[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: To be jolly football this past Sunday was hit or miss. I don't know about you guys, but Sunday morning was kind of ugly. Lots of bad quarterback play. Afternoon games killed it. I watched four of the five, except for the Cardinals game. And then Monday night, we predicted it last week. It was just gonna be a couple bad games. And I was driving up, back from la up to San Francisco. By the way, we're recording Monday night after the doubleheader and they were far less entertaining. I caught the first half of the Bears Vikings game.
Bears had a chance, you know, they missed out on a fourth down conversion, then had a bad turnover. Miss out on six points in the first half. Vikings were up 13. Oh, and then Falcons, Raiders.
I don't even know. Ritter looked kind of like he was moving the ball a bit. Had some decent runs, covered some plays, ran for a few first downs. They finally got some field goals. But you know, after that, after the first half, it was like nothing much going on. That was an ugly game as well. Which game you guys want to tackle first on the Monday Night Football recap?
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Might as well touch on Jason's Bears. Man, let's get out of the way.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Cool. Bears beat down 30 to 12.
Thoughts?
[00:01:31] Speaker A: I mean, it's just funny. It's just funny at this point. Week to week, two weeks in a row, they've done basically nothing on offense. I mean, it's been two weeks, right, Aaron? I'm not dreaming. I just saw them in Santa Clara last weekend. Put up four yards in the first half.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: That's correct. Yeah, they got more yards. They got nine and a half on the first drive of this game.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Okay, well, it doubled the output on one drive, I guess. But still didn't, still didn't get a first down, I think, until in the third quarter at some point. I think Troy Aikman throughout. There were 1 for 20 on third down at some point in this game.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Really?
[00:02:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, I think one for 12, but maybe one for their last 20 dating back to last week's game. Something around there.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Cause I know they're like what? They were over 0 for 9 and they're on third and fourth down conversions the first half. At least I saw that.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: I think they finished the game like 1 for 11. They showed Minnesota was like 7 for 13 whenever they're showing like the final stats. Yeah, I was watching both games so I didn't pay too much attention to it.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: They look brutal on offense. Any Bears fan that has watched this team for their entire lifetime, this is generally the offensive output that you generally see when you watch a Bears game. But this was supposed to be different this year. Oh, it's pretty bad.
Well, it's, it's hilarious to me that people think, like, this isn't what I watch every Sunday, you know, forever. It's just more eyes were on this team this year because, hey, we put a bunch of good wide receivers out there. We got the top overall pick in a quarterback. This was supposed to be different and it's. No, it's just the same.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, what makes it worse is like Jason said, I mean, they've got weapons on the outside running backs. Your offense should not be this, this bad. Week to week.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: They look really bad now. That's like what, five weeks out of the past six or something like that?
Like horrendous or maybe. No, they've lost eight in a row.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: Right.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: But they showed up for what, for two or three of those? I guess.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: So the division games are right there. But it was the end of Eber flu and how they blew the end of those games, that was, that was the hot stretch where they were competitive against, you know, three, three of the best teams in the league. But offensively they've gotten worse the last two games since Thomas Brown took over as head coach when there was, you know, some light put on the offense, when he took over his offensive coordinator, when they made the move away from Shane Waldron. But when he took over his head coach, now the offense has gotten even worse. Caleb looks exhausted out there. He's running for his life. He's not, he's not doing anything from a decision making standpoint. They were talking on the broadcast of, you know, missing throws, missing receivers, not getting the ball out fast enough in certain, in certain play sets. It's overall bad. The season's over. Caleb still needs to get the reps because that's what, you know, that's what you need from a rookie quarterback. You need in game reps. But the offensive line is not protecting him in front. The Bears best offensive lineman, right tackle Darnell Wright, like whiffed on a guy, you know, towards the end of the end of the game that allowed an easy sack on Caleb. So it's just bad. But to me, we argued about this off the air before. As we came on it more exposes that the Bears need a guy who's going to come and fix the offense as the head coach and put some, put something behind this. You can hire a defensive coordinator that can maintain the status quo or make some upgrades Here and there. But there needs to be an offensive focus from this team and what they've looked like the entire season for the most part, but particularly in these last couple weeks and how bad they are. There needs to be a complete reset and an offensive, you know, minded head coach that really understands, you know, how to get the most out of what the players have. Because Rome's take a culture guy is going to come and fix this offense.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah, you guys have no culture, man. But I, I, I want to talk more about the Minnesota Vikings because now they're 12 and two, man, they're right on the Lions asses. I would not expect them to be at this, you know, at this juncture like this. Good. Sam Darnold came a little bit back to earth on this game. Not impressive at all, but has some, you know, some decent plays throughout. But 12, two, man, they got solid defense, they got weapons at wide receiver. Solid run game. Darnold Top 5 in most statistical categories for a quarterback.
Is this a legitimist rule contender? Like they're gonna probably make some noise, right?
[00:05:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, looking at it, I mean, we'll touch base on Detroit, but Detroit's done. To me, they just got too many injuries going forward. But yeah, Minnesota, as long as Sam Darnold's not turning the ball over, they're legit. Yeah, I mean they had a rough stretch there where he was throwing two, three interceptions a game and beat some bad teams, like you know, four that.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Was like 14 and nine, week six to like week 10, something like that.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: Yeah, they struggle. They beat like, you know, Jacksonville, they had the game in London against the Jets. They had a few games there were, and it came down to red zone. It was red zone interceptions in the end zone that was really hurting them from getting points. Yeah, but the last five games, I mean, I know he threw an interception today, but the last five games he's been money. The run game was pretty good today. Like you mentioned Rome, they got weapons at wide out. The tight end is back. They, they've got plenty of play callers, two players and then with the play caller, Kevin O'Connell, like this team is legit.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: How legit you guys think they are? Either you guys, they're the top three.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Team in the nfc.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with Aaron on that. Especially with Detroit where they're, they're not gonna be able to stay healthy and things are piling up at this point. Defensively, Detroit's questionable. We're talking that more in the later in the pod. Sam Darnold you know, a lot of praise over what he's done this season. But Rome, you're right, he's looked shaky in a lot of games. If you look at statistically where he's at, 28 touchdowns has been a big thing, but the 10 interceptions and you look at his overall QBR, he's 14th in the league. So he's right around probably where you need him to be. He's about mid pack quarterback. They got the weapons on the outside when they need it. In this game particularly, were the Vikings should have had a bigger lead at halftime. Let's just be honest, I think so. They should have been up. They should have been up. So if you blame that on Sam Darnold, you can. But in the second half, when they needed the running game, they really got that going with Aaron Jones as they kind of wore down the Bears defense throughout the time. So there's, there's a philosophy that Kevin O'Connell puts on this team because early on you see, why is Sam Darnold throwing the ball so much? Because he had 40 attempts in this game, so he's putting the ball up a lot. But when they need to, they can get something out of the running game with Aaron Jones and it's very strategic at certain parts of the game. In the couple Vikings games I've watched where it's late in the game, the defense gets worn down. Hey, this is going to be a good running driver. We're just going to wear the opposing defense down. So some of this stuff has been too close to call. I mean, when they get against the Eagles team, you know, could they compete against Saquon Barkley in the running game and what that team can do up front from a younger defensive line that the Vikings have. But yeah, Aaron's right. Top three team in the nfc and with Detroit kind of falling back a little bit with all these injuries, you know, they have a real opportunity in the nfc.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I want to talk about Sam Darnold. The fact that Minnesota and Kevin O'Connell, they have faith on this guy Jason just, just Jason Mission. They threw the ball 40 times. Even when he was throwing a lot of interceptions, they kept throwing the ball. It wasn't like if you watch the Falcons game, they have no confidence in Kirk Cousins, like the Kirk Cousins. I don't know why they just don't bench them now. I mean, they will not throw the ball. Run first down, run second down, and they, they cross their fingers and hope to God he doesn't throw an interception on third down when they have to throw the ball because. But if you look at Minnesota, they have not lost faith in confidence. And Darnold, even though he's had a couple rough games, that's their guy. You know, that's the key. I mean, they've got, you know, Jordan, Addison, Jefferson on the outside. They're going to be a threats going down the field. I mean Philadelphia, they're clearly going to be in the mix and that, that defense is really, really good. And you see what happens when you don't have a receiver that can threaten the defense. Ask the Steelers. You're not going to move the against them. So if you don't have a vertical passing game, which Minnesota does, you're going to struggle against these elite defenses. So obviously the Vikings, I, I give him a shot. Sam Darnold wouldn't be my top pick, but you know, he's balling right now. So let's see what happens.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Addison, particularly the past maybe four or five games, really has come on. So as teams have clued in on Justin Jefferson a little more shading the safety over the top, wherever Jefferson's in the formation, they've gotten the most out of Addison. I think last game he had 12 targets. So the ability to get another receiver involved but still get Justin Jefferson, you know what he needs to make some dynamic plays. Sam Darnold's going to throw the needle and you know, make some, make some big plays and try to get these guys the ball. There was a, there was a pass, I think it was the end of the third quarter, you know, to get them to the one yard line to Jefferson that was just a laser. That was a very, you know, have been a risky throw. You thought too, but he threaded the needle, got the ball there. When you look at the, the Bears Vikings game, I look quarterback to quarterback with Darnold and Caleb, Caleb almost looks like he's afraid to throw the ball in certain windows to turn the ball over because he's, he's not turning over the ball. That's been like, I guess the positive of the Caleb Williams experience, but at the same time he's not. But at the same time he's not taking any risks. And so we can talk about Sam Darnold's bad interceptions, but they believe in the guy and they want him to, hey, let's get the ball downfield. Let's put it in some windows to get the playmakers involved, to make some plays so the offense can do stuff. So I mean there's obviously a risk and reward to that, but so Far it's been all reward for the Vikings.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: I know you mentioned you had Darnold somewhere in the middle of the pass rating. I actually have him at number three, right behind Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff, then Sam Darnold and Joe Burrow and Josh Allen.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Top five I was looking at QBR. Rating was 61 point. So QBR, 61.1, I think.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Quarterback rating, I have them at 69.8 QBR. That's third.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Okay, but I'm
[email protected] but.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Other game, Raiders.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Rough. I mean, were they broadcasting this game anywhere on.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Was it. I guess it was the ESPN or ESPN plus. I mean, yeah, Raiders.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: No, it was actually an ESPN for me. I'd go to ABC for the Vikings.
[00:12:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that's how it was here. ABC was Vikings, Bears, espn. ESPN plus was Raiders, Falcons. Yeah, I mean, Raiders quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. That's going to be the talk about all off season. Where are they going to finish up? I mean, we've mentioned this before. You know, there's no, there's no incentive for the Raiders to win if they want to get that number one top pick and make it Shadir Sanders, if that's where they want to go.
You know, Desmond Ritter, that was rough. It was a bad, bad performance by a quarterback. It's. It's amazing to me that the Falcons, who doesn't get enough credit for the turnaround with the Steelers offense, but Arthur Smith, for him to win seven, eight games with that guy at quarterback and get fire him, that. That's, that's a fireball offense of myself by a GM because I mean, Desmond Ritter was terrible.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Ritter had a bad performance, but I, I don't think it was the.
I got like 10 worst performances that were this past Sunday. It was a bad Sunday for quarterbacks all throughout.
It was ugly. The owner's sitting in the box with his hot girlfriend.
Is Pierce gonna stay or not? He had a really interesting halftime interview and I just saw like, are we watching the same game? It was a really interesting answer. He was talking about how they were moving the ball pretty well. But at this time, I think it was at the end of the first quarter, they only had 29 yards or something like that.
And he said that they were moving the, the ball pretty well. It wasn't until after the first quarter, the second quarter, they got it moving a little bit. They got that field goal. But other than that, though. Oh, and that safety, that was pretty ugly too.
I don't know. It was just bad all around.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I was, I Always posed this question.
We'll probably spend a ton of time on these other games but I was posed this question earlier today. Worst position going forward in the off season. As we talk about the Raiders, the Titans, the Panthers or the Giants.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: What. What is that again?
[00:14:31] Speaker A: So who. Which NFL team is in the worst position right now? Raiders, Titans, Panthers, Giants.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: I think it is.
I think it's a tie for the Raiders and the Titans. At least the Giants still have some players both sides of the ball. Good O line. Panthers, besides this pass game, they've been kind of turning the corner as well. They got some talent.
I don't know that's.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: I would, I would lean towards Raiders because I think all the other teams have talent. Better talent everywhere. At least the Titans, they got Pollard, they got Ridley.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: They do.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: Their defense is good. They're just. They don't have Will. Levis is a turnover machine. That's their problem.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: So many interceptions this week.
[00:15:17] Speaker C: Panthers. I mean they look bad this week. It was. But before that the last month they've looked really good. I mean honestly, I haven't seen the best of Raiders ever looked is against the Chiefs of all teams and outside of that they've. They've been pretty bad.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Talent wise. I was kind of thinking about this.
The Raiders really have. They have Crosby and they got Bowers and then what's the other kind of talent that they're really bringing to the table at this point to make an attractive position? How are you going to surround, you know, a young quarterback you bring in with. With some talent? The Giants feel bad but then they do have neighbors, they do have Tracy. So there's at least some building blocks offensively guys.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: That you can speak to if you. If you're able to bring in a quarterback there. But I don't know, it was just interesting. I was talking to a friend about that and asked those four teams, only one of those I guess has really has their quarterback of the future with Bryce Young. But the other three probably still searching. I would love the Titans to keep throwing Levis out there because he's. He's comedy on a Sunday most of the time.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: So Falcons are 7 and 7 right now. They got the Giants next, then the Commanders and then the Panthers.
They need the Buccaneers to lose as well. Do you like their chances to make up the ground and take the division and simply.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: I don't. I mean this team has no confidence as you can see in Kirk Cousins. I mean Kirk Cousins threw an interception. They literally handed the ball off ABC and punted. That was their game plan because they knew the Raiders couldn't score. I mean, the Raiders had anywhere of a decent offense today, they likely come back and win this game or at least make it a little more tighter than it was. But Kirk Cousins, his confidence looks shot. The play calling in him looks shot.
They're still, you know, in it. But Tampa Bay is looking really, really strong. And the weapon they put on the Chargers this weekend was impressive. Tampa was done. They had injuries to all their guys. Think now they're getting healthy now they're pretty much healthy. Atlanta. Didn't Atlanta have like a three game lead on them, Jason? Something like that?
[00:17:26] Speaker B: It was two or three.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think it was two or three. I don't. But yeah, at one point they lost force that four straight in the middle of the season, including that second loss to the Falcons where they lost the double. The, the head to head. It's really why the Bucks need to kind of go where they're at, because they do if they, if they fall back, if the Falcons were somehow able to win out. The Falcons own the tiebreaker in the division, but both teams have pretty favorable schedules. The Falcons probably edge a slightly harder schedule because they got to play the commanders while the Buccaneers end with Dallas, Carolina and New Orleans. So the Buccaneers got three teams that they should beat up on offensively to probably win out at this point.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah, the Bucks, man, that was a big fucking win. They dominated it. It was pretty close in the first half. They kind of separated themselves in the second. Who'd you guys have winning this one?
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Chargers. I believe we both have Chargers.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:18:28] Speaker C: I mean, I'm not surprised Tampa won the fashion in which they won. Yeah, like you mentioned, Romeo, 1713 chargers, but over and just Baker, Mike Evans, they got it going. Bucky with a running game and Chargers just, they were able to hit.
They were able to hit the Chargers pretty hard during the second half and the Chargers just couldn't get anything going offensively. Just, you know.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Well, Herbert was injured too. He kind of looked a little slow.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: Yeah, he came in banged up. They blitzed him and hit him a couple times. So they, they did what they had to do. They were aggressive, got the Chargers off their mark and got some big plays in the past game and took advantage.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Yeah, defensively I was kind of shocked for the Chargers because Harbaugh's really kept this defense where they've kept a lot of these games super close, even when the offense wasn't clicking like it had in the past early in the season. So for them to get blown out as bad as they did, it was kind of surprising for me.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: It was a nice one. It kind of puts more pressure, I think. The Chargers face the Broncos this Thursday. Right.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: Thursday night at SoFi.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: At SoFi. So that's, that's a lot on the table now. It's a must win for them.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: I mean. Yeah, well they've got to basically win one of their final three games here. As long as the Colts don't win out. The Colts are the only team right now that's two games back. If they both have the same record, the Colts would get in because I guess strength of schedule.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Well, the Colts look bad in the last game. It was pretty bad.
[00:20:00] Speaker C: But the Colts, they have a lot of winnable games here. Tennessee at New York Giants and then Jacksonville. So. But the Chargers also have Denver but then finish with New England and Vegas. So we'll see.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Not bad.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: A win Thursday night in the Chargers for sure will be in the playoffs.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Besides the chart or the, the Bucks big win.
Bills obviously. That really stuck out for me. Packers came out and played, put a beating on the Seahawks and they took, took some lookings. I think Smith got banged up a little bit. And then Jazz surprising win. That was kind of nice to see. That was a nice prediction for me. Nothing really sticks out though from, from this past weekend. Texans. Although they beat the Dolphins, they don't look very good in my opinion. A little regression but you know they'd have a tougher schedule this year.
Commanders lucked out and escaped with the victory against the Saints. 2019. Something funky happened at the end of the game. I think it was like some weird clock management where like the time like the clock froze at like 4 seconds for like 9 seconds or something like that. Was that it?
[00:21:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess the referee stopped the clock at nine seconds so a couple seconds should have winded off the clock.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Game should have been over and Saint still had another chance to score.
That was odd.
But yeah, those really stuck out Ravens ass beating. We were talking about that spread and they definitely covered.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Definitely covered.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: They definitely covered out of this past weekend. Who's feeling really confident coming down the stretch? Like obviously Rams, they're just trying to look like they're going to be like a team you don't want to face in the playoffs. I would put the Buccaneers on that as well.
I don't know what to expect from the Texas right now.
Bengals still alive but they're not going to make it. But they got a much needed win. Ravens looked really good of course they beat on hapless Giants. They kind of look like they've quit on their coach. So I don't even know if Dayball's going to stick around anymore. Based on the way they've been playing like the last three weeks, they've been looking really, really bad.
Cowboys Showing up for McCarthy again, the Panthers winning. I think. I think a couple of us had the Panthers winning this weekend, right? Yeah, we all like finally.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: Yeah, we all like the Panthers, but.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: I was worried about that because the Cowboys have been playing pretty tough.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Well, they finally were getting CD the ball, you know, a ton in that game where just wasn't I get. I mean maybe they just couldn't get him the ball without Dak being in the lineup but you know, they were able to do something offensively.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: It was a funny stat. Someone put like Cooper Rush's stats for the, for the season against Dak Prescott. Yeah, it definitely has a lot more touchdowns to. Well, I think Cooper Russia got a.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: 51 career record on the road as a starter. I think the key for Dallas in that game was they were able to get the run game going and as Jason mentioned, get that run game going and then one on one coverage we're hitting CD Lamb and then their defensive line just dominated Carolina's offensive line.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: I didn't catch the end of that game. Like what.
What happened.
[00:23:10] Speaker C: Run game, CD Lamb and Cowboys D line dominating. That pretty much would sum it up for me. Yeah.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: I mean that was just part of the terrible early slate of games. So blended together.
[00:23:21] Speaker C: Jets Jaguars was an entertaining game. Devontaine Rogers hooking up for 200 yards and a couple TDs.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Mac. Mac Jones had some swag in that game too. There he was. He was feeling himself.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: I like the Jets Jags. I did catch most of that.
Not sure I can't remember the. The morning time was just like a big headache and so I ended up building gingerbread houses. My daughter while watching football that took a lot of the time and then came back and watched the afternoon games without any interruption.
Let's go to the Bills Lions real quick. Lions one of the best teams in the NFL this year. They've already taken an ass whooping on defense. I think 11 guys have been on the injured on the IR. They've been replenishing that team on. On that side of the ball all throughout the season. They've lost what both their cornerbacks and then someone else maybe what the defensive tackle off of the season. So I think finally now I'm just thinking like dude, like, that's like, that's way too much. Like, how are they gonna overcome this? They can still ball, obviously. 42 points. Golf. So weird. They lose a game where he throw or they win a game when he throws five interceptions. They win a game when he has five touchdowns. But they're going against like Superman and, and Josh Allen, who I think, dude, he's just like playing lights out, like phenomenal. Bills are dangerous. I, I know, I know. They don't have like a favorable record against playoff teams right now. I think they're like, they're two and three, but they've beaten up on teams when they, when they should have. And Detroit. I don't know what to make. I don't know what to make of this team anymore because their defensive side is.
I don't know. What do you guys think?
[00:24:59] Speaker A: Well, they're really going to lose a lot in the running game if David Montgomery's out, which it looks like he.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Is for the rest.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So now they got to rely on Jamar Gibbs. But I mean, some people think Gibbs should just be the total back to begin with. But I do think there's a dynamic when you have both of them in the, in the lineup where for, you know, a guy with Montgomery who could hit it up the middle, wear down the defense and then have some game breaking speed with Gibbs. So, you know, there's definitely something missing there. But we keep speaking to the defense. It's going to be very difficult without them having any sort of pass rush, any sort of interior, you know, defensive line to be able to stop like Saquon Barkley or to have a healthy defensive backs are to go up against Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison if they're going to play the Vikings. So the Lions are a little bit of a hurt, you know, if. But at the same time, you know, they've persevered to a degree. They had on a huge winning streak going into this, but it's going to be tough for them to get the first round by is they're going to play the Vikings here, you know, Coming.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Last game of the year. They have the Night Niners before that. At least they get to play the Bears next weekend. So that's kind of like a good sign.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: But it's basically a bye week for the Lions, so they got that. So it's going to be. It's super tight at the top of the nfc, so we're talking tiebreaker stuff here as you get to the end. And this is, this is where health comes into play. And a lot of times in the NFL, it's, it's. Who's healthier at the end of the year with a lot of the key parts of the lineup. And this is really going to hurt Detroit on the bill side.
Aaron and I questioned them at the beginning of the year, but when they came out of the gates really strong, we've all really been behind what they've, what they've done. You know, a tough, tough loss to the Rams a week prior and them going west coast back to Buffalo and then going to Detroit and coming out and putting some out in this game. You know, they have basically the cake schedule down the step, the, down the stretch. They got to play two games against the Patriots and one against the Jets. So theoretically they should win all three, finish at like a 143 record. The.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: You talking about?
[00:27:05] Speaker A: I'm talking about the Bills.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Excuse me.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Yeah, so they have super, super, super favorable schedule. And then you go against the Chiefs, who, you know, they needed to lose two games. Chiefs got, the Chiefs got some losable games, although they just don't want to lose.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: They don't want to lose. No.
[00:27:20] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, Mahomes we didn't even mention he got hurt. Who knows if he'll play on the short week. That's a Saturday game.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: I guess I'm out.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: They're saying high ankle sprain.
[00:27:31] Speaker C: So high ankle sprains, usually three to four weeks minimum.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And they play, you know, they play Saturday and then they play the Christmas Day game.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: Three games in 10 days.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: And their three games are Houston at Pittsburgh at Denver. Yeah, that's a tough stretch given that stretch. And like Jason just mentioned, the Bills get New England twice in the Jets. I mean.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Oh, thank God. That's good.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: I mean. Yeah, it's a Bills fan. You got to be looking good.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: I, I'm, I'm rooting for the Bills and they, I want them to get the first round by. Because it should run. It should run through Orchard park in the snow in general.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: I love that. I would love that.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: That to me, that's the Bill's path. I don't want them to have to go to Arrowhead. They should win this game in, in Buffalo if they're able to have the ASC championship showdown.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: I mean, I'm touching base on Detroit. Romy mentioned. I mean, the defensive pieces, they've lost.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I did want to come back.
[00:28:32] Speaker C: Because the best defensive tackle out for the year now ACL terror. Their best cornerback, Davis gone fractured broken jaw. He's done another cornerback Ran into another defender, broke his foot, leg, ankle, whatever it is done. 13 guys I believe came in on IR. Now they got all these guys.
Yeah, now you. Now it's 16, whatever it is now.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: So I was gonna ask you guys like, how do you guys feel confident about Detroit winning out versus the Vikings for that division? Vikings do play the Seahawks next. That's not an easy win by any stress. The Seahawks have been playing good. Whether Geno Smith's gonna be healthy, that's another question. They play against the packers right after Christmas and then they end on the Lions at the Lions after New Year. And then the Lions, if you guys want to pull out their schedule real.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Quick, the Lions got to play the Bears at Soldier Field. Then they go out to you Rome in Santa Clara versus the Niners. I do want to catch that and, and Verseman. So. So the Lions are playing a down Bears team, a down Niners team and then the showdown with Miami, so. Or I'm sorry with Minnesota. So there's, there's potential for the Lions to catch some. Catch some. Two bad teams here coming up. The Niners are pretty much done done at this point.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: Do you think there's an opportun.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: There's an opportunity for them, but it's still. I, I don't. They still have the first round by. @ this point they have the tiebreaker over the Eagles.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: What if they. It kind of looks like both teams might end the season two and one. That puts them still tight at 14 a piece.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I guess it depends which games because you'd be looking at the time. There might be some different NFC tiebreakers if which ones they lose because these are three conference games and then within head to head stuff with the Vikings.
Yeah, there's probably a lot to shake out that's going to come down to the last game of the season at this point.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: I mean, I don't see the Eagles losing. They're gonna get out the top seed. Yeah, they're gonna beat Washington this week. They'll beat Dallas and they'll beat the Giants.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: So I didn't think about the Eagles. Yeah, they're gonna finish 15.
[00:30:46] Speaker C: They're gonna finish 15 and two and get the top seed.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Well, they've won what, 11 in a row now. They, they got commanders. They haven't looked as great as beginning of the season.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: They're gonna, they're gonna take care of the commanders.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Cowboys is gonna be a tough divisional game.
[00:31:01] Speaker C: They won't lose. They won't lose at home to them. And then the Giants Giants.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: What a layup.
[00:31:06] Speaker C: I mean, the Lions got a tough schedule here. I know it's not popular, but I think the Bears are going to beat him on Sunday or at least cover the spread. That will be one of my top picks.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: You're teasing Jason right now, man.
[00:31:20] Speaker C: Divisional games, man. And the Bears. Divisional games. And the Bears actually play good at home. Divisional games. So we.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: We did say this last week versus the Vikings. I'm pretty sure.
[00:31:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: No, I. I had the Vikings blowing the Bears out.
I wasn't surprised at that.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: All right. I said it.
[00:31:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Jason had this. He took the seven points in the Bears and I said seven points. I don't see the. It was a lot.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: But yeah, I'm going back to the tape right now.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: I'm not even going to pick the Bears the rest of the season. I'm just gonna let Aaron do the picking.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: Just put them out of their mystery. You know, just hunting's gonna.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: They've been out of their misery.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: That's why they went for it on 4th and 1 in their own 39 to start the game. Minnesota, Rome. Like you said, big game with Seattle, but is Geno gonna play? Sam Howell looked as bad as your boy Riddler did today, so we'll see what happens there.
Packers really took it to him.
So there are some holes in that defense. Seattle, we said, hey, they look great winning four in a row, but they beat four bad teams. They can't beat the good football teams. Gonna be tough for them to beat. Minnesota Lions, you know, these two big games and then they finish. So it could come down to week 18 for who's going to get that number two spot in the playoffs there.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: It's so crazy. Like any other year, like Lions would have a comfortable lead and then Vikings have just been staying on top and then who would have thought, man, ever since Sirianni shaved his head. 11 straight games. They haven't lost since then. Or 10 straight games, rather. Unbelievable. Let's talk about that game really quickly against my Steelers.
One thing I noticed, well, Tomlin was really pissed at the Raps earlier in the game. I don't know if you say he's like, off. Get the. Away from me. Made rounds on social media. Pretty funny. I love Tomlin, but without Pickens, obviously, that threat was gone. Russell laid up a throwback of a stinker kind of game. Couldn't do much, not as much pressure. I thought they did contain the running game, the Eagles running game. But then all this turmoil with the Eagles, all of a sudden they open up the floodgates for that. Hertz had a pretty good game throwing in the air. Then he's talking after the game. It's like, dude, like it's your own team that's talking, not the media.
No one's was really saying anything. But if anything, Fangio, man, that defense is solid. If they can pass, we know they can run. And I don't know if they're going to face the defense can be good as Pittsburgh that can contain a run. They're pretty dangerous. I don't know. I can't. I'm trying to think of like the best teams in NFL. They might have the winning formula on each facet of the game to go for a deep run.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Talk about the Eagles. Yeah, they do, because you mentioned Steelers able to contain the running game. But the good thing about the Eagle, they still, they still gave the ball to Saquon. So they got the reps in 19 carries for him, contained them to the 65 yards. But that really opened up of what Jalen Hurts was able to do with, you know, his really efficient game. 290 yards passing in the two touchdowns. So they, they keep a great balance throughout the game. And you mentioned the defensive line, you know, for the, for the Eagles containing Najee Harris and Jalen Ward And I.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Mean 14 yards, man, I think that's what it was, right?
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Yeah, 14 yards for Harris. You looked at Harris, Wilson, Warren and then throw in Cordell Paris and Justin Fields. They only got 56 yards rushing throughout the entire game, which has been the bread and butter of the Steeler offense all season.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Guys, it was a fun game in the first half. Like I was digging, I'm like, all right, cool. We're down 13, 17. Totally manageable. I think we had like a touchdown to the tight end and then a field goal and then the Eagles, man, just feel like they just had the ball the whole time in the second half. Like I have not seen that in a long time. Where they just dominate the the clock like that. I think like their fourth quarter was like a ten minute drive. I was like the final touchdown. Like that was. That was killer. Just them able to just eat the clock away. I think Steelers had what was. I wrote it down somewhere.
I think it was 10 or 11 plays total in the second half.
[00:35:30] Speaker C: Time of possession was 40 to 20.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: Dude, that's fucking wild for the Eagles.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: I think what makes the Eagles tough is they can run the ball, obviously. But if you want to take away the run, they can throw it like the Eagles get play to how you give them. And this week, you know this, though.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: Until now, because they haven't had to.
[00:35:51] Speaker C: No one's been able to stop the run game. Now, you play against a physical run defense. Okay, well, you're gonna give us one on one with Brown and Smith on the outside.
They beat him of that. I mean, Jalen can throw for 290. He can throw for 250. They don't ask a lot from him. And they've got a great defense.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Even with great defense. I was watching the game in spurts, you know, flipping back on, you know, the afternoon slate, and every time I saw a highlight, it was Kenneth Gainwell. They were getting into the lineup as two in the passing game and a few runs at the same time. So they were getting. They were getting production out of everyone and really spreading the ball around, which that's a big key to a long playoff run, is you don't know as a defense what to defend.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: I couldn't complete it.
[00:36:32] Speaker C: I mean, they out first, down them 26 to 10. I mean, the. The game was 1713, but it felt like a blowout at 1713. It didn't feel close to me. Pittsburgh had no business being in that game. And they just, you know, they didn't have Pickens, which I said was going to be. That's why I like the Eagles minus five coming into that game.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: Well, he definitely covered.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: Yeah, they just didn't have the weapons. I mean, the touchdown that Russell did throw should have been intercepted. I mean, that was next to the lollipop up there that, you know, Fairmute came down with. But it should have been picked.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:37:04] Speaker C: It should have been. I was watching it. Eagles.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: I'm at the update.
[00:37:12] Speaker C: 401 to 163 in total yards.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: It was pretty wild.
It was.
[00:37:18] Speaker C: I think there's only two teams in the NFC that can beat the Eagles, but we'll see how it plays out.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: It was definitely a big statement win for them. Thankfully, I had it.
[00:37:33] Speaker C: We lose Rome there, I guess.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Whatever he had, it just was gone.
[00:37:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: And we're back.
So I was saying as I was feeling annihilated and being pissed off that my Sailors are losing in front of my daughter, at least the Bills. That was an entertaining game.
No defense whatsoever. Everyone's talking about that. Dan Campbell going for an onside kick with 10 minutes to go, or 12 minutes to go, 12:10, something like that. In the fourth quarter. I really didn't think much of it. I was like, you know what? They couldn't stop Allen anyways. And I thought I was like it, why not? But I don't feel like it really backfired. Yeah, they barely lost 48 to 42, but it wasn't even that close of what the score indicated. But I thought it was a fun game, though.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Really fun game.
We talked about it, going into potential, you know, super bowl matchup. Don't know what that looks like now with all the injuries Detroit's got, but yeah, again, that. That afternoon. That afternoon window had a lot of irritating games. That was one of them.
Sucks for the Lions, man, because when you look at their organization, as bad as a lot of fan bases have had it, not many have had it worse than the Lions. In their history. They've had two outstanding hall of Fame players with Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson. And those guys basically didn't really get, you know, any notoriety for the team effort of the game. They got the individual performances out of them, but just, you know, did no winning. It was a bunch of losing. Those guys eventually retired before any real success was able to come for those teams. Now you gotta a really stacked team. An offense that is dynamic, goes up and down the field. You know, a head coach that the city likes, that, you know, has the identity of City and the. And the grit that Dan Campbell has, that team culture. Culture. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. He also got Ben Johnson, who puts an offense that can score 42 points as well at the same time.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: I sent you a funny meme about that, by the way, the Ben Johnson thing. If you saw that, you sent me.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: A lot of memes.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: I was going to meme extravaganza this week, and I blast a whole bunch of people. So I was thinking about this, about the Lions. You know, they're 12, two, and things are humming along, but things are also not going right. Other teams have been decimated by injuries. Look at the Niners, you know, for instance. And they haven't been able to recover.
On the bright side, if they kind of miss out on the chance to compete to a Super bowl because, like, now they don't have the weapons to do that. Right. You know, I wouldn't blame if they went out in the second round, even in the. Even if they make the conference championship, the fact that they've had this many entries and still being able to make it this far and be this good, I like their chances that repeat the success and. And do great next year to get all those pieces back on defense. I think it. I wouldn't feel too bad if I was A Lions fan.
[00:40:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: You just, you don't want to lose.
[00:40:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: Give away the opportunities in front of you because you were in the NSC championship game last year. This is supposed to be, this, this is supposed to be the stepping stone season for your Super Bowl. And you look at it like, hey, you know, that old, that kind of old adage, it's more in the NBA, but you know, we, we went through the grind and the playoffs, we took our lumps and then it's that, it's that next stepping stone thing.
Yeah, well, I mean the tough thing in football though, it is, it is injuries. And we said earlier in the pod, like how you are health wise at the end of the season, a lot of times going to dictate your season. The Niners last year is why it was such a big disappointment, them not winning the super bowl because they were very healthy team last year.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: So that they were primed for that opportunity. Now the Lions, man, you're missing, you're missing just a lot of guys that are dynamic playmakers. And if you're going to expect the offense to score 42 points a game and had Jared Goff throw five touchdowns, you know it can be done. It's just going to be a lot less likely in the playoffs when you're going to go against. It's a Eagles team that's super dynamic. The packers are finding, you know, you know, some life in their offense in different avenues to be able to score points. We just saw a great performance by the Vikings. So it's, it's not, you know, like you said earlier, Rome 12 and 2 generally, hey, you're sitting great. King of the conference, but you got two others.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: King of the castle.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it, it's just rough and it's, I think it just sucks for them more because this is supposed to stepping stone year and you mentioned their long term success. They're probably going to lose at least one of their coordinators. Ben Johnson's probably gone. Aaron Glenn, defensive coordinator, is another, you know, hot head coaching, you know, prospect out there too. That could be gone. So not that they can't rebuild, but when you start losing a lot of the assistant coaches and things like that, that is where the culture you speak to is going to be really tested. Who are the guys going to step up and replace him? So that, that'll be a lot of the questions next year going forward with the Lions. They'll have a lot of the infrastructure in the players, but things are going to change. It's going to be A different team next year.
[00:42:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, like Jason just said, I mean they're going to lose at least one of their coordinators likely, given. I mean, unless like, you know, Ben Johnson could have been a head coach last year, wanted to come back, run it back. Detroit's been decimated by injuries.
It's going to be tough for them to get to the NFC Championship or Super bowl, especially if they don't get that first round buying home field. I don't see them going on the road and winning two or three playoff games with the defensive players they have right now. I mean, they, if they get the five seed, they're going to likely be going to either Seattle or the Rams.
So, you know, Stafford would love to have them come back and eliminate them like they did last year in the wild card.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: And if Rams are dangerous, man, they're like, they're dangerous. No one wants to face them in the playoffs.
[00:43:35] Speaker C: We'll see. I mean, they got an interesting game coming up with the jets this week and I'm still looking at that game as a possible upset there.
But Seattle, we know they're not battle tested right now. And Detroit, I mean I, I think the NFC comes down to really three teams can win the nfc.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Who you got?
[00:43:55] Speaker C: I think it's Philadelphia, I think it's Minnesota, and I think it's Green Bay. Those are the three best teams in the NFC right now, just based off health and the way they're playing.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: Okay, fair.
I still don't know what to think about the Packers.
I think they're young, they're talented, they showed up this past game. But I still don't know what to expect. I think we talked about a lot about it last week, but.
All right, any other games you guys want to touch on for better or worse from this past week?
[00:44:32] Speaker A: I posed this question to Aaron while you were having the technical difficulties during the cutout section of this program. But yeah, as we were looking through the Q, the QBR rankings that you were disagreeing with me and where Sam Darnold was ranked, I see him as 14 on ESPN.com so does Aaron. But besides that, the one quarterback I was looking at on this list and I brought up to Aaron, CJ Stroud, ranked 25th in total QBR this season after basically an all world rookie year, both of you guys picked the Texans to really take a step. Aaron, I believe had them in the Super Bowl. In his preseason predictions. Where does this Texans team and really the Texans offense go? Because. Because it's a pretty big sophomore slump for CJ Stroud after such an outstanding rookie year.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: So I don't know if you guys remember last year, a lot of their wins were really tough wins. Like, they were close. They just happened to come out on top this year, not as much. And plus their schedule is a lot harder than it was last year. I, I, I, I, I don't. Yeah, yeah, it's a little slump. They've also had some additional pieces and some injuries, but, you know, are a young team. They were way ahead of schedule. I'm not putting it so much.
I'm not blaming them as much. I think other people will, I think they'll bounce back fine next year.
[00:45:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I liked Houston coming in because we expected CJ Stroud to build on what he did last year.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: Something's been off. Like, they've just, he's missed a lot of throws that he was making last year. Just like they've been low, like the tar. Like the accuracy has been good, but the throw's not been on the numbers. It's just been low or receivers have dropped some passes. Defensively, I think they've been as good, if not better than they were last year, but they're just not clicking on offense. I think Nico Collins going out and missing, like five games kind of hurt him because when he was 4 and 1 before they got, before he got hurt, and then they kind of went on a tough stretch. Houston's gonna host a home game. It's either going to be Pittsburgh, Baltimore, it looks like maybe the Broncos sneak in there. So I'm not confident right now in Houston this offensively, they're just not, they're not clicking the way they need to.
So that's, that's really been the downspot right now, man, that offense. And something's been off. Sophomore, you know, slump, whatever you want.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: To call it, just interesting what's off because they got Joe Mixon, who's been, you know, I know he was hurt for some of the season, but really gave them an upgrade at running back, brought in Diggs. I don't, I really hadn't. Didn't pay dividends. But Tank Dell, I think a lot of people at the beginning of the year predicted he probably takes a step forward coming off the injury he had last year, but he hasn't really found kind of its place. So just a lot of different parts of the offense which you expected to take a next step that really haven't seen that for Houston. Not that hasn't been a somewhat successful season. They're going to they're going to win the division. Like you said, they're going to host a home game. So you have that. But I just think he expected more from CJ Stroud where he was at. And he's basically put up statistically, you know, the same season Caleb Williams is putting up right now, which is seen as an outright failure.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: Yeah, C.J. i mean, if you watch Houston, I watched him a lot this year. Obviously I had them going to the Super Bowl.
Their third down offense has been bad this year. Like, they've just missed a ton of, like, easy drives. Whether it's running it on third and three or just missing open throws or throws that they were connecting on last year. Like they, they get to third and three, third and four, third and five, and they're not converting. And that's leading to more punts and leading to, you know, less points being scored. Their third down efficiency and their ability for CJ Stroud to keep drives going, I think has been really where they've struggled. Outside of that, they've been fine, but they aren't really hitting the deep ball. Tank Dell's talented. Like I said, Nico Collins, him going down kind of really hurt that offense. And then at the same time, I think mixing was down too. He missed the game with a high ankle sprain.
They just, they're not clicking on offense. I mean, I know we talk about, well, they'll bounce back next year, but their offensive coordinator is a hot head coach commodity. He may get a gig. He's, you know. You know, I know the jets inquired about him early in the year when they got rid of Solace, so we'll see. But C.J. stroud, I mean, he's got all the fundamentals. He's got the arm. I'm not worried about him continuing to progress in his career, but it just hasn't taken that leap that we thought he would take this season for sure.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, dude, this is bar. Like, they're no one expected to be that good last year. They got a new coach from the year before. They got new pieces. It's a lot of expectations all at once. No one is expecting to be a. I, I think it was just a little too much, a little too early. So I'm not, I'm not really stressing.
[00:49:19] Speaker C: About it, but I mean, his numbers are down, but they were projected to get nine and a half wins. They're at nine now. They're going to beat that. They've already wrapped up the division. They've already wrapped up a home game.
So we'll see what happens in the playoffs with them.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: You're right, Jason. I'm not really confident in in the Texans. That's why I mentioned. I just don't really know what to expect out of them. They do end of the season though at the Chiefs versus the Ravens and then the Titans.
Pretty tough. Even the Titans may show up because their defense can probably take them out. I think they had a pretty good test early in the season. I can't remember though, I mean if.
[00:49:56] Speaker C: They do beat the Chiefs about Mahomes, they're not going to get any credit for it on Saturday. So we'll see. You know, I hope they're going to get any credit for it, but not.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: For the Texan's sake. Just. Just because I hate the Chiefs.
Dude, real quick about the Chiefs. By the way, I was driving home right today after taking my daughter back to LA and I get back in the car, it's around 12:30. I put on First Things first with Nick Wright and every fucking day this guy is like on Mahomes dick. Besides Chris Collinsworth. I just, it's amazing like how enthusiastic he is about the fucking Chiefs. And he just. They're the best team. Mahomes has the biggest Dick in like 100 years. Like I just can't believe it. I was just like frustrated. I can only take like 15 minutes of the show and I turn it off. But I don't know. Just Nick Wright and the Chiefs.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: Listen, if the Bears were back to back super bowl championship when 13 and 1, I'd be just as obnoxious as Nick Wright. So no shame on this man, right?
100.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: Just for your sake, I hope it never happens. I don't think you can handle that, dude.
[00:51:06] Speaker C: Chicago can happen it, huh?
[00:51:08] Speaker A: No, Chicago doesn't. Well, that doesn't deserve that or they won't get it. But this show would be so much more interesting if I could just be obnoxious like this all the time and just piss you off.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: I probably would.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Instead. Instead you just want to drink my tears every Sunday or Monday when we record.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: Not every Sunday. I. I like Chicago.
[00:51:28] Speaker C: Hey, even if Jason tried to cry now watching a Bears game, those tears are dry, dude. There's nothing else. There's nothing else, man.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: You know what I think the best.
[00:51:36] Speaker C: He's over there. He's over the pin eye drops in his eye to make it those artificial tears. Now there, there was a clip I.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: Wanted to put out. I just couldn't edit it. Like I couldn't find the right editing Mix and. But it was. I can't remember what week it was, but Jason, like your face, like you just look so pissed and defeated. I was like, see, see Bears. You broke Jason. You broke every Bears fan. It was crazy.
[00:51:59] Speaker C: When he came back from the desert.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: He was pretty, pretty sad.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: It had to been one of the division losses. But yeah, no. Shame on Nick Wright, man. Let him live. Let him live life, man.
[00:52:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah. So jets, man, nice win.
Two in the Dolphins look like Broncos. Big matchup this week. Broncos and Chargers. That's a big matchup on Thursday. You guys want to talk about that really briefly? Is there anything else we should touch on?
Colts dude, Richardson hot and cold. I don't want to hear from you guys.
I mean, I already know he can't complete 50% of his passes. Like, he looked like to his credit.
[00:52:49] Speaker C: He'S not the one that threw the interception. Well, look at that game was weird. I mean, Jonathan Taylor. Well, let's not even get into that.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: The one yard at the half line, like, come on, guys.
[00:53:01] Speaker C: From a veteran of all. And then you have a wide receiver throwing a pick six. And then the old, the old Marshawn lynch salute.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: That was so ugly.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Oh, wait, that was.
Oh, man, that, that wide receiver pick six was just. It looked terrible from the setup.
[00:53:22] Speaker B: It looked like a Madden play. I, I thought I was like watching someone play video games and it was just like, dude, why would you do that? Why'd you hit. Why across the field?
[00:53:30] Speaker A: This offensive coordinator watched little giants like this week and saw the annexation of Puerto Rico.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: 100.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: This, this is going to be a play. It'll work.
No, the. Jonathan Taylor. I don't know how many times these guys do this and they're urged to just drop the ball when they have to. I, I guess, man, what is the purpose of that?
[00:53:56] Speaker B: It's so easy. Let me just drop the ball before I cross the go line. It was really frustrating.
Cardinals. You, you're frustrating too. Finally get a victory.
Yeah. I guess the real question is like coming down the stretch is who are the packers and what kind of noise they can make. Bucks, I think to me, man, I think they're playing like one of the best three teams, four teams in the NFL right now.
That's about it.
[00:54:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we're just down to the stretch. Last three weeks, playoffs.
AFC kind of decided. We talked about that going into this weekend.
[00:54:35] Speaker B: It's just. The NFC's gonna be up for grabs.
[00:54:38] Speaker A: Yeah, the NFC's up for grabs and it's really Kind of just the NFC west is really probably what you're looking at.
[00:54:45] Speaker B: Real quick, we'll wrap this up. Do you guys like the Steelers chances of holding on to the AFC North?
Yes or no?
[00:54:56] Speaker A: I'm gonna say no.
[00:54:58] Speaker B: God damn it.
[00:54:59] Speaker C: Let me look at their schedule here.
[00:55:04] Speaker B: We just needed them to be 500. Okay, so they got the Browns.
[00:55:10] Speaker A: You got three games. So hard to be. 500 in three games.
[00:55:13] Speaker B: Just like this is when we were talking about, you know, four weeks out.
[00:55:16] Speaker A: Oh, against this. The Ravens you're talking about. The Steelers got three hard games. Baltimore, Kansas City, the Bengals.
[00:55:24] Speaker B: So they. They hardly lose this many games in a row. I think the last time they lost like three or four games in a row was when they started the season 11 0. It was Ben Roethlisberger. I was talking mad that. That year, I'm like, dude, we look solid. We're going to Super Bowl. And then they lost the remaining five games and got their ass beat by Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns. You remember that playoff game? Because I do. That was.
[00:55:47] Speaker C: That was a coach without their head coach. Yeah, I think. Well, the Ravens play them Saturday.
Well, no, I don't know what's gonna happen with Pickets, but, man, I would lean towards the. I'd lean towards the Ravens getting in here, but I think they're going to finish with the same record. I like the Steelers to beat kc I like them to beat Cincinnati if they can get healthy. TJ Watts a little banged up, so we'll see.
[00:56:10] Speaker B: All right, we'll take a quick break then.
All right, so my laptop's connected to a power source, so no more blacking out. No more knocking out or blacking out this weekend, but no more blacking out from the computer.
[00:56:35] Speaker A: I was just gonna say, don't we have this conversation every weekend about Rome not blacking out.
[00:56:39] Speaker B: I have three Christmas parties this weekend, and I don't want to let disappoint anybody, so I have not drinking anything. I'm going to hit the gym hard tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, two three hour sessions. I'm going to be working out like Rocky, like serious stuff, pumping lots of iron.
[00:56:58] Speaker C: I. I mean, we got it. We got to put together an over under on how many parties Rome's going to attend.
And really, what is he going to drink? I mean, there's three parties over. Under one and a half, I guess, just kind of. I say he's gonna 10, at least two.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: Monday's pod's gonna be rough. That's all I know.
[00:57:18] Speaker B: There's a Christmas Party that night, too.
[00:57:22] Speaker C: Christmas Eve is what, Tuesday and Christmas Wednesday, right? So. All right.
[00:57:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, too safe. Well, you know, there's like a filmmakers, you know, Christmas party this week, and I'm trying to break in those ranks, you know, and then I'm doing stand up on Wednesday at a comedy club here. So there's a little Christmas party after that.
And then, like, you're performing.
[00:57:49] Speaker C: Are you going?
[00:57:50] Speaker B: I'm performing, man.
[00:57:51] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:53] Speaker C: Have somebody record that. So I'm gonna record it.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I've been working on new bits about Rudolph the red nose reindeer and Christmas stuff.
Pretty edgy. We'll see how it goes.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: I don't want to insult my guy here, but I don't recall him saying really anything funny on the pod. So you saving all your funniness for the stand upper team or what?
[00:58:13] Speaker C: That right there just took the cake right there. That should be closed outline.
I think we got the wrong guy signed up.
[00:58:20] Speaker B: You guys are crazy. All right, anyway, so I'm doing the stand up possibly this Wednesday Christmas party after that little filmmaker thing on Thursday.
[00:58:28] Speaker C: Is this. Is this stand up show hosted by some guy named Kyle Murphy? I just want to know.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: No, but some guy, like, he would look like a Kyle Murphy. Like, if you picture some guy that looked like, I don't know, just this guy's weird. He has, like this weird, frowy Jewish hair, talks like a mouse. It's really interesting. Like, if.
If you'd be like, what city is he from? It definitely be San Francisco like, some 1970s, like, Woody Allen film in New York. Odd, dude.
[00:59:00] Speaker A: Kyle Murphy is Rome's funniest bit on the show. And he's not even doing that on purpose.
[00:59:04] Speaker C: I know.
[00:59:05] Speaker B: No.
All right, anyways, before we talk a little bit about the NBA Cup, I did want to talk about my experience going to a San Jose Sharks game this past Saturday with my daughter, my sister, her husband, and their two kids who cannot sit still if for their life, which is really interesting. My daughter's real well behaved, and two rambunctious little boys just punching each other and the older boy crying, like, several times throughout the hockey game.
[00:59:35] Speaker C: You guys all went.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:37] Speaker C: I thought it was just you and your daughter. Okay.
[00:59:39] Speaker B: No, all went.
I sent you guys a picture. So we were sitting on one end of the ice. They actually had two different sets of seats. We ended up sitting with my sister and her husband and the kids. But we, me and my daughter had seats closer. Like, they hooked us up even closer in the middle of the Ice. I should have went there because it was. It was intense on that side. What do you call it? Like, what do you call that side of the ice rink? Just the. It's not the end zone, goal post, like, net seats behind the net seats behind the net.
Really fun, small arena, man. Like, every seat's really. It's a good seat. Decent food, a couple takes. So I've been to, like, a lot of Bay Area games, many Giants games with my daughter. We've been to many warriors games the past two years.
We've been. I've even made it to a few Oakland A's games before they bounced out.
And I think that's it, right? In any case, you know, you're in a Bay Area game when they play, like, you know, hyphen music and there's, like, a few anthems here. They always play it. I. San Jose Sharks. No anthem, no hyphae music, nothing. It was some, like, Rush, some, like, other, you know, AC DC stuff. Thunderstruck and then some, like, you know, techno stuff, you know, that we all listen to in the club or whatever. It was a. It was very white. A white dominated crowd. No surprise. But it was a surprise for me. I thought there'd be, like, just a little bit more mix.
Lots of families.
And I know Jason found this, the sign that said, you know, I'm here with my family, but I'm actually here for the MILFs. They said that was me. And you know what? There was, like, some really pretty looking women there, a little bit on the younger side. You know, they're on dates, but they all seem like wife material. Look, looks like way different than, you know, what you see at a Niners game, that's for sure. Oh, yeah, I forgot. The NERs, they can get pretty rowdy.
[01:02:00] Speaker A: Oh, I think it cut out at the perfect time.
[01:02:07] Speaker C: Oh, man, that's hilarious.
[01:02:15] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[01:02:18] Speaker C: That's comedy right there. That's comedy right there.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: I was like, where is he going with this? What's the punchline?
[01:02:34] Speaker C: All right.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: And we're back.
[01:02:36] Speaker B: And we're back. Jesus.
Anyways, I went to the hockey game. It was a lot of fun. It was against the hockey club. It was like four to three. There's a shootout, a couple fights. My nephews are going crazy. My sister bought me a cocktail. It's like a double cocktail. That was strong. It just tastes like vodka. It was like cranberry or something disgusting. And I'll do cocktails. Last time I do a cocktail there. But cool game and can't wait to Go to more hockey games.
I don't know about what's going on there.
It's been a while since I've been to a hockey game.
[01:03:16] Speaker A: Yeah, watching the San Jose Sharks, it's not exactly the best hockey. The San Jose Sharks have been on the down for a good number of years now from their heyday, you know, a decade ago, where they were, you know, parentally on top of the regular season standings, President's trophy. Some really good players, they just been really bad for a really long time. So tough game to go to. I'll maintain hockey is the best live sport you could watch. When you go into like the playoffs and even regular season games, for the most part, there's a, there's a level of intensity that baseball just doesn't have.
There's a level of consistent action for me that NBA games don't have.
And the NFL, the seats for the most part aren't very good in the NFL. The NFL is a better TV product. NFL is made for tv. You are in a questionable seat in an NFL stadium at one corner or the other. You can't tell what a first down is or is not. Hockey, as you mentioned up there at the Shark Tank in San Jose, not a bad seat in the house. And that's most hockey arenas that you can kind of sit anywhere and really know what, and, and get a good seat of what's going on. And a lot of times, you know, especially for price conscious people, the upper seats are a lot better. If you get that, you get that side of the house and you're behind the net in the 400 section. It would be out here at, at the Honda center or the, the Arrowhead Pond back in the day. I mean that gives you like the NHL 94 video game view where you just see the, you know, you see the whole thing going up and down. So yeah, hockey's great, great to watch live, you know, for people that aren't used to it, maybe. Rome has been a hockey game in a while. Following the pucks always kind of a challenge and understanding the rules. But I remember I took a few co workers to a Blackhawks game a couple years ago, their first hockey game. And it's a, it was a bad Blackhawks team versus a bad Blues team at the time. And even that just the atmosphere of hockey games are great.
[01:05:27] Speaker B: What they all surprise is I know Sharks are bottom of the division. It was 90% capacity in there.
I was not expecting that.
[01:05:37] Speaker A: Well, hockey is not, I mean, it's probably the, you know, it's the fourth major sport in America. Some may argue the fifth behind MLS at this point.
But the fan bases of hockey are very loyal in the season ticket. You know, people that generally have seats like I have, you go to a Ducks game in Southern California or seems like up there, like those are consistent people that show up all 41 games at home games. And you have a, you have a small dedicated, you know, fan base that's going to come to those games. And a lot of times, especially when I was going to a lot of Anaheim games, I had season tickets one year for the Ducks while we were in college at Cal State Fullerton. I'm Preacher or I took Aaron once or twice. You know, you'll get these people from Canada that fly down to have a, have a weekend in Southern California and you know, they'll come, they'll come from Calgary to watch the Flames or you know, Vancouver coming down to watch these games too. So you'll get some people traveling for some of these Canadian teams too, on the west coast.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah, you do, yeah, you do get.
[01:06:38] Speaker C: A lot of different nationalities at these games. Like, you know, depending on where you're sitting, like a group here can be speaking one language and then another group behind you to the side of you speaking. But yeah, even I've gone to a couple Ducks games last year and even though they were bad, it's. You still get about 75, 80 full capacity for games. And it's like you guys mentioned, not a bad seat in the house. The atmosphere is always good. I like that you get, you know, 17, 18 minute break in between periods to go get some food, a beverage and use the restroom if you need to. So you get that 20 minutes of action. You get that break and then 20 minutes of action break and then 20 minutes to finish it up.
[01:07:20] Speaker B: Yeah, good thing. I, I totally forgot. I just remembered I was supposed to cash in on my three free tacos. I guess when you score three free goals, you get. Or when the team scores three goals, you get three free tacos from Taco Bell. You have 48 hours of redeem it. I tried redeeming it that day of but the code wasn't working, so I figured I could redeem it today. And I just remember right now I'm like, oh, dude, I didn't get my tacos. I'm kind of disappointed because I could totally crush some tacos right now. I'm gonna try to do it right.
[01:07:44] Speaker A: Now on the Taco Bell, my fourth meal. They're. They're open. They're open. All Night, man.
[01:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah, there's like participating limited. I wonder if they deliver.
Let's see if this applies. It's the delivery promo code, dude.
I have to figure this out anyways. I want to go back, try to get some free tacos. Hopefully my Red Wings will be in town.
They were in town last year.
They probably won't be back for like another year or two, right?
Good times.
[01:08:16] Speaker A: Generally there's generally. I think they always. NHL does a home and home with every team in the league. Red Wings, though, man, you. You want to talk about fans that travel. That were a start. Fight starts, man, that's when the Red Wings come into town.
[01:08:29] Speaker B: That was the last time I've been to a game.
[01:08:31] Speaker C: The last time we. Rome were just talking about this last time me and him went to a hockey game, it was Ducks, Red Wings. And there was fights.
[01:08:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:39] Speaker A: In the crowd.
[01:08:40] Speaker C: In the crowd.
[01:08:41] Speaker B: Back in the day. I would not be shy of starting a fight even. Even at Angel Stadium. So good times, man. I love it.
But definitely got to go to more hockey games. It was great.
In any case, let's talk a little NBA cup really quick.
[01:09:01] Speaker C: NBA cup final is tomorrow.
[01:09:02] Speaker B: Rome tomorrow.
[01:09:03] Speaker C: Bucks, Thunder. I believe we all had that prediction, right?
[01:09:07] Speaker B: So who you got. Did you watch the semifinals Bucks?
[01:09:11] Speaker C: I did not watch Bucks game. I did watch Rockets Thunders. I did watch 90, 95 of that game. So yeah, I watched that one.
[01:09:19] Speaker B: Thunder's offense looked great. SGA really took off. She had 32 points. Really exciting game. Rocks are tough out, man. They played competitive. I think it was pretty close till. Till the end. I watched more of the Bucks and Hawks. One Giannis almost had a triple double and I think the Hawks were leading in the fourth quarter. And Trey Young had a. Almost a triple double as well. Kept that team in the game for. For much of it. And then John has had like a nice stuff in the fourth. I think it was like seven minutes left and then had some assists and big bucket. So they came out on top 110 and 102. Bucks are so heavily reliant on. On Giannis and I know that's not saying much, but they've been on a tear recently. And Damien Lillard, he's been playing really well as well.
I'm.
There was like, I guess like some talk about how he might ask for a trade. They might try to get some pieces there. What do you feel like the Bucks are missing if you. If you've seen much of it or what do you feel like the Thunder could add to their roster? They're gonna be in the final tomorrow. But going down the stretch as we start watching a little more NBA basketball.
[01:10:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, we've always talked about the Bucks, just the age related to their team. You know, they don't really have any young players.
Lillard's getting up there in age, but he's been balling. As you mentioned, Giannis is playing good. Middleton was back from injury.
Portis, these guys have been around. It's kind of the same group. They've had that one in the championship or three years ago, but they don't have a young wing player. Anybody that right now is coming up.
The Thunder, they really are the most complete team in the league. I mean, Chad Holmgren is out, but Hartenstein, that's his name, right? Yeah, he's been. He's been balling. He's been a great addition to that team. They got wing players, SGAs playing at MVP level.
That was really the difference I thought with Houston is Houston is young, but Houston doesn't have that guy. They don't have that all Star, that star that can get them to the next level. That's what really I took away from that game is it was close. And then sga, second half, fourth quarter, just balled out and they separated themselves.
[01:11:46] Speaker B: You know what's really funny about the Rockets, I guess in the off season, there's some reports that came out that Harden entertained going there, but the Rockets coach said, we're not a championship team yet. You know, he told that to a lot, to quite a few free agent guys. So people are thinking, well, how would this Rockets team look like if they did pick up a big name like that? But I think the reason why this Rockets team does look the way it is because they don't have anyone to kind of ball hog and take the attention away from the younger guys developing.
[01:12:17] Speaker A: I think it's interesting in the NBA right now, when you look at the top, you know, top five teams in the west, it's a changing of the generations. You're talking through all the guys in the Thunder. Aaron talked about. These aren't the. The Curry's, LeBron's durants of really this, you know, 2010 to 2020 generation of dominant players. The Memphis Grizzlies, second in the West. You know, completely different group of people, the Rockets, you know, the Mavs got Kyrie and, you know, I guess they look good, but it's. This is a different. This is a different Western Conference. And you're talking about, you know, five years ago where these were all the bottom teams that were missing out on the playoffs and they were starting kind of this rebuild and they're all rebuilding without really a real signature star that's like, hey, this is the face of the NBA because the NBA still advertising LeBron and Curry and, and Durant and stuff like that. So I guess the Mavericks and Nuggets, they got Luka and, and Djokovic, but it's a very different Western Conference where Durant down in the six seed, the Timberwolves are kind of right there too with a bunch of new young stars as well. So it's, this is really a young, a young new conference with no stars and more complete teams than kind of the star driven big three stuff that we saw for the last 15 years.
[01:13:45] Speaker C: Well, I think Rome, we talked about it before. Given the way the new CBA is going, it's going to be tough to have the Big three now.
[01:13:52] Speaker B: No more.
[01:13:53] Speaker C: It's going to be more of just two guys and then building your roster. I mean, yeah, I mean, like Jason said, the West, Thunder, Grizzlies, Rockets, all very young teams. Even if you look in the east, you've got the Cavs, the Knicks, the Magic, those are all very young teams as well. Celtics, obviously, they're still young too. If you look at it, all their superstar players are under 30 years of age. So the players, as he mentioned, LeBron, KD, that kind of, you know, Curry, their dominance over the league is kind of going away. And I know Rome, I don't believe you ever released your top five or 25 of the NBA. We haven't gotten to that yet. But I know you got a lot of young players under probably 25 years of age in that top 10.
[01:14:40] Speaker B: Also their ages on there. I do have a top 25 now, but I haven't gone down to the 50 yet. I'm still working on it.
[01:14:47] Speaker C: So, I mean, a lot of young stars are coming up. You know, no one's talking about Donovan Mitchell, what he's doing over there with the Cavs, kind of, you know, he went from Utah to Cleveland, small markets. He's not really getting a lot of love that he deserves. And the Magic, we mentioned they lost Wagner and the other guy. They're both out, but still playing really good basketball.
Sga. I hate to say it, but the Clippers traded away this guy for Paul George. How stupid was that?
Imagine him at the new Intuit Dome.
[01:15:18] Speaker B: Crazy. I mean, well, yeah, definitely a change of the guard. LeBron finally looks at his age. He's lost a stab he, the, the legs just look like they're going out. Right. So we're gonna probably see him miss a little more time. But there are stars there. You got SGA at the Thunder. You have Ja Morant with the Grizzlies. He had some issues off the court, so he kind of disappeared.
No one expected them to have a bounce back here like they're having so far. But props to them because they were like in the top two, three seed when they were dominating a few years ago before John Moran punched the 17 year old rockets. Big surprise there. They don't have a star. You're right. Young guys. Luca though, arguably 1, 2, 3 depending on how you want to look at it. Best player in the NBA. But he has Kyrie who's still dominating really well. And then Clay who's. I wanted to go to the Sunday game and he ended up beating the, the warriors night and they broke the record for most threes. Three three pointers made in a game. I'm sure you don't love that, Aaron. It did.
[01:16:19] Speaker C: Look, I looked up the box score for that game and The Mavericks scored 46 points in the first quarter.
[01:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[01:16:27] Speaker C: 46 points in the first quarter.
[01:16:29] Speaker B: I couldn't even do that on NBA 2K, man. It's, it's, I mean that's more, that's.
[01:16:33] Speaker C: More points than the Thunder and Rockets had in the NBA cup first half of their matchup.
[01:16:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:16:41] Speaker C: And you want, and you wonder why me and Jason are just like, you know, like we don't sit there and watch the NBA. Like because I. 46 points is just ridiculous. Dude, it can be fun.
[01:16:51] Speaker B: That was a fun game. So like there, there's definitely some fun games, but then there's like, I can't remember what game was. I think it was Chicago and somebody else. They missed the most three pointers ever in an NBA game. They missed like 78 three pointers. I would fucking hate to watch that game. That would piss me off so much because you just go down the court, miss. Go down the court, miss. Go down the court, miss. That's not fun. But, but there are fun games.
[01:17:14] Speaker A: Well, I, I, I wanted to have this bigger conversation about the NBA because it was in a lot of news this week through November 21st.
NBA ratings are down 28 on ESPN.
[01:17:28] Speaker C: Yep.
[01:17:28] Speaker A: Year, year over year right now. So what, what Aaron and I are saying, I think coupled with a lot of factors. But there, there is, there is a narrative around the NBA right now and the quality of play and different things with the game.
[01:17:45] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, if you look at the athletes and the skill, it's at an all time high, but it's effort, energy, the effort slow. Nobody's playing defense. I mean, I mean, look, If I was 20 years younger, I mean, I might be a three star prospect because I could shoot the three ball. The way the NBA is going now today, I mean, let's be realistic.
[01:18:09] Speaker B: We're, we're 15 years too late, man.
[01:18:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, back in the day, everybody used to play on the perimeter. Wasn't a lot of three point shooting. The hand check. Jason's always mentioned the game was a lot more physical, which I didn't mind. I mean, if there was a foul, they call it foul now, you know, if a guy gets, you know, goes into his screen and falls backwards, they're calling, you know, fouls. Before it was just like, dude, get up, keep playing.
28, that's a, that's a big number. I didn't even know it was that high.
[01:18:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, there's, there's different narratives out there. I know there's some other stuff Clay Travis put out, I'm not the biggest fan of his, but said NBA ratings are down 48 since 2012. I think it's a misleading number because you look at overall TV viewing habits are down and you compare it to NFL and maybe NHL who've had some advantages or pickup and viewing and maybe alternative sports leagues like, you know, with the WNBA and their growth, MLS definitely has been on the rise, although they're not, they're now on Apple. So there's a different type of viewing audience go there. There's just a lot more to watch. There's a bigger conversation too of just the generation younger than us is not as sports crazy as potentially us and the generation older than us were. So there's younger kids, don't consume it the same way. But overall for basketball, I think, I think it's a concerning number because NFL probably most popular it's ever been. They continue to grow, finding different ways to squeak out a new audience. College football, personally, for me, we, I think we argued about this a little more. College football is the number two support sport in America and got even bigger this year. The 12 team playoff to me has been a great subject of conversation on our podcast, but overall it made college football mean a lot more in, you know, Boise State, UNLV and a bunch of these Army, Navy, you know, things that we just dismissed. Overall there were some really important games.
Mls, I, I think is the league on the rise. Potentially the most the apple deal was always concerning to me. But when you pair the World cup coming to North America in 2026, they're continuing to expansion franchise and MLS, there's a lot of investment in there. These sports are on the rise or the NBA is, is really trying to find itself to a degree doing some different creative things. I do like the aspects of the NBA cup to make it more soccer style, as I said at previous pods, but this is concerning. I think. As for the NBA, that they got this big TV deal that's great, but are just people not interested in your league and are you on the verge of becoming almost what baseball is now? But for baseball's advantage, they at least have some regional loyalty to their thing. They're not. Baseball's not the national sport when you compare the ratings. But there's hey, regionally, baseball's popular. Basketball you become, it's such a star driven league because there's always been, it's Bird and Magic. It was Jordan, it was LeBron, like where are the stars at now? There's fleeting loyalty to overall organizations because you know a James Harden's gonna flop franchise anytime he's unhappy or hey, I'm Joel Embiid and I don't play back to backs or don't play games and go see it. You know, you're losing future fans. Which is I think the bigger concerning part for the NBA.
[01:21:29] Speaker B: I just think younger people are consuming a little differently. I'd be kind of curious to see what the attendance records are because they look pretty packed to me. If you guys want to dig a deeper dive in that we can kind of compare and do a little report on that.
[01:21:42] Speaker C: Attendance is attendance. I mean if you get invited to a game and you like a sport, you're likely going to go.
But yeah, TV ratings is where it's at. I think another thing too is back when we were younger, like I remember elementary time, there was no social media, so you consumed all your stats through paper and then you watched, you know, ESPN Sports Center. So you actually had to watch the games and know what's going on. You couldn't just go on your phone and watch like five minute highlights and be like, okay, this is what's going on in the league.
[01:22:10] Speaker B: And now they could do that.
[01:22:12] Speaker C: And now you can do that.
[01:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's a different.
Oh no. Yeah, interesting. I don't know how we went on this tangent, but I brought it up. Yeah. Oh, thanks.
[01:22:25] Speaker C: I mean it's, it's good to know. I mean, I'll be curious to see what the ratings are for this NBA cup final, given that the Lakers aren't in it compared to last year.
[01:22:34] Speaker B: Yeah, because, I mean, you had LeBron.
[01:22:35] Speaker C: You had LeBron, the Lakers winning over the Pacers last year. What are the ratings? Is it down 5, 10%? And what are the ratings overall for the cup in general? I'm sure Jason or some one of you two can get those numbers.
But the NBA, good move by them keeping inside the NBA with Ernie, Shaq, Kenny and all those guys. That was a great move. I think that would have really upset a lot of people, especially us. That's the number one kind of, you know, pregame, post game.
[01:23:02] Speaker B: Honestly, that's the only time I really watch the games is when it's on. The TNT thing, I just can't handle the studio with espn. I like Wilbond. They have him on there this year again. It's just, it's just a weird hodgepodge mix and I can only take Stephen A. In doses. I liked him growing up just now. I'm just getting a little tired of it.
[01:23:23] Speaker A: Well, the NBA and college football now are going to be, well, I'm sorry, college football is going to be eating into the NBA's time. You're talking this College Football Playoff now is the month of January. The super bowl is already all the way back to, what is it, February 9 this year for the Super Bowl. And then, you know, the NFL, the drafts becoming even more important, like the NFL's taken is a 365 view. Even though you only have the 18 official weeks of the year, 17 games in the playoffs. You know, they're making a play for 365 and eating into it. And then the NBA, hey, used to be starting on Christmas. Now maybe they don't even get that because, hey, the NFL. I'm gonna put a game on Christmas Day on Netflix. College football, hey, we're just starting the playoffs here a week before Christmas is going to have second round playoff matchups the week of Christmas. So there's, there's a lot that's going into NBA's territory where you would have thought the kickoff of the season used to be on Christmas Day. Now it's probably pretty much irrelevant because it's going to be what's the Netflix NFL game going to be like?
[01:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Yeah, the NFL said you to the NBA and they also said you to the College Football Playoff because they're playing it on a, you know, new, New Year's Eve, New Year's day doing whatever they want. But remember, like, this is like a little recency bias because it was just a few years ago people thought like the NFL might not even make another 10 years because all the concussions talk and, and the impact on like childhood sports and all that stuff. And there's like some real serious conversations about the, the legitimacy of the NFL lasting a long time. So. And here we are.
[01:24:56] Speaker A: There was.
[01:24:57] Speaker B: Now they're. Well, now they're booming again.
[01:24:59] Speaker A: So I never bought, I never bought into that. And I have a 30 year bet with a friend of mine who told me that the NFL would no longer be the most popular sport in America. We're like 15 years into that at this point. And it's coming and it's coming true because I told him there's just too many advantages football has that it is America's game number one. The betting aspect to the amount of inventory because you only have a finite amount of games you're passionate about. And literally all the concern about head injuries and all this stuff. We literally had a guy die on the field in the NFL brought back to life. But literally Demar Hamlin died on the field. We, they, they ended the game. Ended an NFL game that didn't come to a conclusion. No one cares about it.
[01:25:42] Speaker B: I'm glad we didn't have a podcast then because I was one of the ones like, dude, why would they end the game? We've never ended a game. And it was like, it was a lot of sensitivity around that.
[01:25:51] Speaker A: You, you had. I mean, and that's not to speak light of it, but in this man, what game were we watching this weekend where there was a guy carted off the field? Was it the Dolphins game?
[01:26:00] Speaker B: Yeah, he was car someone card off.
[01:26:02] Speaker A: The field, didn't have a shirt.
[01:26:03] Speaker B: Like it was reporting that still.
[01:26:05] Speaker A: Yeah, like it was scary as heck. And still the audience does not care. I want more football. I want more football. That's just what everyone's saying. Regardless of like the impact of the labor on the field.
[01:26:16] Speaker C: Well, yeah, you guys are right on. I mean, the NFL is going to go to 18 game season.
[01:26:20] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:26:21] Speaker C: Within probably the next five years.
[01:26:24] Speaker B: Less than that.
[01:26:25] Speaker C: College football has already expanded his playoff from 4 to 12. It's gonna go to 14, maybe eventually 16, 14 for sure. We, we know we all want more games in football. I mean, the super bowl is going to get pushed basically the last week of February leading into March Madness. That's basically it's going to be the super bowl and then you're gonna have like March Madness like the following week is what their football is really aiming for.
[01:26:47] Speaker B: Hey, imagine a college football playoff with 14 teams like oh no, a 9 and 5 team didn't make the playoffs. They're really good. 9 and 5 team. That's gonna be great.
[01:26:58] Speaker C: Well, there's always, there's always going to be outcry for it. I mean that's just, that's how it goes.
[01:27:02] Speaker B: That's just.
[01:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean the NFL, like Jason said, it's taken over. Like the NFL season ends what three weeks later is the scouting combine. A month later is the draft. Then they, I mean the NFL has a schedule release, prime time on tv, a schedule release of all the games. So you know where you can go. Who's playing overseas so you can book your hotels and tickets like literally in May.
[01:27:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:27:26] Speaker C: During the playoffs of the NBA.
[01:27:29] Speaker A: I'm, I'm waiting. Honestly, Aaron, you brought up when the super bowl is going to be the Super Bowl President's Day weekend, which is typically all star game weekend for the NBA. I totally see the NFL going into that at some point. People have long said they want a national holiday for the Super Bowl.
[01:27:48] Speaker B: There should be man up being hungover the next day.
[01:27:51] Speaker A: Well, I'm saying you put this game on on President's Day Sunday which is what the, you know what, what generally the NBA All Star weekend is. They're going to take that away from the NBA too. You're gonna have Daytona, Daytona 500 in the morning and then super bowl at night. It's going to be the super bowl of motor racing following to the actual Super Bowl. And the NBA is going to get.
[01:28:11] Speaker C: Pushed to the, is going to go in week later. Nothing the NBA can do.
[01:28:16] Speaker B: NBA is still pretty big guys. I, I'm not pushing aside like you guys are. That's a little wild, but it is big.
[01:28:22] Speaker A: They got the billion dollar contract from three different networks. I'm not, I'm not dismissing, you know.
[01:28:27] Speaker B: That'S too like, that's a, that's a pretty big discourse on, on the social media stuff how.
Yeah, you have to well be a package catch. Watch all the games.
[01:28:40] Speaker C: The contract they paid for the TVs ridiculous. Let's be, let's be real about it. They way overpaid. They're gonna lose money. These networks, that's just the bottom line paid.
[01:28:48] Speaker B: These players are overpayed.
[01:28:49] Speaker C: These players are gonna be making 80, 100 million within the next five, six years.
[01:28:53] Speaker B: To be honest with you, I don't want to watch players making that much money playing Basketball, it's kind of insulting.
[01:28:57] Speaker C: Not so much that, but we talked about the keyword effort. Hey, I don't want to play back to back because I'm sure, dude, you're getting paid 1.5 million a game.
[01:29:07] Speaker B: Yeah. You play. I mean, with your broken ankle.
I mean, that's the part I, I don't like. And I, I think, I think if these players make too much money, then you'll see a little bit more angst with the fans towards the leagues. Like that's a real thing.
[01:29:23] Speaker A: I don't, I don't think so. I think people are very. We just talked about Juan Soto signing for three quarters of a billion dollars in a different sport. So now I don't think, I don't think there's anything like, as the revenues rise in these leagues, you know, generally it's close to a 50, 50 split between, you know, what the owners get versus what the players get from, from a, from a cost perspective. And when the NBA, you only got 12 to 15 guys on a roster. Yeah. The individual contract sums are going to be, going to be more.
I guess the part of the argument for the NBA as while there may be fading popularity in the US Internationally, we look at the influence of some of the European players that are in the league now. China, the NBA has always been very big. There is a huge present internationally that the NFL's trying, trying to push, but the basketball Carney already does have. So even if, you know, the NBA is losing some, you know, some momentum in the state side, there's an international aspect of basketball that puts this sport above pretty much every, every other U.S. sport, you know, putting it kind of right below soccer. And I'm well below soccer, but it's probably the next international sport after soccer.
[01:30:45] Speaker C: I think what makes basketball great internationally or just as an individual is you can play it by yourself. Yeah, all you need is a ball and a hoop. Yeah, like, you can't play football by yourself. You can't like, throw passes. You feel stupid. You can't kick a soccer ball and keep running back and forth. I mean, I can go. I mean, I haven't played basketball in a while, but I can go grab a ball and shoot the ball for 30 minutes and feel great afterwards and keep doing that every day. Like I would just dribble between your legs, sneak your plane in the final four, take a fallaway shot and make it or miss. Like that's, that's something you really can't do in any other sport by yourself.
[01:31:20] Speaker B: I think basketball is, is In a transition, they have to tweak some rules again. Silver might have pushed the envelope a little too much on a few things.
TV viewership might be down, but I, I still think it's too big of a sport. It's. It's accessible. Their. Their stars are very visible still.
Yeah, they're still going to dominate commercials.
[01:31:41] Speaker A: So we're not talking about the end of the league room. I, I just think it's concerning. And if you look at the, I think the projections of soccer and where these things are at, I think soccer in our, probably your daughter's lifetime, you know, what does the MLS kind of look at as one of the Premier Leagues?
[01:31:59] Speaker B: Oh, MLS is already dominating attendance right now. It's, it's. They're getting 20 to 40, 000 per game. And it's not even, it's not. It hasn't even touched the surface yet of, like, how big it could be in this country. It's pretty wild.
[01:32:11] Speaker C: The key for soccer will be can we compete at the men's level for World Cups? If we ever win a World cup, soccer will take off huge in the States.
That's the key. We're already the most dominant in basketball, and no one even has football but basketball. We won, as I told you, Rome. I don't think we're going to win a gold medal in basketball for quite a while, so we'll see. But yeah, soccer. The key is, can we compete at the World cup level and get to like, you know, the final four, final.
[01:32:41] Speaker B: Eight, the win with soccer or football, rather, or, you know, world football.
[01:32:45] Speaker A: Football.
[01:32:46] Speaker B: We've been pretty competitive. Like, we've had some pretty good teams, top 10 in, in the world, and had some chances to go deep. It's just the organization. It's like, it's like having the Bears front office running American soccer. That's what's happening right now.
[01:32:59] Speaker C: Wow.
[01:33:01] Speaker B: One of those. You know, he's just a mess.
[01:33:04] Speaker A: He's not wrong. I know a lot of soccer people that were not happy with, like, Greg Burkholder when he was in charge of it.
[01:33:10] Speaker B: We have guys, we have talent is the best. No, but is it like, we've been there at the cusp of, like, breaking through, going on deep runs. It's, It's a play calling. It's the, It's a timidness. You know, what we need is we need a Dave Campbell on the sideline to go on a deep run.
[01:33:26] Speaker C: That's.
[01:33:26] Speaker B: That's what we need.
[01:33:28] Speaker A: Dave Campbell. Dave Campbell.
[01:33:29] Speaker B: He's.
[01:33:30] Speaker A: He's the head coaches of Kyle Murphy's team.
[01:33:33] Speaker B: Yeah, Dan Campbell, you know, hey, man.
[01:33:35] Speaker C: Have Dan Campbell, Kyle Murphy out there and you know, here comes the gold.
[01:33:40] Speaker B: All right, you guys want to be. Hey, real quick, Aaron, could you say beverage for me?
[01:33:45] Speaker C: Beverage.
[01:33:46] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. All right.
[01:33:49] Speaker C: I mean, I say some words wrong, don't get me wrong, but I don't get people's names mixed up. Rarely.
[01:33:55] Speaker B: All right, all right.
[01:33:57] Speaker A: Is this a. Is this a bit for your comedy routine?
[01:33:59] Speaker B: Oh, no, no.
[01:34:00] Speaker C: I mean I charge for that information too. So send me, send me a menu. Send me what and I'll give you a charge.
[01:34:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well, thanks for talking about everything but the NBA on this little segment. I think we're good.
[01:34:12] Speaker C: I thought we talked a lot of NBA. We brought up a lot of key stuff on NBA Pod. Monday after dark.
[01:34:22] Speaker B: Is it Monday? It is Monday.
It is after dark. It gets dark too early. Oh, by the way, real quick before we go, the was I gonna do on the 5 Freeway today. I was just hungry, knew I was gonna have time to catch dinner. So I stopped by Aaron's recommendation.
Harris Restaurant.
[01:34:45] Speaker C: Yeah, it's got like two different names, right?
[01:34:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So like they have like a steakhouse and like a few other versions of the steakhouse. I took my daughter there one time for like a really pretty modest, you know, really good burger, hot dog, whatever. Today I stopped by again for some barbecue that's connected to the Shell station.
They had a chicken sandwich, man, like the chicken was like, it was spicy. My stomach is not doing well right now. All right, it was a little spicy than I can handle. It wasn't like the chipotle sauce. It was some, the seasoning, but it was really good. It was smoky moisture. Tomato, lettuce, all that good stuff. Really good. Only 12 bucks. It was like one of the best chicken sandwiches I've had in a while. It was pretty fucking solid. Next time, what I want to do though, I want to go grab some lace chips, grab some macaroni cheese, grab some biscuit and some. And some barbecued beans. Open up the lay's chips and just pour it all on top and then eat that. I think that'd be pretty good. That's gonna be like my, I don't know.
[01:35:46] Speaker A: You're going to do this after you. You're going to eat, get in your car and drive six hours from LA to San Francisco.
[01:35:54] Speaker B: Well, it's halfway, you know, so I'd be on the way back.
[01:35:56] Speaker C: It's a half, three and a half hour drive.
[01:35:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's Yeah, I got back in three hours after that.
[01:36:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd make sure you have just a clear bathroom route along that way up, back up.
[01:36:06] Speaker B: Have all the bathrooms of where to stop.
And that's probably the best bathroom. That shell's pretty clean, actually. You gotta go number two until you.
[01:36:14] Speaker C: Get done with it, right?
[01:36:18] Speaker B: I was not feeling good and dog was just like. He opened the door like, are you all right, dude? Like to get out of here, Give me some privacy.
[01:36:27] Speaker A: You should have went and got the. You should have went and got the. The free three tacos that you had the coupon for that you didn't use.
[01:36:34] Speaker B: Yeah, but.
[01:36:36] Speaker C: But that promo code's not working, right?
[01:36:38] Speaker B: It's not working. So. Sharks. That's why you're in last place.
Bums.
All right, I'm excited to week 16 lines later on in the week. College football again, right? Nice.
[01:36:53] Speaker A: College football. Friday night in South Bend.
[01:36:58] Speaker B: Real quick. Thursday night here. You guys got Chargers, Denver Broncos. Chargers.
[01:37:09] Speaker C: I'll take the Chargers.
They're favored by three.
[01:37:15] Speaker B: Are they favorite?
[01:37:16] Speaker C: I say this. I. I would do this. I would do the old I call double whammy. Give me the Broncos +3 Chargers money line. Try to hit them both.
[01:37:25] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:37:27] Speaker C: That's how I would bet. That's how I'd bet this game. Chargers moneyline, Broncos plus three prediction 20, 19, 18, 19. Final. Something like that.
[01:37:35] Speaker B: That close?
[01:37:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it'll be a close one.
[01:37:37] Speaker B: Bonus didn't play good this week.
[01:37:39] Speaker C: Didn't.
[01:37:40] Speaker B: No.
[01:37:41] Speaker A: It'll be close.
I would. I would just take the Chargers money line. Even the three. I. I don't know if I'm in it, but I'll just go. Chargers money line.
[01:37:52] Speaker B: I don't know what to expect from this Charger team anymore.
I don't know what to expect from anybody anymore.
[01:37:57] Speaker C: We don't know what to expect from your Internet connection. Rome.
[01:38:01] Speaker B: You know, that's a. That's a truth, dude. I'm connected now. It's still kind of shoddy. I don't have to and complain tomorrow morning.
[01:38:08] Speaker A: So I'll give Rome credit. His Internet connection was on a good winning streak like the Lions. And then it just came to a screeching halt this week.
[01:38:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Got kicked off twice today and my phone got kicked off.
We'll catch you guys after the Thursday night football game.
[01:38:26] Speaker A: Thursday lines.
[01:38:28] Speaker B: Thursday lines.
Peace.
