Texas Toast, Fantasy Murderers, Drake Maybe Back, Guess the Lines and MLB Playoffs With Cousin Sal

The Bill Simmons Podcast

Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal break down Week 4 NFL action, focusing on the high-scoring Lions-Panthers thriller and its implications for the NFC playoff

Key takeaways

• Lions defense consistently elevates opposing offensive stats, but Dan Campbell's late-game decision-making against Carolina drew heavy criticism despite the win.
• Bryce Young has climbed to at least a middle-tier quarterback level after strong performances against Houston and Carolina, though he still lacks elite receiving weapons.

Main topics

• Lions-Panthers game recap & NFC playoff projections
• Quarterback tier rankings & Bryce Young's development

Notable quotes

"Their defense is a Z-bound of the NFL. It makes everyone look great."

Conclusion

The episode delivers a sharp, betting-informed breakdown of Week 4 NFL trends while

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) you Speaker 2 (0:05) This is the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. Make every NFL week more rewarding with FanDuel Rewards Club. You heard me. Just bet like you normally would. Earn points in eligible settled bets, win or lose. Keep collecting points, level up, and unlock bigger rewards. So keep an eye on your Rewards Club progress and see what you can unlock. This is your Speaker 1 (0:27) most rewarding season ever, and it's with FanDuel. Speaker 2 (0:30) 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Get in a problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat, Connecticut. Speaker 2 (1:08) The Bill Simmons podcast. We are live on Netflix with cousin Sal and his kidney stones. I want to mention we have a new rewatch of us coming tomorrow night, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Which I guess could have doubled for Texans Cowboys today, but the 1974 one, not any of the remakes. So yeah, me and CR are breaking that one down. We made producer Craig watch it. It was super fun. All right. We just came off of probably the worst Sunday night football game in a while. And yet it was wildly entertaining and there were 900 yards and zero turnovers and lots of points. But it was kind of fun to watch Collinsworth and listen to him do a bad game. Speaker 1 (1:47) Right? Yeah, it's true. They kind of protected them a little bit with this Lions defense. I feel like they lucked into this schedule-wise. Like, the NFL, if they have to put a shitty NFC South team in primetime, tomorrow is the exception. But if they have to do that, the Lions defense is a fun option, right? So they're always going to be... They should always be the must-play for the NFC South teams because the D is going to make you look magnificent. Their defense is a Z-bound of the NFL. It makes everyone look great. It really does. Well, Speaker 2 (2:20) they almost blew the game. There was a lot of weird strategy stuff going on at various points. I was wondering which coach was good on both teams and what the hell was going on. But really weird near the end. Campbell, he's down 13. It's fourth and 10 inside the 15. Collinsworth's not talking about it. Goff just takes a delay game. Campbell doesn't call timeout for some reason. Fourth and 15. Then they get a false start. Now it's fourth and 20. And then they just go for it on fourth and 20 from the 25, which I would say has like a 3 % chance. You're basically hoping for a PI. They don't get it. They get the ball back, touchdown. They get the ball back again, but now they need six instead of three. They need seven, basically, instead of just being down three if they had kicked the field goal and they lose. And Collinsworth didn't want to hear the argument for it. It was weird. Speaker 1 (3:07) I'm just so medicated. I can't believe they stuck me with the Panthers, Bill. That's stuck in my craw there. Speaker 2 (3:14) No, there was seven minutes, ten seconds left. They were down 13. Speaker 1 (3:18) And like I said, Speaker 2 (3:18) they're Speaker 1 (3:18) getting pushed back. So in Campbell's mind, he's got to have at some point, it's not worth it, right? If they take false starts all the way to midfield, he's not going to throw a Hail Mary, right? So to me and you, we were on this text chain. I'm like, fourth and 20, just kick it. Yeah, go down 10 Speaker 2 (3:33) with seven minutes left. It's fine. Speaker 1 (3:34) And Anthony DeBondo, who is my co-host for Ringo Wiseguys, like they're not getting the ball back twice again. Right now, between that and what the Raiders did with the point, I wouldn't hire DeBondo to coach my dog to his bowl to eat at this point. But guess what? They got the ball back twice. I don't know. I don't know that it would have made a difference, but there's nothing wrong with being down 10 with seven minutes left. Speaker 2 (3:54) No, it was just a weird game in general. They ran out of Ted McMillan. kind of stuff to do by the third quarter. He just kept catching passes. It seemed like he was the only guy in the team. Anytime they needed to play, he made it. Bryce was really good. Bryce, it's not like the NBA where it would be, we'd be going, oh my God, who's going to sign him? Seven teams need a quarterback because they can just franchise tag them, which I just think is less fun. It would be fun if he was just a restricted or unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. But he's been really good now since the last couple games of last year. He didn't have Coker tonight. He didn't have Leggett, who they spent a high draft pick on. It was basically just McMillan and Hubbard and a bunch of guys you've never heard of. Speaker 1 (4:39) Yeah, I'm trying to look because I knew you would do this. But I stand by my the Lions defense makes everyone look good thing. Well, you might be right. I mean, I don't know. He wasn't that great against the... Browns. His yards were up there. I guess he was good against Atlanta. It was better than the last year's version of Bryce Young. What are the levels? Speaker 2 (4:56) Your guy today was great against Houston. He was just awesome. He has a Speaker 1 (5:01) name and it's Dak Prescott. Dak Prescott. Speaker 2 (5:04) Stafford in those last two drives when Stafford was bad for two and a half hours and then those last two drives showed up. My guy showed up. There's that high level. Then there's that middle level of they can do it every once in a while. depending on the situation, the defense. And I think Bryce is at least there. That's fine. And then there's that lower level of like that Jameis, Jacoby Brissett five interception masterpiece. We watch at Giant Stadium. Then there's a level below that that I think is just came more to Malik Willis and the Rutgers guy that came in today. Kind of like Mack. Whatever that Rutgers guy was. But yeah, so Bryce Young is at least in that second level now, which I don't think we would have said halfway through last year. Speaker 1 (5:47) I'll give you that. I mean, there's a lot. You put a lot of guys in that second level then. So you're going to put Bo Nix and Trevor Lawrence. I think Trevor Lawrence is Speaker 2 (5:55) top level for me now. Speaker 1 (5:56) He's top? All Speaker 2 (5:57) right. Yeah, I think he's been really good. The question is where Herbert is now because he's definitely not in the top level. It's probably in the middle level. And if you watch that game today, all his stats came in garbage time stuff. Big picture with Lions Panthers. Speaker 2 (6:15) I don't know where we're going to get. any competition for the seven NFC playoff teams. If you go with the three NFC West. Yeah. Speaker 2 (6:26) Probably your team in the NFC East would be the safe bet. The Bears, just because of Ben Johnson, it just seems like he's going to scotch tape and duct tape them to 10 games. So there's five. The NFC South has to send a playoff. They still have that rule. They do. There's six. So then that seventh spot comes down to... Speaker 2 (6:49) Philly, Detroit, Minnesota, who scored one touchdown in the first half. No, that's not the stat. Denver scored one touchdown in the first half. Minnesota has other terrible Speaker 1 (7:04) offensive stats. Speaker 2 (7:05) So I guess it would be Minnesota, but I Speaker 1 (7:08) don't feel good about Minnesota. We don't have to pull the plug on Minnesota yet. From my takeaway from this week, win or lose, I think we're... And, you know, injuries could really screw this up. I think there's three NFC West teams in the playoffs. Again, we're going to see that, right? And then, like you said... Well, when you say Speaker 2 (7:25) injuries screw that up, like San Francisco just loses guys every game. Like their fullback today got his knee... It seemed like his knee blown out or hyperextended or whatever. And it was like their 15th injury. It just doesn't matter. Speaker 1 (7:37) They just Speaker 2 (7:37) keep plowing head. You know, Mike Evans was out there with, what, broken ribs or broken bone in his back, whatever he had today. It just doesn't matter. Speaker 1 (7:44) Yeah, it's true. It doesn't matter. It didn't really matter last year, I guess, either. They had a shot to get the one seed in week 18. But yeah, I'm saying like if their quarterback doesn't go out, I would think NFC West is a lock for three teams. And I think the North will get two. And then I still think there's one in the East. I still think, and I'm not sure that it's my team. I know we'll talk about it. Speaker 2 (8:05) But if the North gets two, that's either Minnesota or Detroit. Because I think Green Bay is terrible, which we'll go into later. The interesting thing about the NFC is it feels like the three NFC West teams are the best teams. Yeah. And then maybe your team is fourth just because of how you can move the ball. You know, not only do you have the best offense in the league through four games, you have statistically one of the best offenses of this century through the first four games. I don't know if it's going to last, but that's, and this is without getting really anything from Pickens. Speaker 1 (8:37) It's points per drive. But if you watch the defense, it's, you know, the other side of the balls is magnificently bad. I mean, Joey Porter Jr. kind of helps out because I don't even think they tested him today in terms of targets. So that's Speaker 2 (8:49) good. Speaker 1 (8:49) How's his back? Speaker 2 (8:50) Does he use the Magnorma tech on his back? What was he doing? He's fine. Speaker 1 (8:53) Listen, they've sat him. They purposely sat him. Core power yoga to stretch out Speaker 2 (8:57) his back yesterday. I got some Speaker 1 (8:59) stuff for him. A few knees. Speaker 1 (9:02) Yeah, I don't know. We'll get into my team, but I just, this Vikings team, I guess, I guess we'll just gonna have to get used to them going like 14 and three and they're going to have like a dozen touchdowns on the year and that's going to be them. I have to go all the Speaker 2 (9:14) way down to my Vikings Miami notes. Speaker 2 (9:19) The Dolphins covered. Speaker 1 (9:21) Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:22) Thanks to Hawkinson going down on the one yard line, which feels like it needs a name. Who was the first person to do that? Brian Westbrook? I forget who invented that when we were all... It absolutely blew everyone's brains. I think it was Brian Westbrook. It was like on a Monday night. It had fantasy implications. It had gambling implications. All kinds of shit was in play. And he went down and the announcers were talking about how smart it was. And everybody else was like, what just happened? I feel like I've been shot by a cannon. Speaker 1 (9:52) Yeah. The Hawkinson. He should steal it, though. If he does it like two or three more times, we could call it the Hawkinson. And then it becomes like 100 years from now. No one's going to know what the hell it is, but it's going to sound like Parkinson, but or something like that. Well, they have a Parkinson to the ramps. But anyway, yeah, that would have been I guess he made the right move there. I mean, first of all, if you would have sat with somebody for those 4 p.m. games and bet on every game. They would have been for the first time ever. If like you had like a cousin in from like Barcelona or something and they're like, Oh, you never bet. Let's just bet these four, 4 p.m. games Eastern. They would be like, they would look at you after it's like, what the, you do this every week. Are you kidding me? Right. This is ridiculous. You tease Speaker 2 (10:33) the Broncos and they gave up a George Kittle half field touchdown with two minutes left for no reason. And at least Speaker 1 (10:39) that guy scored. There are some guys trying not to score because they don't want to go up 12 with two minutes left. Like, yeah, I just, and your wife stays with you like through all this. Yeah. It was a, it was a tumultuous 4 PM ending. Speaker 2 (10:53) Um, the funniest thing was it's not, I don't think Kyler Murray has a lot of touchdowns in him this year. Okay. So Hawkinson sliding down and costing him one of the few touchdowns he's going to have. He had to be bummed out. I also wrote down 20 million a year from Malik Willis now feels kind of hilarious. I've, I've unfortunately watched. Some dolphins. Is that what he's getting? I guess he is getting that much. I thought Speaker 1 (11:18) he Speaker 2 (11:18) got Speaker 1 (11:18) $70 million for three years. They paid like two guys and he was one of them. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:23) He's not that guy. I know he doesn't have a lot of weapons. Alex from Minneapolis sent us an email. He said he's a lifelong Vikings fan. Could it be more thrilled about his 4-0 start? Heard a stat that since the most recent playoff expansion, no team that started out 4-0 has missed the playoffs. Wow. But he asked, considering how putrid their offense is, Could the Vikings be you and Sal's first ever 4-0 cross-off team? Speaker 1 (11:48) Wow. Did you think Speaker 2 (11:49) about crossing them off at 4-0? Oh, Speaker 1 (11:51) that's Speaker 2 (11:51) really Speaker 1 (11:51) good. Speaker 2 (11:52) I'm going to say no. I value the four wins, but it did make me pause for a second because their offense is just abysmal. And I don't understand this blitzing thing, how it's going to work when they actually play a really good team. It's a gimmick. They're getting away with it, but I do not take the Vikings seriously. Speaker 1 (12:12) Like a Brock Purdy. I'm looking at their schedule. The problem is everyone who I thought was good is now maybe not so good. So there's a stretch there for them where... Yeah. A couple of weeks. They're at the lions versus the bills at the Packers versus the 49ers. Let's see. Let's see if they, what they do. I mean, those are good quarterbacks, so let's see how they get out of that. But yeah, man, I don't know. I mean, the dolphins, you can't learn anything from them. Do they have a game where they've scored more than 13 points? They do not. Speaker 2 (12:36) Okay. So Minnesota beats green Bay week one, 39 to 22 in the game that green Bay is up 22 to 10 and the entire game. completely craters on them. There's that weird drive that seemed like the game was fixed for Minnesota and all kinds of dumb shit. They beat Chicago in week two in the game with the 20 mile an hour wins where Chicago scores three points in the weather. It was just a perfect game for Minnesota. Last week, they beat Tampa barely in Baker Mayfield's last start. And now we know Tampa's terrible. And then they beat Miami by five today. So they're just going to be the team. And we know who it is every year. by usually November. And now we know that now they're probably going to go 13 and four and we will not wait to, uh, we will not be able to wait to bet against them in round one is how that is where we're heading with the Minnesota Vikings. I like their fan base. God bless them. They've had a lot of agony and pain over the year, but Kyler Murray is terrible. Like you're not, you're not doing anything. If he's your quarterback, it's hard for me to believe they traded McCarthy. That means he must be awful. Speaker 1 (13:39) And Speaker 2 (13:40) I don't really know what they do. Speaker 1 (13:43) I don't know what they do either. I don't know if they're looking for like a Sam Darnold type resurgence out of Kyla Murray. You know, Jefferson's out too. So I don't know if you want to give him a little, a little bit of a break there. His stats weren't awful, but again, it's against the dolphins. I mean, I guess we should be happy. They finally had positive yards in a matchup that they won. They're 4-0, but it is about the worst 4-0 team I've seen, I think. Speaker 2 (14:06) Kudos to them. Well, one of the weird things about this season so far. is we have how many 4-0 teams? Like more than usual, right? Minnesota, San Francisco, and Kansas City. So we still have three 4-0s. And then conversely, which is the part that gets super weird, we still have five 0-4 teams. Speaker 2 (14:31) And all the stats and trends of like week three, oh, and two teams watch out when they're underdogs. And then week, week four, oh, and three teams look out. None of them worked. The Texans are on four. They could have won three, maybe even four of those games. They had the lead in three of the four. They had the lead today against your team. Stroud was, I thought really good. They did everything you could have asked offensively from a team that can't run the ball at all. And then once again, I was texting you guys. They are the equivalent of Munoz on the Seattle Mariners. It's Speaker 1 (15:03) a Speaker 2 (15:03) great eight innings. And then fucking Munoz comes in and walks the first guy and starts giving up rockets. And you're like, this guy throws 101 miles an hour. How is he not getting a save? And the Texans have all these all pros, all these dudes all over the place. And this is two weeks in a row. And then you go back to week one, same thing, where all they had to do was just close out a drive and they win the game. They weren't able to do it in their own four. And this was supposed to be the strength of their team. Speaker 1 (15:30) Right. Three out of the four games that their defense played horribly and they still had a shot with the last drive and couldn't put the hammer down. And their Speaker 2 (15:39) offense got the go-ahead score to set up the defense to finish the game, which it then did not. Speaker 1 (15:45) Yeah. I love that you're invoking this Munoz guy. I really hope this goes through basketball. He's just... It's John Canipa. He's like Munoz. What? Speaker 2 (15:54) Let it go. I'm just going to compare Munoz to everything. It's your A.O. Speaker 1 (15:57) Keeper League. You lost six months ago. Speaker 2 (15:59) Trump's new legislative act. It's like Munoz. These midterms. Speaker 1 (16:04) Not voting for Munoz. Tell you that much. Speaker 2 (16:07) Well, so that Lassiter who dropped the game-winning pick in the first game. So that just single-handedly costed them a win. Then this game, he got torched. The stats were unbelievable. I think when they targeted him, he gave up 200 yards. Your guy, C.D. Lamb, had 17 catches. And had one of the best receiver games of this decade. And dominated them. And dominated them in the final drive when all Dak was doing was throwing to C.D. Lamb and it didn't matter. And he was just getting open and making plays. And I don't understand it. I don't know what happened to Pickens this year. If you have them on a fantasy team, you're not doing backflips. It's very C.D. Lamb-centric, but it's working. Speaker 1 (16:45) I love it. I mean, this is maybe how it should have been last year. But not just one of the greatest. 17 for 189. Is he the greatest? Wide receiver you've ever seen? I'll hang up and listen to your response off the air. Speaker 2 (16:57) No, but he's thrown his hat in the ring this year for receiver of the year, right? Speaker 1 (17:02) It's good. I'll take it. I'm not going to overreact at all, I promise. But let's just split the heartbreaking results, right? We lost to the Ravens. We couldn't lose this one to the Texans, too. And, you know, like I said, Joey Porter is a positive. The defense still lets up. We have guys on the field that shouldn't be. But the fact that we had lost like four years worth of road games when we were down double digits in the second half and we kicked that streak to the curb, that's nice. That's fine. I'll take that. Speaker 2 (17:29) What do you think your odds are to make the playoffs? Speaker 1 (17:32) I saw it already. It's the same as the Eagles. It's about even, right? Minus 110 or something. It jumped up Speaker 2 (17:37) because of that Detroit loss today. You're now minus 132 to make the playoffs. There's juice against you. Plus 112 to miss it on Fandle. Speaker 1 (17:46) The bet Speaker 2 (17:47) of the year was the Chargers a week ago. Yeah. When we did that, they were like minus 650 to miss it and just put those with two other terrible teams and you have the makings of a parlay. I might have actually done this when I was in Boston, but now they're like minus 1,200. Speaker 1 (18:01) There are five 0-4 teams you said? And two of them are the Titans. Two of them we crossed off already, the Titans and the Dolphins. The other three are the Texans, the Bucs, which we won't cross off because they're in the South divisions, right? Texans, Bucks, and Chargers. And Speaker 2 (18:17) the Speaker 1 (18:17) Chargers. I think we're closest to Chargers than any other team right now. I would might, you could convince me to do it right now this week. Speaker 2 (18:25) I have a different cross-off team for this week. Speaker 1 (18:28) Really? That's not 0-4. All right. Speaker 2 (18:30) I think it's the Arizona Cardinals. Speaker 1 (18:33) Oh, yeah. Speaker 2 (18:34) If the goal of the cross-off, and so far we've crossed off Miami and Tennessee, and Eduardo is doing a really cool Instagram post of it where it's like a notebook and the teams are right. And so we need a third team. what are the odds Arizona is going to make the playoffs in that division? You would need, I think two of the quarterbacks to get hurt. They have this crazy schedule coming up. Um, they won that first game against the chargers and we went, Oh my God, Arizona, what are, what did we miss? And then we talked that day. I think we talked on the pod. this could be one of the ones we look back at like around week 12 and go, oh, that was the crazy result. Yep. And it was a crazy result because we thought the charges were good and the charges suck. And the Cardinals threw us off their scent for a week and they've lost every game ever since. Speaker 1 (19:23) I'm fine with that. I mean, they had 270 total yards. I started this. We started talking about how the NFC West, it's almost a foregone conclusion. They're going to have three playoff teams. So they're not going to have four. You know, to me, it's like they went to Trey McBride like 15 times in the red zone and couldn't get it done against the Giants. So, and the ref is telling them to F off multiple. I think they're telling the ref telling them to F off. I think we could tell them to F off. We could cross them off if you want. Speaker 2 (19:50) I mean, we're on Netflix. We can say, He said, fuck you twice to Chairman Pryde, the Speaker 1 (19:54) end Speaker 2 (19:55) zone judge. Speaker 1 (19:56) And he actually did. Incredible Speaker 2 (19:58) video. Like, does that guy get fired? What happens to him? Speaker 1 (20:02) He's got to get a talking to, Bill. You can't throw an F-bomb. Mike, this guy Speaker 2 (20:06) thought he was in a Tarantino movie. Speaker 1 (20:08) What are you doing? Take it easy, Scarface. Come on. Just let us know when the quarter's over. Speaker 2 (20:15) Yeah, I would have the Cardinals. So you agree with that? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Speaker 1 (20:20) Okay. Speaker 2 (20:21) They played the Giants today. It is weird. Speaker 1 (20:24) We're taking them even though they beat the Chargers, a team we won't cross off. But we are. I'm game. That's fine. Well, Speaker 2 (20:30) here's why I don't want to cross off the Chargers. And we should talk that. By the way, the Cardinals gave up a walk-off pick six that if you tease the Cardinals. So sorry. It murdered all the teases. That seemed like one of the safest ones. A hilarious game in general, though. Jameis is just throwing it. He's just. It's almost like he's peaked past being where Jameis was when he was 30-30, Jameis. And now he's an erratic, older version of the same Jameis. And you just don't know what's going to happen play-to-play. It's magnificent. Speaker 1 (21:00) I love the attitude. I think that's the best version we could ask for him. Like 18 for 29, three touchdowns, two interceptions, press conference during the week. He's freaking out on the reporters. They're like, Speaker 2 (21:12) you're the backup. So as a backup, you're doing it. And he's like, hey. Speaker 1 (21:15) I'm not the backup anymore. Stop calling me the backup. Right. You're insulting me. As soon as Jackson Dart gets that knee fixed up, it's like Rosie O'Donnell saying, stop calling me a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live. I'm the host of this show. Speaker 2 (21:27) I'm Speaker 1 (21:27) hosting the show right now. Speaker 2 (21:28) Who knows if Speaker 1 (21:29) he'll ever stop fishing. But that's it. So that's Jameis in a nutshell. I like watching it. Speaker 2 (21:35) I asked Noah, who's been working with The Ringer for a while, who's a diehard Giants fan. I was like, yeah, I know you watch this entire game. I had it on and as ATVs are going away, like what were your takeaways? And he said, I don't understand how we've picked in the top 10 for an entire decade. And Malik neighbors is our only blue chip player, right? It's Speaker 1 (21:56) a Speaker 2 (21:56) pretty good take. Everyone was talking about how awesome and loaded their defense. And now Burns got hurt. Speaker 1 (22:02) But Speaker 2 (22:02) all these guys they had that are allegedly just a nightmare to go against, and oh my God, they're front seven. And their defense stinks. And then you look on the other side, and it's basically just neighbors. And it is a little weird that they've had all those picks. They Speaker 1 (22:16) got neighbors over 100 yards, which was nice, right? Because you don't want your blue chipper four for 38 every week, right? So Jameis was good enough to get him to that point. But yeah, you're right. Now the haters are going to be like, first place. They're going to... you know, Trey McBride us with the fuck you is I think. Speaker 2 (22:33) Well, first place and they're over under, I think I've Fando is still seven or less, right? Is it seven and a half? Speaker 1 (22:40) Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what it was. Hold on. I could, I could look at it here for wins. Yeah. They're updated. When total is seven and a half is the, I mean, they have, they have a million that you could bet, but yeah, over plus one 15. Speaker 2 (22:51) So I'm not willing to officially cross off the Cardinals yet until we talk about this. No, no. I'm 95 % there, but let's talk about Seahawks chargers really quick. Herbert just got pounded for two straight hours. It was 27 to six at one point. He had 26 pass yards in the first half. They started garbage timing it up near the end and they did something really interesting. They were down 21. I had, I was on the treadmill watching four games at once. So I was really concentrating because his treadmill makes everything go slower. And they had like an eight or nine minute drive down 21 where they're running the ball. You would have thought they were up three and they put this long drive together against an increasingly disinterested Seahawks defense. And Herbert actually did get his mojo going a tiny bit. And then they came back and got it in a situation where they lose by seven. And, you know, this game was seven or a lot of markets all week. So they got the push. I just think he looks like a complete mess. They showed him on the sideline a couple of times and he just had a different look. He used to have kind of that kind of glazed. You know, I'm from Pacific Northwest. I kind of have this vibe to me. He just looked beaten down. And in general, when you looked at the sideline with them. That was the only team I saw the whole day that seemed disconnected, unhappy, like where you watch these games, you're like, ah, there's something wrong with that team. It was the only one out of all of them. And it's not like everything was going great for everybody. But that team looks, I would say broken would be the word I would use. Speaker 1 (24:30) He looks like he's dating the Frankenstein version of Madison Beer. He's in the bride Speaker 2 (24:36) part too? Speaker 1 (24:37) It's a Speaker 2 (24:37) skin burned off Speaker 1 (24:38) in a terrible accident. That game sucked. Yeah, it was awful. First of all, it seems slow on the treadmill because there were 280 penalty yards. There were 30 penalties in that game. It's like 15 or 17 for one and 13 another. Yeah. Speaker 2 (24:51) Seattle had 14 penalties and somehow didn't lead the team in penalties. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 (24:57) Insane. And then now like the linemen who this was supposed to be last year's excuse, Joe Altam or Sean Slater injured again. Speaker 2 (25:04) Yeah. And Speaker 1 (25:05) they're always injured. They're always injured together. It's like two seniors in high school calling sick. Like, oh, did they go to the beach again? Like, why do they always have to be injured together? So, I don't know, man. Speaker 2 (25:15) In Speaker 1 (25:15) the middle of their line just collapses. Seattle Speaker 2 (25:18) was just pushing through the middle, which was the thing I was worried about all year. Their receivers don't always make plays. It feels like they started to give up on the rookie running back. They started playing Mitchell more, especially in the second half. Um, I said last week it felt 2,000 blood sugar to me. Definitely feels that way. I wonder with Harbaugh, because we found out last week, we theorized, could he go to college? But he can't because of the NCAA rule violations. Right. I just feel like his MO is to get out of this. I could see him resigning or saying he's going through physical stuff or whatever. House has been calling him Grandpa Harbaugh and I'm not a wise guy. He just looks like he's out there. He looks like the last two years of Biden, like the clips of Biden just kind of wandering Speaker 1 (26:10) around. He looks like he's Speaker 2 (26:14) out of it. DJ Mikey Mack is just prowling up the sidelines. He looks like he's wearing his John Holmes Boogie Nights outfit. And it doesn't seem like anybody talks to him. They just seem like a mess. There was stuff after the game, like there's anonymous Chargers quotes coming out. So I have my eye on that. That's the only reason I wonder if they're not a cross-off, because what if they fire Harbaugh and have like a resurgence with the new interim coach or something? Speaker 1 (26:40) I mean, the schedule is still brutal. It is. In Speaker 2 (26:43) the Speaker 1 (26:43) next six weeks, it's Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans, Ravens, your team. You know, the Niners are in there too. Did you see the press conference after the game? They asked him. The Speaker 2 (26:53) vote of confidence for Mike McDaniel? Yeah. I don't know if he Speaker 1 (26:56) heard the question or he's just so spacey at this. Maybe he's dreaming of college, going back to college, like you said. But they had to ask him a second time. He's like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. We're going to do some things. We're going to figure it out. Yeah, we'll do it. Okay, so his job is in jeopardy? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. It's an all-around mess there. Speaker 2 (27:16) Yeah, because the thing with him was always he didn't do one side of the ball or the other. He was like a culture motivation, um, you know, alpha dog type guy that would come in and these guys, he was just like a leader of men. Speaker 1 (27:30) And Speaker 2 (27:31) maybe he's just not anymore. Sometimes that just goes away. And if you don't have that other thing to fall back on, but you know, everyone's going to make excuses for Herbert over and over again. He had two picks in a, in a strip sack today. Um, he just looks terrible. And there was a lot of garbage time stuff, but, um, I don't know. I did my fan. Let's talk Speaker 1 (27:51) your team. I mean, you're, you know, no, we're Speaker 2 (27:54) going Speaker 1 (27:54) to do that after the break. I'm just saying nobody has to, no, nobody has to be bad forever. Right. And we saw that with your, your guy. So maybe, I know, but Speaker 2 (28:01) the difference with my team was that they could have, and probably should have been Seattle on week one and just torch the game in the fourth quarter and started throwing the ball away. They beat Pittsburgh in week two. Right. Then they sucked last week, but you know, they've at least shown something over the course of the season. Chargers were only good against the Speaker 1 (28:21) Bills for the first two and a half quarters. Right. And then Speaker 2 (28:24) turned the ball over a bunch. My fantasy murderer all-stars through four weeks. Yeah. Herbert, I think has to be the QB, right? Drake May was in there until today, but he was probably on everybody's bench, so he might still be murdering him. Yeah. I think Saquon's the running back. Good. Speaker 2 (28:43) Egbuka, Jefferson, and Harrison, which two would you take? Speaker 1 (28:47) Well, you're not counting injuries. I mean, A.J. Brown is the killer. Speaker 2 (28:51) I can't count the... Like, I can't blame... To me, it's worse the guys that either... are playing and not doing it or are sort of playing, get hurt, come back, then they're hurt again. So maybe a Gluke and Harrison is fair. Speaker 1 (29:06) Jefferson went earliest out of those three, right? Yeah. Speaker 2 (29:10) And then Loveland Speaker 1 (29:11) has to be the tight Speaker 2 (29:12) end. Speaker 1 (29:13) Oh, yeah. Yeah, I didn't even check. What did he Speaker 2 (29:16) do Speaker 1 (29:16) today? Speaker 2 (29:17) Nothing. I've given up on him completely. I didn't Speaker 1 (29:20) even Speaker 2 (29:20) look. Speaker 1 (29:21) Yeah. But Speaker 2 (29:22) that has to be. And then Texans defense. Speaker 1 (29:25) Which was going, Speaker 2 (29:26) you know, in auctions, people were going three, four, five bucks for them. And then probably, I mean, really everybody on Philly. That's Speaker 1 (29:34) good. I have all that. Everyone you named, I have them somewhere sprinkled on my six or seven rosters I have. Speaker 2 (29:41) we're going to take a break and we're going to talk about your team in a little more detail and my team, because it's rare that both of our teams win in the same way. We should Speaker 1 (29:49) have done this at four o'clock. Why are we making it hard on ourselves? I know why we get to Speaker 2 (29:53) save her more. We Speaker 1 (29:54) had to wait to lose a insane money on that 4. PM games, but all right, you're right. It's better. We're gonna take a break. We'll be back. This episode Speaker 2 (30:02) is brought to you by Michelob ultra, the official beer sponsor of the NBA. legitimately my favorite beer. I was drinking them at Fenway Park actually recently. It's tip-off and I can't wait to see in person. The best thing for me is when the new guys come in the league and you get to go check them out for the first time. Like when Wemby came in a couple years ago. We have a