Sports Live! With Steve and Justin
Sports Talk Live! With Steve and Justin! NFL Offseason Analysis: Team Moves and Super Bowl Predictions. A Recording of our live Youtube Sports show every Monday Night 5pm EST.
Sports Live! With Steve and Justin
Week 9 NFL and Beyond - World Series Etc.
We map the week’s biggest swings across the NFL and MLB: trade whispers, quarterback changes, and how leadership at the top shapes outcomes on the field. We announce a new Sunday live segment with picks, FanDuel builds, and high-upside parlays.
• New weekly Sunday show with picks and parlays
• Parlay strategy focused on asymmetric returns
• Cowboys deadline noise and defensive needs
• Dolphins leadership gaps and locker room standards
• Giants pivot to Jackson Dart and front office pressure
• 49ers as a model of drafting and coaching
• Chiefs vs Bills and playing to win
• Broncos culture reset and rising floor
• Bengals’ defense collapsing, Bears trending up
• Packers inconsistency costing playoff seeding
• Rams’ quiet contender case with Stafford rolling
• World Series takeaways and Otani contract ripple effects
• F1 schedule notes and team changes ahead
Please keep subscribing. We’re trying to get up to a thousand. If we do, Justin gets a hat
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Sports Talk Live with Steve and Justin. Hello, Justin. Hello, Steve. So here we are again. I know I always get that. What are we going to talk about today, thing? And then we talk about all kinds of things and don't shut up about them. But we are live, and I thank everybody for joining us. Um, I thank uh everyone that's been watching. I mean, we had a ridiculous response. I think we had uh 7,500 downloads from last episode, um, which is moderately ridiculous for us. We haven't really had those numbers. I mean, we've had a few thousand, but 7,500 is on the way, and we really appreciate the views, we appreciate the comments, um, we appreciate the likes. We welcome it all. And we look forward to growing the program. And on that note, uh, I'll turn it over to Justin. We haven't really decided what we're calling it yet, but we're gonna have a new weekly program to add to this, and we've decided we're gonna do it from wherever we are, so we'll no longer be in the studio. Take it away, Justin. You can give an idea about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so we'll do uh a weekly um pick them. We'll break down probably each game and just give you the points, and then uh we'll do uh weekly fantasy fan duel uh where you're not bound by your league constraints, where every week you pick from the same pool of players as everybody else in your league, and they have all kinds of leads for you to join each week:$2,$5, 50 cents. So it's up to you if you want to join, and we'll give you some recommendations for your lineup for that week.
SPEAKER_02:And then also I'm gonna do like some parlays. Uh, we started doing that, and actually the first week, I did four out of four out of the first week. So I hope one day I could do that again. If not, uh you bet the way you bet responsibly, bet thinking twice. But I've been pretty successful picking parlays in my past, um, where I pick four or five different things and lob them together uh only because I look for a big return. Because I listen, I don't see any sense in betting ten dollars and making fifteen dollars or twenty dollars, or betting a hundred dollars and betting making a hundred and fifty dollars. I like to bet a hundred dollars and have a have a snowball chance in hell of winning five thousand dollars. So I tend to pick like that. Even in horse racing, I was always looking for the you know, the four-race pick, the five-race pick, the six-race pick. I hit a ten race pick once.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. And and it's funny because the story I remember from that night is I went up, I went up to place the bet, who was at OTB, and I used to go there with my ex-father-in-law, my old father-in-law, my former marriage, and he loved OTB and he loved the horses, and it was he was just fun to watch bet and gamble. And I was walking up to place a bet, and he used to make fun of me because my money was always crumbled in my pockets. I'm not really good at putting things away. And even in my house, if you could see, I turned the camera around, you would agree with me. And I dropped a$50 bill on the floor and he picked it up and placed a bet, and the and the bet won. And he gave me he gave me the ticket afterwards and said, by the way, you won this too. You dropped$50 on the floor.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:So anyway. Yeah, that was it. I was like crack it up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, horse racing's a lot of fun. I'm I'm sure we'll delve into that in the springtime.
SPEAKER_02:Somewhere along the line, I like both Thoroughbreds and Trotters. Do I think there is a method to their madness? Probably. Probably. So.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Anyway, everybody that's watching out there live, I know we have some regular fans that watch. Um they may be down the Jersey Shore, so hello to you. And we appreciate you watching. And uh, where do you want to start this week? I mean, I have to say, I am never, you know, before we get into the whole thing, the trade deadline's tomorrow. And if you're watching this afterward, it took place already. I I can't, and I believe it's tomorrow. I don't I don't have it right in front of me, but I believe it's tomorrow. And Jerry Jones coming out today. I made a trade, but I'm not telling you who it is.
SPEAKER_01:Jared being Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:Jerry being Jerry.
SPEAKER_01:He wants to focus on him so he gets clicks and likes and all that other stuff. I mean, the scuttle butt last week was that he was training for uh for the Raiders uh defensive edge rusher. But I don't I didn't hear much about that since then. And I don't know that that the Raiders are gonna just give that guy away unless they get a boatload of picks back because he's the franchise defensively for that. We'll see what Jerry, what kind of rat at Jerry's trying to play?
SPEAKER_02:Well, so I think he got injured a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if it was a bad injury, um, but it's definitely got to be a defensive player because their defense is not good. And if they're going to continue rolling out every week like that, they're gonna need, you know, they still haven't replaced Micah Parsons. So they're gonna have to do something to fill those those needs to get to the quarterback and defensively also they're not they're not very good at stopping the pass. They give up a lot of points, seemingly. Their defense seems to get ambushed in these games early, and they're always coming from behind, it seems like.
SPEAKER_02:Well, they're playing tonight at the car uh with the Cardinals, right? At home. And, you know, I don't know what to say about the Cardinals. They never seem to be able to put a team together.
SPEAKER_01:They seem to play well in primetime, so we'll see what happens tonight.
SPEAKER_02:We'll see what happens, but it's an 8-15 game. I was supposed to get up at the break of dawn tomorrow and drive up to Albany, and it turns out I don't have to go. It's gonna be virtual. So I'm like dancing in the streets because sit there. I hurt my back over the weekend, so I'm I'm very happy. Um, I could barely walk for like three days. So I'm very happy not to sit in the car for two and a half hours.
SPEAKER_01:So we'll give you a reprieve until Wednesday at least.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, reprieve. People still call me names, but they'll do it over electronically. So so the first game, and we talked about the Thursday night game, were the Ravens and Dolphins. Now, as we know, the Dolphins made a trade today as well. They gave up their corner, I believe, to to uh Philadelphia. To Philadelphia, who desperately needed a corner.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think the Dolphins are in solo. Didn't they just fire the GM?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean the Dolphins are in total disarray.
SPEAKER_01:I would imagine that means Minker Fitzpatrick is on the block again, which uh it'll be interesting to see where he goes because there's gonna be a few teams interested in his services for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't understand the Dolphins. I don't know how they get there. It would seem that the locker room is totally out of control. I mean, every week Tua is another class and how not to be a leader.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I I think unfortunately that comes from the head coach because Absolutely. You know, he's I don't expect him to be a hard ass. If you're not a hard ass, you're not a hard ass. But who are the most successful coaches? Guys that hold their players accountable. And, you know, he may be a player's coach, they may like the way he calls plays or designs plays, and he's a great football mind. But as a head coach right now, he leaves a lot to be desired. And, you know, you don't like to be too critical of somebody, especially when they're down because you never know what's ahead. But I think it really comes from the top down. 99% of the time, it's the top down, unless you have just a cancer in the locker room, which I don't think they have. I just don't think they have real leadership.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what they have. I mean, listen, the Ravens have been pretty much in a disarray on and off of who's telling who is their quarterback injured, is he not injured, or this, that, and the other thing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they put it together Thursday night, and I know that they mentioned Lamar being part of the vocal part of the discipline action they had last week where they took all the gaming out of the locker room, their ping-pong table and their foosball table or whatever, and their video games and what have you.
SPEAKER_03:Big ball ball machine.
SPEAKER_01:And going into that game, they were the favorite to win the division, which was shocking to me. Even though I know their schedule is is favorable. They hadn't yet put it together. But now that division is seemingly wide open.
SPEAKER_02:And talk about a little bit of disarray and move on to another team. We all, at least I think most of us all watch the Giants and 49ers. I listened to it on the radio because I was driving. But now today you hear, you know, the coach was out on a limb, he tried the new quarterback, and and you know, maybe he should have stayed with the other quarterback. I mean, hold on a minute. Jackson Dart is the only good thing on your entire team besides your hurt running back. And you've learned that. You've gotten people excited about the Giants. You've gotten people excited to come to the games to watch Jackson Dart. You know what? They rather watch him lose than watch the other guy win. Yeah. Because they're saying we have a future here. This is the beginning of a team. The fans get it. The ownership doesn't get it. So they're on the back of the coach. I never seen ownership look more for a scapegoat than the New York Giants.
SPEAKER_01:The the you're talking about the organization itself, Giants Scapegoat. Yeah. So, you know, we talked about the relevance of Jackson Dart at the beginning of the season and how we thought his progression was going to play out. And we said that if they were under 500 by week eight, if they were, you know, a two and six team, which is what they are, right? That, you know, they would probably have to consider making that change. Even if they were four and four, you knew that at some point Jackson Dart is gonna take the helm.
SPEAKER_02:Two and seven, just two and seven.
SPEAKER_01:So, you know, it's it's it's did they did they pull the trigger too early? Because the season's a wash anyway. I don't think so. I think you had to make the move, the coach had to make the move to save his own butt. But and they immediately distanced themselves. The the owner and general manager threw him right under the bus. So now you've got the fan base fired up to see this kid. He wins a game, they're vested, even though, like you said, they'd rather see him play and lose than to see the other guy, you know, play and be terrible and even win a game at this point. So, you know, they're they're in a in a in a real quadmire because imagine being a Fortune 500 company and you take a 3, 5% drop, and your stock goes down, and next week goes down another 5, 10%, and then all of a sudden your your stock is plummeting, right? Because right now the Giants stock, at least defensively, is plummeting. And we talked about it after the Denver game. I thought they should have left the coach, at least the defensive coordinator on the tarmac. I've been anti-Joe Shane from day one with this podcast, especially after re-watching hard knocks. Hard knocks. These are his these are his guys, right? He selected these guys, some terrible play from his draft picks this weekend. One guy got run over.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that was horrible.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it didn't even look like he belonged. I mean, it looked like they threw maybe a high school kid out there and he just bounced off the running back. He didn't break nothing. It just looked terrible. The the 49ers were seemingly in control of that game from from the start, even though the Giants scored in their opening drive. But this is a team very much in disarray. They're in they're defensively there in free fall. I don't know how the defensive coordinator survives unless I guess him and and Dable have a good relationship, maybe, and he doesn't want to fire him, but it's it's not his, at least I don't think it's his call. But if you're the general manager, the fan base has got to be looking now and thinking, is is this guy aware of what's going on? Because someone's got to answer for this. And Dable's relationship with Jackson Dart is gonna be paramount to his success. So if you're gonna make a change, I you know, it seems like they're resolved to you know, either stay with this coaching staff and enter another draft and hope for the best, or you know, Dable being on the hot seat, if he saves his job, has that saved the entire coaching set? I don't see you know, from my perspective, I would have fired the GM already. As soon as he let Saquon walk, I would have fired him. I don't know how the defensive coordinator has survived the last three games. I really don't.
SPEAKER_02:It's I mean, I was I was listening on the radio, the satellite radio or whatever, and you have a former Giant, not Hall of Famer, but certainly a player that won a Super Bowl with the Giants in '86, and he's laughing out loud about the whether the player got run over. Yeah. He's like, my God, he just ran him over like a high school kid.
SPEAKER_01:You couldn't not see it. There's no, it's not like he was off balance or he took a bad angle. He just got flat out run over. Like he wasn't even on the field. You know, if the player can't play, that's one thing. But again, he was this is handpicked by Joe Shane, and they're not living up to their potential. You could say, well, they're not well coached, because clearly they're not. Dable being an offensive guy coming from Buffalo. I I would like to preserve that relationship for Jackson Dark so it's not a revolving door.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And I think because that will just absolutely crush a young quarterback. There are limited options out there, I would think, in terms of replacing the coaching staff. There are options for sure, but I've heard Lane Kiffin's name pass around. I don't know that Lane Kiffin is a head coach, certainly could coach the offense, and he's got a relationship with Jackson Dart from Ole Miss. So that might be an option or something to think about. But if you're bringing in Lane Kiffin, you're taking the offensive, you know, if you're taking the play calling and offensive coordinator job away from Dable and his guy, and then it it creates a bigger mess, maybe. So they they have to figure it out now because they can't let this linger for you know an entire season on top of this one, because it it will hurt the progression of Jackson Dart, who, for all intents and purposes, has been their entire offense for the last six weeks.
SPEAKER_02:And you have to say, you know you're not winning this year, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, their talent is not, I mean, they they just don't have the talent offensively to keep up. Guys, the two best players got hurt.
SPEAKER_02:But right, so you have Jackson Dart, who's learning the game and learning to be a professional quarterback, and you're losing, which is allowing you to get a better draft pick at the end of the year.
SPEAKER_01:And they have to protect him because he was outside the pocket a few times this week. Oh, yeah, running headfirst at the defenders. And I know, you know, we all love to see the quarterback play tough, but you have to think long term.
SPEAKER_02:So you play tough in the big game and when it's on the line. Not when it doesn't mean anything at the moment.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, you got to play your game. If that's his game, that's fine. But you have to, as a coach, finesse that. So, meaning you can't put him in a position where he's gonna find himself running for his life or running to try and get a first down. So you have to limit the RPOs, you know, you have to find your running back and challenge your offensive line and the running back unit to get yardage. And, you know, you want to put your quarterback, you want to protect him, you want to get short yardage played so you get rid of the ball. And if you have an opportunity to take a shot down the field, you go for it. But they can't continue to rely on him to be the entire offense at this point. They're gonna get him hurt. I'm not wishing that on him. I just I'd like to see it change the philosophy change a little bit to allow him to still progress, but also protect him.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:A long season. Well, there's also, you know, it just needs, I mean, obviously they play the 49ers. 49ers have a great, a great team, a better team. You know, they're uh six and three, I think, and and uh, you know, their quarterbacks and backup quarterbacks are really good. They have one of the best running backs in in in football, McCaffrey. I mean, they play a good game, they got great talent, and they have a great organization. One thing about San Francisco, you can say they have a great organization over their heads.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we talked about that a few weeks ago. That they they know how to draft football players, and they also have a good coaching staff. Both examples being Sam Darnold, who was there for a little bit and seemingly learned a lot in a short time and now is very successful.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So Sam Fran has always been a class organization, one that you could model your franchise after. They they seem to keep things close to the vest. They're not an audacious ownership group like Jerry Jones.
SPEAKER_02:Why is it that people don't believe in Sam Darnold? I mean, he was playing last night, right?
SPEAKER_01:I think that they are waiting for the real Sam Darnold to emerge, kind of like the way it happened last year in the playoffs, that, you know, the the clock struck 12 and Cinderella turned into a pumpkin or whatever. But Sam seems to be everything they throw at him defensively, he's picking it up and he's making throws. And he's got, I mean, there's a ton of talent on that team as well.
SPEAKER_02:Seattle.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Uh Jackson Smith and Jigba is having an all-time receiving season with that extra game this year. If he stays on pace, he might crack 2,000 yards receiving, which is unheard of. So there's talent. There's talent at the tight end position. They've got two, you know, serviceable running backs, one of them on partial two because he went to Michigan. But and their offensive line is playing, you know, you don't see Sam Darnold getting up off the ground too much. And good offensive lines are always the unsung hero, but like we talked about back in probably week one or two, your team doesn't only go, your team only goes as far as your offensive line will carry them. And it's it's what happens up front that allows your offense to move and your team to be successful, keep the defense off the field. And it starts with your offensive line.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Well, on our on our chat, Monty reminds us what we were just talking about, that Sam Darnold has a shaky history, especially when it matters. And I said to him, true, it is true when it matters, but he also gets him to where they need to be. There's a lot of uh, and that's the first step. And though he hasn't, he's had shaky parts, I mean, he's playing a good game. I mean, maybe he needs maybe he needs a little more work. There's no question about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But that team is, you know, whether or not you believe in Sam Darnold, that team is talented enough and well coached enough to win a Super Bowl. I'm not saying they will. Right now, you know, it looks like they will win the division unless they have a total collapse and they could win the conference, which is an enormous advantage. But they're they've won, I think they won like 10 games in a row on the road. So, you know, they're a good football team. Whether or not he's the quarterback, uh it is what it is. You know, good football teams win. When players like him start to come of age, so to speak, you know, they're gonna get their opportunity to play big in those big games.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And if he does, watch out because that just gives him more confidence. I mean, that's true. It's not the same Sam Darnold that was seeing ghosts in New England when he was with the Jets. This is a different guy altogether. He learned, you know, something very valuable in his journey from New York to Seattle, and he's progressed nicely. It's also an indictment on the New York Jets coaching staff because for him to show this much talent and acumen at the quarterback position, kind of reminiscent of Tony Romo, if you want to do comparison of guys who didn't play big in big moments or whatever. You know, when you listen to Romo talk, you realize how smart he was. I don't know if the moment was too big for him or if the pressure got to him. I always found that he was in a seemingly unwinnable position at times when he made these mistakes, like the drop snap and the fumble on the kick and the two-point conversion. It was just, it always seemed like that he shouldn't have been in that position to begin with. And it wasn't necessarily his fault. It was more the coaching that led to that. So, you know, who knows? I think any team would would would take that right now. I I can't speak for Minnesota because JJ played really well last night, but you know, they were questioning their their move to to not pay him because I mean they were 13 and they were 13 and 4. Uh they 13 and 4 last year. I forgot. They were they had 13 wins last year, right? Where they got bounced to the playoffs. They had the first round by, I think.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, listen, he really didn't show up.
SPEAKER_01:He did really well. He didn't show up in that game, correct.
SPEAKER_02:You know, so but that's coaching.
SPEAKER_01:They played a team that was at his number.
SPEAKER_02:So meanwhile, like you mentioned, the Vikings and the Lions, right? Um, it goes it goes right down to it, right? They um the Vikings win 27-24. I mean, we all know the Lions are a great team. And and the Chargers are are right up there. They're for as many bad teams there are, they're like new emerging, really good teams. And nobody no one's really pulling away from the back. Nobody's like um, like you'd say Kansas City was a couple years ago, where everybody said this is a lot, where everything they did worked. Right? If they fake, if they made a fake, the fake succeeded. If they did whatever they went on fourth down, they got the first down. There are no teams like that this year, as of yet.
SPEAKER_01:The thing about the Chiefs that makes them so good is that they play to win. They don't play not to lose.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:They go for it, and they're not afraid to go for it. They have the talent, they have the quarterback, they have the coaching staff, they're not afraid to sling it, they're not afraid to, you know, smash you and be tough. So that's something that comes from the top down. And either you have the players for that kind of play or you don't, you have to instill that in your players. They have to you have to get them to buy into that. And once they buy into that, you know, it's hard to stop a team. I guarantee you, no matter what their record is, whether they finish with the one seed or the six seed or whatever, no one's gonna want to play the Chiefs.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Well, it's funny that you know, they the Chiefs and the Bills from last night years wince in Buffalo. And Buffalo looked good last night. Don't get me wrong, they look good.
SPEAKER_01:They didn't look perfect, but they looked good and they won. And that was a, I mean, that that victory was huge because, you know, I think it it it from week one when they came back and beat the Ravens, this was them holding off Kansas City. I know Kansas City kind of made some mistakes, but either way, for Buffalo, you have to win that game. And I know that Josh Allen has had more set success in the regular season than in the playoffs against Patrick Mahomes, but they have to do everything they can to either avoid playing the Chiefs in the playoffs or at least get the Chiefs at home in the playoffs to give them every advantage that they can. And that was a huge win for them.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's funny because the Chiefs last night, you know, Mahomes just looks uh, it's hard to say, soft because he's better than most, but he overthrows the ball, which he never used to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he was under duress last night.
SPEAKER_02:He's near, you know, and some of it may be getting to him, some of it may be his confidence level that he's gotten to this confidence level where it's a little weaker than before. It doesn't sound like it when you hear him interviewed, but there's certainly something different about that team. And one of the trivia questions on one of the sport uh talk shows today was that this coach from Buffalo, whose name escapes me, of course. McDermott McDermott, it beat them three times in the regular season, and who else in history has ever beaten the Kansas City coach three times, and there's only one other one other coach, you know who it is?
SPEAKER_00:Who's beaten this Kansas City team?
SPEAKER_02:Beats the coach.
SPEAKER_01:Jim Harbaugh?
SPEAKER_02:No, it was a good guess. But it's funny when you say beats the coach, it wasn't when he was with beats McDermott, you mean?
SPEAKER_01:Or beats uh Andy Reed.
SPEAKER_02:Andy Reed. Yeah. So who other else could have beat Andy Reid? So Andy Reid wasn't with Kansas City the whole time, he was with Philadelphia. And it's not Mike McCarthy. No, it's the Giants. Oh, the Giants. Tom Coughlin? Tom Coughlin. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Tom Coughlin was a good coach, boy.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's a perfect example of playing to win, right? A lot of times when you see success in the regular season and then they lose in the playoffs, you have a team that is fighting to win during the regular season because they know that they they have no choice or that they they've fired up for this game that means something. It'll get them an advantage. But then when they get that advantage in the playoffs, they don't really know what to do with it. And instead of playing with that same intensity, they're they're playing not to lose. It's almost like they're afraid to make a mistake. Whereas in the regular season, you're rolling the dice because you it's all or nothing and you got to win. It should be the same in the playoffs. If you don't win, you're going home. If you make a mistake, okay, let's just get the next play, or we'll we'll we'll overcome that somehow. But you can't play with the mindset that you don't want to make a mistake. You have to be aggressive, you have to go for it. The Chiefs do that, especially in the playoffs, and the teams they play seemingly fall back. And it's almost like this bend but don't break, you know, soft. You know, they're afraid to should I should I go for it? Should I should I throw this pass? You got you just gotta go. Go sling it, go win the game. Don't be afraid. Brady was like that. That was you know, one thing from the sidelines you saw in the video after the Super Bowl in Brady's first year was uh oh man, what was the author name? What was the author coordinator's name? The big guy, uh Weiss, Charlie Weiss. Charlie Weiss told him, you know, just go sling it, man. I know they kicked the field goal to win the Super Bowl, but he instilled confidence in his quarterback and told him just go out there and throw the football. We'll win this game. And that's what you need from you know, instill in your players. I mean, that's kind of the attitude you have to have when you move from the regular season into the playoffs. Right. You have to believe in yourself.
SPEAKER_02:So other games uh, you know, take some mentioning. Um certainly uh Chargers and Titans, the Chargers seemed for real. Um even though Titans at times gave them a run for their money, the Chargers ended up winning the game. Uh Patriots and and the Falcons, you know, twenty four twenty three. I mean. Patriots are giving in. You know, they have a good team. They've gotten it. They made it. They made their momentum.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Drake May is, you know, putting his claim on the MVP. I know there's plenty of other candidates right now, and it's too early to tell, but he's seemingly getting better every week. And, you know, he's he's making mistakes that a young quarterback is going to make, but, you know, he's doing everything they're asking him to do. Right. And they're not really putting it in a position where, you know, he can't succeed, right? Like Stefan Diggs, I think, is a big part of that because he's their number one wide receiver. He's a veteran presence, and he's not having a, you know, an all-time number one receiver season, but he's doing little things to help his quarterback be successful. And Drake May is responding to that. So that's leadership, right? Those are the things that when a veteran player is selfless, it it galvanizes the players on that side of the football. Their offense has a lot of confidence right now, and they have a lot of confidence in their quarterback, and that gives him confidence to go out and play. Whether he makes a mistake or not, he knows we'll get the next one. One mistake isn't gonna set them back three weeks, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Right. It's true. And we saw that again with the Steelers, who lost a tough game last week and came back and beat the Colts 27.
SPEAKER_01:I I was watching that line move a little bit during the week, and I I, you know, I thought to myself, this is this is a tough game for the Colts because they're going to Pittsburgh. You know Pittsburgh is gonna play them tough, and they win that game, and it's probably a foregone conclusion that they're gonna go ahead and take the South. They they still will take the South, in my opinion. But the Steelers winning that game has turned their division kind of upside down because I think everybody was ready to kind of write them off, and they beat seemingly best team in in the conference. So the AFC's still wide open. The Colts will probably come away from that. I mean, it seems every week when there's one team gets beat badly and then plays a team that won going away the following week, the the team that got beat badly shows up and plays better than the team that was rolling. And it's just I don't know if that's NFL parody or if it's just the nature of the game today or what what have you.
SPEAKER_04:Who knows?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but there was a few, there was a few games like that where the team got beat really bad last week, and then this week they look like world beaters. But the Colts, you know, their schedule coming up, they have to go to I think they're playing in Berlin. Definitely playing in Germany. Uh and then they come back, they get a tough game. You know, they're this you know, they're gonna have to keep their momentum going, and their coaching staff is a big challenge right now for them. You don't want this to be a huge loss, right? You want to move on from this, all right? Let's get the next one and and keep rolling.
SPEAKER_00:So and their schedule's gonna get a little tougher too, I think.
SPEAKER_02:So the next game I mean, there's a so many interesting games from this week, and just the way they turned out. I I know that. I mean, you have the Broncos who beat the Texans. Who knows what happened to the Texans this year?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I I don't know. I can't figure that out. Really can't figure that out. Their defense is playing seemingly well, but they can't make big stops. They're not last year they had the potential to go everywhere, right? Yeah. They looked like they were, you know, the sophomore slump kind of thing, but they they have personnel, they have good coaching seemingly. I I don't know, I maybe their injuries have too much for them to overcome. I don't know. It's something to keep an eye on for sure. I think the end of their season is gonna dictate what happens next year. Like, you know, if they if they don't finish the season with reeling off two or three wins and they just completely go in the tank, you might see a regime change there. I'm not wishing that on them because I'd like to see them be successful, right? Especially with the young quarterback. You don't want a change of philosophy and offensive coordinator and the whole bit, but they're just not the same team that they've been the last two years.
SPEAKER_02:And the Broncos who beat them, all right. You have a coach there, knows how to coach. If you have a team, you want him to be your coach. I don't care if he gets that he gets along with the ownership or not, he's not gonna care. He's gonna do what he needs to do.
SPEAKER_01:He's a winner above and beyond. He he he changed the culture in New Orleans and grooming up a young quarterback. Yeah. And he's he's picking up the pieces in Denver. He made some tough decisions, and you know, unforgiving, it's my way or the highway. And they bought in.
SPEAKER_02:Tough decisions.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think that Giants victory, you know, the win against the Giants, even though you know the Giants are not exactly, you know, like Goliath.
SPEAKER_02:Um you don't think so?
SPEAKER_01:Well, no, certainly not now. The the the the the Denver team has bought in. And where they had question marks coming into the season, how is Ball Nicks gonna play? Is this defense going to respond and get better? Uh, what is our offensive line gonna look like? Who's running the football? They've kind of answered all the questions.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:They're not great. I don't think anybody would put them in that category, but they're not gonna be a seven-point dog anymore to anybody. They're not gonna be, you know, what are they gonna do if they play Kansas City tomorrow on a neutral site, you know, they might be a three-point dog. They might be a three-point favorite. So they're they're very much, you know, well-coached team. They have talent, they're coming together. I I don't, you know, I don't see them winning a Super Bowl this year, but this is a team to keep an eye on because the future's bright in Denver.
SPEAKER_02:So the next the next game is Bears and the Bengals. I mean, first of all, the Bengals using a 40-year-old quarterback that came to play.
SPEAKER_01:Who was on the injury list coming into the game, but they thought that they were gonna go with somebody else.
SPEAKER_02:On Friday, he didn't practice black up because he had a bad shoulder.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, he's he's looked terrific in in Cincinnati for the most part.
SPEAKER_02:And the Bears, who were last year, another example, or uh up and comer, seemed to be stagnant. I mean, they win this game, don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day, you we've been expecting more from them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so go back to last year's game, Bears, Redskins, Bears lost that game, and their season kind of fell apart. And then this year they played, they won the game, and now they're starting to come along. And kind of reminds you of how the Redskins were last year.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So their defense is is is not very good. I mean, they give up a lot of points every week, but offensively, they're keeping up with everybody. And Cincinnati's offenses with Joe Flacco, they've been really good. They just can't win. I mean, they lost to the Jets and they lost to to Chicago here. But, you know, that was a team that, you know, just three weeks ago, when when they got Flacco, looking at their schedule, you think, hey, this team could win a few games and maybe sneak to the top of the division. I think that's over with. Now, their defense is the worst in the NFL. They might be the only guy you could say, well, they're not as talented on defense as other teams. They're all their talent is on offense. Okay, but I mean, stop somebody, make a stop. I know I'm echoing Jamar Chase's comments and some of the players in the locker room, but their defense is the worst in the NFL. I don't know how you fix that without, you know, firing the coach and not the head coach, the defensive coordinator, unless your your talent level is just that bad. But that's kind of today's NFL. You've got some players that just are not football players on some rosters here. And I I think the Cincinnati defense is one of those. It's a shame, too, because it would have been nice to see Joe Flacco win that division or at least compete for the division at the end of the season because he's really playing very well.
SPEAKER_02:Well, if you if you watched any college football over the weekend, you saw Ohio State. I mean, they have more wide receivers. Those guys are all gonna go to the NFL. They're all gonna be successful. It's ridiculous. You've already got guys all over the NFL. I know. For some reason, they're you know, they're out there bringing wide receivers left and right, watering the grounds, and they're growing up under the ground. They're sprotting them left and right. But anyway, back to the NFL. So Panthers beat Packers. Hello. Why do the Packers Packers? I mean, first of all, love. Some weeks he's with us, some things he can't do. I don't know what the heck is wrong with him.
SPEAKER_01:The Packers seem to be a team that plays to the level of their competition right now.
SPEAKER_02:They have the Peter principal, they reach their own level of incompetence.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there you go. Yeah. That's I haven't heard that in a long time. That's something that you usually hear on a high school level. Uh something our coach used to say to us all the time. You know, you have to raise your level of play. You can't take for granted that you're playing a team with two or three wins. You you've got to you've got to uh you've got to keep at it. You've got to, you know, like Robert Saylor, all gas and no breaks. And right their offense seems to sputter when it shouldn't. Because they're they play good against good teams, right? But that's twice now this season. They lost to Cleveland, they lost to the Panthers. And I, you know, I know the Panthers have some talent, but if you look on paper, it's they're not they're not the Packers. They shouldn't beat the Packers. And the Packers just seemingly are giving these games away when they shouldn't. And it's it's gonna cost them for sure, it's gonna cost them at least one spot in the playoff ranking. And that might be the difference between a second-round home game and an and a road game where you find yourself either in Philly or in Seattle, and you know what Packer team are we gonna see? So they have to run, they have to figure that out. But again, I don't think we expected them to, you know, we we talked about Mika's comments relating to him and them being a Super Bowl team when they lost to Cleveland, but now this is kind of a pattern where you don't play well against bad teams. So, you know, you have to fix that. If you want to win a Super Bowl and be a Super Bowl champion, you can't lose those games. And now this is the second time. So there's really no excuse. They have to get better and hopefully they can fix what's wrong sooner rather than later, because the window will close quickly, but they've they've obviously got a long way to go and they have to write the ship in terms of their level of play week in and week out.
SPEAKER_02:I agree. And then we have, you know, we have the Rams, who seem like, I mean, they're six and two. You gotta say they're here to stay. I mean, there are some good teams out there when they meet in the playoffs, the Rams, the Chargers, you know, the uh, and I'll say Detroit, um, Buffalo, and I I know no one's no one's counting out, no one's counting out Kansas City because they think Kansas City comes to play when it currently comes down to it. So if they can get in, you know, it's good it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01:The Rams are are kind of looking like they did, you know, where when they won the Super Bowl, they, you know, they went out and made a trade at the deadline to bring talent in, to upgrade the teams. I think they're probably in the same position. I wouldn't be surprised if they went and made a deal for Minka Fitzpatrick or a veteran, maybe two veteran players to come in and shore up the both the offense and the defense. But they're they're kind of like, I don't want to say they're sneaking around the chit and coop because you know who they are, but no one's really paying attention to that.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And Matthew Stafford's coming out throwing three, four touchdowns a week, and their offense is is clicking and they look good and they can play with anybody. I wouldn't bet against them for sure. Yeah, I love Matthew Stafford to begin with, and I know he's buddies with uh Clayton Kershaw, I think, right? They went to high school together. So, you know, maybe there's some magic there. He's gonna try and ride the wave. I've I like the Rams. I like their head coach. I think that they do things the right way. They draft well, they're coached well, they play well. So another team that, you know, that's not a team that's gonna lose a game playing to the level of its competition. They're gonna come to beat you every week.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So, uh, you know, just to close it out, you have the Jaguars and the Raiders. Um, you know, what are you gonna say about that? The Seahawks destroying the commanders, but you know, there's a they have injured commanders have injuries problems. I really believe they have coaching problems. You know, you have McDaniels, McDaniel, that's the uh quarterback, right? McDaniels? McDaniel. The commanders? Yeah. Daniels. I mean, he's he's injured again. I mean, you know, I I I don't know, but the Seahawks seemed to give him a run for their money.
SPEAKER_01:So I mean, I The Redskins seemed like they didn't show up in the first half for that game. Oh my god. They just looked like they were completely overmatched, jet-like, whatever you want to call it. Jet like when they were playing at home. Yeah. They um can't, you know, last year they were a surprise team. They looked very good. They're clicking on all cylinders. You thought they could build on that this year. Now it's it's a near disaster, unfortunately. You don't never want to see these young quarterbacks get hurt. So you hope that Daniels is, you know, able to make a full recovery, and not too soon, obviously, because you don't want him to, you know, compound the injury, whatever it may be, especially considering they showed the graphic last night. He got hurt at the same yard line against the same team with the same injury that RG3 got hurt. And it's just it was almost like the same thing with uh the Alex Smith injury and the Joe Theisman injury. I mean, yeah, like similarly. So you just hope that this poor kid can recover and come back healthy. But also you want to know, you know, if you're especially if you're a Redskins fan, what's going on here? What are we missing? You have to wonder sometimes if the NFL, if the parry parity of the NFL and the schedule comes into play, but I they just they just did like you say every week, this is another team that just didn't look prepared in the first half.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:I agree. And can't can't figure that out. The Jacksonville game, what was that, 9-6 at halftime? The kid kicked uh Cam Little kicked a 68 yarder and broke the NFL record for the longest field goal.
SPEAKER_02:Um it would have gone 70. It would have gone 72.
SPEAKER_01:I I think we'll see that. I I really do think we'll see a 70 yarder this year because now that that's been established, someone's gonna come and try and at least an attempt of a 70-yarder. So I you know that's a hell of a weapon to have to be able to kick a 68-yarder.
SPEAKER_02:Um considering you can get the ball sometimes on the 40-yard line. On a 40-yard line, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You wouldn't even have to run a play. You get the kickoff and just march the kicker out there and kick the game-winning field goal.
SPEAKER_02:So I think, you know, from now on we're gonna have our little Sunday show. I don't know what time you're thinking about, but think about that. We'll tell everybody before we leave. We'll cover the next week's games and whatever fantasy and and and parlays or whatever we're gonna talk about then. I I think we need to talk about the World Series.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure. Heartbreaking for anybody who grew up watching Don Mattingley play to see him on the short end of that. At the same time, if you're a Yankees fan, especially right now, you hate Vladimir Guerrero after his comments and his whole spiel and stuff. Um, I have no love loss for Canadian teams whatsoever. But at the same time, the Dodgers, I mean, did we expect anything less? I mean, it was a great World Series. It went seven games and they had to come from behind to win it. But at no point did I feel the Dodgers were not the better team for all intents and purposes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but you have to say what they weren't prepared for, which no one was prepared for, is so many games going into extra innings. Oh, yeah. And we're not talking about 10 or 11. We're talking about 13, 14. 18 innings. 18 innings. Yeah, and your pitching's totally drained. I mean, they killed their best player. I mean, there's no way he was gonna be able to pitch and hit in this and that. I mean, in a regular season, you get to pick and choose where you put him. Yeah. Not not in the World Series.
SPEAKER_01:The Otani rule coming into play when he got taken out of the game and he can still hit was interesting to see play out in the World Series. Toronto choosing to walk him virtually every time he got up was an interesting approach. In hindsight, I don't know if it was the right approach or not. I thought at that time I I probably would have done the same thing because if you're gonna have somebody beat you, you can't let it be him. But sometimes when you take that approach, it's a psychological thing. You have to try and get this guy out at some point, because you're gonna have to get him out at some point. But they stuck to their guns and it seemingly worked. Lukey Betts didn't really hit in this series. I think if you looked on paper and said that Otani wasn't gonna really hit and Betts was gonna bat under 200, whatever it was that he finished with, and you know the Blue Jays were gonna have higher batting average or whatever, you you would have been hard pressed to pick the Dodgers to win it.
SPEAKER_02:When I think about the Dodgers and I thought about this the way everything played out with the extra innings, I thought about Oral Herschiser and how he was the best pitcher in baseball. And he destroyed his and they and they wore him out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right? And next year he was never the same again.
SPEAKER_01:No, he really wasn't. He was a bulldog, but you know, the other the flip side, but more to this is is the construction of the Dodgers roster and how it played out in this World Series. And the fact that you have Otani on this team essentially because of the contract, right? There is no way the Blue Jays or the Yankees were going to be allowed to have a contract that was structured the way his contract is structured. So Major League Baseball created an issue here, as far as I'm concerned, because his contract violates the spirit of the luxury tax and the potential or the soft cap, whatever you want to call it. Also, him going to the Dodgers led to Yamamoto going to the Dodgers. Absolutely. If Otani doesn't go to the Dodgers, chances are Yamamoto, let's say Otani went to the Yankees or the the Blue Jays, right? Those are the really the two other teams that were vying for that contract. Yamamoto is either going to the Yankees or he's going to the Mets, right? Maybe, maybe he goes to Toronto, but he's play, he's probably going to play on the East Coast. He's not going to the Dodgers. So that contract enabled them to put together this roster, which is like we said from the beginning, they're loaded, right? And no other team is is going to be afforded that luxury, right? No one's going to be able to, they're not going to backload a contract for because if if that was going to be allowed, the Yankees would have done it this year and they would have given Soto four million dollars a year and paid him a billion dollars over the next, you know, 25, 30, 40, whatever, how many years? So you know the Yankees weren't going to be allowed that contract, which means probably the Red Sox, right? Like teams on the East Coast, they they made that happen because that's where Major League Baseball and the Dodgers are going to make the most money if Yamamoto's in L, excuse me, if Otani's in LA. So I'm really that part of it, I think, is going to be a big factor in negotiations for the next CBA. We'll see how that plays out. Because how do you justify that to the small market teams?
SPEAKER_02:You know, it's funny because those Japanese players used to all go to Seattle. Remember? Years ago, Seattle got one, they would get another. I mean, we were lucky, we the Yankees were lucky, you know, and they got Matsui.
SPEAKER_01:Matsui was their best signing by hands down in the last 25 years.
SPEAKER_02:And and Matsui created a whole revenue stream because they were literally playing Yankee games on the screens in in Tokyo as people were going to work so they can watch the games.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I'd love to see it. I love when the Japanese players are able to come here and compete at a high level. Ichiro's probably at the top of my list. Oh yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Ichiro's a generational player.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, he's one of the most talented athletes I've ever seen on a baseball field for sure. Um, so it's it's it's interesting. You know, kudos to the Dodgers. They still had to go out there and win it. I'm happy for Clayton Kershaw because I really thought he he got kind of some undue criticism in his career when they weren't as good. Um, I know he had some bad games, but he's a likable guy. He's good for baseball. I'm glad he got to win on the way out. So that was, you know, I don't I find myself rooting more for players or individuals like Mattingley when it comes to these to these playoff games when my teams are eliminated, especially the Yankees. But now, you know, the Yankees, you know, nothing's gonna change, unfortunately. It would be a nice storybook ending to see them bring Mattingley home and make him the manager of this team and spend some money and and just you know, at least get away from the analytics and put a competitive team on the field.
SPEAKER_02:Dream on, brother. Excuse me. Bless you. Dream on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Seeing uh Isaiah Kynefalefa in the starting lineup for the Blue Jays when the Yankees are home, to me was even though they lost the World Series, it was an indictment on the Yankees that you tried to justify this guy in the starting lineup for almost three years, two years really, right? And say how it was your best option here and your best then when you dumped him and up and you upgraded, and I say that in quotes, he goes to the Blue Jays and they go to the World Series. So the Yankees have a lot of they they have to answer to their fans. Unfortunately, here in New York, our fans aren't going anywhere. They're still gonna fill up the bleachers, they're still gonna buy all the season tickets, they're still gonna fill up the luxury suites. There's really no stopping that monster, but it's the only way if you're gonna make a stand is to stop going to games and stop buying tickets and stop showing up at the stadium. No more jerseys, no more hats. Enough. If you stop spending money, they have to answer to the fan base. Until that happens, they're just gonna continue to print money. And it won't mean anything to them to try and win in a World Series.
SPEAKER_00:And they have seemingly no sense of nostalgia or history or tradition anymore whatsoever.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well. All right. I think we could leave baseball there. We could keep whining on about how stupid these contracts are and how teams are all businesses, but you know, for today, maybe that's enough. So we're gonna be back. Uh F1 didn't run this week. It'll be in Brazil next week. I'm sure I'll have something to say about that. What city in Brazil? You gotta ask me something like that? I don't know that it makes a difference to me either. I was just looking, I was just reading it too, and and uh I asked the one thing I didn't look at.
SPEAKER_01:Sao Paulo.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So the airspace.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, look at these these cars are fierce looking. And and they're gonna get they're gonna get thinner, you said.
SPEAKER_02:So they're gonna have, you know, they have this battery energy that they could draw onto. And if you overuse it, you don't have it, it's complicated. It'll be thinner, more wheel-to-wheel. Meanwhile, wheel-to-wheel's been killing everything this year. So I don't know. We'll see how it plays out.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, they look like little rocket ships. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:But I'm gonna have to root for an American team because there's gonna be Cadillac next year, and it's gonna be a big deal.
SPEAKER_01:Um they have their drivers picked out already, or are they gonna do, but I don't know who they don't know who they are.
SPEAKER_02:It's not like somebody I know already. Listen, I'm I'm not really good at knowing all these drivers forever. But there are a lot of drivers, right? Because drivers, these guys race together from when they're kids. They go to F3, F2, and then they pick drivers out of F2 to race F1. Not everybody's like Red Bull has an A and B team, even though they don't call it that. There is, and the A team picks drivers out of the B team sometimes to fill in. So there's a lot of, and there's more rules about using rookie drivers at least to qualify or practice. I shouldn't say qualify to practice. So that's happened a little bit because this week, or last week, I should say. So we're gonna see that we have Brazil, then we're gonna come back to Las Vegas, and then the Middle East, uh thinking Qatar, and then Dubai or something like that, or the other way around.
SPEAKER_01:All the players in the money washing laundromat.
SPEAKER_02:All the players in the money list. So so our our our special Sunday show will be at what time you want to do it. I mean, here's the problem. If we do it at 10, let's say, the nine o'clock game is already on an hour. If we do it earlier than that, everybody's gonna be asleep, then I can be listening to that.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not really concerned about the the early game. We maybe we can have it on in the background while we discuss it.
SPEAKER_02:Nah, who cares? Um you know, I I I I believe these games, listen, you want to play them in Canada, I'd be all for it. But I I don't I don't I don't want you to play it in in London. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Unfortunately, they don't care what you or I want. They want money.
SPEAKER_02:Well, they don't care what the players need, they don't care about the health of the players. Oh, they don't care whatsoever about the players. And and and you're a cog.
SPEAKER_01:That tells you how much money they're actually making. They're making money hand over fist. Come on. And they're gonna just it, you know, everybody has a price, so to speak, and I don't like blaming the players because this is what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't spend I didn't spend that much time on it, but I know this whole thing with bad bunny and then supposedly Sting is the is the Super Bowl show. I don't know. I so that I don't know. That's what what I read. I don't know if that's true or not.
SPEAKER_01:They're so incredibly tone-deaf.
SPEAKER_02:You know, so are we saying 10, 11? What are we saying?
SPEAKER_01:I would say 10. 10 or 11 is fine.
SPEAKER_02:So we'll be on 10 o'clock live. I'll put a little thing out there. You can click on it as a reminder. It's gonna be fantasy parlay Sunday. And we're gonna do it every week. Hopefully, hopefully it's uh helpful to you and you guys out there make some money. And if you don't, you could just criticize the crap out of us, and I'm okay with that too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll have some fun for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we'll have some fun. So it's not gonna be in the studios, it's kind of gonna be rough and ready. It's wherever I am, I'm gonna use my laptop and uh I'll be right here. I'm I'm ten feet away from my bed, so roll out of bed. I'm not always home on Sunday morning, so I'll be using instead of headsets and microphones. I'm just gonna use my uh ear pods. Actually, I I have a set of uh microphones. I don't know what I'll use for for listening, but I have I have wireless microphones. So anyway, and whoever's joining us has been watching us all this time. I don't know if it's the same person or people are coming in and it's a handful of people in and out and in. Thank you all for watching us live. We appreciate it. That's why we do this live. That's one of the reasons why we do this live. If we didn't do it the same time every day, every week, we uh it wouldn't be as and I use the term loosely successful as it is, only because we've been getting great support from everyone, great comments, great likes.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Please keep subscribing. We need the subscriptions. We're trying to get up to a thousand. If we do, Justin gets a hat. And and and and if we don't, I'll I'll keep the hat myself. So that's where we're at. Good luck, uh Justin. A pleasure as always. Thank you for having me. Drag my feet till I get to the media thing, and here it is. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you again soon Monday at 10 o'clock for our what did I say?
SPEAKER_01:You said Monday? Sunday morning, 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_02:Kind of like Monday, but only the day before. Monday, uh, our show. We could see our fantasy picks. I know Justice fantasy picks are great. Hopefully, my parlay picks are as well, and we look forward to doing that a shorter show. It's not, we're not gonna drone on for an hour and six minutes like we did right now. So thanks everybody. See ya, Justin.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Steve. See you next week.