← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
3 & Out - Reaction to Drake Maye & Patriots BIG TIME WIN vs. Justin Fields & Jets on TNF
01:40:20
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John Middelkoff
This is an I Heart podcast. If you smoke or dip, I'm going.
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Stuckey
To give you a few good reasons to try Zynn Zyn Nicotine Pouches first, it's America's number one nicotine pouch brand, and Zynn offers a robust rewards program.
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John Middelkoff
There's a lot of options for nicotine.
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Stuckey
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John Middelkoff
That'S z y n.com find to to.
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Stuckey
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- [00:28]
John Middelkoff
This product does contain nicotine.
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Stuckey
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
- [00:32]
John Middelkoff
This is the story of the One As a custodial supervisor at a high school, he knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast. It's why he partners with Grainger to stay fully stocked on the products and supplies he needs, from tissues to disinfectants to floor scrubbers, all so that he can help students, staff and teachers stay healthy and focused. Call 1-800-granger. Click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Join me Danny Trejo in Tales from the Shadows, an anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Jenna World Jenna Jamison Vivid Video and the Valley is a new podcast about the history of the adult film industry. I'm Molly Lambert and I'll be your tour guide on a wild trip through adult films. We get paid more than the men. We call the shots. In what way is that degrading? That's us taking hold of our life. Listen to Gentle world on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanksgiving isn't just about food.
- [02:04]
Stuckey
It's a day for us to show up for one another.
- [02:07]
John Middelkoff
It's okay not to be okay sometimes and be able to build strength and love within each other.
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Stuckey
I'm Eliakhani, host of the podcast Family Therapy, a series where real families come together to heal and find hope.
- [02:19]
John Middelkoff
I've always wanted us to have therapy, so this is such a beautiful opportunity.
- [02:24]
Stuckey
Listen to season two of Family Therapy every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volum.
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John Middelkoff
What is going on everybody? John Middelkoff three and out Podcast Fugazi Friday hopefully everyone is doing well. Probably not as well as Patriot fans because they are living high on the hog. They're nine and two, their quarterback looks sweet, their head coach is a badass with a mustache and they're rolling. The jets on the other hand was like we need a quarterback to save us. Good luck with that. Another disastrous season for the New York Football jets and we'll dive into that game. One pet peeve of mine that I'm seeing happening a lot that are trying to blame owners instead of general managers for some of these trades. And a fugazi that we had today as well as Stuckey. Stuckey will basically go over most of the NFL games. A couple college games at the end, but pretty good slate. We got some, you know, Chiefs, Broncos, Seattle playing the Rams, Bucks, Bills, Eagles, Lions. We got some really good games Sunday. So excited for that slate. We'll go over from a gambling perspective. But you guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you may listen. Subscribe to the YouTube page. We go live three times a week, Thursdays, Sundays, Mondays and then obviously content all the other days with this podcast because we're an audio video podcast. We're dual threat here like Justin Fields. If he could throw, he actually can throw a deep ball but Adani Mitchell just can't catch it. So yeah. Before we dive into any football though, my friends own pouches product contains nicotine. Nicotine is addictive chemical, underage sale prohibited. If you're as competitive as I am, you're always looking for something to help you stay dialed in. And for me that thing is zone nicotine pouches. You won't catch me without one. I just was was slamming my mints watching that game. Had one before dinner, had one after dinner. I'll have one probably before I go to sleep. So not to mention 20 pouches per can versus 15 the other guys offer. Choose zone and dominate the day. Use the promo code number three and out 20 on nicokick.com for 20% off at checkout. Big picture on the Patriots. You know it's funny, we talk a lot about, you know, successful franchises and poorly run franchises and we always say it's it starts at the top AKA ownership. I obviously ownership and the crafts. You know, I think the players that gravitate toward them it clearly looks like they're going to have a well run operation again for a while. I just don't think football is that complicated when you hire the right people and then those people hire the right people and you make good draft selections, you win whether you have a good owner or a bad owner. Right. We saw the Patriots and really goes back to Belichick when he lost Josh McDaniels, they did not have an offensive coordinator and his drafts were awful and they fell apart. And then they had Jerod Mayo who clearly did not know what they were doing. Now they have Mike Vrabel, who is a 50 year old second time head coach. Anytime I'm a huge believer of learning by doing and growing from experiences, right? I think most people listening or watching would agree the better they get at something is by doing it over and over and over. But there is no better learning tool than when you fail at something and right or wrong. The owner told Mike Vrabel we you're out of here. Pack up your shit and leave. And Mike Vrabel was out of football for a year. Now he was with the Browns helping out in some, you know, consultant role, working with the, you know, offensive side, helping them out, tight ends, whatever he was doing, but was not a head coach, did not have a real job, was not some coordinator somewhere. And I would imagine like any normal successful person, definitely any ambitious person, sometimes you got to look in the mirror, reflect and learn. You got to change a little bit. It doesn't mean your core philosophies have to change. It's not like Andy Reid from Philadelphia to Kansas City said, we're just no more passing, we're going to run it right, four, three, defense, no more, we're going to run three, four. But like, what things can I do better? And Andy Reid went from the Eagles to the Chiefs and said, you know what? Personnel, no Moss, I'm out. I. I'm going to focus on coaching. The Jim Harbaugh you see these last two years with the Chargers is a dramatically different guy than the guy Jed York, Jed York once famously fired with the 49ers. If you are a good coach, you dramatically improve when you're fired. Hell, I've been fired twice and once in this business. And it changed my life dramatically for the better because I was able to take things in radio that I did not do well, AKA work with the sales team and value the sponsors and parlayed that once I got into the podcasting world to emphasize that as a big part of my business and it's paid dividends for the operation. But I would not have known that if I hadn't been through the experience of it not working out. And I'm watching Mike Vrabel and I'm watching. Here's the other thing the Patriots have that's pretty awesome because anytime you get a great defensive coach and he's a CEO defensive Coach. But you always worry when you have a lot of success especially and we'll get into the quarterback here in a minute. Well, I'm going to lose my offensive coordinator. Well, Josh McDaniels who. Listen, I wonder like is this thing going to work? Did the crafts force him on him? What he is doing with Drake May? It's working. And they're getting Trey Henderson, Travion Henderson, he's really coming on. Was he at five touchdowns in the last two games? He has five touchdowns in the last four and a half days. I mean he's explosion onto the scene. Step on Diggs is playing out of his mind. Obviously the quarterback, you know, looks fantastic. No one is ever hiring Josh McDaniels ever again to be a head coach in the NFL. He's 49 years old, so you never have to worry about losing him now maybe I guess someone in college could. Doubtful though because his two stops in the NFL as a head coach he was awful at dealing with people. And I'll say this, and I'll hammer this home till the day I die. If you are going to be a lifetime number two, there are certain industries where that pays a lot of money. Wall Street, Fortune 500 companies, the NFL. Ask Vic Fangio. You're never going to be a head coach again, but you will be paid five or six million dollars to be a defensive coordinator. Josh McDaniels, who was making a ton of money before he took the Raider job, this is a great gig. He's destined to be a number two, which is awesome because he's great at it. He excels at that. And if you look at Belichick, one thing the Patriots always did well was they had for the 20 years of the dynasty, Charlie Weiss, Bill O', Brien, Josh McDaniels. When did it fall apart? When Josh left and he had no one to replace him with and he threw Matt Patricia, who is a defensive coordinator and Ohio State fans would say a damn good one. But he can't coach offense and it was a debacle. So the Patriots their organizational philosophy in a weird way Now Drake May is different than Brady. Obviously Brady's the greatest quarterback of all time, but at 23, 24 years old, Tom Brady was a six round pick. Then most people said is this thing really going to work? Even after he won the super bowl it's like he's really going to be able to just stay as your starting quarterback. People forget but I was probably 15, 16 when he really broke onto the scene. People thought like what's he actually doing being carried by the defensive guy. Then by the middle of the decade and toward the end he became a star and mvp. But Drake May was a player that not only the Patriots refused to trade. The Giants, historic, you know, it's well documented, desperately tried to trade for him, offered a ton. They were told no. The Minnesota Vikings, same thing. They were told no. So other teams valued this guy very, very highly. And I was a little skeptical last year just because we've seen this guys with traits. But it's not that complicated going back to Brady. It's about infrastructure, it's about the culture. I mean I'm watching Diggs play his ever loving ass off. You know, I would say most people around the NFL would be like Diggs like that. I bet a lot of people that might have been interested were like, yeah, I think we'll pass on that situation. Especially coming off an acl, he looks fantastic. Kirk Herbstreet said something again that parallels the 20 year dynasty of the Patriots perfectly. They have eight guys that play on defense, some starters and other rotational guys who have been cut once upon a time in their career. Eight different players. I mean how many guys do you play on defense? 12 to 14, right. Rotate in some defensive linemen, couple, you know, nickel dime packages that you might change defensive backs. Maybe it's more like 15, 16 guys. And that is classic Bill Belichick get guys that are undervalued other places. That was Mike Vrabel, remember, like he was a guy who was cut on and off early in his career, was on the like Steelers practice squad, was a guy that was undervalued around the league. And that's what you can take advantage of when you won this ownership. When they believe in the guy forever. With Belichick and now with Vrabel, they are extremely supportive. They're a great operation in terms of player friendly, a place players want to be. They obviously have the quarterback. And then it comes to building the team. Vrabel won with the Titans. I would say a clown operation. Like before Vrabel, they were a joke. And since Vrabel, they're even a bigger embarrassment. So maybe looking back, the success was much more on Mike Vrabel. Right? He was winning a lot of games with Ryan Tanniel. I think we all agree this guy playing for the Patriots has a chance to be 10x Ryan Tanio. I mean he has a chance. We don't need to be naive here to be one of the best players in the league. Long way to go. It's the jets, but still. And I just see a lot of similarities and you know who's have to be terrified is the jets are not well run. Miami is not well run. Well, what happened all those years with Belichick and Brady, they beat the living piss out of them. Now, at the time, the Bills weren't either. They took advantage of that as well. They're well run now though. Flawed for a good team. And I can imagine if you're Sean McDermott, if you're Brandon Bean and you're the Pulas watching that game tonight, you go, holy shit, they really figured it out. They took a couple years off and now they're just right back. I mean, they're nine and two. If you look at their schedule, they feel destined for 13 and 4. And even if the Bills split that game and let's say win the game in New England, I think if you look at the bill schedule and the way they're playing, there is no guarantee that they are going to just like win all the other games. I would be a little surprised sitting at this point given how consistent the Patriots are and really how easy their schedule is if they do not win this division. And this gets back to the Belichick thing. Anytime you have such good coaching and such good culture, you're a major, major threat in these games come January, even if your team like, they are going to be dramatically better in like two years. Assuming Drake May stays healthy and continues on the trajectory that he is clearly on, which is pointing straight at the sky. And if I'm a Patriot fan, I would sit back in my chair tonight, having a cocktail, having a zone with a massive smile on my face. I'd be like, is this really happening? Because it got really bleak there for a couple years. I mean, really, really bleak. It was really kind of embarrassing. I mean, the way it ended with Belichick, even before they fired him on the field, just how bad they were offensively. And then everything last year was just kind of a consistent laughingstock around the NFL. And then he comes in and he immediately flips it. But this is also not one of those where he's like learning on the fly. Like he is very comfortable in his own skin. He's already done this. And this gets back to the experience thing. He was able to spend a year looking in the mirror and listen, I'm not saying that the Titans, you know, obviously screwed it up, but he's way better off that he got fired. Like a lot of people listening, anyone that's ever had a bad experience with A job, whether you've been laid off or whether you've been fired. If you figured it out and you look back a couple of years, you're like, thank God for that experience. That actually made me much more valuable where I am now. And the differences of Vrabel and Belichick. Belichick came up in a different era, right? In an era where there was, it was a dictatorship. Whatever the coach said went and all players fell in line. Well, society is a little bit different. And especially the generation of player and guy you're surrounded with is a little bit different. I mean, hell, a lot of guys you're coaching now that are rookies were making huge money in college. Like Travion Henderson split carries last year with another NFL guy, Judkins, for the Browns. What do you, what do you think those two's combined income was last year? $1.8 million, $2 million? I mean, they were both making huge coin. So it's not like, well, they're just, how are they. That was a huge scouting thing when I was in the league. It's like, how are they going to react to money? You don't even need to ask that question. It's. It's on display in school. It's like, yeah, he drives a Range Rover. He's. He's renting a $7,000 month pad. I mean, dude swimming in cash. So I just think the Patriots, their infrastructure, they've completely flipped it overnight because of the right hire and he has resurrected this. Listen, you talk about a guy that's zoned in. What I witnessed tonight of Drake May. I'll be honest, I was blown away. Obviously, if you watched him play this year and any Patriot fan and any one of your listening to this, your team has played them or you have fantasy or gambled on him playing his deep ball all year has been remarkable. I think he has the best deep ball completion percentage in the NFL. It was on full display tonight. I mean, even some of the balls that a guy made a PBU on, he's hitting guys in the hand. But to me, what I was blown away by was the touch on all the intermediate throws. He clearly has a strong arm. But you watch Fields, I think sometimes when you have and Herb street mentioned this tonight, like Fields has all the tools. Listen, I love Fields coming out. I'm not trying to act like Monday morning quarterback. I always thought the guy was going to be field. I would have taken Fields number two in that draft if I was the Jets. I would have gone. Once Trevor Lawrence went One, I would have taken Fields number two. Now it turns out the rest of them, well, Mac Jones kind of resurrect in his career. Fields has some limitations, but physical tools, arm strength, great. But having a powerful arm, you got to be able to layer throws. And I actually think Drake may takes a lot off throws and makes it incredibly easy for his wide receivers to catch the ball in every one of his passes. There was one that floated on him a little bit, Mack Hollins, I think made a great catch, like extended in the air. But he is hitting these guys directly in their hands. Like they are painting the picture with their two hands, like they're taught by wide receiver coaches going back to high school and he's just peppering them. I'm like, if this guy's going to be accurate, like he's Drew Brees or Steve Young, they are going to be unstoppable. Now you'd be like, john, they're playing the Jets. I get it. Like, I. It's not even necessarily about the opponent. I'm judging this guy a little bit tonight like I would a college prospect. And my takeaway is I feel like his accuracy is elite. And if his accuracy is going to be elite when he's six foot four and a half, 225, 230 pounds, moves really well, throws an awesome deep ball and clearly has a strong arm. I. How's he not going to be a consistent like high end top five quarterback for most of his career if this is his talent, and that's going back to Josh and the infrastructure and the Patriots, they deserve a lot of credit because we have seen a lot of talented young quarterbacks in recent memory not only fail, but look completely terrible early in their career. And within a year. Now, I know Drake may and a lot of people say, well, he showed a lot of this last year. So many games you guys were down 20 to nothing, 25 to nothing, 25 to seven. It's hard to even judge. Like none of it mattered in these games. Now they're playing for the division. I mean, hell, they're competing for the number one overall seat. That's what's crazy. They are competing for the number one overall seed. I'm guilty of this too. It's like, hey, they're. They're battling the Bills for the AFC east, yet they're also battling the Colts and the Broncos for the fucking one seed. If the Patriots get the number one seed this year, I don't care how easy their schedule is. That would be just, I mean, one of the more incredible achievements in recent memory just given how bad they have been and how quick they flipped it and obviously the coaching. But this quarterback, anytime you take a guy really high, right, your expectations are for them to be a high end, Pro bowl level guy. That is the expectation when you draft a guy high, fair or not, right. I was watching Solomon Thomas, who's just a great guy and he's going to have a long career and you know, he's with the Cowboys now and he was, he was talking about the tragedy last week and he's just. Any GM or team would want him as a rotational guy on their team and he's going to have a 10 to 12 year career. The problem was he was drafted number three overall. So it's like he's not like a bust, but you would love to draft that guy in the third round. You'd get a lot of credit for that. It's like, look at this guy, look at his career. But when you draft a guy in the top five, in the top 10, your expectations are not just for them to be a franchise player, but for them to be like a great player at that position relative to the rest of the NFL. And I'm watching Drake Made a Night and I'm not trying to overreact to one game and really just his, his second, his breakout season. But his physical attributes, you go, why couldn't he just be in the mix with all the other top cats like Mahomes, like Lamar, like Josh Allen, like Joe Burrow, like Justin Herbert? And one thing he has in common with, I would say Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen is their experience in college was not easy. I was googling it during the game. Lamar Jackson in college was going like 9 and 4 and 8 and 5. You know why he wasn't playing at Ohio State, he wasn't playing at Alabama, he wasn't playing at Oregon. He played at Louisville. Now they were good on offense, but relative, the ACC, they were going like 4 and 4 in the ACC. You know why? His teams weren't as talented as a lot of his opponents or they were like at anything equal. Like he was not on some squad that is like Georgia or you know, some of these colleges, like what Texas and Georgia is going to look like. Those teams are loaded. That was Patrick Mahomes thing at Texas Tech. He had to figure out ways to give his team a chance. Josh Allen played at Wyoming, you know, and I think that really served those guys well coming to the pros because in the NFL you're it's not lopsided. You have to figure out ways to win. Hell, even Patrick Mahomes on some of these Chiefs team, he has to figure out ways. And it's like you come, you know, to at Alabama, you know, he had a pretty good, pretty good thing going. You know, it's like, do I give it to Josh Jacobs? Do I throw it to Judy? Do I throw it to Rugs? How about some of the other guys? Like, you know, it's like, oh, well, pump the brakes because it's not this easy. And I just think that Drake May coming from North Carolina, where they were never the most talented team in their conference, where they were never a team that was going to threaten to, you know, win a national championship, they were a team that wasn't going to run the table. They were a team that wasn't going to out talent all their opponents. That serves you well. And it really showed because I was blown away tonight by how calm he looks. Right. And that's the other thing I always value. Like, I have no problem, you know, with guys that scramble around to throw. But when you scramble around to throw, what do you look like when you do it? It's one of my criticisms. Like when you watch Caleb and it's, it's his best trait is he like runs around to make a play. But sometimes he runs, it's like kind of crazy. And I think if he's going to become a really good player, he's got to become a little more under control because it's just easier to like, you can't always throw super seeds when a guy is 20ft away from you and you just need to lob it to him. Where you're watching Drake may tonight scramble, it's like, look how like light he is on his feet. He's not just sprinting to the sideline. He's just kind of slowly working his way out of the pocket, keeping his head down to then deliver a strike that typically resulted in a first down. So listen, Patriots, I don't know how you did it. You went from Belichick and Brady to Mike Vrabel, who's 50 years old, to Drake May, who's 23 years old, and Josh McDaniels, your offensive coordinator, who is unhirable as a head coach, who's 49 years old and has been on record many times that he, he loves New England, his family loves New England, and he might just stay there the rest of his career. So the infrastructure you have right now doesn't get much better. And some of your young players that are really coming on, I would. I mean, if you talk. If the Patriots were a stock for the next five years, you could allocate a lot of your 401k on them because I think we all have to acknowledge their upside is really, really high. And they also benefit. And this is what Belichick and Brady benefited from. A very, very dysfunctional division. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. We talk a lot of football here on three and out, but there's so much more to bet on. The NBA is obviously in full swing. I was watching Michigan State and Arkansas play basketball. College hoops is back. Even the NHL is rock and rolling. So if you haven't tried your first bet yet on Hard Rock Bet, there's still time for you to get 150 in bonus bets. If you win, just place a five dollar bet. And if it hits you, not only get your winnings, but an extra 150 in bonus bets. The Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook app is the only legal sportsbook for whenever you're in Florida. And it's also live in Arizona, Ohio, Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and Colorado. So download the Hard Rock Bet app today and make your first deposit payable and bonus bets. Not a cash offer. Offered by Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida. Offered by Seminole hard Rock Digital LLC in all other states. You must be 21 plus and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia. To play. Terms and conditions apply. 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- [26:20]
Stuckey
I'm Eva Longoria.
- [26:21]
John Middelkoff
And I'm Maite Gomez Rajan.
- [26:23]
Stuckey
And on our podcast, Hungry for History, we mix two of our favorite things, food and history.
- [26:29]
John Middelkoff
Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto oyster shells and they called these ostrakon to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracized is related to the word oyster.
- [26:42]
Stuckey
No way.
- [26:44]
John Middelkoff
Bring back the ostrichon.
- [26:45]
Stuckey
And because we've got a very mi casa esucasa kind of vibe on our show, friends always stop by.
- [26:52]
John Middelkoff
Pretty much every entry into this side of the planet was through the El Golf of Mexico. No, the America. No, the America. El Golfo de Mexico continuing forever and ever. Le pesarqui la pesi.
- [27:05]
Stuckey
It blows me away how progressive Mexico was in this moment. They had land reform. They had labor rights. They had education rights. Mustard seeds were so valuable to the.
- [27:16]
John Middelkoff
Ancient Egyptians that they used to place.
- [27:18]
Stuckey
Them in their tombs for the afterlife. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [27:31]
John Middelkoff
It's okay not to be okay sometimes and be able to build strength and love within each other. Thanksgiving isn't just about food.
- [27:39]
Stuckey
It's a day for us to show up for one another. I'm Elliot Connie, host of the podcast Family Therapy, a series where real families come together to heal and find hope. What would be a clue that would be like? I've gotten lots of text messages from him. This one's from a little bit better of a version of him because he's feeding himself well. It's always a concern like, are you eating well?
- [27:59]
John Middelkoff
He's actually an amazing cook. There was this one time where we.
- [28:02]
Stuckey
Had neighbors and I saved their dog and I ended up inviting them over.
- [28:06]
John Middelkoff
For food and that was like one of my proudest moments.
- [28:09]
Stuckey
This is Family Therapy. Real families, real stories on a journey to heal together. Listen to season two of Family Therapy every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [28:27]
John Middelkoff
Welcome fellow seekers of the dark.
- [28:30]
Stuckey
I'm Danny Trejo.
- [28:31]
John Middelkoff
Won't you join the Join me in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, an ethology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America. Take a trip from ghastly encounters with evil spirits to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures and experience the horror that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or or wherever you get your podcast. You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robyn Dixon is here dropping every Monday. As two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday I was going through a walk in my neighborhood. Out of the blue, I see this huge sign next to somebody's house. The sign says, my neighbor is a Karen. No way. I died laughing. I'm like, I have to know you are lying. Humongous. Y' all they had some time on their hands. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [30:29]
Stuckey
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Can we get a Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry. Hey y', all, it's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, whether you're cooking for the family, out buying gifts for the kids or crowded in holiday traffic, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. On Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family.
- [30:56]
John Middelkoff
If you feeling like you feeling that's probably cause you a good parent friendship. Be careful what you put in your body. Move your body and love it the way you love them cars that house, them clothes, them shoes, them brunches. Love yourself them brunches.
- [31:11]
Stuckey
Love and marriage. You know what's become attractive? Attractive to me and it's because I've.
- [31:14]
John Middelkoff
Self corrected and I guess I detoxified myself.
- [31:18]
Stuckey
Accountability like it has become so attractive to me and everything else in between. I've told my most embarrassing moment on this podcast before which was me taking a in a Ziploc bag. So listen to Ellis Ever after on.
- [31:31]
John Middelkoff
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever.
- [31:35]
Stuckey
You get your podcast.
- [31:45]
John Middelkoff
Speaking of dysfunction, we're going to hear all off season and the rest of this season and then all next season. If they don't do it going into the next draft, the justice need to draft a quarterback. The justice need to draft a quarterback. He could save the day. A quarterback can save the day. That's not how it works. If Drake May didn't get Josh McDaniels, Mike Vrabel and the infrastructure that they brought, does Drake May look like himself? Probably not. Sam Darnold, I added it up over the last two years since he got with Kevin O' Connell and then this year with Kubiak McDonald and the Seattle Seahawks is 21 and five. And during those 21 victories he's thrown 52 touchdowns. Yet when Sam Darnold was with the jets and then the Panthers, he was a laughingstock. And structure and infrastructure matter so much at quarterback. The jets literally drafted Sam Dorm like they had him. They drafted him three overall. They were right. Like they were on the right guy. Their problem was they never have the structure around a guy really going back since Sanchez when they drafted him number five overall and he's clearly not as talented as Sam Darnold or Drake May. But what did they have? They had a good defense they had a good offensive line, they had a good running game and he could just ease into his career now because of his talent limitations. It hindered his long term growth and he became ultimately what he was probably destined to become, a backup quarterback. But he had early success because they were equipped to handle him in so many. All we got to do is draft a quarterback. Ask the Titans how that's going with Cam Ward, because every single week I know this. When I see the Titans playing a decent opponent, I hammer the opponent from a gambling perspective because they have no shot, because they have no infrastructure. They're an embarrassment. And I think you go look at Mac Jones is a great example. Mac Jones's first year with New England, they had Josh McDaniels, Bill Belichick, and they made the playoffs. Now, their team ultimately wasn't that good and they got boat race in the first round by the Bills, but they went 10 and 7 and he had a solid foundation and building block. Rookie season. Then what happened? Josh went to the Raiders and they put Patricia in the job and his entire career fell apart. And three years later, I'm as guilty as anybody. We weren't just making fun of Mack Jones. We went, this guy's a terrible player. This guy should probably be in like the UFL shouldn't be in the NFL. And then I see him with Kyle Shanahan in an offensive structure, philosophical belief as an organization, Mac Jones just rattling off wins. He's thrown for like 700 yards in two games against the Los Angeles Rams, a team that no one would be surprised if they're in the Super Bowl. If I put Mac Jones on this jets team, how do you think it looks? Now listen, the jets are a good example. Justin Fields, he is not a pocket quarterback and they are asking him to play. Essentially, he's like he's Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert or Drake May. That's not his strength. Herb street said it tonight on a man coverage play where he just takes off and he ran for 10, 15 yards and got an easy first down. Herb Street's like, that's their best play. Why didn't they implement if they're going to Give this guy $40 million? Some hybrid version of, of the original offense that the Ravens ran for Lamar Jackson to really emphasize his strengths, which is his elite athleticism and his speed. And obviously he's got a good arm and throws a great deep ball. But in terms of quick game running, a normal traditional offense is going to be a struggle for the guy. And it pains me to say that I love the player at Ohio State, I was wrong. But the jets are doing him zero favors. So in what world, just because they have 75 first round picks, do I believe that this front office and this head coach, Aaron Glenn, what he did with the Lions was awesome. Seems like an awesome guy and a great defensive strategist. But when he got hired for the jets, he does what a lot of these guys do. He goes, I want to become a head coach. Well, you got the job because of your dominance as a coordinator. Mike McDonald, when he got hired from the Ravens, he didn't go, you know what, guys? I'm going to prove I'm a CEO. He said, listen, I'm the head coach. That's my role. Right? I run the team meetings, I tell the coaches what to do. But they hired me because I'm an elite defensive coordinator. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call the defense. So now I'm watching the jets defense, which clearly, I mean, wasn't even good before they traded the guys. But the strength of Aaron Glenn, he gives that to someone else. And clearly as a defensive coordinator, and I would say this about any. They know nothing about offense. They have nothing to do with the offense. They have nothing to do with the offensive personnel. And like, he's the head coach, so he's like, hey, I'll just hire an offensive coordinator and that guy gets to do whatever he wants and just run a normal offense. That's a terrible idea. If you're going to hire Justin Fields to be your quarterback. And you're watching, you're going, what is going on? And it's like they, they pound the table. We got to have a Donnie Mitchell, right?
- [37:01]
Stuckey
Who.
- [37:01]
John Middelkoff
Listen, I'm guilty on that one too. I like that pick. Pick 45 couple years ago by the Colts. The Colts were like, yeah, we'll just, we'll have a Donnie Mitchell drop off those two first round picks. It's like, well, they're not tangible assets. Yeah, he'll just, he'll just bring them with him to the, to the airport. You guys can just keep them. So, yeah, you really want him? Take him. I started texting around like he was off draft boards, and I had a buddy tell me, it's like, you know, there's some similarities there with Brian Thomas Jr. Who's a better player, but look at Brian Thomas Jr. This year kind of falling apart. A lot of people had questions with some of these guys, but you go to one of their pro days and Adani Mitchell is a classic example. You go to a pro day, you go to workout, you go, holy shit, this guy looks like an Olympian. But we're not playing Olympics on Sunday. We're playing football. And just because you can run faster than every player on the field, if you can't catch the ball, I don't care if you're open by 75 yards, it doesn't matter. I mean, Fields hit him in stride on a deep go route and before you see the replay, you think, what a play by that db. That's a fantastic pbu. And then they show the slow motion replay and what happens goes right through his hand. So I just think the jets have no clue what they're doing. And you can tell me they're going to draft Ty Simpson, Fernando Mendoza, you pick the quarterback. Pick the young quarterback in two years, I will bet against that guy. I simply will. And I think we saw two organizations going in opposite directions tonight. I don't care if The jets have 20 first round picks. I mean, they had a draft a couple years ago where they took Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Breeze hall in the top, like 35 picks. They were shitty that entire time. So just because you draft good players, it doesn't mean you're going to win if you have absolutely no clue when it comes to the quarterback. Couple more things. One thing that's really starting to bother me is, and I've seen this a lot with the Luca Nico Harrison thing is like, doesn't the owner deserve a lot of the blame here? He ultimately okayed it and it's hard. I'm going to parallel this to football, but like it was the assuming, like, listen, I got a little conspiracy theorist on this. If you want to tell me and convince me, and I kind of believe it, that Adam Silver in the NBA. But let's just believe that there was no shady business. And it was just the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers. It was the GM's idea. It's not like the owner walked into his office like, hey man, you think we should trade Luca? And he's like, yeah, let me, let me call rounds. No, he goes to the owner. And I've seen so many people like the owner deserve blame. Like when the GM has an idea, obviously on any sizable transaction, the owner is going to know. You're going to call them. If they're not in the office, you're going to text them, you are going to tell them your idea. And they're like, oh yeah, go ahead. I saw that Carly Ursay, the, you know, Gucci owner who's on the headsets gave some quotes that, like, I. Chris asked me and I said, hey, if you want to go for it, go for it. I've given you the thumbs up. If sas Gardner is a disaster for the Colts. Let's just, let's just say in like three or four years, we look back and it's. It was a trade they would like to. They regret. The owner bears no responsibility to that. It was the GM's idea, right? It was the GM's idea to pull the trigger on, on that trade. He goes to the owner says, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. Are you cool with it? I don't blame the owner if the general manager goes, hey, that's the thing with the Cowboys. They just made some trades, right? That Jerry also is the GM. But any of these GMs, like, when Howie may trade for Jalen Phillips, obviously, I'm sure he's like, hey, Jeffrey, we're going to pull a third round pick. And Jeffrey's like, do it. That's how his idea. So if Jalen Phillips blows up in their face, like, just because Jeffrey gave him the go ahead, like, that's on the general manager. That's part of the gig. I mean, look, we saw, we had a front row seat to that Hard Knocks with Joe Shane and the Giants when it came to these maneuvers, right? And the owner's like, hey, man, I, I don't know about that. And he's like, I believe in this. He's like, okay, like, that's typically how it goes. The GMs are, this is their job, right? No different than like when a play is called. When these plays were happening on Monday Night Football and everyone's shitting on Matt LaFleur, it's like, that's his idea. These are his place. He's the one calling them, like he bears the responsibility. So, yeah, it's like in a perfect world, some of these owners should be like, I don't think we should do that. But that's not typically what most of these guys or now gals are doing. That's the, the GMs coming to them with these ideas because that's what they do. 24 7, 365, evaluate all the players, do different scenarios. These are the different ideas, throw different things. And a lot of ideas that they don't even need to go to them because they get shot down before they're even an opportunity. But if I hear one more time, it's like, the owner Deserves blame. It's like, I don't know if you create the idea and it's. You're the one pushing for it. To me, you deserve. Even if it's like not your decision to make because you don't own the team. Most of these owners, like, good, go ahead. The desean Watson situation is a little unique because the owner is $230 million guaranteed contract. But a lot of these quote unquote trades in sports, like, I'm sorry, the general manager, and they'd be the first to tell you, like, they deserve to bear good or bad the responsibility of the trade. I'll get, I'll get you out of here on this fugazi Friday. My wife, some of her friends have done this, really wanted to go to. Essentially. It's. It's not necessarily. I think it's like a high end ultrasound to get pictures of the baby, right? But like, good, like, they can zoom in. It's high end equipment, cost a couple hundred bucks. And you, you see the, the face of the baby and you get like, you know, we're a couple months away and get a feel for what the baby looks like now. I'm a believer not hating her on her for this. I know a lot of people that have done this, but like, listen, whatever the baby's gonna look like, thank God so far, everything's healthy. The baby's gonna look like that's God's plan, out of our control. It would not be something that I would have made an effort to do, but she really wanted to do it. Support. I'll get in the car. I'll drive, you know, 35 minutes to Phoenix and we'll go see this thing. So we get there and we just walk right in and we sit down and she's doing the thing and the baby's covering the face or his face with his hands. I'm like, or what are we able to do? She's like, well, you know, you can get up, try moving around. I'll start playing music. I started screaming his name, hoping he would move around. And we sat there for like 25 minutes and the baby never budged. And you couldn't take a picture because the baby's covering its face. And then toward the end, it was kind of, you know, she's getting frustrated, like, kind of sucks. And I go, of all the people that come in, and I'm like, you have a lot of people that come in? Yeah, we have a ton every day. I'm like, what? At out of 10, let's just pick a number. 10. How many typically do you get a good photo of the baby? She's like, oh, maybe one. I'm like, so you're telling me about 10% of the time this works out? Because usually the baby, I mean, there's not much space in there. It's covered itself. You can't see shit. I'm like, shouldn't that be part of the advert? And then we start texting around, like, happen to other people. It happened to her brother. I'm like, shouldn't that be part of the advertisement? Like, hey, you could spend a couple hundred bucks, but the likelihood is you're not going to see anything different than you've already seen. I'm like, I probably would like to know that. To know, like, this is probably unnecessary, but hey, you know, good gig if you can get it. But when she's like, yeah, maybe two and 10 on a good day. But yeah, typically one out of every 10. Like, I would have liked to know that before we just drove here through traffic to just be kind of devastated. But yeah, that, that, whatever that business is, you talk about a fugazi, I'd recommend. Do not, you do not need to do that. Just, just wait because more than likely you just won't have a good angle.
- [45:21]
Stuckey
Foreign.
- [45:29]
John Middelkoff
Fellow seekers of the Dark, I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, an anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America.
- [45:47]
Stuckey
America.
- [45:49]
John Middelkoff
Take a trip from ghastly encounters with evil spirits to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Kaltura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. It's okay not to be okay sometimes and be able to build strength and love within each other. Thanksgiving isn't just about food.
- [46:37]
Stuckey
It's a day for us to show up, feel for one another. I'm Elliot Connie, host of the podcast Family Therapy, a series where real families come together to heal and find hope. What would be a clue that would be like? I've gotten lots of text messages from him. This one's from a little bit better of a version of him because he's feeding himself well. It's always a concern like, are you eating well?
- [46:57]
John Middelkoff
He's actually an amazing cook. There was this one time where we.
- [47:00]
Stuckey
Had neighbors and I saved their Dog and I ended up inviting them over for food.
- [47:04]
John Middelkoff
And that was like one of my proudest moments.
- [47:07]
Stuckey
This is family therapy. Real families, real stories on a journey to heal together. Listen to season two of Family Therapy every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [47:25]
John Middelkoff
Jenna World, Jenna Jameson, Vivid Video and the Valley is a new podcast about the history of the adult film industry. I'm Molly Lambert, host of Heidi the Heidi Fly Story, and I'll be your tour guide on a wild ride through adult films. We get paid more than the men. We call the shots. In what way is that degrading? That's us taking hold of our Life. In the 1990s, actress Jenna Jameson crossed over into mainstream culture, redefined stardom, then left it all behind. I'm a powerful woman. I think that's intimidating to a man. With a cast of hundreds of actors and comedians playing key figures, we'll take a look at how adult films became legal in the 70s, hugely profitable in the 80s and 90s, and fell off a financial cliff in the 2000s. Listen to Genaworld on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get get your podcasts.
- [48:24]
Stuckey
Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way. Yo, yo. Can we get a Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry. Hey, y', all, it's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, whether you're cooking for the family, out buying gifts for the kids or crowded in holiday traffic, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. On on Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family.
- [48:51]
John Middelkoff
If you feeling like you feeling that's probably cause you a good parent friendship. Be careful what you put in your body. Move your body and love it the way you love them cars, that house, them clothes, them shoes, them brunches. Love yourself.
- [49:04]
Stuckey
Them brunches, love and marriage. You know what's become attractive to me? And it's because I've self corrected and.
- [49:10]
John Middelkoff
I guess I detoxified myself.
- [49:12]
Stuckey
Accountability, like it has become mad attractive. So attractive to me and everything else in between. I've told my most embarrassing moment on this podcast before, which was me taking a in a ziploc bag. So listen to Ellis Ever after on.
- [49:26]
John Middelkoff
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever.
- [49:29]
Stuckey
You get your podcast. I'm Eva Longoria.
- [49:34]
John Middelkoff
And I'm Maite Gomez Jejon.
- [49:36]
Stuckey
And on our podcast Hungry for History, we mix two, two of our favorite things. Food and history. Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto.
- [49:45]
John Middelkoff
Oyster shells and they called these ostrakan to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster.
- [49:55]
Stuckey
No way.
- [49:57]
John Middelkoff
Bring back the ostracon.
- [49:59]
Stuckey
And because we've got a very mi casa es su casa kind of vibe on our show, friends always stop by.
- [50:05]
John Middelkoff
Pretty much every entry into this side of the planet was through the El golf of El golfo de Mexico. Continual forever and ever.
- [50:18]
Stuckey
It blows me away how progressive Mexico was in this moment. They had land reform, they had labor rights, they had education rights. Mustard seeds were so valuable to the.
- [50:29]
John Middelkoff
Ancient Egyptians that they used to place.
- [50:31]
Stuckey
Them in their tombs for the afterlife. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [50:50]
John Middelkoff
Okay, back at it again. It's been a rough, rough little stretch for your boy here, Stucky. You can find my main man, Stuckey Action Network. Big bets on campus. Yeah. College basketball in full swing. College football coming down the home stretch. I don't even know what week it is for the NFL, but we're headed into the fun time. November, December. It's when you start turning on the TV and you see, you know, I can't relate. It's 80 degrees where I'm at, but watching Wisconsin play Washington, I'm like, that looks so cold. And then the next day, watching the Bears game, I'm like, no, I. I can't do. But it makes. It's. It's football weather. So, Stucky, what is happening?
- [51:31]
Stuckey
What's going on? Yeah, I was. I had a good run up until last Sunday. Had a bad Sunday. Just a couple bad calls, but that'll happen. It's on to week 11. Crazy that we're already at week 11.
- [51:48]
John Middelkoff
More.
- [51:49]
Stuckey
Some more. Like, at least we have Lions, Eagles on Sunday night. But the other prime time games and island games. Oof. I like. I mean, we got. We're recording this on Thursday. We have Jets, Pats tonight. We have Commanders, Dolphins in Madrid and then Cowboys, Raiders on Monday night.
- [52:13]
John Middelkoff
And that's terrible.
- [52:14]
Stuckey
Yeah, that's awful. And we haven't had a really compelling, exciting primetime games since, like mid October. Like Steelers, Bengals, it's been that long. Like, it's bad. It's been bad. And like, I felt overall that the NFL this year has been like, the most boring it's ever been for me. And a lot of that is. There's a lot of bad teams, a lot of bad teams in the NFL. And like, right now there's 14. I think there's 14 teams. There's 14 teams that make the playoffs. There's 14 teams that are like minus 2300 or more or better to make the playoffs. Which just shows you that, like there's a lot. And this is only a week 11. There's a lot of dregs in the league. And the NFL is like now cons. It's. And I'm going to watch every NFL game. I mean, but they have me. But when you have. When they're. When they're like slowly taking over so many different time slots, right. And they're just trying to. I mean, we're not even at that. Like holiday weeks when they're replaying on Wednesdays and Fridays. But when they take over so many time slots and the games aren't compelling because there's so many bad teams, it. It kind of wears on you and it kind of loses its luster a little bit. And then it takes away from like the late slate. So on a Sunday, right, you don't have as many games and then you're more at risk of just having three blowouts like we did last Sunday. So, yeah, we've kind of hit the dog days of the season, but this weekend at least we have a couple really compelling games. But yeah, without betting, it would be way less interesting of a season. And I'm excited for the playoffs in particular the NFC playoffs, which I think can be. Are going to be really exciting this year.
- [54:02]
John Middelkoff
Well, I want to piggyback off that point because let's look at the Monday night game. The Green bay team has three of their loss. I guess they're three losses, right? They. They scored 13 points, seven points and like 10 points. So they're not an entertaining team to watch of. I don't need 40 points, but.
- [54:21]
Stuckey
Well, neither are the Eagles might be the most boring team in the NFL.
- [54:24]
John Middelkoff
They lead the league in three and outs. I didn't know that till Aikman and Buck said that. I was like, Jesus. I. The more and more I hear AJ I go. I kind of side with the guy. Like, I mean, he's. Well, he's not. It's not just like Antonio Brown craziness. Every time he speaks, it's like he is kind of just saying factual statements here. Like, take me off my fantasy team. Our offense is broken. We have strengths. We don't use them. It's like, well, he's not wrong. He's not saying, like, he's not at least publicly calling out Jalen or the coach, he's just saying the facts. And then you look at Denver, who in theory is a dominant, you know, one of the best defenses in recent memory. The Bo Nix is unwatchable. Right? The 49ers, who. Or the Bears. One of those two teams going to make the playoffs. The Bears can look horrendous in these games. The Niners are playing me and you on defense. So it's like, yeah, part of the problem is of the 14 teams, the Chiefs, I mean, they're going to end up with 10 or 11 wins and they're just kind of a weird version of themselves this year. So it's, it's just a little off kilter. That's why it's like all the Bills, they should, this is their year. And then you watch them play the Dolphins get curb stomped. It's like, is that, Is Chauncey Billups coaching them?
- [55:32]
Stuckey
Yeah. I mean, then you have in the.
- [55:36]
John Middelkoff
What the hell was. What the hell was that? I loved him nine and a half because I was like, okay, they can take that momentum. And you honestly knew right away, especially when it was raining, you're like, they're not going to come storming back and win this game, like 40 to 25. That's not going to happen.
- [55:51]
Stuckey
Yeah, it's one of those weird games in Miami where like they were just hungover from the big win and were just flat and they were in a daze. Humid. I don't know if they were out in Miami, who knows?
- [56:01]
John Middelkoff
But the interception Josh threw, it's like, bro, he wasn't even looking at you.
- [56:06]
Stuckey
A fumble on a quarterback sneak. It was just a sloppy, sloppy all around game.
- [56:12]
John Middelkoff
Yeah.
- [56:12]
Stuckey
I mean, the one seed in the AFC is the Colts. And like they got Daniel Jones at quarterback who over the past couple weeks has reverted to some old bad habits with all.
- [56:25]
John Middelkoff
They easily, they easily could have lost if the kickoff rule wasn't changed to give them an advantage. I mean, they're, they're probably losing that game. I, I remember I was actually on Twitter right when, when Sauce flipped and you were like, he got cooked. It's like, God, that was not a great look. If anyone you, you trade for him to match up against guys like Drake London, you can't cover him. Who can you cover?
- [56:45]
Stuckey
Yeah, I mean, drop the pick. Yeah, drop like Jones had a pick, three fumbles, was sacked six times. And he's, he's starting to look like old Daniel Jones under pressure, which is worrisome going in to the playoffs. But yeah, there's going back to the Eagles and packers points. The packers have a Super bowl caliber defense. I don't think there's any doubting that. And I mean like you mentioned the games that they lost, they have three losses where they didn't give up more than 16 points.
- [57:23]
John Middelkoff
The, the 16 points for the Panthers, 10 points for the Eagles and 13 points for the Browns. They lost all those games.
- [57:29]
Stuckey
Yeah, I mean they can get pressure. Their, their coverage on the back end has been excellent. They don't really have any weaknesses on defense. Now the, that's what was so intriguing to me about the backers adding Parsons with half another year in halfley system that this defense could be top five caliber to match an offense which I thought was going to be top five caliber. But it's, it's simply not right now. And their injuries haven't helped. Right. They have a lot of injuries at wide receiver. Losing Tucker Kraft was killer and they have to figure out he was the safety blanket, the red zone guy, the third down guy. They have to figure out life after him. They also just lost their center, Elkin Jenkins who went on ir. So the injuries are starting to mount up but they're. They get too conservative at times and like they were. It's almost. And it was a bit like you mentioned, it was a huge game for Leflore and I thought it was a really bad game from the floor. Well, terrible in the sense that I mean they had a four. They had a. They probably would have won, maybe would have won the game if they completed a long past a Watson and I think the game was 7, 7 or 10, 7 at the time or 3, 3, something like that. They completed a long pass to Watson in the red zone but there was an illegal formation. One of the tackles, Darian Canard who went to Kentucky, he came in and like didn't report and like it was.
- [59:00]
John Middelkoff
The, it was the play action play where they hit him kind of coming across the middle and then they ended.
- [59:04]
Stuckey
Up all the way across on that. Then you had a fourth and one where they, they called the false start on the Tush push and they had a punt which was ironic against the Eagles which apparently they can't see false starts on this play. I don't understand how they can't when everyone else can see it. But then you had the fourth and one at the end of the game and like the second to last drive, the Eagles are calling out the play and like you're running an inside zone with your, your center just got hurt and the Eagles blew it up and Then they were.
- [59:38]
John Middelkoff
They. They had an illegal formation on that play too. So even if they would have got it, they would have gone back five yards. Legal formation, two illegal formations on two massive plays. Which the, the play action one to Watson that is clearly like a high end. Shanahan, McVeigh, Lafleur, they work on that play. They scheme it up, they have it in a perfect spot and the players it up like, I'm sorry, that is on the coach.
- [60:00]
Stuckey
Yeah.
- [60:01]
John Middelkoff
Like, everyone has to know what they're doing to line up. It's one thing if you trip and fall running around to not line up or report. It's like, that's embarrassing. Yeah, that was, that was the first moment where I went, oh, he's in trouble.
- [60:14]
Stuckey
Yeah. And then he tried like trying a 64 yarder outdoors with. I mean, I know you're not going to get a Hail Mary, although you're. That you're like, that's the king of Hail Mary's Green Bay. Now, Love doesn't throw it like Rogers, but like you McManus, who's been horrendous all year, who's like, has a bum leg. I don't know why they didn't try. They have another kicker on their roster, have a check or whatever his name is who's hit a 62 yard. I don't know why they didn't trot him out there, but he's not making that from 64. So I thought that was a bizarre decision. I mean, you're. You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. But I'm a big laor guy or what's coming in the year. But that was. It's been a rough stretch. So, yeah, they have to figure out their offense now. This week against the Giants, you can just like turn around and hand it off to Jacobs a bunch because the Giants can't defend the run. But yeah, a couple weeks like they go to Detroit and that was a big swing game for them in the NFC playoff standings. And like, you don't want getting the buy in the NFC is going to be so important. Like you could be matched up with the Rams or you could, you could be matched up with the Rams or the Seahawks in the first round. The Eagles, again, like, it's. There's no real easy path in the nfc. And then on the Eagles front too, it's the same thing. Their defense, which had been, you know, around average all year, I think is starting to round into form. You saw the addition of Jalen Phillips, Civic Fangio defense They're going to get better as the year goes on. But that was. The offense out of the buy look no different. Like, the offensive line isn't as good as last year, so Barkley can't get going. There's no creativity in the offense. Like, there's no motion. There's no play action. It's shot. They've used, like, jumbo packages a little bit recently, which has led to some more success. But as far as, like, just the overall creativity of the offense, it's like the Packers. It looked like the packers had the Eagles playbook the entire game. I mean, there was basically just like two good plays. Like, they had a dump off to Barkley, which was off script, and the long pass to Devonte Smith. Other than that, the offense didn't do anything the entire game. So as of right now, I mean, it doesn't look like neither one of these offenses are capable of getting through the nfc, but that could change by the end of the season, and we shall see. We'll get another good, good data point on the Eagles offense this week against Detroit.
- [62:38]
John Middelkoff
Okay, all these lines are presented to you by. All these lines are presented to you by my friends at Hard Rock Bet. Let's dive into another team that's pretty, I would say, polarizing right now, because a month ago you'd been like, this could be a Super Bowl. Tampa going to Buffalo. Obviously, Tampa's had a bunch of injuries, so it's hard to judge them. I think we all believe when they're fully healthy, they're really good. Buffalo, I'm not so sure. And I think for the first time, like, with LaFleur, I went this McDermott thing, like, you can only have so many runs before people because you become a product of your own success. Like, yeah, you've. You've won this division. Well, now it looks like you might not win the division. It's like, well, your offense dominated. Well, now it's struggling. And then you go to Miami, everyone's making fun of their franchise, their coach, and not only do they clown you, you got the head coach driving by your team's bar, like, laughing at you guys. Those are the type moments that is, cheesy as it might sound like start the owners pay attention to this, and all of a sudden you don't win the division.
- [63:41]
Stuckey
You.
- [63:41]
John Middelkoff
Something weird happens, depending on the matchup, wild card weekend. Now, I. I would like Buffalo, like, at Indy, probably. Like, I'm not betting against Josh Allen, against Daniel Jones, but who knows? What if they're just. They just have way better team we saw with Baltimore the last two times you guys have played. It's like Baltimore has no business losing the Bills. They have better players but Josh and, and turnovers. I, I'm tempted to take Tampa in this spot, but I, I just, I don't trust what Buffalo team I'm getting. You think they're going to be motivated because coming off this loss at home. But what if this thing just starts getting weird? What if this is that time where this was the pivot point and this ends up costing kind of the, you know, Sean McDermott who's done a really good job. I mean he helped resurrect this franchise with Josh. But it does feel like they've kind of petered out now.
- [64:29]
Stuckey
Well, the over like the, the favorite, the matchup to that we're most likely to get because now the Patriots have a decent lead in the division with a game in hand with a win in Buffalo and they have a really easy schedule the rest of the way. So the most likely end point for the Bills if they make the playoffs, I'm assuming they do is the five seed and that means they are most likely going to Baltimore who's now who's favored a decent favor to win the AFC north. And the Ravens are probably going to get. If they do, they'll get to like nine or 10 wins, which means they'll probably be the four seed. So yeah, Buffalo, instead of. With this really easy schedule that they had the favor to get the one seed going into the season, instead of having a buy in home field advantage throughout, it looks like as of right now, just based on how it looks, they might have to go to Baltimore in the first round, which is not ideal. So yeah, I mean I, I do expect a game effort from the Bills. It looks like a lot of their defenders are. We're practicing in a limited fashion yesterday, so I think they'll be relatively healthy on that side of the ball. They're. I mean usually this team loses like at home once every two years but. And they did it this year against the Patriots, but we saw them beat the Chiefs.
- [66:00]
John Middelkoff
I.
- [66:01]
Stuckey
The Bucks just are not. They're kind of broken right now. I mean if you look over the past month and a lot of that has to do with health. Right. Their offensive line isn't healthy. Bucky Irving remains out and without Bucky Irving, like the run game goes in the tank and the run game just isn't as good without Liam Cohen there. You also have Mike Evans on ir.
- [66:23]
John Middelkoff
God, when you say Bucky Irving was a big part of Liam Cohen getting a job. Like his success and his like. Yeah, I mean, because they were one of the worst rushing team for years. He, he gets there, looks awesome. Liam becomes a star.
- [66:36]
Stuckey
Yep. And then like the Bucks last year were like the best screen team of all time too, if you look at like advanced numbers. And Bucky Irving was a huge part of that. So without him like the run game, the screen game isn't as good. But more importantly, I don't think Baker's healthy. And I mean they came out of the buy against New England and then they got a late garbage time touchdown. But they only had 16, 15 points before then. Baker hasn't scrambled in four weeks. Like so he was dealing with like a groin and some like. And so I figured after the buy he would look a lot fresher, more healthy. But he didn't really scramble again last week, so I'm not sure he's hot. And a lot of what the Bucks do is. And I know Baker had good numbers last week, but it's not a great Patriots. But I, I'm just talking about just watching him. He wasn't scrambling at all. I mean he had no rush attempts and a lot of what keeps their drives going and creates explosive plays is when he's moving around and he's going to need to do that against the Bills who can get pressure. So the, the Tampa Bay offense right now is just not a well oiled machine and it's not operating at peak efficiency. I mean like yeah, they put up 30 on San Fran, but that San Francisco, I mean that's when Warner went down. They, they got, they can't stop anybody. And then you saw them go to Detroit and Baker just looked off and they were in. Detroit was playing a bunch of backups in the secondary against New Orleans the following week. Yeah, they scored 23, but there was like a pick six. Baker was 15 to 24 for 150 yards. They only rushed for three yards of carry. I mean they only, they finished that game with 212 total yards of offense. And then last week it, it just didn't look all the way there. So if I had to bet this game, I mean my favorite look at it is probably under, it's come down a little bit, but there's going to be some weather and the way to attack this Bill's defense is with the run. They, they struggle to defend the run, but Tampa's rushing offense, not there right now. Baker not really running and moving that well. And the Bills want to Run the ball a lot, sometimes too much when you have Josh Allen. But the Bucs arguably have the best run defense in the NFL. So I think there's a lot of paths to where, you know, both defenses are getting stops. You throw in the weather here as well. Let me look at the updated weather. Yeah, there's going to be wind, which might dampen some of the downfield shots that both of these quarterbacks are certainly capable of hitting. Kincaid banged up for the Bills as well, so, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't blame you for taking the points. So my, I think my best look is the under in that game. There's, there's something off with this Tampa offense right now, but the Bills have been very Jekyll and Hyde all year.
- [69:37]
John Middelkoff
The, the NFC west is doing a little round robin these last two weeks. Seattle hosted Arizona, the Niners hosted the Rams. Now the Niners are going to Arizona and Seattle is going to la. Kyle said yesterday, before we dive into the big game, Kyle said yesterday that all signs, unless there's a setback in the next 24, 48 hours, that Purdy's probably going to start, which I do think is a little risky in the sense that Mac Jones been really good and especially like, I mean, he has destroyed the Rams. Right. If the 49ers had their normal defense, they, they would have been right in that game. They just had no chance to slow them down. But offensively they kind of did whatever they wanted. And you know, Purdy coming back, Pearsall might come back. The Cardinals obviously lose Harrison, they're kind of in shambles, but I would imagine, I guess that that that final score didn't kind of hold up of like the 30 or 40 point beat down because Donald kind of fell apart in the second half. So it looked a lot closer than it was. I mean, it was 35 nothing pretty quick. That, that feels like one of the faster 35 nothing accomplishments in league history because it was 20 to 1 nothing before you could even blink. And I, I guess I, I listen, if Purdy comes back, you just better win because if you were to lose and he were to play bad, obviously when you pay a guy $180 million, I'm not acting like there's a quarterback controversy, but the other quarterback was playing well. You bring this guy in off the shelf for basically a month and a half. I, I just now there it's going to be a Niner home game in Arizona, especially with how shitty Arizona is. Might be like 95 Niner fans, but I do Think there's some pressure of Purdy plays to, like, look kind of good because the other guy's kind of rolling.
- [71:18]
Stuckey
Yeah, I mean, I'm tempted to.
- [71:19]
John Middelkoff
I, like I'm taking the Niners -3, but that defense makes me nervous. I just wonder if the Cardinals are starting to do a little 1, 2, 3. Rosarita.
- [71:29]
Stuckey
Yeah, I'm. I'm tempted to take the three, but, like, it's. The Cardinals are a mess right now. I mean, it gets. How many times can they throw to McBride here? But, I mean, the 49ers cannot generate any pressure at all now. Their defense can't stop anybody. I mean, like, I don't care who you have out there, the Cardinals are probably going to move the ball. It's gonna be like Greg Dortch, Michael.
- [71:50]
John Middelkoff
Zay Jones broke his leg or something.
- [71:53]
Stuckey
They have some offensive line questions. The defense, too is also really banged up. They were without two starting corners last week.
- [71:59]
John Middelkoff
Mack Wilson, they couldn't even practice on Wednesday. They had too many injuries.
- [72:03]
Stuckey
Yeah, their defensive line has injuries, linebacker, secondary. So they just might be too decimated to do anything. But it's hard to trust this 49ers laying. Like asking them when by margin, with the state of their defense. I mean, it has been. They just have no one left. The injuries have been horrifying. And this was a star. We talked about this all year. This was a stars and scrubs built defense that, you know, they had a massive, the biggest free agency exodus of defensive players, money wise, in the offseason that we've ever seen. So they said, okay, well, we le. We still have Bosa, we still have Warner. Well, now you don't. And then you even have more injuries after that. So, yeah, it's, It's. It's a tough, tough scene for that defense. And the other thing that I'll, I'll mention because it is a bit risky and with Purdy, because, number one, I mean, I'm sure they wouldn't put him out there unless he was 100% healthy. But I mean, maybe. Maybe at home against the Panthers next week would be a good spot. This is a nice Runway. Like you're at Arizona, you're home against the Panthers before you go to Cleveland, where you lost last year. And that, that defense is, Is going to be good at home, but there's, there's potential for rust. Like, we see this all the time.
- [73:26]
John Middelkoff
That's what I'm saying. That's my point.
- [73:28]
Stuckey
Yeah. Who have been off for a while and now you're taking this offense that has been humming, I mean, over the past month and a half. I mean, what, Mac Jones throw for what, seven, like, 650 combined yards against the Rams in a split? And the offense has not been the problem. And, you know, against the Texans, that's like the best defense in the league. And the defense couldn't get off the field in that game. And. And the Texans were playing without all their receivers. So you got to remember that game, like, Arizona doesn't have the receivers. The Texans didn't have any receivers in that game, a really bad offensive line, and basically just held the ball the entire game because the 49ers couldn't get off the field. So there's a path where the. The Cardinals can do something similar. But that's what I would worry about with Purdy. It's like, that first game, is there rust? And then, like, how long does it take for him to get going and shake it off? Because this deep with this defense, you might be in a hole.
- [74:35]
John Middelkoff
It's okay not to be okay sometimes and be able to build strength and love within each other. Thanksgiving isn't just about food.
- [74:43]
Stuckey
It's a day for us to show up for one another. I'm Elliot Connie, host of the podcast Family Therapy, a series where real families come together to heal and find hope. What would be a clue that would be like, I've gotten lots of text messages from him. This one's from a little bit better of a version of him because he's feeding himself for. Well, it's always a concern, like, are you eating well?
- [75:02]
John Middelkoff
He's actually an amazing cook. There was this one time where we.
- [75:06]
Stuckey
Had neighbors and I saved their dog, and I ended up inviting them over for food.
- [75:10]
John Middelkoff
And that was, like, one of my proudest moments.
- [75:13]
Stuckey
This is Family Therapy. Real families, real stories on a journey to heal together. Listen to season two of Family Therapy every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Eva Longoria.
- [75:31]
John Middelkoff
And I'm Maite Gomez Jejun.
- [75:32]
Stuckey
And on our podcast Hungry for History, we mix two of our favorite things. Food and history. Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto.
- [75:42]
John Middelkoff
Oyster shells, and they called these ostrakon to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster.
- [75:52]
Stuckey
No way.
- [75:53]
John Middelkoff
Bring back the ostrichon.
- [75:55]
Stuckey
And because we've got a very mi casa es su casa kind of vibe on our show, friends always stop by.
- [76:02]
John Middelkoff
Pretty much every entry into this side of the planet was through The El golfo de Mexico. No, the America. No, the America. El fo de Mexico. Continual forever and ever.
- [76:15]
Stuckey
It blows me away how progressive Mexico was in this, in this moment. They had land reform, they had labor rights, they had education rights. Mustard seeds were so valuable to the.
- [76:25]
John Middelkoff
Ancient Egyptians that they used to place.
- [76:27]
Stuckey
Them in their tombs for the afterlife. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way. Can we get a Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry. Hey, y', all, it's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, whether you're cooking for the family out buying gifts for the kids, or crowded in holiday traffic, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. On Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family.
- [77:06]
John Middelkoff
If you feeling like you feeling that's.
- [77:08]
Stuckey
Probably because you a good parent. Friendship.
- [77:10]
John Middelkoff
Be careful what you put in your body. Move your body and love it the way you love them cars, that house, them clothes, them shoes.
- [77:19]
Stuckey
Love yourself, them brunches, love and marriage. You know what's become attractive to me? And it's because I've self corrected and.
- [77:25]
John Middelkoff
I guess I detoxified myself.
- [77:28]
Stuckey
Accountability. Oh yeah.
- [77:30]
John Middelkoff
Like it has become so attractive to.
- [77:33]
Stuckey
Me and everything else in between. I've told my most investors embarrassing moment on this podcast before, which was me taking a in a Ziploc bag. So listen to Ellis Ever after on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [77:49]
John Middelkoff
You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robyn Dixon is here dropping every Monday as two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know, we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us. Each and every Monday, I was going through a walk in my neighborhood. Out of the blue, I see this huge sign next to somebody's house. Okay, the sign says, my neighbor is a Karen. No way. I died laughing. I'm like, I have to know. You are lying.
- [78:40]
Stuckey
Humongous, y'.
- [78:40]
John Middelkoff
All. They had some time on their hands, right? Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome fellow seekers of the dark.
- [78:55]
Stuckey
I'm Danny Trejo.
- [78:57]
John Middelkoff
Won't you join me in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows an ethology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America. Take a trip from ghastly encounters with evil spirits to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures and experience the horrors to head have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Okay, let's get dive into the heavyweight matchups. My logic on this one's pretty simple. We talked about it last week. I think the difference between Seattle and LA and it was on full display with Mac Jones throwing with with his eyes closed for 300 yards to random guys, the LA secondary is just not very good. And and I, I, I think Seattle secondary is really good now. I think that the thing you would be nervous of like obviously Darnold I I don't even count. The second half has been remarkable and Stafford feels like he's playing. It's pretty crazy to think back like three months ago that it's like I might be out on the Rams cause his back's fucked and it's like well he looks fine to me. So I but it doesn't even feel like he was rope it open. It's like his back was legitimately hurt but unlike Kershaw just like magically went away and he's fine. And Devonte did get banged up in that game. I saw this morning that it looks like he's going to play. He's got eight touchdowns. I mean if you sign a guy and he brings you 12 or 14 touchdowns, a running back or a wide receiver, that's an incredible signing. You know so and Devonte and him look like they have Aaron Rodgers level rapport. But I just think the difference in this game is Seattle secondary. I mean LA can't cover anybody so I don't like I love Seattle plus three. I also think, I'm not saying like 49 or level, but I do think there's going to be a lot of Seahawks fans there. And this is the thing with these LA teams, they don't really have home field advantages. This is not, I would argue it's like the worst in the league for teams that matter.
- [81:28]
Stuckey
Yeah, I mean and Seattle's traveled really well under McDonald. I mean they've arguably been better on the road than at home in, in his tenure.
- [81:37]
John Middelkoff
And yeah, I mean they lost like one game.
- [81:39]
Stuckey
I mean yeah, I think they were like nine and one over the past 10 road games. I. Yeah, I mean I made this case. I made this case last week when I was talking about the. Over the 49ers Rams over in that I think that the Rams defense is overrated because over the past month they played Tyler Schuck and the Saints. They played the Ravens with Cooper Rush.
- [82:00]
John Middelkoff
Chuck looked pretty good last week though.
- [82:01]
Stuckey
What's that?
- [82:02]
John Middelkoff
The highlights of that game. You watched Chuck last week looked pretty good.
- [82:04]
Stuckey
He did. He. Yeah, he had. He showed some signs that at least the Saints fans have something to look forward to at least for the time being in another lost season. But you know, for. Based on who they played. And then you look like. Remember the first time Mac Jones without Kittle, without his receivers carved them up and then he did it again. Their weakness is clearly their secondary. And then I could make the. I could also make the case that the circumstances Seahawks, their defense is underrated at the moment because they played a. They put a large stretch of the season with a lot of injuries in the secondary. They've had some guys step up. They're getting healthier on the back end. And this is a front much like the Rams that can get pressure without blitzing, which gives you so much flexibility and allows you to cover so much more efficiently. So yeah, I mean I think that the clear weak unit in this game is the 49ers. I mean, excuse me, the. The Rams secondary. So taking the three. I don't hate it. We'll see if now this is a completely different offense for Darnold.
- [83:13]
John Middelkoff
Can the Rams win the super bowl, let alone the division with a secondary that just can't cover people in a passing league.
- [83:19]
Stuckey
It's. It's going to be tough. But like if you look at who, like what passing offense really, really scares you in the NFC playoffs. So it's certainly not the Eagles. Right. Like they can. I mean they should have won in Philly, but again they're secondary. Phillies offense came to life for it. It was like the third. The only time they put up like 26 points in the second half.
- [83:48]
John Middelkoff
But that's not Seattle. The. Not the Niners. If that's like a 2 7. Let's say they won the division would just. They. They're just comfortable playing them.
- [83:56]
Stuckey
Yeah, but I just don't. The defense is not going to be in a state where they can beat the Rams. I don't think, you know, Detroit is probably the team that you'd worry about. Maybe Tampa if they're healthy. So there Are some teams. There are some games where the Rams are probably going to have to outscore just winning a shootout, I think, in the NFC playoffs, depending on their path.
- [84:21]
John Middelkoff
But they actually match up pretty well against the Eagles then, huh? Like, the secondary doesn't kill you if they're not.
- [84:27]
Stuckey
Yeah, like the Eagles, I mean, they almost won in Philly in the snow last year, which, with like, that was not an ideal situation and road environment in the snow, playing Barkley. And they had a chance to win that game at the end. And then obviously we're up 26,7 this year in Philly. So, yeah, I think it's a decent matchup for the Rams that they wouldn't mind having to play the Eagles. But these are two. You know, these are really interesting teams. They're kind of ahead of the curve, and it's kind of the. The new, you know, most efficient way to move the ball in the NFL is using heavy personnel and throwing out of it and just causing. And the Ravens have done this for the past couple years, which has made their offense such a matchup nightmare because you've had years of, you know, 11 personnel spread and defenses have adjusted, right. And then that's how they built their defenses. Well, now, I mean, it's a cyclical league and it's cat and mouse, you know, robber and cop, you know, criminal and cop type of just back and forth. And now offenses are starting to adjust and go a little heavier and throwing out of that. That's what the. The Seahawks have done a lot of, like, they don't run the ball very well, but they use that run to kind of set up the pass, set up their play action out of heavy personnel, create mismatches. And the Rams have really leaned into it over the past month. Over the past month, they've used 13 personnel. 40% of the time, three tight ends on the field, they're like. And they're just ripping defenses apart with it. That's a fascinating chess match in this game. Not only do you have McVay versus McDonald, which is awesome, but you have these two teams that are, you know, kind of ahead of the rest of the NFL with how they're moving the ball, but both offenses know, you know, both teams know that they play against it. So who can make the better adjustments against these unique offensive formations? Really interesting, but I. I don't mind taking the points here. I can't wait for this game. These are two teams that keep winning and keep covering. They're both, I believe, both sides, seven and two straight up and seven and two against the spread, two best in the league. So, yeah, I mean, taking the field goal, I think makes sense.
- [86:49]
John Middelkoff
Well, that's the millennial coaching matchup with McDonald and McVeigh. This is the Boomer coaching matchup with Andy and Peyton. I looked earlier today that now, granted, week 18 last year, the Chiefs had already wrapped it up. And I don't know if we're playing for much. Bo Nix, I think through for over 300 yards against him, but I do remember him playing, like, decently well against them in the game that they missed a field goal or had the field goal blocked right at home in the middle of the season. Now, the version that we have seen lately is just, it's, it's been tough to watch. I saw his, a little, some clips of his press conference, kind of trying to downplay, you know, criticism and just trying to have fun. And the entertainment value like this just. We make too big a deal. It's like, Bo, you've been making millions of dollars playing this sport since college, buddy. Like, this is, this isn't just like fun and games here. Like, this is a huge business. You're feeling the pressure. You're clearly not playing well. You lost your confidence. But this isn't like a uncommon opponent, right, for a, for a young player. He has seen these guys a couple times, I would imagine. This is the type team that, over the off season, you know, in OTAs or whatever, they put some periods in. This is something that is talked about in that building probably over and over and over, you know, through training camp, right before the season starts. So this is a, this is a huge spot. I'm tempted to just take the home team with the points, but I would be kicking myself if all of a sudden, you know, it's 17 to 7 and he's just skipping balls and looking like he's looked. It's like, how did I put any money on Bo Nix? But just out of principle, they have, what, 46 sacks this year? The defense is awesome. You know, Chiefs, I guess they get Simmons back, which is big. So I, I, I, it's, it's hard to bet against the Chiefs, even though it's like, God, you're, they're a huge home dog and they're eight and two. It's pretty crazy. With the best defense of the league.
- [88:48]
Stuckey
Yeah, I mean, you have to. They're a little banged up. The Broncos as well. I mean, I don't think certain is going to play again. Singleton at linebacker, they have a couple injuries at linebacker, but Certain is the big one. Like their defense is not the same without him. Now, they've won two straight, but they beat the Raiders and they beat the Texans after Stroud got her. That's who they played since Sir Tam went out. Not exactly. You know, they're the best offenses in the league. Now you're going up against Mahomes. This sets up as just a pure chief spot. Like they're coming off of a buy. It's close to a must win. I mean, it's insane. As of right now, the Chiefs aren't in the playoffs. The season ended today. They're not in the playoffs. And if they lose this game, like the division.
- [89:36]
John Middelkoff
Well, they, if they lose in the Jags beat the Chargers, they would be in some trouble. Yes.
- [89:40]
Stuckey
Yeah. Jags, Chargers, huge game. The biggest leverage game of the weekend. Jags win, they go, I think 60% to make the playoffs. If they lose, it's down to like 20. If the Chargers win, it's up to like 85, 90. If they lose, it's a coin flip. Huge game among teams that are battling each other because you get like the head to head as well.
- [90:06]
John Middelkoff
So who are the Chiefs rooting for in that game?
- [90:09]
Stuckey
That's a.
- [90:10]
John Middelkoff
Probably the Jags. That just go away.
- [90:12]
Stuckey
That's a good question. They lost to both. So.
- [90:19]
John Middelkoff
I looked at the Charger schedule this morning. It actually gets pretty hard. Like, I mean, they still got a lot of good teams on. It's not like they have a bunch of like Raiders and Panthers on there.
- [90:28]
Stuckey
Yeah. And the Chiefs host them. That's a tough one. I mean, the Jag schedule at the end gets pretty easy. That was a killer loss to the Texans when they blew that lead. But they get. They had the jets, they had the Titans twice. They have the Cardinals after this. So, you know, there's like four really winnable chart.
- [90:54]
John Middelkoff
Chargers still play the Eagles. They go to Kansas City, they have to go to Dallas. They play the Texans, which is going to be a tough matchup for them with their line.
- [91:02]
Stuckey
Yeah.
- [91:02]
John Middelkoff
And they go to Denver. So, I mean, it's. Some of these matchups with their O line are going to be really, really challenging.
- [91:08]
Stuckey
Yeah, yeah. They might be rooting for the Jags, but that's a good question. I'll have to look into that.
- [91:16]
John Middelkoff
They just need to win before they can root for anybody.
- [91:18]
Stuckey
But like this sets up as a cheese. But I mean, the Broncos have been. I mean, it's. It. They've been fool's gold all year. I mean, the defense is really good. But now it's not healthy. And I mean you're talking about a team that and Bo Nixes has is playing horrendously like so many off target throws and so many misses downfield. And this is a team. I mean you look at their, their when he's looked good and Bo Nix's numbers get into sad territory if you remove the Cowboys game at home and the Bengals game at home and those are two defenses that are historically bad. You look at the rest of the schedule. I mean they beat the jets by two who threw for negative 10 passing yards. They beat the Giants by one. They were down, they didn't score in the first three quarters. The Giants set to go prevent. They all their secondary guys get hurt and they come back, they win by one. They beat the Texans by three. Probably lose that game of Stroud doesn't get hurt. They only put up 18 points and then they only put up 10 against the Raiders defense and it didn't look great. So yeah, I mean they're just, they're a ticking time bomb and this is the team.
- [92:29]
John Middelkoff
He, he was her. He was horrendous on Thursday night.
- [92:31]
Stuckey
It was bad.
- [92:32]
John Middelkoff
He really was.
- [92:34]
Stuckey
They have so many come from. I mean I think they're 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 and 1, 7 and 2 in one score games. Like they become the Chiefs and the Chiefs can't win a close game this year. Now granted they went 110 last year. That that stuff tends to revert. But The Chiefs are 0 and 2, 0 and 3. The Chiefs are all in four in one possession games this year. So this all this all sets up for like a Chiefs close win and I but the numbers matter and like this is three and a half. That's expensive. I mean you're paying for the spot and you're paying for everyone pretty much knowing that the Broncos are a bit of a fraud and banged up and the Chiefs really need this game. So I would imagine like the sharper side is the Broncos but I'll probably have the Chiefs some form or fashion. Maybe like a square moneyline parlay or something. But I can't get to the number to like show value and wanting to lay three and a half, four points on the road. Denver still great home field event. It's still a really good defense that can get pressure. So. But if Knicks is a disaster they're going to get blown out. So he's going to.
- [93:46]
John Middelkoff
I agree. I'm going Lions Sunday Night Football. Looking at the schedule, if you just looked at the Eagles, if They split the Packers Lions game. They were going to be in great shape because they go, they got Dallas, they get the Raiders, they get the commanders, they get the Bears at home, you know, on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, they get the commanders again. You know, they set it up for like thinking Eagles commanders. We're going to come down to the wire and now the Eagles get to lick their chops, you know, with playing them two of the last three games. Now they're one really hard game after Lions is at Buffalo. But I don't think this is must win. When you kind of look around the nfc, even though obviously you would say going into it, you know, they're probably more likely to win at home against Detroit outdoors than they would travel to Green Bay. And you know, they easily could have lost that game if Green Bay just pulls her head out of their ass. But I, I don't know, man. I, I just. Dan Campbell, hard to judge playing the Dan Quinn, just atrocious defense right now, but I think Dan Campbell might have found a little mojo. And what I think is big is Dan's really good at understanding his players and I think they started turning on the other guy. Right. So it's like Dan's been part of the game plan. I'm, I'm not comparing him to Ben Johnson as a play caller, but like he works hand in hand. Like he, he knew the, he's on the headset, so it's like he knows his guys really well. I just think that's a huge motivational lift of like when players, especially veteran all pro Pro bowl level guys, turn on a coach, especially if he's somewhat of an outsider. I saw this with the 49ers when Fred Warner and Nick Bosa were like, we don't fuck with this Steve Wilkes guy. Like, we just don't believe he knows what he's doing. And when that happens, it's, it's even high end guys can kind of just kind of go into a tank. We're all human beings. And I do wonder if Dan Campbell just gave them a little life putting on those glasses and calling, I don't know, just pretty basic plays to Jameson Williams.
- [95:52]
Stuckey
Yeah, I mean, yeah, they went. They finally leaned into the pass more. I talked about this last week. I mean, I bet the commanders. What, what an amazing bet last week. But I talked about how the Lions offense had gone into a tent and into the tank for the past month and they couldn't run the ball at all. A lot of that had to do with the offensive line line not Being as good, offensive line, injuries, the interior not being as good. But if you look at like pass rush, I mean pass rate over expectation. This is the first game all year that they were positive now, so. And Morton, I just, I, I didn't like the play calling and then they went and changed it. And you had Campbell. Where I'm struggling with this game is. I mean if the Eagles are, are also like a ticking time, I mean they've gone six and one in one possession games they could have lost. I mean you had Kelsey drop that pass in the end zone. The Rams, the blocked field goal. You know, you had the Vikings who were in the red zone like seven times and only came away with like two, two scores. They could have easily lost that game. And then the packers, like that was a coin flip game. They're six and one in one possession games. And the reason is that their offense, I mean almost unless they're playing the Giants, who can. They can't stop the run. Their offense on a weekly basis almost like goes. They almost go like a whole half without scoring a point.
- [97:10]
John Middelkoff
You agree their offensive line is not, I mean it's a shell of what it was last year. Lane Johnson's in and out of the lineup with always getting banged up. There's worse. Guard, guard, center, guard is not as good.
- [97:19]
Stuckey
Way worse. Ms. Becton, Jurgen's been out there and Lane Johnson's clearly just not 100 healthy. So yeah, their offensive line. And that's why if you look at Barkley's numbers, they're, they've fallen off a cliff as far as like yards before contact and he just doesn't have the same lanes that he did. And the offense, Yeah, I mean this offense is, is hard to trust right now. But you got to give credit to the Eagles for just finding ways to win games.
- [97:48]
John Middelkoff
I, I said this yesterday. Sirianni has kind of turned into what Tomlin would have been like 12, 13, 14. Like he can handle a lot of shit. This AJ Brown thing would break a lot of young coaches. Like it's pretty just, you know how Philly is. It's a lot going on. He is 55 and 22. I get. He's got a lot of good players and a great general manager. But like I, I listen, I've been a hater over the years. You're 55 and 22, it's like. And you won a Super Bowl. What are you gonna say?
- [98:15]
Stuckey
Yeah, he, I think he's. Because he's underrated in some of the in game stuff that he does with like, the game management, clock management. I think he's very underrated in that. In that aspect. But where I'm struggling with this game is you. I mean, you nailed it. How much? So the Lions offense, which hadn't been trending well, Dan Campbell goes to play car. And they did change some things and how they approached the game plan last week and how often they were throwing. But how much of that is okay? Dan Campbell in the lines offensive? Or was it the Washington defense who looked. Yeah, first of all, they're really bad. Second of all, like, you have pain. Your only good player, like, throws a punch and gets thrown out. Like, just signs of. They didn't want to be there. So how much do I, like, take. I don't know what to take away from that game. How much was it Washington? How much is it Detroit? Tough to tell. I do think it's gonna be better, but by what magnitude? And then you have the Eagles defense, which for the full season wasn't great. It was, you know, by some advanced metrics, it was like a league average group. You know, they weren't bad, but they weren't great. And they weren't as good as last year, but they just didn't have the same edge rush. Their secondary wasn't as good like after some of the losses that they had in the off season. But this is a Fangio defense coming out of the buy. You add Jaylen Phillips, who looked really good and provided much needed juice off the edge.
- [99:39]
John Middelkoff
He did.
- [99:40]
Stuckey
But how much of that was Green Bay's offensive being broken and their injuries? Because, I mean, at the end they were throwing to like, Bo Melton. There's a reason they were trying to make him a corner. So, like, how much do I take away from that Eagles defense? Are they back to, like, being the elite unit? So I don't know. I don't have a strong feel on this game. There is some sharp money on the Eagles early in the week. Let me see if that line's at right now. I mean, I can.
- [100:08]
John Middelkoff
The thing is, Mitch, the Lions, I mean, Amon Ra is their quote, unquote one. But he's kind of a unique. It's not like he's CD Lamb or Justin Jefferson. They move them all around where Mitchell, right. It's like tailor made. You just put him on CD Lamb or, you know, CD Lamb lines up in the same places where the Lions kind of, you know, move their offensive weapons kind of all around. Right. So it's. It's a little unique that they would rather Just have Mitchell Garden, CD Lamb or Justin Jefferson or whatever. But that's not really the Lion's deal.
- [100:36]
Stuckey
Yeah. Yeah, that's a tough deal because he's.
- [100:39]
John Middelkoff
Because he's. Because he's awesome. He's. He's good. Yes, That's a good pick.
- [100:43]
Stuckey
He's. He's amazing. Let me see the. The. Yeah, you do have golf outdoors. Like, I could see the case where it's just like the. You trust the Eagles defense at home against golf outdoors, but it's hard to trust that. That Eagles off a turn. I'm gonna see. The weather is stunning.
- [101:01]
John Middelkoff
I do think their defense, like watching that Monday night game is like Jalex Hunt. I mean, he looks like he's got a chance to be a pretty good player. You add Phillips, obviously, Jalen Carter. They have multiple linebackers.
- [101:14]
Stuckey
Yeah, linebackers are really good.
- [101:15]
John Middelkoff
And you got Mitchell and Cooper. And then if you just kind of rotate the other guys, like most teams don't have like seven good corners. I. I never feel that, like much sympathy. It's like, well, we're missing a corner. It's like, well, yeah, most teams are rolling out random corners. Like, welcome to the NFL.
- [101:31]
Stuckey
Yeah. I mean, look. Yeah, Hunt. I mean, Nolan Smith. I mean Dean.
- [101:36]
John Middelkoff
Yeah, he's back too. I mean.
- [101:38]
Stuckey
Yeah, now you have like Campbell coming off, like, coming off the edge with Phillips. So they're starting to get some more.
- [101:46]
John Middelkoff
Depth and they got Vic.
- [101:47]
Stuckey
Yeah. Now they can't. Like, if they lose, they. The one position where they cannot lose anyone is they can't lose Carter or. Or Davis. Like the. The D line, they're down. Defensive lineman still has like, no depth. It's like rookies behind them. But the rest defense is starting to fill out. I'm interested to see they also signed how he brought in how he generally makes very smart, sharp moves outside of getting Jair Alexander, who's stepped away from it.
- [102:14]
John Middelkoff
Yeah. Do you get it? Do you get a redo on that one or. Yeah, the Ravens will get their pick, but they did.
- [102:20]
Stuckey
They did bring in Michael Carter, who's the cornerback. Michael Carter. So, like, does that enable them over time to then play DeJean and Williams on the outside and then play Carter in the nickel? That's an interesting potential wrinkle because their. Their biggest weakness. One of their biggest weaknesses on defense besides edge rush, which. Which looks like to be improving on the upswing, is their second corner position has been a real weakness and one that other teams have really attacked because additionally their safeties aren't great. So that could be an added wrinkle. You also have to keep in mind like Jurgens is banged up. I mean all their offensive linemen like on the other offensive linemen besides my otter on the injury report. So how healthy is Lane Johnson? The numbers with and without Lane Johnson are are stunning and they've also been going jumbo a lot which has helped the offense a bit but without Lane Johnson that's much harder to do and you can't do that as frequently. But like Steen Dickerson they're also on the injury report so there's some things to watch here. I just don't have a great feel. I think we'll but I mean it's just hard. Like the Lions are probably going to score. They score on mostly everyone and if the Eagles offense goes into a tank for a half like it's eventually going to burn them and if this Campbell bump is real then I can see the Eagles getting upset but I just don't have a strong feel. Like I really want another data point where of this Eagles defense out of the buy after some of the additions and with this Lions offense looks with a new play caller one game that's.
- [103:55]
John Middelkoff
Tough because a little bit like you know playing the Washington Commanders the Giants defense is pretty horrendous and Caleb made some awesome plays with his feet. They obviously had a bunch of drops but you know it's freezing cold. You're going to drop the ball sometimes outdoors. But the Vikings, I mean there was that one play was it the Humphrey pick? I think it was the Humphrey pick, not the Starks pick where Jefferson just quit. He's like I'm just, I'm not even chasing him and sometimes I'll defend like it's like I, I look at the quarterback I have to play with right now. What are we doing? So it's I sometimes I will defend like obviously Antonio Brown. There's a level of like yeah Terrell Owens but like I, I don't mind Jefferson being like hey guys, what the hell did you you just signed me up for? Because this is a joke. This is not a two win team developing a quarterback here. We were tailor made ready to win and this guy, he can have a good play and then he can just make a play like he's the worst quarterback in the NFL. But the Bears have stretches where one their defense is horrendous. I mean their defense is not Jackson Dart was destroying them and if Brian Dabal just didn't hate Russell Wilson with the power of a thousand suns and accepts a Penalty and scores. And instead of kicking the field goal, I would imagine they win that game. And that probably led to day ball getting fired. But I don't have a feel for this thing. I guess I would just lean the Bears. But again, you have to take the Bears record with a grain of salt with how they look throughout most of these games. They're pulling games out of their ass with Caleb running around. But I have. There's no way, and I mean no way I could put money on J.J. mcCarthy.
- [105:35]
Stuckey
Well, I did. I could have guessed that.
- [105:40]
John Middelkoff
I. Yeah, because you like Flores against Caleb.
- [105:44]
Stuckey
He's. I mean, McCarthy's looked really bad. There's no doubt about that in his defense. I mean, my defense is he gets to play the Bears defense, the Bears defense, which has been a bot. Like if you remove turnovers, I mean this is A team they're plus 14 on the season on turnover margin. Like they have eight fumbles, they've only lost two. Their opponents have nine fumbles, they've recovered seven. They've also played the easiest strength of schedule in the league. I mean, their wins are the Cowboys the commanders by one because of fumbles. The Raiders by one because of Geno Turner was out game by like 300 yards in that game.
- [106:24]
John Middelkoff
Bengals.
- [106:24]
Stuckey
The Bengals the sinks and the Giants. They needed miraculous comebacks against the Raiders, the Commanders, the Bengals and the Giants. I mean they lose that game. Dart doesn't get hurt. And today. But that's like you could argue that those are the six worst defenses in the league. And like if you. So if you remove turnovers, The Bears are 30th in EPA per play on defense. Basically right with the Bengals and Cowboys. If you look at early downs of first and second down without turnovers, which are more predictive than third downs, more variance, they're dead last. And he's worse than the Bengals and the Cowboys. Like, this defense can't get pressure. They can't stop the run. The Kyler Gordon and Jalen Johnson, two of their best players, are on IR at the corner position. So I think that even The Vikings and McCarthy can move the ball even if they want to run it. The Bears can't cover the receivers. Hopefully McCarthy can get them the ball. And I will say in fairness, the Eagles, the Vikings past five games have been against the Eagles, Ravens, Chargers, Lions and Packers. A lot of good defenses in there, a lot of good teams. Meanwhile, the Bears have been playing nothing but clowns. They even got to play the Ravens with. With Snoop Huntley who went up and down the field on them. So, yeah, I mean, the Bears have four crazy comebacks with an easiest schedule in the league. They could easily be a 3 and 6 team and Vikings with their defense. Their defense is going to be the best unit on the field. Their run these improved since they've gotten healthier with Van Ginkel and Get and Cashman. And look, Caleb's playing better this year and the run game's been really good. But you got to remember he's played horrendous defenses all year and you watch him, he's still bailing from the pocket. He's still not efficient. He's making some really nice plays downfield and they're explosive, but he's bailing from the pocket almost immediately. If you'll see him just like 180 out and then running around, I don't think that can work against the Flores defense. This is still a huge home field advantage for the Vikings and like a must win. I, I, McCarthy's hard to trust as a favorite, but this, this Bears team and Caleb hasn't been good as good on the road. This Bears team is, is, is due to not have some bounces go their way. And I think even with McCarthy, this Vikings offense can move the ball pretty much at will against the Bears.
- [108:50]
John Middelkoff
O' Connell gets a little pass happy. You know, I mean, that's, he likes, he's got a little Andy Reid McVeigh. He, he would rather pass it every single play than ever run.
- [108:58]
Stuckey
Yes.
- [108:59]
John Middelkoff
And I do, I do think that is very difficult on a quarterback who was trained and I would say, you know, probably got a graduate level degree playing at Michigan for Harbaugh and Crew. He learned playing football the complete opposite. So this is a stark contrast of like, hey, man, you got Jerry Rice over here and you got, you know, Joey Galloway over here, and we're going bombs away. It's like, that's not how this kid learned how to play. So in fairness to jj, they're asking him to do something that, and he's barely played in the NFL. He's coming off an injury. His, the, the, the pre. He's playing good opponents. It's, it's not going well. Once I saw Jefferson, just like, I was like, this is, there's a lot going on there.
- [109:41]
Stuckey
It was a bad, it was bad last week, but it should be much easier because it's not like the Ravens.
- [109:46]
John Middelkoff
Even played that great. Would you agree with that?
- [109:47]
Stuckey
Yeah, no, I, Lamar, like, their, their defense still can't stop the run. It's like the Vikings were able to run it. I think they averaged like six yards per carry. McCarthy just missed. He doesn't run it and McCarthy just missed a bunch of throws. It was, it was not a good look. But I will say the raid in secondary has legit elite talent. The Bears have one of the worst in their 31st EPA per drop back. It's, it's a bad, bad secondary and they don't get pressure. So if there's ever an opportunity for McCarthy to move the ball and he's only like he had one, his one good quarter did come against the Bears in his first game when they came back to win that game, which I think just says more about the Bears defense. So yeah, this is like this will be a much easier test for him.
- [110:43]
John Middelkoff
Welcome fellow seekers of the dark.
- [110:46]
Stuckey
I'm Danny Trejo.
- [110:48]
John Middelkoff
Won't you join me in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow, an ethology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America. Take a trip from ghastly encounters with evil spirits to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning. Beginning of time. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robyn Dixon is here dropping every Monday as two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know, we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday I was going through a walk in my neighborhood. Out of the blue, I see this huge sign next to somebody's house. The sign says my neighbor is a Karen. No way. I died laughing. I'm like, I have to know and you are lying human.
- [112:34]
Stuckey
Humongous, y'. All.
- [112:35]
John Middelkoff
They had some time on their hands. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's okay not to be okay sometimes and be able to build strength and love within each other. Thanksgiving isn't just about food.
- [112:55]
Stuckey
It's a day for us to show up for one another. I'm Eliakhani, host of the podcast Family Therapy, a series where real families come together to heal and find hope. What would be a clue that would be Like, I've gotten lots of text messages from him. This one's from a little bit better of a version of him because he's feeding himself well. It's always a concern, like, are you eating well?
- [113:15]
John Middelkoff
He's actually an amazing cook. There was this one time where we.
- [113:18]
Stuckey
Had neighbors and I saved their dog and I ended up inviting them over for food.
- [113:22]
John Middelkoff
And that was like one of my proudest moments.
- [113:25]
Stuckey
This is family therapy. Real families, real stories on a journey to heal together. Listen to season two of family therapy every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Can we get a Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry. Hey, y', all. It's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, whether you're cooking for the family, out buying gifts for the kids, or crowded in holiday traffic, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. On Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family.
- [114:09]
John Middelkoff
If you feeling like you feeling that's probably because you a good parent, friendship. Be careful what you put in your body. Move your body and love it the way you love them cars, that house and clothes, them shoes, shoes, Love yourself.
- [114:22]
Stuckey
Them brunches, love and marriage. You know what's become attractive to me? And it's because I've self corrected and.
- [114:28]
John Middelkoff
I guess I detoxified myself.
- [114:30]
Stuckey
Accountability, like, it has become mad attractive. So attractive to me and everything else in between. I've told my most embarrassing moment on this podcast before, which was me taking a ziploc bag. So listen to Ellis Ever after on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Eva Longoria.
- [114:52]
John Middelkoff
And I'm Maite Gomez Jejon.
- [114:54]
Stuckey
And on our podcast Hungry for History, we mix two of our favorite things. Food and history. Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto.
- [115:03]
John Middelkoff
Oyster shells and they called these ostracon to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracized is related to the word oyster.
- [115:13]
Stuckey
No way.
- [115:15]
John Middelkoff
Bring back the ostricon.
- [115:16]
Stuckey
And because we've got a very mi casa es su casa kind of vibe on our show, friends always stop by.
- [115:23]
John Middelkoff
Pretty much every entry into this side of the planet was through the El Golfo de Mexico. No, the American. No, the America. El Golfo de Mexico continuing forever and ever.
- [115:36]
Stuckey
It blows me away how progressive Mexico was in this, in this moment. They had land reform, they had labor rights, they had education rights. Mustard seeds were so valuable to the.
- [115:47]
John Middelkoff
Ancient Egyptians that they used to place.
- [115:49]
Stuckey
Them in their tombs for the afterlife. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
- [116:08]
John Middelkoff
You got any upset alert on Oklahoma going into title town? Do you think that defense because Alabama can't run the ball.
- [116:14]
Stuckey
Can't run the ball. Their defense isn't great like they you can run on them. Oklahoma's found a bit of a rushing attack. Mobile quarterbacks can give Alabama problems. It's an interesting spot in that Alabama's revenge from last year like Oklahoma yeah beat the out of dominated but this game is much more important for Oklahoma in that like Alabama's probably going to the cottageball playoff regardless even if they lose this game, they're still okay. Oklahoma needs this game. I mean maybe Oklahoma still gets in with three losses but it gets dice here and they're coming off of a buy. One of their best defensive players is questionable Army Mason Thomas. But this defense is nasty. Bama can't run it one to met Being one dimensional against Oklahoma is a tough tough task for for Ty Simpson who's played really well. I will say like the Oklahoma defense is one of the top maybe two or three in the country but they've been a little vulnerable against the teams that can throw it. Like we saw Ole Miss move it. We saw Tennessee throw it. The rest of the teams they played Texas, South Carolina, Kent State, Auburn, Temple, Michigan, Illinois State can't really throw it. So can Oklahoma get enough hits on Simpson and cause some mistakes here? That'll probably be the difference. Alabama is also really really good early on in games. Oklahoma can't get too far behind here. I would like a 7. I I think Oklahoma's gonna have a shot. Their special teams are also much better. A really good kicker. One of the best kickers in the country. Album special teams little the guy that wears no pants. Yeah and he wears a arm sleeve. They he's a really really good kicker. That could get them some hidden points. Alabama struggled on special teams this year. To start is important. I would like a 7 here. To be honest the line has come down off of seven which I think does make sense but I might look to back Oklahoma live if Bama goes up which they often do and I I anticipate Venables will have a good game plan. This is on defense. This will be a great chess match especially coming off the buy but I assume that so will DeBoer and Grub offensively in the in the script. And I'm sure they've been itching to get their gift back on Oklahoma. So yeah, really good game. It's a really boring college slate other than this game and two similar games. Then you have Texas, Georgia. Georgia can afford the loss. Texas really needs the win.
- [118:48]
John Middelkoff
Coming in with some momentum. Arch just had the best game of his career. Yeah, they beat the crap. I mean the final score is 34 to 31. But didn't Vandy score like 24th quarter points? They, I watched they, they beat the crap out of Andy in that game. Yeah, Arch was awesome.
- [119:01]
Stuckey
Yeah, arches look much better. But the two teams he's faced is like Vandy who looked gassed and then Mississippi State. So how much of it is Arch improving now? I will say the Texas offensive line has been a lot to blame for some of their offensive struggles. But Georgia can't get pressure. I mean they're out their defense outside the top 100 and pressure rate, bottom 10, sac rate. So that should help Arch here. The Texas defense is really good.
- [119:27]
John Middelkoff
This was of 2024, I remember probably the most intense, just sitting down for a game and buckling up for this matchup last year. But Mikel Williams and obviously Javon Walker are gone. And Walker, what do you have, like three and a half sacks in that regular season game? They had.
- [119:41]
Stuckey
Georgia had 13, 13 sacks in two games against Texas. They swept Texas last year, once in the regular season, once in the SEC championship game. Georgia has 11 total sacks this year.
- [119:54]
John Middelkoff
That's crazy.
- [119:55]
Stuckey
They had 13 against Texas and Texas had an elite offensive line. So the pressure rates way down. So it should be easier on Arch.
- [120:02]
John Middelkoff
The Georgia, Javon Walker in those games look like, I don't know, Lawrence Taylor.
- [120:08]
Stuckey
Yeah, he was dominant. So what like is you have Arch coming off of a buy too.
- [120:18]
John Middelkoff
So I, Jalen, I keep calling him Javon like the Raiders.
- [120:24]
Stuckey
So yeah, I mean, I think Arch has looked better. He settled in. But he did get to play Vandy in Mississippi State. This is a team that still couldn't move the ball at all at Kentucky. Should have lost that game. And you gotta remember at Mississippi State, they were down 17 in the fourth quarter before he turned it on. And then Georgia just went into Mississippi State and dominated them. Would like to get a seven here. I will say though, Georgia's games all go the same way. Like they go down in the first quarter of every game. All I see games except Kentucky, they've been down, they've been outscored in the first quarter, I think by 20 on the season in their SEC games so they they come out flat. Their defense is just not it's not a national title contend caliber defense. I think they would still win it offshore but it's going to be on the backs of their offense. The defense is just nowhere close to like your older brother's Georgia elite defenses but they go down almost every game and then Kirby has like carried them to like Georgia and Alabama are very similar to me. Their defenses are down a bit for different reasons. Their offenses Georgia can at least run at Alabama can't but they've won a number of games they easily could have lost and a lot of that goes back to coaching. There are two very well coached teams but Kirby in particular is the best in game adjuster in college football. So if you see Georgia down early usually a good live bet I mean they've been incredible in the fourth quarters in the second half you saw them shut out Alabama so I would lean taking the points looking for Georgia live but would like to get a seven there again and last one I'll mention I did fade my Ravens Browns Browns at home Browns home defense with weather like I don't know who's scoring in this game. Lamar I don't think is 100. He doesn't have the same burst so you take away his legs and mobility against that defensive line. You also can't run it on Cleveland and if there's a ton of wind that only hurts the Ravens. The Browns can't throw it downfield. You can run a little bit on the Ravens. The Browns have been incredible at home crazy stat I'll finish with last three years Browns Browns at home 13 and 8 against the spread 62% on the road 5 and 17 against the spread 22% that's worse than league worse than the Titans who never cover they've been they've caught a touchdown or more at home three times in the past three years. Not only have they covered all three, they won all three outright. They beat the Ravens last year. The 49ers remember that again last year and the packers earlier this year they shut down everyone at home. No I mean I don't think are the Ravens going to get more than 17 with a not 100 Lamar I don't think so. Can the Browns get the 10 sure so I did. I bet the Browns plus plus the points they're getting over a touchdown and the totals down to like 39.
- [123:15]
John Middelkoff
Dylan Gabriel might not be good though.
- [123:16]
Stuckey
He'S terrible that that I I'm back In Gabriel and McCarthy what could go wrong? It just got to be in the back. Like this has to be at Browns 17, 13, 13, 10 type of game.
- [123:30]
John Middelkoff
Because 15, 13. Something.
- [123:32]
Stuckey
Yeah. Gabriel is. They're gonna have to do it how they. They should have beat Barrow. They did beat Love in the packers and they held the Dolphins at three points. But yeah, you're gonna have to. They're just gonna have to run it. Rely on their D. The weather should help a ton, though.
- [123:46]
John Middelkoff
Okay, Stucky, thank you and enjoy the weekend. I'm sure you got a lot going on. College basketball, college football, NFL. It's a good time of year. So I will talk to you. I'll talk to you in a week.
- [123:56]
Stuckey
Absolutely. Have a going, brother. The volume.
- [124:06]
John Middelkoff
Jenna World, Jenna Jameson, Vivid Video and the Valley is a new podcast about the history of the adult film industry. I'm Molly Lambert and I'll be your tour guide on a wild trip through adult films. We get paid more than the men. We call the shots. In what way is that degrading? That's us taking hold of our life. Listen to Geno World on the I Heart Rate radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robin Dixon is here dropping every Monday as two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know, we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday, listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
- [125:09]
Stuckey
Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way. Yo, yo, yo, yo. Can we get Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry. What's up, y'?
- [125:17]
John Middelkoff
All?
- [125:17]
Stuckey
It's Kaden and Deval, the host of the Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever after.
- [125:24]
John Middelkoff
On Ellis Ever after, we get real.
- [125:26]
Stuckey
With our crew about family, love and.
- [125:28]
John Middelkoff
Marriage and everything else in between.
- [125:31]
Stuckey
Listen to Ellis Ever after on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Ellis ever after and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.
- [125:40]
John Middelkoff
Join me, Danny Trejo in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, an anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow bush on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [126:09]
Stuckey
I'm Eva Longoria and I'm Maite Gomez Rajan.
- [126:12]
John Middelkoff
And this week on our podcast, Hungry.
- [126:14]
Stuckey
For History, we talk oysters.
- [126:15]
John Middelkoff
Plus, the Miami cheer stops by. If you're not an oyster lover, don't.
- [126:20]
Stuckey
Even talk to me.
- [126:21]
John Middelkoff
Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto oyster shells to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster.
- [126:32]
Stuckey
No way.
- [126:33]
John Middelkoff
Bring back the ostracon.
- [126:35]
Stuckey
Listen to Hungry for history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [126:41]
John Middelkoff
This is an iHeart podcast.