Transcript of Cousins Comes Home, Mendoza Starts, and the Steelers Stalk the SB (feat. Joey Mulinaro)

You like that? You like that?

We'll track you down. Major Randy's social media will find them, and we will respond to them on our now mid-week YouTube exclusive episode. Here we are, though, ready to roll into our Week 10 preview for you. Excited about that. We are going to be joined momentarily by Joey Mulinaro to dig in on some of the games. There is 10 Day Tony, Colladoud, author of The 10 Day Tony Substack. How are you, fella? You're ready to roll into Week 10, I presume?

Ready to rock and roll, Dave. We got some good games. I really like your Steelers this week. But we'll more on that later.

Do you?

Mm-hmm.

Well, well, I'm going to give you something about that in just a second. Very quickly, hello to Geno and hello to Buddy Bidalski down there. How are you fellas doing?

I'm doing good, Dave. How are you doing over there? Up in, uh—

Well, I want to hear about episode number 99. It's time to honor the player who wore that jersey number best in NFL, or if you want to dip into all of sports history, have at it. Who wore 99?

We're a bit of a loaded potato here as we close out our numbers. We got Aaron Donald, JJ Watts—

What are we going to do, by Geno? Make the call. What are we going to do? Because we're out of numbers now.

So you preempting my spot putting by putting me on the spot before I put you on the spot?

Correct.

Well, like we could do, like, numbers of significance going forward. Like 100 would obviously be Wilt Chamberlain, and we'd be off and running. Or do we start to back down to 1 once again, starting at 0, and name the worst players to have ever wear the jersey number?

That's going to be really hard for us.

I think that's the best idea. I think the best idea is the worst players. So we start at 0, we start with Jayson Tatum, and then we go number 1, and we go to—

I detect a little bit of—

Whoever the worst goalie for the Panthers was, or something like that, or somebody that wore 1 that was just a kicker comes to mind, or a punter. By the way, we talked about episode number 99. We've been talking about—

Yeah, you said Aaron Donald. I think you said it all.

And we haven't said Wayne Gretzky yet. The greatest player in any sport to ever wear any number, arguably.

Can I do this list finally, then? All right, we're going.

Got it.

Aaron Donald, JJ Watts, Warren Sapp, Jason Taylor, Dan Hampton, Mark Gastineau. That rounds out our football stuff.

Loaded. Loaded.

We can go down to Major League Baseball, where we had Aaron Judge and end-of-career Manny Ramirez.

Also, didn't you have Wild Thing from Major League? Isn't that what Chad Sheen wore?

And then we have George Miken, if you want to go into NBA lore.

Wow. Oh, wow.

And then I said—

And I think you've said it all.

Just, oh, yeah. That might have been it.

No, don't let the—

Don't let the—

Get away with this bullshit act that he does, that Mario Lemieux is greater than Wayne Gretzky. It's wrong. It will forever be wrong. There is no athlete that has ever been better at their sport than Wayne Gretzky was at hockey.

Okay, this is—

This is Geno—

The Gap, the Gap, the Gap—

This is football America, not hockey America. You're talking about Connor Bedard, whoever the hell that is, last episode. What are you talking about?

That's my dog.

Dave, this is football America. Please, continue.

It's a disgrace, Tony. I mean, does Buddy know, you know, where—

We're talking football. We're talking—

There is no—

He's got to talk about hockey.

From 1 to 2, then there is from Wayne Gretzky to—

Ever heard of Tom Brady, buddy?

First, they need to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. If Sensei wins the Week 10 showdown, their toughest remaining games are the home-and-home against the Brownies, KC in Southwest Ohio, by the way, a New Year's Eve game at home against Baltimore, and that's it. Season floor would be, in terms of wins, 12. Literally. I mean, I think if they get to 7 and 2, 12 is the bare minimum number of games, and then that would have them with a real shot at getting the number 1 seed in the AFC. By the way, I'm not discounting the Ravens.

There are the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I like that. Thank you, Fasenda. They are getting adequate play from their QB, but are winning at the line of scrimmage. Like the Bengals, Pittsburgh's made no moves at the deadline and therefore are now a little further behind the conference's best teams than they were just a week ago. Clearly, the Steelers' front office deep down knows what I've been telling you. They might be a playoff team, but they're not a Super Bowl contender. They will, though, at least almost certainly have that playoff part all locked up if they complete the Sensei sweep on Sunday. I would feel a little bad if Sensei loses.

When I think bad Texans quarterback play, I think TJ Yates on wildcard Saturday. Always. It was always that ESPN game at 4:20 on Saturday, the first day of the NFL playoffs.

NFL Network.

It was TJ Yates on NFL Network. Exactly. Or Matt Shaw throwing—didn't he throw a pick six in, like, six straight games or something like that?

I think it was a pick six.

That's an almost impossible record to break.

I think it spanned two teams, though. I think it was Texans, and then he went to the Falcons, and then he threw a pick six on his first throw as a Falcon maybe, or his last throw was a Falcon. It spanned two teams. I remember that.

Four consecutive games in the 2013 NFL season. Unbelievable.

I mean, four consecutive. I do remember that, that you would wait through the week. Like, he can't do it again, can he? I mean, it's been—I mean, three weeks in a row. He's not going to do it a fourth week in a row. You think that would be the only thing you would worry yourself with as a human being if you were Matt Shaw? Anyway, like I say, let's start the show here and get into it with our guy, Joey Mulinaro. He and his pal, Benny Polizzi show these guys is hysterical. It goes live every Tuesday. New episodes for you. It's a show that is every guy's group chat with his high school buddies, which is a funny thing because what we just realized this morning was that I'm so much older than Joey Mulinaro that I went to college and was in the same dorm room, same dorm floor with his contemporary's fathers.

I think you nailed it. Yeah, I think you nailed it.

I don't think I got that quite right, but either way. Also, he's doing great work. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Christmas Drive. He's purchasing gifts for their patients. You can join him in doing this, and I'll give you the link for that in just a second. Let's say hello to our guy, though. Joey Mulinaro, what's happening, pal?

Cek, always good to see you, pal, especially this time of the year. I know we're in Sheckers season.

Oh.

And I'm fully ready to celebrate. I got the Christmas photos coming later today with the family. That's why I got the sweater on. But Buddy, Geno, Tony, everybody, good to see you. Listen to the show every week, so happy to be here.

How does he know about Sheckers season?

How does that—how does he know about it?

Everybody knows about it.

I've been following Dave since back at DDFP days in, like, 2016, 2017. I know all about the Dave Damishankisms.

I'm sorry I fumbled what I tried to articulate, which was I was in the freshman dorm with some guys, and you went to high school with their children, which is insane.

Yeah.

And it makes me feel decrepit because I am decrepit. But pretty neat. Tell us more about what you're doing with St. Judes.

Yeah, pretty simple. Like you said, we got the holiday drive coming up here, the Christmas drive. And so I've done a lot of work with St. Jude over the years. Dad of two, as you know. We heard all about the Crespi Seltz with John Claude Van Damishank there last week. So you got kids and—

Ah.

Just near and dear. Sorry about that loss, but near and dear to me just because, hey, you know, especially in a time like this, if you've got healthy babies, you're blessed enough there. I just feel like it's kind of our duty to give back and help any way we can to make these kids' lives a little bit better, especially around the holiday season. So hopefully we'll throw those links up. And if you can, I know it's a lot to ask. Everybody's got gifts. They got a gift for everybody, the friends, their family, whatnot. But, you know, if you could spare 10 bucks or 20 bucks to help make a kid's Christmas, that'd be great.

We'll make sure that we have those links provided graphically when we post the show on YouTube.

Thanks, Buddy.

And boy, them two little toe-headed kids you got living under your roof are about as cute as it gets. But let's talk about another cute character who's pretty young. Fernando Mendoza, before we jump into some college talk and some NFL, some, you know, relevant NFL games in 2026. It is the dawn of a new era, and I feel like because it got pushed down by several weeks in this NFL season, somehow it's not getting the shine that it otherwise might. This is, after all, the first overall pick in the draft. He is the hero of all heroes in the state of Indiana where you sit.

Well, hold on. I just—you said you don't think he can climb that mountain of making the Raiders a playoff team. He just went undefeated and won the national championship for Indiana fall. Come on, man. If there's any taller mountain to climb, I mean, what are we talking about here? Fernando Mendoza has done it. He's climbed the tallest mountain, taking the Hoosier to be 16 and 0 with what he did there. But the buzz right now—

Got to do Kevin Garnett, right? Anything is possible.

It's possible.

You're right.

Right. I mean, geez, what are we talking about? You're the IU grad here. You should have full faith. The vibe in the state of Indiana now, you mentioned as, you know, somebody who lives in the Hoosier state and is excited about what's going on with Fernando, unless you are hosting Purdue podcasts, which I also do. So Fernando is a hero to so many. Myself, I'm kind of watching from afar, although I am a very big fan of the kid. I enjoy him. I enjoy his personality. I'm pulling for him, especially now that he can't beat the Boilers 60 to 3 anymore.

Boy, that's an interesting thought that that could go down and Purdue is irrelevant, so people probably are vibing. Actually, you're seated squarely in between. Man, what a tough spot to be a PU guy right now with Notre Dame on one side and the Hoosers on the other. You kind of got left behind by all that. By the way, heady days right now for Joey Mulinaro, master impressionist. I assume you're getting hit up quite a bit right now to hear your version of John Madden and what Nick Cage failed to do, right? I'm guessing.

No. No. See, because that's—no, that's one thing. Yeah, a lot of people common misconception, but a lot of people, they just kind of assume that Madden is because of what Khaled Indo did. They assume that Madden is just in everybody's repertoire, and it's not. I've never done Madden. I've never even attempted to do Madden, partially, big part because I'm like, that's Khaled Indo's. You know, that's one of those things. I don't want to infringe on Khaled Indo because that is so ingrained in him and what he does, right? But did I tell you—did I ever tell you the story I met Fernando at the Super Bowl last year?

I don't think so, no.

Quickly. So me and my buddy are out there. I'm walking around in San Francisco trying to find my way into the media center to get our credentials, right? I told my buddy, I'm like, hey, you kind of got to—it's the first Super Bowl he went out to. I'm like, you got to kind of keep your head on a swivel. You never know who you're going to see out here.

Well, and Fernando knows his way around those parts because he went to Cal Berkeley before he went to Bloomington, Indiana.

Sure. So there we are. We're standing on the corner in downtown San Francisco, and we're stopped just trying to look for our entrance. And all of a sudden, right next to us on the curb, up pulls this black sedan, this black SUV. Out pops Fernando Mendoza right in front of us.

The national champagne himself, right?

It literally—I mean, that was the most starstruck that I got all weekend that weekend, right? And so I'm standing there, and he walks out, and I literally just go, "Holy shit, Fernando Mendoza." And he stops, and he got his big Fernando smile on, and he's like, "What's going on, buddy?" And I just said, "Dude, good to see you." And we kind of froze because he was one of those awkward things. He didn't know if I was going to come.

He probably knows you now that I'm thinking about it, right?

I don't know. But I don't know. That was one of those things. It's like we were probably like an awkward, like, eight to nine feet away. It wasn't like he was walking right in front of me. So he was kind of waiting for me to initiate, but I was kind of frozen in my tracks because I was like, it looked like he had somewhere to be. So we had one of these awkward, like, when you're holding the door open for somebody, it's a little too far away, you know? But they're not, they're not, like, running distance away, but they're not just like, "Yeah, yeah, right, right, right here. I appreciate you." It was one of those. And he's like, "Good to see you, buddy." And I was like, "Yeah, good to see you." And he kind of just nodded at me and walked away.

So I had—it's so funny because I had at the Super Bowl with a guy who was in a Super Bowl himself, Matt Hasselbeck. We were in the hotel coffee area thing, and he and his wife were leaving, and I was running a little behind him, and he held the door the whole time until I made my way out. And I thanked him for it. I thought he was a gentleman.

I'm a gentleman. Yeah, absolutely.

Fernando is the same sort of gentleman. All right, listen. I do think it's important before we say we've seen a little evidence of Fernando on an NFL gridiron, but it's important that we put our marker down. 10-day Tony, I hope you're ready. Let's squeeze in here.

One right.

Let's jump into the DeLorean and fire it up. Set the date. June—how can it already be going? We haven't even set the date yet. June 30th, 2032.

What are we going to put it on?

Here we go. Five years into the future. It's June. It can't be, like, just—it can't be February because the NFL season has now expanded to 40 weeks here in 2022, obviously. They take a few weeks off in the future.

Well, they got the big Father's Day bash on Fox that they're playing. You know, they're really looking for it before they get the Independence Day one with the London Knights coming over to play the Washington Commies for a big Independence Day celebration, so.

That's right. I mean, who knows? I mean, these new traditions. I'm still getting comfy with them.

It's weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I think for the most part, it's been a win. All right, can you put on your wayback glasses here and look back onto the horizon about five years ago? You'll remember when Fernando Mendoza was the greatest thing he had going for him was winning that national championship at Indiana. Let's compare him with, if you can remember, who was available in the 25 QB class. You had Cam Ward highlighting that one, and then Fernando, of course, in the 26 class. And then the 27 class. You remember how much hype there was around it, around 25 and 26, and how Arch Manning was going to be the man, and Dante Moore, and Lenore Sellers, and all that.

And Drew Mestemaker.

Remember all those guys?

Drew Mestemaker.

What a name, man.

Drew Mestemaker.

Truly, just came out of nowhere, that guy. That was wild times.

Yeah. No, I remember it. I remember it well. It's crazy to see what happened to Arch too, you know?

Yeah. It's really wild. I mean, like, as I recall, like, I just want to get your sense of if you understood back then where Fernando was going to wind up. I mean, I think it's great that the Titans stuck with Cam Ward. You know, I think we can all agree at this point he's pretty good, even if he does have the distinct advantage of playing with Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith. And I got to say, there were some skeptics in the moment, but Drew Aller ended up working out pretty good there with Mike McCarthy, 2020 hindsight. But how did this guy fall all the way to the third round? And Mestemaker, like Tony just mentioned, remember him, the unqualified success down there with the Miami Dolphins.

Yeah, well, I'll go back to what I said a little bit prior to this in this conversation. I mean, Fernando Mendoza can do what he did in college football. It's no surprise he did what he did in the NFL, especially learning at the foot of Tom Brady, but even more especially having his hand held by someone like Clint Kubiak. I mean, how important is that coach-quarterback dynamic? We see it right now. You talk about it for years, how you do. Do we rather have the play caller? Do we rather have the quarterback? How about when you mesh both those things together? You know, that's so often I feel like that's why we saw Cam Ward flail out.

Joe, I love that. I love that. Hold on, Dave. But he's not remembering Fernando's number one target, Brock Bowers, and what a difference he was able to make in the whole situation with Clint Kubiak and Fernando.

Yeah, but Tony, you got to give some credit to George Pickens. He's been pretty good since he got the baby.

He has. Okay, he has. But when you have a guy who's 6'4", 235 pounds, and moves like a polar bear on roller skates throughout the entire secondary and nobody can guard him, it's incredible he's still doing it at this age.

Yeah, it is. It's really wild too. I can't believe this is the most wild card story. They brought Antonio Brown back out. He came back and was really—he was making his push for a Hall of Fame case. He was hoping enough time had passed. If you remember that, he reinstated himself, and he came back, and he was being a pass catcher for Fernando. He kind of felt like he had unfinished business based on his first stint with the Raiders in the Jon Gruden days and the Oakland Raiders. He said, "We're in Vegas. No better place for me than Sin City.

Well, I do think just to round out, to round this conversation out, it is funny to hearken back to those Indiana days, you know, now with Signetti obviously down the block there, coaching the Chargers. I think that if anybody is going to be able to turn Arch Manning's career around, it is Coach Sig. So we'll see how that goes. All right, let's get back into the DeLorean.

Before we jump back, I just want to ask you, this is something we always used to talk about.

But buddy can grow facial hair in the future.

Yeah, I know, right? No, Dave.

Wait, wait, wait. Buddy can grow facial hair?

What?

This guy gets it.

This guy gets it, dude. I love Joey.

This guy, you're welcome back anytime, Joe.

I'm a big fan of this guy.

I like this guy too. But Dave, we got to ask the question we used to ask it all the time. Certainly, Antonio Brown has now locked up the Hall of Fame after coming out of retirement and having this big giant year with Mendoza. And Jaden Ball looks on track to make the Hall of Fame as well the way he's tearing up the NFL so far, isn't he?

I knew it. I knew it.

I mean, I don't know. I don't think he did himself any favors with his post-Super Bowl behavior there in Munich. I think I've said more than enough on that front. All right, let's pile back into the DeLorean and head back to.

Tight here.

2026, yeah. November 2026. And there's a big game coming up in the Big Ten. USC, as I see it, Joey Mulinaro, who keeps his gaze mostly on the Big Ten, is that fair to say? If you're focused on one conference in football America, it's the Big Ten. And this is a big one upcoming here. As I assess it, USC has the chance to pull the double whammy, which is be the spoiler for Indiana. If they beat Indiana this week, it means that it's—I don't know what the odds would be for them, for the Hoosiers, to get to the conference title game, but they would be, you know, I think 50-50 at best if that were to happen.

Yeah, that's true, but no, they won't. I just—look, USC is the reverse of the Tomlin Big Ben era where Pittsburgh would travel out west and seemingly forget how to play football. Or that, or—and/or they went out the night before, were just completely hammered and hung over and also forgot how to play football.

Both.

Both, right? That's what USC is, going from west to east. So I think the combination of them coming all the way to your part of town, Bloomington, Indiana, and then to me, I just feel like USC has still got that little bit of fluff, a little bit of that showman, a little bit of that Hollywood, a little bit of that not nitty-gritty. I just feel like Sig's teams, man, when they have—they're at home, they know what's at stake. And I feel like up front, regardless of the quarterback play for the Hoosiers right now, still building in the trenches for what they are in that D line, that O line, I just feel like it's going to be too much and USC is not going to be able to get it done.

I mean, a lot of this rides basically around Signetti's ability to develop the QB. I mean, it's an unknown in there. So if you're confident in that, what you're confident in is what Signetti has done with the QB.

Do we have word if it's going to be Hoover or do we know?

Or the other guy? No, I don't think. It's not. I'm sure.

Game time decision? Okay.

I'm guessing Hoover. 10-day Tony, how do you see this one going there?

I like USC as a live dog, man. Like, I don't know what it is. It's like Indiana.

It's that they're not—the curse of Sposta is real for Lincoln Riley and otherwise. Now it's flipped. Now they're dead man walking. Lincoln Riley's on his way out the door. Now they have a chip on their shoulder that has benefited them in at least the last couple of weeks.

I think Indiana got out by the skin of their teeth against Minnesota with that massive field goal. And it's like, all right, can you play another one like that where you can count on a guy who hadn't kicked a field goal that long in your entire season?

They've been playing a lot of those games.

It's almost like the Miami team of three years ago of Cam Ward, where every single game was a dogfight until somebody made a play. At that point, it was Cam Ward, but either the defense or Becker or somebody makes a play where you're like, okay, they're going to win. Indiana had a little bit of it last year too against Penn State when Fernando threw that pass in the back of the end zone, where the Cinderella story continued to go. And it just feels like they may be running out of time before the carriage turns back into a pumpkin because quarterback is the most important position in sports. We know that.

I mean, Hoover has not been Fernando and who could be, given the expectations probably for his replacement. But I got to believe he got banged up, I think, in that Ohio State game because he hasn't been right since then. While we have Joey here, let's go out of order here. It's time to get into our consequential games of Week 10. If you can only watch three games this Sunday, these are those. And we're going to go out of order because we have the Steelers fan, Joey, here. The number one game of the weekend is clearly the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Cincinnati Bungles at the time of this recording.

Kevin Harlan or Gus Johnson would just be jumping over the moon if they could call that guy's games, right?

Bacon sizzling down the sideline.

Right? I mean, it's a lamp for these guys.

Coy Bacon wearing a headband here. I see a card, like an old card of him, not only wearing a headband, but also wearing a beanie on the field. That is that '70s shit. Bacon is the headline, but also we came for a baby. Coy. Coy.

You think it's short for something?

You think it's short for something?

Bacon Lander McCoy Bacon is his full name. Lander McCoy. That's a badass name.

It's a descriptive adjective for one's behavior. You're cool. Kind of dodgy a little bit. Weird. Weird thing to celebrate.

Real quick, I was just down in the fellas' neck of the woods this past weekend. I was at Homestead, Miami, for the NASCAR championship. Ran into Mike Ryan Ruiz down there. First time I had gotten to chat with him in person, so that was lovely. But that made me think of, that made me think of Drip Drill. And I will say, with the Bengals coming out with their white tiger get-up, how fitting and perfect would it be if the Pittsburgh Steelers went with their color rush all blacks?

I like those colors.

That's the way to go, right?

I like the black-white-black look that the Steelers wore a few weeks ago. That would be awesome.

I did too.

I didn't like that look in Paris, but I do like the head-to-toe black get-ups. Yeah, and that would look smart and would offset the all-white look of Cincinnati. I'll just cut to it here very quickly. I think that Joe Burrow's completion percentage against zone coverage, which is what the Steelers run almost all the time, like 85% of the time, he eats it up. If you'll recall how that game went, the celebration in Pittsburgh coming out of it was, wow, they went into a shootout with Cincinnati and came out on top.

Yeah, parked our cars in the same garage here, Sug. I don't have a good feeling about it. I just feel like when you get all the factors of, one, Pittsburgh already won. Two, now it's being in Cincinnati. Three, it's a night game. They got the white uniforms coming. You add in all these kind of outside factors and the way that Burrow and Chase and Higgins have been connecting over the last few weeks. It doesn't feel like a good recipe to me. I mean, I'm not breaking any news here, but I feel like the best case, if Pittsburgh can swallow their ego, I guess, offensively, you can just run the football with Jalen Warren and Rico Dattle.

He's getting a little bit of a Pittsburgh accent to work in there. You know, you've been listening to Coach McCarthy a little bit, huh?

Oh, I've been listening to Coach Signetti trying to figure out that process. You know, he's got that process he's trying to figure out.

It's a lot of attitude. You got to do some attitude with the Pittsburgh accent because you got lilt up at the end of the sentence for no good reason. You know?

Yeah, I know.

Weird, like kind of like I've talked about the Sardonic quality. Let me ask you a question here, then, about some of the skepticism around Aaron Rodgers. And I've been one of the chief skeptics out there. I contend that if they would have taken Dave's advice and chased Malik Willis and made him the bridge quarterback for '26 and '27, the Steelers would not only have survived it just fine. Let me ask you first.

I think we're looking at flipped. I think two and six or three and four.

You know, I asked this question. The guy who made me think of it was Mark Cabali, Steelers' beat writer. He said the same thing you did. Two and six.

Yeah.

10-day Tony.

I would say closer to 500. I think they would be able to use Malik in a bit of a more exciting way than halfly is right now. So I'd probably say four and four, 500.

I asked Costos this question on the midweek YouTube show. He also scoffed at what I said. You know what I'd say their record would be?

Six and four.

Six and four. They wouldn't have won the same games, but they would have. I think they might have won the New England game. I think the idea that they wouldn't have rallied against Tampa, they wouldn't have been in the terrible spot they were against Tampa late if they would have gotten better quarterback play in the first three quarters. I think they would be six and two, maybe five and three. I don't think that's crazy. But the idea that they would have fallen apart without Aaron Rodgers, who is a passenger surely on this ride that is being driven by the line of scrimmage, I think is misreading of things. Forgive me.

That's fair. And now that you guys were talking, I was thinking about I'm still kind of in the Mike Tomlin era and thought process of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So when I think of Malik Willis coming to the Steelers, I think of basically the experience we had with Justin Fields. Throw the ball about 18 times. Don't even think about throwing it over the middle of the field. They're kind of run around. We're going to do a lot of short game stuff still. Handcuffs coming out. Now, with Mike McCarthy, maybe perhaps what we saw under LaFleur with Green Bay with Willis and how he thrived on an offensive mind.

I think that's sharp on Joey's end too because when you look at what Malik Willis does great is play action, right? And you have Jalen Warren to have those safeties kind of get into the box and all of a sudden you got that big arm to throw over the top. If DK Metcalf can still catch passes, I don't know in that scenario. Maybe he can still catch passes.

Yeah.

Jeremy Bernard's been a big plus for them too. Like Michael Pittman on the way back. Do we still like him? Is he a player? Is he a guy?

Well, at this stage, you know he's only a couple of years removed from being really productive. Like 100 targets kind of productive. And I don't think he had 100 catches, but somewhere close to that. But you know what? The cliff comes fast and it is a severe drop-off when you hit it. Michael Pittman big bro

me at Cam Hayward's draft party. I will say that. I was talking with him. I thought we were having a really good wrap the top, really good back and forth. We were going for about three and a half minutes. All of a sudden, I leaned in to go ask another question and he's going, "All right, man."

Oh, man. He gave you the mad boring? He gave you the mad boring?

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. It's always a red flag. When you could go Mike and you go Michael on purpose, that says something. Same thing. You'd be Joseph Mulinaro. You wouldn't be having this conversation, cracking wise of your Joseph Mulinaro. Even if you're Joe Mulinaro, Joey is what makes it okay for you to do it, right?

I like to think so. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah.

So maybe you've turned the corner a little bit and now you're seeing it Dave's way. My biggest concern is the Malik Willis, yes, taking deep shots. That would suit Mike McCarthy. I don't think overall he's a great fit for what Mike McCarthy wants to do. But I do think if McCarthy would get with the times a little bit and run the QB around a bit, I think that the Steelers would have been just fine with Malik Willis. And I think the celebration or giving credit to Aaron Rodgers is a little out of bounds when it clearly, if you're watching them week to week, is owed to what's happening at the line of scrimmage more than it is with the guy throwing the ball around incomplete, mostly to DK Metcalf, right?

Yeah, totally. But you know I find myself when I'm getting crazy, you know when I'm sitting in bed and I need something positive in my mind, I find myself thinking about the 2015 Denver Broncos. And I'm thinking, "Hey, why not? You know you got this passenger. He's way more mobile than Peyton was at that point in his career. You know you ride the run game, kind of a la John Elway, Terrell Davis-esque." So that's kind of what I fall back to. I'm like, "You know if there's ever going to be a chance, maybe there's some magic left in that bottle where he makes three to four big-time great throws a game." You ride Dattel and you ride Warren and you know TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith and Nick Urban just wreak hell on quarterbacks.

Well, their shot to me comes down to, yes, they would need to get the seven and two and somehow improbably pull the inside straight and get the number one seed. If you have two home games in Pittsburgh, then I will consider it a reasonable outcome that they would go to the Super Bowl. As it's stacking up, the gauntlet that any of those teams are going to have to run through to get to the Super Bowl is too tall a standard for these Steelers, I think. I don't think they can shoot it out three weeks in a row.

Right. No, no, no. But let me throw my black and gold glasses on and you look at, hey, in August, you're looking at this schedule and you're going, "Wow." November, once you get the week before Thanksgiving on, that's going to be hell. Now, what the hell are the Eagles, right? I mean, the Texans are coming on strong, but still, I mean, they're three and five for a reason. You got the Carolina Panthers at home. You got the Jacoby Brissett-led Ravens twice. I mean, you got the Titans.

Well, being Baltimore twice is the other key detail for Pittsburgh to get a number one seed to win the division. But you know what? If they win, whoever wins on Sunday, I suspect, is going to win the AFC North and then have a great shot at being at worst a top two seed come playoff time. Joey Mulinaro, you're the tops pal. Not Joseph Mulinaro, not Joe, mind you. Dynamite stuff. These guys with Benny Pulizzi, always great stuff on Tuesdays and the great work you're doing with St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Purchase a gift for the patients.

I appreciate you guys. Like I said, I listen every week. Proud Football American. Happy holidays to all of you. And hopefully we can bend the elbows sometime soon, pal.

Oh, I'd love it. I'd love it. Yes, maybe at the national championship game. We can do it. We can work somewhere. Maybe a Steelers wild card or division around game. Something like that. We'll figure it out.

Now I'm talking. They talk about Aaron Rodgers. Big good time.

It's not the same person. This is what I'm realizing is that all Steelers fans are just the same guy. They're all just a different version of Dave Damashack from a different part of the country. It's all you guys are. It's just you and Dave are the same person. Bend the elbow. Who talks like that?

There's no reason to insult Joey Mulinaro on the show.

No, I'm not insulting him. I love Joey.

Thanks, boys. Appreciate you guys.

Say hello to the Goss progeny. I went to the dorm. I was in the dorm with Eric Goss, who went to Ron Colley High School, and Dan Hammerschmidt, and then Joey Mulinaro is friends with their kids. What in the hell? Oh, my God. Time is slipping away.

Sick in your balls.

I really am sick in my balls. Okay, Tony, now we got to pace it up. We only have a few minutes here. Go ahead. Give us your Steelers' Bengals pick.

I say you have little faith, right? The Bengals coming off an international game where they're having to travel back, a tough divisional opponent. Steelers have had the buy. They've had time to rest and recalibrate and figure out things that they can do watching film on Joe Burrow. I think this is a closer game than people think. You said a two-score game. Joey kind of echoed the same sentiment. I think the Bengals win, but I think it's a lot closer than people give credit for. I think the Steelers cover in this game. McPherson hits a kick late to go up by one, and that's how the game ends.

Three and a half is the number. You're really trying to thread the needle there, buddy. Go quick here.

Yeah, I don't think Rodgers can keep up with Burrow in the type of game I think they'll need to play to win. And I just think this, like you said, Dave, this is going to determine the AFC North. And I think the Bengals are the better team, and I think they're going to win the division. So give me the Bengals in this spot. 35-24.

I hope to be wrong. All right, so now that's our number one most consequential game. Let's go back to number three. It's a huge one in the mighty NFC North, not just the best division in football right now, but really on the shortlist of best divisions since they went to four team divisions, however long ago that was. I'm talking about the Vikings with their brand new QB. Kirk Cousins, his last game as a Minnesota Viking was in Lambeau. His first game back with the Minnesota Vikings is in Lambeau, where the Packers are giving three.

This is big on big. One of the best offenses in the league versus one of the best defenses in the league. And it's about Jordan Love and it's about Kirk Cousins being able to download himself in the KOC offense again and be like, "Okay, I remember this, I remember that. Let me learn any new wrinkles." But it really is about the other side and Jordan Love and what he's been able to do with Matthew Golden and with Christian Watson. I'm going to give the slight edge to the defense, but I think the Packers win, but I think it's going to be a tough fought game.

I want to talk about a shootout here, and it probably is. This game probably does go over the 42 and a half. Gannon has that defense, though, in anticipation of Micah Parsons playing real well. They're not waiting for Micah to return there. I think that's ultimately what decides this one. I will take the Pacos. Packers narrowly give me them.

The Pacos.

Give me them by six. The Pacos.

I like that. I thought you were doing that like just because as a thing you do.

And the Pacos.

I like that. This is an absolute coin flip for me for all of the reasons that you guys have already laid out. That week one game really scares me. That was weird what Brian Flores did to Jordan Love. But I just think Jordan Love is playing at such a high level right now. It's going to take some time for Kirk to work back into that Vikings offense. Give me the Packers 28 to 17.

Gino, I skipped you purposely because I don't want to hear more negativity before this game. I've been negative enough about the Steelers game. But tell us what you think is going to happen in this NFC North clash.

Okay. In this NFC North clash, the last time that Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson were together for a full season, Justin Jefferson set career highs in targets, catches, receiving yards, first downs. Those were also the league categories for him. And I think without knowing much of what to do when he gets back, maybe some of the verbiage has changed or any of that kind of stuff, he's probably just going to lean on Jefferson, which is not a bad strategy. I think they'll do just enough. A bit of a defensive showdown here. 19-17 is what I'm going to go with with the Vikings coming on on top.

They had to make some sort of a move. And Nick Costos, as far as I know, was the first person to float this two weeks ago that they should go chase Kirk Cousins. Everybody kind of got on that same trade around the Monday night football game, but just very quickly. That was crazy how bad Carson Wentz was, right, Tony?

Insane. Insane.

It's not like it's remember Carson Wentz? Yeah, remember when he almost won that? What's he been up to the last three years? We've seen Carson Wentz play fairly recently. What the hell happened?

What the hell happened?

He quit the hell happened?

Carson Wentz in week one. It was unbelievable.

And it wasn't like Kyler Murray had half the game. It was like, no, no. Kyler Murray got hurt first play of the game, and Carson Wentz had a great game.

And the Bills defense is statistically the worst defense in the NFL.

They actually played very well. I will say that. Secondary was great.

Yeah, because Wentz was sucked on a level that I have seen very few NFL QBs suck.

Put it this way. Put it this way. We had one of the worst QB performances of all time in Michael Penix in Tampa in the rain. And I want to say Carson Wentz was worse.

Yeah.

And I do, it's hysterical, but you know I do think it probably is legitimately liberating in that mind of Justin Jefferson and by the way, Jordan Addison and everybody else. Like, thank Jesus. We're free now. Like, I bet you that's how they kind of feel. I just don't know that this is great. If the Packers defense wasn't playing as well as it has been playing, I could absolutely see like you know 38-34 kind of result here. And maybe that is what we'll see. I just am more confident in the home team because of Gannon's defense.

Dave, I got one more thing for you. I think KOC is coaching for his job this season. If they make the trade for Cousins and they get either bounced out in the first round of the playoffs or don't make the first round of the playoffs, I don't think KOC is no longer with this team.

I kind of agree. Yeah.

He's coaching for his job.

I hear you. I don't think Cousins is way worse than Jared Goff. I know Jared Goff has been on a three-year heater here, and I'm diminishing Jared Goff the first overall pick versus a guy who went in the third round. Same draft, by the way, as RG3 went, if people have forgotten about that. But I do think in the here and now, it goes Caleb, and then there's a pretty severe drop-off. I mean, Caleb and Jordan Love. And then I think I now have to sort of shake off of my preseason prediction of the Vikings, because even with Kirk Cousins, I don't feel terribly confident that they're going to win the division, which is what I predicted they would.

As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

So I mean, I'd seen bad in the moment when I was watching the movie, but you only get fired if you're in third place? It seems like second place gets you fired in the NFC East, right? None of those guys are going to survive. But I mean, they'll keep whom? Oh, they'll keep John Harbaugh. But the other three are more likely than not to probably be out of a gig come January. Don't you think?

I think Schadenheimer for sure, Sirianni for sure. Quinn is kind of a toss-up because I think there's you know Daniels was out a few weeks. He's got the defense playing pretty well. Like, I think if he kind of finds a way to get back near 500, if this bottoms out and it just collapses and they go win four or five games or something, then maybe. But I think if he gets to seven, eight wins, they'll probably keep him around.

I keep mentioning in terms of how I think this game goes, I keep bringing up the Dak Prescott efficiency on third down. And the Niners have not generated a tremendous pass rush. So if you let Dak sit back there and if George Pickens is back, I don't know if Joey Porter Jr. is going to make it out there. That is of some significance, despite the lack of pass catching options right now for Brock Purdy. I'm going to ride on a vibe here. I'm going to on what my gut is telling me. I'm going to take America's team against the San Francisco 49ers, in part because and this isn't a real sound logic that I'm applying here.

I think it's got to have a game for the Cowboys, right? Everything you talk about this offense, how good is Pickens had the week off to try and rest up his injury. Now he's back in the lineup, hopefully. And at some point, the 49ers aren't going to be able to keep this facade together, right? They just traded for Keenan Allen. If you talk about their skill position players, Keenan Allen mid-30s, George Kittel mid-30s, off in Achilles, CMC 30s, Deebo Samuel 30, Mike Evans 30s. At some point, somebody's going to look around and be like, wait a second. This isn't going to work. And I think it's going to start happening right here.

Too late. They missed their window to do it. Buddy, quickly.

I just think Brock Purdy is going to do unholy things to this Cowboys defense. Give me the Niners 38-31.

And the Rams laying nine and a half is enticing, but that number is probably too big to trust the Rams offense without Puka. So instead, I'm going to take the Indianapolis Colts laying just three and a half against the sad Miami Dolphins. Don't poke the bear or Danny Dimes. Danny Dimes has had his most dangerous with a chip on his shoulder. He's going to show up and give them Dolphins what, four? I'm taking the Colts by 10. Tony, how say you?

I'm going to take the Seahawks over the Raiders. I think Fernando's going to be really good. It's just going to take a little bit. And I've heard a lot of people say he's a bust, that he's not going to be that good. He's a winner, and I think he will be, but I think the Seahawks have something special for him. It's give me the Seahawks over the Raiders.

Who would call him a bust?

A lot of people.

I've had a lot of people in the group chat across different group chats saying he's a bust, he's not that good. I'm like, guys, he's very, very good.

Yeah. He's going to be good. This is a brutal test for him in his first career game. I'm going to take the Texans, Dave. Give me the Texans against the Browns.

All right, let's round it out here with picks, picks, picks presented by DraftKings Sports. Like we do every week, we give you one favorite, one over-under, and one underdog. I'll go first. My favorite this week, V New England in Munich. I will take the red-hot Detroit Lions laying two and a half there. I think they smoke the Patriots, as a matter of fact, and basically announce that the Patriots' hope of returning to the Super Bowl is hereby over. My total for the weekend, Bills and Jets, I'm going under 50 and a half.

I'm going to take the complete opposite of that. I think the Jags are going to steamroll the Titans. I think it's not going to be it's not going to be a tough task for them. Give me the Jags as my favorite. Give me the over in Texans-Browns. I think the Texans put BTA to the Browns in a way that we've seen CJ Stroud play incredibly. I think that's going to continue there. And what else? I have my favorite. Oh, my underdog. Give me those pesky Steelers on Sunday night football yins. Give me the three and a half with the Steelers.

Hey, you got some yins or soul in you, deep guy.

Come on.

Buddy, how are the season standings, quick?

Yeah, Dave, you had a monster week last week.

I did too.

Tony and Geno both put up two points last week. I put one up. So Dave, you have rushed out to a lead ahead of the rest of us. The biggest lead this season. You're at 15 points, and we are all tied for second. Of course, Tony and I should have that extra one and a half, of course. So we're all tied in second at 12 for my picks this week.

If you don't get your picks in, I have to accommodate you.

And I got to trust, buddy. What were my picks last week? I thought I went three and oh last week.

You went two.

Buddy is the worst. Buddy is the scorekeeper. It's such an asinine proposition. He lies about, well, you went oh and three. And I said, no, I didn't. And he said, oh, yeah, you're right. I'm like, what are we doing here?

The Cowboys did not.

I probably have like 30 points.

But they went, they did not cover five and a half. They won 27-23. So Tony went two and one last week.

Give us your picks.

My picks for this week. Okay, I'm going to take the Chiefs minus three against the Falcons. I just don't trust Michael Penix right now. Give me Tony and I Parker cars in the same garage with Texans-Browns over 41 and a half. And give me the Commies plus two and a half against the Giants. I even like buying that up to three to protect yourself against field goal there. Give me the Commies against the Giants.

All right, we'll count the Thursday night game. Geno, round us out here.

Dave, you stole my stick. The Dolphins' stress-free sundae loss is my sting.

I know. I know it is. I felt bad stepping on your toes like Rex Ryan does pedestrians, but.

All right. So we'll do it here. Colts are going to be my favorite. Two and a half points with their laying against the Dolphins. They'll blow past that. I'm going to go under Seahawks and Raiders here just for the same reasons that Tony pointed out. Fernando Mendoza is going to have some rough sledding in that first game, and I don't think the Seahawks can make it all the way up.

What's that number?

To 40 and a half by themselves with Drew Locke, I believe, still starting. And then the Panthers are going to be my underdog against the Saints.

Well done. And not as well done as Dave, who, as a reminder, went three and oh last week. And best wishes to all your teams out there. I hope they all win the Super Bowl this year. I feel bad. Apologies. I didn't think I had a great show today, but Joey Mulinaro was great. Tony, buddy, Geno, dynamite work per usual from you fellas. And we'll be back on the other side of the weekend to try and make sense of what week 10 told us. We will also be checking your comments and your questions in YouTube, Reddit, and wherever you find your podcast.

Let's go to eat a damn snack.