E.P.I.C. Podcast "Every Play Is Crucial"
Life is full of moments you cannot predict or control only experience and enjoy right? Come join Vernon, Isaac, Justin, and Jared every Wednesday where we lend our opinions about current event going on in sports. Every episode is promising to be entertaining, not necessarily informational.
E.P.I.C. Podcast "Every Play Is Crucial"
Three Friends Debate Harden’s Legacy, Rank NBA Contenders, And Forecast A Wild CFB Playoff Picture
We start with wins across the crew, then dive into NBA tip-off, early contender tiers, and why AD at the five matters. The talk heats up around Harden’s legacy, the Iverson comparison, and how the ring debate warps how we judge stars. College football chaos gets mapped to playoff math, and the NFL segment spotlights line play, coaching, and a Bengals reboot while previewing next week’s slate and the Lakers’ too-many-guys problem.
• NBA opener energy, early contender rankings, Denver vs Dallas, Cleveland and New York
• AD positional fit, spacing issues, Klay’s role, Houston’s defensive identity
• Harden legacy vs Iverson and Barkley, selective criticism, playoff narratives
• Debate TV fatigue, Stephen A cycle, hot-take incentives
• College football rankings, 12-team playoff paths, byes by record not crowns
• Transfers, culture, coaching turnarounds, program identity over star chasing
• NFL week recap, penalties and protection, Lions–Bucs bright spot
• Bengals offense resurgence, O-line rants, organizational failures and resets
• Next week’s NFL picks framed by trenches, injuries, QB variance
• Lakers rotation depth, need for specialists, defining roles under JJ
Yo yo yo, welcome back to another episode of the Epic Podcast. Joined today with Ike and Jarrett, man. What's good? How's your sports week been?
SPEAKER_02:Cool, man. Um, yeah, cool for the most part. We played on Thursday, got the win. All state played on Saturday, got the win. Not too bad.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. What about you, Ike, man?
SPEAKER_03:You played on Sunday? You got the win? Are you playing on Saturday? I've actually missed half that game, but I was able to catch it. I was running around doing stuff for other people.
SPEAKER_04:Y'all got the win, so I mean, hey. I did get the win.
SPEAKER_03:And that was homecoming. Homecoming that I really wanted to go to, but no.
SPEAKER_01:Money. I get it, brother. I'm gonna get away.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, Coach won. Oh, San Fran won too.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, I started with Sunday. I won that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Minus all the injuries y'all got yesterday. Hey, uh McCaffrey uh showed up.
SPEAKER_03:I told you there's nothing wrong with McCaffrey.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, I mean, well, I guess you say O line finally, yeah, created some space for man.
SPEAKER_03:I mean getting getting kittle back when it comes to blocking is huge. Like that's he had no catches, but his impact on the game was still huge. I mean he loves the block. It's crazy to have a tight end who's like, look, I don't need to catch the ball. Just let me pancake this dude for 60 players.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm all for it. I'm with it. I'm with it too. Colts won. Um Bama won. So yeah, no, man.
SPEAKER_03:We all winners over here.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. Winning this week. Uh let's jump into it, man. As we were talking about a little bit before we started, we got uh NBA tip off tonight. Actually, right now, you got the Rockets and OKC playing right now. Um, so with that, I wanted to talk a little bit about like the team rankings, I guess, in a way, like some of the top teams, who y'all see as some of the top teams going into the season. Um, I guess you could we all will start with essentially the um the Thunder being top team right now. Uh who would you put after the Thunder? I mean, because they're essentially a favorite to repeat.
SPEAKER_02:Way too early, Chief.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean, I'm just I'm just saying, like, I mean, your top team so far, just based on what you know, I know ain't nobody played. I know it's early, but just as you see them, like, who would you put number two team in the league right now?
SPEAKER_03:Dallas. Last week. I mean, I think from look, if you're looking on paper, I think Dallas has the roster. I think that everybody's kind of looking at. Um Harry's still out, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I mean, it probably is into next year, I'd imagine.
SPEAKER_04:Not yeah, yeah, it is definitely in the next year. I think after all-star break, maybe. Because he got the injury kind of late. It's usually uh close to two a month almost on the buttons.
SPEAKER_03:Who's their point the point guard, I guess, would be my next question. Their point guard? Ooh, yeah. That is gonna be rather important, I think.
SPEAKER_04:Uh, I can look right now. It is. Let's see, depth chart right now. D'Angelo Russell, remember? They picked him up. Uh right now their starters is D'Angelo Russell, Clay Thompson, Cooper Flag, Anthony Davis, and Darrell Lively.
SPEAKER_02:Anthony Davis is I don't understand why he insists on being a four. It just makes no sense. It's too, it's too like he doesn't shoot well enough anymore to be a four. Because he doesn't he doesn't stretch the court. I don't I don't I don't I don't understand that. But he should be the coldest five in the league. So, I mean I think he's good enough to be able to bring a five out, but it's just it's not I I just don't like that lineup. I don't like him at the fourth, and I think that was partially uh Lakers' problem. He is a five, dude. In today's NBA, you need to be a five, period. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:What about uh Denver?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, that's probably who I'd have second, if not first. Because we gotta remember uh Denver took the champions to seven games in that Western Conference Finals. So Denver is probably uh who I would have second if not first.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because they they got Cameron Johnson.
SPEAKER_01:They're they're loaded. Uh first round pick, hey, lock junior and uh they kind of reloaded. I mean, they got rid of the headache, but they got rid of the tracking number uh junior.
SPEAKER_02:Man, you kind of muffled all of a sudden.
SPEAKER_03:I was gonna say you sound like he had warned you. Okay, I just want to make sure it wasn't just me.
SPEAKER_04:Um better? Yep. Okay. I don't know. My mic is like right here. Well, now it is, as y'all can see. Um uh Cleveland at three. Y'all y'all like that?
SPEAKER_03:Sure. I mean, we talk regular season, so yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's what I'm just saying. I mean, they had a great regular season last year.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, they're probably the number one single east, I would imagine. Um, since you know, bosses missing Tatum. I it I only don't seem like there's a lot for them to fight against, uh, maybe in New York. Um so yeah, I'm not gonna fight that for now, at least.
SPEAKER_04:I like to see how Lonzo Ball play.
SPEAKER_02:We know it was gonna be spectacular, but just not winning basketball. I mean, that's kind of his forte. Um, so I mean, he's gonna he's gonna get some highlights, but it's not gonna be winning basketball at all, so okay.
SPEAKER_04:Uh speaking of the Knicks, I was gonna say Knicks at four.
SPEAKER_03:Not mad at that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Not mad at that. Okay. Houston at five. Even with no Van Fleet.
SPEAKER_03:I think he decided to go to jail. I mean, it seems like Katie's a great player, but he hasn't doesn't seem to have jailed with his teammates the last couple of trips. Uh don't I can't really say why not I'm not saying it's his fault, it just seems like maybe there's some kind of weird look. But I mean he's gotta be a bit better in that spot than Janet Green was. I didn't really lose anybody else that I can recall. And I mean coaches preaching defense. Uh I mean he did that same thing in Boston before he got himself controlled. Uh Houston was good defensively last year, can't imagine that's gonna change. Now with Katie being there, means he's always been a good help side. So I'm not mad at that either, but I'm also curious as to how to go to jail.
SPEAKER_04:That makes sense. Uh Clippers at six. I mean, with their death. Bill, Brooke Lopez, Collins, Chris Paul.
SPEAKER_02:They definitely got a nice roster. I mean, it's older, but yeah, they got they got like who they need to win. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_04:A lot of hungry guys, too. Like, yeah, guys have been around for a while, just like hungry to make that next push.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm actually I actually wouldn't be mad if they won it all. I wouldn't be mad at that at all. Because Harden, CP3, like I'm I'm rolling with that. And then maybe people will start putting some respect on Hardin's name if he, you know, got this little stupid NBA championship. I hate championships, like it's just the dumbest thing ever. But that's what people want to see.
SPEAKER_04:So But I also think some people, like some players, have done so much in their careers that it's like you're kind of waiting for that's the only thing they have left to accomplish.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but then on the flip side of that, people pick and choose. People parade Allen Iverson around. Not granted, I'm not slighting because I love Alan Iverson, but they parade him around, but then they want to trash James Harden. And it's just like, bro, Allen Iverson didn't do anything better than James Harden.
SPEAKER_04:No, he does nothing better than James Harden. But but I but I also think that like when James Harden is done playing, he will fall into that same category as uh Alan Iverson.
SPEAKER_02:But did people talk trash about Allen Iverson ever? I don't ever recall anybody bad mouthing Iverson. But with Harden, it's just I am a huge Iverson. I was about to say he's an Iverson fan, you have to ask him for something.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03:Like they they absolutely have trashed him for not for only getting to that one finals.
SPEAKER_02:And yeah, I mean never in my life seen that, but if you see something, show that's in my way. I've never seen that.
SPEAKER_03:Because he'll, I mean, was it last year he went for 40 in the first game and then kind of disappeared for almost the rest of the series? So he has he is still the single game leader in turnovers and what he had like 13 at game, that for whatever reason they shot 27 straight threes, which to me is ridiculous. Uh, but I think that's a little bit more of why Harden catches flat forward not having I don't even want to say not having a shit, but I just think it's sometimes his playoff performance and his biggest moments, his playoff performance haven't been the best. And then people remember that more than they remember his better playoff performance.
SPEAKER_04:And he'll have leads and blow like series leads. He he'll blow series leads. Well, I'm just saying, like, when when you're looking at a leader of a team, like and compared to what he does in the regular season, I just I just think that's just you know the stigma that kind of follows him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I feel that, but I still can't just turn my back on what he has done. No, and I don't think that's a lot of people like drag him for what he hasn't done, but what he has done is there's a lot, but I just think like when you'd undone, like again, like I mean, you can look at like the Charles Barclays and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04:When you got people who've done so much in their career, and the only thing they haven't done is this one thing, and you see that they're they're right there at that ceiling, and it's like, hey, look, like I can see if like James Harden like balled out, and like the rest of the team just wasn't doing this part to get them over that hump, it'd be like, okay, like he done took he done drugged some bad teams to to the playoffs, and it's just like he's been doing his thing, but the team hasn't. It always seemed like the moments where the games be close and things that neighbor where he has to take over and possibly win a game or two on his own because you need a superstar to do that, you know. I mean, a couple times in the playoffs. It's just like in those moments, like Ike was kind of saying, like, he'll have you know 10 turnovers, or you know, they'll, you know what I mean, miss like you know what I mean, 10 like in a row, like it's just be weird, crazy stuff that goes on uh with him, and it's just like those things.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, all true. But then going back to Allen Irison comparison, what was his issue? Why why didn't he get it done? If everybody's just always dissecting Harden, what was Alan Irison's reason? But like, but like Ike said, you know, he gets away from only going to the one. I think what's saying that he chatted on my kids' life, I've never heard anybody badmouth Irison.
SPEAKER_03:Not ever once. People are constantly saying how Irison was basically just a volume score.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I see that all. I've never heard that. As much sports as I've talked, I've never heard that. Just like people talk about Derek Rose, like he was a like he's a guy. I I don't get that either. And I mean I understand people like, you know, he played for his hometown. All right, cool, I get it. But you would think Derek Rose got 10 championships. I've never heard anybody badmouth Derrick Rose. Never.
SPEAKER_04:But I think after that, I think once Derek, I mean, I think Derrick Rose is just a little different, only because he he won an MVP, but he's never been like to a conference championship. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm just saying, like, he's never been close. I don't think he's ever even been close enough to have even had that conversation.
SPEAKER_02:LeBron's beat him in the conference championship. They were the number one seed. The year he won MVP, they played the Heat in the Was that in the conference?
SPEAKER_04:I thought that was a I thought that was a uh No, you could have been they could have played the Celtics after that. Yeah, I think it was the I think that was the round before he beat them. They were the they were they had the number one record though. I do know that. No, no, absolutely. And that's what I'm saying. Like, I thought, and I think after that, once he got hurt, like Derek, like it was just no more Derrick Rose after that. You know what I'm saying? Like, we kind of all waited around for him to come back and return to the form that he was, and he never didn't. He just became a journeyman. It was kind of like, all right, whatever. Like, you just look back to that one spectacular MVP season with him, and that was kind of it. But somebody like Harden, who's had like continued, you know what I mean, success, you know, regular season success, things like that. You just look at him as like one of them guys that's just constantly like at that ceiling and just ready to break through. And it's just something crazy happens in the playoffs with him. Every time he's in that moment where he can take that next step, where people be like, okay, get to a finals. Like, he just he just doesn't. And and then, like I said, and it may not all be him, it may be something else that's going on, but like his performances have been like key in the the reasons why he hasn't made though that that next move. And I think you could, I mean, like if you look back on Allen Iverson, I mean, but I mean his teams too, like you can say the kind of the same things, like like you said, value score, things of that nature. I mean, Charles Barkley is probably even a better example of one of them guys that just that one MVP that like has literally, you know what I mean. I think he got a scoring title or even close, you know what I mean? Like one of those just dominant players that just could never get over that hump. And I think Harden is kind of just in that window, but he just so so good, and you may actually kind of look at it as a compliment because he's so so good, it's like you expect him to do more being as good as he is, and I think that's why he probably gets more flack, but that kind of comes with the territory being so good.
SPEAKER_03:If this is my outlook on it, I do think the Derrick Rose thing, I think is a little well, people look at different places like players who had great potential who got hurt early in their career will get a little bit more the benefit of the doubt because they got hurt, like because I mean I've I've never heard anybody say anything bad about Derek Rose. I never heard anybody anybody say anything bad about Penny Hardaway. I've never heard anybody say anything about the cats who like you saw potential for them to be great and then they got hurt, and people just like when he got hurt, he was never the same. So I I do think that that is that factors into like the Derek Rose thing as well.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. And and like I say, I just like I said, I just think Harden is just so good that you just expect more. And I think people, the the criticism that comes with it is just like we just expect more from you. And then the moments like like I said, when Kawhi get hurt, and you know what I think? A lot of times those those uh Rocket teams when Chris Paul had got hurt, like I think he was up like two, like three, two, you know what I mean? It's like at some point you got to at least have one of those super duper spectacular performances that just wields your team to even a series win at some point because you look back like at the LeBrons and those guys who's on that next tier that has you know one championships, things of that nature. It's like they they've had like numerous of those performances that had to, you know, put the team on their back and just take them to that that next uh level.
SPEAKER_02:He get dog too.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, no, he does, but I mean at least he at least he got championships behind him.
SPEAKER_02:People are just super selective with their criticism. And that I mean that's the point I was making. Like, they're just super selective with their criticism.
SPEAKER_04:So it's just like and I think if Harden, I think if Harden like was one of those guys who had a bad injury and just never was the same, I think people wouldn't even say anything about him. And I think Russ falls into that category too. Like, he's one of them same guys that have done so much in their careers, just like, dude, like you the only thing you have left to do now is get a championship. So that's the only thing we can talk about with you, like how you perform in the postseason because you've had all the regular season success anybody could have. There's nothing to talk about in a regular season with you. You've done it all. So now in the postseason, that's really all we can talk about. So I think that's just that's just it. And I just I mean, I would like to see one of those guys win one because it's just like they play so hard, both of them. I'm not a fan of either, but I do I am a fan of how they play.
SPEAKER_02:You said either as in Harden and Harden or Russ. Like Russell Westbrook.
SPEAKER_04:Russell Westbrook, yeah. Yeah, but you know, I mean, it's just one of them things. So um, yeah, but uh speaking of you know criticism, things of that nature, man. I heard you have some. What's what's going on with Stephen A and LeBron, man?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, bro.
SPEAKER_04:You just tell me you have something to get off your chest.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, Stephen A is is is the biggest clown I've I've ever seen. It's just like the fact that he feels it necessary to go on a tour um of podcast to make himself feel more important than he actually is, I think it's ridiculous. Um he's he's saying, he's basically still talking about that same interaction that you know was well documented last season um between him and LeBron. It's just like, and this isn't even a really a LeBron thing that annoys me about annoys me with Stephen A. Smith. It's just I don't understand why he tries to act so tough. I remember when he was uh telling uh KD that KD wasn't telling the truth about himself because of a source. How can you tell a man that he's lying when he's talking about himself because you have a source? Like I I just can't really stand, I just can't really stand all the tour run he's on. And the fact that, granted, I didn't listen to it, uh, but just from the comments, I couldn't, I couldn't bring myself to listen to it. The fact that um Carmelo Anthony allowed Stephen A. Smith to go on his platform and talk that trash is just crazy. But hopefully LeBron feels how how Drake felt when he turned his back on him. Um you gotta watch how you move. And I feel like the same uh the same feeling Drake had when LeBron just switched on him, he probably feel that about Melo. I mean, you you you that's supposed to be your man, your brother, and you got this clown on there uh talking crazy about, you know, some situation that he's just trying to use to make himself feel more important. I just think it's trash. I feel like he's on a real crazy trash run right now, and like somebody gotta stop it. I I don't know what it's gonna take, but he he that that dude has to be stopped. He's like annoying me. Like there's probably only one person in the world that I hate more than him right now, and I think we all know who I'm referring to. Um, but yeah, like he's ridiculous. I don't have y'all, have y'all been tapped in? Have y'all listened to anything uh buddy's been saying?
SPEAKER_04:I haven't I haven't really been listening to it because it's kind of it's kind of the same things. Like you you hear the same clips, and he's kind of saying the same things just in different places. So it's like once you're done heard it, once you once you've done heard it once, it's kind of like all right, cool. That's exactly what we we we know what we know how you feel about it. We know about the I mean it by now everybody knows about this LeBron interaction. Now, you know, LeBron I spoke on it, he spoke on it, so it's like okay, we got all the context clues, we get it.
SPEAKER_02:Whatever, like moving right along. Still talking about it, it's so annoying.
SPEAKER_04:So annoying. But I think he's he's he's good content, and people are gonna put him, people are gonna get him on put him on the platform just for you know what you know for who he is and what he brings to it.
SPEAKER_02:I hope I never have enough money to even think about compromising my integrity for it. Like, I hope that opportunity never presents itself because that's crazy. I mean, he's been around.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I mean, regardless of how you feel about it, he's like he's one of them people like the skip bailes who's just been around. I'm just saying, been around forever and just trash. I mean, he he's had his moments.
SPEAKER_02:Skip hates, but he's not gone, yeah. I'll just LeBron try to cause me my job. Come on, man. Like, what are you talking about? Like, Skip ain't never went that wild. So, buddy's on a crazy nasty run right now. And like, and I uh it's driving me insane because I listen to this, I try to listen to everything just to hear people out, and like he's I I don't got any more words for Stephen A. Smith.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, it is what it is, and like I said, the whole LeBron situation has been what it's gonna be. Um, like I said, I think at this point, I mean into I mean like I said, it's just it's Stephen A. And when you see Stephen A, people are gonna either read it, people gonna tune into the video, you know what I mean? Whether they like it or not, whatever. You don't care, you just want to get the eyes on your on your brand or whatever, you know, that you're doing. So what you bring him in for. Um, he does no sports, he's like I say he's been around forever. So I mean, nothing else, you know, you could have him, you know, in in the conversation for that or on your platform for that. But I mean, people gonna ask those questions because they want to, you know, drive up the viewership or whatever. So it is what it is. I mean, I don't take him serious, you know what I mean? Like when he's talking about things that aren't sports related.
SPEAKER_02:Um take him seriously when he's talking about things that are sports related. I mean, I listen. I used to. I've never been a big fan of first take. I mean, I I I've never been a big fan of other people's sports opinions when it's like forced on you. Now, when I go look for it, I'm cool. If I want to hear what somebody has to say about something cool, but like first take is just it it just wasn't doing it for me. Uh FS1, like skipping Shannon, I I don't really care for that. I'd much rather listen to Shannon's podcast, whether it's uh, you know, he's interviewing people or him and Ocho are going at it than you know him on FS1. Like I just I don't know. It's something about people's sports opinions. Now, granted, here, like I'm voluntarily on the show, so of course I care about you guys' sports opinions, but first take up has never been it's never been my thing. Like it's it's just never been my thing.
SPEAKER_04:But I think that's also the entertainment value, and that is bringing multiple people together to hear different views that may not agree and okay with not agreeing, but you also gotta think is networks behind it too. So, you know, there's certain things that they have to get out there also. Um and they pay you to talk about it.
SPEAKER_02:So I mean, yeah, he's he's got a sweet. Maybe that's who created this monster. I don't know, but like he has to go. If I just you know, I ain't gonna say that. But yeah, but he gotta he gotta he gotta go.
SPEAKER_04:All right, all right. Ike, you got anything about Stephen A you want to get off your chest, man?
SPEAKER_02:You probably hell no, fuck that nigga. That's it. I got none. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I'll I'll check out first take sometimes. Sometimes I used to I used to just have it on my phone every now and again, but no, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, if since we're talking about him, he did say the Knicks are um going to a championship.
SPEAKER_02:I hope the Knicks lose every game. Every single one. Lose every game. It's just like certain stuff just gets under my skin. Like people who I think say stuff for any other reason but I think he's a fan of the Knicks. No, I'm just I'm talking about him in general, not necessarily. Oh, okay, okay. I think that's a thing. But I'm just saying, like, something drives me crazy about people that just say stuff just to say it. Like it it drives me crazy. Everybody got their pet peeve. That's just fine.
SPEAKER_04:That's fair.
SPEAKER_03:No, I I there's people who they call it grifters who like I you feel like sometimes their opinion is just like but people who are searching for hot takes, yeah. I I don't intend to enjoy that type of thing. Like that's why I kind of went away from sports debate shows for a while. It's like, all right, now everybody just on here trying to find the hot take for the day. Like to drive you. It it doesn't feel genuine when people are doing it that way. It doesn't feel like it's really your opinion, it feels like something you said because you know that most people are going to disagree with you because it tends to be what the high take is hey, everybody's on this side. Let me go on this side just to piss everybody on this side off.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:So no, I I completely get it. Like that's that's why I stopped watching first take and all that for a while. I'll have it on sometimes just because it's sports, and at least I can catch up with some of the stuff that I might have missed, you know, and that's kind of how I used to get my sports dudes. Um, but no, I I don't enjoy the debate side of it at all.
SPEAKER_04:Especially when they're talking about other teams, like teams that I may not follow, um, things of that nature, because like, you know, especially here in the Midwest, like, we don't get much. Like, we get some of the rats surrounding cities. Like, I hear about Cincinnati teams, I'm gonna hear about Chicago teams, things of that nature. So I'm not gonna hear about the Cardinals, you know what I mean? Like Seattle, like a lot of those teams. I'm just not gonna get a lot of that news here. Um, so like I gotta go seeking out things. So yeah, I listen to the shows just because it's good to hear other people's opinions, other people's takes. Uh, like you say, you do learn some things, and like who other people are a fan of, how they view their teams too. So right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, prime example. I don't watch baseball. Would have never known about what's it showing uh Tiny, I don't want to mess his thing up. Yeah, show a striking out 10 people and hitting three home runs in the same game, and it's a playoff game. I would have never known that, but that is phenomenal. Yeah, like that is like the stuff that I'll watch for because I I would not it would have never come across my radar outside of that, but just looking for the debate side of it. And a lot of these shows they'll have like their A and B block, and it's the same topic for two hours. I was like, all right, bro, you just said this an hour ago. I don't need you to say it with other people in the room.
SPEAKER_04:No, I agree. I agree with that. I remember moving right along. Um let's let's let's switch gears a little bit. Talk about some college football. Uh got the new rankings out. Man, it was a crazy weekend for college football. Uh quite a few um ranked teams went down. So right now we're looking at Ohio State still number one. Um don't see that changing no time soon. But Indiana went uh up to number two now. You got Texas AMM at three, you got Bama at four, Georgia at five, Oregon at six, Georgia Tech at seven, O Miss at eight, Miami at nine, Vanderbilt at 10, BYU at 11, Notre Dame runs out the top 12. Um, but then you get Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, South Florida is holding good, holding in at 18, Louisville, LSU at 20, Cincinnati at 21, Texas at 22, Illinois 23, Arizona State 24, and Michigan at 25. You said Michigan was gonna get back in there. Yeah, I mean they back in there.
SPEAKER_02:With two losses, there was no way that they're just done like out of the top 25 forever. Like I thought that was pretty, you know.
SPEAKER_04:But I mean, I mean, well, you do got Notre Dame at 5-2 at 12, so which again. And beating a bad USC's team.
SPEAKER_02:Like I mean, they were ranked, I guess.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, but I think they got three losses now. I think USC do.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. I mean, and they'll be back in as well. If they make it to 6'3, 7-3, they'll be ranked again.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so um undefeated right now. We got BYU undefeated. You got Georgia Tech still undefeated, Texas AM, Indiana, and Ohio State. Uh check rest of let me check BYU's schedule. What's the what they got left? Yeah, SEC teams. Crazy. None. Um they get Iowa State this weekend. Then they get Texas Tech and Cincinnati coming up too. So I mean, a couple tester teams. Nothing too tough for them, I don't believe. So they could end the season. Undefeated. Yeah, that's not that's not a tough schedule at all. Georgia Tech, who they got left. They get Georgia at the end of the season. They got Syracuse this weekend, NC State, Boston College, and Pitt, and then Georgia at the end of the season. So they can they could probably make it to a bowl game in the ACC. And possibly make it into the playoffs, even with that one loss to Georgia. And then we got Texas AM, who they got left. They get Texas AM is undefeated. Yeah, they're undefeated right now. They're 7-0. Oh, they SEC. So that's one SEC team that's undefeated, I guess I should say. But they get LSU this weekend. Then they get Missouri a week after that. South Carolina, uh, Stamford, which I game. Then they end the season at uh at Texas. So that's Missouri's no no pushover. LSU's been playing horrible, so I don't see them losing the LSU. But uh Missouri's gonna be tough. And I mean, depending on what Texas team uh shows up, it could be a tough one too. But they can very well end the season undefeated, also and then Indiana. I don't see anybody really standing Indiana's way the rest of the season. UCLA, Maryland, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Purdue. Delta S. Yeah, they can they can run the table with those. So um, yeah, man. Any any any uh discrepancies with these rankings?
SPEAKER_02:Nah. It's it's so wide open, Paul's. It's I mean, well, I mean, obviously you got Ohio State and Indiana that's like kind of separated themselves from the pack, but it's it's wide open. Like a little bit of everybody's gonna have an opportunity to make it into the playoffs with it being 12 teams. It's it's far from over. It's far from over. I mean, you might have you might have a three-loss team make the playoffs this year. I mean, it's just like, and people are like, oh, well, Notre Dame's done. If they finish with two losses, like there's definitely gonna be two loss teams in the in the in the playoffs, like for sure, 100%. Might be three or four of them. Um and will they sneak in one? Possibility. Yeah, and I and I think like a Georgia to lose another one, Alabama lose another one. It's very possible that they can get in with uh two losses.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, but I don't really see nobody on Georgia schedule. I mean, if they lose to Texas, that'd be a bad loss, I believe, anyway. Where is it at? Is it in Texas or Georgia? It's in Georgia. And then Texas, uh Georgia Tech, if they stay on their run, then yeah, I mean, you lose to Georgia Tech, I think. All right, you clearly put you know, Georgia Tech above them, which you know, right now Georgia Tech's seven, Georgia's five. So uh who knows what that'll be by then. And then Bama. Uh they get South Carolina, but then they got LSU, Oklahoma. That's their only rate games. Then Auburn was always plays us tough, but um, I mean, Oklahoma game may be tough. Um, but uh LSU, like I said, has been playing bad. I don't I don't see nothing else. If we can get past Oklahoma, then we'd be fine. Uh I don't see another loss for us.
SPEAKER_02:That'll be a good game, though, at least. Is that in Oklahoma or in Alabama?
SPEAKER_04:That is in Alabama. Um Ohio State. I mean, y'all still get Michigan at the end of the year. You got Penn State this weekend, but Penn State is nothing. Uh they've nowhere near played up to the potential they that everybody thought they was. So and then y'all got Purdue, UCLA Rutgers. Y'all very well will stay undefeated. I don't see nothing crazy happening there.
SPEAKER_02:That uh that Big Ten championship game, boom. Man, that thing is gonna be a bloodbath. But I thought whoever comes out of that. But see, and that's the thing though. I could say whoever comes out of that is gonna be on to national championship, but that's gonna be such a tough game. That's why, like I said last year, I didn't even want to play in the Big Ten championship. Look how that turned out. Like, that's gonna be a tough game.
SPEAKER_03:That's that's probably gonna be a can I still doing what? Four run four first four buys, right? Yeah, top four. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that that can determine who gets that by. Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_04:And see, and I think, and I think we was kind of talking about this last year, about changing that based on records, um, not automatically crowning a conference championship, giving them a bye, or an automatic uh in. Because if you get an upset, if you got a, you know what I mean, like somewhere in like the Big 12 or somewhere where, you know what I mean, you got uh two-lost team versus uh, I don't know, a four-lost team or whatever, just based on how the rankings go. Like, you giving that team like kind of how like the Arizona State happened last year and all that stuff. It was like, come on, bro. And you got Bama ranked above them, but yet still you don't put them in, or you know, any other team. I ain't here just saying Bama, even like a Notre Dame situation where they may be stuck at 12 just because they don't have a conference, which, like you said, may benefit them, but they don't get a chance to get a bye at all. Right. So I just think that's weird. And it should be based on you know where you where you ranked based on your record. I don't think it should be based on the conference championship. Cool, you win the conference championship, that's good. But if you're a three-loss team and you win the conference championship, you shouldn't get a bye over an undefeated team.
SPEAKER_02:That's a fact.
SPEAKER_04:So I think they should be.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly a first-round buy.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. Like a one-loss Indiana team over a three-loss, you know, hell big Big 12 championship. Like, that's that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_03:So we come a long way, man. We were trying to kick a one-loss team out all together last year, man. Look at this.
SPEAKER_02:Look at what the world was. This is one of the most one of the most fantastic stories in sports. I I'll give you that. Like, because people think I agree. He just got an extension too, like an eight-year, like, yeah, they they tried to make sure that 98 million or something like that. Hey, look, man. I know Penn State was gonna try to hop on, pause. They was definitely gonna try to swoop in. Penn State. Uh, who else got Florida? Is another big school looking for a coach?
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Um, LS, I mean UCLA is probably a coach. So, like, there was definitely gonna be some bigger options. Granted, I wouldn't have gone to well, I mean, shit, I bet the quality of life is better living coaching for UCLA than IU, but um nah, dude was like, dude was cool with staying. They opened a checkbook, like they good. They yeah, they did everything right for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Because you gotta probably think of James Madison, like if he was, you know, I mean, maybe interviewed for some other big schools and they just didn't give him a shot. And Indiana was one of the ones to give him a shot. Like, stay loyal to the people who gave you the chance. Shoot. Right. You have a success, like why, why, you know, I mean, why switch up? For some money that Indiana clearly got, you know what I'm saying? Like, I didn't know. You know, he's he's he's like a top he one of the top five paid coaches in the in the in the uh college football right now. So what do we do?
SPEAKER_02:He's a good coach. Like, I still can't figure out what what it what it is or what it was to just change that around like that. Like, because I mean the names don't blow you off the chart. Like, I mean, they don't I still don't even think they have any like five stars or anything like that. It's just something I don't I don't know what it is. That's why, you know, some people will say, you know, well, coaching don't mean all that much. In that situation, coaching is everything because like I I don't know, I I've never seen a turnaround like that so quick and so effective. So I I don't know what's being done or what's not being done now, but well, I was watching the game, and they actually kind of spoke to this in the game.
SPEAKER_03:So like I watched probably most of the third quarter, some going into the fourth, and they spoke to like he brought in a lot of transfers. So then having focus on the trends, so you got a little bit more experienced guys as opposed to just trying to go out and just recruit. Now he said he doesn't want to continue to do that going forward, but in order to kind of turn it around faster, he brought in a lot of so he brought in a lot of people from James Madison Readers at before, but also I mean, uh what Mendoza's to transfer, uh, who was throwing dives, by the way. Um and then brought in the city.
SPEAKER_02:The guy from last the quarterback from last year came from Ohio. Yeah, the guy from this year came from Cal. Like, I mean, he's not even getting guys from big schools, like, and they're they're killing.
SPEAKER_03:But I mean that that was that's kind of was his formula when he came in. It's like, you know, let me get some of these more experienced guys uh to kind of help. Now I don't know if he thought it was gonna be like this quick, but to help build and then you bring in your culture. Um that's why you brought a lot of guys in from Jamie. That's what I'm saying. You get those guys. And obviously, once you start winning, then you know it's very easy for everybody to kind of adapt and accept the culture after that.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Especially once you get those key guys in in those key positions to, like you said, to influence that culture, you know, day in and day out, and teach the other guys how it's supposed to be done, then it makes it easier on everybody and a turnaround way faster. And you you can kind of see that sometimes in like the NFL, like when certain coaches go certain places, um, how quick, you know, I mean, the culture just turns around. But yeah, no, I think it's more important in college than anything to have culture guys and coaching, like you said, head coaching, I think that's way more important um than necessarily the recruits. Of course, you gotta have talented guys, but if you get a good coach in there and they know other good coaches and they bring in their systems and and and whatnot, like you could definitely turn the program around in college make way faster than you could ever in the pros.
SPEAKER_02:So I believe it.
SPEAKER_04:Um we got a couple key games this weekend. Uh rank games. You get Vandy and BYU. So that'd be a good one with Vanderbilt being 6-1, BYU being 7-0. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the game. Sorry. I'm looking at the wrong thing. Ole Miss, my bad. No, no, no, no, my bad. I was looking at the rankings on the screen. My bad. Ole Miss, my old miss and oh you, my bad, and Missouri in Vanderbilt. So one of them teams end up, you know, with two losses after that game. Uh Ole Miss and OU, same thing there. One of those teams will have two losses to after that game. So um, which will change some of the rankings, I'm guessing, next week. So we'll definitely talk about that next week and see uh how that how that influenced the rest of these uh games coming up. And last but not least, man, we can jump over to the the grown man's league, man. Recap some uh some week six with uh if I can get the logo to change, yeah. Man, so I guess we I want to start backwards. That Texans and Seattle game was horrible. And I think we talked about it yesterday. Uh not yesterday, but uh last week when we were talking about what games were coming up. It was as bad as advertised. It was that bad for real? Bro, it was like 22 accepted penalties. Oh, wow. Like each team, each team was like on third down was like four for 29.
SPEAKER_02:Damn. It's crazy the team scores almost 30 points without any third, I mean third down converters.
SPEAKER_04:Probably converting on third down. It was horrible, bro.
SPEAKER_03:Um wasn't worth a 10 p.m. slot, I'll tell you that much.
SPEAKER_04:Not at all, bro. Not at all. But that Lions Tampa Bay game was great. Very good game.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I watched that. Man, uh Baker Mayfield and them just couldn't get couldn't get right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that yeah, they couldn't get right last game. But they, I mean, again, they battling a bunch of injuries too. Uh so it was eventually gonna catch up with them.
SPEAKER_02:So timeout though. I'm watching the uh the game here, and I guess like the the halftime crew, the NBC guy, they had Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and Melo. Like, that's crazy. They breaking the bank. But my bad, go ahead.
SPEAKER_04:No, I mean, you I mean, you're seeing a lot of these. I mean, because I mean, if you look back, I mean, a lot of old players used to be in the booth, and now they're just cycling them out for, you know, I guess players of our generation in a way, that or that we grew up on. So it's kind of weird kind of seeing.
SPEAKER_02:I know he's working for him in some capacity. I can't wait to see what he has to say. I don't know if have we ever heard Jordan talk basketball? No. So I'm looking forward, I'm definitely looking forward to that. Outside of talking about himself, yeah, yeah. You know, yeah. I ain't never heard him just talking about these guys. Well, he probably suck.
SPEAKER_03:It's gonna be interesting, and I took that person, right?
SPEAKER_02:All these dudes suck.
SPEAKER_04:Um, so let me look. Um, so last week, man. Bing, hey, your bingles pull off the win against the Steelers, man. Probably the best we done seen the Bengals play offensively, defensively. Like in a minute.
SPEAKER_02:No, not defensively. No, we was horrible defensively. But also, I mean, I'm just saying, like, even like I've seen them play even with Burrow in I don't know how long. I can't remember the last time our offense has looked that good.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, man. That was yeah, yes. I mean, uh Chase Brown, 11 carries for 108. Crazy. Jamar Chase, 16 catches for 161 in a touchdown. Higgins, six catchings for 96 in a touchdown. Like, um, yeah, man. That was that was that was good. No turnovers. Joe Flacco, three touchdown passes, 31 to 47.
SPEAKER_03:Like, you give Flacco some weapons, man. He'll run up a he'll run some numbers up on you. It's really weird and random to me. Like, nobody ever gave him real credit when they won that Super Bowl, even though he was phenomenal in those playoffs.
SPEAKER_04:And one MVP. And I was actually talking, me and Justin went to uh breakfast on Monday. Uh not was it Monday? Yeah, Monday. And we were actually talking about that. You know, I mean, I was talking about Joe Flacco. Like, I'm like, a lot of people don't. Everybody say the defense. I'm like, the defense may have got y'all to the playoffs, but Joe Flacco took y'all to the Super Bowl and won it.
SPEAKER_03:Like Flacco was phenomenal. Uh we were as phenomenal in those playoffs because obviously they beat us.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But I mean, he was not very good going into the playoffs that I do remember. But for whatever reason, in the playoffs, it seemed like he couldn't miss. Um it's just kind of a testament of you give him at least one and a half receivers, and he seems to have fired it, and he's got more than that in Cincinnati.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and he even admitted like most of the plays that they were calling, he didn't know.
SPEAKER_03:Man, look, you call throw the bar to Jamar, I guess.
SPEAKER_04:When it's out, look for five, look for one. Like, that's the only two people you need to be looking for. And you know, once they do their thing, it's gonna open up the run game.
SPEAKER_02:And then hopefully Burrow like learned something from it. Because I mean, at one point it was just like he was forcing it to chase, and it was working. Just like keeping just keep throwing it to him, bro. Like, I mean, you know, but I I don't know if a team is gonna be as um stubborn as uh the skills were.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, all that man was crazy, like I mean they but they essentially got the DBs to do it, but like at some point, like you gotta double chase, you gotta force them to go.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I was saying, that they're stubborn and they chose not to do so at all. I mean, or even running like some zone, they were just running man and and Jalen Ramsey was getting torched. And I I'm not even really that big of a fan of uh Joey Porter Jr. So they were just getting they was getting their business and I mean it worked out for us.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and also like they wasn't getting no pressure.
SPEAKER_02:So I think I only got two settings for the stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the Steelers, which it's crazy. Like the Steelers are used to getting pressure like constant, and they just wasn't.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if y'all segue, I don't know if y'all have watched like a um a New York Jets game in full. Um, but when I was I was did a card show a couple Sundays ago, and um they were in that playing in the London game so it was early. My table was set up right next to the big screen, so I was able to watch it. Their offensive line might be worse than ours. And I never thought I would be able to say that, but I mean their offensive uh line is horrible.
SPEAKER_03:It's at the uh the Denver game? Yeah, well, that was a bad game ball in the game. I did watch that game, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Man, their offensive line is the worst crap I've ever seen. It's like Justin Fields couldn't even, he could barely get the snap before half in the bail. Like it it their offense line is terrible. Like I didn't think it got worse than Cincinnati, but I they might have us beat there. And y'all know I look for every single opportunity to discredit my team. And uh I gotta even cut them some slack there. I I don't think we're that bad because that was it he he had no time to do anything. I don't even understand how that's a uh NFL product. That's why I think I definitely think they should implement 45 yards passing. Yeah, they need to implement a competition committee because like what do those kind of performances benefit? It don't benefit the fans, like we don't want to see that. You know, it doesn't benefit you know, football in a hole. Because if I'm if that's my first NFL game I've ever seen, I'm never watching again. You know what I'm saying? So it's just like I don't know what those kind of performances benefit or who those kind of performances benefit. And it's just like, man, somebody gotta step in and say, hey man, like y'all gotta do something. Because that's that's crazy. That's nobody's offensive line should be that that bad.
SPEAKER_04:But I also think that that falls on the teams, too, to as far as hiring the right GM coaches, drafting the right players. I mean, it just happens, you know what I mean? Like, everybody ain't gonna be as good as everybody. Everybody you draft ain't gonna be as good as the next one. Like, it's not the league will never be that balanced. You're just gonna have really good teams and really bad teams. But we also look at the Jets as not being a good organization, too. So I think we kind of talked about that last week, just these historic teams that just have bad organizations from the top. And and sometimes you just gotta clean house, like essentially from the GM down and just bring in different people who have a different way of thinking. Who's you know, I mean, you're gonna do things differently, and hopefully that you know changes things around. Um, I think we were talking about them. I think we're talking about the Browns. Uh now it looks like Carolina's falling into that after, you know, having a few years of success back in the uh early 2000s, and then the Saints look like they could be on that path at some point if they don't hit the reset button soon. Um so it's just some teams just don't do things organizationally wise well. And I even think you bring up the Bengals sometimes in that in that conversation.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, absolutely. We're probably we're up there as far as I mean you man, you you figure we don't have an opportunity to draft Burrow uh back in 2020. It ain't no telling where Cincinnati football would be. So now I'm you know, I know. I'm yeah, definitely locked in with that.
SPEAKER_04:Raiders, another one, another team that's fallen into that. Bad, bad football. Just for a long, long time. Um and I'm the Titans might be too if they don't start doing some things differently. Yeah, they may be falling, falling into that also. Um I agree. And a lot of these teams aren't big enough to to overcome that. Because even if you look at like a Giants team, like they're in New York, like they're big enough, they're gonna something's gonna happen. Like, you know, it'll it'll come around. And you look at the Jets would possibly be in that situation, but I I think with them kind of being like the little sister team to the Giants as far as popularity, I would think. Um, yeah. There's just some teams that fall on that Cardinals at one point for a while that was that. So I don't know, man. Uh some things gonna have to change. Uh but nah, man. Bengals had a good game last week. Uh Raiders pulled off the win against the I mean not the Raiders. Niners, y'all pulled off the win against the Falcons, man. Looked really good. Really, really good against them. McCaffrey with like 31 touches and 200 plus yards.
SPEAKER_03:We still ain't got all our weapons back.
SPEAKER_04:That's what I'm saying. Like, y'all still got like although if we still getting hurt too. That's what I'm about to say. Y'all still y'all lost. Yeah, who got hurt that game? Somebody else got hurt.
SPEAKER_03:Brunson finished the game, but he got hurt after the game. Yeah. Um, and then Buton got hurt for a couple of plays, but he ended up coming back, uh, stepping in for you know, Fred Warner. And that dude played phenomenally.
SPEAKER_04:I think he had y'all team, he led your team in tackles. He had 10.
SPEAKER_03:He had 11 tackles going into the game for a season. And 10 in that game by itself. Yeah. Um kind of motivated, but you know, we can only do so much with some of these injuries. We gotta get some of these players back and figure out why. So it's it's every week at this point. Like somebody's going down.
SPEAKER_02:And they're talking to Michael Jordan now. I got it on mute though. I can't hear what they're saying, but yeah, I got mine on mute too. I I see it, but that boy looks blue, don't he? He looked maroon. Like, I ain't never seen maroon. I'm gonna put it on, it's gonna play in my leather maroon. That's crazy. Yeah, it's good to see buddy on the screen, man. I just gotta tap back into that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'm sure you'll be able to catch it everywhere. Um, yeah, man. I watched, I think we were talking about the Saints last week. I was talking, uh not talking. I was talking to Justin about the Saints, and he was just saying that you know, Rattler has been looking good. Um, he did, but the rest of that team is god-awful.
SPEAKER_02:That's unfortunate.
SPEAKER_04:Like, he was he was 20 at 32 for 233 and two touchdowns, but everything else was horrible. Olave looked well also. Um, that's probably the best game I didn't seen him play in a long time. Uh, since he was injured for like three years, it felt like. Uh, what do you what did we what do we think about the Saints? I mean, they they're 1-6, 0-3 in a way, games. Like, is there any potential outside of completely clean the house next season, hopefully?
SPEAKER_02:They should have drafted Shador.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but and I was telling Justin this. I think the Saints just never reset it from Drew Brees fully and Sean Payton, like, you still got Kamara there, you still got Jordan there, uh Davis, Demario Davis, like you still got some of these like OG guys there that you didn't really let them go get a chance to win somewhere else. You know what I mean? Like, you didn't really hit the full reset. Taysom Hill, like you didn't really hit the full reset button to kind of start over and give the team a fresh start after, you know what I mean, being you know, a very good team for a long time. Um I think to me that's one of their problems. Same thing with like GM and stuff. Usually when you lose your quarterback and stuff like that, coach, usually you just start over. You get a new GM, let him hire a head coach, they bring in their staff, blah, blah, blah. Um, I don't think they ever did that.
SPEAKER_02:No, you're right.
SPEAKER_04:I think to me, that's their issue. Um, nonetheless. Uh so let's look at some of the games this week coming up, man. Uh so Thursday night we got Vikings Chargers.
SPEAKER_03:Um, just say it.
SPEAKER_04:I still don't see it in the Chargers. I got it. I thought it I thought it was gonna be a tough game for the Colts. I we was talking about it uh two weeks back, the Chargers won those staple games. It was not.
SPEAKER_02:I gotta agree with you, bro. I still agree with you.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, Herbert right now, he's has uh a little over 1900 yards, 13 TDs and six picks. Like how many TDs? 13?
SPEAKER_02:13 and he's a 13 and six, so he's not even really a huge turnover guy. Like, at least I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, he he's not. But I don't know. I just I don't know what I mean that but that they have a they have some injuries too, especially they O-line. They O line is very I don't think they got one starter on the O-line right now.
SPEAKER_03:They also can't run the ball, though.
SPEAKER_04:But again, I think that's that's hence to the O line also. Oh yeah. Um so yeah, but yeah. I I don't I don't like I said, I don't see it in the Chargers this year. Um I definitely I don't even want to say definitely. I would probably I would probably gonna pick the Vikings over them only because of their defense against that offensive line. Um I think they get the best of them. You get Niners, Texans, uh definitely going with the Niners that game. Texans after the other night, they they look like one of the worst teams in the league right now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they'll unfortunate, man. I I thought I thought we were finally gonna have a you know uh a good NFL. I mean, he hasn't played bad. He still has two playoff wins, or two or at least two, um, which I mean is better than a lot of other uh Ohio State quarterbacks, but I really thought that he was gonna be that that one, and it's it's just not looking it's not looking as promising anymore.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, after that rookie year, I mean, but I and I don't even put it all on him. Some of it is the offensive line because everybody's got no time. That's what I'm saying. They don't have no no, they haven't invested in offensive line, they invested in everything else.
SPEAKER_02:I wonder why they traded like Lael Collins. That was weird to me. Like, who trades a tackle? A blindside tackle. Or who trades Larry McTunzel? Oh no, that's who I was thinking about, not Lael Collins, but that's that's that's who I was thinking about, Laramie Tunzel.
SPEAKER_04:Like who trades clearly one of the best left tackles in the league. Yeah, who does that? You know what I mean? When you were already having offensive line problems, like y'all just had got exposed the year before by the Ravens.
SPEAKER_02:Why would you trade him? I don't who did it even get for him.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. Um but it's like price, some draft picks.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know why why they did that. That that caught me by surprise.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, CJ Stroud right now is just if you look at this year, I mean, 1,300 yards, nine TDs, four picks. He's been sacked 15 times. Like it's just not looking good. Like, I mean, last year he had 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He was sacked 52 times. Compared to his rookie year where he was 23 and 5 and only sacked 38 times. So yeah, I I mean I'm not gonna lie, I'm not mad. Only because it's giving the coach the opportunity to win the AFC South again. But like as far as CJ Stroud, like I was really worried, like you said, that he was just gonna be that next guy. Um, and I just knew they were gonna dominate the AFC South for the next like 10 years. I just knew with the coach didn't have nothing coming. I was like, it's over. Like, they got CJ Stroud, he's he's gonna be phenomenal, like, boom. And it's like literally overnight, like he just hasn't looked the same. Um, so hopefully this offseason they invest in the O line and maybe we can get him back. Because I mean, the Texans, you know, Coast and Tex rivalry is a good game to watch. So when both teams are decent.
SPEAKER_03:So last enough? No, but I did go to the Coast Texas. I think the last round was in India. It was like the last game of the season. It was a good time, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's what I'm saying. It's a good game when both teams are good. Like, and you want to see that. Um, Coast, we get the Titans, so I think we'll be. All right there. Jonathan Taylor, I don't think he could possibly win the MVP this year. Yeah, for real. You don't have no crazy QB, uh, no quarterbacks out there going crazy, really. Like, where you're just like, okay, that QB is like outside of Baker Mayfield, I take that back. Like, but after last night, you know what I mean? Uh, you know, and Mike Evans being injured again with a concussion in, I think, like a broken collarbone, I think maybe or something like that. All in one play. I seen that play, like that was the way he fell, like, like all of that. Like, and he was already coming back from a bad hamstring. So um, and they missing Godwin too. Like, they got a couple injuries on defense too. So um who knows what you know, what you know the future holds in store for Tampa Bay. So right now, I'm looking at Jonathan Taylor as an early season MVP favorite. Um, you get Dolphins, Falcons. Not excited about that game anyway. Like the Falcons jumped.
SPEAKER_03:You could have not said that game. Go ahead. You could have not said that game.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, I'm just thinking about, I'm just trying to refer to like like the Falcons against y'all. They didn't look nowhere near how as good as they looked against the Bills the week before.
SPEAKER_03:The Dolphins ain't look good against anybody.
SPEAKER_04:You said what?
SPEAKER_03:The Dolphins ain't look good against anybody.
SPEAKER_04:No, I was talking about the Falcons.
SPEAKER_03:I uh I know that's why I'm saying you could have skipped even saying that game because the Dolphins ain't look good.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I'm stating all the games. Uh Bengals get the Jets, so that'll be good for y'all, man. Another confidence booster.
SPEAKER_02:We're gonna lose that game. Watch.
SPEAKER_04:I don't I don't believe so.
SPEAKER_02:Watch what I tell you. That's why I was hoping that the uh Jets won yesterday or Sunday, so that wouldn't be that, you know, but they're gonna they're gonna get their first win against us, guaranteed. Lock it in. I think that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04:They've been talking about Bench and Fields. So that's even worse.
SPEAKER_02:I know Jeremy.
SPEAKER_04:No, they did beat him. We play our play.
SPEAKER_02:We play our worst football against the quarterback. So like that makes it even worse. If if uh Tarad starts, since his name is not Tyrod, it's Tarod. If he starts, but we're gonna lose that game. Guaranteed. I've I've seen this too many times. We're gonna come off this high, and then people are gonna be like, what are they doing? Because it's too much, it's too much pressure. I mean, this is like a playoff game now, because if we lose this, our season's over.
SPEAKER_04:Well, in three games.
SPEAKER_02:Not in a physical sense, but in a mental sense.
SPEAKER_04:No, I'm just talking about in three games, Taylor's play, he done through three touchdowns to three picks and been slacked nine times.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh look, you see, you see um homeboy uh uh Flacco's stats before he came to us. Ask. But it just situations just different. And like I said, with us not look, you know, I don't think our coaches watch football. I don't think they watch football or like football. So it's like the chances of us having a real scouting report on um on uh Tarot is flim to none. We just we play horrible against uh against backups. We play horrible anyway, but against backups, it's we're cooked. So I really gotta see what the odds are to that game. I'm I'm probably gonna put probably put a 20, 25 on on uh the Jets.
SPEAKER_04:All right, so we get uh Cleveland Brown in uh in New England.
SPEAKER_02:New England's gonna beat the shit out of them. New England actually looks good.
SPEAKER_04:They look real good. You got Drake May playing very good. He got uh 1,700 yards, 12 TDs, only two picks.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they look good. I'm rolling.
SPEAKER_04:So um Giants, Eagles Even though Eagles had a big win. Yeah. Man. I think I think the Giants. If they come out with a little bit more Moxie like they kind of had last week, and they barely lost last week.
SPEAKER_03:Nah, they was they look they gave up 33 points in the fourth quarter. I agree, I agree. They should not have lost that game.
SPEAKER_04:That's what I'm saying. They barely lost the.
SPEAKER_02:That's the wildest game ever. The wildest game ever.
SPEAKER_04:So I think I think they can I think they can beat the Eagles.
SPEAKER_02:And it's like, my thing is like, bro, you're up 19 to nothing, and you continue to score, and you still lose. It ain't like it ain't like they got outscored, you know, it ain't like they, you know, didn't score anything in the fourth quarter. They scored another 13 points on top of being up 19-0 going into the fourth and lost. That's that's incredible. Like everybody should have been fired. Because that's that's crazy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And if uh old boy loses his job, day ball, they they definitely gonna you can point back to that game there. That's crazy. You cannot lose that game.
SPEAKER_03:The 49ers have not scored 30 all year. I don't know what the always scored this past game, but shit.
SPEAKER_01:They gave up 33 and a quarter. And a quarter. Outrage.
SPEAKER_04:And I still, like I said, I still think they can beat the Eagles. We'll see. I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just saying that. I'm not saying they're a better team than the Eagles, but if they were to win this game, I wouldn't be surprised.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I'm not saying they could be defended. I'm just not expecting that way. You smoke a game like that, it's it's hard for me to have faith in you.
SPEAKER_04:That's that's very fair.
SPEAKER_02:Especially playing against the defending champs, too. Uh it might be slow because that's yeah, you're you're a bad, you're a bad football team if if you're giving up 33 and a quarter in the fourth quarter that you go in with the league. It's that's bad.
SPEAKER_04:All right, so what about what about Bills and Panthers? Who would think at this time of the season the Bills would be four and two? And the Panthers would be four and three.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know, but I'm nothing on that game. Next. I'm nothing on that game, bro.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Well you might as well we might as well keep it going then, Bears and Ravens. Oh, Jesus. Bears four and two, ravens one and five.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, bears if there's no Lamar.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Especially since the Ravens don't sing that they know how to run the ball when they need to and continue to run the ball. Like I'm still mad about a one-yard touchdown from two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_04:That's fair. Buccaneers come back and get the Saints.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, beat the Saints.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, uh, that's definitely gonna happen. Definitely a kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02:They may need to look at uh grabbing a wide receiver.
SPEAKER_04:Definitely. I mean, uh Amari Cooper's out there. There's like I would definitely be on his line.
SPEAKER_03:The Raiders receiver wanted want to be traded? Um Jacoby Myers.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, from the Raiders, yeah. I would definitely go after him. You could probably you could probably throw them a six and get him.
SPEAKER_03:What's going on?
SPEAKER_04:Man, it's the Raiders team.
SPEAKER_03:It was like, yeah, I'm good. I'm gonna just quit playing football.
SPEAKER_04:It's the Raiders, bro. Like, it's the same thing. Like we were saying before, it's those certain teams. The Raiders, the Browns, the Pampers. It's the certain same organizations that can't keep any core players, any good core players. But nonetheless, you got Cowboys and Broncos. That may be a good decent game. I ain't gonna say a good game. That may be a decent game.
SPEAKER_03:Um that honestly, and you're talking about somebody who's looking really good.
SPEAKER_04:Zach Proscott, yes. 18 over 1,800 yards, 16 touchdowns, and only three picks. And Pickens making a resurgence with 36 catches right now for 607 and 6 TDs right now. So that definitely can be a high. That could be a uh a 40 to 42 point, you know, 40 point, you know what I mean? Easy.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-point games.
SPEAKER_04:Defense gonna give us trash, trash. Talking about defunding some defund the Cowboys defense because they are horrible. Uh then Sunday night we get Packers Steelers. That'll be a good game. And then uh Monday night we get Commanders and Chiefs, which should be a competitive game, also. Uh bye week, we get Lions got a bye, Raiders get a bye, Rams get a bye, Cardinals get a bye, Seahawks get a bye, and Jaguars get a bye. Dang, man, y'all whole division. The whole NFC West got a bye. Jeez. Dang, y'all the only one still playing with all the injured players.
SPEAKER_03:That's fine. Put us put us up a game. I mean, we still want leading the division, technically. Got out of tiebreakers, but yeah. Three teams is five and two. It looks crazy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So that's all I got, man. What we do what we defunding this week, guys. What we defending.
SPEAKER_02:Stephen A. Smith.
SPEAKER_04:So fast.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that was locked and loaded.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, we ain't we ain't even got Justin here to talk about no uh no boxing. What you about say, Ike?
SPEAKER_03:I looked up the Kyrie thing. They're uh I said they January is probably when they think it's gonna come back.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. But they'll probably wait till after the all-star break, depending on what their record is. That's what they teams notoriously do.
SPEAKER_03:They'll be there for the season. He'll get about half of the season one. So I mean that that'll be that's when I really want to see that when they got it.
SPEAKER_04:But then by that time, hopefully nobody else is injured. Hopefully, AD ain't injured.
SPEAKER_03:You know.
SPEAKER_04:That's always a possibility.
SPEAKER_05:Is that a very true?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Um, I got nothing, man. Um definitely excited for basketball. You know?
unknown:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:Some more to talk about. We got two games tonight. Lakers play after this. So LeBron is rough, though, man. Man. Well, I mean, it'd be it'd still be good to see what this team is gonna look like without LeBron because there's gonna come a time where guess what it's gonna look like?
SPEAKER_02:Absolute trash. You would think it I just don't understand once people team up with LeBron and that like Luca is not gonna be able to carry this team. Uh it's just I it's like as soon as somebody becomes a teammate of LeBron, they just they just aren't. I don't know. But Luca's not gonna be able to keep. I I doubt this team is will even be 500 while LeBron is out. He's not gonna be able to carry them. I just and can he? Of course. Should he be able to? Absolutely. Will he? I I don't see it. I don't see it. And I don't know why that is, but they're gonna be, they're gonna look like a lottery team tonight and going forward until LeBron gets back. They they might look like a lottery team once LeBron is back, but you would think that Luca would, but I also think the Lakers' problem, and I ain't gonna drag this out, but I also think the Lakers' problem is they got too many guys. Like they got too many guys that do a few different things, but are a master of none. And it's like it that makes the coach's job tough trying to figure out who you're gonna play. I mean, you got you got all these guards, you got all these, you know, big men, you got you just got almost too much. It's like, how can you focus on, okay, I need this out of you, I need this out of you when you got 12 guys that are kind of all just yeah, I mean, granted, Luca and probably Reeves are, you know, up here, but the rest of everybody is just like, and that's not a recipe for for success either. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_04:I agree. I agree. You you need you need specialists.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And you need to know exactly what you know roles are.
SPEAKER_02:I'd rather have a team with eight guys that I know for sure, and the rest of the guys just y'all, y'all just chill, then 12, 13 guys that are all just middle role, none have any expectations, none have any real accountability. Like, it's just they got too many guys. Like, you got guys like Gabe Vincent. He can he can get you 25 or zero. He's just like, bro, you gotta get you can have a team full of those guys. Like DeAndre Ayton. He can go out there and get you three points, or he can get you 20. Um, same with Jared Vanderbilt. He can get you no points, or he could possibly get you 17. You know, and and I'm not even exaggerating, like, like let me know if I'm wrong. Oh, you know, I ain't fighting you at all. You know, they're all just like, well, if this guy gets two points, if he gets 19 points, no reaction. Like it needs to be some guys that, okay, man, if he's scoring under 15 every game, then something might be wrong. Or is this Lakers just got too many guys that just have no expectations, and I think that's gonna hurt them. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see what JJ can do with it, man.
SPEAKER_02:It's just making it harder.
SPEAKER_03:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:That's what you're gonna have to do when you got 12 guys that are just middle of the roaders. You gotta you don't have to coach your ass off. It just makes everything tougher. I agree.
SPEAKER_04:I agree, I agree. Well, that's all Ike. What you got, man? Closing remarks.
SPEAKER_03:I had something, man. I'm gonna save it for next week.
SPEAKER_04:Nah, man, come on. You said you need Justin here. Okay, that's fair. That's fair.
SPEAKER_03:You about to defund the Ravens? Nah, I should though. I just because they want to get the ball. But it's this is a fancy football name, but he's he is specifically involved in this. I need him to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_04:Fair enough. Fair enough, fair enough. Well, hey y'all, this has been the Epic Podcast, man. We will see y'all next week.