00:00:05
Speaker 1: This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: What is up? Straight Fire? I am HiT's me Jason McIntyre, Straight baw Yer for Monday, November, the third Halloween is in the rearview mirror. Hope everybody had a safe, fun, awesome Halloween weekend. I've eaten a lot of my kids candy, uh, to the point that like I basically hand picked all the good stuff. It was a phenomenal weekend just all around, except for the time change. I hate that. I cannot stand it. Hit some Halloween parties watched I think the greatest World Series Game seven of my life. I'm sure there have been other ones that were comparable, but I certainly don't remember them. This one was riveting. We'll talk about it at length. Obviously, we'll do NFL first. We're not gonna get into the college football stuff. I know another coach got fired. I think it was the guy at Auburn. He got canned. They're just everybody in college football. It's like, hey, you're not delivering. Get the hell out of dodge. But we'll start with the NFL. And obviously we're going to go to the Game of this Century as it usually is called Buffalo twenty eight, KC twenty one. I don't know why everybody loved Kansas City here, all the sharp betters were all over all you got to take Kansas Study best team in the league on the herd this past week, I said, cowhard, I'm so confident in Buffalo. If the Chiefs win, I will not say a negative word about them again this regular season. And then the Bills won, and the Bills handled it. This was not particularly close. Guys. Listen, I'm not going to be out here bashing Patrick Mahomes. He's obviously a great quarterback that's undeniable. But Patrick Mahomes just had the worst game of his career against the defense that's been kind of pushed around by a lot of teams in this league. I mean, we saw Drake may have his way with the Buffalo Bills defense less than a month ago. We saw Michael Pennox carve up the Buffalo Bill's defense. Okay, I mean Lamar Jackson. In the opening, when everybody was healthy up and down the field, they scored forty points. Patrick Mahomes, I think it was like, with six minutes up, they were still stuck on thirteen points. Mahomes fifteen of thirty four. Maybe the stat of Sunday, the first time in his career he's had under fifty percent completions. It was staggering. I'm not saying nobody's saying Mahomes is a terrible quarterback. It's okay to say, man Patrick Mahomes had the worst game of his career in a weirdly big spot. And then you know, that's when the cheese fans get all worked up and it said, well, wait a minute, we didn't have but check. Oh, it's always somebody's missing. Well, you know, let me see Rashe Rice was there. Yeah, he didn't do much for my fantasy team, but Race Rice did play. Let me see Hollywood Brown. Yeah he played. He played, Xavier Worthy, he he showed up yep, yep. Three catches on seven targets. Travis Kelsey, yes he played. Oh so, basically they had everyone except Isaiah Pacheco. Now, the offensive line, which hasn't been great, was missing Simmons again, the young rookie left tackle, and then Trey Smith sat out, and I think someone else got hurt, so they got dinged up. They sacked Mahomes three times. It felt like they hit him a ton I'm seeing fifteen in the ESPN box spoor score. Bosa and Russo dominated the edges. It wasn't quite like Mahomes struggling in the Super Bowl against Tampa or in the Super Bowl against the Eagles, where he was literally on his back every play. But Mahomes was clearly flustered and rattled in office spot and wasn't the same Mahomes magic outside of you know, a fourth and seventeen completion. Fun stats for those who care for this mighty Kansas City defense, which everybody thought was good because they smoked Rob G's raiders right and they shut down Marcus Mariota. Last week, the Bills went seven for twelve on third down. You know, math majors out there, that's pretty damn good. Above fifty percent, three for three in the red zone. Chiefs had not allowed a one hundred yard rusher in twenty seven games. James Cook, who I was upset did not get carries inside the five for my fantasy team, did have one hundred and fourteen yards on the ground, and Josh Allen twenty three of twenty six. Just listen, I'm not doing the MVP thing. I'm not, you know, at Fox. They always are like, oh, well, what about Baker Rayfield for the VP, let's talk about that, or who's your VP leader? I'm like, who cares. It's week seven, it's week nine, it doesn't really matter. But if you insist on an MVP discussion, only if you insist, you start with Josh Allen. He's your new leader because he beat Patrick Mahomes and the alleged best team in the league. I didn't have them as the best, but virtually everyone else did a lot of the power rankings from the gamblers and had the Chiefs as the number one team. They were favored in the spot. And so for Alan to absolutely carve up this Bagnolo defense, I think he's got to be your MVP leader if you want to talk about that. Now. One interesting set that I saw, and this goes to an overarching theme that I think we've been talking about here on the pod for the last few years. The NFL has been super pass heavy, right. It's you've got to pass the win. You have passings more efficient than running. It's just a smarter move to pass the football than running into the line scrip. It just is. It's that's just how the NFL has become it's a passing league. So this season, as defenses have adjusted to the passing league, Hey, we're taking away the big play, nothing over the top. We double dog dare you to go eleven plays down the field without committing penalties that turnover. We're betting you're gonna mess up, so we're gonna keep everything in front of us. So the smart teams have pivoted and gone heavier. They are now passing out of two and three tight end sets way more than they used to. Remember McVeigh in the London game against the Jags, McVeigh went with like three tight end sets almost all the time. He never has done that in his career. The Jags were totally caught off guard and they were able to pass, to do whatever they want run pass, And yesterday somebody pulled the numbers. The Bills in you know, the Alan versus Mahomes battles usually are passing more than they run, sixty two percent to thirty eight percent. They completely changed that yesterday, going fifty two percent run, forty eight percent pass. So they had thirty five rushes twenty six pass attempts. So they're lining up heavy and passing out of it sometimes, but also they're just running the ball down your throat, and with the soft boxes and the two deep safeties to keep everything in front of you, there's a lot of room to run. Cook had a good I didn't think he was particularly great. Alan of course had his clutch carries. But if you looked around the league Sunday, that was a big trend. We'll talk about the Packers losing to the Panthers. You can imagine what happened in that game, and I'll tell you right now. Bryce Young threw for under one hundred and fifteen yards, Okay, And you look around some of these other big games and it's like, oh, really the Bears rushed. Wait, the Bear's go forty seven points, but rush for one hundred and seventy five yards. It's like, Wow. The Colts when they can't run as they couldn't with Jonathan Taylor, they get smashed. They have to throw the football and there's you know, five turnovers from Daniel Jones and company. It is it's just a really fascinating subplot. Did you see Jared goff rob no run game? The Vikings choked it out and all of a sudden, Jared's got Gough has enough dropped back and passed a lot. He's getting pressured, he's getting rattled, he's committing turnovers, he's taken sacks. It's a weird league right now, and you know, betting it is obviously very risky. I will say I had a pop positive Sunday thanks to the Seattle blowout Sunday night. Saturday was incredible. I think it was eight and two in college, just a banner weekend. Only two and three in the contest, but the Rams did get home in Survivor. Now next week's Survivor, we may have to do a whole podcast on it because it's a really freaking tough slate. But Rob, I'm just curious your thoughts on Bills taking down the Chiefs and doing it with the run game. Obviously Allan was super efficient, but also the overall theme that like, right now, you want to be able to run the football to matriculate down the field as opposed to these big chunk plays which are just not happening.
00:08:20
Speaker 3: Now.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: When you play the Bengals, you're gonna have chunk plays down of the field. The worst defense like in the history of the sport. But overall, it is interesting so maybe the Raiders, your Raiders were right to draft astro jecty. They just try to have an offensive line.
00:08:33
Speaker 4: No, no, no, and quick aside America. If you want to know how you can afford to own a La Liga Nakoxa soccer, it's because you go eight and two ben college football, all right.
00:08:41
Speaker 3: That's how you do it. That's how you snack up the chips.
00:08:43
Speaker 4: So you can be a part owner and be on uh with a Hulu document whatever document you guys run. But that's how you do it, all right. Now, that game yesterday between the Bills and the Chiefs was kind of wild for a number of reasons. You mentioned the running game. It was the first time all season that the Chiefs vaunted defense, giving up a running yards rushing to anybody, and it was James Cooks. And yet to your point, Josh Allen got the goal line work. So I could see how that would be frustrating if you're.
00:09:08
Speaker 2: How'd you do in your fantasy?
00:09:09
Speaker 3: Oh? I blew everyone out.
00:09:10
Speaker 4: It was great as bad as I was. McCaffrey, right, yes, A had McCaffrey. Had McCaffrey as bad as I was last week, I was as good this week.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: So you know, that kind of balanced itself.
00:09:19
Speaker 4: Out, but obviously the big story even though Josh Allen gets to win, and despite having a relatively down season by his standards, right, one great game.
00:09:29
Speaker 3: Against what is perceived to be a great opponent.
00:09:31
Speaker 4: He goes twenty three or twenty six, two seventy three three total touchdowns and he's.
00:09:35
Speaker 3: Suddenly the favorite to winn NFL MVP.
00:09:38
Speaker 4: This despite the fact that you know, Matthew Stafford was great again. You know, I guess Jonathan Taylor has a bad game, so he's eliminated completely, right, Like there's been a it's just a weird the way this MVP race is going at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if, come, you know, Christmas time, we're saying, hey, if if Lamar Jackson finishes stronger last two weeks, what don't watch out for Lamar Jackson win an MVP again. But it's interesting to me that Kansas City, who had looked like arguably the best team in football for the last month or so, could turn in such a dud of a performance, right you mentioned it. Patrick Mahomes lowest passing completion rate in his NFL career, first time ever under fifty percent, but if you watch the game, it was even worse than that, right because you mentioned it. He was under pressure a lot, and it appeared not quite as bad as Super Bowl. But he looked like, you know, not saying he was seeing ghosts, but he didn't look comfortable at all. He looked very skittish back there, like he was seeing ghosts when the ghosts weren't even there. And in the post game, I don't remember which defensive player they asked, but they asked him like, Hey, what was the key to slowing down past Mahomes that offense? And in his answer, he says, we wanted to give him the illusion that there were running lanes for him to escape through, and then we would close it immediately so he'd be stuck in the pocket and then things would go haywire from there. And when I read that quote, I wanted to try to find the audio or the video. I couldn't find it on Twitter. But it's like, are we talking about like Jalen Hurts right now? Are we talking about early career? Like this is Patrick freaking Mahomes. You mean to tell me the key to slowing him down is, hey, let him think he can run but he can't, and let's make him beat it from the pocket.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: And I was like that that kind of blew my mind. And then you look at the advanced.
00:11:24
Speaker 4: Stats when pressured, Patrick Mahomes was three of sixteen for sixty one yards and a pick like that is incredible. And I'm not saying incredibly bad exactly. I'm not saying the Buffalo Bills have found the magic elixir and that's the key to beating Batrick Mahomes moving forward, of course not. But it was illustrative of a bigger problem that Kansas City has had basically all season, and that is inconsistency. Like they start off the season bad, back to back losses. They look ugly in a win against the Giants, they look great against.
00:11:59
Speaker 3: Baltimore, Lamar Jackson gets knocked. They were great, They're gonna win the game. Anyways.
00:12:02
Speaker 4: They follow that up with a dot of a performance on primetime against Trevor Lawrence. They bounce back in a big way against the Detroit Lions, and then they beat up on the lowly Raiders and the injury depleted Washington Commanders. So you think, hey, now they got Rashid Rice back, all their weapons are back. Watch Out, Here Come Homes. He's the MVP favorite, they're the Super Bowl favorite again, and then they just get blitz creaged by a Buffalo Bills team that had looked mediocre coming into this game. So it's just it's to your point of the podcast, I don't know who's good right now. Like trying to predict week to week what team is gonna show up is a fool's errand and I guarantee you, coming out of the buy in a huge AFC West clash between Kansas City and Denver, that.
00:12:46
Speaker 3: Kansasy is probably gonna blow doors off of them.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, shoot, Rob, damn it. So I already bet one game for Week ten, and that is the Thursday night game Denver against the Raiders, your Raiders. The game is in Denver, obviously a very tough spot for the Raiders coming off an overtime game, being on the field, blah blah blah. I didn't look to see that the Broncos have the Chiefs after that. So just as we saw in Green Bay, remember Packers had Aaron Rodgers Carolina and then next week they got the Eagles in a big, big game that obviously national TV and teams are prone to letdowns, and like you said, we've been on this since side what week three or four? Who? Who the hell's good in this league? No, everybody's got more than one loss, I mean, everybody had. The Chiefs is the best team in the league. So what do you automatically put Buffalo back there?
00:13:33
Speaker 1: Now?
00:13:33
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, is how dangerous is Baltimore? Like you said, Lamar is gonna be in the MVP mix pretty soon. I just I don't know what to do. I'll tell you right now though, Like Pittsburgh Steelers, they're not good guys. I don't care what you're telling about to tell you they're not a good football team. The Chargers lost Joe alt I'm sure you guys saw that they're a different team without them. And by the way, Harball was sacked six times in that game against the lowly Titans, who didn't have their best defensive lineman in Jeffy's So, like all around, the league's just absolute craziness.
00:14:04
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
00:14:16
Speaker 2: Let's see Rob if we if we were trying to project who's in the Super Bowl. I don't know. I mean, the Packers can play up or down to anybody. I'm sure the Packers will beat the Eagles next week. Right, let's see here, maybe maybe when the Niners get healthy, if they ever do. I don't know if you saw the news, so Bryce Huff missed the game, right, and their other best rusher boss out Mickel Williams, the guy that got out of Georgia. Oh no, wait, I think he's on the Is he on the Falcon?
00:14:47
Speaker 1: No?
00:14:47
Speaker 2: No, mikeel mckel Williams is on the forty nine ers edge rusher and now he's out, uh and probably a season ender. So I don't exactly know what's gonna happen with with the Niners. Like, I mean, is Brandon per what's his name? Brandon? And Yuke Ever gonna come back?
00:15:03
Speaker 3: Is King piercill Ever coming back?
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Piercel I put him on, ir guys. He's chewing up space on my freaking fantasy roster. I mean, I just I don't know if the forty nine ers could ever get healthy. So if you pressed me, j Mac definitely need a fantasy uh not a fantasy, I definitely need a Super Bowl pick out of you right now. I guess I would go Bill's Eagles. Is that is that boring predictable?
00:15:35
Speaker 3: No?
00:15:35
Speaker 4: I mean what you're banking on is like water leveling itself out, that the good teams are going to become good Buffalo Egans all year, that they have an easy schedule, and you're banking on the Eagles talent that it's going to figure itself out at some point, even if they haven't actually looked good throughout the season. If you would have asked me coming into Sunday who the best team in football is, I would have said the Detroit Lions, who looked whole in their loss to JJ McCarthy and co JK. McCarthy would have played one good quarter in his NFL career, marched up and down the field, now obviously aided by turnovers and things of that nature. But if you watch that game, and I watched a lot of that one, you saw exactly why teams nowadays the prototype is get you a guy who can move around in the pocket. Because Jared Goff, as soon as he felt a little bit of pressure, was either going down in a heap or throwing horrible balls. Yeah, and it's like, well, that's how you have a team that's explosive as Detroit going against a wounded, you know, quite honestly a mediocre Minnesota Vikings team and gets smacked at home. And I would say, Okay, if I'm gonna go in the AFC, the team that has been the best throughout the season, not just recently would have been the Indianapolis Colts, and six turnovers later, I would have looked freaking stupid because Daniel Jones, even though he's been great throughout most of this year, looked like the Daniel Jones that we would have saw on a Sunday night prime time with the New York Giants, Like, how was this guy even in the league at this point?
00:17:07
Speaker 3: Like that's what he looked like on Sunday He.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Basically yeah, we knew he turned into a pumpkin at some point. Yeah, so I don't. I mean, are the Colts good? Like, yeah, if they can run the football, play indoors, sure they're great. Let's quickly touch on the quarterback injuries, rob two obviously significant ones. We'll start with C. J. Stroud. I mean, I was on the Texans that was a tough loss when you lose CJ. Stroud early to what looked like one of the nastiest hits. His head hit the ground so hard. I will be shocked if he plays this coming week. I mean, he looked so woozy, he was down for a while. Just a tough, tough one for the Texans and they were in that until the end. You know it's but the Houston Texans are just a rotten football team. I don't think they're going to the playoffs this year. I think the Jags are better. The Stroud one hurts, the one of the Jayden Daniels injury obviously pretty grotesque. Dan Quinn's gonna catch a lot of heat today for having his quarterback in the game running for his life all night up thirty eight to seven. I mean, the Seattle defense was just prowling and drilling people, and Daniels kind of put his arm down there in the red zone and it bent backwards. It's pretty gross. I don't think they showed the replay on TV. They you probably won't see it, but if you go online you can see it. It's really nasty. I'm praying that they were able to just pop it back in elbow hyper extended. But it may be way worse than that. And I think we covered this last week. Washington is not a is not a team. I don't want to say they quit out there, Rob, but dropping into three and six, Jayden Daniels hurt, gonna miss time again. I think they got the Lions this week with Mariota. You know, it smells like probably a beat down, as the Lions will want to bounce back and win. But the Stroud one is pretty bad. Listen, man, these young quarterbacks, we've got to protect them. And I know there was no flag and on the Stroud hit, and I don't know if you saw the video. Rob. The coach, Jamiico Ryans is upset and all these jibbroni's online are like, oh he's slid, he's fair game. Just lay off the freaking quarterbacks, guys. I mean, you can't put Washington in primetime without Daniels. You can't put Houston in primetime with Davis Mills as a starter. You just can't do that. And you start losing these quarterbacks and it's like, just you know, these teams are unwatchable. I'm sorry, that's how it is. You've got to protect these guys. And you know, I don't know, Rob, They're both well. Stroud is in year three, Daniels is in year two, but we both saw similar situations. Amazing rookie year and then come back to earth a little bit the next year and health is becoming an issue.
00:19:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, And obviously I know you didn't say this or suggested, but just for anyone who's listening, we're not comparing the CJ. Stroud injury and the Jayden Daniels injury. Right, Jayden Daniels was a football play. It just was freaky and it was unfortunate.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Well, should he have been in the game.
00:20:00
Speaker 4: No, that's the bigger question. That's the bigger question. He should have been out of the game, of course. And to be quite honest with you, when when I was watching that game and in the Lakers records, I had to watch Ja Laavia Cook, right, but what I saw at halftime that it was a blowout. Because I'm watching the game, right, of course, and I see the stat that at halftime Sam Donald was sixteen or sixteen, two eighty two, four touchdowns then a perfect one fifty eight passer rating. I'm like, well, let's put that game now on my phone and let's put the Lakers on the big TV, like that's what we'll do. And so I'm only looking glancing back and forth at the Washington Seattle game, and it's like, well it's getting out of Hampston.
00:20:34
Speaker 3: Is Jim Damsel in there? Nah?
00:20:36
Speaker 4: No, I just go back at Lakers and it's like, anyway, is he still in there? Like he's still really they're still playing him. And then of course you see that fluke nasty injuries. To your point, hopefully it's as simple as pop it back in air casting.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: Probably not, I'm just I'm not sure it's not.
00:20:50
Speaker 4: But that you know, that's what you're hoping because of how bad the instant replay was. But it's just like, I don't know what the NFL can do more than what they are do to protect these quarterbacks, especially when so many of them, like Patrick Mahomes, like Josh Allen, like Lamar Jackson, like the best guys Justin Herbert, live on this edge where if you think they're gonna slide, they'll run you over. If you think they're gonna go out of bounds, they're dip their shoulder to get another three or four yards and unless you police that out of it completely, where you say quarterbacks cannot run or if you two haven't touched them past the tackle box or out past the line of scrimmage, then he's down. Like, I don't know what you can do realistically to prevent these kind of injuries.
00:21:38
Speaker 2: So you and I like the NFL, well, we love it, you know, of course, Santa See, we do gambling. Okay, here's the dirty little secret. Just one game usually angry. Okay. These are the scores of the most recent Island games, right, so Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night, London. This was blowout Seattle, blowout City Ravens waxed the Dolphin. On Thursday, Chiefs beat Marcus Mariotto buy a million. On Monday, Packers come back to beat the Steelers, and again it was interesting for a half, maybe three quarters. They still one by ten. Chargers stomp out Carson Wentz by twenty five. The Texans Seahawks game was just total trash. That one Monday, and I think it was Monday night. There was Lions Bucks which was awful. Monday night Niners beat the Falcons in a really slow, boring Sunday night game. Rams In their international visit versus the Jags, Like, we can't get good primetime games, and Rob, that's the thing. Sunday thrilling, six games happening, bears this that it's fun. And then you go an Island game and you're like, shit, can I turn on Wemby versus the Suns here? Where's the Laker game? It's just the NF And I get it the ratings, you know, I get I'm not arguing against the NFL. We love it. But the reality is a lot of these games, Rob just not competitive. I mean, if this injury to Daniels is serious, I'm looking at their schedule. I mean, they had they were supposed to have a big time game against the Lions next week on Fox Sunday. Then they had the I don't know where's this game Madrid somewhere Lion against the Dolphins November sixteenth. I just see six thirty am. Then they had the Broncos on Sunday and Night Football. Good. That's got to get flexed out, right. If Jayden Daniels isn't there against Bronix, sure, yeah, I just it's in Christmas Day Cowboys Washington. So Marcus Mariotta on Christmas Day, like Geese, just cancel Christmas. Any other NFL stuff we missed, rob that is worthy of discussion before we go to the World Series.
00:23:38
Speaker 3: Real quick, I mean just quickly.
00:23:41
Speaker 4: If you didn't get to watch Bears Bengals, you know, apologies to you, because I will go on record.
00:23:47
Speaker 3: The football itself was not great. Okay.
00:23:50
Speaker 4: It was a defense, defense optional game. It reminded me of the old Big twelve when it was Baker Mayfield was just Patrick Mahomes and each guy through for seven hundred yards. Like it was one of those kind of games where nobody could tackle. Coverage was bad, the defensive play calls were horrible. But if you like offense and you like drama, this was the game of the century because again, the football wasn't good, but the cinema was incredible. Joe Flacco does everything he can to march his team back. Should have been a three touchdown game when he threw a pick at the goal line and they somehow ruled the defender down by contact, which gave the Bengals, you know, just a little bit of life. They forced it three and out to get the ball back touchdown, they go for the on side kick, which never gets conforted evermore because of the way.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: That the rules are.
00:24:41
Speaker 4: They recovered the on side kick, they've marched right down. They score another touchdown, and because they had gone for two in the previous score, they're up by one with under a minute left. He said, hey, Cincinnati, all you gotta do is hold them, hold them one stop. You're gonna get one stop at all in this game. Now's the time to get it. Of course they don't do. They not give up like a winning field goal. They give up like a fifty yard touchdown as a guy running an untouched for the last forty And it was so bad that after the game. And these are veteran players, like Jamar Chase is a veteran player. He knows what he can say and not say when the cameras are round. Chase Brown is a veteran player. He knows what he can say and not say when the cameras around. I think he's actually a captain on there, both of them, one of them is, at least Jamar Chase is caught on the caught on cameras.
00:25:26
Speaker 3: And we can't get one fucking stop, Chase. Chase Brown says to reporters.
00:25:32
Speaker 4: Like after they had been questioning him on what In the same asage, if you can watch the video, he says, you know, the key is we're not going to turn on each other because the defense was carrying us there in the beginning of the season, you know, and now the offense is doing much better now here in the last couple of weeks. And in the same course of the answer, well, how about you guys in the fucking game, why couldn't you guys do that? Like they was so bad and it was so much drama, both on the field and off the field that if you didn't get to catch the Navid I feel sorry for you.
00:25:59
Speaker 2: I have a past. All this stat floating around social media. Then the last three years, teams that score thirty eight points eighty seven, six and two. That's for everyone except the Bengals. The Bengals are one and four. That's right, So like, if you score thirty eight, you should automatically get the dub. The Bengals are one and four because the defense is just abhorrent. It'll be interesting, like we'll do some trade stuff, I'm sure this week, but like after that, do they just say, you know what, ef it, We're done. Let's just trade Hendrickson, get what we can. We don't need this offseason drama. I think some teams are going to be looking at cornerbacks, defense, pass rushers. It should be a busy week. I know we always say that it never really is.
00:26:41
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
00:26:52
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the World Series, because you know we don't do a ton on baseball. I readily admit that I'm a casual baseball fan. And if you say, hey, J Mack, I got Dodgers tickets, do you want to go? Yeah, sure I'll go. We go with the family. It's fun. I'm not like watching game ninety seven of the season. I'm not tuned in. I don't know what's going on with middle relief. Then when the playoffs come around, yeah, I'll watch closer. Try to go to a game. I definitely have the game on. This World Series was unbelievable, But I don't even know what the best World Series of my lifetime? Any any that the Yankees won? But did Dodgers go back to Toronto down three to two. They gotta throw Yama Monroo. He's lights out again. You go to game seven still you're like, oh, we got Otani, were in great shape. And then Otani gives up the three run homer to bishit and it's like, oh, Dodgers are playing catch up the whole game. It's just not really happening. They keep clawing back, and then this guy Rojas, who I don't even really know, I'm not familiar with his game, he goes yard like the most unlikely hitter. The whole all we were talking about heading into the ninth thinning is yeah, so Tani gets to bat, yes, oh my gosh, we have a chest and Rojas comes up and he's like pop Hi game, Like wow, and then to win it in extra innings and Yamamoto came in the day after pitching ninety six pitches, seals the deal, gets a third win, gets the MVP. It was thrilling. And now obviously I was at a Halloween party, you know, with the wife or celebrating. Everybody's going crazy. It's awesome. And then you know, I'm largely unaware of what's going on on social media outside of the games. I don't know if that's because the algorithm or what. But Rob tells me, you know, a lot of people are pissed off that this is bad for baseball, and I'm like, huh, how is this bad for him? I mean, like, you know, in the NBA, dynasties are amazing for the sport. In the NFL, the Chiefs dynasty, the Patriots dodynasty, great for the sport. And it's like, why would the Dodgers dynasty be bad?
00:28:53
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:28:54
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's no salary caps, so they spend the most money and get all the best players. If you don't like that, then why blame the Dodgers? Why not change the rules? Well, that's not happening, right, They're not gonna all of a sudden, but in a salary cap. Okay, Well, is it unfair that Otani hit the market after leaving the Angels and landed with the Dodgers? What's unfair about that? Is it unfair that Yamamotor decided he was coming to the US and the Dodgers were like, okay, we'll give you three hundred and twenty five million dollars. People laughed at the Dodgers for that. Oh, this guy's never pitched in the BIGS. Oh that's insane. I mean, well, I don't see what he did in the World Series. He definitely worth every penny. So again, maybe it's just that I'm unaware, Rob, but I found the Dodgers. Now. Listen, I'm out here in LA. It's exciting. You know, everybody's into the Dodgers. I thought it was exciting. I don't think it's bad at all. If anything, I'm where I think the Dodgers need to go out this offseason and get some more bats. I mean, they really couldn't deliver in the postseason, and that's I guess It's good and a further piss off Major League Baseball. Huh.
00:30:02
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: J Back to your point, the Dodgers batted two oh three in the World Series, the first mark by a champion since nineteen sixty six.
00:30:11
Speaker 3: Wow.
00:30:11
Speaker 4: Over the last two seasons which the Daughters have the Dodgers have went back to back World Series championships, they have batted a combined two oh four in the World Series. Okay, so this is not some juggernaut team. This is not Oh my gosh, can you imagine anybody else other than these guys winning it? No, what they have obviously, they have several great players, but what they have more than anything else, is they have guys who have come up big in the biggest moments. And that's all you can really ask for in the sport of baseball, Because baseball, especially in the postseason, how many times have you said coming in like, oh, well, this team is loaded, they should win, and you know, the number seven hitter on the other team comes up with a three one blast out of nowhere.
00:30:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, that's what it is.
00:30:58
Speaker 4: The Dodgers win this World Series trailing by one down to their last two outs, and a guy who hadn't hit a home run in over a month and a half, who wasn't even playing in the series until a game and a half ago, hits the game time home run that flips it right. The Dodgers, who again had been struggling batting the entire World Series, have one guy in one game, Shoe Aotani, accounts for nine total bases or reaches base nine times, walk five times, goes four to four to two doubles, two home runs. Like one guy flipped that whole thing. Yeah, Yamamoto, I believe historically, I think it's only like six guys have won at least three road games in the World Series. Like three pitchers or six pitchers have won at least three road games. He did three has three wins in one World Series, right, Like, I don't understand how anybody can look at the Dodgers. And I'm not saying this I live in LA because my whole family Dodger fans. I'm saying, as I'm saying as an objective sports fan, what they do is something that every team should aspire to be. You should be pissed off right now. If you're a Detroit Tigers fan and we got reports saying, hey, it's a good chance they're gonna trade schoobl who might be the best pitcher in baseball, because they don't want to pay him the money he's looking for.
00:32:22
Speaker 3: Like, you should be pissed off with that.
00:32:24
Speaker 2: You should be pissed off who's in the mix for him?
00:32:25
Speaker 3: By the way, everybody anybody who has money. That's all the elites, the coastal elites, and the Blue Jays.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: So what the Mets, the Yankees, right, blue Jays, probably the Red Sox.
00:32:38
Speaker 4: If it was as simple as who has the biggest payroll, then why haven't the Yankees won in thirty years? Why have the Mets haven't won the last five Because they've been spending money like it's going out of style. The Dodgers, unlike a lot of these other teams. Yes, they have big paychecks and big wallets, big bank accounts. What they also have is a great farm system. What they also have is they find discarded guys like a Max Muncy, like a Tommy Edmin from other teams that just fit what they're trying to do. They're able to tap in and take risks that other teams necessarily aren't gonna take, like some of the trades that they made as started this whole run a couple of years ago, Like they took on a terrible David Price contract so they can get some better players, right, They, to your point, signed Yamamoto three hundred and twenty five million, had never pitched in a big league game and never likes.
00:33:31
Speaker 3: Basically side unseen. Right.
00:33:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you had current pitchers at the time. I think Dallas Braden was one of them. It's like, how the hell are you gonna do that. That's a terrible decision. That's just throwing money away. Like I haven't we learned anything. It's like, no, they get the right guys at the right time, and and more importantly, they get these guys who seem to have a grittiness that most superstars just do not have. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, shoe A Otani Yamamoto saying I'm gonna give you ninety plus pitches the night before, then I'm gonna come and give you another thirty to close the game.
00:34:03
Speaker 2: Like that, let me ask Rob, Like, here's the thing. So the Dodgers went out and got I'm sorry. The Angels went out and got Otani, right yep. And they couldn't really spend money to get anyone else. Well, I mean, I guess technically you could, but I guess the owner was like, hey, it's not profitable if I spend.
00:34:20
Speaker 4: And we also spent on the wrong guys before that, right Hams and Albert Pooholes.
00:34:24
Speaker 2: So the Dodgers, you're right, have more wiggle room for swing and miss when you're spending a ton of money. The Angels don't. The Mets were like, basically, what's that team?
00:34:34
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:34:34
Speaker 2: Like North Carolina's Belichick, Hey, let's just go hit the portal. Let's get everybody, let's spend all the money and they just whip it together and it didn't work. But I just I do wonder if do you think the rest of the owners around the league would be upset enough that, hey, man, we just can't hang. Let's all vote to have a salary captay. Is there any chance of that happening?
00:34:56
Speaker 3: Absolutely? You think that so freaking lotly?
00:34:59
Speaker 4: Yes, because all of these guys, I mean, you know this working in sports, the teams that are actually interested in winning is maybe like a third in any league, and then more than half if not the rest of the league. It's just like, hey, how do we make money?
00:35:15
Speaker 2: We make money?
00:35:16
Speaker 3: How do we stay profitable? How do we stay in the black.
00:35:18
Speaker 4: And there's been reports even before the season what the Dodgers are doing is unfair from the Rockies manager, from the Yankees, this is unfair what they're doing, the way they're spending this money. Like, are you kidding me, Brian Cashman, you're gonna say that the yank the Dodgers are spending too much money when the Yankees historically have wanted in the highest spinning teams ever. And if you watch this past World Series, Yes, the Dodgers won, but you cannot say with a straight face that the Blue Jays did not look like the better team throughout the series.
00:35:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were right there.
00:35:50
Speaker 4: They had them dead to rights and just couldn't close the door. The Blue Jays in this World Series had twenty two more hits, scored eight more runs, and batted over sixty points higher as a team and still lost. So if the blue Jays.
00:36:06
Speaker 3: Win, are the Dodgers still baff for baseball?
00:36:08
Speaker 1: No?
00:36:08
Speaker 3: Could they just freaking lost?
00:36:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's then narrative switched a goll goofy. Let me ask you this. So I don't know enough about the Blue Jays. So was this just an ultra charmed year and they were that close they could just come back and do it again, or two years ago were they just not anywhere close to this? And this was just kind of sort of I don't want to use the word lucky. But everything went their way. I mean, the guy who set the record for major League hits at a postseason, I'd never heard of him in my life. I mean, he just every time he came in to play, he was like, oh he was like the eighth or nine, ten or do you know what I'm talking about Clement.
00:36:43
Speaker 3: Yes, well j Mack.
00:36:44
Speaker 4: Just to give you some context, the Toronto Blue Jays had the fifth highest payroll in baseball, So they're not just some plucky team out of nowhere. That kind of is someth The difference that they spent money exactly is that Vlad was awesome and he and he just got rewarded with the found mind of other contract. But he played like a five hundred million dollar guy we should play. Yeah, George Springer finally rounded in the form after a couple of years with the team, like he finally looked like the George Springer from Houston.
00:37:07
Speaker 2: He's starting to break down though, It sounded like right.
00:37:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he got hurt there at the end. But they have a lot of really good players, Like they may not have the star power where like the household names because the Dodgers are the Dodgers. But you cannot say, if you know anything about baseball that the Blue Jays are just happy to be there. They're just a lucky team.
00:37:26
Speaker 3: Like, no, they are a really really.
00:37:28
Speaker 4: Good baseball team and they should have won the World Series. It just didn't work out for them.
00:37:34
Speaker 2: Would you say that the correct way to assess the salary cap situation is it doesn't guarantee you victory, obviously, but the more you spend, the better chance you have of making in the playoffs.
00:37:49
Speaker 4: The more you spend should theoretically give you a better chance to make the playoffs. The problem is, if you look historically since two thousand and one, the team would the biggest payroll has only.
00:38:01
Speaker 3: Run it four times. If it was just about spending, then.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: No, but I would, I would. I think a better analysis would be And you know what, I'll dig into chat GPT on this this week. Sure so among so there's thirty teams in baseball, right, yes, among the bottom ten spenders for the last decade, how many have made the playoffs versus the top ten spenders the last ten years? How many have made the playoffs? I would guess it's probably two to one, maybe three to one, That is just a guess. But like you know, I know some of these teams at the bottom. Sure you'll have a breakthrough and maybe catch lightning in a bottle and get through, right, wasn't I forget? Was it the Tigers? I mean?
00:38:43
Speaker 4: I mean, like you had the Rays make the World Series? A couple of raised the Dodgers.
00:38:47
Speaker 2: Like you get these one offs.
00:38:48
Speaker 4: The Diamondbacks, I think last year or two years ago, made a run at the World Series. They didn't win it, but yeah, I mean, like, the thing is is that what you see with a lot of these teams, And it goes back to the other conversation is the worst teams, like the team that don't spend anything. If you look usually at their roster, it's loaded with these young rookie contract you know, they were great in the minors and they're just they're really ascending, and then when it's time to pay them, well suddenly they don't.
00:39:18
Speaker 3: They can't afford it.
00:39:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, like, well you absolutely can. You're just choosing not to because you have all these guys in the building. Like Moneyball, if you watch that move, everyone loves the movie with a rap pit, the focus is on like Hadiberg, and its focus is on David Justice and the like these other players.
00:39:33
Speaker 3: Anybody who knows anything about baseball.
00:39:34
Speaker 4: Is like, well, they also had like three of the best pictures in the league at that point, who were all young guys. And we don't want to talk about that part because that.
00:39:42
Speaker 2: Vez like Veto and Molder like that doesn't work with the narrative.
00:39:46
Speaker 4: The narrative was, well, we can't afford anybody, so our team must be terrible. It's like, no, you had great pictures, just eventually when it was time to pay them, you were like, nah, not fan, can't do that.
00:39:55
Speaker 2: I don't have any play on Monday Night football. Kyler Murray's out. It feels like a soft benching. We may have to talk talk about that this week. Jacoby Bresett against DAK I got nothing on the game. I have nobody in fantasy. I just don't need Trey McBride and Aubrey to go off. I'm facing them. But I'm real curious how much Lakers have you ingested? Now World Series is over, you got a lot more time to take in the Dalton connect, Jake la Ravia. I mean, the Lakers can almost drought out an all white lineup, you know, led by Luca. Now Luca's back from injury.
00:40:23
Speaker 3: They're the real exciting Whites.
00:40:27
Speaker 2: I'll just say there's a lot of fun stuff happening in the league right now. I mean, again, we don't have time to get into it. But like the Indiana Pacers have fallen off a cliff without Haliburton and Miles Turner and company. Lakers look plucky even without Lebron. Obviously, Wemby and Company look really, really, really good. There's just so much happening in the league. Like there's guys coming out of nowhere doing incredible things. Had you ever heard of Ryan Rollins.
00:40:54
Speaker 3: I've heard of him, but I wasn't familiar with his game.
00:40:56
Speaker 2: But I know, oh, me look like an All star out there. There's so many The league is amazing and and you know we'll start to get into it more. Also, college basketball tips this week. I got to figure out how to like start to dig into those teams. You guys know, I love me some college basketball. But so yeah, no play on Monday night football. Did bet the Thursday game Denver against the Raiders, already regretting it because you know, this is what I do. I bet games and then I think about it and I'm like, oh, I get in my own head. Anyways, So yeah, back tomorrow, we'll probably talk some hoops a little Cowboy. Now. The Cowboys got to win this game tonight against the Cardinals, Like I can't see them losing. Yeah, they should be fine. I would expect fireworks if you asked me, Jake, I got fifty bucks, you know, for for my birthday. Who should I put it on? I would just say bet the over. I think we'll see a lot of points back tomorrow
Speaker 1: This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: What is up? Straight Fire? I am HiT's me Jason McIntyre, Straight baw Yer for Monday, November, the third Halloween is in the rearview mirror. Hope everybody had a safe, fun, awesome Halloween weekend. I've eaten a lot of my kids candy, uh, to the point that like I basically hand picked all the good stuff. It was a phenomenal weekend just all around, except for the time change. I hate that. I cannot stand it. Hit some Halloween parties watched I think the greatest World Series Game seven of my life. I'm sure there have been other ones that were comparable, but I certainly don't remember them. This one was riveting. We'll talk about it at length. Obviously, we'll do NFL first. We're not gonna get into the college football stuff. I know another coach got fired. I think it was the guy at Auburn. He got canned. They're just everybody in college football. It's like, hey, you're not delivering. Get the hell out of dodge. But we'll start with the NFL. And obviously we're going to go to the Game of this Century as it usually is called Buffalo twenty eight, KC twenty one. I don't know why everybody loved Kansas City here, all the sharp betters were all over all you got to take Kansas Study best team in the league on the herd this past week, I said, cowhard, I'm so confident in Buffalo. If the Chiefs win, I will not say a negative word about them again this regular season. And then the Bills won, and the Bills handled it. This was not particularly close. Guys. Listen, I'm not going to be out here bashing Patrick Mahomes. He's obviously a great quarterback that's undeniable. But Patrick Mahomes just had the worst game of his career against the defense that's been kind of pushed around by a lot of teams in this league. I mean, we saw Drake may have his way with the Buffalo Bills defense less than a month ago. We saw Michael Pennox carve up the Buffalo Bill's defense. Okay, I mean Lamar Jackson. In the opening, when everybody was healthy up and down the field, they scored forty points. Patrick Mahomes, I think it was like, with six minutes up, they were still stuck on thirteen points. Mahomes fifteen of thirty four. Maybe the stat of Sunday, the first time in his career he's had under fifty percent completions. It was staggering. I'm not saying nobody's saying Mahomes is a terrible quarterback. It's okay to say, man Patrick Mahomes had the worst game of his career in a weirdly big spot. And then you know, that's when the cheese fans get all worked up and it said, well, wait a minute, we didn't have but check. Oh, it's always somebody's missing. Well, you know, let me see Rashe Rice was there. Yeah, he didn't do much for my fantasy team, but Race Rice did play. Let me see Hollywood Brown. Yeah he played. He played, Xavier Worthy, he he showed up yep, yep. Three catches on seven targets. Travis Kelsey, yes he played. Oh so, basically they had everyone except Isaiah Pacheco. Now, the offensive line, which hasn't been great, was missing Simmons again, the young rookie left tackle, and then Trey Smith sat out, and I think someone else got hurt, so they got dinged up. They sacked Mahomes three times. It felt like they hit him a ton I'm seeing fifteen in the ESPN box spoor score. Bosa and Russo dominated the edges. It wasn't quite like Mahomes struggling in the Super Bowl against Tampa or in the Super Bowl against the Eagles, where he was literally on his back every play. But Mahomes was clearly flustered and rattled in office spot and wasn't the same Mahomes magic outside of you know, a fourth and seventeen completion. Fun stats for those who care for this mighty Kansas City defense, which everybody thought was good because they smoked Rob G's raiders right and they shut down Marcus Mariota. Last week, the Bills went seven for twelve on third down. You know, math majors out there, that's pretty damn good. Above fifty percent, three for three in the red zone. Chiefs had not allowed a one hundred yard rusher in twenty seven games. James Cook, who I was upset did not get carries inside the five for my fantasy team, did have one hundred and fourteen yards on the ground, and Josh Allen twenty three of twenty six. Just listen, I'm not doing the MVP thing. I'm not, you know, at Fox. They always are like, oh, well, what about Baker Rayfield for the VP, let's talk about that, or who's your VP leader? I'm like, who cares. It's week seven, it's week nine, it doesn't really matter. But if you insist on an MVP discussion, only if you insist, you start with Josh Allen. He's your new leader because he beat Patrick Mahomes and the alleged best team in the league. I didn't have them as the best, but virtually everyone else did a lot of the power rankings from the gamblers and had the Chiefs as the number one team. They were favored in the spot. And so for Alan to absolutely carve up this Bagnolo defense, I think he's got to be your MVP leader if you want to talk about that. Now. One interesting set that I saw, and this goes to an overarching theme that I think we've been talking about here on the pod for the last few years. The NFL has been super pass heavy, right. It's you've got to pass the win. You have passings more efficient than running. It's just a smarter move to pass the football than running into the line scrip. It just is. It's that's just how the NFL has become it's a passing league. So this season, as defenses have adjusted to the passing league, Hey, we're taking away the big play, nothing over the top. We double dog dare you to go eleven plays down the field without committing penalties that turnover. We're betting you're gonna mess up, so we're gonna keep everything in front of us. So the smart teams have pivoted and gone heavier. They are now passing out of two and three tight end sets way more than they used to. Remember McVeigh in the London game against the Jags, McVeigh went with like three tight end sets almost all the time. He never has done that in his career. The Jags were totally caught off guard and they were able to pass, to do whatever they want run pass, And yesterday somebody pulled the numbers. The Bills in you know, the Alan versus Mahomes battles usually are passing more than they run, sixty two percent to thirty eight percent. They completely changed that yesterday, going fifty two percent run, forty eight percent pass. So they had thirty five rushes twenty six pass attempts. So they're lining up heavy and passing out of it sometimes, but also they're just running the ball down your throat, and with the soft boxes and the two deep safeties to keep everything in front of you, there's a lot of room to run. Cook had a good I didn't think he was particularly great. Alan of course had his clutch carries. But if you looked around the league Sunday, that was a big trend. We'll talk about the Packers losing to the Panthers. You can imagine what happened in that game, and I'll tell you right now. Bryce Young threw for under one hundred and fifteen yards, Okay, And you look around some of these other big games and it's like, oh, really the Bears rushed. Wait, the Bear's go forty seven points, but rush for one hundred and seventy five yards. It's like, Wow. The Colts when they can't run as they couldn't with Jonathan Taylor, they get smashed. They have to throw the football and there's you know, five turnovers from Daniel Jones and company. It is it's just a really fascinating subplot. Did you see Jared goff rob no run game? The Vikings choked it out and all of a sudden, Jared's got Gough has enough dropped back and passed a lot. He's getting pressured, he's getting rattled, he's committing turnovers, he's taken sacks. It's a weird league right now, and you know, betting it is obviously very risky. I will say I had a pop positive Sunday thanks to the Seattle blowout Sunday night. Saturday was incredible. I think it was eight and two in college, just a banner weekend. Only two and three in the contest, but the Rams did get home in Survivor. Now next week's Survivor, we may have to do a whole podcast on it because it's a really freaking tough slate. But Rob, I'm just curious your thoughts on Bills taking down the Chiefs and doing it with the run game. Obviously Allan was super efficient, but also the overall theme that like, right now, you want to be able to run the football to matriculate down the field as opposed to these big chunk plays which are just not happening.
00:08:20
Speaker 3: Now.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: When you play the Bengals, you're gonna have chunk plays down of the field. The worst defense like in the history of the sport. But overall, it is interesting so maybe the Raiders, your Raiders were right to draft astro jecty. They just try to have an offensive line.
00:08:33
Speaker 4: No, no, no, and quick aside America. If you want to know how you can afford to own a La Liga Nakoxa soccer, it's because you go eight and two ben college football, all right.
00:08:41
Speaker 3: That's how you do it. That's how you snack up the chips.
00:08:43
Speaker 4: So you can be a part owner and be on uh with a Hulu document whatever document you guys run. But that's how you do it, all right. Now, that game yesterday between the Bills and the Chiefs was kind of wild for a number of reasons. You mentioned the running game. It was the first time all season that the Chiefs vaunted defense, giving up a running yards rushing to anybody, and it was James Cooks. And yet to your point, Josh Allen got the goal line work. So I could see how that would be frustrating if you're.
00:09:08
Speaker 2: How'd you do in your fantasy?
00:09:09
Speaker 3: Oh? I blew everyone out.
00:09:10
Speaker 4: It was great as bad as I was. McCaffrey, right, yes, A had McCaffrey. Had McCaffrey as bad as I was last week, I was as good this week.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: So you know, that kind of balanced itself.
00:09:19
Speaker 4: Out, but obviously the big story even though Josh Allen gets to win, and despite having a relatively down season by his standards, right, one great game.
00:09:29
Speaker 3: Against what is perceived to be a great opponent.
00:09:31
Speaker 4: He goes twenty three or twenty six, two seventy three three total touchdowns and he's.
00:09:35
Speaker 3: Suddenly the favorite to winn NFL MVP.
00:09:38
Speaker 4: This despite the fact that you know, Matthew Stafford was great again. You know, I guess Jonathan Taylor has a bad game, so he's eliminated completely, right, Like there's been a it's just a weird the way this MVP race is going at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if, come, you know, Christmas time, we're saying, hey, if if Lamar Jackson finishes stronger last two weeks, what don't watch out for Lamar Jackson win an MVP again. But it's interesting to me that Kansas City, who had looked like arguably the best team in football for the last month or so, could turn in such a dud of a performance, right you mentioned it. Patrick Mahomes lowest passing completion rate in his NFL career, first time ever under fifty percent, but if you watch the game, it was even worse than that, right because you mentioned it. He was under pressure a lot, and it appeared not quite as bad as Super Bowl. But he looked like, you know, not saying he was seeing ghosts, but he didn't look comfortable at all. He looked very skittish back there, like he was seeing ghosts when the ghosts weren't even there. And in the post game, I don't remember which defensive player they asked, but they asked him like, Hey, what was the key to slowing down past Mahomes that offense? And in his answer, he says, we wanted to give him the illusion that there were running lanes for him to escape through, and then we would close it immediately so he'd be stuck in the pocket and then things would go haywire from there. And when I read that quote, I wanted to try to find the audio or the video. I couldn't find it on Twitter. But it's like, are we talking about like Jalen Hurts right now? Are we talking about early career? Like this is Patrick freaking Mahomes. You mean to tell me the key to slowing him down is, hey, let him think he can run but he can't, and let's make him beat it from the pocket.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: And I was like that that kind of blew my mind. And then you look at the advanced.
00:11:24
Speaker 4: Stats when pressured, Patrick Mahomes was three of sixteen for sixty one yards and a pick like that is incredible. And I'm not saying incredibly bad exactly. I'm not saying the Buffalo Bills have found the magic elixir and that's the key to beating Batrick Mahomes moving forward, of course not. But it was illustrative of a bigger problem that Kansas City has had basically all season, and that is inconsistency. Like they start off the season bad, back to back losses. They look ugly in a win against the Giants, they look great against.
00:11:59
Speaker 3: Baltimore, Lamar Jackson gets knocked. They were great, They're gonna win the game. Anyways.
00:12:02
Speaker 4: They follow that up with a dot of a performance on primetime against Trevor Lawrence. They bounce back in a big way against the Detroit Lions, and then they beat up on the lowly Raiders and the injury depleted Washington Commanders. So you think, hey, now they got Rashid Rice back, all their weapons are back. Watch Out, Here Come Homes. He's the MVP favorite, they're the Super Bowl favorite again, and then they just get blitz creaged by a Buffalo Bills team that had looked mediocre coming into this game. So it's just it's to your point of the podcast, I don't know who's good right now. Like trying to predict week to week what team is gonna show up is a fool's errand and I guarantee you, coming out of the buy in a huge AFC West clash between Kansas City and Denver, that.
00:12:46
Speaker 3: Kansasy is probably gonna blow doors off of them.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, shoot, Rob, damn it. So I already bet one game for Week ten, and that is the Thursday night game Denver against the Raiders, your Raiders. The game is in Denver, obviously a very tough spot for the Raiders coming off an overtime game, being on the field, blah blah blah. I didn't look to see that the Broncos have the Chiefs after that. So just as we saw in Green Bay, remember Packers had Aaron Rodgers Carolina and then next week they got the Eagles in a big, big game that obviously national TV and teams are prone to letdowns, and like you said, we've been on this since side what week three or four? Who? Who the hell's good in this league? No, everybody's got more than one loss, I mean, everybody had. The Chiefs is the best team in the league. So what do you automatically put Buffalo back there?
00:13:33
Speaker 1: Now?
00:13:33
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, is how dangerous is Baltimore? Like you said, Lamar is gonna be in the MVP mix pretty soon. I just I don't know what to do. I'll tell you right now though, Like Pittsburgh Steelers, they're not good guys. I don't care what you're telling about to tell you they're not a good football team. The Chargers lost Joe alt I'm sure you guys saw that they're a different team without them. And by the way, Harball was sacked six times in that game against the lowly Titans, who didn't have their best defensive lineman in Jeffy's So, like all around, the league's just absolute craziness.
00:14:04
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
00:14:16
Speaker 2: Let's see Rob if we if we were trying to project who's in the Super Bowl. I don't know. I mean, the Packers can play up or down to anybody. I'm sure the Packers will beat the Eagles next week. Right, let's see here, maybe maybe when the Niners get healthy, if they ever do. I don't know if you saw the news, so Bryce Huff missed the game, right, and their other best rusher boss out Mickel Williams, the guy that got out of Georgia. Oh no, wait, I think he's on the Is he on the Falcon?
00:14:47
Speaker 1: No?
00:14:47
Speaker 2: No, mikeel mckel Williams is on the forty nine ers edge rusher and now he's out, uh and probably a season ender. So I don't exactly know what's gonna happen with with the Niners. Like, I mean, is Brandon per what's his name? Brandon? And Yuke Ever gonna come back?
00:15:03
Speaker 3: Is King piercill Ever coming back?
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Piercel I put him on, ir guys. He's chewing up space on my freaking fantasy roster. I mean, I just I don't know if the forty nine ers could ever get healthy. So if you pressed me, j Mac definitely need a fantasy uh not a fantasy, I definitely need a Super Bowl pick out of you right now. I guess I would go Bill's Eagles. Is that is that boring predictable?
00:15:35
Speaker 3: No?
00:15:35
Speaker 4: I mean what you're banking on is like water leveling itself out, that the good teams are going to become good Buffalo Egans all year, that they have an easy schedule, and you're banking on the Eagles talent that it's going to figure itself out at some point, even if they haven't actually looked good throughout the season. If you would have asked me coming into Sunday who the best team in football is, I would have said the Detroit Lions, who looked whole in their loss to JJ McCarthy and co JK. McCarthy would have played one good quarter in his NFL career, marched up and down the field, now obviously aided by turnovers and things of that nature. But if you watch that game, and I watched a lot of that one, you saw exactly why teams nowadays the prototype is get you a guy who can move around in the pocket. Because Jared Goff, as soon as he felt a little bit of pressure, was either going down in a heap or throwing horrible balls. Yeah, and it's like, well, that's how you have a team that's explosive as Detroit going against a wounded, you know, quite honestly a mediocre Minnesota Vikings team and gets smacked at home. And I would say, Okay, if I'm gonna go in the AFC, the team that has been the best throughout the season, not just recently would have been the Indianapolis Colts, and six turnovers later, I would have looked freaking stupid because Daniel Jones, even though he's been great throughout most of this year, looked like the Daniel Jones that we would have saw on a Sunday night prime time with the New York Giants, Like, how was this guy even in the league at this point?
00:17:07
Speaker 3: Like that's what he looked like on Sunday He.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Basically yeah, we knew he turned into a pumpkin at some point. Yeah, so I don't. I mean, are the Colts good? Like, yeah, if they can run the football, play indoors, sure they're great. Let's quickly touch on the quarterback injuries, rob two obviously significant ones. We'll start with C. J. Stroud. I mean, I was on the Texans that was a tough loss when you lose CJ. Stroud early to what looked like one of the nastiest hits. His head hit the ground so hard. I will be shocked if he plays this coming week. I mean, he looked so woozy, he was down for a while. Just a tough, tough one for the Texans and they were in that until the end. You know it's but the Houston Texans are just a rotten football team. I don't think they're going to the playoffs this year. I think the Jags are better. The Stroud one hurts, the one of the Jayden Daniels injury obviously pretty grotesque. Dan Quinn's gonna catch a lot of heat today for having his quarterback in the game running for his life all night up thirty eight to seven. I mean, the Seattle defense was just prowling and drilling people, and Daniels kind of put his arm down there in the red zone and it bent backwards. It's pretty gross. I don't think they showed the replay on TV. They you probably won't see it, but if you go online you can see it. It's really nasty. I'm praying that they were able to just pop it back in elbow hyper extended. But it may be way worse than that. And I think we covered this last week. Washington is not a is not a team. I don't want to say they quit out there, Rob, but dropping into three and six, Jayden Daniels hurt, gonna miss time again. I think they got the Lions this week with Mariota. You know, it smells like probably a beat down, as the Lions will want to bounce back and win. But the Stroud one is pretty bad. Listen, man, these young quarterbacks, we've got to protect them. And I know there was no flag and on the Stroud hit, and I don't know if you saw the video. Rob. The coach, Jamiico Ryans is upset and all these jibbroni's online are like, oh he's slid, he's fair game. Just lay off the freaking quarterbacks, guys. I mean, you can't put Washington in primetime without Daniels. You can't put Houston in primetime with Davis Mills as a starter. You just can't do that. And you start losing these quarterbacks and it's like, just you know, these teams are unwatchable. I'm sorry, that's how it is. You've got to protect these guys. And you know, I don't know, Rob, They're both well. Stroud is in year three, Daniels is in year two, but we both saw similar situations. Amazing rookie year and then come back to earth a little bit the next year and health is becoming an issue.
00:19:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, And obviously I know you didn't say this or suggested, but just for anyone who's listening, we're not comparing the CJ. Stroud injury and the Jayden Daniels injury. Right, Jayden Daniels was a football play. It just was freaky and it was unfortunate.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Well, should he have been in the game.
00:20:00
Speaker 4: No, that's the bigger question. That's the bigger question. He should have been out of the game, of course. And to be quite honest with you, when when I was watching that game and in the Lakers records, I had to watch Ja Laavia Cook, right, but what I saw at halftime that it was a blowout. Because I'm watching the game, right, of course, and I see the stat that at halftime Sam Donald was sixteen or sixteen, two eighty two, four touchdowns then a perfect one fifty eight passer rating. I'm like, well, let's put that game now on my phone and let's put the Lakers on the big TV, like that's what we'll do. And so I'm only looking glancing back and forth at the Washington Seattle game, and it's like, well it's getting out of Hampston.
00:20:34
Speaker 3: Is Jim Damsel in there? Nah?
00:20:36
Speaker 4: No, I just go back at Lakers and it's like, anyway, is he still in there? Like he's still really they're still playing him. And then of course you see that fluke nasty injuries. To your point, hopefully it's as simple as pop it back in air casting.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: Probably not, I'm just I'm not sure it's not.
00:20:50
Speaker 4: But that you know, that's what you're hoping because of how bad the instant replay was. But it's just like, I don't know what the NFL can do more than what they are do to protect these quarterbacks, especially when so many of them, like Patrick Mahomes, like Josh Allen, like Lamar Jackson, like the best guys Justin Herbert, live on this edge where if you think they're gonna slide, they'll run you over. If you think they're gonna go out of bounds, they're dip their shoulder to get another three or four yards and unless you police that out of it completely, where you say quarterbacks cannot run or if you two haven't touched them past the tackle box or out past the line of scrimmage, then he's down. Like, I don't know what you can do realistically to prevent these kind of injuries.
00:21:38
Speaker 2: So you and I like the NFL, well, we love it, you know, of course, Santa See, we do gambling. Okay, here's the dirty little secret. Just one game usually angry. Okay. These are the scores of the most recent Island games, right, so Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night, London. This was blowout Seattle, blowout City Ravens waxed the Dolphin. On Thursday, Chiefs beat Marcus Mariotto buy a million. On Monday, Packers come back to beat the Steelers, and again it was interesting for a half, maybe three quarters. They still one by ten. Chargers stomp out Carson Wentz by twenty five. The Texans Seahawks game was just total trash. That one Monday, and I think it was Monday night. There was Lions Bucks which was awful. Monday night Niners beat the Falcons in a really slow, boring Sunday night game. Rams In their international visit versus the Jags, Like, we can't get good primetime games, and Rob, that's the thing. Sunday thrilling, six games happening, bears this that it's fun. And then you go an Island game and you're like, shit, can I turn on Wemby versus the Suns here? Where's the Laker game? It's just the NF And I get it the ratings, you know, I get I'm not arguing against the NFL. We love it. But the reality is a lot of these games, Rob just not competitive. I mean, if this injury to Daniels is serious, I'm looking at their schedule. I mean, they had they were supposed to have a big time game against the Lions next week on Fox Sunday. Then they had the I don't know where's this game Madrid somewhere Lion against the Dolphins November sixteenth. I just see six thirty am. Then they had the Broncos on Sunday and Night Football. Good. That's got to get flexed out, right. If Jayden Daniels isn't there against Bronix, sure, yeah, I just it's in Christmas Day Cowboys Washington. So Marcus Mariotta on Christmas Day, like Geese, just cancel Christmas. Any other NFL stuff we missed, rob that is worthy of discussion before we go to the World Series.
00:23:38
Speaker 3: Real quick, I mean just quickly.
00:23:41
Speaker 4: If you didn't get to watch Bears Bengals, you know, apologies to you, because I will go on record.
00:23:47
Speaker 3: The football itself was not great. Okay.
00:23:50
Speaker 4: It was a defense, defense optional game. It reminded me of the old Big twelve when it was Baker Mayfield was just Patrick Mahomes and each guy through for seven hundred yards. Like it was one of those kind of games where nobody could tackle. Coverage was bad, the defensive play calls were horrible. But if you like offense and you like drama, this was the game of the century because again, the football wasn't good, but the cinema was incredible. Joe Flacco does everything he can to march his team back. Should have been a three touchdown game when he threw a pick at the goal line and they somehow ruled the defender down by contact, which gave the Bengals, you know, just a little bit of life. They forced it three and out to get the ball back touchdown, they go for the on side kick, which never gets conforted evermore because of the way.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: That the rules are.
00:24:41
Speaker 4: They recovered the on side kick, they've marched right down. They score another touchdown, and because they had gone for two in the previous score, they're up by one with under a minute left. He said, hey, Cincinnati, all you gotta do is hold them, hold them one stop. You're gonna get one stop at all in this game. Now's the time to get it. Of course they don't do. They not give up like a winning field goal. They give up like a fifty yard touchdown as a guy running an untouched for the last forty And it was so bad that after the game. And these are veteran players, like Jamar Chase is a veteran player. He knows what he can say and not say when the cameras are round. Chase Brown is a veteran player. He knows what he can say and not say when the cameras around. I think he's actually a captain on there, both of them, one of them is, at least Jamar Chase is caught on the caught on cameras.
00:25:26
Speaker 3: And we can't get one fucking stop, Chase. Chase Brown says to reporters.
00:25:32
Speaker 4: Like after they had been questioning him on what In the same asage, if you can watch the video, he says, you know, the key is we're not going to turn on each other because the defense was carrying us there in the beginning of the season, you know, and now the offense is doing much better now here in the last couple of weeks. And in the same course of the answer, well, how about you guys in the fucking game, why couldn't you guys do that? Like they was so bad and it was so much drama, both on the field and off the field that if you didn't get to catch the Navid I feel sorry for you.
00:25:59
Speaker 2: I have a past. All this stat floating around social media. Then the last three years, teams that score thirty eight points eighty seven, six and two. That's for everyone except the Bengals. The Bengals are one and four. That's right, So like, if you score thirty eight, you should automatically get the dub. The Bengals are one and four because the defense is just abhorrent. It'll be interesting, like we'll do some trade stuff, I'm sure this week, but like after that, do they just say, you know what, ef it, We're done. Let's just trade Hendrickson, get what we can. We don't need this offseason drama. I think some teams are going to be looking at cornerbacks, defense, pass rushers. It should be a busy week. I know we always say that it never really is.
00:26:41
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
00:26:52
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the World Series, because you know we don't do a ton on baseball. I readily admit that I'm a casual baseball fan. And if you say, hey, J Mack, I got Dodgers tickets, do you want to go? Yeah, sure I'll go. We go with the family. It's fun. I'm not like watching game ninety seven of the season. I'm not tuned in. I don't know what's going on with middle relief. Then when the playoffs come around, yeah, I'll watch closer. Try to go to a game. I definitely have the game on. This World Series was unbelievable, But I don't even know what the best World Series of my lifetime? Any any that the Yankees won? But did Dodgers go back to Toronto down three to two. They gotta throw Yama Monroo. He's lights out again. You go to game seven still you're like, oh, we got Otani, were in great shape. And then Otani gives up the three run homer to bishit and it's like, oh, Dodgers are playing catch up the whole game. It's just not really happening. They keep clawing back, and then this guy Rojas, who I don't even really know, I'm not familiar with his game, he goes yard like the most unlikely hitter. The whole all we were talking about heading into the ninth thinning is yeah, so Tani gets to bat, yes, oh my gosh, we have a chest and Rojas comes up and he's like pop Hi game, Like wow, and then to win it in extra innings and Yamamoto came in the day after pitching ninety six pitches, seals the deal, gets a third win, gets the MVP. It was thrilling. And now obviously I was at a Halloween party, you know, with the wife or celebrating. Everybody's going crazy. It's awesome. And then you know, I'm largely unaware of what's going on on social media outside of the games. I don't know if that's because the algorithm or what. But Rob tells me, you know, a lot of people are pissed off that this is bad for baseball, and I'm like, huh, how is this bad for him? I mean, like, you know, in the NBA, dynasties are amazing for the sport. In the NFL, the Chiefs dynasty, the Patriots dodynasty, great for the sport. And it's like, why would the Dodgers dynasty be bad?
00:28:53
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:28:54
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's no salary caps, so they spend the most money and get all the best players. If you don't like that, then why blame the Dodgers? Why not change the rules? Well, that's not happening, right, They're not gonna all of a sudden, but in a salary cap. Okay, Well, is it unfair that Otani hit the market after leaving the Angels and landed with the Dodgers? What's unfair about that? Is it unfair that Yamamotor decided he was coming to the US and the Dodgers were like, okay, we'll give you three hundred and twenty five million dollars. People laughed at the Dodgers for that. Oh, this guy's never pitched in the BIGS. Oh that's insane. I mean, well, I don't see what he did in the World Series. He definitely worth every penny. So again, maybe it's just that I'm unaware, Rob, but I found the Dodgers. Now. Listen, I'm out here in LA. It's exciting. You know, everybody's into the Dodgers. I thought it was exciting. I don't think it's bad at all. If anything, I'm where I think the Dodgers need to go out this offseason and get some more bats. I mean, they really couldn't deliver in the postseason, and that's I guess It's good and a further piss off Major League Baseball. Huh.
00:30:02
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: J Back to your point, the Dodgers batted two oh three in the World Series, the first mark by a champion since nineteen sixty six.
00:30:11
Speaker 3: Wow.
00:30:11
Speaker 4: Over the last two seasons which the Daughters have the Dodgers have went back to back World Series championships, they have batted a combined two oh four in the World Series. Okay, so this is not some juggernaut team. This is not Oh my gosh, can you imagine anybody else other than these guys winning it? No, what they have obviously, they have several great players, but what they have more than anything else, is they have guys who have come up big in the biggest moments. And that's all you can really ask for in the sport of baseball, Because baseball, especially in the postseason, how many times have you said coming in like, oh, well, this team is loaded, they should win, and you know, the number seven hitter on the other team comes up with a three one blast out of nowhere.
00:30:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, that's what it is.
00:30:58
Speaker 4: The Dodgers win this World Series trailing by one down to their last two outs, and a guy who hadn't hit a home run in over a month and a half, who wasn't even playing in the series until a game and a half ago, hits the game time home run that flips it right. The Dodgers, who again had been struggling batting the entire World Series, have one guy in one game, Shoe Aotani, accounts for nine total bases or reaches base nine times, walk five times, goes four to four to two doubles, two home runs. Like one guy flipped that whole thing. Yeah, Yamamoto, I believe historically, I think it's only like six guys have won at least three road games in the World Series. Like three pitchers or six pitchers have won at least three road games. He did three has three wins in one World Series, right, Like, I don't understand how anybody can look at the Dodgers. And I'm not saying this I live in LA because my whole family Dodger fans. I'm saying, as I'm saying as an objective sports fan, what they do is something that every team should aspire to be. You should be pissed off right now. If you're a Detroit Tigers fan and we got reports saying, hey, it's a good chance they're gonna trade schoobl who might be the best pitcher in baseball, because they don't want to pay him the money he's looking for.
00:32:22
Speaker 3: Like, you should be pissed off with that.
00:32:24
Speaker 2: You should be pissed off who's in the mix for him?
00:32:25
Speaker 3: By the way, everybody anybody who has money. That's all the elites, the coastal elites, and the Blue Jays.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: So what the Mets, the Yankees, right, blue Jays, probably the Red Sox.
00:32:38
Speaker 4: If it was as simple as who has the biggest payroll, then why haven't the Yankees won in thirty years? Why have the Mets haven't won the last five Because they've been spending money like it's going out of style. The Dodgers, unlike a lot of these other teams. Yes, they have big paychecks and big wallets, big bank accounts. What they also have is a great farm system. What they also have is they find discarded guys like a Max Muncy, like a Tommy Edmin from other teams that just fit what they're trying to do. They're able to tap in and take risks that other teams necessarily aren't gonna take, like some of the trades that they made as started this whole run a couple of years ago, Like they took on a terrible David Price contract so they can get some better players, right, They, to your point, signed Yamamoto three hundred and twenty five million, had never pitched in a big league game and never likes.
00:33:31
Speaker 3: Basically side unseen. Right.
00:33:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you had current pitchers at the time. I think Dallas Braden was one of them. It's like, how the hell are you gonna do that. That's a terrible decision. That's just throwing money away. Like I haven't we learned anything. It's like, no, they get the right guys at the right time, and and more importantly, they get these guys who seem to have a grittiness that most superstars just do not have. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, shoe A Otani Yamamoto saying I'm gonna give you ninety plus pitches the night before, then I'm gonna come and give you another thirty to close the game.
00:34:03
Speaker 2: Like that, let me ask Rob, Like, here's the thing. So the Dodgers went out and got I'm sorry. The Angels went out and got Otani, right yep. And they couldn't really spend money to get anyone else. Well, I mean, I guess technically you could, but I guess the owner was like, hey, it's not profitable if I spend.
00:34:20
Speaker 4: And we also spent on the wrong guys before that, right Hams and Albert Pooholes.
00:34:24
Speaker 2: So the Dodgers, you're right, have more wiggle room for swing and miss when you're spending a ton of money. The Angels don't. The Mets were like, basically, what's that team?
00:34:34
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:34:34
Speaker 2: Like North Carolina's Belichick, Hey, let's just go hit the portal. Let's get everybody, let's spend all the money and they just whip it together and it didn't work. But I just I do wonder if do you think the rest of the owners around the league would be upset enough that, hey, man, we just can't hang. Let's all vote to have a salary captay. Is there any chance of that happening?
00:34:56
Speaker 3: Absolutely? You think that so freaking lotly?
00:34:59
Speaker 4: Yes, because all of these guys, I mean, you know this working in sports, the teams that are actually interested in winning is maybe like a third in any league, and then more than half if not the rest of the league. It's just like, hey, how do we make money?
00:35:15
Speaker 2: We make money?
00:35:16
Speaker 3: How do we stay profitable? How do we stay in the black.
00:35:18
Speaker 4: And there's been reports even before the season what the Dodgers are doing is unfair from the Rockies manager, from the Yankees, this is unfair what they're doing, the way they're spending this money. Like, are you kidding me, Brian Cashman, you're gonna say that the yank the Dodgers are spending too much money when the Yankees historically have wanted in the highest spinning teams ever. And if you watch this past World Series, Yes, the Dodgers won, but you cannot say with a straight face that the Blue Jays did not look like the better team throughout the series.
00:35:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were right there.
00:35:50
Speaker 4: They had them dead to rights and just couldn't close the door. The Blue Jays in this World Series had twenty two more hits, scored eight more runs, and batted over sixty points higher as a team and still lost. So if the blue Jays.
00:36:06
Speaker 3: Win, are the Dodgers still baff for baseball?
00:36:08
Speaker 1: No?
00:36:08
Speaker 3: Could they just freaking lost?
00:36:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's then narrative switched a goll goofy. Let me ask you this. So I don't know enough about the Blue Jays. So was this just an ultra charmed year and they were that close they could just come back and do it again, or two years ago were they just not anywhere close to this? And this was just kind of sort of I don't want to use the word lucky. But everything went their way. I mean, the guy who set the record for major League hits at a postseason, I'd never heard of him in my life. I mean, he just every time he came in to play, he was like, oh he was like the eighth or nine, ten or do you know what I'm talking about Clement.
00:36:43
Speaker 3: Yes, well j Mack.
00:36:44
Speaker 4: Just to give you some context, the Toronto Blue Jays had the fifth highest payroll in baseball, So they're not just some plucky team out of nowhere. That kind of is someth The difference that they spent money exactly is that Vlad was awesome and he and he just got rewarded with the found mind of other contract. But he played like a five hundred million dollar guy we should play. Yeah, George Springer finally rounded in the form after a couple of years with the team, like he finally looked like the George Springer from Houston.
00:37:07
Speaker 2: He's starting to break down though, It sounded like right.
00:37:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he got hurt there at the end. But they have a lot of really good players, Like they may not have the star power where like the household names because the Dodgers are the Dodgers. But you cannot say, if you know anything about baseball that the Blue Jays are just happy to be there. They're just a lucky team.
00:37:26
Speaker 3: Like, no, they are a really really.
00:37:28
Speaker 4: Good baseball team and they should have won the World Series. It just didn't work out for them.
00:37:34
Speaker 2: Would you say that the correct way to assess the salary cap situation is it doesn't guarantee you victory, obviously, but the more you spend, the better chance you have of making in the playoffs.
00:37:49
Speaker 4: The more you spend should theoretically give you a better chance to make the playoffs. The problem is, if you look historically since two thousand and one, the team would the biggest payroll has only.
00:38:01
Speaker 3: Run it four times. If it was just about spending, then.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: No, but I would, I would. I think a better analysis would be And you know what, I'll dig into chat GPT on this this week. Sure so among so there's thirty teams in baseball, right, yes, among the bottom ten spenders for the last decade, how many have made the playoffs versus the top ten spenders the last ten years? How many have made the playoffs? I would guess it's probably two to one, maybe three to one, That is just a guess. But like you know, I know some of these teams at the bottom. Sure you'll have a breakthrough and maybe catch lightning in a bottle and get through, right, wasn't I forget? Was it the Tigers? I mean?
00:38:43
Speaker 4: I mean, like you had the Rays make the World Series? A couple of raised the Dodgers.
00:38:47
Speaker 2: Like you get these one offs.
00:38:48
Speaker 4: The Diamondbacks, I think last year or two years ago, made a run at the World Series. They didn't win it, but yeah, I mean, like, the thing is is that what you see with a lot of these teams, And it goes back to the other conversation is the worst teams, like the team that don't spend anything. If you look usually at their roster, it's loaded with these young rookie contract you know, they were great in the minors and they're just they're really ascending, and then when it's time to pay them, well suddenly they don't.
00:39:18
Speaker 3: They can't afford it.
00:39:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, like, well you absolutely can. You're just choosing not to because you have all these guys in the building. Like Moneyball, if you watch that move, everyone loves the movie with a rap pit, the focus is on like Hadiberg, and its focus is on David Justice and the like these other players.
00:39:33
Speaker 3: Anybody who knows anything about baseball.
00:39:34
Speaker 4: Is like, well, they also had like three of the best pictures in the league at that point, who were all young guys. And we don't want to talk about that part because that.
00:39:42
Speaker 2: Vez like Veto and Molder like that doesn't work with the narrative.
00:39:46
Speaker 4: The narrative was, well, we can't afford anybody, so our team must be terrible. It's like, no, you had great pictures, just eventually when it was time to pay them, you were like, nah, not fan, can't do that.
00:39:55
Speaker 2: I don't have any play on Monday Night football. Kyler Murray's out. It feels like a soft benching. We may have to talk talk about that this week. Jacoby Bresett against DAK I got nothing on the game. I have nobody in fantasy. I just don't need Trey McBride and Aubrey to go off. I'm facing them. But I'm real curious how much Lakers have you ingested? Now World Series is over, you got a lot more time to take in the Dalton connect, Jake la Ravia. I mean, the Lakers can almost drought out an all white lineup, you know, led by Luca. Now Luca's back from injury.
00:40:23
Speaker 3: They're the real exciting Whites.
00:40:27
Speaker 2: I'll just say there's a lot of fun stuff happening in the league right now. I mean, again, we don't have time to get into it. But like the Indiana Pacers have fallen off a cliff without Haliburton and Miles Turner and company. Lakers look plucky even without Lebron. Obviously, Wemby and Company look really, really, really good. There's just so much happening in the league. Like there's guys coming out of nowhere doing incredible things. Had you ever heard of Ryan Rollins.
00:40:54
Speaker 3: I've heard of him, but I wasn't familiar with his game.
00:40:56
Speaker 2: But I know, oh, me look like an All star out there. There's so many The league is amazing and and you know we'll start to get into it more. Also, college basketball tips this week. I got to figure out how to like start to dig into those teams. You guys know, I love me some college basketball. But so yeah, no play on Monday night football. Did bet the Thursday game Denver against the Raiders, already regretting it because you know, this is what I do. I bet games and then I think about it and I'm like, oh, I get in my own head. Anyways, So yeah, back tomorrow, we'll probably talk some hoops a little Cowboy. Now. The Cowboys got to win this game tonight against the Cardinals, Like I can't see them losing. Yeah, they should be fine. I would expect fireworks if you asked me, Jake, I got fifty bucks, you know, for for my birthday. Who should I put it on? I would just say bet the over. I think we'll see a lot of points back tomorrow
