• 2 months ago
The Calgary Flames made a couple of really questionable moves over the weekend. Peter Klein breaks down his thoughts on what they are doing and why he is so frustrated about it. Then, he runs through the NFL schedule and gives his thoughts on why the NFL is in the shape it is in right now. Peter also runs through the CFL schedule before diving into WWE Bad Blood. Peter explains why he loved part of it but was overwhelmed by a lot of the show. He then looks ahead to AEW Wrestledream this weekend as well as the Bivol/Beterbiev fight. The show closes with the NBA preview looking at things Peter is worried he could be wrong about.

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Transcript
00:00:00Welcome, everyone, to Couch Potato Diary.
00:00:08Happy Monday.
00:00:09My name's Peter Kline.
00:00:10Thank you very much for tuning in today.
00:00:14Alright, looks like my light behind me is not going to work, so we're just going to
00:00:19get spotlight.
00:00:20Who was that?
00:00:21Ain't English.
00:00:22Spotlight, please.
00:00:23Hey, Deeds.
00:00:24How's it going?
00:00:25So, coming up on the show today, I'm going to be looking at the news of the day from
00:00:30the Calgary Flames, and then getting into everything that happened in the NFL, going
00:00:37to be getting into WWE Bad Blood, a little bit of UFC, admittedly, I didn't see the show,
00:00:43so just saw some clips and whatever like that, so not going to be the most in-depth breakdown
00:00:48today, going to be doing a little bit more on that as the week goes along, NBA preview
00:00:52stuff continuing as well with a little bit of CFL talk mixed in, so going to be a very,
00:00:57very busy show.
00:00:59As always, thank you guys so much for hanging out today, but let's start with the Flames
00:01:04news of the day and the weekend.
00:01:10So, first of all, I guess the stuff that's happening most recently is that Igor Sharongovich
00:01:24is going to be placed on IR, and I believe the diagnosis or prognosis or whatever the
00:01:32correct osis is, is week to week, I believe that's what we're saying, yes, week to week,
00:01:40with a lower body injury sustained in Friday's preseason finale, he is now on injured reserve,
00:01:46that tweet coming from one Pat Steinberg, so pretty reliable, I would say.
00:01:51And so, like, initially, and as Toxic pointed out in the chat here before we really got
00:01:56rocking and rolling today, that sucks, like, the main takeaway from it is that this sucks,
00:02:03this is a kid who was coming off of so easily the best year of his career, and a breakout,
00:02:10and now he's going into a new contract, and doing all of these things, and hurt.
00:02:15And like, we have just seen so many examples where an injury in the preseason, even just
00:02:20the last one, when you don't get to start the year on time, and you're making your season
00:02:24debut November, December time, it just, it takes a little bit of time for you to get
00:02:30up, and I'm not going to say, well, gonna be a lost season for Sharongovich, cause he's
00:02:34still a talented kid, but it just takes so long to really get that ramping up.
00:02:39And so that gets a little bit frustrating, and just a little bit demoralizing.
00:02:44And so you just, you feel bad for the kid who gets hurt in a preseason game.
00:02:48Again, a reminder, the eighth preseason game.
00:02:52So, just quick sidebar on this whole thing, preseason, simply too long.
00:02:58We don't need that much preseason, we don't want that much preseason, stop with having
00:03:02that much preseason.
00:03:03So there's that, A.
00:03:06B, now from a Flames standpoint, and as Toxic was saying in the chat here again, this makes
00:03:11the Pelce waiver thing that much more of a head-scratcher, those, again, his exact words,
00:03:20in the chat.
00:03:21And I would tend to agree.
00:03:22If you saw this coming, and you knew this was coming, this was now an opportunity for
00:03:27you to not have to deal with that.
00:03:29And just, okay, well, this is the thing that has now allowed us to just not have to worry
00:03:34about it.
00:03:36So, boom, there we go, Pelce gets to not go on waivers, and potentially not get claimed,
00:03:43and go over to the Montreal Canadiens, or whoever that may be.
00:03:48And so this just, this felt like a really unfortunate one, but this felt like a kind
00:03:53of get-out-of-jail-free card, where you just, you had this decision, it's like, oh, where
00:03:58are we going to fit him in?
00:03:59Now it's okay, now he fits, there we go, it works, it worked out perfectly for us.
00:04:03We now didn't have to give up this kid on the waiver wire, and potentially give up a
00:04:12former first-round pick for literally exactly nothing.
00:04:18And so that's, that is why I just, I don't get it.
00:04:24And so we should be getting, I think, kind of any moment now, the word on all the waiver
00:04:30claims and all of those things.
00:04:32There was a ton of them, and so there's, you know, all of that going on, and everything
00:04:39like that.
00:04:40So I, I, we will wait and see, we will react together, but this just, this, the Sharon
00:04:49Kovach injury should have just, you know, taken care of that whole thing.
00:04:55So I just, I don't understand it.
00:04:57So now that it hasn't, now that we have kind of accepted the insanity of the situation
00:05:03and the frustration of the situation and the, okay, well now, like now, now that we have
00:05:08just assessed and dealt with it and moved on, we can now figure out what do they do
00:05:14now?
00:05:15Because they're, like, we can't just harp this whole time on, well, they should have
00:05:18done this, well, they should have done that, well, they should have done this, well, they
00:05:21should have done that.
00:05:22And it's like, okay, well, they didn't, so what are we going to do now?
00:05:26And the thing that we do now, I think, and we'll see, because again, logic hasn't entered
00:05:33into all of this, is I would imagine this is the Coronado spot that everyone was looking
00:05:40for.
00:05:41This was, and like Toxic said, Pelce, even if he doesn't get claimed, or even though
00:05:47he was on waivers, he would still be a guy that, he would still be a guy that you would
00:05:53think, like, okay, this guy can fill in this spot, right?
00:05:57And like, there's, I think, an easy-ish path forward to it, where you put, either you just
00:06:04straight line, Pelce goes into that spot, and it's Pelce, Kadri, and Kuzmenko, and you
00:06:11just roll with that.
00:06:13You can certainly, I think, justify that pretty clearly.
00:06:17Or I think another one would be put Pelce with Backlund and Coleman, and again, I know,
00:06:21again, there's a bit of a assessment issue, because everyone looks good with those guys.
00:06:27But you put him there, and you put Zari with Kadri, who he's obviously comfortable with,
00:06:33and have that kind of continue on.
00:06:36So I think that there was a way to do that as well, and have Pelce fit.
00:06:39So that's why, like, again, the roster construction-wise, it fits.
00:06:43But I do think, like, you were looking for a spot in the top six for Matt Coronado.
00:06:49There it is.
00:06:50There's his spot.
00:06:51He's balled out in the preseason again, and I think has now an opportunity to go out and
00:06:58really show what he can do, and be this guy now who, like, this is someone who we think
00:07:04is going to be this top six goal scorer for this team for years and years and years and
00:07:09years and years to come.
00:07:13Let him be that now.
00:07:14Let him go out and do that.
00:07:15So this one seems like the obvious one to me, anyway, is that this is where Coronado
00:07:20kind of slots in, and maybe there's a waiver roster thing that I'm unfamiliar with, but
00:07:25that just seems like the easiest solution.
00:07:27Again, you don't like when injuries pop up, especially to someone who is a young player,
00:07:31and you think is at least going to be a piece of something going forward with this group.
00:07:36But it does provide an opportunity, and hopefully now, this is an opportunity that someone takes
00:07:42full advantage of.
00:07:44In the chat, Toxic again saying, yeah, if he doesn't get claimed, does he just stay
00:07:47on the team?
00:07:49We just laid it out.
00:07:50That definitely could work, for sure.
00:07:52Deeds.
00:07:53Short of, they thought Sharky was going to be day-to-day, or they were just trying to
00:07:57get pelts through while GMs were scrambling to get their roster set.
00:08:01And that is, I think, a part of this as well, is that there are, like, the Flames are in
00:08:07a roster crunch.
00:08:08That is why they put everyone on waivers.
00:08:11So now, everyone else is on a roster crunch, and so they, you know, had to put everyone
00:08:17on waivers, so no one really has the room to just throw this kid on.
00:08:21But the one thing I kept coming back to, in this whole situation, is if someone else did
00:08:29this, and maybe there have, and to be honest, I didn't go through the whole list, like,
00:08:33it was a lot.
00:08:34But if someone else put a former first-round pick, who has kind of been hindered by injuries
00:08:40mainly, and that has, I think, limited things down to inconsistent playing time, which has
00:08:48brought inconsistent results.
00:08:49Like, there is, you can very easily see how this is someone who hasn't been utilized.
00:08:54And so if anyone else did this, and put that player on waivers, we would want the Flames
00:08:59to claim them, and just find a spot for them.
00:09:01And this is the spot where you come in, and now all of these opportunities are here, and
00:09:06we can provide you with those.
00:09:07So, that's why it made no sense to me to then give up the exact type of player that
00:09:13everyone thinks you should be looking for at this time.
00:09:17And so that is why I just don't, I just simply do not get this whole thing.
00:09:24Alright, I really thought that waivers would have been posted by now, or any of that sort
00:09:31of thing.
00:09:32I'm pretty sure it was, oh no, it's noon Mountain Time.
00:09:34I'm thinking noon Eastern Time.
00:09:35Okay, so, we're not going to get it right now.
00:09:38We'll probably, like, we're doing a video game stream later.
00:09:41It's going to be another Flames one, so we'll talk all about what happens when we do the
00:09:45video game coming up at 2 o'clock today, back here on the channel.
00:09:49So now, let's transition into the rest of the sporty world.
00:09:53There is still going to be some Flames content coming up here on this channel in the next
00:09:57little bit.
00:09:58Again, a reminder, Game Over Calgary is, yeah, we can sell for a couple of hours.
00:10:04There's a real chance this show might still be going on at that point.
00:10:06This is going to be a long one again today.
00:10:09But I don't think that we're going to be stalling for that long.
00:10:12So I just had a bit of a, you know, internal clock thing.
00:10:15One sec for the water.
00:10:18But yeah.
00:10:19So, messed that up in my brain a little bit, but we got it back on track and we're good.
00:10:23So now, let's go into the world of the National Football League, as it was another very, very
00:10:29busy weekend in the NFL.
00:10:32And I think, I think we're learning some stuff now as we get into, basically, the finale
00:10:39of Week 5 in the National Football League.
00:10:49Week 5 in the NFL is almost done with just one game left tonight.
00:10:52The Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Saints of New Orleans.
00:10:56So obviously, we will not be breaking that game down.
00:11:00But let's run through what we learned from the NFL schedule this week.
00:11:04And we will start very early out in London, England, as the Jets took on the Minnesota Vikings.
00:11:09And again, the Vikings continue to show their for realness.
00:11:14And a lot of people were wondering, what would Sam Darnold do when there's some pushback?
00:11:19And when there is some resistance to what he is actually putting out there, what, how
00:11:24will he handle it?
00:11:25Because everything has kind of been smooth sailing so far.
00:11:27And obviously, there were some stumbles.
00:11:29This was not a perfect game from Sam Darnold, but it was good enough to get them the win.
00:11:33And I thought good enough to make you feel comfortable that this Vikings team is for
00:11:37real.
00:11:38They are a very well coached football team.
00:11:41And Sam Darnold, with the weapons they have on offense, is enough to get out there and
00:11:46keep piling up these wins and keep being a threat in the NFC North and the NFC just in
00:11:52general.
00:11:53And the one thing that you really take from this is this defense is for real, for real.
00:11:59They are very, again, very well coached.
00:12:01Brian Flores has them absolutely rolling.
00:12:04And they are, I think, a real force to be reckoned with.
00:12:07And from a fantasy standpoint, as Deeds points out, needs a bit of help this week.
00:12:11Just 70 points and you'll get there.
00:12:13I'm in the Vampire lead, I'm needing 24 points from Shaheed tonight against Kansas City.
00:12:19So I'm hoping my, the Chiefs allow big days to secondary options really comes through
00:12:24in this game.
00:12:26So we'll see how that one ends up.
00:12:28But, um, for the Vikings, like yeah, from a fantasy standpoint, maybe you don't really
00:12:32want to play them.
00:12:33But the one guy who has a good game this week is, um, is Garrett Wilson with 105 yards through
00:12:39the air.
00:12:40The running game was completely shut down.
00:12:43And Aaron Rodgers did not have a good football game.
00:12:46And again, this is going up against a good defense.
00:12:48And so it is weird to say, hey, this defense is legit, that's awesome.
00:12:51But also, you cannot have that bad of a day against this defense.
00:12:54It's weird to say both of those things.
00:12:56But for Aaron Rodgers, it needs to be better.
00:12:59Because this was not a move.
00:13:01Bringing Aaron Rodgers in for this roster a couple of years ago, this was not a move
00:13:06to, you know what, let's squeak into the playoffs and let's see what happens.
00:13:09This was a move to become, uh, contenders to win the division, contenders to get home
00:13:15playoff games, and contenders to win the Super Bowl.
00:13:18This does not look like a Super Bowl team right now, and he is not executing at a Super
00:13:22Bowl caliber.
00:13:23Which, by the way, told ya.
00:13:26But you look at the two wins they have this year.
00:13:27It's the Titans, who gave it to them, and it's the Patriots, who suck, and it was on
00:13:31Thursday night, and it was the first time Mayo was coaching on a Thursday night.
00:13:35So he did not have his team ready for that game.
00:13:37Other than that, any time this team has faced anything remotely close to a challenge, it
00:13:42has failed.
00:13:44And we talked last week about how Aaron Rodgers did a good job in holding his team accountable.
00:13:49Well, now it's time to hold him accountable.
00:13:51He was not good enough to win this football game.
00:13:53Three interceptions is unacceptable.
00:13:55And the missed passes that they had when there were opportunities to come back in this game
00:14:00just are not good enough.
00:14:01And you can credit Minnesota's defense for doing that to them.
00:14:05And they did a really good job of just shutting that down.
00:14:11I just think that for the Jets, there is a concern now that basically everything we talked
00:14:19about in the preseason is going to be right.
00:14:22He is just not the guy to elevate this group.
00:14:26And honestly, the coach maybe isn't that guy either.
00:14:28Again, we're not going to run through every game.
00:14:30Dolphins-Patriots was damn near unwatchable.
00:14:34The Panthers have come crashing back down to earth.
00:14:38And the Bears are not this good.
00:14:42Toxic in the chat.
00:14:43I didn't think I was going to win this week in the Vampire League.
00:14:45Just put some scraps together.
00:14:47That's basically where we're at right now, is scrap time with the bye weeks coming up
00:14:52and all of those sorts of things.
00:14:55How was it looking for you?
00:14:56Or how is it looking for you here this week, Toxic?
00:14:59Oh yeah, huge day.
00:15:01So yeah, you're definitely going to win.
00:15:02Who was it that balled out?
00:15:04Oh, Chase.
00:15:05Well, that will help.
00:15:06Yeah, that's going to help get the job done in that league for sure.
00:15:10The Colts against Jacksonville.
00:15:12This was one where you can look at both of these teams and you can say, hey, you know
00:15:18what, positives to take from this.
00:15:21But also you can look at both these teams and go, you know what, real negatives to take
00:15:24from this.
00:15:25Walt Grisley.
00:15:26How many years of choking do you give a head coach before you fire him?
00:15:30This is on the Robert Saleh one, but I think you can also very much account it to Doug
00:15:35Peterson.
00:15:36Now they get the win here, so it's weird to talk about firing a coach off of a win.
00:15:39I think in both cases, Walt, and again, I'm assuming we're talking about Saleh here mainly.
00:15:44I think time is certainly running out.
00:15:47Also, thank you for joining, Walt.
00:15:49Appreciate it.
00:15:50Oh, just in general, not Saleh or Peterson.
00:15:53Okay.
00:15:54Apologies for guessing wrong on that.
00:15:56But yeah, I do think that sometimes the blame the coach thing is a bit too quick and you
00:16:04have a lot of situations where players become almost a little invincible, and that leads
00:16:10to some not great situations.
00:16:13But also, there are way too many occasions where coaches get too long of a leash.
00:16:19Walt talking about Kyle Shanahan, okay, let's talk about Kyle Shanahan, because again, yeah,
00:16:24this is a common theme.
00:16:26And now, part of it for Shani this week is his kicker got hurt, and so you didn't have
00:16:33options to kick field goals and stuff like that.
00:16:36But still, the very well thought of, vaunted Kyle Shanahan offensive system should be able
00:16:45to put up more than 23 points against the Arizona Cardinals with me kicking field goals.
00:16:51This Arizona, we've talked about them, they are improved.
00:16:55They shouldn't be that improved, that they are holding this team to just 23 points.
00:17:00They were able to, it seemed like they were able to move the ball on them, but it's not
00:17:06even like the defense didn't play well.
00:17:07Like holding Arizona to 24 points, you feel like you should be able to win that football
00:17:12game based off of how, again, how that Arizona defense can play.
00:17:18And so, I don't think Kyle Shanahan gets, like I don't think he's even on the hot seat
00:17:24there.
00:17:25Injuries have been coming up.
00:17:26Now this offense is, for the most part, pretty healthy.
00:17:29But, there is certainly a pattern there, right?
00:17:33Where it is late game situations don't go well.
00:17:37And you can go all the way back to 28-3 against the Patriots, where he was the offensive coordinator,
00:17:43and they kept like passing it for some reason, and not running the clock out.
00:17:47He is very, very bad at clock management, and letting those things kind of wind down.
00:17:55I do think you look at like, he is, I do think he's a smart offensive mind.
00:17:59I don't think there's any denying that.
00:18:02But I also do think that, you know, he has very exceptional players all over his roster.
00:18:08And I think the whole, oh my god, he's doing this with Brock Purdy, this is insane.
00:18:11I think we're seeing Brock Purdy's actually a pretty good quarterback, and maybe there
00:18:16is a chicken and egg situation, and he has done a good job of developing this.
00:18:20But there is, I think, no denying that this is a coach who struggles when games are close.
00:18:26And struggles in situations where his team has opportunities to put games away, and it
00:18:32doesn't work.
00:18:33And yeah, like I don't, I think we are at a point now with Kyle Shanahan where you can't
00:18:38say anything other than he chokes in big, close, late game situations.
00:18:44And like, it's not his fault the pass gets deflected and intercepted, but it is, I think,
00:18:49his offense's fault that it got to that point.
00:18:52And even you look back last week, when they're kicking the crap out of the Patriots, a lot
00:18:56of drives that just like, didn't end the way that they needed to.
00:19:00He's been there since, is that, god it doesn't feel like it's been seven years, but I guess,
00:19:05hey, he's been there since 2017, and chokes regularly.
00:19:09Like the Rams game is a perfect example, right?
00:19:11Like they have already choked this season, and this is one that they let get away.
00:19:15And now, when you look at the NFC West, like yes, the Seahawks have a bit of a surprising
00:19:21result yesterday, but the 49ers are in third in this division right now.
00:19:26And I don't think, as much as we talked about how Arizona's defense shouldn't be one that
00:19:30is overly threatening, I don't think that they are like, that much better suited to
00:19:36jump over an Arizona, or a Seattle, or anyone like that.
00:19:40Like, I think that they are legitimately in some trouble in this division.
00:19:46And I guess to add to that point, the offense only put up 16 against the Cardinals, because
00:19:49there was the defensive touchdown on there as well, or defensive plays anyway, that stood
00:19:56up.
00:19:57So no, this is a, it is a weird spot, and it is very frustrating for the 49ers, because
00:20:02when, and Walt I know you are new to the channel, and again, thank you, but this is a team that
00:20:09I am constantly putting on my most talented teams in the NFL list when we do those rankings
00:20:15in the preseason.
00:20:16There is so much talent on this football team, and when you see how wide open the NFC kind
00:20:21of should be, they should be lapping everybody.
00:20:26And I do think that, again, to your point, when you look at the 49ers schedule this year,
00:20:32you can put quite a bit of the blame at the feet of the head coach.
00:20:36So I think that's a, it's honestly, it's not the direction I thought I was going to
00:20:40go with this, Walt, but it is a good kind of thought here.
00:20:44You look at the losses that they had.
00:20:46They lose this game by one to Arizona, so it is again, bad late game situations and
00:20:53not being able to adjust and make the plays properly.
00:20:58And then they lose to the Rams 27-24 in a game where, again, you're winning by a lot,
00:21:04poor clock management can't put the game away.
00:21:07You lose to the Minnesota Vikings 23-17.
00:21:09Now we are seeing that that Vikings win, or that Vikings loss, doesn't look quite as bad
00:21:15as time goes on, because the Vikings look like they are legit.
00:21:18But still, this is a close game that they were unable to get across the finish line.
00:21:25And so yes, you can draw up all the great plays and all of these things that you want,
00:21:30but there is more to coaching than just being able to draw up the good plays that get some
00:21:35guys open sometimes.
00:21:37It is about clock management, it is about late game situations, and being able to get
00:21:42the job done.
00:21:43And we saw a couple of coaches kind of fail in those situations this week, but this is,
00:21:47to Walt's point, this is a pattern in San Francisco that has been going on for years
00:21:52and years and years, and multiple Super Bowls, and yes, NFC Championship game against the
00:21:59Los Angeles Rams as well.
00:22:01He is great for neutral observers, because it's always interesting, and he is always
00:22:06going for these things that he shouldn't be going for and doing these things that maybe
00:22:10he shouldn't be doing, and all of that.
00:22:13But at the end of the day, from a franchise standpoint, I mean look, as a Raider fan,
00:22:19would I rather him than Antonio Pierce right now?
00:22:21Yeah, I would.
00:22:22And I would figure out the late game stuff later.
00:22:24But when you have a team that is in its championship window, and like, it's going to get much more
00:22:30expensive to have this team very quickly, because Brock Purdy, that whole, oh you get
00:22:34a quarterback on a round seven contract, that's going away very quickly.
00:22:40And I think you are starting to see with how the IU process went down, and all of that,
00:22:44how difficult it's going to be to kind of put all of those pieces into place.
00:22:50And I do think that there's probably a little bit of, there should be anyway, a little bit
00:22:55of pressure and a lot of the blame on Kyle Shanahan for what has gone on in San Francisco.
00:23:01So no, it is a great point out there, Walt.
00:23:04But again, to kind of tie it back to the game we were talking about before, for Doug Peterson,
00:23:08now he has his Super Bowl with the Philly Philly, and all of that, but this was a game
00:23:14that shouldn't have been close for Jacksonville.
00:23:17They were dominating early, and they just kept letting Indy get back into this game.
00:23:23And offensively, like, they were great.
00:23:25Like Trevor Lawrence had one of his better games of the year so far, and they just couldn't
00:23:28get a stop.
00:23:29And that's not something that's been usual for this defense so far this year.
00:23:33And so again now, it looks at Doug Peterson, where you finally got your first win, but
00:23:37even this one wasn't as convincing as it needed to be.
00:23:40And for the Colts, the offense kept putting up some points and kept them in there, and
00:23:43Alec Pierce is making a wild catch after wild catch.
00:23:49How are we not getting a stop against this team that has struggled so much on the offensive
00:23:55side so far with Trevor Lawrence?
00:23:56Yeah, and Walt, I would say he has been the problem in Jacksonville.
00:24:00He hasn't been good enough.
00:24:02He was better in this game, and the Colts just could not stop it at all.
00:24:06So it's one of those ones where, Jacksonville, alright you put up 37 points, you never quit
00:24:10and you won, that's great.
00:24:12Jacksonville needed to put that one away a while ago though, right?
00:24:15And for the Colts, it's like yeah, you battled back, you almost got there, probably shouldn't
00:24:19be falling behind by that much and having that much trouble with Jacksonville, right?
00:24:22So this is one of those games that I think kind of just drove home how mid both of these
00:24:27teams really actually are.
00:24:29Speaking of poor clock management, the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans, the Texans come
00:24:36away with a 23-20 win, and they lose Nico Collins in this game, and at that point the
00:24:42offense does kind of stall out a little bit.
00:24:44And so I do think some of the talk of, oh wow, they have three No. 1s, you know what?
00:24:49I think Tank Dell is really good, I think he's a really good No. 2.
00:24:53And at this point, I think Stephon Diggs is kind of appropriately set as a No. 3.
00:24:57But to lose Nico Collins, obviously they are struggling running the football right now,
00:25:02and that was kind of a theme again in this game.
00:25:05They tried to get Ogunbowale going, didn't feel like he really was, Buffalo is able to
00:25:09get back into this one.
00:25:10And then it felt like it had kind of been cost, or they kind of were cost, as Stroud
00:25:17tries and thinks Schultz is going to go out toward the sideline and just misses him, and
00:25:22they called it grounding, which I thought was kind of insane, because that is a miscommunication
00:25:27that happens all the time.
00:25:29And so I thought you could explain away that one pretty easily, keep them in field goal
00:25:32range and they still get the field goal to give them the lead.
00:25:35Instead, they have to punt it, and Buffalo is pinned down at their 2.
00:25:38And they take a shot on first down, and they're like, you know what?
00:25:41Give it a go.
00:25:42Like, just let fly the hogs of war, or whatever it is, and just let them go and see if you
00:25:48can get a touchdown or a big play out of it to get you into field goal range.
00:25:51When you don't, then you just like, pound the ball into the offensive line a couple
00:25:56times and go to overtime.
00:25:57Like, that is, that's basically what it should be.
00:26:02And for them to then punt the ball, and with any kind of return, allow the Texans to get
00:26:06into field goal range and win that game, is some very poor management.
00:26:10And again, to kind of go with the whole theme of this, with what Walt was bringing up earlier
00:26:14with Shanahan, Sean McDermott has done a lot of very good things for this franchise that
00:26:21haven't happened in a really long time.
00:26:23But I think we are getting to the point now where we have seen that there is a ceiling
00:26:27on this guy, and that they don't necessarily, he doesn't necessarily help them get over
00:26:32the top with this roster.
00:26:35And I think that there was a real miss with how they handled that whole game.
00:26:40Walt, I'm not surprised that you would be a solid fan, coming from being the defensive
00:26:45guy out in San Francisco, and the energy, and everything that he brought there.
00:26:49But I just think, again, when you look at how late game situations have gone with the
00:26:52Jets, and how this roster has kind of not really set everything up, and not really advanced,
00:27:01I think that there are some major flaws in his game that need to be ironed out.
00:27:04Doesn't mean they won't be, but I don't think he is helping the Jets.
00:27:09I will say that much.
00:27:10Baltimore against Cincinnati, this game was another absolute wild one, and a real knock
00:27:15against people who think that Lamar Jackson can't win the big one, and can't really
00:27:19get going.
00:27:21Because he was phenomenal in this game, setting up some of those plays that he did.
00:27:27Obviously Derrick Henry finally gets rolling on the outside, they did a really good job
00:27:31of getting him outside, taking on those defensive backs, and just powering forward through that.
00:27:37I thought he was great, and they stepped up in a big time way.
00:27:41But it's something we talked about a little bit, the defense continues to be something
00:27:45that you really worry about in Baltimore, because they got picked apart in this game,
00:27:49and it was poor tackling on Jamar Chase, who helps Toxic's fantasy team, and it was
00:27:54an inability to stop anything, really, at any point.
00:27:57And then, down in the red zone, Joe Burrow was just picking them apart.
00:28:03So you feel a whole lot better about Cincinnati coming out of this one.
00:28:06And it's still, you feel good about Baltimore, but you don't feel great about it because
00:28:11of that defense.
00:28:12And yeah, Walt, back on the pills.
00:28:15The problem is, they refused to get a wide receiver for Allen.
00:28:18I mean, this year they did.
00:28:20He had a pretty good one for a while, in Stephon Diggs, but yes, this year, they have tried
00:28:25for it, and like, I think Keon Coleman, there's actually something there.
00:28:29But there should, there should have been at least somewhat of a veteran backup plan, aside
00:28:34from Curtis Samuel, as the option once you move on from Stephon Diggs.
00:28:40Like, even if it is just a whatever, no no no, and I'm not questioning that, like Diggs,
00:28:45Diva, lost them a playoff game, for sure.
00:28:48He also got them to a lot of them.
00:28:49Like, he was a talented receiver, and so there is a balance that you need to have, but I
00:28:55do think that they still had, they gave him that for a bit.
00:28:58But now they are counting on him to try to elevate around and do kind of the Tom Brady
00:29:02thing where, alright, and I mean, Brady was a different situation, he wasn't making as
00:29:05much money, but, or as much of the cap.
00:29:08But for Allen, they are now asking him, like, we are paying you a ton, we need to see you
00:29:15elevate the guys around you.
00:29:16And I think he's done that with a couple, but like, we know what Curtis Samuel is.
00:29:20There isn't this mystical thing that he or MVS are going to find at this point in their
00:29:24careers.
00:29:25So, I mean, yeah, like, Devontae Adams would make this team a Super Bowl threat, I think.
00:29:32And that would be one of the landing spots for him, for sure.
00:29:36But they are, like, the Chargers kind of did the same thing, where we have a quarterback
00:29:41that we view as a franchise quarterback, and we now have to pay him as a franchise quarterback.
00:29:46So, he has to be a franchise quarterback and make the weapons around him better, because
00:29:49we can't afford to bring one of those in.
00:29:50But I do think there are a lot of veteran receivers that you could have brought in that
00:29:54weren't Curtis Samuel or MVS that maybe would have helped.
00:29:59So much for my Washington might come back down to Earth thing.
00:30:02Hey, they were phenomenal again.
00:30:04And the Browns, it's just, it's so bad there.
00:30:07They took two timeouts on goal-to-go situations and ended up kicking field goals.
00:30:13Like, Deshaun Watson is just the drizzling shits, and is so bad, and has just basically
00:30:18given it all up.
00:30:20He'll start games and it's great, and then as it goes on he gets less and less interested
00:30:24in how that game is going.
00:30:27Raiders-Broncos, Broncos are looking a little bit more for real.
00:30:31And a game against the Raiders isn't going to drive that home, but this defense does
00:30:35look legit.
00:30:36And Bo Nix, albeit against a not-great defense, does, has shown that there is at least a bit
00:30:41of maturing going on in his game as this season progresses.
00:30:45They're not like a threat to, I don't even think, make the playoffs, quite frankly.
00:30:48But I do think they're going to beat some bad teams, which they did this week.
00:30:51For the Raiders, the Gardner-Minshew thing is just, it's not working.
00:30:55And now All-I's, as was pointed out in here before, All-I's certainly go to Devontae Adams
00:31:04and seeing what the Raiders can get for him.
00:31:06Because again, as we kind of addressed last week, this team has some pass-catching options.
00:31:11Like Jacoby Myers, if he's your number one wide receiver, you're not winning Super Bowls.
00:31:15But he's fine.
00:31:17And they have guys like Tucker who I think are interesting, and Bowers is a beast.
00:31:22So those are all good players that they can go out and pick up some yards and actually
00:31:30help you out.
00:31:31You don't have a quarterback, though.
00:31:33Minshew, it's just, the league has figured him out, and I don't think Aidan O'Connell
00:31:37is any great shakes at all.
00:31:40Um, Walt, on the Commanders, Browns, Cardinals, Bengals, and Giants, I'm still waiting for
00:31:45Washington to play a decent team.
00:31:46I would say, like, Cardinals are a decent team, and I would say the Bengals are a decent
00:31:51team as well.
00:31:52Like, yeah, no, they haven't played the tippity top of their schedule yet.
00:31:57Coming up, like, the Ravens game this weekend is going to be an interesting test.
00:32:01But I mean, and this is something I kind of did last year, we were looking at a few teams,
00:32:05like, alright well who have they beat?
00:32:06Who have they beat?
00:32:07Who have they beat?
00:32:08Who's there to beat?
00:32:10Like, if we are, if we are not counting the Cardinals and the Bengals as, um, as decent
00:32:17teams, then our bar for decent teams is kind of only cleared by like four or five, right?
00:32:23Like, let's look at the Commanders' schedule the rest of the way.
00:32:26Ravens, I would put in that as a good team.
00:32:29Panthers, no.
00:32:30Bears, no.
00:32:31Giants, no.
00:32:32Steelers, yes.
00:32:33Eagles, yes.
00:32:34Cowboys, I wouldn't.
00:32:35Titans, no.
00:32:36Saints, definitely not.
00:32:37Titans, no.
00:32:38Saints, defense probably, but like, that is a test for them offensively.
00:32:43Eagles, yes.
00:32:45Falcons, borderline?
00:32:47Okay, and then if we're saying Eagles, no, then they're not going to play a decent team.
00:32:52And that's, that's where we're at in this league right now.
00:32:55And that is kind of a bigger picture thing.
00:32:58And it's one of the things we talked about last year with a few of these teams, whereas
00:33:01well, who have they beat?
00:33:02Who have they beat?
00:33:03That there isn't, there isn't anyone to beat.
00:33:05Like, there isn't a, like, what would you consider a good win in the NFL these days?
00:33:12Because there are only a handful of teams who look like they have it all together.
00:33:15The rest of them, there are some holes on teams.
00:33:18Like, you just, you run through the entirety of the league right now.
00:33:22Kansas City, offense doesn't look super explosive.
00:33:24Minnesota, it's Sam Darnold, how can we possibly trust that?
00:33:27The Houston Texans, yeah they're 4-1, the offense has looked good in exactly one of
00:33:31those games.
00:33:32The offense is who we are talking about, and the defense is supposed to be abysmal.
00:33:36The Detroit Lions have finally got some things, like, pieced together here a little bit, but
00:33:41I, still, like, they didn't look fantastic in the first little bit.
00:33:47Atlanta, Kirk Cousins' leg could fly off at the end of, um, at the end of every play.
00:33:52Baltimore, they have had some troubles in some weird games they lost to the Raiders
00:33:57so far, at different points this season.
00:33:59Buffalo, their defense is completely falling apart, and is really banged up.
00:34:03Seattle, looks like they should have a bunch of talent, but just got walked by the Giants,
00:34:08and lost that game that they shouldn't have.
00:34:10The Steelers, defense looks really good, but the offense can only put up 17 points a game.
00:34:15And so you just, you go on through.
00:34:17Every single team has a flaw right now, and so that is why the door is open for a team
00:34:23like a Washington to step through.
00:34:24For a team like an Arizona to step through and to take that.
00:34:28And why it is so frustrating, to Toxic's point in the chat, the Browns completely fumbled
00:34:33the bag with the Watson trade.
00:34:35They have one of the most talented defensive players the league has ever seen, in, um,
00:34:41on their defensive line, right now.
00:34:43And they had Nick Chubb, and they have Amari Cooper, and now they have Jerry Judy, who
00:34:47kind of is what he is.
00:34:48And as far as tight ends go, David Njoku is a pretty good one.
00:34:51And so it feels like you should have this opportunity to just walk right through, because
00:34:55everything is so wide open in this NFL right now, and they just can't do it.
00:35:01And so that is where you get a lot of the desperation, well we'll just get a new quarterback,
00:35:04new quarterback, get a new quarterback in, get a new quarterback in.
00:35:06And it is an entire cycle that just feeds on itself.
00:35:11So yes, if they beat the Ravens, then I will give them that credit.
00:35:14But if they lose to Baltimore and then win five in a row, I'm gonna have a hard time
00:35:19not giving them credit, because there's like three teams in the league that you can give
00:35:24teams credit for beating every single week.
00:35:27And when you don't play any of them, like no, I am not saying go cash a Washington Super
00:35:33Bowl ticket right now, but I am saying that when we are looking at who's legit, the list
00:35:39isn't that big.
00:35:40And it's something that's been talked about around this league for a little bit now.
00:35:44And I thought yesterday was actually a really good day of football, but it's kind of the
00:35:48first that we've had.
00:35:50We've had some good games, but we have had some real duds.
00:35:54And scoring is so low in this league, and people are trying to figure out why that is.
00:36:00And honestly, this was something I was thinking of doing a little bit later in the week, but
00:36:03on a roll.
00:36:04So let's look at it.
00:36:07Why is this league offensively in the shape that it is in?
00:36:09Well A, defenses get paid too.
00:36:13And teams have kind of figured out like, okay, well if we put two guys back there, it's gonna
00:36:17make it a whole lot easier for us to defend.
00:36:19So I think that there has been some defensive adjustments to the wild and craziness that
00:36:24was going on, and so that limited things.
00:36:27But I also think the NFL has done an abysmal job of hiring coaches in the last 5-10 years.
00:36:37Where you have guys like Cliff Kingsbury, didn't do a fucking thing to deserve that
00:36:42job as head coach.
00:36:46What's his name?
00:36:47Nathaniel Hackett.
00:36:48Oh, he's the offensive coordinator for Aaron Rodgers.
00:36:50Didn't do a thing to deserve that coaching job.
00:36:53And you just go on down the line with all these guys, oh, Brandon Staley, well he's
00:36:56a defensive-minded guy.
00:36:57Okay, where was that defense ever?
00:37:00They did so bad at hiring these coaches year after year after year.
00:37:05It was anyone who had bought coffee for Kyle Shanahan was getting an offensive job, and
00:37:11so you are basically running an entire league off of like three offensive systems, whether
00:37:18it would be whatever McVay is doing, whatever Kyle Shanahan is doing, and then actually
00:37:25good offensive minds like Andy Reid who would adjust to things and stuff like that.
00:37:30And so when you have a league where you have everyone who is trying to do just like a bastard
00:37:37– yeah, right.
00:37:38But still, it was like, I guess I'm not saying – I should have explained that better.
00:37:43Like yes, McVay comes off of the Shanahan tree, but then after that, anyone who worked
00:37:48with McVay, people were hiring off of, right?
00:37:51Like, oh, he was on McVay's staff as the offensive line coach.
00:37:54Hired.
00:37:55Right?
00:37:56Like, that was the big thing.
00:37:57And so that's kind of where I was going at, yes.
00:37:58And I do think McVay has kind of shifted things a little bit.
00:38:01But they aren't, to your point there, they aren't that different of systems, and that
00:38:05does kind of drive home a bit more of my point.
00:38:07If I'm a defensive coordinator right now, I don't have to figure out, okay, what do
00:38:11the Ravens do every week?
00:38:12That might be a bad example, I guess.
00:38:13But okay, what do the 49ers do every week?
00:38:16What do the Cardinals do every week?
00:38:17What do the Packers do every week?
00:38:18What do these guys do every week?
00:38:19You basically have to figure out, like, three or four offensive systems to shut down, and
00:38:23then you've covered most of the league.
00:38:25So you can just go through a, um, okay, let's go, okay, we're playing Shanahan this week,
00:38:31alright, well this worked in week two against them.
00:38:33We've also seen him, to your point Walt, for seven goddamn years in San Francisco, and
00:38:38I don't know if a whole lot has switched up, and now it's, oh my god, motion!
00:38:43And one guy moving on the line, which as a Canadian Football League fan is hilarious
00:38:46to me, but that's besides the point.
00:38:48You have, like, three or four things, and that's all you need to get figured out, and
00:38:54you can shut down, like, half of the league.
00:38:57And you do that one or two more times, and you've got the whole league figured out.
00:39:01And so we are hiring these guys who aren't qualified from systems that they are then
00:39:07taking and they aren't doing the best of it, aside from McVay, who has this boy wonder
00:39:14mind and can tell you anything that has ever happened in the sport of football ever, and
00:39:18so he has adjusted it and kind of tweaked it to make it his own.
00:39:21But aside from that, you're taking a lot of guys who aren't as smart as the dudes who
00:39:25came up with this in the first place, and hoping that they can then replicate it, and
00:39:28so you are getting to defend against, with all due respect, dumbed down versions of these
00:39:35offenses on a week-in, week-out basis, so no shit that everyone is shutting down these
00:39:41offenses because there's only four you have to worry about.
00:39:44And then, the cherry on top is every goddamn year in the draft, what do we hear?
00:39:50Oh, well, this team needs a quarterback, so they're gonna draft a quarterback in the first round.
00:39:54Okay.
00:39:55Um, does this quarterback have a first-round grade on him?
00:39:58Well, no.
00:40:00But we're gonna roll with him anyway.
00:40:03And so you then, you are putting the fate of your franchise into the hands of someone
00:40:09who isn't qualified to be in that spot in the first place, and you are now hoping that
00:40:16they are going to play at that high of a level that you should be drafted, that they should
00:40:22be based on where you are drafting them.
00:40:25And so then you get mistakes of Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, we could do this for hours, talking
00:40:31about quarterbacks that didn't work, right?
00:40:33So you just, you get these guys, just because they play this one position, and like Bo Nix,
00:40:39no world was Bo Nix a top 15 pick in the NFL draft, except the Denver Broncos needed
00:40:45a quarterback and he kind of looked like Drew Brees in a picture once, so we're taking him.
00:40:51Teams have just been falling over each other just to get the next best quarterback in the
00:40:54draft and not actually building their rosters up, and then to Walt's point, sometimes they're
00:40:58not even surrounding them with the right guys, it's just, here, fucking fix it man, and go
00:41:03do it.
00:41:04So you're putting underqualified quarterbacks in again, dumbed down offenses, and hoping
00:41:10that they can just fix everything, and then you get mad at them for not being able to
00:41:14fix anything at all.
00:41:18And it just, and then, you compound it by spending insane amounts of money on every
00:41:25one of these guys, because you have to, because you don't want to go back into that vicious
00:41:30quarterback cycle that leads you to where the Raiders are, where it's Gardner Minshew
00:41:33and Aiden by God O'Connell running out there and trying to run your offense.
00:41:38So you just get, you either have to overpay for Dak Prescott, who hasn't done anything
00:41:44to look like a $250 million, or whatever the fuck it was, quarterback, and you are now
00:41:49expecting him to be able to make everyone around you better, and that, like, he's never
00:41:55done that.
00:41:56He has never been that guy.
00:41:57He's been a fine quarterback, but he has never been a, well, you can give him a fucking quarter
00:42:02of your salary, because he can go out and lift everyone up.
00:42:05You can do that to Mahomes, because he's incredible.
00:42:08You can do it to Josh Allen, because he's also a running back out there, and he can
00:42:12do a lot of those things.
00:42:13And Lamar Jackson is a unicorn, so he can do those things.
00:42:16You pay those guys.
00:42:17Joe Burrow, winner.
00:42:18Those types of things.
00:42:20But then, you pay, and, like, I think Jordan Love's going to be pretty good, but you pay
00:42:23Jordan Love a gigantic contract off of one good season, where he then threw a pick six,
00:42:29and it was insane, the throw that he ended up doing.
00:42:33And so, you put these guys in these positions that their talents just aren't there for,
00:42:40and you then wonder, okay, well, why is the league struggling?
00:42:44Because you've, you have wildly mismanaged almost every offense in the league.
00:42:50And yeah, like, Mahomes hasn't looked spectacular.
00:42:53I would suggest that a lot of it is based off of what's going on around him.
00:42:57Like, I think if you gave him a Devontae Adams, all of a sudden, hey, he looks good again.
00:43:02I think he has done just enough to be able to win, and I think that's kind of the situation
00:43:09that they have been placed in.
00:43:10But I think, like, if you gave him Miami's offense, then they win a Super Bowl and are
00:43:14probably undefeated for several years in a row.
00:43:16Like, I think he is incredibly talented, they just didn't, weren't able to put a roster
00:43:20around him, because they paid him like a franchise quarterback.
00:43:23And I think he deserved that.
00:43:25And he is showing that he is good enough to at least get you to scrape by with the scraps
00:43:29that he is left with.
00:43:30But then you do the same for Justin Herbert, who's 500 in his career, and it's just, it's
00:43:35not going to work.
00:43:37Why would it work?
00:43:38And so, it has just been incredible amounts of mismanagement for so long that has led
00:43:45this league to being in the offensive point, or into just the point in general where it
00:43:50is to the point where we're looking at Washington's schedule and it's like, okay, maybe they haven't
00:43:54beat anyone, but they don't have anyone to beat, because no one's anyone.
00:43:58Like, the Steelers lose to the Cowboys last night.
00:44:02Is that a bad loss?
00:44:03Is it a good win for Dallas?
00:44:04I don't know, because everyone's the goddamn same.
00:44:07So, anyway.
00:44:09That is the rant there.
00:44:10The one thing, because we were talking, going to get to talk about the Raiders there, Walt
00:44:15saying, Adams will never be in KC, but I think Cooper will be.
00:44:18That, hey, we need to get Amari Cooper out of Cleveland ASAP.
00:44:20That's fair.
00:44:21On the Adams thing, I think you're right and I think it's silly, because, like, again,
00:44:28as a Raider fan, if they traded Devontae Adams to the Chiefs, we're going to be like, okay,
00:44:32well NOW the Chiefs are better than the Raiders.
00:44:34Now, boy, now that's really tipped them over the top, we were neck and neck before and
00:44:39now they've just blown right past us.
00:44:41No!
00:44:42If the Chiefs give you the best, um, the best offer, take it.
00:44:48Get the most you can for your last good trade chip, unless you want to move Max Crosby,
00:44:53which, please don't, um, but if you, like, this is the big thing that you have, so, get
00:45:02the most out of it, is what I would tell you.
00:45:06Um, and no, like, I do think some of the Daniels hype, to your point, Walt, has gotten a little
00:45:11out of control a touch.
00:45:13But I do also think that he is quite talented.
00:45:17And I do think that this is a commander's team that maybe we took for granted.
00:45:21Is this going to be a team that wins the Super Bowl?
00:45:23No.
00:45:24There's still a pretty good chance, they don't even make the playoffs, just based
00:45:27off of how bad that defense is.
00:45:29But I just, I think that they are beating what are, even if they are just average defenses,
00:45:36they are beating them so thoroughly that I think you have to be impressed with what they
00:45:42are doing.
00:45:43Also, I do, like, Cleveland's defense hasn't really shown up, and I think everyone has
00:45:47just kind of quit, um, but in the three weeks before this game, you have, um, they gave
00:45:52up 20 points, 21 points, 13 points.
00:45:57Like, this defense has played well.
00:46:00The team sucks, but the defense has played well, and I think that Washington should get
00:46:05at least some credit for what they did there, uh, to the Browns.
00:46:09Aside from that, like, there wasn't a whole lot else, Green Bay gets the win, it maybe
00:46:13wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be, but they still get a win, and then
00:46:16the Cowboys, in a delay, get a victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
00:46:20So, um, there, but good stuff there with the rant about where the NFL is going, and all
00:46:25of that.
00:46:26I had that one in the chamber for a little bit later on in the week, but had to bring
00:46:30that one out now because of all the frustration around everything that has been going on in
00:46:35this league for the last little bit, and everyone being like, well, we're all looking for
00:46:39who's responsible here, right?
00:46:40Um, so that has been, been on my mind for a little bit, as I think you could probably
00:46:45tell.
00:46:46I'm going to hit the talking football thing one more time.
00:46:47I just have a couple of points here on the CFL before we get into some wrestling talk.
00:46:57The Canadian Football League is coming down to the final three weeks of the regular season,
00:47:01and for the first time since 1948, the province of Alberta will not be represented, as the
00:47:06Stampeders and Elks both eliminated this week.
00:47:10Edmonton, in their loss to Winnipeg, who are making statements right now.
00:47:15This is a couple blowout wins in a row, and we have said for a bit that they're winning
00:47:19games, but it's still not looking as impressive as it should.
00:47:24Now it is.
00:47:25This team is looking really scary offensively, this defense has always been really good,
00:47:31and they look like the most complete team in the Canadian Football League right now,
00:47:36and that is concerning, that they are peaking at the right time, and looking like the road
00:47:40to the Grey Cup is going to go through Winnipeg this season.
00:47:44They have won something like eight in a row now, right?
00:47:46It is, I believe that that is what the win streak is at, at this point.
00:47:52It's been a bunch in a row, that is certainly for sure.
00:47:55It has been, it's been a really impressive run.
00:47:58Oh, and of course the CFL website wouldn't have the actual, you know, streak stats or
00:48:04anything like that.
00:48:06And so, okay, coming into this week it was seven in a row, so yes, eight in a row that
00:48:11Winnipeg has won now, coming off of this.
00:48:14And the last couple have been dominant as hell, and it is really, really scary for them.
00:48:20For the BC Lions, they needed a win like that, they eliminate the Stampeders, the offense
00:48:24gets them 32 points, it's still not perfect, but it is getting there.
00:48:27And you talk about scary teams, like the way that this offense can move with Rorik a quarterback
00:48:33makes them, makes them a team you would really have to worry about.
00:48:36But the fact that they, right now, if the playoffs were to start today, they'd have
00:48:39to play two road games, one in Saskatchewan, one in Winnipeg, to be able to then host the
00:48:45Grey Cup, which would be pretty funny, is less than ideal.
00:48:49But the way that this offense is coming together, and I still think that this defense can be
00:48:52quite good, things are looking up in BC.
00:48:56For Calgary, we'll do more on this probably later on in the week, it's just so clear it's
00:49:01not working here.
00:49:02Major changes are needed, I think the roster's bad, I think that it has been a very poorly
00:49:08constructed football team for a bit now, and I think Dave Dickinson is a really good coach,
00:49:14and I think he should probably just stick to that.
00:49:17And that's that.
00:49:19I just, I think you have to make some major changes in Calgary, because it's not working,
00:49:22and you are falling further and further and further behind right now.
00:49:25In Saskatchewan, the Riders get in, clinching a playoff spot this week, it's not perfect,
00:49:30but Corey Mace has done something that we talked about around these parts for a bit,
00:49:33he needed to change the culture out in Saskatchewan, and boy howdy did he, with a really good job
00:49:41coaching this year.
00:49:42And now it looks like Saskatchewan could be getting a home playoff game, we'll see how
00:49:45the last couple of weeks of this regular season play out, but big stuff happening in Saskatchewan,
00:49:50I think Corey Mace deserves a ton of credit for what he has done, and now, like I know
00:49:54I just said every team in the West, oh boy, dangerous, I do think Saskatchewan is kind
00:49:59of the least dangerous of all of them, um, but I do think with that defense they are
00:50:06going to be a problem.
00:50:08And with the turnovers that they're able to face, the pressure they're able to get on
00:50:10the quarterback, um, that they have so many weapons offensively, that this is, the West
00:50:16playoffs are going to be really, the whole playoffs I think are going to be really interesting,
00:50:19although the East does feel like it's kind of fallen off after a great start this year.
00:50:22Uh, toxic.
00:50:23P.K.
00:50:24Lowkey likes the shit on the Stamps as a Rider fan.
00:50:25Look, I gave the Stamps all their flowers when they were going on that run.
00:50:29And I was saying, as someone who has cheered for a team who has existed for over 100 years
00:50:34and has four great cup championships, runs like what the Stampeters have don't come around
00:50:39all that often.
00:50:40So, A, take advantage of it, and I don't think they did, but B, celebrate it.
00:50:45Because it is going to turn at some point, and now it really has turned.
00:50:49And the thing is, is that like, I don't take, um, I was going to say I don't take joy in
00:50:54seeing the Stampeters lose.
00:50:56I take some.
00:50:57Because I had to, I had to do sports reports while the Stampeters are beating the Riders
00:51:01in Saskatchewan, in the postseason, and while the Stamps are 17-1 and riding off to great
00:51:06cups, which they lose.
00:51:08And doing all of these things, and I just had to sit there and just be like, yep, no,
00:51:13they're doing it.
00:51:14On they go.
00:51:15Isn't that great?
00:51:16So yeah, there's a little bit of me that's like, this is, this is fine.
00:51:18But also, it is, like when something is wrong, you have to call it out, and right now what's
00:51:23happening here is just, it's wrong, and it is bad, and it is potentially very damaging
00:51:29because this was a fanbase that was kind of dwindling when things were going well.
00:51:34And so if the team's bad, um, that doesn't do a whole lot to grow the audience.
00:51:39I will say that.
00:51:40Uh, for sure.
00:51:41So, that is the, uh, quick story from the Canadian Football League as we head toward
00:51:46the postseason.
00:51:47But y'all know what I want to be talking about today.
00:51:50As the WWE put on another premium live event.
00:51:54It was Bad Blood from Atlanta, Georgia.
00:51:57Let's talk about it.
00:52:04Say this all the time.
00:52:05I need to make that one longer, because you boy needed some water.
00:52:09After yelling about the NFL for a minute, and um, now, now we need to get that one back.
00:52:15Need to extend that a little bit.
00:52:16But it is.
00:52:17WWE Bad Blood went down this weekend from Atlanta, Georgia, and a lot of talking points
00:52:22coming out of it.
00:52:23So, let's break it down, shall we?
00:52:26The night begins with Drew McIntyre against CM Punk, and I thought this was exactly what
00:52:33it needed to be.
00:52:34I thought it was an excellent, excellent Hell in a Cell match.
00:52:38I thought every bit of brutality kind of meant something.
00:52:41There wasn't a lot of egregious stuff just to be egregious, and I think we know what
00:52:45promotion I'm talking to when I say that, um, but I thought that they were, they did
00:52:49a really good job of kind of stringing everything together, and it wasn't just a plunder match,
00:52:53it was a psychologically thought out Hell in a Cell match with still enough blood and
00:52:59violence to justify it.
00:53:00I thought that, again, it got across the seriousness of the stipulation, and made Hell in a Cell
00:53:08feel like just an absolute badass thing that you really needed to worry about, and it makes
00:53:13it this, like, absolute playground, um, of just violence, and something that will change
00:53:19you for a bit.
00:53:20And I've said before, like, I know Crown Jewel is coming up, and I know it's getting into
00:53:24Survivor Series, which is getting into Royal Rumble, which is getting into WrestleMania.
00:53:27I think Punk and Drew have to sit it out for a bit.
00:53:30I think you have to sell the repercussions of this for a while, and do video things,
00:53:36or whatever vignettes you need to do, but I don't think you have these guys on TV.
00:53:40Especially, like, you can... it's easy to just, like, go away from them, because Raw's
00:53:44going to two hours now.
00:53:46So it's easy to just kind of pivot from those guys, and do something else, and let them
00:53:50kind of sell the effects of the match that they were just in.
00:53:54And then I thought after, like, Punk stumbling and needing the oxygen, and all of that, I
00:53:58thought that was really, really good.
00:54:01And then, also, I thought the commentary of that match, and for the most part of the show,
00:54:07I thought the commentary was phenomenal.
00:54:08I thought Cole and Graves did a good job of setting up, again, the severity of the match
00:54:12type that they were in, and the aggressive nature that both guys were portraying.
00:54:18And I thought that they added to that match spectacularly.
00:54:22The only thing I will say about the commentary is that I do wish Wade Barrett was on the
00:54:28desk there.
00:54:30Not that there was anything really lacking, but just, again, because one of the things
00:54:34that I am always saying is, you need to keep this brand split, and if you want to do this,
00:54:41you have to take it seriously.
00:54:43And Graves and Cole have amazing chemistry together, and they're awesome, and obviously
00:54:47they follow the product and all of those things, but they are both the SmackDown guys.
00:54:52And so I do think you need the Raw dude there, at least to just lend a bit of the Raw voice,
00:54:58so that it doesn't just seem like it's the SmackDown guy, and then, well, it's not really,
00:55:01it's all WWE, and then all of it gets blurred and it doesn't work.
00:55:04So that's why I loved it when the initial brand split, they had the two different broadcast
00:55:10teams, and I understand you are limited with that when Joe Tessitore is doing college football,
00:55:16or doing boxing, or both, so there is a limitation with that, and so I think the compromise is
00:55:22getting Wade Barrett on there, and it's a three man booth, and that's how you go about
00:55:25it.
00:55:26But that is the only knock.
00:55:27I thought it was really good.
00:55:29And then after that, we kind of dragged for a while.
00:55:32I thought.
00:55:33I mean, Bayley and Nia was alright.
00:55:35It wasn't amazing, it was good enough, there wasn't anything awful about it, I didn't think.
00:55:40I thought it was fine.
00:55:41It definitely is setting up now, Tiffany Stratton against Nia Jax, and I don't know if the crowd
00:55:46is overly enthused to be cheering for either of them there, so it's a weird spot, I think.
00:55:53But I do think part of this now sets up something interesting with Bayley, because they showed
00:55:58before that they were up in the box, the luxury box, with the tag team champions, the
00:56:07women's tag team champions and Naomi, the hosts for the evening, what hosting they did.
00:56:13But they did a thing where they were saying, okay, women's championship matchup next, who
00:56:18do we got?
00:56:19How's Bayley going to do?
00:56:20And Naomi's like, yeah, my girl Bayley, she's got this, it's going to be great, it's going
00:56:22to be awesome.
00:56:23Oh, Bianca, what do you think?
00:56:24She's definitely going to try hard.
00:56:27And there was a glare from Naomi, and I do think maybe we're setting up a tag team feud
00:56:33now with Naomi and Bayley going up against Bianca and Jade.
00:56:37And I think that could be interesting, because this tag team division just needs some stories
00:56:41right now, and needs some interest.
00:56:44And they're starting to get it a little bit, like the Kabuki Warriors and all of them,
00:56:49and they are getting it, they're trying, at least, with Carter and Chance and the whatever
00:56:55they're calling the Sonia DeVille group and all of them.
00:56:57But this would be a good one at the top to let the other ones kind of figure out what
00:57:00they are doing and building up their storylines.
00:57:03So I think that could be the pivot, and I think it could be really interesting.
00:57:07Priest against Balor was alright.
00:57:09It felt like Raw.
00:57:10It felt like a Monday Night Raw match.
00:57:13They did make Priest feel like a bit of a beast when he's going out there and everyone's
00:57:16running in, and he's disposing of all of them and crushing them, and then he ends up getting
00:57:19the win.
00:57:20Hopefully, this was enough beating down of the Judgment Day to allow Priest to go off
00:57:26and do something else.
00:57:27I think there needs to be a touch of a remake with him.
00:57:30You can't get too far away from the character that he is, but all of it still screams Judgment
00:57:36Day.
00:57:39That is the group that he is closely associated with, not just because of recency, but also
00:57:44like it's the biggest thing he has done in this company.
00:57:47And so I think that there needs to be just a slight little retool of him so that it doesn't
00:57:52look so connected, because I do think you now need to separate the two groups, the group
00:57:57from the guy.
00:57:58Triple H comes out for a massive announcement, and it is the Crown Jewel, where the undisputed
00:58:05WWE Champion is going to face the World Heavyweight Champion, and ditto on the women's side as
00:58:11well.
00:58:12Neither title will be on the line, but the winners will be crowned the Crown Jewels of
00:58:152024.
00:58:18It is what it is.
00:58:19Like, it's not, um...
00:58:21At least when they said, oh, groundbreaking announcement, it wasn't a thing that was teased
00:58:24for weeks and weeks as something that would change the industry, and then it was just
00:58:27kind of a bit of a, oh, okay.
00:58:30It'll get a couple of interesting matches.
00:58:33It is curious that you would have two champions lose on big shows like that, but I think that
00:58:40there's an interesting storytelling device that can come with all of that.
00:58:46And so I think if done well, it is something that I think you can feel confident in, and
00:58:51actually do quite a bit with.
00:58:53So I think there could be something there.
00:58:55It is something that is also, if it was the past regime running it, I think you would
00:59:00have some major concerns about how it was all being put together, and how it was all
00:59:06being booked, and all of that.
00:59:07But I think that this is a creative department now that gives you the confidence that they're
00:59:12going to be able to take this seriously and actually use it in a way that helps further
00:59:17a few things.
00:59:18So I think it could be interesting, but it doesn't necessarily have my interest piqued
00:59:21right now.
00:59:22It's like a lot of things in wrestling, where you're doing it for the first time, so you
00:59:26have to really do it to make us take it seriously.
00:59:29And then the Gunther Goldberg stuff, it's fine.
00:59:31It was a raw segment after that.
00:59:34I would imagine at some point we get some kind of Goldberg involvement in something,
00:59:38and he comes back and there's a whatever, but yeah.
00:59:41Live Against Rhea, it was alright.
00:59:42It was mainly a stage for other storyline things to happen.
00:59:47And that was... like, you have the hell in the cell at the beginning, and then obviously
00:59:51you end the night with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns in a tag team match, and The Rock comes
00:59:57out.
00:59:58So there are big things that happened on this show, but like 95% of this show felt like
01:00:02Raw or Smackdown.
01:00:03Like, this did not feel like a premium live event, and I understand it is kind of a secondary
01:00:10one, but this... they had just enough on here to make it not skippable, and I am not going
01:00:18to tell WWE their shows need to be longer, or anything like that, but getting into these
01:00:23rhythms where these are five match shows, and a couple things on them that are going
01:00:28to happen that are going to be interesting, the rest of it is just going to kind of be
01:00:30a... basically a souped up Monday Night Raw, and we're going to move forward with that.
01:00:35Like, I just... I worry that these are coming a little skippable, and not maybe meaning
01:00:40as much.
01:00:41And again, it's coming from an era where some of these shows were four and a half hours,
01:00:45and too much was jammed onto them, and we were trying to force everyone onto everything,
01:00:49and like, we're getting a world title match on Raw tonight.
01:00:51So there is... you are still getting a lot of very good content, and it is making the
01:00:56weeks and the TVs feel special, and all of that, but it is... I do think we are taking
01:01:01away from some of these a little bit, anyway.
01:01:04But yeah, Liv and Rhea, it was alright.
01:01:06It was about the story.
01:01:07Raquel Rodriguez comes out, it makes complete sense.
01:01:09She has history with both.
01:01:10She is a good kind of the Diesel to Liv Morgan's Shawn Michaels.
01:01:14It is a little on the nose with Camille and Mercedes Monet, but that's a thing that's
01:01:21been done in wrestling for a hundred years.
01:01:23So I think this role fits Raquel better.
01:01:27I think that she is better suited as the big bully heel, rather than just trying to be
01:01:33like the big smiling, oh man, boy, I'm really strong, aren't I, babyface.
01:01:38She seems like a legitimately nice person.
01:01:41It just hasn't been able to translate into a character that gets people invested.
01:01:44So, what's the thing you do from that?
01:01:46Just pivot and be huge and terrifying.
01:01:49And she can do that.
01:01:51There's a thing now with her and Liv as a group.
01:01:54You have a ready-made storyline with all the different years of things that they did with
01:02:00Raquel and Rhea Ripley, and how that can now grow.
01:02:04And then you still have a little Rhea-Liv hanging over, if you want to get to that at
01:02:08like a WrestleMania time, or something like that.
01:02:11So it's a pairing that makes complete sense.
01:02:13And then the main event.
01:02:14It was Cody and Roman taking on Jacob Fatu and Solo, and there was the run-ins, and Jimmy
01:02:21Uso is back, and we are all very excited about this.
01:02:24And there's the hug with Roman.
01:02:26And so we have now... and then The Rock comes out at the end.
01:02:28We have firmly started to now push this into high gear, and get this storyline rolling
01:02:36as we push towards WarGames in Vancouver, and then onward towards WrestleMania.
01:02:42And so the first seeds were planted here, and I am very excited to see where it goes.
01:02:49But yeah, for the most part, you have a blow-off match in Hell in a Cell, and then the rest
01:02:54of it all just kind of felt like we're advancing for something else.
01:02:58And the rest of it just felt like a really, really souped-up Raw or SmackDown.
01:03:03So it was an enjoyable... well, it ended up being close to three hours.
01:03:07It was an enjoyable show.
01:03:09I enjoyed it.
01:03:10I was entertained.
01:03:12But I did not come away from it thinking like, man, we just saw a premium live event.
01:03:16What a night for the WWE.
01:03:17Just like, yeah, this was fun.
01:03:18Can't wait to see what happens next.
01:03:21Which I guess is episodic television, but it didn't feel like a big... a big event by
01:03:26any stretch of the imagination.
01:03:30Shifting gears now, there is another... this one, just straight-up pay-per-view.
01:03:33This weekend, as AEW brings WrestleDream to the Washington area once again.
01:03:40In the main event there, it is Bryan Danielson putting his career and championship on the
01:03:44line against Jon Moxley.
01:03:47And you're going to have this a little bit talking about, okay, is this the last ride
01:03:52for Bryan Danielson?
01:03:54And this is one, and we kind of talked about it when they set it up, but this is one that
01:03:59you can kind of believe a little bit, because from a storyline standpoint, makes all the
01:04:03sense in the world.
01:04:04Moxley was the guy... like, these two were blood rivals.
01:04:07And then William Regal brought them together.
01:04:09And it ties everything into... like, it makes this, again, long-term storytelling.
01:04:15But it makes it... it puts a real nice ending on it.
01:04:19It's in Seattle, he... it's in Washington, sorry, which is his home area.
01:04:22He got the match against Nigel McGuinness, which is a big thing to check off before he
01:04:27kind of rides off into the sunset.
01:04:28And he... he is not retiring as a wrestler, just as a full-time wrestler, from what I
01:04:32understand.
01:04:33So, you can still have him come back and do some of these things.
01:04:38If some of people's wild speculation is true, that Shane McMahon is going to be the one
01:04:42who is behind Jon Moxley, it kind of kicks off this, like, NWO type of a thing that they,
01:04:48I'm assuming, will be trying to do with this group now.
01:04:52And so there is, I think... there's a lot of intrigue.
01:04:55And there's a lot of reasons why you can certainly talk yourself into Moxley winning, and having
01:05:00this be the time.
01:05:04And so I am fascinated by that.
01:05:05The rest of the card, like, it looks like it's going to be some really, really fun stuff.
01:05:09The Young Bucks against Private Party, like, nothing about that has been set up in a way
01:05:14that I have found enjoyable, or anything like that.
01:05:17Ricochet and Osprey and Takeshita, I think is going to be one of the more amazing matches
01:05:22you will see, ever.
01:05:23And it's going to be an AW pay-per-view.
01:05:25It's going to be insane.
01:05:26The in-ring quality is going to be nuts.
01:05:28And I think a couple stories are going to be... going to be wrapped up in some interesting
01:05:32ways.
01:05:33So I am genuinely looking forward to this pay-per-view on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.
01:05:41One more big event happening this weekend is going to be a fight that we've been talking
01:05:47about around these parts for a real long time, a chance to start a classic rivalry in boxing.
01:05:54Let's talk about it.
01:06:02This weekend, B-Vol, Beterbiev, the two best fighters in the light heavyweight division
01:06:11finally clash and get to settle their score, whatever.
01:06:16Someone's O has to go, and all of those sorts of things.
01:06:18But this is going to be one of, I think, the best fights of the year.
01:06:24You have two guys, undefeated, who are at the top of their game right now, facing off,
01:06:32to see who is the best in this weight class.
01:06:35It just... it does not get better than this.
01:06:37This isn't one... and maybe, like, could you have done it a couple of years earlier?
01:06:40Maybe, but this feels like a legitimate superfight.
01:06:45And this feels like a big deal.
01:06:46And like, no, these guys aren't the biggest names in the sport, or anything like that,
01:06:52but they are, like, two genuine pound-for-pound fighters who are going to be fighting this
01:06:56weekend to unify some championships and figure out who the best in their weight class is.
01:07:01At the heart of this sport, that's what this is all supposed to be about.
01:07:04And so, the storyline going into this weekend, it is simply just two of the best fighters
01:07:08in the world facing off.
01:07:11And if we are lucky as boxing fans, which a lot of times we aren't, but if we are lucky
01:07:15as boxing fans, this is a chance to set up, potentially, a classic rivalry, in my opinion.
01:07:21I think these are two guys who have the opportunity to go out and make an absolute statement on
01:07:28this stage about how good they are.
01:07:32And I think that the obvious, like, we do the Friday after these big fights, we do fights
01:07:36to make after blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, the obvious one is to do these
01:07:40guys again.
01:07:41Unless there is an absolute domination.
01:07:44I think that this is the start of a potentially classic rivalry that has the opportunity to
01:07:50really launch these guys into the mainstream.
01:07:53Bival did it for a bit when he beat Canelo Alvarez, but that star has kind of faded a
01:07:57little bit, and so now this is a chance, I think, to really elevate both of these guys
01:08:01as real players in the sport of boxing.
01:08:05So this is a chance to really be a classic rivalry that puts both of these guys on the
01:08:11map.
01:08:12But it is also an opportunity.
01:08:13If one of these dudes wins in convincing, dominant fashion, it is a chance to put yourself
01:08:19into that pound for pound number one conversation with the Usyks and the Inouyes and the Crawfords
01:08:24and all of those guys.
01:08:25And also, if we aren't doing an immediate rematch once this fight is done, one thing
01:08:31that we can do is set up a Canelo Alvarez fight.
01:08:35Because I do think, as frustrating as it is for all of us fans who want to see him against
01:08:39Benavides or whoever, this is still something that sticks in Canelo's backside.
01:08:49And gets him very frustrated is that he was really kind of outclassed at this weight class
01:08:54against Bival, and he wants another opportunity at it.
01:08:58And so this is, I think, a chance not only to set yourself up for stardom based off of
01:09:04each other, but this is a chance, if there is an obvious conclusion, I think there's
01:09:11a way to grow it.
01:09:13And if there is some form of a pause there, then there is an opportunity for Canelo to
01:09:19come in and I think make even a bigger star out of this.
01:09:24So this feels like, for whoever wins this, the start of a gigantic, star-making, money-making
01:09:31venture for them.
01:09:34And honestly, the talents deserve it.
01:09:36So very interested to see what comes out of this fight this weekend.
01:09:42We're going to stick with the face-punching.
01:09:44We're going to get into some UFC talk, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship had another
01:09:49pay-per-view this weekend.
01:09:51Let's talk about it.
01:09:52UFC 307 went down in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in the main event, Alex Pereira retains
01:10:09his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in a victory over Khalil Roundtree.
01:10:17And this was, and again, full disclosure, I did not see this fight.
01:10:21I haven't seen the fights yet, it was just, talked a bit about it before, but it was my
01:10:25anniversary this weekend.
01:10:26So didn't, will be checking out these fights.
01:10:29Saw some clips, saw the scuttlebutt generally online and all of that, and saw a lot of talk
01:10:34about decisions.
01:10:36So not going to necessarily talk about those.
01:10:38But just here in the main event, Pereira with the knockout over Khalil Roundtree.
01:10:42And we knew what this was.
01:10:44This was not going to be a card or a show where, like, Pereira gets the win and it's
01:10:51like, oh my god.
01:10:52This guy is now, he beat who?
01:10:55Wow.
01:10:56This was him going to go out, take care of business, and see what you can do.
01:10:58And Roundtree, from all accounts, kind of put a fear in him a little bit, marked him
01:11:03up, did all those things.
01:11:05But I do think that this is a guy that, like, this was one of the things we talked about,
01:11:11where all the stuff that Roundtree does well, Pereira does better.
01:11:14That does not mean that Roundtree is then just a bumbling idiot who can't do anything,
01:11:18he is still talented, and he was still able to get some hits on him.
01:11:22But for Pereira now, this is another convincing win in a long line of them.
01:11:28And he has become such an important fighter in the UFC.
01:11:32And he has taken full advantage of every opportunity.
01:11:35He beat Israel Adesanya in one kickboxing fight, and he turned that into a few very
01:11:42big, very important fights in the UFC.
01:11:46It turned him into a champion, and he was able to pivot that into another fight where
01:11:50he lost, but he turned his championship win, basically, into a title opportunity, and then
01:11:56has taken that and ran with it.
01:11:58And because of certain things that have broken down, whether it was a fight at Madison Square
01:12:03Garden, or UFC 300, or International Fight Week, things aren't going well, he has taken
01:12:09advantage of that, and he has, in 14 fights, rocketed into being one of the three most
01:12:15important fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and a huge star.
01:12:19And so again, the conversation around what is next, truly, it is whatever he wants.
01:12:25He is the big star in the division that, for a long time, has been the marquee division
01:12:33in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
01:12:34I want to see him go up to heavyweight.
01:12:35I want to see him do it.
01:12:36I want to see him go where no one has gone before, and try to win championships in three
01:12:41different weight classes.
01:12:42I think that would be amazing.
01:12:44And quite frankly, a lot of the other options at Light Heavyweight kind of look like this,
01:12:48with Roundtree.
01:12:49Where it's like, okay, well I guess we're doing this, but we're kind of just doing it
01:12:51so Pereira can win it, and so we can move on to some other fun stuff.
01:12:55Let's just, let's get to the fun stuff with this guy.
01:12:57Let's let a couple other contenders organically build up, and let's let Pereira go out and
01:13:01do the damn thing.
01:13:02He has turned into an absolute star, and we are at a point with this guy where why would
01:13:08you doubt him?
01:13:10What has he shown us to make us think that this isn't going to be a fighter who can go
01:13:14out and make history?
01:13:15So another big night for one of the biggest stars in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
01:13:20Much more UFC breakdowns coming up from this channel as the week goes along.
01:13:25One more thing before we put a bow on this show today.
01:13:28It is now time to continue our NBA previews as we get ready for the preseason games are
01:13:36starting.
01:13:37So the season's coming up soon.
01:13:38Let's continue the NBA previews.
01:13:47As we do these previews, everything I say that there is a conviction behind it, right?
01:13:52Like, oh yes, I, these are going to be the five, or these are the five most talented
01:13:56teams in the league.
01:13:57These are the coaches that could get fired this year.
01:13:59These are the players that have the most pressure on all these different things.
01:14:03And that is what we're supposed to do in sports talk, right?
01:14:06We are supposed to have our takes and stick with them and the hotter the better and all
01:14:10of those sorts of things.
01:14:11But I'm human enough to admit, sometimes there's some shit I'm worried I'm wrong about.
01:14:16And so today, as we kind of reach the halfway point of the NBA previews here, going to be
01:14:21looking at what I'm worried I'm wrong about this year with the NBA.
01:14:28So number five, I'm worried that I might be wrong on how everything fits with the Dallas
01:14:34Mavericks.
01:14:35We had this conversation a little bit about, Toxic was in on the chat asking about like,
01:14:41how do we think Klay fits on this Dallas Mavericks team?
01:14:44And I think it fits really well.
01:14:46I think you have a full year with Gafford and Washington coming back from that trade.
01:14:51And I think you have Klay, who now is going into a role where he is not going to have
01:14:55to be the be-all end-all superstar of this and be just, just be corner three guy over
01:15:02there.
01:15:03Just do that.
01:15:04And he will be more than happy.
01:15:06And then you have Luka off of this championship, run close to a championship, hopefully motivated
01:15:11and all of that.
01:15:12I feel like these pieces fit so well together.
01:15:16But we have been fooled by that before with some of these teams.
01:15:20And with some veterans.
01:15:21Like, there is a world where like, Luka was just kind of beaten down by that long of a
01:15:26run and having to carry things.
01:15:28And maybe it isn't quite as good.
01:15:30The supporting staff doesn't help out as much as maybe we think.
01:15:34And the fact that this team doesn't defend at all really comes back to bite them.
01:15:39And Klay is just cooked.
01:15:40Like, some of these things could happen and all of a sudden my good feelings about Dallas
01:15:43could just go away.
01:15:45And so that's why I'm a little worried I'm wrong about them.
01:15:47But I'm at number five because I'm not super worried about that.
01:15:50And number four, I'm a little worried I might be wrong about Atlanta just being bad.
01:15:55It wasn't a fit with Murray.
01:15:58So Trae Young now has the team back to himself.
01:16:01And I have great concerns about that.
01:16:03I have great concerns about the rest of the roster.
01:16:06And I do not think that this is a good basketball team.
01:16:10And so, I will be able to, plausible deniability, the whole year, I'll be able to explain it
01:16:14away much like Walt was with the commanders earlier.
01:16:18It's like, yeah, who are they beating?
01:16:20Because the Eastern Conference and the NBA is in a downswing right now.
01:16:24There's obviously some talented teams at the top, but it gets ugly quick.
01:16:27And so there are, I think, a number of wins out there for Atlanta to steal.
01:16:31And so we may not even get a good sense of if this is a good basketball team or not,
01:16:36based off of the lack of competition that there could be in the East.
01:16:40And so I am worried that the results are going to be there, even if the team is bad.
01:16:43Also, like, there's a chance that maybe now Young matures coming off of this experience
01:16:49with Murray and grows into a better basketball player.
01:16:52Or with no Murray there, there's other opportunities for some of these players to rise up and take
01:16:56full advantage or something, something, something.
01:16:58Either way, I am a little bit worried that I think Atlanta may be better than I think
01:17:02they are.
01:17:03But again, that's at four.
01:17:05At three, the Rockets' young players development, and that is going to be a theme for a couple
01:17:09of these next ones here, is that I, one of the lessons we took from last year is that
01:17:15some of these kids coming into this league now are so good that when it hits, it really
01:17:21hits.
01:17:22Instead of bad lottery team gets good player, good player helps bad lottery team, but only
01:17:28a little bit.
01:17:29And now, oh, well, they've gone from 22 wins now to 30.
01:17:32And now they've gone up to 39.
01:17:33And now they're a bit above 500 and they're a seven seed, and now they're competing for
01:17:37an NBA championship.
01:17:38We, like, Minnesota skipped a couple of those steps with Ant, right?
01:17:42SGA helped Oklahoma City skip a couple of those steps.
01:17:46And so I am now thinking that the Rockets players can help these guys step, because
01:17:50there's like three or four of them on that team that you think might be able to take
01:17:53those steps.
01:17:54But that is entirely projection based, right?
01:17:58Like the first two in the Worried I'm Wrong About, Dallas, I'm worried that they might
01:18:02not still be a good team.
01:18:03Well, last time we saw them, they were a good team.
01:18:05Atlanta, I'm worried that I might be wrong that I think they're bad.
01:18:09Well, last time we saw them, they were a bad team.
01:18:11This one, we are now projecting into how these young athletes adapt to life in the NBA and
01:18:16how does it fit with Fred Van Vliet and with Udoka as the coach and all of that.
01:18:21So I'm a little worried that I might be going a bit ahead of myself on the Rockets.
01:18:27Number two, the Bridges and now Towns fit on the Knicks.
01:18:31Admittedly, when I prepped this, that was not a, the Towns part of this was not an option.
01:18:37He could not fit well on this team because he wasn't on this team.
01:18:40But now I still look at this as a really well-built roster and a team that just kind of fits perfectly
01:18:45together.
01:18:47And so I am worried that I am wrong on that.
01:18:50That you have Towns who came from being the guy in Minnesota and now potentially being
01:18:55the third guy on the Knicks with a coach who he didn't really mesh with the first time
01:19:00and a team that isn't going to give him the ball a ton.
01:19:03You go with Bridges from a situation with the Nets where who else was going to get the
01:19:08ball and score?
01:19:09So he was able to do all of these great things and then you have Brunson who is actually
01:19:14the guy there and is someone who has stepped up in gigantic ways.
01:19:19I think all of it will fit.
01:19:21But there is a long track record of A, this not working, and B, it not working in New
01:19:28York where every time we think, okay, well it's Amari and Mello, how can they go wrong?
01:19:34Oh, that's how they can go wrong.
01:19:35That's, I see it now.
01:19:38But it does feel like this team is built really well.
01:19:40I just, I do worry that it's going to take too long to mix or it's just not going to
01:19:47mix at all and things could fall off.
01:19:49So that's one thing I'm worried about.
01:19:50But the number one thing I am worried about this year is my assumption that Wembley moves
01:19:56into MVP caliber territory already and thusly carries the Spurs into the postseason.
01:20:02They are the number one team I am focused on for making a big jump this year and it
01:20:06is entirely based off of that very large Frenchman that is on their team.
01:20:11And they went out and acquired Chris Paul, I think they've done a lot of really really
01:20:15smart moves to build around this kid.
01:20:17It is not perfect yet though.
01:20:19And so that is where my concern comes in, is that I just think Wembley is going to be
01:20:22amazing.
01:20:24And like, A, he can get hurt, we had one year where he didn't so now we're assuming that
01:20:28he's never going to.
01:20:29And that absolutely could happen, and it would suck.
01:20:31But he could get hurt, and it would be very devastating for this team.
01:20:35Or, even if he takes a gigantic step, he still isn't enough to carry what is, aside
01:20:41from like Chris Paul and a couple of other guys, a fairly flawed roster.
01:20:45So I am worried that I am maybe wildly overestimating what could happen with the San Antonio Spurs
01:20:53this year.
01:20:54Alright, that is going to do it for this show today.
01:20:56Thank you guys so much for hanging out, again, close to an hour and a half.
01:21:00Thank you all so much for hanging out.
01:21:03Coming up later on today, we're going to be doing another Calgary Flames video game
01:21:06stream as we react to whatever Peltier news comes down, and whatever the next little bit
01:21:11is.
01:21:12Plus, continue our rebuild of that team.
01:21:14The gaming stream is going to be at 2 o'clock today.
01:21:162pm Mountain Time is going to be the start for that one, so tune in for that.
01:21:22And then tomorrow, we're going to be back doing the podcast live at noon.
01:21:28The schedule is staying the same for a little bit.
01:21:29I will explain why there might be some changes on Friday coming up in a little bit.
01:21:35Not sure what I'm allowed to say and what I'm not allowed to say.
01:21:37But there could be a few changes coming soon, but for the most part, I'm going to try to
01:21:41keep everything the same, at least for now.
01:21:42So thank you guys so much for hanging out and for tuning in, and I will talk to all
01:21:47of you guys later on today.
01:21:49Have a great next couple of hours.

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