fan bases butthurt about not getting in. So we have heard a lot of about Alabama, right? And apparently, within the committee, they actually did come kind of close to putting Alabama in over SMU. Ultimately, they said that Alabama had worse losses on their record than SMU. I think I agree with that. I think that that is absolutely true. I think when you look at a loss, like, you know, this past week, like, like I was talking about, they made a game of it. It wasn't a horrible loss. You know what I mean? It wasn't this ugly, Ooh, damn, so bad or whatever. But what do you think about specifically Alabama, but also do you think that like Miami or any of these other schools have a valid sort of gripe as well?

Jason: 19:53

Well, I think, I think all the other schools have. Accepted their fate because teams like Miami and Colorado, they, all you had to do is beat Kansas, Colorado, and you are in the championship game playing for a playoff spot. It

pershin: 20:11

was within your control all the way down to the last couple of weeks.

Jason: 20:15

All you had to do, Miami was not lose to Syracuse and to Georgia tech and you lost both of those games. So. They have, they had their destiny in their own hands. So I think those fans have, have, you know what, we, we fumbled our chances,

pershin: 20:34

we

Jason: 20:35

controlled our own destiny. We can't expect them to put us in when we lost to two unranked teams. I think, I think

pershin: 20:42

you're probably right about that. Just, just cause as a Buffs fan, that's exactly what I thought was like when they lost, I was like, well, okay, but they just don't deserve to

Jason: 20:51

be. And now going to Alabama fans. They cannot handle the fact that Nick Saban is not their coach anymore and that they Had three terrible losses and I have never never seen a commissioner an ad all complain publicly and cry the way that they have cried as if They have not gotten the benefit of the doubt For the last 30 seasons. Oh yeah. Like, it's unbelievable. Maybe we'll schedule lesser opponents. In case you didn't know. Alabama you lost to SEC opponents. These are conference opponents. These are not non conference.

pershin: 21:42

That's the part that really confused me. So, The AD specifically was talking about their non conference schedule, because I guess their conference schedule they don't even have control over, right?

Jason: 21:51

So they have upcoming, well, upcoming, yeah, your conference schedule, you play who you play. But you have control over your non conference schedule. But, so typically, all of the Nick Saban years, they're not playing anybody good. They're playing FCS teams, they're lower tier, like at the time, ACC, Clemson, was lower tier at that time. And then that this past year they had like Mercer, Wisconsin, like no one good. No one good was on, was on their non conference schedule, but according to the upcoming years, they play like Ohio state, a home and home. And so they're like, well, what if we just call up Ohio state and just cancel it and schedule another FCS team? And I'm like, you know what, man? Go ahead. Because Knock

pershin: 22:42

yourself out,

Jason: 22:43

brother. You lost to SEC teams. Here's the

pershin: 22:46

thing. Here's the thing that I love about that, and, and, when I say, you know, I find it confusing, that is the part that I'm talking about, it's like, the losses that they had this year, wasn't the shit that they scheduled, that they had control over, it was the conference games that tripped them up. So if they did what he's suggesting and they had a weaker schedule aside from the conference games They would have even looked worse They would have even they wouldn't even been in the conversation because it would have been like the only other way Is sec and you're not doing well, so It's it's just ridiculous. And

Jason: 23:27

that's the other thing that they're saying is like well if strength of schedule doesn't seem like it matters and it's like well, it absolutely does matter because If you, the fact that you were even in the, had Clemson lost, Alabama would have been in, right? So the fact that you were still in that conversation after having three losses and being the only three loss team being in that conversation outside of South Carolina, which they were in the conversation, but they weren't going to be the ones in. Right. And so the fact that you were still there tells me that they did value your strength to schedule and that the wins that you did have overcame the losses that you had. But because Clemson won, they had to put Clemson in and they're not going to penalize SMU for losing a conference title game when they were already in the playoffs as it was. You can't sit there and say, well, we want conference championships to mean something. And then the moment someone loot, that's their only other loss. They, you just, you boot them out of the playoffs.

pershin: 24:30

When you look at a couple of those Alabama losses, they really do look bad. Whereas this SMU loss is okay. They lose by a field goal. It's not the end of the world. It's not the last

Jason: 24:41

second.

pershin: 24:42

Right. And so it's like, okay. You had a tougher strength of schedule than SMU. No one's debating that. The point is that they've only got two losses and neither of them look as bad as a couple of the losses that you have. The only reason why you're even in the conversation is because your strength of schedule. And let's be real SEC, whatever bullshit. So that's it. That's it. So they've already, they've already gotten the benefit of the strength of schedule and they want that to Trump everything else like, bro. No,

Jason: 25:17

they just wanted to be an sec invitational to everyone else and don't have two ugly losses and you don't

pershin: 25:24

have to, you don't have to have

Jason: 25:25

this. The sad part is, is now they're going to start tinkering with the conference schedule and possibly trying to put some teams with playing against lower tier of that conference.

pershin: 25:42

Knock yourself out. I, I think it's going to be hilarious when. All they've played is the Vandy's of, of the SEC. They're going to play Kentucky and Vandy or whatever. And then they're going to have FCS scenes and then they drop one of those games to Kentucky or Vandy or whoever at you like upsets them. And now they look like fucking dog shit. Yeah. And

Jason: 26:05

then they come into the first round, not really have played anyone. And, and then they get smoked in that round.

pershin: 26:12

Exactly. That's what happens to

Jason: 26:14

Ohio State all the time. Ohio State usually never, I mean, they play Penn State, Michigan, and those teams are usually good. Outside of that, they play absolutely no one, maybe Notre Dame, now Oregon, now they've got competition. But,

pershin: 26:29

yeah,

Jason: 26:30

but every year they got to the playoffs and then it's like the first game just absolutely smoked.

pershin: 26:37

Yeah, that's so we'll see. We'll see what happens. I mean, I just think it's so clear that the strength of schedule is not the thing in their way. The thing in their way is that they, they just had some really bad losses and there's no way around that.

Jason: 26:52

I do think if we're going to make changes to the playoff format, I think we could do a couple of things. One being. Don't make conference champions be automatic buys. Just make them be automatic in. And then I think you reseed the whole P you, you choose everyone who's in, and then you reseed it based on record strength of schedule. And if tiebreaker is prominent, head to head or whatever. But if you don't want to do that, Then you can go to 16 teams and then all 11 conferences, conference champion gets in and then who's ever left, who's ever left.

pershin: 27:43

I don't know. People, people would be bitching even more about that. I think, I don't know.

Jason: 27:47

You know what, you know what, you know, what's going to be great is when a team SMU or Boise state or Indiana knocks off like Notre Dame. Or one of these big dogs that, or these quote unquote, big dogs that the ESP can happen. It

pershin: 28:05

can totally happen. Feed gentee 35 touches. You could, you could compete.

Jason: 28:12

Yeah. Like what, like what's going to happen to them when it, when it's like, You know, Clemson or Arizona state playing Boise state for the title.

pershin: 28:21

I'm going to love it. I'm going to absolutely fucking love it.

Jason: 28:26

Just so they get extra, my rating, my, my, my view, my rating, my views.

pershin: 28:33

Yeah. Anyway, anyone, anyone calls my phone from a ratings company, I'm a tell them I watched every fucking game

Jason: 28:40

on three different channels, TVs and all that. IP address. I VPNed it from somewhere else.

pershin: 28:47

I invited 12 friends to watch it with me.

Jason: 28:51

All right. Moving on to the NFL. Hard knocks started this past week. Did you watch it?

pershin: 28:59

I did not. You talk about the AFC North thing.

Jason: 29:02

Yes. Good stuff. Good stuff. It started. Have

pershin: 29:06

you learned any inside tidbits or anything from it?

Jason: 29:10

It started what? It started last week. No, it started last week. So it was the week of the week prior. So that was like, it was a Steelers played the Bengals, I believe. Yeah. Steelers played the Bengals. So that was the, like, so the format was. They hit, so they did each team at the beginning and the coaches were given their, you know, beginning of the week, like, this is what we're going to do guys, we gotta, you know, take care of this and do that and blah, blah, blah, blah. And so that was cool, but three coaches were not very, they were all the same. Only one coach stood out and it was Mike Tomlin, of course. Mike Tomlin stood out. This was the Mike Tomlin episode. Mike, the Magic Beans Tomlin, his speech was just like, We're here to play Steeler football and we're gonna go out there and fuck people up and this and that like And I was just like, yes, I am on board. Let's go strap some pads on me. Let's go. Let's go. And of course, what they do, they came out and won. They came out and beat the Bengals 44 to 38, but it was a good episode, man. I mean, they focused more on the Steelers Bengals game. So I'm interested to see if the format is going to be like next week. Maybe they'll focus more on like a Ravens game or,

pershin: 30:49

maybe it was because it was like intro divisional right matchup,

Jason: 30:56

right? But it was man, listen to the Joe Burrow talk to us. I hate him, dude

pershin: 31:02

You hate him?

Jason: 31:03

I hate him. He's so annoying.

pershin: 31:06

I actually haven't seen a lot of Like interviews or press conferences. I haven't literally, I have not spent much time like actually listen to him address the media and stuff. He seems a little bit weird with this sort of like, I'm very confident and like I dye my hair white and I do these weird little thing.

Jason: 31:25

And this like girl who found, who called the, the, the police, like, cause this house got, you didn't read this. So his house while he was at the game yesterday, okay. Okay. I got broken into,

pershin: 31:42

but

Jason: 31:43

this girl was like, like arrived and found that they got broken into and called the police. And then, you know, like, who, who are you? And she's like, Oh, I work for Joe burrow. And, um, Smith friend of the pod said, sound looks to me. Cause she's 22 that he's got like an in house hottie made that, you know, they. Hang out.

pershin: 32:10

Oh, it's the mistress.

Jason: 32:12

It's the mistress.

pershin: 32:13

So she wasn't breaking into the house like as an action. Oh,

Jason: 32:17

we, I, we have no idea because nobody has any evidence. Nobody has any evidence, no cameras,

pershin: 32:22

nothing.

Jason: 32:23

So we don't know. It's under investigation. It's under investigation. This happened yesterday. It's happened yesterday. It's still fresh. But it's, we'll see what, we'll see what happens there.

pershin: 32:36

Well, I would just say he seems like a cock a cocky guy like maybe he could be pretty annoying in real life But it really doesn't bother me too much because I mean obviously he goes out there and he plays really well So I just feel like alright well Half of these, half of the dudes in this league, no matter what position they're at, are just like way too cocky. And at least in his case, he's actually got the results, you know what I mean? But I don't know too much about him. When you say like, you don't like him, you're talking about like the speech he was giving to his teammates or something?

Jason: 33:12

No, I just hate the way he acts, his demeanor just, just the sound of his voice. And it's like he's talking about buying a bat a bat mobile like I don't know It's just I don't know. He just doesn't he just doesn't energize me enough to like go play football. I'm, sorry. It's just

pershin: 33:34

He's no tomlin

Jason: 33:36

he's no mike tomlin, that's right. I mean even john harbaugh is better But anyway, I recommend it hard. No, I cannot wait to watch tonight's episode Comes out every tuesday. So check it out Alright, let's talk about teams that are eliminated from the playoffs at this point. Jets, goodbye. Starting with the Jets. And the enigma, Rodgers. Yep. That's all I got to say about that.

pershin: 34:07

Another week another Jets. Like what, what, how, how do they say rips the jaws of victory from the clause of defeat or whatever. oh my gosh.

Jason: 34:20

Also eliminated the New England Patriots, the Cleveland Browns, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tennessee Titans, the Las Vegas Raiders. The New York Giants

pershin: 34:35

were all these teams really still in it until just this week.

Jason: 34:39

No, no, no No, just I'm just going through all of the teams that are oh, I don't know how many of these got eliminated this week

pershin: 34:46

Gotcha

Jason: 34:48

And that's it surprisingly enough The Bears at four nine are still in the hunt The Panthers the only three in 10. Three in 10. Team to still be in the mix. They can still, how is that possible? There's only four. I don't even know. There's four games

pershin: 35:09

left.

Jason: 35:10

I mean, I guess they could get to, I,

pershin: 35:11

I will give them credit though. They've been playing tough lately. They've been 10.

Jason: 35:15

So they, they could win the division because Tampa base, they should have won sitting at seven and six. So if they win, if they win out, that's

pershin: 35:25

right. The Falcons are on a three game skid and that, that division is booty. But good Lord.

Jason: 35:35

Yeah. So if they went out in the other teams lose, they could, they could win the division at seven and 10.

pershin: 35:46

I will say, I will say ever since Bryson came back from his benching, not just he himself, but Even on the defensive side of the ball, the team's just playing much tougher. They almost beat the chiefs. They almost beat the Eagles yesterday. Well,

Jason: 36:03

a

pershin: 36:04

couple of days ago, whatever the hell had happened. And, and you know, these are, these are teams it's actually been, I think six straight weeks in a row that they've covered their Vegas line because they're, they keep Like, like they keep outpacing what, what everyone's expectation of them is. Everyone thinks of them as the same team from the first couple of weeks when you know, Bryce was young, was having some sort of mental breakdown or something. And they're actually a competitive team.

Jason: 36:31

Absolutely. The teams that have clenched their spot, the bills, the chiefs, the Eagles, the Steelers, the lions, the Steelers have not they have not clenched.

pershin: 36:47

Oh, they're not, they could, they could list them. Holy guacamole.

Jason: 36:51

Yeah. Yeah. Clinch. The, they haven't clinched the division or clinch playoff, excuse me. So clinch division, the chiefs have clinched the division, but not a spot in the playoffs yet. The Eagles have clinched the spot in the playoffs and the lions have clinched the spot in the playoffs. And so the bills are the same as the chiefs. They've clinched the division. So basically a spot in the playoffs, but like, you know, they're, Yeah. Still battling things out. Yeah. I don't know why I said not in the vision. I don't know why I said that. Not in the playoffs. I was dumb.

pershin: 37:27

You made it unnecessarily complicated.

Jason: 37:30

Yes, I did.

pershin: 37:32

I got the gist of it though.

Jason: 37:33

Man. It's all the Z's and the E's and the X's and the P's that they got on these, on these things, man.

pershin: 37:40

Oh yeah. Not to mention there's like A's and O's. That's

Jason: 37:44

the thing. Oh my gosh. Oh my God, I hate you. Alright. All right, so in with that, let's talk about the Wild Weekend. That was football. The Chiefs yet again. Get one last second victory. I'm telling you, man. They wrote this up for them to keep it close for every single game and then win it in the last minute.

pershin: 38:18

I'm starting to think maybe they really are that good and they're purposely just playing with their food every single week. You know what I mean? Like every single week. They're

Jason: 38:27

like a cat just playing with a toy.

pershin: 38:28

They're, they're like, man, we won two Super Bowls in a row, like, let's spice it up and just fucking do some

Jason: 38:34

dumb shit. Guys, we don't have to play our hardest every game, come on.

pershin: 38:37

He, he's like, I'm gonna throw at least one interception every week, you think we could still win? I bet we can. I bet, I bet,

Jason: 38:44

I bet Kelsey was like, hey, Mahomes, you think you could throw a pick every game if you try, if you tried? He's like, he's like, but you, it can't be like an obvious pick. You can't just throw it to the other guy. You got, you got to like, you

pershin: 39:00

got to get upset about it. Yeah. You got to get, no, I mean,

Jason: 39:05

he's got to like, he's got to like, try to be like missing, like just miss the target can't just be like, Oh, there's the guy and just throw it right to him. You know what I mean?

pershin: 39:15

I, I, I really just, I cannot explain it. They've now broken the record for the most wins.

Jason: 39:23

Ways to win

pershin: 39:24

the most single possession wins. And the thing is that there's still four games to go. They've got the

Jason: 39:31

record.

pershin: 39:32

They've got 10 wins within seven points. And we're only 14 weeks into the season. I mean, that's just, I mean, I don't know what else to say about that. I literally do not understand it. All I know is they're good. They're good enough. Apparently.

Jason: 39:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, another good team on the other side, the lions defeated the Packers 34 31 on a walk off field goal as well. Because Dan Campbell went for it on fourth down 8, 000 times within that game. And now, because he did that, I no longer care for the lions. They can go kick rocks. And I hope that in the playoffs, Dan Campbell goes for it on a crucial fourth down and they don't get it. And that's the reason they lose.

pershin: 40:31

Well, I kind of hope he does too because the thing is that like He's no longer in line with the analytics Like he literally goes for fourth when the analytics is like no just take the points Just kick the punt just do like I don't think he ever Was in it for the analytics. I think he literally is just like yo Let's let the nuts hang baby. No. Yeah, he

Jason: 40:56

plays it like badasses, baby He plays it like we do mad 4th and 6th, going for it. 4th and 7th, on the other side of the field, going for it. Can't we all kick field goals?

pershin: 41:08

Yeah, I don't think he's, he's, he cares at all what the analytics are. I think he's literally just like, Nah, why would I kick a low T fuckin field goal when I could run it down the middle of your defense, bitch? Yeah. It actually almost did bite them in the ass because there was the one fourth down that they missed on and you guys were able to

Jason: 41:30

create points off of that. But the most annoying part was is the last fourth down that was crucial. Was the one where golf tripped and i'm like, oh, why couldn't we get in the backfield then? Why couldn't we get a sack right there?

pershin: 41:45

I actually thought for a second. I forgot that you know Somebody has to be there to actually touch him. I was like, oh, oh plays over. He just fell down He just hit his knee or whatever and then I realized like oh wait, no, no, no, no No defender has to touch you when you're down like you can't just and I was like man fuck

Jason: 42:03

Yeah in college in college if your knees if you if Your body hits the ground. Right. You're immediately. No one has

pershin: 42:11

to be there to touch you. In the pros. Yeah.

Jason: 42:14

Unless you're kneeling Like if you trip someone has to touch you, but

pershin: 42:19

yeah,

Jason: 42:20

it's all good It's good game though. As

pershin: 42:22

someone who's not a fan of either team and just in it for the entertainment I thought it was a good one.

Jason: 42:28

As I said, Josh Jacobs did not get a hundred yards. He got 66 See, he did get three touchdowns.

pershin: 42:36

Three fucking touchdowns.

Jason: 42:37

Yeah, but they were all like goal line tutties or like, you know, we were already in the red zone kind of, I don't get me wrong. He could have gotten four. But needless to say, Christian Watson, another 100, 100 yard game. I mean, you know, I mean, this was a battle. It was a back and forth. This is hopefully, hopefully the Packers get another chance.

pershin: 43:01

I feel like the, the most under talked about story of the season was one of the most over talked about stories of the off season. And that being Christian Watson's calves. Remember how he was going through so much to figure out going on and there was reports about him going to specialists. And then there was Even more reports about the fact that he had 20 percent more muscle mass and everything.

Jason: 43:32

And we have not talked about his calves.

pershin: 43:35

It actually worked out. The guy stayed mostly healthy the entire season without a hamstring injury. And nobody has mentioned it. I'm like, guys, remember this big story.

Jason: 43:47

Gotta love it. Gotta love it.

pershin: 43:48

It's been a success. Kudos to Christian Watson. Hamstrings, calves, and whatever the fuck else is going on, getting it together. Okay, now, now, if you just would stop all the drops, man.

Jason: 44:02

Bro, if we could catch the ball, man, we would win so many games.

pershin: 44:06

I do think Watson is actually a pretty good receiver. Some of the drops are just really bad, though. Him and Wicks, I think, are, are, are much better than their stats show because of the opportunities they've given up.

Jason: 44:19

Yeah, yep, they sure are. Another crazy stat line. Sam, the man, Darnold, 22 for 28, five touchdowns. He said, Kirk Cousins, you're not going to have a revenge game against this team. He said, man, we moved on from you, you are a piece of trash.

pershin: 44:42

Yeah, turns out it was a Sam Darnold reverse revenge game. Yeah, reverse revenge.

Jason: 44:50

Dude. This is crazy,

pershin: 44:52

man. Like, I mean, the Sam Donald reclamation, why is he so good? I keep expecting him to turn back into a pumpkin and he has his moments, you know, where he throws a bad pick and that, but for the most part, he just keeps going out there and performing well, I just, so here's, here's the question at this point is it's like, all right, they're definitely going to the playoffs. It looks like, right. So.

Jason: 45:20

What

pershin: 45:20

happens if they actually kind of make a run? Do they, do they literally just keep the first round draft pick McCarthy benched and they, they just re sign Sam Darnold?

Jason: 45:32

Yes. Yeah.

pershin: 45:34

I feel like if he, if he gets you to like the conference championship game or something, you kind of have to keep them, don't you? I mean,

Jason: 45:41

re sign him for like another year, give him a one year. All right. All right. So we weren't expecting you to be good. Let's be truthful here. We weren't you weren't expecting to be good. We weren't expecting you to be good He's basically let's sign you for let's sign you for another one year deal. We'll pay you You know eight million dollars nine million dollars Oh, no, they have to

pershin: 46:06

pay him more than that.

Jason: 46:08

Whatever or whatever. I just I wasn't sure 11 12 million dollars Whatever. I don't care.

pershin: 46:12

Well, see here's what i'm thinking is like If I don't know you're not gonna

Jason: 46:16

let me you don't like it. You don't like what you don't like my proposition You

pershin: 46:21

My bad. Go finish. I'm sorry.

Jason: 46:23

You sign him to a one year deal for 12 million. If he proves again that he's viable, then you extend his ass. Then you trade JJ.

pershin: 46:34

Oh, wow. Trade the JJ. Okay.

Jason: 46:36

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, man. Sam Darnold's now your franchise quarterback if he can do it for two years in a row.

pershin: 46:44

Yeah, and actually you, you, you could get something pretty good back for JJ because JJ is on that really team friendly rookie deal Teams would love to have a cheap QB that they actually have confidence in. Sam

Jason: 46:56

Darl is not that old

pershin: 46:58

No, he's not. He's really not. He, he got booted, you know from the Jets So quickly that I think he was only into his third year, right? So yeah Here's Here's why I think that that's less feasible though, is because he's going to be a free agent after this year. My guess is that there's going to be teams interested in signing him. And so for the Vikings, I think that they're going to have to pay him starter money. And so, it's going to be a weird situation where they're going to be like the Falcons, where they're keeping a guy that they invested a bunch of draft capital in, and they've got a guy that they got under contract. So, I don't know. I think that the, the trading McCarthy thing though, actually makes the most sense if they do want to bring him back. Cause that way they're not just sitting on their early first round investment. Interesting to see how it's going to shake out though. That's for sure.

Jason: 47:57

Yeah, we will see. I mean, yeah, I see what you're saying, but I don't know, man, if I'm Sam Darnold, I'm not going to the Raiders. I mean, you better think giants.

pershin: 48:14

You got to think if you're a free agent QB, where do I want to go? He's already at like the top spot, right? He's already at the top landing spot, right? You already know

Jason: 48:22

this works.

pershin: 48:23

Yeah. Why go anywhere else? Like you could play in a Kevin O'Connell scheme. You could do a Matt Jefferson. If he does that, he can

Jason: 48:31

Matt Flynn himself. If you go somewhere else and then you're not good. Now you're done. You're not good. You're never, you're probably only going to be a backup for sure. This time.

pershin: 48:43

Right.

Jason: 48:44

Like, no, like, so why not stay there, take whatever, get as close to starter money as you can, or, or take whatever and stay there. That's what I would do. I'd rather throw the ball to Justin Jefferson than.

pershin: 49:01

Yeah.

Jason: 49:02

Jordan Atkinson, TJ

pershin: 49:04

Atkinson, and you know, Kevin O'Connell is always going to have a pretty decent scheme for you to play it.

Jason: 49:10

You know, so it's anyway, moving on to another MVP candidate type game, despite losing Josh Allen, putting up the record for most fantasy court points by quarterback with like 51, something. I don't know. He had six touchdowns, three passing, and three rushing.

pershin: 49:39

Yes. Not only did he break the fantasy football record, he also is just the first human ever to have three rushing touchdowns plus three passing touchdowns. That's just never happened. That's wild. That is wild. And to think that he lost. To think that he didn't even win the game. To the Rams. Where did he get this historic record? You know, I just feel like this might be the first time that a quarterback has ever lost the game and yet Upped his chances of being mvp, right?

Jason: 50:12

Yeah Oh, I I am I am saying now without a shadow of a doubt The race is between josh allen saquon barker. That's it without a

pershin: 50:24

shadow of a doubt You don't even think like lamar's in the question anymore. He's not no

Jason: 50:29

longer in consideration Lamar has lost his chances You he hasn't, he hasn't played well in the last couple of weeks, man.

pershin: 50:38

I do think Josh Allen is the front runner. I think he should be the front runner. I think it, it, when you talk about his bugaboos, it's always been about putting the ball in harm's way. He's managed to really He's right He's Damn, we're gonna have to cut out all of me. Just laughing. Hey, he has managed to curb a lot of his bugaboo without Like having it without having to sacrifice the big place Like I mean he's having historically big days and this is this is With a banged up Amari Cooper, no Keon Coleman, of course, Stefan Diggs, Skip Town this past offseason. He's had, he has probably the, the, the worst sort of cast of characters around him. Than he's had in several years and yet he is just taking the team on his back and carrying them to I think the second best You know Record in the AFC right now. I mean,

Jason: 51:42

yeah,

pershin: 51:43

he really should be in my mind The the frontrunner for MVP and that's not a knock on Saquon. Obviously Saquon's having a hell of a season

Jason: 51:52

Sounds like a knock on Saquon. Fuck

pershin: 51:55

Saquon!

Jason: 51:58

Saquon is

pershin: 51:58

frustrating because I've been a, I've been a Saquon fan and you know this because you've known me, obviously. I've been a Saquon fan his whole fucking career and he keeps disappointing me year after year. I finally am like, you know what? Saquon, too many injuries, too old. I'm out. I'm finally out on Saquon and he's just been on the Fuck You Persian tour this entire year. The Revenge

Jason: 52:22

Tour, man.

pershin: 52:24

I'm telling you, man. It's a hell of a motivator. You see what Josh, what Jerry Judy did to me? Now Saquon. These people hate me.

Jason: 52:33

Oh, man. Is there any other thing from, from the past weekend that you wanted to let the populace know about?

pershin: 52:44

I mean, I did kind of want to pour one out for my boy, Jonathan Brooks. My man is still getting back into the offense and, and tears the same exact ACLU tour less than a year ago. That's rough, tough rollout from a boy. Look, man, I don't know when you, when you, when you tear the same exact. Acl and twice and less than a year Probably a really big red flag but hoping and wishing the best things for him in the future Probably looking at like a 2026 return to the nfl Crossing my fingers that eventually he could be that guy. We all were hoping for him to be

Jason: 53:24

Yeah, and then the only thing that I wanted to bank on at the end of this was that the bears had a total of Four yards in the first half of their game this past weekend Oh,

pershin: 53:39

man. They made the 49ers look like the best team I've ever seen in my life. I cannot believe how bad of an ass kicking the 49ers were putting on the Bears. It was

Jason: 53:51

nothing like beating the 49ers asses and then watching them come and beat the Bears asses. Like, that's like best of both worlds right there.

pershin: 54:00

49ers still banged up, by the way. Like, the Bears, man. Yikes. Yikes, man.

Jason: 54:08

Yep, well, that's all we got for you this week. As always, you can hit us up on the email at pondponypodcast22 at gmail. com or on threads and Instagram at pondponypodcast. See ya on the Minnesota. Later.