Eagles Give it Away on MNF, Most Surprising 2-0 and 0-2 Teams, Game Management, Plus College Football

[00:00:05] Speaker A: What's up, y'all? Welcome back to sources from the sofa. We got the full lineup here today. Me, myself, Rome, we got at and Jason, it was a hell of a football week. A full day of college football on Saturday. Lots of exciting games. The heavy hitters came and played some almost upsets. The NFL was a lot of fun yesterday, jam packed in the morning, and then we were treated to like a really interesting Monday Night football game with Atlanta Falcons and the Eagles. I did not think the Falcons would actually show up like this. Kirk Hunts looked pretty decent, actually looked a little tight in the first half and then kind of loosened up, scrambled a little bit, kind of got outside the pocket, had some nice throws, clutch. I don't know. I'm kind of stunned. [00:00:53] Speaker B: Yeah, cousins looked okay. Struggled in the first half, but really got things going in that two minute drive there to lead to the Falcons on a comeback. So give him credit there. But yeah, he looked most comfortable running that two minute offense out of the shotgun. Got some big plays in the passing game. Led the comeback for the Falcons. Big win for Atlanta, tough loss if you're an Eagles fan. [00:01:15] Speaker A: It was a really big one for the Falcons. What do you guys think about cousins? [00:01:21] Speaker C: I think he did enough to get by. I think what Aaron said, I mean, it struggled in the first half, made a few plays in the second half, but it was really all in that last drive. You know how he's able to find some open receivers? Darnell Mooney, two big catches on that last drive, hitting Drake London there in the corner. I mean, that's what they paid him all this money for. It was really that last drive right there. But, I mean, this is a case more, did the Eagles lose the game or do the Falcons actually win the game? And it's probably more the Eagles lost this game because they had it in Saquon Bartley Barkley's hand there or Aaron's guy Saquon Broccoli. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, obviously. Obviously the hands are still greasy from the butter on the broccoli on that play. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah, me and error were just briefly talking about it before he joined Jason. I thought it was a bad call during, you know, opting to go for a pass instead of running it. Um, they're right there in the goal line. They did a great job last week against the packers, you know, ramming it down, and they definitely went away from that game plan this time, and it kicked them in the ass and they gave way too much time to the Falcons and just not out of time at the end. Dude, Jalen hurts, turnover prone again, like, this kind of seems like a, like the theme of him from like the past two seasons now. [00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Going back to the Eagles, not running the ball, I would have ran the ball, I think was third and three. You could have ran it. Gotten to two and a half yards. I mean, they were getting big yards throughout the game. Running Barkley and then obviously go to the tush push with Jalen Hurts to get the first down, and they need to ice the game. The rollout pass, Barkley in the flat. That was the right call. He was open. Hit him in the hands. He get. He gets down, gets the first down. You take a knee, the games over, and then Jalen hurts. Like you said, just kind of throwing it up there at the end of the game, double coverage. Got a safe stay over the top corner underneath. Just kind of air meld it. I would have liked to see him throwing away. They had time to get a couple more plays in. All you got to do is get in field, go range, and Jake Elliot can knock down from 60 yards in the link. We've seen him do it before so bad. Clock management there by Jalen Hurts, but the Eagles, yeah, this one, like Jason said, it's a tough loss, given the fact that they're going into New Orleans this week to play a hot Saints team. [00:03:31] Speaker A: I just saw, like, this stat, I think, during the telecast that Barkley has 18 or so drops. It's like the most by running back in the past couple of years. I didn't know that, but I thought that was kind of interesting. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Yeah, very interesting. But he's been probably the biggest spark from that offense, definitely in week one and still playing dividends in week two. So it's. Where they're at is probably because of what Saquon's been able to do. So you want to put the ball in your playmakers hands, just got to make plays. But when you look at Sunday night's game, you look at Monday night's game. Cause even, even early in the Monday night game, the Eagles going for it, I think, was a fourth and four at a certain point, didn't take the points at that time. You know, there, there was, there was questionable some game management from Sirianni that I think bucket buck and eight man were on to on the Monday night telecast. There was some super questionable calls. I'm sure we'll get to it on the Sunday night telecast. Or even the announcers in the moment are like, what are we doing from a game management perspective? So, um, those are those little things where it comes down to a field goal here, one or two points there that you take points off the board and at the end comes to bite you when you're not managing the clock or you miss a play like that. Past the Saquon. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Um, besides that, though, from, like, week one to week two, it looks like we've had, like, some, um, very back and forth performances out of everything you guys seen the first two weeks, anything that kind of sticks out? I don't know. I kind of want to go into, like, most impressive performances so far, especially in week two. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Week two. I mean, the most impressive team has to be the New Orleans Saints going into the Dallas Cowboys and whipping them like they did. Definitely didn't see. I definitely didn't see that one coming. We talk about. We talk about upsets. Saints basically came in a seven point underdog and ran all over the Cowboys. I mean, whatever they wanted to do, they did. They ran the ball, they threw the ball deep. Their defense played good, kept the Cowboys out of the end zone. Kind of that bend but don't break, which we're kind of seeing a lot in the NFL right now, early in the first two weeks. [00:05:30] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:30] Speaker B: So I came away with New Orleans. I mean, Derek Carr, this was a guy that the Raiders basically just shipped out of town for free. You know, pin him on an Uber. Pin him on an uber, send him to New Orleans and said, get out of here, garoppolo. [00:05:42] Speaker A: He's. [00:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Of all people, Garoppolo. We might be seeing him pretty soon with the La Rams, the way they got guys flying off the shelves on the irde. But give Derek Carr credit, man. New coordinator OC Kubiak coming in there, running the ball. I mean, the Saints haven't ran the ball good since Mark Ingram was there, and they just, they controlled the line of scrimmage and beat Dallas like a drum on Sunday. Yeah. [00:06:07] Speaker C: Yeah. He really came out of nowhere. I mean, not now we've all knew he's at, but from a fantasy perspective, you look, he's been off the map. This is a guy that, you know, was he hurt most of the time, didn't even know if he was drafted. Probably took some people and some flyers at this point, but getting three touchdowns, you know, really early in this game, it was on, and it was on fire. I mean, a playmaker he was in years past, but it's good to see him coming back. But, yeah, Aaron mentioned with Derek Carr there was a stat at some point throughout the game. The, oh, 15 consecutive drives has been a scoring drive from the state between the first and second 2nd game. Like, yeah, really, you know, unheard of offensive production here in the first two games, you know, compared to a lot of the other offenses I did see overall from the week. You know, the Saints obviously be impressive, but first two weeks of the year over the past ten years or actually do the last five years, the number of passing touchdowns that was going on. So 2019 100 522 2020 there was 110 2021 110 2022 100 520 23 last year down to 86. Going into the Monday night game tonight, there was only 66 passing touchdowns. So, like, offense overall was just completely kind of a mess across the league except the Saints who just were scored pretty much on every drive. And give Derek Carter's due, Tarek Carter's due. Like Aaron was saying, he's getting them up and down the field, making plays, scoring touchdowns all over a Dallas team that you say what you want about Dallas, but Dallas is always a September team. You know, general, generally they're putting up four, four and one, five and one in September. Putting off. Yes, up there we know when it's nice and convenient in September. So a little bit of surprising point for Dallas. This is the Dallas I expect in January, not the Dallas you see generally in September. [00:07:50] Speaker A: There's a point of being going around. Dallas thinks it's a playoff game in September. Saints, as you mentioned, 15 drives scoring consecutively. They, I guess they scored 91 points. It's the fourth most in NFL history in the first two weeks. That's fucking crazy. Derek Carr looks phenomenal. Kubiak. I think that this might be like maybe one of the more underrated coaching hires in the offseason because they look sharp. I thought. I think we talked about initially, you know, we didn't expect the Saints to win much. We had bucks, Falcons and then Saints and Panthers battling out for like fourth place. But Saints have been the hottest team in the NFL. They look really good. [00:08:30] Speaker B: If you go back to what we were talking about, we said that was probably one of the weakest divisions in the NFC and in the NFL overall. And the way Tampa's looked, New Orleans has looked. Atlanta getting a big win here, minus Carolina, who we thought was going to be terrible. This division is shaping up to maybe be pretty good. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it's gonna be kind of fun. [00:08:48] Speaker B: The Saints, like you said, I think the Kubiak are looking great right now. The team didn't have no vertical passing game last year. They couldn't run the ball right now. They're both on fire on both of those things. This is a dynamic offense. Philadelphia, like I said, comes into town this week. It'll be an interesting game because Philly's defense isn't very good. They can't stop really anybody in the passing game and in the running game, Bijon Robinson was having a nice game. How you got Kamora and that passing attack. Saints, they might be rolling some more points up on Sunday. [00:09:22] Speaker C: Yeah, talking about the Kubiak higher. I mean, we talked about Ben Johnson a lot in the season preview, but now Kubiak's gonna be rising the ranks as like the offensive coach. You're going to want, you know, as a bunch of these jobs probably come open around thing. He's probably going to have a pick of the litter. If this is going to be an offensive team, he can resur, you know, resurgence with David Carr, you know, what can he do with some of these other quarterbacks around the league and be the hot coaching candidate. So, yeah, I mean, very impressive from the Saints. I think just overall in the division. I don't want to get ahead of your own, but like surprising teams. I think most impressive to be on the Saints. Aaron mentioned the Buccaneers to two and o going into Detroit. I think a lot of people thought that was a, that was the Detroit gimme to go two and o. But next year list was right there. Like, baker's been so, so impressive that a guy that basically wrote off from Cleveland and even his last season in Cleveland, I don't think was given a fair shake because he was playing, that he was hurt the entire year and he was going out there playing, didn't perform. You know, they dump him. You know, Carolina didn't know what to do with him. You know, just like Carolina does, you know, does a little stint with the Rams just to help out, but, you know, signs that flyer with the Buccaneers, has a really solid season, gets himself paid, get, gets back into it and making plays with the weapons that they've had down in Tampa. And so the Buccaneers, really impressive because I, the Lions is everyone's trendy pick, and I think the Buccaneers really show that, you know, they're a team to compete as well in the NFC. [00:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I definitely like the Lions going to the Super bowl, but I did pick the Bucs to win the division. Baker Mayfield, I thought he did great. When they were down, it kind of felt like the momentum was going the Lions way, especially in the second half, I can't remember, they were probably down like six points or so. The Bucks got the ball back. They got pinned down to like a 30 long, and then Baker kind of took off with his legs, made smart decisions. He just kind of bullied his way. He's just such a football guy. Just kind of took over the whole game and just changed from there and didn't seem the Lions had a answer for them. Lions look kind of like shake again on defense. It was a low scoring game. I was expecting to be a shootout, but 2016, that was, that was really fun game. [00:11:30] Speaker B: Yeah, the weird game, if you look at it, because you had the Lions out, gain the Buccaneers by 200 yards. I think we talked. We talk about bend and don't break. Tampa did a great job once Detroit got into that red zone, just kind of shrink in the field, plain zone coverage, passing everything off, kept him out of the end zone, put some pressure on golf lady made some unexpected interception throws in Tampa's defense. I mean, we talk about Baker, and that's great, but I think the defense, with all the secondary players, they had out, even some D linemen. I think a lot of people thought Detroit would go in there at home and beat them. I mean, they were a 7.75 point favorite. Me and Rome talked about this on Thursdays, Tampa being a trendy team to get the upset given just, you know, they lost to him twice last year, divisional round. Tampa was more hungry, the defense was a little more hungry, and they stepped up and got the job done. [00:12:18] Speaker C: Aaron says unexpected, you know, interceptions from Jared Goff, but I think those unexpected interceptions he's referring to are the expected ones you saw with the Rams and when the Lions were not as good last year. It's these untimely interceptions and turnovers from Goff that I think has separated him from whether he's truly the elite quarterback that he was supposed to be coming out of college and kind of the above average quarterback that did get him to the Super bowl but wasn't the playmaker that McVeigh wanted in the offense and has flashes of brilliance and a lot of weapons in Detroit, but when it goes south with them, it's usually at the hands of untimely golf. Interceptions. [00:13:00] Speaker A: Another performance I really liked. I think Aaron was really up on this was the Cardinals. We kind of talked about it, Jason, a lot. Last pod, I was picking the Rams to win, but that's before I knew everyone was on the IR. I was in the hospital on the Rams. And Kyler Murphy, he looks great, didn't make any mistakes. [00:13:20] Speaker C: Kyler Murray, you do tell us we had to correct you going forward. So just, just Murray. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, you said Murphy. [00:13:26] Speaker A: I believe Murray no, he looked good. Harrison junior, man, what he had like over 100 yards in the first quarter, couple touchdowns. It looks sharp. That nice grab at the end of the end zone. Tippy toad like that was fucking phenomenal. I was beautiful to kind of see. I didn't know that they were going to score 40 points, though. Everyone looks healthy. [00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Go back two years ago before marine stuff got hurt, and when they started, I think, 7181 with Cliff Kingsbury, they got off and they were scoring 30 plus points a game. We talked about on the show, they got a lot of weapons. Murray's looking good. He's looking strong. Second year removed from that ACL injury, and Harrison junior, we talked about one catch for three targets for four yards of week one. Obviously, they came out, got him involved early. The first two drives, two TD's, 130 yards, four catches. He didn't catch the ball again. They tried to get him a couple times in the end zone. Murray missed them on a couple fade routes to the corner. They run the ball good, but yeah, the Rams, with all the injuries they got, I mean, they're basically blowing up my phone team. I want to come out of retirement and play with them right now. [00:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah, the injuries, the. Without Aaron Donald this year, I think was always going to be a question of, like the Rams. Yeah, you have the best defensive player probably of the last deck, at least, making the most impact up the middle that, you know, demands that extra attention in the interior defensive line that the offense needs almost double team that allows those pass rushers off the edge. That was really getting a lot of guys paid off the edge for the Ramse because so much pressure was applied by Donald and attention need to be played from onset line Baki, which just made the whole defense behind him better. So I. There was going to be a natural potential step back, and now you got all these injuries piling up. Going to be very tough for the Rams with, you know, a lot of firepower in that division, although at the same time, the 49 ers haven't been able to stay healthy either. So there could be an opening here for the Cardinals or the Seahawks by both of these teams that are usually the perennial one two in the division, you know, have all these injuries to start the season. A lot of times in the NFL, it's. It's really about health, who's going to play the majority of games from your star players and who's not. And that could be the difference of one or two games that you're in a buy or, you know, potentially out of the playoffs sometimes. [00:15:41] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the Niners were so healthy last year. I expected some regression this year. And you're starting to see that war of attrition, right? CMC is going to be out. Debo is going to be out now for a few games. So we'll see how pretty can like weather the storm. Besides cardinals, Saints, Bucks. I thought the Bills also had a really impressive performance. I think like those are like the four best games this week. Out of all those four, who do you guys think are going to be able to sustain this throughout the season? [00:16:10] Speaker B: I mean, it's early two weeks in, so it's kind of hard to say he's going to be able to sustain it going forward. I'm curious to see the Saints, they've got the Eagles this weekend. I think they get the job done and get the three, you know, Bills, bills are looking strong. They're part of a doubleheader next Monday with Jacksonville. Talking about teams have been disappointing. Jacksonville at Owen too. But yeah, Saints looking, looking really strong and Tampa Bay, I think with that defense and Baker, they got to get the running game going. That's always been the problem of Tampa Bay. Can they get the running game going, sustain that and their offensive line, they had one of their tackles out. I think Aiden Hutchinson had about four and a half sacks just in that he killed it. I mean, given, given the fact that Detroit out gained them 200 yards and all the sacks and pressures they put on Baker, it's quite remarkable that Tampa did come out with that win. [00:17:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Going back to that Thursday night, Cameron, I think for me it was the bills we talked about in the season preview, losing the weapons they did on the outside, kind of rebuilding around Josh Allen. He's kind of going to do it by himself. James Cook, I said was going to be kind of the key, you know, going forward. Can you get him involved with the run game? He had a. Yeah, yeah, he had a phenomenal game and I really, that's, that's really a difference. I think them long term, you know, does James Cook get the ball, make a difference? They established a running game. Take that pressure off of Josh Allen. He's able to get the ball around to some of the wide receivers and as they grow throughout the year with the Dolphins lacking, you know, some offense and defense right now, this offense in Miami is not as impressive as it was twelve months ago when they were coming out of the gates throwing the ball all over the place to waddle and Tyree two is going to be out. Who knows how long that's going to be. And the jets, you know, good comeback this week, but, you know, didn't look great the first week, but the bills, you know, Aaron and I think beginning the year both said they're going to be outside looking in. But right now they're still kind of that class of the AFC east right now just reforming the identity that, you know, they had without Stefan Diggs. [00:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Real quick, dolphins, because being Aaron, were able to talk a little bit about it. We didn't really touch on to it too much on the last pod, but kind of curious that we got more updates. What do you think, Jason? What do you think, Aaron? First of all, the very controversial thing. Should he retire? And then second, yeah, should he retire? [00:18:38] Speaker B: Not a doctor. So I don't have all the medical history and all that knowledge that goes on. Do I think he's going to retire? No, I think he's going to take a few weeks off, come back, give it a try again, and then if something happens, another head injury this year or something severe in the next year or two, I think you'll probably look at him, just start hanging it up. [00:18:59] Speaker A: I was looking. Oh, go ahead, Jason. [00:19:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree with Aaron. I'm not going to tell anyone to retire. It's going to be based on him and his doctor and how it goes. I agree with Aaron that I don't think he will retire if it's going to be a guess what's going to happen. Last year through the year, entirely healthy. So I think that was a lot of the conversation going into last year was always going to stay healthy and he did the entire year so early in the season already at this point got signed to the big contract he's going to play. Um, but you know, it's, it's something interesting to look at because that's going to be the round. And every time this guy takes a big hit, is he okay? Every time, which is, it's a scary thing to watch on the field. [00:19:42] Speaker A: It wasn't even a big hit. [00:19:44] Speaker C: It wasn't. But you, I mean, you never know. You say, we say that sitting on our couch, you know, from all the sources there and does having on the sofa at this point if we're going to tie in the name of the show in here, but I, um, you know, you don't know what hits going to be at which side it's going to be. It doesn't have to be the loudest one, but any of those, any of those hits can be, can be the one at this point. But you know, how does he take care of himself within the pocket? Be smart. He's a football player. He wants. He wants to play. This is what these guys get to that level for. But is he going to have, you know, it's probably too early to talk about is he going to have the longest career? Maybe not. You think about Troy Aikman's career and I and our childhood. It feels like his career was forever, but it basically was just kind of the nineties and, you know, that, and that was kind of it because he had the same thing. We just never saw it on the field. It wasn't talked about. Now, I think there's a. Just a sense of awareness, knowing the long term effects from all these concussions. Now, you know, as an audience, we want to see this guy live a long and productive, happy life and not have to worry about long term effects of brain damage. [00:20:42] Speaker A: Here's two things I just. It's like, if you have, like, narcolepsy, right, you can't be a race car driver. Gonna be fucking bad for everybody. I just. Maybe he's just not big enough. Sometimes people are just not meant to take a hit. And the way he got hit kind of looks like when I'm drunk falling on top of my pillow, but instead he was falling over on Hamlet. It didn't look crazy at all. I think he might miss one or two games, come back, but if he gets one more concussion like that, I know he's not guaranteed the full salary if he retires on his own terms. He only gets what it was initially guaranteed from the beginning of the contract. But if he's medically deemed unable to play, then he collects the full guaranteed contract. I thought that was kind of interesting. [00:21:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the head, like Jason said and you guys said, didn't look very severe, but it was still a head and neck shot. And he did play every game last year, and he bulked up, like 1015 pounds. He actually lost, I think, 14 pounds. They mentioned this offseason to kind of get a little quicker on his feet, and he was practicing jiu jitsu and ways to go down and not take such severe hits. [00:21:46] Speaker A: Well, he wasn't diamond head first last year either. [00:21:49] Speaker B: Exactly, and he didn't need to do that there. He already had the first down. Just slide, get down, avoid the contact. I mean, I get it. You're trying to get lead your team back and get the win, and, you know, you're not really quite sure where that yard marker is. You got an idea? So, you know, you lunge. You take that hit, get that extra yard, yard and a half, get the first down. So we'll see. We'll see what the medicals are coming up for him. I think he will be back, but, you know, it's, it's a fragile state of mind. Concussions, like Jason said, are being looked at a lot more severe now. So we don't want any, you know, long term effects going forward. I think he'll come back, give it a try, and if all goes well, hopefully it does for him. He doesn't have another concussion, but it's definitely something that's going to be brought up for his future going forward. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Coolest transition. I do want to talk about one more performance I really dug this week. That's Aaron's packers. Wow, Willis, what a game plan they had set up for him. He didn't throw a lot. I can't remember how much he threw. It was like less than, what, 18. [00:22:51] Speaker B: Passes or 1212 or 14. I believe he was for 122 yards, one touchdown. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Uh, Jacobs ran the ball really well, yet 150 yards, I think. Aaron, since you're the pack guy, break it down for us. [00:23:03] Speaker B: I told you Thursday Green Bay would keep it simple. You got a great offensive coach and Matt Laferr. Give him the ball, easy throws, get him out. Rolling the pocket. Just simple out routes, quick passes. Make the game simple. Run the ball, don't turn it over. That's the recipe for success for Green Bay should have won that game a lot more than they did. Obviously. Josh Jacobs fumbling right there on the goal line. I think they would have went up seventeen zero at that time and play good defense. We talked about the pass on the first. Yeah, those are the first out. The packers, defensively, we said they gotta play better. They played well. Confused a young quarterback who's not accurate, forced him into bad decision making. So the packers. The Packers did what they had to do. [00:23:50] Speaker A: What games you guys want to talk about? Like anything that kind of stuck in your mind, you wanted to go browns. Deshaun Watson kind of looking somewhat decent, beating up on the Jags. Trevor Lawrence, he doesn't look the same. He's lost, what, seven or nine games in a row now? [00:24:05] Speaker C: I don't know if Trevor Lawrence or you say, ever looks the same as a Justin Fields apologist for several years in Chicago, there'd always be things popping up on my timeline that compares Trevor Lawrence to Justin Fields passing stats that were very eerily similar, that the hype around, you know, Trevor Lawrence wasn't matching the results. And what he was putting up, and he has not lived up to that billing thus far. And their collapse at the end of last year, I think was very telling of, of that team overall. Now, he did have train wrecks at head coach early on, so I think that's some of maybe the pass that he gets in these early performances, but there needs to be moments right now where he's, you know, taking charge of that team. He has had consistently pretty solid weapons around him. They've drafted him. Another pretty good weapon in Thomas, who had, you know, some big, a big catch this week, I think two catches for like 94 yards. So some playmakers to boot. Etienne has been a solid running back so far this past couple of years to be able to rely on. So there's things around them that are nice. But Lawrence being able to take that next step, the biggest question mark for him going forward because he really needs to lead this team in a division that, you know, will compete with the Texans, you know, to win. But you got the Titans, who have looked pretty bad so far, and the Colts, who have not looked great either. So there's an opportunity for Jacksonville to make the playoffs. They should be a playoff team with some very winnable games and a pretty good schedule down the road, but has not looked great thus far. And Trevor Lawrence taking that next step really is going to be the key for them to be a playoff team in that future success. [00:25:47] Speaker A: You mentioned the Titans. They're owing to. They're one of the handful of teams they're owing to right now. Lewis looks like crap. I don't know if you heard about his head coach talking shit on him in the middle of the game and then afterwards in the press conference. Wasn't a good look. But I was kind of surprised how close that Titans jets game was. It made me uncomfortable. [00:26:06] Speaker C: Levis is going to give us a great play for a highlight every week. It's going to be a terrible play, but it's going, there's going to be, there's going to be something noteworthy from a Levis interception every week. So I need him to stay in just for that, you know, just for that highlight fodder first, you know, the praying to his knees to really giving the Bears to win in week one, obviously I love. But even, even this week, there was some just insane stuff he's going through. He does not want to go down. And sometimes everyone will tell you from a quarterback expert, it's just good to just throw it away and punt the ball and not try to do something that's going to just be an insanely bad interception or turnover. [00:26:45] Speaker A: I was watching the game when he did that shovel pass. [00:26:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I love Will Levis. I mean, I had the Bears week one in the survivor pool circa and that, that saved me. I sent him a jar of mail. I hope he got it. But yeah, like Jason said, will levis just sometimes you just don't know when to give up on plays. Eat sacks, throw the ball away. He's a highlight reel in the wrong way. He's a fan. He's a, he's a fantasy. Defenses dream come true. If you're playing against him, he's going to give you a few turnovers, maybe a few scores the other way. So for Tennessee, I mean, everybody in that division right now is Owen to behind the Texans. Going back to Jacksonville. Trevor Lawrence, they just can't finish drives inside the red zone. You know, four drives in the red zone, one touchdown, two field goals. They make too many mistakes in the red zone turning the ball over and they don't convert and get touchdowns. Those are both recipes for not success on Sundays in the National Football League. [00:27:38] Speaker A: You mentioned everyone's owing to, I think Colts could have won easily, you know, those two games. Titans could have easily won one of these games. Texans. Well, first, before we go to the Texas, do you guys feel better about a rod with it with the jets? Not a lot of passing yards. I think he hasn't thrown for 300 yards now since what, 2020? 2022? [00:28:01] Speaker B: I mean, I'm not so concerned about the passing game. I mean, for me it's mobility. Obviously. He's 40 euro cornerback. Coming off the Achilles tear isn't, you know, so his ability to get out of the pocket and make plays and keep plays alive aren't just there anymore. So unless he's got a great pocket, he's going to, they're going to struggle in the passing game. They've got good running backs. They, you know, showcased another one on Sunday. Their screen game is really looking good. Their run game is good for the jets. It's simple. Play great defense, whole teams to build goals and have Aaron Rodgers have a chance to win in the fourth quarter. And he came through and finished the Titans off when they had the chance. [00:28:38] Speaker C: Yeah, Aaron talked about the running game. Rogers doesn't need to do what he was doing in Green Bay. There, there is legit running backs with Bris hall and I think it's Braylon Allen or something. That was the guy making big plays this weekend, too. So there, there is a lot there on the running game to, to be able to him hand the ball off and then make plays in the passing game when it matters and as he comes back, you know, he's going to get better from a health perspective, I think as things going through and they'll be able to, you know, air it out when Dean. But I don't think he needs to be running around doing what he was doing in his prime. He came here because the jets have a really good defense that was seen as, hey, this whole team's a quarterback away. That's what we were hearing during the Zach Wilson era. It's everything but the quarterback. So a lot of times you need the quarterback really just to make the right plays at the right time and not have to be the savior and carry everything on their back. And they have the weapons around Rogers to do that. So was a tough opening look for, for week one versus the Niners, but they needed to bounce back in this way and definitely an opportunity for them to continue to grow within that division. With the Dolphins not looking as good and then the Patriots, they've been surprising the Patriots, but I still think that's a, that's a. Let's talk about that. Okay. All right. [00:29:55] Speaker A: I like them. I think they're playing competitive. They look pretty good to me. The defense is pretty solid. They, they go off to the ball. They're, they're, they're playing for Mayo. They almost won again. You know, Seahawks came from behind, which is a good win for them. They don't look like a four went team. They look better than that. [00:30:13] Speaker B: They're playing competitive right now. I mean, will they get more than four wins? We'll see. They play the jets on Thursday night, likely a loss. I mean, for them, it's been defense, defense, defense. Gerard Mayo has been there forever. He's part of the defensive culture of Bill Belichick. So he knows that group, part of the draft process, part of bringing these players in to. So they're running basically the kind of the same scheme, same unit on offense. Jacobi Bursett, you know, they have no wide receivers. Three, three pass completions to the wide receivers on Sunday. They went all tight in run game. Long term, the NFL, you're not going to win that way. They just don't have enough office. They don't have any weapons on the outside. That's kind of why they got percent in there versus Drake. May. Right, can manage the game. No turnovers. Let's run it. Ball control, time of possession, have our defense go out there, make you make mistakes give Seattle a ton of credit. They were down in that game, rallied back to tie it and then went into overtime. Seattle, we talked about, could be a surprise team in the NFC given the injuries to the Rams and 49 ers. And those teams got some matchups coming up here. We talked about Roman looking ahead to week six, these two teams, Niners play at Seattle, this could be for early division lead. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I know me and you had had Seattle maybe second in the division and getting a playoff spot. So with everything happening, it might unfold like that. [00:31:31] Speaker C: Going back to the Patriots, I think they're part of the theme when you look at the teams that are really utilizing the running game, taking pressure off the quarterback. I mentioned earlier just the, the amount of passing touchdowns, a pretty steep decline this year and sort of two weeks versus previous years. But it goes into running games and these teams understanding what are they going to do to win the game. Aaron mentioned relying on the defense, trolling the ball, you know, the Patriots putting the ball in remondre Stevenson's hands, let him run. He's had over 200 yards in two games so far. And then utilizing tight ends like Hunter Henry. You know, I think this is what we expected Hunter Henry to do when Belichick was there to be more of like, that passing guy and be a difference maker. And some of the Patriots offenses of old, so they're, they're going to play close to the best, I think, more than a four win team, but probably scraping around in that seven, seven area. [00:32:25] Speaker A: Still, they look like a fun team that watched so far. Um, I don't know where to go from here, guys. Uh, I kind of want. [00:32:35] Speaker C: Aaron was already taking shots to me about the Sunday night performance, so I don't know if you're saving that for the end for me to defend the bear. [00:32:43] Speaker A: Let's go. [00:32:43] Speaker B: I was, I was taking shots at the, whoever the Bears caught up in that booth, caught telling the coach to challenge replays. We, we talked about it briefly. I mean, these, these were as clear as day. I don't know. You know, that guy should be fired right away. I mean, those two timeouts really hurt the Bears, especially in the second half. [00:33:00] Speaker C: You're assuming there was actually a person that had that job because the second challenge, Eber flu was right in front of it when he did it. Like, the guy was right there and challenged it. So, I mean, it was very questionable stuff from evil flu. So you're, you're assuming a person has that. [00:33:17] Speaker B: So what you're telling me is the Bears are the only team in the National Football League does not have a guy up in booth telling the coach to challenge. [00:33:23] Speaker C: They wouldn't be the first team in Chicago that's been skimpy on the budget. That has never do well by track. [00:33:32] Speaker B: Now you see, now you see why they're losing games that, you know, they would have shots at winning. [00:33:37] Speaker A: So that gives Jason should, Jason should. [00:33:40] Speaker B: Volunteer for that gig. I heard he comes pretty cheap on the per challenge cost. [00:33:45] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely would come. It would come cheap on that. What if that person does exist up there where they even listen to is the other person too? Because you know, the inner, the interception challenge was pretty much, you know, player on the field convincing coach, I caught it, I caught it. I caught it. When the broadcast showed you, you probably hit the ground twice. [00:34:08] Speaker B: How many times have we seen players say they caught it and it's just sitting there trapped against. I mean, I've never heard a player really come up and say I didn't catch it. It's, it's very rare that they ever do. I mean you're playground catch. Yeah. You think you got the catch. It was close. I mean he tried, but it was incomplete twice. And then the fast to Stefan Diggs on the sidelines. I mean he got, he got basically for 3ft in with five yards spare. Palming it with one hand, showing you caught the ball. So like what I know, I mean, the Bears need to get a guy up there for sure. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Besides that, what, what I caught from the Bears in Texas game, I'm kind of worried for Caleb Williams. Like, doesn't it look like he has a lot of protection? [00:34:53] Speaker C: No. Does definitely not have enough protection. [00:34:56] Speaker A: Scared for his life. There's a funny meme thing, you know, on Twitter, something like that where it shows Justin Fields just beat the hell up. Just exhausted on the bench and now they have Kayla Williams doing the same face, the same look. Just playing as being quarterback for the Bears. [00:35:15] Speaker C: It's what it'll do to you. I mean, it's, it's what it'll do. They're both wearing the orange jersey, which is what I mean, referring to was even, oh, I saw it my entire timeline. If, if there is a Bears game and they're losing, I, it's on my timeline and everyone will definitely send me a text. [00:35:32] Speaker A: But if you. [00:35:33] Speaker C: It's, it's fine. It's fine. If you, if you look at any Bears fan in, in media and they talk through, they will talk through the same story. The Bears fan inside will be scared to play a prime time game, because when the Bears play in primetime, this is the exact offensive performance that you always see. The questions from the Bears will always be the same. Um, the offensive coordinator, what is his strategy? What is the scheme? We can't get a play into the huddle. We can't get the right play that Caleb's go taking everything down to 1 second on the play clock to make adjustments, you know, the false starts and the penalties, because people are confused. Wide receivers don't know what to do in motion. So there was a lot going on there. And this is, you know, year one of Shane Waldron, as the offensive coordinator coming from the McVeigh tree, had some success in Seattle getting Gino there. So he's got some success. But there's something about Chicago that will make a good offensive mind go bad. There is something about Chicago that will make all Pro bowl wide receivers turn into, you know, pedestrian wide receivers that are getting one catch and look as frustrated as DJ Moore did, you know, at certain parts of the game. But the protection aspect, which you talked about is, is the biggest takeaway. And in Caleb's defense, you know, that's, you know, problem number one. Next gen. Next gen stats I saw, it was like 23 of 48 drop packs were a pressure and they had 36 total individuals of those 48 rushes. That he had pressure on there, there was, there was clear, you know, plays where Caleb's dropping back and the offensive lineman does not block anyone right in front of him, the center is going off. They have no idea how to protect stunts. Anytime they brought the blitz or they were doing stunts up line, people were lost. Plenty of viral videos of Nate Davis or Evan Jenkins or any of these guys just running past defenders when they're going to the second level as people are coming in, just burying, you know, swift that gets the ball handled. So the offensive line, as it should be, the most criticized unit. Caleb did miss some passes, too, as well. So there was definitely opportunity that's going to happen in his defense, though. There was, there was moments, which will be the defense in the first quarter, steps in the steps up into the pocket, delivers kind of like a really tight throw, you know, through some traffic in the pocket, hits the receiver, and those are the special plays that I think he can do. But right now he's got basically 2.2 seconds back there when I think so far this year, he has the fastest release time of any quarterback in the NFL and he's still not getting the time. So there is plenty of to do for this offense this weird this week to clean this stuff up because, yeah, the offensive line is not doing any favors to help, to help this team. [00:38:21] Speaker A: So one thing I want to do, Nathan, on a weekly, I just want to do like a panic meter. We're going to post it on the socials, the Bears panic meter, Jason's panic meter. We're going to get your face blown up like one of those Eli Manning casts, put your face in there. Beginning of the season, I would say like a panic meter for you was like a one out of a ten, right? [00:38:41] Speaker C: Yes. [00:38:43] Speaker A: What is it now, week two after week two? How you feeling? [00:38:46] Speaker B: He's not panicked. [00:38:47] Speaker C: I'm not panicked at all. I'm not panicked. All right. What you look at what Caleb can do, and if you compare him to Justin Fields and Mits Trubisky, which no one's going to listen to me talking about those two, but the release point in the pocket, how long they hold on to the ball, was always what held them back from being successful when the offensive line wasn't as good. So, you know, there are some things to clean up, but if you give Caleb a little more time, there is an opportunities for him to make plays. Here where I questioned some of the stuff with Shane Walger and in the scheming, like, we know maybe the offensive line isn't good or some of the schemes not as good. So everything was, you know, was a side screen to swift, you know, in the flat, it was a bubble screen to swift or DJ Moore that was going nowhere that the Texans, like, saw right away. So, and then when they were trying to stretch the field, we were just slinging the ball downfield and not really have any rhyme or reason to it. So there's things to clean up there. But if you're going to put the panic meter, I'm the same as the one as I was in week one. Right now, there's still a lot to be going forward, and if you looked at any prediction, there was no one. I say no one, but very few people thought the Bears are being the Texans in week two. The Bears were going to be one in one through two weeks. And anyone doing predictions, that's exactly where the Bears are right now. Now, we didn't beat the tech, the Titans like they should have in week one. The offense hasn't shown much, but if you're telling me they're one in one, this is what everyone would have predicted the Bears to be after two weeks. So the panic meter is not panicked. [00:40:15] Speaker A: It's not there. [00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bears one on one to elaborate on what Jason and you guys said. I mean, the offensive line definitely has their woes and their problems, but they don't have a running game going right now. They can't run the ball and they just got to get, they tried to, kept running the ball, outside tackle, outside the ends of the tight ends. Everything was outside. They're just trying to outspeed the Texas, which was a bad move. And the Texans changed up their game plan. The Marco Ryans, those guys, I think they blitzed like 50, 60% of the time. That's something they never do. They're towards the bottom and blitzing. They played a lot of man to man, which typically they played zone. They played a lot of zone in the first half. And Caleb lit him up, I think ten for twelve and then the passing game. He missed some throws. He had DJ Moore a couple times, one on one on the outside. Probably just feeling the pressure, the rush, getting hit, not sending his feet missing. Guys, he had a wide open throw on the sidelines, missed. Can't think of the speedster guy for him. Five yards out in front of him. Had him for a good corner route for completion, but Caleb showed improvement. But going forward, I think if you're a Bears fan, you saw that, you know, they didn't have Keenan Allen. We didn't mention that. He's, he's great. It gets man to man and getting open on those quick five, six yard routes. They really missed that on Sunday against the Texans. They got to get a run game going with Swift and then, you know, TJ Moore's gonna be DJ Moore. But for the Bears, their defense is really, really good to hold the Texans down. We're not talking about they hold the Texans at 19 points and had the ball with a chance to win the game. So give the Bears a ton of credit with all the woes they had and all the hits Caleb took, and he took a beating. He's sore. He's probably on the ice right now as we speak. The panic meter for the Bears I think is low. And they got the Colts coming up on the road. They're the worst run defense right now. The Colts of yeah, they're giving up. I think they give up 261 total yards rushing against Green Bay. And Green Bay didn't even have a quarterback. Like we said in Blake Willis, you knew Green Bay was throwing the ball short. So Bears, can they get the running game going? Can the cold stop that running game on Sunday? And then can they get some one on one pass plays and connect on them? [00:42:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Aaron brought up the, the running outside piece. If you looked at on. I know, I know you're not on Bears Twitter like I am, but former Bears offensive lineman Olin Krutz, you know, great center back in the day for the prime Bears team and Kyle Long, they're going back with back and forth a little bit on twitter. But you know, they were even saying why are you running outside? You know, get the ball inside. You have, you know, top tier defensive ends that are able to their speed on the outside that you're not going to get through run the ball inside. So there's definitely the opportunity for how they can establish that run from a scheme perspective, from what they need to do from an offensive line. The lessons learned they need to take going forward is there. I'm not panic room I want to go back to, but I will take us back to preseason to Eberfluss. I don't think he should be panicked just yet, but if he doesn't get the offensive turned around in some sort of direction where this team has a winning record, like that's the person I think out of anyone that should be panicked because I've seen it in Bears coaches of the past who cannot get this offense into a place like the. This is a cycle of Bears football and this is, this is supposed to be the cycle that breaks offensively. But the Bears historically always have a great defense. So a defense in two weeks has only given up three points in the second half between the two games. So Ibervlis can build the defense, can call a good defense because he's calling the defense, but game managing is calling into question. Aaron mentioned the challenges. So as the head coach, you got to be on top of the game management and then how are you having your offensive team, you know, develop? So what is Shane Waldron going to do to get the run game going and fix up the things on the offensive line for Kayla to set up? So Matty briefless I think has the eye on him because he needs to take the step. You know, they went from, you know, three wins to seven wins last year. They got to be at nine or ten wins this year and continue to take the step because what they've added. So that that is the expectation coming out of Hallis hall because they're not going to take seven wins or less this year from a team that they've invested so much into. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I think only bears fans expect ten or plus. I don't know anyone else outside of that who expects that much winning out of Chicago, but I do think they're going to be competitive. Let's talk about, though, like the surprise ace and f division Vikings. Darnold looking nice. Speaking of which, the two quarterbacks that were with the Carolina Panthers, Darnold and Baker, are flourishing right now. Isn't that kind of weird? [00:44:52] Speaker B: Well, you got them in better systems with good offensive coaches. You know, Dave Canales, Scott Baker turned around. You had shannon hand with Sam Darnold. So we've seen coaches, especially great offensive minds in this league. They can take a quarterback, kind of rebuild them, remodel them up, get them going in the right direction. And now you got Kevin O'Connell with the Vikings. He's a really good coach. Comes from the McVeigh tree. He's good. [00:45:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:17] Speaker B: So he called a really good game. Vikings have weapons. You know, we talked about, they got weapons. They got a good defense with floors. Second year there. They're aggressive. They're really, really aggressive defense. Took it to the Niners. That was the key. They took it to the niners, stopped him on multiple fourth downs, stopped him in the red zone, forced turnovers. I mean, purdy, if you look at his numbers, still pass for 300 yards, but I think he had a turnover pick, fumble stopped him, stopped him on fourth down twice in that game. Yeah, we're going to find, I mean, we're going to find out how good Minnesota is this weekend with the Texans coming in. I think we're going to get a good parameter and where they're at because this is, you know, the first team. I mean, the Giants. I don't really take much from that. We can probably talk about the Giants later. They looked a bit better. [00:46:03] Speaker A: But you guys, we don't have to do. But yeah, Donald had like that big. [00:46:07] Speaker B: Dart 97 yarder to Jefferson. That was nice. That was nice. [00:46:12] Speaker A: I'm like, oh, my God, he looks so confident. Always making the right reads, the right decisions and the right system. I'm really happy for him, actually. I'm really happy. [00:46:21] Speaker C: There's something to be said as these quarterbacks that are starting in year one with so much hype don't get the shot right in the right system. From the beginning, you know that you mentioned the Carolina Panthers. This would also be two quarterbacks for the jets that they've kind of messed up. But Gino has found late career success after a Boston with the jets and now Sam, Sam Darnold, initially with the jets, they didn't, you know, didn't have success and get him a shot. So system, I think has a lot to do with it and making sure you're giving these quarterbacks things that are going to be play to their strengths and weapons obviously matter and where things are at and how you call the game. But, you know, as guys mature in this league and see different things, you know, this is what, you know, sometimes you can expect at the level that they were supposed to be at when they were highly touted prospects because, you know, coming out of top tier college programs, you know, these guys have the talent. It's just about sometimes getting reps and being on the right team in the right system to do that. So Aaron and I, pretty sure we buried the Vikings because of our, of my love for the Bears, Aaron's love for the packers, and then knowing where the Lions are at. But we, we said this is going to be the best division in football. So it may not shake out the way we thought, but I think you, you have a division right now with two. Two and O teams and I'm sorry, one, two and O team and three, one and one team. So I did. It's going to be competitive all year, but the Vikings are, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna keep it close and not be, uh, you know, not take the step off without Kirk cousins like we potentially, yeah, they're not gonna be. [00:47:53] Speaker A: The bunching bag, which I think that's like the big wake up call out of all the two and O teams are like, are they like the biggest surprise two and O team. [00:48:03] Speaker C: Man. Want me to list them all? [00:48:06] Speaker B: I'm looking at, I'm looking at the teams right now. [00:48:08] Speaker A: Builds, Chargers, Chiefs, my beloved Steelers winning another ugly game. Uh, we got Texans, um, then Seahawks, Vikings, Saints and Bucks. I did write down the Eagles cause I was putting this list together while I was in the fourth quarter of the Monday night game and then, and then I was at a cross it off. I even had the o two Falcons cross off of my own two list. So thanks. Thanks, Falcons. [00:48:33] Speaker C: Yeah, man, I think that's tough. Cause if you, the Vikings probably could be because I think if you're looking week two versus the Niners, everyone was saying that's probably a loss without, you know, an effective quarterback. [00:48:47] Speaker A: But the Niners haven't won in Minnesota in almost a decade. [00:48:53] Speaker B: I would go with the Buccaneers being the surprise two and O team. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Really? [00:48:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they went into Detroit as a road team in one. So, yeah, I mean, the Vikings, they had the Giants week one. We're not surprised they won that game. Week 249 ers, a short week long travel. We know west coast teams don't do good traveling and they played on Monday night, late game, McCaffrey out. And like you said, rome, they do not play well in Minnesota. So that I would say Minnesota and Tampa Bay are probably the surprise two and O teams. [00:49:32] Speaker A: How about the Saints? [00:49:33] Speaker B: You'd add them too, does all three. I mean, that basically that, you know, that division for the most part. Yeah. [00:49:40] Speaker C: Well, the trend of this was pretty much what Aaron and I said early for some of these teams that potentially be division dwellers are two and all right, now, the Saints, the Buccaneers, the Vikings. [00:49:54] Speaker B: I mean, I like the Buccaneers, but the snow. Yeah, I didn't see the Saints coming. [00:49:59] Speaker C: Even the bills? Even the bills two. And, oh, I think we were not sure about that. [00:50:03] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I liked, I had the bills. I said Arizona possibly beat them week one, and I thought Miami would beat them here in week two since Miami had been talking about, you know, they'd lost, what, eleven out of 13 or eleven out of twelve to buffalo. They were been talking to get a home game, short week, and they, they laid an egg. [00:50:23] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys taught me. All the bills being the playoffs, I bought into it, saw that rough beginning of the schedule. [00:50:30] Speaker B: It still is rough. It still is rough. [00:50:32] Speaker A: It's still rough, but yeah, Josh Allen looks good. Let's briefly talk about a quick upset, I think, with the Las Vegas Raiders. I did not see that one coming. It was an ugly game. It felt like it lasted forever. I don't even know what the hell happened at the end of that game. It was so confusing, so frustrating. You guys have a take on it? [00:50:56] Speaker C: Well, surprising. Owen, two teams we've gone this far, and not talking about the Baltimore Ravens, that's a very surprising o two team for me, that should be in the AFC championship game, competing for the Super Bowl. I think, I think they're still there because they're going to play some good games down the stretch, but not a game that they should be losing. Uh, Lamar is doing a lot right now. Uh, but there's been some very, you know, questionable things. Maybe I'm more personally affected because they've turned Mark Anders into a left tackle instead of getting him in there in the passing game. Finally some stuff down the stretch when they were behind to get stuff to him, to get him involved in the game. [00:51:37] Speaker A: Happy? [00:51:38] Speaker C: No. And maybe that's the bias I'm bringing into this conversation, but, yeah, that's not a game that Baltimore should lose. I think they're definitely there. One of the bigger things I think out of there was Justin Tucker missing a field goal or a couple field goals, actually. Did he miss two? [00:51:54] Speaker B: I thought he missed two, but I looked at it, but it was just a one. [00:51:57] Speaker C: Oh, he's just a one. Okay. [00:51:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:58] Speaker C: But a lot more misses recently. [00:52:00] Speaker A: I don't know. Is he like on the downside of his career? Like a lot of talk on that. [00:52:04] Speaker B: Well, I think he's one. I think he's one for seven over his last seven kicks from 50 plus yards. So he's not mister automatic from that range anymore. [00:52:13] Speaker A: No. [00:52:15] Speaker C: Which is something. Which is something because if you looked at that, you know, I don't want to bring the Bears back up, but if you look at the Bears game last night, you know, fair, fair Baron was in field goal range as soon as they crossed the 50. So I mean, he was going to put that in from 68 or something last night for where he was at. So that's, I think he has six. [00:52:31] Speaker B: Field goals over 50 plus already for the first two weeks of the year. [00:52:35] Speaker C: Yes. I mean, miss that time. A fair baron, the kicker for the, the Texans. So. [00:52:40] Speaker B: Mister Bruin himself. [00:52:42] Speaker C: Yeah. So when, when you don't have that where Justin Tucker was so automatic, you know, everywhere and plus, 50 plus and he's not, you know, that's a little bit, you know, of a game changer I know people won't talk about. But, you know, the most accurate kicker in NFL history isn't hitting some of these ones. That's 50 plus. Could be, you know, a deciding factor down the, down the stretch that, you know, is plus or minus one or two games that decides, you know, whether you're going to win the division or I, you know, get the, must need a first round by. But, um, very, very confusing game. But those are the, I think these are the type of min shu games that come out of nowhere where he's not going to consistently give it to you. But, man, there's going to, there's going to be a game where all of a sudden he's just slinging the ball every which way, it all falls the right direction and they pick up the win. [00:53:25] Speaker A: Maybe like he just has like that dog at him, you know, he's like a little Chihuahua, just has like that bite. You know, he's good for a couple rounds and I. It looks like he did that yesterday. One thing about the Ravens. Go ahead. [00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Minshew stunk the first six quarters of the year. He stunk against the Chargers week one. He stunk the first half against the Ravens. So, I mean, but in the fourth quarter, I think he threw for like almost 150 yards TD to Devante Adams. Baltimore, Devos. I mean, they got the win and he got the ball. So, yeah, Baltimore is kind of like one of these weird teams. Even last year we seen it, like, I think they lost three games last year when they had ten point leads in the fourth quarter. [00:54:06] Speaker A: What's the thing? It's not just been like a, like the hardball trend. [00:54:10] Speaker B: It's been a trend for them going. [00:54:12] Speaker A: In the fourth quarter or like, they do questionable calls. They might go for two when they shouldn't or they go for like a fourth and one, but maybe they shouldn't. They kind of gamble a lot. And to me, like, it just looks like weird game management from Arbor. Like, it's always confusing. It's almost as frustrating as watching some Steelers games. I just couldn't, it wasn't mathing for me last night. [00:54:32] Speaker B: And I. Yeah, I mean, you know, Jason talked about a lot of these coaches are going towards analytics and kind of what, you know, the numbers say versus. I kind of like to go how the team's going, how the field's going. [00:54:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. [00:54:44] Speaker B: I mean, just like we know going back to the game tonight, the Eagles fourth and four first drive, you take the three points, you go up 30, you're feeling good about yourself. You don't get any points there. Falcons go down, they score, they take the first lead. So you, sometimes you just got to take points when they're there, especially early in games. Just get the momentum on your side, let your defense go out there and play Minshew, you know, they got to get, give the Raiders ton of credit defensively. They got a couple turnovers, force three and outs, did not let the Ravens score their final three drives in the fourth quarter. That was really the deep difference. Baltimore's defense got tired being on the field, and when you get tired, you don't have a pass rush and you get one on one with Devontae Adams. They hit him. Brock Bowers, we haven't mentioned him yet. Nine catches, I think, for 98 yards. Stud stood guy. Maybe, you know, early possible, you know, offensive rookie of the year. So the Raiders, they've been better than we thought. We didn't give him a lot of credit for week one because, you know, Antonio Paris, even, he made a bad decision in the fourth quarter in that game, it was a four from three chance to get it down, be down seven instead of ten. They go for it and get stopped. A lot of coaches across the league, both collegiately and in the NFL, a lot of bad the clock management, just, you know, analytical decisions, not taking points when they're there. [00:56:00] Speaker A: Why do you think that's happening? [00:56:05] Speaker B: You know, I don't know. I think, you know, I don't know. You know, Jason said, the Bears don't have a guy up there doing replays. Every team now has analytical nerd guys up there that say, hey, the numbers show, go for it. Hey, the probability, 65% we're going to get it. You know, even ESPN, if you watch games would be like, oh, four from three. The analogs, they kick it. You know, the analytics say there's a 67% probability you're going to get it. I think NBC stats have that, you know, when the Texans are bears, you know, for a fourth and two, oh, yeah, let's go for it. I think, you know, that was one of the plays where Caleb was supposed to throw a quick screen pass and the whole line didn't block. Anybody ate a sack right at midfield. So I think the guys look at the numbers and go, well, you know, 70% chance, let's go for it. Instead of, hey, let's pin them inside the ten. Our defense is kicking ass. Let's get another three and out and a new set of downs right at where we're at right now. [00:56:54] Speaker C: Old football coach told me, take the points, coach, and a lot of times when they're in a certain area where, hey, we're going for fourth down because we're trying to get seven and they could just take the three and where it's at in part of the field, or, hey, at this point, let's punt the ball, pin them deep, play defense. You know, whether the stats say it or not, I think, and a lot of times when you look at these stats, when you mentioned NBC putting this stuff, okay, it's a 65% versus 35 or it's 55 versus 45. Yeah, it's, it's a percentage swing either way. One thing that always bothers me personally, I'll tell you, and like, not that I know the inner workings of every organization and, and I probably will be proven wrong because some successful coaches do it, but the head coach position, that's also the play caller, always somewhat bothers me for how they are managing the game and able to be doing the play calling. And I think Andy Reid will probably say, hey, it works because he does it. But, you know, I look at Eber fuse calling the defense and then taking, making two questionable flags there and then other coaches around the league that need to do the play calling on their side of the ball where they're hired, does that take away from them actually managing the overall game and some of these decisions in a timely manner? I always have questions about that. There's a lot going on in those, you know, precious 25 to 30 seconds between plays. And if you are focused on the play call versus the overall game management, like who within the organization is doing that? Every team might do it different, but the play calling coach is one that always sticks with me that is there a gap in game management because they're focused on other things? [00:58:33] Speaker A: That's interesting. Take like when I'm consulting companies, right, and it's the owner and you have to have like a big 360 overview of how the business is operating. But then when that owner is like short staffed and now he's on the line, you know, doing the day to day, all the, like the remedial tasks, you really can't take a step back and look at everything. I feel like that's like very similar football. So maybe some coaches do have the ability to do that. Cause it does happen. You know, you do have like leaders in Fortune 500 companies that are able to do it, but not everyone, most people cannot do that. And I do think it does take away. There's just too much going on, especially in the game of football, to compute everything. [00:59:11] Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead, Jason. [00:59:14] Speaker C: No, it's, it's always been a thing for me as I've looked at a lot of those coaches. I think some coaches can do it, but yeah, to your own, I think they really gotta do that self reflection inside of and overall, like how are they managing the game so these things can, can move along and there's a lot to play calling. Like play calling is not easy. We all sit, we all sit at the sofa at home and talk about this. I'm going to, I'm going to criticize every offensive corner under the sun, but, you know, defenses are doing some, you know, exotic blitzes and different things and you have this great play that looks great on, on the dry race board, but it doesn't come to fruition being able to have that, see those adjustments and move along, but also manage the bigger part of the game as the head coach, as the CEO on the field, I think it's difficult. [00:59:56] Speaker A: And that's valid. I think that's valid. [00:59:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think it is. But I think these coaches, I mean, you got to be looking ahead when you're calling plays. You know, if I can get in certain situation, am I going to go for it? And you got those numbers right. You got guys telling you, you know, we always see it all the time is 35, you know, hey, I'm going to run the ball, get three yards because I'm going to go for it. On fourth and two, you know, you got every, every team, every coach, every staff should have six to eight, eight to ten. Basically what we could call them two point conversion plays that are basically your short yardage. Fourth and one, fourth and two. You know, we get inside the 45, you know, possessions are limited late in the game. So it could be like, hey, I'm going to punt it in the first half, but in this fourth quarter, I know I'm down two scores. Maybe I only got three possessions. I'm going to go forward on four for three or less inside the 45 yard line. So I think this stuff should be planned out by coaches, whether or not it is and how they manage it. Like Jason said, andy Reid's probably one of the best at it. He sets up play calls just to get to my homes, to certain situations where a, we're four from three, boom, we're going to hit Kelsey on a quick, you know, square out route or something like that. So it is a valid point. But coaches, you know, they, they need to be, if you cannot handle it and manage the game, you shouldn't be in that situation where you're calling the game. [01:01:12] Speaker A: I think it's also like a skillset thing, right? Andy Reid's a lot older than most of these coaches now. You know that 10,000 hours rule. I strongly believe in that. He just has so much more experience. So he has been able to learn the ins and outs of play calling and still viewing the game from far away. He had, you know, lots of success and lots of failures in Philly and now he's with KC. Like he has a lot of experience to pull from and that's what these other coaches don't have. So I think that's what kind of helps separate him from the rest of the pack. [01:01:39] Speaker B: Well, I think another thing is, is what happened the week before, right? Did you do something stupid and you lost and now this week you're gun shy because you don't want to create criticized. Kind of like Brandon stable with the Chargers. Remember year one? All he did was go for it, go for it, go for it. And then he cost his team the playoffs the last week of the year by basically calling a timeout when the Raiders were going to tie the game and just let it go to overtime. They tie, they both get in the playoffs and they don't, and the Steelers get in. Then year two, it's basically like, all right, well, I, I lost all these games last year doing this, even though they, analytics say go for it. So I'm going to punt. So I think it kind of just varies week to week. Like, if you did it one week and it works, they call you like, oh, you know, he called the play, got it done, they got the win. You look great. If you do something stupid, then you basically, depending on what media market in, you, look like a dummy. Andy Reid, like you said, he's got so much six x and won so many games that, you know, he can get away with, you know, a bad call here, but, you know, his track record shows that, you know, he's going to be right more than he is wrong. [01:02:39] Speaker A: We don't have to touch on every game, but I did want to touch on the Bengals and Chiefs really quickly in the AC north. My Steelers are in first two. No. And then you have teams that we talked about possibly making some noise in the playoffs with the Bengals and the Ravens. They're both owing to. I'm not really panicked about either team. I really like the way the Bengals came out against the Chiefs. They look really sharp. I don't know. I tried watching that replay again, that passive appearance at the end of the game. They got the Chiefs of field goal position. I don't know if I would have. [01:03:12] Speaker B: Called it myself, but it was pretty blatant PI. I mean, they had no choice but to call that. [01:03:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I know the, I know twitter doesn't like it because it's generally a great meme or gif on twitter as soon as this happens and favors the Chiefs of like the Chiefs having the Chiefs jersey underneath or the refs having the Chief jersey underneath or something like that where they're shaking Mahomes his hand and stuff, but it was a blatant PI. It's a tough call in that position because you give Mahomes and them the win for a very makeable field goal. But it comes down to these one or two plays here and there and the Chiefs are not the team in their prime with Tyreekhenne and explosions down the field like these two Super bowl year wins are very tight defensive games, you know, trying to protect the ball, you know, winning in the margins. And when it comes down to some of this stuff like that where, you know, Mahomes can put the ball in the right spot for the receiver to get and put a defender in a position, you know, to make a blatant pass interference call. You know, these things are going to happen more, more than nothing. [01:04:22] Speaker A: Out of all the two and o teams, I think the Chiefs, they can easily be zero two. I think they're the worst. Is that, is that, I don't know if that's, like, the right thing to say, but they're, they're my least favorite of the undefeated team so far. Not a fan. [01:04:36] Speaker C: A lot of people said that last year the Chiefs were done. I mean, that, that was what everyone was saying last year and they, they had no chance when Tyreek left and they leaned way more on the defense than they did when they were put, when they were putting a ton of points up, like I just said. So I think these games are going to be very close throughout the year. They're not going to blow anyone away, especially with Checo out. They're going to have to do something different on the run game. I think Kareem Hunt might be getting a look at the Chiefs as if I saw some news break in there, too. So it's going to be different. So I, I know what you're saying, Rome, but I think when you're getting into, like, who you're betting against, very hard to bet against Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid to really get it done and figure out a way to win these games. [01:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, the Chiefs aren't the sexy two and oh team right now. Like you said, rome, they could easily be Owen to, you know, an inch here, you know, the defender, you know, split second comes in later, but, you know, like we said, mahomes, Reed, those guys find ways to win games and at the end of the day, it's about getting the w. And so for the Chiefs, you know, they, they're not going to be the explosive team like they were of Tyree killed. You know, I just saw that Hollywood Brown is out basically the whole season. He's not coming back till January. [01:05:50] Speaker A: Not coming back. [01:05:51] Speaker B: The rookie wide receiver was a no show. Travis Kelsey's looking old, the offensive line. [01:05:57] Speaker A: Showing him a little bit. I really feel like they're managing his minutes now. Saving for the poke then. [01:06:03] Speaker C: I, yeah, I said that in our previous pods that, yeah, that I felt they would do that because at the 17 game season right now, very hard. The health is going to matter really down the stretch. So, you know, what can they do differently to get other people involved to, to manage his minutes at this point to make sure he's most effective down the stretch if, if he is a step or two slower than he used to be, but he's going to be the most effective team in the red zone. Aaron tested it earlier in the pod. That's what sets these championship teams apart from the teams that don't know what to do is like how effective you are in the red zone. A lot of these younger teams, twenties to twenties, you know, they can go up and down the field and not get it done or you want Kelsey and, you know, from Mahomes is going to be in that crunch time in these moments in the red zone, short field, making plays that basically are uncatchable balls to the defender. [01:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Mahomes and Chelsea in the red zone, that's probably the number, you know, wide receiver tied in slash quarterback combination in the last five years. They finish drives. You know, they can run the ball. I mean, they had an offensive lineman come up and catch a touchdown in that game. Andy Reid knows how to design plays in the red zone. They convert more times in the red zone. Their defense is strong for them. They got a fumble for, you know, recovered scoop and score for a touchdown. That was a terrible turnover by burrow. Cincinnati outplayed them. Cincinnati should have won that game. They didn't. You mean me and Rome, we talked about this. You know, say what you want. Kansas City doesn't want to see the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs. It is their crypto night. Cincinnati's outplayed them every time. Burrows been on the field healthy. He's outplayed Mahomes every time, homes. I think through for his lowest total ever for a game. He completed 151 yards, couple interceptions. Cincinnati just knows how to play against big teams and big games are not afraid of the moment. They might lay an egg against New England and we might just write them off as like one of the worst teams in the league. And then they come back and play the Chiefs and you're like, okay, this is who I expect the Bengals to be. I'm not panicked on the Bengals at zero two, but I am on the Ravens at zero two. I'm really concerned about Baltimore. [01:08:19] Speaker C: I really liked how Gasecki got involved in this game and Burrow got him passed. I think that gives an element that you didn't see when you had, you know, Higgins and Jamar and they had Tyler Boyd in years past 100 yard, right? Yeah. I mean, he was like, I think seven catches for 91 yards. Gusecki was, and I, and he was super effective in Miami pre, you know. [01:08:41] Speaker B: Why did Miami let him go? Why did Miami let him go? Because now they don't really have a tight end. [01:08:46] Speaker C: McDaniel didn't use him and that was the big thing. Year one of McDaniel was guess that he was getting no love because they did that. And so remember last year? [01:08:53] Speaker B: He was with the Patriots last year, wasn't he? [01:08:55] Speaker C: He was. And did he get to love last year? [01:08:57] Speaker B: Nobody got any love of the Patriots. [01:08:58] Speaker C: Yeah, like I don't remember on the. [01:09:00] Speaker A: Patriots but that last year it was terrible. [01:09:03] Speaker C: But I mean when you think Kaseki pre McDaniel in Miami like he was, he was the guy on offense that they were getting that ball to there under the Brian Flores era. So I tight end for, for the Bengals hasn't been a really bright spot but I think that gives him a different element. As you know, Higgins is out of the lineup, you know, and having something opposite Jamar for Burrow to work the middle of the field and if they can get the right pass protection around Barrow to keep them upright this year. Yeah, I agree with Aaron not, not to worry. I'm not worried about the Ravens either. I know Aaron talked about it, but the Ravens, the Steelers, I mean these are the teams that grind it out and figure out a way to get into the playoffs at a certain point. So. But very, very interesting both are Owen to though because I think these are teams that one and two in division potentially everyone seeing and Rome Steelers are now sitting on top of the division scoring like twelve points a game or something like that. [01:09:58] Speaker A: I will say this before we close out. I was worried about the Bengals, but the way they showed up beating up on the Chiefs Burrow look good. I like the moving forward. They're the best looking o two team for sure. Let's come back and do some college football. [01:10:20] Speaker C: Cool. [01:10:21] Speaker A: We're back to briefly cover college football. It's a late night already. A couple things just want to give props to like Michigan and Notre Dame recovering from their losses. We'll go over Michigan a little bit more next time. But Davis Warren, two touchdowns, six interceptions so far this season. Not looking good. Aaron. That anemic offense, you called it, they lost everybody in the draft. We'll talk more about that, but let's go into Georgia. Barely escape at Kentucky, 1312. I did not see that coming. And I think Georgia has like one of these games every single year where they almost get their ass kicked and it just wakes them up and then just go on this fucking run. So is this kind of like the. [01:11:04] Speaker B: Same thing or feels like the same thing? I think they got Alabama coming up here pretty soon. So maybe they were looking ahead. You know, they got a lot of trouble in the off season with that was speeding tickets and obviously drinking the Kentucky bourbon before this game started. But hey, college football, college football, it's about escaping with wins. And they did that. We were talking before we went on, you know, big segment. We've been talking about clock management, managing games. Mark stoops with the dummy of the weekend, fourth and eight at midfield with three and a half minutes ago, one timeout. I know with college football now has that two minute timeout. We can't call it the two minute warning because of the NFL has that name patented. But the two minute timeout punts the ball away, never gets it back again. That, you know, was a dumb, dumb move by Kentucky. Mark Stoops, you're in a game, you shouldn't be in the game. You're the three touchdown underdog. You got to go for it there. Jason, what's your thoughts? [01:12:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I gotta agree with that. I feel like we talked about time management, this and half of this podcast right now, but you got this opportunity to beat Georgia. You don't want to give them the ball where they're just going to just bleed the clock when you're in this kind of slug fest. Just, it's a field goal game and you kind of just let it kind of pass for you. But I agree with Rome at the top. Georgia has these games, but still I don't think they've lost a regular season game. And is it three and a half years at this point? The last time they lost in the. [01:12:39] Speaker B: Regular season from a Georgia in non conference and SEC games outside of playing Alabama? [01:12:45] Speaker A: Yeah, outside Alabama. Everybody but Alabama. [01:12:48] Speaker C: So I mean, this could have been the shot they were at. Didn't see a ton from Beckett quarterback throughout the game, only through for like 160 yards. Just kind of that SEC slug fest a little bit. Aaron, like you said, them looking ahead to Alabama I think is in two weeks Georgia's got the buy. Then it's, you know, two top five programs going at it with Georgia and Alabama, you know, at a point there in the SEC, you're going to have like three of the top five teams, all SEC schools. So actually they might have four of the top five. I forgot about Ole Miss hanging out there too. So just, just a lot of huge games coming up. And if you're overlooking or saving anything and being super conservative from a Georgia perspective, knowing that you're should roll Kentucky, it was really the only entertaining game of the weekend. I don't know how entertaining a 13 to twelve game is. But I mean, as a Bears fan, 13 to twelve is really every game. But every other, every game across this college football slate this weekend for ranked teams was all blowouts that were like 30 to 40 point blowouts and teams getting set. So, um, overall, I think it was kind of just a Passover week in the college football, uh, on the college football side, the only rank game that was out there was Missouri and Boston College. That was like a 27 21, pretty tight game, and Missouri and other SEC school hanging out there. So I think people were throwing a lot of shade for some SEC schools, uh, earlier in the year. But you look at Missouri, Ole Miss, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, all three. And, oh, here in their early slates. [01:14:18] Speaker B: Like Tennessee as well. [01:14:19] Speaker C: Tennessee forgot about that. It's gonna be, nah, it's gonna be just a gauntlet going through. [01:14:26] Speaker B: The SEC already asking for 14 team playoff because basically half the conference would be in it. [01:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, Bama, Oklahoma, you know, I think they're ranked, you know, 1533 and zero two. So just, just a lot. LSU losing that game early in the season, you know, is kind of the team kind of sitting on the outs there. [01:14:44] Speaker A: But that was the good game. LSU in South Carolina. [01:14:48] Speaker C: Yep. [01:14:49] Speaker B: Yeah. South Carolina got their quarterback hurt early second quarter. That really turned that flow of that game. LSU can't stop anybody. They've got your bruins coming up this weekend. Rome. [01:15:01] Speaker A: You're right. Yeah. LSU got so lucky coming out of there. That was like a really close game. I didn't catch too much of the Boston college one. I did pick them as, like, an upset over Missouri, but Missouri really came through. I think we're talking about what, whether they were, like, legitimately a really good team or not. We mentioned some other. It was a lot of blowouts. Oregon manhandled Oregon State. Texas beat their opponent up. UTSA Quinn, yours went out with an abdominal strain, and arch Manning, like, came out on fire. Four touchdowns, another one rushing. He's quick. [01:15:36] Speaker B: I didn't know Arch Manning running for 50 plus yard td run. That was probably the surprise of the week. And I had to pause the television, rewind and make sure that said manning on the back of that jersey. [01:15:46] Speaker A: Yeah, Manning. And he was white. I do a double take. [01:15:49] Speaker B: I was like, wow, and he's got great hair. [01:15:55] Speaker C: Well, I mean, this was the Manning prodigy that everyone was kind of waiting for, but he was gonna be having yours the whole time. It was, he get his shot, comes in his game. Four touchdowns overall, dynamic playmaker. Um, I saw a lot of in Carolina Panther accounts about tanking for tank for that. They actually need to tank because they're that bad. But that. That'll be an interesting thing, I think, foreshadowing when Arch Manning's in the draft, because this is the family that held out going to the San Diego Chargers. Yeah. So, I mean, that's. That's. That's misses Toller's favorite team out there. You know, them not going to that. So Archbannon ain't going to the Carolina Panthers. I could tell you they're going to be. They're going to be holding him out for a primo situation where that's coming out. If this is what you're going to expect to see. [01:16:45] Speaker A: I wouldn't let my team play for the Catholics. No. No fucking chance. [01:16:49] Speaker C: But it's a great first impression, you know, curious how much more he's going to get. You know, between I euros. Euros is how much time does he have left? I can't even remember where he's at right now. Ceiling here. No, he's a sophomore. No, Manning's a sophomore, but what's that? [01:17:07] Speaker B: I think he's a senior. [01:17:08] Speaker C: Okay. [01:17:09] Speaker A: Yeah, you're the senior. This is it. [01:17:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Red shirt senior, I believe. [01:17:13] Speaker A: Yeah. He could have went into the draft. He stayed for another year to potentially come, you know, try to win a champ. [01:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think they look like Michigan from last year, so they're still my favorites to be there at the end. [01:17:26] Speaker C: But they got, you know, they at least got a succession plan with, with Manning going on here as opposed to, you know, covered the covered bear with Michigan. So, yeah, I think a lot of people excited to watch it, to watch Manning play and, you know, what, what's he going to be able to do in Saturdays as a start of this next couple of years and then eventually in the pro career. But a good at least first impression from what people saw this weekend. [01:17:48] Speaker A: Yeah, another big blowout. You're Notre Dame beating up on Purdue 66 to seven, taking all that aggression out from the previous week's loss. I'm pretty sure you're happy about it. [01:17:59] Speaker C: Absolutely happy. I said at the beginning of the year, I mean, this was a team that potentially can go undefeated if they got past Texas AM, had the slip up at home to northern Illinois. But I think Northern Illinois is going to surprise some people. I think we talked about it last week. Northern Ella is in the Mac. You know, they're going to have some good matching games. They got a pretty senior ridden, senior laden team. They got ranked after that defeat of Notre Dame. You know, they could be a team that is, you know, rivaling with Boise State and Memphis as one of these non conference invitees into the college football playoffs. So I'm hoping northern Illinois, you know, has a good year. It'll make the Notre Dame loss look a little bit better for Notre Dame to get that invite that I think they still, you know, have the opportunity to get because, you know, they're going to play a bad Florida state team, and then if USC is kind of still hanging in there, it would be an oppressive loss or even whenever USC. So there's going to be, there's not a lot of things for Notre Dame to slip up on going forward if they continue to have performances. Getting the ball to Jeremiah Love, I think, is the key. He only had ten carries in the game because it was over pretty quick. But when they got, when they got going against Texas A and M, when they came kind of backwards, northern Illinois, it was getting him the ball and, you know, making some dynamic plays in the running game. So I think that'll be key as we go down the stretch here. [01:19:19] Speaker A: Uh, let's just talk about Aaron Seminoles really quick, and I just want to see that frown on his face. O and three, Florida's losing as well. I came who, who mentioned it, though? But it's very rare for, like a top ten team to be zero three this out of the rankings like this quick. [01:19:40] Speaker B: It's only happened, what, one other time in the AP poll history, I believe what I read. [01:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy. Aaron, man, how you feeling? Like tell, you know, tell what's going on? [01:19:54] Speaker B: It's been rough, but, you know, for my Memphis pick, being a group of five non power four conference teams, that's looking pretty sweet. I thought this would be a tough game going into the season before Florida State even started. Owen two beforehand. Seminoles, you know, it's kind of hard to say. You know, they had the bye week after the loss, labor day against Boston College, and then actually came out and looked worse, which I didn't expect that to happen. I thought they would beat Memphis. They didn't owe in three, I think for the first time since the Bobby Bowden era when his first season as coach. [01:20:30] Speaker A: No, this is a second time. [01:20:31] Speaker B: Second time with Mike Norville there. Yeah. So Norville did start. Owen four in 2020 season, I believe. [01:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah, second time in three years. [01:20:39] Speaker B: Four years, something like that. [01:20:41] Speaker C: So they getting off? Are they going to get you going to get the win this year? This week? I'm sorry. This versus Cal or, you know, when are they, when are they going to get back on? [01:20:50] Speaker B: I mean you, California. If you were to ask me a month ago or six months ago when the schedule came out, I thought Cal was a walkthrough win. Cows three. No. And actually playing better than I thought. They have a win at Auburn, so they're not bad. I wouldn't be surprised if a California beats Florida State. I think Florida State needs to make a change at quarterback. I think that's the number one thing. DJ, you just looks lost. He looks like Bryce, young deer in the headlights. Just confused, doesn't have anything going for him. I would go to the, I would go to Brock land, get him in there, get the spark going, see if he can light this team of fire under their ass and see if they can get a win at home. [01:21:27] Speaker A: We didn't talk about. [01:21:30] Speaker B: No, let's not talk about them. [01:21:32] Speaker A: All right. [01:21:32] Speaker B: Sounds good. [01:21:33] Speaker C: So look, Florida state schedule, I mean, I want to say it's not a overly hard schedule, but if they don't get past Cal, they play Cal. [01:21:42] Speaker B: Snoo is probably going to beat them. [01:21:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Then they get Clemson. [01:21:45] Speaker B: They're going to get beat by Clemson. They got Duke and North Carolina winnable games, but then they got Miami losses. North Alabama should be a win. And then if they beat cow, they can maybe get to six wins. If they don't, they're looking at maybe four to five. And that's, that's being nice. [01:22:04] Speaker C: What, what point is, is Norvell gone in this season? [01:22:07] Speaker A: That's what I was saying it, too. [01:22:09] Speaker B: Norville, I think is safe. I mean, it was a $65 million buyout. I mean, look at, people are kind of. He getting hot on Norville. I really don't get it. I mean, we talk about Florida State that came in with high expectations. I think a little bit higher, but I think everybody's kind of underestimating their opponents. Georgia Tech's better than what we thought. I. Boston College is better than we thought. We all agree. Memphis is one of the top five, not group of five non power four teams. So their schedule has been, I mean, they shouldn't be. Owen three, don't get me wrong, but their opponents have been playing better than people expected. The ACC as a whole has not been great, but I think their opponents that they started with have been good. And then cow. I mean, cows three. No, they beat Auburn. There was a two touchdown underdog at Auburn. Auburnethere obviously is two and one in the SEC. So they're not bad. Whenever you coach in the state of Florida, whether it's Miami, Florida State or Florida, any of the big three schools down there, you're always on the hot seat, man. Like the humidity, dude, the hot seats always warm down there. I think as long as Norvell, the team doesn't quit on him, he'll be back. Like we were talked about. I mean, he started two first year there. That's program went three and five. The next year they started Owen four. He got him to five and seven. Then they've had. I mean, this is a team we're talking about that won 19 straight games before basically losing to Georgia and starting Owen three this year. So, yeah, yeah, so it doesn't look good. But from all the talk is the players talked about accountability stepping up. They haven't quit on Norville. I think major changes are coming to the program. Whether or not Norville saves his job or not is who becomes available. You know, Lane Kiffin has been interested maybe in going to Florida, but the Gators, if that opens up, does Florida State say, hey, we jump in early and try to get him? What other major coaches are going to be out there? There's some good coaches. I like the Missouri coach in the SEC. If he becomes available, Florida State wants to go and get him. And then the, you know, the elephant in the room is Ryan day on Ohio State. Everybody talks about firing him if he can't beat Michigan and win the national championship. If Ohio State was stupid enough to move off him and Florida State wanted to make a move, they could go there. But Mike Norvell, let's not forget he was the number two coach to behind Kellen DeBoer to get hired at Alabama. And that's why Florida state jumped up and gave him the $10 million raise, an $85 million contract. So this is a guy that just overnight got stupid program. The program has been recruiting good to average. Mike Norvell's kind of his cliche has been the king of the transfer portal. I mean, if you look it up, Mike Norvell is the keen of the transfer portal. They wanted Cam Ward. They didn't pony up the money. He went to Miami. And that's going to come back to haunt him because we've seen what Cam Ward's doing at Miami. If Cam Ward was at Florida State, they would be three and o. That really is kind of big. The difference right now. [01:25:07] Speaker A: They definitely got the wrong guy. I did want to touch on, was it like that last Friday? Kansas State taking care of Arizona? [01:25:18] Speaker B: Kansas State, man, I got him winning the big twelve. [01:25:21] Speaker A: That was a nice game. Weren't you up on Arizona for them to do well this year? [01:25:26] Speaker B: Well, that was their first loss. I mean I thought Arizona would play a lot better than they did, but, you know, you got Pac twelve teams joining new conferences. It gets a little rough. It's tough to win on Manhattan. Kansas give a lot of credit. [01:25:40] Speaker C: Arizona is one of the teams. I think they were picked by several people as far as, you know, an up and coming could, could surprise you. Not, you know, the traditional football powerhouse. Not going to win the big twelve. Aaron said Kansas State. Utah for me was my pick. I still think that's an impressive team coming over from the PaC twelve that really can air it out. I mean they're, they had the, the in state rivalry game with Utah State or able to, you know, do it, take care of business there. But going to be an interesting quarterback. [01:26:08] Speaker B: With a backup quarterback too. [01:26:10] Speaker C: Yep. So, but it would be interesting the big twelve as you lose your two pillars of the conference in Texas and Oklahoma, but have some really good backfills into that conference with Arizona, Utah and still have competitive teams with Oklahoma State and Kansas State. Interesting conference this year. I know a lot of people were thinking Kansas was going to be a shocker, but they have, they have laid the dud so far this year. But big twelve could be an interesting thing. Team coming or conference coming down the stretch and which team for them potentially is in that first round by, from a top four conference perspective. [01:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, like you said, jason, Kansas of a team that people had high hopes on, team we're not talking about. It's a group of five, nine power four conferences. UNLV. UNLv is a really good football team. They've got some impressive wins against Kansas and Houston in the Big twelve conference and Utah, they got a big game, Oklahoma State this week and we know Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy always finds a way to win eight to ten games every year. That should be a good game on Saturday. [01:27:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Curious as we look, kind of, kind of a long term view of college football right now. There was a lot of consolidation with really the disillusion of the PaC twelve and a lot of, you know, those teams going around. But the amount of non power five teams we've kind of talked about that are really good, giving me a lot of these power or is it power five or power four at this point. But you know, the big conference is getting scared by some of these. They were thinking UNLV. We talk a lot about Boise State, Aaron's, you know, Memphis Tigers. There's a lot of teams here where I'm curious is the transfer portal and some of the nil nil stuff like, you know, some of these guys that are three star recruits or maybe four star recruits and the transfer portal go to these other universities and you see some of these, you know, non traditional, non power five, you know, conference, you know, teams start to rise up. You know, Rome, I think you sent me something about the kind of reformation of the PAC, PAC twelve with some bunch of mountain west schools and stuff. So, you know, there, there could be, you know, real, you know, resurgence potentially for, you know, some different stuff from the conference. I think the playoff, you know, for all maybe naysayers, I don't, there's many, but I think really gives a spotlight to a bunch of these schools if they go in and beat a couple big teams and make runs. Now those are teams that potentially are on schedules that people don't want to see, don't want to play against. [01:28:46] Speaker A: I don't think we're done with all that restructuring. I think it's going to look different again in like five years. And if there's like ever a major new network deal that comes out that's worth billions of dollars that could kind of restructure the way college football is because it's basically now, you know, how are they having in Europe? [01:29:04] Speaker B: You know, like soccer, it's money in contracts, it's a pro league. [01:29:08] Speaker A: It's a pro league. [01:29:09] Speaker C: Oh, it's the second biggest sport. The US is college football. Like NFL and college football and yeah, nothing really comes after that. I say the only difference of the perverse is like the, what they do in Europe, which I'm a fan of but will never happen. The US is them doing actually like relegation stuff. I love it because if we were doing Europe stuff, Florida State be relegated out of the ACC this year and would have to. [01:29:33] Speaker B: They want out of the. [01:29:36] Speaker C: They wouldn't go. They wouldn't be able to go to the SEC, though. They'd have to go to like the Mac or something like that. [01:29:42] Speaker B: I've got a wild idea, will never happen if I touch base with Rome on it, but with the PAC twelve, now PAC six, if you look at some of these teams that want out of the conference and are free agents, it won't happen. But I would, I would love to see Notre Dame shock the world and go and join the PAC twelve. I would love to see Florida State get out of the ACC with Clemson enjoying the PAC twelve and kind of, kind of some weird schools like that just get out and form their own thing where basically we got a coast to coast conference and it's a power conference. It will never probably happen. I think conferences are just gonna get passed over here anyways and we're gonna go to more like an NFL kind of scheduling format. But I want to go than Jason said to nil all these group of five, non power four. I think the days of dynasty blue blood programs dominating is going to go by the wayside. It's going to basically become billionaire booster people coming in, and if you want to make a program profitable and spend money on nil, you can become good for one or two years and have a shot at winning a national championship. [01:30:49] Speaker C: And the key in the transfer portal, Nick Saban went viral a couple weeks ago on ESPN talking, talking through, like all this, you know, you're going to buy a $50 million roster or something, but for, for him. And I think the point that was obvious, but every thought funny is funny is like, you could still be shit and be a $50 million, you know, and do a $50 million investment. Some of this nil stuff, you got to spend the money, right? [01:31:13] Speaker B: Um, well, just look at Florida State, bro. [01:31:15] Speaker C: Look at Florida State. And then on the flip side, you look at Miami where you mentioned Cam Ward. He goes there. What did Miami not have last year they didn't get out of Van Dyke of elevating that team for all the skilled players around that. You go in the portal, you get Cam Ward. Now you have that. So what, what's junior or senior quarterbacks that we've seen kind of go into the portal where you're kind of, hey, you're buying a guy that maybe had some playing time in a lower level program and then's going to go somewhere else. I think. Is it. I think it's the Arizona quarterback people were talking about, like, oh, that guy's in Bama, and in two years, something like that. Like when he's, well, you're saying that. [01:31:51] Speaker B: A lot with kickers now, right? I think, bam. Or somebody just, you know, here's the thing about the transfer portal. You can put your name in and then everybody just starts calling you up. You don't need a transfer. You just have to put your name in this portal. And then all of a sudden people are just saying, you know, hey, Jason, we want you for, you know, Rome said, you know, Colorado State had two players turn down $600,000 to return to Colorado State. I guarantee you that quarterback, he hasn't looked good. But if that offer is on the table right now, he would take it. So you just put your name out there and then you go to your coach, you go to the university and go like, hey, here's my text messages, here's my emails. I got $1.5 million to go kick at Alabama. Are you gonna match it? And the Kent State's not gonna match it. They're gonna be like, dude, like, we're getting 1.5 million to go get our butts kicked by Notre Dame on a Saturday. Like, we don't care if you kick a field go or not. We'll go find some, you know, walk on in the classroom to do that. [01:32:45] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. But Rum's right. This isn't, this isn't the end of, I think, the reshaping. How does college football, you know, potentially break away from the NCAA as a whole as you have these kind of teams and create their own, like, individual monopoly. Like, you know, big, the Big Ten probably wants Notre Dame. They've heard they want Miami. You know, they get to 1820 schools, you know, if Florida State gets out of the ACC and they're going to go, like, to the SEC, you know, do you have just three conferences that both have 20 teams and you got this 60 team power league with three, you know, different conferences. Like, there's a lot of conferences. [01:33:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, the problem with the ACC is they have the, you know, the rights grant of rights till 2036 of all the teams. Like Florida State wants out. But the buyout is, I've heard, anywhere from 300 to 500 million and nobody's gonna pay that. [01:33:38] Speaker A: And everyone knows that they're idiots. [01:33:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:33:41] Speaker B: I mean, the deal was structured in 2016. Yeah, 20 year deal in 2016. [01:33:46] Speaker C: It's one of the, I mean, it was one of the great deals from ESPN and former, you know, President John Skipper because, you know, I think his visionary mind for ESPN at that right, was like, I'm, I'm investing in something that's going to be worth a lot. College football's, you know, worth a lot. And, you know, it's not great for the schools because when you look what the big ten got from Fox, what the sec got from ESPN, what the big twelve got from a couple different avenues, too. So, yeah, these teams aren't getting the money to compete and that's why they want to get out. So, yeah, from the schools, isn't there. But that's where, you know, that's where we see maybe the shakeup at some point, but, yeah, where when that deal expires half a decade from now, it'll be some valuable rights, depending on how that, you know, how that shakes out for those teams. [01:34:31] Speaker A: Before we wrap things up, I just want to give some love to Nebraska for being three now. Right now. They won 34 three against northern Iowa. Viola, two touchdowns. I'm rocking an old Nebraska sweater. I'm drinking some. [01:34:47] Speaker B: That thing looks like it hasn't been washed in a few years. Where'd you just pull that out of the freaking. [01:34:51] Speaker A: I just washed it. [01:34:52] Speaker C: It hasn't been washed since time, since Tom Osborne was head coach. That was the last time it was. [01:34:57] Speaker B: Watched since Scott Frost ran in one of those touchdowns. [01:35:02] Speaker C: Eric. Eric Crouch was still being talked about for Heisman consideration. [01:35:07] Speaker A: I got my drafted by the Rams. [01:35:10] Speaker B: 7Th round or 6th round. [01:35:12] Speaker A: Never forgot you, Nebraska. Been a loyal fan. Maybe I've been quiet for a few. [01:35:17] Speaker B: Years on back, man. [01:35:21] Speaker A: Me too. Cool. Anything else? [01:35:25] Speaker C: I'm guessing we're not talking about Formula one this week. [01:35:30] Speaker A: Talking about it now. [01:35:31] Speaker C: We're here. [01:35:32] Speaker A: Oh, before we go, real quick, I did cast the boxing matches. Canelo, I was watching with a friend who's allegedly a big boxing guy, wouldn't shut the fuck up about Canelo, but Canelo did manhandle the. I can't remember his name, but it was really fun. Got knocked down a few times, but I just feel like boxing is so rigged. Canelo dominated the fight, but just doesn't get any knockouts. I just feel like they kind of dragged that on along so much. And then we caught some of the USC fights. That girl is really hot. Can't remember if I was texting you guys or not. [01:36:07] Speaker B: Alex Grosso. [01:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, she's really pretty. [01:36:10] Speaker C: Well, Canelo versus, I can't remember what his name was, is every Canelo fight for me, I think twice, twice a year. So I think that sums up the state of boxing. You're not going to get a lot of boxing takes from me on this pod. All I can say about Canelo is that in the streets when I have my red beard grown out, I will get mistaken for Canelo and he's going to box two times a year versus tomato can that very few people are going to know in a fight that no one will probably remember. [01:36:44] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, you kind of look like Canelo, guys. Both white with red hair. Just need like a little mexican accent. [01:36:51] Speaker C: You're gonna go, don't have that, but. [01:36:54] Speaker B: I'll send him some ten ounce, twelve ounce gloves, and you can wear those next time on the pod, you know, put a little boxing punch bag back there and you're good to go. [01:37:02] Speaker A: Jason, do you do any. Could you give us like a little. [01:37:07] Speaker C: I do no accents, so. No, I can't. No, I can't. Can't give you any accents on that. [01:37:14] Speaker A: Aaron, would you like. [01:37:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, UFC 306 was overall thought a pretty good event. We saw new, two new champions crowned in the woman's division. Valentina won that fight. And then, you know, Shawn, dominance. Yeah, she dominated. Just took her to the ground, grappled or wrestler ground and pound controlled that fight. She had about eight takedowns. And then Sean O'Miley getting beat in the main event on that card by Marab. So overall about 306 was good. The first two fights, a lot of action. I mean, that first fight they do got hit one, two. I thought he was going to get choked out. Came back, won that fight. The third, the second fight, dude, in the last round, like God was just get like a punching bag. Like Canelo was fighting the dude and just hitting them for like a minute. Referee looked like half a dozen times is going to stop the fight. He's yelling, fight back. The jews just swinging at air. I mean, he was just swinging at air. But, you know, I think the surprising thing is every fight on the main card all went to decision. [01:38:15] Speaker A: That's. [01:38:15] Speaker B: That's very rare. They all went to the scorecards, but over us. A really good night. Yeah. For the spear, man, that was pretty. That was a pretty interesting event, man. For the spirit. It was. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. [01:38:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's an. [01:38:28] Speaker C: It's an interesting venue. I will say for me, I've only seen a wrestling event on tv for that. NXT had a little pay per view on there a while back, but it'll be interesting what they put inside this sphere, more events like this, you know? Are they doing any boxing stuff? [01:38:43] Speaker B: It's a lot of money, though. I think the UFC had to spend 20 million just on production alone. [01:38:49] Speaker A: Why so much? [01:38:51] Speaker B: Just because of how it's. Everything set up in there. I haven't been in there, but just how it's all set up, all the digital features and all that. Yeah, it's. They. The UFC said it was going to be a one off, but the reviews and everybody loved it so much. It might be something we see more of, but, yeah, production cost is really, really high. [01:39:09] Speaker A: Oh, man. I think that does it. Then we'll come back on Thursday, go over NFL lines, some college football games to watch. [01:39:17] Speaker B: Sounds good. [01:39:18] Speaker A: When are we going to fit in. [01:39:19] Speaker B: Some baseball post season starts. I guess we're in rendering corner. [01:39:25] Speaker C: We're into a great stretch where the Angels are flirting with potentially their worst season in history. And my Chicago White Sox are chasing history to be the absolute worst team of all time. So some exciting baseball here in the next week and a half. If you're looking to all time terrible baseball being played right now, we should. [01:39:47] Speaker A: Do like a segment on that. That'd be great. [01:39:49] Speaker C: I have plenty in the can for the White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, Chris Getz, and all of the White Sox leadership. [01:39:58] Speaker A: Let's make it a special man. It'll be. Jason is on a rant, going crazy. [01:40:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you can talk Formula one, too, man. [01:40:07] Speaker C: That'd be a big episode for me. All right. The. The Azure Bajar and the Grand Prix last week. Great, great race. Great win by Oscar Piastri. [01:40:15] Speaker A: I wish I knew more about f one. I drew some complaints about it, though, so. Yeah. Wasn't too, too sad about it. [01:40:21] Speaker C: All right, well, you just. You just let me know. We'll put that in the pod. [01:40:24] Speaker A: I know I'm going to get Alex on here. [01:40:25] Speaker B: I have a special guest for that, too. Who? Have a special guest for Formula one. [01:40:29] Speaker A: I'll try to get Alex on your spicy italian. He looks the part, dude. It's going to be great. Be fun. [01:40:35] Speaker B: Cool. [01:40:35] Speaker A: Take it easy, guys. We'll be back on Thursday. [01:40:37] Speaker C: Thanks, guys.