Joe's Toe & Ban the Tush Push?

Nick (00:12)
what's good everybody? It's the height differential. We're back. Took a

some time off on Sunday to mourn some news up there in Cincinnati. But I'm Nick, he's Neil. Neil, how's your Wednesday going?

Neil (00:27)
As the week goes by, we're starting to feel a little bit better. mean, needed some time off. It was rough on Sunday. We celebrated hard. We cried hard. But we needed a couple days off to get past it. Now we're looking forward. Can't look back. We got to look forward.

Nick (00:44)
We can't look back and I will say my week actually got a little worse as I got home on Tuesday and found my ceiling had fallen down in my basement on top of my washer and dryer. So we dealt with that all day today. Pulling out the seal, the drought wall and the ceiling and figured out it was the refrigerator which I had got in November had evidently been leaking ever since it was installed.

Neil (01:00)
Get that fixed.

Nick (01:13)
Little slow drip, little slow drip, but those add up. yeah, came home to that yesterday. So that was fun. It was fun dealing with that today, but it's good to be back on the mic and talk a little football, even if some of the news is sad.

Neil (01:27)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (01:29)
So everybody knows the sad news. Joe Burrow heard again, the Bengals still figured out a way to win 31 to 27 is Jake Browning Superman into the end zone in the closing seconds to secure the win. But you're 0 and 2, I mean you're 2 and 0. I'm used to them being 0 and 2, which is probably why I said it. But you lost your star quarterback once again.

Neil (01:56)
Tough, absolutely tough. mean, 2-0 is huge. mean, if you have any hope of trying to make the playoffs with the backup quarterback, you know, I'm glad Jake Browning's on my side. I think he's one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league. He's obviously got experience. I mean, he's played a lot of football the last couple of years with the injuries to Joe. But if you're trying to make the playoffs starting 0-2, if he can just...

keep the ship afloat, hopefully, maybe, fingers crossed, toes are crossed, Joe maybe, slightly chanced, can come back in mid-December. I mean, if he can just keep us afloat until then, you know, I think we got a chance at this thing.

Nick (02:32)
Well, I think you gotta find more things to cross if you're hoping for Burrell to be back in. mean, obviously, yeah, you're hoping for that, just their three months, the best case scenario is he coming back with three games. I think it's gonna be tough for that to happen. And I'm trying not to talk myself into it because I don't wanna get my hopes up once again. But yeah, I mean, the thing with Browning is, he kept them alive in the playoff hunt two years ago.

He went four and three as a starter. It was 21 to 32 for 241. Two touchdowns, he did throw three picks, but he also had that rushing touchdown to win the game. He's proven that he can win games in this league, I anytime you drop from a, mean, Joe Burrow was the everybody's MVP candidate on all the betting apps. He was getting more money than anybody else. And now for the third time in six years and all three,

different injuries and two of these injuries, the wrist injury two years ago and now this turf tow or really injuries that we haven't seen before at the quarterback spot.

Neil (03:42)
Yeah, mean you hear turf toe and you're like, oh, you know, he's out for what? A couple games. I mean, I've never heard. It's very, very rare that you have a surgery on a turf toe. So it sucks, but you're right. It's been different injuries each time. So it's, I don't think that Joe's fragile by any means. Like you hear that being thrown around me. Sure. But I mean, I don't know.

It's tough to explain. don't think I mean obviously not connected. It just sucks. I don't know

Nick (04:17)
Well,

you the tough part was obviously he goes out and you're just hoping that things that it's not the worst, right? You're hoping he's just out for that game, maybe a couple weeks and we're driving home from Cincinnati and we're here in four weeks, right? Four weeks like you can handle that. You started off two and ⁓ you know, even if you news the next four games, you're back in the hole where you usually are. You know, you're two and four and now you're getting your quarterback, you know, back. But you know, the worst case news we got was

Obviously would have been the season over but three months is almost the equivalent of that You talked about him not being fragile and you know, I don't want to say he is but It's now happened in 50 % of his his season

Neil (05:01)
But I mean,

no, fragile to me is you have crot, like you've got multiple knee injuries or your shoulder's been hurt for, you know, it's just like a nagging injury here. Like it's almost like, it's the same thing. A turf toe to me does not mean you're fragile or torn ligament in your toe doesn't mean to me that you're fragile. It would mean that you had shoulder issues for multiple years or you've had knee issues for several years. Something like that. Not a freak turf toe injury where it's so bad that you tore a ligament in the bottom of your toe. Like, ⁓

That's... it just doesn't make any sense.

Nick (05:33)
So who is at fault here? If it's anybody.

Neil (05:38)
I mean, everybody wants to blame the offensive line and rightfully so. If he's not under pressure running for his life, he's probably not getting some of these injuries. With the wrist injury in Baltimore a couple years ago and him, I don't even know how he did the toe injury. I know he was getting sacked. It didn't even look like it was bad. So how you just do that, I have no idea. To me, I didn't think that's a fluke injury. ⁓ But I mean, if we're looking for somebody to blame, I don't know if there's one person, five people, the whole offensive line, the coaching staff.

organization. I mean think there's blame to be passed on everybody.

Nick (06:13)
think there is and know, dalton riser talk about it after the game. It was his guy that he missed on that tackle and the quarterbacks are going to get hit whether there's pressure or not. They're going to get hit throughout the game. But the numbers for the Bengals past protection since Joe burrow has been the quarterback have not been good in 2020 29th and 21 21. They were 30th and 22. They were 30th and 23. They were 27th and 24. They were 32nd and this year through two games. They're 28th.

At some point you're putting all this money into Joe Burrow. If those numbers continuously are in the bottom tier of the NFL, this has got to kind of be on the Bengals front office, right?

Neil (06:56)
Well, sure. I mean, yeah, like you obviously want to go spend money and get the best offensive line that you possibly can to protect the best quarterback in the league. But it's been a rotating door, a revolving door of offensive linemen that have come through. I mean, it's been Jonah Williams. It's been, ⁓ you know, it's been several guys and you went out. They did. Like you bring in Orlando Brown Jr. You bring in Orlando Brown Jr. You bring in

Nick (07:16)
Brought in a lot of guys Riley Wree they've got in, you know, they brought in Lyle Collins like Yeah

Neil (07:25)
Who was the guy for the Patriots last year, last name of Brown they tried to bring in that he lost it all about a game. Like they're trying, they're trying different people. like if it's not working with these guys, they're bringing new guys in. I don't know if these guys don't have talent. I know Cody, Cody Ford does not have talent. That guy is just terrible.

Nick (07:29)
Grant Brown.

Well, he's not smart.

Neil (07:42)
He started too many

Nick (07:42)
He needs your backup. You need that.

Neil (07:44)
games. He started too many games for my liking and I watched his performance on Sunday and he just whiffs on about everybody. But you bring in this revolving door of offensive line and you're trying new things. Is it the coaching? Is it the offensive line coach? I mean, I know we've switched those a time or two. Like what?

Nick (08:00)
Scott Peters is the third offensive line coach we've had in in Burroughs tenure.

Neil (08:03)
Is it talent

evaluation? Like, I don't understand it.

Nick (08:09)
I mean, you look at the Bengals starting offensive line in the Super Bowl, and it's Jonah Williams, Quentin Spain, Trey Hopkins, Hakeem Adeneji, and Isaiah Prince. I think after that game, Jonah Williams is the only one that has started consistently, and several of those guys were out of the league completely. And they still figured out a way to get to the Super Bowl because you've got Joe Burrow under center. I mean, they beat the Titans in Nashville when he got sacked nine times.

Neil (08:28)
the next year.

Nick (08:39)
And you know, after that season, they made, they realized their offensive line was not very good. So they went out and got Alex Capa. They went out and got Ted Karras. So they were making moves and well, that was the year after. And you know, you draft Amarius Memes last year, which looks to be like, he's going to be a really good player and hopefully a really good player for a long time. And you re-signed Ted Karras. But my issue is.

Neil (08:46)
Mm-hmm. Yup. Gotta take cares. And Orlando Brown Jr. came in, what, that same year or the year after? Yup.

Nick (09:09)
at the

It's little risky to rely on a third round draft pick that's never played in the NFL to just go in and immediately protect your biggest investment.

Neil (09:49)
No.

No, they absolutely failed in free agency trying to pick up a quality piece on the offensive line, especially a guard. When you're paying Joe Burrow the money that he's paying, you don't wanna see him on the sidelines with injuries. I don't know if this will be another way. I don't know if there'll ever be a wake up call to the front office that hey, something needs to change. I know you're trying to change in and out offensive linemen when things aren't working, but you gotta bring in guys like you said that are just more than journeymen scrap players that nobody really-

I mean there's a reason that Ryzen didn't have a job two weeks ago.

Nick (10:23)
And everybody's acting like he's the savior when he's just got signed a week before the season starts and and Well, no and depth pieces are important you've got to have depth of that position because injuries are gonna happen but I mean and look here's another thing like you can't just Just put it all on the front office because they did everything that Joe burrow asked them to do and what all these media outlets said were

Neil (10:27)
think it was just exciting that we had somebody different, but yeah, you're right.

Nick (10:52)
going to be impossible. They brought tea and they brought Jamar back. They got Trey, you know, not an extension, but they gave him a raise. They brought Jaseki back. Everything that Joe Burrow asked the front office to do, they did. Should they maybe not listen to Joe Burrow and not resign tea and spend that money on a guard instead?

Neil (11:16)
Absolutely not. The right move was to resign T. I mean the offensive line has been absolute crap for the last what five, would we say five, six years? You went to a Superbowl with a really bad offensive line. You went to an AFC championship. You went to an AFC championship game with a really bad offensive line and your offense was ranked in the top of the league last year with Joe Burrow leading in yards, touchdown passes, Jamar Chase is first, wins the triple crown. You know, like your offense was scoring.

Nick (11:23)
then you gotta fix it at some point!

That's not a reason to keep doing that.

Neil (11:44)
30-40 points a game last year with a really bad offensive line. So it was possible for us to win with a bad offensive line, but then you risk Joe Burrow getting hurt. So far he's been hurt 50 % of the time. 50 % of the time it's good, 50 % of the time he's on the sideline, which is too much. It's too much, I agree.

Nick (11:54)
Yeah, and.

50 % is not good enough. And

you talked about last year and this is what makes last year hurt even more is the fact that Joe had the year he had where he should have could have easily been the MVP if you're in playoff contention or if you make the playoffs and you wasted that season and when he's missing all of these seasons because of injury you don't have you can't just waste seasons where he's healthy and not make a run to win the Super

Neil (12:28)
Well, last year nobody was blaming the offensive line. The offensive line was terrible, but did you hear, like we did not lose games last year because the offensive line, everything was the defense, the defense, the defense, the defense. So there's multiple issues with this franchise and there's only so much, I don't know. I don't know you're gonna do.

Nick (12:41)
Neil.

Neil, they were dead last in past protection last year. Dead last.

Neil (12:49)
And we still put up 40 points

again. We didn't lose the game because of the offensive line. They were dead.

Nick (12:54)
But you're still putting,

you're still put like, despite the fact that you have the worst pass protection and you had one of the worst defenses, you still almost make the playoffs, but you can't continually put him in harm's way like this. And we all knew that the guard position was a problem for this team. We all knew that. This was not a secret.

Neil (13:01)
Get one of the best off it.

I agree with you. Now, they messed up.

The franchise messed up. They 100 % blew it. In the offseason. They blew it.

Nick (13:19)
But if you're spending all

this money on Trey and Tee Jamar, obviously they still have some room in the cap and they probably could assign somebody a little better than Dalton Reisner or Lucas Patrick. But they are spending money. It's not like they're not spending money.

Neil (13:29)
Well, they can have plenty of rules. They have plenty of rules.

I still disagree. think you'd resign the T's and the Jamars and the Joes and the Trays and you pay him what they're worth.

Nick (13:50)
didn't

say I wouldn't do that. I just think it makes it difficult. And Jamar and Tee were kind of a package deal where they both wanted to get signed. So yeah, you want to keep them in the fold. And as a fan, I want to watch those guys play and I want them to be a part of my team. But it makes this more difficult than a lot of the media wants to make it out to be to where you should just carry all these guys and then also get two all-pro guards.

Neil (13:54)
It makes it difficult.

It makes it extremely difficult, but the Bengals are, they are under the cap. They have money to spend. It's all a matter of fact, it's all a matter of will you spend it? And they did not spend it. They said we're done and they blew it. They blew it.

Nick (14:29)
And you know, another unfortunate thing about all this is everybody's now comparing Joe Burrow to Andrew Luck. And I don't know if you saw the graphic on ESPN, but through six seasons, Joe Burrow's in his sixth season, Andrew Luck had QB contact 828 times, Joe Burrow 634. The contact percentage was Luck 21, Burrow 20. Luck was sacked 174 times, Burrow's already been sacked 201.

Neil (14:38)
Get out of

Nick (15:00)
These numbers are all very comparable and Luck didn't last that much longer. Like he was just tired of going through rehab and tired of the, you know, the mental challenge of, you know, overcoming these injuries. Like, do you agree that Joe Burrow is the new Andrew Luck?

Neil (15:18)
Absolutely not. Joe Burrow is more mentally tough than Andrew Luck. Joe Burrow is a competitor. Joe Burrow... I mean, just listen to Joe... Don't listen to the two of them talk. Andrew Luck... Andrew Luck's a weasel.

Nick (15:22)
I mean, how do you know that?

Weenie.

What? So that's your... He's not him because Andrew looks so weenie.

Neil (15:33)
Yeah. No, like Joe Burrow is not going out like this. Joe Burrow's not quitting. Like, what have you seen in the six years that makes you think that he's not a strong competitor that's gonna keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back?

Nick (15:39)
I don't think he's gonna quit either, but

I absolutely think that he's tough competitor and I absolutely think he's going to come back from this. at some point the middle grind having to continuously rehab a different injury could get to you mentally. I mean that's just life.

Neil (16:04)
I I don't think that happens with Joe Burrow, but it's good.

Nick (16:10)
So, I mean, all the talk going into the season was you got to start better, right? You can't be 0-1-2. They finally won their first week two game last week in Zach Taylor's tenure. But as we sit right now, 2-0 with Jake Browning for the foreseeable future, would you rather be 0-1-2 without Burrow or 0-2 with Burrow moving forward?

Neil (16:43)
⁓ man that's tough i don't know i don't know if there's a right answer to that i obviously there

Nick (16:50)
They're asking,

you gotta come up with something.

Neil (16:54)
I don't know. I would probably take the 0-2 with Joe Burrow because we've come back from 0-2 before. I know. I know. But I would still take my guy. I'm still riding with Joe Burrow. But 2-0 with Jake Browning. I have faith in Jake Browning. So I would still rather have Joe Burrow out there leading my team at 0-2 because I think he can bring you back from that and go on a huge win streak.

Nick (17:03)
We also, they also have it.

Neil (17:24)
Like we did, what was that, two, three years ago when we won what? Yeah, like we won a million games there, then like in a row. ⁓ Give me the Joe Burrow 0-2 compared to Jake Browning 2-0, but that's not a knock on Jake Browning. That's just what I think of Joe Burrow. I think Jake Browning can definitely be a quality player, still lead us to a playoff. ⁓ No question.

Nick (17:27)
It's Super Bowl year.

Well, I think Jake Browning is in the top 32 of quarterbacks in the NFL. I think he's an NFL starting quarterback. I think he proved that two years ago. I think he proved that on Sunday. But if you're asking me to pick between two and O with Jake Browning or O and two with Joe Burrow, mean, this isn't tough. With Joe Burrow, you can win a Super Bowl.

Neil (18:09)
I like to.

Nick (18:14)
Even at 2-0, like last year, they get in the playoffs, nobody wants to play them. Even with that defense, even with that offensive line, nobody wants to play them because you got Joe Borough under center.

Neil (18:22)
So what's to say we don't

make the playoffs and Joe Burrow comes back?

Nick (18:25)
Well, I mean, that's a possibility. Like I said at the beginning, I'm not putting that in my mindset because I don't think it's gonna happen. hope, I guess I hope it does. But I mean, even if he comes back with, I mean, he's not coming back with three games left. That's best case scenario.

Neil (18:45)
If you are in a playoff spot, let's just say the Bengals are, let's see, so what would that be? 14 games into the season, the Bengals are sitting there at eight and six. You don't think that Joe Burrow, you don't want him to come back?

Nick (19:01)
100 % I would yeah, but I'm not just gonna let myself like Allow myself right now to think that that's gonna happen because I don't think it's gonna happen from everything I've read Like three months is the best case scenario and that means him coming back like with with hardly any practice just coming in cold and Immediately trying to get your team in the playoffs and make a run and and hopefully at that point Jake Brown explains well, I mean

I still even if Jake Brown explained well and Joe's ready to go, I think you play Joe. just think it's a stretch to think that he could potentially play games in the regular season and then playing a playoffs. I maybe I'm pessimistic but.

Neil (19:36)
Absolutely.

I I don't think you've given Jake Browning enough credit.

Nick (19:51)
What, I don't, just, two minutes ago I just said he's a top 32 quarter, he's an NFL starting quarterback. He just happened to be a backup. you win a Super Bowl with Jake Browning?

Neil (19:58)
Well, there's some bad NFL starting, I mean, there are some bad NFL starting quarterbacks.

Probably not.

Nick (20:08)
We just talked about all the deficiencies this team had.

Neil (20:10)
But can

you win a Super Bowl with Joe Burrow when you're 0-2?

Nick (20:13)
Yeah, all you gotta do get into playoffs.

Neil (20:16)
Last year when we row until we didn't get there.

Nick (20:18)
You just get in the playoffs.

You didn't. And they had, I mean, they had.

Neil (20:24)
That's why I love the 2 and 0 start. That's why this is a tougher

decision than I think you're making it out to be. 2 and 0, don't underestimate 2 and 0.

Nick (20:30)
What is the goal at the beginning of every season?

Neil (20:33)
To win the Super Bowl or make playoffs? One of the two, I don't know. Yeah.

Nick (20:35)
The goal is to win the Super Bowl

with Joe Borough as your quarterback. The goal is to win the Super Bowl.

Neil (20:40)
Correct.

Nick (20:43)
I can overcome an 0-2 start and still get in the playoffs and they proved it. They didn't prove it last year, but they proved it in the past.

Neil (20:51)
I mean, if you're 0-2 with Joe Burrow and you couldn't beat the Browns and the Jaguars, I'm not sure there's really much hope.

Nick (20:57)
Well, I I'm just picking of those two scenarios. ⁓

Neil (21:02)
I agree, I said Joe Burrow, I would rather have Joe Burrow but it's not a no brainer to me. I think Jake Browning with a 2-0 start, you give Jake Browning a 2-0 start, this season still has some potential.

Nick (21:07)
I mean, to me it is.

I'm not saying the season's over. I'm saying the hopes of winning a Super Bowl have diminished a lot. And I think that's fact. The odds have shown that. As, you know, the odds for them to win the Super Bowl, I have the exact number, but they dropped a lot after Sunday. I don't know. It's just...

Neil (21:33)
Of course.

Resides also

drop when you're owing too, even with the best quarterback.

Nick (21:41)
Yeah, we've seen that too. And we've seen that too. But given those two scenarios, me the MVP candidate and figure out a way to get in the playoffs. And once you're in the playoffs, mean, anything can happen at that point. And I mean, as bad as their defense was, as bad as their offensive line was last year, nobody wanted to see the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs.

Neil (21:49)
I know. I agree with you. I agree with you.

no we're playing up to one five erode in the year

Nick (22:09)
Yeah,

and their defense was playing a little better. I think some of the teams that they had were playing were not some of the toughest offenses, but they still had improved. And yeah, mean, nobody wanted to see them in the postseason, but yeah.

Neil (22:13)
Yeah.

I don't know,

the Bengals better learn to run the ball. Their running game the first two games has been absolutely dreadful. They need to get a running game going.

Nick (22:28)
Well, that's something they gotta do better because they haven't done that very well in first two weeks.

What's the one on this topic and then we'll move on to something else. But what's the Bingo's record with Jake Browning at QB if he finishes the regular season?

Neil (22:47)
Finishes the regular season.

Probably nine and eight.

Nick (22:53)
I think eight, nine and eight, eight, nine. I think that's going to be the number. They're going to be competitive. You got to win this.

Neil (23:00)
If you get to 9-8, 9-8 last year was almost good enough.

Nick (23:04)
No, I think nine and eight can very well get you in the playoffs.

Neil (23:07)
So if he can, if we can just find a way to get one more win, if you can just get to that 10 and seven.

Nick (23:12)
You got to win this week in Minnesota against Carson Wentz. And then you're 3-0 and you kind of figure it out from there, but the schedule gets a lot tougher after the Minnesota game.

Neil (23:17)
Yes, sir.

There's two, I mean you look at the bagel schedule, it's not, there's two three game stretches that are really damn hard. And it's the stretch where you go on Monday night at Denver, home to the...

Detroit Lions and then you're on the road at Lambeau with probably the best against the best team in the NFL right now, Green Bay Packers. Then it eases up a little bit. Then you've got Steelers at home. Then you've got, you know, the Bears at home. You got the Jets at home. Then, you know, toward the end of season when you got that other stretch of Baltimore, Buffalo, Baltimore. And then every other time of year you're home against the Browns, home against the Cardinals. So there's two, three game stretches that are going to be tough to weather, but all of the other games on that schedule are a hundred percent winnable.

Nick (24:06)
No, agree. And I think winning on Sunday at Minnesota really kind of sets you up to where when you go into that three game stretch, you've kind of got some leeway. look, Jake Brown is going to have some motivation this weekend. This is a team that cut him. This is the team that he beat two years ago. And he said, don't cut me, right? You don't cut me. So you'll be fired up. I think he'll play well. I think he'll give the team the other ball. He's proved that he'll do that. He'll throw picks, but he's also got the ability to

Neil (24:14)
You do.

Yep. He was fired up that game, and I hope he fired up again this Sunday.

Nick (24:36)
to move the ball downfield and find T, find Jamar. And you just got to win ⁓ on Sunday against Minnesota, get to 3-0, and then kind of see what happens.

Neil (24:45)
Also,

if you're Jake Browning, like now's your chance, I mean, I think he did really well two years ago and proved himself to be a really good quarterback. But now, if you're playing the rest of the season, you're potentially playing for starting quarterback job next year. If you go in and play well, I guess it's an audition for you. If you do well with this team, A, you're setting yourself up for a nice little contract, and B, you could be a starting quarterback in this league.

Nick (24:57)
There's no doubt. That's no-brainer. Absolutely.

Neil (25:08)
And he hears the noise. I'm sure he's heard the noise of should the Bengals go talk to Atlanta for Kirk Cousins or who the Bengals need to go find another quarterback. Like, Jake Brown says, screw you. Like, this is my time. So this is some motivation for him. He's got something to prove.

Nick (25:22)
It's his girl's time too. And you know the TV cameras are going to find her on Sunday. And Dave Lapham and the radio booths are going find her too. Yeah, absolutely good reason. yeah, Bengals, got off to the 2 and 0 start. But once again, Joe Burrow goes down with injury. And we cry a little bit. But one of the positives.

Neil (25:28)
with good reason.

I mean, with good reason.

Nick (25:49)
on Sunday for you was your surprise pick to make the playoffs the Colts. Continue to win 2-0 with the 29 to 28 win over the Broncos. They got a 45-yard field goal from Spencer Schrader at the buzzer after he missed the 60-yarder where one of the Broncos linebackers was flagged for leverage.

Neil (25:55)
That's right.

Terrible play.

What was the play call that they even ran to set up this little small draw play up the middle? Like, we're going to take the 60 yarder? Like, they played for the 60 yarder, which made no sense to me.

Nick (26:23)
Yeah, it made, mean also Danny Dimes has been playing really well, like give him a chance to move the ball downfield. But what was your take on the leverage penalty that moved them up 15 yards and gave them a chance to win the game again after they were short on the 60 yard?

Neil (26:28)
Thank

It was weak.

I mean it was weak. I understand like you trying to like I mean he didn't really bull rush the center. I mean to me it didn't look like there was much got. Did he touch him? Yes. But I don't think it gave him any kind of advantage or anything. I don't understand the whole safety issue but I thought that one was kind of weak.

Nick (26:57)
So watching it, absolutely agree with you. I thought it was a bad call. But then like Sean Payton after the game says it's the correct call. And the eye rolls the correct call, but the mistake and he admitted this. Why are you even trying to block a 60 yard?

Neil (27:08)
By rule.

Nick (27:17)
Like why are you even putting yourself in that position? Now, I mean the chances of them making a 60 yarder are, I mean I feel like kickers are making more of more of them every year, right? So the chances are getting better, but you put yourself in that position where you're giving them 50 yards of fill position and I mean other than the Tennessee Volunteers kicker who was never gonna make that 42 yarder on Saturday, you, you feel.

Neil (27:44)
Yeah, we all saw it. We all saw it in his

face.

Nick (27:46)
you

feel pretty confident that an NFL kicker is gonna knock down a 45 yard and win the game.

Neil (27:52)
100%. I agree with you. There was no reason for him to touch the center and try to block it. Anything. like usually, if they had like a graphic on there of chances to make, you know, like PGA, like percent chance he makes this putt, percent chance he makes that field goal, probably 15 % or less.

Nick (28:10)
So Danny Dimes once again, 23 of 34 for 316, a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown.

Neil (28:17)
See the new

betting favorite to win the MVP award without Joe Burrow?

Nick (28:20)
I don't know about that, but I know he's getting picked up in everybody's fantasy leagues. Nobody picked him up after week one. This is Danny Dimes. This is a one game thing. Now he's on everybody's fantasy team.

Neil (28:24)
As he should. As he should.

I tried to tell you. I tried to tell you.

And also, Jonathan Taylor is running like Jonathan Taylor of old, the peak Jonathan Taylor. So Colts are Colts, what do they have? Have they punted yet? I don't even know they punted yet.

Nick (28:43)
That's the great stat. They have not punted in two games. I think they punted once, but it was called back for penalty. ⁓ What I can't remember what the actual numbers we need a fact check guy, but it's been a long time since a team has gone the first two games without punting. And I'll try to look it up here in a second.

Neil (28:50)
Ha

I mean, I'm sure it's happened before, but it has to have been a while.

Nick (29:06)
Yeah. So Colts move 2-0 Danny Dimes MVP after two seasons. Yeah. Raise the banner and endy.

Neil (29:15)
Let's do it. Division change.

Nick (29:17)
The other big game on Sunday was in the four o'clock window, the rematch of the Super Bowl where the Eagles moved to two and oh, the Chiefs moved to oh and two. What everybody's talking about after that game is the tush push. And I mean, you see video replay where they slow it down and it's very obvious that several.

of the Eagles offensive linemen are off sides. Is this what it took to end the tush push the Chiefs losing to it?

Neil (29:47)
Mm-hmm.

I mean, would that surprise anybody? Probably not. Like the Chiefs always get their way. But let's be honest, like it was absolute total BS what happened on that tush push. Like the offensive, like the line is moving before the ball is snapped. They're getting that head start. It's impossible to stop that. And in the Bengals game, they called an offsides on Rizner on our first goal line sneak, which I think our version of the tush push. They called the Bengals offensive.

Nick (30:18)
Well, nobody's figured out

a way to replicate it, so...

Neil (30:23)
I But like, I mean, it's a clear penalty. I don't know why you can't review it. They need to, but it was absurd.

Nick (30:33)
But you're right, if they're getting a head start and they're getting that low, you have zero chance. And then Jalen Hurts is, mean, as strong as any quarterback in the league, is just gonna come plowing through there. And that's why it's been as successful as it has, but-

Neil (30:48)
You got something cool.

Well, he also

had one the strongest running backs in the league pushing him as well.

Nick (30:54)
Yeah, I mean, but do you see what Dan Blandino, you see what he said like during the game? So he's obviously Fox's rules analyst, comes in when they're having any kind of, you know, review to kind of give his two cents. But during the game on the broadcast, this is Dean Blandino. I am done with the tush push guys.

Neil (31:01)
I did not know

Yeah.

Nick (31:22)
It's just a hard play to officiate. He then went on to say, it's 50-50 that the tush push survives in the next season.

Neil (31:31)
They just voted on it, they're just gonna bring it back to a vote again?

Nick (31:35)
Well, they did vote on it. I think it was two teams short of it being eliminated 22 of the 32 teams voted to ban it. think two more needed to vote to ban it in order for it to be banned. I just said banned 47 times in two seconds. ⁓ But yeah, I mean.

Neil (31:38)
Yeah.

But what,

have you seen, what other team does a tush push? Like, so then why wouldn't all other 31 teams say ban it? They're not doing it, so why? Come on, yeah, that's what saying. If you're the other 31 teams, if you're the other 31 teams that aren't even doing this play, why don't you just say ban it? It doesn't affect you.

Nick (32:00)
Nobody can do it.

The chargers, I think, tried to do it and it just looked like a reject version of the fish push.

And it's,

I mean, it's not a football play. This is rugby.

Neil (32:22)
It is rugby. It's absolutely rugby.

Nick (32:23)
And if somebody invented a play in basketball where there was a certain situation where it was like you were unable to stop it, which I can't really think of a comparison, but if this happened in another sport, I don't think you would allow it to continue to happen, would you?

Neil (32:40)
No.

I would assume not, no.

Nick (32:43)
So I don't know. It's just any.

Neil (32:45)
I don't understand

that if you're like the, if you're the New England Patriots or the San Diego or the LA Chargers and you say no don't ban it, well why not? You're not running it, so what's the point, you're only helping your opponent by not banning it. You're not running the play so why does it matter to you? Why do you want to keep it? I just don't get that. It is very boring. They run it about, they run it a million times a game.

Nick (33:03)
It's also... It's also boring. Like...

is fourth and one not supposed to be like the most exciting play in football? Or one of? It's one of? in most...

Neil (33:17)
supposed to do. Yeah, can get some really creative. You can do a play

action, throw a bomb, you can do a sneak, maybe something else.

Nick (33:24)
Yeah, and field position

can change. Like if you don't get it, right? It's a big, chance for us to get the ball. And a lot of times on the other side of the field where we're, you know, got short field position and now with the Eagles, every single time you, they're going for it. I mean, you know that there's no chance that you're going to stop it.

Neil (33:28)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know on Sunday when the Eagles run this again, I'll bet they get flagged more than one time in the next game when they try to run this. Because they're going to be watching this now. This is going to be a major, major point of emphasis watching them when they line up for this play.

Nick (33:52)
I can be looking for it.

Yeah, so after two weeks we have several 2-0 teams, which the Bengals are finally included in that number. The Bills, the Bengals, the Colts, the Chargers, the Eagles, the Packers, the Bucks, the entire NFC West, the 49ers, the Cardinals, and the Rams. I think last year...

Neil (34:10)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (34:29)
seven of eight teams that started 2-0 made the playoffs. If you had to pick one of those 2-0 teams not to make the playoffs, who you rolling with?

Neil (34:39)
I'm just picking one, picking one team.

Nick (34:40)
Is this pic?

Neil (34:43)
I'm not picking the Cincinnati Bengals if that's case. If I had to pick two, the Cincinnati Bengals might be in there, but it's got to be the Arizona Cardinals. I mean, I think that that's their 2-0 record, think, right now is Smoke and Mears. They played, what's that? Yeah, they had one score, one than a touchdown win against the lowly New Orleans Saints.

Nick (34:54)
Who were their wins against? You looked that up. Who were their wins against?

Neil (35:05)
And then also a less than a touchdown win against the Carolina Panthers. So not exactly two juggernauts that they're barely squeaking by here in weeks one and two. When their schedule gets a little tougher, they get into division play and they're playing, you know, the two and O Rams and ⁓ the Seahawks and the two and O 49ers. You know, they're still step up in competition. They're not going to, they'll come back to earth.

Nick (35:27)
Well, and I think the division plays a big role in that too. I think the Niners are pretty good. I think the Rams are pretty good. Seahawks just went on the road and won in Pittsburgh. I think they're pretty good. And I look at those four teams and the Cardinals to me are the fourth best team in that division. And yeah, you wanna start off 2-0, but yeah, that's one of the teams. I'm gonna say the Colts and I just don't think that they can maintain. I know that's gonna piss you off.

Neil (35:37)
Yeah.

Nick (35:56)
I don't think they can maintain this throughout the year. Maybe this is a non-sport, huh? I think the Jaguars are better this year. I don't think the Texans are as bad as they've been in the first two games. Both of their games have been close. They haven't looked great. I'm not going to say they have, but still both of their games have been competitive. I think the Jaguars under Liam Coom are a lot better than they were last year. You still got a quarterback in Trevor Lawrence who is

Neil (36:01)
So who's going to catch him in that division? Who's going to catch him in the division?

Nick (36:25)
I still think one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. So I just think that division's a little tough. Let's make Danny Dodge prove me wrong again.

Neil (36:28)
Ooh, hot.

Hold on now. Hold on. Hold on. That division is a little tough. Thank you. The AFC, I don't want ever hear you say that the AFC South is a little tough. Like, let's walk that back.

Nick (36:40)
It is not tough. I get you right. You need to call me out on that. Call me out on that.

Call me out on that.

It's not, it is not tough and I'm glad that you called me out on that. I still think the Jaguars and the Texans are a little better in the Colts long term. dude, Danny Dines proved me wrong. Proved me wrong. You've proved me wrong in the first two weeks. Continue to do it. I didn't pick you up on fantasy waiver wires because I'm still not, not exactly sold, but we'll see.

Neil (36:52)
You

You think?

I mean, they beat a pretty good team, the Denver Broncos. I know it took a penalty to get them over the hump, but that's a pretty good team that they just beat on Sunday.

Nick (37:19)
It took a little miracle.

I know and I ever the Denver has great defense and that's why everybody's so high on them. I want to see Bo Nicks in year two. You know, see what what he's going to look like. Is he going to have a little sophomore slump? I'm not as high on the Broncos as a lot of people because of that. Their defense is going to keep them in games, but I mean, Cortland Sutton hasn't done much in the first two games. He's been I know that because he's on pretty much all of my fantasy teams. So.

Neil (37:50)
Yeah

Nick (37:53)
I mean, and also this is a hard exercise. A lot of these 2-0 teams are good, and they're like the Bills. I'm not gonna pick the Bills, not to make the playoffs. And I think the obvious pick for a lot of people would be the Bengals because Joe Burrow's down. But I still think that, like I said, think Browning's a starting quarterback in the NFL, and I still think they can make the playoffs.

Neil (38:17)
agree with that.

Nick (38:18)
On the other side, flip the coin, the 0 and 2 teams. The Jets, the Dolphins, the Browns, the Texans, the Titans, the Chiefs, the Giants, the Bears, the Saints, the Panthers. Those are your 0 and 2 teams. I got a number for you. Post 2020 expansion, when they expanded the playoffs to 7 teams on each side.

Neil (38:22)
Yeah.

Mmm.

Nick (38:47)
The success rate for 0-2 teams has been 38 out of 43 have missed the postseason. So five teams since 2020 have started 0-2 and made the postseason. We talked about this a little beforehand. Who's going to be your 0-2 team to make the playoffs? Can you pick somebody besides the Chiefs?

Neil (39:07)
I mean, no, no. You named a lot of really, really bad teams on that list right there, that 0 and 2 list. I mean, I think the obvious answer is the Chiefs. I don't think they're going to win their division. think the Chargers. I mean, I picked the Broncos preseason, but the Chargers just look like they're head and shoulders above everybody right now after two weeks. I think the Chiefs can still get a wild card, especially with Joe Burrow being hurt. That kind of brings the Bengals down a little bit. ⁓ But it's the Chiefs. My own's.

Still a winner, they still have talent. They can get Rashid Rice back here in what, three, four more weeks. If Worthy can get back healthy, Worthy can get back healthy. mean, they lost what, a 10 point game to the defending Super Bowl champions. It was a one score game against the Chargers out in Brazil. So they've been competitive against two really, really good teams. I think they're gonna win their fair share of games and probably get a wild card spot.

Nick (40:03)
Yeah, I mean, it's the obvious answer. That's why I tried to see if you could pick somebody besides them to make this a little more interesting. It's Texans. Yeah, it's the Texans.

Neil (40:06)
If I had to pick, there's only one other option. Because like I said, the only team, it's the Texans. It's absolutely.

I mean, they played two tough games against a playoff team in the Bucks. And I forgot who they played week one.

Nick (40:21)
They lost their ramps.

Neil (40:23)
the ranks another playoff team so they know that they played two tough opponents played them very tough and they had that game almost won the other night except for Baker Mayfield was Baker and you know came back and drove down the field and won the game but the Texans probably the other choice because everybody else on that list is just booty

Nick (40:41)
Dude,

you mentioned Baker. Like, how about his story,

Neil (40:45)
actually love it man. I thought he was in college, he was a little obnoxious, not very likable. But since he's gotten to the league, thank god he's off the Browns because I hated when he was with the Browns, but I've actually become a fan of his with the Bucks. I he was with the Panthers, never got a fair shot there. Where else has he been? Has been anywhere else?

Nick (41:03)
Well,

obviously we started with the Browns, then went to the Panthers, then he went to the Rams for like a day.

Neil (41:06)
The Rams.

Yeah, the Rams for a day. Yeah. So I love to see him getting his resurgence there in Tampa. He's playing well. Let him do the playoffs last year. He's finally got some talent around him like he didn't have in Cleveland or in Carolina. He does have a decent football team that he can play with and he's showing, I mean, he's competitive dude. Like he's a winner.

Nick (41:27)
Well, you

think the Browns would rather have Baker out there than 80 year old Joe Flacco. But like, I know like his story to me is, I mean, he was obviously a top draft pick at the Browns and they kind of gave up on him pretty early really for somebody you drafted as high as they drafted him. And then he goes to the Panthers, he goes to the Rams and he's seeking out a job. And I mean, if he fails at this bucks opportunity, he's done. But you're not, you're probably not getting another opportunity after playing for four franchises.

Neil (41:52)
Yeah.

No.

No.

Nick (41:57)
And to do what he's done at the Bucs, they've made the playoffs every year. He's been the starting quarterback. He got his extension, he got paid. And when they're down in the fourth quarter and he's got the ball, do you ever have a doubt that they're gonna go down and score and win the game?

Neil (42:12)
No, he's proven it. No.

Nick (42:14)
And then he gets hurt on that scramble and he's like, Jesus me. And then he just remembers that he's Baker and he has to get up and go run the next play.

Neil (42:17)
Got it.

He gave, was a Gardner Johnson, a little earful to his face. Yeah, I love it. That's what he does. That's Baker being Baker. I love that competitiveness.

Nick (42:28)
Right? I mean... Yeah.

I think if he's your quarterback, you just love it. And we talked about the Browns and one of the things on Sunday is the Ravens hosted the Browns. Did you know that they had a little pregame ceremony for their 30th anniversary in Baltimore while Cleveland is there? Is that kind of art model of them rubbing it in the Browns face?

Neil (42:38)
Absolutely.

Yep.

⁓ no. ⁓ no. That's just, that's just throwing. that is just

rubbing the Cleveland Brown Faithful. It's in their face on that. That's brutal.

Nick (43:04)
And then

you have to add to the story, you've got Joe Flacco being recognized, who's the Brown's quarterback because obviously he's, I'm gonna tell Lamar, the best quarterback in Raven's history.

Neil (43:18)
Yeah, I did not know that they celebrated the 30th anniversary of them making the move to Baltimore from Cleveland. That's rough.

Nick (43:27)
They

claimed that it was inadvertent and it just happened to be the first game of the season, which our first home game of the season, which it was, which it was. But yeah, a lot of Browns fans not very happy about the Ravens honoring their 30th anniversary in Baltimore while the Browns are in the

Neil (43:31)
She's sure.

We all knew that was, I mean, we've known it was the first game of season for a couple of months now.

Nick (43:51)
You know, another thing, Neil, this week that has caught a lot of attention is you're watching the Raiders play and you see Tom Brady in the coaches booth with the headset a night after or a day after he called the game on Fox. I mean, to me, as somebody who's been around coaches, who's been around media, there's a little bit of conflict of interest here because, you know, the broadcasters are gonna wanna talk to coaches to get some insight and

Neil (44:06)
Mm-mm.

Nick (44:21)
If I'm a coach and I'm talking to Brady before a game and we play them in four weeks, I'm gonna leave out some information. therefore Tom Brady can't do the best job that he can and he's making what $40 million a year on Fox?

Neil (44:36)
Yeah, yeah. It's definitely a conflict of interest. There's no doubt about it. I mean, if you are one those opponents that plays the Raiders down the road, obviously you're not going to give out a lot of information. ⁓ Are you just going to give out basic stuff that Tom Brady can just look at game film and figure out himself about your team? Or are you going to go into a little more depth? Obviously you're not going to go in depth on it because he is an owner of the Raiders. But if you're Fox, what do do?

Brady, can't sit in your coach's box of the team that you own. You're not taking off the air. mean, he's Tom Brady, you're not taking off the air.

Nick (45:10)
I to me, he's got to one of the

other. He's got to pick one of the other. You can't do both. I mean, I'm not going to turn down a $40 million job a year to talk about football, but also, he's probably not going to give up his ownership of the Raiders. So I don't know what he does.

Neil (45:18)
What?

Who's gonna tell them that you can't do both? Somebody gonna tell them you absolutely can't do both?

Nick (45:39)
Do you think

Roger Goodell is going to have the balls to do that?

Neil (45:42)
No, absolutely not, and neither is Fox. Fox isn't gonna be like, alright, you can't do this. If you're gonna work for us, no.

Nick (45:46)
So it sure

as hell ain't gonna be Nick Evans that tells Tom Brady that he has to pick one, even though that's what I think.

Neil (45:52)
Nobody's telling Tom

Brady anything. mean, if Tom Brady feels that he's doing something wrong and comes to that decision on his own, then that's probably the only way that this is gonna happen. But there is no rule that the NFL is gonna come up with and Fox isn't gonna say you can't do this or you're not gonna be on the air. Like nobody's gonna tell him to do it. He's gonna have to do it on his own.

Nick (46:13)
Well, if coaches continue to not tell him anything and he's not getting the insight that broadcasters are supposed to get, maybe Fox would be the only one, cuz it ain't gonna be Roger Goodell. Fox would be the only one that would be like, you know what, dude, you gotta pick one or the other. ⁓

Neil (46:21)
That's what you do. I think that's the way it.

No, that's the only way.

Yeah.

The only way that you're going to get him out of it, like only way that you're going to get him to pick one or the other is, as you said, coaches don't talk to him or coaches don't give him much information and he ends up sucking at his job on Fox.

Nick (46:43)
I mean, you see him with the headset on, dude, he's he could start calling place.

Neil (46:48)
Tom Brady has seen enough football and he's smart enough to figure some things out on his own. So even if coaches didn't talk to him about a lot of things, I think he can study that. I'm sure he preps several days in advance for the game that he knows he's gonna call and looks at film and reports and all that. And I think he can come to his own conclusions. I don't think he needs.

Nick (47:06)
think you can too,

but you're still missing some things. Like you can't read coaches minds and know what they're thinking and know what their mindset is going to games. And that's a part of a broadcasters job is to have that conversation. Now a coach doesn't have to tell you what they're going to run on third down. He doesn't have to tell you what they're going to run to start the game, what defense they're going to run primarily, but still they're going to share you insight that helped you call the game. That's a part of being a broadcaster and he's not allowed to do his job.

to his best ability because of his other responsibilities. And I think that's an issue.

Neil (47:40)
It's an issue for who, Fox?

Nick (47:42)
Yeah, it's an issue for Fox, especially when they're paying him as much as they are.

Neil (47:45)
and you don't think that people are going to stop watching Fox because Tom Brady is not doing the job to best of his abilities? No, No. No.

Nick (47:52)
I mean, know I don't and

maybe I'm the only person that hurts. But I just see him in the booth with the headset on a night after he called a game and I'm just like, dude, can you can you really do both? And it's so I guess he's like they're never gonna do a Raiders game, right? That would really be a conflict of interest.

Neil (48:05)
It's weird. It's... Yeah, it's weird. It's...

Yeah, would, yeah, probably not.

Nick (48:21)
So yeah, I don't know what the resolution is here and it's probably nothing. It's definitely nothing this year. I just think there's something off on it and I don't know, just kind of irks me a little bit.

Neil (48:35)
I guess

at some point there's gonna come a time where Brady needs to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his football life. Does he want to get into the ownership part of it? he want to get into... No, I know, but like does he want to continue? Does he want to be like an owner? Does he want to be a coach maybe? I don't know. Or is he happy just sitting in the TV booth making his 50 million dollars like the rest of us would be? But maybe he just likes that side of football like that...

Nick (48:45)
He's already done that.

Neil (49:01)
being involved in the actual game of football, that maybe he quits the TV gig and gets more involved in that coaching slash ownership role. Or maybe he becomes a GM or something like that.

Nick (49:11)
Yeah, I mean, maybe he will come to the decision and he's probably the only one that because he's not gonna be forced to make a decision by either side and we we've discussed that but I don't know. It's just kind of odd to me. You've got an NFL owner calling games and but when it's the goat, I guess you can do whatever you want.

Neil (49:19)
Yeah.

He's untouchable. He's untouchable.

Nick (49:34)
So we haven't talked much college football. It's been primarily NFL, but Clemson lost another tough one. Georgia Tech, Georgia Tech looks real, dude.

Neil (49:42)
Yep.

Haynes King, Jamal Haynes, Haynes King, Jamal Haynes, that tech's rolling, yeah.

Nick (49:46)
Nice game.

You see him on game day dude and he's warming up and he's interviewing with the game day crew. He just looks composed, he looks like the real deal. Obviously that's a big win for them but Clemson now.

Neil (50:05)
Well, how

about the end of that game where with no timeouts, they run a play, do the fire drill, run the kicking team on for a 55 yarder, and the dude just straight drilled it. I mean, it wasn't even close. He hit it, it would have been 70 yards it looked like. An incredible, incredible kick.

Nick (50:20)
majors.

just money.

No, it was awesome. you know, anytime you're running that fire drill, whether it's from 30 or 40, like it's still tough because you're running a lot of moving parts, you know, and it's the snap, it's the hold, it's the kick, like everything's got to be perfect. And they nailed that thing. But what a win for Coach Key and Georgia Tech. They look like they're going to be competing to potentially win an ACC title, maybe.

even sneak into the playoff. Obviously, if they can do that, they would get in the playoff. But they look like a real contender. But what you think Dabo, would he give his team the grade this week?

Neil (51:02)
What's on the report

card? What's on the Davo report card this week? He did start it. think the grades have slowly... They're bringing the class average down. Let's just say that.

Nick (51:05)
Is this gonna become a segment every week? He started it. We didn't start this.

But he had a little presser earlier this week and had some things to say, right?

Neil (51:23)
He did, what did he say? Let me find this quote here. said, ⁓ Davos Sweeney responding to critics, mean, mean, if Clemson is tired of winning, they can send me on my way, but I'm gonna go somewhere else and coach. I ain't going to the bench.

Thank you.

Nick (51:41)
I mean,

he's feeling it a little bit. I think you can tell from that quote. They're one and two and they were down 16 and 0 Detroit in their one win. A lot of guys were picking them to be the number one team in the country. They returned a lot of their starters from a year ago and it hasn't looked pretty the first three weeks.

Neil (51:46)
I mean.

Nick (52:08)
We thought maybe their grade went up a little bit and that went over Troy after what he scored on LSU, like a 38 or something like that. And I mean, after you lose to Georgia Tech, I don't know what their grade is, but he's feeling the pressure a little bit.

Neil (52:16)
Yeah.

I

mean, I guess he's feeling the pressure. I Clemson fans aren't used to getting off to one or two starts and they're all upset about it. I mean, if you're a Clemson fan, you gotta be real here. Dabo's won you eight conference championships in last 10 years. He's won you multiple national championships. He's been in the college football playoff seemingly half of the years that it's been in existence. He's a legend. It would be a huge mistake if you try to run off Dabo Sweeney. And he's right.

Nick (52:50)
They're not trying to

Neil (52:51)
He ain't going, he ain't quitting. So if you run him off, he's just going to go somewhere else. He's going to coach and he's probably going to be successful there too at some big game. But I mean, I understand the frustrations, but come on, like the dude's a legend. Eight out of 10, eight conference championships in 10 years. And I sent them out of it this year. Like they run the table this year, they can win another one.

Nick (52:58)
He ain't going nowhere. He ain't going nowhere. I mean, he built that program.

No, he's not going away.

Yeah, and you know, they are out of the top 25.

know, Notre Dame's all the down at the bottom of the top 25. They're 0-2. After the first three weeks of season, whose position would you rather be in, Notre Dame or Clemson's?

Neil (53:32)
I would probably I mean Notre Dame's look like a better team and they got absolutely hosed by not getting that holding call against A You know, they went toe-to-toe with Miami at Miami I think Notre Dame's probably a little bit of a better team has a better chance of coming back But they don't have that conference championship in that conference ⁓ Can't championship potential game to play in and win to get themselves into the playoffs So they were relying strictly on being an at-large team. So maybe you would rather be Clemson because you still have that path

Nick (54:01)
Come on man, the committee ain't leaving Notre Dame out if they're close. You know that. But you're right, I get it, the holding call, they might hold on every single call, like every single play.

Neil (54:05)
I know. I know that.

I mean, that dude got tackled.

We all saw it. He got wrapped around the waist and tackled from behind. It was egregious.

Nick (54:21)
No, it was bad. It was bad. But I think you're right. I think of those two teams, I think I'd rather be in Notre Dame's position right now. ⁓ That is what you said,

Neil (54:32)
I said I would, because I think they're the better team, yes. But like, they don't have that conference championship game to fall back on if they need it.

Nick (54:38)
Yeah, like I said, nobody's gonna leave Notre Dame out if they're close to the hunt.

Neil (54:44)
I agree.

Nick (54:46)
So Neil, I guess one little last thing here before we wrap it up. A couple of weeks ago, one of our, don't remember what episode it was, but we were talking at the beginning of college football season, how we were already, hadn't even started NFL yet, how we were already annoyed at these third down announcers every single time there's a third down, whether...

it's NFL, it's college, no matter where it is, they all sound exactly the same with the third down.

Neil (55:19)
⁓ man.

Ugh. Yum.

Nick (55:22)
And one of the most annoying things in football, and I hate how it's grown to what it is. But we got a story regarding the third down chant.

Neil (55:30)
Uh-huh.

Okay, let's hear this one.

Nick (55:37)
Del Carter was, I think the Chiefs have multiple PA guys, but he was the main guy that was responsible for what he called his iconic third down call.

Neil (55:43)
Okay.

iconic.

Nick (55:54)
Iconic so

I mean everybody does it. I don't know how it can be iconic if everybody's doing the exact same thing But he's been doing it. He's been the PA guy for the Chiefs since 2009 so 16 years and He's quoted by saying last season as we were heading to playoffs the people I worked for told me they were hearing from a high level That someone had heard another PA guy at another stadium

Neil (56:09)
Uh-huh.

Nick (56:24)
really amp it up on third down and they wanted me to experiment with different calls. He wasn't really, he wasn't feeling that like it's iconic, it's his. I don't really know how these other people are making it different when they all sound exactly the same. But on at the beginning of September, they told Dale Carter that they wanted one of their other PA guys

Neil (56:35)
I'm in there.

Nick (56:51)
to do the third down call to shake things up. You don't know what Dale Carter's response was?

Neil (56:54)
own.

⁓ no. What did old Dale do?

Nick (57:01)
He said, that's my red line. Good luck. he quit.

Neil (57:05)
⁓

out of all the things possible to quit over, the iconic third down call was it for him, huh?

Nick (57:15)
So did Dale make the right call or not? Quitting his job because he didn't want to give up the third down chat.

Neil (57:19)
Me after.

mean, if that's the reason you're giving up your job, then did you really, really like your job to begin with? That's the reason. I mean, you've been there for six.

Nick (57:30)
He had other quotes

talking about how much he enjoyed it and like this was his time to move on and do other things and spend time with family. I mean, it's once.

Neil (57:38)
Sure, I think that

maybe if that's the reason he was already looking for reason to get out, maybe it was.

Nick (57:42)
Dude, you're not traveling

with the team. Like you're you maybe have two games, three at the most a month. Like, is that really keeping you away from your family?

Neil (57:54)
There's got to be something else because I mean if you've been there for 16 years and you think that you're an icon and that the fans all love you and everything else Then why are you leaving? Why you leave it to me?

Nick (58:04)
So

he's blood hard a little bit.

Neil (58:08)
over that, over something that nobody really even likes anyway. Now are we the minority? Are we the minority here?

Nick (58:11)
But we're not,

we are absolutely not the minority.

Neil (58:16)
We might need a poll. We might need to put a poll out there on the Facebook or somewhere. I want to know people's thoughts on the third down. Maybe there are some fans that get fired up over some other dudes. What did he say? He amped them up a little more or something?

Nick (58:18)
Bye, need a-

It was just

a little different. They were looking for something a little different. And look, from our argument standpoint, yeah, we would love something a little different because they're all the same. But I don't believe that it actually is different.

Neil (58:42)
Well, to see that's now that's my question is if old Dale, the iconic Dale who did started this whole third down, somebody else did something different. What did that sound like? Because to me, they all sound the same. I'd like to know what somebody thought was different. I'd like to hear it. I guess maybe I need to hear the two versions to figure it out, but.

Nick (58:55)
Well, guess we gonna have to

We're gonna have to pay a little attention next time the Chiefs got a whole home game.

Neil (59:05)
they start beatboxing or something?

Nick (59:06)
I guarantee you it sounds exactly the same and like these marketing people are probably idiots. Dale's probably overreacting by quitting like it's just it's all just a bunch of hard-headed people doing dumb stuff and now it ends with Dale spending more time with his family and some other guy who's now gonna do the same exact damn thing that Dale already did.

Neil (59:10)
Probably.

I need to tune in to the next Chiefs game and see if I can hear it.

Nick (59:38)
No,

we have to, I do. hope Dale enjoys the time with his family. I hope he's able to rest his vocal cords a little bit. And I compared it to what? Try to squeeze one out like you're constipated. Hopefully he can handle his business a little better now that he doesn't have to do the third down chain all the time.

Neil (1:00:01)
Good point.

Nick (1:00:03)
But yeah, dude, like it's funny. Like we just talked about this two weeks ago and some dude just quitting because somebody else is taking over his job. once. Well, maybe some people like it. Marketing people obviously love it. The people that are overseeing the marketing of all college and NFL teams. But don't count me into that that makes.

Neil (1:00:13)
over something that nobody even likes anyway.

I would like to see, can we put a poll up this week, see if anybody responds? The two people that listen, see if they actually like the third down.

Nick (1:00:35)
Yeah, that

was going to be my concern with the poll is really three to two. Is that really we want something out there where five people are voting in our poll?

Neil (1:00:45)
It's a majority. It's a small majority.

I mean, we did get

some feedback now. We did get some feedback in the comments on the burger debate. So maybe we'll get a little bit of feedback on this.

Nick (1:00:59)
Yeah.

Will we do a Sunday pod now that the NFL season is here? We're 0 for 2.

Neil (1:01:09)
Yeah, I feel good about this week. We are, the Bengals are on the road. We sought to figure out where we're watching this game. If we're watching it at voted number one sports basement bar in the city of Louisville tailgaters or be watching it in my basement, your basement doesn't have a ceiling right now probably. So that one might be out a little bit. We'll see what you have in a couple of days.

Nick (1:01:27)
It's just the laundry room. The one advantage,

the one advantage is was it's only the laundry room. So I can, I can just shut the door. It's now all cleaned up. We took care that today, but.

Neil (1:01:38)
Okay,

that's good, but we got to figure that out. I think we could probably pull off a pod this Sunday.

Nick (1:01:44)
All right, well, let's see what we can do. Hopefully, we're talking to you again on Sunday night as we'll wrap up the college football and NFL weekend. Dude, I'm doing the wrap up and you're gonna, now you're doing one more? All right.

Neil (1:01:52)
I do have one more thing for you. One more. We're bringing it

back up and up. Guess what tomorrow is. Do you know what tomorrow is? It's National Burger Day. So if anybody wants to try the double cheeseburger from Dairy Queen, it's free with a $1 purchase. So go to your local Dairy Queens, try you the double cheeseburger. All you gotta do is spend a dollar, get you a small Coke to go with it, and some of which things.

Nick (1:02:01)
What's tomorrow? What's tomorrow?

All right, so I know where you're going.

Have you already secured a s-

Neil (1:02:20)
Or McDonald's

is bringing back 50 cent double cheeseburgers

Nick (1:02:24)
Have you already secured a sponsorship?

Well, DQ's free.

Neil (1:02:32)
DQ is free with a dollar purchase. We have McDonald's with a 50 cent double cheeseburger. Burger King, a free cheeseburger with a dollar purchase. Half price Western cheeseburgers at Hardee's. Sonic, buy one get one free cheeseburger. So, you know, whatever they like, whatever our fans like. Everybody's got a deal. So go get your cheeseburger from your favorite burger place tomorrow. Mine's there.

Nick (1:02:57)
Look at you bringing

in some deep, deep research for the pod. Dude, so like can you go to different DQs and get a bunch of them?

Neil (1:03:00)
Mine's Dairy Queen. You know I'll be there.

yeah, why not?

Nick (1:03:10)
So just make

sure there's no plastic in it.

Neil (1:03:13)
Make sure you spend your dollar.

Nick (1:03:17)
Alright, hopefully we're talking to you on Sunday. We'll talk, obviously we'll wrap up college and NFL schedule For Neil I'm Nick. Thanks for listening to the Height Differential, powered by Gritily.