Dodgers Win Back-to-Back & Bengals Defense Stinks

It's the height differential. We're back. Missed our show on Sunday, but for good reason. First off, that's Neil. The 6'6 Neil. I'm the 4'10 Nick. We missed the show on Sunday, but I would say for good reason. We were competing in the Rowdy Cup. First ever, first ever Rowdy Cup. Four on four, Neil and I were on the same team. We played two.

Neil (00:43)
We're all celebrating.

We were celebrating. Yup.

Captain. You were the captain.

Don't sell yourself short. You were the captain of the squad.

Nick (01:06)
I was a captain of the squad, I thought that we did everything as a team. We discussed everything. ⁓ Start off slow, we're down 2-0 after scramble, down 2-0. And then we go to alternate after that nine holes.

Neil (01:18)
Yeah, we lost the first two points.

You needed, what would you, hold on,

we needed five and a half to win, right?

Nick (01:26)
I mean, five would have split it, five and a half to win, yes.

Neil (01:28)
Yeah.

So down 2-0 right off the bat. We dug ourselves a hole.

Nick (01:31)
right off the bat and did not play well, did not play well.

did not play well, you did not play well. And then we played together, we got off each other's team. And that was planned anyways, it was already planned, we had the team set. Then we played alternate and I think the point that your team got in that alternate was very crucial, beating probably the best player in the Rowdy Cup, bringing that point home and then Van and I were able to-

get the last two holes to secure a split, which ended up being huge. So we go into the last day down what? Two and a half to one and a

Neil (02:10)
One and a one and a half, yup.

Nick (02:12)
And then we split the four ball on Sunday morning. We go to singles and we're down one, three and a half to two and a half. You won your match. Joe got beat because he had a little too much to drink. So Matt beat him. And I was able to beat Garrett who was playing as good as anybody all week with some good chips late and took home the Routy Cup in a pretty dramatic fashion and been on cloud nine pretty much ever since.

Neil (02:24)
Yup.

Dramatic fashions and understaving. mean, it took us, we played it in the rain, played in a little bit of cold, and we basically closed them out, or you closed out Garrett on hole 16. So we didn't even need to play the last two holes, and that round still took five and a half hours. It was one of the most miserable rounds of all time.

Nick (02:47)
it was awful.

Yes.

I will say the back nine those first four holes I played really well and then we had like a 45 minute delay we let that team we let that couple play through and I was limping down down the stretch like it was cold it was miserable but luckily my gap wedge came through with two really good chips on 15 and 16 where I was able to one putt and That that gap that gap wedge one is the dang thing but hey we got we got to do this again. This was fun

Neil (03:29)
There you go.

fuck

Nick (03:32)
Thanks to Joe Ziegler for allowing us to stay at the in-laws place all weekend and played down at Park Mammoth, played at Barron River Lake State Course. And just wish the weather was a little warmer on Sunday.

Neil (03:45)
Yeah, that would have helped. You know, if we could have just played in that weather that we had today or Monday when it was 67, 65, 67 degrees and the sun was out. Yeah. We missed it by a day or two.

Nick (03:53)
Beautiful Beautiful on Monday, I

Mean I'm wearing thermal polo thick quarter zip and a hoodie and a t-bomb and electric hand warmers and It was it was fighting through it a little bit and it was spitting a little bit

Neil (04:10)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, it was not much fun, winning always makes things better. ⁓

Nick (04:16)
It does and

was great to win, was great to hang out with everybody and we're able to watch a lot of sports while we were down there. We watched Forever Young win the Breeders' Cup. He passed in Sierra Leone late in the same trifecta that we had last year just in a different order. As Sierra Leone came in second and fierceness in third. The first Japanese horse to ever win the Classic. Watched a lot of football. But I think we got to start off with.

Neil (04:25)
Yeah.

Nick (04:43)
what you said maybe 500 times on Saturday night. This is the best world series of all time.

Neil (04:50)
of all time, of all time. I mean, there've been some great ones that, you know, in our lifetimes, like we mentioned before we got on the show, you know, some of these game seven world series that, and most recently that come to mind, we're thinking like the Cubs went in their first one since 19, what, eight or whatever it was over the Indians back in 16. Yeah, the Cursabilla was lifted in extra innings in dramatic fashion on that one. So that was a good one. We talked about.

Nick (05:08)
Yeah. The curse of the Billy goat was, was done away with.

Neil (05:18)
The Yankees Diamondbacks series of 2001, 90, what 97 Indians and Marlins series when the Marlins pulled that one out. So then your Braves, I think your Braves twins. Yeah. So really, I mean, yeah, I mean, there's, there's been some good ones, but this one with arguably the greatest baseball player in the history of the game, doing what he did and setting records of getting on base nine times, we had an 18 inning game.

Nick (05:29)
Braves Twins in 91, which a lot of people said was the best seven game World Series of all time.

Neil (05:46)
We had walk-off. We have any walk? No, we have any walk-off. But we had some late inning home runs in game seven. It's just, you know, and then some like the talent on these, like the talent just all around was probably some of the best we've seen. The dramatics. I mean, they have, what was, what did I see? There was between the U.S., Canada and Japan, there was 50 something million people tuned into game seven, which is the most watched game.

that they've said in a long, time.

Nick (06:16)
Well, those three countries are going to be interested.

Neil (06:19)
I mean sure, but 50 something million people tuned into the game seven. Like incredible, absolutely incredible. Must watch TV and it was, it's to me is the best, best of all time. At least in my lifetime.

Nick (06:30)
I mean,

it's the Dodgers become the first team to repeat since the Yankees in the late 90s, the first National League team to repeat since the Reds did it with the big red machine in the 70s. They always say it's hard to knock down a champion, right? And you get down three to two and you're going home and the Blue Jays are feeling good and they figure out a way to win game six and then game seven. The Blue Jays are leading the whole way.

Neil (06:53)
Let's get into game seven because I I want you to give me some credit you see you don't give me credit this you need to give me some credit here I mean you need to give it to me. We're sitting there. We're watching game seven and What so so the situation will Smith hits that home run in the over the 11th inning?

Nick (06:59)
You always askin' for credit, homie.

That was the 11th, but a lot happened before that to get to that point.

Neil (07:14)
Well,

that is true. That is true.

Nick (07:17)
You gotta talk, if you're gonna talk the whole game, you gotta talk to Miguel Rojas in the night.

Neil (07:21)
Yeah, Rojas' bomb off-hopping with one out when basically it looked all but wrapped up. The Blue Jays were cruising, I think, at that point a little bit.

Nick (07:30)
He

hadn't had a home run in the postseason, had he had a home run period, I think since mid September.

Neil (07:36)
Hoffman had been really really good in these playoffs And you know he gave up that solo shot, so you're right You've Rojas the credit to get us to extras once extras happen we get to that 11th I Made the play in the bottom. I just we all understand

Nick (07:47)
We made the play in the bottom of the night too!

That

play like ⁓ this close like it I don't even know what that is in measurement It's a tenth of a second and will Smith list his foot up and almost comes off the plate Ikea doesn't get a the greatest lead which if he gets a better lead he's gonna score on that like I Don't know like it's just baseball That's what makes baseball great is just it can come down to those split seconds And but yes, that's how we got to where you are with Will Smith in the 11th

Neil (07:58)
It was about a 10-10 stack.

He got the toe down. He did get that toe down.

So Will Smith hits the bomb in the 11th, Dodgers go up one, Blue Jays come right back in the bottom of the 11th, runner on, what we have, runner on third, right, with one out? First and third, no it's third. Runner on third, one out, all Blue Jays need to do, yeah, I it was offensive, but there was, runner on third, one out, all the Blue Jays really need to do is sack fly.

Nick (08:35)
I believe they had seconded. Yeah.

There was a little bit of drinking on Saturday, so.

Neil (08:49)
almost just kind of just put it in play all you really need to do. And what did I tell you? What did I say to you? They should walk. Who was at bat? Do remember?

Nick (08:57)
I don't remember who the first batter was.

Neil (08:58)
Okay, regardless,

walk the guy, set up the potential double play, because I think your chances of getting the double play to end the game are greater than that run not scoring. So what do they do? It was basically an unintentional, intentional walk. They pitched around him. And then the double play.

Nick (09:10)
Well, they did want.

I it set

it up. still don't agree with putting the winning run on base and we argued this on Saturday. But then a gapper loses you the World Series.

Neil (09:20)
But you gave yourself an out to win the World Series. You gave

yourself the out, the chance to win the World Series. I don't understand why you don't agree with

Nick (09:25)
It no it worked out it worked out the game in double play

I've told you 500 times I wouldn't put the winning run on base. Like I'm not gonna allow a gapper to beat me. And once you put the winning run on base, that allows that to happen. Now I get it, you're putting the runner on first to set up the double play.

Neil (09:43)
A gapper with a runner on a... a gapper with a runner on a... well

then if he hits the gap, the guy at the plate hits the gapper, runner on third scores, and he's in scoring position still with only one out. You gave yourself the opportunity. But you... No, but you... but if you don't put him on base, you have no opportunity of winning in that at-bat. Zero percent chance of winning. Now you upped your chances of winning in that at-bat with the double play, and that's what happened.

Nick (09:52)
Well, I mean, yeah, game's not over. The game's not over.

You might

have got a strikeout instead of walking the guy late. Yes, like it worked out. I get it. But I, I as a manager would not be putting the winning run on base. There's no way like I'm to make them hit the ball over the fence to beat me in that situation.

Neil (10:24)
But not only do you see it as you put the winning run on base, you also put the game ending out at the plate.

And it wasn't before.

Nick (10:30)
Well,

I mean, yeah, that's true. That still goes back to my point where I will continue to say it.

Neil (10:35)
You put your World Series, okay? So

you can say that, but you put the World Series ending out at the plate. And that's what happened. Like you gave yourself a chance to win the game. You gave yourself a chance to win the game.

Nick (10:42)
Yeah, it is what happened. And

look, you did say it before it happened and I argued that I wouldn't do it and it ended up working out. But if that ball is more to the left and goes through the 5.50 and Mookie Betts doesn't get a glove on it, now you're tied and you've got runners in first and second. So now the winning runs in scoring position to beat you. So there's a lot of ways to think about this and there's a lot. Do what?

Neil (10:53)
I believe.

It will take some base hit, but it will still take a base hit to beat you. It will

still take a base hit to beat you. Yeah.

Nick (11:11)
It still would,

yeah. But if you didn't walk the guy that singled, you still gotta ban it first. Like, I don't know, there's a lot of strategy, that's why baseball is one of the best sports, because there's a lot of things that you can do. And obviously the strategy worked out, but I don't think so.

Neil (11:24)
I need to be at baseball.

Should I be a baseball manager?

Nick (11:31)
I don't think so. There's lot of that's still a couple of openings the Braves opening got filled by Walt Weiss the other day, but there's still a couple openings But I mean the other thing we have not talked about is Yamamoto getting three wins in the World Series Becoming the World Series MVP the first player to have three wins in a World Series since Randy Johnson did it in that Diamondbacks World Series that you were just talking about but I Don't know if it's the best World Series of all time. It's definitely on the list

of the greatest and it's sad when baseball is over.

Neil (12:05)
I the drama,

all that drama of the ninth inning, the bottom of 10th inning, the top of the 11th inning, the bottom of the 11th inning, like there was drama every step of the way, every step.

Nick (12:17)
What's the World

Series? Yeah, in a tied game. Or a one-run game. So yeah, there's gonna be drama.

Neil (12:23)
No, because it could have been one to one going into the ninth and nobody gets on bass and we go to extras and nobody gets on bass in the 10th and they're just a solo home run in the 11th and it's just over. Like, no, there could be a lot less drama than what there was. And you know that.

Nick (12:34)
I mean,

game six, eight, seven, both ended on double plays.

Neil (12:38)
That's right. How do you get picked off on game six? How do you get doubled off second? It's just unreal.

Nick (12:45)
Yeah, that should not happen. And if you were the manager, which you are a great manager and never make bad decisions, that would not happen.

Neil (12:51)
I would have cut him.

I would have DFA'd him right there.

Nick (12:54)
DFAT on the spot, we got to give credit to our guy Will Smith, Louisville native with the game winning home run for the sixth consecutive year Will Smith has won the World Series Will Smith did it with the Dodgers in 20 and then Will Smith does it the other Will Smith the pitcher Will Smith does it with the Braves the Astros and the Rangers 21 22 23 and now Will Smith the Louisville native and the Dodgers catcher has done it the last two years so

Neil (13:11)
Other was no. Yeah.

What a run though for the other Will Smith. You're given three straight World Series with three different teams. Like you just end up in great situations.

Nick (13:28)
And he closed games for the Braves in 2021. He was not that great. He figured out ways to get it done. He didn't pitch that much for the other two teams, but was on their teams. I mean, but yeah, if you can win three World Series with three different teams, that's, that's pretty hard to do. But sad that World Series is over. Sad when the baseball season ends, but we got crossover season now. We've got plenty of sports action. got football and basketball now on our plate. And I think we need to start off.

with a little college football as the top two teams in college football, both in the Big Ten, both continue to dominate.

Ohio State takes care of Penn State, Indiana takes care of Maryland. What stood out to you on those two games?

Neil (14:15)
I mean, we didn't really watch much of it on Saturday because we were on the golf course and I expected IU to win. I didn't expect them to win as big as they did. I know they've been crushing teams. I thought maybe Maryland would be kind of a lazy game on the road. But man, just, Cignetti and the Hoosiers just continue to just dominate teams. Like we've said before, that's just the sign of what a great team does is they just beat the heck out of the teams that you're supposed to beat the heck out of and they continue to do it. Right now, they're just an unstoppable train.

I don't know what's slowing them down.

Nick (14:46)
580 yards. They recovered three fumbles. It's their fifth 50th point game of the season. Five 50 point games. They are nine and ⁓ for consecutive seasons after failing to ever start 9-0 their first 136 years. ⁓ And then you've got Ohio State where

Neil (14:59)
That's insane.

Nick (15:14)
I mean, their offense is really starting to click. already do, they had probably what was the best defense in the country. Jeremiah Smith with another touchdown, his 24th receiving touchdown since his debut last year. Julian Sayin is really coming into his own. He had his third game with 85 % completion percentage and 300 yards and four touchdowns. But I did a comparison of Ohio State and Indiana with

Points per game, opponent's points per game, yards per game, and opponent's yards per game.

And before I say these, like if you had to pick IU or Indiana to be the top team in the country, you're going Indiana?

Neil (16:00)
It's hard not to. I'd go Indiana.

Nick (16:03)
So in the college football playoff, obviously they went with Ohio State and then Indiana at what, number two. So I would go Indiana just because the way that they just put everybody to bed.

Neil (16:19)
Yeah, I mean, they and they've got the best out of if you if we compare the resumes of the two, they have the best win, I think, out of the two beating Oregon at Oregon. I mean, Ohio State's best win so far, we're looking at Texas maybe and and we've won, which was a struggle. But, everybody, it's week one. You can't really tune into it, but.

Nick (16:31)
Yeah, and I mean.

Well,

after Texas has struggled their way to the last three wins, it's surprising that Ohio State was ever win an ⁓ ugly game like that because that's the games that Texas seems to be winning lately. points per game, Ohio State ranks 19th. Do know what Indiana ranks? First, opponents points per game. Ohio State, we know ranks first. Do you know what Indiana ranks? Third,

Neil (16:52)
One. Yeah.

Second.

Dang.

Nick (17:03)
yards per game, Ohio State ranks 29th. Indiana does not rank first, but they rank fourth in the country. And then opponent's yards per game, once again, Ohio State ranks first. And this is where Indiana just doesn't get the credit. They're seventh in opponent's yards per game. So they're a top 10 in the country or top seven in the country in both of those defensive categories.

And like I said, they had three fumble recoveries in the win over Maryland. And I just, we talk about their offense. We talk about Mendoza. We just, we did not enough talk about how good their defense is.

Neil (17:43)
No, mean, absolutely. The numbers don't lie. And these numbers are saying that they are a top-10 defense. So you're right, the offense gets all the credit because they're putting up 50-something points and running up and down the field on folks and just dominating. But the defense, they're right up there with them. They're just as good as that offense. So yeah, mean, you look at the numbers, you look at the strength of wins, it's hard to say that it's not IU. But these two teams are on a collision course to meet up on December 6th in Indianapolis.

That's gonna be quite the show.

Nick (18:17)
I mean, it's gonna be the show that all obviously but they're wanting to that goes without saying but everybody's gonna be highly anticipating that game. I mean, I don't know who's gonna be favored in it if they did play right now. But I mean, if Ohio State's a two and a half point dog, I'm rolling Indiana all day in that game, especially being in their home state and just really looking forward to that one and seeing, I it's just, I know we've talked about it over and over again, but.

The job that Cignetti's done is amazing. And you look at the rest of the games, Georgia beats Florida 24 to 20, their 48th straight win over unranked opponents. Ole Miss moves to eight and one with their win, their third time, their eight and one under Lane Kiffin. Louisville kind of dominates in the second half, outscores Virginia Tech 21 to nothing. They had 235 rushing yards as Isaac Brown had 130 and Kwan had 94.

Texas did it again, figured out a way to win an ugly game. We're up 34 to 24 late and Pavia throws a touchdown. They go for the onside kick and I don't know if you saw that ball bouncing around, but Vandy should have picked it up and had a chance to win that game late. They weren't able to do it. Pavia threw for 368 yards and three touchdowns and we've given Arch Manning a lot of grief as he's

Neil (19:20)
I'm gonna do it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (19:45)
Not really lived up to the hype, but he had 328 yards and he's now at three games with 300 plus yards and three touchdowns. And there's only four quarterbacks in the history of Texas that have done that three times. Colt McCoy did it in 09, Major Applewhite in 99 and then Casey Thompson in 21. for as much as we've kinda, he hasn't lived up to the hype, there's no doubt, but he's still putting up okay numbers.

Neil (20:13)
He's doing fine. He's doing fine. A couple of shakeups, you've got to mention like the Georgia Tech losing their first game of season at NC State, ⁓ kind of really hurting their playoff chances. And then Miami with their second loss of the season at SMU. So some shakeup in the ACC. thought George... Yeah. Yeah. I it's kind of his MO lately. Yeah, lost a couple of years.

Nick (20:16)
And then.

Miami continues, I mean, that's what Cristobal does, right?

But Georgia Tech just couldn't get a stop in that game and kind of cost them Haynes King's numbers were out, were great in that game, but they just couldn't get enough stops to win. ⁓ Notre Dame struggled against a one win BC team, but got a pick and then Jeremiah Love broke one late to pull away by two scores. And Dabo lost again at Clemson to Duke for the second straight year they lost to Duke.

He's in his press conference talking about it's the low of the lows and he may get fired today as his his 80s back in the back of the room.

Neil (21:13)
He had a couple other words as well, mostly toward the officials, and think he got fined a little bit. Hit him in the wallet a little bit for some of his comments.

Nick (21:21)
But they they announced the reveal of the top 12 yesterday been in Ohio State, Indiana A Alabama and then it goes Georgia Ole Miss BYU Texas Tech, Oregon, Notre Dame Virginia and Memphis if You had to take one team out and put another team in who what would you do?

Neil (21:42)
Yeah.

I mean, if it's me, I think this is what we've been hearing from the national media. It's gotta be Notre Dame sitting there at 10, probably a little bit too highly ranked. They lost that opening game to Miami, which there's a Louisville team that went into Miami and beat them. It is, it is looking a little worse. And they had a tough loss against A and a game that they probably should have won. ⁓ But a loss is a loss, I believe that game was at.

Nick (22:04)
And that loss is looking a little worse as the season goes.

Neil (22:19)
Notre Dame, so lost that one at home. But that two lost Notre Dame teams sitting there at 10, probably a little too high for them, I would say. And if we're looking to put a team in that's not in currently, it's hard to say. I I think maybe Oklahoma, you know, they're coming off that win against Tennessee this weekend. That was a top 25 win.

Nick (22:35)
It gets tougher. I mean, this is where you've got 12 teams, so...

Neil (22:45)
But then know, you're just Texas is sitting right in front of them in Texas is fine ways to win, but they don't look great. So are they a top 12 team? Doesn't look like it, but they continue to win. And then outside of that, maybe you're looking at Louisville as that next team. it's hard to say. think Notre Dame is probably the team that should be out. I would probably put Oklahoma in next, but it's not great. mean, it's your apples. mean, you're, you're, you're sweat hairs basically at that point.

Nick (23:03)
Yeah.

No, and that's why this is better debating 12, 13, 14 instead of debating 4, 5, 6, right? Because these teams aren't as deserving. But if I'm looking at it, I mean, I've got to take out Texas. I get they keep winning games, but they've lost to Florida. mean, their last three wins are against Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, all games where they could have lost.

Neil (23:21)
Yeah.

You know, hold on, know Texas is not in the playoff, right? As it stands. ⁓

Nick (23:44)
So.

Well, I was thinking

Texas Tech, so clearly I've had too much to drink from the last weekend.

Neil (23:53)
⁓ wait, you were talking about Texas Tech right there.

Nick (23:55)
No, I was talking about Texas because I'm looking at the college football rankings on the website and they are 11th. so instead of listening to what I actually said from the playoff, I started looking at the website. So I'm clearly act, I'm right in my assertion that I don't think Texas should be in this thing, but they are not.

Neil (23:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And they are not currently in the thing, because you have

Memphis and you've got Virginia.

Nick (24:20)
I mean, somebody's gotta be in from the ACC.

Neil (24:22)
Right, I mean that's why you can't take Virginia out and you can't take Memphis out because they automatically qualify. So you got to take an at large team out. So who's your at large team that you were taking out of this playoff?

Nick (24:32)
It gets tough, doesn't it? And I think that's why you went to Notre Dame in that situation because they're really the only one that you can take out. ⁓ We're gonna get BYU and Texas Tech playing each other this weekend. ⁓ So you wait to see who's gonna come out because they're playing each other at noon on Saturday. That game will be fun to watch. We'll see what Bear Bokhmire can do in that one. ⁓ But, it's early too.

So the Memphis is the at large it's in right now. James Madison is like second best chance to get that at large spot. A team that played Louisville tough at home a couple of a month or so ago, where they were running two quarterbacks out there. They really didn't look that great. But it was still a struggle for the cards.

Neil (25:16)
Me too.

Yeah, I mean, James Madison sitting there ready to pounce if Memphis, you know, somehow messes up. But, you know, and getting back to Notre Dame, like, like they, they have not a tough schedule when they play Navy at home next, but then they've got that game at Pitt. That's what I'm looking at. Cause outside of that, they've got Syracuse and Stanford, but that game at Pitt, Pitt also ranked in the top 25 of the college football playoff now at 24. Since they've made their quarterback change, they have just been beating the crap out of teams. Like they are playing great football at Pittsburgh. That game.

at Pitt. Notre Dame is going be on upset alert on November 15th. So two weeks. ⁓ That's going to be a make or break right there for Notre Dame.

Nick (26:02)
Well, and that's a game that Louisville got on the road, but wasn't a game that Louisville looked too great. Pitch kind of handed him that one and Louisville was like, all right, we'll take it. ⁓ But yeah, that's a game but probably Pitch shouldn't have lost as well.

Neil (26:14)
Let's give Louisville credit. mean, this is where the Louisville makes the halftime adjustments and the defense comes alive. I mean, it was, but you know, they followed script. They followed the same script with the James Madison game, followed the same script with the game that they just had at Virginia Tech. You know, they look a little bit sluggish in the first half. They made the adjustments and that's what Jeff Brom does. Comes out, coaches a great game, second half, and they shut out Virginia Tech in the second half. I think in Pitt,

Nick (26:18)
Yeah, but that first half was pretty rough.

Neil (26:40)
They might have given, I don't even know if Pitt scored. Did Pitt score in second half? If they did, it one touchdown. Yeah, so the defense finds ways to get it done in the second half for Louisville. So they're fine.

Nick (26:44)
I don't think they did. Yeah.

I just remember their ball boy fighting their players to get the ball back.

Neil (26:58)
Yeah, he had his moment. I loved it.

Nick (27:00)
He did have his moment. One game that we didn't talk about is Satterfield and Cincinnati getting a chance to kind of show what they got on the national stage in Utah. Just kind of put it on 45 to 14, so.

Neil (27:06)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah,

I might have overestimated how good I thought the bearcats were.

Nick (27:19)
You're

just such a Satterfield Homer that.

Neil (27:22)
Yeah, I mean not much to say on that one. just they got their butts whooped.

Nick (27:28)
But the big ones this week, as I mentioned, you got number seven, BYU at number eight, Texas Tech, which will be the game of the week. A coming off the bye plays at number 22, Missouri to see if they can stay undefeated. And then you've got number nine, Oregon at number 20, Iowa, who continues to move up in the rankings.

Neil (27:48)
Yeah, not a bad slate of games on Saturday.

Nick (27:51)
So we talked a little bit about the Oklahoma win over Tennessee.

Their kicker Tate Sandell. He's 18 for 19 on the year. 6 to 6 from 57, 8 from 40 to 49. Transfer from UTSA. So dude is, he's just money right now.

Neil (27:59)
Uh-huh.

Nick (28:11)
Kirk Herbstreit was on the game on Saturday and I mean dude Sandel's pants they ain't pants

Neil (28:20)
They're not pants. Nope, saw the picture, not pants.

Nick (28:22)
They,

don't even know, like we're wearing shorter shorts in basketball. We're getting back to the way that it used to be, you know, before the fab five really changed it and had shorts hanging down to their ankles. But do we need football guys wearing biker shorts? Do we need football players wearing biker shorts?

Neil (28:30)
Yeah.

I mean, he's wearing biker shorts. was just calling what

they are. I mean, he's not the only one. Like you see some of these players out there, like you're supposed to wear like knee pads and stuff. Like these pads are not covering your knees. Your knees are four inches below where your pants are in.

Nick (28:49)
Okay, bye.

There's no way to wear a new pad if you don't have pants there.

Neil (28:55)
Exactly.

yeah, pants are getting shorter and shorter in college football. I mean, I don't know if as a kicker, like you like that, you don't have as much resistance on your leg as you're swinging that thing to kick a 55 yard field goal. But yeah, I mean, it's not, they're not pants, they're shorts.

Nick (29:13)
They're Daisy Dukes as Kirk Herbstreit said and even Deion (Sanders) who  he wasn't involved in the game got into the act as he said he's talking in his post game and saying how do us as coaches how do we allow that to happen? How do we allow our players to go out and look like that? And I don't know if it's.

Neil (29:32)
The game's changed since Dion was a player though. The game's changed.

Nick (29:35)
I

I know I don't want to show my legs off like that.

Neil (29:38)
Nobody wants to see your legs.

Nick (29:39)
But I mean, hey, it's working for Tate Sandel. I mean, 18 for 19 and 6 to 6 from 50 plus. Yeah, that's getting the job done a little bit there.

Neil (29:48)
Yeah, I think myself. Yeah, I'll

keep it. Yeah.

Nick (29:51)
So I guess now ⁓ do we have to transition to the NFL?

Neil (29:57)
What's the NFL? Never heard of it. Don't want to hear of it. Yeah.

Nick (30:00)
It's a no fun league if you want to celebrate

and if you're a Cincinnati Bengals fan. That's what it stands for.

Neil (30:06)
But you know what? But

you know the silver lining and what happened to the Bengals on Sunday and it was a complete, there's no words for it, is we didn't get to watch a single snap and I was perfectly okay with it. For my mental health, I am glad I did not watch a single play of that game.

Nick (30:24)
Well, I can't say the last time that I did that. So because I am a glutton for punishment, that is for sure. I will say the first quarter I had it on the speaker and my teammates told me to turn it off because it was distracting me a little bit. Did catch wind that after it was a 14 point game that they scored and got the onside kick. So then I quickly turned it on, saw that they scored to take the lead, screamed a little bit, but then realized there was 54 seconds left.

Neil (30:51)
I ⁓

heard you from a fairway over screen. you hit a good shot. Nope, come to find out that the Bengals had took the lead with 54 seconds left.

Nick (30:57)
Did not hit a good shot.

Flacco hit

Yoshivas in the back of the end zone and so I did a little scream But then I realized there was 54 seconds left and they're only up one point so they're probably gonna lose because All the Bears need was a field goal and it turned out And just go ahead and get a touchdown We'll break a tackle at the 32 yard line and just just run it all the way in

Neil (31:15)
to be much worse than that.

I mean, when you think things can't get worse, like you think that you're just at rock bottom and then you just somehow find a new layer under the rock to hit the bottom. Like this defense, I still don't understand how people have not been fired. I don't understand it. Like nobody's taking this seriously in the ownership group. The offense is now, they hate the defense. They've basically come out and said so in their post game comments with Jamar Chase and Chase Brown.

you know, using a couple of bombs directed toward their Bengals defense. You know, there's reports of Bengals defenders kind of laughing it up a little bit after the game, like, you know, not taking it seriously. Like it's a complete joke. You have Joe Flacco at the ripe age of what is he 41, 42 years old, a great quarterback in the NFL, throws for a career high. The Bengals put up 42 points, he throws for a career high and you still lose.

You just don't think it's possible.

Nick (32:22)
It's wild. It's wild. And I've got some numbers here that it just... But Joe Flacco's only 40. He's not 41, 42. But he does get a little gray in his beard. But yeah, mean, he for 470 yards, four touchdowns. Like you said, it was just career high as a 40 year old who has had a great career.

Neil (32:30)
You're gonna make me cry if you say them.

whatever. Yeah.

Nick (32:50)
But the Bengals per sports radar, 25 missed tackles versus the Bears, most by any team this season. And the second most since they started tracking missed tackles in 2007. Washington had like 26 in 2015. The record for the most missed tackles in a quarter is nine. The Bengals tied that in both the third and the fourth quarters on Sunday. And their 18 missed tackles and a half broke

Neil (33:18)
Yeah.

Nick (33:21)
their previous record of 13.

They have 109 missed tackles. We're continuing on the missed tackles stats. They have 109 missed tackles on the season. Give me a guess of what the next highest is. The Washington commanders. How many missed tackles do the Washington commanders have for the second most in the NFL? 109.

Neil (33:27)
Yup.

What was our number again?

78

Nick (33:45)
76 really good guess You know say I never give you credit. I'm giving you credit right now We the Cincinnati Bengals have 30 % more tackles than the second worst team Said 30 % more missed tackles than the second worst team in the NFL They're averaging 12 missed tackles per game which puts them on pace for 206 which would be the lead beat the previous league record of 165 We keep going

Neil (33:52)
We have 30.

Ugh.

Nick (34:14)
They have the top three players in the NFL in missed tackles. Jordan Battle leads the NFL with 15. Demetrius.

Neil (34:25)
See if I can guess who they are.

Did I? Can I? ⁓ you said Demetrius Knight. Okay. Geno Stone on that list?

Nick (34:31)
Yes, Demetrius Knight at 14 and Geno Stone at 13. Barrett Carter also ranks in the top 10 with like 9 missed tackles.

So they've lost the last two games, 39 to 38 to the Jets, 47-42 to the Bears. Six times in the last two years they have lost games when scoring 33 points.

And I'm still not done.

Do you want to know who has scored the most points in the NFL since week six?

Neil (34:56)
We're gonna take a guess and say that it's the Cincinnati Bengals,

Nick (34:59)
The Cincinnati Bengals lead the NFL in scoring since week six with 131 points. Their record in those four games, one and three. The Colts are second during that span with 127 points. They are three and one. The Chargers are third with 117 points. They are three and one. The Bears are fourth, mainly because of their performance on Sunday with 114 points. And guess what their record is?

3M1.

And I'm done.

Neil (35:31)
said it.

Oh, we're finally done. So you read all these numbers, all these stats were the worst at this, the worst at that, not just the worst, like, historically bad, historically bad defense. And there has been no accountability anywhere. Anywhere. The ownership hasn't even come out and said this, is not acceptable. nothing, not a P, not a word, nothing.

Nick (35:51)
What do you do?

What are you doing?

What do you do?

Neil (35:58)
You start firing people, Nick. You start firing people. You should have fired people last week. When we got, sat here and I went on the rant. You're firing Zach Taylor. Well, number one, you start with Duke Tobin. Get him the heck out of town. Because he is just completely whiffed on the talent on this roster. Like the first round draft picks that he's had, these defensive round, first and second round, third round draft picks, they've all sucked. Let's not be, like they've all sucked. Shamar Stewart, terrible. Miles Murphy, terrible. The two rookie linebackers.

Nick (36:03)
So who are you firing? I need specifics. Who are you firing?

Neil (36:28)
Terrible, all terrible. And Cam Taylor Britt, Cam Taylor Britt, terrible. Dax Hill, terrible. All of them, terrible. And they were all high round draft picks. So you've missed. They've absolutely missed evaluating talent. Then you fire Zach Taylor and you especially Al Golden. I've already said my piece about Al Golden. Get off my sideline. Get off my sideline, get out of the city, get on a Greyhound bus, go on back up to South Bend, Indiana.

Nick (36:30)
Bye!

Neil (36:55)
and maybe take over the Notre Dame defense again because what you have done this year has been absolutely terrible. Get out of town and take Zach Taylor with you and don't ever come back.

Nick (37:06)
Okay, so Duke Tobin 100 % is the first one that should go. Now, getting rid of him in the middle of the season doesn't really accomplish anything.

Neil (37:13)
You know what it does? It tells the fans that you care.

Nick (37:17)
No, I would have done it yesterday. He's been with the team since 1999. He drafted Achille Smith in 1999 and he didn't get fired for that. I don't know what else you can do right now. I just gave you those offensive numbers with the 40 year old Joe Flacco and you're gonna fire Zach Taylor?

Neil (37:20)
Yes, the show the fan made, the season's over. The season is over.

The season's awash. Just show the fans you care and start making changes now.

It's not gonna get better this year. There's nothing that's gonna make it better.

Nick (37:44)
who's in charge of this offense?

Neil (37:46)
Yes. Give me Dan Pitcher. Pitcher? He knows the offense. He can call plays.

Nick (37:52)
But you do see what I'm saying here,

Neil (37:54)
Okay, you're the leader of this team. This team you have offensive guys fighting with defensive guys like you like there's no leadership. There's no leadership Well, I agree. I know that I understand that and the right offensive guys are rightfully to have a right to be mad But your teammates are fighting each other at this point. Like there's no leadership. Zach Taylor is not leading this team I know I don't care if you put up 40 points a damn pitcher can put up 40 points. He knows the offense. He can call the plays

Nick (38:01)
Well, no kidding. You scored 42 points and 38 points and you're losing both games.

Neil (38:22)
The offense will still be fine with the weapons they have. This offense will be fine without Zach Taylor. Get out and take out golden.

Nick (38:30)
I think so, but I mean, you don't know 100%. He does deserve, you've got to give him some credit for what he's doing for the offense, but he's in charge of the entire team. He's in charge of the entire team as the head coach. And he brought in Al Golden. And I mean, you can't fire Al Golden after nine games.

Neil (38:33)
I'd like to find out. I'd like to find out.

Why can't you?

What do mean you can't? Of course you can!

Nick (38:53)
Like the whole thing to me was never gonna work. It doesn't matter who the defense quarter you made no changes on that defense except for bringing in rookie linebackers you brought in TJ Slayton to At least one guy on the defensive line, but you did nothing else Like your deep you you're you're starting safety. You want to how you motivated him? You asked him to take a pay cut So Gino stone, but we gave you to your contract. You weren't great in year one here Well, you take a little less money to still play every down

Like, you're asking Al, and we've went into this before, but you're asking Al Godin to do miracles. Now,

Neil (39:30)
He took a

bad defense, but he made it worse. Like he made it worse. The same thing, you cannot make it worse. Like you can't be the guy that comes in and makes it worse.

Nick (39:33)
They are worse. They are 100 % worse.

But yeah, I don't know, it doesn't do anything for this season. But I think if you fired Duke Tobin, it at least shows that you're serious about trying to make this team better. But you have to blow that side of the ball up completely in the off season.

Neil (39:49)
rid of all of them. I all of them.

Every single

one. Every position.

Nick (39:58)
Well, you keep DJ Turner. mean, Roman Duzi didn't even have a catch. Like, he's doing his job. You have one player that's showing up this year.

Neil (40:09)
Watch, Logan Wilson's gonna go to the Cowboys and become an All-Pro. I'm expecting it. I'm expecting it.

Nick (40:13)
Well, and that's another thing too. Like on

a defense that's terrible, are you okay? On a defense that's terrible, you're relying on two rookie linebackers that are in the top 10 in the NFL and miss tackles and are a lot of times in wrong positions and Shamar Stewart takes terrible angles and it's just.

It's such a waste to have such a good offense even with the 40 year old backup quarterback.

Neil (40:39)
mean, that's the sad thing

is if Joe burrow was our quarterback, like he'll say Joe burrow didn't get hurt and we're like, we still lose these games. Like I don't want to, I don't want the ownership. I don't want the ownership to use the excuse of, Joe burrow got hurt, you know, like that we would have been better. Like, no, this team could not be any better with Joe burrow on it right now.

Nick (40:46)
I mean, they did it last year.

Well, yeah,

I mean I said like this is six time in the last two years. They've lost the game when scoring 33 points They lost 38 to 33 to Washington last year 41 to 38 to Baltimore 35 34 to Baltimore and 44 to 38 to Pittsburgh And that was all with MVP season

Neil (41:09)
We still ended up with a winning record. We ended up with a winning record, won the last five

games, and almost made the playoffs.

Nick (41:16)
I don't blow I gotta blow it up and and they are they're not going to be able to You wanting that didn't make a move is the Colts and Gave up a lot gave up to first-round graphics to get sauce gardener. Is that too much?

Neil (41:19)
Load up, load up now, it starts now. Make a move now. But you like, do toe up and it to be the first one to go.

Yeah. Yeah, they give up too much. Too much.

Yes. mean, first of all, isn't Sol Skarner, isn't Sol Skarner one hurt right now?

Nick (41:42)
Why?

Well, didn't play against the Beatles two weeks ago.

Neil (41:46)
Right,

I don't know if he, they were on a bye week, so I don't know, but yeah. But anyways, two first round picks. Sauce, he had a great rookie year. I think he had a pretty good second year, and ever since then, he's kinda gone downhill. He's not been the sauce gardener that he was. I think his rookie year was probably his best year.

Nick (42:00)
Silver guard is one

of the best corners in the league.

Neil (42:04)
He hasn't been, last year he wasn't. I don't think he's been this year.

Nick (42:08)
Here's my yeah, it's two two first rounds a lot of course But how hard is it to find a shutdown corner in NFL? and if you've got two first round picks where you're drafting a corner in the first round and you're trying to get a Shutdown corner for the next ten years or let's just say five because you just don't know how long corners are gonna last in this league I Mean, what are the chances of being successful?

Neil (42:34)
No? Yup, you need it.

Nick (42:36)
So I think if you've got what you think is a known commodity and you know he's gonna be that guy for the next five years where he can shut down your opponent's best wide receiver. I know I agree giving up two corners or two first rounds is a lot. But if the Bengals had that luxury where they had picks and they were able to bring in a shutdown corner and fix this defense, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Neil (42:58)
No, I mean, yes, but like I said, I think you're overestimating how good sauce gardener is.

Nick (43:02)
Maybe I am, but he's still super young and still regarded as one of the better corners in the league.

He wasn't going to be available unless you're giving up that much. I would love to see that kind of aggressiveness with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Neil (43:18)
No, I agree. Bengals have notoriously not made moves. We don't make moves. We don't make trades. We just throw a roster out there at beginning of the year and that's the roster we usually end up with at the end of the year unless somebody gets hurt like Joe Burrow. But yeah, the ownership never really.

Nick (43:33)
Well,

for the last two years they've made trades which is kind of getting out of their element last year for Khalil Herbert, because they didn't have any healthy running backs. And then they send Logan Wilson to the Cowboys for a seventh round pick, which I mean, you save money on the cap. He hadn't extended, I think he was signed through 27, but you can't tell me he couldn't help it. I don't care if he's lost this, you can't tell me he couldn't help this just awful defense.

Neil (44:02)
You know, you're right.

Nick (44:05)
But the rest of the Vikings upset the Lions really put a lot of pressure on Jared Goff and we're able to nobody I don't think anybody saw that coming and JJ McCarthy had his first great game as a pro. The Packers like what do you think about the Packers? Everybody's talking about them being one of the best teams now they have losses to both the Browns and the Panthers.

Neil (44:27)
Yeah, Panthers' loss was in Green Bay, I believe.

Nick (44:32)
Yeah, it was.

Neil (44:32)
Yeah, I, yeah, I can't figure them out. Like I had them last week when we went through our rankings, had them, had them up there as I think probably my favorite to win the NFC and yeah, that's, that's off the rails now. Like that's not what they, what they, what they showed on Sunday. So I don't know. I don't know what's making the Packers.

Nick (44:53)
The Colts turned the ball over six times and despite that they still battled and had a chance late but they lost in Pittsburgh 27 to 20. The Broncos keep winning close games when 18 to 15 over the Texans. The Rams roll past the terrible Saints. And what was the game of the week? The Bills take care of the Chiefs in Buffalo 28 to 21. Which I had the Chiefs as the best team.

Neil (44:56)
Yeah.

Nick (45:21)
If we do rankings again, see where they fall. And I mean, good, how good did Sam Darnold and the Seahawks look in Washington on Sunday night?

Neil (45:29)
They dominated

that game in Washington on Sunday night.

Nick (45:33)
So do you want to do your top 10 real quick?

Neil (45:35)
Yeah, let's roll through it. We can roll through it.

Nick (45:37)
I think

it's your turn to roll first.

Neil (45:40)
Alright, let's see, let me look at the old notes here.

⁓ boy, my number one team in the NFL.

Nick (45:49)
Tough dude.

Neil (45:50)
You know what? I don't want you to cuss me out, so I'm not gonna do it. I'm not doing it.

Nick (45:55)
Just do it.

Stick to your guns.

Neil (45:59)
I just think they're playing the best ball right now. Who's playing? I'm going to go Seattle Seahawks.

Nick (46:01)
Then do it!

Look, I think them and the Rams are both really good.

Neil (46:07)
very good.

Nick (46:09)
And then the Niners are battling injuries, but they just keep winning too. I just think that NFC West is loaded and I mean, the Cardinals just made the Cowboys look terrible with Jacoby Brissette under center. I don't think that's that bad of a pick. I probably wouldn't go one yet.

Neil (46:26)
There's six and two, their two losses are by a combined seven points. both close games. The first loss was week one, they lost by four to the 49ers. Ever since then, they've just been playing good ball. And like I said, they dominated in Washington. They beat a pretty good Texans team the week before. They're up there, man.

Nick (46:46)
Well, they're number one.

Neil (46:47)
Yeah, for me they are.

Nick (46:48)
I mean it hasn't been pretty but

I mean, they're the Super Bowl champions, so give me the Eagles at two.

Neil (46:55)
Eagles at two. I don't know about that one. All right.

Nick (46:58)
This is

tough, man, I'm looking at this. Nobody's dominant.

Neil (47:02)
I mean, I'm going to go, it's still a tough call, at number three I'm going go Buffalo Bills. They have an inexcusable loss at Atlanta on Monday Night Football a couple weeks ago. Then they lost at home to the New England Patriots, but that loss to the Patriots is not as bad as what we thought it was going to be at beginning of the year with the Patriots sitting there at 7-2. So we know what that went off the Chiefs this week. Give me the Buffalo Bills at number three.

Nick (47:28)
And look, I'm gonna get cussed out here because I'm picking a five and four team as the fourth best team in the league. I mean, I picked them first last week. I'm not dropping them out of the top 10. I'm going chiefs at four.

Neil (47:39)
Okay, all right. Despite the bad game that they just had in Pittsburgh with the six turnovers, to me, I think that's just an anomaly. They played such good football up until that point. Give me the Indianapolis Colts at number, where are we at, five? Yeah, give me the Colts at five.

Nick (47:57)
Give me the Rams at six. You know who leads the NFL and touchdown passes?

Matt Stafford, give me the Rams at six.

Neil (48:03)
Matt Stafford. Old man Stafford.

Rams at six, all right. I'll go with the Patriots, the AFC East leading Patriots. Sitting there at seven and two, they continue to stack up wins. Mike Raible's got them rolling. me the Patriots.

Nick (48:20)
I'll take the bucks. Where are we at? So this is...

Neil (48:23)
That was your eighth, I think, right?

Nick (48:24)
We're eighth, give me the bucks.

Neil (48:26)
bucks and then I mean I don't know why we don't have the Denver Broncos ranked even higher but give me the Broncos they continue to win close games but guess what wins.

Nick (48:32)
because I

mean I don't trust bone X.

Neil (48:37)
You said that for all season and what's he doing? He's stacking up wins.

Nick (48:39)
Well, he stacks

wins, plays bad for three quarters and then decides to just play out of his head.

Neil (48:45)
I

mean, what if they won six in a row here?

Nick (48:47)
Yeah, they honestly should be eight and one.

Neil (48:47)
So yeah,

six in a row, yeah, they should be eight in one. Like you can say you don't trust bone decks, but trust that defense. The Broncos are for real.

Nick (48:56)
I probably should have gone Lions before the Bucks, but I'll go the Lions here.

Neil (49:00)
can't believe we have the lion sitting in a

Nick (49:02)
Well, they just lost to the Vikings and so we don't even have the Packers in the the top 10. We don't have the Steelers. We don't we don't have the Ravens. We don't have the Chargers. I think it's about the only the 49ers, but I think that's about the only teams that are really relevant that we kind of left out there.

Neil (49:04)
They did,

of them.

No chargers.

don't have the bangles. I'm surprised we don't have the bangles

in the top two.

Nick (49:23)
Dude, I don't even want to talk about him. We talked about him too much on here.

But I'm done with the NFL. don't want to talk about it anymore. Let's move. College Hoops is here. you know, one of the fun things about November is all these tournaments, getting to watch all these freshmen for the first time and co-op for Arizona and their upset win over the defending national champion, Florida Gators, opens up his career with 30 points and five assists. He's the first player in Big 12 history to

Neil (49:34)
all students this year.

Nick (49:56)
to have 30 and five in his debut. ⁓ He was ranked I think seventh as on the incoming freshman list and there's just a lot of really good freshmen. AJ DeBonta had 21 points and six rebounds and three assists and BYU's win over Villanova five point win and that game was tied late and DeBonta had like six of the next eight points to kind of pull away and that one he's the top rated and what a lot of people are saying is going to be the number one pick.

⁓ Darren Peterson had 21 points only played like 18 minutes in their Kansas's win over Green Bay. He had what three rebounds and three assists had a three. ⁓ Cam Boozer, Carlos Boozer's son playing for Duke, 15 points and 13 rebounds and their win over Texas. But he's only three to 12 from the field and nine to 12 from the line. And then I guess we'll close out with Louisville's own Michael Brown who had

11 points and a really good six assists, but in 18 minutes, which was just ⁓ hard to watch game against a really bad South Carolina State team.

Neil (51:03)
Yeah, that was a hard

game to get through. Yeah, when you win by 59 points, no, I mean, this freshman class, I mean, it was highly touted coming in, but my goodness, like these guys are just living up to the hype superstars throughout the country. Really fun to watch. I mean, they're stepping up in big time games already, like you said, with Coop Pete in that game over the defending champion Florida Gators. What a great game that that was to start off the season. ⁓

This freshman class to me, mean, it's not just me, but a lot of the national riders are saying this is the best freshman class they've seen.

Nick (51:37)
Yeah, it's exciting. I mean, we live in, like I've said before, we live in the heart of college basketball country. So we will be talking a ton of college basketball here on the height differential. it's, no, it's just, it's always fun to watch these guys play for the first time because obviously you don't see them play in high school. But yeah, mean, Pete's performance against Florida is the one that stands out to me. I mean, he just, he was super impressive and was putting up numbers that

You know, an Arizona freshman has never done before. But there's one fifth year walk-on senior that I think we need to talk about.

Neil (52:14)
Okay.

Nick (52:14)
And that is Brandon Dwyer. He's a fifth year walk-on senior, like I said, at Florida Gulf Coast. He has built up a TikTok following of over 1.3 million followers with his Road to One Point series. Road to One Point. And in their game against New College Florida,

which I believe is an NAIA school.

Neil (52:43)
Uh-huh.

Nick (52:45)
Brandon Dwyer gets in, hits a three, scores six points. And the crowd dude, the crowd just goes absolutely bonkers. But his road to one point is over and he has done that six fold as he now has six points in his career.

Neil (53:02)
Does he shut down the TikTok now? What do do?

Nick (53:05)
I think

now you go road to 10 points and try to get to double digits.

Neil (53:10)
Maybe

we go road to starting again. Maybe he goes road to the starter. Try to get a start in his career maybe.

Nick (53:16)
I don't think he's gonna start. Prior to that game, he had appeared in eight games and averaged 1.4 minutes in those eight games. So I think he's a little bit away from starting. But I mean, we haven't talked about Dunk City in a while. It's the biggest story for Dunk City in a long time.

Neil (53:34)
Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, no good for that kid, man. like, you you probably, you show up to practice every day, you put in the work, you know, you don't get any credit, you don't get to the floor, but you know, you still got to show up every day and grind it out and be a part of the scout team and help your team win. And finally, you know, after five years, all that, all that work pays off for the kids. So good for him, six points. He went off.

Nick (54:00)
Yeah, too bad he didn't get seven points.

Neil (54:03)
Ohohohoho!

Nick (54:06)
So on that, so kids like these college students whenever teams score 67 points these crowds are going nuts because that is the thing to do now and there's video of a game in at Iowa State where they had a field trip game and we've all seen these field trip games where the crowd is just full of elementary middle school kids

Neil (54:26)
Yeah.

Yeah. school grades. Yeah.

Nick (54:34)
and they get to 67 points dude. And like I said, this has happened all over the country, but in this game, like the, actually just take the camera and they pan the crowd and you just see the entire, all the kids, just every single one of them doing that and just screaming at the top of their lungs. You dressed up as six, seven for Halloween. Do you have some kind of explanation of what this is?

Neil (54:35)
my god.

Yeah, sure did.

don't know what

it is, it annoys the heck out of me. When's it gonna end? I don't know what it means. I don't think anybody knows what it means. I don't think kids know what it means. Nobody knows what it means. Just like when somebody was like, we finally, finally, I think, have gotten over the skibbity this and skibbity Ohio Riz and all that nonsense that went on last year. We finally got past that and now we get six, seven dropped in our lap. What's next? Eight, nine, two, five?

Nick (55:28)
I

Neil (55:29)
Like what numbers are we gonna come up with next that don't mean a damn thing?

Nick (55:32)
I mean, we sound old, obviously.

And look, with the skippity and the Riz and all that, Riz actually, I'll give him credit, Riz made sense. Like, it's just shorten up being charismatic. I think, I'll actually, that word is fine.

Neil (55:39)
Yeah, that's

I understand where it is,

we're going skibbity toilets and stuff. Like what is that crap? What is that? But we finally got past all that, I feel like. And then now we get this nonsense dropped in our laps.

Nick (55:47)
I'm totally, I'm not giving them any credit for that.

So

how long will this last the entire season when teams get 67 points that college students are going nuts like that?

Neil (56:05)
Yeah, probably. Unfortunately. Until something new comes along But yeah, probably. It's annoying. It's annoying.

Nick (56:07)
You think it will?

It is annoying. ⁓ guess a few things to close out with. We talked a lot of Ryder Cup and we talked a lot about how Rory was really heckled by the fans, how it appeared that his wife had something thrown at her, which we eventually realized was not actually true, even though the entire team, entire European team talked about how it was ridiculous that she got something thrown at her. But

Neil (56:32)
It was not correct.

Nick (56:44)
The PGA of America Chief Executive Derek Sprague has sent a personal apology for the abuse directed at Rory and his wife. Rory's comment, I got a lovely email from Derek Sprague apologizing. Should the PGA of America Chief Executive Derek Sprague have apologized to Rory?

Neil (57:08)
Hell no. Absolutely no. No. No apology. You get no apology. Like, absolutely not. What are we doing? What are we doing? We should not be pandering to I know he's one of the top players on the PGA Tour and you need him to be successful, but no. Come on. It's the Ryder Cup. It's the Ryder Cup. What do you expect? Rory was a big baby during those four, those three days and probably some of the practice rounds. A huge baby. I mean, he's getting offended over our fans saying, hit it in the sand or whatever we said. Like, get...

Get out of here. Like no, absolutely not.

No.

Nick (57:41)
I

I agree with you. I I like Rory, like I'll pull for Rory when it's not the Ryder Cup. But his quote saying, I got a lovely email from Derek Sprague apologizing is just so lame. Like so lame.

Neil (58:00)
You what should happen? If Scottie Scheffler should write him another lovely email, tell him to go get bit somewhere is what he should say.

Nick (58:06)
Well, dude, and they're gonna do this in two years. It's gonna be the exact opposite. Like this is what this is. Like I wish we had people heckling us last weekend in the routing cup.

Neil (58:15)
That's what the right that's the thing.

That's what the router that's what the Ryder Cup is it happens in both countries There was the beer incident was not what it was made out to be So sorry, Mrs. McElroy. You got hit by a beer, but it was unintentional You know, like I hope you dried off. You got your dress dry clean. I think everything's okay now We don't need to be apologizing and if in a nicely worded emailing get out I want to do give me a new PGA tour president and this guy sucks get him out

I know he's new to the game because I think he just took over, but get him out.

Nick (58:47)
I think we gotta bring it up. It's too late to apologize. Right? It's been too long. Like it's been how many months? Like what are we, what are we doing? Also this go have a beer and hammer it out. You don't need to send an official email, a lovely email. Like you don't need that.

Neil (58:55)
That's not just too late. ⁓

It's embarrassing.

Like, it's embarrassing for the PGA Tour. Absolutely embarrassing for the PGA. In a time where it's PGA Tour versus Live Tour, you know, like this makes the Live Tour look cool and I hate the Live Tour, so whatever. Like, just a bad look for the PGA Tour. Bending the knee to Rory McIlroy, you know, the crybaby of Europe. Just get out.

Nick (59:10)
It's because Rory's their guy! Rory's their guy!

Well, you talked about LIV

The whole thing was they're 54 holes. looks like they're going to seven. Looks like they're going to 72. Liv is the Roman numeral, L-I-V, 54. I don't know what the Roman numeral for 72 is, but I can look it up.

Neil (59:33)
Mm-hmm. And that's why they're called Liv. Like Liv is 54. Numerals is 54. Yeah.

let me see if I can get it. Let me see if I can get it. V... I... Let's see.

What is it, 72?

Nick (59:55)
It's LXII.

So they got to change the name of their league.

Neil (59:58)
No, that's 62.

Nick (1:00:00)
No, it's not. X, X.

Neil (1:00:01)
That is LS50XX.

Yes, two X's.

Nick (1:00:08)
So they have to change the name of their league to LXII.

Neil (1:00:11)
Lexi, Lixi, what's that? You can't have 54 as your logo and then play 72 holes, but good for LIV they're finally playing some real golf, an actual golf tournament.

Nick (1:00:13)
I mean, don't they have to? That's the whole brand is L.A.V.

Well,

but didn't a lot of the live guys besides the fact that they're getting paid boatloads of money go because they only had to play three rounds and wear shorts?

Neil (1:00:30)
mean, it's all stupid. Like, let's just get, let's end the nonsense. Let's shake hands, we'll have the truce. Let's get back to being one big happy family and we all play on the same tour. Because this is just stupid.

Nick (1:00:41)
I mean, I think that's what we're towards at some point, but this gets you closer. I also think they think it's going to help them with world points to get them into  more majors potentially. But I mean, your whole brand, it's your whole brand. It's your whole brand. It'd be like us having a podcast called the height differential and then go and get two five foot 10 guys to host it. Like that would make no sense.

Neil (1:00:44)
We've been leaning towards that for two years. Wasn't there supposed to be an agreement?

Yeah.

No sense.

Nick (1:01:13)
And now you're L.I.V. but you're playing 72 holes.

Neil (1:01:17)
Yeah, nope, doesn't make any sense to me, but know, glad they actually are playing a real golf tournament, but no, makes no sense. It's all a bunch of nonsense. Just like I said, let's just shake hands and come back together as a family.

Nick (1:01:25)
Alright.

Couple quick things to end, there was a high school football game in Illinois that I wanted to talk about. Porter High School trailed Fairfield 8-6 with less than a minute to go. And they had the ball in Philgo Ranch. They spiked the ball on first down. So now there's second down with 23 seconds left. They ran the ball to get a little closer. And then the court, so now it's third down, the quarterback gets confused and takes a knee.

So he takes a knee on third down. So then they snap the ball on fourth down and he spikes it in an attempt to stop the clock.

Neil (1:02:01)
So

he took the knee when he should have spiked it, is what we're saying out there now. So he got conf...

Nick (1:02:04)
Yes, yes,

and they were saying that the clock was close to running out anyways, but they stopped the clock and fourth down had already passed. None of the officials seemed to notice that they had already ran four plays. The down marker operator didn't change. He didn't change it from third to fourth until after the fourth down play had already been run. I'm sure the coaches had to be going nuts because they know that they had ran four plays.

Neil (1:02:18)
Where's the down guy? What's that guy? Does he fall asleep? What is he doing?

Nick (1:02:33)
But Tom was put back in the clock and Porta hit a field goal at the buzzer to win the game on fifth down.

Neil (1:02:41)
So the team that was winning that game at the time, like their coaches didn't run out on the field and be like, what are we doing here?

Nick (1:02:49)
I'm running out there and tackling somebody.

Neil (1:02:51)
Somebody is doing something. how do you allow that to happen?

Nick (1:02:58)
Well, Zach Taylor did it in the AFC championship against the Chiefs when the Chiefs got five downs. I mean, they got to stop on fourth and then they said that it was a flag, so they got another chance at it. So this has happened in AFC championships. Not this brutal, not this obvious. mean, if Patrick Mahomes would have accidentally took a knee on third down and then spiked it on fourth.

Neil (1:03:09)
⁓ yeah, yep.

Yes.

Nick (1:03:23)
And somehow they were allowed to steal Kika Philgo to win the game. I would have been even more upset.

Neil (1:03:28)
Now we would have had Gene Steritor calling the officials in that game saying, nope, give them another down. So the Chiefs really got away with it.

Nick (1:03:33)
But

the IHSA has a rule that any decisions made by officials are not subject to any sort of protest or review. So that score is gonna stand.

Neil (1:03:46)
Was that a, a playoff game, was it?

Nick (1:03:48)
I don't think it was a playoff game.

Neil (1:03:50)
That'd be a tough way to let your season come to an end.

Nick (1:03:53)
Yeah, but I mean, can't be getting five downs. And then.

Neil (1:03:54)
Yeah, you can't have that happen. What are they doing?

I mean,

if they were in Russia, officials would have been ⁓ probably thrown in jail or whatever the hockey guy was subject to.

Nick (1:04:05)
Dude,

yeah, they're done. They're suspended for life. And maybe that's why we need to be a little more harder on officials like we talked about a couple of weeks ago. ⁓ Do we need to talk about Tom Brady's dog?

Neil (1:04:18)
Yeah,

we we have to. Yeah, that's a wild story.

Nick (1:04:22)
So his dog Luna dies in 2023. And before his dog passed away, he took a little blood. And with that blood, he was able to clone the dog through a company called Colossal Biosciences. And he now has a clone of his dog Luna, and that dog's name is Junie.

Neil (1:04:44)
How? It blows my mind, to be honest with you. Like, how is that possible? I mean, I knew we did the whole clone thing with Dolly the Sheep back in the day, and I don't even know if that was successful.

Nick (1:04:44)
thoughts.

I mean,

I was, and these same companies were involved in that.

Neil (1:05:00)
Like it's absolutely wild that you can do something like that. And good for Tom Brady, I think. if your dog dies and you don't like dog, first of all, dogs are the greatest animal on earth. Dogs should never die. Dogs should outlive humans, you know, to be honest. But ⁓ is, I need, is the dog, does it look identical? Does it act identical? But all right. So then when the dog died, how old was the when died? Probably old.

Nick (1:05:14)
Well, they kind of is doing that.

You need to clone. That's what a clone is. Like it's not a... I don't

have the age but...

Neil (1:05:30)
So then

when you clone a 13 year old dog, does the new clone have the, aged? Like is that a 13 year old dog that you got now?

Nick (1:05:38)
No,

it's still a baby, it's born, it's still a puppy when it's born, but it's gonna grow up to have the same look and I guess the same personality as the dog that it was cloned.

Neil (1:05:46)
How was it born?

How was it born? Who gave like, what, it just pop out of a machine?

Nick (1:05:52)
They did the ember just like... I don't know if they implanted it into a dog or how they did it, but...

Neil (1:05:55)
That's not a clone. That's not

a clone. That's not a clone. Like a clone is like...

Nick (1:06:01)
They cloned this dog. This same

company has cloned dogs for Barbra Streisand and for Paris Hilton. And that was back in 2017 and 2022. So this is not the first time that they have cloned a dog for somebody.

Neil (1:06:14)
They just

took dog DNA so they took dog DNA put it on in like an embryo or something and did something like that Like I'm thinking like dollar the sheep, you know, you put a sheep in a machine and then out the machine comes another sheep Right now what happened back? I Mean, I don't know. No, it's actually pretty cool. No, I think it's pretty cool like like I said dogs are awesome if you if you're ⁓ like ⁓ love your dog like 99 % of Americans do and you you know, you have that attachment and

Nick (1:06:29)
I don't know

Neil (1:06:43)
It's like part of the family and you lose a family member after 12 years, it doesn't seem like enough time. So dogs don't live long enough. So good for Tom Brady of bringing back the memory and the physical specimen of the dog that he loved. So good for Tom.

Nick (1:06:59)
Yeah,

I mean, there's no telling how much this cost to get a dog that you've loved cloned. But yeah, I mean, it's man's best friend for a reason. And when you lose your dog, it's a super hard thing. And to be able to bring that back just a little bit is, I mean, if you can afford it, I could see why you would do that.

Neil (1:07:02)
alive.

Yeah,

no, I absolutely understand it. I mean, yeah.

Nick (1:07:22)
But

the same company is known for its de-extinction efforts and they're trying to bring the dodo bird back.

Neil (1:07:33)
⁓ If the company can bring back extinct animals like what's that the woolly mammoth that's I think then that on the list

Nick (1:07:34)
Which...

Yeah, I mean,

but like from back when I was in school, like the most famous extinct animal, I feel like it's the dodo bird. Everybody always talks about the dodo bird and they're trying to bring it back.

Neil (1:07:48)
I feel like if we if Alright,

so let's say we do the dodo burden and successful now. We're starting to get down a little slippery slope We're starting to get into like the Jurassic Park type kind of stuff This could be dangerous

Nick (1:07:59)
Well, Neil, all of this stuff is slippery slope. All of this, AI,

all of this is slippery slope. Robots.

Neil (1:08:06)
Like we might be on our way to a

Park type of situation and we don't want that.

Nick (1:08:12)
I mean, all this technology that we're coming up with right now.

Neil (1:08:13)
Also,

we're talking about the dog, like, isn't this kind of what they were trying to do with Ted Williams?

Nick (1:08:19)
Well, he's Yeah, he's still frozen.

Neil (1:08:21)
Is he still frozen?

Like, essence, aren't they trying to do something like this with Ted Williams and try to bring him back?

Nick (1:08:30)
The hope is, yeah, yeah, he's frozen.

Neil (1:08:33)
It's been frozen for 25 years.

Nick (1:08:37)
Yeah, but yeah, in essence, I he's just going, I mean, in 2040, he's going to wake up for a long nap.

Neil (1:08:39)
So when we get to, when, when's?

When's old Ted coming back? I need to know.

Nick (1:08:46)
Maybe

you bat 400 again.

Neil (1:08:48)
Let's get all Ted back, get Teddy Ballgame back out here.

Nick (1:08:51)
You know who else came back?

Neil (1:08:53)
Who dat? ⁓ she did! That's right!

Nick (1:08:54)
Red Panda.

And she did it in pretty bad-ass fashion. So she hurt, she broke her wrist in July at a WNBA game and she has not performed since. She works the Sixers Bulls game on Tuesday night and she does so wearing the Jordan 45 comeback jersey. Is it not?

Neil (1:09:13)
Mm-hmm.

That's goat status right there.

That is goat status.

Nick (1:09:24)
Like, that's just tight. Like her coming back wearing the juke, wearing the four-five like Jay-Z said.

Pretty cool. And we've got the opportunity to see her in person. Did you actually, did you?

Neil (1:09:36)
I was the participant, that was me. That's my claim to fame. I threw her the bowls. I had to a perfect toss of bowls so she could catch it, so she didn't fall off her unicycle. Yeah.

Nick (1:09:39)
So what did you have to do?

So the du-

So at Louisville soccer field,

is what probably 2008 or nine. So they put obviously it's a baseball field. So you got to have a like surface. they put like a like a wood board down and then your job was to what?

Neil (1:09:50)
9 8 9 yeah somewhere around there

Bored down. Yep.

take the rice bowls and throw them to her on top of the unicycle in a perfectly fashion. I had to throw it a certain way too, like sideways, had a little spin on it. So I had to throw it perfectly to her so where she could catch it and not fall off the unicycle to where she then could perform her act. So I was a big part of that act and it was successful. I threw 100%. I was 100 % completion percentage that day. The panda was 100 % in her bowl stacking on top of her head. So it was a great day all around there at the old slug.

Nick (1:10:33)
Do you think it's kind of crazy that she just relies on random people to that she doesn't have somebody that travels with her to do that? I wonder if that's changed now because her act was pretty new back then.

Neil (1:10:40)
Yes, that is kind of great.

because she got so big.

Well, we, as the me saying the bats at the time when we were there, I'm pretty sure we were the first baseball stadium that she had performed at. She'd always been basketball and whatever else, but I think we were the first outdoor baseball stadium that she had performed at the time.

Nick (1:11:00)
But

it's, I'm glad she's back. I mean, she healed from that wrist injury pretty quick. mean.

Neil (1:11:05)
I mean, can we, do we admit that she's probably the greatest halftime act that we've seen?

Nick (1:11:11)
She's up there and it's such a, it's such a unique act. Like who would ever think that y'all I'm gonna ride this unicycle and I'm just going to kick balls and catch them.

Neil (1:11:20)
How do you do that one day?

Yeah. So out of all that, real quick, before we begin the show, she was at the slug. We've seen a lot of circus act type things that come through the slug for entertainment purposes, as you do in all AAA ballparks. mean, that's what gets people there. What is your top one or two acts that you've seen roll through global slugger field?

Nick (1:11:31)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

I thought Quick Change was cool. ⁓ Which for those, they just change their outfits a lot. I mean, you can't go wrong with the famous chicken. Just a legend. So I would probably go with the chicken first and then maybe Quick Change, but Red Panda's right there.

Neil (1:11:47)
which changed was great, very good.

And no one can figure out how do it.

Thames Chicken was good.

Red paint is there. Yep, I think quick change is up there. ⁓ The Chicago boys, I think, was always one of my favorites where they're doing flips and tricks. That was, the buckets are called the bucket boys. Chicago boys were the acrobats. And I think they act like that.

Nick (1:12:13)
Was that the acrobats or was that the buckets?

Okay. So they were the Chicago

Bucket Boys and the Chicago Boys, right?

Neil (1:12:23)
Yeah, no, it's the bucket boys. Yeah, I think. Yeah, okay, yes. But no, the acrobatic ones that are flying through the air and jumping over people and doing all that crazy stuff. I think it's up there for me. Superstars, I think was very, very entertaining. But the worst one I think I've seen, Myra.

Nick (1:12:25)
Just the bucket boys. They were from Chicago.

We're going worst.

Neil (1:12:43)
Myron Noodleman. Yeah, he is dead, unfortunately. But when he was alive, the act's not very good.

Nick (1:12:45)
RIP.

So you talked about,

no I mean I was never a fan, but you talked about how you got to help Red Panda with the bowls. Your boy picked up Myron Noodle at the airport one time. No, he was a good dude. I mean his whole act was a Halloween costume and it just turned into a business.

Neil (1:13:05)
You should have just left him there to be honest with you. He was a good dude.

the juggling guy. was the juggling

guy? The guy that juggled chainsaws. Remember him? Matt Chadd, he was all right.

Nick (1:13:18)
Match hat.

Match hat. Yeah, we used to some good acts over at the slug.

Neil (1:13:27)
I'm sure some of them are still performing.

Nick (1:13:30)
Yeah, yeah, some of them, but... All right, before we get off here...

We got a, so Dr. Phyllis Grant, have you heard about her? Are you alone?

Neil (1:13:40)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (1:13:41)
And season ticket over for 76 years, she turned 100 years old on Halloween. She's been a football fan, a season ticket over for three quarters of a century. And all those years that I talked about where they didn't start 9-0 and now they've done it for two years in a row. I mean, she's gotta be loving her life watching this team.

Neil (1:13:58)
God bless

her, man. Like to sit through IU football for that long of a time and never have anything good happen, she deserves this. I hope she's enjoying every single bit of this. She deserves this. I all IU fans deserve this, but especially for somebody that stuck it out for that long and at the young age of 100 now. So good for her. Hope the Hoosiers bring home the entire title. I mean, if they weren't as good as they were, they'd be hosting a playoff game, but unfortunately,

Well, fortunately, they'll get that first round by and be end up playing at a neutral site, but no good for her. Hope she is able to at least make it to one of these playoff games.

Nick (1:14:36)
No, I just thought it was a cool story. And the fact that, dude, that's what fandom's all about, right? And that's like sticking it through like thick and thin and just hoping that maybe one day we can make a run and.

Neil (1:14:45)
for me.

Are we gonna be those Bengals fans at the age of 100 when they haven't been back to the Super Bowl and... We suck.

Nick (1:14:52)
I mean...

Let's be honest, as a kid, I didn't think we'd ever get to the Super Bowl. And we were at least able to experience that. We lost Logan Wilson this week to the Cowboys. mean, that holding call against him on third down will forever be burned in my brain. And in a game where they didn't call anything pretty much the whole game and then they call that. yeah, mean, at least the Bengals have got there.

Neil (1:14:59)
That's me neither.

should have won it.

and one of the worst calls I've ever seen.

it wasn't even a hold.

Nick (1:15:24)
But.

Neil (1:15:27)
I want to win. need to like Uncle Steve. Uncle Steve is that Bengals fan that's going to end up like Phyllis who just wears that lucky Icky Woods jersey until he's 100 years old and he needs to see a Bengals Super Bowl.

Nick (1:15:41)
Yeah, I want it for Uncle Steve, but I want it for me too. But you know what, you gotta play a little bit defensive in football games and right now I think if me and you went out there and just, I don't think they could stop us.

Neil (1:15:44)
Me too. Me too.

Nick (1:15:55)
But the good news is we don't have to watch the Cincinnati Bengals this week because they are on bye.

Neil (1:16:01)
Thank goodness.

Nope.

Nick (1:16:02)
But

plenty of other things to watch with hoops and football here. It's crossover season.

Neil (1:16:06)
crossover season.

Nick (1:16:08)
So I think we'll probably be back on Sunday because we do not have a tournament to play. The Bengals aren't playing. So we'll be back here probably on Sunday to recap the NFL and college football and college hoops and talk about whatever.

Neil (1:16:11)
Yeah, I don't see why not. We won't-

preview some cats and

got cats and cards next week. Wild that the basketball cats Louisville, Kentucky, Ralph, or is getting underway before the football game.

Nick (1:16:26)
Which is crazy, right?

I

a week from yesterday.

Neil (1:16:35)
Yeah. Game three.

Nick (1:16:38)
It's just, it's gonna be, it's gonna be weird. It's gonna be weird, the cats and the cards playing before Thanksgiving.

Neil (1:16:41)
Yeah.

Nick (1:16:44)
But it'll be fun. Learn a lot about these teams. Cards look good against South Carolina State.

Neil (1:16:50)
It did.

Nick (1:16:52)
The game lasted three hours. felt like But all right That's Neil I'm Nick you've been listening to height differential make sure to follow us on Spotify YouTube Apple music all the different platforms hit that subscribe button and We will be back to talk with you on Sunday We'll see you then