Transcript of The Colts Machine, a Giant Disaster, Hock Tua, Baby Doll’s Luck Corner, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We are also brought to you by the Ringer podcast Network on the Prestige TV podcast. I broke down the season finale of Task with Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney. We talked about where the show is pitted against some of the all-time great HBO shows. We talked about whether the show is coming back because we thought this was going to be a series finale, but it seems like it's just a season finale. What is Task season 2 to be. So we talked about all that stuff. If you get bored of us talking about it, you can listen to The Watch with Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwild as well. New rewatch was coming on Monday night. It's the last one for Redford Month. We did Quiz Show, me and Brian Koppelman. And that's it for Redford Month. Quiz Show is an awesome movie. Really, really highly recommend it. Love talking about it. So we're going to do a horror movie the next week. That's why we're cutting Redford Month short. We We always try to do one horror movie before we get to Halloween. Speaking of horror movies, Cousin Sal and I are going to talk about Miami's performance in Cleveland, the Giants loss in Denver, and a really fun, crazy day of games.

A lot going on here. We're going to take a break, bring in Pearl Jam, and then Cousin Sal, talk in week seven, plus Guest Aligns. This is the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. If you're betting on the NFL, come on. Fanduel is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick for when you want to jump in live. Your way, so you can set your own lines on just about anything. The app's fast, it's easy to use, and best of all, when you win, you get paid instantly. I've been in Boston, Massachusetts, recently. Guess what I did? Use FanDuel. Super fun. Download the Fandil app or go to fandil. Com/bs to get started. Must be 21 plus present in select states, 18 plus in DC, Kentucky, and Wyoming. Get in a promo call, win a 100 game, or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-79-777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat in Connecticut. All right. Recording on a Sunday night, a little past 8: 30 Pacific Time. Cousin Sal is here. We just watched a pretty crappy Sunday night Falcons Niners game. Not crappy for you.

It was good.

It was your best bet.

I loved it. I'm very proud of myself. I feel like I pulled out that Denver game. We'll probably talk about that one right on the money line. And then I doubled it up on my favorite pick, the San Francisco 49ers. I think I analyzed it right. First time in six years, I feel like I got everything right.

We both had good ones this week because House and I went all in on that Browns to Offense game. We went all in. We made it our lock of the year. Tua in Wind and Rain. We'll talk about that later. You watched all the Sunday games with the Ringer crew because we have a bunch of Ringer people in town. And we have this movie theater in the downtown LA offices where they put all the games on the big screen. And you got to watch the early and the late, including with some Giants fans, the late game. So what was the experience? What were the highlights? You had JJ on his phone watching the Dolphins season. Jj When the Giants collapse. Give me the highlights.

Yeah, he had his skinny jeans on, high fits. It's great because Spotify flies everybody out for a week out here, and it's good. They call it Core Week, and then they have meetings during the week, and everybody pretends they're recording their podcast so they could blow off the meetings. But at least Sunday, we get together. Huge, huge theater. I forgot how the Youngens root. I mean, they really whip it up. And some is alcohol-fueled and some isn't. And then some watch Watch on their phone. I'm not going to mention names, but they update. They'll be watching on FanDuel, so they'll be two plays ahead. So that's annoying. Is that? You can do that? You could do it. You could do it. Yeah, I shouldn't even tell you about it, but It's-Oh, please don't. But it's great. I mean, Hyfitz, I sent you the video. Porter Danny Hyfitz, a big giant fan. When they were down 18, I was like, every stupid first down that Bo nick scramble for. I'm like, Oh, you're nervous now. And then he was actually nervous. I thought I thought he was going to be brought to tears at the end.

Well, I think he was banking on the 1,602 straight games with 18 point lead with 6 minutes left. That was pretty great. Big picture before we go into the games. This is the sports wheelhouse time. The Blue Jays one tonight, we're going to game seven with that. We had O'Tani on Friday night with, I don't even think it's a debate, the greatest player performance ever. The only thing I was thinking was whether World Series versus regular playoffs and everything else should be two separate categories.

Yeah, I think so. God forbid, you say something like that. You're called melod dramatic. I was the greatest you've ever seen. And then someone's like, on June 12th, 1973, Rick Wise pitched a no hitter and hit two home runs. I don't want to hear about Shoheya with time. All right, fine. But no, this is as good as it gets. There's only a handful of players who have struck out 10 batters in a playoff game, and there's only a handful of hit three home runs, and he did both. Insane.

Yeah, it makes you think when you watch this, all the lost time when he was on the Angels, not in these games, because the hope with him was always, Oh, if he was with the Yankees or the Dodgers or the Cribs, and he was in big, big games in a big city, maybe he'll then rise up and go up a level and there would be like, true great, and that stuff pops out. We just didn't get to see it for half a decade. And now we're seeing it. And he actually did elevate. I still feel like, to me, the Reggie three home runs, they're down by a run in game six. They had the last two at home, but the three straight and the exclamation point at the end. I just feel like World Series has to be over here and then everything else is over here. But it was certainly the greatest baseball game I've ever seen. I was I saw the last two homers. Did you see everything?

Yeah. I didn't see the first home, and then I saw everything else. I also think these numbers are screwed up. When they said that one shot was 469 feet, and it's still rising as we're talking two days later. It's like they have to fix that. And why wouldn't they? Why are they short-changing these? That should be big for baseball. That should be 5, 10 or whatever it is. Or lie. Who cares?

I wasn't even sure that was possible to hit it out of the Dodger Stadium that easily. It was flying out of there. Anyway, so that was fun. College football is in full swing. Nba starts Tuesday. I'm sure you're betting on hockey. We have the Equinox coming up later this weekend. And then today, Broncos Giants was the best game of the year. Just an unbelievable comeback by the Broncos. An unbelievable loss. Both teams lost. I'm not even sure there was a winner by the end of it. Of course, I had the Broncos and the T's laying one and a half, so I somehow lost. Nice. Even though they came back and won.

Oh, Wait, right? Oh, man. Oh, that's not good. I'm sorry about that. Because that's a fun one to celebrate if you're on the right side.

Broncos scored 33 fourth quarter points. I I mean, they're five and two. This could be like a playoff position game. We could be in week 18 be like, oh, my God, they're the two seed because that stupid fucking Giants game in week seven. I can't believe it. And it really looked like It looked like they were going to give it to the Giants on that fourth of 19 with that bogus. I didn't like the rough in the passer call. I didn't think the guy got the first down. The pass interference near the goal line was terrible. They were playing the hits, and it seemed like it didn't pass the stink test.

And yet the worst call of all was a review that said that Jackson dark got in the end zone, and he did. But if he stopped short at the end zone, that kills two players of the following drive for Denver, at least, I think, right? I'm assuming Giants score in the next play or the play after, but it would have knocked 40 seconds off the clock. I mean, yeah, there was too much. We were cursing Bo Nicks, who I still can't put finger on. Oh, this is a carry-over from the London game. He's so bad. And then he becomes the first player in history with two passing touchouts and two rushing touchouts in the fourth quarter, in the same quarter. So I think I set a record just on the day for saying the words, they scored too soon. In every game, there was four games like, no, they scored too soon. But you read the stat, man, 1,602 games. It's just spectacular that we saw that with our own eyes.

Yeah, I did feel like Dardt scored too soon when they scored because the Giants were dead. They're playing in altitude. But you can't tell the guy not to. I feel like we argue about this three times a year. You got to go for it. I was thinking with Bo Nicks because this is maybe the third or fourth game where he's looked like complete dog shit for two hours, and then he revives. It's like, did you have in college, did you have the one guy who would throw up and pass out, and then an hour and a half later was in somebody's room like nothing would happen? And it was like he had a second life and then some, and was just awesome. He was like, Whoa, Bo next. I thought you passed out. That's what he's done three times this year, where you think he's dead. I guess we'll see Bo tomorrow, and then all of a sudden, he's running around.

If you want, you could delete this. But I thought this of our friend, not even going all the way back to college, but about 20 years ago with our friend Jacobi. I mean, he would tie one on with the best of them. And then the next day at 7: 00 in the morning, he'd be ready to produce a bit with a tie on. We're definitely not cutting that No, we're leaving it in. Okay. He was a compliment, Jacobi.

He was a compliment. He's a mature guy now. Yeah, he could rally with the best of them. But he's like a Jekyll and Hyde QB. There's not a lot of these anymore. There's not a lot of guys who just look like complete dog shit for a while. I don't know how many open receivers he's missed on 40 to 45-year bombs. I've watched a lot of Broncos. I have a lot of Broncos futures. That was my big AFC pick. And it just feels like for two hours, he misses everybody that's open. And then all of a sudden, he settles down. He basically needs two hours to settle down.

That's it, right? Yeah. Like he's planted on. Yeah. He's one of those guys who in four years, I don't know what you'd be more confident in. Is he a top six paid quarterback or is he out of the league?

Or is he like Carson Wents, where he's on some new team?

Yeah, he's got to come back and forth.

They're hoping he's okay, but you know he's not. And you're just waiting for the starter to come back.

That's your call before, yeah.

Basically, they're five and two. We have India is six and one. Tampa is five and one heading into tomorrow night. Then the only five and two teams are my beloved Patriots, Denver, Philly, and the Lambs. And Denver could either be... It feels that they could be three and four. They could easily be six and one if that leverage thing doesn't call. I think what was notable today was their defense was awful. I thought this was going to be one of those defense against a rookie Q three, just take them out. But it was the opposite. They were, I thought, really, really bad. And even that last drive, like DART shouldn't have been able to do that. They lucked out because DART through one of the worst passes of the day that Tua wasn't involved with when they were down 10, it If he run three times in punt, the Broncos probably can't win. But I said Dart threw them that pick.

He threw when he was supposed to be running. And then when he was trying to kill the clock, he should have passed on second down. It was bad. They did everything the reverse. And that's why Brian Dable is breaking chairs in the locker room after the game.

Oh, my God. Well, the Broncos have a one-game lead over the Chiefs, and yet are the Chiefs favorite on FanDuel for that division?

They have to be, right? Favorite to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, Oh, they're in favor to win the Super Bowl, too? The Chiefs are now minus 125. The Broncos plus 230 for the division. Chargers, 370.

Chargers have dropped, and the Raiders are no longer on the radar. Yeah. And memo, you have the Chiefs who dominated the Raiders to the point that it felt really good once they scratch Bowers. This game doesn't need to be in the multi-view. We have enough games. I'm just going to hope nothing happens and they'll get a couple of updates, and the Chiefs will win by a lot. It's exactly what happened. They had 30 to 3 first downs. I don't think the Raiders got to 100 yards. It was one of the most inept offensive performances, I think, of the 21st century. So that was great. So anyway, the Chiefs have rounded in a form. And then you look at that stupid Monday night game they lost against Jacksonville that we lost money on. And is one of the three worst results of the year. Jacksonville looks the way they look today. And the Chiefs should probably be five and two anyway. That down to down, down to interception return, one of the dumbest plays of the year.

For sure. Yeah. That's what kept Jackson. I remember what they have, 14 turnovers in three games, and now everything is like coming back to the norm. But yeah, I love the Chiefs today. I mean, this was the only thing they hadn't done in a while, right? Like, laid a smack down on a team. Now you have Mahomes' favorite for MVP. You have the Chief's favorite to win the Super Bowl. They haven't beaten anybody like they did in 2022, like Reid and Mahomes type team. And I laid 23 and a half. I got good odds on that. The only thing I don't understand is why run a trick play against the Raiders by the goal line? Why wouldn't you save that for a game you're not going to struggle in?

Which trick play? The one when Mahomes was pretending he was trying to... There was another play there.

So that was the other thing, right? Yeah.

Why That was a good one.

That was a good one. That was a good fucking works thing. That was great. Yeah, that was dumb. I don't know. I don't know why. I just would like an answer for that. But who cares? They're right back at it at four and three. They're the toast of the town.

It seemed like a little animosity for the Raiders who talked a lot of shit the last couple of times. Back to Nuggets. Nuggets, I'm already in NBA mode.

Stop it, please.

Back in a Broncos Giants mode. The Giants are two and five, but probably had, including your Cowboys win, two of the dumbest losses, 2 of the 5 dumbest losses. So they could easily be 4 and 3. I think of all the 2 and 5 and under teams. So that's, let's see, Cleveland, Vegas, Giants, Zona, Baltimore is 1 and five, Miami, Miami, Tennessee, Saints, Jets. If there's just a round-robin tournament of all those teams, it's the Giants against the Ravens, I think, in the finals, out of all the crappy teams, right?

So we have our five cross-offs. And who are you adding? You're adding the Giants and Ravens.

I'm just saying those are the teams that are at least minus three for win totals right now. Right. No, our new cross-up team is Vegas. I think our cross-up teams now are Jets, Browns, Tennessee, Miami, the Saints, and Vegas. That's six. Vegas is two and five, and it's a wrap.

Giants are a different tier for sure. But now, like you said, Giants are two and five. Now, they play a Philly team on the road who just wants to murder them, right? Yeah. They're so mad. So they're going to fall apart here. I feel like people are still going to love Jackson Dart, but Brian Dable is a little closer to firing after this game. You know what I mean?

A Giants fan friend asked me how many franchises could have believably lost that game. And he said it's only the last 10 years Giants, because the Giants, they went to Super Bowl in the last 20 years. But then Not counting the Washington Generals?

I think you're right. Yeah.

Well, I thought Jets would have absolutely... That would have happened in the Jets. Right. The first time in 1602 games, Jets Definitely. I think the Browns are the other one. I don't think... Maybe Jags? I don't know. Maybe. That's tough. But I think if we were doing a fantasy draft of who would lose this way, the Giants would have been the third pick.

Yeah. I would have taken the Jets first, and I would have taken the Browns second.

For sure. Then I think Giants third.

Then probably Giants could do it again next week against the Eagles. It could happen like two or three more times this year with this team.

Darts fun. I like them. He is. I have no idea if Denver... I just don't know if you're a Broncos fan, how you think you can win a couple of rounds with Bo Nicks with how he's looked this season. It's just been too erratic. I think I was going to ask you as a Patriots fan, and it's looking more and more certain that you're going to be a playoff team.

I know you have your eyes on the division title, but have you thought about the who we don't want to play in the first round thing? I bet Denver is not on your radar for that right now. I bet the Colts are much more right there for, We can't play this team. We can't match up first round.

Well, the Colts, I would say, are a safe one-seed bet right now. The Chiefs would be the two, right? Buffalo, it just seems like they've been too spotty. The Pats, so if they win the division, which is conceivable, that's probably a three seed for them.

All right. My numbers are all different from yours, but that's fine.

Where would you have them?

I'm just saying, let's play this out like we know these teams, and the Pats are at six and the Colts are at two.

I think the Pats are going to be in the top five if May stays out there. Just because the schedule is so awful. That's true. I mean, it's really like number one with a bullet for easy strength of schedule. Every week they play somebody shitty or somebody that has some major injury. And I think they're a good team. I don't think they're a great team, but May has been one of the best players in the league for the last four weeks. Their defense, they can rush the passer, they can stop the run, and they can get first downs. I think they're a good team.

You were so scared when they were down. I wasn't. You were terrified.

Hinch can back me up. I texted him and I was like, we were down 10-3, and I was like, I like this. This team needed a little adversity. Let's see how they respond. May went right down.

Yeah, but you were crying when he texted him. May was laid out. No, he wasn't crying. He was good. He couldn't... I was like, oh, this is exciting. I get to throw the nickname at him again. But then he completed 14 in a row.

Son of a bitch. He is throwing the best deep balls in the week. They're consistently in stride with a guy catching them with their hands up. One last thing on Bronco's Giants I just wanted to mention. Thank God Thank God we have win probability rates because I had no idea if that was an amazing comeback or anything. And then when I saw the charts-You need to see the chart? Yeah. Once I was like, Oh, yeah, that really was amazing. If you can combine the win probability charts with how fast somebody ran on a boat next week, 19. 8 miles an hour, that would really be peak.

This is stupid. It's the same, dude. Do you think a 1929, the Great Depression, they had charts of the stock market bottoming out. Like, yeah, here's your portfolio, sir. Here. So you see this flat line. Oh, all right. Okay. Yeah. Your grandfather's dying. There's a flat line and there's an annoying noise going off for a minute and a half.

We really need them for marriage.

Yeah, right.

That's good. My wife's in lousy move. What's my win probability chart for asking her if I could go out tonight? All right. The other game we have to talk about is the Browns murdering the Dolphins.

Let's kill this kicker a little bit. This number 99. The Giants kicker. This Macanacanani. Where did he come from? When a number 99 with a crazy name like that, it seems like it's from... It's only sunny in Philadelphia, a made up name or something. You have no confidence. You just get on Fandle right there and bet the other side.

Yeah, you at least need a short guy who's been on a couple of teams and kicks the traditional soccer style. And it's like, oh, I remember that guy when he was on the. He deprived us of overtime is what he deprived us of. I felt like that game had some more magic in it. It just could have kept going and gone. Brown's killing the Dolphins. We were texting a lot during this game. I don't even know where to start. Two of finishes after calling out the team, 12 for 23 for 100 yards, three interceptions, two drop picks, really could have five. He had a fumble. He led three wide receivers and they're just getting obliterated. I think all three eventually got It was just everything you would have expected from him in Cleveland. The weather wasn't as bad as they thought it was going to be. It never is. It just didn't matter. You had that, and then you had DJ Mikey Mac on the sidelines.

The best.

He had these big sunglasses. He looked like John Holmes in the mid '80s, like one of his last porn movies when just the wheels are coming off. I can't even describe how fucking weird he looks. That guy is supposed to be a leader of men. He's just checked out and then has an insane press conference after. I actually think it seems like he's unraveling. So there's no way he's going to be coaching them on Thursday, right?

Interesting, because I was talking to JJ, John just He was a big Dolphins fan, and he was really just miserable for three hours trying to figure out what year they're going to be good. And we got the 2031, and I was like, Okay, stop already. He couldn't even pull the trigger on that year, but battling for the one number one pick and everything. But, yeah, McDaniel is. Those glasses, is that everything except the windshield wiper things on the glasses? Why don't you just go all out? He's a clown, right? Why are you wearing glasses?

It's raining. It's even here in Cleveland. It's 40 degrees. What's going on? Why are you dressed like that?

We both heard 50 to 70 mile an hour wins on Thursday. I'm like, oh, we both went under on a teaser, and that's what made that exciting. It wasn't like a 13: 7 game. It was like, holy shit. How many interceptions What is two are going to throw to put this all under in jeopardy? And it almost got there.

I had a giant 13-point tease that actually won, but took the line up to 48. Two of them throws that pick basically from his own end zone.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden it's 31 to 6. I'm like, oh, my God, this game is going to go over 49 points. Two is single-handedly going to drive this. He was so bad. He didn't want to get hit. He was just flinging the ball up for grabs. It was really one of the worst quarterback games we've seen all year. And we've talked about him on this pod for four or five years. This felt like rock bottom for him. I find it hard to believe he's going to be on that team next year. Don't you think?

No, I think they have to move on from him and move on from the... It doesn't have to be either or. I know it's like, well, two have said this, so McDaniel's gone. It's like, no, it's both of them. But I really hung in there. I was like, I don't want to blame Tua here because they were right in his face for a lot of the plays. If the average, you get play off in 2. 9 seconds. He had 0. 6 seconds. But even so... But that goes back to McDaniel. What game plan? Just run the ball. You got to 8-chan. Just run, run, run. That's what the Browns did. That's why they weren't getting blown out in the third quarter.

Right. As somebody bet on the Browns, I was praying that they weren't just going to hand off to Achan 38 times. It was a very strange performance. The Browns, there's a couple of teams that I think are good home bets. I think the Falcons are another one. We saw them tonight. But But the Browns at home, I don't know. I just think their defense shows up. They can run the ball. Perceivers aren't terrible. The quarterback's pretty tough.

Yeah. He's vanilla.

It's pretty mediocre. But They dominated the game. Some of the techs are great.

He's like a seven for a 1: 00 PM Eastern slot, sadly. We should start ranking quarterbacks in the 1: 00 PM slot. Not this week, but it's on a curve.

Some text that we had, Hinch said at one point, If you zoom in on McDaniel's laminate, it's Juzillo Listings. I thought that was a good one. There was this one moment where they come out of commercial and Spiro Dittas and Adam Archaleta. They have the graphic. It was their 17th Cleveland Browns game together. What memories. Get them a photo book. Out of 17 Browns games, how many of those do you think were fun to Now, it's like two. Yeah, two. It's like, Sorry, guys, you're going to Cleveland again. This was just brutal.

He probably did preseason, too. Yeah, they showed that graphic and they freeze-framed on those guys. I'm like, Oh, are they dead now? Are they in carbon? What happened to these guys? They just left. They call them this one, too.

They left the booth. I left it on the multi-view. It was one of my four of the whole thing. I couldn't get enough of it. Every time Miami was on offense. I'll tell you this. I think the most wrong I've been all year was my over-excitement for Trevianne Henderson on the paths, thinking that he could be Jameer Gibbs for them. He has not made, I don't think, a good play this entire season. I don't know what happened in the preseason when he was the most electric rookie they've had in 10 years versus how he's looked this year. He basically got buried today. He was the third-stream running back. Then on the flip side, Judkins on the Browns is a stud. I remember saying after week one or week two, this was a miracle that they took Judkins over. Henderson, Judkins wasn't even training camp. And now it's like, Jesus, Judkins looks like they've just recreated nick Chubb, but a faster, quicker version of him.

I was going to bring this up to you because I have him. He's 10 to 1 to win offensive rookie of the year. I was trying to think what has to happen. They have like...

Agbuka gets hurt three more times.

Agbuka darts at the top. Those two would have to get her. Agbuka is already hurt, but probably playing. Tyler Warren would have to go away, too. So just three guys have to disappear.

I had Agbuka as the best rookie that I've seen this year. But Tyler Warren is an absolute destructor of defenses, and they did a good job. At one point, they had a graphic today of all the formations. Use him a lot. Lined up in all these different positions. But we've said it every week, the Browns taking Loveling over him was just weird. The The whole year, he was the best tight end in the draft. And then within two weeks before the draft, people were like, I don't know. Look out for this Loveling. It's coming on. It's like, how about the guy who's always been the best guy at the position?

What must the Browns think? They get shit on for every single pick, every single trade, every single, everything they do. And like, all right, all we need is for this Tyler Warren to be okay, but not great. Like, oh, damn it. Now, everyone, now, Simmons is calling us out for not taking for taking Loveling over Warren. It just goes on or not. Yeah. The bear. Oh, yeah. The bears.

Well, the funny thing is, so the Browns end up with Mason Graham, who's been awesome because they did this tradeback. And then watching that Jaguars. I tweeted this today. And of course, Travis Hunter had a couple of garbage time. I know. But that trade is just like you watch Mason Graham. I wouldn't trade Mason Graham for Travis Hunter straight up. I would make Jacksonville throw in a number one pick. You can find in receiver. What Mason Graham is doing for the already. It's really hard to find. Yeah.

I had the same take that I had to cross out that Travis Hunter is... We don't give him enough crap or the Jags for that. But yeah, then he scored. Did you have the Jags, you said? You didn't have the Jags, did you?

House made us back off in the Arab thing. But no, it's frustrating because after that Chief's game, I was hoping that they would be good, so I'd feel better about it, and I still feel terrible about it. We're going to take a break, and then we're going to play a new game. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandil, and basketball is back. Finally, the NBA is upon us. Fandil, putting you in control right from tip-off. Every day, start the season, you get to choose your reward. Play it safe. Go for it. Feeling bold. It's your move. Whatever your style, you're in control. What better are you? You'll be doing same game parlays. You're going to be doing money line underdog bets. You're going to try to put, I think this team is going to win with somebody scoring 30 plus points Betts. You should go to the Ringer Futures that we have. A whole bunch of our favorite future bets. Try to get those in before a tip off on Tuesday. However you play, FanDuel is giving you the power to choose your reward and own your game every single day to start the NBA season.

Head to fanduel. Com/bs to make your choice. Must be 21 plus present, select states are 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Opt-in required. Rewards are non-metralable. Restrictions apply, including bonus and token expiration leg requirements and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook. Fandil. Com. Game problem, call 1-800. Game, or visit rg-help. Com. Call 1-888-789-777, or visit ccpg. Org/chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. So the NBA season is starting. I'm excited about a bunch of different things. We have a lot of teams up in the air: Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana. What are we getting from these teams? The Lakers, can they hang on and still be a top six team? I think I'm most excited for the Texas teams. I want to see Durán in Houston, Cooper Flag in Dallas, and Wemby and Dylan Harper in San Antonio. I feel like I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the state of Texas with my basketball choices. There are a lot of moments worth playing for. The ones that taste best are served cold, unlike in Texas, where it's usually hot.

Whatever happens this season, catch every moment with Mikola Bultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. Getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win. Courtside Seats, you heard me correctly, a trip to All-Star Weekend, custom merch, and much more. Mikola Bultra, superior, is worth playing for. Enter now at Michelobultra. Com/courtside. Michelobultra Courtside, 2025 to 2026. No purchase necessary. Open to US Residence 21 plus begins on October first, 2025 ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at Michelobultra. Com/courtside. For free entry deadlines, prizes, and Details. All right, this is a new gimmick for us. Very excited about this. We're calling it Baby Doll Corner. So the background is for years and years. I don't know when this started. How far back when he started wishing people look? Is it before I even knew him? When did this start?

Probably before we knew him, but very early in on our acquaintance with him.

So one of Baby Doll's favorite things to do and the thing that has brought us the most joy is if somebody's like, their show is about to get canceled, they're about to get fired, some relationship is going to go, something bad is going to happen professionally, Baby doll would be like, I wish him a lot of luck. And that has turned into when we sniff out that something might happen, we'll text Baby doll, Baby, get the luck ready. Baby, you got to go into the reserves and get some luck. You have something in your back pocket. And it's probably the running joke we do the most, right?

Even if something seems good for them at the time. Like, oh, this one signed a deal with Tubi to be the vice president. Like, yeah, okay, great. Yeah, I wish you a lot of luck there. Like, oh, all right. So anyway, we have some luck we want to hand out in honor of Baby doll.

I'm not sure who's watching football. He's probably playing golf. Let's start with DJ Mike McDaniel. I think on the Baby doll corner, he's a solid 10 out of 10. I think he needs a lot of luck, like a lot.

For sure. I mean, I wrote a lot of things down in his voice. Go ahead. You do it. You go. All right. Yeah. Thanks, Mike McDaniel, for another shitty game in an even shittier press conference. And I quote, this is from his press conference. You ready? Because we're not, I mean, if you are negative effectively affecting the football team, routinely assess another player. You know what, Mike? You're as lousy a motivational speaker as you are a head coach. Good luck to you in your Lululemon pants. So that would be That's something new.

Yeah. That would be a long... It would be a voice text with a couple of misspellings.

Oh, yeah. Capital letters, almost all capital, almost everything capital.

That he's doing on a bridge.

Right.

And maybe you should give your sunglasses back to Marvin Gay. I think he'd have some luck for Tua.

Yeah. Well, first of all, wasn't it funny? Every time they showed Mike McDaniel, he was looking down at the play chart. He was looking down. It was almost like he knew the camera was on him and he knew everyone was staring at him and he couldn't bear to look up. If you know someone's walking on a plane that you don't want to see and you pretend you're sleeping, that's what he was doing. He was like, Yeah, we see you, Mike.

What are his other options?

Where could he look? He could cover his face with it. I don't know.

What if he just went in the blue tent and just piqued out from the blaze?

Mike McDaniel is in the blue tent. Nothing physically wrong with him. He's just hiding.

He's probably mad he didn't have darker sunglasses. He should have I had the Ray Charles glasses. Tua would definitely have some look. We told Baby we were doing this, and he demanded that Aaron Glenn. Aaron Glenn was number one on his list for luck. So I don't know if you want to do. How many of these do you want to do?

I have a two. I have seven. Do a Tua. Go do a Tua. You know what, Tua? I wish anyone over 65 luck trying to pronounce your name. But good luck in the workforce, throwing your boss under the bus and then shitting all over yourself every Sunday. Yeah, that'll work in the real world. Good luck. Good luck, for you. I guess they should all end with good luck. Yeah.

Well, he wanted to wish Aaron Glen luck. So I looked this up. It was hard to figure out, but I think I'm right. Aaron Glenn started at 07. So the worst start by a head coach, again, somehow Hugh Jackson, not involved, Kam Cameron, that one Miami Dolphins here for him. He started at 013. And then our guy Dan Campbell was 011 and 1. I looked at it here. So he'd have to go 014 to own the record. They're at sincey, buy week, home browns. That could be, I don't know, maybe they're two and a half point favorite or underdogs, something like that. At pats, at ravens, home falcons, home dolphins. Dolphins is it. Basically, Brown's Dolphins are the ones to get him to avoid that record. Yeah. So we'll see what happens.

Dolphins, December seventh. That was the team they lost to. That's the only team the Dolphins beat. That's going to be spectacular. Yeah. I don't know. So with these guys, off the baby thing for a second, but these guys, you want to cut them some slack if they don't have the quarterback in place, right? But he wanted Justin Fields, right? This was his guy. So he can't ride out the string and go like, 'Oh, in '16, ' 'Oh in '17, right?

See, that's the thing where these guys, I know they have to get people with football and people have coached and coached in college or been a coordinator, QB coach, whatever. It really does feel like they need to hire somebody who watches football for 14 hours a day like us. Just as a consultant, be like, Hey, Bo, what about fields for Two years, 20 million a year. Just give me your blank test thought. And I've just been like, Dude, the Stewards quit on that guy in five weeks. And he wasn't even playing that bad. And they were just like, there was that one game, that Sunday night game, and they were like, We're out with this guy. If he's behind, you can't do this. Justin Fields will never be the answer. Don't do it.

Hey, Justin, guess what? We figured it out. You lied on your fucking resume. You can't throw the ball forward. Tied Taylor is more capable than you are. Good luck getting back on the field. You're going to need it.

I think that might have been it for him, by the way. So he was... What was it? What were his stats today? I have him here.

Forty-one I guess that's better.

6 for 12 for 45 yards.

45?

Benched at halftime. And then Taylor came in. It's like, Taylor gave him some life. He gave the other team some life. He threw two picks. Yeah, that was bad. He finished with six points. I have one piece of luck that I think Baby might wish Tom braided getting inside info from his Fox gig and giving it to the Raiders. I think we need to wish that storyline luck. You think it's bad info he's getting? It's like, this is such an advantage for the Raiders. The Raiders have gone backwards more furiously than any team in the league. I'm pretty sure Tom braided is not helping them out. How about our buddy, Carson Wentz? Who was playing all the hits today and even had a blooper reel at some point that was floating around on social media. I think if he played better, they would have won that game.

Yeah, if he played better, if Hawkinson doesn't slam that into the turf slightly, they were right there. They got behind too early.

That wasn't a catch, though. I don't know why he was mad.

He's really pissed off.

The ball got loose after it hit the ground. I thought it moved enough. They call that every time.

Yeah, it moved. We've seen that enough to see that that's incomplete. But that's how close everything was with them. He just got... The Eagles, I guess, as boring as we think they could be for three hours, there's always going to be two or three big play capabilities. It's weird they're not coming from Barkley, and they came from E. J. Brown, but it's good enough to beat a lot of these teams. That's for sure.

That was the most exciting they've been all year.

Yeah.

The Eagles. They actually had some explosiveness.

I think it would have been embarrassing, right? If Carson went. The embarrassment factor is never... You can never put enough emphasis on it. Just like if Vrabel had lost it in Tennessee, those are the two games. Right.

Well, I think with Wentz, there's a lot of... He's close to being a good quarterback, right? When you watch him, you can actually see the potential. He'll have some nice throws. And there's that one, that adlib piece is just missing with him. When a play goes wrong and he's got to... And that's just when it unravels for him. Do you have luck for Gino Smith? Because it feels like his career is on the press.

How did I miss that? Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Do your-I just think he's in range.

The only reason I would give them Grace is, and this is why I thought-Grace is my daughter's name, by the way. Go ahead. The Chief's Money Line, I thought, was the safest Moneyline Parlay ad of the year today. Because the Raiders scratch Bowers. They're clearly, just get us to the buy week. We'll be two and five. We'll get Bowers something. Bowers hasn't been healthy since week one. So I don't want to write off Gino yet, but It's not been great.

Jacobi Myers was solid last year. I think he's like, the last three games, he barely went over 100 yards. Genti, if you bottle them up and there's no Bowers, like you said, there's going to be not a lot of offense out of this team.

Who else did you have on the Baby doll.

I have. Let's see. I have Brian Dayball. Hey, oh, wow, Brian, you broke a chair in the locker room. Listen, you have no talent and no hair either. And look at me. I have a head of hair, a 25-year-old would cover it, baby. Good luck to you, Dayball. You're going to need it.

Let's see. Do you think he's in range? If they get killed by the Eagles next week, would they be like...

It could be. They have a few. It's not just the Eagles, right? The 49ers are decent. They play them. They're at the bears and packers, lions, your patriots. That's a mess. That could be like three and nine. So I don't know. Do you keep them at that point?

Well, one thing he doesn't have to worry about is Bill Belichick stealing his job.

Bill's another one, by the way. And I like to wish Hulu luck for giving millions to Bill Belichick to create a reality show. And they made a shitty pilot and kept the money. Yeah, that money is gone, Hulu. You're not getting it. Jordan squandered it on design of purses and graphic artists.

They really roped it up, too.

They really did. That was the only one he could beat. He can't beat anyone else.

They filmed it, and then they're just like, No, actually, we're going to take the money.

I got a couple more.

Yeah, let's hear.

All right. Oh, London. Yeah, good luck, London. You didn't get a good NFL game today or last week or ever. In our eyes, you're barely worthy of the Jaguars. You'd be fortunate if we named you our 51st date. I wish you a lot of luck. I might be I'm fixing an ego maniax here. Oh, whoever designed the chargers uniform. I got news for you. The Savannah bananas look is not working for you. You want a designer? Hire whoever designs for my girls, the Nader sisters. Love Die Nader, a show which I happen to be an executive producer on. They dress all classy and shit. They're sweet girls. Never embarrass themselves like the chargers team head of wardrobe or whatever. I wish you luck.

You We should mention Babydoll does represent the Nader sisters. He's branched out.

We'll give you his number at the end of the show if you want to contact them for any reason.

The next time we do this, we should just have Babydoll on camera for the segment.

Yeah, you should show a picture in the five. Just at least a picture, just whatever. One more. Andrew Locke. I wish him a lot of luck. You were Locke for first ballot Hall of Fame at, Oh, then you retired because you fell out of love with the game? Oh, that's too bad. And now you're the GM of Stanford football. As if that's even a fucking ding. Well, guess what? Your team's a 30-point underdog to Miami this week. Good luck to you. I could do this for three hours. I'm done. I have no others.

I thought you might have had some belated luck for Brian Callahan and his dad. Yeah, go sell your shit tires somewhere else, Callahan.

We don't need you.

I want to put, in case you do this again, a luckwatch. I think Kyler Murray might be on luckwatch. Oh, yeah.

Let's keep an eye.

That's pretty confident. Two straight weeks. I know they're two and five, but...

He does seem to have that offense in a better rhythm than Kyler.

And Spencer Rattler, who has moments in his move of the ball, I think would also be on luck watch because if they're going to be one and eight, at that point, you got to put in Tyler Shuck and see if he's competent or not.

Do you feel like- Rattler was bad today in the weather. Well, those 1: 00 PM Eastern games, you're just going to get a slew of bad quarterbacks, right? Or new quarterbacks or struggling quarterbacks, whatever. Is it like hate watching a bunch of shows now? I feel like it's like hate watch, hate watch, binging five shows at once. Like, okay, there's the bear. I know I'm not going to laugh. I know it's best comedy, everything else. But I feel like that's where it is. Are you with that? Why do we this to ourselves?

To me, it's the latest seven-hour serial killer show. There's a John Wayne Gacy show. John Wayne Gacy, Worst Rotten Tomato, Seral Killer. I think the lowest Rotten Tomato rating. Just not a fun hang. It wasn't a fun hang in the moment. There were other serial killers just eclipsed him. There were more fun ones, more entertaining ones. Gacy is just weird. Him and Ed Geen were the two that Hollywood laid off because it was like, Man, there's just nothing to work with here. Now we're making eight hours about these guys. We've just run out.

I love it. I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about, but I love it.

We need a serial killer shortage.

They're the 1 PM Eastern serial killers?

Just running out of them. Okay. Speaking of the Jets, the Panthers are four and three. Had to mention that. Of course, Bryce Young hurt his ankle in the game. Dalton had to come in for a little bit, but Panthers Over Under, I think was, what was it? Six and a half?

Six and a half, yeah. So they're going to get there, it looks like.

Yeah. I mean, there's a couple of Over Under's that are almost done. Like the Colts, that one's done. I was in Boston the last couple of days, and I had made some future bets on Fandil in August when I was there. All stuff we talked about on the pod. One of them was a pretty sizable pats over seven and a half wins bet. And Fandil was like, Do you want to buy this out now? And they were like, You can basically buy it out for 80 %. It's really interesting. I was like, No, thanks for the offer, Fandil. I'm going to ride this out. But they give you the buy at price, which I think is fun for the futures because I had a Minnesota one where I was like, oh, maybe I should just get out of this now. Do you get out of future bets? No, I never do. Or do you feel like once you're in, you're in?

We should. I have friends that do that, not even with future bets, but just regular bets. They'll cash out. I feel like it's a loss. But I also feel like FanDuel should be as if you're leasing a car and you're like, yeah, I don't like this. I'm going to go somewhere else. Let me talk to my boss for a second. I'll be right back. You know what, Phil? I'll give you 88% for that Patriot. How about not?

We just take 90?

We just take 90 right now. We don't ever do this, but don't tell anyone.

We're going to-Yeah, I had another one. I had a Pat's Denver one that they were offering 90%. The ones that are... But the reason I bring that up is if you had the Colts over, you're at 97% for the Fandil buyout. You're not even getting any value of that anymore. Packers Cardinals, yet another weird packers game. There was a couple of notable things. Parsons finally got going. Really good. We called him out last week. We had nothing to do with it, but we did point out last week that he was not jumping out of the TV. I really liked something Lafleur did in this game that we've talked about in the past in different pods, where they brought the field goal kicker out to tie it with two and a half minutes left on fourth and two. I think they're on the 27, 29 somewhere there, like two minutes left. And then changed their mind, went for it on fourth and 2, got it.

Long pass, right? Yeah.

It was like a ballsy call. They get it. It's one of those where if they don't get it, I think he gets criticized. But the reason I liked it, I just felt like the packers needed something nothing like that. They needed some like, Hey, are we good or not? Because I feel like they were in no man's land for three, four weeks. It was the thing you do when you have a good team. So they did it and they got it. I think it's going to help them. I still don't know if they're good. What do you think?

Well, they're good. I mean, listen.

No, but I mean good, good.

I'd be surprised if they make the playoffs. I think we talked about on the pregame show, what was your confidence meter with the packers after they beat the Lions? Like a nine or a 10, right? What is it now? Like a seven right now in terms of right there.

But How many NFC teams do you like more than them?

Well, that's probably it. Probably three, if it came down to it. Even though they spank Detroit, I would still say Detroit.

Is Dallas one of the three?

Dallas is. Well, we tied them, so they have to be on the same level, I guess. No, it's probably Tampa Detroit. Do I say Seattle yet? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, they're right in there. They're good.

I still think Philly has to be in there. Yeah.

They beat Flacko and Jacobi Brisset in the last couple of weeks. But Parsons is back. He's right there. Three sacks, 10 pressures. He's good.

It's a weird because when you're watching the game and it's like, I like that guy. Really like Tucker Kraft. Wow, Golden's really good. Jacobs is excellent. Wow. What a play by love. And you watch them and you're wondering why they don't have 40 points. And meanwhile, it's 16 to 13 with eight minutes left. They have weapons everywhere. Every time they throw Tucker Kraft, that's 15 yards. He's basically Laporte or Tyler Warren for them. They never throw it to them.

And they get Watson and Jaden Reid back soon. So it's It's going to be like 10 guys I could throw it to.

Cards a cross-off range for you? Two and five? I think so.

Yeah, two and five. They've lost four in a row. They probably should have lost five in a row. So I haven't seen their schedule in a minute, But it looks like they're not going to be favored in a lot of these games, right? They're at Dallas after they're by. They're at Seattle, San Francisco, Jaguars, Tampa, the Rams. I mean, that's one or two wins in there.

So I think 10 wins for NFC. So that means they have to go eight and two last 10.

Oh, yeah. No, that's not going to happen.

Listen, I got a lot of things wrong. I was up and down on the over-unders. I'll probably end up over. I'll probably be like 18 and 14, 19 and 13, something like that. The cards, there were a lot of smart people really on the cards this year, and I just didn't understand it. I didn't get it. I didn't think they had the talent.

Good luck, Sal, getting Fandle to cash out your NFC West division cardinal's bet. Yeah, good luck.

Yeah, they're offering you like seven % for that one. Philly, Minnesota, we talked about earlier. The big one was the Philly receiver said 304 yards catching today, which I think people got excited about. I did have to ask you about Minnesota, though. This McCarthy ankle sprain does not pass the Bill Simmons stiff test.

Oh, interesting.

I watched that game. I wasn't positive that he was hurt at any point in that game. Then they said he was. And put this way, I don't think Tom braided in 2012 was out for six weeks with this injury. And I wonder if this was a soft benching. I know I'm not the first one to speculate this, but if you had to bet soft benching or his ankle's really fucked up, what would you put the ratio for that? Because to me, I'm way on the soft benching side.

Is it even soft? I mean, what was his performance? I know it was the ankle that did him in, but he was terrible.

He had one good quarter. That was the Atlanta game. That was the Atlanta game, that first house that I lost on. No, it was Minnesota, I thought. No, not Minnesota. Chicago. Was that it?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, all right. Oh, the good quarter. Yeah.

He played that one good quarter in that game. Other than that was bad. And then this very fortunate ankle injury popped up out of nowhere, and we haven't seen them since. And I just... I don't know. It doesn't pass the sniff test to me. I think you're right.

And well, they had once their buy. Now I can't see. We're 23rd. Did they have their buy? This dumb thing I'm looking at. I think they had their buy. They had their buy. They did. Yeah, they're three and three. Yeah, I don't know. They have to bring them back sooner rather than later. The one thing I saw in that game that I liked that in Minnesota, this guy, the Viking's batty, laying down on the push-push, Did you see that?

Yeah, explain that to me. Why did that actually work?

I don't know. I think it threw... First of all, I think it just threw them off. Like when Chosen blocked Daniel Larus's crane kick. Like, holy shit, this is happening. They're going to have to figure something else out. All anyone has to do is lay down. I'll be the guy who lays down if they want to do that. But good for them if that continues to work.

Yeah, so he gets hurt in that Falcons game week two. Since then, they put the Bengos, Stealers, Browns in London. Buy week last week, Eagles. And then they're at the Chargers Thursday night at Detroit week nine. And then week 10 against the Desperate Ravens team. We're Running out of spots to just slide JJ back in. And if they missed on that pick, that's pretty significant because... Sure. What was he? What was he? The seventh pick?

Well, even Schefter is like, Hey, do I have to report on him every Wednesday? Like, What's going on here? It's fine. It's fine if you want to take them out. Tenth overall, right?

Right. Ankle sprain for a QB? This debilitating? You're out for over a month? I don't know.

He's got to step up the excuse, I think.

You think we need the NBA countdown crew to come in and tell them to step up? Yeah. Jj McCarthy. They let Sam Darnal go. But I was thinking if they had paid Sam Darnal, who I think has been pretty good on the Seahawks and was really good for them last year.

They gave him a lot of money, though.

They probably win that '21, '18 Stealers game. I think they win today. Arguable that they win that week 2 Falcons game, but they probably have two more wins if they just kept Sandr on. They put some of that money toward defense, and I get it. They spend it differently.

At least for him, too. Yeah, he's got it. If that's a sprained ankle, Meanwhile, I have a cramp. I'm such a pussy. I have a cramp in my ribs. I can't wait for the next break so I could stretch. But yeah. Do you want to do a break now? No, it's fine.

Do you want to wish your ribs some luck? The bears have won four straight and the patriots have won four straight. What is crazier to you?

Wow. The bears.

How about this? I didn't even know they won four straight until I watched the Ben Johnson postgame locker room thing, and he was talking about four in a row. And I'm like, Four what? Oh, four wins? Four wins in a row. They beat Dallas, Vegas, Washington, and then New Orleans today. I know they went over- They have 16 takeaways.

They were the only team to go over their point total every week before this week. And then what? They only had 26? I don't think they did it this week. But yeah, he had some bad numbers, too, Caleb Williams. He had one interception, two fumbles, like 160. I can't remember how many he was. I got to be honest.

I thought Caleb was pretty bad in this game. They won today because their defense was excellent. Rattler had a couple of bad throws, but their defense was really good, really lively. They're leading the league in takeaways now. They had an interesting moment at the end of the game. Now I'm just scouring for the postgame speeches. It's my favorite thing to do during the Sunday night game. Ben Johnson is just trying to step it up. And he does this very aggro. He's almost like a South Park character with his postgame speeches. But then he gave the game ball to Dennis Allen. We forgot it was a Dennis Allen revenge game, the defensive coordinator of the bears. He gives the ball to him. Dennis Allen comes in and gives this speech that's way better than what Ben Johnson's speech was. He almost sounded like a preacher. And the guys were locked in. They were really excited for him. And I was like, Dangerous move when you're the coach to hand off the speech to somebody who's better than you at the speech. Interesting. So maybe that speaks to the camaraderie, the coaching staff. I don't know.

It's either that or Ben Johnson knows how bad a head coach Dennis Allen would be. He's just not threatened. He's no threat at all.

It's like, Go ahead, take the mic, whatever you need to do. He looked at his record on a football reference. He's like, This is fine.

Go do karaoke. You're fine. Whatever you want to do.

I'll give it to him. I am not a believer in that bears team. They are four and two. Next week, when we do Guest Alliance, they're at the Ravens, which is our first playoff game of the year, basically. Because if the Ravens lose, it's over. You're not making the playoffs one and six. No doubt. So this will be our first actual playoff game stakes for one of the teams. And then my team, the Patriots, who beat Carolina, Buffalo, New Orleans, and Tennessee. Three stinker teams. Well, two stinker teams. Carolina is okay. And then Buffalo is the big win there. But everything's going great. Couldn't be happier with May, the lines, all that stuff. The one thing is May keeps taking these hits. I thought he got concussed today. The head bounce off the-And he shook his head, too. Yeah. Yeah. And then I was like, Fuck. Because I think he had two last year. I'm reasonably confident I've seen every single play of his career for the Patriots. He's had at least four of these now where it seemed like he got concussed. Some guys just seem like they take hits, but I'm starting to wonder, should he wear the Grogan to protect his head?

But that's my one fear with this is these hits that he takes. He's such a good scrambler. But the protection broke down a couple of times, which was atypical for this team. But for the most part, This is a really good, at the very least, a really good bad team. And they might even be a good team. I'm leaning towards that.

I think they're actually good. You're trying to get me to say they're a good team?

Yeah, of course they're a good team. See, I knew that would work.

They're a good team. They're a playoff team. We are a good team. They're fine. I just like you to say it. But you're going to beat a bunch of bad teams that you're not going to get credit for still. You're going to have 11 wins, and two or three of them are going to be good. But I almost feel like everybody's right there with you as I look this over. But I was wondering how many good quarterbacks have fans that are worried about them like you are, in terms of their quarterback is going to take a beating. Jackson Dart isn't there yet. I don't think they're that.

But I think the Giants fans are probably terrified he's going to get concussed over and over again with the way he plays. May has at least been more cautious this year. The one today was a little bit of a fluke. But look, if you look at the past schedule, the at Bucaneers game, week 10, is probably the toughest game left on the schedule. And they're playing a bunch of crap teams. There's a chance. I mean, they might play four teams this year that will fire their coach either during the season or after. But they can keep piling up wins. I mean, the one thing with them is Rable has had big win total seasons before. He knows you just move on to next week, move on to next week. The one thing that was interesting about them this week, some of the quotes, I was surprised. They're not talking about, well, if we could make the play-offs, that would be great. They're like, look, we got to measure ourselves. They're talking about themselves like they're a play-off team already. Sure. Yeah, they should. It's crazy because they were one and two four weeks ago. But now I think they know that they're good.

Well, they knew they couldn't lose to both the Raiders and the Titans. Then it doesn't even matter if you end up in the playoff.

No one's going to remember. That's the funny thing. They have two losses. They lose to that shit Raiders team. And that was the worst game May played all year. And then the Steelers game, they turned the ball over five times. The one thing with Vrabel, who I've been fascinated with how he's changed the culture, that what he did for Ramondre this year, I thought was really notable because Ramondre had all those fumbles, and it's just he had this fumbling issue for a couple of years now. And then he had a couple of big ones. He caused them in the Pittsburgh game. And Belichick, I mean, the guy, his body just would have been found in Rhode Island, on the side of a highway, missing a head. Cops would have had to...

Is that the ending? … Take him task? Don't tell me.

Cops would have IDed him two weeks later. He just never would have played for Belichick again. Sure. And Vrabel was like, Ramajay, the next game when they gave the game balls out, and he basically made it clear, I'm not quitting on somebody who fumbles a couple of times. Did the same thing with the kicker. He set the kicker up for when that kicker made the game-winning field goal, set him up. It was like, I knew you were going to make it. He doesn't bail on these dudes. And I think they really like that because You have all these coaches and all these people just they'll bail immediately on whoever. He's like the opposite. So I don't know. It feels like there's something really actually happening.

Well, I hope you have the same sunny outlook next week when Ramondre fumbles and you lose to the Browns. Let's see.

Well, You know what? Ramondre, you're part of this team and everybody makes mistakes.

Is that what Dennis Allen said?

You have a culture guy, too, in Dallas.

Yeah.

Let's take a break and talk about that quickly. So here's the thing with the Cowboys season, which seemed pretty grim when you traded Michael Parsons. You now have a top three most fun team in the league.

Yeah.

Really, really fun to watch the Cowboys. And the attitude is just that something's different. So what is it other than that you have two good- If you don't move for them, it's fun, right?

They're going to score a lot of points. If you had to have a fun Super Bowl or NFC Championship, you'd probably have Dallas and Tampa and forget the records, right? You know that would be probably a fun game because Dak is playing out of his mind. I think he's plus 115 for Comeback Player of the Year. I didn't see odds for Offensive Player of the Year. They won't be good enough for him to win MVP, but I don't know. I was trying to think, they're like Krispy Kreme donuts. They're great taste, but you'll get violently ill if you have to have them every meal. They're going to disappoint your bowels. So, yeah, 44-22 is a gigantic win over the Commanders. We'll take it.

Tough one for the Commanders. Daniels gets hurt. The defense looked awful. Some real dark moments on a text thread with all the people I bet the Commanders versus the Pats. I gave everybody two Dark moments.

Who was it? David Chang? What's his name?

Well, Chang, we did a separate bet where it's a certain dollar number per win over one way or the other. So if the pats go 13 and 4, 12 and 5, whatever. And Washington goes like seven and 10. Plus I have the plus two because they were two wins lower than the Washington over under. So it could get up there. Chang offered to do a buy-out.

Like a Fandil buy-out?

Yeah, he wanted to do a Fandil buy-out. What %? He's like, We got to talk about some a deal. And I'm like, The only deal I'm making is with Venmo or PayPal. So Chang's mad at me now because I won't do a deal.

What percentage do you want to give you?

I'm sorry, I thought I was doing bets with men.

Right. Oh, wow. Look at that. So he's not a man because he offered you a deal.

He wanted to weasel out of his Washington That's the thing. Be a man. Stick to 18 weeks.

Come on, Chang. Now I have to leave for Washington. This is weird. Why do you think he's not a man all of a sudden?

I don't know. I'll probably end up making a deal. I want to stay friends with Chang. He's really upset about the Washington game. He feels like this bet has ruined the season that they put bad juju on Jaden Daniels.

Well, he does look at it. I know he's also injured, but he looked like he was playing injured up until then, right? Like the rushing yards are not coming easy.

Honestly, he hasn't looked healthy once this season. They look very slow.

I know they're out of... Receivers are out, right? They have no receivers. But last year, they looked so much faster than everybody. And now, to a man, and I get it, some starters are out, but they just look very average. I mean, now they're below average. Are they three and four?

Yeah. This was a hard under for us. Because there was a lot of regressions and stuff like that. Their defense was old. Every year we see this, that there's always an old team that thinks they can buck the system.

Well, they were very lucky last year. Guess what?

Old guys get injured. This is how it goes.

That's what Chang should know. That's the lesson you should teach him as you collect 100% of your bet.

I mean, I guess I'm willing to talk a deal with him, but I feel like he should ride it out. Get me next year. Oh, and then Jack Sabill. You have nothing else in the Cowboys. You're playing it cool. You're three, three, and one.

I want to play it cool. I would have been a lot more excited, I promise, if they had beaten Carolina last week, because now it gets ugly. At Broncos, we'll go over the lines in a second. They'll have the Eagles, the Chiefs, the Lions, and the Vikings in consecutive games in November. So not pretty.

You're minus 340 to miss the playoffs.

It's a good bet. I'm going to bet Chang on that.

You're win total. Now, Chang, if you start winning the bet, he won't give you the satisfaction. Oh, I trust him. He demands to settle it. Okay.

Seven and a half? What's our win total?

Seven and a half, but some juice on the over. Minus 125.

Okay. Yeah, they're exciting. I'd rather bet the Dack award stuff. I mean, it was great seeing CeeD Lamb back, right? And George Pickens, I'll say a little more. I feel like he's going to lead the league in defensive pass interference calls, right, against him or for him. Or for him, rather. It's unbelievable. Yeah. And they all are legit. And also, he's a great, great number two receiver. The stealers lift on that. Maybe he doesn't fit in their offense. He fits in Dallas's offense really well right now.

The smartest thing about that trade, and it's something you should always be thinking, is that guy was never with a good quarterback, ever. You're getting this guy who clearly was talented. I wouldn't have gone near him. I just thought he was so erratic on the staywares, but maybe he was erratic because he was losing his mind because his quarterbacks were terrible. Now he's this quarterback who throws. He'll go down the sideline, jump up, and put his hands up, and the ball is right where his hands are, three feet over his head as he's fine. It's all the stuff he's good at. So he must be delighted.

You think he should be a benchmark for receivers or like their agents? Like they go out like, Hey, my guy, whatever, he doesn't put up the great numbers, but he's never been with a quarterback who could throw a ball. Take a look at George Pickens, what he did. I feel like there's a bunch we could hold off on a couple of those, but they're probably all on the Raiders.

Devante Adams right now. So Dallas, does that tie count as half a win?

I mean, no.

How does that work on Fandle? So if you go- No. If you go 8, 8, and one- You still would have to be over eight and a half wins. It's so good. So it doesn't count at all.

No, it wouldn't. But for the playoffs, 8, 8, and 1 is better than, I don't know. 8, 9, right? Or 9, 7, and 1 is better than 9, 8.

I don't think you're excited enough about the Cowboys. You killed Washington.

You hate Washington. Come on, the Panthers. That was just unbelievable garbage. They lost that game.

And then Jacksonville, 13 penalties, zero sacks, two for 10 on third down, one loss, kick return TD on a bogus block in the back. They led five touch to Stafford with no picks. And yet another horrible game where if you woke up a half hour late, you heard Rich Eisen, and it's already 14-nothing, and it's like, maybe I should just roll over and go back to bed.

It could put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. It's a long NFL day, right? Yeah. And you're probably going to pick the game wrong, whoever you take. So if you could afford to stay away from it, betting-wise, then do so.

Staying away from the London games this year was a great idea. Week 8, Guess the Lines. We have six bi-week teams, so.

Yeah, this is a fantasy from hell week, right?

Including Jacksonville. I'm not sure if there's any Jacksonville fantasy guy you'd be excited about. Brian Thomas Jr. Is just pulling a John Wayne Gacy on two of my fantasy teams. Las Vegas, they had 95 yards this week, so Maybe we don't miss any of those, but we are going to miss some of the Lions. We are going to miss some of the Rams, Arizona, probably not, and then Seattle. Seattle. Those are our six ones. So we're losing almost all the NFC West.

Yeah, we're losing three NFC West teams. I don't know if that's happened before and why they did that, but I'm sure there's a reason.

Guest Alliance, what's the record? Four, three.

You're up four weeks to three. I think I scratched out a win to cut the deficit, but I don't feel good about this. Short week.

Thursday night, Chargers home for Minnesota. We'll see if JJ McCarthy recovers from his high ankle spread. I have the Chargers minus three.

You're going to get it. I said one and a half. I just felt like that's where all these fall with the chargers. It's two and a half.

We probably didn't talk about that Colts game enough. I We can talk about it when the Colts, when we do their game.

People get mad if we don't talk about their team enough.

No, but that one we should have talked about. What was notable to me with the Chargers was, I mean, Herbert, especially in the last two hours of the game, they were really moving the ball, but their defense was helpless. The Colts would get incompletion or run on the ground on first, and it'd be second and 10. They're going to get eight yards. They're going to get twelve yards. They're going to get 20 yards. They were moving It wasn't just that they were getting yards. These guys were wide open. Taylor was just slicing through. It felt like if they could have had the ball more, they could have 50 points.

That's what we're missing from this Chargers team, right? From the first couple of weeks, the toughness, the Harbaugh toughness on defense. Where is it supposed to be? I know there's some injuries there.

They got crushed.

But they couldn't get off the field on third down. And those Colts, I'll say that, I'm no longer expecting the hammer to drop on them. They'll lose games. But you don't feel like, oh, wait till they go to Kansas City. Well, wait till they go to Buffalo. Those are all could be one score games. They outscore everyone.

I thought we had the chargers. The Colts had a couple of injuries, and I really thought that that house and I both thought it was going to be like just a Herbert MVP game. And he was really good in the game, and it didn't matter because the Colts were awesome. They have nine two-touchdown quarters in the season. Wow. Where they've scored two touch downs in a quarter.

Wow. They don't punt a lot.

So I think Daniel Jones. So if we have Gino in '22, Baker Mayfield in '23, Darnold in '24, now Daniel Jones in '25. This is the fourth straight year with a It has to be. A QB redemption. If you watch Jones in this game, you would think he was one of the five best quarterbacks in the league. He was doing everything perfectly. Every guy was hit on stride. Every deep ball was the right throw. I thought he was fantastic. Fantastic.

Really good. They can't stop scoring. I couldn't really ignore it because Anthony DeBundo is a Colts fan, and why he wasn't at that game, I have no idea. But screaming, screaming in our ears every Every first down, even.

My Indiana sports cluster theory. Sunday Marquee. So this is a weird one because the Ravens are one and five. But I think this is the game of the weekend. Ravens, bears in Baltimore. Playoff stakes for the Ravens. I think they have to win a couple in a row.

Lamar is back for sure.

Lamar is back. After watching that bears team, that's a team they should be able to beat at home. I don't care how banged up their defense is. I think they're going to be favored by three and a half.

That's exactly what I said. And those are amateur guesses, Bill. It's six and a half.

Wow.

I mean, that's kitchen sink written all over That has to be a record for a one in five team against a four in two team.

Yes. A spread that's almost seven is just nuts.

That is nuts. And just because Lamar comes back doesn't mean the defense is fixed, right? Chicago can throw the ball all over the place in this game. I'm not taking Chicago. Don't worry about it. This is going in your ring of 107. This is going in your 107 parley.

This is bet number five for you. I'm scared of the Ravens because I think not only Lamar thing, but I thought Harbaugh had a really, really, really rough year so far. And I just don't like the look of them.

It's probably a stay away from me. You could bet to miss the playoffs, Ravens, minus 128, or you could bet the Ravens on a teaser here. I guess I just said that the other way around. You could bet the Ravens to make the playoffs at plus 105, or you could bet a teaser here.

I was already looking at a Ravens-pats combo with the pats of the Browns. Only one watchable game. Texans home for the 49ers who, despite all the injuries, we didn't talk about them either. We jumped the Sunday night game. We didn't really talk about that patchwork defense they threw together and then how bad Penix was.

Just a bad spot, right?

He gets the bed, everything. Awful. I don't know what to me. To me, he's like, to it. When it's bad, you just know it right away and you know it's not going to return for the game. But the Niners, Kido is back. The receiver is going to slowly come back. Purdy will be back, I think, next week. Mccafree is still one of the five best offensive players in the week, and somehow they're going to win 10 games.

That was a great spot for San Francisco, right? We talked about... Let's just talk about our five cross-off teams, which is now six. Aside from those teams, no one is as good or as bad as they look the week before, right? So Atlanta just throttles Buffalo, cuts off all of Josh's Alan's lanes. He can't run. He can't do anything. Béjan is going to go for 400 yards if there's another five minutes in that game. There's no way they're going to be as good as that traveling to San Francisco on a short week, and the 49ers aren't going to be as bad as they were. So that was a nice spot for us. But yeah. So now that division, we'll pick the line in a second. Who do you think is favorite to NFC West?

I would say the Rams.

Bare. Plus 140, Niners, 45. Jesus. Seahawks, 310.

The one thing that sucks about doing the kicks on a Thursday is I wanted to see who was going to be playing for the Niners.

Yeah.

Definitely like them, but you just don't know. We had the chargers, and Joe Alt, I don't think ended up playing. But on Thursday, it seemed like he was going to play, and I'm not positive I would have been jumping on the chargers without Joe Alt. It's almost like we should... I guess we can't do it.

Who'd you want as quarterback? You wanted Purdy or Jones? What would have made you commit?

No, we didn't know if Kido was playing. We didn't know who was playing for the Niners. We didn't know what receivers were playing. I don't know.

All right, Bill. It doesn't matter because let's take a look at our 4K sky cam delivered by Walmart Plus. It's Christian McCaffrey who a difference on this team. You can't stop CMC, man.

They made it National Running Back Day. We need another National Day. What is the cutoff for Running Backs? I have to congratulate.

I don't know.

Like is Harrison's flag football team? Do you have to congratulate all the Running Backs?

I think you should. Next week's tight ends game. You have Vrabel didn't cut... What's his name? Ramondre. That was what he gave him as a gift for National Running Backs guy.

Yeah, you get to keep your job in your locker.

This is so weird.

We gave... Who did Mickey give Rocky's locker to?

Oh, who was it?

In Rocky One?

Yeah, the other Italian, right? Who was it?

Wasn't Spider Rico?

No, I guess not. We'll look that up.

Can't remember. All right. Well, I have Texans minus two and a half in Houston.

I got this one exactly. It's one and a half unless it moved. It's Houston.

Tiktok zone. Well, listen, we're going to find out about Houston tomorrow because Seattle is a tough place to play. I'm not convinced they can run the ball, Houston. I'm not convinced they can block Seattle's defense. Their front seven is going to be really good. It's the game if Houston has a chance to come back and try to be a playoff team, it should at least be a good performance tomorrow night.

I think if they win, it's got to be a low scoring game. They've averaged 12 points on defense.

They get 19 of 14.

They put shitty teams, but they are one of the top defenses. And maybe Darnal isn't so successful throwing downfield for one freaking game. I don't know.

Fairly watchable. Falcons Dolphins. I have this as a fairly watchable just because I don't know who's coaching. It could be DJ Mikey Mac could be back for another week dressed like John Lennon. I have the Falcons minus seven and a half.

Imagine I, no paycheck. Seven and a half is exactly right. I said six, and it actually opened at 6: 00, and it's seven and a half. So they saw what did happen. Is someone out? Who the hell could be out from Miami to make that go up?

Probably just people betting it because I think people saw highlights. People I saw Miami highlights, but Atlanta is the home team. Pats Browns. I had trouble with this. It's either seven and a half or eight and a half, but I went with seven and a half because I'm not sure people believe in the Pats yet.

I I wish it would have gone eight and a half. It's seven. So you got that.

What did you have?

I had eight. I had eight and a half. I went higher.

That's a tease.

You're loving it. I mean, I'm over under 16 and half-teasers you have with the pats on it next week.

I just think Dylan Gabriel on the road is a non-starter. He's really going to come in to New England and outdo with Drake May.

He's literally a non-starter.

Two incompletions today.

The There's a lot of non-starters in the league.

What's the deal with Deshawn Watson might come back?

Yeah.

Does that help them? I don't know. I can't figure it out. By the way, I just noticed I have my Hot Rod glass.

Oh, good for you.

You have a Hot Rod behind us.

Right there. Yeah, right there.

Double one. I missed Roddy. There's some Twitter account that posts old wrestling matches from the '80s and '90s. I want to say rabbits in the title, but they had the Roddy, the strap. What was the match with Valentine when he busted his ear drop? Dog collar match.

Yeah.

That was even too far for wrestling.

That was a lot.

Having two guys with dog collars on. I just don't know there was any way to fake any of that. And apparently there wasn't because he lost.

He claimed he had permanent ear damage. And it was true because I have conversations with him and he'd snap by his ear to try to rejuvenate it. Yeah. Wrestling's real, guys.

Yeah. Eagles's Giants in Philly. I couldn't get to seven. I did six and a half.

We're going to split it. I could get to seven. I went seven and a half. It's seven.

God damn it.

Oh, man, it might be simple. Why not Philly?

I'm not teasing that. I'm not putting the eagles on that.

They're going to lose twice to the Giants?

No. Really? I don't trust them at all. They have to be pissed off. I can't do the Jalen Hertz. I can't do the Jalen Hertz in a tease.

Do we think... I mean, isn't it possible that that giant loss was like that bears lost to Washington, and it just everything tumbles now, even though it might be a decent team? Like they just can't now scratch together after that Denver collapse.

It is I'm going to say, Bills at Carolina. Minus five and a half is my guess with the Bills being favorite. I put it right in the Vegas zone unapologetically.

I think I get this. I said six and a half, and it is seven and a half.

That, come on.

Why? They have to if they're all the T's ready. It's like us. They have to. So when they win 21-20- The Bills haven't played a good game yet.

Now, I do think they get their two suspended D-linemen back this week, right? Yeah. Probably had all of it back. So they have a full defense for once. Bryce Young is hurt.

You just think the line's big. You don't think Carolina is going to pull off an upset and go 4-3, right?

I think Carolina is a pretty good home team.

They are 4-3. They're going to be 5-3. You know what else I like? Bill's 4-3.

No, I'm not saying they'll be 5-3. You know what I like? They have two runningbacks now. They had Doudo and Hubbard today. They were doing the one-two punch. It was a bet.

Yeah. They would have lost if they played any other team today.

Bucks at New Orleans.

That's another one.

Yeah, I had Vegas on this. I had Bucks by four and a half in New Orleans.

So I get it. I said seven and a half, it's six and a half.

Oh, a little pricey.

Well, five and one versus one and six. They didn't play yet this year, did they?

I'm trying to remember, has there ever been a normal Bucks Saints game in New Orleans? Does that ever happen?

It's been a normal Bucs game in years.

I mean, there's no way that game is not coming down in the final two and a half minutes. It's just I'll lock that down. Oh, we're redoing the 1977 Super Bowl, Broncos, Cowboys.

Yeah.

Let's do it. It's in Denver. So I had this as a fairly watchable, and I'd like to apologize because this should have been the watchables.

Yeah. Denver's offense might not be watchable for a couple of hours.

But your team is an automatic watchable against any decent team. I had the Broncos in Denver, favorite by four.

I hit this exactly. It's three. All right, I'm doing okay Two, three, six, five, me. This is the Super Bowl. You ever see Butch Johnston catch the shutdown pass and just put it on the goal line? Yeah, they called it a catch. It's a phenomenal example how seven days football is different.

I remember thinking, what am I, seven years old at that point, really being upset that it wasn't a catch.

It was a catch. It was a touch then.

When he dropped the ball, I thought he dropped it too soon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I thought something was fishy about it.

Now, a coach would beat him up for that.

The one that really made me mad was the Mike Renfro play, the Houston-Pittsborough game. Oh, right. Because that was basically the play that created Replay. Yeah, he definitely caught it and they just Was that the play or was it years later with Testa Birdy? Or just the review. That was when the Replay stuff started. I don't know when they actually came up with it, but the Renfro thing. Wasn't it Renfro? That's who it was, right? Yeah. That was the play. I felt like it swung that one. Poop Fecta, two games. Bengals, Jets. Joe Flacko against Ty Rod Taylor. I think they might have played together at some point in life. I put this right in the Vegas zone. Bengals by five and a half.

Yeah, you're going to edge me out here. I said six and a half. What is it? It's four and a half.

Still Vegas zone.

Hold on a second. Every team should give the Jets seven points. I mean, come on. Enough.

What did you think of that Bingo's performance on Thursday night? Pretty good, right?

I think Flacko... Well, first of all, I think we switched. When we were saying Pukunuku was the greatest wide receiver in the game, if he's not playing, I wouldn't think about in the Rams. Now it's Chase. Now he's right at the top and it doesn't matter. Was he going to have 22 catches in two weeks? It's phenomenal. So as long as those two were there, they're going to score points and they're not on the Jets.

That should be a breakdown. Well, it reminded me of what I said 11 minutes ago about Dak and Pickens. Watching Flacko. I don't think Flacko is a very good quarterback anymore, but he is good at that little 20-yard throw down the sideline, and it just I don't know. It's just he had come through those guys. I thought it was funny that Tom went and complained about the trade and then got beaten by it.

I didn't get the point of that at all anyway.

I got to hand it. I mean, they're about to come up when we do this Sunday Night game, but I got to be honest. I thought Rodgers was awesome in that game.

It was good.

I think the last two weeks, Rodgers has... I thought he was done, unabashedly thought he was washed. I thought he looked awesome.

He's very good. Really, really good. It hurts me to say.

To the point that it makes me wonder, what's the ceiling of that Steeler's team? Because he hasn't looked this good for three years.

Yeah, but he looks great. It's a great fit for them. He's hitting everybody in stride. But again, this team goes as far as the defense goes, right? I think they had 14 or 15 sacks over the previous three weeks, and they only put Flacko down twice. So that's it, man. It's going to be a game every time if that happens.

Kyle Brand had a really funny thing I saw on TV about how he identifies with Rodgers at this point in his life because he's like the typical frustrated guy in his 40s working with a bunch of younger people. She's always put out. When that lineman knocked him over, he's like, Jesus Christ.

That was ridiculous. You should see the few seconds before that because he pats him on the head, which even that was a little rough. And then he chases him down. He's trying to pull his wallet or something. Yeah, I don't know.

Listen, I did not expect to have an entertaining Rodgers, but I thought he was really fun to watch in that game.

It's fun, but they're not a lock anymore, right? That made you think that division, you probably talked about it Friday, right?

No, I didn't. I'd tape before that game, so I never talked about it. I think that Steward's defense looks fraudulent to me. I thought with the Pats, we moved the ball on them for three and a half quarters. I just I think their defense is what people might think it is.

And they're both plus 130 to win the north. The bangles are five to 1. But good. Yeah, we'll talk about it.

Well, one more poop factor game. Colts, Titans. It's in Indianapolis, and I think I think this is the week for the ultimate respect for the Colts. A giant line. I went all the way up to 13 and a half.

You're smart. I said 12 and a half. It's 14 and a half.

Yeah, it's time. After they did today, you got to do it. You got to treat them like they're a real contender because they are. And they're playing the Shitty Titans. They have to be favored by this much.

On a scale of your mother-in-law tells a joke to pulling a Norm McDonald clip online, how hard did you laugh when Kam Ward just dropped that ball? Just dropped it. Just flat out fucking dropped.

I was waiting for it for two hours.

But just the way he flings it like a magician.

Just throw it to us, Kam. I know you want to.

Just drop it here and then get shut out of the way.

I loved it. We scored two touch downs in 11 seconds or something.

Unbelievable.

I loved it. Sunday night. Really good game. Stewards-packers in Pittsburgh. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot I talk all week about what we just said about Rodgers. Not just the fact that he's rejuvenated, but playing his old team.

This is a fun one.

I can't remember. Did he play the Packers last year?

As a jet? Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

Right?

Now we got to look this up. I don't remember. Let's slow this down. We can't keep saying, I don't remember.

Are you sure he played them last year? He must have.

I'm almost positive versus packers.

What are you looking at?

Oh, yeah. Maybe Wait. I don't think he did. He didn't?

No. Well, he's playing him Sunday night.

Yeah.

Mike, I can't believe how good Aaron Rodgers was.

Come on, Mike. I can't believe it, Mike.

Tictac zone for me. Stealers minus one and a half. Stealers minus one and a half. Yeah.

I said Green Bay minus two and a half. It's Green Bay minus three. Then we are tied.

Green Bay minus three.

Yeah, they're a better power rank team, right?

We just talked about how we didn't trust the Green Bay and what was going on with them. They barely beat Jacobi Brisset today.

Both are lacking. The Steelers have a little rest advantage.

You know what? This line makes sense because I'm probably going to bet on the packers.

There you go.

Monday night Chiefs. This game sucks now. Chiefs home for Washington.

I was off by two points. I probably shouldn't even give you that much, but whoever wins takes the week.

I have Chiefs by eight and a half.

What number? Eight and a half.

Shit.

I had seven and a half. What is it? It's nine and a half. You win. Damn. Come on. Eight, seven.

Nine and a half. There's a lot of- That has all the makings of a seven-point tease.

You love it.

You love it. Three-teamer. So we could do Chiefs with the Patriots and the Falcons against DJ Mikey Mac in his last offense game, if they no fire. That sounds fantastic.

And just throw the Colts on there just to have fun as a money line.

Yeah, I'm trying to think. So the best two Titans on... Well, two of the best three, because I thought sweat was good in the game today. But Simmons got hurt and Steve got hurt. If Simmons doesn't play against the Colts. I don't know if you can make that line high enough.

You could put Bill Simmons in there. It doesn't matter. You're going to be fine. That's a disaster of a line.

So do we just think that at no point, Daniel Jones is going to turn into Daniel Jones? This is just how it's going to go for the rest of eternity?

I think you called it exactly. You compared him to those other quarterbacks that stood up, that came out of pretty much nowhere each year from '21 to '25, and he's Sam Darnold. So what did they win? Thirteen games last year?

Sam Darnold turned into a pumpkin in week 18 or week 17.

The last week and then the playoff week. That's fine. That's still a successful year if that happens.

Is he a top five MVP for you, Daniel Jones, or would you have Taylor as their MVP?

I got to look here.

Because Taylor should be the number one offensive player. He is.

He's minus 140. He's actually minus number now.

He's been incredible.

Yeah. So Daniel Jones is seventh. Do you put Stafford and Goff ahead of him?

I thought Stafford has been great. What's Drake Bay now?

What are his odds? We don't have to talk about it. He's seven to one. He's fourth.

Seven to one? He's fourth?

How the hell did this happen?

Who's leading? Mahomes?

Mahomes plus 175, Josh plus 350, Baker plus 450.

So why would Josh be second? What has he done? As you know, I think he's the best quarterback in the league. What has he done this year that would make him the number two MVP? Why does he have better odds than Drake May?

No, he shouldn't.

When the Pats have a better record and they've beaten them already.

I think they're anticipating. I mean, I guess you could just- They're anticipating a Josh run. Well, what's the win totals for either of those teams?

First of all, Baker should have the best odds.

Yeah, I agree.

And I would argue, Drake May should have better odds than Josh Allen.

What do you think the Patriots win What's the expected win total is right now? Oh. Ten and a half? That's exactly right. What do you think Buffalo's is?

What's the record? Four and two?

Buffalo is Four and two. Don't cheat. Just whatever comes to your head.

Let me say eleven and a half for Buffalo.

Yeah, that's what it is. I guess that's the only reason he's ahead of them.

What is it for division?

For the division, Buffalo is still favored minus 190, Pats plus 155. So you have to win a division.

Pats plus 155 is a pretty good bet if you look at their schedule. Because there's a chance. I think 12 and 5, if they can stay healthy, is conceivable with how bad the schedule is, which means the Bills would have to go 11: 03 and 3, and when the in New England to win that vision.

11 and 3.

Or 10 and 3. Four and two? No, eight and three. No.

They're four and two plus eight and three is twelve and five.

I used to be good at math. Eight and three.

Eight and three, yeah.

They have to go eight and three and win the game in New England. It's so top. Because if we beat them in New England, they would have to go one game ahead of us with those two losses.

So New England to win 12 games or more is plus 175. I I guess it's about the same thing as the division, right?

It's a little- Honestly, Fandil having the... I know they have reasons for this, but Fandil having the Ravens plus 130 and the Steelers plus 130 to win the AFC North is just batshit crazy to me.

You think the Steelers should be ahead of them?

Yeah. Put this way. If you were going to bet your life on the outcome of that, and it's like you're going to die if you're wrong, would you bet on the one in five Ravens?

They're pretty far behind the Ravens. Yeah, a lot has to go right for them to come back.

The Stealers are a way safer bet.

They have to beat them twice. So they play them twice. They absolutely have to beat them twice. And then the Stealers schedule gets really weird now.

Here's the other one. So now I'm looking. Colts are minus 240. Jags are three to one. Good luck there. I need to bring Baby back for the Jags at three to one. Good luck. And then Houston plus 850 is insane. If anyone's going to win that division, it's Houston. That's dumb. Other than Indy. But I would bet Indy minus 240.

What's wrong with the Eagles's Colts minus 109 for a division?

How about this? Eagles, Colts, Steelers plus 355.

Yeah, that is good. That is good.

Now, throwing the paths. Now, I'm at plus 911.

You're a lonatic now.

Now, throwing Tampa minus 425, that's 11 to one.

Have we ever picked five division winners eight weeks in? Now, throwing the Cardinals, that's 377 to one.

I had a future bet that if I had picked Green Bay instead of Minnesota, I think I'd actually have a chance of it. That was 23 to one.

Well, you won. Let me ask you this. We were talking about it. Patriots Bills and Bills have at least have 12 wins. Jets and Dolphins have 12 losses. Very doable, right?

Jets and Dolphins, which each have to have 12 losses.

12 wins for the top two, 12 losses for the bottom two.

I think that's going to happen.

I might even say 13 for top two and 13 for bottom two.

I want to see if you can bet that. Fando has over four and a half for Miami now, plus 110.

So that's either 12 or 13.

It's the over four and a half. Yeah.

And then the Jets can't be better than that.

Yeah. The Jets are...

Yeah, I guess we could just bet it. We could just parlor.

Jets are three and a half.

Jesus. I'm not betting.

By the way, the Jets are going to win four games? No. Jets under three and a half seems like a lot to me.

We just went over what the ones they could potentially win is two of them. So that's what I have to happen.

To make the playoffs, the Pats are minus 420 now.

Wow.

The Broncos are minus 280. How are the Jaguars minus 162?

They are, huh?

Do you think the Jaguars are a playoff team? In a million years, would you see them as a seven seed? Did I lose track of something?

So does that mean one AFC North team gets in?

That's a lot.

So it'd be Patriots, Denver, Jaguars, those would be the wild car teams?

Yeah, I'm looking. So it would be Indy, Pats, Denver, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, KC. So basically, they're saying between Chargers, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, and Houston. Jacksonville is the most likely. I would rather go with Houston, but I guess if Houston loses tomorrow, they'd be two behind them.

Maybe they know something.

God, I think Jacksonville. They were just so awful.

I love them Just for the year.

Then in the NFC, what's the perfect... The Ravens are plus 104, which is hilarious. The Steelers are minus 122.

The Ravens aren't grabbing a wild card. You might as well just take them to get the division.

Yeah, you might as well just take the division. Then out of the longer shots, Houston plus 205. Minnesota plus 390, I'm not against as a crazy wild card. I like Seattle plus 132. Yeah. And then your team plus 260, who knows? Who knows? You can throw the ball, man.

Why do we even do this?

Today's Parent Corner brought to you by Scout Motors. Parenting can feel like fourth and long on your own 10. No timeouts, meltdowns, and a full on blitz. You're familiar with that, Sal? Oh, yeah. That's when you need a playmaker. Iconic in the '70s. Reimagine for today. The all-new Scout Terra and Scout Traveler engineer with advanced four-wheel drive, available lock and differentials, optional 35-inch tires, and the go-anywhere capability gate through life's chaos, built for the next generation ventures. Join the waitlist at scoutmotors. Com. What do you got?

All right. I want to know, as a parent watching a sport, and I think your parent corner might have something to do with this, too. So we might want to join them together here. But as a parent watching a sport, what's your freak out level on umpires, parents, coaches? What has to happen? I think I have a lot of tolerance because I know how embarrassing it is for my kids and my wife and everybody else if I lose my shit because that's happened. But when we have a six-run lead and this happens Saturday, and then it's a four-run lead, and then it's a two-run lead, and the opposing coach is screaming at his players and screaming at our players, and the team is banging on the fence and banging their garbage can. I'm gone. That's it. I'm hulking out. I'm turning green right there, right there in West Covina, California. That's 8: 30 in the morning. I just can't take it. Oh, my God. I can't take it.

That's where the Boogie Night's house was.

Is that where it was, West Covina? Yeah.

You could have just stopped there after.

They should have sent me off there. Yeah. Wasn't there a suicide there? I mean, it was really... First of all, in Little League, as soon as you shake a fence or bang or use a bat to hit a garbage can to root your own team on. The umpire goes crazy, loses his mind. Not in this game. And it went on for a half hour. And finally, I said to our coach, You got to do something. You got to say something. Now everyone's looking at me. I'm the bad guy here. And luckily, they tie it up and we win in the bottom of the sixth on an era. And I'm high-fiving the shit out of everybody. It was a big win for me. And even my kid I was like, I hated those kids, dad. I hated them. And I'm glad you hated them, too. I'm like, well, I didn't hate them. I just thought this should be better sportsmanship and everything. But what has to happen? I think this leads into your parent corner, but what has to happen for you to- No, this First of all, thanks for asking.

This is a passionate topic for me. I think there's two things that you're allowed to get mad at as a parent, no matter what the age group is. One is the coach trying to either yell at players on the other team, intimidate them in some way or fuck with them, I think is just out of line. It just shouldn't happen, especially if it's 13 years and younger. The players on your team should never hear anything from the other coach. There should be a respectful thing. And if that's not there, I think you have a right to be pissed. This is more of a soccer thing. I think it's harder in baseball unless they're throwing at the kids. But if there's a physicality where their kids are actually in danger of getting hurt and the officials aren't officiating it correctly, I think you have a right to get mad.

Okay. Is that your- I think I told a parent corner story that time about when we were screaming at the 17-year-old ref and he fled to the 10 after.

The other team was like, submarining our kids, trying to hurt them.

Right.

And at some point, if you have to look out for the kids. The whole goal of any sporting event for kids is, can we not If you're going to have anyone get hurt? And if somebody is trying to hurt the other team, you have to intervene. Those would be my two.

What about your first example, though, where the coach is just yelling things and it's not exactly supportive of the other team, and then you yell shit back. But then most of the parents are like, Hey, you got to be bigger than him. I'm like, I do? Because that just means he gets away with it and keeps getting away with it. Do I have to be bigger than him?

I don't think so. I mean, you're talking to a guy I remember the guy who started yelling at the Campbell High, women's high school soccer coach because he was talking shit to our team, and we got into it a little bit on the sidelines. I think there's got to be a respect level that these coaches are supposed to be stewards They're supposed to be teaching people and setting some example. If they're doing the opposite, that's when it gets weird. Good. I don't think you should feel bad at all.

I'll consider that a win. Thank you.

I don't think you should feel bad at all.

Yeah, I know. I got a lot of years of this left, or maybe not many at all.

What if you got into it with the opposing coach and then you got to a good place, then he's like, Hey, who do you like tomorrow?

That's almost going to happen.

What's your wise wager?

Give me a winner. We'll make it square.

You think you take Simmons tomorrow night and guess the lines?

I'll give you three losers. Really love you guys. Who are you wishing luck to?

My Parent Corner is about my dad and my stepmom. They had a dog die last year. They always have two golden retrievers. And anytime one died, because golden retrievers, they go between 10, 12 years old, somewhere in there. They're not really long-lusters. And they would always get a second one. They're always girls. They always name them I. E. Names. And they've had, since the mid '80s, I think they've had seven or eight golden retrievers, maybe Sally dies last year, Sally with an I. E. So only when he's left. My dad is going to be 78 this next month. My wife and I are like, You can't get another dog. You just can't. You can't do it. You can't do it. They're like, No, we won't. We won't. Then gets to January. We We had some Simmons family stuff. My dad's sister passed away. They were between that and the dog, some other stuff. All of a sudden, they decided to get a second dog, almost like just to try to change the karma of the situation, which I understand. But my dad is 77 and should not have a puppy. And so they tell us, we're FaceTimeing them, and they're excited about it at this point because they're about to get a puppy, which I they tell us.

And my wife and I, our face has dropped and my wife's like, You can't. You got to cancel it. This is crazy. And they're devastated that we're so upset. We're like, You guys haven't had a puppy in eight years. You forget how hard this is. We wouldn't want a puppy now. We're in our 50s. Anyway, they decide to get the puppy anyway. Then they get the puppy, the name the Puppy Ruby. Super cute. The puppy is a freaking maniac. The all time... So now the puppy is eight and a half months old. So when I was in Boston, I was going to see them. And my dad is just making jokes. Can you take Ruby with you on your way back to LA? Kind of serious. Oh, no. Can you take her? And my stepmother's getting mad about it. And it's just dominated their life. Zoe has a game. They have to rush out after because the dog's been in for two and a half hours. Dog gets out. I was over there the other day. In 10 minutes, she hurt me three different times. She crashed into my knee. She left this long scratch over my chest.

She jumped over a couch. They're in a condo. She's just a maniac. They have to walk her all the time. They got to walk her in the morning, and they just didn't listen to us. I think I might have a chance to get this dog. It's my parent corner.

Oh, good for you.

I might just actually just kidnap her and I tell them.

Oh, before? They're just going to come on this. Okay.

All right. Because I actually really like this dog. I made the joke and my stepmother got really upset about it and was like, No, no, no. There's no way. These are our dogs. I could just see my dad. It's like the all time, why did we do this? Right. Maybe the dog will settle down. I don't know. But I just wanted to say this as a PSA to the parents out there who have parents.

Yeah.

What's the cut off age for maybe you shouldn't get a dog?

Well, that's where- That's 75? I wasn't sure where you were going with it. So was it the hardship of caring for a puppy was bothering you or that the dog was going to outlast them and you think that would be a bummer?

Oh, no. I'm not worried about the outlasting part. They're going to be fine.

If they had a four-year-old dog, you would have been okay.

It's the rigors of the puppy. It's like having a baby.

Yeah.

This is dominating your life. You can't leave. You have to constantly... If you're out for two hours, you got to rush back. You're up in the morning, they're peeing all over the place. They get UTIs. It's just never-ending.

So you want to create a sliding scale where a 60-year-old parent could get a puppy. But once you hit 70, the dog has to be four or five years old if you're going to even get one.

So my stepmother is younger than my dad. So that might be the only way they have some wiggle room with this. But I'm going to say if either parent is over 75...

No dogs?

No, I think there should at least be somebody should come to the house, if you're adopting a foster child or something, to meet the family and make sure. Ask my My dad like, Well, how many steps do you walk a day? My dad's like, Steps. I walk from the couch to get a ginger rail, and I come back. What do you mean steps?

It's a nice walk for a dog.

I walked three blocks to go to a restaurant the other day. No, I think 75, I think there should be somebody that comes to the house, make sure. That's a good idea.

That's a good idea. I like that.

I think that's good. They kept little Ruby in the kitchen, and my dad would sit in the kitchen with her. And this was for six months, and they wouldn't let her out in any other room in the house because she would pee all over the place. So I think that's partially why she's so crazy. So my wife and I, we joke that she's the Bre Larson character in Room. Remember? Breed Larson was stuck in that room for eight years. So anytime she gets out of the room, it's like, Daylight, trees, and just loses it. So it's partially their fault.

She's Rue Bre Larson. Rue Bre Larson?

Rue Bre Larson, yeah. That's it. Anyway, 75.

But here's the only thing.

If your mom adopted a dog right now, what would your reaction be?

Forget it. It would be like it is with everything she does. So I would lose my mind. But some older people want to have their life dominated by something. You know what I mean? If you're not active and everything, all right, I just want something that controls our lives. This is like a monkey wrench. Let's do it. It's fine. We'll get through it, even if we have to stay home most of the time or whatever. I don't know that your dad's like that and his wife, but that is part of it.

I think that's what he thought before Crazy Ruby got in there. On the bright side, Boston Blue started on Friday. My dad was pretty excited.

Oh, nice.

New CBS lineup last week. All the new shows Just premiered. And Boston Blue, Donnie Walberg. Donnie Walberg's character came back to Boston.

Nice.

So we had that. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on Ruby, though.

I want to hear about Ruby.

I'm going to say she's minus 300 to make it to the end of the year in their house. I might just have to put her in a suitcase.

Will your dad listen to this? He might listen to this. I'll show him.

We're keeping him for another two months. They might get upset. It's fine. Because we told them.

Right. You said this all. You can't.

Or if you're going to get a dog, a Adopt a house trained dog that's like a year old, and then you skip.

That seems like the thing. Why do you think he wanted a puppy? It's just a golden. It just has to really be a golden retriever, ultimately.

When we got Murf, who turned five today, by the way. Happy birthday to Murf. It was COVID times and we were home a lot. But even that was a complete nightmare. I don't know if I'd be able, even at my age, go through the puppy thing again.

Yeah. We have a COVID dog. Just waking up in the middle of the name. Just waking up in the middle of the name. Same thing. It's a lot. How old are your dogs now? I just have the one. And he was a COVID dog and he got hit by a car in Mexico. And my cousin Katie, Jimmy's daughter, rescued him. And then we took him from her. And yeah, he can't see. He doesn't bark. He doesn't acknowledge us. He doesn't like to be pet.

That dog's easy.

I like that dog. It's barely a dog.

But you wouldn't get a puppy, though.

No, I wouldn't at my age. What am I? I'm not 70 yet, am I? I might be there.

Jimmy, you live in South Bay. I walk around. Nice to walk around. Yeah. A lot of dogs down there.

All right, fine. I'll get a dog.

Just get a dog. One of us needs to get a dog just for a parent corner because I can't even do. I mean, if I did parent corners about my son, it would be about the 30 second interactions I have with him when he's miraculously home.

I thought you were going to talk about- Hey, I'm going out. I'm going out right now. The certain soccer game you saw this weekend, but you alluded to it.

It's fine. No, I came back, saw two wins.

Yeah.

Oh, you thought I was going to talk about Mount Holyoake strategy?

Yeah.

Yeah, they parked the bus for two hours. I've never seen a team park the bus in a zero-zero game. Just play for a zero-zero time.

Well, it got chipping, too, right? Yeah.

It got a little chipping, but it's college soccer. You think somebody is going to try to score a goal at some point.

That's fun. You can watch college athletics. You have to fly out there because you murdered that app that would once show the games. They went under.

You know that app? Flow? First of all, the Flow Sports. What happened? I've definitely heard from some people that work for them. Or they're urging that they're going to...

Oh, you're going to get all Zoe's games in 4K now. This is going to be fucking ridiculous.

They're stepping it up. Well, it turns out that there were more disgruntled parents than just the parents of my kid, I think was what we learned. Listen, I'm going to give them a chance to rectify everything. We'll see how it goes.

I think this is how they rectify. Like, hey, Bill Simmons said, Parents will pay anything to watch their kids. So we're raising the monthly fee to $1,500. $1,500. Of course.

Oh, my God. We'll see if it works. There's two big games this week. Hopefully, it's going to work. Anyway, that's it for Parent Corner, which was brought to you by Scout Motors. Join the waitlist for the Scout terror and scout travel at scoutmotors. Com. Concept vehicle is not available for sale. Features and performance specifications, preliminary and subject to change. Joining the waitlist is not guaranteed purchase. This is scoutmotors. Com for details. When somebody tells you they have kids, what ages do you hear that you're the most jealous for the ages the kids are? When you think about your experience having kids, what do you think the best ages were?

I would say 40 and 42 when they say their kids are that old because you don't have to deal with them. Five and seven.

Yeah, that's what if somebody says, I have an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, I'm like, oh, man, what a great run that was. That's good. That's good. Yeah. That's like the sweet spot.

They can take care of each other. Yeah. Dogs is a different story, but yeah, kids.

Probably worst is when they're like, I have a 15-year-old and 11-year-old.

What are you going to do with those? Yikes.

Or anything under four is a nightmare. All right. So you're Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Ringer Gambling Show?

Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. And the Sunday pregame show. Let me give you a couple of basketball. You tell me what you think here. Sabonas. Oh, let me hear it. Sabona is 20 plus points per game. He had 19. 1 last year, plus 270 for that. I feel like he's healthier. He went from 38 % to 41 %. Shooting from continued success from three is one of the biggest X factors, I think.

That's what you're leading with, a bonus points per game prop is your number one.

That's it. Wow. Okay. You don't like that one? Plus 270? That's solid. He was at 19. He just got 20. And Edwards, most threes per game, also plus 270. He lost to Steph 4. 4 to 4. 1. Isn't there a world where Steph doesn't qualify? Give me plus 270. And Edwards. And you were wrong. I listened to all four hours of your thing. Good. Great to learn that Cooper flags a generational talent. Wow. I don't know where you're getting that insight anywhere. But no. Pistons, I like it over. You don't like 50 plus at plus 182? Bickeerstaffe, third year. This is how he turns the team around.

I don't. That's your favorite one?

Duncan Robinson. That's an improvement, I think. Cunningham, top 10 player. You really don't like that. You like that under. I don't. Someone in the East asked, I know you have your picks for the East, but that was mine to get the gap of plus four wins on their total.

They do. I would rather personally do Milwaukee if you're going to bank on one of those teams from that division as the better than you think team.

Okay.

I think Milwaukee is going to be good. They put a bunch of specials up, Ringer Futures on NBA. Oh, yeah. And they have some good ones, like Indiana to win 35 plus games and make the play in plus 164. Bucks and Celtics to both make the playoffs plus 152. But they had a whole bunch of them. But I sent them a slew of them, and they put our favorite win totals.

What did we do? What did you make us do? I don't like the division bets, but the one you laid out was even money and it really looked good. What was it? Knicks, Thunder, Cavs?

Knicks, Thunder, Cavs for the division. That was even? That was plus 130 or something. That was better than that. Yeah, it was plus 120. I really like that one. That's good. Yeah, we did that one. I roped you guys into another one.

Yeah. Yeah, you're excited. This is good. Football is over for you. Look at you. There's your picture right there on the page there. You're wearing a suit. About to adopt a dog. This is fun.

Nba star, and this is our time right now. Who do you have for game seven of the World Series?

We have the World Series?

I mean, of ASCS.

Boy, it's going to be hard for Toronto to lose now. I know they don't really... I had Seattle, so I'm not going to have to hedge here. It's Biber against Kirby, but these guys are going to go like three innings. I'll take Toronto slightly. I'm going to go against myself. What's the line? The Dodgers, they're minus 122, Toronto. That's a fun one. You got two Monday night games and the baseball all at once.

The problem for Toronto is if it's a nail-biter.

Yeah.

I don't like their relievers. If it's a 4-3, 5-4 type game.

I went into the Dodgers pick saying, I don't like their relievers, and didn't fucking matter at all.

We didn't even see the relievers.

I don't even know if they have any on the roster.

It's unbelievable. Yeah, crazy. All right, Cus, good job, Good job on you, buddy. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Sal. Thanks to Gaha. Thanks to Eduardo. I'm going to be back two more times on this feed. You can also hear the new rewatchables Monday Night Quiz Show, and then Prestige TV, Breaking Down Task. That one is already up. I'll see you on Tuesday. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for a Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-100 Gamble or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-79-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat-n-kneticat or md-gamblinghelp. Org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema. Org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8 Hope, N-Y or text Hope, N-Y in New York.