Pine Pony Podcast

Seven Weeks In: Contenders Rising, Pretenders Exposed

• jason strang • Season 3 • Episode 21

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Welcome to another edition of the Pine Pony Podcast! In this episode, we discuss the latest happenings in the world of sports, including MLB, MLS, and NFL highlights. We kick things off with the MLB playoffs and discuss how the Brewers were swept by the Dodgers, and the exciting Blue Jays vs. Dodgers matchup. The conversation then shifts to the MLS, where we cover Charlotte's win over Philly and provide a full breakdown of upcoming playoff matches. We also delve into NBA controversies and highlight a crucial referee mistake in a game between Kevin Durant's team and OKC. For college football, we analyze significant coach firings, specifically focusing on James Franklin and Mike Norvell. The NFL segment includes a detailed review of the Packers vs. Cardinals game, insight into the Bengals vs. Steelers matchup, and a wild Broncos vs. Giants fourth-quarter shootout. Additionally, we explore the Eagles' close win over the Vikings and the Buccaneers' disappointing performance against the Lions. To wrap things up, we introduce a fun discussion on the weirdest jerseys we've seen in the NFL, sparked by the Chargers' new all-gold uniform. Don't miss out!

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Jason:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of the Pond Pro Podcast. As always got me the OG hanging out with the fantasy uncle person. What's happening?

Pershin:

Howdy, howdy. Glad to be back for another installment talking ball and shooting the shit with the original strengths then.

Jason:

That's right. That's right, man. What a good week we had. What a good week. So we'll talk about that week. N-B-A-M-L-B, ncaa, M-L-S-N-F-L, all the sports in action right now. Yeah, so let's start the show. All right, so hitting off the MLB, my new found team, the brewers ended up losing to the Dodgers. They got swept, man, they got they ass us with, I mean, shhe and Potty probably had one of the best games that anyone could ever see in their lives, like home runs and strikeouts. It's,

Pershin:

yeah,

Jason:

dude is a cheat code.

Pershin:

I, I am happy for Tani flexing his muscle, doing his thing, but it is frustrating. We already talked about this last time, but it's like, I don't think the brewers could ever afford to sign and free agency somebody like Tani. There's just no way. No, they're gonna get outbid every time. And so it's just, it just feels so

Jason:

boo. It just feels so Boo. Baseball is a salary cap. Just saying it with no luxury tax, hard salary, cap, NFL style. And then on the other side, Seattle lost to Toronto four to three. Oh man, that was a good ass game. That was a good ass game. So we got the Blue Jays versus the Dodgers starting Friday, October 24th. Game one go Blue Jays for the, under the,

Pershin:

the Dodgers are the favorites, I assume, right? Yeah, yeah. Well then I'm going Blue Jays man. Let's see the upset.

Jason:

Yeah, that's right. We wanna see, I'm rooting for teams that don't pay to pay like over the tax to win. Like,

Pershin:

yeah,

Jason:

right. Like, dude, I, I saw like a pay scale thing. Where it had like every team's income and how much they spend on their roster. I mean, the Dodgers rake in like$800 million. So it's like the money they're spending on their roster is like half of that. It's like, it's nothing. Even though they have like one of like the second highest paid roster in the league,

Pershin:

it ain't right.

Jason:

They pay like, dude, they pay like hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury tax in like roster tax just to have that roster.

Pershin:

Yeah, it's

Jason:

Like I would love to see the math on how like paying like, because LA's in LA's market, right. You know what I mean? It's millions of people there, so there's always a sold out game. Right. How does spending$500 million a year translate into making money for the owner? You know what I mean? Like I, I, I would love to see like, the books on that. That would be interesting because it's like, ultimately you'd be like, I wanna spend less and make, you know, more that way. But it's like they're spending significant amount of money on their roster. Yeah. Like, is it worth it? I guess it has to be. Right. Or if it wouldn't do it,

Pershin:

it's a good question. Like, like how much does winning influence the merch sales? I know it does, but I'm not sure how much, you know what I mean?

Jason:

Like the, the perfect caveat to that would be the Cowboys like. It's like they, they don't translate to Super Bowls at all, but yet they're one of the highest profiting teams in the league. Like most MER sales. Yeah, all of that jazz. Yeah. So it's just, it's crazy. Anyway, so yeah, that's the M-L-B-M-L-S update. Hey man, Charlotte beat the best team in the league, Philly two to zero, but Zaha got a red card in the second half, so he'll be out game one for the playoffs. And what did he man, the team, the teams were just battling all night and just, he got tripped up a lot and it ended up pushing a guy.'cause his frustration of being fouled, like every time he touched the ball came out. But anyway, I mean, MLS doesn't do one and done. So it's a best of three series anyway, so. But the bracket looks like you got the playing game of Chicago, Orlando on the east side, and they'll play Philly. And then that happens on the 22nd and the 26th. And then on the 28th starts the Charlotte New York fc c New NYC FC series, and then you got Miami versus Nashville and Cincinnati versus Columbus. A little Ohio series there at the bottom. Should be pretty interesting to watch that because it, I mean, it should start what snowing there. Right. It's always interesting watching soccer and snow.

Pershin:

Yeah. I mean, if, if it's an outdoor thing, I'm sure some places probably have indoor things, right?

Jason:

No, none of none of them do.

Pershin:

Oh, wow.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Like even NYC ffc, they play, they play at the Yankee Stadium.

Pershin:

Cool.

Jason:

Yeah, which is bogus because it's a fucking smaller field. It's narrower. I hate that field. And then on the west, west side, west side you got the Portland Timbers versus Rial Salt Lake for the playing game. And now the winner of that will play the new team San Diego. And then you got Minnesota versus Seattle and LAFC versus Austin a TX and then you got a Vancouver versus Dallas.

Pershin:

It just blows my mind that there's a Royal Salt Lake. Like what? Isn't this supposed to be a Spanish thing?

Jason:

Dude, I love that team, babe.

Pershin:

Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.

Jason:

Like, I mean, I love Charlotte fcs team name, but like. Like real Salt Lake. Like it's better than just like, you know what Kansas City's is sporting Kansas City Sporting kc. Like, that's just lame.

Pershin:

You might as well be the Washington football team, bro. Right.

Jason:

So I mean you do have like what which team is the, the quakes? That's the team. It's like those teams are okay. Like most teams are like FC Dallas or, or you know, whatever the city is FC or sc.

Pershin:

I just think of like Salt Lake City and like a bunch of white dude Mormons or something. It's like, I hope the Hispanics are coming out to support Ray.

Jason:

I do like Portland's team name is the Timbers. I like that. You know, Houston Dynamo, that's weak. Colorado Rapids. I'm okay with that. Right? Okay.

Pershin:

Yeah, I mean,

Jason:

it could be worse. Chicago Fire, that's stupid. The New England Revolution,

Pershin:

I mean, it's timely, I guess.

Jason:

Yeah. I also really like Vancouver White Caps and Seattle Sounders. Those are, those are great names.

Pershin:

I know I'm gonna sound so ridiculous right now'cause of my ignorance, but what is a white cap? I don't even know what a white cap references. Mountain mountaintop. Oh, okay.

Jason:

Okay. Vancouver White caps.

Pershin:

Yeah, you got, you gotta edit

Jason:

that for me. No mountains.

Pershin:

Yeah. You got No, I'm leaving all of these conditions.

Jason:

But anyway, you know, there it is. You know, if you want to join in on the Bracket Challenge, just hit up the MLS website and you know. Lock in your picks now, as it says on the website. I might do that. I might do that and see what happens. I'm taking Charlotte all the way though. Alright, so NBA started tonight and Michael Jordan made his debut on television and it was kinda lackluster. I mean, they just like played an interview

Pershin:

Now he

Jason:

of him.

Pershin:

Oh, okay, okay. I was gonna say now he's on the broadcast or he just made an I see what you're saying now. They no, he, they just featured, they just featured an interview with someone interviewing him.

Jason:

No, no, no, no. He is on like NBA on NBC as like. A special commentator. So,

Pershin:

so he's like one of the analysts that talks before the game or at half time or, well, that's what we were,

Jason:

that's kind of what we were, yes. In a, in a, in the short. Yes. But we were hoping that like, we would get some insight in, in so far he was featured for three minutes and 20 seconds. And it was an interview about how he was nervous to shoot a free throw like x amount of years ago because he hadn't played and, and how much he misses the game and that he's on TV now to pay it forward. I'm like, okay, pay it forward. But we all, we all want the analysis. Yeah.'cause he is like, I owe it to the game of basketball to like.

Pershin:

Okay. Well if that's true, then you need to, then you need to help. Help us understand. It provides some insight, man. What is this?

Jason:

Yeah, dude. I don't know, man. It's the NBA for you though. And speaking of that, I mean the NBA first, first, first night, and we already have controversy with the referees. This game went into double overtime. Kevin Durant, he calls the timeout. Well, they don't have any timeouts. That's supposed to be a technical foul. And because the referee did not notice that they had no timeouts. Oh no, the ref fucked it up too. It went into the second overtime instead of Oh, giving the other team a technical free throw. Oh

Pershin:

no. So reality is that the other team should one by one. That's such a big fuck

Jason:

up. That is such a bad fuck up. Oh yeah. It's just like, I mean, like, come on man. Isn't there

Pershin:

several of them out there at all times though? Like, one of them should have been like all N Dog. They don't have any,

Jason:

there's several of them. There's, you know, other people watching the game. There's, you know, I mean, like, that's

Pershin:

just wild that they, and it goes into the next overtime without any of the refs

Jason:

catching that I will say, I will say that OKC did win the game though. So, you know, Kevin Durant still lost, so technically he, no, no harm, no

Pershin:

foul, right? Yeah. No harm. No

Jason:

foul. All is well. That ends well, if you will.

Pershin:

Yeah, that, that, that might fly on the Pine POed podcast, but that's not gonna be flying on the internet. You know, people are upset about that.

Jason:

Yeah, for sure. For sure. That is, that is a bad,

Pershin:

that is a bad blender for the fact that none of them chimed in to be like, oh, no, no, no, no. They, they don't have any of my friend, like every last one of them that's working that game has egg on their face, bro. Yeah. Clown clown makeup plus an egg, just it's bad. Everything.

Jason:

Makeup plus an egg. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So you know, we'll see. Anyway, the NBA started off with the rockets losing to the thunder. 1 24, 1 25. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. And now we've got the warriors versus the Lakers Warriors are currently up by two 50 to 48. So there's your NBA check in.

Pershin:

Alright.

Jason:

Headed to the college football world. I forgot to talk about some firings that happened. I believe James Franklin Penn State fired. They finally had enough of, of him winning

Pershin:

that. That was after we recorded last time though,

Jason:

wasn't it? Was it okay? I wasn't sure. I forgot. I think, yeah, so

Pershin:

I, I've heard him just in the past week or so on the like on the new on the radio and stuff, people talking about it. Yeah, he got

Jason:

fired. It's kinda of wild because it took him a while to get this team to where they are now and you know, a lot of people would say he probably deserved to be fired'cause he couldn't win the big games. But if you really think about in this NIL era that he was, he probably really didn't get what he wanted till recently. So what I am saying is, this brings up an interesting thing because he's, he's gonna be paid next year. Like even if he doesn't coach anywhere, if I'm him, I say to another team, Hey, pay me, like, bring me on, pay me like a million bucks for like the first three seasons and take all that money that you would've paid me and dump it into NIL.

Pershin:

Oh, there's a good idea.'cause he's already collecting

Jason:

16 million.

Pershin:

So the, the contract that he's on basically is, is gonna have offset language. Right. Where if he, if he makes money from another team and he makes less than what the contract is, they make up the difference. Right.

Jason:

Well, I mean, he is so, he got, he got, they had the buyout, his contract, Penn State. So,

Pershin:

oh, so he, he could get this money plus another contract on top of it.

Jason:

Yeah. He's already gonna get like, whatever the buyout is, 50 million,$60 million. That's wild. So realistically he doesn't need a paycheck for like the next three seasons. So, so why not tell, tell a team, Hey, just spend that money on the players. Let's it, the title. That's not usually

Pershin:

how these guys are seeing it though. See, I, I think that makes a lot of sense for some of these guys that get fired, they do have the offset, meaning if they get a big enough contract, the, the former contract doesn't have to pay them. But Right.

Jason:

Then that may be the case.

Pershin:

But I, I never really thought of what you just said. If I was someone who's getting an offset. The following year, I would be like, yo, pay me$1, I'll let my former team pay the rest of my salary. Right. But in order for me to come here on that$1, you, you have to promise a, a jump of 10 million bucks next year, whatever it is, what, whatever it is.

Jason:

Right. Whatever you would've paid me for. And that's why I say like three seasons, like, Hey, give me three seasons.

Pershin:

Mm-hmm.

Jason:

You don't have to pay me pretty much anything. Don't put all that money that you would've paid me$50 million into paying players.

Pershin:

And we're gonna stack the fucking roster. Yeah. And,

Jason:

and we'll stack the roster. And then in three years if, if things aren't looking good, then you can either, A, get rid of me for nothing, or B, then you pay me. Right. And then you'll at least have. Because within your betting within that three years that you will have been able to win enough to get boosters and everything else to kind of offset that NIL money later down the road.

Pershin:

Yeah. And the way that the NCAA has like rewards for how you perform and stuff, it's right, there's plenty of money to be made if you can stack the roster and actually cash in on it, like actually win, you know, get to the playoffs and win. There's, there's like, I can't remember what it is, but it is large amounts of monies that the school's get. So, listen, I'll even

Jason:

go as far as this, if the, if Clemson doesn't like his current situation and would want to go out and get a different coach for me. And Smith friend of the pod probably disagrees wholeheartedly. For me, this would be my only out, I would go for James Franklin because for one reason he we. Has he been proven to win the big games when it matters? No, not really. Has he been able to get to the big games though every time? For the most part. I mean, to me he's still viable to make the playoffs where Dabo right now, unless he makes big changes in the off season, is on the downward trajectory, whereas at least James Franklin is on that. Even keel could go up. Yeah. Has potential. He hasn't won a national title yet.

Pershin:

And the, the thing that I like is, correct me if I'm wrong here, but wasn't it that they were in bad shape and he showed up and he improved the situation?

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it took him like 10 seasons, but yeah. Yeah. He's, and this was his worst year yet, which is why he got fired.

Pershin:

Right.

Jason:

But nonetheless, so he, he got fired Trent Dilfer, he also got fired and surprised. Didn't see that coming after him. Yell, berating his players on the sidelines. And then Mike Norvell of Florida State, he, there was some rumors going around that he could be fired. But Florida State said, no, no, no. We're holding on to him at least for the season,

Pershin:

for now. Yeah. We'll see what happens at the end of the season though. Yeah.

Jason:

Basically the, at the end of the year, they're getting rid of Mike Norvell and so the same thing goes for him that James Franklin got this big payout. You could go somewhere else, take less money and spend it all on players and win. So we'll see. It'll be interesting to see if, if coaches do that. And then Clemson season is in my books officially over, we lost the SMU this past weekend. And funny enough, it wasn't the quarterback that was the bad part. It was the defense. The defense was awful. So club, so

Pershin:

Club Nick was good or he was

Jason:

okay, or Club Nick was out. He was because, so the game prior, Clemson decided to play Club Nick, when. The game was already over and we had pretty much won and he got injured.

Pershin:

Oh, I didn't realize he was out. Geez. Yeah.

Jason:

And so we had the backup zenia in who's supposed to take over for club next year. And I don't know much about this kid. But he did okay. I mean, he wasn't like great, but he did put us in a position to win the game. The problem was the defense could not make a stop.

Pershin:

How serious is the K Clubnick injury?

Jason:

I don't, you know, I don't know. I think it's, I I don't think it's that serious. I think he'll be play next game.

Pershin:

Oh, okay. That's good. Yeah, this sucks. That's bad. I mean, I'm assuming that there really is just no chance of getting into that playoff.

Jason:

Well, no, we lost, we needed to win out and we just lost our third a c, C title a c, C game, which had we won this game, we would have been in a better spot. But it's, I mean, you need chaos. And then speaking of chaos, we had chaos again this week on Friday. Louisville upset number two, ranked Miami 24 21. Unranked. Louisville though unreal. Unreal. As well as Unranked Minnesota upset number 25, Nebraska. I mean if you want to call that an upset, I mean it's like the bottom ranked team, the last ranked team, like they're one spot from being unranked. And then UGA versus Ole Miss was a dual UGA ended up dominating the fourth quarter scoring 17 to nothing. 43, 35. I mean, that's typical for a Lane Kiffin coach, ole miss team to just suck in the fourth and then Alabama, beat Tennessee. Number six, Alabama beat up on Tennessee, Alabama seems to be doing all right, man. You know, new coach, no, no problem. Arizona State beat number unranked, Arizona State beat number seven, Texas Tech. Just a lot of top 10 teams losing. Then we had a SEC Battle, LSU versus Vanderbilt. Vandy, who I believe I agree with, Smith, is probably the second best team in the SEC. I. Yeah. And then Oklahoma beat South Carolina. So we have a rule in South Carolina that if Clemson is playing bad, South Carolina has to play worse. That's just the way it's, so you know

Pershin:

it and you feel like this is going according to plan right now.

Jason:

Hey, south Carolina's three and four, there's one in four in the SEC. This is

Pershin:

oh one in four in the SEC. Yikes.

Jason:

Dude, if you were a South Carolina fan, like this has gotta be super disappointing because. The trajectory has been up, up, up. Like every year they've been key. Been competing in tougher games. Tougher games last year, like most of the fan base probably felt like they, they were a fringe playoff team and, and they probably were. And then the comeback with large, in part same quarterback, you know, wide receivers, X, Y, Z, to come back the same way. Clemson, the same as Clemson. Like you have all these people coming back, you have these high hooks and then both of them just.

Pershin:

I remember on, on our boy Bobby Orton's fan talk. I remember the off season there was at least a couple different people that were making mention of the fact that both of the South Carolina teams are coming back mostly intact. And so the theoretically both teams would be getting better together. Yeah, and we've, we've seen something like the opposite somehow, and so very confusing why it has shooken out the way it has, but

Jason:

it is what it is, man. What

Pershin:

can you do?

Jason:

Yeah. And then, so next week, couple games looking at Ole Miss versus Oklahoma, Missouri versus Vanderbilt and Texas a and m versus LSU. I'm interested in that game just because if LSU loses this game, like the Brian Tip Kelly era. Has not, this has not been good. And yes, his name is just Brian Kelly, but I like to add to, yeah, to Kelly.

Pershin:

This is like the Daniel Mack.

Jason:

Yes. Daniel Brian Mack Jones. Alright. And then, so let's, let's get into the NFL. So on the pot, I wanted to get your thoughts. I did accept a fantasy trade this, this evening. I traded away to Mar Chase and Brie Hall, and I picked up Saquon Barkley, Jordan, Mason, Jordan, Addison, and I four and three. The other team was four and three. We both texted after the trade was done and kind of confirmed that we're, we're both, there's a lot of what ifs in this trade. You know, we're both kind of banking on certain things happening here. Yeah. So what are your thoughts on that?

Pershin:

I think that this is a very sort of even trade, I think it's a, it is a very specific sort of thing where it's like case by case in a vacuum. I think it's pretty, even most of the time when things are even, I just basically err on whichever side has the better player. I think Jamar Chase is the, the best player in this. Deal. But given that it's not just in a vacuum, I was able to see your roster. This is a redraft league and I do think that this will help your roster because you have pieces that are. Big time question marks as far as your debt goes. Guys like Jacoby Myers, even when he does get back,'cause he gonna be playing through injury and you could just really use, it could be

Jason:

easy to trade too.

Pershin:

You can use more useful pieces for your buys and injuries and stuff. And so being able to split two pieces into four pieces and all four of those pieces being guys, you could slide into a starting lineup comfortably. I think that's good. I think that helps you and I think that makes it worth it to give up Jamar Chase. Now I know some people are thinking like, oh, Jamar Chase is really, he's not elite anymore because of the change in quarterback. I, I don't buy that. I think he probably is, and I don't think I agree. I don't think that Flaco iss going to be as. Efficient as Joe Burrow, but I do think he's going to hyper focus on Jamar Chase and he's just gonna give him a gazillion targets to the point where Jamar Chase is, which he already

Jason:

has.

Pershin:

Right, right. And then, and after the game too he was asked, do you know all the plays? And he was like, I know every single Jamar Chase route. So I mean, that kind of tells you where his head's at. He's like, I, I know I need to get this guy the ball and hopefully he'll just make plays for us and he will make plays, you know? No doubt. At any rate I think that. You get a, an obvious upgrade from Brie Hall to Saquon Barkley, and it basically makes up for the difference between Crystal Lave, who I think is a stud, a legit stud versus Jamar chase. And then you get the two depth pieces thrown in there. Again, you could comfortably use Jordan Addison or Jordan Mason in the flex if you need to. Or if you're just having to too, too many injuries. You're dealing with bi weeks or whatever. I do think probably for both sides, and I don't know what his roster looks like, but probably for both sides, it just makes sense. So I think that, I think that you did make the right call here. It's a very close sort of value in my eyes, but you know, anytime it's that close, just I think that, you know, when deals are really close. Go with what you want. Go with what your heart says. Go with what, whichever one you think is more fun. You know, so

Jason:

his roster consists of after the trade, Josh Allen Lin, Sean Jenkins, Brie Hall, Drake, London. He K, Metcalf, Jamar, chase, Jake, Ferguson, Roma, Dunay, Eagles, Michael Badley, Trayvon Henderson, Drake, may Tyler, Agel, Algire, Jalen Coker, Theo Johnson, and Bri. Strange.

Pershin:

Okay. So yeah, I think he's got enough to where he, like, he could afford to give up the pieces he gave up. And so this is basically what I had suspected is that the, the splitting, the two under four makes more sense to you than it would for him. And getting rid of the four and, and getting the best piece in the deal makes sense for him. So yeah, I see it. I think that this is just one of those deals that's just mutually beneficial and it's not lopsided in value in a way that makes you feel concerned or whatever. I think that this is exactly the kind of deals that people should be pulling off all the time. Both parties feel like it's gonna be better for their team. The more deals you do like that, not only the more people that are happy to make deals with you, but also the better your team's getting. So,

Jason:

yeah. Yeah, we'll see. I, I mean, that's the only league that I have a chance at winning, so I'm hoping I made the right call. We shall see. Nonetheless. Let's, let's get into some more of the NFL. We'll make a quick stop on the Chiefs'cause they look damn good with a few rice back in the lineup, man. They look, they look the, I mean, I know the Raiders suck, but it's been, this is the best they looked.

Pershin:

Yeah, it's been a solid muck now that I feel like the Chiefs have just been on top of their shit. And I think you could tell too, like when you look at the body language from Mahomes, like he really has the swagger back. And I think, you know, like he, he's feeling healthy and he's feeling confident and I think, I think he just knows, like, oh, I'm, I'm on top of my shit right now. We're hitting our stride. I get my favorite repin Rashi Rice back. I think everyone's just really happy in that offense right now. And you know, barring injury, I think that they're gonna roll, you know, I think they're gonna do really well. I think oh,

Jason:

killing me. Yeah. And then dude, I, I gotta say, man, I think the Justin Fields experiment in the NFL. This, it needs to be over. I don't think this is one of those guys that is like, you know, a year or two from now and a different team that he's like, you know, Daniel Jones, Daniel McBrien Jones style, or

Pershin:

Right. Sam. Darn. Yeah,

Jason:

Sam Darn. Like, I just, I don't think it's gonna happen for him, man. And I, I, I don't even think he's a viable backup in my opinion. Yeah.

Pershin:

It's like,

Jason:

I just think full stop out of the NFL.

Pershin:

Yeah, it sucks because he's a guy that I've been rooting for for so long. It is legitimately fun to watch him play when he's making plays daily. He, he really, really just cannot improve and far as like the processing goes and like just throwing the ball away if you have to throw it away, getting it out quickly. He does this thing where he, he. Okay, there's a guy open, but he feels like, oh, maybe there's gonna be a better play down the field. And so he doesn't take his first read. Right. And he tries to look downfield and if there's no play, he either takes off or he just holds it too long, gets a sack, or he tries to throw it away and ends up getting intercepted. I mean, just the, the processing and decision making just has basically shown no improvement since he came out as a rookie with the same exact kind of mistakes. Just holding onto the ball. Holding onto the ball, not throwing with anticipation.

Jason:

I'm pretty sure he had nine completions in the game and he had nine sacks. Yeah. Against the Broncos. Pretty tough. Yeah, that's, yeah. That's pretty tough. That's,

Pershin:

yeah.

Jason:

That's rough. You're bad. You're bad. And then you look at the team and it's like, man, this is a pretty similar constructive roster to Aaron Rogers and it's. I mean, I'm not expecting him to be as good as Rogers was, but it's like, you know, he's not gonna throw MVP numbers out there, but it's like the, like, you made this team awful. Like you made Brie Hall suck.

Pershin:

Yeah.

Jason:

Like, that's how bad he is.

Pershin:

It, and you know, the crazy thing is, is like the offensive line has actually been performing better than expected. And oftentimes he's actually getting several seconds to just survey the field. And he's still just holding the ball till he gets pressured. It's like

Jason:

he can't, he can't read it.

Pershin:

It's not good.

Jason:

And then speaking of other things, not good dolphins. There. You gotta make some changes, man. Two is, two is done. Another guy that I feel

Pershin:

like we might need to just turn the page on, man. I just, I think, I honestly believe that he is so what's the word? He, he is so focused and stressed out. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He's so focused and stressed out about making sure that he doesn't get another concussion, that it's really affecting his ability to play the position. Like there was a play where safety from, from deep in the defensive formation blitzes. Right. And it's just a straight line blitz where he sees him coming from like three seconds away and he basically just pauses and he just looks at him and he's just, he just, he just freezes. And then finally he throws the ball away and he, you know, throws it kind of towards one of his receivers. But the whole time he's got two different receivers that are open on the play, and his, his eyes don't move off of that guy. That's, that's blitzing. As soon as he realized, oh, the safety's blitzing, I, he probably thought to himself, how can I avoid a concussion? Like, how can I make sure I don't get hit by that guy? You know what I mean? I mean, I'm not sure what's going through his head, but I just feel like every single year it's just more of this sort of like, holding onto the ball, not throwing with anticipation as quickly and, and just, it, it honestly seems like if the first read's not there, something bad's gonna happen on that play. Yeah. Yeah. And he's done a good job of avoiding you know, another major head injury. But the thing is like, he's also done a bad job of being, you

Jason:

know, good. I'll say this, I think, I mean he threw a terrible pick in the, in his own red zone, if you will. And how the Browns didn't score pick six on that is mind blowing to me. But I think if anything, if he wants a career in the NFL, I think he needs to change a change of scenery. And I think he needs to get behind a team where. They value the offensive line because the Dolphins do not, the dolphins are, I, I no longer trust Mike McDaniels.

Pershin:

It, it has been a even worse than it was last year. Last year was a problem. Yeah,

Jason:

yeah, yeah, exactly. And so like, he needs to play somewhere where they're gonna be able to protect him so that he does not have to worry about like, oh, am I gonna get a concussion because I'm running away from the defender every five seconds or whatever. So yeah,

Pershin:

I mean, he's, he's, he's playing like trash this year. There's no way around it. Even when you dolphins that figured out, even when you just look at the plays where he's not under pressure. Even when he's got time, he's just, I mean, he's bad. He's just bad. Best player on the

Jason:

team is anything. For sure.

Pershin:

No doubt.

Jason:

And then before we get into the games. I have a, and I previewed this in text message that I had something, a theory that I was gonna, that I was gonna wait until the pod to talk about. So here it is. I have a Packer's Super Bowl theory. All right.

Pershin:

How, how does it go down? And

Jason:

I have, I have the opponent as well. Are you ready?

Pershin:

The Denver Broncos baby?

Jason:

No, not the Broncos. So Fav and Rogers both won a Super Bowl when they were 27 years old.

Pershin:

Okay.

Jason:

Jordan Love is Jordan left 27 now seven years old this year.

Pershin:

Oh, she hit the curse of 27

Jason:

Rogers plays on the Steelers. It is gonna be Aaron Rogers versus Jordan. Love for the Super Bowl, and love is gonna win it because he's 27. He's 27, he's playing against the Steelers. Aaron Rogers is

Pershin:

going to get back there because now he's 27 times two. Tell me, tell me

Jason:

how the NFL doesn't write a better script than that because listen to this. They've mentioned it quite a few times on, on broadcast, on like Sunday night football or Monday night football. Yeah. Actually,

Pershin:

I think one of the what is that NBC that does the Sunday night broadcast? I, I'm pretty sure on one of the Sunday night broadcast this was not a Packers or Steelers game, and the guy was, he I'm not even sure how Jordan Love came up, but he was like, oh, you know, he's 27. It's his turn now. And they're like, oh yeah, the, the Fav Rogers thing, right? Yeah. He is, he, he's followed in the footsteps in many ways already. And so if the 27th thing happens, I mean, that, that would be pretty cool. And I'm sure as, as skeptical as I am, I, I would write it off as like a coincidence, but man, you know, a lot of people are gonna be like, oh, rigged, rigged. Or, or a lot of people are gonna be like, oh, this is just. This is just how it goes for now on Packers. Quarterbacks are gonna do this and 27

Jason:

years old. They, the power is really, yeah.

Pershin:

They're either gonna believe in that or they're gonna believe in the conspiracy or either way. I think it would actually be pretty cool. It would be a lot to talk about, that's for sure.

Jason:

Oh my gosh, I get that would be wild. Speaking of, let's talk about the packers versus Cardinals. Cardinals lose their fifth straight game since having the Charlie Kirk Memorial. You know, take with that what you speaking will. Speaking of real

Pershin:

curses, speaking of real pH,

Jason:

maybe don't hold a memorial from somebody who's not even from your fucking state. Assholes. How about that? How about leave it to Illinois to hold that memorial. You dumb asses. Yeah. And also crazy enough, it's their seventh one score loss or seventh one score game. One. Score game.

Pershin:

What's crazy is they're, they're minus one point in point differential, but yet they're two and five.

Jason:

Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. That's gotta be, they are the best two and five team that I've ever seen.

Pershin:

Yeah. I, I mean, by point, by point differential. They're one of the very few that's pulled that off. So

Jason:

listen to this though, man. Trade McBride helped me scrape out my second win in Dynasty this season. Man, I,

Pershin:

I tell

Jason:

you, and I almost traded them to you. Back to you.

Pershin:

I, I, I know, I know. That's what, that's what's frustrating is it's like, oh man, I almost had it. I almost had it. The, the, the crazy thing is it's, it's like I was thinking without Kyler Murray, maybe Jacoby Brit has eyes for anyone other, right? Because Kyler Murray's first read. Second read, third read seems to be Trey McBride. Well, it turns out any quarterback just loves Trey McBride. That's how good he is. Yeah. So it's great dude. It turns out the only one who loves Trey McBride more than Kyler Murray is actually Jacoby percent. He's got three touchdowns and two Jacobi ETT games. He has seven touchdowns in all the other 56 NFL games he has. That's, that's just, oh my

Jason:

gosh, that's awesome. He definitely

Pershin:

has a preference on which quarterback starts next week.

Jason:

This was an interesting game because the Packers didn't lead until the final two minutes of the game. And the defense like this is what's weird about the Packers is so the defense. You know, you could argue that they played lights out. Micah Parsons had several facts in this game. Mike Parsons, he was absolute animal,

Pershin:

a down in, down, out pressure machine. I was like, wow. I, I went back and saw the cutup of his plays because someone was saying like, oh, this is, this might actually be the best game he's ever had. And I'm like, no way.'cause he's had some classic games and then it really was every other play. He was forcing him to throw it quicker than he wanted to. Or just actually getting a sack some of the time. Obviously it was it was really good. It, you know, he was probably the most impressive player on the field. But I will say, given how much pressure he was dealing with Jacobi Burett played a damn good game. I was shocked. A guy who's been basically a career

Jason:

on third.

Pershin:

A guy who's been a career backup, you know, you don't, you don't expect him to play this well when the opposing defense is clearly, you know, bringing it to him. So I, I just wanted to give him his flowers real quick. Go ahead.

Jason:

Well, the defense could, the thing about the Packers defense is they went, the Cardinals were seven per 14 on third down conversion. So that was a, that's a 50% conversion rate. And a few of those were third and 14. Third and 10. Like they weren't third and short. They were third. And dogs. Yeah.

Pershin:

Yeah.

Jason:

And it's like somehow Jacobi Brite is finding a way. So it's like Michael Parsons had a monster game, but he did most of that work on first and second down. Oh yeah. Third down. Everybody was in existent. And then, I mean,

Pershin:

it's almost like they, they were. It, it felt like it, it felt almost like when the Packers got to the third and long, like they played the defense differently. Like they thought, oh, now that we're in third and long, we need to do a more of a soft prevent sort of thing or something. I'm not, I'm not saying that's actually what they did, but it seemed like they must have been doing something different because like you said, our first and second down is when most of the pressure was, was applied to percent. Yeah. So, and

Jason:

then what really helped the Packers is they had a fourth and two conversion in the fourth quarter where, I'm not gonna lie to you with the current state of things, I was like, we gotta go for this. Like, we're, we're not gonna stop them on defense and yeah. So

Pershin:

let's go for that win baby. And

Jason:

of course, and you know what's crazy is this Jordan Love era is like. But yeah, so, so when they had to go for that fourth and two, it is just like, we never, whenever we decide to go for it, or like, like it's third and four, like we need to get a first down. It's like all of a sudden the play call is like. Not just enough to get the first down. It's like, no, we're gonna go for it. We're just,

Pershin:

it's like, oh, oh, we're gonna take our deep shot now. Yeah, they'll never be expecting this. Yeah.

Jason:

Fourth and two, we throw it like, like 20 yards to Tucker Craft, and I was just like, Tucker Craft had a phenomenal game. I mean, he has solidified himself, in my opinion, as probably second Beth tied in in the league.

Pershin:

Yeah, I mean he's definitely impressive. The, the way that he fights at, at the, at the catch point and wins. Yeah. So often. And then on top of that, the way he's able to transition from catching to running and actually break tackles and make plays with the ball in his hand after the catch, I mean, it's a hell of a combination.

Jason:

And then the Packers kicker is the guy, they, the guy they like picked up this week sets the franchise record for 61 yard field goal. Oh wow.

Pershin:

Yeah. Who was that? And that? I, I wasn't, I didn't look at any of the like special teams plays or anything. It

Jason:

was Lucas Ha Have, have Reik and it was at Right just before halftime. So what had happened was, is the, cardinals had the ball just before halftime and they ended up having to punt with like 30 seconds left. Green Bay runs like a play, gets, gets it to like basically like just above 50 yard line and kicks the field goal going into halftime. And it's like, man, the, that, to me, the middle quarters is what I call those is the most important like piece if you can, because in two games now, we've seen the Packers lose in the middle quarter to the Browns where they gave up points at the end of the first half and at the, yeah, in the, at the beginning of the first, second half and this time they got points. It's a big deal. Yeah, that's, that's all I got for the package man. It was a, it was a good game. I think the Cardinals are, are slept on and it sucks that they're two and whatever. But hey, look. Yeah, two and five. So

Pershin:

no, nobody told them they had to do a memorial for a bad guy. Okay.

Jason:

That's right. That's right. The maybe they should learn a lesson. And then let's talk about the Bengals. Steelers, Flaco, Flaco Magic again. The

Pershin:

Uncle Bull.

Jason:

Yeah, dude. How, how long do you think Flaco and Chase can do this? Like how long is Flaco like, like imagine being the Browns and you trade them to an in-state rival Interdivisional in-State rival. And he just goes out there and beats the Steelers. The team, you could not beat.

Pershin:

Pretty wild. Pretty wild. I, truthfully, I think half the battle is just throwing it up towards Jamar Chase, and he's so good at battling for the ball and sort of climbing the ladder and getting up over guys that. If he just throws him 20 targets a game like he did in this one, it might not go as well as this one did, but you're gonna end up seeing just a bunch of big plays because Jamar Chase will go get the ball and he'll make plays after the after the catch sometimes too. So it's like, I honestly think that Jamar Chase is not gonna slow down just because Joe, Joe Burrow's out. Obviously Joe Burrow's an excellent quarterback, but I think there's a pretty big difference between the willingness of D Gaff. Who cares? I'm at the end of my, I'm fucking 40 something many Flaco and Jake Browning. I think when Jake Browning. Is playing. It's like he's playing too passive, too tentative. He doesn't want to pull the trigger unless he like, has a lot of confidence in the play and like, that's just not gonna work out when your defense is as bad as theirs. You, you need someone like Flaco who's willing to just play aggressively and hopefully he's not gonna throw too many interceptions and lose all the games for them. But as long as he's out there, I think Jamar Chase is going to be an elite fantasy option.

Jason:

I, I'm just gonna say, Rogers and DK Metcalf are the reason the Steelers lost this game. Really middle quarter. At the end of

Pershin:

the first

Jason:

half, what happens?

Pershin:

I love it. This is gonna be every, every analysis is gonna be about the middle quarter. I love it.

Jason:

At the end of the first half, what happens, Aaron Rogers throws an inexplicable punt of an interception. Joe Flaco and Company come down and they score. Had he not turned the ball over, they probably don't score. They go in the halftime feeling good. Yeah, they come out or whatever. Next series, DK Metcalf fucking lazily caught the ball and got it stolen from him, from a, a defender, which became Roger's second interception. I'm gonna blame it on DK Metcalf. That was the DK Metcalf interception. And what did the Bengals do? They go down and score. Again. Both of those, in my opinion. That was a bad throw by Aaron Rogers, which resulted in an interception should have never happened. And TK Metcalfe needs to stop being a bitch and fighting for the ball. And that other interception never happens. You should never have a ball that's in your hands taken out of your hands. And in being interception like, yeah, that's just weak sauce to me. Yeah. And so those two scores are what ultimately took the momentum and, and because those happened back to back, that ultimately is what lost the game for the sealers. And I mean, obviously they scored late with the field goal and they, they, we knew at this point that the defense wasn't going to stop Joe Flacco and Jamar. And so it's no surprise that they came right back and won the game. But there was a turning point where. If, if Rogers just doesn't throw the ball a YOLO ball for no reason to, he threw a YOLO ball at the end of the first half for zero reason.

Pershin:

Yeah, I, I was surprised at that this was necessarily the game that, that had. Aaron Rogers so worked up too, because he's actually been really good this season about staying calm. Not, not getting, he got mad at the dude started jumping on him. He, he, he laid into like two different teammates when they made mistakes in this game. Like he was, he was not having it. He would really, really, really wanted to get that win. And I was like, we, what is it about the Bengals that has him so fired up? Like, does he secretly hate Flacco or something? Like, I, I don't know if he, he has something against the the Bengals head coach or if the, I don't know what the deal is, but but he was very frustrated that the, the game wasn't going better than, than what he expected, I guess. It was a great game though. It was a great game. It was, it was a lot of pretty cool plays that were being made for sure.

Jason:

I just wanna point out, this is the second time the Browns told Flaco No. And all Flacco did was get them to the playoffs.

Pershin:

I, yeah, I know. The, the crazy thing is like, it's like, I think this, I think both times was like to avoid any sort of like backup flaco controversy or whatever, you know what I mean? Because it's like, if Dylan Gabriel is shitting the bed, you know, all the fans are gonna be like, Flaco, Flaco put him in. Why not just put him in, put fucking

Jason:

Flaco him in, put him in, put him in, let Dylan Gabriel sit. Like what is the harm? Like what is the harm in just playing Flaco for the whole season? You know what? Letting Gabriel

Pershin:

sit, you know what my theory is? I think that they want to be drafting high in the draft. I don't think that they have any confidence in Gabriel or Sanders, and I think that they, they think, okay, if we let Gabriel play the season out, maybe we have a couple fewer wins. And we're,

Jason:

well, you know, you know, it's there, I read an article about Stefanski kind of alluding to

Pershin:

your arch that he

Jason:

never wanted shado anyway, and this goes back to on draft night when he had this, that face pick on social media and the Browns put out a statement that no, no, no, no, me him and the owner were on the same page and blah, blah, blah. Nah, this bro, nah, nah. This is why this team sucks, man. This is why these, these types of teams will never be good is because they just, the owner can't get out of their own way. The,

Pershin:

the owner medals too much. The, the owner just needs to let the GM and the coach do their, their, their job.

Jason:

I will say this, the Browns did get the funding and all of that for their new, their new stadium in, in Brooks Park, Brooksfield, I don't know, somewhere up there in Ohio. Good for

Pershin:

them.

Jason:

Browns fans are

Pershin:

probably excited. I

Jason:

don't know, man. I would be like, I feel like the Brown Stadium is kind of like. I am starting to get upset with, with everybody changing it.'cause it's like if the Packers were to ever be like, no, we're gonna build something else other than Lambo field, like I'd be pissed.

Pershin:

Oh, people would be sad. Lambo field is too iconic.

Jason:

Right. And that's how I feel about like the, some of these older teams, the dog pound, like the dog pound, it's like, is it gonna be the same dog pound? And it's, it's in an, it's, it's covered. So it's like, I'm just, I'm, I'm really not liking the trend of every team. Putting a dome, like that's why I really like the bills, not putting a dome in just because they're in cold weather. Like, no, it's about the fans and you're supposed to have an identity. If everybody's in a dome and we're all playing on turf, then what's the point? Like what?

Pershin:

Yeah.

Jason:

There's no home field advantage there.

Pershin:

The, the weather should be part of the situation when you go to different areas of the country.

Jason:

Right.

Pershin:

And I think that this is almost like how you've seen across the United States over the past few decades. Like every single city, especially the big cities, all of the downtown area, they all look the same. Like if you've been to Seattle's downtown, you've been to Chicago's downtown, you've been to fucking Atlanta's downtown. Yeah. And these days you've even been to Charleston's downtown.'cause now Charleston's downtown looks cookie cutter as fuck too. So it's like, I think that this is kind of what's happening with all these domes too, where it's almost like they all have the same sort of feel to'em. And that's unfortunate.

Jason:

Yeah. Agreed. Next game that we're gonna talk about, your boys, Broncos giants. I mean, wild 33 point fourth quarter. I mean, there needs to be a firing after that. Like, how does Brian Abel still have a job when you allow a team to score 33 points in the fourth quarter? Yeah. To lose the game. It's, it's just wild to me. I, I like it. It's

Pershin:

one of those situations though, where it's just like, do you give him credit for legitimately whooping ass against the Broncos for three quarters or, or do you just knock him for allowing 33 points in one quarter? You know what I mean? It's like, I, I don't know. No credit is to be given here. I, I don't know, because it's kind of like. I think what happened is they, they actually helped the Broncos once, once they were in the fourth quarter and it was 19 to nothing. They definitely started doing some sort of like a, maybe not full prevent, but they were doing some sort of hybrid prevent defense dog.

Jason:

No, man, you giving him way too much credit, man. Yeah. I don't even care. Like at some point when you do the prevent defense and it's like, hey, it's, it's 19 to zero, it got, you know, whatever. At one point the score was however close it got, it is gotta be at like, alright, hey, this is getting a little tight here. We're still up on two touchdowns, but maybe we should start playing defense. Like, yeah. And the fact of the matter is they scored 13 points of their own in the fourth.

Pershin:

Yeah, pretty wild at basically every single possession in the fourth quarter, whether it was Broncos or the Giants, was very fast there. Yeah, there was 46

Jason:

points scored.

Pershin:

I mean, that's I wild. I don't know. I can't explain it. I did go back and, and literally watched every single play. I, at first it, I just heard it on the radio and I was just like, there's no way. I was like, the things that they were describing was just like, wait, are they still talking about two plays ago? And it's like, no, it happened again. And it's just like different

Jason:

boy. Yeah. It's

Pershin:

like, what the fuck? Things were moving so quickly at the end that it, it was literally hard for me to keep track of listening to it all. I was like, I

Jason:

cannot even believe the Broncos are surviving too.

Pershin:

Yeah, I mean the Broncos are the reverse Cardinals where it's like, how are the Broncos five and two right now? What's the worst five and two team? What's really crazy is the first couple games we dropped, right? We won five in a row. Remember after the first couple weeks I was like, both of these games we should have won and we just fucked it up at the end. Yeah. And we are really gonna want these two games back when we're, when we look down the road and we're four and four and we could have been six and two or whatever, and now we're five and two. And the crazy part about it is like, okay, we have stolen at least three of these wins where it was like we felt like we got outplayed for the majority of the game and somehow we won. For sure. Now in this game, I actually don't think that the Giants really outplayed us. I think that both teams actually were. Pretty sloppy and, and like, I'm not saying that the Broncos necessarily deserved to win, but I don't think the Giants deserved to win either. I heard a lot of talk on the radio about the two extra points that were missed and for sure that's a big deal. And you know, if the Giants kicker just makes those extra points, then they win the game. And there is none of this. But the, but the thing is that what they're missing, what most people are missing is that the biggest Giants plays we're pretty fluky. Like there was the past interference way down the field on Riley Moss where everyone basically agreed it shouldn't have been past interference. So that was a huge play. Right, right. That was kind of fluky. And then there was. Yeah, there was the Daniel Ballinger wide open, I think it was a 60 yard touchdown where the defender just slips, right, basically turning the corner slips down. So Daniel Bellinger is just wide open down the play and, and sure enough that that is the defender's fault responsibility. Part of your job is that you don't slip, but kind of fluky that. It was just a, a huge blown coverage on a plate where he was, Jackson Dart was about to get sacked. He happened to look up and he is like, oh, look at this guy. Wide ass open in the middle of the field. And then Theo Johnson has a huge, I think it was 41 yard touchdown where. We get two stops behind the line of scrimmage, so it's third and 17, and then we get pressure on Jackson Dart. Everything's going perfectly from the Bronco's perspective. He tries to force the ball into, I think it was Dale Robinson Defender pops it up, but he pops it up in the air straight over to where Theo Johnson is running. So he actually catches the deflected ball in stride. Takes it for a touchdown. Mm-hmm.

Jason:

Yeah,

Pershin:

so it's like, like the biggest Giants plays were actually pretty fluky as well. So it's not that I'm saying the Broncos played a clean game, it's just that we didn't necessarily deserve to lose. We didn't, we didn't put our foot in our mouth worse than what the giants were doing in actuality. And that's not to talk shit because Jackson Dart did make a bunch of plays and I do think that he's a very fun guy and I hope that he can, you know, basically develop, because I think he'll be fun to watch. Certainly Camp Scab for as long as he stays upright is gonna be fun to watch. So I get the excitement for this team, but I don't think that the Giants got cheated out of their win necessarily just because of those missed extra points.

Jason:

Right, right, right. No, I, I agree with that sentiment. Next game, Eagles versus Vikings Eagles, you know, barely won that game. Jalen Hertz probably had like his best game ever. Perfect passer rating. 1 58, 3 26 yards, three touchdowns. 1923. Devonta Smith. Had a career high, 183 receiving yards on nine receptions and one tudy. I was like, man, really loving this. I, I hope he can keep that going. He's starting to come around. And then the Vikings, you know, Jordan Addison guy just traded for nine catches, 128 yards. Really hope that keeps seeing similar production there. I mean, this was just a, a really good game between, between the two teams. It does kind of make me wonder a little bit about Sequin Barkley and just like, why is he not producing at the clip he did last year? And, and maybe it's just time will tell. Maybe he just needs some time. But, you know, this team has been struggling. Eagles themselves, they struggled for the first couple games. It kind of like, seemed like they were trying to find their identity again and, and just touch, push. Had to push after to push, which is just like. Alright, that's cool and all, but like, yeah,

Pershin:

I think they found their identity. That's not

Jason:

your only play.

Pershin:

It is cringe. Cringe is their identity. Yeah. The I didn't, I didn't see any of this game, but I, I saw the stats and the crazy thing is that like the Vikings blitzed, Jalen hurts on 82% of his drop backs. That is a very, very high rate, and I love that. For someone who's gotten a lot of flack for not handling the blitz well historically this was a statement game for Jalen Hertz to get blitzed over and over, and then every single time, fine. The open receiver and be like, all right, keep it coming. Keep blitzing me. I got it. I gotta, I gotta plan for this. I can handle it. I can process quickly. I can make these plays. And I mean, just carving them up. Career day for Devonta Smith, as you said, I mean, you know, the sort of stats that they were able to put up from the passing game and I didn't actually see play after play after play, but the fact that he was blitzed that often and he went to town on them. Kudos to Jalen Hertz for silence. And the critics on that one. Yeah,

Jason:

for real. Yeah, for sure. And then last game, fucking years versus the Lions we got, we got Cleveland Browns, baker Mayfield back for this game. Made a, made a one game appearance. So far Jesus, this was probably the worst game of the Buccaneer season. Final score was 24 to nine. To me, the lions just dominated most of that game. Jamir Gibbs posted career high 218 yards from scrimmage with two tudies beats mode.

Pershin:

All right. And, and the thing is that he did that versus a clear pass funnel too. Like everybody knows that the buccaneers are much softer against the pass than they are the run. You don't wanna run against them just past. And you know, you, you saw that in real time with, with Montgomery. Montgomery couldn't find anywhere to run, couldn't get any space, couldn't anything. And Jamir Gibbs was just clowning people. He basically was making the first guy, miss. And then they had so many guys crowding the box that it was basically just like one or two defenders that had to chase him down. And guess what? You're not chasing him down. He's that fast. And so it, it just the perfect matchup for him to flex that muscle and be like, all right, I'll show you. I'll show you.

Jason:

Yeah. I mean, the, the Buccaneers definitely came out of this game on the worst end of it. Mike Evans. He's done, he's done for the season or could potentially come back, but doubtful,

Pershin:

tough play man.

Jason:

Collarbone. Yeah. Collarbone injury.

Pershin:

Yeah,

Jason:

it just looked weird the way he like,

Pershin:

oh man. Watching him get up and try to rock. Yeah, try watching him get up and try to walk around. I mean, he looked drunk and I, it was just like, yeah, it's like, is he, is he just injured or like, is he concussed? And it turns out he was both and it's just like, ugh. He just got back from an injury and he was going to break the record for most seasons in a row with a thousand yards. It's not gonna happen now. So he's tied, he's tied with Jerry Rice, I think it is. And that's how it'll have to stay. But you know, just, you hate to see it for a guy like that. Battling through so much throughout his career and legitimately getting so much production. Anyways he got fucked up on that play. That sucks.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. Acca Luca fantasy owners though probably. Not too sad.

Pershin:

No. No. Especially when he was legitimately just the

Jason:

non-human side of fantasy.

Pershin:

He, he was legitimately questionable to play in this game. And the fact that not only did he play, but he got tons of work was like, okay. And I, I think that's just a state of the Buccaneers right now. If you're gonna play for them, you're getting tons of work.'cause they got nothing going on. I mean, they, they're having to rely on Cameron Johnson, whoever that even is, you know what I mean? It's like Sterling Shepherd's like 83 years old now. And I mean, he was a career backup when he was in his twenties, you know, it's like. Goodness gracious. This guy's like their most consistent receiver right now because they're, everybody's banged up. Everybody's banged up. Yeah, it's, it is crazy. I, I guess this was a bad game for bak, but it's also like, has he even had time to develop plays down the field with these guys? Like they're running routes at depths that he's not expecting? I think, and this, this is not the, the guys that he practices with besides Amika Buca, but it's like, you know,

Jason:

oh, Baker's a seasoned vet man. He just, I just feel like they're probably not on the same page

Pershin:

though, and

Jason:

making excuses for Baker Mayfield. I can't even with you, man. They're five and two leading the division. They got the Panthers hot on their heels at four and three. Look at the Panthers above 500, man. Unbelievable. What's up

Pershin:

with the Panthers? I feel like the pants, the Panthers are also like the Broncos where it's like, it never actually looks that good, but somehow they're still winning. Like,

Jason:

listen, I think there's a lot of teams like that. I mean, the Packers are four, one and one and, and I, I can't pick a game where I'm like, this is the team that I'm, is the team that I'm looking for Week one was that

Pershin:

game.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much it. You know I mean even the Bears four and two, like what are they doing there? Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And then last thing I wanted to mention about this week, week seven, is the Chargers unveiled an all gold alternate uniform. It reminded me of a highlighter I guess it's supposed to be a thunderbolt, but anyway, that, that just had me thinking. What are the weirdest jerseys that you've seen throughout the NFL? You know, like what's, what's one that like, you've always like, for me, it's like, I hate the packers. Like Acme Blue Navy blue with brown pants, and then those are the ones I hate. But the ones that I absolutely love are the Steelers, like bumblebee looking ones.

Pershin:

Ah. I, I know that there has been over the years some really bad ones, but I, I can't, I can't actually think of it here on the spot.

Jason:

Green ones don't come to mind.

Pershin:

I, the neon green ones are bad. I, I feel like there's been some that I've hated more than that, though.

Jason:

I really hate when they tried to do like the all white color rush. Yeah. But the Bengals one was fine. The Bengals one looks good, but then like the lions did it and I was like, eh, this baby, this blue doesn't work with white and silver. Like, like an all white uniform.

Pershin:

Yeah, man, I wish I could remember. I feel like there has been some that I have especially hated. I, I definitely heard a lot of talk about the the Chargers uniforms. I didn't think they were that bad. They're definitely there. Weird. They were ugly. They're definitely weird, but I mean, it's not that bad, but people were talking like, oh my God, I've never seen anything as bad as this. It's just,

Jason:

do you remember there was a color rush game where it was, I wanna say it was the Rams versus the 49 ERs or, or some, a red team and one team was all red and one team was like all yellow. And it was like the ketchup, mustard game.

Pershin:

Yeah. The Brams were all yellow. I remember that.

Jason:

Yeah. Anyway, just a fun little, fun little topic to end it on, and with that being said. As always, man, you can hit us up on Threads Blue Sky Instagram. Send us an email, pine Pony Podcast. Hit up our betting site, signup expert.com/pine pony, free money. Find all, yeah, find'em all in your area. Harder to do in Costa R, but you know, we out here trying to make a few dollars here and there. So until next week, AIOS.

Pershin:

Aios.

Contributor

Jason Strang

Host
Contributor

Josh "The Fantasy Uncle" Pershin

Co-host