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 - S2.47 - When Talent Meets Turmoil Across Baseball, Basketball, & Football
A World Series is locked, an NBA scandal explodes, and the NFL goes full roller coaster—this week pulled no punches. We kick off with baseball’s bold moves: the Angels hand the reins to former catcher Kurt Suzuki, the Giants make a rare jump to the college ranks with Tennessee’s Tony Vitello, and the Blue Jays fight back to set a heavyweight showdown with the Dodgers after George Springer flipped the script late. Add Shohei’s jaw-dropping two-way heroics, and October baseball suddenly feels mythic again.
Then the hardwood delivers a jolt. While NBA openers gave us a double-overtime thriller, a balanced Warriors attack, and Wembanyama’s fireworks, the headlines shifted to an FBI investigation alleging a mafia-linked poker ring and prop-bet manipulation tied to league figures. We lay out what’s known, why integrity safeguards matter, and how the league might steady the ship while the season is just finding its rhythm.
College football kept the pressure on with an SEC fine for faking injuries and a top 10 reshuffle that rewards teams with real depth and discipline. Over in the NFL, it was a study in extremes: Joe Flacco turning back the clock, the Rams ambushing the Jaguars in London, Chicago asserting control under Ben Johnson, and the Eagles problem-solving their way through a blitz-heavy Vikings defense. We debate coaching futures, roster retools, and whether an onside-kick replacement with a fourth-and-15 would tilt the competitive balance too far toward elite offenses.
We also take a moment to honor Doug Martin, reflect on mental health and CTE awareness, and spotlight a quiet act of leadership as a former DB-turned-referee de-escalated a sideline confrontation the right way. It’s a full spectrum of sport—glory, risk, strategy, and humanity—tied together by the choices teams and leagues make when the lights are brightest.
If you enjoyed this one, follow the show, share it with a friend who lives for game theory and box scores, and leave a quick review. What’s your pick: Blue Jays in seven or Dodgers in five?
October 23rd, 2025. Welcome back, everybody, once again for another episode of SportsBanter with us. Uh we are one week away from Halloween. I know everybody, we're excited as you guys must be for the climax of scary season, spooky season. Uh I'm Brian with an eye, and I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Mike, we have a packed agenda tonight. Can you give us a glimpse into what we'll be diving into?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, we do, man. I mean, we got the World Series about to kick off this weekend. We've got, well, the two teams in the World Series are worth talking about as well. But we also have NBA action just kicked off. This season just kicked off, but it's being overshadowed by some gambling and some things happening. Ooh, I love gambling. So we're gonna get into that. But as always, we always have a little college football and NFL football to talk about as well.
SPEAKER_01:Always got foosball on the agenda. Hard to get away from that one when you're two guys like us. Real quick though, before we get started, I just want to thank our sponsors and partners. Body by D Gym, located in Yorktown and Gloucester. Uh Deshaun Wright's a good guy. He's building a very great business up there, community-based business at that, Mike. Uh, he's a former bodybuilding champion and training future bodybuilding champions uh in their own right as well as many other things happening out of those locations. So just uh bravos to Lu Buddy. Um our good friends at Solace Outfitters, Christian and Caden, these two young guys are having some success in their high school career now as basketball players, and feeling out the early stages of business ownership as well, going very well with their brand. And the Giving Tree Chiropractic. Uh chiropractic service located down here in Virginia Beach. Justin's a very good guy, knows what he's doing, uh, makes chiropractic services uh accessible to everybody. So good job, all of you, and we look forward to continuing to do business with you all. Now, Mike, let's dive into number one. What we got going, buddy? We talking some World Series or what? We'll get there. We'll get there.
SPEAKER_00:I got I got some baseball news we got to talk about. Best uh. And we gotta talk about how we got to the two teams that are in the World Series. That's right. But let's start off with some news. So uh a lot of people have seen, if you're a baseball fan, that there's been a little bit of a hiring going on throughout the MLB with uh new managers and new locations. So recently the Angels have been looking for a new manager and they finally landed on one. And no, it's not Albert Puholtz, which we had alluded to in a past past episode.
SPEAKER_01:It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:No. If it's Jesus, then he looks a hell of a lot different. Uh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's fooled by the Angels part. No. So they hired a former player of theirs, uh player by the name of Kurt Suzuki. He was a catcher in the MLB for a number of years. He played for a number of different teams, including the Washington Nationals, the Braves, uh, Oakland Athletics, and the Angels. Not bad. As well as a few other teams, but he is stepping into the managerial role next season for the Angels. Good job for him. We've talked about this Suzuki. But that is not the only hire that happened. Who West Coasts, they're hiring managers. So the Giants, after letting the Giants after letting their manager go after another failed season where they finished third, they let Bob Melvin saunter off. Bye-bye. Fly away, Birdie. We're done with you. So be free. You know, it's kind of tough for them. They do play in a pretty tough division. But uh instead of going for, you know, a bench coach off another team or going for somebody within the organization, they went to the college ranks of all places. The team decided to go to Tennessee and snatch the volunteers, Tony uh Vitalo. Vitello. Vitello. Vitello. Now you would think, well, why would you go there? Why would you pick him up? And I gotta tell you, man, it's actually a good pickup. Because this isn't a guy who has just kind of made his way by being, you know, knew somebody who knew somebody, or you know, kind of worked his way up through favors. No, he did it the hard way, man.
SPEAKER_01:Nickle jumping.
SPEAKER_00:Look, so he was an assistant coach for 10 years through uh Missouri, TCU, and Arkansas before he landed the job at Tennessee, where he went with a record of 341 to 131. That's pretty good. Over that time. And he advanced the the team, the men's college world series, three different times in 2021, 2023, and 2024. So yeah, he had a lot of success.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, when you see a record like that, they're gonna just boom up the charts.
SPEAKER_00:So Yeah, so they're they're going with a pick that is not typically seen these days in in baseball. But given the fact that he's proven success in college ranks, and you do see this in football, but normally in in major league baseball, you kind of see a guy come up through the minors or yeah, you know, they go grab a former player who who showed well by coaching a year in college or so.
SPEAKER_01:The Giants just said the hell with everybody. We go on straight to the source.
SPEAKER_00:They got himself a good coach. I we'll we'll see how it it pans out, but he's got a pretty good uh core there of good players, so we'll see how that turns out for him. We like core. Yeah, yeah. So as we alluded, the World Series is is set, we have the teams figured out. Uh, but we we what we needed is we needed to figure out the Ale side because we had the Mariners and Blue Jays. By now, most people know how that turned out, but what you might not know is how the game turned out. Now, if you were watching this game, you kind of thought the Mariners had this in the bag because they were they had a 3-1 3-1 lead going into the seventh inning, and it's like, okay, they're up. It's getting late in the game. Blue Jays have not been swinging the ball, swinging the bat well at the ball. Yep. Until George Springer came up to the plate, and he hit a ball that was left over the plate straight on and out. Hit a three-run home run to give the Blue Jays the lead, and they never looked back. Took carried that all the way to the win. And so now we have a Blue Jays Dodgers World Series.
SPEAKER_01:You know, that was really I I wondered if the Blue Jays were gonna be able to get it done. They're a little sluggish starting out, but they came out on top eventually.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and a lot of people were pulling for the Mariners because they've never been to the World Series, and they were hoping for at least this team to make it. And this is this is this is incredible because you gotta remember, this is a team that years ago when Griffey was still on the team, they had over a hundred wins one season and they got knocked out by the Yankees. So, and that's after having the best record in baseball.
SPEAKER_01:Damn Yanks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. A lot of people have experienced that over the years. But since the Blue Jays have passed passed over to the World Series, uh, they did get some good news as well. They found out that their shortstop, Bachet, is gonna be coming back for the World Series. He's been dealing with a knee injury, but he will be available for the World Series. Oh boy. Now, we all know that the Dodgers swept. They completely annihilated the Brewers.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it makes me fearful for the Blue Jays going into it.
SPEAKER_00:Uh I don't know that I fear the Blue Jays. No, I don't fear it makes me fearful for them. I don't fear that they're gonna have as much of a problem as as the as the uh Brewers did because the Blue Jays have some good bats. They can swing the ball. Swing at the ball, but we gotta give it a show, hey, man. Yeah. A closing game against the Brewers. And we all know he's a two-way player. He catches anti-its. That's right. He dominated. Dominated. He got in there, he had, I think, what, ten strikeouts in it in his game.
SPEAKER_01:Ten plus strikeouts, yeah. And then on top of that, two or less two hits, no runs.
SPEAKER_00:Two hits, no runs. But yeah, he also from the batting side jacked out three home runs. Yeah. And they were no doubters. It wasn't like it wasn't like, oh, well, we're not gonna we're not gonna get this over the fence. No, those were no doubters. So we're getting a Blue Jays Dodgers World Series.
SPEAKER_01:He really is a special player. I gotta give him credit for that, because I mean that's never been done in the same game in MLB history.
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_01:And I mean, you just look at the way, I mean, him alone, his performance, and then you have another the rest of the talented team behind him.
SPEAKER_00:Well, some people point out the fact that you have Babe Ruth who also pitched and hit, but here's the thing he pitched, he didn't hit at the same time. Yeah. So eventually the Yankees said, No, no, no, no. You're a good pitcher and all, but we want you to hit. And he was a good pitcher. Yeah, he was throwing complete games. He had like, I think something like 94, 97 wins. Like he had a lot of wins in the very brief time that he pitched.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But they were like, we like you as a batter much more. So that's crazy. So but now you have Shohei doing both at the same time. Man, it's just craziness. It's craziness. So we're gonna we're gonna get a really exciting World Series. I hope I hope it goes seven.
SPEAKER_01:I think it'll be exciting. I'm expecting the Dodgers to walk away with this one.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think they're gonna walk away with it because I wouldn't on the Blue Jays not walk away with the talent.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not saying run them over. I'm just saying I expect them to come away with the World Series win. Oh, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I want to see it go seven. But that's just me. I like when series goes seven.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think it's gonna happen. I think we get it in less than five. Unless it's my team playing, then I want to see them sweep. Sweep. All the way through.
SPEAKER_00:But speaking of sweep, let's sweep on over and get into the NBA.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, let's talk about some NBA action here before we jump into that.
SPEAKER_00:Tuesday night, they opened the season.
SPEAKER_01:They did, and it was a great spectacular opener, mind you. We had four great teams go head to head. Um, you know, starting out with the Thunder and the Rockets, which by the way went to double overtime. The Thunder gets the win by one point in double overtime, by the way. Well, let and let's not forget that was Kevin Durant's debut. It was. And honestly, Mike, look for these Rockets to make a deeper run than they did last year, especially with KD on the team.
SPEAKER_00:KD is the elder statesman on this team, but he still did 47 minutes gave up, or not gave up, but he scored 23 points.
SPEAKER_01:This is a young, talented Rockets roster here. And don't forget, the Thunder were the leading scoring team in the NBA last year. And top that, they were the leading three-point shooters. So they went against a high-powered offense for this Thunder.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Shingoon, he was the one that had the most points for the Rockets. He had 39, which was the most points overall between the two teams. Yeah. So I mean, SGA, he did his typical, he got into the 30 range. He got 35 points with his his uh as as some people might call it like kind of a boring kind of play. I mean, if you want to call it boring, you need to go watch some Tim Duncan highlights, which most people would be like, what highlights? He was a bank shot machine and get to the free throw line, and you know, like there was nothing exciting about him. But you know, he kind of did what he what he did. He kind of drew fouls from players just by going in and out and get himself to line. You know, he's kind of that uh free throw assassin in a way.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and then we had uh LA taking on uh Golden State, you know, the Warriors coming away with that win, 119 to 109. Uh that was pretty good game, about an average score difference there.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. I mean, you you would like to think that the Lakers were gonna play a little bit better than they did. The only problem is the Lakers were kind of uh down a man, and they're gonna be down a man for a while, and that particular man is LeBron James. Uh, from what I what I heard is he's dealing with a back issue. Lebron. He's doing he's dealing with a back issue. I uh I forget what it's called, but it it it sounded like an old man injury, you know, when I heard it, I forget what it was. But uh in his absence, you know, they still got 43 out of Luca and 26 out out of uh 26 out of Reeves. Anyway. Uh the more interesting thing is the fact that the Golden State Warriors just came out and played like a really cohesive team.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Really I mean, you're getting they're getting contributions from more than just Curry. I mean, Curry only had 23 on the night, but Jimmy Butler putting up 31, and then you have Kaminga putting up 17, and then off the bench, you're getting 17 out of healed. So, you know, getting production like that is is crucial, especially when you're going against a team that really who do you fear? You fear Luka Doncic. You don't really fear anybody else on that team.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:If if LeBron ain't out there. I mean, Hachimura didn't really do nothing. He put up nine points, so it's kind of a lackluster deal from him. But again, it's the first game of the season. Most guys probably are not up to speed yet, probably not ready for real heavy games.
SPEAKER_01:The preseason, they're kind of just fooling around. Some people are trying to see how they're going to utilize different players and whatnot, different schemes. Yeah, and just figure out how they're going to use them in general. The season probably really, even though season's kicked off for them, it probably really won't get into the nitty-gritty for another couple weeks of how this goes down. Uh let's look ahead to um this upcoming week's games.
SPEAKER_00:Well, let's not forget before we get there.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, wait, we had some more games we're gonna discuss.
SPEAKER_00:We had some games Wednesday night that we got to discuss, man. Oh, yeah, that's right. It was some good action going on. Uh we had a very important game between the Knicks and Cavs. And I say important because this is two teams that are looked at as viable candidates to come out of the East going into the you know predictions for the well both have routinely been playoff competitive teams the last few years. So yeah, and the Knicks came away with the win in this game uh 119 to 111. And honestly, I watched this, I watched this game, and the Knicks just looked like they were in control for majority of the game. And it it's not that the Cavs didn't play well. I mean, they were they would get down and they'd start to come back, and then it seemed like the Knicks, every time they were starting to let them come back a little bit, they'd hit a crucial three and just keep it going.
SPEAKER_01:So And then, you know, right below them, the Hornets taking it to Brooklyn over the Nets 136 to 117.
SPEAKER_00:It's like and you know what the deal is with Brooklyn. Like they they have been so horrible.
SPEAKER_01:They got outscored in all four quarters, with the exception of the third quarter, which they did almost the same amount, but the Hornets just outscored them in every quarter through that. And remember, last year the Hornets were awful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they're an awful team.
SPEAKER_01:And then here we have you know a heat and magic, you know, couple of playoffs. The Battle of Florida here. Classic matchup between these two. Magic gets the win 125-121. Oh, not a bad stat line there. High scoring game.
SPEAKER_00:Got Bulls Pistons with a Bulls win coming out 115 115 to 111.
SPEAKER_01:The Bulls just missed the playoffs last season. Yeah. So that's significant there. Part of that play-in game situation. Yeah, and then uh Bucks holding strong over the Wizards. Uh considerably lopsided matchup there. The Bucs are much stronger.
SPEAKER_00:Another surprising uh kind of a lopsided victory here with the Jazz beating the playoff Clippers of last season 129 to 108. And that that was that was pretty crazy considering that you know the Jazz were not a good team.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the Clippers getting started low, completely being outscored in the first half, but got it together in the second half, but unfortunately wasn't enough to hold it down.
SPEAKER_00:So but at least all of these teams we mentioned hit triple digits, you know, in games, unlike what happened in the Spurs Mavericks game, where the Spurs take the victory 125 to the Mavericks 92. Yeah. And it was it was a very good game for Wimbayama. He got 40 points, 15 rebounds, and three blocks. And that's a franchise record. Yeah, Wimby no other no other player has started with a 40-point game to start the season in the franchise history.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. That's saying something. And Wemby, you know, giving Cooper Flagg a rude awakening, welcome to the NBA here. Uh, you know, the Mavs, they didn't score very well in this game. Uh, they didn't even hit 30 points in any of the quarters. They just very, you know, you can tell they're kind of trying to get it back together. Yeah, it I think Flag is going to be a good player for them nonetheless.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. I still think he's gonna be a good player, and that's that's not to take anything away from the other side of the the you know, from the Spurs with Harper. Yeah, Harper looked good as a rookie. He looked he looked like he was raising to the challenge. You know, sometimes some rookies that come in and they look a little like doe-eyed and they're not quite getting it. Yeah, not Harper. He his he's definitely his dad, Ron Harper, probably showed him a few things. Yeah, and taught him, you know, hey, don't be worried. You got this, you're here. Make it on, take it on, make it happen. But yeah, I mean, really some good action came off came on on Wednesday. But as you alluded to, what's coming up, sir?
SPEAKER_01:What's coming up next week? Actually, we got some games tonight uh to kick off the rest of the week. We have the Thunder and the Pacers, the rematch of the NBA finals going down right now, tonight. Well, not well, yeah, actually going down right now. Yeah. Thunder and the Pacers, um, you know, Pacers yet to get a win or a loss. They're opening their season tonight. Uh, Thunder, they already got one win under the belt. What do you think? What are you thinking, Mike? Uh I like the Pacers.
SPEAKER_00:I mean Call me bold. Well, it's I like the Pacers. It's in the Pacers' house. So I I tend to lean more for the home team in this. And I I, you know, the Pacers might be looking for a little get back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But let's also remember the team is not the same team because they they did lose a few players.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's true, but I I still like the Pacers. I mean, I like both these teams, Thunder and the Pacers. I'm a very big fan of both of them last season.
SPEAKER_00:And the the late game for for this evening is going to be the Nuggets Warriors. Uh, so that that should be a really good matchup as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the Nuggets every head coach they've ever had for some reason.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's it's it's gonna be a good slate of games tonight. And the Nuggets, they're excited to see the win.
SPEAKER_01:Not bad. They turned it up, you know, last season toward the end there. So I'm I mean, I'd I'd like to see them, but I think the Warriors are gonna get that win, most likely.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but speaking of getting a win, you gotta earn it. Well, sometimes people try to find a fast way to a win, and it's not always the right way. And uh, we're learning what is not right, and it's coming out of the NBA here recently. The NBA is taking one taking a black eye on this one because uh not only did a coach, but a player has also been named in a FBI investigation, and both of these players, or the coach and the player, actually should say, uh, two coaches, have been arrested in this investigation done by the FBI. Now, this this is a multi-level situation. It's not just one thing, it's multiple things going on here. So, and the coaches I'm alluding to, uh, Chauncey Bills, the head coach of the Portland Trailblazer, who coached last night, was arrested this morning by the FBI and and investigate and being investigated in this poker scheme. Uh and I want to get the other other coach's name as well. So bear with me here as I try to find this coach's name. Uh dang it. Coach's name? Uh Damien Jones is Damien Jones. He's the assistant coach on the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was also a player in the NBA for a number of years, but he's not the only uh well, he's the other coach involved, but there's also a player involved in this matter as well. There's a uh uh was it Terry Rogier? Terry Rozier. Yeah. He's a Miami player, and he was arrested this morning as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Now among 31 total arrested in this investigation.
SPEAKER_00:So the to kind of break down what's going on here, uh the crime families in New York, and when I say crime families, I mean the mafia, they have all come together and started this poker ring where they were using the celebrity of players like Chauncey Billups, and I'm sure more names are going to come out of this. They've already arrested like 31 people on this, uh, some of them not NBA players, by the way. But they have arrested these people in connection to this gambling ring where the mafia was holding these private poker games for well-to-do uh people where they're scamming them out of just tons and tons of money. Yeah, you know, basically using the fame of these players to draw people in, and they're the only ones that don't know what's about to happen. They come into these poker games thinking it's just a poker game. But they're sitting here doing things like using x-ray tables to see what the cards are on the table. This is some Oceans 11 stuff. Oh, it gets much better than that. They were they even have people with like glasses that can see what marks are on the cards to tell them what the cards are. The other players can't see it, but the person with the glasses can see it. So they're they're rigging all of these games and making it look like it's a legal game, but it's not. And so they're cheating people out of tons of money. And it's not just this, they've also found connection to these players also being involved in giving information up on players' stats or or status for games, for making prop bets, you know, where you say, Oh, this bench player, he's gonna score seven points tonight. No, because the bench player comes out and he's gonna sit there third quarter and go, ah, my hammy, uh my hammy hurts. I'm gonna I'm gonna go out. Or oh, oh no, I rolled my ankle, it goes out. Or maybe the player has a minute cap, and if he gets over his minutes, you get a you get your bet. Well, the player would tell these betters ahead of time, I'm not gonna be playing the full game. And and because of connections with like player uh coaches like Chauncey Bills, right, who would get information ahead of time telling them, oh yeah, hey, guess what? LeBron ain't gonna play the third quarter in this game. So they've been alluding not only cheating gambling, but they've been cheating prop bits. And there's a huge, huge investigation. This dropped just today. They arrested these players and coaches. Today. Today. Yeah. So we're gonna find out. A hell of a lot more is coming down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm sure more details have yet to come out about it.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. I mean, it it's it's crazy to think all of the stuff that goes into this. I mean, a betting ring, a a poker scamming, where there's I I want to find out who the people they were scamming.
SPEAKER_01:This sounds like a movie script. This doesn't sound like real life.
SPEAKER_00:You know what's funny?
SPEAKER_01:Are they making emotions 14?
SPEAKER_00:I heard multiple, multiple news outlets say the same thing. That this sounds like something you would see in the movies, where literally you have people, they're money laundering, they're I mean, like racketeering, like all the stuff that you typically hear out of you know, mobsters is happening in this. And yes, the mobsters are involved, but you know what? It's kind of funny though. It took this to bring the five families together and have them be nice to one another and not sit there and try to kill one another.
SPEAKER_01:When everybody makes money, when we all eat, we all get along. That's the that's the name of the game, right? That's nature, right? I guess. But when everybody gets along.
SPEAKER_00:What a way to do it, though, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, this is just absolutely huge to me.
SPEAKER_00:Um You have an active NBA coach being arrested by the FBI. You have active players being arrested by the FBI. Yeah, and the season's much worse than this.
SPEAKER_01:The season's just getting underway at that. So like now they've got to replace the coach, the car replaced the player, they gotta deal with this black eye of a public relations issue.
SPEAKER_00:I think Portland's reverting to their uh interim coach from last year. But but you're right, they gotta find replacement for these people. And more so, uh, they've all been given a leave of absence right now. Because let's okay, let's be fair, because we are in a country where you're innocent until proven guilty.
SPEAKER_01:Doesn't mean they have to pay you.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, that's why I say they they're uh they're allowing them to be away. Yeah. So uh but what what I'm trying to get to is the fact that we the evidence against them is pretty damning. Yeah. You know, it's it's it's like literally they have phone conversations, text conversations, they have a mountain of evidence that they don't go and arrest somebody without having evidence. This has been years of investigation, and there's multiple, multiple investigations that all come together on they've all led to each yeah. So we're we're gonna hear a lot more about this, and I'm I would not at all be surprised if we see quite a few other players and coaches that get wrapped up in this.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I agree with you there. Uh, but Mike, are we ready to talk some college football? Yeah. Well best of luck to those who are involved in that and those who need to get their money back. But let's move on to some college ball.
SPEAKER_00:I know somebody who's not getting getting some money back in college football. Think they can refund all the fan duel bets? Well, yeah, because betting places are in the habit of just giving money back.
SPEAKER_01:Because they do things like that.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, but speaking about somebody not giving money back and more so being fined, Texas AM is draw drawing uh SEC's first$50,000 fine for faking injuries. Huh? Don't you feel like we just talked about this? Because we literally have talked about teams being fined about injuries, but this is the first one in the SEC. One of the big conferences in college where they are being accused of faking injuries late in a game game that they had had against Arkansas last Saturday.
SPEAKER_01:Are they in cahoots with the Mafia as well?
SPEAKER_00:It is in which the defensive back uh Tyreek uh Chapel uh sat down on the field to stop play after a ball had already been spotted. So yeah. It's kind of like you know, and it's sometimes in football games, I don't know. If you had seen this when you play colo college or or high school ball, where somebody will be the guy, they'll be like, go down, man, go down. They'll just point out and be like, yo, go down. Well, that's kind of what happened here. You just kind of sat down like, oh no, I'm hurt. No, you're not. You're just trying to slow down the play of the game. Which mind you, the final score in that game was 54 to 42, in which the Aggies won. So their tactic worked, but it got them fined in the same breath. So maybe they'll wipe that one off their record. I'm just saying, like they're they're not letting this slide in college football, and I'm wondering if it's gonna happen in the NFL soon, where they don't let this thing slide, where you just have a guy that, hey, go down, man. Go down, just lay on the field. You're hurt.
SPEAKER_01:I hope not. This is, but I am reminded of the Giants a long time ago. Hey. What's his name? I forgot his name, but he he did something similar. This was like 15 years ago. I can't believe I remember this moment in time. But it was a Giants player. Defensive player, in fact. Well, I couldn't tell you. They were losing, I believe, against the Patriots or somebody. And somebody laid down. And they just kind of were like slow Wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_00:Was it Eli?
SPEAKER_01:No, this was defensive player. Oh, okay. Although Eli does get defensive.
SPEAKER_00:He's did he did he lay down on the sideline and cry though?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:He laid down in the middle of the field and cried.
SPEAKER_00:I swear to you, if I ever met Peyton Manning, I'd ask him if his brother cried that much when they were growing up.
SPEAKER_01:This could be my Halloween costume, Peyton Manning. Peyton? Peyton. You know, Peyton? Like Art Peyton. Oh, good lord.
SPEAKER_00:Good lord. I don't think you have the forehead for it.
SPEAKER_01:We'll make the forehead. It's part of the creativity.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, you're getting away from college football here.
SPEAKER_01:We are a little bit. Let's talk about what happened last week.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Anything notable here? There's been a couple. It was kind of a dry week, if you ask me. Dry week. I mean, it was good, but it was Dry Week, sir.
SPEAKER_00:What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01:Dry week. I mean, we had some good games. You know, UTEP, Sam Houston, you know, Tulsa, East Carolina. Louisville and Miami.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Ohio State did its thing again against Wisconsin, you know, beating them down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. They seem to be beating everybody down here recently. Wisconsin didn't even score in that game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was kind of bad. Kinda bad. And as we alluded to, the game between the Aggies and Arkansas, where the Aggies won that 45 to 42. And then you had the Old Miss and Georgia game. That was a that was a pretty decent game with a Georgia walking away with the 43 to uh 35 win over Old Miss, which that should shake up the standings because you know Georgia was number nine, Old Miss was number five.
SPEAKER_01:Vanderbilt beating LSU.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. That was a and that it's see that's a big thing too because you know, Vanderbilt they were higher ranked before because they're seven they were 17 going into this game against the LSU who's ranked 10. Yeah. But they were undefeated until they went against Georgia and lost that game and it bumped them way down in the rankings. But now they kind of rebounded after this. We'll see where they sit in the rankings after this. But you know, the Bama-Tennessee game, as we discussed, Bama, uh, which is a classic college game, you had Alabama coming away with the victory 37 to Tennessee's 20. So they kind of handily won that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, they took care of it, and then uh Oklahoma beaten South Carolina will certainly keep South Carolina off the rankings for another week.
SPEAKER_00:And then you had had uh USC Notre Dame classic rivalry game, with Notre Dame coming away with a victory 34-24, and it was played in Notre Dame's house, so you know, way to show up for your fans. And then we had the uh Battle of uh Utah here. We had the uh Utah Utes against the BYU and BYU narrowly coming away with the victory 24 to 21, and that and that should uh help out BYU in the rankings. I mean, it's gonna probably knock Utah out of the rankings.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's probably gonna knock them down.
SPEAKER_00:Uh how about how how about this game here? This uh it could have been a sleeper game because Missouri and Auburn.
SPEAKER_01:Missouri's ranked, Auburn's not 23.
SPEAKER_00:Missouri came away with the win, though, but it look took two overtimes to get that win. Jeez.
SPEAKER_01:Well, maybe Auburn, maybe Auburn's getting hot. I don't know. They're trying. Let's check what happened with Sincy and Oklahoma there. Since he gets the win over Oklahoma, since he's on the fringe of even being uh ranked. Let's go up here. Who did ODU and James Madison classic standoff? JMU getting the win handedly. JMU 63 to Old Dominions 27.
SPEAKER_00:That is a beatdown. And that was in JMU's house, so that you know the bulldog. That kind of makes sense. Kind of makes sense. And uh man, Clemson, man, how did they they have just fallen off, man? They came out hot, they were ranked, and now they're down. They lost to SMU now. SMU 35, Clemson 24. And to add insult to injury, Clemson lost one of their best receivers to injury and probably won't have him the rest of the year or so. Yeah, man, Clemson just have an awful year. But given what we've discussed so far, let's go ahead and check these rankings and see where everybody.
SPEAKER_01:Let's see where everybody fell at this week for college ball. We'll start with the top ten. Mike, number 10, and Vanderbilt moving on up after that win they had.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. How about them cracking the top 10 for the first time in a long time? That's right. And coming in at number nine, Miami.
SPEAKER_01:Miami hanging on there, number eight. Ole Miss sliding in to number eight, actually sliding down to number eight.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because they lost to Georgia, but we'll get there. Coming in at number seven, Georgia Tech moving up five spots with their win to make them seven and oh.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the biggest jump in the top ten, actually. And right ahead of them at number six, Oregon hanging on six and one. They move up two spots.
SPEAKER_00:And as we alluded to, at number five, Georgia moving up to the five spot with that victory. And yeah, jumping four spots.
SPEAKER_01:So the state of Georgia's really enjoying some good football here. Alabama at number four, moving up two spots from prior.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and this is funny, like with their six and one record, you know how many people were just like, we gotta fire the coach, we've got to fire the coach. But but you guys are ranked four. Yeah. You guys are in the top five.
SPEAKER_01:It's okay. Everybody wanted to fire Ryan Day last year and they looted up all the way to the finals.
SPEAKER_00:At number three, the Texas AM with a 7-0 record, they're at number three now. And, you know, I guess that find is okay if you're in the top three.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I mean, honestly, who I think, I don't know who's better, number two or number one, but I really like the way Indiana's playing, and I like that young quarterback they got. They move up one spot to the number two.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Dude, I cannot tell you a single time where I can recall Indiana being number two in the rankings. No. I mean, remember, everybody was complaining in I.O. it's gonna ruin the game. Who had Indiana being in the range? It seems to be making it more interesting. Right? So, and as always, Ohio State is still number one at 7-0 record. Probably not going anywhere anytime soon.
SPEAKER_01:Look for their head coach to be a head coach candidate in the NFL this coming offseason.
SPEAKER_00:But man, how about this Notre Dame? Like, they they're five and two now. They started off shaky, yeah, and they've kind of climbed themselves back up into the rankings to be number 12.
SPEAKER_01:They're at number 12. They they're hanging on, they're trying to get it together. They certainly at 5-2, they certainly don't seem like the powerhouse team they were last year, but we got a lot of college football left to play. So Dang.
SPEAKER_00:LSU took the biggest hit, dropping down to 20. 10 spot drop. After losing to Vanderbilt, who took their 10th spot their spot at 10.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, in fact, LSU and Texas Tech both dropping enough to drop out of the top 10.
SPEAKER_00:But how about how about we give a little shine to the teams that cracked into the top 10 with with Michigan coming in at 25, Arizona State finally cracking in there at 24, and Illinois coming in at 23. Not ranked last week, so now his team's moving up.
SPEAKER_01:Louisville moving up to 19 from not ranked, too.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Good job, Louisville.
SPEAKER_00:Can't can't hate on that at all. Moving up. Don't be hater. Hey, you know that makes Lamar Jackson happy because I like his team.
SPEAKER_01:I like a good shake up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, like, that's one thing I've noticed most about this season. There's been so much shaking up with the rankings aside from Ohio State staying where they're at at number one. Uh, but these players, they've been playing some really good ball. Like, every team, it seems like if you turn on a college game and it's any of these ranked teams, they're they're trying to put as much good tape out there, so they're playing lights out. Like these these players are putting everything out there, and you're not getting half-ass effort. Well, that's the way it should be. It's the way it should be. But sometimes you get these teams that they just it looks like one week they just kind of mail it in, oh, it's a cupcake game, we got this. And then they get their way. Then they get their ass kicked. Well, no, I mean, you see that 63 or 27, you know, game with ODU. I bet you there's some some uh hurt feelings after that one.
SPEAKER_01:That's true. Well, let's look ahead to this week. College is a week ahead of the NFL, they're coming in there to into their week nine. Yeah. Uh starting out the week here. I don't see really any matchups that are calling my name here.
SPEAKER_00:Well, they they always save a good stuff. Well, here's one. Here's one. UCLA, who has upset some teams in the top ranks before, is getting Indiana. Yeah. So that that might be one that keep your eye on, or this Old Miss Oklahoma game where you got the number eight Old Miss going against the number 13 Oklahoma game. That'll be a noon start on Saturday. And Virginia going against North Carolina.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, UVA, NC, Tar Heels.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:We got Appalachian State and Old Dominion, hometown matchup here. Missouri and Vanderbilt. That'll be a good one. That'll be another good one.
SPEAKER_00:As well as BYU and Iowa. We got Bama at four going again against South Carolina, unranked opponent, but they're familiar with one another in them games. Amen. Always keep the faith.
SPEAKER_01:Amen is correct.
SPEAKER_00:No faith. We've seen some crazy things happen this college season. So I don't want to hear this like I have no faith in this team because we've seen these upsets, man. We've seen the upsets.
SPEAKER_01:A couple of them. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Uh, Baylor, Cincinnati. Let's see what else we got. Wisconsin and Oregon. Do we have any ranked versus ranks games down here? Texas AM versus LSU. I don't think LSU, I think they're better than their 20th ranked spot. I think that's going to be a better game than it is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they need a bounce back. They need a bounce back in a big way. And, you know, Louisville just cracking in at 19, they're going to be going against Boston College, so that might be a a good push them up in the rankings kind of game. You know, get in there, get a win. And Tennessee and Kentucky going against going against each other. Another game where Tennessee could help themselves in the rankings by coming away with that win.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so some good interesting matchups coming up this week here. Of course. And we'll see how the rankings shake out next week after it's done, Mike. Now, that was some good, that was some good warm-up, right? Good NF, good college football warm-up. Speaking of football, we got some good games coming up here, but we're gonna talk a little bit about something here before we dive too deep into the NFL. Anybody familiar with Doug Martin? Uh, I actually remember Doug Martin very well. Yeah. Uh predominantly played with the Bucks, but I think moved over to the Raiders at one point.
SPEAKER_00:I had him in fantasy a couple of times.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Now, uh, if you're not familiar, Doug Martin just a day or two ago uh passed away while in police custody. Uh a lot of the details are kind of obscure around the situation. Uh, but I guess he was involved in a breakup, uh, not a breakup, break-in, actually just a couple houses down from his house. Um, and then there was a small struggle when police showed up to the scene, and I guess they took him to the hospital. He passed away in police custody in the hospital. Uh, our thoughts and prayers go out to Doug Martin, his family, and uh the community affected by his loss. Uh, again, we're not sure of the details of what happened. We believe there was some mental health uh awareness around it. Um, and I'd like to stress that real quick, Mike.
SPEAKER_00:Well, his family, his family also asked for you know some privacy at this time because yeah, they're probably still reeling from the effect of losing a person that they love and care about. And whether whether they might have been dealing with some stuff or not is kind of pointless at at this time for them because for them it's the loved one.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they want to know they want to know what happened, why it happened, uh, on top of what their loved one, Doug Martin, was dealing with and his personal life as well.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and it wouldn't it wouldn't be the first time we've heard of an ex NFL player having issues and uh Junior Sao. Well, Junior Sayo didn't do any crimes necessarily. No, he didn't. He he but we've heard of players, you know, where uh and I don't want to I don't want to allude to it being a fact because we don't know it to be a fact, but you know, CTE issues and he was a running back, you know, they get hit.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I was just about to ask, do we think CTE may have played a role in this in this here? Because Doug Martin was a fan favorite when he was in the NFL.
SPEAKER_00:And well he has a hell of a college career too. And and not to mention that when when the Buccaneers were doing like the the fans vote for like uh top 50 Buccaneers players of all time, yeah, he was put in there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he was one of them. What they call him speed hamster, angry hamster, something like that. Yeah, he had a nickname.
SPEAKER_00:He was beloved by his by his fans, you know.
SPEAKER_01:And he still is, you know, given the circumstance. I don't think whatever comes out about the legal ramifications, I don't think that's gonna have much bearing on his character. Uh to be honest with you. I think people are more concerned with why and how it happened, and concerned with him maybe possibly finding the help he should have made.
SPEAKER_00:I know when I saw this story came out, I was like, what?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was I was just taken back. I said, wait a minute, there was a break in police custody, he's passed away. What is going on, man?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it instantly it kind of reminded me of like uh the Sean Taylor thing, which for most Commanders fans, they vehemently remember because he was a fan favorite and was had a very promising career, but he died during his career. Yeah, he didn't die after. I mean, well, obviously his career ended after he died. I mean rather short rather shortened. But you know, when somebody dies young, it's always gonna be a wait, what yeah you must be kidding. You know, like you don't you don't anticipate something of that magnitude happening, and especially when you find out it's in question of what happened, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I I mean, you know, just a sad story all around. So once again, you know, our thoughts and prayers, and this should highlight once again the importance for mental health awareness. As check on your friends and family, y'all. Even if they say they're okay, you know, take that with a grain of salt because they may not actually be okay. Pay attention, all right?
SPEAKER_00:The the easiest thing you can do with anybody, just call and say, Hey, I was thinking about you, how you doing? Exactly. Call or just and just say, Hey, I was thinking about you. How about we go get a get a bite? You know, yeah, or you know, just reach out. Even even if you don't really have the time, it takes a couple seconds to send a text to be like, Yeah, hey, saw saw this to today, thought of you, and send a picture, you know, like hey, maybe you saw a picture of a dog that looks like theirs.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, this dog looks like yours, you know, like yeah, just say something, check on them, you know, keep let them know that you're still in their thoughts or they're still in your thoughts, you know. So again, you know, our hawks, our thoughts and prayers and condolences go out to him and his family and his community. And speaking of just an absolutely sad, tragic uh loss.
SPEAKER_00:Speaking of being in somebody's thoughts, Mike Tomlin had Joe Flacco in his thoughts last Thursday. I bet how he was pissed that you're gonna trade Joe Flacco in division to the Bengals, and then I gotta face this guy on a short week. Again for the second time. Yeah, well, and and mind you, Flacco ha has pretty much, you know, short weeks against Tomlin owned him. Yeah. Like I think it was like something crazy, like he's had like eight wins to one loss or something like that, some crazy number against uh, because I mean he was with the Falcons, or not the Falcons, the Ravens for a number of years, and was just, you know, Ravens, Steelers, classic matchup.
SPEAKER_01:I saw something. I don't know if it was a meme or if it was an actual Mike Tomlin response, but somebody asked him, Do you do you know any quarterbacks that can get traded and start the very next two games? And and I think Tomlin was like, Well, apparently Flacco can. Yeah, yeah. Apparently Flacco, apparently that's not hard for Flacco.
SPEAKER_00:So, what we're alluding to is is uh Joe Flacco going to the Bengals and and putting up three touchdowns against the Steelers to give the Bengals the 30 33 to 31 win over the Steelers last Thursday. And you know, I I saw some uh funny things come out of this where uh they're uh like on the Dan Patrick show, they made a shirt that says Flacco around and find out.
SPEAKER_01:And this was definitely the battle of the elderly. I saw memes with Flacco and Walker and Rogers and a cane.
SPEAKER_00:Well, remember, remember last week I gave it all these extra names the Bingay Bowl, the the Icy Hot Bowl, the you know early bird special bowl. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Now, mind you, while we have this game on the table, what do you make of the Aaron Rodgers Pittsburgh Steelers success? Now, Aaron Rodgers came out earlier today and already has said when he retires from football, he's retiring as a Green Bay Packer. He's already come out and said Oh, that's typical. But as far as his uh playing time with the Steelers, is this experiment working? Now to date in 2025, Rogers Well, they're four and two. Yeah, I mean, he has something like um I think that yardage count's a little bit low, but he has like 14 touchdowns to five interceptions. He's got a near-perfect 104 quarterback rating. He's not playing necessarily lights out, but he is playing fairly good football for them.
SPEAKER_00:You know what he's playing? He is playing serviceable, serviceable quarterback for a team that needed it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You know, and one of his weapons has been down the last couple weeks in Calvin Austin, so they're still getting it done.
SPEAKER_00:Well, don't forget Warren missed a few games too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Jalen Warren.
SPEAKER_00:And they still won game. So that's saying something.
SPEAKER_01:So I I gotta think Tomlin, even though they may not be doing as well. I mean, the Steelers are four and two. You can't ask for a lot more through week seven of the NFL.
SPEAKER_00:Well, for an older quarterback, he's still moving and still throwing. I saw him in that game throw in the end of the game. If there's ever a quarterback you don't want throwing the deep shot ball at the end of a game, you don't want it to be Aaron Rodgers because he's had so many of the Rogers. I just imagine he did throw a deep uh a deep bomb pass in this game and it got batted down. So I mean Bengals are left.
SPEAKER_01:You know, 20 years later, I still imagine Rogers, old man Rogers, as like you guys, you play Metal Gear Solid, old man Snake, right? Where he's just got the frizzly gray beard and he's got a cigar hanging out through his helmet, and he just slings that ball 80-something yards down the field. Yeah, I still got it, you know. That's how I imagine Rogers at these day and times. But I think the experiment's going very well for them. May not even be an experiment anymore. They might keep him another year.
SPEAKER_00:They're they're leading the division, and well, it's really up to him if he wants to stay, to be honest. I mean, because they don't really have a at this point.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, at this point, they can do whatever they want. They could even draft a young quarterback.
SPEAKER_00:They don't have a young quarterback.
SPEAKER_01:They have Will Howard on their team, but no, they can draft another young quarterback, not Will Howard.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Will Howard was the one playing for Indiana last year.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and look look at how much better they're doing now. They were doing well last year, too. And look at how much better they're doing now.
SPEAKER_00:They have different players.
SPEAKER_01:Well, look at how they have a same coach. My argument is the same.
SPEAKER_00:My argument is they have a good coach.
SPEAKER_01:And look how much better they're doing now.
SPEAKER_00:And speaking about uh doing better, man, the Rams, they said they said no Puka, no problem.
SPEAKER_01:Bad time to drop Matt Stafford if you dropped him. Let me tell you what. I thought the Jaguars could have put up a bigger defensive stand against the currently five and two Rams.
SPEAKER_00:Look, the NFC their defense, like, I don't know what the hell has happened to it.
SPEAKER_01:It's just like they started kind of hot. They came out four and two, and then they just goose egg against the Rams. Uh, mind you, in London, maybe Well, it's not a goose egg, they scored a touchdown. I mean, yeah, in like the fourth quarter, I think, something like that. But they basically goose egged it. Uh, you know, they started out kind of hot. They got a couple big wins.
SPEAKER_00:Devontae Adams shows, hey, I'm still number one in this league.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and Stafford goes off the rails passing. Uh, you know, the Jaguar, London is kind of considered their home number two. So I'm I'm rather surprised that the Rams, a West Coast based team, flew all the way east to London and put the beat down on the Jaguars who should have had an easier game.
SPEAKER_00:They should have.
SPEAKER_01:They should have, but but but they did not.
SPEAKER_00:But the crazy thing about that game though, is the fact that you remember when Sunshine was drafted, it was oh, he's the second coming, oh, he's the greatest, this is a can't miss. How many passes are we gonna give him until somebody's gonna say, dude's a bust?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's he's not quite lighting it up like you'd expect. He's just kind of like I mean, he's like a backup quarterback and waiting at this point. They just haven't moved on from him yet. Well, Trevor Lawrence is who we're talking about if you didn't pick up on the sunshine.
SPEAKER_00:Sunshine. But uh man, he just he has moments where it seems like alright, there's something here, and then it's what quarterback is this the next week? You know, like it just he's not he's too inconsistent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and they lost a couple pieces, but that the that's no excuse because people are teams are still getting it done. And then, you know, the Bears handedly having a much, much better season uh under the Johnson era to kick off the Johnson era, Ben Johnson.
SPEAKER_00:And this this score really does not tell how in control the Bears were in this game because yeah, they were holding the Saints back for the majority of the game, and it just like the defense was all over to all over Spencer Rattler. It seemed like he was always on the move and always having to roll out and get out of the way of their their guys.
SPEAKER_01:So it just like, man, I'd and you know, I gotta say, I think the Saints, their head coach Kellen Moore, might be the safest in the league right now. Well, yeah, because yeah, and they know what he's going through. Uh well, I got a question for you.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. If you had the Saints, you were the GM of the Saints, and knowing that you have Cap Hell right now, would you start with this looming trade deadline? Would you start looking to start shipping out players?
SPEAKER_01:No, I think you keep playing because you're building something for the future.
SPEAKER_00:So I Yeah, but if you're if you're in Cap Hell, it's cheaper to have players that are drafted under rookie contracts than it is to keep all your your heavily paid uh veterans where you could start trading them now. Say, like, okay, I'll give you, for instance, like Vontae Davis.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They're their middle linebacker who is a really good player. He's still productive, he's 36 years old, so he's not gonna be playing for too much longer. And there are teams that are playoff bound that might need middle linebacker help.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Why not ship him out? I mean why not ship out other older players and get something for him? Because I know they have talked about Camara, but Camara has still been pretty serviceable for him, so it's kind of like and he already came out and said he doesn't want to be traded, he wants to stay a saint. But you're you're you're one and six, you're not going anywhere. It might be time to start trading away some talent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, maybe you can part with some of your older guys, but if you have a couple core younger guys that uh you're really gonna lean on to build this program, I would I would say keep them. Uh because you're not in quite the same situation as some of the some of these other teams.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not saying trade the house. I'm saying trade things that you know make sense. The guys that are on big contracts that you can get rid of and get some assets in return.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because you know they're not going to restructure at this point, not with a loser team. No.
SPEAKER_00:And then speaking of losing teams.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the probably the crap bowl here, you know, Browns and Dolphins. Is to a time. I mean, Mike McDaniel, is he even excuse me, is Mike McDaniel even trying to save his job? Is two a time up? Should he switch quarterbacks? I didn't even know Zach Wilson was even still in the NFL. They have a pile of shit to work out right now.
SPEAKER_00:Well, not to mention they also have yours. Yours, yeah. They drafted him. If if it was me and and I was doing the job of running this team, I would bench to it and I would put yours or Zach Wilson in and just see what I have. I go see how they run the offense because at this point you're you're one and six. You're possibly coaching for your job. Well, you're not possibly, you are coaching for your job. And it's everybody's agreeing that he's the hottest seat right now. I can't believe the coach gone.
SPEAKER_01:I can't believe that he's been, he's not been, he wasn't the first coach fired. Hey. Who was let go last week? Somebody got let go last week. I forgot who it was. I don't know why my mind instantly went to the Jets, but that's not. No, but they they seem like they're on the chopping block too. So the big difference between the Jets and the and the Saints here, both are first year uh head coaches, first-time first-year head coaches at that. Um the Jets have a very impatient ownership, and I think that but they did take Aaron Glenn's side when Justin Fields fired off at them, which we'll get to that in a minute. Yeah, we'll get to that when we get down to that. So maybe maybe there's hope for Glenn to try to gain some get some leash back.
SPEAKER_00:But in case we didn't mention the score from this Dolphins Browns game, the Browns 31 to the Dolphins six. So that was all Browns.
SPEAKER_01:It really doesn't matter much. And then we have the Raiders who didn't do anything against the Chiefs. Chiefs completely in control the entire time. Yeah, the Raiders didn't even score. The Raiders ran. I got a few things on this one. The Raiders ran a total, I think, including offense and defense, ran a total of 30 plays versus the Chiefs. That is the lowest since the year 2000, mind you. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's not only not only that, but do you realize that's the same number of first downs that that the Kansas City Chiefs had? 30.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's incredible. And so with that being said, I I know that you know um Pete Carroll's a big fan of Gino, but do you think it's time to bench Gino? Yes. I think it's time to bench Gino. I think I I know it's your first year and you're kind of like feeling things out. Brock Bowers is down, you know, you got a couple other things you're doing.
SPEAKER_00:Jacoby Myers was also not playing in this game, so yeah, Judson is best receiver.
SPEAKER_01:Jacoby Myers was down, but Trey Tucker has stood up stood up in his in his shoes a little bit. Uh, you know, and Michael Meyer or Michael Mayer has stepped up as tight end. So they've kind of filled the holes a little bit, but I feel like your quarterback play is probably where you should start. I don't think Gino Gino kind of got it done in Seattle. I don't think he's getting it done in Las Vegas.
SPEAKER_00:Well, earlier you had mentioned stuff about keeping core players and not trading them away. Yeah. The Raiders have already come out and said Max Crosby is in our future plans. We are not trading. Not for sale, which I had already anticipated. And this is after you know the Cowboys came sniffing around and they're like, nah, bro, go away.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because they saw what they just did uh with Micah Parsons. But and here we have uh the Eagles and the Vikings. Vikings actually put up a good fight against the Eagles, uh, despite their three-and-three record. And I have another question for you here, Mike. Saquon Barkley, he's he's running okay. He's having a serviceable year, but he's not the Saquon Barkley of old right now. Is this allude to the Madden curse? Is this part of the Madden curse? Is it real? Since we're in spooky season, let's talk curses.
SPEAKER_00:I don't see, I don't think it's that. I think it's that it when you're when you're predictable, and this is part of what has been frustrating uh AJ Brown, is they run predictable plays. They run a lot of the a lot of the same stuff, and they just keep doing it. Like they're not they're not really evolving through the game. They just keep doing things that teams have seen, and so they they say, Okay, this isn't working, let's throw the ball. Because as you've noticed, there's been games where all of a sudden they're chucking it up a thousand times in the game, it seems like, and then there's games where hand the ball off, hand the ball off, hand the ball off.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I guess AJ Brown hasn't really been a factor.
SPEAKER_00:This last game he had he had put up some numbers, but even still, it was the Slim Reaper that was putting up the numbers and Smith. Smith was putting up all the numbers.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But because I think he had like 132 yards in the game. But the point of the matter is you're seeing firsthand what you have when your offensive coordinator changes like it does. You know, like they've lost coordinators over the years, and their coach, it's well known that he's more of the guy that runs the locker room and is the motivator. He's not so much the X is an O guy. So we're kind of in a situation where it's like, uh, are you really taking us where we need to be? Yeah, and because mind you, this is the same team that after their coach won them a Super Bowl, they fired him. They start they start losing games or they start looking bad, they're gonna start looking at the coach again and going, What did you do? Why is it like this? You have all these great players. Why are you screwing up? Yeah. I'm just saying. I mean, they got the victory. And sometimes this is how it goes. They had to face a Vikings defense that blitzes a lot in your kitchen majority of the game.
SPEAKER_01:And the Vikings defense only middle of the pack this year. It's not the dominant Vikings defense.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's not dominant, but their their scheme is blitz heavy. Yeah. And you know, against a team that loves to run the ball, yeah, they had to kind of turn to the passing game this game. Really, because you still have to run the ball and create that over the top, because if you don't run the ball at all, they're just gonna sit back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Sit in zone and wait for you to try to throw the ball up.
SPEAKER_01:And then, you know, the Panthers, I don't know if they're just skidding on luck right now or not, but the Panthers are four and three, bro, with a with a not healthy Bryce Young, or a Bryce Young who's not playing terribly well either. Um, and the Jets are 0-7. I saw a meme. Only the Jets need to bench a quarterback that hasn't thrown an interception this season.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my lord.
SPEAKER_01:They're going through some mediocrity.
SPEAKER_00:Well, he's also the quarterback that finished with a negative 10 yards for a game overseas passing.
SPEAKER_01:So Yeah. What's worse, the butt fumble or negative 10 yards passing?
SPEAKER_00:Are you talking about situation Sanchez is in or the actual play, the butt fumble?
SPEAKER_01:The actual play. Oh, oh, okay. Well, would you if you had to choose one fuck up play, would you choose a butt fumble or would you have your quarterback throw for negative 10 yards through the whole game?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. I think they were more competitive in the butt fumble game.
SPEAKER_01:I think so too. And keep an eye on the Jets as trade rumors are swirling around a number of their players. Now, mind you, Aaron, Aaron Glenn inherited all these players, so he probably has no problem sending a handful of them off. Garrett Wilson being one of the most notable. Brees Hall, I mean, they're honestly loaded at running back, bro. They honestly have one of the best running back rooms in the NFL.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Brees Hall is is hurt at the moment, but why they'd probably trade him. Dude, all I can think of is the singletary rant where he's talking about uh talking about Vernon Davis, where he goes, can't win with him, don't need him. You know, and I think that's what he's thinking right now in his in his locker room. He's like, Can't win with him, don't need him, don't need him, get rid of them.
SPEAKER_01:Now are the are the jets, and I know the the Browns are, mind you, by the way, Shadur Sanders guaranteed to start the last four games of their season, unless barring something crazy. But oh are the Jets really the QB hell that they appear to be?
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, they're sitting there starting quarterback and uh start uh Tyrod Taylor.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, who is questionable right now to start before he's even taken a snap. So I mean, is it do they just have bad luck or are they really just not managing the talent well? Is it a coaching thing? Like we've seen the the Jets for bad ownership, bad GM.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean as a Redskins fan, I kind of feel that. That's exactly what it is, man. That's 100% what it is. Well they're they're they're the new team with the with the fan base. It's like please sell the team. I thought that was the cowboys. No, they're they're like, please die already.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, as long as the cowboys are playing well, their fans don't care.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Well, that's that's the thing. They do well in the regular season, it's with the postseason, nothing happens. Yeah, so at least not since the 90s. True.
SPEAKER_01:The Jets haven't even made the postseason, though, haven't even come close.
SPEAKER_00:But moving on to uh the Patriots and Titans game, and I mean it it really was Patriots all the way with the 31-13 win, but this makes them five and two in the lead in their division because of beating the Buffalo Bills. So that was a good team to beat, too. Look the Patriots they're showing you something. Yeah, they're under Vrabel, they are they're turning it around.
SPEAKER_01:Drake May is here.
SPEAKER_00:He is he is legitimately looking like a franchise quarterback.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Drake May is here and carrying this team.
SPEAKER_00:He's not he's not like dink dunk, you know, hit these short intermediate routes. He's throwing deep passes. Oh, he's slanging it. He is and it's not just one guy, it's multiple receivers. He's dishing the ball around, which is what you want to see from your quarterback. And they don't win the games the same way. Like they they they basically play good complementary football. Like sometimes the defense is the one that's playing lights out, and the offense is just doing enough. Yeah. You know, so it's it's it's a really big change. Uh coming from the Titans side though, uh, they they actually released Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01:I forgot they fired their head coach. I thought Mike McDaniel would be fired before him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they released their coach, but um, I was more talking about the fact that they let Tyler Lockett go.
SPEAKER_01:He he asked to be let go.
SPEAKER_00:He he requested to be released. And I'm not surprised because they weren't using him. And, you know, when it comes to stats, apparently the stat people don't like him either because when he recovered that fumble against Arizona in the end zone, it wasn't a touchdown for him. Apparently, it was a touchdown for defense in fantasy. Like, what the hell?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I know that's gotta be frustrating.
SPEAKER_00:Do you think he lands anywhere or do you think that he's gonna be veteran receiver like him, somebody somebody who needs a receiver, he'll be picked up. Maybe the Steelers. I was just about to say that. Maybe the Steelers is a place he'll wind up. Or, you know, he'll wind up with one of the those teams that have familiarity with them. Yeah. Like not the Seahawks, but you know, I mean cup hasn't been doing well. I could see him going over going over and playing with the Raiders to be with Pete Carroll again, or he could go over and play with play with the uh Rams.
SPEAKER_01:You know, yeah. I could see him, I could see him doing something like that. Um, and then here we have the Giants. Just by the way, this has got to be one of two horrid late game collapses by the Giants here. Two weeks in a row. Do they have a coaching problem? No.
SPEAKER_00:I don't I don't think it's a coaching problem as much as it is a young team problem. Um they missed two extra points in this game, and if they had gotten those extra points, they would have won this game. They would have not given there would not have been a chance for the Broncos to have the comeback that they did, as well as a misplay by Dart in a situation earlier in the game that allowed the Broncos to get to where they were.
SPEAKER_01:The Broncos made up almost all these points in the fourth quarter.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it was like 19. Yeah, they they came back like 19 or 20 points from almost nothing. The Giants should have closed this game out. I don't care if you missed two extra points. Like you should have closed. This is two weeks in a row now that you had horrible late game collapses.
SPEAKER_00:So Sean Payton said about this game, you know, he when they were talking to him in the press conference, he had he had alluded to, you know, we had not anticipated we were going to play Dart in this game. We anticipated we would be facing someone else. Of course, he never named names, but we we kind of know which someone else that would have been. It would have been Russell Wilson. Who hogie? So so untrue to Russell Wilson's form, he spoke out against this. This never happens. Russell Wilson, he's he Peyton got under his skin. He said that it was ridiculous that he's attacking him like this. You know, he basically came out and said that he can't believe that he's acting like this.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I don't understand what he means. Like all he said was that they'd anticipated facing somebody else. But think about it.
SPEAKER_00:Doesn't it sound like Sean Payton's throwing some shade at Russell Wilson because they thought they were facing someone else?
SPEAKER_01:I think it's a home loan.
SPEAKER_00:They were gonna have a much easier game.
SPEAKER_01:I I think Russell's just butthurt because he didn't make it in Denver. He wasn't Sean Payton's guy, and then got shipped out.
SPEAKER_00:Look, Sean Payton was hoping he was gonna face him in this game. You know it. I know it. Because he's he knows how to play him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he does. And I mean he knows how to play himself too, given that Brian Dayball damn near dragged Jackson Dart back out of the booth.
SPEAKER_00:Not in this game, last week. The last game. But but let's let's not take anything away from the Broncos, though, for doing what they need to do. Bo Nick's having you know, just crunch, you know, coming down to the wire, he just he played lights out. He played like a franchise quarterback. That's right. He played like a guy who has that ability to come up when the lights are strong. So moving them to five and two, which is very good for them, especially now with the Chiefs looking good.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, they were they were a playoff competitive team last season. They're gelling a little bit better this season. I expect them to actually maybe even make it on a wild card. Like the Broncos are almost they're pretty competitive.
SPEAKER_00:Well, they were a wild card last year.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00:Right, they were but they got their problem is they've already lost to the Chargers, and the Chargers are 3-0 in their division.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So, you know, they might have the they'll have to have the better record in order to keep pace.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And then scrolling down, you know, the unbeatable Colts have beaten the Chargers.
SPEAKER_00:I don't say unbeatable, but look, man, best record in the league, it's six and one. The Colts come away with a 30 38 to 24 victory over the Chargers.
SPEAKER_01:Who, by the way, have been playing pretty good.
SPEAKER_00:How about this Tyler Warren, the tight end for them, dude? I mean, I'm not I don't want to take anything away from Taylor. He's he's been running the ball lights out this year, but it seems like they're hitting this tight end for multiple plays every game on multiple drives. He just he's really improved their offense greatly.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Danny Dimes, I mean, he's got it together. He's in he's obviously got a good relationship in chemistry with coaching. He fits the system well, they're playing well. I mean, I gotta I gotta give it up to him. He might be their quarterback of the future. Yeah. I mean, they they made he's still young. Take that, Giants. Yeah, I mean, he's still I mean that'd be number two for the Giants now because Saquon was the first.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. They let Saquon walkie plays lights out, they let the Colts go, he goes lights out. So maybe that's the recipe. You just pick up the Colts star player that lead or the Giants star player that leaves, and he's gonna be lights out for you next year.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, pretty much, the the following year. And then, you know, here we have the Packers and the Cardinals. That's always a classic matchup. Packers getting 27-23 over that. Cardinals kind of beat up right now.
SPEAKER_00:I can't really I can't really sit here and hate on the Cardinals because of the fact that their backup, Bursett, came in and he played a good game. Like he kept them in this game. You know, albeit they've been dealing with injuries, they're missing a lot of their star players. I mean, when you're going up against a Packers team that is considered a playoff team, and you're holding your own, still you're still in it late, late in the game. Man, they're just they're falling on hard luck, man. Their coach might be gone after this season.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I I just think they're dealing with a ton of injuries. Um, it's hard to get past that. I mean, you have your number one running back go down, then you have number two running back go down, then you have number three running back go down, then you have your number one receiver go down. Now your quarterback's having problems. Like, it just seems to be piling up and mounting up.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. And that's not counting the people that have gone down on the defensive side.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's not even counting the defensive side. And here we go, we're gonna skip over this game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, uh-uh. No, sir. These no, sir. You're not allowed to skip over it just because it did not end in your favor. We didn't skip over my team when that crap happened. So here we go. I don't want Cowboys Commanders. I'm gonna look the other way. Cowboys owned the commanders in this game.
SPEAKER_01:That's that is putting a mild mean. I'm sitting right next to you.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, it's the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
SPEAKER_01:These people could see your face.
SPEAKER_00:So the truth, the truth is that the Cowboys beat them high or highest scoring two.
SPEAKER_01:Highest scoring game this week goes to the Cowboys, beating the pants off the pantsless commando.
SPEAKER_00:Adding injury to insult here, and I said that that way before. 44 to 22 that Jaden Daniels suffered a hamstring.
SPEAKER_01:He just got back from injury and now he's injured again. This is like RG3 all over to me.
SPEAKER_00:No, not even quite. Because he's RG4. No, he's not. He's a better quarterback than RG3. Well, RG3 never took you almost to the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01:Well, he would have if he didn't tear his leg up. Well, I guess. He did get a his play did get us to the playoffs that year, though. I know Kirk Cousins has a small hand in it, but not believing word I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway. So Cowboys Most of these people don't even know what we're talking about. This shit's so old, but it feels like yesterday to me.
SPEAKER_00:Alright. Anyway, so Cowboys are now three and three and one with that ridiculous tie. And the the commanders are now three and four.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, through seven weeks, the Cowboys are only 500. That's a very hard thing to do.
SPEAKER_00:To the Sunday night game, we go. Sunday night game. We mentioned Kirk Cousins. And no, he did not start in this game. Michael Penix started for the Falcons and the 49ers, who are banged up, injured, and that seems to be a repeating theme every year. Uh yeah, for they come away with a victory in this game 20 to 10, with Mac Jones being the quarterback. But mainly, this was supposed to be the show of B. John Robinson against Christian McCaffrey, with McCaffrey coming away with the not only getting more yards in this game, but also taking over the rushing total this year, yeah, coming out of this game, and overall total in yards.
SPEAKER_01:So 49ers get it 20 to 10. I think that was a pre-handedly win. Takes them, keeps them atop of the division at 5-2. Honestly, the toughest division in the NFL, in my opinion, NFC West. Y'all are all neck and neck with the exception of uh Cardinals. The Cardinals. But the Cardinals would usually be in it with y'all if they were healthy.
SPEAKER_00:These Falcons are confusing, man. Like they're seriously confusing. You could put a beat down on Buffalo. You know why I'll and then you lose to an injured Niners team.
SPEAKER_01:You know why Australians love Atlanta? Because they're the Falcons. Oh, good lord. They fail. They're the Falcons. Just because you're a dad doesn't mean you need to do dad jokes. That was a great dad joke. I got rounded out a little bit, but we're working on it.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, rounding out the rest of the games from last week. We're doing Monday night football, where we had a strange double header situation, which okay NFL. Anyway, so we had a we had a pretty good matchup between the Lions and Buccaneers. You thought, oh man, it's gonna be you know scoring bonanza, but no, sir. Lions, tigers, and Buccaneers, oh my. But the Lions putting up 24 and the Buccaneers only scraping by with nine points.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, who are they gonna throw the ball to? The Buccaneers are down pretty much all their weapons right now. Even if Buka was limited.
SPEAKER_00:But they have Tez Johnson and they had Mike Evans back, but then Mike Evans broke his collarbone.
SPEAKER_01:And I want to point out something here. They almost had a huge team scuffle on the field here that involved JSN. Um they better be JSN and the Seahawks. Oh, sorry, you're in the wrong game. I'm in the wrong game here. Never mind. We're coming back to that in a minute. But anyway, uh this one is about the you know what? Never mind, I forgot it. I had something to do with going back to the Lions and notes mixed up, y'all.
SPEAKER_00:Going back to the Lions and Buccaneers. The Lions handedly won this game, putting both teams at a five and two record. Uh, and and you know what? We gotta give it to Lions, man. You lose two coordinators, right? And everybody's like, they're gonna fall off. I don't know they're gonna be the same team. Even on this show, we have said, I don't know what this is gonna look like because you lost both coordinators. I legit thought they were gonna take a step back, but they're holding tight. They're still holding good.
SPEAKER_01:And they're the number one in their division, too, I believe.
SPEAKER_00:I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I mean they're they're holding strong.
SPEAKER_00:But going on to our second game, which for some reason they did these games one after the other instead of doing them, you know, staggered start, which makes it impossible to watch the second game because the Texans Seahawks started at like 10 o'clock Eastern.
SPEAKER_01:It ran all the way to one o'clock.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so you had the Seahawks come away with a victory 27 to 19. So it was kind of a tight game. But the Seahawks, you gotta give it to them because they're they're winning these games with a quarterback that the Vikings were like, eh, it's okay. You can you can go. You can go. We're good.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that's what the Jets that's what the Jets said about him. Then he came in and lit it up for the Vikings, and now the Vikings said best of luck to you, bro.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, really, it was the last two games of the year that made the Vikings decide, nah, if that's how he's gonna be in primetime games, yep, bye.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I mean the Texans not exactly a formidable team, but they try to play competitively. At least they put points on the board.
SPEAKER_00:There are yeah, well, yeah, that's saying a lot considering some of the other games this week. Yeah, because the the fact is that they've been they've been hit with injuries as well. I mean, it it just I don't know what it is, man. Like they this is a team that you thought when when they first got their quarterback that they're they're turning corner. Like they're gonna be they're gonna be one of the perennial teams. They play in a weak division, so they should be able to just turn it around. They got Demico Ryan's now, they're gonna play great. And it's just one good year, and all of a sudden they just don't look good. They what for whatever reason, albeit they're they're offensive line, maybe they need Joe Mixon back to kind of get the running game going, because Nick Chubb doesn't look the same. I don't know. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:They need some work, they do need some work, and I and talent. And I got I gotta give it to the ref in this game because these two teams almost had a huge scuffle, especially involving JSN on the sideline at some point. I won't get into details of it, but uh the ref, by the way, former NFL defensive back Nate Jones uh actually stood in front of JSN and shielded him from the other players from getting physical. You don't see that kind of thing, not just from refs, but from anybody anymore. He was truly wielding his power of the umpire there, okay? Uh because you know not to touch the ref. But what happened? Well, basically, they got into it. Uh JSN and uh I forgot the other player's name uh on the sideline, uh Derek Stingley, uh they were mouthing off, got words, and JSN didn't initially respond to it, but something happened between the two where they mouth at each other, and JSN had lost his helmet, and they were getting ready to get into it, and the teammates are starting to get into it, and basically JSN's sitting on the bench, by the way, I don't think on his side of the field, uh, and the ref has both his hands up by his shoulders and he's just standing in front of him, and nobody's going past the ref. They're mouthing, but they all calmed off and backed off. Uh normally refs just try to get out the way, or they're in your face trying to tell you to go. By him isolating JSN removed any removed any possibility of de-escalated the situation. It was a full-on de-escalation. Because these players know you don't touch the ref, and they had enough respect and foresight.
SPEAKER_00:Not unless you want to give up game checks.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I mean, I gotta give it to Nate Jones for putting himself in the line of fire like that, surrounded by a bunch of angry players, and just says, no, we're not doing this right here, right now. Um and so the and I gotta give him props for that because you just don't see that truly wielding the power of the empire and controlling the game as the referee, as he should.
SPEAKER_00:Now, on occasion you see it, but not not to that extent.
SPEAKER_01:Not to the extent that he does. We'll post it later on social media. Now, I have a couple questions for you here, Mike. Uh, this one is involving onside kick. Now, the league has tossed around, according to league sources, uh they're talking about getting rid of onside kicks permanently and replacing them with a fourth and fifteen play to keep possession of the ball. I don't know if I like this because then you completely take away the opportunity for the receiving team to receive the ball.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I I don't like it.
SPEAKER_01:And teams like Kansas City will certainly take advantage of situations like that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they'll just go, they'll do that a bunch of times throughout the game just to give them chances to double up scores.
SPEAKER_01:I I agree. I I don't like that as well. And here we go, one more for spooky season.
SPEAKER_00:I I I'll give you if you're gonna do that, you have to have your punter be the guy throwing the ball.
SPEAKER_01:I agree. That's awesome because punters suck at the ball.
SPEAKER_00:Well, not all of them, but you have to have your punter or your kicker come in and be the quarterback.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Now that's the way that works.
SPEAKER_01:That makes it more interesting. I like that.
SPEAKER_00:That would be and everybody's eligible. You can throw to linemen.
SPEAKER_01:And here we take our first step towards football's version of banana ball. But I got one more question for you, Mike, before we close this out tonight. Uh, since we're in spooky season, you don't want to look ahead to next week's games? We will look ahead to next week's games. Let's go ahead and talk about that real quick, and then I'll ask this question because this will be a good close-out question here.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, as we are recording this on a Thursday, we have Thursday night football going on right now between the Chargers and Vikings, with the Chargers up right now. Uh they're up 7-0. We'll see how we'll see how this game turns out because this should be a pretty decent matchup. Um, but let's take a look at what we're gonna get on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01:Not they're not really interested in that one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Dolphins, Falcons, nah. I would like to see Bears, Ravens. If Lamar comes back, it could be a pretty exciting game.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly what you say.
SPEAKER_00:If Lamar's in, I think they're all go. Bills might have a get-right game playing against the Panthers.
SPEAKER_01:Which is weird to say, because they both are four-win teams.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they're both four-win teams, which again is a little odd, but this might be a game where, you know, because the Panthers have been kind of shaky as a team this year. They have a four-and-three record for a reason, but they're building towards something. You could see some improvement there.
SPEAKER_01:They're typically worse than they are now. So I gotta give them credit for holding with the middle of the pack there.
SPEAKER_00:And we're definitely gonna see the Bengals beat down the Jets because I mean, come on, it's Joe Flacco.
SPEAKER_01:Flacco's balling out right now. He's only been there two games, but he's he's got that offense back rolling.
SPEAKER_00:And we got the Niners, Texans, Niners at 5-2, Texans at at 2-4. Fully expect the Niners to win. This will be in the Texans house. So we'll we'll see what happens there. I I'm hopeful. I I would like to see my Niners win, but hey, D's in any given Sunday. D'Amico Ryan's did come from the Niners. Yeah, defensive coordinator. Any given Sunday there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Uh Browns, Patriots, you know, the Browns have a very good defense. This could be an upset game. This could be another, they better be careful. This could be a trap game for the Patriots. Could be. Really could be. Giants, the Eagles. I don't hope any, I hope nobody wins that game.
SPEAKER_00:He wants a tie. He wants another tie in the league. Yeah. Good divisional matchup between the Saints, Saints and Buccaneers. Another game that could be a trap game only because of the fact that they these two teams play each other so much. The Bucs are a little beat up.
SPEAKER_01:So if they want to keep rolling, they're gonna have to win this one.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And an interesting matchup between the Cowboys and Broncos because the Cowboys have a good offense and a bad defense, and the Broncos have a so-so offense and a good defense. We might see a game where this might be low score.
SPEAKER_01:I think the Broncos offense is a lot better than people give it credit for. I like to see the Broncos edge the Cowboys in this.
SPEAKER_00:And I I just love the numbers of this game, the Titans and Colts, a divisional game, but we have a one-and-six team against a six and one team. So this should be an easy win for the Colts, but nothing is ever truly easy in the NFL.
SPEAKER_01:The Colts don't show any signs of easing up. I think the Titans have put up some points trying to implement a new offense, but that's about it.
SPEAKER_00:And the Sunday night game is giving us an interesting, interesting situation of Packers, Steelers. Rodgers going against his former team for the first time. That's right. Let's see what happens, man. And this is going to be in the Steelers. House. So we're going to see if if Rodgers gets a little get back, or maybe he gets a little, you know, juice in his blood and he goes three touchdowns. Hopefully, if the Steelers' defense holds it together, maybe. I dude, I think it's going to be interesting because you're going to see, you know, neither the Packers don't want to lose to Rogers, and his fan base doesn't want to lose to Rodgers, but you know Rogers, and he he does hold a grudge.
SPEAKER_01:As long as Josh Jacobs puts up at least 25 fantasy points, I don't care. Nobody cares about your fantasy team, dude. Come on, man. Come on, man. And here we go, almost a surefire loss for us. The commanders and the Chiefs, and we will not have Jaden Daniels for this game.
SPEAKER_00:You will have Terry McLaurin and you will have Debo Samuels.
SPEAKER_01:They're both coming back?
SPEAKER_00:They're both coming back.
SPEAKER_01:And now Daniels is out. Yep. We just can't get the stars together.
SPEAKER_00:So now you have Mariota gonna be and mind you, let's not forget, Mariota did go into KC and did win against the Chiefs when he was a Titan. And albeit in that same game, he threw himself a pass and got scored a touchdown.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, with the the shape of our defense right now, I really don't have a lot of hope for this game. I think this year is on the brink of becoming a wash for us Commanders fans. They could turn it around, but if they drop this one, we got a very tough stretch of games ahead. Oh, you know, we may just bear witness to the sophomore slump of Jaden Daniels uh for this one.
SPEAKER_00:This might be a trap. This might be a trap game. It's a trap for us. No, I mean, because look, we all know the Chiefs kind of feel themselves and they kind of play around in their game, and maybe y'all could sneak up on them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's in their house too. It's in Arrowhead.
SPEAKER_00:Hey. Like I just said, Mariota has one in their house in the playoffs. You can't get much more crucial than a playoff game in Arrowhead. Well, I'm gonna go to the show. I'm under pressure and get to them.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see what happens, but uh I'm gonna have to have a very good pregame you know ritual for that one because we need some good juju. And speaking of good juju, since it's spooky season, what are some specs? So I got this because I was reading an article the other day. Okay, uh Lions head coach Dan Campbell, his wife, whenever whenever the team starts falling behind, oh, she goes to the team restroom and lit and waits for the cheers. And when they start cheering again, it's her cue to come out because then they're doing good again. And she said, whatever outfit she's wearing that day, if they lose, she doesn't wear that outfit anymore. So I'm like, okay, this woman's very football superstitious. She fits in well with this community. Hey, that's football fans in general superstitious. I mean, I I do things too, like, you know, I used to have a Redskins bong. I would hit that back in the day, obviously, not anytime recently, but that used to be my go-to.
SPEAKER_00:You mean you what you mean to say is you would you would smoke off of it. Yeah, yeah, I would the other the other implies something else.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I yeah, right. Anyway, so everybody has their everybody has their rituals. Mike's what what's one of your rituals? You know, what are some things that you superstitiously do before game day to ensure your team gets the win?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, much much like Dan Campbell's wife, if I wear a certain shirt and the team loses, I am not wearing that shirt next week.
SPEAKER_01:Doesn't wear it again?
SPEAKER_00:That is not happening. And uh if the team is not doing well, I might stand up and move somewhere else in the room, and if something good happens, I'm staying there. Or I might change seats.
SPEAKER_01:Very, very minute. And I give you that. I have game jerseys and non-game jerseys. We know if we wear this jersey, it probably ain't gonna go well.
SPEAKER_00:Like a lot of fans, if my team is losing, I gotta go get a drink. You know, maybe not necessarily alcoholic drink. Oh, let me let me be fair here. But if it is an alcoholic drink and we're still losing, I might get another. And then if we're still losing, I might get another, and just start feeling my depression that my team is losing. It's weird.
SPEAKER_01:As much as we drink when we're losing, we tend to start drinking more when we're winning as well.
SPEAKER_00:So we drink whether we win, whether we lose.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we enjoy it all the way. Alcohol is a big part of our lives, but drink responsibly, responsibly, of course. And uh thank you everybody for listening to us to us for another episode of Sports Banter. We had a very good night tonight, uh, if I do say so myself, Mike. Uh, thank you for joining us. Once again, thank you to all our sponsors and partners, Body by D Gym, Solace Outfitters, and Giving Tree Chiropractic. For the last time tonight, I'm Brian with an I. And I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Thanks, everybody.