Two for the Win
"Mike" and "Bryan w/ an I" discuss the latest sports news and events and offer an interactive fan culture.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - Episode 3
Can college recruitment upheavals dethrone football giants like Alabama? Get ready for a whirlwind of sports drama, from the electrifying NBA season opener to a historic World Series clash between the Yankees and Dodgers. We lay out bold predictions and intriguing narratives, such as the Lakers' father-son storyline with LeBron and Bronny James. But hold your horses, because we're going out on a limb to predict that the Timberwolves will spoil the Lakers' opener. It's a rollercoaster of emotions and insights as we dissect how the NBA juggles attention with the almighty NFL and what this means for fans and athletes alike.
Switching sports, college football rankings have taken an unexpected turn, and we're not holding back on discussing it. With surprise entries like BYU and Indiana shaking up the leaderboard, we ponder what NIL deals and transfers mean for the sport's traditional powerhouses. A curious case from UNLV sheds light on how these changes could reshape futures, both on the field and in athletes' bank accounts. As players extend college careers through strategic school transfers, we explore the deeper implications of this trend on the competitive landscape and player eligibility. It's a new era, and we're here to unpack its complexities.
Our conversation doesn't stop there. We throw ourselves into the NFL chaos with a look at fan fanaticism and team struggles, from the Browns' quarterback controversy to the Cowboys' strategic mishaps. And let's not forget the tantalizing what-ifs in the trade market, especially surrounding Alvin Kamara's potential move. As we analyze Mahomes' gameplay and the Packers' developmental trajectory, we don't shy away from critiquing coaching decisions or player performances. Join us for game picks, unexpected upsets, and debates over the league's most intimidating players, with plenty of room for listener feedback and a bit of good-natured trash talk. Get ready for a sports chat that's insightful, entertaining, and unafraid to challenge the status quo.
Hello everybody, thank you for joining us again. I'm Brian with an. I.
Speaker 2:And I'm Mike.
Speaker 1:And we are Two for the Win, mike, what have we got for today?
Speaker 2:Well, we've got opening night for the NBA. We're going to talk some World Series baseball. We're going to catch up from a wild week 7 in the NBA. We're going to talk some World Series baseball. We're going to catch up from a wild week seven in the NFL.
Speaker 1:Sounds good to me, man, and sounds like sports are really starting to heat up here coming into the wintertime, so it's a very exciting time to be a sports fan right now.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean you can't beat this time of year because you have the World Series going on, you have NBA starting up and you have the NFL going strong. And personally, I mean I don't know how you feel, but I kind of feel like most people don't pay attention to the NBA until like after Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard, Unless you're really diehard in it or it's a sport that's really close to your heart. I mean, it's kind of the same for some of the other sports, I think. But until it gets closer to championship time and all-star times it doesn't garner as much attention, especially being overshadowed by the thick of the NFL season right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the NFL is still king, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then it kind of rules, everything. And then, yeah, you throw in that we're getting ready to you know head off the World Series here soon as well.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, we've got Yankees-Dodgers World Series, which is exactly what the MLB wanted. I mean, you've got the two major market teams facing each other in a World Series. And not only do you have that, but you have probably the two most popular players in Otani and Judge going against each other on opposite teams. Oh yeah, the two long ball hitters that I mean and let's face it, this year those two hands down are probably the best players in the MLB. I mean not to take anything away from any of the other players who are having great seasons, but I mean, come on, shohei, with a 50-50. Judge on a tear going yard. It seemed like almost every game.
Speaker 2:I know it wasn't every game, but it sure felt like it.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a classic in the making. Surely definitely one for the record books. This is going to be a wild series. We're about the witness here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean both clubs have some decent starting pitching. I'm really interested to see how these lineups play against each other, because of the fact that you know you have one team that's very, very dependent on the long ball, being the Yankees, and then you have the Dodgers. They can play it any way, they can string together hits, they can hit home runs, and that's not to take anything away from the Yankees. I mean, they've been playing mix and match all season long, with dealing with injuries, and so have the Dodgers. Both teams really worked their way to this World Series, so kudos to them and good luck to both of them in the series.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Can't wait to watch.
Speaker 2:But tonight, tonight kicks off the NBA. You know, for most fans of the NBA, NBA tip off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most people that love the NBA. They're probably so excited that love the NBA, they're probably so excited. The wild thing is, though, baseball is kind of meeting up with the NBA tonight. So because the Lakers drafted Bronny James, which is LeBron James' son, and they're trying to do the father-son thing, so they've invited Griffey Sr and Griffey Jr from baseball to attend the game. Now, both of these guys played on the same team when they were in baseball, and they did something that no father-son combo had done to that point, which was they both hit home runs back-to-back when they were with the Mariners, so that had never been done before. And one up on LeBron Griffey Jr is a way better ballplayer than his dad. Not to take anything from his dad, his dad had 17 seasons and he was a darn good ball player. But you kind of have the reverse here. I don't think Brawny's going to outplay his dad. That's just not going to happen.
Speaker 1:Not while his dad is still in the game.
Speaker 2:Well, let's face it Long road.
Speaker 1:I mean his dad had a lot of accomplishments there.
Speaker 2:His dad was coming out as the king, like he was the next coming and he was going to be— he had all the hype behind him that he was going to be the next thing and he was drafted number one. Bronny wasn't. Bronny was a late draft pick and he really didn't play much college ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you know. You know, surprises happen. We've seen it in all the sports.
Speaker 2:It doesn't mean he won't be anything well, I I think he needs to go down to g league and get some more playing time, because he's not going to get much in the nba. He will play tonight. I guarantee that he's going to play tonight. They're going to probably try to get the you know assist from brawny to his dad or vice versa. Yeah, you know they'll. They'll be on the court, it's going to happen, it'll be, it'll. It'll have a good feeling to it. But it does feel very nepotism, you know, kind of manufactured. You know you're here because your dad, not because you are the best player well having these first two matchups on the table.
Speaker 1:Speaking of LeBron and Brawny and the Lakers, who are you taking that matchup Timberwolves or Lakers?
Speaker 2:I think the Timberwolves are going to take it, because right now the Lakers have a nice little streak of losing their opener. They've lost seven straight openers.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. I'm taking Timberwolves on this one.
Speaker 2:I'm taking Timberwolves despite the fact that they don't have Carl Anthony Towns. I'm pretty sure it's Carl Anthony Towns they sent away. Let's see.
Speaker 1:The other game we have tonight for the NBA, nick Celtics. Another exciting matchup. Celtics raising their 18th banner in a pregame ceremony night. The defending champions. This ought to be an interesting one to go down, one I would love to see as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, no doubt. I mean, whenever you have a championship team raising a banner, and it be a team that doesn't just have one, I mean it's the Celtics, they're a dynasty.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know it's like if the Lakers raise another one, it's a dynasty. You know, I mean the Lakers are a dynasty but they own the most championships between those two teams. You know there are teams in the NBA right now that don't even have one. So when you have multiple like them, it's like oh God.
Speaker 1:But moving on to some college football action, yeah, let's give the college game a little attention here. Things have been heating up in the college game here recently. We got Oregon atop the standings.
Speaker 2:You know, if you would have told me 10 years ago that Oregon was going to be the top team, I wouldn't have believed it.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, it's not. I mean well, they had the Chip Kelly era with the Marcus Mariota era.
Speaker 2:They were hot back then, yeah, but I mean back then. Back then it was still Bama.
Speaker 1:It was Georgia. Yeah, bama Ohio, georgia.
Speaker 2:It was all the big schools. That seemed to always be there.
Speaker 1:If you look at this now Oregon, number one, oregon, georgia, penn, in order. Oregon one, georgia State or Georgia Tech two, penn State number three okay, right below them at 4U of Ohio. But some interesting ones are in here down the line BYU at number 11, okay, indiana at number 13,. All right, these are high spots. Scroll down SMU, notably smaller school, but they always have one or two draft picks. They're sitting at number 22 right now in the top 25.
Speaker 2:No, the ones you really need to take notice of is the fact that you have Army and Navy as ranked teams, and that hasn't happened in a really long time.
Speaker 1:You know you're right. And they're right next to each other Ironically, right below SMU, they're at 23 and 24 respectively, army and Navy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Playing good football. Top 25 in the NCAA.
Speaker 2:Playing enough to be ranked. I mean, when you're in the back end, you know things can shuffle at any moment, but still it's nothing to be. You know, turning your nose up at You're a ranked team. There are plenty of teams that would love to be ranked right now and they just aren't doing enough to be up in there.
Speaker 1:Bama, sitting down at number 15.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so odd to see after so many dominant years.
Speaker 1:Not even in the top 10.
Speaker 2:I think what you're seeing out of this, I think what you're seeing is the fact that you know, the powerhouse schools aren't necessarily going to get the top recruits. Now, you know, with NIL and people being able to go where they want based on hey, you know what? I'm not going to go to Bama because Bama is not going to give me the most.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know I'm going to go to SMU, they're going to give me more, you know. Or I'm going to go over to Colorado, they're going to give me more, you know. Players don't have to go to the typical powerhouses anymore in order to get theirs, you know yeah, the, the nil thing, um, that's a whole different.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's different from we. We were in the college, in college, right, so um, commitments are going away.
Speaker 2:The commitment letter well, I don't think that the commitment letter holds as much uh, not with the portal and the NIL the importance of the commitment letter isn't as impactful as it used to be.
Speaker 2:It used to be you get that commitment letter, bam, they're going to be here come spring. We know we'll have them in camp. We're going to have them ready, we're going to get them ready for college football here at Notre Dame or whoever. And that's just not the case anymore these teams used to be. You show up at the school. You were promised you're the number one back or you're the number one receiver, you're going to have all the playing time. And then you find out well, gee, there's three other guys that have been told the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And you're going to fight it with them to see who actually is going to be the number one, who's actually going to be getting the playing time. And now you know, because there's a transfer portal, players can easily just go oh, I'm not getting what I was promised, see, ya, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going elsewhere. I mean, there's a perfect example of that out there right now. It's a little bit old. I'll have to double-check my notes, but I know it was with UNLV. Haven't heard much on it here recently so I'm not going too far into it.
Speaker 2:That didn't have too much to do with playing time, as much as it had to do with name, image and like, yeah, that was about the NIL thing. Yeah, he was promised money and, let's face it, he's not going to be in the NFL because he wasn't.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, he wasn't.
Speaker 2:He's a good college quarterback. But let's face it just because you're a good college quarterback does not mean you'll be a good NFL quarterback.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's part of what went into it with him was the NIL thing. He probably knew and was told that he's not going to be a top prospect, so he was trying to get his day right here, right now.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, if you have a chance to get your payday, you're going to go for it, Absolutely. I don't fault any player for wanting to do that.
Speaker 1:I don't fault him. I think he learned a lesson because he didn't get it in writing. That is one of the major things going on with that right now it was promised to him, and there's no doubt now that people believe it was promised to him.
Speaker 2:He should have got it on paper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it kind of didn't help that when he left his backup one the next week. So yeah, I don't agree with how I mean go go back and forth on it. You know I don't we don't spend too much time on but I don't necessarily agree with how he went about with it. I agree that you should be entitled to what you deserve, but at the end of the day you're still in college, you're still young, right, it shouldn't?
Speaker 2:He only has one year of eligibility left.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So he kind of had to.
Speaker 1:Well, he said he was going to redshirt this next season, so you might see him for two more years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when it comes to eligibility and stuff. I mean, we got some guys that they've been there seven years and it's like, oh my god, they're still playing. It happens all the time. Yeah, oh, he's a freshman and I'm not I'm not trying to, he's been here seven years. Yeah, he's transferred school to school.
Speaker 1:And they might have got him an NIL deal if he had stuck it out. It might have come later, you know, but you know.
Speaker 2:The days of empty promises from college coaches are just not there anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know where they bring you in and they promise you the world. And when you get there, what are you going to do? You can't leave. You're going to sit out and then have nothing. Just not a good look.
Speaker 2:No, and speaking of not a good look, we transitioned to the NFL real quick and this past Sunday there was a very interesting moment in the Browns game and it wasn't anything to do with any of the scores. It had everything to do with Mr Massage Watson suffering an injury an injury, a non-contact injury. So I was actually watching this. I saw it happen live. He was trying to push off and run and his Achilles went. I mean, you could see it on the video where it just popped and you knew. You didn't have to even hear them say a report over it, because you just knew. You saw it Just like when Kobe snapped his and most other players. When you see it go, you're like, oh, we know exactly what that is. But he goes down and the Browns fans are savage, just savage, because as he's being put on a cart and being driven out on this cart, the fans are like you deserve this as he's being put on a cart and being driven out on this cart, the fans are like you deserve this.
Speaker 2:You deserve this. What I mean? I get it. He has not been playing well and he just kind of looks aloof when he's even in there playing. But man, it's some savagery right there yeah, they.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, I remember, uh, browns fans are kyra. There's some fan bases in the nfl that are ruth with browns, philly. Uh, you know, london fletcher's family was involved in an altercation when he went there to play, when he played for the Redskins at the time the Commanders now, so I'm not surprised by that at all.
Speaker 2:They have a jail in the Phillies or the Eagles stadium. So I mean that's there. For a reason they threw snowballs at Santa. I mean, come on.
Speaker 1:I mean, they destroyed their own city for winning the Super Bowl, so I can only imagine how it would go if they lost.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had to grease up the light posts so they couldn't climb them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that wouldn't be the reason, I think, to grease poles for. But Philly, philly, you got it going bro.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I mean, it's definitely an interesting scenario when fans become fanatic. I mean that's what fan is short for fanatic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you have what's it called herd mentality.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, one person does it, everybody else doesn't.
Speaker 1:One person does it. Everybody's about to jump on. That's how you get mass. You know wide panic and everything.
Speaker 2:Well, I can certainly understand them being upset with the poor play from Deshaun. For the Browns' sake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would be upset about that contract.
Speaker 2:Well, the contract and then all the lawsuits and stuff. I mean talk about a fall from grace man. You know he had everything going when he was with the Texans and it just straight down the tubes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you even had a team come in and pay top dollar the highest paid quarterback at the time and you weren't even on the field. So I mean either he had some really good character and a really good agent at the time.
Speaker 2:Uh, I was flabbergasted when the browns came out, was like, yeah, we'll give him 122 million that's because they knew he was going to atlanta if they didn't just blow him away with an offer. No pun intended there, but yeah, speaking of just ridiculousness, so there was an interview with the Cowboys owner, jerry Jones. And Jerry Mr Jones, yes, jerry, classic Jerry Mr Jones, yes, jerry, classic Jerry, you know, when he's not sitting here berating the media, that has him on every week when they straight ask him you know what's going on with our team, and it was this part of the plan. And he basically tells these guys that you know you're replaceable. I could replace you tomorrow. And it's like nervous laughter from these guys Like, oh my God, is he serious? Am I about to lose my job? Because I asked a question that every Dallas fan wants to know what is going on with their team.
Speaker 1:You know like was this part of the plan? You know what's going on. They're the Cowboys.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 1:They paid Dak.
Speaker 2:Prescott, you know they had to do that, but you know they have this interview with McCarthy where he's asked about the team and asked why they didn't go for Derrick Henry and why they don't have him on the team and he said something to the effect of he wouldn't have been a good fit for the team. You know or no? Jerry said it. My bad Jerry said that. He said that Derrick Henry would not be a good fit for Dallas. I challenge anybody out there other than Zeke who's in their running back room, like, unless you're a Dallas fan, I'm not really sure. Actually, they have what's his name?
Speaker 1:From the Vikings, vikings.
Speaker 2:You mean on their practice squad?
Speaker 1:No, he's on the active roster now.
Speaker 2:Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook Is on the active roster.
Speaker 1:Unless they put him back on the practice squad. I think he's on the practice squad. We'll find out.
Speaker 2:But the point I'm trying to make is Derrick Henry only signed an $8 million deal with the Ravens and he is looking like the Derrick Henry. He's always been with them and they needed a running back. And Derrick Henry lives in Dallas and even said if they called I would have listened. And Jerry Jones is like he wouldn't fit into Mike McCarthy offense. What Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1:I think Derrick Henry would fit in any offense he wants to be in. To be honest with you, yeah, what a bad thing.
Speaker 2:You know I'm going to turn around and hand the ball off to this 250-pound running back.
Speaker 1:I mean, he just showed us he has speed, you know, he can run anybody over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was clocked at 21 miles an hour on the Monday night game.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they told that to Lamar and Lamar's like wow, and Lamar's fast. So Lamar's like wow, yeah, but it's just this foolishness from Dallas where they sit here and say things like no, we're good, we don't need it here, and say things like no, we're good, we don't need it. And then you know you have troy achman calling out dallas for for their, their play calling, and he's saying it's coaching. He's saying the coaching is lacking because they're they're looking sloppy and they're not putting in effort and he says that comes from the coaching I'd love to see what j Jones' fantasy team looks like.
Speaker 2:It's called the Dallas Cowboys, no we don't need that. But Jerry.
Speaker 1:It's called the Cowless Dowboys, so nobody catches on to them.
Speaker 2:Look, jerry sides with Troy in the argument. So if I'm Mike McCarthy I'm probably like let me dust off that resume real quick. I might need it here after the season's over, because if Jerry is already coming out against you when the media is criticizing you, it's not going to look good for you at the end of this year.
Speaker 1:They just need to turn it around.
Speaker 2:The only thing he can do to save his job is win the Super Bowl, and Dallas is far from getting there. They're not looking like a team that can make a deep run.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not when you have to go through a team like Philly. And now the commanders oh, look at the way they're looking.
Speaker 2:That's just in division.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just your division. You can't get out of your division. Don't even talk about the rest of the conference or the NFL yet I mean the Lions and the Vikings you know, yeah, they had an awesome game this Sunday.
Speaker 2:I mean, that game was In fact, the Cowboys, I think, faced the Lions already, and the Lions yeah, the Lions stomped them, Just stomped them, yeah, but the thing that was crazy about that lions vikings game is it was it finished up 31 to 29 and it came down to a field goal. But in the beginning the lions, like, were far and away looked like they were going to run away with this game. They pulled out, had had a good lead and then all of a sudden the Vikings started making a little bit of a comeback. They'd stopped the Lions on a few drives, got the ball back, they went down and scored and they just kept chipping away and chipping away and it kept looking like okay, wait, are the Vikings going to win this game? And no, no, it came down to who had the ball last, like it normally does they got that late field goal?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they got the late field goal to win.
Speaker 1:And hats off to them, because the Vikings were looking pretty dominant and what?
Speaker 2:But they did some stuff in that game. That shows the coaching of those two teams. Yeah, now I mean the Vikings. They've been having a stellar defense all year. They've been fooling I mean, they whooped up on my 49ers, so sorry to say, but they were doing something the Lions did. The Lions were taking, and now Brian Flores likes to set up where he has multiple people at the line and you don't know who's coming. There's going to maybe be two guys with their hands on the ground. The rest of the guys are going to be standing up. You don't know who's coming, you don't know who's dropping back, you just don't know.
Speaker 2:So, what the Lions were doing, and they did this a couple times where they would motion a receiver over, and they actually did it to Van Ginkle, one of the times I saw where Patrick, their receiver, was motioned over and his job was not to run a route. His job was to chip on Van Ginkle or block him entirely, and it actually set up a lot of plays doing that by altering their ability to send a free rusher and to just manipulate the offensive line by doing these weird stunts or backing off the defenders and making it look like they're going to come, but they're not. So they just totally gave them something they hadn't seen before, which was kind of cool. You know, the game within the game. Yeah, the chess match. Yeah, I mean, it essentially was just a giant chess match.
Speaker 1:You like to see games like that. That's good coaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, you like to see good coaching. That's competitive coaching, I mean.
Speaker 1:Competitive play.
Speaker 2:That's what you want, you don't. Yeah, I you want, you don't. I mean, let's face it, everybody loves when their team is blowing somebody out, but if it's not your teams and you're just watching the game, you kind of want to see it close back and forth. I'm not gonna lie blowouts I like.
Speaker 1:I like close games, I like competitive games, right, um, and I may have been knocking it a little bit when we were talking earlier, but the Bucs-Ravens game, right, I mean, the Bucs were so far down and out, but you like to see a team that's going to play hard to?
Speaker 2:the end. They were trying to make a comeback.
Speaker 1:And they almost did. They finally got it together. But I like to see that kind of as they say, that kind of moxie that kind of grit.
Speaker 2:We still have time on the clock. We're going to keep playing until the final whistle. I love that too, but unfortunately for them, that game really screwed them up. They lost Mike Evans earlier in the game to a hamstring injury. Lord knows when he'll be back. Right now he's projected like week 11, possibly. And the worst one of all their leading receiver, I think I mean he's been stellar this year Chris Godwin, he suffered a dislocated ankle. It was so bad, yeah, it was so bad that the announcers even said, yeah, we're not showing this play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a good call, I think.
Speaker 2:It was in less than a minute left in the game. So it's kind of like you know, unfortunately, the media. And then you know kind of part of it. But the media sits here and asks Todd Bowles. They're like, why did you still have him in? Why did you have him on the field? Shouldn't you protect your players? Shouldn't you take them off the field? He knew that was going to happen. Injuries are part of football. I mean you ask most of these NFL players? I mean they happen in practice. Most of these NFL players, they've seen some gruesome injuries and what normally happens the cart comes out, they take them off the field, they keep playing. It's just the nature of the game. It's always been there. So you can't take the violence out of football. It's what it is and it's what people love about football.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now the Bucs. They might be down Evans, they might be down Godwin, but I think they're still going to roll because Jalen McMillan is an up-and-comer, k Dotton has broken out as a tight end.
Speaker 2:Well, he didn't that game.
Speaker 1:No, If you look at his last two to three games he's been putting up, he said have a good game.
Speaker 2:He's going to need a lot more of that.
Speaker 1:Well, he's found a spot in that offense. This was his biggest game. And then they have, you know, Bucky Irving and Rashad White.
Speaker 2:Don't forget about Slayton.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Slayton too, so I think that the Bucks are still going to roll.
Speaker 2:They're going to have to figure it out. I hate to say it. You can't just lose your two best receivers and expect that things are just going to keep going hunky-dory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they might not be as explosive.
Speaker 2:No, they're just going to have to scheme better. This is where coaching is going to have to really take front and center and they're going to have to figure out how to play without those guys. I mean, thankfully Mike Evans will be back and they can kind of absorb the loss of Chris Godwin, but it still sucks regardless. But you know, I'm sure they'll be okay. It's going to wind up being them or Atlanta winning the division. So I mean because, let's face it, the rest of that division is not going to do anything.
Speaker 1:I'm taking Tampa and actually they meet up week eight again Atlanta and Tampa.
Speaker 2:Well, it would be a game that's important for them, because whoever wins the season series of that is probably going to have the chokehold on the division, then you have to have the better record regardless.
Speaker 1:Unless Kirk Cousins really gets hot down the stretch. I mean, Atlanta's had trouble finding their traction. The Bucs have been hot out of the gate. They just need to adjust. I think they're in a better position.
Speaker 2:So a team that has been surprising a few folks is the Broncos yeah. They're looking really good on defense. I'm so excited to talk about the Broncos. Yeah, they're looking really good on defense. I'm so excited to talk about the Broncos the offense is like they're trying, they're getting there, they're getting there. I mean they have a rookie quarterback, so I mean you can't expect them to be stellar, I mean because he wasn't the number one pick. He's not like the highest rated quarterback coming out, but he's doing some work.
Speaker 1:You know I'm really excited for this. I haven't wanted to talk about the Broncos since Peyton Manning.
Speaker 2:That's taken it back a while.
Speaker 1:Of course, manning's been out a while I should tell you a lot more, and before them, terrell Davis.
Speaker 2:I think something more interesting came out of that Broncos-Saints game and it wasn't part of the game, so Sean Payton was the Saints coach.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows. You know he won a Super Bowl there. He's beloved there, Maybe not so much because he came in and beat the Saints with the Broncos, but Well, he won that Super Bowl in a very crucial time for the city.
Speaker 2:There was a moment after the game and some people did some lip reading with one, alvin Kamara, and it kind of looked like Kamara said to Peyton, come get me Meaning, come on, trade for me, get me out of here, let me come be part of the Broncos, and there's been a lot of denial that that's what happened. But come on now, if your team is not performing so well, you're on a franchise that's in cap hell and they're not really ascending. They're going to possibly be cutting and trying to reduce their cap and you're seeing the downfall of paying everybody, which is what happens. You can't pay everyone and then keep everyone, so you're going to have to make some cuts. So he's probably looking out for him because trade deadline's coming up.
Speaker 1:I think it's feasible. I don't, I mean we'll entertain it for now.
Speaker 2:Look, if you are a team in the NFL the Cowboys and you need a running back, you're not even the Commander's fan. A team in the NFL the Cowboys and you need a running back? Y'all better be getting on the phone, you're not even the Commander's fan.
Speaker 2:You need to get on the phone and call and say Saints, what is it going to take for us to get your running back, alvin Kamara? And again, I say this again the Cowboys would be idiots not to do that, but if you know you need a running back, you. I say this again the Cowboys would be idiots not to do that, but if you know you need a running back, you know you do. Go get him.
Speaker 1:I mean because hey, let them tell you. No, If I'm Kamara and you're telling me you traded me to the Cowboys, this late in my career, I'm retiring now. Okay, I don't think so. The only reason I think that this is even a possibility is because he's his age, because he's 29. Older, running backs I mean most older players teams will try to get that last little bit of draft value out of them. Exactly that's why I think he's try to get that last little bit of draft value out of them.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's why I think he's going to get traded and that's why I think the best thing to do if you're a running back needy team, he's already shown he still has it, he does, he's been playing well this season. But go get him. Go get him, improve your team. You know like we have so many teams right now, and not to go back to my Niners, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1:You know, we have Debo who has pneumonia, Couldn't play.
Speaker 2:We lost. And you know what? I saw this play happen Ayuk he's out for the season because he took a hit right to the knee from a defender when he was already being tackled. You could see the knee buckle. I feared that it was going to be more of an ACL, and it is. It's an ACL and MCL tear, Not sprain tear of both. Now he's done for the year, so they're without him. They're already without. Debo. Jennings was out with a hip injury. It's no wonder we lost to the Chiefs. I mean, we didn't play well enough to win that game period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a struggle, cmc, like you said. I'll add on to that. This goes into another topic we were hot on earlier. What do you think about Mahomes manipulating the game like that?
Speaker 2:You're talking about his run to the outside.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then taking off.
Speaker 2:Well, I think we need to put a little more context on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do that, let's put some more context.
Speaker 2:Everybody saw this 35 yard run that mahomes made and what he's doing is he's using the rules to his advantage. Like you can't really touch quarterbacks, you know. Like if they're, if they're on the run and they slide and you happen to go to tackle them and they lean back and you hit their head, 15 yard penalty. If they're going towards the sideline and you happen to go to tackle them and they lean back and you hit their head, 15-yard penalty. If they're going towards the sideline and you hit them out of bounds. And because it's a quarterback, because you could do it to a running back, you could shove a running back out of bounds, you could shove a receiver out of bounds. The second it's a quarterback flag. They're going to throw the flag.
Speaker 2:So what he did is he kind of slowed up and tiptoed like he was going to go out of bounds and then turned and tiptoed along the sidelines and then kept going. And it's not the first time he's done this. He's done this multiple times in his career where he fakes like he's going out and he's starting to do a little bit of the Eli where's my flag? Routine every time he gets touched. So he's not only starting to do the Eli throw my hands up. Where's my flag gesture.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But he's starting to play like him.
Speaker 1:Very Diva-like.
Speaker 2:Well, no, no, no. I'm not saying Diva-like, I'm saying numbers-like. Mahomes has more picks this season than he does touchdown passes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean statistically, he's having like a middle-of-the-road season right now. Oh it's more of the middle. It's more of the middle and I mean I get that their team is dealing with some injuries.
Speaker 2:But, I mean even as a dual threat quarterback, he's still just not all there. In a game against the Niners, he has only 154 passing yards and two picks. His completion percentage is less than 60. So let's give that some context.
Speaker 1:That was just one game right, that's just one game.
Speaker 2:That's a game against the Niners, so if we want to give that a little bit of context, we'll go to your Commander's game. So we all know that Jaden Daniels went down with a rib injury so he got bumped out of the game, that Jaden Daniels went down with a rib injury so he got bumped out of the game. If I told you before this weekend that Marcus Mariota would have a better passing percentage and more touchdown passes than Patrick Mahomes, you would have told me I was smoking crack, Probably weed. No, you would have said it's crap, because it's so absurd that a backup quarterback is going to come in and have a better passing day than Patrick Mahomes. So Marcus Mariota comes in passes for 205, has two touchdowns and a 78% completion percentage. So that's a backup quarterback outplaying Patrick Mahomes. Now, granted, I know we're just pulling numbers out of random games and telling you about them, yeah, but the fact still remains Patrick Mahomes has more picks than touchdown passes this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, kind of like Eli Manning did a lot in his career.
Speaker 1:He led in interceptions. He was a turnover machine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he benefited from a strong defense. Hmm, sounds familiar, mm-hmm. And a good running game. Hmm, sounds familiar, and a good running game Sounds familiar. Now, there's one thing that Patrick has that you cannot deny he has that clutch gene that man finds a way, and some of that could be who's clutching gene? Not a clutching?
Speaker 1:gene Sorry, my genes clutch my knees, not a clutching jean Sorry, my jeans clutch my knees.
Speaker 2:But part of that might also come from the coaching that he's getting from Andy Reid. Andy Reid is a very good coach and he's been a very good coach for many years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that, Andy Reid. Solid, there's a few of them out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, the good ones usually stick around for a while.
Speaker 1:The smart ones? Well, the smart organizations keep the smart coaches if they can recognize what they have.
Speaker 2:Well, sometimes you need to let things work out. Yeah, it's kind of like you have to build to a team. You can't just like there are teams that they draft and they build and they develop and they make.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a standard right Like even if your team doesn't make the playoffs in the first three to five years, you should see a notable amount of progress towards that goal, which, by the is part of why Rivera lost his job. There were times where they were competitive, but they just never got to the next step. Right.
Speaker 2:Well, I think also part of that is you also have to have a good GM, Because you can have a great coach and have a crap GM. I mean you need to hit on draft picks. I agree you need to have. I mean, granted, you can bring in free agents. You can't make your team off of free agents. You've got to be able to.
Speaker 1:Free agents should be. So there's two types of free agents right. There's affordable free agents you just try to fill a need, and then there's big acquisition for agents. Okay, free agents to fill the holes. If you're rebuilding, budget wise, right. But if you're going after big names, you should feel like you're ready to be a super bowl contender yeah, but sometimes those fill-ins can turn into more than that.
Speaker 2:I mean's where you get players like Cordell Patterson. You'd go down a laundry list of teams he's been on, but when he was there he filled special teams needs. He came out as a receiver or he came out as a running back. He would fill a need, but he also was able to cover other positions and other things on the field, which made him even more valuable. So you there's fill a need, utility players, as we like to call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know another good name also taking it back. You know, back to the day. I live in the past so bear with me but denard robinson, when he came out with the Jags, his team designation, his position designation was X Factor for his first season, just a utility player.
Speaker 2:Never seen it, since it was kind of off the wall.
Speaker 1:But I thought it was an interesting mention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it was kind of a funny thing that they did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm good for funny things. Well, speaking of funny, well, probably not so funny to the Texans, but they lost to the Packers off the last second, they were a lot more competitive without Nico Collins, by the way, that I think they deserve a lot of credit. The Packers I don't think I know there's people talking about them. I'm not hearing much chatter. The Packers are a lot better than people give them, I think, credit for I mean Jordan Love's balling out. Jacob's is balling out.
Speaker 2:We were just talking about building.
Speaker 1:That's strictly what they did, I mean, did they've been?
Speaker 2:drafting and developing players. They have good offensive players and good defensive players that are making contributions that they drafted, not players that they went out and got players they drafted. I mean, if you need a better example of that, look at their quarterback they drafted him, they sat him, they developed him. Well, that's kind of funny because they did that before with Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. So they have been taking a formula of draft, develop, move up, and they've been doing it for years. So it's no surprise that you're looking at their team and going, oh, look at that, who's that? Who's that guy? Oh, my God, that guy's producing. You know when it's like okay, well, one week it's Jalen Reed putting up points, the next week it's Dontavious Wicks, then the next week it's Romeo Dobbs and then Tucker Craycraft putting up points. I mean, it's like are they just sitting in the back spinning a roulette wheel?
Speaker 1:And these guys are young, right, jordan Love is 25. He's the oldest of the bunch. All of their receivers are 24 or younger Dontavion Wicks, romeo Dobbs, and what was the other one we were just looking at? I hate being put on the spot.
Speaker 2:Jaden Reed, it's funny that you say that Love is the old guy at 25.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's the oldest of that bunch. They're young. These guys are balling out right now, man, can you imagine if they stayed together and continued to continue to develop? I mean, this is a good Packers offense and the defense is pretty good too yeah, I mean they're, they're, they're a work in progress.
Speaker 2:They've they've drafted a few corners that are developing and you know they still have Alexander, who's been a staple for them. But you know it was a really good game. It was a very back and forth game and mixon was having a day. I mean he got, he got a russian touchdown and it was kind of funny. He tried to do the lambo leap with the one texan fan, yeah, in the stand and then there's some controversy around that one too well, the packers?
Speaker 2:uh, fan is like shoving his head and like trying to push him down, like no, no, you don't do the leap here. You don't do the leap as a visitor. And then some fan you know fan is short for fanatic he throws a beer at him, you know, throws a beer on him, and then the guy gets thrown out, yeah, but then he's suddenly back in the stadium. I think they just took him outside like don't do that again yeah, it is getting a little talking to yeah game I'm talking to, but I mean that the one thing in that game, though, the texans had it.
Speaker 2:They were right there. They were right there, they almost had the game, because they took the ball down. They were right there. They just couldn't punch it into the, into the end zone, giving the Packers a chance, because all they did was kick a field goal and gave the Packers a chance to drive down and kick their field goal to win.
Speaker 1:You know, because they were only, they were only, they were only up one point, they only. Yeah, it was a pretty close game in the end and to add to that, you know, josh Jacobs, switching to the other team here, caught his first career receiving touchdown.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's on receiving catch 211. Mm-hmm, so imagine if you're a receiver, yeah, imagine if you're a receiver context for you there you're, you're in the league and it takes you 211 receptions to get up get your first touchdown. I don't think you would be in the league anymore yeah, yeah, if you're a receiver, that's terrible and.
Speaker 1:Or a tight end.
Speaker 2:But that just proves he's a pass catching back, but it took him until 211 receptions to get his first touchdown reception. So kudos to him to finally get it, and his teammates, I know, gave him a little bit of razzing over it, but you know. Kudos to him. So you know the other game that you probably were interested in but it's your division because you're a Washington fan Watching the Eagles just demolish the Giants. I mean they sacked their quarterback eight times.
Speaker 1:Honestly, if you knew who my ex-girlfriend was, I kind of loved it.
Speaker 2:It was just wild man. It seemed like every play on defense for the Eagles they were in or around the quarterback of the Giants. They were just in his face.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The entire game.
Speaker 1:What did they say? Was this a seven sacks, eight, eight sacks? Do we know the game record? Do we have that on?
Speaker 2:hand. Oh, it's probably way more than that, but it's just wild. And then, you know, saquon gets his little bit of a you know middle finger to his old team. That I mean quite honestly, as an organization, how do you let your best player go to a division rival and not only go to a division rival, but come back and show you guys up in your house, like, come on, I mean, they're just looking like Clown City here, you know.
Speaker 1:Man. Okay, so we got a couple things left here on this episode, week 8. What game are you picking and who are you taking to win it For week 8.? Hmm, I already know who mine is. It's going to be a very interesting game on that one. Well, say it Honestly, I'm eager to see and I'm hoping Jaden Daniels comes back. I'm eager to see Commanders Bears, the GameGuard Flex to the 430 game, caleb Williams facing off against Jaden Daniels. These two teams are rolling right now. They have found a way. Uh, both have rookie quarterbacks. Uh, I, I want to see this game right here. It's not just because I'm a commanders fan. Httr. All my lovers, um, should have said that. Anyway, I like that. That's my game, though. That's my pick Washington, chicago, and you know I'm going to be a little biased. I'm going to take the Commanders on this one, even if Marcus Mariota is at the helm of the offense. I give it a go.
Speaker 2:I have two games and I know you're going to think that I'm going to choose Cowboys 49ers, but I'm not. I'm not choosing that.
Speaker 1:Well, you're better than me.
Speaker 2:The teams. I think the two games that I'm choosing, that Ials is going to be one stellar game because you've got two teams that kind of have stellar offenses, but the Bengals can't stop the run for nothing. So Saquon's going to eat, he's going to be all over that field, they're going to feed him my opinion but the Eagles, their secondary is trash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they haven't played well.
Speaker 2:So now you've got Chase, You've got Higgins, and then, oh, I forget the rookie's name. But like, who are you going to pick? Who are you going to defend? Well, you've got the running backs, oh, I forget the rookie's name. But who are you going to pick? Who?
Speaker 1:are you going to defend? Well, you've got the running backs too now.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, because the running backs do catch out of the backfield Moss and Brown. They both catch out of the backfield but like you've got two teams going against each other, that their weakness on defense is the success of the offense of the other team, so we could see fireworks in that game. It is a nice that could be a high score game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is a nice yin and yang matchup. I'll give you that.
Speaker 2:But there's one more game. Okay, one more game Buffalo-Seattle. That is going to be a very interesting game, very interesting game.
Speaker 1:I agree with you there. I'm interested to see how Seattle handles that Buffalo defense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Seattle. Give them all the credit in the world. They went over and they beat Atlanta in their house and they look good doing it. We'll see if they have Medcalf Medcalf dealing with some injuries, but even if they don't, they still have a good receiving core without him. But if you have a Medcalf-type player, you still want them on the field. But it would be very interesting that game. But that's not going to be the focus of our picks. Who's your upset? Upset pick? Who's your upset? Who do you think is going to be the upset team?
Speaker 1:Let's take a look here. We've got some good matchups here. We've talked about a few good matchups here. Honestly, and you know know, I'm not particularly hating on the jets. I'm probably more hating on aaron rogers and some of these things. You know the new york packers over here, um, I'm taking new england to hand it to the jets. I don't think the jets quite have it figured out. Um, I think on paper they should be balling out.
Speaker 2:So you're thinking that Gerard Mayo's comment about his team being soft is going to ignite them to beat up the Jets?
Speaker 1:No, I don't. I mean that might help a little bit, but honestly, no, I mean we just saw the Steelers take it to them. I know they just got Devontae Adams. He wasn't really involved in the first game script. That was kind of expected. I'm eager to see if they get involved in the next one. I think the Patriots are a little better than people give them credit for. I think the Jets are a little worse than people give them credit for. I'd like to see the Patriots take that win. That's my upset pick of the week.
Speaker 2:So for me I feel like my upset pick. I like divisional matchups. Divisional matchups, it always seems like you, oh it's going to be easy, win, we're fine.
Speaker 1:I just picked a divisional matchup though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I know you picked one, but I like them too. I feel that when it comes down to divisional matchups this week the one that is going to come through where the team might upset, I think the Raiders have a chance to upset the Chiefs. And the reason I think that it's a chance to upset the Chiefs and the reason I think that it's a divisional matchup.
Speaker 2:I like that those Raiders are a handful every time they play the Chiefs. I mean one of the times they beat them. They circled their stadium and their bus to rub it in that they beat them.
Speaker 1:I like that pick.
Speaker 2:Right now, on offense, the Chiefs have not been looking good. I mean, they find a way, but the Raiders just play them tough and I feel like for me, give me that game, you know, hand them their first loss. I'm not hating on the Chiefs, no.
Speaker 1:I like that pick. Unfortunately, it's a good matchup for the Chiefs offense. The Raiders don't have a very good defense. They're not very good at anything right now, but I think if the Chiefs are going to well, I got to see their schedule right. I like the pick because I really want to see the Chiefs get an L, and that's not against the Chiefs, that's just the way I am.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you know how it goes when you feel like you see your team going for that layup win against a well. I don't want to say a sorry team, but a team that's not performing well.
Speaker 1:Neither of them are doing extraordinarily well.
Speaker 2:I'm just about to say, the Chiefs are undefeated.
Speaker 1:They're undefeated, but I think if they get a loss, I could see their first loss coming in the division. You know, I know they're in a division with what the Chargers, the Raiders, are the other one, you know, it's just and the Broncos yeah, Honestly, I'm going to piggyback off yours.
Speaker 2:I like the Raiders to get this upset this weekend.
Speaker 1:Oh, so I've convinced you. No, I kind of liked it from the beginning. I mean the matchupup different. I kind of like the raiders a little more than the chiefs, but the chiefs gotta, the chiefs gotta gotta crack at some point. But I really like, uh, if the broncos can get it together, man, they can win that division well, they gotta beat the chiefs yeah, I, yeah, I'm aware of that. That's why they're in the conversation.
Speaker 2:So I wonder, just based on the fact that you know the chiefs are riding on their defense and their offense isn't quite hitting on all cylinders, I mean, yeah, they, they had a good performance out of the running back yeah this past weekend and they and they did hand the 49ers the loss, but the Niners played horribly.
Speaker 2:We're missing a lot of pieces. I know everybody's going to say you know what team isn't hurt, what team isn't missing players, but you can't win games throwing interceptions all the time. You can't win games by getting a subpar performance out of your quarterback. Yep, you know your defense at some point is going to falter and you need to be able to keep that up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you have to put points on the board and more than field goals.
Speaker 2:Right, right, so should they be a little concerned? I mean, yeah, it's, it's weird to say a six and no team is concerned, but should they be?
Speaker 1:well it. I think it depends on how much you believe in what they do and what they're good at. If I'm the Chiefs, I'm a little worried right now. You're down Hollywood. You're down Rasheed Rice. You're down Schuster Pacheco. You're down Pacheco. Kelsey's taking a little bit of time to catch traction. Mahomes is playing at a subpar level. You know, if I'm Andy Reid, I'm trying to figure it out right now.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, their defense right now is holding running backs under 100 yards. They have not allowed a single 100-yard rusher this season. The most yardage they have given up was this past weekend and it was only 58 yards to Mason, who is the second leading rusher in the NFL right now. So their defense is playing outstanding, but, let's face it, you can't rely on that. I mean, I know the Ravens did it years ago, but they had multiple Hall of Famers on that defense.
Speaker 1:Well, they had not only that, but let's get real. Joe Flacco was around back then. No, that wasn't Joe Flacco, that was right before Joe Flacco.
Speaker 2:That was Trent Dilford was their quarterback at the time.
Speaker 1:In 03?
Speaker 2:02, 03. He was the one that they won the Super Bowl with, because it's always a joke when people are like, well, trent Dilford has a Super Bowl trophy, dan Marino doesn't.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you're right. The starting quarterback was actually Kyle Bowler in 2003. I don't know if he's the one that finished with them. I'm just pulling up some random facts here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we're leading into getting closer to halloween and, uh, I think it might be a be a fun thing to do for our listeners.
Speaker 1:Uh, oh yeah, let's do. We're gonna do our first fan interaction. All right, we're gonna try to do this every week, but since it's halloween, we do something. Halloween y'all we want to know. Okay, we're going to put it on a Facebook post, so you can just write it on a Facebook post who do you think the scariest player overall? Who is the scariest player in the NFL and why? You don't have to tell us why. If you just want to name it, that's fine, but you'll see the post on our facebook page. You go to it.
Speaker 2:Just let us know what you think yeah, and that's scariest player right now, not past I mean yeah, yeah scariest player right now. I know people will go, go in the way back machine and start putting up yeah, the scariest mean joe green or the scariest player on an active nfl roster in 2024.
Speaker 1:Who is it? Let us know, we'll go over the results. We'll go over the results. My pick is slinging Sammy Ball. You know a three-way player.
Speaker 2:Well, normally scariest Well, I don't want to say normally, but usually a scariest player is somebody who's going to hit you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who strikes fear into you when you come to that match, like Derek Henry? Oh man, he's a scary player. Let us know who you guys think is worthy of the scariest player right now in the NFL.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of those scary players when it's like, oh God, my team has to face him, that's what we're looking for is who's that player that you're like God? Why? Hopefully? He has an off game. Hopefully he gets hurt, not that we wish injury on him no scariest player.
Speaker 1:Don't scare us player.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Well y'all? I'd like to thank y'all for joining us for another episode. This is still new to us. We appreciate all the listeners, we appreciate all the support and you know.
Speaker 2:Spread the word.
Speaker 1:Spread the word. You know, if you want to hate on us, you can do that too.
Speaker 2:We don't care, don't hate on us, don't openly hate on us anyway. I mean, you can hate on us a little bit, you know, if you want to, if you want to hate on us, you can do that too.
Speaker 1:We don't care, don't, don't hate on us, don't openly hate on us anyway. I mean, you can hate on us a little bit, you know, just give us a little trash talk. So, just give us a chance to respond so we can trash, talk you back. But yeah, you know, thank you.