Transcript of Lamar's Subterfuge, Parisian Gridiron, and the Buck-Aikman Feud (feat. Connor Orr)

Look, between getting up early for the show, watching hockey late at night, and everything else going on, I'm trying to do a better job of taking care of myself, but I'm not trying to take a whole bunch of different supplements every morning. That's why I started using IM8. IM8 Daily Ultimate Essentials combines 16 supplements and 90 ingredients supporting 9 major organ systems into one drink. It was co-founded by David Beckham and developed by leading doctors and researchers. I just got my package and started working it into my morning routine, and that lemon orange flavor is my favorite. That is delicious. So far, I like how simple it is. One drink and I'm not dealing with a cabinet full of bottles, and I'm looking forward to sticking with it. Go to im8health.com/DAN right now and use code DAN for a free welcome kit. That's 5 free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code DAN at im8health.com/DAN. Code DAN at im8health.com/dan. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

My fellow football Americans, NFL Week 7 is upon us and also upon France. It's not in a Parisian cafe though, but in the charm and motor cities where the meaning of existence will be hashed up between divisional foes. If that wasn't clear, I'm just saying the Bengals and Ravens are playing and so are the Packers and Lions. Now Joe Buck and Troy Aikman They're the new Liam and Noel Gallagher, getting in fights when they're not making noise into the mic. Kenneth Walker is headed back to Seattle with his new family. Wonder if the Seahawks are going to close the borders to prevent him from leaving. Rams are in Vegas to play LA's favorite team, the Raiders. You know, today's the day we figure out what's going to happen before it happens. Before that though, a quick look back at how one team got here. Yeah, presented by Jägermeister. Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. For more, visit Jägermeister. Drink responsibly. And it is downright frigid here in Los Angeles, in SoFi at least. A lot of people trying to figure out why the Rams' alleged super team is something less than super so far.

Plenty of culprits, but I think this might have been where the problem started.

With the 13th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Rams select Ty Simpson, quarterback, Alabama.

Wow.

Yeah, so GM Les Snead decided to build for the future with Ty Simpson, thereby contradicting all the other decisions made in the offseason by GM-less Sneed. Listen, I get the appeal. There's a rich history of Simpsons leading drives around LA. But still, you've got one of the NFL's top 3 coaches, great running backs, 43 tight ends, those 2 Chiefs corners, 2 future Hall of Fame defensive linemen, one of whom actually plays. That's a lot, but it wasn't enough. And this isn't 20/20 hindsight just because Davante Adams got hurt. I've been a broken record about what happens if Puka Nacua gets hurt. You know though, I got a Jerry Oher back in there. When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. Rams are 1-3 in the games Puka's played. Still, a weird gamble to not boost the receiving corps after Nacua's crazy off year with all the antisemitism and face biting. Or maybe they should have drafted a lineman to help protect their QB with the bum back. Either way, of course the Rams traded for Myles Garrett at the start of June and had to give up next year's first-round pick to get him. So there is some logic in using this year's first to get a QB in the pipeline to eventually replace Matthew Stafford.

But it's also illogical to worry about the future when everything else you've done is for right now. And by now, I mean the 2026 season, which actually ends in 2027 at home, by which point, who knows, maybe Myles Garrett will be ready to play. By the way, so what if you stink next year? Couldn't be any more shameful than what SoFi's other team is doing this year. Worst, worst case, Garrett's gotta be ready for the start of next season, right? 60/40 at least? Just in time for the debut of Ty Simpson. And I hope, nay demand, that game be played in Cleveland. So Simpson goes up against the QB the Browns just drafted with the first-round pick they got for Garrett. Ooh, or against Browns' new QB, Mason Rudolph. Either way, lots of fun. And either way, let's start the show. How fun would that be for real? Miles Garrett playing against the guy who they used the pick that they got to give away Miles Garrett. Anyway, hi and hello, my fellow football Americans. Welcome to the NFL Week 7 preview. Welcome to Football America presented by DraftKings Sports, available in all 50 states.

Be a patriot, would you? Subscribe YouTube, wherever you find your audio podcasts. Do the right thing and leave us a comment while you're at it. We appreciate those of you who have taken that instruction. It's fun to have a conversation with you. In the meantime, a conversation that we're going to have is all about football, and we're going to conduct it with Connor Orr in just a minute from Sports Illustrated. In the meantime, hello to our guys, Gino and Buddy, behind the glass in Miami. who are joined by me, Caballo, Tony Kalatayud, author of the 10 Day Tony Substack, a great read for any football fan out there. How are you, fellas? What's going down, Gino? It's episode number 93. Who wore that number best in NFL or in sports history?

Surprisingly loaded number here, but it's across sports really. Uh, lots of defensive linemen. Yeah, John Randall, Kevin Williams, Trace Armstrong, And Domi Konczew. Uh, who else we got here? Trevor Price. Uh, there's some NHL, uh, talent here, buddy. Why don't you fill us in?

Yeah, Mika Zibanejad right now for the New York Rangers has been, has been great. Doug Gilmour for the Maple Leafs, uh, Hall of Famer, Devo. Uh, and then in basketball as well, you've got Ron Artest, Metta World Peace.

Wait, he was '93? I thought he was '91. And you left off Peter Nedved. How dare you?

Peter Nedved is on the list, but I figured you would fill that one in, Dave.

'91 was Rodman. Rodman.

The Rodman was '91.

That's right. Okay, um, big news for, uh, for All Football Americans. Starting next Monday, we're going to be live on YouTube directly after the Dan Le Batard Show. So every Monday and Friday, high noon Eastern, maybe a few minutes past the top of the hour— that's obviously 9 AM. I, I was If you say noon Eastern, people who live on the West Coast know what that means for them, right? And the people in the Mountain Time Zone also can do the math on that.

Of course, we operate in the Lord's time zone, Dave, but also it's going to be Monday and Thursday we're going to be live on the, on the— Friday, I guess.

My brain is not great. That's— I think we can all agree on that, right? Um, where to begin? How are you, Tony? How was your week away? We have some good news for you and your, uh, powers of prognostication as we jump in here and await the arrival of Connor Orr to have some conversation here. Let's sneak in real quick. It's time for Stress-Free Sunday delivered by Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. Right now, mix and match 2 or more large faves for just $5.99 each. Little Caesars, officially delicious. What we're looking to do here, and we do it every week, is we identify, as the name indicates, Stress-Free Sunday, is who will have the breeziest game. this weekend. Those are of course hard to find in the NFL, as my Week 5 pick proved. Dang Colts losing to the Titans. I'm still 4-1 on the season, and by Sunday night I'll be 5-1 because the Texans will vanquish number 9 JJ McCarthy, John Harbaugh's new starting quarterback, and the rest of the Giants too. How crazy is it that the Giants are the NFC's first-place team and they're playing a 2-4 team, and the Giants are 10.5-point underdogs.

But I think we can all see the reality here. And let's say the Texans do whip the Giants. What that tells me is the whole first month of the NFL season is really turning into what college football's first month has always been. While college football is in the midst of trying to make their season more like the NFL season, things are a little upside down. I do think Harbaugh made the right call with McCarthy, but the Texans are feeling it. And for what this matters, if you look back a year ago when they started out 0-3, their next 3 wins were all by double digits. I think they take care of business against the overmatched Giants. Uh, how say you fellas there? Buddy, you start us off.

Yeah, I'll go ahead here and take— you talked about the Colts losing to the Titans last week. I'm gonna take the team they're facing this week. That would be the Vikings in Minnesota. They are 6.5-point favorites. Dave, I am not a big fan of what's going on in Indianapolis right now. And even though I do believe that at some point the Vikings will pay for the lack of offense that they've had so far this season and not be this absolute juggernaut that's sitting at 5-0 right now, I don't think it's going to be this weekend. I don't think the Colts are the team to take them down. So give me the Vikings. I think Kyler will get going a little bit more of what we saw against the Saints against a Colts team that is just in a bad way right now. Fired the GM this week. Give me the Vikings -6.5 at the Colts.

Tony, people like to say when you disrupt the front office or the head coaching situation or whatever, that that gives the team a jolt. I kind of buy that that would be the case, right? You know that the owner's now down there walking the sidelines, patrolling them, and now she lops off Chris Ballard's head. Maybe that gives the Colts a little, uh, kick in the butt, right?

Is that going to fix Danny Dimes' atrocious start to the season? Because I don't think so. Like, you know, she's been walking the sidelines the entire season, even to last season. And it feels like the Colts— it feels like Danny Dimes has recovered from his Achilles injury, but the Colts haven't. Because everything is happening around him and he's not playing great, but everything that's happening around him is also not great. So it's like, I don't know how much blame to put on Danny versus the entire Colts organization, which is probably why then they start looking around saying, We know Shane Steichen, when things are rolling and everybody's in the place that they need to be, he's a very good offensive coach. Chris Ballard has made some confusing moves as GM, where at the beginning of his tenure he was making super sharp moves, and the trade for Sauce Gardner, the amount of money they gave Daniel Jones, like, there's a lot of question marks there also. So at this point, I expect to give a little bit of a bump. The problem is the defense that they're going up against is probably the best in the league.

So I'd probably take that bump a few notches down. I'm with Buddy. I think the Vikings handle that game very easily.

It's funny. It is a perpetual bizarro sort of effect that the best quarterbacks, people will make excuses for them. Well, look who he's throwing the ball to. But we don't do that with the middle-class QBs. I mean, what's Danny Dime supposed to do? I mean, he doesn't have legitimate wide receivers out there to try and target, right?

Well, neither does Josh Allen.

That's a good point.

I mean, I, I guess, again, with that, without DJ Chark.

Keon Coleman, who was, who was dead a couple of years ago and now he's back.

Neither does Patrick Mahomes, if we're being honest. Like, he's got Travis Kelce and then what? Rashee Rice has not become what we've wanted him to be. Xavier Worthy's running out of bounds for no reason with time left in the half, setting up a missed field goal. Like, I, he's the only guy that doesn't get that excuse, weirdly enough. Patrick Mahomes. Sorry to kind of take a detour here, but we make that excuse for Justin Herbert. We make that excuse for Josh Allen. We do not make that excuse for Patrick Mahomes. And I don't think we make it for Danny Dimes because I think we know at this point who Danny Dimes is. We know he's a contract year maniac. And then the rest of the time you get what you're seeing from him this year. You know,

I— well, I've heard a lot of excuses made for Patrick Mahomes over the last couple of years, like, oh, the, the, the old bones of Travis Kelce and who else? That's been a— that's been an ongoing story.

Look, between getting up early for the show, watching hockey late at night and everything else going on, I'm trying to do a better job of taking care of myself. But I'm not trying to take a whole bunch of different supplements every morning. That's why I started using IM8. IM8 Daily Ultimate Essentials combines 16 supplements and 90 ingredients supporting 9 major organ systems into one drink. It was co-founded by David Beckham and developed by leading doctors and researchers. I just got my package and started working it into my morning routine, and that lemon orange flavor is my favorite. That is delicious. So far, I like how simple it is. One drink and I'm not dealing with a cabinet full of bottles, and I'm looking forward to sticking with it. Go to im8health.com/DAN right now and use code DAN for a free welcome kit. That's 5 free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code DAN at im8health.com/DAN. Code DAN at im8health.com/DAN. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Delivered by Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL.

Right now, score 2 faves just for you with Detroit Style Slices and Sticks. It's the biggest duo since Monday Nights in Football. 2 pieces of Detroit Style deep dish pepperoni pizza and 4 pieces of Italian cheese bread and crazy sauce for just $4.99 only at Little Caesars. Make your game day delicious. With Little Caesars, officially delicious. All right, we have to do our top 3 games of the week, the ones that you absolutely, positively can't miss coming up on Sunday. But right now, he's a page maker supreme at Sports Illustrated. He podcasts there as well with our guy Bert Breer and with the heroes on Heed the Call, Hans Usensessler. Here he comes, everybody, our old pal Connor Orr, what's going down, fella? How are you?

I'm doing good. How are you?

What is that, a Dead hat you're wearing?

100%. Yeah.

I don't think I knew that about you, did I?

Really? I got the, uh, I got, I got the hat, I got the phone case, I got the, I got the sweatshirt over here. Yeah, man. This is the—

I know about that. Yeah, I know that. I know. Listen, what I do know about you is your pages have never been better. You, you're making dynamite pages on the sport of football. Everybody would do well to consume those and tune up their brain a little bit on our favorite game. Speaking of which, your pal Breer must be sick in his balls about Julian saying— have you touched base with him in the last couple of days?

We've had a rough go at it because I went a little too hard on the Texas game and then the Texas-Ohio State loss earlier in the season. I'm a big Notre Dame guy and he pushed my buttons a little bit on BYU. And so it's to the point where we just can't even address it. On the show or else it derails to the point where we actually impact the substantive football conversation. So we have to be careful there.

All right. Listen, I'm sorry to revisit something I brought up on Monday's show, but if Notre Dame loses at home to Miami, is there a credible case? I know they will make the playoff because NCAA feels bad about last year. But what is— is there any legitimate case for the Irish to make the 12-team playoff? if they lose both games against the only 2 good teams they play all year?

I'm just going to be 100% honest and say that the credible case for them making the playoffs is I want to watch it with my dad and my son. So that's my case, right? Like, and so that's not something that like the commissioner of the NCAA can be like, you know what, he makes a really good point. I'll sit there and stomp and pull my hair and be angry about it. But at the end of the day, they don't beat the good teams on their schedule that they're supposed to beat. And so I don't know. I can, I can get all worked up about it. But at the end of the day, the, the run to the national title game 2 years ago was such a great moment for me and my, and my oldest 2. And so, like, I just want it back. But at the same time, like, I can't reshape the structure of NCAA football to just get that to happen for me.

It's, it's— I've invented— I've coined a new one. It's the Margot Robbie paradox. Just because you talk to Margot Robbie doesn't mean you're dating her. Notre Dame playing good teams doesn't mean that they deserve to be in a playoff. They're just interacting with those teams. Okay. Speaking of interactions, Buck and Aikman, I don't know if you heard the news, but they're fighting. Our favorite broadcast booth. Is that a high-end broadcast booth for you, Connor, or would you be sad? Will you be sad with what seems to be a divorce pending here?

Marshawn got mad at me once for saying this on a podcast because I like Joe a lot and I like how When you listen to interviews that he gives, he's very open. He's very honest about his past and how he got there. Like, he's not one of these people that's lost touch with reality. And I like Troy too, but I've said historically that that is not a top 5 booth for me because for some reason when they're together, it just to me has the air that I'm being talked down to. And that's how I've felt as a football fan. Like, this is me and Troy and we're behind this velvet rope and our neighborhood has a Starbucks and we're here to talk to the Dunkin' Donuts people about how they, how about football. And so I've always had that feeling, and that could just be my own personal thing. And so is it going to represent some great loss to me? No. You know, and I'm always good for change. I like new, new voices.

I don't mean to disparage Troy Aikman. I've never been wowed by his insights. He just sounds like, as a lot of people point out on social media, he sounds like a creature from the late 20th century. All of his observations pivot off of how he did things and how his team succeeded, and every team should still be doing those things. I am fascinated by the idea that the reports are now that they almost came to blows. And I first thought, what's Joe Buck thinking? Don't get into a fight with a professional athlete. I once almost— the closest I ever came was I was down on the field at a Super Bowl and Ochocinco came walking by and there was a camera on me and I wanted to be a wiseacre, have some fun. And I said, Ochocinco, what are you doing here? The Bengals didn't make the Super Bowl. And he turned around and got right in my face. What did you say? And I said, the Bengals didn't make the Super Bowl. And he's like, oh, you a funny man. And they like had to separate us and everything. I was like, was Ochocinco really about to fight me there?

And much as I almost got into a fight once, and I'm not going to bore you with the story of how I almost came to not—

Please do.

Well, Wayne Gretzky and I had a little bit of a tiff once in the Kimmel green room. What? And his publicist had to come and take him away. And of course you think, you know, if you take a licking from a professional athlete, you know, that's what you would expect. But what if you win? What if I beat up Wayne Gretzky? They would have to erect a statue of me on the banks of the Three Rivers for defending Lemieux's honor. And if Joe— how does Troy Aikman go on if Joe Buck whips him?

I've been in a situation like that once, not with a famous person, but just a much larger person. And they hit me in front of a group of people. And in the back of my mind, I thought what a legend I would be if I took down this mountain of a man. And so I swung back and then I woke up in a Syracuse hospital, unable to breathe with 2 black eyes and a doctor coming over and saying, that was bad. And it's like, yeah, that was bad. And I think that when you're around someone for a long time, you probably think they're not going to kick my ass. Or Or if you haven't gotten your ass kicked before, you're like, how bad can an ass kicking possibly be? Really bad. So I would urge Joe Buck to err on the side of caution there because Troy's a big guy.

The only problem with that— well, I guess winding up in a hospital and all that, we have to fill in a better name than like, it was just some random big guy. Let's figure out who that big guy was so that the story has a little more juice to it. Where is Aikman a year from now? Let's, let's, uh, multiple choice it. In, in a booth with Jim Nantz? Here's my idea on this, by the way. How about we go 3-man booth? Why did those go the way of the dodo bird? Everybody loved that on Monday Night Football. How about you put, uh, put Aikman up there with Brady? Now we're cooking with gas. 2 different eras of QBs bouncing off of each other. Wouldn't that be nice?

I don't want to disagree because this is— I've come into your house, but Tom Brady is rounding into form. I think he's almost closed the gap with Olsen. I think his insights have sharpened over the last 2 years, and I actually look forward to what he has to say. I can't say the same about Troy necessarily, which is maybe why ESPN's thinking about moving on. And so I wouldn't want Troy to be taking up any of the airtime of Tom unless— Tom is going to get angry at Troy for taking up the airtime, and then the two of them are going to fight in the booth. And in that case, I would enjoy that. I think CBS made a commitment to Watt through next Super Bowl. Yeah. So I don't think that Aikman bounces down there, but I will be interested to see where he ends up landing, right? Because Fox, if they lose Olsen, maybe goes after Aikman to try to patch the gap, because I think Olsen's the natural heir apparent to Aikman in the ESPN booth. So we might just have a little bit of NBA trade deadline shuffling going on here.

Who would win that fight? Sorry, Brady or Aikman?

Okay, so I've thought— I've actually thought about this. I think that—

You've thought about Tom Brady and Troy Aikman having a fight and

coming to blows?

Because when you see, like, when you go to, like, the Super Bowl, for example, and you're on Radio Row, or, like, you're coming to and from a practice, you just cross paths with these guys a lot. And sometimes you have a lot of standing around time and you're like, oh, I wonder, like, what would happen if the two of them got, like, angry at each other and pushed each other? I think Troy Aikman's just got a little bit more leather on the skin. And I think he played in an era of football that was a little more conducive to, like, building the consummate tough guy. Whereas like Brady's signature calling card was throwing the ball before he got hit, you know, and he got hit. I'm not taking that away from him. I mean, he's gotten hit more times than I could even realize in my life. They

made a whole rule for him. Tom Brady rules 'cause he got hit.

Yeah. But I, I like Aikman in this one. I think he does strike me as a guy who like when it comes down to it, could, could maybe smash a beer bottle on a counter. Yeah. And make things a little interesting.

He's got country boy strength, right? He's from Oklahoma. And Brady's like a Bay Area pretty boy. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like Troy— I would take Troy in that one as well, probably.

Same.

All right. So option 2 in our multiple choice is— another one I have to throw out too is we really are missing the boat here. We should do a Manningcast type of thing with Tony Romo and Mark Sanchez. I think we'd all tune in for that, right? Get it with an appropriate sponsor and everything else. For real, Aikman can't— they just can't proceed with Aikman in the booth, can they? I mean, that can't be the side story unless it's sort of people like Siskel and Ebert back in the day because everybody knew they hated each other. And so you kind of watch these 2 guys talk about movies that you otherwise might not care their opinions of, except that you knew that underneath, like, ooh, they hate each other. This is kind of fun to watch. I mean, outside of that effect, why would you continue to do this? It's just a weird distraction, no?

I think Siskel and Ebert, the beauty of it was that the hatred pushed them both creatively and insightfully to the point where it was just like an intellectual pissing contest, which is great for us, right, as consumers of the product to listen to. Troy and Joe are like the couple that, you know, has been in marriage counseling for a while, and then they show up to like PTA night and they sit at your table and you're like, oh, I got to talk to those guys. And like, I don't know what's going on. Like, we know a divorce is coming. We know it's over. And so Like, how do you talk to those people? And, and so I think anything that they would do in a booth is automatically viewed through the lens of like, I, I just— it sounds like they don't like each other very much. And unless they address it, which I doubt that they would do, and we kind of know the details of the fight now, it just sort of hangs out there like, like an elephant in the room.

This is between you and me. There's no reason it has to ruin the bat mitzvah this weekend. Let's just put on a good face. That's what it sounds like as they talk over the 3 and a half hours of football. Okay, so is he in the booth? Is he running maybe the Cowboys? Because I feel like Jerry Jones kind of hints that he wouldn't mind Aikman being more involved there. Or is he sticking with the Dolphins or maybe the Colts or someone like that? What's Aikman's next 12 months look like?

I mean, again, when someone said that Greg Olsen wanted to coach in the NFL or to interview for GM jobs, I was like, huh, that's interesting. When someone said Philip Rivers was going to interview for the Bills job, I was like, okay, I can see that. The NFL is so different from when Troy was playing. And like, his experience with team building was like Jerry Jones assembling like one of the greatest rosters that like money could possibly buy. And yes, like we were entering a capped era during that time, but like the fruits of the Herschel Walker trade and all that kind of stuff, like what, what can you deliver me in terms of relevant modern experience? And what are you taking away from all the interviews that you're doing? versus Olsen, who's just gotten out of the game, versus Rivers, who's just gotten out of the game. I mean, it's just so— it's so incredibly different than it was 30 years ago that I just don't know what he's offering me as an executive. You know?

I tend to agree, but it seems like there are— there's some percentage of those billionaires who see it differently. They're like, he's a football man who I'm familiar with, and so we should get him. He knows what he's talking about. You saw what the Colts did with Jeff Saturday. I mean, that kind of speaks to what the reality is. sometimes looks like. Um, the trade deadline's coming, and this is a thing my, my brain's still trying to adjust to, is that name players get moved within the season and swing, you know, contenders or would-be contenders and their, and, and their fates. Um, who do you suspect? Kirk Cousins, Jonathan Taylor's in the news as a possibility. Who do you think actually moves and where do they go?

I think we got to watch the Eagles and the Colts over the next couple weeks, right, as we get into the trade deadline. If I'm Shane Steichen, I'm like finding a walk-in freezer to lock Jonathan Taylor in so that no one can get him out of the building, because that's my ticket to the full-time head coaching job and a new contract under a new head coach. If you lose Taylor, and if— or if you lose Quentin Nelson for that matter, you're toast. I mean, that offense can't exist. And DeForest Buckner is another name that I could see on the move, a really talented veteran tackle. Teams need interior defensive line play. It's just so vital to the game right now. Saquon Barkley, right? I mean, the Texans were the runners-up or perceived runners-up for Saquon Barkley the last time he was on the move. And with Woody Marks kind of running the show, I think he thought David Montgomery was going to have more juice than he has. Go out and get Saquon Barkley. Invest in this thing because after the Marvin Harrison trade, you're looking good. Make this a fun thing down in Houston.

I think it'll be a vibrant trade deadline to some degree because we're going to have a better idea of the haves and the have-nots. And if you're too far away to get a quarterback at this point, you might as well push and go all in and try to make the playoffs.

That's some fairly juicy stuff there. I mean, yeah, if Saquon were to move, man, what a piece that would be. All right, let's take a trip across the Atlantic, shall we, and talk about this black and gold v. gold and black showdown in, in Gay Paris. I'll tell you right now, the Saints are the underdog, +3.5 at the time of this recording. Do you want to dig into this one Paris style? Let's do it.

Let's go.

All right. Let's be in a, in like a Paris—

You need a cigarette. You need a cigarette, Dave.

Well, j'ai l'impression qu'on pique ce burger.

Oui, je suis alors à coup de couleurs. Je vais devoir négocier avec Jamie Bernard qui va plaider les atouts des en place.

Oui, oui, je suis ravi que vous ayez évoqué l'existence. Selon vous, quel est le sens de la vie?

Eh bien, comme le disent les apôtres, c'est à vous de donner un sens à la vie.

Hmm, ça dérange et tiraudinique Compte tenu de sa prétention plus large à vouloir voir attribuée une valeur à notre réalité commune.

C'est vrai, Malcolm Liddy, Camus dans Les Transes, puisque nos ventouses modernes, elles évitent qu'un coup mordante à la manière importe peu.

Ah, vous voulez donc dire qu'on perd un match de plus? Dans ce cas, Washington a une saison déjà perdue. Nous devrions pas être une source de dépression pour Alvin Kamara?

Oui, vous à côté, tu taffes et le 1-1 va en venir.

I think we said it all there. I mean, that was totally—

My favorite part of that was Jemmy Benad. Nailed it.

I got a D- in college French. I got to the end of the road at Syracuse and they were like, dude, you need a language. And so I took freshman French and, um, we— Google Translate was just starting to come around back then. And so I, I went to like 2 classes, but my final project, which I nailed, was an in-depth description of Zidane headbutting the guy in the World Cup. And it was like an oral presentation that we had to do. And I just memorized Google Translate. It was like one of the— it was like my one, like, whatever that Bradley Cooper movie where he takes the pill and he's a genius. It was like the one time that happened in my life. So I pulled it off.

I think what I'm excited for is if we put this on social media, that there will be people who say like, you're Your pronunciations were terrible.

I don't even know what I said. I didn't look at the translation part that you sent me.

Oh, you didn't? No, we talked about how the Steelers probably have an edge against the worst-scoring defense in the league. The Steelers offense seems like it's getting rolling a little bit on the ground. And also, I feel like Rodgers figured something out with the quick pass game, or Jeremy Bernard provided enough In terms of spacing on the field, that it is all of a sudden, it does look like a hard offense to manage, even though he never pushes the ball past 5 or 10 yards downfield. The big question is, is Mike McCarthy allowed to ask Aaron Rodgers to run some of the plays that he and the coaching staff have come up, or is this now just entirely Aaron Rodgers' offense? I do think I said this 3 weeks ago after the Browns loss, the best thing the Steelers had going for them was the breezy 4-game stretch they had coming up. They're 2-0 now. So then they go after this one, Brownies in Pittsburgh. Then they have a nice bye, come back out, beat them Bengals. I don't think that's a crazy next month or so for the Steelers to have and be, you know what, 7-2 at that point.

I think they do survive this one. I don't think they hammer the Saints. 26-24. How say you on this one?

Ooh, I hope so. I've gone through the wringer with Pittsburgh. So the first 2 weeks of the season, you know, I watched those games and then with Hansus and Mark, we pick the games, we draft the games every week, and I got stuck with it twice in a row and I just flipped out. I was like, I'm just done watching this team. It's unwatchable football. But then all of a sudden, um, it started to become really fun to watch Steelers football again. Like, they were doing cool stuff with like Ben Skowronek and slipping him through the formation and doing all— I was like, wow, where's this, uh, come from? And now they've kind of melded back into a pumpkin again. So I, I don't know what to expect. But let's say both teams are exhausted. Clearly nobody wants to be there. There's full-scale riots in Paris. So like everyone's probably got an eye over their shoulders. So 21-18 Steelers and the defense shuts it down. New Orleans final drive attempt for a field goal.

That's about how I see it going there. And by the way, as we say goodbye to Connor Orr, we talked about the game, we talked about Jeremy Bernard, and that led into some Jean-Paul Sartre and then some Camus.

Yes.

Talking about the meaning of existence and all of that. That's what we covered. I dare say in French or English, no other show analyzed this one invoking those names collectively, right?

I really hope that my TA from French class was listening. I wanted to do this one for him.

What a rangy fella. Start out with the Grateful Dead. We end with some French talking. Great stuff, Conor. An asset to Heed the Call and Sports Illustrated. Make sure you're checking out the pages like I mentioned, and The Noise on the podcast with the heroes over there on the great Heed the Call. Thanks, Pally.

All right, thanks, Dave. We'll see ya.

Great to see you.

Out on the road, it's nice to have a partner who can help you make the most of your journey. A partner like the Love's Rewards app. With Love's Rewards along for the ride, you save 10 cents on every gallon of gas Every time you fill up at Love's and up to $0.25 on every gallon of auto diesel. That's why it's the best fuel discount program on the road. Download the app today, then watch those savings add up mile after mile. Love's Rewards, save and earn at every turn. Terms apply, not available in all states.

There he goes, Connor Orr. Any thoughts on that Steelers game real quick before we jump into The 3 most consequential games of the weekend, fellas.

Yeah, I refuse to pick anything involving the Saints because I cannot figure this team out. When I pick them, I, I, they, they lose. We figured— hold on, we figured it out.

Whenever you pick, pick opposite.

Yeah, that's, that's a good point. I figured, you know what, okay, so I'll take the Steelers in this one. So if anybody— Okay, I want to take the Saints. No, but the, the one thing I really did, like I said to Tony in here, find fascinating from that interview is the possibility of Saquon Barkley being traded. Like, I, I don't think it happens, but it's possible. It's at least plausible, right, that they would do it.

Why would it happen though?

Because they've got nothing. They've got nothing. You're right, you're right.

They don't even know if they have a quarterback.

I hadn't even considered it because it's so shocking, but when you really think about it, it's not a bad idea for— especially for a team like the Texans to go and get him. That would be a great pickup for the Texans.

Back to Tony's point, it's only likely. that Jalen Hurts comes back next year.

Even then, do you have— do you— is, is Jalen Hurts the guy for your future?

We were already discussing that before the blood clots, right?

With the team the way it does, if you got Goedert, who's another piece that can get moved for a team that's trying to get a championship, that's thin at tight end, DeVonta Smith is going to be your number one. Like, uh, we haven't really seen any good examples of that. Like, this team is in a huge flux position of this could be completely blown up by Howie Roseman Very quickly, Dave.

Well, but don't forget this, and we'll talk more about it, but you know, the NFC East, that is an element that you have to regard. This isn't a team— they're not in a division with the Niners. They're not some heavyweight undefeated team above them. The first-place team, as I already mentioned, is 3-2-1 New York. I mean, they can absolutely win this division unless you believe that the Cowboys are about to turn it around. Spoiler alert, I kind of sort of do think that, but there's a lot of enthusiasm in the air, at least for Tanner McKee, right? So maybe he's good. Here's a way to look at it. Are the Eagles going to beat out the Giants by the end of the year, Tony? I mean, are they going to finish with a better record?

Depends on how McCarthy does. I don't think he's the answer for them. I just don't know if they go back to Jameis. They may be even. You know what would actually help the Giants? The tie. The tie might actually help the Giants.

That always seems to help somebody, right?

They're going against the Eagles. I just don't see how the Eagles, especially getting to the trade deadline with all the pieces that they have available to make moves on, I don't see how they don't just bottom out the roster and try to get picks next year and figure things out maybe in free agency.

So you see a full rebuild coming in Philly? They have to. I see a retool.

They have to. No, no, it's a rebuild. They got rid of Cam Juergens. Lane Johnson's gone. Dickerson's been hurt. Like, Mailata's their one guy who's a stalwart on that offensive line. Your quarterback is hurt. Your running back is hurt. Your wide receiver is hurt. hurt and your other wide receiver's gone, right? Like, you start looking around, say, what does Philly really have?

It's a good point. It's a good point.

Tony, I— we were talking about this with Nick Kostos at the start of the week. It keeps coming up for me. Let's say, Tony, you fell into a coma, uh, 7 weeks ago, right before, right before the, uh, the Australia game, and, and you just came out of it and you're like, man, like, like, don't worry, everybody at home is fine. Like, I wasn't worried about that. Update me on what's going on in football. What would be the most surprising note that I would give to you about like, here are the standings and here's how every— here are all the individual players' numbers. What one thing would jump out at you? It's like, what? That's going on?

Oh my God, the Chargers are 0-6.

That would be it.

What, what do you mean Justin Herbert looks terrible? What do you mean the offense— everybody keeps saying that every piece that they have is the wrong fit for Mike McDaniel's offense. What do you mean by that? How are they 0-6? How is Harbaugh still alive? Like, I feel like that would have killed him by now. Like, oh, it's 6. We had these guys in the Super Bowl. It's August. I got hit in the head. Let's not forget, it's September.

What? Let's not forget Dave Damashek at one point in the offseason said the Chargers were in the Super Bowl. I won't let him live that down. But that's fine. I don't care. Yeah, I know, I know you changed it. You got away from it. That's fine.

But he said it at one point, and that team was 0-4 to start the year.

Yeah, that's a good point. great point. And the Cowboys are also 2-4. So, uh, no, I, I, I think the—

No, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. I'm not gonna have— I'm not gonna have you, uh, you, uh, assault my character like that. I said because it would be fun in SoFi Stadium, once upon a time in Hollywood, if you had the Chargers and Rams. I was talking more about the narrative. It wasn't insane to float that in July.

No, it wasn't.

But by August, I changed it. I said Cincinnati Bengals And I said Dallas Cowboys. And you can laugh now, but I do think Joey Porter Jr. does upgrade that defense a little bit. And I do think that offense— I mean, talk about things that make no sense, that the Cowboys offense can't get it going a little bit. That's got to change, especially in that garbage division.

Just feels like they've been figured out. Like, I, I think I said this on Monday, but it seemed like the Packers knew what the Cowboys were going to do on every play.

But how do you get figured out when you got CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens and Javonte Williams.

It's crazy. Their offense feels so vanilla watching them. Like, it's just the same thing over and over again. And, and I, I don't know. They have the talent to drag themselves out of this. I still believe Dak Prescott is one of the elite quarterbacks in this game. And obviously he has 2 of the best receivers in the game. And Javonte Williams has been fantastic. But they, they got to figure something out because it feels like they have been Like the Packers were on everything they tried to do on Sunday Night Football last week. All

right. Well, time's running out on us. So sorry, we got to jump to the 3 most consequential games of Sunday. If you can only watch 3 games, these are those. I also want to shout out the fishiest line of the week. Niners only laying 3 at Atlanta. Very weird number there. But okay, that's not what we're talking about. At number 3 on this week's list, it's the Packers. It's the Lions. It's in Detroit. Detroit is giving 3. Total at the time of this recording, 53.5. You remember a few weeks ago in our week-to-week league when the Packers were no good? They were finished. Well, now they are good. And meantime, the Lions, who I said in August wouldn't be good, and they kind of aren't good so far, and more and more people are jumping on that bandwagon. But I don't know if there's a bandwagon for people who don't believe in something. I don't know what you would call that, but I think you're picking up what I'm laying down. Jumping off. Okay, okay, good. Um, big thing to watch in this one is whether or not the Lions can get out in front.

Um, and that offense is gangbusters, certainly, um, because then they should be able to run the ball at the Packers defense with Jahmyr Gibbs. Um, Gannon's done a good job tuning up that Packers defense until Micah Parsons can get back. But like I say, the Lions are scoring almost 33 a game, and that's 12 more than the Packers are. Give me the Lions 34-30. I know that I was not on that page a few weeks ago, but Dave has to— Dave has to open his mind sometimes, and that's what I'm doing. I encourage you to do the same. Open your mind. I don't know what I'm talking about. How do you see this one going, Tony?

Um, I really like this game, and I'm glad we brought it up because there's a couple battles of wills here, right? We've seen the offensive line for the Packers be so bad at pass run— uh, pass block win rate throughout the first 3 or 4 games of the season. And they've actually kind of shored it up over the last 2 weeks where they've been really dominant. But then you look across the line and defensively, the defensive line for the Lions has been great at creating pressure and they've got a ton of great metrics on their side. So it's like you start looking at that, then you, you peel that one a little bit further back. Lions offense, 2 seasons without Ben Johnson, have scored 175 points and 164 points in '25 and '26. through the first 5 games of the season, better than they had at any point with Ben Johnson. So we start thinking, all right, was this offense because of Ben Johnson or is it because of the players that they have? They've tried to figure it out. This season they are kicking ass and taking names. I think this is going to be a huge Jahmyr Gibbs game, and I think Jameson Williams gets over the top for a couple of scores.

Ooh. I see this one high-flying. I think highest total of the week at 53.5. I think they're going to burn through this one. I think it's in the 60s again. I'm gonna take Detroit too. I really like Detroit here against Green Bay. I think they're gonna figure out a couple things on the defensive line to attack Jordan Love and stymie that offense.

Right. You can buy the sort of like, ah, there's plenty of season left if we lose this one, but it's in Detroit. And if you're living in shared reality, I think, and you're on the Lions, you kind of understand we need this. Gotta have this loss. The Packers are on a roll. They're gonna get away from us. The Vikings are undefeated. With Caleb Williams, the Bears are a vastly superior team. We just can't afford to lose any more ground here. I hear what you're saying there. I also think, to play devil's damoshek, that that offense is in a position to thrive. They're throwing the ball quite a bit because the defense is so bad that they get into shootouts almost every week. Buddy, how say you?

Yeah, I think this could be actually the most important game of the week when you look at it, because all of these games between all of these teams in the NFC North are going to be so important for them because they're legitimately— we, we said it before the season— 4 teams from this division, all 4 teams could make the playoffs. So each game is going to be so important. And I just think this one's going to come down to defense, and I just don't think that the Lions defense is going to be able to stop the Packers. Give me a shoot— not quite the shootout that you guys have it as, but give me the Packers here, 31-27 in Detroit.

If one defense stops the one offense once, that team wins the game.

Correct. That's, that's literally how I feel about the game. It could be that way. It also could be who has the ball last. But I, I just think that the Packers defense, I think they have a better shot of stopping the Lions offense than the Lions defense has of stopping the Packers offense. So give me the Packers.

Gina.

I think the only thing that's going to stop the, the Packers from having their way with the Lions defense is they're going to want to run the ball now that they have Jacobs. They're going to want to try and run the ball. And the Lions are a pass funnel, right? They, they make it, they make it so that you can't run the ball. And then, I mean, their defense is hurt as it is as well. So that's going to make it even worse for them. I, I do think that being at home is going to, is going to help Detroit here. And I think that's probably going to be the deciding factor. 37-35 is what I have. But like, like what Tony said about Jameson Williams, watch out because they just came out of the bye and they haven't been giving him the— getting him the ball regularly the last couple of games. He's finally had a couple of good stat lines. But even the last game, it was just 2 catches. that happened to be touchdowns. Last year when they went into the bye, they came out and Jameson Williams went crazy for the rest of the year.

Interesting. Okay, so that's a good fantasy play. I don't assume everybody has Jameson Williams in their starting lineup. Interesting observation there. All right, on to the second game, Chiefs and Seahawks. Now I could put this at number 1, but they're not in the same conference, and so it's a little less impactful by definition. The Seahawks at home laying 2.5, total is 42.5. And I do wonder, because this is basically, um, uh, you know, the, the big game of, uh, the reigning Super Bowl MVP making his return home. And I do wonder, is John Schneider embarrassed? Probably not, because he just built this— the, the roster that won him and the franchise their second Super Bowl. And it also begs the question, I wonder when Schneider and company decide, and McDonald's Do we— are we gonna yank the guy who just won the Super Bowl at quarterback? That almost never happens in the Super Bowl era. Buddy, what are examples of other teams doing that off the top of your head? I know you're not steeped in the history, or Tony, jump in. The one that comes to mind for me always is that the Ravens won the Super Bowl against the Giants at the turn of the millennium with Trent Dilfer, and they just let him go.

Such outrage based on the Ravens' results the following season that then when Flacco made that same run for the Ravens, there was no debate. They had to keep him no matter what. They knew that it was an overpay to keep Flacco, who was a good, not great quarterback, but after that Trent Dilfer experience especially, they had to stick with him. But bottom line is you don't see the Super Bowl champ QB get yanked very often. No.

I would say Nick Foles. That's the one I was gonna say. When he won, they thought they had an MVP in Carson Wentz, and they let him walk. I wanna say it was to the Jaguars. The Jags paid him $75 million or something like that. Broke his collarbone game 1, and then he was just kind of never another player after that. But that's the one I can think of outside— didn't win the Super Bowl, but the Rams got rid of Jared Goff immediately after losing 13-3 to the Patriots. They bring in Stafford, they win one, what, 2 years later?

I don't even know how many Super Bowl MVPs haven't been on their team the next year. Like, it's crazy. And also, you've seen the impact that Seattle has had, like it's had on Seattle letting Kenneth Walker walk in favor of Rasheed Shaheed seemingly. And now they can't run the football. And Zach Charbonnet should be back this week by all accounts. So they are a 3-point favorite as of now on DraftKings heading into this game. But Dave, I got to tell you, These two teams kind of feel like they're going in opposite directions. The Chiefs last week barely tried and they still covered 11.5 against the Chargers. It seemed like, like they didn't even look like they were playing that hard. Their offense was not functioning that well. And still they came out and beat a division opponent by, by, by more than 11.5. Give me the Chiefs here, Dave. I'm going to ride with Patrick Mahomes over Sam Darnold. I think it's going to be a defensive battle. These are two good defenses going at it. Especially Seattle's. We know about that. I think the interesting storyline in here is I don't think it should be, but a lot of people believe that this could be Sam Darnold's last start for the Seahawks.

And I think the calls, if they lose this game, as I have them doing so 24-20, the calls for Drew Lock are going to get a lot louder.

Well, that's the thing, the thing that seems uninspired. And I like Drew Lock, but if you yank Sam Darnold, you know, what's the answer of who you're bringing in? I don't know that Drew Lock—

You wave the white flag at that point, right, Dave? Like, you're like, the Super Bowl quarterback is gone. We're gonna bring in the pedestrian backup who had a couple good games. But then when he stinks, what are you gonna put Sam Darnold back in?

Yeah, it plays as flailing. The Seahawks are about defense, obviously. Now, you hear about Jonathan Taylor and Saquon Barkley. You know, maybe that's in play for them to try— the Seahawks to try and get one of those guys. In the meantime, like I say, they should be a little red in the face. He— Kenneth Walker is the Super Bowl MVP and all of that, and he was really good with the Seahawks, but he's way, way better with the Chiefs. Doesn't that sort of like— our product ain't as good as that one, clearly. No. And, and it's easy to say, well, that's Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, but most people, a majority of football fans, did not see the Chiefs being this good. So it's not the reason that the Chiefs are this good, in fact, is because Kenneth Walker left Seattle. And wound up in Kansas City. Here's the good news for Seattle though. Like I say, Mike McDonald is a whiz. That defense is great. 7 picks so far this season, but more importantly, only 150 or so passing yards. But they've been doing it with just 4-man fronts. They are not loading up the box and they are holding runners to 4 yards a carry.

Kenneth Walker is doing it at like 6-plus a carry. So if they can do that, if they can stick to not having to load up to stop Kenneth Walker and then— and can then worry about the pass game, that feeds into exactly what McDonald wants to do. I think it works this time around. Seahawks 24-20. Tony, how say you?

I like Kansas City here as a live dog and we talk about Kansas City's defense and the limitations that the Seahawks have on offense. Sam Darnold is going to be faced with a lot of exotic blitz blitz packages. And on top of that, if you look through— and Aaron Schatz had this, had this stat— Kansas City's defensive DVOA is number 1 versus wide receiver 1s this season. Jaxon Smith-Njigba's been— I think he's got 720 yards, just him. If we want to look that up really quick, I think he's got almost as much— He's the whole offense. As his tandem's wide receivers do. I feel like he's—

717. The next highest is Chris Olave at 580 in receiving yards.

Unbelievable. He's doing it basically all by himself. And every defense that they go against knows, all right, Where's 11? Let's, let's try to like stop him at some point. And they haven't really been able to do that. Kansas City uniquely qualified to do that against JSN. We'll see how that goes. I think I'm gonna take Kansas City here. I think Reid is gonna scheme Kenneth Walker in ways in the passing game that are gonna nullify those 4-man fronts and get a lot of people out of the box there. So give me Kansas City 27, Seattle 21.

Fun coaching showdown. Geno, sorry, we got to be quick here because we also got to do picks, picks, picks.

I'm going to take Seattle to win this one 23-20. I think Zach Charbonnet coming back is going to be really important.

Have you seen his legs?

I know, but it's, it's not so much that the, the load that they plan on giving him, it's the fact that they're going to have 2 running backs and they'll probably mix in Halani. And one of the big things that's been keeping the Seahawks down has been the turnovers from Sam Darnold and the offense, to Darien Price fumbling the ball. So if they can limit that, then I think their defense can take over because they have far and away the best pass defense in the league. And that's one of the reasons they're not loading the box because they want to defend the pass. And if they're holding teams to— I don't even know what I think it was, 143 passing yards per game. That's ridiculous.

Real quick, the next highest receiver on the Seahawks, Cooper Kupp with 179 yards. Nobody else has more than 1 touchdown. JSN has 7.

Yeah, it's crazy.

8 rivals. I said before the season, if Puka Nacua is not the Jenga piece of his team, Then JSN is the number 1. Like, if you remove him from that offense, I don't know what happens up in Seattle. All right, let's— and by the way, the Fuentes house will be alive with enthusiasm and nerves when the Seahawks take the field watching their old pal Kenneth Walker. Mrs. Fuentes is a big Hawks fan. Yeah. And that brings us to number 1, Bengals-Ravens. The home team at the time of this record— well, wait, It's all over the place because Lamar Jackson is practicing, but he's not 100% no matter what in time for the game. So this is a really, frankly, hard one to address. Bengals coming off the bye, I think that's good for most pro football teams. Burrow and company going against a Ravens defense that likes putting 6 DBs on the field at one of the highest rates in the NFL. And so you would think that maybe that means some quick pass game and some, some Chase Brown more than what we've seen so far this year. You did get some indication Yeah.

The last— that the last time we saw the Bengals play. On the other side, and maybe this is the whole game that really intrigues me, is DJ Turner against Zay Flowers. Flowers has an outsized role in the Ravens offense. For what it's worth, Turner won last year when they were lined up against each other in 2025. Flowers had a total of, in the 2 games, 1 catch for 14 yards. Bengals 30, Ravens 24. Tony, how say you?

I like the Bengals off the bye here. Obviously, we know that Lamar is banged up, even if he does play or doesn't. I'm going to take Cincinnati live dog here, +1.5, 24-13. I just think Burrow, Higgins, Chase, they're all going to be on the same playing field. Chase Brown's got to get something going. I think he's got the most carries.

I need him to get something going, Tony. He's got— I picked him up in my Guillotine league.

He's got 50— he's got the most carries without a 15 or more yard rush in the NFL.

Most touches, not even carries.

Touches, excuse me, touches. It's insane. Give me Cincinnati +1.5. I think they get that corrected.

Well, by the way, you know, we have to make excuses for some guys in the league, and Lamar Jackson is one of them. And Lamar Jackson, like we saw at the tail end last year, if he plays but he's not 100%, well, then you can't hold it against him. Lamar Jackson isn't going to be 100% in this game. That's why I have Cincinnati Buddy, how say you?

Yeah, I think the Bengals really need a game to really jumpstart their season. They're 3-2, but it feels like they just kind of haven't really launched into where we expect them to be yet. I think this is the game, especially if Lamar's not playing. Give me the Bengals 31-17 if Lamar doesn't play, 31-28 if he does.

A whipping. Gino, how say you?

I'm gonna go 31-21 Bengals. I don't know what it is, but every time Joe Burrow goes to Baltimore, he lights them up. He's got, I think, 9 touchdowns and 2 interceptions over his last 5 games there. So I'm going with the Bengals.

Well, it's because Burrow is good and the Ravens defense hasn't been good for a number of years. That's probably the explanation for that. All right, let's round it up here with Picks, Picks, Picks presented by DraftKings Sports. Like we do every week, one favorite, one over-under, one underdog. Buddy, quickly, where do we all stand 6 weeks through?

Yeah, we've got an interesting thing going on here, Dave, because, you know, Tony thinks he's owed a point and a half because he missed last week's week's games, which is ridiculous. Um, so, but right now I, I'm coming, I'm coming off a 2-1 week. Steelers-Bucs over 39.5. They don't call it overtime. That puts me in the lead at 9 points. Dave and Tony are tied at 8. Dave 0-3 last week. Tony went 3-0.

You don't say that into the microphone.

You don't tell anybody my business. We gotta be honest here. Dave 0-3, Tony 3-0 last week.

Commies came in late. Wow.

Listen, we, we know there's the controversy, but right now The points stand 9, me, Tony and Dave tied at 8, and then Geno right back behind them at 7.

Kind of closely packed together there. That's all in the rearview. I'm moving forward here. My favorite, it's a bold one. Broncos laying 4.5 at Arizona. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who went to Harvard, may not like it, but whatever ails Nix and company, Arizona's 31st-ranked scoring defense will provide the cure. The game's not in SoFi. Um, so I will take, uh, I will take the Broncos on the road. Tony?

I'm gonna go to a line that you called spooky earlier, or scary, I don't remember which one it was. San Francisco 2.5 at Atlanta. I think we saw Atlanta, uh, get exposed a little bit with what the, uh, with what the Bears did last week. I know it's cross-country, I know it's an early time zone game, I just think that Brock Purdy's good enough to overcome whatever the issues are. I know they have no wide receivers, but they're going to lean on Christian McCaffrey, on Keelan Black. They're going to lean on George Kittle. And I think the defense is just superior. I'm going to take them 28-20 against Atlanta. So give me San Francisco.

What I, what I said, I didn't use either of the words you said. I said it was a fishy line. And now it's even fishier because now it's gone from -3 to -2.5.

Yep. Yeah, I'll go here. Tony and I park our cars in the same garage, and I didn't think anything of it until you said that it was fishy, Dave. But it is a little fishy. But I think the Niners are the best team in the league. I don't think that Penix will be able to move the ball very well against that Niners defense. Give me the Niners here.

I didn't know you also had that. We don't talk about the picks, Dave, so we don't know who each other has down here. Exactly. If I knew Buddy had it, I would have changed mine.

Oh, I got more for you.

I know I'm lean right now, Tony. You might want to— you might want to follow my path.

I'm actually in the lead at 9.5.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

We got to figure that out, Gino.

We got to do something.

You have to wonder what would happen if the 49ers got everyone healthy all of a sudden, right? Would they just be like the most dominant team in recent memory?

Yes.

I'm going to go with the Rams giving up 3.5 at the Raiders. If they don't win this one, then we might have to talk about them tripping all the way.

Yeah.

All right, let's do the total and I'll start us off. I'm sticking with that Broncos and Cards game. Brissett is optimal for a high-scoring game because he throws a lot of picks, but they do have a knack, and he has a knack of putting up some touchdowns as well. I think Bo Nix kind of gets right, or that offense does at least. I'm going over 43.5, buddy.

Yeah, I am going to go with another low total this week. Uh, I love what the Texans are doing on offense right now, and, uh, I don't love what they're doing on defense. So low total here against the Giants 42.5. Give me the over on this one. Remember, 24-20 gets you over. 23-20 gets you over as well.

We understand basic math. Gino, how say you?

Gotta help people out.

Uh, okay, so the, the solid defense is at least starting to cook a little bit even though the offense can't get anything going. They're up against the Browns who just beat the Ravens 13-10. This is the lowest line of the week at 37.5, and I don't think it's low enough. So I'm gonna go Browns-Titans under.

Interesting. That— I mean, that's the other fishy line. Why, why are the Browns only throwing, uh, uh, a point or 2 to the bum Titans? That's, uh, that's a— Browns are gonna— Disgrace to the Cleveland— see, okay, my dog, speaking of, uh, Cleveland, really good. Over-under,

Tony's, Tony's total.

I'm not gonna get out of this. I'm gonna get these points in. Pittsburgh-New Orleans, give me the Steelers 27-23. I'm gonna take the over 44 and a half over across the punt return.

I like that number.

Yeah, like I said earlier, the Saints have the worst scoring defense in, uh, in the NFL. Um, speaking of that fishy— another fishy line— I was very tempted to go with, uh, with Tennessee as my dog because the Browns are 4-2 and the Titans are only +1.5. Instead, for fun, I'm gonna take the Dolphins because it'd be very— They have to win it. They don't have to win a game. They don't have to, but they are, but they are playing the Jets. And if they kind of look at a piece of paper with all the games on it, they'd be like, this is one of the ones that we might win. We're gonna win one of like, there are like 3 or 4 games that we have a shot in. This is definitely one of 'em. So for fun, I'll take the Dolphins. Geez.

I'll do the same thing, Dave. I have the Dolphins down here at +4.5. So we are park— we're all parking our cars in the same garages this week. Yeah, give me the Dolphins. I think off a bye, this is their chance. Like this, this is one of their chances, right? The Titans, I think we— they play them later. The Chargers in Week 16. This is one of their chances for sure. Give me the Dolphins +4.5.

Gino?

Well, nobody asked me about my Little Caesars Stress-Free Sunday pick, but that would have been the Jets because the Dolphins are just the most awful team and I have to stay on brand. But my underdog pick is going to be the Giants because 10.5 is a lot in the NFL. So I'm just going to play the, the math here. I don't think they're going to win. I think they'll lose by 9. Wow.

All right, we'll round it out. It was a kooky Saturday, maybe the kookiest we've ever seen in the history of people last week. Not a great slate in college football this week. Ole Miss at Texas fascinates me because after the Longhorns win that game, and they will, we'll have to indulge the, the Texas is good again, right? And the SEC is the best conference, and I'm not at all looking forward to that. What I am looking forward to is while Pittsburgh's pro team is in Gay Paris, the Pitt Panthers are visiting equally exotic Miami, home to the number one Canes. Hail the Pitt! Beat them Canes! You want to know something funny? Yeah, go ahead. Tell me something funny.

No, fuck that. It better be funny. Fix that. Fix that. Fix that. I was— fix that.

I'd love to. I'd love to hear your—

No, I was just gonna say that I'm gonna be in the building. It doesn't matter. It's not that funny. I was trying to sneak it in. It's not that funny. I'll be at the Canes game this weekend. The Gator fan. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to wear. Yeah, I don't know. But

you keep yourself warm. You can wrap yourself in the, in the blanket of lies that is that the SEC is the best conference because look how deep it is. Look what Missouri did.

Florida just beat Texas. Just because Florida— just because Texas lost to Florida doesn't mean that they're not good. Just because if they lose to Ole Miss, if Ole Miss beats Texas, then they're really good. Like, yes, it's a good conference with a lot of good teams that can all beat each other. That's all I'm saying.

Nick, Nick Kostos back in with us on Monday to try and make sense of what we just talked about for the last little while here. Thanks to Connor Orr and all the fellas there in Miami. And, uh, thanks so much to you, my fellow football Americans. It's been a thin slice of heaven, and hail to Pitt once again.

Look, between getting up early for the show, watching hockey late at night, and everything else going on, I'm trying to do a better job of taking care of myself. But I'm not trying to take a whole bunch of different supplements every morning. That's why I started using IM8. IM8 Daily Ultimate Essentials combines 16 supplements and 90 ingredients supporting 9 major organ systems into one drink. It was co-founded by David Beckham and developed by leading doctors and researchers. I just got my package and started working it into my morning routine, and that lemon orange flavor is my favorite. That is delicious. So far, I like how simple it is. It is one drink and I'm not dealing with a cabinet full of bottles, and I'm looking forward to sticking with it. Go to im8health.com/DAN right now and use code DAN for a free welcome kit. That's 5 free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code DAN at im8health.com/DAN. Code DAN at im8health.com/DAN. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.