Christmas Day Games Preview & Parties, A Dud in Round 1, and Sam Darnold Delivers Again

[00:00:03] Speaker A: We are live recording Monday night, December 23, 9:15pm Nice and early in the. In the evening. It's nice, crisp rainy weather up here in San Francisco. How's it down there in Southern California? [00:00:20] Speaker B: Not raining, 56 degrees, not raining yet. [00:00:25] Speaker C: Possibility of some showers tomorrow. Scattered. [00:00:28] Speaker A: That's 55 here. It's nice though. It's beautiful. I like it when it's all misty. Looks like some Hallmark movie. I love it. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Is this something new for the pod? We're going to do a weather forecast of our locations to start it off. Just make sure. [00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that'd be kind of cool. Yeah. Well, anyways, what is today? Monday Night Football. That was a lot of. Lot of sports this week. I had a lot of things going on. I was in and out, in and off of the couch. Christmas parties, which I didn't get home till seven in the morning on Saturday from my Christmas party Friday night. Was that Friday night. Don't remember going. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Going into the weekend. You had said there was two Christmas parties, I believe so. Aaron and I were worried whether you would be in one. [00:01:18] Speaker C: Three, right? It was three. Oh, three. [00:01:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:21] Speaker B: So there, there was a concern whether you would be in one piece getting on the pod today. [00:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I only made it to one. [00:01:29] Speaker B: All right, well, maybe that's why you're here today. [00:01:31] Speaker A: That's why I'm here today. I felt pretty good. Yeah, I slept like seven hours last night. Recovered. Anyways, Monday night. [00:01:39] Speaker C: The real question is, did you drink at this Christmas party? [00:01:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:44] Speaker C: Okay. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Of course. [00:01:45] Speaker C: Okay. Even though he said he was done drinking. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:01:49] Speaker C: Well, you know, Thursday night. [00:01:52] Speaker A: So I, I got like a, a new gig I'm working on. Didn't get out to like 12:30 at night and so everyone else was already on a good one. They were drinking since. Well, I didn't make it to the Christmas party Friday night. That's right. Because they started at 5:00. They're texting me like, where you at? But I have some other friends visiting all the Christmas bars that night. So I met them up at the Grinch Christmas bar. Only had one beer and I was like, I was chilling but there was already by the time I got there, the bar closing. It was almost 2:00. We went to my friend's bar here in the Tenderloin just before they shut down. And they kept the bar open till six in the morning for us and for about 100 other festive people for the holidays. It was a pretty fun scene actually. It felt like a movie it was really cool. I kept a really light with some Michelob Ultras or something like that. Like Topo Chico Seltzers. Can't remember but I'll just vibing hanging out, nothing too crazy. [00:02:55] Speaker B: I was gonna ask whether I made Rome watch all this Formula one this season and he saw Max Verstappen advertising the non alcoholic Heinekens that during every race. Maybe he was dipping into those. [00:03:06] Speaker C: He didn't mention he was. He was gonna look into it. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh you know what? I did go to a party on Saturday as well. Oh it's two parties do my bad. Yeah. Because I was dead exhausted and then yeah, I went to another one on Saturday. I only had two drinks and then I went home. Everyone else went to the bars afterwards. I'm like, you know what, it's 11 o'clock, I'm gonna call it a night. So Aaron, I don't know if you had the over under at two parties I think but it was a push. [00:03:39] Speaker C: Something like that. [00:03:40] Speaker A: Something like that. All right, down to football. Packers blow out the Saints 34 0. I caught the first half, kind of kept tabs on the second half. Lots of things during the telecast about how badass Matt LaFleur is. Most wins or something like that. Like in his first six seasons, most prime time wins. You want to give us like a little breakdown of that Aaron, since that's your team. [00:04:09] Speaker C: I mean. Yeah, I mean all the guy does is win. I mean now he's in the postseason five of his first six seasons there as a coach. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Yep. [00:04:18] Speaker C: I believe the first three years didn't win like 13 plus games. First coach ever to do that. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Well he had Aaron Rodgers but yeah. [00:04:27] Speaker C: So did some other guy in Dallas. But you know, but yeah, I mean the packers give them credit man. I mean this team last year, very young team, still the youngest team in the league. I think the average age is just under 26. Kind of revamped the defensive unit, bringing in a new defensive coordinator, the ex head coach from Boston College. And here they are sitting at 11 and 4 and gonna finish likely the sixth season the NFC and have to make their way to the super bowl if they do basically on the road every game. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, good win for the Packers. First shut out of the NFL season this year. And it comes on the eve of Christmas Eve in Lambeau Field of all places. [00:05:14] Speaker A: Merry Christmas Aaron. Cheese. Try not to walk around with a big heart on throughout the holiday with that one. They play Minnesota Vikings next Sunday. Then the Chicago Bears the clause to close out the season. How you liking their chances of winning out the next two games or do they split one on one? [00:05:33] Speaker C: They got a chance. I mean Minnesota is going to be a good game. I mean they lost there in week five. I believe that was Jordan Love's return after he had the sprained. Was it MCL and other issues he had going on. So this can be a good game. Vikings are playing on fire right now. Obviously they had a big win. Sam Darnold leading a fourth quarter comeback drive there in Seattle. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Dude, we're definitely going to talk about that today. [00:05:57] Speaker C: So I mean, yeah, I feel good about where Green Bay's at. Whether or not they can still jump and get to the fifth spot, I don't know. I mean right now it looks like they're positioned to play the Rams, which they already went to so fine one earlier this season. So we'll see what happens. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Jason, any takes on on tonight's game? [00:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah, how much more besides what Aaron said he called the blowout definitely was that Saints have been all over the map this season. When you think of the start of their season, they blew a couple teams out two zero and then lost so many straight to fire their coach and have been kind of in disarray. Rome, I'm pretty sure you sent me the. Did you send me something about Derek Carr this weekend? Right. [00:06:45] Speaker A: What I send you? [00:06:46] Speaker B: I thought there was something about Derek Carr. You basically just. [00:06:49] Speaker C: There's a caller, there was a rant, there was a rant call where the guy was just like Terry Carr on the sidelines was like the greatest thing he ever saw. That's what he wants to see. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. [00:07:01] Speaker C: I'd like to hear what he's got to say after getting shut out though. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean Derek Carr at least got the ball up and down the field and at least scored some points. Rough, rough season for the Saints. They obviously had some injuries here. Packers, I mean they just look very impressive. It's. It's a shame like Aaron say they're going to be potentially in the sixth seed, best division in football. We set it from the first pod since the beginning of the year. Didn't shake out like I thought it would but still you have incredibly top tier talent in Detroit and in Minnesota and in Green Bay. And the coaching staffs talked about Matt Lafleur and what he's done six seasons of, you know, close to perfection besides winning the super bowl or getting to the super bowl at this point, 110 against the Bears so far he's never lost to the Bears, so. Which is pretty crazy in their rivalry, even though the Bears have been mostly irrelevant. But he's, he's done a great job and it's a, it's a real, it's a murderous road in that division to go up against and they can definitely go two and. Oh, it'll be a tough game against the Vikings, but should be a pretty easy game against the Bears for them to end the season. [00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Packers 11 and four now. Third place in the NFC North. You got Vikings looking up to the Vikings at 13 and 2. We'll talk about them in a little bit. Very big fucking win, eight game winning streak for them. Lions rebounded nicely to stay at 13 and two and hold the tiebreaker for the number one spot. That's tough, man. That's a hell of a division when you're 11 and 4 and in third place. Kind of reminds me of my Steelers division as well for many, many years. [00:08:46] Speaker C: Cool. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Let's talk about the rest of the games then. Obviously, it's just playoff positioning now. Big, big wins. Is there any games that kind of stuck out for you guys, like big wins? We can just jump straight into that Vikings win if you want to talk about that one. Talk about. I thought the Bills edging out coming out the victory there was really huge. [00:09:11] Speaker B: I mean, you talked about the Vikings game, so why don't we get into that? [00:09:16] Speaker A: Let's do it. Yeah. So Sam Darnold, man, everyone's on his jock now. Three touchdowns, I think at like 250 yards. Geno Smith had a really good game. I, I said he was due for one of these games, but he also had two costly interceptions. One at the end of the game. I think it was like a minute left and that was a bad, that was a bad interception. It was after they stopped, I think the Vikings for them to punt the ball. He had 300 yards. Jefferson balled out two touchdowns. I don't know, I, I thought it was going to be a shootout, you know, a heavyweight fight. Seattle either shows up or they fold for these games. And they definitely showed up and they had the chance to win. I was, I was actually rooting for them to win when I was watching it, but costly mistakes and it is what it is. But Sam Darnold, this guy has several games now with multiple touchdowns, passing it efficiently through the air. Ran the ball pretty well as well. Had some nice dimes in there, like some really nice throws that. I can't believe what I'm saying. Like, I was kind of thinking like, dude, like a lot, a lot of, a lot of guys can't make that, those kind of throws. I know Jason's been pretty hard on Sam Darnold from day one. And I'm like, even me, I kind of jumped off ship after like week five when they looked really bad against Jacksonville and, and whatever. They barely pulled out some victories there, but dude, they were legit. Offense is solid, defense is solid. The postgame speeches I, I, I, I hear about from their head coach, Flores, they got all the ingredients for the super bowl run, in my opinion. [00:11:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they do. I can't remember me being super critical of Darnold, but if I was, I, I'll happily be wrong if you're holding me accountable for that. But he's definitely been for the man for the job this year and has put in the Vikings in an interesting decision on what they do moving forward. Because you drafted JJ McCarthy in the first round to be your quarterback of the future, does it make sense to switch up that chemistry going in next season? I know we'll have an off season to talk about that, but Sam Darnold has made himself a lot of money, you know, in this season right now because is it looking like a Baker Mayfield type contract or something where, hey, just the first team that drafted you didn't put you in a position to win, but you have the right Coach and Kevin O'Connell who knows how, you know, knows how to scheme and get the most out of a quarterback who definitely had the, the skills and what it took to be a starting quarterback when the jets drafted him was he third overall out of usc, so knew he had the physical ability and showed up in big games in college. But you give somebody a Justin Jefferson level talent and Jordan Addison and Aaron Jones in the running game and a strong defense behind you, it'll, it'll keep games tight and have a position to win. And Darnold stood in there and a lot of those throws that he was, he was taking a beating, standing in the pocket, delivering the ball, letting Jefferson and Addison and a few other guys make plays. You know, even finding Hawkinson for a few and in a game that was new is going to be tight, a tougher place to play. Even though Seattle hadn't been as impressive at home. The difference really was the Geno Smith Turnovers vs. Sam Darnold's ability to make plays without turning the ball over. [00:12:52] Speaker C: Yeah, Rome, I think you mentioned it right off the bat. You know, everybody kind of was giving up a little bit on Sam Darnold, all his interceptions. I just looked up his last six games. Yeah, 15 touchdowns, one interceptions, Vikings six. And oh, during that stretch, Jason just hit it on the head. Hit the nail on the head right there with the Gino Smith throwing the interceptions. That was the difference in that game there. Two interceptions, Vikings, no turnovers. Sam Darnold making big throws down the field there, hitting Justin Jefferson late there in the fourth quarter and then the following drive, Geno Smith with that terrible pick to DK Metcalf. Vikings, they have all the recipes. Good kicking game, good defense, offensive weapons. Darnold, is he going to get a contract extension with Minnesota? [00:13:44] Speaker A: I think so. [00:13:45] Speaker C: If anything, you know, you franchise tag them most. Give him one more year. I mean you're going to be defined on what he does in the playoffs and maybe even the last two weeks here. I mean Green Bay's coming in and then they get Detroit. [00:13:58] Speaker A: So it's a win, win, it's a win win situation for the Vikings. They move on from Kirk Cousins, right? Atlanta Falcons rushed a little too fast, even got hit for tampering to sign Kirk Cousins. They let him go. They pick up Sam Darnold who had some time with the Niners. They pick who I liked a quarterback out of Michigan, but since he got injured he's already like a year behind. So win, win situation. Now they got Darnold. Is he the quarterback now or the future? Sign up for a one year deal. Franchise them. They could even give him a team friendly deal. Still see how McCarthy develops behind him and the rest of the division is going to be in trouble. Like they're going to be pretty competitive for a while. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you don't, you don't need to look much farther than your in division rival the packers and how to successfully set up a successor to be a starting quarterback. You can have Sam Darnold for next year, the year after that, maybe a year after that. You know, what was Aaron Rodgers in year five or year four when he started Jordan Love, you know, same thing. So JJ McCarthy doesn't necessarily need to be starting next year. Is it not the position to win? Is it good for him to get reps in practice and sit behind Sam Darnold? And then it puts the Vikings in a position down the road where it's like, hey, if Sam Darnold's still playing well and you don't need to to make the move that then, okay, now Maybe it provides JJ McCarthy with some value or something. But you know, I think he's definitely earned a contract here going forward, regardless of what he does in these next couple runs. But the job is his next season. If he's able to have some good success here over the next two weeks and a little bit in the playoffs. [00:15:40] Speaker A: They could even pull off was the Chargers. They had Breeze and they had Riv Rivers. They kept Breeze for one more year and then let them walk after he got hurt. And then they had Rivers already waiting. Was. Was that it? I'm trying to remember. [00:15:54] Speaker C: Yeah, they had Rivers and then Breeze got hurt the last game of the year where it's, you know, that shoulder. [00:15:59] Speaker A: We have tickets to that year, right? [00:16:01] Speaker C: That year. [00:16:03] Speaker A: I think maybe that year, Those two years. Yeah. [00:16:05] Speaker C: All right, that year. The following year. But yeah, I mean, that's a playbook. [00:16:08] Speaker A: To play as well. [00:16:10] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, basically you're. You're leasing JJ McCarthy for cheap right now. [00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:15] Speaker C: And you can use. You. Jason hit it said it best. You can get Darnold for the next two years and see how it goes. Basically give him a four year deal similar to what, you know, Baker got. And even Kirk Cousins got front loaded the first two years to where most of that money's guaranteed. And then afterwards, if you want to move on, you move on or you restructure the deal and then you can maybe trade JJ If Sam Darnold is the guy. I mean, Sam Darnold's still really young. [00:16:43] Speaker A: 26, right? 27. [00:16:45] Speaker C: 27. And you know, going, going to San Francisco and working under Kyle Shanahan and Now with Kevin O'Connell, like these are the perfect matches for him. And it just shows you if the young quarterback gets stuck with the right head coach and offensive guru. I know Jason's been talking about the Bears and Caleb and look at, look at the tape of all these good coaches of what they're doing with quarterbacks. It makes sense if you got a young quarterback that's got great potential to team them up with a head coach play caller that's been hitting in the league for a while. And that's what Shanahan and Kevin O'Connell's been doing too. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Oh, go ahead. [00:17:25] Speaker B: I was just gonna say O'Connell is going to get a good look at JJ in practice too. Think back. Air mentioned Shanahan. Think back to Trey Lance in San Francisco. You know, quarterback drafted there, didn't make very many, very many starts for the 49ers. But Shanahan saw in practice and in a few games and decided this isn't going to be it or moving on. OConnell's going to be able to get an assessment off of JJ McCarthy and the practices and stuff for the next couple years if they keep, you know, Darnold around so they'll, they'll be able to move, you know, on with him or without him with the assessments internally like while still being a competitive team on the field and win some games. [00:18:03] Speaker A: I think at least one more year there. Big wins. I don't think there was too many. There was more like big upsets. Pretty devastating upsets this week, but some big wins. Ravens beating my Steelers Saturday 34 17. They're tied up at top of the division. I don't even want to talk too much about it, but we can a little bit. Another big win was the Commanders 36 to 33 against the Eagles. Money, man. Daniels is just money, especially in the last 30 seconds of the game. Just breaking people's hearts. Jason, you know a little bit about that and man, I, I want to say like there was another big game but I, I think that's about it though. I think those two games were pretty huge and maybe the Falcons I guess, you know, turning it around with penix destroying the giants 347 had as good of a game as you can ask for from rookie QB first time out and now they are tied with the Bucs on top of that division and if they went out, they're in. If Bucs went out, they're in. Lots of storylines for the last two weeks of the season. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah, the Falcons game in combination with the Buccaneers loss, which was unexpected to. [00:19:23] Speaker C: Me. [00:19:25] Speaker B: The Buccaneers had the division in control and now Aaron mentioned it last week, you think back early in the season when the Falcons won both of these head to head matchups with the Buccaneers. Now that turns into the tiebreaker where you the Falcons just need to keep pace and they've had, you know, such an underwhelming season with the expectations that they should have had. Now did they find something with Pennx? A little bit. They really leaned on Bijan, which makes you kind of wonder why they hadn't been, you know, for the last year and a half, which many people have talked about on how much more heat gets the ball. Now Aaron did say my guy Kyle Pitt should have got the ball in that game but I'm pretty sure they got him the ball and then he like coughed up a surefire catch into an interception. [00:20:07] Speaker A: I saw that so good. I, I thought about you, Jason. That happened. [00:20:12] Speaker B: Oh man. Well, luckily in that league Kyle Pitts is not playing any fantasy dividends. But didn't look great. But. But, yeah, I mean, just the combination of the Falcons win with the Buccaneers loss. I think overall was. Was something storyline going into. Because now, hey, the Falcons are gonna make this quarterback change. Rookie quarterback, don't know what's go. You know, don't know how much they're going to get out of him. But we've seen stranger things in the playoffs where teams find something and they turn into a team you potentially don't want to play. Panics played some big games in college and was able to, you know, will the team to victory. We'll see. The Buccaneers just look super disappointing on Sunday night versus a Cowboys team. And then I want to go, you know, you kind of glossed over your Steelers a little bit, but, you know, did think the Ravens are going to win that game, but in the fashion that they did. And with the Steelers, they beat their ass. They did. I didn't expect that. And how the Steelers have looked recently. A lot of question marks, I think, for them going into the playoffs. [00:21:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Let's talk about the Bucs game. I don't think they look terrible. So this is a game I kind of mentioned wanting to stay away. I can't remember who, like, which one one of you guys refills someone else. I was texting like, oh, dude, like, this is an easy win. I'm like, dude, Dallas has been playing really good the second half of the season. They're. They're gonna be a tough out. And Cooper Rush say. Say what you will, this guy's been balling out, playing really good football. Even better than Dak Prescott at. @ Pennies of the cost. This guy's. I don't know. This guy's like food for less. And Dak Prescott's like, air one, but not worth it. You know, Cooper Rush did really well. The defense showed up. They gave, I think, the Bucks enough problems. But honestly, like, some of the turnover issues when he wasn't even Mayfield's fault. I can't remember the interception exactly. Wasn't it like a. It was a completion. The defender when you tore it away. [00:22:10] Speaker C: Right. That was a weird game. I mean, you had the interception in the end zone, which looks like it was gonna be a touchdown that got taken away by Lewis there. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:19] Speaker C: And then was it two possessions later, Baker basically scrambles, gets out of the sack, throws it to White, looks like he's gonna get a first down, and he gets the ball stripped from him for the end of the game. You know, strip, strip, tackle, fumble. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah, he broke a couple tackles, I think he went, what, got like another five, six yards and then. Yeah. Get stripped, dude. [00:22:37] Speaker C: It was. [00:22:37] Speaker A: It was. It wasn't his fault. He did well. 300 yards, two touchdowns. It was. It was a. It was a weird game, though. Like, it was a bad loss. That's a bad loss. [00:22:46] Speaker C: It's. It's a bad loss. Given that where they're at right now in the season that they basically controlled their destiny. But you said it. Dallas is playing well. Yeah, Dallas. Let's be real. Dallas had the Bengals beat. That was a stupid play. On that special team's block punt where the guy made a stupid error. Cost them that game. If they win that game, their winners are five in a row, I believe Cooper Rush is nine and four as a starter. They dismantled Carolina. We didn't even talk about bad losses. Arizona Cardinals loss against the Cardinals eliminated from all playoff contention. They're done. That was a terrible loss. Big win for Carolina. They look like the team we'd seen the previous four weeks before they played Dallas. [00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:26] Speaker C: So maybe Dallas is on to something. They do play the Eagles this week. The Eagles are banged up. Your boy Kenny Pickett made a surprise appearance. I know you probably Stiller jersey. I know you were wearing it on Sunday. Rome. [00:23:38] Speaker A: It's okay. [00:23:39] Speaker C: I know you had it on. [00:23:40] Speaker A: I never got a Picket jersey. I've always want to get a Roethlisberger jersey, but he has a lot of. A lot of good cachet with the fans here anywhere. But yeah, go ahead, talk. Talk about the game. You mentioned the bad losses. Before we talk about the bad losses, let's circle back with Steelers, Ravens. They don't look the same without their number one wide receiver. And I just don't know what else is missing from the defense. [00:24:08] Speaker C: Well, you also had Joey Porter Jr. Go out with a calf injury, so they had to play a lot more conservative in the secondary. [00:24:14] Speaker A: I'm worried that guys are starting to go down like flies. And this has happened like the last few years now for the Steelers and maybe they peaked a couple weeks ago. I'm starting to get a little nervous and just starting to remind me of like that 110 team that just lost five of their last six games towards the end of the season. If I think it was Roethlisberger, like second to last or last season, and this is happening the same thing, except this time we have Russell. Russell did not look great in this game either as well. [00:24:43] Speaker B: He didn't look great. The other thing to look at, when they had Fields in the lineup, how much they were leaned into the running game and were effective with Warren, Harris and Fields. And as Russell's gotten more comfortable in plague time, they've really, you know, expanded the passing game, which we gave them a lot of kudos for. Get, hey, we're stretching the ball downfield, but now we're. They're not as effective in the running game. You know, you only had 48 yards from Warren and 42 yards from Harris in that game and 12 and nine carries, respectively. You're just, you're losing an element of the office and game control. And now if it gets away with you, away from you with a game like the Ravens, when they start putting up points and you can't control the ball like the Steelers generally to do to keep things tight, that's going to be concerning because if you're going to, you know, if we're, if we're throwing back to Russell Wilson from 10 years ago and we're going to let Russ Cook. You know, I'm trying to think, was it Mr. Mr. Invincible or whatever his name is? [00:25:44] Speaker A: I don't remember. [00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't remember either. But, you know, whatever that is, it's taking away, I think, from the foundation that started this Steelers season, you know, really embedded in the running game. And now too, too much relying on the passes and you don't have the number one right receiver like you spoke of. [00:26:00] Speaker A: Yeah. To mention they did a pretty good job last week, despite the loss against the Eagles of keeping the runs to a minimum, at least the impact that that could have had. Derrick Henry, 24 carries, 162 yards. The guy's a beast. He had a hell of a game. You know, they're good Ravens. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Well, I mean, when we mentioned this, when the Ravens are on, like they're on, they, they, they take good teams and they beat them bad, but when they're off, when they're off, they can look bad. I mean, Jason said they like to run the ball. The last two weeks they played against, obviously the Ravens here and the Eagles. What are those two teams have in common? Great defensive fronts and good against the run game. Tough to run against those teams. Daniel, about your number one wide out. That takes away the deep ball threat. So guess what? Safeties don't have to cheat back. They can cheat up. Hamilton, Jason's guy from Notre Dame, the best safety in the game. He's like a linebacker, very good against the run. They can shut that down. And Rome, like you said, Russell Wilson, I don't have a problem of letting him cook, but when he doesn't have pickings out there. He tries to do too much. And he threw a stupid interception that led to a pick six. And then trying. I don't know what he was doing down there at the goal line. That really turned the momentum of the game. When he fumbled right inside their own five, they would have went up by a touchdown there. You can't make those mistakes against Baltimore. They split the season series with them one to one. We kind of. [00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. So, yeah, you know, it was just like the Eagles game where, you know, it's close point wise and then, you know, all help breaks loose and then they, they didn't score anything in the last frame. I thought, you know, when they picked up Williams before the trade deadline, I thought he would add elements when they got got him from the jets. But without pick or without pickens to kind of just open up the field. He hasn't really done too much either. So I don't know, man. We'll see how they do on Christmas like in, in two days. That's a quick turnaround, man. That's the NFL. My team, like royally. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Man, these games are gonna be awful on Christmas Day. Just straight awful. [00:28:19] Speaker C: They're still going to be the NBA and TV ratings though. [00:28:23] Speaker A: I'll be watching some basketball for sure. [00:28:26] Speaker C: There's five games, so you can't, you can't miss every time you turn on the tv. There's gonna be an NBA game on. [00:28:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's talk about the Commanders real quick. Commanders. This was a low scoring game and then it kind of everything opened up in the final frame. Eagles, the number one. What Defensive front, I guess, in the NFL maybe, or at least one of them. And Jaden Cooks, man, five touchdowns. He had two interceptions. Kenny Pickett comes in relief for Hertz. For her hurts. For her hurts. Saquon had a hell of a Game 2 touchdown of 150 on the ground. Some nice catches as well. This was a pretty exciting game. Eagles in the beginning, Washington and at the end. And I, I still, I don't know, man. Like, I. It didn't seem like it was possible that the Commanders were going to come back from behind and win. I think what they only had like a minute or so to go down the field for that final touchdown. And you know, what do you guys think? By the way? Daniels also had 81 yards carry, you know, you know, on the ground. [00:29:39] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot misleading about this game. I mean, the eagle. [00:29:43] Speaker A: FedEx Field. [00:29:44] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not called FedEx Field anymore. [00:29:46] Speaker A: Something else now, well, Jane Daniels was acting like FedEx, man. The guy was delivering a weird game. [00:29:52] Speaker C: I mean, Hertz Kurtz gets hurt early in the first quarter with the concussion. [00:29:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:58] Speaker C: And then, you know, it's the Eagles. That means something they hadn't done. Just a lot of mistakes for dumb. I mean they're, they're starting strong safety gets ejected for the game for two unsportsmanlike con. I wasn't really sure for I guess arguing or taunting. I, I don't know. [00:30:13] Speaker A: That didn't make sense to me. [00:30:14] Speaker C: That didn't make sense. And then they get a touchdown where The Eagles have 12 guys on the field but they have two guys running off. So they only have 10 on that late touchdown by Jayden Daniels. So nobody covering the wide receiver. And then Devonte Smith drops a wide open first down doing his best Debo impression from Thursday night. And I mean, Commanders won, but I'm not, I have no confidence in the Commanders. Jason said it before we went on the pod. They're kind of fool's gold. I don't buy into them. Eagle should have won this game of Herz by 2. 3 scores and Commanders are going to get in probably the seventh seed, go to Philadelphia and get whipped in the playoffs by 10 points. So I'm not buying anything. The Commanders, I'm selling, selling, selling. [00:30:56] Speaker A: So 2 of Phillies losses. You had this one. They had a chance to win but they dropped the ball. And then I can't remember who they were playing against when Barkley dropped the ball as well. [00:31:07] Speaker C: Falcons. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Falcons. Yeah. [00:31:11] Speaker C: Phil. [00:31:11] Speaker B: Philly's still a good team. And Aaron said my point as I got into the pod, you're going to have these teams that overachieve and potentially underachieve, you know, year to year and you know, the next year they kind of regress to the medium. Daniels has been fantastic. As much as I, you know, hate on it silently, you know, being a Caleb Williams homer out of this stuff, you know, he's been fantastic. But there's been a lot, there's been a lot of things that have gone the commander's way for some of these wins that, you know, things break the other way in a one score game. You know, a call here or call there or the, you know, or the ball just goes in a weird direction that the way that football does. I don't, I don't like the long term, you know, look of the Commanders in the playoffs. They're going to be, you know, really the sixth or seventh best team in the NFC when it comes to the Playoffs with the all the talent you have from the NFC north as we kind of mentioned early in the pod. So good win from them from a comeback from behind standpoint, but I'm not buying them going to the playoffs. The Eagles, it just hurts so much more because hey, we're trying to get this number one seed overall. Now that they're pretty much gone out. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Of that conversation, I still think Commanders are still kind of exciting. I I still think they have upset potential for the playoffs at least getting a win on the road. [00:32:32] Speaker C: You're basically saying they're going to Philadelphia and winning because that's where they're going to end up. Phillies locked in as a two. I don't see the Commanders jumping the packers, which would be their best move because then they could get in there and go to play the Rams. But yeah, they don't want to see the Eagles. So they're going to do what they can do to get out of that. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Yeah, ideally, but they're gonna. [00:32:54] Speaker C: They've got the Falcons who need a win and the Cowboys who aren't going to let up at Dallas Stadium there to end the year. So they got two tough games. The Commanders do here. [00:33:04] Speaker B: If Hertz was in this entire game, it's a completely different game. [00:33:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:11] Speaker A: We can only assume Cowboys are going to be at the Eagles next Sunday and then the Commanders visit the Cowboys so Cowboys can have a chance to really upset people's seasons right now at the end of the year and go out on top like on a good note. Crazy, man, how they almost got close to the playoff race with all those losses in the beginning of the season. [00:33:33] Speaker C: Mike McCarthy, man, he's playing, he's fighting for his job over there. [00:33:41] Speaker A: Yeah, those are the big wins, big losses, anything that kind of sticks out, I think Niners, there's a ton of big losses. That was ugly. Bucks where you kind of talked about that. We don't really need to talk about the Jackson Raiders. [00:33:56] Speaker B: Hey, I, I will say that the Jags Raiders hit the over on the red zone channel. [00:34:01] Speaker C: Oh no, that was an easy one. [00:34:04] Speaker B: Tons of Jags Raiders on the red zone channel. [00:34:07] Speaker A: We did talk about that. Drake May played really well. Bills come out at the end. That was a fun game. Colts really exciting. Richardson bounces back. Taylor kept the ball in his hands, even ran to the tunnel. Three touchdowns killed it, man, 200 yards. That was fun. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Yeah, but Jonathan Taylor was public enemy number one in fantasy leagues across the country. This guy, I forgot how many people he cost a fantasy advancement the year week prior without Dropping. With him dropping the ball prior to scoring. There was a stat, I don't know, it was Yahoo or something about a percentage of people that lost their fantasy matchup because of that play. And now for those people that were eliminated in those fantasy mashups and now. [00:34:56] Speaker A: They'Ve got loser bracket winning. [00:34:58] Speaker B: They're in the losers bracket. This guy puts up like an all world performance. There was. There was tons of great memes on X all day about that. So I, I don't think he was beloved by fantasy owners after what he did last week. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Gotta love fantasy. Man. Jets Rogers looked really old in this game. I didn't catch too much of the game. It was a little unbearable for me. [00:35:22] Speaker B: Well, Aaron's off of telling you a week ago that this has been the best Rogers had look in his tenure. And he comes out and I thought. [00:35:33] Speaker C: I thought he looked okay. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [00:35:35] Speaker C: So yeah, I mean, the jets, the jets probably should have won this game. They dominated the Rams for three quarters and they just didn't finish drives. They didn't take points when they had an opportunity. Obviously they were 4 and 10. So they're like, screw it. [00:35:49] Speaker A: That's been their problem all year long though. They've. They just. You're right. Rogers had 250 yards in the air. Touchdown. But yeah, I couldn't finish. [00:35:58] Speaker C: Dropped a touchdown. [00:36:00] Speaker B: I just don't love. And this is just an Aaron Rodgers offense with Aaron Tolar has watched more games with Aaron Rodgers than I have, being the packers fan than he is. But you look at Aaron Rodgers in a game that's 19 to 9, has 42 attempts and you're only getting your running backs like 18 carries. Got to do better than that. [00:36:22] Speaker A: 42 Temps is a lot. That's a lot. [00:36:25] Speaker C: Agree. Man. They were running the ball with ease on the Rams. The play calling wasn't great. They should have. Just nine points was ridiculous. They should have put up 20 easy. I think they were just. Rogers is one touchdown away from 500, so maybe they were just trying to get that going. [00:36:42] Speaker A: You're right. Jason's a big discrepancy. They only had 17 running plays. One was a draw for a Rod. The Braylon Allen one didn't really. He had a couple there. So. Man, that's. That's a lot of passes. [00:36:54] Speaker B: And on the flip side, the Rams, you know, Stafford only had 19 attempts and they got Kyron Williams the ball, you know, 23 carries. I mean, I know you want to lean on Notre Dame running backs because they are the best, but you know There's a big discrepancy and you lose a game because, hey, I need Rogers to keep having the ball in his hand every time. This isn't Aaron Rodgers from 10 years ago. You got a really great running back in Breeze hall that could be carrying the load and pretty solid backups and Isaiah Davis and Braylon Allen that could be, you know, mixing some different things in too. But I mean, it's too late for the jets as it is. So I guess if you're just trying to get Rogers some stats, we're just flinging it. Okay, cool. But you know, disappointing if you're trying to actually win football games. [00:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah, there's like some crazy stats on X cut around where they're. I guess if you look at in totality, he's having a pretty decent statistical year, you know, trying to shine light on it and. Well, either way he's, he's not winning. So. [00:37:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean I think he was even on McAfee show joking that he was going to get cut by a bunch of teenagers here in a few. [00:37:54] Speaker B: Weeks talking about his MAD rating is gonna suck. [00:37:58] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, it's gonna be going down. But yeah, I mean we talked about it Thursday, that the jets hadn't gotten rid of Robert Sala, that this would probably be a 500 team in contention for maybe a playoff spot or at least still in the hunt. This is a game again. Defensively they got the run game going. The Rams did, they leaned on that, wore the jets down and then the jets did the opposite. Instead of like running the ball in third and two, setting up maybe a fourth and one going for it a lot of times in that second half they were third and five, four from three and just bad play calling. Non execution led to a nine point performance on Sunday by the Jets. [00:38:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess the only other big loss that we can kind of touch on is the Cardinals losing an overtime to the Panthers. Young looked good again, so good second half overall. Let us down last week. I was like, you know what? I really don't know what to think about his shitty performance last week, but rebounded nicely. And Kyler Murray, man, he's just a Nick the enigma I just don't get. Which is why I was never on his, on his bandwagon to begin with. But just another weird game. Weird. I don't know, just always has like a handful of plays. It just looks like it just cost the game. I don't know. How much longer does he stay in the league as a starting quarterback? [00:39:31] Speaker B: I'm Proud. I'm proud of you. Took 16 weeks to get his name right. So. Buddha. [00:39:37] Speaker A: Well, I have a. I have a right here too. [00:39:40] Speaker C: Hey, once he got eliminated from the playoffs, he's like, you know what? I can finally call him out for what he is. Kyler Murray. [00:39:47] Speaker A: I almost said Murphy though. It's so ingrained in my head now in the league. [00:39:53] Speaker B: Tough question. They've paid him already, so he's got, he's got more years. It'll get to a point probably in the next couple. I don't even remember the length of his contract, but you know, they were competitive into the division. They're down to it to two weeks before the season and now you got Marvin Harrison and some things to grow in the off season and. But you know, James Connor's not getting any younger at the same time too. That's really what's holding the team together this year. So I, I don't think that. I don't see them making a change anytime soon now that you've paid the guy. On the flip side, Bryce Young, much impressive. But I do want to highlight what has made him a little more effective. And just coming off our Aaron Rodgers conversation, you know, Chuba Hubbard, 152 yards, getting that guy the ball, 25 carries. Really wasn't even thought of to be the starter going into this year. He was kind of be like a transitional back. Now they've extended him and he's really been kind of that heartbeat of the Panthers offense as they've kind of turned things around here. So they got, they got solid game plans going in and how they're going to balance a run in the pass and catch Carolina and in the end, that's what won in the game. [00:41:09] Speaker A: There's like out of all the quarterback contracts, I think they just ballooned a little too high. Dak Prescott at 240 million total, averaging 60 a year. That's crazy. You got Trevor Lawrence, he signed one that's averaging 55 million a year. Crazy as well. Tua, 53 million a year. Then you have Kyler Murray at 46 million a year. DeSean Watson's underneath him at 46 million a year. And now it's going to look pretty bad. It's Kirk cousins at 45 million a year. Everybody else, though, in that top echelon is really good. But that's like half of the top quarterback contracts that are just like. I'm not a big fan of them. [00:41:56] Speaker C: Well, that's, that's where the salary caps going. Is QB1 that's that's the money. I mean Kyler Murray just said 46 million. He's probably getting. I think he just signed that extension. Was it last year for four years. If memory serves me right coming off that torn acl. He had a couple good years of cliff last year. Came in late after the ACL. I mean this is still a young Arizona team, second year coaching staff. Harrison Jr. Still young. McBride, the tight end's nice. They got James Connor, he's getting a little old but they did draft the rookie out of Florida State, Trey Benson, he hasn't gotten a lot of carries but he's similar running back. They got to upgrade their O line, add another white out in the off season whether it's via draft or free agency. I mean T. Higgins, he's going to be a popular guy out there. Maybe you team him up with Harrison Jr. That's a good combo. Their defense is, their defense is young and fiery but they have inconsistent games. Arizona's on the rise. I mean I don't think any of us had them making the playoffs. They're about to finish 500 which is kind of what we had. You told me Arizona was going to finish 7, 8, 9 wins. I'd say that was a good year for them. But yeah, Jason said it. What's a young quarterback's, you know, best friend? A good running game and Trooper Hubbard's got that going and the Panthers really been leaning on him. [00:43:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Looking at Kyler's contract that I'm looking on the site right now. So 46 million through 2029 restricted but at 27 years old, you know we're talking hey this is a four or five years left. It's, it's taking him through his prime. So if you get to 2028 or even 2027 and you're re evaluating and now you got a 30 year old quarterback like you're getting him in his athlet know it's not the same versus like a Dak Prescott who's 31 and you've just given all this money to who's got the same. It looks like it's void in the 2029 as well. So I think there's some difference where you're gonna get a longer leash from Kyler because he's an his athletic prime where you know Dak, I think there's a ton more, there's a ton more questions there and some of these other guys too. Trevor Lawrence will say the same thing. He's only 25 and so that's you know, you're gonna give these guys long leashes. The good thing about the NFL, the contract's not going to make sense because you're just going to get with the next guy who gets the big contract. And I'm trying to get a dollar more than him. Ad. AD and TV revenue goes up every year. The cap goes up every year. So if you sign a guy to an extension now, you know, what does it look like? You know, Josh Allen's contract that he. I don't even know when he signed that contract, but at 43 million that I'm looking at right now into 20, 29, hey, Josh Allen's a little bit of a bargain. Now. When you sign him to that contract, he wasn't as much. So there's. There's things that they can do, you know, and play with the cab. But you're going to have to pay these guys in these ranges. You start looking. In the offseason, we talked about Darnold. The biggest question out there is what do the 49ers do with their quarterback? Because they basically been getting him as a bargain basement discount. And now, hey, he's going to demand $50 million. And that's really going to change up what the Niners are going to do from a total team perspective, because they've been spending that money else here on skill positions that have now kind of aged out. [00:45:16] Speaker A: That's a tough one. We could do a whole hour pot on that one. I want to stay with that. [00:45:21] Speaker C: I. The Niners don't have to pay Brock Purdy. You don't have to, but he still. [00:45:26] Speaker A: Has one where you're left. [00:45:27] Speaker C: But by not extending him, you're. You're pinning him in the whole Sam Darnold thing, which I don't think is a bad idea. Don't extend them, then maybe franchise tag them. I mean, I want to pay Brock Purdy 50 million. 60 million. I mean, if he wanted a similar deal to Kirk Cousins, 40, 45 million. Okay, you just mentioned Kyler Murray, Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence. Let me ask you, based off their age in that contract, which of those guys would you want? [00:45:53] Speaker A: Repeat that again. Sorry. [00:45:54] Speaker C: So Jason just said KYLER Murray's at 46. What? Trevor Lawrence, you said is 55 and Dak Prescott, 60 million. If I give you a choice between those three quarterbacks, who are you taking? Based off their age and their contract, it's probably Tyler. Yeah, that's what I mean. Kyler. [00:46:11] Speaker A: Fuck. Barely. Yeah, barely. [00:46:13] Speaker C: But he's still. He's still $14 million a year discount over Dag, which sounds like a great bargain considering Dak has no mobility anymore. Just basically tore the bone right off his hamstring. No meat on there anymore. [00:46:28] Speaker A: That's a tough one. All right. Yeah. Carolina 4 and 1. Big win. Any other games that kind of stuck out for you guys this week? Week 16. You're convinced you're not convinced otherwise? [00:46:59] Speaker B: I'm convinced more that Ben Johnson should be the head coach of the Chicago Bears. [00:47:03] Speaker A: Did you like that fake. Like that fake play? [00:47:06] Speaker B: I love the fake play. He was basically telling Bears ownership in that particular play. This is how great I am. I'm gonna have two guys fake, fall down and have a person wide open for a touchdown because that's great. [00:47:16] Speaker A: That was a great play because he. [00:47:18] Speaker B: Saw that in film when that happened on accident with the packers and the Bears fell for it. So, hey, we'll just do it. Do it here. Yeah, that's what I was convinced of this weekend. [00:47:28] Speaker C: Not only that, they had a quote from Ben Johnson about how great he thinks Caleb Williams can be. I think. I think he sealed the job. Like Jason said, he showed him what he's capable of doing. Even on Thanksgiving. He threw a screen pass to a tackle who carried five yard, five guys for five yards. Ben Johnson should be the higher in Chicago. And based off what we've been seeing with young quarterbacks, like I mentioned earlier, with good coordinators, it give it a try, you got not much to lose. The Bears can't be any worse. [00:48:03] Speaker A: You can put a lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. Bears have a lot of work to do in that office. That's all I gotta say. Ben Johnson would be the lipstick guys. [00:48:17] Speaker B: I get what you're trying to say, but I think, you know, I drew this comparison the other. The other day about the Rams. The Rams had an old school quarterback, I'm sorry, old school head coach. And Jeff Fisher, who just ran out eight and eight teams for like a half a decade in St. Louis and Los Angeles and drafts Jared Goff and didn't know what to do with him first overall. And then they hire this hot shot offensive coordinator from the Washington Redskins who had some pretty decent success that no one knew about. All of a sudden he's the greatest head coach of all time and putting out this great offense and just developing and building his own coaches and that Sean McVeigh. [00:49:03] Speaker A: It's not the norm. [00:49:04] Speaker B: It's an anomaly because. Oh, let's Aaron's guy, Matt Lafleur oh, did you know a lot about him when he was an offensive coordinator? No, I don't think so. Kevin OConnell, did you know anything about him when he was an offensive coordinator? So I will go against Rome's culture and tough guy and leadership. [00:49:20] Speaker C: I'm going to jump on this and jump on the bandwagon. Jason. Mike Rabel, who Rome loves, gave up on Malik Willis, who's balling out in Green Bay with a offensive guru. Malik Willis, that's a guy that's going to get a contract too. I watched him tonight. Dude looks money too. So you can say what you want. I think if you get a young quarterback with the right offensive guru guy, screw culture, man. I like points and I like victories. [00:49:53] Speaker A: I would put all the stories that like go against your guys argument, but I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna let. Let it be. [00:49:58] Speaker C: I love the Fisher one, man. That was a great call. [00:50:00] Speaker A: The Fisher one's good. [00:50:01] Speaker C: Even in Tennessee McNair, all he did was hand it off to Eddie George and pound the rock. That was it. Old school football. That's all Jeff Fisher knew. [00:50:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of. [00:50:11] Speaker B: Fisher, but there's just so many of these examples Rome of, of in the modern offense and you start telling me who's the head coach that's like not this offensive innovator beyond, you know, established guys that have built cultures for long, sustained success. So Andy Reid, but he's been ahead of the game offensively for 20 years now. You know, John Harbaugh and Tomlin, okay. They have a different culture there. That is not. That's not like anywhere else in the NFL besides the Steelers and Ravens. But what are, what are the other coaches that you're going to bring to me that, okay, these are the guys, you know, Dan Quinn maybe is kind of building that around, but this is his second go round as head coach. [00:50:55] Speaker C: And let's, not, let's not forget Dan Quinn had who as his oc Kyle Shanahan. Who's he got now? Another good OC head coach, offensive guru Cleve Kingsbury. So. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Well, they're all kind of red teaming themselves right now. You know, it wasn't a good go around the first time around. [00:51:12] Speaker B: They are. I'm the bigger and larger point of this Rome is you bring in any person that's in a leadership position that has done these different jobs, you know, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, whatever it is, they have leadership capability there. Bringing in a retread hedge coach because he has head coaching experience that doesn't equal anything. The Bears did that with John Fox. He was a head coach at two different organizations. He was a nightmare in Chicago. And any of these other head coaches that have been retreads haven't been there. You look at the success in the Bears own division with O'Connell and LaFleur and heck, even Dan Campbell, that was his first shot at a head coaching job. He had the interim spot with Miami, but, you know, the. The retread head coach with experience isn't there. You guys got to have a guy who's coming in with a vision for what the program is going to be and has their own leadership qualities. Danny Perkins on FS1, you know, you're shaking your head on this. He did a great thing on the Bears. I won't go to the whole thing, but the. When the Bears fired Levy Smith and they hired Mark Tressman, who was a Canadian Football League head roast, this guy wrote a book on leadership, and he was absolute terrible as being a leader. So, you know, go with what you need. Chicago hire Ben Johnson. He showed you this weekend exactly why he should be the Bears next head coach. [00:52:29] Speaker A: All right. Anything else? [00:52:30] Speaker B: No. We'll talk about this like 10 more times before the end of the year. [00:52:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:52:34] Speaker C: I mean, I. I have a list of, like, we'll talk about another time, but about a list of six or seven legit ocs that should be possibly head coaching gigs coming up. [00:52:41] Speaker A: Cool. We can do a section on that in the future. Oh, I'm excited. Are we done with week 16, though? [00:52:49] Speaker C: I'm done with that. [00:52:50] Speaker B: I want to talk college. [00:52:51] Speaker A: All right, cool. Let's take a quick break. Time for a little college football. Round one in the books now. We're on to the quarterfinals with a Chick Fil A Bowl, Rose Bowl, Fiesta bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. We kicked things off last Friday with Jason's team, Notre Dame beating up on Indiana 2717. And then we followed that with Penn State beating up on SMU 38 10, Ohio State beating up on Tennessee 4217 and Texas beating up on Clemson 38 to 24. A lot of talk throughout the weekend about the blowouts, how they weren't even competitive. We went to a 12 team playoff format, and this is what we get. Like, are we really giving teams that don't really deserve to be in there in the playoffs? Definitely gives a lot more merit, I guess, to the record. Right? You want to look at the makeup of a team. So would. Would South Carolina make things more interesting in the playoff? Would Ole Miss make things more interesting. I was talking to someone like, oh, Alabama should have been there. I'm like, oh, Alabama still sucks. But would they make things more interesting than what these teams gave us this weekend? I thought Clemson made it a fight at the end of that one. I thought Tennessee just looked dead tired, overwhelmed. Smu more or less the same thing. Penn State came out rocking though. And Jason, if you want to start us off with Notre Dame and those and. And your thoughts on the first round. [00:54:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Before I start with Notre Dame, I, I do want to talk about everything you just said about the merit of these were all blowouts. Yes. If you go from an entertainment value of round one, hey, wasn't the best entertainment. The best thing was the opening shot of Notre Dame stadium. You know, the cold, frigid weather, the fans going crazy, you know, the environment that it was. The atmosphere of these games I think was awesome because it was in some home stadiums better than probably bowl games are going to be able to replicate when it's a 50, 50 split and it just doesn't have the same environment that a. That pro stadiums provided the bowl game. But to say like Kirk Herbstreak made this argument on ESPN the most. It was getting the most traction. Think about what he said and what you just said. Rome, does the record matter? Okay, so playing the game and wins and losses don't matter. It's what I'm looking at. Does this, does this team look better there? So a one loss team and what you call the major conference in the acc, okay, they look better because this other team, you know, it doesn't look as good because this other team in the SEC has a harder conference and potentially better. And that argument just. It bothers me because why have any of this stuff. If you just want an SEC tournament, then go to that and just have an SEC tournament and crown your champion. But I said this on the last pod about Tennessee. Do you want to bring Bama into this? Okay, Bama lost to Tennessee. So why is Bama in the tournament? Because Tennessee looked the worst out of anyone and got their ass kicked by Ohio State. So what gives Bama the right to be in this tournament if you're saying Indiana and SMU don't belong? Okay, tell me that South Carolina, okay, you were close with Clemson. Would you have done any better against Texas in this game? Because you were close with Clemson to the end of the game. So there's arguments to be made and maybe there's some improvement if you're talking about seating and things like that. So hey, Boise State maybe shouldn't have gotten the first round by, you know, and then maybe they're in a game against Indiana in the first round that it may be more competitive. But then you know what, maybe that gives you a blood in the second round and you're gonna be bitching about that at the end. So I don't know. A lot, a lot about this first round goes away and it was the same thing, I don't know, was it 10 years ago we went to the 14 playoff because for a while there, the first round of the four team playoff always sucked and it was getting us just to the national title game. That was the only competitive game of the 14 playoffs. So I don't know, a lot of conversation I heard on both the pundits on, you know, ESPN and all the other networks, even talking to friends of mine because, oh, X, Y and Z, you, you know, Tennessee was my proving point and they look terrible and they, you know, they spoke for the SEC of what all the teams worst in the SEC belong there. So spare me the arguments of all this other stuff. [00:57:48] Speaker A: I was, I was really excited for that game because the horseshoe, really cool view, lots of Tennessee fans there, the visor vibing and it just didn't hit. [00:58:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I want to jump on what Jason said. I mean, Clemson beating SMU is what really screwed Bama. I mean, Bama would have gotten in had SMU won because Clemson obviously wouldn't have gotten the automatic qualifier for winning the acc. But it goes back to last year where they screwed Florida State and said, oh, we don't have a quarterback. We don't think you deserve and can win. So let's not pitch you in. And now everybody, now everybody's coming out like, oh, this team's better than that team because they play in the sec and these guys only played three ranked teams versus these guys played six. And strength of schedule should be why you get in. Agree with what Jason said. If the SEC wants to have a best of eight tournament and do their own thing and have their own playoff and crown them, the kings of the south do it. I'm all for it. The Big Ten people want to know how good the conference is. Me and Jason said all year, Indiana, I want to see what they got against Ohio State. They got blown out. We said they were going to get blown out by Notre Dame. Wasn't a shocker to me. Smu, could they handle the cold? The quarterback threw what, two pick sixes? That seems to be a common theme this weekend. A lot of pick Sixes. Clemson was the one that showed up. They couldn't stop Texas on the ground. Texas ran for almost 300 yards. That was a difference in that game. But they put up a fight, got within seven. Texas got like a 60 yard TD run, came back down again, got stopped on fourth and goal or could have made that a seven point game. And then Ohio State, I've had them as one of the top two or three ranked teams in the country all year. Yeah, they lost the Rome's Michigan team because they played stupid. They finally did what they should have done against Michigan, against Tennessee and they blew them out. All they have to do is throw the ball. You got two first round NFL wide receivers. The best wide receiver in college football is a 19 year old. And Jeremiah Smith, you see what happens. He went against an NFL corner and he tore him up for two tds over the shoulder catches. And they're now I just look, they're favored to beat Oregon, Ohio State. So that's interesting when I just took a look at that line. But yeah, I mean Ole Miss, South Carolina, Alabama, sure could they have gotten in? But let's not forget guys, was it three weeks ago somebody named Oklahoma beat the shit out of Alabama. And that's not any worse than what we saw this weekend from real playoff teams. So don't give me this crap that Alabama should be in the playoff. They had their chance and they lost to a 5 and 7 Oklahoma team. Bad. [01:00:33] Speaker A: So what'd you think of Notre Dame? [01:00:39] Speaker B: Go ahead, Aaron. [01:00:42] Speaker C: I love what I saw from Notre Dame. I mean now they've got Georgia. We know Carson Beck is officially out. He just had his surgery done. I mean the real question could have been. I'll go back on this. Had Georgia lost that game to Texas and that their quarterback was out, you'd have to eliminate them from the playoff. I mean if you don't have a starting quarterback, you can't play in the playoff. The committee's already set that standard. Luckily for them, they got the automatic qualifier. But Notre Dame, Georgia, I mean Notre Dame crushed Indiana. I know Indiana got two garbage scores late, but that defense for Indiana is really good. Al golden, ironically was the story of the whole game since the last time a broadcast team not from NBC was there. Al golden was in the game with Penn State when they scored a game basically winning touchdown there over the Fighting Irish. But Notre Dame, they just, I know Jason probably would touch on it. They just lost one of their best linemen. He's out, knee injury. He won't be showing up For Georgia. Georgia's got the quarterback that's, you know, came in the second half against Texas but never played in the game in which he didn't have a three touchdown lead. Georgia's a slight favorite. It's a pick them game. That game can go anyway. But Notre Dame got, I like what I see from them. Run the ball. Riley Leonard, smart not throwing any turnovers. They're going to be tough. They're going to be tough out, man, for sure. [01:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Aaron brought up defensive lineman captain Riley Mills for the Irish is going to be out tough because that's where the Irish have improved so much when they, you know, have gone against Georgia before in some big games got, you know, they got blown out against Bama in some big games and it was always a criticism of, of Notre Dame is you don't have the guys in the trenches and now they, they really do have ones that can compete. We saw them early in the year against the Texas A and M team that's pretty stacked in the offensive defensive lines and this one's going to hurt a little bit. But you know, offensively Georgia hasn't been able to do much. They're really going to have to rely on etn, which they did in that SEC championship game. But Notre Dame's got, you know, a trick us to up their sleeves. Jeremiah Love, the 98 yard touchdown run really just broke Indiana at that point. Xavier Watts had the interception. That really kind of changed the momentum of the game because Indiana was probably poised to score there early in the first quarter. Watts got the interception, Love got the run and it was pretty much over at that point. Aaron mentioned the garbage touchdowns by Indiana at the end of the game. So huge win for Notre Dame. You know, hadn't had one of these big wins under Brian Kelly ever. This is really Marcus Freeman's kind of first signature win. I know people will downplay it because it's Indiana, but you're in this atmosphere now where it's the College Football Playoff now you're going up against a Georgia team that, hey, this is the best team in the country arguably for the last five years. And when you put it all together, they're down hurt a little bit themselves. But Notre Dame's got a real opportunity on this side of the bracket to potentially go to the national title game. We talked about a little bit a couple of weeks before it starts. Like I was a little, little upset of where Notre Dame was slotted at the seven seed, but it may turn out to be in their favor right now playing Indiana, a potentially banged up Georgia team that doesn't have their starting quarterback. And then you're saying a winner of a Penn State, Boise State game. You know, a lot of questions for both of those teams. So it's looking good for Notre Dame, but you know, albeit said Georgia is not an easy team. They beat Texas twice. They go to the, you know, the quote unquote gauntlet of the SEC and they got tons of skill position players as well. So I'm looking forward to the matchup and it'll be a real prove a game for Notre Dame. [01:04:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you gotta like where they're at in the bracket. As of now we can go in a deeper dive on the poll games either this Thursday or next Monday, but I'm going to be leaning towards Notre Dame and if they move on to the Orange Bowl, I think they'll probably face like a Penn State. Like Penn State actually looks really good. They looked really good against smu. They looked really good this year. They actually looked really solid, the best they ever looked. They got like an edge to them. So. But that'd be pretty exciting to see like two teams that have not gone past that last final hurdle face each other to get to that final stage. It'll be pretty exciting. Thoughts on the Penn State SMU game or you want to say something quick, Aaron? [01:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean these quarterfinal matchups that we got coming up. Yeah, they're going to be a lot closer. They're going to be a lot tighter. I know I see Penn State favored by double figures. I see Texas. These games are going to be a lot better. They're going to be a lot closer. They're going to be neutral site games. I don't know how you guys feel about it. I would like to see the higher C team host home games during the quarterfinals and then when you get to the final four get to the traditional bull sites or whatnot. But Boise State, Penn State is going to be an interesting one. Penn State, they've always been good under James Franklin. They just haven't been able to beat really Michigan and Ohio State and that still holds true this year. They didn't beat Oregon, they didn't beat Ohio State. Their defense is really good. They balled out against smu. SMU was out of their element. Used to playing at home in front of 32, 000 fans. Now you got a hundred thousand plus feels like 15 degrees against a legit Big Ten defense. They got overwhelmed. They just got overwhelmed, overmatched, fell behind early. I mean Penn State had was up 14 nothing and hadn't even got an offensive touchdown, hadn't even done anything on offense and you're down two scores, so. And then the SMU's defense just basically they welted because, hey, our offense ain't doing anything. So the defense doesn't want to tackle anybody when you're down that much. That's just how it goes. You want to get in the shower, get out of there. [01:06:29] Speaker A: Gather of 280 at the half, I think, right. [01:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah. It wasn't a great showing from smu and that was probably, I think, the linchpin for, you know, the negative on who was allowed into the playoffs. But Penn State looked really good. And that was the questions Aaron and I talked about was, was James Franklin in the big game? You know, some might argue was this a big game, but it was, hey, we're gonna, we're in a playoff era now. These are all big games. You need to show up because if SMU would have won, you know, it would have been all over James Franklin. I'm not doing it in a big game. So, you know, give credit where credit's due. I agree with you, Rome. This is a different looking Penn State team. You know, the last time I think I like the Penn State, like this was probably the Saquon Barkley era with Penn State. So they have the horses and they have, they have the best path to the national title game because, hey, smu, a Boise State team that people are going to have tons of questions on. They have the biggest or I guess second biggest spread here in the, in the second round. But you know, they have a, they have a, they have a unique path out of anyone where they're going to play. You know, a bunch of lower ranked, potentially teams to get to potential, to the, to the final Four. [01:07:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:07:35] Speaker A: With these football seasons now, like kind of being extended. I liked smu. I saw some of their games this year and they, and I thought they were definitely one of the better teams in the country and they deserve to be in the playoff. But that messy game against Clemson, they still get in. I just thought, I didn't think like so much that they didn't belong there. I just thought that Penn State actually just came out punching really well and judges blew him out. Yeah. [01:07:59] Speaker C: I mean, we also got to remember these are playoff games on the road in home stadiums. Yeah. [01:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:05] Speaker C: I mean, if smu, Penn State had played at a traditional bowl like Jason mentioned, where it's 40, 60, 50, 50 home ground, Penn State probably wins by 10, 14 points. Nobody thinks Much of it. But now you go out and freezing cold. You're not in a dome from Texas. You know, they're up north, 100,000 screaming fans. You never. Yeah, it's a different element when you're. [01:08:30] Speaker A: Competing for like a championship or like a playoffs. I, you know, it, it's like the vibes, the nerves, you know, when you haven't done it in a while or when you never done it. Even when you have done it right, it's still there. Penn State at least has some experience going against like those top dogs and have. And they were home. You're right, they do. [01:08:48] Speaker B: It'd be interesting. You look, if we look five to ten years from now, what these first round games and home sites and how. And how these games are different than once you get to the quarterfinals and semifinals that are going to be in neutral site football stadiums, these games are going to be a lot different. Especially if you continue to get northern teams hosting these first round games too. And hey, you're gonna take, you're gonna take all these teams to the south. Like a lot of people were on SMU in Tennessee of like, hey, you guys are, you're coming up north right now. Little bit of a different climate. We haven't played football in December in college and it's, you know, snowing and it's 20 degrees outside. So it's a different game now. You're going to go into, you know, 60 degrees out in California in the Rose bowl, you know, the Peach bowl, it's in a dome, The Fiesta Bowls in a dome, the Sugar Bowls in a dome. And so these are going to be all temperature controlled games that are going to be, hey, it's going to be fairly tight. The elements aren't in play. It's going to be neutral. 50, 50 crowds, you know, totally different games coming up. [01:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, when you look at it, the best game was the Clemson Texas game and they're down in Texas. It does get cold, but it's not frigid cold like in the north. It was nice. You got Matthew McConaughey 60 degrees at kickoff. [01:09:58] Speaker C: I mean that's nice compared to what it was. [01:10:01] Speaker A: They had Matthew McConaughey on the field, you know, in his, in his dope leather jacket and cowboy hat and all the celebrities. Those definitely a Hollywood scene out there. You guys want to touch on that? On that game or the other game or. [01:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah, Aaron mentioned Clemson was probably the most competitive out of all these games. More competitive than I thought because they got, you know, they got blown out by Georgia at the beginning of the season, you know, Texas played Georgia really well. If I'm looking for the comparisons across there. And then, you know, Clemson had some bad losses throughout. [01:10:37] Speaker A: You are really up on, on first impressions. Like I realized first season, first impressions. You will keep a first impression throughout the whole year. [01:10:45] Speaker B: 100. Especially in college because hey, these games mean so much. It's like that's what you're going to use, you know, on it, you know, except when it doesn't fit someone's argument on something. So. But you know, Clemson earned their way in doing it the old fashioned way. You win your conference. I mean we weren't on the air talking about this but nothing bothered me More in the 14 playoff era is that you have teams that don't win their conference allowed to play for the national championship. Like how does that make sense? You can't win your conference but you can be eligible for the national title in a 14 playoff. You know, that always never made sense to me. But hey, Clemson, they won the conference. You set these conferences up for a rule. You win a conference, you get in. Clemson did the dirty work in the ACC title game, but they just really weren't a match for Texas in this game. [01:11:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean Clemson showed the best. I mean it's, we talked about. It's going to go back to the argument of strength of schedule. The Clemson played better than the other teams because they played against a Georgia and a South Carolina and they were battled and battle tested. [01:11:43] Speaker A: Possibly so. [01:11:45] Speaker C: And they beat SMU on a neutral site. So you could argue they played, played a tough Louisville team that beat them pretty good at home. But Clemson played a very tough schedule. So that could have benefited him a lot compared to, you know, SMU or Indiana that, you know, didn't play as tough as schedule. We'll see, we'll see going forward how this goes out. [01:12:06] Speaker B: But can't say Tennessee though. They played that hard SEC schedule and you know, it didn't do anything for them. [01:12:12] Speaker C: Yeah, so. And then again, weather Jason mentioned you're playing in 15 degrees versus playing in Austin, 60, 55 degrees. It does, it does make a difference. Especially if college kids. Let's just be. These guys aren't pros. They're not, you know, and I, I would say Texas is one of the, you know, more finesse teams of the teams in the country. Not as physical as these big team teams are up north and physical. But yeah, I mean Clemson, they were getting work, they were getting blown out. Was it like, I forget what the score was 3114 at one time, whatever it was, and they rallied back, made it a game. Ewers didn't look great. The run game, they leaned heavily on that. I think they had 296 yards combined running. Texas did. Even Archie came in there, ran the ball a few times. They got an interesting battle of Arizona State coming up. We'll touch base on as we get, you know, later in the week or maybe Monday. But I think teams like Boise State and Arizona State are looking at how SMU did, and hopefully, and I doubt it. Texas and Penn State are taking these teams a little lightly because this is going to be motivation for, quote, unquote, Arizona State and Boise State that are like, oh, you guys are only in because your schedule was weak, your conference sucks, it's bulletin board material. Arizona State's had time to prep and prepare. The same with Boise State. They're gonna, they're gonna put up battles, and we're gonna have a lot of close games this New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. When those games come up on the. [01:13:45] Speaker A: Quarterfinals, that Texas matchup, Arizona State, that's kind of interesting because they're heavily favorites. Yeah, we have, We. We have two games with. With big point differentials. [01:13:55] Speaker C: Yeah, double. [01:13:56] Speaker A: Yeah, double digits. Arizona had a pretty good year, man, when they had their full starting lineup, their starting quarterback. They're undefeated. Like, I think their head coach made a pretty good, valid argument towards the end of the season for that. I feel like that might be, like, a potential really good game. [01:14:19] Speaker C: I'll say it now. I. I like Arizona State to cover. Yeah, I'm not saying they're gonna win, but they'll. They'll cover those two scores. They're gonna make that a battle. They're gonna make that a game against Texas. [01:14:30] Speaker A: I think so. [01:14:33] Speaker B: Yeah. I, I will lean. Lean. And agree with you guys on that. If you look at the 14 points it's up to right now, that's. It's a significant amount for a Texas team that yours is the starter. But I don't think any Texas fan, including Rome, is really sold that this guy's the answer on this. And you hear other people talking like, hey, Arch gives us the best chance to win, and we're starting yours at this point. [01:14:59] Speaker C: And does Texas kind of remind you of the Falcons and Kirk Cousins where he's winning, but not greatly? And you're like, ah, I got this guy in the wing that's, like, ready, but I don't know if he's ready. I don't know if he's ready for the playoff. Playoff moment yet. [01:15:14] Speaker A: There's definitely a comparison there. Analogy. I don't think the Falcons, the right one. Yours looked good last year and like he had a lot of potential. Heisman hopeful. Right. And he looked fine in the first half of the season. He got hurt. Archie Manning came in, looked really great. Right. Even. Even had better numbers. And then that. And yours doesn't look the same coming back like now. He's not going to be like a first round or like a round one quarterback, I don't think. Probably coming back to college. Right. For another year. We'll see. [01:15:43] Speaker C: Not at Texas. [01:15:44] Speaker A: Not at Texas. [01:15:45] Speaker B: I mean, he's gonna get in like 8, 10 million. [01:15:48] Speaker A: Is he graduating? [01:15:49] Speaker B: He's got a year of eligibility, I think still. And people are talking about him being in the portal for some team that's going to take that. Hey, graduate fifth year and do you. [01:15:58] Speaker A: Have to be at the Porter right now? [01:16:01] Speaker C: No, you. There's the window and for now just closed. But there's a spring window that opens back up. [01:16:07] Speaker A: Okay. [01:16:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:08] Speaker A: I still haven't learned all the rules. [01:16:10] Speaker C: The portal is really weird. [01:16:11] Speaker A: It's. They should really wait till after the bowl season. Like, I feel bad for some of these schools. I just lost like their backup or stars. Just looking for like a new opportunity next year. [01:16:21] Speaker C: I mean. Yeah, you've got Penn States, Penn State and Ohio State. They're both. Their backups are in the portal. [01:16:27] Speaker A: They bounced out. [01:16:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Stays quarterback left. Actually Ohio State through their quarterback out there for one play because the team, I guess, agreed to let him stay on the team while he still hasn't chosen another school yet. [01:16:38] Speaker A: So real quick, this is why I think Arizona State might be like a tough out, man. They had a tough loss to Texas Tech early in the year. Texas Tech was pillaging different, you know, teams and games throughout the year. They beat a really good Utah team in the middle of the season. They had a big win against Kansas State. They're also ranked. Big win against byu. Ranked. And then beat Iowa State, which was playing really good football. They actually played some really good games. Definitely more signature games than Texas. When I look at the schedules side to side. [01:17:17] Speaker B: It was down the stretch. We weren't really talking about Arizona State after they lost to Cincinnati. And then those, those final, call it, four games from Kansas State, byu, kind of Arizona and Iowa State. You know, that's what sealed it for them because they were on the fringe. BYU had come on high and Colorado was in that conversation. [01:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:17:38] Speaker B: And you know, they. They they put up big performances when they need it most. Down the stretch, the rifle, the underdogs, because Texas, hey, they were close to being the number one team in the country all, all year. But they have, they have question marks themselves, viewers being one of them. And, you know, it only takes, you know, a shaky first half offensively for Texas to get it worried. And it's a close game and anything can happen. [01:18:02] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, based off what we saw from Texas, if you're Arizona State, you're, you're working on run defense, gap defense. Right. I mean, you saw Texas wants to run the ball. They don't have a lot of confidence right now in the qb, so they're running the ball. That's what, that's where Clemson got beat. I mean, you can't give up 296 yards in a playoff game and expect a win. I don't care what, who you're playing, but, you know, let's jump into the other game. I mean, Ohio State, Rome. You've been saying Ryan Day should be gone. You got an apology for him this week on the pod because I, I mentioned it. Anytime Ohio State looks bad in the game, they've always bounced back in the. [01:18:40] Speaker A: Playoffs should be gone. [01:18:42] Speaker C: I, I thought you said he was, you know, already was packing his bags. He doesn't want to be there anymore. He's looking well. [01:18:48] Speaker A: That's the rumors. Yeah. You know, like, it's just like, it's just not a good environment. [01:18:55] Speaker C: It looked, it looks fun and exciting on a Saturday night. [01:18:58] Speaker A: All the coaches that run these programs, they typically have a different type of pedigree background building up other programs. He just kind of fell into this job, you know, so it's a lot of pressure. He has a young family. Those fans are rough. Dude, like, would you even want to stay if you're gonna hear you're gonna get fired every single year? [01:19:17] Speaker B: I guess. But it's a big time college football job. You mentioned his path is a little unorthodox. [01:19:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:22] Speaker B: You know, to be able to get where he's at. A lot of rumors were about he's. [01:19:26] Speaker A: Like becoming the coach of the Bears, about to get fired and becomes a head coach. Just, you don't. Just don't see it very often. [01:19:33] Speaker B: You don't. But, you know, a lot of people talked about recently with, with days like he's using this as a springboard to the NFL or different things like that. Regardless, Aaron and I talked about in the last pod, his offense versus Michigan and what Chip Kelly and him were doing. Versus Michigan and not utilizing those wide receivers as Aaron talked about before. And they got in there in that game versus Tennessee. You know, they had a great game against Oregon in Eugene earlier this year and they probably are rightly favored because Oregon barely got by in that moment. And that was the game that kind of crowned Oregon the number one team overall. Oregon kind of got screwed in the bracket, to be honest with you, is the number an undefeated team in the country. Having to play either Ohio State or Tennessee in the second round was a little bit unfair to them from a bracket perspective. But you know, Ryan Day can, you know, really shut up all his critics and defeat Oregon is the one who put him in this position. And then, you know, they. Then they have a potential favorable matchup in the next round depending on the Arizona, they're favored. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure they were favored going into Eugene earlier in the year, weren't they? [01:20:45] Speaker C: I have to look back at the line. It was either a pick them or a one point spread. It was very close. I mean, I'm not surprised. Ohio State's favorite here. Ohio State arguably might have been most people's preseason pick to win the national title. I believe they were mine. I had Ohio State winning title. I think I had Ohio State. [01:21:05] Speaker A: Tape. Ah, man, I have a lot of work to do. I have to go back to all these tapes here. [01:21:09] Speaker C: Go back to the tape. [01:21:09] Speaker B: It's all right. You don't even revisit. Just take what we said for a thing. This is who, this is who we picked. [01:21:14] Speaker C: You know, we, we admit when we were right and wrong. So I agree with Jason. I mean Oregon got no breaks here. I mean Ohio State, they would have beaten Michigan. This would have been, this would have been a Big Ten game. And then the loser of that would have been slotted in at the number five seed and he wouldn't have been seeing them until the semifinal or the finals. It just happen. Happened to be Michigan spoiled a lot of people's playoff brackets. The same holds true with Clemson beating smu and that's acc. Ryan Day. Will Howard had a great playoff game. I mean, we talked about it, Jason and I. You guys about. Will Chip Kelly open it up and let him do what he needs to do because Tennessee has a really good run. Defense didn't look. They didn't. Defense didn't look great against Ohio State. But Ohio State came out early, set the tone and got the ball to the wide receivers. I said, hey, if you're going to play legit NFL first round wide Receivers, Manto, man, one on one on the outside. You got to take chances, you got to take shots. Will Howard did, he delivered, played a great game. Can he deliver again in the Rose Bowl? Because he's going to need a similar performance against a much better overall structured defense and offensive unit that Oregon is. I mean, say what you want. I don't know if Oregon can run the table and go a perfect 16 0. It's never been done in college football. Team winning 16 games can be very difficult to beat Ohio State a second time. And then you're looking at the winner of Texas Arizona State next. The path for Oregon to get to the titles, a lot more difficult than some of these bottom teams that we talked about in Penn State, Notre Dame. [01:22:49] Speaker A: Etc, going forward, Oregon's fans travel really well. That's a nice journey down to Pasadena for them. At least I imagine they're going to have more fans there. So it might be a pseudo home game for them. [01:23:02] Speaker B: I don't know. This is a classic Rose bowl matchup. This is old school pack Pac 10, Big 10 football with Oregon, Ohio State. You know, Oregon, Ohio State's gone to this game many a times, and it'll be, it's the perfect venue, honestly, for this game. But hey, Phil is trying to buy, Phil Knight's trying to buy this national championship. You know, he, he spent all the money he could to bring in interior linemen both on the offensive, defensive side of the ball. You know, this is, this is, this will be a truly earned national title if they're able to go this route and win it. You, you brought up Will Howard. Aaron, I, I did want to share this. Well, well, Howard on Instagram got a little, little trending today. What he posted, what happened? Well, he's quoting some Game of Thrones, which I thought, uh, I was talking to my friend, friends about this. They thought it was a little, uh, a little too early to be quoting one of the best lines in TV history. [01:23:56] Speaker A: Let's pull it up. [01:23:57] Speaker B: But he posted on IG saying when people ask you what happened here, tell them the north remembers. Tell them winter came for the Volunteers. [01:24:05] Speaker C: Oh, I like that. That's just perfect, right? Hey, Merry Christmas, Tennessee. Merry Christmas. [01:24:14] Speaker B: So I, yeah, I thought it was great, but a couple of my friends of mine is like, man, I don't know in, in round one of the playoff, if you can use a line that great. But I, I, I thought well done by Will Howard. [01:24:25] Speaker C: I thought it was well done. Like you just said, Jason and I, if he beats Oregon, what's What does he have for the Ducks? Quack, quack. What's next? I. I gotta know. [01:24:33] Speaker B: Well, if he's doing top TV shows of all time, I would say he needs to do maybe like a Breaking Bad Line or maybe the Wire, you know, something, something good in there succession. You know, I, I don't know if you can tell him to off like Brian Cox, but that, you know, that'd be a good one. [01:24:48] Speaker C: That's if he was a national title. [01:24:51] Speaker B: Yep. [01:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah, we said that's a good classic question mark. Yeah, we said I was gonna be the big question mark for Ohio State was Howard and he delivered. It's nice. Cool. When are we gonna go over these games in more detail to pick out bar our picks? You want. Are we gonna do that Thursday or next Monday? [01:25:10] Speaker C: Those games are until what, Tuesday? Tuesday. Wednesday. [01:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:13] Speaker C: So I'd say next Monday. [01:25:14] Speaker A: All right, man. And then When's the championship? [01:25:20] Speaker C: 20Th on. Was that Martin Luther King Day? Right. [01:25:25] Speaker A: I liked when the championship was like. [01:25:27] Speaker C: January 9th, 8th, 10th. [01:25:30] Speaker A: It used to be January, whatever. Like, like that Monday the 6th and now it's the third week of January. That's crazy. [01:25:37] Speaker B: Well, it used to all be over on January 1st. It was new Year's Eve Bowl College football done. [01:25:43] Speaker A: I love college football on New Year's Day. Like and then they changed it like the last few years on New Year. On New Year's Eve. There's too many things going on on New Year's Eve. People are drinking, partying, there's other basketball games. I didn't like that move. [01:25:55] Speaker B: I disagree. I like going to my New Year's Eve party. You know, it's before you start the New Year's festivities. You got an early, you know, maybe like Was it a 4:30 game? And then you get, you know, that game ends around 7 or 8 o'clock and then you're into your ABC, NBC, you know, Ryan Seacrest, whoever hosting New Year's Eve coverage. I, I like, I like the New Year's Eve game. [01:26:18] Speaker A: You like watching that coverage? [01:26:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Who doesn't? [01:26:22] Speaker A: I don't. Aaron doesn't watch it. [01:26:24] Speaker C: I don't watch. [01:26:25] Speaker A: Celebrate holidays. [01:26:27] Speaker B: Listen, I'm, I'm old man, you know, just give me, give me, give me the, give me the tv, you know, coverage on there. [01:26:34] Speaker C: Check the phone and go, all right, three minutes till. And then I go outside, I just listen to some fireworks. [01:26:40] Speaker B: Okay. [01:26:42] Speaker A: I can't remember what year it was, but I was supposed to like be hanging out with Aaron and maybe I was at your house. Aaron and everyone at your house just knocked out. Like at 10:00. I'm like, what the. [01:26:55] Speaker C: It's on the New Year's Eve. [01:26:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. [01:26:58] Speaker C: I. I think I remember it, but I might have been knocked out. Was I knocked out too, or. [01:27:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I was just playing on the Xbox by myself all night. Looking outside of fireworks. I don't remember, man. [01:27:08] Speaker B: But if you're doing it right on the west coast, you just celebrate the East Coast. New year is at 9:00 and then, hey, it's over with, you know, that's a trick. [01:27:18] Speaker A: If you have kids, tell New year's it's at 9 o'clock, put them to bed, and then the adults get the party for the rest of the evening. [01:27:25] Speaker C: Are you gonna have your daughter on New Year's Eve? [01:27:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll be picking her up this week, have her for a week. Thinking about doing a little New Year's Eve party here. [01:27:38] Speaker B: That might be a strategic plan. His. Because if he gets blackout drunk, he just doesn't have to go anywhere. He's just within his own confines. [01:27:45] Speaker A: I'm gonna invite. [01:27:46] Speaker C: I gave him like three boxes of liquor. Have you opened those up yet? You guys started drinking those? [01:27:51] Speaker A: I haven't really been drinking since I got those. But the wines though, I did open up for like my sister. They're like just like old school, you know, Oaky chardonnays. Not my kind of deal, so. [01:28:04] Speaker C: But the ladies like to drink that in gossip, so it's all good. [01:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah, some cougar juice for sure. If I start dating 50 year olds again, I'll bust them out. [01:28:13] Speaker C: So. [01:28:17] Speaker A: All right. Anyways, any other comments on anything? [01:28:25] Speaker B: Well, I. I was going to bring this up my. My friend Thomas, I'm gonna cite him because he turned out to be wrong. Because I want to give him credit though. But he did. He texted me and my few friends in our group text today saying there is no sports tomorrow. [01:28:43] Speaker C: On Christmas Eve. [01:28:44] Speaker B: On Christmas Eve. [01:28:46] Speaker A: Why wouldn't they have sports on Christmas Eve? [01:28:48] Speaker B: Which was interesting. Now I have to tell you, I found one game in the United States, there is a college football game, the Hawaii bowl, okay? South Florida versus San Jose. However, that is the only American pro or college sport going on tomorrow is the Hawaii bowl at 5pm Pacific. [01:29:09] Speaker A: I gotta say, that's really stupid. [01:29:12] Speaker B: That's what that was our argument talking about when he said there was no games. I'm like, okay, there's got to be a game out there that's brilliant. [01:29:18] Speaker C: By the Hawaii Bowl. [01:29:20] Speaker B: 100%. But my question, though, as I, as I'm going to be known as the NBA hater of the pod. [01:29:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:26] Speaker B: The NBA. The NBA. The NBA is losing Christmas Day. Why the hell are they not owning Christmas Eve? [01:29:33] Speaker A: I, I, I started breaking down games. [01:29:35] Speaker C: On Christmas Eve would be smart. [01:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I started breaking down some stuff on the NBA, and Silver is just not a promoter guy. He's just not a promotions guy. They're up big time on the tv, scheduling. It's gonna bite them in the ass. It's gonna bite the whole league in the ass. I think eventually he's just not doing. [01:29:57] Speaker B: Anything different than from what David Stern did. What's, like, what's, what's changed? He's not promoting. [01:30:02] Speaker C: Well, let me ask you this. How do you feel about not starting the NBA and pushing it back until, like, say, Christmas or later? [01:30:11] Speaker A: I don't agree with the Christmas. I think that's too late. But I would like a December start because, you know, things are tailing down for football. I like watching basketball in December. And then once Christmas is, you know, you're three weeks in, you kind of get like some of those cobwebs off because you're not going to get all off in the, in the preseason. Watching basketball in the first few weeks is going to suck anyways. It's like watching baseball. Everyone's just kind of learning their positions, learning the teams gained the, the chemistry down. But once Christmas hits around, things are vibing. [01:30:38] Speaker B: But it's why the, but it's why it's so irrelevant. I mean, you mentioned the Christmas Day. That was Charles Barkley's argument, I think, this week. And yeah, I think it's smart. The problem is how much inventory you're giving away. Because if you start the NBA season on Christmas day, are you ending it in August? Which I guess you can, but then NBA players are never playing in the Olympics or internationally because that's when international schedule is. So you have a, you know, you have a global sports schedule that probably revolves around what the NBA is, and then now that's not feasible. [01:31:12] Speaker A: Well, they'll have to do what other leagues do where they pause a season halfway to do these international competitions. But these guys are making so much money, they'll never do that. [01:31:20] Speaker C: Well, even if you did do that and it goes into August now you're not finishing the season till October. Yeah, right. Yeah. Now you're, now you're having the NBA finals, let's say, on Halloween. Game seven on Halloween. [01:31:33] Speaker A: It wouldn't be. [01:31:33] Speaker C: That'd be hilarious. [01:31:35] Speaker B: Well, then you'd be, then you'd be baseball going up as the NFL and no one will be watching it anyways. And now it's your biggest games. You're not watching it. So that's, that's the tough argument to say. NBA needs to start then. I don't know how you ever give back games. That's the problem that all these sports league. That's why baseball won't shorten the season because TV networks want the inventory. So you're selling them this amount of games. [01:31:57] Speaker A: I don't mind all the games. It's just, you know, some of the points, like even like, like, like the trading deadline, they moved it up to combat like the NFL's. Whatever the NFL is gonna, The NFL. [01:32:10] Speaker B: Owns the calendar, so it's going to be tough regardless. And Charles Barkley is not wrong that the NBA is mostly irrelevant because of football during this time of the year. But you know, as, as not a watcher, I can't, I can say I didn't watch a ton of the NBA cup. That Rome, you don't like. But this thing in our generation probably will mean nothing. But you looked at, but you looked, you watched it and he looked at. LeBron won the first one, Giannis won the second one. And the guy you hate, Nick Wright, he made this point. So I'm gonna give him credit on it. This turns into something for a next generation that while it's not the biggest importance, it's something that maybe a great player needs to have on their resume that, hey, I won X amount of NBA titles. I also want to in the, the in season tournament. [01:32:52] Speaker A: I just try to do enough on X about that. [01:32:56] Speaker B: I don't hate leads that you put on there. [01:32:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't hate Nick Wright. I, I like him. I, I follow him a lot. It's just, I'm tired of his Chiefs look. [01:33:04] Speaker C: I think for the NBA, I, I would like to see the NBA cup just be like a tournament bracket, not have like groups where it's five teams, just say 32 teams based off last year's record. And you got two sides of the bracket, one through 16, all that and there's a single elimination be done. It'd be, it'd be more meaningful that you can say, hey, I actually won instead of like I won group C even though every team in group C sucked. And then I happened to win two games in Vegas. To me, it's not a big resume builder, you know, to say giannis won to LeBron. I mean. [01:33:38] Speaker B: Yeah, again, again, you Say this now, but you put, you put 10 years worth of these things, 15 years, and you're talking about. It's just, it's just, it's another thing on the resume. Like I, I'm, I'm a novice soccer watcher. Like, I really enjoy international soccer. I try to watch Premier League when I can. Like, I, I watch some Bundesliga, you know, stuff for, in, in Germany. So I don't know all the stuff for what's going on. But when you look at like a messy resume, like you know, Champions League, you know what titles he won in Spain, in La Liga with Barcelona, won the world Cap, international stuff, like you look at all these different trophies and resumes and stuff like that. In, in America, we don't care about that. But you, you think we're where this goes in the future about like winning different tournaments and competitions. We only care about the one big thing in American sports, which is something. But if you're going to generate interest, you need to have different things throughout the season. And if you start those things like the NBA cup, okay, now in a generation from now, they mean a little more. [01:34:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I know we went on a lot of tangents here, but the. [01:34:39] Speaker C: NBA and wouldn't that be the Olympics? I mean, to me the Olympics are way more important, winning that and winning gold than winning an NBA Cup. [01:34:47] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. [01:34:48] Speaker A: 100. [01:34:49] Speaker B: Right. The Olympics is there because it turned into something because of the Dream Team, but it's, it's just another thing. And I don't think it doesn't save the NBA, but hey, it gave some sort of interest. Like it may not be all positive pr, but hey, bright courts, a mini tournament, you know, accounts for the regular season. There was a little bit stakes, players were playing a little harder because there was some money on the line, you know, okay, cool, it's a little better. But you're never going to own the NFL. And I think college football, going back to our previous conversation, they were the big winner this year because I think there was, I mean, maybe the, the ratings could disprove of me. But on a personal note, I was much more invested in this college football season because Saturdays meant to me a little more. Because we're talking about, hey, 14 to 16 teams are vying for these spots to be a national title versus, hey, we're just waiting for two undefeated teams to lose a game. And what's going to be like a Final Four, you know, Final Two like before, like college football, I think is, is started taking more and more away from, because now, it's not just a regional thing in the south or in some of these football markets. There's some national. National play in big media markets where college football isn't always the top thing, like New York. People don't really, you know, talk about college football. They love, you know, the Yankees and the Knicks and these things like that, but college football has just taken more and more of being the main number two sport across the country. And that's what the NBA is going to have to compete again and fall into maybe a niche thing like. Like MLB and be okay with it. [01:36:19] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I agree with what you said, Jason. [01:36:21] Speaker A: I feel like it's a little more college football. [01:36:24] Speaker C: Yeah. College football expanding. Expanding the 12 teams is great because. Yeah, you just don't know who those teams are getting. I mean, if we had us pick four teams right now at the end of the year, who are the best four teams in, you're likely leaving Ohio State, Notre Dame or Penn State. Two of those three are likely out. They're not even playing for a championship. [01:36:43] Speaker A: And I'll actually think about that right now. [01:36:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And now if you actually look at the bracket, there's a really good chance that maybe two of those three are going to be in the final, or at least one, so. And what are we going to do when college football gets ballsy and says we want to pit a game on Christmas Day, a playoff game, because eventually may happen if the NFL decides to get off of it, if it's on like a Tuesday or whatever, it might end up being one of these days. So the NBA next year will be. [01:37:12] Speaker A: A Thursday. [01:37:14] Speaker C: And there'll be like three games on or two games on. So, yeah. [01:37:19] Speaker A: Back to NBA, though. They have a problem with promotions. They kind of tweaked a few things where they're not really putting the stars in front. They've done a poor job bringing out Giannis and all these other younger stars and putting them front and center. They're still parading out an old LeBron James, Steph Curry, all the stars that are phasing out, Kevin Durant this past summer, even. You know, it should have been more spotlight on Anthony Edwards on the younger stars. Jaw sga. It's just a big promotional thing that they definitely missed the mark. [01:37:56] Speaker B: Well, you say that, but those aren't the biggest stars. The biggest stars are European guys that in the history of sports marketing aren't necessarily the most popular because in America, we like the American star in boxing. [01:38:12] Speaker A: Would you say Nike has done a good job promoting Giannis So they done. [01:38:16] Speaker B: An okay job, but like, for the most part, like, we just don't. And I say we, as Americans, we want the American star. So you have Giannis, you have joke, you know, Joker, Anthony Edwards. Okay, but he goes early out in the first round and you talk about Ja. Is that the person you really want to, you want to support right now? [01:38:38] Speaker C: Well, not, yeah, not only that. What American young star has won a championship? [01:38:44] Speaker A: Well, they're still young. [01:38:46] Speaker C: Exactly. But they don't have any rings behind them. Jason just mentioned they go out early in the playoffs. I mean, I know Edwards got to the Western Conference finals. Yeah. But now Luke has been in an NBA Finals. Joker's been in an NBA Finals. And European stars, we don't mind a European star. They're usually just not, they don't have that funny kind of gravitude to you American culture, like, look at me. And they're funny and all that. Giannis is trying to kind of get there where he's kind of dancing at the, winning the trophy and winning MVP and trying to bring some humor to it. But they're usually just very camera shy and don't really say a whole lot and their English isn't great. So we're kind of like, I don't really care about the guy. [01:39:26] Speaker B: You know, like, Joker doesn't even want to play basketball. That's your, the most unstoppable force that you have in NBA right now is like, hey, I'm good at this. I'll play it to make money, but let me get back to Eastern Europe and for my horses. So I, I, I'm not disagreeing with you on the Adam Silver take, but I'm saying what are the stars that have stepped up? And this game is so global now in America, are we gonna actually gravitate to any of these international stars? Because historically we have not. [01:40:02] Speaker A: I think the NBA has done a poor job promoting their stars and being stuck on LeBron and Curry. [01:40:07] Speaker B: They're the ones that sell, and one of them's got to step up. It could be Anthony Edwards. But what are you going to do in the playoffs? And are you, are you going to take that next step? [01:40:15] Speaker A: He had a big run this past year. He did one Korean. [01:40:18] Speaker C: LeBron have eight titles combined and probably been in what, 16, 18 NBA Finals. I mean, the next big star, let's be realistic, is from France. It's wimby. [01:40:29] Speaker A: They were not promoting Jordan at his tail end of the career. When he was in the Wizards, they had him on TV, but they weren't putting on 35, you know, nationally televised games. [01:40:40] Speaker C: Well, the TV contracts are way different back then too. We weren't, we didn't have social media. We didn't have any of that stuff. [01:40:47] Speaker B: And then, and then you're talking about the stars they got at that time. Who was it? Was it AI and other guys like that that were coming in? Tracy McGrady. There was an influx of stars. [01:40:55] Speaker C: Kobe Shack. [01:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Who are the college stars that are coming out right now that you're going to be, you know, putting your. Put something behind? You know, I'll. At some point I'm going to bring you a couple of my friends on the pod that are huge college basketball stars and I mock them all the time because they, all they talk about is Kansas, North Carolina, Duke. I couldn't name a person on any of these teams. [01:41:14] Speaker C: The only one. [01:41:15] Speaker A: Cooper. [01:41:15] Speaker C: Cooper flag. [01:41:16] Speaker B: Cooper flag. Okay, I've heard, I've, I, I've heard of him. But how, how is that going to gravitate to the next thing when, hey, in the NBA, we're talking about the next three years, it'll be three dudes from France. [01:41:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, to your point, Rome. If Ant Edwards, let's say he gets to an NBA finals and beats Wimby in the next two, three years and that's your matchup, then you got your American star right there. [01:41:39] Speaker A: The reason why women's basketball has been blowing us because they've been promoting the other stars. [01:41:43] Speaker C: But in college, they're all American. Good old girl American white girl. Caitlin Clark, that's your star. [01:41:54] Speaker A: You guys are really simplifying the out of this. [01:41:57] Speaker C: It really is that simple. Sometimes, sometimes you can't make things too complicated. Sometimes stuff is black and white. It's a little bit of in between. But yeah, I'm gonna agree with Jason on this one. [01:42:11] Speaker A: All right, I'll be. That'll be a wrap then. Lines on Thursday for week 17. Is it week 17 already? [01:42:19] Speaker C: Week 17. [01:42:21] Speaker B: NFL before we go, do we want to talk about Christmas daylines? [01:42:25] Speaker C: We can just do those. Well, you can do those two games quick. [01:42:29] Speaker A: Sure. [01:42:30] Speaker B: It is your Steelers room against your favorite team besides the Steelers. The Kansas City Chiefs. [01:42:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it's my favorite team. Let's see. [01:42:48] Speaker C: Chiefs are favored by three over under 44. What is it I see? Chiefs are favored by three points and the over unders. 44 games in Pittsburgh and then you got the Texans or a five, five point underdog over under 46 and a half against the Ravens. [01:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I got. Well, I, I Just can't imagine the Steelers losing three games in a row. So I'm going with the Steelers. [01:43:31] Speaker B: Taking plus three. I assume. [01:43:35] Speaker C: He'S taking money line. He said he doesn't see him losing three in a row. [01:43:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm gonna take him straight up. [01:43:43] Speaker B: The over under Rome General that's your thing in the shortest of weeks. I think in NFL rest history this has got to be an under in both of these games. [01:43:54] Speaker A: Definitely agree. It's kind of tricky. 43 to have. I was like, oh man, this could be like a 24, 21 game. Watch it hits 45 points. But I would lean on the under right now. [01:44:09] Speaker B: The Chiefs I thought were gonna lose last week. It was kind of this stretch I was talking to right now. [01:44:15] Speaker A: It's the same story every week. Story of every week we thought we're gonna lose. [01:44:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I, I just don't know the end impact and in sight for the Chiefs. [01:44:24] Speaker A: Them and the Vikings have the best record in one win, one possession games or where the hell it is. [01:44:28] Speaker B: Yep. And I don't think this has changed. And at minus three I'd still take. Still take the Chiefs. [01:44:34] Speaker A: All right. [01:44:38] Speaker C: If Pickens and Troy Porter Jr play I like the Steelers plus three. I would take the plus three here. [01:44:49] Speaker A: Let's hope they're back. At least. [01:44:52] Speaker C: At least get Pickens back. Which sounds like he's. Sounds like he's leaning towards playing. [01:44:57] Speaker A: Yeah, he, he was like a night. [01:44:59] Speaker C: Before because I know you know when you play the Chiefs you're going to get a lot of man to man coverage. [01:45:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:45:03] Speaker C: So that gives you a chance. A lot of one on one balls and opens things up to get that run game going. [01:45:10] Speaker A: 10:00Am I'm at the be at my sister's. I think I'm going to my sister's for that. To go talk to her husband's family. The Ravens. Texans. Who you guys got. [01:45:26] Speaker B: Just after the physical matchup? I think same reason I was liking the Chiefs in that game. I think the Ravens five. It's five right now and it just seems like a lot of points to me. I'll take the Texans plus 5. [01:45:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm in agreeance. 5 seems like a lot. I know the Texans just lost Tank Dell. That was a horrific injury. [01:45:47] Speaker A: They've lost a lot of people this year. [01:45:49] Speaker C: You know him and Diggs out for the season now. But yeah, five points seems like a lot. I mean I know Baltimore can do a lot of damage but the Texans are still pretty solid. I would lean towards taking five points too. [01:46:06] Speaker A: Ravens play to Their competition, Texas play ugly. I need them to lose. I need the Ravens to lose. I'm taking Texans all the way. I'm taking money line. [01:46:19] Speaker B: A good reason as any. [01:46:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:46:21] Speaker A: As good a reason as any. [01:46:23] Speaker B: I'm gonna. I'm gonna caution to our listeners right now. Both of these games. These are both entertainment purposes only. [01:46:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I. I definitely know when I'm just going against my better judgment, I'm like, I don't give a. I will put my money down against the, you know, whoever I'm going against. [01:46:40] Speaker C: Yeah. As far as. From a betting standpoint. [01:46:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:46:43] Speaker C: I. I wouldn't feel confident either side. This would be one of those games where it's like you're looking for player props. [01:46:48] Speaker A: Like, these are stayways for me. [01:46:50] Speaker C: Can Derek. Does Derrick Henry get a touchdown, yes or no? Anytime. Touchdown. I would lean towards yes. [01:46:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Texas defense is banged up. [01:46:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Agree. Agree with Rome. These would be stay away games if we. If we were actually putting some currency on this. [01:47:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:08] Speaker B: Got feedback from listeners from our last pod, but we had a little bit of a rough week, so just want to make sure we're. We're guiding people in the right direction. [01:47:16] Speaker C: So I will say this. We are 10 this week with the packers on a Monday night, so we're starting the week off fresh. Hey, get that out there, man. [01:47:25] Speaker A: We've been really. We've been really good all year. It like week 16 was not our week. And. And that's okay. It was. It was a bad week. [01:47:34] Speaker C: Well, college games we hit. [01:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:37] Speaker C: You know, so maybe we're College football playoff goobers for this type of thing going forward. [01:47:44] Speaker B: Could be. I. We. We have to talk about the volume play you need to do for gambling. You have to take all of our games, and if we're hitting at the right clip of, you know, 60 or better, you know, we're making money for you entertainment purposes only. [01:48:00] Speaker A: Allegedly. Yeah. [01:48:02] Speaker C: 60. You're making a lot of money. Realistically. You gotta be. [01:48:06] Speaker A: Depends on the return. [01:48:08] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, you really want to be hitting at least because you can win 56 plus percent, which I'd say we're probably ballpark this last week. Not so great. [01:48:17] Speaker A: No. This one. [01:48:19] Speaker B: All right. [01:48:20] Speaker A: Definitely. [01:48:21] Speaker B: I got a tweet I want to leave Rome with right now. [01:48:23] Speaker A: All right. [01:48:24] Speaker B: Because I haven't. I haven't talked about the Bears as much, but I had saw this and thought this was another funny fault. [01:48:31] Speaker A: I burnt myself up. Burn myself. Burn myself. I burned myself out on Bears content on. On X and Instagram. [01:48:38] Speaker B: Well, the Problem is you. You brought that up before. I've poisoned your algorithm, probably. And your phone's listening. And your phone's listening to you when we record. So now it just pumps you nothing but Bears content. [01:48:49] Speaker A: You know what I do edit this without headphones. And it's loud. That's probably all the Google. [01:48:56] Speaker B: Everything's voiceless. It's just. It just hears me talking about the Bears. But no, this is a Bears tweet with some college football to it. I'll credit Chris Vanini if that's how you pronounce his last name. He's a senior writer at the Athletic. He said on act. He said on X. Have we considered that the Bears should make the NFL playoffs because their division is so much strong and wins and losses shouldn't matter as much? So, hey, the Bears should be the 7 seed because they have a tougher schedule. [01:49:24] Speaker A: Get the out of here. Get the. [01:49:30] Speaker B: That was a good tweet, man. [01:49:31] Speaker A: No, it is. It is. [01:49:33] Speaker B: The NFC north is the. Is the SEC of the NFL. [01:49:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you could argue that. [01:49:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I can argue. The AOC north sat. Cincinnati might get in the playoffs still. [01:49:51] Speaker B: Guys, pretty sure they already eliminated 14. [01:49:55] Speaker A: Chance of getting in. [01:49:57] Speaker C: They have to beat Denver. They have to have Denver lose out and they have to win out. [01:50:01] Speaker A: Yep. [01:50:02] Speaker C: And they played Denver this week. [01:50:03] Speaker A: I think Denver's has to lose one more game. Right? [01:50:06] Speaker C: Denver has to lose both. [01:50:08] Speaker A: Both. [01:50:08] Speaker C: Yeah, because they already got nine wins. The Bengals can only get the nine wins. [01:50:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Right. [01:50:18] Speaker C: So they have to lose. So you. If you want the Bengals to get into the playoffs, Rome, you need the. You need the Steelers to beat the Chiefs because if the Chiefs win, they clinch the one seed and they won't play any of their starters against Broncos. Theoretically, they don't have to. And then Denver would probably win, but if they lose and Buffalo wins, they'd have to go and win that game to assure themselves of a one seed. [01:50:44] Speaker A: I love it. Denver's visiting Cincy on Saturday. [01:50:46] Speaker C: Your Steelers basically hold the fate of the Bengals and they end the season with them too. Ironically, the Steelers are. You're basically rooting for the Steelers to not do great and do great to get your Bengals in the playoffs. Rome, you're like. You're like at a cross between two lovers right here. Who do you choose? [01:51:09] Speaker A: I'm always gonna choose my Steelers. I do like Joe Burrow. It'll be nice to see him in the playoffs. I trust them to make noise in the playoffs and then Russell in the playoffs. That's for sure we're all banged up. All right, this is a long pod, guys. Hang it up. Merry Christmas, everybody, and Happy Festivus for the rest of us. [01:51:38] Speaker B: For the rest of us.