Two For The Win - S2.54 - Rivers-Reset, NBA Expansion & Old Dynasties Give Way To New Ones

The sports calendar just threw everything at us—front office gambles, historic firsts, trophy drama, and playoff math that changes by the hour—and we’re here to make it all make sense. We open with the human side, offering condolences around a tragic crash, then pivot hard into the games that won’t wait: MLB’s hot stove moves that look modest but could change bullpens and batting orders by October. The Mets layer depth with Luke Weaver and Jorge Polanco, the Angels double up on relief, and the Braves lock down shortstop stability. These are the quiet decisions that win long seasons.

College basketball steals a December headline as a 7'9" freshman scores his first bucket, setting a record and forcing coaches to rethink spacing, lobs, and transition defense. Over in the NBA, the Knicks lift the in-season Cup but won’t raise a banner, prompting a bigger question about what teams should celebrate. Kevin Garnett returns to Minnesota as an ambassador just as expansion talk heats up—Seattle and Las Vegas are in the frame, with possible realignment that could tilt the power map for a decade.

College football delivers a Heisman with transfer portal fingerprints and a playoff bracket loaded with pitfalls. We map how NIL-era roster building meets bowl-season volatility, where opt-outs, tempo, and red-zone calls decide reputations. Then the NFL shakes the board: a brutal injury to Patrick Mahomes, the Broncos’ well-rounded surge, the Bills’ stubborn resilience, and an AFC South that suddenly looks scary. We talk dynasty sustainability—run games, defensive regression, and whether the league is entering a reset—without losing sight of leadership and accountability after a week of off-field headlines.

We close by circling the games that matter most next week: Rams-Seahawks for seeding muscle, Jaguars-Broncos as a playoff preview, divisional rematches that flip tiebreakers, and the sneaky edges in special teams and scripted series. If you want clarity amid chaos—smart context, clean takeaways, and picks you can push back on—you’re in the right place. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves real sports talk, and drop your bold upset in the comments so we can revisit it next week.

Transcript

Opening, Condolences, And Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:12

December 18th, 2025. Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for joining us once again for another episode of SportsBanter. Uh screaming into the holiday season here. Happy holidays, everybody. I'm Brian with an eye. And I'm Mike. And we are two for the win.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Mike, what do we have on our ho ho list? Well, the hot stove is keeping MLB nice and warm in this cold wintery season. The NBA is crowned a cup champion. And college football is running into its playoff bracket. And we're still trying to figure out the NFL. We gotta see who's gonna be heading up the number one seed in the NFC West. Boy, we got NFC in general.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I'll tell you what, we got some stuff to talk about tonight. The NBA's got stuff, we got some breaking headlines, people are winning awards. But first, we want to talk about and once again extend our condolences uh to the families and communities and those involved in that helicopter crash. What was it just how long ago was this, Mike?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Uh I want to say it happened back in January in uh DC. We had the military helicopter running into the commercial flight that wound up having 67 people lose their lives.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Right. And we're we're revisiting this now because the government had we don't give very political, we don't really talk about the government and stuff like that. It's not our style. But uh this was rather notable to us. The government has come out and admitted their role in the crash, which I mean it was a Black Hawk helicopter, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, it was military operations and they they're basically admitting fault here, they're saying that they shouldn't have been flying that operation and shouldn't have been flying in that area.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

And I I thought that that was rather obvious, but it's nice of them to admit it.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of litigation and stuff that comes from this. Absolutely not that that's gonna ever, you know, fix anything for the people that were affected. You know, you you lose a loved one. I don't think any amount of monetary compensation is gonna fill that void. You know, it's still gonna hurt, it's still gonna make people sad, you know. But but if you've done something wrong, it it's nice to see when you know even the government can finally be like, yeah, we we screwed up.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Yeah, it's it's nice. We'll see how far it actually goes and what we're able to do to uh we screwed up a little bit. Well we do. Sponsors. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Hit the sponsors.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

We are gonna hit the sponsors and partners, by the way. We're slightly off keel. We're just excited for Christmas. Don't

Sponsors And Community Shoutouts

SPEAKER_02 2:52

mind us. Real quickly, uh, we just want to thank our sponsors and partners. Body by DGem, uh owned and operated by uh Deshaun Deshaun Wright, he's a uh former bodybuilding champion and training future bodybuilding champions, as well as many other things happening out of his locations, one in Gloucester and one in Yorktown. Uh, a lot of youth events, community-based events. They give back to the community. Very, very, not just a great business, but a great community up there as well. They're really building something. Uh, our good friends Caden and Christian over at Solace Outfitters, two young uh two young athletes building their brand. These guys are up and coming. They're great athletes. They play basketball, very smart, and uh not even 18 yet, and they already own their first business and having some success with it. So, congratulations, guys. And the Giving Tree, chiropractic service, down here in Virginia Beach with us, Mike. Uh Justin's a great guy, very knowledgeable in his craft. Uh, and the way he does his pricing, he had he's makes his chiropractic services accessible to pretty much everybody. So good job, fellas. Thank you for being our sponsors and partners. Uh, friends, we look forward to doing business with you further uh more in the future. And I know I'm tripping over my words tonight. Got a little off schedule, Mike, but we're gonna keep rocking and rolling and pretend that didn't just happen.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

It's all good.

MLB Hot Stove: Signings And Fits

SPEAKER_00 4:07

So let's uh let's saunter on over here to the stove and see what's happening with MLB. I mean, yes, we we've put out a lot of information these last few weeks of who's going where and how it's impacting teams. And it it's kind of interesting to see. It's a nice little chess match, and this is when general managers make their money or lose their jobs.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

So uh the chest of chesty of chess matches.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Sure. Anyway, uh the thank you, Brian. The uh Mets have uh signed another reliever to a two-year deal in the form of Luke Weaver, former closer for for the Yankees. So probably a good little get for them there if he can find his form again with them. Uh Aldonis Garcia is now going to be with the Phillies. Rangers had released him, and now he's gonna be with the Phillies now. And it's uh it's it's causing a little question on what they might do with Harrison Bader, uh guy they picked up at the deadline last year. Now that he's filling a role that would have possibly been filled by Bader, it's a little like, okay, well, what now? I mean, knowing the Phillies, they might still throw the money around and you know figure it out. Uh in a kind of a surprise move, the Braves have decided that they're going to go ahead and hang on to Hassan Kim Hassan Kim by signing him to a one-year, $20 million deal. So now they have their starting shortstop for next year. Hopefully, maybe for years to come if they try to work a deal.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

That is the name of the game. You need people who can work deals, not just play baseball.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Well, you get to see them play for a little bit, and if they do well, I mean, and they're in your clubhouse, you know, maybe start a little more conversation of a longer contract, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So that's what she said.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Just get to see what's up. Yeah. Anyway, so Angels, they made they made a move for two relievers and Ramon and Pomerans. Two very good relievers. They've been all over the league, but they should ask they should be providing a pretty good deep impact to their bullpen. So good for them. They're starting to round out a pretty pretty decent little squad. The Tigers have signed the current uh all-time saves leader or active saves leader and Canley Jansen to a one-year deal to be part of their bullpen. Good pickup by them. And the Mets weren't done. They also signed Jorge Polanco to a two-year deal, so he's no longer with the Mariners. Um, this is gonna kind of uh make for an interesting situation since they already had signed a second baseman. So I'm I'm thinking they're gonna rotate him in as a DH or possible, you know, uh rotate the second base position. But now with him gone from the Mariners, it's kind of looking like the Mariners have decided they're going a different direction in their second base spot. Kendall Marte is figured to be the player they're after trying to work a deal in a trade scenario.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Trade scenario.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Scenario scenario. There's been some other moves kind of on the periphery. Uh players most people probably won't know. Peripherals, peripherals. We're we're not going to dive too deep into them.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

But shallow area, no diving allowed.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

If you want to get into that, just go look it up real quick and check out the extra moves that have been happening. Trust me, there's some stuff. If you know, if you follow baseball and you're big into baseball, you'll know some of the names. But if you're kind of, you know, flyby fan, you won't know the names.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Figure it out yourself.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

So let's roll on into college basketball.

College Hoops: A 7'9" First

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah, I know we're a little early on talking college basketball, but when somebody does something historic, we've got to talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Look, we have an expedited agenda tonight because we have a lot to talk about the further we go along here, guys. Uh, but yes, diving into some college basketball here, real quick, which it is a little early for us, Mike. It's not quite March Madness time yet. No, no. Uh, this guy here, uh I'm trying to find his name in my notes. This is the gator.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

The Gators have a a freshman who is seven foot nine inches tall and has been a been a really uh highly uh buzzed over by the fans. The fans have been really excited to see him, you know, given the fact that they just won the championship last year and they want to see their new rookie. Like, come on, we want to see this kid. Olivier Riox or Rox.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I don't know how to say it yet, but we will figure it out, sir. Because this man has a future in the NBA, I'm convinced.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Well, I mean, he's a he's a freshman right now. Let's let's hold back and saying he's gonna be in the NBA until we're we're ready for it.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

But let's just say I'm calling it now and he felt like I'm calling it now. I'm placing bets. This man will be in the NBA one day, he'll be the next coming of Shaq.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Well just less meat. The less meaty the interesting maybe more hair. The interesting thing here, and I'm glad you brought up Shaq because you know caught he played college basketball, but he was only seven foot. So now we have seven nine. The reason we're bringing him up is he's he dunked the ball last night, becoming the tallest player to ever score a basket in college basketball.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Yep. In the history of college basketball, tallest player to score a field goal. I mean, that's that's pretty cool. Not bad at all.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Well, and and what makes it even better is the fact that the fans they were chanting for him to get into the game. They wanted him in the game. Like, come on. He's seven foot nine.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Are the hoops still ten feet or are they twelve feet now?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

No, they're still ten feet.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Okay, so this man didn't have to do much to dunk. Yeah, the fan the fans were like, we want Ollie, we want Ollie. He probably just walks up and puts it in the basket like he's dropping an apple on his teacher's desk.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Just just kind of puts the arm up and boop, hey go!

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Oh my god. I'm not making fun of him, I'm making fun with him, is the difference. But scooting along here, speaking of basketball, moving on into the NBA

NBA Cup Results And The Knicks’ Banner Debate

SPEAKER_02 10:38

here. Uh the Knicks will not hang the cup banner at Madison Square Garden, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Well, I think you kind of jumped the shark here. You got a little ahead of the fact that the bracket has been figured out.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

It has been figured out. Maybe I put the agenda in order in the wrong show.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

We figured out who was going to win the in-season tournament cup.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

You we produce our own shows. I don't know if you can tell.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah, yeah, we we do get off the rails. Anyway, we are the producer. As he's alluded, the Knicks came out of the East, and the Spurs, big surprise, came out of the West. The Spurs toppling the Thunder by just two points, but couldn't hold it together to beat the Knicks. The Knicks came out victorious and are the cup champion for this year. That's right. The Spurs, or I like to refer to them as the Patriots of basketball. Now, as you said, they are not going to hang a banner, which, you know, I I I can kind of understand to a point. But other teams have hung the banner. You know, past teams that won it. The Bucks, they hung a banner. The Lakers hung a banner, but Knicks are not. And it's it's kind of funny that the Lakers of all teams, with as many championships as they won, they went ahead and did a banner. Why are why are you not gonna have the Knicks, who haven't won anything in a long time, celebrated? I mean, you should celebrate.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah, I'm trying to figure this out myself. Um they haven't particularly said why.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Maybe because they think it's a joke and not an actual championship?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

I mean, I can agree with that. It's it's not your NBA championship cup banner. But I mean, wouldn't you want to hang your accolades? You know, if you get first place in a tournament, you should show it off. Maybe put it in, maybe put it in the lower accolade, like maybe not all the way at the top of the stadium, put it in like the guest relations area.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Well, they're getting a cup, a trophy. Now I'm sure they'll put that somewhere in their stadium, somewhere for the fans to see. Yeah, but guest relations are. Let me ask you, if if it was you, if it was you and you were the one that won, would you want to hang the banner?

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I mean, a lot of the players interviewed said they're they seemed kind of indifferent to it themselves. Um, I mean, I would want the banner hung. If I got first place in anything, maybe not a second place, I mean, you don't get a banner for second place, but no. Um, you know, if we get first place in anything, I'm gonna want to show it off. Maybe we don't hang it next to the NBA Cup, you know, to the NBA, you know, championships, but maybe we put it somewhere like next to the retired players.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I I well, those usually go on the rafters, too. I think I have the solution. Oh you're really doing this for the fans, right? This is really, you know, to get buzz for the fans and get the fans excited, yeah, get the players excited for the early part of the season. Why not at the main entrance for the stadium? Hang it there. Hang it like as you first walk in, bam, there's the banner. Yeah. For all the fans to enjoy as they walk in.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Yeah, your most recent accomplishments right there in the main lobby.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Maybe not, you know, up there with championships and you know, retired uh jersey numbers and players, but you know, right there where everybody could see it.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

It's clear that they want this to become a bigger thing than it is. And it may eventually one day be that.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Uh but I mean I think it provides a little buzz to the early part of the season. I mean, yes, does it really I mean, being that the games count towards your final final overall tally for the season, is it really that big? No, not really, but still you should be able to celebrate it. I mean, everybody had a chance, everybody was involved. It's like the attendance record award.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Like, you may you may not have actually been the best student in the class, but you had the best attendance during that time period, so you got a flag. So I would take that. You're you're trying to say it's a participation trophy. No, not at all. I don't think it's a particip put participate. It takes consistency and continuity to win a tournament in the middle of your season or in the big middle beginning half of the season.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Well, the fact that you know the Thunder have been on a roll and they wind up losing kind of shows that like, look, it it doesn't matter in a tournament and it counts one bad night and get bounced.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

And it counts towards your overall record. So obviously the team that's winning the most is gonna be the Iron Man, right? Typically. Well it's like the attendance record. Thank you for showing me. I think if this was more of a And I mean showing up performance-wise than showing up.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Well, I think if this was more of a a like, you know, tournament like the March Madness tournament, I would but I would feel more like, okay, it's an Iron Man kind of thing, because those are kind of like back to back to back together.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Well, yeah, they're yeah, they're back to back to back to back, and there's a lot more schools involved in that bracket.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I mean, there's coming away from that bracket, it's a little more, it's a little more of a because you you always have those teams that they weren't supposed to be there. It's like, how is this 16th seat in made it into the final 16? Like, what what's going on here? You know?

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Yeah, there's like I don't even remember how big the bracket is for March Madness, but it's huge.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

It's giant horse. Breaking news, Devontae Adams inactive tonight against the Seahawks.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

And clearly this game is sponsored by Subway as the Rams and Seahawks logos are in yellow and green. Oh, good lord. I probably am not legally allowed to say things like that. But I don't work for the NFL or Subway, so we don't make any money, we just do this.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah. Anyway, we do this for the fun of it. That's why

KG’s New Role And NBA Expansion Talk

SPEAKER_00 17:02

we let's roll on to the next topic, which is uh the Minnesota Timberwolves are bringing back one of their favorite players and Kevin Garnett. But hold on, the wolves get a guy. Not to play on the court. He's coming back in a front office role.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Man, kind of like Dwayne Wade did coming back in a in a coaching capacity.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Well, this is a little different than Dwayne Wade. He's just gonna be an ambassador for the team. So his new roles is ambassador. He'll also be involved in business and community community stuff for the team and fan engagement and content development for announcing things for the team. So he's he's just gonna kind of be in the front office.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

He's gotta be a creator.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, I mean, I mean, come on, it's Kevin Garnett. He's one of the more popular players.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

I mean, he created a lot of wins, so maybe he can create some front office.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

He created a lot of wins when he went to the Celtics. He got some wins when he was with the Timberwolves, and he he he was a good player for them for many, many years. But you know, he kind of got his championships when he moved on. And speaking of moving on and things changing, the NBA has the commissioners come out and said that they are talking expansion for the NBA.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

I we've had we've heard expansion rumors for a little while now, and honestly, this excites me, right? Because the NBA just isn't big enough, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:31

I mean Well, so here's the thing. They're gonna have if they're gonna expand, they have to add two teams, you know, one for each each side, one for the west, one for the east. Right. Which may wind up shuffling some teams.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Well, what about conferences though? Won't they have to add one percent?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

No, no, no, no. This it's probably gonna start with just two teams. And there's a couple places in mind that they're they've been looking at. Uh places like Vancouver, Seattle, which Seattle they should have never taken a team from in the first place. A lot of people like the supersonics. But so what's gonna wind up happening is oh, and one of the other places is is Las Vegas, you know, because they've been doing a lot of stuff in Vegas, and Vegas is getting more teams since nobody's scared of gambling anymore, as far as uh as far as sports is concerned. They're almost lockstep partnered with each other. But you know, uh places like Nashville have been mentioned, uh, you know, very various other locations as possible team locations in the future. Now, this could wind up in some realignment as well, where you might move a team over to the east to kind of balance things out, you know, a team like the team we just mentioned, the Timberwolves. And I think if I was the Timberwolves and they said we're gonna move you into the East, take it. Take it all day because that team would just own.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Yeah, I mean I I think I agree with that, but why wouldn't they add they would they have six divisions and they have two conferences with six divisions? Right. So they would have to add six teams or restructure the divisions.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

That's what I'm saying. They would restructure the divisions. That's what would come with it is some restructuring. But you're not going to add six new teams because you would do like the NBA and have eight divisions then. You wouldn't. Thirty-two teams. So you you okay. The reason you would not do six new teams is because it is too much of a load to bear to bring six new franchises up and make them ready to compete with the rest of the league and not have to be. I mean, that is you're right. That is quite a job. It's too much growth. You'd only get two teams to start out with, and then they might expand from there.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I mean, you're talking about a huge growth. Yeah, you're right. That's a that's a little uh far-fetched, but so they would have to restructure the divisions to eight divisions from six, like they do at the NFL, because then there would be thirty-two NBA teams.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah, there would be two NFL teams. There would be restructuring to figure it all out. Now, whether that's they put two teams in the west to move two teams to the east in order to compensate for it, I don't know. It all shakes out on how they incorporate these new teams. But I think one of the places they need to do it, you need to bring back the Seattle Supersonics because when you moved them away, that was such a travesty to that area because they loved their supersonics and you took them away and moved them to Oklahoma City and called them the Thunder. And I don't you need to re-establish that team at least.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

I agree with you, but I don't think they're gonna do that because I think the Thunder still owns rights to the supersonics name. The NBA can tell them to give it up. Well, I mean, they could, but when you have an independent ownership, doesn't matter. They're they're not, you know, they retain the right to not do it.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Doesn't matter, they'll do it. Because here's the thing I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

If they say no, that's what it is. They and the the NBA can't tell them if they exclusively own the rights to it.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

You're missing the point. What they wouldn't just take the name and not give them anything for it. It would take the name and say, Hey, you're gonna give us the name and we're gonna give you X amount of on sales of merch. Yeah, that's X amount of it. Well, yes, that's how business they're gonna give the name up. Well, that's how it's gonna make the money, regardless. But they would not be owners of the team. The point of the matter is you're gonna have more teams, you're gonna have more revenue share, which means overall it's growth. They're gonna want the growth of the league because it means all the owners will make more money, period. So they're gonna be on board for it.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

I think they'll be on board for it. It's just a matter of where they put these teams at. I don't think Seattle's on the board for them, although I wish it was.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

They already have a stadium, so they could easily do it.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Yeah, I mean, we're building we're building a stadium here in Virginia Beach.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

And a basket, a basketball or a hockey team was that's still that's still way far away, and I don't know I don't know if the the seven cities could ever figure it out and not be a-holes to each other and come together and make it work.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Oh, it's not gonna be the seven cities. Virginia Beach is just gonna say, hey, we have a professional sports team now.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

They want one, they want one, but whether we can get one is another matter. Well, that's what I say. By the way, if you don't remember, we came within striking distance of having a hockey team. We really did, and the only reason we didn't is because they moved a team in

Heisman Winner, NIL, And Playoff Bracket

SPEAKER_00 23:58

the whalers from Hartford to Raleigh, North Carolina, and called them the Hurricanes. And if they had not done that move, we would have gotten a team and would have been the Hampton Roads Rhinos. If you I implore everybody, go look. Implore. Go look this up. You're being implored. Stop interrupting me. Go look this up. There is concept jerseys still up online for the Hampton Roads Rhinos jerseys for the hockey team. It still exists, it's still up there. Articles are still available online from back when this was supposed to happen. And it was back in like 96 or 97. That's right. Go look it up. Trust me, we came so close to having a team. The same thing happened with the Charlotte Hornets. They were testing possibly coming here before they decided to go to New Orleans. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

And, you know, all right next to my Washington Commander's Cam Scadaboo jerseys.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Are you talking about your scataboo again? I am. I know we'll get there in a moment. He never, he never, he never says. I know we'll get there in a moment, though.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

We're not quite on football yet. But I like the idea of the NBA expanding. I'm just interested as to what cities would get these teams.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

I I think right now we're looking at Vegas and Seattle being the top contenders for possibly these two new teams, and then they would move two teams over to the east. Yeah, I think that's what most likely is gonna happen. I know if they decide to put a team in Nashville. And I know Canada has been trying to get another team. Yeah, Vancouver mainly, but I don't think that's gonna happen. No.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

But anyway, let's move along here. Let's talk some college football. Uh we have a Heisman winner. We have a Heisman winner. We meant to talk Heisman's last episode, but we kind of got a little ahead of ourselves. Mendoza uh wins the Heisman. He is Indiana's first ever Heisman winner. Uh, is this an impact of the new NIL system, Mike? Or is this just Indiana was in the right place at the right time and had the right player?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

No, this is definitely NIL because Mendoza was playing elsewhere and he came in through the transfer portal to Indiana. So this was definitely NIL got him there, but good coaching and the way that they built that team got him to the point where he's a Heisman award winner.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Which by the way, I don't know if you saw this, but Vanderbilt's quarterback was salty over this. He's he was like, I shouldn't, I should have won the award, I shouldn't have been in second, I should have won this. And it's like, well, wait a second, bro. At no time was your team in the top five. Yeah, Indiana was in the top five all year. Yeah, and so get out of here with that mess.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

And Vanderbilt did not make the the bracket either.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

So um and and Mendoza is on the number one team going into the bracket.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

So And honestly, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you, Mike. I don't think Indiana is number one without Mendoza, to be for real with you. Um, Indiana just kind of came out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Well, they were they were good last year, too.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

They were good last year. They were good last year, but they were not this good last year.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

No, they definitely got better because of Mendoza and some other key acquisitions. We're not gonna go through all that. But congratulations to Mendoza.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

And congratulations, sir, and a bright future to you and your career.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Let's uh let's move along and talk about it. We brought this up last week. We talked about Sharon Moore situation. We we didn't have all the details, but now we do. We have deets. We got the deets. So here's the crazy part. It's bleak. Here's the crazy part. It's it's like everybody else around the team, and everybody else that was you know associated with the team knew this was going on.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Like they all knew it was like an open secret, basically. Exactly, but they had no proof, and both parties involved denied it.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

But you know, Sheryl Moore doing dumb things like ordering plan B and sending it via an Instacart driver to this girl's house is not exactly a good sign, you know. Plus the fact that, you know, after this whole scenario started blowing up and he lost his job, he supposedly went over to her house, grabbed a butter knife, of all things, and was telling her that she's gonna watch him kill himself right in front of her. With a butter knife, with with a butter knife. So I applaud him for the uh commitment to to going through through a heck of amount of pain because a butter knife's gonna take a long time with a damn butter knife.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

We're not applauding any part of this scenario, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

First of all, and I read applauding the craziness of it, because like really who who who goes who goes, I'm gonna cut myself, and they grab a butter knife. No, I know all the knives in the kitchen. You grab the butter knife.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

I think the word you're looking for is hilarious, not applauding. I'm applauding the hilariousness of that stupid statement. I read deep into this, and this is really quite the complex situation, okay? This girl, I forgot her name. I'm sure it's listed all over the internet somewhere, but they were apparently dating, had a relationship. Now obviously in some states in this country, football coach is one of the highest paid positions, and it comes with a um ton of stress. Uh well, not just ton of stress, but it comes usually in their clause, in their contracts, comes with a code of ethics, right? Uh this was outside their code of ethics. This is obviously a much younger female uh who was on staff. Sherwell Moore actually fired her. He fucked up. Oh, excuse me. He messed up. Um I get that he probably wanted to put some separation between him and her and break it off with her. I have my suspicions as to how the situation went and why he ended up firing her. But he fired her uh and then she went to the school and spilled the beans after previously denying it. Um and I'm pretty sure the school paid her to go away because she could sue the pants off the school as Sherm Moore was employed by the school and unfairly fired her. Um so she lost her job, goes to school, spills the beans, uh, school fires Sherwell Moore, he flips out, has a pain attack, gets arrested, all kinds of other things happening in his life. And now, to add you know insult to injury, this girl is uh supposedly now pregnant. So this is a complex situation, and I I feel for him a little bit. I don't feel bad for him, but I I can you

College Bowl Chaos And Naming Laughs

SPEAKER_02 31:07

know kind of sympathize what's going through his head right now because it's such a look, 24 hours is probably the one of the fastest colossal crashes I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

I all I can say is like you're you're trying to do a permanent solution to temporary problems. This will all get figured out. You're gonna have some hard roads ahead of you and have some stuff to deal with uh for sure. But you know, I I hope that at some point he can reconcile with everybody involved and kind of move forward.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Well, I think his football coaching career is done. Um as far as college, yeah. No, I don't I don't think anywhere is gonna hire him as a coach. Um because I just think when you do something like same thing with Henry Ruggs, like Oh, that's a way different situation. It is a way different situation, but still result it was a result of bad judgment, as was the situation with Sheryl Moore. When you lose your cool, you lose your judgment, and Mr. Moore lost a lot of judgment that night, and clearly his cool with it. And I'm not here to dog him. He is gonna have to come back from this situation because now not only does he have a family that he still has to take care of and provide for, but now this young lady is from what I understand, she is uh pregnant, so now he's gonna have to contend with that, and now your salary's gone. But hopefully, you put some money away and invested it, so you're not terribly hard off. But I wish Mr. Moore the best of luck. I'm sorry that this situation has happened. I don't feel bad for him, but I can sympathize what he and everyone involved are going through. It's quite a complex and terrible situation to be part of, it certainly is. So, but Mike, real quickly, let's jump ahead uh to the college football bracket. Thank you for hitting the brakes there.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Yeah, I hit the brakes because uh we knew we skip over the bracket, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:17

Yeah, we can't skip over the bracket. You know, that was breaking news. We talk about it a little bit. Uh, but here that's enough beating the horse into the sand.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Let's let's get you guys squared away with like when, where some of these games are happening. Who was when, where, and why in the college bracket. We literally have these games coming up fast, and if you're not paying attention, you're gonna miss them. Fast, quick, and in a hurry. So they kick off tomorrow, actually. Friday night.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

We're going to go tomorrow. I kick off tomorrow. Right only a day away. Right.

unknown 34:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

You like how I replace sunshine. Anyway, so we have Alabama and Oklahoma tomorrow at eight o'clock. You'll find it on ABC and ESPN. So that that'll be a good game. SBI. The number eight and number nine seat facing off. And the winner of that gets Indiana.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

That should be a good matchup, but I'm sure both of them are doomed to be knocked out in the next round. So I don't care who wins that game.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

So, moving on to Saturday when we'll have the bulk of the games, and we're gonna start off, let's see, at noon. Noontide! At noon, we're kicking off with Miami, number 10 Miami, versus Texas AM at noon. You'll find that on ABC and ESPN.

NFL Week 15 Recap: Shockers And Trends

SPEAKER_02 34:51

Two more doomed teams as well.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah, because the winner of that goes on to face Ohio. So it doesn't matter who wins that round either. The 330 game on December 20th will be Tulane versus Old Miss. And that will be on TNT or True TV. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

I'm I'm gonna make this bold here. Alright. Look for Tulane to beat Ole Miss and go in an upset Georgia. I'm calling it right now my bold prediction of the bracket. Right. Okay. No, I'm definitely taking Ole Miss now. The school that shouldn't be in the bracket is gonna get two upsets, not one. Said it right here. Okay. Okay. Remember that that response was quote Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Everybody's gonna remember it because we're recording it. Anyway. So moving on to the nightcap at 7:30, we'll have James Madison versus Oregon. That'll be on TNT and True TV. And the winner of that gets Texas Tech. So Texas Tech. These teams, like, I mean, if if you got Oregon moving advancing to the next round, having the five the number five team and the number four team going against one another, it's not a bad, bad way to go.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

I like I like Oregon moving to the next round, and that's a toss-up between them and Texas Tech to me. I mean, Texas Tech's got a pretty mean deal. They're pretty mean. I think Texas Tech could get it, but to me, I think Oregon or Oracon. I think I need a vacuum, everybody. Words are difficult. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

I think Oregon can hang with Texas Tech, though, in the playoff bracket. And since we're talking college and we have bowl games, uh, we want we we gotta acknowledge the bowl game for Old Dominion and South Florida.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Old Dominion is near and dear to our hearts, as we're in Virginia Beach and Old Dominion's right next door in Norfolk. So Nafuk, as our locals say.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

So I I was kind of fearing that we weren't gonna come off with the win in this game uh because our quarterback for Old Dominion had hit the transfer portal portal and so he wasn't gonna play. But come to find out, South Florida, their quarterback, decided to sit out and and coach from the sidelines, which probably means he's gonna enter the portal as well. So both these teams were basically throw the backup in. The backup ball. Which is kind of bad for South Florida because South Florida was, you know, running off scores, high scores every week, but then you lose your starting quarterback. So all they mustered up was only 10 points against the ODU's 24 points to give ODU the win. So congratulations to Old Dominion.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Yeah, and their bowl game. I gotta give it up because South Florida, obviously, Sans their starting quarterback, has been known to be a relatively difficult team to face. So they got lucky, I think, not facing them at full force. But Old Dominion still puts together a pretty good football program.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

And this bowl was the staff DNA cure bowl.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

Huh?

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Staff as in STAPH, like a staph infection, or staff as in people who work, like staff.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

I think people that work. I mean, I mean, come on, look at these bowl game names. We've got the 68 Venture Bowl, we've got the Buck Up LA Bowl. Buck buckle up.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Sorry, that's bucked. I thought I said buckle, it's bucked. It's bucked. You know, why not buckle up LA Bowl? LA seems like a city that needs to buckle up to be honest with you. We have the Xbox Bowl. Ooh, I like the Myrtle Beach Bowl. Okay, that's a fun one. All right.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Let's see.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

What doesn't happen in Myrtle Beach?

SPEAKER_00 38:49

There's gotta be. I'm looking for one in particular.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

The famous Idaho potato bowl. Mike, that one draws a lot of excitement. I love potatoes. The Bush's Boca Raton Bowl. Bush's Boca Raton Raton Bowl. I don't even know what a Ratton is. Is that that thing you hit people with?

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Game above sports bowl, the rate bowl.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

What? Hold on, hold on. Oh, you said rate. R-A-T-E. Sorry, sir. I thought you said something else.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

Hold on. I thought you said something completely inappropriate.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Look at this one.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Bad boy mowers pinstripe bowl. Who are these people and where are they loaded? I would really like to interview these people. Wasabi Finway Bowl. Well, that's not American.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

How about this one?

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Go Bowling Military Bowl. Who are these? Where do they come up with these names? Oh, Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl. I didn't even know Snoop Dogg and Arizona went together, but apparently they do. Apparently.

unknown 39:59

The

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl. Oh, there's your emu.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yeah. Really? Cheese it. Relia Reli a Quest. Tony the Tiger. The Tony the Tiger and the Cheese It Citrus Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

You know the one I haven't seen yet?

SPEAKER_01 40:15

What?

SPEAKER_00 40:15

The Pop Tart Bowl. Oh, Lockheed Martin. Oh, we have the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

The Lockheed Martin Bowl, if you're gonna, you know. The Duke's Mayo Bowl. Trust and Will Holiday. I feel like we have a game here. How do they come up with these bowl names? And how can we get the two for the wind bowl?

SPEAKER_00 40:36

I think people pay to have their name on these, dude. Well, Mike. I'm still trying to find this Pop Dart Bowl. Guess what? I don't think there is one.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Next year there's gonna be a two for the wind bowl.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

No, there won't.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Presented by two for the wind.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

We don't have Duke's Mayo money.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Look, that's what loans are for. We'll borrow somebody else's money.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

How about Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl?

SPEAKER_02 41:04

Who's Scooter? And why does he make coffee on a scooter?

SPEAKER_00 41:10

I don't know. These bowl games. Look, if you want to if you want to have a fun time with your friends, you write down, is it a bowl game? Is it not a bowl game?

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Look, you could just ask your friends. Look, you could have a fun time with anybody. You could be working a cash register and just ask these folks that come in, hey, what's your favorite bowl game? Let's make fun of this real quick while you order from whatever I do. Alright. But here we go. We're gonna recap week 15. And as we go along, as usual, we're gonna talk about some common events, and then we'll go into predictions for next week. Talk about the NFL, everybody. Let's get into some NFL action. Mike, are you ready? Yes. All the people at home not listening to us right now, are you ready? No. We gotta give them a moment to scream. That's what the pause is for. If only we had like a light up applause thing, but they wouldn't see it anyway because it lights up and they can only hear us. Anyway, starting off, first match of the week last week, Thursday night football, Falcons Buccaneers, both of them rocking throwback uniforms, Buccaneers, and the creamsickles, which is one of my favorite uniforms in the entire NFL, Mike. And Falcons throwing on the blood red helmets with the old school Falcons logo on it.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

So okay. The Falcons came away with the win 29 to 28. But here's the here's the more pressing matter in this game. So the Falcons had 19 penalties against them. I literally saw a situation where they had a third and two, and it became a third and twelve after two false starts, and they still got the first down. Now I know after this game, Todd Bowles was beside himself angry because this man who never cusses was cussing in the postgame because he was like, We gotta give a damn about this, because his team should not have let this Falcon team win.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

And I give you something, by the way, I know they won, but I got a good one for you, Mike. Uh, why do people often confuse Atlanta's football team, Atlanta's professional football team for being Australian?

SPEAKER_01 43:22

I don't know. Because they're the Falcons. Because they're Falcons.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Y'all can't see it, but I'm shaking my head right now.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Brian, they're the Falcons.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Thank you, Brian. Anyway, so because they fail. Yeah, yeah, we get it. Again. We get it. Even though they won this match. Bro, I can't I can feel listeners shaking their head at you at this point. Come on, dude. They now have third-hand embarrassment. You're you're taking away from what we should be talking about in this game was the fact that Kyle Pitts had an amazing game. He had three touchdowns in this game.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Yeah, and Kirk Cousins had his best game in like two years.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

So showing glimpses of what he can be, and surprisingly, on a primetime game.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Imagine what happens when somebody gets comfortable in your system.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Anyway, congratulations to the Falcons and getting the win, despite all the penalties.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

Yeah, and a divisional matchup at that. So good job, Falcons, getting the win one win point. Uh the Buccaneer is kind of unraveling a little bit here to end the season, but I digress.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Let's move on and talk about the Bears and Browns game, where it was all Bears all game long because the Bears came away with a victory 31-3. And bro, I s I don't know if you saw the throw that Caleb Williams made to DJ Moore. I I swear to you, he was throwing the ball away. He was throwing the ball away, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you see DJ Moore pluck it out of the air, touchdown in the end zone for a touchdown. And it's like, what did I just see? Because it like zoomed between defenders, hits him right in the hands, and it's just like Yeah, this was this was a hella good game for the Bears.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

Even their rookie Colson Lovelin putting up some points, having a good night himself. Um when he says points, he means fantasy points. Shift it over to the Browns real quick in this matchup. We're talking about the Bears and the Browns simultaneously here. The Bears, so I want to talk about they have a complex situation themselves, especially at quarterback. They have said they're keeping Deshaun Watson despite uh rookie Shadur's early success. Now I know Shadur hasn't had a ton of success, but he has looked relatively well under center for the Browns.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

He's showing growth.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

He's showing growth, and honestly, I I think he's performing uh he I think he probably is performing even a little better than Flacco was in this system. Flacco was kind of having some struggle.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

Well, I mean, it's the Browns. I mean I I will say this. I did like what Shador had to say after they talked to him about this game, and he basically said he was like he was like, you know, I'm facing top level opponents in the NFL, and he said, you know, I like facing this type of competition. He said, because it it shows me something. You know, if you're not going against the best, I mean you're not you're not really challenging yourself, you know. So like I like the fact that he was he wasn't going and saying, well, I I you know there was no no ego. It was it was very much everything he was saying just sounded like a you know franchise quarterback kind of at the at the podium, and I really like that from him. And he has, despite this game, like he didn't have such a great game in this game, but he has been doing well. He has been running the offense okay, he's had throws in games where you you go,

Mahomes Injury, Dynasty Resets, And Bills Rally

SPEAKER_00 47:04

man, that looks amazing. That that looks like a NFL quarterback type of throw.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

Yeah, and he's had quite a few of those throws, especially to his good friend Isaiah Bond. Um, I gotta give I first of all I kind of had hope for Shadur since the big since he was drafted. Um, I know he didn't do well in the pre-draft process, and we even gave him some shit for that. Um, but I've never really been unexcited for his arrival. I was actually really excited to see him get into some action. I think give him a chance. I mean I think I think that he deserves a much higher level of respect because he has taken all of the shit in stride. He's generally been kind of quiet about it. You've heard some things here or there. Yeah, he had a horrible pre-draft process and you know didn't do very well with that. Took him a long time to get on the field. But I I honestly think Shadur has a future as a franchise player in the NFL.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

Let's keep in mind these are young men. And you make mistakes when you're young. You don't understand everything when you're young. Like you hope that you don't make bad decisions, but when you're young, that's when you make the bad decisions. Well, you hope that's the only time you make them.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Adding to him being young, though, like quarterbacks, you need like a good like three to five years, right, to see their skills unfold. Shadur in only a couple games has already shown these flashes.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Let's not forget, think about Josh Allen and how he looked when he first started playing. He he was not what Josh Allen is today. It took him a little while to be who he is. I mean I I go back to Troy Aikman in in um 1989, his rookie year. He was awful. He wasn't winning games at all. He did not look like the Troy Aikman who rattled off Super Bowl wins. And the same thing with Peyton Manning, his rookie year, he was not doing well at all. I mean, he had more picks than touchdowns.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

I mean, Drew Brees was horrible with the Chargers until he got to the Saints.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Oh well, he was he was doing better, he but he had that shoulder injury and kind of made it to where Eli didn't want to go there, and Phillip Rivers went there instead because they swapped with the Giants after Eli pouted. I mean, Sam's not going to play for the Chargers.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

Sam Darnold has come on strong after being in the league for a few years now. Uh, it took a couple teams and you know, right pair, but I think that Shadur is already finding some of this success early in his career, and he's showing that he can be a franchise caliber quarterback. Um, I think Caleb Williams on the other side, the Bears, he's obviously showing he's got franchise capability as well. This was a showing of the future.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

That's the other thing from this. Like, we can't shy away from acknowledging that Caleb is shown growth. Yeah. This is his second year. Remember, he was not looking. I mean, he was having flashes of being being pretty good his rookie year, but they they weren't getting the results.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Yeah, I mean, even under now we see even under Eberflus, like that was not the system for him. Eberfloat in the way.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Anyway, point of the matter is they didn't get him really an offensive type of mind to help guide him, and now they have that, and now they're seeing some of the things.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

Oh, and and Ben Johnson has just escalated the level of that offense.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

You know what I love though? Johnson has not been shy about being critical of him and being tough on him. Like he doesn't just he doesn't just like you know say flowery things about him. He'll say, no, Caleb needs to work on this.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

Well, yeah, he's a he is a classic coach. He is a classic coach. He's not gonna sugarcoat it. If Caleb's the problem, I love that. Yeah, I love that too. If Caleb's the problem, not only is he gonna let Caleb know, he's gonna let everybody else know. Everybody gets a hundred percent out of the ash join. That's right. Like, and that puts pressure on Caleb to fix the shortcomings, to fix the problem.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

So here's here's another thing that's kind of interesting. Uh, outside of what's going on with this game, the Bears, you know, they've been trying to get this new stadium going because Soldier Bill is 18. Ooh, could we see the Bears have talked about expanding their search beyond Indiana or beyond into Indiana?

SPEAKER_02 51:31

The Indianapolis Bears.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

That wouldn't work.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

We have the Colts already.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

Because here's the thing they've been met with roadblocks from the state on trying to build this new stadium and having issues with getting this this whole thing off the ground, and they're not opposed to just moving across the border because Indiana is like right there, and just go ahead and build the stadium there.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

All right, bold prediction number two from Brian with an eye. The Bears moved to Gary, Indiana. They changed their name to the Gary Bears. They changed their logo to a gummy bear. An orange gummy bear.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

Thank you, Brian. Moving on. Coming over to this is a bullet proof marketing thing. Moving on. Okay, so going on to the Ravens and Bengals. The Ravens who have been sorely underwhelming this year. This is this this game was just mind-boggling. Because remember, these two teams they faced Thanksgiving night, and the Bengals owned them. They they flat out won that game. But this was all Ravens. This was all Ringan Ravens in Cincinnati's house. Yeah, and this was honestly, I thought this was gonna be a shootout. I thought it was too. It wound up being Ravens 24 Bengals nothing, which is surprising in itself. I mean, they didn't have T Higgins out there because of concussion protocol, but even still, I mean, you still had Jamar Chase out there, you still you you still had Chase Brown. And I I want to throw out there. I mean, you still had people to throw to.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

And on the Bengals side, the Ravens will recover, but I want to throw something out of the Bengals.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

You mean the Bang the Bengals will recover?

SPEAKER_02 53:18

No, the Ravens will recover from their blowout win. But the Bang on the Bengals side, just saying, because they've had a rough year, is what I'm saying. But the Bengals, right? Um, there's something in play here. There is murmurs that Joe Burrow could be out in Cincy, and one of the leading prospected places for him to land is none other than Minnesota. Now I don't think that's I don't think that's likely, but I mean, what if I don't think it's likely?

SPEAKER_00 53:50

I think what you need to have is you need to have compensation in order to get there. Now we the only teams that have the type of compensation that would even entice the Viking Vikings, or not the Vikings, but the the uh Bengals to give up their their burrow is go ahead and sounds dirty. Yeah, I know is to give them you know the kind of you know compensation that will make them want to do that. So teams like I think they have no I think teams like the Jets, who have three picks, you know, three first round picks they could offer them is is kind of that that mold. But here's the thing I don't know that he wants out, I think he just wants better. When you when you're on a losing team and you're consistently losing despite your efforts, it's frustrating.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

He also it can be sober. His O-line is slipping a little bit too. He isn't his his protection is slipping, and this is an Andrew Light, Andrew Luck like situation to me, scenario. Um but I think just playing devil's advocate here, not looking at other any other teams. I think the Bengals and the Vikings swap quarterbacks plus picks, right? Joe Burrow to the Vikings, the Vikings give up JJ McCarthy. They don't want that bum.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

Look, I didn't stutter that bum. They don't want him.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Zach Brown can do something with JJ McCarthy, okay?

SPEAKER_00 55:21

I mean, he did something with I don't think their coach is gonna be here next year. I I think he's gonna be gone. You might be right. But here but here's the thing. Here's here's the thing. He probably gets replaced by Notre Dame's coach. Burrow has been in the league six years. He's only been healthy for three of those years. Mainly because he keeps getting hit. You know, and it's not from look, it's not from a lack of you know, them trying to trying to make something happen. I mean, they've gotten him offensive linemen, they've gotten his receivers paid up, you know, they they keep trying to make moves to make the offense better, but they just don't do anything on the defensive side. I mean, yeah, they're having some players now that are making some flashes on the defensive side, but it's not nearly enough.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

You know, you need more. You need more out of this defensive side. And don't get me wrong, their defensive coordinator's been doing a lot with a little. This they've they've given up less points this year than they did last year. Hard to believe, but they've given up less points than they did last year. And this is without without the performance

Puka’s Rough Week And Off-Field Headlines

SPEAKER_00 56:28

from Trey Hendrickson. Who won't be with them next year?

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Trey Hendrickson has not been playing at an all-pro level.

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Well, he's been hurt.

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Well, he's been hurt, but I mean, speaking speaking of hurt, how about the hurt feelings coming out of this other? The Cardinals just what a season they have had to endure, man. So the Cardinals injuries after injuries after injuries, poor play at certain positions, poor coaching in certain games, just Cardinals not having a good year.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

So what Brian's alluding to is the Texans and Cardinals went against each other where it was all Texans. There was no question of whether they were gonna win or not.

SPEAKER_02 57:06

At least they scored points, though, since he didn't even score.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Correct. So the Texans with the final score of 40 to the 20 that the Cardinals had. So the Cardinals, they they scored points, but they really didn't do much in this game. And they've already admitted that Kyler Murray is probably done. Like he's he's benched, he's not gonna play the rest of the year. They're claiming that it's a foot injury, and they're claiming that it's not going the way they want it to go.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

This feels very Dak Prescott-ish.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

This feels like they're trying to keep him healthy so they can trade him or move on from him.

SPEAKER_02 57:44

I think he goes to Miami just like Josh Rosen, the guy before him. Oh, good lord. I don't know about that. He's gonna end his career over the summer.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

All I know is this Texan team, this Texan team, you are not gonna want to face this Texan team in the playoffs because this day this is. Look, the Texans are red hot right now. This defense is dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

It's and you know, this is crazy to me because there's not a lot of people talking about the Texans, and the Texans are red hot right now. Like, they're they're killing it. They had a rough start to the season, but they're killing it.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

Uh moving on to the Jacksonville Jaguars, versus the Jets, the division. Another kind of who cares about the other team because they didn't really do much. The Jags scoring 48 to the 20 and again the Jets.

SPEAKER_02 58:32

I gotta give credit to the Jets for putting up 20 points on a very stout Jaguars defense, by the way. The Jaguars are 10-4, the Texans, for perspective, are 9-5. This is a very tough AFC South that we have, I don't think, ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

Well, let's give a little love to the Jacksonville Jaguars because their quarterback, he showed out in this game. He showed out in this game in a big way. They were scoring left and right. It seemed like every time they got the ball, you were hearing another another player scoring a touchdown for them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

Well, they finally got all their pieces back, plus all their O-line. But again, the Jaguars, like I said, the Colts, the Texans, the Jaguars, this is one of the tough, this is this is the toughest I've ever seen this particular division. And they're kind of quietly doing it, right?

SPEAKER_00 59:30

Like the Colts were really quiet through the beginning of the year being dominant as they were. No, they weren't quiet. I mean, like, let's face it, if the Colts didn't get injured, you know, they didn't suffer the injuries that they've they've accumulated, they would be right there, still in the mix. But they are though.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

They kind of are, give me a second, eight and six. They kind of are still there.

SPEAKER_00 59:53

Yeah, but they're everybody's not. Let's face facts. They're they're Done. Like they're not gonna, they're not gonna they already lost lost their quarterback. They lost Sauce Gardner for who knows how long, and they gave up a ton to get him, so they were going all in, but they're just not they've gone on a skid, and that skid's gonna wind up being making their season over. Well, well, yeah. Speaking of you're right about that season's over.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

The Chargers getting a second win over the Chiefs, letting them know that week

Rivers’ Return, 49ers Notes, And NFC Shakeups

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

one was not a fluke. 16 to 3. This Chargers team is red hot, Mike. I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Yes, they're they're doing quite well despite the uh injured hand on the non-throwing hand of Justin Herbert. But the bigger story out of this game was the Patrick Mahomes injury. And at first, you know, you weren't quite sure is this is this just, you know, he hyperst hyperextended his knee. Because at first it didn't look like didn't look like it was too serious.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Well, he walked off the field, he walked all the way to the locker room. But he got assisted to the locker room. He was assisted, but he was walking under his own power for the most part.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

But later, after some test results, they found out that he has torn his ACL and LCO. And he has already had surgery. He's already had I don't know why they always say this. He had successful surgery to repair his ACL and his LCO.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:22

I would hope it's successful.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Well, they they always say that after the surgery successful surgery. Now, granted, granted, you want to hear successful. You don't want to hear that something happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

TJ Watt was not successful, although TJ Watt wasn't having surgery.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

Well, we'll get to that in a minute. But uh in this scenario, scenario, scenario. Calm down. So in this scenario, this is not gonna be a short healing time. I mean, they're they're projecting that he'll be back for week one next year, but that's you know, saying nine months. But let's not forget, you know, Brandon Ayuk tore his ACO, his MCO, and his LCO. So he has one more up on Mahomes, and he now, granted, he probably could be playing already this year, but he's not playing mainly because of issues with the team and issues with other people, but it's gonna be a long road ahead for for not for Mahomes, but more interesting, hold on Kelsey, when mentioning talking about this, he wasn't saying we, he was saying Mahomes has a lot long road ahead. You know, if Mahomes can get back and the team can get right, there was no we mentioned when he was discussing this with his brother on their podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

This is what I was getting ready to allude to, okay? Um, and some of this question may also apply to the Eagles because the Eagles are literally a step behind the Chiefs in their quote dynasty, which leads which is the question is this time so we saw it happen with the Patriots and the Steelers and some of the dominant teams of the early 2010s. Now we're getting ready to turn the page here on the 2020s. Uh, the dominant teams have been Kansas City, Philly, right? Um are is this the end? Are we in a dynasty reset? Are we looking to the next dynasty teams? And who do we think they might be? I think Denver is a hot one to be the next dynasty. Uh Sean Payton out there, well, Bo Nicks.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

Here's the thing though. We're always looking for the next dynasty team, but let's let's let's actually remember the fact that dynasties aren't exactly always obtainable. I mean, like, remember the Seahawks when they had the Legion of Boom. That was a dynasty. Was it though? I think I think it was they won two Super Bowls. They did not. They won one and they went to one.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:01

Yeah, you're right. They went they went to two Super Bowls.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

But here's the thing you're you're misremembering how this was. Like they they were only hot.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

I like how you said that.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:13

They were only hot for like three, four years, and then it was over. Well, now for the Chiefs, though, they were good since like 2012 and beyond. So they've they've had a long run. But and and and this should shine more light on the fact that remember how long of dominance the Patriots had. Now, granted, they did have a division full of knucklehead teams that couldn't get right because of bad ownership and bad GMs who couldn't pick a player to save their lives, apparently. But that's not their fault. But you still had to get through the playoffs. You still had to get to the playoffs, you still had to win. But if your team is consistently in the mix and consistently one of the top performers, you you can't argue with the result. Yeah, and I I agree. The dynasty is is to me, it's when your team is consistently winning your division, consistently uh deep in playoff runs, if not winning at all. Yes. And the Chiefs right now and it runs for years.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

To me, it's got to be at least a 10-year run. And I think the Chiefs are dynasty, I think that's the biggest difference between the Chiefs and the Patriots versus the Seahawks. Because the Seahawks were a little shorter lived. Russell Wilson's never really been, you know, a top caliber franchise. He was the franchise for a few years in Seattle, but he's not been a Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady-esque kind of player, okay? And I hate saying that about Mahomes, but it's true. Um Jalen Hurts is not even that level, which why I think the Eagles may be fringe dynasty. There may not even really be a dynasty either. Sirianni's only, what, five years into this now, six years into this? Sirianni? Uh well.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:14

And then he had Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

I mean, he's he hasn't been there that he hasn't been there long enough to establish the dynasty namehold.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

Right. But like during his tenure, they've been a successful team. They have been to Super Bowls, they have won two Super Bowls. Yeah. Well, no. Was it two? It's been twice. Well, Doug Peterson won one of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:38

Doug Peterson won one, and Siriani won last year.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

Yeah, so it wasn't all Sierra Sirianni.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

You're right. That's why I said their fringe dynasty, they're not quite there yet. But this is why I say watch closely to what happens with the Chiefs, because this is what happened with the Patriots, and the the Eagles are starting to have show some of these cracks as well, even though they're not quite along in the timeline.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:02

The thing that most people weren't paying attention to with the Chiefs is the fact that, you know, for the last few years, they've kind of been relying on the defense to keep them in games. You know, relying on the defense to be the X factor and what makes them good or not good. And that's been a problem, you know, for them because they haven't been able to maintain this this consistency this year. They're not the defense is not as good as the year before.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:33

Look, um to me, successful teams have successful run game, okay? You may not have a dominant run game, but they have a successful run game. This is where I started to see the cracks with Kansas City, okay? And this is why I said last year, before this year even got here, that the Chiefs were not going to be as good as everybody thought they were gonna be. They have not had a successful run game in a couple years now. They have not even had a dominant running back anywhere close to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:00

Because they've been relying too much on Patrick Mahomes bailing him out with extending plays and creating chaos.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

I agree. And then there was the Kareem Hutt situation, and the Pacheco got injured, and Pacheco could have been a dominant running back, but the injury really just knocked all that off.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:18

When he fractured the upper leg bone, yeah, that's when uh he hasn't been the same.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:23

I I I I agree. They just really haven't had a successful, not even dominant, they just haven't had a successful run game. And you're right, they have been relying too much on Pashabuff. So I think the I'll get there in a second. I think there we are getting ready to be in the midst of a dynasty reset once again, such as that we experienced.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:42

It's not a retooling, it's a it's a it's probably over.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:47

I think it's just the Chiefs are gonna fall back to mediocre at best.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:50

So let's move along and talk about the Bills and Patriots game, which tail two halves, right? Because the first half was a really good game. It looked like the Patriots were gonna walk away with this game because they got up by two scores quickly. Watch out for them fourth quarter teams. But here's the thing in the second half, the Bills got like 21 points unanswered and just started making a march back into the lead with getting the win 35 to 31. Yeah. The Bills are very much making themselves still alive and a chance to

Week 16 Picks, Seeds, And Stakes

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

take the division.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

The Bills trying to make a statement. By the way, speaking of dynasties, I think the Patriots are getting there getting ready to reignite another one with Mike Vrabel uh and Drake May because uh 11 and 30.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

Yeah, nobody saw 11 and 3 coming out of this.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:43

Especially not after what happened last year.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:45

Yeah, not they still they still need some help on defense. They they they're missing some pieces to to make them more of an effective defensive team, and maybe a few special team pieces, but but they're overall offensive lot offensive-wise, they're looking pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

They really don't have any household names, which is what's incredible to me, because they're 11 and 3. This is like a classic Patriots team right here. They just don't they had a they I won't say they're nobodies, they're not nobodies, but they they don't have as much of common household names as you'd think. They have Stephon Diggs. I mean, they have that is they have they have Stephon the Stefan Diggs, and now Drake May is becoming a franchise name. Uh uh Trayvon Henderson will be a franchise name and continues his success, but he's not there yet. So, like outside of those three, they they really don't have who else they got. I mean, we know who they have because we know Hunter Henry. But Hunter Henry's up and coming, but a lot of people don't even know who Hunter Henry is.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:47

Yeah, I know, but they they should if they watch any football, they shouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:50

Well, yeah, most football people know who they are, but I'm saying outside of those three to four people, like they're playing with you know mid-grade talent and winning.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:00

Well, I mean, just look at the other side. I mean, who is Josh Allen really have to throw to? Nobody.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:05

In fact, he hasn't gotten a lot of help out of James Cook up until the last one or two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:11

Well, he's also gotten his tight ends healthy, too, which has been a big factor because he's been throwing to those guys a lot. He does, and Dawson Knox. But you're right, the running back has come come on a little bit more, especially in this last game. But just kudos to them for coming back in this game. Yeah, like it they really they really needed this win to really make their team because if they lost this game, you know what the storyline would be. No hope, they're not gonna win, they're not gonna have any chance in the playoffs, they're gonna get knocked out immediately. You know, like it's doom and gloom.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

By the way, the Patriots lead the AFC in the playoff run, and on the NFC side, the Bears are in the lead. At least that was the last I checked.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:59

No, Bears are not in the lead, it's the it's the Rams.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:02

It's the Rams now, which is a little disappointing. Uh moving on, we don't have to skip this one. Commanders! Oh, I know why you don't want to skip it this time. Because we gotta win. We only talk look, we only talk about winning teams on this show, okay? And if you win, you can get on. If you lose, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:22

We talk about losing teams all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:24

Yeah, usually when we make fun of them. We're not making fun of my commanders, okay? We're making fun with them. We don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:31

Everybody sees how they play.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:32

Yeah, exactly. Ha ha ha. Very funny, Mike. You're a 49ers fan. Go shove it. Anyway, uh, we're now four and jealous. We're now four and ten, very reminiscent of the Redskins of old. I miss these days. Dysfunction all over. Um, at least it's not coming from the franchise itself, though. It's only on the field. We get a very decisive win over the Giants, 29-21. The Giants did look. We almost, in classic commanders, Redskins fashion, we almost lose lost this one. Okay, we were in control the whole game. I said, watch out, because the Giants are the number one team that always come back on us in the fourth quarter. Lo and behold, they scored the majority of those 21 points in the fourth quarter. Tried, we tried so hard to lose, but I feel like that's when you recognize that your team's actually good. Because when you actually try to lose instead of win, and then you still win. I think you're all just trying to get a better draft pick.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:35

I mean, that's all gave them every opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:38

I mean, we did. Turnovers, penalties, going backward. I mean, they really, you know, field goals, they really tried hard to lose this, but they just couldn't make it happen. Um, to the two, the now two and twelve Giants. Good job, Commanders, getting the win. Not a lot to talk about there, other than the Commanders will be shutting down JD5 for the remainder of the season, which I thought they should have done. Jay and Daniels. Yeah, Jay Jay and Daniels, which I thought they should have done a week or two ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:08

But you're probably right. They probably should have never brought him back in and let him rest.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:12

They they see clearly now that he plays recklessly, and I agree with this. He is a little on the reckless side, and that is why he is not going to be getting.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:20

He's not as reckless as the quarterback on the other side that you just faced.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:25

No, not like Jackson Dart and Scam darting his way to the Blue Ten every week. I almost said scam cataboo. It's Cam Scataboo.

unknown 1:14:35

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Anyway, anyway. Enough of that. Words are hard. And so names are even harder.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:41

The reset game for the Eagles going against the Raiders, where they scored 31 points to Zilch from the Raiders. Might as well have just been a practice. I told you it's a reset game. It's it's it's like when it's like when an S SEC team goes and faces some no-name directional school and beats the pants off of them. Yeah. And then they feel great about themselves.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

The Raiders are the worst team in the NFL. They will be the number one overall pick. Pete Carroll will be gone. I don't know. I think they give him one more year. I don't think so. He's got the name. He's got the name recognition. So I think he's gone. He had excuse me. He has the name recognition.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:23

I think they give him at least one more year. So moving on to the Broncos and Packers, which was a very entertaining game. Uh, it both these teams were playing really well. Uh, with the Broncos coming away with a victory 34-26. Um, unfortunately, in this game for the Packers, not only did they take the loss on the field, but they took the loss in losing Michael Parsons for the season with a non-contact injury tearing his ACL, which for him is probably going to be a faster recovery time than Patrick Mahomes because Patrick Mahomes' injury is a little more serious with the two tears versus the one. So, you know, hopefully both of those players have a speedy recovery. But let's give it to the Broncos, though. They have led this division and they're they're holding it down. They're 12-2, they're 12-2, and coming away with this victory against the Packers, you're playing a team that is kind of destined for the playoffs. So you're kind of getting a sense of a playoff style game earlier in the year.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:33

And this kind of pushes the Packers down the playoff ladder a little bit. They're in the last spot. Uh might as well be on the outside looking in there because they're in spot number seven right now. Yes. So this loss did not help them. Against the 12-2 Broncos, by the way. Actually, they lead the AFC, not the Patriots.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:55

Do the Broncos just have like the best defense in the league right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

I think that they have a very, very good defense. They just got Patrick Surtain back to bolster that secondary. Oh, they just the Broncos are firing all cylinders, man. Everybody had high hopes for Sean Payton, and he has delivered uh with this team so far. Okay. I think they were what like 10-6, 10-7 last year, just missed the playoffs. This year they're 12-2 and firmly locked into the playoffs. So I I really like the Broncos here and what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:32

And another crucial game, the Rams and Lions. I I don't know about you, but I was looking forward to this game. I was figuring for a shootout, and that's exactly what we got. With the final score, Rams 41, Lions 34.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:47

Highest scoring game of the week.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:48

Highest scoring game of the week, yes, sir. But more so, this had such playoff impact because the Lions are on the outside looking in, and they needed this win to kind of give themselves a chance to kind of climb in if they could get the victory, and also giving hope to other teams maybe trying to move up in the standings to be you know in the number one spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:14

But it was not to be. Unfortunately, the Lions lost, so now they're eight and six, moving the Rams to their 11-3 record, making them the number one seed currently in the NFC. But maybe that changes this this is a game that the Lions really needed to come away with the victory, and they just they couldn't let it happen this way, and they did. So the Lions, unless some game unless they rattle off three wins in a row and get some loss from some of the other teams, they might be sitting at home this season.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:50

Yeah, uh, and you know, huge dramatic change because they were number one seed in the N the F C last year. Uh so for them to take a step back, which I kind of figured they would with the loss of Ben Johnson over there.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:02

Uh well, you lose two coordinators, offense and defense, and you hire in in-house, which let's let's give a little love to the to the defensive coordinator because he's been doing all he can with a secondary that's been decimated. That defensive secondary, it just player after player after player after the second. Yeah, they they've just been losing them. They just lost uh oh, dang it. I'm trying to remember his name. The one that always has his mouthpiece and his helmet. Uh Branch. They lost Branch. No. They lost Branch for the year because he told what I did there's ACL.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:38

You like what I did there?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:40

You almost got me. But he lost he lost his he he they lost him for the year because of an ACL tear the week before. So they're just like their secondary is just torn apart.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:52

Just decimated, but they're still eight and six with a winning record. They shouldn't be mad about that. Uh next matchup Panthers and the Saints. Honestly, the Saints got this win. I really like the Panthers, though. Bryce Young is really coming into his home as a quarterback here. Well, here's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:09

Like, with the Thursday night game where the Buccaneers lost, this pretty much put them in a situation where the Panthers were in sole possession of first place. So they had kind of an easy road to taking, you know, the full step ahead. But here's the thing Saints have been playing good ball here lately. And they came to play again, getting the 20-17 victory, and showing the Panthers, like, not so fast. You're not going to bully us around. Nope. So kudos to the Saints.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:46

And I got I gotta give it up to Kellen Moore getting a 4-10 and beating some notable teams this year. Not a lot of them, but he's gotten four very tough wins in his first year. I think Kellen Moore is gonna really do something with this Saints team here in the future. Uh here we go. Another game we were looking at. Colts and Seahawks. Colts slipping a little bit here in the second half of the season. Seahawks trying to rise up. Seahawks get the win 18-16. Sir.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:16

Sir, we are doing a disservice. We are doing a disservice. We will come back to this Colts and Saints game. Or Colts and uh Seahawks game. We'll come back up here to the next one. That's right. We forgot the Puka Nakua stuff. Yes, we are going to talk about what's going on with Napuka Nakua.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:34

Ladies and gentlemen, more breaking news brought to you by Mike of Two for the Winds. So this has not been a good week for Napuka Nakua. It's actually regurgitated. Anyway. But we have an opinion on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:50

Anyway. Anyway. So not only did he decide to come out and criticize the refs openly on a podcast, which uh is a big no-no in the league. They do not like people what they call detrimental to the league when you're criticizing the refs. This basically said he said that the refs, they're only calling and throwing flags because they want their airtime. They want to be on the camera and they want to text their buddies, hey, did you see me in the game last night? And that that's not gone over well with the office. And not only did he do that, but he also was on another podcast where he was seen in he was seen doing a celebration that uh he didn't know at the time. He admitted that he didn't know this at the time, and I believe him, but it was an anti-Semitic gesture.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:49

Look, this is a straight up young kid mistake, okay? Look, if you don't know what you're doing, if you don't know what signs you're throwing up, first of all, you need to do some research, okay? This guy who you're on his podcast or TikTok, whatever the hell it is, saying, Hey, do this for me, do this for me, why would you not knowing what it is, why would you just do it? Okay, yeah. Look, you should know what you're doing before you're gonna do it, especially having the platform that you have as an NFL player. Don't just arbitrarily do random stuff that people ask you to do because they might not be asking you to do things that'll look good on you. This was a straight up bonehead thing to me. I get he's gonna avoid it. The team has told him not to do it, and I agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:41

Well, and he he also sat there and apologized. I mean, I don't want to downplay it. He didn't he didn't sit there, but he he apologized for his actions and said, I didn't know, and and I believe him when he says, I didn't know. Yeah, you know, it's I I believe him too.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:01

This is why I think he's just an idiot young kid. And I don't want to call him an idiot in a bad way. This was just an idiotic move. Like, you know you didn't know. Next time, if somebody asks you to do something, you know to say, hey, what does this mean? You know to look it up, you know to ask somebody. Don't just do it, okay? No, don't everybody is not here to be your friend, bro. All right, some people want you to look bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:29

And speaking of looking bad, uh much Napuka's having a bad week. His brother, his brother is in trouble now because, and uh let me get his name. I want to make sure I say his name right. Uh Samson Nakua, he and another individual are being accused of stealing an SUV belonging to the Lakers, one of the Lakers rookie players. Was it LeBron?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:01

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:01

Damn, I said rookie.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:03

It's definitely not worth it.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:04

Anyway, they stole they supposedly stole this SUV. So just another situation for the Nakua family, just like this is not a good, not a good week for these guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:15

No, not a good week. Nakua's got to get it together. Um, get your family in line, get yourself in line, regroup, maybe put some shoes on.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:24

So back to the colt, the Colts and Seahawks. How about this, man?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:29

With with the quarterback down for the Colts, they go ahead and call up 44-year-old Philip Rivers and say, Yeah, boy, Philip Rivers back in action. By the way, I think what?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:46

Cut me off.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:47

Sorry, keep going.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:49

Anyway, 44 Philip Rivers, 44-year-old Philip Rivers, who was coaching high school football, just this and the season's over. They are they're already done with that. But they bring him in to be their starting quarterback. Of course, they said at the beginning, he's not going to be our starting quarterback necessarily. We're just putting him on the practice squad.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:10

No, you knew he was gonna start. Come on now. Come on now. You you just this is this is just formalities. We've seen this before. They have to go through the phases, right? They get signed, practice squad, pass the physical, then they get moved up to active roster, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:28

But I gotta give it to him. Like he came out now, granted, there were parts that did not look so great, and the scheme they drew up was pretty good, and they relied heavily on their defense because the Seahawks came in with the win, and they didn't score a single touchdown. They relied heavily on their kicker, their kicker Myers, to kick all the points for him, with the final score being 18 to 16.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:53

By the way, thank you, Myers. You helped me out in fantasy football. Helped me out too.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:58

Different leagues. So, you know, didn't come away with the victory, and I know he he was disappointed in that, but hey, it is what it is. Sometimes, you know, you do your best and it come up short.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:11

It is what it is. The nation's oldest, I don't care saying. Um Rivers, by the way, though, before we move on, real quick, Rivers was a semifinalist for the Hall of Fame this year. Did you know that, Mike?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:23

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:24

His Hall of Fame bid now resets another five years. If he quits playing this year, 2031 will be his next eligibility. So his Hall of Fame re-eligibility completely resets.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:35

You know, this puts him in line with, I believe, Brady. So then you'd be trying to make a Hall of Fame bid with Brady.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:46

Well, Brady should be eligible now, though. Brady's been out for five years. No, he hasn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:52

It's not been five. It's it's been pretty close. No, it's not been five. Anyway, moving right along into the 49ers and Titans game. Uh it's not a surprise that the 49ers won. It was 37 to 24 victory. And it's more surprising that they gave up the most rushing yards for the Titans this year in all the games they've played in this game. That was a bit surprising. But they they handled it and they came away with a victory.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:28

It's only been almost it hasn't been five years. You're right.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:32

I told you. It hadn't been five years. But more importantly, something that came out of off-the-field stuff. They found out that Brandon Ayuk, he's not coming back. 49ers have pretty much said they're not bringing him bringing him back. He they don't know where he is. He's kind of part of ways with the team, and he's probably gonna wind up getting traded. He's probably gonna wind up getting traded, if not let go, when this season is over. So we'll scroll on down and talk about the Vikings and Cowboys game.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:08

I know that we all expected the Cowboys to win this, unless you're a Vikings fan.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:14

I honestly I felt like this was a coin flip because it all depended on, you know, Cowboys, not so great defense, Vikings, good defense, not so great offense.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:27

I'm gonna say right now, I think the Cowboys offense might be one of the better in the league. I don't know if they're top top, but the Cowboys have a very, very volatile offense. Okay. CeeDee Lamb, uh George Pickens, uh Williams over there, you know, Ferguson as the tight end. You know, you got a couple good young guys as third receiver rotational. Dak Prescott, who I refer to as Dick Prescott. Not I wouldn't call him.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:01

Does he sound like a salty Washington fan?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:03

I mean, maybe he's a top 16 quarterback, you know, but I think that the Cowboys should have won this game given how volatile their offense is and how much the Vikings defense has lagged here in recent times.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:18

Well, they turned it on for this game, but the more kind of uh weird situation is they the Vikings scored 34 points, but Justin Jefferson had all but two catches for 11 yards. All day. That's why I call him. No, he was not all day in this game. He had two catches for for 11 yards, and it's it's like what's going on? All these other players are getting receptions and touchdowns, but JJ just can't seem to connect here. We have another best receiver.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:51

AJ Brown-esque situation, another Jamar Chase-esque situation.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:56

I wonder how long you're gonna have Justin Jefferson dealing with this before he starts making some cries about I want out.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:06

Well, if they get Joe Burrow, I don't think very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:10

I don't think that's happening. Yeah, I mean, you're probably right, but kind of a surprise going into Monday Night Football. The Dolphins have been rattling off some wins, and they were six and seven coming into this game, which was the exact same record as the Chiefs. So mathematically, both teams were alive, but given that the Chiefs lost, they're out. And the Dolphins were going against the Steelers, who have been kind of an up and down team all year, with them coming into this being being seven and six. So very much still giving a lot of the other teams in their division a chance. So unfortunately, the Dolphins have done what they always do when they go to a cold weather game.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:51

They lost.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:52

I mean, they're from Florida, they're from one of the warmest states in the nation. Yeah, with the Steelers coming away with the 28-15 victory. And unfortunately for the Steelers, though, they didn't have TJ Watt out there. They did not. And why is that?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:10

Because he got stabbed with a needle. So what happened, what happened was not his team trainer was not skilled enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:20

What happened was is a similar situation as what happened to Tyrod Taylor when he was with the Chargers. And he had a procedure done where they actually wound up piercing his lung and deflating his lung. Terrible. And uh so he had to go to the hospital and have all this stuff done. And Mike Tom was kind of hush-hush about it because he didn't know exactly what was going on, or claimed he didn't, and didn't know if he was in the facility or out of the facility. And here we are. We're in a situation where Steelers, without TJ Watt, came away with the victory against the Dolphins, pretty much giving no hope for their playoff chances now.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:01

No hope for their playoff chances. The Steelers are still in the hunt here. Um, and by the way, this they are keeping Mike Tomlin through 2026 and possibly beyond. By the way, the Steelers have the best head coaching record, and I don't necessarily mean by wins and losses. I mean, they've only had three head coaches in their entire existence, okay? Washington blew by that in like two years. I don't know how we had three coaches in two years, but that's Washington for you. The Steelers have had like three coaches in like 85 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:34

So, well, more came out of this game after the loss. Uh the Dolphins have decided that Tua, Tua, Tua is gonna be set and now be a third string emergency quarterback going into their next game. With not Wilson being the starting quarterback. Yes, Ewers, their rookie quarterback, late late draft round pick, is now gonna be the starting quarterback for the next game.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:05

Quinn Ewers, and I am excited to see Ewers get the start to his career. What? Yours. Yours. I'll learn his name if he becomes an elite player. But anyway, I'm excited to see him start, see him get some get his feet wet at the NFL level. Um, excuse me. Let's go ahead and jump to next week. Uh, we'll just go over some of these matchups here real quickly. We have actually in front of us tonight Rams and Seahawks, playoff implications here at the Seahawks house.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:42

Not just not just playoff implications, division implications, as well as number one seat implications, because if by some chance the Seahawks come away with the victory, we could see we could see the Seahawks then be the number one seed and bump the Rams out of the lead spot in the division, putting them into the wildcard spot. Yes. And giving a mathematical situation that could lead to where either the Seahawks or the 49ers could take over as the number one team and division winner. So also giving other teams within the league a chance, or in the NFC a chance to possibly climb into the number one seed spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:33

And here we have the first matchup between the Eagles and the Commanders. We thought the Commanders would be well much better than what they are.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:41

When you say first matchup, you mean the first matchup on Saturday?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:45

The first matchup of the season this Saturday. Thank you, Mike, for reminding me we'll be losing 24 hours quicker than we normally do. Um I expect, I'm sorry, I always pick the commanders to win. I'm still gonna pick them to win, but if we're picking sports bets, I'm probably betting on the Eagles. Not gonna lie. And they have the same color as money, so why not? But I think the Eagles, maybe we can play spoiler. So this is an interesting schedule, right? We see the Eagles this week, next week we see Dallas, and then we see uh the Eagles again in week 17, week 18, actually. Uh similar, similar to what's gonna happen later on with another team. I I think that you know, our offense isn't gonna hang. The defense hasn't been hanging with anybody. I think the Eagles are gonna obliterate the commanders, but I'm still gonna pick the commanders to win and willingly lose this money.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:42

Anyway, another divisional matchup, Packers and Bears, which has again impact of the. Oh, yeah. If the Bears win, the Packers are done. The Packers are out. No, they won't be out. They'll they just won't be able to win the division.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:56

If the Bears win this matchup, the Packers will not make the playoffs.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:01

Mark my words. No, they still would have a chance. Anyway, moving on to the Buccaneers and Panthers facing each other for the first time, much like you and the Eagles. They're facing each other for the first time, both seven and seven, to see who will have sole possession of the number one spot. In their division, who do you think's gonna win this, Mike? Being that the Buccaneers have are getting healthy, I think they'll come away at the victory in this.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:28

I'm putting the Panthers ahead of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:29

But they're also going to face each other again for the last game this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:34

So And that will be the important one. But for this one, I'm giving it to the Panthers. We'll see what happens with the next one.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:40

Anyways, moving on to Buffalo Bills versus the Browns, probably going to be Buffalo in this game.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:46

I think it's gonna be Buffalo, but would you call me crazy if I think giving Shadur under center, they have a chance?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:53

Yes, you're crazy. Anyway, moving on to Dallas Cowboys versus the Chargers. I think the Chargers coming away with the victory in that. I think the Chargers locked that up.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:02

Their defense is just too good.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:04

Saints and Jets, two teams not vying for much of anything, but the Saints have been playing some really good ball here lately.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:10

Not even going to bet on this game, not even picking who's gonna win.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:14

Vikings versus the Giants. I'm pretty sure the Vikings are gonna come away with that. I'm taking the Giants for the upset. Here's my upset of the week. I think the Chiefs are gonna lose the Titans.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:25

I also think you're correct. I think the Titans get a win over the Chiefs here and let them know their dynasty is done.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:31

Well, I think they figured that out last week. If they haven't, they'll figure it out this week. Bengals face facing the Dolphins. And despite the Dolphins having the better record, I do lean towards the Bengals winning this game. By the way, the game before this, I just want to say this because I just love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:49

We get a Patrick Mahomeless game. You like what I did there? I know you do. Go ahead. Falcons, Cardinals. Who you got?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:59

Falcons for me. Thank you, Brian. Uh yes, Falcons will probably be the winner in that one. The Falcons.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:06

The Australians.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:07

The game, the late game that I'm interested in seeing the Jacksonville Jaguars versus the Broncos.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:12

I have this as the game of the week here. 10-4 versus 12-2. This is a tough call, Mike. I really think uh, you know, I don't even know who to pick in this game. I really want to pick the Broncos, but I think the Jaguars have an edge.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:26

This could definitely be a game we see again in the playoffs.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:30

Yeah, I I I don't even know who to pick here. I'm choosing Jags. I I think I should choose the Jags. I really want the Broncos to win, but I think the Jags just have a slight edge.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:42

And the Steelers and Lions are going to face each other, both eight and six. The Steelers fighting to be the winner of their division. Honestly, I'm and the Lions just trying to hold on for dear life to try to climb into the playoff picture.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:55

I know it sounds weird with the Lions having Jameer Gibbs, but I'm picking the Steelers here.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:02

I think the Lions are taking this one. Defense. And moving down to Texan and Raiders, definitely Texans coming away with this win. Is that even a question? No, it's not a question. That's what's going to happen. Is that even a question, bro? For the Sunday night game, we have Patriots and Ravens. I'm pretty sure Patriots will come away with the win there.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:23

I think the Patriots are going to get the win. I really like the Ravens if Lamar can show up healthy, but the Patriots have just been too good.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:33

I think the Patriots win that. The Monday night game is the 49ers and Colts with the 49ers coming away with this win because I don't think Phillip Rivers is going to throw it all day. I just don't I don't have faith in this team. You know. All the injuries that they've has they have dealt with this year. I really wish I think their season is derailed and they're they're looking to next year.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:54

I really wish I would have thought of the Phillip Rivers thing before I picked the Colts to win this week. I'm probably gonna lose money on that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:01

Probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:02

Oh well. It is what it is. It is what it is, everybody. Uh just want to say thank you again for listening to us this evening. Uh, once again, I want to thank us our sponsors and partners, Body by D Gym, Solace Outfitters, and the Giving Tree Chiropractic. Thank you for being our sponsors and partners. Thank you for being our friends. Uh thank you everybody for listening to us and uh taking part in our conversation. We will see you next week, right before Christmas. I'm Brian with an eye, and I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Thanks, everybody.