Green Bay’s Statement, Drake’s Hot Streak, NFL Blowout Day, Flash Sales, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

13:27Bill Simmons:He's trying to concuss himself.

13:29Cousin Sal:He jostled his brain too much because he's trying to hear the play. Not good.

13:32Bill Simmons:So Jordan Love today to put a bow in that Steelers game. He finished with 360, three touchdowns, no picks, completed 20 straight at one point. Thought he needed it. Thought it would have been kind of an underwhelming Jordan Love year. And then on the flip side, I think this has been a gravy season for Rodgers. I thought he was pretty good today. He was under duress the whole time. I thought he was pretty creative, and it's certainly a little better than we ever could have expected with him. I just don't think that's a very good team.

14:03Cousin Sal:This game was not his fault. The defense is going to be a problem. I don't know if he would have taken this gig if he knew the defense was going to be so lackluster, right? Give up between 35 and 40 a game. I will say, though, Rogers, mouthing effing cocksucker, losing his mind, you know, in the first half, like while wearing the bumblebee, half bumblebee, half traffic sign costume. This is kind of pretty funny. So I'll kick out of that.

14:29Bill Simmons:He does have the mid-40s dad golf luck now. Like, you know, the passes, like somebody should have caught the interception, they drop it. It's like the dad hitting the ball down, hits the tree and bounces in the fairway. Basically, all the breaks Dixon gets. Ravens-Bears was the other AFC North game. That's not fair, baby. I'm killing the ball right now. So Ravens had their first win in six weeks. This was a tough Caleb game, and I don't feel like the stats properly reflected it. It was one of those you actually had to watch the game, like some of the red zone stuff, the intentional grounding he took, the way he was missing some guys, and there's just a general lack of craftsmanship slash something with him.

15:20Bill Simmons:And I theorized, I had the fantasy guys on my podcast on Tuesday and we did one crazy prediction at the end of the pod, like the craziest thing you could think of. And I was like, Tyson Bajan's the Bears quarterback in week 13. And we're like, whoa! But I was watching this game thinking like, if they had a better quarterback performance, I think they could have beaten Baltimore today.

15:41Cousin Sal:and he wasn't good enough. You just got that from today because I think he's been... No, it's been every week. Yeah, and he's benefited because Chicago's pulled more turnovers this year than they have through seven weeks than they had all last year or something. So it maybe masked the fact that Caleb Williams is not performing with some good receivers and a good running back and a good tight end and everything else that they set him up with. So I don't know. I would say if you gave Ben Johnson some truth serum right now, Like, he'd be like, I don't know. Bill, you're right. What'd you say? Week 13?

16:15Cousin Sal:I think that's a good over-under.

16:16Bill Simmons:The case I had for on Tuesday was just that they love Bajan. They signed him to an extension during the offseason, and they went out of their way to talk about how great he is and what an incredible teammate and all this stuff. And I don't think it would be a benching, but I just wonder if he got dinged up or something. And I'm just, in the back of my head, I have this scenario where Bajan comes in, and you just feel that flip with the new guy. But Caleb, you know, it was Jada Daniels last year. It's Drake May this year from that draft. And Caleb's never really had his moment. And this was the guy that was supposed to be the franchise dude out of all these guys.

16:54Bill Simmons:But I thought, you know, this is a game. I know it was a kitchen sink game for the Ravens. I like the Ravens today, but they did have Huntley. And it's a game the Bears, I think, could have stolen. I thought they were pretty close in that game. They ended up losing by 14.

17:07Cousin Sal:We saw Captain Kirk. We saw Snoop Huntley. We saw the Red Rifle. All the greats really lined up. Yeah. I don't know. And then there's, well, listen, the league had to fix it, right, Bill? So that the Ravens covered that original Thursday spread that they had. Otherwise, it'd be too many complaints. 30-16.

17:25Bill Simmons:We had a big controversy in our Ringer 107 that you guys talked about in the Sunday pregame. The Ringer 107, one of the teams, is the fantasy show. and Craig wanted to redo the Ravens pick without Lamar. And we had to explain to him that picks lock in and that's it. And, and we just basically ridiculed him for about an hour straight.

17:45Cousin Sal:Yeah,

17:46Bill Simmons:exactly. But yeah, it was, it was kind of adorable.

17:49Cousin Sal:Is that a millennial thing? I don't know.

17:50Bill Simmons:It was kind of adorable that he just thought he got a redo. And then of course they win the bet anyway. Cause the bears, how many times were they inside like the 10 yard line in that game where they didn't get anything? It was at three different times.

18:01Cousin Sal:It looked like a bunch. And that last one was crazy where the offensive lineman was looking for an – like they wouldn't snap the ball. They just wouldn't snap it. And then they had to fire it through the end zone. Right.

18:11Bill Simmons:Yeah, I think they had like first and goal. It felt like it was like at the two or three, and they somehow didn't score to get it. So do we have – do you think our seven NFC playoff teams already? if I gave you Philadelphia, Tampa, Seattle, and the Rams, and then Detroit and San Francisco, and then Green Bay as the seven?

18:37Cousin Sal:Wait, say it again.

18:38Bill Simmons:Philly is the only team in the East, right? Philly, Tampa.

18:41Cousin Sal:Detroit, Green Bay, and the North.

18:43Bill Simmons:Let's give those to the divisions. We'll do three NFC West teams, San Francisco, Seattle, and the Rams, and two in the NFC North, Detroit and Green Bay, and that's just going to be the playoffs.

18:54Cousin Sal:So you're saying Minnesota and Atlanta have sufficiently fallen off. Like they don't, they're not getting that.

19:00Bill Simmons:Like if you had to bet that right now and I gave you door A, these are the seven. Door B, anybody else can crash the party. I think I would pick those seven. Interesting.

19:09Cousin Sal:I've been watching a lot of prices write AI things with Bob Barker giving ridiculous prices. I think you're right. I'll send you a hundred of them and then you'll - If there's AI prices, right? You'll do nothing else.

19:21Bill Simmons:I don't even understand what that is. It was like Bob Barker with a fat guy.

19:25Cousin Sal:Yeah, because I think you could take advantage of dead people more if you're AI. I don't know what they think now. But yeah, like a fat guy getting an all-you-can-eat buffet and going nuts. But anyway, I would say that's the seven. Washington not sneaking in. My terrible team's not sneaking in. I don't like Minnesota at all. We don't like Chicago. I mean, you just run out of teams. And now watch Atlanta.

19:48Bill Simmons:Screw us. So Green Bay, Tampa, Philly, Detroit, they don't have all the teams up yet. I was going to try to figure out a good fan duel if that was a parlay. I think that's better than even odds. So if you had to pick a party crasher, who would you pick? I can't. I'm just trying to think. I don't like Washington. I don't like my team. I think there's a slight Chicago case if they could fit, because I feel like they're hanging around these games. Yeah. Minnesota, no. I think that too much has happened for them.

20:17Cousin Sal:It would have to be Chicago. It's not going to be Arizona in the West, right? It's not going to be any of the South teams. I think it's either Chicago or Atlanta just eats us up again like they always do. But I like the seven. I would take the seven. I would take that prize, the seven you picked out.

20:33Bill Simmons:Well, and then the 49ers lost to the Texans today. And I felt this was one of the ones I liked the most this week because I thought the Niners really smoke and mirrors last week. And you could do that for a week when you don't have any guys on defense, but then you can just look at the tape and see what they did and go, oh, they're doing this. Okay. Stroud looked really good. Wasn't getting pressured at all. Didn't have Nico Collins. There was a lot of Woody Marks. He had his young receivers, but he just looked like the Stroud from two years ago again. And San Francisco's defense did not look salvageable to me, and yet I still think they're going to make the playoffs.

21:12Bill Simmons:They're 5-3, and I think they can get probably four more wins, maybe five, but they'll be in the 9 or 10 range.

21:20Cousin Sal:But how many more injuries do they suffer, right? I guess if McCaffrey went out, who's bulletproof at this point? As long as McCaffrey doesn't go out, what are we looking at here with San Francisco? Because McCaffrey's the only one, yeah.

21:37Bill Simmons:Yeah. Maybe somebody in the offensive line.

21:41Cousin Sal:I mean, they allowed 475 yards, and they gained 223. McCaffrey did almost nothing. I still would say they're a playoff team because the NFC is weak, but you're right. I mean, Stroud threw to nine guys, and that really did look like rookie CJ Stroud.

21:56Bill Simmons:Yeah, the Jalen Noel I like. I think he's, I think they might have something with them. And I've liked Woody Marks. I've had him on all my fantasy teams for a couple weeks, kind of waiting for the moment. It feels like there's five or six guys with the exact same body on different teams, and I have most of them, but it's Kamani Vidal, RJ Harvey, Woody Marks, Travion Henderson. There's just a certain prototype running back. Are you looking at their bodies? No, they're like these 5 '9", 5 '10", like power, speed, like can catch the ball out of the backfield. There's just all over the place now in the league.

22:32Bill Simmons:I think Harvey might be my favorite out of all of them. And Denver unleashed him a little bit today, but it just feels like...

22:38Cousin Sal:I didn't like him that much today, but yeah, I could see why you might be a fan.

22:41Bill Simmons:I'm sorry about that. That was tough for you. But yeah, anyway, Houston got back into it. Kitchenson game for them. They're not going to catch Indianapolis because I don't think anybody is, but I think they can still, you know.

22:54Cousin Sal:Well, I wonder what they are. They were minus 400 to make the playoffs. Houston was? Before the year? No, no, before this week. And now they are... Wait, I'm sorry. Now they're... Houston was minus 400 to make it. To not make the playoffs. Sorry, yeah, yeah. and now I can't even find them. Why would they take them off? Is there an injury? Probably because of the pitchfork. Plus 260 to make it. I don't know about that.

23:25Bill Simmons:So who are your seven in the AFC then? If you give me Buffalo and the Pats, one AFC North team, Indianapolis, Denver and KC, that's five. So then you'd have the Chargers would be lurking. You don't want to give three to the West? that would be the Chargers would be probably the number one pick.

23:47Cousin Sal:I think so.

23:49Bill Simmons:Maybe there's going to be a bad AFC team is what's actually how it's going to play out I think. Right? It'll be like Jacksonville

23:59Cousin Sal:or if it's three in the West and you get two in the East then you just have the division champs from the North and South. Oh yeah, you're right. Yeah.

24:07Bill Simmons:Yeah, you're always better at this thing. Oh man. So the Chargers would be the 7th then?

24:12Cousin Sal:Yeah, I would think so. I mean, you should start thinking about who you want to play here. I tried to get you going last week, but you're like, no, we're getting a bye. I'm like, all right, whatever. But if you don't get a bye, you'd rather have the Chargers come to Foxborough than like Denver, right?

24:32Bill Simmons:I can't wait to talk about this. Let's take a break, and then we're going to talk about blowout day. The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. basketball's back. FanDuel's putting you in control right from tip-off. Every day to start the season, choose your reward. Play it safe, go for it. Feeling bold, that's your move. Whatever your style, you're in control. What kind of better are you? I like to basically ride teams that look way better than I thought they were going to be or way worse in the first few weeks of the season. I'm all in on this Spurs team being a 50-win team if they can stay healthy.

25:04Bill Simmons:Conversely, very concerned about the Celtics, and they're in New Orleans on Monday night. And it turns out not having Jason Tatum and not having centers and not being able to rebound is a bigger obstacle than I thought. So I would look at buying San Antonio, selling the Celtics. Anyway, however you play Fando is giving you the power to choose your award. Own your game every single day to start the NBA season. Head to Fando.com slash BS to make your choice. Must be 21 plus presidents like states or 18 plus and president of D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt-in required. Rewards are non-medrawable. restrictions apply, including bonus and token expiration leg requirements and max wager amount.

25:41Bill Simmons:See terms at sportsbook.fandle.com. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLE or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-888-789-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. So the NBA season is starting. I'm excited about a bunch of different things. We have a lot of teams up in the air. Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana. What are we getting from these teams? The Lakers, can they hang on and still be a top six team? I think I'm most excited for the Texas teams. I want to see Duran in Houston, Cooper Flag in Dallas, and Wemby and Dylan Harper in San Antonio.

26:19Bill Simmons:I feel like I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the state of Texas with my basketball choices. There are a lot of moments worth playing for. The ones that taste best are sort of cold, unlike in Texas where it's usually hot. Whatever happens this season, catch every moment with Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. Getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats. You heard me correctly. A trip to All-Star Weekend, custom merch, and much more. Michelob Ultra Superior is worth playing for. Enter now at Michelob Ultra.com slash courtside. Michelob Ultra courtside 2025 to 2026.

26:57Bill Simmons:No purchase necessary. open to U.S. residents 21 plus begins on October 1st, 2025, ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com slash courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. Blowout day today. What were the favorites? What did the favorites end up today? 10 and... 10 and 2. Including Thursday night? 10 and 2.

27:20Cousin Sal:If you include Thursday, yeah. 10 and 2. And didn't last week the favorites crushed? It was the same. Well, it was 9 and 2. I don't know what we're starting from. All right, what's going on? This, what is happening? What's going on? We're making money. Why are we questioning it?

27:33Bill Simmons:I don't trust this now. The favorites are basically 24 and Thursdays and Sundays.

27:39Cousin Sal:Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to say anything because they've fixed it a little bit as I guess the lines prematurely. Not good. But yeah, it looks like everyone's supposed to win this winning. And yet, I don't know. It's just probably because there's like nine bad quarterbacks out there.

27:56Bill Simmons:where we had seven blowouts and the only one where the underdog blew out somebody was the Dolphins over the Falcons. Where we thought, we did the pod last week, we thought McDaniel was done. Right. He wasn't. They came back, they actually ran the ball. Tua was dying. It's another one you had to see it. Like at one point, Tua, a pass gets tipped in the air and it's up, it's like a, It's almost like a jump ball. Two Falcons defenders. They're like arguing over who should intercept it. And they crash into each other and they drop it. But it was just like one of those games. Then there was another one where Bijan Robinson's basically running the ball.

28:39Bill Simmons:Was it either into the end zone or inside the five? And his knee hits the ball as he's running. And he causes his own fumble. So you had that one. It was just one of those games. But it did seem like McDaniel's going to keep his job. So Tua still looks like Tua. But anyway, blowout.

28:57Cousin Sal:Daniel should keep his job past Halloween. I mean, it's his favorite holiday. It's got to be his favorite holiday, right? So that's a poetic justice. The glasses alone. He can try different glasses every day.

29:06Bill Simmons:Fake glasses. So blowout day. The Broncos killed your team. Bo Nix, who threw for four touchdowns, but also had his typical two overthrows of wide open guys on bombs. I don't know what he's batting on those bombs, but he's got to be like two for 55 this year. Your defense just looked awful. But what was interesting, Dak wasn't good. That was the first kind of rocky Dak game of the year, right? You've watched all of them.

29:32Cousin Sal:He was kind of due for that, something like that. Every facet of this team was bad. Like the defense, the play calling, Schottenheimer. Who's that, Big John Studd? Yeah, Big John Studd. Rest in peace. Yeah, legend. Would you slam him? Could you slam him? Would you take that$15 ,000? I could slam small John Studd.

29:51Bill Simmons:Yeah, not Big John Stutt. Okay.

29:53Cousin Sal:But yeah, Dak sucked. He was bad. And I don't know why a few of my Cowboy fan friends like loved them this week. I was like, guys, you know how this goes, right? Raheem was one of them. I had some other buddies that I was like, they're like, no, we're going to win this plus three and a half. That's a steal. I was like, have you seen our defense? Did you see it two weeks ago against the Panthers? And I think like people misinterpreted that Denver game against the Giants. Like to me, I came out of that like, well, Denver was lucky. but also they scored 33 fucking points in the fourth quarter. And now they have to go up against my defense, right?

30:27Cousin Sal:So whether Bo Nix figures it out in the first quarter, second or third, and then they just ran over everything. I mean, you saw your RJ Harvey guy. So when you don't have a run defense, that's always fun. But yeah, they were bad.

30:40Bill Simmons:I had a lot of Denver stuff, as you know, for the futures with overs and number one seed stuff and alt overs to win the division. Today was the first day I thought they might actually get to like 12 wins, right? They're 6-2, which is kind of hard to believe because I don't even think they've been really that happy with how consistent they've been, especially on defense. But right now I have them with four legitimate wins, zero legitimate losses, and four either or games. And they're going at Texans, home Raiders, home Chiefs at Commanders on a Sunday night which might be like a shit game now right?

31:22Bill Simmons:Because Washington might have been thrown away the season by then at the Raiders in week 14 home Packers home Jags at Chiefs home Chargers a schedule that just looked a lot harder than I think it does now. You know they're at the Texans next week maybe no Nico Collins maybe he comes back that's not going to be an easy game but yeah I think 12 wins is conceivable for them like a 12 and 5

31:46Cousin Sal:I mean, I'd be very surprised if they didn't make the playoffs. I'd be much more surprised if they didn't make it than if the Chargers didn't make it. Both teams blew out their opponents this week, so I think we could compare them equally. But they're minus 355 to make the playoffs. They're too good. I think that defense is one of... I don't know if there's a scarier defense, right? Like, people were against them. They had 15 sacks in three games before today. They constantly pressure the quarterback, right? And that's why Dak was rattled and had to take off more than he needed to. And that's going to screw with some of the bad quarterbacks they have coming up.

32:20Cousin Sal:And everybody does. Everybody's going to play between three. Your team will play all 18 bad quarterbacks. But yeah, everybody's going to play between three and five. We did that before this season. That was the case for them. I know. I know. It's so easy.

32:33Bill Simmons:We have seven cross-off teams, if you include Cleveland, which I think is the new cross-off team.

32:39Cousin Sal:Yeah.

32:40Bill Simmons:So the cross-off teams are the Jets, Browns, Tennessee, Miami, New Orleans, Vegas, and Cleveland. None of those teams are making the playoffs.

32:46Cousin Sal:Oh, we didn't have Cleveland last week? No, we've added them right now. That's good. That's seven. Yeah, that's fine.

32:51Bill Simmons:The Pats have played six of the seven. And we're five and one against the seven cross-off teams.

32:58Cousin Sal:I was thinking about it today. Would you trade the Pats schedule? If someone else could play the Pats schedule, would somebody trade it for a second-round pick coming into this year? And I know people like, what, the schedules have made years in advance? Yes, except for seven games. You don't know if you're playing the fourth place team in the three AFC divisions or the NFC outside of it. But they're good. I'll give you everything. I kick-started maybe again today by tweeting something stupid. What did you tweet? I missed it. When he threw the interception, I posted the video and wrote, the B is back, B-E.

33:39Cousin Sal:And then he made me P-A-Y big time.

33:45Bill Simmons:He, that Browns defense is good. And he was under siege. And it was a really impressive Drake-May game, especially in the third quarter. Garrett was running him off. Garrett had five sacks. I know. May had the worst pass he's had since probably week three when he got picked early. And he just went into that mode. I've never seen a quarterback throw the deep ball better than this. He doesn't miss ever. He hit, like, Buddha today, he had a step on the guy. But when we have a guy down the field and he's got a step, like, May hits him in stride, it feels like, 90 % of the time, not to mention all the other stuff, not to mention the running.

34:24Bill Simmons:And he's been so smart about not taking hits anymore and sliding and sliding two yards too early now instead of, like, putting his head down. He's just trying to stay on the field and making plays. And I think I watch all the social media stuff after the game, as you know. I like to have this has been the best part of the season they show Vrabel stands in the runway and he high fives and hugs every guy coming off and they show all of it and for some reason it's riveting then the post game speech stuff and then the press conference stuff they really believe in Drake as like a special guy like they're starting to talk about it pretty openly like they're like this guy's the MVP this guy's amazing if we have him we got a chance so I don't know I don't know where this goes

35:08Cousin Sal:I don't know what to say either you're right about all of it when they show the stats where he has more 20-plus yard passes in a game than the other team has points. It's depressing. This shouldn't be happening for you. You should have a Cleveland Brown situation. We served our six-year penance. Worse than middle and quarterbacks for 25 years. It's crazy you get right back on the horse like this.

35:28Bill Simmons:I think it's crazier that there was such adamant debate about him heading into that draft.

35:34Cousin Sal:Yeah. Yeah, I know. The henshin everybody redrafting.

35:37Bill Simmons:No, but some people heading into that draft, some people are like, this guy's going to be a bust. This guy's like Mitch Trubisky. He has the tools. He's not going to be able to put it together. And I, I was all in. I really, I was all in on him, but he's way better than I thought. To be this good at this age with this few games and to be this dramatically better than you were a year ago when you had no coach, no weapons, no blocking, you know, they don't have the greatest blocking, but it's okay. The weapons are better. And he's just way smarter about everything. What could I say?

36:09Cousin Sal:He would have had 700 yards against the Steelers today. I hope you won money on him today, at least. No, I did, because they were the second half bet. They were definitely, that was the way to play it, I thought. And yeah, they were rock solid, and he's great. I don't even know, you know, the fact that you moved on from Mac Jones, like other teams would have stayed with him another seven years, and he's fine, but that's what you would have had.

36:29Bill Simmons:You would have had fine. He was sacked six times, and he had a bad pick, and it just didn't matter. he's third for MVP now it's like a three man race for MVP there's no Jonathan Taylor momentum although I think this week it'll be the talking point because it was a pretty boring week for the most part so the next 48 hours will be about why can't Jonathan Taylor be the MVP I'm telling you guys Jonathan Taylor and it's just not happening running backs don't win the MVP and he's not going to win the MVP and he could have two touchdowns every game which is basically what he's doing, it's not going to happen.

37:08Bill Simmons:He's not winning MVP.

37:09Cousin Sal:He's got the Barkley buzz from last year, right, in terms of the running back. In some years, you and I have fallen for it,

37:16Bill Simmons:and we've done this segment, but I'm not doing it anymore. They don't win.

37:18Cousin Sal:No, I don't think they'll win. I will say this. When they kept showing the stat, this is the first time a running back has had three consecutive games with three-plus touchdowns against the same team. I would be like, shut up. I don't want people to know that I'm just beating up on the Titans here. I'm doing good things otherwise. But to your point about Drake May, could this be like a Russell Westbrook year where they give it to not a top two seed? I mean, we're kind of due for that, aren't we? And the same guys win over and over. We saw Mahomes had 15 wins last year and didn't get any votes.

37:54Cousin Sal:I know his stats weren't good, but I think the Bills can win the division and Drake May can win MVP. I really do. I think that's in the cards right now.

38:04Bill Simmons:Well, the question for me is, why couldn't they be a one or a two seed with their schedule? And they're six and two. So could they go seven and two the rest of the way? Or six and three gets them to 12 and five?

38:18Cousin Sal:Yeah, with that. Yeah, sure.

38:20Bill Simmons:It's conceivable. I'll be interested. When's the trade deadline? It's coming up, right?

38:24Cousin Sal:Yeah, I think it's, what is it? The week after Halloween? Or is that that? Yeah, it's right around there.

38:28Bill Simmons:Yeah, I don't. I'll be interested to see if they mess with the team because I think the chemistry is great. All of them are talking about like they play for each other. We love each other. It's one of those teams. And I think it's legit. A lot of it has to do with the guys Brayble went after in the offseason. He went after like all these character dudes like Spillane and Matt Collins and just these guys that and they draft Will Campbell, all of these like just teammate guys. And I don't know if they're going to mess with that. But I still feel like the offensive line, that would be the thing that I think sinks them ultimately.

39:02Bill Simmons:because they just have these stretches where they just feel like they're under siege. And May has been so good. He's been hiding some of it, but that would be my biggest fear.

39:11Cousin Sal:Well, if you get a veteran lineman in there, I don't think it's going to crush team chemistry. I think you'll be fine. Can we talk about somebody else now? Let's talk about your team. Wait, we did. What are you talking about?

39:22Bill Simmons:We did. Blowout number three was Eagles-Giants. Okay, good. Poor Scadaboo. Can't the Giants fans have nice things? Do they have to pay for the sins of the two Super Bowls they never should have won for the rest of their lives? This is just how it goes for them now. It's not their fault that their team won one Super Bowl because of a helmet catch and the other because of an intentional grounding in the end zone that's never been called before since and 19 other terrible calls. And then Eli makes his one throw to Manningham. That's somehow going to get him in the Hall of Fame. And we had Gronk playing with, you know, whatever his injury was.

39:59Bill Simmons:And yeah. Even I feel bad for the Giants fans now.

40:03Cousin Sal:Yeah, I don't. Do we have them as a cross-off? We didn't have them last week, did we? They're a cross-off.

40:09Bill Simmons:We have seven cross-offs. We have Jets, both New York teams.

40:13Cousin Sal:Yeah. Oh, I don't have them as a cross-off yet. No, I don't think we did. We didn't have them because they weren't them. We thought they had some juice. Yeah, and it's not their fault. No more. Like, things would be different. They'll be good next year, right? With Scadabo, neighbors, if Jackson Dart doesn't kill himself, I think they'll be good. I'm not going to complain about the tush push. There was a 180-yard difference in the game, and the Eagles had 10 more first downs. But for God's sakes, are they just going to wait until everyone outside of Philly throws a remote through their television to get rid of this dumb thing?

40:49Cousin Sal:It's not placeable. What are they doing? It's got to go. It's got to go. I hate it.

40:54Bill Simmons:No one can win the division otherwise. I got to push back on your Giants thing a little bit. What is it? Because I think it's been a fun story. People like Dar, people like Scadaboo. Neighbors comes back next year. They have a good pass rush. They have one of the worst run defenses in the recent history of the league. They were giving up 5-2 a game before the game today. And today they gave up, I don't know, like seven. But for all this money and capital and draft pick stuff that they've spent on this front four, you can just ram it down their throats. Now, their linebackers are terrible. And I was thinking like, it's almost like you hire the best chef ever for your restaurant.

41:31Bill Simmons:And then you just get cheap with the waiters and the busboys. And that's kind of what they've done with the linebackers and the D-backs. It's like, cool, you have an awesome chef. Your servers are just dropping the food every time they bring the food out to the table. So congrats.

41:45Cousin Sal:Well, they're not geniuses. Congrats on this great chef. We saw the hard knocks or whatever that was called in the workings of the GM and stuff. So, yeah, they kind of maybe even lucked into how good or talented they are right now. But right now, the only thing Giants fans, the only saving grace is you can watch Brian Dayball, who's just hilarious on the sidelines. I mean, he is, every time they go to him, he's pulling a Costanza, just getting freaked out, pissed off. Like, they can't fire me. Look how mad I am. And it gets better and better and better.

42:15Bill Simmons:I think he should start stress eating during the games. They just cut to him and he's just like fucking eating french fries and bright red going nuts. The Saquon roller coaster for fantasy owners breaks off the long touchdown. You feel like he's headed for the 300-yard game, then gets the groin injury in the third quarter. So that happened. But anyway, I mean, they played two weeks ago. The Giants probably beat them in another dumb Thursday night game, which we've just had a slew of. So it seemed pretty realistic that the Eagles were going to get the revenge.

42:49Cousin Sal:Yeah, a lot of people like taking the 7.5 today. But I'm like, all right, you believe in the revenge factor for Aaron Rodgers for leaving a team he threatened to leave 25 times? But you don't believe it in Philadelphia two weeks later? The better team? But I think the thing is Philly, if we want to talk about Philly for a second, their differential is plus 5 going in, right? And now they're 6-2. So that's, as far as the 6-2 and 5-3 teams, I don't put them at the top of the list of teams I trust. I'll say that.

43:19Bill Simmons:Yeah, so we have Indy 7-1. We have New England, Denver, Philly, Tampa, Seattle, and the Rams as our 6-2 teams. What's Green Bay? Did you say Green Bay? Or the Rams, I guess, are 5-2. I think I screwed that up. Oh, and then Green Bay is 5-1-1 because they tied your stupid team. Right, right, right.

43:44So it's interesting.

43:45Bill Simmons:Denver, Seattle, and New England are my three favorite overs. You're going to get there. I could get there with all of them.

43:52Cousin Sal:Get there by Christmas.

43:53Bill Simmons:And you mentioned the defenses before. Seattle, I think, has a defense that stands out. Yeah. Houston, Denver, Cleveland at home. I don't think they can do it on the road. Is there any other defense you like? It's kind of it, right? Houston's defense is really good. I thought they were good Monday night. I thought they were really good today. Cowboys are pretty good.

44:16Cousin Sal:No, that's it. Not the Cowboys. Jacksonville, it might have been a lot of bells and whistles, right? I mean, another team that just forced turnovers, but it might be catching up to them now.

44:25Bill Simmons:Maybe the Chiefs, we'll see. When they get, as the season goes along, they always go. Another blowout, Bills-Panthers. Look, Buffalo hadn't kicked anyone's ass in seven weeks, and this was David. I actually like the Panthers for Ringer 107. House talked me out of it. Pointed out how the Buffalo was coming off two losses in a bye week. We talked it out. It was good conciliary stuff from House. The legacy of this game, somehow Andy Dalton was worse than Kirk Cousins, and Kirk Cousins was bad. Andy Dalton was worse. That might have been it. I could see him. That could be the last start for him.

45:03Cousin Sal:The only thing he can't do here is take a sack. Oh, and he takes a sack.

45:07Bill Simmons:Yeah, that's it. Two fumbles. He had a really bad pick. He just was bad. They were hanging around in this game for about an hour. Right. And it just wasn't going to happen.

45:17Cousin Sal:Yeah, we should have made all our money off this game, right? Like, you know, there's not a better spot for a playoff team having lost twice coming off a bye. And here's Andy Dalton for them.

45:29Bill Simmons:Bucs-Saints was a blowout because of nothing that the Bucs offense did. Baker finally had a bad fantasy game. I think his MVP run, it's not dead, it's in a coma. But somehow they're 6-2 with a bye coming. Rattler, so he was awful again. Six turnovers in his final three halves as Saints QB, and they finally turned it over to Shuck. I like how you say final three halves.

45:54Cousin Sal:It probably is. His final three halves.

45:57Bill Simmons:Final three halves. I don't think we see him again unless there's an injury. But yeah, that was another one. Like, just stay away. Don't bet this game.

46:06Cousin Sal:I was hoping Tyler Shuck would do something there, throw a touchdown at the end, just so we could just have something with New Orleans, have some fun with their name. Who's the group that roots for Tyler Shuck? Is it the Shuckheads or the Mother Shuckers or the Shuck Buddies? Yeah, yeah. I like the Shuckheads. We'll see if he's even around. It was a really awful early slate.

46:30Bill Simmons:That was late afternoon, right? Well, yeah, yeah. I'm saying, but there was a really awful early slate. And it was like, well, maybe the late slate will be better. And then the late slate was bad too. Early slate, I had, there were seven games. I had the six, the multi-view and two other TVs. So I had six. I didn't want to watch, I didn't care about Jet Spangles. I'm like, that's a sacrifice. That's exactly the one I took off.

46:52Cousin Sal:And that turned out to be the best game. You had to get it back on. Yeah, that was the best one. And then Indy Tennessee somehow ended up as a four o 'clock game. That snuck in. Should have been a London game. Not even London-worthy. What's a terrible city? Coventry or something?

47:10Bill Simmons:It's like the first Scotland game ever. Yeah, yeah.

47:13Cousin Sal:It would have been good. Terrible. Let's talk about that Colts game because that's their fifth blowout win.

47:21Bill Simmons:Like real blowouts, like where the game is done in the third quarter kind of blowouts. And it just feels like they're answering... Every challenge you would have for, can you actually be the one seed? Every, they have the long balls. I didn't even think Jones played that well for the first part of the game today, but Taylor was great. Pierce had his one long play. Pierce is the most interesting deep threat. We talk about today watching the games. It's almost like in basketball when a point guard gets into the paint and has somebody on their hip, and then they lean in and they use their body. they use that step they have on the guy to kind of to keep the momentum and they'll either get a foul and an end one pierce will do that on a 45 yard pass he'll get a step on a guy he'll veer into the guy's path he'll slow up a little bit he'll also make the catch but he's kind of the most unconventional deep threat in the league i this have and then warren on top of everything else they just have a lot of weapons i'm sold on them as a one seed yeah i like them a lot too

48:25Cousin Sal:And you know what? We shouldn't put too much praise on any team that just beat up on the Titans. They took care of business. No, they did. And Jonathan Taylor should have been minus 600 to score today. He's just excellent. I wanted to say something about the Titans coach. They're down 17-7. And they punt on fourth and four from the 44. Mike McCoy. Now, even if you want to punt there, what is the downside of going for it? If you want to keep this job, don't you want like a three or four plays where you're, yeah, I converted the fourth and four. They show them on the sideline. So what if you don't convert?

49:01Cousin Sal:You're not going to be there and get, you know, calling plays next year. Take a chance. It's not even a chance, fourth and four from the 44. Draw them off sides. It was awful.

49:11Bill Simmons:Kim Ward was mad about it. Yep. So they play at the Steelers next week. Home Falcons. This is the Colts. home Falcons bye week at the Chiefs home Texans and that Falcons game is in Berlin just FYI I like the Steelers game as a test for them at Pittsburgh Pittsburgh doing all their dumb tricks Pittsburgh needs the game you know you figure Baltimore's gonna win there's gonna be a little pressure finally on Pittsburgh they're gonna be playing all the hits Boswell will be hitting his 59 yard field goals there'll be some stupid Aaron Rodgers tip pass that'll go for 40 yards. Taylor or somebody will have some sort of fumble.

49:52Bill Simmons:It'll be all the check marks you need. And I want to see how they respond. I want to see what Daniel Jones looks like in that game.

49:57Cousin Sal:I think so too, but I won't count them out even if they lose this, right? Like you read their schedule. No, I'm just saying it's a nice test. There's not one team they should be scared of at this point.

50:06Bill Simmons:Well, are they favored every game the rest of the year except for at Chiefs week 12?

50:10Cousin Sal:Well, I'm not going to give you a freebie. I'm not going to give you a freebie this week and tell you if they're favored or not. All right, that's fair. You tell me.

50:17Bill Simmons:That's fine. I think they could be favored. By the way, they could even be favored in that Chiefs game. Stranger things have happened. So anyway, they took care of business. And then we talked about Dolphin. Oh, and then the last one was Jets Bengals. Just a lot. Probably had the most storylines of all the games. Jets owner takes a shot at Justin Fields. He played pretty well from what I read because I refused to watch this until the last four minutes. Aaron Glenn got off the schneid. Yeah. Zach Taylor maybe threw in his hat in the next coach fired ring?

50:53Cousin Sal:I mean, that was as bad a call as any. With 38 seconds left, they still need, what, 18, 20 yards to get in field goal range at the end? First down calls right up the middle for a no gain. And I think they didn't have three touchdowns. They had two timeouts, I think. So, yeah, he's always in the ring. I just think, like, Burrow kind of saves this guy every time.

51:13Bill Simmons:And that one run they had, I think, people just look back and point to. Right. Which, I don't know how long he gets to ride on that one, but... Yeah, look, we say this all the time. That could have been one where, if you're a Jets fan, maybe you wish you didn't win that game in January. You're like, why are we 3-14 and we don't have the number one pick?

51:36Cousin Sal:Oh. Well, that's... That dumb Bengals game. You've got to get it for Aaron Glenn. You've got to have to get a win before Thanksgiving. It's crazy. And the fact that he went for it down, what was it? It was like 38, it was 38-24 and he went for two, right? And he got it to get it there and barely got it, by the way. Like I still haven't seen a replay where he definitively got it, but that was a great Fields play. And even like Fields, like very emotional after the, in the press conference afterwards. So good for the Jets. Now they can go back to being the Jets.

52:09Bill Simmons:Really good post-game speech from a comedy standpoint by Glenn, which of course I watched. He started out and he's like, first of all, how about that defense? It was like, ah, with that big stop. It was like, well, he gave up 38 points. 39, 38. And then he's like, in our offense, 500 yards. And he's like, this is who we are. This is our identity, what you saw today. And it's like, I don't know, maybe you also should have lost by 10. I really like those. How about our defense? Yeah, you did get a stop.

52:44Cousin Sal:one stop. It's rough. I mean, what's the converse? He goes in there and was like, man, we are so lucky. We should be 0-15. How do we pull this one out? We're so terrible.

52:56Bill Simmons:I think you should have to, it should be like when you have a you're on a bad AYSO team or a bad Little League team. It's like, everyone's getting ice cream! He's got 11-year-olds. So proud of you guys.

53:09Cousin Sal:A poker tournament when like you're beat 98 to 2%, but you like pull a flush on the last three cards. And the guy who wins is like, sorry, you know, like, sorry about that. Like, yeah, like he apologizes for the win. A tennis player, like it hits the net and barely goes over. Like, yeah, they hit the racket.

53:28Bill Simmons:We're good, we're good, yeah. What'd you learn from that Chargers-Vikings Thursday night game, anything?

53:33Cousin Sal:I love the Chargers in that spot. I don't know, I learned that the Vikings, so I think they're plus 770 to make the playoffs now and they really have nowhere to go because now you're looking at J.J. McCarthy and you covered it last week. What kind of injury is this anyway? And you don't have anything to look forward to after Wentz really, right? Pretty tough. Yeah.

53:56Bill Simmons:Regular season MVP. Mahomes plus 150. Allen plus 350. Drake Maynow plus 450. Everybody else is 12 to 1 or higher. and then Super Bowl odds, Chiefs still the favorites, Lions, Bills, Packers, Eagles, Colts down 11-1, but still have not gone into single digits yet, which I thought was strange. From a value standpoint,

54:23Bill Simmons:I mean, the Pats are 33-1 and really have a chance to be a two seed. It's just that seems too high. I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl, but I think if you can get anybody who can possibly be a two seed at 33-1, It has to be considered. And then Seattle at 25-1 was the other one that jumped out to me. That also seemed too high. 22? 22.

54:44Cousin Sal:Baltimore was 25. They're 22 now after the win. That's interesting, too. Maybe if they're actually favored to win the division, get their shit together. But I think as far as those odds and MVP, your guy, your team, and your guy is the only ones that are going to shrink considerably. Because the case for it is, and I don't want to jinx it,

55:06Bill Simmons:I'm obeying all jinxing laws.

55:07Cousin Sal:The case is people haven't looked at your freaking schedule, and now they're just going to see the wins rack up.

55:12Bill Simmons:It's the schedule, but it's also the history of the league with the young QBs where we've seen this happen. And if he's really special, like if there's something really, really special there, we've seen that translate into, oh my God, I can't believe they're here this fast. It happened with Burrow. It happened with Mahomes recently. And if he's on that level, it's realistic that they could at least get to the AFC title game because he's that good. I don't know if he's that good, but he certainly checked every box.

55:40Cousin Sal:You put him number five. You put him number five right now. Best quarterback. And you don't even want to put Burrow ahead of him at this point.

55:49Bill Simmons:I think he's playing the best of anyone at that position right now. I don't know if that means he's the best quarterback, but I've just watched it for five straight weeks. He completes 75 to 80 % of his passes. He runs for first downs, whatever he wants, and he completes every deep ball. I don't know what else you can do as the quarterback. He doesn't miss throws really ever. When he misses a throw, you're surprised. His teammates love him. I don't know what's going on. It doesn't make a lot of sense because even week one, that Vegas game, he was not good. And it was like, fuck, did we go backwards?

56:24Bill Simmons:What's going on here? And now in week eight, he looks like a finished product. I know he's not. He's 23. 22?

56:33Cousin Sal:discounting the past, right? Yeah. Would you rather have Daniel Jones or Drake May? Forget about what you know about Daniel Jones before this year. Before, if you forget about it, what you knew, the Giants' Daniel Jones. Because you can make the same case for everything you said about Drake May. Daniel Jones is doing it, too. Maybe not as good a deep throw. Daniel Jones looks great. Yeah.

56:54Bill Simmons:Yeah, May, it just, it looks a lot like some of those other great guys when it just happens early. I mean, going way back to when we were kids, L.A., like what was that, year three or year four? All of a sudden they were in the AFC title game and it was like, Jesus, we're here already. Marino got there as a rookie in Miami. Like if a really great quarterback, if it happens early, it's not unusual.

57:20Cousin Sal:So that would be the case. Take a look at L.A.'s stats this first few years, even when everyone thought he was great. It's always like 22 touchdowns, 17 interceptions. You're not going to see that at a Drake. I shouldn't have engaged you in this.

57:33Bill Simmons:No, but here's the thing about those stats, because I've looked at those. It's so unfair to compare them versus now, because you could beat the shit out of those guys. Well, you beat the shit out of the receivers, but you could also kill the quarterback after they threw it. You could dive at their legs. They're navigating their livelihood at the same time as they're trying to win games. And now these guys even saw today, there was, what was that time? Who got hit? Love was in Sunday night game. Like Love got kind of hit a little bit on the head as he threw. And he was like looking at the ref like this, like that.

58:05Bill Simmons:Oh, right, right. Yeah. The football we grew up with, these guys were getting annihilated.

58:09Cousin Sal:Yeah. You couldn't come. You can't come near the head anymore.

58:13Bill Simmons:You couldn't throw over the middle. You had to fear for your life. Guys were trying to pile drive you into the ground. I just, so I look at those Elway stats. I'm like, that's amazing that he even was able to play 16 games a year or whatever it was. Yeah.

58:27Cousin Sal:Can we, before we go on, because you mentioned love and it made me think of this, the replay assist thing, I don't buy it. I don't think it's even a real thing. I don't think it's a real thing. I think the refs get together and they be like, we fucked up this call. Let's pretend some ominous voice came in and told us that they don't even have to go to replay. And then that doesn't make us look bad. It doesn't make us look good. We'll just move on immediately. I think that's what it is. Doesn't exist. They just call it something else.

59:00Bill Simmons:It's just, it's like they're just doing a little mini podcast.

59:04Cousin Sal:Yeah. One of the refs rolled his eyes to the other ref and he was like, okay, that's all right. You're right. That wasn't bad.

59:09Bill Simmons:When they, that offsides play when they gather together after that,

59:12Cousin Sal:that would have been bad. Yeah.

59:14Bill Simmons:And who is it? Pereira was like, yeah, I've never seen this before. They call belated offsides. There's no way. And we're live from the living room as Doug eyes up the match. They spread. He's reaching for the Buffalo wing. Perfect. Hang on, what's this? Oh, he's going for a can of Pepsi too! Incredible! What a finish! Sensational combination! Look at the delight on his face. There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi. Food deserves Pepsi.

59:44Cousin Sal:Grab a pack of Pepsi Zero Sugar for today's match. It's poetry in motion. We are live from Fetty's house.

59:52Bill Simmons:Guests are gathering around the TV, even with a big storm outside.

59:55Cousin Sal:Are we worried about the fee?

59:56Bill Simmons:Nope, they have Xfinity Wi-Fi. Get reliable fiber-powered gig Wi-Fi with Peacock included to stream the beautiful game this summer. Xfinity, imagine that. Restrictions apply. New gig internet members only. Speeds vary. Use of fiber coaxial cable. Peacock offer for Peacock Premium with ads currently$10.99 a month value. Activation required to access content. Terms apply. Peacock must be activated within first 90 days. Manage existing subscriptions to avoid multiple charges. Third-party subscriptions continue until canceled. Guess the line's week eight. I am up four to three. Don't worry about it.

1:00:25Bill Simmons:Five, three. It's week nine. Yeah. Oh, week nine, 5-3. Thursday night, Ravens at Miami.

1:00:32Cousin Sal:Hey, can I say something? You did that well. People are complaining, like important people that listen to this show, that you're not saying who the home team is and who the road team is. That time you did it. Good job by you. That's bullshit.

1:00:46Bill Simmons:I say it all the time.

1:00:47Cousin Sal:You think you do? These people can fuck off. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. If I would have told you who is former President Obama actually put in the complaint and you're telling him to fuck off. No, it's not him. But okay, you did good there. That's it. That's how you do it.

1:01:02Bill Simmons:If it was Gavin Newsom, he could fuck off again.

1:01:08Bill Simmons:Ravens Miami at Miami. Yeah. I couldn't have crammed this harder and more violently into the Vegas zone. I have Ravens minus five and a half.

1:01:20Cousin Sal:You're going to win this week. I'm telling you right now. I was so off on these. I said five. It's seven and a half. Oh, that's too high. Well, too many favorites are covering.

1:01:32Bill Simmons:It's a Thursday night game, though. They have to cover themselves. Yeah, that's true. That's too high for a Thursday night. Lamar's just going to waltz back in after during a whole whatever scandal, injury report scandal. I still don't understand the scandal. Sunday marquee. We finally have a Sunday marquee game. Bill's Chiefs. It's in Buffalo. Good one. Tic-tac? Bill's minus one and a half? How's that sound?

1:01:57Cousin Sal:Sounded good to me. It's exactly what I said. It's Chief's minus one and a half. Oh. Wow. It's tic-tac, all right? But that's going to flip, right? Six times between now and when we... Next talk?

1:02:09Bill Simmons:The Bills had their D-linemen all back, finally. Yeah. And they were actually having an impact against the Panthers running backs. And then Ed Oliver got hurt. It lasted like an hour and a half. Right, right, right. And then Ed Oliver got hurt. I'm trying to think what would be the best overreactions coming out of this Chiefs-Bills game. Chiefs win, overreaction is Mahomes' back. It's been Mahomes' league all along. Anyone who said Allen was the best QB, you must feel fucking stupid. Right. Why did we doubt the Chiefs that role? Let's never do that again.

1:02:43Cousin Sal:Yep.

1:02:45Bill Simmons:Bills win. This is Josh Allen's league. he's outplayed Mahomes for the last two years

1:02:57Bill Simmons:this rivalry's flipping it's like the Patriots Colts in the mid 2000s when all of a sudden the Colts started being the Patriots what else?

1:03:03Cousin Sal:Chiefs have trouble scoring I mean imagine if they lost it would be like 23-20 or something take too long to score all that shit these receivers didn't actually pan out the ones that came back Chris Jones getting old

1:03:15Bill Simmons:he's not the impact guy that he was two years ago Yeah, this will be good. There'd be some good overreactions. Taylor, bad voodoo. Yeah, all of it. The watchables. Would you put Pats in New England against the Falcons? A watchable or a fairly watchable?

1:03:29Cousin Sal:Are we done with... See, I would have put Indy Pittsburgh as... What's that before fairly watchable? I think that's...

1:03:36Bill Simmons:No, I had three watchables, including Pats, Falcons. But I didn't know if that was a watchable just for me. I think just for you.

1:03:43Cousin Sal:You could watch it if you want.

1:03:44Bill Simmons:You know what? I'm going to move it to fairly watchables. I'm trying to obey. You know, it is watchable. Colts at Pittsburgh, which would have been the Sunday marquee game in a lot of other weeks.

1:03:57Cousin Sal:Yeah, it's in the early slate too.

1:04:00Bill Simmons:So Packers were favored by three in Pittsburgh this week. I think the Colts are a point better than the Packers. I'm going to go Colts minus four.

1:04:08Cousin Sal:Oh, wow. I thought they were a point worse power rating wise. I said two and it's two and a half. Hmm. Let me see if that's changed. Oh, it's three now. Shit. I can't catch a break. So we pushed? We pushed. Yeah. I could have lied there. I think that's fair. That's right. I like the Colts.

1:04:35Bill Simmons:Unless we haven't had it yet, the Daniel Jones, oh no, game. It's lurking in there. Mm-hmm. You know, it's deep down in the recesses of his cells and his DNA. You know, it's somewhere in there.

1:04:52Cousin Sal:Well, I'll tell you what the Steelers need. They need some weather. And they kind of need it fast, right? It's going to be clean pockets and just brisk air at the end of October. I don't know if they could. Daniel Jones should have a good game. They need some of those 18-16 games to come back.

1:05:09Bill Simmons:Broncos home. Oh, no. Broncos at Houston. and as we said probably two of the three best defenses two of the best four defenses and I have the Broncos favored and I think it's in the tick-sack zone I'm gonna go Broncos minus one and a half I said

1:05:31Cousin Sal:Broncos minus two it is Broncos minus one and a half I thought that was a pretty easy one good call

1:05:39Bill Simmons:does that go to two and a half by Sunday

1:05:41Cousin Sal:I think if anything moves, it's the over-under, which is 39.5, which in this day and age, yeah, I think it's one of the few that'll go down. By the way, a lot of the overs hit today too, right? Was that also 9-2? Yeah.

1:05:55Bill Simmons:That's a really good game. I mean, that could be the 2-7 Shakeys game. 2-7? That could be our 2-7. Denver home for Houston.

1:06:09Cousin Sal:Right, right. All right. Let's just see a good version of Houston. Can we do that? Can we see that two weeks in a row?

1:06:16Bill Simmons:Fairly watchables. Patriots home for the Falcons. And no idea if Penix is playing. I think this has to go past the minus four into the Vega zone. And I have Pat's minus four and a half.

1:06:30Cousin Sal:All right. That's what I had. And it's five and a half.

1:06:32Bill Simmons:Oh, still in the Vega zone. Okay.

1:06:36Cousin Sal:You should be a seven point favorite probably. Really, if you think about it. kicking the crap out of everyone.

1:06:43Bill Simmons:Pat's money line was something in the seven range. Oh. Call it a day.

1:06:48Cousin Sal:Yeah. You know, you could use the Chiefs again just because it's Monday. Just because it's a different week, technically. Oh. Do the look at it. So who were the teaser teams that killed people today? It was the... Just the Falcons. And the Bengals, right? If you had the... That was like six and a half. Anyone putting the Bengals in a tease,

1:07:08Bill Simmons:you need your head examined.

1:07:09Cousin Sal:The Jets didn't have a lot of wins before today. I know, but you can't put the Bengals in a tease. That's nuts. But those are the only two, I think. Yeah.

1:07:19Bill Simmons:So there's a really interesting Pat's stat. Their run defense hasn't given up over 50 yards rushing yet in the first eight weeks. And it hasn't happened since 1950. Wait a minute. Nobody can run on them.

1:07:34Cousin Sal:A 50-yard rusher, you're saying? Yeah.

1:07:36Bill Simmons:Yeah. Yeah.

1:07:37Cousin Sal:Okay.

1:07:37Bill Simmons:Since 1950. Wow. And I mentioned that because B. John's coming in week nine, coming off a bad game that he was pissed off about. And the quotes after were like, that one's on me. Right. I got to do better. So it's just, it'll be an interesting rock and a hard place kind of battle because the Pats defense has been awesome against the run. The way to beat them is to throw in their linebackers, put Spillane in open space, try to get running backs or tight ends over the middle or running backs leaking out of the back. That's been the weakness, but you can't run on them.

1:08:11Cousin Sal:You just jinxed the bejesus out of them, the bejohnus out of them, I think. So I'm going over here. What will he have? Well, I wonder what his total will be.

1:08:20Bill Simmons:Any wheel route with him one-on-one against Spillane is going to end badly. And I'll just tell you, our crazy friend Hench, eight weeks, probably 135 texts about Robert Spillane and pass coverage. What? Yeah. Basically, anytime he's in pass coverage, it's a three-text barrage from Hench.

1:08:42Cousin Sal:It's hard when you have a bodybuilder trying to guard third down running back. Just enjoy it, Hench. For God's sakes, this is as good as it gets for an NFL team.

1:08:53Bill Simmons:This is about as zen-like as he's been. We went from not having a QB or a coach to having a QB and a coach. The only two things that matter in the NFL is having a QB and a coach. You can find everything else.

1:09:04Cousin Sal:Does this move? Cousins? If Cousins plays, could this go to seven?

1:09:10Bill Simmons:I mean, it should. They don't have a chance. No Drake London today, but I bet he plays next week, right?

1:09:16Cousin Sal:Yeah, that's true. Lions home Detroit against the Minnesota Vikings.

1:09:24Bill Simmons:Either Carson Wentz, who's been pounded like a piece of veal the last couple weeks, or the immortal J.J. McCarthy, who's recovering from the longest high ankle sprain in recorded history. this could be our teaser game with the Pats. I have Lions minus eight.

1:09:41Cousin Sal:Yeah, well, they're not going to let us tease it the way we want to do it. I said seven and a half. It's nine and a half. Yeah, that's dumb. You win that one too. You're up six, three. That's too high. And yet I wouldn't take Minnesota. No, I know. But first of all, this is the only division game. Isn't that weird? When was the last time we had one division game in a week, in a whole week? Four teams off. But anyway, and for that reason, I thought they'd give them the division discount, like where everybody plays everybody else well. So this is pretty damn high. Vandal's giving up on Minnesota here.

1:10:16Bill Simmons:You know, House and I, we did Ringer 107 last week, or Thursday, and we're talking about that Jets line, the Jets-Bengals line, which was just stupid. It was, the Bengals should have been favored by three and a half, and it was six and a half because it was the Jets, right? So if you take the Jets, you're just getting three free points. and I was thinking that's a good just concept in general. What's the three free points bet where they're just like, this is on a discount today. It's a flash sale. The Vikings normally at six and a half. We're giving them today a plus nine and a half for the next 24 hours.

1:10:51Bill Simmons:First hundred customers. Oh, damn, I was 101. Three free points. I gotta take a different line. Vikings plus nine and a half is a three free points bet. That's a flash sale. They shouldn't be getting that many points.

1:11:03Cousin Sal:So the problem with the three free points thing is I get what you're saying, but now you're backing a shitty quarterback every single time. That's where the three points are going to go.

1:11:11Bill Simmons:But that's why we have the flash sale. It's like when the Criterion Collection is like 50 % off our entire collection right now.

1:11:18Cousin Sal:Carson Wentz is in the clearance bin right now.

1:11:21Bill Simmons:You want to grab him now? It's Robert Altman's unknown movie. Packers, Panthers, and Green Bay. Oh, I'm going to change my pick on this. I had minus nine. I'm going to bump this because they looked good in that Sunday night game to 9.5.

1:11:37Cousin Sal:No bumping allowed.

1:11:39Bill Simmons:I bumped it by a half point. Packers 9.5.

1:11:41Cousin Sal:You win anyway. I had 8.5. It's 10.5. There's a good old-fashioned Bill and Sal go to college three-teamer. I was thinking about that.

1:11:52Bill Simmons:Yeah. There's one. I was trying to think who would screw up Lions-Packers with a third team. The glory years of 2004. So nice. the best 12 weeks of our lives. We'll get them back. You, me, Pookie, Black Tony, Albany and Bruce. We were just all cleaning up.

1:12:13Cousin Sal:We had our glasses on. Oh yeah, we were just going nuts. I want to congratulate us, you and I, for really not falling into just not becoming true degenerates, right? To be in one of those things, yeah. Yeah, and we bet and it hurts when we lose. We have enough money on it where it sucks when we lose and we come on and we're distraught and everything, but we never fell down that hole. And, you know, we had opportunities to align ourselves with some interesting people. And I'm sure Pablo Torre will reveal this like Wednesday that we fixed a preseason Clippers game or something. But good job by us for keeping our heads above water.

1:12:51Bill Simmons:Well, Thursday, 7.40 a.m., text from my mom, I hope you and Sal aren't involved in this NBA betting scheme, exclamation point.

1:13:01Cousin Sal:did you screw with her a little bit say you need bail money

1:13:04Bill Simmons:I should have texted her back I can't talk about this

1:13:07Cousin Sal:right now or just something obvious mom we have to take this to a phone call my friend Pookie right now at this number mom I'm with Black Tony let me get back to you Albanian Bruce is going to drive me over there were two Bruce's right it was Albanian Bruce and there was the other Bruce I couldn't get enough of it

1:13:27Bill Simmons:there was a flappy Yeah. I just couldn't get enough of the names.

1:13:32Cousin Sal:The week the Bruce Springsteen movie comes out. What a week for Bruce's. They really cleaned up.

1:13:38Bill Simmons:He couldn't just be Bruce.

1:13:43Bill Simmons:49ers, Giants in New York. Okay. Yikes. Maybe Brock Purdy for this? Yeah, you would think at some point. I don't think I hit this. 49ers, I had minus three and a half.

1:13:59Cousin Sal:I get this. I said three. It is two and a half. Yeah, I couldn't figure that one out. Tough one.

1:14:09Bill Simmons:Boy, the Giants just aren't very good. I'm probably leaning toward Niners in that one.

1:14:15Cousin Sal:Well, we crossed them off. So whenever we have a playoff team, we think the Niners are making the playoffs, right? Yeah. And we crossed the Giants off. So just based on that, four Niners can't keep losing.

1:14:27Bill Simmons:Last one is Rams-Saints. I think this is going to be another flash sale. Oh, all right. I think this is a seven and a half, but I think we get three free points. I think it's Rams minus 10 and a half flash sale.

1:14:38Cousin Sal:Oh, it is a sale even beyond your wildest dreams. Oh, what is it? So wait, so what's your official thing? Minus 10 and a half. Oh, okay. So you get, I said nine and a half, 13 and a half. Oh, wow. 50 % off. You can't keep it on the shelves.

1:14:56Bill Simmons:This is great. Do you want to combine that with a Blu-ray?

1:15:02Cousin Sal:Wow. 13 and a half. The shuck wagon's coming to town. What are you going to do? Come to SoFi. Do you think there would be Saints fans there?

1:15:11Bill Simmons:There's some New Orleans transplants here, right?

1:15:13Cousin Sal:Yeah. Yeah, I think you might get a rare reprieve here in L.A. when the Rams have more fans.

1:15:23Bill Simmons:Poopfecta. Three games. First one is Bears at Cincinnati, which is lining up as Joe Flacco against the embattled Caleb Williams. And somebody's favored by one and a half. I went with the Bears. It might be the Bengals. It's a one and a half for somebody.

1:15:43Cousin Sal:Well, I'm not going to let you do that. I have Bears minus one and a half. Oh, Bears minus one and a half. Okay. I had Cincinnati minus one. You're going to get it. It's Bears minus two and a half.

1:15:54Bill Simmons:Oh. I don't agree with that. What were the Bears today? Plus six and a half in Baltimore.

1:16:03Cousin Sal:No, but no. It was plus two and a half. Plus two and a half. This is a similar thing, I guess, right? But they were plus. I don't know. This is tough. I'm out on the Bears, I think, for a while.

1:16:16Bill Simmons:Chargers at Tennessee. It has to be a touchdown. I think the Pats were minus six in Tennessee. Chargers have to be minus seven. That's my pick. Chargers minus seven in Tennessee.

1:16:30Cousin Sal:Another flash sale here. I get this. I said nine. It's 10 and a half. Oh, wow.

1:16:36Bill Simmons:You can get a free, free, free, what are those little cards you put? I don't know. What are the cards we put? Flash card? Yeah, the flash cards.

1:16:47Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:16:48Bill Simmons:With this thing. I could have landed that joke a lot better. That's all right.

1:16:51Cousin Sal:Oh shit, we're live. No, we're live. Fucking A. Hey, who screws that up then? Green Bay over Carolina. Chargers over Tennessee. Oh, come on. If Harbaugh loses to this shit team. I don't like those double digits on the road games. No, it's fine. Double digits.

1:17:06Bill Simmons:We're taking 10 points off. We're good. I went to the Lakers game on Friday against Minnesota. Herbert was there sitting under the basket with Madison Beer.

1:17:16Cousin Sal:Oh, nice. And it was the day after they beat the Vikings.

1:17:21Bill Simmons:they showed him on the Jumbotron like mild applause I just don't think the Chargers are resonating in LA yet like this guy's the star quarterback he's one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the league and he plays for an LA team they're like there's Justin Herbert people are like they still think he's a college quarterback if they had showed like Flea the place would have gone nuts it's just interesting did you see his Halloween photo? who?

1:17:48Cousin Sal:Justin Herbert? What is it? I don't know. It's like a photo booth thing. Look it up, Justin Herbert Halloween. And shit, I forget who the receiver is that he's with. And he's with a woman. It's interesting. Take a look. You'll get a nice little laugh.

1:18:02Bill Simmons:Can't wait. Yeah. Yeah. One more game in the poopfecta. Jags at Vegas. And I think the Jags are going to be favored in this one, which would give us all three home underdogs in the poopfecta. I have Jags minus two and a half.

1:18:20Cousin Sal:Yeah, good call. I said five. Why was anyone giving the Raiders two and a half? But it's three. You're closer. Man, you smoked me. You smoked me this week.

1:18:31Bill Simmons:Raiders coming off a bye. Bauer's back. A little bit of a kitchen sink game for Vegas. Yeah. That's all I can think of.

1:18:41Cousin Sal:I mean, if the only thing Jacksonville does right is forced turnovers, it should be an easy one.

1:18:47Bill Simmons:Sunday night is Seattle at Washington. No Jaden Daniels. House very bleak on the Ringer Sunday pregame today, talking about how...

1:18:57Cousin Sal:Very upset.

1:18:58Bill Simmons:First of all, he's quit our bet. He's already conceded the Patriots-Washington bet. He was saying the Washington's three and... What was he? Three and four. We're going to be three and seven in three weeks. They should think about training people. Bench Daniels for a year. Get them healthy. They shot their wide. Big time.

1:19:17Cousin Sal:Under six and a half. Just today he bet him. Under six and a half. Yeah, it was tough. It was tough to hear him just bailing Washington. He should have just listened to us preseason when we went against Washington with everything.

1:19:28Bill Simmons:He did listen to us, and he bet me on Washington versus the Pats. That's true. I have Seattle minus four at Washington.

1:19:36Cousin Sal:Let me see if this moved. It is still three, and I had three and a half, so we split it. Oh, no. No, you win it. I get it. Okay. Yeah, I got to take the wins I actually get. You're up 10 to six. doesn't matter.

1:19:48Bill Simmons:Monday night, Dallas home for Arizona. The Rod Tidwell Bowl. I love when Dallas and Arizona plays. Great times. Another Tic Tac. I went with Dallas favorite in this one, minus one and a half. Wow.

1:20:03Cousin Sal:You know, I hate my team, but I also think they deserve a little more praise than one and a half. I said four and a half and it's three. So we split it, right? Yeah. Okay. And you're going to hear all week about how Kyla Murray has never lost at AT &T Stadium. He played like in college there. He played, I don't know, he snuck on there as like a six-year-old and won some kind of game. He's never lost there.

1:20:29Bill Simmons:I want to flag something. So we talked about all the favorites winning covering this week and last week. Favorites are on a heater. I am counting home underdogs this week. Dolphins, Bills, Steelers, Texans, Giants, Bengals, Titans, Raiders, Washington. nine home dogs. I think this is an official let's be careful week. Oh, really? Yeah. Favorites just crushing. Everybody's confidence is up. All these home dogs, all stuff like Chargers minus 10 and a half at Tennessee. Yeah, throw them in a three-teamer. Like, I don't know. My shit detector is going off.

1:21:08Cousin Sal:Well, you were better than me today, but even you were light on everything. Like, they're juicing everything up. So it would make sense that it would come back the other way. Flash sale for Halloween.

1:21:18Bill Simmons:So many, yeah. Halloween havoc. How many people brought up the big NBA scandal to you over the last 72 hours?

1:21:27Cousin Sal:Everyone I know. Like, needed it explained to me. I had explained it to them. It really did pass the,

1:21:33Bill Simmons:how many people are texting me that don't normally text me about sports. Yeah, right, right. It really did cross the threshold. It was pretty funny.

1:21:42Cousin Sal:I feel bad for you because you and House did like a seven-hour, you know, preseason over under podcast and the season didn't even last that long. Now they have to cancel the season. It's all over. Luka scores a billion points in two games and here you are. But yeah, obviously this is bigger than anything we've dealt with in the past, but what are the ramifications? Like get rid of all player props?

1:22:06Bill Simmons:I feel like it's not as big as it felt like in the moment the way it was presented where they combine these two different stories. I think it's just starting dialogue that probably should have been happening Anyway, like some of the stuff House and I talked about Thursday night was just how careful these players have to be with information about themselves and their teams, giving it to the people around them. And just people making stupid decisions that are attached peripherally to these guys. And I don't know how you police that necessarily, but we certainly hear stuff all the time from all kinds of people, right?

1:22:42Bill Simmons:And you can act on it, you can not act on it, whatever. But when you're directly tied to a player and you're using information and selling it and leveraging that, I think this is a real issue for the league. I was talking to people over the weekend about it and it's, you know, it's going to take years to kind of play out. But the thing that is fascinating is how quickly all the books can, can sniff it out where they know, Oh, what, wait, what's going on with this under? Like they just know almost immediately that something's wrong, which I think is a good thing.

1:23:14Cousin Sal:I think so too. Hopefully it acts as a deterrent and people like, no, the books have us, whether they're using AI or whatever, they're going to be able to snuff this out in a minute. But I also, and I think you've said this before, like this has probably been going on for a while, right? But we just test for it now. It's like anything else. Like more kids probably had ADHD 30 years ago too, but now we're all over that stuff. We're all over like taking out and looking for player props. But the problem is like, there's always going to be one or two or five guys who are going to do it. Like gambling's a real addiction.

1:23:48Cousin Sal:It might be guys like, I get it. They do scratch off tickets, even though they've made $40 million, you know, just because they have the itch. The other thing is -

1:23:57Bill Simmons:Yeah, they competitively want to game the system.

1:23:59Cousin Sal:That's all right. The other part is guys get in trouble with some bad dudes, right? So if you made$40 or$40 million, if you're a billion in the hole and you owe the wrong guys and all your money's in like cars and houses and jewelry and you can't come up with like a million liquid, they're going to ask you to, you know, play an under. They're going to ask you to miss some shots. It just, it's kind of how it is and it sucks. And you might see some props go away as a result. And if that's what it is, so be it. I don't know.

1:24:29Bill Simmons:Yeah, we talked about that Thursday night. How many of these unders we need? Like, do you need to have the under for Maugus Matthew Golden catch? right? Matthew Golden, longest catch under 15 and a half yards. Like maybe those just go away. Right. And maybe it steers more toward the overs and Jordan Love passing yards and you know, the big, the big players in each game, whether it's football, basketball, whatever. I've never understood the, the pitch by pitch baseball stuff.

1:24:59Cousin Sal:Oh, that's insanity. Right. Even you don't do that.

1:25:03Bill Simmons:No, even you're not like, Oh, the top of the eighth, I'm going to bet on a ball. Like that's like the height of insanity. I can't think of a single scenario where I would do that.

1:25:11Cousin Sal:I would do it if there was no way I was going to get caught and I knew my buddy was going to bounce the first pitch into the dirt. That's when I would do it. His brother Brian was on the mound for the Dodgers. He's like, I'm going to ball top of the eighth. This one's hitting the backstop. But you have to be smart about it. I'm not going to tell criminals how to do their job. Not bet anything else and then just bet $7 ,000 that the first pitch is going to be a ball in the third inning. You're going to get busted. Well, what you said about people being able to have pressure put on them because of losses,

1:25:46Bill Simmons:I think is something that's happened since the 50s and 60s. And this is why the illegal poker game thing, to me, is going to be a much bigger story than a couple of this betting. The couple betting things versus how deep the poker stuff, because we both heard so many stories about these games and they have athletes and actors and musicians and billionaires and they're all competitive. The games are all arranged. They always try to have the one person who's got money, who's famous, who thinks he can beat these guys and the game's rigged against them. And that's where I think things go sideways and there's no way to police that.

1:26:26Bill Simmons:But I promise you, this has been going on since the nineties with some of these games. And this is by the way, how Jordan got in trouble in the 90s. Right. With some of the golf betting when he fell behind by millions with allegedly with that Richard Esquinas, whatever his name was, who wrote the book. And, you know, this is just, these guys are super competitive.

1:26:46Cousin Sal:No doubt about it. And so what did Terry Rozier should be forced to play baseball? I mean, what's the, that's what they did to Jordan. I don't know. Send them out. I don't know.

1:26:54Bill Simmons:I still don't know what happened with that one. Because to me, like the league checked the MRI and he was hurt, right? And yet there was so much action on that under and he just left the game after nine minutes and there's that video of him grabbing his foot and like, could you rig that? I guess you could. He's making$26 million a year though. I just don't understand the upside of that.

1:27:20Cousin Sal:Yeah, it was just a one-two punch. That and knowing that LeBron was going to be out and it was like, you know, that wasn't him. Using that info. There's just so much to hit everybody with and release right when the season starts too.

1:27:33Bill Simmons:Well, the bummer, and a lot of people have made this point, but it was an awesome first week for the NBA. It was, you know, the Wemby storyline was awesome. Some of the games were great. All the televised games, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, were really good. And then I thought Amazon on Friday like that, I thought it was really cool. You know, it's going to be a work in progress. You have a five-man show that's going to be tough for basketball, But the set, the fact that they were going a little more hardcore basketball and it was more celebrated in the game, which is what I think people want.

1:28:04Bill Simmons:Between NBC and Amazon, the way they're presenting the game is what people have been asking for for 10 years. Like, we don't want the hot take shit. Like, teach us about basketball. Give us guys we like and try to be a little more positive. So, I don't know. I thought it was a really good week. It was a really good week except for the story that became the story that dominated everything.

1:28:24Cousin Sal:Did you see this, though, that just came in? wet. You're making this up. No, now they're saying Wemby is one of the guys who robbed the Louvre. So I don't know. He probably has to sit like two weeks or something.

1:28:36Bill Simmons:They didn't use a crane. It was just Wemby. It was him. Dunk. Grab. Out.

1:28:56Bill Simmons:or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that?

1:29:23Cousin Sal:No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with power boost ingredients inside?

1:29:29Bill Simmons:No, just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different. And Messi only trusts Duracell. Today's Parent Corner is brought to you by Scout Motors. Every team has an MVP. And for parents, that's not your fantasy QB, it's your ride. The all-new Scout Terra and Scout Traveler, engineered with four-wheel drive, available locking differentials, optional 35-inch tires, plus room for kids, coolers, and a tailgate spread that'll turn heads. iconic in the 70s reimagined for today. Join the wait list at scoutmotors.com. What do you got?

1:30:02Cousin Sal:All right. So wrestling season, even though it's not really here, is here. We had, yes, we had a preseason tournament in Cerritos. By the way, you remember Super Dave and the Cerritos commercials? I don't know if you were here yet, but Super Dave would do Cerritos Auto Square. Come to Cerritos Auto Square. We're giving these cars away. It was kind of like your discount. So we had to go to Cerritos. We drive there. The weigh-ins are Friday night at a satellite location, and then the wrestling is Saturday. It starts from like 1230 and goes to double elimination. So I take Jack out there. We're driving to Cerritos, not to the auto square, but to the college.

1:30:42Cousin Sal:And he's starting in the drive. He is breathing very heavily. He's like, yeah, he's like starting that. But he won't say like anything's wrong. So I try to ignore it. I like make the radio louder. And like finally, I like listen to this.

1:30:54Bill Simmons:I'm like, he's getting nervous, breathing, getting nervous, breathing.

1:30:57Cousin Sal:Yeah. And I feel bad for him. And I'm like, this sucks. This is really, you know, and wrestling is like, it's, it's so much harder now. They have like four, four hour practices a week and it's not even wrestling season yet. Wrestling season starts like mid November. Anyway. So this is a preseason tournament. He's breathing heavy. And I've been there before. I've had all like the anxiety and I don't know what to say to him. Cause I know like if no one, nothing, anyone said to me would work. And so I'm like, hey, man, I know you're probably nervous, but in a few hours we're going to be in this car.

1:31:29Cousin Sal:I'm going to go back, and your life's going to be the same, no matter what happens on the mat. And that didn't seem to phase him. The breathing kept consistent. It was constant, and it kept going.

1:31:39Bill Simmons:You should have said last year you threw up on the mat, they cleaned it up, and you got the win. And you got the win. Yeah, this will be fine.

1:31:45Cousin Sal:I ran through everything I could in my head, like try to calm this poor boy down. And then I thought like the day before, Harrison, my youngest, had a flag football game and my father came and I walk up like I'm, you know, I'm keeping score actually on the game changer. And then I left my father for a minute and I come back like 20 minutes later and his entire ass crack is exposed. I don't know what happened. Like he's sitting down, but his pants. So so I have to tell him about it. But first, I have to take a picture of him talking to the coaches with his ass out and then talking to like a grandmother of one of the players with his ass out.

1:32:20Cousin Sal:And I send this to Archie and Jack and I'm like, well, you guys are really missing out today, you know? And, uh, and so I say to Jack, I'm like, Hey, uh, listen, before you go on the mat, you can't bring your phone to the mat, but before you get ready to go on the mat, to be on deck on double deck, just look at that picture, you know, it'll loosen you up a little bit, you know? And he said, Oh, uh, well, but yeah, but isn't that going to just like make me laugh? Like, um, aren't I supposed to be serious going into these things? So I'm like, yeah, I mean, I'd rather you listen to ACDC to get pumped for this, but I also don't want you getting a heart attack, like, you know, worrying about it.

1:32:56Bill Simmons:Right.

1:32:56Cousin Sal:So he did it. So like I'm sitting on the other side of the bleachers. I see him. He takes it. He looks at the phone, like kind of laughs. This is now he's going onto the mat. He gets on there and he loses 16 to one. And so I think it really worked, you know, like I think tech fall first period, but it got rid of the butterflies. And that's what coaches look for. not to clean up vomit on the mat.

1:33:21Bill Simmons:So no ass crack next time?

1:33:23Cousin Sal:No ass crack, no. I'm going to have to step it up. But he did better in the second match. But anyway, I don't know what that says about me as a father. But wrestling, the worst.

1:33:37Bill Simmons:We were talking about parent corner this week, and my wife's like, what's the parent corner going to be this week? And Ben said, I haven't been in a parent corner all year. I used to carry Parent Corner. Now I'm never in it. And I'm like, well, I don't know. You're a pretty mellow kid. Like you got a girlfriend. You're just applying to college. And he's like, why don't you do a thing about how I've been working on all my college stuff and I've just been a complete asshole to you and mom all the time. And I'm like, I mean, I can relay the message. He's like, yeah, I mean, I don't know. There's got to be some story in there, right?

1:34:11Bill Simmons:And I'm like, about how you're a huge asshole and you leave the house every day. and your mom says stuff like, I can't believe I spent all that time passing him out of my body. And then he just grunts as he leaves in the morning and doesn't say goodbye and then goes up to his room and barely talks to us. He's like, yeah, you can do something like that.

1:34:32Cousin Sal:Well, don't do that.

1:34:33Bill Simmons:You're not going to do that, are you? I'm still workshopping it. Yeah, I'm still workshopping it. He's been occasionally friendly lately, more friendly. But anyway, that was his suggestion. I wanted to actually steer this to friend corner for my side. Our friend Daniel, who was in Boston last week and texted, we have a group text that we really enjoy with a bunch of us and sends a text, Bill, I'm at an Italian restaurant in Boston called Il Bagno now. Do you know it? And I said, I do not. And he said, my buddy said it was Brady's favorite. It was pretty good. And so then James Babydoll Dixon chimes in.

1:35:16Bill Simmons:El Baño means the bathroom in Italian. And Daniel texts back, ha ha, you're right. The restaurant is La Mora. It said El Baño in the door. As I walked out, I thought that was the name of the restaurant. He thought the name of the restaurant was El Baño, the bathroom. And I think we got two straight days of jokes about this. Yeah, we did. About El Baño. My dad got a reservation at El Baño tonight. I told him to cancel. It just went on and on. when you're in trouble when you're ordering a Caesar salad for the bathroom attendant, it just never ended. It made me wonder, we're hitting that age where our friends are going to just start having moments like this.

1:35:56Cousin Sal:And I think it's going to be great for all of us. We should read some of these. I think Rob Mill said, why is this bathroom attendant handing me lifesavers? Give me the lasagna already. What are we doing? Did I order too much shit on a shingle? stop trying to offer me a mint

1:36:16Bill Simmons:it just kept going and going so anyway Daniel said El Mora not El Bano we might have to change parent corner to Daniel Corner Daniel Corner there's one every week has he been on the Red Sox for the 26th World Series yet or no

1:36:32Cousin Sal:not just yet I mean there must be somebody you're looking to get that he's waiting to jump on yet that would be great if it had gotten out that Brady's favorite restaurant is called El Banya in Boston. It created some kind of... We should leak that.

1:36:45Bill Simmons:You can't get a reservation at this place because it's a bathroom in the North End. Don't bother washing your hands. Once again, today's parent corner brought to you by Scout Motors. Join the wait list for the Scout Terran, Scout Traveler at scoutmotors.com. Concept vehicle is not available for sale. Features, performance specifications are preliminary subject to change. Joining the wait list does not guarantee purchase. Visit scoutmotors.com for details. How much NBA have you been betting?

1:37:12Cousin Sal:A lot. I'm doing it, you know, I'm going Moneyline favorites for now. It hasn't killed me, except for that first night. Was that what house with the Wizards? That sucked. But I bounced back. How about you?

1:37:26Bill Simmons:I've been pretty careful. Just a couple teams that I liked heading into the season, like the Spurs and the Bucs. But the only betting revelation, it's a weird one. Because it's my team, but my team just, I don't think is good, the Celtics. Right. I actually thought they were going to be a little, oh, people are discounting them. They still have some good players. They have an infrastructure. They're going to shoot a ton of threes. It turns out rebounding and defense is also important. That's one of the things we're learning through these games. Yeah, Detroit killed them on the boards today. They don't get stops in the last couple of minutes.

1:38:07Bill Simmons:they're just and it's not just all the guys they lost it's really Tatum and Cornette have been the two major losses because those are big rebound guys for them and I'm starting to wonder if they're just not going to be good like are they going to throw away the season I think is in play I don't know what their over under is now it was 42 and a half before this season and right now it is off they don't even have it

1:38:32Cousin Sal:that means zero

1:38:33Bill Simmons:they're not going to win a game after this yeah for the division they're 9-1 But I think this team's in a lot of trouble.

1:38:41Cousin Sal:So is a three-point thing at least true? Is that what you thought would happen?

1:38:45Bill Simmons:Were they going to be spiteful with the three? They're not. I mean, they're shooting about where they were last year. So they're 0-3 right now. They're playing at New Orleans, fourth game in five nights tomorrow. Home for Cleveland on Wednesday. And then at Philly on Halloween. and then they play Houston the day after at home on November 1st. Like 0-7 is legitimately in play for them. Well, that'd be fun. And as you know, I'm usually more glass half full on my teams. I'm very concerned, I think. And there's been some Celtic fans who are like, this is how we knew this was going to happen. We knew they weren't going to be good.

1:39:26Bill Simmons:We lost to many guys. But I think, I don't know why, but I just thought, I thought they would be able to patch it together and I don't think it's going to happen. And there's a very interesting moment right now for this team because they have their own first-round pick. Whether they just – do you just toss away the season? Like Philly tossed away last season. They got Vijay Edgecombe. It was fucking awesome. He's ridiculous. And they might – if Tatum's not coming back until February, March. So I just wonder, like, that's a team I would probably bet against these next couple games if that wasn't my team.

1:39:57Cousin Sal:Well, what does that mean, toss away the season? You're not going to be the bottom three or four, right? Are you just banking on what Dallas did, like Miracle and the Lottery?

1:40:06Bill Simmons:No, I think this might be a bottom five team in the East.

1:40:10Cousin Sal:Really?

1:40:11Bill Simmons:Yeah.

1:40:12Cousin Sal:Hmm. Okay.

1:40:13Bill Simmons:Really, they don't know who to play at the end of these games. They don't know. Detroit just destroyed them on the boards tonight. They couldn't get a rebound. And in the Philly game, they just couldn't get a stop. So I'm concerned because Jalen played. Jalen had 41 today and they still lost in Detroit. They couldn't get a stop. I think I just misread this one. I had some good ones with the overrunners. I think I missed on the Celtics. And then Indiana is the other one. They lost Nembhard. I think Indiana actually was the right play to think they were still going to be pretty good, but no Nembhard now.

1:40:48Bill Simmons:It's like, I think they're in major trouble too. It kills him. Yeah. So I think those two are going to be in real trouble.

1:40:54Cousin Sal:Can I make you feel better about your team? We could talk about this off air, but Pukki and Albanian Bruce told me about a Peyton Pritchard player prop that is just out of this world.

1:41:06Bill Simmons:Under? Is it an under?

1:41:07Cousin Sal:I don't want to say it in front of everybody because then Pablo will get us.

1:41:12Bill Simmons:Yeah, we can't have Pablo come after us. The other one was Dallas. I've been watching just because of the – I've watched all the Dallas stuff, including tonight because of flag and seeing how they're using him with the point guard thing. He's a pretty good dunker. The flag's really good, but I thought maybe there was going to be a chance to kind of zag against them because this flag point guard thing is kind of a disaster. But today they looked a lot better. So I think they have a lot of talent.

1:41:42Cousin Sal:I listen to you a lot on that. So I hope that they make the playoffs, they get over 44, all that stuff. Well, I hope you listen to me on San Antonio

1:41:50Bill Simmons:because that's the one that if Wemby's going to be healthy, that's going to be a monster team, I think. And then I really like Milwaukee. I think Milwaukee's legitimately good. They had a tough loss today to Cleveland, but they were in that game and came down in the last minute. But I think Milwaukee's for real. And they can shoot.

1:42:07Cousin Sal:Is there... Oh, you can't talk awards, really. No, I can talk awards. I just can't bet on them. Yeah, I'm trying to think if anyone moved a lot.

1:42:16Bill Simmons:Wemby. Wemby was 12-1 before the season. He's plus 360 now. Yeah. Right.

1:42:21Cousin Sal:So are we still with the top two, top three seed thing? or we think they can get there for him.

1:42:27Bill Simmons:Well, Wemby could have the, this season was so spectacular. Doesn't matter. We have to commemorate it. Yeah. I just think Jokic is four to one now and anytime he's like Mahomes where there's some sort of early season over. I don't know if you've seen him, but he looks like he's playing himself in his shape this year.

1:42:42Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:42:43Bill Simmons:He's definitely the chunkiest he's been in a while.

1:42:49Bill Simmons:But yeah, the Wemby I think was the biggest flip and there's the Luka... Luka's 6-1. What's his seat? The points-per-game leader. Luka's plus 340 to be the points-per-game leader this year. I don't know how he's not going to lead the league in points.

1:43:06Cousin Sal:What's the threshold for that? It's different from how to qualify for MVP. Points-per-game, and I think it's like 60 games. So 65 for awards, 60 for these things? Something like that, yeah. Yeah, all right. 340 is pretty good.

1:43:18Bill Simmons:I would bet Luka. I can actually bet on that one, but I would bet Luka plus 340. All right, I'm doing that.

1:43:23Cousin Sal:as long as we don't hear he's out like three weeks and stuff. That would be the issue.

1:43:27Bill Simmons:You know, it was interesting going to the game on Friday. First of all, he's in good shape. It was the best shape I've seen in a couple of years. But the Laker crowd just loves him. They really do. They're just really into it. And he's had such disdain for his opponents. He's talking shit the whole time. He's mad at the refs. It really feels like a performance. and it just kind of makes sense in LA. So, you know, they're not going to win the title or anything this year, but I think long-term, it's a great fit for him. Well, they love him because he's their Osempic dealer,

1:44:01Cousin Sal:half these fans, or they have to.

1:44:04Bill Simmons:Well, it was weird because LeBron is on the bench and it's like, you know, he's the second best player of all time, one of the most famous basketball players ever, and it's kind of not his team anymore.

1:44:14Cousin Sal:Right.

1:44:16Bill Simmons:And he's sitting there and he's very polite and he had good energy, it seemed like, or okay energy. but it's just, it's a weird situation. I don't remember anything like this.

1:44:24Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:44:24Bill Simmons:I can't imagine Kobe just being on the bench as this became somebody else's team, you know? Right, right. Well, that was a big issue,

1:44:32Cousin Sal:but that's why one of them had to go. Hey, real quick before I go, big, big disparity in opinion here. Yeah. Bronny and LeBron plus Giannis and his two brothers, they're the starters. You get an average bench, right? Let's say an average, whatever the 16th best bench is. How many games does that team win?

1:44:55Bill Simmons:So I'm starting Bronny and the two Giannis brothers. I have Giannis and LeBron. How many minutes do I have to play the two brothers and the son?

1:45:05Cousin Sal:Like, you know, mostly. Whatever a starting lineup would mostly play. So like 30 to 35 minutes. Right, and the bench is average.

1:45:14Bill Simmons:But I have Giannis. Giannis and LeBron, yeah. But I don't have any shooting with those five other than LeBron. I think that's like a 20-win team. That's what I think.

1:45:25Cousin Sal:Yeah. Tate said 45. Howe said like 37, 38. No, we got to see this to believe it. I mean, Tate. It's probably not going to happen.

1:45:35Bill Simmons:Come on, Tate. He's positive. He's a very, very positive guy. I actually like that they signed the other brother, the Bucs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they should sign more family members because you really only play 10 guys, right? Like what would be, how shady could you get with it? Like if you just signed his cousin who's like never, let's say he had like a 5 '9 cousin who was like a wrestler who never played basketball and he's like, he's our 15th man.

1:46:04Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:46:05Bill Simmons:And he just never played, but he was one of the 15th guys. Like technically that's legal.

1:46:09Cousin Sal:Right. Yeah, if you're signing Albanian Bruce and Pukki to 10-day contracts, like yeah, I think that's when you have to pay me. It's a red flag. I can't get enough Albania Bruce in everybody. Let's have him on. Those are my favorites.

1:46:23Bill Simmons:He's going to be fine. Let's have him on next week. All right, because we're going to be back next Sunday. What's the Sunday night game next week? It's a good one, right? Seattle at Washington? Oh, not a good one. Nope. We're probably not going live after that one next week.

1:46:38Cousin Sal:I never know why or when we go live, but you'll be surprised. We'll see.

1:46:42Bill Simmons:It's usually when it's a good game. We want to go live. We'll see if the Pats play next week. Yeah. They're playing Atlanta. Okay. We'll see if the Pats can be 7-2. Cuz, as always, a pleasure. Good job by you. Good job by you, buddy. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Sal. Thanks to Gahal. Thanks to Eduardo. I will be back on this feed on Tuesday. And don't forget about Rewatchables late Monday night Halloween 2. So now I've done 1, 2, and 4. I guess H2O would be the only one left that week. Who knows where we'll do H2O? My age 12 might be in the tail end, maybe around when we've done like 750 movies.

1:47:19Bill Simmons:Anyway, I will see you on this feed on Tuesday.

1:47:43Bill Simmons:Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit rg-help.com. Call 888-797-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.

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