PMS 2.0 1462 - BA Day with Bruce Arians, MNF Recap, Peter Schrager, Texas Tech Head Coach Joey McGuire, & Darius Butler

21:24Pat McAfee:Looks like they might win the Super Bowl. Let's say they don't win the Super Bowl. Okay, Coach Rabes, how would you judge your first year? Yeah, we've got a lot to work on. We're going to figure that out. And, oh, yeah, we've got the biggest bank in the entire NFL. It's like, what a position for the Patriots to be in going forward. Joining us now is a man who was boots on the ground in Foxborough yesterday And a guy who knows everything about everything. Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, the most interesting man, talker about her, and also the host of Schrager Hour, Pierre Schrager.

21:51Darius Butler:Yay! How you doing, Schrager? What up, dude? I'm doing amazing. I'm listening to you guys. I would just add, and, you know, D-Bot knows I have been to so many of those games up in Foxborough. I mean, I've sat at Ed Reed's locker as he was smoking a cigar, singing Two Tickets to Paradise because they finally beat the Patriots, and he was going to his first Super Bowl in that building. I've been to countless Sunday night games in that building. I'm telling you, it was like going this crazy, like this is your life moment, walking back into that building. And suddenly, they're the number one seed again.

22:28Darius Butler:And it's just like six years ago, it was supposed to be done. And we're supposed to wait 15, 20 years, but like walking around Patriots Place, walking into that building. And yet there is a difference. and this is what you guys are saying here i used to walk around that building like with eggshells and like i don't want to ask the wrong question don't want to be in the wrong place can't have there was a levity to it there was a joy to it it was like imagine the patriots regime with a smile that's what this was yesterday they were actually happy and pleasant and hey shrank's great to see you and not why are you standing there like it's a whole different vibe from the belichick era and And yet the same results so far, and it's early, but I was blown away by this team.

23:13Darius Butler:And it's amazing to me that with all the downtrodden franchises, whether it be the Raiders fans, the Browns fans, the Jets fans, that somehow, someway it took six years since Brady's last game in New England. And they're already the number one seed again and sitting at the top of the perch in the NFL. It's wild.

23:32Pat McAfee:Yeah, and let's not even get into all the other sports up there, too, just having success all the time. I don't know what it is, but it feels like they do make teams a little different up there in the New England era, especially with this Patriots football team. The Kraft family deserves a lot of respect. They deserve a lot of respect for the decision that they made as quickly as they did to get Vrabel in there. And Drake May has just become special. And the defense is unbelievable. Okay, let's pivot away from the Patriots and yesterday. Let's move to some other NFL stories. As Darius Butler alluded to there, you talk about the NFC's kind of Patriots.

24:04Pat McAfee:That would be the Chicago Bears. And I know you're about to chit-chat with Ben Johnson for the next Schrager Hour. This Chicago Bears story is special. And Ben Johnson, jacked, but not just jacked physically. Feels like he should be emotionally because his culture has settled in so quickly. Is that kind of your vibes that you're getting out of Chicago? And were you a believer in it the entire time? Because I thought there was no chance Caleb and Ben were going to get along. And then here we are, and it's like, oh, they're perfect for each other, just like Vrabel and Drake. We are the dumbest people of all time.

24:35Pat McAfee:That's where I'm sitting at now.

24:37Darius Butler:I didn't have them playoff team. I'll be honest. I didn't think that would happen in year one, but I thought it was a great hire. And I thought he was the most misunderstood person in the NFL going into this season. People thought Ben Johnson was some bookish nerd who would sit in a laboratory and just draw plays. They don't realize he's got a ton of juice to him. He's a dog himself. This is a guy who was a culture setter, not only in Detroit with that offensive group, But then the second he got to Chicago was like, here's what we're going to be. And you think they're going to do all this air raid stuff?

25:08Darius Butler:No, look what they did. They had between those two running backs. They ran for more than 230 yards on what's considered one of the best run defenses in the league. At 281 yards, most ever versus Nick Sirianni. And that's a statement. And remember, Sonic and Knuckles in Detroit last year, they did the same thing there. So this isn't just one of these through the air, all that types of guys. He's also got a bit of an edge to him. And when he's ripping off his shirt and he's, you know, subtly jacked and you're like, wait, I didn't expect that. He's doing this whole thing. What I'm looking at is the teammates and the players and everyone in that room rallying around it and loving this guy.

25:46Darius Butler:I'm excited for the Bears fans. I'm excited for the Patriots fans. I had a source text me and said, if they were both to be the one seeds, it would be the first time in NFL history ever going back 110 years. First time ever that the two number one seeds in the playoffs would have quarterbacks were 25 years old or younger. And that's a testament to those quarterbacks. It's also a testament to those coaches. You're talking about Vrabel and you're talking about Ben Johnson, first year coaches who took second year quarterbacks who had rough rookie years and said, let's wash that away. Let's build this from scratch.

26:19Darius Butler:Let's do it the right way.

26:20Pat McAfee:Yeah, Caleb seems to be everything we thought Caleb was going to be. And Ben Johnson's only going to get smarter on the offensive side, and they're going to be able to be paired forever. And Drake May is going to be with Josh McDaniels for seemingly ever as well. That means the future is very bright in two cities, you know. How's everybody else doing? Well, Shrags, let's talk about the Indianapolis Colts. Okay, this is going to be my last question before the boys will have their questions. Right. They were on the graphic last night competing for the one city. Yeah. I heard – did I hear him say lurking too?

26:49Pat McAfee:I think I heard somebody say lurking. No, they were in that big graphic. They were in the three-team graphic. No, no, okay, yes. You guys got us in there, yeah. But did I see the word lurking? I think I saw lurking up there in the... Hovering, hovering. Okay, I think SVP said lurking as well. I was like, yes, we need to keep lurking because that's what these teams... Right. These teams are lurking around, but the Colts, I'm very worried about us, Shrigs. I am very, very worried about us. We had CJ Stroud on yesterday. The Houston Texans, we think, are going to continue to be great because they get the number one defense in the league.

27:21Pat McAfee:And offensively, if C.J. Stroud can get back to form, which he looked like it against Indianapolis Colts, they're going to be good against anybody. Collins is seemingly unguardable, and he's fast as shit. And then they got guys all over the place. So they're good. Jacksonville Jaguars, Liam Cohen, Trevor Lawrence. It's like we got to play them twice, including this week, Don and Duval. The Colts are favored by one and a half at this moment on DraftKings. I have no idea how that happened because we always struggle down there. But if you look at the Colts' road down here, we got the Jags, Seahawks.

27:47Pat McAfee:Are they good? I don't remember. Decent. The Niners, are they okay? I don't remember. Jags again, okay. And then the Houston Texans who just beat us, but we'll be down there making it the Houston Loud House. And whatever you think about the Colts, we were number one. We were number one. And then now this injury to Daniel Jones, did we all know about this thing? When did this all come about? And what are your kind of thoughts on where the Colts sit right now? Because I am a bit worried. I'm going to be honest. I am a bit worried about where we're at.

28:18Darius Butler:it's a brutal stretch, but how else would you want it? Then, hey, let's go win our way.

28:22Pat McAfee:Easier with a healthy Danny Donk. That's how I would want it. I would want maybe the Jags. The Titans and the Raiders five times. Yeah, that's what I would like. That would be great if I could somehow. You already got the Titans twice. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, it's not good. But you're saying hard road here. This is what you should want because if you're going to win it all, you're going to have to beat everybody anyway.

28:45Darius Butler:hardest road that remains i think is right here and i look at those two jaguars logos and you hit it for whatever reason when the jaguars were 1-15 they would beat the colts when the colts had to win it in with wince on that week 18 game and the jaguars had nothing to play for jaguars beat the colts like it's enough already the colts have the chance to go in there and not only slay demons for this franchise but to also shut up a lot of people who have been critical of this team the last few weeks. I think we all were doing a bit of a celebration a little too soon. And then in the trade deadline, when Ballard goes all in and gets sauce, it's like, all right, we're going to commend that because we're going to go win a Super Bowl.

29:26Darius Butler:And you give up future first round picks because that's what the goal is. It wasn't to, hey, let's fight for a wildcard spot or barely make the playoffs or God forbid, miss the playoffs. The season's not done. They still have this road and they still have Jonathan Taylor in that backfield that they can rely on, even if Daniel Jones is in 100%. So no sauce for probably a couple weeks. It wasn't an Achilles, which was what the fear was when it first went down. You're happy about that. And I thought Alec Pierce played excellent, and I thought there were a lot of different things to like about that game that you were at on Sunday.

29:56Darius Butler:So I'm not giving up on the Colts yet. I don't look at the Jaguars as world beaters here. Go into Jacksonville, take care of business, and go tear that narrative away from everybody else and win.

30:05Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's right. In fibula, you need the heel. You know? I didn't even know what that was. I knew it was in the leg somewhere, like the fibula. Not that important. It's the other one on your shin, I guess. It's not like tibia or anything. Yeah. Or the femur. That's a bone. The patella, very important in the entirety of the leg. If you really dive into it. Would hate to lose a patella. I dislocated patella my last year in the NFL. It was disgusting. It hurt like hell. It wasn't fun. The tibia and the fibula, they're almost a little tag team down there in the shin, as you know. I like this graphic.

30:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, the fibula is connected to the other bone. And then it's on the other side. There's a hairline in there. And then whenever you start talking about the condyles, you start to worry about them kind of triculating down there into the stibula. And then you got it all figured out. Nonetheless, Danny Jones got a hairline fracture in his, and he certainly looks different.

31:02Darius Butler:Will you guys be in attendance for that Monday night Colts 49ers game?

31:07Pat McAfee:Yeah. It's the only primetime game we got all year, bud. Can we hang? No. If you tell Ben Johnson to come on the show, maybe. Yeah, we need you to put in a good word for Ben Johnson. We pissed off Kevin Warren whenever we were kind of talking about all the dumb things he did as the Big Ten president or whatever. And there was a lot of them. And that's on us for doing it. So I think he kind of holds a little bit against it.

31:31Darius Butler:You were being honest. You were being – you're a journalist, Pat.

31:34Pat McAfee:You say what you got to say. You said it. Hello. You said it, not me. hashtag journalism. I don't know who's doing it out there these days. Well, there was a guy. Yeah, who's that? Oh, man. Man, I don't know. Have we heard from him? I've not. We've not heard from him. This one's way over my head right now. Yeah, you know who I'm talking about. He was stirring the pot, investigative sports journalism. Oh, yeah. He decided to shake a tree that I don't think was the right move. I don't know. He was in there. But us, we like to consider ourselves as journalists. I think we try to get to the bottom of things, but on that note, you're the person with actual information.

32:11Pat McAfee:There's some real troubles maybe in the city of brotherly love. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shrigs, how concerned are you with the Eagles? It feels like things have finally reached a tipping point. People are egging Kevin Petullo's house. They're not going to make any changes, Sirianni said. They got their absolute asses beat by the Bears. At this point, what is the level of concern? And with the Cowboys being one of the hotter teams in the NFL right now, how likely is it Do you think that the Cowboys potentially win the NFC East?

32:40Darius Butler:It's definitely possible. And it's becoming more and more likely. Cowboys look like they're as good as any team in the NFL the last three weeks. And the Cowboys go into Detroit in what might be season-defining game for both teams on Thursday night. The Cowboys are what I'd be scared of if I were the Eagles. Of course, all it takes is Philly to win a couple games. And this is all an afterthought. And we're back. And they're all of a sudden 10-4 in the whole thing. But that's where I'm at. it's it's aesthetically really different than what it looked like the beginning of the season and talking to people who do the all 22 and all that stuff there's very very little that you can hang your hat on and say well at least they're doing this right or at least they're trying this um and it also is i guess i would almost say it's magnified so much more in that market and it's because of the expectations and that's all the sports teams in philly like The expectations are so high.

33:36Darius Butler:And then the media, there are so many members of the media, and they are so on it. And whether you think they're overly critical or whether you think they're on it to a degree that it's good for the viewers and good for the readers and good for the fans, it is wall to wall as if it's the White House they're covering. It's that well covered. And then the fans have such expectations that when things start to crack, when things start to fracture, it could really be a landslide and it could snowball in a way that doesn't happen in other media markets. It's a combination of all these factors. It's so difficult to win there, which is why it kills me that when they did win there last year, I don't know if Jalen and Nick and those guys savored it or enjoyed it or reveled in it.

34:19Darius Butler:maybe the way that Jason Kelsey did when he's wearing the mummers outfit, and that team did so many years earlier.

34:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, Philadelphia is a fan base that wants to win right now, and if you're not doing what they think you should be doing to win, they're going to tell you right now as well, forever. Even when you're winning, if you're not doing it in the right way, they're going to tell you about it. And that's for all sports, like you said, except for hockey. You guys suck at hockey. Sidney Crosby just continuing to dominate the Philadelphia Flyers last night. There's a lot of stats coming out about Sid the Kid being the king of Philadelphia. Listen, it's been a long time since the Flyers fans have had a chance to really celebrate them having success.

34:58Pat McAfee:Most goals versus the Flyers all the time. Sidney Crosby, 59 of them. That's just against one. That's the most any player has against an opponent in the history of hockey, by the way. Wow. Yeah, so Sid dominates the Flyers yet again, scores more against them, and the Flyers continue to stink. So that's why the Eagles get so much heat, though. Because there is another team in Philadelphia, but nobody cares about it. No. So it's basically the Phillies and it's the Eagles because the Flyers haven't held up their end of the bargain forever. And they kill the Sixers every year no matter what because they just can't put it together.

35:30Trust the process. Yep, trust the process indeed.

35:32Pat McAfee:So basically it's just Phillies and Eagles are getting the entire city because the other two they've almost given up on. And what the Eagles fans are telling Sirianni is, you don't want us to treat you like they're the Flyers. Okay? You need to figure this out. And they think it's a sign of love. and if you're Sirianni and the boys, it could probably sound a lot like hate. But I will say with the Eagles fans and the Johns over there, I don't like the way that team looks either. I don't like all the drama. I don't like all the shit. I don't like any of it. I don't like any of it. And I'm a big-time fan of the way the Eagles play.

36:02Pat McAfee:I like the way Sirianni talks. I like the way they operate. I like everything about the Eagles last year. And then this year with all the drama and shit, I'm like, man, I'm kind of sick of hearing about you guys. I don't think this is good. And I don't know how they figure it out. Big Dom's just going to have to, I guess, get to the bottom of it. Grazie per Ego. Casino night, maybe, since it's all right there next to the stadium. Yeah, maybe they stop by. Yeah. Maybe that is something they need. Yeah, good call. Have Big Dom out there. Maybe they do high-value tables together. Maybe they just need to hang out.

36:30Pat McAfee:That's all. So you guys all out on the Eagles. Sounds like they're not interested. Everybody's out on the Eagles.

36:34Darius Butler:But that's the thing. I don't think anyone's all out on the Eagles. To make a run. It's kind of like. Back to back. Not a chance. Super Bowl? Yeah. Not a chance. The Philadelphia Eagles this year? The same team that's been in there twice in the last four years. That team. Same team that lost in the first round of the playoffs after they went to the Super Bowl. I don't know about that team.

36:55Pat McAfee:You think Philadelphia Eagles can win the Super Bowl? Yes. Too many good players, too many good coaches. Puyulo being the offense. He wouldn't be on my list. Okay, so Sirianni would have to fire Puyulo and then somebody else is the offense coordinator. How's this work? Let's just get all the guidelines for whether or not it goes on or wrong. Yeah, what's it going to take? I'm not going to build a guy on the microphone telling people what to do in their building. I trust Howie and Nick to figure it out. There's too much talent on that team to sit here December 2nd and say, oh, they're out of it.

37:30They can't figure it out. Now, from the outside looking in, they don't look like they like each other as much.

37:36Pat McAfee:Which is a problem. Which is a problem. But once again, talent-wise, Vic Fangio, I saw that defense turn into the best defense in the world last season. I know these – A.J. Brown's still there. Devontae's still there. Saquon's still there. Jalen Hurts is still – like, these ain't a bunch of bums talking about, hey, let's try to figure it out. I think this team can still make a run. All right. For sure. So you're saying, yes, they win the Super Bowl. I'm not saying that. I'm saying they can make a run. All right. I'm happy I don't have to make a decision on that. All right, let's talk about some other teams in the NFC that could go on a run.

38:06Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Conban. Yeah, Shrigs, a photo of the NFC picture kind of got released yesterday, and it was the first time I noticed it. The first-place team has nine wins, and the seventh-place team has nine wins. That NFC West, excuse me, are they going to cannibalize each other? I mean, Seattle, the Rams, and the 49ers, it feels as though it's kind of inevitable that those teams are going to absolutely slaughter each other to the point where, once they get into the playoffs, it's going to be a very tough road. What do you expect out of that division? And just to D-Bud's point, there's no chance I'm taking the Eagles over the Packers, Bears, or Rams right now.

38:41Really?

38:41Darius Butler:Well, it was just such a statement on the 2025 season because we do this now. We crown a team week to week. And I think there's no dumber thing than everyone going nuts about power rankings. But the Rams were the team last week. The Rams were the team. Stafford's the MVP, the whole thing, the 25 touchdowns, zero interceptions. And then they're humbled. and it's like all right well then i gotta readjust my my bearings now are are the seahawks actually better well the rams beat the seahawks but they beat them very close game in la they play again in seattle like it is wide open it is a dream season for the nfl because you could take any of these teams on this graphic and i wouldn't even say with the exception of carolina i would say any of these teams on this graphic and if you told me they're gonna be playing in san francisco in february i'd be like all right they got hot at the right time they found a way and they they figured it out it the rams the niners the seahawks those are three very good teams i don't know if all three of those teams are going to make the playoffs because i feel like the lions and the cowboys one of those squads are going to sneak in as a wild card just based on the numbers and the odds of how those teams play against each other it would be insane if the cowboys were

39:50Pat McAfee:able to catch up and get in with how they started this entire year it seemed like it was uh not possible then you start watching the chaos kind of happen above them and it's like wait a minute are the Cowboys the best team in football right now? And if they're able to sneak in, are they going to be able to go on a run? I think we all think yes at this moment, right? Yep. But once again, to Schrager's point, daily sports talk, we will change that opinion next week if we need to. Yes, we will. Yes, we certainly will. Thursday night against the Lions. Friday, we might be coming in here saying, just like we thought, the Cowboys are frauds, just like we said.

40:21Pat McAfee:Or on the flip side, wow, this Cowboys team is the best team in the ball. Just like we said to Schrager. Dude, we've been talking like this the whole time. We've been saying this is a possibility.

40:28Darius Butler:I came on with you guys in August and I was like, or September right before that prediction special. And I was like, I don't think the lions are going to make the playoffs. And I've heard it from lions fans all season long. I'm not doing a victory parade at all because I do believe the lions could still make the playoffs, but there's weird things that happen season to season. And like the same guy who said the lions weren't going to make the playoffs. I came out here and I was like, I think the dolphins are going to be the team that everyone's talking about. Now, granted they've won a few games and we're happy for them, but like dolphins probably aren't going to make the playoffs.

40:59Darius Butler:The NFL is the complete crap shoot sometimes. And in this case, Detroit hosting the Cowboys at home short week after having the whole Thanksgiving weekend, you know, at home. Also, I would think that they have to find a way to win this game. And if they don't, then their playoff hopes are really in doubt.

41:18Pat McAfee:And can we get Jack white and Eminem again? Dude, how good was that? We talk about it. Good strikes. I think, you know, I am a Jack white fan. uh obviously white stripes i was like hey what song would you like to walk out to the ring to wrestlemania or whatever it's like well what'd you pick i mean if you can get

41:40Pat McAfee:that's like the greatest entrance song of all time i'll take that they go boom jack let it happen or whatever i'm like holy shit then i walk out there and the whole thing happens i'm like this is the coolest moment of all time so i'm massive fan of jack white the white stripes everything he does okay but i didn't think enough people would know enough of his songs for it to be good. And then you immediately forget the guy's a rock star. You put a rock star on a stage with a guitar and a microphone, he's going to put on a show no matter what he's saying. That first song. I mean, you don't even know what the hell he's saying.

42:07Pat McAfee:It doesn't matter.

42:08Darius Butler:The first song is from a new album. That's how I'm feeling. It's from a new album. No one had heard it. Comes out, plays that. It's unbelievable. Everyone's just like, wow, rock music at an NFL venue. That's new. It was awesome. And then he comes out and plays Hello Operator, which is a song from an album from 2000. And then out of nowhere, Eminem comes out with Till I Collapse and they're doing it together. I'm like, this is mind blowing. It's a good show. Seven minutes and 30 seconds. And I felt like I was at a festival. It was unbelievable. And shout out to Eminem and his manager, Paul Rosenberg, for putting that thing together because they came to the Lions and said, can we just can we orchestrate the halftime show?

42:44Darius Butler:The Lions, their president, Rod Wood, was like, absolutely. They signed a three year deal. So not only this Thanksgiving, but the next two Thanksgivings, Eminem is basically in charge of who does the halftime show. And how cool was that? It was unbelievable.

42:56Pat McAfee:It was unbelievable. They put everybody else to bed. Like Post Malone, yeah, right. You got no chance. Unless you bring out Big X the plug and Taylor Swift because he's playing the, I don't know how, and Jelly Roll probably with his fresh face. I don't know how Post Malone was supposed to top that. But Eminem, and I mean this as a compliment. whenever Eminem takes over the show I get worried that Eminem won't put himself in the show you know because he's like I don't want people to think they're Eminem you definitely made the right decision being in and by the way next year we would all we'd all like to see another Eminem appearance in whoever you'd be able to get yeah do the same exact thing whatever you want to do exact same set so shout out to creators in talents being put in positions to do things and then executing at a very high level as opposed to some suit that was normally probably in theory putting things together Eminem basically saying Detroit can kill this, and they absolutely do.

43:47Pat McAfee:Congratulations. Let's go. Thank you for doing that. It was a great Thanksgiving. And to your point, new song, I had no idea. I just knew that I saw a talent. That's a talent right there. That is what we're watching here as a gift. And it was a great Thanksgiving. Every time we get a chance to chat with you, we're very grateful. We appreciate you, Shrags.

44:04Darius Butler:I'm so grateful for you. Amazing job this weekend again at game day. And happy holidays, and congrats on all the great news. You're the man.

44:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're the man, ladies and gentlemen, Peter Schrager. Yeah, Schrager! Okay, from Peter Schrager, ladies and gentlemen, to a man whose team might be ranked in the top four in the country today. He's former high school football coach in the great state of Texas. The leader of the Texas Tech Red Raider football team. Fresh out of a tough game against the Mountaineers in Morgantown. Ladies and gentlemen, Jerry Maguire. Yeah, coach! What's up, coach? Coach, how you doing? oh you're muted i don't know if it's our end or your end is it us for him now you're muted we got to get you on mute it's on i think it's on your side i think it's on your side now you're there you are i apologize apologize hey first of all i just want to tell you we're not leaving the big 12 bro who told you who told you not leaving the big 12 I don't know who, you know, that rumor yesterday, we're all in.

45:10Pat McAfee:Okay, yeah, but the rumor was kind of started by me yesterday is what I was trying to say. I called Cody Campbell. I called Cody Campbell. I said, hey, listen, I think you guys need to get out of the Big 12. I think it's only right. I think you guys need to go ahead and head over to the SEC. I was looking at a map. I was zoomed out. I kind of panned over west. You could see how you guys, west Texas, kind of in the southeastern conference. We need you out of there. But on that note, the reason why I'm saying that is because I think I now have had a chance to really see what you're building down there and how special it is.

45:45Pat McAfee:Obviously, you get a massive win over West Virginia here to wrap up the season. You got the Big 12 championship game coming up here in a few days. How do you feel about where your team is in the vision of what the future can be down there? It feels like a very special time and about to be special times down there in Lubbock for you guys. Yeah, it's incredible. You know, I mean, this is where we thought we would be, honestly. I mean, you could tell in spring football how mature this group was. You know, it's all about staying healthy and having good things happen. And we're getting healthier and healthier.

46:18This is probably as healthy as we've been all year long going into the Big 12 championship, which is great news for us. But, man, this administration, Cody Campbell, Dusty Womble, um these guys man they went all in and and so every day i come to work man i'm lucky i work with the best 80 in the country the best president in the country and they put everything behind this that we can win at a high level and so i i think important and i try to make sure that they understand uh how much we appreciate it and then what we put on the field is is uh something special

46:54Pat McAfee:you talk about everybody being in alignment you know at a lot of schools the money people aren't necessarily football people but the football teams need the money people so then the money people start having obviously some say because they actually do have some power because they are the supply of the roster you guys having football people as your money people is a weapon it is outrageous you know and then you add in Patrick Mahomes as well who brings in an incredible Adidas deal and also any quarterback you want any weapon it's like you guys really seemingly are the perfect setup for this transfer portal nil era but you're doing it in the right way investing in the trenches can you tell me about that a little bit is that because you think you got football people that are money people saying hey this is where we want to be you know great at or why do you think you guys do invest where you invest with your team well it helps that you've got a former you know nfl o-lineman it's uh the biggest you know backer that we have and is really you know brains behind all of this as far as starting the Matador Club and, you know, how we were going to do NIL and how we're going to do rev share.

47:58But whenever you look at the, you know, Ohio State last year, Notre Dame, when you look at the teams, Georgia, Alabama, I mean, they're just so dominant up front. And so that was one thing that we talked about, you know, is, you know, how good can we be in offensive defensive line funny story uh we're in the middle of spring football and uh stanford makes the coaches change so now all of a sudden uh you've got a guy out there david bailey um who you know is going to be able to get in the portal because the coach change and my gm james blanchard comes to me and he goes hey there's a chance we can get somebody that's just as good as romello height now i've been watching romello height for a few months now and i'm like hold on man like this dude's different.

48:46Like you're telling me that there's a guy like this. And he goes, yeah. And I said, do we have room? And he goes, we can make room, you know, this and this. And he, the last thing that got me, he goes, what would the Eagles do? What would Philadelphia Eagles do? Just go to get another defensive lineman. And I went, all right, let's go get him. And we're able to add a guy that's been leading the country in sacks.

49:09Pat McAfee:So the ability to not only go make that play is obviously because of the backing, but the football decision in saying, hey, we need to win in the trenches is what really separates, I think, the good money from just having money. And I think that is why we need you guys to be going to the SEC. I need you to get the hell out of the Big 12. And, you know, I know going into Morgantown, you were telling the boys, hey, we're – okay. Look out. Be wary. Bring your own juice. No, not bring your own juice. You're disrespectful. Don't you say that. Don't you – and I want to let you know, Coach, Go ahead.

49:43That's the first time that I've been in Morgantown three times, you know, at Baylor and at Texas Tech, four times. And that's the first time that we've won in Morgantown. I've taken a – my 2018, we got beat so bad. I mean, they beat the brakes off of us and made us like them. And so, it's such a tough place to play. We really did. Like, we went in there with – our pitch was hot now. Yeah, I saw it.

50:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, we watched it, okay? We saw your piss was hot, and we saw your entire team on display. Just know that the hard edge is coming back. But on that note, hard edge, I like how tough your team is. I love the kind of moxie of your squad. You know, obviously you, high school football coach, I think at AT &T Stadium, you've won two out of your three high school state championships as well, so it obviously has a lot of meaning for you guys and for your team, obviously, in Texas. But quarterback, dad, high school football, It's like everything about you guys is ball. And then your linebacker who might win the whole damn thing with the best stash in all of ball, Rodriguez, you got him playing quarterback as well.

50:51Pat McAfee:It's like you're doing everything right down there. And it feels like you like go out of your way to do that. Does it feel like that? And does it feel like you get all the people that fit your culture immediately because you kind of – you display who you are every single day, if that makes sense? You know, we're very intentional for sure what we do. You know, like every Friday night we have game day captains and, you know, they I meet with O-line and D-line together. And then the game day captains were all in it together. And I tell them, man, like you've earned this. Like I am very intentional of like who's going to be a game day captain and why they're a game day captain.

51:28You know, we made sure this year that every single walk on that has been with us for four years was a game day capital. um you know we call our walk-ons the dead rabbits off of the games in new york and uh you know that was a tough game and and that's kind of like what we try to get those guys to be that comes from our special teams coordinator kenny perry but we're very intentional and and then the other thing man we care deeply about our players um in every aspect of their life we got six guys that are married all six of the wives were at uh our face team and dinner as a team you know like But everything we do, we try to do it very intentionally, get these guys to understand how much we care about them.

52:11Pat McAfee:Special place. Will you view tonight as any decision for your program? Do you get justification, fulfillment out of any of these rankings or anything like that? Like if tonight it comes out, you guys are ranked at four or whatever or maybe even higher. Will you feel fulfillment out of that, or how do you kind of handle that with the boys? You know, we'll practice, and I'll check here in a little bit at exactly what time. I watch it, man. I mean, I'm a football geek now, man. I mean, right now on my tabs of what's pulled up, I have every bracket pulled up of high school football, who's playing who this weekend.

52:47And then, yeah, I watch it as a fan also. I mean, I'm watching it as where we're at, but I'm also watching it as a fan of, like, you know, who moves up to where. I think we should be in the top four. You know, and we're playing for that. And we've been talking about that because it's important for us to get a bye. So we're fighting like hell to get in the playoffs and win the Big 12, but we're fighting like hell to be in the top four also.

53:14Pat McAfee:You get a bye, you can obviously get healthy. Or you can get rusty, Coach. No, you can get rusty. That would be on your ass not preparing the boys. You've got a bunch of married guys, these old dudes. Get those couple weeks off. We'll see if the old high school ball coach can get the boys ready to go. 49-0 in Morgantown this past weekend. It feels like they're playing their best fucking ball of all season at this point. Coach, you've made some comments I think everybody kind of has about the state of college ball. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, in the wake of Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU and kind of the entire conjecture around that, you got applauded for a lot of your comments about the college football schedule.

53:52In your opinion, what changes would you like to see with the schedule? And ultimately, do you think that that's something that will actually happen? because we had Marty Smith on yesterday and he said the problem is that the schedule really is only going to affect 10 to 11 schools per year because those are the coaches who are leaving. And I think a lot of people would disagree. But what are the changes that you would like to see made? And do you think that'll ultimately happen here soon? Yeah, I mean, you got to disagree with that because North Texas and Tulane are in that boat. You're looking at how many guys, I guess, James Madison's in that boat too so it's it's more than 10 and 11 whenever you've got really good coaches like Eric Morse and and you know guys like that I think honestly y 'all can play Mike Leach's explanation on how the playoffs go I'd go back to that video because it's really simple and it's really hilarious because guess what it's common sense it's what high school does division three division two FCS and the NFL move us all the way for this year what I would have done put week one as August 23rd.

54:59The conference championship would have been played on Thanksgiving weekend. Seven days later, I know it's this crazy thing that you actually play playoff games every seven days, but seven days later, you play the first round. Seven days later, the quarterfinals. Seven days later, the semifinals. National championship can actually be done before the portal ever opens. it's this like crazy concept that high school football is doing right now in texas i was lucky enough to play in four of them the latest i played we played 16 games in the state of texas to win it all and the latest i played was december 23rd so if you can do it in the high school and you can do it in every other level of college then you ought to be able to do it this way and that solves a lot of issues with the portal and coaches league and everything like that that's a lot easier than

55:51Pat McAfee:moving the portal to the spring and then trying to move spring ball to the summer which leads into training camp it's like no let's just knock this thing out you know get january one maybe uh as the national championship every single year in this entirety is that what you're projecting well all of that whenever people are talking about that we're reacting and not being proactive we're not fixing the problem we're reacting to the problem that's right it's right like here's my biggest deal why i think where we're at is we got all of our kids except for two we got all of our kids to where they were with me from january all the way to this point right now and so we were such a closer team we knew exactly what we had we were able to go through spring football we had everything installed from a brand new offensive coordinator, brand new defensive coordinator.

56:41Now let's react. Here's the thing I don't want. You have a spring portal, and I'm stuck with a kid that doesn't want to be at Texas Tech for all of spring until the portal opens up. Yeah, right! So we'll react. Fix the problem by changing the calendar and moving everything up.

57:00Pat McAfee:You nailed it. Hey, you nailed that right on the hardout at ESPN. We're still live on digital, but I want to let you know your timing is impeccable, and so is your brain and your coaching style. We appreciate the hell out of you. Ladies and gentlemen, head coach down here at Texas Tech. Rock them! That's them, baby. Coach Jay McGuire, thank you. We'll see you on the other side.

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58:10Pat McAfee:Football! That's 47-year football coach BA, we appreciate you for joining us. Oh, man. The Talks Stable here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, Connor's living a high life today. His team might just be the best team in all ball. Yeah, rightfully so. You know, when your team goes out there and just thoroughly beats the piss out of who they're playing every single week. That's a good feeling. That's a feeling he hasn't had in a while. He should take every gloating measure he wants. He should take this long victory walk and keep marching right into the playoffs. A primetime win feels good especially when they're wearing super cool uniforms.

58:45Pat McAfee:That splash of red last night was beautiful. We had Jason Kelsey as a minute man last night obviously doing the shot. You got a chance to experience all the traditions. Who was the keeper of the Paul Revere lamp? One F by land, two F by sea. We're going to play football field, baby. Yeah, I'm still not sure who the Paul Revere of the week was. Who was it? Willie McGinnis. Oh, what? Really? Willie McGinnis was the Paul Revere layup leader of the week? Yes, he was. That's awesome. I'll tell you what. Willie McGinnis. That's one of the first times in my life. I was already in the NFL, okay? And I've had a couple moments of looking around and seeing humans and just realizing, holy shit, what is that thing?

59:24Pat McAfee:Oh, my God. Could you imagine being like that? I was out at the NFL Network. We were doing NFL AM. and call time is like 2 a.m. or something, 2.30, because obviously they're three hours behind and it was a morning show. So it was 6 to 9 East Coast time, but it was shot in L.A. So that's 3 to 6, obviously, you start doing the math there. That's early call time. People are living that life out there full time. Shout out to them. You guys really paved the way for the morning football to do its thing, which is obviously shot in New York as opposed to in L.A. Call time, 2 a.m. or something, 1.30 in L.A.

59:51Pat McAfee:Okay, so who knows what I was doing leading up into that. I walk in there and I'm in a hallway, got my head down. I'm a little bit tired. and I look up and there's just this species blocking the door okay just walking that way and the light is coming from the door so it's literally like a movie as if this villain character is walking into the light and I'm just getting like a little bit of light shined over like the right shoulder of this thing and then obviously it's it's cut like that there's light coming in through the side here and then the shoulders are actually just scraping the walls as walking down the hallway and I was I actually said holy fuck didn't know who it was person and turned around.

1:00:27Pat McAfee:It's Willie McGinnis. I was like, nice to meet you, man. Jeez Louise, it is nice to see you. He's a monster. Specific. Oh my God. I mean, big amongst the big Willie McGinnis. I mean, absolute gigantic. How many did he went up there? He won three. They talk about him being like the OG of the OGs right up there in New England. Yeah, that was a huge part of the entire Brady documentary that really goes into the Dynasty on like the Apple TV one, but he talks about being the player kind of with Vrabel. He kind of almost showed Vrabel not the ropes because Vrabel came from Pittsburgh, but kind of part of that culture change, if you will, early on.

1:01:04That's one of the really underrated parts of this whole entire thing with Vrabel is all these old legends from New England are back. Like Randy Moss, I think that was his fourth game that he's been to in Gillette, and Randy made the good decision to claim New England instead of the Minnesota Vikings. So clearly Randy Moss is a New England Patriot for life, which is incredible. He's always in the suite. Willie McGinnis has been on the sideline with Vrabel. You know, Huggs, dapping him up pregame before a lot of their big games. He was there before the Jets' primetime game. It really is just up and to the right in New England.

1:01:35I feel bad for every other team.

1:01:37Pat McAfee:How about Vrabel just having a vision, I would assume, for if he was to ever run the Patriots or whatever? Yeah. And then, you know, he goes up and goes into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame while he's still the head coach of the Tennessee Titans during a bye week. He comes back. The Titans were not happy about that. You said a lot of really nice things about the Patriots while you were speaking about them. Because I think Vrabes, in his Hall of Fame speech, goes, I've been to a lot of places. They're terrible. This place is awesome. Never, ever forget how awesome this place is. You have no idea how good this place is until maybe you see some other places.

1:02:09Pat McAfee:So don't ever forget it. This place is the greatest place. I've been to a lot of places. This is a special place with great leadership, great fans everywhere. And then we move on from the tweet immediately while we're reading it. But he basically said, it was good play it was good play by the back room I appreciate you guys finding that first of all that's a good find there Bruce this is a special place for great leadership great fans great direction and great coaching enjoy it's not like this everywhere so allegedly he walks back into the Tennessee Titans building after doing that and ownership and everybody in front office is like Who are you talking about?

1:02:42Pat McAfee:What you mean by that? You talking about here? You talking about us? I'm talking about ballgapers. We got to go back to your Hall of Fame speech. It must be nice to go back to your ex-girlfriend, huh? Is that how it is? It's just everything's nicer back there? Is that what you meant by this? And then literally that is what led to them firing him unceremoniously, just moving on from him, and then him not having a job, and then the Tennessee Titans just going down into the pooper, and then him hanging out for a year, and then now leading the number of players. number one team in the NFL back at home whenever he was calling to play special.

1:03:13Pat McAfee:I mean, what a perfect outcome for Vrabel and the worst possible outcome for the Tennessee Titans. It's so perfect for the Patriots. And this is kind of another example of if you're going to be bad, like you want to be really bad, even if it's for a couple years. This is why fans and front offices tank, because now you go and get your quarterback, suck again. You go and get your franchise left tackle maybe. You draft the quarterback. You're not in a situation like the Steelers, where every year you're going to be 9-8, 10-7. You never can get your quarterback. You never can make some real change of turnover.

1:03:44So, you know, the Bears kind of did it when they traded the picks to Carolina and ended up getting Caleb and then the following year getting their head coach. So, like, if it can work out, it doesn't always work out that way. Obviously, some teams are just bad forever, forever, forever. But, obviously, Kraft, they've been doing the things right from the top down from day one. So, I mean, I'm always rooting for the Patriots. That's where I got my start in the league. So it's good to see them trending in the right direction. A lot of people still have some questions about, hey, even after the dominant performance last night, 11-2, one pick, hey, how's it going to look in the playoffs?

1:04:20Do I trust them against this team or this quarterback or this team? And I guess we'll see it. That's why we play the game.

1:04:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, you just never know until they actually get to that point. You know, like, well, we don't know if Bo Nix can do it. It's like, it's the second year. Can we find – maybe. Can we see? We will find out, right? Yeah, but I don't know. It's like, well, that's three months from now. Yep, and we're going to wait. And it's like, well, can we talk about right now? Yeah, I guess we can. Talk about right now, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's like, it kind of does, though. Doesn't it kind of matter? It's like, nope, doesn't matter. We want to see if they can win in the playoffs, which ultimately is a whole different conversation.

1:04:54Pat McAfee:Like, is this team ready for the big moment? Is this team going to be able to not get rattled when the world is watching them and they're playing against a top-five defense every single week in a top five offense every single week, which is what playoff football is. With the Patriots, with how young they are, we have no idea. No clue. But we'd assume by watching Drake Mays' mannerisms, I think he's going to be all right. Feels like Drake's going to be okay in a big moment. B.A., what do you look at that team and you think to yourself, yes, they can go because of this, or I am still a little bit worried about this particular part of the New England Patriots.

1:05:25Pat McAfee:They say their schedule's bad, but that's not their fault, obviously. I mean, what the hell are they supposed to do? You play last place schedule, you should win. But they're winning in the right way, and they're doing it the right way. And no, I don't have any doubts they can run the table. Because if all the playoffs have to go up there, that's different weather. And you better be a cold-weather team to be able to play against them. And they had that advantage for all those years. Oh, my God. Home field advantage for the playoffs. I didn't even – I just – Yeah. Tom Brady formula. That's what you just thought of.

1:05:53Pat McAfee:Yeah. That is literally what you were just like, yeah, everybody's got to fly their ass to Foxborough. We know they control the weather up there. Totally. We know they control the weather up there somehow. Yeah, all of it. Communicate. Something's going to happen in Foxborough. And who was the last coach to go up there and win? Who was it? Mike Vrabel. Boom. Tennessee Titans. Ended the Brady era in New England. That pick. Logan Ryan. Bingo, Logan Ryan, yeah. That was against Vrabel, of course. Now he's not on the market. So who's going to do it? Nobody. Thank you very much. Nobody can. Maybe it'll be the Pittsburgh Steelers.

1:06:22Pat McAfee:There's a chance. Ladies and gentlemen, let's head over to Hammer. Dot, dot. AP Tone. Hey, this Pittsburgh Steelers conversation is getting really loud, brother. Honestly, it feels like more people publicly stating what maybe some people have believed for a while about, hey, maybe it's time for something new at the head coaching role. You know? And obviously, Coach Tomlin has been good to us. It's getting loud with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I think you watched the Patriots last night. You don't think to yourself at all that the Steelers could beat them if they had to to get in there, which almost amplifies it even more, right?

1:06:50Darius Butler:Well, they did already beat them once this season, so we'll just start right there. And would like to apologize to Darius Butler for the Steelers trying to win every year. That's on us. That's a mistake on our part. But no, it is getting really loud. It's getting super loud with the fan base, obviously, because we're super frustrated. I haven't won a playoff game in nine years. I don't think that's ever happened in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And now Tomlin's getting a lot of questions about it from the media. So he is aware of the chance, everything like that. And he shares the same frustrations.

1:07:19Darius Butler:But it is what it is. And a lot of the media, national media, we had Chef Dion and I saw Rap talking about it as well. They're never going to outright fire Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin is not going to be fired in week 12 or week 14, week 16, whatever. He's been there too long. That's not what the Roonies do. If anything, it'll be a mutual separation at the end of the season. I don't know if that is something that Tomlin wants to do. I don't know if that's something that Art Rooney wants to do. He has not shown any willingness to do something like that. So it'll be very, very interesting to see where they go.

1:07:52Darius Butler:I just know that the fan base right now is at a fever pitch on – it can't be this anymore. It has reached a point where the team is not – you can't even recognize the team on the field versus what we have known our entire lives.

1:08:06Pat McAfee:Okay, so on that note, you're talking about recognizing the team. We have a man here who coached in Pittsburgh, understands Pittsburgh very well. Coach B.A., what are your thoughts on the Pittsburgh Steelers situation? Tone obviously speaks from the fan perspective as well as somebody who knows some people that have potentially been around the building and in the building. He's speaking at a point where everybody's like, okay, enough. We've been doing this for a very long time. We're kind of just right in the middle. We're average. I think Coach Tomlin today was asked about the identity of his football team.

1:08:34Pat McAfee:He said, we're a 6-6 football team, and I don't like it. That's basically what Steelers fans have been saying for like the last 10 years. How do you see this going, and does it feel different this year versus maybe years past? Yeah, I think it's a lot hotter. I mean, I would not want to be either one of the coordinators because you're not coming back next year, for sure. For sure. That's going to happen. It's always happened. and uh so it's like will art pulled the trigger which i doubt very seriously and uh if i were mike i would want to get out and go somewhere new start over you got to do this a couple different times yeah and it uh not by my choice a couple of times but no no but let's just say you you had a chance obviously whenever you're at indianapolis we would have hopefully kept you forever i think there were some business conversations that went the wrong way nobody with a brain would have done what happened there but you end up being a head coach for arizona then obviously you end up you then you go to tampa bay whenever you get into a new building is there a sense of refreshment maybe your your voice is heard differently in different places it's like what do you think about coach tomlin potentially choosing to go elsewhere because everybody that talks on tv says if coach tomlin was to move on from pittsburgh whatever it is traded uh fired let go steps away he would get hired some 15 other teams would be like give us coach tomlin i think everybody in pittsburgh agrees with that right tone everybody in pittsburgh kind of understands that and agrees with that yeah i think but they just would like to see what potentially could look like post mike tomlin where other teams are begging for a coach tomlin but if he was going to another building for you what did you experience whenever you go to a new place yeah it's such an easier giving that message you know you some players get tired of the message um and you have to keep it fresh mike's done a great job of keeping it fresh for years and uh you know that i don't know i'm shocked watching their defense play.

1:10:18I'm just totally shocked because talent's not the issue. They got talent and they went out and got all those guys in free agency and it's just amazing to me to watch the Steelers play right now and it's almost like they don't have Steeler pride. When you get booed on Renegade, bro, that's something wrong. Something's wrong.

1:10:37Pat McAfee:Have you heard the remix? The jig is up, the booze are out, they finally had it. Yeah, bro. Moving on from Tomlin. That shocked me. That shocked me. Yeah, they hate him. They hate everything about it. And fire Tomlin chants happening, that was for Canada they were doing that. They were doing that for Pittsburgh. So Pittsburgh Penguins had a legendary coach who was around for a long time, Sully, Mike Sullivan. He was the coach of the Penguins for a long time. But kind of at the end of his run, there was like a five, six-year period where basically he was just kind of like, eh. But he did a lot of good things.

1:11:09Pat McAfee:He gets fired from the Pens or moves on from the Pens. I don't remember the exact opposite. He gets a job with the Rangers the next day. I believe he gets hired literally the next day. So this exact situation that is happening with Coach Tomlin happened literally to the Pittsburgh people already with the Pittsburgh Penguins. And we now have moved on. And, hey, don't look now. Penguins are playing good hockey right now. Damn Muse. Yeah, Muse, bald-headed guy. It's certainly nothing like what Sully was like at this air. But I think the Pittsburgh people are like, hey, yeah, going to get a job the next day.

1:11:40Pat McAfee:We are. Hey, you're a good coach. Way to go. But there's a door number two that we're trying to get to. You said there that you don't think Art will pull the trigger, who's Rooney. The Rooney family wouldn't want to do that, right? Yeah, it's just not their style. It's never been their style. And three head coaches in, what, 30, 40 years now. And to me, something's got to change, though. There has to be some kind of change. And the coordinator thing has happened about five times now. So I don't think that's going to fly. That's not going to fly. All right. Well, there's just only so many places that are like this.

1:12:09Like Green Bay, New England, Pittsburgh. I guess you could throw Sam Fran in there. There are only a few, few spots where it is only, hey, unless you're going to Super Bowls. Yeah, Philly. But Philly is just ridiculous. They're going to be pissed no matter what. They're looking to be pissed. But there's only a few spots where if you're not going or competing for at least the conference championship, your ass is on the line. And, I mean, Green Bay is going through that right now. Like, Matt LaFleur has had incredible success with Rodgers and Jordan Love, but they haven't made it and really competed in that conference championship in three years.

1:12:46Since COVID. Since COVID. But they're still a great football team every single year. Son of a bitch. Scoop. But, yeah, you're right. You want that? Of course, as a fan, it's great being a part of that when you are. With New England right now, it's great to have Super Bowl expectations again. But now anything less than that, it's not what you're looking for.

1:13:10Pat McAfee:Tom brings up a good point from Hammer. Don, Don. He said Baltimore right now, too. Yeah, boom. Baltimore's expecting the same thing with Harbaugh. And it's like we all believe Harbaugh's a good coach. We all believe Tomlin is a good coach. But we all see with our eyes, too, it's like fans would like to know that they're going to win a Super Bowl here. Clearly, at this stage, neither of those teams are the teams who are thinking about winning the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh Steelers, too, if you go from front office-wise, Omar Khan, the con artist, I mean, they go, I don't want to say they go. DK Metcalf's getting$30 million a year.

1:13:42Pat McAfee:He's never played a snap for the Steelers before this year. That's not how the Pittsburgh Steelers are. Jalen Ramsey, yep. John O. Smith, yep. Duggar, we're going there as well. Darius Slay, we're going there as well. Aaron Rodgers is going to be our quarterback. I mean, this is like vastly different than anything that they've ever done before. So that would indicate that it feels like the front office is trying to get over the hump and be great with the moves that they made. So now that the team is the exact same on the field, what does that indicate for the future? I don't think any of us know.

1:14:10Pat McAfee:But Pittsburgh Steelers fans say, it's going to be the same shit next year. We're going to have to do the same thing. And somehow, Tone, you're going to be selling to yourself in training camp that you guys are going to win a Super Bowl again. I can't wait. I can't wait. This year, you guys go on a run, win a Super Bowl? Nope. Not even close. You're a 6-6 football team. Yeah.

1:14:29Darius Butler:Rogers turns 42. Ideally, they lose that.

1:14:31Pat McAfee:It's Aaron's birthday?

1:14:32Darius Butler:Bingo. Happy birthday, Aaron. Happy birthday, Aaron.

1:14:37Pat McAfee:Once again, Aaron Rodgers, been playing good? Oh. What? That's tough stuff over there, dude. 300 yards in three games? That's not necessarily. That ain't Aaron Rodgers, bro. Okay, so, you know. Who is it? What are you saying? Get out before you get hurt for life. Aaron Rodgers? Yeah. It's his birthday. The take he's hitting, man. The hits he's taking. Get out, bro. And Bosa shot. Oh. He exploded through his back. Face through turf. Boom. Full body. Not even a... I don't even know if that's legal. I guess because the ball came out and he had the ball. It's okay. But that's Bosa's full body weight onto his spine, basically.

1:15:21Pat McAfee:And then also his face because he wears that terrible chin strap from whatever year when football was... Back in CTE days. That's a CTE day strap right now. New helmet, though. Yeah, new helmet, but kept the same strap. That thing, yeah, right. That thing's in there. And then bang, his face. Gets that thing butterflied. Eh, I'm going back out there. And then afterwards, his nose is just gigantic. Obviously, he's got three fractures in his neck. And he's 42. Happy birthday, Aaron. Happy birthday, brother. You're a tough son of a bitch, Aaron. You're a tough OG football player. And the OG football fans in Pittsburgh are saying, we would like to get back to the OG days of whenever we are relevant in the Super Bowl conversations as opposed to, hey, we have another winning season.

1:16:05Pat McAfee:Now, speaking of winning seasons, there's a lot of college football teams that have winning seasons. Only one of them can win the national championship. And that tournament to decide who will win the national championship starts with 12. Who will be those 12? Well, ladies and gentlemen, tonight will be another college football playoff prediction bracket release show. Well said. Is that what it's called? Yeah. That's the name of it on the top. college football playoff prediction bracket release show featuring your check which we're expecting him to maybe do a little better this week but i like that he's kind of finding his groove he's kind of finding his way him and reese are kind of finding their mojo but let's head over to hammer don ton tone what is the cfp committee going to be saying about tonight and what do you

1:16:52Darius Butler:think the storylines are going to be brother yeah once again this is my prediction for what the college football committee will do tonight not what i think it should be personally in my own opinion and this by far was the hardest one so far that we have uh had to do to predict because just there's there's a lot of movement and there's a lot of teams that are now very very close and clustered together but hyo state at one is easy indiana at two is easy georgia at three is easy the first question came at four and five uh texas tech was ahead of oregon last week can the oregon win against Washington?

1:17:26Darius Butler:Jump Texas Tech? I don't know. Oregon jumped Texas Tech in both the AP and the coaches pool. So that is a question there at four and five for Oregon. I have A &M dropping to six. They were three. And with that loss to Texas, they're still a one loss team. So they're in the group of one loss teams with Ole Miss. I don't know what they're going to do with Ole Miss, to be honest with you. This will be very indicative to how they feel about Lane losing or leaving and will they use that clause that they have in the rules of, you know, they can drop a team for a coach leaving, a quarterback being out, all of that stuff.

1:18:04Darius Butler:So like seven at Ole Miss, I was just like, I don't know. Maybe they'll have Ole Miss at seven, but they, shit, they could put them at 10, 11. That'd be very indicative of how they feel about Lane leaving and then that situation. Obviously, Oklahoma, not a great offense. Really, really good defense. Wins at Alabama. Their record's good. They'll probably be at eight somewhere around there. The big question, Notre Dame, Miami, Alabama, they all have two losses. You know, there's strength of record, strength of schedule, losses, all of that situation. So 9, 10, 11 could be in really any order. The big question is 9 and 11, or the big question on the internet is 9 and 11 because of obviously the head-to-head.

1:18:44Darius Butler:And then Miami's only in there because they are the highest ranked ACC team. They're not in the ACC championship, so that's going to change with Virginia or Duke most likely and then they had Tulane at 12 for a group of five teams so I just left Tulane in there. Question, question.

1:18:59Pat McAfee:ACC champion if Duke wins.

1:19:02Darius Butler:Yeah, that's a good question.

1:19:02Pat McAfee:They're maybe getting left out because they won't be a part of the top five highest ranked conference champions. They could still technically put Miami in as an out large without having the champion of the conference in which they're in in the actual tournament which would be obviously absurd and kind of a mockery of the system that they have in place for themselves. Now, another conversation. These small schools getting a shot. More schools. That's right. Hell yeah. And it's kind of the basis of the whole song is more schools get a shot to shine. It's about time. It is, isn't it? But is it about time for one of these schools that might lose by 70 in the first round to take up one of these spots from you know, some of these teams that we followed all year that might be on the outside looking in while, you know, Green Wave maybe sneaks in there or JMU gets in there, who I am a big fan of, or North Texas, you know, maybe even they slide in there and then all of a sudden.

1:20:07Pat McAfee:What? If they're going to penalize Ole Miss for losing their coach, Tulane, JMU, they're all out. For what? Those coaches are gone. Those guys are coaching through it. See? Big difference. Why can't Lane coach? Well, because I think Ole Miss views themselves as a different program than Tulane or JMU or North Texas. Respectfully, of course. Respectfully, respectfully, respectfully, because they might be making a tournament in this entire thing.

1:20:31Darius Butler:To your point, though, Pat, no one cared about it last year because, what, Boise was undefeated, and I think they're ranked 10th in the country anyways. So this season is a little different because Tulane, North Texas, and JMU, none of them are ranked super high. I liked what you guys were kind of talking about on game day where it has to be ranked in the top 15 or top 13 or 12 or whatever to fill that last conference championship spot. There we go. But there is a –

1:20:59Pat McAfee:It looks like it's a bunch of power school elitists around here. I'm sorry. I want the best teams in there. Well, they started with 12, countdown one. We're certainly going to find out who the best team is. They want a conference championship. It's horseshit. Nobody wants this. Respectfully. They act like this is the NCAA basketball tournament where a 15 seed plays way differently than a 2 seed. They press a bunch or their defense is weird and it's something you don't see all year, so there's an upset potential there. That's not happening in football. These teams, Tulane is like a 25-point underdog to Oregon right now or Texas Tech or whoever.

1:21:35They're going to get their ass beat. 27, actually. There we go. Nobody wants to fucking see that.

1:21:40Pat McAfee:Whoa, whoa, Notre Dame might be taking up one of these spots as well Or they might actually get left out because we might need Tulane, who took on the meet-meet roadrunners at UTSA. Tough ball club. I like watching Notre Dame play. You know why? Partially because we see them on national TV every single week. Does Tulane even play on TV? Have they? CW, I think. Yeah, CW. CBS Sports Network. You sound like an elitist. I'm not. You sound like a blue-blood elitist. I'm not. You don't want the little schools to get an opportunity. You don't want them to get a chance. I don't want them to. I do not want them to get a shot to shine.

1:22:20I want a good team to play Oregon. You know what? I agree. You know what? Wow, Foxy, you're an elitist. I agree with Foxy.

1:22:27Pat McAfee:Jerry is, Butler, you've been saying a lot of uh-huh. I went to UConn. Look, I'm not a power schooler, but yeah, I'm the same way. Now, look, you finish one of these small schools, you finish in the top 10, top 12, you earned the shot. That's a different story. Boise State, we saw with Oklahoma all those years ago on the big stage. Yeah, for sure. But now we don't want to see this shit. We want to see the teams that really got a chance. You know what? I do want to see the big brands. I do want to see the first round picks. I want to see the guys. ESPN's calling this guy. Yep. Wow. SEC, ESPN, D-Bucks.

1:22:56There it is. You know, let's actually, never mind. Let's send Tulane to Oregon. They can get beat 75 to nothing. And then we'll say, what the fuck were we doing putting these guys in there? Yeah, instead of kicking Miami out, they should just put them against Notre Dame in the first fucking round. Miami, Notre Dame? Yeah. Yeah, do it again. Not bad.

1:23:11Darius Butler:Let's do it. I did hear it again. Someone had an idea to put the first four teams out in games. Championship weekend. Championship weekend. Or no. Or is it Army-Navy weekend, potentially, to then have them play in for the last two spots. I'm all up. And have that be. Exactly. The teams who need more shots to shine. And then they get their own showcase weekend, too. Holy. Tulane versus Texas. Boom. Oh, my gosh. Now we really find out. Vandy versus JMU. Now we're talking? Oh, yeah.

1:23:43Pat McAfee:How many of these do you think Bobby is hitting? Yay. Every time.

1:23:48Darius Butler:He's creeping up those odds boards for Heisman.

1:23:50Pat McAfee:Is he? What's he at right now?

1:23:51Darius Butler:Some books have him as co-favorite. I saw one had him as favorite. One had him as third, still behind, saying Mendoza. So it's getting very, very tight. But when you go for over 400 yards a game your last four games, you're going to creep up there a bit.

1:24:05Pat McAfee:We saw him on his tippy toes there. He's around a lot of tall guys. Yeah, he's around a lot of tall guys. Fernando Mendoza and his Indiana Hoosier team has an incredible opportunity this weekend. Big Ten championship game against Ohio State here in Indianapolis. It should be a Hoosier showcase day. Haven't won a conference championship since 1967. Man. Okay. 1967. Sixth birth year. Could be. Sure. I have no idea. No clue. He's locked down for the next 10 years. They got big donors behind him. Okay, Fernando Mendoza, he described his team, I guess the center. Where was the center? Was he a transfer as well?

1:24:45Darius Butler:From Notre Dame, I believe.

1:24:46Pat McAfee:Okay, so the center was a transfer. Pat Coogan. Okay, so Coogan gives a speech to the boys, I guess, before one of their last games and says like, hey, we're a bunch of misfits and outcasts that have kind of been replaced at our previous schools and we've come together here. It's like, Fernando Mendoza, good football player at Cal. And the way he talks about it is like they were going to move on from him if they were able to find it. Obviously, they have Sanga Politelli, but he was a late addition. I don't know what they thought. but Mendoza utilized it as some sort of motivation to come to Indiana.

1:25:12Pat McAfee:Signetti in messaging and recruiting and talent evaluation has been very, very, very good here in the transfer portal era. So it feels like Indiana's around for the long haul, but nobody will really believe in them unless they're able to win against like Ohio State. If you're able to get a massive win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship, all of a sudden everybody has to start being like, holy hell, the Hoosiers are who we've been saying they are. But if Ohio State just comes in here and wins this game with the way they just handled business and the way they've gone all year, we're talking about maybe one of the most dominant years in the history of a college football team.

1:25:44Now, granted, is it all fool's gold?

1:25:47Pat McAfee:Some people talk about with different teams. Is it all potentially just a house built on cards as opposed to on granite because they haven't played against anybody? It's like a lot of these teams don't play against teams and they don't show up and the games get a lot closer than they're supposed to be. Ohio State has showed up and did their shit every single week at all positions. They operate like a machine, like a professional football team. I believe in Indiana to have the talent to be able to score against that defense. I think Indiana could beat Ohio State. I think Indiana is one of the top teams in the country, I believe in them.

1:26:18Pat McAfee:But this Ohio State team is an actual machine. Like that is what it feels like, what they're running over there. So if Indiana was able to top them, that would be gigantic. And then Alabama-Georgia down there in the SEC championship, Alabama fans are scared that if they get another loss or bad loss here to Georgia, Georgia might be top team in the country right now with how they've been playing as well. But if Alabama loses by two, three scores and they have three losses, they played in the SEC championship, it actually hurt them because they pick up another loss as opposed to missing the SEC championship and not having to publicly lose to Georgia in that way.

1:26:49Pat McAfee:That ignites a huge fire as well. Does it not, Tone? It does.

1:26:55Darius Butler:And I don't think the committee wants to set that precedent of punishing a team that especially makes the SEC championship and then loses and gets knocked out. Last time I checked, they were minus 3 ,000 to make the playoffs. So even the books think that even if they – I think it would have to be a really, really bad loss for them to get knocked out of the playoffs.

1:27:13Pat McAfee:Which we do not think it will be. And I'm not saying that. But, I mean, anything can happen in football. Any given game can happen.

1:27:19Darius Butler:But, like, if they lose Ty Simpson in that game, then it's definitely a situation where it's like, oh, Florida State, you can't put them in. Or their coach, which a lot of people are talking about right now. What is that about?

1:27:29Pat McAfee:That's getting loud, isn't it? Very loud. I saw that as like a little bit of a rumbling, rumbling, rumbling. Didn't take it seriously. And then it kind of just kept going. And I'm like, wait, it hasn't disappeared yet. What is that all about? People are saying maybe coach, and we do not have this from anybody at school, anybody from the Boers camp, anybody at any other school. Pure speculation. This is just from. Internet? Yeah, a little. And interviews. What's that called? What's that called whenever there's like a little bit of fire? Bread trail. Oh, bread crumb. I mean, bread crumb's for sure, but a little bit of.

1:27:58Pat McAfee:Kindling? Yeah, a little kindling. There seems to be a little bit of kinley, just a little bit of smoke coming around. And then it's continuing to linger, though. This conversation has continued to cook as a decision that Penn State hasn't been made. But there's people that are alluding to on the internet that, hey, Kalen DeBoer might be done with this whole Alabama SEC thing. And, hey, every game has to be every game like we get it. But Penn State would be the same for him. But he allegedly would be a little bit more comfortable maybe backing a big tan up there or maybe a different style of football.

1:28:25Pat McAfee:People are saying maybe Kalen DeBoer goes to Penn State to become the head coach, even though Coach Sitake out there at BYU is now being linked to Penn State. Penn State still doesn't have a coach. Signing day, I think, is what, tomorrow, Thursday? Yeah. It's like coming up or something, I believe. And then obviously transfer portal is right around the corner. The reason why the Ole Miss LSU-Lane Kiffin situation happened is because LSU probably wanted Lane to be there for recruiting and for transfer portal. And Ole Miss didn't want Lane there for all those things because he's obviously competing directly against Ole Miss.

1:28:55Pat McAfee:So if they have players coming in or visiting and talking and Lane's like, yeah, we're going to win here, but guess what we're going to do next year at LSU? It's like nobody really thought that was going to be great. Penn State still doesn't have a coach. What the hell is that about? I don't know. That's pretty crazy. This was like a top, what, three job? Florida, LSU, and Penn State. It's crazy how quickly everywhere becomes a top job whenever they find out their coach might be leaving. Yeah. Hey, Signetti, yep, they want you in Penn State. Mark Cuban and the boys want to know, though, if you just want$10 million a year for the next 10 years, $100 million.

1:29:27Pat McAfee:We'll give you$50 million tomorrow. All right, yeah. Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, let's go. Who's yours? Let's keep it moving. Matt Rule, it'd be great at Penn State. You're having a good year at Nebraska. You want to sign the extension here for? 50 years. Literally until 2035 or something like that. Yeah, I'll do that. All of a sudden, these coaches that everybody thought they were going to have just kind of started disappearing. And then it's like, well, who are they going to hire? And then people start saying, well, is it a good job? It's like, yes, it's a good job, right? Right? Is it? Wait. I don't know anymore.

1:29:55It is a good job, right? Why don't they have a coach? I don't know. Since we're talking about speculation and breadcrumbs, it's hard to tell what's real and what's fake on the Internet. That wasn't Penn State's AD, right? No, that was not.

1:30:07Pat McAfee:That was a good troll, and we do appreciate the Internet. And then Abdul Carter. It's a lot of Penn State fans. Yeah, I think there's some misinformation out there. Just trolling. Good trolling? Yeah, a lot. Too good a trolling. You guys got to stop. I got God. The Internet is a God-God place. The internet is quickly becoming a very top.

1:30:27Darius Butler:Is that Lane's dog or not?

1:30:28Pat McAfee:Okay, that's a whole other conversation. He left him at Ole Miss. On the tarmac. That's what they're saying. What? Yeah. No, he wasn't on tarmac. We didn't see Juice out there. Juice got tarmacked? Yeah. Marty didn't say that. He's not in Baton Rouge. No. Operator, won't you put me on through? And I'm taking my love down the back room. Hurry up, won't you put me on the line? Gotta talk to my dog just one more time. Stay! I don't love you anymore, Juice. I don't know the whole situation there. We will certainly try to get to the bottom of that. That has become quite an interesting little tale, though, because I certainly thought they were.

1:31:05Pat McAfee:I think we all thought they were, and then maybe they're not. But Lane clarified some things on his feelings throughout this entire process, and he had a press conference, a lengthy one down there at LSU yesterday, where he answered some questions. He got introduced as the head coach, and he talked about, you know, his decision-making process, how hard it was, and then what happened whenever he got to Baton Rouge. Yeah, so, you know, when it was asked before about the staff and the current roster, all that stuff, the number one focus after arriving here and walking in the facility last night, which really was awesome.

1:31:41sorry to sidetrack so make sure i don't forget your question but landing here at that airport and then the leadership showing up and the whole board being there what was i mean you could feel it right there you know so as as you probably figured out it was a really really hard decision and i was really torn and i went back and forth you know didn't sleep very much trying to figure it out and the system didn't allow for a lot of time to do that you know and it was really hard and you know i i'm human you don't like even though you understand it's the passion you know you're with your son and you're driving and you know you got to call a call a cop that you know um so they'll help you uh because you personally know them because you are leaving the state and and you got to call him because you know you drive with your son and you you got to turn around and people are like screaming at you you know trying to run you off the road i don't know what they're going to do and so that that that affects you in that airport scene and all the things being said i understand it it's the passion but they're saying that about you that you thought you did a really good job for six years for him that affects you and even on the plane down there I'm kind of like, man, we made this decision, but God, I really, you know, and I'm telling you, I landed last night.

1:33:14I can't remember when it was. Okay. We landed. Okay. About 24 hours ago. When I got off that plane and I saw the board there and I saw the leadership and I felt the power of this place. And then we get in the car and as we're driving out and there's the fans. like just all of them out there at the airport and their excitement and their passion and then you then the cars drive by as we're going to the office and you go by tiger stadium and it's lit up and you're like i absolutely made the right decision and it all went away

1:33:58Pat McAfee:lane won them over down there in the bayou and obviously the way lsu has handled this i think has been very impressive as well. They've had a lot of display of love for him in Baton Rouge because we've all obviously seen how bad it got up there in Oxford on the way out and all the different alleged demands and who knows what's real. We will certainly get to the bottom of it because Marty Smith, who told the tale of his chaotic 48 hours in Oxford, which involved this particular van going off-roading and up over some fields to get to Lane, to get the five-minute interview immediately as he was leaving right before he saw all the fans lined up at the tarmac telling him he's the worst person on earth and he chitchatted about you know not only being there and experiencing it and saying i made the right decision and i i know the people at old miss aren't going to like hearing that but the people at lsu everything lane kiffin said yesterday you're like yes yes yes but also learning that one of the main factors for his decision making process is literally uh how much money we give him to the players that that is he was so open about it all like hey i was the most highly sought after coach in college football right this is maybe the loudest we've heard in a long time maybe ever i mean who the i don't legit we haven't been in the college football world long enough to really be able to give judgment on how loud it got but this was loud this guy because of how good he is and he said in 2025 one of the things he just needs to know i I don't even know how much money I'm getting paid.

1:35:24Pat McAfee:I understand I'm going to be getting paid a lot. How much money are we paying the players? He talked about that at length yesterday, and I thought it was a really good answer, actually. There's a great plan here. There's a great plan of how we can come together with what we bring and what players around the country want to play for us and play in our systems and then have that support to be able to do that so that they want to play for us and they get taken care of financially, which obviously nowadays is the world of college football, and it's very important and critical to them, which it should be.

1:36:01And this was the best setup. So that definitely played a factor into it. Because I don't care what your systems are. Without good players, they don't work. so um i actually asked today about my contract not the numbers i still don't know them i said hey just in case i get asked on it and he said basically all four were extremely similar okay contracts for me but in the process of figuring out the lineup actions those were not similar those were not the same and that's a big part of it okay so he said uh i don't know my numbers a

1:36:38Pat McAfee:lot of people are mocking him for saying he didn't know his number i assume he's on the internet okay we all know that he is on the internet he certainly saw the numbers but what jimmy sexton told him is everybody's gonna pay you this whatever we want everybody is offering the same and then the next question is well how much are going to the players and it's like well here's how much this place has for players i talked to boosters i talked to ad i talked to president who knows who jimmy sexton here's how much this place has i talked to blah blah blah i talked to blah blah blah so i think what happened was lane was literally presented by his team jimmy sexton certainly a part of it uh leader of it presented the situations hey here's all the situations and once you start kind of lining up and hearing him talk about why he went to lsu and you hear all the other og college football people talk about it's like one of the biggest anxieties that you have as a college football coach is recruiting and then nowadays transfer portal and retaining people and whenever you talk to the og college football people it's like if you can get rid of a couple of your anxieties by the place that you go to you certainly use that you certainly take that like at lsu there's allegedly this is what they say i guess we should start keeping track of this is there's 10 five stars that are just going to be a part of your roster every single year in your recruiting class before you even say a word to anybody there's a kid who's a freshman in louisiana this kid number one recruit in the country all of them just this kid right here literally the first person he ran into down there is the number one recruit in the entire country and he has a post on his ex a tweet that says i want to be known as the greatest tiger of all time like they have a lot of pride in the lsu tigers whenever you're from louisiana and it's their family it's their community it's everything that wants these people to be lsu tigers because it's good for all parties so you're naturally just going to get an abundance of five stars so if you have a good coaching staff just through your recruiting alone let alone the transfer portal that Lane Kiffin thinks he's very good at and he said multiple times like hey in the transfer portal people want to play in our systems like we are explosive we are high energy we are successful we've proven we've been successful he said now with LSU and the money that we have and our systems and everything this is just going to be an amazing thing me as guy that was hoping he would stay at Ole Miss and just grow like his place and like get a statue and transform an entire city and do something that's never been done before when you listen to the people that are in that world they're like his life gets 50 times easier oh yeah if from the recruiting thing just with that being the advantage and he talked in that press conference a couple different times i listened the whole thing because i was so baffled by the decision honestly because i think we all understood the amount of hate that was going to come with it and how it all went and how it's impossible for you to coach through the playoffs if you're going to another place let alone a rivalry place so that press conference i thought was pretty important to hear like well how did you get to this decision as opposed to just saying Coach Carroll would say this.

1:39:27Pat McAfee:And he's like, the LSU brand is worth so much. This is the one job he basically, in the country, he said this is the best job in the country. And other people that are great coaches said this is the best job in the country to him. Feels like it was inevitable he was going to go down there even though I held on to the Ole Miss dream because I think that would be unique and be very special, especially with this time of life. But they're going to win down there, huh? Yeah. I mean, that's what I heard in that press conference. Big. Okay, you think so, B.A.? Totally. They're going to win big is what you're saying.

1:39:55Yeah, I would have them in the top four the next three years.

1:39:59Pat McAfee:So that's, as I was listening to the press conference, that's all I kept thinking as I was listening to the press conference. I'm like, if everything he is saying is true about all of it, like, hey, yeah, we got more money than, because we heard of where all the other places are, right? And I think he said four, right? We heard four jobs, I think he said. So what are the four jobs? Okay, so that's places that we've heard with money that have been using it. And he said, we have more money. We had better setup there. So LSU has more money than places that we thought had more money, okay, which is good news for LSU people.

1:40:29Pat McAfee:But also they have the talent that wants to go there. And Lane Kiffin, his shit works, right? And they got the defense coordinator still there who knows the area. And Coach O, I think he's still a part of it. Allegedly Coach O is like a weapon in the state of Louisiana as a recruiter. Lane Kiffin said in his press conference he called Coach O whenever he was on campus and told him that he feels like he should start talking like him just because he's there. So it feels like everything he was – every answer he was given, I'm like, oh, my God. They are going to be – they're going to be a wagon down there.

1:40:58You were holding on to hope. I was surprised you did as much as you did because we kind of felt like it was inevitable and it was going to happen and a decision had been made. And it does suck for the people at Ole Miss. You have a historic season. You can't finish it out with your coach. But for Lane, we always talk about coaches and now players, even on collegiate level, doing what's best for their family. This was the best move for a coach because we treat it like the NFL a lot. So you're basically guaranteed a good draft every year, right, because of where you are being LSU. So you're going to get a good draft.

1:41:27And then you're guaranteed with the money and what you're giving the players, a great free agency pool. So if you've got a great free agency and a great draft every year, as a coach, it's really on you. Now it's about my – and he said this in the press conference too. You can have whatever systems you have, but if you don't have the players to do it, it doesn't matter. We saw even Saban when he was running a bunch of national championships. on offense they were still handed off running the ball 40 50 times game until he was damn near forced to innovate and do it differently but they had the best players in the country every year so yeah he's going to dominate you and play great defense so now lane kiffy you know the history there with the coaches that have already won one he sees himself as a great coach he said hey look at the numbers that are like since leaving alabama look at my numbers i have the best offensive numbers and that's without having i guess the best talent year in and year out so now this is a move he had to do the money was going to be great he mentioned it wherever he went for him and i I believe him.

1:42:18You know, hey, you know, just like being a top free agent, like, you know, hey, this is what the market is. I'm going to get that. But now that's recruiting too. Hey, who's going to get the most money to my players? That's what I'm most concerned about. As a player, that makes me feel good to go play for a guy who cares about how much I'm getting in my pockets as well. So, yeah, it was kind of like a foregone conclusion. Obviously, you know, Ole Miss fans, they're going to feel how they feel. Rightfully so. It was a good press call. And LSU, hey. Yeah.

1:42:41Pat McAfee:I thought it was a good press call. He nailed it. Yeah. He really did. I mean, a couple jokes in there. did i don't know if he was choked up trying to get choked up i don't know what was trying to get there yeah i think he was i think maybe his brain was starting to think about like emotions emotions emotions i don't think so i don't think we're doing that right there potentially in the middle of his conversation but him addressing about how he was like you know because there's stories coming out now like people knew he was doing this and then they were saying this on this day it's like i don't think like i don't know laying that way i've only really met him within the last year and obviously college football he's like one of the biggest stories and he's friends with people that i know so i've got a chance to chat with him a little bit i genuinely thought he was conflicted like i thought he was conflicted on the decision on being like doing his own thing at old miss or taking the one of the greatest job in sport is what a lot of people are saying so him coming out and saying that i thought was good but old miss man what a time they got lsu's going into Ole Miss next year.

1:43:43Pat McAfee:Lane's walking in there. And I know Ole Miss is saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the more I learn about this LSU job, the more I'm learning about this type of situation that's down there. It's like, this LSU team, I'm thinking they're going to be unbelievable next year. That's what I... Let alone Winnidad, obviously. Lacey, I mean, the players that have already been very successful in his offense and in the SEC, still available. They're very young. Look good in purple. And he has the money to be able to keep up with whoever makes the thing. It's like, you've got a couple key positions already ready to go, let alone if there's any other competition.

1:44:13Pat McAfee:He said we're going to look at all the town. Who knows what's on that roster? We have no idea who's backup down there. Third string. Lane Kiffin might walk in there and go, who's this guy? Oh, he's five-star out of whatever, Louisiana last year, defensive end or whatever. You're going to be great next year, man. Can't wait to watch you. Six-foot-seven, fucking 245 pounds somehow, just absolutely shredded. It's like Lane Kiffin is currently doing that with the current roster, knowing that they have the money to keep up, and then he's going to be completely prepared for the transfer portal through it all.

1:44:42Pat McAfee:And he already has his relation. They're going to win. I thought it was a bad idea because if you don't win down there, you're going to look like an idiot whenever you had Ole Miss and you could have been special there. And if you don't win like other people were able to win there, you can't win. You're a bad ball coach. And then he's talking yesterday. It's like, oh, he's fucking going to win. They're going to win. That's why he went there.

1:45:01Darius Butler:They need to keep their defensive coordinator because if they had an offense this year, they would have been easily in the playoffs because they had one of the best defenses in the country. and I know they are fighting hard to keep him, but I believe his name is also up for Tulane, so that's something to watch.

1:45:14Pat McAfee:Okay, so I think he's from the area maybe?

1:45:16Darius Butler:He was, I don't know, he was at Mizzou and they left Mizzou to go to LSU and this was his second year at LSU as the D.C. and they improved greatly. So if he stays another, like they're going to be very good on that side of the ball.

1:45:27Pat McAfee:Old buddy who got the Kentucky job from Kentucky, right, Stein?

1:45:30Darius Butler:Yes, Will Stein, yeah.

1:45:31Pat McAfee:So he's Oregon's offense coordinator. He is taking a head coaching job at Kentucky. Stoops gets fired from Kentucky. They're paying him 30-some million. I paid him$30-some million. When was the last time you saw Kentucky play meaningful football? When Bill Levis was there? A few years ago. Two years ago. When he had a chance to go get the A &M job, said, no, I'm staying at Kentucky. Fired.

1:45:51Darius Butler:He did them a favor, too, because that$30-some million was supposed to be due in 60 days, and they negotiated it would be over however many years.

1:45:58Pat McAfee:Oh, that's good. You know, I always thought if you win the Power Bowl and you're a little younger, wouldn't be bad to just have this kind of taking care of me for the next 30 years of my life. You know, the people that take the buyout right now, like Brian Kelly getting all that money so quick. What if he has a full crash out? I mean, that might be too – Brian Kelly might be swimming in that. Yeah. BK, no way. Yeah, free my boy BK. Hey, he still can coach, right? Yeah, I don't know who's going to hire him, but he can definitely still coach. There's jobs open still. I mean, what is going on up at Penn State?

1:46:28Penn State.

1:46:29Pat McAfee:Okay, and last thing on college football, before we move to the NFL with BS or no BS with our friend BA. Tone, you had a lot of action this morning on a little thought about preseason rankings in the AP preseason top 25 poll, basically just being a massive problem as opposed to a benefit to anybody. And we actually had Hembo look up, hey, when did this all come about? You know, the AP preseason poll. Turns out it was born in 1950. Okay. It was to create a unified national storyline before the season began. Hey, these are the teams we're talking about. Okay, this is how everybody remember. This is back in the day when you maybe never even heard a thing from a town four minutes from you ever in your entire life.

1:47:09Pat McAfee:You had no idea. You just pick up 1950, go down the road. Nobody knew anything that happened literally five minutes ago. So that was a wild time. So let's go and make sure we get a national storyline. To increase newspaper readership, obviously, we need to move some papers. We need to talk about these things. And if we all talk about different things, guess what we're going to be doing? We're going to be taking attention away from the bigger things. Bigger things are what drive things. So these are the bigger things. To formalize preseason rankings, writers were already producing informally. Okay, we're already talking about this.

1:47:34Pat McAfee:We might as well go ahead and make this public. To extend the AP poll brand that had grown popular, obviously, since 1936. We've been having a pretty good little brand run here. And that came from the Associated Press archives. So I think we're at a point now where college football is big enough. I think the AP is obviously synonymous with everything. This is AP Tone here. He gets a vote. So maybe we do do away with the preseason poll. Maybe we just need, hey, this is where they finished last year rankings going in through the first couple weeks before we know who the hell it is. Is that what you're pitching?

1:48:01Darius Butler:Yeah, all those reasons. I agree with all those reasons, 1950. But you made a lot of good points on why that is outdated. And just like Pate put out that 12 of the AP are not ranked. And then I started looking at it. BYU is the lowest ranked one-loss team. Is that because they were the only unranked one-loss team at the beginning of the season? So it just takes them a lot longer to go up in the rankings versus a one-loss team that was ranked in the top 10 at the beginning of the season. They're going to stay in the top 10 the entire season. Then Vandy, also unranked at the beginning of the season.

1:48:34Darius Butler:They are the lowest-ranked two-loss team, basically. So is that because they were unranked at the beginning of the season and they were not supposed to be good? I'm not saying BYU or Vandy should be ahead of the other one-loss or two-loss teams. I'm just saying, is it a coincidence that both of these teams were unranked at the beginning of the season and now they are basically the lowest-ranked one loss and two lost teams because of perception at the beginning of the season yeah first

1:48:57Pat McAfee:impression brother you know the first time hearing about this team is oh they were ranked uh they weren't even in top 25 for the season so that means they weren't projected to be good so you kind of carry that stink throughout the entirety that's just like when somebody's drafted late in the nfl draft they have to carry that stink for a while because how are you this bad at the beginning let's do away with it i appreciate that i'm on your side that's ap tone now let's pivot away from college football and let's do some nfl with our friend coach ba it's time for bs or no bs with ba we will read a statement that has potentially been said somewhere by somebody as a fact and then our coach ba a man who's been in the football world for 47 years uh will tell us if it's bs or no bs let's go with the first one here joe burr back jamar chase He's balling.

1:49:43Pat McAfee:Defense flying around. If the Bengals beat the Bills, they'll win the AFC North. Is that BS or no BS, B.A.? That's no BS. Whoa. When you look at their schedule, they're going to be favored the rest of the way. And this is the big game for them. If they can beat the Bills, there'll be one game back. Now they still play the Ravens, who they beat badly in Baltimore. All right, the rest of the games, they got the easiest schedule going of those teams. Baltimore and Pittsburgh got to play each other twice. So I can see the Bengals running the table. If they beat the Bills, run the table, get in the playoffs.

1:50:16Pat McAfee:Okay, and what does that mean in the playoffs? Do we think they can win a game in the playoffs? With Joe B? Hell yeah. Oh, Joey Burrow's back. Everything changes. I loved his answer before playing, saying, this kid's game, we could pay a lot of money to do it. I'm going to go play if I can. He certainly did. He didn't miss a step. That show he put on in Baltimore was unbelievable. He's sweet. His hair is super cool. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's got super cool hair. So good at football. All right, let's go to the second one, BS or no BS. Yes, go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Bruce, Texans making the lot house, the stride house this weekend was the biggest statement win in the NFL this week.

1:50:50Is that BS or no BS, B-A? Man, that's bullshit, brother, all the way. The Panthers beating the Rams. Shout out to Dave Canales. Three plus three turnover ratio. Three for three on fourth down. My boy Harold Goodwin and Joey Gilbert doing a hell of a job with that offensive line. The Panthers beating the Rams was by far the hugest win of the week.

1:51:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think Panthers have the two largest upsets on the season thus far. 13.5 points. This one was 9.5 points. And what we thought of the Los Angeles Rams, I think we still think of the Los Angeles Rams because, once again, Carolina Panthers? Let's go football team. We've been saying it. Yeah. It's a different team. Now, they can be ass. They have gotten dominated a couple different times this season. But for the majority of this season, they have been a good football team. The Carolina Panthers are legit, I think, down in the NFC South going forward. Good football team. Got a good quarterback.

1:51:41Got a good defense. It's really about just being that every week. And I think Shraig said it earlier. It's been like this all season long. In the NFL, definitely in NFC, week to week, we crown these teams. And we were all on the Rams bandwagon offensively, defensively, to just run the table and be the best team. But I agree with you, B.A. This was definitely the biggest statement we went last week.

1:51:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, thank God. Let's not talk about the Colts loss. CJ Fry, a good player. And the last one here, B.A., this ain't college. These young quarterbacks, Jaden Daniels, nine, and Jackson Dart, need to change how they play before they are all out of the league, before their rookie contracts end. Is that BS or no BS? That is no BS. Okay. Your best ability is availability. And people put all this money into a quarterback for the franchise, for the city, for the whole team, and it's your teammates. Learn how to fucking slide and get the hell out of bounds. All right? You ain't going to last. This ain't college.

1:52:34All these linebackers run 4-5, brother, and they don't have bad intentions. If you stay in bounds, shit like this is going to happen. And you just came off three weeks of concussion? Come on, man.

1:52:46Pat McAfee:Come on, man. Coach B.A., I don't like it either. I appreciate, though, the fact that he is trying to be tough. He's trying to say that he is tough. But I would just like to let Jackson Dart know we all know you're tough. You bounced right up after getting depleted. Let's stop taking these shots. And before we get off ESPN, today is Giving Tuesday. Coach B.A. and his family here have a phenomenal foundation that obviously we'd love for you to consider if you are thinking about giving. The Arians Family Foundation exists to protect and support children who have experienced abuse or neglect. You can help a child today by donating to Provide a CASA, which is a...

1:53:21Court Appointed Special Advocate.

1:53:23Pat McAfee:Which will basically go into rough situations for kids and basically do an inspection and find out if these kids need to be removed or taken to a better spot and look out for children that are in tough situations, right? Yeah, and they become the positive light in their life. I appreciate you doing that. Anytime we're making children's lives better, we respect it. On this Giving Tuesday, we hope you will help Coach Arians and his family and anybody else that is in need. It's not a bad day. If you can, go ahead and do that. That's one of the good parts of having success. It's the only reason to have success, actually.

1:53:53Pat McAfee:Now, on that note, we will continue digitally. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Okay. Wanted to make sure we got that in there. That is a cool thing, what you do. Thank you. That is a very cool thing, what you do. Learning about that all this morning is obviously kind of an emotional experience, but also a cool thing to know that there's people trying to help those particular situations that are happening in abundance, I guess. A lot of these situations take place. I don't think any of us really hear about. When I went out to Arizona, there were 15 ,000 kids in foster care.

1:54:24And because the market crashed, guys lost jobs, they lost their families. I mean, it's a tough situation, but these kids are in these situations through no foster of their own. They were born into it. They deserve a life.

1:54:38Pat McAfee:Can you talk about some of the kids that have been helped through this process? Yeah, my wife started here in Indianapolis with Kids Voice of Indiana, which is a great organization. Eddie Rivers started the whole thing. It was a great guy. And, you know, she was an attorney for them. And then I asked her to take a six-bar exam. She said, hell no. She's volunteered ever since. But her first case was a young boy here in Arizona who's probably 40 now with kids and gone to college. And they talk still today. That's amazing. And, you know, it's really hard. These kids love their parents, no matter how bad they're treated, you know.

1:55:14and to ask them to leave their home because it's the best thing for them. And then you try to help them get adopted, which is hard. And people call them group homes now. They're orphanages, bro. At Arizona, we asked all the guys, anybody got a shoe contract? Hey, you got money left? Yeah. How about we buy a bunch of shoes?

1:55:34Pat McAfee:Hell yeah. All right, we got 250 pair of Nikes, Adidas, everything. Took them down. One kid said, I don't want them. They're just going to steal them from me. I said come on man no I don't want them they'll beat me up and take them gosh that's what they live in everyday man and we all have great lives and it's our job this is our next generation we gotta help these kids I appreciate the hell out of you and your family doing that and hearing the stories obviously made us pumped to share your message and share who you and how you can help and yeah it's a beautiful thing Giving Tuesday I like to report on the spotlight on Coach actually texted me.

1:56:12Pat McAfee:I did not know Giving Tuesday was happening today. Okay, that's 100 % on me. Need to be a better human out there. Coach texted me and said, hey, Giving Tuesday, want to promote anything? Arian's Family Foundation is the right one. So we appreciate what you do for the people. All right, let's take a break on the other side. We'll wrap up all the storylines, Ross. Got a lot to talk about. We got game balls to give away. Yeah. Got game balls to give away. That's right. And guess what? A lot of game balls this week. Really? A lot of them. Okay. That's a tip. Who do you think it's going to? You know, don't say it.

1:56:42Pat McAfee:No. Hopefully, Mike Vrabel. Oh, has a coach got a game ball? I don't know. Whole staff. I mean, it would be a lot. Maybe. Let's get to a break. Wow. That one's got you pretty fucked up. Have you given it to a coach yet? Nope. Do the rules say you could give it to a coach or no? No, you could. You could. You could. Am I right? But we ain't. Not this week. Oh, shit. Players play the game, baby. When you would get into giving out game balls, okay, you're throwing them out there in the meeting, right? Is that your? I never gave. It had to be very, very special for me to give one in the locker room.

1:57:21Pat McAfee:After the game? After the game. For me, it was Monday morning meeting or victory Monday on Wednesday morning, firing them out there with my arm. You spin it a little bit? I could spin it a little bit, yeah. I went three games in college without completing a pass, but that's okay. Hey, a lot of Russian touchdowns, though. The most in the history of Virginia Tech. So when you're giving those out, when you're deciding who gets the game balls, not these ones here, but in actual team situations, we have seen a couple game balls that probably were Fugues game balls. When you go into that, you know that the team is going to say, that's a bullshit game ball, whenever you give a morale game ball.

1:57:58Pat McAfee:Oh, God, yeah. You don't give those out. Not in front of the team. Not me. Not me. Not me. If they're going to say bullshit. No, no, no. Can't happen. You got to do something there in the game ball. And one of the best ones is when a backup player steps in and plays better than the starter. Because next man up is true. It's real. And it's your opportunity. You get game ball, brother. Yeah, and also it's motivation to everybody else. Oh, yeah. And it's also a little heat to the starter, which you love. Oh, I love that. Yes, you do.

1:58:32Darius Butler: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? No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with Power Boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different. And Messi only trusts Duracell.

1:59:03Darius Butler:This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, 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+.

1:59:57Pat McAfee:We'll see you next time. actually has a breaking international footballer story that the world needs to hear and maybe inspire the globe in our beautiful sport. Absolutely. Thank you, lad. This is arguably the most inspiring story of all time, not just football, not just sports. This transcends sports as a whole. Again, maybe the most inspiring story of all time. Listen, lads, I know you probably were following on Pins and Needles, the Pro Football Ireland account, over the weekend, obviously, as Saints kicker Charlie Smythe, the pride of the little village of Mayo Bridge in Northern Ireland, took the field for his first NFL start, lads.

2:00:37We were at the Leaky Cauldron in Mayo Bridge watching the game. I don't know if you saw this. Charlie Smythe, that's a 56-yard field goal, lads. And you can't really tell from the TV copy here. It was raining sideways in Miami during this game. Terrible conditions. You could barely see the ball. Charlie Smythe, good from 56 yards, and you can see. We're just going. Lads with all the pints. Yeah, the lads were just downing pints. There was not a full pint in the pub that night. Also, funny little note here, that 56-yard field goal, lads, would have been good from probably 75 to 80 yards. You saw it.

2:01:14Did you eyeball that? That was straight eyeballing. Again, I'm not doing yards. Lads over here, obviously, in Mayo Bridge, yeah, we're going by kilometers. So it looked like it would have been good from 115 to 125 kilometers. But something that people don't know, Lads, this Charlie Smythe. Okay. He was a former Gaelic football goalkeeper. Okay. We're not talking about a striker who's, you know, we're talking about a Gaelic football goalkeeper. Lads, is he the best player in the NFL? I don't know. That's what we were kind of talking about in Mayo Bridge. Oh yeah, did I mention he fucking kicked an absolutely beautiful onside kick to give the Saints a little bit of hope.

2:01:54Obviously, their team fucking sucks. Their offense fucking sucks. So they couldn't capitalize on this. They couldn't go down and win the football game. I believe they had three, once again, back to the boys at the Leaky Cauldron. You can see we're just slamming pint glasses over each other's heads. Mayo Bridge has never been this happy. will probably never be this happy again until next Sunday when Charlie Smyth kicks, I don't know, an 85 to 90 yard field goal. I believe Kellen Moore did say postgame. We are going to give Charlie Smyth that opportunity, lads. So just kind of something to keep an eye on.

2:02:24I know we don't have a lot of international games, a lot of international flair for the rest of the season, with the exception of maybe a couple different guys. Wait a minute. You've got to be fucking kidding me, lads.

2:02:40Pat McAfee:unfortunately lads i have some heartbreaking news no no it's not a good ending 56 yard field goal for what for nothing charlie smythe has been reverted to the saints practice squad per the nfl's transaction log yeah okay mcquade it's likely he will be elevated to the saints active roster and it's likely that i will be the fucking king of mayo bridge next week it's not going to happened. That was his only shot. Check whatever fucking channel, BBC, that Charlie Smythe will probably be playing goalkeeper in Gaelic football. He put a good film out there. Good onside kick in a 56-yarder. Other teams will sign him.

2:03:17You know whose fault this is? And I hate to say this, lads. It's that goddamn Jude McAdamey. Our other Irish lad. Our other Irish legend who was on the Giants earlier this year. I think he missed like four extra points in a game and they promptly cut his ass didn't even want to use his spot for the international player program you know you get that extra player on the practice squad they said fuck you Jude go back to Yardland he was actually with us sucking down pints in Mayo Bridge um so I I'm remiss to say I did not know that that was the case right now I had no idea I just assumed they had signed him to like a five year hundred million dollar contract he was going to be the next Saints legend it's clearly well

2:03:58Pat McAfee:there's another Irish bomber out there as well in Green Bay, right? Daniel Whalen's absolutely fucking unbelievable, lads. Is this an Ireland kind of takeover of ball-kicking positions? You could argue that. And I know it's not the same thing. We need the Scottish hammer to stop stovething his thumbs on punts and haven't given up 94-yard punt returns for a touchdown, kicking low-line drives. He did what he did, bobbling snaps, taking sacks. that's not what we need for the international player program uh but yeah daniel whalen i also believe he was born in ireland lads and then kind of moved over to the states so is he really an irish football player lads i mean we'll claim him don't get me wrong we'll absolutely claim him but i believe he lived in like boca raton or something like that so how how irish are you if you know you lived in boca raton lads uh but just absolutely devastating news uh with charlie smythe being reverted to the Saints practice.

2:04:56Pat McAfee:I think we all learned that at the same time. I'm dumbfounded right now, lads. We all got that a second paragraph before you, though. That's why we were like, it's okay, it's okay. And then you're like, no, it's not okay. It's not okay. Blake Groupie's got an absolute bomb of a leg. Everyone knows it, lads. They just do not want to see Irish lads succeed, I guess.

2:05:17Darius Butler:McQuaid is also pushing for Jude McIntyre to be the Giants kicker again after last night's debacle. That's not going to happen, lads. What do you mean? This guy missed like four extra points in a single game, lads. You can't have a fucking guy like that on an NFL pitch.

2:05:32Pat McAfee:It is interesting that the international growth of the game is going to come through the ball-kicking positions, and it's like very obvious. You know, like obviously there is some German, like Bjorn Werner, and I'm pumped to see Bjorn have the success that he's having in post for football over there in Germany. He's a stud, and if the Colts are going to be Germany's team with him, it's like perfect, but usually Australia started coming because they like literally grow up punting football. So that's what they do for fun. That's how they play catches. They have a kick and they punt the ball back and forth.

2:06:00Pat McAfee:So once I think it was found out that, hey, you can come over to America and like kind of do this entire thing after your professional football careers because they come up through the academy and then they play professional Aussie rules football. They never sign up for a university. So their clock talking about, you know, furthering their education never starts. So whenever they get through their Aussie rules football career, they were able to come over to America, 25, 26, have a family already kind of adults and then now you're going into college and doing the punting position and it's like that led to like an eye-opening of like wait a minute this could be a great crossover between the two Australia has provided a lot of great ball kickers for our league and I think also our league has provided a lot of opportunity potentially for Australians that can punt balls and then you go to Europe it's the same thing we're talking about Jamie last night he's from Scotland there's been guys from Italy that have been kicking now you got the Irish fellas that are punting and kicking.

2:06:53Pat McAfee:It's like all the ball-kicking sports could be what is really the driver for the international and global dominance of American football. And I think that's a good thing, not a bad thing. But I'll tell you what, I don't think they fully understand that if you miss a kick, nobody gives a fuck about you. You are bottom of totem pole. What you've done for me lately, baby. Yes, you're bottom of totem pole, too. That is an understanding that you have to, hey, we fucking do not matter, in the grand scheme of this thing. definitely have to do our jobs for a win, but nobody is trying to hear shit or see shit if you miss.

2:07:25Yeah, you get to golden boot the wrong way.

2:07:27Pat McAfee:Yes, you will, quickly, in this sport. So I love that it's happening, and shout out to the Irish lads. Yeah, no kidding. Obviously, the massive news that arguably took over college football over the weekend as well, that other Irish lad who decommitted from Penn State and decided to commit to North Carolina. Oh, the punter. You know, the graphic didn't have what position he played, lad, so I had no fucking idea. I looked at him. I said, why is this such a big deal? Is this guy playing defensive end or something like that? No, he's not. He's a punter, kicker. Obviously, Bill Belichick. Athlete.

2:07:57Well, yeah, I know. He's Irish. No, I understand. But when they were making it sound like it was an earth-shattering thing, I thought maybe this guy was playing quarterback, like an Irish guy playing quarterback. He's not. He's just another long line of kickers. But again, he's one of Ireland's most promising recruits, lads. Adam McCann Gibbs. Obviously, everyone knows his name. switches commitment from Penn State to UNC. I don't know if I would have necessarily done that, but obviously he's got his eyes set on the Aer Lingus College Football Classic next year.

2:08:25Pat McAfee:Scroll down, see this stud? Adam McCann. Irish lad. He looks like an Irish guy. He's an Irish lad. He's a bomber too, but you thought maybe he's a quarterback. Maybe he is. Yeah, I had no idea, lad. But Ireland is kind of big for the game right now. For sure. Hosting the game, providing players. It's good stuff. I like where football's at right now. Speaking of liking where football's at right now, Let's see the leaders across the league. You know, who's at the top right now of the league in all the different categories? Let's go to passing. Ladies and gentlemen, our top five QBs when it comes to yards.

2:08:58Pat McAfee:Drake May leading the way. Now, they have 11 wins. They have not had a bye week yet. They are entering their bye week, so maybe they have an extra game over all the other people. But nonetheless, Drake May balling. Dak Prescott, 3 ,200. Patrick Mahomes as well. Matthew Stafford spinning it. You know, that was interesting against the Panthers. and then Danny Diamond has a hairline fracture in his fibula. And he has had an incredible year. And now he's going to have to depend on this throwing a lot more than ever before because he was able to run in the past. Now it looks like he's going to have to be a passing quarterback.

2:09:29Pat McAfee:What do you see that maybe the similarities of these top five quarterbacks in the league right now be A? They all play from the pocket. They're not runners. They're not getting themselves knocked out. They're the best quarterbacks in the league right now. And each and every one of them has very unique skill sets. Okay, so let's talk about what's Drake May. Why is Drake May so good? Is it his accuracy? It feels like he has pinpoint accuracy on those deep balls. Like every ball that is supposed to be a, oh, is it going to be on target, is like right on target. That might be his basketball, to be honest.

2:10:00I think I would say Steph Curry's three-point shot, his deep ball looks like a great three-point shooter. You know, one of the best I was ever on was Tim Couch. Great deep ball. He was a great three-point shooter. And so, yeah, and he's so accurate. He's athletic. He's accurate. He's tall. You can see. And, you know, that helps.

2:10:18Pat McAfee:Patrick Mahomes up there. Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes. Josh Allen not up there, which is fascinating, but he's running all over the place. They go into the running game. Dak Prescott, the Cowboys might be best team in football right now. Dak is playing lights out right now. He's obviously the leader, but he's spreading the ball around to everybody. They got enough running game going, play actions big, and Dak does a great job of protecting himself and the ball. They talked about George, and we're going to try to keep George. We're going to try to keep all George Pickens around here. I mean, he's playing himself into being the highest paid receiver in football.

2:10:53I know Chase made that gap where a little bit over$40 million, but, I mean, Pickens, like, he is a dominant force out there and then have C.D. Lamb in there as well. But, yeah, all really good play callers as well. The two to five, those are all offensive head coaches and play callers, I believe. and then obviously got Josh McDaniels and what he's doing. A great job with Drake May, but yeah, you said all play from the pocket, all play on time, and all pretty accurate with the football as well.

2:11:19Pat McAfee:Yeah, very accurate and not missing a lot of ops. Oh, no. When you're getting these yards, you're not missing any opportunities to gain more yards. That's a hell of a benefit. It's been awesome to watch old Danny Dimes. Okay, let's go to receivers. I feel like Jackson Smith and Jigba is continuing an absolutely historic run. George Pickens traded to the Dallas Cowboys. Obviously, we just talked about him potentially playing his way in the highest paid of all time. Puka might be knocking on the door as well. Jamar Chase, outrageous. He had Joe Flacco spinning it to him there for a couple games.

2:11:51Pat McAfee:He missed the game because, obviously, he's a spitty talker. And then Amon Ross St. Brown up there in Detroit still doing it. Big takeaway from this list, D-Butch, is what? They're all obviously phenoms. They all kind of do it in different ways. Jackson Smith and Jigba is having the most impressive season, not only because of his production, but because of that team. They throw the ball going into last week. They were second from the bottom, so 31st in the league when it comes to pass attempts, and he's already broken Seattle's record. Not only has a low receiving game this last game, so not on pace to break the all-time record, but he could have a 20-yard game next game.

2:12:28Then George Pickens, obviously a phenomenal pickup. Does most of his damage on the outside. It's kind of like a throwback, true X. and a lot of conversation with him is like, hey, you got to take away the slant route. You know, he's killing teams at the slant route, not only because of his big playability down the field, but actually catching the ball and getting a bunch of yak. But the problem with that is you take away that slant, you're susceptible to that deep ball, that goal ball, which we all know him for. Puka Nikul, we know him, lines up everywhere. Where's Waldo breaking the huddle? Jamar Chase, probably the best combination.

2:12:57Like if I was building a wide receiver in the lab, probably the best combination I've seen. He has like A-B type movement skills with almost like a Julio Jones type explosiveness and body type. So kind of like Mesh in the one. He's unbelievable. And then Amaraj St. Brown, we know what he does. Does a lot of dirty work and then he's a dog out there.

2:13:14Pat McAfee:No Justin Jefferson in there. No. It's a shame. No, that's because B.A.'s thrown to him. Well, B.A. Respectfully. B.A. He wishes. Can you still spend a little bit? I was a runner too. Okay. You think nine's a runner? No. Oh, jeez. He's a quarterback. Come on, man. They need to figure it out over there. Rosmer looked okay on Sunday. Yeah. He almost had that sick Mahomes-like against B.A. diving touchdown. No, you're saying Mahomes-like. It was a touchdown. You're saying that was Mahomes-like? Mm-hmm. No, that was Carson Wentz experience-like. That's what that was. And we saw it. We all watched it.

2:13:51Pat McAfee:And that being a revenge game kind of for Darnold, interesting. Didn't think about that going into the week. Kevin O 'Connell dapping up Darnold after the game and talking to him a little bit. I miss you, man. I'm so sorry. I miss you, man. This is Carson Wentz. Touchdown! That's what happens. You know, we talk about Carson Wentz being the starting quarterback of a team that's playing in a new country first time. So they get, like, excited about what's going on because he is so damn electrifying. We don't even think about the younger quarterback sitting behind him watching his style of play and then potentially just picking up to be their own.

2:14:23Pat McAfee:You know, I started adding things that Adam Vinatieri did to my routine. I think Carson Wentz is a clear influence here on Brosmer, and it did not go well. Tough spot. This Vikings team, man, they had it all. They had more than it all. Yeah, they're getting into that conversation, the most disappointing team. Oh. They had two different old pros. That quarterback last year on, too. Oh. But they had that dog. he might be he's they're missing some throws justin jefferson so good at football i am incredibly impressed with how it's all going now he knows once they pay him the amount of money now granted other teams have been able to pay a wide receiver a lot of money and pay a good quarterback to be able to throw them the ball so that has happened in the past and it's happening right now currently uh jamar chase and t higgins got paid a lot of money and joe burrow starting now granted i don't know if anybody thinks that's how it should be cd lamb dac prescott i mean you You, there, AJ Brown, I guess, there, there has been the situations where you've been able to do it, but the conversation was basically like, we're going to pay Justin Jefferson.

2:15:33Pat McAfee:That means we might not necessarily be able to pay Kirk Cousins. We might not necessarily be able to pay Sam Darnold. We might not necessarily be able to make sure Daniel Jones doesn't even think about leaving there. We might think about being able to, you know, like Aaron Rodgers wanted to go there. Not saying that we don't know how that any of this would have gone, but it's like, they made this decision to go this way and now they're sitting in a spot where Justin Jefferson isn't talking to the media for the first time in his entire career and uh they're on the outside looking in it's like it's not that's not a fun place to be if you're Minnesota uh or the Vikings fans at all but if you're the Packers you love it I guess because you're a little bit scared of what was cooking in Minnesota there for a bit Kevin O 'Connell was coach of the year we assume they're going to be great for long haul no not really I mean uh you know doing it one year is great but But when you do it one year and then you decide to just set dynamite to your entire building and blow everything up and just start anew for no fucking reason at all, that's what shitty franchises do.

2:16:29Good franchises don't do that kind of stuff. So, no, I'm not really – I wasn't shaking in my boots with the Vikings going into this year. Yeah, and I saw a tweet yesterday about the cap hits they got coming next year. They're big. They're big, and they're not guys that are getting you more wins. They're definitely not guys that are helping out this year, and it's a lot, a lot of money. KLC's great. Maybe he needs to get traded to Pittsburgh. Whoa. That's not bad. Maybe they need to trade him to Pittsburgh for Tomlin. Tomlin goes up there. Tomlin can win with nine. Somehow, someway, he'll win. I actually do, like legitimately do feel terrible for Vikings fans.

2:17:08Like after last year and how excited you had to have been going into this year and then to see J.J. McCarthy play the way he has, And then now all this stuff with Justin Jefferson, like, you can see it. It's like, my God, like, we're going to watch this guy in a different uniform before too long if this stuff keeps happening.

2:17:23Pat McAfee:You heard Randy. Randy Moss was, like, basically saying, get out of there. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. He was on Sunday Countdown, whatever Randy's on. And they said something about Justin Jefferson not being able to wait it out. And then he was like, nope, it's hard. Like, somehow, like, said something that was, like, very – I don't remember the exact words. but he was like, you need to go do what you need to do. You are Justin Jefferson is what this entirety. But like I saw Justin Jefferson and Kevin O 'Connell and this Minnesota Vikings in that stadium that is beautiful. I mean, they got a beautiful stadium, incredible fan base.

2:17:59Pat McAfee:What they were last year, obviously still good defense, always will seemingly have a good defense over there. It's like I thought the Vikings were – I think I picked them to win a Super Bowl last year at some point. I was like, I think the Vikings are going to win. This is a brand-new Vikings. This is a different team. and then to see all the decisions that got made in the offseason. And we talked about all of them. We talked about all of them. Like, hey, they're letting this happen. They just had the best year they've ever had. They're letting this happen, just did this. This guy is potentially want to go there.

2:18:23Pat McAfee:This guy's a Hall of Famer. If you protect him a little bit, he could probably throw the ball. Allegedly, he wants to go there. Nope, want nothing to do that. We want this guy. We want this guy. We want this guy. How long do they have to sit on that, you think, with J.J. McCarthy? They have to give him another year, right? Oh, totally, yeah. They have to give him a full offseason to get better. He missed his whole rookie year being injured, you know, not throwing the ball in college, and then trying to throw it against the NFL defense is just a totally different ball game. You know, I feel bad for the kid because he does have a lot of moxie, a lot of pride, and he is a winner.

2:18:51And it's just, man, it's hard to play quarterback in the NFL that way.

2:18:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, and maybe he has a full offseason. Maybe they do an entire thing. Yeah, he hasn't been able to stay healthy this year either. Yeah, it's very like AR, Anthony Richardson. Like, he missed his rookie year because he was hurt. Then the next year, same thing happened. And J.J.'s missed half the year. He's missed all that practice time again. Yeah, and to your point about what Randy Moss said, Justin Jefferson's locked in, but do you think Jordan Addison hears that? And he's like, yeah, I'm going to re-sign with the Vikings. Jordan Addison's so good. He's filthy. I mean, they had it all. They had it all.

2:19:23Pat McAfee:They did.

2:19:27Pat McAfee:Aaron Jones back. Jordan Mason also is very soft. That's right. Hey, so it was a fun year. It'll be okay. Give him an offseason. Give him an offseason. He's a hard worker. Let him go in there. He is a hard worker. He's got good leadership. So we assume that'll lead to future success. But I think they were all expecting now because they just had it. So, like, yeah, I think that could have been a convo leading in. Let's go to the top five rushers in the NFL. Oh, would you look at that? Jonathan Taylor, number one in the league. 1 ,282 yards. Whenever he does good, the Colts do good. Whenever he doesn't do good, the Colts don't do good.

2:20:00Pat McAfee:So if you stop the run, it feels like you can maybe stop the Colts. And if we don't have a quarterback that can run, that might affect how people game plan against Jonathan Taylor. But nonetheless, he's a game changer. He's a game wrecker. He is fun to watch. James Cook took over, obviously, that Pittsburgh Steelers game. And I guess there's different stats coming out on how many times they just ran the duo play against this Pittsburgh Steelers team with a crack, two wide receivers kind of cracking down. A large percentage of the time, and James Cook's vision and explosion has him around the edge.

2:20:29Pat McAfee:And Pittsburgh Steelers – 26 times, Pat. Okay, 26 times they ran the same play. You can do that when you have James Cook, who has vision and explosion. And you can run the same thing, and if you give him a crack, he's going to take it. Thinner build. We were talking about that the other day. Thinner build than most running backs, James Cook. More like a wide receiver type. He's explosive, but he's able to take hits. James Cook's a weapon. And then A-chan. Look at you guys down there in Miami. Hey, Miami representing. Good for you, Gumps.

2:20:59Darius Butler:Absolute dog. Feed him the rock. Ran for 124 on Sunday. went over 1 ,000 yards for the season.

2:21:05Pat McAfee:Sonic of Sonic and Knuckles, Jameer Gibbs is over 1 ,000 yards already, and that's with splitting carries with Monty. Jameer Gibbs, not a good game the other day. No, not a good game against the Packers both times, which is really the focal point of the entire offense. If he doesn't have a good game Thursday against the Cowboys, I don't know how we can win that game. So we need to get him going here. We need to get him going. Oh, no, because the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, we're going to be able to stop the fucking run. Oh, yeah. That's what we're going to be able to do. Get him out in space, baby. Get him out in space.

2:21:35We're running bubble screens? Anything. Get him out in space.

2:21:39Pat McAfee:Can't catch him. Okay, so is it as easy as that if you're a play caller? Yes. Hey, we got number zero here. He is fucking tough to tackle. What do we need to do? Figure out how we get him in space. That's literally all you're thinking about? And I'm blocking up the other side, and you go one-on-one with the linebacker, run all the option routes you can run. Until they double cover you, then you got wide out one-on-one. It's a simple game. Okay, so with Jameer Gibbs, that's legitimately, it's as easy as that. It is. We got the guy. Let's figure out how we can get him on a favorable matchup and then let him do whatever he wants.

2:22:08Yeah, we took a kid who nobody ever heard of was David Johnson in Arizona. He was like a legit wide receiver in college. Didn't came running back. Nobody could cover him. So teach him all the routes, put him one-on-one with safeties, linebackers, just dump him the ball and block up the whole other side. Make sure there's nobody blitzing from the other side. And it's a simple game for a quarterback then.

2:22:28Pat McAfee:High percentage game. and then all of a sudden there's two guys over here three guys we'll run the shit out of the ball over here now david johnson i remember that was electrifying you and i then he got transferred to houston right he was a part of the d hop trade yeah uh just transfer concussions got him trade yeah he was electrifying i do recall that jameer gibbs is as well over a thousand was splitting let alone whenever he can catch and then bajon robinson or some people were saying at the beginning of the year, remember that? He could be the MVP of the entire season, of the entire league, because of what he was doing in that offense.

2:23:01Pat McAfee:He is the focal point, almost at 1 ,000 yards already through week 13. And congrats to these guys running the ball. He splits with Algier. He's a weapon in the pass game, too. Especially those last three guys, all weapons in the pass game. Top five tacklers in the NFL. Jordan Brooks and a baby dump, 137. He's far and ahead. the leader over Cedric Gray down there in Tennessee, Jack Campbell. Love the way he plays ball. Such a dog. He's the best. Go ahead, Foxy. I've said all I need to say about Jack Campbell. I don't need to be a broken record. I love everything that Jack Campbell does as a football player.

2:23:40Pat McAfee:As a fan, you want to have a guy that's like a Brian Urlacher in the middle of your offense, and that's Jack Campbell. He's at the ball no matter what. Every single play, whether it's a pass, whether it's a run, everything he does is awesome. He's tough. He's mean. He's the greatest leader a defense could ask for. I love this dude on the Lions. Okay. Well, when he was drafted, it was called a reach. What a bad pick. You remember that time? Yeah, that whole draft they said, the Lions, what are you doing? You remember who they drafted in the first round? It was Jameer Gibbs and Jack Campbell. Yep.

2:24:09A couple good picks, I think. Mm-hmm. Well, fucking what do I know?

2:24:16Pat McAfee:Bobby Wagner, I know him. He's been playing for 50 years. Yeah. 115 tackles. Bobby, keep going, Bob. Hell yeah, Bobby. We love that, Bobby. And then Devin White out there with the Raiders 114. Congratulations to these guys having an incredible start to the season. And here's the picks, leaders. We got Kevin Byard. Congratulations to him. J.C. Horn, Ernest Jones, Nashawn, right? God damn, look at all the Bears on this thing. Trevain Edmonds, holy shit. The Bears are everywhere. Oh, yeah. Actually, the Bears are everywhere. And why is that? Why are the Bears everywhere? Well, we talk a lot about the other side of the AFC, the Josh McDaniel hires for Drake May, former head coach, been around a long time.

2:24:58Kind of the same thing in Chicago, Dennis Allen, been a head coach, been around a long time, defensive side of the ball. Also, Al Harris as well. Everywhere he goes, his defensive back, his secondary is productive. And you've got Edmonds up there as a linebacker. But, yeah, these guys fly around the ball, and they're taking advantage of them and setting their offense up. And their offense doesn't turn the ball over a lot, so we all know that's a great recipe for winning. Kevin Byron, shout out to him, too. A lot of people thought he was a little longer than tooth, maybe washed up a little bit.

2:25:24He's having an all-pro season out of Chicago.

2:25:26Pat McAfee:Most caused turnovers in the NFL this season thus far. Chicago Bears got 26 of them. The Pittsburgh Steelers, 20 of them, even though it appears as if they stink on a relatively regular basis. 20 for the Los Angeles Rams, 19 for the Houston Texans. These defenses cause total havoc, says Shy Bears Muse. We respect the hell out of the stat and the tweet. And I appreciate that three Bears are on there, and Ben Johnson wouldn't have it any other way because it's right there. Look at it. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Till good is better and better is best. Bingo. So we got good, better, best.

2:25:59Pat McAfee:Unbelievable what the Chicago Bears kind of cooking right now. And here's the sack leaders through week 13. Miles Garrett. Holy shit. 19 of them. What's the record? 22 and a half. Yep. All right. Miles Garrett. Yeah, it's going for 25. He's writing it down his little wrist tape there. That's his goal. Congratulations to Miles Garrett. Brian Burns, he is a monster. Holy shit. Micah Parsons, wow. What a trade. I feel like that's pretty good. A little turnout of a trade for the Green Bay Packers, I'd say. Yeah, I think so. He just, I love that guy so much. Just so much. And, you know, everyone said, hey, he's a locker room cancer.

2:26:37You know, this guy sucks. All this kind of stuff. He doesn't. He's not. He loves being in Green Bay. They love having him. And he loves the fans. He loves playing. And it's crazy. He kind of always shows up in the biggest moments when you need him, which is nuts. Closer. He is a closer. He is a closer. They were talking about playing Enter Sandman in the fourth quarter for him. He said, I have no idea who Mariano Rivera is, but that sounds cool. Let's do it. Ball. Exactly.

2:27:02Pat McAfee:Is that football? Mariano Rivera is? Yeah, no idea. Jeff Halfley said, don't worry about it. We're going to queue it up for you. Oh, my God. Could you imagine? We'll find out. He is the closer. Yes. And that's how you get – the whole team is marketing that? Like, hey, Micah is the closer. This is what this is. And he has shown up in every situation that he needs to. Yeah, and he's also, he makes every other guy on the defensive line a lot better. This was like the big thing that the Packers were missing. Like, you know, everyone talking, oh, their pressure rate is so high, but they didn't get any sacks.

2:27:34They didn't ever get home to the quarterback. And this fucking guy does quite a bit and very quickly. So good in the run game, too. So good. No, I thought he wasn't. I thought he wasn't. I thought that was the thing. That's what people say. It's very good. Halfley moves him around, so you never really know where he's going to be. Halfley Jeff is going to look good in Pittsburgh next year. Hey, Mike is special, huh? Oh, my God, yeah. In all phases of the game. Energy, motor, relentless. But I tell you what, he's not up there. But Daniel Hunter's got a guy on the other side of him. That's pretty legit, too.

2:28:06Pat McAfee:You're talking about the Houston Saks station. Yes, indeed. Yeah, Daniel Hunter, obviously, fourth whenever it comes to sacks on the season. And then when you talk about getting to the quarterback, if you have two guys that can get to it, obviously in a much better spot, Josh Schwett for the Arizona Cardinals. That team, we... They stink. Man, they're so close. They've lost more games by three or less than anybody. In the last, what, 15 years? No, not that long. I've been going that long. Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry. But it does feel like it is the same every year with the Arizona Cardinals.

2:28:40Pat McAfee:It's like a lot of optimism, a lot of maybe, huh? I was at the game with the Bucs, and they had every chance to win it and didn't get it done. How many does Will have, Will Anderson? I think 10 and a half. Yep, 10 and a half. Oh, so he's homeless, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay, got it. Some stat kind of fucked him. He did have another jump on pile. They didn't give it to him. Congrats to these guys getting a quarterback. Hey, yeah, boys. And congrats to Green Bay Packers, dude, honestly. That was a big swing at the time. and it was like, you know, a lot of people could have made fun of the Green Bay Packers for that play.

2:29:12Pat McAfee:Desperation, new stuff. You know, like people probably say about the Pittsburgh Steelers with all the moves they made this pass offseason and going into this trade deadline if this ends up being a colossal failure, which could potentially happen in it all. But it working out perfectly for maybe both sides is a beautiful thing. And Jerry Jones is just saying, yeah, that's what I do. Is that kind of how you feel about the trade with Micah and the Dallas Cowboys? Yeah, I think so. And I think it's easier to forget, like, he's just entering his prime. He's only 25 years old. I think that's why this thing is so crazy.

2:29:40And not that TJ Watt is old or long in the tooth or anything like that, but he's, what, 31? Mike has got a lot of time to still, you know, and he hopefully will be a Packer for the next 10 years. You just mentioned the name. I'm shocked I signed up there. TJ Watt?

2:29:57Pat McAfee:Yeah. Let's go to Hammer. Don, don. Any omissions from the sack leader graphic that you saw, AP Tone?

2:30:03Darius Butler:I did notice that as well. A lot of good pass rushers out there. A lot of good pass rushers out there.

2:30:10Pat McAfee:How do you feel about that Steelers defense? I saw 20 turnovers. Yeah.

2:30:13Darius Butler:Really good at getting turnovers.

2:30:17Darius Butler:That's about it.

2:30:19Pat McAfee:Jeez, that's AP time. Thank you, Ted.

2:30:20Darius Butler:It's not their fault. It's not the player's fault. Whose fault is it? I don't know. We're going to bring in Jeff Halfley, and he'll get those boys right.

2:30:27Pat McAfee:What job is he taking? Head coach.

2:30:29Darius Butler:It's not the player's fault.

2:30:30Pat McAfee:What are you doing right now? It's kind of crazy. D-Bud said it first. I heard it come out of his mouth. Oh, I kind of slipped that in there. What you're saying? It's always the player's fault. It's the NFL. They're getting paid more than anybody in the defensive league. Terrell Austin ain't fucking taking snaps. Then why'd you say Jeff Halfley's going to be a coach next year? That's just the nature of the business, brother. In this business?

2:30:51And no, he's not. The Packers are going to give him like$25 million a year.

2:30:54Pat McAfee:Oh, you think it's a McDaniel situation? Halfley's just going to love it so much? I think so. That's why he left BC. Why would he want to do it again in the NFL? Well, he didn't want to re-recruit and re-retain. You got to do that in the NFL, too, just a little bit differently. No, there's real contracts in the NFL. Yeah, but still, you know, like, you think he wants to go to a shitty team? It's true.

2:31:09Darius Butler:BC had, like, the best NIL situation. They did. They had a really good one, and he was just like, it's just too much. I'll just go be a coordinator, and that's kind of my lane. I'll be the best coordinator.

2:31:19Pat McAfee:And make more money. And what's that? And make more money. And life's a lot easier. And I guess coach Micah Parsons. Yeah, that certainly doesn't hurt, you know. But what if an NFL team says, hey, we're not like Boston College at all. Yeah, we're the Raiders. He'll say, yeah, suck my dick. I don't want to fucking coach you guys. You suck. You're going to fire me in three years, and none of it's going to be my fault. What about the Giants? Same deal. Suck my dick. You guys suck. I don't want to coach for you. What about the Pittsburgh Steelers? Now, you know, that's a rich tradition, strong history.

2:31:50Thank you. No, yeah, of course. But, no, the Packers ain't fucking letting him leave. Not a chance. Not a chance.

2:31:57Pat McAfee:I don't know. I appreciate you not saying that to the Steelers. Well, you know. Well, it wasn't you ever, I guess. No, no. No, it's Hathaway. That's Coach Halfley talking. All right, let's get back to B.A. talking. A couple game balls coming out of Week 13, and obviously anytime you get a game ball, it is a big deal. You must have done something special. Coach B.A. has been picking one game ball for the AFC, one game ball for the NFC, which we will start with. Who gets the NFC game ball, B.A.? Wow! The Bears offensive line, brother. Wow, congratulations to the Bears O-line. That's a lot of game balls.

2:32:29That's five of them. 281 yards rushing against a Philly defense on the road. Easiest way to win on the road, running it down their throat.

2:32:36Pat McAfee:Two different running backs over 100 yards, coach. Big time, brother. This was a big time. Great job by Ben Johnson just sticking with it, too, boy. But DeAndre Swift, he looked like the old DeAndre Swift to me. Do you think that Ben Johnson has helped the run game because of the scheming, because of the mindset? What are you thinking and why do you think? It's the mindset and the scheme. He knows how to be basic, fundamental, hat on a hat, give it back the ball four yards deep, let him go. The thought of immediately upon arrival, Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears invested in the offensive line.

2:33:07Pat McAfee:Literally, that's like the first three plays that they made were like offensive line, offensive line, offensive line. That's huge for Ben Johnson, and it was on display against the Eagles. Yeah, we always talk about it. Lane just said it. You have a great system, but having the players matter. Detroit had a really good offensive line. Chicago has a really good offensive line. And his scheme definitely helps. and the mobility of Caleb Williams, even when he doesn't, you know, carry the ball, but when he's carrying out those fakes, that always impacts the edge rush. Like that last run when you had Jalen Phillips running up the field to kind of protect that boot, that creates a huge running lane.

2:33:41He always has receivers and tight ends and shit. And it just, as a defense, like if you hesitate for just one second, because we all have keys, linebackers, safeties, especially on that second and third level. So when our key takes us somewhere and we can't fire and be in that gap, that's all it takes. and these runners in the league, they're too damn good to have them one-on-one with these second - and third-level defenders. And all these runs, you see them getting tackled by, you know, safety, 20, 25 yards down the field. That's tough sledding.

2:34:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, the Chicago Bears really flipped the culture quickly. You do it in the trenches. Congrats to the Chicago Bears offensive line getting a game ball from B.A. And who's the AFC game ball going to? The Bills offensive line. Oh, wow. Two lines getting game balls. Two starting tackles out, zero sacks, 249 yards rushing, 138 before contact. That's the stat right there. James Cook not touched. Those cutbacks were obviously spectacular. They ran this play how many times, Tone? 26. 26 times, brother. What does that mean? The offensive line just got the job done. I always say you find a mud puddle.

2:34:41You stomp all the water out of that sunbitch before you go look for another one. Okay. Alright? And they stomp the water out of that fucking mud hole, bro.

2:34:46Pat McAfee:Yes, they did. If you can't stop it, why would we stop running? Is basically what happened. And the offensive line, whenever you're putting that onus onto their shoulders, they love that type of shit, especially when they're having this type of night. Yeah, I go, one time back, I was at Alabama for one year and I told the guys, we're actually going to play Ole Miss. I said, we're going 35-Bob until we score. And we ran it 11 times to score. Okay, so 35-Bob, we got one play and this is all we need against the boys. And they did that against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, 22-double, they just wore them out.

2:35:18Connor McGovern also, He was one of their few returning linemen this week. It looked like he snapped his arm in half. They just wrapped it up his elbow and came back. And then at the end of the game, after Josh Allen's cackle touchdown, while they were jogging off after the extra point, he went over specifically to those two tackles. And he just said, I'm so fucking proud of you, man, to both of them. You can see what he was saying through lip reading. It was very, very cool to see.

2:35:44Pat McAfee:They just went in there and beat up the Steelers, right? They did something nobody's done since O.J. Simpson. and the run for 250 yards. Okay. I didn't know what we're... The run differential in this game since 1950 hasn't happened to the Steelers. Especially at home. This is the third home game where they've lost by at least two scores. So that's three games, one season. Three home games in one season for these Ingers to go and watch their team just get beat up and lose by multiple scores, let alone three scores. And then the entire time, Pittsburgh people know that they're running the same play right there.

2:36:23Like people are watching this game going, hey, hey, we can't tackle.

2:36:28Pat McAfee:These guys are just bullying us, which is the worst thing that could happen in the city of Pittsburgh. Ain't the fucking coach either. You ain't drawing up no magic plays. We got a gap. We got eight guys in the box. Somebody got to whoop some ass and beat the assignment. And then when you're doing this, when you're bouncing, we always – come on, that's day one shit is a corner. If you get cracked, you got to replace, you got to show up. We're going to keep fucking doing it. So 24, outside leverage, take a shot. That's the easy way out to say it's the coach, but these players, and these are all players with great resumes.

2:36:58These ain't a bunch of young guys who are trying to figure out how to play in the NFL. So, I mean, to get bullied like that on your own field, this is surprising. 42. Come on, this don't even look like.

2:37:08Darius Butler:Tone, what's going on, Tone? I just sent in a picture of their alignment against this play, and I didn't play past college. But, like, I feel like their alignment wasn't great against this play a lot.

2:37:25Darius Butler:See that? That's pretty good, right? Is that right? I've got enough guys over there. Everybody stacked on top of each other. Hayes was kicking ass. He was unbelievable. Yeah, he had a good day against 90, didn't he? Yeah.

2:37:39Pat McAfee:He got eight men in the box there, I guess, technically. Okay? They're all obviously a little bit offset there. And then they still just ran six. Yeah, 2-4 definitely got to be wide. It's an exotic look. Certainly. And we're off. He scored a lot of scrimmage. It's week 13. This is training camp day one shit. Buffalo Bills offense line. Game ball. Yeah, baby. All right, let's get the hell out of here. We appreciate you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. Ten, why don't you come on out here, bub? And good luck to everybody driving or who did drive this morning in any weather that was like what we had here in Indianapolis.

2:38:15Pat McAfee:A lot of snow came, and it was cold as shit. So there was ice and there was a lot of snow. And shout out to all the people plowing out there. All the people. Oh, yeah. What's that? You sure? Because it's crazy. In the Indianapolis area, they actually wait to send the plows out until after everybody's already had to drive to work. It's unbelievable. It's insane. So dumb. Never experienced it anywhere else. Nope. Well, I'll tell you what. PennDOT didn't necessarily get their fucking shit out before the storms either. So there was always a little bit of reaction happening as opposed to a little pro action.

2:38:47Pat McAfee:The issue is they got to determine how much salt they want to buy ahead of time. So they have to project how much salt they need to purchase for the entire winter and how important and how big they think each winter storm will be on how much they allocate the salt to the town. I have publicly gone after some people before into microphones. So I've been, you know, kind of learned up a little bit on the entire decision-making process. It's like, well, we have this much for the entire, okay? So we need to know how much. Fuck, I don't want to ask. I don't want to hear that. I just put it out. Okay, Joe Nardo would have told us the weather's coming, so let's go ahead and take care of that.

2:39:19Pat McAfee:They didn't listen to Joe? Well, the problem. That's interesting. Yeah, I thought they would have been the best in the fucking country. The most prepared. They didn't listen to De Nardo. You got hard heads, you know? Hard heads do these types of things. De Nardo was trying his best. De Nardo was trying his best. So nobody respected De Nardo? No, I think. No. What the hell? He was never long in the top. Okay? Long in the dop, it sounds like. No, yeah, he was deep in the dump, is what you mean. Oh, too deep. And you got to remember, these decisions are being made by like one or two people. Yeah.

2:39:52Pat McAfee:Okay, they don't necessarily do it all. And I think, you know, whenever they're making decisions around here in Indianapolis, I think our biggest issue is how cold it is. So like, obviously the snow sucks, but it's the coldness that just kind of freezes all the shit. So the wind chill, you know, that you don't think really would affect the water and the precipitation in Indy, because the wind chill is so cold, it feels like it automatically freezes. It's like, wow! Everything just kind of gets frozen. So the timing of the salt is a big deal. Need that before the ice. That'd be ideal. Because that's what, after the ice, we're just kind of making it a little bit more rough.

2:40:26Although I do appreciate you wait until there's about a thousand cars in the ditch on the highway and everywhere else. And then say, ah, fuck, we better go out and do something about this.

2:40:34Pat McAfee:We had two guys really do their thing out here in this parking lot today. Hell of a tag. They loved it. They fucking crushed it. But they, and this is a part of, I guess, business. And as you're growing, we asked them because we heard that the storm was coming and we didn't have anybody set up to do the plowing of the parking lot. So we called a couple companies, shout to Z. They come over, project the price, you know. They tell us the price. We go, all right, that seems very, very low, but also reasonable. Sweet. Let's go ahead and do this. It was two guys. They were not prepared for this parking lot.

2:41:05Pat McAfee:No. And we were going to pay them triple what they said they needed. They thought they were doing a big driveway. Yeah, these guys worked their ass off this morning, and we watched it for hours. Yeah. These guys, two shoves, basically. Two shovels, this entire thing. Yeah, right. Add a zero to it next time. They need to start doing a little bit more, and then build up and invest in plow. You need a plow, I think. Right. That'll help out.

2:41:28Darius Butler:That's the fault they gave us the wrong price. You paid them the price they told us.

2:41:31Pat McAfee:That's a ton of digs saying, hey, we don't need more money leaving this company. They charged us what they charged us, and it's like, I guess so, brother. But the work they put in was admirable. As is everybody that battles through this inclement weather to make special things happen. Shout out to football. Shout out to you, Coach B.A. Anything to say before we get out of here? Great show. Better one next week? Hell yeah. Shout out to you. Shout out to the Arians Family Foundation, also taking care of kids all over the country. I don't know about world, but definitely over the country. We appreciate you on this Giving Tuesday for giving us everything that you give us, Coach B.A.

2:42:02Pat McAfee:We love your energy. We love your spirit. We also love the fact that we get to do this for a living. We'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice that might change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me, team on three, one, two, three, team. Goodbye.

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