Two for the Win
Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Bryan has more than a decade of civil service experience. Together, these blue collar guys dissect the latest sports headlines and events.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - Episode 10
Can the Yankees' latest roster moves swing them to a World Series berth, or will the Cubs' Kyle Tucker acquisition steal the show? Our latest episode is packed with insights and analysis on MLB's most thrilling off-season trades. From the Yankees' strategic signing of Max Fried to the Braves' excitement over Brian De La Cruz, we break down how these powerhouse moves could reshape the upcoming baseball season. We also touch on Baltimore's pitching boost with Tomoyuki Sugano and consider how these changes might shift the balance in the MLB landscape.
Meanwhile, in the NBA, the battle for the NBA Cup Championship heats up as the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Milwaukee Bucks. We predict how defensive prowess and energetic gameplay might give OKC the edge. With the league's growing emphasis on three-point shooting, we analyze the ripple effects on team strategies, drawing from recent high-stakes matchups like the Mavericks vs. Warriors. How long can traditional play styles hold out against this new wave of basketball evolution?
In the football sphere, we shine a spotlight on LeBron James' potential career moves and the rising star, Travis Hunter, who clinched the Heisman Trophy amidst personal challenges. The NFL buzzes with playoff excitement, and we navigate the complexities of player transfers and NIL deals in college football. As the playoff race intensifies, stay tuned for an exploration of controversial plays, contract negotiations, and the unrivaled energy that only football can bring. Dive into the stories, from the Steelers' historical struggles to the Packers' current dominance, that make the sports world endlessly captivating.
December 17th, everybody, welcome back. Creeping ever closer to the holiday season, and we are just loaded once again. Here I'm Brian with an eye and I'm. Mike, and we are two for the win, mike. What have we got again here this week for us?
Speaker 2:well, we're going to discuss some MLB trade moves and free agency signings. We're going to discuss the NBA Cup Championship, which is going on as we speak. We're going to also discuss some college football playoffs and the Heisman Trophy winner. We're also going to discuss past NFL action from week 15 and put in some predictions for the next week.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. I'm excited. I know our fans and listeners are excited to jump in with us. Man, where are we starting at again?
Speaker 2:We're going to start with some MLB news. We're going to start with a hot topic that just came down Hot off the fry. The Yankees just traded for Cody Bellinger from the Cubs, and all they sent in return was a pitcher that's in their minor league system.
Speaker 2:Man, this is fresh, Most people if you really want to know who it is, you can go look it up. And all they sent in return was a pitcher that's in their minor league system, man. This is fresh. So most people, if you really want to know who it is, you can go look it up, I mean. But it's not anybody of note from their lineup. But the Yankees also shored up their bullpen. They traded for the two-time All-Star pitcher from the Brewers Williams and they sent the Brewers their left-hander, Nestor Cortez, an infielder of Caleb Durbin and some cash consideration. So the Yankees are filling some holes. I mean, they already signed Max Freed to an eight-year deal. So it's kind of we missed out on Soto. But you think we really miss out, I mean, because they're they're filling up more needs than they would have if they got Soto you think they got a bad taste in their mouth right now?
Speaker 2:after losing the World Series. Yeah, probably, so they're addressing a lot of the needs they had yeah so that's. That's showing that they are not being like the Yankees of old, where it's like we've got to go sign the biggest name free agent out there, we've got to sign the next biggest name free agent. Just throw the cash at it as much as you can.
Speaker 1:They're trying to make sure they come right back and get right back in it next season.
Speaker 2:So they weren't the only ones making moves. So the Cubs, even though they made that trade, what helped them in letting Bellinger go is they traded for Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros. So it helps them out because Kyle Tucker is a good player, he's a multi-time all-star and he's probably going to help them fill in some of the outfield spots that Bellinger would have played. But now he's gone.
Speaker 1:But they free up some money as well so that helps him out.
Speaker 2:So expect some more moves from the Cubs they're not going to be done yet. But Baltimore, who has been linked to possibly bringing back Corbin Burns. They made a move that might show that they might not be going after Corbin Burns, because they actually signed to a one-year deal, a one-year $13 million deal. The Japanese right-hander I'm probably going to butcher this name you want me to help you.
Speaker 1:Tamayuki Sagano.
Speaker 2:Yes. Anyway, he's a 35-year-old pitcher out of Japan. He's been an ace pitcher for the Giants over in Japan and he's won their version of the Cy Young twice. He's not going to light up the radar gun, but he's a good pitcher, so this might be an under-the-radar good signing for them.
Speaker 1:Yes, and shout-outs to Hooked on Phonics.
Speaker 2:But another smaller news Brave signed Brian De La Cruz to their roster, so they're filling some needs as well.
Speaker 1:De La Cruz.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, fill in some needs as well. De la cruz, so yeah, that's uh, that's just showing. You know, you never know what you're going to get in this offseason when it comes to mlb players making moves and being traded and it just well, it's always chaos behind the scenes. And then you watch the next season. You're like, well, wait a second, when did they sign him? Or how did they get him? Well, you know, there's two different types of games in every sport.
Speaker 1:There's the in season, the next season and you're like well, wait a second, when did they sign him? Or how did they get him? Well, you know there's two different types of games in every sport. There's the in-season and the off-season. All right, obviously, in-season you play in your games, that's where you put it on the field. The off-season is legitimately a whole different game and these guys are playing it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. And speaking of playing games right now, as of right now, the NBA Cup Championship is happening right now between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Personally, I feel Thunder is going to pull it off. They've been playing some really stellar defense through this bracket and, let's face it, the Bucks are an older team. They still can show up stellar defense through this bracket. Let's face it, the Bucs are an older team. They still can show up. They can still put up points. Giannis and Damian Lillard can certainly have shown in the past that they can get hot and start going on a scoring spree.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, mike. These are two hot teams, man, who do you like tonight between them? I?
Speaker 2:just said OKC.
Speaker 1:Okay, I thought you were saying something else. My apologies.
Speaker 2:No, no, you're fine, you're fine, you're fine. Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 1:I like OKC. I like the Bucks a lot, but I like Oklahoma City as well.
Speaker 2:So we'll see who wins that championship. Personally, I think it's OKC. But in other NBA news I noticed something interesting. So last Friday you had the Hornets versus the Bulls and if you go look at the stat line from this game, the Hornets put up 46 threes. In the game they only made eight. The Bulls put up 51 threes and only made 14. So between the two of them that's a 17% and 27%—I'm not going to count the decimal place percentage of making threes.
Speaker 1:That's not good?
Speaker 2:That's not good at all. So on the flip side of that, if you go to Sunday's game of the Dallas Mavericks and the Warriors, their final score was 143 for Dallas and 133 for the Warriors. Now, in this game, both teams shot 50% or greater from three-point. So you had Dallas making 21 out of their 41 shots and the Warriors making 27 of their 53 shots from three.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you're seeing a stark difference in these four teams in their ability to make three.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you know it's no coincidence If you look at the individual three-point shot leaders per game. Uh, on players, uh, all these players are on the top performing teams, so I don't think it's uh any surprise that uh there's a direct correlation in that from lower performing teams as well as I well, okay, so I I have a bit of a problem with this.
Speaker 2:so is it that your coach doesn't know when to tell you stop taking threes and go into the, into the paint and get some twos? Or is it a causality of the fact that the warriors, for years, were just meleeing teams because they would hit a three, and hit a three, and hit a three? And so teams are like, well crap, if we don't make threes, we're not going to keep up.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that is a little bit of it. The Warriors were crazy good, but I also don't think it's a coaching thing. Honestly, I think you need players that's going to be more efficient well outside, like I believe that to me there are players that can make the three-point shot yeah and there are players that shouldn't take the three-point shot now. I agree with that now. Now the other thing is well.
Speaker 2:I bring this up for the simple fact that if you watched that Bulls-Hornets game, the whole game just felt like a one team go down, throw up a three we missed, Go the other side team puts up a three they miss. And it was just back and forth taking chances at a three-point shot. But at some point it's like why are we still taking a three-point shot if we clearly can't even get above 30% for the game in making three-point shots, and it's not just these teams, it's kind of over the nba as a whole. You have teams just go down, do one little, one little quick screen shoot up a three well, the other thing is how are these?
Speaker 1:you got to set up the three-pointer, right, so you got to set up that shot. Not anymore, well, I mean, you can just take it, but a lot of times that you set up that shot, um, but like there's gotta be an inefficiency somewhere in the way you're doing something. Well, uh, because the teams that have the best records and that are in these, in these championship brackets, have the best players from the three-point position, from the three-point shot position well, not always.
Speaker 2:I mean. The lakers won it last year and they were not the best at making threes, but during the tournament they definitely well, no they definitely made their fair share of threes, but uh well, I'm just looking at the top five right here Milwaukee, denver, okc. Oh, yeah, I mean the teams that are best in the league right now, record-wise a lot of them have their most.
Speaker 2:yes, they have a lot of good three-point shooters. But I'm wondering if this three-point assault is also kind of the reason that the viewership in the NBA is kind of declining Among you know, like load management and not knowing who's going to be playing and not playing. And you know you have Embiid saying I'm not playing back-to-backs and everybody being okay with that, which that's a whole other topic. Back-to-backs and everybody being okay with that, which that's a whole other topic. The point I'm trying to make is the three-point shot is so prevalent now in the NBA that it's almost like teams aren't trying to run plays, they're just trying to get a guy open for three. Trying to get a guy open for three, like you, hardly ever you're not seeing the guy getting the ball down low and trying to work it to the basket and kicking a guy out a pass. And you know the movement is different, like the game just feels different from what I remember. I remember, you know.
Speaker 2:I grew up watching, you know the Barkleys and the Shacks and the MJs, the Kobes, the you know, like the guys, that they would take it into the paint. Work against a guy, maybe throw up a fadeaway shot or you know, get the ball down low and work their way in and do a little hook shot.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's the flip side. Maybe the coaches don't feel like they have a good enough squad to go in there and get in deep. Maybe they just say you know what, when you get to the line, put it up.
Speaker 2:I don't know. We got guys in the NBA that are. I mean, the average height in the NBA is over 6'6", so guys in the NBA are tall, so it's not a matter of not having down low guys. I mean we don't have Muggsy Bogues out there.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I'm not talking about down low. What I'm just talking about. Maybe they don't have confidence in their offensive capability to go in and get a dunk or get in and get a hard two point and if you don't have that confidence, that's a correlation of bad coaching.
Speaker 2:You should have confidence that your team can run a play and get into a scoring position but in the?
Speaker 1:in a professional league, yes, I would agree. In lower levels, college, high school rec leagues, pay-to-play leagues, sometimes you just get what you get and you got to work with it.
Speaker 2:Well, in college they're still getting in the paint, they're still moving the ball and trying to make plays to get their guys set up.
Speaker 1:It's a little different game in college though too it is.
Speaker 2:It's a very different game, but you know what? Hasn't had a decline in its viewership? March Madness. March Madness has not had a decline in its viewership.
Speaker 1:Look, everybody loves March.
Speaker 2:Madness. If anything, it has grown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the bracket part is a big part of that.
Speaker 2:I think the NBA needs to stop ignoring the fact that viewership is down and I'm not saying that they totally are. I mean, that's why we have a in season bracket going on in the championship cup game happening tonight. But it's. The game is not what it once was and I'm not saying that it's not good. I'm just saying that if you're having continually decreasing viewership, you need to say well, what is it that we're doing? That's not working, because you can't continually have viewership decline and not look at what you I mean.
Speaker 1:they might not and not look at what you're doing. They might not know yet. I mean, they do have you know how the NFL did the Simpsons cast.
Speaker 2:They're doing a Disney cast, yeah they are doing a Disney cast on Christmas Day with the. Knicks and Spurs. Yeah, the Nixon and Spurs.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which you know, kudos to any league or team that is trying out new things to try to make themselves relevant, but I just, I really think that we need to have coaches in the NBA start yelling at their teams and being like stop putting up the threes. You know, when you got guys on your team that put up 14 shots and they only made two of them, you don't have the ability to shoot the three anymore. Don't do it.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's some accountability, I'm sure they're holding those players some accountability. Don't take the shot if you're not confident. The problem is, if you've got players confident in every shot shouldn't be. There's a little bit. You know how you tackle that.
Speaker 2:But like, oh, I agree, like they gotta find a way to not just put up more three pointers but just put up more points efficiently well, I mean they're getting points, but it's it's really because you know the teams that can hit the three, like you were saying earlier, with the top performers in the league having the most threes now.
Speaker 1:Sorry, my apologies. What's so? What is? I need to see the percentage of threes. I should have had this prepared. What is the percentage of three shots to all of their overall shots in a game?
Speaker 2:well, if you look, if you look at the, the for just from that, charlotte hornets and uh, bulls game yeah if you look at that, the the shot chart, you can see where majority of the shots taken in the game were beyond the arc, meaning behind three. So you're putting up more three-point shots than you are shots in the paint, when the shots in the paint are a higher percentage shot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So if the other team is going down and chucking up threes and not making them and you go down and hit a two, it's another three and you go down and make a two, you have four points.
Speaker 1:Well, they shot 98 field goals. The Hornets and I mean the Bulls put up 93. Neither of them made very much of either 30, 35, and 37, respectively. So they still, in general, are just not making their shots. In general, they're just not. It seems like they're just not playing well is what it looks like to me, based on the numbers?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Based on the numbers, yes, but I don't know. To me, you've got to have a balance. You can't just be going back and forth jacking up threes, the whole game For the viewer it's not's like whatever happened to guys. You know, just crossing somebody up and throwing a crazy pass and you know the guy gets, gets an alley-oop and dunks it down like it still exists, but you rarely see it anymore first of all, the harlem globetrotters are a thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, look, I'm not talking globetrotters are a thing. Okay, I'm not talking Globetrotters, I'm talking about, you know, the Allen Iversons like crossing people up so bad that their ankles like shatter and they fall over on the ground and they just walk. They're on their back watching him go past and like, oh, that just happened.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not streetball anymore, it's not freestyle, it is a different game. It's about the small technical things, right, it's about you know being technically right.
Speaker 2:It's about timing it's, it's about all these minute same thing with football.
Speaker 1:It's about all these minute things.
Speaker 2:There's no more, there's no style in it anymore the difference between the teams that can make the threes and the teams that can't. I just showed you.
Speaker 1:They're the teams that keep getting in the brackets and they're the teams that don't. Honestly, to me, it looks like the good teams have players that can make points, or at least a good percent, and the bad teams obviously have players who are not making points.
Speaker 2:Here's the other problem. When you're getting scores like that, who the hell is playing defense what?
Speaker 1:95 to 109? Yeah, no, they just ran all over each other 95 to 109, that's a close game. They basically just ran back and forth on each other.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about the Mavericks game, where you have 143 points to 133 points.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's the same thing too. Neither of those teams played much. I mean, they probably played good defense, but their offensive schemes are probably I mean again, Both teams are over 50% at three.
Speaker 2:They didn't play no defense. Well, exactly. I was at three. They didn't. Well, exactly, I was just about, I was just about to say that look at their three point shots. Like I mean, they clearly were out there balling out and putting up anyway, anyway, so you know, move. Moving on to a little bit of a topic that's been discussed in the nba circles uh, so there's been talk because the lakers, they're not, theyakers, they're not playing well.
Speaker 2:And you know, lebron probably doesn't want to just be on a lamed-up team. He still wants to win championships and play postseason basketball and you know, go out a winner.
Speaker 1:Lebron is the champion, he brings the gold.
Speaker 2:Look.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:At any given point, LeBron could be one of the best players on the court, but he cannot be the best player on the court for 82 games.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's one of the reasons he was getting mad at AD for not stepping up and taking a lead over that team, which he did last year. Last year he finally kind of said all right, I'll hold it down, you come in, kill it at crunch time and we'll get some points. They made it into playoffs. So I mean, I think what it is is LeBron might want to make another run and he's seeing the writing on the wall that the Lakers are just too far away and I don't know if he wants to do it, but there's been chatter about him possibly moving, you know, being sent to another team, and then the more unlikely conversation of it all, of him wanting Bronny to go with him wherever he goes. I don't know that a team's willing to make that trade, but Look he's.
Speaker 1:I think his son's going to want to follow him. But look, you did a lot for him already, man. You got him into the NBA.
Speaker 2:Well, and he's in the G League right now. He did have a 30-point game the other night, so he's getting minutes and playing, which is what he needs. He needs that development. I mean he's he's still an undersized player at 6-1 for nba standards and he's not really a point guard. So either they need to kind of groom him to be, you know, deadly at three shooting or they need to teach him to be a point guard. But those are really tall tasks when most players, when you get to the NBA or into the G League, they're kind of expecting you to already be kind of there. So I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't wish anything against the kid. To me I feel bad for him because there is so much pressure on him because of his father being who his father is, and to me it's kind of not fair because he's handled it really well. He hasn't really said woe is me about anything, he's just okay, I'm going to do what I can.
Speaker 1:He's dealing with it. I'm not saying anything negative about him, but you know, sometimes you got to spread your wings, man. You got to step out from your dad's shadow.
Speaker 2:This is true, but if LeBron is traded? If he's traded, who do you think he goes to?
Speaker 1:Well, he's been with Miami.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's not going back there. He's been with Cleveland. He's not going back there either, because Cleveland's doing all right without him.
Speaker 1:I think he goes to a contender. I could see him landing in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2:I don't know if Oklahoma's going to give up the talent for him.
Speaker 1:I could see him going to New York. He's always been.
Speaker 2:I mean, well, yeah, I guess he could fit in with New York. I know there's been rumblings of the Warriors being at the destination. Because he wants to link up with Steph.
Speaker 1:I know the Warriors did try to trade for him, but he had a no-trade clause, and I think so. I don't remember the details, but that was when he was stepped away from the team at the time.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I mean.
Speaker 1:So I mean, the words are realistic too. Oh, I don't think there's gonna be any shortage of need for his services, so well, you, you just kind of hope that.
Speaker 2:I mean because lebron is not the same player he was, you know, back in his 20s, no, but he's still a really, really good player. Yeah, he has those moments where he can turn it on and he can lead the team down the stretch.
Speaker 1:He's kind of in the legacy phase of his career.
Speaker 2:Which is why maybe trying to go for a championship somewhere is a little more in his wheelhouse now.
Speaker 1:That's why I said I agree with you, and he has always gone to a potential contender whenever he's left, so I expect him to follow suit and go to another ready-to-go contender.
Speaker 2:So switching gears here, let's move on to some college football College.
Speaker 1:A.
Speaker 2:And we just had a Heisman Trophy winner this past Saturday.
Speaker 1:Man, I know it was tight. Is anybody really surprised? Some people are surprised and not surprised at the same time. Our guy Travis Hunter out of Colorado State Two-way player.
Speaker 2:He won it.
Speaker 1:Easy Honestly probably easy decision.
Speaker 2:There were some other good runner-ups, but I don't know about his girlfriend the way she was looking when he's taking photos of people mean mugging all that time.
Speaker 1:He says she's been drinking all day.
Speaker 2:I've heard a lot of vets a lot of veteran NFL players and other folks saying leave that girl. But you know, either here nor there.
Speaker 1:Look it's very hard, right, when you have experienced people and you know they're experienced right, Telling you hey, man, man, this is a bad situation. But, like you, especially the younger people are nah, man, I got this, I'm gonna learn from your mistakes I'm gonna learn from their heart harder. You know, hard knocks like and and I'm not saying it's gonna happen with this girl we've you know, I'm not saying that at all, but I like to see him seriously consider what some of these folks telling them, because hey, they're, they've been there, done that look as I'm.
Speaker 2:You got to listen to the old heads.
Speaker 1:They know something just speaking from my own perspective at the age of 36. Okay, um, now interacting with and dealing with people in their 20s you know I now have can see it's like you have a crystal ball sometimes, uh. So yeah, I totally relate and I think he should take a serious look and they should both take it seriously. They're both headed for a different lifestyle from where they've been at so so the runner-up in this Heisman voting.
Speaker 2:Do you know who it was?
Speaker 1:Wasn't it Genti.
Speaker 2:Genti. Yeah, genti was the one who came up runner-up. And look the guy. Had he been playing for a bigger school, he might have been the one to win it, because, for one, his team is in the playoffs, travis isn't. For two, this guy has been drawing comparisons to Barry Sanders from his college days and what he was doing as a running back. Now, granted, I am not saying he is as good as Barry Sanders, because Barry Sanders did it in fewer games and his yards per game were insane.
Speaker 1:That is another.
Speaker 2:Look okay. So in his day you had him and Thurman Thomas on the same team and you had defenders on the opposite team saying, hey, don't screw up that Thurman Thomasomas guy, don't hurt him. Why his backup's worse, they didn't want to face him so yeah, and you know, they knew they knew they did not want to face barry sanders. And then what happened? When barry got in there, they were just like what? Oh dang, he's past me what?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, man, you know I got to say like just my apologies.
Speaker 2:I almost beg to ask the question that if Could you just do a co-Heisman, I mean, or could you do a defensive and offensive Heisman? Because I mean, technically, technically, you could have Travis Hunter. I mean, yeah, he played like 600 snaps, you know, and played both sides of the ball, but his numbers in comparison, if you just took the offensive side versus Jenty's, jenty had way better numbers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the defense. Historically, the offense gets an edge when it comes to awards like that.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean you had Woodson, win it over Manning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a long time ago.
Speaker 2:It was a long time ago, but it was. He won it, you know. So it can be done. But I just almost wonder because you get these guys that like they have stellar careers, they have stellar seasons in the college ranks and it's like they should be honored for that? Because just think about how many schools there are, and for you to stand out amongst all of those players I agree, but you can't.
Speaker 2:You can't reward everybody for being great okay I'm not saying everybody, I'm just saying a defense and an offense it's great to have all these amazing players that are hard to choose from, because I would.
Speaker 1:I would hate for there to be nobody to be like uh, and then just have one that's kind of done. Well, like, I guess he's the Heisman. Like, I'm glad that this is a problem, right, that means the quality of skill and the quality of play are being raised and that's good for the future of the NFL and the UFL. Now.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of problems, remember how we talked about the planting of the flag.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:In that Ohio-Michigan game.
Speaker 1:Boy Ohio is not happy. Let me tell you what.
Speaker 2:Ohio is a bit salty.
Speaker 1:Them middle states man.
Speaker 2:Tell us about this ridiculousness that is going on with Ohio right now.
Speaker 1:Or at least a certain legislator in Ohio. Ohio and Iowa, man and Kentucky, them middle states. Over there they're kind of finicky. So Ohio has passed the OHIO. They're trying to pass. They're probably going to pass it In today's world of politics. Listen. Okay, if they can make the redskins change their name, these guys can pass a law, all right all right.
Speaker 1:Well, tell us anyway, they have passed the ohio sportsmanship act. Basically that makes flag planting on ohio fields any ohio sports field not a class five felony. If it passes it'll be class five felony. It'll carry up to a year and a year in jail and twelve hundred dollar up to twelve hundred dollars fines. This is for planting a flag and let me tell you what I think it is a little bit. I understand. This is a pride.
Speaker 2:This is pride all day. Do you know what this sounds like to me, what we lost, and the other team's trying to show us up Look, I don't, look, I get it. It's disrespectful.
Speaker 1:I don't disagree, Look I get it.
Speaker 2:It's disrespectful.
Speaker 1:I don't disagree, but come on.
Speaker 2:This response is like you know, when your buddies make fun of you and you cry about it.
Speaker 1:No, you don't cry about it.
Speaker 2:You just say you think this shirt looks dumb. Look at what you're wearing.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I agree, because enforcement, fan enforcement at college games has become an issue here recently. Okay, in a number of games, right?
Speaker 2:But this was the fans Throwing things on the field this was the teams.
Speaker 1:What was it Texas? What school? Texas put up a net on the other side of the opposing field's bleachers so they couldn't throw trash onto the field. We shouldn't be throwing things on the field period this goes to enforcing and instilling a sense of respect for, like I said before, the field that you play on in the house that you're in.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, I mean I'm not. I'm not saying it's okay to do the plant the flag thing I To me, I'm against it because it's just kind of stupid.
Speaker 1:I don't agree with it.
Speaker 2:I grew up in the days where you got done with the game, you lined up and you did the high five or the low five, like good game, good game, good game, which you know, albeit it sounds ridiculous to do that. At the same time, it's showing respect for the game you love, showing respect for the fielder on and showing respect for your opponent, which when, when did it become winning?
Speaker 1:is not enough well, I agree with you there. And the and the other thing with this is not just the outcome of breaking a particular law, it's also a deterrent right, because there's a precedent here. Right, people keep pushing the line and pushing the line, and pushing the line right. Eventually, something really bad is going to happen as a result of something really stupid and supposed to be funny okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So college fans already do funny things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that. I agree, they already push the limits okay.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I heard a story that Brady Quinn, former Notre Dame quarterback, had said where they were going into Michigan and they're riding the bus in and there's a row of fans that moon the bus. But they don't just moon the bus, they spread cheeks as they're driving by and Brady's just like I saw everything. And here's the thing he said. I can vividly remember this. He said I can vividly remember this. So it's like ingrained in his psyche that he got to see the brown eye of all these Michigan fans before they went to play him. So I mean, sometimes it doesn't even have to be on the field for it to be offensive.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious. Now, there's some things that you can do that are funny okay, but I really want people to. Obviously, this was not an act that was harmful, particularly to somebody else, right?
Speaker 2:It was harmful once they bust out the pepper spray.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because people started fighting and they were like I'm going to break it.
Speaker 1:That became harmful because it was an extreme act of disrespect.
Speaker 2:Okay, but you've never had pepper spray on your face. I don't suggest it. It's not great it sucks it's not like black pepper being around. It sucks. You don't even have to get it sprayed on your face and it still sucks and it doesn't taste like good peppers either.
Speaker 1:It's not good at all. It's not good. I agree, though, obviously, ohio feels like this is a situation that is either out of hand or could become out of hand, or could become worse. So the fact that they feel that they're at a point that they need to pass a, a law, by the way, I don't know that it will actually get passed.
Speaker 2:I to be honest, I just think that the coaches just need to get a better handle on their players and, once you lose the game, just get off the field the other thing is, most of the people who would come there to plant a flag are not from ohio.
Speaker 1:So sure you can hand me a felony citation they're michigan fans, yeah they're gonna go back to michigan and missions to be like well, fuck your felony ohio, because they live here with us and we say it's not a felony. So as long as they don't ever go back to Ohio, they're not felons they will still follow you?
Speaker 2:No, but if you get pulled over and they see that on your record they could detain you and then transfer you back to Ohio, Well, yeah, they'll still.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about after you go through that process. I'm not condoning the hide Bottom hide. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous and a step above but I agree, speaking of ridiculous, but kind of in a what this is a thing, we have Chapel Bill going on. Bill Belichick has decided he is going to coach in college football.
Speaker 1:Chapel, bill Belichick. Just in time for a Christmas season too Well this is not the first time this has happened.
Speaker 2:I mean Bill Walsh of the 49ers when he was done coaching for the 49ers or when they decided he was done, he went to coach at Stanford. It didn't go well for Bill Walsh. He did not have a very good record being the head coach of Stanford and Bill Belichick he goes down there and he is going to get a five-year deal with an annual salary of $10 million per and he has the ability every year to decide to opt out. I guess that's in case the NFL comes calling. But since that has happened and the college you know the Tar Heels have decided that they're upping their NIL from $4 million to $20 million after hiring Belichick. Now you can't tell me that they just did this on a whim. They did this because they know Belichick needs to build a team and Belichick needs players.
Speaker 1:And players are going to want to play for Belichick.
Speaker 2:Well, and he's going to bring some of his people. He's going to bring people to fill his staff. Now he's going to find out real quick that it's not like the NFL, where you have all day to coach and all day to have your players to get them ready for a game. You have time limits in college of how long you can be with your players.
Speaker 2:So, he's not going to have as much time to coach these guys up, but I do think that the one advantage that he does have he's going to be the best coach in his conference period because he has done more coaching and game planning and changing of game plan than any of the other coaches in his conference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'm eager to see how it works out for him. I mean, don't forget, he bounced a couple teams in the NFL before he got to the Patriots.
Speaker 2:Well, he was with the Browns before they decided to move to Baltimore and become the Ravens. And before he did that he had that team turned around and they were playing good football and, fun fact, Coach Saban, Nick Saban, was on his staff then.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:So he can definitely find a staff and build his staff.
Speaker 1:Honestly.
Speaker 2:And I think part of it is he's trying to set his son up. So if he decides to leave, kind of slide his son into that head coaching position.
Speaker 1:Well, that's possible as well. I think of it as hey man, I beat the game, so I'm going to start it over.
Speaker 2:I think he's trying to re-sculpt his image and try to show the NFL that he's not the Bill Belichick of old who won't answer questions no he's only got one girlfriend right now.
Speaker 1:I bet we see him with four girlfriends by the end of freaking Christmas.
Speaker 2:Look, belichick has a 24-year-old girlfriend and he's 72 years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's money all day. Look wow money all day. Like, wow, that's okay. Hey, if I had Bill Belichick money and Bill Belichick championships?
Speaker 2:I mean I'm 36, so the age gap is not realistic, but let's just say you're closer to her age than he is Just saying you know, love has no numbers. Look, love has no numbers. Look, love has no numbers, just bank accounts anyway. So that's not the only uh kind of college head coaching news that's coming about. So here recently there's been a little buzz with a certain former NFL and college player in Mike Vick.
Speaker 1:Michael.
Speaker 2:Vick, a Hampton Roads native, who he was getting some looks from Sacramento State, but he might already have an offer. He might already be blocked in to be the new coach of Norfolk State.
Speaker 1:So Sacramento's very funny. They think they're like we're going to get 40 mil. Get Michael Vick jump up to the FBS. Ha ha ha. No, michael Vick is the head coach. Norfolk State Spartans.
Speaker 2:It hasn't been officially announced by the college yet, but there has been plenty of insider news saying that, yeah, mike vick will be the next head coach of norfolk state university coming back to his hometown area which, by the way, our show is broadcast from hampton roads, virginia.
Speaker 1:So this is big news for us, both of us ham Hampton Roads natives, mike and myself.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think, congratulations to Vic and especially considering some of the adversity he's been through. Self-imposed adversity and I don't condone anything that he did. I do commend him for not trying to dodge or duck what he had done and he took ownership and he did hard time. He went to jail and served his time.
Speaker 1:you know inmates and kind of you know tell him his story and kind of give them advice on yeah, and what you can do to try to make yourself better, having done something that got you in there in the first place yeah, and I agree with that and I I think all of that is great, but I really want to focus on the success he set himself up for going forward. I mean, this is somebody and I can relate a little bit myself. This is somebody who's gone through. He had it, then he lost it, like you say, self-imposed. But either way he dealt with the repercussions and he is back and probably better than he was before. I have always been a fan of Vic myself personally. I mean it was sad to see what he went through. You never like to see people you care about go through things like that. But I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I know Norfolk State's excited and I think the Hampton Roads area is excited. So welcome home, buddy. I don't know you, but we're buddies. He's my buddy anyway. Anyway, uh, congratulations, michael vick.
Speaker 2:I know it's not official yet, but I I look forward to hearing about the official word myself speaking speaking of official words, uh, so apparently, if you want to transfer in college football and the transfer portal's open now, now there's a problem. We still have teams trying to play in bowl games and teams trying to play in the college football playoffs, and these teams that are trying to poach these players, they're telling them we don't want you playing. So it's either you come now or we don't have a deal. So either they leave and they get their NIL, or they don't leave and they stay and they play but they miss out on their NIL. So it's either leave get your NIL, or don't leave. Now there's two sides to this. I know people are going oh, this is a shame, they're just money grabbing. They're bailing on their teams, not exactly. This is turning into a year-to-year effort with these players where some players are basically being told hey, we're not bringing you back next year, so you better figure something out.
Speaker 2:And they have to transfer.
Speaker 1:Well, let me add something to this logic here. Okay, I got a couple things on this right. Um, first of all, if you know you're not going to be an nfl prospect, hell yeah, I say take the nil, especially if it's a better program in a better school. I say take it.
Speaker 2:I think that college needs to look at this and be like this is dumb. We need to open this up after the bowl games, after all of the college playoffs and they probably will Because this is absurd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you're right.
Speaker 2:Because you're handicapping teams that are in it? Yeah, and I think you're right, because you're handicapping teams that are in it. Like you have quarterbacks that are backups, that are transferring yeah, that now, what is that team supposed to do? They're out of backup.
Speaker 1:The NIL is a new thing. Right, they're still learning. It's going to evolve. They're going to add rules. I hope so. They're going to add things to it. But the other thing I want to add to that is about the transferring teams. A lot of people go to college okay, a lot of people don't even finish college, especially pro athletes. A lot of people go to college, graduate and take jobs and develop careers in fields that have nothing to do with what they did. College is higher education.
Speaker 2:It's good if you can get it.
Speaker 1:Most of these guys. Yeah right, most of these guys and girls people, whatever sport they're playing. We're talking about football, so I said guys.
Speaker 2:We just said guys and girls.
Speaker 1:Guys and girls, but whatever.
Speaker 2:Because, let's face it, kaitlin Clark probably got her fair share of it. Or well people.
Speaker 1:I mean, a lot of these folks are probably looking at their prospects of I'm either going to be a life student because you don't pay on student loans right now as long as you're a student.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're playing. You're playing eligibility. Uh used to be. It's only four years and then you're done, no matter what. But now they've found all these loopholes for covid years and red shirt years and yeah all this other rigmarole where they found ways to stretch it out, like seven years, some of these people might not even be planning on finishing college or their degree or their respective degrees.
Speaker 1:They should, and I agree they should. I am an advocate for education all day. But in this society, in this day and age, when money's on the table and right in front of you, I say take it, because you can go back and get your education. You can go back and do whatever you want to do, because the money is not always going to be there on the table.
Speaker 2:Well, think about it this way If you've been at an institution, say like Stanford, and you've been there for three years and you're almost done finishing your school, and you're almost done finishing your school and they tell you on your senior year, they're like hey, we're replacing you, we got this kid coming out of whatever school. We're paying him NIL. He's better at your position. Figure something out, because you won't be back next year. Well, now you have to transfer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, they just laid it out for you.
Speaker 2:But you were planning on finishing your degree at Stanford so you could say I'm a Stanford grad Because, let's face it, when you play or when you graduate, for certain schools it opens doors. So you know, saying that you have a graduate degree from whatever institution like, okay, there's a difference in saying I graduated from Georgia Tech and I graduated from Harvard, right. So it might you're either telling that person they got to come back and finish their degree later, which that's pretty tough. It's pretty tough to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean, but you also got to remember, right?
Speaker 2:And they might not even pull NIL dollars to come back and pay for that because they might have been on scholarship and getting it for free. So now you're telling them hey, guess what getting it for free? So now you're telling them hey, guess what that thing you were getting for free. Now you got to pay.
Speaker 1:You know, close to six thousand dollars per semester a lot of these people, if they get the nil deals they want, they could. They could care less, but like life, a lot of these young folks are learning. Life does not always pan out the way you plan right and sometimes life doesn't care about your point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes plan.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, plan after plan after plan, doesn't work. So I agree with the opportunistic. Hey, there's an NIL deal here right now. I realize I want to finish my degree here. I realize I really want to graduate from Stanford right, this would do a lot for me in the future. Possibly I'm not going to be an NFL prospect, but this school is offering me a really good NIL deal. I go there, start for a few years, go to school there, make the money, maybe make some money. It might not be all the money in the world, but if you do it smartly, vest it wisely, do some smart stuff with it, you'll have resources available. Go back to Stanford. Go back to Stanford.
Speaker 2:If you have done well with it, you will not be hard-pressed to get immediately into the workforce.
Speaker 1:Well, you know it's definitely got to get figured out. I agree with the rules of that, though I agree with there should be some restrictions there. I agree with what you're saying.
Speaker 2:They need to move when it's opened. It needs to be after bowl games and playoffs are done.
Speaker 2:And speaking of playoffs, we have the first round of college football playoff games happening this weekend. So very first game off the slate, Friday night, December 20th, You're going to have the Battle of Indiana. Basically you have Indiana versus Notre Dame and that game will be kicking off at 8 o'clock Eastern. You can catch it on ABC or ESPN. We'll see who wins that matchup, because I personally am interested in the game. It seems like a really good game.
Speaker 1:That's Friday night, you say right December 20th.
Speaker 2:Yes, December 20th, Friday night.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:So after that we have games Saturday, december 21st, starting with a noon kickoff on TNT, and Max for your streaming service will be SMU and Penn State. Now Penn State to me I feel like they've got a little bit of an easier path to the national championship because, let's face it, they're facing SMU. I mean, smu has Genting and they've been a good team, but they haven't really played the same kind of teams that Penn State has. So Penn State, I feel, is a bit of a favorite in this game.
Speaker 1:Hey, real quick, you want to know another fun fact, another popular running back coming out of SMU Alfred Morris, 2012, washington Redskins, or.
Speaker 2:Commanders these days, oh Lord, all right. Aside from that, sorry folks, we'll move on to the 4 o'clock game. Saturday will be Clemson and Texas. Now, clemson played some good ball down the stretch and played their way into the playoffs, but they're probably going to get bounced by Texas. I hate to say it, texas is pretty good in there.
Speaker 1:They're pretty good, but let me tell you what I like both of these teams, man.
Speaker 2:I mean, we see upsets in the March Madness. I don't know that we're going to see the same kind of style upsets, but what do I know? We had plenty of upsets all season long. I mean, everybody other than Oregon has a loss going into these playoffs.
Speaker 1:What's Texas this quarter? Is that Ewer's team? Yeah, by the way, he's got an offer for another school.
Speaker 2:Meh, they better keep him.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they're going to have a choice.
Speaker 2:They might not. They might have to turn to Archie, but you can catch that game on TNT and, for streaming services, on Max. So the next game up at the 8 o'clock slot on saturday will be tennessee and ohio state, that is going to be a game.
Speaker 1:Where are they playing?
Speaker 2:at uh, let's see, let's see, let's see they are going to play I think, they're playing, I think they're. I think they're playing in Ohio. Okay, yeah, I'm pretty sure they are. My apologies for not having that ready, but you can catch that game they better win.
Speaker 1:so there's no flag-planting problems.
Speaker 2:You can catch that game on ABC or ESPN, probably streaming for ESPN or just on ESPN itself.
Speaker 1:I hate to see them Tennessee volunteers wearing an F for felony instead of a T for Tennessee.
Speaker 2:This is the first round of the playoffs. All these teams will be moving on Well, not all of them, but the winners of these games will be moving on to Well, not all of them, but the winners of these games will be moving on to play the teams that had the buy in the bracket. So this is the first round of them. This is the first bracket.
Speaker 1:It's going to be fun, december 31st.
Speaker 2:This is going to be well. First bracket of this size.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're talking about this bracket, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:Where we had teams of buys and you know where we have more teams is basically that.
Speaker 1:I think it's a good setup. To be honest with you, I think it needs some refining, but I like it so far.
Speaker 2:I like that they're adjusting things to make it better and, to be honest, I've been more impressed with this college football season than some of the past years because I feel like it's a little more even across the board. You're seeing a lot more teams be more competitive. We saw a lot of upsets this year.
Speaker 1:It's been a good year for college football overall, in my opinion? Yeah, I think it has as well. You know, I think we tried to cover the Independence Bowl but we got off with the NIL stuff. Marshall has had to opt out versus the Army amid what we were talking about the portal exodus and Louisiana Tech has been tabbed as their replacement.
Speaker 2:Yeah because, they can't get the team together because they have people opting out.
Speaker 1:They lost more than 30 players through that.
Speaker 2:Because they're following their coach. Their coach is leaving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're leaving. So I mean again it needs to be reformed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they need to figure this out before it becomes an even bigger issue, where you have players just up and leave teams that have a legitimate, like you have a number one team and their quarterback goes yeah, I'm not going to play. Why? Because I'm transferring.
Speaker 1:And Marshall with their particular history with football. So this is kind of sad for them. Yeah, is what it is Speaking of, football.
Speaker 2:So this is kind of sad for them. So yeah, speaking of football, Fools Bowl, let's move on to NFL action.
Speaker 1:Let's recap some of last week's action the NFL, the NFL the.
Speaker 2:NFL. So we will start by talking about that Thursday night game of the Rams and 49ers and I'm sad to say the 49ers lost that game. Now it was kind of a snooze fest for most people because it was a giant kicking fest. There was no real touchdown scored, Not a lot happened? Not a lot happened in that game, A lot of defense being played, but you know there was a bit of a rainstorm that went through and kind of made the first half it was really nasty weather. The first half was really nasty.
Speaker 1:The raindrops were so big I thought it was snow for a second.
Speaker 2:But the big takeaway from this game was the fact that Dre Greenlaw, who had torn his Achilles in last year's Super Bowl, just trying to go on the field he wasn't even on the field playing. He just happened to be on the field and winds up, or going onto the field and winds up tearing his Achilles. He finally comes back from injury and his replacement during the year has been Devondre Campbell. Now, Devondre Campbell played well while he was in, but he is not Drake Greenlaw.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Drake Greenlaw is an outstanding player and he has a lot of goodwill built up with the team. So the fact that he comes back and gets his starting job back is no surprise. But what's a surprise is when Drake Greenlaw hurts his knee and says hey, taps the helmet, I need to come out. Hurting, which is no surprise, because you need to ease back anyway, mount. Hurting, which is no surprise, because you need ease back anyway. They tap Devondre to go into the game and he refuses. He says no, I'm good, I'm not going in. And he even further insults the team by going to the locker room. Now, I don't know if he was sent to the locker room, but he refuses to play In the third quarter. He's asked hey, get in there, we need you. And he bails on his team.
Speaker 1:He more likely went on his own. I can't think of a head coach.
Speaker 2:Most of the time it's go sit on the bench. Well, singletary did that to Vernon Davis back in the day, where he said can't win with him and sent Vernon Davis to the locker room and where is Singletary? Now Coaching in college. All right, Not in the NFL, but he did do that. It was kind of as a Niner fan. We all remember that and those of us who are Niner fans, we remember that.
Speaker 1:Those of us who aren't also remember that how.
Speaker 2:Vernon Davis was about 20 steps away and he goes to him, yells to him hey, take your helmet. He made him come back and grab his helmet and then go to locker room, but that's not this situation. This situation a little bit different is a little bit big time different a lot different honestly, and it had a lot of players speaking up like yeah, Debo.
Speaker 2:Kittle Lenore Bosa. All of his teammates are like this is BS and you shouldn't bail on your team. You're you're letting everybody next to you down by not going in the game yeah, and you're wasting time at the same time.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, this guy wears number 59. Historical player among linebackers across several teams, my team in particular, the commanders mr london fletcher. Okay, oh, this is. You know, you're wearing a, a notoriety. Excuse me, you're wearing a solid number man. That's been worn by some legendary players before you.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know that that has much bearing in this situation. It probably does not, but I just thought I'd throw that in there.
Speaker 1:But that's things that I consider, like, who else has worn this number? Not just on my team, but before me, right? But I agree with you, like your team. You guys are in battle right now. Okay, you can't just walk out of battle.
Speaker 2:You're leaving your dudes there, man ryan clark of espn said he should never play in the nfl again I mean I agree, and and I kind of agree with them because you've shown your character, you know, through this action and and when somebody shows you who they are, believe them.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 2:Believe that they will do this again and I agree.
Speaker 2:Because this is an action of a selfish player, because there are so many guys that don't even get this opportunity and they would kill to have this opportunity. They do everything in their power to play to the standard, to get to where he's at, and you just do this. So the question after this happened was what are the Niners going to do? Are they going to release him? Are they going to suspend him? What's going to happen? And it finally came out that he has suspended the rest of the season for three games. So the Niners aren't going to give him the ability to just walk out the door and go to somebody else and try to be a contender on another team. They're not doing that and it really is something that more teams should do.
Speaker 1:No Super Bowl for you.
Speaker 2:Well, more teams should do this, for the simple fact that you don't want to set a precedence of letting a player decide they're going to sit out and you're going to release them and they'll go to another team.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know, because then it becomes oh well, I don't want to play because I want to get released.
Speaker 1:No, I agree. Suspend them for the remainder of the season. I don't care if you're in week two, week six or week 15.
Speaker 2:It's a bad look.
Speaker 1:Suspension for the Razor, and the NFL has battled so many public affairs issues already, right, just say the last 10 years. Right, this could have been bigger than it was. This is not one that they need. So I agree with the coaching staff and I agree I'm not here to pile onto him, but you know poor judgment, he let himself get in his head, his emotions, he made poor judgment call and you're right. Like there are literally thousands, might even today be hundreds of thousands of people trying to get into the NFL in some capacity, not even just as players, it's just some some capacity. I mean, you even have video games now, right, that are relevant in the NFL. So, like, this is a very hard opportunity that I feel that he is exercise poor judgment with, and you're right. It is a bad look for the NFL overall and I agree with the suspension yeah, I agree too so yeah, but uh, coming out of that game, the rams win 12 to 6.
Speaker 2:Uh, the rams actually, with that win uh, are now leading the nfc west and we'll get a little more into that as we go through the scores of how that became. So, going on to the next game, we had the Dallas Cowboys playing the Panthers and had a little regression of the Panthers this week. They didn't play as well and they wound up losing to the Cowboys 30-14.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very hot and cold team the Panthers. You know there's a team you can see that's trying to get it together. I don't know what happened against the Cowboys.
Speaker 2:They just couldn't get the running game going. It looked like. I mean and they couldn't keep protection for Young. He had people in his face. It seemed like all game long.
Speaker 1:The Cowboys uh run defense plus their defense front. Now they did lose a notable player I forgot which one, but uh, they lost a notable player in that game as well.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, I mean just check the injury report yeah, we'll just say yeah, we'll check it.
Speaker 1:I should have had the information in front of me.
Speaker 2:Sorry, we're new here you know these are not, you know, playoff teams, so we're we're gonna we of me Sorry, we're new here these are not playoff teams, so we're going to move on. We're not concerned with them and I as a.
Speaker 1:Washington fan definitely was not concerned with Dallas. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:So we have the Chiefs and Browns played each other, and it was kind of a gritty game, albeit we didn't have Winston playing this time. Time we had dorian thompson playing instead of him at quarterback. So, uh, the chiefs finally finally get a two-score victory, winning 21 to 7, but the the game it well. The wind's kind of bittersweet because they won, but at the same time Patrick Mahomes got hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He has a the tackle. Just, he jumped up to make a throw and then the defender comes behind him, wraps up both legs and he kind of gets rolled up on a little, causing him to have a high ankle sprain, although they say it's a minor high ankle sprain and it looked like both ankles. So high ankle sprains, they're no fun, they hurt all the time. It makes it very difficult to move around. Yeah, they're aggravating. You know any little move and you can aggravate it again. So it's kind of almost questioning do you want to start him next week against Houston or do you want to let him just sit and hand the reins to Carson Wentz?
Speaker 2:Honestly they got a two-game lead in first Two-game lead.
Speaker 1:what is it? Three games left in the season for them. Yeah, you're already locked into the playoffs. You might not be locked in the number one seed. You just lost that to the Bills.
Speaker 2:Well, they haven't lost it. They have that two-game lead.
Speaker 1:And really if they win and the Bills lose.
Speaker 2:They take the number one spot outright and they don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 1:We'll get to the Bills here momentarily. Yeah, we'll get to worry about it. We'll get to the bills here momentarily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll get to that momentarily, but to me you sit them. You sit them because it's not about next week.
Speaker 2:You want to win the big game and the only way you're going to get into the playoffs and win is if you have a healthy team and a healthy quarterback, and that's a problem when you have your star quarterback hurt. Now it's not like they're turning it over to some you know no-name. They're handing it over to Carson Wentz. He was a starter in this league. He has won crucial games in this league. So you can't exactly go oh well, we're going to be handicapped next week. Hey, I'm not saying. I'm not saying they're having kurt warner come off the bench. I'm just saying they have, they have a, I wouldn't they have a viable.
Speaker 2:They have a viable backup who can come in and hold the reins for a game or two to let patrick heal yeah, if he can play smart football, keep it short and not turn it over. He has Andy Reid, he'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were a good fit together back then. Yeah, I mean, I agree, I think you should bench Mahomes, like you're coasting into the playoffs, I mean.
Speaker 2:Get your team healthy.
Speaker 1:I agree, get your team healthy. I mean, you've been on the fringe of losing close games anyway. You have the Texans next. They just beat Miami.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of which, yeah, they beat Miami 20-12.
Speaker 1:I don't. Denver leads who. They lead their division, don't they who?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Houston, Houston. With that win they locked up their division.
Speaker 1:So they're going to be the same thing. They know they're not knocking Kansas City out of anything. They're not even in competition with Kansas City. Houston's going to take it. They're going to have a relaxed game script.
Speaker 2:I doubt it because, let's face it, when you're the reigning Super Bowl champ, you're getting the best out of every team every week, whether or not it means something or not, Might be Sorry.
Speaker 1:I was trying to see what the Colts, because they're the closest competitors to knocking Houston out of their playoffs Houston already locked up their division. So I don't see why Houston won't have a slightly more relaxed. Everybody wants to be the best.
Speaker 2:D'Amico Ryan's not going to do that.
Speaker 1:They're going to play hard, but they're not. I don't think this is a make or break for them, so I don't think they're going to approach it that way, especially if Patrick Mahomes doesn't play. We'll see'll see because if patrick mahomes doesn't play, I think houston wins this game, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Okay yeah, I feel like they'll want. Well, we're getting ahead. We're talking about the game from last week. So houston beat Miami and Tua looked a shell of himself in that game because he was rushed so much in that game, pushed off his spot and made some really questionable throws at times.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember one pass he was throwing to Tyree Kill and it was kind of behind him, him, and the corner picked him off and it was just like, oh man, why'd you even throw that? I mean like throw it away. I mean don't throw that pass, but, man, Maybe you think Houston.
Speaker 1:Maybe just had his number, or you think he's getting a little tired through the end of the season.
Speaker 2:Well, Houston has a decent defense. They have great defense. They have some good young players and they're kind of coming into the realm.
Speaker 1:Make no mistake, houston has run a good defense for some time, yeah.
Speaker 2:But moving on to the next game of the Jets and the Jaguars, now the Jets and Jaguars. If you did not watch this game, this game was actually a pretty fun game to watch. This game was actually a pretty fun game to watch because you had Aaron Rodgers who kind of looked like Aaron Rodgers of old, with Devontae Adams hooking up with him for multiple touchdown passes and it was kind of a back-and-forth game. It was kind of a fun game to watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were airing it out. I only watched it through fantasy and I started Isaiah Davis, so I assume the run game did not have a ton of success. It gets a strong Jacksonville front.
Speaker 2:Well, it was the passing game.
Speaker 1:It was really on display, well, I mean they game plan for that. Jacksonville does have a strong defensive front when it comes through uh, run defense. But again, you know, aaron rogers, they went out, balled out it was pat 32, 25. You know, obviously they're out there throwing it. Um, yeah, so not a bad game to watch from two low level teams. This is right, because this is the end of the season. This is when you start to see the not-so-good teams ball out, because they're like all right, I finally figured it out.
Speaker 2:We've got to play for something.
Speaker 1:They're like. I finally figured it out, but like the party's almost over, bro, you're too late.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're too late.
Speaker 1:You're, we're about to leave bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the party's winding down and we're going somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we done got drunk, got sober. Now we're going to Waffle House, okay, and you're still I don't know what y'all doing, but you're partying like it's 9 o'clock.
Speaker 2:We don't want to get in Speaking of what are y'all doing? How about that Washington and Saints game where y'all barely won 20-19.
Speaker 1:The refs tried so hard to let New Orleans win that game.
Speaker 2:This is how you know you're talking to a fan of the team, because it's always the refs screwed us. The refs tried so hard.
Speaker 1:Look, they called roughing the passer at one point and it was clearly not roughing. I think they did this at least twice. It was clearly not roughing the passer and they gave them roughing the passer calls. I said oh, that's BS. But there were other calls. They didn't call on us or on them for us. They tried really hard.
Speaker 2:Equal opportunity to no calls is what you're saying, and thank you for trying to go for the two-point.
Speaker 1:they tried really hard and, by the way, equal opportunity no calls is what you're saying, and and thank you for trying to go for the two point and just getting this shit fest over with, because we were supposed to win and we did and yeah, y'all had, y'all had a way bigger spread before game like they.
Speaker 2:They basically said y'all should have blown them out and you didn't.
Speaker 1:They didn't even have Derek Carr, my guy Like what. Shouldn't have been close.
Speaker 2:Should have looked more like this next score, with the Ravens beating the Giants 35-14.
Speaker 1:First of all, I don't think the Giants should have even scored 14 points, so that on them is a good job, okay, because the Giants also suck. Just want to say that right now.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to retort that, because the fact that you have fans flying signs over the stadium saying you know, pleading to the owner please save us from this dumpster fire.
Speaker 1:I mean Lamar Jackson put up five touchdown passes. I said it all season the Giants aren't stopping anybody, bro. I don't even know how they got 14 points.
Speaker 2:They are stopping somebody Themselves from getting a win, when you tell your best player before the season starts. You know, just go out, see what you can find and come back to us and we'll see if we can match it.
Speaker 1:This week, the Ravens prevented them from getting a win. Okay, Let me tell you what. They didn't get their own way. The Ravens look at it. Okay, what did I say here? Right, Freaking? The Ravens came in this, came in this thing. All right, sit back, let me sit back here so what did the ravens do?
Speaker 1:look, I've. I lost my train of thought for a second because I lost my notes. But they came in here here all right, and I got to give credit to my guy, duke Silver, like Uncle Eddie's RV, and the shitter was definitely full because they unloaded all over the Giants with five touchdown passes, lamar, saying I'm still in this MVP race, brothers, okay, that's what went down. Okay, thank you for giving me a moment to put that together.
Speaker 2:Alright, so moving on to the next.
Speaker 1:That was really hard.
Speaker 2:Moving on to the next game Bengals and Titans. So the Bengals pull off the win 37-27. And really that score does not really dictate how the game kind of really was. I mean, the titans, yeah, they had some flashes, but they just they never felt like they were in the game, they felt like oh yeah, good for you you got a score.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean just like I hate to say. I hate to say it like that because you know, to me I hold the Titans kind of near and dear to my heart because I've been to Well, no, I've been to a couple of their preseason games.
Speaker 1:Also sorry.
Speaker 2:And you know, I remember the days of Steve McNair, eddie George and that group, and you know the Music City Miracle. You know, I remember that Tennessee team and how fun they were. This team they're in a rebuild. They're trying but they have a long way to go.
Speaker 1:Will Levis.
Speaker 2:You think he wears?
Speaker 1:Levi's Well.
Speaker 2:I want to say something about the quarterback situation there, but I'll save that until we talk about the next week's games Moving down. We've got the Cardinals facing the Patriots, where the Cardinals beat the Patriots 30-17. Now I feel like the Patriots they're not. It's not that they're playing bad ball, it's that they are playing towards the future, like you can see where things are kind of building towards.
Speaker 1:Honestly.
Speaker 2:They have a path towards getting better, because you're seeing players playing a little bit better and a little bit better.
Speaker 1:I think the Patriots are balling out. They just play in teams that have it together more that ball better. Yeah, they have it together more than they do.
Speaker 2:The other team has better balls. Look yeah, the other team has better balls.
Speaker 1:Look, yeah, the other team has better balls. Anyway, I love what New England and their coaching staff is doing up there. They might not be winning a lot, but if you watch their games, these guys are balling, these guys are playing, they're trying to get better.
Speaker 2:They need more pieces.
Speaker 1:They need more pieces and they're running a pretty good scheme. Let me tell you what. Again, obviously, arizona team, they just have more pieces 30-17,. Okay, this team's boot of Baker is their safety. Okay, he's an all-pro. I know it's half their score, but it's not easy to score on a team like Arizona. Okay, they do have relatively decent pass defense. I've got to give New England credit. I have all season.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to stop now Moving on to the next game we've got the Broncos and the Colts. We've got a horse battle where the Denver Broncos, despite a bad showing in the first half, they won the game 31-13. Now the tide that turned in this game was when Taylor, the running back of the Colts, breaks off a big run and it looks like he's home free for scoring the touchdown, but he pulls it to sean jackson and drops the ball before he crosses the line. It's weird is? I don't understand this.
Speaker 2:I don't understand like we've had more relevant I do not understand why players do this we've had, we've had more. I do not want to see you put that ball on the ground until you are turning around and passing by the goalpost. You should not. That ball should not come out of your hands until you're heading back to the bench.
Speaker 1:I don't even want you to turn around at the goalpost. I don't, I want you to turn around at all. I want you to do forest and run home. Like jump into the stands and keep going, and then you can drop the ball.
Speaker 2:This play pissed me off something fierce because and I know it doesn't matter most people are not going to care this guy's heart probably isn't getting any better. My fantasy team in my money league. I lost because of this. I literally lost by less than .2. If he would have held on to that ball it would have been a touchdown.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what?
Speaker 2:else it's six points.
Speaker 1:You know what else sucks? Having five out of 11 players show up and ball out in the first round of the playoffs and you lose because of it. Hey.
Speaker 2:Anyway, you know, just had to have that little gripe for a second.
Speaker 1:Thank you yeah, thank you all for a good fantasy season.
Speaker 2:We're both big fancy football, but maybe we'll start fancy football podcast next season, but you know, kudos to the, to the broncos in that game because they did not play good offense in the first half. Their defense kind of held them up in the first half and then they came out second half and really showed up.
Speaker 1:At least they got it together. Sean Payne's team seems to be coming together and got Bo Nix, Bo Nix in the Rookie of the Year conversation now bro, he's not going to get it.
Speaker 2:It's going to be your guy, it's going to be Jaden Daniels, everybody freaking knows this. Come on, bro so speaking of offense, how about that Buffalo and Lions game? Bro, when the final scores the most points scored. The next week we get more points than the last week.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you.
Speaker 2:Most points scored this season, with the Buffalo Bills winning 48-42.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you. Are you more surprised that Buffalo put up 48 points on Detroit, or are you more surprised that Detroit only scored 42 points?
Speaker 2:I am not surprised. Well, first off, the scoring of the points. I don't think is a surprise because both these teams have some stellar offensive play. The surprise here for me is the fact that the Lions defense, which has been a pretty decent defense, has given up this many points. But it is due to what happened and has been happening to this defense. They've been losing players left and right. They've been dropping like flies In that game. Their best defensive tackle, McNeil, goes down with an ACL tear and he's out because of the ACL tear, so he's done. And then, to add injury, to insult their best corner, Carlton Davis fractures his jaw in the game, so he's out. They already have Aiden Hutchinson out.
Speaker 1:Turn it over to the offense.
Speaker 2:You know and look, when you start losing key players on your defense and you go against a team that has been putting up big-time points every week, it's pretty damn hard to hold them back. And I mean that's kind of why, with 12 minutes to go, in the fourth you have Dan Campbell saying we're going to go for the onside kick. Now, okay, I find this onside kick rule dumb. I do not like the fact that you have to announce to the other team you're doing an onside kick. It takes part of the onside kick surprise out of it. We all remember that Saints-Colts Super Bowl where they did a surprise onside kick after halftime and everybody's like, oh my God, look, they did it, they got it. You're taking that element away.
Speaker 1:You used to have to predict that, like I remember I remember watching redskins they'd be like, all right, we think they're gonna kick an odd sidekick, so they would line up an onside kick formation. Yes, and lo and behold. Sometimes they kick it deep. But if they did, they did. But, like you, would line up ready, like these are. These are game time situations that the opposing team used to have to learn to recognize. Yes, so now that you have to announce, I agree with you. It takes away from the game.
Speaker 2:It takes away from the element of surprise and it just makes it kind of hokey, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why would you want to broadcast what you're doing? It's the equivalent of telling them what play you're running next on offense hey, we're gonna hey, hey, you know, hey, we're gonna pass it make sure you hey guys, make sure you stack the box. We're gonna run it yeah, exactly run it right out the maze.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I want to see 11 guys in that box the only I'm gonna complete a touchdown pass to myself the only time that that ever happens is with you know the eagles and that whole tush push. That always works. I hate that play. I find it super annoying.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because the Coke head's scheming the plays for them.
Speaker 2:Oh, their coach, Anyway I mean he's not doing it.
Speaker 1:I mean he literally took the quarterback sneak and turned it into the tush push. Okay, we're going to do a quarterback sneak, but everybody's going to push his ass forward literally.
Speaker 2:I'm really tired of the announcers saying oh, look at Jalen Hurts. He's so strong, he can squat 700 pounds. He's not on the ground. His players are pushing him over the pot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I had a fullback and a tight end and a running back, pushing my ass into fucking defensive line too, like he's basically a ragdoll at that point I gotta wonder if, for the leverage play, if they're not just looming up a thumb to help them get some better grip and push him through just put it in he just perks up a little bit, push the ball forward.
Speaker 2:It makes him jerk a little bit and pushes the ball forward.
Speaker 1:It makes him jerk. Just enough to get the nose past the line. Push it in there. There you go.
Speaker 2:I already have the first down.
Speaker 1:We have the first down. Don't let go of the ball. Don't get the ball.
Speaker 2:But anyway. So the Bills outstanding game, they really took it to the Lions. You know, outstanding game, they really took it to the Lions. The Lions did all they could I mean they really were humming on offense and unfortunately also in that game they lost Montgomery. He's done. He has an MCL injury, so he's not going to be playing.
Speaker 1:That's going to hurt, that's going to seriously hurt them.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're just losing so many players and I hate to see it because at the beginning of the year, because I've already seen it with my team. I've seen all these players go down and our team was a shell of itself. And now the Lions are having the same thing happen and if they're not careful, the Vikings are going to come up and take that spot from them yeah, they got they better.
Speaker 1:They better watch their, they better watch their ass with that and then, and in green bay, and in play as well, oh, yeah, green bay is not going to get it though I gotta give it up to dan campbell and his staff though he has got this team, despite the injuries, playing playoff competitive football. They put up, I mean the offense put. I'm interested to see how their offense operates going forward without Montgomery.
Speaker 2:Getting them, biting them, kneecaps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm interested to see how this affects them going forward, because Montgomery is a huge part of their game plan.
Speaker 2:Maybe Buffalo is biting kneecaps with the fact they had two players go out with knee injuries.
Speaker 1:They probably wish they had Montgomery at one point but, next moving on 40, 17,. This seemed like a bad matchup for the Buccaneers offense.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so Buccaneers and the chargers.
Speaker 1:Buccaneers and the Chargers Buccaneers take it 4-17. This was not supposed to be a good matchup for the Buccaneers, Mike. What do you think happened here?
Speaker 2:I think Baker just showed out and they took it to the Harbaugh-led Chargers, who probably weren't expecting that kind of play out of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe they were sleeping a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, if nobody's been paying attention, the Buccaneers have had the best play out of their offensive line these past few weeks. Baker is sitting in that pocket. He does not look worried. He is taking on the responsibility of sitting in that pocket getting his throws out, and he does not look worried, he's just standing there. Standing there, there's my guy. Boom hits him. So when you have your offensive line healthy and you have them playing outstanding line play which which, mind you, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Eagles this year and they've beaten the Lions this year, so that's not a team you want to face come playoff time. But they better be careful because if Atlanta ever figures out their acting and if they can win out and there's a tie situation, atlanta has the tiebreaker because Atlanta's beaten Tampa twice. So not so fast. Tampa, you're playing great, but you need to keep playing great Because you have a one-game lead on Atlanta and you better hope if you're a Bucs fan, you better hope that Cousins keeps playing like Cousins.
Speaker 1:Hey, winning your end right.
Speaker 2:Well, you got to win.
Speaker 1:Just keep on playing because honestly I think Atlanta's going to slip a little bit, but we'll get to that in a minute here. Next up we had the Steelers versus Philly. Steelers lost 13,.
Speaker 2:Philly put up 27 philly is, they were missing pickings, but they were missing pickings, but look is philly a juggernaut now.
Speaker 1:Aren't they on the same? Are they in the same conversation as the lions and the bills, I think?
Speaker 2:I think with this and the ravens, I think, with this win and the way they and the Chiefs and the Ravens, I think, with this win and the way they've looked like a complete team these past few weeks, despite all the dysfunction which they have, to be the most miserable team that is winning. If you had the dysfunction, they're in Philly.
Speaker 1:I'd be miserable too.
Speaker 2:Well, if you have the dysfunction that they have, you would think that they're not winning games. But they're winning games and still acting dysfunctional. It's the oddest thing. If you didn't see their record and you saw all the chatter about receivers saying we're not passing the ball like we should be and we're not the same team and da-da-da-da-da-da.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, you have Saquon barkley putting up 200 yards.
Speaker 2:A game bro and and you have your crackhead of a coach. I wouldn't be yelling, yelling at fans.
Speaker 1:I would only pass when I had to if I had barkley to run it for 12 to 15 yards of play, I'd be like, yeah, bro, you'll get the ball when I feel like it.
Speaker 2:So an interesting, an interesting stat that I heard about this game, this game in particular, they played in Philly. Do you know when the last time the Steelers won In Philly? Now, granted, keep in mind they don't play each other all the time.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say 2016.
Speaker 2:Further back 1987. Further back 1805. The league wasn't around then.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:I'll just tell you.
Speaker 1:Do not lie to me, Mike.
Speaker 2:Just kidding, 1965. Jeez, that was the last time the Steelers won in Philly. They have lost 11 games in Philly.
Speaker 1:When was the inception of the NFL? Wasn't it like in the? Wasn't it like right around that time?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, jesus, yeah, well, they haven't exactly had a string of success in Philly, but thankfully they don't have to play Philly every year.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's okay Philly can have that record because the Steelers have five championship races. Philly don't have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, true. But moving on to the night game of Sunday, we had the Packers versus the Seahawks in Seattle.
Speaker 1:I had such different hopes for this game.
Speaker 2:Well, the Seattle Seahawks actually paid a little tribute to their fans and the 12th man at halftime during that, which was pretty cool. They did a little drone show which, if you haven't seen it, check it out. It's kind of cool. But that was the only thing cool from the Seahawks side, because they got stomped in that game. Gino spent a lot of time being chased around and he actually got hurt in that game where he kind of tweaked his knee, and they brought in Howell, your former Washington quarterback, and he looked like garbage the same way he looked last year.
Speaker 2:Whoa, he kind of had like a quarterback rating of like 13, which is An improvement. It's almost like you didn't even want to put anybody back there.
Speaker 1:That's what she said.
Speaker 2:You probably would have got better production out of a broom.
Speaker 1:Realistically and we see that all the time.
Speaker 2:But the Packers were playing stellar defense and they were playing good on offense, you know, using that power run game which kind of shows like to sit there and you had Aaron Jones for years. But then you see your offense. You really want to do a power run game and you see a free agent in Jacobs and you say that's exactly who I need. And they have looked so much better with Jacobs on their team.
Speaker 1:Oh, jacobs is definitely the Saquon Barkley in Green Bay, and let's give some credit to Green Bay's defense because they historically are a very high-powered offense, but their defense is one of the best in the league this year. They're doing all right, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're playing great. They're playing great, I mean.
Speaker 1:Seattle is not anything to shake a stick at. They have a high-powered offense. They only put up 13 points, man.
Speaker 2:Well, they were also missing. Uh, they're starting running back walker and uh, yeah, they just yeah, but they have three good receivers, though still.
Speaker 1:Uh, let's see here next up monday night's. You know, last night's double header, chicago, minnesota. Before we get too deep in this, I just want to say justin jefferson putting up props to randy moss going through cancer treatment right now, um yeah you know, best wishes to you, randy moss. Um, you know, good luck, man, and glad to see you doing well so far with it yeah, they removed you didn't hear they actually removed the cancer.
Speaker 2:Now he's going to start going through radiation yeah uh, we're, we're really hoping that he that he gets the care he needs and that he recovers quickly Yep absolutely, and you know thoughts and prayers to his family because you know you don't just go through cancer yourself, your family goes through it as well.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and it is a battle, bro, like you. Yeah, people hear treatment, you know the word treatment. But if you've never been through treatment, you don't understand how not just cancer treatment, it's a battle You're in a fight.
Speaker 2:So two speeches if you want to get a context of cancer and kind of hear it from the horse's mouth, from two people that kind of lived well, that did live through it and gave some really impactful speeches.
Speaker 2:The Jim Valvano listened to his speech and listened to Stuart Scott. They gave some really great speeches about cancer and about, you know, helping fund cancer research. You know, I think everybody knows someone or has someone in their family that has dealt with it. So we just we're hoping for the best for Randy and hopefully he has speedy recovery and makes it back okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but yeah, much love to you and your family Just before I went too far.
Speaker 1:I wanted to say that real quick. By the way, Minnesota putting a hurtin' on Chicago 30-12. Come on, guys, Are you trying to get into the playoffs, or what?
Speaker 2:Well, the Bears have no hope of making a playoffs.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about the Vikings. Forget the Bears we forgot in making a playoffs. I'm talking about the Vikings. Forget the Bears. We forgot about them since week six. Let's talk about the Vikings, bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're looking complete and they've got a good dilemma on their hands. So they only have Darnold this year and they have their quarterback in waiting. Jj McCarthy, jj.
Speaker 1:McCarthy.
Speaker 2:Although he's recovering this year and they have their quarterback in waiting and uh, jj mccarthy, jj mccarthy, although he's recovering, he's recovering from from, uh, a knee surgery he had, so he's not ready and he kind of needs a little time to to groom anyway. So the thought is, do you sign donold or do you let him walk because they have McCarthy? If it was me, do the Green Bay method. Keep Darnold on for a few years, let him see how to be a pro from Darnold, or JJ McCarthy see how to be a pro from Darnold and see where it goes. I mean, because, worst case scenario, darnold gets hurt, you throw JJ in and if he looks great then you keep him out there and you do the Brady method. Where Brady came in, he took the starting job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't get me wrong, Mike, I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but I think there's some factors at play here. Minnesota is a playoff competitive team. If they make a deep playoff run, or a playoff run at all, darnold's going to want money okay.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, but you're not going to pay him top of the market. You're not going to pay him $60 million a year.
Speaker 1:No, because he's not Kirk Cousins and you already got duped once.
Speaker 2:No, you give him a Baker Mayfield deal. I think you got duped once. No, you give him. You give him a baker mayfield deal.
Speaker 2:I think you say yeah, darnell, we're giving you 35 mil a year for x amount of years and we'll put in some player, some kicker bonuses if you make it too deep in the playoffs or you make it to the super bowl. And if you win the super bowl, that to me makes more sense than you know, letting him walk and go somewhere else. Or you franchise tag him and trade him somewhere and get something for him.
Speaker 1:No, that's not going to work. Nobody's trading for Darnold.
Speaker 2:You'd be surprised. There's a lot of needy teams out there that don't have a quarterback.
Speaker 1:First of all, in my opinion, Kevin O'Connell is the quarterback whisperer of the time right now. Did great things with Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 2:He's doing great things with Sam Donald, who, by the way, came from the Jets. Well, he might need him again because Kirk Cousins is playing like doo-doo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he might. Yeah, I think they keep Donald and honestly, I think they sign him right now, before they hit the playoffs. I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I think they do.
Speaker 1:I don't think they have to, but I think they already know what they want.
Speaker 2:You know what? They're probably having conversations in the background that we're not privy to.
Speaker 1:Probably, but that's always happening.
Speaker 2:Let them figure that out, and some players don't want to talk that stuff while they're in the middle of the season.
Speaker 1:Anyway, Well, I agree with that, but that's between their agent and the team. The team is probably discussed with their agent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but players don't want that looming over their head when they've got to think about their next game.
Speaker 1:No, they're not looming over their head. But maybe the Vikings say, hey, they offer a deal to the agent. The agent says, all right, because the agent's speaking for their guy, so he's not going to waste Darnold's time. Right, he's not going to waste his client's time. So if the Vikings come with a legit offer, he might say, hey, the Vikings want to lock you up right now, before playoffs for next season, for the next few years, to mentor JJ McCarthy. This is what they're offering. You can take it right now or you can sleep on it until the end of the season, but this is what they're saying right now. Do you have any thoughts on it? He'll take that back to his agent. His agent will take it back to the team. Chances are. I'm betting Darnold takes what the Vikings offer and I think the Vikings keep him. I think they should keep him.
Speaker 2:Well, we all know how contract negotiations work.
Speaker 1:They do. We know how they work, but I think this is what should happen Now if he does a stay with the Vikings and he's got this newfound quarterback knowledge and skill that he's been displaying, where do you think he goes?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know. To be honest, there are so many teams out there that they don't even have the quarterback position figured out at all.
Speaker 1:You know where I think he goes. Where's that? I think he lands in San Francisco.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I see the look, I see the eyes. No, don't get me wrong. I would like it if he'd never left San Francisco, because then they could have put him in when Purdy was playing like crap.
Speaker 1:There's a reason why I say that, though.
Speaker 2:But Purdy, what I want to see okay, you had to go down this road. What I think the Niners need to do, they need to sit down with Purdy and they need to say this Look, we're not giving you top dollar Period.
Speaker 1:We're not giving you any dollar.
Speaker 2:If you want to have the players that you have around you still here, we need to play a contract situation that works for both parties. So either he needs to go. They need to go to him and say we need you to be working with us, kind of like Brady did with the Patriots. You're going to do a team-friendly deal and we'll try to get you as many other types of deals, whether that be through advertising or through guest appearances, whatever be it, we'll get you the other money through other means, you know whatever be it, we'll get you the other money through other means.
Speaker 2:But they need to work that out, because I mean, technically they don't have to pay Bernie, they don't have to. They still have him for another year under his nothing contract. But they need to figure something out. And all the chatter seems to be that they're going to pay him, but it's a matter of how much they pay him, because depending on how much they pay him, he might wind up being without players next year. They might have to kick out some players in order to have room for players.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think, if Darnold goes to another team he definitely gets paid. Maybe not as much as he wants, but he definitely gets paid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't go journeyman quarterback to being the highest paid quarterback in the league if you haven't won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:But the other thing is, kevin O'Connell and Kyle Shanahan were on the same coaching staff in Washington okay, a few years ago, which? Shows how just ridiculoushington was with just letting people leave yes, don't remind me, okay, I'm in a good mood right now and mcday and yeah, there's a few. Yeah, mike mcdaniel's too. Okay, there's. The list goes on, mike, anyway, yeah, as I was saying so.
Speaker 2:So what you're saying, saying is you if you want a good coach, at least while you had Snyder, you go and pluck the coach off his staff.
Speaker 1:No, I think if you want a good coach, you probably should have worked for Mike Shanahan in 2012 is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So let's get to the last game of Monday night, which was Atlanta and the Raiders, who are Not rating anything. The Raiders are looking like they're primed to have that very first pick.
Speaker 1:They have higher chances of.
Speaker 2:So they get their Shendor Sanders, who keeps flirting with them on social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have higher chances of rating panties than they do the football field.
Speaker 2:So I saw something in this game that is just blaring how the team thinks right now. You had a rushing attack where you got 100, I think it was 125 yards out of Bijan Robinson, and you brought in Algier and got rushing yards out of him as well, and you only threw with Kirk Cousins I think what was it like 17 times or something like that. He barely threw the ball. That, to me, shows all you need to know about how the coaching staff feels about Cousins right now. They're running the ball more than they are throwing it and they're trying to hide Cousins. That's not going to be a winning formula when it comes down to crunch time and you're trying to play in the playoffs or you're trying to get into the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you can see it because B John Robinson could be so much more effective, but they're using him to mask those weaknesses. How long do you think until Penix gets a shot? I mean, we're in the last couple weeks. Penix, penix, penix. I like to say Penix because it sounds like Penix.
Speaker 2:I don't think he's going to get in and I say that.
Speaker 1:Not at this point probably.
Speaker 2:I say that because I don't think they want to stunt his development. It's not because he's not good, because all the things you hear that they say from their practices that he's playing, he's doing well, but right now is not the time to throw him in. If you wanted to sprinkle him in in other games to get him some live reps, that's one thing. But you can't wait till the end of the season, when it's playoff time, where you've got to win games. Well, they can't rely on him to be the one to carry them in well, we're going into week 16 right now, say things don't go their way.
Speaker 1:Week 16, week 17, week 18, they're not really playoff competitive, they know they're not getting in. Do you think they play them then and just see what they?
Speaker 2:got I. If it's garbage time ball and they have a weaker opponent, yes look this team. This team is never going to be in garbage time ball okay what I mean is like their playoffs are shot and they're playing the panthers or whoever. They'll throw them in to get him live reps. But right now, if you know, you have a shot for the playoffs and you paid Kurt all that money sitting him to play.
Speaker 2:The rookie looks bad. Well, I agree with you. Explain that to the owner. Yeah, you paid all this money for him and we drafted this rookie and now we're going to put him in. Well, why did I pay all that money to him?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not disagreeing with you, but what I'm saying is, in the event, they already know they're out, like this week. They lose, buccaneers pick up another win. They're now two games behind and they have a considerate. They're not even in the wild card run, right. They're not even on the bubble Like they're not even in the wild card run, right. They're not even on the bubble, like they're just out. Do you think PennX gets a shot? Sure, I mean, I'd like to think so, but you're right At this point in the game.
Speaker 2:Not while they're in the playoffs. If they're out of the playoffs, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not while they're in playoff contention, and they're not a team that's good enough to ever be in such a lead that they'll be in garbage time. Not through the end of the season, I don't think so. Let's move on to next week Coming up, week 16, first game of the week, december 19th.
Speaker 2:Thursday night football.
Speaker 1:Thursday night football. We've got Denver versus the Chargers. This is divisional week right here, starting with this matchup right here. Mike, who you got?
Speaker 2:I think the Broncos are going to take it.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I'm not going to lie. I think the Broncos got this especially after the Chargers coming off a loss.
Speaker 2:The reason I say that is this is going to be a defensive battle. To me, I feel like these two teams have some really good players on the defensive side of the ball and the Broncos, to me, have been playing a little more complete football here lately. The Chargers are a little banged up. They don't have JK Dobbins, they're just not in all cylinders.
Speaker 1:The Chargers coming off a horrible defensive showing. Honestly, this is Denver's game all day.
Speaker 2:I agree. Just so everybody knows, Saturday we're going to have some NFL action as well. Not only do we have the college football playoffs going on, but we're going to have some NFL games as well.
Speaker 1:Saturday.
Speaker 2:So Saturday the 21st we're going to have a 1 o'clock game between the Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs. We'll see if Patrick Mahomes plays or not. If Patrick doesn't go, I think Houston will take that game.
Speaker 1:Honestly, even if Patrick does go, he's going to be limited. He might be on a snap count. I'm taking Houston in this one, bro.
Speaker 2:But the 430 game on Saturday will be Hot, hot, hot Divisional matchup between the Steelers and the Ravens, so that'll be a very interesting game. They're going to be in the Ravens' house in that one.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you what. This is my opinion. I think the Steelers have been playing very well for what they're working with, but I think they get stunned. I think Baltimore goes to the Ravens.
Speaker 2:I don't know, man, I think.
Speaker 1:Lamar Jackson continues his push for the MVP race.
Speaker 2:They already played this year and Lamar looked horrible. He didn't play great Things change and he lost and he doesn't have a good history against the Steelers. He doesn't have a good history against them.
Speaker 1:So I don't really think so. They're in Baltimore and I know what you're saying. I agree the Steelers have a much stronger defense. Actually, I think they're the number five defense in the league right now.
Speaker 2:TJ Watt also has to be healthy too. T in the league right now tj watt also has to be healthy too. Tj what? Tj watt has to be healthy as well. Yeah, if he's playing and he's healthy.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's gonna be a problem. Yeah, and I, honestly, again, I love the steelers. Russell williams russell wilson has seemed to found his way in this offense. Mike tomlin's great coach, but honestly, honestly, baltimore has a lot more at stake. I think here, and I think they take it. I think they get stunned.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you're talking divisional impact, you're talking playoff impact.
Speaker 1:And MVP You're talking MVP impact too. Lamar's trying to keep his name in the race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's done. I think Allen has it wrapped up. I really do. I don't think Lamar can do enough between now and then. If, if you're still getting this kind of performance out of Alan down the stretch there, I just don't see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I don't disagree that I think Alan's pretty strong at it, but I think Lamar is going to continue his push. I'd like like I think that the ravens are gonna win. Let's move on into sunday slightly thinner game slate, because we had two on saturday. Who are we starting with? Mike?
Speaker 2:well, we have a bunch of games in the one o'clock window that probably aren't going to mean much to a lot of folks, because we have giants falcons, we have cardinals panthers, we have lions and bearscons, we have Cardinals Panthers, we have Lions and Bears, and then we have the Titans and the Colts and the Rams and Jets, and then the one game that's probably most interesting to everyone is the Eagles and Washington, because both those teams for now are looking like they're going to be in the playoffs, but this will have impact of who wins the division, so that'll be an important game out of the 1 o'clock window. And then the final 1 o'clock window game is the Browns versus the Bengals. Again, a lot of the 1 o'clock window games don't have much impact for the playoffs.
Speaker 2:I mean you could say that the Rams-Jets game. Maybe they have a difference showing between the Rams and Jets. Maybe that has a little sauce after this last week where the Jets looked competent. But we'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I agree. I mean Philly-Washington. Philly's number two seed in the NFC right now, washington's number six in the playoffs. If Washington wins, washington becomes the number two seed and Philly drops. Well, no, no, because Philly's got a two-game lead on Washington, but it depends on how that plays out in the division.
Speaker 2:It does have impact, based on how you stand in your own division, as far as how many wins in the division It'll have bigger implications for Washington than it will Philly Definitely a must-win game for Washington, if you ask me.
Speaker 1:Remember what I said about Atlanta possibly skidding out. They have the Giants this week. The Giants haven't been stopping anybody. Atlanta's going to keep it rolling.
Speaker 2:Although, although stranger things have happened, what else we got down here?
Speaker 1:Not much interesting for the 1 o'clock slot, so let's get into the 4 o'clock games. Here we got Minnesota-Seattle man. This could be interesting. Seattle didn't do much last week.
Speaker 2:It depends on who's playing. If Geno's playing, it's going to be a more interesting game than if you have Howland.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that if Geno goes. Honestly, Seattle has been playing good football and they've been playing competitive football and they are the division leaders right now in the NFC West. No, they're not. It's the Rams, right, the Rams, the Rams now.
Speaker 2:The Rams are leading it right now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:With that Seattle loss. That's why the Rams are in the first place.
Speaker 1:That's right and that's what bumped us from number seven to number six, us being the commanders. If you are not aware, but you know Minnesota, look that defensive side. If Darnold keeps playing, if this offense keeps playing the way they're playing, I'm giving this one to Minnesota here, man.
Speaker 2:So for the other 4 o'clock games, you have the Patriots and Buffalo, and then you have Jacksonville and the Raiders, and then you have the 49ers and Dolphins. That to me is the one game in the 4 o'clock window. That will be an interesting game to watch.
Speaker 1:Beachtown versus Beachtown. I like this matchup right here. Mike, I know you're a 49ers fan. I know you're probably picking the 49ers. Honest to God. Odell Beckham leaving Miami. Who's going to fill in?
Speaker 2:WR number three yeah, he got cut, waived, whatever you want to he even cleared waivers, nobody picked him up.
Speaker 1:I think the 49ers are going to find a way to come away with this win.
Speaker 2:I think so. And for the night game you have Tampa against the Cowboys. I think Tampa's going to eat. They're going to be all over the Cowboys.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're going to eat them alive.
Speaker 2:Nothing against Cooper Rush. He does move the ball down the field. But Baker and Tampa, they've been on another level.
Speaker 1:And they're trying to stay ahead of Atlanta. I agree Atlanta's got a rather easy matchup against the Giants. I think their matchup's easier than Tampa Bay's, but both teams keep it rolling. Monday, December 23rd, two days before Christmas, we've got New Orleans at Green Bay Green.
Speaker 2:Bay's going to win that out, because you don't have Derek Carr and who's going to play quarterback.
Speaker 1:Not a hard one to predict.
Speaker 2:They're going to put in Spencer Rattler. I don't think he's going to do very well against a Green Bay defense.
Speaker 1:And he's not rattling anybody.
Speaker 2:So I don't think there's going to be much competition there. It's just my opinion.
Speaker 2:I agree with you there Again again, but this is all our opinion. Uh, going back to buffalo real quick. Uh, little little inside track, little tidbit about what's going on with their ownership. So the bills announced the addition of 10 limited partnerships to the franchise ownership group. This marks the first time that the team uh, the team's history that limited partners have been added. Nba greats Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, who began their careers with the Toronto Raptors, are among the group in the partnership. So you have two former NBA players that are going to have a little bit of a stake in the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1:And this is significant because if the NFL ever expands to Canada and puts a team in Canada, I think the Bills will be the first team up and they'll be in Toronto. Honestly, straight up for a team.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, we already have teams that are in. You know, you have the Toronto Maple Leafs in hockey.
Speaker 1:We have the.
Speaker 2:Toronto Blue Jays in baseball. So it's not like it hasn't happened, but you know it is what it is. We'll see what shapes of that you know, so we'll have to.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. I agree with that. And don't forget, we got coming up Saturday, december 21st.
Speaker 2:Alexander Yusik versus Tyson Fury, number two. Yes, this is actually a pretty significant boxing match where you have Fury. His only loss in his career came at U6 back in May. May 18th, he handed him his first loss. It was a split decision. So, this will be Fury. Fury wants a piece of him. He wants to even this out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, round two they go.
Speaker 2:So if you want to see that Saturday evening. If you're looking for some boxing to watch, check that out. There's also some good undercards going on, oh yeah. So once again, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you everybody. Once again, Getting closer to the holiday season, we were loaded tonight. The NBA bracket going off. We got college bracket got to go off. This week we're looking at NFL playoffs. Man, we are rocking and rolling. Once again, I'm Brian with an. I.
Speaker 2:And I'm Mike.
Speaker 1:And we are two for the win.
Speaker 2:Thanks y'all.