A Wild Weekend of Big Upsets and Tough Losses, NFL Luck, and No Love for the Dodgers

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome back to sources from the sofa. We got the full lineup today. We got Aaron Toler, Jason Zinke and myself, Roman Valdez. It was a wild, wild weekend of football, college football, and the longest day of NFL history, I believe, with a London game starting at 630 and then a delayed Steelers game that didn't end till early Monday morning. It was wild nonetheless. And it was kind of like upset weekend, really. And it all started Friday, October 4 with UNLV number 25. They share the spotlight with, who else, guys. Texas A and M and Syracuse took him down 44 to 41. That was a high scoring game. And then Saturday morning with college game day live from Berkeley for the first time in their 40 something year history. And that was a lot of fun to watch. It was dark when they started the show. And I'm not gonna lie, I kind of was rooting for Cal, for the upset. And once again, just like Kansas City Chiefs get rescued by the refs, Miami escapes again, which is pretty wild. But, you know, Cam Ward lives another day and stays as a Heisman finalist. But, yeah, let's get into it, guys. What was the biggest upset to you? [00:01:26] Speaker B: Oh, we're two minutes into the podcast and this guy's already complaining about the Kansas City Chiefs already, who are 50. [00:01:33] Speaker A: We'll get to that later. We'll get to that later. I got plenty to say. [00:01:37] Speaker C: They didn't need the reps this time around. Let's just do it that way. [00:01:40] Speaker A: So today was their first one of the season. I will give them that. They have a lot of injuries. The defense actually, you know, stepped up and Casey came through against one of the top, or at least statistically one of the better defenses than NFL with the Saints. [00:01:58] Speaker B: But yeah, we'll get into Rome's feature segment, Rome's personal NFL standings later in the show. [00:02:06] Speaker A: We will. I do got a power five. I'm going to introduce this week from here. [00:02:11] Speaker C: I want to hear Rome's power five hate teams. Our teams will get bailed out week to week. That's the real story. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Casey's on there, if you haven't noticed. [00:02:20] Speaker C: I think they're the top dog. But. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Well, anyways, college football, man, unav goes down. We all saw what happened to Alabama. We had Tennessee go down. Michigan, no surprise there. We kind of knew that was going to happen eventually and we'll see whether your prediction comes true. Aaron. Missouri, that was a really big surprise. [00:02:44] Speaker B: Not to Aaron. [00:02:45] Speaker A: Not to Aaron. No. Southern California. I kind of had a feeling that might happen and it did. Their defense looking kind of wobbly a lot of missed tackles like they had last year. And then Louisville was also another top 25 team that went down. But biggest upset guys of the weekend. [00:03:03] Speaker C: Has to be Alabama leaving at Vanderbilt. I mean, Vanderbilt zero and 60 against AP top five teams, historically, program history. [00:03:13] Speaker A: Right? [00:03:14] Speaker C: Nick Saban famously said, vanderbilt's the only place in the SEC where you play a road game, but it's actually a home game. And I think Alabama fans actually outnumbered Vandy fans. And what's even more crazy is after the game, it took like Vandy like ten minutes just to cover three quarters of the field after the upset. That's the, you know, they're not used to running onto the field, so they didn't know how to get onto the field. They didn't know how to exit the stadium and get onto this, onto the field. [00:03:38] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, every, every single one of those people brought that goalpost down, marched out of the stadium, right down the bars in Nashville, disrupted all sorts of bachelorette parties going on Nashville, dumped that thing in the river and really delivered a viral moment there on Saturday. One of many. But yeah, agree with Aaron. Vanderbilt had to be the upset, as many upsets as there were. I mean, you look at Tennessee, a team, you know, we kind of talked about, they didn't have many obstacles in the road besides a few games coming up, but they dropped one big in Arkansas. But I don't think it goes really farther than Alabama, especially after what they did to Georgia last week. Aaron called that one of them beating Georgia then they have, you know, this game now really kind of a dud in the middle of their season. Some great Alabama caller content on the Paul Feinbaum show today that Aaron sent through. You wouldn't expect anything better from Alabama fans. You know, Kellen DeBoer, you know, already feeling the raft guy lose one. [00:04:41] Speaker C: Game is over, honeymoon is over, marriage counseling at its finest. [00:04:47] Speaker B: He doesn't understand. The southern football player, I think was one of the great callers they had on this show and all sorts of other great, great stuff. But yeah, that had to be the upset of the weekend. And really, I think as you go into this new format of playoff, you know, how many of the SCTC teams can actually be undefeated? We're not even into some of the big heavy hitter games where you got, you know, some matchups, you know, down the road that are going to be, you know, top ten teams facing off or there's going to be even more losses going in. So a lot more to come. But, yeah, I think that was a, that was the big one of the weekend rum. [00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, surprised about that game. The Vanderbilt look like they belong. It kind of reminds of that northern Illinois game against your Norda dame. They dominated both sides of the ball. They kept Alabama in check. The quarterback for Alabama, for some reason I can't remember his name right now. He looked kind of like checked off a little bit and probably dropped to heights and standings a little bit. I don't know, it was really wild. And then afterwards I think my favorite part was tracking it on twitter how they took the goalpost, travel it down like the tier 3 miles all the way to the river and then dumped the goalpost. That was great. That's classic. [00:06:04] Speaker C: Yeah, go ahead, Jason. [00:06:06] Speaker B: No, he mentioned the Heisman odds. Yeah. Jadon milros, who rome was referring to Alabama quarterback. He was a favorite going into that game. He dropped down to I think fourth at this point. Ashton gentry from Boise State is now in the lead. [00:06:22] Speaker C: So that's my top dog. [00:06:23] Speaker B: I mean my call at the beginning of the year for Boise state being the playoff team now they have the heisman frontrunner. You got Travis Hunter there from Colorado too way players now second, Cam ward of Miami. What he did there is now third. So yeah, I think you got a bunch of other guys here that really have taken over. Jaden Milrose, Heisman potentially away from him at this point because Romans or Aaron just said Ashton Gentry being the top dog. Yeah, I mean they're going to keep feeding this guy all year. He's going to, he's going to get over 2000 yards or something by the end of this season. [00:06:53] Speaker C: So I think he's already almost at 1600. The way he's running. I mean just running three pulls like crazy. [00:06:58] Speaker A: I don't know what he has in total. [00:06:59] Speaker C: And they'll have a big game against UNLV later on in the season there part of the Mountain West Conference. But yeah, Boise State's looking pretty good. Is that group of five, nine power four teams get in? [00:07:10] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:07:10] Speaker A: I'm not sure how much total yards he has but I was reading about Ashton Gentry Genti, he has already a little over 1000 yards. You look at some of the great running backs of years past. Reggie Bush, whatever. The highest amount that anyone has had at this point of the year after five games or six games is only 500 600 yards max. He's already blown away. Everyone else is like five or six touchdowns. He has 16. He's just dropping some mind numbly not numbers. What's crazy is the year prior he's, I think he's only like three or 400 yards away from that. So people say he can with the Heisman because he's at Boise, but I don't know, man. He just looks dominant. He's just, he's just powering over everyone. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you mentioned it. Rub 16 touchdowns already. He had 14 last year already over the thousand yards. 1300 last year. So, you know, easily can eclipse his probably 2000 yards at this point. You know, some big games down the stretch and, you know, see their way into the playoff, they're going to be, you know, one of those scary teams to potentially play down the stretch. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Another upset that kind of caught me by surprise was Tennessee. Man, they just had a big win last weekend. There's been like a weird trend after every team has like a signature win the following week aside from Michigan because they managed to like, skate by so far, but everyone else has had a big loss afterwards. And that was the same trend with Alabama. Tennessee had a big win last week as well. And then they follow Arkansas. That was kind of shocking. And then Missouri. [00:08:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, let's touch on Tennessee. Tennessee got that big win two weeks ago at Oklahoma. Offense didn't look good. They carried that over to this game in Arkansas. I mean, that defense for Tennessee, that was my question mark coming into the season. They're looking really good on that side of the ball. I mean, kept Arkansas out of the end zone till late in the game. Kind of wore down their offense, let them down. This was an offense that came in non conference play, I think was averaging close to almost 70 points a game. Tennessee is going to get figured out on that side of the ball. They're still going to be in the mix for it. But Missouri, Texas A and M just pitted on them. They pin it on them early. We kind of question how good Missouri was. They had a couple buzzer beaters barely beating Vanderbilt, which that victory doesn't look too bad now considering what they did to Alabama. Yeah, but, yeah, a and m, I said it. They look good. Tough loss to start the season against Jason's Irish, but a and M, their schedule lines up good. They're probably going to win out or close to it with a showdown late in the season against their in state rival Texas. A and M might be a team. We're talking about making the playoff in the SEC. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it could be sneaky. There are a and m is already three and o in the SEC so tightly. From the standings perspective, they are first place in the SEC right now going back to Tennessee and even the Alabama game the weird thing is you always want to say, oh, there's, they're a look ahead game, but both of their look ahead games when Alabama and Tennessee face off is two weeks from now, each got a game upcoming, Tennessee versus a poor Florida team and then Alabama versus South Carolina. So couldn't even really use that as excuses. They were looking ahead to this big SEC top ten matchup. That would have been Tennessee. Alabama come in October 19, two weeks from now. So very, very weird that you kind of get both of these, you know, overlooked games that these teams are massive favorites at. I know there's some people calling that Evander belt was going to cover, but coming the outright win and then Tennessee at the same time dropping the ball. So it could be very interesting from a playoff perspective. You know, if Texas A and M does go undefeated like Aaron's talking about, then you still got Texas out there, you got Alabama, you got Tennessee. You know, there's a lot of teams only so many playoff spots out of the twelve that can go into. So the playoff race is going to be really interesting down the stretch to those final weeks and with this first kind of year of the twelve team playoff. [00:10:54] Speaker C: Yeah, the love rate. The team that benefited the most out of all these teams losing the SEC. Ole Mississippi. People were talking a lot of crap on them. Losing a tough game against Kentucky. Kentucky's looked good the last few weeks. Mississippi showed up, took care of business on the road against South Carolina, and then everybody in the conference they needed to lose. Loss. Tennessee, no excuses. Coming off a bye week, too. Two weeks to get prepared for that showing at Arkansas wasn't a good look for them. [00:11:20] Speaker A: It's a weird season so far. Like now we're starting to get the point to this team beat this team. This team beat this other team. Like, who's the better team? You can do that all day now and I imagine, you know, we're like more or less at the halfway mark that's going to continue on for like the next few weeks or so. [00:11:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we get kind of carried away about these games early in the year. We got to remember this is, you know, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We're going to see how it plays out. Texas has looked good, but who have they played? I mean, their biggest game was against Michigan. We know Michigan's not that good, so let's hold out and see what happens. Penn State, everybody's in love with them. They go to USC. That's their first real test of the season. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Yeah, Texas has got the test coming up next two games. They got the Red river shootout versus Oklahoma this week, then follow up with Georgia. It gets a little easier. But then they end the year versus Texas A and M. So that could be a game with the SEC championship or even just a playoff spot on the line. So I mean, this is what to me is exciting about the twelve team playoff. I think we mentioned it a few weeks back, but this is where these regular season games still hold so much value because only so many teams from the SEC are going to get in and you're potentially going to have play, play in games here right down the stretch to get into the playoff for some very competitive SEC. [00:12:30] Speaker A: You got, I think Texas has Texas AM at the end of the year, right? And then last game, Kentucky's pretty gritty. Vanderbilt is a good, a good year for them. So yeah, it's gonna be so much fun. It's a fun college football year so far. [00:12:46] Speaker C: And that's a great thing of going to twelve teams because now all these teams that can play these games, you know, maybe not show up or take a tough loss and then before they'd be eliminated from the playoff and be sitting here wondering, hey, you know, a and M, if they won out, losing to Notre Dame probably wouldn't be in the playoff given their strength of schedule towards the ends. Not that great. Get Texas at home. Kyle fields me 110,000 fans there. Like Jason said, it could be a win and you're in playoff type scenario down the stretch for the SEC. [00:13:15] Speaker A: So right now, as it is like the top twelve Nordic Dane is right there at that twelve spot. But it's getting pretty muddy. Oh, I'm trying to look at everything. Out of all the top twelve who think has like the weakest case to stay in the playoff at this point. [00:13:36] Speaker C: Let me take a look. I mean, let me take a look at the rankings. Top twelve, weakest case. [00:13:43] Speaker A: For me. I know Ohio State hasn't really played anybody yet. [00:13:46] Speaker C: Well, they're out of Oregon this weekend. [00:13:48] Speaker A: That's gonna be really nice. Penn State, they got a really big battle. USC has to win this upcoming week. Miami, they've gotten lucky with two wins. Two of those wins so far. They could easily be four into and out of the top 15 at least. And then Iowa State, dude, who would have thought they would be five? [00:14:07] Speaker C: And, oh, Iowa State, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, they're looking good, they're looking strong. As far as teams in the top twelve, if you were just saying the top twelve teams got into the playoff, I think you'd have to take Notre Dame out given that they lost a home game against Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois has not looked good since then. Everybody else has lost. Everybody else's loss right now is against respectable opponents, not the Mac fighters at the Northern Illinois. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Come on. Disrespecting the Northern Illinois Huskies? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Iowa State, they're probably going to have maybe one big game here, maybe two. They got Utah, they got Kansas State at the end of the year. So I think that'll shake out. Whether they're real or not. I think Utah still got a chance because you got, you know, a lot of these playoffs, you can't even look into the top twelve because it's going to be conference winner is going to get that automatic bid. So whoever comes out from a conference championship, I think these SEC games are really going to be a lot of the determination of like some of these wild card spots and then, I mean, somebody like Penn State, you know, they get by UCLA, but then the rest of their schedule, like they maybe got r1 game versus Ohio State. And so even if they lose that game, are they a one loss team that Penn State is able to sneak in there? That could be consideration. Miami, Clemson, you know, Aaron and I kind of going back and forth on those two. I had Clemson winning the ACC, Aaron had Miami. I think they're both can be playoff teams at this point regardless of kind of who wins the ACC championship. So in Miami, they play some really close games here. I mean, I like them as much as everything with Cam Ward, but they could be again. Never won the ACC before, so we'll see. [00:15:51] Speaker C: They should have lost a cow. I mean, coming back down from 38 to ten, they got, they got forced to win that game. Cal kind of took their foot off the pedal and let them back in. And Cam Ward, once that guy gets hot, man, and gets in the rhythm, you're not going to stop him. [00:16:06] Speaker A: He looks like one of the few quarterbacks that could just bring a team down for like, you know, two or three touchdowns. One thing I didn't like about that Cal game, though, there was that one hit on, on the, on cows quarterback right when he was. [00:16:18] Speaker C: Yeah, that was the middle. That wasn't a target. That shouldn't have been an objection because. [00:16:23] Speaker A: Everyone else is saying that should have been targeting and they're like hammering all over the rest for it. But you're saying no targeting. [00:16:28] Speaker C: Not even close. [00:16:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, still looking at Miami, though, if you look at the rest of their schedule, though, they have no ranked teams on their schedule. [00:16:36] Speaker A: No. [00:16:37] Speaker B: So Louisville's maybe their hardest opponent here coming up. But other than that, you just got a bunch of who's who nobodies, really, from the AZC. And I think every week you're probably on upset alert on what a Mario Cristobal letdown coaching game. They may have snuck by these last two weeks, and these were. These were the games. But, I mean, they could be undefeated going all the way to the ACC championship game. [00:17:02] Speaker C: I think the ACC is getting one team in. It's Clemson or Miami. I believe that would probably be the end of the story. One of those two, they'll play at the end, one will get in. We know the committee does not care for the ACC. They showed that last year by leaving the Florida state out. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Well, because the quarterback was out. [00:17:19] Speaker C: But the ACC will get one team in, I believe. [00:17:24] Speaker A: So. Out of all the other upsets. Michigan, man, Aaron, you did say that if they lost to Washington, they're going to be on their way to six losses. I called bullshit. But now that I'm looking at their schedule, Illinois is now ranked at 23. That's next week. Michigan State, that's probably a win. But Oregon the following week. So another one that's going to be at or no, they host Oregon, but then they have ranked Indiana, northwestern, then ranked Ohio State. That's a tough. That's one of the tougher schedules to end the season. That can. That could be an additional three or four losses. So your little omen might be coming true. [00:17:58] Speaker C: I think. I think the good thing for Michigan, when I saw it looks like they found a quarterback and throw the ball. And Tuttle, he was out first. He was out for fall camp, missed all the spring, and with an elbow injury, they finally brought him in. I don't know when he's been healthier enough to play, but Sean Moore finally made a decision. Get a quarterback and we can finally get the rest. The orgy party's dead. It's over. It's done. No more admissions. We're not taking anybody. Hit a wrap on it. Close it off. Done. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Cool. Anything else? [00:18:30] Speaker B: I want to go back. Just the Cal Miami game and really not the game, just more of just the game day. [00:18:36] Speaker A: Oh, game day. College game day. [00:18:37] Speaker B: College game. To be in there, man. I, you know, just. We talked about it a couple weeks ago, just like where college game day was at. I think when you look at, you know, ten years ago, like maybe 1015 years ago, the height of college game day, like that was really appointment viewing television maybe kind of fell off a little bit. Fox is competing with big noon Saturday, and they got a lot of hype on it, but we, you know, we talk through, like, McAfee adding a different vibe. I think Sabit adds a different vibe this year, but when you bring college game day to a town and then they just really take over. I think Aaron mentioned in last week's pod, kind of, where did you say college game day should have been? You said it somewhere else and not Cal. I can't remember. [00:19:15] Speaker C: I said Washington. Washington. [00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah, you said Washington, but I told. I think that was the overall disrespect around the Internet of why you're taking this game to Cal. They really haven't been relevant in college football since maybe the Aaron Rodgers era, you know, from there. I mean, I would think I went to, I think I went to some back to back holiday bulls down in San Diego when it was like Cal and USC running the Pac ten at that point. But they showed out for this college game day. And I think, to me, the best part about it, when you looked at, they understood the bit. They knew their reputation. This is, you know, this is liberal woke university, and they had the signs. They had the signs to prove it. They're playing Miami. Miami's got that reputation. I told you, Roma, they call some of these ones that are down there, like, favorite signs, code. Oh, well, there was a couple of them, so. Hey, America, it's 06:00 a.m. at Cal. Are you woke yet? So, you know, leaning into their wokeness, the probably undisputed one, that was no one. Half the people didn't understand, but we got a history lesson. There was. The Adams Onus treaty was a mistake if no one knows what that is. The treaty that made Florida part of the United States back in the day. So all the brainiacs and Cal, you know, educating the masses there with. Yeah, there's a sign, uh, woke versus coke. Very, very play on that one. Love that one. Di versus dui. So very good, Vince. Miami. Uh, and then I. All I are. You already said it. Uh, the only code. The only lines I do is code. [00:20:47] Speaker A: That's good. I saw that one. I got a nice chuckle out of that. [00:20:50] Speaker B: That was, that was a good one. So, anyways, I just thought the atmosphere is electric. Um, you know, six in the morning. I think all these college kids stayed up pretty much all night, you know, Friday, going into Saturday to be there. It was just a party. They were in there early, you know, there was, there was signs like, hey, you people are blocking the library and all sorts of terms right now. Yeah, yeah. There was a guy who had a notebook and says, oh, I could. This is the only sign I had. This is, you know, for midterms. People had signs that said, I thought this was a protest. So that was. [00:21:22] Speaker A: That's really. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Actually, there was just great tweets about it all day. It's just like, you know, people really underestimated students at Cal's ability to, you know, organize and start yelling for any apparent cause. [00:21:36] Speaker A: So they turned out even Pat McAfee talked about it. By the way, you mentioned college game day. I think it's great. Saban, who would have thought he would have been, like, this fun personality, adding this new element, talking shit to Marshawn lynch, poking fun at Stanford. Steve, you know, about having a girlfriend from Cal, you know, like him. We got bell check with the personality. This guy was, like, joking on pain today on the telecast. [00:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Then who else retired this past year, Kelsey? [00:22:07] Speaker B: The other one. [00:22:09] Speaker C: You're talking coaches or what? [00:22:11] Speaker B: Coaches, Kelsey. I mean, Pete Carroll's out there, but. [00:22:15] Speaker A: I'm not Pete Carroll. There's somebody else, but no, man. It's kind of cool to see, really. [00:22:21] Speaker B: The other part of game day was really cool. They've been doing this. McAfee's been doing this kick contest thing, and yet. [00:22:26] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:22:28] Speaker B: Guy made it one hundred k and one's, like, and put an additional one hundred k to the five hundred k for hurricane relief. So, man, it was just a total vibe. Like, it kind of just brought me back to when I was watching college game day in college and in my twenties as far as, like, hey, this is, like, an awesome atmosphere. And I think when you put this thing, I mean, I think that set the tone for the entire weekend. I kind of wish Cal, it would have been a great bookend of that Saturday, of them pulling off that upset of Miami, and it felt like it was there should have, but, yeah, yeah, but was it. [00:22:58] Speaker A: Was it not a hit? [00:23:00] Speaker B: I think regardless, I think there was just, like, that was all that. They really set the tone for an amazing, like, football weekend. And I think, you know, Saturday, all the upsets that happened, I think that that was, like, the starting point of just. Just a really exciting game day. So. So this week, everyone up in Cal, most definitely. [00:23:16] Speaker A: So, like, this weekend was really rough, man. So we have college football Friday night, right at 09:00 we got all the morning games. That Cal game didn't even end to, like, 1130. I had my daughter you know, we're supposed to go to bed, but I'm like, sorry, baby, we got to watch the game. So she's there watching it with me, cheering on Cal and, and then we have like the longest day of football on Sunday. So it was a long, long weekend. [00:23:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know who you're telling, man. I've been traveling over here to the east coast and I gotta tell you, the west coast is God's time zone for sports because the east coast, man, that Sunday night football game, I think it was 01:00 a.m. out here when this thing ended. And then that started for me. London at 06:30 a.m. at an airport and I ended in the eastern time zone at 01:00 a.m. so, man, I don't know the east coast with the sports schedule. I get why people are so angry when these games go to overtime and are late, but that's why sports is the best on the west coast, man. Get that thing wrapped up around 839 o'clock. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Cool. Let's take a quick break. Then we'll come back and talk Monday night Football and another wild Sunday in the NFL. Time to recap a little NFL action. It was a wild, wild weekend Thursday night. If you guys catch it on the previous pod, I was asleep and the guys continuously elbowed me while I was down and out for the count for missing a pretty fun Thursday night game. But I didn't watch highlights. It was a lot of fun. Tough loss for the Bucks, but that division is turning out to be pretty fun when we thought it was gonna be trash. And then we started with an early Saturday game in London and I with the Jags. No, no, I'm sorry. It was the jets and Vikings. And I did pick the Vikings to win, so that felt pretty good. But jets, man, I'm feeling pretty bad for Rogers. And that was longest game of the year for football, period. With the Steelers with that, you know, thundercloud delay, Cowboys with all those turnovers, trying to get the game away, Steelers almost coming out on top. And then, you know, whatever the hell Mike Tallinn was doing, calling the timeout, giving the Cowboys extra time, and then they kicked the field at the end. Just completely fucking heartbreaking to say the least. When we were 30. Now we're three and two and that division is trying to get, you know, tighten up. But nonetheless, though, I guess I'll start with the bottom of the pack, you know? So Jax finally picked up their win and like, the NFL is so weird, right? You know, everyone has first round, you know, first round picks, second round picks, their round picks, more or less. The talent's pretty equal. What makes the difference for the outliers is, like, coaching and, you know, like some standout players, but all that stuff can really swing a team one way or the other. If you look at the Jags, they finally got their first one, but they can easily, you know, have two or three more wins. They were that close. The only time they actually got their ass beat was against the Bills. They got demolished. Whereas if you see the chiefs of. We all saw the win tonight, it was a convincing win, okay? But they can easily have. They can easily have three losses. That's how the NFL works, coaching a few star players. Everyone's out in the Chiefs. Also a few ref flags, you know, going, you know, one way or the other. That's how sensitive. And it takes a little luck, of course, it takes skill, takes great coaching, but luck goes a long way. You can either be the Chiefs undefeated right now on top of a lot of people's power rankings, or it could be like the Jags, you know, looking like crap. No one's on Lawrence's, you know, side. He did look really bad. But they can also have three or four wins right now. So that's. That's the teeter totter of the NFL with that. I do want to start with the Bengals, though, that. [00:27:04] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. You're. You're. You're going to do a whole thing to try to say the Jags are just as good as the Chiefs, and that's outside. [00:27:13] Speaker C: No, that's not even remotely close. [00:27:16] Speaker A: That's not what I said. That's not what I said. But it takes a lot of luck. That's how badly. That's how things break out. [00:27:23] Speaker C: Like. [00:27:23] Speaker A: Like small little breaks here and there. You can either be like the Chiefs and they're on top, or you can be like the Jags. You know, they could easily have the same amount of wins right now. [00:27:31] Speaker C: I wouldn't say same amount of wins. I mean, look at the NFL. Comes down to a play or two here or mistake here or there. I mean, the only difference between what Dak did and Aaron Rodgers did is Dak threw a touchdown to win the game. If Rodgers had come back and threw a touchdown to win that game, everybody would be praising him. Three turnovers each guy one, one, one loss, you lose, you're a loser. You win, you're a winner. The NFL's, like you said, the parody, the closeness in games, you. You get a break here, a break there. Sometimes you make your own, sometimes the referee gives you one thing. [00:28:00] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying. You just say, I did not say anywhere my monologue that they're the same. I'm just saying there's breaks, there's luck. Things just swing so fast. I, and I was going to go into the Bengals, they're one and four, and I was going to continue on that, but you guys just jump on the wagon so fast. [00:28:20] Speaker C: Well, anytime you mention a one and four team being the same as a five and O team, we have to, we have to jump on the. Not the same like Rome. What do I always tell you? Just because a broken clock is right twice a day doesn't make it any good. [00:28:32] Speaker D: You never. [00:28:32] Speaker C: That's the same with Jacksonville. That's the same with the Jacksonville Jaguars. They even put him in the same sentence as Kansas City. I'll let Jason jump in right now. Remotely opposed of the me. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Well, he brings up, he just brings up the Chiefs whenever he wants to. So we'll get to like one of. [00:28:47] Speaker C: The worst teams in the league. [00:28:48] Speaker A: So I don't think the trucks are the worst teams in NFL. [00:28:51] Speaker B: They lost eight straight coming into this game. I think they did. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Yeah, they did. It doesn't mean that for the worst, though. [00:28:58] Speaker B: Okay. All right, well, we'll transition to the Bengals. Another one in four team right now let me, let's talk about the Bengals. [00:29:05] Speaker A: And I wouldn't say they're one of the worst teams, either. I feel pretty good about the Bengals. That was a tough loss. Joe Burrow and that offense look like it's clicking all of a sudden. They look really nice. 38 points they've been scoring 30 more points was like the third or fourth game in a row. It's just a defense looks really porous, like, I don't know what they're going to do about that. But out of all the one four teams, I'm feeling pretty good about the Bengals and still giving them like a shot to make the playoffs on the. [00:29:30] Speaker C: Outside looking in, I'm not feeling good about the Bengals. You mentioned that defense. Defense, you can correct things on offense, which we've seen them do the first two weeks bad. They're averaging 35 plus points over the last three weeks. But defensively they can't stop anybody. That's my main Jason, like Baltimore this weekend, too much offense, too many weapons. Baltimore's defense was able to step up, get a stop here and there, but one in four. The chances of the Bengals making the playoffs, not high on my list right now. [00:29:59] Speaker B: This is where some of the games, you know, that you let slip away in the NFL that shouldn't have been close. Like, they shouldn't have lost to the Patriots week one. I mean, some of that to me goes into organizational stuff as like, why isn't Jamar Chase's contract done? Why isn't there, you know, the team were ready to play in week one against a inferior Patriots team. Washington, I know they're coming out hot right now, and that's everyone's darling in the pack, but that should have been a winnable game for them, was a great game, but I, that, that's a game they probably should have won as well, too. The Chiefs game was close. You know, this, this Ravens game was close. But you can't lose some of these other games. You know, even if they just took that Patriots game in week one, this is a two and three team right now. We're going to play the Giants and the Browns in the next couple games. The potential to take you to four and three, but now, you know, they really need to win these next two games and still be three and four. I still think that's a, it's a tall test in a very tough division, and they don't, and their schedule really doesn't ease up down the stretch. But a lot of talent. We keep talking about that with the Bengals, but I don't know if this is a playoff team still now because of their poor start. [00:31:10] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of tough breaks. But they also do face the Browns two more times throughout, throughout the year. They'll probably split the series with the Steelers, hopefully split against the Ravens. There's still opportunity there that division is going to beat each other up. But, you know, this is why I opened up with, like, there's like a lot of tough breaks that you could be like a bad one in four team or like a good one in 14. You could be a good 50 team like the fight, like, like the Vikings, or be like a five and a team like the Ken City Chiefs and have, like, a lot of question marks. They do have a lot of injuries. You know, this isn't my home's best year by any means, is even worse statistically than last year, but they do have, like, a solid defense to ride that wave as well, plus all the injuries on offense. So that's what I'm saying. Like, there's just so much parity. Lots of breaks are needed, and that's why we, we are where we are here this season. [00:31:59] Speaker C: I think. Yeah, I think, like you mentioned, Ron, the difference between the Bengals and the Chiefs, that the Chiefs have a defense, the Bengals don't. The Bengals have no chance of getting back into it unless they correct things on defense. I don't care if their offense is playing on all colors. Well, here's stop anybody. They're not gonna, they're not gonna make the playoffs. They gotta get it corrected on defense. [00:32:17] Speaker A: So, so far, like the teams that they faced, Washington obviously looks like they're for real. They were able, able to maintain that scoring advantage throughout every game. Ravens have done it a couple times already. Granted, is a little higher than, than their average. Can the Bengals outscore everyone else in the NFL? Like how many people are scoring more than 30 points? Or is this the Bengals defense where they're just going to always allow more than 40 points every single week? That's the question. [00:32:41] Speaker B: I mean, this isn't the most insightful analysis, but when you look at, you know, just the history of starting at a deficit like this at one, four, the odds of you making the playoffs at one and four right now, they have a 14% chance of making the playoffs. So it's just overall, when you start this pour in the league, that's a lot of games to make up where, hey, you only manly get two, three more losses in the end before the end of the year to be considered a playoff team in a tight division like this. So as tight as the league, you're saying you play, you give away too many early here. The odds aren't with you. That's why for a team like the Vikings, when you call that going 50, like, they're like a 94% like lock to make the playoffs at this point, because five wins in your back pocket, that's, you know, they need to probably get to ten, they need five more, and they got, you know, a good amount of the season to get there. That's where these things are coming to play. Because in the, it's a league of health a lot of times when it comes down the stretch, so you know who's going to be healthy. And if you already have wins in the back pocket, you know, it makes you more likely instead of coming up from behind with only one win in through five weeks. [00:33:48] Speaker A: So let's talk about the Vikings real quick. They obviously won against the jets. The Jets defense look like they've been stepping up lately. One thing I didn't realize though, the jets losing the week prior to Denver. Yeah, the Broncos. The Broncos have a pretty decent defense and that kind of like flew over my head until I started looking at things. But the jets, so, like, Aaron Rodgers is looking. I don't know what to think anymore right now with that team. [00:34:16] Speaker B: I mean, you said at the top in your monologue you felt sorry for Aaron Rodgers. I mean, he threw three interceptions and it didn't look good at all here two weeks in a row. I'm not sure what's going on with the running game. You have two really good running backs and it feels like they reluctantly run the ball. It's like Rogers wants the ball and K will hand the ball off just to make sure we're doing it. But the amount of effort when you got, you know, the type of backfield they have, like, I don't know why they can't make more plays in that game to make these games competitive because how many times Rogers is throwing the ball right now. It was, it wasn't Chris. He was behind receivers. His footwork seemed to be a little questionable. I know that's part of, like, his improvisational style, but generally is a little more accurate. I mean, and it didn't look good throughout that entire game. So I. You could chalk it up to just the curse of the jets at this point because the jets are just, you know, they're similar to my bears where they just never, they never have, they never have a quarterback. And there's like a black cloud, like, looming over this franchise that, you know, has since Super bowl three. Can't put it together. [00:35:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, like you said, rogers, the jets, offensively, they don't look good. Rogers threw the ball, what, 54 times on Saturday against one of the more blitz happy teams in the league. That's not a good recipe. They got to run the ball. They've got running backs back there. They got to get back to grinding out, running the ball. And you know what's been mentioned about this offense? Very vanilla. There's no motion, there's no disguises. They come out, people know what they line up, what they're going to do. They know what they're going to check to. You know, Blitz is coming. You know, they mentioned these on other pre game shows. Blitz comes, Rogers checks to a slant back in, colk steps into the slant lane, takes it for a pick six. There's no creativity right now. They've got no deep passing game. They got no running game. The defense has sure things up from week one when they look bad against the 49 ers. So that's positive. They got the Bills coming in. They win that game. They take the lead in the division, you know, Buffalo look like gangbusters. First three weeks, me and you, Rome, we were, I think, not high on them to make the playoffs is kind of what we thought from Buffalo. This is their tough stretch in their schedule. So it's a big game night for the jets at home. They got to win it. Every home game in the NFL is a must win. [00:36:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I agree with Aaron. I don't know if it's a must win. I think you put it must either way with, with the standing so jumbled up in that division right now, with both teams losing two straight at this point, like, it's tighter than it probably should have been at this point, where no one's been the cream of the crop, where we thought the jets could pull away, you know, early on, but they've now struggled and then Buffalo coming out hop and now lost two straight. I think it'll be competitive probably all the way down to the end. But you mentioned the offense for the jets. You know, Rogers has his offensive coordinator, Hackett, that was in Green Bay with him, but then, you know, he goes to Denver and gets, you know, and gets fired as head coach and bringing that same vanilla offense out here. Rome, your guy Salah, who is, I think, top of your coaches, hot seat stuff, man, he just, it just doesn't look like this is going to be like a team that would go to the super low playoffs. Like, it just looks like, it looks, it looks dysfunctional. Whether it actually is, I don't know. But you watch Salah on the sidelines and the way Rogers and stuff like this doesn't, this doesn't look like anything cohesive off of a Super bowl winning team to me. [00:37:53] Speaker A: So we left off somewhere around the bills, but. [00:37:59] Speaker C: Like Josh Allen's concussion protocol test. We're back before you get cleared by the doc. [00:38:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So, like, that hit looked really badly, as well as the hit on Justin Fields Sunday night. But I know when we were talking off the air, Aaron, you said that didn't look like a concussion for Fields. [00:38:16] Speaker C: No, for Allen, I think did. Because if you look at the hit, his head bounced right off the turf and he was out later. Try to play it off as an ankle, but literally no ankle tape job, no limping, nothing like that off the field. It was a head. It was a head injury. [00:38:30] Speaker A: The fact that they, like. Mind blowing. [00:38:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Like 1980s type injury report coming out the fields. [00:38:41] Speaker B: One. I mean, the ref went up to him and they had like a conversation and it was like weird. Like what they've been talking about. They took him off. They went to the blue medical tent. I think he was out for, like, a play or two means two plays and then back in. But I think that was the. The signal on top. I did see some stuff on x, though, and they. They put on the broadcast, they had a picture of, like, the suite where that, I don't know, independent neurodoctor. And right behind him, there was, like, a screenshot of a guy, like, in a cowboys pull that, too. So someone's like, like, why is the cowboys, like, personnel in there telling which Steeler player to take off the field in the midst of an offensive drive? [00:39:20] Speaker C: I think the referee was confused because they called medical timeout during the play. And then everyone's like, well, here's the medical timeout for. And then, like Jason said, he came around, talked to fields, gave him the thumbs up, ran off, and then literally, fields went up to snap the ball, and he's like, wait, wait, wait. Number two, you got to come out. You got to come out. And then they snapped right up to the Cowboys logo guy. Like, hey, he's like, pointing out like, that's the guy. That's the guy. Get him out of there. And then, after all, he completed that pass. Like you said, rome, after one plays, like, oh, fuck. We got to get Phil's back in the game. Phil's can't complete the pass. He's cleared. He's cleared. He's cleared. [00:39:52] Speaker D: That's funny. Yeah, it was a weird series of advance, man. So, like college football, we had a whole bunch of upsets. This was kind of a weird weekend as well. We had some tough losses, Mandy. So let's see, 49 ers, tough loss against the Cardinals, I thought pretty. Played pretty decent, and then they kind of got concerted with the play calling in the second half. Again, this is Shanahan thing. He's slowly inching up my coach hot seat list. [00:40:22] Speaker B: No way. Get out of here, man. [00:40:25] Speaker C: Yeah, man. No, I think the 49 ers, what hurt them is Moody getting hurt in the second quarter. They couldn't kick field goals when they wanted to. Yeah, that kind of put them behind the eight ball. They weren't even considering kicking field goals, either. Punting when they would be in field goal range. You had that fumble inside the ten by the running back. Cardinals didn't take it down and go and score. So the. Consider Shannon on the watch list. Hot seat. Is that. That's. That's a far cry right there. [00:40:54] Speaker B: There's like 20 teams in the league that would love to have Shanahan, I would put the Bears in one of that if I was a Bears decision maker of who could be there. That was a game for me. I, on the Thursday pods, I think was plus seven and a half the Cardinals line, you know, either that'd be a close game regardless. And like, as Aaron mentioned, you know, them not being able to kick field goals, I think was a real, like, difference maker strategy and stuff within the game. I think this team still has another, you know, another gear to put this team in when McCaffrey inevitably comes back. I know, you know, he's going to Germany to get the special procedures or whatever like that getting going. [00:41:36] Speaker C: But we haven't seen Kobe's doctor out there. Right? Kobe's doctor out there. [00:41:41] Speaker B: Exactly. Get that extra boost for all the fantasy owners out there like myself who drafted him, you know, number one overall, even though he was, you know, just day to day to the opening game, but somehow he's gonna be out half the season. This is a team that I think still has another gear competitive in the west at this point. But with Seattle losing that game to the Giants, which is kind of unexpected, you know, Cardinals and Niners both being two and three, the Rams one of four, haven't looked good. I mean, this is a division generally. You know, people think a lot of. And right now even that, the Niners struggling, they still, you know, are within striking distance of easily taking this division with, you know, some players coming back and getting healthy. [00:42:23] Speaker A: So, yeah, I still have to win the division. [00:42:26] Speaker D: It's just, this has been Shanahan's thing, man. It's just he gets too conservative in the second half in a lot of games and playing it. [00:42:35] Speaker C: Rome, this is the first game he's lost going into the fourth quarter, second half of a ten plus point lead. He was 33 and, oh, and like we said, not having the kicker there, that was the big difference for me. Their defense already came banged up. I thought they did a lot of nice things on offense. Iuk finally came alive, had a good game. The running game is good. The Niners are going to be fine. They play Seattle Thursday night. They control their destiny. We'll see what happens Thursday night at Seattle. [00:43:01] Speaker D: Well, Iuk was kind of due, right? Pre season? [00:43:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:04] Speaker D: I mean, basically four weeks. [00:43:06] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. He's in game shape now. He's in game shape now. [00:43:10] Speaker D: So that's an interesting division, man. You got Seahawks in first place with three and two. Everybody else had two and three to the Rams last place, one of four. But as far as the Seahawks went, I didn't, I tweeted audit about, like, a potential, you know, giants upset on this one. I know I didn't go on record on the pod, but Daniel Jones, like, looking back, he's been looking pretty decent the last two games, and we got a pretty good offensive line. The defense line is not bad either. Are the Giants better than what we thought? Are they gonna, like, is this like one of those weird, you know, like, Daniel Jones from like two years ago? What's going on there? [00:43:48] Speaker C: Giants are better than we thought, and they took it to Seattle. They whip Seattle from start finish. That was it. That was good. The weekend, despite Arizona going into San Francisco, I didn't think the Giants traveling from New York to Seattle, playing up there in that atmosphere, would win. They controlled the game. Daniel Jones, he looked like a $40 million quarterback in Rome. You're talking, you're talking about the Bengals. They now go to the play, the Giants. What if we thought that was going to be a win? I think it's going to be an. [00:44:15] Speaker D: L. Yeah, that's a, I thought that was gonna be a guaranteed win, but now I don't know because I think we're gonna find out how good maybe the Giants are. [00:44:26] Speaker C: Malik neighbors. This is about Malik neighbors. And they're starting running back and they manhandle. They put a whipping on Seattle. Like you said, shocking. [00:44:34] Speaker B: I think the Giants found maybe some different weapons, maybe they knew they had all along. But yet Tyrone Tracy filled in for Devin Singletary. He was able to be pretty effective at the running game. Didn't have neighbors, which was, you know. [00:44:47] Speaker D: The points big time. [00:44:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And I, for the, for Daniel Jones overall, like, I think him getting active in the running game is generally when they, you know, tend to succeed as a team because that is, you know, taking some stuff off, you know, off of whatever they're going to do, some bootlegs or just him being active and throwing on the run. So there's some different stuff there. Daniel Jones is never going to be a top ten quarterback in the league, but he's a starter, you know, in this league and can put up performances like he has the past couple weeks if he doesn't make the big mistake. So, like, this week didn't turn the ball over, even though he had some pretty solid stats from his completion percentage last week. He only had the one interception, which, you know, those turnovers kind of compound and, you know, this week didn't make that mistake. They controlled the game and, and they came out on top. So, yeah, it's the NFC east is kind of interesting with the way the commanders have played. The Eagles are supposed to be good. The Cowboys haven't looked as hot. Now, if the Giants are, you know, many pick them to be the kind of at the seller of this division if they're going to make it interesting, you know, they could be, they could be taking some playoff games, you know, and a playoff seed away for some people down the stretch for a team that many thought could be picking in the top five of the draft. [00:46:03] Speaker D: So I thought the Cowboys initially had no job beating the Steelers still have a way better defense. They're missing a whole bunch of guys on the defensive side. This is a game that the Steelers, you know, like everything was lining up in the win. It's at home. But the Cowboys did break it. They did take it to the Steelers. Dak Prescott, you know, minus those three interceptions, you know, he came in clutch at the end. The Cowboys finally came in clutch at the end. I thought that win was, I don't want to say like a season saving win, but to go down to two and three in that division would have been really tough. I thought it was a big win for them and that the NFC ease, as you said, it's going to be really, really tough. The Giants are actually a legitimate team. [00:46:48] Speaker B: It's going to be tight, but you're going to have all these games against each, against each other. I think it was better for the Cowboys, obviously, to win if they fell out of two and three, you know, wouldn't have been great. But I think still things, they'll have had to have masters against the commanders against the Eagles, you know, against the Giants and still some ground to make up. Just overall, this Dallas offense hasn't looked like generally what it does early in the season, and I think that's more concerning. You get down the stretch for them and what's it going to be like? Are they going to find a running game with, with Zeke? You know, they, I mean, they kind of switch him in and out. You know, what's the communication between Dak and CD? I, you know, appeared that they weren't really on the same page during the broadcast. I think even the announcers are kind of talking about it as well. So very interesting for them down the stretch when you got a team that for the commanders that everyone's been so hot on right now. [00:47:44] Speaker C: Like I said, yeah, like you said, rome, this was a game. I thought the Steelers gave it away. Their defense let them down. I mean, Dallas had, I think, five out of six drives of 50 plus yards. Just moving the ball down the field on them. You know, they were out. Brandon cooks, this guy Tolbert, who's been basically a camp player for the last three years, Pittsburgh made him look good, which typically you don't see with that secondary CD. Had a good first drive. Silent from there. I Dallas got a little bit of the run game going. I think averaged over, got over 75 yards running. They got three turnovers, blocked a field goal, block a field goal and still lost at home. This was the game Pittsburgh should win. They want it. Hey, fourth and goal against our defense. That's what Tomlin and Pittsburgh live for. It bit him in the ass on Sunday night. It bit him in the ass. [00:48:33] Speaker D: That play broke my heart. [00:48:36] Speaker B: They had, they had the play of the game, too, where you had your linebacker basically jump over the line of scrimmage and cause a fumble. Looking, he was looking like Jon Favreau and the replacements coming over the line of scrimmage, like causing fumble. [00:48:50] Speaker C: I just want to know how that wasn't targeting because in college he would have been kicked out of the game and goal for Dallas. [00:48:55] Speaker B: I don't know, man. He just, he timed it perfectly, got the head across, hit the ball. I mean, unluckily for the Steelers. Went right to doc for them to cover it. But yeah, I agree with Aaron. The Steelers gave that game away tough because I. You're going that that goal like, that goal line play like, and them being backed up and dak be able to complete that pass. It just didn't feel like they're gonna be able to get that through on the Steelers defense and, you know, was what it was. [00:49:24] Speaker D: Was there any other games you guys thought anyone gave away that they should have won? [00:49:32] Speaker C: I mean, Bengals, packs, Packers almost gave away. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the Rams mo. Rams like to come back late and late in the fourth quarter, make games out of every game. They did against the Lions, they did against the Niners. They played Jason's Bears tight and then the packers. But Bengals, I mean, they were rolling late. Interception late in the fourth quarter. Baltimore ties it up. Then they get, you know, Lamar Jackson not ready for a snap, a fumble. They miss. They mishandled the snapdez on the field goal, and then Derek Henry runs 50 yards down the sideline and Tucker kicks it in to finish that. Bengals zero three at home. Talking about a team that should be two and one, maybe three, no at home. That's a tough loss to swallow. [00:50:18] Speaker D: Derek Henry, man, seeing him on the Ravens, he's one of my favorite players, but seeing him on, on the Ravens breaks my heart, but every time I see him run, it's always so great to see, you know, reminds me of Adrian Peterson, all the great running backs. It's him, you know, lt, you know, during our time, you know, for football, it's just tough to see him off in the Ravens uniform. So weird. [00:50:38] Speaker B: Still, it's funny cause I think a lot of people thought like after him leaving the Titans that he, that he was really done for, you know, just the mo of running backs and really the beating he has taken, how much Tennessee leaned on him for so long and how many hits he endured. And, man, he's made some super explosive plays in the last two weeks alone. Just, you know, clearing the line of scrimmage, you know, big runs out running the field. So he still got that, that next step, you know, ability to make that big play and that it's something that's dynamic for this Ravens team that, you know, hopefully stays healthy and, you know, can get them to the playoffs, you know, again, I thought the Ravens were going to win that division. I think it's still going to be super competitive, but yeah, I think he's been a real difference maker for them thus far. [00:51:28] Speaker D: Real quickly, I do want to talk about the rookie quarterbacks. Daniels, as we mentioned, the commanders looking sharp as hell. Thousand yards in his first five games and I believe 300 yards rushing as well. Or is it 200 yards rushing? First time that's happened in NFL history, I guess. And then Caleb Williams looked like he came alive this week. Like those. The birth of Caleb Williams coming out to the NFL looked really sharp. Moore had some nice catches. Panthers. Is this like the end of the pumpkin run? Is that, is that the Cinderella story is done with. It was just one game for the red Rocket. [00:52:06] Speaker C: I would want to say that. I mean, going back to Jaden Daniels. Yeah, he's look good. I mean Washington's look good. That offense is strong. They're getting undervalued by the books right now if you want to bet Washington because you know, the Lions aren't valuing them and then, you know, Caleb Williams, we've talked about it. What's a rookie quarterbacks best friend run game? What is Chicago doing now? Running the ball. When you can run the ball, when you can run the ball that makes a passing game for a young guy with the weapons. They got so much easier and you're seeing, you're seeing that come to fruition for those guys. [00:52:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Aaron and I were bringing up, you know, the first couple games on what the Bears could not do in the running game. I think now, you know, they've got some different things in the offensive line going running between the tackles, but also switching it up with Swift, you know, getting him outside the tackles, getting him on some screens. But I mean, Caleb Williams, to me, I think he, I think this week it was, he was number two behind Burrow with quarterback rating under pressure against the Blitz. He had like a 150 quarterback rating against the Blitz. And so he's picking up things. I think the deep. The second touchdown pass to DJ Moore specifically for Caleb was impressive because he basically, you know, it's that next level thing at quarterbacks or him looking off the safety, you know, with his eyes, getting a one on one matchup in the middle of the field, throws a dart to the end zone, that's the next level. Plays that from a Bears fan that Justin Fields wasn't making. And now, you know, within his fifth week, you know, Rome hasn't mentioned my panic meter at all in the past couple weeks. And that is all because, you know, Caleb's really, looked really sharp and the Bears overall have, you know, begun to find that groove, you know, a lot, a lot of hate on twitter because they beat a lowly Bengals team. But I'll, I'll say this, no one's giving Jaden Daniels crap for beating a one in four, you know, Browns team, a one in four Bengals team, a one in four Cardinals team, a one in four Giants team. So, you know, Jayden Daniels hasn't played all the great competition either, but he still looks great. I think Caleb's really taking it to the next level right now as well, and I think it'll be a tight. [00:54:09] Speaker C: Well, you know, your panic meter should be up a lot, Jason, because you're playing against the best one in four team in NFL history, according to Rome, the Jaguars this weekend in London. And, you know, the Jaguars don't lose in London. You know that. [00:54:20] Speaker B: So it's their second home because, you know, Shadcon and Tony Khan, you know, they, they own Fulham, so they, they love to get in that London market over there. But, yeah, I, I'm not panicking. This is the time for the Bears to really put it on the Jaguars this week in London. They're already flying out to London right now and getting this team prepared. A little bit concerned on the defense. Brisker, you know, held back from the team, you know, with a concussion, didn't fly out, potentially could be cleared and fly out later. But the story for the Bears overall is really the defense. And then Aaron mentioned the running game because the defense hasn't given up more than 20 points in the game. They, you know, they basically give up nothing in the second half versus virtually every team. That's what's going to deliver the Bears the playoff team. And everything Caleb does is just going to be the next level. You know, three 2300 yard games already. So you just talk about rookie quarterbacks. The only Bears quarterback in history, I believe it was to have 2300 yard games in a rookie season. Through five weeks, his 2300 yard games is already more than the three years of Justin Fields. So I wouldn't call next. [00:55:27] Speaker D: Jesus, but okay. Yeah, he looks good. [00:55:31] Speaker C: Touchdown, Jesus, man. [00:55:32] Speaker B: In Chicago. In Chicago, like, this is the, this is the best quarterback. So this is, this is quarterback Jesus for Bears fans in Chicago. So a lot to look forward to. The Bears look good there. What's the, like, Jason, right now the line for what? [00:55:48] Speaker C: Two Bears favored by two, which is low. Which is low. [00:55:52] Speaker B: Geez. I mean, I'm going to put the Bears in my top five again this Thursday, again if it's staying at that. So. [00:55:58] Speaker D: Yeah, that's me. Fine. Give me the lights on Thursday. [00:56:03] Speaker B: Yeah, but, you know, I wanted to get back, you mentioned rookie quarterbacks. You know, Jaden's getting all the headlines. Caleb, number one, all the pick Bo Nicks as well. At the same time, too, leading, you know, leading a winning team. They haven't been the prettiest games, but, you know, that's another team that's three and two right now with a rookie quarterback with the Broncos, that's been, you know, somewhat surprising. [00:56:21] Speaker D: Yeah, the Broncos have a pretty good defense. They kind of, kind of ride on and, yeah, Bo Nick's not a lot of stats there, but I, I did like a little tip that he got with, with the Sean Payne on the sideline. I know twitter went crazy over that, but Broncos, I'm really surprised by the Broncos right now. No surprise from the Raiders. They're two and three. And I hope my Steelers can get a bounce back victory this upcoming week. But we'll see if the quarterback is for the Raiders, I guess. Cool. [00:56:57] Speaker B: All right. [00:56:58] Speaker D: I mean, go ahead. [00:57:00] Speaker B: I was going to say Rome, are we at a time you had, you were talking, you were going to roll out a new segment this week. We were going to do, you know, your top five teams, which I'm assuming the Chiefs are not in at five and. [00:57:11] Speaker A: Oh, it's gonna, they're in it. [00:57:13] Speaker B: Oh, they're in the bottom. Yeah, there's there are five, the Jaguars are four. Just because a couple lucky breaks here. [00:57:20] Speaker D: And there just don't like comparisons, that's all. You guys don't like stats and numbers, you know, I get it. You guys want to keep it simple. You got a Bears fan and a Pacs fan. I expect a lot of analysis going on here. [00:57:31] Speaker B: I keep it up. [00:57:32] Speaker C: I don't care. I don't care what the number show. I care what the film shows and the film shows. The Jaguars are bad fucking team. [00:57:39] Speaker B: And I like stats like wins and losses, you know, great stat. You know, maybe the most important stat. [00:57:45] Speaker C: Like Parcel says, you are what your record says you are, and the Jaguars are not a good team, and the. [00:57:51] Speaker D: Bengals are a lot better than one. [00:57:54] Speaker C: I think I saw Burroughs press conference where he said they're not a playoff r championship caliber. [00:58:00] Speaker D: He said that? Yeah, he's pretty pissed he balled out, man. I'd be pissed, too, if you fall out and, you know, stop, you know. [00:58:08] Speaker B: The defense wasted a big borough game, so I'm waiting for this Rome get. Let's, let's. What's the Rome top five? What are we calling this thing? [00:58:18] Speaker A: Not sure yet. I know. [00:58:20] Speaker D: Next week, though, we'll get geared up, guys. We'll do, you know, mvp favorites, offense, defense, you know, or quarter awards, if you will, but top five in no particular order. I'll just start off with the undefeated, obviously, so the Chiefs will have to be in there. They finally got their first real victory of the season today. Much props to them. I'm a big Andy Reid guy, though. He's from LA, and we both like Tommy's chili burgers, so I always have a soft spot for Andy Reid. Also on the top five. Vikings. Donald has been kind of shaky the last two games. I was wondering if that whole little magical train ride was going to end, but he did enough to pull through with, with the wind and, and the Vikings, you got to give it up to their defensive side of the ball, man. Flores, he's looking every bit of a defensive genius like Belichick was, you know, from his time there. I'm really curious how they're going to progress throughout the rest, rest of the season, and that's, like, bad news for everyone else in that division. Also top five will be the Texans. They haven't looked great, but I think they strung along two victories back to back finally this year, kind of. They always win kind of ugly, even last year with Stroud in his first year, but they're doing it via all the peripherals of the game. So I really got to give credit props to them. [00:59:53] Speaker B: Aaron's Super bowl pick, right, or at least going to the Super bowl was the Texans. [00:59:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:58] Speaker D: That was one of his picks. Yeah. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Negative point. Negative point differential for a four in one team. Negative twelve point differential. [01:00:08] Speaker D: It is pretty crazy. Yeah. I'm gonna definitely put the commanders in there for now. They just looked really dominant. I got to get up to what they put around Daniels. The offensive play calling has been phenomenal. They planted their strengths. They know their weaknesses. Maybe they're surprised everyone, maybe everybody will have enough game film to adjust them moving forward. But as far as, like, already five games in and it doesn't look like a fluke like everyone else has, like, already fallen off, the seats have fallen off. We seem like the Bills already stumbled a little bit. They have big holes on defense. Commanders look like a legitimate team right now, so they're also in the top five. Rounding out the top five, I would have to put in the Lions. Lions. I think they had a bye week this week, so couldn't show much. They just have so much talent. I know they have back to back wins, I believe, but that's my top five. [01:01:05] Speaker B: So to recap Rome's top five, it's the five teams with zero or one loss. [01:01:11] Speaker C: I would agree with your top five, Rome, except I take the commanders out and I'd put the Ravens in. Ravens getting into my top five commanders go to Baltimore this week. So we're going to find out what they're all about. Like Jason said, they haven't played against a winning team. They haven't played against a legit defense. Really? Say what you want about Cleveland. They're not the same. They know they can't score on offense. The defense doesn't care anymore. We're going to find out what the commanders are about at Baltimore. Should be a good game. The Lions at six and a half, seven. I think that's a little high, but I hit the Ravens in my top five. Take the commanders out. [01:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Interesting enough for the Ravens, like, for a organization that is generally stacked offensively, they're in the bottom third of points again so far this season right now. So if they're three and two with their defense not playing where we know generally they always live up to the hype, you know, they're, they're going to be stronger down the stretch and start clamping down, you know, here as we get into the fall and a little more what you call football weather, and we start getting some lower points games. [01:02:14] Speaker D: So one thing, the reason why they put the Ravens in there, they had the same issue last year as well. They gave up really big plays, big 2030 yard chunks, and they're doing the same thing this year. They're giving up a lot of points. You imagine, Jason? I don't know if they could, if they can short that up or nothing. I don't know if it's a play calling, if it's their personnel, but I know that was an issue last year. But, yeah, they're the bottom third or bottom fourth in a lot of categories. Defense, they have a lot of talent there. [01:02:39] Speaker C: New defense, a coordinator. They lost a lot of guys. They lost their, what would be their backup coordinator to the Miami Dolphins. They lost a lot of coaches on that side. That's what happens when you're successful. Your coaches get pegged for jobs as other coordinators on other teams. But like Jason said, they've got the personnel. They know how to gel. You know, Cincinnati was hot, Dallas kind of a fluke. They held him to six points for three and a half quarters and then kind of just basically laid an egg the rest of that game. And Dak almost came back. I don't buy any stock in that tough game against the Chiefs early in the year when the Chiefs were fully healthy. We don't really know what the Chiefs are on offense because they haven't been healthy all year. Then you had the game. Week two against the Raiders were dominating. And then Raiders fourth quarter. So they've had a lot of lapses in the fourth quarter. But Baltimore is one team I'm sure can get it together. And Jayden Daniels is a real test man. Washington can score. He can get out of the pocket. He can run. Like you said, mcLaurin's down there in the field. Game. Zach Ertz. Zach Ertz is back at tight end. He's looking like he did back in his Philadelphia days. Getting some touch and love over there. Cliff Kingsbury's doing a great job. Yeah. So we'll see what happens. [01:03:53] Speaker B: I. We talking Formula one now? [01:03:55] Speaker D: I was like, well, I'm a big family. Clearance anyways. Cool. Are we good on football? You guys want like a little baseball? [01:04:14] Speaker C: I want to know your panic meter on the Dodgers room. That's the real talk. Because they. You mean you've been giving shit to Jason all year about the Bears, but his bears are actually looking, are actually getting better. The Dodgers are getting worse. [01:04:29] Speaker D: They're getting worse. It was interesting game, watching it yesterday. I was not in a good mood at the end of the night I was flipping back and forth between both the games, the bats going cold again. It's a big concern of mine. And then the fans. I had no problem with the fans throwing balls up at the podcast by no problem with it. [01:04:51] Speaker A: I'm all for it. Especially typical, typical shot. [01:04:58] Speaker B: That was the greatest home run rob of all time. He fooled everyone in that stadium. The cameraman. Yeah, they were, they were going up and he just stared everyone down. That was a, that was next level stuff. I. Jerks and profile. [01:05:17] Speaker D: Yeah, no, it was so. Yeah, that whole bullshit. [01:05:24] Speaker B: That whole game had a vibe to it, though. There was just videos of the way profile and Tatis were in the outfield with the fans, you know, didn't like throwing the stuff in the field like Rome said, but I think there was just a rivalry aspect to it. Flaherty and Machado were just going back and forth, yapping. Machado gets like a team meeting on the dugout and kind of in the middle the game. There's just like, I don't know, there's not a, you know, you get into the playoffs like playoff baseball. I think there's a, there's a next level energy. I think playoff baseball, to me, probably number two, playoff hockey. I don't think anything beats it. I'll go that. But playoff hockey is the best playoff sports are out there. But playoff baseball, there's a different level of intensity in these short series. You know, stack teams like the Dodgers. Aaron's guy, mookie bets. I think he's oh, for his last 50 or something in the playoffs or something at this point. Yeah, yeah. And Freeman, you know, same thing. So your, your, two of your three MVP's are supposed to carry. You aren't doing anything in a short five game series like, you know, you're in and you're out type thing. [01:06:30] Speaker D: Well, one thing about the Dodgers, interesting, I think. I don't think any starter went past five and a half, six innings at all, unlike the last month and a half. And so it's just been the bullpen carrying it for three and a half inning. What we've seen as well. Yeah, and, but the Dodgers have to hit though. Like, you know, they got the score six, seven runs every game. But for them to allow seven, seven one aspect. But you could pick up all that bad energy, the, those fights for the telecast. I agree with you, Jason. Playoff baseball is really exciting. [01:07:01] Speaker C: But I think fans, I think the Dodgers fans have thrown all that shit on the field because that's the last home game for the year. For them. It's not coming back to LA. It's not coming back. Bueller is going to get rocked. He's going to get rocked. It's been the worst pitcher for these guys all year. He's been pitched well the last two times. But the Padres, they're in it. They're in the Dodgers heads. Freeman can't hit bets can't hit. Ohtani can, but he's batting lead off. So if nobody's on, who cares if he hits solo home runs? They're attacking him with a high heat. We'll see how he adjusts to that. But Keane's been a good pitcher for the Padres. Bueller's nothing. The Dodger, same recipe. They can't get a starter to get deep into games. We're seeing teams that are winning in the postseason. It's pitching, pitching, pitching dogs kind of. They don't have, they don't have the pitching right now. [01:07:51] Speaker B: I don't know if you guys saw this as a little breaking news since we started recording tonight, too, but Aaron mentioned Walker. Bueller is supposed to start this game tomorrow night. Over the weekend, he was robbed at the Santa Anita park for $100,000 watch. So got a little bit of distraction for your game three starter right now. Got to go down to San Diego. I don't know, man. Like, just. It's not lining up. [01:08:17] Speaker C: I'll say this. He can call Tawny's bookie, put 100 grand on the Padres, and he'll make that up, no problem, because that's who's winning on tomorrow. [01:08:26] Speaker B: Secretly, as a, as a White Sox fan right now, if the Dodgers get bounced, I'm, you know, hoping, because that makes the Dodgers maybe want to get Garrett Crochet and overpay for a bunch of those great prospects the Dodgers generally have. [01:08:38] Speaker A: I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, I'm not too worried. [01:08:43] Speaker B: Rome didn't say panic meter, but I feel on his face. There is panic there, actually. [01:08:48] Speaker C: He starts playing with the hair on his fucking chin, you know, he's panicking. I just don't know. [01:08:54] Speaker A: It's just one game, dude. [01:08:55] Speaker D: One game lost. They fucking played really well in the first game. And they really need to get that monkey out there back because they didn't win last year, you know, they got swept out. So they haven't won a playoff game in two years. Get it going. I think they'll rebound finally tomorrow. [01:09:09] Speaker C: We'll see, man. I mean, yeah, pitching, pitching is an issue, man. The D backs jumped on them early. Padres jumped on him three over there in game one. Ohtani got that home run and get him back, kind of three run shot. The mojo, if they didn't have Otani, they probably would have lost that game. [01:09:23] Speaker D: I think it's all about maybe he's. [01:09:24] Speaker C: The difference maker, but like, pitching, pitching, pitching. That's a big thing. But interesting. Every one of these series is tied. One, one. Right now, everyone in Cleveland, you know, Jason talked about that bullpen. That bullpen let him down in the 9th. The best closer in the game. That three run shot, I didn't see it coming, but, man, the Mets, dude, they just, every time I think they're dead, they, they come back. [01:09:50] Speaker B: Will be really wild if the Yankees go down and the Mets of the New York team that's going to make this run right now, because I think everyone felt like, really, the Yankees are going to be like the class of the American League with the bats they had. But I don't know, man. They're up against it with Kansas City right now, and this could just end very quickly for the Yankees. [01:10:09] Speaker D: It's one game. I don't know. I'm not one of those. [01:10:12] Speaker C: It's a five game series, man. I. Game series. Anything can happen. And baseball is like one of the weird sports. Like Jason said, post season wise, if you get hot, especially these young teams, and you feel confident, you can win a five game set, and it's early in the playoffs, it's not like you've had to go deep into your bullpen. You're at the end of October. All these games are a lot of stress on your arm. If you can get starting pitching, they can go six, seven innings and get to your main arms. Your setup guy in your closer. That's a great. If you're like the Dodgers, you're only getting three, four innings. Then you got to go to guys to get you through the fifth, 6th, 7th, 8th in the bulk of a team's hitting order. That's tough. That's just tough, man. [01:10:50] Speaker D: You know, the main thing, they just got to get it. What they've been doing to skip the fifth, 6th inning and you know, their bullpen already knows how to handle three or four innings versus all these other teams that they don't. But Padres have been doing the same thing as well. They've been using three or four innings. [01:11:04] Speaker C: And they're both in Arbors one seven last night. [01:11:07] Speaker D: Yeah, well, yeah, it was definitely off night. So that was a rarity in the past, you know, month and a half. But, yeah, every division was tight. I don't even know which way anything's going. Mets pulled out game one. Phillies responded. Yanks got game one. The Royals responded today. I did miss that rerun shot earlier for the Tigers, but yeah, I don't know. We'll see how it goes. [01:11:37] Speaker B: I mean, great playoffs so far. All four series tied at one. One. First time in alts history. In MLB at all four series. Yep. Yep. That's, that was something I saw on today. So first time all, all series are one. One. So, I mean, all in lines for a good post season, which is, you know, really exciting this time of year for baseball because generally the NFL and college football are taking over pretty much every day of the week. I think we're in the midst of, is it 53 straight days of football, Aaron? [01:12:05] Speaker C: 53 55. And we're only seven days into it. [01:12:08] Speaker A: So. [01:12:09] Speaker B: So we got baseball, we got hockey. You know, really right around the corner this week as well, too. Basketball is not too far behind. We'll have the, the sports equinox, I think, are creeping up at some point in October. So a lot, a lot of good stuff going on. [01:12:24] Speaker D: What does hockey get started? [01:12:26] Speaker C: Hockey real soon, man. Real. [01:12:30] Speaker B: I think it's this week if I. [01:12:33] Speaker C: Let's see, getting. [01:12:37] Speaker B: I think it is. [01:12:39] Speaker C: Is it tomorrow, man? Tomorrow night? [01:12:45] Speaker B: It's. Right. Honest. I mean, the preseason was there, so. Yep. We got the blues and the Kraken. We got the Blackhawks in the Utah hockey club, Bruins, panthers kicking off the slate. [01:12:57] Speaker D: So I'm not ready to talk hockey. [01:13:00] Speaker C: But we do got to go to a hockey game, though, Mandy. [01:13:04] Speaker D: I'll be reading my Red Wings, though, to make another stride this year and rebuild. No Blackhawks. [01:13:11] Speaker B: The Blackhawks are going to be terrible, man. So I can't really talk about it. I'm willing to let it go. We got a couple more years. Connor Bedard is going to be the only highlight of the Blackhawks probably this year at this point. So we've still got some time to rebuild the franchise. Defending Stanley cup champions, the Panthers and the Bruins. I think that'll be the game of the first night, though. [01:13:32] Speaker C: I agree with that. Should be a good one down there in Florida. [01:13:36] Speaker D: All right, cool. I think we covered everything. [01:13:38] Speaker B: Yep. Good to go Thursday. Pick through the games. Aaron's college games. Must watch all 26 of them. [01:13:52] Speaker C: Might be ten, might be 20, might be 30. I mean, all the upsets going on. Might just have to put the full slate on there. You never know when your upset's gonna happen. [01:14:01] Speaker B: We'll see. We'll find out Thursday afternoon. When he sends the list, we'll find out Thursday. [01:14:05] Speaker D: And I'm looking forward to the spelling as well. [01:14:08] Speaker B: There you go. I can give another, my, my five bets of the week that are questionable, but were 40 and one last week. So Rome's keeping me honest and keeping me track at this point. What I can give Aaron's, Aaron's given out a lot of winners. You know, he's the gambling expert. But, you know, I had, I had four out of five winners this last week. [01:14:28] Speaker D: Yeah, four, five. [01:14:29] Speaker C: You take that every week. [01:14:30] Speaker D: You did push on the ravens, Bengals, Jason? [01:14:34] Speaker B: No, I had minus two and a half. I can't push it to minus two and a half. [01:14:37] Speaker C: Yeah, it was two and a half. That was when I had minus three for the Ravens. [01:14:40] Speaker B: It was, it was jags, colts. That was minus three that I pushed on. Check the tape. Minus. Check the tape. [01:14:50] Speaker C: Ravens, Ravens. That closed at two and a half. I had two and a half months. [01:14:55] Speaker D: Three. [01:14:56] Speaker C: No, it was two. Two and a half. [01:14:58] Speaker B: Two and a half. I said, I said the lines. You can go ahead and check the tape. [01:15:05] Speaker D: So wrote. [01:15:06] Speaker B: Wrote it down. It was on ESPN. Bet. Bears minus four. Cardinals plus seven and a half. Cowboys plus two and a half. They pulled that one at the end for me, so. But we'll see. Aaron's the expert on this stuff. I'm just, I'm just giving you five games I like on there as a little, little bonus. Take it. For what it's worth. [01:15:25] Speaker C: I like every game Jason had on that ticket, except I like the Steelers and it came down in one play. That's just how it goes sometimes. [01:15:33] Speaker D: That's how it goes. Cool, man. We'll do the lines on Thursday and maybe like a little NHL coverage and baseball updates, see how it goes. [01:15:44] Speaker B: Big sports week. We'll talk to you guys Thursday. [01:15:47] Speaker D: All right, peace. [01:15:48] Speaker C: See you. [01:15:54] Speaker B: Close.