The Voodoo Steelers, NFC South Comedy, an Eagles Theory, Guess the Lines Round 1, and Jaylen’s Crazy Year With Cousin Sal

24:52All right. Oh, you don't mind them being in the playoff? Yeah, I mean... I think Tampa would have been a worse playoff team because I actually really felt like they were fraudulent. You know what's weird about them? The September-October version of Tampa was better than most teams were going to see next weekend, wasn't it? And they really didn't have a reason to fall off. Agbuka passed away, I think, in October. That was sad. To the point when he was involved in a play and I forgot he was on the team. The guy looked like he was Jerry Rice in September. Yeah, but listen, Carolina had a worse point differential than the Giants.

25:26They don't belong either. And that spread's going to be pretty high, but we won't give it away. But we need a freebie. We need a freebie for sure. This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. So how's that New Year's resolution looking? Good. You're going to crush the gym. You're going to inch into Quitter's Day territory. What's your plan? Because that's a real thing. The second Friday of January, it turns out most of us, we throw in the towel by then, but not this year. Not if you got an Apple Watch. Apple Watch keeps you locked in. You've got the daily movement and activity rings, achievement streaks, goal tracking.

26:00It's like having a coach on your wrist. So if you're on the edge of giving up, don't. This is the year we quit quitting. Let's do this. Apple Watch, made to motivate you. Find out more at apple.com slash Apple Watch Series 11, iPhone 11 or later required. Another nobody wanted. Nobody wanted the two seed. This was the weirdest subplot of the day in the NFC where the Eagles were like, you can have it. We're not even going to play Hurts and some of our guys. Like, we don't care. Playing Washington, they're going for a draft pick anyway. We're just going to show up. We'll probably win anyway. And the Bears were like, well, we don't really want this either.

26:36We're going to play this Detroit team that's playing for nothing, and they're going to dominate us for two hours. And there was this moment where Detroit was clearly about to lose and Philly had the ball. But Tanner McKee might have been the worst quarterback performance we've seen in the last four or five weeks. Yeah. Like, could not complete anything and just seemed completely out of sorts, and then Philly ends up losing. This was the day to do it for those garbage quarterbacks. Like, hey, you can get a nice bag here, a nice contract, just with one performance. We see backups every single week.

27:12There's already talk about Malik Willis going to the Hall of Fame and stuff, or at least getting a big contract. He's like a real asset now. No one really stepped up. Quinn Ewers did for a minute, but really no one... And it's like, then Josh Johnson's like, hey, it's not that bad. And it's like, because you're so used to crap all the time. And then Josh Johnson's out there. It's like, they gave you prison food, but they poured A1 on it. It's like, all right, it's a little better. I don't mind that. The worst version of this was Trey Lance. Yeah. Even if you were doing the Trey Lance's problem Twitter video of his best plays, I'm not sure you could get the 30 seconds.

27:48There was two good scrambles, and he might have completed one eight-yard pass. He's just not accurate. I don't understand how he was the third pick in the draft. Did he become inaccurate? It's interesting. They traded three first round. I know you have to let these things breathe and develop, but I'm willing to say that was a bad trade. Three first rounders for trade lands. Is it too early? Alright, maybe I'll wait. It's 26. I'll wait a couple more years. He did have that preseason game where he threw five interceptions, so I'll wait a little bit. You guys talked about this on the Ringer Gambling Show Friday, but I'm just throwing in my two cents.

28:24If Purdy doesn't happen for them, does that trade get everybody fired? It would have to, right? How do you come back from that? Or is it just Mac Jones is their quarterback for the last couple years or they're just always able to grab some mediocre guy and turn them into something decent? Yeah. They wouldn't win double-digit games in that tough division every year. That was miraculous. My team would have been set back. It would be a famous trade. For sure. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how they did it. So, I wrote down, I'm trying to figure out what the Eagles were thinking. Is it possible they just don't want to play at home?

29:01because their fans hate them. Wow. Even though they won the Super Bowl last year. Wow. They're like, we're better off on the road. The energy when things don't go well for us in the first hour. Like, fuck it. Let's get out of Philadelphia. We're better off than any other stadium. Yeah. At least if our fans, if everyone's going to hate us, we can get on a bus afterwards and leave. And then have the comfort of that. You know, the awkwardness of our family in the stands is people are chanting, you suck at different players. But honestly, what are they doing? There was a point with like a minute 43 left.

29:31If the Lions are lining up for a field goal, they're clearly going to beat Chicago. And so Philly gets the one seed if they win. So they're driving the tie. I'm like, you could put Hertz in there and Brown and everybody. No, like they could have been warming up on the sideline. Yeah. To get the two seed. Like at some point it's got to, you don't want to go to Chicago. You don't want to do it. I'm pretty sure it's not 1963. Someone could tell Sirianni in the headset that the Lions are lining up for a winning field goal. It could give you the two seed. Well, meanwhile, the Bears couldn't score 17 points at home against a dome team that was missing half of their team and had already packed it in.

30:08Not a great sign for them either. Jared Goff was wearing oven mitts to throw the ball. I don't know. He just did a good job. There's a bunch of full of shit home teams in this round one that I don't think anybody's afraid to play. My team might even be one of them with the schedule we played. But I don't think this is one of those, oh, no, we got to go there. I don't think anyone's feeling that way. Is this the least confident you are as a better going into the playoffs? Because it sure as shit is for me. I mean, I know you might say because Mahomes isn't in there and a good version of Joe Burrow and everything.

30:38But I really, I see major flaws in all these teams. Yeah, because we'll go into the, I don't know what the Rams line is yet. I somehow didn't see the lines. I mailed you them four hours ago because I was worried I would see them, but I didn't see them. But you would figure Rams-Panthers first game of the day, everybody, their brother, their sister, their uncle, and all of their grandparents are going to be teasing the Panthers or putting them in a money parlay. The Panthers? I mean the Rams. Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah. That instantly gets my dander up. But playoff manifesto-wise, you're taking Bryce Young against Matthew Stafford.

31:13It violates like three of the 17 playoff manifestos. I'm just saying like to win two games. Like who are you really confident in to win two games? Not really. There's no one team. I feel good about the Chargers matchup for the Pats I do feel like that was the best team for them to play I know you do so they have them and then Jags playing the Bills and the Jags are probably playing the best out of anyone in the AFC right now of teams that have actually yeah I think the Pats have played really well too but they really haven't played anybody but you got Josh Allen playing the Jags you have Josh Allen against Trevor Lawrence that's a really tough one to be like yep it's Trevor Lawrence I trust everything I've seen I'm going to pick him against Josh Allen but there's a scenario where they either get this pretty limited bills team around too.

31:56If they get past the chargers or they get a Jaguar team on the road. Right. That I wouldn't trust either. So it lined up pretty nicely for the Pats. It probably lined up the worst for the Broncos as a one seed. It lined up nicely for everyone because the other team is fine. You know, not great. I think that's good. With the Broncos, like you don't play in round one. That's great. Right. But then round two, you play the worst team that's left, which is almost definitely going to be a 5-6-7 team. And those are all teams that might be scarier than the 2-3-4 teams. Yeah, exactly. Or at least the 5-6 teams.

32:30I'd be scared if anyone came to play me if I was Denver. I mean, it's uncommon that they score north of 20. Just look at the slate, whether the game matters or not. The MVP battle. Let's do it. I looked at the odds. Have the odds changed at all? this was a big topic all week now it's going to become even a hotter topic Stafford, oh Stafford's up now he's minus 150 Drake May plus 120 I don't know what to say anymore I mean they're playing the three win Cardinals they're throwing it, they're throwing it inside the five yard line they're just trying to get Stafford touchdowns and everybody likes Stafford and he's a great guy and apparently that might be enough for him to win because he's a future Hall of Famer and this will help.

33:17I always thought we should just pick the person that deserved the award. You seem to think it's Stafford. I did too. That's why I should be Stafford. By the way, shame on you for not betting over two and a half touchdowns for Stafford because of course that's what they were going to do today, right? It was an embarrassing thing. They didn't want to lose three in a row going into the playoffs. So they were going to keep those guys in as much as they could. And there was the prospect of playing the Panthers or the Bucs. But we could go back and forth. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say, I think it's close.

33:44And now that I said that, We're going to go at it like the other one murdered the other sister. But I don't know. I think it's fine to have an opinion either way. Well, it's close. But that's why I thought it was crazy overreaction led by you and your Boston beanie cap last week when maybe went nuts on the Jets and Stafford had a subpar game against Atlanta. It should be the whole year, shouldn't it? And that's why it's close. Well, go ahead. Let's hear it. Anytime you could lead somebody to a five seed, you got to send them the hardware. Unless he got to the five seed. Congratulations. Do you think he would have been a five seed on the Patriots?

34:23Or do you think that he would have gone 16 and one? The strength of schedule thing has already been debunked. Has it? Yeah, because there's all this stuff, if you go by EPA, May actually played harder defenses this year than Stafford did. Uh-huh. Yeah. What do you say? You have like top 16. Well, they always talk about strength of schedule. It's like you're just playing the other team's defense. Yeah, but May's not out there on... He's not playing linebacker, too. The defenses that he played versus the defense Stafford's played was pretty even. And nobody seems to factor in the Puka Nakua part or the fact that he has a better offensive line or the fact that May actually can scramble and use his legs.

35:04Do you know he's fourth in rushing this year for QBs? He's rushed for 38 first downs. He's led the league in completion percentage and yards per attempt. I just like, I would ask everybody, if you switch these guys, what are the records in the two teams? Like, just go to that. Stafford's not worse than whatever your Patriots ended up. He's not. It's fine. Is Stafford walking in week eight? Have you seen our offensive line? I don't know. I would ask people, if your guy lost to the Raiders, the worst team in football, should you be even eligible? It was a week one. All right. Throw out week one.

35:37He did these teams practice three times. But count week 17 times five. That's what we should do. How many teams have led the, how many quarterbacks have led the league in yards per attempt and completion of percentage in the same year? How many quarterbacks have done that? Is it just, I don't know, how many? Three? It's two. It's 2001 Kurt Warner and 2007 Tom Brady. MVP, MVP. So we're just going to throw those out now. I mean, I think there's only one guy who's thrown for over 45 touchdown passes who hasn't won MVP. And it was like, it was Breeze, but in all of history, And two weeks ago, Stafford threw for 457 and three touchdowns against that Seattle defense that you were jerking off to yesterday.

36:14So I don't get it. You had nine touchdowns versus the Jets and the Dolphins. Why'd you have to tell people I jerked off to the Seattle defense? They were going to find out. I was trying to hope that wasn't going to come out. They were going to find out. Listen, Drake was going to win the MVP until this tweet. For me, Matt Stafford blew the MVP in the two games versus Seattle, especially the MNF disaster in Atlanta. I don't care how many TD passes he has thrown. Congrats, Drake May. That's from Skip Bayless. That was the moment Jake May lost the MVP. It's over. Damn it. Why did he have to get involved?

36:46He didn't give it to Shador? I'm shocked. Wow. Shador threw for 111 yards today. Yeah. In your defense, I will say, playing on the road during the Shakey's game could be a strike against Stafford. That might be a disqualifying factor. That is not an easy game. No. I don't know if Vrabel is the coach of the year. and if you said it's Mike McDonald, I would be like, there's great arguments for him too. I don't feel the same way about MVP. I will say this about Vrabel. Beyond the 10 wins and the culture stuff and he brought in a lot of the players, which I don't think you should necessarily get credit for as the coach, right?

37:23He's also the front office guy. I don't think that should count. Two things he did in the first part of this season that I think really mattered. I'm going to get emotional here talking about Mike Alvarez. Whoa, let's do it. Not really emotional. of it. Ramondre Stevenson had that game against the Steelers. Five turnovers in that game. Somehow the Steelers win 21-14 and all the Pats fans are like, let's wave Ramondre Stevenson. Enough is enough with this. He's been fumbling this. It's never going to get solved. Right. Give this guy a suitcase. Get him the fuck out of here. And Vrabel went out of his way to be like, this is our running back.

37:59Like, he's just got to take care of that. He's got to take better care of the ball. We're not quitting on him because he fumbled. That's ridiculous. Like, he's going to do better. We believe in this guy. Same thing happened with the kicker, the rookie kicker they had, who missed a kick in the Miami game. Brable brought him back out to make the game-winning kick because he was like, this is my guy. I believe in you. There's something about him that really makes the players believe that he believes in them. And they all talk about it. And I don't know. I think it's a really hard place to get to as a coach.

38:30So that would be my case for him. I think it does seem like he's caring and whatever. That's a good guy to have around, and the players believe in him. But I also thought he looked at the schedule and said, oh, my God, you see who we have to play? Don't worry about it. You can miss seven kicks in the next two weeks. You could fumble five times in the next three games. You're living in six. We're okay. We play the Raiders four times. It might have been. Will Campbell said, I interviewed him after the game today, and he was talking about how great he was. He was like, I never want to play for anyone else.

38:59Wow. Yeah. What a psychopath. Did a great job. We went from having one of the worst coaches we've ever had on any Boston sports team last year to having a guy where the guys on the team were like, I never want to play for another human being. Do you feel people are hating you guys a little more now? You think you're getting there? No, I don't think anyone takes them seriously. We haven't beaten anybody. Who's the most hateable of all the seeds? It's not New England. Drake Bay hasn't pissed anyone off yet. I know. That's something else we're really missing. I don't know. I feel like your coach is arrogant.

39:32I mean, it's probably Philly because their own fans hate Philly. So they probably have the most people that actually hate them. They won last year. You have a couple potential felons on your roster. But yeah, there isn't that one. Yeah, the route against Mahomes. Route against this one. Route against... I mean, Lamar would have been fun too. I got to say, I genuinely hate the Steelers. They drive me nuts. Oh, yeah. Just the Steelers in general and the fucking way they win games drives me nuts. I can't wait to see somebody drive a stake in their heart, Michael Myers style. Wow. Matthew Stafford, 13 one-yard passing touchdowns this year.

40:08Set the record. All right, fine. So take away the 13. He still has more. One-year passing touchdowns. Look, Tom Brady thrived on a one-yard pick from the two for years and years. You never said a word. It's fine. Kuka Nakua, 166 targets, 129 catches, 1715 yards, 10 touchdowns, 666 yards after the catch. And it felt like 1 ,200. Adam, 789 yards, 14 touchdowns. Right. I don't know what to say. Someone's got to catch these balls, right? He's got good players. Can I praise myself really quickly? Before the air, one of my worst takes was that I thought Travion Henderson could be like rookie Jamar, Jameer Gibbs.

40:56Yeah. And then he was terrible for five weeks and it vaulted into the pantheon of dumbest things I ever said. Do they compare statistically? Oh, no. 945 yards for Gibbs rushing. Henderson finished with 911. 10 rushing TDs for Gibbs, 9 for Henderson. 52 for 316 receiving for Gibbs, 35 for 221 for Henderson. Really? It's that close? It's pretty close. Yeah. And he got better every month and really was starting to work in traffic. But I don't think he's Jameer Gibbs, but at least I don't feel like he needed it anymore. Can we go back to it real quick? What are you going to do? What are you going to do?

41:34I just had some quick stats. Do you know who won the rushing title? Who won the rushing title? It wasn't Derrick Henry. Was it Bijan? It was James Cook. Oh, Cook. Yeah. 1621. Do you know who won the receiving title? I don't know why. Was it JSN? It was. I thought it was Puka. So JSN had 1793 was his winner. So who's our fantasy player of the year? It's McCaffrey still. I think it still has to be McCaffrey. I think he won a lot of leagues. But I do want to say something about Nakua. And I feel like all the catches he makes are like, if our fathers watched those in the 70s, they'd be like, this is the best thing I've ever seen.

42:20And I'd be like, Dad, he had 10 better than that this year, that catch you just saw. and he's like, and they would never believe me, but these guys, and especially Nakua, is now able to go up in the air and just grab it with one hand and kind of, I'm not going to say push off, but create enough separation with the other hand that it's an easy interception. It is spectacular to see. Like, so when people say, why do you love football? It's the same thing over and over. It's like, no, I can watch that a thousand times. I still don't know what I'm watching. I feel like he's the best skill position player we watched this year.

42:55Yeah. And I thought JSN was awesome. But when you throw in his blocking and just, you always feel his presence in the game. And then he always has two holy shit plays every game. It's kind of amazing he doesn't have 150 yards a game. It feels like he should. The catches are insane. The way he lunges for first downs, like extra yardage and stuff. I don't feel like JSN does that quite that much. But he's spectacular. I like that he's a little kind of out there too. I feel like we've been missing that lately with our NFL players. Yeah. We didn't have enough weirdos there for a while. Especially with the wide receiver position.

43:31You need the guys to go on the podcast and just say really crazy stuff that starts a two-day news cycle. Quickly, some of the other games. Broncos, Chargers. I just can't describe how bad Trey Lance was. I actually felt like that was a winnable game for the Chargers. Did the Broncos offense have a touchdown drive? Did they have a touchdown drive? I don't think they did. Oh, no, because it was a defensive score. Or maybe until the very end of the game. Yeah, yeah. That was bad. I looked at that line. Trey Lance, minus 140 to throw an interception. Like, this isn't a guy that throws, you know, he throws four times a game.

44:07If he has to throw 25, he's going to toss one up. He should have had four today. He had one. Right. Well, that was the bet. The Purdy, Bryce Young, we'll both throw a pick was the bet of the weekend. Oh, yeah. I don't think anyone was offering that. Giants to Dallas. Giants win again. What is it? that in their last three years, they've won half of their games in week 17 or week 18. There's some stuff that was going around today that they screwed up their pick. Your team got a better first-round pick, but you don't have it. We don't get it. I don't know who that's more embarrassing for, that win, the Giants or the Cowboys, but also good for the Giants.

44:43I know you hate this, but that's the spirit of athleticism. Just go out there and win. Games played on the field. Simmons, not one of your worst takes. spreadsheet. Why is this a bad take? You had, by the way, you had seven, the seven bottom teams, the bottom seven teams, four of them won. Yeah. One of them, the other ones, one of them was Arizona, who hung for a while. One of them was, who was the other? Oh, Cam Ward, who was up 7-0 before he got hurt. And then one was the Jets. I'm proud of those seven. I'm proud of this league. I think it's easier to do when there's no consensus number one pick and you don't really care where you land in the top seven, probably.

45:21Okay. Remember that for the NBA because I don't know who everyone's going nuts for this year. What's your final grade for the Cowboys season? Probably don't do the Quinn and Williams trading over again if you're redoing that one. I hated a lot of it. I really did. I don't know. I didn't enjoy maybe two or three games. C -. I mean, imagine they could have... It's so hard to get to 500 with 17 games. And they could have been... By the way, they could have been 5-1 in the division had they beaten the Giants. Imagine we were 5-1 and didn't make the playoff. that would have been so I'm glad they lost.

45:52So you finished 7-9-1. Yeah. What was the over-under? That went under. It was 8-1. Oh wow. Then we have what else? What other games? Oh Colts-Jags. They ran a double fake punt. Never saw that before. That was the highlight. Did you see that? Yeah. The fake punt it worked and then they lined up again to punt and the Jags had 12 guys in the field were completely confused. They had to call timeout and they were like yeah! I wish they would have put a camera on Riley Leonard. They'd be like, all right. Well, you know, that's where I come out, right? Yeah. That's a strange game. Browns-Bengals we have to talk about.

46:32I really don't. This was the one. I would have won everything today for the actual bets. And this was the one that I had tied to one awesome tease that would have won, except for the fact that the Bengals, they're down 12-6 in the second quarter, and the Browns have 27 total yards. And we're just texting each other like, of course, why didn't we see this? Joe Burrow looks like he's not even bothered. Looks like he's about to go have brunch. Like he's trying to figure out if he wants eggs, Benedict, or a waffle. The whole team looks like they can't decide which one of them wants to quit on Zach Taylor the most.

47:09They have Higgins and Chase who are making 30 million combined. None of them run pass routes for more than five yards. They just run outs down the sidelines. Nobody's over middle. Nobody's deep. It's like they don't want to get anyone hurt. And yet they're still winning the game. And terrible kickoff, as usual, with them. And the Browns have to go 30 yards. Shadur finally puts together two plays. Browns get a field goal. Browns win the game. And during all this, Myles Garrett became our sack king. Yeah, fine. And it was just an egregious loss. And I thought he was going to be the first coach fired, but it turned out to be Raheem Morris.

47:43Yeah, yeah. Maybe by a few hours. I mean, I was steaming mad for a long time after this game. this game killed because you're right the body language was awful for both quarterbacks like Joe Burrows like Joe cool Joe too cool to be playing this game week 18 didn't care and then you have Shador who like you know converts their third first down of the game two and a half hours in and somehow finds the camera and is like mugging to the camera like what is going on with these guys yeah but since he was happy to have like three possessions in the second half there There was no urgency. There was no nothing.

48:16So they were either going to go ahead at the end. You knew they weren't going to make the two-point conversion. And I think you made the best point. You're paying these guys all this money, and this guy has to get rid of the ball in two and a half seconds because he can't dodge a sack. Because they can't block anybody. Listen, I don't want to be emotional here because they lost me a lot of money. He's not in my top four anymore. I don't know who's in the top four. I'm out as well. Yeah, he's out for me as well. I thought he had a terrible year. I didn't understand any of the stuff he was doing as the leader of the team.

48:46It was just very strange behavior. It was more NBA than NFL from him. This is the kind of shit people do in the NBA when they're trying to get traded. I didn't get it. I mean, Cleveland wins the game. Sanders is 11 for 22 for 111. Their top rusher is 10 for 32. Their top receiver was one catch for 23 yards. They punted five times. Yeah. And they got two defensive touchdowns, right? Somehow they had the ball the whole second half. But yeah, 12 QBR for Shador today. 18 on the year, which is the worst of any Browns quarterback ever. Can you imagine having the worst QBR of any quarterback ever? So they're obviously going to move on from him.

49:32Pretty tough. I mean, if you're making the case for him, I guess he lost some weapons. He lost Judkins near the end of the year. and I'm done with the case. Fannin was out. Sure, that's fine. Garrett's our new sack king. I liked when he kind of complained about the direction of the team. Yeah. After nine months ago, he signed the giant extension with that team or whatever he did it. It's like you knew what team you were on. This is a quarter century of just them being schmucks. What did you think? It was going to be different when you signed the extension? You took the money. You don't get to say anything.

50:05It's like when the NBA takes ESPN's money and then they complain about ESPN in the way they cover the league. It's like, you keep taking their money. You don't have to take their money. But Garrett's like, just shut up, dude. You took the money. You can't say anything now. I think it's all lip service anyway. I mean, he was so happy. That sack record is basically the Super Bowl for him, honestly. And he got it and he knocked it out and his parents were there and everything. But they really probably should have let him get the record like in the first quarter and get it out of the way. The Bengals, just to try to win the game.

50:35Yeah, they would have sat a little bit. I don't know. What a disaster. He was a maniac in the fourth quarter. I mean, he was like, it looked like somebody in a video game turned off the offside penalty. Oh, yeah. He was lining up middle linebacker. He was trying everything he could to get free. But no, I mean, with that 2.5 seconds and Burrow getting it out and less than that, you're going to throw interceptions. If you have to throw it that quickly, you're going to get balls tipped at the line of scrimmage and the freaking Browns are going to run it back and you're going to lose that way. So I don't know what happened to him.

51:06Vegas Chiefs, I guess, was the senior bowl. Looks like Pete Carroll's is going to be gone. That stuff's starting to leak out. So once they were locked into their pick, they didn't care. Chiefs didn't care. I don't even know who won the game. Seahawks, nine on Saturday night. So I threaded the needle on this one. I went to the Celtics-Quippers game. Yeah. But it felt like the Seahawks had the game in hand when we were in the car. Right. I'm still watching it. before the game, but it was a pretty dominant performance by Seattle. I actually felt like they played that game 20 times. I think they probably win convincingly 15 of them, right?

51:50No doubt. And I don't know. I was nervous because you love Seattle. I love Seattle. Darnold had a million and a half dollars in incentives to gain in this game. He went against the team that was 29th in pressures. They had no sacks, last in sacks. I was like, oh my God, he's going to be able to do what he wants. Trent Williams is out. I was like, I'm too high on, so yeah, I got to check my blood sugar here. And it was like a miracle that was 10-3 at half. They should have had like 30 points in there. So, I mean, 28 wins for Darnold is really... You can't really... We like to make fun of him, and if you looked at our text chain, it was probably unfair to Darnold, but...

52:27Please no. Please don't look at any of our text chains. Is he outside the top three quarterbacks you trust in this playoffs? He can't be. that I don't trust? That you trust. Like you'd say Josh Allen. I don't trust Sam Darnold at all. Can you make a different list? I think the moment they play a good defense, I don't think the Seahawks fans trust him either. He's got 28 wins. He knows how to win. When he's playing the Niners defense, it's one thing. But I do think there's a scenario where he's playing a good defense where you're just not going to feel good if you bet on them or you're rooting for them.

53:00It's just shaky enough at all times. I get it. 28-6, but that was one of the reasons I loved the Seahawks so much in that game because the Niners' defense is so bad. And then they don't have Trent Williams. I actually think, and this might have changed, but this was the case five hours ago. The Niners are 22-1 to win the Super Bowl. And I don't necessarily think they're going to win the Super Bowl. But I think those odds are a little out of whack just because of what happened the last two weeks. They're going to get Trent Williams back. Their receivers are going to get more healthy. McCaffrey's going to get more healthy.

53:34and, you know, I don't know. They could beat anybody. That defense is what scares me, right? Like we saw the Bears score on them, you know, only touchdowns. Like I said, Seattle should have scored as much as they wanted, really. That's what, you know, it was going to be a nice little thing if they were going to play all their games at home. But again, that's like not a team I would bet to win two games. So they play the Eagles. Yeah, but they're playing the Eagles who, you know, can just go into a coma offensively for two hours. It's not like they're going to be coming up with any tricks. Yeah.

54:06You know? I mean, maybe they won that game. That's another one where I wouldn't feel good about throwing the Eagles in the tees. Before we do the playoff stuff, got an email from a guy named Kilton. You haven't read emails in like 24 years. I know. I've been going through the thing. Well, it's good. We're trying to spurs up the pod. He said, not really a mailbag question. Pretty much just to thank you for giving guys something to make friendships over. One of my best friends from college became my friend because I told him to guess the line for a Giants-Rams game while we were waiting in line for a bar.

54:35He called me Cousin Sal and we discussed your pod for hours rather than chasing women. We still keep in touch weekly, including me sending Joe, not house. This is his friend Joe, a picture of the Shakey's pizza mug I found in my fiance's grandparents' cabinet this Christmas. Nice. For a mailback question, could you give us some sort of time travel to what you thought of D-Rose after the 2011 playoffs? Thanks for bringing you guys together. BS, go Bears. We like Derrick Rose. That's our answer. Anyway, thanks, Colton. Yeah, thanks, Colton. I thought Derrick Rose was going to be one of the best players of his generation.

55:08Of course. Yeah. He was in college who was dominant in Memphis. Yeah, I mean, you'll speak more about Derrick Rose than I can. If someone called you Cousin Sal again, though, I think that deserves a punch right in the chin, right in the kisser. I wouldn't take that from anyone. Playoff blueprint. Number one buys Denver and Seattle. They put out the schedule, and we knew what the Shakey's game was going to be. It was no surprise. it was like knowing who's going to win the Oscar two months ahead of time. It's like the lady from Hamnet. It's like, guess what? I'm announcing now she's going to win best actress.

55:40But this is kind of an A-list team they're getting with the Rams, right? Because it kind of had to be it's weird that it's on an AFC South team, but I understand why it isn't. But they're getting a blue chip team in the Rams. A lot of people think they could win it. Well, it's interesting. Because Steelers-Texans normally would be the shakiest game. Right. But I think when there's an 8-9 playoff team, you throw all the other rules out. I think that's just automatic shakies. I don't know if they've ever deviated from that over the years. 8-9 shakies. It's just they go hand in hand. We've seen 8-9 teams win this, right?

56:18What was your favorite of all the shaky games? I was thinking mine was the Tebow game when he threw the 80-yard overtime pass to win. That was a good one. And then trade in midfield for five minutes. Yeah. 8-9 is a new success. We actually watched that at Shakey's. Beast Mode was a Shakey's game. Beast Mode was a Shakey's game. That was a really good one. That was probably the most entertaining Shakey's game. Yeah, otherwise it was a lot of Matt Schaub and a lot of bad stuff. Was Trevor Lawrence, Herbert, whatever that comeback was, was that a night game? That was a night game. Or was that the Shakey's game?

56:48Yeah, I was out to dinner. Because normally the key to the Shakey's game is it's Matt Schaub and you can't remember one thing that happened. Right. Somebody won 20 to 10. So this is going to be a bad game. You don't remember who won. Yeah. For the most part, this is going to be a lousy game. Probably going to be a lousy game. Yeah, they put... Also, they wouldn't... If they can get Aaron Rodgers at night, they're going to do that. I just don't think it's the case. So, the surprise to me... I sent my guesses to you in the morning. The surprise to me was... I thought for sure Pat Stargers was going to be the Saturday night game.

57:17I did too. Because the Pats have usually been Saturday night. I don't know if they have a deal with Kraft or whatever. They made Bears-Packers Saturday night on Amazon. Then Sunday goes Jags-Bills, Eagles-Niner. CBS, Fox, yep. And then Chargers at Patriots Sunday night. And we're doing a live podcast. The first one we're doing on Netflix. Wow. It's right after that game. It's like they're trying to kill me, Sal. Do you think that's fixed? Do you think the league fixed that? I don't know who fixed it. Do I wish the Patriots were playing right before we did a live podcast? I don't. Oh, this could be great.

57:53I was really looking forward to it this Saturday. Should I just have a therapist in the room? like sitting in the chair over there. Like just kind of... I like it. Yeah, have a lot of therapists. I don't think one's going to do it. I don't know if there's been a... I don't know if we've come on live because we've only been doing this for a couple of years where we've been live podcasting. You can see us. I don't think we've had a huge Pats game. We had like the Bills Pats game in like week six, whenever that was. Right, right, right. This is like an actual like real stakes game. Oh, and you're so...

58:22You're so... I'm not going to say convinced you're going to win, but this is the team you wanted to face a month ago. I don't know how much to trust this Pats team. But yeah, do I want to play the team that's missing their left and right tackle? I do. And as their quarterback who has his left hand in the cast, that sounds pretty good. Yeah. Who got waxed by Jacksonville five weeks ago? That would have been my pick, but I didn't feel comfortable against any of these teams. So I just don't want to end up on a chalkboard for the Chargers. I know. Oh, Netflix. It's going to be good. I will say, I don't ever remember the Pats losing to the Chargers.

58:58I know it's happened. I just feel like we've had their number over the years. It's been one of those teams we've consistently beat. Just set it up. Just set it up. I like it. I'll put that on the chalkboard. Mm-hmm. And then Monday night, Steelers-Texans. Yeah. Just guaranteed that that's a weird game. You can just lock that down now. Yeah. I would. Yeah, I mean, what about now? You would rather have Chargers than Texans?

59:29It's close I think I'd rather if you think Chargers going West Coast to East Coast, Chargers with a pretty shaky offensive line. I think their defense is good, though. They can run the ball. They have a couple good receivers. You know, it won't be an easy game, but it's a game that Patriots, a 14-3 team should take care of business at home. I love it. I'm so psyched for this. This is going to be good. But it's a young Patriots team. Sunday night could be cold. I don't know who that helps. I don't think that helps the Chargers necessarily. If you're thinking about home field advantage, if you had, say, Patriots, Jags, Pittsburgh on a Monday night, Bears on a Saturday night, Eagles, Carolina on a Saturday afternoon, I would say Steelers would have the biggest home field advantage of all those, right?

1:00:21Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. I mean, it's not the Eagles. They didn't even want to play at home. We saw what they did. It's not going to be the Jags. Yeah. I was wondering what do you think the desired Super Bowl matchup for the league is and for NBC who holds the game I think there's only one answer for the league it would be wouldn't it be Josh Allen versus the Rams or Josh Allen versus the Bears I still think Bill's Eagles I think you get the defending champ in there I think that's a number one really does anyone like watching the Eagles they're the champs I'm gonna ask everyone I meet this week if they enjoy watching the Eagles because their own fans don't enjoy them yeah but watching them get beat would be fun.

1:01:00So you think Rams bills? Playoff odds. Seattle and the Rams have the best odds. Plus 440 and plus 490 to win the Super Bowl. Denver's three at plus 850. So's Philly at plus 850. This is on FanDuel. Buffalo's 10-1. New England's 11-1. Houston's 12-1. From a conference bet, New England plus 460. I mean, they're so good at pricing these odds. I don't think any of these are worth it. The only way it's worth it is if you're going nuts and you're doing like, you know, Niners 10 to 1 to win the conference or something. That's pretty crazy that the Rams are plus four. They're so close to the top there and they have to play the extra game.

1:01:40They're 490. Seattle's 440. And ideally, they would play each other in the second round unless there was a further upset in there. That's giving the Rams a lot of credit or they're just giving them a win automatically. Don't you feel like you can throw the ball on the Rams? Yeah. I feel like you could do a lot. I think every playoff team in the NFC would be able to throw the ball on them, I think. So Denver's plus 280 to win the conference. So two games. So that would be, let's say, first round. They're the one seed. Let's say all the favorites win, except for the four or five. So Houston at Denver is probably in the four to seven range.

1:02:27Well, they'd have to be a pick-em for both games for plus 280 to be worth it, right? Yeah. That's why they figured these out. I feel like we had such better stuff here 10 years ago. I know. Need the Chiefs back. AI just ruined gambling. All right. Guess the lines round one. All right. Can I clinch the season tonight? Oh, I think you can. I'd like to do that. I don't need enough tension. I have enough tension next week. All right. You went in 10 to 8. and there's only two or three more weeks after this. There's three. So you can clinch a tie at least. Rams, Panthers in Carolina. The Shakey's game.

1:03:12I'm happy for the fans of Carolina. Not a lot of good times with Carolina the last 10 years. Right. I have the Rams favored by seven and a half. All right. I haven't looked. I had plus eight. It is now ten and a half. So I edge you out there. Oh my lord. I guess they just can't make it. They're not letting you do the two team teaser thing with them. It's a little bit high. How many double digit underdogs have we had in round one? This does feel like Seattle, New Orleans was nine. Right. Not too many others. I thought that was like nine and a half. Oh really? Yeah, I mean, it was nine and a half.

1:03:56It was right in there. I'm telling you, I know I sound crazy. I don't mind this Panthers team. I still don't know what you mean by that. You don't mind watching them or you would actually take them in this bet? I don't think they're as bad as the typical 8-9 NFC South. I thought a lot of stuff went against them in that Tampa game. Did you see that flea flicker? The flea flicker was bad. Let's get rid of that from the playbook. A couple of their receivers get open. I don't mind that tremble. I think T-Mac is like a legitimate stud now. You know, you always wonder why they just don't chuck it downfield.

1:04:32But the problem is Bryce could just completely shit the bed and you have no chance. But I don't think their defense is that bad. I mean, they beat them already, right? So they beat them by three and now they're getting 10 and a half. That is a big number when you look at it that way. But this is an embarrassing loss. Rams just fired the special teams coach a couple weeks ago. Yeah. They still give up big plays. that Wilson got open on them three times today, got wide open down the field. Yep. Look, I thought they'd look a lot better these last few weeks. They haven't, but maybe the playoff Rams are different.

1:05:06So you're putting the Rams in a three-team 10-point piece is where we're going here. With the college stuff, hopefully I'll need it to just win, and that'll be that, but I doubt it. All right, next game. Bears. home for the Packers. I think the Packers are going to get a lot of momentum as a popular underdog pick this week. Be my guess. Because I think everybody's appropriately scared of the Bears. I don't think this line gets to three, even though it's in Chicago, even though the Packers are missing a few people. I have Bears minus two and a half. Okay. I said Bears minus one and a half. I think they're going to lean heavily into it's hard to beat a team three times.

1:05:58It's Packers minus one and a half. That's really dumb. Wow. That's really stupid. Oh, my God. Oh, that changes everything. Now the Bears are eligible for Nobody Believes in Us. What? What is anyone seeing from the Packers? When was the last time they played a good game? Holy shit. that's a lot. Yeah, I'm looking at that right, right? Wow. Well, we have two nobody believes in us teams already. As you know, that's the strongest force of round one. That's right. And when you compare this season to 2008, which is a very smart thing to do because it's very similar in a lot of different ways, including that we don't seem to really have a dominant team.

1:06:46All hell broke loose in round one in 2008, and we had the same situation. So we have two home dogs in a row. I think there's another one coming with the Steelers and maybe with the Bills too. So we potentially have four home dogs here. It'll have been three weeks since he played or more? Three weeks? Three weeks. What's the... Jacobs, they rested, so he's probably mostly healthy. Okay. No Parsons. Yeah. Watson is back. Is their safety going to be back, McKinney, or is he gone? I don't think he's back. We have to watch the injury report. yeah I don't know why I mean is this like everything have to do with what the Bears did today damn I love the I love the Packers as a dog but now I'm a little nervous well now you have the Bears on a teaser there's no doubt you're doing that I don't think the Bears are very good and they're like the Steelers where they've had the horseshoe up the ass team but they've you know you could play their schedule a few times and get some 8-9 results I think and I'm not sure about their defense at all like that Niners game last week all the yards and all the points they give up to the Niners who a week later scored three against Seattle in a must-win game I mean they must be pissed though I know you say nobody believes in us and I don't know how many players follow gambling, I'm sure they all do they're all going to know they're an underdog to a team they beat twice that's going to piss them off so let's see how they react the players don't follow gambling but they all know what an underdog is and then that means all they know is that means people don't believe they can, more people believe they can't win than can win and then they grasp onto that so oof by the way, Packers-Bears in a playoff game, how many times has that happened?

1:08:33Not a lot. Since we've been alive has that happened less than five times? There was that NFC championship where Cutler was hurt, right? That was a disaster, like the Packers just rolled them But yeah, it has happened a lot. Listen, I've been proven wrong. This rivalry has come back to life. Both the regular season games were great. Now we have a Saturday night showdown.

1:08:58Well, I couldn't have been more right with my question. How many times do you think they've played in the playoffs? Oh, somebody jumped in? I just went on Stat Muse, which normally redirects you to some sort of Turkish trafficking site. Since we've been born? Or is that what... How about ever? I'll give you ever. Well, the way you're saying it, six? Two. Really? 1941, the NFL divisional game. Don't remember it. I'll give you... It's Green Bay at Bears. I'll give you the line of... I'll give you... The Bears. Bears minus five. The Bears win like 63 to 14 or something. 33 to 14. Yeah. And then 2011, the Rodgers ends up winning.

1:09:48God damn, that was that long ago. They've never played a playoff game in Green Bay. Both teams were in Chicago. That's nuts. These teams have been in the NFL for the entire time. They've played twice. They're ducking each other. I mean, maybe that's why the Bears blew it today. I was wondering if both the Bears and the Eagles were afraid of playing the Packers, and that's why they were doing their shenanigans. whether they'd want to admit it or not. Were they more comfortable playing the sixth seed? This was such a terrifying... Did you have a headache by the end of today? We're trying to figure out which coaches are putting which players in.

1:10:25We did that pregame show. And JJ's like, all right, this line opened at 7. And this morning it was 10. And now it's 13. Raheem, why do you think that is? And he's like, ah, because people are losing their minds. I don't know. There's no... And then Josh Allen plays for one play. And then he's gone. It didn't matter because Trubisky, I just, I don't know. I'm so glad you brought that up. I forgot to mention that. Yeah. My least favorite move in sports, the person who keeps the consecutive game streak going by playing one play, which was started by AC Green when he broke his nose or something and he missed two weeks and he would just come in for a second and then come out to keep his streak going.

1:11:03That's not a streak. That wasn't even AC Green's most remarkable streak. No, that was the second most remarkable streak. I don't like when people do this. Yeah, that's... All right. Next one.

1:11:19Bills, Jags. Are we going to have three straight road dogs here? This is in Jacksonville.

1:11:28The Bills have to be favored as well as the Jags have been playing. I don't see a scenario where they're not favoring Josh Allen in a playoff game over Trevor Lawrence and the Jags. I think this is in the Tic Tac zone. I have Bills minus one and a half. I thought it'd be Bills two and a half I just don't think You would get people To bite on Anything less You were right It's Bills by one and a half Oh I got one Yeah you nailed it So you're up Two to one on me I like the Jags A little bit I like the Jags A little bit too I don't really want it I would love a great quarterback To still be alive In the second round But They're gonna be able To run on Buffalo The Jags have played well For real For like ten weeks

1:12:16tough spot for the bills I don't know that Lawrence has to do a ton which out of these six games which one do they rig for one of the teams I think this would be a candidate bills jacks all of them yeah let's get Josh to the next round maybe the bills win this then they would be play either the Patriots or the Broncos in round two yeah they have they have everybody I'd be scared if are the Jags. Start complaining about the whistles now. Just talk to the Panthers fans about that Bucs game yesterday.

1:12:48Man. That's just a bad line. Every sharp that we know is going to think the Jags are, they probably, Raheem on gambling show will be like, I have my formula. I have the Jags favored by two and a half on my model. Everyone's going to have their model with the Jags favored. See, they could, I was half joking when I said, at a protest, I'm going to make every line a pick-em because nobody deserves to be favored in these playoffs. They have two of them that are basically pick-em. They threw a tic-tac at us the last two games and you still can't get over it. Green Bay, Chicago's one and a half, and Jacksonville, Buffalo, one and a half.

1:13:24I mean, this is all you need to know about the 2025 playoffs. We've done three games and they're all home underdogs. This is the fucking playoffs where the higher seed should have an advantage. No doubt. I think we're finally going to have a favorite here. It's the Eagles and the Niners. this was actually the one I had the most trouble with because you could have told me this was going to be six and a half and with the way the Eagles have looked I just couldn't get there especially with the offense and the backdoor potential and Shanahan and I just don't know what to make of this Eagles team so I went with Eagles minus three and a half yeah you nailed it it's three and a half I thought two and a half I guess the Niners I should have gone higher I probably wouldn't have gone higher than three though But the Niners did not look good.

1:14:11I think if you're the Niners defense, this would be the number one team you'd want to play in the playoffs other than the Panthers. Really? A team that just does the same thing every drive, moves super slow, you know, just they'll probably shoot themselves in the foot at some point. You might be able to get off the field and then you can get McCaffrey out there and try to have these big drives. Like, I'm really comfortable in this game if I'm the Niners. With that said, I could see them losing 40 to nothing. The coaching battle's similar. The quarterbacks are similar. You don't know what you're going to get from Barkley.

1:14:44Barkley versus McCaffrey. It's really kind of great on paper. It almost is a gambling stay away. But I think putting the Eagles in a tease. You got Rams, 10-point tease with the Rams. There we go. And the Eagles. And maybe our next game, get the Eagles to plus six and a half. not bad so out of the ones we've had Rams Packers Bills Eagles and Pats and State what is the blowout game who wins by 25 points out of these six if you had to say right now by the way you can change your mind in five days in the mirror gambling but just looking at a blind right now who's the blowout who's the 48 to 20 round one win well I mean the easy answer would be Rams because the spread is so high and the potential in Carolina though I wouldn't do that it could be though we're just happy to be there factor a little bit.

1:15:38I don't think so, though. I think you're right. I think Bill's Jags, and I could see it either way. Honestly. That was my pick. I could see Jags 44 to 28 or something. It's just a lot of points. Right. Okay. Two games left. Sunday night. I get Collinsworth for this, too. Yeah. Oh, Mike.

1:16:08Patriots home for the Chargers. I almost put this in the Vegas zone, but I really don't think people respect the Pats that much against better teams. And I went with Patriots minus three and a half. I said Patriots minus three. You have now won three in a row. You're guessing exactly. Oh. Okay. Three and a half. If that line moved, which way would it move? I think towards Chargers. I already think it's rich. I don't know. Have you earned that yet? I think it ends at three. I think it ends at three. What's your ideal weather for this one? Freezing. Freezing cold? So cold. Herbert's not sure of his hands.

1:16:53He can't even feel his left hand so cold. Wow. Yeah. Really cold. Tiny bit of rain. Yeah. You might get it. A little wet, cold. Yeah. Although the Chargers have been living in it here in LA for the last week, getting ready for this past year. That's true. because the weather's been awful here. Man, what a world. The Pats hosting a round one Sunday night game as three and a half point favorites as a two seed. Can't believe it. Four and 13 last year. It's like 2004. Just fucking up down the stretch when they could have gotten the number one pick and ended up with the number four and somehow it all worked out.

1:17:24Can't believe it. So happy for you, really. Thanks. I knew you'd be really happy. Plus we have an MVP candidate in Jalen Brown.

1:17:35Is he a defensive end? I can't. At the end, I got to talk about Celtics-Crippers. All right. You just got to give me like three minutes. Okay. Texans at the Steelers. So I can only tie here. All right. I just can't. I got to look again to make sure the Steelers in the playoffs. Hold on. Let me check the standards one more time. Did they really win the division? You saw that kick at the end. Just looking. No, I got to check one more time. Zay Flowers. How did he do it? Oh my God. They went 10 and seven. They were plus 10. 397 points and 387 allowed. Just unbelievable. How is that team in the playoffs?

1:18:19How did they win 10 games? I don't know. They laid down against the Browns. The Ravens were one in five and were favored to win the division. It's been the craziest rollercoaster ride you can imagine for the AFC North. They won week one, that ridiculous Jets game, 34-32. Week three, they beat the Patriots by seven with five turnovers, including one where the guy was running the end zone and fumbled. Week four in Dublin, they beat the Vikings by three. That was stupid. Right. They beat the Colts on November 2nd, 27-20. I have a vague memory of that one being stupid. We might have lost money in that game.

1:19:04They beat the Ravens earlier in the year, 27-22. Ridiculous. They won that crazy Lions game, 29-24. And then they won this game today. Like seven of those could have gone the other way. They beat the Ravens twice. Like that, you just never would have thought that with Lamar coming back, right? that was going to be the be-all. Okay, how much are the Ravens going to beat Pittsburgh by? And they just hung and stayed and missed kicks. And here we are. I don't know. How can you bring Harbaugh back after that with what's happened the last seven years? At what point do you just have to do something drastic?

1:19:43That was your hot take. Did you make that official, or was that just on a text chain? No, I had that two, three months ago. Well, you said, what's the biggest Monday surprise? Oh, Harbaugh. Yeah, yeah. I thought whoever lost this game was not going to be the coach of their team next year. I thought it was like a legitimate Rowdy Roddy Piper, Greg the Hammer Valentine, dog collar, loser Leafs town match. Right. And it might be. Poor Roddy. The thing is, if they fired Harbaugh, the Giants hire him five minutes later, right? Well, I had a similar idea for Tomlin. This kind of screws it up a little bit.

1:20:17But my hot take for 2026, I had three. Tomlin goes to the Falcons. Raheem Mars getting fired was part A of that and then I thought he could win a division at 8, 9, 7 and 10 he wouldn't have to be crucified like he is in Pittsburgh and he probably wants out anyway that was one. Number two was you will have pizza before February 9th I know you're all no carved up that was my second take in 26 the number three was that Baron Trump is going to fight on the UFC card on the White House lawn this summer Oh my God. That'd be amazing. Yeah. Is he old enough? He's seven foot four. They're going to get him a fight against like a groundskeeper and that'll be that.

1:20:59Yeah, he'll win. I actually, I was at the little club where the Clippers game is for the game, eating a hot dog without a bun with mustard on it. And I was like, I really hope somebody doesn't take a picture of this and send this to Sal. I knew he'd have been upset. You got to stop with this. Your weight hasn't fluctuated three pounds in two decades. I feel better mentally. You do? You look terrible. Thanks. Texans at Steelers. There's just no scenario where the Steelers are going to be favored in this game. So I'm going to start there. Wow. I forgot to guess this game, so I'm doing it on the fly.

1:21:36It's not going to be over three. I think it's going to be Texans minus two and a half in Pittsburgh. What a comeback for you. what a comeback you lose the first two you're rattled I said Pittsburgh minus one maybe I was I don't know why I was you thought Pittsburgh was going to be favored? there's no way I just didn't think you could make it this is Houston's first playoff game on the road all those shaky games they hosted so this is the first like ever? is this the first wild card playoff game whatever yeah it's that it's three and a half this line now you're scared well it's just you're just setting the Steelers up to do what they do I know this is like throwing meat over the cage to the lion like this is all they need this is how they live it's how they breathe today was the classic Steelers I mean they played all the hits today and so did the Ravens run up the middle stuff for three yards play action pass and second down tipped at the line of scrimmage, terrible third down pass, punt.

1:22:47That was like the entire Ravens season. Then all of a sudden, they become this fun team, and you're like, where was that team? Right, both of them. It was eight flowers running downfield. Anyway, that line's too high. The Texans should not be favored by that. The Texans are going to score, so their team total for 39.5 is probably 21.18. I don't know. If they're supposed to score 21, 21.5 points, Wouldn't you like the Steelers at this? Plus three and a half? Plus Metcalf comes back. Yeah. That's big. The Steelers, do you think they have the plays in the playbook where they're like, all right, we're going to run the Friar Muth play where he's in the back of the end zone and the guy is draped all over him and I'm going to throw it to him over his head, but he's going to flail up like James Harden and flail into the guy and the refs will be dumb enough to call this.

1:23:40On two. All right. Break. You just run straight for the goalpost and throw your arms there. Turn around and do the James Harden into five guys move, and they'll throw a flag. Don't worry about it. Meanwhile, that was the smartest thing the Ravens could do because then they went for it with two seconds left in the half and the terrible play flipped it left. Texans minus three and a half. So we have four home underdogs out of six teams. Yeah. And the two teams that are favored are the two-seed Patriots that haven't done anything in the Eagles who've been half asleep since January or February or whenever they won the Super Bowl.

1:24:17Yeah. When was the last time we didn't get a home team favored by four or more in this round? I don't think ever. No. I'd love to... Our guy John Ewing's usually good at this. I'd love to know if we've ever had a playoffs where no home team was favored by four points. Let us know, John. Otherwise, we're going to have to go to Stat Muse and then that's going to be embarrassing. Yeah, but it might end up in Turkey. Yeah, right. unbelievable god do we bet next week? maybe it's just a complete stay away next week no we have to bet I just the Bengals really screwed me so much I would have had a nice tidy sum you were very upset today I was so mad you said some mean things about Joe Burrow by the way we didn't even talk about how we handled our great bet of like four teams to come in last place and the Saints were the only one giving us trouble And so we hedged.

1:25:11You didn't hedge it? No, I rode the Falcons. I didn't hedge. I went raw dog on the Falcons. Holy crap. Really? Kirk Cousins with the flu? You didn't know when you heard that? I wasn't fazed. We had almost three to one on our bet. I was like, I'm raw dogging the Falcons. All right. But me, Henge, and House went plus three and a half. I mean, when the hell is that going to happen? We never middle anything. Oh, you middle that? That was perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was great. Oh, I didn't know you guys. I was so incensed. Yeah, because I was so mad about the Bengals. Nothing mattered in life after that.

1:25:42Oh, because normally you're more excited about a middle. I know. I couldn't look. We could talk money, but it was a big difference. I had... We did a bad job on over-unders this year. Yeah. But I don't feel that bad about it because our best picks all did really well. Patriots. Yeah. Broncos. Seahawks. I had the Jags in a division. Yeah. You had the Jags. I had the Bears. We were both shorting the Washington. Right. That was the big one. But the one that killed me and prevented me from... I did really well in the futures, especially on airplane runways in Boston, in Chicago, and Indianapolis, which I'm convinced that they give you extra time.

1:26:27But the Casey just... Wait, who gives you extra time? The airline? The airports are working with FanDuel and everybody else. Yeah, they're like, Can you just stay on the runway for 10 extra minutes? We look like we have a couple of live ones. Interesting. Making runway bets. Yeah, it's so funny. I have a whole bunch of runway FanDuel bets. But they won. Even the Collectors Convention of Chicago. Yeah, and I hit all of them. I had bears over. I had all this stuff. But the one that killed me was the Chiefs. I had the Chiefs tied into a couple awesome ones, like the Patriots and the Eagles to win their divisions with the Chiefs, like shit like that.

1:27:00And the Chiefs, the most reliable bet that we've had for the last seven years just finally shit the bed. Well, because that's what we call that. We call that the KCD, like a CD. Like, yeah, they're 6-1. Mahomes is 6-1 or 7-1. Ride those in the next five or six years. It's going to cash. I think we have to walk away from that, though. I had some other... I had some player prop stuff that was bad, like Burrow, Passing Yards, and some of the other ones. But the stuff that we did the best on was the last place stuff. Yeah. Like, we had all those teams pegged, like Tennessee and the Saints. and... Yeah, those were done.

1:27:33The Browns, right? Those were done like a month ago. Although the Browns ended up close with Cincinnati. I just... Go figure, but the two South divisions just murdered me this year. I think I went like one and seven in the two South divisions. We had under 30... I think I got every team wrong. What did we have? Under 33 wins for the AFC South? I think I had the wrong over or under on every team in the South. And I think I might have had... I had Houston over. I think I went one and three in the AFC South. I stand by the Bucs. I still think if there's a week 19, I think they're going to take in somehow.

1:28:10What a weird thing for them. They celebrate the win, but they didn't win anything. Yeah. Then they have to watch flu-ridden Kirk Cousins going against Taylor Shuck with no weapons and then get Dick Tease for three hours and then end up. So that was a win for the league, right? Because they got the extra game that mattered. I mean, they're constantly searching for games that matter in Week 18. Total win for the week. They had to put the Tampa-Carolina game, whether it was a clincher or not, in that early slot Saturday. Well, that's why people were crying about the refs yesterday because it was in the week's interest for Tampa to win because it set up a better scenario.

1:28:47Speaking of one thing we didn't hit, I know this is going far afield at this point, did LaFleur down 16-0 with the spread at 13.5? Call timeout with a second left to kick a field goal. He sure did. 16-3. Oh, my God. Oh, boy. This is a weird thing we've seen head coaches do where they don't want to get shut out. Okay. It's something about the shutout leaves them uneasy, but it was one of the three shakiest gambling moments of the year. You've got to go 16-8 there and then 16-16. I know with one second left, you can't do that, but you have to score a touchdown. That's nuts.

1:29:30good luck to him today's Parent Corner presented by Greenland 2 Migration if you loved this disaster hit film in 2020 well the end of the world was only the beginning Gerard Butler and Marina Baccarin are back for the sequel and we're going to talk about that after we finish Parent Corner Greenland 2 coming soon my guy Gerard Butler had the most iconic Benihana scene in the history of Benihana what do you got for Parent Corner? All right. Don't have... Did we change it to parents' corner? I just stumbled. I know. I'm already nervous about past chargers being live next week. Why are they doing that to us?

1:30:10Could you have been live after the Romo game? I thought you were kidding. Live? No. I was hiding in a movie theater. Could you have been live after the Romo game? Just taking a microphone. I'm in the row sobbing in a movie theater. AMC. Yeah, I have a couple things are not great. It was my son Harrison's birthday, like Tuesday, turned 12, and the kid loves fishing. He loves fishing. I don't know where he gets it. His friends love fishing. We have a pier not far from us. They go all the time. They went today in the rain. He blew off watching football with his old man to go fishing with his friends.

1:30:46Whatever. Fine. And so there's this giant like a bait shop. I can't even call it a bait shop. It's like a big five, but for fishing, but it's like five times the size of a big five. It's called Bass Pro Shop, and it's in Irvine, and that's where he wanted to go. It's about 40 minutes away. So we take him on his birthday, and you know how you and I... Great used sports location. It's my number one used sports location. Great sports complex. Weekend stuff. Always stuff to go. Good fields. They have a nice outdoor mall. Thumbs up for Irvine. The mall's awesome. The Bass Pro Shop is fine, but not for an hour and a half.

1:31:26not for someone like me and I just we get there and I'm like alright this place is huge but like a lot of it's like hunting crap and boats that I know he's not going to buy and like giant knives and everything we were there for 90 minutes and I was like you've got to be kidding me I just can't do it and he's buying lures you need like three lures and he had a gift card to this place and he's really like exploring he's right in there and talking to everybody and the guy, well, this is better for carp. And if you're going to hook a, you know, if you're going to hook, you know, just in case you hit a stingray, like they're talking about all this crazy stuff.

1:32:03Oh, stop it. After an hour, I didn't, I'm like, I'm done. So they have these giant tents that they also sell. I zip myself up in the tent, lay down on the cot that was in the tent and watch whatever bowl game I was losing money on. And I was like, you let me know when you're done. And it was like 45 minutes after that, when he finally was ready to cash out. You just vegged out. They didn't say anything to you? No, I was like, let's see what happens. It's not like sitting on a toilet in a Home Depot, but I was laying in a tent, so it was nice. Did you get stink-eyed by anybody or no? I did check before I unzipped to see if anybody was watching, but no, it wasn't too bad.

1:32:42See, these are the kind of stories when people talk about how technology is ruining everything. Yeah. 20 years ago, you couldn't have done that. you just would have been wandering around the store like you were in a coma now you just pull your phone out and you'd be like go ahead Harrison take an extra 40 minutes your mistake though was not capping it no having cousin Jimmy go with you I feel like he would have gone on that trip he did want to go but he couldn't he couldn't make it there yeah he actually yeah you're right I actually think you should have just taken him or had him go paid for the Uber had them go just and have Jimmy do all of it.

1:33:21You're right. I think he would have done it. He's that weird. I mean, he's a very strange guy. Yes. You wouldn't think like a major celebrity would go spend the Saturday in an Irvine fish shop, but he would have. By the way, he's a Critics' Choice Award winner. Jimmy Kimmel Live, congratulations. Saw that. Yeah, yeah. Critics can be very critical. So that's the thing about that. He was the Critics' Choice. Yeah, he was the choice of all the critics. So nice job. Aaron Rodgers won too, so I guess it's a give and take, but what are you going to do for him? Did Aaron Rodgers... Oh, he won the football game.

1:33:50I was going to say, he won a Critics' Choice for the Hiawaska documentary? No, no. So anyway, he ends up with 40 lures. So that was that. The other thing real quick... Can you tell us how much everything costs? It's like 275 bucks. Oh, my God. He had like 150 in gift cards and stuff. Yeah. But we hit Korean barbecue afterwards, so it was fine. But anyway, my son... Listen, you have to do this stuff because there's a whole promosa beach teen gang scene that's pretty crazy. You got to make sure he doesn't get in with some rough hands. Yeah, you're right. Gotta make sure you keep your father-son relationship.

1:34:22Should I move? What's out of all the six places you live? What's the nicest neighborhood that I can go? I think you're in a good spot. I think you're fine. Well, what it doesn't have where we are is a Steelers bar where my son Jack is just getting back 17 years old. Oh my God. Oh yeah, that was a big win for Jack. I forgot about that. Congrats to Jack. I can hear him stomping around still. I'm surprised he hasn't crashed the pod. I know. I keep checking because it looks like it's going to be close. But that was going to be a sad night for him. And now next Monday night, he'll be out on a school night.

1:35:00Very weird. But you know I'm stupid and every year I go through my favorite new person I met in 2025. I do the same thing. I have a winner as well. Yeah. Oh. No, go. You can do yours. Well, no. I asked Jack and he rattled off like 30 names of these people in this bar that he goes to. So like 30, like 50 year olds, he's 17. So that was interesting. So he counted down from 25 to one over 35 years old. He knew it. Like I was about to ask him. He really, uh, said, are you ready to give yours? You want to give yours? No, I'm not ready. I, I pretended I was. Do you have one? Oh, I can do one. I feel like every year I've made a friend.

1:35:37Yeah. It's gotta be someone you met for the first time in 2025 and it can't be over Zoom. Oh, it has to be somebody I, I actually literally met this year. Yes. I need more time to think about who that is. I would narrow it down from mine to the guy who both fixed and broke our stove three times before he was rounded up by ice, no joke, and didn't see it. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. That's not great. That's horrible. He was a nice guy. And then secondly, I would say Seth Meyers, who's a big fan of this podcast. Did you not know Seth Meyers at all? Never met him. Never met him. Seth Meyers is a great guy.

1:36:15You've had him on the podcast. Big win today for Seth Meyers. Yeah. Yeah. Good job by him. Good job by you. Oh, man. Now I have to... I got to think. I'll have an answer next week. I really want to think about this. Who's new with the ringer that you met? I got to think about this. I know. I don't want to have the wrong answer. And there's a couple people that I met, but that I thought was this year, but it was probably last year. Really? Okay. All right. my parent corner

1:36:48so I have some parent stuff for you about when is it time to let go so like Ben's 18 now and it's been break and he's always going away like driving away he's going I'm going bowling with my friends I'm going to see my girlfriend it's 1230 you know we don't know when he's coming back and my wife is just like well, I can't go to bed until Ben comes back. And I'm like, really? You can't? Like he's 18 now. Like he could legally just leave. He doesn't even, he's not even legally required to live with us. Right. What is the right age to basically be like, I'm just going to bed. I hope he's, I hope he's here the next morning.

1:37:32Because I was thinking about when I was in like after high school, college range. And I just went out and it would always annoy me when my parents are like, when are you going to be back? Or my mom would be waiting up in the kitchen. I'm like, the fuck? I'm 20. Why are you up? And that's, and Zoe like can do whatever. And you know, Zoe's almost 21, but Ben is 18. It's like, he's right in that zone of should I still be worried when he's out? Right. It absolutely depends on the kid. Like we have friends whose kids, if they went out, they should be sitting on the porch all night long and waiting and making sure that he or she got back.

1:38:07Ben is not one of those kids. Ben, I don't think, is one of those kids. Do they wake you up when they get home anyway? Not tap you on the shoulder and wake you up, but them coming through the door, does that wake you up? Murph usually makes a point of pretending that he's guarding the house for five seconds, so that kind of wakes you up. I'll roll over and go back to bed. My wife will then be up watching Heated Robbery or whatever the hell she watches. Right, right, right. I think you're good with Ben. I think until he gives you a reason not to be. That's been my case, but my wife's still very hands-on.

1:38:37That's hard for me to tell her that. And she's checking on Life360 to see where he is. This is crazy. Yeah. My son is now 20, went back up to Oregon, and we were watching. He has a 14-hour drive, and it was like, you know, the conditions aren't great. And she's watching like a video game, just like watching him on We Define by, not Life360. I'm like, all right, you got to let him be. He's like, oh, he's 66 miles an hour. You think that's too fast? I'm like, just please, just let him get there. He stopped hard three times. Exactly. He passed the Costco. What do you think that's about? He loves the hot dogs there.

1:39:12It is definitely the start of some pay-per-view movie that I would probably rent, where somebody's watching their kid on Life 360, and they're just doing a straight drive, and then all of a sudden, the car goes right and just keeps going right. Yeah, right, right. And they were like, oh my God, where's he going? And all of a sudden he's in like Nevada. Right. Or Sacramento or something. Yeah, that's a kernel of something. I had a similar thing with the Game Changer where you could watch your kid, you could watch like a cartoon version of your kid playing baseball. Yeah, hoping he gets a hit and you find out after.

1:39:47Harrison had got hit by a pitch and it says batter hit by a pitch. And so I'm like, all right. And I'm waiting and I'm like one minute, two minutes. Oh, like five minutes passes. five minutes past. I can't get ahold of Melissa. I'm like, I don't know if there's like a cartoon ambulance about to come on the screen and like pick him. I'm like, fucking throw the next pitch, please, please. I'm like, finally, the next pitch was, and it was okay. But yeah, that's a similar thing. They got to add that. Why not? Yeah. So yeah. So, so Ben's out. We never see him. So we went back to college and, and, it's like my wife and I, we went to, so at the Clippers last night, we had a great time.

1:40:23She's watching heated rivalry. She banged out all six episodes this weekend. I guess it's just what happens. I'm just glad we still like hanging out with each other. She watched all six episodes of Heated Robbery in like 20 hours. Really? And was sobbing at the end of the sixth one. Wow. Yeah. Do you know this show? No, I don't. I don't know. You literally haven't heard of Heated Robbery? I've heard of it, but I don't know. She's sobbing? I should like this? You should like this? I mean, you picked Devil Wears Prada as your number one? What the hell? What happened to you? We're not the audience for Heated Robbery.

1:40:55it's my wife and her friends who have all devoured this and they've been talking about it for a week and it's a phenomenon on HBO Max does your wife know about this yeah she does she was talking to friends but I didn't think you know I got a lot of now that the bowl games have settled down maybe I'll watch some of this stuff from a TV standpoint it's this is like the worst time for us to jump at anything there's too much football and there's basketball there's going to be all kinds of trades Today's Parents Corner Again Parents in the cockpit Well because they They did a typo Today's Parent Corner Presented by Greenland 2 Migration Where were we That's right The sequel Five years after A comet strike Devastated most of Earth Not unrealistic right now The Garrity family Is leaving the safety Of their bunker In Greenland In search of a new home And it's a disaster film And it's my guy Gerard Freakin' Butler What else do you need Greenland 2 Migration In theaters January 9th Rated PG 13.

1:41:55This is the other thing I would have done for parents corner. It's not really apparent, but I went to Celts Clippers last night. This has been, I don't think I've missed a Celts Clipper game since I moved here. I think this was like my 23rd or 24th game. And the Clippers have been playing well. Kawhi Leonard, they've kind of climbed back. Actually, I've been sending you the Pacific Division odds because I do feel like there's a chance they can get back into it. the Celtics have been playing really well. They're 3-1 on the road trip. It would have been a nice one. It was going to be a hard game.

1:42:29I think they were 1.5 point underdogs. Jalen Brown didn't get player of the month last month. He's been awesome. He's like 30 points a game. I said on Tuesday, I think he's the first team on NBA guy. Kawhi's playing great. So we first play of the game, I said to my wife, Jalen's got the freaking Usec kind of look on his face. He's going to battle. Like this is going to be really fun. He's going, he's going to go at Kawhi. He guards Kawhi the whole game, shuts him down. He scores 50 points. He's, he's go, goes nuts in the second half. He's like, he's become other than Shay, probably the most reliable mid range score in the league.

1:43:08Like he's really in year 10 has gone up a level and, and kind of breaks the Clippers spirit. There's probably 7 ,000 Boston fans there, maybe 6 ,000. They've designed this arena for Clipper fans. it's Clippers Clippers Clippers there's a wall it's like Bomber's creation there's all these Boston fans they're chaining let's go Celtics Bomber was so fucking pissed really he was he was like doing this like looking around like he was watching little kids play on his lawn who weren't supposed to be on the lawn he was doing this and Jalen's just romping on them trying to get to 50 points and gets it and it was honestly one of the best road games I've seen a Celtic play in person.

1:43:51He was unbelievable. And it's a really weird situation because Tatum hasn't played this whole year and Jalen somehow went up a level and I don't really know what happens when Tatum comes back. Because Jalen's averaging 30 a game. He's been awesome. He's been a half a game out of the two seed. And then Tatum's going to come back. So the good version of this, he just comes back and you give him the Sam Hauser minutes and he's on minutes limit and he's just going to shoot threes and rebound and play defense and be completely be additive, but he's kind of coming back to somebody else's team, and I don't know how it's going to play out.

1:44:26Do you think this is a Snoop Huntley situation here? Like, maybe January Tatum sits. Maybe we don't exist. January Tatum. Well, we did win a title with the old way of doing it. That was so long ago. Like, obviously, Pippen was the comparison in this when Jordan went to play baseball and Pippen was great. He took the Bulls to 55 wins. Jalen's been better than Pippen ones that season. Like he's every night he's 30 plus points. I think he's probably I saw his FanDuel odds. What is it? I thought I couldn't believe that they were as high as they were because I would have him for everything. I think Maxie's the other one.

1:45:05I'm not allowed to bet on this. He's 80. Jalen's 80. Maxie's 200. Yeah. So that's the other Jalen Brunson plus 450. Right. Like to me Cade Brown down maxi in some order and out at brunson fifth and sga first and i wouldn't have luka in the top five like that's crazy to me um yeah but don't anyway don't don't give these out and then you're gonna vote for shea anyway don't you shouldn't do that no i i'm just saying the public perception of what's happening and maybe it'll become a story this week about how good jalen's been because you know they have a pretty easy schedule next five games they play denver no yokage they play the Spurs, no Wemby, everything's at home.

1:45:46And there's a chance they could be like 27 and 12, 26, 13 with no Tatum. And they traded Drew Holiday. They have no Porzingis. They have no Horford. Like, this is fucking crazy. What's happening? They started out on three. This is a nuts story, but I don't think Jalen's got enough credit for how great he's been. That number's baked into the fact that Tatum's coming back and then they're going to have to share the team. If Tatum was out... If he comes back. Part of the thing about how well they've been playing is they have the luxury now of really being careful when Tatum comes back. Even when he comes back, you're on a minute's limit.

1:46:21You're going to play seven minutes a half. We're going to ease you back. Like Otani didn't have to pitch until he had to pitch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just be like, hey, come in and be the most awesome version of Sam Hauser for a month. Kind of get your sea legs. To watch somebody go up a level in year 10, I haven't seen this before. At least for basketball, it's really unusual. For somebody who was already really good to then now be one of the best 7, 8, 9 players in the league. I did not expect this. I like that Ballmer thing. I don't know if people know what that arena is like, that into it. He's got it all tricked out.

1:46:54It's a weird place anyway. Basically, you have to live through your phone and that thing. He might have locked it up on you guys. He presses one button and you guys will be like... No, he definitely had a meeting afterwards trying to figure out how this can never happen again. Really? He's so crazy in a good way about having everybody focused on the Clippers in the game. Even when you go in the wherever to go piss or go get food, there's no TVs. You got to get back to your seat. Everything is driving people back into the seats because he wants as much noise as possible. The Souths were just really, really good.

1:47:29It's a really tough team. I don't know. I wasn't between this and the Pats. This is about as good as it's been for two teams at the same time in a while. And your Red Sox are right there. It's all looking good. Red Sox not right there. How are you feeling about the Mets? I don't, right now, I don't, it's not good. We're not, we're not the Dodgers. That's how I feel about the Mets. My God, it's 1025. We got to wrap this up. Oh yeah, let's get out of here. We're talking about fishing and the Celtics and the Clippers. What do you got to plug this week? Nothing. I don't have time. No, ringer gambling show.

1:48:04Check it out all week long. It's a lot of fun. It's right here on YouTube. we are not abandoning YouTube altogether we got all that ringer gambling content on there and it's going to be fun good times and we have a big week next week we got two ringer Sunday pregame shows on Saturday and Sunday before the games and then we're going live on Netflix next week beautiful this will be our last journey on YouTube I don't really have any fond farewells or anything for YouTube we're still going to be putting up shorts and clips on my channel but the live video and by the way you can still watch us on Spotify if you don't want to watch us on YouTube We will be on video on Spotify.

1:48:39Please don't forget that part. Good save. You'll be able to watch us in one of two places. That's right. But if you want to watch us on Netflix, we'll be there as well. They are putting your head up there. I went to watch the Ricky Gervais thing and I see a silhouette of you. I got suggested? You're looking like Ellen DeGeneres circa 2008. But whatever. It's a plug. It's good. Ellen DeGeneres. They should give me something thing where I look like I'm an erotic thriller from Columbia, where it's like me and some secretary. Yeah, I'm going to tell them to sexy my thing up. Make it seem like it's a more provocative show.

1:49:17You're going to go all Dave Chappelle on sports, right? Yeah, I'm going to try to lose my mind. Alright, Cuz, I'll see you in a week. As always, good job by you. Good job by you, buddy. Thanks to Gahao and Eduardo as well. Thanks to everybody for for listening and watching. And I have a new rewatchables coming on Monday. We got a mailbag coming tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. I will see you in a couple of days.

1:49:57Must be 21 plus and president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit rg-help.com. Call 888-79-7777 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 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.