John Middlekauff (2:54)

What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? John Middlecock 3Now podcast on this beautiful, awesome Fugazi Friday. Or as I like to call it, Fugazi Friday. Hopefully everyone's having a Great day. Better than Carson Wentz and the Vikings who just got destroyed. Did they make the wrong choice? I think we know the answer to that. The Sam Darnold situation, the J.J. mcCarthy situation, they won 14 games. I don't think they're going to win seven this year. So the Chargers absolutely throttle them and we will dive in a little of that game. I'll give a couple thoughts on the crazy story today about Chauncey Billups and.

Stucky (3:40)

The.

John Middlekauff (3:43)

I don't even know the mob meets the NBA. I mean I, this is right up my alley. I love that. And then a couple just couple fugazi's that a television show I watched just got to be the biggest fraud thing I've ever seen in my life. And then I attempted to do hot yoga this morning because I saw Lane Kiffin who looks just physically so good. I'm like, I want to be skinny like that. And he just does hot yoga every day. So I attempted it for the first time in 15 years and I just, I all say right now is didn't go well. But we'll talk about that coming up. And Stucky will join us as well. So we'll go over the NFL games and a couple big college games. So Stucky will join us from the Action Network and, and yeah. So you guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you may. Listen, Spotify, Apple, they got you covered. YouTube. All of our content is up on YouTube. We, we go live every single primetime game. So we went live after this football game. We went live after. We'll go live after the Sunday night game. Aaron Rodgers taking on the Packers Monday night game. We get Mahomes and the Chiefs. So never miss a thing. Make sure you subscribe to that as well. But first, you know, I got to tell you about my friends. You know I got to tell you about my partners. The official ticketing app of this podcast. Do you want to go to one of these games? I was watching before I walked in here, the warriors, they're actually losing to the Nuggets. Nuggets look pretty good. But you want to go to an NBA game, college basketball is right around the corner. I just saw that a dude that played in the G League for two years is now playing at Louisville. So if you want to go to one of these college basketball games. Tom Izzo, Bill Self, not happy. You want to go to the World Series. You, you an LA Dodger fan. You're not hosting it, but they will be there game three and game four. So if you want to check Those out obviously concerts, comedy shows, my friends at Game Time have you covered. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use the code John for 20 off your first purchase Terms apply again create an account, redeem the code John for 20 off down the game Time app today, last minute take his lowest price guaranteed 37 to 10. That was a complete massacre. The Chargers just obliterated the Minnesota Vikings. I can't. I like the Chargers tonight, but I don't know if I expected that. That was, that was wild. And I think it all gets down to this is the Minnesota Vikings drafted a quarterback really high. It happens a lot, right? Teams all over the league since the history of the sport have drafted quarterbacks high. Here's the problem. If that guy is not good, you're screwed every once in a while. We saw with the 49ers, they drafted Trey Lance really high. And the expectations when you're a team like that 49er team or this Minnesota team that just won 14 games is a lot different than when Trevor Lawrence got drafted to the Jags. Kyler Murray got drafted to Arizona. There aren't any expectations. The team sucked. JJ McCarthy inherited a 14 win team. He did not play a game last year because he was injured two games into his career after eight quarters and he played one good quarter out of the eight. He's injured with the, I don't know, most severe ankle injury we've ever seen. Who knows if he's coming back yet. They didn't have a contingency plan. Right. I don't blame the Vikings front office or Kevin o' Connell from going, you know what, we're going to roll with J.J. mcCarthy. It was risky, but I do understand the logic of we believe in this guy. We think he's going to be healthy, we're going to. We have a good enough nucleus around him. We just need him to kind of mold in again. Risky based on your quarterback play last year the guy threw 35 touchdowns and a playoff level team was very interested in him and then obviously signed him and Sam Darnold's excelling and that no one would argue that if you gave their general manager and Kevin o' Connell the opportunity of a redo, it's like, here's your mulligan. They would immediately take it and they would have paid him more money than Seattle to keep him in Minnesota. We all agree there. It's. No one's even arguing that. That was a conversation a couple weeks ago. That's that argument's over. If they could have a redo, they would have kept Sam Darnold. But they didn't and they went with J.J. mcCarthy. I think the mistake they made is not having a contingency plan for a guy that had proven he couldn't stay healthy. He'd only play in the league one year, wasn't even possible to play a game because he ripped up his knee and now he's injured. We don't even know if he's any good. So it's like Carson Wentz, who. That was tough to watch. I mean, it really was. Not that I'm the biggest Carson Wentz guy. Clearly he's not a very good player, though. I'm not necessarily judging him on the night, but he was getting throttled on a, on a play in, play out basis. By the end of that game. You're like cringing when he's getting hurt. His shoulder, his finger, his knees, his ankles. You're like, this guy's going to get killed. So obviously JJ McCarthy is going to come back, get thrown into that and have no chance. It's. It's probably going to look worse. And the reality is when you go with one of these young quarterbacks, especially coming from these powerhouse programs, it's actually, you could argue way harder to judge a kid when he's playing at some of those peak Bama teams or the peak Ohio State teams or the team JJ McCarthy played on one of the most talented college football teams in recent memory. They literally had a pro at every position. So it's like, is that going to translate? His advantage every game in college was, I have better players than you, and unless you are equal, which maybe happened once a season at best, you have the same talent we have. Probably, given that my team is so good and this used to happen to Saban, we have the advantage. So then you try to translate that to the pros. It's all a guess. And this gets back to Sam Darnold, like there's no guessing. We had seen a year with him with the team and him excel. Now if you want to go, well, John, what happened in that Lions game and what happened in that Rams game, I'll be the first to agree. Wasn't pretty. Especially the Lions game. He was really bad. The Rams game was him and the coach, but it was bad. But he got you there. He put you in a position of dominating and being in the MVP conversation, helping you win 14 games. That in itself is an accomplishment. I've always said this about Tua up until this year, where he obviously does not look as good as he has in years past. But a couple years ago, like, listen to his value. You got no shot in the playoffs and you got no shot in a cold game. But over the course of 17 games, if your team's relatively healthy and he's starting like, you're going to win eight to 10 games. And there is value in that for a franchise like Miami, if every single year can win nine, 10 games, just be in the playoff mix, what's that worth? $30 million a year. Not what they gave him, but there was financial value in that. When you could do Sam Darnold, make huge plays, big arm, and you could have said, well, listen, am I going to judge him just strictly on those two games and going that's what he is. When I have the long body of work of him winning big games throughout that season. And I think they overthought it and I think they got caught into, well, we drafted this guy, we got to make it work. And let's be clear, that 2024 draft could derail Kevin O' Connell big time. Because not only did they take J.J. mcCarthy, which turns out does not look great at all. And honestly, if I'm a betting man, I think when he comes back, it gets way worse. Like, you think Carson wentz Looks bad, JJ McCarthy can look worse. They also took Dallas Turner, who I started texting around my buddies in the NFL. I'm like, what do you think? What do you think? Because we're on the three and out text change, talking about him like, this guy any good? And I got a lot of, you know, I had a buddy compare him to Travis Hunter in the sense of it's not that Travis Hunter is a bad player, he just got overdrafted. And that trade, he's. It's going to be really hard for him to live up to it. Well, Dallas Turner was drafted two picks ahead of Jared Verse and let's face it, Jared versus one of the better young players in the league. Now you say, John, you're just playing Monday morning quarterback. Well, yeah, I am. Their job is to get it right. Our job as fans, as people to talk about league is to just talk about the current situation, what's going on. They didn't get it right. And if they could do it over, I think they would have to. They would not take JJ McCarthy and obviously they would rather have Jared Verse than Dallas Turner. And those were really powerful picks because they had two first round picks and it looks like they didn't get it right. And now their team, because of injuries, is a shell of itself. You go, well, of course that would happen any team if they got injured. Well, I'm watching the Chargers, who have a million freaking injuries. First series of the game, you see Derwin James, who might have been the second chase down Carson Wentz. You're like, God, Derwin James looks incredible. Al Michaels comes on. You know, he's not quite throwing fastballs anymore, but, you know, still trying. He's like, you know, Derwin James hasn't missed a snap this season. Next series, pulls the hamstring or ankle or whatever happens, just out like the Chargers, on any given moment, they kind of feel like the Niners. They feel like the Ravens. Someone goes down, they disappear. Doesn't matter, because they got the quarterback right now. Finding Justin Herbert is not easy, but when they went into the season with J.J. mcCarthy, Carson Wentz wasn't even on the team. Remember, they signed him basically the first week of the season. They had all these other guys. It's like, you didn't have a legit backup plan. Like, why didn't you? Even if it's just. Listen, it's not easy to find backup quarterbacks, but there were several with a lot of playing experience. Why do you give one year, $10 million to Garter Minchu or Mac Jones or someone that's like, hey, worst case scenario, this guy started a lot of games. That wasn't the case. They had, like, Sam Howell, then they have Carson Wentz, and now they have the situation where they went from 14 wins, 14 wins last year, and we're awesome. I mean, we're freaking. One of the best stories of the league. They created this Sam Darnold resurgence, and now they're not even going to win half that. And, like, I'm not acting like the GM and Kevin o' Connell don't know what they're doing. They've been good, but that's the past. When you look in the future, you go, you got a disaster on your hands. You have a major problem because your quarterback situation is in major flux. You've missed on some draft picks, and like most teams, like, you're just going to get injured throughout the season. So your quarterback position, where last year could elevate you. You're not even sure if he could function if you were fully healthy. So if I'm a lot, if I'm a. If I'm a Vikings fan, I go, how did this happen so fast? And the answer is pretty easy. They made a decision while it was logical, it didn't work and it backfired and now they found themselves in shambles because next week, you know, they play the Lions. So it's like you're going to put Carson Wentz out there at 50% or you're going to throw JJ McCarthy finally for the first time in seven weeks since he rolled his ankle. Because I'll tell you this, I like the Lions in that game. And all of a sudden you look up and you're three and five and your season's just falling apart and you're getting lapped in your division. And the Lions, Jared Goff for years moving forward, the Packers, Jordan Love for years moving forward, even the Bears. I mean, Caleb's obviously better than anything that the Vikings have, but it just, it shows you how fast things can change and decisions in the NFL and it gets thrown around a lot. Like you're just saying this because of what we know now. It's like, yeah, but their job is to get it right in the first place. And they had a lot of conviction on it. They've told us how awesome they thought this player was. Hell, they believed because they let Sam Darnold go when they had a for sure thing, a guy that even if they had to pay and couldn't build up the rest of the roster, they would have known that they could have won double digit games for several years moving forward might not have been 14, but it would have been nine or 10 minimum for the next couple of years. And then you're in the playoff mix and this isn't a seven game series, it's one game. Anything can happen. I saw Eli Manning win multiple Super Bowls as wild card. I think the first one they won in oh seven, they went nine to seven. So it's football's not basketball where when the playoffs start you're like, yeah, OKC is probably going to win it. It's not baseball. It's like, yeah, the Dodgers probably going to win it. Anything can happen in football. I mean, the Rams were a play away from knocking down the Eagles. Then the Eagles went to blow out Washington, blow out the Chiefs. Football's weird that way and it does feel like they screwed this up. And if I'm a Vikings fan, that hurts because how awesome last year was and really how awesome a couple years ago were with Kirk Cousins and seeing how good this coach can be. Like your coaching staff's good. We know Kevin o' Connell's good. I do think he's a little overrated in the way he's talked about because I don't know, he's never won a playoff game. He's been in two and favored in both and lost them both. But like, I'm not trying to act like he's some scrub. He's, he's really good. And I'd say 80 to 85% of the teams in the league would take them without hesitation. Obviously Flores and the infrastructure there is good, but as an organization, from a decision making standpoint, they made a bold move and it blew up in their face. And on the flip side, and listen, this, I think, Kamani Vidal, I think is how you say his name. The running back from Troy is a good example that a team can scout a player. I knew nothing about this guy. I saw his name a couple of weeks ago once. They had some injuries and I remember texting a friend of mine in the league. I'm like, who is this guy? They're like, oh, it's just little running back from Troy. I'm like, what's his deal? They're like, ah, really productive player. I didn't really do much research. And then tonight I'm watching him, I start Googling them like, what's this guy's deal? And he was the Sun Belt player of the year in 2003. He ran for over 1600 yards. He had like 14 rushing touchdowns. He then went to the combine and ran a 4, 4, 5. I'm like, how this guy end up in the sixth round? Well, he's like 5, 7. And I text a college director, I said, how did this guy like not end up at a bigger school? They're like, oh, he's probably three inches away from being the starting running back at Georgia. And listen, sometimes in football you get discriminated against when you're a little slower at certain positions. When you're a little shorter at certain positions. There's a reason Ashton Genty and guys like this, you know, aren't at Texas, usc, Oregon or Ohio State out of high school because they're not that big. Now that doesn't determine whether you're going to be good because I'm watching tonight going well, that translates. He's breaking tackles, he's running. And that's back to back weeks of him playing pretty well. I would imagine if Joe Ortiz and Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman knew what they had because they drafted this guy last year in the sixth round. Played sparingly as like a backup. Didn't, didn't even rush for 200 yards. But you watch them these last two weeks because Hampton's injured and obviously Najee's out for the season. That the chargers don't spend $10 million on Najee Harris. They would just come into the season with, maybe get a way cheaper veteran running back Hampton and this guy. But even in the NFL, when you know a guy, you draft a guy, he's been on your team, you don't know what you have till you. Till he plays. And that would be the argument the Vikings would say, like, we were pretty confident. I text someone who has been on multiple teams with Carson Wentz, I'm like, does he look good in practice? Like, yeah, he actually looks pretty good in practice. And sometimes you see on an individual player, like, God, you see the physical skills, and then there's just times where the ball's flying all over the place and his accuracy kind of shows up. But Vidal is a good example of. And this is what makes the NFL so awesome, is like, you could convince me he rushes the rest of the season for 900 yards. No one's even been talking about this guy. Hell, the Chargers didn't even believe that much in him because they drafted a running back in the first round. They gave another guy $10 million, and over the next several weeks, he could rush for 500 yards in like a month. And that's how it happened. That's how fast it happens. And tonight, listen, the one thing. If I wanted to defend Minnesota's overall effort, making a team as the season goes on, travel a long way on Thursday night, it's borderline criminal activity. I had to Google it because I've never made the flight from Los Angeles to Minnesota. Chad GPT said depending on the wind, patters can be anywhere from like 3 hours and 45 minutes to 4 hours. It's a long flight on Thursday night. Like, what are we doing? Why don't the Chargers play, like, the Raiders or, I don't know, some team on the west coast for this game? How do you force Minnesota to. To do this? I get it. Because last year the Chargers were a playoff team. Last year, Minnesota was a playoff team. It's a good matchup on paper. And what do they want Amazon to be? A bigger partner.

Stucky (21:05)

Why?

John Middlekauff (21:05)

Because Amazon's got a lot of money, can't afford to pay a lot of money for the games. They want them involved. Don't blame the NFL at all. But one thing's clear when you watch games like this is how little, and I mean little, you know what the NFL gives about player safety, about player concern. They don't care at all. It's just about, oh, Vikings, Chargers. And turned out to be a terrible game because the travel is absolutely insane. And you know, Herbert, he had a pick on a ball that was tipped. He had another pick, I think on the first series of the game that he got extremely lucky that Isaiah Rogers is. I mean there's a reason most guys play DB and not wide receiver and typically they don't have good hands. And he dropped a ball that was literally thrown right to him that most wide receivers would have made with their eyes closed in one hand. And so he got lucky there. That should have been, it would have been a pick six. But overall he just watched him make plays tonight. It was just, I mean the difference in the game because both teams got injuries everywhere and one team has a high level quarterback and the other team has no quarterback. And you look up in the final score is one team wins by 27 points because that's what the league comes down to in situations where both teams elite coaching staffs, both teams a bunch of high end players who a lot of them are hurt all over the place. And one team is a top five quarterback in the league and the other team has, you know, you could argue the Minnesota Vikings have one of the worst quarterback situations in the NFL right now potentially. And if J.J. mcCarthy sucks, which based on the eight quarters we've seen them and factoring in injuries, you would just have to say it's going to be a major problem. I don't know how it gets much worse than their situation. Like, are they already in the. Do we draft another quarterback? Do we run this back if it stays ugly and just try to sign some version of Daniel Jones? Like I don't give Minnesota crap for letting Daniel Jones, who I think they tried to sign this offseason for a similar number as Indy. But what did he know? Well, I know you want to start JJ McCarthy. I know I can beat out Anthony Richardson, he made the right choice. But again, I think if they could do that one over, they would have been like, well, just here's one year. $25 million will make you the starter. But you can't do that. There are no mulligans in the draft. In free agency, once you make a decision, you made it and that's what you live with. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. Hard Rock Bet is the only legal sports book whenever you're in Florida. And it's also live in Arizona, Ohio, Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and Colorado. Coming soon to more states near you. You know that last week four top 10 teams lost and in this new college football landscape, anything can happen every single weekend. So here's the thing. Get in on the chaos right now. Sign up for Hard Rock Bet and if your first five dollar bet wins, you'll score 150 in bonus bets on top of your winnings. Download the Hard Rock Bet now. Plus today and tomorrow on Hard Rock Bet, you can get a college football profit boost for the games. Boost your college football parlay so your bet pays extra. Payable in bonus bets. Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe in Florida. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC in all other states. Must be 21 plus physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida? Call 1-88-Admt-IT in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants to help, call 1-809-with-IT gambling problem call 1-800- GAMBLER Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee.

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Katie Couric (26:20)

Visit energytrust.org on the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders, who is 84 years old, has spent 34 years in Congress and he can still pack a rally with people a quarter of his age.

John Middlekauff (26:37)

Denver, 34,000 people come out. Salt Lake City, 20,000 people. You know, huge turnouts. People are really dissatisfied about the status quo.

Katie Couric (26:47)

His Fighting Oligarchy tour with AOC and other young progressives has become a movement. But is his message too far to the left? Well, he certainly doesn't think so.

John Middlekauff (26:58)

Does that sound like a radical idea, Katie? Is that too far left for you?

Katie Couric (27:01)

Okay, okay, wait. I get your point, Bernie. We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course, the government shutdown, not to mention the current state of the Democratic Party.

John Middlekauff (27:15)

To me, the failure of the Democratic Party has been an unwillingness to recognize the real issues.

Katie Couric (27:21)

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search next question with Katie Couric. And listen now.

Hell in Heaven Podcast Narrator (27:29)

In the new podcast Hell in Heaven. Two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder. Not once people went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Ann Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality.

John Middlekauff (28:09)

They lose it.

Stucky (28:10)

They actually lose it.

Hell in Heaven Podcast Narrator (28:11)

They sort of went nuts until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

John Middlekauff (28:35)

Okay, I, I did want to dive into a couple fugazi because the big story today was this mob NBA arrest. 30, 35 people. And just the the headlines and people breaking down the indictments of Chauncey Billups. Terry Rozier has been under investigation for a long time, so that is not a new story. And there are a lot of different people with different opinions from politics to sports. From everything I've read, this investigation has been going on for a long time, right? For years. And today was a big day in the investigation of people getting arrested. And to me, the headline was Chauncey Billups, who To me, two things really stand out. I've been saying this for years. The epidemic of tanking in the NFL or in the NBA. There are several negative aspects of it. Obviously you never want your product to not matter and to have teams just literally not try. That is not Good. But I do think when you do it for so long, people involved in the sport become numb to who cares? This game doesn't matter. So players and coaches, if they're involved in that and they do somehow have ties to the mob or just willing to make some bets on the side, which is crazy because I saw someone tweet, Chauncey Billups has been making a million dollars plus in his job since 1997. So Chauncey billups and I thought Charles Barkley did a great job. They were arguing about it on Inside the NBA on espn, which just, it's, it's refreshing seeing them on espn, like they, they did not change at all. And Kenny is like talking about being a gambling addict and all this. It's like, listen, I've been gambling for 20 years. And Charles was like, listen, you can't be worth $160 million and try to do some prop bets for your buddies and call it a gambling addiction. You're a, you're an idiot. And to me, Tara Rozier, if that's true, like, he, he's making these guys 150 grand. He's made $160 million in his career. Like, you are a top like shelf idiot. And the Chauncey Billups thing to me is kind of complicated because by all accounts, like, everyone loves this guy and it's like he's involved with the mob. It almost feels like to me, as someone who just watched a lot of mob movies, you go, what does the mob have on him? Did he own money? Which you go, God, Chauncey's pretty rich. So it's like, how much would he have to owe them to not be able to pay it back? Because, you know, some people, it's like, hey, if John Middlekopf owed the mob $2 million cash tomorrow, you go, he's in some trouble. I'm going to have some issues, right? But if you go, hey, Chauncey billups owes them 750k, like, I got a pretty good, you know, I think it's fair to say, like, Chauncey Billups could make that work. Hell, he's got a job right now that pays him millions of dollars, but something shady, his connection there. But I know this, right? If I rob you at gunpoint for, let's say, $200,000, I'm going to jail. Well, depending on where I live. But if, if I'm in Arizona, I'm definitely going to jail, right? Yet if I rob you at a poker game, I don't think. We think of it the same way but based on what they were doing, that's essentially the same thing. And to me the crazy part is they were using Chauncey Billups to essentially just rob people. And obviously these poker games. I, you know, I'm a sports gambler and I used to in my younger days play a lot of blackjack. I never got into like hold' em or poker. It's never been my thing. Maybe it's patience, maybe I'm just not smart enough. Maybe I just don't have a good poker face. I don't know. It never did anything for me. But like most people I know people that love, we're in Vegas, wherever we are, we'll go to high limit tables, can sit there till for hours. I mean could go up there at dinner time, won't come out till the next morning at 7am it's obviously people love doing it, which I respect. I kind of wish that I liked it. I can't even attempt to it. It just kind of bores me. But what they were doing is just stealing people's money. It was just, it was just robbery. And instead of using a gun, they're using technology. And there are videos coming out saying that like yeah, that's people in the poker world kind of knew that they were getting robbed. But this having this famous person kept drawing them back because it's like, ah, these guys suck at poke. We're going to take their money. Yet they would always lose. And I, I just think, you know, in these situations the government's good at a couple things, starting wars and collecting money. And anytime you have this type money exchanging hands because again these type games, the pot's not $1,000. I mean the amount of money being thrown around at some of these games and the same thing with Gilbert Arenas with you know, his mafia poker games, these are extremes amounts of money. Well, who's not getting paid when people are taking money back? The government that is. Well that's why they sniff around. But to me, the thing of Chauncey Billups telling whoever about how he was going to rotate guys and play guys, that's only possible in a tanking league because even in the NFL tonight the game was atrocious. I do this for a living and I found myself kind of getting bored. I'm like this is an awful product, yet millions of people are watching. In football it's hard to hide because you only play once a week. Even when you suck like the jets or you know, the Titans. If something really shady happened, the media Covering your team would immediately ask questions after the game. If a player like a wide receiver just had like 10 drops in a game, it would be a big story. Even on a team with two wins. You did the NBA. As you get to March, as you get to April, as you get toward the end of the season, you get some of these teams that are winning 15, 20 games and their season is just irrelevant. Doesn't matter even if they're playing Denver, the Warriors, what you're going to lose. I went to a game last year the warriors played the Suns. The Suns were fucking terrible. I think the game I went to, Booker was hurt, Kevin Durant was hurt, and Bradley Beal was out there. And the warriors were up 30 before he even blinked. The game was a joke. And this happens all around the league. No one's paying attention in these games because the games simply don't matter. So if you get some of these people involved in the games, you go, why does it even matter if I tell someone, like, yeah, we're going to suck tonight. We're going to get throttled? Like, it's not that crazy. And if you are involved with those type people, even if you're not involved with the mob, just someone that gambled, and you were talking about it like, yeah, I'll put some action on this game. And in their mind, they might be thinking, what am I really doing Wrong? We got 19 wins, there's two games left in the season. And this gets back to the problem that has defined Adam Silver's career, is the tanking. So you just have so many teams where none of it matters. And that's where weird shit can go on. Because you know, where weird shit can't really go on. Like the Thunder playing the warriors with a week left in the season, when they're playing for seating, you know what can't really go wrong? NFL games. Because everyone's paying attention. The games matter. Yet in the NBA, so we just saw it last year, and I'll give them credit, they changed the lottery. So it's like, yeah, you can tank, but you're not guaranteed getting Cooper flag. But still, like, 10 teams tanked because they wanted to get Cooper flag. So. And some of these teams, I'm not talking tank in the last week of the season. I'm talking months, all season, not even trying. I don't think Utah's tried in years, in years. So sad about the Suns. I think they've actually tried and they still sucked. They're going to suck again. And they're probably going to try. But a lot of these teams actively don't try to win. And it gets back to the Sam Hinkey days. And when you have these situations, shady people get involved. And let's face it, basketball, by far of all the major sports, is the most corrupt sport. It's not even close because the easiest to manipulate with referees, with players you can't even really notice. The only way now you can with technology. I was just talking to the dudes building the office in the backyard today because they asked me. They're like, yeah, you see the story? I'm like, yeah, it's crazy. We start talking like mafia and mobile. Listen, anyone watches these stories, from like John Gotti to the five families to all that stuff in the 60s, 70s and 80s, it was harder to figure it out why technology didn't exist. Now technology, I can track everyone's steps for everything. Hell, the reason Terry Rozier got turned in is because the gambling companies turned them in. Like, wait, way too many people are betting the under on all his player props. Now I see the media, it's like, oh, everyone's involved with gambling. It's like, no, it's like, this is what the fuck are we talking about? If you're actively throwing stuff that's illegal activity. I mean, what's whether people are involved with gambling or not? It's like, what are we talking about? This has nothing to do like, oh, it's just so legal now. It's like, no, it's like criminal activity. He knows exactly what he's doing. And for a guy that made $160 million, you want to get your buddies some money, give him 20 grand. Tell them to invest in the stock market. Do it this way like you deserve to go to jail for being a complete idiot. Complete idiot. And Adam Silver's got some, you know, blood on his hands because this guy's been in the league for the last couple years. And Charles Barkley is the only guy I've seen ask people like, what's going on? Adam Silver screwed this one up. Does Adam Silver to blame on this one? Of course he is because he gets walked all over and this is kind of the end result where they stand now. So I was going to talk football, but my wife loves and listen, I, I can get into it at time to Love is Blind. I, I think Love is Blind is one of the most outrageous shows of all time. I don't even believe it. I, I, I think the, the fugazi going on in this show and in this series, I think all these people are actors because I've never met a human being. Never met. And I've met a lot of human beings. I'm 40 years old, lived in different places, known a bunch of people, even just, I'm not even talking friends, talking casually. I don't think I've ever met a human being. They would be like, yeah, I would go on a show where I couldn't see the other person and then I would get down on a knee, or if I was a girl, I would let them get down on a knee and I would get engaged without ever seeing them. I think it's the most unrealistic show in the history of humanity. And I just don't believe any of these people are real. I don't believe that this is actually happening now. I think they're all paid actors because I don't think you could be an actual human being in doing this. And if you're doing it, you're just, you know, doing it for fame, your acting career, trying to take off. But I don't think any person actively looking for a significant other, a partner, would attempt this experiment because it's that unrealistic. I mean, it's just. You're just talking to them behind a pod, having a few cocktails, and after a couple days you're going to get down on a knee. Like, think how just insane that is. And you see these situations and they're all breaking up. None of them like each other. Like, yeah, no, I, I could have told you the thing would fail. And last but not least, I, you know, Lane Kiffin is the talk of the town. Watch that documentary. He, he just looks so good. He's skinny. I'm like, I keep looking at myself. I'm like, I'm just getting fat, trying to, trying to be healthy. And I just. All he does is hot yoga. So I'm like, you know what? My gym, I was looking, they got classes, you know, they got spin classes, stuff. I look, they got hot yoga classes. I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna take this hot yoga class at 6 in the morning. So I, I've done hot yoga maybe once in my life. 15 years ago @ Fresno State, actually, with, with Tim Skipper, who, you know, hopefully gets a big win this weekend against Indiana. And I remember doing it back then. It was hot, it was hard, but I was probably 25 years old, could handle it, complain or whatever, do some stretches. I went to this class this morning. There were probably six, seven other women in the class. I was the only Guy I would say I was at 40 years old, the youngest person by far. Multiple women, probably in their 60s, all in good shape. About 10 minutes in, I look over at the clock because I'm like, how long have we, have we been in here? Like an hour. And I look and it's 6, 10. So we had been in there 10 minutes. I'm like, I don't think I can make it 10 more minutes. So I mentally just like, I start thinking like the Navy seals. I'm like, do not ring that bell. You can't look terrible in front of these, these women who are just dominating this class, doing these poses, doing this. And I'm like, I was just watched the E60 on Lane Kiffin and he was doing it with easy skinny. He looks great. He's like, this can't be that hard. And I'm 20 minutes in. I'm like, there is no way I got 40 more minutes in me. And I just kept telling myself, do not ring that bell. Do not ring that bell. Do not quit. And I, I gotta be honest, it's. I quit at 40 minutes in and I, I don't even know how I made it 40 minutes. And I'm not one of those people that makes fun of yogis. Like, I respect that. I'm not that flexible. Hot yoga, that was one of the most difficult things I've done in a long time. And there was a split second where I'm like, I might not make it. I can't breathe, my muscles are all tensing up. I, I've just, I feel like I'm gonna, I don't know if I'm gonna have a heart attack. I don't know if I'm gonna die of dehydration. I, I just feel like there's a chance if I, if I make it to the 60 Minutes, I, I might, they might have to call a medic. So anyone that does hot yoga consistently, nothing but respect. Because that, anyone who thinks that that's easy or pot, like just not that difficult or not that impressive is high on drugs. Because that, that, that's one of the most physical, difficult physical activities I've done in a decade. So congrats to all you yogis out there.

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John Middlekauff (43:33)

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Katie Couric (44:05)

Episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders, who is 84 years old, has spent 34 years in Congress and he can still pack a rally with people a quarter of his age.

John Middlekauff (44:17)

Denver, 34,000 people come out. Salt Lake City, 20,000 people. You know, huge turnouts. People are really dissatisfied about the status quo.

Katie Couric (44:28)

His Fighting oligarchy tour with AOC and other young progressives has become a movement. But is his message too far to the left? Well, he certainly doesn't think so.

John Middlekauff (44:39)

Does that sound like a radical idea, Judy? Is that too far left for you?

Katie Couric (44:42)

Okay, okay, wait. I get your point, Bernie. We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course the government shutdown, not to mention the current state of the Democratic Party.

John Middlekauff (44:56)

To me, the failure of the Democratic Party has been an unwillingness to recognize the real issues.

Katie Couric (45:02)

Open your free iHeartRadio app search next Question with Katie Couric. And listen now.

Hell in Heaven Podcast Narrator (45:10)

In the new podcast Hell in Heaven. Two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder not once. People went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality.

John Middlekauff (45:50)

They lose it.

Stucky (45:51)

They actually lose it.

Hell in Heaven Podcast Narrator (45:52)

They sort of went nuts until one Night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Middlekauff (46:15)

I don't want to say we're coming down the home stretch, but the season is moving pretty quickly now. Look at some of these records. In college, I'm like, start doing the math. Like, they don't have that many games left. The NFL, we're at the point now where six teams have buys. That's always like, okay, we're kind of to the halfway point. So I bring on my main man, Stucky, who is a gambling extraordinaire. And all lines here are brought to you by our friends at Hard Rock bet. And we just got a lot going on. I think the college football landscape is clearer than the NFL landscape. One problem in the NFL is there just so many injuries. So even the good teams, it's hard to kind of tell are the Chiefs. I mean, how many teams that you would consider like a top 10 NFL team would you say that are healthy? Chiefs?

Stucky (47:05)

Yeah, the Colts are healthy.

John Middlekauff (47:08)

Denver.

Stucky (47:09)

Yeah, the Colts. Denver. The Rams, relatively like NU is not going to be out long term, but maybe the Bills will be healthier coming up. But yeah, there's a lot of teams that are. I mean, you look at the team like the Chargers and their offensive line, it's been an absolute disaster. The Ravens, their defense, Lamar Jackson, the Bills, their defense. You know, even the Eagles have been banged up. Packers have dealt with injuries. The Lions defense. Now the Chiefs do have. Last week, they did lose a couple starting offensive lineman, Juan Taylor and Trey Smith left. I don't know their statuses. They play Monday night and their left.

John Middlekauff (47:51)

Tackle is just gone, right?

Stucky (47:53)

What's that?

John Middlekauff (47:54)

Their left tackle's just gone.

Stucky (47:55)

Yeah. And their left tackle is away. For a personal matter, I hope it's nothing serious. I hope it's nothing like I always remember when what's his name, Eric Barry left and then he ended up having dancer. That was so sad. I hope it's nothing serious and he's doing okay. But that. That they could potentially be down three offensive linemen. Trey Smith's one of the better ones, so that's something worth noting. I did play some Washington, for what it's worth, just to kick his. I did place Washington plus 12 and a half on Monday night. I just think it's too many points. Like, I know Daniels is going to play to McLaurin and Debo should be back. They can run the ball. The Chiefs are struggling to defend the run. So you can Keep Mahomes off the field. I know the Chief's offense is all the way back. I get that. And the commander's defense is not healthy, but Mariota can run the offense. Daniels hasn't been great this year anyway. Like this is. You're pricing the commanders like they're impoverished. Like the Raiders were catching less than this last week in Kansas City and they have no Bowers, no Miller and they can't get out of their own way. Like Washington's at least competent. And when Kansas City gets the lead, they usually just sit on it. You can get a back door here. Too many points could buy those sell high spots. I did play some commanders on Monday night.

John Middlekauff (49:12)

Well, think about this. Tennessee, who is definitely in the running to be the number one pick again, that they are atrocious football team is playing Indy, who obviously is good. But I wouldn't say Indy at home gets valued in the market the same way Kansas City at home does is catching only a point and a half more, I guess. Yeah, they're 12 and a half and the Tennessee's 14. I mean that's. You're right. This, this spot on Monday night. We'll just go right to the Monday night game. Has a little bit of a feel. It's. It's not apples to apples parallel. But your squad against the Rams a couple weeks ago is like, listen, I get we got some random guys but we're going to give a kitchen sink game. And I do think, you know, Washington's backs against the wall a little bit. They look like shit. They're playing like crap. No one thinks they're going to win. This does feel like run some trick plays. Just. I don't know. But this is. You're just going to get curb stomped and lose 30 to 10. I, I have a hard time even though clearly Washington, I would bet against them being a playoff team right now. But are they going to be a five win team or is it gonna like be eight, nine when the dust settles?

Stucky (50:18)

Yeah, I mean they're three and four at the Chiefs. Daniel's banged up. You got the Seahawks and the Lions on deck. Like you're.

John Middlekauff (50:28)

It can get away from you.

Stucky (50:30)

Yeah. So like this is like you're gonna have McLaren back, you're gonna have Debo back is what it looks like. So they have a competitive line. They'll be able to run the ball. Like this is. This is kind of disrespectful. Mariota is not, you know, Jake Browning.

John Middlekauff (50:44)

Or like Kyle Allen or.

Stucky (50:46)

Yeah, he's run this offense successfully in the past two seasons. So, yeah, I think it's too many points, but that's, we skipped over a couple days.

John Middlekauff (50:57)

Well, we, we can go back. But I, I do think Washington's kind of fascinating because I think when we started this season, you were all about like their fourth down percentage was like, historic because it wasn't just like all these fourth and ones. They were going for like fourth and sevens. And, and then when you factor in, they won some just crazy games. I mean, they had one of the craziest Hail Mary moments in the history of the league. And now you watch them play the games, don't even feel, I mean, their defense really feels slow and not good. But I thought, yeah, when they were in the NFC championship game, I'm like, I think man for man, roster wise, even healthy, this got to be one of the worst championship teams we've ever seen. Beside their quarterback having like a historic year as a rookie.

Stucky (51:40)

Yeah, I mean, we saw Stroud do that and Stroud has come back down there. Like, it's, it's, it's. You don't ever want to make an assumption like they're going to, there's, there's, there's ups and downs to an NFL quarterback's career. And like Washington's 50, I think 50% on four downs this year, which is like what you'd expect. And they won so many close games when you're.

John Middlekauff (51:59)

Whatever.

Stucky (52:00)

They were 88% or whatever on fourth downs last year. If the difference between that and 50%, like a normal rate is enormous because that's like one possession, you know, like every game that you end up scoring on or the other team gets the ball. That's like, it could be the difference between like two, two to three wins in the season. So. Yeah, but they're in rough shape and the defense does look slow, but too many points here.

John Middlekauff (52:26)

It's probably, I mean, close to the difference of like closer to a touchdown a game. When you factor in, if I get it, either I kick a field goal or if I score a touchdown. Well, if you get it, especially like midfield, you're probably a lock to kick a field. And these are 6 point swings, 10 point swings, potentially 14 point swings. It just doesn't get any bigger as a swing.

Stucky (52:48)

Right.

John Middlekauff (52:49)

So, I mean, I, Yeah, I mean, I, I think this is a, a big moment early in Dan Quinn's career. I, I talked about yesterday on the podcast, but we'll, we could get into the Giants. I know these guys have gotten injured differently, but I think Jaden Daniels. You watch a lot of college football. Do you think these young quarterbacks have kind of been emboldened? Because it's like, well, you can't really touch me or hit me. You get in trouble. Like, they feel way more reckless now. And obviously they're, you know, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers couldn't run to begin with. But like, these guys just have no fear of anything. It's like you guys gotta be a little. And go. And Jaden played like that at LSU in the sec. It's like, you guys better be careful. I get like, you know, the size of these guys. I've been saying this for a while. Linebackers are a little smaller, but they're faster than ever and their body fat's probably lower than ever. So. And this is the only time during the week enduring like they get 17 times to touch you and they are looking to destroy you. And I also said this. If you could go into a defensive coordinator meeting like on Wednesday to start the game plan on Saturday night before the game, I think a lot of football fans would be uncomfortable with what's being said. I don't think. I don't think people quite understand the lingo that's discussed. Offense, I don't even think would be that big a deal. People, I think the defense would make a lot of just casual people. Like, that's how they talk. It's like, yeah, that's how they talk. You know.

Stucky (54:14)

Yeah. There's like part of. It's probably Mahomes too. Like Mahomes has been toying. He does that thing on the sideline, which is bs. Yes. And I would like someone eventually is just gonna say, I don't care, suspend me and. And take a man.

John Middlekauff (54:29)

He will get suspended too.

Stucky (54:30)

Yes. Maybe banned. But yeah, no, you're right. These quarterbacks, all of them are treated like with kids gloves. And so that's probably part of it. I have to give credit to Dart. I mean, he's looked pretty good and look what he's working with. Like, it's not a great offensive line. It's better with Andrew Thomas, but they don't have elite neighbors. You know, you're. You're rookie, rookie running back with you and a bunch of nobodies. I mean, you're throwing to Daniel Bellinger half the time last week against a really good defense. I do worry a little bit about this spot against Philadelphia this week. Look, am I running the bet? Philadelphia, Absolutely not like this, the last. That last week they should have lost. I think I graded it There was like a six point loss. Sadly Minnesota didn't cover but I mean they were dominated on a down down basis. They got a pick six. They were, they scored a touchdown on the fourth down. Minnesota was in the red zone seven times and one touchdown. Like Minnesota should have won that game. But like this is, this is a tough spot for the Giants number one. They had some injuries in the secondary so we'll see like if Deontay Banks has to play that's not good. And that's what happened last week. They went into prevent but they had injuries in the secondary and enabled Denver to score 33 points somehow in the fourth quarter in one of the most insane games of the season. But their run these really bad dead last and success rate and what they've been doing with Dart over the past four weeks is if you go watch all their games they are been dominant in the scripted drives, the first couple drives the game and they have a unique offense with Dart and teams aren't too familiar with him and what they're doing. They're number two in EPA per play in the first quarter since Dart has taken over the rest of the quarters, quarters two through four on offense they're like number 24, number 25 success for any paper play. So they've been below average but they're able to get a lead and then that's they're able to play their game. Are they going to be able to do that this week against the team that already played them two weeks ago? I don't know. And then if they have to play from behind that could get dicey. You know the Eagles are going to be up for this game after they got embarrassed of national tv. Carter didn't play Quinn, you know they were got their best corner with Quinon Mitchell. They'll be back. Defense is a different animal there and maybe Philly found something on offense last week by mistake. Cam Jurgens went out at center, their backup center came in, they went under center more which and they became more unpredictable and they hit some throws through it. So I, I don't know that's something worth watching but they actually threw it downfield. I don't know. I still don't trust the Philadelphia offense. Like they go in, they go into these lulls still for way too long. I need to see way more. But this is a tough spot for the Giants also like how do they respond? How do you get off, off the mat after a game like that in Denver when you were like 99.9 to win it. So this this could be a tough spot if they don't jump out because that's what the Giants are doing. They've been so good early in these games, and that enables them to play the style that they want to. If they have to play for behind and dart is thrown to these receivers and known passing downs could get a little dicey.

John Middlekauff (57:34)

Well, I think it was pretty telling that. And I.

Stucky (57:37)

You.

John Middlekauff (57:37)

I didn't watch Sirianni's press conference this week, but like, they ran the slant on second down and Jalen misses him. And then the next play, they ran the slant and go. And he hits him to ice the game. Like they put that. Now, he had been good in that game. He had hit a bunch of deep bombs. Best passing game by far. I mean, hit. I mean, he is a good deep ball thrower, but I mean, that wanted Devontae Smith, the other one earlier to AJ like he was. He was dialed and they put it in his hands. Where some of the knock is like, you know, they kind of get boring and they just kind of run it up the middle and then they run slants like to. To. I don't know, to throw a bomb with the game. I don't want to say on the line because there's no guarantee Carson Wentz leads him down the field, but that was like, okay, like, did. Does the offensive coordinator feel a little emboldened? Obviously there's some optimism.

Stucky (58:24)

Yeah, for the first time all year, for sure.

John Middlekauff (58:26)

So with you there. Okay, Cleveland, this is one of my hammers this week because, you know, I. I've bet against New England a couple times, been burned. Obviously, Cleveland is way better at home. And you've been talking about this, that the defense is really good, the running back, it's crazy. This is a little, you know, flip flop or I guess Cleveland now it looks like they've. They've drafted the right running back of the two twice. You know, New England back in the day, took Sony Michelle, who I liked, and it turned out Nick Chubb was a stud. It's early. I'm not giving up on New England's guy, but Junkins looks like he did back at Ole Miss a couple years ago.

Stucky (59:04)

Fucking monster.

John Middlekauff (59:05)

And I just think this spot, young quarterback again, it's hard to know what, you know, Cleveland's offense brings the table. It's much easier when you're playing tua, who's just falling apart at the seams. But seven points on the road, still young team. I just. That seems like a lot of points to me. This number was like four and a half, five. Probably stay away that, that touchdown number though, kind of. I just gotta wet my beak on this one.

Stucky (59:31)

Yeah, I, I can't get there. I mean, I don't blame you for taking the seven. One of the reasons why, like this is why I'm conflicted on this game. Drake May's been incredible. I mean, if you look at any metric, he's been one of the top three quarters.

John Middlekauff (59:43)

Hasn't he hit more 20 yard passes than like anyone in the league?

Stucky (59:45)

Yeah. And his deep ball's been great. The explosive passenger. And that's how you beat this Cleveland team with explosive. They're aggressive. You have to beat them. You know, one of their only blemishes on their statistical profile is they allow explosive passes. New England's been doing that very well. The one caveat that I'll say to Drake May now, I do believe that he's a really good player and he's going to be really good. He hasn't really played an elite defense this year. You know, if you look at the defenses he's played, I mean, they've all been pretty poor.

John Middlekauff (60:13)

Carolina.

Stucky (60:14)

Yeah, I mean Carolina. I mean, even the Raiders week. Well, I mean, you can go on and on. You know, the Titans last week.

John Middlekauff (60:23)

So I mean, the Bills aren't great on defense.

Stucky (60:25)

No, the Bills were banged up and they are not a great defense, but far from it. So this will be the best defense he's played. But. But the Cleveland defense isn't the same. They just haven't been the same animal away from home. My other concern is you have to throw on this one of the biggest blemishes on the New England statistical profiles. They allow a ton of explosive passes. They're. Their linebackers are really weak in coverage. Maybe that's something Cleveland can exploit. Their safeties are a little vulnerable. You gotta throw in New England. Their rundy's really good. Their defensive line is really good. Their linebackers are really good in run support. Cleveland wants to run the ball like, so I'd like to trust Gabriel to really come out and sling it. So I don't love the matchup, but I don't blame you for taking the points. It's funny you mentioned the Browns getting Judkins the page. This is all rumor mill, but apparently Mike Vrabel wanted Jonah Sabanaya, this guard from Arizona who. And apparently it leaked. And the Dolphins then traded up, I believe, to take him because he was on there. He was. They knew that the Patriots wanted him. And then the Patriots ended up because of that taking Trevon Henderson. Well, Henderson's been buried on the depth chart 7i has been arguably the worst offensive lineman in NFL history. I I mean I disguise still starting because they. They have no other options. I like if I pull up, I'll pull up. For example PFF. He is. His half block grade is a 2.1. Like it's hard to describe how bad. He's basically a traffic cone out there. So I don't know. So the Patriots want it still won that whole thing by default. Even defenders because they don't have a traffic cone on the offensive line. But if you're into like seeing advanced metrics and bad offensive lineman. The Dolphins guard is. If you watch. If you just happen to have a Dolphins game on. On a passing play watch their left guard. It is an abomination.

John Middlekauff (62:39)

So they got lucky. You know they might not got the right running back again. I don't wanna but it kind of played out like this with. With Sony and Nick Chubb. The one thing Judkins clearly is is he's just. You know, he kind of do it all right. Yeah, he's just. I mean he's a physical between the tackles but he's quick. He can make you miss. You know I think the. The knock on Travion is a little smaller but definitely fast. But when you think about variable like where'd he have success right. With a big bruising running back. So you know now I know he got in trouble. He's no longer in trouble. But that was. I remember when the. When the thing came up with the girl texted around like yeah, we didn't. We'd never had. There weren't character concerns with Judkins coming out.

Stucky (63:24)

Yeah and it's pretty crazy what he's doing. Like he wasn't with the team early and he just. Yeah, ready. And then he just taken off ever. Ever since. It's not like teams aren't stacking the box against them because they are. And he's still.

John Middlekauff (63:36)

But this. This is also where the transfer portal. Like wasn't he viewed as probably like a top 20 type pick when he transferred Ohio State and then as the season came on the other guy, Ghana made bigger plays down the stretch. But like based on his old miss work I mean he's one of the best players in the country. So sometimes the transfer portal really works out. I was saying this about Gibbs. Isn't Gibbs a good example like pre transfer portal if he stays at Georgia Tech and just comes out his third year or senior year I mean, because he's going to test really well and have some solid numbers. He's getting drafted in the top 100, but he's not sniffing the first round. Meanwhile, he goes transfers to Alabama. His numbers, even Alabama weren't great. I don't even think he ran for a thousand yards. But he had some big games against some SEC opponents. Every scout goes into Alabama 10 times a year. You're locked into that program. He shoots up the draft board like a. Like a rocket ship. So it can work for guys. It can also. I bet if judges just stayed at Ole Miss probably gets drafted higher.

Stucky (64:38)

Yeah, yeah, you're. You're probably right. He would have been more featured now.

John Middlekauff (64:43)

He won the national championship, so I mean, it worked out.

Stucky (64:45)

Yeah. There's the jameer Gibbs was. He was. He started his career. It's funny to think how all this stuff comes. He started his career. He was with Georgia Tech. With Jeff Sims who started for Arizona State the other week.

John Middlekauff (65:00)

That's crazy.

Stucky (65:01)

Who's been around for. Since 2019. They lost together a game against Dylan Gabriel when Dylan Gabriel was at ucf. Jeff Sims still in college as well.

John Middlekauff (65:13)

Jeff Sims pretty bad, isn't he?

Stucky (65:15)

Yes, very.

John Middlekauff (65:17)

Okay. I do think it was borderline criminal activity to make the Houston Texans play a 7 Pacific Standard Time kickoff on Monday Night Football when they have a game the following week. If you want to give them a buy. Okay, that's. I googled it. I've never made the flight, but Chad GPT said it's over four hours. So by the time that they got out of there, my guess is as close to one in the morning. So I mean they are getting back to Houston and pulling in to just get their cars. The light. The sun is out. Well, if you're a coach Tuesday, Monday and Tuesday are game plan days. You just go right into the office. You probably haven't slept much and I would imagine they did a little work on the Niners on Monday, but still you're getting ready for the game. It's just that that is a massive disadvantage and on top of you losing your offense is playing like shit. Your defense, how long can they carry you? That's just a really tough spot. Now the Niners again, they got it. Peircell's out, Purdy's out. But I mean they. We just saw them against the Atlanta Falcons.

Stucky (66:24)

Who.

John Middlekauff (66:25)

I mean, they got some issues, bro. You see that play. Ten players on the. On the field with. On third down.

Stucky (66:32)

You can't do that at the end of the half.

John Middlekauff (66:34)

That Was God, they got, they got problems. But I just think this is a really, really hard spot in terms of the like out of gas meter for Houston and just their coaches, they got to just be fried. I mean these guys probably, they got to be exhausted sitting here as we're recording this right now in the middle of Thursday.

Stucky (66:52)

Yeah, I mean I do think it's. This is like it the situation, the spot when where it fits in the schedule and the travel as you mentioned is horrible. But the situation is like this is your prototypical buy low sell high of the Texans who like this is their. I mean their season's on the line. They're in a division with the Colts. The Jags are going to win like eight to nine games probably like and you're now sitting at what two and four and I mean you still have the Chiefs, the Bill like this, the at the Bills, at the Chargers, the Colts a couple times. The Jags like this is a big game. You lose this game like it's your season's over pretty much over. And you are going against the San Francisco defense that is banged up. They had like an all. It was a great game plan by solid an all out effort. Like Kittle came in a locker room, questioned their like and they were juiced up. But like can you really count on like Tatum Bethune getting like this is a team that's still for the season without Warner, without. I mean they lost Huff. Now they lost their other corner. One of their corners Green without Bosa.

John Middlekauff (68:05)

The numbers does any team in league history. Huff is a good example, has an incredible game was awesome and then it's just a game ends. He was awesome. And then Monday Kyle's like yeah, he pulled his hamstring. He's out two weeks. You're like what. How does this guys get injured in games? The 49ers guys excel, finish the game and then Monday morning it's like yeah, I broke my foot.

Stucky (68:26)

Yeah I. It's defies logic. But this team's not going to be able to get like elite pressure. So Strad will actually be able to like operate from the pocket. Like when they play teams with elite defensive lines, it's over. Like Seattle, the Rams like they can't do anything so they can't block. So they're. But this will be you know indoors against this defensive line, you know, banged up secondary. Now Nico Collins might not play as concussion but I would say he's more likely to not play then to suit up. Christian Kirk's questionable so he might be thrown to like a bunch of Iowa State receivers. But I feel like this is the spot for the Texans, like their defense at home, one last stand, and the 49ers, you know, come in maybe a little fat and happy. They're 5 and 2. They got to be pretty satisfied sitting at 5 and 2 with all their injuries. And I mean, look, if you think about it, the Niners, and this is a credit to Shannon for getting this done, but, you know, they beat the Seahawks by four. The game could have went either way. They beat the Saints. Saints had the ball late with a chance to. To win. They beat the Cardinals because the Cardinals dropped the ball by one. You know, they beat the Rams by overtime, in overtime, by three. That game could have went either way. So, like, they have four wins that were, you know, easily. Could be two losses. They could be sitting easily at three and four. Now, they bought themselves some time, some equity to figure some things out. So I do think that this is like a Texans spot where their defense rises up and Stroud is able to do enough because he's not under pressure. But your point is very astute about how brutal of a travel and situational spot this is. From that angle, what's your take?

John Middlekauff (70:11)

Because obviously Slowik got, you know, destroyed last year. Everyone thought he was a village idiot when the previous year, CJ had the great year. This offensive coordinator, I didn't know that much about him. I was looking him up during the, during the Monday night game, right? He's a Belichick guy, but he'd worked for. For McVeigh for a couple years. It kind of looks the same now. Their offensive line was that bad. What are you going to do?

Stucky (70:35)

Yeah, maybe that's it. Like that there's. Both guys have just been so handcuffed by the lack of offensive line play that they're not able to do anything but at least the predictable runs. I mean, a predictable run for the Texans is never going to work. It hasn't worked in years because that offensive line, like on a fourth and short, the Earl, the early down, first down runs, they're never going to work because you can't block anybody. So you got to get more creative. You got to use more motion, more question, get Stroud moving.

John Middlekauff (71:08)

So like, how about. How about on third and short and fourth and shorty ran the same play.

Stucky (71:12)

Back to back against that Seattle front. Like, that's never going to work. So.

John Middlekauff (71:17)

Or on the goal line when the dude jumps off size and he would have got stuffed anyway. And then they. They ended up, you Know, missing the pass on the next play, maybe they scored. I can't remember, but it was like, you're just running it. You're. This is not going to work. Yeah.

Stucky (71:29)

They did it earlier in the game, too, on a fourth down. Like, it's. Yeah. So I. I was. I still. I'm. Maybe it's like, a lot of it is the offensive line, but you got to try some new things, and I haven't seen the innovation and that was coming out of the buy. I was expecting to see some new looks. So, yeah, it's been very disappointing because slow took a lot of heat, rightfully so. But to me, if you went in, like, a coma for a year and you just woke up and watched the Texans this year, you would have no idea they changed.

John Middlekauff (71:59)

Carbon Copy. Totally. Okay. This is a actually kind of. Kind of interesting game, though. You know, Does Dallas and their offense just get slowed down a little bit by this Denver defense? I mean, before that fourth quarter happened, there couldn't have been many people, especially Bronco fans, going, like, we kind of have a quarterback offense problem. Their offense looked awful. He just doesn't hit any of these big plays. There's no rhythm to the play calling with Sean. It's just. It just was off. You know, people, like, talk about the packers. Like, something's just a little off. Like. Yeah, it's true. A little off relative to, like, what we thought. Denver looked like a disaster. Like, they got a major problem, and then really, the only way you can come back in a situation like that, you need a turnover. Right. It happened in the. In the Tennessee Arizona game when demarcado fumbled. Happened here with Dart. Just threw it right to the dude. That's the only. Because you. You need an extra possession when you're down that many points. And they got it. And then.

Stucky (72:58)

And they got a couple of missed extra points, too, which helped.

John Middlekauff (73:00)

Yeah. Then they just cut the guy yesterday. Yeah. So I. I just. I. I want to take Dallas, but that kind of feels like your classic. Everyone's riding high, and all of a sudden Dallas loses this game, like, you know, 20 to 6.

Stucky (73:16)

I agree. That's a very tough game because I can make cases for both sides now. Like, do I want to lay three and a half with Denver? Absolutely not. Like, just trusting Bonicks to win by margin.

John Middlekauff (73:31)

What's your take on Bo Nicks? Like, what do you see? What are the numbers saying? Like, why is he sucking for most of these games?

Stucky (73:38)

He's just not accurate enough. He's basically a system quarterback. Like, he. He needs to be put in the right positions by Peyton to thrive. Think about it. He has. He has some decent weapons. He has an offensive line that's pass protecting as well as at the best level in. In the NFL. His offensive line is elite. You got Peyton calling plays, you got some good weapons, like, and you have arguably one of the three best defenses in the NFL. Like, he's in a good, good position and still, like, there are games where you're like, oh, my God, are the Broncos going to lose this? Because they're really handcuffed by the quarterback. I look, they. The. He'll find a rhythm and then he'll look pretty good, but he's just not consistent at all with his accuracy. I mean, the last three weeks, go back to that Philadelphia game, right? Like, they were. It was like 17:3 going into the fourth quarter, and they caught fire. The jets, like, the jets had negative 10 yards passing and they had the ball with a chance to tie it. It was like 13 to 10. And then last week, they had no points through three quarters. And so like this Broncos, if you look at all their wins this year, I mean, all their games, they're. Besides the. When Jake Browning vomited all over himself, like, they're all like, just decided by 1, 2, 3, 4. So do I want to bet the Broncos? No. Especially against like, this Dallas team could score on anybody. You have Patrick Certain, one of the best corners in the NFL. But his, you know, he can take. He only could take away one of these weapons, right? You got Pickens and Lamb and then Ferguson underneath. And the way that Dak is playing Turpin, like, and. And don't forget about Aubrey. And in. In elevation, you might be looking at a record, a 70 yarder this week. But yeah, so like, and then if you're down 10 late, like, the Cowboys can go get you a back door. But you got to remember, Dallas looks. They're a different team at home. Just keep that in your mind. They're gonna have these games where, I mean, look, they tied Green Bay. They just put it on Washington. They will blow out some teams and their offense looks great. But think about some of their road performances. They got blown out by Chicago. I know Lamb got hurt, but they lost that Carolina. Their defense is still really bad. So I feel like if I had to bet it, I'd take the three and a half. Wouldn't feel great about it. Probably a pass.

John Middlekauff (75:55)

I just pulled up his college stats because I think sometimes with these transfer portal guys, right, they go to a Place, especially when they upgrade. It's. It's pretty nice and they look incredible. And his completion percentage at Oregon was like 71 his first year. And the last year was almost like 80%. But if you look at those three years at Auburn, 57, 59, 61. And let's face it, most NFL situations, even the Broncos, ain't Oregon, Ohio State, Alabama in your prime, right? It's a lot more equality of the opponent. Like, the difference of the Giants and the Broncos, like, they got some sweet players, too. This is going to be fucking hard. And you just watch, you go, God, maybe inaccuracy. And, you know, the knock on Oregon, especially for him, was. Right. A lot of those quick screens. So it actually inflates the completion percentage.

Stucky (76:43)

Yeah, Zot was very, very low. Like, he was deep a lot.

John Middlekauff (76:47)

So you just kind of do a deep dive, which I think now, like, no one really talked about Auburn, right.

Stucky (76:52)

Once the.

John Middlekauff (76:53)

He started coming two years at Oregon. Look at all these wins. Look at all this success. But now looking back, like, maybe we should have done a deep dive. Like, that's kind of a problem. And Sean Payton, like, tries to talk his way out of it. Like, this guy's the next Drew Brees with mobility. Well, Drew Brees, like, the most accurate quarterback in the history of the league.

Stucky (77:11)

So that.

John Middlekauff (77:12)

That might not be the case here. This is your classic Tomlin spot. You know, this game. This game's pretty interesting, actually. Obviously, the. The Pittsburgh coming off kind of a long. Lick your wounds a little bit. One thing that was pretty evident in that game was, like, I get they have injuries, but it was basically just running the three tight ends and one wide receiver. Like, that's kind of their office. And one of the tight ends, I do believe. And I text a couple people this. I think Darnell Washington should play offensive tackle, but you make way more money. Again, assuming that physically he can do it. I mean, we've seen, like, Jason Peters made the transition. Best thing he's ever done. He's going to go the hall of Fame. Like you. You could make. You can make $150 million becoming like a right tackle.

Stucky (77:53)

You don't.

John Middlekauff (77:54)

You don't even need to be some huge mall or just use your athleticism. He's huge. Yeah, but I just. I don't know.

Stucky (78:01)

I.

John Middlekauff (78:01)

This is just. I guess you just, in theory, just take Pittsburgh at home catching points. Green Bay is just. I can't put my finger on it. Offensively, something's a little off now. Remember last year, they would start a Lot of these games, really slow. It'd be. They just wouldn't score many points in the first half, and then he would be better in the second half. But I don't know. I mean, maybe Arizona. Actually, we talked about this last week. Probably one of the better two and five teams in league history. I mean, they could easily be like, 6 and 1. They haven't been that bad. And they've been pretty good with Jacoby. I mean, last two years, like, or the last two games, like Kyler. Your. Your job's in major jeopardy. He might not care. I mean, he's so rich.

Stucky (78:37)

Yeah. They've lost, like, every possible way that you can by, like. Like the Niners, they drop that wide open passed in the game. The Titans disaster. You know, they were right there with the Colts in Indy, right there with the packers at home.

John Middlekauff (78:50)

They. They have not been like some of these other 12 win teams.

Stucky (78:53)

Like, they lost the Seahawks in the last second field goal because they messed up the kick. They kicked in the landing zone.

John Middlekauff (79:01)

So what's your take on Green Bay's offense? Why does he think it'll look stagnant?

Stucky (79:04)

Yeah, I mean, they've had so, like, they've had offensive line injuries. So, like, the. The continuity just isn't there yet. Like, with. With that group up front. And then their wide receivers are like, all in and out, like. And who's. Like, they're all. Every week there's a different guy that's hurt. Like his wins. Watson coming back. Wicks got hurt. You're still trying to break in the rookie golden. So, like, there's just not a lot of rhythm and continuity yet. I think they'll get there. Like, all the pieces are there. I trust the floor to figure it out. The one thing I worry about with them is their core corners. Like, their corners are the one area that I think could ultimately hold them back. Like, it's not an elite group. They're undersized. DK Metcalf could have a big game here. He has a huge size advantage on the outside against anybody they put him on. And. But yeah. So I'm. I'm curious to watch, like, how the corner group plays out or if they go get someone the trade deadline. We'll see. So I'm curious to also see the 49ers. What if they do anything they could use, like, a linebacker? For sure. Like, just some. A couple.

John Middlekauff (80:16)

I think they might. I think they would be more likely, like, Green Bay, probably be more aggressive. Niners, probably bargain shop because this year was Kind of a reset year than like give a third round pick for a player. But yeah, I don't mean like a.

Stucky (80:27)

Superstar, but I mean.

John Middlekauff (80:28)

I know what you mean.

Stucky (80:29)

Maybe some linebacker, like, like there's a guy, like, I forget the guy's name, that's now like a backup for the Texans who's a pretty good player.

John Middlekauff (80:38)

I think it's. I just think it's easier to find. I think a lot of people can talk yourself out of like, oh, this corner linebacker is available. Usually good ones or offensive guys on shitty teams. Sometimes like it's like, oh, we can get waddle for two seconds or something. You know, stuff like that where it's just rare. Jalen Ramsey years ago, right. Was traded. Was that in season? But it's just rare. Like last year, Lattimore, I bet half the league was like, I wouldn't touch that guy with a 10 foot pole, you know?

Stucky (81:03)

Yeah.

John Middlekauff (81:04)

I just think a lot of times defensive players, it's just very hit or miss. They're either really old or. But it's like if this guy's under 30, like, why is he available? Who gives away a decent defensive course? Db.

Stucky (81:16)

Yeah. The one guy that comes, that just came to my mind is Chris As Christian Harris with the Texans. He's only 24. He started before, but like he's just behind a bunch of better linebackers.

John Middlekauff (81:31)

So like, plus if you're the packers, like, let's say you can get a good player and it cost you a third rounder. And then next year you wouldn't have a first or a third rounder.

Stucky (81:39)

Yeah, no, that's true. But I think that they are like legit their offense. They're going to figure it out, they're going to get healthier, they have the pass rush, safeties are good linebackers, like you don't have all the pieces.

John Middlekauff (81:54)

Anything less than like an NFC championship for them would feel like a great disappointment after how all they went all in on Micah. Right?

Stucky (81:59)

Agree, agree. But yeah, Sunday night, it's a classic Tomlin Spot awful loss. Their dog at home against the winning team. They can go back historically, like, he wins more of these games than he loses. I'm talking outright as an underdog with three or more points. He's the most profitable underdog coach in NFL history. He'll have them ready. That's what he excels at, getting his team. You know, he does not excel. Like games against like the Bengals. We were supposed to win. And yeah, a lot of times his teams will come out a little flat and don't and underperform these, they'll be balls to the wall. They'll probably have some voodoo, cause some turnovers.

John Middlekauff (82:36)

Right.

Stucky (82:37)

It is a fasting game. Riders playing the packers for the first time since he left. I think the key here is the packers storm fully healthy, right? Second straight road game. They were out West Sealers have some extra rest and prep too. Rogers can get rid of the ball really quick. I mean, he's. He's not throwing the ball deep. He will when he has to, but he's just getting rid of the ball deep. He doesn't want to get hit. His average depth of target is one of the lowest in the NFL. That can work to his advantage here because I do think that the Steelers like DK Metcalf in particular, they have. He'll have some advantages against these corners. So Rodders getting rid of the ball can neutralize the pass rush of Green Bay of Michael Parsons and company. And if you look back like the. The Steelers have what they beat the Vikings very blitz, heavy pressure, heavy team. Why Rogers was getting rid of the ball very quickly. They beat the Browns by two touchdowns. Rogers looked good against that great defense that gets a ton of pressure. Why? Just getting rid of the ball quick. So now you're going up against another defense that gets very good pressure. So I think that that could work in their favor. You'll get the defense's best effort. You'll probably get your standard Pittsburgh Tomlin spot voodoo. Like you'll get like a. The. The. I'll say like this. The packers probably like muffle pawn a field goal will hit the post like that. That's some of the things that'll happen for you. So, yeah, Steelers.

John Middlekauff (84:07)

I think part of the reason the Flacco experience was so shocking was just because he didn't really get touched for like 90% of the game till that final. Like Cam Hayward and TJ kind of fell on him. And I started thinking after the game, you know, obviously, Cam's mid-30s, TJ's over 30. You know, we're talking middle of October now. So you now have several months from training camp to early in the season. Kind of heavy legs. I bet TJ would tell you I don't feel right till Wednesday or Thursday. I mean, Kittle was saying that like three years ago. So you get a guy like that because most people are out. The Steelers gonna kill him because you're just gonna annihilate Flacco. And then you're watching the game like, I thought this offensive line was terrible. They can't get any pressure and you realize, well, these guys are kind of old and that's why this game they're probably, they'll TJ will look dramatically better like he had the previous couple weeks on normal rest.

Stucky (84:56)

Yeah. Now you got a couple extra days off a loss. They'll be juiced up.

John Middlekauff (84:59)

That's where we were recording this before Thursday night. I do like Thursday night games. If you're the road team like especially like Minnesota's coming to the Chargers these as the season goes on, some of these games like you are at a massive disadvantage from a travel standpoint, from a prep standpoint, I mean the home team, even when it's like Niners, Rams, let alone some of these longer travels like this is crazy.

Stucky (85:23)

Yeah. Agreed.

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Katie Couric (86:33)

On the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders, who is 84 years old, has spent years 30, 34 years in Congress and he can still pack a rally with people a quarter of his age.

John Middlekauff (86:46)

Denver, 34,000 people come out. Salt Lake City, 20,000 people out. You know, huge turnouts. People are really dissatisfied about the status quo.

Katie Couric (86:57)

His Fighting Oligarchy tour with AOC and other young progressives has become a movement. But is his message too far to the left? Well, he certainly doesn't think so.

John Middlekauff (87:07)

Does that sound like a radical idea, Katie? Is that too far left for you?

Katie Couric (87:10)

Okay, okay, wait. I get your point, Bernie. We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living and of course the government shutdown, not to mention the current state of the Democratic Party.

John Middlekauff (87:25)

To me, the failure of the Democratic Party has been an unwillingness to recognize.

Katie Couric (87:30)

The real issues, open your free iHeartRadio app. Search next question with Katie Couric and listen now.

Hell in Heaven Podcast Narrator (87:39)

In the new podcast Hell in Heaven. Two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder. Not once people went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality.

Stucky (88:19)

They lose it. They actually lose it.

John Middlekauff (88:21)

They sort of went nuts.

Hell in Heaven Podcast Narrator (88:24)

Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Middlekauff (88:37)

What's up everybody?

Stucky (88:38)

This is Snax from the Trap Nerds.

John Middlekauff (88:40)

Podcast and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long. Kicking off this month I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Solid Hill. Me and Tony bringing backfireteam on Left 4 Dead 2 and we just gonna be going over some of the greats. Also in October we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movies and figure out why black people always gotta die first.

Stucky (89:02)

The Umbral Reliquary invites any and all fooling brave enough to peruse its many curiosities.

John Middlekauff (89:12)

But take it all sales are final.

Stucky (89:15)

Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly with a full episode read and a commentary special.

John Middlekauff (89:21)

And we will cap it off with Horror Movie Battle Royale. Jason versus Freddy Michael My versus the Alien thing with the little Tongue Monster. October, we're doing it Halloween style.

Stucky (89:31)

Listen to the Trap Nurse podcast from.

John Middlekauff (89:33)

The Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. A couple things on college I guess would be yeah I, I, I mentioned this to you before we press record. You don't like my guy Tim Skipper just rattling off four straight at Indiana College or Big Noon kickoff. Signetti came out immediately early this week and like they are a three and OH team. This is not. They've played three games this regular season and they're three and oh you know Nico came back to earth a little bit last week but he did make some big throws on the game winning drive. UCLA clearly has been inspired. You think they run a plus? You're getting 25 and a half points. Get get him 14 to one to win outright.

Stucky (90:23)

I can't get there. I mean like it was. UCLA's story was good. Noah was. He might end up getting a job out of this, like a full time job. But they the, the books out and what some of the stuff they were doing, like, they, they're using Nico's, more of his strengths, using his legs. But I mean, last week against Maryland, it was ugly. They had no business winning that game. They had like three points with five to go. And Nico, I think at three picks, bad pick six. So, yeah, and Indiana, from listening to Signetti, he cares about this game and they still care about margin and what this is, an early kick. I think it's a noon kick. Yeah. Top travel. The reason is, is that Indiana, if you look at their schedule, they should go undefeated. And if they do and then they lose to Ohio State in the Big Ten championship, they can still get a buy because it's just the top four teams this year get a buy. It's not the conference champions like last year. And then you end up with these wonky matchups that make no sense. They made the right change, but so like Indiana, they go 12, 0 and then their only losses to Ohio State, there's a good shot they get a buy, especially if they're just pummeling teams. Like Signetti's calling timeouts with a minute to go last week against Michigan State, now 25, like trying to add points and like they care about margin here, so I don't know if they're going to take their foot off their gas. It's just not Signetti's style and they do have an incentive to do it.

John Middlekauff (91:48)

Well, with Tech and Miami losing that, those teams aren't getting buys, right?

Stucky (91:52)

Yeah.

John Middlekauff (91:52)

Yeah. So, yeah, the SEC looks like they're kind of beating up on each other. Yeah.

Stucky (91:56)

Unless like A and M runs the table, like. Or wins the SEC with like one loss, which is hard to envision.

John Middlekauff (92:04)

So is there a chance two Big Ten teams and two SEC teams are the 1, 2, 3, 4.

Stucky (92:09)

Yeah, I mean the big. Well, I guess, yeah. I could see Tech being like the fourth that they went out.

John Middlekauff (92:17)

Could you have a team at a buy that has two losses and a team without a buy that won their conference championship with one loss or that probably they wouldn't want to set precedent doing that.

Stucky (92:26)

Maybe like Alabama with a second loss if. Yeah, like, it all depends. I think they could do it. Like, I, I hope that they do really try to get the four best teams and don't care about like, totally, because that's how, that's how you'll get the best matchups in the first round and then going forward. So. But there is incentive there. So, yeah, I. It would be Indiana or nothing for me. I think that the. I do like Skipper. I think it was a major upgrade. I did play your Fresno boys plus three lines coming down. I played some plus three and a half plus three against San Diego State. San Diego State's been really good, but this Fresno State, I think this is way too much respect for San Diego State. Their defense has been great, but they've played nobody. I mean, they're. They're road games. They beat one in six Northern Illinois and they scored six points. They be one in six Nevada. They got blown out at Washington State. State. You know, they play. I mean, they. They beat Cal in like a brutal spot for Cal that is like their one really nice mark on the resident. They have one of the easiest strength of schedules in the country. They have this really electric receiver. Fresno will have to cover, but they have two weeks. I. This Fresno. I value bye weeks for these teams that have brand new staffs much more than the teams who don't. So Fresno, brand new staff, brand new team, brand new quarterback. You might even see a quarterback change. I think that Warner will probably still start, but they might go with one of these running quarterbacks to kind of juice up the running game. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't be shocked if they have some different packages that catch San Diego State off guard. But their defensive coordinator, I'm a huge fan of, Nick Benedadetto. He came from Northern Illinois, and Northern Illinois played San Diego State, shut him down. San Diego State won 6 to 3. It was one of the worst games I've ever watched in my life. And Fresno State plays a very similar defense. And you better believe Benevetto spent two weeks talking to his friends in DeKalb and getting some intel, which I think will help. So I think Fresno State at home catching a field goal or better is worth a bet.

John Middlekauff (94:32)

Does Washington State have the weirdest schedule of all time? I mean, they.

Stucky (94:36)

It's insane.

John Middlekauff (94:37)

What is going on? I had a buddy text me. He's like, are they actually kind of sneaky good or like the last two weeks, these teams just don't take them seriously because they. They easily could have just rattled off wins against Ole Miss and Virginia, who.

Stucky (94:49)

Were top 20 that want to be in the playoff. Like, they could have ruined the playoff. Yeah, now they come up for Toledo. Yeah, I mean, they. They went. They went back to Zevi Eckhouse, their quarterback, which I don't understand what was going on there in the first three weeks. They started this kid Potter and but Eckhouse like stayed. He was going to go into Portal, but they were like, no, you're the guy. And he stayed, stayed there. And even though the staff left and like he was the guy who started in the bowl game because Mater last year because Mattier was transferring Oklahoma and He threw for 400 yards against Syracuse. And then they, their coach Rogers came out and said like, no, he's not the guy. He was like third string. And then they lost 59 to 10 to North Texas. The offense was a disaster and they went to this Eckhouse kid and they've been much better ever since. So like they're a different team over the last five weeks. But yeah, they, they could have beat Ole Miss. They lost by three and they should have beat Virginia. They lost by two on the road. Talk about a weird road trip. And that was after going to Colorado State. They had a bye week in between. But now they come home for Toledo and then they go. They got two games with Oregon State coming up.

John Middlekauff (96:00)

Who still, I thought I was reading that wrong. Why is, how's that even possible? I guess they need to fill spots.

Stucky (96:04)

They need to fill spots. They go to JMU in between. Like, yeah. Ridiculous.

John Middlekauff (96:11)

Well, you, you had mentioned this last week that Lane had basically admitted that they had been looking ahead to Georgia for the Washington State week. He mean, I know he lost that game, but just kind of solidified himself. Like Florida, if you're looking for an offensive coach, this skinny, hot, yoga sober guy is just feels like a rocket ship right now. And I mean at I, I know people go back and forth like, I'll be a little stunned if he's not the next head coach of Florida. Won't you?

Stucky (96:36)

Yes.

John Middlekauff (96:37)

Like I would expect that to happen. Their offense was remarkable in that game until it wasn't. And that kid looked like me or you the last couple series. Like he went from being awesome to like forgot how to play football. It's one of the crazier. Just like snap your finger. Like, what's going on? They couldn't, they couldn't even generate a yard. And now coming into this game. Did you see that Lane made some comments yesterday about how Venables like stealing signs and know what's coming. He's like, I texted Hugh Freeze. Like it looked like they knew your plays this game, you know, not Oklahoma's actually got a lot to play for. Right. So I, I, I just see, plus five and a half. I kind of like Ole Miss. But Oklahoma's defense is pretty awesome. And you have to wonder that carryover those last couple series, it's like, yeah, this is. This kid was in Division 2 last year. This isn't exactly, you know, Fernando Mendoza or something.

Stucky (97:31)

Yeah, Kirby does it again. I mean, his adjustments. He's the best in game adjuster in college football. I mean, Alabama didn't score in the second half against them. You saw with Alabama last year when they came out and put up like 35 points right away and then George almost came back. This happens consistently. So yeah, he made some nice adjustments and they did nothing.

John Middlekauff (97:51)

I mean, they were getting smoked in that first half.

Stucky (97:54)

They were almost going up and down the field. Now, Georgia does not have an elite defensive line. I mean, this is not. Same with Alabama. They are not who you think they are in the trenches. Like they're. This is a team that's like outside the top 100 in sacks per game. And. But the, the Oklahoma defense is. They have arguably the best defensive front in college football. I think that they just might overwhelm this Ole Miss offensive line, which is not that good, and force Chambers into some mistakes. And I think Matier and company will do enough. Like Ole Miss wants to take away the explosive play. Like Oklahoma is okay with that. Now Ole Miss's run defense is really bad. Oklahoma's run offense is really bad. Like their offensive line is bad. Their running game has been awful. Who wins there? They might determine this. Like if Oklahoma can get their run game going, they're gonna be able to methodically move it and their defense will get enough stops. So that's, that's something interesting to watch. The other thing that gives me a little bit of pause, but you can make a case for Ole Miss is this Oklahoma defense looks the part. I mean, if you look like DPA play everything, they're number one. Yeah. In college football. But the one question I have, like, the front, the scheme, it's all elite. But like they have this, this freshman cornerback who looks great. The corners are my main question because here's what they played Illinois State, Michigan, when they weren't Underwood.

John Middlekauff (99:18)

And their receivers, it's not Jackson, Arnold, Arch Manning.

Stucky (99:21)

Yeah, Jackson, Arnold, Arch Manning, South Sellers. With that offensive line, they couldn't do anything. So they haven't faced a real passing attack yet. So we'll learn about their secondary that. So if, if their secondary is overrated, then Ole Miss has a path here. I lean to Oklahoma, but there's many cases to be made for Ole Miss pretty much an elimination game. I think the loser of this is out of the cottage. Now they can still win out and go 10 and 2. But like Oklahoma has at Alabama, at Tennessee, Missouri and LSU left schedule's tough. Yeah. So like the chances of you running the table slim. The none. And either these teams I think are going to get up with nine wins and then Ole Miss, they have an easier schedule left. They have South Carolina, Citadel, Florida might be dead and then at Mississippi State. So there's a chance they can still go 10 and 2. But I mean I don't know if they're a lock to get in like their best win. If they lose this game and then win out their best win would be like at home against LSU by five. We don't know what LSU is going to be by the end of the year.

John Middlekauff (100:27)

Not good.

Stucky (100:27)

So yeah they're. Their strength of schedule is much easier. I mean exponentially easier than Oklahoma's staying in the SEC 1 game. I'll give you that. I did like hold your nose special to South Carolina. This is the spot of all spots. South Carolina has been really bad. Their offensive line has been horrendous.

Katie Couric (100:42)

It's.

Stucky (100:42)

It's basically like the Texans. They're. They can't do anything because they're offensive line. Even though Sellers is a super talented quarterback. But Alabama's defensive line is not elite. It's like Georgia. They're not getting pressure South Carolina and you can run on them. South Carolina should be able to operate their offense here. Their defense is still pretty good. This is basically their Super Bowl. There's nothing left of their season. They have revenge for last year. They lost Alabama by two at Alabama again. They should have won it. That ultimately kept them out of the couch world playoff. This is a brutal spot for Bama. They just won four. Four straight games against ranked opponents. First ever SEC team to do that over four weeks. No break. And they. They could have lost two of them. I mean like you talk about they were dead even in yards with they. They got out gained by Tennessee. Dead even in yards with Missouri. Georgia easily could have won that game. Vandy had two turnovers in the red zone. You know you get the pick six the 99er picks against Tennessee like it wasn't dominant efforts. Yeah but just after that month stretch the week before you're by going to South Carolina screams flat spot. And DeBoer who's one of the best in the business is one thing that's given him issues is going on the road as a double digit favorite. He's lost three straight outright as double digit favorite so I could see Bama being extremely flat. I think they're going to win this game but I think south kind of puts a scare on them. So I think taking the plus 12, 13 out there is a good bet.

John Middlekauff (102:11)

When do you think the last time Vandy has been a home favorite? Back to back week against ranked teams. Do you think it's ever like happened in the history of the program?

Stucky (102:18)

Maybe like the 50s? I don't know. So yeah, I think a lot of.

John Middlekauff (102:22)

People maybe watched a little bit because that day a lot was going on when they played Alabama. But last week that to me that was the best game on when they were playing LSU and I mean I watched every snap. If you watched that game, you'd come away like Vanny's good, you know, and they're legit.

Stucky (102:38)

They could beat anybody in any week. Like they played right with Baba. You watch that game, you were like this, this team you like Vandy -.

John Middlekauff (102:47)

Two and a half in this game.

Stucky (102:49)

Yeah, I would. That's, that's the only side I could bet there. I mean Missouri's coming off the Vandy run defense is really good. Their past events is a little vulnerable but Missouri can't really throw it. They want to run the ball. Missouri's coming off the Alabama loss by three and then the Auburn win in overtime and again they should have lost that. I, they got outplayed in that game there. Auburn missed field goals. There was some bad calls against Auburn. So that's two back to back emotional games. You're on the road again. Vandy had, you know, they beat LSU last week but they had a buy before then. They, they'll come in fresher here. I trust Pavia to get it done at home. Game day is going to be there. It's going to be an electric atmosphere. I think it's a, a decent matchup for Vandy. That is a, this will be, that's another playoff elimination game. I don't think Missouri will get there. I mean Missouri supposed to go to Oklahoma. They play A and M next week. But if they lose this game, if they win this game they'll have a shot and if Andy wins this game they'll have a shot like but if they lose it, I doubt they win out and they're going to have to go 10 and 2 because they're at Texas and they're home against Auburn. Home against Kentucky at Tennessee, probably not sweeping it but like Vandy's going to be, I think they're the line for the game at Texas. This would imagine saying this last year, I think the lookout line right now is Vandy plus three and a half at Texas.

John Middlekauff (104:10)

But remember that game while it was being played in Nashville was like is Texas going to lose? Wasn't that a close game? But we didn't realize at the time Vandy was good. Now this year they're getting the respect. But looking back last year like of course, yeah. And I would say Texas is worse.

Stucky (104:27)

This year, you know, better in the trenches. The offensive line year older and Texas's offensive line exponentially worse. And Arch is just missing throws. I mean they should have lost to Kentucky. One of the luckiest wins of the season. Kentucky had an 85 post game win expense. He had 200 plus more yards than Texas and eventually lost in overtime. Basically lost because Texas had a bunch of punt returns that led to scores. That was the only way Texas, that offense, Kentucky should have won that game. It's our Arch.

John Middlekauff (104:58)

Arch skips. I know he was getting peppered. His O line sucks. But man he skipped some balls.

Stucky (105:02)

Yeah, he missed some wide open throws.

John Middlekauff (105:04)

He skips ball. Can I end on this? We talked about this yesterday. I didn't quite realize. Jeff Braums resume is way better than I thought. And like Penn State it's like who are they going to hire, you know? Now Signetti is not really an option. It's like Matt Rule, he just lost in Minnesota and his big game resume is not great. Why wouldn't they be all over Jeff Braum who's coached in the conference who had success at fucking Purdue. And you watch him the other night like offensive guy wins, has won at every level. It's like former quarterback wins big games that were big. I feel like he is not talked about. Maybe it's just, you know, you live near that Louisville, a little under the radar program maybe.

Stucky (105:46)

I mean is that, is that it?

John Middlekauff (105:47)

I mean I don't know like if he was at, if he was doing what he was doing at even like North Carolina or something. I feel like we'd talk about him more.

Stucky (105:55)

Agreed. I was yelling about this on my podcast recently.

John Middlekauff (105:57)

Why don't they hire him? Why wouldn't he be their number one target?

Stucky (105:59)

I agree. I was yelled about this my podcast. I was talking about this with a friend this morning. Like if I'm Arkansas, I try to get him from Penn State. I try to get him. I think he's the most underrated coach in the country. I think it's a clear top 10 coach in the country. Arguably Louisville.

John Middlekauff (106:15)

A high level job. Am I underrating it?

Stucky (106:20)

It's like Penn State is clearly better. It's like a second tier. It's his alma mater so that matters some. But do you throw enough money at anyone? They're gonna. Or most people I should say they're gonna leave. He has his contract. I think he gets paid like I think he's making like 5,6 million this year. Every time he wins seven games they kick on another year automatically salary goes up. I think he signed in 2022 like a six year deal originally but there's probably been a couple years added on. But you're right, I've been screaming out. I was talking about it this morning with a friend. If I'm a big program, that's the guy I'm going after. Especially Penn State. Like he, it's all checks, all the boxes that Franklin has never been able to check. And yeah, I don't know why he doesn't get talked about more. I couldn't agree with you more Beast.

John Middlekauff (107:09)

Good teams. Good with quarterbacks and offense. Kind of. Kind of one. At Purdue, I mean he's been crushing.

Stucky (107:17)

In the portal like this. They've been a heavy portal team because it's, it's low. They're not like. And every year they're able to reload. They lost a ton of talent from last year.

John Middlekauff (107:28)

I mean he worked Miami. I mean they, they were taking it.

Stucky (107:31)

Dominant and that was a lot of. That was Brahmin, that scripted portion just carving Miami up. They were using like three quarterbacks formations and all kinds of stuff out of the buy that it was, that was a clinic. And then after he was like yeah, I probably ran out of plays. Next time I have to have some more because he, he was just all over it from the jump. So yeah, I agree with you. I don't know why Brahm's name isn't mentioned more.

John Middlekauff (107:58)

Okay Stucky, enjoy the weekend. I'm glad we're on the same page on that and I will talk to you you next week.

Stucky (108:03)

Absolutely have it going brother. The volume.

John Middlekauff (108:12)

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Katie Couric (109:23)

On the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders and we've talked many times over the years, and today he even throws a few questions my way.

John Middlekauff (109:33)

All right, are you ready for another question? Go ahead, hit me, Bernie.

Katie Couric (109:38)

We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course, the government shutdown. Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Middlekauff (109:53)

Hello, America's sweetheart. Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless Hillbilly Heist from Smartless Media, Campside Media, and big Money Players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor.

Stucky (110:20)

I'm not that generous.

John Middlekauff (110:22)

It's a damn near inspiring true story for for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're sitting like, oh God, what do we do?

Stucky (110:37)

What do we do?

John Middlekauff (110:38)

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