A Giants Revival, Browns Believers, a Jets Crash, J-Dub’s Brutal Injury, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to react to the Chiefs-Seahawks 'SNF' game before recapping the rest of the Week 7 matchups. Then, they Guess the Lines for Week 8 and recap the NBA weekend before ending with Parent Corner. (0:00) Intro (1:08) Chiefs-Seahawks (9:26) Browns-Titans (14:18) Bengals-Ravens (18:14) Steelers-Saints (22:54) Colts-Vikings (30:53) Dolphins-Jets (32:37) Giants-Texans (41:14) Packers-Lions (46:47) Rams-Raiders (51:09) Buccaneers-Panthers (53:38) 49ers-Falcons (55:27) Guess the Lines Week 8 (01:09:34) NBA weekend recap (01:23:08) Parent Corner Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producers: Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Chris Wohlers #ULTRACourtside could get you closer to the game! https://michelobultra.com/courtside MICHELOB ULTRA® COURTSIDE ’26 to ’27. No Purchase Necessary. Open to US residents 21+ Begins on 10/1/26 and ends on 6/30/27. Multiple entry periods. See Official Rules at https://michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Bill Simmons?

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• 0:44Bill Simmons?

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• 1:47Bill Simmons?

  The Bill Simmons Podcast, live on Netflix. Cousin Sal is here after the rare fast Sunday night football game. We're going to talk about a bunch of football. There's some basketball. Sorry, I gotta break out my NBA hole cape, Sal. We're going to talk a little basketball later. There was a really big sad injury tonight that happened in the OKC game.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:07Bill Simmons?

  And then I wanted to mention a live rewatchables tomorrow, 5:00 PM Eastern, 2:00 Pacific. We are doing A Nightmare on Elm Street. Me, Chris Ryan, Van Lathan, live. A classic. Van's favorite horror movie franchise, not, not in my top two, but my third. It's one of my, what's your favorite horror movie franchise?

• 2:29Speaker 01

  Halloween, I think, right?

• 2:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, my, my favorite's Halloween. And then probably Friday the 13th after that.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's good.

• 2:34Bill Simmons?

  But it's been fun to redo this movie, dive into it, the whole thing. Anyway, speaking of horror movies.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  I was just gonna say, the Texans on a teaser, does that count as a horror movie genre?

• 2:47Bill Simmons?

  So, all right, I didn't do well today from a betting or picking or handicapping or anything standpoint. And my question is, is it just one of these seasons now? Because we had a normal result tonight. Chiefs-Seahawks. The Seahawks were supposed to win. They needed it. Perfect spot for them. Chiefs were 5-0, didn't totally need it. Offensive line injuries. It's in Seattle. The defense should show up. They're just all these signs. The Lions, 2.5, 3, 2.5, finally settles at 3. And it's just like, god damn. A year after year, this is just the Seahawks winning on a Sunday night. And yet my confidence was shaken going into it, even though I had the Seahawks. I was like, I don't know anymore. I don't know, I don't know what to think. Wait, do you feel the same way right now?

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Of course. Well, let me just start by saying I went 5-0 with my Ringer 107 picks, but.

• 3:37Bill Simmons?

  You did.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  I have, listen, every day I'm hustling. That's just how it is. Sorry, I'm a little loopy here.

• 3:43Bill Simmons?

  It's the kidney stones, yes, and the prescription drugs.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  And yet, my ledger would tell you very much otherwise. That I was 5-0 today. It's all these dumb teams, but yeah, tonight was the, it seemed like back when we were in college, we're like, all right, this is going to be, they're gonna, Mike McDonald's gonna step up. He's gonna have no big plays out of the Chiefs. I didn't know they wouldn't run one play in the red zone, but Chiefs don't need it. Seahawks need it. They put the smackdown on them. Good for them.

• 4:11Bill Simmons?

  Well, Darnold throws the interception near the end of the first half.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:15Bill Simmons?

  Seems like they're about to go up 17-0 or whatever. And it's like, oh, we're doing this again? We can't just have an easy one? I can't have an easy three hours? But then it didn't matter, Kansas City couldn't do it.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  Darnold is like, I feel like he just has to get it out of the system, right? I think he led the league last year in interceptions. And I was thinking, it's like, when you invite your mother to dinner and she always has something derogatory to say about your house or how you're spending money or something, then you, then you shoot her a look and it's over, right? But so she got it out of it. That, that's the Sam Darnold right there with the interception.

• 4:49Bill Simmons?

  He's the Italian mom?

• 4:51Speaker 01

  That's he's the Italian mom.

• 4:52Bill Simmons?

  Just has to say the one thing?

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 4:54Bill Simmons?

  So, so that's how you're gonna handle this Archie thing, huh? And you're like, why? Why are you bringing that up?

• 4:59Speaker 01

  Not now.

• 5:00Bill Simmons?

  Stop meddling. You made Melissa mad.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  You've been listening.

• 5:04Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, he, he can't help it. He's gotta have one. I was, I had a whole, because I was, at halftime, I didn't know if they're gonna blow this game. And I was looking back at Mark Rippon, because that, that's the perfect analogy for what, where this could go wrong for Donald this year. Rippon had that incredible season.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good.

• 5:22Bill Simmons?

  17 wins. He was 17-2 on the 92 Redskins, or 91 Redskins. 32 touchdowns, lights out, deep balls, connecting them all year.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 5:31Bill Simmons?

  And then the next year, 14 TDs, 20 interceptions, including the playoffs. They go like 9-7, they lose in round one or round two.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  That's a great comp. I didn't even think of that.

• 5:41Bill Simmons?

  It's just like a one-year wonder, and you kind of knew it as it was happening. Now, in Darnold's case, he was also good in Minnesota, but then it collapsed the last couple of weeks. But I don't know how much to blame him or how to blame the fact that they really only have one guy to throw to. It's like, it's like they're just these elaborate ways of just getting JSN open. He's in motion, cutting back in. He's trying to shed double teams, and he has nobody, nowhere else to go, right?

• 6:07Speaker 01

  I felt the same way. And like, when he didn't score, the one time he scored, it was close, right? He put the ball over the pylon, they gave it to him. The second time, he was out at the two, and that's when Darnold threw. I'm like, he's gotta score. He's gotta start scoring, otherwise.

• 6:20Bill Simmons?

  He has to get it in.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  But it's a little better, because that Wilson went for 100 yards today, right?

• 6:24Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  The Hallam, they, they ran the ball well, which was the, which was the big difference, so.

• 6:30Bill Simmons?

  Well, Collinsworth was all over the Chiefs in the fourth quarter, like feeling like their spirit was broken a little.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:36Bill Simmons?

  I don't think, big picture, this game really mattered one way or the other. You know, they have a weird situation with that Josh Simmons, who is supposed to be their left tackle this year.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 6:45Bill Simmons?

  And just has not played, and there's been all kinds of scuttlebutt and what's going on here. And then this week, they very suspiciously leaked out a story that made him look bad. About him putting his feet up on the table, and Mahomes and Reid were mad about it. They kicked him out of the meeting. And so it does seem like that situation's going well, but their right tackle was hurt today, too. So if they don't have the tackles on top of, you know, they've had some wide receiver injuries. I don't know. Maybe they, maybe they don't win the AFC West. I still think they make the playoffs, right?

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. What, the, the previously undefeated Chiefs? We don't think, might not make the playoffs? No, of course.

• 7:26Bill Simmons?

  No, I'm not worried. That's my point. I'm not worried about them.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm not either. I just think, you know, that bitch.

• 7:31Bill Simmons?

  But what's crazy is Denver's right behind them now.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:34Bill Simmons?

  Denver's a game back. Denver has, they're basically have scored as many points as they've given up. I don't feel good when I watch them. Like, they beat the Cardinals today. I didn't feel great about it. It was only one of the three games we had in the late afternoon window, but.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:48Bill Simmons?

  I didn't watch it going, oh, they've solved it. Here they come. Like, you know, they got this lucky Bo Nix 77-yard scramble, and, no, the Cardinals were moving the ball.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:58Bill Simmons?

  So, I don't know. I guess the Chiefs will hold on. Nobody else in that division is doing anything.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, listen, just get that, you know, that pansy butker back in the kitchen where he belongs, and they should, you know, they can move on from there. But yeah, no, I feel like, comparing those two teams, I think we've seen a lot more better games out of the Chiefs than Denver, but who the hell knows?

• 8:17Bill Simmons?

  Well, you look at the AFC, and you have two playoff teams, I think, Buffalo and New England.

• 8:24Bill Simmons?

  We'll come back to the NFC North in a second. AFC South, it looks like it's gonna be Jacksonville only.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:30Bill Simmons?

  And then in the West, KC and, and I guess Denver, because they have five wins. They only need to get five more. So then it, it gives you two spots up for grabs here with Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, who have a combined 18 wins.

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:46Bill Simmons?

  So if you had to keep two and get rid of two, which two would you keep?

• 8:50Speaker 01

  I can't believe I'm saying it, but I was looking at Cleveland's numbers and their schedule and everything else.

• 8:55Bill Simmons?

  Schedule's amazing.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  And they're a plus, what the hell are they? They're plus 180 to make the playoffs? And they have the Saints, and they have the Steelers next week, who they already beat. They have the Raiders in there, you know, there's.

• 9:07Bill Simmons?

  I'll give it to you. Let's see Mike and the Mad Dog.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Do it, do it.

• 9:09Bill Simmons?

  Well, at Pittsburgh next week will be hard.

• 9:12Speaker 01

  That is a loss, only because they won already.

• 9:15Bill Simmons?

  They beat them. Now, I don't see them beating them twice.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:18Bill Simmons?

  At New Orleans, who I think is pretty bad. And they're, they're gonna come up later when we do cross-offs. They probably split those, right? So that makes them five and three. Home Houston.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, why couldn't they have?

• 9:33Bill Simmons?

  Why not?

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Score 20 points, you're good.

• 9:36Bill Simmons?

  Home Vegas, home Cincinnati, and they have a bye week in there. So they're basically home for a month.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:42Bill Simmons?

  That feels like three or four, four losses, maybe at that point.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:46Bill Simmons?

  Home Atlanta, at Giants, at Baltimore, home Indianapolis.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, Giants, Indianapolis.

• 9:53Bill Simmons?

  It's another one.

• 9:53Speaker 01

  They might get to 10 wins. Cincinnati might not need that, you know, at that point, too, at the end. That would be my, that would be my like lean right there. I don't know, plus 188, I have for that.

• 10:05Bill Simmons?

  So they had, Cleveland has a couple of weird things going. I didn't expect to talk about them this early, but um, one, one of them is Deshaun, I wrote down, because he had another game winning drive.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:18Bill Simmons?

  And if you have it on the multi-view for the, for the three hours, he's just terrible quarterback. Like, he's just not good. Like, but he's somehow through for 308 today. You never feel good about it.

• 10:28Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:28Bill Simmons?

  But then when they has the ball with a chance to decide the game, I now have confidence in him. So I was thinking like, is he like a restaurant where the appetizers are terrible and the entrees are terrible, but you're really going for the dessert?

• 10:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:42Bill Simmons?

  It's like, oh, no, no, no, just forget, don't be, the dessert's amazing. He's got this carrot cake, he's got cannolis. He's basically dessert to Sean.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  I like it. Yeah, order the chocolate souffle. Make sure you order it 45 minutes before the entree. Yeah, yeah, because you're gonna be, yeah, I was watching, I actually had the audio on it towards the end, and the CBS play-by-play guy, I think it's, I think it's Andrew Catalan, said, "Yet again, Deshaun Watson sparkles in the fourth quarter." And he wasn't being sarcastic.

• 11:12Bill Simmons?

  No.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  He was being dead serious. And I'm like, who is Deshaun, who is Andrew Catalan? Who is Deshaun? Who is anybody? What's going on here?

• 11:20Bill Simmons?

  You, there was another part of that. They came out of commercial and they showed the Deshaun Watson fourth quarter comeback montage.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 11:29Bill Simmons?

  And it was like a minute long. And they're like, week three, week four, week six. They just kept going through them. It's like, what fucking, in the Twilight Zone? What's happening here?

• 11:37Speaker 01

  It's ridiculous.

• 11:39Bill Simmons?

  Listener Brian S. pointed out, Browns-Bengals, which that's going to be week 13. Possible flex. They might be flexing a Browns-Bengals game into Sunday night.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:57Bill Simmons?

  Think about that. That, so that goes back to my original point, which is like, this season, I don't know who the best team is. We could talk about the, the Super Bowl odds on FanDuel. I have no idea who I would bet. You don't either?

• 12:10Speaker 01

  No.

• 12:13Bill Simmons?

  I, I, like, who's your favorite team right now? If you, like, gun to the head, if you had to pick a team to win the Super Bowl, who'd you pick?

• 12:18Speaker 01

  I just, I guess the Bills. I don't know. I guess the Bills. I would, I would stick with the Bills.

• 12:23Bill Simmons?

  Rams.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  I know, what are you gonna do? There's like flaws with all the, all these teams. I have to say the Chiefs? Who, who else in the AFC? The Ravens are underneath them. Who, Lamar might not ever come back. We may not find out because apparently doesn't have an agent. So you don't know until Saturday if he's playing or not, ever. Really weird.

• 12:43Bill Simmons?

  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I might say the Bears.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:48Bill Simmons?

  I was really impressed by them last week. I thought the Pats played pretty well, you know, and the Bears kind of just beat them. But there was a lot of stuff in the pre-game shows and the Sunday Info Guys this week about the Bears are gonna be really aggressive here at the trade deadline.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:03Bill Simmons?

  And if they add a couple of things on top of what they have, I, I actually think they could be really good.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  He's excellent.

• 13:10Bill Simmons?

  He's excellent.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  By the way, I, I think Pellicero could do the right thing and step aside and let me come on the BS pod after Patriots' loss. It's, it's just, you know.

• 13:18Bill Simmons?

  I know, I should have bumped them.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:19Bill Simmons?

  I'm sorry. Yeah, I'll tell them next time.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  But he is, Caleb is excellent. I think when he avoids that first rush, that first level of rush and steps up and guns it, like, I'm as confident in him as anyone else. And uh, they're, they're great.

• 13:34Bill Simmons?

  Against that dude is really, uh, it's, it really sticks it to you, the way that Mahomes used to do earlier in his career. Are you worried about Mahomes? Do you feel like he's the same? When you watch him? Does he seem like the same guy to you?

• 13:46Speaker 01

  No, I feel like he is the same. I feel like the rolling right, throwing left over the middle, all that stuff, scrambling for first downs. It just wasn't, it just wasn't in the cards tonight. Just wasn't gonna happen.

• 13:57Bill Simmons?

  They had the third best odds on FanDuel right now. The odds are Buffalo 6-1, Niners plus 650. It looked like they were gonna lose McCaffrey for 10 minutes today in that game. Then he emerged out of the blue tent. KC 10-1, Rams 11-1, Seattle 11-1, Baltimore 11-1, Jacksonville and 12-1, Bears 15-1, are probably the realistic ones.

• 14:22Bill Simmons?

  Man, I, I, Seattle would be the other one that I would think about because I think they could add a receiver before the trade deadline and they're gonna get their running backs back. They're gonna get Price back and Charbonne back. And they're 4-3 and really could be 6-1, 5-2. They could be 7-0 with, you know, with a couple of plays. So I think, I think that, and I think your, your instincts are right about Buffalo. It feels like the Niners have had too many injuries. And the Chiefs just had a pretty easy schedule here until this game today.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:52Bill Simmons?

  So I need to see a little more from them.

• 14:54Speaker 01

  Do you, um, name you didn't read, a little bit further down, the Bengals at 19-1, who, I mean, that was.

• 15:01Bill Simmons?

  What happened to them in that first half?

• 15:03Speaker 01

  Well, I think what happened, it was sort of like a tale of two games. One, before I tweeted terrible things about Joe Burrow, and then one right, right after I pressed send. Like, that's kind of how it, it were, I think we were texting about them, too. It's like, what? But they didn't have the ball. They just didn't have the ball at all. And Snoop Huntley was great. He had like three third and long conversions in the first quarter and a half. You know what I mean? So.

• 15:24Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  Then once they got the ball, they, they seemed like they weren't too panicked. And that was that.

• 15:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I wrote in my notes, Burrow rope-a-doped everyone on Twitter.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:34Bill Simmons?

  Halftime came and it was like, Joe Burrow, what's going? And it just was a Joe Burrow roast for 15 minutes.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Right.

• 15:40Bill Simmons?

  And then in the second half, he was 16 for 18 for 249 yards with four touchdowns. They had five touchdown drives.

• 15:48Bill Simmons?

  There was a weird, Baltimore was down 14-13, fourth quarter, fourth and two on the 12.

• 15:55Bill Simmons?

  And they didn't kick the field goal.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:57Bill Simmons?

  And got an incompletion. And I actually would have kicked the field goal because I just thought they needed points and they needed to, um, now you say like, well, Cincinnati scored five times. What would the field goal mean? But it just felt like a momentum thing. They needed to grab something back. Moment they didn't get that, it felt like the game was over. Baltimore, 17 double-digit blown leads in the 2020s. Sheik Kapadia had this, this year they're plus 65 in the first half, which is first, and minus 70 in the second half, which is.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 16:26Bill Simmons?

  32nd, which leads to a listener named Mark Kapon, I think that's how you say it, said they've led in six of the seven half times, including all three losses. Asking you, you had the Steelers special, it doesn't, doesn't really exist anymore.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  The other way.

• 16:41Bill Simmons?

  Is there a reverse?

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:42Bill Simmons?

  Ravens win the first half, lose the game, and then what do we call it?

• 16:46Speaker 01

  I like that.

• 16:47Bill Simmons?

  He suggests the Ravens regression, but that's not fun enough.

• 16:50Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah, yeah.

• 16:52Bill Simmons?

  You don't have to come up with it now. Maybe, maybe on.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  Everything I'm thinking of is unspeakable now. I can't say, yeah, but. No, I think you're right.

• 17:00Bill Simmons?

  Ravens halftime fuck job? Yeah, work on that. Works it.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  I mean, there's another one. They're the third team in the NFL, in NFL history to lose a game by 20-plus after leading by 13-plus at halftime? Did you say that? Or something? It happened in 19, 1950 and 1941, the last two times, the only two times.

• 17:17Bill Simmons?

  I'm not that concerned about Baltimore. I mean, the bigger question to me is, how many times can Lamar just disappear for like a month?

• 17:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, isn't that a concern? Like, that's crazy, yeah.

• 17:29Bill Simmons?

  But he is coming back. They're 4-3. They've got a lot of time left. They have Cleveland in front of them, who I don't think anybody, even though, you know, we didn't talk about Cleveland a ton, but the, I think their defensive line is really good. They have some good skill guys. They were able to run the ball today. Judkins finally got going for them. You know, they have, they have kind of good players on both sides of the ball. And you'd like, somebody like Denzel Ward, you're like, oh, that guy's good. Swisher, Swisher, he's good.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  It's tough with the Titans because that team should never win two games in a row. So, you know, you take it with a grain of salt. But they did stop them at first and goal from the two. You know, those were, you know, that, that, this defense is remarkably, um, uh, capable without, you know, without Garrett, whatever's going on here. So I think they, they're doing a good job. But, yeah, the Ravens, they're just not gonna win these games if Henry's putting up 45 yards. These Lamar-less games, they're just never gonna win them.

• 18:26Bill Simmons?

  Have the Browns scored more points than they've given up this year?

• 18:32Speaker 01

  Yes, but not by much. No?

• 18:34Bill Simmons?

  They have not.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Really? Oh, is that important?

• 18:37Bill Simmons?

  Usually a bad, usually a bad sign.

• 18:38Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 18:40Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, not a great sign. But I do think they have a cold weather team. So when it gets cold, that's pretty good for them. Maybe they have a trade in them. I don't know if they'd get frisky, but they have a bunch of picks. So you have them, you have Pittsburgh, who's five and two.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:55Bill Simmons?

  Who won this stupid Paris game today that, I didn't, did you wake up for this?

• 18:59Speaker 01

  I, I did.

• 19:00Bill Simmons?

  I flew back from Boston last night and set the alarm for 7:30. I, I missed the first hour. And it was one of those, I don't feel like I'm gonna miss much here. Between New Orleans and the Steelers.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  It's part of my.

• 19:11Bill Simmons?

  I could probably catch up fast.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, you, you made the right move, but it's part of my parent corner. But yeah, that was a, a French, that was a French bore fest. Like, uh, like Andre the Giant, sitting on his opponent for 12 minutes while he took a nap after being drunk. Like that just, I don't know. It was a, it was a rough watch.

• 19:29Bill Simmons?

  I think the London games were really good.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 19:33Bill Simmons?

  And now we've shifted the terrible games to, I guess, to, uh, the French.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  The French, yeah.

• 19:38Bill Simmons?

  And then we had the same announcing crew we've had for a couple of these other overseas games. And, uh, I, I, I can't get there with Jason Kelsey. I think he's good at other things, but I, I don't think as a game analyst, I'm not seeing it.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  I think.

• 19:54Bill Simmons?

  Is my take. Maybe my coffee hadn't kicked in and I was less forgiving, but I did not, I did not think the three man booth is very good.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Well, there's only like three of them that renew their passports. And so they keep sending the same people. Like, uh, it's, it just seems like such a weird clerical thing. But yeah, with our, like, I don't know. Our Chuck buddy can only do so much if they're running the ball like 18 yards. Like, I think they have 1.1 rush per attempt. But he, he can't hand off because his left, his fingers on his left hand busted or something. So. It was a rough one. But their defense is very good, the Steelers. Like, they had like big boy plays, pass deflections. Patrick Queen, that Peyton Wilson had a great interception. So.

• 20:33Bill Simmons?

  It's a very good defense if they're playing a crappy offense.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 20:36Bill Simmons?

  The Saints were 17 rushes for 18 yards. This Jalen Warren thing, he's, he's becoming a fantasy, not an MVP, but definitely first team all NBA. 583 yards his last six weeks.

• 20:50Speaker 01

  First team NBA? Really?

• 20:52Bill Simmons?

  Well, I'm saying if we had a first team all NBA for fantasy.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  I mean, he just seems like he has such a burst in him that he maybe didn't have last year, or maybe I wasn't paying attention, but they're probably gonna be six and two heading into the bye unless they get swept by the Browns next week.

• 21:05Bill Simmons?

  You know who I think should have done the Paris game from an announcing standpoint?

• 21:08Speaker 01

  Who?

• 21:09Bill Simmons?

  Buck and Aikman. I can't get enough of this. This, Buck and Aikman is the most riffing thing I've ever seen. They did, I watched the Monday night when, uh, when they go to them before the game and you're just trying to interpret every, every little, uh, thing going on. It's really, really something.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:28Bill Simmons?

  Haven't had that a lot. That Boomer Asias and Al Michaels hated each other, but I don't think we found out about that till after.

• 21:34Speaker 01

  No, this is a weird thing. They're not gonna make out anytime soon either, I don't think.

• 21:39Bill Simmons?

  Doesn't sound like it. It sounds like Troy's on his way out. So we have, so those are the two five and two teams. And then we have, um, Cincinnati and we have Baltimore. So I, it's weird. I would still, I would still bet on Cincinnati and Baltimore out of those four. I'd bet on the pedigree, but Pittsburgh keeps putting, filing away these wins. And Rogers, I gotta say, looks, looks okay.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 22:04Bill Simmons?

  Like, certainly better than I thought. You, you know, he scrims around. He still has a good arm. He can whip it down when he has time to set his feet and actually uncork it. He can throw it 50 yards. So.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  No doubt. And look, McCarthy's a good coach. Like, they could, you know, they're, if they're six and two after next week, they'll probably figure out a way to get four. The problem is you look at these schedules and it's like, whoa, it's gonna get tough for them. Like, no, because the Texans aren't a tough team. The Ravens are beatable. I'm looking at their schedule, right? So like, when they're plus one 20 to make the playoffs, like, they can win four games the rest of the way.

• 22:37Bill Simmons?

  I can't wait to talk about the Texans later. We have some hilarious records this year. The Vikings are six and oh.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:42Bill Simmons?

  Even their own fans aren't buying this, uh, six and oh Viking thing.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:46Bill Simmons?

  Browns and Steelers both five and two. Three and three Carolina has two losses of 20 plus points. And they're also leading the NFC South, even though they got torched today.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:56Bill Simmons?

  Houston, Philly, Dallas and Tampa are all two plus games under 500. The Rams are still under 500. And the Chargers are 0 and 6. They are our last winless team.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 23:07Bill Simmons?

  That's just some of the stuff that's happening this year and we're only seven weeks in. So listen, sometimes we have weird years and I just feel like we're in the middle of a weird year.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  I'm trying to look at the positive. You and I always go through this and usually it doesn't hit till November, December. But there are like five or six playoff teams that I'm foaming at the mouth to bet against. And they'll probably all play against each other and they'll, they'll get screwed up and we'll get stuck. But, uh, the Vikings are high on that list for me.

• 23:33Bill Simmons?

  Well, I had them in a tease today.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:35Bill Simmons?

  Which their side won. Had to root for Kyler Murray for three hours. You just never feel confident. When he takes off, it's like, no Kyler, no. When he throws deep, I don't think it's going to a receiver. You know, every once in a while he'll scamper around and you feel pretty good. But for the most part, it's, it's a pretty harrowing experience. And it's not like they don't have good receivers, like that Jefferson, Hawkinson. But, uh, it's, it's, he was sweating it out. Meanwhile, the Colts had Daniel Jones, who finished 13 for 22 for 120, had the game ending pick. And then Shane Steichen said afterwards, I still believe in Daniel Jones. So he's the, he's the one person because I don't think anybody else does.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  He believes he exists? I believe in, like, you know, you believe in Santa?

• 24:24Bill Simmons?

  He's still a human being, that he's alive. But, but they, uh, Minnesota, 275 yards, 3 for 11 on first down. Murray threw for 150 yards. They still won. None of it mattered. And, but if you watched the game, it felt like the Colts had figured out the Flores thing in that first hour. It's like, we're just gonna run the ball, run the ball, we're gonna control the clock. Murray's one mistake will come and we're gonna win this game like 17 13. And had all the makings and they just couldn't pull it off. Did you think Minnesota was gonna win that game?

• 24:53Speaker 01

  I had, the Colts is my big upset special and which I, I, I haven't hit all year. I mean, it's probably, well, how many? 80 upsets this year, more?

• 25:01Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  And I can't, I can't get one. And he didn't need to, right? He, what did he need to do to win that game? He, he barely went over 100 yards passing, like you said, and that was fine. I, I felt like there were a couple sacks that a veteran like him, I, I know he's not taking off for 20 anymore, but he, he could have avoided those sacks and they were 100% his fault. Meanwhile, Brian Flores' defense basically asked Kyler Murray to, to throw for 150 yards and run like scamper for 20, uh, and they're golden. Really amazing. What's going on there?

• 25:34Bill Simmons?

  Here's what I don't get. And I know this is gonna be a topic all week. So they had J.J. McCarthy. They drafted him with a top 10 pick. They gave up on him basically during the start of this year. They're telling us he's a sunk cost.

• 25:49Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:50Bill Simmons?

  Just to get a salary out to give them to the Giants. And he's immediately resuscitated. And if you watch that game today, which I watched every playoff because I had Houston and everything.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:59Bill Simmons?

  Um, J.J. McCarthy was legitimately good. Like, the entire game, he was really good. He was creating extra time for himself. The ball was on time. He was scrambling at the right times. Like, I thought he had a really, really good game against the Houston defense that has been, you know, incredibly disappointing, but it was still on the road. Um, he had, he just, he managed the game, but also made plays. And I just don't understand the, the QB whisperer, Kevin O'Connell. I don't understand how this didn't work. And, and how does he still get that title? He's the QB whisperer?

• 26:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:32Bill Simmons?

  But he gave up this guy who now is immediately good on the Giants? He lost the title, in my opinion. It's, the title's gone.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  I think it looks for, honestly, if you think about it, I didn't, until you brought it up, for an undefeated coach, is he getting the most crap? And probably deservedly so, for not being able to recruit J.J. McCarthy, make him a, a top, what he is with the Giants, apparently. A and B, Brian Flores gets all the credit for this Vikings, uh.

• 26:58Bill Simmons?

  Right. He's got, he got cucked by his own team.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's unbelievable.

• 27:02Bill Simmons?

  The cuck chair, wondering what happened. He's like, I'm the head coach. I'm six and oh. It's like, no, no, you fucked up the quarterback thing. This is all Flores.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  It's gonna be first coach fired. They let him go Monday? What do they do? I don't know if he makes a trip back.

• 27:14Bill Simmons?

  Controversial move by the Vikings. Kevin O'Connell, seven and oh. But if I was the Vikings owner, I would be losing my mind.

• 27:21Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 27:21Bill Simmons?

  I'd be watching that Giants thing. Like, are you fucking kidding me?

• 27:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:24Bill Simmons?

  You guys told me to draft this guy. We had, he got hurt his first year. You punted on him after he got hurt again last year. You were telling me he was, he was a lemon. And now I just watched him win in Houston as 10 and a half point underdogs. What are we doing?

• 27:38Speaker 01

  Cut him. They were gonna cut him in the preseason or early in the year. Like, it was, it was ridiculous. But also McCarthy had all the confidence he has now. And, uh, but none of the goods. So I, I know, I, I don't understand the K O C part of it, but I am jealous of this team. I'm gonna say it. I mean, J.J. slinging it with the way he does it, he does, you know, he does his thing, just throwing over D backs and everything, getting it to neighbors. Then they have this nice thing on third and fourth and one with Jameis coming in. The defense is playing well.

• 28:07Bill Simmons?

  Touch push.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  God, I hate it. I hate it all.

• 28:11Bill Simmons?

  What's up? We'll talk about the Giants. We're gonna take a break, come back, do a cross off team and we'll talk about that Giants game next. The Bill Simmons Podcast brought to you by FanDuel. Monday Night Football just got a lot more rewarding with FanDuel Rewards Club. You can unlock exclusive offers throughout the NFL season, including Monday Night Football. Talk of profit boosts, promotions, more ways to get rewarded on the matchups you're already watching. Whether you're building a same game parlay around the game or betting on your favorite player props, there's plenty to get in on. Sadly, they won't let you bet on icy silences between Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. But maybe you can do that on your own. On FanDuel, you can bet the Eagles, who are gonna be like plus 160 or higher as a money line bet. You can take that money line and put it with a whole bunch of stuff, try to build a same game parlay, whatever you want to do.

• 28:54Bill Simmons?

  Before Monday Night Football kicks off, kick, head to the FanDuel app, check out what's available for your level. Make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel. 21 plus select states or 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Game problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat. Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra, the official beer sponsor of the NBA. And legitimately, my favorite beer. I was drinking them at Fenway Park, actually, recently. It's tip off and I can't wait to see in person. The best thing for me is when the new guys come in the league and you get to go check them out for the first time. Like when Wemby came in a couple of years ago.

• 29:39Bill Simmons?

  We have a great rookie class this year. I want to see Cam Boozer in person. I want to see DeBonsa in person. I want to see Darren Peterson in person. I'm excited for all of these dudes. And I think that's my favorite thing about when the season starts, those first couple of months, when the newer guys start coming in. Then getting to see the old guys too, your old friends, like Curry is a can't miss. I gotta go see him in person every year. So I think it's reuniting with old people you loved watching and then seeing the new blood too. But when I'm at the game, nothing better than watching with a Michelob Ultra. A superior light beer with a distinctly smooth taste.

• 30:17Bill Simmons?

  Gets nice and cold, just good times. Good news for fans, Michelob Ultra giving you a chance to watch the game you love this season in person with courtside tickets and more. So enter now at michelobultra.com/courtside and maybe, maybe you'll luck out. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2026, ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details. One last thing on the Colts, who we were talking about earlier against the Vikings. The fire sale is officially here with them since they're out of the playoffs.

• 30:58Bill Simmons?

  Jonathan Taylor, Quinn Nelson, Buckner. We'll see, we'll see who ends up going for there. But we did cross the Colts off last week. This is becoming my favorite segment. We've been doing it for 12 years. For some reason, I've enjoyed it the most this year.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  Because they made a graphic to say, oh my God, that's what that looks like. That's nice.

• 31:18Bill Simmons?

  We made our Carly, whatever our name is graphic. We have crossed off Miami, Tennessee, the Chargers, Arizona and the Colts. We've already all crossed off.

• 31:32Bill Simmons?

  I think it's the Jets now. You want to do the Jets last week.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:36Bill Simmons?

  And the Jets really made a strong case that it should have been last week. But even if it's a week late, it's the Jets.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  Well, I was worried they were going to win this week. That's why I wanted to cross them off last week. Cause I'm like, ah, it's gonna be hard to cross them off after winning against Miami. And guess what happened? They didn't effing beat Miami. 156 rushing yards to the Dolphins and no interceptions again. And yeah, man, I agree. Listen, Aaron Glenn, can you smell the fumes from the Sharpie? Because we're about to cross you off. Should we have like a sing songy thing? We're about to cross you off.

• 32:12Bill Simmons?

  It's like Tom Jackson.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  He was crossed off.

• 32:16Bill Simmons?

  Aaron Glenn is 0-8 against the AFC East.

• 32:20Bill Simmons?

  He's 5-19 overall as a starter. He said after the game, he had a, he, he said he understood why the fans were upset. But he said, man, this program is going in the right direction.

• 32:35Bill Simmons?

  They're, they're showing the stat everywhere now about them in the last two minutes in the Aaron Glenn era where it's like.

• 32:40Speaker 01

  107 to 6.

• 32:42Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Tomlin talked about it in the pregame.

• 32:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:45Bill Simmons?

  And he said, if that, if that was my team, we would just be doing two minute drill practices all day, every day until we fix this. I don't know if Aaron has thought of that, but.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  Is he even on the field? Maybe he's going to the clubhouse early. Maybe he's taking early halftime and leaving it.

• 33:01Bill Simmons?

  He's like my dad at South the game. He runs off to pee.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  It was a bathroom break. Yeah.

• 33:05Bill Simmons?

  Well, anyway, the Jets have been crossed off. We, we did do a poll to see if everybody thought that was.

• 33:11Speaker 01

  What are they saying?

• 33:11Bill Simmons?

  The right call. Well, we'll, gahawta, so one second. Okay. Giants. So the Giants are now 4-2 and 1.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:19Bill Simmons?

  We were worried we might not have an NFC East team get to eight wins, but.

• 33:25Bill Simmons?

  I, I'm trying not to overreact.

• 33:29Bill Simmons?

  I thought the Giants looked really good today.

• 33:31Speaker 01

  It's very weird.

• 33:32Bill Simmons?

  Generally impressed. Like this was not an upset. Like first of all, them being 10 and a half point underdogs, if you actually watched all three hours of that game was absurd. They were dead even and probably even a little more talented. They rushed for, and basically were able to get a pass rush with the four guys. Carter was incredible. They, they made Stroud, who's been awesome this year, look really bad the whole game. They shut down Nico Collins completely. Deontay Banks shut him down. Carter was all over the place. McCarthy was really good, like we mentioned. And then Neighbors had his four straight 100 yard game and Harbaugh, who we made fun of before the season a bunch of times.

• 34:11Bill Simmons?

  And I wasn't buying the whole thing, but man, his whole thing where he benched Scataboo and didn't get many carries last week. Then Najee Harris sounded, they waived him this week. They had Tyrone Tracy in there. Scataboo got, got, all of a sudden he's back and he's running like a maniac. He played this game perfectly and I gotta hand it to him. That was like a real, real impressive win by them. I was impressed.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  They, they beat him up. They had almost twice as much yardage. They had, they won time of possession by 10 minutes. They really got beaten up as double digit favorites. And yeah, Scataboo is nuts. I, I think I have a theory on Scataboo though, and why he has these big gainers. I think the defenders feel bad for him because he's, you know, he's like.

• 34:53Bill Simmons?

  He's slow?

• 34:54Speaker 01

  He's special. Yeah. So you see it all the time. Like you give the special needs kid a free layup and stuff like that. I think that's what's going on with him. I don't feel like, I don't know that he's, knows he's playing a team sport, to be honest with you, but like I said, I'm jealous of all of it.

• 35:09Bill Simmons?

  He does a backflip after he scores.

• 35:11Speaker 01

  He pushed his own teammate out of the way so he could do a front flip, but.

• 35:16Bill Simmons?

  Front flip.

• 35:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then, but, and none of this involves Jackson Dart, who is going to be their savior. Bizarre.

• 35:24Bill Simmons?

  They're going to be, they're going to have a real issue if McCarthy looks like he did today for the rest of the season with the Jackson Dart piece. Because that's exactly, for the kind of Harbaugh team, that's, that was Michigan McCarthy. That's everything we heard about the guy and he was just doing it and he had some swagger to him too. The, the OT, I gotta mention, the Texans come back, they score near the end, tie the game and go to OT. The Texans get the ball first. These were the plays. This is how the Texans lost in overtime. Horrible run play. Tibode drops, he drops a pick that CJ threw right to him and there's a Houston hold on the play, so they go backward.

• 36:03Bill Simmons?

  Next play, CJ throws it up for grabs. Punt, Neighbors nine yard catch, Scataboo long run, Singletary long touchdown run, game's over. This was one, two, three, four, five, six, a seven play overtime where both teams had the ball. It was an improbable, embarrassing rollover by the Texans. Really bad.

• 36:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm trying to think if, whatever, I'll never be able to recall it, but for a double digit favorite, getting the ball in overtime against a tired defense. You probably wouldn't have a more disappointing result in the way the overtime went.

• 36:38Bill Simmons?

  Would you have gone for two when you scored if you were Houston?

• 36:41Speaker 01

  I, I might. I don't want to play. No, probably not. I think you would have had.

• 36:46Bill Simmons?

  I wouldn't have either. I thought they had the momentum and I thought, it felt like, oh my God, the Giants blew this. Why did they let this happen?

• 36:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:55Bill Simmons?

  Marvin Harrison, one catch, six snaps. That's the other thing. When you talk about like the Texans, they're, who are own four at home this year, by the way. Two and five overall. And they spend a second round pick on Harrison with Tank Dell coming back.

• 37:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:08Bill Simmons?

  Even though they had Noel and Collins and all these guys, they can't block.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:12Bill Simmons?

  Couldn't block the Giants the whole, the whole day. They, the running back was basically Woody Marks or bust.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:18Bill Simmons?

  I just don't under, I didn't really totally understand that trade when it happened, but then when you watched the game today, I was like, that's clearly not what they needed was one more receiver.

• 37:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, no doubt.

• 37:28Bill Simmons?

  I would, I would have tried to get like an awesome tight end or even waited two weeks, but just really strange trade. Not as bad as that Chase Claypool trade, which is still the worst, the worst wide receiver trade of all time, but bad.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, Clay, yeah. Well, um, but it begs the question. So they're gonna, they're two and five. They have a buy. Have we ever crossed anyone off on their buy?

• 37:51Speaker 01

  What if we're just stuck next week? This team's not going anywhere. We don't have to decide now, but they have a defensive minded coach.

• 38:00Bill Simmons?

  Can nine and eight make the playoffs in the AFC or does it have to be 10 wins?

• 38:03Speaker 01

  I just think with these dumb teams like the Steelers and Browns sticking around, I think you'd have to have a strong nine and eight to beat them. Well, I'm trying to think who they've lost to already, Texas.

• 38:13Bill Simmons?

  I think it has to be 10 and seven. So 10 and seven means they have to go eight and two down the stretch. But we do this every year. We have the stats. There's always the second half team that goes.

• 38:23Speaker 01

  All right.

• 38:23Bill Simmons?

  Seven and two, eight and one. I can't, I don't know. I wouldn't cross them off.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  All right. I'm just saying, not, not yet, but wait till they have their buy. Be even less impressed.

• 38:32Bill Simmons?

  Can I, I gotta tell you something that's going to chill you to the very core. You know, the Knicks win the title in June.

• 38:39Speaker 01

  I knew that though. Yeah.

• 38:40Bill Simmons?

  Most New York fans, I mean, I would say the majority are Knicks, Giants, Yankees.

• 38:47Bill Simmons?

  So you have the Knicks now, leading into the Giants resurgence and then culminating in the Yankees. That's my fear. The Giants having this improbable run now. And that specific fan base, it, this is like a great run for them.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 39:06Bill Simmons?

  My sports cluster theory.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  I know.

• 39:08Bill Simmons?

  I'm just, I'm just worried the Knicks, now the Knicks are in a tailspin already. They're own three and they're, it's been a bad title defense, but I'm a little.

• 39:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. I was thinking the other way when Dart went down. It's like, oh, this is what New York had to sacrifice to get the Knicks a title. But interesting, they're great. I, I thought this was a, just a way to compliment me or, or congratulate me on 40 years of the Mets on the Buckner play today. But apparently that's not what you're going for.

• 39:32Bill Simmons?

  Is that today?

• 39:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, 40 years. Yeah, our buddy Gus sent it this morning.

• 39:38Bill Simmons?

  Didn't mean I clicked on it. I saw Buckner ran over it. Listen, I didn't know what that was.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  You hadn't seen it before? All right.

• 39:46Bill Simmons?

  So we have division leaders in the NFC, Giants, Minnesota, Carolina by default and San Francisco. Then we have the Bears are five and two. Detroit is four and two. Green Bay and Seattle are four and three each. And there's basically, those are going to be the eight playoff teams. With the NFC South representative in the Carolina spot, but um, I would say the Giants.

• 40:11Bill Simmons?

  I think that I think that would be the team I would bet on in the NFC East now. Like, I think I would actually bet on this.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  What's their win total? Cause they have that dumb tie in there, right?

• 40:20Bill Simmons?

  They're plus 160 right now. Do you like your team or their team more? Dallas is plus 150, Giants are plus 160.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  I told you, I'm jealous of this team, this team. Yeah. So they're overall, and they're a seven and a half. So can they get to eight, eight and one? Oh, yeah. Right?

• 40:39Bill Simmons?

  The Giants?

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. At this point?

• 40:43Bill Simmons?

  I thought one of the thing, one of the reasons I was scared of them as a sleeper this year, because they were the obvious worst to first pick, but I, their schedule is really hard. But now you look at the schedule, like they haven't played Philly yet, but now Philly doesn't have Hertz. So you have two Philly games without Hertz. Right now they go at Philly, home Washington as the next two. So that could be six, two and one. Home Jacksonville, at Indianapolis, which looked like a scary game, but now isn't. Home San Francisco, at Seattle, home Cleveland, which is a harder game than we thought, at Dallas, at Detroit and home Philly, but they can.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, but no one has an impossible schedule, right? Because everyone's got this bunched up with teams that just fell off, right?

• 41:24Bill Simmons?

  But I think they'll at least get to nine, seven and one.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I'm looking at eight, eight. That's gonna have to be a hedge for me. Eight, eight and one is minus 130. I like that.

• 41:33Bill Simmons?

  Can your team get to nine, seven and one? Can your team get to 10 and?

• 41:37Speaker 01

  This year?

• 41:38Bill Simmons?

  Your team can't get to 10 and seven this year, I don't think.

• 41:40Speaker 01

  I, I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't bet on that.

• 41:43Bill Simmons?

  You could get to nine and eight, maybe.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  I hate this. It's the Giants. It's fricking Giants. My God.

• 41:52Bill Simmons?

  Uh, Lions, Packers.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  That was a bummer.

• 41:57Bill Simmons?

  Smack.

• 42:02Bill Simmons?

  Missed a 26 yarder, a 35 yarder. There were two abominable roughing the passers. There was a penalty where the referee got, the guy continued to tackle and the referee got knocked over and threw the flag on his back. I have, uh, my Packer friend, Chip Kane, my roommate, big Brewers fan, Brewers up 2-0. But, uh, he said, he's claiming he's never gonna watch football again. It's the second time the Packers have been hosed. What does the league have against the Packers? This, it is funny that the two worst officiated NFL games this year, the Packers were the team holding their ankles for both games.

• 42:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:39Bill Simmons?

  And I don't have an explanation for that. But Jacobs dropped a TD. Dan Campbell gave them that crazy fourth and one from my own 24, that then the nerds like, no, no, no, that was the right move. It's like, pretty sure that was the right move.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  I hate that. I hate it.

• 42:54Bill Simmons?

  It was the right move because A, they didn't get it and B, they gave them the ball in the 24 and C, as they were doing it, I was like, what are you guys doing? Just punt. But the, the Bundo, who was on the side of, uh, was like, no, no, no, it's good. Cause then you get the hammer, whoever has the ball left.

• 43:11Bill Simmons?

  So then, because they won, it worked out.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Green Bay could have played that right, where they wasted all of the Lions timeouts and been up seven with like a minute and a half left. And then does that count as you having the hammer back? Like, they, they just, they screwed up. They had a kicker. By the way, smack is the opposite of getting the game ball. Like, all right, the game, the game smack goes to our kicker who is laughable and is gonna be cut first thing in the morning. Malafour says, Trey Smack, come on over here. Let me slap you around a little bit. So I think that's, that's it. But.

• 43:41Bill Simmons?

  Smack of the day.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, smack. I, I had high hopes for this game and it just, on paper was the best on the board and it just sucked for all those reasons. You said Gibbs dancing around at the end, you know, not scoring, that, that was dumb. Yeah. Like not even getting the first down the first time. You said like the officiating was all over the place, like.

• 43:59Bill Simmons?

  How about the Packers jump offsides on the biggest play of the game?

• 44:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 44:03Bill Simmons?

  So we don't even get to see them try to, you know, get the ball back, something. They didn't even give us that.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  I just think with, you know, with the Dan Campbell thing, like, we don't have to rewind to 1958 where everyone punted on fourth and two from the plus 35, but maybe let's scale it back to 2006, like a couple of decades ago, when every coach wasn't.

• 44:24Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, 2013.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, wasn't losing, wasn't an absolute maniac, passing on easy three pointers, right? Lions could have gone up six at one point. They went for it, stepping on the gas and fourth and anything from anywhere. Like, let's just calm down a little bit.

• 44:40Bill Simmons?

  I say, I feel like I say this three times a year and I've been saying it three times a year since probably 2008. I, I'm not a hundred percent against going it, going for it there. But I think that has to be like your best play. And the play they ran was this slow starting run from Gibbs way in the backfield. Where by the time he had the ball, five guys were in the backfield with him and the play had no chance from the get go. And it's like, if that's your play, punt.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:08Bill Simmons?

  Like, you, like, that, that's super arrogant that you're gonna do that. But if you're gonna do the play action rollout or like, oh, the tight end or the ride receiver in motion and the quick flip, but there was no ingenuity at all. So I, I just thought the whole thing was just awful.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  Play before it was bad too, right?

• 45:24Bill Simmons?

  It was, right.

• 45:25Speaker 01

  The high screen pass and almost like, we shouldn't have even been caught, but yeah.

• 45:30Bill Simmons?

  Well, they still had 415 yards and 26 first downs and probably deserved to win, but the Packers could have stolen it. One thing to mention with the Lions, which, um, I've been monitoring and I keep bringing up. Gibbs had 34 touches today for 143 rushing receiver.

• 45:45Speaker 01

  I know, you like this. Yeah.

• 45:46Bill Simmons?

  He's at 166 now through six games. So Dan Campbell's basically like, this guy will never be the same after this year and I don't really care. I'm just, he's basically taking the car, he's driving them 110 miles an hour cross country because he's got a good radar detector and he's like, I think I could get across country in four days and he's just gonna ruin his engine. And that's what he's doing to Gibbs. Like that, like, to me, that's, if he's on pace for over 500 touches in a regular season, not to mention the playoffs, that's insanity. So he's gonna get hurt. And I think he got hurt at the end of the game today, but he will get hurt.

• 46:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. And they had Montgomery last year, so they could like split the, split the carrot. But I was, I'm looking at these two teams and do you think Detroit's a lot better than Green Bay? Cause I was like, Green Bay's plus 118 to make the playoffs. Detroit is minus 290. I know they have a half game advantage.

• 46:37Bill Simmons?

  But they're pretty even.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  Should one be minus 290 and the other plus 118? I don't know. Yeah.

• 46:42Bill Simmons?

  Parsons coming back soon.

• 46:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. And Jacobs looks good, you know, like for a first game back, that wasn't bad at all.

• 46:49Bill Simmons?

  Except for the drop. He dropped the touchdown. One thing with that game, Brady was great in that game. And Brady and Burkhart are, they just have the title right now. They're the best announcing team.

• 46:59Speaker 01

  They're good. He was, gets very mad about the, uh, the roughing the passers and he's a, he's a quarterback.

• 47:05Bill Simmons?

  He does. He gets, he gets saucy. I like, he, he's really comfortable now. Like a DB dropped a pass and he's like, you know why they're DBs, Kev? Cause they couldn't play receiver.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 47:17Bill Simmons?

  You put him there and then he's like, sorry Logan Ryan, you know, it's true. But it was just funny, like, and it is true. That's probably how a lot of these guys end up being DBs. Rams Raiders, speaking of announcers, you knew, uh, the Raiders were in trouble as a live. My line under, Chris Myers was there. They gave Chris this one? We're in trouble. The Rams.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Chris had, uh, Caesar's reward points or something and they're like, he's like, please, please, let me go, let me do this game.

• 47:44Bill Simmons?

  He loves the buffet. The Rams had 38 carries for 109 yards. They're basically just Puka, two running backs and 17 white tight ends. I don't even, you can't even, McDonald, Parkinson.

• 47:59Bill Simmons?

  It's like an ABC sitcom show. Uh, and they just reinvented themselves and now they're a running team that throws to Puka and some tight ends.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  This game helped me. Cause I had lost so much with Houston, but I bounced back with the Rams and Denver, but, uh, and it took a minute for Cousins to get rolling and it was too late. Yeah. You said they had 150 yards rushing. Felt like they could do it.

• 48:20Bill Simmons?

  199.

• 48:21Speaker 01

  Was it 199? Oh, really? Wow. I felt like they could do whatever they wanted. Like Puka doesn't have a bad game. Like he could be questionable on Saturday and maybe not playing, but if he plays, eight catches and a touchdown is about his basement. You know what I mean? Like he's, that's as bad as it gets for him, no matter how banged up he is. So, um.

• 48:40Bill Simmons?

  He's definitely the hardest guy to tackle in the league. Like somebody be coming straight on and he'll do like this weird stiff arm where he just kind of fends the guy off and I don't know how he does it.

• 48:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:51Bill Simmons?

  Or two guys will hit him and he just doesn't ever seem to go down.

• 48:54Speaker 01

  By the way, speaking of, uh, Rams pass catchers, I guess, thanks for starting K. Mumpfield against me in fantasy. Good Lord.

• 49:02Bill Simmons?

  I was, I would, I didn't have a receiver.

• 49:06Speaker 01

  You still didn't. Are you tanking in week seven? What is going on?

• 49:09Bill Simmons?

  My other choice was Josh Downs, who had 2.8 points. I, I rolled the dice with Mumpfield. Thought maybe he'd get the ball.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  I saw that. I'm like, do I even put in a lineup? This is great. Thanks Simmons.

• 49:22Bill Simmons?

  I had guys on buys. I didn't know what to do. The Raiders are down 28-6. I have another pet peeve.

• 49:31Bill Simmons?

  So they score a touchdown. It's 28 to 12. Lot of time left. This is midway through the third quarter. Kick the PAT, make it 28, 13. Score another touchdown. Kick that PAT, make it 28 to 20. Keep it so that it's a three touchdown game. So that there's some pressure. If you get that last touchdown, now it's a two point for the tie. What do they do now? Kick the two point, or they go for the two point. Even though they don't have a running game, Gentey in this game was eight for 15. And he's basically a third down back. I think we're realizing the kid 61.

• 50:04Speaker 01

  He can catch the ball.

• 50:05Bill Simmons?

  Receiving yards today. Yeah. So they drafted a third down back with the sixth pick in the draft. Like it's just the reality of the situation. They don't get the two point.

• 50:14Speaker 01

  So they're down 10.

• 50:15Bill Simmons?

  No, now, now they're down 18 because they don't get two points.

• 50:18Speaker 01

  Right, 28, 10.

• 50:19Bill Simmons?

  I'm sorry, 16. They're down 28, 12.

• 50:24Speaker 01

  All right, I'll trust you. Yeah.

• 50:26Bill Simmons?

  It was 28, 6 touchdown, don't get two points. It's 28, 12. They score again. Let's go for the two point. This time you have to. They don't get it. Now it's 28, 18. Now you still need two scores. Just kick two extra points. It would be 28, 20. Now you need one score.

• 50:42Speaker 01

  Oh, the nerds.

• 50:44Bill Simmons?

  We've overthought all of this.

• 50:45Speaker 01

  The nerds are laughing at you.

• 50:46Bill Simmons?

  The two points, you got it. How about this? Just need three touchdowns and one two point. You tie the game. It's 22 points.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  Oh, Bill, you're, that's so foolish, the way you do math.

• 50:56Bill Simmons?

  No, no, no. The team that can't run the ball and has a slow quarterback that can't roll out. Should absolutely go for the two point.

• 51:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 51:03Bill Simmons?

  This is what the model says. Does the model have Kirk Cousins? And Ashton, five foot six Ashton Gentey? Does the model include those two things? And Aaron Donald being on the other team? Because all of those things were in play today. Really annoying.

• 51:16Speaker 01

  And it's not like smack is your kicker either. You know?

• 51:19Bill Simmons?

  Right.

• 51:20Speaker 01

  You could kick it.

• 51:21Bill Simmons?

  Who's the guy on the Browns?

• 51:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. Just like one, it's a Y. Yeah.

• 51:28Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, Schmick. Raiders have lost four straight games and they've allowed 155 points. They're fun to watch. I took them today.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  They're just fun to watch. It's okay.

• 51:37Bill Simmons?

  I actually think there, there's versions of that game when they either win or come close. And it was just a stupid game and the Rams were really smart with the way they ran the ball. Panthers, Bucks, that game was my Sunday Ringo 107 ad. I couldn't, I didn't like anything.

• 51:54Speaker 01

  And what'd you like? The Bucks?

• 51:56Bill Simmons?

  I had the Panthers.

• 51:57Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 51:58Bill Simmons?

  That was over in five minutes.

• 51:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was it.

• 52:01Bill Simmons?

  17, 6 Panthers score, going for the PAT. Block kick.

• 52:08Bill Simmons?

  Camera goes back to show the kick going through the end zone. And stays there and the ball never goes through. And then like we frantically, and there's a guy running the other way for bringing it back for the two point, which happens every four years.

• 52:24Bill Simmons?

  What happens more often? That or the Olympics?

• 52:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't, I don't think I see it. You can go years without seeing it, for sure.

• 52:31Bill Simmons?

  So I had a listener, Steve, Steve Fallon thinks it should, it needs a nickname when this happens. Because it's like the return two point. What do we even call this?

• 52:42Speaker 01

  His name is Steve Fallon? Is it Fallon? Okay, two point.

• 52:47Bill Simmons?

  It's like a defensive two point conversion or something.

• 52:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 52:51Bill Simmons?

  He says, because it's a long two. It should be called the DeRozan. Because DeMar DeRozan makes long twos.

• 53:00Speaker 01

  He's not against it. Are you, his shitting habits you're talking about?

• 53:03Bill Simmons?

  No, the long two, like 20, he makes 22 foot jump shots. They're called long twos in basketball.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  You're gonna call it the Rex Ryan. He had the longest, biggest twos and the number twos.

• 53:20Bill Simmons?

  Anyway, the DeRozan. I don't know. Somebody can top that DeRozan, but something with the long two or we call it, I don't know what it is.

• 53:25Speaker 01

  Straddling the line, shooting it through. Yeah, yeah.

• 53:28Bill Simmons?

  Needs a name.

• 53:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:29Bill Simmons?

  Bucks win this game, Baker seven.

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, God, I was gonna say the same thing. Seven completions, 43 points. Ridiculous.

• 53:35Bill Simmons?

  64 yards for Baker.

• 53:38Bill Simmons?

  Bryce Young, three turnovers, five sacks. Panthers somehow still in the lead in the NFC South. If you watch this game, you'd, you'd think they were like one and 10.

• 53:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. They ran for, the Bucks ran for what? 258? You had Buck the Duck, Kenny Gainwell and Sean Tucker. And Carolina was never in it. Bryce is back, baby.

• 53:57Bill Simmons?

  There was a couple of teams today that ran the ball really well. That were teams that, when you watched them earlier this year, you wondered why they didn't run the ball more.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 54:06Bill Simmons?

  And one of them was the Bucks. Because I really like Buck Irving. I think he's good. And they, he was kind of like an afterthought for them this year, but they let him, let him loose today. Gainwell even played a little bit more. Niners Falcons was another spot game. Where I guess the Niners were due for one of these. They had 26 first downs, 400 yards and four turnovers and somehow lost.

• 54:27Speaker 01

  Rat line. Rat line of the week. And I use that rat's tail. I flossed my teeth with it. And I was all over the plus two and a half against the undefeated Niners because it made no sense at all. Yeah, and I think Purdy, I don't know if he played, we talked about it, if Allen on his bye, maybe clinched the MVP here. I think he's plus 150 and Purdy's plus 450 now. I think that's what it is.

• 54:50Bill Simmons?

  Purdy dropped. I'm gonna defend Purdy because I've, I've heard this MVP argument. Guys who caught balls from him today included Watkins, Cowing, Farrell, Cooks and James.

• 55:03Bill Simmons?

  He doesn't have anybody to throw to. And then McCaffrey went on the blue 10 at one point. I don't know.

• 55:07Speaker 01

  Well, that Kalen Black was good, right? Like, I mean.

• 55:10Bill Simmons?

  Kalen Black was good.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  You give like Atlanta credit, like Penix, the three touchdowns, no picks. He had nine different pass catchers. Bijon only ran for 63 yards. And that defense gets stops. Like they, they blitz so much less and they're effective and they forced four turnovers. So that Bates interception was superb.

• 55:28Bill Simmons?

  Well, you also had, the Niners got a touchdown. And then they, they, they reversed it. And it didn't seem like there was enough evidence to reverse it and they reversed it anyway.

• 55:38Speaker 01

  Which one was this?

• 55:39Bill Simmons?

  It was the one in the corner to, I think it was to Watkins.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  Oh, right, right, right, right.

• 55:44Bill Simmons?

  It was gonna be 26, 21 with a lot of time left.

• 55:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, they turned, they returned it.

• 55:49Bill Simmons?

  And then all of a sudden the Falcons had the ball and that felt like it swung the game.

• 55:53Speaker 01

  They'll be all right, the Niners.

• 55:54Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, to me, that was like the Chiefs loss. It's like, you guys are fine. Don't worry about it. And then Broncos cards too. Yeah, we, we hit everything.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  We got it all.

• 56:05Bill Simmons?

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• 56:51Bill Simmons?

  Visit your local deli today. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. Yeah, guess the lines?

• 57:01Speaker 01

  Let's do it. We're here.

• 57:03Bill Simmons?

  You beat me last week. I'm still up for the season.

• 57:07Bill Simmons?

  I think we have the worst slate of night games. We've ever had.

• 57:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is, you pointed this out. This is something else.

• 57:14Bill Simmons?

  Although the Monday night's good.

• 57:17Speaker 01

  The Monday night?

• 57:18Bill Simmons?

  The Monday night's good.

• 57:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:21Bill Simmons?

  Thursday, Sunday is awful.

• 57:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:23Bill Simmons?

  Thursday night, Green Bay home for the Panthers team.

• 57:28Bill Simmons?

  Who, by the way, lost one of their best offensive linemen today, Moten.

• 57:31Speaker 01

  Right.

• 57:32Bill Simmons?

  And, and.

• 57:36Bill Simmons?

  Got their asses kicked. Now have to play again in Lambeau.

• 57:40Speaker 01

  You better get this exact.

• 57:43Bill Simmons?

  Is there a World Series game that night?

• 57:46Speaker 01

  Uh, let's see. So it's, it goes Monday, Tuesday.

• 57:52Bill Simmons?

  No World Series game.

• 57:53Speaker 01

  Wednesday off, Thursday.

• 57:54Bill Simmons?

  World Series might be over by then.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  There's no World Series game Thursday?

• 57:58Bill Simmons?

  No, it's Wednesday and Friday.

• 58:01Speaker 01

  Okay, right, right.

• 58:04Bill Simmons?

  Well, I'm gonna get this exact. I have Packers by four and a half.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  No, you didn't do it. I had three and a half. That's what it is.

• 58:13Bill Simmons?

  That's too low.

• 58:14Speaker 01

  I'm skipping this one. I'm not, I'm not betting this. I think our, already our agenda is, oh, Panthers suck. Packers need this win. And we're gonna get smacked around in this. We're gonna take the Packers.

• 58:24Bill Simmons?

  You know who else is skipping it? Me on Thursday night. You'll not see me live on Netflix after this game on Thursday. Like, coming live right after Packers, Panthers.

• 58:32Speaker 01

  No. No, but we're not, I mean, betting. We're not, I just don't wanna, I don't wanna touch it.

• 58:37Bill Simmons?

  I could talk myself into it.

• 58:40Bill Simmons?

  I need to make some, some, some ground back. Two watchables next week. Lions, Vikings.

• 58:50Bill Simmons?

  It's hard to put Kyler Murray in the watchables, but I think we have to, especially because they're undefeated and this game's in Detroit.

• 58:57Bill Simmons?

  And I tic-tacked it. Lions minus one and a half.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  Uh, I said two and a half. It's three.

• 59:05Bill Simmons?

  Wow. Six and O team.

• 59:07Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 59:08Bill Simmons?

  On the road, getting three.

• 59:09Speaker 01

  At four and two. Yep.

• 59:11Bill Simmons?

  Okay.

• 59:13Bill Simmons?

  You're beating me.

• 59:15Speaker 01

  Let's go.

• 59:16Bill Simmons?

  In Denver, KC will be traveling to a tone for their bizarre Seattle performance tonight.

• 59:25Bill Simmons?

  And I think they're still going to be favored. I have Chiefs minus one and a half.

• 59:29Speaker 01

  Can I, this is locked. Was there an injury?

• 59:34Bill Simmons?

  What do you mean?

• 59:36Speaker 01

  It's locked on Fandel.

• 59:37Bill Simmons?

  There's no line?

• 59:40Speaker 01

  Sorry. Okay. Now, now they have it. I refreshed. Say it again.

• 59:44Bill Simmons?

  I had Chiefs minus one and a half.

• 59:47Speaker 01

  It is Chiefs minus, we both have one and a half. I promise that's what it was. And it is one and a half.

• 59:53Bill Simmons?

  Okay.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 59:56Bill Simmons?

  Did you see anything from Bo Nix today that would make you want to bet against him?

• 59:59Speaker 01

  You know.

• 59:59Bill Simmons?

  Against Patrick Mahomes after a loss?

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  I, I, I think that's a great get right spot for Denver. I don't know what happened with the Rams and Cardinals last week, but before that, the Cardinals allowed like 33 plus points a game. And so

• 1:00:13Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:14Speaker 01

  I think it's like sending your kid to the country during the, during the summer. Like there's, here's 10 acres. Run, run free Bo Nix. Go 60 yard, go whatever you want to do. But yeah, that, that team is junk, Arizona. But Denver knew what they had to do.

• 1:00:29Bill Simmons?

  Fairly watchable. Speaking of the junky team, they're playing your team. Cowboys home for the Cardinals.

• 1:00:34Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:00:36Bill Simmons?

  I couldn't put this line higher than where I got it because I don't think your team deserves it.

• 1:00:41Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:00:42Bill Simmons?

  Cowboys minus five and a half.

• 1:00:43Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. Uh, you still get it. I said eight and a half because I think the Cardinals are real garbage even below us. It's six and a half.

• 1:00:53Bill Simmons?

  One of my rules is you can't be favored by more than seven points.

• 1:00:57Speaker 01

  There we go.

• 1:00:57Bill Simmons?

  If I, if I've watched both of your receivers jog through 100 routes in a season already. 100 routes combined.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  Is that what it is?

• 1:01:06Bill Simmons?

  Where I was like, did he stop running? What happened on that?

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  Was that combined or is that just Pickens?

• 1:01:12Bill Simmons?

  Why did Pickens just, is, did he know the play with, all right, next one. Jets Raiders, the Heidi Bowl.

• 1:01:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:20Bill Simmons?

  Let's get Berman.

• 1:01:22Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:01:22Bill Simmons?

  The Heidi Bowl.

• 1:01:26Bill Simmons?

  Daryl playing the La Monica.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  He killed Kenny Stabler. No, no, that's too, no, it's too.

• 1:01:37Bill Simmons?

  That's too modern.

• 1:01:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:38Bill Simmons?

  Rewrite that one. Jets Raiders. I have the Jets favored and they're terrible. I have Jets minus one and a half over the Raiders.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, you get it. It could tic tac the other way and I could be right. I had Raiders minus one half. You got it. It's Jets one and a half.

• 1:01:57Bill Simmons?

  I think we're nearing Kirk Cousins either gets traded or he's going to have his last start soon range.

• 1:02:02Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:02:03Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:04Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:02:05Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Cause I, I think they have some weapons on that team. And you saw a couple of teams now that passed this to them too, where they're just trying to blitz him and make him kind of run around because he's old and he's has, you know, recovered torn Achilles.

• 1:02:19Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 1:02:20Bill Simmons?

  And at some point, I think, I, I don't think the Raiders are that bad. At some point you gotta put Mendoza in there, I think.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  I guess. I, I think he's doing like, he's making Trey Tucker a superstar.

• 1:02:30Bill Simmons?

  I know. He's making the throws.

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  Things.

• 1:02:32Bill Simmons?

  That's what I think. They're going to trade him.

• 1:02:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:34Bill Simmons?

  If there's a team that needs, like, maybe that's a Philly spot. He's better than Tanner McKee.

• 1:02:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 1:02:40Bill Simmons?

  If Philly, like if Philly beats your team tomorrow, maybe they decide.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:02:44Bill Simmons?

  You know?

• 1:02:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. But you're going to throw Mendoza in there. It's the same thing. Like they don't have a running game, right? We're not, we're not in love with.

• 1:02:52Bill Simmons?

  Or are they not in a running game because Kirk can't move?

• 1:02:54Speaker 01

  Oh, interesting. Okay.

• 1:02:56Bill Simmons?

  It's probably because Ashton Gentey's.

• 1:02:58Speaker 01

  If he loses to the Jets, maybe you're right. That could be enough.

• 1:03:01Bill Simmons?

  He had a game last year where I was like, I get that. I get it. Gentey. Where he was awesome. I forget who it was against, but he was awesome. And it was like, oh, I get it. I get, I get who, this guy's basically like a better running Maurice Jones Drew type of, I get this. And then he's never had it again.

• 1:03:18Speaker 01

  You don't get it anymore?

• 1:03:19Bill Simmons?

  I don't get it at all.

• 1:03:20Speaker 01

  You lost it.

• 1:03:21Bill Simmons?

  I don't. I've lost it completely.

• 1:03:24Bill Simmons?

  Speaking of losing, I'm definitely going to lose whoever I bet on in this game. Falcons Bucks in Tampa.

• 1:03:30Speaker 01

  Just stay away.

• 1:03:33Bill Simmons?

  Tampa's basically, I just think you, you, everyone's lost. Who's won money on Tampa this year?

• 1:03:40Speaker 01

  No, you can't. Yeah. And both said they're done scoring points after 43 today. They're like, that's it.

• 1:03:46Bill Simmons?

  Oh, he mercy rolled it?

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  I hope you enjoyed it. Yeah.

• 1:03:50Bill Simmons?

  Falcons in Tampa and I have the Falcons favored by one and a half.

• 1:03:55Speaker 01

  All right. I got this exactly. I did to you what you did to me with the Raiders. It's Bucks one and a half.

• 1:04:01Bill Simmons?

  I don't agree.

• 1:04:02Speaker 01

  It'll probably flip.

• 1:04:04Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I think that flips. Jaguars home for the Colts. It's going to be their seven or seven and a half. Jags coming off a bye. I went with Jags minus seven.

• 1:04:15Speaker 01

  You get it either way. I said five and a half. I don't know why I went so low. It is seven and a half.

• 1:04:21Speaker 01

  Four to four.

• 1:04:22Bill Simmons?

  I am teasing that.

• 1:04:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:25Bill Simmons?

  Speaking of teasers, Rams home for the Chargers.

• 1:04:31Bill Simmons?

  Both, both these teams share the stadium.

• 1:04:34Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 1:04:36Bill Simmons?

  So it's a home game, but.

• 1:04:37Speaker 01

  No one's going to root for anybody. Right.

• 1:04:39Bill Simmons?

  Chargers get to, I don't know what, do they have their own locker room in that stadium? They must.

• 1:04:43Speaker 01

  The crowd's just going to be silent.

• 1:04:47Speaker 01

  They'll figure it out in the fourth.

• 1:04:48Bill Simmons?

  It's a silent count game.

• 1:04:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:50Bill Simmons?

  Every, everyone will be able to hear all the plays. I have Rams minus seven and a half.

• 1:04:55Speaker 01

  We both had that and that's what it is. Ooh, we're nipping tuck here. Five, five.

• 1:05:01Bill Simmons?

  Last week when we did guess the lines, we thought maybe there would be a Chargers firing or something would happen or nothing happened.

• 1:05:07Speaker 01

  Nothing. Be fun if they waited for this week. I don't know. Do you trust that teaser? Here we go again. I might just take the Chargers as my upset again. Oh, and six.

• 1:05:18Bill Simmons?

  I don't trust the Rams.

• 1:05:21Bill Simmons?

  I don't think I would put them in a teaser. I trust the Jags. I would put them in a teaser. Poop Fecta Bengals home for the Titans. And I jacked this one up because I think they had to knock this out of teaser range. So normally I would have said eight or eight and a half, but I, I think this just starts at minus nine and they see if anyone wants to bet the Titans. I have Cincy minus nine at home against the Titans.

• 1:05:44Speaker 01

  Good. I edged you out there. I said nine and a half and it's 10 and a half.

• 1:05:47Bill Simmons?

  Oh, that's higher than I thought.

• 1:05:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. They, they, they hate Tennessee. Fandel, Freddie Fandel hates Tennessee.

• 1:05:56Bill Simmons?

  Steelers home for the Browns.

• 1:05:59Speaker 01

  It's a good one.

• 1:06:00Bill Simmons?

  We already saw this game and the Browns won.

• 1:06:03Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:06:04Bill Simmons?

  I put this in the Vegas zone. I have Steelers minus five and a half.

• 1:06:08Speaker 01

  I got it exact. Three and a half.

• 1:06:10Bill Simmons?

  Oh, wow. Lot of respect for the Browns.

• 1:06:13Speaker 01

  Lots. I mean.

• 1:06:14Bill Simmons?

  Deshaun in Pittsburgh? He sparkles in the fourth quarter. Don't you understand? Dessert Deshaun. I have a souffle for you today. I have some cookies. Please don't eat the veal chop.

• 1:06:28Bill Simmons?

  We, we have a lobster biscuit. It's terrible.

• 1:06:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:31Bill Simmons?

  You could wrap the Quinshon Judkins to go.

• 1:06:38Bill Simmons?

  Our Caesar salad has too many anchovies in it. We have a scallop that is really fishy. But again, the carrot cake is unbelievable. Save some room. We have a dry aged scallop. It's been, we've dry aged it since the Brian Sype days.

• 1:06:57Bill Simmons?

  Patriots in Miami. I don't know what our record is in Miami, but it's not over 500 career. I'll tell you that much.

• 1:07:05Speaker 01

  This is a bad one for us, right? It's a dark issue. This, this game. Let's tell the story. What was it?

• 1:07:12Bill Simmons?

  Oh, 2004?

• 1:07:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. It was a night game. Yeah.

• 1:07:16Bill Simmons?

  Monday night, Monday night.

• 1:07:17Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:07:18Bill Simmons?

  The year of teasers. Even wrote a piece about it.

• 1:07:21Speaker 01

  We killed it.

• 1:07:22Bill Simmons?

  You, week after week, teasers. And then finally, Tom Brady, Monday night blows a 10-point lead in Miami.

• 1:07:32Bill Simmons?

  Miami scores, Brady interception, fumble, something Miami scores again. All of a sudden we lost.

• 1:07:37Speaker 01

  I could see the uniforms. I could see the orange.

• 1:07:39Bill Simmons?

  We were too cocky. We learned a lot of valuable lessons.

• 1:07:41Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, sure.

• 1:07:42Bill Simmons?

  Too cocky.

• 1:07:44Speaker 01

  I got this exactly. So.

• 1:07:47Bill Simmons?

  I think I got it exactly too. I put some thought into this.

• 1:07:50Speaker 01

  Oh no, I didn't get it exact. Go ahead. Yep.

• 1:07:52Bill Simmons?

  Pats of Miami. I don't think they're going to jack this too high because of the history.

• 1:07:57Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:07:59Bill Simmons?

  And I don't think, I think they want to push it over seven, but I think they started at Pats minus six and a half.

• 1:08:06Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. I said seven. It's seven and a half.

• 1:08:10Bill Simmons?

  Ah, you beat me.

• 1:08:12Speaker 01

  You'll get there. It'll get there at the seven and a half. Come on, Jacoby.

• 1:08:17Bill Simmons?

  Six and a half.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:20Bill Simmons?

  What do you, are you one up on me or two?

• 1:08:22Speaker 01

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, two, eight to five.

• 1:08:26Bill Simmons?

  You beat me. We're tied for the year.

• 1:08:29Speaker 01

  Let's do it. No, there's three left, right?

• 1:08:33Bill Simmons?

  I only have the Sunday night and the Monday night.

• 1:08:35Speaker 01

  Ravens Bills. Did you do Ravens Bills?

• 1:08:37Bill Simmons?

  Oh, I don't have Ravens Bills. Where's that? Oh, the Sunday Marquee. I missed that one.

• 1:08:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, you just skipped the Marquee.

• 1:08:43Bill Simmons?

  Kind of a big game. Ravens Bills.

• 1:08:46Speaker 01

  Well, I got this exact. So.

• 1:08:48Bill Simmons?

  You did?

• 1:08:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. You'll get this.

• 1:08:51Bill Simmons?

  It's in Buffalo and I have Buffalo minus three and a half.

• 1:08:53Speaker 01

  There you go. There you go. That's the way to do it.

• 1:08:55Bill Simmons?

  Okay.

• 1:08:59Bill Simmons?

  Sunday night. And we'll have Lamar for that Buffalo game.

• 1:09:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. I think that's what it's suggesting.

• 1:09:07Bill Simmons?

  Can I predict that House is going to put the Ravens in a tease?

• 1:09:12Speaker 01

  That's his boy?

• 1:09:13Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:15Bill Simmons?

  Sunday night, Washington home for the Eagles. And I don't like it, but I'm going to say Washington minus two and a half.

• 1:09:24Speaker 01

  I said three and it is three and a half.

• 1:09:27Bill Simmons?

  God, you're killing me.

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  And you're calling that this is the worst, this is the worst we'll have come off of, right?

• 1:09:34Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. So next Sunday night, live on Netflix, we'll be coming to you right after.

• 1:09:41Bill Simmons?

  Washington and Eagles.

• 1:09:42Speaker 01

  Should we come on at halftime? Have we ever done that before?

• 1:09:46Bill Simmons?

  Is there a basketball game we could come on after?

• 1:09:49Bill Simmons?

  Maybe we should just come on right after. Now you see everything or whatever the fielder movie is called.

• 1:09:54Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 1:09:54Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, it was just a, Monday night, Seahawks, Bears in Seattle.

• 1:10:02Bill Simmons?

  I mean, honestly, this could be an NFC title preview for real.

• 1:10:06Speaker 01

  It's a fun one.

• 1:10:07Bill Simmons?

  I have Seattle minus two and a half.

• 1:10:09Speaker 01

  That's what I had. It is three. It's currently three.

• 1:10:13Bill Simmons?

  Damn. I gotta go back to the drawing.

• 1:10:15Speaker 01

  Here we go. Here we go.

• 1:10:18Bill Simmons?

  Really tough.

• 1:10:19Speaker 01

  Really? I'm mixing the correct pain medication, I think, now, and it's all working out.

• 1:10:24Bill Simmons?

  See, you're using, you're using performance enhancing drugs to beat me.

• 1:10:28Speaker 01

  How test me before, before the guess the line segment?

• 1:10:32Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Yeah, how said the cross off team, America agreed with us. 68% was for the Jets.

• 1:10:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, enough.

• 1:10:41Bill Simmons?

  18% for the Saints, 8% Commander, 7% for the Texans. So the Saints are looming for us next week.

• 1:10:47Speaker 01

  I think Aaron Glenn should thank us for keeping him around as long as we did.

• 1:10:50Bill Simmons?

  Seriously?

• 1:10:51Speaker 01

  Right?

• 1:10:52Bill Simmons?

  I agree with you.

• 1:10:53Speaker 01

  We didn't know them anything.

• 1:10:55Bill Simmons?

  Saints don't play next week, so they could, it could be the rare buy cross off for them.

• 1:10:58Speaker 01

  That's what I'm saying. The Saints or the Texans. We have, we have some thinking to do.

• 1:11:04Bill Simmons?

  Um, basketball really quick. So I was in Boston. And I was able to catch up on some basketball. I was there for some soccer games. I went to the Knicks game on Friday night. And watched OKC and thought,

• 1:11:22Bill Simmons?

  man, they, I thought they had the look, like, really, like a 65 to 73 win team, just killing everybody. And there was some FanDuel bets. I had, I had one bet where I had them 65 plus wins with the Warriors, not to make the playoffs, because the Warriors are terrible. And that was like plus 235 on FanDuel. I was all excited about that one. And just in general, I thought the OKC numbers were off, because to me, they looked like a 70 win team. So I'm watching the football game tonight, and I have the Orlando game on the side TV, and then I have the OKC Clipper game on. And J-Dub goes up, falls, and you could tell it's bad, because the ball boy came over and threw the towel over his ankle, which is like, oh, no.

• 1:12:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:12:04Bill Simmons?

  And, and J-Dub, I guess, broke his, either broke or dislocated his ankle. It was something bad. It seemed like the Gordon Hayward play.

• 1:12:12Speaker 01

  That's what I said, yeah.

• 1:12:14Bill Simmons?

  I thought, A, felt so terrible for him, because he was hurt all last year, too, you know, and he was really playing well and looking great this year. The Thunder was like, Shay was crying after the game.

• 1:12:25Speaker 01

  He was crying during, during the whole day, like, when it went down, yeah.

• 1:12:29Bill Simmons?

  So I don't, if this is the Hayward injury, I don't think he comes back this year, but, but, you know, it completely changes. This is the biggest thing that's happened in the first week of the season, probably since the Hayward injury.

• 1:12:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:41Bill Simmons?

  And as weird as this sounds, I don't, he wasn't the best player on their team, but I think he was the hardest guy to replace for them. They had depth everywhere else, and this was the one spot where he was kind of the 101 for them. Like, the swing man with size, Swiss Arm and I could play different positions, could play a little point guard for them, and I don't know how they're gonna replace him. So FanDuel, even looking at the odds, like, the odds shifted, and San Antonio is now the favorite. The odds dropped, all the win totals dropped for them, because that's how important he was. So I don't know what they do. And I think they're gonna actually have to make a trade, because they have a real hole now for what he did.

• 1:13:18Speaker 01

  He missed, what, 49 games last year?

• 1:13:20Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, but they had Lou Dort last year.

• 1:13:22Speaker 01

  I don't want to minimize. Yeah, they had Dort last year. Yeah, FanDuel's got it close. They have Spurs plus 300, OKC plus 310. But yeah, you hate seeing that shit. I mean, it was, the fact that the worst injury of the day didn't occur in the 12 NFL games we watched on the hardwood an hour before we went live is, is preposterous. But I may also, because I took him to get the one seed, that's, you could blame me.

• 1:13:45Bill Simmons?

  Nah, you still might, you still might get it, but I don't know. So we're, you know, we're taping this, it's 9:30 at night on West Coast, so I don't know the exact. Hayward's thing was like, maybe he, because it happened opening night, maybe he'll be able to come back for the, for the end of the season. He never came back. And I would assume that would be the case with this, that they would be careful. But they, they have some picks, they have a swap with the Clippers that they could put in a trade. They have some contracts they could put together for, they don't only have any big contracts, but they have some smaller ones, or else they could put somebody like Hartenstein in a trade with other stuff. But I, I think they're gonna have to get a wing with size.

• 1:14:25Bill Simmons?

  I don't think, either they try to wait till February and get a buyout guy, but they're gonna need somebody with size.

• 1:14:31Speaker 01

  Well, yeah.

• 1:14:32Bill Simmons?

  That's gonna be a huge hole for them right now.

• 1:14:34Speaker 01

  I wouldn't give up Hartenstein. Isn't he like their, kind of their savior when they play the Spurs?

• 1:14:38Bill Simmons?

  I wouldn't give him up either. But it's weird, because they have all these big contracts, and then all these little contracts, but like, they don't have that. If they were like, fuck it, let's go all in, we'll try to get Trey Murphy. They don't have the salaries to match up for those guys, like, in the 20s.

• 1:14:53Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:14:53Bill Simmons?

  So the guy I would get if I was them is Herb Jones, because he's barely playing for New Orleans. And I tweeted about this this morning. I watched, I was on the plane. The plane's unbelievable. I had NBA.

• 1:15:07Speaker 01

  The plane's unbelievable.

• 1:15:08Bill Simmons?

  Wifi now, and I had, I was on JetBlue. I had the DirecTV, so I had the college football and the World Series. And then I had my iPad with the League Pass, and I'm watching all these different games, including, including New Orleans blow this, you know, 19-point lead to Denver, because of how bad Jamal Mosey was. But the irony was Herb Jones wasn't even playing in that game, as Jamal Murray was going nuts. And maybe that's somebody OKC could get.

• 1:15:32Speaker 01

  When you're in this, like, and you're, I'm guessing you're in the middle seat, right? And you got all these laptops and all, everything going on.

• 1:15:38Bill Simmons?

  I know, the people on each side are really mad.

• 1:15:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, what are they doing? They must be like, what the hell, man? Calm down, just.

• 1:15:42Bill Simmons?

  I gotta say, it's really fun to travel these days.

• 1:15:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:45Bill Simmons?

  The wifi is really good. It only goes out, like, briefly a couple of times, but for the most part,

• 1:15:52Bill Simmons?

  I was able to see just about everything. And then it seemed like Ole Miss was gonna come back.

• 1:15:56Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that was fun, too.

• 1:15:57Bill Simmons?

  College football fan.

• 1:15:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, look at you.

• 1:15:59Bill Simmons?

  World Series was on, you know, we had, we had a whole bunch of League Pass stuff, so it was, it was a lot of TV, but.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  It's a great, great sports time.

• 1:16:09Bill Simmons?

  But yeah, Herb Jones got buried, and maybe that's somebody OKC could get. But man, that was such a bummer. And then five minutes after he went down, it looked like Suggs blew out his ACL.

• 1:16:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:18Bill Simmons?

  At the end of the Orlando game.

• 1:16:20Speaker 01

  Orlando under.

• 1:16:22Bill Simmons?

  And that, that was also probably worse than any.

• 1:16:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, how is that happening? I got, were there any bad NFL injuries today? I can't think.

• 1:16:30Bill Simmons?

  Not that I remember in the game.

• 1:16:32Speaker 01

  So weird.

• 1:16:33Bill Simmons?

  So then the Knicks lost today, too, and they're 0-3.

• 1:16:37Bill Simmons?

  Now, I saw them in person on Friday. The Knicks are fine. They won the title last year, and you know, they're, they're not on cruise control, but they're definitely like, we're taking the other team's best shot every game. We kind of have an on-off switch. We think it's gonna come on. We're not, we're never gonna be too concerned. And like, in that Celtic game, they just kind of assumed Brunson was gonna take over and win it, and the Celtics did a good job defending him. Tatum made some shots. I'm not worried about the Knicks.

• 1:17:03Speaker 01

  Can I just say, I just, I'm proud of you for that, because I think NBA holes are the worst in terms of overreactions in the first week. Like, we could overreact to NFL games after one week, but after one week, it's still, what is it, 6% of the regular season?

• 1:17:19Bill Simmons?

  Right.

• 1:17:19Speaker 01

  You watch an NBA game, and after like, one game, it's 1.2%, and everyone's like, oh, my God, I was so wrong about Phoenix. Like, shut up. Can we wait two weeks? Can we, you saw two quarters of missed threes. It's gonna be fine. You're not like that. Some people we know just, just go over the top. It doesn't make sense if you're a numbers guy.

• 1:17:39Bill Simmons?

  What people do we know?

• 1:17:43Speaker 01

  I'm not gonna start. All over our text chains. But everyone wants to make a, like, oh, I was so wrong about this. Like, it's 2% of the regular season, which also doesn't matter.

• 1:17:54Bill Simmons?

  There's, even like a team like Minnesota, which, again, won today, and people are gonna get carried away from them this week. I want to see more of it. Nice start for them. There's only two teams that I really feel like strongly one way or the other, a little bit differently than I did. And I, I was under on Golden State as one of my locks when we did the over-unders. Golden State's awful. And I think, I think that's a really bleak situation. I don't think that's an overreaction. I think they're in a lot of trouble. And Curry, what they're gonna need from Curry, week after week, at age 39, just to keep them as a 500 team, is not realistic.

• 1:18:31Speaker 01

  They can't get rid of him, right? There's just no, it's not.

• 1:18:33Bill Simmons?

  No, no, no. I, I think, I think it's a gap year for them. I think they're fine with sucking this year and, and maybe looking at Butler coming back in February. They use the Porzingis thing and kind of pivot to next year. So I don't think, I don't think that's an overreaction. Actually, there's three.

• 1:18:53Bill Simmons?

  I think Houston's really good. And I, I thought that was gonna be the case heading into the season, but I'm really convinced that that's a good team. I like that Houston team. So I'm, I'm a believer in them.

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  You had them over anyway, right?

• 1:19:06Bill Simmons?

  I had them way over. I think I had them as a lock, but, you know, they went from Reed Shepard and a bunch of no names last year to Ben Vinton, Smart. They've all been playing together now with Durant for an extra year, and I just like the way they look. And then it's a semi-overreaction.

• 1:19:24Bill Simmons?

  The Miami thing, I think they have fixes, the Heat. And I've watched a lot of the Heat. It's kind of, kind of a hate watch, because it's probably my least favorite team, even though I respect them. But the Giannis Bam thing has looked really bad.

• 1:19:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:37Bill Simmons?

  They're playing too fast with them. They're playing Klay, who I think is washed. I think, I think eventually this will lead to, they're gonna slow down a little. They're gonna put Larson in for Klay. They're gonna stagger Giannis Bam a little bit. It's, it should get better, but it's an alarming start.

• 1:19:54Speaker 01

  That's, that's, that's the sort of thing, that's, you gotta let that play out, I think. But.

• 1:19:59Bill Simmons?

  It's way worse than I thought. Like, this is a 1 out of 10 for where I thought it was gonna be. It's really bad. Giannis is like minus 54 in the three games. When he's out there, like, they don't know how to play with him.

• 1:20:10Speaker 01

  Yeah. I did, I did look at your Warriors thing. I was all over. I'm following on the text chain and everything. What, how many wins do you think they end up with?

• 1:20:21Bill Simmons?

  It's tough because you had, you don't want to be in the bottom three anymore. If this was a normal tank year, I would say, oh, they're gonna be, they might have the worst. I was looking at them for worst record.

• 1:20:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:31Bill Simmons?

  Cause when I was flying home yesterday, and I think I might've even bet it. It was 33 to one for them to have the worst record. And if you put that with OKC to have the best record, it was like 65 to one or something.

• 1:20:41Speaker 01

  But what do you think their over under is? Cause I went under.

• 1:20:44Bill Simmons?

  Well, I saw it yesterday.

• 1:20:46Speaker 01

  Oh, you saw it?

• 1:20:46Bill Simmons?

  Before, before the year was 37 and a half, I think.

• 1:20:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:50Bill Simmons?

  And now it's gotta be like 34.

• 1:20:52Speaker 01

  34 and a half. Yeah. I went under.

• 1:20:54Bill Simmons?

  I still, I think it's an under all the way to 30.

• 1:20:57Speaker 01

  Really? Okay. You can get good odds on 30. You can get like plus two.

• 1:21:01Bill Simmons?

  That is not a good team. That, that is not a team that has moves. I mean, they're paying Porzingis 20, 20 mil, Butler 55 and Moody 12. So that's 90 million bucks. None of those guys play. That's 40% of their salary.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  It's a lot.

• 1:21:20Bill Simmons?

  And you watch night tonight, like the league's good now. Even if you watch a team like Memphis, like, I'm not saying Memphis is a playoff team, but Memphis has good guys. Memphis had like Boozer's really good. Ty Jerome, when he's healthy is good. They rebound, they can defend and Golden State just doesn't have a lot of options. Did they lose today? I didn't even see. They were losing.

• 1:21:38Speaker 01

  3% of the regular season. It's gonna be fine.

• 1:21:42Bill Simmons?

  Golden State, oh, they didn't play that. It was Memphis Sacramento. Sacramento lost to Memphis.

• 1:21:47Speaker 01

  Memphis won by 11.

• 1:21:48Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:49Bill Simmons?

  Golden State plays tomorrow against Denver and they're gonna be 0-4.

• 1:21:52Speaker 01

  Oh, and the Sixers aren't going undefeated. Yeah.

• 1:21:55Bill Simmons?

  No, they're gonna do the thing where they stagger LeBron. They didn't play MB today.

• 1:21:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:00Bill Simmons?

  The, Denver's only played two games.

• 1:22:06Bill Simmons?

  But this Brazil that they got, the second rounder or late first rounder, wherever they got him. He was, he was really, really, really impactful in this game last night. And was playing crunch time for them and he's kinda like Aaron Gordon Jr.

• 1:22:21Speaker 01

  That could help.

• 1:22:22Bill Simmons?

  Just unexpected that this guy is as good as he is. And then the best team for league pass purposes is New Orleans. Cause they have a bunch of talent. They're fun to watch and they're stupid as all hell.

• 1:22:32Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:22:33Bill Simmons?

  They're just the dumbest team. Yeah. But every game they've been in has been really entertaining.

• 1:22:37Speaker 01

  What's the bet you wish you had? I'm looking at rookie of the year real quick. It's, it's the same as it was.

• 1:22:43Bill Simmons?

  Well, Sal, as you know, I'm not allowed to bet on.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not allowed to bet. Yeah. That's bad. I try to trick you. Yes.

• 1:22:48Bill Simmons?

  The one I wish I had more money on was the Luca points per game.

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  Over?

• 1:22:56Bill Simmons?

  There were ones, it was 34 was I think even odds or somewhere around there. And then 36 was like plus 290.

• 1:23:02Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:23:03Bill Simmons?

  36 a game, which has only happened a couple of times in the last, like Kobe did it, James Harden did it. But like he had 50 today. Their whole offense is geared toward him scoring.

• 1:23:12Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:23:13Bill Simmons?

  I think he's gonna be between 36 and 38 after watching them. He just gets, he shoots like, feels like he's gonna shoot every time.

• 1:23:21Speaker 01

  I think that's the way to do it. Pick two or three players like that. I did that with Ann Edwards over 31. So that's, that's where I liked it.

• 1:23:28Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. So Minnesota, I think is the overreaction team. I wanna see it more. They're making threes right now. You know, they've caught some teams by surprise. They're playing, they're really fun. They're having a lot of fun together, but I wanna watch it for a couple of weeks.

• 1:23:43Bill Simmons?

  Are you ready for parent corner or do you have any more NBA?

• 1:23:45Speaker 01

  Let's do it. No, I think that's probably good for NBA. I just, I can't believe.

• 1:23:49Bill Simmons?

  I mean, that was a lot of NBA for you just now.

• 1:23:51Speaker 01

  It's all right. No, we did, we talked about it on the Ringer Wise Guys. Lots of fun.

• 1:23:55Bill Simmons?

  What do you mean you were wrong about the Suns?

• 1:23:57Speaker 01

  No, I just, someone in our text chain said, I, I can't believe how wrong I was. Like, we watched one game. Calm down. It's fine. It's good. Let's do parent corner.

• 1:24:10Bill Simmons?

  Is there, do they have the worst record bets?

• 1:24:14Speaker 01

  Um.

• 1:24:15Bill Simmons?

  They do, right?

• 1:24:16Speaker 01

  See in regular season wins?

• 1:24:18Bill Simmons?

  No, they have them on the bottom of regular season wins. So worst record is Sacramento minus 110, Brooklyn plus 450 and Milwaukee plus 480. I would still take Milwaukee on that.

• 1:24:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Five to one?

• 1:24:31Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, why not?

• 1:24:32Bill Simmons?

  And I think Golden State being 33 to one, I still think those odds are way out of whack and will go down.

• 1:24:37Speaker 01

  All right.

• 1:24:38Bill Simmons?

  Okay. This episode is brought to you by The Home Depot. The Home Depot has everything you need to launch your holiday season in style. Upgrade your yard with this year's hottest holiday decor, including the showstopping towering Santa. Oh, I like that one. And his impressive reindeer, both 8.5 feet and both designed with incredible detail that stands out day or night. When you want decor that delivers impact, The Home Depot has it. Make your home Santa's favorite stop with the holiday decor you want, all waiting for you at The Home Depot. This episode is brought to you by NOS Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of NOS Energy.

• 1:25:20Bill Simmons?

  High performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of NOS Energy and get after it.

• 1:25:32Bill Simmons?

  This parent corner brought to you by Instagram. Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections on by default. Built in content settings for the content teens can see. Contact limits for who can contact them and time management tools like daily time limits and sleep mode. Teens are automatically placed into teen accounts and teens under 16 when they need a parent's permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. Instagram will continue adding built in safety features to help create age appropriate experiences. Parent corner, the floor is yours.

• 1:26:00Speaker 01

  Good, good. Age appropriate. Um, so I had the same plan as you, sleep in a little bit, you know? You could miss the first quarter of Saints Steelers.

• 1:26:09Bill Simmons?

  You sure can. Sacra blue.

• 1:26:12Speaker 01

  I had a money on the Steelers and I'm like, all right, it's, it's still gonna be there or not when I wake up. So I was gonna sleep in and then I hear like the garage open at 5:25 a.m. And the game starts at 6:30. I'm like, what the, this is a home invasion. What's going on? And my wife's like, no, no, no, it's Jack, my middle son. He's leaving to go, he's taking his bike to the Steelers bar in town. It's like, all right, it's still an hour. It takes six minutes to bike down there. Three minutes at 5:25 a.m. And so like, like, I'm like annoyed that I'm up and I'm annoyed that, I was like, first of all, why doesn't he wanna watch with me? I'm, I'm, I'm great here. I get all the games. I order breakfast sandwiches. It's nice.

• 1:26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. He's not getting hammered at the bar. They only serve him ginger ale. We got ginger ale here. And then I see him like at halftime, like posting on Instagram. He's like whooping it up after, he's got the French terrible towel after every Steelers touchdown, waving it around. Like what the fuck? And I, I bet the Steelers. I'm like getting annoyed. I'm like, why? He's choosing these strangers over me. And then I'm thinking, I had to calm myself down. And I'm like, maybe this isn't the right way to think about it, but I was like, he's a football junkie and that's my doing. And I, I did, I did good by him. I taught him how to be a fan. Yeah. Like who cares who he's rooting for?

• 1:27:32Bill Simmons?

  This got really heartwarming. It's like an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.

• 1:27:36Speaker 01

  Well, cause then I'm thinking like, what really is? Everyone hates Cousin Sal. No, they, I just, I don't know. Like I didn't give him a better option of who to root for, the frigging Cowboys. So go root for, it's not like he's going to root for Manchester United. He's watching football. And I'm a football junkie, like I said, so good on you, Jack. Go watch the Steelers.

• 1:27:57Bill Simmons?

  So he chip, he chip off the old block to you?

• 1:28:00Speaker 01

  That's it. Yeah, he did. He did.

• 1:28:02Bill Simmons?

  But why did he get, have to get to the bar an hour early when he doesn't drink and the game didn't start till 6:30?

• 1:28:06Speaker 01

  That I don't get. I never got that answer out of him. So, um, I don't know. Maybe, maybe he's hitting a drug dealer on the way there. I'm not sure. I'll have to ask him about that.

• 1:28:16Bill Simmons?

  Maybe he had some drug drop offs like The Wire?

• 1:28:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's it.

• 1:28:19Bill Simmons?

  Drop offs stuff for his quarters?

• 1:28:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. So congratulations.

• 1:28:23Bill Simmons?

  The fact that he's a Steelers fan is, I know we've already covered this in parent corner.

• 1:28:27Speaker 01

  Well, that's the other thing, right?

• 1:28:28Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm a, I'm a New Yorker, grew up a Cowboys fan, lives in California. Nothing makes sense.

• 1:28:35Bill Simmons?

  I flew back for, uh, it was senior day for my daughter's team because there's only a couple of days, uh, days left. And it's been kinda, kinda like year from hell, like just a ton of injuries. She's not a hundred percent healthy either, but, um, so they have this game. There's a big crowd there. They dominate the game. They have the ball all the time, bunch of chances, like in control. And it's a classic soccer game where it's just 0-0 forever. We kick one over the net. We have point blank, like just, it was like, oh my God. I've been watching her have games like this forever, where I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop or something terrible is gonna happen.

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:12Bill Simmons?

  And two minutes left.

• 1:29:15Bill Simmons?

  Dubious call, long free kick, ball goes in the box, bounces out. Somebody, it, it hits one of our defenders in the face, which sucked. And she's bending over, holding her face because it nailed her in the face. This girl shoots it. It ricochets off her as she's holding her face and goes to the net with a minute and a half left and we lose.

• 1:29:35Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 1:29:36Bill Simmons?

  And I was like, I was like, this is a microcosm of all the terrible losses she's had, um, since I've been watching and played soccer. When she was like eight years old. Anyway, one, nothing loss. But my actual parent corner.

• 1:29:49Speaker 01

  What is she like after the game? Are you, what, are you, is she inconsolable?

• 1:29:53Bill Simmons?

  Those are the ones where you're just mad and frustrated.

• 1:29:56Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 1:29:56Bill Simmons?

  You're just like, I just, how did we not, what just happened? How did we not win that game?

• 1:30:00Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:30:02Bill Simmons?

  You might remember last week, it was my dog Murph's sixth birthday.

• 1:30:05Speaker 01

  I do. Yeah, sure.

• 1:30:07Bill Simmons?

  Which was on a Monday. And my wife decided to make him a cake.

• 1:30:15Bill Simmons?

  She made like a doggy cake. It's that, no, this is a good one for the dogs. But what it makes like some carrot cake with like not a lot of sugar in it, no sugar in it. I don't know how she did it.

• 1:30:27Bill Simmons?

  The next day.

• 1:30:33Bill Simmons?

  So Murph's acting weird the whole day. Not really sure what's going on with him. And I hadn't, I hadn't gone to my office the whole day because I was doing podcasts. I was in, in the back where we have the studio.

• 1:30:45Speaker 01

  I like where this is going.

• 1:30:47Bill Simmons?

  My office is in the front. Murph's acting weird and my wife's like, what's going, what's going on with Murph? I'm like, I don't know. And we watched Nightmare on Elm Street that night because I had to, I watched, rewatched both twice. Murph's acting weird. He disappears a couple of times. She's like, what's up with Murph? She goes downstairs to get something and, and I hear her going, oh no, oh no.

• 1:31:10Bill Simmons?

  Go, she goes into my office.

• 1:31:11Speaker 01

  Nightmare on Bill's office.

• 1:31:13Bill Simmons?

  It's, it's Nightmare on Poop Street. He, there's four different poops on the rug in my office. And one of them looked like they'd been there since the morning. And I think he must've thought after the first one, like, oh, I guess I'll just keep going in here. And there's four separate ones in the office. And she's going nuts and she's like, happy fucking birthday, Murph.

• 1:31:36Bill Simmons?

  Losing her mind. And he knew the whole day. He was waiting for us to find it. And anyway, Murph, yeah, I don't think he'd done it at the house in like two years, but the birthday cake. So I was like, well, maybe the birthday cake. Why, why do you have to say that? And she's just going nuts. She has the poop vacuum out with the water. She's, and, and it was Nightmare on Poop Street. Thanks to Murph.

• 1:31:57Speaker 01

  I love it. Are you sure it wasn't like conca nipple, something he left you last year?

• 1:32:03Bill Simmons?

  We asked my son if it was him.

• 1:32:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:32:05Bill Simmons?

  But one of them was ice cold. There was one kind of almost cold one and then two warmer ones. So he was just going back in there and.

• 1:32:15Speaker 01

  What did you stick a thermometer and all? What do, how do you know? What do you mean?

• 1:32:19Bill Simmons?

  Cause you can tell they congeal.

• 1:32:20Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. All right. This is great.

• 1:32:24Bill Simmons?

  This parent quarter was brought to you by Instagram. Instagram teen accounts with, come with automatic protections that limit who can contact teens, the content they could see, the time they spend in the app. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at instagram.com/teensaccounts. All right.

• 1:32:43Speaker 01

  That's not a parent quarter.

• 1:32:47Speaker 01

  It really isn't. The Zoe stuff was for sure.

• 1:32:50Bill Simmons?

  Every time my wife's like, we gotta get another dog or like it's these stories that we just say, nah, we don't actually have to get another dog. Murph could be the last one.

• 1:33:00Speaker 01

  You just have to get one less cake.

• 1:33:01Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not give him cake next year.

• 1:33:06Bill Simmons?

  Dallas tomorrow night?

• 1:33:08Speaker 01

  I'm rationally confident in this game. I don't know. If we can't beat Tanner McKee, or is this just going to be like Barkley goes for like 170? We see like the 2023 shake, the Saquon.

• 1:33:22Bill Simmons?

  He's going to be a hundred percent tomorrow?

• 1:33:24Speaker 01

  I don't know. I mean, he's got the question mark next to him and everything, but he's, I think he's playing.

• 1:33:30Bill Simmons?

  I think it would be, I really want the Buck Aikman situation to get to the point of that Will Ferrell sketch when they're, the dysfunctional family dinner sketch, where he starts screaming that he drives a Dodge Stratus, but they're just eating angrily. And it's like, can I have the stuffing? I thought you said I gave you the stuff and they just start screaming at each other. I wanted, I just want it to get angrier and angrier, but I know it won't. I know they'll be.

• 1:33:55Speaker 01

  They have a lot of games together left.

• 1:33:57Bill Simmons?

  I know.

• 1:33:57Speaker 01

  It's a lot. And this one's bad. So, or not the next week. Wait, is next, oh, next week's good. They don't have Sunday night. Yeah. Now this one's not that good.

• 1:34:07Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, next week's a good one.

• 1:34:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:09Bill Simmons?

  Well, it seems like they're going to get Greg Olson.

• 1:34:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:12Bill Simmons?

  Down the road. All right. Anything to plug?

• 1:34:14Speaker 01

  That's it. Uh, I guess if you had a bad beat with a player going out early, take advantage of Bet Protect on Fanduel. And if you're on a losing end on so many screwing endings like Texans and Packers, you're eligible for $50 on bedaches.com. Give me proof, I'll reimburse the best ones. Uh, Ring of Wise Guys, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, big preview show. And I have Mark Schlereth this week. Mark Schlereth is the one who claims that he knows this Mendoza, what, what's going to happen? So I'm going to ask him. I'm going to ask him.

• 1:34:43Bill Simmons?

  Oh, interesting.

• 1:34:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:45Bill Simmons?

  Any chance of a World Series comeback?

• 1:34:48Speaker 01

  I hope not. I got that a 10 to one ticket on the Brewers over the Rays. So, uh, and Peralta's no guarantee tomorrow, that's for sure. So.

• 1:34:56Bill Simmons?

  I had, I took the Rays for the series and really thought they're going to win and the Brewers just spanked them. The more interesting one is WNBA. Cause that's, that's now tied 2-2 for the series. Golden State's plus 110, Atlanta's minus 130. And you could bet Angel, the queen of Atlanta, plus 100 for MVP. But I think that's, I think that's tomorrow night too, isn't it?

• 1:35:20Speaker 01

  Where is the game? Did you see they don't even know when, where the game is?

• 1:35:23Bill Simmons?

  Well, tomorrow's Golden State.

• 1:35:25Speaker 01

  Right. It's the next one?

• 1:35:26Bill Simmons?

  And then game six, they're going to have to figure out. Yeah.

• 1:35:29Speaker 01

  That's preposterous that they don't know where game six is. Game six is not two weeks from tonight.

• 1:35:35Bill Simmons?

  You know what else is preposterous? When they sent everyone to the freaking FIBA for four weeks.

• 1:35:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was dumb too.

• 1:35:40Bill Simmons?

  And stopped the season so that it could come back.

• 1:35:43Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:35:43Bill Simmons?

  And go against the World Series and college football, the NFL. That, nothing, and the NBA, nothing was dumber than that.

• 1:35:49Speaker 01

  That's pretty bad. Well, it's to distract from the fact that Angel Reese is going to win MVP after shooting 8%. But otherwise it's a good call.

• 1:35:58Bill Simmons?

  Well, we also have the Equinox.

• 1:36:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:36:00Bill Simmons?

  Too, which there's going to be some Fanduel stuff.

• 1:36:02Speaker 01

  I think we're doing some on Fanduel. I think I'm doing like total points and runs and stuff. It's fun.

• 1:36:07Bill Simmons?

  All right. Thanks to Gahan, Eduardo and Jack and Chris from the Spotify slash Ringer side. Sal, as always, good job by you.

• 1:36:15Speaker 01

  Good job by you, buddy.

• 1:36:17Bill Simmons?

  And don't forget, uh, live on Netflix tomorrow, rewatchables, A Nightmare on Elm Street, 5 o'clock ET. Sal, I will see you on Sunday night after a really terrible Sunday night football.

• 1:36:26Speaker 01

  Oh, I can't wait.

• 1:36:31Bill Simmons?

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• 1:37:19Bill Simmons?

  This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Fall is here and Whole Foods Market has everything you need for cozy meals, seasonal treats and easy entertaining. Elevate your hearty dishes with tasty bone-in beef short ribs or New York strip steaks with no added growth hormones or antibiotics. And as the fall evenings draw in, why not get ahead of cold season with immunity shots, herbal teas, lozenges and supplements? Make sure you look for sales throughout the month. Shop fall flavors with higher standards at Whole Foods Market.

• 1:37:47Speaker 02

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